Konoha High School: Junior Year (A Naruto Fan Fiction)

Part III

Part III

~Shikamaru~

I really don't like school at all. It's so troublesome.

It's not that it's difficult or anything, it's just so boring. They're teaching me things that I already know, or will never use. You are shuffled from class to class and listen to people talk for hours every day. Even when you get home, you're thoughts mostly consist of the loads of homework you have, or what you need to be doing to prepare for the next day. It's the same thing over and over. It's a real pain in the ass.

The air is pretty cool today, but I still wanted to go to my favorite spot and lay down and just look at the clouds. It's Friday, which means I have a much needed hiatus from school.

The bench I'm laying on is pretty cold, but after laying here for half an hour or so, the stone I'm laying on has warmed up under my body. The reason why it's my favorite spot is because it's on an elevated place, which is much better to look at the clouds from. Also, the bench is less of a typical bench, and more of a large square concrete slab nearly the size of a king sized mattress, so I can lay down but still have plenty of room. Half of it has a small roof structure over it, so if it was raining, I could go sit in the covered part of the slab and listen to rain roll off the roof. I normally come here after school with Choji and he eats his chips while I lounge about and we shoot the breeze, but sometimes I just like to come here alone and clear my head.

It's not a particularly good day to look at the clouds, because it's kind of gray out. I like gray days, though. I like the way the light washes over everything in white.

I close my eyes, but then I hear something. A girl, it sounds like. She sounds like she's sobbing. I sit up and look around, but don't see the maker of the faint noise yet. It gets slowly louder, and I can hear the direction it's coming from.

A blonde sobbing girl turns the corner and walks in my direction.

"Ino?" I say in bewilderment. Why is she crying?

When I said her name, her entire body jumped. I must have really startled her. She looks up and sees me, quickly trying to wipe tears and smudged makeup off her cheeks. "Wow, Shikamaru! I didn't see you there!" She says, stuffed nose and swollen face. She's still trying to sound happy in front of me, though. "How was school?" She asks casually, still wiping her face, clearly trying to pretend that she wasn't just crying.

That's so typical of her. Even as something's so obviously wrong, she still tries to pretend she's totally okay. She feels the need to act strong, even in front of me, who has known her for as long as I can remember.

"Your attempts to look okay are pitiful," I say. She laugh-sniffles, then looks away, blinking quickly, trying so hard not to cry. "C'mere," I say, opening my arms.

She chokes out a sob and walks over to where I'm sitting. As she sits down, she wraps her arms around my shoulder and cries into my chest. I'm seriously concerned about her, but now's not the time to ask. I just hold her, and wait for bawl it out.

Her whole body shakes, enveloped in my arms. I have no idea how to comfort someone, let alone Ino, of whom I've grown so comfortable with. I figure I'll just let her cry it out, then see what she has to say. Man, she's really upset.

Her sobs subside to whimpers, and she eventually stops crying. I hold her there in silence, waiting for her to say something. She looks up at me, blue eyes large and stained with tears. "Is it hard? Is it difficult having Temari live in a different village? Do you miss her a lot?"

"Where are these questions coming from?" I ask. She doesn't reply, and simply waits for my answer. I sigh, considering telling her what I think she wants to hear right now. No, I can't do that to her. "Yeah, kind of," I say. "I mean, I see her at school and all, but she goes all the way back to her village after that every single day. We don't see each other much after school, unless it's a special occasion or something. The distance puts a bit of a barrier between the two of us. Besides, sometimes she doesn't trust me."