Epilogue
"Shikamaru! Come on!" Ino looked around the tree and saw the lanky shadow ninja lying under its shady branches. His eyes were firmly shut. "Shikamaru!"
She stomped over and stood in front of him, hands on hips. "You lazy bum, Choji and Asuma are waiting for us! And here you are, under a tree! Sleeping!" She waited for a reaction, but got none. "SHIKAMARU!"
Ever since they had gotten back from their rescue mission three weeks ago, the shadow master had reached a new level of laziness. Upon their arrival, people had greeted them with looks of surprise and happiness. Asuma was happier than he let on, having given Shikamaru a quick hug around the shoulders and a clap on the back. When Ino and Choji asked him why he hadn't come after them, he answered, "I would have loved to go with you, but it would have been very obvious that something was going on if me, a jonin, just disappeared. And especially since my student was taken. They would know exactly where I went, and then they would have tried to stop us. You were better off by yourselves."
Tsunade had listened to their tale and had taken it pretty well. Of course, the fact that they had received so much free money could have quelled any anger she might have felt. The Hokage had used the money from Otam to finish fixing the village, and life pretty much continued on in a normal way, ninja and civilians alike. Only a few things had changed. The first was something Asuma had noticed upon Shikamaru's arrival back home. He caught a glimpse of it when he had greeted Shikamaru, but he wanted to make sure I really was there.
When they reached the Hokage's office, Asuma held Shikamaru back for a second. He put a hand under Shikamaru's chin and held it, meeting his student's eyes and holding them. Asuma saw a new depth to those dark eyes, a pained, haunted look that had not been there before. He had seen this look in many a ninja who come back from their first large-scale battle or a particularly horrible mission. It saddened Asuma to see that one of his team already had those eyes. He wanted to protect his kids because they were like family to him. And even though the jonin's eventual goal was to make all three of them excellent ninja, a part of him wanted them to remain the innocent children he had met on their first day of geninhood.
Shikamaru saw the sad look in his teacher's eyes, and he knew the cause of it was in his own. He gave Asuma his crooked smile and said, "I'm fine, sensei."
Asuma heard this, and after a moment he too smiled. Of course. How could he have been worried about Shikamaru? This boy could handle anything that came his way. He had been given many challenges in his life and had conquered every single one of them. And he would conquer this one, too. A week in a hellhole like Otam's castle would not beat a ninja like Shikamaru.
"Of course. Who ever said you weren't?" He slung an arm around Shikamaru's thin shoulders and walked after Choji and Ino.
Tsunade had refrained from giving Shikamaru missions in the time since his return as a kind of thank-you for bringing them all that money. Shikamaru had taken most of this time to catch up on some desperately needed cloud-watching time, which brings us back to his current situation.
"Shikamaru, did you hear me?!" Ino stamped her foot. "SHIKAMARU!"
He opened one lazy eye. "What?"
Ino let out a yell of frustration. Shikamaru closed his eye again, a smirk on his lips. Ino stared at him for another second, then plopped down on the ground next to him, still fuming. But eventually, the peacefulness of the tree, the shade, and the boy next to her made her anger go away. She slowly relaxed, leaning back against the tree and closing her eyes. Shikamaru shifted a little on the grass so that they were both leaning against the tree, shoulder to shoulder. Their hands drifted together and entwined.
Their first kiss in the woods had ended any walls they had between them. They refrained from any public signs of affection, feeling that no one else needed to see them like this. After all, they each had an image to maintain: Shikamaru as the indifferent and lazy shadow ninja and Ino as the loudmouth, bossy mind-transfer ninja. But when they were together like this, it was a different story.
Ino sighed a contented sigh and put her head on Shikamaru's shoulder. He had gained back some of the weight he had lost during his captivity, but he was still very skinny. Most of his bruises and scrapes had healed by now, except for one particularly nasty one on his shoulder, which the nurse said would probably leave a scar.
