To Be Strong

by Sayaka M

When Ino discovers Shikamaru doesn't think she is strong enough to rely on, she accepts a mission to leave Konoha and gain enough strength that he has to acknowledge her. But with that strength comes a cost, one that Ino may not be willing to pay. Ino-centric.

11. Chapter 11

I was going to make this chapter shorter, but then there wouldn't be the Shikamaru/Ino interaction that I've been promising, so this one's a bit long. If anyone sees any discrepancies in this, let me know since I wasn't able to focus as much today as I edited the chapter. I stayed up way too late and got up way too early, so my head's been fuzzy all day. Lots of people had nice things to say about the last chapter, though I do apologize to the guest reviewer that said I confused them with Mika and Sayo. I did try to focus more on the main characters than I have been, though probably not enough to suit your fancy.

I'll probably post again next week, maybe the week after also, but after that I'll need to take a small break so I can work on my summer assignments. As long as I have this going, I'm too distracted to focus on the homework, and that really needs to be my priority for a while. So don't panic, I'm not abandoning the story, I just have other things that need my attention first. I'll still read and respond to any reviews and PMs, though. Enjoy the story :)

Chapter 11

Mika's hospital leave found many troupe members waiting to walk with her to her new home. They had been expecting her to stay at the inn, but it didn't dampen the cheery atmosphere when she told them that she would be staying with Hikari. Many of the other members, including Asahi and her husband, were renting the apartments in Ino's complex, so they didn't see anything wrong with her decision. Ino watched Shin and Kagura when Mika announced her living arrangements, and while Kagura looked thrilled, Shin's face fell. She knew why, and she didn't blame him. If he wanted to see Mika, there was a good chance he would have to see her, too.

Both Mika and Sayo went to sleep early that first night. Sayo was still a toddler who needed to sleep constantly, and this was Mika's first time out the hospital in months. It didn't surprise Ino when she came out of the bathroom and found both of them passed out on the couch in the living room. Draping a thick blanket over the two of them, she put on a heavy coat and walked outside to ponder what Misao had told her earlier. I guess I have been focusing too much on Shikamaru, she thought, holding her coat closer against the wind chill. I just don't know what to think about him. His actions point toward him being the most likely suspect, but then what about everyone's memories? Was he just acting? She shook her head. I know that I can't get to him right now. I did see Sakura at the hospital earlier, though; she and her group must have come in after Water Country's army. I can find her or Sai tonight unless Sai's still out training with Naruto. I'm pretty sure I saw them head in the direction of the training fields earlier today.

With her quarries in mind, she strode in the direction of Sakura and Dr. Kyle's apartment. Hopefully she would be home alone. They both worked at the hospital, so there was a chance that they would be there if they weren't at home, but she couldn't check her friend when she was surrounded by so many other shinobi.

A person wandered across her path, and Ino drew back to the shadows out of reflex. The person looked dazed, her freckles standing out under the light of the lamp. It took Ino a second to place where she had seen this person before, and when she did, she stepped forward. "Lochia-dono?" she asked.

The woman looked at her. "Excuse me, but can you tell me how to get to the Hokage Tower?" she asked. "I'm afraid I'm not used to this place, and I got lost."

"Of course, ma'am," replied Ino. "Aren't you supposed to have guards?"

She looked puzzled. "I don't know what happened to them," she confessed. "I thought they were with me, but I guess I lost them, too."

That didn't seem right. This person was too important to lose both her own guard and the shinobi assigned to watch her. "Where were you before?" asked Ino as she guided the queen back towards the Hokage Tower and the royal suite. If her suspicion was right, then completing her mission just became even more crucial.

"I wanted to see the city of Konoha," Lochia-dono replied, "so I went out with my guards, but the next thing I knew, I was lost, and my guards were nowhere to be found. I am lucky that I happened to find you."

What Ino found more amazing was that Lochia-dono hadn't run into anyone else before Ino. It wasn't all that late, so more shinobi should have been out. She would need to ask for Chouji's help, but she had a suspicion that the queen and her retinue had run into a genjutsu trap that had addled the wits of everyone with her, including the seasoned shinobi guarding her. That would imply that her target was very skilled and very subtle if no one had discovered it before it was sprung. She had no doubt that her informant was the one responsible for this and there was a good chance that he was watching from somewhere close by, waiting for his chance to do something to Lochia-dono. Bringing her guard up to the max, Ino let her arm relax so that her hand was right next to the hilt of one of her kunai.

"Why, if it isn't Hikari!"

The voice startled her and she almost attacked the person who spoke, but as soon as she saw who it was, she relaxed. Fye and Kurogane joined the two women, the blond man grinning and the dark-haired man scanning the area around them. "Fye," she said in greeting, returning his smile. "I'm just walking this woman back to the Hokage Tower."

"Imagine that, Kuro-pu," the wizard said. "We were just going that direction as well. We'll all walk together! The more the merrier, right?"

