A DIFFERENT GENEALOGY: DECISIONS & DOGMAS


ACT II: SCENE VIII
~ IT'S A HEARTACHE ~


Ino blinked awake, and sat up groggily; after a quick glance around the room she vaguely recognised it as Itachi's. Then she felt the warmth; turning her head around, she was greeted with Itachi's sleeping face, and identified the warmth as his arm on her waist. It was one of the few times she had seen him so relaxed...

Realisation dawned on her, and she immediately fell out of the bed with a loud squeak; oh god, she'd had sex with Itachi! Real, actual, sex! This was bad, bad, bad! What was she supposed to do? Itachi was going to be more than a little confused when he woke up and found her naked on his bedroom floor!

This would have been so much easier if they had had something to drink, then she could have something to blame her lack of responsibility on; this was not what she'd had in mind when she said she wanted Itachi to tell her why he was worried, or if he liked her or...

All right, maybe at some point she would have been working towards such a result, but not like this! This was not how things were supposed to go! This was not communication! Where was the communication? There was supposed to be communication!

Maybe Naruto could shed some light on this; she remembered she and Sasuke have something of a similar problem after the wave mission that lasted for weeks before things were cleared up. Obviously, it wasn't quite the same magnitude, but the principle was the same.

And since Itachi was something of a role model for Sasuke, he was bound to have influenced a few things in his younger brother. She knew Itachi very well but right now she didn't have a clue as to how to face him or what was going through his mind; she'd guess confusion, because there plenty of it going around her neck of the woods right now.

Taking care to be quiet, she picked herself up, taking a moment to glance at his bedside alarm - six am. That was good! She could sneak back into her house, or maybe Naruto's would be better; her brother would know something the moment she walked in the door, never mind her father.

Picking up her skirt from the floor, she tiptoed out of the room. After some searching, she eventually found and pulled on her various articles of clothing littering the hallway, though her sandals remained lost.

She paused for a moment before heading out of the door; if she knew Itachi, and she knew him very well, then he would probably go worry crazy again if she just left without a trace. She should probably just wait for him to wake up but...

He had to work this out by himself if she wanted anything from it; she didn't want anything to come form this because he felt like he had to - and he would, because he was the self-sacrificing type. The less she saw of him, the better it would be until he could come to his own conclusions.

Quickly finding the notepad in a desk drawer and a pencil, she scribbled a short not making an excuse about going to see Tsunade and talking to Naruto about the note from Sasuke, along with some other advice, before heading out of the door barefoot. She couldn't be bothered looking for her stupid sandals.

Walking through the streets, her thoughts were so absorbed in what had happened, what she was doing now, and what may happen, that she didn't even sense her blonde team mate until she had walked into her and they had landed in a tangled heap on the ground.


Naruto was still in the same frozen position Shikamaru had left her in by six am, completely confused. The most she had educed so far was that Shikamaru was too nosey for his own good, and seemed to like her a bit more than she had originally thought.

That was probably progress, but it didn't really feel that way; it was distracting if anything. She was supposed to be working on manipulating her wind chakra, not fretting over Shikamaru!

Kakashi took one look at her on arrival and immediately sent her home with orders to shower and get a few hours of sleep. She had been about to protest, but the memory of Ino collapsing from exhaustion changed her mind.

What was she supposed to do about this? She knew Shikamaru wasn't going to let this go without a fight - she wondered if stubbornness was a quality that all Konoha ninja were born with - but she honestly didn't want to face him.

The reason being she already knew what his arguments would be, and while they would be completely logical, she couldn't give two rats asses about them. It was made even worse with his personal interest in her now!

She wanted to keep him as a friend, but that was easier said than done! How could she keep it up when he already told, in his own roundabout way, that she should just forget about Sasuke and…?

She couldn't even form the words in her head for crying out loud! It didn't even form into a functional thought! This was not what she wanted to be fretting over! Why did he have to go and do that?

Walking back through the streets, she was so frazzled that she didn't even notice Ino until she had crashed into her and fallen to the street in a tangled mass of limbs.


The soft click of the front door stirred Itachi from slumber, groaning, he pulled his head back under his pillow in an attempt to block the sunlight poking over his window sill. His arm grasped the empty blankets and pulled them over his head.

