Summary: Some things are worth wishing for.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Note: The business enterprise is not far away, and the team I am part of is in the semi-finals! So much pressure, but at least we get a free hotel trip.

Now, Theme Six: the space between dream and reality.

Honey

The Kite

Yamanaka Ino was like a kite.

She could show you everything you wanted, or she could take it all away by throwing herself around as she pleased. She could drift into your grasp one moment, and then stray from it the next without thought. Her hands were like the string, able to shred your skin into ribbons and bloody mess. Just like the bold, block primary colours of a kite she was attractive. Just like the kite that was blown from place to place by the wind when released from a weak hold, she was a drifter. She never stayed with the same person for long.

She never stayed the same as she had been for a while, even. She’d change her style at the snap of some fingers, her attitude in an instant to hide her loudmouth and her beauty because she’d always assume that she had got everything wrong. She was self-conscious and lived in the chapel of some fashionable town called vanity, never quite pleased with the way she was.

But he had still hoped. Shikamaru Nara had hoped and wished and dreamed for all it was worth, praying and begging and pleading a God he wasn’t even sure he believed in for her to stay by his side. He would do anything for it. He’d do sixteen missions without pay for people who needed it (even if they were some stupidly high rank), he’d run fifty miles without stopping or he’d throw himself off a bridge just to make that thing he called God laugh. All as long as he gave him Ino, as long as he let him keep her. That was all he wanted.

“It’s your birthday, Shikamaru! Make a wish when you blow out the candles, eh?”

She had laughed it so easily, smiling happily and leaning on his table with her face propped up by the palms of her hands. She was so flawless in that moment he felt his heart skip a beat, and although she showed no signs of discomfort he felt odd about her being around him on his birthday for once in his life. Perhaps it was because he was sixteen and no longer five, but he was pretty sure what it really was. She was Ino, she was unobtainable, she was on his team, she was beautiful, she was perfect, she was too good for anyone like him and she wasn’t his. The likelihood was that she never would be. But he wished anyway.

“I wish for you, Ino. You’re the only thing I want.”

She’d looked stunned, her hands dropping from beneath her chin and making her face smack into the table. She didn’t even seem to realise it had happened, and he sure as Hell wished straight away that he hadn’t said it. His heart had spoke before his head, and made him look like a complete and utter fool when he was supposed to be the genius of their group. She was clearly embarrassed when she sat back up, ignoring the pink streak on her cheeks and on his when she whispered back to him.

“But will I wish for you tomorrow?”

With those words, he had almost felt his heart break. He told himself it was for the best; she would only toy with him anyway, that God hadn’t given him her for a reason. Either that or she had known just as well as he did confusion was better for them both, that way she would hurt him less and not need to end up caring for him as more than just one of her guy friends at all. Being her friend was better than having nothing to do with her at all. Although the unobtainable is right under your grasp and it might hurt if you do finally catch her, maybe it would be worth it. Just maybe then it was better. Yes, better for the both of them. He could repeat it over and over, hope that wasn’t the real meaning behind her words but he knew it was.

They hadn’t shared a miniature party between them since. They had done it since the age of five as tradition, eaten cake and played around. Laughed, then blown out candles and made wishes. But she had outgrown it, and so had he. They had outgrown playing, outgrown flicking crumbs and icing pieces at one another and outgrown making wishes that would never come true, no matter how much they wanted them to. Ino had outgrown wishing on that day, but Shikamaru hadn’t. No matter how much he said otherwise.

Because some things are worth wishing for.

She was bold. She was a drifter. But she wasn’t Ino.

It was Temari who kissed him on his seventeenth birthday, and he had never wished for her. He never wanted to, he never wanted her. He never wished for her like he did for Ino, but it seemed she had wished for him. It didn’t seem to bother the other blonde at all either, for all that it mattered. She was too busy talking to Sai.

Sai, who was just like her but not. Sai, who wasn’t like a kite but instead a bird, flying around and chopping the strings with his sharp claws. Although he never intended to do it, he had broken more than his fair share of hearts. He didn’t even understand emotions, right? That’s what he told himself. That Sai didn’t understand, and perhaps neither did Ino anymore. She knew all too well what she was capable of, and she didn’t even seem to care that it could hurt other people. That eventually, she could end up hurting herself. Not just others, like Temari. Temari who he said no to, Temari who wasn’t the same blonde he wished for. Temari, who wasn’t the blonde he was making his way towards.

