Dosu is across from her. "Damn shame to ruin such a pretty face." he muses.
"You think I'm pretty?" she mocks tilting her head to the side.
Dosu scoffs. "I prefer brunettes."
Before Ino can respond, he has already flicked his musical arm and a wave of sound hits her.
She instantly falls to the ground.
She can't breath, she feels like she is going to throw up. She starts dry heaving on her hands and knees.
She is hit again.
And again.
And again.
The pulsations run through her body, an unforgiving bass drum.
"Ino, open the door!"
Ino's eyes snap open and she finds herself taking a deep gasp of relief.
"Ino!" the knocking continues.
"I'm coming!" she'd fallen asleep on the couch, scrolls about her clan's techniques are scattered around her. She looks at the clock on the wall, one thirty in the morning.
She staggers to the door, her ears still ringing.
"What?" she rips the door open to see Chouji and Shikamaru standing on the other side. She crosses her arms and leans against the doorframe.
"Our dads are drunk again." Chouji sighs.
"The bar called. Mom says we have to go get them. What a drag." Shikamaru rolls his eyes towards the sky.
Ino groans. "Hold up." She runs back into the house and grabs her too big sweater and a pair of shoes.
The Ino Shika Cho team walks together down the streets. Ino realizes that it has been what feels like forever since the three of them walked willingly together. She feels like a piece of her has returned, like not being around her teammates had ripped out a piece of her.
Don't you dare start falling for this Ino-Shika-Cho bullshit.
The three walk in silence, Ino hates silence. "Sooo." she begins as she tries to say something, anything.
The boys look over at her. "Chouji. How's it going?" There is no way in hell that I am making the first move for Shika.
She notices Chouji hesitate and glance in Shikamaru's direction.
Frustrated Ino stops walking.
The boys are walking away from her, she preforms the necessary hand signs. She instantly sees the neurons flying through Chouji's brain. She focuses her attention on the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the connections between medial prefrontal and the posterior cingulate cortex. The parts of the brain that represent a disconnect between someone's actions and their awareness of their actions.
What happened?
Chouji's mind is much less complex than Shikamaru's. Then again she is pretty sure that the only mind more complex than the Nara protege's would be Hatake Kakashi. Her father once mentioned doing a psyche evaluation on the former ANBU Capitan. Apparently it wasn't pretty.
"I helped Asuma train Shikamaru these past few days." he blurts.
Shikamaru stops and glares at Ino.
Ino smirks at him cheekily. "What? I need to practice."
"Is that the technique you were telling me about?" Chouji demands. To her relief, Chouji is more excited and curious than upset that Ino invaded his mind. Chouji is a naturally curious boy, that paired with Chouji's innate kindness makes him a key pillar in the Ino-Shika-Cho team; he balances out her hot-headedness and Shikamaru's nonchalance.
Ino's feet stop moving. Then she feels it, the complete and total invasion of the Shadow Possession technique. She glares at Shikamaru as she finds herself taking footstep after footstep closer to him until they are practically nose to nose.
She feels herself take a sharp intake of breath. Their chest are touching with every inhale they take. Her own ragged and fast, his cool and collected. He smirks and drops the jutzu. "Just practicing." he turns and continues walking down the road.
"Ugh! What is your deal?" Ino screeches as she chases after him and Chouji.
"Like I said. I'm just practicing." Shikamaru tosses casually over his shoulder.
"Will you two just get off it?" Chouji asks.
"Why, so you can go behind my back and train with Shikamaru and Asuma again?" Ino demands turning her wrath on Chouji.
"Asuma asked him to, Ino. You're the one who said you didn't want Asuma to train you anymore" Shikamaru barks.
"Why?" Chouji asks. It is obvious that this is the first time he has heard this news.
"Because Ino got jealous that Asuma was more focused on me." Shikamaru says crossing his arms.
"I wasn't jealous!" Ino cries out.
"What was it then? Realization that you are not able to do this? That you're going to get yourself killed."
"What I want is for someone in this fucking village to believe that I can do this!" Ino screams.
Shikamaru is about to speak but Chouji quickly cuts in. "Ino you're a great kunochi. And you've gotten so much stronger."
"But." Ino interrupts, she can already tell where this is going.
"This Dosu guy is scary. Ino, I fought him."
Ino feels the tears already begin to form in her eyes. "You don't think I can do this, do you?"
Chouji hesitates. "I don't know what's going to happen Ino. But I know that you will give it your all."
Ino can't help the smile the breaks across her face. Even though it isn't an outright You got this speech. Chouji's words were easily the most supportive words she'd heard from anyone besides her father. And Hinata.
She could almost kiss him.
She opens her mouth to respond.
Shikamaru holds up his hand, Ino and the other boy turn quickly in the direction of Shikamaru's gaze.
Ino would recognize that strange walk anywhere. It had become the source of her nightmares over the past few weeks.
"Kinuta." Shikamaru greets crossing his arms and taking a step closer to Ino.
