Chapter 10
The wind swept through the trees, rustling the leaves and creating an impression that the forest was sighing gently. A brook burbled and the sun beat down onto the land below, filtering through the leaves and warming the earth. In a clearing in the forest, a large rock jutted out of the stream, and on top of it a young blonde-haired girl could be found. She sat in a meditation pose, her hands fixed into the ram sign, the most common hand sign for focusing chakra. In front of the girl was a rabbit that sat unnaturally still, not blinking or even twitching a muscle.
Pupil-less blue eyes focusing intently onto the mammal in front of her, yin chakra was shaped with precision and smoothly slid into the rabbit's chakra system. The brown-furred bunny blinked once before hopping to the right, left and then right again, before proceeding to mime picking something up and eating it. The girl released the ram sign and yin chakra dissolved, causing the rabbit to immediately stop eating the imaginary carrot and look up in confusion, catching sight of the human in front of it. The mammal's small heart instantly began beating furiously and it jumped back in fright from the superior predator.
The blonde raised a hand and slowly waved it in front of the rabbit, causing it to once again panic and look around in confusion. Minutes passed before the small animal finally relaxed and began eating the imaginary carrot again.
Ino smiled triumphantly as her gesture genjutsu took effect successfully. In the two years since she had learned her first genjutsu, she had advanced significantly. It no longer took her a whole minute to separate and gather her yin chakra - she could now do it in a fraction of a second. She could also ensnare all senses instead of just sight, creating true illusions instead of simple tricks.
Ino had practiced harmless genjutsu on her classmates subtly over the years. With a ram hand sign, she could ensnare any of her classmates in her sight without them noticing, doing simple things like making their pencils seem closer than they were, before dissolving the genjutsu when their hand passed through the illusion and they looked properly. Her touch genjutsu was more obvious; some of the clan kids had caught onto her during spars when she used it to throw people off her movements. Making people perceive her limbs as just that tiny bit shorter, or making their own limbs subtly heavier as the spar went on were amongst her favourite tricks.
Today was the first time Ino had gotten gesture genjutsu to work. Her unwilling test subject, the rabbit in front of her lived in a burrow near the clearing. Ino had named him 'Fuku', or 'assistant', and the poor rabbit found himself as her reluctant helper for learning the art of illusions. Ino picked up the rabbit, still caught under her illusion, and place him back at the entrance of his burrow. She jumped into the tree up above and dissolved her chakra, watching as Fuku looked around in confusion once again before hopping off.
The Yamanaka grinned euphorically, extremely pleased with herself as she left the clearing as well. Animals were much easier to trick than humans, their brains not able to comprehend that their senses could betray them. And although her gesture genjutsu had been sloppy beyond belief - the chakra flow unstable, the imaginary scent not quite right, and the initial intrusion extremely obvious – Ino had finally succeeded. She had passed a huge hurdle to becoming a genjutsu mistress and mastering the much feared gesture genjutsu.
Genjutsu activated without hand signs and without the target noticing or being able to escape is the mark of a master, and also one of the reasons why the Uchiha are so feared throughout the elemental nations. To look into the eyes of an Uchiha was said to be the same as looking at your death. With the sharingan, even the most inexperienced child could cast illusions that can capture you and prevent you from breaking free.
Ino hadn't had any formal genjutsu training per se – she hadn't been taught any of the set genjutsu activated with a specific set of handsigns. However, she had been taught about the human mind and how to dissect it and make someone believe. Ino didn't have the chakra to keep her genjutsu in someone's system even when they were dispelling it like some people could. Instead, what she excelled at was preventing people from noticing the illusion in the first place by making it so subtle and realistic that the whole time they were experiencing it, they never once realised they were under one.
She was shaken out of her musings as she approached her destination. Hopping out of a tree, Ino arrived at one of the training grounds designated for academy students to use. A brown haired girl spun around grinning.
"Hey Ino!" She said cheerfully, twirling a kunai around her fingers. "How've you been?"
"Tenten." Ino grinned back and responded just as sunnily. "I'm great. I finally got a genjutsu technique to work for the first time!"
The other kunoichi-in-training cocked an eyebrow. "Oh yeah? That's great! Is it combat ready?"
Ino shook her head regretfully. "Not yet, I still need to refine it a lot more. Maybe in a couple years."
Tenten let out a whistle. "Years, huh? That must be one hell of a technique."
"It is. Or it will be." Ino changed the subject. "So, same rules as always?"
A competitive smirk matching her own appeared on the other ninja's face.
"You bet'cha."
"Avoid the face though." Ino warned her, taking a stance with two kunai in her hands, a practice that she had adopted after she started sparring with Tenten regularly.
Tenten rolled her eyes, snorting. "You're so vain, Ino." She teased.
"Scars on women are extremely suspicious and a serious risk on infiltration missions." Ino said haughtily, although her words had the ring of someone who had said it numerous times before.
The older girl rolled her eyes again. "Just admit it, you're only worried about your looks."
