I'm starting to come down with a case of writer's block. Maybe it's just this chapter that gave me a hard time….
20. The Village
"You're not camping out here, are you?" Shikamaru asked, crouching next to Ino, who bent down to collect dry twigs from under a bush. Ino tried to ignore his question and continued to gather her kindle while humming a tune from her childhood. Fun fact: Shikamaru's mom taught her the song, but Shikamaru probably wouldn't know that.
When Ino stood in front of those gates for the first time in several months, her knees shook in anxious delight, but in her head, she knew she wasn't ready to face whatever waited for her. Her feet pushed forward, excited to run in through those gates and down the streets, but her mind wanted her legs to turn around and run back to Kumogakure, where she knew no one would pester her.
"You're kidding me, right?" She didn't answer. "Do you think you're being funny? You're two steps away from home, and you decide to set up camp right outside the gates. You're being ridiculous."
"Shut up, Shikamaru."
She needed to take things slow and rushing into her village to get her ass chewed and beat weren't what she deemed "taking things slow."
"You're worried about Tsunade, aren't you? You don't have to see her this second; you can see her tomorrow."
Oh….Why didn't she think of that? She could rest for a night in her cozy bed, and in the morning—maybe in the afternoon, or evening, maybe the week after, she could go talk to Tsunade, who would then chew her head off.
"You're right, Shikamaru."
"I am?"
Ino rolled her eyes. When was he ever wrong?
Sirens echoed through the village, signaling the closure of the gates, when Shikamaru and Ino strolled in. Ino guessed the time to be around ten-thirty since the sirens were going off already.
"Hey, Shikamaru! Is that you buddy?" a familiar voice—but Ino couldn't place a finger on it—hollered from a booth to the left of them. In the dark, she faintly saw a figure sitting in the booth.
"Kotetsu, Tsunade still has you working here?" Shikamaru asked, veering over to the booth with Ino tagging close behind.
"After our last mission, I won't be seeing any action for a while," the bandaged face man answered with a sheepish grin. "Sign in," he said, handing a clipboard to Shikamaru then his eyes glanced up at Ino, who almost felt frightened but had to remind herself they used to be good friends before she left. "Ino, it's been a while since I've seen your pretty face around here. Welcome back," Kotetsu said with the same grin from before. "Izumo will be happy to see you. It sucks he's sick in bed."
"Uh, well, tell him I said 'hi', and I hope he gets better."
"Will do. I'll see you two around."
Konoha didn't change much while she was gone. Hokage Mountain still looked like Hokage Mountain, but if she squinted and strained her eyes far enough, she noticed construction to the left of Tsunade's face. They must be planning the construction of Naruto's face, whose ceremony will be taking place in the next several months if Ino counted right. Shikamaru's house was still Shikamaru's one-story house with a cute, little pond in the front. The streets still looked symmetrical and eye appealing as Ino walked down the empty streets. When she arrived at her apartment building, she noted no changes to her building as well. It felt surreal, knowing Ino was finally home in Konohagakure.
She was finally home. For months, Ino deluded herself into thinking the place meant for her was Kumogakure, and she even pictured herself renting an apartment and continuing her life as a citizen. Ino imagined falling in love there and having a family. However, deep down, she knew the place she needed to be was Konoha, where her ancestors grew up and died, where the best shinobi in the world grew up and died, and where she grew up and would eventually die in. There was no other place Ino wanted to live.
Without a second glance at her building, Ino turned to the direction of the Hokage's office, still uncertain if she was ready to face the consequences, but Ino suddenly wanted to get her meeting with the Hokage over with, so she could relax throughout the night.
"Get your ass in here, Yamanaka!" Tsunade hollered before Ino could knock on the door. She hesitantly pushed the door opened and watched a lamp flash past her head and shatter against the door, which also forced the door to slam shut. When Ino looked up at Tsunade, she was already searching for the next large object to chuck at her face. Here comes the ass beating….
"Never again, will you take a solo mission, is that clear, Yamanaka?" Tsunade asked breathless, picking up a pencil and shooting it towards Ino, who stepped out of the way.
"Yes."
"What gives you the audacity to desert your mission and your village? Please explain."
"I was tracking the murderer." Partly true.
"Is that why you refused—even though you were ordered by me—to return to Konoha? You were 'tracking the murderer'?" Tsunade plopped in her chair and messaged her temples. "I find that highly questionable. As much as I want to believe you, I must think about my village's safety first, and if you go off on your own and don't send updates, what am I supposed to think?"
