Possible
Possible
Chapter Six: Discovered
Author's Note: Enjoy! ; I'm sorry for the late update, but I had to go for a competition, and also, I had to study at the same time. The holidays aren't just for relaxation anymore! (:
The night was as still as ever, except for the fact that it was raining quite heavily. Thunder roared everywhere Ichiro and Ino went, but they only had one destination: The building they had inspected earlier, probably the Kage (if the Rain Village had one) Office. They leaped from rooftop to rooftop, not bothering about whether they made much noise on top of the villagers' apartments and houses, since the rain was equally noisy. The two landed in front of the door that they had previously opened the day before and this time, Ino was the first to enter. The interior had a gloomy atmosphere to it, and rainwater was dripping down from the cracks in the wall. "Some office," muttered Ino. Ichiro could hear her clearly, since the inside of the building was so large. "Let's keep moving. I'm curious to know what's in the top tower," he said. They made their way up the stairs, and walked past a few rooms before stopping. "This looks like our Hokage's Office," said Ino suddenly, looking around the corridor. "That means something bad happened to this place… and this village." Suddenly, there was sudden movement in the shadows. Someone had run past them from behind.
The corridor was like an endless curve, leading to the next flight of stairs, and they were facing the place where they had come from. "Whoever it is," whispered Ichiro, "he's still here." They slowly advanced towards the stairs leading up into the next floor. There was a sudden laugh coming from the floor above, a laugh that sounded charismatic, yet still equally creepy. Ino noticed that her hands had started to tremble out of fear of this place, and whoever it was that was taunting them from the shadows. "Okay," whispered Ino, looking around cautiously, "I think we're being followed."
Ichiro didn't say anything. Ookami was speaking to him again. "Evil lurks within these shadows," it warned, "Something is watching you." Or someone, replied the brunette. He didn't like this one bit. Ino was as aware of it as Ookami was. "What if no one's here?" she whispered. Ichiro ignored that, for he was afraid that once they left, the Akatsuki would probably reappear, or they would have missed some vital information on the notorious organization. They walked up the stairs to the fourth level to do a clean sweep of the place. There was nothing that they found that could lead them to the Akatsuki. Ichiro grew weary and bored at the same time. He decided that it was a wild goose chase to the Rain Village, only to find nothing in return. Ino seemed to be thinking about that as well, from her blank expression. "I think we should go," Ichiro suggested. "I'll just tell the Hokage that we couldn't find anything. And that the Akatsuki had probably moved off before we arrived here." Ino sighed in relief and nodded. "Okay, let's go."
Then, it all happened in a flash. They were descending the stairs when suddenly two strangers swooped down on them and knocked Ino unconscious. Ichiro took out his kunai and engaged into battle with the two. One was a blonde young man, whose hair was very much like Ino's, and the other man – well, he didn't exactly look like a normal man at all – had the appearance between a cross of a shark and a man. He held a large sword wrapped up in bandages. The two were dressed in the Akatsuki cloak. "Well, well, what do we have here? Two teenagers?" taunted the fish-like man. "Try not to upset him, Kisame. He looks awfully pissed," said the blonde. Kisame laughed loudly, and swung his blade towards Ichiro, who had carried Ino up and jumped away in time. "Deidara, I think you can handle him yourself, from the looks of this battle," said Kisame, looking at his blonde partner. Deidara smirked, and took out four clay birds. He threw them towards Ichiro, who was confused for a second, but when he saw what Deidara was about to do, he immediately ran back up to the fourth floor, escaping a huge explosion in the nick of time. He knew he couldn't fight with Ino in his arms, but he didn't want to let her go, in case she was killed.
