Oftentimes, in battle, the smallest skills won the day. The little things that went unnoticed or that nobody bothered to plan for. A secret jutsu, a little bit of gossip applied just right, a quiet ally. It was for this reason, Shikamaru believed his talent for knowing exactly when to shut up and think might be his greatest skill.
Or, at least it was a rare skill among the people he spent the most time with.
Their pursuit team had been cheating the clock with the pace of their travel. Full supplies were already packed, so as soon as they agreed to the mission, they were off without any further discussion. Rather than adequate sleep and nutrition, Sakura had been using medical ninjutsu techniques to make their bodies last longer than they should. Nobody complained and nobody stopped until Neji made the call. Neji then approached Shikamaru with the mission file, and he knew, from that moment, it was time to shut up and think. Because great conspiracy or not, he hadn't been quite as left out as he previously thought.
This mission had crossed his desk, just without her name on it.
He sank back against a tree, waiting to be dragged into some ridiculous nightmare, trying to force all the pieces of the puzzle into a coherent narrative. They were going to have to break into the historian's personal residence. By all reports, that residence was a massive underground history museum. The type of thing he would have dismissed as rumor if hadn't been located right in the middle of the land of earth.
Shikamaru had done a sizeable amount of research on the whack job recently, when he last visited the village. That was when the mission first crossed his path. A little bit like Orochimaru, the guy was obsessed with different types of jutsus and relics of ninja history. Unlike Orochimaru, he didn't seem very picky about which jutsus he collected. And he didn't go around personally trying to master them either, rather he collected girlfriends, who used whatever skill he was interested in. Several reports had him visiting villages, chatting up local women with his rumored good looks and wealth, and then those women mass requesting to change their residence to the land of earth. Shikamaru couldn't really imagine what kind of person wanted a hundred girlfriends, but he supposed, based on experience, Sasuke could probably assemble a similar army if he wanted to badly enough.
And the most annoying part was that the guy was the brother of a feudal lord, not someone you wanted to go messing with. Much less, someone you had much ability to police.
In summary, Shikamaru thought, they were going to have to break into a massive nerd factory hundreds of miles underground, possibly fight a hundred crazy women from all over the world, and if they were lucky, they would be able to retrieve their dying friend who was sent there to screw over the brother of a feudal lord, all without getting caught and causing a serious international mess. And with that pleasant thought, he finally allowed sleep to drag him under.
He didn't have nightmares, he dreamed of shogi. And her.
They were kids again and Asuma had come up with a new training idea, one that she really hated. Neither she nor Choji ever liked shogi, she was too impatient, and he could barely remember the rules. Shikamaru didn't like playing them either, either it was such an easy match it was boring, or he would end up getting yelled at for some nonsense reason or another. Ino was happy to cheer him on (something nobody ever actually asked or wanted her to do) when he was playing Asuma, but she was more than a little peeved when Asuma stood one day and told her to take his place.
Shikamaru, not in the mood to be yelled at that day, complained on her behalf. But Asuma just brushed it off.
"Ino has been working very hard on her basic mind visitation jutsu. I think it would be good, low stakes practice for her to try it here."
This had been the most bothersome news yet, "no way, you want her to go poking around in my head?" Shikamaru asked.
Asuma had laughed, "it's not like you're focusing on anything other than shogi when you play anyway, and Ino is still getting the hang of listening to the loudest thoughts. Even knowing what you're thinking, I'd be surprised if she could get a move ahead of you."
Shikamaru had exactly one very loud thought in his head that day, absolutely not.
"But why does it have to be shogi, why can't it be sparing, or guess the flower color, oooooh, or truth or dare!" Ino was entirely too excited by these ideas.
Asuma just shook his head, "since you're messing in his head, I figured we'd pick something Shikamaru likes, besides, I think a bit of strategy training could do you some good. Plus, I want you to practice using your own body while visiting other minds."
Shikamaru had a sinking feeling as she lined up to hit him with her torture. But rather than suddenly feeling himself filled with girl; he was getting yelled at.