Wait, they shouldn't be empty should they? His eyes widened and he sat up in the bed, the pillow falling from the back of his head and his hair standing up every which way, matching the alarm on his face.

Oh sweet mother of fire, what had he done? This had to be a bad thing; there was no way this was good! Well, in one way it was good. In one way was very, very good. In another it was so very, very, badly, badly, wrong that he couldn't even think of a decent verb to refer to it with.

Ino's absence told him she had already woken up, and had most likely left in a freaked out mess without her sandals. That didn't surprise him though - Ino was a morning person, he was distinctly not a morning person - but the context of this was just not the best they could have hoped for.

On the up side, he was a significantly less confused over whether he had, for want of a better term, romantic feelings towards the vanished blonde. Sort of. Simply Knowing that his feelings weren't platonic didn't mean he knew which type of romantic. This was far too much in one go for either of them, let alone him and his confusion.

And more to the point, if Tsunade found out about this, he was dead; she had charged him with her student's care and what had he done? He'd fucked her against a wall and a floor, whilst she was suffering from severe chakra deficiency. That was what he had done.

He hoped Tsunade wouldn't make him write a mission report for this...

Itachi flopped back onto the pillows, his head in his hands and lightly tugging on the front strands of his hair - he was beginning to see why his sister tore at her pigtails so often. What in the name of holy fire was wrong with him?

Knowing sleep was not going to return no matter how much he begged it, he dragged himself out of the bed in search of clothing - found in his dresser, and then the corridor, before venturing into the living room.

The best thing to do would be to find Ino; not right away, because he was certain she would want some time to process things by herself this time, but this was something they wouldn't be able to dance around like last time, especially since he was part of team seven now.

That was going to make things awkward if he didn't explain himself soon; the fact she had been seriously intending on walking away from him last night was enough to tell him that she wasn't going to wait forever for an answer.

His eyes caught a small folded rectangle of paper on the sofa. There was no name on it, but he knew it must be Ino who had left it there. Not knowing what else to do wit it, he unfolded it and glanced over Ino's messy handwriting. She had scribbled a lot of words out, but the message was still legible.

For the sake of sanity, I think its best we both take some time to think things over; I'll talk to Tsunade so don't worry about her – if there's anything desperately important, I'll probably be staying with Naruto for a while. I guess I'll drop some of my shifts at the hospital, but in return you have to do some thinking too. Don't poison yourself cooking; get Naruto to do it - I don't know how Jiraiya taught her, but she can make food edible now.

Ino.

Itachi ran a hand through his hair, trying to get his thoughts into some sort of order. Now he had written confirmation that he had an undisclosed time-limit, he felt a little calmer for some reason. Was it because it was more orderly? Was this Ino's way of helping him organise his thought process?

He'd accused Sasuke of being stunted when it came to girls in the past – or more specifically Naruto – but he was beginning to feel like a complete and utter hypocrite. He had believed that his emotions surrounding Ino were merely platonic, then he considered otherwise, then he wasn't sure, and then he'd...

He was git. There was no other word he could think of; he was a complete and utter git to do that. He may not have wanted Ino to leave last night, but she had been ready to do so – she didn't want to confuse things more than they already were, but he'd completely ignored her opinion.

He felt like he'd just thrown her feelings back in her face without meaning to, and he was certain there would not be a quick fix for it. The fact that Ino was gone now told him that she – the only one who had been certain in the first place – was completely out of her depth, but she was still trying to make this easier for him with her stupid note.

There was no mistaking it.
He. Was. A. Jerk.


With some squawking, Naruto and Ino untangled themselves, and stared at each others dishevelled appearances. Naruto, being the quicker to reach a conclusion, stared at a small red mark on her friend's neck before pulling on her bunches in frustration.

"You were supposed to talk to him, not sleep with him Ino!" Naruto berated, giving her friend several admonishings thump on the shoulder as she did so.
"You- Ow! You can't say shit! You look- Ow! Stop That! You look like crap too!"

Naruto ignored her, and continued to thump her for several more moments before dragging her in the direction of her apartment. There was no way it was a perfect solution, but there was no denying that Ino would need some time way from Itachi, nor that Itachi would need time to get his head screws tightened up.

