That's right guys! I'm back! With another update! EARLY! I have an important reason for this. At stupid o'clock in the morning I'm off on holiday for two weeks. My mum says that there'll be internet access where we're going, BUT I'm uploading this chapter just in case I can't connect for some stupid reason and can't update for a fortnight. There probably won't be any issue at all, and you should have chapter 13 next week, but if there is a problem at least you have this one ahead of schedule. That's the logic anyways ^^. Okay! Thanks to my beta reader ScarletEmber, without whom my work would make a LOT less sense! Also a sincere thank you to all my reviewers - you all make me smile - and extra gratitude to my regular reviewers: Aiko of the Akatsuki, Miss Hydrangea (I think you'll like this chapter btw ^.-) and deathrosekitty. You all keep me writing *hands out virtual cookies*.

Disclaimer:

I don't own Naruto or any of it's characters. But a girl can dream...

Study In Contrasts

I passed mum in the downstairs corridor as I headed out.

"I'm just gonna go meet Kiba, don't worry about dinner for me tonight."

She nodded distractedly at me, "Don't be back to late okay Ino?"

"Sure, no problem. Back by ten." I grabbed my coat and left the house, almost bumping into Kiba. He caught hold of me with a sarcastic smile.

"Whoa, Ino, calm down. Running around like that – you might crash into someone."

I barely smiled. Kiba started walking and I had to follow at a pretty brisk pace to keep up.

"Kiba, about earlier-"

"Yeah. I was wondering about that." He said slowly. "You haven't decided against going out with us, like, ever. And you've certainly always been up for skipping school. Then there's you being late back today."

"Oh come on," I snapped, "what is this, the Spanish inquisition? You're not my dad. So I can't blow off a social invitation without getting the nth degree?"

"nth degree?" he asked, genuinely puzzled.

"Kiba! Missing the point!"

"So are you!" He retorted, "I'm not having a go at you for not coming out!"

"I just think- wait, you're not?"

"Nope." He grinned at me, "But I sure made you think I was." I whacked him over the head. "Ouch! You need to get a grip on that temper Ini."

That did it. He always knew how to use that nickname to best effect! I leaned into him as we walked and he put an arm around my shoulder.

"C'mon. Tell me what's going on."

"Nothing." I mumbled unconvincingly into his shoulder.

"Alright then. I'll guess." I laughed, the sound muffled by his sleeve. "Let me see... you've been diagnosed with truantitis and if you skip any more school it will mutate into... into... uh... I know! Skipaholicism! And then you won't be able to go to school ever again and you'll fail all your exams and live on the streets. Am I right?"

"Not exactly"

"Fine. I'll try again. Hmmm... you have secret information that Kin may in fact be an evil overlord of the underworld disguised as a bog standard demon disguised as your common or garden variety bitch. And you're gathering your demon slaying weapons, so you no longer have time to watch films at cinemas like normal non-demon-slaying people."

I shook my head solemnly, "Kiba, I could tell you. But then I'd have to kill you."

"Couldn't you just give me a clue and then beat me up a little?"

"Nope!" I pushed him lightly, "got any other ingenious ideas?"

"You don't want to skip out on school any more? You've made some new friends at your new school and you want to turn over a new leaf? At risk of over using the word 'new'."

There was a long silence as I pressed my face even harder into his arm.

"Ino? Are you crying?"

"No." I snuffled. He gently removed me from his coat sleeve to check my eyes, "well only a little." I muttered, turning away.

"Aw, I'm sorry," he pulled me into a hug, "don't be sad."

"You guys must hate me."

"I don't hate you. Not at all. I dunno about the others, but I understand."

That really set me off. "It's not like I don't want to hang out with you guys any more." I bawled, and he shifted awkwardly. "What? What is it? What don't I know." I was trying to sound firm, but I couldn't quite manage it while completely unable to control my breathing. I think it came out sounding desperate. But whatever works...

"Kin was a little... miffed. About you not wanting to come out."

I was mystified, "Why is it such a big deal?"

"Because you're at a new school. She's not sure how it's going to affect you, and I guess she sees this as a betrayal." He shrugged.

I pulled away from him, wiping my eyes and trying to regulate my breaths a little.

"Okay, okay how can I fix this?" Kiba frowned at me. "What? Come on, I need ideas."

"I'm just wondering, do you really want to fix this?"

I stared at him, dumfounded. "Kiba... 'This' is a big part of who I am now. Of course I need to sort it out. Besides, what sort of a position does it put you in if Kin kicks me out of the group? You aided and abetted me leaving that party the other night early. Ten Ten as well, I know she isn't Kin's biggest fan but still."

He looked uncomfortable, but he nodded anyway. "Well, I guess I could find us a party tomorrow night. That way you'll be staying out late on a Thursday – so she knows you're not worried about school the next day blah blah blah, but you're not actually missing any lessons."

