Being drunk seems to jar something loose and I move better than I've ever moved before. It's unsettling, so I use a basic medical jutsu to draw the alcohol from my blood. It doesn't help. I touch down at the training grounds and I'm not even breathing hard. Only a few days ago I would have been, especially at that speed. It takes Anko a few seconds to catch up. It's nothing I can put my finger on, say that this has changed, but it's there nevertheless. I think that I use the ground differently, use my weight differently, and, I don't know, think about running differently. It's very irritating. I'm going to rip Anko a new one.
A few ANBU hail me. I'm not social anymore, but I'm not an outcast. It's by my own will. I don't know any of these people, though. Sure, I know about them, I've worked and will work with them, it'd be stupid not to, but I don't really know them. I could tell you their names, their habits, their opinions, their style of fighting, but that doesn't really mean anything. I don't have a feel for them. They don't hold it against me. They know about me and Shikamaru, everyone knows about me and Shikamaru, and so they think they understand and accept it. We Genin 9 were famous for a while, the miracle generation that would lead Konoha to a new age. All of us got to the third phase of the chunnin test on our first year as genin, after all. That faded after all the teams started falling apart. Besides, I'm beautiful and have talent to spare. Even those that don't want into my pants don't want to get on my bad side.
I scan the area, then freeze. Chouji is here. He's getting his chunnin, who graduated on their third year as genin, second test, to spar with his new genin team. He yells out advice and reminders every once in a while. He stretches like an avalanche and looks around, spotting me. He opens his mouth, then looks discomfited and glances away. He looks a bit like a bear with indigestion. I walk over and wait next to him, watching his muscles ripple as he tenses. We hold for a few moments before he sighs and yells to his teams. "Practice your ranged weapons now. Zeke, keep them on their toes. You have permission to wound." They all gulp except, of course, Zeke, who grins instead. I wave to Anko, telling her to warm up or something as I talk to Chouji.
We walk off out of hearing of the grounds, but still close enough to keep an eye on Chouji's teams. I feel like a child next to him. He's massive and scarily muscular, which is bad enough, but more than that is six and a half feet tall! I'm five eight, but it's no comfort. He's truly a giant now, I can't circle his bicep with both hands. For all that, he's surprisingly agile. Someone that huge and that muscled shouldn't even by able to cross their arms, but for his abilities. He pioneered the method of using muscle instead of fat, which nearly got him disowned. Now that he's got it he's able to do amazing things, changing the size and shape of his body at will. He's both a champion body-builder and a champion contortionist. He glances at me again – strange to see a shy mountain – then states: "I heard that Shika was looking for you." It's a question.
I grimace. Chouji was caught in our battle of love and has vowed not to speak to either of us until it's over. Normally, when Shika finally makes up his mind to try for me again nobody sees us for two days but my cat.
"I turned him down. Hard." Chouji looks at me in surprise, and then raises an eyebrow. "He was pretty… Um, intense, but I managed. He's pissed." Chouji huffs, a single rumble of laughter that sets off a wave of rippling muscle.
"That's a first. Is it good?" I can feel him try to smother a glimmer of hope. Chouji still loves us both, in a brothers/sister way. It's hurt him to stay apart from us, to not invite us to his wedding with Ayame, when his children were born, but he stayed firm. It hurt him more to have us both blaming him for taking sides whenever we broke up. He had our parents as proxies at all of the events for the three-family traditions. When we stop either way, he will become friends with us again. He'd rather that I learned to love Shikamaru so that we could be friends together, but he's willing that Shika stop trying so that we could be friends apart.
"Yeah… Yeah, I think it is. I could do it again, I hope." I say the last in the wry tone, drawing a dry chuckle from him. "You know what I am. You know how he gets, even when he tries to hide it. I hope I can turn him down again. So, how are the twins?"
