Ino is kunoichi.
She has learned the ways of the kunoichi -- never travel without a spare kunai in the leg holster, never underestimate the power of seduction, never forget your bindings, always make your male teammates buy the rounds -- and she has learned them well.
(She still remembers her first assassination -- quick, messy, not at all tactical. The man, a leader of a band of thieves but a nice man nonetheless, was rough, too big, and she was not ready for him. He thrusted, she screamed, and her hand instantly reacted by snatching the hidden kunai and shoving it roughly into his throat. If she closes her eyes, she can still see the jagged opening on his neck, can still hear his guttural screams. And if she dwells too long, she can still recall how she cried, long and hard and alone, next to his cold, long-dead body -- tears falling for both her lost -stolen- innocence and the loss of a man who had just chosen the wrong lifestyle.)
She has successfully seduced and assassinated more men (and a woman or four) than any other kunoichi in the village, always returning to the Leaf with a satisfied sex drive, two worried team mates, and blood on her hands.
(She has never been a graceful assassin, but if it gets the job done, Tsunade is not one to complain.)
Ino is kunoichi, and she knows how to play by kunoichi rules, how to live and survive using any means necessary (even if it's at her own expense), how to use her body as her weapon.
Kunoichi are tools, and as tools, they are incapable of love, devoid of any emotion that is un-necessary.
But...
Ino is woman, and women, regardless of kunoichi or civilian status, love, and she is no exception to this rule.
When she comes home from a mission, the face of the man (or woman) she has just "taken care of" still in her mind's eye (she can still see the jagged flesh wounds, the blood-spattered walls from the flow as they ran around, clawing for air, crying for God or mercy or whatever it is they believed in and staring at her with that look, the dead stare and emptiness in their eyes), it is Haku's warm arms and cooling, calming gaze that chases her thoughts away.
His soft and gentle voice, whispering soft comforts, and his long, delicate fingers tenderly stroke her hair, and for that moment, Ino is not kunoichi, or Leaf ANBU, or a civilian of Leaf, but a woman, a simple blonde hair, blue eyed woman who is content to just lay on his, this man she loves and adores and needs with all her soul, mind, and body, chest and feel the wind blow and wrap around them, counting his heartbeats (and, because it's half out of habit, half out of common sense, the days).
Because Ino is kunoichi, and whether or not she loves Haku, the time may come when he will be the one who is staring at her with the dead stare.
(And then Ino the Kunoichi will have to chase her own fears away, because when Haku dies, Ino the woman will too, and the Kunoichi will be all that's left.)
-FIN
Author's Note:
Written for a friend who requested this pairing on MSN.
Not too comfortable with this since it's been a while since I've written anything.
I still like it a little, though.
Ino gets too much rep as a horrible person.
I say:
MOAR INO LOVE, RAWR!
...right?