Author's Note: I worked most of the day on this because next week I'm extremely busy, sorry if it wasn't well-written!

On the bright side, I was so bored that I drew a lineart of a scene that's gonna take place later on, so if you're interested to see it, just tell me and I will send it to you!

Far Beyond The Truth

Chapter 11

"What do you mean you have lost Ino!?" A woman's voice boomed in the entire room after her palm had met the soft wooden desk in front of her with a loud thump. Aforementioned table seemed to crack a bit, and the mountain-like pile of papers that was once stacked on it flew in the air as they slowly swayed down on the floor. Another woman, younger-looking than her, immediately jumped by its side to take hold of a sake bottle that lurched around the edge before it falls and breaks. Making sure it was steady on the table, she let go of the container and looked up frustrated at her master standing in front of her. She hated seeing her at times like that, even though she was somewhat uptight all the time. Yet acting this way in such situation wasn't bizarre at all, it was to be expected from the village hidden in the leaves' Hokage.

Tsunade sat back in her chair and laid her elbows on her desk rubbing her temples. Last thing she wanted was one of her kunoichis missing or kidnapped. Or even worse; killed.

She took a deep breath and exhaled, calming herself down before she blows up on the poor man in front of her.

"Shikamaru, how could this happen? You were the leader of the squad we sent after the Akatsuki, you only had to gather information and try to avoid a combat as much as you could, you were responsible for everyone, it's not like you to leave someone behind let alone Ino a member of your own team!" She tried to keep her voice stable enough, but the mixture of anger and worry could easily be identified in her words.

Shikamaru kept his eyes to the ground. It's not like he wasn't already blaming himself. This was utterly his fault and he knew it. He clenched his fists tightly at the thought of what had happened the other day. This upset him more than it did for the Godaime. It was already bad enough he had lost a vital element of team 10. He didn't want another friend, no, family member, to get murdered by the same criminals who had killed his dearly loved sensei.

The man with the spiky hair remained silent.

Tsunade's right-hand lady, Shizune, stared at both of them with tranquility. She knew how much the blonde meant to the man standing before her. As much as she wanted to console him, saying anything at the moment seemed like a bad idea. She looked behind him at his teammate; he appeared as guilty and miserable as the other was. Chouji made few steps closer near Shikamaru. He lifted his hand towards him and opened his mouth, trying to let out something to say whether to comfort and assure him that everything was going to be okay, or try to take the guilt from him a little in front of the Hokage. It's not like he was the only person to be denunciated. However, when Shizune made eye contact with the Akimichi, she shook her head and mouthed a 'no'. So Choji dropped his hand and waited for anyone to break the killing quietness.

"Well did you try looking for her?" Tsunade spoke in a distracted way. She was genuinely thinking and wanted the man in front of her to talk anything, even though she was sure her question was useless.

"Of course we did! We kept searching for her for two days but she was nowhere to be found! If it weren't for Izumo and his injury…" Shikamaru paused in disinclination and gritted his teeth, unwilling to continue.

"Shikamaru, what happened?" The Godaime insisted, fixing her solemn eyes on said-man.

Shikamaru stood still, then slowly raised his head to face Tsunade.

"While we were spying on the two Akatsuki, they detected our presence and discovered us. We all fought them but…a huge explosion from one of them caused us to separate. We couldn't find her ever since." He finished, lowering his head a bit.

"Wait…did you say; explosion?" The woman with the blond pigtails inquired, giving her full attention to the Nara.

"Yeah…why?"

The old woman frowned, slamming her fist to the table which fractured into other minor splits.

"That bastard. Is it possible that he managed to escape Guy's team back then?" She asked more to herself. Shikamaru only stared at her with raised eyebrows. Before he could ask anything, they were perturbed by loud noise –shouting- radiating from behind the access of the Hokage's office. And soon enough the door swung open, revealing a tired yet serious looking woman in purple.

"Hokage-sama! I have to talk to you!" She hurried and made her way towards Tsunade. She was followed by a Konaha ninja who attempted to stop her from going any further.

