A/N: This chapters kind of filler-ish, but hey! At least it's an update.
Disclaimer: Nope. Nada. Not mine.
"This is ridiculous! If anyone should be a contender, it should be me!" Sarutobi Konohamaru exclaimed, face red with anger as he slammed his hands down on the counter in front of him.
To his left, a young Kusa genin snorted, drawing Konohamaru's attention. She seemed familiar to him, but she gave no indication that she knew him, other than laughing at his current situation. He must have just seen her in passing…
Ignoring Konohamaru's eyes that were narrowed upon her form, she leisurely raked her eyes up and down Konohamaru's body and gave a petulant turn of her head, whipping her long brown hair in his face. She narrowed her blue eyes upon the list nailed to the wall behind the counter, ignoring the Sarutobi as he spat a lingering strand of her hair out of his mouth.
Cool air flowing down from a vent above the list ruffled it, but despite its slight movements, the writing on it was entirely legible. Nowhere on the list was the name 'Konohamaru'.
"Pfft, don't make me laugh- a shrimp like you has a snowball's chance in hell. I've heard from a reliable source that she doesn't like 'little boys'." The girl, who couldn't have been older than twelve, shot a leery grin at the fuming Sarutobi. "Throwing a tantrum like this? Definitely a little boy... But still old enough…"
"I'M EIGHTEEN! Besides, I have a closer relationship to her that any of these morons. I was her student, and I was one of the first to acknowledge her- I should be on the list, not them!"
In front of the two shinobi, the Nara manning the betting station of the shinobi housing sector groaned. "I don't care whether or not you think you should be added to the competitive list. Rules are rules, and you need at least a hundred votes cast in your name before you'll even be considered. So why don't you just scram." A heavy killing intent emanated from the Nara, who Konohamaru now recognized as Hideyoshi, a usually mild-mannered member of the cryptic analysis division. Shadows along the walls began to flicker, some even beginning to mist off and coalesce into impenetrable darkness that swallowed the edges of the room from sight.
The young Sarutobi gaped at the pissed off Nara, and the Kusa genin by his side snickered, reaching forward to slug his dejected form playfully on the shoulder. Hideyoshi turned his hard gaze to the young girl, stopping her giggles immediately.
"Stop laughing- if you keep instigating fights around my stand, I'll blacklist you from competing in The Bet. You almost destroyed the betting station earlier when you called 'NaruHina' the worst ship ever in front of that Hyuuga- he had finally left his compound, taking a break from comforting that poor, innocent and angelic Hyuuga Hinata... and was still high strung from his loss! If Yugao hadn't stopped him, he would have jyuuken'ed this place to pieces! Do you want another lost betting station? DO YOU?!"
The girl instantly paled, and ducked her head down as she hurried out of betting station, her nerves sparking a trail of chakra behind her that disrupted the genjutsu on the door. The Nara snorted, and gave a nod to Yugao, who drifted from the shadows at the side of the room. Konohamaru jumped at her sudden appearance, but she paid him no mind as she re-applied a stream of chakra to the exit with a wave of her arm. Afterwards, she lifted a book from her pocket and began to read, wilfully ignorant of the chaos around her as shinobi raced in and out, placing their bets.
Konohamaru was about to leave the stand, when the lurid orange cover of the book in Yugao's hand caught his eye. That was a limited edition copy of Icha Icha Sensei Sensei: Uncut!
"How did you manage to get a copy? The author only ever released six of them! And since when do you read Icha Icha?!" he exclaimed, eyes riveted to the book as Yugao lifted her eyes to inspect him. She casually flipped the book shut, and slid it into a pouch on her thigh.
"I was monitoring the vegetable market earlier." She drawled, and withdrew her Katana from its holster to idly polish it. Konohamaru gulped as the metal gleamed in the light.
"A T and I chuunin was about to be crushed by an enraged SasuNaru fan- idiot chunin insinuated that the Uchiha had too much of a brother complex to ever notice his teammate or have even caught her eye. In exchange for getting him out intact, I took his limited edition novel. He claimed he received it from Naruto of all people, but I find that hard to believe…"
The purple-haired sword mistress lifted her eyes to the roof, and smiled in reminiscence. "I didn't plan on reading it just yet, but… well, I can relate to it. Besides, the writing is actually quite good. And the relationship between Rei and Hiro, their real and pure love… it's beautiful. The sex scenes are pretty great, too."