The other man grunted, and Ino felt the imminent danger recede. If the informant saw just two women on their own and one was his target, he would not have hesitated. However, with two others with them, and one of them a proven swordsman, the chances went way down for an attack. Fye caught Lochia-dono up in a stream of banter and Ino felt herself drawn in as well. She didn't think that Lochia-dono felt it, but she kept her guard up and she knew the other two well enough to recognize the tension in both of them. Fye's eyes glanced at the shadows around them too often and Kurogane's hand never left his sword hilt. Ino kept on alert for signs of genjutsu since the queen's story brought up the possibility.

The lights of the Hokage Tower and the sounds of subdued panic reached Ino's ears when they were still a block away. "We're almost there," she told the queen. "It's just over there. Please don't rush," she said, grabbing the queen's arm when she tried to hurry forward. "No one wants you to trip over something in the dark." That was a lie, but she didn't want the monarch to get a case of paranoia.

It was obvious when they were spotted. ANBU appeared from the shadows, surrounding them. Kurogane and Fye shifted their weight into fighting positions, but Lochia-dono just looked startled. One of the shinobi, there was no way to tell which one, spoke up. "Release Lochia-dono," he demanded.

Recovering, Lochia-dono waved her hands at him. "No, no, no," she said. "These people were just taking me back to the Hokage Tower. I got lost, that's all."

The ANBU looked at each other. "We will escort you the rest of the way," said one in a cat mask, stepping forward.

"Very well." The queen looked back at them and inclined her head toward them. "Thank you for getting me this far," she said. "If you need something, please don't hesitate to come find me."

Fye grinned at her. "That is very kind of you, Your Majesty," he said. "We will remember that."

The ANBU formed an honor guard and left with the queen. "What was all that?" asked Kurogane. "Doesn't she know better than to wander around without a guard, even in a safe city?"

Ino explained her fears to them as they walked back towards the inn. Kurogane frowned. "Oi, could you check if that's the case?" he addressed Fye.

The blond man shook his head. "I can't use my magic," he responded. "Even if it was something I could sense, I would need to be at the site where the trap was set up, and we don't know where she was before Hikari ran into her. It could be anywhere."

This is bad, thought Ino as she listened to the two world travelers' debate about what to do. A shinobi did that. If it fooled the Jounin guarding the queen, then it had to be set up by a person skilled in genjutsu. Sakura is more of a taijutsu user and Shikamaru was never good at genjutsu. It could be Sai, but I saw him with Naruto. There's no way they finished training early enough for him to set up a genjutsu of that subtlety. That means the only suspects left in Konoha that could do this are from the Hyuuga compound. Damn.

AAAAA

Luck wasn't with Ino. The hospital training was much longer than she had anticipated, and the hours were longer, too. In the weeks since she ran into Lochia-dono, the war preparation had escalated and the shinobi started migrating out to the areas where Earth Country's soldiers were supposed to be, Shikamaru, Sakura, and some of her other targets included. Konoha wasn't stripped of its defenses, but Ino noticed a definite drop in the number of shinobi she saw when she walked through the streets. Thoughts of her friends and fellow shinobi occupied her mind, but she had more to think about than just the war. Mika had gotten herself a night job, which put a huge damper on Ino's nightly forays into Konoha because she couldn't leave Sayo at home by herself, but she wondered why the other woman would go for a night job. Even though Konoha was a village of shinobi, it wasn't one hundred percent safe, as evidenced by the genjutsu on Lochia-dono and the ANBU, and Ino worried about her. She especially worried that she would run into Toya-dono. It was a long shot, but if Lochia-dono could wander into a genjutsu surrounded by Konoha's best, then the king had a chance of running into his former wife.

Ino groaned aloud, causing the nurse next to her to look at her in concern. "Are you all right?" she asked.

"I'm fine," Ino assured her. "I just wish there was more that I could do."

"Don't we all," the nurse agreed, blowing long bangs out of her face. "We'll be doing a lot more when they start sending the injured back here. Enjoy the break while we have it."

Finishing up her last roll, Ino stood up and checked out. Today she had a mission in the Hyuuga compound and she was nervous about it. The person she was looking for, Hyuuga Takeru, was a member of the branch family, and while he wasn't as talented as Neji or the main branch children, he had inherited the Hyuuga bloodline trait Byakugan and could do considerable damage to her if she wasn't careful. His main role was to assist the head of the family, which was why he was still in Konoha instead of out in the field. Because of his close proximity to the head of the family, he had access to information that could be of interest to an enemy, which was why he was a suspect.

By drawing up memories of visiting the Hyuuga family when she was younger as part of the Clan Formalities, as her family called them, Ino was able to locate the Hyuuga compound without going through the main gate and announcing her presence to everyone inside. Her job would be difficult because she didn't remember a Hyuuga Takeru; he had never stood out, so she didn't even know what he looked like. She growled softly. Unless someone called him by name, she wouldn't know him even if he stood right in front of her. Using her Mind Transfer Jutsu on a squirrel, she sent the mammal closer to the training grounds, where the Hyuuga clan should be training, according to her research.

The sounds of fighting scared the small squirrel. Ino could feel its heart thumping fast enough to burst out of the poor creature's chest, but she moved it closer, keeping it close to the brown fence. A small tendril of green poked through the melting snow, but Ino forced the squirrel's attention on the two Hyuuga in the ring. They were both servants, and Hyuuga Hiashi-sama watched them from the sidelines, his arms crossed and a frown on his face. The combatants in the ring were striking each other with glancing blows, but with the Byakugan activated, Ino knew that each touch was like being hit with a boulder. Both men had sweat running down their faces.

