7. Heavily Broken

Shikamaru beckoned his head, telling her to follow him. Ino's eyes widened when he began walking away, rounding the corner to make his way towards the front of the building. Ino's steps faltered, taking a step forward then a step back, confused as to what she wanted to do. Shikamaru poked his head around the corner with a scowl on his face, clearly aggravated and impatient. "Are you coming or what?"

"Yes!" Satisfied with the answer, Shikamaru preceded.

Ino, irritated at the world as she began walking in Shikamaru's direction, thought life wanted her to fail miserably at everything she wanted to accomplish. She wanted to complete her first solo mission, but she bombed the mission that particular night, which determined the fate of her mission, when she left with a devilishly handsome man after her shift. She wanted to disappear from Konoha's world forever, materialize in the society of Cloud, serving at family restaurants, and giving smelly men beer, and most of the all, she wanted to start her life over on a clean slate. Apparently, life didn't want her to have that either, considering Shikamaru walked in front of her, clearly on a mission to haul her back to Konoha.

Shikamaru waited for her in the tight space between the pub and the large skyscraper next to it. "Lead the way," he said softly, signaling her to go in front of him. She sucked in her stomach and squeezed past him, ignoring the urge to scream and cry when her arm brushed against his chest. He gently placed a hand on her lower back and pushed her as she struggled to get past him. Ino shot out of the space like a bullet the second he laid his hand on her.

"Where are we going?" What did Ino sound like before she left for her mission? Ino struggled to remember her own voice back then. She added a slight bounce into her gait, wondering if just changing her walk would fool Shikamaru into thinking nothing was wrong. Then again, whom was she fooling…or in other words, trying to fool. Shikamaru, just by a quick glance, probably could tell Ino underwent drastic changes both mentally and physically. Really, it didn't take a genius like Shikamaru to know Ino was hurting.

"I thought we could take a walk while we talk."

She attempted to keep her voice bright and bubbly, but it just didn't feel right. However, she did it anyway. "I'd rather stay here."

Shikamaru had never seen Ino so quiet and reluctant in her life. What happened to her sanguine personality and the life in her eyes? What happened to her constant smile she wore?

Ino heavily leaned against the wall and rested her head against the brick, strawberry red wall as fatigue hit her. He noticed the dark rings hanging under her half-closed eyes. After a minute, her eyes opened again, and Ino lifted her head and stood straight, appearing attentive.

A defeated sigh left her lips. "Well, you found me." She casually shrugged, as if she didn't care Shikamaru won this hide-and-seek game, but he did notice Ino purse her lips in a tight line as her eyes held annoyance while they jerked around the dark alley, avoiding Shikamaru's gaze.

"I did."

For a brief second, Ino's eyes flickered to his, but they immediately dropped to his shoes when they made eye contact. She sighed once again, frustrated with an issue beyond his knowing. She seemed almost disappointed he found her. Didn't she want to go home? Doesn't she want to see her family and friends again?

"Are you here on a mission?" She had no energy to keep up the bouncy, bubbly façade.

"Yeah, I'm here to take you back home."

Ino and Shikamaru stood in the silent darkness for several long minutes. Shikamaru noticed Ino's eyes involuntarily closing, and she quickly forced them to open only to have them close a few seconds later. The life in her bright blue eyes vanished along with her contagious smile and personality. The Ino facing him wasn't the Ino he knew three months ago.

"I'm not going home," she finally replied. "I don't want to go home."

Not going home? Shikamaru's knees almost buckled. If he had the option to bring her home dead or alive, he'd choke her out for saying something like that…then bring her home and say she choked on an orange while he was in the shower. He had to admit, the idea tempted him.

On a serious note, Shikamaru had to bring her home, no matter what. That is what Tsunade instructed. If he failed this mission, he couldn't show his face to the village, especially his family and Ino's family, who have been close friends since the Great War and possibly decades previous. If Sakura found out he lost her best friend, she'd never forgive him and perhaps murder him if Tsunade didn't get her hands around his neck first.

"You're crazy." He noticed Ino wince at the comment. "The lack of oxygen is affecting your thinking process."

Ino rolled her tired eyes at his comment. With much effort, she pushed away from the brick wall and turned her back on him. She opened the door, squinting when the bright lights in the pub hit her eyes. Shikamaru didn't recognize the young woman in front of him. Her hair looked ratty and messy in the usual high ponytail she kept her long hair in, but the Ino he knew wouldn't stand for knotted, unkempt hair. Purple rings that almost looked like bruises—he didn't notice just how dark those bags were the first time—dragged down her lifeless, tired eyes. He hated this new Ino instantly.

