Ino had spent the entire evening training on top of the roof while keeping an eye down the building for anything suspicious, she could hardly rest as her mind kept rushing with images of her last fight, how she was so easily beaten and Samui's sword ever present, coming at her at an alarming fast pace she could not avoid. She felt insignificant since then, now she understood better than ever than somewhere else in the world stronger shinobi existed, only she never thought the gap between her abilities and theirs would be so wide, Samui made her look like just a rookie and it infuriated and scared her at the same time. She opted for meditation after a hard physical workout and sat on the cold concrete adopting the lotus pose, her eyes closed as she went into a deep trance.
"Ino?" It was her father's voice.
"Dad...? What's going on?"
"That's what I was wondering, what's going on with you? The Hokage said you're on a secret mission of sorts, why didn't I hear about this?"
"It's called 'secret mission' for a reason dad." she chuckled mentally.
"So you don't trust your old man no more to tell him about this 'secret mission'?"
Ino struggled to find the right words at that moment, she wanted to tell him, after all right now she trusted her father more than anyone else.
"Of course I trust you dad, it's... I'm looking after Naruto, he came to Osaka for his cousin so I'm keeping an eye out, things are not looking so well right now."
"A cousin eh? I wasn't aware he had other relatives, the other secret villages are after him according to my sources."
"They are, I've met some Kumo nin along the way, they... there's a bounty on his head dad, these guys are here to kill him..."
"Are you okay? Did something happen?"
"I'm... fine dad, everything's fine."
"Ino..."
"I said I'm fine, please stop asking..."
Inoichi knew his daughter well enough to know something was bothering her but he also knew better than to push her, if she wanted to tell him then the time would arrive soon enough.
"When will you guys be back? It's not safe to be out there right now, the police are also on the hunt."
"I don't know, I... we're not on good terms right now dad, I'm only here to make sure nothing happens to him..."
"Oh my darling daughter, this isn't a good time to be on bad terms with him, whatever happened just forgive and forget, move on."
"It's not that simple dad..."
"I know Ino but isn't that what you tell me when we talk about your mom?"
Ino's heart skipped a beat.
"You keep telling me I need to move on, let go of the past, whatever is happening with Naruto right now, shouldn't you take your own advise? I don't want you to live a life full of regret like I have, please..."
"Dad, master Jiraiya knows..."
"What?" Inoichi's tone of voice changed.
"He knows dad, about me and Naruto when we were kids, he knows I erased his memories... he suggested I give them back to him, and I'm... I don't know what to do yet... dad?"
Inoichi kept silent for a few seconds pondering about the outcome of this situation, he was all in favor for the boy to recover his past and know what he was truly capable of, his daughter had already told him several times it was not her decision to make but the opportunity was perfect, Naruto could make amends with Ino and perhaps turn the tables on his pursuers.
"Dad?"
"Ino, this is a great chance to do it then!"
"So... you agree?"
"I know you swore not to reveal anything but the situation is dire, just give him his memory back already and be done with it, there's no need for you carry that burden any longer Ino."
Her thoughts were interrupted when she felt someone who was already standing in front of her, she had been too busy mentally speaking with her father to even notice when this person arrived.
"Dad I have to go..."
She cut off the psychic link with Inoichi before opening her eyes and seeing Karin standing there looking at her with a smile on her face.
"I thought I'd find you here, I honestly don't understand how you can stay up here during the night and without eating, here, you must be starving."
Karin handed her a bowl of mixed fresh fruits, in reality Ino was not hungry, Jiraiya had given her a small ration of Hyōrōgan that could sustain her for several days, plus the meditation kept her body well rested despite starting to feel some back pain from being seated almost all the time. Nonetheless she accepted the gesture from Naruto's cousin and stood up to bow politely.
"Thank you."
"Come on now, you don't need to do that with me, I believe we haven't introduced ourselves properly right? Karin Uzumaki."
