A/N: And welcome back, dear readers & lurkers! Please enjoy.
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
Ino Delays the Inevitable: 2
Ino didn't lose consciousness, but she really wished she had. When the branch smacked her head, it stunned her, so she didn't feel the pain as she collided with a couple other branches. She slammed onto the forest loam, the wind knocked clean out of her lungs. Damn. Everything hurts. Her whole body pulsed with heat and dizziness as waves of pain rocked through her. Ino lay motionless for several minutes as she recovered her senses, her ribs whinging with each pull of air she took. While aware of how dangerous waiting was, she took time with Mystical Palm to check and heal her organs and bones- -bruises and a couple cracked ribs, no internal bleeding. Her head hummed with bees, but the chakra didn't illuminate any hemorrhaging or a concussion, so she was very lucky.
"Psssst! Ino!"
Ino jerked upright to locate the whisperer, shuriken slotted between fingers, but she could discern nothing in the nighttime woods. Was that...my voice? Somewhere behind me...a few meters away.
"Incoming squads at six and nine o'clock. Move it!"
The owner of the voice would not answer her questions, she knew, so she didn't ask them. Instead, she got to her feet and rushed off. She kept to the forest floor to avoid another fall, though it limited her options, and she remained within the hulking presence of the gigantic Great Barrier Wall. After several minutes, she slouched against a rough tree trunk to engage the sensory technique. Sweat poured out of her as she pushed her sensory perimeter to the max. Whoever had helped her was not near, or he had suppressed his chakra. The two squads had expanded into four. Sixteen chakra signatures zipped toward her.
As she was about to stop the sensory technique, a series of booms, either smoke or flash bombs, rocked through the ground. The large group stopped. Clusters of chakra jumbled into defensive positions. Right on the very edge of her sensory range, too distant to be distinctive, faint chakra signatures glimmered; she couldn't get a read on whose signature it was before they blipped out of range. The squads surprisingly peeled off in different directions to chase these other signatures…someone had created a diversion for her with clones or summonings.
Who was doing this for her? No time to think about it. Don't waste the opportunity. For the next leg of the journey, she had to switch on a shinobi lantern. It was a gamble, but she couldn't flounder in the dark and miss the manhole. If she was quick, the risk was minimal. She fished it from her flak jacket, feeding a slight amount of chakra into the device. But as Ino raised it overhead, a hand clamped on her wrist. She shrieked and jerked. The shinobi lantern dropped and tumbled on the ground.
"You are a joy to hunt, dearest pet, but really, you ought to take more care with hiding your location."
Ino reversed his hold, jabbing with her right fist. He hopped backwards out of range at the same time she tossed out a flash bomb. The bomb detonated. Ino slipped away into the woods, as panicked as a rabbit. Shit...how'd he find her? Did he have chakra sensory? And more importantly, how'd she miss his chakra signature?
She expected Miyazato's footsteps to dash after her, but she heard nothing. The forest was dense, packed with flourishing leaves and ground brush which provided substantial camouflage for her enemy. The silence unnerved her. Nervous in her own skin, she transformed into a forest hawk for the advanced daytime and nighttime vision and somewhat decent hearing. As she gained lift with her large pinions, shooting for a break in the trees, she didn't see any movement around her. The forest was couched in a smoky haze.
Bursting free into the open air, she calmed. She was fine, she could do this. A throaty growl rumbled into the night. A second growl answered. Fresh anxiety chilled her. Ino's animal brain lit with the impulse to flee. Apex predators. She must hurry. Fire Country was by day a relatively safe environment. Night was when most large predators hunted.
She ascended to a comfortable height, the wind a rush in her ears and ruffling her feathers; lights from the village reflected a large white bird- -an Ink Beast hawk gliding over the Great Barrier Wall. Below, some distance behind her, the trees whipped in a frenzy, but her heart lifted when she spotted the manhole on the ground not too far ahead in a small clearing, under a layer of swirling smoke. At her altitude, she believed she'd be safe from any ground attacks. She could see miles in almost every direction.