"I apologize, Lady Tsunade." What else could Ino tell Tsunade?
"An apology isn't going to work. There will be consequences."
Ino subconsciously rubbed her stomach that suddenly felt like weights resided inside her. If this thing wasn't much of a consequence, Ino didn't know what was. "I understand."
Tsunade shook her head. "I feel like you don't understand me, Ino. Do you understand that I'm pissed at you for going AWOL on me, so I had to send in my smartest shinobi after you? Without Shikamaru, we're strategically inept."
"There were other choices."
Ino's comment seemed to take Tsunade aback. Her fingers began to creep towards a pencil sharpener at the corner of her desk, a sign to Ino that she should keep her yapper zipped. Tsunade sighed. "That is true, but I knew Shikamaru could have at least talked some sense into you." No, not true. Shikamaru just made Ino want to stay in Kumo even more. He was a constant reminder of what waited for her in Konoha, which was this, a lecture from the Hokage.
"Anyway, next month, there's a mandatory session at the Investigation department. You'll be interrogated, and they'll report straight to me. I doubt I'll be getting a report from you or Shikamaru." Damn straight. "I'm too angry to think of anything else. You're dismissed, Ino, but you better keeper your ears open. I might summon you soon. After this weekend, you're on duty."
"Understood," Ino mumbled and turned around to leave the room.
"Oh, and Ino," Tsunade called before Ino could take her first step out of the room. Ino turned around to face her superior. Her honey eyes stared at Ino's stomach. Ino covered her stomach with her hand, covering the slight bump forming underneath her clothes. "When you see Shikamaru, tell him to come see me, please."
"Yes, Lady Hokage."
"Great; you're dismissed."
The steps creaked loudly as
Ino climbed the stairs to her apartment room. She remembered her seventeen-year-old self complaining about her apartment being on the seventh floor, and the apartment didn't have any form of quicker transportation up the floors. Sakura said that's why the rent was so cheap. Also, when Ino noticed how toned her thighs and calves became, she couldn't complain since they shaped her body to near perfection.
As Ino walked down her hallway, each room she passed greeted her with silence or the low hum coming from a television or radio playing behind the closed doors. Ino pressed her ear against her apartment door and listened for any conversation or, to keep things at a simpler level, any life. She kept her ear pressed against the door as she stuck her key in the keyhole and turned the doorknob.
Empty.
Sakura didn't sit on the couch with a medical book in her lap or with the television turned on. She wasn't cooking dinner or taking a shower. Naruto didn't sit at the dining table, scarfing down food by the handful. No noise came from Sakura's room, so they couldn't be in there. The apartment was silent.
Several years ago, when Sakura and Ino first moved into their apartment, everyone came to their apartment for dinner and to socialize. Maybe because there was some type of thrill when one moved into a new place or because no one had nothing to do, but whatever the reason, Ino became used to the noise of everyone chattering, laughing, and the door constantly opening and closing. As Ino stood in the middle of her living room, the silence ate her nerves, leaving nothing but paranoia and fear behind in its wake.
As a child, her mind played tricks on her when she went to bed at night. When the lights were off, and she lay awake in bed, she imagined seeing people, or creatures, standing at the edge of her bed or in a corner of her room, watching her as she slept. Ino, standing in her den, glanced into her kitchen. A shadow flashed across the doorway. As a child, she closed her eyes and pretended no one stood there. Now, instead of closing her eyes and counting to five, Ino ran into her room.
Besides the excessive amount of dust, Ino's room remained the way she left it about five months ago. Ino—hesitant at first because of the dust—sat on her bed, gazing around her room, searching for any changes, but she couldn't point out any differences.
Ino never noticed how boy crazy her old self was. Numerous posters of half-naked men in swimming trunks plagued her wall. Ino slid off the side of her bed and walked over to a poster, taking in the sculpted body up close. Her eyes glazed over into a blank stare while she studied the defined air brushed body of the model.
Her old self enjoyed the occasional hook-ups, and she preferred shinobi over the citizens. The model she stared at didn't compare with the bodies she seen on the shinobi men she slept with. Every inch of a shinobi's skin rippled with defined muscles on lean bodies. Besides appearance, shinobi had better stamina….
Ino ripped the poser in half, tearing it off the wall and crumpling the paper into a ball. She ripped the paper into shreds and threw the pieces at the floor. She ripped and ripped and ripped until she dropped to her knees, wiping her frustrated tears with her sleeve.