Deidara and Kisame appeared behind him, with mocking smirks on their faces. Ichiro had to think fast, before they made their move. "Fight us like a man, shinobi," growled Deidara, revealing four more clay birds in his hand. Ichiro didn't seem to bother about what Deidara had said, and immediately ran up the stairs again to the fifth level. He kept going up and up, until he reached the top floor. He looked out the window and realized that he was at the highest point in the Rain Village. He put Ino down in a corner and got ready to fight. Kisame appeared with his sword and said, "Ready to fight?" Ichiro wielded his kunai tightly and lunged towards Kisame. With one blow of the Akatsuki member's sword, Ichiro's kunai split into two. He stumbled backwards from the impact and thought hard. He wasn't about to be defeated that easily. Within a split second, Ichiro had split into ten. His clones attacked Kisame head on first, serving as a distraction. Ichiro then jumped up into the air and smashed his iron fist down onto the ground, causing the floor to split and the whole tower to crumble. He carried Ino and jumped out of the tower, and landing on a nearby roof. He leaped away from the tower, knowing that Deidara and Kisame were following him closely. He found a suitable spot and put Ino down, before turning back to confront Deidara and Kisame. "Katon: Gokakyuu no Jutsu!" yelled Ichiro, releasing a monstrous fireball towering towards the two Akatsuki members. They both jumped away, but as soon as they landed on the ground, two kicks were delivered to both of their faces.
Deidara was sent flying, but he quickly grabbed onto a lamppost and swung back hard at Ichiro. Kisame unleashed two water dolphins on Ichiro, who jumped away from both attacks at the same time. Now up in the air, Ichiro knew he had a good advantage over them – but only for a few seconds. He quickly formed his seals and summoned two wolves by tapping into Ookami's chakra. The wolves weren't real; they were something like shadow clones, but could take more than one hit before disappearing. The wolves charged towards Deidara and Kisame, snarling at them angrily. Suddenly, something unexpected happened. As Deidara advanced towards Ichiro, leaving Kisame to handle the wolves, he struck his kunai towards Ichiro, only to be shielded by Ino. Ichiro's eyes widened in horror as Ino fell into his arms again, this time, a visible wound on her stomach. Ichiro held her tight as she whispered something almost inaudible to Ichiro's ears, but he could read. She had only said a word before closing her eyes. Ichiro didn't know whether she had died or just fainted. Either way, Deidara still laughed mercilessly. Ichiro glared up at Deidara, who was looking at him with his blue eye, shooting him a teasing smirk.
Ichiro felt his insides burn heavily, as he let Ookami's chakra flow out endlessly. "He's a Jinchuuriki?" muttered Deidara, who gazed at the transforming Jinchuuriki with much curiosity. "It's about time I stepped in," growled Ookami.
Ichiro closed his eyes in pain, not wanting to see Ino's body – regardless of whether she was dead or not. It was this that made him so afraid. It was this that made him so paranoid and worried over Ino almost every day and every night. It made him stay up late at night, before reluctantly falling asleep, and sometimes, he never slept at all. Most of all, it made him blame himself for not persuading Tsunade to let Ino stay in Konoha. She wouldn't have been injured at all. She wouldn't have been on the verge of death. He glared up at Deidara, his white eyes with two dilated pupils nervous with new found energy. His chakra was white as well, and the cloak had already formed two tails.
"Interesting… what do we have here?" said Kisame, appearing beside Deidara after defeating the wolves. "Another Jinchuuriki?"
Deidara licked his lips and smiled. "Not just any Jinchuuriki. He has the Bijuu… which uses white chakra." Without any warning, Ichiro leaped forward and clawed furiously at the two people. Kisame blocked Ichiro's attacks with his sword, but was eventually thrown backwards due to Ichiro's super strength. The wild Jinchuuriki launched himself at Deidara, pinning him to the ground. Ichiro grabbed the blonde and hurled him to the far end of the street, and crashing into a wall. Kisame recovered and ran towards Ichiro again, unleashing a large water dragon at Ichiro, who dodged away in time. As soon as Kisame blinked, Ichiro was already behind him. He rammed his fist into Kisame's head and grabbed him before the fish man was sent flying backwards, and gave him another hard, bone-crushing kick to the stomach. Kisame groaned, and was soon thrown sideways by the strong and feral Jinchuuriki.
