A/N: There will be no harem. Even if Momo from Toraburu Darkness is my favorite character from that series. That aside. This one is more effort to build character. I tried. Idk.
Seven days since then.
I thought as I ran my fingers along the birthmark on my arm, now in bed and laying down. Seven days after being grounded for what I assumed was striking a superior officer. I was bored out of my mind, having resorted to sleeping as much as possible to pass the time. No further investigating, no interrogation. They were probably contemplating the benefits or cons of keeping me around and having me potentially betray them because of some link to Orochimaru. Just based on the fact that they asked me if I knew that name. I did, but not from this world.
Anzu's oily looking, long and wet tongue came to mind. She had been the one to bring me from Hidden Grass. Could she be related to Orochimaru somehow?
Unlikely… but she was Anbu and her past is an unknown quantity to me. Come to think of it, is she Kakashi's twin sister? White hair, same last name, about the same age. Wears a mask… that I broke.
I always thought of this mark on my arm as just some birthmark, but now it looked obviously suspicious with the memories from my past life having been stirred to the forefront of my mind and I recalled how Orochimaru's marks looked and the fact that that damned snake was a genius and quite the plotter.
I considered what Hiruzen and Jiraiya might intend to do with me, but I could come up with nothing. I figured they'd just let Anzu spy on me and keep me under her wing but honestly even with Anzu gone on a mission with Narumi and Ryuko, I still felt like I was being watched, even as I slept. The thought made my skin crawl, the river eel did not like being watched or looked upon in its natural environment, how could it elude others if it was the center of attention. My chakra was on edge, paranoid thoughts plagued my mind and when I close my eyes it felt like I was looking at a sharp object held directly in front of my eyes whenever I saw the blackness of the back of my eyelids.
I tossed and turned, then finally I could hear the din of birds beyond the glass of my window.
"Ugh…" I rolled out of bed and checked the time on my digital clock sitting on a decrepit nightstand. It was still 6:03AM but the early bird gets the worm I guess. I groaned as I climbed out of bed and did a few routine stretches. Then I made a piece of toast and spread some butter on it. After I ate I checked my current savings of cash.
Literally broke. Damn.
I flushed chakra throughout my body, eliminating the feeling of sleep deprivation. It got the blood and chakra flowing, however that worked.
Guess I'll go for a walk.
I thought and so I slipped my gear on and decided that I'd put my ninja sandals on for once. I then began the day's first battle, fighting my door's lock open and pulling it backwards, the hinges squealed in protest. The wide world. I wanted to go back inside. I hated going outside and working. Even as a Ninja. Laziness was buried deep into my bones, but I knew I had to find something to do or the madness of being alone and inside that wretched abomination of a house would start to eat away at me.
Training I guess. I'll just hit up one of the closer training fields maybe.
It was still dark outside. No civilians about and none to talk to. So, I decided I'd take the scenic route and bounded up onto the top of one of the roofs with ease, then jumped from rooftop to rooftop, making my way further and further to the edge of the village. I saw a flash of white, and then focused my eyes on it, movement. Platinum blonde hair.
Ah, her. Wonder if she'd want to practice Taijutsu.
It was Ino Yamanaka. She was in front of a flowershop. Yamanaka Flowers. Watering and caretaking the shop's primary source of income. She wore a slight smile and was humming, then her gaze met mine, she waved.
Must've sensed my presence.
I waved back in return.
Well, if she doesn't, that's still more time killed on my adventure to the training grounds and I could really use the time-killed.
I reasoned, and despite not having anything to do: I wasn't eager to train or practice any type of jutsus at all. Well, not alone anyway. Figured there was no harm in having fun doing something I thought of as boring since I wouldn't need to use the skills in the career path I sought, and they already knew I was better than the minimum passing grade of fifty percent than I had them believe. So what was the point, all I could do not was get to Jonin and be at the same rank as other people so they couldn't boss me around.
Then again…
I sighed as I jumped down from the rooftops to talk to Ino. "Yo."
"You're up early," She said wryly, as she continued watering flowers.
"Couldn't sleep, decided to wake up and go train, saw your hair. Decided I'd ask you if you wanna train together, I could spar with you, give you a few Taijutsu pointers. Your grades were second in the class after Shikamaru's sister right?" I asked, talking more than usual. I must've been desperately bored.
She hmm'd as she considered it for a moment, "Sure. Team 10 didn't have anything planned for today and I suppose I could use the exercise." Her reasoning was practical but she gestured to the watering can in her hand.
"I can wait or help you water the flowers." I noted.
She smiled, "Thank you." She said and handed me the can before getting another one from someplace in the shop. It was a quiet few moments, and didn't take long.
