A/N: I'm sorry for the very late update, I just.. I guess I'm not into this story so much anymore. But I'll finish it for sure!
Chapter five. Second year: That's what friends are for
Ino stared down at the photo in her hand. It was a photo of their group they had taken before leaving Vegas. The girls were smiling—Tenten and Hinata on the right and left side while Sakura and Ino were hugging each other in the center. Rima and Nana were kneeling and holding their arms in a heart shape. As for the boys, they were sitting behind the girls. Neji had his hand on Tenten's hair, about to ruffle it and she was slightly blushing. Shikamaru had an uninterested look on his face. Naruto and Sasuke were between Neji and Shikamaru, holding a big, pink flag representing their team's color.
The blonde smiled.
"This trip was the best. Right, Shikamaru-kun?" She asked looking to her right where her partner was sitting two meters away from her.
He didn't answer, his attention focused somewhere else and his back at Ino.
The blonde was sick of this already. He has avoided her since they returned to school, which means three days now. It was ridiculous, she had no idea what she's done. If she did something wrong, he should act like a normal person and talk with her about it.
"I-It was really fun." Hinata agreed, breaking the silence.
"Oh, so I'm not invisible. Good, I was starting to worry." She said a little louder to make sure Shikamaru heard her.
Hinata and Naruto looked at each other probably worried about Ino's mental state. If Shikamaru was going to keep avoiding her like this, they would really have a reason to worry.
Seeing he didn't turn around even after she said that, Ino got really angry.
'That's it, enough is enough.' She thought as she clenched her fists.
They will talk and he will tell her what's going on, whether he wants it or not.
"Shika—"
"Alright worms, shut up and listen because I won't say this twice." Anko burst in the classroom, the sound of her combat boots annoying the young Yamanaka with every step.
"I swear this woman was born to drive me insane." She mumbled.
"Got something to tell me, Yamanaka?" Anko asked raising an eyebrow. What sharp hearing.
"No." Ino replied flatly.
"Thought so too."
'After this class, definitely.' She swore to herself, looking at Shikamaru's profile.
Anko took out some papers and scanned the crowd of students.
"You, dog-boy." She called pointing with her index finger to a brown-haired boy. "Take these and give everyone one."
Ino recognized him—Inuzuka Kiba. He's one of Justin Timberlake's dancers and Hinata's younger sister's partner. Last year they were in Sakura and Tenten's class, but they transferred in her class this year.
He got up obviously not pleased by Anko's request—more like order—but it would have been even more annoying to argue with her. He walked to each student and handed a paper. When he came next to her, he smiled.
"Thank you." Ino said as she received the paper.
"No problem, beautiful." He replied and gave her a wink.
Normally she would probably be in a daze for a while, but she wasn't like before. She had changed since she started high school.
Ino didn't even have to move her head to see Shikamaru was looking at her for the first time in three days. When she returned the glance and opened her mouth to talk with him, he shifted his attention to his phone.
She clenched her fist.
'After this class.' She kept encouraging herself.
"Done." Kiba announced and headed back to his place next to Hanabi.
"Too slow." Anko complained. Not that she would ever be pleased. "These are career choice papers. Just write what you want to be. Dog-boy, you get 'em back from everyone at the end of this class. Questions? No, thought so too."
It was easy for Ino. She wrote on the first choice 'model' and put the paper down.
Most students knew what they wanted to become, but there were few confused too and with a home-room teacher like Anko, Ino pitied them. That woman was of no help.
She looked at Shikamaru's paper and observed he didn't write anything even after ten minutes.
"D-Did you decide on modeling, Ino?" Hinata's voice made Ino stop staring at Shikamaru.
"Yeah." She replied, surprising even herself of her lack of confidence. She was really bothered by Shikamaru's attitude. "What about you two?" She asked smiling, trying to hide her worries.
"S-Singer." Hinata replied looking away embarrassed.
"Actor!" Naruto responded proud.
