Disclaimer: I don't even own the fat toad purse.

Dedication: For ninja-v, UWBSN2012, and TopazDragon – my first reviewers.

Conundrum

By intoxicatedasphyxiation

.02

Shikamaru had looked forward to an uneventful day.

The cloud distribution rate had improved over the course of the exam, though they were still sparse enough that he wasn't predicting any major thunderstorms soon. Chōji's room provided an unobstructed view of both the sky and immediate compound of the hospital, which in turn promoted an ambience of peacefulness that encouraged rehabilitation.

All hopes dashed headfirst into the gutter the moment an incoming blur of orange charged through the door, slamming it open with enough enthusiasm to shake the walls and send a light tremor through the floorboards.

"SHIKAMARU!" came the soundtrack that accompanied the boom.

Any kind thoughts he once harbored for the prankster's soul immediately vacated from his mind.

"What?" he snapped irritably. Glancing over at his best friend, he wondered how anybody could maintain unconsciousness at the sound of Naruto's voice. If there was one thing he learned from Chōji's encounter, it was that he would never underestimate the effectiveness of Oto techniques ever again.

"Oi oi, is Chōji still out?" Naruto pestered, rushing up to the bed to glance down at the sleeping member of Team Ten.

What do you think? Shikamaru sighed, rising from his bedside chair. "What do you want, Naruto?"

"Let's get lunch!"

"I'm not paying, if that's what you're asking."

"My treat, my treat!" the blond replied, and Shikamaru eyed him suspiciously. It wouldn't be uncharacteristic of Naruto to pull a fast one on him, being an experienced prankster and all, but most of his pranks had been saved for his teachers and Kiba, the latter of whom found them highly entertaining. Or was he hoping that Shikamaru would figure out his financial background and offer to pay instead?

Pushing his thoughts aside, he decided that a change of scenery would be good.

"Don't tell me," he sighed as realization dawned upon him, "ramen?"

Naruto's face lit up with a big smile.

True to his word, Naruto had whipped out a fat purse that looked like a toad to settle payment.

Their lunch had gone by uneventfully, if one discounted the fact that Naruto devoured bowls of ramen the way starving pack animals could tear through a carcass full of fresh meat. The fact that he barely breathed while eating was another thing that almost put Shikamaru off his own dish.

The only boon of the whole trip had been the genuine camaraderie between Naruto and the ramen stand owner. The feeling was akin to standing in the presence of the Hokage Monument for the first time. Watching them interact had been like having a bucket of something akin to wonderment and contentment thrown over him and he was glad that the blond prankster had found a place among civilians where he could belong without discrimination.

In between, there had been bites of casual conversation too, with Naruto bringing up the tribulation of accessing Sasuke's room, which had been deemed off-limits to everyone save for a few. He had tried breaking and entering a few rooms that appeared to house his teammate, but had been subdued in equal measure by chakra wards and members of the staff alike.

Like Shikamaru, he also hadn't encountered his teacher since the preliminaries.

"I want Kakashi-sensei to train me," Naruto declared when they were on the topic of teachers and training. Shikamaru held his tongue by eating his ramen. Statistically, the likelihood of the Copy Nin training Naruto was low, very low, especially with the Uchiha on his team. Training both his students was also out of the question as a conflict of interest would arise sooner or later when both of them wanted to keep their techniques secret from each other.

The fact that both teammates were clearly at different skill and improvement levels would also sever the effectiveness of combined training.

If it came down to Ino, himself, and Asuma-sensei's undivided attention, the rightful outcome was a no-brainer. Ino needed the training more than he did as her trademark technique didn't look like it would last against the psychopathic mindsets of some of the other finalists. There was a greater demand for her to have to improve her other basic skill sets, or to consider expanding her jutsu repertoire.

Naruto also revealed that he had been kicked out of the psychiatric ward when he tried to stay the night and keep Sakura company. The staff had been adamant about adhering to the strict visiting hours, though Shikamaru wondered if they simply hadn't wanted him around at night when security was at its lowest.

When Naruto asked why they allowed him to sleepover in Chōji's room, he offered the excuse that the psychiatric ward required more critical care than the normal areas.

"They can't afford to spook her," he reasoned, "since nobody knows what's going through her mind right now. Not since the match. Ino reacted badly to Asuma-sensei. Who knows what Sakura will do?"