From the forest far below, a dark blur launched at her. Ino hardly had the time to distinguish it as a jaguar- -based on the terrifying fangs alone- -before she yawed her body sideways to avoid the slash of claws. The jaguar was enormous. When it hit the trees on its descent, branches and trunks snapped and buckled under its sinewy weight. She had no time to recover. A second jaguar hurtled out of cover (did they leap at her?) and once more, she careened with a flick of her wings to avoid snapping jaws. This second jaguar had a rider and she noticed the jaguar had wings. Miyazato, impeccable clothes shredded and bloodied, long hair like peels of silk in the rushing air, had her in his sights as he and his jaguar banked around.
In anger and anxiety, she shrieked, the birdcall piercing the air. Miyazato's fingers linked a sequence of hand seals, a blur of fingers and palms. She angled away, but not before the second jaguar launched with a powerful spring forward, wings unfurling like beautiful white sails in the nighttime sky. They rose, circled, as she desperately tried to gain space. The jaguars roared in tandem; a violent gale of hot, smoky wind caught her in its grip. Her hawk's body tumbled into a freefall, but not for long, as a maw filled with sharp teeth widened around her. Sensing the danger, she exploded out of the henge and ripped out a substitution jutsu. The smoke from the henge's release covered the wire she slung around the jaguar's back paw.
Monstrous teeth crunched into her fake body. The jaguar soon found it had a log stuck in its jaws. While it struggled, growling, to splinter and crack to pieces the wood, Ino clambored along the wire, her hands slick with sweat, and with a final surge of energy, she got astride the jaguar in the spot between its wings. How she managed it, she never recalled afterwards. The jaguar yowled and spat with Ino's weight on its back, shaking and pitching in the air, head rolling around as it tried to snap at her.
With chakra keeping her seated, Ino had already loosened the wire from the jaguar's foot. With a quick toss, she looped it under the jaguar's neck. A final cinch around her waist created a poor security belt. The jaguar beneath her bucked and thrashed, wings flapping wildly, hissing with fury. Miyazato swooped in, eyes ablaze, grinning wide. This maniac is having the time of his life!
His winged jaguar had claws extended; he aimed to knock her from her seat. Ino ripped out a hand seal, her soul strong and unyielding, as she bore down on her jaguar's mind with Shintenshin. The creature submitted to her Will of Fire. The jaguar was heavier than she thought; she adjusted to its size a moment too shy as Miyazato barreled into her, a battering ram with fur.
Claws raked and teeth chomped and feathers flew. They were in a lethal dance. Ino swatted at Miyazato and in a stroke of calculated savagery, unseated him from the back of his jaguar. He flew off into empty space. His jaguar disengaged to swoop after him. She folded her wings close to her body and dove into the forest. Once she was far enough away, she'd ditch the jaguar's mind and find the manhole. She landed with a crash into the waiting arms of oak trees, elms, and maples. Panting from exertion, she lifted her feline head and checked first to ensure her real body was in place. It was. Her superior nose and ears didn't detect any nearby scents or sounds, despite smoke burning her sensitive olfactory glands, and she began to hope.
While in the air, she'd lost her orientation, but she remembered the general direction of the Great Barrier Wall. She wheeled the massive, muscular body around, charging into a sprint. The jaguar's broad paws and stalwart legs were well suited for fast bursts of speed, but prolonged sprints taxed the hindquarters and shoulders. She slowed. A huge, towering formation peeked from the treetops since her jaguar body had advanced nighttime vision and could distinguish the massive wall. Bingo! Near, so near.
Abruptly she veered right and maintained a steady lope to follow the curve of the barrier wall, the occasional branch slapping against her hide. It was in this area she'd dropped her shinobi lantern. Though the sensitive cat eyes could detect a bright glow, she had no time to waste searching for her original shinobi lantern. She carried on, her nostrils dilated to draw in more of the surrounding scents. No hint of Miyazato or the other jaguar in the wind...and no other shinobi. They had either abandoned their search or lay in wait, concealed in the verdant foliage. Onwards she continued, creeping at a crawl and hunched low to use the jaguar's natural camouflage. After a while further, she scented the stink of sewer fumes and with her nose, she came to the exact spot where the storm drain was located.