"I'd like to see that happen." Ino said teasingly.
"Well you will, just you wait!" He replied, surprising Ino with his confidence.
Ino smiled. "Yeah sure, I'll grow old waiting for you."
"What do you mean?!" He snapped getting up.
"I-Ino, N-Naruto-kun.." Hinata tried to come between them.
"Do you want to do 100 laps around the school worms?!" Anko barked making the two blondes sit down.
Just as the class ended and the bell rang, Ino was about to grab Shikamaru's hand and make sure he doesn't run away, Anko's magnificent voice ruined her plan.
"Nara, move your ass here."
"So troublesome." Ino heard him mumbling.
Seeing that Ino doesn't exit the classroom, Anko glared at her.
"Want to do some cleaning around here, Yamanaka?"
Ino just raised her head proudly and walked away.
'You better not let that woman die before I get to torture her, God.' She thought.
"Career, huh.." Tenten whispered to herself as she held the paper.
"Do you have any problems?" Neji asked peeking at her paper over her shoulder.
Tenten tensed as soon as she felt his breath on her neck. She has been acting weird around Neji since that night in Vegas at the party. She knew she shouldn't act like this but she just couldn't help it—she didn't know what exactly was their relationship right now.
"Just be honest with yourself." He said and put his hand over clenched her fist, refusing his touch. When he saw that he backed away.
By the end of the class Tenten still didn't write anything being too bothered by Neji's presence and occasional glances he offered her. She took a deep breath and cleared her mind. How did she imagine her future? What would it be like?
When she first entered this high school, she dreamed about becoming a professional swimmer and one day train other people who loved that sport, but she hasn't been practicing as much the past months. Instead, she found another sport she liked very much—figure ice-skating. She would have never imagined herself wearing those short dresses, but she could bear them for the sake of skating. Since she came back she has sneaked in the ice-skating club before and after hours.
'That's it.'
She wrote on the first choice ice-skating and smiled satisfied.
"Ice-skater?"
Tenten was startled by Sakura's voice. When she looked behind her, she found three pairs of eyes staring at her. Her first reaction was to hide the paper behind her, even though it was useless now.
"Ten-chan, I never knew you liked ice-skating." Sakura continued., Sasuke just behind her and Neji next to them.
She didn't know what to do or say. Of course she would have told her friends about her choice, but not now and not like this.
"Uhm..I.. Just recently I started.." She couldn't fin the words.
She felt something hard pressing on her chest. What was she afraid of? Maybe that they would change her impression of her once they found out she meant to gave up swimming for such a girly sport?
"This is so awesome!" Sakura said full of enthusiasm.
Tenten blinked in surprise. "Do you really think so?"
The bubblegum-haired girl nodded, even Sasuke smiled. Only Neji was looking away.
Tenten smiled back.
"What did you write?" She asked the happy pair in front of her.
Both showed her their papers on which was written the same thing.
"Singer!"
Neji showed them his paper too and what was written on it surprised everyone—including Tenten.
"Fashon designer?" Sasuke asked raising an eyebrow.
"Congratulations for knowing how to read." Neji said sarcastically earning a glare from Sasuke.
Tenten was mad. Why didn't she know anything about this? They were supposed to be partners, they were supposed to know important things like this about each other. She has to make things clear with him, definitely.
When the bell rang, Kurenai called Tenten over to her.
"What is it?"
"Could you pay a visit to Headmistress Tsunade this break, Tenten?"
The girl nodded wondering what could the principal want from her.
"Come in." Tsunade said as she heard a knock on her door.
Today she received the career choice papers from the students. There have only been a few problems, but only one was empty. A single paper among two hundred. And not anyone's, but Nara Shikamaru's—the most intelligent student in his year.
"Take a seat." She said pointing to the chair in front of her desk, across from her seat.
He did as he was told.
"How do you like school, Shikamaru?" She should start with something simple.