When Hiashi-sama stepped forward, the fighters immediately stopped and dropped to their knees. The Hyuuga lord looked down at them, his impassive face giving away nothing of what he could be feeling. "Rise," he commanded. Looking at the one on his right, he said, "Takeru, you need to practice better control. You still waste too much chakra. Your Byakugan will not be much help to you if you can only use it for a few minutes."

"Yes, Hiashi-sama," the man replied, his head bowed. He looked like a stereotypical Hyuuga. His brown hair was tied back and his lavender eyes held no emotion. Still, Ino thought that she would be able to locate him again once she was back in her body.

Letting go of the squirrel, she stretched out her own body to prevent cramps from forming. If she remembered correctly, both fighters would wash the sweat from their faces before returning to the main house. Spring was coming and the days were getting longer, which meant that she couldn't wait for dark to cover her while she checked the Hyuuga. She would have to be very careful going about this. As long as she stayed in the trees, the dark clothes she wore would make her less visible.

She slinked along the edge of the trees just out of sight and got close to the water trough that the Hyuuga used to wash themselves before entering the buildings. Both Takeru and his opponent were there. Neither one spoke. Just as Ino stopped to wonder how to get Takeru to come over, she saw them glance at each other and the other Hyuuga nodded. They disappeared and Ino swore, leaping away. They're onto me, she thought. Sure enough, two blurs were on her tail, but they wouldn't be able to see her until she slowed down. However, they were close enough that she wouldn't be able to get away from them. Why didn't I lay some traps down first? she scolded herself, dodging a kunai. The Hyuuga were jealous of their techniques, and if they thought she was spying on them for their bloodline trait…this didn't look good for her chances. Using the Kage Bushin no Jutsu, several clones split off and attacked the two pursuers, giving Ino a chance to hide among the foliage around them and assess the situation. The two had just fought each other, so their chakra levels were low, but if they pulled down the mask covering her face, it would blow her cover.

The two Hyuuga's movements were getting sluggish, indicating that they were tiring faster than Ino would have thought. Then again, they had just finished a match against each other, and who knows how long they were training before that. Smiling, she joined the fray and attacked the extra Hyuuga. He struck the side of her head, giving her a moment of disorientation, but one of the clones kicked his stomach, bringing him down. Ino and her clones all attacked Takeru, who knew it was a futile fight now. She saw him making the symbols that would severely damage both of them and sent a kunai at his hands. He blocked with his own kunai, breaking the hand seal sequence. A clone disarmed him and two more restrained him. He sank to his knees, his head bowed; he knew that he had lost. Still, the clones had to strain to hold him in place. Just because a Hyuuga was beaten didn't mean that he would give up the clan secrets while he lived. Slowly approaching him, the kunoichi used genjutsu to bind his consciousness while she searched him. There was no way that she was going to leave a Hyuuga free while she went through his mind; that would just be suicide.

Because he had access to the confidential information of the Hyuuga clan, it took Ino more time than she liked to search through his mind. There was a good chance that Hiashi-sama would miss his assistant if he took too long returning from the training area, and they weren't that far away from it. If someone found them like this, it wouldn't look good for Ino. In fact, it would be quite fatal for her; the Hyuuga weren't known for their understanding. Opening another memory, she let it surround her so she could see what he saw. For some reason, they were in a copse of trees that didn't appear to be native to Fire Country. Looking around, Ino spotted Takeru sitting near a fast-running brook. Tenten and Neji were standing near him, and Shikamaru was looking at the three of them with an irritated expression. "Shikamaru, we can't keep going like this," Tenten panted. The woman looked tired.

"If we don't hurry, then we'll lose the trail," snapped Shikamaru. Ino blinked; Shikamaru never spoke like that, even when someone was being pig-headed. She would know.

Neji spoke up. "It will mean nothing if we catch them and are too tired to do more than watch them run." He was glaring at Shikamaru, and Ino noticed that his left arm had a slight tremor. Even Neji was close to his breaking point.

For a second, it looked like Shikamaru was going to argue with them, but instead he stormed off. Takeru looked at the other two and asked, "Is he always like this? I didn't think that Hokage-sama would choose such an irresponsible person for a team captain."

Tenten sighed. "He's been like this ever since his teammate was killed a while ago. He was in love with her, and it affected him pretty badly." Neji nodded.

Ino's heart sank. She had been trying not to think about that. Thinking back to before her current mission, she didn't recall ever seeing any hints of him having feelings for her, but even the people around her knew about this? I must be really blind if even Tenten and Neji knew and I didn't. However, she wasn't here to find out Shikamaru's feelings for her; she was looking for incriminating evidence.

