Ino turned her face to avoid the expression he had on his face. She didn't need to hear it right now, she already had a breakdown the night before but she didn't want or need another one. He dropped her sleeve onto the ground then he clenched onto her wrist and brought her arm up from he could examine the cuts she had. "I can't believe that you of all people would do such a thing…", Shikamaru shook his head in disappointment and didn't know what else to say he was left speechless after seeing her arm. He put her arm back to her side and used that hand to turn her head to face his, she didn't fight back because she didn't want to argue or even have this discussion with him. When he had her facing him he started to slide his hand under her chin. She didn't want this to happen at least not like this. She never wanted him to know about this she knew that he would be this worried. "I… I didn't tell you because I knew you would act like this…", after she said that she shifted her eyes to the ground.
Shikamaru wasn't really prepared for this to happen so he let out a long sigh then said, "I probably wouldn't have been as worried if you told me from the start." Ino shifted her eyes back up then to the side and said, "Could you just leave me alone, I bet Temari misses you…." Shikamaru's eyes widened and then thoughts raced through his head, "Is this why you are cutting yourself?" Ino removed his hand from her chin and slid down the wall to the ground. She just sat there with watery eyes. She wanted to cry but she just couldn't in front of Shikamaru the one she loved. Shikamaru kneeled down in front of her and rested his hand on the side of her face. "Ino…" he said, "Do you think Temari and I are dating…?" Ino looked into his eyes, "Yes." Shikamaru removed his hand from her face and got up looking toward the opposite side of the room, "I'll leave you alone for a little while, you should get some rest, and… don't cut I'll be back here to check on you…" She looked up at him as he walked out of the room.
. She needed to talk to someone now to let out her emotions, but, she didn't know who to talk to Sakura was too busy nowadays searching for Sasuke along with Naruto. Chouji is probably at a food bar with Asuma eating all-you-can-eat buffet. There's no way that she would go and talk to Temari for she was dating Shikamaru or at least in Ino's opinion she was. She finally decided to just go outside to look at the flower beds at people's houses, after all she does like flower and they make her happy. She got on her shoes and left her house and started to walk down the road. As she was walking she ran into the most unexpected person, Rock Lee. She just stood there looking at him with watery eyes. Lee raised one of his thick eyebrows and asked, "Oy, Ino what's wrong…? Your crying." Ino closed her eyes tightly as she ran to him, she wrapped her arms around him and Lee blushed slightly and he wasn't expecting Ino to hug him. He wrap his arms around her and stared off into the distance as she cried into his shirt. Unknowingly Shikamaru was walking around that same area and he happened to see Ino crying with Lee's arms around her. Shikamaru just shrugged it off for the moment cause he didn't want to make a troublesome scene in front of Lee.
Later that night, Ino and Rock Lee were having a small chat. "What would you do if you found out that someone you really cared about just started to date someone that isn't you…?", said Ino. Rock Lee thought for a bit, "Well if you consider Sakura-chan as someone I like then I guess you get used to it, sure it hurt my feelings when she said I was too 'unique' for her but it's all fine and dandy!" Ino didn't quite understand what Lee said and had a rather confused look on her face, "In other words Ino, as long as Sakura-san is happy then I am ok with it." Ino understood him now but it didn't really help how she was feeling," I'm going to go home now, thanks for talking to me I really needed it." She smiled as she got up and started to walk off. "Ino!", said Lee, "I'm sure you will make it through this! I'm positive!" as he said that he smiled and gave her the good guy pose. Ino waved bye and started to walk home. When she entered the house she saw Shikamaru sitting in the chair at the kitchen table. "Hi… Shikamaru." She had a small and nervous smile and and slightly waved. "Hi… Ino… well I guess your fine now I will be leaving." Shikamaru got up from his chair and walked up to Ino's side and rested his hand on his her shoulder and gave her a rather sad expression.