I have 47 unfinished water bottles on the boxes that I sleep next to
Naruto had 47 unfinished bottles of water next to his bed
Hi. I'm Ino. You might know me as Ino-Pig.
You might recognize me from my multiple appearances on the Ed Sullivan show.
That's right, it's me, the one and only Pig Mother Of God Celebratory Bath Shower.
The lights shut off, a spark going off in the distance.
Ino instinctibely crouced a t the sound of bulbs cracking and then small glass littering the fllor.
"Devin?" said Ino loudly
There was no response. What was previously a ful studio of two people, was now just one lone woman in the dark.
Of course Ino was a ninja of course. She was extremely foridable in combat and particularly in negotiation. Her heiritage of the Yamaknaka family taught her many lessons in the art of hands off manipulation. She should be proud of her accomplishments. Im proud of her.
But Ino was in the dark. You see, a little known fact about Ino was that she had an enormous fear of the dark. Some say it stemmed from the nights she spent in the Forest of Death when she had run the Chunnin exams twice. Others say it must be connected to Shikamarus use of shadows to take conmtrol of his prey. Truth is, no one really knows why Ino is so terrified of the dark, even herself.
The sound of pitter pattering in the distance suddenly played, causing Ino to turn her head to the left. She heard the sounds of children laughing, what souded like a boy and a girl. Their vocies echoed slightly, and an intense shiver went down Inos spine.
This was her worst nightmare.
"Hello? Is someomne there?" Ino said into the void
She thought to herself "God this is just like a movie, I have n o reasom to be scared, I gotta act tough!"
But another light came crashing down onto the cement floor without warning, causing Ino to jump away and shriek.
The sound of the metal rim rolling slowly stopped, and Ino tried to compose herself.
To the best of her abilityh, she tried to remmber what the layout of the studio was. Clearly she had let her gaurd down tin the excitment of being in her first comercial. But she knew a ninja should alwaysm memorize their surroundsing, no matter the context, in the horrible event something terrible were to happen. She was a bit ashamed of herself, but she thought to rid herself of those worries for now. In this moment, she needed to get outside the studio, away from the darkness.
Ino sudenly felt a huge decrease in temperature, as though someone was holding blocks of ice an inch away from her skin. Goosebumps rolled up her arms and stunned her. She was still, in shock and unable to move. She wasnt frozen, but she was processing the series of events that were unfloding around her.
A wind took ober, chilling her further. They were inside a studio, one that was closed with only small doors inside and a few roling metal gates that had just a moment ago been locked shut to the ground. What was happening.
Ino took a step forward fighting her instincts to prone and crumble down.
"A Yamanaka is better than this. This must be genjustu. I can fight this off. Whoever is causing this must be nearby. If I can just pinpoint where they are roughly, and I can see through their eyes and find out whats really going on."
But as her foot raised up to walk forward, her foot was met with what could only be snow. THhe sound of crunching folowed as she planted her foot flatly on the surface.
She lost her balance briefly, still fighting the chil as the air grew colder and the wind blew stronger.
The whistle of the wind was getting louder as well, blocking the sound of her own breathing.
Now was not the time to be scared.
Ino pulled her arms away from their lock in front of her chest, and rolled her fists tight.
"I can do this. This isn't real." she thought.
She blasted off into a sprint, blindly following her gut as where to go. Shortly after she crashed into more lights and miscellaneous props, but she didn't let them stop her.
She held her arms out forward looking for any sign of a wall, anything to give her a point of reference.
But even as she slowled down to sweep the space in front of her, no such surface came.
Her feet were sogging and starting to freeze. Her toes were nearly black from the cold. Frostbite was no laughing matter, as she had treated a few ninja who were unlucky enough to find themselves fighting against a foe who specialized in ice. She knew the procedures, she knew how to treat it, but she didn't know what to do in the event that she had yet to be rescued.
Ino screamed "HELLO? ANYONE? IRUKA SENSI?"
