This is one of my favorite chapters so far, and I hope you enjoy it. It's much longer than the rest; a treat for the long wait.

9 - Final Round

The battle went precisely according to plan.

Her brief taijutsu just to get close enough to touch him: perfect.

The genjutsu she learned from Sakura who learned it from Shizune: perfect.

The ninjutsu to detect foreign chakra that Asuma taught all of team 10 their first year: perfect.

Her family's spying technique, modified for special combat: perfect.

What she was not prepared for were the consequences of winning.

"Begin!"

A fourteen year old Ino leapt into the air, fingers moving and charka flowing. Two bunshin clones to provide her cover, and she was on him. A kick, a punch, (one, two false clones disappearing in smoke as he blocked her every effort) a leap, a duck, and one moment when her hands, still forming seals as she attacked, brushed Shino's ankle.

Perfect.

Ino went sliding across the grassy terrain, propelled by Shino's forceful strike. When she hit the boulder left by the previous combatants and stopped cold, she came up smiling. A little ways away, Shino was raising his hand and walking forward. Bugs spilled from his clothing and welled at his feet. Catching a sharp breath (how her ribs ached!) Ino watched his hand stop, his steps falter, and his arms close defensively around his stomach.

Yes, that's it, she whispered in her mind. Sure feels real, doesn't it?

The insects had ceased as their advance as their master fell to his knees, trying to will his mind to fight the melting of his organs and the boils that began to blossom on his skin.

Knowing her window was short, Ino began her third set of hand seals.

Asuma, you will be proud of this.

The thin film of charka flowed over her skin in sheets, like trying on a new dress. Light, soft, explorative. Every cell of her skin it touched, always searching. It took three false alarms before victory was achieved: one beetle, delicate and small, rested on the nape of Ino's neck. Her wave of charka passed it and left it unbothered, sending Ino its precise location.

There you are. Shino, you are so strong but so predictable.

When Ino prepared her final technique, no more than a minute had passed since the match began.

Nine hands seals flowed from her fingers in swift succession. It was a technique derived from the Shindashin no jutsu, modified into something far more functional: application to a multi-person battle. She had developed it with Shikamaru's help four months ago, and she'd been practicing it secretly ever since, careful not to reveal too much of her new ability to anyone but Asuma and her team. Now she would be showing it off to everyone, and it would earn her the chunnin vest. Ino was not just hopeful, she was dead certain.

By the time she finished the final seal, Shino had begun to stagger up from his knees, beating the genjutsu away by pure force of will. Ino closed her hands together, and let her mind seep into the tiny, charka-eating insect at the nape of her neck.

In the world of humans and Hokages, Ino dropped to her knees on the tournament ground, upright but slack-boned. Her opponent was firmly on his feet now, the last threads of the illusion of pain drifting off of him and into nothingness. If she expected him to collapse under a genjutsu, no matter how convincing, she was dangerously flawed in her thinking. But the fact remained that she had cost him valuable time where he had not been able to track her movements. Now she was still, as if unconscious and upright at the same time, but the referee had not called the match. Why?

Shino advanced.

Ino felt cramped, like she was hiding under a bed she'd long since outgrown. It was dark, and quiet here. Her sisters and brothers were far away, so far away! But she could feel them. Moving, coming closer. They were linked, were they not? And she reached out through that link to touch them, to touch all of them.

As if a button had been pushed, Shino felt his link with his bugs disappear. He stopped walking, and grabbed his head. He reached and reached and reached, but there was nothing! He could feel them physically, crawling through his body, and he could see them on the ground between himself and the unconscious girl, but he could sense nothing.

I'm alone, he thought. Oh god, I'm totally alone. What has she done to me?

At this moment, Ino was in pieces. She felt herself gather, separate, gather again. She was her brothers, she was her sisters. She was so many.

No! Shino screamed in his head. His whole life he had been with them. They were his! He could not let someone come between an Aburame and his sacred allies.

I refuse to let you do this!

In the scuttling darkness of four thousand minds, Ino something push. She felt pieces of herself being pulled away, separated. Like limbs. He was trying to take her arms, her legs, her eyes! No! She was many and she would not tolerate losses, she would not tolerate attack! She found the wall in the darkness, and pushed back.

They are mine! I have them now, they are mine! How dare you seek to rule us!

Like a wave the swarm of insects, previously wavering in the air and on the ground between the two ninjas, flowed back toward the boy. They found the channels in his skin and filled his insides and covered his outside. Then, they began to gorge themselves, eating the chakra directly out every cell. Shino, age fourteen, screamed.

"I yield! I yield!"

He collapsed on the ground of the arena, body spasming in epileptic jerks, no longer able to speak.

We are killing him. I don't want him to die. It is what we do. No, he is our physical host. His death would hurt us. It is what we do. Yes, it is what we do. It is what we do. It is what we do. It is what we do.

NO!

Shino stopped shaking, and lay fallen and silent. Ino opened her eyes, slowly, but did not move.

"Winner: Yamanaka Ino."

A team of ninja in white coats ran into the arena, stopping at the boy's unconscious body and preparing a stretcher.

"Look at his energy patterns…"

"Blood flow to the heart was severely diminished by the obstruction of charka…"

"One more minute would have…"

"We've got to stabilize his system, the insects should help with that now…"

From low cliffs where the audience watched, two boys leapt into the arena and raced to their friend.

"Ino! Get up! You won!" Chouji shouted, forcefully cheerful. "They'll have to make you a chunnin now, after hijacking his bloodline technique like that."

The orange-haired boy reached out to touch her shoulder, and shake it gently. "Ino?"

Shikamaru crouched in front of his girlfriend, and tried to meet her eyes. "Ino? Can you hear us?" He reached out and touched her cheek, searching for some kind of reaction.

To his surprise, Ino raised her head. She looked Shikamaru in the eyes, and she began to scream. He grabbed her shoulders and tried to shake her out of it, but the sound kept pouring out, miserable and terrified. The arena had gone silent, except the two competing sounds of Ino's screams and the medic nin's equipment rustling and clanking as they carried Shino away.

"Ino!" Chouji fussed. "Ino, stop! You're okay! Shikamaru, god, what do we do?"

Without replying Shikamaru twisted his fingers into seals and cast a sleeping jutsu on their shrieking teammate. When she slumped forward and the horrible sound stopped, Shikamaru picked her up in his arms, and he and Chouji walked out from under the eyes of the stunned and disturbed audience.