If Ino Yamanaka was anything at all, she was her father's daughter.
Of course they looked alike, and they both rather enjoyed playing puppet master with the possessed bodies of careless enemies, but beyond that, they shared a talent for simply reading people. Inoichi had taught his daughter the unseen language that lay in curled fingers, sideways glances, flushed cheeks. She knew which direction a person was most likely to look while searching for a lie, and what stance someone would take if they were feeling uncomfortable or threatened. She could spend five seconds eyeballing a person and, nine times out of ten, even with highly trained shinobi, she'd know exactly what they were feeling in that moment; she'd gotten so good over the years that even Tsunade wouldn't bet against her anymore.
But right now, as she looked at Sakura, who was standing shivering in her doorway with dripping pink hair and clenched fists, tracking mud all over her rug without the slightest care, Ino had no idea what was going on in her best friend's head. All she knew was that it was bad.
So for once, she clamped her mouth shut around all the worried babble that wanted to pour out, guided Sakura by the elbow onto the couch, tossed a blanket around her, and with a soft pat on the shoulder, retreated into the kitchen to make tea.
She brought out two steaming cups a few minutes later; Sakura was in the exact same position, motionless, hunched over with her head in her hands and looking very forlorn. Considering Sakura and that ridiculous runaway temper she had, 'forlorn' was probably a worse sign than 'rampaging out of control' would have been.
Well, Sakura sulking wouldn't do at all. The last thing that giant forehead needed was wrinkles. "I can't help you if you don't tell me what's wrong," Ino said briskly, sticking a finger in the collar of Sakura's vest and hauling her upright before shoving the cup of tea into her hands. Now that Ino looked, she could see all the signs that told her Sakura hadn't even gone home yet from the mission she'd left for last Friday. She'd probably come straight here from the gates- she was filthy, the kunai holster around her thigh was empty, and if Ino fished for it, her chakra signature was faint and fatigued. Poor girl, for her to rush right here, after a week-long mission- she was really shaken up.
Sakura blinked, quite as if she hadn't the foggiest idea where she was, then jumped as thunder cracked outside the window of Ino's apartment. "Shit," she squeaked, setting the cup down hard before she spilled any more.
"Elaborate," Ino commanded, sitting on the couch beside her friend.
Sakura still had that face on, unreadable, tight and wound, but her voice was so shrill and terrified that it gave away everything Ino couldn't read. "Sasuke's back," Sakura whispered, two little words, but they were enough to make Ino promptly leap to her feet in a violent fit of painful emotion and fling her teacup at the wall.
"Where is he? I'm going to kill him! I'm going to- what did he do to you? Why are you so upset? Is he in prison? Who brought him back? Is he still hot? What an ass! After four fucking years- that dirty traitor!" She was gasping. Sasuke, dark eyes, blue lightning and blood- and it had been so, so long, and she'd held Sakura for so many painful nights after the hunt for him had broken her.
"He's not back, back," Sakura muttered, shoving her dripping bangs out of her eyes and reaching for her cup as if she rather wanted something to do with her hands. "He's- it- we saw him this morning, coming home from our mission. Sixty miles north of here."
Ino squinted at nothing, making a mental map, then said, "Right by the border of Sound, then." It made sense. The Village Hidden in the Sound was purely Orochimaru's territory. Still, sixty miles was within Fire Country territory by a good margin, and if Sasuke didn't want to be seen, he wouldn't have been- it was just too much to imagine him being taken by surprise, not by ninja who were traveling in familiar turf and thus not bothering to be extra stealthy. What the hell was that bastard up to now?
Sakura only nodded and peered into her tea, pressing her lips together very tightly and not saying anything else. She was still shivering, but the blanket and the beverage were helping a little, and the wildness was receding from her face. Ino got up, trotted to the bathroom, brought back a towel, and unwound Sakura's soaked hitai-ate from her hair so she could start drying it. Sakura bore it, though usually she would've snapped at Ino by now for being overbearing.
"So. Forehead. What'd the boys do? What'd Sasuke do?"
Sure enough, 'Forehead' made Sakura growl a little. That was good, though. More normal. Ino just kept patiently toweling her friend's hair, and after a bit, Sakura said, "He just sort of looked at us. Like he didn't even know us, god, he was so cold- Naruto went totally crazy, of course. Kakashi and I had to grab him."
"Isn't there a standing order to bring Sasuke back, though?"