Iruka had been her shaparone to the event, being the one to encourage her to go in the first place. She could only hope that Iruka was there with her, looking for her and trying to release her from this genjustu. But now 10 minutes since the first chill had come, there was no sign of life anywhere.
But she pushed on. Her fear of darkness was nothing more than a fear. She could fight it, like an enemy and persevere through the pain.
Stil moving forward, she couldn't help but tuck her hands into her arm pits as she could feel her skin begining to harden.
Breathing deep and faster now trying to increase her ocygen intake, she stopped moving and decided the only thing left to do was to start expelling chakra and move ferousously.
What started as jogging in place quickly became a full battle in itself. Weaving signs against her increasingly stiff finfers, and casting justus in the hopes that she would warm up.
After about the sixth justu, she could feel herself warming up slightly. Now she would return to reserve her chakra and continued onward, but now at a much faster pace.
The snow was getting deeper. One step at a time she lifted her legs higher and higher to tread onward. Her arms at her sides trying to blance her weight. Then she bumped into something hard.
It was rough and without pattern. A texture that was clearly wood. She had come across a tree.
Wherever she was before, she was no longer there now.
"This isn't right, this isn't right." she thought hurridly to herself. "Any genjustu this elborate would surely have some trace of chakra leading to its caster. Just a small thread and I could escape this tundra!"
"YOU HAVE MUCH TO LEARN"
A horrible voice shook Inos bones. The voice came from above, and gave off the feeling of great terror.
This was no longer fear, she was now in active danger.
"WHO IS THAT? COME OUT!" Ino pleaded
"NO. YOU WILL HEAR WHAT I HAVE TO SAY." the voice rumbled the trees that Ino had placed her weight on. She could feel the snow fall off their branches as well as the leaves and twigs.
"YOU KNOW WHY YOU ARE HERE"
"NO! I don't know what's going on! Release this genjustu this instant! Fight me like a real ninja!" Inos voice shook, as the cold of the snow took over her again. She had only been standing still for a momnent now, but the freezing had already hastened.
"FOOL. YOU DO NOT WISH ME TO EXPLAIN IT TO YOU."
A moment of silence ensued, as Ino racked her brain trying to remember anything that could help her in this instance. Whos voice was this? Why did she feel so small? Who did she know use genjustu? Had she come across any enemies previously who specialized in ice or water justu?
She couldn't think of anything. Her tremors started to take hold of her, slowing her thoughts.
"Who... Who are you?" Ino said through chattering teeth.
"YOU KNOW ME AS KURAMA."
Ino would have raised her brows at this name, but frost had already taken form on her face. She had heard this name before, but she couldnt remember where. Her mind was still growing foggy.
"I... I know that name!"
"I WOULD BE INSULTED. BUT I WILL HAVE MERCY ON YOURIGNORANCE FOR NOW."
"Just tell me whats going on!" Ino pleaded desperately
"YOU KNOW ME AS THE NINE TAILED FOX."
Horror struck the core of Inos body. She knew now that she was facing the greatest foe shed ever taken on, and she was taking him on alone.
"What.. D-do yOu w-aant?"
"THERES NOTHING THAT I WANT FROM YOU. I AM ONLY HERE TO HELP YOU."
The foxes voice continued to rumble the world around Ino, but now losing sensation of all her body, she couldnt feel the quakes at all.
She was going to die.
She throught her father, and her grandfather. She thought how both of them died by sacrificng themselves to protect others. Her father met an untimely death during a war that could have been prevented, and was killed by an attack they should have forseen. But her never hesitated to protect everyone around him. That was his legacy.
She would not die with such honor. Her legacy would end with bitter defeat, frozen in time, lost int eh mind of some genjustu user shed never meet.
Her thoughts lost all semblence of trail.
Father... Mother... The hospital... The documents on my desk... No... Not the kid with the ball... I told that woman Id have flowers ready for her... I have...
"IF YOU ASK NICELY... I WILL LEND YOU MY POWER. BUT IF YOU SAY YES, YOU WILL HAVE TO CARRY OUT YOUR OWN RESCUE."
