Cursed Catalyst
-Chapter One-
Today was Yamanaka Ino's evaluation.
Of course, while she was quite confident that she would succeed, there were more than a few share of shinobi that deemed her unqualified for the task. Armed with a manila folder, containing influential documents, and her head held high, she walked into the interrogation room, ready for her task.
Outside a group gathered, majority of them being fellow interns and ANBU torturers. Standing to the wall parallel to the Looking Glass was her mentor Morino Ibiki, a clipboard in hand and a silver pen in the other, prepared to grade his charge.
"Alright, time for bets, who thinks the little Flower Girl's gonna tank?" The eldest intern of the group spoke out, a lecherous grin on his face.
"We all know Ibiki-sensei has a thing for Yamanaka," Another whispered out of the earshot for fear of decapitation, "So what do you think?"
"I think," The Head interrogator boomed aloud in the silent setting, "That if anyone values their life and job, they won't say things like that in the future." His eyes were still set on the paper as he continued his scrawl casually and several interns stepped away from the one who said such a comment.
"Yes, Ibiki-san," The indirectly spoken to intern muttered quietly.
"Well, I still say she's gonna bomb," The older intern said again, "I'm putting 2,500 ryou on that."
"Come on guys," Another stated to Ino's defense, "I've seen her in action, she's not that bad."
"Yeah, for an amateur," The grinning intern said with a snicker.
His rich gold irises had darkened to an empty bronze, as hollow as the inside of a broken tree.
The bird known as his only companion at this point flew overhead, intuitively, in case Juugo's true form had decided to take over once more. He had long overexerted himself, after the nearly painful departure from his catalyst.
He leaned on a branch and exhaled a few breaths before continuing, wiping the perspiration from his brow. Uchiha Sasuke, his former leader, his relentless savior, his gracious master. How many days had it been since he had seen those bloodied irises, an underlying death promised within them?
…How many days had it been since he saw those endless sky eyes, an overreaching hope embedded in them…
A chirp brought him back to his senses and he silently agreed: Too many…
He wasn't anxious to turn himself over to the Leaf, though he should've been. The blood of Konoha shinobi still lay etched in the grooves on his fingers. His crimes wouldn't be overlooked so easily and to willingly walk into that village would be suicide. But if it meant seeing her again, even to simply catch a glimpse of her…
He would commit every sin imaginable to be submitted by his angel again.
He was soon brushing past Hidden Leaf trees again, his resolve set. If the thought entered his mind, of him being unreasonable to think he would see her again in a village of great magnitude such as Konoha, he pushed it back. He replaced his doubt with visions of her to ease his reservations. He knew, more than ever that she was his.
His angel.
His Ino…
Ino entered the interrogation room, the surrounding areas dark, but an overhead light illuminated the large table in the middle of the room, revealing her two guests; a double interrogation.
She smiled as she sat in her seat across from the prisoners, "Hi, I'm Ino, I'll be your interrogator today." Cordial and to the point, she sat her files on the table.
"Heh, you've got to be kiddin' me." One of the men spoke in a gruff, mocking tone.
"Yeah honey, where's that bastard Ibiki? We can still see the milk on your chin." The other stated with a laugh.
"Hmm," Ino smirked and contemplated falsely for a moment, "That's funny, considering I still see blood on yours." She said with a calculated nonchalance.
"Nah, not me, you've got the wrong guy," The shinobi who said the second statement rested his hands behind his head, elbows protruding outward.
"Really?" Ino beamed with a surprised question, "Then you must not be HayakuSatsu, age 26, Ninja ID. 064381 of Stone Country, hired to fulfill a contract."
The buff man caressed his goatee and pursed his lips, "I must not be…"
"And this isn't your brother, HayakuKizami, age 28, Ninja ID. 057822, also hired to kill shinobi from Konoha?" Ino rested her elbow on the table and rested her chin in her palm, a smirk on her face.
"Nope, never seen him a day in my life." The other man said coolly with a yawn.
Ino smiled, "Then the both of you have nothing to worry about."
The infamous Mitarashi Anko sauntered into the interrogation wing, her trench coat fluctuating behind her, "Well, well, well, if it isn't the baby interns. So, whose today's flunkie?"
The older intern called out, "It's Yamanaka."
"Well, whatta you know?" The snake summoner said boisterously, "Why didn't you tell me, Ibiki?" The wily woman regarded him.