"Where is Ino-chan anyway?" Naruto asked, to which he shrugged.

Their return to the hospital was fairly uneventful, with Naruto playing tour guide by mentioning little snippets of knowledge and gossip that he had accumulated over time about the streets, businesses, and some of the people they passed by. Whatever looks of acknowledgment he may have gotten on any other day as the sole heir of a clan head and council member were dulled by Naruto's presence beside him. While the blond was blasé about this treatment, he was not, and more than once, he found himself glaring back at some of the perpetrators.

Kakashi-sensei was already in the lobby when they entered the hospital.

"Naruto, there's someone I want you to meet," he said, cutting to the chase, "and he's going to look after your training."

Shikamaru didn't need a fortune teller to predict Naruto's reaction to that announcement. He did, however, have a few questions of his own.

"Kakashi-sensei, have you seen Asuma-sensei? Did he find Ino?"

"Hm? Well, he's around. If he hasn't found you already, he probably will soon."

Shikamaru wanted to applaud the famed shinobi's ability to literally tell him nothing with so many words.

"And Ino?" he asked, wanting to know if the jōnin was deliberately choosing to avoid his second question.

"Hmm… I'll let your sensei answer that one." Kakashi answered sagely, before turning to address all of Naruto's protests and accusations with a bored drawl.

Returning to Chōji's room, Shikamaru felt the gentle breeze before he spotted the open window. A tall vase of fresh lavender sat on the bedside table opposite the one that held all of yesterday's food.

A slim packet of labeled plant food rested beside it, affirming the identity of its giver.

Backing out of the room, he hurried down the corridors of the hospital, searching the faces of everyone he passed. As Sasuke's room was hidden and off-limits, it meant that there was only one other place that she could have gone to.

Tearing around the corner to the psychiatric ward, he caught himself on the door frame and almost tumbled into Sakura's room.

Ino stood by her rival's bed, a bouquet of violets in hand. Her short hair had been pulled back into a bun.

"Haste," Ino murmured, as he gathered his bearing, "never looked good on you."

He didn't know if it was her words or the manner in which she said them that threw him off, but her words were quiet, too quiet. For Ino, that was as abnormal as removing Chōji from a restaurant and telling him to survive without meat in a desert. Then again, he had never seen her alone, without an audience.

"I'd say the same about your disappearing act," he shot back. Whether or not she read any hostility in his tone didn't concern him in the least, so long as he was braced enough for any explosions she planned to make. Dousing fire with fire worked best with her and he hadn't forgotten yesterday's glare. "Where were you?"

She gave an isn't-it-obvious nod towards the bouquet that rested in her arms, before standing it upright on the bedside table.

He scowled at the gesture. Having his questions deflected by Kakashi-sensei was one thing, but Ino as well? It was almost too much. The absence of knowledge was eating away at him and he hated the feeling. He wondered if chronic gossipers often felt the same way when they misplaced their means of acquiring new information, but quickly dismissed the comparison.

He watched as she kept one hand around the stems and removed the wrapping with a smooth tug, exposing the glass of still water they arrived in. She arranged them carefully before neatly folding the wrapping paper away. When she was done, she withdrew a small packet of plant food from her pocket and placed it by the vase.

"What happened during your fight?" he asked, trying his luck. She remained silent, leaning over one of the safety bars that guarded the sides of Sakura's bed. The beeping from one of the machines echoed loudly in the room.

"Why violets, then?" he asked instead, baiting her with a topic he knew she'd never avoid. "I figured you'd bring her namesake instead."

Then came the look: really? "Cherry blossoms for Sakura? How clichéd is that?" she sighed. "Plus the meaning would be all wrong, since she's not really kind and gentle. Not since she grew a spine, anyhow."

He raised an eyebrow. Ino giving Sakura any sort of acknowledgment was anomalous and peculiar, even if she was drugged out of her mind less than two feet away. Yet, it still didn't explain the violets. Ino had mentioned several times before that her father had raised her to embody the meaning of violets and that her personality mirrored the blunt, candid honesty the flower symbolized. She had often interpreted her infatuation for Uchiha Sasuke the same way, and took offense when others attempted to challenge her love for him. It was one of the reasons her friendship with Sakura had failed. Now here she stood, tall and triumphant, as her rival lay broken before her, a victim of the fallout. Were the violets a declaration of victory?

