WHAT THE DEAD KNOW
By: Sil3ntXspirit
Summary: The love story that ended before it even got the chance to start. But not only that, Konoha's haunted by the presence of an old enemy. War looms of the horizon, but leave it to Yamanaka Ino to fall in love with a dead man. No oc's. Rated M for safety.
Scene 1
Ino cursed at the shrubbery in her way. Dammit, dammit, dammit!
At the age of twenty-one, Yamanaka Ino was actually quite an accomplished kunoichi. She had managed to get some training with Tsunade and gained proficient knowledge in medicine and healing, alongside with a bonus of super-human strength. Though Ino's skills in the two fields were nowhere near to the degree of success of Sakura's. But she'd come to realize that her talents lay elsewhere. Tsunade wasn't her only mentor, and medicine wasn't her strongest suite. She was most readily know as the suspiciously young and pretty mentee under the tutelage of Morino Ibiki (that without a doubt brought with it a raging storm of doubt and skeptism alongside with some nasty rumors). However with some years of hard work and dedication, plus a good helping of talent, she came out triumphant as one of the most reputable students of Ibiki's, and was well on her way to becoming a great addition to the Intelligence Dept.
She is determined to make her father and sensei proud.
But back to the present; her achievements were the last thing on her mind as she was dashing through the forest hotly pursued by the enemy. She bit out a few more curses under her breath at her stupidity.
She was returning (rushing) back from a solo mission. Though she was someone who absolutely thrived on social contact, Yamanaka Ino was perfect when working solo. It was the fact that she was such a people person that got her to do so well on her solo missions, people warmed up to her easily and tended to trust her. Her knowledge of psychology and the inner workings of people's minds gave her an edge that even the smartest of shinobi could not touch. So, she had successfully worked her way up to the higher-ups of an illegal weapons smuggling ring, and managed to terminate her target. All in all, the mission was a success, and she would've been scott-free if only she hadn't gotten a bit careless and not map out all of the guards in the place. Especially the ones who were on the break and managed to return right after she'd finished off her targets.
Losing some common sense and practicality after drinking, the two returning guards stumbled in on their dead leaders and reacted on instinct.
Scramble out of the scene and go after the intruder. (Not alert the entire premises, as they should've done).
Ino weaved through the thick forest with ease. She was a ninja of Konoha, and this was her element so she was doing fairly well. However, her gut instinct told her that she should get to where there was clear ground to battle it out. Or at least make it easier to observe them.
In her hurry she found herself passing slabs of stone and couldn't believe her luck. The sun was setting quickly and she made sure to falter for a moment, just to insure that they saw her pause and then dash up the slabs of stone.
Ino found herself among what looked like a wreckage of an ancient temple. Huge blocks of stone were tossed against each, and their geometric shape greeted her eyes all around. It must've been a fairly large building.
However she had no time to stop and ponder about its history as she dashed to the highest point she could find and quickly cast a genjutsu on the area, all the while concealing her chakra.
She had a perfectly view of the flat area where her enemies would enter and allowed herself a quick smile and she spotted them hide in the shadows of a few large pieces.
There were two of them. Both male. They were swathed in dark clothing and she was immediately alerted to their slight intoxicated state by their movements. It wasn't obvious, but a faint unsteadiness was more than enough for her to tell.
Summing them up, she discreetly moved a level down as she watched them draw their attention to her invisible self in the illusion. They both moved out into the open and attacked at nothing. Ah, they were completely lost in the genjutsu. They were bound to discover that it was an illusion soon, she had to no time to waste as she performed her signature move.
She felt the one goon's chakra in her power and waited till the opportune moment to go with the own flow of his momentum. Just as he swung at air she made him follow through with it, turned a 180 and slashing his partner's throat in the process. Releasing the jutsu, she took advantage of his shock and descended upon him swiftly and spared him from cutting his own throat. She had to give him some credit though for sensing her though, even if too late to save his own life, but managing to graze her shoulder with a small cut of his kunai in self-defense. He fell to the ground with a thud and she side-stepped him so that no blood would get on her uniform.
