"No! No! Don't you dare, Uchiha!"

"Inoko, we need to change your bandages. You can't do it by yourself."

"Touch me and the Uchiha family jewels are going bye-bye!" I snarled. Sasuke paled and backed away. I grabbed a branch and pulled myself higher, glaring down at my teammates. Naruto was giggling uncontrollably as he worked on setting traps nearby.

"Stop being unreasonable, Inoko," Sensei drawled from the campfire, eyes never leaving his book.

"Your face is unreasonable," I shot back, exactly like a mature adult. That got a glance up from his book. Sensei gave me a Look before going back to the orange novel. Jerk. "Sorry," I muttered. It was a bit uncalled for, after all.

"Why won't you just let me help you?" Sasuke asked, clearly frustrated. He tried to walk up the tree again - and man was I jealous of that - but a kunai appearing in my hand made him decide to go with words.

"Because I'm a girl?" I pointed out. My face was hurting a little from blushing. "And you're a boy?"

"Wow, really, I hadn't noticed."

"Shut up, Sasuke."

Naruto came in from the tree line, dumping the remnants of his trap making by the fire. Sasuke gave him a look.

"If we rush her from both sides we could pin her," he murmured out of the corner of his mouth. My eye twitched. I rubbed my sticky hand on my pants, hating in that moment the propensity of evergreens leaking sap all over the place.

"She can't climb that much higher, dattebayo," Naruto agreed, prepping his chakra. Oh hell no. I reached out and pulled a pinecone free from a branch, nearly losing my balance in the process. Then I nailed Sasuke in the forehead with it.

Because he was wearing his hitai-ate, it probably didn't hurt him, but the warning was clear.

"Why are you being so ridiculous?" he demanded.

"Because believe it or not, I have a strong sense of modesty and I am perfectly capable of changing my own bandages!"

Sasuke threw his hands up in the air, giving up. "Fine. Change your own bandages, idiot."

"Thank you. Now, if you could toss them up?"

"...why?"

"...I may or may not be a little stuck."

Sasuke loudly groaned as Naruto fell to the ground laughing. I grinned sheepishly.

"Wait, maybe I can jump out."

"Inoko, no!"

"Inoko yes!"

"Ok, so maybe that was a bad idea," I said, lying on the ground and watching the stars as Sensei replaced a couple of my stitches. "On the bright side, I now know not to jump out of a nine meter tree into a roll when I have stitches in my side."

"Most people would call that common sense, considering this is the third time you've torn your stitches," Sensei said dryly. "Are you really that determined to keep this wound?"

"Sadly common sense isn't that common," I mused. "And no, I'm really not. I'm just really bad about, you know, not tearing my stitches."

"I've noticed," he admonished, flicking my nose. I scowled at him. I mean, he had a point, but still, ow.

Sensei smoothed out the bandage on my stomach before giving me the all clear. I gladly pulled my shirt down and shivered. Ultra powerful shinobi he may be, but a snowman would have warmer hands than him.

I leaned my head against Naruto, feeling exhausted. I hadn't slept much at all since Haku had taken me, and it was taking its toll on my body. I was too agitated and nervous to sleep but too tired to really do anything.

Home and a sleeping pill or two sounded great about now. And maybe a talk with Dad. The thought that part of me might have actually wanted to die back there was… a disturbing thought. I don't want to die… I think.

Make that a very long talk with Dad.

After sleeping for a good twenty hours, hopefully longer, I would be able to get back to my garden. I missed my daffodils.

"Inoko-chan?"

"Hmm?"

"You're drooling on my shoulder."

"Relax, woman," Shikamaru drawled, pulling on my bangs. I huffed and smacked his hand away before smoothing them back.

"Relax? Hell no!" I declared. Ever since Inoko left on that C-rank, I'd had this awful feeling that something was wrong. Dad had just laughed it off, but I knew, and I think he did too.

"This is Inoko we're talking about," Shikamaru said, lifting his head up from the grass. "Remember? The girl who somehow accidentally exploded Iruka-sensei's desk a couple years ago? The girl who got lost and nearly ended up in the Forest of Death? The girl who sleep walked out her window and into the restricted section of the library?"

