29. Those Kind of Days
The morning after he terrified the employees on the Blue Pub, a vicious hawk swooped down to his window sill and dropped off a message…after it attempted to claw Hidan's eyes out. Scaring the shit of those people was the most fun he's had in months, and he knew it was a bad idea on his part, so Hidan wasn't surprised to see capital letters and curses screaming at him as he read the message.
The first thing his client did when Hidan opened the door to his apartment was chuck a lamp at his head. Hidan didn't flinch as the lamp whizzed past his head and smashed against the wall. It wasn't the first time he threw something at Hidan, and this time most likely won't be the last. With a triumphant grin on his face, Hidan plopped on the couch and pulled his feet up on the coffee table as he watched his client pace the floor, grumbling incoherent curses and flaying his arms in the air as he damned Hidan to Hell. Jashin, this guy was hilarious to watch.
"I already fucking told you she was in Konoha," he hissed at Hidan, who grinned. "Why the hell did you go to the pub?"
Hidan began to zone off as his client began to babble about slicing Hidan's limbs off and dumping them in the ocean. A heart shaped face with angelic, hazel eyes and curly blonde hair pressed against a sweaty forehead and neck replaced the image of the fuming client. Hidan grinned again; he scared the living shit out of everyone at the rundown pub…especially that cute, blonde chick. He should have taken her there and then; no one would care if he had some fun.
"You're damn lucky ANBU didn't catch you, or this, my plan would be ruined."
Ino was the last time Hidan had any real fun. Hearing her terrorized screaming echoed in his head and the memories of her blood spilling scarlet on the sheets as he drove a kunai through her body sent a surge of ecstasy throughout his body. A sensation of exhilaration cumulated deep in his stomach as he continued to remember that night and all that pain he brought the blonde woman, paying no heed to the hooded man ranting about Hidan and his stupidity.
Hidan regretted not taking that girl back at the pub. She'd be better than Ino, he believed. With such untainted, virtuous eyes and delicate, unscarred skin, that blonde never experienced true pain, the type of pain that made one beg for death. Hidan crumpled under the images his imagination supplied him; the way he pictured her underneath him while withering in pain was unbearable.
"Are you fucking listening to me, Hidan?"
"Yes."
The cloaked client sighed and massaged his temple. "Don't ever set foot there again unless I tell you otherwise. Everything will be ruined if you do."
"Can't you forget about that girl—Ino or whatever the hell her name is? She's no threat to your plan if she's in Konoha."
"I want revenge, Hidan. I want to kill every single person that he has felt some connection to, starting with his fucking employees then his family, until he's the very last one. He'll beg me for death."
Hidan rolled his eyes. This guy was some lunatic…. "So, you're telling me I have to go to Konoha just to kill the girl and come back? That seems like a waste of time and my life." Hidan mentally grinned at his little joked. See, he was immortal…which means he can't die, and he had all the time in the world. HA. Funny, funny.
"Hm, no, I have a plan."
Fuck him and his plans.
"Didn't I tell you to wash your dishes, Shikamaru!"
Nightmares woke up people, and those said people want to fall back asleep, but from the roar of his mother's voice hollering from the kitchen, Shikamaru just woke into a nightmare and he wished he could fall back asleep. Waking up to a furious mother who was always tyrannical and borderline insane had 'rough day' written all over it.
"Sorry!" he cried, jumping out of bed and rushing towards the kitchen to see his mother in the motion of chucking a dirty plate at his face. Shikamaru caught the plate and placed it on the table. "Didn't Dad tell you to stop throwing things, especially plates? We can't afford buying a new set of plates every week."
"Then clean them!"
Shikamaru slouched and wished he could shrink three sizes to hide from his mother's vicious glower, but suddenly, she smiled and walked out of the kitchen, hands balled up at her side as she marched done the hallway. "The plates better be clean when I get back," she sang.
Good grief, he'd never understand women and their psychopathic ways.
Shikamaru sideway glanced at the clock since he was so fear stricken that he was unable to check the time before getting out of bed. "Are you joking me?" he growled as the slapped the water on and dumped his hands into the suds and the steaming water. Washing dishes was the last thing Shikamaru wanted to do at five in the morning—actually, it was the last thing he wanted to do, period. "It's five in the morning," he ranted to no one in particular besides himself. "What kind of mother does this to her son?"
"Shikamaru, are you talking?"
"Eh, no."
"Honey, you didn't do the laundry!" Shikamaru winced at the sound of his mother's growl, followed by a crash and a whimper. There was something, or rather someone missing, in this chaotic event. Shikamaru grinned when his father began to beg for forgiveness, and he'll do the laundry as soon as possible, just give him five minutes to pee.
