It was one of the last evenings that still deserved to be called summer. The setting sun cast the forest in gold, let spiderwebs shimmer like ghosts and the birds evening-songs sound like religious chants, as if they wanted to say good-bye to the leaves that soon would fall.
"You sure he went this way?", Ino grabbed Kiba's sleeve as he led them deeper into the thickets.
Kiba ignored her. The past thirty minutes she had alternated between lecturing Choji, for letting Shikamaru run off in the first place, and questioning Kiba's tracking-abilities, and he really wished she'd stop talking all together, or at least talk about something different. About the weather, for example.
"I mean, you're no longer-"
He grit his teeth, did his best to focus on the sounds of his surroundings to blend out Ino's voice, but before she had a chance to end this sentence she was interrupted by Choji, who spoke uncommonly firm and demanding:
"Ino – Just shut up!"
She stopped, stared at Choji in disbelief and as intimidating as she could (which was quite intimidating, actually). This wasn't how things were supposed to be. Choji wasn't supposed to talk back at her. Most of all, he wasn't supposed to stand his ground after doing so.
"Come on", he said to Kiba, completely ignoring her, "let's find Shikamaru before it gets dark."
And then the two of them strode away, leaving a perplexed Ino behind.
"Boys...", she shook her head. A few times. Then hurried after them.

It took only a short sprint for Ino to catch up with said boys, who stood in a wide clearing, just stood there and looked at the hill that rose in front of them.
"What are you waiting for?", she called out but went silent the second she landed with her feet back on the ground and a few steps ahead of Choji and Kiba. She involuntarily shivered, had to swallow hard to fight back the urge to turn on her heels and run away. Something was watching her... She remembered how she had used to cover the mirror in her room each night before going to bed, had only stopped doing so a few years ago. Just because of some silly ghost-story she had heard once about her reflection stealing her soul and trapping it in the mirror-world while she slept. Right now she felt exactly as she had every night, for years, while making sure that there was not the tiniest bit of reflective surface left visible.
"I think", Kiba whispered – he sounded just as frightened as Ino felt "He's in there."
He pointed at an openging gaping in the side of the hill. "You mean, we have to go in?", Choji asked.
Ino breathed deep, forced herself to calm down. She threw a glance over her shoulder and at her two companions, who stood frozen.
"Right then, let's go!", she ordered, as bossy as one can while feeling like a scared five-year-old, but still waited for the boys to move first before she took one step in the cave's direction.

Shikamaru cowered on the far side of the cave, hands pressed together and brows furrowed deep in thought. He peered at the circular pattern that covered the floor, let his narrowed eyes wander to take in every detail of it. His lips moved silently and from time to time he shook his head.
He didn't notice the three figures that stepped inside, blocked the remaining sunlight that leaked through the cave's entrance and cast long shadows over the stone floor.
"What is this place?"
Kiba sniffed. There was definitely something odd about this cave, not to mention something seriously scary.
"I have no idea", Ino hissed back. She looked down at her feet where illegible symbols formed something resembling a summoning circle.
"And I'm not sure if I want to find out", she added, braced herself and stepped deeper inside the cave while Kiba and Choji stood back at its entrance.
As she crossed the room, just for a second, she thought she heard someone calling her name, but the voice was gone as suddenly as it came, and then she had already reached Shikamaru, who finally looked up at her.
"When did you get here?", he asked.
"Just now", Ino gave her best to sound patient and calm instead of frightened and irritated.
Shikamaru gave her a crooked smile, then reached out to touch her hair.
"I liked it short better", he told her, waited for her to talk back, but Ino just sighed, let her head hang.
"Shikamaru", she said, the patience in her voice ebbing away.
"Look at me! That's right, look at me", she took hold of his chin and forced his eyes to meet hers.
"I'm Ino. Troublesome Ino, remember?"
Shikamaru blinked a few times, visibly confused. Then he frowned and told her that yes, of course he know who she was and really, there was no need for her to talk at him as if he was a child.
"I promise, I wont – as soon as you stop acting like a child and running off, the second no one is watching you."
"I didn't run off", Shikamaru corrected her "I had to come here. I told you!"
"No you didn't."
Ino tried to get Shikamaru to stand up, but he simply refused to move.
"I was too late. It only works for three days-", he bit his lip, hard enough to draw blood.
"You can't", he suddenly exclaimed, fixed Ino with his eyes as if she had done something wrong.
"You can't drop something if you don't have it!"
"I'm sure you're right", Ino replied, placing one arm around his shoulders.
"But we have to go now, or it'll get dark before we're back home."
At this, Shikamaru's eyes widened. He scrambled back to his feet all by himself and half-stumbled out of the cave, shortly followed by the others.