Reaching the apartment complex she began wrestling with her door handle. He was obviously heading in the right direction, but he could still use a little help. She'd have to have a talk with him some time. Some time soon. Point a few things out to him and what not. If she could find him – he might completely avoid her for fear of awkwardness.

Speaking of awkwardness, she wasn't certain she would be able to look Shikamaru in the eye for twenty years! Finally wrestling the door open, Naruto busied herself in the kitchen, opening up containers of instant ramen and emptying the contents into a saucepan as her companion headed for her shower.

Never mind Ino's Itachi drama, she had a Shikamaru spectacle to deal with, and she needed some major comfort food.

Hot comfort food; that night out on the training field had been cold! She poured on boiling water and waited fro the mixture to cook before depositing all five cartons worth into a giant mixing bow reserved for the purpose. She paused for a long time before picking up a second pair of chopsticks and flopping down cross-legged on her bed, digging into her food.

Ino emerged from the shower looking a little less flustered and immediately pounced on the second set of chopsticks. She sat identically to Naruto on the other side of the giant bowl and scarfed down on the noodles before turning her eyes to her companion.

"All right, I spilled my stuff – your turn" she instructed, taking another ravenous bite of the noodles.

Naruto greatly debated whether she should scream curses on Shikamaru like she normally would – Ino was his cousin after all – but quickly shook the thought out of her head. Not telling Ino would be far worse than doing otherwise. Besides, it was only fair.

"Shikamaru" she grumbled, wondering if just that would trigger some sort of reaction from her friend.
"Oh god, what did he do?"

Naruto finished chewing on her mothfull of noodles.

"Well... he knows about Sasuke and Itachi, and he knows about the crazy nightmares. Oh, and he stuck his tongue down my throat…" Naruto replied with a wave of her hand – as if the matter was merely an annoying fly to be swatted aside.

Ino started choking on her instant ramen; Naruto leant over and gave her a quick thump on the back. After a few deep breaths Ino had a bug-eyed expression on her face.

"He actually told you? How did he find out? He is so dead when I catch up with him..." she trailed off muttering to her self about too-nosey-for-their-own-good Naras.

"He found out the same way we did, but he heard a good bit of a conversation Itachi was having with the Old Bat and the Old Perv... I think he said your dad was there too..." Naruto replied, searching her memory.

Ino stuffed more noodles into her mouth, an action mimicked by Naruto.

"Why are our love-lives so messed up?" Ino complained around her mothfull.

Naruto gave her a withering look.
"Seriously, you're asking this now?"

Ino threw a noodle at her.


"Will that work? ...It doesn't sound like it will work" Zetsu asked dubiously, both halves speaking in unified uncertainty.

"I'll have to re-establish the connection in her mind, but I think I can make a few influences even now; she is getting desperate now – very desperate. It won't be that hard to manipulate her – we already know she is susceptible to illusions, and she's got enough insecurities that I probably won't need to use much of my own imagination to make it..." the dark haired man replied, voice muffled as he replaced his mask on his face.

"That's not what I meant! ...That one wont betray Konoha so easily, especially not if she finds out it involves the Yamanaka" Zetsu replied, still uncertain about the way their companion was directing things.

"You underestimate how far she will go for Sasuke; I was only inside her mind once, when she was a Genin, and even then she was incredibly fixated on him... I'll have to thank Kabuto for doing all the hard work – it's always so much easier to work with someone already skirting the fringes of madness..."

Zetsu continued to frown – the man in front of them was being too rash as always. It seemed to bee a genetic flaw in the Uchiha line. All the others they had seen over the years were just as quick to jump head first into trouble.

"You won't manage this for long – Itachi will suspect something very quickly, and he will not let this pass. He'll hunt you down and probably find you ...If they haven't already – they already know about the mausoleum."

"By the time he does notice something, I'll have my hands around her so tightly she won't be able to breath without my say so – he'll be so focused on that, I'll be able to walk about directly under his nose."

"What about Danzou? …Danzou's an idiot – he's too concerned with his own power to care what we want. ...We'll never get the Kyuubi if he keeps buzzing around though! ...That's not a problem - Itachi would kill him before he touched her."

