Chapter Fourteen: Beauty and the Beast
"Darn! Sakura was called on by the Hokage herself" Ino muttered as she jumped from roof to roof to look for her father at the same time to defend herself, "There are so many of them!" she said as she defends herself using taijutsu. The enemies just keep on coming at her, what more is that there is no one to help her, everybody is busy with someone and worst! She was nearing the giant snakes that were destroying anything they saw. With more enemies coming her way Ino performed hand seals that was the summoning technique. It was a summon given to her by Ryumi. When she hit the ground with her palms, a flower came out from it. "A flower?" an enemy said, Ino smiled as she snapped her fingers, the petals separated itself from the stem. There were so many lilac petals dancing in the air and the enemies were surrounded by it but what they didn't know is that when they get contact with the petals… it explodes. Ino left them at once Lucky girl she was spotted by the three headed serpent, the middle head opened its mouth and aimed at Ino, and two sticky substance splattered from its giant fangs, "It's too fast" Ino thought as she tried to protect herself.
When she opened her eyes, she saw a shield of sand in front of her she looked from behind and saw Gaara with his arms crossed on his chest. "You…" she muttered. Gaara looked at her with cold eyes, immediately she got up, "It would be best if you will leave this to me" he said, Ino pouted "It saw me first" she said as she threw poisoned flowers at it. "Those are not enough" Gaara said. Then all three heads spotted them. "This is not good" Ino said as she got her katana. "We'll have to cut off its head" Gaara said, "Go for the right, I'll have the left and the middle" Gaara said. Without a word Ino threw kunais at the right head to distract it. Gaara was on the other side of the roof with the other two.
"I wont let it happen" Ino said as she jumped on its head and tried to thrust the katana on its eyes with the thought that Sakura is better than her she began to feel anger. She bit her lips as she thrust the katana on whatever part of the serpents head thought it tried to strangle itself to get Ino off it. Then to her surprise the tail brushed her away as she hit a nearby tree. "It has a tail?" she asked, Gaara was busy with the other two heads, "Fine, the tail is mine" Ino said as Gaara checked on her. "Are you alright?" he asked, "Yeah, I'm super" she replied as she put herself together.
But inside she was not. There is no way that they could defeat these kinds of enemies, she saw Gaara on his knees immediately she ran toward him. "You ok?" she asked, "what are you doing here?" he yelled his shoulders bloody, "you must not leave your post!" "I must not leave my comrades!" she snapped. "You must prioritize the mission first!" he protested, "NO! I will not leave you here? In Konoha we prioritize our friends" Ino said as she covered Gaara… Ino blocked her body as the tail with a thorn sticking out on it hit Ino's stomach. Gaara was shocked as Ino was thrown away like doll. Then it all came back… Gaara stood up, sands poured from his gourd.
He knew they were no match from this beasts, someone is controlling them. For the first time, someone protected him… someone spilled blood for him, someone must have cared for him. Ino caught sight of the person controlling the beast and she was right, a serpent tamer was camouflaged in a nearby bush. "Get him!" she heard Gaara say as in a hoarse voice, like he was in pain. Hearing this the man was startled; he emerged from the bush to reveal his identity. His body was covered in long dragon tattoos. "What are you?" Ino asked, the man laughed "Sakuya" he said his voice malicious and creepy. Ino looked at his eyes; his eyes were like a well, an empty, and cold well full of nothingness. She felt dizzy
"Where am I?" Ino asked herself. She saw herself in the park where she and Sakura used to play. "Ino-chan" a voice said. She looked from behind and saw Sakura, "Sakura?" she asked, "I WILL KILL YOU!" Sakura screeched as she ran towards her, "NO!" Ino cried, as she held Sakura's arms to stop her. But Sakura pushed the kunai harder, Ino closed her eyes to gain inner strength, when she opened it she saw Sasuke instead, "Sasuke?" Ino cried as she wasn't able to hold it any longer, Sasuke penetrated the kunai. "Why?" Ino asked, but there was no reply. Then Sakura gripped her neck, Sasuke pulled the Kunai and was about to make another attack with Sakura holding Ino… "This is not happening!" Ino said to herself, "Not happening!" she was going hysterical. Sasuke was about to hit her when Ino broke free Sakura's grip and reversed it, Sakura got hit instead and Ino felt victorious. "You can't use my weaknesses against me" Ino said, "they are the ones that makes me strong" Sakura disappeared leaving Sasuke, "This is for…. Being so kawaii!" she cried as she hit Sasuke nonstop with her taijutsu including her famous 16 hits…
Then she found herself near the bushes, with Sakuya on his knees, "What went wrong?" he asked, "Nothing, you just messed with the wrong girl" Ino said as she thrust her katana on Sakuya. "That's the least possible thing you can use on me jerk!" she said, and then Gaara came up to her. "What happened?" Ino asked, "It's the only way I can think of, the snakes are going berserk" Gaara said, "Shukaku…" Ino hesitated, "Once Shukakau is out I would loose control over it…" Gaara explained, "I can do it" Ino said, "Are you sure?" Gaara asked, "Trust me" Ino replied with a smile.
