As Long As My Blood Flows

Chapter 3 – A Game of Survival

Yamanaka Ino liked to think that she understood her classmates pretty well. Her Clan's expertise was over the mind, after all. No one knew the human mind quite as well as a Yamanaka. She had most of her classmates pegged from the start, but lately some of her peers seemed to be slipping away from the boxes she'd placed them in. Hinata answered questions in class of her own volition more and slowly crawled out of her shell, inch by inch; Naruko didn't seem quite as short as she used to be and was… well, not calm, but calmer lately; and even Kiba didn't annoy her as much as he usually did.

And it all seemed to center around one Kawase Ren, who, ever since the rumored concussion that he'd suffered, had become far more of a social bee than he'd been.

She frowned, staring at the back of his head and studying him. What had changed? Why did he suddenly care so much about making friends with everyone around him, or at least the Clan heirs and a few others, when previously he'd mostly kept to himself? She was dying to know.

"Alright, alright, quiet down, everyone," Iruka-sensei said as he walked through the door, smiling at his students. He was easily Ino's favorite teacher of all the instructors they had. It was clear that he absolutely loved doing what he did, and truly wanted the best for every student. The class quieted down, and even Naruko stopped chatting with Ren to glance up at him. "To check and make sure that everyone's settled in for homeroom today, let's get a head count…"

Ino's eyes, as they often did these days, glanced to the right and fell on Ren's face.

It was odd. He looked much older than eight these days, at least, from his eyes. He acted older, too, although he still felt like a kid. It was really strange, and she'd noticed this ever since his medical leave.

"Yamanaka Ino," Ikura-sensei called out, drawing her attention away.

"Present," she said with a beatific smile.

The Jounin finished up with the head count, and they all made sure that they had the appropriate supplies. The usage of weapons, taijutsu, Academy-level genjutsu, sealing jutsu, and the three Academy Jutsu only were going to be allowed; no elemental Jutsu or clan Jutsu. Only the Substitution, Transformation, and Clone Jutsu were permitted. The type of survival game, Iruka-sensei explained, was a Capture-the-Flag scenario. The class would be split into two "Villages," with the "Kages" of each "Village" being the team captain. Their teacher selected each Kage himself.

"Alright," Iruka-sensei decided, "Uchiha Sasuke is the Kage of the Akakagure*, and Nara Shikamaru is the Kage of the Aoikagure**. Kages, please select the shinobi you will be leading. And everyone, remember—no serious injuries. Knocking out opponents is fine, as long as it's not too hard of a hit."

Ino's eyes rose. Shikamaru as Kage for the game; this would be interesting.

Shikamaru scooped up Ino and Chouji, naturally, since they had the best teamwork of just about any in the class. It was almost a shame; she could have been on Sasuke's team, and yet now she was forced in opposition to him! It was like a romantic tragedy! Focusing away from that, Sasuke had selected Kiba, Hinata, and surprisingly, Ami (with a long-suffering look; he'd probably only done it due to the girl's exceptional taijutsu ability and agility). Shikamaru then took Ren and Sasuke in turn chose Sakura.

Ino frowned deeply. How was that fair? Though she supposed that Sakura, having already mastered the Academy Jutsu thanks to her extraordinary chakra control, WAS a good choice for a teammate. She could be a massive support boon.

The remaining class members were divvied up, with Shino, the second-to-last one left, being chosen by Sasuke and Naruko being, as usual, the final choice. She went to Shikamaru, and cheered as she wrapped Ren in a hug. The kid blushed a little, smiling and giving a squeeze back.

Studying the Red 'Village' after they reached the wooded training grounds where the game would commence, Shikamaru sighed and rubbed the side of his head. "Man, this is troublesome," he muttered. "They've got really strong overall taijutsu power. We only really have one powerhouse."

Said powerhouse hummed as he munched on some chips.

"Well, Shikamaru, you're the commander," Ren said, grinning despite the strength of the other team. "And your strategic skills are second to none in our class. If anyone can lead us to victory, it'll be you."

"You put way too much faith in me," Shikamaru grumbled. "Troublesome." He sighed and gathered them together in a group. "Alright, listen up. Who here is good with the Academy Jutsus? Ino, Chouji, I already know your abilities, but I'm not certain on everyone else's."

Ino raised her hand. "I'm pretty good at the Substitution and Transformation."

"I'm decent enough with the Clone Jutsu," one of the civilian kids with stringy brown hair—Ino thought his name was Konda—offered.

"I'm only good at Transformation," Ren declared, "but I have high chakra sensitivity and can sense where people are hiding. I'm better with weapons and marksmanship than I am at the Academy Jutsus."

