Ricochet
"Come in". Tsunade tiredly glanced up from a desk full of loose papers and scrolls she had been slowly making progress with. The interruption was a near-welcome distraction. "Ah, Neji."
"Hokage-sama."
He gave an automatic bow before he approached her desk in smooth, languid strides. His everyday battlewear was missing, in it's place slightly more ornate traditional Hyuuga robes hung on his body and it struck Tsunade then how strong the physical likeness was between Neji and his uncle.
"There is a matter in River Country concerning some property belonging to my clan. Hiashi-sama is rather disinclined to personally resolve this and has deemed me his envoy in substitution. Myself and my wife expect to embark on the journey this evening."
"Hn." The Hokage nodded, soaking up the information. "And this conflict should be resolved fairly quickly?"
"Yes."
"Very well. I approve your departure."
His eyes trailed downward as he gave another, more shallow bow and his gaze settled briefly on the haphazard paperwork on her desk. The closest open scroll was in full view and the information filtered into his brain almost subliminally; key words were processed in milliseconds. Valley of Bones. Six to ten days. A rank. And then a single name listed after TEAM MEMBERS caught his eye: Yamanaka Ino. There were no other names, and something cold and thick - dread, he recognized - coiled in Neji's gut. Yamanaka Ino? A rank? Without him? Nothing good could come of that, she was still too green. She was talented, yes. A born leader, for certain. But ready to solo an A rank mission? Absolutely not. His intuition bellowed at him that he was going to lose his personal Ms. Fix-It if he didn't intervene. He was accustomed to her and she to him and he wasn't about to spend another year weeding through medics and specialists for a suitable replacement. He'd never find another teammate so attuned with his methods and behaviors; lightening wouldn't strike twice.
"May I request a favor, Hokage-sama?"
Mild curiousity lighted in her eyes. "Go on."
"Re-assign the mission in the Valley of Bones. Don't send Yamanaka."
The Sannin's look turned thoughtful and she leaned back in her chair. He imagined that if she were the sort to do so, now would be the time when she'd cross her legs and fold her arms under her bustline.
"Ino is the best available candidate. Your generation has given me some of the best warriors this village has to offer but despite that, not many of you have abilities that are...subtleenough for this type of mission. Given the great distance from Konoha this assignment requires, Hinata is out of the question."
Of course she was. There were limits to how far from Fire Country Main House members were allowed.
"And Nara Shikamaru is already deployed. That leaves only Ino. Under the circumstances, why should I honor your request, Hyuuga?"
Neji hesitated, he hadn't planned on defending his request. It was what someone like Shikamaru would've referred to as an unknown variable. He blinked slowly, his mind a flurry of thoughts. He could lie to her. Lying was a valuable first defense for any shinobi trying to avoid combat. To a seasoned jounin like him it was second nature, born from years of fabricating cover stories on the fly. He could lie...but why? What was there to lie about? That it irritated him to see Ino injured? That as much as he didn't trust anyone else to defend her vacant body, he violently disapproved of her working alone? That she was the key reason he was so successful with team missions? That she is...
Why should I honor your request, Hyuuga?
She is...
He blinked again, still outwardly exemplifying perfect composure that was wholly at odds with his tumultuous emotions. The Hokage was, in effect, asking precisely what it was that made Ino special enough to change her decision to send her. What exactly it was about the situation that affected him. Neji felt a brief moment of blankness while the words his brain had been skillfully denying rolled off of his tongue as matter-of-factly as if he were telling the Godaime that fire was hot.
"She is important to me."
And she was. The thought was sinking in with startling clarity.
Although he'd been unsure of what exactly he'd say until he said it, he'd been half-expecting his answer to be some kind of milestone after which everything in his life could be referred to as either 'pre' or 'post' event. He had questioned himself before why it was that the blonde usurped the lot of his attention and come up blank. Now that he'd been forced to produce an answer he'd expected a revelation, a catalyst, a change. Something. He didn't know why. As it were, his answer felt like less of a grand reveal and more of a statement of fact. Perhaps it was. Perhaps that was all it was. So she was important to him? So was his job - which she was a vital component of - and his training, and his clan, and his wife. Ino was just another responsibility, he saw that now. And now she'd been affixed a label and a shelf and carefully constructed rules of interaction. Now that she'd been appropiately classified, he could relax his level of self-awareness around her.
