(Naruto) Pieces
Title: Pieces
Fandom: Naruto
Theme: 11. Touch me so I think I’m here
Character: Ino, Shikamaru, Chouji
Summary: Ino lost track of who she was too many times. They don’t, luckily.
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Ino only exists within the dimensions of her team and her friends. Outside of that, she isn’t just Ino. She is Mayu and Yuuki and Kagura, she is sometimes a Kyo or Ichigo or even a Sumoshi. She can be a guy or a girl, old or young, depending on what is needed.
Sometimes it gets to be too much and she runs through her mind, opening doors in vain to find the one labeled ‘Ino’, to find the one that has her in it. She needs that, to find herself and no one else, but it is a hard job to do by herself. Especially when her fingers aren’t her own and her eyes see a world that is someone else’s. Her thoughts are a thousand different people’s mixed together and her feelings aren’t completely under her control either.
(Her work follows her home, trails after her like a shadow and she can’t ever get rid of it.)
Shikamaru and Chouji know how to deal with it, to deal with her when she gets angry over nothing and suddenly crying when a man that is not her father dies. They know what to do when she pulls herself up with limbs that she can’t recognize anymore and friends that seem like a distant dream.
They rebuild her, piece by piece, like putting back the shards of a broken mug together. Shikamaru sometimes will remind her of something she wants to do and let her drag him away. He will complain and grumble but she needs that hand in hers, that warmth that she knows is hers to keep.
Chouji brings her all sorts of food and hogs them all down with her. She might grow a little fatter or she might yell at him to grow thinner but he will pretend to consider it because a little of that is Ino and the rest is not. When it is all Ino, he will reject the idea completely and that helps her. There are some things only Ino can do and he leaves this safe for her to come back to.
And slowly, with a small touch here and a taunting comment there, they peel off each layer of not-Ino until they reach Ino. They keep going until they find the scars and the mark she insists is a birthmark, reminding her of each one as they go. They push past the false anger and sorrow while reminding her of her friends and dreams until those feelings become real.
Most of all, they are there at one in the morning when she wakes up drenched in sweat and gasping, the other people finally shoved back into the corners they belong. They are there when she reaches out for both of them and grabs them, turning back into the Ino they know.
It is worth all that trouble, even as they do this time after time, when she finally gives them her Ino smile.
-x-
Ino is only capable of doing her job because she knows Shikamaru and Chouji are there for her. She can become anyone because she knows that ‘Ino’ is safe. Ino isn’t with her anymore; she is split into two big pieces given to each boy. They keep each piece safe until she needs Ino back. Even then, they give her back slowly so that both pieces safely turn back into one.
Ino is able to change herself because they are always there to change her back.
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