"I suck at all three Academy Jutsus, but I'm really unpredictable and good at pranking," Naruko offered, hand raised up in the air. "I'm great at setting up traps! And I know sealing, too, because a few years ago, Hokage-sama gave me some of my mother's notes. Apparently she was, like, really good at sealing, and he said that I reminded him of her so much that he thought I might do well with it! It was really, really weird and hard at first, but I can finally use some seals! There's this one seal I have that I think would be perfect!"

That piqued Shikamaru's interest. "You can use sealing?" He blinked a few times, and everyone stared at Naruko. "…Huh. Okay, that's unexpected."

Ren stared at her, blinking dumbly. "...How can you be so bad at the Academy Jutsus if you can use sealing?"

Naruko pouted.

The others in the team all gave their various strengths and weaknesses, and Shikamaru hummed as he mulled it over. His arms crossed over his chest and he tapped his foot. Chouji watched him, more chips crunching between his teeth as he chewed. "Shikamaru, I believe in you," he said after a few minutes, smiling, and the boy paused, glancing up at the Akimichi.

He smirked. "Thanks, Chouji. I think I have a plan. Alright, everyone listen up." All eyes fell on Shikamaru and they huddled in close, just in case anyone was watching and trying to eavesdrop. "Now listen up. First of all, since most of us are weak when it comes to taijutsu except Chouji, Ren, and Ino, avoid direct engagement. Especially avoid aerial combat with Sasuke; you'll probably get destroyed. Shino, Ren, you'll be scouts, but Ren, switch to mid-range fighting if need be. What we'll do if we have to directly fight them is…"

Soon after Shikamaru finished explaining the plan, a gong rose out over the forested training ground, and it was time to begin.

Everyone rushed out into the trees except for Chouji, who stood as the group's last line of defense; a huge, impenetrable wall.

"Fan out!" Shikamaru ordered. "To your places, everyone! Get with your partners!"

Ino was stuck tailing alongside Naruko so that she could have someone to help her set up traps. Nobody except Chouji and Ren, the two in the group who were most skilled at hand-to-hand, were allowed to go out on their own. Naruko grinned and handed Ino a scroll, which she took with extreme caution. "This one'll shoot out some REALLY rancid gas that makes your eyes water," Naruko explained. "I set it up to activate if someone stands underneath it, so place it on a tree branch or something."

Ino, scandalized at the thought of such horrible smells lingering on her beautiful body, gaped at the other blonde. "And just what were you planning on using this for?"

Naruko sheepishly rubbed the back of her head. "…Pranking that annoying Mizuki-sensei?" she said with an awkward chuckle.

Ah, that made sense. Whenever the class had the misfortune of having him teach a class alongside Iruka, or fill in for Iruka when he fell ill, Mizuki always seemed to pick on Naruto the worst. He was generally disliked by almost all the kids, though, due to the fact that he played favorites HARD. Ino found that she couldn't really fault the other girl for that.

"…Well, if you make more of them, just keep them away from anywhere I might go," she sniffed, climbing up a tree, reaching out, and pasting the scroll onto the bottom of a tree branch. She smoothed it out with her hand so that it wouldn't have too many wrinkles on it, then kicked off the tree and stuck a three-point landing.

Beaming at the perceived approval, Naruko gave a big thumbs-up. Ino rolled her eyes, but maybe smirked. Just a little.

They continued skirting around the forest, setting up traps and generally trying to avoid people. Occasionally, they heard startled yells from the other team, and various noises of mass confusion, as some of their traps successfully got set off. At last, they finished their given task, ten minutes into the game. It lasted about an hour, so they could go back up anyone who needed it in the forty minutes remaining.

"Let's go help Ren!" Naruko spoke up. "I think I saw Sasuke sneaking over towards the big tree Shikamaru had him hide in."

Ino raised a brow. "He's not hiding. He's keeping a tactical view of the battlefield and using his sensory and marksmanship to provide long-range backup to anyone who needs it."

"Same thing!" Naruko stuck her tongue out, and Ino resisted the urge to palm her face.

"It really is not the—" She shook her head, marching off towards the tree in question. It was the largest tree in the training field, probably because of the fact that it was the only tree in a clearing next to a stream that cut through. "You know what, I'm not even going to try. Let's just… Let's just go."

Naruko canted her head, blinking. "Eh? Uh… okay, then, I guess?" She trotted along behind Ino like a puppy. The taller blonde couldn't help but think it was kind of cute. She quickly punched the part of her that thought that and kept going like nothing was happening inside her head. Due to being a Yamanaka, she had gotten quite skilled at pretending that.

