Chapter Nine

I smirked at myself in the mirror; my hair was done in its normal fashion my braid running through it and a thick layer of liner around my eyes. I heard the doorbell ring and I left my downstairs bathroom and headed to the front door. My parents had already left for work, big shocker there, so I did not have to explain to them about the car. I throw my purse over my shoulder and open the front door; Sasori stands waiting for me in his dark leather jacket and red v-neck shirt underneath. His pants are straight and dark wash, with the usual rips and tears, and a red cloud bandana sticking out of his back pocket.

"Did your parents ever come home?" he asks a questioning look in his hazel eyes.

"Yes I think so but they left before I woke up so I didn't have to explain to them the details. They probably didn't even know I was in my room, I fell asleep before they got home." I say, locking my door and walking to his car.

"Did you tell any of your friends about yesterday?" he questions, opening the car door for me.

"Chivalry, cute." I chuckle, hoping into the seat, "I thought it would be better to tell them in person." He nods and shuts the car door, crossing to the driver's side, "So how do you like my look?"

"Interesting, might as well paint a target on your chest and call it a day." He smirks, pulling out of the driveway.

"Well aren't you sweet," I reply sarcastically, leaning timidly against the back of my seat, "At least my back feels better."

"I can change your bandages at the art store, we're working tonight right?" he asks.

"Yeah I almost forgot, hey that reminds me Kakashi was my substitute for math, and he admitted to being in a relationship with Iruka-sensei, weird huh?" I question.

"Not really, I've known that, Iruka used to come to the art store all of the time just to catch a glimpse of Kakashi. Finally he got Kakashi's attention and they've been dating ever since. But it is odd that Kakashi was a substitute, what class?"

"Algebra two, he was filling in for Asuma-sensei."

"Weird, I didn't know Kakashi could do math." We both laugh at that.

"Hey there's Ino," Sasori points out, "looks like she is looking for you." I look at where Sasori is pointing. Ino is standing there dressed in a pretty purple long sleeved shirt with black skinny jeans and a red shrug on her shoulders, with red stilettos on her feet. He parks the car in front of her and her eyes widen slightly at the sight of me in his car.

"Thank you for the ride, I'll meet you out here at the end of the day." I say, hoping out of the car, "Later Scorpling!" he blushes lightly when I say that. I walk up to Ino and link arms with her, she has an evil little smirk on her face as we walk to the front of the school.

"So are you dating?" Ino asks, smirking widely.

"No I'll tell you why he drove me in a minute; I want the boys to be here." Her face automatically becomes concerned as we walk over to the group; Haku is sitting in Zabuza's lap, dressed in black leggings with dark denim shorts and a gray knit sweater, his hair pulled back in a bun with his bangs hanging in his face. Zabuza is wearing a black button up with regular jeans his hair as messy as always. Naruto is standing over them in bright orange jeans and a black v-neck shirt and a navy blue sweat shirt. Deidara is there too; leaning against the tree looking at Naruto's smiling face hair done up in its normal fashion. He's wearing a short sleeved black button up with a blue vest and a pair of paint covered jeans, the red cloud sewn over one of the holes in his pants.

"Hey cuties, want to know the scoop?" I ask, sitting down in the grass.

"Sure what's up hot stuff?" Haku asks, cocking his head to the side.

"Yeah tell us!" Ino says, sitting down next to me.

"I got into a car accident last night," I say listening to the gasps that sound off around me, Deidara does not look surprised, but he shows some concern, "Well not much of an accident."

"What do you mean?" Naruto questions, sitting down in the grass, pulling Deidara down with him.

"She means there was fowl play involved, un." Deidara sighs.

"Fowl play, was it the Oto?" Ino asks blue eyes wide with worry.

"Most likely, I got a bit scratched up but I'm ok, my poor baby isn't though, so until it is fixed Sasori will be my chauffer." I say, "Meaning we are not going out in any way shape or form except to work and maybe the Tea Shoppe."

"Alright, but are you sure your ok?" Ino asks, "It must have been bad if Sasori has to drive you around."

"It could have been worse, but because of that Pein wants us all to eat together. We need to be cautious the accident could have been a lot worse." Everyone nods, the bell rings and I stand up, "well time for History!"

