Hey everybody! I'm back with another installment of Kumo Naka Ni Atama! Like I said, I'm loving getting to this part of the story as these are some of the first scenes I wrote. At certain points it was hard to "connect the dots" and write to get the story to this point. I know I've said it a few times, but the plot will start to speed up over the next few chapters, and as an early warning- it's gonna get pretty heavy. But with that said I can't wait for you guys to read this chapter, sorry about leaving you with that minor cliff hanger. Side note: This chapter is dedicated to JessLily (Ao3) who literally makes my day with her reviews!

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We walked for about twenty minutes. The rain slowed long before our steps did. Shika had held the umbrella over us with one hand and my hand with his other while I led us wildly and blindly down our city's streets. When my feet finally started aching in protest, they pulled us off the sidewalk and we ended up sitting on a bench in an area of town where the residential area we both lived in started to turn into the city.

He had drawn the umbrella closed as he sat down beside me. I sighed heavily. The walk in the rain had rinsed off the initial wave of anger and shame that had been rolling off me since I had stormed out. Now that the fog had cleared though, I considered my circumstances. Poor Shika. I had bombarded him, forced my problems on him by demanding he help me forget about them, and then drug him outside into a storm to wander the streets. 'What a shit friend.'

When I turned to look at him he was already looking at me. Our eyes met and I fought the urge to breakdown crying again. Instead I released a large huff, "Shit. I'm sorry Shika. Just leave me here so you can get back to what you were doing. You looked like you were about to go somewhere."

"This is what I'm doing. You wanna tell me about it?" He pulled out a cigarette and lit it.

"Do you have anything else to smoke?" I asked meekly.

"No," he sighed quietly while shaking his head.

I groaned, regretting being so spontaneous with my decisions, "Whyyyyyyyy?"

"Because I followed you without thinking," he stated matter-of-factly, but gently.

"Can we go drink?" I had pulled out my vape and took a shaky hit.

"You gonna tell me what happened?" He blew out a mouthful of smoke.

"As long as I'm inebriated in some way," I threw my head backwards and gazed up at the grayness above me. I felt like a raindrop. I had fallen and now I wanted the sun to come out and suck me back up into the sky among the clouds. I wondered how long it would take to feel the warmth and light again.

"Put this on. I'm not letting you walk into a bar with your shirt like that. I'm too lazy to fight guys right now," He handed me his jacket, the same oversized green one I had gone home with on my birthday.

I slipped it on and rolled up the sleeves as he stood up. Like mine, his own white t-shirt had gotten wet and clung to his chest and stomach in spots. I snapped enough buttons to cover up my exposed stomach and already began to feel warmer as I let the smell of his cologne envelope me. He extended his hand. I took it and he pulled me off the bench and down the street.

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"Fuck him! I'm going to make something of myself without The Uchiha Corporation. I'm gonna do it myself, my way, and no one's going to tell me any different," I chugged the last third of my fourth beer.

The bar that Shikamaru had took me into was a little hole in the wall, in-between a cell phone store and a twenty-four hour laundromat. The kind of bar that factory men stopped in for a beer or two after work before they went home to nagging wives and crying children. When we entered, he led me past a few tables and occupied barstools. He grumbled as he sat us down in two spots at the end of the bar. We, or I rather, had received a few interested glances as we found our seats. I sat on the end, letting him effectively shield me from the eyes of the other patrons closer to the door.

He sighed heavily, finishing his own beer-his fifth-before motioning for the bartender to bring another one, "Raki, you know Obito loves you. He has a fucked up way of showing it, but deep down you know it's because he cares."

"Yeah well then he needs to take a fuckin' class or something and figure out how to show it the right way," I blew out a hit of my vape.

He snorted in laughter, "Look, he'll come around. I told you I'd help you fix the grades right? So it'd be a drag to keep worrying about that. And I have no doubt that whatever you decide to do you'll make it work. You're too damn hardheaded for it not too."

