Hajime mashite!
Whew… looking back, I've realized that this is technically the tenth chapter of this story. I see that this is quite the accomplishment for me, as I simply love reading long fanfictions, not writing them. At any case, I think I'm only halfway through the story, but I hope the rest would not seem 'railroaded' in any way. I guess we'll just have to find out later together, won't we?
The last chapter was quite a disappointment, in terms of reviews, in my humble opinion. I would have to attribute this to a dismal previous chapter, I suppose? Well, I guess I haven't been making this story quite romantic than I would've hoped it to be, but I did hope you all would've understood. Anyway, I'm continuing the story and am definitely pushing to finish it by midyear at best, so everyone who's been kind enough to keep reviewing won't be disappointed. You don't know how encouraging your reviews are. Well, as they say, a few good reviews are way better than none at all. Thanks again!
Well, I wouldn't want to hold the excitement back any longer, so here's the ninth chapter of Memories! Enjoy, minna!
Oh, and just in case those lawyers are again on the prowl… I do not own anything here, just my plot and Ryoko and Hana and a few ingenious shinobi tools I would use on anyone who tries to sue me, so there!
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Memories
Troubles of a Lazy Shinobi
Chapter Nine : The Best Time of My Life
"Happy birthday, you beautiful Yamanaka! It's your day!"
Indeed it was such a splendid day, for it was the blonde chuunin's birthday! Outside, leaves were slowly wilting, falling, flying with the soft cooling breeze that was gradually ushering the arrival of winter.
Yesterday, she had fallen melancholy again, and everyone else who knew her back in the academy knew why… It was yet another year where not one of them could enjoy the birthday of long-departed friend, Shikamaru. However, last year, she realized that if he was alive, he would lazily disapprove of her gloom in his best day of the year just because he wasn't around.
Hn, that baka. If he was still around, I suppose he would invite me to watch the clouds with him to make me feel better, that lazy idiot – not that I mind his company… Well, it's not healthy for me thinking about what would've been on this wonderful day. There's just so much fun to have, and I surely can't wait for whatever surprise that big-fore headed Sakura has in store for me this year…
Ino got up from her bed and fixed it with such speed that would put other kunoichi to shame. She headed straight for the bathroom to shower and do the rest of her morning rituals – fixing her hair, applying make-up and other whatnot she had, amongst other things males did not care much about. After she got out, she grabbed a satin sky blue garment from her wardrobe, like one of those traditional Chinese dresses. She does not really wear them, but she supposed that today will be a really special day for her, and she certainly wouldn't want to look… ordinary.
She prepared for herself some light breakfast composed of some small, steamed potatoes, accompanied by fresh garden salad. After taking her time with her morning repast and attending to the dishes, she grabbed her wallet and headed outside the apartment. As she passed by the living room, she noticed a considerably tall pile of boxes which had already found their way to their gleeful recipient.
How thoughtful of those guys… Even after three years that we've gone our own separate ways, they still managed to remember…
Ino headed for the group of gifts just waiting and wanting to be opened. She scanned them one by one, and found the names Akimichi, Uzumaki, Haruno, Sarutobi, Lee, Hyuuga, Inuzuka, and even Yamanaka, among the rest.
Okaasanotoosan, you remembered! Thank kami that he granted me the best parents one could ever have! I must drop by our home sometime this afternoon. I'm sure they miss me so much… as I do miss them too.
Ino paused for a moment, recalling some wonderful memories. Before she got carried away with her reveries or tempted to mercilessly open her gifts, she immediately tore herself away from the packages, telling herself that she could enjoy her time tonight opening them before she retired to bed.
Pleased with how the day was progressing, Ino left her apartment. Without having anything planned then, she headed for the park, looking forward to basking in the beauty of the autumn flowers blooming amidst the sea of red and orange leaves and the soothing tranquility of the breath-taking river. When she got there, she took a seat on one of the vacant benches. Ino looked around her and noticed the couples giggling and teasing one another everywhere she turned. She deeply sighed… while she had to admit that it was fun to go about doing things on your own, she couldn't help but feel… envious.
"What's a fine lady like yourself doing all alone in the chilly park this fine autumn day?"
Ino turned around, and surprised to find a guy whom she sized up to be nearly half a foot taller than her, bearing quite a toned torso. He wore a neat navy blue shirt underneath a loose vest which, Ino thought, resembled Konoha's chuunin vest. He held his raven hair back with a bandana, but some strands of his hair still stubbornly stuck out from various places. He wore a probing but quite friendly look on his face, which she noticed was a bit hardened by the roughness of life… Without a doubt, Ino noted, this man is a shinobi, but one who she had never seen before. And that was saying a lot, considering that she was assigned to a lot of teams as a novice chuunin before she was appointed to lead Ryoko and Hana.
