Title: Seeking Rin
Chapter: 7 - Interlude
Author: Killaurey
Rating: T
Word Count: 4789
Summary: When Sakura, newly in a relationship with Kakashi, finds out about Rin, she makes a choice that's hard on them both. Even worse, there's a mysterious illness cropping up in Konoha that even Tsunade can't heal. And what does Ino have to do with it? Kakashi x Rin, KakaSaku.
Disclaimer: Naruto doesn't belong to me. It's Kishimoto's and I just play with it. Part 7 of ? Unbeta'd.

This won't happen often, but yeah, this isn't a Sakura or a Kakashi POV chapter for various plot-advancing reasons. :)


Ino wakes abruptly, all at once, and finds herself stiff and chill to the touch. She's more tired than she'd been last night, but that's not a surprise to her.

Hey, she thinks down the link, I'm going to need something to work with, you know?

There's the feel of someone grumbling on the far end but then the far more welcome surge of energy flushes through the link and into her. She's still stiff, but no longer cool to the touch and her exhaustion, well...

She's had worse to deal with.

Stretching takes care of the stiffness and once Ino's finished with that, she saunters into Sakura's room. Sakura is a heap of blankets and tangled hair and the flash of pale legs this early in the morning. She'll never tell Sakura that, even in her sleep, she's reaching out for someone.

Ino can guess who and that makes her wrinkle her nose a bit. Really, the timing has sucked all around on this matter. Before she can think too deeply on that-what use is brooding at this stage?-she leans over and shakes Sakura's shoulder.

Sakura blinks at her, all sleepy green eyes and tousled pink hair, and Ino finds herself smiling. "Get up, Forehead," she says, "you've got work today."

So does she.

"Ugh." Sakura's moan is expressive enough that Ino gives into the urge to giggle. "Five more minutes."

"Sorry," Ino says, not sounding very sorry at all. She drops their journal on the bed, right by Sakura's head and smiles when Sakura wraps one hand around it. The journal is her gamble, in case things go seriously wrong. But for Sakura, she thinks, the journal is another connection between them. "But seriously, you've got to get up. Don't you have that heart surgery today? Scheduled for seven?"

With a sigh, Sakura sits up. Ino plops herself down on the bed without an invitation and pulls her legs up under her chin.

"I hate you," Sakura tells her, a faint smile curling at her lips so Ino doesn't take that seriously. She can't, not when Sakura is all but hugging their journal. "What time did you get up?"

Ino shrugs. "Just now," she admits. "But I figured that rather than steal the first shower of the day, I really ought to let you go first since you've got to be more professional than me today."

At least, Ino thinks, as Sakura rolls her eyes and mutters something about how Ino is oh so kind really, that sounds good. It's not true and another person might have issues with lying to their best friend, but Ino has long since given up trying to figure out how guilty she's supposed to feel on any particular day.

Lies are her trade, after all.

And in this case, she's lying for a relatively minor thing. Sakura getting the first shower isn't a big deal.

"Soooo," Ino says, drawling the word in a way that never fails to make Sakura wince. "Are you going? I'll make coffee!" Ino bounces up off the bed, fully awake at ungodly o'clock and knowing she's being a little obnoxious about it.

But Sakura expects that. So she's being a good friend by living up to her expectations. Ino tells herself that and sometimes lets herself believe it.

Sakura yawns in response, looking so weary and tired for a second when the pretence of happiness slides off her face, that Ino feels a pang for her friend.

"I'm going," Sakura says, swinging her legs off the bed and reaching for her hairbrush. "You'd better make the coffee the way I like it, Pig."

"Maybe the second pot," Ino teases her, with a toss of her head and saunters out of the room to the sound of Sakura's muttering.

It's not a bad morning, Ino thinks, as she folds up the blankets she's been using to sleep on the couch (it's a good thing she sleeps curled up though, because otherwise she'd never fit) and sets them on one of the cushions before flicking on the TV and checking what the weather is supposed to be.

