Author's Note: I apologize if there was any confusion in the previous chapter with the end of the POV, I had just noticed that not everything I do on Microsoft word appears in here and the line that separated them didn't show too. :) Anyways, I'm trying to work harder on them, I never really wrote something in the first person except in french so yeah I really appreciate any criticism! *coughs* but please be gentle *coughs*

Far Beyond The Truth

Chapter 7

Ino's POV:

when I woke up –well, Tobi woke me up- today at dawn, I was extremely tired and wanted to get back to sleep so badly. I was so fatigued that, according to Tobi, they kept trying to wake me up for several minutes. No. I didn't enjoy sleeping on the dirty ground so much. My bag was a rotten piece of pillow as well. The climate was cold and chilly which was nothing encouraging to sleep. But after I got back from that incident thing with..err..Deidara..and went back to take a short nap before we leave, I kept having those weird dreams. Not even sure if I should qualify them as nightmares. Most of them were about that guy, Shikamaru, and the other fat one. Err what was his name again? Oh yeah, Choji. But it was Shikamaru for the most part. I think the three of us are a team. I saw that in a previous one. I assume my memories are coming back to me through these fantasies, but it's haphazardly getting jammed in my head, I can't seem to put them well together. Well, of course it's gonna be hard! I'm regaining the memoirs of who knows how many years I lived! I think I'm somewhere between sixteen and seventeen. I don't think I'm that old..eheh..I sure hope not, because A) eww gross, B) I'm gonna surely have a LOT to remember and C) eww gross! It's bad enough I have to put up with this filthy thing I'm obligated to call: clothes.

Anyways, it wasn't bad at first; remembering events with my teammates. But then, everything started to get so..menacing. The sky turned red, crimson red. Not like the sunset's red, it was deeper. Actually, more intense. It was almost as if it were gonna come to life. And the clouds that are supposed to be dark gray in their worst conditions, were plain black. Black! It was really scary! It was as if I were transported to an alternative universe –yes I know it was a dream, but I didn't when I was walking that deserted road! It seemed to never end, I just walked, I didn't know why I kept walking it I just knew I had to. Getting creeped out by seclusion, I started running. I just wanted to arrive at wherever I was supposed to arrive and get back to Shikamaru. Somehow I knew he was waiting for me at the end of that isolated path, and for some other reason, I knew I would be safe with him, and that he would protect me till the very end. That one thought was the only thing that kept me hopeful and buoyant. To know that there's someone, somewhere, who looks after you and actually cares about your welfare. My hope didn't last long, however, for something had landed right beneath my legs from the dead bushes by the side of the road. Startled by the whole thing, I bent down to check on it, and my breath was caught in my throat when I found out that it was actually a him. I didn't recognize that by his face, no, because here's the best part. He had no face. Yes, he was headless. I let out a scream of terror before I placed my hands on my mouth and stared at the corpse in disbelief. Breathing heavily, I held my forehead with my hand trying to keep my composure. It was just too much for me. I've never in my life seen such thing! –well, nothing that I remember. Why would I have?

I jumped over the body and ran, faster than before. Dead people began to fall out from the sky as if they were ordinary rain. They weren't! People don't fall from the sky! They're supposed to be on the ground! That was all just incongruous. My hands were now covering both sides of my face as I started repeating the words: 'it's not real, it's not real'.

I tried to keep going as much as I can and not just shout and fall on my knees. Even if it weren't real, I still wonder how I was able to cover from that eerie scene. If I'm a kunoichi, I don't wanna be one anymore. I'd rather carry on with medical studies. Even though I'm still gonna deal with injuries and stuff, but that's not the same as having to be the person who takes out somebody's life for lame reasons I don't care about. And as odd as that was, it wasn't the weirdest/scariest/freakiest thing yet. As I was ignoring the blood and gore surrounding me, something got in my way. No, someone. Looking up to see my disturber, I was out of words. He had flashy long blond hair that covered half his face. He had fierce cold blue eyes that kept their focus on mine. He had a wicked smirk that plastered itself on his face and didn't let go. He had a black and red cloak that exactly matched the sky. No prizes on guessing who that person was.