Konohamaru choked at Yugao's final words, but she had apparently had enough of their conversation. With a final polish of her blade, she slid it back into its holster and pulled out her book again, absolutely entranced in her reading. Konohamaru absentmindedly noted that she was about halfway in- she hadn't reached the crazy plot twist yet, then.
Behind the counter of the betting station, the Nara in charge cleared his throat. He pointedly nodded towards the exit, the menacing shift of shadows highlighting his impatience.
Grumbling at the clear dismissal, Konohamaru left the stand, shivering as the chakra fuelling the genjustu washed over him. A quick glance backwards revealed a smooth, unblemished wall.
Naruto's ineptitude with genjustu, and the fact that she lived closer to the red light section of town, made this spot a perfect hiding place for one of the betting stations. Currently, it wasn't quite so hidden- shinobi were constantly streaming in and out of it, blurring the fake wall of the apartment building that concealed it. There wasn't time to be careful with entrances and exits, though. The Bet would end today…
Konahamaru grouchily sauntered up a building to his left and perched himself upon a duplex next to it. With a frown, he observed the chaos before him.
The shinobi housing sector was comprised of over a dozen apartment buildings clustered around a variety of houses and condos gradually staggered in height. All were flat roofed, and the range of levels allowed shinobi to easily navigate the ninja highway. Currently, those same apartment buildings had become absolute deathtraps.
Some moron had come up with the astounding idea to rig his room, and by extension his apartment, so that no one could sneak in a find his collection of Intel on The Bet. Of course everyone else decided to do the same. The result was a series of insanely trapped buildings that were constantly in danger of exploding at the slightest of disturbances.
A few shinobi had even decided traps weren't a good enough preventative measure, and had simply set fire to their evidence- and their buildings. Columns of smoke pillared into the air, and Konohamaru was disturbed to note that many shinobi were still attempting to find info within the burning and/or trapped buildings. It didn't seem to be going so well for them, if the screams, fires, and clanging of metal was anything to go by.
Konohamaru was broken from his musings by a sudden presence behind him, and with a quick shunshin he was in front of the intruder with a kunai to their throat.
"Holy shit, put the kunai down! I just want to talk!" the Kusa genin from earlier exclaimed, her eyes panicked as they locked onto the kunai gently pressed to her jugular.
The Sarutobi stared consideringly down at her (she was at least a foot shorter, the midget), before slipping his kunai back into his side holster. He narrowed his eyes upon her tensed form, and crossed his arms indignantly.
"What do you want, brat?" he drawled.
The genin had been nervously rubbing at her throat, but at Konohamaru's words she puffed up, going red in the face as she exclaimed, "I'm not a brat- I'm Nana, genin of Kusa!"
Konohamaru waved away her words. "Yeah, yeah, brat- cut to the chase."
Nana scrunched her face as though she was about to yell, but she stopped herself before she could, exhaling to calm her rage. She pierced Konohamaru with her pale blue eyes, cold as ice.
"I've got a bit of a proposition for you," she drawled. "Everyone knows you're bonkers for that blondie- but no one, including me, thinks you've got a shot at winning. I'm mostly pissed because I know I don't have much of a chance to win The Bet- I don't know anything really personal about Naruto except what I've heard in hearsay."
Konohamaru narrowed his eyes. "Where are you going with this, midget?"
The genin pursed her lips, but bit out an answer. "I want you to help me rig and steal the betting papers from the betting station."
Konohamaru froze. Then broke out into raucous laughter.
"Oh Kami, you're insane!" he laughed, bending over with the force of his guffaws.
Nana's face reddened. "No, I'm not!"
"You want to try and steal bets from a psycho Nara and his sword master guard- of course you're crazy!" Konohamaru exclaimed. "Ever since the vegetable market betting station was lost, the other stand managers have been completely psycho- did you see the freaky crap he was doing with the shadows? That's super powerful stuff! The Bet has driven some of the Nara to not be lazy. They're terrifying!"
Nana anxiously stared down at her hands as she fiddled with the long sleeves of her fishnet undershirt. After a moment, she stilled her hands and defiantly looked back up at the amused Sarutobi. "You want your name on that list, right? Then you have to 'fix' some of the bets to be about you! While we're at it, I'll scope out who… certain people have bet on. I don't know much about Naruto, but I do know who would."
