Title: Coffee, Smoking and the Jounin Exams
Spoilers: None really, mentions a few things from recent anime episodes.
Raiting: PG-13, just to be safe
Summary: The day before the Jounin Exams, Ausma listens to Ino panic. Or in her case, slightly melt down.
Disclaimer: Don't own it, wish I did. Or it least owned Gaara.
Authors Notes: Trying to tell a story with mostly dialouge, let's see how it works. Gift fic for Lynnxlady. Thanks to Wolfebrooke for the beta job. Taste the Rainbow.
Feedback: Really people, which author doesn't want feedback?
Asuma watched on amusedly as Ino paced frantically back and forth in front of him. He had seen her in various stages of anxiety, but this one was, by far, the worst.
"You need to calm down," Asuma said as he lit a cigarette.
"Calm! Calm is not an option right now," Ino exclaimed.
He smiled at her, "I don't see why you're so nervous. You're beyond prepared for this. I'm sure that you'll be fine."
She snorted and cast her gaze around her former teacher's small house, "Don't you ever dust?"
Asuma sighed and ran one of his hands through his hair, "Ino, I've been away for two weeks on a mission. And half an hour after I get home, you're banging on my door and stressing out. I haven't had time to eat, let alone dust."
"Tomorrow is the jounin exam! Of course I'm stressing! Do you have any idea how long it's taken me to work up to this?" She asked.
"Considering how much time I've spent training with you, I think I have a vague idea," he said dryly.
Ino shot him a withering look, "I still feel like I'm behind."
"You're not behind," he said tiredly. It was an old argument; "You're only twenty-one. That is a perfectly acceptable age to take the exam. Very few people become a jounin at young ages."
"You know how many from my academy class are already jounin?" Ino asked shrilly, still pacing.
Her rapid movements were beginning to make Asuma slightly dizzy, "You came from an exceptional class. A group comprised of children from the oldest clans and the advanced bloodlines of the village. And that includes you, as you well know."
"I'm nervous," she admitted.
"Most people generally are before something this big," he said complacently.
"You're not helping," she said sharply, giving him a look to match.
He sighed, "What would you like me to say?"
It was her turn to sigh, "I don't know. Tell me how your exam went. Maybe that will help."
Somehow Asuma didn't think it would but he decided to humor her, "It was long, it hurt and I broke my arm."
Ino looked at him with despair.
"You wanted to know," he said shrugging.
She looked pained, "Well, that was at the end right?" She asked hopefully.
He wondered if he should tell her the truth, "Well-," he began
"-and I want you to be honest," she cut in.
"No, I had one more match after I broke it," he admitted.
"And you won?" She sounded surprised.
He looked sheepish, "I got lucky."
"I somehow doubt that," she said rolling her eyes, "Shikamaru told me about that time with all those Sound ninjas."
"They really weren't that good though," he said.
"There were nine of them!" She argued.
"You've never really seen Kakashi in action before have you?"
It was her turn to sigh heavily as she slumped into the nearest chair. Asuma was glad that she had finally given up pacing.
"Do you really think that I'm ready?" She asked.
"Yes, I do," he said honestly.
"Really?"
"I wouldn't have encouraged you to try if I didn't think so," he said.
"I know," she said tiredly, "I'm just worried. It took Tenten twice."
"If I recall, the first time she took it she had a fever of one-hundred and two during most of the exam," he said.
"How do you know?"
"Gai told me," he responded and stubbed out his cigarette and debated between lighting another and fixing coffee.
"And she was still a jounin by nineteen," Ino pouted.
Asuma smiled a bit, "Well, maybe if you had been as serious as she was about training when you were younger, you'd be where she is." Cigarette won the fight and he lit another one.
She gave him a withering look, "Not helping."
"Just making a point. Besides, once you did decide to get serious, nothing could stop you. You improved at a rapid pace. Faster than many thought you would," he said.