"Duh," Sakura said sharply, brooding over her tea. Ino smiled at the back of her friend's head; now that was more like it. "We were all really low on chakra. Even Naruto was tired. And Sai was unconscious. Kunai to the lung and I couldn't fully heal him after our last fight, I was drained. We just ran. Sa- Sasuke didn't chase us. We couldn't have-" She set the cup down and gripped her knees, white-knuckled.
Ino knew, with stingingly painful familiarity, all the words that Sakura had bitten off without saying- not good enough, not strong enough, not enough- and if there was ever a time for a stupid distraction, now was that time. "Poor, poor Sai. Is he okay? That pretty face of his wasn't hurt, was it? You know, I oughta tell him how much I appreciate that shirt he wears." There, that was both a subtle insult to Sakura's healing abilities and a change in subject, the perfect misdirection. Sakura turned her head to stare incredulously as Ino tossed the towel onto a chair and hopped over the back of the couch onto the cushions; Ino just beamed and waggled her eyebrows. "What? I like a man that shows off his six-pack without making me work for it."
"God, Pig, if you touch that poor idiot I'll smack you into next month! You'll confuse the hell out of him! And yes, he'll be fine. Not that my teammates are any of your business."
Ino held up both hands, laughing. "I was only talking about looking, but hey, now that you brought up touching- ow! Dammit, Forehead, that hurts! You better call your parents and tell them where you're at. I know they'll be grateful to hear you're with me. They never give up hope that I can change you into a proper lady- ouch!"
They spend the rest of the night eating chocolate and very carefully not talking about Sasuke, or Sound, or evil backstabbing heartbreakers with really great hair, and after a while Ino got Sakura in the shower and then safely tucked up on the couch. The poor girl was snoring like a wild hog within a second of her head hitting the pillow- and she called Ino the pig!
"Irony," Ino told nobody, pulling the blankets up a little tighter around Sakura and flicking out the lights before retreating to her bedroom.
She couldn't seem to sleep, though. She ended up staring at her stained ceiling, worrying and stewing, listening to the rain patter down outside, and wondering vaguely when Sakura had gotten so much stronger, because if it had been Ino suddenly staring down Sasuke, she'd still be bawling.
In the morning, Sakura was gone, but she'd made coffee, thank god, and Ino got herself a thermos full before going hunting.
Through judicious application of her finely honed stealth and tracking techniques, she found Naruto almost immediately. "You!" she hollered, diving onto a barstool beside him. "I've been looking everywhere for you!"
He blinked big blue eyes at her, ramen hanging halfway out of his mouth, before slurping it up and saying, "But I'm always at Ichiraku's for breakfast, Ino. Everyone knows that."
She pouted at him, feeling sleep deprived and mildly dangerous. "Please. I had to use all my-"
"Stealth and tracking techniques?" someone said, sliding in to sit next to her.
She whirled on the interloper, clutching her coffee. "Cho!"
Chouji grinned at her and raised an eyebrow. "It's okay, Ino. We know you're damn good if you can find Naruto. It's not like he lives here or anything."
What a brat. "Shut up," she hissed before turning back to Naruto. She was worried enough about Sakura to ignore Cho's smart mouth. "Spill it. Forehead showed up at my door last night practically dead on her feet. I had to valiantly nurse her back to health and sanity, I lost beauty sleep because of it, and therefore you are going to tell me what exactly went on at the border of Sound!"
Naruto sidled away from her a little, looking wary, hugging his ramen bowl. "What did she tell you?"
Ino shrugged and examined her nails. "That you ran into Sasuke. That he was an asshole. That your team had to pull out without engaging him due to the mission you'd just completed. That you just about lost it." She leaned a little closer and smiled with all her teeth; Naruto gulped, looking satisfyingly afraid. "But I'm not stupid. Something else happened. Seeing Sasuke would shake her up, sure, but not as bad as she was." Silently, a little bitterly, Ino added in her own head: not with how tough Sakura's becoming.
"Oh." Naruto looked deeply befuddled. Chouji snorted and shook his head. "Oh! Wait! I guess it would be what he said!"
"She said he didn't say anything."
"Well-" Naruto's usually cheerful face darkened. Oddly enough, he managed to be a little intimidating right then, even slumped over on a wobbly stool with a noodle in his hair. "He didn't, exactly. He just sort of looked at us, and then he laughed."
"He laughed?" said Ino, aghast. No wonder Sakura had been so upset.
"He laughed!" Chouji repeated. "No way. What a jerk."
Naruto and Ino nodded in fervent accord. "You're not yelling at me or anything, it's sorta weird," Naruto pointed out to Ino a moment later. "Is that all you wanted to know?"
