"Guess who's got a C-rank~" I sang at dinner that evening. Now that we were officially leaving in the morning, I was actually kind of looking forward to it. Mother's eyes widened as Ino set down her chopsticks. Dad let the tea keep pouring into his cup while he stared at me. It nearly overflowed before he remembered what he was doing and set the pot down.
"No way!" Ino gasped. "Already? Sensei said he won't let us out until we have more training! I guess you and Sasuke wowed your sensei enough."
"I have Naruto to thank for that, actually," I replied as I got more rice. I drizzled a bit of soy sauce on it. "He pretty much threw a fit when the Hokage suggested more D-ranks, so we got an escort mission to Wave. I'm leaving in the morning."
"Sounds like him, actually," Ino muttered. "I don't know why the Hokage likes him so much."
"Who knows?" I shrugged, even though I knew damn well. "Whatever reason it is, it's gotten us out of boring missions."
Dad ended up telling us about his first C-rank with Shikaku and Chōza during the rest of dinner. It had been a run of the mill supplies delivery until it wasn't, and many things had happened before ending with them accidentally overthrowing a corrupt local ruler and destroying a drug trafficking ring. I almost doubted the truthfulness of that, except Dad and the others had been referencing it pretty much my entire life and the story answered a lot of questions that I'd had.
We asked Mother about her first C-rank too, but she had smiled and said "Classified" before taking a sip of her tea. Now I wasn't sure I wanted to know.
After the dishes had been done and leftovers put away, I went up to our bedroom and lay down on the bed. I took a deep breath and folded my hands on my stomach. Dad had been teaching us the art of mindwalking since we were eight. It was an essential first step to the mind transfer jutsu, as if one didn't know themselves, they could easily get lost in their target's psyche and be forever trapped in a foreign mind. Mind walking myself was, at this point, child's play for me. I'd been using the skill to occasionally refresh myself on memories that were determined to fade away into vague impressions and feelings. Most of the memories, I was content to let fade away as they caused me more pain than anything else. Certain memories, though, needed to be kept safe. At least for now.
I took a deep breath and slowly exhaled, focusing my chakra with a hand seal. I didn't need much, just a push to move my consciousness. Breathe in. Breathe out.
When I opened my eyes again, I was in a corridor, staring at the ceiling. I sat up, shaking myself free of the vines trying to wrap around my body. I surveyed the clearly neglected corridor with disdain. Ceiling tiles had fallen to the ground, exposing wiring and leaking pipes. Dirty puddles were scattered around the floor. Plants grew in through cracks in the walls, the floor, the ceiling. A Hashirama tree was pushing through the ceiling. Music faintly drifted through the hall on a breath of wind.
"Long time no see," I said, pulling myself to my feet with a vine.
The human mind is a very complex thing, and the way a person perceives the world determines how their mindscape is set up. My sister's mind was our clan compound, constantly stuck at an hour after dawn and completely abandoned. Memories drifted on the air as glass bubbles.
My own experiences led to my area, which I affectionately called my mind palace, to be a close replica of my old school. The longer I lived in Konoha, though, the more overgrown it became. Everytime I returned, more of it had decayed and been replaced with plants. If I looked out the window, I could see part of the compound growing from the ground like the plants infecting my mind palace now.
The subconscious was in charge of organizing things, for the most part. The conscious mind could make changes but nothing major. Everything was sectioned off in their own places - old life and new life, and how relevant it was. Miscellaneous memories, such as bus rides to school, faded into dusty papers. Important events - my eighteenth birthday, for example - remained as aged but easy to read files. The older it was, the harder it was to find.
Probably part of the miracle that helped Dad not notice the memories I had buried deep in my mind until further notice.
It was these memories that I was looking for now, deep in the science wing. The name Tazuna was so horribly familiar, and I just knew it was Plot related. It was worth a check in the old basement to make sure that the dread wasn't for the future rather than the C-rank itself.
