She was regarding him with her blue eyes again, dark and no longer clear as they once were. In fact, now they were glazed over, drunken, hung-over, sad. They haunted him. His own brown pools were happy, happier than they ever were. She sees him with his daughter and his two sons, with his beautiful wife who was once not so beautiful, never as beautiful as Ino was. Now, she wanders the streets at night, lost, partially broken.

Shikamaru wants to scream. He wants to pull his hair out. His children call her "Aunt" but she is always full of whiskey when they come over. Shikari climbs onto her lap, braids her hair, weaves flowers in, but she is not looking at her. She will never look at Shikari, because Shikari has Temari's eyes. Bright and teal, the color of sky and grass combined, and they are so full and open, warm and happy, Ino cannot look. And she never focuses on Sunashi at all, as he has red locks and her eyes, her bright, bright eyes, and that bright bright hair, and she cannot stand it. He personifies Suna for her, personifies Temari, the woman who took away her last hope.

Instead, she focuses on Shikasu. He is the spitting image of his father, he keeps his hair the same, he has the boring brown eyes, the intelligence, the curious glance in his face. He is his father's clone, his legacy and the legacy of all Nara's, as they mostly look the same. She focuses on him, his eyes so warm, so caring, so full of love.

And she pretends it's Shikamaru.

He knows it, Temari knows it as well. Their two other children crawl around Aunt Ino as she holds Shikasu, Sunashi feeling the very resentment leaking from her skin, Shikari feeling unhappy that her aunt would ignore her. Temari holds up Shikari and Shikamaru, in turn, holds Sunashi. He kisses his temple, rocks his child in his arms and Ino spares a glance at him and feels ill.

There, in his arms, he holds all of Suna. He holds the union of the two nations so that they cannot be split until the family dies, he holds the Kazekage's nephew, he holds the very future of Suna, he holds royalty. Standing by his side is a princess, tried and true. She was not so beautiful a few years ago but motherhood has done amazing things for her, Shikamaru has done amazing things for her.

Ino wants to spit at her, she wants to scream how she has made Shikamaru a human shield, how he has enough cuts and broken bones and lacerations to be dead thrice over, how she had to operate on him, and how she thinks it's all her fault. Instead, she looks at the way Shikamaru holds Sunashi, how he loves his family, and inside, she weeps.

He wants to point at her, tell her she could have had Chouji, how they would have been happy. He loved her, he adored her, he catered to her, and she was too shallow, too selfish to see past her own nose. He died protecting her, smile on his lips. Other girls had liked him, and he had politely but firmly told them no, waiting for his own princess, hoping and waiting, patiently. The entire village knew, and when he died, they mourned. He was loved, he was, in fact, adored. Ino sat at his grave for days, not eating, not sleeping, simply staring, simply waiting. She finally left and all that remained was a single flower on his grave rotting away into the soil.

She attached to Shikamaru and was entirely confused when he announced, proudly, that he would be a father. Genuinely dazed, she held a hand to her own belly, wondering if they had done something she didn't know of. But then she saw Temari, standing there, glowing, hand entwined with his, fingers firmly locked, and she seethed. Oh, how she hated her. She had never seen a man so possessed, Shikamaru changed. Shiho held her head down next to Ino when he announced it, actually grinning, and she cried. Silent, broken tears, for she loved him too.

Shikamaru was not so much a hunk as a reliable option. In times of trouble, he was the man you could depend on. He loved unconditionally and freely, he was helpful, kind, generous, all veiled under his laziness, but suddenly he was not available. She took him, took him away from under Ino's nose. She wanted him, she had a RIGHT to him. At her birth as a girl and his as a boy, they were destined to marry, to solidify and disband Ino-Shika-Cho. It would be a pleasant end, one that all the clans involved agreed upon. But then Chouji died, and then Shikamaru had Shikari, and then Shikasu, and then Sunashi. They joined one team, the second set of sand siblings. Her father worried for her, her mother nagged, but Ino had moved out.

They saw her on the streets sometimes on their strolls or to their missions, they were always, ALWAYS assigned on the same missions, whether they were A rank or C rank. Shikamaru had flat out slammed his palms on a table and demanded to be paired with her or he would resign, right there, right then. The Hokage agreed, smiling and Sakura had stars in her eyes, saying how romantic it was, and Hinata stuttered about how she was glad to see him motivated, and even TenTen, with all her practicality clasped her hand with Neji's and strolled to the Hokage tower when they heard. Indeed, everyone saw their union as a gift, a blessing to Konoha and Suna alike, as the strongest alliance. They were adorable together, truly loved one another, worked as an efficient team, had three beautiful babies, plus, they took care of a fourth often, when Kurenai needed them to babysit.

They had good "parents" who supported them, they were wealthy from the Nara clan fortune and Temari's dowry.

