Long time no see, friends! Unfortunately life is a bitch and so on, I got no excuse. But I'm back and the next few chapters are already written so stay tuned, and hopefully you enjoy this one :)
Thanks for the reviews!
Chapter 10. Hinata's Plea
Another night was about to fall upon the dead capital of Land of Fire when two missing shinobi decided to return to their master's base. Throughout the last few hours, they'd been scurrying through one of the abandoned hideouts that Orochimaru nowadays used more like a storage facility. And now Suigetsu and Jūgo were finishing up gathering everything their master had requested.
"...I'm still surprised how these places rarely get any uninvited guests." Suigetsu mused as he rummaged through the shelves filled with different kinds of jars, surgical tools, documents and other objects that were difficult to identify right away. "Sure, the warding seals are a great demotivator to an overly curious klutz, but given the situation everyone is in these days... you'd think people would be more desperate to venture." The white-haired shinobi was mostly talking to himself, as Jūgo rarely showed any interest in topics such as this one. The man was patiently waiting for Suigetsu to finish his search, probably thinking about his own things. And while they'd already found most of the things Orochimaru had requested, there were still some documents missing, although none of them were of the utmost necessity.
"We should be heading back now," suddenly Jūgo spoke, staring somewhere in the dark corners of the room with a hint of anxiety in his eyes.
"I know," his companion replied tiredly after a short pause, standing up from the stack of papers on the floor. "Gotcha. Let's head out, I guess."
With that the pair left the hideout, restoring the protective seals on the place on their way. Suigetsu usually suggested destroying the facilities that they stopped using, however Orochimaru insisted on keeping them intact. Besides the useful role of being storage houses, the sannin also liked to leave these places for his own amusement. Sometimes the seals would be damaged due to natural decay of the environment they were placed on, or maybe someone with the knowledge to bypass those particular ones would pass by. It was always interesting to see the aftermath of what was left of such curious unwanted guests considering the seemingly endless amount of traps these facilities had everywhere in their dark passageways. Some of them were still inhabited by the numerous failed experiments as well, so it was akin to a longitudinal research of some sort… Needless to say, the swordsman wasn't a big fan of these things, although he obeyed his master nevertheless, of course.
About an hour later, both of them were already going through the more familiar underground tunnels of the hideout that was currently their main base. As they ventured deeper and approached the inhabited halls of it, the pair began hearing something… unusual.
"The hell is that…?" Suigetsu mumbled, as his eyes widened in surprise and confusion. Jūgo frowned but didn't respond.
The closer they were getting to the main room, the clearer the disturbing sounds became, although it was still hard to tell what exactly they were.
"I don't like it." The orange-haired man finally said with concern in his voice. The swordsman looked back at him. Jūgo always had better hearing and it seemed like he managed to discern the source of this noise. However, as both of them were about to enter the hall, the sound repeated itself in a way more loud and lengthy manner. It was a scream. Obviously everyone in Orochimaru's company was used to such things, considering the countless experiments their master had conducted in the past. It wasn't out of the ordinary or unnerving in the slightest. More unexpected, because both of them knew for sure that nothing like that had been scheduled...
As they finally decided to enter the room, they quickly realized that only Karin was present inside. She looked very focused, working with some liquids and chemicals behind a desk near the surgical table. Suigetsu motioned Jūgo to bring everything they'd gathered to the redhead while he himself first went to grab a drink. The sound echoed through the chamber once again. Now it seemed like the voice was beginning to crack, the scream turning into screeching at the end.
"...Is it really necessary?" Jūgo asked as he handed over every item one by one, while Karin was quickly glancing at them and writing down everything in her list. Suigetsu came close, holding a drink in his hand.
"What exactly?" asked Karin absentmindedly, carefully examining every test tube and small containers of different sizes one by one. She was holding them in front of her nose for a few seconds each, in a manner one would rather be expected to hold a big diamond. Clearly, whatever was hidden inside of them held immense value in her eyes.
The three members of Team Taka then heard another prolonged scream that suddenly died out abruptly as the person's vocal cords apparently began to break from the strain. At the same time, they could hear a soft sound of someone else approaching from the corridor behind one of the doors. Before they turned their heads, Orochimaru entered the room, slowly walking up to his followers.
