The Bug Queen

Your Fight Is My Fight - Ino

Ino knew that she had to look at herself in the mirror.  She had tried to stay away from full length mirrors for years. Four years of malnutrition had taken their toll. Her hair was thinning. She looked sick, and there was no avoiding it. 

After four years, she could see her ribs and her hip bones jutting out. Her breasts were flat and sagged. Her knees knocked together, but her thighs didn't touch. She was skeleton-like, and she couldn't help but cry every time she had to face herself.  

She moved to the mirror, shutting her eyes as she stood before it, completely naked.

But when she opened her eyes and looked into the mirror this time, she was shocked.  She noticed that after two weeks of intense healing from Shino, her thin frame was beginning to retain some weight.  She was beginning to look different.  Her thighs were just a little bit plumper.  Her breasts were beginning to plump as well.  Her eyes weren't so sunken in.  But her belly still had that slightly distended look.  She didn't think she looked beautiful by any stretch, but she was starting to look less ghoulish...

She touched her belly with shaky fingers.  This body, her body, was slowly getting better-

Shino opened the door.

"Are you okay?"

She looked back as he walked into the bathroom, standing behind her and putting his hands on her jutting hips.  He smiled, resting his chin on her shoulder.

"You're beautiful."

"I'm still a skeleton."

"It doesn't matter how you look. You're beautiful because you're Ino Yamanaka."

His sentiment meant a lot, and she knew he truly felt that way, but she couldn't help but feel bad about her body.  She teased him gently, but there was a grain of truth in what she said.

"Don't you have better things to do than take care of me all day?"

He gave her a small smile, whispering in her ear.

"Because of my clan, I never underestimate my opponent. Even if we're winning the fight, I'll still fight with everything I have in me."

He scooped her up playfully, carrying her to the bed.  She gazed at him; her heart felt unusually full. She reached out to hug him and she was a little surprised when he knelt on the bed and practically laid into her. She loved it, pulling him in and rolling him over onto his side as they laughed.

"You saved my life, Shino. You're my hero."

"Sakura did. She's your hero. She kept you alive until I could get to you. And now your fight is my fight, too."

"Oh, Shino..."

"I'll continue to fight to make you well..."

"You have been. You're amazing."

She kissed him gently, cradling his face in her hands. Everything that had happened so far over the summer came to this moment. She was a different person from the war, and he was the person she needed. Sweet, kind, determined. And she realized that things she didn't care about as much before the war were now absolutes for the new her. A loyal, determined man who cared for her unconditionally. He didn't have to spend the summer caring for her, but he did. He saved her life. And she was falling so deeply in love with him.

She was afraid to tell him. She was afraid of scaring him or breaking this fragile thing they had. It was so new.

So instead, she'd kiss him lovingly. She'd hold him. She'd show him as their relationship grew. And hopefully, someday soon, she'd be brave enough to tell him. She loved him.