"YES! Y=ES! WHATE-EVER! PLEA-SSSE!"
"SO BE IT..."
The sound of birds flying away roared around her. The leaves of the trees that surrounded her had become small creatures fleeing from the scene. She felt the ice below her felt away.
Her eyes were wide with shock and disbelief. Still unable to see, she suddenly felt a warmth seeping into her feet.
The warth wrapped around her legs, rising to her hips, and then her torso.
She could feel her hands thawing, and was surprised to find that they were tucked to her sides. She had completely lost sense of her body and position in the cold.
The tree receeding into the ground, turning into a small plant before completely dissapearing. Ino sunk to the ground and felt her feet land flat onto the dirt.
She may have been out of dangers way, but she still had no concept of what was going on.
"Whats happening?" Ino asked, breatheless
"DONT SPEAK" said the fox, his voice even more booming now with fewer barriers around them
"THank... Thank you. Kurama." Ino was relieved, but the fear of freezing to death was now being replaced by the fear of the fox, and once again, the dark.
"What's going on? Did you cast this genjustu on me?"
"THIS IS NO JUSTU. THIS IS THE WORLD YOUVE ALWAYS RESIDED."
"No... That cant be... I was just inside a studip! I was surrounded by cememnt and foam! I stood on a stage and had bright lights shining onto me! Iruka was with me! He was! He was smiling..." Inos voice tapered off
"LIKE I SAID. THIS IS NO ILLUSION."
Ino was in further disbelief. Against her wishes, she was lost in thought as to how this could be happening. To her, she was still convinced this was all genjustu, and that the fox was manipulating her.
"You can't fool me fox! I know this is justu! Show me the way out!" Ino demanded
"FOOL..."
Kuramas voice twisted and fell to her side. Kurama had speaking to her directly, but now he had left her in the darkness. He was gone and cared not for any more of her fumbling.
"Oh god damn it..." Ino muttered under her breath
Inos now dethawed hands found themselves pressing against her body, assessing any damage she may have gained. But her fears of frostbite, the blackened toes that barely held her up, were completely unwaranted.
There was no evidence that she was ever in danger to begin with.
"Is this what Naruto feels like? To just heal?" Ino thought her yellow haired friend, and realized that meeting Kurama made no sense.
"Kurama is still sealed within Naruto... Naruto said that he had come to an agreement with him... This has to be genjustu then."
Ino stood still, catching her breath. Minutes passed by as she stood there. With the fox gone, and the freezing at bay, the fear of the nothingness that surrounded her grew again.
"This is nothing. This is simply blindness. I've faced worse horrors."
Coming to terms with her perdicament, she fianlyl started to walk forward again.
What was once cememnt, then snow, was now a dirt path. No props or obstructions blocked her way, and the floor ahead of her remained flat. There was no other stimuli beyond the ground.
She continued to walk. She walked, and she walked. At times she began to sprint, careful to brace herself if she collided with anything. But hours had passed, and there was still no sign of anything beyond the rubble below her.
"Fuck."
Suddenly, a clap of thunder rang out from the sky. She stuttered and stopped moving. Naturally she looked to the sky, expecting to see clouds or rain. But of course her vision was still absent.
She began to wonder "Is it that the world has gone dark, or that I have lost my vision entirely?"
It didn't matter. Effectively the result was the same. As her face looked to the sky she felt the trinkle of water cling to her face. It had begun to sprinkle.
Claps of thunder briefly apeared from the distance. It seemed that where ever the genjusut had taken her, she was still outside. The weahter was aactive, even if the world around her seemed barren.
"What is happening to me?"
Ino closed her eyes. She held onto the visions in her mind. The abstract images of memories of friends and family overlapped in her imagination. She may not be able to see, but she still had all her memories. She was thankful for that. But it only complicated her setting more. What really was happening to her?
As Ino went off into a meaningless pattern of thoughts, the spinkles of the rain had turned into larger droplets. The water was hitting her face, and she could feel the rain grow heavier and faster. Another wind picked up, this alone brought the same shiver down her spine from earlier.
