Whoosh this one took a while, had to work out the particulars of how it was going to go. But now I have an evil plan. Ino comes across a bit whiney in this one which I don't like. In her team she wouldn't ask, she'd demand knowing the guys would give in to avoid hassel. But months working with the rock which is Tenten have taught Ino that a whine gets better results than trying to butt heads with Tenten. Tenten's used to saying to no to idiot ideas.
Standard Disclaimer, the sad fact that I don't own these characters means I do not get to make squillions of dollars with them but I can play with them! Just like Barbie or GI Joe maybe.
It's a girl thing
Palace, Fire Capital, Ino and Tenten's rooms
Tenten's eye twitched, and when it twitched, it twitched like a pro. It had practice.
The target of Tenten's anger was currently kneeling gingerly on her futon looking ready to bolt at the least movement.
"So..." Tenten forced past her teeth. "You thought you'd just re-interrogate these people rather than, say I don't know...turn up today to guard our client?"
Tenten was aware that her voice was starting to get high and whistly, not a good sign for her control, but damn it, Ino could at least look sorry for having left her in the lurch all day.
On her side Ino scanned Tenten's emotional state a little desperately. She'd known that Tenten would be a little steamed, but this was going over the top. What she wouldn't give to have Shikamaru's 'damn it all at least it's over and I don't have to deal with it' attitude or Chouji's 'just glad you're back in one piece' sigh to deal with.
Ino tried again to explain the upside of her day's AWOL.
"I knew you could handle the mission, after all if something did happen do you really think you'd need me to help you handle it?" Ino wheedled.
Normally people who let their emotions get the better of them were more easily manipulated by the clever long haired kunoichi, but Tenten was proving a little one tracked.
"So you just took the day off and left me to shoulder it all by myself?" Tenten squeaked out.
"I really didn't mean to." Ino said putting a look of pathetic desolation on her face.
Tenten obviously felt righteously indignant, so Ino would pander to her ego.
"It's just they started talking and then I couldn't get away. I knew I should have asked you to do it for me but..." Ino said peeking up to reassess how her technique was going.
If it'd been someone other than a fellow Konoha ninja Ino would've tried to ensnare their mind in one of her control jutsus. But that would be just rude, and against a trained shinobi difficult without making a visible effort. Which ruined the whole subtil point of the jutsus. Ino sighed, Tenten's anger had gone down a few notches but not enough so that the kunoichi would listen to her information rather than just continuing to rant.
Tenten felt her anger being dragged back inch by inch from strangling point. Unthinking she slipped a hand into her pocket and found the meditation stone which never left her presence. Restlessly she ran her thumb over the design, round and round until she found a balance that allowed her to talk at a more normal level.
"It's not that I couldn't handle today's work, but a heads-up would have been nice." Tenten said fighting to calm her voice.
"Did Captain Junei notice that I was absent today?" Ino asked suddenly worried that she would find herself with even more punishment.
When would she learn to act with a little more thought, Ino whined to herself. It wasn't that she never thought, it was just that her instincts never really led her wrong, today's little mission proved that. Reflexion was Shikamaru's thing, instinct was her's, pulling their collective behinds out of the fires that sometimes caught up with them was Chouji's.
It'd seemed so perfect to her this morning, just a little quick recon on some of the people questioned in the report. But everything had snowballed and she hadn't finished before late afternoon. Hence the earbashing.
Tenten considered letting Ino crawl a little more before letting her off, but the woebegone expression got to her.
"No, he wasn't even there, probably off doing real work. I did a shadow clone and held it for three hours..." Tenten said letting the importance of her words sink in.
Ino blanched when she heard three hours. Three hours of constant concentration and chakra drain was not something to be joked with The cost Tenten had paid started to become apparent and Ino made up her mind to be extra nice to the prickly young woman.
"I don't suppose you'd still be willing to help me then." Ino asked a faint hope growing in her.
If Tenten had been willing to cover her that far, there was a chance that she would go even further.