"That's another thing!" She shot up out of the chair and resumed her pacing, "I don't think that any of the examiners are going to take me seriously. What if that happens?"
"Now, you're just inventing reasons to worry. They will treat you the same as everyone else," Asuma said, trying to calm her down.
"But this time, there are people I know as examiners," Ino whined.
"Really, like who?" He asked, curious as to how she got this information in the first place. The identities of the test proctors were supposed to be kept a secret until the actual test itself.
"Sakura, she told me before she knew that I was going to be taking the test," Ino said sulkily.
"Just because Sakura is one of the testers, there is no reason to panic. She's a professional," Asuma said, understanding a little more of why she was so tightly wound. Her best friend and former rival being one of the people judging her was bound to put some pressure on her.
"But she's just so far ahead of me," Ino said, doing her best not to pout. Not that it was working.
"Sakura is the Hokage's apprentice. She enjoys the personal attention of a sannin. Of course that is going to affect her skill level. Very, very, few people will ever receive that kind of attention from someone that legendary," Asuma said, trying to placate her just a bit.
Ino just snorted, "That whole team was lucky. Naruto has been trained by Jiraiya for years, Sakura with Tsunade, even that Uchiha boy is with a sannin. And before all that, their teacher was the famous "Copy Ninja"."
Asuma noted how she referred to Sasuke; after Sasuke had left his only girl student, Ino had grown distinctly cold to the mere mention of him. Although it was the same for the majority of the people in the village once the truth of why he had left had leaked out.
"Are you complaining about your teacher?" He asked wryly.
She looked shocked, "Of course not! You did an amazing job, especially considering what a difficult group of genin we had to be."
He smiled at her, "You're right. I'm surprised that my hair didn't turn grey."
"Very funny."
"I thought so; after all, do you know how much I spent on food alone with you three as students?"
"Hey, most of that was not me," she countered and once again flopped into a chair.
"I know that, and the three of you grew out of being royal pains in the ass," Asuma said grinning at her.
Ino resisted the urge to stick her tongue out at her former teacher, "Too bad you never did."
"You wound me. Truly. Now, do you want some coffee?" He asked as he pushed himself out of his chair and made his way towards the small kitchen.
Ino sighed and followed him into the smaller room, "I guess. I could use some caffeine."
"How much have you had today?" He asked.
"I don't know. Two or three cups. Maybe more," she said.
"It's only ten in the morning. You're going to start vibrating at this rate," he said, but pulled two mugs out of the cupboard anyway.
"That only happened once," she defended her coffee intake while crossing her arms over her chest.
"You're never going to be able to get any rest tonight," he said.
"I doubt that I'd be able to sleep tonight no matter what, so I don't think that the coffee will have too many negative effects."
Asuma didn't have a reply for that. It was very common for someone to be too nervous to sleep the night before something like the jounin exam. It was looked at as one of the ways to help thin out those who wouldn't be able to make it as one of the village's elite ninjas. He didn't think that he had slept all that much the night before his own exam.
"Well, in any case, you should still take it easy today. No training. Try and relax," he continued and decided to make decaff and hope that he wouldn't fall asleep during his afternoon meeting.
"Easy for you to say," Ino said and started to rummage through his cupboards to find the sugar.
"Why don't you find some of your friends and hit the bath house or something?" He asked coming up behind her and grabbing the sugar from behind a box of oatmeal on one of the higher shelves.
"They're all busy. At least, all my girl friends are. And I refuse to go the bath house with Shikamaru and Chouji. Why can't you ever keep the sugar in the same place?"
Asuma shrugged and thought about it, "Someone always puts it back in a different place."
"Maybe you should get a sugar bowl," Ino said.
"Ino," he said looking her in the eye, "I'm not a woman, I'm not married, I don't even have a girlfriend. So why on earth would I have a sugar bowl?"
"To keep the sugar in so you don't have to search for it every time you bake?"
