Ino couldn't remember the last time she had slept. Like slept, slept. Rubbing at her eyes, she realized it was the third time she'd done it in the past five minutes. Or was it the fourth time? She couldn't remember.

Swatting at a mosquito on her neck, Ino took a quick scan of her surroundings. The thickness of the trees made it hard for moonlight to reach the forest ground, leaving Ino to rely on her other senses. After listening intently to the quiet movements within the forest, Ino determined that there were no nearby threats. Still, Ino couldn't quite shake off the unsettling feeling in her chest. Only thirty miles away from Konoha, Team 10 was bound to reach its gates within the next day.

A loud snort behind Ino caused her to jump, her grip tightening around the scroll in her hands. Turning, she could barely make out Chouji's sleeping figure turning on its side. Shikamaru lay closest to her, his arm beneath his head acting as a pillow. Despite his even breathing, Ino knew Shikamaru; he was more awake than she was. But then again, who could sleep knowing they carried an ancient, irreplaceable, priceless scroll? Not Ino, that's who. But who said she couldn't rest her eyes for a couple of seconds?

Yep, just a few seconds...just a couple of seconds... Ino allowed her head to bob loosely towards her chest for a few moments before forcing herself to stand up. Shaking her head a few times, Ino stood up and made to walk around their small perimeter three times. Or was it four times? She couldn't remember. Walking back to the lookout point, she could see Shikamaru's outline sitting in her previously occupied spot.

"I'll take over now," Shikamaru's voice said.

Ino smiled softly, whispering a 'thanks' as she handed him the scroll. She made her way over to Chouji and sat next to his sleeping form. "Hey Shikamaru?"

"Yeah?" He replied without looking back at her.

"You think anyone's tracking us?"

Ino could see the sigh hanging off Shikamaru's shoulders. Ino knew that sigh; it started with the tensing of his chest that he passed off as deep breath in, followed by the exhale that could easily be mistaken as a yawn. Ino also knew nothing good could follow that sigh.

"It's hard to tell," Shikamaru finally said after a few seconds of silence.

Ino scoffed. "Bullshit."

Shikamaru finally turned to look back at her, meeting her defiant eyes. "We've got a good distance on them," he said with a shrug. "Just try to get some rest."

Ino laid down on her side, pressing her back against Chouji's for body heat. She looked over at Shikamaru's figure, watching as his hand reached for his pocket before stopping midway and bringing it back to his lap.

"It's killing you, isn't it?" Ino asked softly.

"Shouldn't you be sleeping?" Shikamaru glanced back in her direction.

"I don't even want to think about how many packs you'll go through the moment we get back," Ino said, folding her arm beneath her head.

"Probably about as many hours as you'll get of beauty sleep."

"Ugh," Ino grunted, covering her face. "I'm not looking in a mirror until I've had at least two days of sleep and an hour-long shower."

Shikamaru scoffed, muttering something under his breath.

"What was that?" Ino raised an eyebrow behind her hands.

"It's just...you..." Shikamaru sat up straight, catching himself stumbling over his words. "Let's stop wasting time. It's gonna be a long day tomorrow."

Ino frowned at Shikamaru's figure. She wanted to argue, to make him spit out the words she knew he was holding back. But she knew he was right, tomorrow was the homestretch, thirty miles and they'd reach safety...or at least they'd reach a couple hundred more ninja to help them protect the scroll. Closing her eyes, Ino felt the hot tightness behind her eyes begin to relax. She settled into the hard ground beneath her, but as much as her eyes remained closed her mind stayed alert to the sounds of the night.

"We should be able to reach the border in about nine hours, eight if we don't take any breaks and seven if we don't come across any enemies."

Ino and Chouji nodded in understanding. Shikamaru had been constantly checking their coordinates with his map, making sure they would be able to reach Konoha within the time frame given to them by the Hokage. With each minute that went by, Ino could see the stress piling on their shoulders. She couldn't count the times she would catch Shikamaru sliding out his map from his side pocket, as if checking to see if the terrain had somehow changed. More than once Ino had snuck a soldier pill into Chouji's meals, his pack still heavy with forgotten snacks.