"I didn't know this was a concern of yours, Anko." Ibiki stated, more than annoyed by the younger woman.
"Of course this is a concern of mine!" The kunoichi said outrageously loud, "I'm the one who took her under my wing!" She moved to the forefront of the group, welcomed by the interns, and Ibiki suppressed the urge to roll his eyes, he was all too used to the woman's antics. "So who's running the betting booth?" Anko asked with a grin.
"You know it's me Mitarashi-san." The oldest intern, Tensu, said with a returned grin.
"Is that so? So, what're the stats?" Anko inquired.
"Me, Fukai, and Jiseki all say she doesn't have a chance. Even Rin's betting against her," He said, jerking his thumb back in the direction of the sole lead female interrogator, so far. "But Zenji just loves Yamanaka, so he's going for her."
"Yeah, funny coming from the guy who keeps getting turned down by her, I guess you don't live up to your name." Zenji smirked and the other interns laughed.
"Shut it pipsqueak." Tensu glared at Zenji and the younger intern just shrugged.
"Alright then," Anko took the betting basket from Tensu and got her wallet out, "Put me down for 50,000 ryou."
All of the interns, and some ANBU obscured by animalistic masks, gaped at the snake kunoichi. Most wondered if she was as insane as rumors stated she was. Many knew she was worse.
"Anko-san," One of the interns asked breathlessly, "Are you sure you want to bet so much on her, she's just an intern."
"Of course I do." The older kunoichi answered confidently, "You don't know Yamanaka the way I do. She's more than just a little Flower Girl."
Juugo gathered a respectable amount of water in the palms of his hands and splashed his beaten face, relishing the cool liquid as it slid down his worn features.
He took a brief look around his surroundings, a clearing. He didn't sense any presences nearby, so he took a few more handfuls, languorously washing his face. He heard a few chirps nearby and chuckled, maybe he was enjoying himself far more than he should have. He looked up and spotted a particular flower that looked out of place in the area.
His companion seemed to be taking interest in it, flitting around the petals when he remembered Ino saying Cosmos didn't normally grow there.
That was the name of it, a Cosmos…
He looked down to meet his reflection; half of his face was tanned, a golden orb staring pointedly. The other half was tattooed in designs of interconnecting diamonds and blackened veins, his white cornea completely black along with his iris, a thin hazel ring remained. Strips of patterns lined his pupils and the same side of his body had transformed, his arm enlarged and scaly in a deep brown hide.
He clutched his head with one normal hand, the other dug into his scalp by means of claws. Frowning, he clenched his eyes shut, pushing back the sudden urge for blood, from a female this time, his cursed counterpart had already decided.
He refused to think of Ino, it would be even harder to resist the wanting. Instead, death promised red eyes filled his mind and he could feel the temptation subsiding. The bouts of lost control were coming frequently now; he must be close to the Leaf village.
He let go of his head tentatively and looked back at his reflection. His face cleared again, not a trace of the Cursed Mark. He sighed warily and stood, ready to continue onward. After taking several paces, his bird returned to his side, flying a safe distance away, aware of the impending threat her companion represented.
Juugo sighed, exhausted from holding back his birthright. It was ironic, the closer he became to a medium that held his sanity, the closer to losing it he became. He quickened his pace, hastened closer to his destination. Whether or not his salvation or his death awaited him, he didn't know. He only ran faster, knowing both were things he had long wished for.
And both were things he didn't deserve.
"Well, since both of you claim that you're not these shinobi, you're free to go."
The younger of the duo stared at her unbelievably, "Really?"
Ino regarded the men genuinely, "Of course, but before you go, let's talk first. I found something very interesting in this file." She began flipping through its contents before finding the desired document.
"There isn't a catch, right? We can go after we talk?" The older one spoke in his deep baritone.
Ino nodded, "You have my word. Now," She took out the file, "I found out that the person you say you aren't, Kizami, apparently was the one who did most of the dirty work. That doesn't sound very fair, does it?" Ino inquired innocently.
The man grunted, "No, it doesn't."
"And this other man, Satsu…" Ino continued guiding them through the file, "Isn't he a nice brother? He got him and his brother a deal, one that could potentially lead them into comfortable lives…"
The other spoke, "Yeah, I guess you could say that." He grinned at the comment.
Ino's face wrinkled with confusion and she sighed, "It's just…" She trailed off with a laugh as the men leaned inadvertently forward with anticipation. The overhead light flickered.