He raised an eyebrow at her, "You honestly think that I bake?"
"Good point," she said, "Okay then, how about for the courtesy of your guests? So they don't have to spend so much time looking for the sugar."
"Maybe I should just stop letting everyone use my house as a hang out," Asuma said.
"Why is that?" Ino asked, "It seems like your house is the official hang out for half the jounin of Konoha."
"Because I have a house and I'm single. Everyone else lives in apartments. And in some cases, glorified closets," he said thinking of the tiny apartment that Kakashi had lived in for many years.
"You're nicer than I would be in your place," Ino said and crossed to the refrigerator to get the milk.
"That goes without saying," Asuma smirked and caught the apple she hurled at his head and set it on the counter.
"You know that you have almost no food in here?" She asked.
"I've been gone for two weeks. What did you expect?" He asked back.
Ino sighed and shut the refrigerator door, "Sorry, I'm just-"
"Stressed out, I get that," Asuma said, "Its okay. But you really don't have to worry. You're going to do just fine. You've trained and studied and done enough solo missions to be ready for anything that they're going to throw at you."
Ino allowed herself a small smile, "I just hope that I remember that tomorrow when I'm faced with another sadistic examiner like Ibiki."
"He's really not that bad you know," Asuma said.
Ino just raised one of her eyebrows at him.
"Okay, there are times when he gets a little carried away," he continued.
Her other eyebrow joined its partner in disbelief.
"Fine, there are times when he's a down-right bastard. But he's someone good to have at your back. And he's a loyal friend," he said.
"Okay, I'll give you that," she said, "But unlike in the chuunin exam, the first test won't be a measure of my 'information gathering' abilities. It's going to be an actual written exam."
"Your grades at school weren't bad," Asuma said.
"They weren't that spectacular either," she said pouting.
"I don't think you're going to have too much trouble with the written exam," he said while he poured coffee into the filter.
Ino just sighed and hopped up to sit on the counter, "I'm being annoying, aren't I?"
Asuma grinned, "Just a little, but it's understandable. If it makes you feel any better, I did pretty much the same thing the night before my jounin exam."
Ino smiled at the idea of her teacher bugging the crap out of his teacher, "So you annoyed your sensei too?"
"No, actually I tracked down Kakashi and made him spar with me."
"That doesn't sound like the most intelligent of ideas."
Asuma smirked at her, "Looking back, it really wasn't. But he went easy on me and I managed to walk away relatively uninjured."
"I didn't think he was the sort to go easy on anyone," Ino said thinking of all the stories about Kakashi that she had heard from Sakura.
"He's not, usually. Unless you're his student or his friend who's hauled his drunken ass home on several occasions," Asuma said.
"From what I hear, he doesn't go easy on his students either," Ino said and began to swing her legs back and forth, reminding her teacher of her previous pacing.
"Not anymore he doesn't, but when they first became genin he did," Asuma said.
"I find that hard to believe," she said, thinking of the horror stories that Sakura had told her.
"Trust me on this one," he said, "you should see what he used to do when he was one of the trainers for ANBU."
"I'd rather not," Ino said.
"Good idea," Asuma said while he finished up preparing the coffee maker and hit the button to start the machine.
Still sitting on the counter, Ino tried to take her mind off the impending exam and instead decided to find something else to focus on.
"Asuma?" She asked and waited until he made eye contact with her before continuing. "Why do you have a house and everyone else an apartment?"
"It was left to me," he said.
"Was it decorated this way when you got it?"
Asuma looked around the kitchen and then took a few steps to the entrance of the room and stuck his head out to survey the living room.
"What's wrong with the way it's decorated?" He asked.
"It looks like something my grandfather would think up."
"I really don't have time to decorate, you know. And I'm not exactly known for my stunning tastes in décor."
"You could always hire someone to do it for you," Ino said, "my mother hired someone to re-do our dinning room."