Ino let out a long sigh, and thanked for the fantastic timing of the setting sun. That little charade surely wouldn't have worked at noon, when shadows were glaringly obvious. Drunk or not, it they surely would've noticed it. Crouched and feeling incredibly lucky for once that evening she stood up and looked at her chosen battlefield. Looking down at the fallen soldiers at her feet, she couldn't help but make a silent prayer for them. She didn't know of God, or heaven or hell, but she knew for a fact that the soul existed as a Yamanaka, so she bent down paid her respects to the both of them individually before digging two make-shift graves with her bare hands (which isn't as bad as you think, as the soil happened to be soft, and Tsunade's super strength training came in handy) and burying them.
This was something she rarely did. Burying her enemies were not a commonly-practiced habit, as she was rarely afforded the luxury of time to do this, but she knew in what little that was left of her heart that they were still human. Shreds of humanity really, but still, they were ninja, just like her, and their disturbed spirits deserved a proper burial. When she could afford to.
When the two were good and buried, she wandered back up the curious mountain-like formation.
Everything was painted in a dark purple, and rich golds and blazing oranges kissed the edges. In a few more minutes, it would be nightfall. Ino looked about the scattered stone and couldn't help but note the morbid splendor of destruction.
Then she frowned to herself at her surroundings. Something happened here, she could feel it. This wasn't just a place that had fallen apart centuries ago, this place was destroyed not too long ago. This destruction was only a decade old at the most. Something familiar about it caught her supernatural sense.
She surveyed the rock more closely. Ah. Yes, a battle occurred here. A battle of huge proportions it appeared. She scouted around a bit more, ignoring the little voice in her head that told her she should've gone the moment she killed the two pursuing her.
Ino's blue eyes swept the cold rock once more, and then it hit her. There, down on the level below, where two pieces of stone met, one stood vertically and the other horizontal. It looked like the remnants of room, an untouched corner. She didn't know what she was doing heading down there to look at the stains that suspiciously looked like blood, all she knew was that she was doing it.
When she reached the flat of the stone, she confirmed her suspicions. It was blood. Ancient, and incredibly faint, but she could smell it.
Suddenly Ino felt head grow heavy and her vision blur. Alarms went off in her head and the tiny cut on her shoulder grew cold and prickled with numbness. Her eyes widened at the horrid realization.
That kunai he wielded was poisoned.
Shit. She cursed silently. Guess all that luck before was just pure bullshit too.
Then as if to add to her horrible turn of events, Ino looked up wearily in hopes of keeping consciousness long enough to do something about the poison in her system...
But she ended up seeing a figure about twenty feet away just when her knees hit the cold and unforgiving stone floor.
Her eyes widened in surprise and fear.
The sun had just set, and the shadows grew. The figure remained stationary, shrouded in utter darkness. Her eyes couldn't spy any physical features, only the silhouette of this new arrival. Goosebumps rose on her flesh. Would this be the very last thing she saw before her death?
If you were successful in her line of work, you didn't scare easy anymore, she had seen things that most people should have never seen in their entire lives. Her rationality reasoned that it was most likely a hallucination caused by the toxins in her system, but the pin-pricks on fear on the back of her spine refused to listen as she stared wide-eyed on at the haunting figure. What caused the fear to trickle down her poisoned spine was the fact that though the figure was twenty feet away, somehow she could see it eye to eye as if it were mere inches away from her face.
They were blood red. Burning away in the darkness like fading embers as she finally surrendered to the creeping night.
A/N: Ah. Well, I've never really written romance before...so...be patient with me. Plus, the romance is far far away in the future. I ask you to be patient, but hopefully you'll find the wait to be worth it. :) I have a definite plot in mind and it's going to have several things happening at once so hopefully it keeps things exciting for you.
Reviews makes me happy. :D