Disclaimer: Despite my imagination, I own none of these characters.

Chapter 4: Had a Bad Day

Ino had seen better days. It did not help that it was exactly two days before her father's birthday, meaning it was nearly two months since the arrogant douche had last spoken to her—on the phone anyways. Two months and a week since they'd spoken in person. The rapid change between speaking to him every single day and now no longer hearing a single word took a toll on her.

Matters were not improving when she had her wisdom teeth out in that small time gap. All four at once, and her uncle did the surgery. Her uncle; as in her father's brother. What happened to patient confidentiality? Ino's mother called to tell the father of her daughter what would be happening, and when the man was unable to reach either of those two females he called his brother. From the call Ino's mother received the day Ino was drugged from the surgery, the doctor had told all. Seriously, what happened to patient confidentiality? Just because they were family should make no difference whatsoever.

It did not help either when one particularly stressful weekend erupted. Ino was spending time with family friends at her aunt's house when a siren went off and they all stopped to look at the cop cars piling into the cul-de-sac. When the ambulance came after the mother was arrested the girls felt sick; a toddler had been stabbed to death by their mother in front of their siblings. The next two steps in this disastrous weekend involved a call from Temari, who was at the hospital because her friend's mom had fallen ill during their road trip. The last straw was when Sakura called and said simply "we're going to the hospital."

"What? Why?" Ino felt that trademark lump in her stomach before Sakura even continued.

"Yuu broke his neck," Sakura had said before explaining more.

So it was no wonder Ino was in a slump the following Monday, the one leading up to her father's birthday which happened to be just under two months after her own birthday when he had stopped talking to her.

What a way to spend your seventeenth year, right?

It was lunchtime, and Ino found herself greeting acquaintances as she came back from the bathroom. If only they had any idea…would I have to fake this smile then? Ino wondered and just continued to go with the flow of the crowd towards the table.

Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw a single white rose on her lunchbox. She frowned slightly and noted that Shino was sitting next to her and had not gotten her back for the tampon incident yet. Was there a worm in there or something?

"I was just kidding and he got us all flowers!" Temari swung hers around and Ino blinked. Sure enough, all the girls at the table had flowers. Sakura was absent, oddly enough, and Ino also hid a smirk when she noticed that Ayame's rose was red and had a few more buds than anyone else's. "They came by selling roses, and I said he should be a gentleman and get us roses. Then he whips out five dollars and gets us each one!"

"How come I didn't get one?" Naruto complained in a teasing tone.

"I'm sorry," Shino said, not missing a beat. "I just don't love you enough."

The table erupted in laughter as Naruto smiled softly, it looked like he did not have a come back for that one. It was a landmark; Shino was getting more social.

"Thanks, Shino," Ino said as she sat down, still a little surprised.

xXx

"So her mom is fine and she's already back home," Temari said about her friend's mom that had been in the hospital as they walked to class after lunch. Shino was trailing along behind silently as they chatted.

"Good… God, that was a crazy weekend," Ino muttered.

"Hey," Temari frowned and Ino mumbled an apology for taking the lord's name in vain. Ino felt it a dumb commandment, but then again she was agnostic so she basically thought that of all of them.

"Oh and by the way," Shino finally broke into their conversation. "I finally got my revenge."

"What?" Ino was taken aback. He'd actually done something? No way…

"And they're in your backpack, in the small pocket in the back," Shino continued.

"You realize that by retaliating you've started a war," Ino raised an eyebrow as Temari giggled.

"Yes, but do keep in mind, I warned you," Shino said as Ino was reaching for the pocket already.

"I'll remember, that was a nice thing," Ino reached in and rolled her eyes. Trojan wrappers. At first she'd thought he had shoved candy wrappers in there, but it was the wrappers from Trojans. "You're kidding… is this it?"

"What?" Temari poked her head in and Ino showed her.

"Here, I'll throw them away," Shino took the two wrappers and squished them in his hand as they walked.

"That's not even worth retaliation…" the blonde was now laughing. It had taken every ounce of courage for him to do that. Should they show him better ideas? Probably not, it might result in a heart attack.

"Next time you should get a condom and put whipped cream in it, then tie it off," Temari suggested with a wicked grin.

Shino and Ino waved off Temari as they continued towards their classes, still talking about better ways to do the condom prank. Or any prank, for that matter. Ino heard someone yelling her name but ignored it. The yelling got closer and she recognized the voice: Naruto. She sighed and wondered what on earth he could want after seeing her at lunch, then an idea occurred to her.

"Ino—" Naruto was still yelling.

"NO, I will NOT sleep with you!" she screamed at him and turned back around.

"But Ino, I love you…" Naruto trailed off and she could not help but grin. They had both just checked something off of the list.

"That doesn't count," Shino said plainly.

"Yeah it does," Ino retorted, only to be denied again. They continued until they got to class.

Well, perhaps today was not so bad after all if they kept her entertained like this.

xXx

As mentioned before, many words ago, Ino and Tenten are best friends. They do not have the convenience of conversing easily during lunch, but they make up for it in other ways. Like going on a mini-road trip, this counted for another item on the weird list. Well, on Ino's list anyway. Tenten was actually the scorekeeper since there was about 99 percent of the list that she would not do.

"Okay, so this is where my mom's sister lives," Ino said as they pulled into a small country town. It was about twenty minutes from where they lived, and a beautiful place to be. Ino led her old friend over to a part of main street and stopped near an overlook.

"Wow, it's so pretty," Tenten said when they got out of Ino's truck to admire the view.

"Right about here," Ino indicated where they were standing. "They had a pirate display during their summer festival, and they had guns and a cannon. The cannon was fired a few times, and they had set times they could do it because people were acting below."

"Where?" Tenten looked down and Ino pointed. The hill was huge and very steep, but a small trail with a miniature park and a large gazebo could be seen.

"Actually, I've never been down there. Want to go?" Ino smiled at her friend and they went over to a nearby stair way and went to look. Tenten was always good for her. Ino soon found herself forgetting her family problems, and just enjoyed her good old friend's company.

As always, they ended the day with a traditional chick-flick marathon at Ino's house.