Everything was in place, and the typical Nara morning was underway, but Shikamaru had a feeling that the day ahead was going to be that kind of day, the day where the world pummeled him into the ground with mishaps and the feeling of utter failure. Yup, he can feel it coming on, and the feeling multiplied when Yoshino charged in screaming he was washing the dishes wrong….
Sakura woke to her alarm clock boisterously ringing the the distant background, muffled by her closed bedroom door. How come it sounded so far away? Sighing, Sakura opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling fan spinning slowly above her, and at the corner of her eye, she noticed blonde hair peeking over the couch cushion.
"Ino?" the rosette called, reaching up and poking the closest part of Ino she could touch.
"That's my butt."
"It's very nice."
"Shut up."
Sakura smiled and sat up, looking around at her surroundings. Well, she fell asleep on the living room floor, and for some reason she allowed Ino to take the couch over her. She must have been drunk….
Wait, no.
"What happened last night? Did I come in drunk?" she asked Ino who rolled onto her side, facing the couch rather than Sakura who rubbed her temple for any sign of a headache. No headache…. "Ino, what happened?"
"I was crying…last night, and you sat there until I fell asleep." As if Ino knew Sakura's next question, she said, "Temari and I talked last night." How funny. "She told me I'm worthless, a waste of life and," Ino paused, sheepishly laughing as she turned on her back, tears slowly spilling from the corner of her eyes. Sakura wiped them away with her thumb, "she said to stay away from Shikamaru because apparently, I'm a waste of his time, too."
Sakura's eyes fell onto Ino's round stomach, the stomach that supposedly held Shikamaru's baby, but she didn't believe that—and she would never tell Ino she thought differently. Unless Shikamaru and Ino slept together before she left for Kumogakure, there would be no way—wait, even that didn't make sense. That would leave her eight months pregnant.
Six months pregnant would mean she conceived about two months into her mission, and Shikamaru didn't leave until she was three months into the mission, so how could it be possible that Shikamaru was the father?
"Don't worry about anything Temari says, all right?" Sakura smiled, patting Ino on the shoulder before standing up. "What she says isn't true. If Shikamaru thought you were a waste of his time, do you really think he'd willingly come here to spend time with you?"
Ino returned the smile, but the light didn't rise to her eyes. "Don't do anything rash."
Did she notice how stiff Sakura stood? Or the very thought of Temari sent her into maddening fury to the point where she saw red? Sakura waved her off, hoping that would ease Ino a little. "Don't be silly," she said with a laugh, a fake one but maybe Ino didn't catch it. "I'm late for work now. I'll see you when I get home."
"Here are the proctors Temari and I have agreed to," Shikamaru said as he handed the folders that held the pending proctors' information. "We need you to narrow them down to twenty-three, and we'll work from there."
"Done. Here you go."
"Eh! But—"
"Everyone is valid for the job, but you do understand that we're in need of thirty proctors, right? You only have twenty-seven. Also, you're missing some of the proctors' health reports. It's important you supply that information as well. How long have you been doing this, Shikamaru?"
Shikamaru snatched the file away from his superior and snorted at her question, receiving a raised brow from her. "The health reports just slipped my mind, that's all, and we've had twenty-three proctors every year. No one informed me that we needed thirty, and I'm the head of all this," he hissed.
Tsunade smirked. "Excuses! I want everything on my desk soon. The exams are approaching, and if we're not prepared, the exams are going to be…interesting to say the least."
"I understand that. I supposed I'll gather those health reports…and recruit more people."
"Please work on that. I'm counting on you, Shikamaru." Great, just what he needed—more pressure.
Shikamaru trudged down the steps and made his way over to the hospital, fumbling through the files and noting which proctors needed their health reports. All but one needed their reports. Good grief.
"Oh, hey, Sakura, I was wondering—" Nothing in the world could prepare him from a surprise, chakra filled sucker punch from the Hokage's apprentice, sending him on his ass and skidding across the tiles, knocking down innocent bystanders who were at the wrong place at the wrong time.
"You think you can come up to me like that, thinking everything is grand and all right?" Sakura snarled, stomping up to him and shoving him into the wall with a tight grip on his collar. Shikamaru heard of the rosette's temper, but what the hell did he do to deserve the receiving end of this? "Don't look at me like that; what do you have to say for yourself?"
"Why the hell did you sock me?" Shikamaru groaned as the pain finally set into his left cheek.
"You're damned girlfriend that's why." Sakura released Shikamaru who slid down the wall and pressed a hand to his face, a bruise starting to set into his skin. "I've never been so mad at you, Shikamaru! You're a two-timing, cheating, two faced asshole!"
The people in the hallway seemed to have cleared the area considering the background noise was hushed. Shikamaru peeked around the hovering medic to see no one stirred in the hallway besides him and Sakura. "I really don't understand what is going on here."