Behind her, she can hear Sakura making her way to the bathroom. Ino stretches, her arms up behind her head, and then heads to the kitchen. She wasn't kidding about making coffee.

Once she's got the coffeemaker exactly how Sakura likes it, Ino hits start and then heads back to the living room. The news is talking about a series of inexplicable murders three towns over and Ino contents herself with watching and trying to guess if it had been Konoha who'd done it or if it had been another village's ninja. It's impossible to tell from the sanitized and dramatized, in all the right ways, news.

It wouldn't do to give the civilians a real idea of what ninja can do. Ino sometimes thinks that if she couldn't be a shinobi of Konoha that playing newscaster could've been fun. They lie, with straight faces, every day.

Ino finds her hairbrush-because she's not going to share one with Sakura, no way-and begins combing the tangles out of her long hair. Behind her she can hear the coffee pot burbling happily. Once her hair is neat and tossed up into a simple ponytail, Ino heads to the kitchen to pour coffee for the both of them.

Sakura takes hers black, so Ino prepares that one first. Pour and done. Then Ino adds enough sugar to hers to send a child into a sugar rush and a dollop of milk, stirs once, then sips the drink with a sigh. Perfect.

It's maybe a minute after that when Sakura enters the kitchen, dressed for the day, her hair damp and brushed back from her face. "Coffee?" Sakura asks, stepping over to the window to push the curtains back and open the window.

Ino holds out Sakura's cup. "Coffee," she says, taking a sip from hers. "Quick shower, Forehead."

Sakura shrugs. "There wasn't really a point in lingering today," she says, taking and sipping her drink. "I wasn't in the mood for enjoying it."

"You should try," Ino says, nudging Sakura with her elbow. "I mean, just 'cause of what's happened-that doesn't mean you've got to stop having fun at all."

"I'm not," Sakura replies, elbowing her back as they both lean against the counter. Ino in her over-sized t-shirt and Sakura looking every inch the competent kunoichi. "I went out yesterday, didn't I? And I did have fun at the fabric store and at the play."

Ino outwardly grumbles because, really, all of her attempts to keep Sakura busy and happy had been undone thanks to Hatake and Naruto's brilliant idea and knows that Sakura would notice if she doesn't grumble.

But it had been a brilliant idea of Naruto's. Ino's kinda proud about that.

"True," Ino says, "and then you've got work today and you're going to be utterly surrounded by people who think you're perfectly amazing and then you're going to live up to that and that's got to make you happy. Oh," she adds casually, "and then we're going to a movie when you get off."

Sakura glances at her. "A movie?"

"Yup," Ino tells her, like she's had it planned for hours and hasn't just decided. "There's a silly one out about a Genin who gets lost and is found by a tiger princess and together they discover that they've got to work together to save both of their homes."

Sakura splutters. "Where are you finding these things?" she demands, but she's laughing and so Ino counts that as a win. "That's utterly ridiculous!"

"The Genin is adorable," Ino says persuasively. "And it's a timeless tale of forbidden relations between villages!"

"Fine," Sakura says, snickering. "But you're paying."

"Sure, sure," Ino says easily. She doesn't bother pointing out that since she paid for the play yesterday that Sakura really ought to pay for the movie. True to tell, Ino doesn't mind spending her money on things that keep Sakura happy right now. It's not like, Ino figures, that she'd be spending the money on anything better really.

"Ino," Sakura says, after fifteen minutes, once they've each finished their first cups of coffee and are on their second. Sakura looks at her with uneasy green eyes. "Do you think I did the right thing?"

Ino sips her coffee and debates playing dumb about knowing exactly what Sakura means by that. She decides not to because Sakura is one of the few people in the village (the others being Shikamaru, Chouji, and Hokage-sama) who know precisely when she is playing dumb. She doubts Sakura would appreciate it right now.

"I don't know," she admits, and tries to pretend that Sakura's face falling doesn't leave her feeling bad that she doesn't have the right answer. "I mean, I'm not his biggest fan at all, but I never told you to cut him out of your life."