Santa Claus.

Hehe, kidding, it was all just too depressing that I just had to think of something funny.

Anyways, moving back, I took a step backwards without realizing it and he just moved closer. His smirk soon faded to a warm smile which caught me off-guard. Since the day we have met I've never seen such affectionate smile and frantically I never thought I'd be seeing one on him. His eyes seemed to soften a bit too, his whole face looked so loving and caring that I started to doubt if it were really him. No I'm not exaggerating; I'm ready to put my money on it –if I had any- to see your reaction if you were me and went with the things I was going through. Sometimes like this, you wonder if you really know the person you hate and whether he deserves your rancor. I was totally taken by this whole thing that I didn't notice that he actually pulled me in an embrace and I was already between his arms. Everything surrounding us vanished and we just stayed in darkness as if we were floating in space. Without the stars of course. There was absolutely nothing, or no one, else with us. Feeling his calm breathing lulled mine. I had soon forgotten everything that happened earlier. I never thought I would be this relieved right after what I had seen. I let my head relax on his chest as I closed my eyes and enjoyed the warmth of our bodies combined together.

I felt him moving, but he still had an arm around me. I felt this striking pain in my chest, but he still had his compassionate smile. I felt the sharp metal leaving the space it carved for itself all the way from my back to my heart, but he still held me tightly preventing me to fall down. My grip on his shirt tightened as my ambivalent eyes were fixed on his own. Realizing my time was up; I started to slip down, extending my arms in last hope for him to save me. He didn't. It was such a disappointment. He had let me down so easily. His impassive face was the last thing I saw before I opened my eyes gasping for air in the unearthly hours of morning. Breathing ponderously, I sat up immediately and looked around. I was extremely dizzy that I rested my face in my hands for a bit before looking up again in hope of apprehending what had just happened. I tried several times to grasp the meaning of this bizarre fantasy but I was rewarded with nothing. All I got was more headaches. It was really depressing!

I laid back down and huffed, staring at the blue shades of the sky turning red at the very far end of the woods. All I remembered was that Deidara had stabbed me in the back. Literally. But I couldn't quite fathom why he would do such thing.

What's the thing I did that deserved that? Have I done something wrong? Wait…why am I even bothering myself to think too much about it. It's just a dream. It's not real and it will never be. We may have a weird hating-each-other relationship but it would never lead to such thing. Never never never never! There's no way my end will be like that. As much as I hate it I wanna grow old and have kids and grand-kids. I wanna live peacefully with the love of my life. I wanna have the 'happily ever after' ending like those fairy tales. And I will get what I want. Ino Yamanaka always gets what she wants. Err...that was my last name right?

I face-palmed myself at the last thought. Good job, Ino, good job.

I turned around to my side facing the place where Deidara was seated earlier. He wasn't there anymore. What a shock. As if I were gonna go look for him again. Ha! Yeah right. He's not worth the trouble. He's free to do whatever he wants for I can't care any less. As long as I'm going back home, I don't care. I shifted in my position to my other side, making my back face Deidara's spot –yes, I'm calling it his spot- as if he were there and I was ignoring him. He's not the only person with an attitude you know. Hmph. And I was being nice.

I closed my eyes and went back to my slumber. Well, tried at least.

I rubbed my eyes and let out a yawn or two.

"You sure are a heavy sleeper!" Tobi cheered before jumping his way away from me.

This phrase took me back to my very first meeting with Deidara. Remembering my dream and choking with my own saliva, I looked around in search of the blond. There he was, my killer in my nightmare, standing close to that masked man. How could he be this cruel?

It was just a dream for goddamnit. Don't you remember what had happened earlier? If he wanted to kill you he could've done it ages ago. He won't. Stop being so skeptic. If he's acting so normally then you should too. Just leave everything that had happened yesterday behind you, whether it was about the dream or the waterfall thing. Just, breathe.

