Ch.2 Coming Home
"Good morning Nara-san, is there something you need?"
"Well… you see Aburame-sama…"
XxX
The arrival of the Nara had left the Aburame compound in complete chaos.
"This is terrible…"
"What are we going to do?"
"I can't believe this. Are you certain there's nothing left?
"No, nothing. They are gone."
"We never should have let him leave"
"Don't be ridiculous; we couldn't have kept him here if we tried"
"… I know"
The voices of his clan continued to flow through the room, hushed and quiet. Something and someone precious had been lost, and now they grieved for both. It would be years before Shino truly understood why.
XxX
It hurt. Everything hurt. Each movement brought forth a new wave of pain. Ino had long since stopped careering about anything else. Shadows moved to and fro across her blurry vision, but it hurt too much to think about what they were, or to think at all for that matter. Her entire body felt like it was on fire, and every sensation she could make out only intensified the burning pain. The noise, the light, all of it only made the hurt worse.
Eventually it began to fade, eventually she fell into merciful slumber.
XxX
White tiled ceiling greeted her eyes, and it took a moment or two for Ino to realize that she was in a hospital. There were Machines and wires surrounding her little bed, all labeled with complicated words and numbers she did not know. Ino wasn't how long she listened to the machines rhythmic noises, but eventually someone must have noticed her state of consciousness because the next thing she knew, Daddy was breaking down the door.
"Ino! Thank goodness you're okay!" the blonde man ran towards her, grasping her small hands with his much larger ones.
"…Daddy?" Ino finally answered, feeling very confused. Why did he break the door again?
"Ahem, Yamanaka-san may I a word with outside?" a doctor asked in a pleasant voice. It almost covered the agitation that seemed to radiate off the man…
"Good luck Daddy" Ino gave him a thumbs up. The look of horror on her father's face was priceless. The doctor may or may not have chuckled, she could really tell. She also missed the look the adults exchanged.
"Yes, yes, I'm coming Yakushi-san" Daddy finally told the man, giving one finally look of mock horror, before following the man outside. Were they really going outside? That seemed an awfully long way to say a few words.
As it turned out, 'outside' meant outside the door frame, and as the two men spoke in hushed whispers, Ino wasn't able to catch much more than "chakra" "shock" and "trauma" whatever that meant. She quickly grew bored of trying to listen to the adult's conversation and instead turned her attention to more pressing matters, such as the needles attached to her arm for no reason.
To put it lightly, that did not go well, and ended up with the doctor (Yakushi-san?) giving her a very scary smile along with a verbal request to not do it again. Even Daddy was scared.
"Alright Ino-san, how are you feeling?" Yakushi-san asked, with that weird smile still on his face.
"I feel fine."
"Oh? Nothing hurts? Not even a headache?" the doctor tried again, this time he wasn't smiling.
"No sir?" why would it? Now that she thought about, why on was she in the hospital?
"… Alright," he said with an oddly concentrated look before he turned to her father "Well Yamanaka-san, she it would appear that she's just fine as far as we can tell. There seem to be no side effects whatsoever, if nothing changes for the next two days she should be free to go."
Daddy only gave the man a short nod, neither of them seemed too happy.
"Is there something wrong?" She finally demanded; this was taking far too long. But much to her confusion, the adults only gave her a grim look.
"Thank you Yakushi-san, if anything happens you'll be the first to know." Daddy spoke, but neither made a move to leave. This was so confusing, what are they talking about? Ugh, useless adults. Where is Shikamaru when you need him?
So aside from the mass confusion that was her brain for the next two days, they were able to leave the hospital without incident. The bright crowded streets seemed just like they were on any other day, with both civilians and ninja coming and going as they pleased. It didn't look like anything had happened. Did she fall down the stair again? It certainly wouldn't be the first time it's happened. But then again, Ino was fairly certain she'd remember something like that… For the past two days she'd been there, nobody would tell her what happened, or why she was in the hospital to begin with. Apparently Shikamaru and some other people did try to visit, but the medics only let daddy visit her, which she found to be a little odd. It was during this train of thought that she finally noticed they were heading in the wrong direction.
"Daddy?" Ino swore his face lit up the moment the word left her mouth.
"Yes sweetie?" he answered in an eager and much happier mood than the one he had 5 seconds ago. Daddy really is amazing, isn't he?
"Why aren't we going home?" his face fell at that.
"ah… we need to go to the Hokage's office and drop off your medical report before we can go home sweetheart." He said with a small nervous smile, and ever so slightly quickened their pace. Ino had to jog to keep up with him, did he not want to go? He doesn't he just say so?
"Okay!" she said with a smile, hoping that would make him feel a bit better. Honestly, Daddy better cheer up soon, she wouldn't know what to do with him if he didn't.
Ugh, Adults are so complicated.
Their walk to the Hokage tower didn't take too long, much to Ino's relief, and a few short minutes of waiting a quick word from Daddy to the receptionist had them walking into the Hokage's office in record time. Daddy was pretty cool like that. The tan old man behind the hokage's desk gave her a grandfatherly smile, and gestured for them to sit.
"Welcome Yamanaka-san, Ino-chan, I'm sorry you had to come all the way here. I just had a few things I would like to talk about In-chan if that's alright?" He asked as Daddy gave him a thin folder. But despite his kind smile, he looked very tired. Ino wasn't quite sure what about him gave her that impression, but she didn't like. Not one bit.
