3. Between the Woods and Frozen Lake

Yet another foreign ceiling. This one had a broken fan that oscillated in slow, choked spins.

Ino squinted at the morning light that beamed through a crack in the closed curtains. The splintering pain in her head came all too fast. Midmorning was an ungodly period for her—hangovers never faded until afternoon for her.

She gathered the energy to climb out of bed and find the bathroom. In solely her undergarments, she fixed her hair and redid her makeup through fuzzy headaches she was well used to.

The man on the other side of the mattress mumbled something sleepily. She ignored him, digging through the mess in the room. His shirt...her skirt...his pants...

Finally, she managed to reclaim all the clothing articles she remembered wearing last night.

"...so early..." She thought she heard the muffled voice grumble from underneath the blanket.

Of course, she didn't reply. She never did, not even in the Taiyougakure. Talking to them in the morning would mean "see you tomorrow"s and pretty soon "see you forever"s. So she preferred waking up to a new ceiling every morning.

Men—she had never kept one. But they kept her distracted, filled up a space in her mind with fleeting thoughts.

She noticed the scroll painting of sakura blossoms on the wall.

"Don't lose to Sakura in love."

Pushing the thought as far as she could to the smallest corner of her mind, she snorted. Well fuck that. Sakura, Sasuke, they were all in the past. Hardly relevant.

"How long do you plan on disturbing my peace?"

She looked over from the training dummy with strands of hair escaping from her growing ponytail and mascara slightly smeared with sweat. Glaring at the her two team mates who sat idly on the meadow ground, she replied impatiently to the boy in the gray t-shirt who stared at the clouds, "Until I get this ninjustsu right."

Shikamaru and she tried the same handsign again on another innocent deer in the distance. She collapsed to the ground.

He was thrown forward by the sudden weight of her body against his back.

"Man. She's heavy."

He jolted when he felt her tiredly elbow him.

"Shut up."

"Oh, you're still here."

"No shit." She replied, frustrated.

They sat there back to back, watching the deer dash off into the woods.

"Ino, shouldn't we call it a day? You've been at it for three hours." The other boy said, his round face bored and tired.

"No."

A loud growl came from the brown-haired boy's stomach as he insisted, "But you're already really goo—

"Stop plucking those flowers, Chouji." She snapped, "This is why you two are impossible. Here I am, working my ass off to make sure Sakura doesn't get Sasuke, and you two are doing nothing at all. Do you guys even have any goals in life?"

Chouji stopped to consider it, "Ummm...protect people?"

"That's so vague." She criticized.

"Live a normal life." The boy behind her simply replied.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Shikamaru shrugged, "Marry an average girl. Have two kids. A girl first. Then a boy. Retire and spend my time playing shogi. Die of old age before my wife."

After a silence, she burst out in laughter. It probably wasn't good for her stamina, which was already reaching an all time low after rigorous training, but she couldn't help it.

"What's so funny?"

"It's just such... a specific dream for someone like you." She wiped a tear from her eye. That, and she couldn't help but find it odd how their goals were relatively similar, "I mean, you haven't even shown any effort in trying to get a girlfriend."

"It's too bothersome. Women are all the same, nagging you all the time."

"You're hopeless. Don't you at least have a type?"

"Not really. Choosing things takes too much mental effort."

A gentle breeze shook the flowering tree above them and a sakura blossom fell into her lap. Her failure to master her ninjustu technique even after hours of practice set in. She picked up the flower and stared at it with somewhat clouded blue eyes.

"The sakura are real pretty today." She softly said, mostly to herself.

"Nah. They block my view of the clouds. I prefer cosmos."

Before she could ask about his cryptic statement, Shikamaru sighed and got up. Not expecting his movement, she fell backwards on to the ground with a thump. Rubbing her head, she sharply complained, "Ow! What the hell was that for?"

"Unfortunately for me, I'm the one responsible for spotting you in our formation. If I don't catch you when you get that jutsu right this time, I'll never hear the end of your complaints."

He opened his palm and dropped a single purple flower into her hands.

She closed the door behind her without a backwards glance.

Maybe she would run a pottery shop instead. Flowers were such childish things. They all eventually withered in the end anyway.

The trio stared into the sun that was already too high in the sky.

Kayoko leaned against the tree, begrudgingly agreeing with the exasperation overhanging her other two, new team mates.

"Hey, when is she going to show up? We've been here for two hours." Hagane Jin twirled a kunai.

