Awake

In the silence of the night, there had been a figure watching him from the corner of the room, peacefully, as to not disturb. He had not seen it. He had heard its breathing. Whether it was a dream or not he was not sure.

He moved his eyes behind his eyelids, the motion noticeable through his skin. His mind was half-conscious, he could feel but not look, think but not remember. Weird. He wanted to see but had not woke up regardless.

The figure moved towards him, black, thick and quiet, it reached the foot of the bed and bent forwards, he felt its breath over the skin of his neck. He tried to move his head towards it but sank it further in the pillow. He had not woke up regardless.

The figure sighed, he was sure he knew its identity but the figure did not spoke, alas, he couldn't confirm his suppositions. It watched. It contemplated. It seemed to care for him. Like family cared for each other. The figure strengthened his back and left. It turned, Shikamaru was sure, to look at him once more under the frame of the door. He had not woke up regardless.

The final stage of the exams was upon him, he will have to fight the Sound-nin, something inside him told him that he won't. He gulped and in his mind rose nervousness, the figure had disappeared under the veil of the moonlight.

He had not woke up regardless.

She woke up only to panic, the white mask in front of her had a design she couldn't quite see with her eyes squinted and mouth open in a throat breaking scream, the masked person grabbed her forearm and squeezed hard, pulling her up from the floor. When her voice finally cracked and she was forced to pause, she noticed the way her ears ringed with shouts all around her, she sweated coldly and jumped back, the masked man glanced quickly at her before turning.

"Run or fight, Konoha ninja." He said, and quickly disappeared by jumping down to the now destroyed and chaotic arena.

"W-what happened? What happened?!" She screamed to the air around her, the last thing she remembered was the sudden tiredness that overtook her and then nothing more. Sasuke! She thought with a jump of her heart and glanced down, her eyes quickly roaming the disaster before her, looking for some signal of her beloved, but there was no sign of him. She grabbed her heart and bit with her molars, terror crashed against every bone in her body.

No one was there to reply to her, and even if there was, they were occupied with either their own panic or their own fight as to care for her. She understood the words of the masked man that had wake her now, as far as she could see, there were clashes of kunais and grunts and clouds of dirt, screams and blood splashed against gray walls. She turned her head and ran to the stairs, there was no one to stop her, no one there to harm her either, outside the tunnel the world roared in violence and agony in equal parts, the walls around her echoed her frenetic steps. She had never felt so alone in the word, and that loneliness had never been so terrifying and comforting (she was safe).

Sudden light made her close her eyes for a second too long while entering the arena and something collided against her, making her fall to the ground harshly, an unbearable weight settled on top of her and she opened her eyes with a gasp.

"Fuck!" The kunoichi on top of her yelled, not glancing at the girl she was squashing against the ground, occupied with trying to deter the kunai that the Suna-nin above her –who fell on top of both of them, was trying to sink into the woman's eye socket.

"Stupid girl!" She yelled again, Ino could not see her face. The woman grabbed the suna-nin's shoulder, rolled them over, and put herself on top with a ferocity that Ino had never witnessed. Ino saw the woman pin the man down with both of her arms and bite down on his throat. Blood stained the kunoichi's cheeks and mouth, and after a moment the man stopped struggling.

Ino vomited, it burned her throat.

"Move!" The woman yelled at her with a mere glance in her direction, her Konoha hitai-ate sparkled against the sunlight, "you're in the fucking way!" She spat on the floor the blood of the man that still was in her mouth but did no effort as to wipe her face, and stood, jumping into action once more, leaving Ino alone with the bloody corpse of the Suna-nin.

Confused and lost Ino tried to stand, cold sweat wet her clothes and made her shiver, her eyes focused and unfocused on rapid succession. Why did a kunoichi from Konoha attack a Suna-nin? Why were they under attack? Wasn't Suna an ally? Why did she fell asleep? Why was she alone in the box? Where was Sasuke? Where was everyone? What should she do?

Forcing herself to at least get to all fours, she crawled away from the man's body, restricting herself to only look forward and not mind the blood that had stained her hands. She needed to exit the arena, she needed to move somewhere safe. The only thing she knew with certainty was that she needed to escape.

A part of her felt ashamed by her reaction to direct conflict, flee was not a ninja-like behavior, but right now, little did she care about her image. She could only think of death and her wish not to succumb to it.

Never had she been as close to danger as she was at present, what happened in the chünin exams had not been the worse terror of her life as she previously believed. Never had she seen or experienced so closely the cruelty that killing implicated, the use of every part of the body as a weapon when pushed to the extreme. Ino didn't want to, but she couldn't help to shed tears of terror.

"Running, Konoha-nin?"