"Have Hidan and Kakuzu accomplished their task?" he asked, changing the subject and stopping the argument between the two halves of the plant-man.

Zetsu nodded.

"Kakuzu blew up the hospital in Kumogakure, and Hidan slaughtered most of the graduating students. ...The two-tail got away though."

That fact in particular was not welcome to them; they had been looking forward to eating it ever since the one-tail had escaped them.

"That doesn't matter – the only one that really counts is the Kyuubi, that has to be last, but the others can wait; I trust the Raikage was suitably enraged?"

"He threw his table out of the side of his office. He has anger problems."
"Good; tell Pein to send someone after the eight-tails soon, but tell him not to catch it… I'm going to need that one later on."

Zetsu continued to frown as the man walked out of the room, but neither side said anything. If the man was so confident, who were they to get in the way? It meant they could say 'we told you so' when Itachi chopped him into little pieces.

Zetsu absently wondered what the man would taste like.


"Naruto! C'mere a second!"

Naruto looked up from the Rasengan she was trying to smother in wind chakra without setting it on fore in the process; Jiraiya stood on the edge of the training field with his scroll strapped to his back.

It was good to see him again, but she had to wonder what he was doing here. He hadn't been around much lately, even for training, because Tsunade had been sending him on Intel missions.

After telling Kakashi she would be back in a few moments, she left the first mass of clones to their manipulation training (the second bunch were busy having Sharingan 101 pounded into them by an unusually irritable Itachi), and jogged over to greet him.

"What are you doing here Perv?"

She asked curiously; his expression was much less jovial than it normally was, and that usually meant serious discussions relating to things like the Klepto fur ball.

"I have a mission to Amegakure coming up; I wanted to discuss a few things before I left" he replied.
"Amegakure? Isn't that place in the middle of a civil war right now? Why do you have to go there?" Naruto asked suspiciously.

She was sure there was something she was should remember about that place – they had talked about it just before she had left with Ino and Sai for the first rescue attempt. It had only been in passing, barley worth remembering, but she was certain there was something important about the place...

"The leader of Akatsuki is supposedly residing there; Tsunade is sending me there to have a nose around."

Naruto's blood froze; no wonder she had thought it sounded important! Her mind immediately switched from shock to apprehension – this had to be at least an A-Rank, if not an S-Rank mission! She had full confidence that her teacher would complete it – he was far from a pushover, and frequently sent Itachi crashing to the dirt in their occasional spars – but she couldn't help worrying; this was the Akatsuki...

"I wanted to go over the training I want to start on when I get back, amongst other things..."

Naruto nodded eagerly at the prospect of more training; it had to be important id he was taking the time to discuss this like he was. She hoped it wasn't anything to do with the Kyuubi again – that had been a complete and utter disaster...

"I'm going to take you up to Mt. Myobokuzan – now that the Akatsuki are seriously hunting down the hosts, I think you'll need to know how to use sage chakra in the future,"

Naruto's jaw dropped open for several moments in pure shock; he wanted to teach her sage mode? The thing with the toad-face making? He honestly wanted to teach it to her?

"There's another move of your father's that I wan-"

Before he could finish his sentence, she let out an uncharacteristic squeal of delight and gave the man a suffocating hug. She had seen him use sage mode only once, against some Iwa ninjas during their training trip, and she had been bursting to learn it ever since.

"Seriously? Really for real?" she crowed excitedly.
"Yes, yes, let go of me before I suffocate brat!" he mumbled out in reply.

She could hardly believe her luck; she'd been itching to try sage mode, but Jiraiya had been insistent her chakra control needed more work – especially since he had meddled with the seal – before she go anywhere near it.

…It won't help; power can only delay time. It won't stop it - even if you do learn the Sage Arts, it won't be enough to save him from Orochimaru…

Naruto blinked, one, then again. Stupid head - she knew there was a time limit, and she didn't need her own subconscious butting in to tell her that. She would get the training done, and then kick snake butt. That was all there was to it.

"But that's not all I came here to tell you"

Naruto looked back at him inquisitively; what else could he have to say? He seemed to be going down Serious Road again, so she was certain it didn't have anything to do with her training.

