The heavy hand at Ino's throat lifted, slowly, carefully, and Kakuzu backed away from Ino as far as the wall allowed.

Deidara stood in the doorway, revolver in hand, crackling with restrained fury.

Hidan looked up from his spot on the floor with raised eyebrows. "Whoa. What's got this little fucker so wound up?"

"I'm asking myself the same question," answered Kakuzu in a low voice as he eyed Deidara.

"I think it's the girl," said Hidan. He rolled onto the mattress with a careless disregard for Deidara's raised gun and grabbed Ino by the chin. "Huh, Deidara? Is that what's got you riled?"

"Back off, Hidan," said Deidara.

"I've got a better idea," said Hidan. "You drop your itty-bitty BB gun and tell us what the deal is with this chick. Why've you got her tied up? What's so special about her? She suck dick like some kind of champ, or something?"

Deidara levelled the gun at Hidan's head.

Hidan slid his other hand to the base of Ino's ponytail and squeezed her jaw harder. "Shoot," he said with breathy defiance. "I can take six rounds of your shitty pea-shooter and still crack her little neck. You won't even pull the—"

Hidan's next words were cut off by the shot that Deidara fired just above his head. The bullet embedded itself into the wall—and then, a second later, exploded. Ino's ears rang as bits of plaster crumbled around her and the air was filled with white dust.

Hidan coughed and turned to study the two-foot crater above his head.

"...Some pea-shooter," he said after a moment of contemplation. "Exploding bullets, huh? Are those custom? Hey, man, can I buy that shit off you, or—"

"Hidan," said Deidara, levelling the gun back at Hidan's head, "I'm about to redecorate the floor with your brains."

"Alright, alright." Hidan released Ino and joined Kakuzu with his hands raised. "Whatever you say…"

"Right. So here's what I say. I'll have your goddamn money by Friday. You got that? Friday. Like we agreed. Between now and then, you stay the hell out of my place and you don't mess with my shit."

Out of the corner of her eye, Ino saw Kakuzu's fist clench. Something about his posture gave her the impression that he was only marginally being kept in check by the handgun pointed at him.

"I always check in on my... investments," came Kakuzu's growl through his scarf. "Especially as the deadline grows nearer."

"Great—so you check in on me," said Deidara, jabbing a finger into his chest. "Not on girls I happen to have hanging around that have fuck-all to do with this."

"We were just playing with your new girlfriend, jeez," said Hidan. He gave Ino a nudge with his foot. "She knew we were kiddin' around the whole time. Teruo's upped his game, huh? This one's a total smokeshow..."

"Stay away from her," spat Deidara, clench-jawed, finger back on the trigger.

Hidan removed the offending foot. "Wow. So protective." He turned to Kakuzu. "I'll tell you what this is. Fuckin' Deidara's fallen in love with a whore."

"I don't care who he falls in love with," said Kakuzu, staring Deidara down. "I want the cash."

"You'll have it," said Deidara.

"How?" asked Kakuzu. "You have nothing right now."

"What do you care, as long as you get the money?"

"It better not be the Yamanaka job," said Kakuzu in a low warning grumble.

"No," said Deidara (and Ino looked down and tried to stop existing). "I'm not touching that fucking bullshit job."

"Then how? You're going to do something reckless—"

"Reckless? Me? Never."

"—and stupid."

"Again—what do you care, as long as you get the cash?"

Kakuzu studied Deidara for a long moment. Then he blinked those unnaturally green eyes and released his clenched fist. "You're right. I don't."

"Good. Now get out."

Kakuzu and Hidan, apparently quite finished with being held at gunpoint, moved towards the door without being asked twice.

Hidan disappeared into the hall. Kakuzu stopped at the doorjamb and turned. "Friday."

How he injected so much menace into the word, Ino had no idea. She suppressed a dread-filled shudder.

"I know," spat Deidara.

VVV

Deidara slammed the half-broken door closed and kept the gun aimed at it, as though waiting for Kakuzu and Hidan to about-face and bust back through it with their own weapons drawn.

They did not come back. Sasori the cat slunk out of his hiding place and wound himself around Ino's thighs.

"Oh my god," breathed Ino at the same time as Deidara said, "Holy fuck."

Deidara fell to his knees beside Ino, brushed the cat away, and grasped her varyingly by the shoulders, the face, the elbows, and the face again, with hands that shook, while asking her if she was okay, and if they had hurt her, and shit, that wasn't supposed to happen, goddamn, he was going to kill them, was she alright, say something! And Ino managed to say, between shakings and gropings and half-formed hugs that yes, she was fine, she was fine, if he'd let her get a word in edgewise she could actually answer him, maybe?

This response, delivered in Ino's usual snappy tone, was apparently enough to assure him of her well-being. Deidara backed off and cleared his throat and scratched his chin and looked at the ceiling, like he totally hadn't just been clutching her all over in a guilt-spurred freak out.