At last! Ino released the jaguar from Shintenshin, unstrapped herself from the stunned cat, and hopped to the ground. The cat did not seem to know what to do, so it hissed and backpedaled from her, its ears flat and fangs bared. She glared at it. You should be afraid. Turning, Ino transformed a kunai into a second shinobi lantern, and when the jaguar slunk away into the forest, she squatted to the manhole. Hello, gorgeous.
The moment she curled her finger into the notch at the lid's circumference, teeth clamped around her. Whomph! Air burst out of her lungs. Pain. Lots of pain. Jaws had locked tight around her. Confusion, dizziness, and rage blinded her until she was spat, unceremoniously, into the dirt. Coughing reminded her she'd been in a mouth chock full of razor teeth. Slobber had splattered her vest and stank of nasty cat-breath, and because cat saliva was also sticky, the loose detritus from the forest floor stuck in broad stripes to her clothes. Her length of hair was a tangled, ratty mess. Stunned immobile, she levered her torso up with her forearms.
Miyazato laughed, but the laugh teased her, as though her situation was real amusement for him. He stepped toward her with the right amount of caution, the hem of his kimono rippling an inch above the ground. She'd never noticed before, but he wore leather sandals, more straps than shoe, inlaid with gold. For a man, he had beautiful ankles and toes, everything symmetrical, even, and clean. Somewhere behind them, a metal disc was settled flush to the ground, hidden under a partial cover of dead leaves, twigs, and mold. So close…
This time she'd kept the shinobi lantern in hand. Miyazato, rather than hoisting her to her feet, crouched a scant meter from her. Not within range of any slashing weapons. The two jaguars interrupted the tense silence in the clearing. Their displeased growls rumbled from deep within their throats, but the growls were farther away than she expected. Had they left? What was going on?
"You have been quite the busy bee," he said. He pulled his hair into a ponytail as he crouched, and she was glad he looked harried and fight-worn. "You are here, you are there, you are everywhere. But I have prevailed, and you have been caught."
She took her time to answer him, drawing out the interaction. "I'm not done yet. We haven't even reached the best part." Her voice rasped from her throat, her lips and mouth dry.
"What could be better than finally capturing my prey?"
Ino gave an exaggerated glance to her left and another exaggerated glance to her right. She was lucky she did so, otherwise, she would've missed a slight flicker of blonde hair in the undergrowth. Her mischievous helper, maybe? "You call this a clean capture? I think you're gloating before having actually done anything. Fatal error," she chided him. From behind Miyazato, an Ino-clone peered from a high tree branch. Yes. I see. "I'm not paralyzed or restrained."
"Someone sounds like she's stalling the inevitable."
"Why on earth would I stall?" She shifted so her voluminous ponytail dripped forward over her shoulder, hiding her hands beneath her chest, away from Miyazato's downward view. "How can you be sure I'm the real Ino?"
He paused to consider her point, and already she had concentrated her chakra into a genjutsu.
"Hm. Yes. I suppose I'll have to…"
In the vision she created, she tossed a smoke bomb and in the covering smoke, she charged past Miyazato. Each tiny detail of the genjutsu, the sound and smell and feel, was crafted to be as real as possible. Purposely, she flashed under his guard with a slight stirring of the air and boosted out of the clearing. Miyazato was fooled. Shaking his head, an amused smile warming his features, he said something like, "Tricky little minx," and in a quick pivot of his feet, he chased after her. She eased the genjutsu, mixing reality more with the dream and as Miyazato left her range, she withdrew the jutsu.
Her chakra levels had diminished with each successive technique, she dared not waste a drop more.
