Rain

Chapter 7

AN: I have a super special limited time offer! That's right folks! What is it?! Well I'll tell you! It's a one chapter POV change later on in the story! Read on to see who's it is! (coughs) just thought I should tell you so you wouldn't get confused… ON WITH THE STORY!

"Shikamaru!" my mouth said. What the hell am I doing!? I freeze when Shikamaru stops. Why won't he look at me? "I… I'm sorry Shika-kun…" I say quietly, my eyes pool again and I really had struggle to hold back my tears. "for everything I did… it's all my fault… I know I really messed up but… why… Why won't you look at me?"

The silence between us was killing me. The rain seemed to have gotten stronger and the wind had picked up. This has got to be the coldest rain I've ever been in. I stared at his back for what seemed like an eternity. Please… just turn around…

"We should get home now, Ino," he finally replied with his back still turned to me. As he took a step forward I felt something change in me. I no longer felt sad… I no longer felt the cold of the wind, and, more importantly… I no longer felt any love from him. I felt completely numb and I don't think I could even feel the rain anymore.

"Yeah… let's just go," I said sounding bitter. I wasn't mad. I wasn't anything… I just… wanted to go "home." As I said that he turned to me, he finally looked at me, but… I didn't see it because I had already passed him as I sped up my pace to the house.

I don't like not being able to feel the rain… How am I going to be able to clear my head now? How will I ever feel refreshed?! If I can't feel the rain… how will I ever feel at peace again?! It was driving me crazy! I could see the rain falling, I could hear it as it splashed onto the ground! But… why am I not able to feel it?!

I have to try… My speed walking turned into a jog, then my jog turned into a run and then I was sprinting at full speed. I don't know where I'm going but it doesn't matter. As long as I could feel the rain again nothing mattered.

Nara House 8:02 pm (POV change)

Now where is that girl? I've been waiting here for God only knows how long and I'm getting bored. It wouldn't be so bad if what Ino-chan said wasn't true, but… her family really does tell lame stories.

"I'm home," Shikamaru said walking in quietly and shutting the door behind him. He looks normal, but there's something in his eyes that I just don't like… I don't know what's going on, but I know I don't like it.

"You're soaked! Where's Ino!? Why'd you come back without her?! Uzuki said that she was hurt badly during training! Don't you walk away from me! Get back here Shikamaru!" Yoshino yelled. Geesh, when she's mad she sure is mad. Watching this makes me never want to have kids.

"Now now Yoshino-san, Ino wasn't hurt that badly during training. She's a strong girl, but it IS odd that she isn't back yet…" I say watching Shikamaru walk away from his mother. As he walked past me, I took the opportunity to read this kid… At first glance, he looked hurt… but… no, it wasn't that… he looked like he was beating himself up about something. I kept a straight face although I had to resist the urge to grab the boy and turn him around. What did he do to Ino?!

"May I talk to Shikamaru? Ino-chan has told me so much about him, but I've never met him before," I said smiling happily as Shikamaru disappeared into the hall. Yoshino looked confused but nodded her head and told me where Shikamaru's room was. I was going to get to the bottom of this.

Ino-chan had grown on me and I feel like she's my little sister. I always thought that the strongest team is one that feels like family. Tenten and Niveus also gave me the vibe that triggered my sisterly protection thus making me want to add them into my team. And because of this stupid sisterly vibe, I can't help but worry about my 'siblings.'

I knocked on the door quietly and waited. Almost instantly he opened it and stared at me with an annoyed look on his face. I smile nicely at him and ask, "Can I come in?"

He raises a brow at me but steps aside. I walk in and he closes the door, "You lied about Ino, she's fine," he said bitterly as he sat on his bed.

"Little white lie, deer. But you did see her! So what was the reason why you didn't bring her back?" I asked sitting on his desk chair. He looked away from me and I gasped. "Was she with someone?" his eyes darted back to me and I smiled slightly. "Who was she with?"

"Enough questions, Uzuki. What do you want? You know who she was with, and you know what happened," he barked at me. I was shocked. I knew he was smart but I didn't know that he already figured out my plan!

"So you saw her and Niveus together, what's wrong with that? They're teammates now my dear deer. And what I want to know… is what YOU did to her!" I demanded. We were getting no where fast and I don't like him thinking he knows what I'm up to. He looks away and I grabbed his chin to make him look at me. "What. Did. You. Do?"

"I didn't look at her," he said moving his head to the left causing my hand to slip off. He was telling the truth… but what the hell is that supposed to mean?! I could tell that's all he was going to tell me so I'm through with him.

"Now that wasn't so hard now was it!?" I smile down at him happily. Since I got what I wanted there was no point in me being here still. I walked towards the door and stopped when I heard him speak:

"I'm not going to be a pawn in your game."