Suigetsu remained silent and impassive as he was emptying a big bottle of water. Jūgo finally finished placing all the items and documents on Karin's desk, still looking slightly concerned. He had immediately understood who exactly was making these agonized sounds. The swordsman, however, thought that it was just yet another unfortunate soul that had probably crossed Orochimaru while they were absent. Although he didn't remember if any tortures were actually supposed to happen in a scenario like that – it'd been a while since they had an unwanted visitor.
Jūgo looked up at his master with a bit of surprise, thinking that it was him who was the cause of these screams, but that clearly wasn't the case. Suigetsu shared his reaction, though a bit less expressively.
"Hm? You two somehow look disappointed." Orochimaru finally spoke with a sly smile as he caught their stares. Suigetsu immediately denied it by waving his hands and looking somewhere else across the room. Jūgo, however, was unexpectedly talkative.
"The operation hasn't even started yet. Is there some other procedure she's going through?" The orange-haired man basically reiterated the question he'd asked Karin earlier.
"Huh? You decided to mess around with that Hyūga girl, Orochimaru-sama?" Suigetsu asked, sounding a bit confused as he finally realized who these screams belonged to.
The sannin chuckled and propped up his chin with one of his pale hands.
"I have no interest in playing with little girls, I thought you would already be aware of my preferences..." He let out a disgusting laugh that made everyone in the room slightly uncomfortable, despite the many years they have all been together. The Snake Lord certainly didn't lack a sense of humor, although it was admittedly a cursed type of it. "But no, this time I had nothing to do with it. If you are concerned with that kunoichi's well-being, you should ask Sasuke-kun about it once he's done with her." Orochimaru walked around the desk, now standing directly behind Karin and looking over the goods Jūgo and Suigetsu had brought. "Everything in order?" he asked his red haired assistant casually.
Karin frowned at the weak echo of another anguished cry, looking down at the carpet covering the stone surface of the floor. It seemed she didn't quite like what was going on behind the wall either.
"Y-Yeah, I've prepared everything you told me to make, Orochimaru-sama," said the crimson-haired woman, glancing at her desk. "These two idiots managed to get everything as well, miraculously. We can start in a few hours if needed," she added, twisting a small sealed tube in her fingers. The dark-red liquid inside looked suspiciously similar to someone's blood, but there was something off with its shade. It was hard to notice, and they just couldn't put their finger on it, but it definitely didn't feel normal to look at.
With one last whimper the sounds finally died out, leaving the dungeon in comfortable silence.
Jūgo frowned once again, lingering for a moment as though he wanted to ask something else, but ultimately decided to let it go. He looked at Orochimaru as if asking if there was anything else he was required to do.
"You two won't be needed for a while now, Karin and I will take care of everything else," said the sannin while studying the documents his followers had delivered. Jūgo immediately went away, disappearing in one of the tunnels that led to their personal quarters. Suigetsu caught Karin's familiar gaze that was basically saying 'You fuck off as well', but as the swordsman didn't really have anything else to do he decided to stay just out of spite.
"Never took him for a sadistic type...," Hozuki finally said as he sat on a worn-off chair on the opposite side from Karin.
"Are you implying something, Suigetsu?" Orochimaru mused without looking at him. The white-haired man immediately regretted saying that.
"No, no... Why would I ever..." he muttered as his master let out a short laugh.
"That's none of our business, let the lovebirds have some privacy. Now, bring all of this to the operation room, Karin. In the meantime, I will need to have a chat with Sasuke-kun as well about the other Konoha crew that will be joining us soon. We will need to prepare a different set of reagents for each of them specifically, depending on their bloodlines and abilities… and it needs to be done quickly."
A few hours later, Hinata slowly opened her eyes, squinting for even such a simple movement made her experience an excruciating headache that felt like something was ripping her head apart from the inside. In fact, upon moving slightly, she realized that every cell in her body was hurting badly as well. But in spite of that, the girl gritted her teeth, clenched her jaw and forced herself to sit up, looking around in confusion, as though she wasn't exactly sure where she was right now.