Another problem arose when she tried to gain her feet. While she had known she was injured- -the long fangs had punctured her flesh, not deep enough to destroy organs, and squeezed her muscles, joints, and bones- -she hadn't understood the extent of the damage. Her chakra was precious; her life more so. She decided to escape into the manhole, set a trap on it, and once she was out of sight, she could repair the worst damage.
On hands and knees, Ino dragged her pained body a couple meters to the manhole, but when she tried to lift the manhole, the lid was too heavy for her and her injuries weakened her with agony. Again and again, she attempted to shift the lid; again and again she couldn't. Frustrated, near tears, Ino collapsed into a sweaty, exhausted, bleeding mess. Her brain groped for a solution; a lever would pry the lid. Could she find a sturdy branch slim enough to suit her purposes? And in time?
"Hey, don't give up," said her voice. "I thought you'd be more stubborn."
A clone in her image stepped into the clearing. It was truly bizarre because her brain couldn't reconcile her replica approaching her when she knew for a fact she hadn't created a clone. She picked out small, incongruent details: her own breasts, though large, weren't that perky, her lips weren't so plump, and her hips didn't flare so much. Whoever it was had a remarkable self-satisfied smirk. She groaned in disgust.
"You better not be Miyazato in disguise," she said and where the clone couldn't see, she slipped a kunai out of her holster, waiting for a good opportunity to strike. "And if you aren't Miyazato, who the hell are you?"
Sai? Was Sai doing this for her? He could create multiple ink beasts to lure enemies into traps. Next time she saw him, she'd give him a piece of her mind for getting involved when she didn't need him. On the other hand, Sai was not one to show his loyalty with flagrant risks like this helper was taking. Naruto or Kiba might. Kiba, definitely. He, a clone, and Akamaru could pull off a stunt like the one she saw, plus Kiba could gauge the range of her chakra sensory based off the range of his nose. Which explains why the clones were a touch too far away to sense.
The Ino-clone laughed. "Nah, not that asshole. And I can prove it, too. Miyazato hasn't seen you naked, right? Well, you have a sexy bushclover tattoo on your thigh." The adjective 'sexy' revealed a bit about her impersonator.
"Oh, please," Ino said. "Everyone knows about my tattoos."
"Not everyone knows about the new ones you've been thinking about…the butterfly, deer, and boar tattoos linked around your dainty ankle."
She'd revealed her new tattoo ideas to a single person- -Kiba! She'd been right! "You idiot! Get out of here! I'd never live with the guilt when you're found out!" She had more to say, but her wounds and their pain caused a fit of feeble coughing. "Unnnnh…I'm gonna…kill you."
"Nice try, but I'm not Kiba. He did tell me your secret to prove I'm an ally," said Ino-clone. She circled around, cautious of Ino's hidden weapon-hand, and hauled the manhole lid from its place. The sewer fumes grew in potency. "Hurry up. I'll wait until you're situated at the bottom before putting back the lid."
Ino-clone gave Ino plenty of space, correctly assuming if given the opportunity, Ino would dispel the transformation jutsu to reveal who was underneath. She didn't for a moment believe the Ino-clone was someone other than Kiba. Without proof and time ticking away, Ino groaned, gritted her teeth, and swung her legs onto the first rung of the ladder. "Just know I'm not happy about any of this! When I find out who you are, I will have words!"
"Give it a rest, and while you're at it, cut Kiba a break. The guy's head-over-heels in love with you," Ino-clone continued as Ino gingerly descended the rungs into the black sewer. Arms, legs, and everything in between shook with exertion and soreness. "When I close the lid, leave a love note on the underside. Got it?"
"Got it." She ducked her head to watch her footing. The lid grated as it was pushed into place.
"Ino!"
Ino glanced up. "What?"
"Good luck!"
"Thanks," she said, flashing a thumbs-up, "I'll take any luck you can spare."
