AN: Oh. My. God. I finallyfinallyfinally updated something! I know it's been an absolutely ridiculous amount of time since I last updated, and it's almost (almost!) inexcusable. But, if you've had the kind of time I've been having (not that any of you really care, but whatever), you would all completely understand. The only way I've been able to get the time to update this is because I'm sick, and I'm not allowed to do anything else. Also, I know that it's a relatively short chapter, considering the update time, but the next update will (I swear on my life) be much quicker! Maybe not as quick as some of you hope, but no more than a month, tops. If it's any longer, I give you all permission to shoot me in the face.
Now, on with the story!
Sakura plagued me with questions all throughout the journey. "What's it like? Being a fairy, I mean. Is it fun?" And others like that. I told her over and over again that it wasn't especially fun, it was hard work, but she wouldn't listen. The silly girl thought that since fairies could do magic, they could just conjure up anything, and didn't have any work to do at all! I longed to tell her about the Lost Fay, the pixies, the dwarves, and leprechauns, and mermaids, and all the other magical creatures, and how we fairies were the peace keepers. How, if not for us, there would be perpetual war, with hundreds dying everyday. But I couldn't. I would be in serious trouble if I did. Every fairy was instructed from a very early age to make sure humans knew next to nothing about magical affairs, the magical world, and people that kept them safe; the only humans we were allowed to show ourselves to (in fairy form, anyway) were our charges, and others with fairy guardians. Of course, this was helped by the fact that the only people who could see us in fairy form were those who believed in fairies, and that number was very few.
Soon the bus ride was over, and Sakura ceased her questions as we approached Konoha Shopping Centre. Tenten was already there, with the girl I assumed was Hinata. She was standing in a sort of hunched manner, so I couldn't really tell her height, and she was looking at the ground, so I couldn't make out her face, either. Her long, straight, dark-purplish coloured hair obscured her face even more. Even if Tenten hadn't told me that Hinata was excruciatingly shy, I would've known anyway from her stance. Tenten laid a hand on her arm, and pointed to us as we drew closer. "Hey, Ino," said Tenten, "Hi, Sakura." Tenten looked over at me meaningfully. "What did I tell you?"
"Alright, fine then. You were right, yaddayaddayadda."
"Right about what?" Sakura looked at us curiously. "Nothing!" Tenten and I chorused. Tenten turned to Hinata to introduce me to her. "Hinata, this is the girl I've been telling you about. My best friend back home." The shy girl looked up, showing her pretty features (I didn't understand why she wanted to hide them) and stuttered, "H-h-hello, Ino."
"Hi! You must be Hinata. Tenten's told me a lot about you. It's nice to meet you." I smiled at her, and she shyly smiled back. Sakura turned to her and asked, "So, who's coming today?"
"U-um…Neji, Sasuke, Kiba, Shikamaru, and," her voice got very small here, "N-naruto." Hinata blushed a deep red. I wondered to myself what could have made her go like that. "Excellent!" said Sakura with a grin. "There's Naruto for Hinata" Hinata squeaked, "Neji for you, Tenten, Sasuke for me, and who do you think would be better for Ino: Shikamaru or Kiba?"
"What are you talking about?" I asked. Why was Sakura dividing up the boys like that? I really did not understand humans at times. Sakura turned to me with a truly frightening grin on her face. "Well, you need a guy, obviously, and it's got to be either Kiba or Shikamaru. The only other boy would be Sai and he's just…" Sakura trailed off and shuddered violently. "Sai?" I questioned. I didn't know how common a name Sai was with humans, but I only knew one Sai, and he was the son of the leader of the Lost Fay… I would have to keep an eye on him. The Lost Fay were not supposed to come to the human world and interact with humans, but why would they listen to the Council? And if they were here, what for? "Yeah, Sai." Sakura said, jolting me out of my reverie. "He's really creepy…I don't know how to explain it, but he just feels…wrong, I suppose. It's good that he's not coming today."
I bit my lip. Something did not feel right. Most humans can't feel the auras of disgraced people like the Lost Fay, but if Sakura could see fairies, there was a slim chance she might. I would have to tell my father about this.
Tenten gave me a look, then, and asked, "What's up, Ino?" I shook my head and signalled for her to be quiet. Sakura and Hinata couldn't know of this. Sakura narrowed her eyes and looked suspiciously between me and Tenten. Fortunately, her phone rang at that moment. "Hello?" she said, clearly irritated. She obviously wanted to know what was going on, but she couldn't know. I thought this assignment would be fairly easy, but Sakura was too perceptive. I would have to watch my tongue.
