Hi All! This idea has been stuck in my head since I wrote about ISC realty in "The Dolphin Project" (they are the reason the housing market is super inflated in Konoha in that story). I've always liked the Ino-Shika-Cho dynamic since they make such steadfast friends. #FriendsFromTheWomb haha. It's also hilarious how their parents must have tried for kids at the same time. Anyhow, this is going to be a set of stories that can be read alone as one shots in each chapter, but they're all set in the same universe and will be mainly centered around Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji. Un-beta'd and un-edited. Enjoy 3
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Story 1: The Foundation of a House
Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji huddled over their combined stack of money, broken piggy banks just a few feet away. Ino shifted through the coins and bills, sorting the denominations from highest to lowest value. After a moment, she sighs and shakes her head.
"I thought we'd have enough by the end of summer," she secretly wants to blame Chouji because his pile was significantly smaller than her's and Shikamaru's but she partook in too many snacks from her big-boned brother from another mother to be an innocent party in Chouji's diminishing reserves.
Shikamaru has that look on his face again, the one where the bridge of his nose is all scrunched up, forming two small lines that will no doubt become wrinkles before he is 30. They are only 12 and just in their first year of being genin and currently, everything is troublesome for the young Nara. He doesn't yet realize it will get worse.
"I'll recount." Ino announces and Shikamaru wants to be anywhere but here.
Maybe watch some clouds, eat some more of Chouji's chips. He doesn't want to watch Ino recount and re-sort the money for the upteenth time. He knows there's not enough. She knows there's not enough. They all know. No matter how many extra shifts she had worked at the Yamanaka flower shop or how many additional D-rank missions he and Chouji do after Asuma-sensei's training - this time, there just isn't enough.
When Ino gets an idea into her head, Shikamaru and Chouji are sure to follow despite how troublesome or taxing it is. It has been this way since they were toddlers. Which is exactly why Shikamaru is not escaping from Ino's very girly, very cramped, and very hot room where she is still recounting the money. Instead, he takes a deep breath - it smells no less than 3 excruciating sweet perfumes and glitter intertwined (how the hell glitter has a smell, Shikamaru will never have an answer to this) - and runs through a million and one ideas on how they can double their savings in three days.
If they weed the Nara Forest of invasive plants, Shikamaru is pretty sure his dad will give them enough for their efforts, but the forest is huge and 3 days is likely not enough.
They could enter Chouji into an eating contest, but then they'll run the risk of losing the entry fee if an older Akimichi enters. They'll be left with less than the original.
The answer comes to him in the form of Ino's father who arrives with a plate of cookies and soda for the kids.
"Sweetheart, it is burning in this room." Inoichi says as he pushes open the window with a resounding crack. Ino had tried and failed earlier, the paint of the top and bottom ledge melted together from the summer heat.
"So what's this?" he continues, gesturing at the pile of money sitting neatly in the center of the three teens, "Festival money? You kids know all the games are rigged right? I can buy you that giant stuffed panda for a twelfth of the price."
"Dad, it's not like that. I'm too old for toys!" Ino huffs.
Of course she's too old for that, that's why last week, when Chouji's dad brought them to the arcade, they all went home with matching teddy bear keychains. The boys share a look.
"This is for a project of ours, we-" her words taper off, lower lip curled inward. Ino resolutely refuses to look at her father.
Shikamaru hates that look on his blonde teammate. She looks worse than when she's about to chew out her team on the importance of not getting mud on their shinobi clothes. Which, really? They're shinobi clothes. They're meant to get dirty.
Shikamaru would even prefer if she were crying, because at least there would be someone to blame, someone to direct nasty thoughts to. It's usually Sasuke. Shikamaru doesn't see the appeal, not when Ino outshines him in every possible angle like a prism that scatters white light into rainbows. Sasuke's troublesome to the core and Ino's troublesome for pining away for a boy Shikamaru is pretty sure she only likes because Sakura does as well and Chouji's troublesome for not saying anything about this which means Shikamaru has to say something instead.
But this, he hates. Ino is disappointed in herself for not meeting their combined goal of 500 coin. Shame and embarrassment war over her features, warping her face into something that makes Shikamaru's intestines twist.