"I'll see you guys in class, I'm going to walk Naruto to his Algebra class, un." Deidara says, throwing his arm around Naruto's shoulder.

"See you guys at lunch!" Naruto calls, smiling brightly at his friends as Deidara leads him away.

I smile and link arms with Ino and we begin to walk towards our history class. She has that far away look in her eyes again this morning, but not as bad as usual. I don't ask her about it, I've learned to just let her come back on her own. We walk into history class and take our normal seats. Sasori is in the back of the room; I look back at him and throw him a glare, which he returns with a smirk. Class starts soon after, Iruka makes us take notes, just another boring day. But I notice something odd about Ino's writing, as her sleeve rolled up her arm, I noticed a light purple bruise. She writes slow, cringing often as if the process of writing hurts. I decide not to ask about it, although something in my gut is telling me I should. She will tell me in time, we're friends, I just have to be patient with her. The bell rings, and Iruka assigns us a long homework assignment. I say goodbye to Ino, she stares at me blankly for a minute before saying bye and running off to her next class. I sigh and walk to Biology, surprised to see a sub in place of Orochimaru, but I also felt relieved. I took my seat beside Konan, she was dressed head to toe in black, black shirt and jacket, black jeans, and black combat boots. She gives me a friendly smile as I sit down beside her.

"How are you feeling today?" she asks, playing with a piece of square paper.

"I'm ok, could be better," I answer, " but the evil one is not here so I am happy I won't have detention."

"That's always a good thing," Konan chuckles, beginning to fold the paper into a crane, "How was the ride with Sasori?"

"It was ok, he's changing my bandages at work after school." I answer, watching as the sub knocks over a beaker.

"Poor fool, we'll never see him again," we laugh and continue talking throughout the rest of the period.

"Oh hey, Pein said he wants to see you on the roof, something about your car," Konan says at the end of the period.

"Ok well I'll head up there right now, thanks Konan, see you later." I smile, heading for the stairwell.

I jump up the stairs two at a time, cringing as my purse bumped against my back. I make it to the top and timidly open the door, looking around for Pein. I see him in his usual corner, snoozing. I close the door securely behind me before walking up to him, wondering if he is just faking it. I kick his foot; he lets out a loud snore but does not wake up.

"Pein wake up!" I scream, kicking him hard in the shin.

"Ow!" he shouts, waking up and grabbing his knee, "Who the fu- oh it's you. So you're not above kicking a man while he sleeps."

"Nope I guess I'm not, now Konan said you wanted to see me?" I say, sitting down in front of him.

"Yeah, we figured out why your car crashed," I wait for him to continue, "Someone cut your brake line, so all of the fluid drained out in the parking lot."

"I wonder if someone did it while I was in detention," I mumble to myself, "Ugh I hate the Oto."

"They're all not here again today, including Orochimaru, which worries me. I don't know what they're planning, but it can't be good."

"I'm more worried about them finding out where you and Konan live, with the leader disposed of the gang can either fall into disarray or join up with the opposing gang. It's a lose-lose situation." I mumble, leaning forward to far, I cringe.

"How is your back doing?" Pein asks, concerned.

"Its hurts, but it's a lot better thanks to Konan and Sasori. He's going to help me change my bandages at work today. Oh by the way like my look, I decided to show off my colors, although since the Oto isn't even here it doesn't really matter."

"Interesting, remember we are all eating lunch together today, I want to have a mini meeting about what happened yesterday,"

"Understandable, I just hope they don't freak out, I didn't exactly tell them I almost died."

"Well they will have to know how dangerous the position we are in is."

"You're correct of course, but then they will baby me because of it."

"As they should, you are fucking lucky you did not get hurt, if you had stayed in that car, well we both know what would have happened." I would have died I shiver.

"Well it's a good thing I know how to tuck and roll."

"I suppose, just don't try to test them, I want you to stay away from taunting or angering the Oto, it's obvious they don't like you."

"What was your first clue, all of the detentions I've gotten with Orochimaru or the fact that they tried to kill me?"

"The bells going to ring soon, go to class."