Her unlikely savior came in the form a very tall man covered from head to toe. His dark tinted glasses and upturned collar covered what little could be seen of his face. His spiky brown hair the only visible feature she could make out besides the small piece of jewelry attached to his glasses.
"Ah. Aburame-san, I wasn't expecting you to arrive so quickly-"
At some point she stopped hearing the Hokage's words, because right in front of her stood a near exact copy of Him. The man in forest, the one that smelled awful- smelled like blood- the one that wouldn't move –why wouldn't he wake up?- the one that brought the black bugs- so many of them- so much hurt-
Did this one have them too?
"Ino Yamanaka!" The Hokage's voice cut through her mental rant, and she instinctively turned to look at him.
"Yes?" she answered, hoping, praying, that the should-be-dead-man wasn't behind her.
"Ino? Ino look at me sweetie" Daddy said in a weird sugary voice, his hands gripping her shoulders. He didn't look angry, that was always a good sign.
"What's wrong Daddy?" she asked him, but her voice sounded weird even to her. Something was wrong, something had to be wrong, otherwise this wouldn't be happening and Daddy wouldn't be looking at her like that. She had never seen her father this worried before.
"Hokage-sama can't we have this meeting later? She just got out of the hospital!" the slight ring of parental authority in her father's voice took her by surprise. But before the older shinobi could answer, another voice entered the fray.
"Ino-san,"-oh no, not him, why is he still here?-"I need you to tell me what happened. What happened in the forest?" the Should-be-dead-man spoke, completely ignoring the other adults in the room. What? What was he talking about? He looked so serious, why would he be asking her about the-
Forest
XxX
The third Hokage could feel the oncoming migraine as he looked at the head of the Aburame clan. Shibi Aburame, if he had known the poor child would have a panic attack at the sight of him he would have had the man wait outside. Or at least stay out of her direct line of sight. Sarutobi had been a fool. Of course she wouldn't have remembered the event, it wasn't uncommon for some individuals to have temporary memory loss after a traumatizing incident. But with an entire squad missing with no leads whatsoever and the Aburame clan at his throat for the death of one of their most valuable members, Sarutobi hiruzen hadn't even thought to question why the girl was doing so well after what she'd gone through.
Of course it all started coming back to her as soon as the Aburame head stepped through the door and given her two consecutive panic attacks. It had taken a whole two hours to calm the poor thing down, and another to actually understand what she was saying. Inoichi had been, understandably, furious and had taken the girl back home as soon as she had finished her version of events. The only version they currently had, and the Aburame head was not happy about it.
"Are you certain there is nothing else Hokage-sama?" the man asked for the what felt like the one hundredth time. "If what that child said is true, there's no possible way she could have survived. Are you certain there is nothing else?"
The Hokage sighed at the slight jab, but refused to acknowledge it. Truth be told he too was curious as to how young Ino Yamanaka had survived such a devastating event. But they had nothing else to go on, and her statement clearly matched up with what they had already known. The poison used to kill Shiki Aburame was not exactly common, but it wasn't enough to help identify who the perpetrator could have been, and his teammates still haven't been found. Their hands were tied.
"No Shibi-san, I know your finding this outcome hard to except, but there is simply nothing else to go on. I am sorry for your loss." For a moment it looked as if the clan head would argue that point, but in the end Shibi gave the man a polite nod and left the old man in peace.
This matter can be pursued later after all, and right now Shibi Aburame has a funeral to attend.
XxX
Home, Inoichi thought to himself, they were finally home. His sweet, beautiful, innocent little girl was wrapped firmly in his grip as they lay in bed. Finally asleep after what felt like an eternity of tears and 'Daddy I'm scared please don't go's.
To be honest, he's not sure if he'll ever be able to forgive the Aburame, not if this keeps up. He knew what happened, or at least he had an idea, based on what he could piece together from his daughter's broken tale; It was -probably- an accident; the dying man was more than likely at the point where he couldn't tell the difference between the blade of an enemy, and the hands of a child. But none the less, Inoichi doubted he'd ever be able to trust them like he used to.
XxX
Word Count: 2,266
Updated: 1-27-17
I'm back! So if this chapter is a little shorter than the first one, I really wanted this to be a long a through story but the only thing I can think about is stuff that's like, years into the future. Initially I was gonna skip this whole chapter (cause I really didn't want to write all that dialogue and drama) but then I was half way through writing the second ( now third and probably fourth) chapter when I realized it would probably be a lot easier to understand if I didn't skip this. So here you go.
Sorry if any of the characters seem a little off, especially Inoichi. To be honest I never really thought about Inoichi all that much when I originally started writing this, I was more focused on Ino and what she would be thinking. But now that I have in fact gotten this far, I can confidently say that dealing with him is gonna be a pain. I completely understand why some authors just have all the characters nod along like nothing is happening (It use to annoy me a lot when a character would just except something without question). It's a painful just to think about it.
Good luck Shino, you're gonna need it…
Thank you to everyone who followed and reviewed, you guys have no idea how happy your words made me! I was grinning so much my cheeks hurt!
I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! See you in the next one!
