Ino's Depression
"Ino…", said Shikamaru with a worried tone for he has never seen Ino so depressed. He didn't know what was going on whether it was mood swings or what but he couldn't bear to see her like this any longer. He didn't only notice the fact she was more depressed lately but, everyday when she would come for training she would have scabbed up cuts on her arms. Usually Ino was energetic but, she just isn't this time. So as he watched her gaze out the window he said once again, "Ino…? Are you ok? Is something bothering you?" She didn't respond again, so he decided to leave her alone for a while. So he stood up slowly, grasping Ino's attention, giving her a gentle smile and said, "I'll leave you alone for a while…" So after he said this he left her house.
Ino brought her knees to her chest as she heard the front door slam. She wrapped an arm around her legs and rested her chin on her knees, she was about to cry, but she held in the pain just for a little bit. She slid her free hand under her pillow and searched for a handle, a handle of a knife, she moved her hand all around and finally she found the handle of it. She wrapped her light yet again fragile fingers around the handle and brought it into the open. She shifted her eyes to that hand that was holding a sharp knife as a tear rolled down her cheek. She tried to smile which she has not done in a long time but she just couldn't the pain that was tearing away her heart was to strong. She brought up her arm and sat Indian style with her free arm straight with her wrist resting on her knee. "Wh-why me?" She said this with a shuttered voice. "Why am I… am I th-the only one that i-is blimp an-and no longer beautiful…?" More tears started to roll down her pale skin. "Why did Sasuke choose Sakura……?" She brought the knife to her free arm and pressed the edge of it lightly onto her pale yet beautiful skin. She started to cry heavier and she was unable to hold back these tears of pain any longer. "Why-why did Shikamaru the one I wish to be with…. Ha-have to st-start dating Tem-Temari?" Ino was suffering emotionally. She was with Shikamaru more then Temari was. She didn't understand she wanted to be held now that's all she wanted, was to be held by Shikamaru and be told that he loved her. At this moment she put pressure to the edge of her knife and slowly slid the knife on her skin towards her wrist. Luckily this cut wasn't as deep as some other ones she had. But it was deep enough to get blood. As she stared down at the wound she just gave herself she wondered if Shikamaru will ever come in and stop her. But she knew that would never happen. She looked up at her ceiling as her tears slowly started to stop and she fell down to the side and there she thought about Shikamaru and how much better it must be to be with Temari then her. Then faint images of Shikamaru started to appear in her mind, images of Shikamaru and Temari having a good time arms around each other, laughing, and smiling. She started to cry again and ended up crying herself to sleep that night.
"You think she cutting herself?", said Temari with a worried and confused expressions on her face, "Why would she ever do that I mean if she's depressed you would think she would talk to someone she's that type of girl that would express their emotions right away!" Shikamaru was confused as well, "Yea I know it's rather troublesome to deal with a cutter but, it's Ino I can't let her do such things to herself." As he said this he looked at the ground sadly, "I don't want anything troublesome to happen to her. But what is bugging me is why and when did this start?" Temari looked at him and crossed her arms. "Do you think she might suspect something is going on between us? I mean we have been hanging out together but that is more on friendly terms." Shikamaru was shocked that Temari would say something like this even though he liked if not loved Ino, Ino would never return the same feelings her heart belonged to Sasuke not a not-so-cool kid like Shikamaru. He laughed at the thought, "Heh Ino has no feelings for me whatsoever if she does it's to hold her when she does her jutsu." Temari turned to the side, "You don't know much about girls do you… Shikamaru?" Shikamaru sat down on the ground and looked up at the sky, "No.. They tend to be rather troublesome just like my mother. So, no I don't know much about girls nor their feelings." Temari shook her head, "You should pay more attention … Shikamaru." Shikamaru thought for a few moments but there's no way him and Ino? Shikamaru knew no matter how much he thought or dreamed he knew it wouldn't happen. Temari looked at him she knew that he was thinking about what she just said "I'll be going back to my village I won't be returning for a while so farewell." She waved and then walked off. Shikamaru waved back lazily. "Bye..." He walked back to his house and went to sleep after that.
The next morning Ino woke up and looked at her arm forgot what happened the night before. "What… happened…?" She shot up from lying down and glanced at her arm once more. "I did it again didn't I?" She laughed a little and put her sleeve back onto her arm in hopes no one would notice anything. She slid herself off of her bed and stood in front of her mirror to fix her hair. As she was looking into the mirror she was Shikamaru leaning on her door with his lazy face as usual. She turned around a little surprised but she did greet him, "Oi...Shikamaru!" "You seem rather happy today", said Shikamaru with a small smile, "I like it when your happy..." Ino didn't want to hear that at least not from Shikamaru. She tied up her hair and asked, "Why are you here?" Shikamaru looked around her room then glanced up at her, "I wanted to see if you were feeling any better but, it seems that you are you seem to have more joy on your face then usual." Ino looked at the ground and clenched the arm that she wounded the night before. "Oh... well I'm fine I suppose so you don't have to stay here." Shikamaru raised an eyebrow for he knew she did somthing, "You cut...don't you..? Why do you cut?" Ino's eyes widend she was hoping that he would never have even noticed the scabbed up wounds. Shikamaru started to walk towards Ino and took her arm and pulled off the sleeve. He glaced down and looked at her wounds then glanced up at her face with a saddend expression. "Why..."