"Don't doubt the twin connection, lazybones," I replied, putting a hand on my hip and wagging a finger at him. "You might believe all her excuses as to why she did all that crazy stuff because of some stupid crush on her, but that doesn't mean that I do."

Shikamaru dragged a hand over his face, though it couldn't hide the faint red on his cheeks. He looked away from my triumphant look because honestly, he could try to hide it but it was soo obvious.

"Will you stop saying stuff like that?" he hissed. "You know how Inoko gets when she finds out about… romance," he finished disgustedly.

Ok, he had a bit of a point. I loved my sister, but she was weird when it came to romance. Like when Mother and Dad get all mushy and affectionate with each other, she barely looks up from whatever she's reading and just says, "I ship it."

Sometimes I was glad I was clan heir instead of her. If Inoko became clan head… actually, no, I wasn't going to think about that.

"I suppose she's alright," I said after a moment. "I mean, she has her sensei and Sasuke-kun. They wouldn't let anything happen to her, right?" I paused for a second. "No, something went wrong on the mission, oh god, someone's died."

I bit at my nails for a moment before yanking my hand away. I'd been tense about this whole C-rank since Inoko'd left. It had never happened since, but when Sasuke-kun's brother…

I never wanted to see my sister like that again.

"I agree with Shikamaru," Chōji said. "Here, have a chip."

"Can't, I'm on a diet," I replied, twisting my long bangs around a finger anxiously. "I'm telling you, Inoko and I have a twin connection and something went wrong!" Please bring her home safely, I prayed to the Three. She's my twin and I love her.

"I give," Shikamaru sighed. "She's just gonna keep worrying no matter wha-"

"Is that Sasuke-kun?" I interrupted, taking a second look across the street.

I could see his signature raven hair bobbing agitatedly next to two familiar blond heads. Inoko was wearing her usual knee length pants and her favorite blouse that she used for outdoor trips. A grin broke out on my face. I must have been wrong. They were back and everything was okay.

"Sasuke-kun!" I shouted, making my way over. "Inoko!"

My sister startled violently - weird, she normally senses me before I even realize she's in the area - and spun around, her back to me. She was acting stranger than normal.

I ignored it for the time being, instead hugging Sasuke from behind. "I'm so glad you're back safe! Not that there was any doubt about it~"

Naruto glared at mine and Sasuke's tender reuniting, muttering something about Sasuke being an idiot. Obviously false, since Sasuke-kun was far smarter than Naruto would ev- what the hell was wrong with my sister?!

Inoko had finally turned to face me. She looked like she had taken a stroll through hell. She was pale, her face sunken and eyes dark. Had she even slept during that mission?! I knew her insomnia was bad, but this was ridiculous.

"If you're done molesting my teammate," Inoko said sarcastically.

Well, nice to know that much hadn't changed in the month she'd been gone. Whatever happened to her couldn't have been that bad.

I pouted at her, saying, "I wasn't molesting him, you pervert. I was trying to show him how happy I am to see him."

"Right," she replied, drawing it out. "If that's what you want to call it."

"Well, kids, don't forget to write out your mission reports and turn them in in about, oh, a week or so," Inoko's sensei said cheerfully. "See ya!"

After he vanished in a swirl of leaves, Inoko muttered, "Wow, so specific, Sensei. A real stickler for time, that one." Raising her voice a little, she added, "Boys, I love you both, but if I have to spend any longer in your company I'm going to murder someone. Probably myself."

"Don't forget to stop by the hospital," Sasuke said, focusing on my sister intently. She waved it away.

"I'm fine, I told you. Haku took good care of me."

My eyes narrowed as Sasuke walked away. "And why, dearest sister, would you need to go to the hospital?" As for who this Haku person was, I'd get that out of her soon enough, but for now, why on earth did she need to go to the hospital?

Inoko tugged on her bangs, a sure sign she was thinking of a way to get out of this conversation. Her eyes flicked towards my teammates, but I knew they wanted answers as much as I did. We didn't grow up together for nothing.