I grin evilly and look at him, "Why not? I'm giving you a second chance to be happy… besides… you don't have a choice, Shika dearest." I wink at him as I walk out of his room and into the hall, the adults looking at me.

"It's getting late… I should get going," I say closing the door on Shikamaru. "Can you please call me when Ino-chan comes back?" I asked Inoichi innocently.

"Sure. Have a safe walk home Uzuki," he replied. I gave him a small smile and said my good byes to the rest of them.

Somewhere in Konoha 11:26 pm

I found Ino the moment I walked out of the Nara's house but my curiosity overwhelmed my worry for me to actually do something. Ino was sprinting around Konoha. It was… odd. There was no set path and there didn't seem to be any particular reason why she was going so fast. Forget cats and dogs it was raining elephants and whales and she's been doing this for 3 hours straight… I have to stop this, her body's going to give in soon.

I jumped off where I was watching her and stopped her by grabbing her arm. "What're you doing, you crazy lady?" I asked making myself sound amused. She just seemed to have stopped moving, but I waited until she decided to answer me.

"Uzuki-sensei… Let go," she said emotionlessly. I stood my ground and waited again. She knew I wasn't going to leave until she answered my question. She then started thrashing about while screaming at me to let her go. I didn't know that simply stopping her would make her so mad! She was going crazy on me!

"STOP IT INO!" I yelled at her as I turn her to face me then smack her cheek. She instantly stopped moving, and I couldn't help but gasp. Ino's eyes… they were so cold. So blank! I tried reading her but there was nothing. How could I get nothing!?

"What's going on Ino?" I asked more concerned than anything else. Hell I WAS concerned. How could Shikamaru not wanting to look at her cause her to become like this!?

She then looked at me in the eyes and I was finally able to read something. She was hopelessly depressed and that… that she was scared?! "Uzuki-sensei… I.. I can't feel the rain…" she mumbled as her body gave way to exhaustion and collapsed. I caught her before she hit the ground.

I couldn't help but be scared for her. How could she not feel the rain? I'm surprised that it didn't beat holes into my umbrella it was so hard. I checked her pulse and it was beating fine but she was so cold.

(next day) Uzuki's House 5:26 pm

I couldn't take her to the hospital. The med nins would call her parents and then Shikamaru would know. Having them worry wasn't apart of my plans so I phoned her parents to tell her that she's sleeping over and stayed with her. I wasn't an idiot, I knew that all she needed was rest so that's what I let her do.

As she lay on my bed I didn't get a wink of sleep. I had to figure out what's wrong with her… I talked to the anbu that saw the conversation, or lack there of, that passed between Ino and Shikamaru. It was simple if you think about it. Ino was seeking support and Shikamaru simply refused to give it to her. She must have seen his "support" as love and since he didn't give it to her she must have convinced herself that he didn't love her. Which, in turn, caused her to break down.

What really confuses me is why she's not able to feel the rain. Could she have connected the rain to Shikamaru some-how? That's the only explanation that I could think of. I wonder… if he DID look at her when she asked, would they be living happily ever after now?

It's amazing how clueless Shikamaru is about girls. He's fully capable of doing things that would make a girl happy, but he keeps on second guessing himself. The fact that he doesn't know Ino's feelings towards him is also holding him back from doing what he wants when other people's around in fear that she would just embarrass him or visa versa. For such a smart guy, he's really easy to figure out.

Niveus came over earlier this morning and told me his version of the story. I told him what her symptoms are and, here's the weird part… it's just like what happened with his girl, Mai or something like that... Well just the becoming completely emotionless part, but that's besides the point…

Ahem, now onto a more serious note. After hearing what Niveus did, it makes me wonder what would have happened if Shikamaru had reacted to another guy kissing his girl, even if it was just on the forehead… Ahhh! It all makes perfect sense to me now! The reason why he didn't do anything was because Ino ISN'T his girl! Sure he may like her, but he respects her enough to let her do what she wants. It's kind of sweet actually.

AH-ha! I bet the reason why Shikamaru was avoiding eye contact with her was because he would do something out of the jealously that he actually felt. Or he would do something that would put his feelings out in the open… So it turns out the guy's scared of being turned down again… not that I blame him or anything.

Coming to this conclusion, I will have to put my plan on hold… I have cheer up Ino and tell her to tell the guy how she feels about him before I can do anything else. So now all I have to do is wait for sleeping beauty to realize that prince charming isn't coming and that she needs to get the hell up.

I tapped my index finger on my desk as I stared at Ino impatiently. This sucks. I'm sleepy and I'm bored… I then feel someone walk into my house, but he feels familiar so I choose not to react. The person then knocks on my door politely.

