QOTC: When I drag Temari from the edge and bring her back to you, I want you to remember the things you felt for me while she was gone.
- Ino to Shikamaru
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Chapter 3: Yamato's Tale
They walked on what seemed the shortage of forever. Nightfall has already arrived, setting a cold, hazy mist elapsing them. Ten hours of running made Ino's feet ache. She also wished she would have worn a more conservative clothing. Their jonin leader had led the group throughout the woods, a dense forest of timber trees, trying to recall the last time he and Team Seven have blown up the recent hideout. Though Platinum Blonde had this feeling Yamato-taichou had gotten them lost, without any signs of abandoned houses in sight, or a map of composition to lead them the way.
"..I'm calling it." Yamato finally said. "We'll rest here for the night."
"Oh thank god," Ino nearly collapsed, if Sai hadn't caught her from behind. Yamato had constructed his four-pillar jutsu as they entered silently, without thanking him. Shikamaru dumped his duffel bag over one corner and laid down, closing his eyes. Ino, surprisingly, sat next to him after landing her backpack into his balls. "Sorry," the purple kunoichi mumbles, while Shikamaru squeaked in alarm. Choji looking sick muttered, "I'm hungry...." Yamato crossed his arms and breathed heavily, trying to witheld everything inside of him from imprisoning them in his wooden cage. "Alright you two," he turned to Shikamaru and Ino who were pretending to be asleep. "The three of us are going to the stream and get water, or search the place for food and firewood. Do not do anything necessary unless you are permitted to." He was patiently waiting for their response.
So he flicked the flashlight and made a scary face. "Am I right?"
Petered out, Ino stretched her arms out wide as she jumped into Shikamaru's waist, yawning like a drowsy little tot. "Tell me a story."
But Shikamaru lay awake in bed, staring up at a single patch of moonlight as it made its way across the ceiling. His nerves were still too jumbled from the events that shifted for him to sleep, but it did help that Ino could have been the only one urging him to get some rest. "Go to sleep, Ino." The way he said it was soft and gentle; he was very pale, and hunted, even if it was beyond her ken. "Way past your bedtime."
They continued staring out the window; their reflections in the glass were nearly transparent. "But I don't feel like sleeping."
"For Kami's sake, Ino, get some rest. Tomorrow the real work begins, and I don't want me or you to get up without having a decent sleep." Shikamaru said with absolute clarity. "After we get to the bottom of this, if we fail to deliver Temari back, Tsunade-sama's gonna kill you, then me, and you, then me again." Ino felt herself flush, acutely conscious of the fact that she was wearing only pajama bottoms and negligee jacket—and then she saw his expression, her embarassment faded.
Ino chuckled, but some part of her gesticulated upon hearing the Sand-nin's name. Temari. She was their obligation and she just thought laying in Shikamaru's arms was something... Terrible.
When I drag Temari from the edge and bring her back to you, I want you to remember the things you felt for me while she was gone.
That's how her Inner had been screaming at him. When will he ever realize? Shikamaru was supposed to be hers... She'd be willing to give up everything for this fancy romance. The ideal fairytale she was dreaming for, and she was holding into this thread of hope... Until now. But she didn't want to ruin this relationship that dragged her close to him this far—into his chest, where in she'll be able to sleep tight thanks to his warmth.
"Ino? Shikamaru? You guys doing okay in there?" Yamato called, and Ino vaguely remembered having shut the door. "We're coming in."
Ohhh crap...
Ino bolted awake, sat up remembering she'd been sleeping her head into Shikamaru's waist. Moving quickly, she rolled herself into the ground, before shoving Shikamaru onto the other side that hit his head on the wall with her feet.
He immediately woke up, of course, seeing as she'd just shoved him and banged his wall into a wooden corner while he fell asleep. But before he couls speak, she threw a pillow at him and pointed at the sliding door, where Yamato and the others were just stopping outside.
As if he had read her mind, he laid down peacefully, hugging the pillow and closing his eyes. Ino grabbed the covers as fast as she could and threw it over her shoulders, laid back down and closed her eyes trying to look relaxed, even though she was far from it.