He lets me change the subject without a fuss. He doesn't want to talk about it either. His face begins to glow with an intense happiness; he loves his wife and he loves his kids. "Mmm, monsters. Just three years old and already starting to eat me out of house and home. I never appreciated my parents enough. It's gotten even worse now that I'm starting to show them the training games. Three years olds are monsters, you have to get them tired out to deal with them. Three year old Akimichi's don't get tired, just hungry. " I laugh. I remember so many stories of Chouji getting into trouble, Chouji going farther faster than me and Shika... "Luckily, I've been able to rope my dad into babysitting them. Ayame bitches about the ramen shop not being able to feed him on top of us three, but she's glad for the help. Dad's finally coming around to my style too. Well, he still says that tradition is very important and that we shouldn't turn our backs on those techniques… But he's getting pretty buff. On a entirely unrelated note, my kids are going to have a new uncle in eight months."
I laugh and give him a big hug. He hugs me back, leaving me dangling maybe five inches off the ground. "Congratulations! Maybe in a month or two I'll stop by. We can't take it too fast. I have to get back. Anko's probably getting impatient." He puts me down and steps back, still smiling. His eyes are suspiciously wet, maybe mine are too.
"I look forward to it. See you in a month. And… Thank you for being so understanding." I shake my head at him.
"No, thank you for forgiving me. In your place… I wouldn't have had the heart. I'm so sorry for what we put you through." Shit. I wipe my eyes quickly. Anko is probably laughing at us. He gives me another hug, but I push him away. "We can't get too sloppy. Get back to your students. What will they think of you?"
He laughs at me and puts on a little leer. "They'll think nothing. They have to watch me make out with Ayame after all. I think they almost believe in cooties again." He gets a little more serious. "I forgave you a long time ago. Now let's get back." We walk in silence, just enjoying each others company. At least until we see his students. Somewhere along the way practice had turned into a full-fledged brawl. Chouji just roared and waded right in, not noticeably calming it down. I just shake my head and walk over to Anko. She lifts an eyebrow at me.
"Have a little heart-to-heart with him? I thought you two never spoke to each other." She's staring at the brawl wistfully, radiating a bitter-sweet ache, where Chouji has more or less broken it up. Well, he has a kid in both hands, genin in both armpits, and he's trying to trap the last two chunin in the crook of his elbows. I suddenly remember that she had been taught by Orochimaru. Its one thing all her friends have in common. We either don't care or forget about it.
I start stretching a bit and take off my weights. You don't get to do that before an actually fight, but this is just a spar. I can feel the same strange fluidity that I had before. It still bugs me. "It's the first time that we've spoken in years. We're childhood friends, and still are friends, it's just… Well, you've probably heard the story. I'm hoping it might change." We both get into the neutral position, bow, and return. It's a good position for the beginning of a fight, especially when at a range like this. You can use ninjutsu quickly, you can get into whatever position is required before they get near, and you can move freely.
She gives a lopsided smile and casually begins to circle. "Yes, even outcasts like me have heard the story. Even if I hadn't I'd have heard you and Shik yelling at each other and could pick up the rest." I'm not angry anymore, not after talking to Chouji, but I still think that I'm going to enjoy this fight. I'm going to get my ass kicked, to be honest I just can't beat her experience, but I'm going to enjoy making her pay for it.
"Bitch. You're going down." I say it with a grin to take the sting out of the words, and I don't actually act on them. I just stop circling – in a moment the sun would have been in my eyes – and flip my hands at her in a come-get-some movement. She shrugs and does.
