"In the Hot Springs"
Chapter 1- Seen around Town
Ino Yamanaka hated days off. She would rather sit next to Choji at a BBQ festival than have days off. It was a strange thing to think if one did not know the reasons behind it.
She hated days when she didn't have team practise, because then her parents would clamp down on her and make her tend the shop. It didn't sound too bad, but not going out for a whole day made her claustrophobic and cranky. Ino loved wide open spaces and fields where the real flowers were, the freshest and purest ones. The dark small area of the flowershop made her feel cramped and freaked her out in comparison.
Right now, Ino was enduring lunch with her team, Team 10, so she didn't have to go home sooner. She was sitting next to Shikamaru because they were at a restaurant that serves BBQ and she would be repulsed if she looked at Choji too much. Shikamaru wasn't that much of a better option though, because he scared her sometimes- at the moment the genin genius was winning a staring competition with Asuma-sensei. It would take a lot of willpower to ignore the urge to blink for over two minutes, but some how Ino didn't think Shikamaru's brains were behind it. She spectated as Asuma-sensei's left eye twitched. Then it went back to its wide open stare. Then it twitched again, sinking lower, and lower- and suddenly Asuma-sensei had blinked. Realising the contest was over in the midst of his BBQ, Choji whooped for his lazy friend's victory. Shikamaru, however, didn't seem to realise he'd won, because his eyes were still open, glazed over.
Annoyed, Ino shrieked loudly, adding a fan-girls glare of death "Oi! Shika! You idiot you won! Stop not blinking you lazy ass! Sasuke-kun would blink faster than you!"
"...uh-huh?" His brown eyes shifted to her. Despite the noisy and angry pretense, She quite liked him (as a friend of course...nobody compared to Sasuke-kun! Kiyaaaaaahh!) and she was 100% sure he knew it too. Sheepishly she dropped her gaze, and looked out of the window to avoid any further confrontation. The restaurant they were at was on the High Street, so Ino contented herself with looking at all the shops on offer. She was considering whether she should nag her parents to let her get her hair streaked (for Sasuke- kun, of COURSE) when her line of sight shifted. A lady with a trench coat and violet hair, and what appeared to be fishnets, was haggling for a set of 50 kunai at Tenten's dad's weaponry shop. Ino didn't know why she had noticed her, but she continued to follow the lady's progress as she got a price and walked off with the kunai around the corner. Musing over this, she thought it was her unusual hair colour. That set her off thinking about those highlights she wanted in her hair. Violet might actually suit her, she hadn't thought of it before...
Ino's attention was torn away from the sheet of glass by the sound of rustling coins and paper. Pulling out her 50300 ryo, she paid for her near nonexistant meal, said goodbye and left for the clutches of the infamous, perfumed Mrs. Yamanaka.
Walking away from the main shopping area of Konoha, she was headed to the Yamanaka clan compound. They were a relatively small clan so the compound was not grand with drippings of finery, but it was home nevertheless.
Ino pushed open the gate and strolled up the path to the hill top house. Her cat, Miuma, was lying on the grassy side of the slope. She let it be, where once she would have called it. She was more grown up than before. She knew that she didn't need to interrupt its peace to notice its whereabouts.
Her father liked to read the papers in the early afternoon, about this time. He said if it was truly important somebody would notify him anyway. He was reading the papers now, on the porch in fron of the pagoda style cluster of houses. He nodded to her as she passed.
"Your mother's inside," he said good- naturedly.
"When is she not?" she replied dryly, and pushed open the door.
Ino had changed when she learnt her first Mind Technique. As custom in the Yamanaka family, her father trained her in the art, so when she had first successfully done 'Body Possession' she had experienced fully the depths of her father's mind. A portion of that maturity and wisdom had never left her. Her father had described it, when she asked, as "an early birthday present for the future. But, heed this, the best ninja skill is deception." She understood only the last bit, and thus whenever her peers were around she kept to her original childish persona.
Her mother was indeed inside. As soon as she saw Ino, she began fussing over her lack of effort for her appearance and the stench of sweat on her clothes. Ino made no resistance, but let her. It was a tradition of sorts for her mother, a civilian by nature and profession, to criticise her career as a kunoichi. After ten minutes of this tirade about "lack of maintanence" and "You can't look after yourself", Ino's mother relented and allowed her to sink into the shower blissfully.
Ino relaxed inside the shower. She didn't feel so cramped inside it, possibly because of water's healing properties and all round massage effect. And she found herself so soothed, her head lolled against her shoulder, and she sluped against the wall of the shower, drifting to somewhere else...
A/N- well, first chapter's always the easiest for me, it's the continual updates that are hard. My friends at school helped me beta this...
I made Ino have an Inner Ino like an Inner Sakura, but she refers to it as her 'mature self'. Don't worry though, y ou'll still get to see Ino as a bit of a twat too.
Rate and Review Purleeeeeeaaaaaaaaaassseee!
Bye 4 now
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