"By the way" Gaara said, "Why did you do that for me?" he asked, "because we're in this together and I trust you… I believe we can defeat this and besides, there are people who will cry for you if you get killed" Ino answered; with deep thought Gaara remembered his family… what is left of his family. He used the forced sleep technique. And Shukaku was released, "What!" Everyone thought. As a giant monter emerged, "He used it again?" Kankuro asked, "OH no!" Naruto whined. "Shukaku?" Orochimaru muttered "It will just help us destroy the village even more" Kabuto said which was agreed upon Orochimaru.. And then Ino faced Shukaku, "It will destroy everything1" Sasuke said, "Darn! Ino is with that monster!" Shikamaru thought. "Ino will get hurt! We better get her out of there" Temari said. "Everyone think I'm too weak…" Ino thought as she concentrated hard, "I can do this!" she said to herself…"I CAN DO IT!" her inner voice cried then… "Shintenshin!" Ino yelled… several seconds have passed… Shukaku bowed, Ino succeeded she was able to control Shukaku and contain her own body as well.
With this Ino stood on top of Shukaku with the sleeping Gaara on her side. She felt like a queen… her legs crossed as she sat on top of Shukaku's head it was an achievement, everyone was surprised, "Did she really?" Sakura asked as she saw Ino on top of the gigantic monster, "Smart girl!" Tsunade said, "Finally! She was able to do something right!" Shikamaru cried, "Unbelievable!" Orochimaru sneered, "So many children with potential" Kabuto thought. "What! She was really able to control something like that?" Asuma asked in amazement proud of his student. "GREAT!" Naruto exclaimed. "I want to ride that thing!" Chouji said. "Maybe she'll make us ride it later" Shikamaru said as hit n enemy one after the other.
Ino was focused; her hand still in the sealed, she knew her thoughts were split. And one concentration gap may mean danger, She explored Shukaku, it's power, it's ability, it took several econ to familiarize what Shukaku is capable of.. But for a mere girl and a huge monster… "Right!' Ino said as she smiled. "Now it's time to test drive!" she said as Shukakau opened its mouth and releases a giant ball of Chakra at the three-headed monster, another hit was made before it was defeated. The serpent made a strong wailing cry before it died.
Ino was amazed at the power of Shukaku, "how can something this big and this strong be kept inside him?" She thought as she glanced at the sleeping Gaara, "I must be so hard for him…" she said to herself as she felt pity.. "It must have been so hard for you, for someone who haven't slept.. How were you able to live like this…" Ino said in almost a whisper.
