Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto
Hey, so guess who disappeard for a month!
I'm so sorry, guys! I hope you'll forgive me! If you know me, you know I'm not good with long fics, but I just love this story so I'm going to blaze on!
This officially sucked, Ino said to herself.
Sucked…she hadn't used that word since the 10th grade. Why the hell was she turning back into a teenager now?
How could Shikamaru be so stupid? She scoffed as she ripped the box out of her sweatshirt in the bathroom stall. Really, wasn't he supposed to be this big genius? Some genius, can't even put on a fucking condom…
Ino grumbled to herself, leaning against the dirty cold metal door. She looked up from the pregnancy test shaking in her hand to some note in the stall. "Misaki loves Kaito," it read in purple lipstick. Ino growled, Kaito damn well wouldn't love Misaki if he found out she was knocked up.
A rational side of her brain kicked in and she thought, "Maybe I'm not pregnant. It's possible…"
She stared down at the stick in front of her and pulled down her pants.
Stepping out of the bathroom, she couldn't get two steps in before a burly man grabbed her arm. She whipped her head around to the bastard that dared touch her. Not today, she snarled inwardly.
She screeched, "What are you doing?" He kept his stare firmly forward and still held his death grip on her arm.
His voice was deep, but charming—like he didn't want to do what he was doing. "You were shoplifting. I'm here to arrest you."
Ino worriedly flung her head around the store, praying Sakura had left. "W-what? There has to be some mistake! I didn't shoplift!" The man stopped abruptly and Ino thought for a second he might let her go. But instead he just reached inside her sweatshirt pocket and pulled out the broken into pregnancy test box. He held it up in her face.
"Tampering with store products. You didn't pay for this. That's a crime."
Ino's eyes welled up with tears beyond her own control and she couldn't form any more words. She'd never been arrested! What was her father going to say about this?
She started audibly crying when the policeman tucked her head into the car. There was another cop in the passenger seat, but he didn't look at her. The man who had taken her got in the driver's seat and started the longest car ride of her life.
Their laptop and walkie-talkies never seemed to stop formulating the most random culmination of beeps and muffled messages. They hadn't cuffed her—thank goodness—so she decided to become particularly interested in the cuff of her sweatshirt sleeve.
They drove for around 15 minutes, which felt more like an hour, before they stopped in a suburban neighborhood. Ino sat up and looked around, bewildered. This can't be the police station, she thought. But then the passenger seat cop exited the vehicle with a gruff departing word to the driver. Ino sighed and leaned back into her slump. The cop remaining the vehicle stared ahead and calmly stated, "He's off duty for a while. Captain's orders." Then the car started moving again and she closed her eyes.
What in the world would she tell her father? What would Tim think? He's marrying a criminal…Everything was going so great! They were going to get married and have children and—
Children! Ino had been so flustered that she had forgotten about the pregnancy test still in her pocket. She pulled out the thin white stick and put her thumb over the results. You can do this, Ino…just move your thumb, she told herself.
She squeezed her eyes shut and slowly slid her thumb away. Peeking out of one eye, she saw the infamous plus sign she had been so desperately hoping wouldn't be there. She felt frustrated and shoved the test back in her pocket. Damn, Shikamaru, she thought, gritting her teeth and wiping more tears from her cheeks.
At a stoplight, the man half turned to face her. He sighed heavily and kept warm eye contact. "Look…all it'll be is probably a fine. They'll give you a slap on the wrist, since you don't have any priors…You…don't have any priors do you?"
Ino bit her lip and shook her head no. The man smiled crookedly, which reminded her of Shikamaru which made her clench a fist in her lap.
"Good," he continued, "Now can you call your dad or a friend to come get you once we get to the station?"
Ino thought rapidly. Her dad was completely out of the question; she would have to hide this from him forever. Sakura was also ruled out…with her big mouth, the whole village would know what had happened before Ino even finished explaining.