She is so far from being Hatake's fan at the moment that she might as well be in the enemy camp-and Ino knows he sees her that way. But then, her opinion is... coloured.

And by a lot more than just the fact he's hurt Sakura.

Ino stares into her coffee and contemplates the web of lies she's found herself in. It's not fair, she thinks, the way Sakura can make her doubt herself.

"I thought," Sakura says, "that it was for the best because-because I couldn't stand it if it was like Sasuke all over again, you know?"

Ino nods. She does understand that. What Sakura had done to herself over Sasuke had been ugly and vicious and lasted years. For that alone, she thinks, it was a good thing that Naruto had been forced to kill him last year.

(She will never say that to either Sakura or Naruto.)

But if Naruto hadn't killed him... Ino had been considering trying herself. She probably wouldn't have succeeded, which was what had held her back (because Sakura hardly needed that grief) and even if she had managed it, she doesn't think Sakura would have forgiven her for that the way she has with Naruto: Naruto and Sasuke had always been on a collision course that could have ended in death or in reconciliation.

Ino thinks death was the better way.

"But now...," Sakura continues, frowning. "I just... don't know. He didn't seem like he was doing well at all."

Ino tucks away the wince she wants to give before finding an answer for that. Sakura has no idea, she reminds herself. So don't go telling her. Hokage-sama will have your hide if you do. "Well," Ino says contemplatively, like she doesn't want to shriek at the idea of Sakura getting anywhere near Hatake right now, "I think he needs some sleep and to eat before you guys talk again, at the very least. He was running on very little of both-it's no wonder that he was off-kilter last night. Especially if he hadn't had a chance to really think about the fact you had broken things off with him."

Mentally, Ino pats herself on the back for that. It says what she thinks and completely skips over all the really uncomfortable parts.

"Do you think he was replacing me?" Sakura asks her straight out.

Ino decides she doesn't have enough coffee for this. She doesn't think Sakura will let her get up and go get more though. That's too obviously trying to get away from the question. Ino compromises by taking a big gulp of her current cup.

"I mean," Sakura presses on, "you were in his head last night. You'd know that now, right?"

Ino twirls a bit of hair around one finger. The worst part, she thinks, is that what Sakura is saying is nothing but the truth, which is always the hardest thing to argue against. "Yeah," she says, finally. "I was in his head. I'm probably the only one who'd be able to tell you anything."

Sakura looks at her.

Cursing herself for a weak-willed ninny, Ino rolls her eyes. "He's not sure," she says, weaving her way through the truth and what she'd seen last night. She'd known she'd see Rin there but it had been another thing entirely to actually come across her. Rin had been shimmery and filled with a pale light that Ino had been able to see through.

No wonder he thought he was going mad. Ino had been impressed herself.

"He's not sure?"

Ino nods. "He's not. He really hadn't thought about it before you'd broke things off with him. Rin had been his first love-but she'd died years and years ago, you know? He still visits his team at the stone all the time but at the same time... he'd moved on. He still loved her, he'll always love her, but she was gone." Ino finishes her coffee and stares mournfully into the cup, wondering if after this she can get another. "So then he loved you, and that happened pretty slowly, you know? It wasn't like he loved you while you were his snot-nosed Genin-"

"Gee, thanks," Sakura says, her voice heavy with sarcasm.

Ino grins a little. "Sorry," she says lightly. "Anyway, he never really thought of you that way, until you were seventeen-ish, and even then-it took years to really get him to fall. I don't know that he was replacing Rin so much as... you're both similar, but that's just what he likes in a person."

"Do you think I did the wrong thing?" Sakura's voice is uncertain.

"No," Ino says, flatly. She has to struggle a bit to find words to explain her vehemence to Sakura without-saying anything that's the truth. Luckily, Ino's got more than enough practice with that. She can bend the truth with that. "I think it's verygood that he's going to have to work all of that out for himself," she says, "and when he does, it'll mean that he's come to the conclusion that he really loves you for you and then you'll be able to move forward as a couple."

