A Rose Bloomed: The Same Kind of Different As Me
Title: A Rose Bloomed Chapter Seven: The Same Kind of Different As Me
Author: hungrytiger11
Characters: Evenutal Shika/Ino. Chouji, Shikamaru, Ino, Sakura
Rating: G
Summary:It might take years for us to see, but you are the same kind of different as me.
Previous Chapter: These Memories Beneath My Ribs
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“-You, we need to wait for Ino,” muffled voices suddenly bloomed into hazy but discernable conversation, and Sakura nearly ran into Ino as her newest friend stopped short of rounding the corner.
Ino turned back around, finger to her lips, and gave a wink. It looked kind of painful actually; the skin around her eye was already yellowing into the start of a magnificent bruise. Sakura frowned a little at that. She still wasn’t sure she believed Sensei that there was nothing she could do to heal it. Weren’t there such things as medic-nin? What did they do, if they couldn’t even heal bruises? Sensei had probably lied, left the bruise as a reminder not to fight. Or maybe it was there to force Ino to confess to her parents about the fight. Sakura hadn’t met any of Ino’s family, but she knew her mom would go ballistic if she ever got into a fight- well, outside of sparring. Of course, her mom wanted her in civilian school looking at “safe” careers, so she’d use any excuse she could to yank her daughter out of Academy. Ino was part of a clan; no worry about if she should be a shinobi. Plus, didn’t she say her dad was out of town right now?
A giggle brought Sakura back from her thoughts, focused her in on the conversation Ino was eavesdropping on.
“-Hungry!” as all she caught before a lazy, drawling voice called out to them.
“I know you’re there Ino. You might as well come out. Chouji wants to get going.”
Being found out caught her friend by surprise, and Sakura watched as Ino bit her lip. What could make Ino that nervous? Or maybe thoughtful was a better word. Ino didn’t get nervous. She just didn’t, from what Sakura could see. After a moment, the blonde moved around the corner and Sakura took a deep breath, feeling suddenly shy at the idea she was going to be introduced to people as Ino’s friend.
Sure, these were Ino’s friends too, so they’d doubtlessly be really cool and good at ninja stuff, but they’d be nice too, and not let anybody push them around. Ino could only ever be friends with people who didn’t let certain other people- like certain ninja-wannabes who names begin with A and rhymed with Mi-san- push them around. They would like her. They just had to.
Sakura threw her head back, appreciating the way it felt swinging against her ribbon. If you acted like people should just automatically like you, they would. That’s what Ino said. Be yourself. That was her mother’s (often-repeated but still largely untested) advice. Feeling pumped up after her pep talk to herself, and she stepped forward- and straight into Ino’s back.
Pitching forward, her feet tangled with Ino’s and they tumbled down the path, collapsing in a heap. Spitting out a mouthful of hair (Ino’s. Oops.), Sakura sighed. So much for appearing cool. What was it people were always saying about first impressions?
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
“What the hell happened to you? My mom’s gonna freak!” Shikamaru grimaced, looking annoyed. Chouji started guiltily, wondering what he could be so upset about when all Chouji had asked was whether there’d be time to stop at a food stand, before he noticed that, while still laying down, his friend’s attention wasn’t on the sky anymore. Beady eyes where focused on something just beyond his right shoulder. Chouji twisted around to get a better look.
Oh. So that was what Shikamaru was talking about.
Ino-chan stood by the gate, shoulders thrown back defiantly, looking a little worse for the wear. Hair was scuffled and out of its usual clips, clothes were dirty, but what really stood out was the shiner already yellowing around her eye.
Before either boy had a chance to say any more though, something toppled into their friend, sending her and- well, whoever it was- flying across the path. Scrambling up and throwing his arms wide, Chouji managed to grab an limb, stopping their momentum, and sending them all to ground.
“Move, please,” he wheezed, pushing the extra bodies off, his lungs flattened under Ino-chan’s torso. Pushing himself up, he came face to face with Ino-chan as she reached a hand down to him.
