Chapter Two
With a gasp Naruto resurfaced several hundred metres down river with Ino clutched to him, desperately fighting the current that threatened to pull both him and Ino down under. It was hard kicking the water when the girl's legs constantly got in the way. The cold water penetrated his clothes and bit deep, numbing his skin and shocked his body sending him into barely controlled shakes as his body desperately tried to kick some warmth into him. It both helped him keep moving but it also locked his limbs and muscles and drove what little buoyancy he had away. It was only thanks to his chakra that his kicks even did anything.
He kicked, pushed, and pulled at the water he applied chakra to his hands and feet and used whatever fluid hold he could grasp and step on to guide both of them towards the murky riverbank. It was a slow unrewarding task but even though he several times considered to simply give up, but he held on, inch for inch until his fingers grasped hard and unyielding roots.
He was too tired to even feel gratified that he finally made it, and only rewarded himself with a few deep and shaking breaths before he pulled himself up and out of the water, but fell back when he was a bare part way out, his and Ino's clothed weighted them both down far too much for him to pull them both out.
He glanced down at his charge, sometime in the chase the band of her pony tail had loosened and let her long hair loose hanging in clumps over her face and splayed out on the water surface as the moving water tugged at the strands. Her face serene, pale and rosy as her body no doubt tried to warm her cooling body. They needed to get out of the water quick!
Gritting his teeth he braced his feet against the muddy bank, reaffirmed his left hand's grip on the thick grassy tufts edging the bank, and then with a snarl hefted Ino's unconscious form, up and over, her lower body was still submerged at the hip. Panting for a few precious seconds Naruto crawled up and out of the river, up into what felt like even colder air. His body shivered at the uncomfortable feeling, his clothes heavy and clinging even more uncomfortably to his body.
With shaking hands he pulled Ino up the rest of the way, and shivered even more as he lifted an even colder Ino into his arms. His heartbeat skipped a beat as he came to realize if he did not get her warm, and soon, she would probably not survive. But he needed to run, to get away first. Starting a fire now and so near those ninja would only reveal where he was, like a shining beacon.
So with legs still numb he started to move deeper into the forest. He would be damned if he had made it this far only to sabotage it completely by giving himself, and Ino to the enemy. His stumbling steps got faster and faster until he was again running; the moonlight guiding him.
His legs finally gave out from under him and forced him to set his cargo down harder than he would have liked.
Without paus to gather his breath he cupped her face in his hands, feeling her skin cold, her lips slightly blue.
"I-Ino, you a-alright? Hey, Ino!" he shook her shoulders, her arms bare and icy cold. He got no response, "Oy, come on wake up!"
Again no response.
"Damn it!" he beat the ground hard enough to hurt his fists.
Fire, fire, he needed heat, she, needed heat. Still finding strength to move, he stumbled of and gathered anything he thought would burn, moss, sticks, leaves, and branches in a pile. He fumbled slightly with the lighter, he was useless with a tinder-box, but within minutes he had a fire going, small, but fire none the less, he knew it would build up.
He moved Ino as close as he dared to the fire, his whole body burning with exhaustion. What more could he do? He would be damned if he screwed up, no, he couldn't, his teammate relied upon him, knowing it or not. He could only hope she had managed to get back in there. Feeling desperate he started to try and rub some warmth into her.
"Come on, get warm." He urged as he furiously rubbed her arms before throwing a few more sticks on the budding fire.
A cold wind blew through his still soaking wet jacket, sending yet again a cold shiver through him, reminding him of how wet he actually was, damn that river had been cold… wait…
Realization struck him like a sledgehammer as he cursed; he quickly threw off his jacket, followed quickly by his pants. Standing in nothing but his underwear and a damp but quickly drying t-shirt he again shifted his focus back on Ino. She was even colder than him, at least his running and moving about had let him keep warm, but the limp form of Ino had no such boons. Her clothed, wet and icy cold, even colder than her, he needed to get them off, and quick.
His hands, shot up to her neck to quickly undo her blouse, on the second button he froze, realizing that he was, in fact, for all intents and purposes going to strip an unconscious girl naked. His mind was gripped with a sudden doubt, what would she say when she woke up? What if she woke up while he was in the act? Doubtful questions that lasted for all of two seconds; his doubts cleared when he mistakenly brushed his fingers against her cold skin.