I jumped over a large root and began counting doors. One of these led to the stairwell, but I never could remember which. Opening a door at a guess, I glanced inside and - "Wrong door!" I screeched and slammed it shut. That's why that door was covered in vines. I shuddered and kept going.
Part of a wall had collapsed, allowing a breath of fresh air rather than the damp musty smell that lingered this deep. It stank of loss and forgotten memories.
The actual door to the stairwell was hidden behind a cluster of bamboo growing through a missing tile. Roughly pushing my way through the wood, I forced the rusted door open and shut it behind me. An electric light flickered above me. Leaning against the door, I pushed my bangs from my face and took a deep breath. Trying to hide my previous memories from anyone who entered my mind had the unintended side effect of making it hard for me to find it. Adding that I tended to stay away unless needed because high traffic areas of the mind are like a glaring neon sign that "Something important is here! Come have a look!" Heaving a sigh, I pushed myself up and jogged down the stairs. The lights were dimmer here. Eventually, I reached the absolute bottom floor and tried to open the door. Nothing. Rusted shut. I pulled harder, willing it to open. With a deep groan that echoed up the stairwell, the door slowly ground open.
Down here was even worse than upstairs. Half the lights weren't even working. Very few plants were down here, and those that were were rotting. Probably not a good sign.
A small box on the wall was blinking silently at me. There you are. A scanner and keypad sat behind the door, also kind of rusted. I pressed one hand to the scanner and typed in my first birthday in the keypad.
"Hi there," Siri said in English. "What can I do for you?"
"Heyo, what's going on here?" I asked a bit sharply. "You've been doing a pretty crappy job taking care of my memories." The subconscious was a strange thing. Mine took the form of Siri. Yes, that Siri.
"I'm sorry to hear that. How can I help?"
"Well, for one, you can fix up this dump," I growled, looking down the hall. Some of the lights half heartedly flickered on. "Also, where are my memories of anime? I need to check the stupid plot. Again."
"Printing directions now. Please input energy."
"Thaaaank you," I said, taking the paper and glancing over it as I pressed my hand to the scanner again. I shoved chakra at it and watched tiles fly up and puddles evaporate around me. "Troublesome," I muttered, sidestepping a vine curling back into the wall. "What are you doing here? Go back upstairs!"
The door to my anime memories was clearer than the other doors, simply because I needed to access them more often. For the most part, I let the doors rust and the handles fall off. But certain ones I kept well protected, and other ones just wouldn't rust shut for whatever reason. Like my death. Room Four-Two-Four was one that was carefully avoided.
Flicking on the lights, I looked around Room One-Eight-Six with a sigh. The walls were lined with filing cabinets, all in alphabetical order. Finding Naruto wasn't as easy as I would like, but all I had to do was look for the cabinet with the least rust on it.
"Hey, Siri, can you put on some music?" I asked as I kicked the filing cabinet to dislodge some of the rust before yanking it open. I began flipping through the musty files to find the one I wanted. "We Are Not Alone or NOVOCAINE. Either one works."
"Which one would you like to hear?"
"I don't know, flip a coin or something," I said in exasperation, pulling a stack out and dropping them on the table.
"Now playing We Are Number Oneby The Liv-"
"That's not what I said! Just… turn it all off." Silence echoed through the room. "Thank you," I muttered. "Now. What's going to happen on this mission?" I placed my hand on the pile of files and closed my eyes, sending a pulse of chakra through the papers. Well, technically, they were already made of chakra, and - Stop getting distracted!
Memories flooded me, drowning me in light and sound and impressions of the world around me from the time when they were made. I jerked my hand away after a few seconds, tears filling my eyes. It's gone, I chanted to myself. You're dead to that world, don't miss it. It's dead and so are you. Taking a deep breath, I put the files away and removed another stack. There were other things I needed to refresh myself on.