"When did you become my father, geez." I grumble standing, "See you at lunch,"

I walk slower down the stairs, keeping my bag more in front of body so as not to hit my back. I had heard that Asuma was out again so I was expecting to see Kakashi in the roll as the teacher. But when I walked into the room no teacher was in sight, but there was a very angry looking Sakura glaring up at an equally angry Uchiha, standing in a defensive position in front of Ino, who looks like a wreck, shaking. Kisame is standing right behind the Uchiha, his hand placed delicately on Ino's shoulder, trying to stop her shaking. I throw my bag onto the desk and walk over, taking a position right beside Itachi.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing Suck-ura?"I snap, she looks a lot less confident now.

"Whatever fuck you freaks," she grumbles and marches back to her seat.

"What the fuck did she do?" I ask Kisame, turning towards Ino, who is still shaking like a leaf.

"She started insulting Ino and calling her all these rude names, and then she whispered something we couldn't hear and Ino started to shake and that's when Itachi and I stepped in to stop her."

"Thanks guys, we'll move back and sit with you in a minute." I turn towards Ino and see tears forming in her powder blue eyes. I grab all of our stuff and grab her hand, tugging her out of the room and towards the girl's bathroom. I refuse to give Suck-ura the satisfaction that she made Ino cry. I lock the door to the room behind us after I am sure we are completely alone. I lead her into the corner and make her sit on the dry part of the counter, she seems completely distant. I'd only seen her do this once in my almost month staying here. She refused to talk all day and when I finally did manage to make her speak she only muttered a quick bye before walking away. The next day she was completely back to normal and when I started to bring it up she merely shrugged and said her throat hurt, although I'm sure that wasn't the case.

"Ino, what's wrong?" I ask, grabbing some paper towels to wipe away her mascara, it was starting to drip from tears that she didn't even seem to notice were falling. She blinked a few times, not even really noticing where she was, not even when I touched her cheek did she even acknowledge my existence, and it distressed me. "Ino?" I question again, pushing firmly under her eye, wiping away a thick layer of mascara and a bit of foundation on her cheek. What I notice is that she cringes in pain and when I pull away the paper towel a purple bruise is revealed underneath the thick layer of foundation I wiped away. She finally looks at me, the pain obviously getting a reaction, although I am not sure if it will be a good or bad one, "Honey what happened, where did you-"

"Its nothing," she answers quickly, "I bumped into a wall, I'm a dumb blonde, heh." She fake chuckles, covering the bruise with her hand, looking down at her lap with slightly wide eyes.

"Ino you don't have to lie to me, I'm your friend." I whisper.

"It's none of your fucking business," she shouts, standing up and backing away from me. I stare at her in shock; this is so not her character. Ino is always bubbly and happy, not so distant and angry. I stare at her, she is shaking and her eyes watch me like a crazed animal. I start to walk towards her and she pushes me hard against the counter, my back screams in pain and I bite my lip hard, trying not to cry out. She moves to the door unlocks it and bolts from the room, it takes me a minute to even process she is gone. I bolt out of the room after her but I'm already too late, I have no idea where she could have gone, and she left her stuff with me. I head back in and collect all of her stuff, deciding the safest place for it until I find her is in my locker. I grab my phone from my bag and text her phone, just to make sure it isn't in her bag, no sound comes from it. I lock my locker and tuck my phone into my purse. I decide to get a bird's eye view from the roof, and then working my way down from there. I contemplate texting the others, but I don't want them to worry, at least not yet. When I make it upstairs I am almost not surprised to find Pein there, sleeping in his usually position, snoring rather loudly. I let my bag fall down to the ground and run to the edge of the roof, weaving my fingers into the chain link and looking down. I see nothing, no one moving around the campus, at least, no one with blonde hair and purple bangs. I cuss quietly, and look on the right and left, even the back sides of the building, but nothing. And with my still limited knowledge of the building she could easily avoid and hide from me all day.

"Damn it!" I shout, kicking the fence with all of my might.

Bad idea, the kick combined with my already hurt back thanks to Ino caused me to fall to the ground. I tried to stand back up but I couldn't, it only hurt worse, so I simply let my body crumple closer to the concrete roof. Well today was turning out to be kind of shitty, but I guess lying there would give me more time to think. Like where exactly did Ino get those bruises, and what exactly did Sakura say to trigger that sort of reaction from her. This was so confusing, what exactly did Sakura know about Ino that I didn't? I know they were friends when they were little but what could she have on Ino now?