His hands shaking now, not only from his exhaustion and cold, but also gut wrenching nervousness, he struggled to undo the rest of the buttons. All the while despite the situation, despite the reason, a part of him felt like he was doing wrong, something forbidden, like he for some reason was taking advantage of the situation. He tried to ignore the soft give her chest, he tried to not imagine what would be revealed behind the cloth. With even more hesitation he slowly parted the blouse, his eyes deathly locked on his own hands. His mind was however drawn to the cloth beneath, and he was part relieved and disappointed to see a breast bind.
Shaking his head, heart pounding hard enough to drown out the ambient sounds, he began the most awkward task he had ever done, namely removing the blouse. Her limbs limp and unresponsive made the task near impossible for him to do.
He ended up sitting her up, her arms locked at the wrists above her head in one of his, and then removing the blouse by simply sliding it up above her head, simple the idea was, but not in practice.
After discarding the wet cloth and lowering her down on her back again. Impulsively returning to rub her arms, still too cold for his liking, and throwing more wood and leaves onto the fire, which he happily noted had started to look healthy. Ino's lips was still tinged with too much blue and he quickly returned to the awkward task of removing her clothes.
The skirt was easy enough as it was split down the middle and only had one button, saving him a lot of time.
Trying not to look at anything he shouldn't he was left with her mesh armoured combat shorts. Had he removed enough? Had he already done enough? He wrecked his mind trying to think, ugly 'what if' scenarios popped into his mind, what if it wasn't, what if he left those thick autumn clothes on and she did not warm up enough? What if, what if what if!
"Gah!" he shouted and fisted his hair, before he quickly came upon himself and clamped his mouth shut, covering it with his hands, just because he thought he was currently safe did not mean he was safe, and yelling was only going to lower that chance.
He had no choice, he hoped, and prayed that no one would come to know of this if he fucked up. Heck he hoped that Ino would forgive him and not hate him for this!
His hands shaking, worse than ever before, he reached for her hips, his fingertips hovering just above touch. He closed his eyes and breathed in, taking a meditative second to calm himself, trying again to tell himself he was not doing anything wrong, just what he needed to do, nothing more. It did not work. His breath physically shook as he breathed out.
His fingers slipped inside the waistline, doing his best to not ignore the touch and latched onto the cold he felt at the contact to reaffirm why he was doing this. He quickly pulled feeling the tight cloth stick to her skin as he peeled it off, the sound thick and wet. He physically turned away from what he knew his eyes would meet. He opened his eyes to undo her sandals to lastly pull the pants off.
Giving the cloth a quick twist at least secured his mind that, yes, he did do the right thing as a thick trickle of water was wrenched out. Not wanting to have contact with the cold clothes anymore, and wash his hands off the whole thing he threw it together with the rest of their clothes.
He slowly turned around to look down at her, he had dreamed of this kind of sight many times in his mind, though it had been another girl, and she had been conscious, inviting… He furiously shook his head, reprimanding himself for forgetting who this was. She wasn't a figment of his imagination and he wasn't going to enjoy the sight of her figure, not her softly curving hips, not her lean muscled legs, her well-toned stomach, not the slight hinting line of the bottom of her ribs, not the round and knowingly soft and firm mounds extending from her chest, nor how her neck lovingly framed her shoulders, nor her soft round face, thick and wet hair amorously framing her face, her small nose, or her full lips, slightly parted, inviting for a kiss…
"Damn it!" he shouted as he caught himself too late from ogling his friend, again! This wasn't the time damn it! Not ever was it the time, what he was doing was plain wrong!
Quickly he kneeled down beside her again, throwing even more fuel on the fire, trying his best to ignore the fact she was almost butt-naked in front of him. Trying to focus his mind to get her warm and quickly too. The fire had started to do its work, slowly and only on the side the fire actually was and barely so. She was still far too cold, and started again to rub her from head to toe, guiding his frustrations and anger at himself to give her extra bit of warmth. He wished he had their backpacks with him, then he could have stuffed her inside her bedroll solving a lot of his current problems.
Another breeze made it through the trees reminding Naruto on just how cold it was in the air, he would not have been surprised if his breath would start to mist at any time now. They needed something to cover themselves with, something warm, something more than just a fire, at least she needed it.
Maybe she had something in her waist pouch that he could use. He hurried over to their clothes and hurriedly, expelling the image of much of a creep he must have looked like as he rummaged through her clothes, he extracted her skirt from the pile and emptied the bag that was attached on the ground. A few select weapons and a spool of wire fell out and was dismissed immediately, a few small boxes which he recognized quickly as makeup articles, and then, to his relief, something he hoped was what he thought it was. And it was!
