17. Runaway
While Shikamaru watched his teammate lug her body along the mountain wall, he almost felt sympathetic…almost. His emotions were blocked by the excited tingles that circulated through his body since he finally won the war between Ino and him. Despite Shikamaru achieving nothing when he tried to convince Ino to return home, she finally decided to go back. If the man named Hidan didn't promise to kill Ino, Shikamaru would have shook Hidan's hand and thanked him, maybe even hugged him for persuading (for the better lack of a word) Ino into returning.
After announcing Ino planned to return to Konoha, Sachiko didn't take the news very well, which surprised Shikamaru since she seemed to be an individual who would stay calm and collected. If it were anyone to storm out of the room, Shikamaru guessed Minako to be the one. Minako, oddly, accepted such grave news. She jumped up from her seat and ran out of the Pub in the PJ's while screaming something about buying a goodbye present. It amazed everyone how the young woman could have such energy despite the time being roughly six in the morning and being sleep deprived since the five of them stayed up all night while Ino explained her situation.
Ino left without soling Sachiko, who locked herself in their room, and dragged Shikamaru away with her, saying something about going to the Investigation Department. Suddenly, they were on a mission to give the identities of the two men—really, one man because they couldn't see the face of the prick in the cloak.
"After this, we're packing up and going home," Ino mumbled as she pushed her body off the rocky wall and attempted to walk without the support. However, the depression of leaving her friends and the large weight of Shikamaru's victory beating down on her shoulder (insert thumbs up and a victory dance here) pushed Ino back against the mountain. Ino appeared massively fatigued and drained.
"You're talking to Sachiko when we go back to pack, right?" Shikamaru asked. Ino, from the first time Shikamaru saw her about two months ago, changed for what seemed the better. Her eyes remained dull and lifeless as if she were someone who lost a loved one or a precious item, or as if, she carried no motivation or excitement. However, forgetting her dead gaze, color returned to her face, and even though he'd never admit it to Ino's face, she gained some weight especially around the abdomen area.
"Yeah, I might. I wouldn't know what to say to her."
"You may never see her again; you don't want to leave on bad terms with her."
"I know that, Shikamaru!" Ino exclaimed, waving him off. Shikamaru thought the old Ino was ill tempered, but the new Ino would explode if he poured his juice wrong. "Don't worry about Sachiko and me. We'll figure things out before I leave, okay?"
"Whoever said I was worried?"
"Your mom."
"Really?" How childish.
Personally, Shikamaru could not wait to leave Kumogakure and go reunite with friends and family back in Konoha. He wanted Asuma to buy his lunches after long days of sparring, and he missed playing his games with his sensei. Shikamaru missed shogi…. He actually missed his mother's dinners, also, but her dictatorial behavior canceled out the dinners. Friends and family aside, Shikamaru had work to concentrate on, such as the Chunin exams, which start in a month, so he needed to plan. He was excited for the planning, not because he enjoyed the mind numbing planning of every event and choosing proctors, but because of the person he spent the time planning and choosing with, Temari.
"Is this it?" Ino asked, stopping abruptly in front of Shikamaru, who bumped into Ino and received a quick elbow to the stomach. They stood before a minuscule, rectangular building with four rectangular windows the size of Ino's foot on each side of the structure. In the distance, Shikamaru could see the enormous oval building, which he thought it to be the Raikage's office.
"We'll find out when we walk in."
Shikamaru held the door open for Ino, who hesitated to enter the building. First, she poked her head in and then, when she considered the room harmless, Ino stepped in. Shikamaru followed, walking into a room that strongly smelled of ammonia and massive amounts of different scented air freshener.
Ino coughed and plugged her nose. "This can't be healthy," she whispered to Shikamaru as a young woman walked into the walk through a transparent door located in the farthest corner from the two.