"I'm Ino... Ino Yamanaka." She proceeded to eat small portions of the fruit. "How did you know I was here?"
"I'm a sensor type like you, thing is I never forget a chakra signature and I can recall yours from... well, I'd rather not talk about that if you don't feel like it."
"No, it's fine, really."
"No it isn't... listen, my cousin is a lot of things, stubborn is one of them, but I've never heard him talk to someone like that before..."
"It's my fault... I said some not very nice things to him as well the night he became news, I guess this is just his way of coping with that..."
"Still, whatever happened needs to be let go of, we're gonna move ahead with a plan to help him with this mess and maybe, just maybe, get him off the radar until we're all back to Konoha."
"So... you're coming?"
"There's nothing left for me here anyway..." Karin walked past Ino while looking at the noon blue sky "I already blew my cover at work and in the process dragged someone else on this ride..." She looked back at the blonde with a cheeky grin, just like Naruto's "I've always wanted to know what the life of a shinobi is like."
Ino could not help but smirk at her words "It's not what you think really."
"I'm counting on it." She sentenced "Come, let's go downstairs, everyone's waiting."
"Huh?... Everyone?"
"Yeah, It took some convincing but I told Naruto we'll need all the help we can get to pull this off, and that includes you too lady, so are you coming?"
"But... what about Master Jiraiya? I should let him know too."
"You mean that old man with long white hair? He's already downstairs, they're waiting only on us."
Ino was shocked to learn her teacher had been told about this meeting way before she did, frankly she was even more surprised that Naruto actually accepted her presence back with the rest of the group, her heart felt warm again, perhaps this was the opportunity she needed to reveal the secrets she had been holding for so long from him, a part he did not know was missing.
"... I didn't know anything about that... or your clan to be honest..."
"You can't be too careful, we prefer the anonymous life."
Shino had briefly explained to Naruto and Sakura his clan's background as well as a quick description of his meeting with Karin, he spared some details to avoid getting on their bad side as he figured it would be for the better, he did not count however with the presence of Jiraiya in the apartment as well, a mysterious man that despite his research, he knew practically nothing about.
"I wonder what Karin did to convince such a serious fellow like you to join our cause, you know each other for long?"
"... You could say that, we've been working in the same floor for some time." Shino was actually feeling nervous of Jiraiya's prying eyes, like he could see right through him, it was not the fact that he could find out if he was hiding something, it was his tremendous chakra, even his bugs were altered giving him a hard time to keep them under control.
"You okay Shino? You look a bit pale..." Sakura intervened.
"I'm fine, I just... need some water please."
Sakura went ahead and served him a glass of water from the sink, he took the glass and gulped it down which was very unusual of him to do since his demeanor was always calmed and collected, his bugs appreciated the hydration regardless, this did not stop Jiraiya from keeping a curious look on him which of course he tried to ignore, he was thankful his sunglasses hid the nervousness in his eyes. He would be unexpectedly saved by the arrival of Karin and Ino just a second later, immediately his tension was liberated only to feel a new one fill the air, he could easily tell it was coming from Naruto and the blonde girl behind Karin.
"We're all here, let's not waste any time, take a seat Ino, make yourself at home please."
"... Thanks."
Ino slowly approached the living room and scanned every person in it, Jiraiya was the only person who greeted her with a simple smile and hand gesture, the other three however were completely neutral with her presence which made the situation far more uncomfortable than she expected. She noticed the man with the sunglasses was probably the same person Karin referred to as the one she 'dragged', to avoid more tension she decided to speak to him first.
"Are you Karin's acquaintance?"
"Shino Aburame, pleased to meet you Ino Yamanaka..."
"Whoa... how do you know my name?"
"He's been digging on us since we got here kid, quite the expert in Intel gathering I'd say." Jiraiya noted proudly acknowledging his abilities, Shino felt more at ease with the praise and continued.
"You have quite a reputation as a kunoichi, my clan was actually expecting they'd send you someday after us to... silence us."