Quickly stepping in between them with the skill of any invisible man, he had withdrawn his shroud of shadows. He grabbed her hand, pulled her away from the confused-looking Sai and walked past the staring Temari and everyone else in their room. They had all ceased their conversations, turning to look as he pulled her out of the back door with him into his garden. It linked to the forest where the deer lived and roamed, and even though he could no longer feel their eyes burning holes in his back he knew when he returned they would be guessing at a million stories they’d hope to see written on their faces in plain sight.

“Happy birthday for the day before yesterday.”

He had said it so easily, and she had smiled at him softly. Maybe out of pity, maybe out of concern or even amusement. He never really knew with her, because he knew she could flip her mood like a switch. She could have been a wonderful actress if he hadn’t become a ninja like her father. It was almost funny, that.

“You want me to make a wish without any candles to blow out?”

She had laughed, and he mentally cursed himself. It was the first year they hadn’t followed their tradition, and with the events of the previous year neither had questioned as to why. Fumbling around inside his pocket, he drew out the decorated white box and lifted it up so that it was in her line of view.

“Will a cigarette as a candle do?”

She stared at the box a moment, knowing then that it wasn’t just her who had changed over the past however many years. Within just three, he had taken Asuma’s dreadful habit on. She would have complained that it was disgusting, but she had never quite managed to bring herself to. It made him smell just like their old sensei, and that smell was one that had grown far too familiar. It had replaced the smell of Shikamaru, it had replaced him. He was slowly becoming Asuma, and eventually Temari would be his Kurenai. But would he ever leave Temari behind? The thought stung at her, but she ignored it. She needed to not care about him, she needed to stay as she was because if you were committed to another person when you were a shinobi you would only end up hurt or end up hurting the other person. By your death or theirs. It was an unspoken fact, but it was true. She learnt it from the best.

“Light up, then. It’s not like I have a choice, right?”

She feebly attempted to make the situation humorous, but as soon as the cigarette began to burn she felt another wave of nostalgia hit her even harder. She had missed this smell. She hadn’t been around Shikamaru in too long, and each time she visited Asuma she would see Kurenai sitting at the stone, their baby wandering around the area where Team Seven once trained. Where Sasuke had trained, enlightened by Kakashi they shared a field with the stone reserved only for those who truly knew what it meant to be a shinobi. Killed in action. Deceased because they protected something precious to them.

“Be careful.”

He handed her the lit cigarette carefully, the tip receding into ashes that blew around in the cold night air. The smell hit her, ever more powerful and she knew then straight away what she wanted. Looking at Shikamaru and knowing Chouji was inside she smiled as she pretended to blow the cigarette out like a candle.

“God, I’d give anything for my wish to come true. Just protect Shikamaru and Chouji, that’s all I ask of you. I know I can’t do it and that I’m no Sakura, but I want it more than anything.”

He stared at her for a moment, any words he could manage to say taken from his mouth. Was that all she wanted? For others to be protected and wishing that she was as powerful as the she-beast one of her oldest friends was? He felt his throat choke up, and pulled her into a warm, extremely awkward hug before she could protest against it. He held her to his chest, smelling the scent of her naturally flowery hair from the shop and smiling just as she had.

“But then Ino, who will protect you?”

It was then, although it was too late, he didn’t just wish for her any longer. He had a reason to wish for her, although their wishes were long ignored and that they never really came true. If she couldn’t be his, he wanted at least one thing.

Shikamaru wished that he would always be able to protect her.

The next wish came on neither of their birthdays.

But it still wasn’t a wish they had ever longed to have. It was the property of someone else, it had been his. They were still both seventeen, and neither of them really cared to think about his age. He’d been in the same year as them. The same friendship circle. The same team. It was the first of May.

It was the birthday of Chouji Akimichi, but dead men can’t make wishes.

Ino looked close to tears, and there was nobody there to support her but Shikamaru. He wasn’t sure he’d be very good at that either, because she wasn’t the only one who was about to have a mental and physical breakdown. He would have been eighteen that day. If only he hadn’t died a week ago, when Ino had begun planning his surprise party. If only Sasuke had stayed in their past, and never reared his beautifully ugly head from the depths of despair he had pulled himself into by leaving their village. If only he hadn’t tried to destroy Konoha, and failed in doing so. It wasn’t only himself he had killed by failing. Ino felt no sympathy knowing he had been buried in an unmarked grave, despite Naruto’s protests.

