Chapter One
The day was sunny and warm, as it usually was in Konoha even though it being late fall. The leaves on the trees were just about turning yellow from their usual brilliant and lush summer green. One person, namely Naruto, was leisurely enjoying the weather as he strolled down the main road towards the new Hokage tower. The slight chill carried on the wind only made it more enjoyable as it enhanced the sun's warmth all the more.
A year had passed since Pein had made a crater of the village. The new look that came with newly made houses and buildings had started to feel homely again, fresh wood had just started to turn weather worn, paint crusty and flaky at places. Trash and old bottles lined the alleys, potted plants decorated the foyers here and there. More fancy decorative woodworks had started to appear around windows and the people had started to fall into a sense of normalcy. Store clerks were sweeping their store fronts in preparation for another business day. Children laughing as they skipped their way towards the academy…
Naruto could close his eyes and imagine the old village, it felt like it, it smelled like it, and it sure as hell sounded like it. Yet another proof to him that life had once again returned to Konoha. It might have been utterly destroyed but the new Konoha was no shaping up to be nothing different, proving that it was not the buildings or the sights that made up the village, but its people.
Without any hurry, and fully intent to enjoy the Konoha morning, he climbed the last steps towards the Hokage tower, drifting slowly inside.
The insides of the building was both cooler and warmer that the outside air, as the sun did not directly shine inside nor did the wind blow through it, and what little did make it inside was quickly warmed up by a series of radiators throughout the building.
Turning directly right at the entrance he headed for the spiralling staircase that would take him up to Tsunade-bachan's office. He returned a small wave and a grin towards one of the mission clerks manning the numerous desks handling the distribution of missions, the room was already crowded and most of all the desks were in full swing to send genin and chunin wherever they were needed. The clerk in question had, upon seeing him, waved at him with a shy smile. One of the many small perks he had come to enjoy after the he defeated Pein was how generally nice people had become. It had been a long and hard fought reward that he was thoroughly enjoying.
With a grin still plastered on his face he barged into Tsunade-bachan's office without knocking and threw a hearty greeting, a side of him hoping he was interrupting whatever the old crone might have been doing. He had in certain areas picked up Ero-sennin's old habits, one being to rile up his old teammate into a frothing anger, not that it worked… much.
"Hello, Obachan!" he shouted, the glower he received back made him chuckle under his breath.
As Tsunade made to respond he noticed another person standing in the room, just off to the side.
"Hi, Ino-chan!" He interrupted Tsunade as he closed the last distance between the desk and the door. The blond gave a wry little smile back at him.
"Hello, Naruto."
Tsunade made a disgruntled noise at being ignored.
"You took your time, Brat." Tsunade bit out, feeling her teeth clench a little too hard for her liking. She had long since stopped trying to make him stop calling her that; the boy was incorrigible. Her words were merely met with another grin from the boy.
She tried her best to ignore the boy's antics; the faster she got this all over with the faster she would get rid of him.
"I am sending you two on a mission to Kakagi," Tsunade began, picking up a mission scroll stamped with a big 'B' to Ino. "There you will find and extract information from a man named Himitsu Sewa. The client is interested in anything that could be used against the man and his business."
Tsunade looked between the two youngsters. Who, to her relief, understood the weight of the mission she was giving them.
"The mission is time sensitive and because of its nature, dangerous. It is unknown if Himitsu has any ninja under his payroll but expect heavy resistance if you are found out… I hope I do not need to tell you a lot of money is resting on this mission, money we desperately need."
Both Ino and Naruto gave a court nod. She was glad Naruto at least had sense enough to understand when to be serious. She eyed the two for a second before she finally asked.
"Any questions?"
Ino raised her hand before she spoke, sending a slightly apologetic look towards Naruto.
"Um, wouldn't it be better if I paired up with someone more, like, Hinata, or Shino?"