Konohamaru had stopped breaking out into snickers and was now considering her carefully. Nana wasn't very intimidating- she had a cute button nose, a round face that still had traces of baby fat, and she was tiny. The fishnet sleeves she had been fiddling with earlier were at least a size to long, and the green shirt she wore over top hung baggy on her- it seemed to be in a near perpetual state of falling off her right shoulder. Add that to her large black ninja pants that had been wrapped to hell and back to keep them in order around her ankles, and she seemed like a child playing dress up. But her gaze was determined, and Konohamaru found himself impressed despite himself. On closer look, she did seem kind of familiar though…
"Alright, I'm somewhat interested in your plan. But how do you plan on tricking a Nara? They're geniuses, and right now the one at the betting station is on hyper alert. Don't even get me started on Yugao- she was in ANBU!"
Nana smirked. "I've been in Konoha for the past month on the shinobi village exchange program, and this betting station is one of the places and people I've been scoping out. There's a ventilation shaft leading in from the roof that opens right in front of the list, behind the counter. No one really pays attention to it because it's a sheer drop, and too tiny of a gap for any normal person to fit." Nana smirked. "I, however, am very tiny, and I have some sandals that allow me to stick to surfaces without chakra. I can sneak down the vent, get the info, and get out, lickety-split."
"…Do I need to repeat myself? There is a high strung Nara in there and an ex- ANBU black ops. Not to mention all the people racing in and out to place their bets. Someone is going to notice you."
Nana flipped her hair, smug as a cat that had caught the canary. "I'm not stupid, like some people," Nana drawled, ignoring Konohamaru's indignant "Hey!"
"The betting stations have look outs that monitor for threats- they're usually hidden, but I managed to sneak a peak of one of them earlier this week. If you henge'd into him, and gave Yugao and that Nara- Hideyoshi, I think his name was- a bogus reason to put the station on lockdown and leave, I could sneak in and do my part."
Konohamaru stared at her with wide eyes. "This… is actually starting to sound like a decent plan. But who's the guard? And what kind of danger could actually lure them out?"
The Kusa genin huffed. "Guy named Aoba- you know him?" At Konohamaru's nod, she continued. "As for the danger… well, uh… that's why I picked you. I've heard rumours that Naruto has some sort of 'Sexy-jutsu', and that she taught it, along with her signature techniques, the rasengan and the kage-bunshin, to you. Besides- you're her previous student. You know her, and how she acts. I figured if 'Naruto' were to appear, asking why there's a genjutsu on the wall of one of the apartment buildings… Well, why don't you let that little head of yours think for once. It would be absolute chaos."
The Sarutobi was in awe. "Holy shit, this plan isn't half bad... And, well, it is the last day of The Bet- if I was going to do something crazy, now would be the time to do it." His considerate expression morphed into a look of confusion that twisted his mouth into a frown. He narrowed his eyes on the smug girl in front of him. "Wait as second, what did you say before about my head-"
"Not important!" Nana interrupted. Suddenly nervous, she anxiously met Konohamaru's eyes, and absentmindedly scuffed her shoes on the tiling of the roof. "So… are you in?"
The Sarutobi's growing grin, which was lit up with light from the flaming buildings around him, was answer enough.
Xxx
Ino slid to her feet, coming out of her previous roll and sprinting just in time to dodge the cloud of insects that had swarmed her previous position. Chancing a quick look over her shoulder, she grinned at what she saw- the numerous bugs that had attempted to catch her had instead been caught themselves. A careful application of a sticking seal to thin streams of gauze from the overhanging roof Ino had been under before had trapped them to the hanging threads. But Ino didn't bask in the victory, and pushed on, knowing that the trap wouldn't slow down Shino for long.
She continued to race down twisting alleys, occasionally circling around various brawls. Her dress was no longer purple. Instead, it had become an off-colour brown. On top of that, she was covered in soot from a backfired fire jutsu she had used in an earlier escape. Despite this, an enormous grin was stretched across her cheeks. This was the most fun she had had in years!
After she had escaped the fruit crate, Ino had lead Shino on a merry chase, eventually losing him near the shinobi retail section. She had then looped back towards the vegetable market to place her bet, but by the time she had arrived she was already too late. A thick, impenetrable darkness had shrouded the market, and Ino hadn't been crazy enough to enter the terrain of a clearly psychopathic Nara.