"You have to let me in, silly! I'm just starting to learn, how am I supposed to get any practice if you're over there refusing to let me see you're overly complicated, overly boring shogi thoughts, that I don't care about anyway! I need to train! Weren't you listening to Asuma, Sensei?"
He hated playing shogi with Ino.
A pleading look to Asuma told him he wasn't getting out of this one, so miserably, he opened his mind. Making just enough room for her at the very front of his thoughts, the ones he could control.
The first thing he felt was her giggling. He could feel her giggling in his head. It was the most girly thing in the world, and it was happening in his head. How humiliating. Then he smelled flowers. That was also ridiculous, thoughts couldn't smell, but there it was. The smell of flowers.
"Hey there Shikamaru," she giggled again.
It was miserable, having a girl in his head. Worse that it was Ino, and all she wanted to do up there was laugh at him. His head was filled with Ino's girly giggling and the smell of flowers. He stared hard at the shogi board and flooded his thoughts with plans and maneuvers. He thought ONLY of shogi, and not a single other thing.
He was mildly amused when she screamed under the flood of new information.
"Ahh! What does all this mean anyway? Why do you have to think about all this at once? It's. So. Boring." She lamented in his head.
Despite being privy to every thought on the matter, Asuma was correct, Ino never got ahead in their game. Instead, she got frustrated, went on a rant – in his head – about how shogi was the dumbest game ever, jumped out of his head, then stumbled off holding her own, saying something about stupid boy brains and too much information.
Asuma had been kind enough to step back in and formally lose for her.
Shikamaru woke to the sensation of being cuddled, or squeezed, or squished. It took a moment for his mind to join his consciousness and interpret the ridiculous situation, "Choji, what are you doing," he deadpanned. Realizing that his friend had picked him up in a hug and wanting very badly to return to the ground.
"You were having a bad dream, weren't you! You were over there scowling and everything."
"Not really. Just dreaming about shogi." Shikamaru never liked having to get up, but he could tell from his slowed thoughts, he hadn't had much sleep. Probably less than a single sleep cycle, he really needed more than that, but it was his turn to take watch.
"Oh, I guess that was just your normal face then?" Choji's grip didn't loosen and from the looks of things they had woken the others, who were staring dreary eyed.
Shikamaru decided he needed to state the obvious "would you put me down now?"
He did and the others happily drifted into oblivion.
Shikamaru took Choji's place as lookout, willing his brain to start functioning properly. If he was going to be awake anyway, he might as well think through this hundred-terrifying-women situation they were charging into. He placed fingers on temples, hoping the physical motion would help. Instead, a nearly empty bag of chips appeared in front of him.
Shikamaru hadn't noticed that Choji never actually went to bed, "I eat to help me stay awake."
"You eat all the time, Choji," but he took the offering regardless. Eating was at least something that didn't require his brain to wake up.
Choji pulled out a new bag for himself which Shikamaru took as a sign he wasn't planning to go to bed quite yet. He spoke between munches, "did she tell you?"
Choji didn't need to clarify beyond that, "she doesn't tell me anything." Shikamaru considered that this was not objectively true, Ino told him plenty about things he couldn't care less about – see anything related to flowers, Uchiha boys, or Sakura. But about month long secret missions to foreign lands that were extremely dangerous, no, she never bothered to mention that. No time between the history of plants, he supposed.
"Sakura said she's been gone a month," the munching continued, "so right after."
"Yup," Shikamaru had noticed that little detail too.
"Did she say sorry or something before she left?"
"Nope," no she had not. Though he had almost decided to let her off the hook for avoiding him for a month, all things considered.
They sat in silence for a bit.
Still, half dreaming, Shikamaru let his mind drift back to shogi. Asuma had forced Ino to continue training at the shogi board, despite her ranting and Shikamaru's whining. They continued with their little routine of her jumping into his mind, his mind reeking of girl, his being extra careful not to think something stupid like - you look pretty today, Ino, her complaining a lot in there, then her quitting while complaining of a headache.
He found new ways to assault her with shogi tactics. And she found new ways to girl up the innards of his head.
Until one day, something very strange happened, she finished a game. She lost, obviously, but she played all the way through without running out of there.