Inoko sighed, shoulders slumping as she gave in. "Long story short, it kind of maybe accidentally went FUBAR?"

"What?!" I shouted. Shikamaru inhaled sharply beside me.

"It's fine now, I got better," Inoko laughed nervously, waving her hands.

"You got better? What is that supposed to mean?" I growled.

"Oh wow, look at the time," Inoko said, eyes flickering around. "I completely forgot that I had a thing and bye~"

Her hands flew up into a seal and unleashed a good five mindless clones that quickly scattered. Inoko herself was also gone. I gritted my teeth.

Like hell she was going to get away without giving me some answers.

My side hurt. A lot. I mean, I was pretty sure I hadn't busted another stitch, which would delay my healing for like another week, but it still hurt. And I was safe from my sister and her team.

I loved them all to bits, but couldn't a girl get some peace? I had to go to some pretty extreme methods to evade them.

"Inoko? She's back?" I heard Sakura say from downstairs. I pulled back a bit further under her bed. "No, I haven't seen her, Ino-pig."

"Well thanks anyway, Forehead."

The love of two friends for each other right there.

I froze as Sakura's footsteps came up the stairs. The door creaked open and let her feet in before swinging shut. She approached the bed and oh shi-

Sakura flopped onto the bed, sending the mattress springs into my back. I yelped in pain, unable to hold it in. She squealed and jumped off the bed. Wincing, I dragged myself out from under the bed and looked up at the kunai she was holding in my face.

"This is the greeting I get after a month away," I deadpanned.

"I'm so sorry!" she exclaimed, dropping the kunai on her desk and helping me up. "Ino-pig is looking for you, by the way."

"I am unfortunately aware of this. As far as anyone outside of the house is concerned, I'm not here."

"...ok?" she said hesitantly. "Why?"

"Because they're all convinced I need to go to the hospital, and I really don't," I muttered.

"Why would you need to go to the hospital?"

"...No reason."

"Inoko."

"Oh wow, I just remembered that I have somewhere to be, bye~"

"Inoko!"

The downside of having so few friends was that I had fewer places to hide out from said friends when they were intent upon finding me and shipping me to the hospital. Thus, I went to the second to last place they'd look for me.

Straight home to take a very long nap and wait for it all to blow over. Where my sister was waiting for me.

Ok, so maybe she knew me a bit better than I thought.

"Get your pajamas on," she said, throwing my favorite set in my face. "We're having a sister night."

"Yeah, but -" I started, but she held up a hand.

"I'm giving myself a cheat day, so yes, there is chocolate involved. Go get changed."

"Ino, have I ever told you that you're my favorite sister?"

"No need to tell me when I already know that~"

I rolled my eyes and ran upstairs to change, taking the stairs two at a time. We hadn't had a sister night in… since before we'd graduated. I'd missed it more than I'd known. "Vain piggy!" I shouted down.

"Sloppy piggy!" came the immediate response. I loved my sister.

When I came back downstairs, Ino was settled on the couch with what some might call an ungodly amount of blankets. Two steaming cups were resting on the coffee table alongside one of the teapots.

"Pudding?" she offered, holding up two chocolate pudding cups. I narrowed my eyes.

"Would I be correct in assuming that you're trying to bribe me into telling you what happened?"

Ino shrugged. "Maybe."

"Ino uses: Pudding! It's super effective!"

She laughed and rolled her eyes as I burrowed under the blankets. I accepted my cup, mouth watering. We dramatically clinked our plastic cups together before opening the lids.

"The only way to eat these is to lick every bit of chocolate out," I said.

"Agreed."

We talked about unimportant things such as training and team antics for several minutes, simply getting reacquainted with each other after a month. I was vaguely aware of Mother and Dad hovering around the room, pointedly not entering to give us our privacy.

I had the best parents.

Ino had the mind to at least wait until I had finished with the pudding and began on my tea before pressing for answers again.

"So," she drew out slowly. I groaned inwardly. "What happened?"