She took the cans, put them aside and got her gear. Then we were off to training field 19. Another open field, no targets though. It seemed it was designed for sparring or solo-taijutsu practice. I didn't know for sure and could only speculate.
The sun started to rise, and I looked towards the horizon. "Spar with me. Seriously."
"I will but I won't be using any ninjutsu, I'm not sure I can use it without it being a killshot." I said to her truthfully.
"Your Starburst Release is the only thing you can use?" She seemed interested in it. Then again, she wore purple all the time in the anime. It was probably her favorite color. And my release just happened to be purple, well Magenta to be specific.
"It's been that way for as long as I've tried to use Ninjutsu. For the most part all I can use besides it is basic Ninjutsu like replacements." I said with a slight shrug.
She took her place in the field across from me. "I see." She noted and closed her eyes as she hmmm'd. "Well anyway, let's just spar for now and go from there."
I shoved my hands in my pockets and loosened my muscles, confident in my ability to react to her movements.
She started with a Kunai that I bent out of the way of, then another. The third one forced me to draw my own Kunai to deflect. She wasn't top of the class for nothing. I felt her own sensory chakra probing mine.
I sighed, moulding more chakra as I deflected Kunai. She picked up on this and immediately closed the distance as my moulding finished.
I enhanced my strength and speed. Her first move was a flying leaf cross kick to the face, or whatever the move was called.
Honestly.
I growled as the hit made contact with my arm as I blocked and tried to absorb most of the impact gently, still hurt like hell though. I jumped backwards, and dodged another kick. She changed her tactics, channeling her chakra into her arms and legs. Then launching a Taijutsu assault that I easily managed to keep up with and dodge. Her movements were orthodox and though she did nothing wrong she would be easy for an opponent to read, just like right now.
This went on for about thirty seconds before I finally got a read on her and started to minimalize my movements. Then I struck, a right hook that was merely a feint, then Ieaned back as she rose her arms to block and slammed the bottom of my foot into her stomach. She tried to jump backwards but it was a little too late in terms of reaction speed.
She went flying backwards and tumbled to the grass. I immediately felt bad as a panicked look crossed her face and she started gasping for air. "Oh… crap, are you good?"
"Ow. Fuck." She muttered. "I thought you were mocking me… but that surprised me more than when you so nonchalantly said: marry me! What the… hell." She groaned as I helped her back to her feet.
"Well. If I'm being honest, your Taijutsu doesn't suck but its very orthodox and readable. Your movements follow predictable patterns and have a very nice flow and fit nicely together but you don't use feints and always follow through with an attack." I said bluntly.
"It's okay, you can tell me it sucks, but what the hell is yours, it was so jarring to see your body move like that. I thought you were bad at everything." She eyed me, and it almost started to sound like she was scolding me.
"A ninja only uses their power cautiously… at night when nobody is looking most of the time. Like a purple datura, blooming and most fragrant in the darkness." I flipped my hair, probably narcissistically. With that I pulled my mask down and removed one of my ninja ration bars and bit off a chunk. I loathed this dry and stale texture, and bland taste.
"I guess the Datura would define you as a flower perfectly." Ino said, "But how did you know the meaning of the datura?"
"Well, since we went to school together and you talked about the meanings of flowers all the time I looked into the art of floriography in the Konoha Library, and memorized the meanings of most of them, don't ask me to figure out the meaning of an arrangement of flowers though." I explained to her bluntly.
Her eyes widened, her face was flushed red. "A-anyways, put your mask back on. What flower would you say describes me?" She asked, her gaze was intense.
I pulled my mask back up and continued to chew my bar beneath it. "Violets." I answered.
Her face turned bright red. She looked away, and went back to the other side of the field. "Okay, let's go again! Show me what you got!" She said cheerfully. Motivation that wasn't there before.
The violet, from what I understood, represented bravery, and the ability to stand tall amidst challenges, as well as the ability to stay strong and grow unfettered even without care and nurturing. But I couldn't be sure. Although purple was definitely her favorite color.
We sparred for hours, until we couldn't go anymore. I collapsed onto my back, having given at least a hundred percent into the training. It served its purpose. It was at least past noon when we both lay there on the grass. I gasped for air through my mask. "Well… did you learn anything?" I asked.
"I don't… know… but it… was fun, and felt like… I was making… progress towards… reading your freaky fish-like Taijutsu, it just feels so… slimy." She gasped out between breaths, on the ground next to me.
After a bit of catching our breath Ino got up and lent me a hand to get back to my feet. "You're pretty good at Taijutsu. Spar with me again?" She suggested with a wry smile.