Asuma exhaled loudly, "And how much did that cost?"
She shrugged with one shoulder, "Hell if I know."
"I can guarantee you that it was not cheap."
"Then you could always ask for the advice of a female friend."
"Are you volunteering?" He asked.
Ino smirked, "Are you kidding? Flower arranging aside I'm not really good at that sort of thing. My mother keeps telling me that my apartment looks like a bachelor lives there."
"Something tells me that most single ninja's homes look similar," Asuma said.
"Shikamaru told me that Kakashi's apartment is really nice," Ino said.
"How did he see it?"
"They had to write some kind of mission plan out together."
"Well, trust me, Kakashi used to live in a very small one room apartment where you could see the bed from the front door. And the only decoration was a few pictures placed around the room," Asuma said, recalling the apartment that the copy ninja had lived in for so long.
"Then why did he get a new place?" Ino asked.
It was Asuma's turn to smirk, "For the same reason most bachelors finally get a decent place: he got a girl friend. And I can guarantee you that she's the reason his home looks as nice as it does."
"Kakashi has a girlfriend?" Ino asked in mild disbelief.
"Yup," Asuma said grinning at the look on his former student's face, "And some of us thought that he'd die alone."
"Neither Sakura or Naruto has said anything about it," Ino said. And Ino figured that if Kakashi had a significant other, one of his two former students would know. The three of them were very close. And Sakura had developed a rather large protective streak concerning her two former team mates.
Asuma tried to choke back his laughter, but it didn't totally work and Ino shot him an inquiring look.
"What?" She asked.
Asuma thought for a minute, trying to decide how to answer.
"Well?" Ino would most likely not let this go. She never did if she thought there was something being kept from her.
"Can you keep you mouth shut?" Asuma asked.
"Of course I can," Ino said looking mildly offended.
"I mean really, you couldn't even mention it to the people involved. It's highly under wraps for now," he said very seriously.
Ino was slightly taken aback, Asuma was rarely so serious.
"Yes, I know when it's vital to keep my mouth shut."
"Okay," Asuma breathed, "The reason that neither of them has said anything is because they're both involved."
"Huh?" Ino looked thoroughly confused.
"Sakura"
"What?" Ino asked, franticly trying to connect the dots in her mind.
"You asked who, and I answered," Asuma said and lit another cigarette, "And Naruto would bite his own tongue off before betraying their secret."
"You mean to tell me that Sakura is Kakashi's girlfriend?" Ino's voice rose several decibels with her last statement.
"You have a problem with that?" Asuma asked mildly.
"Only that she didn't tell me," Ino huffed.
"Kakashi wants to spare her of the gossip for as long as he can," Asuma said lightly, "There are several people who would object."
"Why? 'Cause of the age difference?" Ino asked, "Because that's just stupid. There are noble lords who marry women young enough to be their daughters."
"I think it's more of the fact that she used to be his student." Asuma said, "Abuse of power and all that."
"I find that hard to believe; Sakura is an adult," Ino said as she pulled the pot out of the coffee maker and poured some into one of the mugs that were on the counter before she added an unhealthy amount of sugar.
"It's happened before," Asuma said, sounding disappointed in ninja's he'd never even met.
"I'd be lying if I said I was surprised," Ino said while she poured coffee into the second mug and handed it to Asuma.
"So you can see their point," he said.
Ino sighed overdramatically, "I suppose so. But when she does finally tell me, she's so going to owe me."
Asuma laughed lightly, "I imagine so."
"Hey, I'm her best friend. I've always told her all my relationship crap. She should know that she could trust me."
"And you would have been okay with it?"
"Well, I would have teased her something awful. But, come on! It's not like Kakashi is some hideous freak or an idiot. For all intensive purposes, he's known to be a great person, if you ignore his chronic late arrivals and preference for porn that is."
"The idea of dating a former teacher doesn't bother you, then?" Asuma asked.
