It's been a few days since Ino found out about Itachi's illness. She desperately wanted to talk about it, but he would always be either or a mission or in the company of someone else. And Kisame was keeping his mouth shut, she thought that she could get the shark to talk but nothing. Only thing Pain told her was that he knew about it, that's it. She was now summoned to his office and was hoping to find out something more about Itachi, although she doubted it.
For some reason, she felt happy today, first time after Sasuke incident, and she refused to let him bother her, ever again. She optimistically entered Pain's office, who seemed to be in a good mood as well, and sat on a chair opposite to him. "You needed me, Pain-sama?"
"Yes." He simply replied. "A new mission." The leader was the person she would go to the most mission with, it made her feel good about herself, being partnered up with the leader. But there was always this feeling of being scared of disappointing him. Every time she fought, she knew that the Rinnegan was closely watching, observing her every move, trying to find a weakness or a mistake, which would be rare. "It's a different kind of mission."
"How so?" Ino asked, wondering what could it be about, she already stole, killed, kidnapped, ambushed, tortured, hypnotized, took away memories... She really couldn't think of anything else.
"I have a meeting with the Village Head today," he continued in an important tone. "and you are coming with me."
Ino couldn't help herself but smile. She? Meeting a village head? With Pain himself? She felt so important. "Wow, I'm honored, Pain-sama."
"Get dressed in a kimono and I want you on your best behavior." He said strictly and she knew that the conversation was over. She got up, bowed and went to change in her room, smile not leaving her face. She wondered how the fuck Pain knew that she owned a kimono, she did buy one when she joined but never got a chance to use it.
There are lots of kinds of kimonos, all have names and are ranked by their elegance and use. There are, for example, Furisode for unmarried women, Homongi used for formal parties, Iromuji used for ceremonies, Komon that is just casual for everyday occasions, Edo komon that is worn when visiting someone, and a lot of others like Kurotomesode, Tsukesage, Uchikake, Tomosode, Hikizuri... But Ino wore Junihitoe, that is an extremely elegant and highly complex kimono that was only worn by Japanese court ladies. The jūnihitoe consist of various layers which are silk garments, with the innermost garment being made of white silk and the outside out of red. She looked at herself in the mirror, she looked ravishing, fitting to meet the village head, the ruler of her new village.
She met up with Pain at the hideout's exit. He himself changed, he wore traditional Japanese wear; Juban kimono, which is like a regular white t-shirt, with black Montsuki kimono and the same jacket over it. Also, instead of normal pants, he wore Hakama pants. Ino must admit, he looked quite good in that. Black and white clothing perfectly complimented his red hair.
"Shall we?" As they walked through the village together, all the villagers would bow their heads down for them as a sign of respect. She lost the count of how many times she heard 'Lord Pain' or 'Lady Ino' that Sunday. The feeling was... incredible. Being respected in her village, being loved by its citizens. The little traces of nostalgia towards Konoha were all gone, but it's not just that Konoha didn't feel like home, Ame really did. She would rather wear Ame's normal headband than Konoha's pierced one. 'Wait until you meet the village head before you start calling this home.' A voice in her head told her and she chuckled.
The village head's residence was the biggest and probably the most beautiful structure here, it looked like a real manor. The exterior was made out of some fine stone, Flint would be her best guess. All the windows were luxurious and big with golden corners and elegant curtains. The huge front door was guarded by the two guards, dressed in traditional Ame wear. Pain made few steps forward and she could literally see the guards shiver at the mere sight of him. They froze on the spot and mumbled 'Lord Pain' as he and Ino went past them.
The manor was beautiful on the inside as well, the corridors were long with old paintings hanged on the wooden walls and the soft carpet was spread on the floor. Ino didn't want to look like an ignorant child and stare around, so she just followed Pain and would occasionally glance at random things. Pain seemed to know the exact way they should go, they would see a few guards here and there and they would all bow their heads down and let the guests through.
After few minutes he stopped at the one door where was yet another guard, he bowed his head down. "Lord Pain. And your retinue?" He asked as he glanced at Ino.
Ino wasn't sure how to pronounce her name; Ino, Lady Ino, Lady Yamanaka, Ino Yamanaka? "Lady Ino Yamanaka." Pain said instead of her and she cracked a little smile. The guard opened the door half-way, announced them and then opened the door fully, letting the guests in. The room was very elegant and beautiful, it looked like a living room, with a lot of three-seaters and sofas, paintings, fireplace, few tables... Wasn't much different from the one at the hideout, only this one was more luxurious, and clean. Besides few of the servants, facing the window with his hands behind his back was standing a man with an orange hair. She took a good look at his face when he turned to see them, he had soft brown eyes, was about Pain's age and wore a warm smile on his face. She imagined him to look older and more serious, not that she complained. He raised his hand in the air and all the servants left the room, leaving only him and some woman. The woman was sitting on an armchair with a book in her lap. She had blue hair with a paper flower in it, orange eyes, and wore a beautiful kimono which made Ino feel like she found hers in the garbage.
