A/N: Sorry for the wait! Life got in the way but here's Chapter 7 of "And So"!

Rating: M for language, violence (of the Torture and Interrogation kind), and adult situations.
Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me and never will be. Sad :[


And So

Chapter 7: Love is a Losing Game


He didn't know why, maybe out of habit, but Hatake Kakashi still found himself in front of Konoha's memorial stone nearly every morning. He had no official genin team in his charge but he was still late to every meeting, still perpetually lost on the road of life. Obito was no hero and certainly didn't deserve to be memorialized on anything, but Kakashi remembered.

Memory is a strange thing and the human psyche is complex, Yamanaka Inoichi had told him once. The power of suggestion is strong. You could convince yourself you're sick and start to exhibit actual symptoms. The mind copes with painful memories in fascinating ways. Over time they become vague, more dreamlike and less reality. One could easily romanticize a person, an event, or the past in general to make it easier to live in the present.

Kakashi was not a romantic by any means but he wondered if, perhaps much like Naruto, he wanted to remember his old teammate in a way that was palatable. In a way that made Kakashi feel less guilty. The past was buried with his teammate somewhere in Konoha but Kakashi couldn't help but remember.

"Man, it's my day off," a voice somewhere close by complained, followed by a loud yawn. "I'm supposed to be sleeping. Why do people keep bothering me with these inane chores?"

"Because you keep doing them?" another voice asked helpfully. "Besides, this isn't such a big deal. We haven't been here in a while, anyway."

"He would tell us not to bother coming. He's dead, it's not like he can hear us."

"Well, do you want to be the one who tells Ino that we didn't do what she asked us?"

"Can we just get this over with?"

Chouji and Shikamau loped into view, stopping in front of Asuma's grave. Chouji was cradling a large, beautiful bouquet of purple and blue flowers while Shikamaru held a carton of cigarettes. Chouji placed them in front of the grave gently while Shikamaru lit a cigarette, adding it to the grave like one would incense.

"Thanks for looking out for us, Asuma-sensei," Chouji, the more sentimental of the two, clapped his hands and closed his eyes tightly in prayer. "We're all fine now." Shikamaru said nothing but dutifully waited for the cigarette to go out to make sure the dry grass around the graves did not catch on fire.

Kakashi watched their disappearing figures as they faded from view. He thought of Naruto and Sasuke and the rest of the boys in their class. The slackers and the antisocial avengers and the ones the elders thought would never make it past the academy. They had all become important men when no one was looking, with wide backs and shoulders fit to hold the weight of the world.

He stepped in front of Asuma's grave, smiling behind his mask.

"They're all fine now."


Two weeks after Ino was discharged from the hospital, she had safely moved back in with Kurenai (and away from Yoshino, who lovingly criticized everything Ino did, ate, and wore like she was her own daughter). She was still barred from taking missions, but if her escape with Sasuke was any indication of her feelings on being idle, it was safe bet that she didn't care for it. From her bed she had done mountains of paperwork, yelled at frantic coworkers running back and forth between Intel and Kurenai's house, and was generally a nuisance to the point where Sakura had threatened to gag her until she calmed down.

Her wounds would heal, but the scar she bore would be permanent. It started in the middle of her chest and curved under her breast, finally stopping right above her left hip. It was long and thin and not very attractive looking in its healing stages. Sakura had prepared herself for an Epic Level Hissy Fit from Ino (because Ino was nothing if not incredibly vain), but she had been surprisingly zen about the whole thing. Shinobi had scars and Ino was a shinobi. She had prepared herself for this.

Besides, the worst scars are the ones you can't see, Ino threw at Sakura nonchalantly. This? This is nothing.

Fourteen days was just enough time to throw Shikamaru off of her trail. Now Ino could really start investigating what happened when she and Shino were attacked. She hadn't exactly lied to him when he asked if she could remember anything. It was more that she withheld information which wasn't nearly as bad.

Or so Ino told her guilty conscience.

He had been entirely right in suspecting that she was holding back on him. Shikamaru had also been right in the fact that Ino had, of course, used her family jutsus on one of the attackers. His mind had been so tightly sealed with traps and genjutsu that all Ino could find in that short amount of time was a code made up of letter and numbers that meant nothing to her. She had tried to figure it out on her own but while Ino was smart, she just couldn't break it.

It was time to enlist some help.

The Cipher division was made up of some of the most brilliant minds in Konoha. Weirdoes, the whole lot of them, but brilliant. Through a little recon, Ino found out that they were having Friday game night (seriously, such nerds!) at the Yamashiro residence. Aoba's wife happened to be the new head of the department which suited Ino's needs perfectly. The youngest and most naïve in the division was none other than Shiho, who also happened to be hot for her teammate. This also suited her needs perfectly.

"You throw a katon into the darkness. What happens next?"