When she turned, her heart hammering against her ribs, the masked man that woke her up was glancing at her from his standing position, without thinking about it she rolled away from him and stood, pulling a kunai. It would have been a decent move if it wasn't because she was still too slow and the man too quick. He grabbed her by the wrists, successfully stopping her with such a velocity and an easiness that it shamed her.

"Mediocre." He said to her in a tone that implicated disappointment. She glanced at his eyes, the only part of his face that wasn't covered by the mask but couldn't see a single thing, a sharp shadow covered any detail that could point out his identity. "I'm not going to hurt you."

She opened her mouth to respond, but everything that came out of it was air, both of her wrists were grabbed by the masked man and her legs were trembling so hard she could barely stand. She was useless, in less than a second, she had become absolutely nothing.

"Don't cry." He commanded and released his hold on her, slowly, the tip of his fingers gently moving off the soft skin under her wrists, Ino was even more confused than before. "We are under attack," he explained, his arms falling to the side, "you need to go to a safe location. Don't trust Suna, don't trust Sound. Do not engage in combat."

"B-but, what happened?"

"For fucks sake, Ino!" The man blurted out, froze, and quickly relented. Ino did not know how he knew her name, she shrank in fear, "this is not the time," the masked man told her, calmer now, "do as I sa-"

He stopped abruptly, glanced at something on his left, and disappeared.

"Wait!" Ino screamed, "don't leave me!" Alone. Afraid. Abandoned she stood, heart hammering in her chest and breath shallow. Turning, she ran, hands on her head and pulling her hair in a nervous tick, her eyes were opened wide, roaming the arena to spot danger.

At her left, an explosion sent her flying to the wall. There came blackness, sometime later, light, Ino did not know how much time she had been unconscious. Turquoise eyes tried to look, figures were fuzzy and moved in strange patterns that didn't make sense, her ears ringing, she could not hear a thing but the buzz.

Somebody lifted her, it was the third time that day, she thought, before pain pierced through her core. She had been stabbed. Her sole reaction was to blink and glance at the face of the person who had injured her. There, it stood a kunoichi with square jaw and thin lips. Ino knew her, but could not remember how.

The kunoichi moved her lips but Ino could not hear her, she was still shaken by the explosion. Every part of her hurt, the stab hadn't felt much different, when she looked at the injury, she got distracted by the burn in her left arm. The knife shone through her.

She looked up and the kunoichi furrowed her eyebrows, looking at her face with a twist in her mouth. She didn't appreciate the lack of reaction. Ino blinked. The kunoichi glanced at her right. A man was running towards them, from which faction she did not know. Ino grabbed the knife on her stomach and pulled, the pain worsened, blood spilled and rained to the kunoichi's feet, thick and warm, it ran through her toes. When the woman looked, Ino stabbed her in the throat.

They fell together, Ino paling through her agony, the Suna kunoichi gargled her last breaths, she died suffering.

"No, no, no, no-" The sound was muffled, her ears still didn't work properly. It did not matter anymore. She was dying. How sad. "Ino-sama!" The man turned her and pressed her against him, he had brown hair and brown eyes, she never saw him before but he seemed from her clan.

With each blink she regained more and more her wits, she saw blurry no more, her mind was okay now. It was torture. She was dying. She had killed. She hadn't noticed. "I don't-" the pain was unbearable, tears hung to her eyes, she did not put much effort to stop them from pouring. Her blood pooled around her and wet the knees of the man. She was too young, she was too afraid, she did not want to die.

"You were supposed to be unconscious on the box! Why weren't you?!" The man demanded through gritted teeth, he was not screaming but hardened his hold of her, he was shaking. "It's okay, it's okay, I can fix this." Ino wasn't able to talk, it took too much of her and carried too much pain, she grabbed the man's vest forcefully and it stained with her blood.

The man lifted her –fourth time-, and jumped, the movement bounced on every injury of her fragile body, she complained, the man begged her to keep quiet. She hung to the last bit of consciousness, too much blood loss made her dizzy again, on an alley he stopped and set her on the floor, the world screamed around them but he paid no mind.

His hands glowed faint green, it was a beautiful color, like her father's eyes. She hadn't noticed before. The medical jutsu felt invasive and hot against her skin, it brought no comfort to her pain and she wanted him to stop.

"Please Ino-sama stay still," the man begged her, "I need to fix this or you will die!" He was shaking and he looked young, he resumed his work while pleading her not to move with shaky vocal cords. The jutsu came back and with it the unbearable warmth of it, her skin grew hot and the edges previously cut, merged, closed. She was still on the brink of death but bleed no more. "You lost so much blood," the man whispered and brought a hand to his scalp, red painted him but he didn't notice, he seemed scared. "A transfusion," he was mumbling, "yes, that would do. How? Where was it? Dammit! Inoichi-sama said…" He gritted his teeth, "the burn in the neck and the arm, I need to fix them, but I have to stabilize her first –fuck."