Making the detour towards the no-longer-viable betting station had cost her, and she was once again on the run from the predatory Aburame. But Ino would prevail! Despite the, quite frankly, awful odds.
She went through a quick count of the different betting stations as she weaved through a series of crumbled buildings, idly powering chakra to her legs to jump over a particularly large clump of rubble. The hospital wasn't an option- Forehead had apparently formed some sort of mob following to help her control that one. The shinobi housing sector station was surrounded by fire and deathtraps- no way was she risking that shitshow... There were probably a few more sites that were safe, but Ino wasn't privy to the locations of all of them. No, the only site Ino knew the location of was the one she was on her way to. The betting station in the shopping district…
A kunai suddenly streaked past her head, shedding a few of her blonde hairs to reveal the senbon she had nestled in the strands. Ino lifted her head, the attack breaking her from her thoughts.
"Shino!" Ino exclaimed, a laugh escaping her lips. "You're gonna get it now! No one messes with my hair!" Ino whipped around, somersaulting as she did to avoid a flurry of senbon. She rose again to her feet, a katana she had nicked from a past out chuunin earlier sliding into her left hand from the makeshift holster she had tied across her back. But it wasn't Shino who had thrown that kunai. No, it was-
"Girly, you're gonna wish I was you're buggy boyfriend," Mitarashi Anko drawled, idly spinning a kunai around her right pinky finger as she advanced towards the now frozen Yamanaka. A myriad collection of other T and I shinobi began to step away from various hiding places, forming a loose semi-circle around the Yamanaka heiress.
"You were the one that started this whole mess, so in a way it's your fault this is happening." Anko smirked, pausing in her steps and lowering the kunai to her side as she placed her other hand on her hip. "You're gonna tell us everything you know- or not being able to place your bet will be the least of your worries…"
Ino ignored the snickers from Anko's Minions, and analyzed the situation. It seemed hopeless, the odds insurmountable. But Ino wasn't about to give up- she knew she could win The Bet! She wasn't about to let anyone, even Mitarashi Anko, get in the way of her goal!
She just needed some time to prepare an escape. Once she made it to the shopping district, with its murky mist, she would probably be safe, for a relative meaning of the word… But anything had to be better that facing off against Mitarashi Anko and her Minions!
"It's kinda weird that you would expect me to know," Ino nonchalantly drawled, covertly lifting her right hand to slide through her knotted locks. "Naruto's such a tomboy; she would probably tell a male friend if she had someone she was interested in."
Anko snorted. "That's what we thought, but the Inuzuka who was the most likely option was useless, and any of her male friends she would have told ended up being contenders for The Bet anyways."
Ino hummed, idly staring at her right hand's nails like she was unaffected by the vultures slowly closing in for the kill. "What about Iruka-sensei? They're always going to that ramen stand together."
Anko, surprisingly, flinched. "Iruka… is terrifying. He took out one of Kiri's ANBU black ops, for kami's sake. Left him out on the street tied up like he was a pig ready for roasting! I'm not crazy enough to mess around with that psycho nut."
The Yamanaka took a moment to wonder what the world had come to that Anko of all people was calling Iruka-sensei a psycho nut. The world really was ending, wasn't it?
Ino rubbed her free hand's fingers together, the slight trembling of the Katana in her left belaying the nerves she felt but wasn't allowing to sneak into her voice. "I can see why you wouldn't want to mess around with him… But why me? I know as much as you guys- Naruto is a tough nut to crack."
The trench coat clad kunoichi began to stroll towards Ino, a smile more like a sneer stretching across her face. "Oh, honey, were doing this to you because you do know something; otherwise, you wouldn't be running towards cult-central. Now stop stalling- my snakes are so anxious to meet- AH!"
Ino didn't let Anko finish her sentence, aiming for the element of surprise. The senbon that she had slid out of her hair, and the strand of her golden locks that she had rolled onto it, stabbed into Anko's throat. They made an excellent medium for her mind-transfer, and Ino launched her consciousness at the snake summoner with a speed she had never reached before.
