Day 60 cont.

Ino couldn't move. She couldn't speak. She couldn't even hear the roar of the crowd around her. Even more, she could only see the tragic sight before her: her boyfriend clasped in the hands of another woman. A woman she despised.

And thought he did, too.

A fire began to burn deep inside her, all of her pent of frustration and anger toward the could-be (and now actual) relationship between Shikamaru and Tayuya that she thought was gone for good began to build up. The fire rose through her stomach, licked at her lungs, and finally made it to her throat, where she growled and roared.

"Shikamaru!"

Shikamaru finally broke away from Tayuya, "No, Ino, it's not what it looks like!"

"That's what they all say!" She cried, on the verge of a fit of tears. She ran into the crowd and as far away from him as she could before he could see her cry. She couldn't be the vulnerable one in a situation like this, not ever.

She reached the end of the massive crowd at the beginning of the main hallway that led to the classrooms. The teachers didn't let anyone pass until the first bell, so she leaned against a wall and fell to her feet, finally letting herself break down and cry.

I thought he hated her too. I thought he had promised me he wouldn't fall for her tricks. She sniffed and let out a small sob, I guess you just lied to me, huh Shikamaru!?

"Is everything all right, miss?" A voice was heard above her. She slowly lifted her head and wiped her eyes, gazing up at her visitor. "How can I help?"

She only sobbed more.

That day during chemistry, Ino lucked out and didn't have to do a lab. She didn't want to deal with Shikamaru at the moment. He caught the vibe and didn't approach her, and they didn't speak at all through their first two classes. She only stared at him, eyes full of mixed feelings of sadness, anger, and disappointment.

"She looks depressed."

"Of course she looks freaking depressed Naruto, her boyfriend is cheating on her!"

"But it looks like more than just that, though! Like… I don't know the word."

"Erm… guys? Maybe you should… uh… tone it down a little."

Ino agreed with Hinata whole-heartedly, but didn't say a word. At lunch, she had decided to move from Choji and Shikamaru's table over to Hinata's (which, coincidentally, was also where Shino and Naruto sat and where Sakura sometimes sat, as she usually switched between that table and Ino's old one) to avoid confrontation with one certain lazy bastard. Now she lay her forehead on her arms, staring down at her feet while her lunch mates chatted cautiously. She didn't really feel like eating today.

"It's all right Ino. I'm sure…"

"Shhh! Don't talk about it."

Ino took a deep breath and exhaled, trying her best not to think too much about that morning. But no matter what she did, her thoughts stuck to that horrifying sight from that morning, as if it were the wallpaper of her mind. It made her draw in a sharp breath every so often, and she could barely keep suppressing the urge to cry.

"Shikamaru's no good for you anyway, Ino, I told you that already." A new voice entered the conversation, the same one from that morning. Ino looked up and saw her visitor, the one who comforted her for the first few minutes of her trauma and prepared her for the next two hours where she'd still have to look at and deal with her betrayer.

Sakura growled at the newcomer, "Sai, have you always had this lunch!?"

"Yes."

Sakura drummed her fingers against the table and shook her head, "Whatever. Kindly get out of Ino's face. Ino, don't believe a word he says. He already tried to steal you from him once, remember?"

"It's all right." Ino mumbled. Sai smiled and laid a hand gently onto her shoulder, causing Sakura to growl with frustration.

"Ino, I thought you hated him!"

"He really helped me out this morning though, Sakura. He helped me calm down."

"Shikamaru is not a trustworthy relationship partner, it's already been proven once this morning." Sai said coolly. "And before Ino came to this school he only had eyes for Temari."

"You didn't even go here then!"

"I have my sources."

"Well, obviously Shikamaru loves Ino more than Temari!"

"Not more than Tayuya, it seems."

Ino choked a sob right there. Sakura silenced herself and turned away.

"Just go away Sai."

Sai smiled mysteriously and bent down to hug Ino, "I'll talk to you later. How about I give you a ride home today instead of your usual?"

"That'd be nice."

"See you then." He smiled again and waved to the table before leaving.

Sakura scoffed, "I don't believe this."

"Sai is nothing but a load of bull, Sakura." Naruto chewed on his chicken-fried steak viciously. "I hate him, I wanna slap him in the face."

"But maybe he really does mean well? I mean, Ino seems to look up to him now."