But then the memories slowly broke through her foggy mind, and she realized it was still the same room in Orochimaru's underground hideout. She was still on a revolutionary mission with Sasuke Uchiha. She still needed to…
Her eyes widened as she covered her mouth with her palm. The nasty nauseous feeling in her stomach wasn't exactly new. It had happened during every similar session with Sasuke, so she already knew the best cure. Food. The girl needed to find something to eat as soon as possible. Staying inside the Tsukuyomi realm for hours only took minutes in the real world. And while it fooled her brain flawlessly every time, it couldn't trick her body similarly, thus still making her feel the very real hunger from a day spent without any nutrition within the illusionary world.
Loud knocking on the door suddenly interrupted the kunoichi's thoughts, and before she could say anything, Karin entered the room holding a small tray in her hands.
"Yo," she said briefly as she walked toward the bed Hinata was now sitting on. The redhead placed the tray with warm food on the nightstand beside the bed, pulled up a chair from the other side of the room and sat near Hinata, studying her looks curiously. "Eh… I wanted to leave it here for when you'd wake up, but I guess I'm lucky to find you already awake," Karin said with a grin. She motioned to a couple of pills that were also on the tray. "You should take those first before eating. Should help you with the pain and other shit."
"O-Oh… thank you, Karin-chan." Hinata smiled with a bit of apologetic expression, grabbing the plate with a bowl of miso soup, some steaming hot rice with a few pieces of fried salmon and leek, as well as a cup of hot black coffee. After days of eating only canned food with Sasuke, now this felt like the finest dinner she'd ever had. But, fighting the urge to consume it all at once in the most indecent manner, the kunoichi obediently took the pills, swallowing them quickly and looking at the other kunoichi.
"Um… do you happen to know how long I've been asleep for…?" Belatedly she remembered that Orochimaru and his subordinates had been actively preparing for the ritual of granting her the sannin's Cursed Seal. Although she doubted that they would've hesitated to wake her up had they been ready to perform it, somehow she still felt embarrassed for what seemed to her like exploiting their hospitality.
Karin blinked a few times and shrugged, as though a bit confused by the nature of the question.
"Not sure, to be honest. Sasuke has been chatting with Orochimaru-sama for a while now, though... So maybe a couple of hours? Why?" she asked out of curiosity, propping up her face with both of her hands as she watched with how much healthy greed the other kunoichi was now enjoying her meal.
"W-Well," the dark-haired woman swallowed quickly before talking as she vigorously reminded herself of everything she'd been taught about manners back in her clan's mansion all throughout her life, "I was just wondering – if we needed to make haste with the Cursed seal… I–I mean–" She paused and looked away, feeling even more embarrassed now. It had been a while since she stuttered in a conversation like that. But this kunoichi who was now peering at her with uncovered interest, as though examining something in her body like a doctor, made her feel a bit uneasy.
"...It's just that – the way we're training, it makes me feel confused… with the flow of time… so I'm not sure what time or even day it is right now," she admitted and blushed slightly, taking another bite of fish.
Karin remained silent for a while, tilting her head to the side for a bit. This made the Hyūga feel even more uncomfortable, which the red-haired girl clearly enjoyed. After all, it'd been a long time since someone new joined them. and the company of just Jūgo and Suigetsu was never overly pleasant to her to begin with.
"Nah," Karin finally drawled, grinning at her. "You don't need to worry about that. Everything has been sorted and prepared. There's no rush, unless you wanna end up like one of those caged freaks we have here and there…," she said with a straight face, motioning around with her hand. But, seeing as Hinata choked and began coughing, staring at her in fear, she laughed and waved her off.
"Just kidding! But anyway, since you won't be the only one getting a Cursed Seal, it makes sense to apply them all at the same time. So once your friends arrive, we'll start the procedure I guess. 'Till then you can continue playing your masochistic games with Sasuke with no worry." Karin chuckled, grinning at the girl's reaction.
If previously the Hyūga's face was just slightly blushing, now it fully resembled a ripe tomato in color. She stared at the Uzumaki in disbelief, feeling both shocked and terribly ashamed by the outrageous suggestion. Throughout the last few days she'd spent in this hideout, so far the two of them hadn't really interacted, but from the glimpses Hinata had observed from a distance, Karin always acted in a very professional manner. She was exactly what one could expect from a serious scientist, and although the Hyūga wasn't some kind of a prude contrary to some of her friends' beliefs, she just hadn't expected to hear something like this from her, especially this bluntly.