When the woman noticed Shikamaru and Ino, they straightened their postures and Ino removed her hand from her nose, but it was obvious she held her breath. "You must be Nara and Yamanaka," the receptionist assumed as she fumbled with a few papers on her desk before walking over to them. "They're waiting for you. I'll take you to them."
The woman led them through the same clear door, which took them into an elevator, where Ino finally released her breath and sucked in the fresh air. The woman chuckled at the act as she pressed the button L7. Once the elevator arrived at the designated floor, Shikamaru and Ino stepped out. "The door is at the end of the hall, and please don't stick any body parts into the other rooms. They bite."
"Huh?" Ino spun around to question the receptionist, but the elevator doors already closed. "Everything about this is creepy. How do we know they won't try something?"
"I've already notified Tsunade that we're returning. If we go missing, she'll point her finger at Kumogakure."
"Or she'll think I killed you and ran away…."
Shikamaru couldn't tell if Ino was serious or not. Hopefully, she was kidding and just wanted to scare him.
The only sources of light were the ill-lit lanterns that dangled from the ceiling, making their journey down the lengthy hallway dim and, even though Shikamaru would refuse to admit such, fearsome. In the brighter part of the hallway where the candles in the lanterns illuminated the passage fairly well, the two shinobi passed doors with barred windows on them. Shikamaru peeked into the door in pure curiosity. Each room contained two men with chains bound to their wrists and ankles. Some cells had a man chained to the wall with chain-links wrapped around his stomach and neck, pinning him to the wall so he had restricted movements. Traveling further down the hall, the temperature dropped and the doors became solid, wooden doors. Behind the closed doors, however, squeals of distress and torture erupted, startling the both of them. Ino stepped closed to Shikamaru, even pressed herself into his side for a brief moment until she seemed to realize what she was doing and stepped away from him and endured the horrific shrieks.
Finally, they stopped in front of wooden, double doors. A light peered from underneath the door, and Shikamaru could faintly smell the ammonia again. Ino coughed against and stepped away from the door. Shikamaru, taking a deep breath and holding it, pushed against the left door and entered a blinding room with its walls painted white and the linoleum shining as if someone waxed the floor. When he turned around, Ino (again) poked her head into the room and surveyed the risk of the room until an ear-buzzing scream chased her in.
"We were expecting you two." Two shinobi, a man and woman, stood over an examination table, hovering over a struggling body of a man. On closer inspection, man had his head tied down to the table and clamps tightened around his eyes, forcing his eyelids open. Shikamaru and Ino ceased their tracks, keeping their distance from the disturbing scene displayed before them. To his side, he heard Ino whimper.
People knew Kumogakure for two main things: tracking and being obsessed with ocular phenomenon. For centuries, as much as Kumo thinks they kept their experiments secret, many people knew the stories of Kumo shinobi kidnapping those blessed with their kekkai genkai. In Konoha, a popular story about Kumogakure thievery was the Hyuuga abduction, staring her friend, Hinata. Ino, aside from the stories, heard rumors of people tricked into coming down to this very building and forcefully dissected, so scientists attempt to understand the eye. These "scientists" even try to conjure methods to create imitations of the Sharigan or the Byakugan.
The rumors seemed true as she watched the man inch closer to the victim on the examination table with a scalp. As the desperate cries of the poor man escalated and echoed through the room, Ino stepped behind Shikamaru, enabling herself from witnessing the bloody scene unfolding before her.
"Excuse me, okay? I'll take care of these two," a feminine voice asked as the screams slowly died down. A masculine hum followed her question then the tapping of heels hitting the floor echoed throughout the room. Ino moved away from Shikamaru as a lanky, brunette woman sauntered towards them. Ino rolled her eyes when the woman winked at Shikamaru, and he had the nerve to blush at that. "Come this way, please."
Jeez. How big was this building?
The woman led Ino and Shikamaru out of the room that reeked of ammonia and into another room that smelled less of cleaning supplies and more like a doctor's office. The room was windowless and in each corner of the room except one which was occupied by a desk, there was an examination table.