Ino shot a level gaze at her own former teacher, "Not at all. The jounin instructors that I've know have been some of the most admirable people I've ever met. You've proven time and again that you're a good person and you've been more than just a sensei to me. I like to think that you've been my friend. At least, for the past few years, that is."
Asuma smiled, "That's because I am your friend. All three of you have become more than just my students. You especially."
Ino grinned happily, "You see my point then. Their relationship obviously has evolved enough that they have feelings for each other. I see no problem with that at all. In fact, I wish that more of my friends could find something like that. Life's short, especially for us."
"Just remember to keep it to yourself for now," Asuma said as he drank some of his coffee.
"I know, I know," Ino said as she took a sip of her own drink, made a face and then added still more sugar.
"Having a little coffee with your sugar?" Asuma asked.
"I'm never going to get used to the taste of this stuff," Ino said.
"Then why do you drink it?"
"Habit," Ino replied ,"I started because it helped wake me up or keep me awake for missions and the whatnot and now it's just second nature."
"I suppose it's better than some of the other habits that you could have developed," he said.
"Like smoking for instance?" Ino said, giving him a mischievous smile.
"Better me than you," he said.
"I really wish you'd quit, those things are taking years off your life."
"I've tried, it never works. Last time I tried I put on fifteen pounds and was irritable for weeks."
"I think I remember that," Ino said, "Wasn't that when you spent all that time carving little wooden knickknacks and kept chewing on senbon needles?"
"Hey, I put lots of effort into those little wooden knickknacks I'll have you know. And you can blame the senbon needles on Genma," Asuma said sounding amused.
"I know, I still have that necklace that you made me," Ino said, "What made you decide to try and quit?"
"My break up with Kurenai, trying to change to distract myself and whatnot," Asuma said, slightly in awe that she still had the trinket that he had made for her, "You still have that necklace?"
"Yup, it's become somewhat of a good luck charm. I take it with me on all my missions. And trying to change yourself because of someone else is just plain stupid. I thought that you would have known that by your age," Ino said.
Asuma raised an eyebrow at the young blonde, "What can I say, temporary lack of sanity on my part."
Ino waved one hand as if brushing something away, "It's not like plenty of people haven't done the exact same thing. God knows I have. On more than one occasion."
"You're young. And that buys you a lot of slack in the stupid department," Asuma said.
"Not so young anymore," Ino said.
"Not really, I guess. You've been taking care of yourself for quite a while. Held your own on many missions and soon you'll be a jounin," Asuma said, slightly dazed at how much she had grown up from the little girl who was more concerned with looking good then training.
Ino groaned loudly, "I had forgotten that I have to take the jounin exam. Man, now I'm stressing again." She hopped off the counter and carried her mug of coffee into the living room where she could resume pacing. Asuma followed her sighing.
"Ino, you really need to calm down," Asuma said, "And don't spill coffee on my carpet."
"I know I do, but I'm not sure exactly how to do that. I've never been really good at calming myself down," she said.
It was true, even back to her genin days; Asuma could remember it was always one of her team mates that got her to settle. Every one of her friends knew that the best way to get her to settle down was to distract her.
Unfortunately, the day before the jounin exam was not the ideal time for anyone. Most of her friends where busy helping preparing the village for the exam, away on missions or simply unable to spare a moment for Ino.
"Well, what do you usually do to calm down?" He asked.
"Train, run, girly bonding with Sakura, or bug the hell out of Shikamaru. None of which are exactly options right now."
"Why, what's got Shikamaru tied up?"
"Most likely Temari. She got in from Sand a few days ago. He's been pretty scarce since."
"The same Temari that's the sister of the Kazekage?" He asked.
"The very one."
"He's braver than I thought."
Ino giggled.
Asuma grinned, "Well it's true. She could cause him some serious damage if he pisses her off. And I've heard that Gaara has gotten quite protective of his siblings."