As soon as Ichiro sensed that there were no more threats, and was entirely sure that he had defeated the two Akatsuki members for now, he slowly walked back to where he had left Ino. "Ino," whispered Ichiro, not daring to touch her for fear that his chakra might burn her hand. As soon as the Ookami's chakra returned to his body, Ichiro felt a sudden loss of energy. It was probably due to the Ookami's energy that gave him the strength to fight. He looked around and noticed that many of the villagers were already coming out from their houses to check. They were whispering and murmuring and some were even looking terrified when he looked at them straight.
Without a word, Ichiro carried Ino's body and disappeared by using a teleportation jutsu.
A week had already passed since Ichiro had come back carrying Ino in his arms. He had spent every single day in the hospital since he had returned. Tsunade was getting worried over his mood these days, as he had previously yelled at her to get out when Tsunade had gently requested that he get some rest and get the mission report ready. All that mattered to Ichiro was Ino, who was out of danger, but she was still in a deep coma. It isn't fair, thought Ichiro. I could have saved you, Ino. Naruto, Shikamaru and Chouji had come by one day, to visit Ino, as well as trying to persuade Ichiro to go back home to rest. "Ichiro… I think you should get some rest." Shikamaru placed his hand on Ichiro's shoulder, only to have it swept away by a silent Ichiro. He sighed, and shook his head. Troublesome, why won't you listen? You look like a ghost. Naruto frowned as he stopped next to Ichiro. "Oi, Ichiro. You should really go home. Ino won't want to see you in this state. You're practically half-dead, if we didn't know any better," said Naruto.
"No," was all that escaped from Ichiro's lips. His voice was shaky, making them realize why he hadn't been speaking at all in the past week. Naruto frowned. "We hate to see you like this," said the blonde. Ichiro turned his head to Naruto, his face as expressionless as per normal. "Why should you care?" he growled. "I was only here for almost a month. Sai is coming back next week, so I don't think you should get as close to me as you are to your friend."
"But you're close to Ino," said Chouji. "You're as close as any boyfriend can get."
Ichiro sighed. "I don't care. It's my fault she's like this."
"It's not, alright? Listen to me!" Naruto was now breathing heavily, his blue eyes piercing Ichiro like a knife. "Nobody could have known—"
"I knew!" roared Ichiro. He glared at Naruto for a few seconds before turning back to the unconscious Ino. "I – I knew she would have been injured if she came along." Naruto was about to say something, but Ichiro put his hand up. "I don't want to explain anything now. I just – I just want her to be okay," he said, with a gentle tone, while caressing her face slowly; as if it was the last time he was going to see her. "Ichiro," said Shikamaru, crouching down beside him. "It's okay. Nobody blames you for this."
"Well I do," he replied. Ichiro never thought that anyone would mean so much to him in his whole life, but once this girl – Yamanaka Ino – had stepped into his life, everything changed. Please be okay. I know I haven't been the best partner… or the best friend… but I just want you to open your eyes and look at me. I want to see your smile again. I want to talk to you.
Yamanaka Ino… I can't believe you changed me this much. I can't believe it. At the last minute, when I realize everything that has happened, you're gone. When I finally feel something, you're not here to hear me, or to let me show you what it is.
Damn it.
"I…" whispered Ichiro, not sure of whether he would mean it if he said it. He pressed his lips together and sighed. It would be pointless, if he did, in front of Naruto, Shikamaru and Chouji.
"Guys," he said, turning around to the three shinobi towering over him. Ichiro forced a weak smile on his face as he said, "Thanks."
Naruto grinned and patted Ichiro on the back. "No problem! What are friends for, huh?"
Author's Note:
GAH! The horror! I think I screwed my fight scene! Never mind. Read and review )