Ino has always held the belief to "Undersell, but overachieve." It is vastly different from Chouji's "Promise what you can and do what you can" or Shikamaru's own "Simply underachieve all the time." And it is because of her business acumen and her pride that she pushes the boys to do things they never thought were possible in Chouji's case, or pushes the boys to do things that end up bettering their lives in Shikamaru's case. And it is because of all those reasons that make her the fantastic unofficial boss of Team Ten that she won't ask.
So Shikamaru asks for her, partly because someone needs to put an end to Ino's repeated counting of money, but mainly because his friend should never have to carry that sort of expression for as long as they're stuck together.
"Uncle, we are 250 coin short of our goal to purchase a vendor's stall spot for the Festival. The deadline is in 3 days. We've already invested in a cotton candy machine and supplies." Shikamaru points at Chouji, "He knows how to make flowers out of candy floss. We have plans to exceed our profits by 10x at minimum. Would you like to invest in us?"
Shikamaru delivers all this with clinical efficiency while Ino gapes at him, opening and closing her mouth like a nutcracker toy. Chouji's saying something about how it would have been really fun and how he's worked really hard on perfecting his 8-Flowers-64-Petals technique which sounds like an impending Hyuuga trademark complaint to happen. But Shikamaru doesn't care about any of that because he needs Inoichi to say yes because for all his genius, he can't think of a better idea than asking for help.
Inoichi makes a show of considering the idea. He strokes his chin no less than 3 times before saying, "250 coin is a lot of kids your age. And a minimum 10x profit?" He hums and ah's until Ino can't stand it anymore - this asking for help business - and is about to tell her dad to just leave them alone when he finally says, "Fine, but you have to give me a cut of the profit. 15% at the end of the festival."
Let no one say that Inoichi wasn't a dirty, dirty businessman who ran a flower shop by day and swindled children also by day.
Shikamaru knows that that's a large cut into their end goal, but really, there's no choice to be had. He doesn't like this feeling of being backed into a corner, even if he has his two best friends watching his back and the person who is doing the backing is his Uncle. He looks at Ino and Chouji and together, they give Inoichi the nod.
A few weeks later, the three pre-teens are positioned at the westmost end of the vendors' market, farthest from the rides and attractions of the festival. They have no physical stall, only a candy floss machine, several large bags of paper cones, and a ton of sugar. Chouji is worried that they won't meet target. He's not so worried about the money than he is Ino's disappointment. He doesn't like it when his friends are sad.
But Ino has a plan, as she usually does and makes Shikamaru run the till and Chouji the cotton-candy chef. She runs off with a handful of handmade coupons that the boys didn't know about till the morning of and works her best Yamanaka patented retail charm. She has a gameplan. It's called Families with Small Children, but as it turns out, competition is everywhere from sugary drinks to candies shaped like shuriken and children can only eat so much sugar before they can't anymore.
She bumps into Kakashi-sensei and a couple other jounin she doesn't recognize. Asuma-sensei and Kurenai-sensei are, oddly enough, not with them. She stores this information away for later. At first she thinks they are patrolling the grounds but when The Hatake Kakashi waves his entire body and not just his hand in greeting, she realizes that the jounin are simply drunk. This is probably why her Asuma-sensei isn't with them (because her sensei would never act this foolish).
So Ino switches tactics. One of the men in the group she's seen at the Hokage's tower. She remembers senbon dancing between his lips, not unlike the candy stick he's sucking on currently. She switches targets.
"Excuse me, jounin-san, I wanted to give you this." Ino hands one of her coupons over to the candy stick wielding man, "My friends and I are running a cotton candy stall on the West side next to ceramics stall. Maybe you'd like to take a look?"
The man beside him, another jounin with bandages wrapped around his face, grabs the slip of paper from Candy Stick. He looks awfully similar to a mummy.
"Why does only he get one!" he shouts and turns to Ino, "Little lady, I know Shiranui's got a pretty face, but he's a real shit-for-brains."
Quick as a whip, Ino replies, "Thank you for your opinion, Mummy-san." And the group roars in laughter. There is even a giggle. A giggle. From Kakashi-sensei.