The rest of the memory had Takeru giving Tenten and Neji a hint of what they were looking for, but it had to do with getting stolen information back, not getting information out, so Ino let the memory go. None of his other memories had what she was looking for, so she started to withdraw from his mind. Just as she was pulling back to herself, something grabbed her consciousness and started to squeeze it. Later, that was the only way she could describe it. It felt like something was compressing her into a steadily decreasing volume and she felt like she was going to explode. Struggling, she tried to break free, but whatever had her was too strong. It wasn't Takeru; she could feel her jutsu still in place. Feeling around, she found a faint trace of an unfamiliar Hyuuga signature. The other one! I thought he was down for the count. She cursed herself for not placing him under a similar jutsu. In a desperate last attempt, she pulled away from her bonds and she felt something snap. Whatever held her backlashed against the other Hyuuga, and she returned to her own body. The one remaining clone had rescued her body and taken it to the safety of the trees and it disappeared when she came to herself.

It wasn't a happy reunion. Her body felt like it was on fire and she was exhausted. From her perch in the leafy foliage, she saw that both Hyuuga were still down. I'd better take this opportunity to get away, she thought. She jumped down to the ground, expecting to land on her feet. She did land on her feet, but her legs immediately crumpled beneath her and she fell in a heap. What just happened? she thought, shocked. She tried to get up, but her legs didn't want to cooperate. Using a low branch, she pulled herself up and was surprised by how drained she felt. After a quick examination of herself, she gasped. He drained my chakra! Whatever the Hyuuga had done at the end had taken all the chakra in Ino's body and left her chakra nodes inflamed. Thanks to Ino's medical training, she knew that it would be weeks before she would have enough chakra built up to continue her mission. With a groan, she forced her right leg forward and started the trek out of the Hyuuga clan's land. When she got back to the well-traveled paths in Konoha, she made herself walk like normal. If the Hyuuga clan started looking for injured people, she didn't want to give them a reason to look at her.

The route back to her apartment took her past the Hokage Tower, and when she glanced up at one of the open windows, she caught a glimpse of Lochia-dono. The woman looked tired and concerned. From listening to people talk around Konoha, Lochia-dono was part of the council of war and helped decide where to employ the troops. The responsibility of those decisions looked like they weighed heavily on the slight woman's shoulders. By her side, the king looked no better.

Walking back to her apartment, she noticed that someone had fallen in step with her. When she looked to the right, she almost froze. Just as she looked at her companion, so did Shin, and they both had similar, surprised looks on their faces. "What are you doing?" The words left Ino's mouth before she could stop them. The shock almost made her forget her pain.

He looked uncomfortable. "I'm going home. What about you?"

"I'm going home, too." They kept walking in awkward silence and it got more awkward when they arrived at Ino's apartment complex and Shin didn't keep going. "I thought you were going back to the inn," said Ino.

He matched her step for step. "I live here," he replied. "Sano said that I was assigned this place." He stopped two doors before Ino's apartment. "Well, this is it," he told his door, not looking at Ino. "I'll be here if you need me." He paused, then with an obvious effort to act nonchalant, he asked, "How are things with your shinobi man?"

At first Ino didn't know what he was talking about, but then she remembered her lie to him before. "Oh, we're…doing fine. Just fine. He was deployed to the front lines recently, so now I have to wait for him to come back." It was vague enough to cover all bases and so many people were sent out recently that her explanation was quite plausible.

"I hope things work out for you." The pain he was trying to hide and failing to do so made Ino's chest ache for him. She hated herself for putting him through this, no matter how necessary it was. With one last nod at her, he slipped through the doorway of his apartment.

It took Ino a few seconds after he shut his door to continue on to her apartment. Leaning against the door, she let her head fall back, and she sighed. "Why?" she asked aloud to the empty room. Why is he so close? He could've stayed at the inn with the rest of the troupe.

When Mika came through the door later with Sayo, Ino told her about Shin. "Yeah, he moved closer to help me," said Mika, completely unsurprised. "He won't say so out loud, but I can tell that he misses Sayo." Looking at Ino, Mika asked, "Did something happen between you two? I can cut the tension with a knife when you two are near each other."

Ino told her friend what had happened and by the end she was crying on Mika's lap while the woman sat down on the couch. By her side, Sayo and her rabbit hugged Ino's side. "There, there," soothed Mika, stroking Ino's brown hair. "It'll be okay. You still have us and I know that Shin will bounce back to his old self soon."

Ino couldn't speak. Why is it so hard to have no emotions? she wailed on the inside. I tried to be a good shinobi, but I can't help hurting when I see him. I should be focusing on my mission, but instead here I am crying over a boy, just like when I was a teenager.

All the physical and emotional stress must have affected Ino more than she realized because the last thing she remembered was crying on Mika's lap, and when she came to herself again, the sun was starting to lighten the window. Sitting up was a struggle, and she looked down and saw that she was in her own bed, so she must have somehow made it back in. Her body still felt weak and strangely warm, considering that spring was just starting to come and the heat didn't stay inside without a constant fire. A chair sat by her bedside and it looked like it belonged out in the living room. Why do I have this chair in my room? she wondered. There's no need to have another chair in here. I have one already. Looking over at the far wall, she jumped back. Why are Syaoran and Sakura here?

The two young people were asleep next to her wall. Sakura sat in the chair, her head resting on her arms on the desk, and Syaoran had his back against the wall. Now Ino was very confused. Why didn't I hear them come in? Why are they even here? Did something happen to Mika or Sayo in the night? Her blood ran cold, and she tried to jump out of bed, but a rush of vertigo forced her to fall back on the bed.