Ino said nothing, but when Chouji craned his neck around to get a glimpse of her face, he shuddered. "She's plotting horrible, humiliating revenge on Uchiha. I know that look." He slid off his stool and started edging over to the exit. "I'm just, uh- bye, Naruto! Later, Ino."
Naruto just shrugged and returned to his breakfast. Ino stayed starry-eyed and vicious for a few more minutes, dreaming about shaving Sasuke bald, or maybe putting a dog collar on him and letting Sakura lead him around the village, then she returned to reality with a start. It took her a moment to notice the scroll Chouji had left on her lap.
"Ooh. Mission!" she trilled happily, recognizing the pale green wax seal stamped with a delicate leaf. She was always glad for a mission these days; living on her own had been a lot more expensive than she'd really realized. Anxiety made her frown for a moment. Didn't she have a bill of some sort due today? When she couldn't quite remember, the anxiety got worse as she stared at the scroll, until she felt both hot and cold and rather as if she might cry. She ignored it and reminded herself that she had Sakura's problems to investigate, now a mission, split ends to trim at some point today and also she needed to shave her legs before leaving and pack and- she lounged carefully against Ichiraku's counter and made sure she looked every inch of calm and competent, putting her stupid worries aside for the moment in the face of Sakura's more important problems.
"Lucky," Naruto slurred moodily from around a truly tremendous mouthful of ramen.
She shook her head hard. This was no time to get emotional, not when any of her mother's dratted spies could be watching her, ready to report back to the clan with any sign of weakness. "You just got back from one that put Sai in the hospital," Ino pointed out, sliding a fingernail under the seal and popping the scroll open. "You should be happy for a little downtime."
Naruto goggled at her. "Why do you always know everything about everything? Do you read minds all the time? Are you reading- oh, shit, are you reading my mind right now? Wait, no, that's kind of cool. What am I thinking right now?" He shut his eyelids tight and waited.
Ino muffled an indelicate guffaw and said, "Sakura, Sasuke, and ramen. Not necessarily in that order. Am I right?"
Naruto's eyes popped open and he regarded her with a look of absolute wonder. "Holy crap!"
She sniffed in satisfaction and unrolled the scroll. Three lines in, her stomach was in knots. A C-ranked mission of indefinite length, just her and Chouji, leaving tonight, to the Land of Waves- directly in the opposite direction of where Sasuke was right now.
She must have sighed, or something, because Naruto stuck his spiky blond mop right in her face to read the mission notice. "Hey! Get off!" she yelped, shoving.
He only grimaced sympathetically. "South, huh?"
Ino debated answering at all, but finally she said, with sadness that both surprised and irritated her, "Yeah. South." How humiliating, for her to be so transparent that even this ramen-addled idiot could read her so clearly. She realized she was fidgeting with a strand of her ponytail and forced herself to stop. She really should know better than to show her hand so blatantly.
"And Dumbass is north." He patted her on the shoulder gently, and she didn't even have the gumption to slap his hand away. "Sorry, Ino, but it's probably for the best."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" she snarled, leaping to her feet and jabbing him in the chest, gumption fully returned and then some.
"I- you- just-" He floundered. "I just meant that Sasuke's really scary now, okay? Like seriously scary!"
He was lying, or at least, that wasn't what he'd meant. It was written all over him and she could have seen it even if she weren't a Yamanaka. "I'll show you scary," she seethed, but then she looked at the scroll again and her fire went out. "Whatever. I can and will make you regret being born, Naruto, so don't mess with me. See you later. And take care of Sakura!" With that, she headed home.
Shikamaru, of all people, was lounging in the hall beside her apartment door, digging the toe of his boot into a shredded patch of the dingy carpet. "Hey there." He waved slowly at her, unusually friendly, a bad sign.
"Hey, Shika." She knew exactly why he was here and she wasn't going to have it. It was time he butted out of her business. She decided to fight fire with fire and latched onto his arm, cooing, "So how are things with little Miss 'Just Friends' Temari? And how's working for the Hokage going? I'm just so proud of you, Shika! I want to hear everything that's been going on with you!" She unlocked her door and shoved him inside. "It's been way too long since we sat down and had a really good talk!"
He only stared at her, hands in his pockets. "Knock it off," he said eventually. "Is everything going okay? How's your dad been treating you?"
Ino definitely did not flinch. She gritted her teeth to get past the screaming red that flooded her vision and said acidly, "He and I go on picnics together and embroider my wedding kimono. How the hell do you think he's treating me?"
