Path of Pain part 2 (Ino x Reader)

Chapter 58 - The War Rages On

"Damn it." I lean on a tree, using it to hold myself up.

"What's wrong (y/n)?" Tenten kneels over and uses some of the water from a near by stream to wash blood off her face.

"The other Kage, they're going to die fighting Madara." I stare down at my broken arm. "Because I couldn't finish him off myself."

"(Y/n), you have to have faith in them." She walks back over to me and uses a a roll of tape and two sticks to set my broken arm. "All five of them are incredibly strong..."

"I know." I cut Tenten off. "But Madara he's... he's."

"I know he's strong to."

"He's not just strong Tenten, he's a monster." I wince in pain as she tightened the splint on my arm. "The stories they told in the village about him and the first Hokage, they're nothing compared to how powerful he really is." Now that my arm is set, I let Kurama release a little of his chakra to heal my injuries. "I was only able to do what I did to him, because he let my attacks hit him, if he was alive, I wouldn't stand a chance against him... because of his immortal body Madara can take as many hits as he wants and keep going, the other Kage can't."

"So what are you saying (y/n)?"

"I'm going to go fight Madara again, but using Kurama's strength this time, hopefully giving the other Kage a chance to survive."

"(Y/n) that's suicide, if you go back, Madara will kill you."

"And if I don't, he'll kill Lady Tsunade and the others. Then he'll kill you, me, and everyone else." I walk away from Tenten as Kurama's orange chakra cloaks my skin.

"(Y/n), please don't go back." Tenten grabs my hand. "Please, I just got you, don't leave me." Sorrow fills her voice. "I'm not ready for you to leave my life."

"I'm sorry Tenten." I pull my hand from hers. "But either way I'm going to die, at least this way, maybe you and Ino will have a chance to live." I try to jump into the air, but I can't move.

"You're not going anywhere."

"Shikamaru?" Tenten wipes her tears away, as Shikamaru walks out of the shadows.

"Making one of our friends cry today, wasn't enough for you?"

"I had no intention of making either of them cry."

"Save it, (Y/n)." I can feel him staring daggers through me. "You know back when you left the village, I told myself that if you ever hurt Ino again, I'd kill you."

"I wasn't trying to hurt h..."

"Shut up. All you've ever done was make excuses." Venom laced every word that left his mouth. "You were a dick to everyone when we were kids, your excuse, you had no one that cared about you anymore. You left the village for two years, without tell anyone where you went, your excuse, you didn't have anyone in the village that could help you become stronger. You could've been there to help save Asuma Sensei, but you turned down his offer to go with us, and your excuse for that was you needed to get stronger..."

"Shikamaru, that's enough." Choji says as he and Ino, drop out of a tree and land next to Tenten.

"No, he needs to hear this." Shikamaru continues to spew his venom drenched words. "After Asuma died you left the village again, and yet again your excuse, you needed to get stronger. But this time it was different, this time when you left, you left not only Ino, but the rest of us too, when we needed you the most. When we were at our absolute lowest, the one person Asuma Sensei always told us we could rely on left us."

"Shikamaru, seriously that's enough."

"No, Choji, he's going to hear all of it." He snaps his attention back to me. "When we tired to bring you back, you nearly killed us, and your excuse this time was you were simply doing what you had to do. Your whole life you've done nothing but make excuses for hurting the people that love and care about, so what's different about this time, what excuse have you've come up with to explain to me why you left Ino a broken mess this, and it better be good because I promise you (y/n) I'll..."

"Shikamaru stop." Ino begged. "Just stop please."

"Because if I didn't, one of us would have died."

"That's a new excuse, at least this time it wasn't because you needed to get stronger."

"It's not an excuse, our enemy knows my one weakness, and they used it against me, and don't think for a second they won't do it again." I try to move but Shikamaru's shadow possession Jutsu still has ahold of me. "Now are you going to let me go, or do you still feel the need to waste more of my time."

"Do you really think that excuse of yours was good, because it might just be your worst, they enemy knows your one weakness, what a load of bullshit."

"Believe me if you want or not I don't care anymore."

"No, I don't believe you, because all you ever do is lie. You hurt people, lie, and make excuses to make yourself feel better about it."

"I'm not making excuses, not this time."

"Okay fine then, tell me, tell us, what is this weakness of yours." Shikamaru turns me around so I can look at him. "What is it (y/n) what's you big weakness now?"

"..." I just looked at Ino out of the corner of my eye.

"Ino already asked you to stop." Tenten said. "Now I am, stop this Shikamaru."

"Not until I get answers. What's this weakness of yours."

"..." I continued to stay silent, just watching the sorrow build up in Ino's eyes.

"Tell us now!" I just continue to look at Ino. "Stop ignoring me you son of a bitch!" In fit of anger Shikamaru punches me in the face.

Ino gasps.

"(Y/n)!" Worry fills Tenten's voice.

"Shikamaru that's enough, you've taken this too far." Choji yells, as he hugs Ino.

"I haven't taken it anywhere near close enough." Shikamaru punches me again. "Now tell me!" I continue to ignore him, and he punches me again. "Stop ignoring me you bastard." He punches in the stomach this time, and kicks me to the ground.

"Stop Shikamaru." Ino pleads.

"Shikamaru, Asuma Sensei wouldn't want us to fight like this."

"Don't tell me what Asuma sensei would want, if it wasn't for him, Asuma would still be with us right now." Shikamaru pulls me up by my shirt. "Just tell me what your weakness is."

I stare directly at him, as he glared at me. "Ino."

"You're kidding me right."

"He's not." Tenten says.

"So your excuse for hurting Ino, is because eventually you'll hurt Ino." Shikamaru laughs. "Now that's the worst excuse you've ever come up with." He throws me to the ground, and I let my chakra cloak disappear. "No matter what title you have, rather it be Hero of the leaf or not, you'll always be that same sad pathetic loser you were as a kid."
Shikamaru turns his back to me, and ends what little control he had of me, and I stand up.

"I'm not that same kid that I was, and my title isn't Hero of the Leaf, it's Hokage."

Shikamaru turns around and gets in my face. "You're not a real Hokage, you're just a sad excuse for one. Kind of like everything else you've ever done." Before he could even flinch my orange Chakra cloak came back and I punched him, sending him flying through a tree.

"Shikamaru!" Ino and Choji both yell, as they run to check on him.

"I am the Hokage, and If you feel the need to continue this I'll show you why."

"He's out." Choji picks up Shikamaru's unconscious body.

"Get him to somewhere safe." I jump up into the trees.

"(Y/n)! Wait!" I hear Tenten call out out, but I ignore her and jump from tree to tree, making my way back towards the war.