"I want you to go talk to the elders after your mission if I'm not back yet; it's well past time they sat down and explained themselves to you"

He muttered the last part, but not quite beyond her realm of earshot; Naruto wasn't too enthralled with the idea of meeting the elders – she already had her maternal grandparents, she didn't really want all that much to do with her paternal ones.

Besides the fact it would be awkward for her, she knew they weren't all that interested in meeting her. She'd seen them a couple of times when the third Hokage was alive; they weren't the sort of people she could see herself getting along with.

Her husband wasn't all that bad in comparison, but that Koharu woman kept giving her anxious glances. They were a bit too wrapped up with the village as well; she was all for village loyalty, but they went beyond the limit.

"I wouldn't worry too much, I plan on talking to them myself, so this is just in case; if you do get back before me, just tell that stupid woman I sent you" he grinned, easing a little of her unease.

"Do I have to go? The elders kind of weird me out..." she grumbled, still not struck on the idea of paying them a visit.
"Yes; it's well past time that woman did things right by you, and she won't do it without a kick up the arse" he replied in a no-nonsense tone.

Naruto sighed, but dropped the matter; Jiraiya wouldn't be so insistent on this if he didn't think it was worth the unwilling effort.

"That's all I needed to tell you; I'll see you when you get back, or after – take care of yourself brat!"

He headed off back towards the main village gates, just visible beyond the line of trees with a jovial wave of his hand. Naruto yelled a short reply, and hurried back to her elemental training. She had her own mission to prepare for.


Itachi didn't know if Tsunade was oblivious or had a sick sense of humour; he'd suspect the latter, but would never ever suggest such a thing for fear of death. He was in the interrogation department, looking for Ino's father to pass on a set of folders Tsunade had insisted he transport instead of her Chunin lackeys; this was her revenge, he knew it!

Itachi knew how to keep his mind blank, but Ino had explained the Yamanaka mind reading capabilities to him once; he could keep his thoughts as clear as he could but that would be useless against Inochi.

He would pick up an impression of nerves no matter how blank his mind or face was; Itachi was certain that Inochi was a reasonable man, but he didn't think reason was applied to the man who had shared carnal relations with your daughter...

Even walking through the halls felt like he was walking to his death; if he was lucky, he might be able to just slip the files onto the Inochi's desk. Itachi did not run away from a fight, but the possibility of seeing Ino's father was considerably more frightening right now.

He stopped outside Inochi's office and immediately gulped in anxiety. He knocked on the door, trying to reassure himself with the knowledge that attacking a fellow ninja was a crime.

A brief mumble from within told him it was all right to enter, and he pulled on the door handle, doing everything he could think of to quell his nerves. On the other side of the door, Inochi lay slumped over his desk, blinking blearily between two handfuls of paperwork.

"Tsunade-sama asked me to deliver these" he informed him hurriedly.

He seemed to be in luck – Inochi had obviously been forced to pull an overnight shift, and if his head was fuzzy enough, he might be able to sneak by without notable notice. He didn't know if Inochi knew what had passed between himself and his daughter, but he would put it past his all-knowing mind.

"What? More? Tell her to keep the paperwork to herself if she wants that interrogation report done on time!" he complained as Itachi headed back towards the door.
"I'll pass on the message Mr. Yamanaka" Itachi assured him with a nod, turning back towards the door again.

He really had thought he'd gotten away without being noticed until Inochi called his name again; turning to face the man, he was horrified to see his suddenly rejuvenated eyes glinting intently.

"I've never visualised you to be a rash actor, that was always Deidara if I remember rightly, but I also know you've been somewhat resistant to Ino – which makes me think you're confused..." he ventured as if he were discussing something as menial as the recent rise in the clan tax.

Itachi was in tow minds as to whether he should be worried or not; the Yamanakas were a rather laid-back family – likely from their constant mental connection – but he'd seen his father go ballistic when he caught Kiba giving Naruto a wolf-whistle a few weeks before their graduation too.

"How do you-"

Inochi tapped his forehead with one finger.

"The only thoughts completely blocked to other Yamanakas are the private ones; part of Ino's mind is completely blocked from me and the other clan members now"

That answered that question then; a small sense of relief washed over him when he realise Inochi would not know exactly what he had gotten up to with his daughter the previous night. That was dashed by the revelation he knew they had been doing something.