Tim…(she checked her cell phone: 10:30) was probably still asleep. This tremendously sucked, she thought. That word again! What, was she 15? She sighed and looked up at the officer's dark hair and searing eye (She thought of her baby and the matching dark brown hair and eyes that he or she may come to have.) and nodded quickly.
The officer smiled at her once more and turned back to drive her the rest of the way to the station.
He didn't know why he came to her. Well, that's not entirely true. He still loved her, he would always love her. No amount of cheating or fighting would change that…
He couldn't move from his place when she reached out her ring to him…He never thought she'd consider this…He slid his stare up to her eyes and couldn't tell if she was angry or about to cry. Her cheeks were rosy and her eyes glimmered in the warm artificial light. She was beautiful, he had told himself. But she cheated on me, another evil part of him said. He wanted to kick her while she was down, but that just wasn't who he was. He was angry, boy was he angry. But he couldn't leave her. If he were to look at her beautiful blue eyes and soft pink lips and walk away right now, he'd kill himself. He'd have no reason to stop him from pulling the trigger or tying the noose or popping the pills. He forced himself to stand up and curled her fingers back over her ring. He held her fist between his hands and kissed her lightly on the forehead.
"I love you," he whispered, his lips still on her skin.
He hated that that memory popped into his head right before he entered the building that held the angriest girl at him in the world. Now he couldn't comprehend why she had called him. She must be desperate, he thought, and immediately felt his chest tighten at the idea of her being in danger.
An average looking desk clerk pointed him in the correct direction in the precinct. It was gray and metal and cold…no wonder Ino was on edge. He turned a corner to find a hunched over blonde in a navy plastic chair, identical to about 5, in a corner. She didn't notice when he approached her until he sat down.
She flicked her eyes at him then continued staring straight down. She mumbled a half sincere, "Thanks."
He rubbed his temples at her false gratitude and hooked his hand under her arm, pulling her up. "Come on, let's go." He calmly said.
She furrowed her brow and paused, "What about the fine?"
Shikamaru groaned, "I called the station, they wired it from my account. Let's get you home." Ino felt too tired and frustrated to argue, so she quietly complied and followed him to his car.
She slid into the leather seated Sedan silently. It wasn't until Shikamaru had turned on the car and pulled out of the parking lot that he spoke to her.
"What happened, Ino? I mean, you're smart, you're responsible…this isn't like you…" He glanced toward her and she quickly turned her head to look out the window so as to mask her tear stained cheeks. She couldn't tell him…Not this soon!
"I…uh…I don't know. I guess I didn't think I'd done anything wrong…" She forced a weak laugh and tried to hide the shakiness in her voice. This was too fast. She thought she'd wait at least a couple months before saying that she was carrying Nara Shikamaru's child…his illegitimate child, at that!
Shikamaru could probably tell it was bull shit but took that answer anyway. There wasn't a word spoken between the two all the way to Ino's apartment. Shikamaru—always the gentleman—opened the door for her and walked her to her apartment door. Ino started to search for her key when Shikamaru held her by the shoulders. She tried to ignore how every nerve electrified when he touched her.
"Now, Ino…really. What happened?" He was staring deep into her eyes and it scared her. She couldn't tell him now…not when she had planned on waiting! But he knew something was up, she could tell. She couldn't come up with anything better—well at least not anything he would actually believe—so she pulled the narrow white stick out of her pocket once more and shoved it on Shikamaru's chest, keeping her bottom lip stiff. He took it from her hands and held it carefully. Ino watched every emotion pass through his sharp features as he put the situation together.
"And it's mine?" He said after what felt like an eternity of silence. He showed no current reaction; his eyes were blank, his lips were held firm, his stature was strong. Ino was completely taken aback and nervously shook her head yes.
He held her arm so harshly Ino knew a bruise would form and huskily said, "Come with me."
This has not been proofread very well because I wanted to get it out there!, so let me know of any errors!
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