By Icy Bassoon
Ino sighed as she flipped another page of her book. Shikamaru had been gone for 3 months now on some important mission with his Chuunin squad. She had been free to do whatever she wanted for 12 weeks, and she enjoyed that for the first few days.
Then she got bored. She looked to TenTen for support, but realized that the last time she needed help, TenTen was too drunk to care. Also, TenTen was 2 months pregnant, so she was busy with that, too.
Ino also noticed that Asuma wasn't doing so good. He visited the hospital a lot more that usual, and was smoking a little too much, even for him. Ino knew something was wrong.
So Ino took to sitting alone and reading this book, a long self-help guide called 2002 Tips for In Bed. It was a terrible book with really bad tips, but it passed the time. When was Shikamaru coming back?
Speak of the devil.
"Hey Ino! I'm back! That was the worst mission I have ever gone on. I have those images in my mind permanently. Our med Nin needs to smarten up. He had to drink his own… Eeew. Anyways, what's new?"
"Not much," Ino shrugged. "Only a few things. For starters, TenTen is-
"Pregnant, I know. I saw her on my way here. Actually, to be honest, it looks like Minnie Mouse was on a cruise ship and made too many trips to the buffet table."
"Yeah it does, doesn't it?" Ino laughed. "Also, Asuma is starting to smoke a lot more, so I think he's stressed out about something. Last, um, Lee is throwing a party for his 20th child. Like you said at the last party, those probably aren't his children. He's going to start numbering them if he's not careful. Child 1 through 20, you know?"
They both were laughing their heads off. Not only was it funny, but it would probably happen, too.
When they stopped laughing, Shikamaru suggested, "Why don't we go to the ramen shop? I'm starving!"
"That sounds great, Shikamaru. Let me get my money. It's on me this time!"
"Awesome!"
Ino was going to cry, but just smiled to herself. "Welcome home, Shikamaru, welcome home," she whispered to herself.