Author's Notes: Agh, I'm dying here! Not really, but…you know… Sleepy fayce! =.=
Truth be told; I wrote a few parts of this chapter while drunk- or while sobering up, at least. See if you can guess which parts.
Author's Sub-Notes: A-BAM! Love scene time! Work/School safe though.

Disclaimer: Hourai is a bastard. And he's MY bastard. Kimimaro and Ino are not mine, unfortunately. Deal with it. I did…

'Potato?' Kimimaro asked candidly, offering a bowl of boiled potatoes across the table to Ino.

'Ah, yes please… Kaguya-san?' Ino tiled her head slightly, implying a subtle inquiry as to whether she was using the right name. A tiny twitch at the corner of an eye was the only thing that betrayed the involuntary reaction he had to being referred to by his family name. Ino didn't seem to notice, as she was preoccupied with transferring a potato from the bowl to her plate.

'"Kimimaro" will be fine,' he said lightly, setting the bowl back onto the table.

'Then…thank you, Kimimaro…' she tried, uncertainly. Kimimaro was unsure about her leaving a suffix off the end of his name, but he let it go for lack of any pressing reason to be addressed formally. 'Eggplant?' this time Ino offered a plate.

Kimimaro held up a diplomatic hand, declining the offer of a food he didn't particularly like. He had only bothered buying and cooking it because he was open to the idea that not everyone shared his distaste for the vegetable. Since Ino seemed to be pretending to pick at it now and then -possibly offering it to him in the hopes that he would eat some, and not notice that she wasn't having any- he probably shouldn't have bothered.

The bag of vegetables he regularly bought from the stall in town, at the shopkeeper's insistence that he take care of his body, was a cornucopia of variety. Kimimaro was willing to completely attribute this friendly gesture as the reason he hadn't turned into some kind of goblin that ate mushrooms as a main course twelve times a week. Still, he couldn't enjoy every vegetable in the bag.

Times like these were where the vegetable bag really came into its own. Kimimaro would quite happily spend a day preparing and cooking the dishes for a banquet. Including this occasion, he had done so three times. The townspeople were very understanding of his desire for partial solitude, so he didn't get many visitors. The visitors he did get were either work-related, or the more pushy and self-imposing type of acquaintance. Like Gen and Haruko. He had seen Gen recently, but not Haruko. He hoped she wouldn't come visiting for at least a few more days. He'd never hear the end of it if she found some stranger in his house.

Ino dabbed at her mouth with a handkerchief daintily, reinforcing Kimimaro's belief that her name did not suit her at all, put down her chopsticks and fiddled with the hem of her new skirt. Kimimaro recognised the motions for preparing to bring up a complicated matter, and set his chopsticks aside too, still chewing a mouthful of spinach absently. For a moment, she seemed unnerved by his stare, but gathered herself quickly and cleared her throat, just to be sure.

'I, um… I never did have a,' she hesitated for a moment, picking her words carefully. '"Chance" to tell you about how I…came to be injured.' "Chance" meaning, of course, that she had several chances -especially today where she had insisted on helping Kimimaro prepare lunch and dinner- but had failed to find the right way to bring it up, or just forgotten.

'I…didn't go out of my way to ask, either,' he returned, apologetically. Ino looked unsure about how to take that, and Kimimaro realised that it may have sounded as though he had no interest in hearing what she had to say. He gave her a nod to continue, and she picked up on the gesture.

'Well, I'm from Konohagakure no Sato. But, you already knew that, didn't you?' Kimimaro nodded a simple affirmative, so she pressed on. 'I was on a mission. In this country. I can't say too much about it.' Understandable. Kimimaro could guess about the mission, in any case, but he wasn't sure exactly how Konohagakure fitted into the Kirigakure business. In fact, that might be a good way to make sense of the whole situation.

'It had to do with the shinobi from Kirigakure no Sato?' It was an unexpected question, with hooks on the end. And they snagged Ino as surely as a master fisherman snags a bass.