"W-Well, I wouldn't call it a game…," she slowly replied, quickly regaining her composure. "To me and him, this is more than just that, Uzumaki-san." Hinata made a face that was supposed to be as naive and innocent as possible, fully realizing how equivocal it sounded.
"I'll bet," Karin replied slowly, biting her lip. Although she'd previously heard Sasuke's explanation of their training method to Orochimaru, the crimson-haired kunoichi still couldn't hold herself back from the desire to tease their new guest. Partly to try to assert her dominance over her, and partly to try to befriend her, although the latter would be difficult for her to admit out loud.
"Careful though, after so many sessions you might actually start enjoying it." She chuckled once again. But, looking at how the Hyūga was slowly starting to get flustered once more, Karin finally decided to show mercy and change the topic. While it was amusing to poke fun at Hinata, still she realized that given the mental strain that was supposed to result from such 'games', one had to be careful not to stress the person too much.
"How's the food? You probably survived on dry rations only so far, right?"
Hinata blinked a few times, a little dumbfounded by the sudden change of conversation, but then beamed at her.
"Oh, it's amazing! Thank you so much!" She replied happily, sipping the soup. "Y-Yes, that's true… it's not that they are bad, it's just that I missed eating something else… let alone something this delicious! D-Did you cook it by yourself?" She looked at the other girl, feeling curious now. The food was indeed almost exceptionally good even by the Hyūga clan's bourgeois standards, and it was hard to imagine this messy place having a decent kitchen, let alone somebody actually using it for the right purposes.
Karin winced and shook her head, letting out a quiet laughter.
"Nope! I can't cook for shit. You'd have to thank Jūgo for that. Since nowadays we aren't as active as usual, each of us has a bit more time on our hands. He uses that time to make this place a little bit more bearable to live in. Fuck knows about Suigetsu though, he's a useless sack of shit as always. And I just help out Orochimaru-sama as much as I can, so I don't really have any time for something like this," she replied, looking at the tray thoughtfully. "So enjoy it while it lasts. He won't be able to cook like that out in the field, heh."
"Oh–sure… that makes sense." Hinata nodded, quickly finishing her meal and taking a sip of the now comfortably warm coffee. "To be honest, I always imagined Orochimaru-san as more… intimidating person. And he–he almost seems… normal…?" She looked away, unsure if that was actually true. The sannin was definitely very far from what one could define as a normal human being. And yet… Sure, he was weird and creepy to some extent, but there was nothing really intimidating about him. After all, she'd seen many unusual individuals during her missions in the last few years, and especially during the Great War.
"Hm... Well, looks can be deceiving, you know?" said Karin thoughtfully, her lips twisting in an amused grin. "Which goes both ways, I guess. I'm sure everyone who looked at you in the past wouldn't imagine you traveling with an ex-nukenin to the lair of one of the most dangerous criminals in the world." Karin replied slyly. She didn't know much about Hinata Hyūga, but it didn't take a genius to realize that the heiress of a clan like that would be held to very high standards when it came to whoever she was allowed to associate with. "If you play your cards right, I'm sure you'll get a chance to know Orochimaru-sama better if he interests you that much."
Hinata smirked weakly, shaking her head.
"No, thanks… I'd rather pass on that opportunity, to be honest. D-Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful to him for agreeing to help us, but–uh…" She looked away, desperately thinking of another topic. "In truth, I actually thought there would be way more people in here…" she mused, looking at Karin. "After all, Orochimaru-san had once led an entire hidden village – I mean, the village of the Sound." Indeed, to see that there was just their small group and apparently no one else was strange.
"This is just one of the hideouts, and even here there are more people than just the six of us," replied Karin a bit evasively. "Although I would struggle to call them people at this point…" She grinned, enjoying the mixture of disgust and fear on Hinata's face. "Don't worry. Orochimaru-sama just prefers to keep a close few at his side at all times, and when there's a need for a broader force – he can always call up on them. You don't see a lot of people directly in the Hokage's office, right? Consider this place something like that."
