Day 61
Sai picked Ino up late Saturday morning, and the drove to the Studio Movie Grill to see Sydney White (Ino had been wanting to see it for ages but could never get Shikamaru to take her). The split a pizza and enjoyed the movie, laughing at it all the way through and agreed that "Dopey" (there were too many names, they could never remember them all past the second they were mentioned, so they called the seven Vortex boys by their would-be dwarf names) was the most hilarious out of them all. "Happy" came in a close second, and they decided that "Doc" had been re-dubbed "Horny."
One funny movie, an eleven-inch pizza, and two milkshakes later, they walked out of the theatre, laughing and repeating their favorite moments of the movie. Sai then drove Ino down the street to the local mall, where they decided to wander until they could think of something else to do.
As they passed Hollister (where Ino was seriously thinking of using her credit card to buy an awesome new shirt on sale), Ino spotted an array of black and green out of the corner of her eye. She abruptly turned her head and looked towards the atrium twenty feet away.
"What's up?" Sai asked. Ino squinted her eyes and shrugged.
"I don't know, I thought I saw something."
"Probably nothing important." He stuffed his hands in his pockets, "Hey, there's mini golf upstairs. Wanna go check it out?"
"Uh…" Ino scanned the atrium again, "Sure…"
She was about to turn around to follow him, but finally spotted what she was searching for. A black-haired boy was standing in the middle of the atrium, looking at a map and frantically turning his head this way and that. He wore a pale green shirt and jeans, and his hair was tied back in a peculiar ponytail. He spun around, and his eyes locked with hers.
"Ino!"
She bit her lip, "Shikamaru?"
He ran towards her, panting and sweating. He looked troubled and sleep deprived, and odd circumstance for such a lazy bastard. "I hoped I would find you here! Why won't you return any of my calls?"
She didn't answer.
"Listen, I have to explain this to you. What happened yesterday-"
"Shika-a-a-a!"
Ino grimaced at the squeal from behind. The pink haired, evil, maniacal flutist waved one arm wildly from behind and she walked toward them.
"Shikamaru, I've been looking all over for you! What are we doing for our date today?" She latched onto his arm, smiling sweetly at him before turning her head to smile evilly at Ino. The Yamanaka pursed her lips and held her ground.
"Date? We never-"
"Oh silly Shika, always forgetting." She sighed a fake sigh before tugging his arm, "Remember yesterday morning? After we-"
"Shut up!" Ino yelled. She clenched one fist, ready for action, but Sai's hands grabbed it before she could make a move.
"Ignore them." He said softly, "They're worthless to you now."
She calmed down, nodded, and turned her back to the Nara boy. Sai was right. They were worthless to her. He was worthless to her.
"Consider us over Shikamaru. Past over, even. I don't even want to speak to you now."
They walked away.
Day 63
Ino sighed as she wearily listened to another one of Iruka's long lectures in Chemistry. She'd lucked out again – no lab today. She purposely made sure to keep her head turned away from Shikamaru throughout the period since she knew he was watching her. He had called her at least ten times the day before, and the second he got into class (hair in a mess and the bags of his eyes even darker), he had tried to throw some crappy explanation at her, but she had plugged her ears instantly. She couldn't stand the sound of his voice right now.
But her thoughts wouldn't stray away from his face; the peaceful way he looked when he slept, the lazy smile that always lingered on his face when he was around her, and the chocolate brown depths of his eyes that always rested on her. He was like the screensaver of her mind's desktop, and the computer was frozen.
He pained her to think of the break up that weekend. When the bell rang to release class, she shoved her books in her bag and bolted from the room, gaining as much distance between herself and Shikamaru as she could on her way to English. It definitely was a pain to have every single class with him.
Sai was already in his desk when she stepped in the door.
"You look distraught." He mentioned monotonously. She averted her gaze to the ground and sighed.
"Yeah," she threw her purple backpack onto the ground beneath her desk and sat down, "whatever."
"Anything I can do?"
She drummed her fingers against her knees and sighed, the rubbed them against the rough fabric of her jeans, "You think you could… talk to him for me? Get the story from him so I don't have to? I want to know what happened, to be fair, but… I just can't stand to look at his face right now… it hurts too much."
Sai paused for a moment and stared at Ino, who wasn't even looking back, just at her legs. Then he smiled mysteriously again, and nodded, "Sure."
Ino looked up at him with a weak smile, "Thanks."
"No problem."
Ino did her best, as expected, to completely avoid Shikamaru for the rest of the day. She sat at Hinata's lunch table again and once again did not eat her noontime meal, but instead just sat quietly wit her head resting on her arms as the others chattered around her. She picked up a few words about The Sound Five at the beginning of the conversation and instantly tuned herself out. She didn't have a part of this anymore, since hers and Shikamaru's target obviously had no interest in her mission.
And apparently, the five were leaving that Friday.
