Ch2 of Ino-cence (omg the bad pun... -_-)
Things are fucking awkward after that.
For Kiba, Ino means, not for her. She has a great time shopping with Tenten and then she goes to the nail salon to top up her polish collection, and they have the best ever shade of teal.
As far as she can make out, the Konoha Twelve just think that she's a bit of an ass and left him blue-ballsed, because that's what Kiba would have chosen to narrate.
She's decidedly less impressed by the sandals that Mimiko have released this season. Honestly, kunoichi retailers need to step up their game- a wedge heel with no grip tread?
If Shikamaru and Chouji notice her throwing herself more determinedly into her bubbly gossip-girl role, they do nothing but share conspiratorial glances that she doesn't bother to challenge. It's not like they have much they can say to her. She already overhears people calling her fake/easy/critiquing what she wears.
She's sitting at home with her dad, going through some intelligence reports, when Sai drops by. Her father looks faintly surprised when she asks him to set up a privacy zone barrier for Sai and her to chat, but his interest is quickly dropped as soon as the topic of discussion is revealed: flower tattoos.
"You want something you can hide, but if they could be called out with sharp petals you could use them as a blade," she muses, flipping through scrolls and books of botany. She asks why he can't make one up. Sai argues that he has no imagination and needs to base his next tattoo off a real plant.
They agree a time to go over to Ino's mom's flowershop and hunt in the back room for samples. As Sai packs up and goes to leave, he mentions that Shino told him Kiba asked to study his bug colony's mating cycles. "He's only the second person to do so, after you!" Shino had said in wonder.
Ino mulls this over and continues studying a potential crime syndicate. They all have rough upbringings, these criminals coming out of Wave, poverty teaching them the good sides of lawlessness. It's hard not to feel some sort of empathy for them, and know that if their circumstances of birth had been reversed, Ino would either have been the same, or a common whore.
She initials another report to indicate she's seen it and sighs, stretching out her back. Full cobra is such a lovely release, she stays in the pose a moment.
Sai never tells her something for no reason. He's a good informant like that, trained after years of Danzo. She shifts into a side stretch, extending her intercostals, and ponders what Shino's bug colony of specially developed kikaichu have as a mating cycle that would possibly interest Kiba.
Ah. Pheremones. She didn't smell quite right.
She gets summonsed by the Hokage to interrogate a political prisoner from the Land of Rice the next day. She walks down the halls and sees the prisoner before he sees her. The man is suited, sitting in his chair gingerly, loose ribbon binding his wrists a mere formality. He's all nervous.
When he sees her walk in the room, he relaxes. His legs shift wider in his chair, shoulders back, and his foot taps restlessly. He thinks she'll be easy.
And she is, smiling and delicate, dressed in a white shirt with a cream bra just a little too thick for the fabric so it shows through, and innocent sky blue skater skirt. She asks him if he would like any tea or coffee, because of course she's not the real interrogator- she's just the assistant dogsbody round here. That makes him get a little more nervous again, but he thinks she's a loose talker when she tells him, bending over to pour his tea, that it's likely just Houza doing routine questions because Ibiki is on leave.
Houza does indeed come in, a stern shinobi with a shock of grey hair but far too stiff demeanour to be Kakashi- his job is theoretical not on the front lines. He has a permanent five o clock shadow, and handles things briskly. It is a political prisoner and a civilian, so violence is not necessary.
Ino excuses herself for a bit and then comes in preparing to move the prisoner back to his guarded rooms, then pretends that there has been a delay in preparing the guarded rooms. She settles herself against the back wall, humming a bit and eyes darting around awkwardly, as though she wants to look at him but is embarrassed to be caught doing so.
"Been in the job long miss?" He smiles, trying to put her at ease.
"Oh- uh, no- is it really that obvious?" she murmurs and blushes.
"You're fine, it's just not my first rodeo." He rolls his eyes and lifts his wrists slightly. She shifts her posture into interested, tilts her head at him a little more, silently prompting him.
"Grass held me for a little while," he explains, "those fuckers were rough."