“Ino-chan,” he said, standing up and reaching out to poke gently at the bruising skin. “What happened?”
It looked even worse close up! She grimaced and slapped his hand away.
“Hands off, Chouji-kun. That hurts you know.”
“You didn’t answer the question, Ino,” Shikamaru said from behind. Turning, Chouji could see his friend had managed to avoid the human bowling ball they’d all made a second ago. Shikamaru sat up and stared, a little accusingly, at the blonde.
Ino-chan didn’t answer, only met his scowl with one of her own.
“She got into fight!” another voice piped up, a girl’s but higher pitched and breathier than Ino-chan’s ever was. Peeking out from behind Ino-chan was a little pink-haired girl. Well, that explained the red blurs that had crashed into him along with the Ino-chan-colored blurs. In fact, this girl even looked a little familiar, though he couldn’t quite say why.
“You a student here?” he asked, staring at the unusual coloring of this girl. Pink? Really? Poor kid, Chouji thought. People use to give him a hard time about his face markings till they saw it didn’t bother him, or, more accurately, till Ino-chan told him he couldn’t show that it bothered him. But face markings were nothing compared to pink hair! She had a high forehead too, now that he was looking. Heck, the girl practically had “tease me” stamped on that forehead of hers, what with all her unique looks. He wondered vaguely if Ino-chan had told this girl the same as she’d told him when a voice cut through his thoughts.
“Ino got into a fight?” Shikamaru’s drawl was not exactly disbelief, but Chouji instinctually started edging to the side, out of the line of fire that was sure to start hailing down between his two friends.
“Shut up, Sakura!” Ino’s cheeks reddened at the accusation. “It was nothing important. They don’t want to hear about that.”
“No,” Shikamaru marched up to Ino-chan, fingers hovering very deliberately just above where Chouji had touched. “I think we do.”
Ino-chan tucked her chin down and glared up at him. She’d grown, Chouji noted absently, the two were once again eye to eye, where the last knock-down, drag-out fight they’d had, Shikamaru had reduced her to tears by teasing her about her height, saying she only wanted to play with the people shorter than she was. Of course, at the time, Chouji’d been pretty sure Ino-chan had had other reasons for wanting to spar with that Uchiha kid, and that was why he was really hoping the reasons she’d gotten beat up had nothing whatsoever to do with the “genius” of their class.
“It’s none of your beeswax!”
“But,” The pink-haired girl faltered and stared openly at Shikamaru and himself. “Isn’t this that Nira kid and Chou-nii they were talking about?”
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Sakura stared curiously at these two people who were in a strange mirror-image position to what she and Ino were in. One boy was uncomfortably close to Ino’s face, examining her injuries, probably wondering why the teacher couldn’t have fixed it, just as Sakura had. Then again, with his expression, he might have been too annoyed to bother thinking about healing. Peering over his shoulder, as Sakura was peering over Ino’s, was another little boy with brown hair sticking up in tufts and swirly markings Sakura just wanted to reach out and- pinch.
“Not Nira and Chou-nii,” Ino sighed, ignoring the eye rolling one boy was doing. “This is Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Chouji. And,” she continued, glaring back at the boy in front, “I’d introduce Sakura to you two, if you’d quit getting in my face. Honestly, straighten up! Can’t you at least try to look more presentable?”
This probably wasn’t entirely fair, considering it was she and Ino who had just tumbled down the path. Still, the scolding seemed to set them straight! Huffing out air, Nara-san slouched back an inch or two while Akimichi -san waved at her. Leave it to Ino to take charge of a situation.
“People were talking? About us?” The dark-haired one- Nara-san, she thought- said.
Ino colored under his glare, eyes dropping to the ground. Oops. Sakura felt her own cheeks drain of blood. Guess she shouldn’t have mentioned that?
“People don’t know shit,” Ino mumbled.
Sakura hissed franticly in her ear. “Don’t use bad words!”