Asuma was so excited about her progress he took the whole team to dinner.
The training continued though, and Shikamaru felt himself frustrated with how accustomed he was getting to having her hang out in his head. He no longer gagged at the smell of flowers and every now and then he caught himself actually laughing at some ridiculous thing she was saying in there, shameful. Worse still, he was starting to not hate the company. It was so much easier to have a conversation when he didn't have to say anything out loud, full, minimal effort communication. Absolutely, shameful.
And for her part, she had been getting way too comfortable in there. She became so used to the way he thought through shogi, he could no longer freak her out by concentrating on the board. Sometimes he even had to try a little bit to win. During sparing matches, she jumped into his mind to throw him off. And she had taken to just chatting with him straight from his own head. At one point, when her mother had told her to pass along a dinner invitation, she spotted him from across the village center and just jumped straight into his head to pass the invitation along. He had remembered being extremely grateful to be thinking about clouds at that moment, and not something way more troublesome. From that point on, he tried to focus on making his brain an Ino-free zone. He wouldn't let her in unless Asuma was sitting there, supervising.
"Are you going to eat those?" Choji was pointing at the mostly empty bag of chips in Shikamaru's hands.
Shikamaru handed them over without comment and resumed listening to the sound of munching. He considered that with the speed they were traveling, they would be at the border soon. They really needed to rest now, as it was their last break in the relatively safe land of fire.
"Do you have a plan yet?" Choji spoke again.
"Hard to come up with much of a plan until we know what we're running into," Shinkimaru hated to admit it, but, putting Neji in charge for this one was pretty smart, given that nobody knew what exactly this underground city looked like. "Of course, first we're going to have to get into the land of Earth without anyone noticing."
The munching continued.
Shikamaru knew that was a pretty lame sounding plan, "you should get some sleep Choji. Pretty sure tomorrow's a big day."
Choji put down the now empty bag of chips, "do you think she'll be okay?"
Shikamaru didn't like to think about that, in all honesty, he didn't know. Even with their team on the way, the game wasn't exactly in her favor, at the moment. He let himself think a bit longer about shogi.
After a time, she had become such a familiar presence in his mind, that he had started to be able to interpret her erratic mood swings from inside his own head. A skill he neither wanted nor tried to have. But she was just so keen on blurting out whatever she was thinking about the situation in his head, his brain had no choice but to learn it. He could tell when she was frustrated with their method of training or a little too excited about a move she was planning.
That day she had been unusually quiet in there, like she was sulking about something. He had delt a particularly complicated series of moves and he wondered if she just wanted to quit the game at that point. He remembered wondering if she was upset with him. He remembered that thought because she responded to it.
"I'm not mad at you."
Like you, or any girl, would admit it if you were.
"Are you complaining that I'm too subtle when I'm upset with you?"
Oh, god, no. Don't let that be what you take away from this.
"I'm not mad at you."
Sure, Ino.
"You don't believe me? Why don't you believe me?"
When are you going to let me inside your head for a while?
"When you master the mind-visitation jutsu."
Funny.
"Want me to prove I'm not upset with you?"
How much trouble is that going to cause me, exactly?
She went silent, then she was gone. Shikamaru hated that for the briefest moment he missed the smell of flowers in his head. It was so uncool, man.
But instead of being in his head, she was a few inches from his face, staring him down. Shikamaru didn't blush, blushing was for girls. But he was pretty glad she wasn't in his head at that moment.
She moved closer and he leaned back. He had never been above running away. Then.
Click
She had sat back and smiled one of the largest, most brilliant smiles he had ever seen.
He had stared at her, trying to figure out what happened.
Then he looked at the shogi board.
Asuma had been so excited, Choji had accused her of cheating – which was exactly the point, Ino had been a little boast for the better part of a week. And Shikamaru had just stared, baffled by how that happened.
She won.
Shikamaru looked at his friend, who had finally stopped eating chips. Face entirely replaced with a worried expression. Shikamaru considered again his question, would she be okay, and finally answered, "she's Ino." She had a talent for winning games that weren't stacked in her favor. And he had yet to figure out her small skill.