Inoichi studied his younger child. He was leaning against the doorframe, watching Inoko as she slept. At least, that's what anyone not accustomed to her would think she was doing. He knew his daughter better than that. He could see her eyes moving underneath her eyelids as she mindwalked herself. There was a drying tear track on her face.
He sighed and sat on the bed next to her, reaching out to stroke her hair. When he had first taught them how to mindwalk, he hadn't predicted how hard she would throw herself into the skill. Ino was tenacious, but cautious with what Inoichi taught her. Inoko, on the other hand, was far too curious for her own good. She experimented and pushed the limits. It was always the quiet ones.
Inoko sucked in a deep breath as her eyes fluttered open. She blinked a couple times before focusing on him. "Hey, Daddy," she croaked, smiling a little at him. "What time is it?"
"Almost eleven," he replied, glancing over her. "What were you doing in that pretty head of yours?" Inoko snorted, but she seemed pleased by the compliment.
"Just looking at some old memories," she said before sitting up. "Nothing special." Inoko snuggled up against him. She had always been a cuddler, even as a baby. It had been one of the few ways to get her to stop crying then.
Inoichi wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close to his chest, then said in a sing-song voice, "My baby girl is growing up~ One of these days, she's gonna be having little kiddies of her own!"
"Nooo," Inoko complained, mock hitting him on the chest. He laughed and let her go.
"I haven't seen you much lately, my little moonflower," Inoichi said. He pushed her bangs behind her ears. "Are you getting along with your team?"
"I only contemplate murder about a half dozen times a day, but other than that, we're all a big happy family." Inoko swung her legs over the side and stared at the floorboards. "If I'm totally honest, Dad, it's a lot harder than I thought it would be. I mean, a lot. The boys bicker at every given opportunity, Sensei's always late, Naruto is always crazy loud and obnoxious, and Sasuke is constantly PMSing and being an angsty little crap. And tomorrow, I'm leaving on my first C-rank, which I know for a fact is going to go to hell." She ran a hand over her face. "Just the usual teenage stuff." Inoichi chuckled softly.
"I can't tell you the amount of times I wanted to beat the crap out of Chōza and Shikaku during our time on the same team," he sighed. They'd practically grown up as brothers, but even brothers had their issues. "Soon, you'll all fall into a sort of routine that will just feel right."
"... I find it very hard to imagine Sasuke and Naruto ever getting along. Sensei really doesn't want to be a teacher, and I guess he thinks not doing anything with us at all will fix his problem." Inoichi suppressed a sigh, already trying to figure out what to say to Hatake. Wanting to be a teacher or not, if one had genin under their care, then it was their duty to make sure they could take care of themselves on their own, to teach them. "He doesn't care about us, and the boys would as soon kill each other than work together most of the time." Inoko looked up at him with tired eyes. "I don't know what to do."
Inoichi prided himself on being able to read people, and know their thoughts. Even just a few minutes with a prisoner was enough to get them to crack. But Inoko… she was an enigma at times, even without his bias as her father. She rarely opened up to people, always preferring to watch and learn about them. He would have chalked it up to her age when he first noticed it, except Ino was always beaming and cheerful and social, waving happily at everyone who looked at her and generous with her hugs. Inoko hid behind her parents, then Ino when they weren't around. But not because she was timid.
Inoko was anything but timid.
And then there was that.
"I would give it time," he said after a minute. "From what I've heard, they've never been the best of friends, and Kakashi is extremely socially awkward on a good day." She giggled a little at his description of her teacher. "I trust you'll find your way, my little moonflower. Now go to bed. You need your rest tomorrow." Inoko pulled a face.
"Probably," she said reluctantly, then hugged him tightly. "Love you, Daddy."
"I love you too."
"Hello~!" I said as I spied the boys at the gate. "I trust nothing has been set on fire while you boys have been waiting?"
"You're the one with all the explosives!" Naruto shouted as he pointed an accusing finger at me. I gave him a wide eyes and innocent look. It usually made Dad's will waver long enough for me to escape a scolding for whatever stunt I had pulled.