"Did you get to see the daimyo's palace? My friend Ami always said she wanted to visit!" He chuckles,
"Uh, I guess once when I got the official pardon. Mostly I was in the east part of the city, where they keep the merchants. Bit of a dumb thing to do, could have bribed any one of them."
She keeps him talking for another 5 minutes and then, as planned, the update that his rooms are ready comes through. She escorts him, and keeps blushing, and as they walk she explains about how her father is a friend of Houza's and one shogi match they bet on where to place her. She keeps messing up though.
"Well, you have a lovely figure, I'm sure you'll be a stay-at-home in no time," the prisoner says kindly to her, as she hands him to the guards. Ino is sure to take the back route up to the Hokage's office and deliver what she knows.
She passes Kiba on the way out, while picking up some frozen ice cream mochi at the nearby stand. She smiles at him, and he flushes and drops his gaze. The woman manning the stand hoots in laughter and shakes her head at her, conspiratorially.
"Young woman, you done that boy a dirty!" she chuckles.
In the end, its Kiba's ridiculous stubbornness that surprises her.
She's in the training grounds with Choji, letting him blow off some steam (Ami, the girl he's seeing, had the actual nerve to question why he added sesame oil in his chilli mix. Choji is livid.) She's darting around him, dodge and weave, enjoying the burn in her calves and sharp edge in her lungs that come from exertion.
Choji's arm extends out, tunnelling past her, and she arches her back to move away from him; she has to think about how to alter her shinobi attire to be both distracting and also practical. Bare skin marks and bruises easily, and she needs that shit pristine for the next mission. So she's in a lavender skin tight rollneck and shorts with shinguards, bandages on her feet, heels kicked off because her balance is- well, on point, enough in stilettos and today is just fun.
She hears Akamaru barking off in the distance as she rolls with the next blow, and soon they have an audience.
Choji is starting to mellow out, his control coming back to him and the mood of the spar turning playful. He swipes at her legs and she probes back, a laugh huffing out of him as it switches into dances between friends who have known each other since birth.
Ino's footwork becomes too solid as she absorbs a strike to her quad and her nose wrinkles, automatically chiding herself for the mistake. She resolves to do better, be better.
She steps inside Choji's guard and her elbow comes at his jaw, a light pivot and brushing hit, but at that point his knuckle jabs her just under her ribcage. She exhales long and heavy from the jab, and giggles.
"Seal of reconciliation?"
"You just lost," Choji grins, and Ino swears she can hear the eyeroll.
She flicks her sweaty hair at him and steps away with an unladylike snort, eyes already darting towards Kiba and Akamaru. The giant dog lowers his head, white shagged ears tipping back.
"Ohayo Kiba!" Choji hollers. She gives a wave as well, to be nice- his body language is apprehensive and tense.
Kiba crosses the respectful distance he'd maintained while they were sparring. He carries a scroll in his left hand; his right is holding on to the webbing of his jounin vest.
She thinks the scroll is for her, since it's her his shoulders are twisting towards, but after a second he turns his head and addresses Choji.
"Mission for you old boy," Kiba offers, "Naruto says it's a good one. They need someone with detonation experience."
Choji's face and his apple spiral cheeks crunch in anticipation. "Do I have time to read it or should I use that time to say goodbye to Ami and pick it up on the way?"
"You've got half a day if I heard Mr Hokage right," Kiba reassures him, handing over the scroll. His eyes flick to Ino and there's a slightly strained smile, before he seems to centre himself again and clap Choji on the shoulder.
Choji reads the scroll with thoroughness, before shaking out his joints, readjusting his headband and bidding them goodbye.
It's always good practice to tell your loved ones goodbye before a mission, even if they've insulted your cooking. Nobody wants the last thing they said to you to be in anger.
This leaves Kiba and Ino standing together in the middle of the training ground, Akamaru several feet away. The dog seems preoccupied by a scent or two on the grass and earth, nosing along trail after trail and discarding them.
Ino assesses him and gives her best 'girl-next-door' smile; close lipped, showing serenity in the line of her cheeks.
"How's it going?" she asks after a moment. Friend, she has to keep telling herself, Friend. She still reads him and his unease like any other target.
Kiba inhales at her voice. He decides to press ahead.
"Listen- uh, the other night," he starts, "I, um. It's been on my mind."