"Whose brain am I seeing today?" the Kumo shinobi asked as she pulled a drawing pad from the desk.
Ino swallowed the colossal lump building in her throat while she stepped forward, eyeing the other women with a suspicious eye as the stranger searched for a writing utensil.
"Aw, you're nervous! Don't worry, Sweetie, it won't hurt. You can actually stand right there. This will be over in a few minutes."
Ino bit her tongue, swallowing the threat to throw this woman off a cliff if she called Ino 'sweetie' one more time. She closed her eyes as the Kumo woman pressed her fingertips against Ino's forehead. After a quick zap as skin contacted skin, Ino felt the woman enter her mind, immediately beginning to search through Ino's memories. Ino knew how to play the game, seeing others play the hide-and-go-seek game with their memories. However, she knew how to create a better hiding spot with her memories than those idiots. Ino kept a thick wall in front of the memories from a particular night, and she replayed last night's events repeatedly, pausing her memories each time Hidan's face popped up. She knew the woman just needed Hidan's face, and if she prodded any further, she'd have a good ass whooping waiting. Ino kept running the scene until she felt the woman's touch lift from her forehead, then she opened her eyes.
Ino glanced down at the drawing pad where there was a detailed picture of Hidan's face etched into the paper. For a second, Ino's mind boggled, wondering how she could draw a person's face in specific detail so quickly. "Did he look like this?" the stranger asked Shikamaru, showing him the picture of the culprit to many disasters. Shikamaru simply nodded his head.
"Did you catch his name?" the brown-haired woman asked as she pulled out a camera from her desk and took a picture of the sketch. "That'll help a lot."
"He said his name was Hidan."
"What a weird name, but it sounds very familiar," the woman mumbled as she began to dig through her desk's drawers once again while mumbling incoherent sayings to herself. "Oh, here it is." She pulled out a bingo book. Ino watched her flip through the book until she landed on the desired page. "Mm, it'll be easy to spot him," she said, pointing to the picture of Hidan. "Hidan is an S-ranked ninja, part of the criminal organization, Akatsuki, and judging by the drawing, it looks like him. You're lucky you're still alive."
Yeah, me too….
"You're finally back!" Minako exclaimed when Shikamaru and Ino returned to the Pub.
The grave tension still filtered the air in the building even though the aroma of Minako's cookies appeared to uplift the emotions flittering around the Pub. Ino could almost feel the extreme feeling of resentment from Sachiko's room. Judging by the number of cookies Minako baked and the tears brimming at the corner of her eyes, Ino knew Minako felt grief. Ino wrapped her arms around Minako's neck, bringing the other woman in for a hug—the first mutual hug they ever shared.
The other blonde woman pushed away from Ino and wiped her tears with the back of her hand. "I, um, made you cookies for your trip home. I know it's a long trip…'cause, you know, I'm…from there, and…it took a very, very long time to, you know, get here…. And, I—"
"You're rambling."
"Sorry."
"Is Sachiko still up in her room?"
"She left for a little bit, but I think she came home."
Ino nodded and gradually walked up the stairs, pondering about the words that will be exchanged, or what Ino would do if no words were shared. As Ino stood outside her room, she pressed her forehead against the cool wood and quietly rehearsed what she wanted to say. Before she finished, the door cracked opened.
"I thought it was you," Sachiko muttered and opened the door wider, allowing entrance. "I needed to talk to you." Sachiko followed Ino to her bed and watched Ino grab her backpack from under her bed and begin to pile her clothes into the small sack. "I apologize for running out like that."
"It's not your fault."
"Konoha and Kumo aren't best friends, right? My brother told him how much Kumogakure hated your village, but they can't do anything about it since we're under a peace treaty. Your news surprised me. That's all."
"That's it?" Ino asked in a detached manner, but in reality, under the stoic façade, she deeply cared for Sachiko's words, cherishing every syllable leaving her mouth. "You're angry because our villages hate each other?"