"Wouldn't mind, I don't think I'm that good at Taijutsu." I said, and then thought back to the sudden movement with which I broke Anzu's mask.
Well… I might be fast and sudden but it's more just unpredictable if anything.
"Aaanyway… it's around lunch, so I'm gonna go try to catch something to eat, I'd offer to treat you but I'm broke." I said apologetically.
She shrugged, "I can treat you, if you let me practice my clan's jutsu on you."
Oh god.
My stomach growled. "Uh… does the rest of your team not say yes?" I asked with curiosity.
She looked vexed as she contemplated telling me something. "You… don't have to." Her said expression was enough to convince me.
"I'll help you practice it, just don't do anything weird with my body or expect me to just hand it over to you without a fight." I said bluntly.
She nodded, "Wouldn't ask for anything else." Then she made the hand sign for mind-transfer, she said something else but I don't remember what it was. All I remember is the feeling of another entity entering my head and attempting to wrestle my body from my control.
Are you serious?
That was her thoughts, I felt the ecstasy of no longer being the one in control of my body and mind slipped into the subconscious. Ah… sleep…
Then I sensed different chakra, looked like Ino did too because her head turned in the direction of it. I looked at her as she flickered into existence. It was Narumi
I moulded chakra that snaked around Ino's as it grasped onto my body. She tried to let go but I didn't let her free. A desire to puke and nausea filled my stomach as our thoughts started to become one.
She's probably gonna try something stupid.
Can you let me go? This feels… warm and weird.
Yeah yeah, it makes me feel sick too, just let me try to drill some Taijutsu into your soul.
Remember this feeling… wait was that me or you? This is bad, what if we don't seperate?
Let me worry about that, just worry about the Taijutsu.
"Oi… oi… sparring without me?"
"Hah? You've been going on missions without me, even if we did spar I'd just kick your ass anyway." I wasn't sure who's thoughts those were.
Narumi looked surprised, "Say that again, and see what happens." She muttered.
"I said, I'd kick your ass! Wanna spar then?! Let's go!" We shouted.
Narumi dropped into a combat stance, "You'll regret picking this fight, bastard!"
"Yeah, well you'll regret destroying my flowers! Do you have any idea how much that hurt!? You didn't even stop to say sorry!" We shouted, the audacity of Narumi Uzumaki would end with revenge in the name of potted flowers across the world. My poor flowers. Wait, flowers? Oh, right.
Even Narumi looked confused, but nevertheless charged forward. We dodged her strikes, our movements sharper, but still unpredictable. I was fighting like Ino who was fighting like me. Her motivation to spar was obvious, whereas mine was nonexistent even though I said I'd try something. Still our fused minds seemed to be quite effective at reading and predicting Narumi's violent and thrashing fightstyle. Then much unlike my usual fighting style we went on the offensive, with quick and powerful blows.
Narumi just grinned, then I felt a fist slam into my chest, as I went skidding backwards.
Patience, Ino.
I waited this time, dodging an almost unending onslaught of highpowered chakra filled hits from leg, fist, elbow and knee. Then I saw an opening and took it. A quick lean in with the elbow across the lower jaw, immediately knocked her out, she slammed back first into the ground without a sound beyond the thud of her body.
I let Ino go, and she immediately flew back to her body, sitting up straight, sweating. I was in the same boat.
"Aghhh! My head!" She groaned, and kicked her feet.
I have no idea- OH MY GOD THE PAIN!
I rolled on the ground clutching my aching brain, that felt like a brain freeze that lasted for at least five minutes. This must've been feedback or backlash from us both having knowledge of fighting and analysis crammed into our heads or something.
I got to my feet and jumped with fright, "Kya!"
Anzu appeared directly in front of me without warning.
"Annnnd. I'm gonna have to stop you three right there, come with me Kuro." Anzu interrupted and pat me on the shoulder. "Hope you've been keeping up with your training. We've got an A-rank. Get geared up and meet me at the gates around 0500 tomorrow. Also Ryuko was injured on our last mission, so she won't be participating because she's in the Konoha hospital. And what the hell happened to Narumi?" She asked
I shrugged, "She got knocked out during a sparring match." I explained roughly.
Anzu just nodded and picked her up, then disappeared.
I looked at Ino who was already staring at me. "What?"
"That… was really cool and I didn't even know I… we could do that. Do you think we could train like that in the future?" She asked, almost earnestly, like the pain didn't matter.
It didn't to me, but it should've to her. I was almost optimistic and happy to hear her suggest it. "Sure! Let's do it! After lunch though…"
So we had lunch, and Ino agreed to tree me, so she did, and then we went back to more training. Then parted ways at evening. I slept soundly that night.