"I'm not sure if I should take that as a compliment or insult," I crossed my arms, smirking.

"As a compliment, for my sake," he grinned taking a sip off his new bottle.

I sat there thinking, head swirling from the alcohol. Deep down I knew Shikamaru was right, Obito's words were harsh, but they were out of love. I knew that finishing high school was important even if I didn't go on to attend college. Obito wanted me to have a good future, a comfortable life. He wanted the best for me and was only trying to help. I appreciated it, but I needed him to understand that I wanted those same things too, I just didn't want to have to do it his way. Being upper management at Uchiha corp. shouldn't be the only way I was validated.

Obito wanted me to be "logical" but why did logical have to be books and classes and "9 to 5's"? I didn't want to be tied down by anything. I didn't want to answer to anyone. I wanted to be free. I wanted to do what I wanted, when I wanted it. Suddenly I had an idea.

"Shika! I know I want for my birthday present," I slapped my hand down on his leg.

"I'm almost afraid to ask," he glanced down at my hand.

"Let's go do something….adulty," I grinned.

He actually spit some of his drink out, his face red from being tipsy, "Like what!?"

"Let's get tattoos! I saw a sign before we came in. Come on!" I jumped up off the barstool, drawing the attention of the man a few stools down.

Shikamaru stared at me for a minute before laughing and chugging the rest of his beer, "These birthday presents get crazier and crazier every year. You'll be asking for your own private island before we're fifty."

"Then you better start saving up," I smirked and pulled him along after he laid the money for our drinks on the counter.

We exited into the night and continued walking up the street until we were under the 'Yukidajuke' sign that I had seen earlier before going into the bar. I pulled Shika inside by the arm, laughing because I was surprised he hadn't fought me on this. Were we really doing this? We were bombarded with large posters of all the different designs available. Some of the flash was tiny, some were larger pieces that were meant to cover a whole arm or back, and all in different styles.

Just then, a guy that looked to be in his thirties and covered in tattoos, came from the back and up to the counter, "Hey guys what can we do for you?"

"We wanna get tattoos, something small. We just have to figure out what we want first," I smiled.

"Cool, just yell for me when you figure it out. I'm gonna set up in the back," he nodded and disappeared back to where he had come from.

Shikamaru walked over to the posters over by the smaller designs, "What should I get?"

"I want us to get something together," I walked over to stand beside him.

"Like what? What if we get dragons?" He pointed to a few small tribal style dragon drawings.

"No," I scoffed, "I want it to mean something to us."

"Okay. What if I get a pineapple and you get a cloud?" He turned to me smugly.

I snorted in laughter, "Absolutely not."

I took another walk around looking at the posters, but nothing seemed to fit us. All of the sudden I had it, "Okay I've got an idea. Don't laugh at me."

"What?" He turned to look at me.

"Kinsho and Ginsho," I smiled. "We'll get the symbols like they're written on the tiles."

He grinned and shrugged as if saying 'if that's what you want'. I took that as confirmation enough and called for the artist to come back out.

"Okay so you guys decide?" He had put gloves on and had motioned for us to follow him back.

"Yeah he's gonna get Kinsho and I'm gonna get Ginsho written like shogi tiles," he turned to look at me with a curious stare, "it's an inside joke between us."

He nodded, requesting no further information, and passed us both a paper to sign. We signed the authorization forms agreeing to the process, saying we had been informed of everything it would entail. While we were signing, the artist was drawing up the stencils for the tattoos.

"Who's going first?" He looked back and forth between us.

Shikamaru and I looked at each other. I motioned for him to go sit on the bed. He rolled his eyes, but went and sat down on the side of the tattoo table. When our artist, Inei as he had introduced himself, had asked him where he wanted it Shika peeled off his shirt. He pointed to the center of his left pect, he would need somewhere he could hide it, because Auntie Yoshi would absolutely lose her shit when-if- she found out. It didn't take Inei long to lay the stencil and began tattooing. I had been standing over them watching and when Inei started I looked on as Shikamaru briefly winced. I asked him if he wanted me to hold his hand and was rewarded with a hateful glare for all my kindness.