Ino smirked cockily. "Can you blame me? It would be a tragedy if this gorgeous face was ruined."
Tenten laughed in response before taking her own stance and her face turned serious.
"Ready? Begin!"
Ino had met her upperclassman on this very same training ground after the academy ended for the day. Sakura had turned her offer of training down in favour of going off with their other friends to play, and while Ino was happy that Sakura had finally gained the confidence to interact with others without her always being there, Ino did wish that she had a friend who took their ninja training as seriously as she did.
She had missed quite a few play-dates with her friends after school when she had clan training, and although Ino knew that if she just asked her father, he would happily let her play with her friends, Ino had never done so. She didn't know if it was her obligation or duty to her clan, or perhaps it was just her ego, but she felt that if she asked to miss a training session, she would be losing. Losing what or to whom, she didn't know, but that was how she felt.
So Ino had faithfully turned up to Hisaki's lessons after school every day, even when the twin girls in her clan class several years older started going only three times a week, and the three boys who competed with her started skipping in order to hang out with their friends.
It was on one of the days when Ino was again the only one to turn up that Hisaki had patted her fondly on the cheek and told her that she had a day off. Ino had initially been rather stumped. She couldn't remember a day when she hadn't learned from Hisaki since she'd begun her reading lesson years ago, apart from the time when her mother had died. She'd wandered back through the compound to her house, hoping to find Isamu.
Her little brother was now two and a half years old, and Ino doted on him whenever she had the chance. His first word had been 'auntie', but Ino was proud that his second was 'nee-chan'. She was disappointed to find that both her aunt and her brother weren't home, and had wandered back to the academy feeling rather lost. She was shocked to realise that she didn't know where Sakura and the group went after school since she had never played with them unless it was the weekend.
More than a little bit lonely, Ino had made her way to the academy training grounds, intent on doing what she always did to stop thinking: bury herself in training. It was there that she came across a fellow academy student throwing kunai at several stumps. Ino, out of curiosity and in a bid to ease her loneliness had greeted the girl, and they instantly hit it off.
Tenten had high ambitions for herself; she aimed to become a kunoichi as great as Senju Tsunade of the Sannin. Ino aspired to those heights as well, and had been overjoyed to find someone who was also working diligently to achieve her dreams. Ino loved having Sakura as a friend, but Sakura didn't put in any effort outside of academy classes, which was unfortunately common for those from civilian families.
Since then, Ino and Tenten met up twice a week to spar and try out new techniques on the other person. Ino wasn't allowed to use her clan jutsu outside of training with her father, so she was left with taijutsu, shurikenjutsu, and genjutsu. Tenten had taken to carrying around tons of pouches filled with all manners of throwing weapons, as well as a tanto strapped to her back.
Tenten's mother was a weapon's specialist, and she had taken to teaching her daughter to be the same. Ino was very impressed with the other kunoichi's skill with throwing weapons and had picked up some tips to improve her own aim, in addition to being able to test out more of her genjutsu in battle situations. In return, Ino had taught Tenten a few chakra exercises and provided experience fighting against a moving target that could parry weapons. Both girls were very happy with the arrangement.
The spar ended with the typical result of Ino's clothes sliced and numerous scratches lining her skin, whilst Tenten had a nasty bruise from when she had gotten distracted by an illusion and Ino had landed a devastating kick. They had an agreement that Tenten would stick to her throwing weapons, working on the speed and number that she could throw at once, while Ino would stick to trapping Tenten in a genjutsu and approaching to deliver a killing blow, or in this case a good kick to the ribs.
"Whoo!" Ino stretched her arms, ignoring the stinging of the cuts that lined them. "That was a good workout, my dodging skills are going to insanely good if we keep this up."
Tenten grinned as she caught her breath. "And my aim is getting better all the time. Soon I'll be able to hit a fly from fifty feet, just like my mom!"
Ino shook her head, wiping away the sweat that trickled down her face as she did so. "That's crazy, I can't still believe she can do that. Although your aim is really good, you'll have to show me when you manage it."
"Of course!" The other girl laughed.
Ino walked through the compound gates greeting the guards as she usually did. It was a common sight now to see her come home with ripped up clothes and bleeding gashes, so the guards only smiled and nodded her on her way. After a stop at her third cousin's mother's house – Ino was pretty sure that was the relation – to heal the worst of her injuries, she arrived back home.
"I'm back!" She called.
"Nee-chan! Welcome home!"
Little Isamu came running as soon as he heard his older sister arrive, and Ino couldn't help the huge smile that came over her face as he toddled over waving his chubby arms. She swooped down and plucked him up, mushing her cheek against his.
"Hey Isamu! How was your day?"
"Good!" He smiled happily. "Aunt Yume and I went to the park."
"Sounds fun." Ino chirped.
"Ino, are you getting blood on Isamu again?" Inoichi padded out of the living room and over to his two children still standing in the entrance hall. Ino looked down to find that some of her blood had indeed rubbed off onto her little brother while she hugged him.