"I'm flattered, but to be honest I doubt I could handle the Aburame clan's jutsu, bugs is it?"
"Correct, I only jest by the way."
"Of course." Ino politely smiled, she walked closer to the couch where Sakura and Naruto rested, she could feel Sakura's uncomfortable stare already but was taken aback by Naruto's new approach, despite the tension their eyes crossed and no ill will came this time from him. "May I ask what this reunion is about?"
"Care to share Naruto?" Karin said from the kitchen preparing some lemonade.
Again more tension, Naruto was doing his best to pretend Ino was just any other person needed for the plan's execution and nothing else, she stood just a few feet away from him but the look Karin gave him sent the message loud and clear, this was not the time to be childish, he sighed.
"Karin tells me Shino and herself can team up to erase my profile temporarily from the top agencies' lists currently looking for me for a few hours, that should give us safe passage to Konoha to plan the next move."
"A few hours only?" Ino looked over to Shino "Can't it be permanent?"
"Unfortunately no, it is very likely they already keep physical reports of him as well, that means they'll simply upload it again once their servers are back up and running, besides that, the moment we enter their domains we'll also be exposed to tracking from their end should they be smart enough to figure out they're being hacked."
"Which is why I'm gonna lend Shino an extra hand with the hacking, I've been working on a nasty malicious software that should keep them at bay while he erases Naruto's files." Karin grinned wickedly.
"Let me guess, you planned on using it at work before all of this, right?" Shino deduced to which the red haired girl happily nodded "As I thought..."
"Right... you guys are talking about using computers to erase the evidence, I get that, what I don't understand is why I'm needed here, I'm not a techie..."
"Two things, one, we can't do this from here, my laptop doesn't have the necessary components to pull off the hack..."
"Which means Karin and I will have to return tomorrow to our old work stations and proceed with the plan from there, the servers they have are strong enough to shut down the entire city if we wanted."
"Ok... and two?"
Sakura answered this time. "Once they deal with erasing the files, the agencies will be halted temporarily from going out and looking for Naruto, however the shinobi who want that bounty won't stay put. That's were we come in..."
"Ino..." She almost jumped when Naruto's voice called her name "You said you ran into Kumo ninja on your way here right? Did they say who else was looking for me?"
Ino was still a bit flabbergasted Naruto was now talking to her so casually but reminded herself this could be temporary so it would be best to keep her feet on the ground "They said... they said other villages were involved, didn't give any names though, just that they arrived before anyone else, it's safe to assume at this point more shinobi are in Osaka."
"These guys that you fought... how do they look like?"
Now Ino was genuinely curious as to why the identities of her attackers would matter to him, if the whole point was to escape Osaka safely then why bother knowing who pursued them? Once they reached the safety of Konoha it would not matter. Jiraiya decided to speak up again since he noticed Ino's hesitance.
"There were three when I arrived, one male, dark skin and white hair, and two female, the first also dark skinned and with red hair, the other was tall and fair skinned, short blond hair, all three had the same uniform and were proficient kenjutsu users."
"So there is someone out the who can beat you at kenjutsu..." Sakura's tone was almost mocking, Ino did not let it go unnoticed and gave her a hard glare to which she simple smirked in response.
"Sakura..." Naruto surprisingly called for a silent truce between the two women and continued "Remember anything particular about them?"
"They're lightning adepts, makes them very fast and dangerous with their techniques, their leader is the tall woman, her name is Samui, that's all I can remember." She clearly felt uncomfortable talking about that event, especially after Sakura's snarky tone. Ino simply looked away.
"Jiraiya-sensei... what do you think?"
"Well, those three shouldn't be a problem as long as you stick with me kid, the real problem is we don't really know who else is out there looking for you or how strong they are, let me remind you I'm not a one man army."
