Archive of Our Own ^beta

"Ya know, bee-loved, I never would have pegged you as someone with such a competitive streak." Ino observed absently, clinging to his arm loosely and looking around sharply. "What do you think their game is?"

"...Kiba is surprisingly patient, if properly motivated. If Shikamaru realized this, I imagine that it is likely they will let us wander aimlessly for a while and strike when they believe us to be most vulnerable." Shino offered after a moment of consideration. Ino thought about it, and rolled her eyes.

"Maybe. But you might be overestimating Shikamaru's patience. He knows he has no chance at scaring me, and he doesn't put much effort into things he doesn't calculate to be likely." She countered. Shino gave an amused hum and smirked.

"Oh, but you are forgetting a key detail here, tulip." He claimed. "Shikamaru still hasn't given me a so-called shovel talk." He pointed out, and Ino froze mid-step, eyes widening with realization before she groaned and leaned dramatically into Shino, burying her face in his shoulder. 

"Oh Sage, why me?" She lamented, then grew louder so anyone that may-or-may-not be hidden in the trees would hear. "Why Have I been cursed with such a drama queen of a surrogate brother? What Did I, the perfectly mannered Yamanaka Ino, ever do to deserve this?" She called loudly, glaring at the trees. 

"I do not believe that is going to work." Shino managed to deadpan, and she heaved a sigh and shrugged. 

"Oh well, worth a try. Why did we go along with this, again?" She pondered rhetorically. Shino didn't seem to get that, as he responded.

"We are both chronically incapable of refusing a challenge from our respective arrogant teammates. Especially when we're both displeased with them for waking us up in the middle of the night and dragging us to the forest with no explanation but 'bet you can't make it to the end of this path without screaming'." He recounted dutifully, looking over at her with a frown. "Your memory is usually much better then that. Are you unwell?"

Ino giggled in response and shook her head, but instantly stopped when she felt Shino flinch and stutter in his step. She pulled them to a stop and pulled a little away from him, squinting at his face and cataloging it like a puzzle. He had gone beet red and had ducked his head into the high collar of his jacket, refusing to look at her as he hummed quietly-

Oh, wait no-

"Hey now, I didn't mean it like that, lovebug." She assured, carefully tilting his chin up with one hand using her thumb and forefinger, squeezing his hand where theirs were still interlaced with the other. "I wasn't laughing at you, your delivery just caught me off guard, ok? I wouldn't laugh at you just for something like that- It's a part of who you are. Nothing wrong with being who you are, right?" She reminded him.

She waited patiently for him to nod before standing on her tip-toes, kissing him on the forehead, and smiling at him as she started dragging Him along again, walking half-backwards.

Then she sensed- something- behind her, and threw one of her emergency-shuriken at it on instinct, silently and seamlessly turning around, ready for a fight-

Only to see Kiba, in all of his dumbassary, staring at her with wide, slightly-terrified eyes. She wasted no time throwing another shuriken at him out of spite, hitting barely a centimeter to the left of his neck and cutting that raggedy-ass jacket he always wore.  Kiba looked over Ino's shoulder at Shino, who was watching blankly. He grinned, and it was all teeth. She readied another shuriken and raised an unimpressed eyebrow at his silent threat of a smile.

"Oh wow Shino, you got yourself a feisty one, huh? I never knew Yamanaka-hime was so ready to stab first and ask questions later. What happened to chasing Sasuke's tail?" Kiba challenged, and Ino almost threw the other shuriken.

"I don't see how it's any of your business, dog breathe. But, if you must know, I decided that I was worth more then some traitorous Nuke-nin asshole that couldn't spell 'co-operation' if Forehead-chan was holding up flashcards for him." She scoffed with more gusto then she could really muster. "I pulled my head out of my ass and saw past the person I built up in my head when I was a Academy student with no perspective, and I dare say it's time you do the same." She harrumphed, bristling. 

It had been almost a year since Sasuke's defection, and it still stung as if it were a new wound. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, grounding herself, and clung to Shino's hand like it was an anchor once he stepped forward and offered it. Her eyes snapped open and she straightened her spine, the picture of the Yamanaka-heir with all the poisonous beauty it implied, and saw Kiba staring at her with wide, astounded eyes. He nodded slowly, tilting his head to the side and letting his smirk pull up a little in another almost-threat.

She had to give credit where it was due- Kiba did look pretty unsettling like that, eyes and teeth almost shining, the shadow of the hood making his fang tattoos look like splotches of blood, shadows obscuring his more childish features.

"Good to hear. Wouldn't want you stringing poor Shino-kun along until the first chance you have to go running back into that bastard's arms, yeah? What about that thing with you and Sakura-chan?" He asked, mock lightly, and she snarled as she threw a shuriken that pinned his hood to the tree he stood in front of and left a shallow cut running back the top of his head.