Seven of Konoha's finest were seated around Aoba's kitchen table, playing some sort of game with dice and cards and a game board. There was a book on the table with the title SHADOWS AND SHINOBI, so Ino inferred that was the game they were playing. Aoba's wife, Yamashiro Ren, sat at the head with a toddler on her lap and an older kid, maybe around four or so, holding the edge of her shirt with one hand. Aoba was nowhere to be found.

"Hello?" Ino called. "The door was open, so I just came in. Sorry for the intrusion!"

"Oh, Ino-chan! I wasn't expecting you," Ren stood up, balancing the baby on her hip. She had a round, kind face with a splash of freckles across the bridge of her nose. "Aoba's not here right now. He's hiding somewhere, probably a bar, since we've taken over the house."

"That's okay, I'm actually here to borrow Shiho for a second," Ino said cheerfully. "Is that okay?"

Shiho blinked behind her thick glasses. "Oh, alright."

The eldest Yamashiro son had taken to tugging on his mother's shirt for attention. Ino held out her arms to take the baby while Ren tended to her other child. People tended to trust women carrying babies, even if it wasn't their own. She beamed her most innocent and charming smile to Shiho, ushering her outside so as not to disturb the game. God, she really was the worst person. Now she had even gotten Aoba's baby involved in her schemes.

It was for a good cause and the means justified the end, right? Right.

"I won't take up too much of your time. I know you're very… busy," Ino tried so, so hard not to sound judgmental of Shiho's gaming lifestyle choices. "I need a teeny, tiny, minute favor from you. There's this code that I found in an old scroll of my father's that I haven't been able to figure out."

Shiho's glasses gleamed at the thought of deciphering some ancient, secret text. "But," Ino continued on, "I was wondering if you could, perhaps, be a little… discreet about this."

"'Discreet'?"

"You know, keep it just between us girls," Ino said. "I need you to especially promise not to bother Shikamaru about this."

A blush crept onto the other girl's face. "Shikamaru-san?"

"It's just that he's so busy helping the Hokage with the Chuunin exams and working toward becoming a teacher, I'd hate for him to be bogged down over something silly like this."

Ino sounded so concerned for her teammate and long time friend. What a beautiful friendship!

What a crock. But Shiho didn't have to know that.

"I'm not very good at keeping secrets and maybe I won't be able to—"

Ino moved in for the kill. "You're underestimating yourself! I have faith in you. I know what a great cipher you are. Shikamaru told me so."

Shiho's blush deepend. "He did?"

"Oh, yeah! He said you're talented and cute and stuff," Ino assured her. The baby in her arms looked up at her, waving his little fists. Don't judge me, baby.

"W-well, then I suppose it can't be helped! Leave it to me, Ino-san!"

Shiho waved to her cheerfully as she went back to her game, a new spring in her step. That was so easy that Ino almost felt guilty. "'Cute and stuff', huh?" Aoba asked from behind her. "Shikamaru really said that?" He sounded incredulous, mostly because he had spent more than two minutes with Shikamaru and knew that he would never call anyone cute.

"Not in so many words," Ino handed his baby back to him, hoping to distract him. "But I've known him since we were in the womb, Aoba-san. I can read his body language."

There was clear disapproval from behind his sunglasses. "Uh huh."

"I'm still injured and so I have to go home to rest. I almost died, you know," Ino reminded him, hoping to garner some sympathy points.

"I remember," Aoba said dryly.

"And no one likes a snitch, Aoba-san," Ino pressed her fingers to her lips. "So let's just keep this our little secret."

"You seem to have a lot of secrets lately, Ino-chan."

"You have no idea."


A quarter to five on the dot. 1645. Saturday evening.

The day that would go down in infamy as The Day That Everything Changed.

Kiba sharpened Ino's weapons on the floor while she lounged on his bed like a queen. Akamaru flanked her left side at the edge of the bed. A few Inuzuka puppies had made their way into the little space between the wall and her body. It had been the perfect ploy to get her to spend time with him. Come over and let me do tedious work on your weapons while you play with adorable puppies oh and P.S. I kind of like you a stupid amount so I'm just going to fall all over myself to do shit for you, especially now that you almost died, hope that's cool. Who could argue that?

Not Ino.

She was so quiet and still despite the squirming puppies around her that Kiba suspected she might have fallen asleep. He knew that Ino didn't like anyone to see her sleeping. It was half because Ibiki had instilled some very real fears about vulnerability (He used to just show up in my room at all hours, Ino had said with a shudder. Do you know what it's like to wake up to that man every morning?), but mostly because Ino was so vain she worried that she might be drooling or snoring or sleep talking. He was a bit humbled that Ino trusted him so much that she left her guard down, but he also suspected that the pain killers she took for the residual injuries were the cause.