Tenten rolled her eyes.
"No." Tenten stated briefly.
Tenten wondered what kind of soft minded idiots Ino was used to working with if Ino thought she'd just fold in like that.
"What d'ya mean no?" Ino spluttered.
"No." Tenten repeated happy that the word seemed to have such a strong effect.
"Why would I continue to put my future in danger for you?" Tenten asked honestly.
"Well, because... just because." Ino faltered.
Tenten turned away triumphant.
"Dai-sama is going on some sort of visiting round tomorrow, we have to follow him, we start at nine am sharp."
Ino grabbed at Tenten's pants leg and refused to let go.
"You have to help me because they're my team." Ino said clearly, eyes fixed everywhere but Tenten's face.
"So." Tenten asked brusquely trying to shake Ino off.
"So...you know what it's like." Ino said standing and gripping Tenten by the upper arms.
She would have taken Tenten's shoulders, but Tenten was so much taller than her that it would look ridiculous.
"You aren't exactly drowning in friends either." Ino said staring into Tenten's tight face.
Tenten tried to brush her off.
"What's it to you if I don't have a large circle of chatterers to hang around me." Tenten said angry again.
What was it to Ino if she didn't have many, or any really close friends, Tenten thought starting to feel really uncomfortable with the conversation.
"So you know what it's like, to need your team, because you don't have anyone else." Ino said earnestly trying to make Tenten feel the sincerity of her feeling.
Even if it was humiliating to lay infront out the fact that she wasn't widely loved or even liked, it was worth it, if Tenten would help her, Ino thought.
"Please. You have to know how important they are to me." Ino said as Tenten stared at everything except her.
"Please." Ino said trying to catch Tenten's eye.
"Alright!" Tenten said if only to stop Ino from pushing further into the subject of friendships and the lack thereof.
"Alright, just get off me, geez." Tenten said stumbling back turning away to hide how red her cheeks were.
Why'd things always have to get so emotional around Ino? Tenten fumed.
Give her, her emotionally stunted team any day over this crybaby disaster she was teamed up with. Who cared if they had friends or not, she didn't. She so didn't.
"So anyway." Tenten coughed playing for time to regain her normal cool. "Did you learn anything useful today?"
"Did I ever!" Ino enthused. "Number one is that the Daimyo's interrogaters are useless."
After listening as Ino related her day's adventures and the information gathered, Tenten had to admit that the info was good.
"So you see, there's a lead that noone seems to be following." Ino finished triumphantly.
"I see that you have no idea of how to give a report." Tenten said to burst Ino's bubble a little and calm the over excited Kunoichi down.
Ino made a face and tapped her foot waiting for Tenten to acknowledge how useful the information was. It wasn't her fault if she sucked at reporting, it was normally someone else, like Shikamaru, who gave the reports.
"So after some careful questioning, the litter bearers admitted that some geisha with a yellow fan patterned kimono paid them to wait around the corner from the opera house rather than right outside." Tenten summed up ten minutes of chatter.
"Right." Ino said, impressed that all her important information could be reduced to one sentence.
"And this is important because?" Tenten asked more to annoy Ino than anything else.
Ino rolled her eyes, why was Tenten so difficult all the time?
"Because..." Ino said slowly, "it means that this geisha person is involved in the kidnapping of the Daimyo's granddaughter. And nobody's looking into it because they don't know that the litter bearers were paid off by this geisha person to not be where they should've been so that the kidnappers could be and noone's checking it out..."
Tenten held up her hand as Ino started to repeat herself.
"How do you suppose that we're going to check this all out when we are completely busy tommorrow and the day after that and the day after that?" Tenten asked.
Ino sagged a little.
"Well if you'd just keep up the shadow clone thing a while longer..."
Tenten rolled her eyes and turned away.
"No way, I've never felt that sick before, forget it, think of something else." Tenten said angrily.
Ino thought desperately, detailed planning was so not her thing, but she was no Naruto for crying out loud. Hitting on an idea, Ino prattled on about it until Tenten finally caved in, if only to shut her up. Ino smiled happily and rushed out of the room to set step one into motion.
