Summary: It's their sins that tie them together, and their sins that keep them apart.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Note: We did not win the business enterprise. Although our school was announced with a name that made us sound really up our own backsides, as a 'Roman Catholic Comprehensive' and a 'Specialist in Maths, Computing and Languages' it appears there are schools that have Headmasters even more self absorbed than our own. Private grammar school boys? Pah. So much for that.

Now, Theme Seven: Superstar.


Honey


The Sinner


Luxuria. Extravagance. Lust.

When Ino was young, she was told that she was born to be an actress.

When Princess Yukie came to Konoha a few years after her claim of the throne, she was still a widely known actress. Very few people did not know who she was based on her looks, but everyone knew her name. She had greeted Naruto, Sakura, and Kakashi politely, for her sometimes bratty temperament had faded with age. However, upon seeing a blonde girl walking down the street she turned away from them completely. She told the blonde girl exactly the same thing, not knowing that she was a kunoichi as she didn't wear her headband. When she asked why it was, the blonde had laughed and not even given her an answer. She was just like Yukie herself had been, arrogant and proud. She didn't want to show her reliance on anybody or anything, not even her country.

But the Princess knew she would change with time, and she had seen the stunt this girl had just pulled. So she persisted anyway, the often pigheaded Princess came close to begging on her knees for her to at least try acting in one film, with her. What she had done to that boy with the large dog was amazing, twisting him around her finger with a little fake laughter that was easily disguised. Only someone like her, who had spent years in the business, would have even realised she had put it on. That she was playing him for a fool, just so he would pay for her meal once her friends had gone.

"You could be a star, a superstar Ino." The Princess whispered in her ear as they clambered on to the train. People stared at them and their entourage who were going back, because Ino had finally given in. They would return to Konoha, the Princess knew that, but if she could get this girl in even one film she would be happy. Because this girl could be big, she could be bigger than the Princess herself. She could be famous, she could be a star. So with her two team mates (who definitely were not star quality) and Team Seven (the dark haired boy could be, with those abs) trailing behind them, Yukie had taken the fair blonde girl to the Land of Spring without a second thought, knowing that this girl was perfect for a leading role. The director had agreed upon just seeing her. If Yukie said she was a good actress, and she was this gorgeous he could make such huge profits he wouldn't even need the royalties from the Princess Fuun movies that Yukie herself had been the lead in.

She hadn't disappointed. They had taken a chance and stuck her in the first seen in the aging Yukie's place, with the consent of the older woman of course. She was to play the beautiful daughter of a daiyamo, who took up the sword in order to escape marrying an old lecherous man that her father had chosen for her husband. Along the way she was to meet a handsome young man, who would win her heart and be an excellent swordsman who would eventually end up murdering the man she was supposed to marry in a jealous rage. She would eventually marry the handsome young man, and Yukie would show the woman in the future at the end of the film. It was over dramatic, romantic and overall a very feminine film. Women would probably love it, but Shikamaru didn't see the appeal in it at all. Especially when the director later mentioned there could be a possible nude scene. Shikamaru had demanded that it did not happen, and after a death threat the man agreed.

Just as well. The man who was to play the handsome young swordsman was nothing like the perfect male Ino said his character was. He was lecherous, disgusting and over indulging. When Shikamaru found out that he was kissing her at the end of the movie, he had a fit. Ino didn't seem to see his bad qualities however, and didn't protest. Secretly, Shikamaru though it was just because his face was so pretty. Almost like that of a girl. Chouji had managed to calm him eventually, although he saw the idiot sneak in a grope of Ino's rear end during that scene.

After they left, the man was found dead. His hands had been cut off, with a note trailed in blood on the floor saying that he should keep his hands to himself. Ino had been horrified, but Kakashi had insisted it was the place of none of them to get involved in it. She had probably just acquired a fan on the set, and they had been a bit extreme in their methods. He had met Shikamaru's eyes when saying this, and luckily nobody had noticed what he had. When dark brown met orbs that were almost black, the second pair knowing that it was Shikamaru who had some kunai missing and Shikamaru who had some unidentified blood on the soles of his shoes in little flecks, But he had still said nothing.

It was only then that Shikamaru knew that Kakashi knew. He knew about his sinful thoughts of his team mate, his wants and desires. His secret hopes, his fears, everything. He had give it all away with that one slip up, that one time when he finally lost his temper in a violent fit. She was an actress, and she was too good an actress for any film. Because although she was acting, it still drove him absolutely insane. She didn't even seem to be trying, either.

