Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, its storyline, or characters. However, this fanfiction is based on Naruto, and is my creation.
Omoide Sokoneru : Lost Memories
Chapter 1: ForgetMeNot
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At the prodigious age of seventeen, Yamanaka Ino was accepted into the ANBU. The legacy of family-inherited techniques that were her prime weapons were perfect—easy assassinations.
Unbeknownst to all, her techniques were crushing down her mind and memories. Going into her victim's minds to kill and suddenly pulling out took its toll when the process was repeated millions of times—but we'll get to that later. It first happened when…
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-Two years ago-
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Tsunade smiled benevolently at her latest ANBU recruit, Yamanaka Ino.
"Your first mission as an ANBU member had been very satisfactory. Keep up the work, Ino, and we'll make a fine assassin of you yet. For now, retain a low profile and get used to your work. Konoha relies on you for protection and village infiltration. Now…"-shuffling papers- "I have a new assignment, your second one as an ANBU. It's very important—read the report and be ready by next morning. Carry out your mission well. You are dismissed."
Ino took the report papers offered to her and bowed low, smiling. "Arigatou (thank you) Tsunade-sama! I'll do well, I promise!"
The young blonde hurried out of Konoha's headquarters to meet her friend Sakura at Ichiraku's Ramen, a bounce in her step and a beaming grin on her face. She was instantly greeted by the cool mid-morning sun and by her waiting friends at the welcoming booth.
"What now, Ino-pig?" Sakura laughed, patting the stool beside her. "New mission?—or is it that Shikamaru invited you to a dinner? I swear—you're overly exuberant about being an ANBU and being affianced to your teammate. I could tell by the extra shiny-ness of your silly hair and that gleam in your eyes."
Although at the still young age seventeen—Ino had been proposed to by Shikamaru two days before at the night of her ANBU initiation party—and accepted. Life as a shinobi was harsh and death was always around the corner. It was better to live and die knowing you are loved then to die alone. So Ino accepted with a rib-crushing hug and a simple silver band embedded with a shimmering pale blue stone the color of her eyes, the match to Shikamaru's ring. Ever since that night, Ino was literally shining with happiness and the initiation to the ANBU along with her first and now second mission just added on.
Ino giggled, glancing at the ring on her left hand's fourth finger for the millionth time, and then to the mission papers gripped tightly in her other hand.
"Both, forehead-girl," the still-grinning blonde replied. She nodded to the patiently-waiting Ayame at the service counter and asked for a tofu ramen. In the middle of their shared meal, Ino and Sakura glanced at the assignment details. It was allowed to share inner ANBU information with fellow ANBU members. Sakura was an ANBU also—she applied for the hunter-nin category (!) while Ino took on the assassin category. (!!)
"Ogamu Koutsugouna," read Sakura aloud. "Your victim, Ino. Apparently he's an underground poisoner-type person. He poses a threat to Konoha by influencing the Hidden Village of Stone (who at this current time is on unstable relationships with Konoha) by providing them with weapons, sake, and pretty words," she spat.
Sakura disinterestedly skipped the personal info on the target's family and roles and continued on towards the bottom of the report: where the report's known weaknesses were listed.
"Here," she said, pointing. "Vulnerable to sake—can't handle it very well it says. Has arachnaphobia too…ha! A weapons dealer is scared of spiders and he's trying to fuel a war between the Stone Village and Konoha for his own benefits. Quite amusing…"
Ino agreed, but a queasy feeling drifted through her mind and curled down into her stomach. It was only her second mission, but she was still a beginner to true ANBU standards. What if she was a disappointment? Or what if she died in battle, and never saw Shikamaru's face again? There were way to many "what ifs" and "maybes" and "perhaps"-es.
The day sunk into the warm cloak of night and the girls parted their ways with cheery smiles and a good luck to Ino's mission.
"Be careful with the Shintenshin no Jutsu, Ino! I've heard some nasty rumors of side effects…and look what happened to your grandmother, she was a legendary Switch User and suddenly she disappeared without a trace." Sakura warned. But Ino laughed it off, telling the 'forehead-girl' that she was a silly worrywart.
-Next day, night-
Ino crept silently through the shadowed halls, wincing when the wooden floorboards creaked. Her ANBU comrades were waiting outside, and her mission was already lagged behind enough. The kunoichi noiselessly unsheathed the katana from her back and slid open a rice paper door.
On the floor slept Ogamu Koutsugouna, lying on the traditional Japanese style bedding of blankets on the ground.
Good, he's asleep, thought Ino.
If her victim was rendered unconscious, it was easier to use her Shintenshin no Jutsu. Of course, if the Switch Victim died or felt pain, the pain or death would also affect the Switch User, which in this case was Ino. That wasn't what she planned though...
Katana gripped in hand, Ino stepped towards the sleeping first-rate, deceiving charlatan on the ground, and with her other hand, performed the seals of the Shintenshin no Jutsu.
Over the years, she had improvised and perfected her jutsu to be convenient in the area of seal making and speed of transfer.
Within seconds, she was within the consciousness of Koutsugouna and she saw her own body slump to the ground.
Ino willed Koutsugouna's body to rise from the ground and take the katana from her own body. As the victim's fingers contacted the cool wood of the weapon, within his consciousness, Ino received a painful, unfamiliar jolt she had never felt whenever she performed her technique.