My blood starts singing. She starts off with sending her snakes at me, a smart move. It gets me moving dodging, and she can do other things while keeping it up. If she actually catches me, an outcome that neither of us expect, than she's won. Or at least, that was the plan. I can feel the singing in my blood and the strange fluid feeling combine to give me a confidence, almost arrogance, that I've never had before. I acted like it, sure, because it kept me sane. If I act strong than they believe that I'm strong which helps make me strong. Now, I know I'm strong and I don't even bother to dodge. I don't know what I'm going to do, but…
So easy, with perfect timing, I reach out and grab the snakes. My hands pass a hair over wet, shining jaws and serrated back-pointed teeth and I grab down, catching my thumb in that tiny spot just behind the base of a snakes spine where you can just squeeze and with a tiny little snap, more felt than heard, they go all limp at once and it all seems so slow so I set my feet and I pull not expecting that she goes flying out of control and I can dash forward just before she recovers and she lands off balance and I punch her hard right in the gut and she hits the ground and shoves into the air landing on her feet just in time for me to hit her in the face and she falls back bloody bleeding beautiful and I kick her in the knee and pull on the snakes bringing her back up for a headbutt and I get hit by a wall of flesh and lose my grip and she hits the ground and I can feel that she's out cold as my sight is blocked by the meat and I turn my attention to myself.
I'm held close but not immobile and I hear a THUMP and a THUMP so I bring back my hand and open my palm and fill it with chakra and I hit as I twist and it doesn't work and fill and I hit as I twist and it doesn't work so I stiffen my fingers and I prepare to dig through this motherfucker and I stab with two fingers and blood flies out but too much so why is there so much blood and I hear "-NNNOOOO! IIIINNNOOO!" Pure shock makes me stop struggling and just stiffen . "INO! For fucks sake CALM THE FUCK DOWN!"
"Wh- wha? What? Why'd you stop me? I almost had her!" He squeezes a bit, I'm held in his arms in a bear hug at his chest and oh god I almost tore out his heart!
"Ino! God! Relax, stop fighting against me! I'm not trying to hurt you!" It takes an effort of will to relax. I take a deep breath – Ayame's a lucky girl, how does he get his sweat to smell sweat? – and one by one I loosen my muscles until I'm entirely limp. He has a picture of a red butterfly tattooed on his biceps. One wing says Ayame, the other Chouji. "THANK you! FUCK! What's my birthday? Where was I born?" What? What the hell? Why the fuck does he want me to tell his birthday? Where he was BORN?
"Wha- What the hell? Why- no, I don't care. You were born May 1st, in the office of Yamaguchi Bob's Baroque Barbeque. I've heard that story fifty fucking times. What do you WANT? Why'd you stop me?" He lets out a sigh and relaxes, just holding me for several seconds. I could probably wriggle free, but I don't quite know what's happening. It might be a bad idea. I study the butterfly instead. It's covered in tiny little scars, like real butterflies scales. The ink is strange, glossy. When you move your head you can see tiny little pink hearts ripple across it. I want to know the artist.
"Good," He sounds exhausted and feels totally drained. I can't imagine why. "Good, you aren't possessed or anything." WHAT? POSSESSED? "People have trouble remembering things like that when they're screwing around in someone else's head. You told me that was why you couldn't do long-term possessions. Now, are you calm? Are you going to go after her again? Can I put you down?" What? Of course I'm not calm, you just interrupted my fight! And of COURSE you can put me down! I want to yell that out and hit him, but looking at those two puncture marks just above the butterfly, I decide better of it.
"No, I'm not possessed. No, I'm not going to go after Anko. Yes, I'm calm. SO-!" I take a breath, let it out. "So please put me down. Chouji, please?" He rumbles a bit, then opens his arms and drops me. It's almost a five foot fall. He could've warned me, but I suppose I shouldn't be a bitch, nearly having torn out his heart and all. Oh god, I… No, I will not submit to shock.