Sakura snapped the phone closed and told us that that was Naruto, and the boys would be here in ten minutes. We decided that while we were waiting, we would go look around the shops a little, instead of hanging around outside.
Nearly half an hour later, I was dragged back to the front entrance. It took the combined efforts of all three of them to prise me away from Watermelon, a human clothes shop that had some of the prettiest things I'd ever seen in it. There was a beautiful sea-blue gown that was so sparkly! I felt that I must obtain it, that very second. It wasn't my fault; fairies generally are drawn to things that glitter. My father explained it to me once: the magic Dust that fairies use sparkle, and so fairies are magically drawn to anything that remotely shimmers. However, I didn't care at that moment why I felt an irresistible pull, I just did.
Finally, they got me outside, where I couldn't see the dress anymore. As soon as it was out of my sight I stopped feeling so much like I needed it.
Sakura and Hinata let go to get their breath back (fairies, though it might not seem like it, are rather strong), and Tenten just shook her head ruefully at me. I made a helpless face at her, and whispered, "Why weren't you affected?"
Tenten grinned. "You get used to it, after a while. After all, lots of things sparkle in the human world and you can't go chasing after them all. Your cover would be blown." And I supposed it would. I then turned to asked Sakura and Hinata if they were alright, only to see Hinata go bright red again. Really, what was wrong with that girl? Was it some human illness that I did not know about? I saw Sakura's face then, and her smile was ecstatic. I looked over to see a group of boys staring at us open-mouthed. The look on their faces was hilarious. I couldn't control myself, and felt a laugh bubbling up. It escaped, followed quickly by others. I tried to stop, especially at the look of alarm now pasted on the boy's faces, but I couldn't. Tenten began to laugh as well, as a result of mine, but still controlled herself enough to surreptitiously sprinkle some Gold Dust to calm us down. Finally, the uncontrollable laughter died down, and Tenten and I straightened up with only the odd giggle bursting out.
Once we had calmed down, Sakura began to introduce me to the boys. "Everyone, this is Ino. The girl I met on holiday, remember?" Sakura winked at me while the boys looked confused as she said this. "You do remember, right?" They nodded uneasily at this, not wanting to incur Sakura's wrath. "Good. Ino, this is Naruto, Sasuke, Kiba, Neji, and Shikamaru." As she pointed at the last boy, a lazy looking thing wearing scruffy clothes, a feeling washed over me, and I just knew that this was who I was going to marry.
Sakura looked at me in alarm as waves of pink sparkles erupted from me. Tenten smirked, and Hinata just looked nervous. The boys never noticed a thing, until Sakura and Tenten whisked me off to the bathroom, calling over their shoulders, "Be back in a minute!" Hinata followed quietly. I think she knew what was going on, as this must have happened to Tenten, when she first saw Neji.
When we got to the bathroom Sakura rounded on me, "What was that?"
I was still reeling from the rush of feeling I got from seeing Shikamaru, so Tenten began to explain. "Fairies know, as soon as they see the person, who they are going to marry. That's the basics of it, anyway. It's slightly different when humans are involved, because they are far more unpredictable, but the same principle applies. The same thing happened to me when I first saw Neji. Remember, Hinata?" she turned to the shy girl, "and you had to say that the pink sparkles were from an art project you were doing."
Hinata nodded. Sakura looked sceptical. "So you know immediately who you're going to marry?"
I finally recovered from the rush, "Yes. It's another bit of old fairy magic."
"So…you're in love with Shikamaru then?"
A silly smile appeared on my face after hearing his name again. Sakura raised an eyebrow, "I guess that answers that then." Turning to Tenten, she asked," She's not going to be like this all the time, is she?"
Tenten was still smirking, "No, it'll wear off in a couple of minutes; it's just the initial feeling. It's like the first time you use White Dust." Seeing Sakura's blank stare, she said, "…Right. You won't get that. Never mind."
"Well, we can't stay in here all day. C'mon."
We left the bathroom, and walked back over to the boys. "Heh heh, sorry about that. Urgent girl talk," explained Sakura.
Kiba held up his hands in a 'stop' gesture. "Dude, we don't wanna know."
"Don't want to know what?" asked a boy coming up behind Kiba, who jumped about a foot in the air. "Hey, I don't remember anyone saying we were hanging out today."
Sakura shuddered, Tenten grimaced and I frowned. I knew that voice from somewhere… The boy stepped forward, and looked straight at me. "Oh. Hello, Ino."
Sai.
AN: Uh-oh. What's Sai doing there?
Anyway, there's the first bit of ShikaIno, and the first hint of...drama?
Well, I hope you liked this chapter, despite everything, and if you did, could you please review? Thanks.
