A/N: Hey peoples! Yes it is here, chapter 2! I hope ya like it! I am afraid it has more sad memories...Poor Ino... R&R!
It's cold and dark…Shika… Where are you?... Shika, Chouji… Help me… SHIKA! She woke with a start. She could still hear her scream ecco in the room. She looked around, the walls were plaster white, white curtains, white bed, and a white bedside table. Where am I? Am I in heaven? As she was looking around, a young nurse in training came in.
"Oh! You are awake! Are you feeling ok?"
Still confused she answered.
"Yes, I am fine. Where am I?"
The nurse giggled.
"Why silly, you are at Konoha hospital. You collapsed in Miss Haruno's office. Are you well enough to walk?"
"I think so, why?"
"Well, there is a meeting about to start, I think you were asked to join if you are well enough."
"Where is it?"
"It is in Lady Hokage's office."
"Ok! Thanks! Gotta go!"
She jumped out of bed, but immediately regretted it. She groaned in pain. She decided she was gonna walk there, slowly.
As she neared the room, she heard familiar voices.
"Sakura! is this all of you guys?"
"No Master. Ino is still at the hospital. I do not know when she will wake up."
"Is she in a comma?"
"No Master. She collapsed when she found out about Shikamaru and Chouji. She was brought to a resting room. A nurse has been assigned to tell her about this meeting when she awakes."
"Ok. So that leaves 6 of the Konoha 11 to still be able to perform."
Ino's heart skipped a few beats and her eyes brimmed with tears at hearing this. She couldn't stand it any more. She had to understand what was going on. She burst into the room.
"Only 6!"
Everybody gasped.
"Ino!"
She looked around the room. There were only 10 people there. Kakashi, Kurenai, Tsunade, Sakura, Kiba, Hinata, Shino, Naruto, Neji, and Shizune.
"What's going on!" Ino cried.
First, she lost Asuma-sensei. Then a few years ago, her parents died in a fire in the back of their flower shop, now she lost Shikamaru and Chouji. She didn't have anybody left except for the Konoha 11. Now even some of them got killed. She didn't know how much more she could last.
"As you have probably found out by now, Orochimaru attacked. Killed about 2/3 of the village. A lot of the Konoha 11 died. And now we are almost hopeless."
Ino sank down on her knees, all this info sinking into her. Sakura came over to hug her.
"We are gonna rest a few days so we can get some of our energy back. Then we are gonna clean up the village. And we are gonna continue to grow. There are gonna be a lot of changes, but we are gonna be strong and work through this and be strong." Tsunade informed her.
Ino let this sink in too. She is right. I have to be strong. Ino stood up.
"You are right Tsunade-sama. Please excuse me for interrupting. Please continue."
"Ok. Now as I was saying. I am going to make two teams of all of you."
"But Master, there is an odd number of us."
"Sakura, I would like you to become a full time medic, no more missions, only very rarely, understood? Good. Now Kurenai, you will be a four-man group. Kurenai, Kiba, Hinata, and Shino. Your new name will be Team Kurenai. Kakashi, you will also be a four-man cell. Kakashi, Naruto, Ino, and Neji. Your team name will be Team Kakashi. All of you are equals. Understood everybody?"
"Hai!" Everybody answered.
"Good. Talk with your team and decide when and where you will meet. I will give all of you tasks. Now go, I have other business to complete."
With that everybody left the room, leaving Tsunade to take a nap before meeting with some other people.
Outside the building, Team Kakashi discussed what they were going to do.
"All right. I say we meet at the 4th training ground tomorrow at 8 AM. Does that sound all right? Oh and Kakashi, you better not be late, if you are even 2 minutes late, I will come and find you, and drag you by your hair all the way to the meeting spot, understood?" Neji informed.
Everybody nodded, except for Kakashi who looked bored. Neji glared at him.
"Understood Kakashi!" Neji said grinding his teeth.
Finally Kakashi snapped out of whatever he was thinking and nodded.
"Good. See you guys tomorrow then, sayonara!" Neji said before leaving.
As they split up, Kakashi came up to Ino.
"Are you gonna be ok?"
Ino nodded, putting on a mask to hide her threatening tears.
"Of course I am Kakashi. You don't need to worry about me. I will be fine."
"All right, bye Ino." Kkashi said with doubt in his words.
"Sayonara Kakashi!"
Ino walked away. She didn't know what to do, after the fire at the flower shop she couldn't bear to live in the apartment above. It brought back too many painful memories.
(Flashback)
She was 15 years old. Training with Shikamaru and Chouji in one of the training fields when an Anbu came up to her. She knew it must not be good.
"Miss Yamanaka Ino I presume?"
"Yes, what is it?"
"Lady Hokage asked me to inform you that the Yamanaka flower shop is on fire and your parents are trapped in it."
"WHAT!"
Before anybody could react anymore than start to show emotion she was off, not caring how much chakra she was wasting by running with chakra-enhanced legs. She got there within a minute. The building was burning in the back. There was already a crowd behind the people that were trying to stop the fire. Ino flipped to the front of the crowd and tried to get inside the building, only to be stopped by a pair on ANBU.
"NOOOOO! DADDY! MOM! LET ME GO! I NEED TO HELP THEM!" She thrashed all over the place trying to get past them, unsuccessfully. She looked up into one of the windows to see her father looking out, all burned up, too weak to break the window, helplessly dying. He said something through the window, though it was impossible to hear, Ino understood.
"I love you, princess…" he tried to say.
He finally fell back, dead. Ino saw all this, it was too much. Next thing she knew, all the colors around her all mixed up, like a smeared painting and then it was all black. She woke up later in the hospital (again). She later went back to the shop, almost all of it was black, ashy black. After a few weeks it got fixed up, but Ino would go try not to go there, only if she had to.. She usually stayed at Shikamaru's house.
(End of flashback)
She walked up to the door of the now closed flower shop, and sighed. She was afraid to find out how much dust had collected over 6 months. Right as she came in, she sneezed. She looked around, there was an inch of dust covering everything. She wasn't sure if she should just leave and camp out somewhere else, but she knew she must clean the place out at least a little bit. She created a bunch of shadow clones and had them dust the place and clean the kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom. She left them cleaning and went to the Nara house to pick up her stuff. When she came in, the place was silent. His parents must be off helping Tsunade-sama. Thinking about Shikamaru hurt deep inside her heart every time. As she passed Shikamaru's room on the way, she decided to stop by. She was surprised at how neat it was, she thought Shikamaru would be too lazy to clean up, but he sure did prove her wrong. She just sat on his bed for a few minutes, just letting all their happy memories they had together flood her. After a bit she went back to get her stuff. By the time she got back to her shop, her clones were already done and gone. That night she couldn't sleep very well. She dozed off finally somewhere about 3:20 a.m. into a nightmare….
And there it is! I will put up chapter3 as soon as possible, hopefully I won't get another writers block like on my story... I hope ya liked it!