Ino hated them. Oh, how she hated them. She rotated through men like they were clothes. Suddenly, this one did not fit anymore. She spent her nights with random men and their groping hands and the days in her house, alone, recovering or at his grave, waiting, watching, silently praying to be killed so she could apologize to him. Once, she tried, her beautiful neck nearly lobbed clean off, but Shikamaru came in, wrestled her for the kunai, yelled, truly yelled at her how Chouji died for her life and she was going to throw it away like it meant nothing. He said she disgusted him, Temari ran in and restrained him, their children in the other room, and he instantly melted when her hands hit his shoulders. He spat at her feet, storming off and scooping up his two children at the time, Temari still heavily pregnant with their third. Ino wept, truly wept, thick heavy tears. She prayed for rain, she avoided eyes.

She still loved him. Loved Chouji more than Shikamaru, but wanted that stability, that tangible evidence, wished she was not beautiful, that she was not liked before. She did not enjoy this. Sunashi was the last to be born and Ino refused to birth him as she birthed the first two. She absolutely screamed how she would not do it, and Sakura and Hinata delivered the baby instead. And in the end of the day, Hinata returned to her loving husband Naruto and Sakura to Rock Lee. TenTen walked with Neji and Temari lay on the hospital bed, sweaty and tired, holding Suna's pride and joy, THEIR baby, and Shikamaru looking at her so lovingly, and Ino vomited out everything she ate that day in disgust.

Oh, how she hated Temari.

Once, Shikamaru took a page from his father's book. Temari and he had gotten into an argument of such epic proportions that she left for Suna with all three of her children. Feeling alone, Shikamaru drank sake like water. He did not know left from right, and Ino was right there. She did not protest. She lay with him on the bed afterward, feeling hollow and broken. He said Temari's name the entire time, loyal even when he had no choice BUT to cheat. And he was just so full of love when he said it that she did not stop him. She did not correct softly in his ear "Ino." And instead, she sobbed as she finished, sobbed harder when he did. He moved from her and she knocked him out, feeling dirty, feeling filthy. She ran to the sink, washed her hands clean, vomited repeatedly. They made little noise, she felt too scared to, and he was just silent by nature, except when he groaned out her name.

Temari.

So Ino dressed, she scrawled a note about how she found him passed out and lay him on the believed it, waking up with a slight headache. She had cleaned him, redressed him, even took the time to remove every stitch of evidence that she was there. He took off for Suna, dragged his family back, and Temari and he patched things up and they loved one another deeper while Ino sat alone, in her house, having random men and sitting in front of Chouji's grave. She came to realize that she did not love Shikamaru, she left him be, she did not want him anymore. And then she began vomiting more every morning. She did tests on herself.

It was not Shikamaru's, but she still felt that hollow clink inside of her. She could imagine the vicious stares she would get. He died for her, she fucked other people as if it didn't matter. She requested an extended mission of two years in the Land of Apples, a mission that was so boring no one wanted it. Simply spy on them, get information.

And Ino went, she birthed her baby. He had blond hair and intelligence and clear clear blue eyes, without pupils like her own eyes, and she grew terrified. Of all traits, it had to have hers. She was scared of the baby, scared of him. She left it in front of a doorstop with no name, with no age, simply some money and a single bandage to indicate that she was a ninja.

She wanted her child to grow up believed she had died. She came back to Konoha, tired and worn, gave her report and returned to staying in her apartment. She had one picture of her baby and in his eyes she saw the love, that endless adoration for the woman who brought him into the world. She held it under her pillow, sobbed silently, endlessly and watched Shikasu, beautiful Shikasu who looked just like his father and adored his mother, and she sat at Chouji's grave, one hand on her belly, praying it had been him instead.

She recognized no names, no faces. Sakura told her she was hallucinating most of the time, broken beyond belief, but Ino went on missions still. It had been fourteen years after the birth of her baby, and each time she came back from the missions she had those fourteen years, it was a surprise she came back alive. Her father died from his old age, her mother as well. Ino was alone, truly. The girls tried to help her, tried to show her love. It never worked.

She went on a final mission, a simple one, C rank. Naruto believed it would benefit her to go on an easy mission, he planned to make them easier and easier over the course of time until she no longer took them. She could not teach at the academy, she failed her psychology test. But she went on the mission, a simple one to Tea Country, and found a clashing between a ninja (with blond hair, blood on his uniform and (she saw his eyes when they darted to her) blue eyes) and a strange foreign ninja. And without thought, Ino jumped into the disarray. She felt herself being pierced by a sword, she faced the ninja and saw those eyes without pupils looking back at her, wide blue eyes. Screaming, the boy killed the other ninja and Ino saw her son, not even a man yet.