She slammed her door behind him, locked it out of habit, and headed into her bedroom, tossing her battered old backpack onto the bed and diving into her closet. Shikamaru just followed, infuriatingly unperturbed, and she slit her eyes at him. How dare he bring up her stupid clan right now, right before a mission- and she knew that he knew she'd been issued one, too, he was always helping Tsunade write out the mission rosters when she was too hungover to hold a pen. Really Ino should just stomp him and his stupid jounin vest right into the dirt.
But then, her shoes were way too cute to ruin with Shikamaru blood, so for the moment she contented herself with tossing vile looks his way as she crammed clothing and shuriken and toothpaste and razor wire into her pack.
He wandered over the the bed and sat down, yawning until his jaw cracked. "So how's it going, livin' alone?"
Ino said nothing.
He persevered. "Ino."
It was a tone she knew all too well, so she sighed and turned to him, planting her fists on her hips. "What? What do you possibly want me to say? What, Shika? Are you going to swoop in and save poor little me from the monsters under my bed? There isn't a damn thing I can do! You're clan too, you know exactly how this mess is going to play out for me, so quit bringing it up when I'm trying to forget and move on already!" By the end of her rant, she was practically shouting, but she didn't care.
Shikamaru looked angry, though- well, mildly irritated, his equivalent of snarling mad. "I don't try to save you," he pointed out. "You scream at me whenever I do."
Ino sniffed. "Serves you right. We're a team!"
He regarded her solemnly, fingers rubbing together in the way that mean he really, really wanted a cigarette. "I know we're a team." Then he went in for the kill. "That's why Chouji and I are so worried about you."
Ino stared at him. "Typical you. Turn my own words against me."
"We are a team," he reminded her.
This couldn't be tolerated. Her life was her own, and she was trying her damnedest to keep it that way. It was time for revenge. Ino strolled over to her dresser and started idly rummaging through her panty drawer, holding up each lacy little bit of nothing consideringly before throwing them in the direction of her pack. If one particularly scanty purple number just so happened to miss and float down into Shikamaru's lap, well, that was just too bad.
He turned vaguely red and deposited them in her pack with thumb and forefinger, looking displeased. Good. She sauntered over and smirked at him. "Do you have a problem with seeing a women's delicates?"
"Nothing about you is delicate," he grumbled.
"Terrible answer."
"I'm serious, though, Ino." She stomped her foot and turned to leave, or possibly grab something to throw at him, but he reached out and snagged her wrist. He wasn't being rough with her, but his grip was firm, and when she looked at him, his eyes were very dark. "I know you. I know you put up this big wall of dumb blonde and gossip to keep people out of your business. It's stupid and I'm tired of it and I won't have you keeping secrets from your team when we could help you. Maybe my dad could talk to yours, or Cho's, you know? They're friends, it might help."
Both her teammate's father's had already tried talking to her own, and she was entirely shocked that Shikamaru didn't know that, because he knew everything. She shut her eyes, exhaled slowly, and wrenched her wrist free. "Shika, it gives me great joy to inform you that you couldn't be more wrong. Now get out. I've got a mission to get ready for."
He didn't move a muscle. "I'm never wrong."
"You're wrong about this," she said firmly, flapping her hands at him until he lurched to his feet and started strolling towards her door. "I suppose Chouji's going to pull this same interfering nonsense with me, isn't he?"
Shikamaru shrugged, stepping out into the hallway. "Yeah, probably."
"Ugh!" Ino slammed the door in his face and stomped back to her bedroom. She did love her boys, god knew she'd die for them, but sometimes she'd much rather kill them.
Though it was rather sweet of them to worry. Irritating, yes, but sweet- and now she'd gone and lied to Shikamaru. Ino flopped down on her bed, fished her teddy bear Mr. Fofo out from under her pillows- she kept the thing hidden, because if anyone found out, her reputation would be absolutely ruined- and curled into a ball, kicking her overstuffed backpack onto the floor. She might as well try and get some sleep before leaving on the mission tonight.
Had she really lied to Shikamaru, though? Because Ino-Shika-Cho didn't lie, had never lied, would never lie. But she was handling it, and she would stick by her decision, and the Yamanaka clan would be just fine in the end, which meant she didn't need help at all. So she hadn't lied, not totally. She'd just- massaged the truth a little.
She kicked off her boots, wriggled under the covers, and sniffled into Mr. Fofo's well worn nose. She really did hate fighting with her family, and she hated almost-lying to her team even more, but as far as she could see, she didn't really have a choice. She'd made her decision, and she didn't regret it one bit.