Ino contemplates that and decides that's putting a bit too much responsibility on Hatake's shoulders. "Of course," she adds, "that means you'll have to work through your trust problems before you guys can do that too. Think you can do that if he's thinking about if he did or not?"

Sakura relaxes a bit, slumping against her. "I'm so tired of being sad," she murmurs quietly. "I don't know how to trust someone."

Ino runs her fingers through Sakura's hair, not having the heart to push her away. "I know, Forehead," she says, "but it'll make your relationship stronger in the end if you can figure it out."

She knows she's not talking about Sakura's relationship with Hatake with that. Ino's smile twists ruefully for a second. Bad form, she supposes, to talk about one relationship when Sakura thinks they're talking about another.

Sakura just sighs and snags Ino's coffee cup. "One more cup," Sakura says, "and then I'll have to get going. What are you going to do today?"

"Probably help my parents out at the shop," Ino says easily, trailing Sakura into the kitchen. "Maybe in one of the greenhouses. Dad's been busy lately so he hasn't had the time he's wanted to spend on them."

"I hope they find out what's wrong with you soon," Sakura says as she pours them more coffee. "You're too good to be stuck in the village all the time."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Ino laughs. "But I like to think I keep myself busy here."

And the fact that she's medically bound to stay in the village is useful right now despite being ill having a number of downsides.

Ino glances down at her feet and wriggles them. Thank god, she thinks, for the fact that when Naruto knows a jutsu, he knows it inside and out.

All too soon, Sakura has to go. Ino hugs her before shoving her out the door. Ino doesn't pretend to herself that Sakura will manage to keep her smile for the whole day, but has to admit that it's nice to know that Sakura left her apartment with a smile.

It's a tiny victory.

And Sakura needs all of those that she can get.

Ino flickers her fingers through the seals to activate the security jutsu on the apartment and then goes for a shower. Half an hour later, smelling like citrus and flowers, she's dressed in a tank top and a skirt with fishnet leggings and her sandals. Her hair, she's braided into two braids down her back. It means that her hair will be wet tonight but Ino figures that's better than fussing with drying it when she's not in the mood.

After doing up the dishes and a tidying the place up-Sakura doesn't expect it of her, but Ino likes cleaning and it would bother her to leave a place when there's a simple mess to clean up-she heads out. Her smile is vibrant and she knows her eyes sparkle with good humour.

Underneath it all, she's ice and steel and willpower.

Rather than heading towards her parent's shop, like she'd told Sakura, Ino disappears in a cloud of leaves.

She reappears in a dark tunnel. The walls around her are rough-hewn, having been cut back when Konoha had first been built and never smoothed since then. The floor is the only thing that has been levelled. Ino walks on silent feet down the hall. There's no lights to guide her but that's alright: she knows the way.

Anyone who knows this path can get through it without lights. Her braids make a little noise as they brush against her thighs as she walks. Ino ignores that. In some ways, down here, it's better to make noise. Startling another shinobi in here is liable to end in death or pain for the one who didn't announce their presence.

After fifteen minutes, two staircases, and three turns, all in utter darkness, Ino stops outside a door. She gathers a tiny bit of chakra to her finger tips and press them to her left arm, just under her shoulder.

The jutsu there melts like an ice cube in boiling water. With a faint smile, she presses her fingers to the door, letting the security jutsu on it read her chakra signature.

The door cracks open and she's allowed to enter.

Ino doesn't wait for the door to open wider-it won't, she knows from experience-and slips inside. Hokage-sama, wearing a black hat with the spiral leaf (which looks, when tilted up, like a spiral of fire, Ino thinks, and thinks that's apt) and black robes, which are the inverse of her white garb, up in the Hokage building, looks up from her desk.

"Yamanaka." Tsunade-sama's voice is warm under the business-like briskness of her voice. "What do you have to report?"