That sort of thing got your name on the board, and groundings and- if Sakura’s mom were ever to hear that- a barring of her new best friend from the Haruno household. Neither of the boys seemed to react to the bad word- or any of Ino’s words- at all though. The skinny one turned and took off down the street at a rate that was surprising considering stupid Ami-baka had been calling him a lazy-ass. They other three were left to take off behind him, looking, Sakura imagined, like a deranged kids’ parade, as they all went bopping along behind one another with their school things bopping along too.
Finally catching up, Sakura was proud to note she was not a bit winded. Though, honesty made her admit, it’s not like the kid had been running or anything just… fuming. Or at least that’s what it seemed like, seeing as how this- Nira? Nara? Whatever- kid completely ignored them catching up. They walked along in an uncomfortable silence for a few minutes, till, unable to bear the awkwardness of it all, she turned to the other kid, the brown haired one, and asked if they were in the same class as Ino.
“Oh!” she exclaimed in excitement when -Amikici-san Amikii-san? No, Akimichi-san - nodded in affirmative. “Then you must know all about Sasuke-kun!”
Her grin widened and she felt herself practically skipping! Someone to drill! Ino was strangely tight-lipped about the boy, just saying he was good at school (Ha! Top scores her research showed!) and that he was quiet, having had a hard year previous. She still wasn’t sure what that meant, but there were other questions first!
Jumping into investigative mode, she began throwing out any questions that came to mind, trying not get annoyed at the boy’s unsure, stammered answers. Only the question about Sasuke-kun’s lunch (a bento, rice balls, ill-made, some vegetables, and of course anybody would appreciate a better bento being made for him) seemed truly reliable.
“Oh! And! And! What about-“
“Oh look!” Akimichi-san said loudly, “A food stand! I’m going to get something!”
And without another word, he took off, a strangely harried look on his face. What was up with that? Turning back to her other companions, Sakura was about to try to bridge the awkward silence that once again had descended when Nara-san turned and quietly exploded.
“My mom is gonna kill you!”
“Well,” Ino grumbled. “It’s all your fault anyway, if you weren’t so damn lazy, and if Chouji-kun wasn’t so freaking fa-!!”
Nara-san flung an arm around Ino, taking her down in a headlock and clamping his hand over her mouth. They held their position for a moment, glaring at each other till Akimichi-san came trotting back from the food stand and nearly tripped right over them.
“A-aah!” he complained, staring peevishly at the two. “You nearly made me drop my dango! Don’t you think we’ve had enough of tripping over people today?”
“Anyway,” Nara-san continued, releasing Ino as if nothing had happened. “It’ll be troublesome, but there’s really nothing for it.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Chouji wished his mouth wasn’t so full of food. Ino-chan’s crumbled, as all the bravado of earlier fell away in face of Yoshino-san’s anger. Not that he’d want to be one the receiving end of that woman’s temper either. The lectures to be endured! But you couldn’t comfort with a mouth full of food- at least according to Ino-chan, you couldn’t.
Oh well, he thought, quickly stuffing the last few bites into his mouth, sometimes you had to sacrifice savoring food for more important things.
“There’s nothing you can think to do?” he asked, watching Ino-chan worry her bottom lip.
These stupid girls-only classes were really starting to suck. Nothing good came out of them. It hadn’t been so bad when they’d done that cooking unit. That had had tasty results, but lately? Last week he’d had to listen on as Ino-chan babbled about flower meanings forever, and then on top of that Shikamaru had gotten into an argument with her saying that wasn’t what his dad said yellow roses meant. Or maybe it was pink ones they’d been talking about? Whatever. Some days it seemed like those two could argue about anything. In his opinion, if they had to sit through lectures on flowers, it was no wonder kunoichi numbers were so low. He’d have fled for the hills too. And this week was somehow even worse. He’d been nearly starved, then squashed by bony girls, then attacked some rabid Uchihha-fan and now Ino-chan was going to be chewed out by Yoshino-san and there was nothing any of them could do to help. He took it back. These stupid girls only class went beyond just sucking. Super-sucking maybe. Was that a word?