She couldn’t understand how she had ever loved him. Well, loved? Was it ever really love at all, or just more of a want to prove that she was better than Sakura? Maybe not, because she had liked him before Sakura had even said she did. Before she had ceased their friendship, leaving Ino, the only one who had cared to show her kindness and stand up to those who Sakura herself couldn’t when she was being bullied, alone. It was almost ironic that sometimes it was now Sakura who had to protect her with her inhuman strength, that she was the one watching the back of her best friend. Or was she her best friend? They said they were best friends, they done many things together. But they never really were the same. Ino was too compassionate, and whatever teachings Tsunade had given her she had ran off and decided to improve on her own. She didn’t need others to teach her things, not Tsunade and certainly not Sasuke. He had taught her how not too love.

That was what made her job easy. By leaving, Sasuke had killed something in her. Hope, maybe the compassion she saw in herself when she looked in the mirror. The compassion she never really needed, but had anyway. It wasn’t useful for a shinobi. But whatever it was, Sasuke had taken it. Now he had taken her team mate as well, and everything seemed far too unfair. He always took from her, but he never gave her a thing in return. Whatever he could give her now was probably useless, anyway. She had no desire for the fake things he could give her, not even his nonexistent and no longer beating heart.

“What shall we wish for? He never told us what he wanted.”

Ino whispered it, but Shikamaru heard what she said. He could also almost feel what she was thinking, the unspoken words hanging in the air like lingering smoke. It was the thing that drew them together – the comforting smell of him smoking just as Asuma had – but it was also what pushed them apart. She was thinking of the point of wishing. Even though they were together and two wishes were better than one, their wishes had never been listened to before. Why would then be any different?

“I wish for you, Ino. You’re the only thing I want.”

He was a fool. He could say that right then and there, even if it wasn’t what Chouji had wanted to wish for. But he didn’t, although every fibre of his being was crying out for him to do so. It would be disrespectful, it would be wrong. She’d hate him for it, even if all she needed at that moment was someone to lean on. So he cleared his throat, which was rapidly losing moisture before forcing the words out.

“Chouji would have wished for a lot of things. Anything from us being safe to some food.”

Ino laughed, but it wasn’t her usual happy one. It was cold, vibrating in her throat. It was hollow, just like a dead tree. Her laugh was dead.

“Just protect Shikamaru and Chouji, that’s all I ask of you.”

“But then Ino, who will protect you?”

They had done just the same, it would be too ironic. She quickly stopped herself however, jamming a hand over her mouth crudely and hoping that she never heard that sound emit from the depths of her chest again. It sounded far too empty, and far too uncaring. Quickly replacing it with a soft, fake smile as she removed her hand she decided to speak once more. No more harm could come after that dreadful noise she had just let out. Nothing could be worse, nothing she could stand to think of anyway.

“Peace.”

He looked at her quickly, ghostly pale blonde hair whipping around in the harsh winds, her blue eyes blank as they stared at the grey stone monument. She moved her hand in an instant, the creamy white skin of her fingers tracing the name that she herself had carved on there. She’d refused to let anyone else do it, not even his father or Shikamaru. They’d let her, because she looked madder than she ever had and even Naruto had to agree on that, as dense as he was. Anyone could see she was distraught, even though she had not shed a single tear. Shikamaru himself was sure that she was bottling it up, and one day she was just going to blow. Perhaps when he died, if he went before her. But that was something he did not want to think about. In their job, there was always that possibility. Many of them just refused to accept it, and when they did they became inhuman. Strange how people would forsake humanity to gain power to survive, to remain human, to remain in flesh and blood form, to simply remain alive. He was one of the people who had learnt that the hard way. He’d lost his sensei, and now he’d lost Chouji. The only people left to lose were his family and her.

Ino. Ino, who was just like a kite. Drifting from person to person, nobody really knowing just who she was anymore because she had changed herself so much. He wasn’t even sure if she knew who she was anymore. He doubted it, but maybe he was wrong. He hoped he was wrong, he’d even wish he was wrong if he didn’t have such bad luck with wishing. Because even if he still felt some things were worth wishing for, he knew by then that wishes didn’t always come true. They didn’t live in a fairytale. In fairytales, there’s always a happy ending.