Naruto visibly sagged, looking for all the world a bit miffed at the girl's words, but stayed oddly silent. It shook Tsunade how much the loudmouthed boy had grown the past year, she had expected him to shout indignantly at being told he wasn't good enough. It also warmed her heart in odd ways, he looked so much like her little brother, a spot Naruto had involuntarily filled, and probably the reason she let him get away with all his backtalk.
"Because everyone else is unavailable, now get out of my office!" 'So I can drink my booze in peace' however, went unsaid.
"Sorry about what I said." Ino apologized when they finally came to a stop after spending the last few hours tree hopping for a well-deserved rest. The both of them still had a full days sprint left to cover.
"For what?" Naruto asked while he stretched his legs, absently wondering what she was on about; he couldn't remember anything she had done that warranted an apology? After leaving Tsunade's office they had gone their separate ways to pack their bags, and mere minutes later met up at the gate, and then spent the last three hours running through the thick foliage that made up the mere part of the land of fire. Ino had seemed to know which direction this Kakagi place was at, so he had simply followed her as she made her speedy way through the trees.
Ino's shoulders visibly collapsed at the clueless expression Naruto was sending in her direction. And here she thought it was her fault he had stayed quiet; that he had been mad at her. She even felt indignant, here she had spent the hours to work up the courage to apologize and he had simply forgotten!
"Never mind." She answered kicking at the ground, feeling a bit frustrated at her failed attempt to apologize, and at Naruto being… well, Naruto, she guessed; the boy had a knack for it.
"How far away is this, Kakagi town?" Naruto asked after a few silent moments, keeping is limbs limber and warm by both rolling on the balls of his feet and swinging his arms, and in her eyes brimming with energy, if she wasn't wrong he would be able to keep on running through the entire night if he so wanted too.
"Another day's sprint." She took a note from Naruto and kept moving about the small clearing, wouldn't do to get too cold and have her muscles cramp on her later on. The air wasn't particularly warm as the winter season was starting to creep around the corner. She wouldn't be surprised if the night temperature would start to drop below zero soon. She shivered a bit as a particularly cold wind brushed against her exposed skin, she probably should have packed warmer clothes too…
After another minute or so they were again off running. Thanks to not keeping to any roads but up amongst the branches of the trees, what would take a few days would be cut down to only one.
Early in the morning the next day, Naruto and Ino arrived at the town of Kakagi, one of the larger trading towns in the land of fire, situated in the middle of an expansive river land next to the largest river outlet. It oversaw most of the trade around the eastern sea and saw merchants and ships from all over the elemental nations, featuring the country's largest harbour.
It was a busy town filled with people though it, though it lacked most common attractions and entertainments Naruto had come to expect from the land of hot water and other towns and cities Jiraya had taken him to… He could not help the small grin the sprung to his lips as he remembered fondly about the old pervert and his antics. He would have avoided places like these like this like the plague; if there were no loose girls around he simply wasn't either.
In no time Ino had led him through the winding streets and checked them in into a small but cheap inn, one room separate beds. It was at that moment when she had casually stated the terms to the innkeeper that he caught himself disappointed. The thought he had unintentionally hoped for the mishap sent cold shivers through his soul. He quietly made a few signs behind the backs of the two women as they were led to their room to ward of harmful spirits. One could never be too careful, especially if the old pervert was around trying to corrupt him from beyond the grave.
Ino threw herself on the closest bed and made the must ungodly cute groan as she sighed into the softness of a proper bed, her backpack thrown haphazardly at the foot of it.
"I am exhausted." She growled eyes shut in a content expression as she spread herself out on the soft covers.
Ino, compared to himself, was completely exhausted after the near nonstop run from all the way from Konoha, they had only stopped for a quick midnight nap for an hour or so to make the last trek of the journey. She did not have the advantage of having a fox in her stomach to enhance her own stamina, what little Naruto knew about anatomy was that his enhanced healing helped offset the effects that was more common amongst his peers, he could never really overexert himself. Sure he felt a bit sore after the run but it was more of a small reminder that, yes, he had been running almost a whole night through. Ino on the other hand was just short of being in pain.
