Chapter-14
-Flashback
A five year old Ino was just walking home with her father, Inoichi after collecting flowers for the Yamanaka flower shop.
"Dad, this is heavy!" Ino whinnied, dragging her basket full of flowers.
"Do you want me to carry it for you?" Inoichi asked turning around, he had a much larger basket in his hand.
"No, I will carry it on my own. After all I want to become a strong Kunoichi." She said with determination. Inoichi sighed at this; Ino was as stubborn as her mother. The two were currently in front of the Ninja Academy, when something caught her eye."Dad, hold this. I'll be back in a minute!" She said pushing her basket and running towards the tree in front of the academy. There was a blonde boy with his head low and she could see the tears flowing down his cheeks. His eyes were hidden by his hair. She gently approached him and tapped him on his shoulder. "Why are you crying?" She asked softly.
The boy looked up and as soon as he saw her, he wiped his eyes furiously, getting rid of the tears flowing down his cheeks."No, I'm not crying. I am fine." He said giving her a fake smile. Ino knew that the smile was fake as soon as she saw it. Her father had taught her how to distinguish fake smiles from real.
"Hey, you don't have to put up that smile for me, I know it's fake. Are you sad?" She asked patiently. Her father had taught her how to deal with these situations when she used to accompany him. The boy was taken aback after hearing her response. He silently nodded. She gently. "What's wrong?" She asked, slightly concerned.
The boy looked up, his azure blue eyes meeting her light blue ones. He saw concerned eyes instead of the cold hearted ones that he was used to."Why are you being so nice to me and not running away?" He asked, tilting his head a bit in confusion.
"Because I want to help you." She answered truthfully. The boy was surprised at this. No one was ever nice to him. He found something that he had lost a long time ago. Hope. He found himself wanting to tell her why he was sad and he found himself trusting her, even if they did meet minutes ago. He finally decided to tell her. "I am sad because everyone hates me; nobody wants to play with me, because I don't have any friends."He said whispering out the last bit.
Ino's gaze softened. She could see the sadness and loneliness that the eyes held."Don't worry, they are all idiots. If you want I can be your friend!" She said, sticking out her hand for a handshake. He accepted the handshake taking her small hand in his. Their hands fitted perfectly together."I'm Ino Yamanaka!" She said bringing a genuine smile to his face.
"I am Naruto Uzumaki." He responded feeling a warm feeling inside of him.
"Oh we are going to have so much fun Naruto! Come with me, I want you to meet my dad!" She said pulling his hand and taking him to where her father was standing."Dad! I made a new friend!" She said after stopping in front of her father. Naruto was slightly scared.
"Oh, what's your name?" He asked the blonde boy.
"Na-Naruto Uzumaki."He stuttered out. He was afraid that Inoichi would also hurt him, like the other villagers. Inoichi's gaze softened a bit. He knew Minato and Kushina. Minato was a close friend of his and he wanted to adopt his child but the Civilian Council and Danzo denied his request.
"Say Naruto, would you like to join us for Ramen?" He asked with a smile on his face.
"What's ramen?" Naruto asked. He had never really eaten anything except the fruits and fish that he caught. Whenever he visited a shop to buy anything, the shopkeeper pushed him out of the shop.
"Oh, you have never had ramen? Come on, it's really good, I am sure that you will like it!" Ino said, excitedly. The blonde boy just nodded. The three then set off to Ichiraku Ramen, a restaurant that was bound to become Naruto's favorite.
That was a start of their friendship that later turned into something more.
- End of flashback
-Present time (- With Ino and Kitsune - Orochimaru's Hideout)
They had searched almost the entire left side of the hideout except the room at the end of the corridor. As soon as they entered the room their eyes widened in shock at the sight before them.
"Holy crap!" both of them said in unison.
The room was full of Orochimaru's failed experiments. A jar of different eyes, some dead snakes trapped in huge glass containers. The two had never seen such a horrifying sight.
"Ino-chan lets divide and conquer. If you find any valuable information, store it in this scroll." Kitsune said handing her a storage scroll. The two headed off in different directions trying to gather as much information as they could. After a while of searching the two had not found out anything that they didn't already know.
"Kitsune!" Ino called out to the blonde. The blonde appeared seconds later beside her. She quietly pointed towards a door that had a bunch of complicated seals on it. Kitsune understood what she meant and immediately began overwriting or cancelling the seals. After a couple of minutes, he finished taking off all of the seals. The two entered the room, with an expression of shock on their face.
"Orochimaru's private study?" Ino asked and received a nod of conformation from Kitsune. Kitsune and Ino then started going through Orochimaru's files, books, diaries, records, scanning the whole room for information. The two found out how he had taken all the eyes of the dead Uchiha and used them for his experiment to get the Sharingan, which failed. They also found some of the cells of Hashirama stored in a special container. While Kitsune was going through Orochimaru's experiments on the curse mark, a file caught Ino's eye. 'Designs and details of past successful experiments.' She flipped through some pages that were about his immortality and stopped when her eyes landed on a specific page. A page about experiments done on Danzo.
"Kitsune, have a look at this." She said giving him the file. A slight smirk appeared on his face that was not visible because of the mask. The next few pages were fully filled with information about Danzo's arm and eye. Kitsune stood up and started knocking on the walls, coming to a halt when he found a hollow one.
"Ino-chan, a little help?" He said gesturing towards the wall.
