Weeping Skies
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Thunder crashed overhead, the sky shattering into a thousand pieces as the angels wept upon the landscape, shrouding all in a deep grey misery. Somewhere, on cold, wet hilltop, a lone figure hunched over, his shuddering dismissed to the wind and the rain, though it's cause was in reality something else entirely.
Blue eyes fell on that wind-torn hilltop now, coming to rest on the forlorn shadow of a boy- no, a man, that hadn't budged for the better part of two days. Slowly, she stopped, and turned to face the lonesome figure, barely a speck on the horizon. Had anyone even noticed he was there? That he was gone? Come to think of it, she hadn't seen him for the past week, save at the funeral.
The funeral.
Chouji.
The lone Hitai Ate that hung about the small, unremarkable shrine that was their friend's. His friend, she realized, His only friend.
With a sudden sense of urgency she splashed her way to the grassy knoll, now heavily laden with the silver droplets that fell relentlessly from an aching sky. As she reached him, she knelt, feeling the ice of his skin, she gasped. "You're freezing." She murmured, sharing her umbrella with him, and taking a seat next to him. Her Kimono was filthy now, but she didn't care. Her gaze locked on his stony features, the tears he shed hidden by the rain that pelted both of them with heartless cruelty. He slowly shifted, not so much as a shiver, even though by every right he should be dead with the coldness that dwelt in his body. She could see however, that this chill was less than nothing when measured against the ice of his empty soul, an aching hole within the mourning boy's heart that perhaps would never heal.
His chuckle was empty, mirthless as the tight grin that fluttered across his pale, sickly features. "How troublesome." He laughed again, though it sounded more like a sob than he had intended. "My first mission as a leader and..." the rain did nothing to hide his tears now, a fact for which his was partially embarrassed, but mostly glad, "...I lead my best friend to his death." Ino could feel her own eyes fill with tears as she tried desperately to wipe his away. She shuddered as she realized that even the young man's tears were cold.
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A short little one-shot I did, revolving around Team Shikamaru's failure. What would Shikamaru do if Chouji died?