Her door opened, and she saw Fye and Kurogane enter the room. Fye held a bowl of hot water and had a small towel draped over his shoulder. Kurogane looked concerned, but the blond man next to him appeared to be as cheerful as always. When he saw that Ino was awake, Fye's face broke out in a grin. "I'm glad you decided to join us," he said, sitting down in the vacant chair and putting the bowl of water on her nightstand. "You had us worried."

"What? What happened?" Ino didn't remember doing anything that would worry them. Spilling her soul to Mika and breaking down in the middle of it was a sad experience, but not worrying. She also didn't hurt as much as she thought she would, considering all her chakra was drained from her body yesterday except the bare minimum to keep her vitals running.

"Mika came running to us yesterday and said that you were burning up with a fever," Fye answered her. "When we got back to the apartment, you were delusional and would have attacked us if Kuro-tan hadn't restrained you. Your roommate was worried enough that she wanted to rush you to the hospital, but Misao put a stop to that." The two men exchanged glances and the wizard continued. "We've been keeping an eye on you since then. Mika's been here, but we tried to keep her out as much as possible. What happened that caused you to get in that state, if I may ask?"

Ino gave him a brief summary of what had happened while processing this new information. "I'm sorry to be such a burden to you," she finished. "You have my thanks. The medic-nin would have recognized my symptoms, and then everything would have been blown to pieces."

"You take too much on yourself," said Fye. "You are destroying your body by doing everything on your own. Surely there is someone here who can help you with what you are doing. Kuro-pippi and I won't always be in the right spot at the right time."

Ino smiled at him, though even that small movement was painful. "I will see what I can do." Would she rely more on Chouji now because of his pep talk? Not at all. He had his own concerns, and this was her mission. Beyond Chouji, there was no one else she could turn to.

Later on in the day, Mika and Sayo came in to see her. Kurogane's group withdrew while the two women talked. Mika still looked worried even when Ino assured her that she was feeling much better and it was just a random illness that had struck her down and it was taken care of now. She did believe that her moment of weakness was over, and she would act like normal while her chakra pathways rebuilt themselves, so she was surprised to see Fye and Kurogane troop into her room again that night. "I'm fine," she protested when Kurogane sat her down on the chair by the bed while Fye went out into the kitchen to make some soup for her and refill her water cup. "You don't have to watch over me tonight."

"We're making sure," answered the dark-haired shinobi.

"I'll be fine, I promise."

They didn't listen, though that didn't surprise Ino. Even days after she recovered enough to walk around Konoha, they still visited. Ino thought that it was odd they spent so much time with her when they had an agenda of their own to follow. However, they made food for her, Mika, and Sayo, so she didn't complain.

Ino still wasn't able to work at the hospital, but she could function properly on her own in Konoha, so she was thinking of returning to work. Kurogane happened to be the one sitting next to her while Fye, Mika, and Sayo were out in the kitchen preparing that evening's dinner. "It's taking so long to get back to the way I was," she complained as she tallied some numbers up. They were running low on funds; she would need to work again soon whether she felt ready or not.

Kurogane snorted. "You are just impatient," he admonished her, tapping the top of her head lightly with the hilt of his sword. "Injuries take time to heal, no matter what kind of injury it is."

"But I can't get on with my job if I can't use my chakra."

His crimson eyes met her brown ones. "I overheard someone talking about the man you've been watching," he said, his voice pitched low so that Mika wouldn't hear from the next room. "He's back in Konoha, but he's injured."

Ino glanced sharply at him. "Shikamaru's hurt? When did he get back? How bad are his injuries?" She kept her voice as low as his.

Kurogane held up a hand to stem the flow of questions. "He is in the hospital right now, but his defenses are down. I don't know what you want him for and I don't want to know, but I thought you should know." He paused. "What the wizard told you before is right; you are killing yourself by not having a partner. I don't care what reason you have, but you have to find someone to help you or you are going to fail." He knew she wouldn't ask more of Chouji. The shinobi before her could read her intentions and thoughts just from how she held herself, it seemed.

"Kurogane, I can't. If I could, I would, but this is something that only I can do."

Leaning back in his chair, the man looked her up and down and shook his head. "You won't make it at this rate. As your sensei, I know your breaking points and you will reach one very soon. This right here," he gestured toward her, "is nothing compared to what will happen when you run your body into the ground. You need to rely on a team to complete a mission and have a chance at staying intact."

Ino wanted to respond, but the other houseguests called them to eat. Throughout dinner, Ino thought about Kurogane's lecture. I can't tell the best person to help me, she mused as she fed Sayo her cut and cooked broccoli. I know what Dad's like when he drinks, and he would tell Shikaku and Chouza. No, that won't work. Chouji knows; he's been helping me when he can. Does he really think that Chouji can help more than he already has? Can I afford to rely on him more when he has to worry about his Genin too?

"Hikari!"

"What?" Ino jerked her head up. "What was that?"

"Have you listened to a word I said?" asked Mika in exasperation.

"Sorry, I guess my attention wandered. What's going on?"