"Sensei, let me scout them for the team..." Ino suddenly said, the rest of the group looked at her not really understanding what she meant "I'll have to expand my sensing range and if there's another sensor they'll definitely pick up my chakra but it's worth the risk, it'll give everyone time to get as far as you possibly can."
"Ino... you're not staying behind for our sake, I can track chakra as well..." Karin returned to the living room serving the lemonade she had prepared.
"You'll be busy with the infiltration, and I got this..." She pulled from one of her pouches a small transparent case containing one single round purple pill "Chōji's clan made it for me, it will help me mold chakra more accurately and increase my sensing range by kilometres, when you guys are done erasing the files and are ready to move I can use it to track down as many shinobi as I can, no matter how low their signatures are, it'll give us an advantage to know which routes to take."
"How long will it take you to sense them?" Shino asked curiously looking at the pill she held.
"Once I take it, no more than one minute." She put the pill away.
"A bait... That's too risky Ino, some of these guys can travel distances in seconds, a minute is enough time to get to you." Naruto said concerned about her words.
"That doesn't matter, you're the one who needs to return to Konoha safely, not me, besides..." She went for one of the glasses with lemonade and calmly took a sip "You won't have to deal with me anymore after this."
The room fell silent, for some reason her pride had gotten the better of her, she had not forgotten about their last encounter a few nights ago and judging by his surprised expression he did not expect for her to throw that curve ball at that precise moment, for the first time in a long time Naruto started to consider the severity of his words, Jiraiya also looked concerned as this was new to him, he looked at Naruto wondering what caused such a cold treatment between the two.
"Thanks for the lemonade, I'll be on the rooftop if anyone needs me." She gently placed the half full glass back on the kitchen's counter and started to leave the apartment, Naruto in a quick act of lucidness went after her as she closed the door behind him. Everyone simply kept looking without saying a word, even Sakura, who wanted desperately to stop Naruto from going after her, could not do anything but watch as he also left the apartment closing the door behind him.
"Ino..." the blond said without approaching her, she nearly flinched when he called her name but stood still for a moment, Naruto really did not know what to say "You don't have to do this you know..."
She refused to face him, he was not the only one who was having a hard time finding a few words.
"... It's my duty as a shinobi to fulfill my mission, think nothing of it."
"I can't, it's not that simple, I-"
"You said you wanted me dead..." her voice almost cracked when she said it, Naruto's eyes went wide at the same time he felt a horrendous emptiness in his chest when her words hit him "Tomorrow you'll get your wish-"
"I said that out of anger! I didn't mean that!..." Now his own voice was weak, almost as if it was trying desperately to synchronize with hers "I was... I was angry like you were with me, you really don't have to do this, we're all coming back to Konoha... all of us! I won't... I don't want you to get hurt!"
"I got hurt the night I arrived here... I've been hurt many times in my life... I want that to end." she clenched her fists almost digging her nails deep into her palms, the more she spoke the more evident the damage and pain in her voice showed, she finally turned to face him and her expression made Naruto's heart stop. She was smiling, it was a genuine smile.
"I really hope you find your parents..." Ino ended before he could say another word and then she walked away, leaving a lone and dumbfounded Naruto in her wake, he did not move from his spot for a few seconds, instead only staring at the empty space where Ino stood seconds earlier and wondering why his chest felt now so heavy.
"What the hell is wrong with me...?" he thought.
"Miss, you can't leave! You don't have clearance yet!"
One of the nurses kept trying to reason with an angered Anko who's suspicions about being withheld at the hospital by her superiors at the police station were right, Iruka had managed to get the information directly from the reception thanks to his badge and reported back to her what both already knew, their boss had given instructions to the staff to keep her from leaving for a few more days, Anko was beyond furious the chief would attempt to keep her from doing her job, especially with such an insulting method.
"Senpai calm down! We just can't walk back to the station without a good story."