The pink-hair girl- Sakura-san, he thought-shifted uneasily.
“What about cosmetics?”
Cosi-what?
“Yohsino-san would notice that,” Ino-chan replied. Beside her, Shikamaru nodded.
“Besides, unless you have any, we don’t have any way to get make-up.”
Make-up. Right. He knew that. Too bad it didn’t help.
“She could stay with me,” he volunteered, trying not to think how an unexpected guest might affect dinner proportions. “Or at, um…Sakura-san’s.”
“After the fuss my mom’s been putting up about getting to see ‘her Ino-chan’ again?”
Shikamaru slide down a nearby wall to the ground.
“Besides,” Ino-chan added, cheeks reddening. “I was looking forward to seeing Deer-chan again?”
She made the last part a question, her voice lifting up at the end, and Shikamaru rolled his eyes. “I should just give you that stupid thing.”
“Deer-chan?” Sakura-san said.
“Um-nothing!”
“What about getting it, you know, fixed? Like a medic. Don’t they do that?” Sakura-san tried again.
“We don’t know anybody who does medic-stuff and the hospital’s for serious injuries,” Shikamaru objected. Sakura-san’s face dimmed at this pronouncement and she didn’t offer any more suggestions. Chouji couldn’t think of any either, and neither Ino-chan, nor Shikamaru had offered any ideas at all. Ino-chan always had some clever idea or another to wrap a teacher around her finger, or to for getting them an extra hour before bedtime on sleep-overs, or for getting back at the kids who teased other people (or at boys who dyed her hair blue, as they’d found out once). And as for Shikamaru- his plans weren’t clever exactly; they were more- brilliant. They always worked. So, if they didn’t have any hint of an idea now, he guessed that must mean there really wasn’t any way out for Ino-chan. He cringed in sympathy, but before he could say anything Shikamaru sighed and stood up.
“No other choice I guess. You’ll just have to tell my mom why you were fighting.”
Beside him, Ino-chan gasped. Chouji chewed the inside of his cheek. What now?
“Wait, what were you-“
“You’d really let me do that?” Ino-chan interrupted him. Shikamaru reddened, confusing Chouji even more, and reached a hand up to the back of his head.
“It’ll be a drag, but there’s no other choice, is there? Besides, my folks’d know if you were lying.”
“Still,”Ino-chan murmured, and when Chouji glanced over she was red in the face too. He was definitely missing something; he was just about to open his mouth to ask when-
“Um, now that that’s settled, which way do you guys go? I’m this way.”
Chouji felt his stomach drop. Sakura-san was pointing the same way he took. Maybe if he just took the long way-
“Chouji-kun’s that way too!” Ino-chan beamed at her friend. She just had to open that big mouth of hers, didn’t she? “We’re going this way, but at least you still have a friend to talk to, right?”
Sakura-san beamed back. Okay, she did have kind of a nice smile. Maybe it wouldn’t be too bad.
“Oh! So we can finish our conversation, right Akimichi-san? You didn’t answer my last questions!” And with that she grabbed him by the arm and started yanking him away. So much for ‘not too bad.’ Why did Ino-chan have to make friends with a Uchiha nut?
He tried a last-ditch effort to make eye contact with Shikamaru, in hopes getting saved, but Shikamaru was too busy talking to Ino-chan.
“Will your mom be really annoyed, do you think?” he heard Ino-chan ask as the pair turned down another street.
“Why are we still talking about this? What a drag. Anyway, did you really want to see Deer-chan that much? I should just-“ but what else Shikamaru should just do was lost to the sounds on the busy street, as they turned a corner and disappeared from view.
Chouji sighed and turned back to the girl at his side.
“I dunno. Maybe Uchiha-san likes target practice the best?”
It was going to be a long walk home.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Next Chapter: Try
A/N: I always try to include some kind of timeline indicator in-text, but in case this was unclear, this happens a number of months after the last chapter. They are into a new school year, and are about nine years old.