He snatched the first aid sealing scroll up before it even had the time to touch the ground, and broke the plastic seal, praising the fore thinking of whoever prepared these, and unfurled the scroll. In the span of less than ten seconds he found the labelled fire blanket and unsealed it. Feeling elated at the cloth, thin, coerce, but airtight! Only five seconds more elapsed before Ino had her modesty returned. Naruto stood over her, grinning victoriously that for once something went his way! He continued for a while longer to rub her warm, this time more confidently now that she was covered up, and threw more fuel on the fire after he gathered some more. It was large and warm enough now to warrant moving Ino away from it to prevent her from getting burned. He happily noted at least the colour of her lips had returned to their normal pigment, she was still too cool for him to feel comfortable but at least things were improving.
The night wore on and grew steadily more frigid. Not even the fire was enough to completely protect him anymore as even the slightest wind swept all his warmth away. He glanced enviously at Ino, who laid quietly at his side, small puffs of misted breath, and the slight movement of her chest told him she was alive. He too wanted the comfort, the little there was, of the blanket. But he couldn't take it for himself, heck even the idea of sharing wasn't really possible, it barely was big enough to cover her up to her shoulders and he couldn't take the one thing that was helping her keep warm.
Another wind blew through their little camp, which chilled him all the way to the bones. He again enviously looked down at her… maybe?
No, bad thoughts, bad thoughts. He had already done enough to jeopardize his relationship with her, a life times worth, and he wouldn't degrade himself anymore, he had taken enough advantages and he could not do anything more, absolutely not without her consent, he more than owed her that at this point.
He jumped to his feet, ignoring his body's complaints as he paced back and forth around the fire, getting his heart pumping would surely stave off the cold long enough he was sure of it.
"I can't believe I'm doing this." Naruto muttered to himself. Less than half an hour had passed and he was feeling colder by the minute. He picked Ino up and sat himself down against the nearest tree, planting his back firmly against it, he awkwardly manoeuvred her to sit between his legs, folding hers under herself in what he hoped was comfortable enough before he draped the blanket over them both, covering her completely and snuggly all the way up under her chin, leaving much to be desired for his own part, but beggars can't be choosers. The blanket covered him well enough even though he had to curve his own legs a bit uncomfortable and forgo his own shoulders; at least he had a shirt on.
Ino's hair was still damp enough to be felt through his shirt, and her body felt cool against his. Not knowing what to do with his arms, and not wanting to leave them out in the open, he hugged her stomach, pulling her close to him, her head guided to lay back against his shoulder. He could not help a sigh escaping his lips. This, this felt nice; already he felt warmer, not to mention the very unfamiliar contact, everywhere Ino was in contact with him felt warm, comfortable. Even though the cold bit at his cheeks and exposed neck and shoulders, he felt content, comfortable, and warm. He tightened the hug a bit more; he could not stop the pleasant feeling that welled up inside him at the feeling of her against him, her soft but firm stomach, the feeling of the rise and fall of her chest.
Yeah, pleasant was the word he would use.
Finally he felt himself relax and all his exhaustion came crashing down upon him. Within a moment he fell asleep…
Ino woke with a groan, her face scrunched up at the splitting headache she felt pounding at the back of her head. She shifted her body to the other side, to try and find another more comforting position inside her bed. Something felt… off, as she laid there trying to ignore the pain, but she would be damned if she was going to properly wake up feeling like this. No, whatever she had to do today could wait another few hours, the cold chill in the air only helped to reinforce her mind; it was going to simply be a pain to wake up since she had to leave the small cocoon of warmth.
A few minutes passed. The feeling of something being wrong only grew within her. She was sitting, leaning against something soft, firm and somewhat ungiving, but soft. Why was she sitting on bare ground? Why was she sitting at all? She shifted a little, the blanket she had over her chaffed against her bare skin… wasn't she on a mission… why was she undressed… she never undressed, not that much for sure.
Sleep now forgotten, Ino opened her eyes, wincing as the sharp lights cut into her eyes, and took in the sight in front of her. Why was she outside? Last she remembered she should have been inside… inside a bedroom from that small inn she had checked in together with Naruto. Where was Naruto? She tried to look around the area, finding it hard to focus, her sight blurring at the slightest movement. She noticed the ashes of a fire, not even embers were left, but no Naruto insight…
Why were they outside, again? She knitted her brows trying to recall the last thing she could remember.
She, and Naruto had been on a mission, no, still was. She could remember them leaving the hotel, them looking around for their target… then, then she had body switched with one of the guards, remembering walking down the halls of Himitsu's mansion. She had managed to get into what she thought was an office, she had been looking through files, good ones, the kind she had been looking for, then… she had not heard anything but a ruffle of clothes followed by pain and then… nothing…
She must have been discovered, whatever she had been hit by had done a number on her head and explained the pain she felt at the back of her skull, but why was she outside in the woods… alone. Naruto wouldn't just leave her alone like this, would he? Something must have happened that forced him to flee the town after she got knocked out.
