Amnesia: Partial or total loss of memory.
Her heart thudded in her chest and her breath came raggedly as she ran through the pitch black forest.
She could hear the sound of her pursuers crashing through the underbrush behind her, they were so close.
Her legs burned with exertion as she ran blindly, they were going to catch her. A rock jutted out from the ground and her foot got caught on the edge, as if it had reached out for her ankle, and grabbed her. Then she was falling, falling, down.
She could hear them now, they were almost upon her. The memory of the sixth hokage's warning prior to this mission rang through her head "Ino this mission is very high risk, if it comes to the point where you are about to be captured I want you to use that jutsu." Kakashi had sat stoically at his desk, his usually relaxed expression was gone.
So, with shaking fingers, she sat up on her bloodied knees and began to perform the seals. Just as she finished the last seal her pursuers crashed into the little clearing grabbed for her. She simply grinned darkly at them before falling back onto the crunchy wet forest floor, everything exploding into oblivion.
Three Days Later …
[Kiba]
Kiba stood in Kakashi's office with a pain in his chest, Kakashi had just informed him that Ino had gone MIA on her mission. A mission he'd told her not to go on.
"What do you mean she went missing? Don't you have trackers on all of us?!" he yelled at the white haired hokage. Naruto stepped in front of the angry Inuzaka, placing his hands on Kiba's shoulders before the wild looking man could leap at the hokage.
"Calm down Kiba, let him finish." Naruto soothed his friend but Kiba could see a shadow in the blond's eyes. Something else had happened.
"Yes we do have trackers on everyone… but from what we can gather her mission was unsuccessful… we fished her out of the river yesterday barely alive."
"You mean she's alive?!" Kiba's angry expression turned upwards with relief, but after a moment that disappeared again when he noticed Naruto's troubled expression.
"What else happened?" Kiba was almost afraid to ask but he needed to know.
"Before Ino left on her mission I instructed her to use a special jutsu that she developed in case she ever got caught. It… It wipes all of her memories Kiba." Kakashi looked away.
Kiba processed this "You mean she doesn't remember…?" and Kakashi shook his head. The ring on Kiba's finger suddenly felt heavy.
"Where is she?" Kiba managed to choke out.
"I'll take you to her… she's with Sakura right now." Naruto piped up and gestured for Kiba to follow.
Shikamaru and Chouji stood outside of the hospital room and once they saw Kiba they hurried over.
"Have you seen her?" Kiba asked immediately gripping Shikamaru's arms "How bad is it?"
The man just shook his head, "Do you want to see her?" he asked and Kiba nodded slowly.
Naruto told Kiba that he would be back and turned to head back to the hokage's mansion, Kiba barely noticed him leaving.
Chouji opened the door to the room and they all entered, the sound of soft beeping and soft voices was the first thing Kiba heard as Chouji and Shikamaru split ranks revealing who they'd brought with them.
Ino was sitting up in a hospital bed, her long blond hair was unbound and swirled around her waist. Sakura stood next to her holding a clipboard resting on her round, very pregnant, belly.
"Ino?" Shikamaru said gently hurrying over to her bedside but the woman didn't react right away "Ino?" he called again and recognition finally dawned on the womans face and she turned towards him.
"You remember who I am, right?" Shikamaru asked.
"Of course, you introduced yourself to me twenty minutes ago." she replied as if he were stupid.
"Okay well, this is Kiba," Shikamaru gestured towards where Kiba and Chouji were standing and Kiba straightened, stepping forwards "Kiba is your-"
"Friend." Kiba interrupted making a snap decision. He offered her a small smile and she smiled back, he saw no recognition in her eyes. And it hurt.
"Okay, Ino needs to rest for now." Sakura said gently from Ino's sighed and shooed them out of the room, shutting the door behind herself.
"Can you fix it?" was the first thing that came out of Kiba's mouth.
"I don't know, probably not. I don't know anything about the jutsu that she used. I didn't even know she had that sort of jutsu." Sakura's brow furrowed and she rubbed a hand over her plump belly. "I'm sorry…"
"Why didn't you tell her?" Chouji asked Kiba and Kiba looked away.
"How could I tell her?" Kiba bit his lower lip "How am I supposed to tell a strange woman that I'm her husband?"
[Ino]
Ino sat on a windowsill watching rain drizzles down the glass, it'd been a month since she'd been found by the river. She was staying with Sakura who was apparently her best friend. She still didn't remember anything.
Sometimes when she would perform some mundane task and a little bit of recognition would flicker through her mind, then it would be gone in a flash. Everything was confusing, she should know these things-she should remember how to get around a village that she apparently grew up in but she just couldn't.