Author: hungrytiger11
Characters: Evenutal Shika/Ino. Chouji, Shikamaru, Ino, Sakura
Rating: G
Summary:It might take years for us to see, but you are the same kind of different as me.
Previous Chapter: These Memories Beneath My Ribs
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“-You, we need to wait for Ino,” muffled voices suddenly bloomed into hazy but discernable conversation, and Sakura nearly ran into Ino as her newest friend stopped short of rounding the corner.
Ino turned back around, finger to her lips, and gave a wink. It looked kind of painful actually; the skin around her eye was already yellowing into the start of a magnificent bruise. Sakura frowned a little at that. She still wasn’t sure she believed Sensei that there was nothing she could do to heal it. Weren’t there such things as medic-nin? What did they do, if they couldn’t even heal bruises? Sensei had probably lied, left the bruise as a reminder not to fight. Or maybe it was there to force Ino to confess to her parents about the fight. Sakura hadn’t met any of Ino’s family, but she knew her mom would go ballistic if she ever got into a fight- well, outside of sparring. Of course, her mom wanted her in civilian school looking at “safe” careers, so she’d use any excuse she could to yank her daughter out of Academy. Ino was part of a clan; no worry about if she should be a shinobi. Plus, didn’t she say her dad was out of town right now?
A giggle brought Sakura back from her thoughts, focused her in on the conversation Ino was eavesdropping on.
“-Hungry!” as all she caught before a lazy, drawling voice called out to them.
“I know you’re there Ino. You might as well come out. Chouji wants to get going.”
Being found out caught her friend by surprise, and Sakura watched as Ino bit her lip. What could make Ino that nervous? Or maybe thoughtful was a better word. Ino didn’t get nervous. She just didn’t, from what Sakura could see. After a moment, the blonde moved around the corner and Sakura took a deep breath, feeling suddenly shy at the idea she was going to be introduced to people as Ino’s friend.
Sure, these were Ino’s friends too, so they’d doubtlessly be really cool and good at ninja stuff, but they’d be nice too, and not let anybody push them around. Ino could only ever be friends with people who didn’t let certain other people- like certain ninja-wannabes who names begin with A and rhymed with Mi-san- push them around. They would like her. They just had to.
Sakura threw her head back, appreciating the way it felt swinging against her ribbon. If you acted like people should just automatically like you, they would. That’s what Ino said. Be yourself. That was her mother’s (often-repeated but still largely untested) advice. Feeling pumped up after her pep talk to herself, and she stepped forward- and straight into Ino’s back.
Pitching forward, her feet tangled with Ino’s and they tumbled down the path, collapsing in a heap. Spitting out a mouthful of hair (Ino’s. Oops.), Sakura sighed. So much for appearing cool. What was it people were always saying about first impressions?
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
“What the hell happened to you? My mom’s gonna freak!” Shikamaru grimaced, looking annoyed. Chouji started guiltily, wondering what he could be so upset about when all Chouji had asked was whether there’d be time to stop at a food stand, before he noticed that, while still laying down, his friend’s attention wasn’t on the sky anymore. Beady eyes where focused on something just beyond his right shoulder. Chouji twisted around to get a better look.
Oh. So that was what Shikamaru was talking about.
Ino-chan stood by the gate, shoulders thrown back defiantly, looking a little worse for the wear. Hair was scuffled and out of its usual clips, clothes were dirty, but what really stood out was the shiner already yellowing around her eye.
Before either boy had a chance to say any more though, something toppled into their friend, sending her and- well, whoever it was- flying across the path. Scrambling up and throwing his arms wide, Chouji managed to grab an limb, stopping their momentum, and sending them all to ground.
“Move, please,” he wheezed, pushing the extra bodies off, his lungs flattened under Ino-chan’s torso. Pushing himself up, he came face to face with Ino-chan as she reached a hand down to him.
