It had been a while since the three of them had time to sit down together and talk. They all had been busy with their own lives, this impaired their usual bouts. Ino had a lot to say, and of course her two teammates would listen. It wasn't just the fact that they're families knew each other that made them close, but fighting in many battles together as a team strengthened their bond to that of brothers and sister.
"So, they're really making you go through with it?" Shikamaru questioned, his fingers laced in front of his mouth - he wasn't very pleased with the situation Ino was in.
"Excuse me miss, another round of pork please!"
Ino pulled her piece off the grill, and angrily chewed it, swallowing it and setting her chopsticks down.
"I don't get it. This has to be a lie, if you two don't have to have an arranged marriage, why should I? Did anyone in your family ever mention anything about arranged marriages?"
Both of the Shinobi shook their heads no, Choji quickly grabbing the plate the waitress brought over and placing more meat on the grill.
"How'd Sai feel about this arranged marriage?" Choji remarked, flipping some of the meat over.
Ino stared at him, and her eyes slowly moved down to the table as she reached for her water and took a sip quietly.
"Why didn't you tell him Ino?" The Nara boy sighed and shook his head leaning back and crossing his arms, "So you just broke up with him, and he has no clue why? Kinda harsh Ino.."
"What am I supposed to say? 'Hey my family is making me get married to some guy I don't even know, sorry'" Ino snapped
"Actually...yeah, and maybe elaborate a little more. Not just break the poor guys heart.." Shikamaru retorted, the two locked a distasteful gaze with each other and released a sigh in unison.
"I know, you're right Shikamaru...I mean - how could you tell Temari though?"
This caused Shikamaru to choke on his drink, and turn red, "W-What do you mean Temari? I dont like her".
"You know...my clan's specialty is Mind Reading...and I could use a jutsu to prove a point. But we all know it, and its clearly showing with the red in your face..."
Shikamaru grumbled, and started to grab pieces of pork off the rack and shove them into his mouth to avoid saying the wrong thing.
"H-hey Shikamaru! Save me some, I'm starving..."
"You've eaten 2 plates by yourself already..." He mumbled, and grabbed a few more pieces, "Anyways...Ino you should still talk to him".
"Yeah, poor guy has barely talked to anybody. Naruto said he's even more quiet than usual, all he does is train, paint, and go out on missions". Choji chimmed in, stealing a piece off of Shikamaru's plate and shoving it in his mouth with a victory smile. "I think you really hurt the guy...I didn't even think he had emotions".
"He has emotions Choji..." Ino defended, grumbling and shaking her head, "I dont even think he'd want to see me...It's been over 3 weeks since I've seen him. You guys I dont want to get married to Kenshin, he's a nice man. But I dont love him".
"So you loved Sai?" Choji asked, putting his plate down and leaning forward to her.
"Uh-I mean..we didn't say it..." She turned red in the face and looked away from the two.
"But you felt it? You felt whole with him? Like...not hungry"
Ino's face turned back to normal, and she almost laughed at Choji's analogy, "How do you know what that feels like? Has someone made you feel that way?"
Choji was the next to go red in the face, "Well...yes. And hopefully you guys will meet her soon".
Shikamaru and Ino both congratulated him, and ordered a round of Sake in celebration. As much as Ino wanted to dwell on her own problems, she knew you had to appreciate even the smallest of budding flowers. For one day they'd become the most beautiful flowers.
Another week passed, this one dragged by as the did the prior 3. Ino was now returning from her time in Kenshin's village, she was traveling alone, her Grandfather was getting too old for extremely long distances, and her mother had to watch the shop. The return home was taking longer than she wanted - and she was irked about having to go in the first place. But she had time to reflect on her time spent with him, and his village.
Kenshin lived in Iwagakure, and worked with their Intelligence division. His family name had a high reputation at stake, The Hayashi's. They, as the Yamanakas, were known for their Mind Jutsu's, and stealth tactics. The Hayashi's were also a very wealthy family in Iwagakure - which made them even more known throughout the town. They gained the wealth through many completed and a weapon shop that was family owned, which was busy every day Ino had stayed there.
Ino was unaware that the Yamanaka Clan was known there as well - she'd had a few people bring up her father and compliment him on being such a skilled Shinobi. After they found out who she was, and that she was the soon-to-be wife to the youngest Hayashi clan member. The town had been buzzing with the talk of two great clans merging together. Of course, Ino didn't feel great about it.
Everything was still moving forward with their marriage, tensions were rising higher as Ino fought her mother and grandfather on it. She continued to play nice with Kenshin, not really having a reason to be angry with him. The more they spent together, she was finding herself liking him as a person. But that was merely it. They didn't relate on many things, he was very into training, games, weapons, and drinking. Many of their conversations ended with a long silence between the two. The more she got to know him, the more she wanted to hook him up with Tenten.
'They'd fall in love over their passion for weapons, and training' she usually thought when around him now. But it was seeming very bleak that that opportunity to play matchmaker would happen, when she was the one being matched up unwillingly.
She spent her time in his village walking around, and meeting everyone he knew. Of course she met all the members of his clan, all of them seemed very ecstatic to be meeting her - consistently referring to her as 'The Yamanaka Successor'. It started to make her wonder how they all knew of her family so well, and why they were all so eager to meet and appease her.