"Hey you can't—" He stopped in his track after reaching the entry of the room and noting that everyone was staring at him. "..I apologize Lady Hokage, but this girl here persisted to see you and…I'll get her out of here—"

"Temari?" Shikamaru questioned, recognizing her unexpected presence.

"Shikamaru." She acknowledged, never losing her urgency.

"That is no way of entering my office and I'm busy at the moment! What brought you here? Oh, and you're dismissed." The Godaime queried, waving at the guard and grabbing her sake bottle and taking a sip. The shinobi bowed in front of her and left the place.

"I came here to make sure that Ino is here somewhere?" She spat it out, going straight to the subject.

Every single person's eyes widened at her spoken words. Shikamaru immediately turned around and faced her, grabbing her shoulders firmly with a worried yet somewhat relieved look.

"Why? Have you seen her? Where is she?" He asked shaking her a bit. He soon realized what he was doing and let her go, sending her a look which said "sorry" that didn't have to come out of his mouth for her to understand.

"Oh so she isn't…" She affirmed, spacing out.

"Temari, spit it out." Tsunade commanded, becoming aware that the sand kunoichi knew something they didn't.

Temari only looked at them with confused eyes. She wasn't able to understand it herself.

"I'm not sure…but I think I have…" She started and was cut-off by the shinobi she came there to see.

"Where? Is she okay?!"

The young blonde bit her lower lip and thought for a moment. How could she explain it to them if she didn't comprehend it herself?

"That's the thing…she was perfectly fine but…she wasn't alone…" She paused, clearing her throat. "..she was with the Akatsuki member presumed dead."

Tsunade held her fist tighter. As she thought. That bastard wasn't dead.

The guy with the spiky ponytail almost lost his balance. The thing he feared most had occurred. He refused to have another teammate slaughtered by one of them. He may have taken revenge for his sensei's demise but doing that millions of times would never bring him back. He looked up towards his master; a miserable look filled with sorrow and grief. Tsunade knew how the young man felt towards that organization. Every sane person hates them; that's true. But his despise grew bigger after the loss of Asuma Sarutobi.

He murmured something under his breath, something none of the people surrounding him comprehended, and headed towards the door. However, he was stopped by his teammate, who placed a hand on his shoulder and called him by his name.

"I know what you're planning to do, Shikamaru, but going there now alone will get you nowhere but killed. We'll call for reinforcements so we can all—" Chouji began, but was rudely interrupted by his partner who pushed his hand off his shoulder.

"I won't wait for another shithead to kill one more member of team 10." He uttered sharply, barely moving his head to look at him.

"Then I'll go with you! Last time I saw them they were by the borders of the River Country, I'm sure they didn't go that far!" Temari shouted, moving closer beside him.

"No, you should already be in your village; your brothers must be worried sick. I'll go by myself to look for her, don't worry, I'm not that stupid to face two of them. I'll just try to locate her and make sure she's still…okay."

And with that he ran past her and exited the room. Tsunade tried calling after him but to no avail. He was already gone.

"Shit!" she swore setting the alcohol down on her desk harshly. "Shizune, call for a back-up team straight away! That guy is going to get himself killed!"

"Hai, Tsunade-sama."

Ino slowly opened her eyes and lifted her head that once took refuge between her arms. First thing she took notice of was whiteness. After remembering what had happened with her earlier, she quickly turned her gaze to the left to check on her wounded friend.

Seeing he was breathing normally and his peaceful face showed no suffering sign, she smiled and stood up, causing the chair she was sitting on to trail along the ground and emanate some noise. She stretched her arms and watched the sky outside the window. It was clear blue. The sound of the birds chirping outside and the leaves of the multitude trees in the house's backyard rustling was optimistic. She found herself eager to know what kind of journey was waiting for her. Taking one last glance at the sleeping Deidara, she spun on her heel and headed towards the bathroom. That kid was right. It was about time for her to take a shower.