Twenty minutes later Inei was finished and Shikamaru had his first tattoo. Next it was my turn. Inei cleaned up the area and began setting it up for my tattoo while I inspected his fresh work on Shika. I traced my finger around the area, scowling when Shika flinched.

"Did it hurt?" I asked, looking nervous.

"It wasn't bad. You're not gonna back out on me now are you?" He crossed his arms staring me down. I couldn't help but notice the new tattoo now seemed to emphasize his muscles.

"No!" I laughed nervously, "I just wanna be prepared."

"Okay sweetheart, where's this going?" Inei was ready and had turned to me.

I walked over to him and looked at the design. I smiled and went to my default mode when dealing with older men: flirtation, "Where do you think I should put it? I kinda need to hide it."

Shikamaru rolled his eyes while Inei was looking me over. Eventually we decided on the bottom outside of my left breast, on my side. I readjusted my shirt so he could lay the stencil. When he had put it on I called for Shika to come over so he could see. He walked over as he was putting on his shirt.

"What do you think? Does it look good right here?" I had had my shirt pulled somewhat down and to the side.

"Y-yeah. That looks good," he sort of sputtered out before turning away and pulling out a cigarette.

My hand shot out and grabbed his arm, "Wait! You're not going to leave me are you?"

He looked down at my arm and me laying on the bed on my side. He muttered something before putting the cigarette back in the pack. I heaved a sigh of relief and held out my hand for him to take, which he did wordlessly. When the needle hit my skin for the first time I squawked in surprise, but quickly got used to the scraping feeling. Shikamaru was a soldier and only made a face twice as I squeezed his hand harder than I had probably squeezed anything in my life.

"This you and your brother's first tattoos?" Inei chuckled as his machine went into a particularly painful area.

"Oh he's not my brother," my laugh quickly turned into a grunt, "We're best friends."

"Mm-hmm," was all he said as he kept going.

Not long later he was wiping the area with a paper towel and telling me I could sit back up. In the end it hadn't hurt as bad as I expected. It kinda felt like a cat had scratched me, painful, but not unbearable. I got off the bed and walked over the the mirror, holding my shirt and turning to the side so I could look at it. Inei cleaned up and told us he would meet us up front. Shikamaru went to walk up to pay but I stopped him.

"Hang on! I want pictures!" I fished my phone out of my backpack.

He rolled his eyes but came and stood beside me. He pulled up his shirt and I adjusted mine. I turned to the side and adjusted the camera so both of our tattoos and lower bodies were in the frame instead of our faces. I wanted a few more, making Shikamaru take some, that included our faces before we met Inei back up front. Shikamaru pulled out his wallet and paid him in addition to giving him a decent tip. Inei gave him a piece of paper that had aftercare instructions on it. Shika handed the paper over to me before putting his wallet back in his pocket, and we turned to leave.

"If you want more work done come back and see me, Sweetheart. Bring some more of your friends," Inei yelled out as we walked out.

"Come on, trouble. Let's go," Shika pulled me along as I waved 'goodbye' at Inei.

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We walked back towards the residential area of town that we both lived in. When we had gotten close to our respective streets I looked at my phone. It was 10:00 p.m. we had been out all night. I shoved my phone back in my pocket and began to take off Shika's jacket.

"What are you doing?" He stopped walking.

"Giving this back to you. I know it's late, but I'm not ready to go home yet. I'm not gonna keep you out any later," I looked at him.

He slid the jacket back onto my shoulder, "Troublesome damn woman. Come on."

