2. Breakaway
The springs in the mattress sqeaked noisily when Shikamaru flopped back onto the bed after the seventh day of travel. He kicked off his sandals and rubbed his sore feet. After the fourth day, all Shikamaru wanted was a long rest in a comfortable bed and a long foot massage. He wanted to be home, eating his mother's wonderful food. Training sounded better than this, and he hated training! All of this is just trouble, trouble, trouble.
Tsunade had better pay him heavy cash for this.
Shikamaru wasn't far from the village of high altitude and nosebleeds. In fact, it was about a two-hour walk from the tourist village he was now residing in. Considering he was so close to the village, Shikamaru planned to sleep in until mid-afternoon. He didn't care if Tsunade rushed in and started threatening him to wake up bright and early to look for his missing comrade; he thought he rightfully deserved to sleep in.
At least, that's what he thought until his conscience kicked in.
What about Ino? What could she be doing right about now, at ten in the evening? Her kidnapper could be torturing her as Shikamaru laid in his not-so comfortable bed…. It was still a bed compared to the concrete floor Ino could be sleeping on for the past - how long has it been? Shikamaru thought. Somewhere, Ino's possibly locked up in chains while Shikamaru could freely roam around. He could even get naked, party, and run the streets of this tourist village with his dignity flying in the wind.
Shikamaru shook his head, knocking out the negative thoughts from his mind. No one knows Ino better than Shikamaru…. Well, maybe with the exception of Sakura or Tenten, but they were girls, and they do not count. Man wise, no other man knows Ino better than Shikamaru. He knew Ino was a tough girl, and no kidnapper could touch a strand of her pretty, blonde hair without their ear bitten off by her. The thought eased Shikamaru's nerves gradually until he dozed off and dreamed off Temari.
"That was good, girl," the man said as he pulled himself away from her. Ino grabbed the disheveled covers and pulled them over her. She curled into a ball and silently wept in the dirty blankets. They smelt dirty and musty. The smell made her want to puke.
The stranger walloped her rear, receiving a surprised whimper from her. He laughed at her and leaned over her. Ino tightened the blanket around her nude body, closed her eyes, and hoped this was all a dream and this man hovering over her would disappear.
"Time for round two," he whispered in her ear.
Ino's eyes opened and disgustingly gawked at the man's bright, lavender eyes. She felt the man rip the blanket off her and threw her only protection across the room.
"Please, no."
Screaming, Ino woke up from the nauseating flashback.
Every night supplied a vicious dream of that horrible night. Every night after every dream, she threw off the blankets and pushed her shirt up to her breasts to see if the scars and scabbed gashes disappeared from her stomach, and everything was just a dream. However, no matter how many times she checked each night, the wounds were still present, and it was definitely reality. However, this night was different from all the rest. She didn't pull off the blankets or her clothes. She pulled the blankets closer to her frigid body, squeezed her eyes shut, and tried to fall back asleep.
The second time Ino woke up, her stomach ached and burned, causing her to heat up under her blanket. She tossed the blankets aside and lifted her shirt up to her breast. The gash across the width of her stomach throbbed and leaked squirts of blood.
Ino growled and rolled onto her stomach, ignoring the stinging pain ripping across the skin of her abdomen. Gradually, she stepped off the bed, holding an arm across her stomach, hoping the pressure would soothe the grumbling and the bleeding wound. It helped neither. The blood seeped through her shirt as Ino searched the cabinets for pain pills, bandages, and some food.
"I'm gonna rip his dick off if I ever see him again," she promised herself while chewing on soggy cereal.
Ino glared at the calendar pinned to the wall. It's been three weeks. It's been three whole weeks since she's been outside. Surprisingly, no one has complained about hogging up the room. They shouldn't be complaining anyway since she paid extra for the room, and she pays them to go grocery shopping for her.
It was pathetic. She had people buying her groceries because she didn't have the guts to do it herself. She was afraid to take a step out of that pale gray door, down the hallway, down the stairs, and out the rotating doors.
Today is the day, Ino decided. She was finally going outside to find herself an apartment and a job. She planned to visit Jin and discuss a few things with him before going job and apartment hunting. Maybe, if she were nice to Jin, he could give her job back as a bartender. Life would be good, right?
No, Ino thought. Wait, yes, it will.