Platinum Blonde had trouble not laughing when she heard Shikamaru snore loudly.
The door slid open, and Yamato was carrying a heap of wood in his arms. "Well you two seemed tired. What have you been doing up to lately?"
Ino opened her eyes, trying to look as if she'd just woken up. Stretching her arms, Shikamaru sat up and ran a hand through his ponytailed hair, making it look even hotter than before.
"Mendokusei,"Shikamaru mumbled casually, adding a yawn for extra effect.
Choji and Sai walked all the way in, indian-sitting. "Why are you two so far from each other?" Choji asked, looking confused.
Ino gave a quick glance to Shikamaru who just burried his face with a giant pillow. "Oh, um... I—"
"How about some bed time stories huh?" Yamato asked, already dressed in his cute cotton PJ's.
"If this is some horror rant, I'm going to bed." Said the lazy boy, but Ino had already dragged the hem of his shirt. "No you're not Shika." But the latter refused to listen, so instead he buried his face under a pillow and laid down on Ino's lap. "Alright then kids, let me tell you a story about the blood-drinking demons who lived in this world, as many believed they were extinct when truth was their inception was just about to start."
Before anything Yamato created a fireplace inside his four-pillar house, and amazing how the golden sea of flames had led them into conceiving the whole chronicle.
♕Thε Nεx† Uςhïhα ♕
AND DARKNESS SHALL HAVE NO DOMINATION
Later on when they've slept, Shikamaru was the only one laying wide-awake. Aside the stories and mythical legends Yamato have told them, there was still one thing he couldn't get over it.
And so he stood up, creaking silently. He checked to see if the rest weren't disturbed, especially Ino, as he plodded outside and grabbed his cellphone.
A rustle of wind woke her up. She'd forgotten how sensitive her senses have become. Every now and then a sound was made, she always felt frustrated what direction should she follow. Even water driblets sound like a big deal.
No—it wasn't just a swish. It was her phone, clanging loudly at one table that was guarded by one of Kabuto's men. He jolted awake of course, seemingly how something rather than someone has obstructed his slumber. "Kuso," the man muttered, and Temari thought he was too young to be a bandit, perhaps in his early twenties.
Temari blinked her eyes and crawled into the window door. Shikamaru! Her conscience says, and now that her life had become a living hell she figured she would really need it. "Please," Temari said as she looked into the guy's soul, when the phone had been in his possession. He was staring at it as if he's never seen one before.
Shikamaru counted the remaining seconds. 5,6,7, he was staring up into the dark horizon, as if it was the only hope he had left. He knew it would be stupid of him to see to it if she would pick up, but since it was his only chance left it's better to be foolish every once in a while.
And she did. Without a doubt, the man handed it over to Temari with a look of sympathy and said, "make it quick."
"Hello?"
With that, Shikamaru's world stopped at once.
"H-hello? Shika is that you?"
The Nara boy's eye has gotten a bit of teary. He placed the phone on loudspeaker, then he injected a tracking device in it. On the other side of his pocket was a GPS Tsunade handed him secretly before they deployed, as he held the two of them in his hands. There was this look of pity and alleviation he held for the Suna girl, as he watched the GPS struck into many points of the map. Then she talked. She told him of the crap weeks she's been having, of those days wishing she could have just died... And Shikamaru could just look into his cell as if trying to visualize what kind of person she would appeal to now, having stuck in prison for almost one hell of a month.
"Please just let me know you're in there.."
The tracking device had already located her whereabouts, and it started to toll like a burglar alarm. Shikamaru held the phone into his ear. "It's me. I know we're in a troublesome place right now, but I need you to stay alive. We're getting you out of there." Then Kabuto's right-handed man had snatched the phone out of Temari's hands.
Shikamaru was already running into Yamato's four-pillar house, as he busts in, with the gang quickly disrupted from their doze. "I know where to find her."
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6.24.13
I just ship ShikaTema so hard
vomment? come on come on I know you wanna say something!