Except she really, really did, and she missed her mom's home cooking and her old bedroom and her cat, and even though she could repeat to herself until she was blue in the face that she'd had no other options, it didn't make the emptiness in her chest go away.
Chouji was right on time to meet her at the gate, as always, and Ino pushed off the wall she'd been leaning on to join him. They signed out, waved to the chuunin guarding the gates, then headed into the trees, and slowly the glow and bustle of nighttime Konoha faded behind them, dissolving into crickets and the gentle rustle of leaves. Ino took a deep breath, smelling the fruity sweetness of lemon mint in the cool air. She'd have to remember where that was and collect some on the way home. It was ridiculously yummy in iced tea.
"So my dad says maybe I can try out for next year's jounin exams," Chouji said after a while, ambling next to her.
Family. He'd brought up family, with all the lead-footed subtlety of a bull in a teashop. God, here it came, and she'd be damned if she'd sit back and take it. So she whirled on him and started shrieking, somewhat involuntarily, completely carried away in a manner that was fast becoming too familiar. "I'm fine! I'm fine! Everything's fine! I love my apartment, I don't give a shit about stupid clan politics, and I'm fine! Fine! Do you freaking understand?"
Immediately, she felt terrible. But sweet Chouji just blinked at her, took a moment to work through her shouts, and then nodded serenely. "Oh. Okay. Good, then." He pushed chakra to his feet and was off into the trees a moment later, and she followed, silently grateful for how well he could read her.
Well, when he wasn't eyeballs deep in a bag of chips, anyway. At least he'd mostly stopped eating them while on missions. After getting caught in a pretty nasty genjustu a while ago after an enemy followed the trail of crumbs he'd left to their campsite, he'd learned a bit of self-control.
Ino readjusted her pack on her shoulders and wove a slim braid of chakra into her eyes, twining it around the main optic nerve, to sharpen her night vision as they worked through the thick trees; it was a trick she'd stolen from Tenten, who'd stolen it from Sakura, who'd learnt it from Tsunade. Of course Ino probably could have just asked Sakura outright for a lesson, but how humiliating would that have been? The day she bowed her head and asked Sakura Haruno for help was the day she gave up on life and dyed her hair brown.
It was a long trip that night, and a quiet one, because for once she didn't really feel like talking, especially after the nauseating realization that she'd forgotten to pay her damn electricity bill before leaving, so they just kept moving. Around two in the morning, once they reached the edge of the Konoha forest, they hit the ground and settled into the deceptively distance-devouring shuffle-jog that any ninja worth their salt could keep up for days- probably months, if you were mutants like Gai or Rock Lee. Secretly Ino loved it, even if she did get all sweaty; it made her feel powerful, like a wolf, eating up the miles, and at night like this it was even better, cool and calm.
But morning came; at around nine o'clock it was starting to get warm, and the stupid sun had ruined all her fun, so eventually she nudged Chouji with her elbow and panted, "Stop for food?"
"Oh thank god," he responded immediately, skidding to a halt so fast that he threw up dust. "I was totally dying."
She regarded him with zero amusement. If he thought she'd fall for such an obvious ploy to boost her self-esteem, to make her think that he'd only just been keeping up with her or some such nonsense, he was dead wrong, and the words had Shikamaru all over them, but he flashed her such a nervous grin that she contented herself with merely rolling her eyes instead of smacking him. "Right. Sure. I'm sweaty and awful so I'm going to go leap into the creek I hear thataway-" She pointed- "And since you're such a wonderful teammate who I know hasn't been sneaking peeks at my ass, you're going to sit under that tree and make us breakfast, aren't you?"
Poor, dear, obvious Chouji. He promptly turned several impressive shades of red, gaped like a fish, then hung his head and moved to do her bidding.
The river she'd heard in the distance turned out to only be a quarter of a mile away, and it was totally fantastic. They were in the middle of nowhere, smack dab in the rolling farming country of southern Fire, which meant she didn't have to worry about any perverts trying to sneak up on her, and the water was comfortingly cold and fresh on her skin. Basically, she was in heaven for ten blissful minutes, soaking away the ache in her overworked muscles and watching tiny fish flit around her toes. It was a sort of relaxation she hadn't felt in seemingly forever.
At least until she heard Chouji shouting something. Her heart leapt painfully into her throat. Chouji- alone, she'd left him alone, fuck.