In Ino's adrenaline-fueled opinion, the guilt was highly deserved. "You tied me up," she hissed. "I was defenseless and they came in. I literally couldn't even raise a hand to protect myself!"

"I know—fuck—they never pay me a goddamn home visit, okay?" said Deidara, groping around for his knife. "What did they want? What did you tell them?"

"That I was a prostitute—because that's what Kakuzu still thinks I am. But oh my god, you ass—I told you not to tie me up, and you did anyway. Do you know what could've happened? They could've—they could've done anything..."

"I know. Okay? I know. I saw. Jesus..." Deidara wedged the blade of his knife between Ino's wrists and the radiator and sawed the zip ties off. "What the hell were they even doing here?"

"I don't know. Kakuzu was shuffling around your crap on the table. Then they noticed me and they got all curious because I'm not dressed like a skank anymore—and I was tied up, which is apparently not how one treats one's whores, even in this godforsaken ghetto. They wanted to know who I supposedly work for. I told them Teruo because I couldn't remember that other guy's name. They didn't believe me..."

"You told them you worked for Teruo?" Deidara's eyes boggled out at Ino. "No shit they didn't believe you. Only the cheapest, nastiest tail in town works around here. There's no one like you on Teruo's turf."

"How was I supposed to know that?"

The last zip tie gave way with a snap under Deidara's knife. He shook his head. "I mean—you still have all your teeth. Could you have chosen a less believable pimp?"

Ino tore off the severed zip ties and threw them to the floor. "Whatever. I needed a name. Kakuzu was going to strangle the truth out of me—oh my god, your cat tried to save me, is he okay?—then that jerkoff Hidan found that flower Teruo gave me, thank god, and that gave them pause, enough to not squeeze the life out of me right then and there…"

Deidara's face was drawn tight with fresh anxiety. "Did you give them any other reasons to be suspicious? Other than the clothes and the Teruo thing? Name? Something else? Is there any way they could be identifying you right now?"

"Don't think so," said Ino, regaining her feet and using Deidara as a crutch to do so. "I gave them a fake name—and I didn't have the chance to say much else while they were choking me."

"Okay—okay, good. So there's no way they'll know who you are, really, unless they randomly decide to Google what the Yamanaka daughter looks like—"

"Wait," gasped Ino. "What about my car? They saw it—they asked me about it. Oh my god, they're such creeps—"

Deidara dismissed her with a wave. "Car's fine."

"Fine? Fine how? They'll run the plates, you idiot!"

"No shit they'll run the plates. I changed the plates."

"You what? On my car?"

"Yeah."

"When the hell...?"

"Swapped them with the Lambo's," said Deidara. "In your garage—while you were admiring yourself in the rear-view for five minutes. So who's the idiot now?"

"Wh—? You did that?" Briefly, Ino was at a loss for words in response to this level of foresight. But only briefly: "So—this means that if those freaks run the plates, they're going to think the head of the New York Philharmonic is up to something in this building? Great."

"Better than finding YAMANAKA, INO glaring back at them, isn't it?"

"Yes, obviously," said Ino, "but still..."

Deidara shook his head. "Kakuzu gives me a fuckin' lecture about staying away from the Yamanaka job—when the Yamanaka daughter is right there—and for being reckless—like I haven't already reckless'd the shit out of this situation… God damn, what is my life right now..."

"A total gong-show," said Ino, brushing bits of plaster from her hair. The task was more difficult than she might've imagined. Her hands still trembled from lingering adrenaline. Her eyes met Deidara's between strands of blonde and he looked just as shocked as she still felt.

"That was too close. Fuck everything about what just happened." He turned around, picked up his bag, and began to stuff it with clothing and other odds and ends. "We're leaving. And you're never coming back here again."

In a rare moment of agreement with him, Ino nodded. As she gathered up her things, a flash of blue on the floor caught her eye: Teruo's beaten-up flower. She picked it up and straightened out its bent stem. She couldn't even remember the careless moment when she had tossed it away on Saturday night—and now, by some twist of fate, the little thing had saved her from a lot of pain—and maybe death.

She slipped the flower into her wallet, missing petals and all, and pressed it between the bank cards there. And, as she did so, she came to a private realization that this measly flower—Teruo's small gesture to a troubled girl—was, in this moment, worth more to her than all the plastic in her wallet combined.

Ino frowned, perturbed, as she zipped her wallet back up.

She thought she knew the value of things.

VVV

Deidara made Ino wait in the lobby ("lobby") while he scouted around outside to make sure that Kakuzu and Hidan weren't hanging around.

He waved her out after a few minutes, apparently satisfied that the two methed-up prostitutes at the end of the street and the crazy man with his underwear on his head were not a threat.

Ino's phone chimed as Shikamaru finally answered her litany of texts with one solitary line: "quit spamming me, ffs. i'll tell you when i have something."