"Hello?"
Shit. Ino hopped to her feet and bundled the scraps of paper into a ball, throwing it into her wastebasket as she listened to Sakura's footsteps tap across the den, towards Ino's room. Ino took a quick glance into the mirror, hoping she looked presentable. Besides the bewildered look in her eyes and the fact—Ino couldn't get over it, and it surprised her every time she looked at her reflection—she had short hair, she looked okay. Ino tucked her bangs behind her ear and took a deep breath before opening her door.
"Ino?"
Ino didn't know what to say. She panicked, scavenging her brain from some sort of phrase that sounded Ino-like. "Daa…hi."
Sakura didn't change much over the course of Ino's disappearance except for the longer hair that she kept in a messy bun at the nape of her neck. Before Ino left, there were ever presented dark circles hanging below Sakura's eyes. Now, Sakura's skin was glowing and rested. What did Ino look like in Sakura's eyes?
"Your hair—it's, uh, short."
"I needed a change," Ino mumbled, involuntarily pinching a lock of her hair between her fingers. It didn't feel right to reach up to comb her fingers through her hair.
"I like it."
Ino forced a grin on her face, something that felt unnatural. "Are you going to stand there? I haven't seen you in forever!" she exclaimed, opening her arms as Sakura lunged forward to hug Ino. Ino winced as she felt her best friend's arms wrap around her neck. She reluctantly hugged Sakura back, awkwardly patting her back while Sakura nuzzled her cheek into Ino's neck.
"I missed you so much," Sakura mumbled into Ino's neck, who shuddered. Ino desperately wanted to push her best friend away, but she couldn't. "Naruto is really annoyed with me because of you. I won't leave him alone," she said with a soft giggle.
To Ino's relief, Sakura pulled away and held Ino at arm's length, eyeing Ino from head to toe. Ino sucked her stomach. Ino tried to put happiness in her eyes. Both were inevitable, for the longer they stood there in silence, she couldn't maintain it.
"You must be really tired. I'll let you go to bed," Sakura said, smiling at Ino.
"Yeah, I'll see you in the morning."
"I'm making breakfast in the morning. Naruto is coming over, too."
"Okay. Goodnight."
"Goodnight."
Sakura watched Ino close her room door with a small click followed behind the soft thud. Ino locked her door. She never locked her door.
Ino changed. She looked as if she belonged to the living dead. Her face looked hollow like someone decided to starve her throughout the months. Her skin didn't hold its glow anymore. It was a sickly pale as if that someone who decided to starve her also locked her up in a room for the whole time. She looked tired. Maybe that could be due to her being on the road for the past few days.
Not only did Ino change physically, she changed mentally—even though Sakura couldn't teleport herself into Ino's mind, she knew Ino changed in such way as well. Being gone on a mission for an extensive amount of time wasn't rare for Sakura and Ino, but whenever Sakura returned or vice versa, Ino always greeted Sakura with a huge hug and an ear splitting squeal while motoring off all the gossip and events that took place during her mission. Today, Ino kept her distance and acted like she didn't want to touch Sakura, didn't want to be in the same room as Sakura.
Maybe Ino needed time to rest before she acted like her old self again. Until then, Sakura needed to keep an eye out on her friend and hope everything returned to normal. Even though Ino's homecoming wasn't exactly what Sakura expected it to be, she was glad Ino was home.
Everything about this new atmosphere felt strange to Ino. Everything felt too soft. The blankets didn't feel itchy against her skin, and her pillow wasn't hard against her skull. Everything felt almost comforting.
"Ino…."
Ino's eyes shot open.
Where the hell was she? She wasn't in her room anymore. Sachiko's bed wasn't across from her bed anymore, and there were clothes scattered all over the ground. Ino didn't remember her room being so bright in the mornings….
"How is she?"
"Really tired."
That was Sakura's voice. Did that mean she was home, or was Ino hearing voices in her head?
Ino leaned over and pulled down her blinds, peering into the streets. Shinobi in green flasks and Konoha hitae-ates strolled down the streets. Children with book bags strapped to their backs ran down the streets, probably late for the academy. In the distance, she could see Hokage Mountain looming over the village. She was in Konoha.
"Eh, you don't think that's burning?" she heard Naruto ask.
"No, why?"
"Well, it's turning black, Sakura."