'How did you know that?'

'That doesn't matter. But I assume they were the ones that nearly killed you?'

A shadow passed across Ino's face. That was a "yes," then. She wasn't pleased by this line of questioning, apparently. Better to not pry too much.

'I apologise for interrupting.'

The surprise on her face was obvious, and she seemed somewhat off-balance. 'I…um,' she prodded the contents of her bowl nervously. 'The mission.' She went back to a part of the conversation she was more sure of and tried to remember where she was going with it. 'My companion from Konoha was…he didn't make it. And, um, we had a Kumo-nin with us as well…' she trailed off oddly. After a lengthy pause, Kimimaro felt moved to press the issue.

'What happened to him?'

'He…' she pointed wretchedly at her right shoulder, at the stab wound Kimimaro was all too familiar with by now. 'He gave me this.'

A eurhythmic whistling noise clawed at the edges of the otherwise silent room. Nobody paid it much attention. They were used to it.

A double-bladed kunai rose and fell in the gloom, the irregular differences in spin, arc and force making it slice the air differently, was the source of the noise. The man catching it behind the angular bulges of either blade between his fingers and spinning it back up into the air, found both the action and the noise that resulted from it calming. And he really, very much, wanted to be calm right now.

Leaving Yamanaka to die in the rain had been a bad idea. He should have watched her die, rather than gloating and putting on such dramatic airs. He had a bad habit for doing that- but what was life without a little flair, anyway?

Still, it was that very flair which had gotten him to this unpleasant juncture. Hunt her down, and make sure she couldn't tip off any loyalists in Kumogaure no Sato, or invite the direct involvement of Konohagakure no Sato- or proceed with the plan, and hope she was still too badly injured to have any significant impact on the scenario? Tough call. He was fighting against time either way, and neither the prospect of going off on a wild goose chase or leaving things to fate sat well with him.

He didn't like this.

Hourai caught the kunai around the hand-wrap and slammed it into the table in front of him. The sudden, noisy action drew a cursory glance and a reflexive reaching for weapons from the foreign shinobi in his company, but they said nothing. They hardly ever said anything. They were there to follow instructions, so words weren't high on their priorities list, but he still hated their insufferable reticence.

'You,' he said, pointing at a Kirigakure no Sato shinobi who he was reasonably sure was a squad leader. 'Take your squad and find me the blonde woman.'

The shinobi nodded curtly, and turned to leave. He was swiftly joined by three companions. He wasn't actually a squad leader, but they felt no need to correct Hourai's error.

This wouldn't do at all, oh no. A revolution wouldn't just happen on its own- and wouldn't happen with help, either, unless certain conditions were met. Those conditions included the division of the Kaminari loyalists from the revolutionary elements, and the suppression or obstruction of any outside-influences not friendly with the revolutionists. Yamanaka Ino was the proverbial "spanner" in the metaphorical "works," which threatened to make one or more of the topical "gears" slip.

In other words, he could not afford to let her roam free. Or be alive, for that matter.

He had felt sorry for her, at first. He always felt sorry for someone who needed to be sacrificed for the greater good, but he was short on compassion now. He had to move while he still had the legs to carry him. He sighed at turned to the remaining Shinobi in his company.

'The rest of you, with me. We need to start the "housework."'

As one, the Kirigakure shinobi rose, ready to kill, maim, and sow dissent.

Ino rolled over in bed, wincing as she put pressure on the injuries on her left side. She was having trouble getting to sleep for some reason.

After dinner, she and Kimimaro had gone to their respective bed/couch, after discussing the matter of her going to Kumo or Konoha. Kimimaro's blunt stance on the matter was that she wasn't well enough to travel yet. So, she was staying for a while longer.

She rolled over again, overwhelmed by the pain from her left side, and lay on her right side. It was, comparatively, more painful. She lay on her back instead.