"Ano, do I have something on my face?" asked the guy.
Ino, realizing herself staring at him for so long, snapped back to reality and answered a soft, "Gomen-nasai…"
"It's alright," he warmly replied. "I just thought that someone must've paralyzed you or something…"
"No, no… Sorry."
They fell into silence. For some unknown reason, Ino blushed and turned her head away from him to hide her embarrassment. (A/N: evades a piece of tomato from some crazed ShikaIno fans sticks out his tongue)
"Well?"
"Well what?" Ino replied, clueless.
"What are you doing here by yourself?"
"Oh," Ino answered, remembering what he asked her. "I just wanted to take some time off from my daily work, but did not really have anything planned. I thought of stopping by this place to enjoy the morning. The place is really nice and relaxing…"
"Well, what do you know," said the guy nostalgically turning to face the scenery, "it is." Ino blushed again.
"But you know what," he continued, "I don't think you're here just for that. Seeing as you're so well-dressed and simply look too stunning for a simple walk in the park, I think today's quite a special day for you… your birthday, perhaps?"
Ino turned around to face him, and scanned him from head to toe before answering, "How very intuitive of you, for an outsider…"
The guy flinched slightly, much to the blonde's satisfaction. He quickly collected himself and spoke again.
"Well, happy birthday, then! I may not be from here, but I do know my way around, and believe me, I have permission to be here. I have the week to myself, and decided to take a look around. I just so happened to be walking around when you captured my eye…"
The shinobi gave Ino a warm smile, and she could not help but blush again as he did so. (A/N: evades yet another tomato Hey, cut that out!)
"Well," Ino softly began, being more daring than she herself would've believed, "since you're not from this village, why don't I show you around?"
"As I've said before," the guy interrupted her, accompanied by a respectful smile, "I already know my way around, so you really don't need to trouble yourself with it."
The Yamanaka let out a soft, "oh," and started to turn her back on him when he quickly grabbed her by the hand.
"But… you're simply too dazzling to put down. Seeing as this is supposedly your best day in the year…" Ino turned to him hopefully, although not really knowing what to expect. "Why don't I take you around town today and give you the best birthday you would ever remember?"
Ino was stunned, to say the least. While she did hope that she could spend some time with him and get to know him better, she would not have imagined in her wildest dreams that she would be spending time with such a… charming shinobi.
The guy offered her arm to Ino, who more than willingly took it. They started to make their way out of the park and took their time strolling down the main street. He was growing increasingly interested in the blonde, and kindly asked her about herself and her friends and the town, all of which she eagerly answered, vividly describing every detail.
They had walked and talked for what seemed to be an hour, and suddenly stopped in front of a small shop. Ino realized the break in their stroll and looked at the place they had arrived at.
"The Yamanaka Flower Shop?" inquired a surprised Ino.
"Well, a birthday is not really special without any flowers. I believe they prepare the best flowers here, don't they? I was thinking of giving you some nice ones before we went on our escapade around town…"
She reddened at his thoughtfulness, but turned to her side before he caught her doing so. She found herself doing that a lot this morning.
"Yes, they do. Thanks."
"No problem," he said as he opened the door for her and motioned for her to wait on the seat by the door. "Stay here for a moment while I talk to the lady and have your flowers ready."
Ino nodded, realizing that it would be best not to be seen by her mother being with this complete stranger. She peeked at the counter way up front from behind the bucketful of roses near her. Just as she thought, her mother was tending the shop today, and she was accommodating her wonderful customer. The guy turned around to see if she was looking at him, and found her peeping at him. When she was spotted, she quickly moved back to her seat, slightly embarrassed and ashamed of being caught considering that she was an espionage specialist.
It was only a short while before the guy returned, whose name, she realized, was still unknown to her. I don't want to ruin this wonderful day… he might get alienated all at once. I'll just ask him later after our 'adventures'.
"Happy birthday," he greeted, handing Ino her bouquet of flowers with care. "It isn't much, but I did try my best to pick out the most wonderful ones around, in my humble opinion… for you on your special day, of course." He gave her a lopsided grin. She took the entirely white bunch into her arms, and she felt delighted, for a lack of better word.
"Thanks… Oh, a yuri, or spider lily, accompanied by two magnolias and accented by three anemones… you must know your flowers, don't you?"
"Uh," her companion stuttered, completely embarrassed. "Not really. I just thought they seemed wonderful… Why, what do you mean?"
