Days passed in a slow and steady manner. Shikaku got more duties out of leaf and he took them with a more than wilful gesture. He made a note to him about the Yamanaka girl. He wished to accept her words and not to see her again. That day when he dropped her home, she just left him there with her face red due to her tears. Shikaku wanted to ask her to just speak out. It was so not Ino Yamanaka to bottle up or cry for even. But there she was, bottling up her feelings, crying for something that was solely his fault.
Kami he hates himself more and more and that's why the duties out of leaf would be a right choice.
"Hey." Ino heard the voice behind her. She turned around to see Shikamaru waving at her. Ino smiled at him, walking closer to him. The boy standing in front her was nervous a bit. She noticed it because he brushed his fingers on his neck in a awkward manner.
"Hey Shikamaru." Ino greeted him. "How's, how've you been?" The blonde girl was coping up in a very poor manner. After Shikaku dropped her home, the girl cried like there is no tomorrow. Choking on her sobs. She had spend a whole day crying and locked up in her room. Not answering the bells. Not answering the calls on her cells. But today after three days she finally thought of getting the much needed sun.
"I have been good, but what the fuck happen to you?" Shikamaru looked at his best friend. She looked really pale. Eyes swelled like she had cried the whole week. Her lips, the usual pink colour was not starking red.
"Just some bad times." He knew her father's condition has really been eating her up. He cannot imagine how is she keeping a composed posture and a straight speech. It must be killing her to see everyday the person she cares about, laying there in bed, motionless. "But, but I am.. I am coping." Ino pressed her lips in a straight line.
Shikamaru watched the girl in front of him being so much more matured and responsible. "I was..." he trailed. "I was thinking maybe we can, hang, hangout maybe?" that was some quivering in his voice. Uncertainty of how she might react to his request. Would she just trash about him.
"I would, I would like that." Ino nodded her head." His face lit up. He looked at her but soon saw that her eyes were lifeless. What is going on? Did he really ignore her this much?
"Ino I am really sorry for behaving a jerk to you." He started. But the blonde stopped him.
"Shikamaru, let's not." She breathed in. Like she was drinking down her tears ready to pounce. "lets not talk about the past." She just smiled a straight one. "I will see you at the shop on weekends?"
"Yeah." Shikamaru gave her a beaten smile. He was really worried for this girl.
At the Hokage tower, the Hokage was looking worried. As Shikaku said the Ishigira clan got the smell of the trick used to float them away from the contract.
"We need Inoichi to be fully awake so he can fill in the gaps for our questions." It was the last resort and the only rational thing Shikaku could think of now. Apparently what he thought the light glowing in the scroll meant, went all in air as the Hokage tower received a letter from the clan. Letter up front told them that that was a very low blow for the Nara to go.
"It is the right thing for us." Tsunade confirmed. "How could we be so irresponsible about the girl." The Hokage was looking at the Nara in front her. The legendary strategist this town ever witnessed was at loss of words.
"Shikaku?" the called man looked up at the Hokage. She smiled a very small smile which meant she was worried about him and the blonde girls relationship now that whatever he thought meant nothing for the mission and which meant that he made a horrible mistake of playing with someone's feelings and acting upon the primal need. "You should rest a little."