"That's what I wanted to hear!" I held up my hand for a high five, and after only a second's hesitation he slapped it.

We kept walking in silence for a moment.

"So." Kiba said suddenly, "You really like these guys?"

I smiled, "I guess."

"You gonna tell me about them?"

"Well there's Sakura, you might remember her since the three of us played together sometimes in the summer holidays." Kiba nodded, "And Hinata. She's so sweet, really shy and quiet. And sometimes she gets really embarrassed over nothing. Sasuke-"

"As in the Uchiha?" Kiba interrupted, impressed.

"Oh yes! But then, I knew him in primary school too."

"You did?"

"Yup. He doesn't say much. Especially not to me. Then, hmm. Oh yeah! Naruto. He's annoying as hell, but really nice too. Super friendly. He reminds me a bit of Akamaru when he was a puppy." Akamaru yipped at that, happy to be involved in the conversation, "There are some others. Lee, Choji... Shikamaru."

"What's so great about Shikamaru?"

I gaped at him, "What? How did you-"

"Easy," he boasted, "you left him for last, and you paused before you said his name. You were wondering whether to leave him out in case you gave something away, and so you did! Give something away, that is."

"And aren't you pleased with yourself." I laughed, "Well, yes. Okay. I have a crush on him."

"Oh? Tell me all!" Kiba grinned, "I can't believe you didn't say anything sooner!"

I rolled my eyes, "Why does everyone have a problem with this? I only met him today! When exactly did I get a chance to tell you anything?"

He just chuckled, "Yeah, whatever. Now spill the beans."

So I spent a happy half hour talking about my new crush with my best friend, completely forgetting about my new Kin-worries.

I was of course soon to remember that forgetting Kin is a very bad idea.

/\/\/\/\

I got home in a great mood, only improved when ten minutes later I got a text from Kiba.

"Found a great party for tomorrow evening! I'll let the others know.

-Kiba"

I flopped onto my bed with an enormous grin. It was starting to feel like things were slotting into place, and it was a good feeling.

The phone rang downstairs and I listened to mum rushing to pick it up.

Maybe I really could get along with her. All I had to do was forgive her. Could that be so hard? We'd never talked about her kicking dad out. For all I knew she could have had a really good reason.

Part of me railed at that thought. You know how when you're a kid, there's always a parent that you feel you get along with better? It's not that you love them more, maybe you don't even like them more. But maybe one of them is less strict. Or maybe you know exactly how to get one of them to do what you want them to do. Or maybe one of them introduced you to your favourite hobby.

Whatever the reason, I'm sure most people will identify with me on this.

Well with me, it was my dad who I got along with better.

I was more like him than mum, more sociable for one thing. Mum would always rather have one best friend than a group of them.

Or it could have been that he was just better at making friends.

If my dad walked into a room, people immediately gravitated towards him. Everyone who met him wanted to be close to him, it was like magic. I remember seeing this effect from a young age and knowing that that was how I wanted people to look at me.

He was super talented too – he was the one who taught me to draw. He used to do portraits of me and mum, and sometimes Sakura too if she was there. He didn't just have to draw from real people though, he had a whole book full of sketches of the most beautiful women. People he'd just made up out of thin air!

That was another thing, he had an amazing imagination. He made up stories for me at night, epic sagas that lasted weeks at a time involving all sorts of complicated plots, characters, monsters and magic spells.

Of course he had his flaws. Alcohol was a big one. He came home drunk quite a lot, late after spending hours at the pub with his mates after work. But he worked hard! He was the managing director of a talent agency, so he had long hours.

Mum never gave him a break.

They were always arguing about how late he came home and how often he had to run in to fix emergencies over the weekends. Even then I thought she was being unfair – it was pretty clear that he worked a lot harder than her, therefore (by my eight year old logic) he was earning more money than her. So surely she should be thanking him?

"Oh don't even start with all that."

I sat up, confused. The harsh voice had come from downstairs, could it have been mum? Who the hell was she talking to? Nobody made her that pissed off except me!

"I said no and I meant no.... look... no, don't even... you are being completely unreasonable!"

There was a period of more quiet talk before mum started shouting again.

"Oh really? Oh really?Well what makes you think that she wants to talk to you?"

And I knew then that she must have been talking to dad.

Which was weird, since he hadn't been in contact since leaving.

I crept a little way down the stairs, hoping to hear more of the conversation, but before I got even halfway down mum had slammed the phone down.

"Who was that?" I asked neutrally. Which of course meant that she knew something was up. If there's one thing I've never been, and never hope to be, it's neutral!

"That was..." she seemed to think about lying to me, before clearly deciding against it. "that was your dad."

Bingo! Ten out of ten! Get a gold star and go to the top of the class!

"Right. And what was that about someone not wanting to talk to him?"