“Ino-chan,” he said, standing up and reaching out to poke gently at the bruising skin. “What happened?”
It looked even worse close up! She grimaced and slapped his hand away.
“Hands off, Chouji-kun. That hurts you know.”
“You didn’t answer the question, Ino,” Shikamaru said from behind. Turning, Chouji could see his friend had managed to avoid the human bowling ball they’d all made a second ago. Shikamaru sat up and stared, a little accusingly, at the blonde.
Ino-chan didn’t answer, only met his scowl with one of her own.
“She got into fight!” another voice piped up, a girl’s but higher pitched and breathier than Ino-chan’s ever was. Peeking out from behind Ino-chan was a little pink-haired girl. Well, that explained the red blurs that had crashed into him along with the Ino-chan-colored blurs. In fact, this girl even looked a little familiar, though he couldn’t quite say why.
“You a student here?” he asked, staring at the unusual coloring of this girl. Pink? Really? Poor kid, Chouji thought. People use to give him a hard time about his face markings till they saw it didn’t bother him, or, more accurately, till Ino-chan told him he couldn’t show that it bothered him. But face markings were nothing compared to pink hair! She had a high forehead too, now that he was looking. Heck, the girl practically had “tease me” stamped on that forehead of hers, what with all her unique looks. He wondered vaguely if Ino-chan had told this girl the same as she’d told him when a voice cut through his thoughts.
“Ino got into a fight?” Shikamaru’s drawl was not exactly disbelief, but Chouji instinctually started edging to the side, out of the line of fire that was sure to start hailing down between his two friends.
“Shut up, Sakura!” Ino’s cheeks reddened at the accusation. “It was nothing important. They don’t want to hear about that.”
“No,” Shikamaru marched up to Ino-chan, fingers hovering very deliberately just above where Chouji had touched. “I think we do.”
Ino-chan tucked her chin down and glared up at him. She’d grown, Chouji noted absently, the two were once again eye to eye, where the last knock-down, drag-out fight they’d had, Shikamaru had reduced her to tears by teasing her about her height, saying she only wanted to play with the people shorter than she was. Of course, at the time, Chouji’d been pretty sure Ino-chan had had other reasons for wanting to spar with that Uchiha kid, and that was why he was really hoping the reasons she’d gotten beat up had nothing whatsoever to do with the “genius” of their class.
“It’s none of your beeswax!”
“But,” The pink-haired girl faltered and stared openly at Shikamaru and himself. “Isn’t this that Nira kid and Chou-nii they were talking about?”
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Sakura stared curiously at these two people who were in a strange mirror-image position to what she and Ino were in. One boy was uncomfortably close to Ino’s face, examining her injuries, probably wondering why the teacher couldn’t have fixed it, just as Sakura had. Then again, with his expression, he might have been too annoyed to bother thinking about healing. Peering over his shoulder, as Sakura was peering over Ino’s, was another little boy with brown hair sticking up in tufts and swirly markings Sakura just wanted to reach out and- pinch.
“Not Nira and Chou-nii,” Ino sighed, ignoring the eye rolling one boy was doing. “This is Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Chouji. And,” she continued, glaring back at the boy in front, “I’d introduce Sakura to you two, if you’d quit getting in my face. Honestly, straighten up! Can’t you at least try to look more presentable?”
This probably wasn’t entirely fair, considering it was she and Ino who had just tumbled down the path. Still, the scolding seemed to set them straight! Huffing out air, Nara-san slouched back an inch or two while Akimichi -san waved at her. Leave it to Ino to take charge of a situation.
“People were talking? About us?” The dark-haired one- Nara-san, she thought- said.
Ino colored under his glare, eyes dropping to the ground. Oops. Sakura felt her own cheeks drain of blood. Guess she shouldn’t have mentioned that?
“People don’t know shit,” Ino mumbled.
Sakura hissed franticly in her ear. “Don’t use bad words!”