"Nara. Akamichi." Dosu replies, obviously noting the way that Chouji also moves closer to Ino.
"Hello Yamanaka." the Sound ninja says, his one visible eye locking with her own blue ones.
"What's got you out so late?" Shikamaru asks, his voice is causal. Ino wishes that she was able to keep herself more casual. Her body is tense, she can feel the fight or flight instinct begin to invade her body.
"I'm just out for an evening stroll, I'm finding it hard to sleep these days. Must be the excitement for these upcoming exams. What's got the infamous Ino-Shika-Cho team out so late?"
"Same." Chouji answers curtly. Her teammate is as tense as she is, she notices the way that his hands are clenched at his sides.
Dosu tilts his head to the side and gives them a closed eye smile. When Kakashi does it, it's endearing and sexy. When this Dosu guy does it, it's creepier than hell. Ino thinks to herself.
"I thought you three were fighting. That's what the village is saying at least."
"You seem to be keeping a lot of tabs on us." Shikamaru points out.
"Well I'm doing my best to study my competition." Dosu answers innocently.
"Bullshit." Ino blurts. She steps out from between the sandwich that Shikamaru and Chouji had put her in. She regrets the decision, instantly feeling that killer intent that she'd felt more than once radiate from Dosu.
"What does she mean?" Chouji demands.
"Yamanaka and I have had a few run ins. Just some competitive banter really. Isn't that right?"
Ino narrows her eyes at the man. She can't let Shikamaru and Chouji know that he has been threatening to her. That would only confirm the pineapple headed boy's beliefs, she stands taller. "That's right."
Shikamaru shoots her a look of annoyance.
"If you'll excuse us. Like Chouji said, we are just out on a walk. We have some teammate bonding we need to do." Ino answers.
"Of course, don't let me hold you up." Dosu replies with another one of his creepy smiles.
The three members of Team Ten slowly turn away and begin resume their trek to the bar.
"Oh, Yamanaka. I almost forgot, a word if you don't mind."
Ino tenses the slightest bit, to her dismay, Shikamaru notices. Sometimes I wonder if this lazy boy thing is just an act. He's too damn perceptive to actually be that lazy. She summons all the courage she can and walks over to the Sound Ninja who is only a few feet away.
"You won't always be so lucky, Yamanaka." Dosu says softly.
"Hopefully it won't run out before the chunnin exams. Maybe then it will be a fair fight." Ino answers.
"There will be nothing fair about that fight. I can either kill you privately or publically. I'd rather eliminate the competition quietly and be able to regain the tiny bit of chakara I might loose. Because let's face it. I will be needing all of it to defeat the Uchiha."
"Damn right you will. Until then, Kinuta."she growls.
He chuckles. "Have a good night, Yamanaka."
"You too." Creepy stalker.
The two part ways and Ino does her best to stay cool and collected as she walks back to her teammates.
"I change my mind, Ino. You have to drop out. Did you not feel that killer intent?" Chouji hisses at her as they continue walking.
"I can do this, Chouji. I'm full of surprises." Ino says shrugging off the last interaction and smiling.
Shikamaru huffs.
"What's that supposed to mean!" she demands.
"Just what Chouji said. That's all."
Ino bites her lip to keep from responding. This argument was going nowhere. And after all the years she'd spent with Shikamaru, even she was beginning to accept that he is almost as stubborn as she is.
"What no response?" Shikamaru eggs her on.
Ino brushes a strand of her stupid hair from her face. "No." she answers haughtily as she walks ahead of them and into the bar.
"Troublesome." she hears Shikamaru mutter from behind.
"Daddy?" Ino asks looking around the bar for a familiar blonde pony tail.
Chouji spots the three men first, they are sitting in a booth, they clink their glasses together a little to hard and have another drink. There are numerous bottles of sake on the table. They are smiling and laughing jovially.
"Looks like the mission went well." Chouji says.
Ino and Shikamaru hum in agreement.
"Come on, dad." Shikamaru calls out as the three of them approach the booth.
"Ino!" Inochi calls happily he stands and gives his daughter a sloppy one armed hug. Ino staggers ever so slightly beneath her father's weight, but quickly recovers and wraps his arm around her shoulder.
"Hi daddy, let's go home." she says smiling up at him.
"But the other guys-" Inochi begins before he notices that Shikamaru and Chouji are both holding their own fathers in a similar manner.
"Are all taken care of." Chouji answers.
"Let's go home. Tell me about your day? It seems like there is a cause for celebration." she says as she swings her father in the direction of the door, the other two boys following suit.
Around her she can hear the hoots and hollers of the other ninja in the bar. "Looks like Ino-Shika-Cho junior is here to save the day!" one ninja calls from the bar.
"Better than that time when Yoshino came to get Nara." someone cries out.
"Or when Tsume used to come get Inuzuka!" another ninja says.
Ino smiles at the chunnin who holds open the door for her and the others.
"Let's go home." she says with a smile at her father.
Two generations of Ino-Shika-Cho walk home together.