She tilted her head slightly, "Ino honey, tell me what you want."

"I want to talk to him." Duh.

Mum looked bewildered, "Okay. Do you want me to call him back now?"

"No." I said shortly, "But next time he gets in touch, give me a chance to speak to him. And I'd really prefer it if you wouldn't say things like that without at least asking me first."

I turned around and went straight back upstairs, mind reeling.

What the hell was going on? Months and months after mum kicked him out I had waited for dad to call. Or write. Or maybe even show up on the doorstep and ask me to live with him! I would have gone in a heartbeat.

I wondered why he hadn't tried to contact me. Suddenly it made a little more sense.

What if this had been going on for ages? Years even? Maybe every time he tried to talk to me, mum told him I wasn't interested.

How dare she?

Had she ever thought to ask me whether or not I wanted anything to do with him? He was my dad for crying out loud!

Brushing tears of frustration from my eyes, I sat down on the bed.

How typical. Just when things are looking up.

I lay back on the bed and reached for my pillow, holding it to myself as if hugging somebody else.

Dad was always the one I got affection from. A goodnight kiss, a hug. He carried me if I was too tired to walk.

Dad was the one who fixed things. Plasters if I fell over, new light bulbs and batteries whenever I needed them, taping up books and paper and anything else that fell apart.

He was also the one who taught me how to be popular, how to draw people to me or, if that didn't work, worm my way into a group.

I curled up into a ball, crying silently into the pillow.

Wondering if it was just me who felt like the walls and ceiling were moving inwards, compressing the air and smothering me.

I couldn't be the only person in the world who sometimes, like that night, felt the weight of the past like a brick on my lungs, making it nigh on impossible to breathe.

I struggled to remember why I wasn't supposed to be going to sleep, but my brain was numbed by the dull ache of whatever it was I was feeling. After a couple of decade-long moments I decided it couldn't matter all that much, crawling under the duvet.

Lying there in the dark, head covered, I closed my eyes and begged myself to fall asleep.

I guess I must have done, eventually.

/\/\/\/\

On waking up the next morning I soon remembered why I'd not meant to fall asleep then and there.

I plucked at my uniform, which I'd naturally fallen asleep in, with a disgusted expression.

I stank.

Soon overrode by another problem!

"Why didn't my alarm go off?!" I gasped, flailing my arms around and looking in the general direction of my bedside table.

I grabbed the clock, turning it upside down to check the battery compartment. See (insert sheepish grin here) I'd lost the door for the battery thing about a year ago, so sometimes the batteries fell out.

But not this time! Two batteries, present and correct sir!

I frowned, checking the alarm setting.

Nope, I hadn't reset it or turned it off – it was still set to go at seven am. So what was the problem?

I checked the normal clock setting in desperation.

And there was my answer.

I was awake... at eleven minutes and forty one (forty two, forty three, forty four) seconds past six o'clock in the god forsaken morning.

Pillows are surprisingly good at stifling howls of agony, did you know that?

Ah well. Considering the state I was in after sleeping in my school uniform I figured I could probably make use of the extra time.

Even if it was a little more than necessary.

By ten past seven I was showered with my hair washed brushed and dried (and in a cute bun), dressed in clean uniform and eating breakfast with my schoolbag ready by my side.

My schoolbag containing – and you may want to sit down for this – my completed chemistry work. Oh yes indeedy.

So I was feeling a little smug as I ate my cereal, which is why when mum came in I didn't give her the cold shoulder. Truth be told, I completely forgot that that was the plan.

"Hey mum!" I even sounded chirpy. Chirpy! Sheesh...

"Oh, good morning Ino." She checked her watch, "You all ready to go?"

I nodded smugly, full of smugness and smug-itude.

"Walking again?"

I shook my head (inasmugmanner) smiling a little.

"No? Are you taking the bus?"

"Yep," I wanted to hold out a little longer, enjoy the feeling of having the secret, but I couldn't. I had to see her reaction. "I have two cool things to tell you."

She laughed, "Go on then, I can see you're dieing to share."

"Okay, okay, first off!" I held up one finger dramatically, "I have done my first piece of homework from Konoha High."

Oh, it was worth it. Her eyes went all wide and sparkly, her smile was of the enormously proud variety, she even did a little clap!

In case you think she was over reacting, you try not doing any schoolwork and ALSO never telling your mum anything and IN ADDITION not smiling at her. Ever. Keep it up for about five years. Then pull the same routine I pulled just then and see what happens.

"And the other thing," I held up my second finger, "At twenty to eight I'm meeting Sakura at the bus stop. We're gonna go in together."

Mum smiled fondly at me, "Oh Ino, I'm so proud of you. You're giving them a chance then?"

"I don't see why not," I shrugged, "I mean, Sakura and I used to get along really well. She seems happy to be friends again, and I do need someone to hang out with there!"