He led me down the street before taking a left down a small side road lined with trees. Before I knew it we ended up at our neighborhood park. The park that we had first met each other at fifteen years ago. Back when everything made sense, and my world was small and my heart was innocent. We stopped at the playground where we had spend a thousand afternoons playing. I hummed contentedly as I sat down on one of the swings and took off kicking my legs. Shika joined me and we spent a few minutes swinging back and forth in silence. I waited until I had some height before jumping out at the top of my swing. I stuck my landing and turned and watched Shikamaru take his turn. He had gone higher than me and his feet made a muffled 'thud' when they hit the ground.

We hiked further up the hill, past the rest of the playground equipment. When we got to our usual 'cloud watching spot' Shika plopped down, stretching out to lay in the now dry grass. I sat down beside him and stretched out onto my right side to face him. We spent a few more minutes in silence gazing up at the stars, which we had decided years ago were indeed a suitable nighttime alternative to clouds.

"You know how people say they have 'fair-weathered friends'?….You're my stormy-weathered friend, Shika," I said matter of factly, still gazing skywards.

He scoffed, "Were you trying to make a joke?"

I chortled, looking at him, "No, I mean it. For some reason you've stuck by my side no matter what. You've always been patient with me, never judged me…too harshly anyways. No matter what kids said, no matter what trouble came with me, you've always been there, and you've never taken more than you've given. It means more to me than you think."

His cheeks flushed and he looked back up, "Ehhh come on. Don't make it out to be such a big deal. You used to drag me around and I was too lazy to fight you. Somewhere along the way, I stopped minding so much, and realized I liked being your friend. Sometimes we even have fun."

"Whatever you say," I blew a raspberry at his dismissal and pushed his arm, "Was tonight one of those fun times?"

He nodded, smiling, "Yeah, tonight was fun. One that I'm not going to forget for awhile," He patted the spot on his chest.

"Me either," I grinned back at him while gently patting my own souvenir from our latest adventure.

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"Fuck. Raki wake up!" I stirred slowly.

"Wha-?" I asked groggily as I began to move.

"We fell asleep. It's like five thirty in the morning,"I felt a hand on my shoulder.

As I came to, I realized my head had been laying on Shika's shoulder, his arm had wrapped itself underneath me and became my pillow at some point during the night. I lifted my head up realizing we were still laying in the grass. We half sat up together and then I began rubbing my eyes. I looked over at Shika who was fixing his hair. Some strands had come loose from his ponytail while we were sleeping. I pulled my phone from my pocket. I had about ten missed calls from Obito and surprisingly a few from Itachi.

'Fuck'.

I looked over at Shikamaru who was looking at his own phone with a grimace. Not only had I hit a new stride in my rebel girl era, I had accidentally brought Shika down with me. Auntie Yoshi would be pissed and Uncle Kaku had learned along time ago it was better to just back her up, than face her wrath alongside his son.

"What do we do?" I asked, knowing our options were limited.

"We've got to get our uniforms for school. If we ditch, they'll be even more pissed. Come on I'll walk you to your house," He had pulled apart from me when he checked his phone. Now he stood up and repocketed it before offering me his hand.

We walked silently until we came upon my building. I was going to have to sneak in quietly, run to my room, grab my clothes, and get the fuck outta dodge. If Obito caught me, I'd have no doubt that neither one of us would reach school nor work and the day would involve a major sit down. We rode the elevator up together. Shika stayed behind when the doors opened to reveal the entryway but he mouthed a 'good luck' as I disappeared behind the apartment's front door.

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It had taken about ten minutes for me to creep in and find all the articles of clothing that my uniform consisted of, scattered around my room. I shoved them in my school bag and tiptoed back to the entryway where Shika was still waiting. I grabbed my school shoes from the floor and silently stepped back into the elevator. I breathed a sigh of relief as the doors closed behind us. Now we just had to get Shika in and out of his house and find somewhere for us to change into our school uniforms.