I close my eyes and focus on this new guy. "Come on in Niveus," I say while opening my eyes again. He seemed to have trouble with the door knob then stumbles in holding his stomach with his right hand while his left was completely limp. I raised a brow, "What happened to you?"

"Hehehe… well…" Niveus said leaning on the doorway while smiling goofily at me. "Nejiri(neji) happened to me."

I looked at him confused. Before he left my house this morning I told him to hang out with Tenten… I stared in his light gray eyes then sighed. "Do you have to kiss all your teammates?" I couldn't help but chuckle at the look that he gave me.

"It's a force of habit! My family kisses all the time!" he said in his defense. He was telling the truth but that doesn't mean that I can't have fun with him.

"Sure sure sure, whatever helps you sleep at night," I said shaking my head as I get up and slide the chair to him. "So what did Neji do to you? I want to hear all the juicy details."

He sat down while laughing happily, he then makes himself look serious, well as serious as one can be with a smile on your face. "Have you no shame? Even I haven't gotten to kiss her yet!" he said in a deeper voice, "and then he gentle fisted me! I can't even move my left arm anymore!" he said normally while swinging his body making his left arm swing around him like a rag doll.

"Ten-chan stopped Nejiri right before he got to my head and then she yelled: 'What're you doing Nejiri?!'" he said making his voice higher. He put back on his serious face, "'I'm trying to protect you from this pervert!' then I said 'hey! That's not very nice!' but they ignored me… 'He's my teammate! He was just trying to cheer me up!' she said, then Nejiri got reeeally quiet," then he made a face that made him look uptight. "Tense silence."

"Oooh and then what happened?" I asked with amusement clearly written all over my face. I love listening to him tell stories. He really liked acting them out!

He got really happy, I swear if he had a tail it'd be wagging right now. "And! And then!" he changed from being excited to a strange happy-sad-serious look. It's kind of cute how he's always smiling, "'So you really did leave the team.' then! Ten-chan looks away, 'It's not like you can't find a replacement.' and I was thinking OH! How mean! Then! And then!! Then!!!" he said getting excited again.

"OOOH what what what?!" this was really fun! I would love it if all my little birdies gave me a report like this!

"Then, Nejiri said: 'No, there's no one who can replace you.'"

"Awwww!!!!" I couldn't help but say.

"Ah! I didn't even get to the best part! Ten-chan blushed and then said: 'd-don't be silly.' and she looked like she was going to say something after that but Nejiri cut her off!" he said lifting his left hand and pointing upward that made it look like he was making a point.

"Hey! You can move your left arm again! But how rude of him!" I pointed out happily then said like I was disappointed.

He looked at his arm and and smiled crazily at it, then shook his head violently, "Nope! Not rude."

"Not rude? Why not?" it was like I was talking to a cute little three year old! Gawd I just want to hug him!

"Not rude beCAUSE… then! Nejiri… kissed her! Then said that he would miss her lots and lots. I was feeling a bit uncomfortable around that time so I left! And then I let myself in Uzu-sensei's house and told her the story!" he said nodding his head proudly.

"That's such a great story! I especially liked the part that I'm in," I say clapping. I stop suddenly and look at him sternly causing him to make his smile ten times cuter then before. "You really should get to a hospital though."

"Hehehe, I was, but your house is on the way… yeah I'll go now," he said then walked out of the door while waving to me. A second later he popped his head back in, "When I-chan wakes up tell her I say.. Hi!"

I chuckle quietly by myself, he is such a strange kid… I'm going to have to call in the anbu patrolling that area to see what happened after Niveus left but I can already guess. Oh to be young again... Not that I'm old mind you.

Argh, Neji may not know how to act around girls but at least he knows what to do when he sees someone kiss his. Now if only Shikamaru wasn't so nice, if he wasn't I'm sure Ino wouldn't be sleeping here, but in his bed... Oh that's dirty! I chuckled a bit then I felt my stomach grumble so I got up and went into the kitchen to fix me up something to eat.

Ino has been sleeping for about 18 hours… and judging by how badly she exhausted herself, she should be up… any second now! I made a simple cereal and walked back into my room to see Ino sitting up on her bed looking out the window sadly.

"Uzuki-sensei…" she says turning to look at me. Her eyes were just as blank as they were the day before. I sigh and set my bowl onto the desk and bring a chair next to her bed. "Why can't I-"

"Look Ino, I'm your teacher not your mother, but there's something that a the two have in common. We're supposed to help you choose the right path or some other bull like that. And that's what I'm going to do. So close your pessimistic little downer mouth and listen to me," I said cutting her off. She looked at me with that same empty stare, basically telling me that she didn't give a rat's ass. I sigh, but continue regardless.

