Chapter Four

xxx

When she was a young girl, Ino remembered sitting at this table with her great aunt Majo as she prepared a rikka ikebana arrangement. Ino had no memories of her own mother, but her great aunt had easily assumed that role. Her father Inoichi taught her ninjutsu and taijutsu and tied her hair up into ponytails. Her great aunt Majo taught her ikebana and listened to her gush about her adolescent crushes and told her that she was beautiful without makeup.

Seasonal flowers and cuttings arranged in a vessel in order to appreciate their beauty. This is ikebana, Ino-chan. Ikebana is more than just arranging flowers. It's about using the beauty of nature to express your own mind and your own feelings. Our clan is well known throughout Konoha and the Shinobi World for our expertise in this art.

Her father had taught her the other role of the Yamanaka flowers.

My little bush clover, you have your great aunt's skill at ikebana. Now I will teach you the other role of Yamanaka Flowers for Konoha. Have you noticed, Ino-chan? Have you noticed the coded messages that are sent and received with certain orders? Yamanaka Flowers runs Konoha's Spy Network by hiding in plain sight.

Ino looked up from her ikebana vase as the bell over the front door of Yamanaka Flowers chimed as her cousin, Naoko, skipped in. "Good afternoon, Ino-sempai!" the girl chirped. Her green eyes danced as her dark blonde ponytailed swayed from side to side as she skidded to a stop in front of Ino.

"Good afternoon, Naoko-chan!" Ino greeted warmly as she placed the spiked metal kenzen at the bottom of the shallow gray vase. "How's your training going?"

Naoko brushed a hair back behind her ears as she sat across the table from Ino. Her cousin wore an outfit more similar to the one Sakura wore at that age than Ino had. A teal tank top with the Yamanaka clan symbol embroidered on the back. Teal was Naoko's favorite color. She wore a short black skirt with slits up to her hips over a pair of black shorts. "It's going."

"Feeling ready for your chunin exams?" Ino winked as she straightened the long green leaves between her thumb and forefinger. She pressed them carefully into the spikes of the kenzen.

Naoko tied her ponytail tighter. "I hope so. I'm as ready as I could be especially now that you've taught me a couple tricks."

Ino winked at her. "I think this year is the year, Naoko-chan. I passed my chunin exams when I was fifteen too."

Picking up her pruning shears, Ino cut the ends of the delicate branch of white spirea and cut the stems in a crisscrossed pattern so that they would fit into the kenzen. She pressed the branch in firmly and moved her hands away. Holding the branch in one hand, she twisted and bent the branches with her fingers into the desired shape. Pursing her lips, she looked at the arrangement carefully before snipping away some of the fullness so the arrangement was simpler and more elegant.

Naoko rested her head in her fist as she gazed at the ikebana arrangement. "Your style's a little bit different from Majo-sama's."

Ino lowered the stems of the pink roses into the basin of water on the table next to the vase and cut them under the water. She held them up against the arrangement and before lowering them back in the water to adjust the height. She placed them into the kenzen on the left side of the arrangement.

Ino winked at her cousin. "You have a good eye, Naoko-chan. This is the shoka style of ikebana. I've been experimenting with it. It's a simplified form of Majo's rikka style."

"It's very elegant," Naoko complimented. "What does this arrangement represent, Ino-sempai?"

Ino moved her hands away from the ikebana as she put the last rose in and turned the vase around to face her cousin. Standing up from her chair, she moved to stand behind Naoko. "What do you see, Naoko-chan?"

"The left and right sides aren't in balance, but that must be intentional," Naoko mused.

Ino nodded. "It takes into account the presence of the sun. It's going to be sitting in the corner of an entryway. The line on the left side is longer, that's where the sun will be. This line of spirea is drawn to the sun, reaching out towards it. The left side with the pink roses is set in the shade, so it's shorter."

"So it represents flowers springing from the earth and stretching towards the sun."

"Yep," Ino grinned.

Naoko stood up from her chair and folded her hands in front of her. "Ino-sempai. What's going to happen now that you will be marrying Nara-sama?"

Ino looked up at the girl. "I don't know, Naoko-chan. That will be up to Inoko as the new clan head."

Naoko put a hand to her flushed cheek. "Inoko-san is so handsome. I wonder if he will be looking for a wife now that he's become the Yamanaka clan head."

Ino laughed. "Sounds like someone's got a crush."

