Mist's shoulders rose and fell slowly, her breathing heavy as she stared down at the ANBU. Her hands were still covered in earth left behind by her jutsu, but it dripped off in chunks, falling to the ground at her feet. Rain trickled down her body running muddy over her shoulders and legs.
She looked up to them, her eyes hooded in the rain. Then all of a sudden her eyes closed, and her muscles relaxed as she fell in a heap to the ground. The splash from the impact echoed through the forest, snapping Ino and Shikamaru from their trance.
They both ran to her. Ino dropped to her knees, rolling the girl from her side to her back before bringing a delicate hand to Mist's face and pushing the hair from her eyes. She looked intently at her face, then brought to fingers down to look for a pulse on her neck.
"Her chakra's completely drained." She said quietly.
She didn't turn to look at Shikamaru, but lifted one hand to him, her thumb and ring finger held together. She snapped her fingers and the Mind Connection Jutsu broke.
Her hand then returned back to Mist, glowing blue and hovering over her body as she scanned for injuries. Once she was done the light faded, leaving them in darkness again.
Shikamaru could see Ino bring her palms up to cover her face, still kneeling beside an unconscious Mist, and two knocked out ANBU. She sat like that for almost a minute before slowly lowered her hands to her lap, and then she stood turning to him. He braced himself for her anger, but he was met with a calm and collected look.
"I have to erase their memories of this. They can't know we were here. Collect our kunai." She said coolly.
Shikamaru moved to say something, but Ino quickly interrupted him.
"Don't." She spoke calmly, but he could sense the anger in her tone. "Just do as you're told Shikamaru."
She knelt between the two ANBU cupping her hands together to catch rain before she rubbed the dirt off them and wiped them on her shirt. She closed her eyes, making meticulous signs before leaning over one of ANBU and grasping his head on each side. Her eyelids fluttered rapidly as she traced his memories backwards.
Shikamaru tramped around the basin searching the earth for metal but made sure to keep an eye on Ino's movements as she finished with one ANBU and then shifted over to the next.
Her genjutsu had advanced rapidly since becoming a jonin, she was a focused and stubborn kunoichi. He remembered her telling him she hated her genjutsu. She felt that is was useless in battle and that it only slowed the group down and made them too cautious. The summer after becoming a chunin she had worked with her father endlessly, perfecting her Mind Transfer Jutsu, before she began developing jutsus of her own. Researching old scrolls and spending countless hours trying out her techniques on small game in the Nara Clan Forest and eventually on Shikamaru.
Tsunade always told her, that her skills would be best suited for a line of work in the Intelligence Division, but Ino knew what that meant for a kunoichi. He remembered her barging into his office all riled up after going to Tsunade to work out where she would be assigned as a jonin.
"She wants me to suck and fuck to protect the village. Can you believe that? The nerve! I won't be a seductress. I've worked too hard. I have other skills."
Shikamaru chuckled to himself and she shot him a classic Ino death stare, before he threw his hands up in the air in surrender.
Ino was the fieriest woman he had ever met. She was so determined to prove everyone wrong and carve out her own path in the world that sometimes she forgot to slow down and admire the clouds. That's what Shikamaru was there for.
What a mess he had gotten them into.
Ino rose from the ground. The rain had finally stopped, but her cloths were still wet clinging tight to her skin and her bangs stuck in threads to her cheek. She looked exhausted.
"We need to go back to find the last ANBU." She said turning away from him and stepping over the two on the ground to make her way up the basin.
Shikamaru moved to follow but stopped as he looked down at Mist. Her long blonde hair splayed out around her caked in brown mud. Her lips turning white with the cold and eyes peacefully shut. She lay between the two ANBU looking helplessly small in comparison.
He had planned to bring her in, planned to return her to Tsunade, but the attack made him change his mind. He thought maybe he needed to protect her. He needed to get her back to consciousness and he needed her to tell him why she was so important to the ANBU.
He knelt down pushing a hand underneath the small of Mist's back and under her knees before lifting her off the ground, looking up he found Ino glaring at him from the top of the basin.
"We're not taking her with us Shikamaru. She's not some stray cat we're going to nurse back to health. She's an enemy of Konoha. She's the reason we're in this mess." Her voice began to shake with rage.
"We have to see this through Ino." He spoke defensively. "We've gone too far not to. Don't you want to find out what this is all about?"
