The red ribbon

It shouldn't have surprised him when that tiny spark of hope turned into a wildfire and burned itself out of existence. Really. Out of the three of them, he should have known better, he should have known that there is always a secret scheme, a truth to uncover, a game to play. He should have known but he didn't, or rather, he ignored it in favor of attending to his hysterical companions, whose fears of being left out convinced him to begin a test that, within himself, he knew was fruitless.

Shikamaru has never seen a gënin squad of only two members, not once in all his years of council meetings that he now regrets not paying attention to, and that should have been a signal, that should have made him suspicious of Asuma's words but it didn't. Because he let himself be infected by the doubt and fear that his teammates had and that cost him his hope.

And to be honest? The three of them couldn't have been more stupid, knowing that their fathers had been on the same team since gënin days. At least he fabricated himself an excuse. Shikaku would probably tell him that it made it even worse.

"Here's the deal," Asuma had said, "I hid some things around the training ground, the first two of you who can bring one of the objects to me stays." He paused, looking at their twisted faces. "The other one is gone."

He had never said what kind of objects they were looking for and none of them had asked, Chöji pushing him forward so he would start the search and not stay lazily behind. Chöji liked to play fair and he wasn't going to let him surrender just to have more hours of sleep. The universe hated him. Kamisama especially. But still, he searched for something in total blindness because what on earth was he supposed to look for, he searched with his heart hammering in his chest and biting his upper lip while Chöji's presence frantically begged him to look. He didn't want to leave his best friend alone.

It was such a weird thing, a weird and fragile thing he could turn it into shreds by stretching it too much or using a little bit of strength. It was impossible for him to overlook, his bright crimson color moving with the wind, entangled in the branch to which it was tied. He was the last one to return, well past noon because he forgot the timeline.

But he wasn't the one without an object.

Ino was standing still, the sun cascading down her form roughly, making her face harder, somber, almost ugly. She was looking not at him but at the thing he was wearing around his wrist, he supposed it was because she realized what it meant, but Shikamaru wasn't sure Asuma appreciated more a task completed out of time than following his established limits.

Chöji relaxed his shoulders at seeing him but didn't smile.

It was like something had hit her because, before he could understand how or why, she was in front of him in a blur. "This is mine!" She yelled at him, trying to take the cloth with her nails.

"What?" He pushed her, without being able to believe her reaction. "No, it isn't! I found it."

"Give it!" She yelled again, trying to grab him by the collar of his shirt.

"Stop it!" He retaliated by slapping her hands away. "Get over it Ino, you lost!"

He should have known.

"I said is mine!" She jumped at him, ready to kick his face and punch his blood out of his body if her expression was any indication. But Chöji got in the way and grabbed her by the leg, turning her in the air and making her fall to the floor.

"Stop!" He screamed, begged. "Ino, please, stop!"

"No!" She jumped to her feet again. "You stole it!"

Nothing was making any sense and that was when he finally, finally knew. She was trying to run to him once more, Chöji looking more and more exasperated by the second, trying to pin her down. "This was Sakura's." He mumbled. It wasn't a question but a statement that left a sore taste in his tongue.

Ino's eyes flew open, her eyebrows reaching her hairline, perhaps surprised at the fact that he knew, that he remembered that she once had something like he and Chöji do. Because it didn't matter how many girls and boys were all over Ino she always seemed alone.

"You stole it." She looked defeated. Chöji let go of her wrists.

"I did not." And how many times could this piece of cloth broke her heart, he wondered. "But is yours." He looked at her, forcing himself to shrug his shoulders, and stretched his hand for her to take the ribbon. Ino used no breath on doubting, her fingers frenetically disentangled the red cloth she loved so much from the wrist of the boy she didn't even appreciate, her nails scraping his skin on their urgency. Once the task was complete, she was decent enough to look at him, but no word escaped her mouth, no gratitude or venom passed through her lips, the only movement she allowed was a swallow.

"You guys sure suck at this." Asuma appeared from the shadows where the three of them knew he was watching but forgot, making them gasp in surprise, the smug expression returning to his face. "Like, for real." He could practically hear the sigh of exasperation his father would make. "I see we have our winners," Asuma continued, walking more and more into the light, glancing at Chöji and Shikamaru respectively.

"The red ribbon is Ino's." He said matter of factly, winning expressions of disbelief of everyone in Team 10.

"What?" It was Ino and Asuma whose voices collided, the tone of voice of the kunoichi shattering Shikamaru's eardrum. There was no lie on Shikamaru's statement, he was solely saying a proven fact. Regardless of him bringing it or not, the cloth was Ino's.