"I'm not going home, Shikamaru."

"I can't leave until you come with me. Ino, if you don't comply, I'll have to use force."

She faced him with pained eyes before she stepped into the noisy pub and closed the door behind her, leaving Shikamaru in the dark.

Minako rubbed Ino's back in circular motions as she sobbed with her head shoved under her pillow with several blankets topping it.

Under the layers of blankets and a pillow along with shrill weeps and hiccups, Ino heard Minako's muffled, worried voice, "Ino, you're going to suffocate if you don't come out from under there."

Another alarming sob escaped Ino before she could respond to her co-worker. "I don't care!" she shouted, kicking the bed in childish protest. "Leave me here to suffocate!"

"You're just being silly."

"No, I'm not!" she whined, followed by a painful hiccup.

"Let me help you take those blankets off ya. Then we can talk."

In objection, Ino kicked and twisted to keep the layers over her head, smacking Minako's arms away from the pile of blankets and the lonesome pillow. Minako grunted as she fought back, slapping Ino's arms away and trying to pull off the blanket, which Ino had wrapped safely and tightly over her head with one arm while she fought Minako off with the other. The other blonde girl shouted things at Ino, but Ino couldn't hear passed her own shouts and occasional sad cries. Ino brought kicking into the pitiful fight, trying to push Minako away with her foot, but Minako managed to sit on one of them, and Ino's free leg swung relentlessly, waiting to connect with something. A loud bang ceased all fighting, echoing through Ino's ears and in Minako's. A sharp pain shot up her anklebone and up her right leg, sending numbing tingles through it. The tears stopped as the pain took over Ino's sadness.

"Ino?" Minako shoved the covers off Ino's face. "Are you okay?"

"Ow."

"I would say sorry, but you kinda deserved that."

"I deserved kicking the wall?"

Minako shook her head and placed her hands on her hips. "Yep, it's what you get for trying to resist my help."

Ino sat up, shaking the tingles out of her leg. Life even refused to let Ino win a stupid fight over pillows and blankets. Minako had better take this victory with a smile because Ino wouldn't let it happen the next time.

Minako rolled off Ino's left leg and sat at the end of her bed, staring at her in pure curiosity with her puppy dog eyes pleading Ino to tell her what's wrong. "What's wrong?" she asked. "Did that boy do something?" She reached over to wipe a falling tear from Ino's cheek. "If he did, I'll tear off his –"

"That's okay, Minako."

"Ears."

"There's no need to rip off any of his body parts."

"Then why are you crying? No man is worth crying over."

For a second, Ino thought Minako meant the murderer, the one who raped Ino, who raped and killed several girls before her. Ino was the first girl to survive his torture, and yet, she wished to die and wished he killed her afterwards….

Minako interrupted Ino's dark thoughts, bringing Ino's attention to the chubby, heart-shaped face of Minako's, whose hazel eyes sparkled with life and youth, like Ino's eyes did a few months back. If their eye color and skin tone weren't so different, they could be twins. "I want you to be happy, Ino. Since you have gotten here and not just recently but the first day you arrived, you didn't seem happy to be here." She paused as she thought, glaring down at her hands that rested in her lap. Her cheeks began to color. "Do you remember the two buckets filled with chocolate and the giant balloon your 'secret admirer' sent you? Yeah, that was me."

Ino's jaw dropped. All this time, she really thought someone in Cloud admired her, which wasn't much of a confidence boost because the men back in Konoha who liked her were ten times more attractive than the men here. Still, she thought it as a sweet gesture. "It was you?"

Minako flushed a deep red, filling her round cheeks and moving up to her hairline. "Well, you looked happy, so I was satisfied." She waved her hand in defense when Ino shot her a suspicious look. "I don't roll that way, Ino!"

Ino grabbed her hand to stop it from waving and lowered it back to her side. "I'm not thinking about what side you're on, Minako. I'm thinking about why you would do that for me when I was nothing but a hormonal bitch to you."

"I wouldn't say hormonal bitch. You were more of, uh, heinous bitch."

"Wow, Minako, tell me how you really feel…."

Minako shook her hand in her defense again. "Words from Takao, really."

"I have a few words for him, but that can wait. You may continue."

"Well, when I was younger - did you know I was adopted?"

Ino questioned Minako for a second, but considering it was Minako, Ino couldn't predict where this story led to, and the only way to find how everything connected to the predicament of Ino's happiness was to shut up and listen.

"No."

"Well, I was adopted."

"So I've heard."