Having three trained medical experts in his life did open his eyes a bit to people around him, and made him realize just how different he was thanks to the tailed-beast inside of him.
What he was, however, was dead tired. Being awake for more than twenty-four hours was stretching his ability to keep his eyes open.
Realizing he was staring at the girl as she laid there sighing exaggerated sighs, made his cheeks heat, especially since his eyes stuck to her shapely behind. Feeling self-conscious and afraid that she would notice his stares he hurriedly made for his own bed closer to the window. Where he emulated his companion and simply threw himself on top the bed. He couldn't help the groan as it slipped through his lips. The bed felt like heaven.
In short order the pair of them fell to sleeps cruel clutches.
Naruto woke up around midday, or so he guessed as he groggily sat up. Ino was still fast asleep drawing heavy sighs in time with the rise and fall of her back. His eyes again locked to her lower body, this time however her skirt had ridden up her legs leaving only her dark skin tight shorts open to the air, they left little to the imagination which he realized was worse. 'The illusion of nakedness' Jiraya had called it as he tried to explain the allure of it, he hadn't understood it back then but now it was making him extremely uncomfortable. He was eyeing a girl in her sleep and not any girl either but a friend a really good friend too, and it was making him feel like he was betraying her trust.
What was with him today, he thought a few hours' sleep would get his mind away from the gutter but it hadn't.
He rose to leave but as he reached the door he stopped and looked back, and then at the window, and cursed. Not only had he looked at Ino again when he tried not to but any passer-by could also take advantage of her in her oblivious state. He doubled back and took his own bed covers and draped it over her, killing two birds with one stone.
All the reaction he got was her grabbing blindly at it and pulling the quilt closer in around her with a muttered 'thank you'. When Naruto left he wasn't sure if he had woken her up or if she had simply been sleep talking.
The door clicked close and he drew a sigh in relief, he hoped against hope that he wasn't starting to become like Jiraya. The thought gave him shivers.
Free from the presence of Ino his thoughts quickly turned to food, a late breakfast was probably what he was needing to get himself back to himself, and so he set out to find a ramen stand, who knew maybe he could find something new and revolutionary to bring back for Ichiraku to put on the menu!
A sad and defeated Naruto returned to the hotel carrying a bag of roasted sweet potatoes and a piece of bread filled with mincemeat and hot sauce, he had already eaten one and planned to give the other one to Ino if she was still in their room. It just so happened she was. Laying on her stomach on his bed bathing in the afternoon sun. Her eyes opened to look at him as he entered. Her body relaxed as she recognized him and sat up.
"Hello, Naruto." She greeted as she stretched her shoulders, she eyed the bags curiously and let Naruto's own spirited return greeting brush past her, "what you got there?"
"Breakfast!" Naruto grinned and handed the bag over to her after extracting a still warm potato from it.
She curiously eyed the content but couldn't help giving out a disgusted snort. Naruto payed no head to her as he reclined on her bed idly munching on his food. Without wasting much more time she dug up the bread, which she was pleasantly surprised by, at least it wasn't plain old bread and the sweet potato made a good snack afterwards.
"So… what's the plan, Ino-chan?" He asked licking his fingers clean.
Ino popped a piece of the potato into her mouth and chewed slowly to give her time to respond.
"We will go out and find where Himitsu and his company is, then I will body switch with one of the workers and look around for whatever I can find out."
"But, what about me?"
Ino eyed Naruto but couldn't hold a small chuckle from escaping. Naruto had meanwhile made his best attempt at a puppy dog look, which had failed spectacularly as he looked completely ridiculous more than anything.
"Heh, you will, like, watch over my body while I snoop around." She said it like it was the most obvious thing in in the world.
"What am I to do, stand around doing nothing?"
"Pretty much, yep." She put extra emphasis on the 'r', which made Naruto only collapse in on himself.
"Why am I even here for?" he muttered a little annoyed, pouting up a storm.