Shikamaru was lusting for Ino, and that was his first sin.


Gula. Over indulgence. Gluttony.

"You shouldn't be so gluttonous, Ino."

She looked around from the mirror, quickly cramming the remaining strawberry cream filled miniature koala bear biscuit straight into her mouth. She only had two; it wasn't like it was a sin to eat of something. She raised her eyebrows at Shikamaru. He was the one who was always telling her to eat more, that having a star moment in that film months ago had gone to her head if she was going to become anorexic because of it. She protested that it would only be a few pounds that she wanted to lose, but to no avail. But not he was telling her that she was being greedy by stuffing two biscuits in her mouth? It seemed like he wanted to pick an argument with her or something, which was never a smart thing to do. There was nothing as terrible as an irate Yamanaka. It was something you learnt from experience, and the memories of fathers. Inochi had a temper just as volatile as hers (or so Shikamaru was told be his father) back in the day.

"Gluttonous?" She murmured, a dangerous air radiating from her.

"Gluttonous with your looks. Other people might want to share them. Other people aren't always as beautiful as you, so you shouldn't keep it to yourself. You should share it."

There was a pregnant pause, a dark stab of silence filling the air. Ino stared at his reflection in her mirror, his completely sincere, knowing expression and her own vacant one. How wrong he was. How very, very wrong. He had a look of time, grown with ages and mature. Dark, stoic, and amazingly attractive. It suited him. She herself was not as graceful with her looks as people seemed to think she was, taking them for granted and planning her every move. Those were the theories she'd heard other kunoichi mutter, but they were wrong. She saw no grace in herself but the gangly, strangely soft kind and her beauty was too fake. Every morning she covered herself in makeup, and for what? She still was not as beautiful as Shikamaru. Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock of the bedroom door, which did not wait for an answer. Chouji entered into the silence, the smile on his face soon becoming nervous upon seeing that Ino had not yet clobbered his best friend. She looked to Chouji briefly.

He was not the standard of beauty you saw in magazines like Kunoichi Weekly, airbrushed and anorexic to perfection. No, Chouji was a real ninja. A real comrade. A real friend. Someone who knew battle, and knew when the time was right. If anything, he was far too kind as well. He always forgave her spiteful, bratty remarks when they were younger. But now, both he and Shikamaru had forgotten her previous transgressions and refusing flat out to see her weakness and her ugliness. She was being taught by Ibiki and Anko, but somehow she couldn't catch up with them. She was always a few steps behind at least, and at most even years. She suddenly felt like Naruto. She felt like someone else, her confident shell seeming to sink into her skin as her gaze lingered on her reflection for a few mere seconds. Just as Naruto felt, she didn't feel gluttonous. She felt inadequate.

Shikamaru and Chouji were gluttonous, and that was a sin.


Avarita. Avarice / covetousness. Greed.

She knew that she was greedy, that it was wrong, and that it was a disgusting betrayal.

It'd always been the beautifully dark type she proclaimed her love for, because they almost seemed like they could understand her bright acts. The way she was with her own mind, and entering the minds of others being both a dangerous and a dark thing they might have been able to somehow at least try and gather what she was, who she was, and deep down what simply made the disturbingly deadly Yamanaka Ino. But it seemed they knew nothing of her anyway. Every time she had longed for a male, everything seemed to go pear shaped from that moment. Her sensei had been the one to tell her not to lose to Sakura in ninjutsu or in love though, so maybe that was her excuse. That she was still clinging on to some nonexistent and desperate hope that she could.

The desperate hopes that Temari of the Sand had tried to prop back up, hold up like a life raft and shove back to their feet. The dreams that she had when she was younger and far more foolish, awakened once again by her new friend. The friend who had nothing to go against her for, nothing to stand by her for and did anyway. A fellow blonde, if a shade darker, who she had barely spoken to in the past who had decided to help her although there was nothing which she could possibly gain from it.

But when Temari said she might just be in love with Shikamaru, something snapped in their momentarily brilliant starting of their partnership. Ino was not sure what it was, but it just felt like something had gone wrong. Like something had changed underneath, instead of on the outside. She didn't wear her heart on her sleeve like she pretended to, and from the moment Temari said those words she knew that something was all too wrong for her liking. But she ignored it. Stubbornly, at that.