After three weeks of voluntary solitary confinement, Ino realized there were two sides to her. There was the victim Ino, and there was the Ino that wanted to be better. Victimized Ino wanted to stay in bed and stay out of the public eye while Better Ino wanted to go out into the world and live her life instead of dreading on it. She knew the last thing is to dwell on the past.
Ino couldn't decide who she wanted to be.
"Excuse me, sir, have you seen this girl?" Shikamaru showed the store cashier the picture of Ino. Asuma took the picture of Ino a few months before she left. Asuma thought it was a great idea to bring a camera during their training and snap pictures of them when they least expected it. Ino sat against a tree as she was chugging the remnants of her water bottle. Asuma called her name, she cracked one eye open, and he took the picture.
Shikamaru thought it was a radiant picture. She practically glowed in the picture, sending happy vibes to whoever saw the picture. Ino thought it was hideous and demanded the picture shredded to itty bity pieces. Choji and Shikamaru thought differently and kept the picture safe, out of her treacherous hands.
"Sorry, boy," the clerk said, "I haven't seen her."
"Thanks, anyway." Shikamaru mumbled.
No one has seen Ino, so every villager in this stupid village was useless to his search for his teammate. Why was life so hard? Why couldn't life give him a short cut a time or two? This morning, he woke up extra early so he could gain a head start. Shikamaru hoped Ino was in the village, so he did not have to make a trip to Cloud and save himself from bleeding noses and a constant headache.
"It looks like I'm going to Cloud." Shikamaru grabbed Ino's mission file and reviewed it one last time, memorizing the address of the Pub and the face of the owner, Jin.
Ino couldn't do it. As soon as she stepped into the lobby of the inn, she pivoted and ran back to her room. She just wasn't ready to go outside just yet.
You're trash, Ino thought. She slammed her back against the door and slide down the length of it, crashing onto the floor. She pulled her knees up to her chest and leaned her forehead on her bony knees. You're nobody. How could you let someone do that to you, you dumbass? It's all your fault.
Ino shook her head. It wasn't true. None of it was true.
You are the one who decided to go with that guy. You knew what he was up to. What do you have to say for yourself?
Ino's body numbed as exhaustion took over her body. "You're right," she whispered.
"Stop!"
A knife peeled across Ino's stomach, blooding pooling into the fresh cut. Blood streamed down her sides, dotting the white mattress with scarlet. Ino hissed as the pain began to set it. She screamed, hoping and waiting for this excruciating pain to cease. She heard the nameless man's laugh as he watched her wither in agony.
He couldn't wait for her pain to subside; he ran the blade of his knife down her thigh and made sure she was screaming her lungs out with every inch of her skin he cut.
"Blondie, I know you're in a lot of fucking pain," he said with his confident grin Ino hated so much. "Too make you feel better, I'll say this: this is hurting me a lot more than it's hurting you." Without much warning, he drove himself into her.
"Stop!"
"Sorry!" a voice shouted from the hallway.
The room was coal black. For a second, Ino didn't know whether she opened her eyes or not. From such an intense flashback like that, Ino did not have any energy to go looking for the light switch. Her wounds throbbed in response to the dream and the sudden movement from her abrupt awakening.
The green, blinking numbers on the microwave were the only thing glowing in the black abyss. It read two. Judging by how little light shone through the open window, she assumed it was two in the morning.
As Ino crawled to her bed, groaned and complaining about how much everything hurts, she thought about going job and apartment hunting in the afternoon. Ino had to get her life started sometime, right? She's been coped up in her head and in the inn room for way too long. It was time for her to move on with her life, despite the emotional and physical hardships her situation will possibly bring. Paying for the inn room bore a huge hole in her pocket, and she didn't know if she had enough money to pay for the room anymore. .
Her body happily tingled and relaxed when her tired muscle met the cozy mattress. After kicking off her shoes, she pinched the blanket between her toes and pulled the blanket into arms reach.
She missed her dad tucking her in when she was a young girl. He would tuck her in perfectly and then plant a sloppy kiss on her forehead. "I love you so much, Ino," her papa would say. "You're the best thing Mama and Daddy could ever ask for." She missed his benevolent words. Once Ino reached eleven, she forced him to stop tucking her into bed. She was too old for bed tucking and forehead kisses. Now at the age of nearly twenty, Ino wished her father could tuck her into bed and say, "You're the best thing that has ever happened to me."
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