The sounds of fighting rose up as they reached the clearing with the lone tree, and as they emerged from the trees, Ino frowned. Ren was locked in combat with Sasuke, eyes wild as he tried to find any ground to gain on the more gifted martial artist. He'd been backed up toward the river, and did NOT look pleased with this fact, if his increasingly erratic and desperate movements were anything to go by. Everyone knew about his phobia, and Sasuke had apparently decided to try and use it to his advantage.

Ino hesitated, not sure who she wanted to win; her teammate, or the ultimate crush Sasuke-kun.

Ren trembled horribly as his foot almost went into the water; while he currently succeeded in deflecting attacks, he lost ground fast and his defenses grew steadily weaker.

She sighed despondently, cursing the fact that she was such a good person, and glanced at Naruko. "Please don't announce our presence," she told her as the girl opened her mouth. The shorter of the two quickly snapped her mouth shut. "Alright, I'm going to transform into a shuriken. Throw me at Sasuke in the shadow of another shuriken."

"Uh, right!" Naruko agreed with a salute. Ino's hands flashed through the hand seals required and disappeared in a puff of smoke, a shuriken dropping into Naruko's hand in her place. From her bag, the loudest of her classmates withdrew another shuriken and slipped it atop shuriken-Ino, and threw them both with… Well, it was okay accuracy. They at least whizzed close by Sasuke, even if they didn't hit.

As she flew past Sasuke in the shadow of the other shuriken, Sasuke's head whirled around to glance at Naruko, who smirked.

"Gotcha, Bastard!" she barked with a look on her face not terribly dissimilar to the one Kiba often had.

"You didn't even hit—" Sasuke started to say, only to be cut off as a foot connected with his side and knocked him a few feet away. He landed on his stomach and rolled, picking himself up off the ground. The startled look on his face told Ino he had NOT been expecting her kick. She landed smoothly out of her canceled transformation and proceeding attack, smiling apologetically.

"Sorry, Sasuke-kun~" she said in a sing-song voice. "I wouldn't have hit you if this wasn't for a grade~!"

Sasuke's eye twitched. Ren immediately scooted as far away from the water as he possibly could, and glanced at Ino gratefully. "Thank you so much," he said with unbridled sincerity.

Ino studied him for a moment, then huffed and glanced back towards Sasuke. "It is so unfair that you can look that cute even when you're terrified out of your mind, and you're a guy. It is unfair how well that kimono fits you without you even trying, and even after a taijutsu fight with the best in our grade."

"I-I AM NOT TERRIFIED OUT OF MY MIND!" Ren protested, voice breaking a little.

Ino would have snarked back, but Sasuke was rushing towards her. She dodged a punch and deflected a roundhouse kick. Ren swallowed, glancing very nervously at the water, before leaping back into the fray. Naruko, not one to be left out, hollered out a battle cry and dashed forward, taking out a kunai to make it a three-on-one.

Sasuke's annoyance was palpable by now as he ducked and weaved through all their attacks.

Ino's hope that they could defeat Sasuke rose as his dodges got slower and his blocks weaker. Because of this, she maybe overextended a punch a little too much as she saw what looked like a potential opening that arose as he deflected an uppercut Ren threw out.

Then a fist hit her in the head hard and she went out cold.

When she came to, Naruko and Ren were groaning and sitting up on the grass, rubbing bumps on their heads, and Sasuke was no where in the vicinity.

"It's unfair how good he is," Naruko complained, throwing her hands up in the air. "I mean, what the hell!? The three of us couldn't beat him!?"

"He's put in a hell of a lot more training than either of us have," Ren muttered, nursing the bump on his head tenderly. "But yeah, what the fuck."

"It's not fair… It's really not fair, dammit…" Naruko sounded really dejected. "I want to become Hokage, but… he's stronger than all three of us combined."

Neither of them had seemed to notice that Ino was awake and listening in.

Ren glanced at the short blonde. "Well, we're still only kids, Naruko. Work your butt off, and I'm sure you can beat him. But you gotta pay attention in class, you hear me?" He frowned and poked her nose, drawing a squawk from her.

"Oi! Until recently, you slept in class practically every day!"

"That's because I have nightmares of my death—!" he started to huff out in retort, only to freeze so fast Ino barely recognized it, and correct himself. "…Dead clan, dummy."

Her brows furrowed. Death? What? Had she heard that correctly? But he'd only gotten a concussion. How could he have died? If he'd died, he shouldn't even be here! Equal parts curiosity and confusion flooded her.

Naruko was quiet for a while. "Do you really think I can become Hokage?" she asked in a voice more nervous than Ino had ever heard before.

Ren's response came with zero hesitance. "I promise you that you can. I know you will. And I'll do whatever it takes to help you get there." His words carried with them one-hundred-percent certainty. Not just the kind of certainty that you would have from holding faith, but the kind of certainty that whispered he knew more than he was letting on. Ino's ears perked up and she listened more intently.