"Whoops, sorry about that dad." She turned to Isamu. "You know what this means mister, bath time tonight."
"No, I just took one! Never again!" Isamu sprinted away in the same way he arrived by, no doubt to find some obscure place to hide for five minutes before he would get bored and find them again. Father and daughter watched his disappearing form in amusement before Ino spoke again as she slid off her sandals.
"You're back early tonight daddy, what's the occasion?"
Inoichi looked over, replying, "I've finally completed the transfer of responsibilities. From now on, you're looking at just a senior interrogator, and not the Head of T&I."
Ino beamed at her father. "That's great! You'll be back in time for dinner from now on?"
He smiled back. "That's right. Barring an emergency, I'll have shifts from seven to five with Sundays off."
The younger Yamanaka gave her father a huge hug. "We should celebrate! This Sunday, all of us should go for barbecue!"
Inoichi smiled knowingly. "Barbecue it is. Next time, when you want someone to get something for you, you have to make it seem like it was his or her idea. You should have left it at celebrate, and let me suggest the barbecue."
Ino hit herself on the forehead. "Darn, I knew that! Hisaki-baa-sama mentioned that the other day."
"How's your chakra?" He shifted topics.
"Not bad, I didn't use too much today."
Inoichi nodded. "Good. We have half an hour before dinner, let's see how your Mind-Body Switch is coming along, shall we?"
"Sure!" Ino trotted after her father happily.
~~~~~~~~N~~~~~~~
Ino stretched and yawned sleepily, her eyelids heavy. She had lost track of time the night before making explosive notes for Tenten's upcoming birthday, and as a result had fallen asleep in class that day. Ino was sure that Tenten would love her gift, she could only imagine the amount of damage that the weapon-loving girl could do with the one hundred tags Ino was drawing up.
Any store-bought seal was extremely expensive since they had to be written out by hand and written perfectly. So even though copying the notes out didn't require any skill beyond an eye for detail and good calligraphy, it was a tedious job, and as such not many wanted to spend their time doing such a mind-numbing task.
Each tag only took Ino a couple of minutes, but making a lot of them required time and patience. Tenten used a crazy amount of weaponry, and Ino knew to maximise her abilities, she would need a crazy amount of explosive notes. So Ino had sucked it up and knuckled down, resulting in her exhaustion today.
She was sitting with Sakura on a bench near the place where they'd first met, and Ino was a bit concerned because Sakura had been acting weirdly for a few days now.
"Hey…" Sakura said trailing off before she got any further.
"What? Why are you acting all serious?" Ino asked teasingly, trying to lighten the rather sombre mood Sakura was in.
"Ino-chan…"
Ino was really confused now. "What is it?"
"I heard you also like Sasuke-kun…"
Ino was startled. She hadn't told anyone that she had a small crush on him. She had said that he was pretty cute several times, but she said that about a lot of guys. She was sure she hadn't given out any hints, so how did Sakura know?
Sakura stood up, looking more decisive than Ino had ever seen.
"Then from now on… We're rivals." She announced.
Without further ado, Sakura left. Ino gaped at her retreating back, absolutely gobsmacked.
Had that just happened? Had Sakura just… ended their friendship? Over a boy?
Ino's first reaction after the initial shock was hurt. How could she just say she didn't want to be friends all of a sudden? Didn't Ino mean something to her? But Ino didn't want to be upset, so she channelled all her hurt into anger. She didn't need Sakura in the first place. If Sakura wanted to end their friendship than she would be the one losing out. Good riddance to that traitor.
Ino picked herself up off the bench and headed to her clearing in the forest, stubbornly ignoring the traitorous tears that dripped down her cheeks.
~~~~~~~~~N~~~~~~~~
The compound was in an uproar when Ino arrived back after blowing off steam and unwillingly crying a bit more. It wasn't blatant to anyone who didn't know how the Yamanaka clan normally acted, but to Ino it was glaringly obvious that something big had happened. The clan members were passing rumours with fervour and those in higher positions were serious as they grouped together to discuss something. Ino intercepted the nearest clan member, a man with auburn hair, eager for a distraction.
"Santa-san? What's going on?" Ino asked.
Yamanaka Santa stopped his hurried strides, not about to turn away an opportunity to spread gossip.
"Oh, Ino-chan! You must not have heard yet, but one of the higher-ups just died."
"It wasn't the Hokage, was it?" Ino asked, panicked.
"No, of course not." He immediately denied. "There are tons of rumours flying around about what exactly happened, but one thing's certain; The Hokage's second-in-command, Shimura Danzo, is dead."
~~~~~~~~~N~~~~~~~~~
Things have been pretty busy lately, so updates might be erratic. Don't worry though, I will without a doubt be continuing this, so no fear there!
So bigger changes are afoot, as you can see! Things are going to veer away from canon quite a bit, so no need to be worried about being bored with the same old storyline. Some things remain the same, others similar. We'll have to see how things turn out.
As always, I appreciate your feedback, and thank you so much to my loyal reviewers!
Blackbird0