"Oh…" Hinata lowered her eyes. That explained a lot, but she still felt baffled by how their group seemed more like a bunch of retired hermits with some criminal past rather than a serious military power.
"May I give you a bit of a warning?" suddenly asked Karin, looking into her eyes with a serious expression for the first time.
"Uh… yes, of course," replied the other girl, gulping nervously at yet another sudden change of mood.
"You seem to be very much into the whole training thing with Sasuke, huh?" Karin paused for a second, though not awaiting an answer before continuing. "Well, I can understand that. He can be very charming and all, and charismatic as fuck too – it's easy to want to follow him and obey his every command. But, he can get… carried away. Sometimes he just goes… too far." The kunoichi lowered her eyes and frowned, as though remembering something very unpleasant from her past. "Just… don't let yourself become his pushover, okay? You seem like a nice girl, and you don't deserve such treatment. You shouldn't let him do things you don't want him to do, you know?" She met Hinata's gaze again, as if trying to read her expression to get a subtle innuendo of how she truly felt about the Uchiha's actions.
"I–," Hinata gulped again, looking very uneasy for some reason which Karin found rather confusing and a bit worrying.
The redhead then smiled at her warmly, winking at her reassuringly.
"Just keep it in mind is all I'm asking for, okay? I should get going now, there's still a lot of stuff to do. See ya!" She got up and walked out of the room, leaving the Hyūga alone in silence.
The dark-haired kunoichi rubbed her temples and closed her eyes, letting out a heavy sigh of relief. Although so far she liked Karin and felt grateful to her for everything she was doing, Hinata certainly didn't feel like explaining the truth behind her interactions with Sasuke to this girl right now.
Because this truth was definitely nothing close to whatever Karin was imagining…
An hour earlier…
"Um, Sasuke… There's something I wanted to ask you for."
"Hm?" He didn't look at her as Hinata's voice distracted him from reading the contents of a scroll he'd taken from Orochimaru's archive of the most recent scout reports.
Hinata pursed her lips, evidently trying to be careful with wording whatever was on her mind as she was sitting in the big old chair a couple yards away from him. The Uchiha was half-naked, only wearing his usual simple dark pants, while Hinata herself had a white tank top on as well as the knee-long black shorts she'd borrowed from Karin. Both of them were still a little sweaty, currently taking a break to get some rest from the intense workout before the time would come for another session of training within the realm of Tsukuyomi.
"Well, I've been thinking… about what you said earlier. You were right; I do get distracted whenever I get hit, and that's what keeps hindering me whenever we spar. It's just that–" She blushed, looking away shamefully. "I'm not used to getting hurt… not as much as you and other combat-experienced shinobi at least.."
"Yeah, I figured as much." The Uchiha nodded, returning his attention to the scroll.
"Indeed," Hinata nodded as well, more to herself as she was trying to put her thoughts together as she was looking at him. "So I got this idea… if this is about just getting over the sensation of physical pain, one can get used to it through experience, isn't that correct? People like you who have endured it time and time again… eventually it raises your tolerance to the point where you can just ignore it."
Sasuke nodded again, though it looked like he was still not following where she was going with that. Or maybe he was just too preoccupied with whatever he was reading – the kunoichi couldn't tell. But surprisingly, this time his answer was more elaborate.
"Yeah. Pain is just a signal your brain receives through your nerves whenever your body sustains some damage. It's an instinctive mechanism we share with animals. But unlike them, we do have ways to deal with almost any amount of damage that doesn't kill us," he glanced at his bandaged hand and frowned a little. "That makes reacting to it inherently pointless as well as harmful to our performance in combat. The rest comes down to making a habit of ignoring it." He shrugged, still not looking at her.
The kunoichi beamed however, nodding once more in response.
"T-That is exactly what I thought! So, basically, all I need is to catch up on that experience with you…and with other shinobi of your level."
"What exactly are you implying?" He finally put the scroll aside and met her gaze, frowning deeper this time.