"What are you doing?" I look up to see Pein looking down at me.

"Convulsing in Pain?" I say in a questioning tone.

"Shouldn't you be in class?" he asks with a sigh, crouching down beside me and placing a hand on my back.

"Shouldn't you?"

"Touché, now what happened?" I explained to him the whole situation, from when I stepped into Algebra, to how I was now sitting awkwardly on my knees trying not to sit up to much and put pressure on my back.

"I see," Pein finally said, after a full five minutes of silence, "we'll see if she shows up at lunch and if not I'll have Gaara and Sasori go out looking for her alright?"

"I guess, care to help me up, the bell is going to ring soon." I sigh, I feel him wrap his arm around my waist and gently lift me up to my feet, then he helps me straighten my back, "Fuck that hurt."

"Did you expect it to feel like a massage?" I sent him a glare but he only gave me a half-hearted glare in return, "Let's go."

I followed behind him slowly, stretching out my back muscles slowly as we descended down the stairs. I'm worried, really worried, god I hate it when I get worried. I always freak out and get a short temper, I have to keep my cool, Ino is going to be fine. We are the first two at the Akatsuki lunch table, I wait patiently, everyone trickles in slowly Konan shows up first, followed by Naruto with Deidara and Gaara. Haku and Zabuza walk in with Itachi and Kisame, then Zetsu and Tobi. Last to show up is Sasori, Kakuzu and Hidan, who has a bloody silver lunchbox under his arm, still dripping. Everyone sits down and I start to get even worse when she still doesn't show up.

"Hey where's Ino?" Haku asks, looking around the table then at me, "Didn't you guys have Algebra together?"

"We did," I sigh, twisting my fingers together tightly, "I don't know where she is, something happened and she just ran off." Gaara looks over at me, his face is emotionless but his eyes are filled with concern.

"Maybe you should confront Sakura," Itachi says, "it is partially her fault."

"I'll go fuck the bitch up now," I growl, but Sasori pulls me back down.

"Get her after lunch when everyone is heading to class, no one will notice her disappear and that way you avoid detention." He says.

"Fine," I growl, "I just hate fucking waiting for shit, I don't know where she is."

"No one does, but it'll be fine, we'll find her," Konan says in a calm voice.

"And if the bitch don't talk I'll fucking cut her nappy ass weave off," Hidan chuckles.

"Thank you for that Hidan," I say, feeling a little better, at least everyone is concerned about where she is, not just me.

Lunch goes by slowly; I spend most of my time glaring daggers at the back of that bitch Sakura's head. I swear to god if looks could kill she would be dead ten times over. Sasori has to keep telling me to calm down because I keep clawing at the table; the claw marks are actually pretty deep. From what Kakuzu has told me the little bitch has Chemistry with Orochimaru next, which works out perfectly since his room is right next to a supply closet and a bathroom, two locations I could lock her in and force information out of her. Sasori, Gaara, Deidara, Itachi, Kisame, Pein, and Konan have all offered to help me since we are all in Art together and Anko won't give a shit if we're not there. Everyone else is stuck in a class that they cannot miss, they wish me luck and if we need any help in our search to give them a ring. Haku gives my hand a squeeze over the table; Zabuza gives me a sympathetic look.

"Ino's a tough bitch, I'm sure once you find her everything will be ok," Naruto says, giving me a confident smile.

"Thanks cutie, I'll ring you guys once we find her," I answer.

The bell sounds and I watch Sakura rise, throw out her lunch and head towards the door. I stand up and walk right behind her, following her until we come up to a bathroom. I grab her arm and yank her in, she tugs against my arm but I slam her up against the bathroom wall. She glares up at me, with pure hatred in her eyes, I glare back and she looks scared, as she should be. I hear the bathroom door open behind me and two sets of footsteps sound. Konan and either Itachi or Deidara I assume, I look and find Konan and Gaara, they'll work.

"What did you say to Ino," I growl, pushing her further into the wall.

"Why the fuck do you want to know," she asks, looking a bit smug.