"Geez, I thought you were stronger than this Ino… If I knew that you would run away from your problems like this I wouldn't have asked you to be apart of my team," I say staring her right in the eyes. "I'm disappointed in you."

"I'm not run-"

"Oh? You think so? You're a shell of your former self! Look at you! Sitting there brooding about how you can't feel the bloody freaking rain! It's pathetic Ino!" I say attempting to bring out the old Ino. There's two possible ways this can go. Either I'm so mean to her that she just gives up and stays like this forever… or that she snaps out of this and decides to fight back.

"You don't under-"

"You're right, I don't understand. You are obliviously in love with a guy, but you automatically run away with your tail between his legs because you THINK he doesn't like you? How CAN I understand you?! You fight for what or who you love! It's not like there's anything stopping you! Geez, you're not only weak you're a coward."

"I know when I'm not wanted."

"The old you would have done everything you could to MAKE him want you! You've changed… and not in a good way," she looked at me blankly. "Since when did you give up so easily, anyway? If I remember correctly… An Uchiha Sasuke seemed to hate you but you kept on trying. Heck, you went as far as turning against your best friend because of him!"

She looked at me angrily, her fiery spirit back. Ahhh… I truly am a genius. "Sasuke was different! Ok?!"

"How so? You told me yourself that you thought you loved him once-"

"I THOGUHT I loved him. God damnit Uzuki-sensei! He's not like Shikamaru! What I feel towards him is real!"

"HA! You loved Sasuke enough to fight for him! When you had a single doubt of Shika's love, you ran! It seems to me that you loved this Uchiha more," I said looking at my nails indifferently.

She throws the pillow across the room and yells angrily. "I love Shikamaru a million times more than I did Sasuke!" she yelled turning red from anger.

"Hahaha, apparently that's not enough to fight for him! I bet you haven't even told him how you feel yet!" I say laughing crazily. This is way more fun than I expected!

"I…!" she started to say then quieted causing me to laugh even louder. "Oh be quiet! I'm going to the Nara house and tell him right now then! In front of the whole family if I have to!"

"Hahaha! I'm SO sure, Ino dear," I say sounding very doubtful. Dance my little puppet dance! Muhahaha!! She's wrapped around my finger so tightly I could almost see it turn blue.

"I AM! I'll tell him the moment I see him! And! If I don't do it today, then… kick me off your team!" Yes!!! Mission accomplished. Phase one of my plan complete.

I stop laughing and look at her seriously. "I'm going to hold you up to that offer, my dear sweet little oinker! You don't have to tell him the moment you see him though… that's just weird," I say patting her head then getting up and walking to my bowl again. That went a lot smoother than I thought. Oh Ino dear is so predictable!

I looked at her and couldn't help but chuckle at the look she was stuck in. She didn't move and her cheeks had the slightest tint of red on them. She was sitting upright with the classic look of horror scribbled all over her face. I thought about how she was beating herself up inside. 'What in the hell did I just do?!' or: 'Uzuki-sensei would kick me off too… crap.'

"Well what are you doing here still? Go tell the boy how you feel!" I say flicking a piece of granola from my cereal at her. She glared at me then opened her mouth to say something. "Nah-ah-ah! No take backs! You either tell him today or you're out of my team."

"Gawd damnit Uzuki-sensei… I hate you so much right now…" she said clenching her teeth and fists.

"Ahhh, you say that now! Just remember to invite me to your wedding!" I say watching her get out of the bed and put on her sandals.

"Oh shut it!" she yelled angrily and slammed the door. I don't think she's noticed that I gave her an old anbu outfit of mine… I'll give her about a minute before she realizes it.

One minute later…

"Uzuki-sensei… what am I wearing?" she said opening the door slowly.

"Ah! I thought you would look great in it! And you do! You can thank me later!" I say nonchalantly.

"Just give me my clothes," she grumbles. She's so cute when she's mad.

"Is this the thanks I get for taking care of you?! How rude!" I replied dramatically. Her eye twitches and I throw a rubber hammer at her and laugh, "I washed your clothes for you. They're in the dryer, dearest."

She mumbles a thank you then closes the door again. Ahhh… I feel so accomplished today! Tenten and Neji are finally going out… and Ino's going to tell Shikamara how she feels about him… I could feel my eyes tear up… It's times like this that makes being a teacher worth while! Excuse me while I cry softly…

Alright, I've had enough of that. Time for me to get some sleep. You, on the other hand, go and review or I'll make you run so many laps around Konoha, you'll cry.

TBC.

AN: welp! you heard uzuki! please review! anyways, i have no idea as to what to write for the next chapter so help is greatly needed! any suggestion would be great!