"Uh, well…" She blushed a little, lowering her eyes but then clenching her fists tightly as she felt unusual resolve filling every fiber of her being. "You also mentioned before that Tsukuyomi's main purpose is torture, so I thought–"
"What…? You can't be serious." His eyes widened slightly at her as the young man stared at his protege..
"Um… Why…?" She looked at him again, feeling a little confused. The girl hadn't expected a reaction like that.
"What do you mean why? I'm not about to torture you just to help you increase your pain tolerance," he said in a slightly aggravated tone, crossing his hands on his chest.
Hinata's eyebrows raised a bit.
"B-But, please, think about it… it's completely harmless, isn't it? You won't actually cause any damage to my body since it's only happening within your genjutsu. And the rest, uh… well, it comes down to me learning to resist the tricks my brain plays on me, doesn't it? The pain wouldn't even be real." She smiled somewhat awkwardly, getting increasingly more baffled every second as she watched his normally unreadable face suddenly expressing a bunch of emotions at the same time.
"The pain would feel very real, and it can damage your mind if I overdo it," replied Sasuke darkly, though in a calmer voice now. "I agreed to train you because that was your father's request, and because I don't want you to be a burden to our group, but this…" He looked away, suddenly appearing to be almost… sheepish? Just what was going on? "I don't wanna do it."
She simply blinked at him as the confusion in her reached its highest point. This behavior was nothing like the Sasuke Uchiha she'd gotten to know so far.
"But why?"
He glared at her angrily.
"Are you insane, Hyūga? Who do you think I am, a sadist?!" his voice raised again, but this time he certainly looked a bit embarrassed as well. She then felt like she was finally beginning to understand, although vaguely. Perhaps he felt insulted by her assessment of his morality being so low?
"No, I didn't mean anything like that…!" she said quickly, raising her hands apologetically. "But I thought you were the type of shinobi to do anything to achieve his goals. I want to help you do just that, so why don't we help each other? And besides that… it's not like you'd be doing this to me against my will, is it? I give you my consent, so you shouldn't feel bad about anything you do to me." She gave him a smile that was supposed to be reassuring, but then the girl belatedly realized it was probably more of a daring one in the current circumstances and instantly regretted it. Her eyes also widened at the realization of how ambiguously that had just sounded, and the blush began to crawl up her face as well. "I–I mean…!"
"Get on your knees."
"Huh? W-What…?" She backed off reflexively, staring at him in fear now.
He sighed, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath.
"If I cast my genjutsu on you while you're sitting like that, you will fall on the floor anyway, and I don't want you to actually get hurt in the process."
"Oh." She exhaled soundly, but then gulped nervously – the girl hadn't expected him to agree to do it right away, so she wasn't quite ready for this, but she wasn't about to test Sasuke's patience and let him change his mind later on by postponing it. "Alright."
She got off the chair and lowered on the carpet, putting her hands on her knees obediently and looking directly into his mismatched eyes. She would be lying if she said she wasn't afraid, but at the same time the girl realized very clearly that it was a necessary thing to do. Throughout her entire life, her clan and her friends had sheltered her as much as they could, resulting in her being a less capable fighter than she could be – than she needed to be. It had to be fixed, and she would never pass on this opportunity. Not after all the life-changing decisions she'd already made, anyway. There was no turning back anymore.
And she would keep moving forward no matter what.
"Last chance to change your mind, Hyūga," he uttered irritably, but she could see that he already knew what her answer would be.
So Hinata just stared back at him stubbornly for a few more seconds before darkness consumed her vision and multiple fiery blades stabbed her from all directions, causing her to scream in truly horrible pain.
It was already past evening hours when Shikamaru was still trying to organize all the work papers he had left from earlier. Most of the Hokage office staff had already left home, including the Sixth himself. But with everything that was going on in the village, Hokage's Chief Aide had too much on his plate to deal with. Not to mention the unofficial secret business he had with the Uchiha and others from their group…
Letting out a loud sigh, the man leaned back in his chair, staring into the ceiling blankly. Everything had finally been set into motion and there was turning back at this point. Konoha was bound to change in the coming months. Other villages and nations would have to change as well. Unfortunately, Shikamaru was just unable to bring Kakashi to see his point of view, but that could be counted as a necessary cost in his opinion. If the same political approach was to remain in the future, then there just would be no Konoha left in the end. A bad future is better than no future at all. That was the simple reality of this situation.