Ino knows she's too young for anything other than cute hero-worship to work, not unless Candy Stick was into something that would send her sandaled foot right up his crotch. In which case, she'd definitely tell her daddy and then Uncle Shikaku and Uncle Chouza as well to deal with him.
So she turns up the Yamanaka charm to a 10 and whispers conspiratorially to Candy Stick, just loud enough so the entire group hears, "I heard you liked sweets, so I personally asked the confectionary chef to make something special for you. He calls it the '8-Flowers-64-Petals technique.'"
This does it for the group and in their drunken stupor, Chouji's naming skills have made him the number 1 comedian in Konoha. Candy Stick reaches over to ruffle her hair. She hates him already and his stupid friend who called her Little Lady, but her smile is frozen on her face.
"Alright, well, we know where we're headed next." He gives her a rakish grin, "Thanks for the heads up, Princess." he sing-songs.
She might have to report him to her Uncles after all. She calls out to the group as she leaves, "Westmost stall! Beside the ceramics shop!" once more for good measure.
She rushes to hand out the rest of the coupons, eager to get back to their stall that isn't really a stall, but it's their first fucking business venture so she wants to be there for the whole thing, damn it!
She runs into Hinata's genin team and hands over 3 coupons. Next, she sees Gai-sensei who graciously declines the offered coupon and instead announces that he will fully support Team 10's first Impassioned Leap into Fiscal Success without the use of a coupon and that he is incredibly proud of their Youthful Journey into becoming the most Excellent Budding Entrepreneurs in all of Fire Country. It's honestly a bit much and Ino hopes it doesn't show on her face because he's promised to buy each of his students as much candy floss as they can stomach. She catches up to Sakura who is with her family and gives them some coupons too but not before blowing a raspberry at the pink-haired girl. Who gave her permission to look so beautiful in her yukata tonight anyway?
Iruka-sensei and Naruto are found a bit aways from the main stage where the Academy students host their yearly play. Naruto looks nice in his yukata, it's cute how it matches Iruka-sensei's. She gives them all the coupons she has left and tells the teacher that his pre-genin would probably want a snack after their performance.
She rushes back to the stall to find a minor hiccup with part of the cotton candy machinery stuck, glued in place by too much sugar and thus, spinning too slowly. Shikamaru is performing his Shadow Imitation jutsu on the machine and Chouji can continue making those flowers out of candy. Ino wants to laugh at the silliness of it all but something warm settles in her chest. Ino goes to man the till. They have a line, and that warmth swells and billows into her smile as she takes order after order for silly, silly shaped floofy candy. She's proud of them.
Inoichi shows up when the festival is ending, along with Chouza and Shikaku to collect his royalties. The teenagers have made more than expected and Ino has half the mind to only give 15% of the 10x profit promised (her father won't know), but Chouji can't lie to save a bag of potato chips so they hand over the correct amount.
"Wow, you kids did well." Inoichi praises.
Chouza nods, "Really well for first-timers."
"What are you going to do with your cut, Inoichi?" Shikaku asks. There is a glint in his eye that Shikamaru recognizes. It's the same one his father dons when he asks Shikamaru a question he already knows the answer to.
"I was just wondering, how many 8-Flowers-64-Petals candy can we get with all this?" He hands Ino the stack of cash.
"For you? Only three." ino laughs and hands them their ticket number. The last three orders of this year.
Years later, in a mountain spa overlooking Snow Country with dense forest surrounding their balcony, Ino has an idea. The war was finished, had been finished for many years now. The economy was stable and all of Team 10 wererecently married. Which explained why she was in a 5-star resort on a 2-week long vacation.
She summons her boys (because they will always be her boys) from the neighbouring honeymoon suites (because whatever momentous event they go through, Ino-Shika-Cho always does it together) and tells them all about private property, buying and selling land, and mortgages. Shikamaru says it's troublesome, but he's always there when Ino needs him and Chouji is always happy to help.
And so, ISC Realty was born, in between pine and morning frost, the air crisp with new beginnings and promise of fresh paint.
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A/N: Thank you for reading! Stay safe!