Because Ino liked Sai. Ino had to like Sai. It just had to be. He had called her gorgeous, shown some care for her like a certain traitor never had with that simple word. He had given her a little hope, a little thought that someone might actually end up liking her as more than 'just a friend' for more than a week like it usually was. Briefly she felt like she knew what it felt like. Loving someone, that was. It wasn't the same as it had been with Sasuke.

Then the moment she woke up from her possession, in Shikamaru's arms (because it was tradition) she felt like something was wrong all over again. He was looking down at her, a blank look on his face. Perfectly calm and collected as always, with no sign of change. Then everything went wrong.

Shikamaru kissed her.

As much as she felt discomfort at the idea of what was going on, she was the one to deepen the kiss. She was the one to reach up and untie his hair, tangling her fingers in the chocolate mess before she pushed him away quickly, got up and promptly got away from him in a single flick of the fingers to transport, leaving only fading white smoke lingering in the air behind. She acted like nothing had happened after that, because it was better that way, because it was safe, because it was better not to blame Shikamaru, because it meant that she hadn't betrayed a friend that had shown such kindness to her, regardless of her past with Sakura. Because it meant that it wasn't Shikamaru who had sinned, that it was her, and she'd rather be dammed then let him be. Just as Yuki had said, she was a brilliant actress. It was too easy, really. Yes, she could pretend for all it was worth and nobody would have guessed.

That she hadn't been greedy, taking a man that wasn't hers.


Acedia. Sadness / despair. Sloth.

Apathy, melancholy, joylessness – they were all words that led to that memory.

But although it was a memory of despair, it was bittersweet. There were some things that could be picked out about it, of the dulcet words Shikamaru had whispered to her and saccharine fumbling Chouji as he offered her his last chip. Words taught by her mother at a young age had told her that she who was winsome would be the one to win the love of a man who plagued the hearts of two women, but both before and after she died they meant nothing to Ino. All they meant was that she who was prettier would win the heart of the man, which was not always true. Not at all.

She knew it for herself. Although she was prettier, she was the one whose looks were most kempt, she was the one who preened and cared for herself and she didn't have a wide forehead like Sakura, she hadn't been the one to win Sasuke. He was a prize to be obtained in both pairs of eyes when on show, but deep down she knew they both cared for the boy more than that. His marble white skin, perfectly carved features of a sculpted masterpiece and dark raven hair like that of the men in old paintings of angels in chapels. He was like a false idol to both of them, a superstar in his own right and almost unattainable. Unless your name happened to be Sakura Haruno.

Although Ino had liked him first and Sakura had been the one to end their friendship over a boy, the pink haired girl was the one to be placed on his team. The one to be given the coveted spot of being the one who Sasuke would see every day for years on end, the one who he would grow close to and maybe even learn to love. It was a pungent, discomforting fact that Ino found difficult to accept. They were hostile to each other about it, as well. They both hid behind their words, lying like weasels and clawing at each other like violent birds. So was the ever lasting irony that when he left them both, years later there had been rumours that he had found someone on his team that talked to them. Birds, that was.

But Sakura being placed on his team had been the start of it all. Sakura, the one who usually started an exchange of unpleasant words and phrases with her each time their eyes met. Sakura, who held him close whilst he became overcome with some strange power Ino could never pretend to understand. Sakura, who had cut off the long hair that Sasuke had preferred, according to some rumour when they were five. When Ino cut her hair too, she had just done it so she could use it as part of a trap in their fight in the chunin exams. The fight she should have won, because Sakura already had her precious Sasuke and Ino had a higher level of skill anyway. Sakura didn't even have any special techniques, yet she had drawn with her. That was a humiliation in itself, that she had ended on an even par with someone so useless.

When she found out Sasuke had left though, Sakura had continued to cut her hair short. As far as Ino was concerned, Sakura could hope for all she was worth that the new Team Seven could bring Kakashi back, she could learn all the skills she wanted from Tsunade and she could pray to God for an eternity but the simple fact was that Sasuke probably didn't want to come back. Cutting her hair wasn't going to do much for her looks, either. If Sasuke ever did see her again, because they did live in that small a world, he would probably look at Sakura and wonder what went wrong. But when he saw Ino, he could eat his heart out.

