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The rain pattered noisily against the window panes, expected weather considering it was now late spring. Ino sat comfortably on her deep purple love seat.
It was a peaceful quiet, only interrupted by the gentle tapping on the windows. She had endured a rough week at the flower shop and was enjoying her long-awaited weekend break by having some evening tea whilst playing a relaxed card game.
But, as if to mock her happiness at having a break, a sound called her attention away from her game. A familiar sound at that.
A knock, three taps, a short pause, and then one more tap. It was a weak sound, but she knew it instantly.
Pushing herself up from the cushions and swiftly heading to the window sill in her kitchen. In one quick move she unmatched the glass and pushed it up with practiced ease.
"Didn't think I'd be seeing you back here so soon after last time, thought I had finally convinced you to take a damn vacation." Her voice came out smooth and calm.
"Well, I wouldn't be here if I didn't need to be." Replied a tired and somewhat strained voice.
"Is it bad?"
"Possibly." A slow, dry chuckle escaped his throat before continuing. "Nothing I can't handle though."
The blond sighed, despite his carefree demeanor she knew her bathroom would be looking like a damn crime scene next time she went in there.
Without any further conversation, a wounded but still nimble ANBU Black Ops member vaulted himself off the rooftop and into the kitchen. Ino did not fail to notice the couple crimson droplets that landed on her counter.
° ° °
"You need any help there?" Ino's voice was calm, but she let a little worry be perceived in her speech. She was concerned for her friend and didn't care enough to pretend she didn't.
"Nah, like I said before—" The ANBU member clenched his teeth and sucked in a little air, his hand slipped while stitching up the considerable gash on his side. "—nothing I can't handle."
She tensed her lips into a tight, thin line. Her friend's porcelain deer mask laid on the bathroom sink edge.
"Shikamaru. Those injuries keep getting worse, you need to be more careful on missions." She chided, "You can't keep coming here half-dead and expect me not to eventually drag your sorry ass to a hospital."
"You know I can't do that, all my work must remain off the official record.”
”But this is getting ridiculous, you’ve pretty much been here every other day with a new wound. What if…” her voice trailed off briefly. “What if next time, you don’t come back..?” Her tone was downright pitiful, fear pumped through every vein in her. Normally she’d be fully against sounding so terrified, but this was a different case.
“Ino, I’ve told you before, I will be fine. If I ever get into a bad situation I promise I’ll get out before I lose the opportunity.” The raven-haired shinobi heaved himself up from the side of the tub, blood still oozing between the stitches.
“You don’t know that.” She stared at him intently, her concern accompanied by a healthy dose of annoyance. “And please let me help with your bandage this time. I know you have an allergy to assistance but just let me do it, it’s always loose when you do it.”
“Fine, but I don’t do that bad when I’m bandaging myself though.” He let out a soft laugh through his teeth. But she didn’t return the smile.
Shikamaru was gone by the time she woke up the next morning, as always.
° ° °
Ino never liked ANBU to begin with, seeing them as threatening and untrustworthy. But she’s started despising them recently.
She was never supposed to find out about Shikamaru Nara’s position as a member. They’re pretty known for their secrecy.
If it wasn’t for a certain someone collapsing into her kitchen in the middle of the night then she wouldn’t know at all. But since she found out about that, things started to make a shit ton more sense.
As far as anyone else knew, Shikamaru still worked for the Hokage. And that’s what she believed for the longest time. But he always seemed to work odd hours and/or extremely long amounts of time. That, coupled with the strange amount he seemed to clam up regarding his missions made her suspicious for a good while, but she never expected him to be in ANBU of all things.
The blonde knew damn well how dangerous ANBU was to be in, they don’t get any rescue teams should they not return from a job, all missions are off-record so no hospitals, and you can’t even tell anybody you’re involved with them.
Ino had told her friend multiple times about her disdain for his choice of job, but he brushed her off each and every time. His usual laid-back demeanor did nothing to soothe her worries however. He would always respond to her comments with a “Trust me, I know what I’m doing.” and “It’ll be fine.”. And every time she’d hear that all she wanted to do was respond with “Bullshit!”. She held her tongue though.
Not like he’d listen even if she did yell in his face. If something happened to him out on the field, she’d be none the wiser. He’d simply disappear.
She chose not to think about that right now though, not like she ever wanted to think about that, but currently she had something pulling her from her thoughts. A certain familiar knock at the window to be specific.
Three taps, pause, one tap.
She let out a sigh and pulled her bed covers off, glancing at the clock on the way out of her room. 4:15 AM. Damn, had she really stayed up all night?
Heading out into the main room of her home, her eyes landed quickly on the man she’d expected. Still in his black and grey uniform, a porcelain deer mask covering his face.