She practically flew back to where she'd left him, kunai in hand, and it wasn't until she stood before him dripping and irate that she realized she was barefoot in only her wet panties and bindings, her clothing left abandoned at the riverside. "Shit!" she snarled; there wasn't a soul but her moronic teammate in sight. "What on earth are you shouting about, nothing's wrong?" He was staring determinedly off over her shoulder, eyes wide. "Idiot," she added, because every single damn time something had gone wrong on a mission this early for her, invariably the rest of that mission would be a clusterfuck, too. She was jinxed, and if this mission went wrong, she'd be short on rent. Muted terror made her sharp. "Chouji, goddammit!"
He still refused to look at her, but his cheeks were pale beneath his scarlet swirls. "I forgot to bring any rations," he whispered, and then he sat right down in the dry dirt as if he'd given up entirely on living.
Ino dissolved into shrieking, flailing abuse for several satisfying minutes, and then she joined him on the ground, head in her hands. "I'm so hungry," she mourned as her stomach growled.
Chouji, sounding choked up, said remorsefully, "Me too. I'm so sorry, Ino, I always double check everything, I have no idea how this happened. This is the worst thing that's ever happened to me... it's like I'm a genin all over again or something!"
She sighed. He really did sound sorry, and anyway, lack of food was, for Chouji, a worse punishment than anything she could come up with at the moment, creative though she was, so she patted him on one husky forearm and said pragmatically, "Mistakes happen. Let me go get dressed and we'll find a town somewhere to eat at. I have-" she swallowed painfully, then lied through her teeth, "-some money to spare, I'll get us rations." He'd be in so much misery if he didn't eat.
He was so taken aback by that that he did manage to look at her for a few seconds. "What? But- Ino- I mean, I didn't bring any cash, I figured- and you have rent to pay now-"
She knew. It was only luck that she had any cash on her at all; jounins were expected to be able to live off the land or otherwise complete their missions without outside help, generally; it wasn't routine procedure to bring any funds on the average mission. She pasted on the carefree smile her father had taught her and flapped a hand. "I've got enough in the bank to buy us food, and I know you've been squirreling away all your pay like a crazy person for the past month for some big secret reason, so don't worry about it, okay?"
He turned rather pink and started rubbing his large hands together. "I wanna take Airi out on a date, but I wanna take her somewhere really nice," he blurted.
"Airi? The waitress from the barbeque joint?" Holy crap. Chouji had the strangest taste in women. Airi was a teeny little thing, as meek and quiet as a mouse. Next to Chouji she'd look like a hungry toothpick.
"Yeah. I wanna take her to Umi."
The last vestiges of anger melted right off Ino's secretly romantic heart. "Aww! That's the nicest restaurant in town!" she gushed. "She'll love it!" Inside she was as proud as a mother hen. All her nagging and prodding had finally paid off, and at least one of her boys was growing up into quite the gentleman. It gave her a serious case of the warm fuzzies. Maybe there was no hope for Shika, but she'd done her duty by Chouji. Anyway, Temari would whip Shikamaru into shape eventually.
He shrugged and started fidgeting with his headband, but he looked pleased. "I hope so. Uh- you- you had better get dressed, Ino."
"Oh, right. Since you made me think you were being ambushed I just jumped out of the river and ran here! Okay, I'll be back in a few." She jogged off, wanting to at least jump in one more time and wet her hair again before they moved on: Fire Country even in the springtime was brutally hot, and it was turning into summer right before her eyes now. The sound of the river was musical, and she practically sprinted the last little way-
And then she stopped dead, jaw hanging open and dismay curdling her stomach.
The only remnant of her clothing was her skirt, soaked and barely hanging onto the edge of the rock where she'd dumped everything; as she watched in dumbfounded horror, the current caught it up the rest of the way and off it floated, telling her exactly where the rest of her gear had gone. Her shorts, her shirt, her favorite boots, and worst of all, her hitai-ate were gone. She waded in after her skirt once she came to her senses, but it had disappeared somewhere in the time she'd spend gawking, and, aghast, she could feel tears stinging in her eyes. The clothing wasn't that big of a deal. She had a spare outfit in her pack, back with Chouji. The problem was that if they were going to make make it to Wave on time and yet still stop for rations, they really needed to get moving. They didn't have time to spend hours dragging a river for a lost hitai-ate.
A hitai-ate that would eat up all of the paycheck for this mission and then some to replace.
Chouji was fairly certain he was either going to die spontaneously at any moment, or Ino was just going to kill him.