"I found out that Shikamaru, the man who helped me, is back, but he's in the hospital. I'm going to go see him tomorrow. Would you come with me?"

Ino nodded. The other woman looked so nervous. How could Ino say no without a valid reason? "I can, but I'll be put to work if I go in there and they see me. They need help caring for the soldiers and shinobi from the front lines."

The rest of the table talked while Ino continued to mull over the advice Kurogane had given her, and she was still weighing her options when she and Mika mounted the stairs leading to the hall where Shikamaru was being kept. According to the nurse, he had been in bad shape when they brought him in, but thanks to the efforts of the medic-nin on call still at the hospital and enforced rest, the strategist was doing much better. By her side, Ino noticed that Mika held a basket of bread that Mika had baked for Shikamaru, and her knuckles were white against the tan wicker. The woman was nervous to her bones, and Ino was glad that she was the one holding Sayo and not Mika. If something was going to be dropped, she would rather it be the basket of bread.

To Ino's amusement, Shikamaru looked like he had been poleaxed when they walked into the room. He had been cloud-gazing from the hospital window and he turned when they entered. Ino saw his eyes go directly to Mika's face, and his expression changed from neutral boredom to surprise. Mika, seeing his expression, hesitated, but Ino pushed her forward. "Um, I brought you this," stuttered Mika, blushing and setting the basket on the nightstand. "We heard that you were here, so we came to visit."

Now Ino stepped forward so she was even with her blond friend. "I know this isn't the right thing to say, but you look better than when you left here," she said. It was true, he did. He was still thin, but his cheeks had filled out so that they weren't hollow, though his eyes still had the dark shadows underneath them. His hair was not in its usual ponytail, but it looked healthy and glossy. Those weren't words she usually attributed to a man's hair, but it did shine with a healthy glow in the hospital lighting.

Shikamaru snorted at her comment. "That's because you only see my top half," he returned. "They fixed what they could, but they don't have the chakra to waste to heal everything, so my leg will have to heal on its own." He gestured down to his left leg. "At least they were able to reattach it."

Reattach it? No one said anything about Shikamaru having his leg blown off. "You won't be able to fight like that," gasped Ino, horrified at the revelation. "They can't send you back to the front lines with a bad leg."

"They won't," he agreed, settling back against his pillows. "I was told earlier that they need me here for strategy planning, so I won't be going back out for a while. Chouji said he would look out for my Genin while I'm out of commission." That last part was for Ino since she was pretty sure that Mika wouldn't remember who Chouji was or what Genin were.

The women didn't stay for long. Sayo needed to be taken care of and Ino needed to rest. The lack of chakra messed with her other abilities as well, such as her ability to stay awake or stand for long periods of time. She never realized that it would be this bad and she vowed that she would never let it happen again if she could help it. She couldn't even carry Sayo back to the apartment. When they were a quarter of the way back, she let the little girl down so she could stretch her arms. Spring was well on its way and greenery was pushing through the snow. Sayo squatted down next to a patch of grass around a fence post, and it amused Ino to see a group from the troupe copying the toddler in a different area.

When they arrived back at the apartment, Ino sank into a chair while Mika busied herself getting food for Sayo. "Shikamaru's going to need help even after he's out of the hospital," commented Mika as she sat Sayo down next to Ino. The little girl smiled up at Ino and giggled, making the kunoichi smile back at her. "I'm going to help him," Sayo's mother continued.

Ino brought her attention back to Mika. "And how are you going to do that?" she asked. "You have a daughter to take care of."

"She'll come with me," answered Mika, matter-of-fact. "He won't be able to get around easily since his leg's going to need time to heal, but I can cook for him and keep his house clean while he's planning with the Hokage."

She almost laughed at the image. Shikamaru sitting on a chair and staring in horror as Mika scolded him for not having food in his refrigerator and Sayo running around and knocking books off tables and bookcases came to her mind's eye. "Mika," she started, "why don't I take care of him instead?"

"Don't be ridiculous, you're still recovering from your illness, Hikari," Mika protested. "You need to rest yourself."

"I don't think that cooking for him will overtax me," she assured her. "Besides, I don't think a bachelor would appreciate having a young child suddenly underfoot all the time."

They argued about it, but in the end, Ino won. Mika couldn't deny that bringing Sayo would not make an environment that was conducive to recovering, and Ino pretended that she had more stamina than she actually did. The only reason she thought she could get away with it was because Shikamaru was a lazy person as it was and he would spend a lot of time sleeping, which meant she wouldn't have to pretend to have energy she didn't possess. And she knew that the hospital would need to send someone to watch out for him until he made a full recovery, so she could help him for Mika and get paid while doing it. Just to be clear, it wasn't that Ino relished the idea of taking care of her teammate. Her reasoning was if his injury lasted long enough, she might generate enough chakra to do a mind search on him. Even if she didn't, creating an opportunity at a later date would be much easier if she had a bond with him in place.

