The first chapter of another idea that I loved and wanted to reveal to the world.
I hope you liked this chapter and this Ino-centric story, and you hope you all like this as well. Remember to review to tell me your thoughts. And thanks for the lack of hate messages
…..
Nikko Touzu Yamanaka was a woman with few regrets. However, those regrets were major and consumed her. One of those regrets; one that she had been trying to bury within herself for over ten years had just reared its ugly head again.
It was a bit early for whiskey, her drink of choice, but she needed it to calm her nerves. She had sent her daughter off to take a shower, she had been dirty from her excavation in the attic, and told her they would talk after words. The water had stopped running, so she knew it was about time to explain. She had kept herself busy by reading and rereading the letter Minato left. She had always been curious about what it said, and now she knew. None of it surprised her, as she had known all of the information before hand. Even her daughter's kinship with the village pariah. Which was why she had never treated him poorly, and made positive comments to those who gossiped negative things about him. Taking a sip from her whiskey, she heard the footsteps on the stairs. Steeling her nerves, she watched her daughter creep into view, taking a seat across from her mother.
Ino looked at the bottle on the table, and knew it was a bottle of whiskey. She had seen her parents throw a few get-together's with friends, and knew that was the drink her mother liked. She liked to say it calmed and made things less stressful. She ignored the bottle, and looked up at her mother. She looked almost exactly like her, except for the eyes. Her mother had greenish-grey eyes, and she had assumed that she had gotten her blue eyes from her father. She guessed that was still correct. She looked tense, but Ino didn't say anything. She had decided, in the shower, to let her mother explain everything and let her make sense of this… revelation.
"Ino-chan, I know- I know that you are very confused. And I'm sorry. I'm sorry that you had to find out this way about this." Her mother told her. Ino just sat there and listened.
Her mother continued. "You are probably wondering, what made me do what I did. I wish that I could say it was for a good reason. That my actions were just. But that is a lie. My reasons were petty. So petty…" She drifted off, thinking to herself obviously. Ino didn't let it show, but she was really curious.
Nikko turned back to her daughter, and gave her a smile. "You know that I went to the Academy when I was young. My parents were so proud, that there daughter would be a ninja. The first ninja in the history of the Touzu family. But things didn't work out so well. I failed the Genin Exam twice, unable to perform the jutsu's well enough to pass. I quit, ashamed of my failure. But there was one good thing that came from the academy. I met your father, and his two close friend Shikaku Nara and Chouza Akimichi. Eventually, we fell in love but there was a problem. Something I didn't tell your father. About how I felt so… inferior to him. That I was a failure in my life. That I had to work as a gardener, a common civilian job, when he was this great ninja that was respected by everyone. I always feared the day he would realize he could do better and leave me. And when he begun to stay out more with Shikaku and Chouza after the war ended, I didn't believe it. I thought he was… seeing someone else. I didn't understand why they hung out together and drink so much, to bury the memories of war. So I thought it was something else."
Her mother sighed, and guiltily looked at her daughter. "Eventually, I confronted him on the issue. He told me nothing was further from the truth, but I didn't believe him. I was so mad when he told me that, because I was so sure, so sure that he was cheating. So, it came to me. That horrible, anger induced idea of revenge I got. If he could have an affair, why couldn't I? So I went to a bar, fully expecting to pick up a stranger. But everyone knew who I was, Inoichi's wife, and completely off-limits. No one tried anything. I was mad, and decided to grab the attention of someone in a booth. I really wasn't expecting to see it was Minato, the Hokage."
"We ended up talking for hours, complaining to one another about our problems and fears. Eventually, the bar closed and the bartender made us leave. Thank god he didn't realize who it was, the hood he wore hid his face. We ended up stumbling to his home, Kushina was out for the day on a mission. I expected to have to stumble my way home, but when I went to say good night to him, I was greeted with a kiss. It was what I wanted, so I went with it. And my goal of the night was completed. The next morning, I immediately regretted everything, we both did. A few days later, I confessed to Inoichi what I did, about how I got even with him. He explained that he would forgive me, but I was wrong. He would never cheat on me, and in fact he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. Even after what I did, he proposed to me. That was when I knew your father loved me completely, and that I would love him completely too, since he could accept. We ended up having a short engagement, we were married a week later." Her mother let out a sigh, one that said how she was relieved to tell her daughter everything.
