OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG SORRY FOR THE LONG WAIT EVERYONE!!! SCHOOL JUST SUCKS RIGHT NOW, AND IT'S SO HECTIC!!
bows head repeatedly GOMEN NASAI!!! .
If it's any consolation, I'll let you in on a few details of the life that's getting in the way of fic writing. I'm a Forensic Biology specialist hopeful in University. I'm currently taking one course more than what would be considered a full course load, meaning I'm doing extra work. On top of that, there's a girlfriend of one year as of February 22, who's actually a big influence on my writing of this sort of genre, because of course I love her to little bits and pieces. On top of that, there's the university's anime club, in which I'm campaigning for an executive position for next year. AND THEN THERE'S THE ANIME WATCHING. Isn't Naruto Shippuuden great or what? I can't wait until we see Ino and Shino in action.
Just a reminder, while I'm on the subject: since I don't follow the manga, I could care less about manga canon. This is strictly based on the anime, and of course they haven't passed the Jonin exams yet. And anybody who just happens to die in the manga probably won't die in my Naruto world. Not yet, anyways…(possible teaser? MAYBE/MAYBE NOT!! Hahaha, I'm so mean)
Anyways, here's the usual Disclaimer – I do not own the Naruto franchise or its original story and plot. I do own a nice DS with Elite Beat Agents, which I bought with Christmas money. It probably ALSO explains the wait for this new chapter, so I apologize. You can blame Nintendo for its catchy games and sleek sexy DS lite /advertisement
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"Shino. I love you. I've always loved you. Ever since our first kiss, I can't stop thinking about you. I just can't breathe without you. I want to spend the rest of my life making you happy. This is my confession. I want to be with you forever, Shino. But there's a problem. I'm also in love with Hinata. It's a different kind of love though. It's the kind of love that makes me want to use my mind transfer technique on her so I can force her to do nasty things with my body. I'm not lying to you Shino. I've been feeling this even before I started loving you. I'm just so confused. I hope you understand. I wish I didn't have to make this decision between the two of you. I just wish there was some way I could…well…have you both…" – Shino's Dream(1)
---
I jolt upwards as I wake, accidentally muttering, "OMG WTF YURI!!"
She gives a blank stare, then giggles restrainedly. She explodes in laughter soon afterwards.
"I don't want to know what kind of weird ecchi dreams you have, but we gotta study, ne!"
Ino sticks her tongue out at me, and winks. She then turns her head back to her book.
Sometimes, things we say don't need to be justified. The ones who care about you already understand the extent of your mental problems. We'll just leave it at that, to spare myself from further embarrassment.
---
The silence shared by Ino and I while reading is enjoyable. As I'm half paying attention to the wise words of the first Hokage, I am utterly failing at using my peripheral vision to watch Ino read in the corner of my eye. She sits beside me at a comfortable, but platonic distance. She holds the book spread open on her left hand, her left elbow resting on her leg. She subconsciously caresses the petals of an orange blossom with her right hand. Orange blossom means 'bringing wisdom'.
It's a good luck charm for her, perhaps. The flower might actually help her pass the written component. A slight turn of Ino's head towards me takes me by surprise, and I look away from her before she manages to catch me. She gives an exasperated sigh, and slams her book onto the floor, walks out of the room towards the cash register, orange blossom in hand.
She closes the door behind her, and contrary to popular saying, it slightly hits her butt (which I haven't noticed until now) on the way out, leaving a slight crack (no pun intended) open to view the main room of the shop from the room.
I crawl towards the door from my legs-crossed sitting position and sneak a peek outside to see what's going on. There's a cluster of ficus pots blocking my view, but I can make out the voices of Ino and a softer voice, probably a girl's.
"Ino-chan! I desperately need your help!" the voice says, followed by louder sniffles.
"For crying out loud, Hinata! Why do I always have to help you out with your relationship problems?" Ino responds whiningly.