"This is about the career choice." He stated.
'Sharp mind, just as expected.' Tsunade thought.
She put her linked hands under her chin and looked straight at him.
"As expected of you. I assume you don't want to spend too much time here, but I'm afraid we have to discuss this here and now, Shikamaru. It's very important for your future. Are you uncertain? Or, perhaps, are you having any problems with friends or classmates?"
"No. I'm just trying to figure out what I want to do, but I can't seem to clear my mind right now. I will think about it carefully though."
She sighed. 'Kids those days, they don't want to depend on adults and think they can do anything on their own.'
One look at Shikamaru and she understood he wouldn't tell her anything more than this.
"Are you sure you're fine?"
"Yes."
"Will you come at me if you have any problem? Or as soon as you decide?"
"Certainly."
She hesitated for a minute but decided to trust him.
"Alright, you can go."
He stood up, bowed and left the office but the door didn't close. Another student she has waited for appeared—Hisashi Tenten. Tsunade didn't call her here for the same reason she called Nara, but because of a more serious one. The path Tenten chose surprised her.
"Take a seat." She said once again pointing to the same chair. While the girl sat down she took out her career choice paper. "I called you here because I received your career choice paper. Ice-skater, am I right?"
"Yes." Tenten nodded.
"To be more specific, the reason I called you here is because I want to give you more information about this sport, that is if you're sure about this. Do you know the risks you have to take and effort you have to put in this?"
The girl shrugged, Tsunade could tell she was just a beginner. She didn't know much about that world.
"I would be more than grateful if you could tell me, Tsunade-sama." She replied.
'Well, at least she's honest.'
"Ice-skating is a hard sport that won't give you the reward you should deserve. What I mean by this is that is you want to have a serious career as an ice-skater, you have to work very hard. Normally one would train since childhood, but in your case you already lost a lot of time. But it's not impossible, it's not too late now. Back to what I said about reward—an ice-skater has a very short career."
"How short?" Tenten asked.
"The teacher in charge for our ice-skating club is Terumi Mei, she was one of Japan's best ice-skaters and almost made it to the Olympics team, but she had to quit because she was already old. She's currently 33 years old and she quit five years ago." Tsunade said the naked truth, Tenten had to swallow it if she was serious about ice-skating.
"Such a.. short time.."
"That is the truth about ice-skating. You work a lifetime, sacrifice a lot of things and people only to get a few years of glory. Only very few made it on the Hall of Fame, those were the best and will forever remain in history."
Tenten was chewing on the information. She was looking at her hands and Tsunade was ready to tell her she doesn't have to force herself when the girl raised her head and looked the woman straight in the eye.
"I understand. I'm ready for anything."
Tsunade smiled. 'Kids this generation really are something.'
"Very well, but please keep in mind that Ice-skating is a very expensive sport so I have an offer for you. Mei is looking for three girls to make a team and go to a national contest in Osaka. If you convince her you deserve to be one of those three girls, the school will take care of all your financial problems even after you graduate."
Tenten was looking at her with her mouth dropped. "I couldn't accept something like this, Tsunade-sama."
"Don't talk as if you made it in the team already. Do that and prove me you deserve this."
There was silence for a moment, but then Tenten got up and bowed. "Yes!"
It was the end of the day, the group was in Naruto's room and the atmosphere was heavy, to say at least. And Sakura didn't like it.
All of them had a day full of events—after completing the career choice papers they were told about some special classes they will be attending from that point on. Sakura wanted to talk with everyone about this and about what they did in the trip when they weren't together too, thus the reason they were all in Naruto's room.
Sakura and Sasuke were the only ones acting normal. Naruto and Hinata were blushing every time they looked at each other and couldn't say a word to each other. Shikamaru and Ino, on the other side, didn't seem to want to talk with each other. Shikamaru was sitting on the other side of the room, obviously keeping his distance from the blonde. Neji and Tenten had a tension between them too, even Sasuke observed it.