Physically, he was almost healed. But mentally, he was not. Ino had also noticed the haunted look that had taken up residence in Shikamaru's eyes. There were also dark circles under his eyes that told Ino he wasn't sleeping well. On their way back to Konoha, Shikamaru had told his two friends what had happened, but not in great detail, and Ino felt that there were several big gaps in his story.
Indeed, Shikamaru had skipped several parts in his story. He did not want to share with his friends the scenes in his mind that left him awake in a cold sweat at night, unable to return to sleep. Ino, Choji, and Asuma all knew that he was leaving things out, but no matter how many times they asked him, he would not tell. He kept those memories locked up in a dark corner of his mind. At least, for the time being. Maybe someday he would open up. And when he did, it would be to the blond girl now dozing on his shoulder. But for now, he didn't want to unleash those horrors on anyone. Shikamaru watched Ino for a second, then followed her lead and was soon fast asleep.
Choji, after waiting with Asuma for twenty minutes, decided that his two missing teammates would not be making an appearance. The four of them were supposed to be at a special ceremony celebrating the final repairs to the last damaged building in the village. Apparently, the nailing of a board to a building was not appealing enough to the pair to make them come.
Of course, thought Choji. Well, if they're not going, why should I? He said good-bye to Asuma and started off towards Team Ten's most special place.
Choji trudged through the town, looking at the repairs made in the past five weeks to almost every building. All of this had been brought about by Shikamaru. People were no longer sleeping in the evacuation halls because all the homes had been fixed. There was no rubble in the streets, no gaping holes where buildings had been destroyed. Everything was as it had been before the attack. But was it really worth it? Was all of this worth the suffering his best friend had gone through? Shikamaru, despite saying that he was fine, had changed. Whether it was a good way or bad, Choji could not figure that out. He only knew that the Shikamaru whom he had helped rescue was not the same as the one who had been taken.
As Choji crested the cloud-watching hill, he wiped his forehead, panting slightly.
Would Shikamaru ever really recover?
Choji walked towards Shikamaru's favorite cloud-watching tree. He saw two figures at its base.
Could anyone ever recover from something like that?
When he was a few feet away, he stopped.
They could recover. But not alone.
He saw his two best friends, leaning against the tree, hands entwined, lost in a peaceful slumber land. Together.
And Shikamaru was not alone.
Choji smiled. His friend would recover. Any doubt lurking in his mind was washed away. Because Shikamaru was not alone. He would never be alone.
He had Ino.
The End
Wow! I'm finally done. I'M SO SAD!!!!!! I've thought about what it must be like to finish an epic story, but now that its here…I'm kind of in shock.
I'm sorry it took a while, but I wanted this chapter to be good. I hope it was. If you didn't think so, I'm sorry. It took me a while to figure out what I wanted. I wanted to sum things up, and yet I wanted something else too. I loved writing the last section. Choji is such a good guy. I wouldn't want to marry him, but I would definitely want him as a friend. Shikamaru and Ino are so lucky to have him.
I'm sorry again for those of you who thought the previous chapter was off. I hope you liked this one better. I put in the part about Shika and Ino not liking to show public affection because it annoys the heck out of me when couples, like, make out in the middle of everything, and stuff. Anyway.
For all of those who have read this story and haven't reviewed yet, I am asking you to please review this chapter. It is the last one, and I would just like to know what you think of this story. Even one word is fine. Just something would be nice. And to all of those who have reviewed so far, thank you SO SO SO SO SO SO SO much.
If I haven't made anything clear, or anyone is confused, just ask me and I'll try and answer it. I tried to make things clear, but this was only my second story.
Oh, and if you're reading this way after I finish it, you can still review! I don't mind!
Okay. A final thank you to everyone who has been with me since the beginning of this story. It means so much to me that you stuck with it. Especially during the plot development. And for those of you who are reading this after I finish, I appreciate you just as much. THANK YOU!
And now, goodbye my readers. For I now pronounce Shikamaru: Lost in Fog….
FINISHED.