"Now that," She spat, "Really is none of your goddamn business."

There was a lapse of silence and she felt him look her over and come to his own conclusions. She didn't care. 

"...Yeah, fair enough. Sorry, just..gotta make sure." Kiba sighed, and Ino looked up in time to bear witness to the lupine protectiveness fade from his eyes- not gone, but dull. "Take care of him, yeah, Ino-chan?" Kiba requested, and she gave a tight nod. Apparently that was good enough, because he threw the shuriken back at her feet and waved. 

"......I should have seen that coming." Shino contemplated, trying to clear the air. She appreciated it. "Why? Because, while it is irregular for a female partner to get a 'Shovel Talk', the Inuzuka are a matriarchal clan. It would stand to reason that Kiba perceived you as a potential threat to me, where most would foolishly overlook you for being a girl." he elaborated. "Not to mention, my team is a little...overprotective." He hummed, and she laughed at that.

"Yeah, no kidding. Is this your roundabout way of warning me about Hinata-chan?" She pondered.

"Mayhaps. It might benefit you to look out for Kuranai-sensei, too. Just in case." He offered, and she guffawed.

"Really? I'd shave my own head before I could see Asuma-sensei giving a shit who I'm dating." Ino admitted, taking a deep breathe and calming herself down. She realized that she still held Shino's hand in a vice-like grip that had to hurt, and let go of it like it burned her.

She stared at him, considering whether or not she should bring up the elephant in the room. She knew that if she wanted it dropped then Shino wouldn't even question it, knew that he couldn't even begin to understand, knew that talking about it would feel like fire in her mouth-

But, as much as she didn't want to talk about it ever, she didn't want  to leave him to stew and contemplate it himself even more. She knew, more then most, the horrible ways the mind could twist things.

He tilted his head at her, giving her time to do whatever she was doing, no judgement in his expression. She sighed and looked away.

"Hey, assholes, this one's a private conversation. Fuck off for a bit or I'll tell both of your mom's exactly what you were doing and where you were in the middle of the night before training." She warned the trees, just in case, and was rewarded when she felt two spikes of fear-ridden Chakra before the masked signatures flashed away. 

"..Are you okay?" Shino asked hesitantly, and she sighed.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. This is just..hard to talk about." She sighed, rubbing the sides of her head.

"You don't have to tell me if you don-"

"Sakura didn't break up with me." She blurted stubbornly, because she knew, knew, that if he gave her an out she'd take it. "I know everyone thinks that she did, and you're my rebound after I dated my Dream Girl, but that's not true." She stressed, because she hated it. Hated that people thought that, hated that he thought that. She ran a hand through her hair and gave a bitter laugh. "Ok well. Yeah. Sakura-chan was my dream girl. Still is in a lot of ways, to be honest, but I broke up with her. I'm not some heartbroken little girl starved for affection." She spat, and bit back the automatic dig- that would be Sakura. It would be so easy but, despite everything, she didn't want to really hurt the bubblegum haired Kunoichi.

"...Ok." Shino said, blandly with a hum, as if it was just that simple, that easy to accept- "If she was so perfect, why did you break up with her?" He asked, and she flinched. oh. His inflection hadn't changed that much, but he was angry. Or just jealous- insecure? She was a little too erratic to read his mood, really, even though it was a tool she used to navigate most of her conversations, and she hated not being able to tell exactly how he felt with a passion.

"Because I wasn't perfect for her." She admitted in a whisper, far quieter then she had ever spoken to him, and it felt like she was pulling her own teeth. She took a step back from him and hugged herself, refusing to cry. She was a shinobi now, damn it, Shinobi don't cry-

But she wasn't. She wasn't a shinobi right now- she was Ino. She was just Yamanaka Ino, and she was choking on sobs.

"..Ino?" Shino asked, anger-jealousy-insecurity gone without a trace and replaced by a lilt of- she wanted to say concern?

pity, more like. The venomous voice in the back of her head that sounded like fucking Sasuke drawled, and she ignored it. She did.

"I wasn't perfect for her." She said, no stronger, and she wanted to scream just to prove that she could. the thought made her almost laugh- maybe this was somehow all part of Shikamaru's genius plan to get one of them to scream after all. She cleared her throat and shuddered with the effort it took to keep picking at this scab. "She loved me, and I adored her, but. She had bonfires in her eyes when she talked about me, and it was beautiful, but you should have seen her talk about them. Bonfires are great and all, but they pale in comparison to the sun and the stars, ya know? There's no competition. And, no matter how much it hurts, I won't keep her from something that would make her happier, and I can't let her keep me from finding the same." She explained, and fuck. 

