Change of Scenery

Chapter Three - Furious Fight

What awoke her the next day was the sound of whizzing kunai.

One of Narutos guarding clones stood by her side, shaking her awake. His features were tense and his eyes stormy. Ino understood quickly that they were under attack. The copy of her teammate poofed out of existence when a kunai hit him in the back. Another one came directly at her. She flicked the weapon in her hand into a defensive position and raised it in front of her face to deflect the enemy blade. Her eyes flickered quickly across the small clearing to judge the situation. Naruto was crouching on a tree trunk to her left, surrounded by weapons in a near-perfect circle. One lone man without ninja headband stood at the other side of the small clearing. She figured his loyalty had been hired. A devilish smirk graced his features as he reached down and took another kunai from one of the various pouches on his body.

'What is he grinning about...? A decoy?'

She scanned their surroundings a second time and halted when she spotted movement in the bushes. A camouflaged figure on their left, rapidly forming seals.

"Naruto!" Ino nodded her head in the direction of the second enemy and skidded to the side, avoiding the mass of shiny wire heading their way. She heaved a small sigh of relief when she saw that Naruto had done the same thing.

They met eyes and soundlessly picked their opponent. Naruto faced the wire-sporting man and Ino stood straight, settling her murderous glare on the first enemy. She spurted forward in a flash, charging into close combat with several weapons at hand. Her fingers tightened around the metal, the sharp blades drawing blood from her skin. After dodging the first wave of armoury coming her way, Ino vanished and reappeared behind her opponent. She threw a kick and a punch in the nose at him. The rogue ninja ducked underneath her advance and spun to the side to avoid the series of moves she launched next. Reacting too slow to his manoeuvre, Ino took a heavy blow to the stomach. She staggered back and grimaced in pain. Vaguely, she could see Naruto in the corner of her eyes as his immense chakra cut through a wire barrier the blonde's opponent had pulled up, before she concentrated on her own battle once again.

Ino flipped out another kunai and the two ninja clashed in a furious flurry of sparks. Ino came up with a battle strategy as fast as she could. This man used weapons, so all she had to do was avoid his attacks until he had no means of offence and defence anymore. Ino drew back, jumping and sliding to avoid his attacks. Her eyes widened when he revealed a scroll and slid a bloody thumb across it. Suddenly, gigantic axes whirled her way.

'He has scrolls too? There goes the plan!' She took cover into the foliage, loosing sight of Naruto's battle. She could not afford to think about that now. Ino switched to offence and moved in for the kill, as she got sick of the dragging fight. Someone needed to take the lead, and Ino would make sure that she was the first one who tried. Somewhere to her left, Naruto's opponent smashed through the trees, a rasengan induced hole gaping where his lungs should be. Naruto appeared beside Ino and gritted his teeth. The blue afterglow around his fist was fading quickly.

"Keep him busy for a minute." Ino whispered, glancing at Naruto from the corner of her eye. The blonde grabbed a smoke bomb and jumped into the trees, hurling it at the enemy ninja to district him. Ino smiled. Her hands formed the seals rapidly as she whispered the magic word, and soon she felt the familiar sensation of entering another person's consciousness. The feeling was something no one ever got fully accustomed to, according to Ino's father. She found this easy to believe: the man's body was heavy and rigid compared to her own. The body odor was just despicable, and Ino missed her own feminine clothes. She couldn't wait to get it over with.

"Ino? Let's get back to camp." Narto's voice called Ino from her ponderings and she smiled, though akwardly.

"Yeah, we should go back now." She concentrated chakra at the soles of her feet and flung her host's body into the trees. Her movements were more limited than with her own body, but the greater strength compensated for it. With a few jumps, Ino landed by the smoldering remnants of the fire. She sat down, crossing her legs out of habit. Naruto jumped down in front of her, carrying in his arms the empty shell that her body was now. Ino hated seeing her form so limp.