She had let her hair grow again. She had done it so that if she ever saw him, he would know that nothing had changed in her eyes. They were still the same as they always had been, fighting for his affection and growing stronger with each passing day. He had to learn the hard way that change really had happened, that Ino had grown much stronger and that with the help of the rest of Team Ten (her friends who she couldn't be prouder of being put in the same group as) she could kill him if she wanted to. Because change happens, and she didn't love him anymore. She wanted to love Sai instead, because he actually cared about her enough to spare a few words that Sasuke never had. That memory of despair Sasuke had created was nothing anymore, not to her at least.

But then again, maybe Sasuke would look at her with his crimson eyes, the black dots spinning in hypnotising circles and know. Just as she could enter minds with her jutsu, he could enter minds with his eyes and look around for caged doors like the ones that held the beast inside Naruto captive. Look around for caged doors that held secrets, bigger ones than he could probably see on the surface. She wanted to love Sai, she really did. She wanted to love him because he was like Sasuke. He was beautiful. He was perfect. But she also wanted to love him because he wasn't like Sasuke at all. He actually cared about people. Just maybe, even underneath that, Sasuke would even see the truth. Sakura could have had both Sasuke and Sai. Her heart belonged to Shikamaru, even if she tried to fight and deny it. She knew it was true from the moment he had kissed her.

Plus, just as her mother had said, she who was winsome would win him. Although Shikamaru had said he liked average girls, it was pretty obvious he didn't if he was actually attracted to her. Because Ino was still prettier than Sakura, right? Being prettier than Sakura wasn't a sin. But despair in God, his world he had created, the lack of love for it that was sloth?

That was, and it made sloth Ino's second sin.


Ira. Anger. Wrath.

It was barely a few weeks later when everything went wrong.

Temari knew what had happened. Ino didn't know how she knew, because she had never said a word about it. But Shikamaru did talk to her a lot, they were close friends. Border lining romance, in Temari's case. The other blonde hadn't shown her anger at Ino though, and Ino dreaded to think why. Temari was her friend, and her sin had been the ultimate betrayal. It was only right for Temari to hate her, to want to hurt her and scream at her and show anger. But she hadn't. She'd just said those calm, oxygen cutting words that almost made her unable to breathe once she had heard them.

"Ino, I know what happened. With Shikamaru." The awkward words had hung deadly in the air. Ino hadn't dared to meet her eyes, ashamed of herself and knowing that Temari was treating her too well, too kindly for what she had done. Then again, she had heard someone say that one definition of wrath was a love of justice, perverted to revenge and spite. For that reason, suicide was supposed to be the ultimate expression of wrath as it was a final rejection of the gifts God had given to the entire universe, including humankind.

As she laid a single white rose on the cold stone a month after, she thought the meaning of innocence did fit well. But the other two meanings of purity and heavenly did not.

She had shown the worst of wrath, and for that Temari was a sinner.


Invidia. Resentment. Envy.

Ino doesn't know who to envy the most out of all the other kunoichi her age.

Tenten, because she's in love with Neji who loves her too and they're just far too blind to see it because he's going to be forced to marry someone in the family eventually. Because they know if they accepted their mutual feelings towards one another, it wouldn't change much anyway. Nothing could be done about their predicament, and each day they lived only extended the wanting they each had for each other.

Hinata, because Naruto still doesn't quite understand that she's in love with him although he is nearly sixteen and by that age he should at least nearly be able to understand the females he is surrounded by and because somehow it feels like that will never change. It feels like he will always have eyes for Sakura, and that because of this Hinata will probably never be happy although Kiba wants to make her so, not that she had ever realised that herself because Kiba was too good an actor.

Sakura, because she's just as big a liar as Tsunade is by saying that she does not, at all, hold any romantic feelings towards Naruto whatsoever. Just as Tsunade said about Jiriya. History was doomed to repeat itself in her apprentice, and Tsunade never once had brought herself to tell Sakura that. But Ino knew, because whenever she and Tsunade locked eyes she got a desperately pleading look from her that just begged her not to tell, not to think it was that was because this was the future and for her apprentice there was always a possibility that everything would be alright, even if deep down she knew it wouldn't be.

