Discalamari: Teasing.
Disclaimer: Still don't own this franchise. I want it. Read and review. Tell me my writing sucks or other words. I am flat out fishing to see how this is, as I don't write in general. Now onto the story below. Tsunade suspects and investigates. She brings in the parents for a difficult conversation.
Golden steamers followed the enraged Kage as she finished up with Sensei's stupid child. Asuma had confirmed that Ino was committed to training well but her strength was well below standard. He had just assumed it was normal for his youngest student, the girl, to be tired earlier than the both boys and it was also normal that she gave her portions of fatty Team barbecue to Chōji. Tsunade had needled out that the young blonde was avid about keeping up her appearance, and she did eat, after all, she was on a team with an Akimichi. She just trained a lot longer than both Chōji and Shikamaru but still got tired a lot earlier. It was enough for the Kage it was one thing to only notice and nurture both boys but why couldn't the wind user extend that care for his youngest charge? That small-fry was on Tora duty for the foreseeable future.
Ino was always small for her age, apart from being almost a year younger than everyone else in her graduating class, because she had to be a part of the generational Ino-Shika-Cho. She was meant to round out the legacy. It was no wonder that she was struggling but Inochi adored his girl, and Asami was a flat-out terror of an infiltration specialist; both would maim, kill and torture to protect their little girl but obviously, she had slipped under their notice due to their commitment to the village. Tsunade gently tapped her fist into the door. This was not a conversation she wanted to start by breaking down doors.
"Coming," Asami's voice echoed out from the inner halls of the building. "Tsunade-sama welcome, how can I help you? Did you need Inochi? He just got back from T.I." Asami's peach-lipped smile disappeared with worry lines creasing in her brow as the Sanin appeared in her door.
"I would like to speak with Inochi and yourself, may I come in?" Tsunade continued, "I don't have pleasant news and would like to speak with you both."
"Of course Hokage-sama," she replied as her golden head whipped back to call out "Inochi, come down please." She escorted the Kage to the sitting room. There were lilacs on the table this time. And fresh flowers in all the rooms she could see. Inochi's footsteps were heard on the stairs, Asami turned to the Kage and offered "I'll bring some tea, excuse me" as she rushed to meet her husband on the landing and give him a brief message about their guest. "Please don't trouble yourselves with water" Tsunade called as the couple arranged themselves.
The T.I captain squarely sat across from the Lady after bowing "Hokage-sama what has brought you here?" This wasn't the moment for pleasantries and Tsunade wouldn't have enjoyed the verbal maneuvering at the moment. Asami-san flanked her husband's side as she knelt at the table, corn-blue eyes focused on corn-blue eyes of the last named Senju. The eldest blonde started, "It is about Ino. Did you sign the graduation forms that named Ino-chan an adult upon her completion of the academy?" "No," Inochi and Asami replied in tandem, Asami continued "She has just turned 12 a few months ago, we didn't think she would be ready to claim the adult rights of a shinobi just yet. The boys are also under a provisional license. We all agreed it was better for them all to remain in the provisional license until they formally completed their training in their Clan duties." That was right, it had made the last graduating class more difficult as all the clan heirs had been mostly placed together. It had stacked the odds against all the civilian based kids except Sakura by luck had been placed on Team 7. Only Team 10 was purely composed of all heirs, even their damn leader was his clan's heir until Sensei's young grandchild was old enough to be nominated.
"I want to examine Ino-chan and I am taking her off the active Shinobi list." Tsunade began, "I have reason to believe she is physically unfit to continue in her duties as a Shinobi at this time, and have reason to suspect that she may be ill." The couple exchanged glances communicating hours of conversation in silent partner speech.
Inochi's long hair swished behind him as he turned to address his Lady, "What has happened?" A situation that impaired a Shinobi's judgment serious enough to suspend them from active duty was not something to argue about after all Kohona had turned a blind-eye on the mental strains of Shinobi life long enough to create the Uchiha massacre. He wasn't going to ignore this warning out of misplaced pride.
"My student Sakura Haruno was demonstrating her form and I had noticed that she was significantly weaker than her other year mates, I had thought it was her civilian upbringing that brought out these foolish notions of dieting when I remembered that she fought your daughter in the semi-finals at the last Chunin exams." She was interrupted by Asami, "Because your apprentice was weak our Ino has a problem?" "I pulled her medical file. Ino is small for her age and weight class," Tsunade attempted to continue. "I was always thought of as a girl when I was younger the guys never let me forget it. I was small for my age too, and so is Ino. She is just like me," Inochi reasoned. "I understand, and that was why it was let go in the physical but I spoke with her sensei as well. Ino is dieting, calorie restricting, giving her food to Chōji, working out longer than both boys on her team and has less endurance in spite all the extra training."
"I understand but it doesn't mean anything is wrong," Asami continued. "But it raises red flags, Asami-chan. Sakura got the idea to diet and harm herself from Ino, and the only way to find out if Ino is in danger is to examine her. She is young, she spends most of her time alone, with the boys or in the flower shop. She is at risk. Has she ever shown restrictive behaviors at home?" Tsunade persisted "Both of you are so busy with the village, but a civilian raised girl with an almost full-blown eating disorder and hardly any training brought your clan heir to a draw. Will power alone can't do that, Ino both underestimated her and didn't have the reserves of strength to draw on. I think it's time we took a closer look." Asami's eyes narrowed and she rushed to defend her daughter "Stop, Asami she was watching both of us. I skip several meals to try and spend time with you all on weekends and evenings. You are part of infiltration rotation right now, and there is a lot of physical preparation for your role. She may have picked up on it from us. We can talk to her and bring her in for a physical. Chōza can talk to her about nutrition. Tsunade's right. No matter how talented her apprentice might be, Sakura only started training for a year and a half and Ino has been training since she was three. She didn't have the physical strength to beat her. We need to look at this." Born-blue and pupilless blue eyes met and softened conveying love and understanding they turned to meet the Sanin and nodded their consent to let her meet with her young relative.