"You'd better make sure nothing happens to me, Naruto!" she growled. He gulped softly and nodded, positioning himself directly across from her with her slender frame in his arms.

"I won't lose sight of you, Ino-chan!" He grinned brilliantly, eyes fixed on her hollow body. Ino wasn't sure if this was a good thing, expecially when his eyes wandered down to her cleavage. She huffed and reached over, bopping him over the head. Naruto yelped and rubbed the sore spot on his head gingerly, looking up at her. His eyes were accusing her of some huge crime.

"Hey! That hurts a lot more now you've got a guy's strength!"

"When you talk to me, look here! I'm in here, you know!" Ino fumed, pointing at her host's face. Naruto scratched his neck and grinned, red with embarrassment.

"Right. I'll remember that."

Ino doubted that he really would, so she decided to get it over with. She closed her eyes and started the procedure, forcing a path into the deepest and darkest corners of her victim's mind. Every important detail she imprinted in her head, though it wasn't much. She skipped the parts about his private life; there were some things that she did not want to know in a million years. The proces took a long time and Ino felt her chakra decrease steadily. She hated the feeling, like someone had left a tab open somewhere that she could not close. As long as she was not in her own body, her technique fed off her chakra. She would have to hurry.

In the meantime, Naruto layed Ino's body on a patch of soft grass, afraid to cause a single scratch or bruise. If he wasn't careful with her body, Ino would probably hit him again. Naruto wasn't looking forward to that. He flopped over onto his back and sighed. There wouldn't be much to do for the rest of the day... He lifted a hand in front of his face and took a good look at the gashes on his arms. Ino's opponent had been a weapon user, he recalled, but the person he fought used wires.

'Very sharp ones, too', he mused. He'd been able to prevent any real harm from coming to him by cutting them, but the slashes were still deep enough to draw blood. Or perhaps some of the damage done had already been repaired... He had always been a fast healer. Naruto considered them lucky that these were the only wounds that had been inflicted on their part. It could have been far worse... But then again, it had been an easy battle. He frowned a little, insulted that the enemy seemed to think he could be beaten that with such ease.

'I wonder what Ino manages to dig up...' Naruto turned his head to look at the girl inside a man's body, and the empty shell lying beside her. It was weird to see Ino's lean form and to know that there was nothing inside it. Instead, she was twirling the insides of a man's brain around. In a far corner deep in his soul, Naruto pitied the enemy. He wouldn't like to have a girl in his head either. Especially a violent one like Ino. Who knew what kind of permanent damage she could do?

Naruto shuddered at the thought. Hopefully he wouldn't be the one to find out any time soon. A strange, contented feeling overcame him. It happened a lot after battles; a euforic after-glow of victory. He folded his arms under his head and wondered whether or not the Country of Lightning had ramen. If not, he'd have to do some negotiation when he became Hokage.

A few hours later, a soft whimper from Ino's side of the camp awoke Naruto from a restless half-sleep. One side of him had been resting, but the other had been guarding the whole time. He blamed the weird sleeping habits on years of heavy training. Every ninja possessed a strong dose of paranoia.

Naruto crouched down next to Ino's awakening form and found that she had returned to her own body. She stretched her muscles, loving the feeling of her own skin once more. Naruto agreed that he much preferred her body when there was some life present within it. He hadn't liked it when her body lay in his arms like a rag doll. Ino blinked against the heavy shift of mind and rubbed her temples. A headache drummed a marching beat on the inside of her brain.

"What did you find out?" Naruto inquired, unable to keep his curiosity from shining through the mask of sincerity he had put on his face.

Ino shook her head, a bit dissapointed with herself. After hours of work, she'd found so little information that it almost didn't seem worth the time. "Barely anything. He is nothing but a small assassin. He doesn't know anything except from the fact that his leader is planning to attack during the final rounds on the exam. They want to take down as many foreign politicians as possible, cause a war and use the mayhem to take over the village of Cloud, and the whole of Lightning Country with it. It's like a bad remake of the Chuunin Exam Fiasco years ago. Nothing we don't already know." She dug in her mind to see if she'd forgotten anything.