"What? What is it?" The men said in unison.
"Nothing, nothing," The young kunoichi brushed it off and the men protested for her response.
"Well," She said as she retrieved one last file, "I'm just wondering, why one brother would do all the dirty work," She slapped the deed on the table, "While the other gets all the money?"
"What?" The older shinobi yelled, looking at the contract bewilderedly.
"Look," She said softly and extended her graceful digit centimeters above the signature on the page, "Satsu's the only one who signed, the only one who would've received any money, isn't that odd?"
The older man turned his attention to the one sitting next to him, who held out his hands in protest, "I would never do that, I must've forgotten to write your name."
"Oh?" Ino asked in her sweetly calm tone, "Then Kizami would have just forgotten your weapon."
"What?" The younger man regarded her.
Ino produced a custom kunai from her side satchel, holding both ends with her fingertips, "Yes, you see, the weapon we found is licensed under Satsu's name, meaning that he would've had to serve the sentence while his brother remains in the clear. But Satsu," She continued the intriguing tale sweetly with an authoritive firmness, "Would've ended up with all of the money, obviously unusable, and Kizami would've walked free, without any money or his brother, so really, you have to wonder what they would've gained…"
The response was a fist connecting to Satsu's face. "You idiot! You ruined everything!"
The younger of the two spit a collection of red saliva from his mouth and tackled the older brother, "I ruined nothing, you ruined everything!"
The men wrestled on the floor and as a few ANBU came rushing in the room, Ino smiled cordially at the two-shinobi brothers, wrestling uninhibited on the other side of the room. Ino got up from the table and looked at the tinted mirror facing the long side of the table.
Everyone stared through the Looking Glass with different levels of unbelievablity. Everyone except Ibiki, who simply smirked as he wrote his final notes, and Anko, who grinned as she saw Ino wink through the glass before exiting the room.
"So maggot," Anko drawled gleefully, "I believe Zenji and I are entitled to some money." She leered at the basket Tensu was now holding protectively.
"W-Wait a second," Tensu dodged the basket full of money away from one of Anko's snakes, "How'd Yamanaka pull that off? There should be a re-do, no way she got them to tell that quickly, or even at all."
"Technically," Rin, the female interrogator Jounin spoke, "Yamanaka didn't get them to say a confession; the idiots simply got mad at each other; it was only an implication."
"Yeah," Anko huffed and rolled her eyes, "An implication that could get them the Death sentence, you're right Rin. Ino did a horrible job. Maybe next time, she could get them to proclaim it instead."
As the interns snickered, Rin narrowed her eyes and Anko crossed her arms standoffishly and grinned, adding insult to injury to the sarcasm previously dripping off her words.
Rin bowed her head slightly, "Heh, it's just like you to say something as immature as that, Anko. Didn't you ever grow up?"
Both women regarded one another, staring the opposing one down. Rin began to walk away and Anko said her next statement lowly, loud enough, however, for Rin specially to hear, "At least I'm not the one jealous of an intern."
The other female Tokubetsu paused in her pace and craned her head, "Who would be jealous of a little girl who scalps flowers?" Silence followed her question as she continued to walk away again.
Ino walked up to a surly Anko, who quickly changed her expression upon the sight of her unofficial charge, "Not bad, Ino!" A grin found itself on her face, "I think I may have enough for a month's supply of dango."
Ino looked at her skeptically, "A month?"
"Okay, okay, maybe a couple of weeks."
The older kunoichi allowed the statement and Ino smiled, "That's more like it." The young intern turned to her mentor, "How did I do, Ibiki-sensei?"
The man only smirked as he walked towards his office, "You know the procedure, Yamanaka. No one gets their results until next week."
Ino's lips swelled into a pout, "But sensei..."
He regarded her sternly, "No buts, Ino." He finished his statement and a snap from his closing shoji was heard.
"Heh, looks like the little Flower Girl's impatient." Tensu said underhandedly with his arms crossed.
Ino only smirked, "Don't forget your interrogation's tomorrow, I bet I'll still score better than you."
"Careful Yamanaka, that overconfidence of yours always gets you in trouble." Tensu stepped closer to Ino and towered over her, but she only encouraged this banter by looking up at him squarely in a full frontal stance.
"And you're one to talk, always breaking the rules." Ino retorted when an underhanded thought came to mind, "Especially number one."