The Ino-clone laughed. The sewer lid seated into place, leaving Ino surrounded by impenetrable, smelly blackness. She was grateful for the shinobi lantern's strong light. From her hip pouch, Ino freed four explosive tags and stuck them on the lid, sealing it along the edges. Miyazato would figure out the ruse with the impersonators and upon returning to this spot, would guess she'd escaped into the tunnels via the manhole. With additional steps, she climbed the rest of the way down the ladder and into the broad tunnel. The activity gave her a light head, so she rested with her back supported by the cement wall to heal what she could of her wounds.
Her healing sapped her dry of chakra. If she had to defend herself, her options were limited, but she had taijutsu and given enough time to recover, she'd regenerate some chakra. In the meanwhile, she suppressed what was left of her chakra, in case of sensors. She walked, hand on the wall for balance, and searched out the graffiti Kuramas. The humidity in the drain was high; her clothes stuck to her skin, and she felt she'd been trapped inside a giant's throat. She had to hum to keep herself calm.
Just as she lost all sense of time and distance, an explosion rocked through the pipes. The sound was distant, but it rumbled along the cement, causing dust and particles to flake from overhead. It can't be! Someone had detonated the tags.
She couldn't rely on the explosion to eliminate the threat; she had to assume whoever it was (Miyazato, more than likely) had avoided damage and would get around any cave-in inside the tunnel.
Before all this, she had always believed she'd have time, means, and opportunity to establish a new base elsewhere in Konoha. She hadn't wanted to rely on Sai as her debt to him increased with each sacrifice he made for her. Furthermore, she had promised herself she wouldn't embroil him further in the drama...but she couldn't think of anywhere else she could run and hide to escape from Miyazato. The pocket dimension at the Academy had been the best chance, and it was compromised. Now because the Office and Miyazato (plus her clan) realized she had access to the appropriate jutsu, they'd take countermeasures to prevent her using the same strategy twice. Sai's house, with its myriad barrier and sealing jutsu, could effectively hide her in plain sight.
While she hesitated, trying to decide, air stirred hotly in the tunnels. Echoing along the darkened pipes were the padded, light paws of sprinting animals. The pipes were broad enough to accommodate Miyazato's jaguars. And as if to confirm her suspicions, growl-roars reverberated at a distance. Ino spun on her heel into a flat-out sprint. Sai's secret door was several more twists and turns away; she could make it. Her dashing footsteps were overloud in the close, endless tunnels, and at every turn, she felt the jaguars' potent breath on the back of her neck.
While she had walked, some of her chakra had regenerated, a drop in the vast wasteland of her network, but some was better than none. If she couldn't safely get into Sai's house, she'd have to figure out something else. How much time had elapsed since she'd first entered the drain pipes? It felt like hours. Her breath came in quick, short gulps; her legs were sore from the sprint, and sweat streamed down her body, but she at last turned the final junction and her shinobi lantern flashed across the gaping mouth and narrowed fox-eyes of Kurama.
She sobbed in relief, jumped onto the high platform, and scurried into Kurama's mouth. But she hesitated, thinking about the strong jaguar noses. She couldn't risk Miyazato finding this door and subsequently, Sai's safe haven. Her chakra network prickled, but she dug deep, dragging chakra from the bottom of her network, to shape a recent water technique she'd acquired since the war, Crashing Boar River. It exploded out of her mouth, streams shaped into rampaging boars, swishing and thrashing and swirling into the black tunnel. She heard the water spew from the tight exit out of Kurama's mouth. Thunder rumbled around her as the water pounded into the drains and pipes, even the generous circumference barely able to withstand the violence of her technique.
Her jutsu was short-lived, yet worthwhile for the security it provided herself and Sai. Her chakra may have blinked for the sensors in the Inner Chamber; however, they had to find and track the signature after losing it among the hundreds of other signatures, so when she suppressed her chakra, she erased herself from sensors.