If he died, probably there were worse ways to go than a heart attack brought on by a voluptuous teammate who was stomping down the road, jiggling dangerously, in nothing but black boyshort panties and bindings. If she decided to outright murder him as an outlet for her rage, though, he had no doubt it would be brutal and painful.
"Are you sure you don't want one of my shirts-" he tried cautiously, for the tenth time.
"No," she hissed, whipping around to glare at him so fast that her ponytail went right around her head to smack her cheek. "No! This is my own fault for being a careless idiot! And I don't want to wear your crumb-covered clothes anyway! I'd rather go naked than march into a town wearing something so ugly!"
Chouji stayed prudently silent after that, but the stiffening of her shoulders told him she was well aware of how unbelievably irrational he thought she was being. Yet he kept his mouth shut. She'd calm down eventually and get over herself- it was just always so annoying, waiting for her to stop being moody. He wasn't even stupid enough to protest when she marched straight into the first town they came across, head held high, ignoring all the people gawking at her. One boy actually walked face-first into a wall, which was entertaining, but overall she just ignored them all. Chouji followed, wondering alternately how many years it had been since he'd gone a whole night and day without eating and whether or not the entire mission would be this awful.
Then she paused, squinted, and hauled him by the elbow into an alley that smelled of garbage and mold. "We need a plan," she said in a low voice.
Of course they needed a plan. They were ninja. Plotting was their thing. But knowing Ino, she already had something devious and underhanded cooked up, so he just said compliantly, "Okay?"
"I'm going to go into this bar and get us some money-" she pounded a fist on the wall beside them- "And you're going to wait here."
"A bar. How- how are you going to get money in bar?" he said uneasily.
She smirked, and out of long experience, he took a step back. "Please! I'm a kunoichi. They're civilian idiots who'll be blinded the moment I walk in there. Give me maybe an hour and I'll be back, we can get rations and clothes, and then we can push on."
"I- what- I can't just let you go into some bar all alone dressed like- not dressed!" Chouji said in horror.
She narrowed her eyes at him and crossed her arms. "I didn't do this on purpose! You and I both know that my changes of clothes mysteriously disappearing from my pack before I left home last night was the work of that moron dog-boy Kiba. I'm going to kill him when we get back, slowly and painfully, I'm gonna get Tsunade to bring him back to life and them I'm going to kill him again, and if you ever want to finish this stupid mission and get home you'll just shut up and let me handle this! Okay?"
Chouji was lost. Lost and starving to death. He frowned down at Ino's bare, filthy feet. "Kiba?"
"Last week I put pink dye in Akamaru's shampoo," she muttered, flushing. "It was revenge for- well, it- a thing. Anyway. So obviously it was him who took my clothes." She made a face. "Which means he was in my apartment. God, I really need to start setting better traps. Anyway! This is my fault, so let me handle it. I'll be fine, trust me."
Ino never, ever, ever admitted that anything was her fault, not even if she was literally caught red-handed mid-crime. It was a point of pride with her, so why did she look so hangdog and worried right now? Honestly, knowing her, he would've assumed an excuse to prance around half-naked would be right up her alley. She did enjoy being the center of attention. "You're underage," he pointed out, quite reasonably, he thought, but she only looked more irritated.
"I don't look underage!" She had him there. He very carefully did not look at her chest. "Chouji, we don't really have a choice, okay, and I really need the money for this mission!" With that she turned on her heel and stormed off.
Well. Chouji gathered up every last piece of discipline and courage he possessed so he could ignore the ferocious gurgling of his tragically empty stomach and crouched down to peer into one of the cloudy little windows of the bar, which was below the level of the street, apparently a renovated basement of sorts, or something. Someone had to have her back, after all. He wished, for the hundredth time, that he hadn't forgotten their rations. Missing breakfast had already had a bit of a negative effect on his chakra reserves, and he felt out of sorts.
Peeking in through the cobwebby window, it looked just like a normal bar to him, fairly empty this time of the afternoon, with a few guys playing pool and the rest just sitting around drinking. He squinted, grumbled under his breath, and discreetly used his sleeve to wipe the dirty glass of the window a bit, just in time to see Ino slither in.
He couldn't hear her, of course, but he didn't really need to hear to know that every single sound in the bar had stopped.
She said something, smiled widely, and then crooked a finger at one of the guys playing pool, a lanky redhead; the guy's jaw fell open, but then he grinned in a way Chouji really didn't like. Even dirty and ragged after hours of travel, even barefoot, the darn girl instantly had the whole bar practically eating out of her hand.
Sure, he could see her wrangling a few free drinks, but how the hell was she going to get money?
