All of yesterday had seemed like a dream to Sora but when she woke up next to Shikamaru, who had fallen asleep while holding her, she realized that it was all true. Very slowly, in a way to not wake him up, she creped out of bed. Once she successfully managed to stand up, she silently walked out of her room and headed into her kitchen. The girl felt light hearted and decided to cook breakfast while humming. It really seemed like nothing could bring her down.

When the boy woke up, he could smell that something good was cooking. Walking in the kitchen and watching the girl work her magic made him smile. All the fears he had about admitting his feelings for Sora flew away. When she brought two plates at the table and they sat down to eat, he was delighted to see that the plate tasted just as good as it smelled. They were both surprised by how it was easy to do some small talk. It would seem that both of them were afraid that it would be awkward but after what happened yesterday, things seemed to be going smoother than usual.

Finally it was decided that Shikamaru should head home to get a change of clothing and Sora happily offered to accompany him. Soon enough, they headed out together, both enjoying a peaceful silence, and everything just was as it always was. As they were walking through town, someone called out for the girl.

"Excuse me, miss."

Confused, the duo stopped and Sora turned around to see that someone was indeed talking to her.

"Um, yes?"

The man bowed with a huge smile.

"I'm sorry to bother you miss but I couldn't help but notice that fascinating dragonfly symbol on your sleeve!"

The girl raised her left hand to her right sleeve at the mention of her family crest.

"Ah, yes. This is my family symbol!" said the girl proudly.

"Oh? You're family? What is your family's name?" asked the man who seemed overly interested.

Shikamaru looked at the man carefully. He had seen him somewhere and was trying to remember where.

"I'm from the Tonbo family, sir."

"Ah? So interesting..." the man said thoughtfully. Then coming back to reality, he bowed once more. "Thank you dear miss. I really appreciate your attention!"

"It was no problem, really!"

As quickly as he came, the man left through the crowd. Shikamaru looked at Sora who stood there, looking thoughtful.

"Something bothering you?" he asked her.

"Yeah...that guy. He's the fake scroll merchant I think," she said while furrowing her eyebrows.

"The fake scroll merchant?"

She turned and faced him with a serious expression.

"Yeah, I first saw him a while ago with Reena and..."

But her explanations were cut off by a certain blonde hair girl that came running up to them.

"Sora! I'm so happy to see you!"

The black hair girl turned around and looked at her in surprise. Why would Ino be so excited to see her? Shikamaru stared at her skeptically.

"I'm happy to see you too...?" said Sora, confused.

"I need your help with something important. Will you help me?" asked Ino.

"Sure? With what?"

"I'll explain it on the way there, come on!"

"I'm coming too," said Shikamaru.

"Oh no, you are not. It's a girl thing. It'd be embarrassing if you came along with us!" said the blonde girl.

The boy sighed in defeat. Seeing this, Sora smiled encouragingly.

"How about I meet you after?" she asked him.

The boy scratched his head. "Sure. I think I'll go see sensei for another game of shōgi. Meet me at his place?" he said while showing his board game.

The girl nodded and as soon as she did, Ino started dragging her away. Sora had just enough time to give one last worried look at the boy before losing sight of him. Soon enough, they reached a tea place where Ino asked for a table for both of them. When they sat down, Sora asked Ino:

"Ino... I thought you said you needed help with something important, a girl thing if I may add."

"Silly Sora, it was an excuse to have you all to myself! Now, we have important things to discuss!"

While the clerk brought them both the tea pot they had ordered, the black hair girl stared at her friend, worried. This was going to be a girl talk and she hated those. After taking a sip of her hot beverage, Ino spoke up.

"Okay, so I don't know any other way to say this so I'll get straight the point," started Ino before stopping a few seconds, as if to add suspense. "Shikamaru likes you."

"Mmhmm," Sora answered before taking a sip of her own hot beverage.

Her lack of reaction almost threw Ino off her chair. "Sora! Aren't you more excited than this about his feelings for you?"

The black hair girl didn't understand what her friend was getting at. "Well… I already know about his feelings for me."

Ino studied her face. "Wait… so he finally had the guts to tell you?"