She continued down Kurama's 'throat' to the metal rungs she recalled from Sai's memory. Leveraging with her back pressed against the lid, she heaved it off in one violent shove. Weakly, she hoisted herself into the small enclosed area where the locked metal door was. All her limbs felt shaky, like jelly. Then she gathered her strength to close the manhole. The shove may have been the last of her physical strength. Exhausted, she slouched to the bottom step of the ladder. The locked door was over her shoulder, but it seemed so distant, impossible to reach. Energy flagging, she leaned back. I...need a few quiet moments…
Ino drifted. For how long, she didn't know. Long enough for the shinobi lantern to turn off. Luckily, her hand hadn't gone lax. She released the suppression jutsu, dashed a bit into the lantern so she could see. On hands and knees, she mounted the ladder, sang the song as she tapped the correct sequence of symbols and to her relief, the door unlocked. Her limbs jerked with stiffness, but she squeaked through and shut the door, repeating the code on the inside panel. With one final clunk, the lock bolted.
For the first time in weeks, she felt truly safe. Still on hands and knees, Ino worked her slow way along the floor to the wooden steps, and climbed them, one agonized step after another until she slid open the door to the white, bright kitchen. Daylight streamed into the house from the windows. In her inglorious filth, Ino sprawled on the glossy kitchen tiles. Everything was hazy, undefined. She was cold and with the cold, she shivered. Chakra exhaustion was awful, but survivable. Her journey into Sai's domain had sapped what energy she'd recovered, so she lay in a collapsed, boneless heap.
I'll get out of your hair as soon as I can…
Kiba, his arm slung around Naruto's waist, staggered out of Leaf Blown, a favored local watering hole. The owners had had enough of their antics and had kicked them out since they'd spent a fair amount of time in rowdy drunkenness. Naruto looked green around the gills, and as they exited the black interior of the bar, the morning sunlight blinded them both. They groaned as the heat smacked them in the face, wrapped around them with heavy humidity. Kiba, a bit off balance from his buzz, cloaked his eyes with his hands. The world spun.
"Shit," he grumbled. A gross fuzz coated the inside of his mouth. Naruto groaned again and pitched forward to the pavement. Kiba leaned over, but too far, and he stumbled into the side of the building. He jarred his shoulder. "C'mon, bro. Get it toget...toget..." His attempt to speak was interrupted with a prolonged, juicy belch. Beer always made him burpy.
"Unnnngh." Naruto face-planted in some grass, his butt offered to the sky like a prayer. "Don't wanna."
Swaying at a dangerous list, Kiba half-assedly got Naruto to his feet, both their inebriated brains in a total system malfunction. However, Kiba was cognizant enough to judge his house closer than Naruto's, so Kiba stumbled along with Naruto hiccoughing and singing in broken fits and starts. Both the heat and light was murder on Kiba's brain. He hoped he'd get Naruto into privacy soon; the dude looked like he was about to hurl in the hedgerow.
They got a quarter of the way home when a black blur blocked their path. It was Sai, and a moment later, Shino and Hinata landed to his left and right, respectively. Their appearance wasn't unexpected, but also wasn't welcome. They figured it out, hunh?
"Good morning, Kiba. And good morning, Naruto," Sai greeted. "I'm sorry I haven't been around to welcome you home since you arrived from your last mission. May we speak, please? Both of you are concerned."
"Whozzit…?" asked Naruto to their feet. "Heey! Hey, Sssh...ssssh...sssh…" Kiba couldn't determine whether Naruto meant to say 'Sai' or 'Shino.'
"Yup. Come with us. We're...headin' home," Kiba answered, vaguely waggling his hand. He studied Sai's face, which was easy because it was in duplicate. Dark smudges dented under his eyes. "You look like dog shit. Somethin'...happen?"
"We could say the same regarding you both," said Shino with the Scowl of Disapproval. "We've been on a mission the entire night."
Naruto laughed. "Hah! Dog shit!"
Hinata, her cheeks pink, had slipped under Naruto's other arm to support him from the opposite side. Naruto squinched his eyes, and leaning in, cooed, "Ooooh. Yer ssshooo pretty."