"Then I found out I was pregnant, and I was so happy. Then I remembered Minato and what we had done and I was so scared. By this time, everyone knew his wife was pregnant, she had been since before the night, so I knew that it would ruin everything for him if people found out. So I got a test done, under the guise of checking for any birth defects but to actually privately check paternity. I got the records of both Minato and Inoichi, with Minato's permission, and checked. Their DNA was quite different, so it was quickly obvious that you were Minato's child. But it didn't matter to Inoichi, since he immediately agreed to act as your father. He knew he could ruin the Hokage, the man who slept with his at the time girlfriend and now wife, but he never thought of it for a moment. So, after agreeing that we would reveal the truth of your parentage at a later date, Inoichi became your father by all legal records." Her mother finished her story, taking another sip from her cup of whiskey.
Ino didn't say anything immediately after her mother finished. The nine year old had to process everything. She wished she could say she was shocked about what her mother did, but after hearing from a Hokage he could do the same thing she was jaded of that sense. She guessed it could make sense, but she didn't really want to think about it. Really, Ino just wanted to ignore that her mother had cheated on her dad. Ino rationalized it as best as she could, but she really didn't care about that at the moment. Another, much more important thing, was on her mind.
"How come, how come you didn't adopt Naruto?" Ino asked her mother.
Her mother looked at her, and looked away. "I couldn't do that to Inoichi."
Ino was confused. "What do you mean?"
She looked down at the table, then up to Ino. "I don't think you understand how hard it was for him. He loves you like you were his real daughter, and considers you his real daughter, but knows he is not your real father. He accepted me, after what I did to him. I wasn't going to hurt him again. Imagine, not only having to raise a daughter that you have to pretend is yours, but a son from the same man who is your daughter's real father. Well, you can't imagine it yet, but what I mean is that it would hurt him and not be right to him."
Ino listened to what her mother said. "But, but he's my brother! Shouldn't I have my brother in my life?" Her mother stayed silent. "When were you going to tell me? When were you two going to tell me about my real father, about Naruto?"
Ino waited impatiently, and heard a murmur from her mother, something she did not understand.
"Mom, what did you say?" Ino asked.
"Never." Ino gaped at the confession.
"You, you weren't going to tell me? About my real father? About me having a brother?" Ino said accusingly.
Her mother couldn't look her in the eyes. "We thought it would be better that way."
"Better! How could lying to me be better!" Ino was mad at this point. Offended that her mother and dad wouldn't tell her about her father and brother.
"It just, we just thought it was better if you didn't know! That you wouldn't hate us from keeping it from you. That you would be happier this way."
"With a lie?"
Her mother didn't look at her at this point. She had shamed her into her silence. Angry at her mother, she grabbed the letter and stormed out of the kitchen. Taking a moment to put on her sandals, and pocketing the letter, Ino marched out of her house, slamming the door as she left. She began to march into no particular direction, when she heard her mother try to follow her, yelling at her to comeback. She then began to run, turning as many corners as she could to try and make sure she lost her mother. Eventually, she made her way to the forest, and ran her way into them. She slowed down and began to simply walked around the forests, her hand on the letter in her shorts pocket.
Eventually, she heard some boys running, coming towards her. She made her way to the side of the path as they ran by. She listened to them laugh about how they beat up the "loser brat." Instinctively, she knew they were talking about Naruto. Going in the same direction as they had been coming from, she eventually came to a small clearing. In the distance there was a girl being pulled away by an older man, the girl obviously wanting to go back. However, Ino wasn't really focused on them. She was already over a beaten and unconscious Naruto. She had remembered a few of the procedures from class about making sure people are alive, she checked his pulse and felt a pulse. She then watched his chest, and saw that it was rising and falling, cueing her that he was still breathing. Gathering her considerable strength for a nine year old kunoichi-in-training, she began to carry Naruto fireman style out of the woods and to some place of medical treatment. She was going to make sure her otouto was alright.
…..
First of all, there is Japanese whiskey. I didn't just want to sake.
Secondly, Ino's mother is intelligent. She could figure out how to DNA profile with some basic reading and the use of transparencies.