"Gladly. Earth Style: Stone Fist Jutsu!" She said, smashing the wall with her stone fist. The two saw two a shelf that had a lot of Uchiha eyes. Each pair was in a separate jar with a preservative fluid inside to keep them ready for him whenever he wanted to use them. The shelf also contained detailed files on all of the members of the Akatsuki. Just as he was about to start reading them, the small seal on his wrist started glowing.
"We need to get out of here. Neko and Suzume have finished." Kitsune said placing the file on shelf.
"But what about all of this information?" Ino asked, handing him back the storage scroll.
"Summoning Jutsu!" He said biting off his thumb and summoning a toad.
"Hey, bro! What do you need me for?" The summoned toad asked in a cheery voice.
" 'Kichi, I was hoping if you could take all of this to Mount Myoboku? " He said, forming a wood clone. "Along with my wood clone."
"Sure!" Gamakichi said as Kitsune's clone started to seal the entire thing up.
"Ino-chan, please don't tell anyone about the information that we found as long as Danzo is alive" He said and received a nod in response. Ino knew that Danzo had a set of eyes and ears everywhere in Konoha and she understood his request.
The two left the room as the wood clone and Gamakichi went to Mount Myoboku with all of the Information and documents.
-Outside Orochimaru's Hideout.
"What took you so long?" Neko asked in an irritated voice.
"Oh nothing, just found something that may help us in the future. Anyway you look beaten up." Kitsune said sensing his chakra level. Neko had never used more than half of his chakra reserves in a fight. He had only one-third of his chakra left.
"Killing a Sannin does that to you..." Neko replied calmly.
"No way, you killed Orochimaru? Damn it, I wanted to kill him. Now you have the bragging rights to say that you killed a Sannin instead of me. I am so unlucky." He said in a depressed tone.
"Dobe, that's what you focus on? Anyway, did you get any leads to his other hideouts?" Neko said, gesturing Kaito and Yamato to come out of hiding.
"Yeah, these three are the most interesting ones." He said handing Neko a piece of paper. "But, I'm not sure if you will be able to track them down in your current conditions."
"I'll probably rest a bit in Konoha and then go find them while you go to renew our treaties." Neko said giving the piece of paper to Kara. "And my cats can track them down." He said and in a poof, the two cats disappeared.
The two then passed on parts of the Information to Yamato and left for the hidden leaf.
- The Hidden Leaf (Two days later)
"Dobe, you go and report about the mission to Hokage-sama. I am not going to sit there and be bored. And I don't think Suzume wants to come either." Suzume confirmed this with a nod.
"Fine. I'll handle this myself." Kitsune said with a sigh. "Come on Ino-chan, Yamato-san." With that the three left for Tsunade's office.
"So Neko, where do you plan on taking me today?" Suzume asked in a sing-song voice.
"Let's go to the Uchiha District as I don't know how long it'll be before we come to Konoha again. After that we should go to the mountains where I learnt the Chidori."
"Fine by me." She replied. The two then left for the Uchiha district. They did not spend much time there but Neko still showed her some places that she hadn't seen last time. Shortly after, the two were at the gates of the Uchiha district when a certain pink banshee saw them.
"Hey! What are you two doing here? These are the Uchiha's sacred grounds." She said approaching them. "You are not allowed to be here!"
"We are. If you don't know, I am an Uchiha so that gives me the permission to enter the Uchiha District." Neko said smugly, flashing his Sharingan.
"Okay, but you are not an Uchiha rust-head, so get out of here. This is the place belongs to Sasuke-kun. You are not even worthy to step inside the district." Sakura said with her head up high.
As soon as she said that, Neko was filled with rage. He didn't know why, but anyone insulting Suzume pissed him off. "How dare you talk about Suzume like that? Her red hair is a thousand times more beautiful than your bubblegum pink." Neko spat. After hearing Neko compliment her hair, Suzume blushed a bit. "And unlike you, she isn't useless or annoying. The only one who is not worthy of entering the Uchiha district is you. Now run away if you want to live, you pink piece of shit!" Seeing him enraged, Suzume held his arm with her hand, which managed to calm him down.
Sakura could sense the killer intent leaking out of him and ran away, pissing her pants in the process.
"You think my hair is beautiful?" Suzume questioned, with a sly smirk under her mask. Neko mentally face palmed himself after realizing what he had said.
"Wipe that smirk off your face, Uzumaki. I just said that it was more beautiful than that bubblegum hair."
"Doesn't change the fact that you think it's beautiful." She replied sassily.
Neko let out a groan. "Will you let that go? Anyway, let's visit the mountains quickly; we don't have much time before we leave Konoha. With that the two left for the mountains.
- Gates of the Hidden Leaf (One and a half hour later.)
"So, do you think that you can find and capture all three of them?" Kitsune asked. He had already discussed a plan to take down Danzo with Tsunade and Jiraiya in private. He was now heading over to the hidden mist and some other allies to renew their treaty, also adding Konoha's name in it.
"We'll be fine Anija." Suzume said, assuring her older brother. "And if we do run into trouble, we will send one of Neko's cats to you."
"If you say so." Kitsune muttered. "Anyway, capture the three and meet me home in three days."
The two nodded and took off. Kitsune then took off in the opposite direction.
A/N:
Okay, so how was it? Please review as it is the only thing that drives me to write the next chapter. If you do think that there are some things that I can improve on, please let me know. Again, this is my first story so I am new to this and if you have any pointers, I'll be happy to hear them and implement them in the future.
Peace!