Knowing his partner very well, he knew that the petite girl would definitely want to do something. When he looked to his right, he saw her looking at him with her puppy eyes.
"Sasuke—"
"Don't even think about it." He cut her shortly.
It wasn't his business and he shouldn't meddle.
"We have to do something!" She whispered so that the others wouldn't hear, even thought they wouldn't have heard anyway being too busy ignoring or avoiding each other.
"If they wanted help they would have asked us, Sakura." He said gently, not wanting to sound as if he scolded her. He knew she had good intentions.
She pouted.
"Please? They are our friends and too stubborn to ask for help."
He sighed. Sakura knew he would eventually give in if she insisted.
"Fine."
She smiled brightly. "Play along, ok?"
He didn't get the chance to agree as Sakura got up and headed to Hinata and Naruto.
"Hinata-chan, Naruto-kun, can you help me and Sasuke with something?" She asked sweetly.
"S-Sure, with what?" Hinata asked.
"Just come with us, you'll see." She said and grabbed her hand. She looked at Sasuke then.
"Come on dobe." He called Naruto.
"Yeah, yeah.."
"We'll be back guys!" Sakura said before leaving.
They headed to the girls' dorm and Sasuke wondered just what was Sakura thinking. They arrived at Sakura and Hinata's apartment and opened the door to Sakura's room.
"W-Why are we here? Did something broke?" Hinata asked puzzled.
"Yeah, the drawer." Sakura replied pointing to the drawer in her room that looked in perfect shape.
Naruto and Hinata entered without suspecting a thing. It didn't surprise Sasuke—they are the most dense persons he knows. When Sakura looked back at him and nodded, he understood what she wanted.
"It looks fine." Naruto said after analyzing the drawer for a bit. "Hey Sakura-chan—"
"See you later!" She said before Sasuke closed the door and she locked it.
"Teme, what the heck are you doing?!" Naruto yelled hitting the door.
"You better stop making noise or Anko will come and kill you." Sasuke simply said and left the room with Sakura.
"Now, who should we help next?" Sakura wondered as they walked back to Naruto's room. "Shika-kun and Ino?"
"I don't think Shikamaru will be fooled." Sasuke replied.
"Then Neji-kun and Ten!" Sakura decided. As soon as they stepped back in the room, Sakura changed her attitude. "Neji-kun, Ten-chan, we need your help!"
"What happened?" Tenten immediately got up, Shikamaru and Ino paid attention too.
"Something broke in my bathroom and there's water everywhere!"
'I have to admit her acting skills are not bad.' Sasuke thought as he watched his partner. 'Play along, ok.'
"We have to clean up before Anko comes and inspects the dorms." He added.
"Then let's go." Ino said getting up.
"Sakura, you go ahead with Neji and Tenten. I, Shikamaru and Ino will take some mops from the janitor's room." Sasuke said fast.
Sakura nodded. "Ok."
They left. Sasuke saw Shikamaru was looking at him suspiciously.
"Sasuke, shouldn't you two at least have your shows soaked if there was water everywhere?" Shikamaru asks.
"He's got a point." Ino says analyzing him.
Sasuke didn't say a word. He only turned around, opened the door, exited the room and locked the door behind him. Two minutes later Ino started hitting the room and asking for explanations.
"Just make up already. Anko's coming soon so don't make too much noise." Was all Sasuke told them before leaving.
He walked to the girls' dorm and met with Sakura on the school's courtyard.
"How did it go?" She asked.
"Shikamaru realized something was off right away, but I did it. They are in Naruto's room." He replied.
"Neji-kun and Ten are in my room, everything went perfect!" She said happily.
"Sakura?" Sasuke called realizing something. "If Shikamaru and Ino are in Naruto's room, it probably wouldn't be the best idea to sleep in the room right next to them and your apartment is full. Where will we sleep?"
"Oh," Sakura said innocently. "I didn't think about this."