Kamizuki Yukito replied in his matter-of-fact tone, "You know Ino-sensei. When she says nine in the morning, she means twelve in the afternoon."

She had defended their sensei when they waited for her in a morning hour so early that the moon was still bright in the sky—anxious for their final graduation exam only to watch her arrive a good four hours after the arranged time. Then she accused Jin and Yukito of being sexist after they declared that Konohamaru-sensei would've been better, all while they stood in the rain with their sensei as a no-show for their first training session. As an aspiring kunoichi, she was excited to have a female senior to look up to. Ino-sensei looked really pretty and strong, with her long blonde hair and striking blue eyes. In fact, she imagined that her sensei was the type to mercilessly take charge over her male team mates during missions.

But now, as they were (once again) waiting for their first mission, she found herself wondering why Shika-niisan couldn't just lead them instead.

Jin lost control of his blade, sending it across the air and nearly slicing off the end of her ponytail.

"Whoops."

"You almost cut my hair off, you jerk!" With her last strand of patience snapped, she reached for a shuriken in her bag.

She would've gotten the satisfaction of testing her accuracy and scaring her obnoxious team mate had a blonde woman not casually stepped in between them.

"Alright guys, let's not get cranky here. It's your first mission! Look alive!" She smiled breezily, ignoring their irascible expressions.

One of the boys grumbled as they headed towards the Nara forest, "Easy for you to say, you're not the one who waited in the sun for hours."

"It's just disarming a few animal traps. Not even a big deal." Another one grumbled.

While she pretended not to hear them, Ino wondered why all rookie genin possessed the same ambitiousness. It was as if all children thought that they could save the world by birthright, that they were somehow invincible to the dangers that have killed the thousands of ninja—experienced, famous ones too—before them. How naive of them, of her old team, of the girl she used to be.

"Ha, you say that, but haven't you spent twenty minutes on that same snare?" Kayoko walked over to Jin, holding tens of undone nets and foothold traps while the latter struggled to handle his first contraption.

She watched the young girl calmly disable the complicated workings with blue eyes beginning to cloud with yesteryear. Kayoko. She told her sensei that it wasn't a good name when he mentioned it. He replied it was theoretical, which had worked for her two male team mates but had not fooled her; she had noticed how round Kurenai's stomach was becoming and that rosy glow of her face—if there was any gift nine months of pregnancy could offer, it was the blessing of a good complexion.

Of course, when she told him that she knew, he tried to cut her off with that favorite expression of his ("Not right now!"). But it was too late and the news was enough to make Chouji stop eating and Shikamaru lift his head up from the shogi board. They two eagerly congratulated Asuma-sensei that afternoon after a morning of training while he looked at the board in slight embarrassment.

"Quit smoking it's bad for the kid! And make sure you put potted plants on the right side of Kurenai's room, it's good feng shui. And don't bring her to any loud places. And Kayoko? What kind of name is that?"

"It means 'child of a good generation'. We thought of it in hope that the child will inherit the Will of Fire."

"Ugh. That's so cheesy. Name her after a flower, like Sumire. You should name her Sumire!"

"Well, you don't know if it's going to be a girl, Ino. If it's a boy then you can't name him after a flower. What are you going to name him if it's a boy, Asuma-sensei?"

"Kasei."

"Don't bother. It's going to be a girl."

"Isn't that just wishful thinking? How would you know?"

"Trust me, Chouji, I'm sure of it."

And as always with these kinds of things, she was right. And now the month-old baby she had admired in Kurenai-sensei's arms was a twelve year old girl with a teasing grin that she hadn't seen since Asuma-sensei tried to convince her to break her diet at Yakiniku Q.

This was no good. Training with these kids, going on D-rank missions to save deer...she didn't even like kids—this was all meant to keep her distracted. But instead, watching them was like being shoved backwards into times of petty arguments while lost during a mission.

The fact that the girl looked like her father didn't help either.

Maybe she shouldn't have had taken the job after all.

Akamichi Chouji liked to keep his eyes on the ground. It was a habit he developed years ago. He had thought that if he could only see his feet, he wouldn't be able to see the side glances of disappointment, smugness, pity, among all other things. Seven years should have been enough to wear away the self-consciousness. In fact, he wasn't quite sure why he was still keeping his eyes lowered. But he figured that it would take too much effort to fix. So he continued walking down the road on his way to work with his eyes on his feet, step by heavy step.

If he gave himself a few more years he might not even be able to see his feet anymore.

So much for dieting a little. Or dieting at all.