"I heard Choji kicked Jiroubou's ass in wrestling the other day." Naruto laughed, "And Neji got Kidoumaru in some martial arts contest the other day. Dunno where that one came up." He raised his Styrofoam cup to his lips and took a large gulp of pink lemonade.
"There's some ongoing stand-off between Kiba and Ukon," Sakura reported, "It's like a cycle of revenge. After Ukon realized Kiba was keeping tabs on him, he snuck into Kiba's yard and attacked Akamaru. Crazy guy, if you ask me. Kiba caught him before he got away, though, and threw some sharp stones at him. Hit him really bad right here," she pointed to the lower right of her stomach, "Then Ukon brought his brother into the picture, and they all just keep attacking one another!"
"Hey! Plus!" Naruto interjected, slamming his drink onto the table, "Lee said he'd stand in for me to watch Kimimaro so I can better concentrate on Sasuke! Awesome, huh?"
The entire table proceeded to roll their eyes, even Hinata. They all knew that Naruto had already been neglecting his job of preventing Kimimaro from enticing Sasuke into transferring to Oto Academy. He'd always been to busy bothering the Uchiha himself.
"At least Lee has some sense."
"What?"
"Nothing."
"Hey," Sakura whispered, trying not to let Ino hear her, "What about Tayuya? I saw her meeting with Sasuke early one morning before school. What's she been up to?"
"Who knows…"
That's when Ino realized it: Tayuya's illusion.
Ino was sure now she had it all figured out. It all depended on Sai to clear out Shikamaru's story for her.
When school let out, she waited for Sai in their designated area: at the bottom of the main stairwell in the main hallway. He always took a while to meet her there, his class being across the school. It wasn't until most of the crowd had dispersed that he finally arrived.
"Hello." Sai smiled mysteriously as he approached Ino.
"Hey," she crossed her arms, "So, what did he say?"
"Excuse me?"
"Shikamaru! Remember, I asked you to talk to him for me? I saw you speak in English. What did he say?"
"Oh, that." Sai nudged her forward so they could walk as he told her, "Let me see… what did he say?"
"Sai!"
"All right, all right." He laughed softly, but then his face grew solemn, "You see, he said that she pushed herself onto him that day they kissed."
"Really?" Ino grinned widely.
"Yes. But…"
"What do you mean but?"
"You see, he was so enticed by the kiss that he couldn't make himself pull away."
Ino didn't say anything, just looked away. She raised one arm to shift the backpack on her shoulders and rub her other arm.
Sai looked down on and smiled apologetically, "Do you want to go somewhere today?"
"No. Just take me home."
Day 64
Just past midnight, and Ino was still staring at her cell phone.
It had been that was since she got home. She'd set it right next to her as she did her homework, looking up every now and then to glance at the tiny sub LCD screen that flickered the time on the front of her Motorola RAZR phone. She skipped dinner that night, continuing the stare at the phone, all because she couldn't decide if she should call him or not. Would it be worth it, after all?"
She picked up the phone and scrolled through her address book, highlighting his name. She would just have to push one button…
What would it hurt? She'd only get the full story, wouldn't she? …or would he lie? She'd been skeptical lately anyway, after all.
A moment later full of thought, she only sighed and pressed the 'talk' button. She had to talk to him about it now, and she was sure she'd be able to handle it now.
The phone rang twice before he answered, "Hello?" He yawned.
"Shikamaru."
"Ino!" He nearly shouted, and then she could hear him slap a hand over his mouth, probably cursing himself for causing noise that could possibly wake up his parents. It was after midnight, after all. Which, by the way, puzzled her, because she was surprised he would answer his phone this late, always valuing sleep and all.
"Hey, I needed to ask you something."
"Anything. Just shoot. Is it about Tayuya? Because-"
He was beginning to ramble, trying to save his ass before she could kick it. "Yeah," she attempted to cut him off, but he continuing muttering across the line, "Shikamaru! Let me talk!"
"There's nothing between us Ino!"
"Look, I'm trying to get to that, if you'll let me talk!" She sighed, "Sai told me there was."
"Sai!? That bastard!? You know he only want you to himself, Ino!"
"Yeah, well. He's been awfully nice to me lately."
"Deception."
She grunted, "Uh huh."
"And Tayuya's just the same! She's just another Temari, Ino. Why can't you just fight her the same as you did Temari?"
"Because Temari actually gave up. Tayuya's hardcore."
"Did my laziness rub off onto you or something?"
"You know… I think I'm going to go to sleep now."
"What!? You call me up, act like you want me to explain myself, and don't even give me a chance to?"
"I'm sorry, Shikamaru."
"Ino, please!"
"Good night."
Ino hung up and turned off her phone, tossing it aside onto her nightstand as she dug herself underneath her bedcovers. She sighed and sandwiched her head between two pillows, falling asleep to thoughts and nightmares of a pink-haired demon who used her flute to destroy the love between a beautiful princess and her knight…
Yeaaaaaah, short chapter. But I wanted to cut it off here instead of later. I'm definitely stretching this out longer than it needs to be XDDDDD
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