Or was he reading too much into this?

"I'm not taunting her, if that's what you think." Ino said, startling him with her intuitive acuity. "It's just that… we both saw things. Things we probably weren't meant to see."

"And yet, it happened anyway." Shikamaru pointed out, wording his implications carefully. The flicker of sadness that entered her eyes was quickly masked away with a flash of anger in the tightening of her jaw. She tapped the top bar lightly with her fingers—a sign of simmering agitation, if any—before pulling away in a quick move to escape.

He pressed his back against the door, blocking the exit.

"Really?" she asked, with a drawl that was almost sardonic. He almost winced.

"I could always use Kagemane instead," he replied coolly, in a tone that was nothing short of serious. She raised an eyebrow, looking almost impressed.

"Now threats…" she leaned in, lowering her voice to a mere whisper, "they could look good on you."

He blinked, shocked by her announcement. She pursed her lips as she studied him and he shifted uncomfortably under her gaze.

"But you won't," she continued, and it took him a moment to realize that she was answering his challenge, "because it's a violation of the trust we have as teammates. You could claim that you were doing it for my sake, but we both know that that'll never cut it. Not with me. So step aside."

This time, it was he who was impressed, though he was also partly disturbed. To say something… like that, then to follow it up with a methodical dissection of his rationalization process… What happened to the Ino with temper tantrums and where did she go?

"What the hell happened to you?" he asked quietly, his confusion clear. She stepped towards him and he moved aside, albeit reluctantly.

"I won a fight and decimated my ex-best friend," she replied frigidly, sliding the door open. "You tell me."

Chōji's mother replenished the never-ending food supply of barbecued delicacies in the evening an hour after Chōji awoke. Showing little concern for the previously uneaten majority of the first batch, she handed a freshly made mackerel bento to Shikamaru, who thanked her profusely by consuming it heartily.

The medic, however, warned Chōji against devouring solid foodstuff—at least for the next few days. For an Akimichi, that was equivalent to being forced on a vegan diet for an entire year, so Shikamaru could only watch as Chōji wolfed down several bowls of soup, only to follow up with two bento boxes of barbecued beef.

He barely finished his own meal by the time Chōji begged for a third.

Ino hadn't returned, but his best friend had lightened up when he saw the lavenders by his bed. Neither of them knew its secret flower meaning, but it had opened up conversation about their teammate rather effectively, and Shikamaru was honestly glad that Chōji was back in the game. He always valued his childhood friend's opinion and Ino's sudden change in behaviour was honestly too baffling to resolve alone in the confines of his mind palace—he needed a secondary perspective and Chōji always fit that mold perfectly.

"What do you remember?" he asked, once Chōji's mother departed. "About Ino and Sakura's fight."

"Well…" his friend replied, pondering deeply, "Ino cut her hair, used it to trap Sakura with her Shintenshin, and then…" He paused, furrowing his brow. "She was about to forfeit, then… uh. Naruto started yelling."

"It is possible for the victim to eject the Shintenshin's user from their mind," he said as a statement rather than a question, and Chōji nodded in concurrence. "So it's possible for Ino to have been distracted enough that it gave Sakura a foothold to reclaim her mind. It would have been doubly effective because she was already aware of the intrusion." Realization and identification, after all, were always the first steps in countering another technique.

"Yeah, but it's her best technique," Chōji asserted. "During practice, we've seen her use it, and distractions on that level don't affect her hold. There are only three ways that a person can break out of it—by forcing her to retreat, having the psychological willpower to eject her, or dying. Sakura isn't a seasoned jōnin, so the second option looks unlikely to me."

"Normally I'd agree," Shikamaru said, "but…" He thought back to his earlier encounter with his other teammate. "Ino said that they both saw things that they probably weren't meant to see. Those exact words. That shouldn't be possible. The Shintenshin operates one-way only, and even if someone were to find a way to reverse it… Sakura?" He had reassessed his evaluation of the girl several times over and found that his conclusions about her always amounted to the same. Whatever potential the girl had, if any, still hadn't been properly channeled or honed. She was Ino's equal at best, and Ino had always been the more dominant and manipulative of the two. Yet, nothing else explained Ino's strange confession.