"I didn't do this out of some crazed curiosity Shikamaru. I did this for you. Why can't you see that?" The anger had faded from her voice, replaced with hurt. "I chose to sneak around in the Records House for you. I chose to go into battle with my own people for you. I'm wiping their minds for you."
"I didn't ask you to do any of that stuff." His voice faded at the end realizing how wrong it sounded, as he knew she would do anything for him, and maybe he had taken advantage of that.
"Exactly! You didn't have to ask. I did it because I…" She looked away from him shaking her head, trying to compose different words. "…because I trusted you. Now I see how stupid that was. You're still trying to save her. When you should be protecting us."
"I have a duty to the truth." He said with purpose.
"No you have a duty to your village." She turned back to him, her anger coming out again.
"Fuck the village. The village doesn't matter. It's the people. Shinobi are supposed to protect the people. They are the keepers of justice. And this doesn't seem like justice." He met her anger with his own. "They were going to kill her. Surely you saw it in their minds. And they were going to kill us too. Just to kill her. There is a bigger story to this girl than they've told us."
Shikamaru waited, hoping that would be enough, but realized he hadn't changed Ino's mind.
"Now let's go" He commanded.
Despite being chakra drained as well he forced some into his jump as he leapt to the top of the basin and brushed past Ino, avoiding her gaze. She followed reluctantly behind him as they moved back the way they had come.
They found the last ANBU lying on the ground where they had left her, her mind still locked. Ino knelt beside her not turning back to Shikamaru, who still held Mist's limp body in his arms.
"You'll need to hold her down for this. She won't be subjected to my jutsu willingly." She said between gritted teeth.
Shikamaru set Mist down gently in the grass at his feet before making signs of his own. He watched as his shadows reached out to the ANBU, wrapping tightly around her body like restraints.
Ino put two fingers against the ANBU's temples, releasing her from the mind lock. She gasped like she had just come up from a deep dive underwater, moving her head around frantically to gain her bearings.
Ino sat disoriented for a second before making quick hand signs.
"No Yamanaka." The woman spoke desperately. "Don't do this."
Ino was hesitating at the mention of her family name. The ANBU continued to struggle against Shikamaru's shadows, writhing on the ground.
"Do it Ino!" He said beseechingly. "We have to."
Her hands were shaking now, but she thrust them out, grabbing at the sides of the ANBU's face as she pleaded with Ino.
The ANBU stopped for a moment and Ino's eyes fluttered shut. The kunoichi grunted in agony as her memories were wiped. She began to physically struggle again but went very still as Ino pulled away in horror.
She was breathing heavily, her hands shaking as she stared at them panicked.
"Ino, we have to go." He tried to speak soothingly realizing he couldn't even fathom what thoughts might be running through her mind.
Shikamaru was torn between moving to her and staying at Mist's side.
"We've stayed too long." He said more sternly "Ino we have to go."
Ino didn't move. She sat shaking and staring blankly at the tree line in front of her.
Shikamaru thought about using his shadow jutsu to will her to move with him, but he was too drained, and it didn't feel right to force her to come with them. Not after she had just alluded to him bringing all this chaos upon her.
He stepped forward, kneeling by Ino's side and taking one of her hands in his. She didn't look at him, but he could see that she was silently crying.
"I'm sorry." He whispered, leaning his forehead gently against her shoulder and taking a calming deep breath.
"Ino we have to go." He pleaded, his breath coming out warm against her arm.
She brought a shaking hand to the back of his neck and he reached out brushing his fingers down the back of her arm, tracing his way to her hand, holding it tight in his own. Shikamaru stood bringing her up slowly with him.
They moved along the outskirts of the city. Shikamaru didn't want to risk being seen by anyone. Even though it was late and no one was out, walking through the city with an unconscious girl in his arms at three in the morning was suspicious.
They made it in good time to his family's estate and they all slipped silently in. Shikamaru had done it plenty of times when he was younger, so he knew all the blind spots that he could use undetected in the night.
They made their way silently across the open pasture behind the house. It was a little under two kilometers to the tree line. The clouds had subsided, and the moon shown full across the long expanse of grass. The reeds swayed silently, glistening with rain in the light, creating a nostalgic symphony of noise.
Shikamaru didn't have time to take it in, his mind was simply on making it to their destination undetected.
Mist's weight jostling against him as he ran. He looked down at her as they moved. Her lips were still white and her cheeks were drained of color, but she looked at peace, something unrecognizable for her. He wanted to reach out and touch her face to make sure she was still alive, but he resisted, instead looking up as they reached the trees.