A light blush of pink appeared on Sora's cheeks. "Well, not tell…"

"Oooooh?" said Ino while leaning forward on the table. "Tell me all about it!"

That's when Sora realized that she shot herself in the foot with her answer. With a sigh, she answered: "He kissed me. Well, we kissed."

The black hair girl was staring down at her tea. As she thought back to yesterday, her face heated up.

"And?"

"Uh, well that's it."

Ino looked at her teammate in a funny way.

"That's it? You guys said nothing about it? Didn't do anything?"

"Well, it was becoming a bit too intense and panicked because it brought back memories of what happened with Daichi," explained Sora while pointing to the light bruise that remained beside her eye, "so I pushed him off lightly."

Ino sat back in her chair while rubbing her face with both hands.

"Oh no," mumbled the girl.

"What?" asked Sora, now worried.

"You didn't talk about it at all after?"

"No?" answered the black hair girl, more confused than ever.

"He didn't say the magical three words?"

"Magical three words?"

"I love you."

"No…"

"Sora… he took that as a rejection. When you push a guy off while he's kissing you, that means to him that you don't want him."

Sora sat there silently, looking at her friend to see if she was serious. When she realized that Ino didn't seem to be joking, she started to think back in panic. Things had seemed normal. Shikamaru hadn't looked like he was hurt or anything. Everything was just like they always were.

"We were okay afterwards and he didn't seem like he took it as rejection…"

"We're talking about Shikamaru, dear. He's not the most emotional guy we know, right? He probably just tried to fix things by acting like nothing happened."

Doubts filled the girl. She didn't know what to think.

"What should I do…?"

"For now, you don't want to make things worse. So just let things go like they are right now and eventually you'll be able to talk about it. Just not now."

Sora stood up and shakingly took her wallet out. After putting her share of the money on the table, she said to her friend:

"I need to go. I'll talk to you… next time."

Ino, who understood how her friend felt, nodded in compassion. Sora turned around and started to quickly walk away while wrapping her arms around herself. The more she thought back, the more she was afraid that she had screwed up. By the time she had reached Asuma's place, she was incredibly miserable. As promised, Shikamaru was playing with his sensei on the back balcony. When he saw the girl walked in, he noticed right away her expression.

"You ok?"

The girl, remembering Ino's suggestion, simply nodded.

"I'm happy that you're here, Sora. There was actually something I needed to talk to you privately about after this game," declared Asuma with a big smile.

With a weak smile, the girl sat down nearby and watched the two men play their game. As expected, Shikamaru won the game despite Asuma's best efforts. There really seemed like there was no way to beat him. When they were done and Asuma got up to go in with Sora, Shikamaru asked her:

"Hey, did you want me to wait for you? We could go find Choji afterwards."

"Um, sure. Well, if you want, of course," she answered while rubbing her right arm.

After he nodded, she turned around and walked in. Shikamaru stayed there, thoughtful. If Sora was feeling the way she was then Ino must have said something to upset her and he was determined to talk with the black hair girl about it.

Once they were inside, Asuma motioned for Sora to take a seat in the living room and wait there while he left to go get something. It took several minutes before he came back with a dusty wooden box. He took the time to slowly sit down comfortably in front of the girl.

"So your birthday is coming up very shortly and since we never know if we will be called on a mission or something like that, I decided to give you this today," he started while putting the box down a the little table that separated them.

Sora stared down curiously at the box. She had never seen it before. When the man told her to open it, she lifted the lid and saw a silver scroll lay at the bottom. She looked up at Asuma in confusion. He smiled to her.

"Your mother left me with this when she passed away. She told me to give it to you when I judged that you'd be ready and I think that now you are."

Hypnotized by the scroll, Sora picked it up and slowly opened it. Inside, she recognized her mother's writing and images that she once saw her draw. There were a lot of things written down, mostly combat and water jutsu related. Asuma continued his explanation:

"At a certain time during her teenage years, your mother was called in a mission near Kirigakure, the Hidden Mist village. When her mission failed and two of her teammates were killed, she successfully managed to escape with some serious injuries. Her only teammate dragged her as far as they could get until they ran into a man that offered his help. While she was recovering, they discovered that the man was a missing-nin from Kirigakure. Surprisingly, he decided to leave his village in order to help others, and not to kill mercilessly like most of the missing-nins tend to do. Your mother took this opportunity to learn from this man and wrote all her knowledge in this roll. She knew that your chakra element type was water so wanted you to be able to learn what she had the chance to learn that time."