To her credit, Hinata's pink blush darkened into a crimson red, but she didn't faint or have a nosebleed. With her help, Kiba steered Konoha's number one knuckle-headed orange idiot to the Inuzuka clan compound. Shino and Sai walked with them in silence, as Naruto found everything around him fascinating and exclaimed his fascination. The walk had a somewhat sobering effect on Kiba, who'd had less alcohol than Naruto, as Naruto, after a certain number of drinks, flaunted his Sexy no Jutsu, and too drunk to remember who the sexy ladies were, bought them a round of drinks. As rounds increased, the drunker the sexy ladies became, the more prone they were to dispel themselves. Once they did, Naruto was hit with another bout of intoxication. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
'More sober than Naruto' didn't mean much. Vision swimming, Kiba missed the door lock, his key scraping along paint, until Shino steadied his hand and inserted the key for him. Everyone had to shuffle around while Kiba struggled with the door. Inside Kiba's house was a cool haven. Akamaru trotted to his master; Kiba scruffed the dog's head. Though the blinds were drawn, the sun illuminated the rooms enough to make lights unnecessary.
The house enjoyed an open floor plan with a lot of laminate flooring. Everyone removed their shoes in the smallish entryway: Kiba had to hunch against the wall for balance, but it took him long minutes to tug the laces free; Hinata did Naruto a solid and removed his shoes for him. Beyond the entryway was the living room spread out to the left with comfortable, sturdy furniture, while the kitchen was a step up on the right side. Adjacent to the kitchen and living room were the bedrooms. The bedrooms were on either side of a hall, each with their own bathrooms. A half-bath with a toilet and sink was in a nook on the edge of the living room. Hinata and Shino got the place open to the outside while Kiba fumbled in the kitchen for coffee, aspirin, and glasses. Sai had taken Naruto to the sofa and leaned over him in apparent concern, but Kiba heard the ripe snores as his friend fell sound asleep.
In preparation for Sai's questions, Kiba chugged two glasses of water with three aspirin and settled at the kitchen table. Sai sat across from him. Shino, with a grim frown, stood to Kiba's side, hands buried in pockets, and Hinata, of course, sat beside Naruto.
"The Office has had a long night," Sai said. The low voice was modulated and steady. "Ino came to negotiate her freedom from the marriage contract with Miyazato. While she was there, Miyazato also arrived. A confrontation occurred. Before we could subdue her, she escaped." Sai's great black eyes were on Kiba. "I traced Ino to the North Gate and the forest beyond, where a number of teams had seen her cross over the Great Barrier Wall. Afterwards, things became chaotic."
"Did they?"
"The squads deployed to capture Ino were caught in a well-planned diversion. Each squad followed a different sighting of Ino. Everyone separated out and gave chase until the early hours of this morning. However, the squads had pursued clones of Ino. Multiple clones of Ino. Inuzuka trackers who were on the squads report the clones disguised their scents with a strong chemical or spray. It's still under investigation." Sai paused. "In the end, we lost the real Ino's trail."
"Hunh. Weird," said Kiba, scratching his head. He controlled the giddy joy bubbling in his chest. "What's it got to do with me'n'Naruto?"
"Naruto is the only shinobi alive who can produce a significant quantity of clones and transform them into copies of Ino. You are a cunning tracker, you know the weaknesses of your clan's enhanced noses, and you have strong feelings for Ino. You've expressed strong feelings in opposition to her engagement to Miyazato. I suspect you had formed the plan once Naruto arrived home, convinced him to help you, and together, you waited for an opportunity to support Ino when she needed it."
"Is that what this is about?" Kiba laughed in false disbelief, but winced when the laughter hurt his head. The slight fog of nausea masked his lie. "I've been banned from the Office and suspended from duty. I wouldn't dare risk the Office's further ire to help Ino. In fact, my whole damn clan is pissed I got tossed off the case." Ma and Hana had laid into him when he told them; his ears rang for hours after their scolding. "I bet Ino used some freaky-ass mind jutsu to get everyone to do the dirty work. Or she could've used a mass genjutsu."
"No. They were shadow clones transformed into Ino's likeness. Whenever a squad came close to capturing one, it would toss out a flash bomb and dispel. The flash bombs were unique because the flash lasted longer than normal specifically to cover the release of the henge and of the clone. No one could see who the clones were originally as they dispelled themselves."