"Oh don't worry Kiba," she waves it off, "things happen, you know!" But he interrupts her- "No, I just wanted to- I feel bad for you!"
Ino places her hands on her hips and fixes him with a stare. Even slightly sweaty after sparring, she's still glorious. Nobody should ever feel bad for her. She decides to drop her gloss a little.
"What on earth are you talking about?"
Kiba meets her gaze and his pupils are, she notices coolly, a little dilated. Perhaps this attraction thing was a bit more for him than she thought. He's already committed to the hard part of the interaction and now he has to keep going.
"Uh, Ino. You're gorgeous, I mean, you know that. You probably have men drooling over you all the time, actually like seduction...stuff is your specialization so what the fuck do I know? But, it- ok, I know I'm a total horndog sometimes- but like, it felt wrong that you were, well, faking it, I guess. I-intimate stuff like that, you know, you should only do it if you want to."
Ino is entirely unimpressed.
"I did want to. Wasn't like we did anything non-con."
"But why?" Kiba is looking at her a little more intensely now, as though her answer really matters to him. "If it wasn't because you were- uh, turned on, why did you let me touch you? Why did you pretend all that stuff? Why did you say I could still have you?"
Ino wrinkles her perfect nose. She doesn't really have an answer that won't offend him. The silence drags on.
"I just- ugh, forget it."
"What?"
"Can I see what it's like when you drop the act? If I tried when you weren't faking?"
Ino reaches up and adjusts her ponytail casually. He's surprised her by the request, but she's backpedalling and doing her best to stay centred.
On the one hand, she can't see much that Kiba would like about letting him see an unresponsive body. On the other, a small voice in the back of her head considers that maybe training with Kiba would be helpful for scent. If he lets her know what things help her smell right, that's another skill added to the arsenal.
Potential of messing up a comrade's working relationship with her or training benefit?
She's a kunoichi. The training benefit wins so she sticks her hand out to make a deal.
"I'll do it if you help me smell right." Kiba's face makes her want to laugh- it clearly wasn't the response he expected, and he's apprehensive but he shakes her hand and then drops it quickly, standing there again.
She raises her chin impatiently.
"So?"
"Wh-What? Now?!"
"Why not dumbass? What else are you going to do?" She tilts her head playfully and then remembers to stop it- because he just said to drop the act.
Kiba raises his hands, palm out to her. "Wow. You are, uh, way more intimidating all of a sudden."
She snorts at that, not bothering to suppress it, and rolls her eyes. She's still not quite sure how to act freely but settles for a coarser personality mantle than the one he's met. She uses it to pick up guys in bars out in rural areas.
"I live by myself. Feel free to try and surprise me yet again with god knows what, we'll call it stealth training."
Kiba bites his lip for a second, shaggy hair falling into his eyes, and his chakra spikes excitedly. Akamaru clearly overheard 'stealth training' because he perks up from where he'd been exploring metres away.
Ino's chakra remains under her control at all times. It has to remain placid whenever she's posing as a civilian, and she has to be able to consciously spike it as an 'excited ninja'. She's silently grateful to whoever let her learn that skill easily as she gathers the energy into her left hand and abruptly taps Kiba's chest.
"Tag," she says, and shunshins away.
The familiarity of ninja tag seems to have eased whatever was going on in Kiba's head, because he comes across her before and after a quick body-bag mission and both times there's no unease or awkwardness.
If anything, he smiles at her with a hint of 'just you wait' and while Ino is fairly sure that there is nothing he can do she won't have already encountered, she still looks forward to the attempt.
She's trimming some split ends off her blonde mane, debating whether or not to use leave-in deep conditioner the next time she showers, when a rock hits her window shutters. She rolls over to the window, and sticks her head out.
"Thought you were going to play stealth!" she calls.
Kiba shrugs, feral eyes squinting from a smile. Akamaru isn't with him.
"I figured I'd keep you on your toes. Mix up the approach, you know."
"A tactical assault?" she flirts back, already slipping into a role from instinct.
He scales the wall with his chakra and slides onto her window ledge.
"Hi. Can I come in?"