Ino finished her treat and jumped to her feet.
"Come on, if we hurry we might be back in Konoha before this time tomorrow."
Naruto sighed but followed his teammate out the door.
"Are you sure you will be okey?" Naruto said for the third time, breaking Ino's concentration and making her lose the jutsu and her opportunity to body switch with the passing guard.
"Yes, Naruto, shut up and let me concentrate you idiot!" Ino hissed at him, finally losing her temper.
Naruto for his part was rent with worry and concern. He could picture everything that could go wrong with this plan to infiltrate the mansion of this Sewa fella, but worst was that he could not do anything, heck he would probably never know if anything went wrong. That was sending doubts through him and spikes of paranoia, he hated the feeling, he was more trying to convince himself that everything was going to go right more than his lack of confidence in her abilities. He knew she could and would take care of herself but sitting on his arse just waiting while his friend was putting herself in danger while he sat in complete safety was not something he was looking forwards too.
He knitted his lips together as best he could for a fourth time and clamped his hands onto his pants. If he wasn't so worried he would have laughed at himself at how nervous he was, heck it wasn't even he who was going to infiltrate the heavily guarded mansion of a very wealthy and totally shady man. Heck even Jiraya appeared like an upstanding citizen compared to the stout little baldy… it was probably why he was so damn nervous too… He wasn't putting himself in danger, he couldn't or else they both knew what would happen, he wasn't the sneakiest person and he knew squat what kind of information they were trying to steal/uncover. No she had to go on her own.
A minute passed before the next guard came up around inside the chest high wall, the fence on top of it would stop any non-ninja from making it up and over it. Ino's hands flashed in a series of hand seals before she thrust her hands forward, her thumbs, index and middle fingers touching tip to tip with the opposite hand. Naruto barely had time to catch her body as it went completely limp, like a puppet that got its strings cut.
The guard, only twitched as he almost missed a step, and he was assured that everything must have worked as it should have as the guard looked and winked at him with a smile before it again set into a bored look it had before.
Feeling the lump in his chest grow even more as he watched her walk away from him made him again feel helpless and worried. It felt like this was the last time he was going to see her again, and that all that would be left would be the empty shell he held right now. Desperate, he shook his head to empty it of the thoughts.
"Good luck," he whispered as he saw her disappear behind the mansion.
He suckered a breath and let it out in a slow quiet sigh, it worked little to calm him down as the lump still persisted. He swallowed another attempt that failed to elevate his worries. He waited another minute and watched as another guard passed by before he finally calmed his heart down enough to trust his own head; the impulse to sneak in after her was strong.
He looked down at Ino's body and felt another boat of nervousness come to the surface. Feeling more than a little shame as his eyes roamed over her. As his hands felt soft flesh give under his palms. Bad thoughts entered his mind as he felt his arms twitch with impulsive commands. Here he held what could only constitute as an unconscious woman in his hands, all up for the taking. Nobody would ever know if he would touch her, to feel what only a few lucky numbers ever would.
Slowly and with shaking hands he looped and arm around her midriff, he pulled her up securely and flush against him. He could feel the pulse of her heart, beating fast, just like his own. His other hand slowly cupper her cheek, revelling in how soft and smooth the skin was to his touch, slowly he lifted her head up and against his shoulder, his eyes roaming her face closer than he had ever done before. Her lips slightly parted, eyes closed and her face relaxed. His eyes stuck at her lips, he licked his own, absently wondering how it would feel to kiss them.
His eyes drifted down following her neckline as it disappeared behind her blouse, following the soft curve of her breasts.
He felt his own breath come to him quick and shaking, his face felt like it was on fire as he licked his dry lips, his eyes slowly returned to her face, her soft innocent face.
What was he doing!? He felt his knees weaken and leaned against the alley wall. What was he doing! He bit his lips hard enough to draw blood as he tore his eyes away. It took his all not to throw the limp body away from him. His whole body broke out in a cold sweat as he felt himself flush in pure shame. This was wrong on so many levels, and worst yet he had done it to a friend, a friend who had trusted him with her own body's protection, and what had he done? Exactly what he would expect of the scum inside the base would do, take advantage of her.