“Shikamaru.” Ino started, her voice dry and her posture tense. “It’s been two damn nights.”
“I know, I know. But it’s not that bad this time.” He raised a hand to remove the mask, the blond shinobi did not fail to notice the blood that dried on his fingers and palm.
“That doesn’t matter, I was exaggerating before when I said you were here every other night. But now that’s the fucking reality of it.” She glared at him, her eyes drilling into his.
Shikamaru glanced down, he appeared nervous. Not wanting to return her icy gaze, he stepped out from the kitchen doorway, a hand held tight against the side of his leg. His bloody leg.
“Just go.” She mumbled, gesturing to the bathroom. He did as he was told and made his way down the hall, failing to hide how he was limping.
After about thirty minutes, Ino had composed herself enough to speak with him. Before, she didn’t trust herself not to blow up in his face about his stupidity.
“Y’know I barely got the blood stains out of the curtain yesterday, I might as well just buy new ones at this point.”
There was a beat of silence, the raven-haired man stayed still. Eyes trained on the leg he was currently bandaging. Since he was only in shorts at the moment, his pants discarded on the tiled floor, Ino’s gaze drifted down to his legs. His skin was littered with scars, some old, some new. Most of them, however, she knew were from his missions as an ANBU member. She clenched a fist.
“I’m sorry, Ino.” Was all he managed to reply with, silence once again enveloping the space. The only sound being from him still wrapping his leg.
Without another word, the blond turned and walked off. A quiet exhale slipped past Shikamaru’s lips once she left. His hands stilled, eyes still locked on the bandage that was starting to show blood through it.
“Fuck.”
° ° °
Ino barely slept that night, even if she did pass out right after her “talk” with Shikamaru she’d be lucky to sleep three hours before her alarm would scream for her to get up. She had a shop to run after all.
If she had to guess, she got maybe an hour of rest.
Swinging her legs over the side of the bed, she smacked her phone to shut it up. She padded over to her closet and put on something comfortable but presentable enough. After she had brushed her hair and done her usual makeup routine she headed to the kitchen to make something to eat.
Stepping past the bathroom, she paused for a moment to assess how clean it was. There was barely any trace of blood from the night before, surprising. As while Shikamaru had many skills, cleaning most definitely was not one of them.
She shrugged it off though, he probably only did it because he felt guilty for fucking up her bathroom every time he showed up.
The blonde made her way into the kitchen and put on some water to boil, considering how exhausted she was she would only get through the day with the help of some coffee. Lots of coffee.
“Not even gonna say good morning?” A smooth and calm voice came from the living room couch.
Ino nearly jumped out of her skin, her hand flying to her leg pouch. Cursing as she realized she hadn’t put any of her kunai in there.
But as she stared into her living room, her initial panic died real quick. Replaced by pure annoyance.
“Since when do you stay the night?”
Shikamaru shrugged.
“Figured it was kind of a dick move to leave after last night.”
“Whatever.” She turned her attention back to her coffee making. “How’s your leg feeling?”
“Better than last night, that’s for sure.” He smiled lazily and got up from his seat.
Stepping into the kitchen with her, he opened up the fridge and began to rummage through it. She smacked him on the back of the head.
“Who said you could eat my food, you leech.” She shot him one of her signature icy glares.
He pouted but shut the fridge door, instead choosing to lean against the counter and watch her make herself some breakfast.
“I’ll pay you back for the curtains, even I couldn’t get the stains out of that thing.” He exhaled and crossed his arms. She snorted in reply.
“Trust me, if I couldn’t get them out there was no way in hell you’d be able to scrub ‘em out.” She smirked at him. He rolled his eyes at her teasing.
“Also, I’ll pay you back for the endless amount of bandages I’ve used.”
She paused, her smile fading.
“Don’t worry about it, I’m just glad you’re alright.”
The two of them grew quiet, and Ino couldn’t help but think how much more that had been happening recently. The awkward pauses in conversation, the lack of things to talk about, the way their talks always seemed to end in either an argument or one of them just leaving. All of those were recent developments for them, in the past they’d always been able to have casual chats without all this..tension.
For the rest of the morning they mostly remained quiet, she ate her food and he told her something about having to leave for a mission. She only half believed that, but she’d rather not continue this painfully awkward visit, so she didn’t say anything other than;
“Be safe.”
To which he assured her he would. “Liar.” She thought. As she stood behind the counter of the flower shop, she kept thinking back to Shikamaru. She wanted to tell him so badly just to quit, but she knew damn well that wasn’t possible.
“I don’t just want to sit on my ass and let him keep getting hurt until the day that he doesn’t make it ba-” Her thoughts were cut short by the jingle of the bell above the shop’s door. Right, she had customers to handle right now.
The Shikamaru situation could wait until later.