But he was fine with it. Just as he was fine with chopping sushi in the day and pouring sake at night. Fine with being removed from being successor of the head of his clan. Fine with his father's clouded eyes every once and a while when they crossed paths. He was fine without too—without the mild aroma of his sensei's smokes, the exasperated chastisement of his female team mate, the clouds reflected in his best friend's lackadaisical eyes.

He was never meant to be a shinobi in the first place.

There was no doubt about it. After all, back then he had to watch people he knew—people who had been talking about returning to their families after the mission—fall in foreign lands, never to see home again. Last words, friends with knees drenched in blood from kneeling, tears for unsaved comrades...

Now, he didn't have to deal with it anymore. Of course he was fine.

The direct route to work from his apartment required passing by the memorial stone on the Third Training Ground. As always, he took the longer way, choosing take wide trip near the outskirts of town. It was a good form of exercise. And a good way to avoid seeing all the names carved in stone, which reminded him of naive dreams and promises, snapped off tall trees and crushed underneath his weary feet.

A duo of shadows slipped past the corner of his corner of his eye, towards the direction of the Nara forest. It struck him as odd—it was common knowledge in the Konohagakure that the forest was off bounds unless permission was given by the clan that owned the region. But perhaps these two were foreigners, since the insignia on their forehead protectors were not familiar. On any other day, he probably would've ignored them, and their heavy chains and throwing knives.

But today was an odd day; he told himself that maybe they were just lost, and followed them into the woods just in case.

Tree shadows began to stretch and blanket the forest ground in darkness. The young genin looked up at the darkening sky.

"Hey, can we go now? We've checked the place about four times already."

Ino looked up at the boy who was the most hyperactive of the three, "Yeah sure, why not?"

Thinking that she was getting pretty bored herself anyway, she called over to the boy still circling idly around the same tree he had been an hour ago, "Hey Yukito, we're leaving."

"Wait. I think I see another one over there." The brown haired girl pointed out.

As she carefully observed the wire netting with her crimson eyes, her team mate watched impatiently, "Can't we just ignore it? So what if a deer gets caught? Survival of the fittest right?"

"The Nara clan will report us for not carrying out our mission completely." Yukito pointed out to his companion.

Kayoko ignored the complaining behind her, still trying to figure out the exact makings of the contraption. "That's odd, this one's different from all the others."

If the young girl did not recognize net, then the woman did. In noticing the barbs lining the crosses of wire, her blue eyes widened in memory of watching spots of blood bloom all over the bodies of heedless ninja who were swept up by the same kind of netting.

"Don't touch it!"

It was either the girl's curious finger or the kunai that suddenly flew from behind, but the net quickly shifted. Ino yanked the girl back as the clamping of the wires snapped in her ears.

"Was that just a human trap?!" She heard one of the boys panic, "What the hell—

"Calm down, Jin! Yukito! Kayoko! Get in formation!" Blinking right after the first surprise always got a person killed. Ino knew this and noticed a gleam in a tree in the corner. She quickly grabbed a kunai and knocked the spear of a chain out of its trajectory before it struck Jin's throat.

"Sneaky bastards." She gritted, frustrated with the fact that whoever was attacking them was too much of a coward for her to kick his ass properly. As an ex-medical ninja, her expertise was in avoiding direct-battle and healing—the latter of which she could hardly do at all anyway. And with the three inexperienced genin with her, she couldn't use her mind transfer justu on a nearby bird to locate where the assaulter was.

So she opted to use another kunai to throw back towards where the chain came from and reached for a back weapon pack.

"Jin! Behind you!" Kayoko shouted.

Ino noticed the spearhead disappear. Shit! A transformed shadow clone?!

The boy turned and found himself facing a shadow of a man in the air. He attempted to take his opponent out with a high kick, but had his leg caught by the chain in the man's hand. Thrown aside, Jin's body slammed into a tree with an earsplitting crack as his shoulder made impact with the trunk.

Judging by the sound, she guessed that he dislocated his shoulder at worst. Before she could attempt to finish the man off quickly to help her student, she heard another sharp screech of two blades in combat.

It only took one glance away to find her other student on the ground in a pool of blood that spread with threatening speed, spilling from his side where a kunai blade was buried. A foot came down on his stomach, causing him to cough up more blood that spattered on his face.

"Get off him!" The kunai blades in each of Kayoko's hands glowed with chakra as the girl desperately tried swiping at the accomplice ninja.