"Shikamaru still hasn't found anything," said Ino, shoving her phone back into her purse with a frown. "So now what?"

"Well I've got shit to do," said Deidara. "But you're here… and it's personal shit."

"Excuse me?" said Ino, piqued. "What, is your hostage cramping your style? Sorry to be such an inconvenience..."

"Apology not accepted," said Deidara. They reached Ino's car and he sent a long sigh skywards. "Right. I left my car at your place. Now I'm stranded unless I take your car—that involves taking you…" He stared at Ino's car, stared at Ino, and sighed again. "Balls."

"Um?" said Ino as she climbed into the driver's seat and watched Deidara climb in next to her. "Who says I'm even offering you a ride?"

"I do."

"Well, I disagree. You can take a taxi to go do whatever's soo important and private—I'm going to find somewhere decent for lunch. And a strong drink."

"Nope. I've already decided you're coming with me."

"Oh, you've decided, have you?"

"Yeah." Deidara held open his jacket so that Ino could see the gun there. "Here's some more persuasion for you, if you want me to be more kidnappy about it. Any further questions?"

Ino started up the engine with a roll of her eyes. "Really? After the shit I just went through, we're still doing threats?"

"Matter of form," said Deidara, though he did have the decency to look guilty.

"I do have further questions, though," said Ino as she pulled out of the drive. "What's in those fat envelopes you've got stuffed in there?"

Deidara pulled his jacket shut. "...Nothing."

"Money?"

"No."

"But it is, though," said Ino. "Where's it from?"

"Stripping."

"Liar," said Ino, though the image did, admittedly, give her pause. "Is it from today's delivery?"

Deidara ignored her question and said, "Turn left here."

Ino veered left as instructed. "How much did you make from that? That looked like a lot of cash…"

"None of your business. Two blocks, then a right."

"Fine, don't tell me. But are you going to tell me where we're going?" asked Ino. "You know I'm going to see it anyway…"

Deidara's gloved fingers drummed on the windowsill for a moment before he responded. "Mount Sinai."

"The hospital?"

"No," came Deidara's sarcastic response. "The actual Mount Sinai. Hope you're packed for a road trip."

Ino then posed a few polite follow-up questions about why Mount Sinai, and whether it was about his mother, and what was wrong with her, anyway, she hoped it wasn't too serious, and wasn't that kind of an expensive hospital?

Deidara didn't respond to a single question. As punishment, Ino attempted to give him whiplash at every red light they encountered thereafter.

VVV

Ino was familiar with the route to Mount Sinai because Sakura had been working there for a few years. This was a good thing because, when Deidara wasn't bracing for impact at red lights, he spent his time peering at the side mirror and checking the road behind them instead of giving her directions.

"You're making me nervous," said Ino as Deidara pulled the rear-view mirror towards himself. "Who the hell do you think is following us?"

"Dunno," said Deidara. "I've just got a funny feeling. Even with the plates swapped, I don't like that Kakuzu and Hidan saw your car…"

"I told them it wasn't mine, and the plates don't match anything of interest to them, anyway, right?"

"Right." Deidara faced forwards again and gestured to a half-full lot adjacent to the hospital. "Park there and wait."

Ino muttered something about not being a goddamn chauffeur as Deidara climbed out of the car.

"Back in, like, five minutes," said Deidara.

"Fine."

Deidara slammed the door and walked away. Ino looked around for a while and then, satisfied that Kakuzu and Hidan were nowhere to be seen, became engrossed by her phone. That is, until someone tapped on the window and made her jump.

Ino glared at Deidara for having spooked her. "What?"

"Come in with me."

"Why...?"

Deidara took a few steps away, peered into the cars around them, and shook his head. "Nevermind. They didn't follow us. Stay here."

"K."

Deidara managed a few more steps away from Ino before pivoting around again.

"What now?" said Ino as he re-approached the car.

"I changed my mind—come with me."

"I'm catching up on emails," said Ino, sparing him a glance as she typed. "Go do your private important shit. I'll be right here. I literally have 911 on speed dial. Okay?"

Deidara stood back with a frown and scanned the busy street across from them, apparently torn between his desire for privacy and this creeping worry about Ino's safety. "If they followed us…"

"They didn't."

"But if they did?"

"Doors are locked."

"Okay," said Deidara. "Good. Fine. Doors are locked. Close the window, too."

Ino buzzed the window up. Then, having followed Deidara's two-bit safety protocol, she stared at him expectantly through the glass. He nodded to himself and began to walk away with many sideways glances at his surroundings.

Ino had barely sank back into her phone when Deidara's voice interrupted her again, muffled by the glass.

"I still don't like it."

"Come on," said Ino, cracking the window open again. "There are all kinds of people around. It's broad daylight. I'll be fine."

"Listen: no. I kidnapped you in broad daylight, from a police station. Shit's not safe."

"Oh my god, just go, the security guard is right there…"

But Deidara had finally made his decision. He pulled open Ino's door. "No. You're coming with me. Just… stay behind me. Don't cramp my style."