“Peace?”

“Yeah, I think that’s what Chouji would want.”

“I think so too. We should, Ino. Let’s wish for peace.”

No matter how much they wished, he felt they wouldn’t get either of the two things. Peace was something that had become hard to come by. With the fall of the Akatsuki, the fall of Sasuke Uchiha and wars that were still raging between ragtag bands of his followers that no longer had anything left and the outskirt towns of Konoha something else had came. All because of the Uchiha himself, for that matter.

Sure, Naruto had been the one to catch him. Sakura had been the one to beat him within inches of his life before collapsing. But Ino had been the one to enter his mind, and run around in it before breaking it beyond repair. She had been the one to leave his mind, victorious in the battle between an already almost defeated Sasuke and herself. But instead of feeling like a winner when she slit his throat, knowing that he probably didn’t even remember who she was, she felt like a loser. Completely and utterly defeated. Even as his beautiful lips muttered her name, knowing who had killed him and that she wasn’t just like she always been. He knew that she had changed if she was able to mess with his mind. But infact, that had been the thing to change her the most.

Shikamaru was pretty sure that it was because for all those years, she’d still hoped he would come back. Tell them all that it was a mistake, and that everything would be fine after that. She’d tried to kid herself, and it was plain for him to see as soon as she saw Chouji face down. She’d tried to think everything would be back to normal, even maybe better than normal. Maybe Sasuke would fall in love with her, and they’d have dark haired blue eyed babies or blonde haired dark eyed ones. That they’d end up married, and they’d always be happy. That they’d end up living a fairytale life. But just as he’d thought only moments beforehand, she’d realised it. She’d realised a Hell of a long time before he had, too. In fairytales, there’s always a happy ending. Neither of them were likely to get peace, or a happy ending. Because they didn’t live in fairytales, they lived in the real world.

“We wish for peace.”

So they had to wish for the closest they could get.

It wasn’t a significant day, but they still wished.

They wished for hope because they were both weakened and running dangerously low on chakra, because the mission had been a disaster and because they no longer had anything else to believe in. Not even each other, as just a month had made them distant. The sound of their talking was rare, and the idea that Shikamaru could still be in love with Ino was unspoken of. That way things were better, safer, and less hazardous. They were more likely to stay alive, even on this suicide mission.

“I’m going to have to resort to using my blade if this drags out any longer.”

Ino did not look pleased in the slightest. She had quickly taken out three of their currently attacking enemies with her genjutsu bombing technique, and he had removed the same amount with his shadow possession and some kunai. They had used so much energy to prevent being sucked into genjutsu themselves dispelling the work of those they were fighting and almost wasted other energy trying to use their original techniques (which didn’t work all that well against higher ranking enemies, as they soon found out) that they were finding it hard to keep up. Mist shinobi were always tough, but this was proving to be difficult to keep up any longer and he could tell Ino was losing her patience.

Her fingers hovered by her shoulder, waiting for him to tell her to let the beast she kept hidden within her loose. He would have compared it to the kyuubi, but even the nine tailed demon beast would fear her if he saw the monstrous thing she kept hidden deep inside. She rarely found it easy to control herself when she thought things were going to slowly, and that was probably the very reason Tsunade decided to allow her to ascend to ANBU rank with him. She could deal with situations quickly, although sometimes very messily. The katana her father had given her just after she carved Chouji’s name into the killed in action stone hung on a belt around her shoulder, dipping under her arm and around her body to make sure that it was available when she needed it. You would have thought that she was silly, taking a weapon she had for barely three weeks into battle, but she wasn’t. Ino was deadly with the thing. He had seen it first hand the previous week.

“Go ahead, just don’t get carried away. It might make an already bad situation even worse. We don’t know where our enemies have disappeared to in the middle of a battle, and that rarely ever happens. Just watch your back, because I don’t want another screw up.”

“Screw up? When have I ever done that? Plus, you know it’s hard for me not to.”

“You sound like a bloodthirsty nutcase. That sword gives you bad ideas.”

“Please, you say that like it’s a bad thing.”

“That’s because it is, Ino.”