Ino glances at the scarlet spiral on her arm, the one that not even Sakura or Shikamaru know about, and assumes an easy, but battle-ready, stance. "It's as you suspected," she says, her voice cold as ice. "He's the one. The others were only meant to get him back to the village without raising any eyebrows."

"And we wouldn't have," Tsunade-sama mutters, "if I wasn't a medical nin and hadn't remembered something similar in an old journal. Old Sarutobi would have passed over this."

Ino nods her head. "The others have all collapsed. I've ordered them brought to sub-basement four."

Tsunade looks tired. "That's where Orochimaru was found doing human experiments," she says sharply, with a glance at Ino. "That's not funny."

"It's not meant to be," Ino says, sitting on her temper. "But there's no other rooms with the same ability for containment and control. We don't know if the false bodies can wake up again. If they do-in that room, they won't get far."

Her Hokage sighs. "You're right," she says, waving one hand. "My apologies."

Ino says nothing to that. To tell the truth, Ino doesn't really feel that it needs any. A part of her considers the fact that they're using the very rooms that Orochimaru had done to experiment on villagers as their containment room as... amusing. Ino has the self-preservation to not say that though. Not to Hokage-sama.

"What do you think Hatake's next move will be?" Hokage-sama asks.

"It's impossible to tell," Ino says, "as he doesn't even know himself. That's one thing that's crystal-he has no idea of the fact that he was missing for a week and a half and that his team was late getting back. He thinks it was supposed to take as long as it has. At the moment, he's more concerned about the fact that he's hallucinating Rin and upset about what's happened between him and Haruno."

Ino never calls her best friend by her first name when it comes to business. It's a tiny thing but it lets her keep her cool just a little better.

Tsunade-sama scowls at the paperwork. "Should we be putting them back together?"

"No," Ino says, because she honestly doesn't think that's going to do any good. "That would only cause Haruno to be in the line of fire more. We've little idea of what Ogata has planted in Hatake as it is."

"Your report says that he's been reacting with loathing to you," Tsunade-sama says thoughtfully. "Do you think it's because of?"

Ino cuts her Hokage off. "I know," she says. "I suspect it's because I'm playing the role as his opposite despite also being a carrier."

Ino takes small comfort in the fact that, of the four carriers in Konoha, she's the only one who is allowed out of the ANBU compound.

"Be careful of him," Hokage-sama says. "You know why I agreed to let you remain awake. We're dealing with an unknown bio-weapon and you're part of it. Do nothing that'll harm the village."

"I love Konoha," Ino says quietly. "If I thought my being placed in stasis like the other three would be better for it, I would gladly agree. But Hokage-sama, I'm the best you've got to figure this out. No one else was compatible."

"Your mother came close," Hokage-sama says reflectively. "But with her weak heart, we couldn't take the chance. And she doesn't have your particular abilities either to keep from being noticed as… "

"Missing?" Ino completes. "I wouldn't be able to do this much if it wasn't for Naruto." She's always believed in giving credit where it is due.

She wonders if Hokage-sama knows her face softens at those words.

"Besides," Ino says, "we're lucky to have found a match as close as it is when the original bloodline has been destroyed."

"I wasn't arguing that." Hokage-sama smiles, for all that it's brief. "I'm glad we've been so lucky. What else have you got for me?"

Ino hesitates a second, then tells her Hokage about how Rin had looked to her, through Kakashi's eyes, and how Kakashi was fighting with everything he had against the irrational rage that bubbles under the surface of his mind.

"Alright," Tsunade-sama said, once she was done. "Continue to keep an eye on him. I'll need to review your reports more thoroughly to decide if we're moving the project up. Do you need any back up? I know you've been using Naruto, but..."

"Naruto is doing fine," Ino assures her. "He's not much for subtle but that works in his favour. No one would expect him to be helping me, and most people, let's be frank, don't think I'm much of a threat anyway. I doubt our not-so-friendly thinks I'm anything more than a silly girl who is over-protective of her friend."