A crack made him look up and he threw himself on top of her, he coughed blood on her forehead, Ino had to close her eyes. He rolled them over and sat, dragging her alongside him, making her stand. Her legs wobbled and he turned, she rested her weight on him. "Please Ino-sama, you need to run."

Ino blinked, she was exhausted and wanted to sleep. He pushed her away and moved forward, jutsus flared, she could not see what was happening. Ino obeyed. Stumbling she zigzagged to the wall and glanced up, this prevented her from escaping, this needed to go. She furrowed her eyebrows, there were screams behind her. In her hips, two pouches, she couldn't have much chakra left.

The wires were able to grab the cement of neighboring buildings that she used to reach the top of the offending wall, she glanced back at his savior but still, could see nothing, "Run Ino-sama! Please!" He screamed, she hoped his lasts words won't be a pleading.

Please no more, she wished, landing on the dirt road, the dizziness made her fall again. Mediocre, the masked man had called her, she could not argue against his statement. Ino had no pride left in her, she was all by herself, what she had accomplished mattered not.

The sun was high above her and the temperature was warm, it was nice. She had envisioned war transpiring only on dark days. Another thing she was mistaken on. A shallow breath was everything she managed to fill her lungs -Inoichi –dad, he will help her, he must be looking for her, he will protect her!

A smile tugged her lips and she stretched her senses, a sensor will notice her, it had to, she will be safe, she will be alright if they spotted her.

No one came.

They were on the heat of battle, Ino did not hold that against them, she will have to look for them then, her dad must be so worried!

She stretched her chakra-net further and sweated cold, it took every ounce of willpower to perform her search but she was sure it will be fruitful, she was sure! She stood and walked, it was a slow pace and she had to rest most of her weight on broken homes and pillars. A burst of chakra signatures caught her attention and she looked at the direction from where they came, there was smoke in the place and awful noises of powerful blasts clashing. The signatures were disappearing in rapid succession.

She turned to move away from them, if not able to locate her father then she needed to hide, but then coffee beans pressed against thumbs came from the place she was walking away from, and been alone seemed preposterous. Daddy was everything she got left.

Her head started to throb painfully, it surprised her that it hadn't started before, she walked slowly and hid behind boxes and piles of bricks scattered through the streets of her beloved Konoha. She could not handle another confrontation. Oh, how she wanted to reach daddy! For him to find her! She never stopped sensing, never stopped laying her chakra-net for them (him!) to pick up, but coffee beans against pressed thumbs never moved from its location, she did not want to think the reason.

It's endi- prep-

Her head throbbed much more intently than before, she had to stop and grab her scalp with both hands to feel whole, the voice in her head did not stop.

He's dyi-

She gasped when the dark signature of chakra disappeared, it left her sensing hollow until it accustomed to its absence, another one became weaker with each passing second. She cared not for them.

Oroc-

When she saw them, figures in the distance that she could not distinguish without her sensing, her father was crouched and held a person in between his arms, she focused on her breathing and watched. They were still too far away and she could walk no more, she threw her net again and collapsed to her knees.

Keep watch-

She breathed through her mouth again, there was fire in her lungs, her heart slowed.

e-sama…

Ino glanced up and watched her father's hands cup the cheeks of the one in the ground, it didn't seem a gentle gesture.

I w-… leg-… -und…

That could not be right, that sounded wrong. It was his father's voice… but he was so far away…

"Inoichi-sama!" Someone yelled, and Inoichi glanced at her and his mouth hung open, his hands tensed, they still held the face of-

Pain ran through her scalp and her forehead hit the ground. She sank into the welcoming arms of darkness once more.

A/N: I will not deny that I'm rather ashamed for still using canon events inside what is completely an AU (in the sense that during the finals Ino was not there), but thinking in a new fight for Shikamaru or the rest when it's irrelevant to the main plot will only succeed into adding filler when it's not needed.

My plan to re-write Ino vs. Sakura to give Ino what I believe was a deserving win completely backfired during the last round, as I noticed that I will have to write a new encounter. Luckily, when trying to fit this fight into the plot I'm so desperate to get into, I realized "Dosu dies in canon, so that means that they're not pairs anymore", which –like in canon-, allowed me to rely on a Temari vs. Shikamaru fight.

Apologies to those who expected a fight between Temari and Ino, but to be honest, I'm procrastinating a lot when it comes to this story and I believe that it is because I haven't been able to get into the main plot of it. With any hope, I will be able now to completely detach myself from canon events or I will be able to use them more properly than what I'm currently doing.