"I said-"

"I don't want it."

Ah… what? It was his turn to look at her in disbelief. Asuma seemed incredulous, almost upset. Chöji was clenching the doll he had in his hands so tightly he could have broken it. (Shikamaru realized that the doll seemed strangely familiar to him. And it seemed strangely familiar to him because it was his. It used to be his. But he didn't remember that until one night when the two of them were eating at Ichiraku. Ino not surprisingly absent. His hand on his chin and his teeth clenched).

"I don't want… I don't want to be in this team if it means…" she was fighting with the words, "you found it, you stay." It was definitive. For Ino to go as far as to shatter the formation that generations upon generations of their families created and perfected was a childish move, how far could she go for the sake of a memory? How far could she go for the ghost of someone who left her in the dust and spat on her bond without stoping to consider? How much more of herself she will give up in order not to be lonely?

"No." He said, furrowing his eyebrows. The thought of Ino quitting made his stomach twist with repulsion. She was a stubborn girl, but he never thought of her as weak-minded. "You're not to do this." His face twisted to reflect his internal thoughts, he was well aware that it was better to let her do as she pleased, it would serve her right for putting them in this position, but he will never hear the end of it from Shikaku if he allowed her to quit. He owned Inoichi this much.

"What did you just said?" This. This he could work with. An angry Ino. He could handle an angry Ino, he was used to this part of her more than any other. She was bruised in her ego and wanted to retaliate by throwing the pieces off the board and stomping them on the floor with enough force to crack them. She wanted to make a statement, she wanted to prove something, but what she was proving was far away from her intentions, for all Shikamaru could see was her stupidity.

He opened his mouth to speak his truth and his harsh words were received with her shocked expression, red color tinted her skin from the tip of her ears to the end of her neck -as far as Shikamaru could see- and water gathered in the corner of her eyes but no tear was spilled, her hatred for him deepened but also filled her with the resolution of not letting him see her crack further.

Ino bit her lips and shut her eyes harshly, sucking the air as if to let him without oxygen. "Fuck you." She whispered and opened her eyes in a slow motion, her eyes shone with disgust, as if all her desire was to set him on fire with the slowness of an old lady. She made a step towards him, ready to lash out her poisonous tongue, "fuck you, Shikamaru."

"Stop." Asuma's voice wasn't a scream but it felt like one regardless, Ino had the decency of looking embarrassed and Shikamaru mirrored her expression when Asuma's eyes bore a hole in his skull. "None of you is leaving this team." He deadpanned, "but I will have to have a talk with your fathers regarding this type of behavior." The man grabbed Ino by her shoulder, it seemed menacing enough for the temperature to drop. "You are not children anymore, you can't just quit because you didn't like something. You can't just walk away."

(In the future, in a distant point that none of them could even imagine back then, Shikamaru will shout those same words to her, his heart trying to break free from his ribs. But she kept walking.)

"Your pride must be bigger than the one of your enemies because you would never let yourself be killed by someone inferior. But your pride must never be bigger than Konoha." His father said to him when he was little, he said it so casually that Shikamaru didn't think it was actually important, moreover considering that at the time the man was drunk. Shikaku never said that while sober.

"What about your clan? Does that person you cling so much to worths more than them?" Asuma pounded on her buttons to crack her and get her through her childishness, but Shikamaru knew better than to believe himself free of a scolding that will undoubtedly come. He glanced at the sky because it was better than watching Ino being stripped of her self-worth by a man superior enough to be allowed to do so. He still was repulsed by her reaction, but he doubted that resigning was a real intention on her part.

Maybe it was Shikamaru's reaction that added seriousness to what would have been otherwise a fleeting matter, an empty threat, a simple jab. When it came to Ino it was easier for him to being carried away with the distastefulness of her presence, as it was easier for her to simply use him to project her insecurities. They were a ticking bomb thrown at their jönin sensei in the hopes of being defused, it was impossible for him not to pass them regardless of their failure, three angry clans will not allow such inconvenience, whether it was both Ino and Shikamaru's fault or not.

Bureaucracy had saved their necks and Hitae Ate, to pay with a wounded pride didn't seem high in the grand scheme of things, but it was hard for Shikamaru not to think of the shame it could bring to their clan. It was a good thing their fathers were in charge to clean up their messes and archive the issue without much of a problem, but the hand that helped them carry on will undoubtedly slap them for their troubles as well.

There was no hope for this team.