"What style?" asked Ino peevishly as she was pulled out of the car.

VVV

Aware that Deidara would've preferred that she not be there at all, but that he was dragging her along out of some guilt-induced protective instinct, Ino followed him at a bit of a distance as they entered the hospital. He navigated the hallways with such familiarity that it was clear that he'd walked this path many times before, this weaving trajectory between patients in wheelchairs and lost visitors and the occasional gurney, all the way to Accounts Receivable.

Ino watched as Deidara made his way to the clerk at the front desk, who recognized him with a smile. She watched as he was presented with a bill of some kind, which he studied with a neutral expression. Then she watched as he pulled open his jacket and pulled out the fat envelopes that had been secreted therein, and unloaded stack after stack of cash on the desk. Thousands and thousands of dollars were laid out in front of the clerk, who counted them out and swept them under her desk.

Ino watched as Deidara checked that every single envelope was empty and every dollar had been handed over, until all he had left in his hands was a tatty twenty dollar bill that he stuffed into his wallet. She watched in confounded silence as he thanked the clerk, having just given it all away—all this cash he'd earned by risking his life making deadly explosives while he lived in a shithole and ate garbage—without a moment of hesitation or a flicker of bitterness.

And Ino, watching him stuff his wallet back into his jeans—empty save for that pathetic single bill, that Taco Bell money that would last him a few days at best—had never felt like such a spoiled, over-privileged asshole in her life.

She blinked and took a step back, actually reeling from the selflessness of it all.

"...Ino?"

She turned to find Sakura in her scrubs and lab coat, looking at her in surprise.

"It is you!" said Sakura with a grin. "What are you doing here?"

VVV

"Ohmygod, Sakura!" said Ino, masking her dismay with as much brightness as she could muster. "Hi!"

"Why didn't you tell me you were coming by?" asked Sakura, stepping up to Ino to give her a hug. "And why've you got weird powder in your hair?"

Ino's hand flew to her fringe. "Wh—? Oh, it's, um, this new dry shampoo, you know, I'm trying to wash my hair less—it's healthier—but it's a bit lumpy out of the box..."

"It's awful," said Sakura, brushing the drywall crumbs out of Ino's hair. "Don't use it again. Why're you here? Not for you, I hope? Aren't you supposed to be at your spa getaway?"

"No—not for me—just had a slight change of plans. We're here to visit someone."

"We?" asked Sakura.

Ino's gaze inadvertently flickered to Deidara, finishing up at the counter. "Um—"

"Ooh," said Sakura, eyeing Deidara. "Is that him?"

"Him?"

"Three baguettes?"

"Three baguettes...?" repeated Ino weakly.

"Yeah. You told me about him on Friday—when I asked if you'd found a cute boy?" Sakura waved her hand at Ino in the face of her blank look. "Hello? Do you not remember this conversation?"

"Um…"

Sakura raised an eyebrow. "Seriously? This was three days ago, Ino. Do I need to put you under watch for dementia? We have the facilities right here, you know..."

"Oh," said Ino, remembering all at once that moment when Deidara had been messing with her phone while she was trussed up in his back seat. "Right! Yes! That conversation! Ha, ha, how could I forget, yes, three baguettes..."

"Hm." Sakura glanced over at Deidara, who was leaning over the counter on his elbows, charming the clerk. "You know, I wouldn't really have pinned him as your type."

"Oh?"

"He kinda looks too…" Sakura tapped at her lip as she sought the right word, "too cool for you."

"Too cool?" repeated Ino. "What? I'm cool!"

"No, you're a total rule-abiding dork." Sakura ran her hands down Ino's arms. "You're just lucky you're gorgeous, which gives an illusion of coolness..."

"Whatever," said Ino. "I'm way cooler than him."

Sakura held back a grin. "Sure. Okay. So who're you visiting?"

"His—his mother."

"His mom?" Sakura's eyebrow rose again, higher this time. "You haven't even known him that long, have you? I mean, I got from your texts that you were, like, moving fast, but..."

"Moving fast…? Um—yes, well—"

Ino was saved from further prodding by a breathless nurse running up to Sakura, shouting something about how it was Barbie's whole Corvette this time, oh my god?

"I gotta go," said Sakura, whipping away from Ino, whose eyes had grown wide.

"You're a hero," said Ino. "They don't deserve you!"

"I know," said Sakura as she left, her lab coat billowing out, cape-like, behind her.

VVV

Ino let out a tiny relieved sigh. Another bullet dodged. This Nancy Drew business was exhausting.

She looked around to find that Deidara and the desk clerk were still nattering on. From here, it sounded something like flirting. Somehow, this annoyed her to an unexpected degree.

She drifted up behind Deidara silently before popping over his shoulder. "Hi."

Deidara jumped. "Jesus... hi..."

"Are you done here?"