The feeling that something that did not add up, that felt unusual, it was a gut feeling she had that she couldn't shake off.
She scanned the camp again, wincing as spikes of pain and dizziness rent through her head. It was then she noticed the pile of clothes… her clothes. Instantly she became rigid. Why was her clothes piled together with Naruto's!? Her breath hitched as her gut feeling wasn't in but on her gut.
No, no that wasn't possible; she would never… Then like a sucker punch to her gut she realize, she hadn't.
Suddenly hyper aware as adrenaline spiked through her systems she felt her backrest rise and then fall, a small sigh of hot air brushed against her ear. She felt warm bare legs flank her. Two strong arms hugged her waist, and locked her flush against a firm chest. Naruto was embracing her back… why was he?
Her heart beat hard, and faster than she had ever remembered it doing. Her breath came out short and more than a little shaken. Why was she naked!? Why was she naked and sharing bed with him!? Why, how?
Then she froze as her panicked mind finally realized, and came to accept just what he must have done. He had stripped her naked, he had stripped her naked and done who knows what else. She did not care what pathetic excuse he would come up with, he had violated her trust, her modesty, and her privacy.
Practically boiling, she removed Naruto's arms from her, struggling to keep her grip from painfully dig into the boy and wake him up. She stood up, wrapping the blanket around her to shield her from the morning air and the bastard as she quickly stepped over to her clothes, ignoring the nauseating dizziness and pain that came with her movement, her clothes was raw and even damp at places thanks to being left out in the open and cold air, whatever moisture that had been in the air had sunk deeply into the clothes during the night.
She dressed herself, taking her seething anger out on the garments as she tugged them on hard, and with far more roughness than she intended.
She threw the blanket away with enough force to make it thud loudly against a nearby tree.
She breathed slowly through her nose in an attempt to calm herself down, it worked, partially. Calm enough she turned and glared at Naruto, who was still sound asleep, half-naked and far too peaceful for her liking.
With a firm kick to his shin she shouted.
"Get up!"
Naruto yelped as he sprung awake, his head whirled around until he managed to lock onto her. His expression turned from confusion to relief, and from relief into excitement. He leapt to his feet with a shout:
"I-Ino-chan!" and made to hug her but was brought to a halt as he saw the glare she levied against him.
"Get, dressed. We are leaving." She hissed through her teeth and did not so much as wait for him as she leapt into the trees.
Naruto remained frozen on the spot. It had happened, what he had feared would happen… happened. He had hoped for anger, he had hoped for a beating, shouting. He had hoped for anything that he knew how to handle. But those eyes, he remembered how warm and friendly they usually was… but, what Ino had directed at him was something new, and it scared him.
He was not going to lose a friend, no, not ever. Not like this ever!
His pants was barely on as he leapt after Ino. He swore to the gods, he was going to make up for this…
"Ino, hey Ino!" Naruto called as he finally caught up. "Stop, let me explain!"
Naruto almost rammed into her as she came to a full stop on the branch ahead. For a moment he balanced on his toes, only the tree climbing technique kept him from tipping over. He heaved two breathes, hands on his knees, before he looked up at her, and was startled at what he saw. She wore a scowl on her face as she glared down at him, eyebrows knitted, mouth twisted downwards, but what really caught him was the sheen around her eyes. She had been crying. His words were caught short in his throat.
Ino noticed Naruto's hesitancy.
"What?" she snarled. She wanted to get back home, home so she could finally be alone, not hear his excuses.
Naruto flinched and his tongue tied itself even harder as his perfect explanation unravelled before he even had the chance to speak.
"I-I am sorry, okay." he cowered, as soon has his words left his mouth he knew they were the wrong ones.
"Sorry, do you think saying sorry is enough!?" Ino bristled, her voice near a shout, and closed the small distance between them on the branch. Naruto reflexively took a step back when he flinched from Ino's raised hand, expecting to get hit. But it never came. He chanced a look and was met with Ino barely a metre away, her face tightened in an angry scowl; eyebrows knit, nose wrinkled a flared, and her mouth drawn into a teeth bearing scowl. Her fist raised, knuckles whitened, and drawn to strike. Her breath barely controlled. But what made his stomach sink were her eyes and the tears that were welling up in them.
"As I thought." She sighed. She turned and leapt away, leaving him where he stood.