Another two kilometer in and they reached the small cottage that stood in the forest. It was meant for the winter when the Naras had to tend to the deer more carefully, but it was the beginning of fall, so it hadn't been inhabited for a long while. They almost missed it as it was shrouded in low hanging branches and brush. The windows dark and empty.
Shikamaru leaned into the door, using his right hand to undo the locking seal on the handle. It creaked open and he shifted his weight back, righting himself. Breaking the seal triggered the candles to light and a fire to ignite in the hearth. It was a one room cabin, a small kitchen to the left, a table and two chairs to the right and a large bed at the back.
They stepped in cautiously at first, but then after realizing that they had finally made it to a safe place Ino and Shikamaru both relaxed ever so slightly removing kicking off their shoes. They were done running and fighting for the time being and the thought of what to do next didn't seem to be on either of their minds.
The moment of peace was broken as Shikamaru remembered the troublesome cargo he had brought with him. He set Mist down on the small table and resting the back of his hand on her cheek. She was ice cold, but he could feel her weak breathing against his wrist.
"We need to warm her." He spoke as he opened draws in the kitchen, pulling out a thin wooden lighting stick.
He moved across the cabin to a thick wooden door, sliding it open to reveal a small stone room with a wooden bench. He used the flame from a candle to light a small fire under a pill of midnight black stones that rested in large basin within the room. Then turned back to retrieve Mist, but he looked in surprise as Ino stood with her in her arms. She made her way to the sauna silently.
"We should clean her off." She spoke her voice still shaking.
She laid Mist down across the bench pulling a kunai from her utility pouch. Shikamaru stood holding his breath, but Ino brought the weapon to the bottom of Mist's shirt flicking it up and cutting the fabric cleanly from the base to the neck revealing the thin black binding around her chest. Ino moved down to cut away her pants, she wore small black shorts that only covered the very top of her thighs.
She looked over her shoulder at Shikamaru who stood staring.
"Heat some water over the fire." She said bossily.
He turned back pulling a large pot off the wall next to the fire place and hanging it over the open flame before pulling out a water summoning scroll that he released over the pot.
He watched the flames flick at the bottom of the pot, listening as Ino moved to take the girls shoes off. Her actions were confusing him. She was bouncing back and forth between helping and halting him in this endeavor. Ino had been very unpredictable for the past couple of days, Shikamaru went through their interactions in his head trying to pin down the moment it had started.
His thoughts broke as the water began to steam, a few small bubbles forming at the base of the pot. He grabbed a rag from the kitchen cupboards and lifted the pot off the hook, bringing it over to Ino and setting it down at her feet.
Ino dipped the large wooden ladle into the pot, pulled it out gently and poured water over the hot stones, filling the small room with a hazy steam. She brought the ladle back to the pot, raising out more water and pouring it over Mist's hair, repeating the action three or four times over until the water ran clear. Ino brushed her fingers gently through the girl's tresses. Her hands had stopped shaking and were moving steadily as she progressed over the girl with motherly care.
Ino knelt down next to Mist as she lay still on the bench. She grabbed at the cloth Shikamaru had brought with him and dipped it into the water, running it over her cheeks and rubbing at the patches of dried dirt. She moved meticulously down over her neck and shoulders, over her stomach and full hips and down to her toned thighs and calves to her feet. She was petit, but carried the weight of someone who rarely stopped moving. Small silver scars reflected in the low candle light scattered sparsely across her arms, stomach and legs. She looked young, maybe a few years younger than them, and it seemed as if she had been in just as many battles if not more than Ino or Shikamaru. Ino turned Mist's arm over to wash more thoroughly but paused as she found two small triangles tattooed on her inner arm the lower of the two filled in with black. When she shifted Mist up to wash her back she found a simple flowing symbol delicately laid in black ink between her shoulder blades.
Ino finished and rose, stepping back out of the room to where Shikamaru stood watching. They looked over her body, like it was some kind of crime scene. Searching for clues as to who she was and where she had come from, but she was still a mystery.
Mist's hands began to twitch in waking and Ino stepped back even further from the door. The girl's cheeks and the tip of her nose were rosy, but the color in her lips had only returned faintly. Her eyes opened slightly staring up at the ceiling. She wasn't panicked, but in her weak state she may not have been fully conscious. Mist turned her head to them her eyes so light blue they were almost white, a grin spread across her face.