"Hmmm," Ino finally murmured.

Kiba was on his knees instantly, leaning over Akamaru to look at her. "What's wrong? Your chest? Arm?" Maybe he was overreacting a bit but he had been scared shitless when he saw the huge blood stain she left at the gates of the village. He was even more scared when he saw her laid up in the hospital. Sakura was, without question, Konoha's best healer, but there was only so much she could do post-operatively. Kiba pushed up Ino's shirt without any resistance on her part.

"Your mother could come in any time, you know," Ino said bemusedly. "She has it out for me. I think her dog wants to eat my face."

"I'm checking for injuries, not copping a feel," Kiba snorted. They hadn't had sex since she was released from the hospital. It was, weirdly enough, at his insistence. Sakura would kill me if we opened up your injuries and I like having my balls attached to my body, thanks, he had said, but really it was because he didn't want her to hurt herself. Everyone assumed their relationship was purely physical – Kiba was perpetually horny and Ino was as infamous for her techniques in the bedroom as on the battlefield - but it wasn't like that, at least not for Kiba. He actually really liked her (and no one was more surprised at that realization than him). He liked hanging out with her and eating with her and talking with her about nothing. He liked that she was a dog person because she thought cats were sneaky. He liked that despite being a very affectionate person she respected personal boundaries. He liked her confidence and sass and humor.

Ino had summed up their relationship very succinctly: everyone else is boring and we're both terrible people. If we didn't hang out with each other, who else would there be?

"I'm not in pain," Ino protested as his eyes raked over her bra and the long scar underneath it. The scar did nothing to take away from Konoha's Most Perfect Breasts. They were still as mesmerizing as the first time he laid eyes on them (that one time in Kiri that no one is allowed to talk about). They were the breasts that starred in many of his pre-pubescent fantasies and nearly all of his adult ones. He tore his gaze away to look at her face. It was almost physically painful to do so, especially since it had been weeks since he had touched her, but Kiba steeled his resolve.

"Then what's up?"

Ino smoothed her shirt down, much to his disappointment. If he couldn't touch, he should at least be able to get his visual fill. "It's Sakura."

Mentions of the medic who threatened castration if he aggravated her most important person's wounds had the effect of a cold shower. His boner was instantly gone, probably hiding inside his body from pure fear. "What about her?"

She rolled on her side and Akamaru politely jumped off the bed so Ino and Kiba could be face to face. Kiba brushed some hair out of her face, starving for contact. The face was safe, right? Sakura couldn't hurt him for that, right? "I'm worried. Every Saturday for three months she's been busy for two and half hours exactly starting at 1700. That's weird, isn't it?"

"She's probably just working and being OCD about scheduling."

"That's the thing! I offered to help her but she got all flustered and told me no," Ino pouted. Kiba traced the line of her jutted out bottom lip with his finger before he could help himself. "She can't be working; the lab is closed and Sakura never sees patients on Saturdays. I know when people are hiding something and she definitely is."

Kiba really, really didn't want to make an enemy of Sakura but Ino was so genuinely worried that he wanted to do something for her. "Maybe she has a secret boyfriend," he said jokingly.

"…. OH MY GOD. HOW DARE SHE NOT TELL ME? Do you think it's Sasuke? Oh my God, if it's Sasuke, I swear to God—"

"I was kidding!" Kiba stood up and held his hands out for Ino to take. "Look, let's just get to the bottom of this before your twisted mind can come up with more crazy scenarios."

She took his outstretched hands and lifted herself off the bed. "How?"

Kiba tapped his nose, grinning cockily. "Tracking, duh."

"That would be an invasion of privacy," Ino said slowly. "That would be wrong."

"But you want to know, don't you?" She gave him an adorably guilty smile. "Besides," Kiba grabbed his jacket and Ino's shoulders on their way out, "she won't hit an injured person."

Ino held up two fingers. "Two words. Naruto. Sai."

"… she won't hit you," Kiba corrected himself. "So we should go—"

"Let me just check one place first," Ino charged over to a familiar apartment, leaving a very confused Kiba in her wake. She was going in the exact opposite direction of where he thought Sakura was.

Oh well, he thought as Ino threw open Sasuke's door like she owned the place. This should at least be entertaining.


"Can I ask why you're looking through my garbage?" Sasuke stood, arms folded over his chest, as Ino tore through his apartment. He made no move to stop her. Kiba stood by the door like a bodyguard.

"That's classified." Ino gave up on the garbage can and tried under a rug. That Sakura could be so tricky.

Kiba snorted from his post. "I really doubt she's hiding under the carpet, Ino."

"'She'?"

"That's also classified," Ino glared at Kiba, bending down to look under some couch cushions. Kiba was at her side in an instant, pulling her up and calling her stupid for crawling all around when she still wasn't quite healed.