"No; like I said, it just surprised me."
"Oh."
"Have you ever considered that you were running away?"
The question caused Ino to slow her packing and glower at the brunette sitting on her bed. Was she running away? Sachiko's question seemed easy to answer, but Ino didn't want to admit that, yes, she was running away from her problems. Until this moment, Ino never considered that Minako and Sachiko would eventually figure out Hidan raped her, and before they could come to conclusions about it, she needed to leave. Subconsciously, she was running away. Ino now knew she was not only afraid of Hidan, the idea of Sachiko and Minako finding out terrified Ino.
"No."
"I'll miss you."
"Me too."
When Ino finished packing her clothes, Sachiko and her went downstairs, so Ino and Shikamaru could finally say their goodbyes. Minako, Jin, and Shikamaru waited in the front room with Minako impatiently bouncing in a chair and Jin sipping his beer while chatting with Shikamaru, who also had a beer in his hand.
"Are you ready to go?" Shikamaru asked, standing up from his stool and grabbed his backpack from the floor.
No, Ino wasn't ready to leave. She didn't want to leave the three great people she met in Cloud, and she didn't want to leave the life that required her to serve beer and sleep during the day. Back in Konoha, interrogations and discipline awaited her. Then after that, Tsunade expected her to resume her work, the brutal, restraining work of a shinobi. However, Tsunade might be tempted to discharge her….
"Yeah."
Ino never considered goodbyes as a difficult task. However, as Ino hugged Minako and Sachiko, she didn't want to let them go. If it were possible, Ino would bring them to Konoha, or she could glue herself to them. Jin stood at the side, waiting for his turn. When Ino turned to him, Jin extended his arm and offered his hand to shake. Ino, reluctantly, shook his hand.
"Good job, Ino. You'll find my pay in the mail in about two weeks."
"You don't have—"
"You've been through a lot. You deserve it."
"Thank you."
"What are you going to do about your job at the restaurant?"
"Oh….Tell my boss I'm terminally ill, and I'm unable to work, or Minako can work for me. No one will tell the difference."
"I've been looking for a job," Minako mumbled.
"Well, we're leaving." Shikamaru sighed, already heading out the door. He was always so impatient….
"Bye, guys."
Ino glanced over her shoulder for the fiftieth time that afternoon, looking back at the mountain range that Kumogakure camouflaged in. From a distance, no one could notice the fifty story buildings that made up the gigantic village it was, which rested deep in the rocky terrain. Whoever decided to build a village in the mountains had to be a genius.
Within that humongous village, Sachiko and Minako could be preparing for their shifts at the Pub. When she left, she noticed three ANBU scattered along the skyscrapers surrounding the quaint tavern. At least, Ino knew they would be safe.
"I'm glad you decided to come back home," Shikamaru said, breaking Ino's thoughts.
Ino snarled at the back of Shikamaru's head, cursing him and his luck to Hell. It was pure luck that her…Hidan decided to show his face, and somehow the capture of Hidan became a threat to the people on the street, which would make Ino feel horrible if an innocent civilian was injured in their debacle. It was all luck! If he didn't come around and try to kill Ino, she could be lounging around the Blue Pub.
She hated the idea of going home, but if Hidan or whoever decided to follow her, at least the others will be safe and she'll bring the threat to Konoha, where she knew the problem would be dealt with quickly.
"This also means you're considering yourself a kunoichi, right?" Shikamaru annoyingly grinned at her. Ino glared in response to his stupid question.
"Minus well," she said bitterly. "If I can't be a Kumogakure citizen, then I'm a Konohagakure kunoichi."
"You were one from the start, you know."
"Says you."
Shikamaru rolled his eyes, clicking his tongue. As they continued to walk in silence, Ino celebrated in victory, mentally dancing a victory dance. She snickered at the frustrated man when he mumbled, "Why do women have to be so damn stubborn?"
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