Naruto paused, mouth wide open, "Whose side are you on, Hinata!?"

"Eep! Sorry…"

"If it counts for anything," Shino spoke up, his arms crossed and leaning on the table. He didn't even make eye contact with anyone else, but instead just stared at the table, "Tayuya didn't even seem in tune the other night when I was tutoring her. She didn't even show interest. Looked angry and revengeful the whole time."

"Like she was planning something?"

"Exactly."

Ino let out a moan of sadness, causing the entire table to fall silent. The air hung heavy around them, all knowing she was uncomfortable with discussing the situation at hand, but all wanting to think of an excuse for it themselves. It wasn't until Naruto spoke up, loud and proud, that they were able to pardon the heavy silence.

"So how about this food, eh? Continued crap!"

"Hey kids! It's Friday! Guess what that means!?"

The entire gym class stared at Coach Gai lazily. No one ever responded to his enthusiasm (except for Lee, of course). As for Ino, she didn't care what was so exciting about Friday, except for the fact that it was the end of the school week and she had two days ahead of her where she could mope and cry about Shikamaru without having to see him, thereby possibly getting over the whole ordeal.

"Look at you kids," Gai shook his head, disappointed, "How un-youthful of you all! I can believe how such young teens can be so lazy!"

"It sickens me, Coach Gai!"

"It sickens me too, Lee!" Gai crossed his arms, "Well, Friday means Dodge ball!"

"OH! ME! I WANNA BE CAPTAIN!"

"Good Naruto!" Gai smiled brightly and gave him a thumbs up, "Way to get in the game! Captains are Naruto and…" He scanned the room, before dramatically thrusting a hand forward and pointing at his victim, "Shikamaru!"

Shikamaru merely let out a lazy groan and obliged. The entire class stood up from their attendance-check spots on the ground and huddled together, as per teenage tradition where another person of close age range is within two feet of you at all times. Naruto and Shikamaru stood before them.

Naruto, instead of instantly shouting Sakura's name as he always did, glanced coldly over to Shikamaru, apparently in thought. Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at him, "Go on, you pick first."

Naruto slit his eyes before turning back to the crowd, "Ino!"

Sakura and Ino exchanged surprised glances (as the rest of the class probably did too) before Ino proceeded to join Naruto's team. He and the rest of their friends must have decided that she was not to be within any close distance (probably ten, fifteen feet at a minimum) of Shikamaru until they could sort out the ordeal themselves. For her own safety, of course. As Ino took her place beside Naruto and Shikamaru was up to bat to choose a teammate, she looked over to her supposed-boyfriend. He bit his lip, eyebrows furrowed and face twisted into an expression of disappointment and regret. He probably wanted the chance of sharing a team to explain himself to Ino. She, however, did not want to hear his story though. They were all the same, anyway.

Once the teams were set, they were separated to either side of the court. Gai and Lee set the three dodge balls on the center line in a quick fashion. Naruto, as always, poised himself just over the edge of the boundary line before the game began so he could make a sprint for one of them (he was the only one who took gym class seriously, and yet he had his ass handed to him more times than most of them could count). Ino surveyed her own team: Naruto and Sakura, of course. Then a few of the other usual people, Hinata and Shino. Their team was usually built on bonds, not on whether anyone was a good player or not (Shikamaru had usually been on this team if Temari didn't snatch him up first, but due to recent circumstances he obviously wasn't.) One rather unusual person had joined them today, however. Temari stood not far away, grumbling about not being on Shikamaru's team and what not, and not wanting to be on the same team as a bunch of losers. Ino rolled her eyes at her, she was just as annoying as she ever was.

The whistle was blown, and Naruto tackled the first dodge ball in a split second, hurling it before anyone else could reach center court. Ino herself didn't move much more than half an inch, which was just to shift her legs so she wouldn't lock them and faint. She honestly didn't care if she was hit or not, and just wanted the day to be over.

She saw a flash of white before her, and before she knew it reflexes had caused her to catch a dodge ball that had been hurling for her stomach. Those few members of her team that were already out cheered, and one of them charged back into the game. She looked ahead at the opposing team. Shikamaru still stood there, not out yet but not intending to stay in much longer. His teammates whizzed around him, running too and fro trying to catch balls and throw them back.