"Yeah," said Deidara, pushing away from the counter. "Yeah, I am."

The clerk stared Ino down for interrupting her chat-up session. Ino stared right back because bitch, listen up, this boy thinks I'm goddamn perfect and I own some of his soul, so back off with your banal-ass small-talk about the weather and try flirting with that recycling bin over there, it's more on your level.

The clerk could not withstand the potency of this stare and all that it contained. She excused herself to go on break while Ino continued to stare her down and muttered, "That's right, you walk away."

Deidara blinked. "Did you say something?"

"Nothing," said Ino, clearing her throat and telling herself to calm the hell down. "So I don't know if you noticed while you were so busy with your friend here, but I ran into someone I know."

"The pink one? Yeah, I saw..."

"Yes. The pink one. Also known as Sakura." Ino pulled out her phone. "Also known as the one you texted on my behalf during our memorable first car ride together."

"...Oh."

"Three baguettes and a heart?!" exclaimed Ino, having pulled up the conversation in question on her phone. "She thinks you're a three baguettes guy to me. Not one baguette. Three. That's like, soulmate-level dick!"

Deidara turned and led the way down the hall to hide the growing smirk on his face.

"Hunkalicious?" said Ino, scrolling down further. "You actually wrote that? She thinks I think you're hunkalicious? I've never used that word in my life..."

Deidara walked away from her a little faster.

"You—!" gasped Ino as she scrolled down further. "You called yourself too adorable for words?"

Deidara took off at a light jog.

Ino shrieked as she reached the very last text: "You said 'I think I love him'?!"

Deidara darted into a nearby restroom and tried to shut the door, but Ino wedged her way in before he could push it closed. Then, gasping with restrained laughter, he held up his arms to protect himself as Ino barrelled into him with every intention of clobbering him to death with her phone.

"You ass!" said Ino between parried hits, "Me! In love—with you?! It's a miracle she didn't check me into the dementia clinic! Hunkalicious—three baguettes—fucking drywall in my hair—I'm going to kill you!"

"Holy shit," squeaked Deidara between bursts of laughter. "Your face…"

"It's—not—funny! 'Too adorable for words'? Who even says that about themselves?! Stop laughing!"

Deidara snatched Ino's swatty hands out of the air. "You're so mad. Look at you…"

"You are unbelievable!" hissed Ino. "Let go."

"No. That's enough flailing—someone could lose an eyelash, or something…"

Ino made an unladylike sound of annoyance, struggled fruitlessly at Deidara's grip, and then breathed hard at him, waiting for him to let go.

He held her, eyes bright with equal parts amusement and attraction—and then, as the brief moment stretched and grew into a longer while, the attraction superseded the amusement, and Deidara grew serious, and his eyes flicked towards her mouth. Then, for whatever reason, Ino kind of lost her balance—or so she would tell herself, later—and fell into him closer, and they looked up at each other, and Ino could feel Deidara's breath fanning against her mouth, and suddenly, none of this was funny any more to either of them.

Then a small voice came out of nowhere: "Potty?"

Ino and Deidara bounded apart to find a little boy staring at them.

"Oh my god," snapped Ino to Deidara as she straightened herself out. "You didn't lock the door?"

Her tone was apparently harsh enough to shock the little boy into tears. He began to wail.

"I wasn't talking to you," said Ino to the child, over his screams.

"Why would I have locked the door?" said Deidara. "Were we going to do things requiring a locked door?"

"Well, look. We just traumatized a kid."

"No, you traumatized a kid!"

The bathroom door was pushed open and in strode a woman. "What on earth is going on in here?"

Ino brushed past the woman. "Your child is too sensitive. You should work on that. Bye."

"Excuse me—?" blinked the woman.

Ino waved her away dismissively. Her immediate concern was that she had actually lost her mind for a solid three seconds back there and felt like kissing Deidara, which, what the actual fuck?

Deidara skittered out after Ino. The toddler's mother yelled out something about how they should be ashamed, and this was a public bathroom, and won't anyone think of the children?

"For Christ's sake," said Deidara when he'd caught up to Ino. "Your child is too sensitive, you should work on that? Who even says that...? I can't handle life with you, it's too much..."

"I beg your pardon? With me, you get to teach a toddler a life lesson about knocking. With you, I get strangled on a mattress by criminals while hog-tied to a radiator."

"You weren't hog-tied, technically—"

"You want to get into technicalities?" said Ino, her voice raising into a shriek. "Really? You want to go there?"

"Fine, fine..."

Ino came to a sudden halt at a crossroads between two hallways and an elevator. "Now. Which way to your mother?"

Deidara walked into her from behind and got a mouthful of hair. "What?"

"Your mother. Where is she?"

Deidara's initial answer was "Thpp," as he pulled hair out of his mouth, and then it was a firm "No."

"What?" said Ino, rotating on a heel to face him. "We came all this way and you're not even going to see her?"