"Me? Use explosives? I would never!" They both gave me a look, almost as if I had tried to blow them all up the other day. "That one time was an accident."
"You were cackling as the trees burned behind you," Sasuke deadpanned.
"You say that like it's a bad thing. And that birch tree deserved it."
"It is!" Naruto screeched. "My eyebrows got singed!"
"Yare yare, Naruto, I'm afraid I didn't notice." Naruto leaped at me in rage, but Sensei chose that second to show up and grab his collar.
"Naruto, you can't attack your teammates outside of a training ground," he scolded. Tazuna stood behind him - wait, is he already drinking? What the crap, dude? - his pack clearly saying that he was ready to go. My throat tightened. Here we go. The event horizon of the Plot. I shuffled my pack around a bit and ducked my head to keep the others from noticing the look on my face.
The show had never really made it clear how long the Wave arc took, making it seem like it took the course of a week or two. However, Sensei was telling us that it would take about a week to get there, which conversely meant that it would take a few days to come back at ninja speed. Tazuna also had to finish the bridge, which would take anywhere from a couple weeks to a month or two.
We were going to be away from home for a long time.
Naruto took a few steps forward, turned around, and shouted, "Yeah! All right!" It jerked me out of my thoughts, making me focus on the fact that I'm in the field now, can't get distracted like that again. Sensei was right, zoning out would get me killed.
"Someone's excited," I observed, amusement creeping into my tone.
"This is the first time I've ever left the village!" he explained excitedly, looking around. I'd left the village a few times before with Shikaku when he had to go and check on the Nara farms and he decided to bring Shika, Chōji, Ino, and me. A few other times I had gone with Dad on trips to Yamanaka greenhouses, but those were far rarer journeys.
"Am I really safe with this twerp?" Tazuna asked Sensei. I snickered. Naruto stopped laughing.
"It's ok," Sensei waved away the question. "I'm a jōnin, no need to worry." Naruto twitched.
"Naruto, chill," I drawled, walking up to him and poking him in the nose. "Just prove him wrong later, ok?" He blinked in surprise before grinning.
"Yeah! I'll totally show you my awesomeness later, old man!" Kakashi sighed. The general atmosphere was 'crisis averted'. It wouldn't do to have Naruto trying to attack the client twice in as many days.
We walked in silence for a couple hours. I was fine with the quiet; it was useful for sorting out the information I had gotten from the stroll in my mind palace last night. It wasn't as much as I'd have liked. Even with the mind walking, memories faded over time. Revisiting them kept somewhat fresh, but I hadn't learned the clan jutsu until I was eight, which meant eight years of fading memories. They were sketchy at best. Thankfully, no one really noticed my slightly dazed expression. Once I had finished - and feeling kind of sick - I moved my attention to the chakra signature that had been following us since we left the gates. Like, since we were right next to the gates. One, maybe two people sticking close together. Didn't I remember something about two people? High enough stealth to avoid patrols. Probably something I should mention to Dad.
A hand waved in front of my face rapidly. "Inoko-chaaan," Naruto whined. "I asked you something." Whoops.
"Sorry about that," I said, grinning sheepishly. "I got distracted."
"I noticed," he huffed. "I asked you why you always say you want to be a psychologist." Because it was what I was studying in a previous life right up to when I died.
"It's more of a joke now, than anything else," I admitted. "I've always been interested in psychology, and it was my backup plan if I flunked out as a shinobi. But I'm glad I'm here. It's way more interesting than civilian life." I gave him a thin smile before focusing my attention on the chakra signatures around us.
They didn't do anything for several days, merely watching us from a distance. Sensei either hadn't noticed them - less likely - or deemed them not a threat - much more likely - but I was twitchy and tense as they hovered towards the edge of my sensing range. I wish I had the same range from when I was younger. I'd lost a lot of range and sensitivity when I was seven, and trying to regain it was a long and hard fought battle that I was still fighting.