"You were supposed to marry our cousin Inoko, right, Ino-sempai? Do you think that I will be his betrothed now that you're marrying Nara-sama?"

Ino bit her lip. "I don't know, Naoka-chan. That will be up to Inoko and the clan elders to decide. They probably won't make a decision for several years. Not until you're older."

xxx

He looked up from The Konoha Bank's quarterly profit and loss statement at the knock on his front door. Putting down his pen, he rubbed his fingers over his eyes, probably smudging ink from his palms onto his cheek as he did so. He looked up at the clock. He wasn't expecting anyone. Stretching his arms over his head, he stood up from his chair and jotted down one last note on the papers. He really shouldn't have procrastinated so much about reviewing the materials before the board meeting later this week. As the majority shareholder of the Konoha Bank, he really should be prioritizing it a lot more than he was. He'd just been so preoccupied with this arranged marriage.

When he opened the door, he was surprised to find Ino on his doorstep. It had been a week since they spoken last. She was looking down the hallway lost in thought, so he was allowed a minute to study her profile. Her short blonde hair brushed against her chin and her nose was red from the cold. Her gloved hands gripped her tote bag tightly. It must have begun to snow because snowflakes had settled onto the shoulders of her winter coat.

"Ino?" he wondered after a beat. She turned her head and studied him. He broke the tense silence by saying, "Do you want to come in?"

She bit her lip and nodded. He moved to the side to allow her to enter in front of him. "Do you want anything to drink?" he continued, following her inside. "I've got some beers in the fridge."

She cleared her throat and said, "A beer's fine. Whatever you're having."

She followed him into the kitchen as he got two beers out of the fridge and popped off the caps. She placed her tote bag onto one of the chairs at the kitchen island. As he handed her the beer, she held hers out and they clinked the bottles together.

"I want to apologize for what I said about Inoko. I was angry and jealous and frustrated. I shouldn't have said it. It was thoughtless and cruel," Shikamaru said while he watched her take a sip of beer. "I also should apologize about the pregnancy test. I should have trusted you to tell me if…um… you know."

Ino leaned back against the fridge with her lip quirked upwards into a small smile. "If you'd knocked me up?"

Blushing, he muttered, "Yeah."

Reaching to the side, she put her beer on the counter and crossed her arms over her chest. "I don't think you've ever apologized to me for anything before."

Rubbing his head sheepishly, he finished, "I was an asshole. I'm sorry."

She sighed. "I've missed talking to you this week. I usually come over and talk over my problems with you," she said with an ironic laugh. "I've been lost with this one."

"Do you want to start over?" he asked.

She nodded.

"Have you talked to Majo?" Shikamaru began. "This seemed to come out of nowhere. I'm surprised that your Aunt Majo would turn on you so suddenly. Did Chohiro offer her something?"

Ino took a long sip of her beer. "We talked about it, but it doesn't seem like he did. It seems like this was Majo's idea. Apparently, a reporter at Shinobi Weekly was behind…um, our hookup at the fourth shinobi world war armistice party. The guy made a sex tape of us and tried to blackmail Aunt Majo."

Ino had delivered that shocker when Shikamaru was taking a sip of his beer. It went down the wrong pipe.

"What?" he gasped out.

Ino quirked her lip at him. "Majo told me that she dealt with him and the video. But then she told Chohiro and Shikatsuro that we were having an affair and that's why they arranged the marriage."

This was just getting stranger and stranger.

"Did the reporter also talk to Chohiro and Shikatsuro?" he wondered.

"No, it sounded like Majo was the only one he went to with the information. They didn't know about it until she told them."

"The reporter might have threatened to release the tape to Chohiro and Shikatsuro. Majo telling them herself could have been her way of dealing with the blackmail."

She bit her lip and studied his face before looking away. After an awkward pause, she said, "I've missed this. Promise that things won't get weird after we get married."

Shikamaru blinked. "You're going to do along with the marriage?"

Ino leaned her head back against the fridge with a heavy sigh. "I don't see that I have any other choice."

Shikamaru should have been overjoyed by her acceptance of the marriage; however, her defeated tone gave him pause. He didn't want her to marry him if she would be miserable. He couldn't do that to her.

She seemed to sense his unease.

Ino unhitched herself from the fridge and moved to stand in front of him. She put her hands on either side of his face and forced him to look down into her clear blue eyes. "We've always been at our best working together as a team. Our marriage can work the same way."