She was really restless for some reason. Maybe because the rain had passed a few days ago, and the sun had been wreaking havoc on the land which had been overcast for weeks. In other words, it was too hot to sleep. It wasn't a very pleasant feeling.

In desperation, she threw off the sheets and tried to slide to a cooler part of the bed. It was comfortable for all of three minutes, by which time the bed had managed to match her body temperature. Finally, she gave up and rose unsteadily to her feet.

The house was filled with that heavy atmosphere associated with heat and humidity, and it felt as though it should have been filled with a faint red glow to accompany it. Ino found her way to the lounge room half-blindly and triangulated the position of the couch. Through the gloom, she could just make out the shape of Kimimaro. His fair skin and hair reflected just about all light that came in contact with it, and thus made him the most visible thing in the room. That wasn't saying much, since she still had trouble making out details, but he stood out when you knew where to look.

The first thing that struck her was his face, which seemed bountifully peaceful, compared to his usual no-nonsense demeanour. The second thing that struck her was that he was shirtless, once again. He must have felt it was a little hot tonight as well.

Were she to throw off all of her inhibitions and admit something about him she found attractive to his face, it would be that he looked really good shirtless. The understated, but powerfully muscled arms, the broad shoulders, the smooth, stroke able-looking chest- very nice indeed.

Maybe that was the real reason she was having trouble sleeping, she mused sourly. Her libido kicking in at totally inappropriate times. Having said so, she'd tap that in a second.

She mentally scoffed at herself. She had enough to be preoccupied with at the moment- an unfinished mission for a start- even without worrying about how to get into her rescuer's pants. Mental scoffing was all well and good, but she must have made some kind of self-loathing noise, since Kimimaro woke up suddenly and flipped off the couch with an agility that wasn't completely surprising by now. Even if there hadn't been any other clues, that movement demonstrated super-human alertness and physical ability. Ninja-like, in fact.

A pair of glittering green eyes scanned the darkness suspiciously, trying to adjust to the darkness and pin-point the source of the noise. He must have made out her outline somehow, since he tensed for a moment before apparently realising who it must be and relaxed again.

'Yes?' he asked carefully.

'Oh…I, uh-I couldn't sleep…' she trailed off.

'I see.' He probably did, at that. Even if he was missing a few emotions here and there, everyone had trouble sleeping sometimes. 'Anything I can help with?'

He said it without any hidden meaning, but previous thoughts of "tapping that" resurfaced in a flash regardless. Ino felt her face get a few degrees hotter than the rest of her, gasped, choked on the intake of air, and coughed a few times. She imagined Kimimaro raising an eyebrow in querying confusion. The image calmed her down a little.

Probably still not quite grasping the situation, Kimimaro made his way through the dark room and lit a lamp. Sometimes it's quite amazing how much a flame can illuminate a room. The yellow light fitted seamlessly into the warm, oppressive air and played across Kimimaro's face and chest eerily.

'Is there something you wanted to talk about?'

'Oh, err…yes, actually.' There was that little problem of her completing her mission. She had already touched on the subject, but had subsided immediately to Kimimaro's blunt but accurate appraisal of the situation.

Kimimaro, seeing that she wasn't going to come forward with it immediately, motioned for her to take a seat next to him on the couch. Ino gave him a wary look, but sat down quietly and tried to gather her thoughts. Kimimaro took the time to check her bandages. When he prodded her shoulder, she winced and twisted away from his finger unconsciously.

'Time to change your bandages.' Ino nodded distractedly and looped her hair around her neck before sliding off her shirt so that he could get to her shoulder.

'Well…the thing I wanted to ask was…about going to Konoha.'

'I remember this conversation,' he said dully, referring to their earlier conversation on the subject and removing the bandages slowly. The wound on her shoulder was almost closed now, and had almost stopped weeping completely.

'Um, yeah- injured, won't allow it- I remember too. But I wanted to ask something else,' she lifted her arm to make taking the anchoring knot of fabric at her side easier to access. 'I was thinking, maybe you could come with me?'

