Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
Chapter 1: Prologue
Yamanaka Ino loved flowers. Some of her first memories were of her sitting on her mother's lap as people smiled when buying flowers; she associated them with happiness. People gave flowers for celebrations, anniversaries, and just to cheer someone up. It was only as she was older and understood the concepts of danger and death that she loved flowers even more.
The most beautiful flowers are deadly poison - as a child whose parents owned a flower store which sold poisons on the side, it was one of the earliest lessons she could remember being taught. Even at a young age Ino had loved the dual nature of flowers; they were fragile things, but when prepared correctly could bring down even the strongest of creatures.
Ino still remembered the day when she snuck into her father's greenhouse - she had never been allowed in there, so naturally when she saw the door partially open she jumped at the chance. In one universe she would have hesitated, obeyed her father's instructions, and passed on by. But a different choice was made and a path that would have been ceased to exist.
Ino tiptoed in with all the quietness of a three-year-old, gazing around curiously. Inside were rows of new and different flowers she had never seen before, so with pupil-less blue eyes wide, Ino explored. Nothing stood out to her until she caught sight of a bunch of beautiful purple flowers. Moving closer, Ino could see the flowers had five petals, like a star, with a yellow center. Ino liked them very much, but didn't understand why she hadn't been allowed in here. They were just flowers after all, weren't they?
Ino reached up to pick a deep purple one, gently breaking the stem near the base like she had been taught and giggling to herself, she tucked it behind her ear. Forgetting that she wasn't supposed to be there, Ino skipped over to show her father, looking for the compliments she always received.
"Daddy!" Ino squealed.
Yamanaka Inoichi was a good ninja. He had survived the Third Shinobi War and had come out mostly unscathed. Still, he had his coping methods like all shinobi, and gardening was one of them. His wife owned a flower shop and it was over gardening that they had bonded. Inoichi liked to know that with hard work, patience and gentleness, he could help life bloom; even after everything he had done in the name of his village. And so when he was in his private greenhouse, it was where he could unwind and relax after a long day.
He was jolted from his relaxed state when he heard his three-year-old daughter - who was most certainly not supposed to be in a room full of poisonous flowers - behind him. Berating himself for letting his guard down so much that a toddler had snuck up on him, Inoichi turned around to scold his daughter for ignoring his rules when he promptly choked on his words. Tucked behind his daughter's ear was a flower from one of the most poisonous plants in existence.
"Ino!" Inoichi scolded and jumped up, snatching the flower away from her. Ino looked startled and upset that he had taken her flower away.
"Why did you do that daddy?" Ino pouted with watery eyes.
Inoichi sighed before swooping down and scooping his daughter up.
"Ino," he said sternly, "There's a reason why you aren't allowed to come in here. These flowers are poisonous and very dangerous."
Ino tilted her head cutely to the side in confusion.
"Dangerous?" She repeated innocently.
Inoichi cast his mind around in attempt to explain the concept of danger to a three-year-old.
"Do you remember when you got sick?" He asked. "You felt really bad and were hot and you couldn't eat, do you remember?"
Ino nodded her head. She did remember, it hadn't been long ago and she couldn't remember a time when she had felt worse in her short life. To her, being sick was the worst experience she'd ever had.
"Well some flowers will make you sick just like you were before."
"Really?" Ino gasped. "But they look so pretty."
Inoichi chuckled. "The most beautiful things are always the most dangerous."
Now Ino was confused. Ino was a classic Yamanaka beauty; she had light blonde hair and beautiful blue eyes. Her mother always complimented her, calling her 'my beautiful little girl'. She had been called beautiful by her aunts and uncles and cousins in the clan, and even strangers on the street called her that. Ino was beautiful - she had been told it so many times that it was just a fact to her. And so when her father told her that the most beautiful things were the most dangerous, he didn't realise that Ino would come to associate them as one and the same. Ino was beautiful, which meant she was dangerous.
She didn't understand why being sick was a good thing, but if her dad said dangerous was good, he must be right.
"Daddy, if they make you sick, why do you have them?" She asked, trying to clear her confusion.
Inoichi carried her over to the rest of the purple flowers and set the one she had picked down.
"They aren't for making you sick, they're to make other people sick." He said in true ninja fashion, ignoring the fact he just told his young, impressionable daughter that it was a good thing to hurt other people.
To Ino, this made so much more sense. She didn't like feeling sick, so it was much better that it was someone else.
Ino beamed up at Inoichi.
"I understand Daddy!" She said proudly, impressed at her own brilliant deduction.
Oblivious to her thoughts, Inoichi ruffled her hair and moved towards the exit.
"Daddy, what is that flower called?" Ino asked.
"It's called Atropa Belladonna, or deadly nightshade, and it's one of the most dangerous plants in existence." He said, setting her down outside the greenhouse. "But enough of that, no coming in here again, I don't want you to get sick."
Ino nodded her head obediently, hugged her father's legs and skipped off. Like all young children, she wanted approval and recognition. She got it for her beauty. Beauty, she decided, was good, and the most beautiful thing she knew of was that flower.
Yamanaka Airi thought nothing of it when her daughter came up to her and demanded she buy her purple clothing. She should have.
~~~~~~~N~~~~~~~
Hello all, Thanks for reading! This story will be an Ino-centric fic where she will grow up modelling herself after nightshade instead of the bush clover, as she did in canon (Or so Narutopedia tells me).
The first arc will cover Ino's childhood, developing her character into someone who is at her core the same Ino as canon Ino, but simultaneously very different. Itachi will feature in a few early chapters, and once we reach graduation and the start of the canon storyline, he'll feature much more prominently.
I've tried to make this as realistic as one possibly can for the Naruto world, in the sense that this is one path that genuinely could have happened if certain events played out as they will in this story. I've always felt Ino had the potential for so much more; Asuma noted that Ino was a stand-out amongst the kunoichi during the chuunin exams and during her match with Sakura, she successfully fooled even the jounin to think she had lost her temper and caught Sakura in a rather ingenious trap. This Ino will have the same amount talent, only she will have more motivation and drive to prove herself as a ninja, rather than just to win Sasuke's affections.
So follow/fav, leave a review, but most importantly, enjoy.
Blackbird0~