Shika's house would be a little easier to sneak into. All he had to do was use his key, head through the entryway, up the stairs, and to his room. His parent's room was on the complete other side of the house. I chose not to go inside, but instead stood by the bushes at the corner of the front porch while he disappeared behind the front door. Ten minutes later when he had not come back out yet, I made a decision. Either Auntie Yoshi had caught him or he was taking his sweet ass time. I squeezed between the bushes and opened my school bag.

Five minutes later I had just fastened the back of my skirt when I heard the front door. I poked my head up out of the bushes just far enough so that my eyes cleared the leaves. I was met with Shikamaru giving me an exasperated stare.

"….What the hell are you doing?" He crossed his arms.

"I didn't know if I was I on my own. I started changing," I forcefully whispered, as I waded out of the bushes only in my white button up and skirt.

He spasmed, "What if someone had seen you?"

I looked around as if I could see these would-be peeping toms he was talking about, "Then they got lucky. Come on lets head to school. We can finish getting dressed there."

He shook his head but joined me in walking down his driveway. He had put on his uniform pants while he had been inside, but still needed to change out of his t-shirt. We walked the short way to school and turned into a small alleyway across the street from the front gate. We set our bags on the ground and got to work. I slipped my vest down over my head while Shika pulled his t-shirt off and traded it for a white undershirt. I pulled on my tie and worked it into a decorative knot around my neck quickly. He began pulling on his cardigan while I leaned up against the brick wall of a building to pull my stockings on. I slipped my feet into my white canvas school shoes and began shoving my casual clothes into my bag.

When I finished Shika was adjusting his tie, waiting for me. I shot him finger guns before walking past him and emerging back onto the street. We killed time at the convenience store next door for an another hour and a half. He bought us boxed breakfasts and heated them up in the microwave before bringing them to the table where we sat, waiting for them to open the school gates.

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Shika and I had made it through the school day. The last half of the day had been touch and go and honestly some of it had slipped my memory. As bad as school had been, we knew there was a whole new level of shit waiting for us at each of our houses. When we got to the point of our walk home where we parted ways to head down our individual streets we stopped and turned to each other.

"If your mom kills you can I have your tv and Gamestation 5?" I gave him a hug.

He scoffed and peeled me off, "Neither one of us are dying. But if he goes too hard on you call me okay…but maybe wait a little while. I want to take a nap."

I nodded and gave him a sympathetic wave as I headed down my street and he disappeared from my view. I walked up to my building and begrudgingly went inside and over to the elevator. The doors opened reavealing the familar entryway I had already moonlighted through this morning. I put my hand on the doorknob and heaved a large sigh in trepidation, trying to prepare myself for what awaited on the other side. I was greeted with a quiet house. I got as far as the living room.

"Where the hell have you been?" My brother stood up from the couch.

"School," I said quietly, looking at the carpet.

He paused for a moment, dumbfounded, "You actually went? How'd….you get your uniform?"

"Yeah….I, uh, snuck back in this morning and left again," I rubbed my right arm, still very interested in our living room carpet.

Another pause. Finally, he let out a heavy sigh, "Look we need to talk. Your grades are slipping, you didn't come home last night, sneaking back in and out. I can't go down this road again with you Kumaraki.

"I know! I didn't mean to stay out all night!" I looked up at his face for the first time since I had walked in. He looked tired. Like he hadn't slept very much. Like he had stayed up most of the night worriying. All the guilt came rushing up into my face and out of my eyes.

"I'm trying," his eyes softened as my voice wavered, "Look I'm already disappointed in myself I don't need to hear it from you. I'm trying to keep my grades up so I can keep this job and do things my own way. I know if I fuck up you'll take it away from me. And I just want to prove I'm worth something!"

Obito sat in silence looking at me for a moment. I didn't like the look on his face, especially knowing I was the one that put it there. Another wail of sorrow left my mouth. He closed the distance between the two of us and scooped me up into a hug, "Hey, hey, hey. It's okay."