"No. You're here. I don't want her to meet you."

"Why? What's wrong with me?"

"Nothing—she—just—nothing."

"Tell me."

"Oh my god," said Deidara, throwing his hands in the air. "Why can't you let me have my stupid little secrets?"

"What secret? Is it something embarrassing...?"

"No. Go away."

"...Because with what you pulled with Sakura, I owe you some embarrassment, so we can repay that debt right now, as far as I'm concerned."

"It's not."

Ino switched tacks, dropped the aggression, and sidled up to him sweetly. "Then tell me."

Deidara ran a hand across the back of his neck and stared at the ceiling.

"Come on. Tell me," said Ino, now getting into his face.

"Why do you have to know everything?"

"Because you make me so curious."

Deidara let out something between a sigh and a groan of frustration.

"Just spit it out."

"I've never brought a girl to meet her. Okay? And she will totally think that you are a girl—which you are—but not that kind of girl—and she won't believe anything else, even if I tell her otherwise. And she'll get all happy because she'll think I 'found someone'—and that my life will be full of love or happiness or some shit. Does that satisfy you?"

"Yes," said Ino. "Cute story. So here's what we're going to do. You'll go see her, and I'll sit in the waiting room and pretend I don't exist."

"I really don't—"

"I'll just go ask where she is at the front desk," cut in Ino, swooping past Deidara. "You are not going to be in the same building as your mother without saying hi. Tch. And you give me lectures about being a decent person..."

VVV

After some further squabbling, a reluctant Deidara led Ino to a long-term care unit at the far end of the hospital, where she was plopped into a waiting area and told to sit down and not move, or else.

So Ino did as she was told and sat down and looked around the room, which adjoined a larger living area that had been made to look more homey than hospitally, with braided rugs and paintings and comfortable chairs and bookcases along the walls.

An old piano stood in a distant corner among a small forest of potted plants. Ino had been eyeing it for a while, trying to identify the make from over here, when one of the long-term residents wandered over to her.

"It's a shame," he said, seating himself in a creaky old-man way beside her. "No one plays it much."

"Sorry?" said Ino, blinking out of her reverie.

"The piano, I mean."

"Oh…"

"I do love to hear it," said the old man.

"I'm sure it's very nice," said Ino.

"Do you play?" he asked.

"A bit," responded Ino in a spectacular understatement.

"Would you?"

"Oh—no. I'm just here for another minute, really—I'm waiting for someone…"

"Ah," said the old man. He sank into silence next to her without further argument. Ino stared at her hands.

A few other residents came and went in the common area, some in wheelchairs, some trundling IV stands, many bald.

Ino looked sideways at the frail wrist of the old man beside her, around which a hospital wristband hung loosely. Oncology Ward, said the label beneath the man's name.

He had apparently made his way towards Ino in the hope of some sort of entertainment. Now that she had quashed those hopes, he stared at nothing, all old bones and shrinking flesh and fading memories. And sadness, too.

The sadness was catching.

Ino cleared her throat and cast about for something to say, but, somehow, nothing she was coming up with was remotely appropriate—are you very sick? What kind of cancer? How long do you have left? Why is this making me so sad, I don't even know you?

A low sound caught her ear. The old man had started to hum.

"Mozart," said Ino after a while.

"Yes," said the old man. "The Turkish march, I think it was called."

"Yes."

"I've forgotten most of it."

Ino stared at the piano that stood in the shadows of the half-empty room.

It would cost her nothing to do this thing for this old man. Well, nothing except Deidara's ire, when she ignored some very explicit instructions, but...

Ino rose to her feet. "I can play you the rest."

She made her way to the piano under a few gentle, curious stares. She lifted its squeaky lid and played a few bars of the Turkish march that the old man had been humming. He had followed her to the piano and now stood beside it with his eyes closed, reliving who knew what memories; red-carpeted concerts, a favourite record, a dance with a girl.

Now Ino's playing had attracted the attention of a handful of residents and their helpers. She flexed her fingers and fluttered out a few scales to warm up properly and they stood around her, creaky and frail, but also smiling and oohing as though her scales were the most spectacular masterpieces ever played in the whole world.

So Ino couldn't help the smile that crept across her own lips as she began to pour out La Campanella and filled the room with the light of its dancing notes.

VVV

The crowd around Ino grew as she played her way through pretty sonatas and stately waltzes and cheerful minuets. At one point, the front row parted to allow a thin woman in a wheelchair through—a woman as delighted as the rest of the crowd, clasping her hands to her chest, beaming.

Then Ino saw who was pushing the woman, and her fingers almost faltered in the middle of one of Chopin's nocturnes, because it was Deidara. He looked just as taken aback as she felt; clearly, in his head, she was still in the waiting room next door and some other person was supposed to be responsible for this impromptu performance.