Sora kept reading the scroll.

"This is amazing…" mumbled the girl. "She even wrote on how to create the water needed in a jutsu from thin air. I never would have thought about that!"

Asuma laughed happily.

"Your mother wasn't considered a genius for no reason!"

But at this point, the girl was only half listening. Completely absorbed by what she was reading, she barely noticed Asuma smiling softly at her new found happiness. The more she grew, she more he found that she resembled her mother. He let her read and explore the scroll for a very long time but at a certain point, seeing how he had to meet Kurenai soon, he had to bring her back to reality by telling her that he had to leave. She simply nodded and carefully rolled the scroll to put it in her back pouch, determined to read it later at her house in peace.

When they walked outside, they found Shikamaru laying on his back and watching the sky while waiting for Sora. The girl's smile quickly faded away. She had temporarily forgotten about her previous worries. After saying goodbye to Asuma, they both left together, walking in silence for a bit. As they got closer to Choji's house, Shikamaru decided to try talking it out.

"So what's on your mind?"

Sora looked away. "Nothing, really."

Walking a tad faster, the boy placed himself in front of her to face her, forcing her to stop.

"Sora… you know that by now I can tell when you're lying. Did something happen with Ino?"

"I just… don't want to talk about it," she told him, finally looking at him.

He could see how something was really bothering her and wanted to help her. However, she wasn't willing to let him help. He sighed in defeat.

"Are you sure? If you change your mind, you know I'm here."

"Yes! But whatever I say or do, I always screw things up! So it won't change a damn thing!" she started shouting out of the blue.

Her sudden outburst left the boy dumbstruck. His surprised expression just frustrated the girl more with herself. Seeing that he was out of words, she turned around and decided to go home.

"Sora! Wait!" called Shikamaru.

But she didn't wait for him. Instead, she started to run. She was so afraid of messing up with anything else that she decided that she was better off alone. Soon enough, she reached her house. When she opened the door, she was too upset with herself to realize that she had forgotten to lock the door again.

She slammed the door behind her and walked in her living room. Why did she have to mess up everything? Trying not to cry, she didn't notice the presence behind her until she finally felt a hand grip her arm. Surprised, she turned around and was surprised to see the man to whom she had talked to earlier today: the scroll merchant.

"Where is it?!" he shouted out.

Confused, she tried to break free from his grip but the man tightened it to the point it was becoming painful. The girl used her free arm and punched him squarely in the jaw, making him let her go. Backing up while holding his jaw, the man didn't block Sora's kick which she packed with chakra, making him fly back on the table where all the drawings were. With his fall, he broke the table and paper flew everywhere in the air. Taking advantage of this distraction, the girl grabbed a smoke bomb from her back pouch and threw it on the ground. While there was smoke everywhere, she used her knowledge of her own house and ran for the front door. When she opened the door, however, she was sent back flying by another man, that was outside, who punched her in her stomach. She slid back in the smoke and, when she got up, she guessed that she was closed to her kitchen. Deciding to take an alternative route, she ran down the nearby hallway and headed for her room. When she ran through it, she realized how upside down everything was. These men, whoever they were, were looking for something.

She jumped out of the window and silently hid herself on the side of the wall of the house. Unable to locate the second man, the girl hoisted herself on the roof of the house and crawling around on it, went to the front of the house. There, she could see the man waiting for the smoke inside the house to clear up. She backed up a bit, grabbed a kunai knife and wrapped an explosive tag around the handle. When she was ready to make a run for it, she let the kunai fall on the edge of the roof where she last saw the man and made it explode. During the explosion, she ran toward the village. Whoever these men were, she'd be able to hide from them in the village itself. There, they wouldn't be able to openly attack her and she would be able to reach the Hokage's building.

