This is going to be my first multi-chapter story. I'm still not quite sure where this is going to go so I'm up for suggestions :) Oh, and please be nice

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'Shikamaru?' It was dark, oh so dark and Ino couldn't see a thing. 'Naruto? Chouji?' She's running now but she doesn't know where she's going and she doesn't know if she's going anywhere at all because it's dark and lonely and a lot of other things. 'Is anybody here?' She looks around, she doesn't know why because everywhere she looks it's all dark and black and...red. She sees red now and it reminds her of Sasuke.
Suddenly there's ringing and banging and the darkness starts to fade. Someone's coming and that's all it takes to wake a ninja. 'Ino, it's time. Orochimaru has arrived. '

Thicker Than Blood

-xx.faith


It hadn't been another few years before Yamanaka Ino, now 17, met Uchiha Sasuke again. She had always dreamed it to be autumn, just like the day he had left, with the whistling winds and floating leaves. It would be night, like the night he had left, the full moon hanging over them, old lights flickering on and off, on and off. He would be bleeding but breathing, just as if he had just come home from a mission, tired and bloody from his battle with Orochimaru. He would be on Naruto's back, with Kakashi and Sakura at their side. But Ino liked to dream, and we all know dreams don't come true.

Uchiha Sasuke, also 17, stood proudly at the side of his new master, Orochimaru, looking down at the land he had once called home so many years ago. Across from him stood whatever was left of the genin teams and team gai he had grown up along with. Ino couldn't help but laugh at how wrong she was. Instead of autumn night, it was a cold winter day with harsh winds whipping at their hair. As he had promised though, he did come back, but for reasons entirely different then what she had thought, and she silently wondered if he had always known this day would come.

Tsunade-sama and Jiraiya stood upfront, followed by Naruto, Kakashi, TenTen, Neji, Shikamaru, Sakura, and Ino, all of which are currently Anbu (besides Kakashi and Forehead Girl who practically begged Tsunade-sama for it). Behind them stood the rest of the once-upon-a-time genin cells and the rest of the Jounin and Anbu of the village. There are been Sand-nin amoung them aswell, Sabaku no Gaara, their current Kazekage stood along with Temari and Kankuro, the rest of their men standing along the other Leaf-nin.

On the opposing side, stood Orochimaru, his hands resting at his side and a smirk on his lips. Sasuke and Kabuto were slightly behind him, like dogs standing beside but slightly behind their masters waiting for their command, and that's exactly what Sasuke was in Ino's mind, a dog. Other Sound-nin stood behind, and no doubt around Kohona as well. What no one could have ever predicted though, was the fact that Akatsuki had decided to side withe Orochimaru, an ex member. So, standing beside Orochimaru ontop of the Hokage monuments were Itachi and Kisame.

'Orochimaru, don't be a coward. Come down and fight us.' Ino knew Tsunade-sama was bluffing. They were outnumbered and surrounded. Worst off, they had the Akatsuki siding with them. It would take a miracle for them to win and Ino stopped believing in them after Asuma-sensei died.

TBC