While there, Kenshin was making more bold moves, and started to hold her hand in front of his family, hug her, and even started to kiss her on the cheek. Which caught Ino off guard the first time, and caused her face to flush - which Kenshin read as a step forward in their relationship. This in turn lead to the hand holding, and such. Ino wasn't a fan of it, and everytime she felt her stomach sink when he laced his fingers with her. They weren't the hands she wanted to be holding, or embracing her in a hug.
She thought back onto last night, The Hayashi clan all gathered to have a giant dinner as Ino's introduction to meeting everyone. They all asked her questions about her father, and how long she had been training, about her jutsu's. Everyone was so eager to get to know her, it almost made her have a panic attack at the constant attention she was receiving. After the dinner, Kenshin walked her back to the family's guest house, where they sat outside and talked a little bit on their child hood. There he took his chance, and pulled her close, giving her a soft kiss. She placed her hands on his chest, and opened her eyes mid kiss to see his closed. He was obviously falling for her, and she had no emotion to give back. After he pulled away, Ino put on a fake warm smile.
"I was nervous at first..but I really think things will fall into place Ino," He remarked, moving her bangs from her face to see it.
"Yeah...me too Kenshin..." She lied, and hugged him, "Have a good night, I'll see you before I leave in the morning"
Again, just rethinking of last night was causing her stomach to feel like she ate tons of bad food. In a way she felt like she had cheated on Sai, even though they had been apart for close to a month now. Every day he crossed her mind, and it was crazy that for two individuals who lived in the same town - they never saw each other since the break up.
Of course, Sai was still nowhere to be found. She questioned Sakura at the clinic before leaving for Iwagakure, and even Sakura hadn't seen him around much. 'He barely even talked to me last time...but he said he was fine'. Ino was silent at this remark, and Sakura tried to cheer her up. But even she wasn't sure what to say about the situation. Everyone who did know was upset at Ino for not telling Sai the truth, but they also weren't in her shoes, so their comments never really reached her ears.
The young blonde looked up to the sky as she walked, the sun was still high, and she wouldn't reach Konoha till dusk. A sigh escaped her lips, as she stretched out her arms to the sky. Wondering if she should just start running to cut her time in half, so she could go and lay in bed. Which seemed to be her favorite hobby lately. Ino was typically so bubbly, and although some people were upset with her, they also saw her light start to dim the past month with everything that was going on - which is why most never badgered her with their opinion on her situation.
"Hey!" Ino turned around to see a familiar body. The outfit at least, she couldn't place where she had seen it, or why it even resonated with her strongly. But it wasn't leaving a good feeling, she could feel her skin crawling.
"Can I help you?" Ino replied back, and before she could hear a response. Her world went dark.
"Did you send the courier hawk out?"
"Of course, of course, I sent it out! I sent it to Iwagakure!"
"No you fucking idiot! It was supposed to go to the leaf village!"
"Ow! Don't hit me! I'm sorry!"
"You idiot...I said HER village. Who cares about that guy? Well...maybe we can get money from him...no no...we need Jun".
Her eyes slowly flickered open, but her world was on its side.
Where am I?
She tried to move her body, but it was unwilling to cooperate.
Whats going on?
"Ohhhh, finally awake are you?" She felt a heavy pressure on her ribs, as it flipped her over onto her back. Then the pressure came crushing down on her stomach.
"What the hell!" Ino screamed, wincing from the shock.
"Shut the hell up, you little scrawny bitch" The voice demanded, "Look. Give us our body back, and we'll give you back..maybe"
"I hope they don't...I'm hunnggrryyyy!" Another voice whined. Ino was now fully coherent, and staring at the masked faces of her kidnappers. The one that had his foot pressed into her stomach, was very tall. He had blue eyes, and other than that she couldn't see any of his features.
The other one was squatting down, adorned in the same black pants, and pale sand shaw as his counterpart. He had tufts of orange hair sticking out from under his beanie. He crawled close to Ino's face, and pulled his mask down to reveal unnaturally razor sharp teeth. It sent a chill through her spine.
"I'm sooo hungry...and you look so pretty, you must taste really good".
"Get away from me!" She screamed, as she did though the pressure on her stomach became greater.
"Shut up, I preferred you when you weren't awake...But look," He squatted down in front of her, his blue eyes locking with her own, "You took from us, so we took from your village - you. If they give us our body back...we'll give you back. They have 24 hours to comply...though this idiot sent the courier hawk to the wrong town. Either way...if Jun isn't back to us within 24 hours...you wont ever go back to your obnoxiously self-centered village ever again". He cackled, as did the other maniac that was with him. Her skin was crawling as she heard the name Jun, he hadn't even crossed her mind in a long time due to the fact the Leaf's Intelligence division had him. After a few moments, the shock wore off and she looked around the barren cavern - there was nothing around her except some rope that she assumed was left over from binding her, a metal bowl, and what looked to be a makeshift hay bed.
Ino managed to sit up, and lean back against the cool cavern wall. She closed her eyes, and tried to think of a way to get out of this situation. But nothing was coming to mind, for the young Yamanaka girl.
Jun...they must be part of his Clan or whatever...who the hell are they even? Some crazy Akatsuki ripoff? There is no way I can use Mind Transmission either...I'm screwed..