Aw, damn, you guys just had to pick the boring side that doesn't work as a dialogue. Time to cheat.
[X] Family Meetings
"I'll catch up with you later and we'll compare notes," Ino tells you, and you nod as she zips off at top speed. You wonder briefly where on earth she gets the energy to move like that.
Shikamaru, having got his emotions back under control, strolls casually over to where his father lies in the garden, and prods him with a foot.
"Get up, old man," he says, "you aren't fooling anyone."
"Shut up, boy, this is the closest thing I'm going to get to a nap today."
"Shikaku!" a voice calls from inside the house. "If you're done rough-housing with the dirty hippie you can come back in here and help me chop up vegetables for the stew."
"Are you okay, Shikaku-san?" you ask timidly.
"I'm fine," Shikaku says placidly, getting to his feet. "I hurt him worse, I think."
"I guess you told him the team assignments?" Shikamaru asks grimly.
Shikaku shakes his head. "He already knew that. What I told him is that I recommended it."
"What?" you blurt out. "Why? Why would you do that?"
"Because I've known all three of you for all of your lives," the scarred man says, leading the two of you inside, "and I know what a waste it would be to have Shikamaru and Ino on the same team."
"Waste?" You feel stung. "A waste for who? What about the Ino-Shika-Cho bond?"
Shikaku-san looks at Dad, who to your surprise is seated at the Nara's kitchen table.
"Chouji..." he says with a sigh. "The Alliance was forged in the Warring Clan era. If it survived that, it can survive Ino-chan not being on your genin team."
You bite your lip. "But... she's our friend!"
"Is she."
... Shikamaru's dad's eyes are kind of creepy when he stares like that. He isn't angry, and he isn't disappointed, and he isn't sad. He's just... watching.
Shikamaru watches, too, but that's different; it's more like he's just paying close attention. When Shikaku's eyes linger somewhere they're almost sucking in whatever they're looking at.
You try not to blink.
"So what if we don't hang out so much anymore?" you say defensively. "We grew up together, all three of us! We belong on the same squad!"
"What do you think friendship means, Chouji?" the Jounin Commander asks calmly. "Because if you think it comes down to just being around someone all the time, then you really don't understand the Ino-Shika-Cho bond at all."
The words sting, not least because you know they're true. But I thought we could be done being apart now, you think miserably.
You're the only one who thought you needed to be apart in the first place, comes the bitter reply.
Shikamaru takes a step forward. "If you think Chouji and Ino can't work together-"
"Oh, hell no. The problem is you," Shikaku says flatly. His son looks flabberghasted.
You blink. "Wait, that doesn't make any sense. Shikamaru and Ino always work together really well."
"Exactly." Shikaku crosses the kitchen to the fridge, ignores his wife's meaningful look at the unchopped carrots and potatoes, and gets himself a beer. "They trust each other perfectly. And nine times out of ten, the way they end up working 'together' is by working apart, because they understand that their play styles are incompatible." He nods at his son, passing another beer to your Dad. "Even down to how you handled this situation. I'm guessing Ino walked home with you two, but went off after Inoichi when he left, right?"
"Genin perform concurrent investigations all the time in pursuit of mission objectives," Shikamaru points out.
"Is that what you told Ino?" Shikaku asks. "Or did she chase down her father on her own initiative, and tell you two to come talk to us?" He smirks a bit. "For someone who claims girls are troublesome, you're awfully... what was your word...? Whipped."
The boy scowls. "What does it matter if she's bossy? If Ino wants the leadership position on the squad she can have it; we sure as hell don't care, do we, Chouji?"
You want to shake your head. You ought to, because you know you don't want to be in charge; not yet. You do daydream from time to time about taking on a genin squad of your own as a jounin-sensei, but that's in the far-off future when you've gotten some field experience and are settling into adulthood along with your friends. Besides, you can't imagine ever telling Shikamaru what to do - half the time you don't know what to do yourself, and he's who you ask for help. You know you aren't ready for even the minimal decision-making being an unofficial leader requires.
But when you think of the kind of decisions Ino makes...
You look at your feet.
"It matters," Yoshino speaks up, scraping chopped onions and garlic into the pot on the stove, "because out of thirty members of your graduating class, precisely two students have been noted to already possess the primary qualities necessary for promotion to chuunin rank and by extension a leadership position. Yamanaka Ino, and Nara Shikamaru." She's obviously trying to break the news gently, but she cannot suppress the faint note of pride that creeps into her voice when she says her son's name.
Shikaku sighs. "That document is cl-"
"What 'document'?" She snorts. "Five pages out of an unruly heap of paper on your desk that you leave out for your wife to clean up do not constitute a document, you idiot, classified or otherwise. Not in a civilized society."
"I had everything laid out perfectly before," Shikaku mutters, scratching his arm. "Now any jackass who can crack a substitution cypher can come into my den and read whatever he wants."
"The point is," Dad cuts in before the argument can get off the ground, "it isn't in the best interest of the village or even the Alliance to put Shikamaru on the same team as Ino. When we joined Konohagakure we swore an oath to serve it to the best of our abilities. If we hoard every genius our lines produce, we could all go the way of the Uchiha, mistrusted and self-focused until we're destroyed from within."
"... this is such a drag," Shikamaru grumbles. If anything, you consider this an understatement. You don't quite get all that sudden talk about it somehow being bad for two team mates to trust each other, but you do know now that this obviously isn't a recommendation that Shikaku-san made lightly.
That doesn't really make you feel all that much better.
"So what made Inoichi-san so mad?" you ask finally. "If this is such a great plan, why doesn't Ino's dad agree?"
Shikaku snorts. "What am I, his fist's personal translator? Ask him."
"I think the best thing you boys could do right now," Dad says firmly, eyeing Shikaku, "is to go find your third team mate and spend the rest of the day with her. She's probably feeling lonely right now."
With a jolt, you realize he's right. The three of you ran off without so much as a word to Hinata the minute school was out.
Huh. You're really getting good at abandoning people, aren't you? the voice inside your head remarks nastily.
~tsuzuku~