Ino wound down the Chopin after a few more minutes, claiming sore fingers among requests for encores. She accepted a great many thank-yous from hairless ladies and sickly gentlemen and, in one case, a girl who seemed far too young to be in treatment here, though the bracelet at her wrist said otherwise. Ino extended her exchanges with these people for as long as possible, waiting for Deidara to make his exit with his mother.

Apparently, his mother had other ideas. "Let me go talk to her," she said, attempting to wheel towards Ino, who watched the argument out of the corner of her eye.

Deidara kept his begloved grip firmly on the chair, glaring at Ino. "Mom. She's busy."

"She's lovely. I want to thank her."

"You aren't even supposed to be out of your room right now—I'm going to get in trouble again..."

"It's been ten minutes, Deidara. It won't kill me. Two kinds of cancer didn't, you know."

"It's been twenty. Come on…"

Deidara's mother proved apt at manipulating the wheelchair; a moment later, she had whipped it out of Deidara's grasp and zipped up to Ino.

Deidara watched her go with his mouth pressed into an unhappy line.

Then he dragged himself after her like he was the missing link between humankind and mollusks.

"Hello," said Deidara's mother to Ino with a fascinated kind of breathlessness.

"Hi," said Ino.

"I'm Akarui. And this is my son, Deidara."

"Ino," said Ino, with a shake of the woman's bony hand and a smile to Deidara, who managed an extremely stiff nod. (Okay, so they were going to pretend they didn't know each other. This wasn't going to be awkward at all…)

"You know, I don't have very good days, generally," said Akarui, tucking a strand of wispy blond hair behind her ear. "Mostly they're painful and long and they involve too many needles. And every day feels the same as the next—except when my son visits, of course. But today, with you and your beautiful playing—well, you made today wonderful."

"Oh—thank you," said Ino. "It was nothing, honestly..."

"Are you here visiting someone?"

"Um." Ino made fleeting eye contact with Deidara and looked away. "No—I mean, yes—yes, I was, but not a patient. A friend of mine works here, Doctor Haruno?"

"You know Doctor Haruno?" Akarui pressed her hand to her heart. "She is so kind."

"Yes—we're best friends, actually. Then I spotted the piano and someone caught me staring at it, and asked me if I play, so…"

"You have a real artistry about you," said Akarui (and Deidara rolled his eyes behind her back). "A real sensitivity, you know, in the way you play—the way you touch the keys—like your hands are dancing. You obviously love it very much."

"I do," said Ino.

"My son is an artist too, you know?" said Akarui, wheeling about to look at Deidara.

"Oh?"

"He is," said Akarui. "He has an extraordinary talent—extraordinary. I always said so. Such an eye for form and movement—he gets it from me. Isn't that right, Deidara? Why are you being so quiet? You always have something to say, usually." Akarui turned back to Ino in the face of Deidara's mulish silence. "I believe you're making him shy."

Deidara looked like he wanted to die.

"Shy is cute," said Ino, tilting her head towards Deidara and contemplating him with a little grin.

"Do you think so?" Akarui wheeled around and pulled at Deidara's sleeve. "She thinks you're cute."

"Mom—"

"Ask her for her number," said Akarui in a loud whisper.

"No."

"Just ask—the worst she can do is say no."

"But I don't—"

"You can have my number," said Ino.

Deidara transferred his glare from his mother to Ino. "That's… really not necessary," he said through clenched teeth.

To Akarui's delight, Ino gave him her prettiest smile and said, "Come on. Pass me your phone."

Deidara's baleful stare pinned Ino where she sat and it was all she could do to not burst into laughter.

"He is shy," whispered Ino to Akarui.

"Pass her your phone," poked Akarui.

Tight-jawed, Deidara reached into his pocket and passed Ino his phone. As she tapped away at it, Deidara's mother looked like she was trying not to explode into a hundred smiles.

"Call me," said Ino, handing the phone back to Deidara with a wink. She rose. "I have to go…"

"It was wonderful to meet you," said Akarui as Ino trotted off. "I hope you'll come again!"

VVV

Ino waited all of two minutes in the crowded hallway before Deidara rounded the corner with an angry stomp.

"I'm going to kill you," he snarled.

"She's really nice," said Ino.

"You just had to do that, didn't you?"

"You have the same eyes."

"Why couldn't you just stay in the waiting room?"

"Same smile, too," said Ino, nodding pensively to herself.

"You had one job—"

"Is she in remission?"

"—But nooo," said Deidara. "You couldn't just sit still. Now she's going to ask me about you for the next ten years."

"I hope she's in remission..."

Deidara made a strangled sound as Ino continued to talk over his rebukes. "Now I get to hear about how great you are every time I visit her. I wish I was in remission—from you."

Ino did not take kindly to the tacit implication that she was a cancerous pain in Deidara's ass. She narrowed her eyes and lowered her voice to a whisper so that the people around them wouldn't hear. "Hey. Your mom thinks you're a sweet shy sensitive angel-boy. You should be grateful to me, because I could've disabused her of that notion very easily. But I didn't."

