Cloudy Days

Letting someone go is half the battle. To fall out of love with them is the other half. Shikamaru X Ino. Alternate Universe.

After seeing her many years later made him crazy. Shikamaru tugged at his shirt cuffs and rolled his shoulders. He had to think. With Chouji replacing Kiba as drummer of Soleil, he had a lot of work ahead of him. He blamed it all on Kiba and his stupid decision of quitting the band. What was it about women that made men quit fame and fortune to settle down to start families? He knew that he was on that same track once upon a time, but he refused to go through it again. He wouldn't let long, blonde hair and big, blue eyes govern him again. Shikamaru Nara did not fall for the same trick twice. He was blessed with such intellect that he was able to surpass that sort of heartache and become one of the greatest managers in the biz.

A second later, his secretary entered and deposited his mail onto his desk. He muttered a quick 'thank you' before sorting through them. There was a letter in a fancy, non-recyclable crème envelope. Shikamaru opened it with his letter opener and pulled out the paper inside. He unfolded it with a flick of a wrist and quickly read the contents inside. It was a formal wedding invitation inviting the band Soleil to Neji and Tenten's wedding. Was everyone getting married now? It was only four months since Kiba got married. There, he had to see Ino since she was Hinata's maid of honour. It was very difficult seeing his ex in such a fetching dress where there were a lot of men vying for her attention.

The phone rang and interrupted his dark thoughts. Shikamaru brushed away all of the papers on his desk with the end of the letter opener before picking up the phone.

"Nara here," he said into the receiver.

/Shikamaru, it's Naruto/

"What do you want, Uzumaki?"

/Well, Neji invited me to his wedding; he called in to ask if you got the invitation. He said he sent it to your office since he wasn't sure if we were in town or not/

"Yeah, I got it. Do you want me to RSVP for you or something?"

/Well, I already told him that I was going to go. I was just going to tell you that I'm planning on taking Ino./

"Why do you think I'll be interested in who you're going to take to a wedding?" responded grouchily.

/I don't know, because you're our manager and in charge of our publicity?/ Naruto reasoned.

"Well, I don't care who you take." Shikamaru felt a pain in his hand and realized that he was still holding the letter opener blade. "If that's all you're going to tell me, I got to go."

/Yeah, see you for practice, then/ Naruto replied only to hear the dial tone answer.

Shikamaru hung up the phone with a violent clash and eyed his bleeding hand. Blood spilled from his palm and dripped onto his sturdy oak desk. He applied pressure to the wound using the handkerchief he kept in his suit pocket. He fisted his injured hand around the powder blue cloth until it turned a dark violet.

"Damn it." He said before pressing the pager.

/Yes, sir? / His secretary asked him, alert on the other end of the line.

"Get me a towel, antiseptic and gauze, please." He gritted.

/Right away, Sir/ was the response.

Shikamaru hid his bleeding hand when his assistant entered and placed the items he had asked for on the table.

"Thanks," he grumbled, "that will be all."

When all prying eyes were gone, he threw the blood stained kerchief into the waste bin and soaked the towel with the antiseptic liquid. He then held his breath for the next step. The pain was great, when he pressed the towel onto his cut, meaning that it was deep. When the wound was cleaned thereafter, he wrapped up his palm with the medical gauze to prevent an infection. Now, his hand felt stiff and the bleeding had ebbed somewhat.

He threw the wet towel and empty bottle of antiseptic into the trash along with the handkerchief after he wiped the blood on his desk with the dry part of the towel.

"Troublesome," he sighed when the whole incident was taken care of. "Stupid, Ino."

XXXX

Ino watched the world pass by outside her window. It was a busy and muggy afternoon in the city. Considering that spring was upon them, she was sure that there would be an increase in sales. Winter was always a hard time of the year for her flowers, but this year, her business was thriving since she was asked to do the flower arrangements for Hinata and Kiba's wedding. Now, since she had the wedding of a high profile Rockstar—er—former Rockstar under her belt, it only made sense that her once quaint, little flower shop, was now transforming into one very popular wedding flowers business. Yamanaka Flowers was now the brand of celeb wedding flowers. And she owed it all to Hinata. And to top it all off, she was able to pay off all her debts and was now a proud owner of a working dishwasher. As a small business owner, made high-profile corporate, life for Ino Yamanaka was at its peak. She now had fifty employees to take up the increased amount of work. It was hard to imagine that the night before Hinata's wedding, she was crying until the wee hours of the morning as she made the centerpieces by hand because she didn't think that she'd finish them all.