Running at top speed, she looked up quickly at the sky to notice that the sun was almost down. This wasn't good. Somehow, she couldn't read the two men's presence and in the dark, it would be near impossible to see them coming! At that thought, she tried to go even faster. Despite her best effort, the men had caught up to her. She barely managed to avoid a strangely shaped kunai knife that flew near her face, cutting her cheek on the way. When she turned around to face them, she was surprised to notice that there were now three of them.

"Running from us is completely useless, girl," said the new arrival.

"What do you want?" she shouted out.

She was trying to buy time and calculate how far she was from the center of the village where she could get help.

"We want Akemi Tonbo's scroll. The secrets hidden in there do not belong in the Hidden Leaf, even less in the hands of a Tonbo!" shouted out the one whom Sora recognized as the scroll merchant.

The girl felt a spark of anger light up in her. She had finally gotten her hands on something that was her mother's and now they wanted to take it away!

"I don't know where it is," she replied before biting the tip of her thumb, sign that she was thinking of an alternative plan.

"Oh?" the second man, who had attacked her at her front door, said. He then made a smile that gave chills to the girl. "You know what I hate? Liars."

Before the man could do anything, Sora grabbed another kunai knife and ran toward him. As she was about to reach him, the third man threw shurikens toward her. With the aid of a substitution jutsu, the girl switched place with a log of wood and then casted a genjutsu in a way that all the men saw was the girl exploding in hundreds of dragonflies as the shurikens hit her. Taking this opportunity, she ran again toward the village. While running, she made a water clone of herself and gave it the silver scroll that these men were after. After nodding in understanding, the clone ran ahead as fast as it could.

Determined to distract these man, the girls made another handsign and produced 11 other clones. They then quickly spread around the three man to circle them. At their surprise, however, the third man, whom by now Sora has determined as the leader, threw another of the weirdly shaped kunai in front of her, the real person. After looking down at the knife that had landed right in front of her, she saw that the man had his eyes closed. He made a step toward her and then at a high rate speed disappeared to then reappear in front of her with a kantana in one hand, ready to take a swing at her head. She barely dodged in time, feeling the sword's blade right above her head and fell backward. Looking up at him, she saw that his eyes were still closed. With a terrible smile, he stabbed the ground, right in between Sora's legs, making her lose her concentration on her genjutsu while still managing to keep her water clones techniques.

"You know, if you had just given us nicely the scroll, maybe we would have let you go with your life," the man first started. Then with a bloodthirsty laugh, he added, "but now my blood is boiling and I just want to know the feeling of ripping you apart."

"Calm down brother. We need her to give us the scroll first," said the second man while walking closer to the girl and ignoring all the water clones.

The clones took advantage of this distraction to attack the men but, at a speed that the girl has rarely witnessed, they were taken care of by the fake scroll merchant. Panicked, Sora tried to get up and run but the third man kicked her back toward the second man who caught her in his arm and with his left hand over her mouth, gave her some pills. He kept his hand there as she struggled to get out of his grasp and not swallow them but, unfortunately, they were the type to melt. When her struggling started to calm down as she started to feel woozy, the man that was holding her threw her on the ground. From behind, she could hear the leader say:

"Whoever thought a simple chuunin could give us that much problem?"

In an ultimate attempt to escape, she tried to crawl away as her surrounding started to spin. A weight on her leg made her stop. With his foot on her leg, one of the men added all his weight until he heard a loud 'snap' and the girl yell in pain.

"Won't be running from us now, will ya?"

The drugs mixed with the pain of her broken leg eventually led the girl to fall unconscious.

Asuma was walking calmly with an arm around Kurenai. They were busy talking together and barely noticed a much panicked Sora at the man's door. It is only when they got closer did they notice her.

"Sora?" asked the man, very confused.

She truly seemed distressed.

"Sensei! You need to…"

But before she could finish, Sora, which was in reality a clone, crumbled down into a water puddle and in the middle of it, a silver scroll fell on the ground. Asuma kneeled down, picked up the scroll, and gave a worried look to Kurenai.

"What is going on?" she asked, also worried.

That's it. Thank you for the couple of reviews I got. I really appreciated it!

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