"You're so busy looking out for other people you've forgotten that you can have some selfish moments too; make sure Tsunade gets that message! I was being completely serious!" he finished, shooing Itachi out of his office and going back to the piles of paper.

Itachi turned silently and closed the door behind him. He was, as expected, more confused and terrified upon leaving, but not for the reasons he had been expecting. Wandering down the hallways of the interrogation department, he didn't notice the new head of the police department heading directly towards him head engrossed in the horror that was paperwork.

The collision sent Shisui's papers flying all over the hallways, and they both landed rather unceremoniously on the floor; Shisui blinked as he regained his composure, recognising his best friend as the obstacle in his path.

"You walked into me..." he stated, still not completely comprehending what had just happened.

Itachi said nothing, instead busying himself with picking up the papers Shisui had dropped with his unintentional aid; if he didn't get away from the crazy man he would hound him to the ends of the earth for an explanation, and he didn't want to give him one. Well, it was more like he couldn't really, since that would mean knowing what he was doing, and romance was one of the few areas he would admit to being completely confounded by.

Unfortunately, his best friend had an annoying tendency to be undeterred when his interest was aroused.

"You walked into me!" he proclaimed loudly, gesturing with a pointed, almost horrified digit.

"Congratulations on establishing this fact, I have to-"
"Oh no! You are not getting out of this!"

Itachi mumbled one of Naruto's choicer curses when the man grabbed his shit collar with a free hand in the midst escape; Shisui was more interested in one of the marks on his neck that were just visible on his skin.

"Holy crap! You had sex? I didn't think you knew what that was!" he gawped, thankfully quietly.

Itachi glanced around to make sure no-one was listening in on their conversation; it was one thing having Inochi know what had happened between him and Ino (though by the explanation, 'Inochi' was just a replacement for 'the entire Yamanaka clan') was one thing, but he'd rather not have the entire village tuning in.

"Thank god for that! I thought Ino was going have buy a book on the facts of life before you two finally stopped dancing around each other!"

Hello Joe, what was Shisui talking about? He hadn't mentioned Ino at all; how did Shisui know? Apparently, his friend was as good a mind reader as Ino was, because he quickly answered his internal questioning.

"Dude, the whole village has bet on when you were going to grow a pair; the only variants were time and what Ino was going to have to do to start the spurt"

Start the spurt? That sounded so crass... but it did remind him that there had been no contraception involved the night before. At all. Unless Ino was continently using her own anti-sprog medication, that wasn't a good thing. Dear god, he was falling at the first hurdle with this whole mess. And apparently Shisui was still reading his mind.

"Itachi, please tell me you paid attention when Uncle Fugaku gave you the how-to-use-contraceptives speech..."

Itachi did pay attention at the time, he really did, but he hadn't really had much opportunity to actually put that into practice... everything had just happened so fast...

"Okay, I'm going to go drop of these reports, then I'm going to come back, and then... Yeah, you need help with this..." Shisui mumbled, backing up from him slowly, as if he was talking to a jittery mammal.

Itachi was still waiting in the same spot when Shisui returned from dropping off his files.


Ino peered around the corner of her front door and down the hallway; her clan may be aware that she'd had sex, but that didn't mean she had to run into her brother – she'd never hear the end of it if she did. After checking to make sure the younger blonde was elsewhere, she quickly darted down the hall to her own bedroom.

She closed the door and let out a sigh of relief when she finally made it into her room, and leaned back against the door in relief; she had avoided her brother, and her father seemed to be elsewhere at the moment, so she wouldn't have to face him either.

It wasn't that she was worried about his reaction; he liked Itachi and respected him as a ninja. In fact, her father had been nothing but supportive about the whole thing – he had even given her a few pointers on occasion.

What on earth had she done? She shouldn't have left like that – sure she left a note but it was still a note. Itachi was a dunderhead with this sort of thing – it seemed to be a genetic defect considering Sasuke's horrible attempt at confession three years ago – so a note was hardly the sort of thing that would work in her benefit.

It was more likely to do the opposite! Ino flopped onto her bed and screamed her frustration out onto her pillow; she had completely blown it! So what if Itachi needed to figure things out? He'd probably shoot her down now!