Shame soon boiled into anger, anger at himself that he even so much as entertained the idea. He needed to get away and quick, he needed to let go of the girl in his arms, to distance himself. He felt anger and tears build in his eyes. He had broken the trust one of his own friends had placed her trust in him, he realized he did not even want to trust himself anymore. He knew he wouldn't be able to look her in the face again after this. How was he supposed to?
Feeling disgusted with himself and how damn low he managed to let himself fall he swept the body into his arms, careful to cradle the head securely against him, and quickly jumped away, sprinting over the roofs to the inn.
He passed the innkeeper who hid her giggles poorly behind her hand. Feeling even more shame and heat hit his cheeks he hurriedly entered their room, dumped Ino on her bed and draped the covers over her all the way up to her chin and threw another one over her when the first one proved to be too thin to block her shape from him, and then dumped himself into the far corner behind his own bed. Feeling the tears finally start to fall.
He rubbed at his eyes furiously as he cursed himself. He hoped Ino would just hurry up and be done so he could hurry and get as far away as possible.
Naruto woke with a start when the door clicked open.
"I-Ino?" he managed to ask as he stretched his neck to look over his bed. What met his eyes was not Ino, no one he recognized at all. The light behind the person shadowed his features beyond recognition. But he was the short sword held in the man's hand.
"Who are you!?" Naruto shouted as he sprung to his feet and his hands threw themselves on instinct into his trademarked hand sign.
The man froze for a second before Naruto's ears picked up a small chuckle before the man launched himself at Naruto.
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" a huge explosion erupted and the newly created clones launched themselves at the charging swordsman. One quickly went up in smoke, the other two managed to land devastating blows the physically drove the man into the ground. Jumping himself into the fray, Naruto grabbed the man by the collar, spun and threw the larger man out headfirst through the open door, breaking the thin opposite wall with a snap.
Hearing more voices outside he sent the last two clones out to distract them.
Ino was still unconscious on the bed which concerned him, she hadn't moved at all. 'Something must have happened!'
He barely heard the pop signalling that the last clone had gone up in smoke, the memories of the clone assaulted his mind, revealing that the hallway was filled with armed men rushing inside.
They had to leave, now! He threw the covers of Ino and threw her over his shoulder, a rasengan already forming in his hand he charged the outer wall. Just as he heard shouts, telling him to stop and surrender, he blew the wall out and jumped through and out into the night.
Naruto cursed as he ducked behind the ridge of the house he was currently hunkering on top. Another group of weapon wielding thugs ran past his hiding spot, their heavy footfalls drumming against the earthen roads. He couldn't find a good opportunity to slip through. If he moved someone was bound to see him in the sharp moonlight, and if he stayed it would be only a matter of when, not if, he got discovered.
Worse yet was Ino, she was still unconscious and limp as a marionette doll, she weighted him down something fierce. His balance was thrown off thanks to her odd extra weight, it did not help that he never could get a solid grip on her either as he could only awkwardly gather her into his arms.
If he could've he would have screamed in frustration. Why wasn't she back in her own body? This would all be so easy if she was. Gah, he should have gone with her! He pulled at his hair, painfully so. If he had gone with her he would have known what had gone wrong, why she wasn't back yet, not knowing made his situation so much more worse! He couldn't leave, he did not know how that mind body switch jutsu worked, did it only work at certain distances? Could he actually get the hell out of town without risking Ino's life? What if he ran and she never woke up?
As luck would have it, or unluck, the decision was made for him as the roof tiles to his right rattled. Someone had found him.
"End of the line kid, give up and surrender." Naruto looked up in horror at who he was seeing, his mind flashed back to the memory of his first C-ranked mission, the man who stood in front of him stood with such assured arrogance that could only stem from pure unadulterated knowledge and belief in one's own ability. The chill he felt was equal to that when Zabuza had almost cleaved him in half.