Ino squeezed the plush ball between her hands as her anger rose once more. Shikamaru blinked at stared at her, his eyelids resting lazily on his eyeballs and his eyebrows arched only slightly, as if he were apologizing. She looked back in resentment.

She clutched the dodge ball hard, her fingers threatening to rip into the plush it was made of. She was mad at him, she knew it. She wasn't going to cry about his betrayal to her anymore. She was going to do something about it.

One second later, Ino pulled one hand back, the hand the held the dodge ball. She thrust it forward with all her might, throwing it with such a force that all a spectator could see was a long blur of white from the extent of her hand to Shikamaru's stomach.

It made contact, and he had the wind literally knocked out of him. Shikamaru fell to the ground, gasping for breath."

"Shikamaru, out!"

Ino was growling, glaring, and anything else you could imagine that would express her anger at the moment. The entire room stared at her in disbelief (with exception to Shikamaru, who was crawling over to the wall where he could rest, and was frankly scared out of his wits), name Temari, who stood only a few feet away.

She whistled, "Damn, Ino. He must have really messed up."

The rumors apparently hadn't reached the senior class yet.

Ino slumped over onto the bar, swiveling her lower half on the barstool as she stared straight ahead, angry and annoyed, at the drink machines in front of her. She wanted to avoid sitting at home, alone, at the moment since she didn't want to deal with the inflicting torture that would bring her, so she decided to follow Sai to work after school. He worked, to her surprise, at the local bar (how he got that job at his age, she didn't know). It was much different than her usual Friday afternoon, when she would usually follow Shikamaru home and chill with him there, but they weren't exactly on speaking terms at the moment.

"Here you are, one cherry limeade."

Ino didn't lift her head and instead just shifted her eyes to the side to look at the drink, "Why is there is a little umbrella in it?"

"I thought it would lift your spirits."

"But that's only for Polynesian drinks."

"So?"

Ino looked at Sai intensely before finally lifting her head and pinching the straw of her drink and stirring it. She took a small sip and exhaled. Sai smiled and leaned on the bar from the serving side, right in front of her.

"So, do you want to hear a summary of the gossip floating around school today?"

Ino groaned inwardly. She honestly had hoped Sai would be able to keep her mind off of Shikamaru this afternoon, but instead hear he went, bringing up the tragic event. It had been just fine up until now: in the car they traded stories, him about his job and her about her moving. She had gotten to look around his apartment while he prepared for work earlier, checking out all the artwork (by him, of course) lining his walls like wallpaper. She'd learned that he was living on his own here in Konoha, with his parents funding his apartment as long as he kept good grades. He had left Roots due to them thinking it was damaging his well-being, as he'd become more and more emotionally disconnected since the death of a close friend of his in a car accident. "A change of scenery would be good for him," they had said.

Ino never knew there was such a complicated and frankly sorrowful side to a boy that had once tried to break she and Shikamaru apart. Now he only wanted to help.

She sighed. Talking about it now as better than later. "Shoot."

"Well, I heard that back when Temari was new to this school, he actually had a crush on her."

Ino shot her eyes at him in mid-sip of her cherry limeade, expressing the emotion "You freaking LIE" as best she could. Sai sweat-dropped and continued.

"What I'm saying, is, he's had a thing for every new girl at our school."

Ino chewed on her straw while her mind refused to take any of this in. Shikamaru had loved her, she knew it. She wasn't just another new girl to him. She couldn't be.

…but he had taken to Tayuya quite quickly.

"Don't you think it'll just blow over once she leaves, though?"

"I don't know, Ino." Sai shrugged and looked away, "She might transfer. Or either of them might opt for a long-distance relationship."

Ino pushed her drink aside and buried her head in her hands, "I really don't want to think about this right now."

"I know, Ino." He patted her shoulder. She looked up at him briefly, taking in the sympathetic look in his eyes, before burying her face back into her hands and trying to sustain anymore sobs. It was going to be a terrible weekend.

"Sai, you wouldn't mind spending the day with me tomorrow? I don't want to be along just yet."

"No problem. We'll see a movie, my treat."

She nodded, her face still hidden by her hands. He smiled mysteriously.

Oh Sai, you terrible person.

I think the award for most hilarious review goes to The Filipina Dreamer. I laughed so hard. (Doggone2dog was pretty clever with the Cookie Monster thing, too.)

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