She looked at him, leaking blood, knowing she could heal herself but not bothering. The lines of age showed on her face. She told him "I'm sorry…I'm sorry…I loved you…really I did…tell them all that I'm sorry."

So he trudged to Konoha, delivered Ino and endured the gazes of a million eyes. Finally, a man with dark brown hair and brown eyes looked at him. He had pupils though, he was strange. Next to him was a redheaded man with eyes as teal as oceans. They looked at one another slowly, he could tell that they knew his mother. They welcomed him into their home, something they called the Nara estate, and told them their father and mother will come soon. They were still relatively young, Shikasu introduced himself as being 19 years of age, and Sunashi introduced himself as being 16. He was the youngest at only 14.

"They knew one another, you know." They acted as if they knew him. And sure enough, there was a man walking into the house, the lines on his face deep though his genius obvious. The woman behind him was beautiful even in age, a radiant kind of beautiful. Behind them was a beautiful young girl strapping a giant fan on her back, she had dark brown hair and teal eyes like her brother, like their mom. And the blond woman regarded him critically before she grasped his arm and walked to the Hokage.

They all went, all six of them assembled in a room with many others. Naruto delivered the news of Ino, her chain of lovers, the things they extracted from her mind. The woman looked furious, "Temari," Naruto said," calm yourself. Ino did the best she could."

"I can't believe she abandoned him. I just wish I could have killed her myself." Temari said, and she turned to her children and finally, she turned to him.

"Name?" She barked. And he trembled, scared and lonely, losing his true mother after only knowing her for a few moments. "Ringo." He said, his voice shaking. "From the Land of Apples…my mother wanted you to know she was sorry." And Temari's teal eyes softened and she looked lost for a moment. "Where is your family?" She asked.

"I have none…the family that adopted me is dead now…I don't know my father…"

She bit her lip for a moment, looking at her husband and he looked back at her, nodding once as if to say it is her choice. She straightened until her back was iron ram rod straight and looked him deep in the eyes. "We will accept you into our home if you so wish…my children are almost grown, but you are not, you may stay there."

And he was happy. He came to know Shikari, the young woman who was there the day he was allowed a home. He and she got married, and she and he were planning to move to Suna. His mother had led him to a true family, finally. He visited her grave every morning at dawn. Just as she had with Chouji's. She too, sat with him at the man's grave, only now, she was beneath the dirt. The day he left, he planted a single flower between the two graves, it was white with red streaks inside. No one ever picked it, no one ever bothered. It was beautiful, it was whole. He sat there as the light spilled over, thanked his mother for giving him life, thanked her for allowing him to keep it, and looked over at Shikari, who knelt on her knees in the bare dirt, hands folded in prayer for her and smiled, he thanked her for Shikari as well.

When he went to visit with Shikari to see her brothers (they saw Shikamaru and Temari more often) he went to the grave. There, he saw what his flower had become. It grew into a large blooming crop of flowers. It covered the two graves, making them gorgeous, covering the bare dirt. Chouji's grave was surrounded by them, finally blooming. He nodded to himself once when he saw it, bowed to the grave, and left without a single word.

It personified all that was Ino. It was all he could do.

I have NOTHING against Ino, I just wanted to write this. Also, for those of you who read Our Tug of War, this IS in fact a spin off of that and the entire idea of strength. The children have a few gaps in their ages, Shikari being the eldest, Shikasu second, and Sunashi third. In that line, Ringo is the very youngest. He is about 6 years younger than Shikari. Also, this is connected to Learning From Defeat. Excerpt: (At 30, she got married. At 33, she had her first child, at 34, her second, and finally, at 37, her last.)

Temari was 33 when she had Shikari, who when Ringo was 14, was 20. That makes Temari 53 at this time, well into her life, and Shikamaru 50. Ino had her child at 36 years old, as she was never married like Tem and Shika were.

I actually like Ino, and I like the idea of them waiting so long to do all of this. For those of you wondering, (if you read Our Tug of War) Temari and Shikamaru move to Suna when Shikasu is married. Shikari gets married when she turned 27 and Ringo is 21. Temari and Shikamaru move to Suna when Shikari is 30 years old, as Shikasu gets married two years after Sunashi does. That means that Temari is a whopping 60 years old when she goes back. I imagine her living a VERY long life.

Ino dies at 50 in this Naruverse. Also, Ino did not name her baby. Ringo means "Apple/Peace Be With You". Shikari means Scold, or just deer with a female ending. Shikasu is also deer with a male ending. Sunashi is actually Hindu and means "little virgin". I took it to meaning innocence (he looks like Gaara with his red hair and Temari's eyes, and it was homage to her brothers). Or you can just take it at face value as Temari naming him after her homeland.

PS: I really LOVE Ringo, and I love how Shikari follows in Temari's footsteps. :P