She froze. She looked to her side at him, and he automatically felt amazingly idiotic. He’d used her name, her God damned, God forsaken name! He would have tried to kill himself at that moment if he hadn’t known it would only put her in more danger. She slapped his arm, hard. He ignored the stinging pain as she drew her sword, and lowered her black hood.

“How’d you know?”

“Only you would accept a mission this suicidal, then use genjutsu and bombs. Then try to use the jutsu you used when you were a genin on top of that. That could get you caught out from the bingo books, and you know it. There’s a price on both our heads.”

“Especially yours, if you’re thinking the shadow possession didn’t give it away.”

“No need to be smarmy.”

“I’m not; I just see no reason to worry anymore. I can’t feel their chakra.”

“Neither can I, but we need to be careful.”

“Not really, we always pick up on them. If they’re close and still alive, that is.”

“This is what I meant. Mistakes cause screw ups.”

Ino didn’t reply. The words ‘screw ups’ seemed to finally hit home. Even if it hadn’t been on an actual mission, they had messed up a fair amount of things. They had let Sasuke leave, meaning that in the future they had let their team mate (and Shikamaru’s best friend) die. They’d ignored each other, growing all the more distant and colder to each other than they had ever been. Even when she was some superficial little graduate, and he was the lazy boy genius of the same level who made smarmy comments at each other just because they knew how to wind each other up. They hadn’t grown much from then, if this arguing was all they had to show from their friendships along with the gorgeously disgusting screw ups.

“Move!”

Ino hit the ground, the sword that was meant to hit her piercing through Shikamaru’s chest. She drew her own sword, slicing the head straight off the shoulders of the man who had stabbed him. The second man appeared quickly behind her, and one backwards swing of the sword and a tilt of her hand made his head roll to the side of the other.

“Shikamaru, you shouldn’t have done that. Even if it’s just a flesh wound, if that went any deeper I might not have been able to heal it right now.”

“I wished to protect you.”

“I wished to protect you and Chouji.”

“Well, I knew it would only cut me. It would have gone straight through you.”

Ino paused a moment, before managing to say what she wanted to without punching him for the last remark as she began to heal him with the small remainder of her warm, blue chakra she washed over the cut with. She pulled off her porcelain mask, and then put it by her side. She did the same with his, because she needed him to know. Face to face, rather than mask to mask. Even if the other way made them safer, this was slowly destroying her. Being safe meant not hurting herself, so this needed to be done. She whispered the words.

“You wished for me.”

“You rejected me.”

“Some things seem unobtainable when we don’t think about answers, Shikamaru. I never rejected you at all; I’m just a wind-up merchant. You took it too seriously, so I didn’t say a thing about it. I thought it would be better this way.”

“Ino, you’re a kite. I find that unlikely.”

"A kite?"

“A kite because you drift from person to person. You’ve never really had a love interest for all that long, and that’s why I want you. You are another puzzle to solve, another riddle to decipher and you’re perfect. Wonderfully, sadistically flawless. I love you, but you could never love me, not long enough to stay with me. Even if you want to, and even if you really mean that. You know it. Sai is an option to you. He’s just as stunning as you right?”

“What are you on about? I don’t drift from guy to guy, I’ve only ever liked three.”

“Sasuke, Sai, and who?”

“You said I couldn’t stay with you? I could try.”

Before he could say another word, her lips were pressed against his. Maybe some wishes did come true, because they were living proof from that moment. He had wanted her, he had wished for her and then he had obtained the unobtainable.

He’d finally managed to grasp the kite string.

Largely inspired by The Kooks song ‘Naïve’ and the book ‘The Kite Runner’ by Khaled Hosseini. I own neither of them, but they are both wonderful and include kites which inspired this entire thing. The story actually is not based on either of them, however. So I recommend them to anybody who is particularly interested in indie style music or reading.

Also, the theme of this one was sort of interwoven. You have to read in between the lines where the words 'unobtainable' and such lie to see it. Ino is Shikamaru's dream, and to have her in reality seems impossible, which is the reason for his wishing. Yes, I do think about things too much.

A huge thanks goes to the SasuSaku, NejiTen, InoShika, NaruHina c2 with this chapter as well. Thank you for adding this! It made my day, because I haven’t seen much Shikamaru and Ino added to there in a while, and I’m a subscriber. So once again, thank you!

Reviews are loved. :)