"Well, whenever a person gives someone else a gift, he usually uses flowers to represent what he thinks of the person receiving them," Ino answered matter-of-factly. "Yuri here means 'sweet', magnolia means 'natural', and white anemones mean 'sincere'. I didn't know you thought all that about me…"
"Really?" he answered unbelievingly. "To be honest, I didn't know that…"
"If anything, I'd say that I'd give the same flowers to describe you…"
"No need," he immediately blurted. "Today's your birthday, not mine."
"Dômo arigatô gozaimasu!" (A/N: No, this is not yet the end of the chapter.)
The shinobi just smiled back, and once again held out his arm for her. She thoughtfully took it and headed outside the shop into the bright day… and indeed it was becoming brighter and brighter by the moment. The long but comfortable silence they experienced amidst the bustle in the streets was interrupted by a hungry Ino.
"I think we should eat. Why don't we have some lunch before we continue?"
"Oh, alright. Do you know of a wonderful place to dine in?"
"Well, there's this relatively new restaurant near the park, and it has a nice view of it from the terrace. It's wonderful in the evenings, but it's just as breathtaking during this time of the day as well. They mainly serve foreign food there, however, so I don't know if you would like them…"
"That would be nice, just the same. I'm sure the food would still taste magnificently as long as I see that you're enjoying yourself…"
Ino just giggled at his words to keep herself from blushing some more, and began steering him to the restaurant.
Ino felt really lucky to have been assigned the table for two just by the railing of the terrace overlooking the park, though she did suspect that it had something to do with his prince charming – as she began to think of him – arguing with the attendant just as they entered the eating place.
Ino had baked potatoes marinated in a special sweet sauce, and a side dish of garden salad. Her partner, on the other hand, ordered some sushi with mackerel – which he was overjoyed to find available in the joint – and some garden salad mainly accentuated by kelp.
"I thought you said they served foreign food here? They have just as many of the good local stuff in this place!"
"Well, I'm glad they have something to your liking, because the last time I ate here, all they served was nothing but bread… Can you imagine eating bread here for lunch?" Ino joked.
"For some reason," the guy said in a suddenly serious tone, "I miss this place – your village, though I can't seem to place my finger on it…"
He gazed over into the park, whose majority of trees was now devoid of foliage. He could not help it, but Ino stared at him, trying to figure out what he was thinking.
"Imagine that… Konoha, the Leaf Village, now laden with trees devoid of all sorts of leaves…"
Ino chuckled at his joke, as he remained to be serious at the moment. "Well, not all our trees shed their leaves in the autumn, you know. We have a myriad of coniferous trees around."
"Oh," the guy answered, having returned from his state of reverie, "I forgot that. Never mind, let's finish the rest of our lunch now, shall we?" Ino nodded her agreement, and they ate the remainder of their meal in comfortable silence.
The rest of the time afterwards was spent on walking around the village, from the academy to the training grounds, to the memorial, to the village stadium, and even to the Administrative Building. Truth be told, Ino was really having the time of her life, sharing so many stories with this newfound friend eagerly absorbed with her every word.
The two of them did chance to come across some of Ino's friends. Ino greeted Sakura – who gave her an excited but suspicious look regarding her escort – on their way to the academy. Both met Chouji – who examined this guy from head to foot – near the training grounds. They saw Kakashi – who briefly observed Ino's companion from head to foot – visiting the memorial. The two surprised a very busy Kurenai – who wore quite a strange expression on her face as she faced the guy before looking at Ino just as peculiarly. Ino did plan on bringing him inside headquarters, but as she began to be troubled the weird looks everyone else was giving them, either out of disappointment, jealousy, distrust – she really couldn't tell – she supposed he wouldn't feel comfortable at all.
Well, through all that, Ino could not feel doubtful… what could be so suspicious about this person who's been simply considerate to her all day? Or perhaps it was because it was her birthday today, and that they wanted her to worry so much about their looks so she would not care about the surprise they had in store for her… But was Kakashi part of this?
While Ino was busy with her musings, her companion did have his share of problems along the way. He was thankful that she was too preoccupied with her thoughts to notice him wincing, his headache slowly building with each of the places they visited, climaxing each time they met one of Ino's acquaintances. Apparently, he had been worried about his bursts of pain when something stopped him from rubbing his temples.
"Are you alright?" asked Ino, deeply concerned. She grabbed his hands away from his head and began to massage his temples with her own dainty fingers.
"Ano… it's nothing, really. Just a slight headache I've been having today…" the guy honestly replied, not wanting to lose her trust in him. He removed her hands from him gently, but somehow he did not really want to.