"Nagato." The village head exclaimed happily like a child and immediately rushed to them. He and Pain shook hands before he pulled her leader into a bro hug. Ino's jaw dropped and her eyes widened. 'Is Nagato Pain's real name? And did he seriously just let someone HUG him?! What's wrong here?!' She thought and froze on the spot when the village head looked at her with a smile on his face. "O-ho, and who might you be?"
"Lady Ino Yamanaka, My Lord, I'm honored to be in your presence." She said with as much elegance she managed to and bowed down.
"It's nice to meet you, Lady Ino, I am the head of Amegakure, but Lord Yahiko is just fine."
"She's my new partner." Pain said and Ino raised her head up. Sure, they did go on missions but she never thought of herself as his partner because they obviously weren't equals. But she was so glad that he said it, it made her smile with pride.
"Nagato..." The woman from the armchair raised up and hugged Pain before giving him fast kisses on both cheeks. Ino was left in shock once again.
"It's good to see you." The leader said and Ino wished that she could see his face at that moment, but since it was over blue-haired woman's shoulder she couldn't.
"May I present you my wife - Lady Konan." Yahiko said and suggested towards her.
Ino bowed again and looked up. "It's an honor to meet you, m'lady." She was very glad to see the woman smiling down at her and returned the favor.
"Wow, Nagato. To be honest I didn't expect you to get this kind of partner." Konan said while eyeing Ino from head to toe. Kunoichi honestly didn't know what she meant by that, did she consider her too young maybe?
"I assure you, she does her job better than I expected." Pain replied calmly and looked like he was about to say something else, but stopped himself when two children suddenly stormed into the room, a boy, and a girl. It didn't take Ino a single second to realize that they were village head's children. The boy looked like he was between nine and eleven years old, and he was the mirror image of Yahiko. The girl was around five or six and resembled her mother in blue hair and orange eyes.
"Uncle Nagato!" Both of them yelled at the same time as they immediately rushed to Pain who, at Ino's huge surprise, lowered down and let the children hug him. 'In the name of Kami! What the actual fuck is fucking happening around fucking here!?' And he actually seemed to hug like a normal person... weird. While the boy started blabbing something to Pain that Ino didn't understand, the girl clung to her kimono and she looked down on her.
"Are you Uncle Nagato's girlfriend?" She asked innocently with huge hope in her big eyes.
Ino's face turned completely red, she could literally feel the blood boiling in her cheeks. 'WHAT. THE. FUCK!?' "NO! Hahahaha... We're just partners, that's all, haha..."
"I have some responsibilities to tend to." Konan said calmly. "It was good to see you, Nagato. We can all dine together later." Pain and Yahiko both nodded as they watched the blue-haired woman walk away with elegance.
"You're the newest Akatsuki member?" The boy questioned her and she knew she had to be careful with the answer, she didn't know how much these kids knew about the organization.
She fastly glanced at Pain who gave her a fast look and nodded. "Yes, I am." Ino answered.
"Wow, that's so cool!" The boy exclaimed.
'I can give you the power you want. My offer stands.' Orochimaru's voice echoed in Sasuke's ears for probably the tenth time that day. He stared out through the window of his home, thinking about the snake's words. One thing he didn't tell to the Hokage or anyone else is that he remembers one thing from the night when he was attacked - Akatsuki cloak. "Itachi..." His brother's name rolled off his tongue with bitterness and despise. "To kill you, brother, I'll do everything..."
"How about we head to that meeting now?" Pain asked his supposedly best friend after few minutes spent with talking to his children. Ino was shocked by the fact that these kids adore Pain and he didn't seem to mind their company either.
"Oh, yeah. Let me just call someone to look after these two." Yahiko said while looking at his children with suspicious eyes, clearly not trusting them enough to leave them on their own.
"Ino can do that." Pain said and kunoichi's eyes widened. 'Wait, what!?'
"Oh, great." Yahiko smiled and before Ino could protest anyhow, her leader and the village head already left the room and she was left with two children looking up at her weirdly. 'The fuck, Pain-sama?!'
