Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters, merchandise, TV rights, ect… (I think you get the point.)

Summery

Sometimes in life you have to see things right through to the bitter end, even if you wish you didn't. (Sasuke/Ino)

Like all of my work this is just something that happened to float through the empty void inside my head. Like it or hate it please R and R as honest opinions are always welcomed, as are random acts of worship.

"Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished and persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot."

Lamb: As always sorry for any bad spelling and if you feel the need to throw things at me please wait until I've hidden behind the sofa kay!

Dedi: This fic is dedicated to Yoruichi 'Ino'

Muse: On with the fic!

Nothing's right I'm torn,
I'm all out of faith,
This is how I feel,
I'm cold and I am shamed,
Lying naked on the floor,
Illusion never changed,
Into something real,
I'm wide awake and I can see,
The perfect sky is torn,

Start to Finish

"Yamanaka, listen to me!" Sasuke roared as he pulled against the ropes than bound his hands to the headboard. They were chakra effused making them unnaturally strong and the knots, which Ino had tied, were complex and would be near impossible to undo even under normal circumstances. "This is no time to split up!"

"Yes, it is," Ino said, carefully strapping the weapons pouch to her leg "Before you make the wrong decision."

"Wrong decision? You mean like the one I made last night?" The moment the words were out he wished he could take them back, he hadn't meant that but there was no way for him to back down. Sasuke had seen the way that tension had rolled through Ino, the way she was suddenly holding herself so stiffly, and knew he couldn't have hurt her more if he'd had physically assaulted her.

"I mean," And her voice was steady, almost unnaturally calm, betraying nothing of what she felt. "Trying to take the scroll."

"OK, you want to leave? Go ahead. But don't pretend it's to try and save me." Sasuke yelled and struggled ineffectually against his bonds, feeling the rope bite into his wrists and ankles. "You're afraid you might not be able to go through with it. Afraid of letting your guard down, of letting anyone in."

And she had ever reason to be afraid. What had transpired between them only hours ago went far beyond sex and physically satisfaction, it was something deep and dark and so intensely privet that to even speak of it almost felt wrong. She had opened up to him completely; he had seen her soul naked and exposed, utterly vulnerable before him. And with one hurtful, unplanned comment he had just thrown that rare gift back in her face.

"No Sasuke, I'm not leaving because I couldn't kill you." And though her voice was still level, there was no way for Ino to disguise the pain that flickered through her extraordinary eyes. "I'm leaving because I could."

Sucking in her breath sharply the Leaf kunoichi walked swiftly across the room and picking up a discarded scarf stuffed it into Sasuke's mouth to act as a crud form of gag. Any other female would have bent and kissed him before leaving the room, but not her. And even as his mind rebelled at what she had done, at the way she had been able to see his intentions so clearly, he could not help but feel slightly proud of her. Proud, that even after everything that had happened between them she refused to let her judgement become clouded.

XXXXXXXXXX

It had been almost an hour since Ino had slipped into the mind of one of the many hired thugs that were keeping century duty around the temple. It had taken that long for her to regain enough of her energy to stand a chance of taking on the two dozen guards. That was the problem with using the Shintenshin no Jutsu while keeping control of ones own body, the drain on chakra had to be seen to be believed. Though that was one good thing she had learned in her observations, not one of the twenty-four men was a trained shinobi, which meant she would not have to worry about counteracting Jutsu.

But ninja or not, the blonde dared not wait any longer she had to get that scroll and destroy it before the window of opportunity was slammed shut on her fingers.

And before Sasuke broke free, as she knew he eventually would, and followed her here.

But thinking of the Uchiha gave her an idea of how she would be able to take out some of the guards before getting within range to their weapons or fists. The Uchiha clan had all possessed an affinity with the eliminate of fire, possibly it was in some way connected to the Sharingan since Kakashi also used several fire techniques. Ino was more at home with the eliminates of water and lighting, the later of which both Kakashi and Sasuke also used. But the thing was since training with one under the eye of the other Ino had learned one or two of the fire based Jutsu of her own. One of which would be perfect for this situation.

Shifting position slightly so that more of the guards entered her field of vision, Ino offered up a small prayer to Kami-sama before moving her hands through the required seals with practised ease. Feeling the power pulse through her body, the blue-eyed mind walked softly murmured the name, "Fire Style: Phoenix strike jutsu."