He was a reserved sort of person, and she knew that the six year age gap would bother him - long before her unreservedness even got close - if he was left to decide thing by himself.

Damn it, damn it all to hell, she should have just walked out when she'd had the chance! Why did he even stop her like that when there was such a high probability that nothing would come form it? Her feelings may be a little more than just attraction, but Itachi had only just seemed to realise she wasn't a kid any more...

She wasn't certain that his musings would give her the answers she wanted to hear. Giving her pillow a whack with enough force to send the feathery stuffing cascading into the air, she got up and dug out one of her herb packs from under her bed.

After a pew pinches and dustings in a pestle and mortar, she dissolved the contents with a swill of water on her tongue.

Honestly, it was like she had ignored that stupid video back in the academy completely last night; even in that sort of situation there should have been a little bit more responsibility on... well, one of them should have used their brain!

She had never seen the point of the contraceptive medicine Tsunade had taught her at the time she learnt it – there were far better drugs on the market – but she would have to slip her a surprise bottle of sake some time...

She didn't feel like popping into the chemists or the hospital right now.


"All right, what happened?" Shisui asked wearily, plonking a bottle of sake down on the table as he sat down.

Itachi wasn't quite certain on how he had come to be drinking with the man in the middle of the day, but it didn't seem like a bad idea right now; he had never consumed alcohol before – he usually turned his nose up at the stuff – but he understood the social convention was to drink with a friend when trying to find solutions to these sorts of things.

He remembered his father doing the same thing several times in the past, and though he wasn't quite sure what the reasoning behind that was, he was certain that the action had been more useful than simply generating a hangover. Things usually seemed to sort themselves out for him once he'd regained his brain.

It was feasible to believe the process would work similarly for him – if it was a success, he might try the same thing with Naruto. She really needed to vocalise things more if what he had seen inside her head was any indication.

"We had sex" he replied to his cousin as if it explained everything.

Itachi wasn't certain, but Shisui looked like he wanted to cry. The man silently poured out a saucer of the alcoholic drink and gestured towards the ceramic liquid holder. Itachi obediently took a sip of the liquid. Then another. Then he swallowed it all and poured himself another helping. His cousin visibly relaxed beyond his notice.

"Okay, lets try this again, and this time, start with why - not the what."

Shisui spoke calmly and slowly as if to a small child; he was glad Itachi didn't notice or he'd probably been thrown in the river, and he didn't like the river – he had a horrible tendency to sink, and had almost drowned once from another irritation he had cause his romantically-stunted cousin.

"She was walking out of the door."

Again, Itachi didn't really explain the situation very well; Shisui wished Naruto was here to help him – of all his cousins, she was the only one who had a semblance of a brain (not much of one though – he was still a bit weirded out by the Sasuke thing). She knew Ino better than he did too, so she would probably already have a decent understanding of what had happened.

He was fumbling for the light switch in complete darkness here; she was walking out of the door? Who had been responsible for teaching Itachi about how to deal with people? He'd dig up the git and kill him! Walking out of the door? What kind of reason was that? It didn't make sense at all!

"All right… Itachi, you do know that walking out of a door isn't a reason to have sex right?" he pleaded hopefully.

Itachi rolled his eyes, and Shisui fought down the urge to strangle him.
"Of course I do – I may be socially stunted, but I know at least that much."
"Then why did you?"
"...I didn't know what else I could do; when I say walking out, I mean walking out. She... I have been... things..."

Itachi frowned then, took another swill of the sake – he needed more of the stuff if he was going to have a heart-to-heart talk with someone other than Naruto or Ino for once; that way he could blame the uncharacteristic revelations on the drink. Or maybe Shisui...

"I was - I am confused, and Ino was sick of it; I stopped her and things got more confused, and when I woke up she'd left anyway with just a stupid note!" he grumbled, pouring another saucer and swallowing again.

Shisui groaned when Itachi reached for the sake bottle itself instead of the saucer. This was going to take longer than he had thought by the sound of things; apparently, uncle Fugaku hand neglected to tell his eldest about the confusing emotions usually associated with romance when he explained the facts of life.