Staring at the wall of their room with an expression like a stunned fish, Tenten thought to herself that at least when it was all over her paitence would be of world record size. Though she now understood the half brain-dead expression on Shikamaru and Chouji's faces. Vaguely Tenten wondered if banging her head against the ground would help.
There's no team like your own team, Tenten thought dazedly. There's no team like your own team.
Next day, Reception room, Tai Doma's rooms"I must say this is more exciting than I expected." Toma said enthusiatically, pointing out another bolt of patterned silk.
Ino smiled happily and Tenten playing with the handle of her kunai considered stabbing herself with it for the hundreth time. The restrictive formal clothes they were wearing as part of their cover today more than explained to her why Shikamaru and Chouji may have failed to beat off their attackers. She watched with a twinge of jealousy how easily Ino manouvered the conversation with Dai-sama over the choice of a gift.
"Just remember Dai-sama, this is an important present for Lady Aikousha, it wouldn't do to buy just any old kimono. It should show that you are a cultured, intelligent, generous, but not lavish young man. Exactly the type of young man that should be promoted." Ino said nodding as she scanned the scattered samples of kimono silk.
Tenten had to admit it was clever, getting Dai-sama to take them kimono shopping to try and trace the owner of a particular pattern, she just hadn't realised that it would take so long. Though Toma-sama had assured them that his uncle would not count the day wasted if they succeeded in drawing the favourable attention of someone as highly placed as Lady Aikousha, Tenten was afraid of what Captain Junei would say.
Ino's eyes alighted on a fan patterned piece of silk. She bumped it to the front and when Toma's eyes fell on it he gave an exclamation of delight.
"Look, fans! It'll be perfect for her!" He turned to look at Ino and Tenten.
His happiness stuttered to a stop before Ino's narrowed eyes.
The kimono seller also flicked his eyes towards the young lady trying to gauge if he was likely to make a sale or not.
"Koko-chan, is this pattern not appropriate? I can chose another, bamboo is for friendship..." Toma began.
"No, no." Ino said slowly. "It is a most lovely design, and it would be perfect for a gift. But.."
"But?" Toma asked worriedly, his knowledge of kimonos was sketchy at best, he was relying heavily on Koko-chan's (Ino's) help.
Ino gave an apologetic look to the kimono seller.
"Oh dear, this is really very embarrassing. I really don't want to offend, only this kimono will be so important to your future Dai-sama." Ino said faking embarrassment while threading her eyes with chakra to read how her performance was affecting her audience.
"Koko-chan!" Toma exclaimed. "We would never accuse you of offense. I know that you would never insult someone."
Toma was completely in her game, the man was a political disaster, sweet but so naive. The kimono seller was a harder nut to crack. He was watching her with the eyes of a hawk.
"Oh, it's just that I saw a pattern much like this on someone else." Ino finished as if speaking the words pained her.
Tenten snapped to attention. Here was the point of the entire operation. A kimono pattern was like a finger print, and Ino had taken a very detailed description of the kimono that the woman had worn. It still surprised Tenten that there were woman who passed their lives memorising the smallest detail of other woman's outfits. After that Ino had convinced Dai-sama that giving a kimono as a gift to one of the highly placed matriachs in the palace would be an excellent way to advance his career, and of course he had to buy one from one of the most reputable sellers in Fire Capital.
A seller who had quite probably sold the kimono they were looking for, or knew who wore it. These people as were jealous of patterns as Lords of their power, to insinuate that a pattern they sold had been copied was a recipe for disaster.
The kimono seller's back stiffened and his face took on a look of stone.
"I can assure you madame that noone else has this pattern, it is impossible. I myself chose this example and the artist is a man of impeachable reputation. Never would he sell the same pattern twice." The kimono seller sounded as if he bit each word off even as they left his mouth.
"Oh, I'm sure, I understand, the pattern cannot have been that close. Only the description was so precise." Ino fluttered, like a wounded butterfly.