"How can you be so sure?" Naruko asked softly, though her voice sounded like it was regaining her confidence.

"Because I can see the future~" Ren said in a sing-song voice, and Naruko stuck her tongue out.

"Reeeeeeeen! I'm serious!"

Ren didn't respond, just sat back and laughed, grinning. When he was done, his gaze shifted over to the stream beside them. He swallowed and then got to his feet. "Well, now that Ino's awake, let's all go to Iruka-sensei. We got knocked out, after all, so we're out of the competition."

Startled, Ino sat up with wide eyes. She pouted at Ren. "How did you know I was awake?" she grumbled.

Ren grinned cheekily. "I'm a natural-born sensor, remember? I felt the shift in your chakra flow."

"Yeah, yeah," Ino muttered. And here she thought she'd be sneaky and learn something about him. But there was no way that he could actually see the future. There was no way he had actually died once. And so now she'd been dropped back to square one. What had caused him to change so much after he came back from the hospital? Annoyed with herself that she'd been unable to figure it out, she glanced at Ren. "Before we go, can you wait here with me?" she requested. "I want to talk to you. Naruko, you just go on ahead."

"What?" Naruko blinked. "Awwww, come on!" But she walked off anyway, hands stuffed in her pockets and grumbling under her breath.

Confused, Ren's eyes fell on Ino. "Uh… what is it you wanted to talk about?" he said with a head tilt.

"Okay, what the heck is going on with you?" Ino, unable to hold back anymore, burst out. "You're so different lately! You've never been this sociable and even your whole way of speaking is different! You're like an entirely different person!" A thought crossed her mind and she tensed, taking out a kunai and falling into a defensive stance. "You're not an infiltrator, are you!? Did you kill the real Ren and try to take his place to gain access to secrets about how the Academy teaches!? Bad move when you have a Yamanaka in his class!"

Turquoise eyes widening, Ren took a step back and quickly waved his hands, shaking his head in slight panic. "Whoa, whoa, o-okay, put the kunai away, please! I'm not an infiltrator. It's really me. I'm still Ren, okay?"

Ino, still studying him with a frown, lowered the kunai a tad. The infiltrator theory definitely would explain a lot, but… "And how can you prove it to me?"

Ren's mouth opened and closed. "…Uhh…"

Ino smirked. "Let me look inside your head. That'll prove it."

The cute boy visibly tensed at the demand, eyes darting from side to side as if looking for an escape. "I-Is there any other way I can convince you?" he asked hurriedly. "I don't think I've talked with you very much, so there's not really any kind of memory only the two of us would know—"

What in the world? What was he so nervous about? Was he really an infiltrator after all? Ino's eyes narrowed and her kunai hand lifted back to its previous position. Her whole body tensed. "Let me in your mind or I'll take you to Iruka-sensei and have him give you to T&I."

Ren swallowed. "…Shit," he muttered to himself, "O-Okay."

Ino relaxed and put the kunai away. Her hands flew through the seals for her clan's kekkei genkai. "Mind-Body Jutsu."

Thousands of male Narukos attacking Mizuki-sensei. A pale-faced man whose body came out of a snake biting Sasuke-kun on the neck. Male Naruko and Hinata happily married, with two cute kids. Ino's father dying in a war. Everyone enveloped in a humongous genjutsu. An orange-haired man leading a group to sack Konoha. Lord Third, sacrificing himself to try and end the life of the pale-faced man. A black man from Cloud who spoke in rhymes. Male Naruko and Sasuke-kun locked in all-out battle on a waterfall, a cruel, horrible look on Sasuke-kun's face as he launched a lightning-enshrouded hand straight at his opponent's chest. A world completely unlike Ino's own. A house on the hill. A raft flowing along whitewater rapids, hitting a particularly hard rapid and sending a young man aboard the raft into the air, sinking deep into the river. Drowning—

"Shit."

Eyes wide, Ino looked over to see Ren, a troubled frown on his face.

"I'd been trying not to let you see all that. Wish I'd been born a Yamanaka…" He ran a hand through his navy hair, wincing.

The Jutsu canceled, and Ino was left staring open-mouthed at Ren.

How was one supposed to react when you accidentally learned that a member of your class was actually a reincarnated fan of a show where you were a side character? Not knowing the answer to this herself, she just stood stock-still for several long minutes.

"Um…" Ren gulped and fumbled his fingers together. "S-So, listen…"

Not really knowing what else to do, Ino turned tail and ran, bolting into the forest and away from Ren.

Alone in the clearing, Ren let out a shaky breath. "…I really hope she didn't see any of the hentai in my memories."

~o~

*Hidden Red Village
*Hidden Blue Village