In an instant he was on his feet, a half dozen clones sprung into existence and he swept Ino's body up into his arms and did the only sane thing he could think of in his situation, run! He had barely cleared the roof when he felt his last clone exploded into a cloud of smoke. Throwing caution to the wind he raced, putting so much power in his legs that the tiles under his feet cracked under the pressure. In any other situation he would have been amazed at how fast he was actually running. He heard as much as he felt his pursuer being just a step behind him.
He leapt from the roofs and down straight upon one of the patrols of thugs, crushing the man under his and Ino's combined weight and bowled over the rest as he nearly broke a stride. He needed to get out of the town well in the forest he would be able to shake the enemy ninja. He gave another burst of speed and he hoped against hope that he left any pursuer in the dust.
He had not. The streets broke and gave way for the pier and then streaming river water. Chancing a glance over his shoulder made him curse in dismay. Another ninja had joined the chase and were hot on his heels as they raced over the river.
Water gave way to heavy forest foliage.
Naruto was completely lost, but did he care? No, not at all. His plan to shake the two ninja had failed, not only had they kept pace with him but actually several times tried to cut him off. It was nothing but a miracle that he was still standing. His legs burned, his arms burned, his back burned, his lungs burned; he was near complete exhaustion. He did not run anymore to flee, no, it was not about if he would be caught now, it was a matter of when, a when he felt was not that much far off. His two pursuers must have realized it too as their attempts to stop him became less fierce and more symbolic than anything else.
He dodged another thrown weapon and clipped his shoulder on a passing tree with enough force to wrench his feet of the ground. He felt Ino's body fly from his grip, and landed with a wet splash on hard coerce sand. He involuntarily breathed in water through his nose sending him hacking and coughing.
He received a kick to his stomach from out of nowhere, making him give an odd chortling scream.
"Damn you are persistent." Came the voice he recognized from the ninja that first found him in town.
"Hahahaha, but man, look at the cutie, no wonder he was desperate!" Naruto heard the other ninja say as the much larger man's heavy footsteps splashed through the shallow water and passed him. Weakly Naruto looked up, his vision blurred and irritated as muddy sand had managed to get into his eyes. He cloud barely make out the man lifting Ino's head by her hair and leer at her.
"G-get your hands off her!" Naruto hacked and rose to his feet, his face betraying just how much the simple act hurt.
The two ninja shared a curious look between each other before both put on cruel smiles.
"Or else what?" the leaner of the two spat, "You gonna beat us up?"
The two burst out laughing, at that ridiculous prospect, Naruto could barely stand and both of them knew it.
"The pretty face here, and our boss are going to have a little, intimate, talk with each other, and there's little you can do about it, kid."
Being on his wits end, he did the only thing he could do, he accessed the Kyuubi's chakra. Feeling the chakra cloak envelop him in its painful embrace he leapt at Ino. Water and sand exploded behind him as he in a blur launched himself forward. With a anger filled roar he crushed the arm that held the girl, grabbed the cuff of her blouse and dove into the cold rapids of the river.
A/N: Yet another project posted by me! Though compared to the rest this one has a purpose. I have always fashioned myself as a helpless romantic, and since I have zero experience in writing sappy stuff I now endeavour to expand my skills with this fic. It will be a learning experience from me as I will focus a lot more on the actual relationship than an overarching storyline filled with adventure.
I have decided to remove everything that happened after Pein's attack on Konoha, no Tobi, no Madara, No Obito… at least pertaining to the fourth shinobi world war. I did this because of how the characters are at the time before it, and I do not feel inclined to include the whole debacle as it would be more of a pain in the ass and detract from the tale I want to tell.
I hope you enjoyed, and please send me a PM or if you want to help the story gain fame, a review, explaining what you thought was good or bad, what I need to do better and if I did anything glaringly wrong. As I said this is meant to teach me more than anything to better help me later in my other fics.
Cya next time.