There was a prolonged pause. "Yeah, it might be burning."
It wasn't Sachiko making breakfast, and Ino couldn't hear Minako's cheerful chatting as she sat at the island, skimming the newspaper for jobs. She couldn't hear the boys' thudding and snoring in the next room. It was just Ino in her small room with her roommate and her boyfriend standing outside of her bedroom.
Despite her body objecting to her rolling out of bed, she threw the blankets away from her body and slid off the side of her bed, groaning due to sore limbs and muscles. Before greeting Naruto and Sakura a good morning, Ino glanced in the mirror, noting her bedhead hair and her stomach poking against her tight shirt. Ino raised her shirt to examine the swollen stomach. The scar, which smoothed over after months of trying to heal it, looked stretched and awkwardly dark against her expanded, pale skin. There was no doubt something grew inside of her….
If Tsunade wanted to give her consequences, she couldn't give Ino a consequence that topped carrying the scars and spawn of the man that took advantage of her.
"Ino, are you awake? Breakfast is ready," Sakura called, tapping against her door.
Ino let her shirt fall down as she rushed to open the door with a forced smile on her cracked lips. "Good morning," she breathed, walking straight to the dining table, past a surprised Sakura who eyed Ino suspiciously. Ino attempted to ignore the blonde that sat on the kitchen counter, who waved at her with too much enthusiasm for someone awake at eight in the morning.
"How'd your mission go?" Naruto asked, taking a seat next to her. Ino inched her chair away from him as she gathered food onto her plate. Naruto, unable to take a hint, leaned closer to her. Ino leaned away. "Ino?"
"Fine," Ino answered in an uncouth manner. Naruto didn't seem to notice her rudeness. "There were some complications, but everything turned out…fine."
"I heard you went miss—"
"Naruto, do you want some apple juice?" Sakura asked, shaking a jug of juice in his face. "Yeah? All right, I'll pour a cup for you."
"But, I don't want—"
"What's everyone doing today? I'm working at the hospital, and if I'm lucky, Tsunade will give me the rest of the day off, or she'll have me sort through her records. What are you going to do, Ino?" she asked hurriedly, not giving Naruto any time to interject.
Ino stopped chewing her food to think about her day plans. Because she arrived so late, she never thought of what she wanted to do, but she better take advantage of the next few days she has off since Tsunade will probably work her to the bone once she's on duty again. Maybe, she could visit her parents. She hasn't seen them in a while. She hasn't seen her precious flower shop in ages as well. She might go spend time there….
After she swallowed the rest of her food, Ino answered, "I don't really know."
"What about you, Naruto?"
Naruto frowned and lowered his head to the table, so his forehead rested on the edge of it. "I don't want to think about it," he mumbled. What happened to all the energy he had a few seconds ago?
"You wanted to be Hokage, and you knew it was going to be a lot of hard work. Speaking of hard work, Naruto, we have to get going if we want to meet Tsunade in time."
Naruto as the Hokage? Ino had the idea of it buried in the back of her mind, but she couldn't believe Tsunade wanted to pass down the title to Naruto. She couldn't image Naruto being Hokage. Ever since they were kids, Naruto pulled silly pranks and did obnoxious things to get people's attention, and in something odd months, he would have all the attention a child wanted. Ino's life from that point would orbit around Naruto's decisions. She just could not see that happening.
Then again, she couldn't see herself back in Konoha and look where she's at now…. It's not like Ino didn't doubt Naruto's ability to rule a village. She had confidence in him. He had courage, compassion, and a gentle heart, which is what a Hokage needed to rule successfully she thought. What bothered he was that he surpassed her, the kunoichi who excelled in everything since the academy days. The idiot who failed at everything was the one to rule over the village. What was she now?
"We should be heading out. We have to talk to Tsunade, remember?"
"Oh…right."
"Don't worry about the dishes, Ino, or dinner. I'll pick something up for us when I come home."
Ino nodded and watched the couple gather their day's belongings and head out the door, locking the door behind them. They left her in silence, an eerie silence that felt as if someone hid in the shadows and would grab Ino if she walked by.
The refrigerator hummed and the water splashed against the dishes Ino rinsed off. Somewhere down the hall, a child screamed in delight which was followed by a masculine laugh. The man growled, "I'm gonna get you!" followed by more screaming and tiny steps running down the hallway. Ino turned off the water and went to go get dressed—she couldn't stay in this apartment any longer.
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