He shrinks, covering himself with one still-large hand. I glance around and see that the entire training grounds is crowded a short distance from us, staring and muttering. I can see a few people arriving at a dead run. "Can someone throw me a robe or something? Thanks!" Some woman I don't know, blushing and unrepentantly staring, throws him a large scarf. He fiddles around with his other hand, tying it into a crude loincloth. "I didn't expect to have to use that at this training grounds, so I didn't wear the stretchy clothes. Again, thank you and sorry ma'am, but I'm happily married. Now Ino, what the hell happened? And if any medics can be spared from Anko, can someone look at me? The punctures aren't too bad, I squeezed off the blood vessels, but those palm strikes..." I take another glance guiltily, and sure enough Anko has a three medic-nin clustered around her. One looks familiar. I didn't think that I had hurt her that bad…
One of the medics turns and yells out to the crowd, "She's okay, a few broken ribs, a dislocated kneecap, minor internal bleeding, and probably a concussion, but nothing fatal. She's completely stable. Now… THE FIGHTS OVER, NOTHING TO SEE HERE." The crowd disperses as Shizune walks over, giving me a dirty look. I cringe. Just out of the hospital and I'm putting someone into one. Come to think of it, I'm not even supposed to be out of the hospital… She looks at Chouji, frowns at the punctures, then fills her hands with chakra and puts them on the two flowering bruises. She frowns for a moment, moves her mouth as if she's about to say something, then jerks as if struck. "What the!... Ino, what did you DO to him? I can heal it but… Did you invent a new Jyuuken or something? His internal organs are!.." She shakes her head, caught between healing him and staring at me. But… I remember thinking that it failed. What was it supposed to do?...
She decides to concentrate on Chouji, which leaves me free to wiggle and think about sneaking away. It'd be a very bad idea, but… My thoughts are interrupted by harsh laughter and the various threats and exclamations medic-nin use when faced with a patient they can't control. I turn; Anko is staggering towards me while leaning on a protesting medic. She cackles again, clutching her side, then grins at me. "You've got it. You bitch, you lucky fucking bitch."
"I've got what?" I reply guardedly. She looks rather demented and few of my conversations with psychos have ended well.
She gets that strange, bittersweet feel that she always gets when she thinks about Orochimaru, but this time tinged with a feral black humor. "The thing he discarded me because of." The medic tries to edge away from her without letting her fall down. "The thing that has made monsters of almost every person it touches. The thing that separates the men from the boys!" She pauses to cough up a bit of blood. She waves off the medic and snaps her ribs into place. I wince, I can hear the sound from here. She straightens and wipes her lips with the back of her hand, stilling wearing that grin. "I am in my PRIME, girl. I am as strong and fast as I ever was, strong and fast as YOU, and far more experienced. You kicked my ass. You BRUTALIZED me." The crowd is gathering again.
She snaps her leg straight, grunting with the pain, then strides right up to me. Anko gets right in my face, close enough that I can smell the copper-iron stench of blood on her breath. She grins in my face, then wheels around and raises her arms to the sky, swaying but slightly. "YAMANKA INO IS NOW OFFICIALLY A FUCKING GENIUS! HEAR AND TAKE NOTE! SHE CAN KICK ALL YOUR ASSES! AT THE SAME FUCKING TIME!" She laughs again, wildly. Her medic is terrified, just wringing his hands and staring. She continues in a lower but no less frightening tone. "So, what are you going to do? Slaughter teammates? Kill your family? I hear that that ones been in style recently. Join the Akatsuki? Another popular decision for your kind. Why, if I was you I'd… I'd…" Mercifully she turns white and faints. Her medic barely catches her, staggering under her weight. I reach out to stabilize him and he flinches away, giving a little scream as he does it. I can barely restrain a laugh. He's more scared of me as he was of her. I look around, cooler than I feel, and the crowd flinches at my gaze. Their fear beats at my mind. Chouji's kids are huddled together, staring at me open-mouthed. Their fear smashes the gates.
I turn to Chouji and Shizune, smiling saccharine sweet. In a conversational tone that is shocking in the sudden silence, I speak. "I think we, I, need to talk to Tsunada. The Hokage's tower has a good med center anyways, and it IS closer than the hospital." I smile again and Shizune almost flinches. Chouji is staring at me with his heart in his eyes, with too much compassion, so I must turn and start to walk away.
From behind me comes a hoarse whisper. Shizune says but one thing. "Yes. I think I agree." Pale and weak words to cut so deep. They follow me.