Deidara shook his head, but Ino interrupted him before he could open his mouth by poking a finger into his chest. "I could've told her that you kidnapped me. How do you think she would've liked that, hm?"

"Don't even pretend you'd do that," said Deidara, backing down. "It's not funny. I've put her through enough shit. She doesn't need to know."

"Then just shush, because—"

Ino was interrupted by Vivaldi piping out of her purse. "It's Shikamaru," she said, swiping her phone open.

Deidara pushed past some slow-moving people in the hall and dragged Ino into a nearby emergency stairwell to get away from the crowds.

The two of them huddled together on the platform as Shikamaru's voice came through: "Hey. I got something."

"What is it?" breathed Ino.

"I'm a genius for having figured this out, I want you to know."

"Okay—what is it?"

"You think MIT is hiring?"

"Oh my god, just tell me!"

The sound of Shikamaru smacking gum came through the speaker as he decided whether or not to draw this out and make Ino suffer.

"You're a genius," said Ino, struggling to not strangle her phone. "An absolute genius. Now tell me. Please."

There was the sound of some clicking. "You know how in the movies, the call always comes from inside the house?"

"It does? Okay? And? What are you saying? Did this one come from my father's house? Oh my god?"

"Not quite... But whoever posted that murder request did it from 121 William."

"...What?"

"Yep," said Shikamaru. "Yamanaka Inc. HQ."

Ino scrambled down the stairs to the carpark. "Are you serious? Who, though? Why? This is so messed up…"

"There are like, twenty different WiFis set up in that building, ʼcause of all the companies and groups that rent out floors," continued Shikamaru over the sound of Ino's heels clacking down the steps. "I can see that your guy was briefly connected to BR-738 at one point, does that mean anything?"

"It's one of the Yamanaka boardrooms. Seventh floor," said Ino, bursting out of the emergency exit into the sunlight and all but sprinting to her car. Deidara followed close behind and almost got a reinforced fire door to the face for his troubles.

"They were there at 9:46 a.m. on Saturday," said Shikamaru. "That's all I've got…"

Ino barely waited for Deidara to get into the car before flooring it. "I'm on my way to William Street. There'll be a schedule for the boardrooms there—we can see who booked the room that day, it might give us a lead…"

There was a blip in the conversation as the line hopped over to Bluetooth.

"But who the hell, Shikamaru?" said Ino, gripping the steering wheel with white knuckles. "In my father's own building? Everyone who works with him is trustworthy... it's an actual, literal, family company… I'm so confused…"

"Find me a name and I can dig," said Shikamaru.

VVV

They made it to the financial district in record time.

Ino slowed as they approached the glass tower that housed the Yamanaka headquarters. "I'm pulling up now," she said for Shikamaru's benefit. "I'll call you on my phone in a sec..."

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Deidara make a double-take at something to their right.

"Oh shit," muttered Deidara. "Don't slow down—keep driving."

Ino glanced over to see a low-slung black Jaguar parked in the shadows of a loading dock across the street. "Wh—?"

"Don't stop, don't stop, don't stop," said Deidara. When Ino hesitated, Deidara pressed her knee down and the accelerator hit the floor.

The tires squeaked and the Audi sped off down William at a highly illegal speed.

"...Everything ok out there?" asked Shikamaru over the Bluetooth with mild concern.

"Explain," hissed Ino, pulling her knee out from Deidara's hand and regaining control of the car.

Deidara craned his neck backwards. "I recognize that car."

"And? Whose is it? I'm this close to finding a name. I don't have time for your money-grubbing friends. If it's Kakuzu, I'm running him down."

"No. That was an Uchiha car."

"Who?" said Ino, at the same time as Shikamaru said, "Shit."

"Uchiha," said Deidara with a pissy kind of wave in Ino's face. "Hello? Jesus, don't you know anything? They're one of the clans that make up the Yakuza family. Why the hell is one of them staking out your dad's office?"

"Just a guess," came Shikamaru's deadpan voice over the speakers, "but it might be because there's a contract for ten million dollars on his head."

"You don't fucking say," said Deidara with an angry glare at the speaker above his head. He turned to Ino. "If they're skulking around, you need to get some protection for your dad. Like, now."

"Protection?" repeated Ino. "Like I have to hire people? With guns and stuff? Is that allowed?"

Shikamaru gave a staticky, put-upon sigh. "I'll take care of it."

"Plainclothes," said Deidara. "Armed."

"I know what I'm doing," said Shikamaru.

"And make sure they—"

"I know."

"And have them—"

"I know."

"You aren't even—"

Shikamaru had hung up.

"This guy's really lucky I have no idea what he looks like," said Deidara with a decidedly dark look at the speaker.

Ino glanced into the rear-view mirror. Her blood ran cold. "Um?"

"What?"

"Your Uchiha friend?"

"Yeah?"

"He's behind us."