That sort of thing got your name on the board, and groundings and- if Sakura’s mom were ever to hear that- a barring of her new best friend from the Haruno household. Neither of the boys seemed to react to the bad word- or any of Ino’s words- at all though. The skinny one turned and took off down the street at a rate that was surprising considering stupid Ami-baka had been calling him a lazy-ass. They other three were left to take off behind him, looking, Sakura imagined, like a deranged kids’ parade, as they all went bopping along behind one another with their school things bopping along too.
Finally catching up, Sakura was proud to note she was not a bit winded. Though, honesty made her admit, it’s not like the kid had been running or anything just… fuming. Or at least that’s what it seemed like, seeing as how this- Nira? Nara? Whatever- kid completely ignored them catching up. They walked along in an uncomfortable silence for a few minutes, till, unable to bear the awkwardness of it all, she turned to the other kid, the brown haired one, and asked if they were in the same class as Ino.
“Oh!” she exclaimed in excitement when -Amikici-san Amikii-san? No, Akimichi-san - nodded in affirmative. “Then you must know all about Sasuke-kun!”
Her grin widened and she felt herself practically skipping! Someone to drill! Ino was strangely tight-lipped about the boy, just saying he was good at school (Ha! Top scores her research showed!) and that he was quiet, having had a hard year previous. She still wasn’t sure what that meant, but there were other questions first!
Jumping into investigative mode, she began throwing out any questions that came to mind, trying not get annoyed at the boy’s unsure, stammered answers. Only the question about Sasuke-kun’s lunch (a bento, rice balls, ill-made, some vegetables, and of course anybody would appreciate a better bento being made for him) seemed truly reliable.
“Oh! And! And! What about-“
“Oh look!” Akimichi-san said loudly, “A food stand! I’m going to get something!”
And without another word, he took off, a strangely harried look on his face. What was up with that? Turning back to her other companions, Sakura was about to try to bridge the awkward silence that once again had descended when Nara-san turned and quietly exploded.
“My mom is gonna kill you!”
“Well,” Ino grumbled. “It’s all your fault anyway, if you weren’t so damn lazy, and if Chouji-kun wasn’t so freaking fa-!!”
Nara-san flung an arm around Ino, taking her down in a headlock and clamping his hand over her mouth. They held their position for a moment, glaring at each other till Akimichi-san came trotting back from the food stand and nearly tripped right over them.
“A-aah!” he complained, staring peevishly at the two. “You nearly made me drop my dango! Don’t you think we’ve had enough of tripping over people today?”
“Anyway,” Nara-san continued, releasing Ino as if nothing had happened. “It’ll be troublesome, but there’s really nothing for it.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Chouji wished his mouth wasn’t so full of food. Ino-chan’s crumbled, as all the bravado of earlier fell away in face of Yoshino-san’s anger. Not that he’d want to be one the receiving end of that woman’s temper either. The lectures to be endured! But you couldn’t comfort with a mouth full of food- at least according to Ino-chan, you couldn’t.
Oh well, he thought, quickly stuffing the last few bites into his mouth, sometimes you had to sacrifice savoring food for more important things.
“There’s nothing you can think to do?” he asked, watching Ino-chan worry her bottom lip.
These stupid girls-only classes were really starting to suck. Nothing good came out of them. It hadn’t been so bad when they’d done that cooking unit. That had had tasty results, but lately? Last week he’d had to listen on as Ino-chan babbled about flower meanings forever, and then on top of that Shikamaru had gotten into an argument with her saying that wasn’t what his dad said yellow roses meant. Or maybe it was pink ones they’d been talking about? Whatever. Some days it seemed like those two could argue about anything. In his opinion, if they had to sit through lectures on flowers, it was no wonder kunoichi numbers were so low. He’d have fled for the hills too. And this week was somehow even worse. He’d been nearly starved, then squashed by bony girls, then attacked some rabid Uchihha-fan and now Ino-chan was going to be chewed out by Yoshino-san and there was nothing any of them could do to help. He took it back. These stupid girls only class went beyond just sucking. Super-sucking maybe. Was that a word?