But she wasn't cold. Not exactly at least.
The sound of the rain and clouds increased, their volume again silencing Inos breath. But her fear of being lost in the cold again seemed to be misplaced.
"None of this is real. None of this makes sense. Someone will find me. This will end eventually." she thought to herself
She struggled to find reason in anything that was occuring, and ultimately dropped her effort to understand what was going on. To her, the only logical step would be to move forward still, and hope that somewhere down the line she would find something that could help her make sense of this new world she was trapped in.
The rain was falling and showed no sign of stopping. Occasional strikes of thunder followed behind Ino, but no light from lightning could be seen. The weather no longer worried her, she had no real sense of cold. Whatever happened with her interaction with the fox had seemingly left her numb to temperature. In spite of the even battering of water striking her clothes and skin, she felt warm.
"Naruto you lucky bastard..."
A clap of thunder louder than any before it came to her ears.
"Holy...!" Ino exclaimed
She wasn't paying enough attention.
She turned her back to face where she had been coming from, expecting to once again see nothing in the distance. But to her surprise, there was cabin roughly forty meters away from her.
She blinked. She couldn't tell if this was the genjustu playing tricks on her or if she was outright hallucinating.
After rubbing her eyes, pushing the rain water off her face, the cabin remained in her vision. Around it were purple lights that illuminated a small wooden porch, a chair swing, and broken front door, and even subtly showed light and shadows from the dirt the cabin layed on.
Without thinking, she walked toward the cabin. Regardless of its ominous and sudden presense, she couldnt help herself.
The cabin drew closer, and so too did its details. For the first time in what could have been a whole day, Ino had finally begun to see again. But only this cabin. The sky remained pitch black, and the distance beyond the end of the house returned to the void. Only in this small space was there any sign of light.
When she had gotten ten feet away from the porch she stopped in her tracks. She saw that the purple lights that emanated from the cabin were being cast by strange torches. The torches were silver, jiggled like water, and the fire they cast fell downward. They didnt appear to be artificial, but she couldnt take the idea that they were real. This was more genjsutu foolery.
"You there?" a voice from inside the building quietly escaped.
Ino, unprepared for the voice, took a step back in caution. She wanted to reply, but held off the urge in the hopes of gathing information. Perhaps the voice would speak again.
"I see you. I know you can hear me. What are you doing here?" the voice said more intently this time
"I..." She had replied without thinking. Her mind was still a mess from all the strange sorcery that was going on.
"So it speaks."
The doorway before her swung inward, revealing a second screendoor that Ino didn't notice previously. Behind the mesh was a tattered old woman with eyes that seemed completgely closed.
"You. Come in." the old woman said, pointing exactly to where Ino was standing. Her eyes may have seemed closed, but the woman knew exactly where Ino stood.
Ino thought to ask questions, to investigate this woman before even considering coming closer.
But it had been a day since the darkness came, and while she was not freezing in the rain, her body ached from over exsertion. The stress and fear of the last few hours had knocked the wind out of Ino. And without realizing it, she had already taken three steps forward to the porch.
"Are you deaf? I said come in. Kids these days." the wrinkled woman pushed the mesh door open for Ino, and returned to the hallway inside the cabin. Ino still thought to hold off on entering, but before she knew it she was standing inside the cabin completely dazed.
The woman had turned a corner going through an arcway.
"My god youre helpless arent you?" The woman suddenly appeared and grabbed Ino by her left hand and pulled her. She may be a small old woman, but her grip was that of a ninja, be it ahed and cold.
Again, Ino had seemingly teleported into a sofa chair, a moment ago just being in the hallway. She was losing time. She would have fought off this woman in any of ther instance, but Ino struggled to make sense of her surroundins.
"You hungry? God you look pale." The woman invaded Inos personal space, pushing Ino back deeper into the cushions. The woman managed to open one of her eyes wide enough for Ino to see her cloudy pupil looking right at her.