Tenten almost felt sorry for her; Then pinched herself to remind herself that it was only a trick, the real Ino was anything but a wounded butterfly. She took a moment to marvel at the effect of Ino's bloodline technique. While the emtional scanning was simply a trick of chakra reading and knowledge of the human body and behaviour, this mesmerising came only to descendants of Ino's line. It was said that the great Kyoko Yamanaka could completely control a target's mind just by having spoken one word to them.
With proper application the Heavenly Words mind control led a person to agree of their own free will with what ever the pratictioner said or wanted. The advantages were that you weren't left with the wooden dummy effect that was characteristic of normal mind control, and the target continued to think it was their own idea even after you'd stopped the jutsu. So there was no risk of the jutsu being stopped prematurely or of your plan being uncovered afterwards when the target 'woke-up'.
A person needed a strong will and excellent self control not to fall into the trap that Ino was laying. And in the emotionally distressed state that the two males were in they were easy bait.
Toma looked uncomfortable, while the kimono seller's expression softened just a tad.
"Of course, of course." Toma said trying to comfort the distressed girl.
"If you could describe the pattern, I could perphaps identify it and lift any worries that you may have." The kimono seller said sounding more at ease.
"I.. I'm so sorry," Ino said again seeming to regain her courage. " A very beautiful kimono of a deep blue with yellow fans swirling as if caught on a breeze..."
"The fans in light yellow, the skeleton picked out in darker yellow, the breeze designed in dull gold thread with a shimmer of green water at the hem of the kimono?" the kimono seller finished triumphantly.
"Yes, yes!" Ino said clapping her hands delightedly.
Toma and the kimono seller smiled satisfied.
"One of my most beautiful kimonos." The kimono seller said proudly. "Brought by the Okiya Iwasaki for Masako-chan their newest geiko, a lovely girl."
Tenten tucked away the information and tuned out the rest of the kimono choosing to concentrate on keeping up her surveillance. Though the fact that they were encircled by royal guards seemed to make the exercise theoretic.
Therefore she was unpleasantly surprised to find out that Ino had again manipulated things to her own advantage.
"An ochaya?" Tenten said stonily to Ino once they were in their own room.
"Of course." Ino said opening one of her many pouches and laying out the various items.
"May I ask why?" Tenten asked putting as much ice into her voice as possible.
"To find this Masako woman." Ino huffed.
Tenten raised her eyebrows.
"Yes," Ino said rolling her eyes. "Work with me. After a little careful questioning, I found out that Masako is connected to the ochaya Mankiku."
"How? She's a geisha." Tenten said trying to undress without much success.
Ino sighed and stood up to help.
"A geisha is normally connected to at least one ochaya from when she makes her debuts as a meiko. She's almost certain to be there tonight. It'll be the perfect chance to interrogate her a little." Ino said tugging here and there on Tenten's outfit.
"How is it that you don't know any of this stuff." Ino complained as the outfit finally gave up its deathgrip on Tenten and slid to the floor.
"Geisha stuff?" Tenten asked, happier than she'd admit to be out of those restrictive riduculous clothes.
"No, girl stuff." Ino said grabbing one of Tenten's few bags and tipping the contents on the ground.
Tenten glared not sure why she wasn't pounding the blond ditz into the ground. Ino searched through the pile on the ground, Tenten continued to glare.
"Unbelieveable, not even one throwing needle disguised as a hair pin. I thought you were a weapons mistress." Ino said sitting back on her heels.
"I didn't expect to be undercover as anything that would require dressing up. It's not my thing." Tenten said grumpily trying to stuff her things back into the bag.
"Well tonight will be a new experience then." Ino said in an encouraging voice.
A sudden thought struck Ino.
"Tenten have you ever been to an ochaya?"
For anyone interested alot of the geisha details were taken from a book called 'Geisha: A life' written in Japanese by Mineko Iwasaki with help from Rande Brown. Translations are available.