"Ne, Inoko, why so twitchy?" Sensei drawled as I jumped upon hearing a twig snap nearby. Deer, three of them, one fawn. Barely aware of us. "We're on a C-rank, and the Land of Waves doesn't have any shinobi."
"That's not why I'm nervous," I muttered, glaring in the general direction of the chakra signatures. Then, to throw off any suspicion, I added, "I just have the most awful feeling that Naruto placed a trap somewhere up ahead with a shadow clone." Sensei laughed.
"Hey! That's… a really good idea!" Naruto grinned deviously. Sasuke gave me a look that said nothing more than 'why do you do this'. I shrugged.
We took a break for lunch, more for Tazuna's benefit than anything else. Our tagalongs moved ahead of us, and I stiffened. "Naruto, put that slug back where it came from, or so help me, I will beat the everloving daylights out of you," I warned. Naruto pouted before putting the slug down. I mouthed 'you owe me' at Sasuke. He huffed and looked away.
I swallowed past the lump in my throat as I spotted the puddle up ahead. This was it. The test of our abilities. Knowing that Sensei would step in didn't ease the tension in my body.
"Relax, Inoko," Sensei said. I could hear the frown in his voice. "You're going to shorten your lifespan."
"Like you care," I snorted, but tried to let some of the tension out of my body. It was hard with the two hostile chakra signatures in front of me. Honestly, were they even trying?
"I'm wounded, Inoko. How could you say such a thing to your beloved sensei?"
My heartbeat thundered in my ears. It was so close and practically reeking of chakra. Was I the only one who noticed it? How could I be the only one?
Ba-bum. Naruto passed it. Ba-bum. Sensei drifted behind us. Ba-bum. Sasuke passed it. Ba-bum. Tazuna passed it. Ba-bum. I could feel Sensei's chakra tense behind me. Ba-bum. I passed the puddle. Ba-bum. Sensei walked past it like nothing was wrong. Ba-bum. Chakra shuddered in the puddle and it felt wrong. Ba-bum. Ba-bum. Ba-bum.
They sprung from the puddle like a pair of frogs and threw their chain forward. I spun around probably faster than I should have for it to have been a surprise just in time to see them wrap the chain around Sensei.
"One," they chorused, and pulled on each side of the chain. I felt Sensei's kawarimi, but all the same, the sight of him getting ripped apart, even if it was just a henged log… I felt sick. The genjutsu wrapping its tendrils around me bugged me too, but I had to pretend it was real in order to trick the others. Area of effect genjutsu sucked like that.
"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto shouted, horror written across his face. The two ninja shunshined behind him and he froze. No. Naruto wouldn't think of a kawarimi. Time seemed to slow as I put my hands in the familiar seal of the Mind Transfer jutsu. Then I threw myself at one of them.
Not daring to pause to settle into the new body, I dug my heels into the ground and threw myself backwards, abruptly throwing off the other one.
"Meizu, what the f-" he started, but I silenced him with fist to the face. I spared a glance for my body, and - seriously boys, it was just lying in the road?! How rude.
The other ninja disengaged his side of the chain and lashed out at me. Good. If he's focused on his 'traitorous' teammate, he'll leave the others alone. Sasuke had snapped out of his shock and jumped forward, pulling out a kunai and shuriken.
And then the idiot nailed me to a tree.
Swearing under my breath, I released the jutsu, and blinked up at the sky. Fricken -!
"Sasuke! I had it under control," I snapped as I rolled to my feet and took a defensive position in front of Tazuna.
"You were passed out on the ground," he said, blinking.
"I was not," I snarled, but Meizu was charging me and oh god those claws looked nasty and Sasuke you freaking idiot get out of the way - And then Sensei clotheslined him and put him in a choke hold. The other one was already unconscious.
It wasn't until a few seconds had passed that I realized I was shaking with tension. "Well, Sensei," I said shakily, slowly lowering my kunai. "You sure took your time."