"You sure are ugly for a girl."
In shock even Ino couldnt let such a comment slide.
"Excuse me! I..."
"Ahhh blah blah blah Im not ugly oh Im so pretty blah blah BLAH" The woman flapper her hand at Ino as she walked away, into what Ino was assuming to be her kitchen.
"Exactly what is going on?"
"Im going to feed you and make you fat." said the woman as she kncoked around pots and pans
"What?" was all Ino could manage to say in return
"God your deft are you?" The old woman popped her head out around the arcway comically, looking Ino dead in the eyes with dissapointment.
Ino thought to reply, but chose not to. This was all to much for her to deal with.
"You want spageti right? Everyone loves my spagheti." The woman laghed to herself proudly.
Ino did not want spaghetti. But she also didnt want to be trapped in an endless void with some random geezer riding her for being ugly. She did not fight it.
For the next ten minutes or so, Ino sat in silence. She looked around the room examining the furniture and decorations. It was an extremely cozy home, giving off a welcoming vibe, but it was clear it was filthy and cramped. The walls were covered with boxes, knick knacks, clocks, pictures, and what could only be unattened litter.
She locked eyes with a cat clock, whos eyes looked back and forth repeatedly. A tail came out the bottom end, and a ticking rythmically, well if fucking ticked! lol
But looking at the time she saw that the clocks hands stood still. The outside may be moving, but the clock itself seemed to be broken.
"Spaghetti on the house!" the old woman burst into the room holding a gigantic steaming pot over her head like it was nothing.
Ino stoop up prepared to grab the pot in fear that the woman would collapse under its weight.
"You get back down on that sofa! Grams dont need no help. God damn kids."
"Grams...?" Ino thought.
"Ooops! Cant have spaghetti without bowls and spoons can we! Ill be right back."
The woman shuffled off back into the kitchen, her feet barely rising off the floor. She looked absolutely ridiculous, whilst being covered in sauce and stray noodles. For the first time in hours Ino cracked a smile. She didn't feel as though she was in any danger.
alright im done with this one for now, i was going to keep going just a little bit to make it sound like it was ending on a real chapter ending point thing but im tired and want to read some romance manga where the couple doesnt fucking kiss for 187 god damn chapters and i want to fucking DIE just fucking kiss already! fucking hell... Anyway, Im still brainstorming ideas for the werewolf story, whatever the story is where sakura rubs dirt on her face (lollll), as well as my most recent Fallout Boy adventures. Kind of didnt want to leave this one unfinished as its the fourth one without a completed tag. The one thing you dont hate more in fanfiction is finding a stroy you really enjoy and you get to chapter five and... it hasnt been updated in twenty years. i want to avoid that. I cant believe Im writing as much as I have been. Yeah you know what, yean ill hive myself a little pat on the back, It doesnt matter to me if my writing isnt being held to my highest standards, what matters is that im actually sitting down and putting thought into writing at all. You see im an all bark no bite kind of guy, way too many ideas (some that I genuinely think are great!) but i never sit down and fully flesh them out. As a writer I also write out of order when Im trying to write to the best of my ability (again I havent uploaded anything at that level of quality here yet, and dont expect one soon ((though when it does happen i really hope youll be pleasantly surprised by how coherant i sound comparred to this stream of conciousness stuff! lolololol)) what was i saying? anyway, im glad im writing in genreak and if youve made ut this far... Well i guess that actually means a lot to me. I dont want to get teary eyed writing this but I guess I dont accomplish much in my life and something as absolutely silly as SOC stories are, its nice to feel like i did something with my time on this eartth. jeez im going to get all exestential now i gotta shut up lol anyway thank you for reading, i promise that in a few months my writing will steadily improve and hopefilly ill finish a rough draft of my target fic, i guess youd call it? Stay safe and know that no matter where you are in this world, there is someone who loves you. That stranger you walked passed on that sidewalk seven years ago still thinks about you, and they want the best for you. I do too. Goodnight!
3:30am 9/2/21