I almost put her off again. The words were on the tip of my tongue, but I glanced up at the wrong moment. Her eyes were wide with concern, anxiety tightening her mouth. Glancing down at her hand, I noticed her twirling the ends of her hair around her fingers, one of her nervous tics. She wouldn't be placated with anything but the truth.

I sighed and put my cup down. "What didn't happen would probably be a better way of putting it," I muttered, ruffling my bangs. "The client lied about the rank of the mission. He had missing nin after him."

"What?" she hissed, anger written across her face. "Why, that slimy -"

"Can I finish?" I deadpanned. It was better to stop her short here rather than let her get going.

"Right, sorry," Ino said, leaning back into the couch. "How did that work out?" I leaned off the edge of the couch to reach into the shelf where Dad kept the Bingo books. "Oh hell no."

"Hell yes," I agreed, flipping the Mist book open to the correct page. After I found the correct page, I handed the book to her. I could see her face shift from confusion to shock to horror, blood draining from her face.

"The Demon Brothers of the Mist?" she whispered. "They're chūnin level!"

"Yup," I said, cocooning myself in the blankets. "They ambushed us, though it wasn't particularly good."

"Water based ambush, I would think," she said, scanning their page for information. "Not good because it was in a drier area?"

"A massive puddle in the middle of the road! When it hadn't rained for days! Were they trying to get killed?!"

"Not everyone pays attention to the little things," Ino reminded me. "How many times did you mess up the transfer technique because you weren't remembering little steps?"

"I could go to bed right now and not tell you how it got worse," I offered, getting up a little.

"Inoko."

"I thought so." I settled back down with what Kojiro-ji called my 'beat you and we both know it' grin. Shikaku just called it my shit eating grin.

"So what happened?"

"We fought them. Duh. Sensei pretended to fall for the ambush in order to find out who their target was. Naruto froze up, Sasuke leaped into action - lose that starry eyed look before I go upstairs - and I used the transfer jutsu on one of them. I figured that since they were attached by that chain, I could -"

"Counteract the attacks of the other while Sasuke-kun - oh, don't look at me like that - protected Naruto and the client."

"And it would have worked if I hadn't realized that they could disengage the chains from their gauntlets in anticipation," I sulked. I was still sore over this. "Then stupid Sasuke had to go and nail me to a tree, so I had to end the jutsu."

"Didn't you explain it to him?"

"I could have sworn that I did, and if I'm not misremembering, then the idiot went and forgot. They both did! And yet they still left my body just lying in the middle of the road. I was sore for like a week!"

Ino thought for a second before shrugging. "Yeah, I can't think of an excuse for that. And then?"

"We decided to continue with the mission," I said, taking a quick drink of my cooling tea. "We continued on to Wave where we were ambushed again."

"At this point you should have just dropped the mission," Ino observed.

"Yeah, it does seem kind of obvious in hindsight, doesn't it? Anyway, here's the guy who ambushed us. Go to page fifty-six."

Ino gave me a dubious look as I smirked. I giggled a little when I saw the look on her face. It was absolutely priceless.

"Hoshigaki Kisame?!"

"What?! No!" I took the book and flipped a couple pages back before handing it to my suddenly very relieved sister. "No, we wouldn't be alive if it was him. That guy is…"

Terrifying would be one word to describe him. Beast would be another. No thanks, Plot.

"Momochi Zabuza isn't much better!" Ino snapped, hitting me with a pillow.

"Ow! Chill, Sensei dealt with him!" Ino relaxed for a moment before I added, "At least until he got captured in a water prison thingy."

"Yamanaka Inoko!"

"What? I was perfectly safe the entire time! He couldn't attack us without freeing Sensei, so he made a much weaker water clone."

Ino continued to glare. I… was making this worse, wasn't I?

"Ok, so maybe not perfectly safe. But I was relatively safe. Ish. Plus, because of how he had to stand in the same spot, I couldn't have had a clearer target if he was trying to get me to attack him."

"Please tell me you didn't."

"So I hid in a tree -"

"Inoko."

"- took aim -"

"Please don't."

"- and then took control of his body."

Ino face palmed. Hard.

"His oversized butter knife was surprisingly light considering the size and sheer amount of metal."