He kept watching.
Ino said something else, did a wriggle with her hips that made Chouji lightheaded for a second, and then she shook hands with the redhead and went to sit on the pool table. The guy laughed visibly, shaking his head, and then he went over to the wall and did something Chouji couldn't quite see before walking to stand by Ino.
Oh. Darts. Darts?
Ah.
Chouji kept watch, just in case things went south, but it was almost tragic how quickly Ino, with all her years of training, beat the pants off practically every guy in the bar and then walked out beaming at them, clutching fistfuls of money that they'd been foolish enough to bet against her. To add insult to injury, she stood there for a moment, tucking the cash into her bindings before giving the gaping men a jaunty wave and leaving.
"Chouuuu-ji!" she sang out, obviously quite pleased with herself. He was already by the end of the alley waiting for her.
"They looked mad," he informed her. "We probably want to buy everything quick."
"It takes time for a woman to find the perfect outfit, Cho, you can't rush beauty," she grinned, but then, so suddenly that he barely recognized her, she sobered, golden brows crinkling in the sort of serious expression she didn't wear very often. It almost looked like stress. "Well. Here." She dug around in her bindings for a moment, to his embarassed dismay, and handed him a handful of crinkled money. "You get rations, you'll know what's got the most nutrition for the best price. I'll get boots and whatever cheap clothes I can find and meet you back at the road in twenty minutes?"
"Sure," he said dumbly. Ino Yamanaka, actually volunteering to not shop… "Are you, uh, are you okay?"
She just shrugged. "Yeah." When he kept staring, she sighed. "Don't worry about it, Chouji. Just get the food." With that, she was off, leaving tiny bare footprints in the dust. When he met her back on the main road twenty minutes later, she was wearing sturdy gray leather boots, slouchy canvas shorts, and a red tank top that was baggier than the skin beneath the Hokage's eyes after a night of carousing. She'd tied it up somehow around her stomach in an obvious attempt to give it some shape, but it was still huge.
When he opened his mouth to say something, she held up a single finger and gritted out, "Don't. I'm aware I look like shit, okay? But this stuff was cheapest, we've got a little extra cash now and we've got food and I only had to knock out one of those idiots from the bar out on the way here to meet you, so things went well and now we should get back on track, okay?"
Chouji stared at this strange person and wondered where his Ino had disappeared to. Shikamaru had said something to him just the other day, not long after they'd helped Ino move into her new place- Shika had said, "Cho, listen, Ino's got less self-discipline than Jiraiya in a whorehouse and she's never had to manage her own money before, and this apartment is too nice for a chuunin's salary, so we need to help her smooth things out with her father before she ends up homeless and hating herself, got it?"
At the time Chouji had been a bit preoccupied with the tingly notion of possibly asking the intimidatingly cute Airi, who always remembered to bring him extra soy sauce, out for a date, and he'd thought Shikamaru was being a bit overdramatic and possibly overprotective, like he usually was with Ino. He hadn't quite understood the whole business with her clan, other than that she'd been in one hell of a fight with her old man over something to do with her old hospital job, the one she'd quit after the big blowout, and he'd noticed she wasn't working the flower shop anymore either. But now it was obvious that she was short on money. Nothing in the world but dire necessity could have forced Ino to wear clothing like that, all plain and boring and oversized. So obviously Chouji should have actually listened to his genius friend.
"Ino," he started cautiously. "If you need a loan, I mean, I can help you out-" Airi could wait. His friend and his teammate needed help.
She fixed him with a look that probably could have started a forest fire. "No." He could practically see her spine turning to iron, and with every passing moment her stubborn chin lifted higher into the air.
Crap. Shikamaru was going to kill him. "Okay. Uh, let's go, I guess," he said uncertainly, wanting to press the issue, but knowing from her tone that it wouldn't end well.
She gave him a crooked smile, put her right shoulder to the setting sun, and started to run.
Author says: Okay SO uh... this is my first foray into the Naruto fandom and Ino is difficult to write, as much as I love her, so I WELCOME constructive criticism but please realize that I haven't read every single manga chapter/watched the entire anime. So you can consider this canon compliant up to about Shippuden 125 or so, and from then on it's an AU. I really really like Ino, I want a story where she gets the kind of character development Sakura so often gets (I love Sakura too) so this is my attempt at giving her some maturation. Opinions are DEEPLY AWESOME and if you like this at all, please let me know beacuse I'm super nervous about it!
(Dire Circus fans: I swear to god I have not abandoned that story!)