"I don't care! The chief is gonna hear me out this time!" Anko said fuming. She was still limping to some degree but for the most part her leg was healed, there was always the chance her stitches would rip open and make her bleed again if she forced herself but the last thing in Anko's mind was her leg, the only thought she had was of her chief Yashiro and many profanities she would unleash onto him once she was back, she did not even care he was her boss, of anything, firing her would make her investigation much easier, free from the grasp of a corrupt division.
Eventually both inspectors managed to reach the lobby walking through several scared doctors and nurses alike as Anko kept yelling at them to get out of her way or be arrested otherwise, Iruka was internally amused at this Anko, it had been a long time since he had seen her so fired up about something, even if it meant his own career was at stake because of her. As soon as they reached the main street both noticed a black suburban parked a few feet away from where they stood, the driver's window was open and they recognized the man in the driver's seat, it was Suigetsu who made a saluting gesture to them, he slowly drove closer.
"How's it going inspectors? Care for a ride?"
Both Anko and Iruka felt uneasy about getting inside the vehicle until they noticed who was riding shotgun, it was Sasuke who pressed a button to open the passenger's left door for them and waited without looking even once at the pair. Anko and Iruka looked at each other and nodded, at this point they really had nothing to lose if they talked with the younger Uchiha, he could be their key to the whole investigation against his father. Anko went in first and Iruka followed, as soon as the door closed Suigetsu started to drive again and lifted the tinted window up once more to avoid anyone from peeking inside.
"I'm surprised you have no bodyguards with you." Anko said.
"Suigetsu here is more than capable of fulfilling that role."
"Your chauffeur?"
"Hey! I may not look the part but that doesn't mean I'm a simpleton!" Suigetsu protested in defense.
"Whatever, let's get something straight boy... Just because you gave me information about you company's activities doesn't mean we're working together in this, when the dust is settled, if I find out you're involved in some way, you'll be sharing a cell next to your dad."
"Noted." Sasuke replied calmly despite the threat.
"Now, care to tell me why we're here?"
"I already told you inspector, I need your help, I need someone who can help me stop my father's influence, finding Naruto Uzumaki is just the start."
"Why? What's so important about finding him to you?"
"He exposed the existence of our kind to everyone but my father was looking for him before that even happened, I know that now..." he looked through the rear view mirror at her "If I can find out from him why then we can stop a war before it starts."
"... Our kind?"
"Yes inspector..." he turned his head slightly to show them his Sharingan eyes "Our kind." Both Iruka and Anko were to say the least, shocked with the revelation, none of them were able to say anything until Sasuke let his eyes go back to their normal black color. "The Uchiha is not just a company name, it's a shinobi clan, a clan that has slowly descended into a shell of its former self, Uchiha Corp is just smoke and mirrors inspector Mitarashi, our real power lies in these eyes, the Sharingan."
"Why... why are you telling us all of this?"
"Because both of you are also shinobi, one of the abilities of the Sharingan is to detect a person's chakra flow, both of your signatures were the only present when I entered the hospital so there's no need to hide it anymore, I assure you, your secret's safe with me..."
Iruka felt very uncomfortable, it would be really stupid at that point to deny something he could not hide, he was indeed a shinobi but never in a million years he expected someone else, let alone Sasuke Uchiha, to find out about it, on the other hand Anko started to surprisingly ease up, she did not feel somehow the threat of blackmail from his tone of voice, perhaps this situation could be used to her advantage if Sasuke proved trustworthy, he had already shared more than enough secrets to her in just a few hours.
"Is there a place we can go talk about this more discreetly? Perhaps someplace more... open?"
"Senpai-!" Iruka looked at her in disbelief but Anko shut him down with one hand and continued.
"If you truly believe what you said to us earlier then you know we can't go back to the station now, if we do that then you lose your chance to find the boy."
"Senpai! I must protest-!" Again Anko shushed Iruka.
"We also need to find him to bring him in for questioning, however given the current set of circumstances and the fact that he's on everyone's watch list right now, I think we'd be doing him a favor if we find him first, and if we do, we do the talking, not you, is that clear?"