I stood up, dusted my desperately need-to-get-cleaned clothes and walked towards them after Deidara had said something that I couldn't really understand. I wasn't paying attention much to any of the guys. I just kept following their footsteps. The advice I gave myself about leaving everything behind was failing miserably. If this Shikamaru guy really exists, I truly hope he comes and takes me out of this nightmare. I wonder if he's worried about me and looking for me now. Could he really be?

I just hope this amnesia thing isn't permanent. It's really silly though. It looks like one of those lame TV shows. If it is, I might just lose my head. I'm not going through all of this to get nothing at the end. If only I know the person who got me into this mess. I would rip his intestines out of his body and wear them as a belt. Yes, that sounds like a good idea…

I looked up at the guys just in time to avoid an unwanted bump with the blond. He had two fingers next to his face and he wore his usual smirk.

Huh…that's weird…

"Yes, target located, un." I heard him say. I titled my head in confusion.

"KATSU." Was shouted before I was blown away by the wind coming from an explosion that took place few meters behind me.

I don't usually like to swear but, What. The. Fuck.

Everyone stopped in their track as they turned around and stared at the smoke coming out of the west side of the forest. Deidara rested his hand back down and narrowed his eyes scrutinizing the fumes.

"What the hell was that?!" Ino shouted turning back to face Deidara.

"Shhh! Keep quiet, un!" He waved at her, still observing the smoke.

"Senpai did a really big one!" Tobi commented, placing his fingers on his chin in a thinking way.

"Shut up Tobi! You make it sound as if my art were shit!" He scowled pointing at the explosion.

"Wait wait wait, you did that?"

The blond opened his mouth to reply then stopped. The female raised an eyebrow at his reaction and was about to talk on her own if Deidara hadn't pushed her on the ground and sprang into the air flipping backward as a windmill from the smoke came above her spinning at intense speed. Shocked, Ino watched as the thing passed right over her, where she should've been standing and taking the blow. Instead, she struggled for breath when she saw whom the weapon had hit. She was on her hands and knees when she perceived with her own eyes Tobi falling on the ground with the side of his cloak totally torn off. Deidara had landed on a high branch a little farther from them.

The girl's eyes were wide open. Trembling was all the movement she was able to do at the moment.

O-oh my god..oh my god…

"How many times do I have to tell you to always stay on guard Tobi, un!" She heard him yell from where he was standing.

Huh…?

She shifted her gaze to check on the blond, but was cut mid-way when she saw the masked man stand up from the corner of her eye. She blinked multiple times to make sure her eyes weren't deceiving her. He was indeed a living breathing creature.

What the hell…he is…how can he…but that windmill…it hit him!

"Eheh..I didn't expect you to do that senpai, Tobi thought it was gonna hit Ino-chan." He justified scratching the back of his head sheepishly.

That guy…

"Judging by the way you were controlling the windmill's speed with your chakra, I take it you're from the Wind Country, un." Deidara said to no one in particular. At first, Ino thought he was talking to himself until a guy came out walking from the smog. "We entered the borders of the River Country; you have absolutely no business with us, un."

The man scowled at him, not hesitating in showing him his disdain. He had short dark spiky hair and wore his hitai-ate on his forehead. His beard didn't succeed in reaching his cheeks, for he only had his facial hair on his chin. Both his hands were clenched in fists, which seemed to tighten as he spoke.

"Everyone has business with you, you bastards!" He pulled back his arms quickly yanking what appeared to be chakra strings attached to them. The same windmill that once hit Tobi was flying behind Deidara and heading right towards him. The blond was about to jump and dodge, it was nothing special or big to be afraid of, typical shinobi tactic of attacking, he had the speed for it and it was really easy. But something capricious came up and made him fall down on one knee clutching his stomach.

"Shit," He cursed looking back at his certain doom. "Not now!"