"So basically, you don't know hat you feel, and Ino is finally getting impatient?"
"I suppose that's one way of putting it... I just don't know what the solution to all this is..." Itachi muttered, taking another swig from the bottle.

Shisui frowned; if Itachi was looking for a solution, he was barking up the completely wrong tree. Logic and reason didn't get along with romance – they ran for the windows when those messy things called emotions involved themselves in things. That was probably his problem; Itachi had a logical mind, and like most of the men in their family, he was poor with people and emotions in general (Shisui was one of the few exceptions to this rule).

It could have been attributed to being place on the front lines so early; the only interaction he'd had as a child were with his team, family, and with the enemy Ninjas whose throats he had sliced open.

Or he could just be an idiot with women; both were fairly plausible explanations. In any sense, he needed to stop thinking like a ninja in a tight situation with the enemy, and more like an average guy with problems in his love life. He had to stop thinking with his logical mind. This was going to take a lot of explaining...

"You don't need a solution Itachi; you're treating this whole thing like a battlefield, and while it seems that way, logic and reason aren't going to help you out of this one..."

Itachi stopped his hand as it reached fro the bottle once again, and frown of confusion playing across his face.
"I don't understand; I need to fix this, but you say I don't need a solution?"

Well that hadn't worked as well as he had hoped. Maybe if he directed thing more towards Itachi's personal problems he would have more success.

"I know that doesn't make sense but just trust me all right? Before you can fix this, you need to know what you're repairing; you don't know what yore feeling right now, so how can you fix this thing with the two of you if you don't even know what it is in the first place?"

Itachi's eyes widened a millimetre, and his hand dropped to the table in resigned frustration.

"I hadn't thought of that"
"Exactly; you're so bust trying to repair your relationship, you haven't taken the time to think about what kind of relationship you want to be repairing"

Shisui egged his cousin on eagerly; this was good! This was progression! Progression was very good!

"But that still leaves me in the same muddle; how am I supposed to figure this out if I can't use a normal thought process?" he countered – at least it was a valid counter this time though.

Shisui shrugged.

"I don't know – figuring theses sort of things out differs from person to person; I knew I had something of a thing for Anko when she didn't bore me to death with all her plots to kill or castrate Orochimaru. I didn't understand half of them because they were so convoluted - still don't - but I found them fascinating. I don't thinks that's going to work for you though."

Itachi was not particularly enthralled by his answer.
"Obviously; Ino is not Anko. So? How do I figure this out?"

Shisui thought about it; he had made progression on the matter, but that wouldn't be enough to get his cousin out of the mess he had wound himself up in. Itachi needed facts and evidence to base his conclusions on, and just his own advice wouldn't be enough if he were to think of it as such.

An idea popped into his mind, and he decided it was better than nothing; he'd just have to give Naruto a heads-up on the whole thing since this would eventually fall into her hands.

"Try asking around – once you have an idea of relationships in general have another look at Ino and see if you notice anything different. That's the best I can give you right now"

He instructed his cousin with a no-nonsense look (he could pull of the Uchiha glare when he wanted to, no matter what the other clan members thought). Itachi gave him a contemplative look before nodding... drowsily?

"Shisui?"
"Yes?"
"Why have you made a clone?"
"Clone? What are you talking abou-"

Shisui slapped a hand to his forehead when his cousin keeled over onto the table, snoring.
Maybe he shouldn't have bought that sake.


Yes. I'm a terrible updater. In my defense, I was inundated with plot bunnies, and now I've got up to chapter eighteen written and double-checked grammatically. I know where this story is going to end up, it's just getting to it that's the problem. I don't have college right now either, so I have plenty of free time to Type, Type, Type awaaaaay.

I have worked on another story that I'm not going to publish until I finished writing too - I have a horrible problem with updates, so this is me trying to learn a lesson by not putting it up until it's completed.

I've had to go back and make sure things tie in with the first story, and correct a few odd bits like bad typing along the way, but nothing much. I will say that the first chapter of this story had been changed, since Yamato does not exist past occasional mention in this universe.

I don't like Yamato, so I wrote him out. Finally, we're getting to a change away from canon. I know it took a long time, but I needed the development for later on in the story. It's actually very crucial, as you will see if you keep reading! Cookies to the nice reviewers!

Nat.
xxx