The pink-hair girl- Sakura-san, he thought-shifted uneasily.
“What about cosmetics?”
Cosi-what?
“Yohsino-san would notice that,” Ino-chan replied. Beside her, Shikamaru nodded.
“Besides, unless you have any, we don’t have any way to get make-up.”
Make-up. Right. He knew that. Too bad it didn’t help.
“She could stay with me,” he volunteered, trying not to think how an unexpected guest might affect dinner proportions. “Or at, um…Sakura-san’s.”
“After the fuss my mom’s been putting up about getting to see ‘her Ino-chan’ again?”
Shikamaru slide down a nearby wall to the ground.
“Besides,” Ino-chan added, cheeks reddening. “I was looking forward to seeing Deer-chan again?”
She made the last part a question, her voice lifting up at the end, and Shikamaru rolled his eyes. “I should just give you that stupid thing.”
“Deer-chan?” Sakura-san said.
“Um-nothing!”
“What about getting it, you know, fixed? Like a medic. Don’t they do that?” Sakura-san tried again.
“We don’t know anybody who does medic-stuff and the hospital’s for serious injuries,” Shikamaru objected. Sakura-san’s face dimmed at this pronouncement and she didn’t offer any more suggestions. Chouji couldn’t think of any either, and neither Ino-chan, nor Shikamaru had offered any ideas at all. Ino-chan always had some clever idea or another to wrap a teacher around her finger, or to for getting them an extra hour before bedtime on sleep-overs, or for getting back at the kids who teased other people (or at boys who dyed her hair blue, as they’d found out once). And as for Shikamaru- his plans weren’t clever exactly; they were more- brilliant. They always worked. So, if they didn’t have any hint of an idea now, he guessed that must mean there really wasn’t any way out for Ino-chan. He cringed in sympathy, but before he could say anything Shikamaru sighed and stood up.
“No other choice I guess. You’ll just have to tell my mom why you were fighting.”
Beside him, Ino-chan gasped. Chouji chewed the inside of his cheek. What now?
“Wait, what were you-“
“You’d really let me do that?” Ino-chan interrupted him. Shikamaru reddened, confusing Chouji even more, and reached a hand up to the back of his head.
“It’ll be a drag, but there’s no other choice, is there? Besides, my folks’d know if you were lying.”
“Still,”Ino-chan murmured, and when Chouji glanced over she was red in the face too. He was definitely missing something; he was just about to open his mouth to ask when-
“Um, now that that’s settled, which way do you guys go? I’m this way.”
Chouji felt his stomach drop. Sakura-san was pointing the same way he took. Maybe if he just took the long way-
“Chouji-kun’s that way too!” Ino-chan beamed at her friend. She just had to open that big mouth of hers, didn’t she? “We’re going this way, but at least you still have a friend to talk to, right?”
Sakura-san beamed back. Okay, she did have kind of a nice smile. Maybe it wouldn’t be too bad.
“Oh! So we can finish our conversation, right Akimichi-san? You didn’t answer my last questions!” And with that she grabbed him by the arm and started yanking him away. So much for ‘not too bad.’ Why did Ino-chan have to make friends with a Uchiha nut?
He tried a last-ditch effort to make eye contact with Shikamaru, in hopes getting saved, but Shikamaru was too busy talking to Ino-chan.
“Will your mom be really annoyed, do you think?” he heard Ino-chan ask as the pair turned down another street.
“Why are we still talking about this? What a drag. Anyway, did you really want to see Deer-chan that much? I should just-“ but what else Shikamaru should just do was lost to the sounds on the busy street, as they turned a corner and disappeared from view.
Chouji sighed and turned back to the girl at his side.
“I dunno. Maybe Uchiha-san likes target practice the best?”
It was going to be a long walk home.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Next Chapter: Try
A/N: I always try to include some kind of timeline indicator in-text, but in case this was unclear, this happens a number of months after the last chapter. They are into a new school year, and are about nine years old.