It was Sunday, and Ino awoke to a massive headache. She rolled over with a groan, attempting to escape from the blinding light that was insistent on amplifying the pain in her head to unbearable levels. She sat up slowly, watching as the world reeled slightly. It made her a little nauseous.
The events of the previous night came back slowly, appearing in her memory as if they were being glimpsed through a heavy fog. The more she recalled, the worse she felt.
She blinked a few times slowly to clear the haze. Tilting her head to glance at her alarm clock, she was surprised to find something blocked her view. She stretched a hand out, fingers closing around the object.
It was a vial, and with it was a note printed in familiar handwriting:
"Ino-pig,
Here's something to take the edge off the headache. Don't do anything reckless.
- Sakura"
Ino smiled wryly. Trust it to Sakura to take care of her when she did something stupid. She downed the concoction in slow sips, grimacing slightly. It tasted familiar, but she couldn't be sure of much of anything right at the moment.
Whatever it was, it was certainly helpful. The light rapidly became more bearable and the headache receded to more of a dull annoyance than anything else. Feeling much improved, Ino stood and looked at herself in the mirror.
That action, unfortunately, did nothing to help her mood. She had apparently failed to change when she arrived home last night. She wore the same, slightly more rumpled lavender dress and her long hair fell in waves over her shoulders, all ornaments long since gone. Her makeup was smeared in long streaks that spoke of tears, but she told herself she would wash it later, once she had gotten something to ease the burning in her throat.
Ino trailed down the stairs with all the grace of a wounded elephant, not bothering to be quiet in her movements. Sunday mornings were generally the day that her mother and father went to the market for the week.
It was just as well, considering the state she was in.
She reached the bottom step, but her foot faltered and she had to clutch the handrail to keep from falling flat on her back.
Two pairs of eyes turned to look at her from where they sat conversing at the kitchen table; one was the same bright teal as her own, the other an unfathomably dark black. Both looked mildly bemused, as though they had been caught in the middle of some shady business deal and had failed to recall that other people lived in the house.
"Ino dear!"
"Ino…"
Ino looked between the two of them incredulously, folding her arms behind her back to pinch the skin where it was out of their line of sight.
She felt the pain sharply and blinked at them again.
Nope. Certainly not dreaming.
"What…"
Inoichi stood, smiling at his daughter as though nothing unusual was happening. "I didn't assume you'd be up so early after such a late night."
Ino took the final step down, still balancing against the handrail. "What's going on?"
Inoichi seemed at a loss for words. The young man still seated at the table remained as impassive as ever, his hands folded patiently in front of him.
"The young Nara and I were having a discussion about some plans his father has for a project within the intelligence division." Inoichi finally supplied, gesturing at Shikamaru offhandedly. "Shikamaru was just saying he had a few more errands to run, weren't you, boy?"
Ino turned her skeptical gaze to Shikamaru, only to find her was looking at her strangely. Strangely for him, at least, which translated to slightly more perplexed than usual. Ino remembered at that point how bedraggled she must look, and she had to fight the urge to run upstairs and lock herself away permanently.
But the damage was already done, so she continued to look at him with marked doubt.
"Yeah." Shikamaru confirmed. "Have to go see off some delegates for Tsunade-sama, or something troublesome like that."
He stood, and Ino didn't fail to catch a look exchanged between the two men that clearly said "we'll continue this conversation later." He waved lazily as he let himself out the door. "See you, Ino."
When the door closed behind him, Inoichi moved to the cabinets as though nothing had happened. "Your mother's still feeling under the weather, which is why we weren't out this morning. I thought I would have breakfast ready when you woke up, but I got delayed by the unexpected visit from your teammate."
Ino moved slowly to the table, still not entirely convinced that she wasn't hallucinating. "So he just came by… to talk about a project that his father is organizing… that you all could have talked about yesterday…"
Inoichi didn't seem to hear her, busying himself by pulling the milk out of the refrigerator and pouring it into a glass for Ino. "If you don't mind, would you watch the store today? I need to run some paperwork by Tsunade-sama's office and then pick up some things for your mother."
"Sure." Ino muttered, staring listlessly at the glass of milk as her father set it down in front of her. Whatever had just happened here, it was obvious that she wouldn't be getting it out of her father.
Throat still on fire, Ino downed the milk, hoping the coming day would be less confusing than its inauspicious beginning.
The flower shop was surprisingly busy that morning, which kept Ino's mind away from her misery and the strange encounter from earlier. It seemed that a unit had just returned from a particularly hazardous mission which had left most of the shinobi in a state to be placed in critical care at the hospital. For the Yamanaka Flower Shop, that meant quite a bit of business.
After about an hour or so of steady business, Ino took the last customer's order, promising delivery within the day. The woman, who looked about the age to be the young wife of one of the injured, thanked her graciously and left, slightly less anxious than she had been when she entered.
With the last of the barrage of orders finished, Ino set to watering the plants scattered around the shop and trimming away any dying stems. The tasks normally would have given her a chance to think about possible reasons for Shikamaru's presence in her house, but her thoughts were coming slowly, likely a combined effect of the hangover and whatever medicine Sakura had given her.
