The Things We Learn

by MirrorFade

A series of nine short stories describing the lessons Yamanaka Ino has learned over the course of her shinobi career. Some dark, some humorous. Hopefully they'll make you think. These do not take place in chronological order.

4. Chapter 4

humor, a genre I don't often wite. but we must all obey the muse, mmm?

Lesson number four: when it comes to opponents, dead is best. Maimed only guarantees they'll be pissed off.

The medic had already screamed at her twice and slapped her once, and Ino was vowing never to do it again, until she remembered that it was after the fact, and vows were only useful if you actually possessed the know-how to pull them off.

One might hope that they were smart enough not to make the same mistake twice, but Yamanaka Ino knew that such was rarely the case. Shinobi were just as stupid (if not more so) than everyone else, and made mistakes just as civilians did.

And, if you were to believe what the medic was muttering as he bandaged Ino's arm, shinobi were stupider, clumsier, and more suicidal than any civilian, of Konohagakure or otherwise, could ever hope to be. He said it like the fact was something the shinobi took pride in.

Ino wisely kept her mouth shut.