She stepped outside the shower and grabbed the towel hanging on the towel bar. Tucking it around herself and into itself, she made sure it was steady enough before grabbing another one and folding it around her hair. She took a deep breath; deeply inhaling the sweet refreshing smells of the shampoo she used. Grapefruit, gardenia, amber and vanilla; she didn't know how but she was able to name every single element of the product. She shook it off and walked outside the bathroom, looking for the pink dress Meiko had given her last night.

"She just placed it on the top shelf of the closet, un."

Deidara's soft yet unpredicted voice almost made Ino slip. If she hadn't grasped the door handle for support she would've fallen for sure. However, she didn't care for that at all, she immediately made her way towards the blond and threw her arms around him as soon as she saw the scene before her. He had woken up and wore that usual smirk of his. It may be a little faint but it was still a smirk nonetheless. Deidara was taken aback by her reaction and kept his other words to himself. His mouth however was still slightly open by surprise.

"I'm so glad you're okay." She whispered in his ear, still holding him tight.

Deidara couldn't help but to blush a bit. Never in his history had someone ever cared for his well-being. It felt nice, he had to say. But he wasn't sure if that was the actual reason or the fact that she was wearing nothing but a towel. He looked the other way away from her, preventing her to see his face.

"Can't you at least put something on first, un? The way I am too, if Meiko walks in and sees us she'll think…you know…" He complained, pouting. It wasn't like he cared too, but her weight on him was paining him and he didn't want to show her any more weakness. Realizing his argument was against his teasing, flirting-like nature, he added, "..and you're so not my type, Yamanaka." He waited for a rebuke or a hit. But nothing. Instead, she lifted herself up and sat on the side facing him. She caressed his injured hand wrapped in bandages then looked at his eyes, letting out a smile.

"I don't care." She laughed quietly and stood up, heading towards the closet.

Deidara was once again startled by her answer.

What the hell was that? He thought to himself. Wow, saving a person does change them, un.

Ino grabbed the dress and stood behind the changing curtain. He could see her hands moving from on top of it as she wore her new girly clothes.

Deidara watched the place with plain boredom. It was all…white. A couple of nightstands by the bedside, a bookshelf by his right, just before a door that obviously led to the bathroom in the very corner, a dresser to his left, some sort of plant-thing by the room door. That's it. There was nothing artistic about it. He was already irritated by the fact that he couldn't move for a while, and now he had to put up with this view. Great.

Ino left the curtain, dusting her fluffy pink dress, and stood in front of Deidara. He kept staring at her with his same pure ennui look without saying anything. Seeing he wasn't planning on commenting on her new look, she started the conversation.

"So? What do you think?"

The artist eyed her down again, taking his time to formulate his answer.

"Neh, the old dirty clothes looked better on you, un." He mocked, resting his head back and gazing at the ceiling that had absolutely nothing interesting.

The female blonde sighed, "Ha-ha, very funny."

"No really, purple looks better on you, un." He yawned, keeping his dull looks upwards.

The girl shrugged and made her way towards the bookshelf. She folded her arms and shifted her weight, in search of a useful appealing book worth reading. She picked up several ones and piled them on the floor near the chair she was sitting on earlier.

"Aren't you supposed to be working?" Deidara mentioned, somewhat teasing her. He was incredibly bored. He could do nothing. Nothing at all. All what he was able to do was sit –lay- and watch.

"Aren't you supposed to be a guy?" She shot back, without even bothering to look at him. She couldn't refrain herself however, for her victory grin soon appeared on her face. She considered him a friend now and she cared for him; that was true. But that didn't mean stopping the mocking relationship they both shared. It's not like he could be the only annoying one.

The missing-nin rolled his eyes in monotony at her answer. He blew strands of hair that covered his face lazily trying to amuse himself. As fun as blowing your hair out of your face could actually be.

However Ino had her own work to do. Meiko didn't assign her anything, but she wanted to improve herself on her own. She only chose the books that appeared to be useful for her; as in medical books, fighting methods, treatment with herbs, etc. An odd-looking hardcover stood out though. Curious about what this dark book could be, she pulled it out and read the title.