The insistently ringing phone broke her away from her daydream.

"Hello, Ino Yamanaka, here" she greeted. "What can I do for you?"

/Hey, Ino, it's Kiba,/ the familiar voice replied.

"Oh, hey you, are you taking good care of Hinata?" Ino said playfully. "How was the honeymoon?"

/Wonderful,/ Kiba said. /You should have seen Hinata with the family. It's like she belonged there, one of the family, my family./

"Well, duh, you did marry her." Ino pointed out the obvious. "So what's up? Do you need anything?"

/Yeah, but, I have to call in a favour./ He answered grimly. /You see, I kind of promised someone a favour and she asked me if I can phone in for an appointment with you./

"Since you did marry my best friend, and gave me a free VIP pass to Soleil's only tour with its original members, I guess I can give your friend a consultation." Ino explained. "Tell her to come during lunch time today because I'm booked solid until the fall."

/Thanks a lot, Ino, you're a lifesaver, / Kiba felt relieved. /So, how's the new house?/

"Gigantic, thank you very much." Ino countered sassily. "And I have yours and Hinata's wedding to thank for that."

/No, problem, I was eternally happy to take her off your hands,/ Kiba announced. /Tenten will be over by noon./

"You mean its Tenten coming?" Ino said surprised. "She could have just asked me. She still has my number from when Hinata stayed with me. Since she's Neji's best friend, Neji gave her my contact number in case something happened to Hinata."

/Well, she must have lost your number./

"I guess, thanks for the call. And thanks for the potential business. If Tenten's coming to get me to do hers and Neji's wedding, I'll have another high-society wedding to add to my repertoire."

/No, problem, you deserve it./ Kiba commented. /I'll see you next week for the picnic?/

"Yeah, Hinata did say something about that, but I'm afraid I have a wedding to go to that day. It's a lawyer wedding. So, the contract is "non-negotiable". I had to get my solicitor to read the contract over. No loopholes in that one, so I have my hands tied, sorry. Say 'hi' to the guys for me."

There was a beep that sounded on the line.

"Oh, Kiba, I have another call." Ino explained. "We can catch up later."

/That'll be fine. Come visit us when you can, Hinata misses you./ Kiba said before hanging up.

"I'll do that," Ino promised before switching to the other line.

/Hello, Ino?/ the voice questioned.

"Oh, Naruto, how have you been?" Ino tried to act cool whilst doing a little giddy, fan girl jig. "What can I do for you?"

/Well, I don't know if you know yet but Neji, Hinata's cousin is getting married./

"Yes, I know, I might do the flower arrangements for the wedding."

/Good for you, Ino! But, well, I just wanted to ask if you want to be my date for the event, I don't really have anyone else to take since Kiba married off Hinata./ Naruto laughed jokingly.

"Oh, so I'm just the consolation prize, Uzumaki?" Ino retorted, thoroughly insulted.

/No, I didn't mean it that way, I just meant that for the moment that you're the closest thing I have to a girl friend, and since I don't think you're seeing anyone else, I wanted to ask if I could be your escort./ Naruto explained.

"Now that's more like it," Ino smiled manically, delirious with joy. "I am honoured to have you as my escort for the wedding, Mr. Uzumaki."

Ino hung up her end of the line at the tone and turned back to her papers. She had a wedding in five hours so she had to leave right after her lunch consultation. She looked over the billings and receipts to check on her orders for the Uchiha wedding. Everything was set.

XXXX

Three Weeks Later...

"I think that we should have tall, red and white carnations along the aisles in crystal vases and then we can use pink and white roses for the wedding bouquet." Ino said to her new assistant, Sai. "What do you think?"

"Well, Miss Yamanaka, I think that's a great idea, but what should we do about the centerpieces at the reception?"

"Well, it has to be something pink, that's the bride's motif colour..." Ino thought aloud rubbing her chin. "Did we get in the ipomoeas last week?"