Kimimaro stopped. He was genuinely surprised. After the initial shock, he resumed his de-bandaging as though nothing had happened, but there had been an omissible pause, and Ino was a little proud that she had been able to throw him at all.

'Now, I know that's asking a lot. You must have friends and family here, but Konoha isn't that far. And it's not like I'm asking you to join the village- escorting me there is fine. I just really need to let them know that something's happening, and that Hourai is part of it.' It felt like she was talking just a little too fast, but she couldn't help it. 'And you'll be able to make sure I don't collapse somewhere on the way. It's feel like a waste of your goodwill if something like that happened. But, you're right- I probably should wait until I'm fully healed…' Wait…why was she talking herself out of it now?

'…I see…' Kimimaro looked slightly perplexed about how the conversation had just rolled straight over him, but he let it pass. She did have a point about escorting her home. It hadn't really crossed his mind that, while he had no living family, a few friends to speak of, a woman like Ino must have those things. And she probably missed them dearly. He couldn't possibly ask her to stay.

'Hey…hey. Kimimaro.' He snapped back to reality. The last piece of bandage was in his hand and, when his eyes refocussed, he was presented with something. It was strange, since he had been presented with it several times already, but he was unable to ignore it at that moment. A woman. That made him feel. Stripped to the waist. Sitting tantalisingly close. 'Are you listening?' Kimimaro looked up. And their eyes met.

And he was lost in the depths of those bright, teal eyes and completely lost track of what was happening.

And she was lost in those sparkling jade eyes, which seemed somehow more alive than she had seen them before.

She never was sure about how long they ended up sitting there like that, staring at each other. Kimimaro had an oddly lost expression plastered on his face- like he had no idea what was happening, but he didn't really care. It didn't suit him at all, but seemed as natural and peaceful as the forests she had grown up amongst.

Somehow, it did the opposite of calming her down. Her heart raced and she felt inexorably drawn to him. She shuffled closer, clumsy and not sure about what she was doing. Kimimaro still looked like he had absolutely no control over the situation, but was too interested in seeing what would happen next to try and get a handle on it. Their faces were almost touching now, and Ino noticed that Kimimaro was holding his breath apprehensively. She put her hands on either side of his face and, in a moment that seemed to last far too long, Ino closed her eyes and their lips met.

Kimimaro was everything she expected: clumsy and awkward, but he learned fast. Ino leaned closer and, with a little effort, pushed Kimimaro onto his back. Her breasts pressed onto his chest, and she felt his heart hammering against his ribs, beat-for-beat as fast as hers. As good as it was… she felt like something was wrong. Somehow…as their kissing intensified, she was filled with a feeling of sorrow. This was what she had wanted, right?

Lamenting the action almost straight away, she broke the kiss. Kimimaro looked up at her, almost as out-of-breath as she was. Selfish, sure, but she didn't want to be separated from him. Wanting to revisit his mouth, but feeling unable to out of guilt, she wriggled away from his face and lay her head on his shoulder. She sighed and let one of her hands caress the skin of his chest yearningly.

'…I wish I didn't have to leave, but… I have to return to Konoha.'

Kimimaro answered by wrapping his arms around her. Her breasts were pushed against his ribs a little harder, but the slight discomfort was offset by the warm feeling of security. Ino snuggled against him.

'Three days.' The words rumbled through Kimimaro's chest, and Ino found it funny in that special way you can only find something so innocuous funny in an intimate situation.

'Hm-hmhm, what three days?'

'In three days. I'll give you my answer then.'

'Answer…?'

'You'll see.'

'Hmmm…'

'…Ino?'

She was already asleep. Kimimaro smiled to himself, adjusted his hold on the woman in his arms, and settled in for the night.

Author's Sub-Sub-Notes: E-hehehehe. Love scene….STOLEN! Just when it was getting good, eh?