And then there was Ino.

Ino hadn't gotten more than one or two hours of sleep per night since they'd found the scroll almost a week ago. Constantly she could feel flares of chakra appearing around them; whether they were enemies or allies she had yet to find out. Ino knew the other two had noticed her lack of sleep, taking longer surveillance shifts when they thought she was fast asleep. But no matter how long they gave her, Ino couldn't sleep. Growing greater with each night was the sense that she was being watched, that something was waiting.

But after two weeks on the road, they hadn't been attacked. Not once. Days and nights had been filled with tense silence and peaceful sceneries.

Ino was busy reflecting on their strange lack of enemies when she felt it. One, two, three...four. Four chakra signatures about three miles ahead of them. She sped up, touching Shikamaru's shoulder and relaying the information with a single touch. He gave the signal for them to slow down and stop ahead.

"There's four of them. Three miles ahead, I can't tell how strong yet." Ino quickly informed Chouji.

"Can't we just go around and avoid them altogether?" Chouji asked.

"We'll only raise suspicions if they sense us taking a side route," Ino cautioned. "Enemies or not, they'll probably want to investigate."

"Avoiding them would probably cost us more time than confronting them," Shikamaru finally spoke as his eyes pierced into a small section of the map. He huffed, taking a step back away from them and turning back towards their route. "Chances are they're no threat to the scroll," he mumbled under his breath, stuffing the map back into his pocket.

Chouji's expression slowly became perplexed. "What makes you say that?" he called after him.

Shikamaru turned to look back at Chouji, his eyes flickering between the two of them. "Just a feeling," he shrugged, taking a step backward. "Let's go," he commanded.

It took Ino a good second to register his words, her mind miles away in an attempt to get a better feel for the chakra signatures. She ran her fingers through her fringe one last time, shaking her hand free of the strands she had pulled out in the process and began walking before his words truly processed.

"Wait." She stopped mid-stride, a crease forming between her eyebrows. "Feeling? Since when do you make decisions based on feelings?"

Shikamaru kept walking, his shrug the only indication he had heard her.

Ino rolled her eyes before picking up her pace. "Hellooo? I asked you a question."

"It's nothing." Shikamaru called out over his shoulder.

Ino looked over at Chouji as he fell in stride next to her. "Is he being serious right now?" she asked him, not bothering to lower her voice. "If it's nothing then why are you walking away?"

She could hear him scoff from meters away. "It's not so much walking away as much as walking to a destination."

"What-" Ino paused, taking a deep breath to calm her nerves. She sped up, Chouji right on her heels. "So what is it, then?" She asked when she reached him.

"It's nothing," Shikamaru spat out. "Relax."

Ino watched him as she fell in step next to him. He was tense, that much she could tell from the way he rolled his shoulders back only to have them fall back to their stiff position. "Hey!" she reached out to grab his shoulder as he began speeding up. Shikamaru side-stepped the second her hand made contact, her arm falling through to her side.

Ino scoffed. "What's your problem?"

Shikamaru finally stopped and turned back to look at her, his expression turning into a scowl as she stared him down. "Ino, this isn't the time." His voice lowered. "Let's go."

Something was off, Ino immediately noted. She was used to Shikamaru's annoyed looks, a natural look for him since her earliest memory of him, but this expression was one that she couldn't quite place. She couldn't recognize the way his lips set into an unfamiliar frown or the darkened expression of his eyes staring her down. It made Ino wonder how much there was she didn't know about him; her skin began to crawl at the thought.

"No." Ino stated, crossing her arms beneath her chest.

"Ino…" She heard Chouji's nervous whisper behind her.

"No?" Shikamaru repeated, rolling his eyes as he scoffed at her. "Quit acting like a child, Ino. In case you didn't realize it, we have better things to do. There's lives at stake with the success of this mission."

Ino frowned. "And how was I supposed to know that?" She tried to keep her tone even. "How were we supposed to know that?" She asked, glancing back at Chouji. Chouji pursed his lips, unable to settle his eyes on either one of them. "You know something," Ino badgered, taking a step towards him. "Spit it out so we can get going."