"Because!" The girl responds. I guess it's Hinata. The soft tone of her voice confirms my suspicion. "You're the only one I can turn to for relationship help. I would have gone to Kurenai-sensei for advice, but…but…"
Hinata bursts into a flurry of tears, blubbering as if she were a little girl who scraped her leg.
My protective instincts take over, and naturally, I jump up from my sitting position and burst into the main room to try and comfort her. Much to my dismay, the suddenness of my appearance in front of her gives her a good jolt, making her flinch. She falls back, slips on the wet floor, and trips over a familiar rack of seed packets. The way she sails over the now broken shelf seems so graceful, almost as if it were occurring in dramatic movie-like slow motion.
In an all-too-familiar turn of events she rolls onto the floor, once again colliding with Ino's legs, causing the blonde to fall over as well. The scene in front of me is hauntingly familiar, almost as if I were observing my own life from outside my body. The only exception is Hinata's body in place of mine, and luckily she's not in lip-lock with Ino. Oh, and there are no bugs in sight.
Scratch that last thought about the ladybugs. The saffronica appear from behind me, and gently land on Ino's back in unison. They begin to scrape their wings loudly, forming a high-pitched, scratchy chirping sound. The sound lasts for a second; silence immediately follows.
Oh god, are they going to spray again? If they do…
"OMG WTF YURI!!"
Ino stares at me blankly with extremely wide eyes and a perplexed expression on her face. Hinata stops crying, and gives me the same awkward gaze.
"I mean, don't move!! The ladybugs!!" I exclaim, pointing towards the insects on Ino's back.
"What about them!?!?!" Ino yells, fuming at her embarrassing situation.
"THAT NOISE! THEY'RE GOING TO MATE!" I exclaim.
"WHAT? ON INO-CHAN'S BACK?" Hinata whines, tears still gushing from her previously reddened eyes, down her now-reddened cheeks.
"Yes! Don't move until they're done! We've been waiting for this for weeks! Don't ruin it!"
I rush to the cash register nearby, and manage to find a pencil and a pad of paper. I run towards the main door and lock it, and put up the "Closed" sign. I shut the drapes with furious intensity. I'm going to finish this mission, even at the cost of Ino and Hinata's embarrassment.
Much to my surprise, and to the girls' dismay, they end up mating for an astonishing two hours.
---
"Itte," Ino grimaces, "my back hurts (2). I'm going upstairs to my house to get some pain relievers. Do you need any, Hinata?"
"No thanks, I'm fine."
Ino opens the door leading upstairs to her second-floor home, leaving me alone with Hinata and my makeshift bug container. The saffronica are safely kept in a small, empty plastic flower pot, covered at the top with plastic wrap, punctured with several air holes.
Hinata walks towards the counter where the container sits, and stares down gloomily into the pot.
"So, Shino…are you guys done with your mission then?" She asks with a tone of voice much more depressing than usual.
"Yeah, pretty much" I respond.
"I see." Hinata says, as she lets out half a sigh.
As cynical as I may sound, Hinata's definitely at her cutest when she's sad. It's a good thing, since I'm more inclined to try to make her feel better. It's what a good team-mate does.
"Do you want to talk about it?" I ask.
"Yeah." She begins her story.
"Today was my one-year anniversary with Naruto. I really wanted to plan on doing something extra-special for him, but I didn't know what to do. So I went to Kurenai for help-"
Oh god. I think to myself, accidentally missing out on the next part of Hinata's story, which is already messed up by default on account of Kurenai-sensei's insanity.
"-didn't know what girls say to guys on their anniversary, so I trusted her that those would be the right words to say-"
OH GOD, NO!! HINATA, YOU'D HAVE TO BE AN IDIOT TO ACTUALLY SAY THAT TO HIM!! Again, I miss out on another chunk of her story. I'm normally a good listener, but when it comes to matters like Kurenai-sensei, she tends to draw lots of unneeded attention.
"-finally alone after our date, and I said it to him. He went all pale and didn't say a word for a minute, and then finally, he turned all red, and just ran away. I've never felt so humiliated in my life!"