The head nurse was all too eager to let her volunteer for home assistant duty, and when Shikamaru was discharged from the hospital the following evening, Ino was waiting at the front to take him back. Someone must have told him about her because he didn't even bat an eye when she followed him into his apartment, setting his belongings by the couch. The shinobi used his crutch as a support as he sank down onto a chair. He studied Ino as she lay back against the cushions on the couch and panted; she was beginning to dislike the Hyuuga clan more and more for making her feel like this. "One of the regular nurses can do this," the man stated.

Rolling her head over to face him, Ino opened an eye. "Mika is determined to look after you because of what you've done for her, but because she has a young child, I came instead of her. And I work in the hospital, and this is the job they assigned me." No need to tell him that she volunteered for the position. That wouldn't look suspicious at all.

He looked like he wanted to argue, but, being the lazy person he was, he let it go with a muttered, "Troublesome," under his breath.

AAAAA

Thus started Ino's new routine. Because the hospital granted her the title of home assistant, she didn't have to worry about reporting in at the hospital unless she had to pick up Shikamaru's painkillers and other medication. When she ran into Kagura at the grocery store, the other woman told her that she and Shin split the responsibility of watching Sayo at night due to Mika's night job. Ino felt a pang at not being included, but then her argument for Mika not looking after Shikamaru would have been shot right out of the water. She did wonder why Mika hadn't mentioned it to her. Ino still saw the other woman on occasion when she was done taking care of Shikamaru for the day, but Ino was usually too tired to stay up and chat.

For a man whose leg was just reattached, Shikamaru was a busy bee. After she made breakfast for the two of them and made him eat with her, he would send messenger pigeons to the Hokage Tower with missives about the war. He wasn't able to walk all the way to the Tower yet, so his only way of communication with the leaders was by pigeon. To Ino's shock, he had tried hobbling out the door to meet with them the day after he was discharged from the hospital. He had been surprised by how easily she had stopped him from going; the look on his face when he sat back down by his window said it all. She hadn't shown how much just that confrontation had taken out of her. After the first attempt, he just sat by the window with his shogi board, pen, paper, and letters he received from the Hokage Tower from Hokage-sama and the royal family of Water Country. Very rarely did he acknowledge her presence as she performed basic domestic chores around the apartment and took small naps on his couch.

Ino felt more like a personal maid than a home assistant most of the time. He refused her help getting around the apartment, so all that was left for her to do was act as a housekeeper. When she saw how much laundry had piled up, she muttered dark curses at him under her breath. The rooms were easy to clean; he hardly lived in them, so not much clutter accumulated, though it helped that he didn't own enough things to become clutter. The refrigerator, as she suspected, had little food. The bottle of orange juice was half-empty and the head of lettuce in the bottom drawer had completely wilted. The shelves had suspicious brown marks on them, so Ino pushed up her sleeves and cleaned the entire refrigerator and freezer. The utility sparkled by the time she was done with it, but of course Shikamaru didn't even notice the work she had put into it. For the most part, he ignored her presence unless she forced it on him, but that suited her just fine. It gave her plenty of opportunities for catnaps throughout the day.

The morning sun peeked over the horizon as Ino walked from her apartment to Shikamaru's. It wasn't far, but she had to take it slowly or else be out of breath by the time she arrived at his doorstep. She bought groceries yesterday, so all she had to do was prepare food for the two of them, then stand over him until he ate. How did he survive before? she wondered, stepping around a half-melted puddle on the ground. As far as I know, he's always lived by himself after he moved out of the Nara compound. Does he live on soldier pills? She shuddered. Those things were dangerous, very dangerous when too many were consumed in too short a time period. The Academy had several lectures on the dangers of soldier pills, it was that important. Back then, Shikamaru was too lazy to pay attention, so she wouldn't put it past him to have slept through all of those lectures.

Drawing the spare key she had made from her bag, she let herself into Shikamaru's apartment and called, "I'm coming in."

No answer followed, but she didn't expect one. Either he's still sleeping, which is very likely, she thought to herself, or else he's ignoring me.

It was still early, so it surprised Ino to see Shikamaru at the kitchen table already, papers, pens, and maps spread all around him just like last night. "Good morning," she said after she recovered. "I didn't expect you to be up already."

The only response she received was a grunt. As Ino waited for the oven to heat up, she turned to study Shikamaru as he studied the papers in front of him. He had lines under his eyes again, and he was squinting at the papers in front of him. Ink-smudged fingers moved shogi pieces around the board next to him. Her eyes narrowed and her fingers tapped against one of her crossed arms. "Nara-san, did you go to bed last night?" Never in her life did she think she would have to ask him that, but he didn't look rested at all. When she didn't receive an answer, she walked over to him and put her hand right over the paper he was referencing, making him glare up at her. She matched it with one of her own. "Did you sleep last night?" she repeated.

"There's no time," he snapped. "We have a war going on and more people will stay alive if I can get these plans ready."

"Those plans will mean nothing if you keel over and cannot complete them," returned Ino. "Your job is to keep people alive and whole, and my job is to keep you alive and whole." She glanced down at the table. He already had several alternative plans prepared and she knew that he sent some to Hokage-sama yesterday before she left. "You have done your job, now let me do mine."

He tried to push her away, but she slid away from his hand and used his momentum to pull him out of his chair. "Send these to Hokage-sama once you have slept for a little. Your leg won't heal if you don't sleep," Ino reminded him. "Here, it's time for your injection anyway."