Finally standing up from his desk, the young man decided to leave things as they were. He had already taken care of all the important tasks to cover his upcoming absence from the village. Everything else was mostly meaningless and wouldn't matter after they would accomplish what they had set out to do.
The only light source in the building finally went dim, as Shikamaru left Hokage's office. There weren't a lot of people on the streets as the time was slowly approaching midnight. As always, a solitary stroll through the once blissfully happy and bright streets of his home village was a much needed run away from his usual monotonous work days. However, instead of heading home, tonight he was on his way to Ino's house. After all, this evening she was supposed to be leaving the village to rendezvous with Sasuke's group. And Shikamaru himself would be the last of their group to leave Konoha a couple of days later. Of course, technically he could go with her right now. It wasn't like any of the guards would be able or even willing to stop him despite Hokage's order for the Chief Aide to remain in the village unless instructed otherwise. But Nara decided to play it safe as there was no rush anyway. They still had time, or so he hoped.
Walking up to the Yamanaka clan grounds, he went past the night sentries with no issues as always, and was at Ino's door a couple of minutes later.
The young woman opened almost instantly as if she was waiting for someone to knock. She didn't look prepared to leave at all, wearing slippers and being dressed only in her bathrobe. Ino mustered to give him a smile, but Shimakaru noticed right away how forced it was. She was obviously tired and hadn't slept in a while.
"May I?"
"Yeah.. Uhm. Come in." For some reason, Ino stuttered before letting Shikamaru in which was quite unusual for her. Closing the door behind his back, she swiftly put up the usual guardian seals before turning to her former teammate. The pair then walked into the living room where the blonde kunoichi picked up a small towel that she'd been using before Shikamaru had arrived.
"So, are you ready to head out in a few hours?" he asked quietly, sitting down on a couch and already knowing the answer. Ino shook her head, but didn't say anything. "Right…" He sighed.
Silence filled the room which wasn't exactly unusual for both of them. They would always enjoy the company of each other even without saying anything. This time, however, the atmosphere was noticeably heavier. Shikamaru motioned her to take a seat beside him which she did almost obediently.
"Are you worried about what's to come or is it the same thing from before?" he asked, looking at Ino with a slight concern.
"Same thing," she replied, rubbing her face with her hands. "It's the same thing. Why would I be worried about anything else, you know me…" Ino added with a bit of irritation in her voice. "It's all just another mission."
"I see. Then I'll stay here for the night, as usual. Until you depart." Shikamaru muttered and took out a pack of cigarettes from one of his pockets. Fortunately, Ino never cared if he smoked inside the house.
The pair didn't say anything for a while again, only for Ino to interrupt the oppressive silence by standing up and turning off the lights in the room, before sitting back on the couch near Shikamaru.
"Did you take care of things at work? We won't be coming back as Konoha ninja, at least temporarily." Shikamaru asked in an unusually careful, almost compassionate tone.
"Yeah, I know. I've been prepared since day one," she replied, sounding a bit more calm this time. As darkness filled the room, it seemed the lack of light made the kunouchi feel a bit less constrained, allowing herself to lie down on the couch, resting her head on the ninja's legs. "Gotta admit, not exactly for this type of scenario, but something close to it anyway. The Intelligence Division won't be a problem for us when we return. I just hope the Sixth won't find out about it too soon, as that would mean a full cleanse of all the departments. And we have many supporters there," she added, however her tone did not reflect any concern or worry. She was just stating, how she thought, the obvious.
"Makes sense. Hopefully it won't get to that," Nara replied briefly as he began to slowly stroke her hair.
"Hopefully?" she snorted. "That doesn't sound like you."
Shikamaru grinned at her.
"I'm pretty adaptable. Especially when it comes to your mood swings," he replied. Ino didn't respond immediately, though she obviously didn't like what he said, but she also knew he was right anyway.
"Whatever. What about you?" she looked at his face, trying to read his expression.
The young man shrugged.