The large man easily dodged the attack and sent her flying with a kick. Before she could stand back up, the ninja walked over and mercilessly yanked her up by the collar of her shirt. Despite feeling lightheaded and being able to taste the blood trickling from her head, Kayoko made a last ditch attempt: she struggled to reach for a pocket tied to the back of her belt.

Using all the strength and chakra left in her, Kayoko launched a kunai into the air

"What the?—

The blade made it past the tree tops and exploded with a bright flash.

"You brat!" The man snarled and called over to his accomplice, "We got the kid. Let's go before someone comes."

Ino's opponent looked up from battle and jumped over her head. She reached out in attempt to stop them. So that what? So she could chase after them and have a student bleed to death? So she could fight them both single-handedly, even though taijutsu had always been her worst skill and at this point she could hardly catch her breath? The flak jacket she wore meant nothing. Her arm began to fall in defeat.

A large boulder suddenly crashed into the clearing. Both foreign men narrowly dodged the unexpected attack and the giant ball slammed into a tree.

"What the fuck was that?!"

But she knew that justu all too well, despite not having seen it in years.

"Ino, you help heal the other kid! I'll hold these guys off!"

She snapped back to attention and rushed over to Yukito. All she needed to do was put her hand over the wound and send chakra into the boy's body. It was a simple technique, one that she learned years ago, used countless of times on the battlefield.

And yet every inch of her body froze. She was trapped in ice. Her hand was over his body, but then the puddle of blood turned into a sea, and she could see his heart stopping and hear gulls crying "you hit the wrong artery", "he's dead", "he's dead"...

"You killed him."

"Ino!"

Chouji watched in horror as one of the ninja dodged past his punch and headed towards the blonde woman sitting by the injured child. Bounded in combat with the other ninja, he could only yell at Ino with no avail. She sat frozen, as if stuck in neck of an hourglass, choked by time to the point that she was blind to oncoming man—and the kunai in his hand.

The silver blade halted only millimeters from Ino's neck. Chouji noticed that the man seemed just as baffled as he was. Then he noticed the shadow.

"Shikamaru!"

A man with black hair tied in a ponytail walked out of the shadows of the tree, holding the man in place with his shadow technique. Even still, the man was close enough to Ino to cut her throat with the slightest struggle.

"Ino. Hurry up and move."

In the midst of trying to restrain the enemy, Shikamaru expected a snarky comment or indignant retort from the medical kunoichi. Instead, he found himself talking to a silent puppet with broken strings.

"Hey. Ino. Come on."

It was useless. She stayed, stuck in the neck of an hourglass, held still by time's hand wrapped around her neck.

He bit his lip and glanced over at Chouji's battle, noticing that his friend was clearly losing stamina. It was clear to him that the best solution to this situation was to use a mind transfer justu on the man in front of him. But right now he only had two out of the three sets of techniques he typically relied on. And with the sky this dark, the trees this tall, there were no shadows to manipulate. He needed to think. But with a blade that close to Ino and Kayoko slung over the other man's shoulder...

The angle of the day's last sun glare, almost completely covered by the tree tops, caught his attention. Realizing his luck, he directed to his attention to the tiny shaft of light that suddenly appeared, shining on Ino and drawing a line down near Chouji's opponent. The shadow that appeared beneath Ino's knees stretched rapidly towards the other ninja and wrapped around his ankle.

"Chouji! Now!" He kept his eye on the sun that was about to disappear within the next second.

The moment his friend barreled into the ninja and took the injured girl, the forest floor became completely dark. Shikamaru dashed for Ino and the boy, barely pushing them out of the way. He skidded across the ground with the two in his arms. Then, standing up, he faced the ninja with a kunai at hand.

"Ch." The man glared. Realizing that he and his partner were no longer in an advantageous position, the two disappeared into the night.

They left behind an aftermath of three barely unconscious children and a reunion of a team fractured by private weaknesses. Shikamaru took Kayoko, staring at the trail of dried blood on the side of her face, from Chouji's arms.

"Thanks."

Chouji nodded, noticing the darker-than-night shadows and tense jaw line on his friend's face. It was a foreign look for the nonchalant personality he was accustomed to.

But that wasn't the only unfamiliar scene. He looked over to the woman who sat on her knees staring at her shaking hands with a bang hiding half of her pale face. He wondered what in the past was haunting over her with such immense weight that would cause her blue irises to tremble as if they were seeing ghosts.

A/N: It has been a while since I've tried my hand at action writing. Hmmm...hopefully it turned out okay. I'll get better at it, I (will try) to promise.

As always: I love reviews! (Hint hint, nudge nudge)