He shushed me and petted my head, "You will always be worth something, everything to me. No matter what happens, and I never should have said anything to you to make you feel otherwise. Look, I'm sorry came down so hard on you. I know you know what to do, and I can tell you're trying."

"Shika said he'd help me get my grades up," I sniffed my nose and looked up at him, "I promise I won't fail high school."

He moved the hair out of my eyes, "Sounds like a deal. You've got the rest of the year to fix them right?….I guess one sleepover can't hurt."

I squeezed him tight, "Oh thank you, Ito! Thank you!"

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Saturday afternoon and our girls sleepover could not have come soon enough. Words could not express how much I had needed time with my girls. I had caught a ride with Hinata over to Ino's even though her house was in walking distance from mine. When we got there Ino was setting up a tray of drinks and snacks.

"Where's Kura at?"I asked, looking around for the familar mop of bubblegum colored hair.

"She's on her way. She stopped to pick up something I asked for," she sent us a mischievous smirk.

Hinata and I shared a curious glance. I shrugged and grabbed Hinata's bag so she could help Ino with the snacks and drinks. I led the way up the stairs and into Ino's bedroom. I pushed open the door and set our duffle bags in the corner on the floor. Hinata set the snacks down on a white wicker coffee table Ino had at the foot of her bed. Ino followed suit and set the tray of drinks down beside them. I sat down on the pillowy comforter spread out on her bed and leaned over to take a glass.

Not long after we had settled into our usual spots-Hinata and I on the bed, and Ino in her lavender furry chair-the door opened and our missing member stuck her head in the open gap. We chorused a 'hello' as she closed the door behind her and gently set her duffle bag down with ours. She immediately unzipped it and dove in rummaging. When she produced a large brown paper bag Ino squealed in delight.

Turns out Ino was craftier than I usually gave her credit for. She had poured grape juice in the glassed while her parents watched, but had Sakura bring a few bottles of red wine for our refills. It would look the same and her parents weren't the type to hover while we were here so it was a pretty smart move. I quickly finished off my grape juice so that I could replace it with alcohol. Sakura assumed her usual position from the purple bean bag that she pulled into the center of the room.

"So now that we're here finally able to relaxxx, how did everyone's midterms end up?" Ino asked finishing the last of her grape juice.

Sakura had gotten all 'A's' and Hinata had done almost as good, only getting a 'B' in Japanese History and Cultural Studies. I sucked my teeth and asked her what had happened. One of our "sure fire" study tricks was to replace famous generals with guys we had crushes on so it was easier to remember who won battles. Let's just say Kakashi had fought many times on the battlefield in my mind.

"They all turned into Naruto and I got a little confused," she sighed plopping her chin into her hand to prop it up.

We giggled. We had recently gotten her to admit what we had all suspected, that she had a major crush on Naruto. When it was my turn to report I groaned. I told them that I had gotten three 'A's', three 'B's', and that ugly 'C' in science. Hinata rolled on her side and patted me on the back telling me it was okay. I looked over at Ino, who looked like the color drained from her face.

"I really did do the worst! I only got one 'A' and a 'D' in science," she whined.

I almost spit out my sip of wine, "Geez Ino! What were the rest of your grades?"

"All 'B's'," she shrugged, "but they called my parents and everything. I had to practically beg them to let me still do this."

"So what did you tell them?" Sakura asked, pouring herself another glass.

"That Raki had already requested off work to come over," she took a sip.

"Innnooooo!" I threw a pillow, successfully smacking her in the head.

"Whaaaat?!" She shrieked.

"You told them I had a job?" I asked exasperated, not wanting it to becoming common knowledge and somehow getting back to my brother.

"Relax, who are they going to tell?" She threw the pillow back at me and stuck her tongue out when I dodged, "Besides, it was the only way they were going to let me have the party."