Which, well, she can be pretty over-protective. But this time, she thinks, she's got good reason. There's no way she wants Sakura anywhere near Hatake when Hatake is the key to some new bio-weapon.

Tweaking what had already been a scenario almost doomed to having them break up so that it both happened just a little sooner and a little more decisively…

Child's play for her.

Despite the fact that she feels utterly horrendous about having done that to Sakura.

It's for the village, Ino tells herself again. And separating them now means Sakura is safer.

She would rather Sakura be safe than be happy, which is an ugly thing to know about herself.

The fact that Ino is a carrier of the same weapon that Hatake actively carries doesn't bother her. Between the fact that it's controlled by Hokage-sama's abilities and due to their activation of the project, which has locked down anything Ino might be able to pass on any further…

Ino is about as safe as the average person, when it comes to passing this on. She's not the medical genius that Sakura is, but Ino is more than able to keep up with any explanation that Hokage-sama has given her, and Hokage-sama is certain she's safe.

Especially, Ino thinks, when it's not even all of her that can leave the compound.

"Good," Hokage-sama says, "you're the most useful that way."

Ino hides a smile. She agrees with her Hokage, of course, but there's more to it than that: she has fun with it. It's fun to act the silly girl.

"I've got an appointment with Morino," Hokage-sama continues. "I'll leave you to your machinations, ANBU Captain Yamanaka. I'll see you here tomorrow, at this time, to discuss Project Rin further. Tell Naruto he's to attend tomorrow's meeting."

Ino bows her acceptance, which triggers the jutsu that covers her tattoo to activate again, and disappears in another puff of smoke.

She reappears outside, near her family's shop, though she shakes her head and hops away from it. Despite what she's told Sakura, Ino has no inclination to work there today.

But it's easiest to teleport to where she's used to being and no place is easier to get to then the childhood home.

Ino leaps down from the walkway, and lands on the ground easily, as her braids lash out behind her.

"Hey."

She glances over her shoulder, genuinely startled. It's Shikamaru, his hands stuffed in his pocket, his shoulders slumped. Temari-san is walking with him. Ino wonders if she's ruined a date or something but, really, figures that any idiot would realize that Ino had no idea they were around.

"Hey," she says, turning around to fully face them. She rests one hand on her hip and lets the other hang casually. "Shikamaru, Temari-san. Out for a walk?"

They're just about the last people who she wants to talk to right now, but Ino keeps that out of her manner.

"Breakfast," he says, with a glance at Temari-san. Ino stomps down on the urge to feel jealous. Even if she had the time these days for a relationship, Ino knows in exacting detail all the reasons it would be a horrific idea. It twists something in her heart to see other people out together though. "Did you want to join us?"

"I don't mind," Temari-san's voice is pleasant, polite. If she minds, Ino thinks, she's as good at hiding it as Ino is. "I haven't had a chance to talk to you much."

"Yeah, well," Ino says, lifting her shoulders in a shrug. "A girl ain't around much when she's busy supporting a friend."

"Haruno?" Shikamaru asks.

"Been practically living there," Ino says glibly, which isn't a lie and thus makes everything else seem more truthful. "She's having a rough time of it lately."

Shikamaru smiles his slow, approving smile, as Temari-san looks evaluating. "You always did tend to fuss," he says fondly. Ino pretends that doesn't make her heart skip a beat. "Come on, Ino. Have breakfast with us."

She looks at Temari-san, who nods that it's fine with her. Ino can only take her at her word.

"Sure," she says, mind ticking away at other problems. Naruto will be sticking close to Kakashi today, so she doesn't have to worry too much about that. Ino sends a burst of information down the link to the original. That way, Naruto will know about the meeting.

"Sounds good to me."

This is like torture, Ino thinks, as she walks with them, discussing easily where they might go for breakfast. And yet I said yes.

She wishes, for a moment, that things were different.

But even if she could afford a relationship right now, Ino knows she doesn't have the time for it.

Her clock is ticking down.


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