Yet she envied them, pitiful as they all were, because she was worse. She was the one who had what she wanted, until she gave him up for a friend who didn't seem to understand that at all. A friend who had sinned with wrath, not thinking of the consequences or what could have truly happened. What they both felt madly about, with Ino rejecting those thoughts and feelings of temptation for years. The words between them that had changed them both, and just that one kiss that had kick started it all. It made her hate that friend all the more, it made her want her back, and it made her envious of her beyond reasonable belief.

It was Temari who she envied the most, because she got to take the easy way out.

Shikamaru never once told her how much he had envied Sasuke for years, and how much he envied Sai now because he seemed to be the object of her affections. He never once told Ino that he envied all those around her, even Chouji, when they were close to her. He never once told Ino that he envied everyone near her, everyone that nearly had her that wasn't him. Because he'd almost had her, and he'd wanted her so much it physically hurt.

Envy blinded them both, though self pity and the want of love.


Superbia. Hubris / vanity. Pride.

Pride was what caused Lucifer to fall from Heaven, and pride was the most dangerous sin.

They had both heard stories of God, no matter what they chose to believe in. They both knew that it was the most dangerous sin for this reason, for it was the sin from which all the other sins had arisen. It was the core of all corruption, all lies, all trickery, and all deceit. All the things they acted with on a daily basis, just to keep things going between themselves.

The desire to be more important or attractive than others was part of it. Ino had always wanted to be better than Sakura, she had always wanted to have Sasuke and Sai like Sakura had and always wanted to be prettier than her because of the words her deceased mother had said. It was like a sickening obsession, one that wasn't just a phase. It had stuck with her for years, and she had never quite been able to let go of it. Shikamaru was just as bad, desiring to be more important than Sasuke or Sai to Ino, to stand out, to let her know that he existed and have her love him as he loved her.

The failure to give compliments to each other when they deserved it was a second part of it, contributing to their final downfall due to sin. They never told each other what was right about each other, what was good, having petty arguments over her loudness and his laziness. She never once told Shikamaru how good a team leader he was, and he never once told her how beautiful she was to him.

The excessive self love of both was the third a final part of their puzzle. Ino had always been vain, caring for herself and looks far too much because she wanted to be beautiful. More beautiful than anyone else, especially Sakura. To fit the nickname her father gave her of Princess, and to fit the ideology of her mother. Shikamaru knew he could think of plans, he knew that he was smart and he had always relied on that as a back up plan for if everything went wrong. Especially with Ino, because that over self dependence had grown even more with time after the amount of botched missions he had taken part in. The retrieval of Sasuke, where he had let Ino down just as badly as Naruto had Sakura and nearly got his entire team killed, and only around a year before the fight with Hidan and Kakuzu that had resulted in a significant loss of their sensei, and he hadn't even allowed Chouji or Ino to help him kill the man who had taken someone dear to them because he was so certain he could do it himself. All the lessons Asuma had given them on team work had gone from his head in an instant.

"It's pride that keeps us apart, Ino." He whispered to her, on their third and final botched mission as they lay on the mud, faced turned slightly to the side to mutter almost loving nothings to each other from cracked and bloodied lips.

"No, it's pride that keeps us together, and Heaven that keeps us apart." Ino quietly breathed between laboured breaths, lifting a hand to softly trace his lips with her crimson soaked finger. She'd attempted a summoning like he told her, and it had made things none the better.

"Heaven won't let us in, we're both sinners." He said, and as much as he didn't want it to be true he knew it was. Ino was a sinner, and even if he did manage to get her into some form of Heaven he'd never be able to go there with her.

"We don't need Heaven. We can sit outside the gates, I don't mind. As long as we have each other, Shikamaru, I don't care." She said softly, and he smiled for the first time in years as he hand withdrew and lay flat by her side.

"How long, Ino?" He asked, finding his voice to ask something he needed to know if he died. He needed to know how long she had loved him, how long she had cared and not told him. How long they had continued their meaningless façade, continuing their sins.

She didn't answer. But he hoped they'd be forgiven for their pride, and the rest of their sins.

As his eyes closed, the rain began to pour down on their bones as a sign of hope, a sign of cleanliness and a sign they were being cleansed when Team Seven found them in a bloody mess, bodies mangled and Shikamaru's lifeless hand gently placed on top of Ino's, clinging to her blue tinted startlingly white fingers.

With the rain their sins were washed away, and neither of them could be called a sinner.


Angst. Angst. Angst. Extremely long angst at that.

What is it with me and angst lately?

Reviews are loved. :)