Ino Yamanaka stood in The Story Master's lair, unsure of what to do.
"What are you doing just standing there, princess? You're free."
"Then why do I have the feeling that this is only making things worse?"
The Story Master didn't reply, just smiled and sat still in her chair. Finally, she said, "The door is to your right."
Ino turned her head that way, and noticed, for the first time, the large wooden door, "Has that always been there?"
"Go find your knight."
Ino stared at the Story Master, only for a moment, before she slowly walked to the door and opened it, revealing the newly created world of her latest tale. It was majestic, and hard to believe that originally, she had been in square of Konoha. Where did all of these mountains, trees, and hills come from? And the monsters, from where had they derived?
When Ino stepped out of the door, she found herself falling from a mountain peak. She screamed.
Inside the cave, Shikamaru sat down and regained his breath. There was still no clue to where Ino could be. Damnit, the Story Master is terrible at leaving clues… It was all part of the game.
Then, suddenly, he heard a scream, far off in the distance. Shikamaru jumped to his feet on impulse and ran as fast as he could towards the source. He recognized the high feminine pitch to it, and he knew who it was. What has she done to Ino!?
But a warrior crossed his path – or rather, grew from his path, for her figure directly derived from the rocks themselves. She slammed her sword into the ground, blocking Shikamaru's path. He ran right into her, hitting his head and falling to the ground.
"Move, bitch!"
The warrior raised an eyebrow, "Why the hurry?"
"My friend is in trouble!"
"These mountains belong to my master. Anyone who wishes to pass freely through them must first battle me."
"You master? The Story Master, right? She's the bitch who got me into this in the first place! And I know she's just hurled my friend off a mountain, I heard the scream! Let me through, now, or you're not going to like the consequences.
"Your puny threat does not frighten me."
"Then maybe this will." Shikamaru prepared the hand signs for attack, produced three shadow clones, and each whipped out a kunai and stabbed the warrior. It only happened in the blink of an eye. The stone warrior instantly cracked and fell into rubble, and Shikamaru continued on his way, his clones beating any opponent that would show.
That was too easy.
Ino fell on her butt and whined from the shock of falling. Eyes still closed, she sat up and rubbed her behind, settling the pain at least a little. When she opened her eyes, she couldn't believe what she saw.
…she was back in Konoha.
Not that she ever wasn't in Konoha, she had just been stuck in that crazy, messed up tale of the Story Master's. But everything was back to normal now! The stores lined the street, people peacefully walked to and fro, and the wind blew blissfully in her hair. Next to her stood her favorite restaurant, which inside sat Choji, staring eagerly at the menu.
"Choji!" She cried, "I'm back!"
Choji blinked, "Ino, you just stepped out to find Shikamaru. Did you give up so soon? Man, he's not going to reject you that much…"
Ino cringed and thought about their earlier fight leading to their entrapment by the Story Master, then looked confused, "No, I swear I've been gone for hours…"
"No, more like seconds." Choji put down the menu and stood up. "Where's Shikamaru?"
"Somewhere back there… I guess… I don't know we had a fight…" Ino shook her head, and then stared at the clean table behind Choji. "Hey, Choji, aren't you going to order lunch?"
He furrowed his brow, "I already ate."
"But I've only been gone for a few seconds, right? You hadn't ordered when I left."
"I ate before we got here, then."
"But you looked so hungry-"
"Well I guess I'm just not anymore!" Choji shrugged, giving up and walking out the door, "I'll see you later, Ino!"
"Wait! What about-" Too late, Choji was long gone. Ino sighed and sat down at the nearest table, looking up to see that across from her sat her best friend Sakura. "Hey, Sakura."
Sakura smiled, "Hey Ino, doing all right?"
"Yeah…" Ino tapped her fingers against the table, then looked around, "Where's Naruto?"
"Who?"
"Naruto! Your supposed boyfriend!" Ino was still disgusted at the thought. After Sasuke's departure, Sakura's only solace from her grief was that offered by Naruto. After that, some crazy relationship grew, and Ino only sat back and gave Sakura unbelievable looks. However, Ino believe that once Sasuke returned (for she knew she would, Orochimaru would be defeated, after all), Sakura would fall right back in love with him and forget all about that knuckle-head.
"Naruto? I guess he ran off somewhere…"
Ino stared at her incredulously, "You sound like you don't care!"
"I do! I just don't know where he is, is all."
Ino watched her suspiciously then shrugged, "Your call. I'm going to order a drink, you want one?"
"No, not thirsty."
"Something to eat, then?"
"No, I'm fine. I've been eating too much anyway."