"Umm..." She started awkwardly, not really sure what is she supposed to. "Naomi and T..." 'Why the fuck wasn't I listening to the conversation?! Me and my Itachi daydreaming!'
"Takeo, it means warrior." The boy said proudly and put his arms on his hips.
"Aha, I promise not to forget it." Ino smiled and lowered down to their level, she had to admit that they were actually pretty cute. She made herself comfortable one of the coaches and Naomi settled on her right while Takeo remained on his feet, eyeing the kunoichi with excitement in his brown eyes. "Uh, what do you want to do?" Ino asked.
"Tell us about your cool ninja life!" He exclaimed eagerly and his sister seemed to be fine with the idea, although Ino wasn't. She couldn't tell a six-years-old and ten-years-old children about how she must kill someone almost every day.
"Well... I specialize in mind techniques, I can take control of someone's body, paralyze someone, read minds, take away the memories... That sorta things." She explained, careful to avoid causing people pain part.
"Wow! That's so cool!" Noami smiled and looked up at the kunoichi. "No wonder Uncle Nagato likes you."
"Uncle Nagato, eh?" Ino laughed a bit. "Tell me, kids," she started slyly, put her hands behind their heads gently and moved them closer to herself. "did Uncle Nagato ever do anything... embarrassing?"
While Naomi seemed to think about it, Takeo's lips immediately curved into a grin. "Oh, yeah, plenty."
"Really now?" At the moment Ino thought that she overstepped her boundary, but this was too good to miss. The great Pain himself did some shit? Hell yeah, she must know about it.
"Under one condition." The village head's son said and Ino and his sister both raised eyebrows and looked at him weirdly. 'What am I getting myself into?'
"What condition?" Kunoichi asked, ready to do most of the things, like, what could a ten-years-old possibly want that would be hard to do?
"Do you have fire release?" Takeo asked with great hope in his voice.
"Um, yeah, still learning but I'm pretty good. Why?" Ino raised an eyebrow again, hoping that he won't ask her to burn something.
"One new fire jutsu, for... five stupid things Uncle Nagato did. Deal?" Takeo asked and stretched his hand out.
Ino considered it for a moment, not really thinking about consequences, before smiling deviously. How hard can it be? They surely have some dojo in here. "Deal."
Ino really couldn't bring herself to look at Pain with same eyes again. She tried to prevent herself from constantly looking at him while they were leaving the village head's residence, but it seemed like a hard task. Although he looked completely the same, he was still different somehow... Her view of him was different. But then the beginning of the day came to her mind and she got angry. "Hey, you said I'm going to the meeting, not babysitting!" She was glad that not many people were out on the streets since it was night already, otherwise she couldn't be as loud.
"No," Pain replied calmly. "I said I am going to the meeting and that I'm taking you with me."
"Urgh." Ino growled but let it go. She did have a great time after all, the kids were really nice and she found out embarrassing stuff about her leader.
"Tell me, Ino," Pain said quietly and she looked at him, not expecting him to continue the talk. "how do you capture the hearts of everyone you meet?"
She was taken aback by his question and stopped walking for a second before catching up with him again. After the meeting was over the kids did insist to talk to him for some fifteen minutes and Ino was praying to Kami for them not to tell him about what they told to her. While he was up to that she talked to Yahiko a bit, mostly about the village and he seemed to be interested about her work in the Akatsuki. She thought about Pain's question for a moment before carefully choosing the answer. "Did I capture your heart, leader-sama?" She was sure that he meant the children and maybe Yahikp when he said that but she couldn't resist asking.
Pain remained silent as she expected, although she desperately wanted the answer. She knew better than to push it with the leader so she let it go.
"What a day." Ino sighed as she let herself fall on her bed. She didn't even change into her pajamas, she just unzipped the cloak along with her purple outfit and let them fall on the floor while she fell asleep in her black lace underwear.
But, like often as it seems, Ino didn't get lucky. Loud knocking on the door woke her up few hours after she fell asleep. At first, she paid it no mind but it continued and she opened her eyes and looked at the clock beside her bed. "Fucking 2 in the morning..." She mumbled as she got out of the bed. "I'm coming!" She yelled because the knocking wouldn't stop. She quickly grabbed the purple robe that was hanging on the door to cover herself.
She was ready to smack whatever the idiot woke her up. She was surprised to see that it was a serious looking Kisame, he was shirtless and was wearing some loose tracksuit pants. "Kisame?" She said while rubbing her eyes.
The shark looked down at her with a hard expression on his face which was very unusual for him. "It's about Itachi."