However, if one took that out of the equation, it left only the first of the three options: Ino's forced retreat. But the release process was a smooth one and wouldn't have resulted in… whatever this outcome was.

"How troublesome," he sighed, just as Chōji barraged him with questions.

"Well…did she say? Was it an execution error? What about Asuma-sensei? Did he say anything?"

He simply shrugged. "I haven't seen Asuma-sensei since he went after Ino, and I only saw her once today, when she was dropping off flowers for you and Sakura. She wasn't really in a sharing mood." In fact, he couldn't even categorize her exact temperament. There had been echoes of her normal self behind some of the teasing words and the way she talked about Sakura, but there was also a new edge to her that Shikamaru couldn't quite put a finger on. Behind her usual confidence, there was a deeper, darker personality taking root, and it took all of her fiery personality and repackaged it into something colder and shrewder, like a newfound razorblade.

"Do you think Asuma-sensei will still treat me to barbecue?" Chōji asked anxiously. "I mean… I didn't exactly win."

It always was so typical of Chōji to worry about his next meal. If he didn't think it would hurt his feelings, Shikamaru might have laughed.

"Yeah, sure," he replied, "but if he doesn't… well, you can have my share, I guess."

"Thanks, Shikamaru." Chōji smiled, fully appeased.

Shikamaru leaned by the window, glancing out. He could see half the city fully lit in the dark. It was as though a whole different side of Konoha emerged at night, causing its beauty to be different, more exotic than its daytime counterpart.

"So do you know who you're up against in the finals?" Chōji asked, watching the same view.

"Yeah…" Shikamaru replied with an uncomfortable grimace, remembering the exact moment when the announcement of the matchups had been made. He had cursed his luck then, just as much as he still cursed it now.

"That bad, huh? Or are you fighting another girl?" Chōji laughed, until he saw the dour look. "Is it Ino?" he almost whispered, his eyes widening in horror.

"No, nothing so tragic," he replied. "Though it could be," he added darkly.

"You wanna talk about it?" his friend asked, his hand twitching as though missing a packet of chips.

He considered the offer, before changing his mind. There were some things he preferred dealing with on his own.

"I'll deal with it once Asuma-sensei gets back," he sighed listlessly. "For now… there's Ino to worry about."

Asuma-sensei came in long after most of the village's businesses turned in for the night.

Shikamaru and Chōji had been reaching the endgame of their latest shogi match when their teacher slipped into the room.

"Teaching Chōji strategy?" he asked inquisitively, looking down at the board between them to study their moves.

"Nice to see you too, sensei." Shikamaru replied, with just the right amount of drawl. "Been busy the last two days?"

Their teacher grimaced. It was strange seeing him without a lit cigarette on hand, but he supposed that that was what hospital staff members were good for. They had, after all, been so attentive when handling Naruto.

"Some things came up," he said, "but I'm here now. I heard about your win, Shikamaru. Congratulations, by the way. How about you, Chōji? Feeling better?"

"I woke up around dinnertime," Chōji said jovially, "and the medic said that I should be out in a day or two."

"After Ino's match, did you find her?" Shikamaru asked, wasting no time. Asuma seemed to age as he processed the question.

"Yeah, about her…" he said, taking a chair, "she went into a near fit when I tried to corner her. She only calmed down when I threatened to tell her father, but then she started lecturing me about personal space and told me to—" He sighed, like a vanquished father who just discovered that his preteen daughter no longer thought the world of him.

"Well, she dropped in this afternoon," Shikamaru reported, nodding towards the lavenders on Chōji's bedside. "Whatever it is, she's just as affected as Sakura, and she implied that the minds of both parties were susceptible during the Shintenshin."

Asuma looked up at him sharply. "What were her exact words?" he asked. Shikamaru recognized this as his teacher's official no-nonsense mode.

He repeated what he told Chōji earlier.

"This is…" The jōnin sounded grave.

"Unheard of?" Shikamaru offered.

"What else did she tell you?" Asuma asked, just as the door shifted open after a soft knock.