"Ino! Three MORE!" Shikamaru cried while pointing at three three more giant serpents roaming around, "Piece of cake" Ino muttered. It only took two giant hands made of sand to strangle the monsters before they were thrown away like a giant pieces of paper. "Finally" Ino said as she sighed and slowly removed her hands from the shintenshin seal. "Now I know how this works…", Ino looked from below and saw everyone, "HEY YOU GUYS!" she cried while waving her hand frantically. "Does she think she is on a roller coaster or something?" Chouji asked, "Doesn't matter she is enjoying herself" Temari said, still all of them are busy with someone, "DAD!" Ino cried as she saw her father on a rooftop, "Be careful Ino!" her father reminded with his heart proud of what his daughter was able to do. "What more to do?" Ino thought looking around below, "Aha!" she said as she spotted more enemies coming from the gates, immediately she commanded shukaku to eliminate all of them, Shukakau created a giant whirlpool of sand at the entrance and everyone who intended to enter was sucked in. then someone jumped from behind, it was Deidara!
A smart one as he aimed at the sleeping Gaara, Ino know when Gaara awakes Shukaku will disappear, "you cant do that!" She said as she used her body to shield Gaara, "INO!" Hinata cried as she was able to witness what had just happened, immediately they looked and saw the Deidara fist still buried on Ino's stomach, her lips was tainted with blood due to the impact, "What did she do!" Sakura cried. INO!" she heard voices call out her name "I wont let them down" Ino said to herself, "How dare you…" Ino said to the enemy, "How dare you steal my spotlight?" she said her body slowly releasing huge amounts of chakra…, "DEIDARA! GET OUT OF THERE!" Kisame warned, "I CANT… I CANT MOVE MY BODY!" Deidara replied in a stationary position, "YOU ARE GOING TO REGRET THAT!" Ino cried. Then there was a blinding light that surrounded her and then to everyone's surprise Ino just broke her limit.. her hair was thrown back like golden silk, her eyes were furious but with the mysterious color of the sky… then out of nowhere like a bomb that exploded inside Deidara, roses sprouted from his mouth, head, stomach, the roses where white stained with blood, Deidara fell from shukakau dead.
"Amazing…" Tsunade said, "I wasn't able to see how strong Ino has become" Neji said, "She's cute with her hair like that ne Sasuke?" Naruto asked, "Yeah.." Sasuke answered still looking up at Ino… But what Ino didn't know is that Shukaku is slowly disintegrating, Gaara was already awake and he witnessed everything, Ino looked bak smiling coyly, Gaara blushed a little, "You are already awake.. shoot I was enjoying myself" She said, Gaara was speechless, her smile was as bright as the sun… when they were able to reach the ground Ino made handseals, Ryumi was able to see her, "Ino are you sure you can control it?" Ryumi asked, "Yep!" She said, "I was able to control shukaku ne? Then I can control this one too!" She replied, "You really did it?" Gaara asked, "I'm sorry for this.. I just wanna get rid of your eye bags" she said as she gave Gaara a hard punch on the face… Gaara was knocked out.. "WHAT"!" Temari and Kankuro chorused, "WHAT DID YOU DO THAT FOR?" Temari cried with Shikamaru holding her down because she was going to attack Ino, "it was nothing he needed to sleep okay?" Ino protested, she closed her eyes and continued her seals. Then when she opened them, she summoned the same flower again, she snapped her fingers and a woman sprouted on the ground with the flower on her head, it was like a carrot wherein the body was rooted in the ground. The woman was pretty with long, curly blonde hair and resembles Ino very well, except that her only garments were rose vines twisted around her, her body was covered with several flowers… The men's' nose bled.
"So that is how Ino will look if she is older" Kiba said nose bleeding, "Kawaii" Rocklee said in approval.
"Proserpine, Goddess of Spring" Ryumi said for she was the one who taught Ino how to summon her. "Celestine?" Itachi asked, "Yeah, Ino is a celestine just like me, Aya and Natsume" She said, "Demo it runs in the blood ne?" Sasuke asked, "Yeah.. Ino is my cousin… father side" Ryumi explained.
Then the goddess Proserpine snapped her fingers and another giant sprouted below them, A giant flower like monster… with whips of vines surrounding it, Ino, Proserpine and the unconscious Gaara on top of it. "GREAT: Ino said, "Now let's do this!" all Ino has to do is to stand and watch because Proserpine has full control over the flower monster. Ino still doesn't have enough to control Freya, yes the monster has a name. "Strange power" Jiraiya said with his telescope on Proserpine. "Ino is strong…" Ryumi said