For what seemed like the thousandth time she ran a finger over the white band of skin on her left ring finger, apparently she'd worn a ring for a long time. But when she'd asked about it Sakura had just shrugged and said she must've taken the ring off. Ino had pretended not to notice the shadowed expression on the pink haired woman's face.
Ino's thoughts strayed towards the day after she'd woken up, all the new faces had tired her out and they had all blended together except for a select few. The face that had stood out to her the most was that of a shaggy haired man with red markings on his face, Kiba… he said he was her friend and she'd believed it. They probably grew up together since he was about the same age as her. But they weren't teammates, she knew that much, Shikamaru and Chouji were her teammates.
"Ino?" there was a knock on her bedroom door. Crossing the carpeted floor to the door she opened it revealing Sakura standing in a lit hallway holding a towel. "Dinner is ready, if you're hungry?"
The growl of Ino's stomach answered Sakura and she smiled "Thought so, you don't eat enough." she slid her arm easily through Ino's and steered her from the darkness of her room into the light.
"Sasuke says I should make you come out more often but I know you're more comfortable in your room…" Sakura chattered idly to the silent blond as they descended the stairs of the large house. Ino let her chatter about her husband-a stoic dark haired man named Sasuke Uchiha. Apparently he'd been a bad guy when they were younger but he seemed nice enough to Ino, and the way he treated Sakura was something that warmed Ino's heart.
One night she'd ventured down into the kitchen for some tea and had spied the pair together. One of Sasuke's hands caressed his wife's face as he kissed her and the other was placed near her belly. The two were talking about baby names and laughing together, Ino had quietly gone back upstairs without her tea.
The sight made her chest hurt slightly and she couldn't figure out why, she'd lain awake that night staring at the ceiling and wondering why. After she'd finally dropped off to sleep she'd dreamt of someone's hands, strong, rough, and sure.
"Ino? Are you alright?" Sakura asked as she poured Ino some tea and handed it to her.
"Yes, fine." Ino replied smiling and heading over to the table where Sasuke was sitting she greeted him and he nodded. Sakura sat a crossed from Ino and began to chatter, asking her husband about her day and telling him about her two hour shift at the hospital.
Ino sat quietly, spooning the fried rice into her mouth and chewing. After they'd all finished they all did the dishes together, Sasuke and Sakura talking back and forth as they handed Ino dishes to dry.
"Oi are you guys home?" came a voice from the front entrance.
"In the kitchen!" Sakura called and Shikamaru and Chouji stepped into the room, smiling widely at her. Ino had gotten reacquainted with them over the past few months-apparently they were her childhood friends and teammates. She liked to be around them, they didn't let her worry about anything but being who she was in that moment.
"Hey Ino!" Chouji slung an arm around his former teammates shoulder and grinned and she smiled hesitantly back.
"Hey idiot knock it off." Shikamaru stuck his elbow in the bigger man's pudge causing him to let go of Ino.
"What are you two up to?" Sakura asked as she put away some dishes.
"We were about to head out for drinks and wanted to know if Ino wanted to tag a long." Chouji piped up.
Worry crossed Sakura's face "I don't know... I don't think she's ready for that just yet..." she looked at Sasuke who just shrugged.
Sakura's worry made Ino but happy but a little irritated. She wasn't a child, and even though she didn't have any memories she wasn't an invalid. "It's fine Sakura," she assured her friend with a little pat on her shoulder "I'm getting a little stir crazy any ways-a little fresh air might be nice."
Sakura opened her mouth as if she were about to protest but the guys grabbed Ino's hands and dragged her to the door. "We'll have her back before midnight mama-bear, have no fear!" Shikamaru called over his shoulder.
"You'd better or i'm telling your wife!" Sakura called good naturedly back.
Ino put her shoes on and followed the guys out into the crisp night air.
Author's Note:
Hello all! I'm LittleMoonLover (Or Calley whatever is fine) and this will be my third Naruto fanfic. I ship a plethora of things, among them are Naruhina, Sasusaku, Kakasasku, Sasuhina, KibaIno, ShikaIno, and the like.
The inspiration for this story came from a fanart piece that I saw on tumblr, I believe it was from the user Tiefrot. I did take a couple of liberties plot wise.
Original Art Piece: post/88611059033/there-was-once-a-headcanon-that-ino-will-invent-a
Uhhh... I look forward to writing this? It'll be relatively short and angsty but hey why the hell not? And yes I know InoSai is canon, but I still think that this pairing was also golden sooo...
Anyways please Read & Review!
-LittleMoonLover-