He moved his hands to her waist, pulling her closer to him. His gaze dropped to her lips. "We'll have to have a child together."

A light flush blossomed high on her cheeks. "Shikamaru, do you still-"

"-love you?" he said. "I do. Will that be a problem?"

She bit her lip. "No, but I don't-"

"-love me? I know."

She searched his eyes. "Doesn't that bother you?"

"I want to kiss you," he said in answer. "Would that bother you?"

She lifted herself onto her tiptoes and kissed him in reply. It was light and sweet and full of promise. As she moved to pull away, he pulled her closer. He lost himself in the feeling of her sweet mouth moving over his. As he unzipped her winter coat, she tangled her hands in his hair. His hands slid inside her coat, slipping it off her shoulders and down her arms. He tossed it behind him onto one of the chairs at the kitchen island.

Gripping her around the waist, he pulled her slim form closer and deepened the kiss. She traced the seam of his lips with her tongue beginning entrance. He opened his mouth under her. Cradling her face in his hands, he devoured her. Her tongue met his stroke for stroke, her passion finally rivaling his.

She let out a soft moan as he pressed heated kisses down her neck. He stared down at her. She blinked up at him, her blue eyes dark with pleasure and her lips swollen from his kisses.

"Do you want to take this upstairs?" He murmured.

Her eyes widened.

She stuttered out, "I-I have to leave."

She pushed him away and bolted for the door, grabbing her coat and tote bag as she ran out of the kitchen. As the front door closed behind her, he rested his head against the cold metal door of his refrigerator and gritted his teeth in frustration.

xxx

Ino and Sakura's apartment was in row house in northwest Konoha, right on the middle of the Yamanaka district. They'd rented out the fourth floor unit. The streetlights illuminated the street in a bright yellow glow as it turned dark. The light came in through the three windows of the living room. Dried white hydrangeas burst from mason jars on the dark stained coffee table, a number of medical ninjustu books and Yamanaka scrolls were stored in the open shelves. The cream colored couch sat against one wall with pink and purple accent pillows.

Above the couch hung a collage of photos in mismatching frames – Team Asuma as genin, then after Shikamaru's chunin promotion, then after Ino and Choji's chunin promotions. A picture of Sakura, Ino, and Choji before they took the chunin exams together. A picture of Sakura, Ino, Choji, Kiba, Shino, Hinata, Neji, Tenten, and Lee after their chunin promotions. Team Kakashi as genin, then as Team Yamato. Kakashi with Naruto, Sakura, and Yamato during Kakashi's inauguration. A picture of Ino and Shikamaru with Sarutobi Mirai. A picture of Sakura with Tsunade. A picture of Choji and Sumire at their wedding standing together with Ino and Shikamaru.

After Ino had reread the same sentence for the fourth time in the correspondence from the Kyoto Bank, she closed the folder and tossed it onto the coffee table. She really should discuss this with Shikamaru before the Three Clans Meeting.

She kicked her legs up onto the table, unknowingly pushing the folder off onto the other side and onto the floor. With a heavy sigh, she covered her face with her hands, leaning back against the couch. She'd brought the documents over to Shikamaru's apartment to ask for his help, but then completely forgot about them with all the talk about their arranged marriage.

She felt like such an idiot. Why did she run away? She and Shikamaru were finally talking again after a week of silence – one of the longest between them during the course of their friendship. They'd kissed and then she panicked and bolted out of Shikamaru's apartment like a startled fawn.

What was wrong with her?

Well, he had invited her upstairs.

She sunk deeper into the couch, her face flaming with embarrassment. If she'd taken him up on his invitation she knew with absolute certainty what would be happening at this very moment. She almost felt a pang of disappointment. She'd learned years ago just how talented he was with his tongue.

Ino heard the door open and close and Sakura's voice call out, "I'm home!"

She sat up and called back, "Welcome home!"

Ino stood up and moved to the other side of the coffee table to grab the folder with the papers from the Kyoto Bank that had fallen to the floor. As she straightened, her eyes lingered on Choji's wedding photo. She and Shikamaru stood arm in arm, dressed in their clan's finery. Shikamaru's normally impassive face held a small smile.

Sakura stretched her arms over her head as she walked into the living room. Ino eyed her suspiciously, "Late night at the Hokage Tower again? How's Hokage-sama?"

Putting her hands on her hips, Sakura shook her head. "I don't know if Kakashi-sama would get anything at all done if I didn't stay on top of him. Oh, that reminds me, Shikamaru stopped by the Hokage Tower this morning to talk to Kakashi."