Bingo Book

Ino raised an eyebrow at the strange label. She opened it and skipped the first empty pages till she reached the written ones. She read the passage written in bold in the middle of the page.

The following contents are information about missing-nins that are considered harmful and dangerous, as well as extremely powerful ninja. The purpose of this is so that the village's secrets and/or kekkei genkai aren't stolen or examined by the enemy. This is a book that every ninja keeps that lists records of these ruthless missing-nins and are considered to be on the "hit-list" .The book is a reference guide for the ninjas to know about the past and present crimes and illegal activity these highly-ranked criminals committed, as well as the bounty on them and general info about the rogues and S-Rank Ninja.

She flipped through the pages and stared at the different faces of the people they listed. A certain criminal stole her attention. He was unmistakably the creepiest thing she had ever seen. So far, for the least. She wasn't sure if he could be qualified as human. With his blue skin, sharp teeth, and what looked like gills under his eyes, he looked more like a shark. Deciding she had seen enough of this guy, she turned the page to see a normal person with dark hair and crimson eyes. Not to mention hot too, she thought. She mentally laughed at herself for such consideration and read his name.

Uchiha Itachi

The girl seemed to muse for a while. This particular name seemed too catchy and somewhat familiar. She looked over at Deidara to ask him about the man, but he had his eyes closed and his breathing was slow and controlled so she figured he would be sleeping. Deciding it would be better to just leave him rest, she turned her gaze towards the book between her hands. The criminal's image stuck in her mind. She read through the description and noted something. She could swear she heard the word "Akatsuki" before but she couldn't put her finger on it. She noticed another thing too; he was from her same village.

Is that why he's memorable?

Little Ino ran between the alleys holding her nine-year-old friend's hand.

"I'm sure it's this way!" She affirmed, tightening her grip around the little girl with the pink hair's wrist. She looked back at her and smiled, then ran even faster making her companion stumble on the way.

"Ino, slow down! I'm gonna trip!" She whined, still running after the blonde.

"C'mon Sakura! If we don't hurry we won't see Sasuke-kun!"

Sakura didn't seem convinced by Ino's words. This part of Konoha was forbidden to enter. Only the Uchihas were allowed to go there for it only belonged to them. That didn't stop Ino though, she was determined on seeing Sasuke the love of her life.

"What if we get in trouble?" Sakura looked around her, in fear of someone had seen her.

Ino looked back towards her, laughing mischievously at her innocent friend.

"Don't worry, we won't get cau—"

Without realizing it till she was on the ground, the blonde looked up slowly at the person she had bumped into. She let out a soft gasp when she recognized the tall man in front of her.

"That's Sasuke-kun's brother!" She whispered out loud to Sakura.

Itachi raised an eyebrow at her words, and waited until the girl stood up and dusted her flowery purple skirt before he spoke.

"I see you're acquainted with my little brother?" He inquired, his interest didn't show on his impassive face.

"Umm…yeah…we train together," She lied, not that Itachi believed it. "..so can we see him?"

The Uchiha eyed her down. "No, it's a restricted area. I'm afraid you have to leave."

Ino frowned. She always got what she wanted and she never took no as an answer. She took a deep breath and shouted. "I won't leave till I see Sasuke-kun!"

Itachi turned around slowly to face the angry Ino. He looked at her eyes and she looked back. Crimson red meeting icy blue. And without even realizing it, she was already on her knees with her hand on her head.

"It's better for you if you leave." He said turning around and walking away.

Sakura ran towards her friend and caught her before she falls down. She seemed kind of dizzy and unable to walk.

"What's wrong, Ino?" She asked worriedly.

"L-let's just go home…" She answered quickly, ignoring her question.

What the hell did he just do to me? She thought to herself.

Ino awoke from her daydream. She blinked few times before looking around the room and realizing where she was. She looked down at her hands holding the book on which Itachi's photo was shown.

Throwing the book away in surprise, it landed on the floor, open on a particular page. She walked towards it and picked it up, checking the content.

She gasped after seeing what she had seen.