Sasuke watched this all with a passive face. "There's no one here but me." Ino looked away so she wouldn't start feeling sorry for Sasuke but it was too late. Sasuke with his crossword puzzles and menial chores and loneliness. Of course there was no one here. Who would come to visit him other than Naruto and his (mandated) ANBU guards?

"Sakura's not here, so let's go," Kiba all but dragged a protesting Ino out. He looked over his shoulder at Sasuke's shocked expression and the murder scene that was now his disheveled apartment. "Sorry about the mess, dude."

And with that, they flounced before Uchiha Sasuke could retaliate.


"She's been at her apartment the whole time? Are you sure?" It wasn't that Ino didn't trust Kiba's tracking ability, but this was all just becoming so… so surreal! Why would Sakura hole herself up in her apartment every Saturday between 1700 and 1930? Secret boyfriends were romantic and spontaneous and definitely did not abide by any schedules. So unless she was with a married man…

"… my GOD," Ino gasped, as if she had just obtained Nirvana. "Everything makes sense now!"

Kiba shushed her from his place outside of Sakura's apartment. They were crouched near a wall that had clearly been under construction. The patchwork was shoddy at best and from the looks of the human shaped hole that was covered precariously in cardboard, Ino figured Naruto had been here recently.

"It must be a married guy," Ino chewed her thumbnail. "What is she thinking? I mean, one or two married guys is par for the course in life, but. I mean, it's Sakura and she still wears training bras—"

"Oh shit," Kiba said suddenly. He looked torn between awe and disgust. Disgust was winning out. Ino was intrigued. "Holy shit. Hooooly shit."

Ino scrambled to get a peek through any sort of hole in the cardboard. She stepped on Kiba to get a better look. "What? What?! Is it a married guy?! A daimyo!? Tsunade-sama?!"

"Careful! Don't lean too hard-!"

Ino and Kiba inelegantly crashed through Sakura's wall, easily breaking through the cardboard barrier. Ino had luckily landed on top of Kiba, so there was minimal damage to her injuries. Not that it mattered since Sakura was going to kill them both slowly. Painfully.

Sakura made a noise that was reminiscent of a dying walrus. Ino looked up from the wreckage to see her best friend, lying on the bed, stripped down to her childish polka dot panties. A man loomed over her. And unless this was some elaborate genjutsu to throw Ino off of her track, the man on the bed definitely looked like Sakura's teammate, Sai.

"Holy shit," Ino echoed Kiba's earlier sentiment.

Sai, fully dressed, looked nonplussed. His hands were over Sakura's breasts (in an attempt to protect her modesty?) but didn't look disturbed or surprised in the least. Sakura was alternating between turning red, blue, and white. "Oh, good afternoon, Kiba. Ino."

"We were just, uh," Ino tried to form coherent words and failed.

"Bye!" Kiba interjected helpfully, grabbed Ino, and, for the second time that day, flounced.


Once they were outside in neutral territory, Ino and Kiba stared at each other, disbelieving that they saw Sai and Sakura like… that. Their death was imminent. Sakura was going to dissect their bodies for science and then throw them in a river somewhere. Once over the initial shock, Kiba snickered at the thought of the Sakura/Sai pairing (Neurotic and Socially Awkward? Why hadn't they thought to hook them up before?) and Ino nudged him in the ribs. "This isn't funny!"

"So, did you find her?" a new voice asked behind them.

Ino cringed. She wasn't actually sure if Sasuke cared about Sakura the way she knew that Sakura still cared about him, but she was one of the people closest to him. Well. She was once. It probably would be very weird for him to find out that she was fooling around with his doppelganger. Sasuke Lite, Shikamaru had once called him. "Uh—"

"Man, instead of searching Sasuke's garbage, we really should have checked down Sai's pants," Kiba said innocently.

"…" said Sasuke.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Ino's voice had gone up at least three octaves. "Find who? Who's 'her'?"

Sasuke's stare was level, calm even, but Ino thought it might actually burn a hole into her skull if she wasn't careful. "Sakura."

"Sakura who?" Ino squeaked.

"... the girl you believed to be hiding in my couch cushions?"

Kiba opened his mouth but Ino stepped on his foot. He swore, but for the moment he was distracted. "AWESOME HANGING OUT WITH YOU BUT WE REALLY HAVE TO GO OKAY BYE SASUKE-KUN!"

For the third time that day, Kiba and Ino ran. It was only a temporary solution, though. They knew too much. They had seen too much.

Way too much.

"We're going to have to becoming missing-nin and go on the run," Ino said seriously, her hand over her rapidly beating heart. "Never to return."

"You're overreacting."

"Am I?"

Kiba considered this: Go on the run or have Sakura beat him within an inch of his life if he's lucky. "I hear Wind Country's nice this time of year."