"Oh you bitch, just fucking tell me before I drown you in the schools toilets," I threaten, dragging her towards the bathroom stalls.

"Ok geez you crazy bitch," she growls, "I just asked her if she was still Daddy's little girl."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I growl, pushing her further towards the stalls.

"Just that her when we were younger her dad would get drunk and beat her up, I thought he stopped though," she says, although now she almost looks human, actually worried, "Why is he still doing it?"

I push her hard into one of the stalls and she falls into the toilet, I don't laugh I just walk out, Konan and Gaara on my heels. Everyone else is outside, staring at me, I ignore them and head outside, my head spinning with the new information. It explains so much, the bruises on her body, why she doesn't like to be touched when she gets in her spacey mind set. She doesn't like to talk loud because she probably has to stay quiet when her Dad hits her so it ends more quickly. God I feel like the worst friend in the world, I have to find her. I head outside and begin to walk around, not really knowing where Ino would go; god there is so much I still don't know about her.

"Mayumi," I turn and look, it's only Gaara and Sasori, the others must have gone looking, Sasori looks at me slightly worried, "We're going to find her, let's calm down it isn't healthy for you to go running around right after your accident."

"I have to find her!" I say firmly, although to be honest I am getting tired.

"Gaara is going to go look around the outside of the school area," Sasori says, "I was going to ask if you want to look at the Tea Shoppe and Art store area."

"I guess it's better than wandering around not knowing where I am," I sigh, "Alright lets go, good luck Gaara, text if you find her." He nods and runs off at top speed out of the school.

"He's really worried about her," Sasori says, "Come on we'll drive around, I think Pein and Konan are doing that too."

"Alright," I sigh.

I just want to find her and tell her, I don't know what I want to tell her. What do you tell someone who is being abused? Hey it's going to be ok it'll stop soon? No I need to tell her I can protect her, I can take her out of that situation, the whole gang can, that's the whole point of a gang, protection of its members. I bet my parents wouldn't even notice if Ino moved in with us. But I'm getting ahead of myself; I need to find her first. We get to Sasori's car and climb in quickly, we pull out and begin to drive, I stick my head halfway out the window, scanning the right side of the streets. I don't see her anywhere, oh Ino where could you be.

"Let's walk around here for a bit," Sasori says, parking his car at the Tea Shoppe, "we'll walk around town a bit and come back here after."

"Yeah," I say, I hop out of the car and wait for Sasori, he comes to my side and we begin to walk around, looking down corners for Ino. After a while we get into a part of town I have never been in before, it's a bunch of little shops, all run down and broken, a nasty tattoo parlor, a few liquor stores, areas that I was familiar with, and from the look on Sasori's face, him too.

"I live a few blocks down from here," he says, "should we check in some of the shops?"

"Maybe, I mean-" I freeze when I notice a particular graffiti mark on the wall, it's the music note, painted over a door to an apartment building that is condemned, "You see that right?"

"Yeah, but we should not be focusing on that right now," Sasori says, quickly pulling us away from the wall quickly, "We'll mention it to Pein later."

"Alright," I look back at the building once more, a shiver running up my spine; could they really be in there?

We walk a little ways more, the street morphing into houses shifting between ranch style homes, apartment buildings, trailers, and a few regular houses split in half and posting rent on the fronts. This reminds me of a normal street in Kusogakure, the street I used to live on, my house was one of the nicest looking compared to the rest of the houses, but it still had problems, drippy roof and pipes, mold growing in the bathroom and basement, the occasional rodent running around. We stop outside of a rather nice looking ranch house, its gray with a choppy un-mowed lawn, a garage that is closed, and a tin chimney. The porch out front is covered in different planks of wood and sand is spread all across it like a beach.

"This is my house," Sasori says, "in case you ever need to know."

"It's nice," I say, smiling lightly.

"You don't have to lie; it's a piece of shit, it's nothing compared to your house." He sighs, staring at it defeated.

"No, I'm not lying, it reminds me of my old home," I insist, "besides that's not my house it's my parent's house." I pause when I feel my phone ringing in my pocket; I pull it out and flip it open and read the text from Gaara that flashes across my screen:

I found her.