"I've done what I could. There's still some mundane work left to do, but I'm not gonna focus on that before I leave. I was unable to bring all the officials that I wanted on our side, so when we return there will be some resistance. But I'd say they're mostly insignificant and can be dealt with when the time comes. Who knows, maybe they'll have a change of heart once they see and hear what we have to offer."
"More like they won't have a choice…" the Yamanaka added darkly. Shikamaru just shrugged again without saying anything. "So you're gonna stay with me and see me off later?" she asked in a warmer, almost hopeful voice.
"That's what I said earlier, yeah. Don't worry. How are you feeling now?"
She winced, rubbing her face tiredly with a somewhat frustrated expression.
"Better. I hate dealing with those episodes alone, so… thanks for staying."
"No problem. I enjoy watching you at your most vulnerable state anyway," the shinobi replied with a short laugh. He felt a sharp pain in his knee immediately that almost made him jump. "I'm joking, please don't do that," he immediately retreated. Ino suddenly rose up, leaning on Shikamaru's legs with her hands. Even though the room was dark, their eyes met and the pair froze for a minute or two. They still had enough time to enjoy each other's company for a little while. And they definitely weren't gonna miss this chance…
A few hours later…
Walking through the cold and dark streets towards the main gate, Shikamaru was quietly reiterating the details about the meeting place to her while Ino was double checking her numerous tools and weapons, seemingly not paying attention to him.
"So, are you nervous about meeting him?" Nara asked after some time, trying to make the kunoichi snap out of her thoughts.
"That walking corpse? As if." She snorted, rolling her eyes. "Working with him isn't as bad as you think," Ino replied nonchalantly, but her words made Shikamaru frown ever so slightly. As far as he knew, she'd never exactly worked with Orochimaru before, so how could she be so sure…?
"...Besides, I probably have more in common with him now than any of us anyway."
The Nara grinned, brushing the previous thoughts away.
"Is that pride I hear in your voice now?"
She shrugged indefinitely, but her face remained neutral.
"Maybe. Honestly, Shikamaru… you should read up on him in our classified archives. If he was supported by the village, maybe with a few minor regulations, Konoha probably wouldn't be in such a sorry state right now," Ino added in an unusually reasonable and mature manner as she was rummaging through her backpack.
"You're seriously admiring the guy now?" he wondered, sounding baffled and surprised.
The kunoichi shrugged again.
"I'm just very practical nowadays. I guess a certain someone has been rubbing off on me." She gave Shikamaru a gentle push on his shoulder and smiled at him before continuing to search for something in her backpack.
"Oh, so I am the problem now? Women, how typical." He mused as he lit another cigarette. Ino gave him a piercing look.
"Your mom would rightfully slap the shit out of you right now," she said with a scowl as Shikamaru laughed, shaking his head.
The pair finally got to the main gates of Konoha. The guardsmen didn't even bother to check for papers seeing who it was approaching. They both walked to the other side of the gates before finally stopping and looking at each other.
"This is as far as I'll go. Do you have everything you need? If you forgot something, I can bring it along when I leave as well." .
"Nah, I'm all set." Ino replied with obviously fake enthusiasm as she took off her Konoha headband, hiding it somewhere in her pockets. "Welp, won't be needing this anytime soon, I guess. I'll be seeing you in a couple of days, right?"
The young man nodded once again, looking more serious now.
"Be careful while en-route to that place. We've had reports yesterday that more nukenin groups have started to rummage through abandoned towns."
"I know. I was the one who sent you those reports, mr. genius…" He noticed that the young woman had been fidgeting before for some reason, but this meaningless conversation helped her relax a bit, as usual.
Shikamaru shrugged before stepping closer to Ino, still keeping his hands in his pockets. She looked up at him, as if waiting for something, but before Shikamaru could say or do anything, the kunoichi just dashed away, disappearing in the dark woods outside of Konoha.
"Tch. What a tease," the ninja muttered to himself as he turned around, walking back to the main gates.
The sun would be rising soon and Shikamaru knew he was supposed to be at the Hokage's office in a couple of hours. There was no time left to get any proper sleep, so instead of heading home, the shinobi decided to spend this extra time in a more productive way. As per Ino's suggestion, Nara went for a visit to the classified archives.
There were a number of things he wanted to check out before potentially losing access to them for a long time.