In an incessant stream, she obtained a flow of Koutsugouna's memories and personal thoughts. Within the flashes, Ino saw his wife, three children beaming happily, the memory of a young boy, offering a little card that said, "Happy Father's Day," with the D backwards, a brown-haired woman smiling gently at him, and a younger version of himself.
Weird, this never happened before, Ino frowned concernedly. Was this sudden perceptiveness through her jutsu a good or bad asset?
Finally, after looking more into Ogamu's memories, she became disinterested. Time to get this over with!
Ino willed Koutsugouna to lift his hand, the one holding the katana, and stab it into his own body. As the arm propelled toward his body, Ino quickly activated the release seal and moved her spirit back into her own self.
Ino, back into her rightful body, watched with a grim demeanor as Koutsugouna awoke and found his arm uncontrollably plunging the katana into his own stomach. When he fully regained consciousness from the pain, he looked up and saw the kunoichi watching him. "My children…" he whispered brokenly to her. Ino looked away and remembered the three chestnut haired kids beaming in his memories, guilt burning within.
She stepped forward, pulled out the katana, then shoved it back in. He wordlessly slumped to the floor, dead. The mission was done…but why did she feel so sad?
The next day, the ANBU were safely back in Konoha. Ino reported to Tsunade of their success. She didn't mention the unfamiliar and unwelcome stream of thoughts she received. A week later, Ino's team was given another mission. Time slowly went by and many things happened. Ino happily married Shikamaru, Hinata died in the invasion of Sound, Orochimaru was killed, Sasuke returned, the Akatsuki were eliminated, Tsunade finally returned Jiraiya's love, Kiba died in a mission, and Sakura got married to Sasuke. And throughout the years of ups and downs, Ino attended to her ANBU duties and missions and kept receiving flashes of her victim's lives.
Third Mission—Takeda Murosaki.
In another flash, Ino saw that he had a fiancée, and had been planning to marry her the next day. She saw that his father passed away and his mother was in a coma, and that his livings made as a thief and seller of explosive scrolls were all going to her health funds. Yet, duty called and Ino assassinated him with the same method used in her other mission.
Fourth Mission—Waruii Inoue. Cared for stray animals and was a lover of nature. Offended Konoha's elite by attempting to assault a government official because he kicked a dog out of his path. She set out to kill all those who committed animal cruelty. Duty called—Inoue was killed.
Fifth Mission, Sixth Mission, Seventh—Eliminating some Akatsuki members. Deidara fought for power and vengeance for his sister—that touched Ino's heart deeply. Tobi was a scarred orphan whose mother attempted to kill him. Zetsu was driven out of his village for his monstrosity. Duty called—Ino and a team of the other ANBU seventeen were dispatched and took out the three.
By this time, Ino thought of these sudden flashes due to the fact that her Shintenshin technique was growing in power and the visions were natural, a sign of progress.
More and more missions were passed successfully, very few with damaging incidents. But soon, inside, a storm of growing guilt was brewing inside Ino. In her victims, she had seen so many personal lives and to kill them after seeing them was painful. Take Takeda Murosaki—he was to be happily wedded the day afterwards and now his bride was probably crying, widowed before marriage and his mother probably dead from lack of medical care.
Ino became depressed with the weight of guilt looming over her life. Not even her husband Shikamaru could find out what was wrong though; she closed up her feelings like a clam.
However, not only guilt was shutting up Ino's life, it was her mind itself. Unknown to all, the use of the Shintenshin no Jutsu came at high costs. Ino had used it ever since she learned it at six years old and she was now seventeen, meaning that she used it for eleven years.
Eventually, the constant use of a technique that should have been used as a last resort would overbear the user's mind, soon opening the power to view the victim's true consciousness and thoughts. This insight for many minds is nonetheless too much for one single mind, so it crowds over and destroys things once remembered.
Ino started forgetting things. At first, they were small things, like where she last put her house key or how to activate a particularly difficult jutsu. Those things she could find again or ask for.
But soon after her seventy-eighth mission with the same method of assassination using her famous technique, she started forgetting larger things, like Sakura's birthday party or when a mission had to be completed.
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Soon after her ninety-fourth mission, she forgot who she was.
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Ino had just finished off a grim solo mission—she had assassinated a serial killer and was dejectedly remembering the flashes she had received while doing it—one particular flash showed the reasons why the target killed, and it was terrifying and sad. Ino was returning to Konoha in the middle of the night to report to Tsunade of the success when suddenly all the memories she viewed in her ninety-four successful missions slammed into her mind and they seemed to flash by in front of her eyes.
After the astonishing reel of visions, Ino's mind suddenly went blank. The kunoichi slowed her tree-jumping and teetered to a stop, sitting down. She gazed into the distance with glazed, blue eyes, wind blowing through her re-grown and loose hair.
"Who am I?"
The words emitted from her mouth were swept into the winds and to Konoha. Abruptly, Shikamaru sat up in bed in his home shared with Ino. He had a nightmare…and he felt that somewhere, Ino was in trouble.
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To be continued…
(!) Hunter-nin are ANBU too, they are separated into groups to do missions or they do solo. They hunt down missing-nin or large organizations that are threats to Konoha.
(!!) Assassins, in this case, are ANBU, also separated into groups for missions or solo. They hunt down specific people, such as weapon-dealers of Konoha enemies or yakuza members that are threats to Konoha.