Quickly taking control of Anko's body, she whipped the senbon that the T and I member had been holding in her hands at the numerous Minions. Two, caught by surprise, were taken out by hitting a nerve on their throats, but four attackers still remained, apparently better practiced at avoiding Anko's commonly thrown weapon of choice. Must be the senior members of the Minion squad left then- damnit!
One, wearing goggles, made a brake for her unconscious body. Ino heaved her possessed form across the distance, parrying his swinging kunai with one of her own. Lashing out a leg at his feet, she was unsurprised when he jumped to avoid her assault, but was ready. She snapped the same leg back around to into his stomach, sending him careening to the ground in a winded mess. Turning to her left, she diverted a punch from the second attacker with an upwards swipe of her forearm, but was unable to dodge his kick to her right side.
Anko's body was pushed harshly to the left, but Ino fell into a roll to reduce the ground's impact and stumbled to her feet. She sprinted back towards her body, which the chuunin that had kicked her away was currently lifting up with the help of one of his remaining comrades.
"Stop right there!" the one on the left called, and held a kunai to the hair of Ino's body. "One move and you'll be a baldy!"
Ino wasn't about to give up just yet, and employed the master of all diversion tactics- she ripped open Anko's coat and fishnet shirt with one quick jerk of her kunai-wielding hands, and continued running to her captive body, regardless of her now free… 'assets'.
The two holding her body gaped back at her, and the female one on the right whispered, "I have seen heaven, and it is glorious." Ino punched her square in the nose, before spinning towards the second chuunin and delivering a quick chop to his neck.
Ino smirked. Absolutely typical- anyone would fall in the face of Anko's… Key qualities. Nobody messes with Yamanaka I-
"No sudden movements," the fourth Minion whispered as he held a senbon to the neck of the possessed Anko. A quick peripheral check revealed that he had trained another on Ino's unconscious body with his free hand- if she tried to return to herself, he would knock her out before she had time to retaliate.
The chuunin she had kicked in the stomach at the start was now stumbling to his feet, though he still breathed heavily from having the air knocked out of him. The one she had punched in the face also rose, still blushing as she cradled her bleeding nose. The fourth, who she had chopped the neck of, remained unconscious, but it didn't matter.
She was surrounded.
The two that had just re-entered the battle again picked up her body, and again held a kunai to her unconscious form's hair. "So, Yamanaka?" her senbon wielding captor whispered. "Are you going to tell us what you know? Be careful what you say- we're T and I, and we'll know if you're lying…"
Ino was trapped- but she didn't want to give up her information. They hadn't earned this information on The Bet! She had! But… her hair…
"Going once, going twice," the chuunin sneered. The one with the bleeding nose raised her hand to end it all. Ino closed Anko's eyes.
BZZZZZ. Ino opened her eyes, just in time to see the two that had been holding her body begin to lean to the side. The chuunin that had been holding the senbon to her neck teetered as well. The insect that had bitten him flew away, its task accomplished. The chuunin's eyes were wide and panicked, but he was unable to do anything as he lost control of his body, just like his fellow minions. Ino felt her possessed form begin to droop, and made the split second decision to return to her falling body.
Ino expected to meet the ground like her currently falling captors, but a pair of steady arms caught her around her shoulder and waist before she could. Ino lifted her eyes to meet her rescuer's. The glasses he usually wore were missing, but otherwise a streak of dirt on his face along with a light singe to his coat were the only indicators that he had been chasing Ino for most of the day.
"Couldn't let them do it," Shino whispered.
Ino found her eyes riveted to Shino's, the flecks of green in the brown of them catching the light. "W-why?" she managed to fumble out, the tension of the moment pressing down on her.
"…Why? Because I couldn't let them go after the woman I've been chasing." He lifted his hand from Ino's waist to nervously scratch at his nose. "Besides, I really like your hair," he mumbled.
Ino was quiet for a moment, before shining a small but genuine smile at her saviour. "Hey, Shino…"
"Yes?" he instantly replied, shifting her in his arms to that she was more comfortable, their faces even closer than before.
The Yamanaka's smile took on a crooked edge. "Would you like to come with me to win The Bet?"
The barest hint of a smile was visible underneath the collar of his jacket, but Ino could see it easily from this close distance. "It would be my pleasure. Why? Because you are an incredible woman."
A/N: …I did not begin this story with the intention of shipping Ino and Shino, but here it is anyways. Oh well!