"Crystal, although I hear other foreign shinobi are already in the country looking for him as well. Suigetsu, takes us to Nagoya Castle."
"Huh? Nagoya Castle? Isn't that a tourist attraction?" Iruka asked still feeling uneasy.
"The corporation runs it as such but it's part of my clan's possessions since the 1600s, Imagawa Ujichika built it for us during a dark time for shinobi, the Sengoku period."
"I see, Ujichika... that's a pseudonym for Uchiha." Anko said.
"Correct." Sasuke continued "He was a shinobi as well and one who liked to plan ahead, the castle is closed today for tourists so we can talk safely there."
"Sasuke... I don't like this at all, your dad must be already looking for us, you think he won't go there?" Suigetsu said while he kept the driving pace.
"Then we better hurry..." he finished with a stern look ahead.
Somewhere deep inside one of the facilities of Uchiha Corp, the chairman of the company, Fugaku Uchiha, was all by himself staring into one of the many containment chambers within the compound holding inside what seemed like an individual connected to several tubes to the body and surrounded entirely by water that gave out the impression of being a different liquid thanks to the small green and yellow bulbs at the bottom of the chamber, a solitary beeping sound next to it indicated the subject inside was alive. This large room where he found himself in was one of several complexes beneath the city, by this point he was well aware of Sasuke's failed raid in Keiyō but unable to locate him thus making him wonder about his whereabouts, this was not one of Sasuke's trips where he simply ended up at some expensive lounge drunk and embarrassing the name of the corporation or in a casino gambling his money away, he knew he was up to something different.
"Excuse me sir..." it was Naori's voice, hardly someone could sneak up on him like she did but he kept looking in front of him "We've found him, our intelligence report he's currently in Thailand's western border, should be crossing to Myanmar in less than 10 hours, your orders sir..."
"Tell me something Naori... do you believe in good and evil?"
"Pardon sir?"
"The construct of good and evil is an idea that has existed since man itself, light and dark, heaven and hell... these ideas seem strongly rooted in... empathy. Do you buy into such things?"
Naori remained silent wondering why he was asking her such thing, she eventually responded "Not as objective concepts sir, to me there's no difference between good or evil, both constructs are man made to justify their actions which means they're guidelines for behavior that most people define and abide by."
"I see... I like that theory, based on it that means that I'm not an evil man, right?" He finally turned to face her which in turn revealed the subject inside the containment chamber, she immediately recognized the person inside and walked next to her boss to take a closer look, Fugaku never diverted his eyes from her as he awaited for another answer from the woman, she finally looked at him and with ease responded again.
"There is only power and those too weak to seek it, our purpose on Earth is to ensure the continuation and preservation of life and I believe the work you're doing here will change lives for the better, that's what I think sir."
"The work we're doing Naori, we, don't discredit yourself..." He looked again at the tank "The work of the Uchiha."
"Yes... The work of the Uchiha."
"... Do we have a team ready to intercept him?"
"Yes sir, we have a group of 20 men led by Inabi and Tekka ready to deploy at your command."
"That won't be enough, Orochimaru is a crafty bastard... Contact Kagami, tell him he's also going." Fugaku started to walk away "And gather the Sound Four team, I want them to find my son and bring him to me."
"Yes sir, what of Suigetsu sir?"
"What of him?" He stopped and looked at Naori with an incredulous yet serious look "Kill him." He coldly sentenced.
"As you wish sir..."
Fugaku soon disappeared from the lab leaving Naori on her own, she eventually turned to face the chamber in front of her, her eyes suddenly turned soft and she touched the glass while looking at the person on the other side.
"I'm sorry Naka..."
-o-
Disclaimer: The usual, I'm not the owner of Naruto (sadly)
Hey there, hope y'all having a great start of the month, here's the latest chapter included, thanks for the subs and follows I've been getting lately, really brings more motivation to do things faster, anyway, enjoy and until next time!