She was crying.

"...Ino..." Shino intoned again, and she couldn't even hope to try and figure out the emotion behind it. She heard him walk over to her and fucking whimpered, like a kicked dog- 

And Shino was there. He was quietly singing some soothing song and rubbing tentative circles into her back, ready to stop as soon as she wants him to, and she somehow doesn't care anymore. 

She didn't cry when she broke up with Sakura, or when she told her parents, or when she was approached 10 times a day being asked what she did wrong to make Sakura break up with her, and she definitely didn't cry when Sakura found her and apologized frantically, pissed on Ino's behalf that the rumors painted Ino as the bad guy. 

There, in Shino's arms, in the middle of the might in the middle of a forest, though? She cried. She cried and cried, and the only thing that kept her from wailing was the sliver of pride she had left that refused to scream and loose the petty, meaningless, misleading dare that got them here.

And Shino didn't say anything. She honestly couldn't tell if she wanted him to.

Eventually she started to wind down, though, calm enough to think properly again. She looked up at Shino, almost scared of what she'd see, and only saw- ah. 

It wasn't ever pity, was it? It was sorrow, and helplessness, and confusion. Sage, she must have terrified him.

"...I'm sorry." She said, finally, because it had to be said. There was immediate protest on his face, and she waved a hand as if to bat his denial away. "Not for telling you. Or for...crying on you." She said lamely, clearing her throat again. "I'm just sorry...I'm sorry I love her more. I'm sorry you know that. I'm sorry that I always might." She sighed, clutching to him. There was a brittle smile on her face. "Trust me, I've...I've been there. I'm sorry I can't give you anything better- at the very least, not right now. But I don't want you to be afraid that I'm gonna up and leave you if Sakura comes crawling back. I don't want you to have that hanging over your head. And I get not being able to be second best- so, if you can't, then leave. I don't want to keep you from something that would make you happier, either. Okay?" She finished, and she could finally breathe. It was a weight off of her chest, laying all of that out.

For better or for worse, her cards were on the table. It made her itchy, to lay all her thoughts and secrets out like that. Her mother used to whisper in her ear that when all's said and done, the only thing a Yamanaka has are her secrets. 

She hadn't even been this honest with Sakura. It shouldn't make her feel so guilty.

"Ok." Shino said again, and she closed her eyes, like a defendant waiting for a final verdict. "Thank you for being honest, Ino. I know it is...hard, for you." She flinched at the wording, and he flinched in turn. "Oh, no, not like...that..." He huffed and scooted around so he was facing her, and lifted her down-turned head with his thumb and forefinger. He carefully laced his other hand into hers and squeezed, and she almost squeaked in surprise. "I did not mean that as a slight, tulip. It is a part of who you are- and there is nothing wrong with being who you are, right?" He prompted, and she slowly nodded, and she felt him smile as he pressed a kiss to her forehead.

She looked up at him in surprise, and his lip was quirked ever so slightly. "I suppose that is what it is like to be on the other side of things." He joked- joked, it could take hours of prodding for her to make him joke. "My point, to put it shortly- You are aware that I am no wordsmith- is that I have no intention of leaving your side, as long as you'll have me. You make me happier, and you're endlessly understanding and observant. You help me with so many things- I take no issue helping you with this one."

He stood up, still holding her hand, and she let him help her up, rubbing at her eyes with her spare hand. For a moment they just stood in silence, staring at each other, basking in the presence of someone who unarguably liked having them there. An unlikely pair, maybe, and an imperfect one, but they couldn't care less.

Then Ino flipped her hair and rolled her shoulders back.

"Shino, Darling, are you ready to finish this LOVELY walk that WILL NOT be INTERRUPTED at ALL by ANNOYING MEDDLING BROTHERS that can WAIT ANOTHER DAMN WEEK TO THREATEN MY BOYFRIEND?" She shouted, and the Chakra signature that was on the edge of their sensing field- far out of hearing range, even if aided by Chakra- flickered with annoyance but headed back to the village.

They walked for a while after that, a rare but pleasant silence between them, and suddenly Ino smirked. She leaned into Shino's ear to whisper a plan into, and waited for him to nod before disappearing.

She returned a moment later with a writhing and yipping Akamaru in her arms and a pissed Kiba on her tail, cooing and looking up at Shino with wide eyes as she babbled "can we keep it Shino can we I swear I'll keep it fed and watered and I'll potty train it-" and then she looked down at Akamaru, as if surprised to see him there, and smiled as if butter wouldn't melt in her mouth. "Oh! Can we keep the dog too?"

And Shino didn't even fake the cackle of laughter that he let loose anymore then Kiba faked the scream of terror he had after seeing and hearing Shino laugh for the first time.