"Look, Cap, I appreciate what you're tryin' to do. But I took Naruto out to welcome him home. We were in Leaf Blown the entire night, drinking heavily. We had nothin' to do with it. Besides," Kiba shrugged and offered an alternative explanation, "Miyazato's so keen to get his hands on Ino first, he probably had some of his lackeys create clones to pull attention away from the real Ino. Bother him instead."
Sai's white hands flexed on the tabletop, a show of displeasure. Speckles of black ink marred the perfect field of skin. He said, "Your suggestion is a distinct possibility."
"Course it is." Sai, the Office, and the squads had zero physical evidence to prove Kiba or Naruto or both were responsible. Though Sai was sure Kiba had recruited Naruto to produce Ino-clones for the distraction, Sai would have to eliminate genjutsu (either Ino or others in her clan could've done it), hypnotism (as Ino or others in her clan could've hypnotized multiple targets to produce and transform clones), and Miyazato. Suck it, dickheads. You got nothin'. "Anything else?"
Sai stood from the table. "We lack proof, but I'm confident you are responsible for the debacle last night. While I commend you for your planning and luck, I warn you to never do anything like it again. Miyazato and the Yamanaka are not to be trifled with. If they discover you or Naruto are to blame for Ino's recent escape, they will take matters into their own hands. We do not yet know what Miyazato is ready to do."
Another warning, but no consequences. Like Shikamaru, Sai had not taken extreme action to correct Kiba's behavior because both Sai and Shikamaru agreed Ino had needed the help. "You don't have to worry. I'm stayin' far, far away from Ino. You can quote me."
Lips compressed, Sai looked at Naruto, who snoozed with a giant trail of drool leaking from the corner of his mouth. "Regardless, I will leave Hinata with you. Once Naruto recovers, she will escort him to Intelligence HQ for interrogation. Aoba's skills are required elsewhere, so neither of you will be ordered to undergo Saiko Denshin. For obvious reasons, no Yamanaka will be given access to either of your memories. Additionally," Sai flicked his eyes to Kiba, "heavy drinking would blur any memories from last night. We won't waste Aoba's time."
"We were borderline black-out drunk," Kiba said to corroborate Sai's point.
"Hm. We'll be going. No need to show us the door. Hinata, don't let them out of your sight." A joke? Kiba couldn't tell.
As Sai left the kitchen, Shino followed after him. The front door opened and shut. Kiba raked his fingers through his hair, a bit nervy from the encounter, a headache a disgusting pulsation in his temples. Talk about a close one. Everyone had it out for him, but at least he'd convinced Naruto to join him in their wild flirtation with treason. And Ino had gotten away; her continued freedom was worth the treason. He regretted nothing: not persuading Naruto of Ino's danger; not the anxious wait for Ino to show herself; not the confusion they caused outside the Great Barrier Wall; not the cathartic confrontation with Miyazato. Keep fighting, Ino-girl. I got yer back.
But Sai…Sai's calm knowledge, his terrifying intellect, his indeterminate loyalties. While Kiba had pressured Sai with questions in Water, Sai had evaded direct answers. Kiba had no solid evidence of Sai's attachment to Ino (or lack thereof). Sai seemed to systematically rip away Ino's allies. Did he want to see Ino beholden to a new country? Bastard. I'll stop you. I'll stop Shikamaru. I'll stop whoever I have to.
Hinata stepped into the kitchen and poured coffee for both of them. She set the coffee mug in front of Kiba. Her pale lavender eyes were tired and her boots dusty, the shining blue-black hair mussed. The team had left behind an acrid, fatigued scent. Good. The wearier they were, the less energy they had toward capturing Ino.
"For what it's worth, I think you did the right thing," she said in a whisper. Then she left him alone so she could fuss over Naruto.
A/N: A little longer of a chapter, but it was fun to write. Leave some love in the comments & I'll see you again next Saturday!