Eight blazing balls of flame appeared in mid air and headed right for the patrolling men who screamed and yelled and shoved one another in an attempt to get out of the paths of the missiles. Four men where hit, the fire ravishing their clothes and in their attempts to douse the flames set light to another two. It was a horrific way to die but Ino refused to let her self think of that. Later she would grieve for the lives she had been forced to take but at that moment she was nothing more than a kunoichi of The Hidden Leaf Village.

Cold, calculating and ruthless.

And with that thought echoing in her mind Ino rose from her hiding place and dove into the melee of struggling, screaming bodies.

Ten minuets later and she was gasping for breath inside the temple its self. She had killed another five, which took the total up to eleven, but while it was true that she was far better trained they had numbers on their side and within the ruin she had little room to manoeuvre. One good thing was that the men seemed to have no idea how to fight; they were coming at her in ones and twos, instead of attaching on mass in which case the whole thing would been over in seconds.

A redhead charged, but telegraphed the move so all that Ino had to do was side step. The back of her fist caught him a cracking blow on the side of his head as he past her, and then kicked him in the ass so that he hit the temple wall with bone crunching force. From the corner of her eye she spotted the next attach, with a graceful martial-arts jump she had learned from Rock Lee, she delivered a perfectly placed kick to the man's leering mouth. He dropped like a sack of rice, spitting up teeth like undigested corn, as blood streaked down his chin onto his chest in colourful ribbons.

Thirteen down just eleven to go, Ino thought as she slashed open the throat of the next to approach her, but it was at that moment that the remained of the group seemed to rethink their stratagem and suddenly all of them advanced on mass. Shit! was the only thought that made it though the blonde's adrenaline soaked brain as she caught one man, a blond like herself, full in the face with a straight right. With one foot she caught a second in the gut while the kunai she had been holding buried its self in the neck of a third.

But it was only a matter of time before the remainder swarmed her, and had her pinned like a dead butterfly in a collector's book. They held her down tightly, spread-eagled and took turns copping obnoxious feels, until the blond whose teeth Ino had knocked down his throat pushed his way through the group.

"Not so tough now are you, you little slut?" He sneered down at her. Dirty blond hair falling round his face as he openly stared, not bothering to hide the way he was eyeing up her lithe yet voluptuous figure.

Ino glared up at him, rage flashing in eyes that showed no hint of fear, and played the only card she had left. "You gutless shit, afraid to take on a girl by yourself? Have to have your associates hold her down for you?"

His nostrils flared as he leaned over Ino and slapped her hard around the face. It sounded like an explosion, rigging off of the cold stone walls of the former place of worship and her head eruption in pain. Bright multi-coloured stars flashed behind her eyes as her head was slammed against the floor. "I'm about to except your apology slut."

Spitting blood into his face Ino snarled, "Stop calling me that!"

He pulled back one sinewy arm to hit her again, but before he could strike a pale hand seized his wrist in a vice like grip and dragged him round. There was nothing of the typical elegant shinobi way in Sasuke's action; his eyes were blazing the colour of fresh blood as he smashed his forehead into the face of the blond. The sound of the man's skull cracking echoed around the ruin, he dropped like a stone and Sasuke turned to face the remaining men, the blood of their former leader coated his headband.

It was at that point that, from the point of view of the remaining thieves, that all hell broke lose. Sasuke was like something possessed, striking, spinning, and striking again and again, kicks knocking battered thieves in all directions. Suddenly finding herself free, Ino leapt to her feet, ignoring the protests of her body as she re-entered the fray. A sallow skinned male was making for Sasuke's back a wicked blade held in one hand and a vicious smile twisting his face.

Ino swung her fist at his face, and smirked when it collided with a meaty crunch and had him down on his knees. Her kick had the knife flying in a silvery arch from his hand and as she spun the blonde caught the blade and with one sharp trust put the male down for good. Less than two minuets later and the only people left breathing were Ino and Sasuke, everyone else was either dead or had fled the carnage.

Weariness and fatigue dragged at the blue-eyed young woman, the adrenaline that had surged through her system was starting to disperse and with a shudder of revolution Ino realised what would probably have happened to her if Sasuke had not arrived. She offered him a watery smile as he looked over at her, funny she would never have pegged him as the night in shining armour type. There was something dark and unreadable in his eyes, which were slowly returning to their normal onyx hue, that she didn't understand, but only intensified as he closed the space between them.