I lower my head in disappointment. She's in love though, and she'll listen to anyone.
"Hinata," I sigh, "you didn't do anything wrong."
"You really think so, Shino-kun?"
"I know so!" I nod affirmatively. "Guys aren't receptive to shocking lines like Kurenai-sensei's. Well, at least, guys our age, like Naruto. Trust me, I received the same advice from Kurenai-sensei, and believe me, it probably only works on Kurenai-sensei."
"Oh, I see." She smiles, twiddling her fingers as she blushes. "I'm s-sorry I made such a big fuss about everything then. Will Naruto-kun be okay?"
"I'll talk to him later," I respond.
She beams. She gives me a super tight hug, and widens her smile considerably.
"That is of course," I accidentally blurt out, "If you answer a stupid question that I was wondering about."
Oh no. I'm not spilling my secret to Hinata about Ino am I? Maybe I can trust her. Or maybe, I can just ask her a general question about girls, and she might not even have to know.
"Oh," She says slyly, now with a smirk on her face, "If you're talking about Ino-chan, I read this month's Modern Kunoichi. I'm very confident that she's head over heels in love with you."
…Or better yet, I don't have to ask at all.
"So you know…"
"Of course I do, Shino-kun!" She smiles. "I bet she's the kind of girl who would want to use her mind-transfer technique on you, just so you could do some freaky things to her…"
MAH?!? What the hell did she just say?
"I mean, um, she's a very passionate person!" She chuckles half-heartedly, and then proceeds to exit the shop. "Please tell Ino I said thanks!"
"For what?"
"For taking care of my dear Shino-kun of course!"
I see the smile on her face as she turns away towards the door.
---
The sun is a majestic crimson-amber blend, and begins to go down on our quiet village. Ino walks beside me towards the entrance gate, matching stride for stride. I hold the container in my hands, greatly relieved at our accomplishment. There's still some more time to cram for the test, but we have to complete this one final objective: releasing the bugs back into the wild.
In some ways, I feel sad to let them go, but there are bigger things to worry about. By the looks of it, Ino seems to be teary-eyed anyways, so I can be comforted by the fact that she be sad for the both of us.
"Itte…" she says, wiping her eyes, "It still hurts."
I'll pretend that she's sad for the bugs having to go. I peel the plastic wrap off, and raise the pot up into the air. The yellow-spotted Konohan ladybugs fly off into the wind, quickly disappearing into the distance.
"Say, Shino-kun…" Ino says, still somewhat agitated by her back.
"Yeah?"
"…can we stay here a bit longer?"
"That's fine with me."
We walk together for about half a kilometre away from the village walls. From here, the view of Konoha makes me feel as if all the worries of the village are behind us, but anxiously wait for our return. So for now, I can just relax, and breathe in the air of momentary freedom from all my troubles.
And from the way Ino holds on to my arm as she silently stares into the sunset, I am rather confident that she feels the same way.
---
YATTA!! Finally done the chapter!! And that took how long to update? Again, I'm really sorry. I promise to try to post updates at least on a biweekly basis. School is tough eh? So we'll see. I'm still trying to plan the final stages of the story, since obviously we're nearing the end of this wonderful little plot-bunny that I happened across one day.
Anyways, here's what's on tap for the final parts of the story.
Jonin exams – an intense written component that tests Shino's deepest beliefs about being a shinobi, and perhaps, being in love as well. A match of romantically epic proportions during the Jonin tournament (hopefully, lol).
Currently, I'm reading up on action fics to get a sense of how to write ninja fight scenes. If you have any favourite fight fics, please feel free to make suggestions in the comments.
ENDNOTES OF DOOM!
(1) – yep, this chapter is a loose exception to my regular form of quoting from a make-believe book about yellow ladybugs doing it. Trust me, there's a method behind the madness.
(2) – Itte translates into "ouch" from Japanese to English. Thanks for comments regarding this, it used to be ittai, but itai only has one t, and translates into "it hurts" instead. I made the corrections, so hopefully that helps.