"Shikamaru?" Ino wondered.

Sakura nodded. "Yeah. He asked me how you were doing. He said he hadn't talked to you in a week! Are you guys fighting? What's going on? You've been acting so weird lately."

After an awkward pause, Ino said quietly, "The clan elders arranged a marriage for me at the clan meeting last week."

Sakura's jaw hit the floor. "Kami, I'm so sorry, Ino. I know that you said a couple months ago that the clan was threatening to marry you off to that guy you hate, Inoki."

"Inoko," Ino corrected. "I don't have to marry that asshole, but he's taking over my position as clan head. Kami, it's so infuriating."

Sakura's mouth closed into a little 'o' of surprise. Her green eyes blinked a couple times in confusion. After an awkward pause, she asked, "So if it's not Inoko, who is it?"

Ino glanced back at the picture from Choji's wedding. "I'm engaged to Shikamaru. The wedding's this April. Aunt Majo just put the invitations in the mail."

Sakura raised her eyebrows. "You're getting married in two months? What's the rush? You're not pregnant are you?"

Ino gaped at her. "I'm not pregnant, Forehead!"

Sakura shrugged languidly with an indolently superior expression. It was strange seeing Hokage-sama's lazy expression on Sakura's pretty face. Forehead must just be spending too much time with her sensei now that she was his assistant. The pervert was starting to rub off on her.

Sakura smirked. "Exactly no one in Konoha is going to believe that Shikamaru didn't knock you up if you're getting married to him in two months, Ino-pig."

"I'm not, I swear." Ino waved her hands in front of herself, her face turning red.

Sakura scoffed. "So you say. Why else would the elders arrange the marriage?"

Ino put her hands on her hips. "Chohiro's been looking for a reason to supplant me since I became clan head seven years ago. But he needed Shikatsuro's and Majo's support if he wanted to. I don't know why, but my Aunt Majo finally caved."

Sakura seemed skeptical. "I dunno. Something seems fishy. Aren't arranged marriages usually within clans?" Sakura checked them off on her fingers. "Choji and Sumire are both from the Akimichi clan. Shino and Hotaru are both from the Aburame clan. Hinata and Neji are both from the Hyuga clan."

"So?" Ino huffed. "What are you getting at?"

Sakura continued, "I would have assumed that you would have to marry someone from the Yamanaka clan, probably Inoko. Then Shikamaru would have to marry someone from the Nara clan. But the clan elders arranged a marriage between you and Shikamaru, not you and Inoko. Why?"

Ino shook her head. "I dunno. Maybe they want me out of the way so they'll be no doubt that Inoko's in charge of the Yamanaka clan."

Sakura pursed her lips. "Maybe."

With a lusty sigh, Sakura plopped down on the couch and kicked her bare feet onto the coffee table. "Well, I guess I'll need to find a new roommate soon. I couldn't afford this place on my own."

Ino sat down next to her, putting the folder on the table in front of them. "Sorry about all this, Sakura. I can pay a couple months rent forward because I know I'm leaving you high and dry. I'll be moving in with Shikamaru and he's already paid off the mortgage on his townhouse."

Sakura glanced over at her in surprise. "What? How the hell can he afford to do that? His place is really nice."

Ino pursed her lips and crossed her arms over her chest. "Where do you think all the timber for the new buildings in Konoha came from? The Nara forests. With his inheritance after his father's death and his smart investing, he's probably the richest guy in Konoha."

"Really?" Sakura wondered. "I would have guessed that the Akimichi, Hyuga, or Aburame clan heads would be wealthier, being noble clans or whatever-you-call-them."

"Nope, it's a common misconception," Ino said, picking her nails. "The Nara clan is the wealthiest by far."

Sakura smirked. "So does that make you a gold digger, Forehead? Are you marrying Shikamaru for his money?"

Ino rolled her eyes.

Sakura made a little noise of interest and shifted back against the couch, looking over at her friend. "I'm surprised I don't know more about this sort of stuff. You'd think that clan politics would be something that the Hokage's assistant would need to know. I hope Kakashi-sama hasn't been shirking with any clan related business."

Ino shook her head. "We usually deal directly with the other clan heads. The Konoha village elders might poke their heads in our business from time to time, but we try to keep the Hokage and Konoha elders out of our clan's affairs as much as possible."