The next thing Ino knew Sasuke had his arms wrapped tightly around her, holding her as close to him as he could, while his mouth devoured her own. There was a desperate frantic need to the kiss, a hungry intensity that she had never felt before and she wondered just how much of the dirty blond haired male's threat the Uchiha had heard. She could feel herself losing her grip on reality, getting swept along on a tidal wave of emotion, but she had a job to do and it wasn't finished.

Reluctantly Ino pulled away from Sasuke and headed to the back of the temple, and the box in which the scroll was hidden. Only to freeze when the Uchiha blocked her path and fear flowed like ice water through her veins when Sasuke carefully lifted the roll of parchment from its hiding place.

XXXXXXXXXX

"I'm taking it with me." His voice was low and even, and so soft that his words were almost lost in the acoustics of the ruin, and that fact only scared Ino further. The scroll was held firmly in his left hand while the fingers of his right hand twitched spasmodically, a sure indication of the nervous tension that filled him.

"I won't let you." Ino whispered, moving so that her trembling, fatigue weakened body stood between Sasuke and the highly arched temple doorway.

"So it's come to this, has it? Well, you do have authorisation to kill me. Better do it then, cus if you think standing in front of me is gonna be enough…." The end of the sentence trailed off as his hand struck her hard around the face, and still exhausted from the resent fight Ino could do nothing but fight the nausea as she was flung backwards.

All the breath was pushed sharply from her lungs when her back slammed against a half-fallen pillar. Ino felt her ribs cry out in pain as white-hot fire seared its way through her flesh.

"You don't have it in you to stop me. You see, all your beliefs... all your ideals, they're not real. I am. And you love me; you've always loved me." Ino would never have believed it if she had not heard it for herself; the note of pleading that filled his voice. "You think you're strong, but you'll never choose them over me."

Ino could only shake her head while pain assaulted even nerve and sinew of her bruised and battered body. Slowly inch by gruelling inch, she dragged her self to her feet and though she swayed slightly, the blonde once more placed her body so that she was blocking Sasuke from the exit. She had been given her orders and she would carry them out no matter what the cost, it didn't matter how much pain and suffering it would cause her. Ino had been set a task and she would see it through to the bitter end for that was her ninja way.

"Yamanaka! Don't you understand what we could do with this? We wouldn't have lost them; we could be with them all again…" Sasuke continued expounding wildly, waving his hands to emphasise his meaning the scroll still held tightly in his left hand. But Ino had stopped listening; she could see the savage reckless light burning in his eyes and felt her heart cracking in two.

All of her life she had been choosing between doing what she wanted to do and what she had to do. The scroll was offering a seemingly impossible gift, to bring the dead to life, not just imitations as those raised by Orochimaru had been, but the true person heart and soul once more walking the earth. But still a human sacrifice was required for the jutsu to work, because as with everything it was all about balance. The life of a stranger for that of her father or Asuma-sensei, was it worth it? Was one life less valuable than another? No, it wasn't.

And though tempting though it was, though there had been times when Ino had felt that there was nothing she wouldn't do, no price she wouldn't pay, to see her sensei one more time. Or feel her fathers arms wrapped around her as pride lit up his face. Or to have the chance to meet her mother, the woman who had died bringing her into this world. Ino knew that she would not be able to face any of them if she did what Sasuke was suggesting.

"Now move!" Sasuke screamed the vivid scarlet of the Sharingan flaming in his eyes as his self-control began to slip.

"No." Ino breathed, not thinking about what would happen next her whole being simply focusing on the task of remaining conscious.

"Move, please!" And again Ino thought that there was something of a plea in his tone, or maybe she had just lost too much blood and was just hearing what she wanted to.

Too tired for words the blonde just shook her head and Sasuke felt a strange mix of rage and terror claw at his insides. Why couldn't she just move? Why did she have to be so stubborn? Why couldn't she just back down? The situation was a hopeless one, she was almost on the point of collapse and even as he watched her Ino swayed slightly on the spot. There was no way that she could stop him, weakened as she was, she was no match for him.

He took one step towards her and saw how Ino had to force her eyes to focus on him. It would be easy one swift move and it would all be over, except that he would have the scroll. He would be able to bring her back, he would be able to bring them all back and then she would see that he had been right. Then they could all be happy and the two of them could be together.

"Fine." Sasuke whispered and the scroll clenched tightly in his hand he lunged at the broken blonde.

(A/N – Cliff-hanger because I'm a bitch and I can.)

Please R and R I'd love to know what you thought.

Big love and inspiration

Lamanth