"Oh, but I got one thing that might be helpful; the leader is a Jounin from Mist." Ino sighed and glanced at the man whose brain she had just manipulated. "We should just drop this guy off with Cloud's ANBU interrogation squad once we get there, although I don't think they can discover more."

Naruto shrugged unceremoniously. "Either way, we can't leave him here. We oughta get going again, don't you think, Ino-chan?"

Ino eyed him darkly. "Are you kidding me? You're hurt!"

Naruto looked down at the small gashes covering his entire body. "Ah, yeah. Those wires were sharp like hell. But I'm okay! I heal quickly."

Ino's voice had an authoritative ring to it when she spoke next. "Lie down, and take off that jacket. I'll heal you before we go, but you're going to have to carry me to the Cloud. I hardly have any chakra left as it is." Naruto nodded a silent confirmation, fuming inwardly. He knew what she'd do to him if he refused. Begrudgingly, Naruto disposed of his jacket and stretched his body across the forest ground. He sent a small glare in Ino's direction, convinced that he could have managed to get them both to the village without treatment. Ino did not notice; she bent over his bare chest and stomach and fought down the blush rising on her cheeks. His muscles flexed under her fingers where she fed healing chakra into him. Her eyes flickered across his abs and she felt her heart speed up involuntarily.

'Focus! Healing, that's what you are doing now, no matter how handso- ...The patient's physique shouldn't distract you!'

She moved onto his legs and arms, and finished up with healing the cut on his head. All evidence left of the wounds was the blood caked in his spiky hair and the vague lines of scarred tissue covering him that would fade away within days. Ino sat back up and wiped a hand over her heated forehead.

"Well, that's about it." Naruto stretched his arms over his head and yawned noisily. Ino's hands twitched at her side. She would be so thrilled to smack him right at that moment. Naruto smiled brilliantly and her grudge swept away.

"That feels good, Ino-chan!" He gathered their travelling packs and dumped them in Ino's lap, then created a shadow clone to carry the rogue ninja they had captured before scooping her up in his arms. Naruto and Naruto the Second jumped into the treetops, swiftly moving forward in the direction of the village hidden in the Clouds.

Naruto's solid pace lulled Ino to sleep and she tucked her head into the crook of his neck, loosing herself to a tired and chakra-depleted world of dreams. Naruto shot glances down at her serene face and sighed in silent wonder. He still found the ability to heal an amazing thing. Nevertheless, Ino's healing was so different from Sakura's. He did not know what the Godaime's healing felt like, because he had always been unconscious when the Hokage had to work her magic on him. Sakura's gentle hands and chakra were the only means of comparison he had. Her healing was as a warm blanket draped over him. However, Ino's chakra had many sharp edges. It felt like running into an electrical fence, but not unpleasant. He felt regenerated the moment she first laid her hands on him. A soft chuckle rumbled in Naruto's chest. Ino's chakra fit her personality like a glove. Or maybe it was the other way around?

He shook the thoughts from his head and breathed the deep scent of spring that hovered above the trees, poppy flowers mixed with salty wind from the sea. Naruto sped up his pace and fixed his gaze on the way ahead. By the end of the day, the vague shimmer of buildings appeared on the horizon. Their destination, the village of Cloud, was coming into view.

A/N: Well, there you have it. I rather like this chapter, but that doesn't mean I'm satisfied. I'll see what you guys think and edit further on that. I'm sorry for the long wait, but I was having severe problems with the action scene. It is one of my worst aspects. I can't write a good fight for the life of me, but since it's a first timer, I think I at least managed a decent one! Tell me what you think, will you please? Feedback and constructive criticism is greatly appreciated.

A big hug and a big thanks go to Lanse, who has helped me immensely! You rock. I'll try to prevent the Clutter of Doom the next time. -

-xx- Nika