I tried to sound cool and couldn't-care-less, but I think the grin sort of gave me away.

I caught sight of mum's hands, clasped together in her lap, and I felt a twinge of guilt. A memory flashed into my head;

Mum holding her arms out time after time,

"We need to talk about this"

"Ino, please talk to me"

"Give me a chance to explain, please darling"

And the last time she tried to hold me. Coming into my room at night and catching me sobbing into a T-shirt of dad's that he hadn't packed. It still smelled like him.

She sat on the bed next to me and, after a moment where we both held our breath, put her arms around me.

I can't imagine how it would feel to a mother, to have her ten year old daughter slap her in response to a hug. To hear her daughter scream at her, as I did, "Never touch me again. Never."

To her credit, she hadn't tried again.

Apart from that moment in my room the other day. And if that wasn't a sign that our relationship was changing, I don't know what was!

I gave her a calculated look.

The whole hug thing had reminded me very effectively of why I hadn't meant to talk to her, but now that she was looking so happy... I wasn't sure I could bring myself to ruin it for her.

And I was starting to wonder if I even wanted to be able to ruin it for her. It was just beginning to dawn on me that I had other options, and watching her try so hard to work with me instead of against me... I knew I had to give it a shot.

"Mum," I said bravely, "when I get back from school today I'd like to talk about dad."

She looked up in surprise and nodded quickly, "Of course we can. I'd be... well, not happy to exactly, but you know what I mean." She laughed a little at herself and I smiled with her.

As I grabbed my bag and headed to the front door I couldn't help but feel a return of the earlier (you guessed it!) smugness.

Don't look at me like that! It was the first time I'd ever been so mature and reasonable! I think I was entitled to feel pretty proud of myself.

/\/\/\/\

Sakura and I sat side by side on the bus comparing our chemistry work.

"Yours is better." I said grimly.

"Well," she searched for a way to make me wrong, "mine is... longer sure. But maybe the teacher will get bored! Shorter work is easier to mark!"

I slowly dragged my eyes up to hers, raised an eyebrow skeptically and then sank my gaze back to the two pieces of work. As that old saying goes, sometimes an eyebrow can speak a thousand words.

"Wait a second," I said, suddenly realizing something, "you're not in my chemistry class. Why do you have the same work?"

She looked embarrassed, "Well... it's not that we're not in your class. Well it is, but-"

"No," I cut her off, "I didn't miss the 'we'. Shikamaru's in your class too isn't he?"

"Yes. It's... oh you're going to think I'm a really awful person!" She wailed.

"I won't! I promise!" I put a hand anxiously on her arm to settle her, "Just explain, I'm baffled!"

"Okay, well you see... Shikamaru and I are in a small class of... a class for..."

"Geniuses." I said.

"Yes. I mean no!" she seemed horrified.

"Freudian slip!" I chuckled, "I'd heard about Shikamaru's marvelous mind, but who knew you were a brainbox too?!"

"Stop it!" She swatted at me with her homework, but she was giggling too.

"So how come you have the same work instead of freaky genius work?"

"We have the same work, plus a little extra. Normally just an extra hour a week of homework, but it does mount up."

"Okay, and is there any way of me getting into this class?"

We both froze, me because I hadn't known I was going to say that until it popped out and her, I dunno presumably because she thought the answer was 'no way'!

"Was that a Freudian slip of yours?" She ventured.

"No," I said distractedly, "A Freudian slip is where you say what you're actually thinking without meaning to. I did mean to say that, I just didn't know that I meant to say it."

"Oh."

There was an awkward silence.

"Look," I said eventually, "Forget I said it, I know I don't meet your genius standards!"

Sakura looked shocked, "What? Ino are you joking?" I looked blankly at her, "I was just surprised 'cos I didn't think... well I thought you were more into skipping school than taking advanced classes..." She blushed as if she thought she'd just insulted me. Hah!

"Sakura," I said gently, "I thought that too! Chill!"

She laughed, "If you really want to, I'm sure we can get you in. You'll have to work really hard though, to prove to your teacher that you can handle the work. Then we can talk to Tsunade about moving you up. I'm sure she wouldn't object to testing you."

"You mean there's a test?" Okay, this was taking on a whole new significance. Work? Prove myself? TEST???

"Yup, but you'll breeze it."

"What makes you so sure?"

Sakura tilted her head cheerfully, eyes slightly shut and mouth curved in her trademark kind grin.

"Easy. You're super smart!"

There were sooo many potential comebacks to that. 'You should try telling that to my teachers', 'my friends would wet themselves laughing if they'd heard you', 'I wish my mum had as much faith in me'.

But they only came to me later.

I grinned back at her, bringing up a hand to scratch my ear self consciously.

"Thanks."

I wasn't just thanking her for saying it, although it was nice of her. What I was really grateful to her for was that for a moment she made me believe it.