Tensu narrowed his eyes warningly, "I've never broken that rule."
"And you're a bad liar too." Ino continued vindictively
Suddenly, the commonplace competitive banter between two interns became a nasty display of words. Both standing in intimidating positions, Tensu leaned forward, "Let's hope you don't break that rule anytime soon."
Ino smirked despite herself, "Don't worry, after all, it's not hard to distinguish a prisoner and a date."
"Lunch on me, Ino," Anko came from behind the interrogator in training and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. She took the young kunoichi's hand and put an undisclosed amount of yen in the palm of her hand. "Go on, you deserve it."
He stumbled out of the forest underbrush and collapsed. His wild dirty blond spikes blocked his vision, he was incredibly sweat ridden and exhausted, but he made it.
He stalked past the wild grasses, past the area where the growing grass dipped in from outgrown areas. The bird flitted anxiously on his shoulder and he huffed deeply. Juugo thought he would only do something such as this for only two people, both able to save him from himself, both using different methods. Soft emerald eyes that relaxed the underlying demon and deadly bloody irises that reveled against it.
He didn't know if it was simply her mental abilities, but her unyielding courage had drawn him to her. The young woman who possessed divine Aryan features, who saw him between the realms of humanity and insanity, who ran her holy hands through his uncouth spikes. He had thought Sasuke to be the incarnate of his departed friend, but meeting Ino had made him reassess that theory. Staring a promised death in the eye had made his cursed counterpart submit in fear, but he preferred an underlying hope much more.
Sasuke only made his urge retreat in fear.
Why didn't she fear him?
Juugo himself would've thought she feared him, but he saw the look in her eyes. They were worried, but controlled. It wasn't until her comrade called her name from the recesses of the forest that she showed fear. Fear of being caught with him.
He stumbled on a tree branch and caught himself on a nearby trunk. Of course she was scared to be seen with him, no normal human could bear to be seen with a creature like him. That's what he was, a creature. That's why he was Juugo of the Tenpins.
His thoughts lingered on turning back, of getting as far away from Konoha as possible. He had no home to go back to, as he promised never to go home until he was relieved of his 'condition.' He shouldn't see her again, he should've stayed with Sasuke and Karin and Suigetsu, he
shouldn't have gone to Orochimaru, but he would've regretted never meeting Kimmimaru and that solitary thought scared him the most.
His bird began to peck violently at his head, pulling on his ruffled spikes between its beak and squawking angrily in protest. He gently grabbed the bird within his grasp and held it gingerly between the palms. He lightly squeezed with it attempted to be released.
"I know we came a long way, but can you blame me?"
The bird squawked again. Obviously she could.
Juugo sighed, "I know, I'm just nervous."
The bluebird chirped firmly in response, straining its beak upward.
"Why wouldn't I be nervous? What if I-" He winced at the infuriated bird in his hands.
"Yes, she did offer, but…" He sighed again and the bird changed its tone, squeaking tentatively this time.
"I promise to relax, I just wonder if she wants to see me again." The bird chirped again, ruffling its feathers.
Juugo raised an eyebrow skeptically, "She wouldn't be crazy if she didn't want to see me again."
The bird squawked and he chuckled, "Whatever you say, Ranbu…"
"You're never this tight lipped about guys, Ino."
Ino rolled her eyes and turned her face toward the window, "I'm not being tight lipped," She muttered.
"Then tell me his name!" Sakura scoffed, chuckling lightly while Ino continued to rest her chin in the palm of her hand.
"There's nothing to tell," Ino stated coolly, but Sakura saw past the nonchalant indifference.
"Okay, let's say I know his name, which I don't since you won't tell me," The current medical nin regarded the former who ignored the blatant comment, "Where is he from?"
Ino winced and turned toward the table after hearing the beef sizzle. She played with the meat between her chopsticks, "I don't know."
"What does he look like?" Sakura persisted.
Ino knew not to tell her friend what he looked like, she'd know too much. "He's tall."
Sakura raised a fine eyebrow, "And?"
Ino deliberately chewed on a spare rib and shrugged.
Sakura frowned, "Fine, don't tell me. I guess you wouldn't want to hear what Sai said about you either."
Ino smirked, "Was he telling you about how unbelievably gorgeous I am and how much you resemble a dog?"
Sakura glowered at the laughing blonde, "No, just how you look like a pig when you eat."