Sakura ran a hand through her bubblegum pink hair. "But what about after Pein's invasion? The Hokage was really involved with the clan heads during the rebuilding. And then there's all those requirements and special treatment that certain clans expect from the Hokage when it comes to promotion exams and higher ranked missions. Naruto was telling me about how the Hyuga clan has…"

Ino rubbed her eyes. "Okay, okay, you're right. The Hokage does get involved in some stuff. Jeez, I didn't expect a debate about clan politics tonight. Can we talk about something else?"

Sakura bit her lip. "So Inoko's going to be taking over the Yamanaka clan? Is that going to affect the Yamanaka district? What's going to happen to our apartment?"

Ino looked around the apartment unhappily. "When Inoko takes charge, he'll probably up the rent. Our landlady owns the building, but the Yamanaka clan owns the land that it's build on."

Sakura's eyes widened. "Why would he increase the rent? You've kept it pretty stable."

Ino ran a hand through her hair. "The Yamanaka clan doesn't have two ryos to rub together. The Yamanaka clan is swimming in debt from our loan to rebuild the Yamanaka district."

Sakura looked surprised. "It can't be as bad as you say."

Ino sighed. "It's bad. The Nara clan's been helping us to pay the interest on the loan. So now we own a lot of money to the Kyoto Bank and also to the Nara clan."

Sakura paled. "You don't think that…um…the Yamanaka clan is paying off its debt to the Nara clan by…like…selling you to Shikamaru, do you?"

"Ew, no!" Ino gasped. "Shikamaru wouldn't agree to that, Forehead!"

xxx

Choji munched next to him and he watched the clouds drifting above him. The swath of sky peeking through the clouds was the exact same blue as Ino's eyes. Shikamaru couldn't get the memory of last night's kiss out of his mind. She'd kissed him back with a passion that he could have scarcely hoped for. He only wished that he hadn't ruined the moment by being so forward. She'd only just agreed to the marriage and he was already inviting her back into his bed.

Kami, he was such an idiot.

Their peace was soon to be disturbed by the commotion of a pair of their idiot friends trudging up the bottom of the hill. "Oi, Shikamaru," called Kiba. "We've been looking all over Konoha for you!"

"And you didn't come here first?" quipped the Nara genius.

"You know, that would have made a lot more sense than looking around the women's hot springs for him," noted Naruto.

"But where's the fun in that?" Kiba asked, causing Naruto to snicker.

Shikamaru rolled his eyes. Kiba was really becoming a bad influence on Naruto. Naruto was probably just trying to fill the hole left by the death of his beloved sensei Jiraiya with another self-proclaimed super pervert.

"What's up, guys?" asked Choji.

Kiba crouched beside Shikamaru and punched him lightly in the shoulder. "I heard an interesting rumor about you and Ino. So is it true? Are you guys really getting married?"

The shadow-nin shrugged. "It's not a secret," he drawled. "The clan elders arranged the marriage at our clan meeting this week."

Kiba let out a bark of laughter. "I don't believe it! I thought it was just a crazy rumor."

Naruto slapped Shikamaru on the back. "Congratulations, man! That's awesome."

Kiba grinned wolfishly, "It's a shotgun wedding right? Shikamaru knocked up our girl, Ino."

Shikamaru rolled his eyes. He might have jumped to the same conclusion, but he didn't want that rumor to spread around. "You're an idiot. She's not pregnant. It's politics. The Akimichi, Nara, and Yamanaka clans don't support absolute primogeniture. Ino's not the head of the Yamanaka clan anymore."

Naruto scratched his head. "I don't understand. So Ino can't be the head of the Yamanaka clan. But what does that have to do with you two getting married?"

"The Inuzuka clan is much more progressive," Kiba said with a smirk. "I have no problem with a woman being on top."

Shikamaru rolled his eyes. Kiba knew how to work sexual innuendo into every conversation. "I'm probably going to regret this, but I want you two to be in the wedding party as groomsmen. Choji's my best man."

Kiba and Naruto glanced at Choji. Naruto cleared his throat. "I can never tell when Shikamaru's being sarcastic. He's not pulling our chain, is he Choji? Are they really getting married?"

Choji nodded with a grin. "Yep, April 4th. Mark your calendars."

Naruto and Kiba high fived. "This is going to be so awesome! Please, please, please, let us plan your bachelor party."

Shikamaru snorted. "I want to be alive for the wedding, so I'm going to have Choji plan it."