A purple haired ANBU member stood rigidly at the door, surveying the inhabitants of the room in a standard sweep, before turning to their teacher. She wore a white mask painted with red lines in an animal motif that Shikamaru couldn't identify. Though he couldn't see her face, there was something about her body language that subtly screamed that she was shaken.

"The medics say he'll be in surgery for a few hours," she said in a voice that struggled to remain impassive, "they're not sure if he'll survive."

"Wait, did something happen to Sasuke?" Shikamaru asked, alarmed by the sudden revelation. After all, hadn't something gone wrong with the rookie of the year in the Forest of Death? Did he have a relapse?

"Does Kakashi know?" Asuma interjected, bypassing his query, and she tilted her head in a gesture that could only mean no.

"I'm on my way to find him now," she answered, before glancing ahead to address the troubled Nara, "and no, this doesn't involve Uchiha Sasuke."

"Was yours the first team on the scene?" Asuma asked, deeply embedded in the discussion.

"Yes," she replied quietly. "Hippo found him first. He's keeping watch."

With a final tilt of her head, she vanished quickly, and their teacher looked torn between staying and leaving.

"What's going on?" Shikamaru asked, fingering one of the few shogi pieces left on the board.

The older man seemed to study his two students for a moment, as though weighing the confidentiality of the knowledge he was holding back.

"Your referee…" he said, after a long silence, "the one who presided over your preliminary matches… he was attacked in the village just over an hour ago." Shikamaru took in the full gravity of those words.

"So that's why you showed up at this hour," he said, drawing the secondary conclusion first, and his implication was clear. You didn't come in to check on your own student, Chōji, who was out for more than a day.

Asuma sighed wearily and his fingers twitched in a way that seemed obvious he needed a smoke.

"What's so special about the attack?" he continued, mulling over his teacher's words. "There's something you're not saying."

"You're over thinking this. There are no hidden meanings in what I just said."

Borrowing a page from the new Ino, he gave his teacher a surveying look. "If he was a close friend, you would have asked after his injuries or gone straight to him, especially if the situation was as bad as she made it sound. Instead, you came here first and for some reason, it's more important that Kakashi-sensei knows about this. This either means that he's a close friend of Kakashi's or that you suspect that the attack is linked to… maybe one of his students. You know… the one that the hospital staff is keeping hidden away, presumably under a security detail…"

"She just told you that Uchiha Sasuke isn't involved in this," Asuma reminded him, neither confirming nor denying anything.

"She was only responding to the context of my question. Plus, what she knows and what you suspect may be two entirely different things on different security clearance levels. She was clearly shaken, which means that she probably knew the victim well—motives may mean less to her while having to deal with whether or not he will live. If I'm wrong about this being linked to Sasuke, then it means that Kakashi-sensei is actually a close friend of his, and since we've already established that you're probably not, this leaves the big question of why you're actually here." Shikamaru paused as he gathered his conclusion. "This means that there was something special about the attack that relates to either something you know or something you have. You were called in for a reason."

"You're taking quite a few leaps there," the jōnin said quietly, "and you're making several assumptions about how I may or may not treat my friends and colleagues. It's a general requirement for shinobi to maintain their professionalism, regardless of circumstances."

"Yeah, but you don't strike me as the cold, emotionless type," he shrugged with a lazy smile, catching Chōji's wide-eyed look before glancing back to meet his teacher's gaze. "And you also haven't told me that I'm wrong."

By then, their teacher had taken out one of his cigarettes.

"I can't confirm or deny anything," he said, getting up to leave, "but I'm sure that I don't need to remind you that anything you may or may not have heard was for your ears only. The same goes for anything you may or may not have deduced from the former."

Chōji swallowed nervously while Shikamaru simply inclined his head in acquiescence.

"In the meantime," the Sarutobi added, "track Ino down by tomorrow and tell her that she can talk to me alone or in front of the whole team. We'll also need to discuss your training for the finals. And no, Chōji, that doesn't exclude you."

"Will this discussion be in a barbecue restaurant?" Chōji chimed in, his priorities clear.

"…Sure." Asuma replied hesitantly, no doubt considering the eventual lightness of his wallet. "But if you really want to eat, get yourself checked out by tomorrow at the latest. I'll set the team meeting at our usual place for lunch the day after tomorrow. Are we good?"

Please review. I'll trade you hugs and send you mini excerpts of the next chapter!