She stopped at the chrysanthemums, smiling slightly. They had faced a hard time when they were first being cultivated, particularly because they were out of season, but they had pulled through nicely with a little extra care, erupting in a burst of color, vivid reds, yellows and pinks that seemed to reflect back the sun's rays from the window.
"Hey."
Ino froze in the middle of watering the chrysanthemums.
What was she doing here?
"Can I help you?" Ino tried to keep the edge out of her voice as she turned around to face the direction from which the voice had come.
Temari was reclined against the counter, staring at the ceiling fan as it rotated slowly up above. Her face seemed to have lost all traces of the fury that had characterized it the previous night.
"I'd like to talk to you."
Ino raised an eyebrow, taking her time to walk behind the counter. "Well, I'm manning the shop right at the moment. I'm not sure that this is the best time to be chatting."
She attempted to make herself look busy by glancing through the accounts, but a hand slammed down in the middle of the papers, scattering half of them onto the floor.
"Look, princess. I'm trying to be nice about this, but we need to talk, whether you like it or not. And now is as good a time as any."
Ino openly glared at her, removing Temari's hand from the papers. She refused to be pushed around by the girl who had already stolen so much from her.
"Fine. But whatever you have to say, make it quick."
Temari looked taken aback for a moment, then her face settled into a smug smirk. "Well, the princess has turned into an ice queen, it seems. Fine, I'll make this short."
Temari paused, her face undergoing strange contortions as she searched for what to say.
"Look, just what is going on between you and Shikamaru?"
Ino found herself more than a little stunned by the question. Shouldn't that be what she was asking Temari, not the other way around?
"We're teammates. Sometimes friends, though I don't even know about that some time." Ino said wryly.
Temari snorted indelicately. "Are you serious?"
Ino looked at her incredulously. Was the girl completely blind? It had been clear to Ino for some time that Shikamaru obviously had no interest in her outside of a friendly relationship.
"Do you think I'm an idiot or something?" Temari continued, her voice cracking slightly. "Why else would I get invited to the wedding, only to have him tell me that a long distance relationship is 'too troublesome?'"
She spoke the last phrase with particular disdain, but Ino was slowly beginning to realize that the sarcasm and barbed remarks weren't aimed at her directly. They were a form of lashing out… but against what?
"I honestly don't know what you're talking about." Ino said plainly, moving away to tend to some of the flowers on the far side of the shop. Temari remained at the desk.
"Come on, princess. You've known him longer than practically anyone. Even if you don't have anything to do with this – a point I'm still not sold on – you should at least have some idea of what this means."
From where Temari stood, it looked as though Ino had gone completely still; only her shoulders moved, making it look as though she was sobbing.
"Hey, I didn't mean—"
She stopped midsentence, suddenly realizing that a strange noise was issuing from the girl, and it wasn't sobbing.
Ino turned around, tears of mirth streaming down her face. She clutched her stomach as she leaned back against the counter, attempting to catch her breath. When she managed to stop shaking with laughter, she attempted to speak.
"You think I understand Konoha's resident lazy genius? I don't think his own parents even know what's going through that boy's head." She shook her head, smiling at Temari sardonically. "Certainly not me."
Temari eyed her, her dark green eyes narrowing shrewdly. For a moment, Ino thought Temari was considering tearing her into pieces, but the sudden glimpse of murderous hatred vanished and was replaced by a look of sheer confusion, which to Ino's well trained eye, disguised hurt.
The irony of her situation made Ino slightly more sympathetic to the girl, as much as she didn't like her.
"Look, I—"
Temari waved her off disdainfully, moving swiftly toward the door. She looked as though she was going to leave without so much as exchanging a farewell, but she paused in the sill, steadying a hand against it.
"Maybe you're right, and you don't have anything to do with this. Or maybe you're just too lost in your own little world to see what's right in front of you. But whatever the case, just… don't screw it up, okay, princess?"
Temari didn't wait for a reply, leaving as quietly as she had come.
Ino stared after her, head swimming in spite of the medicine she had taken. She finished with the last of the flowers and closed the shop up early.
This whole day had seemed like some strange kind of dream, and Ino was in no mood to tolerate it any longer. She went home and holed herself up in her room, not even bothering to speak to her parents on the way in. For the third time that week, she collapsed into bed without changing, but she didn't sleep.
Instead, she considered her options.
She ran scenarios in her head for as long as she could. She mentally explored every conceivable option, trying to find any way to avoid getting herself hurt, and acting even more foolishly than she already had, but in the end, she always settled in the same place. Every path she considered led to one unfortunate conclusion.
She would have to go and talk to him, and get this settled once and for all.
A/N: Short, again, I know, but longer than the last chapter. The next one will likely be a monster of a chapter, so be prepared.
As for why this publication is neither huge nor many chapters like I promised, it's because I'm still on vacation. But I got inspired and had to write a little in the down time I had, so here it is. I should be returning to a semi-regular schedule after this next weekend hopefully.
Also, since I am seldom absent for such a lengthy period of time, I'd like to pose a question to you, the readers. What do you think the conversation between Inoichi and Shikamaru was actually about? I'm interested to know what you all think. As always, thank you for your incredibly kind reviews and I wish you all continued happy reading! :)
- Senka