"Are you sure?" the blonde furthered. "You want to take a breather right now?"
"Oh, yes, … that would be nice," he thanked. "I think a breath of fresh air back at the park would be very helpful."
They took their time making their way back to the park. The sun was beginning to set, and the cooler winds once again made the impending coming of winter felt. Ino began to shiver, but the shinobi noticed, so he more than willingly handed her his vest, even if it did not provide much warmth. She did not really want to take it at his expense, but he was quite persistent about it and did not want anything else other than to have her wear it. She took it and thanked him meekly by giving him a brief hug.
The two of them reached the bench they first met at that fateful morning. Ino took a seat, while her escort just moved over to the edge of the river, taking in calming breaths which, she was relieved to find, helped him thoroughly relax.
He turned around and faced Ino. With the setting sun shining from behind him, the blonde chuunin seemed to glisten with the amber rays of the sun shining on her.
Ino, having really enjoyed a wonderful birthday, could not think of anything more to ask for. She could not even begin to thank him enough for all the things he did that day. She noticed something rustle against her feet as she looked down and sighted a small pansy. She smiled at having this little flower and thought of how to perfectly express her gratitude.
So, she picked the flower, stood up, walked to her charming escort for the day, and handed the pansy to him. He was surprised at this gesture, and thoughtfully raised an eyebrow to her as he had no clue what she meant.
"What?" Ino inquired. "It's a pansy…"
"I know what a pansy is… But why a pansy?"
"For your information," Ino started to explain in her sort of know-it-all tone, "people give pansies stand for 'thoughtful and caring'… and I just wanted you to know that you are that kind of person."
The man blushed at her words and tried to look away a bit, but abstained as she continued.
"Thanks. You have made my birthday this year truly special." They shared some happy moments in silence. Eventually, the partly flustered shinobi spoke up again.
"Well, I know I should've done this first, but," the man stuttered, but continued with every ounce of courage he could muster, "would you care to tell me your name?"
Ino blushed for the umpteenth time that day, and immediately remembered that neither of them had even introduced himself to the other. Just as she was about to speak, she noticed a nice, fluffy brown cat stroking itself against her escort's legs.
"Oh, what a nice cat… She seems to like you."
"Ano, that's because that's our team cat, Neko. She comes to each one of us when we need to reassemble our team."
"Oh… quite unconventional, for a shinobi team…"
"Well, that's not even the half of it," the guy admitted. "Anyway, I wish I could stay longer, but I really need to go. I hope you enjoyed my company, in as much as I enjoyed yours… I sincerely mean that…"
Just as he began to walk away with his cat, his lady spoke up. "Ino."
"What?"
"My name. It's Ino… Yamanaka Ino. Would you care to tell me yours? Will you still stay around the village for a while longer?"
The man turned his face to the side, casting a very sad look and bearing a faraway look in his eyes. "Sorry… I did have the week to myself, but today's my last day here. By the look of things, we would be leaving soon."
"Oh…" Ino replied, disheartened. How could such a nice guy enter her life all of a sudden only to leave so soon afterwards? She tried her best not to look away. As she stared at him, she noticed that a fresh wave of migraine attacks assaulted him once again. He was beginning to scrunch his face and softly massaged his aching temples.
"I'd better leave," he said, still wincing. He began to leap into the distance before continuing, smiling back to her as he increased the distance between them, "Just so you'd know, my name…"
Ino looked up, hopeful and joyful to at least have the pleasure of knowing the name of the man who just presented her with the best birthday experience ever.
"…everyone calls me by the name Shikamaru… Nara Shikamaru."
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A/N: The return of our favorite shinobi! Hah, I bet you didn't see that one coming. Now that's what I call a birth-date. Did you guess it was him midway into the chapter? If you know Shikamaru, you would've recognized the clues I've been giving away.
Was it too fluffy for your own comfort? Too bland? Too dilly-dally? Don't like how things are turning out, and the direction this story is taking? Well, I'm not really the master of fluff, but I hope I managed to flesh out my own style effectively.
I thought that I better give romance a chance this time around, though I can't say that I'll be lingering around this idea too long. Stick around for the plot development, and I hope things are turning better and better for you dear readers with each chapter.
By the way, due to a new college term and fresh thesis demands, I'd be irregularly updating this story. I know, I know, it's me and my despicable semi-hiatus states. Please bear with me; in as much as it pains me to not update ever so frequently, I do need to attend to some other stuff in the real world as well. I hope you all understand.
Liked it? Hated it? Share your comments in your review! Dômo arigatô gozaimasu!