I rolled my eyes and told her that I would only forgive her if she let me try out her new color shift eyeshadow. We had each gotten a different color and I had wanted to see what hers looked like on me. She agreed and pulled out her makeup bag. I got up and dug through my duffle bag until I found mine. For the next couple of hours we all took turns using the mirror on Ino's vanity to do our makeup and painted our nails with the selection Ino had at her house. I always went to Ino's to paint my nails because girl had all the colors. Honestly she could supply her own salon if she wanted to open one. I looked in the mirror, the iridescent white eyeshadow shifted to an icy blue as I tilted my head side to side. It went with periwinkle color I painted on my nails.

We all topped off our wine glasses and got comfy while Ino put in a movie. It had gotten to the part of Where Did The Summer Go? where Aiko and Noburu were saying goodbye for the first time promising to get together again the next summer. They embraced lovingly and Ino sighed.

"So have there been any more developments in our love triangle?" She looked over at me.

I rolled my eyes, knowing it had only been a matter of time before she brought it back up, "Nooooo. But I do have the picture of Haru you wanted."

Her grunt had turned into an exaggerated 'oooh'. I laughed before pulling out my phone. I had told him last night that I had my friend had asked about him and she had wanted a picture. At the prospect of a fresh set of female eyes being able to admire him, he happily obliged, snatching my phone and taking a few pictures of us and then just him. I opened the picture and tossed it to Ino telling her to swipe. Her eyes practically exploded with little hearts. She gushed that he looked like a sexier, older Sasuke, which earned her a glare from Sakura. Even though when Ino turned the phone Sakura did have to admit that he looked like he could be an older cousin of mine. Ino flipped a few more times before her eyes went wide.

"NO WAY!" She screeched.

I knew immediately what she was looking at. Damn her, she had swiped too far in the wrong direction. She zoomed in with her fingers and studied intently, "Is this real?"

"Well duh, you think I convinced Shika to go body painting with me?" I took a healthy sip of my wine.

"What are you guys talking about?" Sakura leaned forward asking.

Ino turned the phone so Sakura and Hinata could see the last picture Shikamaru took of us. Their eyes bulged with surprise as they looked back and forth from my face to the phone.

"When did you get that?" Hinata looked at me while pointing to the phone.

I sighed, giving them the abridged version of events, "Wednesday after school Obito found my report and majorly flipped out on me…so in my typical fashion I ran out and headed to Shikas. I told him I wanted to go drink and so we went to a bar. After a few beers, I told him I wanted us to get tattoos for my birthday."

"Can we see it?" Sakura asked.

I playfully scoffed but responded with an 'I guess. I was about to get in pajamas anyway.' and sat up to pull my shirt off. I pulled my sports bra to the side and turned so they could get a good look. Ino got right up in my business before giggling in excitement, exclaiming that it looked 'cool'. Hinata asked me if it hurt while Ino decided she would start coming up with ideas for her first ink. I rolled my eyes and giggled at her as I got up and fished my pajamas out of my bag. We redressed and settled back in for the conclusion of the movie.

As I fluffed up my pillow my phone played a little jingle signaling that I had gotten a text message. Curious if it was Obito checking up on me, I opened my phone.

Pineapple head:

Hey send me one of those pictures of us

from the other night.

I quirked an eyebrow, wondering what he wanted a picture for. He hadn't even wanted to take them. I flipped through the group of photos before picking one of me sticking my tongue out. It was a good angle of our tattoos, and my hair looked super cute in that one. I had that 'I just got done swimming at the beach look.' I flipped my phone back closed and turned my attention back to the sappy romance movie, suddenly remembering he was over at Naruto's with the rest of the guys.

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Okay everybody! So what'd you think? We got a little brother/sister moment, some Shikamaru fluff. We're definitely in our wild girl era. At this point Kuma is determined to do things her own way, but knows she needs to keep her juggling act together if it's going to work out. And I don't know...I think it's about time for a Shikamaru P.O.V. chapter, don't you?