Ino glared halfheartedly, "I wonder how he could say that without staring at that obstruction you call a forehead."
Sakura shrugged carelessly, "The same way he called a swine 'gorgeous' without laughing."
"Billboard brow," Ino muttered.
"Ino-pig," Sakura murmured back.
Both kunoichi glared at one another before erupting in a burst of giggles. They continued to eat their lunch companionably until Sakura had to go back to the Infirmary and Ino had to get back to the Interrogation/Torture Department.
Ino smiled on the way back, she and Sakura had grown so much, especially the latter. The time period between Ino as a medical nin-in-training and Ino as an interrogator-in-training had melded so seamlessly together that she couldn't even remember when she decided to tell her second sensei that she wanted another.
In any case, she always worked better with male senseis than she did with female. Unlike Asuma however, Ibiki knew how to hone in on her needed skills without diminishing her other abilities. She was still underestimated in some respects, but she preferred it that way. Proving everyone wrong happened to be a pastime.
Walking down the corridor to the Interrogation Wing, Ino noticed a larger amount of ANBU Interrogators gathered in the hall, along with all of the interns gathered by the Looking Glass.
"Ino! Hurry up, you're gonna miss it!" Zenji yelled.
"Miss what? What's going on?" Ino went closer to the crowd.
"We just got an S-Rank, came here willingly." Fukai informed her and her delicate eyebrows shot up.
"Who?" Ino inquired intriguingly.
"Dunno, the interrogation's starting now."
Ino stepped up and looked through the Looking Glass to see a man with long dirty blond spikes restrained to a chair, intricately tied ropes fastened around his torso. She couldn't see his eyes because his head was downtrodden, but she saw enough to know who he was.
Her eyes widened, "Who's doing the interrogation?" She barely got the words out as she remembered to breath.
"Tensu, heh, wonder how he's gonna handle this one. Heard he's the source of the Cursed Seal." Jiseki chortled.
"But I thought his was tomorrow," She regarded the other interns.
"It got rescheduled by Ibiki-san." Zenji told her as she frowned. Ino slammed her hand on the glass and walked away from the group.
"What's her problem?"
"Maybe it's that time of month…"
"No, that doesn't come for about two more weeks." Zenji stated and the other interns looked at him questioningly.
"And how do you know that?" Fukai looked at Zenji skeptically.
Zenji chuckled sheepishly as he brushed the back of his head with his hand, "Well, she did get really mad at me about two weeks ago for no good reason."
Silence followed the intern's statement and then Anko laughed aloud, wrapping her arm around Zenji's neck and grinning, "Yeah, that sounds about right…"
End chapter Notes: -Squeals! Looks back at manga chapter 414, squeals!- Has anyone seen the last manga chapter? Juugo TURNED INTO A LITTLE BOY. –Squeals!- You know, when I wrote Sacred Sin, that whole part of him being a little boy in his mind, or at least the form of one, was my fabrication. Or…at least, USED to be…but now that he's done it PHYSICALLY, I have new things to consider, very interesting indeed…I'm sorry for the excitement, but either
I'm on a similar wavelength as Kishi, or I was just REALLY good at guessing Juugo's character. -Looks back at manga chapter- Yup, still a little boy. -Squeals!-
Updates on this may or may not be erratic, simply for the fact that I have other stories to work on and school also. But thank you for the response I got for Sacred Sin!
Wonderwoman29- Thanks, I'll try to keep updating this.
Gaara's Hug Buddy- Hehe, glad I made you feel special, now review! ;P
jin.toshikazu- I changed the format of this story compared to Sacred Sin, I hope this wasn't too bad, or that it hinders my writing. Thank you for having so much faith in my writing ability, sometimes I can't believe it myself.
DarkSmile- Heh, I've been doing some squealing of my own. Yeah, plenty of emotions coming right up!
wolvknight- Yeah, that was only an experimental story, but I think I'm going to go for making it a full length this time around.
To my anonymous reviewer, I fell in love with this pairing too, it's so cute! Hope you'll like this one.
Tensuu is score, Rin is cold, Fukai is twist the meaning. Jiseki means trace. Zenji is complete recovery, Hayaku means breach of contract, Satsu is to slice off, Kizami is shredded tobacco, and Ranbu is boisterous. I think those were all the used names here, don't worry, there won't be many OC's used.
DAC