Shikamaru remained silent, his eyes unwavering from Ino's glare. When Ino began to think he'd turn and leave them behind, Shikamaru let out a frustrated sigh, his hand reaching into his pocket. "There's a chance we're not carrying the real scroll."

Ino's clenched her jaw. "Care to elaborate, captain?"

"We're not the only team the Hokage sent out for this scroll," Shikamaru admitted. "We're most likely just another decoy and the enemies know it."

Ino looked over at Chouji, trying to determine if he was as upset by the information as she was. She could read the hurt in his eyes, but nothing close to the anger that Ino was feeling. "When were you planning on telling us? A foot from the gates? Ever?" Ino knew Shikamaru probably had his reasons for withholding information, but that didn't mean she couldn't think they were stupid.

"The Hokage thought if you knew, then-"

"Then what?" Ino sharply cut him off. "We would've opened the scroll and fooled around once we realized it wasn't the real one?" Ino stared at Shikamaru for a few seconds before recognizing by the blank look in his eyes that she was right. "Just because Chouji and I haven't been nominated for the exams doesn't mean we should be treated like we're still kids!"

"Then maybe if you stopped acting like one you'd be nominated too," Shikamaru muttered angrily underneath his breath, turning to walk away.

"Excuse me?" Ino grabbed his shoulder, turning him to face her.

"Ino," Chouji cautioned, placing a hand on her shoulder to hold her back. "I'm sure the Hokage had a good reason for it."

"I don't care about the Hokage, Chouji. We're a team. We're Ino-Shika-Cho! We don't keep things from each other," Ino glared at Shikamaru. She knew she was overreacting and she knew she could've waited to discuss this once in the village, but she also knew that she felt a pang in her chest that she didn't quite want to identify as betrayal.

Shikamaru scoffed. "You're one to talk."

Ino shrugged off Chouji's hand off her shoulder, uncrossing her arms and moving to stand inches away from Shikamaru. "Meaning?"

Chouji moved to stand in front of them, not quite sure how to intervene. Despite being witness to their arguments countless of times, he knew they were both poking at sensitive topics. He bit his lower lip, searching for words to diffuse the situation.

"Really Shikamaru, tell me," Ino began. "What have I been keeping from you? Is it worse than letting us walk around paranoid as fuck believing we were carrying a thousand-year-old document? Is it worse than being so afraid that you can only sleep for two hours a night? Being so afraid that you can't even stomach the thought of eating because you don't want to shit yourself when you're killed for an old piece of paper? Is it?"

Ino was breathing hard, her eyes electric and defiant as she stared Shikamaru down.

Shikamaru looked at her through narrowed eyes. "We all have reasons for keeping things private, Ino. You're no angel either."

"What?" Ino took a step back, his words throwing her off balance. "What is that supposed to mean?"

Chouji could see nothing good was coming as Shikamaru let out an exasperated laugh. With his eyes locked onto hers, Shikamaru finally opened his mouth to speak, "Kiba? Sai? Those names ring a bell?"

Ino's breath caught in her throat, and she could feel a pea-sized lump forming at the base of her throat. "That- that's none of your business," Ino stammered out, her eyes flickering away.

"We're a team, remember?," he said mockingly. "'We don't keep things from each other'." Shikamaru regretted his words the second they left his mouth. He looked down at Ino and could see her biting the inside of her cheek, struggling to keep her composure. He wanted to say that it was her fault, that she should have seen it coming, but Shikamaru knew better. He knew he didn't have to talk to her so harshly, to embarrass her in front of her comrade, and he knew that he could fault no one but himself for the words that had left his mouth.

"Fuck, Ino, I didn't-"

Shikamaru suddenly found himself thrown harshly to the side. The unexpectedness of it had caused him to land further than Ino could usually throw him. In the milliseconds it took him to open his eyes he saw Ino standing meters away from him. He also spotted the grenade rolling slowly towards her feet.

Thanks for reading, let me know what you thought :) More to come soon!