"That's not… the Kubikiribōchō is not a butter knife, no matter how large it is."

"Shh, that doesn't matter anymore, he's dead now."

"How did that happen?"

I gathered my thoughts, absently noting just how still Dad and Mother were in the kitchen.

"Well, after I freed Sensei, I… lost control of the jutsu, so they started fighting again, and then I presume that Sensei killed him somehow."

"Presume?"

"... Yeah."

"Inoko. How did you lose control of the jutsu."

"Weeell."

"Inoko. Tell me right now or so help me I'm taking the boys and interrogating Naruto."

"Ok, now that's rude."

"You're avoiding the question."

Crap. She's onto me.

"I… kind of maybe accidentally got wounded and kidnapped by Zabuza's partner."

Wow, Mother and Dad's chakras are really agitated. Probably something to do with the flower shop or something.

"Granted that one's also on me; I didn't think to take one of Naruto's shadow clones or Sasuke or something. But hey, I got better? And I'm back home safely, so there's that. Oh! I also made friends with Haku, which is a bonus. He's super cute and just your type~"

Ino narrowed her eyes at me. I nervously laughed a little as her gaze intensified.

"Who were they working for that figured that a hostage would be a good idea?"

"Um… Gato?"

"As in the shipping tycoon who takes over small countries Gato? That Gato?!"

"Well, that was fun, yawn, wow, I'm tired, I'm going to go to bed now, ok, ok, bye bye, goodnight."

"Inoko!"

"Generic excuse, bye!"

I fled into the kitchen, bare feet skidding on the tile. Mother was reading a magazine at the table as Dad worked on dinner. Man, he was going at those veggies with a vengeance.

"Mother, you're crinkling the pages."

"Ah, so I am. I'll… be back in a bit. Don't wait for me, Inoichi."

"Maybe you should pick up a bottle of wine on your way back," he joked. "We're going to need it."

Actually, this was starting to get suspicious. I mean, it was probably nothing, but still. Mother didn't act like this usually.

Pushing my concerns aside, I hugged Dad from behind. A heavy weight vanished from my shoulders as I breathed in his familiar scent and listened to his steady heartbeat. I buried my face in his shirt. He laughed softly, the sound echoing through his body.

"Missed me, cuddle bug?"

I nodded, squeezing him a little tighter. I had come so close to losing all of this. I don't want to go. I want to stay here with this forever.

"How was it, then? Anything interesting happen?"

"It… went," I said carefully.

Lying around Dad had always been a challenge. Heck, lying around ninja period was tough. They were trained to detect lies and to lie convincingly themselves. Dad in particular was a master at detecting deception, and I strongly suspected that he knew every single time whenever Ino or I fibbed. He let us go when the lies were convincing enough, and had even given us tips on fabricating truths properly.

Ninja parents did things a bit differently.

"I mean," I said, tying an apron on and taking over the stove, "stuff happened. It was a C-rank, after all." Which will be upgraded to A-rank and we'll be paid as such, according to Sensei. "Wave was beautiful. I'd love to travel around the world someday and just see… everything. You know?"

"Being a shinobi has its perks," Dad agreed. He dumped the potatoes in the boiling water before sticking a lid on. "How have you been sleeping?"

Crap.

"I've had better nights," I replied evasively.

"You look like you've been getting two hours of sleep a night for a while."

I winced. Dad's voice had remained pleasant, but underneath it was a sharp reprimand. The Academy had been rather… vocal about their concerns about my sleeping schedule. It wasn't healthy to sleep so little and dulled my reaction times. In their words, 'a danger to herself and her future comrades'.

It was probably true and all, but still. They weren't sugar coating things.

"I'll be fine now that I'm home," I said, refusing to meet his eyes. "It's not that big a deal, I'm just… stressed." I looked up and beamed at him. "I'll be better after a nap."

Dad gave me a long studious look before accepting my words. "Then go take one, silly," he said, gently pushing me away from the stove. "Do you want me to wake you up for dinner?"

"Nah, I'll eat later. Goodnight, Dad." I paused at the foot of the stairs. "I love you."

"I love you too, moonflower."