"Have you been telling Temari Ino's a waste of your time and that everyone hates her?" Sakura enquired, fists clenching in preparation for another punch.
"What, no! Why would I say something like that? Ino's my—"
"Temari cornered her last night and threatened her. What kind of person does that?" Sakura hollered. "She said Ino was a waste and told her to stay away from you."
"Why are you yelling at me for this? You should really be beating Temari, not me." It was true. Shikamaru knew nothing about this, but what was more interesting was why would Temari do such a thing when their relationship was strictly benefits, no strings attached? Jealous, maybe, and with that, another question arises: did that mean she knew about Ino's and Shikamaru's situation?
"You're confused, Shikamaru."
"What?"
"Your feelings," Sakura calmly responded. She sat down and looked him in the eyes. "You keep a relationship with Temari, but you have a baby on the way with Ino. I don't know if you have feelings for Ino or not, but you're having a baby. Fooling around with another woman isn't very fatherly, is it?" Shikamaru opened his mouth to responded, but Sakura raised a hand. "You need to get your priorities straight because how you're going about is not right. It's not fair to Ino, the baby, and…Temari." Sakura sneered at the Suna girl's name.
He sighed, glaring at Sakura's shoes. Shikamaru never noticed how "confused"—detached would be a better term to describe his feelings really—he was when it came to the two girls. Shikamaru did agree to be the baby's father, but did he really understand the concept of being a father? No, he didn't. Shikamaru, subconsciously no doubt, ran away from Ino and her baby, running into Temari's arms who knew just what to do to erase all feelings of anxiety and fear.
"I'll take care of everything," Shikamaru promised, smiling at the young woman sitting across from him. He stood up and held a helping hand for Sakura, who took it. "Is Ino home?"
"Yeah, she's pretty beat up about the whole Temari thing. It's odd Ino actually took it…."
"Right…." Ino taking Temari's trash was beyond uncharacteristic. If anything, Temari could be sporting a black eye and possible internal bleeding. Moreover, Ino actually taking what Temari said to heart? Even more unusual… "I'm going to talk to her. Oh, and can you copy the health records for these—where'd it go?"
Shikamaru swore he had his folders in his hand…. Oh, right, Sakura punched him and sent everything in his hands flying.
Sure enough, down the hall, in the waiting room, Shikamaru saw the blue folder sitting on the floor and the accumulated records scattered around it…with little kids drawing silly mustaches on the pictures in bright pink crayon. Awesome.
Temari was the type to confront and be rather aggressive if the situation presented the time to be such, but Ino didn't do anything to to piss her off—well, besides that she's pregnant with "his" child, but Temari couldn't be jealous over that, could she? Temari was the one to say their relationship was sexual, no strings attached, and it seemed he was the only one to stick to it.
Shikamaru ran on adrenaline as he marched up the stairs as if he were on a mission and when he came to Ino's door, about to knock, he froze. What would Ino do?
He sucked it up and knocked.
Back in Kumogakure, he remembered seeing her for the first time, the sunken, dead eyes and the paleness. Ino opened the door, and it was as if he relived the said moment. Her hair stuck to her cheeks, her neck, her forehead and her eyes were tainted with red, from a day's worth of crying.
Before Shikamaru could say anything, Ino slammed the door in his face.
"Ino, we need to talk!" He pounded the door and twisted the doorknob, but it wouldn't budge.
"I'm only doing what your girlfriend said! Stay away from me, Shikamaru. Apparently, you'd rather be with Temari. That's really fine with me. This child and I don't need you whatsoever! Don't talk to me anymore!"
Leaning against the door, Shikamaru begged, "Open the door, please. I messed up with you and…Temari. If you just open the door, we can talk and—"
"Leave!"
"Listen, I'm sorry, Ino," he said hastily, hoping Ino didn't walk away from the door. He waited there for several long minutes, waiting for Ino to open the door and allow him to speak, but the television played loudly beyond the door, drowning out Shikamaru's pleas and knocks.
A while ago, Asuma advised him to leave Ino alone unless she asked for help and condolence, so Shikamaru left.
He walked past the hospital where Sakura told him to go after he spoke with Ino; he walked past home where his mother told him he needed to come after work to clean the house. He walked into an inn and ghosted to the familiar door, knocking on it before he could understand what he was doing.
"Shikamaru, what are you doing here?"
He leaned forward and kissed her, wanting to forget what just happened, to forget what the day of mishaps and the feeling of utter failure, get rid of the hurtful words that echoed in his mind and felt heavy on his chest and to rid Ino's voice ringing in his ears. For a few hours, he just wanted to forget.
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Have a glorious day.