"I know what you mean," Ino laughed, "I feel like I've gained ten pounds since Sasuke left! I've been hanging around Choji and Shikamaru too much, I guess."
"Who's Sasuke?"
Ino gave Sakura another unbelieving stare, "Sasuke? You forgot Sasuke? Sakura, he was your first crush. Your biggest crush! Mine too, remember? We always fought over him."
Sakura stared blankly for a moment, then suddenly jumped as if she remembered something, then laughed, "Of course! Sasuke, Sasuke…" Sakura waved her hand, "But I have Naruto now, right? And you have Shikamaru."
Ino raised an eyebrow, "Me and Shikamaru? Never, no way…" Ino laughed lightly, but it quickly faded, "…really?"
Sakura nodded, acting like it was completely obvious and surprised that Ino hadn't already caught on. Deep in thought, Ino stood up from the table, wordlessly leaving Sakura.
Me and Shikamaru? Really? But… we hate each other…
…or do we?
Shikamaru finally reached the point he had heard the scream from, but found no sign of Ino. Panting, he fell to the ground, his exhaustion overwhelming his body, finally causing physical collapse. Shikamaru began to slip into sleep…
"Where is she…" he whispered, "where did she go...?" Shikamaru panted, opening his eyes to just slits, still panting, looking around him. "Where are you Ino?" He spoke up, still panting, still looking, "Where did you go!?"
Shikamaru used what energy had to get to his knees, and then stood. His clothes were drenched in blood and sweat. He walked to the nearest tree, putting his hand to the trunk. It didn't attack. "Are you up there?" He looked to the branches, to the mountains, to the sky. He turned, put his back to the tree, and slid down. He sat in the hollow of its roots, still panting, still looking. Shikamaru closed his eyes and calmed down.
"Ino Yamanaka…" He whispered again. A tear fell from his eyes. More followed, dropping to the ground like shiny crystals that melted instantly into the ground below. Drenched in blood, sweat, and tears, he whispered one more time, "I love you, Ino," before falling into a deep sleep.
Ino walked to the counter of the bar, sitting in the stool and spinning around just a bit, before getting the waiter's attention, "By any chance, do you have fruit smoothies?"
"I can whip one up, for a pretty face like yours," he grinned, then turned around quickly and yelling out the order. Someone else signaled back that they got it and began preparing the drink. The waiter turned back to Ino, "What's on your mind?"
Ino sighed, "Just a love problem, nothing I can't handle." She rested her chin on her hand, "It's confusing, though."
"Why don't you tell me about it?"
Ino raised an eyebrow, a bit hesitant about telling a complete stranger about her issues, but shrugged it off anyway, "There's this guy, right? And he's like, my best guy friend ever. I mean, he's lazy and all, and he probably couldn't give a crap about me, but… I don't know, now everyone's talking about him all of a sudden, like he's the biggest celebrity in Konoha, even bigger than Sasuke!" Ino slammed her fists into the table, "Sakura didn't even remember Sasuke, and she was so obsessive compulsive over him!"
The waiter blinked, "Sasuke who?"
"Uchiha!" Ino groaned and slammed her head into the counter. A second later the smoothie was placed by her head, and she looked up and sighed, "Thank you."
"No problem. So you're talking about Shikamaru Nara, right?"
"There you go! Instantly naming Shikamaru, out of the blue! He couldn't possibly be the only lazy bastard in this village!" Ino angrily stirred her smoothie with her straw, "I… just… don't… get it!"
The waiter nodded without comment. Ino threw her straw across the bar and instantly took a large gulp from her smoothie. A second later, she gagged and spit it all back out, "What is this crap!?"
"A smoothie, like you ordered."
"This isn't a smoothie, more like ground up dirt!" Ino coughed, scraping her tongue, "You trying to kill me!?"
"A little dirt never hurt."
Ino screamed and tossed the smoothie as well, where it landed with an explosion next to the straw. She stormed out the door.
What hell did Konoha go through!?
Shikamaru shivered, and then opened his eyes. Everything seemed dark; he must've been out for a few hours. Groaning, he stood up and rubbed his back, eyes half open in his trademark lazy stare, "What a drag."
But then he stood straight, eyes widening, realizing where he was. He looked around. The trees were serene, not threatening. Buildings stood in their marketable fashion. Streets snaked between them. He was back in Konoha.
As Shikamaru stood there still, the Story Master grinned from the top of a building.
"The knight thinks he's reached his solace, but is it really the peace he wants? He still has to find the princess, of course. This could merely be another trap…" She snickered as she disappeared into the darkness.
WOOOO, PARTY IN CRAZY KONOHA.
Fo' shizzle, dawg.
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