"I think that he'll be able to handle himself," she said, "But this is not helping me any. Now I'm just worried about who's going to be my opponents in the exam."
"There has to be something else that you use to take your mind off things," he said wondering if he had left his pack of cigarettes in the kitchen.
"Nothing that's plausible right now," Ino mumbled. But Asuma managed to catch it anyway.
"What do you mean?" He asked.
Ino stopped her pacing and gave Asuma a piercing look and held it for several long seconds until he finally got it.
It didn't take him long, "Oh, okay. I get it now."
"Good, 'cause I really didn't want to have to spell it out for you."
"I may be dense at times, but I'm not completely out of it," he said.
"That's debatable," she countered.
"I swear, you've gotten to be much more of a smart mouth as you've gotten older."
"Actually," Ino said, "I've always been this way. I've just let my thoughts be voiced more as I've grown up."
"And here I thought that you had no control when you were young," Asuma said as he wandered back into the kitchen to look for his smokes and wondered out again after finding them on the counter.
"I did, just not as much as other kids," Ino said as she flopped into a chair again.
Asuma winced as the coffee came dangerously close to sloshing out of her mug when she sloppily sagged into the chair, "So tell me again why you can't train today?"
Ino looked at him with an exaggerated countenance, "It was your idea, something about not over exerting myself and not running the risk of injury."
"Oh yeah, maybe that wasn't one of my smarter ideas," he said.
"So I should go train?" She asked.
"Do you want to train?" He countered.
She sighed heavily, "I don't know. I'm wound up and tense and nervous. I feel like I'm going to pop out of my skin."
"This really isn't like you. What happened between the time I left, and now, to rattle you like this?" He asked, his concern obvious in the tone of his voice.
Ino slumped further into the armchair, "Naruto's team got back from the Sound border. Every time there's a mission there, they come back so beaten up, there are always casualties and every time we're one step closer to war. I've lost so many friends. I know that skill-wise, I'm on jounin level. But I'm not sure I'm ready to lead people to their deaths."
Asuma crossed the living room and stopped to kneel down in front of the chair where Ino was sitting, "You think that there's anyone who hasn't balked at the thought of watching a friend die? Everyone has these doubts. And right now is a dangerous time to become a jounin. Because we are heading towards something big against Hidden Sound. And as a jounin, you'll have a lot on your shoulders. Much more than those who came before you. You'll be a leader on the field of battle. And that can be scary. But I know you can do it."
Ino set her coffee mug on a small table next to the chair, being careful not to knock the ashtray over and then leaned forward and was face to face with Asuma, "I'm happy that you have so much faith in me. You think I can take you along with me on the exam to keep my spirits up?" She grinned at him.
He returned the smile, "Sorry, I don't think that would work. Besides, you don't need me."
Ino looked at him softly, "I promise you, no matter what I achieve, I will always need you."
He looked surprised, "Why?"
"Because you are my friend and I love you."
She leaned forward and pressed her lips against his. She meant for it to be a quick and friendly kiss. He wasn't expecting it. But they both felt something jolt inside them and the kiss deepened and continued for several long moments until they both looked back with duel surprised looks on their faces.
"I…" for once, Ino couldn't think of anything to say.
Asuma smiled, "Yeah, I know."
Relieved a similar smile spread across her face, "Good." She began to rise and Asuma backed up and stood, giving her room to come to her own feet.
"I'm going to track down Hinata and drag her away from Neji's training regime and to the bath house. She's taking the exam too and I'm sure that she could stand to relax," Ino said,
"Probably a good idea," Asuma said, "And I'll see you later?"
She nodded, "Obviously-dinner okay?"
"Sounds good to me."
"I'll catch you later then," Ino said, and before he could react she pushed herself onto her tiptoes and gave Asuma another kiss, before slipping away from him and out the front door.
And Asuma found himself wondering if soon he was going to be in the same boat as Kakashi.
fin