"Yes, anyway, when I came into my adopted family, the eldest daughter did secret things like leaving small teddy bears on my pillow before I went to bed, and she would play dolls with me. My older 'siblings' would pick on me and when Mom and Dad weren't around, they would tell me I didn't belong, and I should go back to where I came from. Rin would come in and tell them off for me…because I was too busy crying. Before her fourteenth birthday, she died, and I had something big planned for her. Anyway, when you arrived here, you reminded me of the eight-year-old me, and I guess, I want to do what Rin did."

Ino waited a moment to respond, checking to see Minako wouldn't go into another story. "So, you're saying you pity me? I've got something to tell you, missy, and that is I -"

"I talked to you and sent gifts to you not because I pitied you, but because I wanted you to know someone was there," she admitted with a bashful look creeping on her face. Minako rubbed the back of her neck and sighed. "I will admit I pitied you for a little bit because you were the new girl, but that's gone now. So, what I'm saying is that you need to be happier. You're an adult now, right? You can make your own decisions, and those decisions should be ones that lead you to -"

"You listened to our chat, didn't you?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"I'll forgive you this one time."

"Thank you."

"If it happens again, I'll rip your ears off."

Minako grinned and bounced off the bed, landing on the balls of her feet. "I understand. It won't happen again. Goodnight, Ino."

"Minako, I have a question."

"Yes?" She spun around, colliding with Ino's bed. She pushed herself upright and listened to Ino intently.

"Have you ever…regretted anything that was out of your control?"

"Hmm, well, I can't recall ever doing anything like that, but I've done lots of things in the past, so maybe. Nothing is ever out of your control, Ino. What you think you didn't do, you could've initiated it." Minako fell silent as she thought about what she said. After a second, she startled Ino with a loud laugh," Ha! Whom am I kidding? Don't listen to my advice! I'm still too young to give any life advice!"

"You've got three years on me." Ino shrugged.

Minako waved her off and spun back around, facing the door. "Stop reminding me how old I'm getting. You youngsters have no respect for the elderly."

"Wait, I have another!"

"This is your last one. This old lady has to get to bed unless you want a grouchy grandma at the breakfast table tomorrow morning." The blonde spun around once again, managing to successfully avoid Ino's bed.

"Where are you from?"

Heartfelt warm filled Minako's hazel eyes as she stared off at the blank wall behind Ino, thinking about her motherland. Ino watched a small smile creep onto Minako's face the longer she thought about her village. Minako shook her head and looked at Ino with an earnest sparkle in her eyes. "Konoha."

Shikamaru stuffed his hands in his pocket, keeping his skin warm from the harsh, frigid wind that decided to pick up when he stomped away from the Pub. He tucked his face into his scarf, keeping his nose and mouth warm. Although, because of the enraged mood Ino put him in, his face was already warm.

"I'm not going home."

Shikamaru grunted as he kicked a lone peddle down the sidewalk.

She didn't want to go home. If he took her by force right then and there, he knew she wouldn't put up a fight. She just looked so exhausted. She looked so fragile, as if laying a single finger on her could break her in half. What made her that way?

Shikamaru, being his selfish, lazy self, had to spend—more like waste—his time to bring Ino home. She didn't want to go home. He thought back to what Tsunade said about Ino being insignificant to the village. He had to concur with his superior. Ino may not be significant when it came to fighting like Kakashi or Naruto, and she may not be very intelligent, like himself, but everyone must know, she has her mind control jutsu down to an art. Before she left, Inoichi showed her the ways of scoping information from enemy minds because he knew his time as a shinobi will run out, and then Ino will have to take control. Tsunade may not deem Ino as an important pawn, but in the future, Tsunade will be relying on Ino. Well, maybe. She didn't want to go home.

What was he going to do with her? He could pester her until she gives in. He could control her shadow and take her back to Konoha, but sadly, he didn't have enough chakra to hold her shadow for a week journey. Let alone, he couldn't keep the jutsu up for more than ten minutes. He could simply kidnap her; knock her out and carry her home. Everything sounded so extreme to him. Sure, he knew he was a genius…when it came to strategies, which is different from thinking of a plan to convince Ino into returning home.

For the first time in his life, he didn't know what to do.

I found Ino. She is alive. However, she refuses to return. I will bring her back home within the two months I still have left.

- Shikamaru

Anddd, there's chapter seven for you. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you all review, favorite...or just do something. Virtual high fives are cool...

I'm trying to get my chapters long, but I just can't seem to figure out what to write. I'll eventually figure it out.

So, yeah. I'm hoping chapter eight will be up by the end of this weekend. If I fail to do so, chapter eight won't be up for two weeks because I'm going out of town next weekend.

HAVE A GOOD DAY. :)