"We still have to order, Miss Yamanaka."

"Crap, how about the peonies?"

"We should still have some in stock." Sai commented and scribbled on his clip board.

"Then that'll be that. We'll use single pink peonies in simple glass, water bowls with pink marble pearls. They'll just float on top. Of course, we'd have to make sure that they don't wilt, but they should last a lot longer than roses if we keep it in the water."

"I'll get it set up with the team." Sai ticked off the box marked centerpieces on his list. "Now, we only have to worry about the picture setting in the garden, the groom's boutonniere, the bridesmaid bouquets, the—"

"Slow down, Sai, you're confusing me." Ino sighed before starting her rant. "Man, I hate short-notice weddings. I'll kill Kiba Inuzuka for this. This is some favour he called in; I still have another wedding to arrange in less than a month. Three weeks isn't enough to arrange everything that Tenten and Neji want. On top of that, they had to get married in Japan, didn't they? Wait a minute, did you get our tickets?"

"We'll do our best to fulfil these tasks, Miss Yamanaka." Sai tried to comfort his employer but failed. "And I did get our tickets."

Sai left the blonde to herself for a moment to make orders and make sure everything goes smoothly for his new boss. Sure, he wasn't the best at understanding other people and their problems, but he did know how to get the job done. That was the only reason why Ino had hired him; he had years of experience in the field. Not in the floral industry, of course, that was Ino's turf, but in cut-throat business. Right now it was his job to make sure that the arrangements for the Hyuga wedding will be completed before the wedding in two weeks.

"Sai," Ino's voice floated to him from her office.

Sai walked to her office and readied his pen for her orders.

"There you are. I need you to go to the sellers today and make sure that the finishing touches on the Yuuhi-Sarutobi wedding are underway. This wedding is tomorrow so we have to make sure that the red-poppy arrangements for the dance floor and the rose centerpieces are ready and in the freezer by this evening. We can't have flowers wilting at an indoor reception. As for, Tenten and Neji's wedding," Ino said without looking up at her assistant, her eyes intent on her computer. "We have to get the arrangements done this week so we can get it delivered to the Hyuga Estate at least four days before the wedding. And call Ayame from Ichiraku's to ask her what size the serving dishes are so we can fit the arrangements on the tables. Wait, the Hyuga wedding has a buffet reception, right?"

"Yes," Sai answered. "I'll contact her."

"Thanks, Sai," Ino said as she typed away at the keyboard. "I'll meet you for lunch at Giordano's. I have a lunch meeting with a reporter, we might get a feature in the wedding section of the paper. I want you to be there to take notes. And then after, we can go straight to the sellers and then to the hotel for the last consultations with Kurenai and Asuma."

"Yes, ma'am," Sai left the room.

Ino was arranging another set of orders. It always brought her down when she was left alone to think. It wasn't that she wasn't happy doing her job and taking part in the happiest day of most people's lives. It was just that weddings always made her feel like the loneliest singleton in the world. Although, it wasn't as if she was went unescorted to these events. She always had Sai with her, but his company was as comfortable was having dinner with a mannequin. She couldn't blame it on him, though, he was one of the best in the business. She was lucky enough that he chose to work for her.

Still, sometimes she wondered where the hell her Neji and Kiba were. Where had all the good men gone? Ino was sure that they all had a persona non grata on her. It wasn't fair that that she was the only one left on her own. The other women that she was acquainted with were married. She was turning twenty-seven next year and she had never had a long term boyfriend besides Shikamaru. In high school, lots of guys followed her around and she was considered one of the popular people, but it seems that when she left the fishbowl that was high school, no men were interested in her. When she and Hinata were in middle school together, before the dark-haired woman was struck blind, Hinata had said that she was very pretty and that any guy would be lucky to date her. Was she wrong in waiting for the right guy to walk up to her? Or was it just loneliness talking?

If it had worked out with Shikamaru would she have been glowing with joy with two beautiful kids?

"Stupid Shikamaru." Ino said before working up a storm; Tenten and Neji's short engagement was going to age her another twenty years before it was over.

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A/N:

Thank you for those who waited for this story to come out. I'm glad that I got it posted by Valentines Day. Please tell me what you think of it so far.