His painkiller would make him drowsy, so once she shot him up, he'd be out like a light for at least a few hours. As he showered and changed, she sat on his bed with the syringe and looked around his room. It looked the same as before, though the shelves had a few more books on them and he had a new picture frame by his bed. Kneeling by the nightstand, she examined the picture more closely and smiled. There was Shikamaru with a faint smile on his face, and in front of him were two very exuberant Genin and one withdrawn Genin. Kureha and Sou were grinning at the camera for all they were worth and Tohru stood slightly back, his coat and sunglasses hiding any expression he might have had on his face. It made Ino reminisce about her own Genin picture; it seemed so long ago.

She heard the bathroom door open, and she turned to see Shikamaru standing in the doorway, steam from the bathroom washing over him. "Are you ready?" she asked, standing and picking up the syringe. She also held out a small painkiller pill for him to swallow.

He gave her a sour look and looked away even as he accepted the pill and swallowed it. He hated the injection. Even though he didn't say anything, Ino knew her teammate, and the shot administration made him uncomfortable. To be honest, it made her uncomfortable, too, to be doing that to her teammate. To help facilitate the speedy recovery of his leg, she had to inject the medication into him fairly close to the spot where they reattached his leg. Normal people would not be able to use a limb that had been severed and reattached because the nerves would not grow back together, so the muscles wouldn't receive any stimulation to contract or relax, but shinobi medicine had made a breakthrough not too long ago that utilized the chakra channels to make the nerves join together again. However, this medication needed to be administered as close to the site of injury as possible so the reaction was specific instead of becoming generalized.

Ino knelt by his left side as he rolled up the leg of his boxers. Even though she wasn't looking at him, the kunoichi knew that Shikamaru was staring with undue intensity at the window. She didn't blame him; it was an intramuscular injection, so the needle looked long enough to go right through his leg. It was only thanks to long hours of training under Shizune and Hokage-sama that Ino's hand stayed steady as she inserted the needle into his leg. A quick glance showed that he had broken into a cold sweat and his face looked pale. It was almost comical. Here stood a shinobi who had faced incredible odds without blinking with weapons that hurt worse than this, but when faced with a needle that was smaller than the senbon, he reacted just like a civilian patient.

As Ino withdrew the needle, stuck an adhesive bandage over the hole to prevent bleeding, and administered another short-acting painkiller that did not require such a large needle, her eyes traced the line where his leg had been reattached. They really did a great job, she thought as she removed the second needle and covered it also. I can't even see where they reattached it. Curious, she ran a finger over where the line should have been, right where his leg met his hip. She couldn't even feel a ridge; that was even more impressive. No healing scars, so he would be good as new once he re-grew his leg nerves. His leg still looked healthy and had great definition. He wouldn't have to train for long before it would be up to par with his right leg again.

His leg muscles quivered under her finger, and she looked up again. Shikamaru was still looking at the window, but a blush rested on his cheeks, and Ino realized what she had been doing. I was practically molesting him! she thought, her whole face turning red in horror. She had been touching him very close to a very intimate area and her actions were inappropriate, no matter how curious she was. "I-I'm so sorry," she stammered as the man let his boxers fall to cover his thigh again. "I've never seen a leg attached so well. Not that I've seen any before this…" she trailed off. "I'll let you sleep now." She pulled back the top covers of his bed, noticing that the blanket she had given him was once again on his bed.

"Don't worry about it," she heard him mutter as she rushed past him towards the door. Sparing one last look behind her before closing the door, she saw him climb into bed looking very embarrassed. So not only did she embarrass herself, she embarrassed her patient also. That's just great, she thought. He'll think I'm trying to molest him whenever I touch him now. That was an extreme case, but something similar had happened at the hospital when Ino was still in training, and the nurse involved had to be switched because the patient was too agitated to let the nurse do her job.

Why did I do that? Ino asked herself as she glanced through the plans Shikamaru had left on the table. The completed ones she set aside so she would remember to send them to Hokage-sama when the messenger pigeon returned. I know better than to touch someone like that. How can I face him again? She buried her face in her hands. Do I apologize again? Do I act normal and pretend it never happened? What if he tells Chouji? She groaned aloud. Chouji would roll over laughing if he found out.

Ino was still agonizing over what to do when Shikamaru woke up and stumbled out of his room several hours later. She was preparing vegetables to go into a soup and almost ran into him when she turned around. "Oh, Nara-san, you're up," she exclaimed as she tried to regain her balance against the open refrigerator door.

As was his custom, his only response was a half grunt of acknowledgement. Such a small thing, and considered rude by most, including Ino, but in this one instance it warmed her on the inside. If he had reacted any other way, it would have signaled that something had changed between them, but this response showed her that he was going to treat her the same way he always did. The rush of relief surprised her, though. It was almost like it would have been the end of the world if he'd been uncomfortable around her. That can't be right, she told herself as she returned her attention back to the vegetables on the counter. I'm just glad that things are okay between us. As long as I'm still friends with Chouji, I still would've seen him if things had turned out differently. It didn't stop the relieved feeling spreading through her body and making her limbs weak.