"Sure." She's aware that she could potentially look 'hot' right now, in her baggy sweatpants with kunai sown in and tank top that shows off her shoulders and sleek abs. But mostly she's just cutting her hair and has no makeup on and is as close to guard down as a ninja can get.
He plops on her futon in an easy way that irritates her a little.
"Presumptive much?"
Kiba's eyes blink at her, dark and shadowed against the glow of her bedside lamp. His hand pats the comforter next to him, and she slinks over, sitting next to him.
"I just thought we could, uh- get used to being next to each other," he says. Ino smirks, the quirk of her mouth wry, leg pressing along his, instantly leaning into his side, giving no doubts as to her intent.
"Did you mean like this? Or like this?" She curls her legs under her and shifts her side away, rests her head on his shoulder, and suddenly it's a tender innocent moment.
Kiba sighs. His cheeks flush a little red.
"Drop it, Ino. I didn't come here to be made fun of. "
"Why did you?"
"To, I dunno, try and make you easier around me and then maybe you could relax into it, we'd see if there's anything there."
Ino hums, and keeps her head on his shoulder, idly cracking the joints on her fingers.
"I still can't really believe this is happening," he says quietly, into the stillness between them.
"I still can't really believe you feel sorry for me," she replies and somehow that makes Kiba cackle, little huffing pants of laughter that she feels as shakes in her shoulder-pillow. One hand comes up absentmindedly to ruffle her hair as he calms down.
"Ino," he says, trying to keep his tone serious, "It feels fucking amazing. The fact you only know it because you've, quote unquote, torn it from other people's heads, that's enough to make me pity you for what you're missing out on."
Ino gives a limp boneless shrug. She's relaxed herself right now, as Kiba is a comrade. There's no self-pity. She prides herself on her skills and if she has to make sacrifices for them, well, so does everybody else. That sparks into a question, rolling off her tongue before she's fully aware she's said it out loud.
"What have you given up to fight like an Inuzuka?"
Kiba thinks about it for a minute, his legs unfolding out in front of her.
"Privacy," he murmurs at length, "I think, privacy, and I know there are things about me that drive people away. Self-control isn't really our strong suit. There are times where I feel like I'm being pushed towards being a beast, and I lose the parts of me that make me human."
Ino's heard those words out of far too many mouths. But this is the first time she's found that she cares more like a therapist than an interrogator.
"Is it the killing?" she says lightly, "Is it too easy?"
He glances at her out of the corner of his eye. It's a surprised look, and Ino realises once again she's been underestimated. Kiba knows her as a nice friendly member of Konoha Twelve who does seduction missions, which presumably just entails looking hot all the time.
"I work in T&I for a reason," she answers the unspoken question, and he nods to himself.
"Not just the killing. There's days where... where it's like my senses are still in Beast-Mode. Where people are just pack or enemy to me. Where like, I don't see human interactions the same way? Am I making any sense?"
"Completely." She nods, and her mind latches onto the task of matching his breathing, inhale for inhale, exhale for exhale.
"It's, uh, not easy to come back from sometimes."
"What helps?"
"Hinata pours tea for me." She can't contain the laughter, and he swats her side indignantly, "Oi! I'm serious! It just, kind of feels like everything clean and sane and put together, y'know?"
"Favourite tea?"
"Sencha jasmine blend...," he reveals, and then almost as an afterthought,"...which you smell of, sometimes."
She drinks it sometimes when she writes reports. The fact he's noticed that about her makes her smile, and without thinking too much she presses a kiss to his cheek.
"What was that for?" He sounds bemused, and she shrugs, settling against him, feeling the Friend bond more comfortably.
They're ninja, so they don't fall asleep together. The quiet and the moment together expands until Kiba finally stretches, getting ready to go.
"Did you achieve your goals?" she asks dryly, "mission accomplished?"
"I guess I did," he smiles at her, shadowed face a little softer in the night, and leaves.
She goes to brush her teeth and after some reflection (literally, in the mirror) she realises that she is somehow touched by the fact Kiba is, in his misguided way, trying to reach out and fix her.
A/N: Thank you for reading! Plz fav/review/all feedback gratefully received, and hope you and yours are safe in these strange times :)
~featheredblades