Tsunade's expression hardened considerably. Was that his excuse? She'd known that the bonds of friendship were stronger in the Konoha Eleven than in previous generations, but honestly...business would always take priority over personal sentiments. Maybe she was giving her warriors the wrong impression by indulging Naruto and Sakura in their attempts to bring home Sasuke. Old age was making her soft; it seemed a rebuke was in order.
"She is important to Konoha as well."
Her curt tone left little room for negotiation yet there had to be a way to bargain with her. Anything in the world could be bought, it was simply a matter of price and Neji was not above bartering. Tsunade was a betting woman, and he knew that anytime there existed a way to better her chances, she did. If he offered a solution to the problem caused by her not choosing Ino then she'd be much more receptive to changing her mind. And the ideal solution seemed obvious to him.
"How urgent is this mission?"
The Hokage's eyes swept over the scroll in silent review, fingers trailing over the more uncompromising details. "This needs to be taken care of within the week."
That was all he needed to hear.
"I will return from River Country in three days. If the mission can be delayed until then I will take it myself, Hokage-sama."
Keen eyes weighed his offer; measured it against his value as a tool. A Hyuuga in place of a Yamanaka...it was a fair trade.
"Fine. Three days."
He's a tough ol' fart.
Ino pursed her lips as she leaned back from her assigned captive, a hand settling on her slender hip the only outward sign of her frustration. She was losing her patience quicker than usual, and it had nothing to do with the fact that Shiranui Genma disrupted her perfect catnap to summon her for this interrogation. Nope, nothing at all to do with it. She grumbled quietly and took a moment to collect herself, eyes intently planted on her captive as she cooled off. This one was an older man, early to mid-forties she guessed, hard-faced and stubborn as a bloodstain on pure white linen. One of his eyes was swollen shut; a puffy, misshapen souvenir from the fight that had landed him here and she could almost smell the infection setting in on a gash near his neck. That close to a main artery and without immediate medical attention, he'd have two, maybe five days before it turned fatal. Konoha needed to squeeze information out of him before he expired in captivity but he, of course, cared little for what Konoha needed. He lay in an undignified heap on the dirty floor, eyes unfocused in a blank stare as if Ino wasn't even standing there in front of him. No matter what she said to him, his mind remained resolutely focused on an image of grass swaying in the breeze; a mental blocking method. Poor old fool, unaware of quite how pointless his effort was. He'd break by the end of it. When it came to psychological warfare, they always did.
The psychological wounds were always so much harder to heal than the physical ones.
Tenten stifled a yawn and tried to shift her weight without drawing any attention. The position of sitting with her feet folded primly under her bottom was starting to make her tired feet cramp. If they hadn't been here on Hyuuga-related matters, she would've worn pants and could have sat comfortably cross-legged like her husband at her side. What was it, four o'clock in the morning? It had been some minutes since the small entourage of her, Neji, and two members of the Hyuuga branch house had arrived in River Country. The journey had been relatively short in actuality, but had felt practically endless every since they'd crossed the country's borders and been fully enveloped in the thick fog emanating from a large river running along the main path. This of course had proved no issue for Neji and his distant cousins, but for Tenten it had been an extremely boring trip. Not to mention that she hadn't had to move that fast in the last two years, she was near exhaustion. She'd expected their small group to be led to their sleeping quarters when they arrived and met the watchmen stationed to greet them, but Neji had followed the standard pleseantries with a request to start the meeting immediately. Apparently he was in some kind of rush, and Tenten had no choice but to quietly follow as they were led indoors to get matters taken care of.
Tea had been served to them by a young girl who quickly left the room afterwards and now the six of them - Neji, Tenten, Hyuuga Naoki, Hyuuga Hachirou, and the two businessmen - sat opposite each other at a low table while Neji and one of the businessmen spoke back and forth. Initially, the men had requested that Tenten leave as it was "not a matter that concerned women" but Neji had swiftly refused and the atmosphere had been strained ever since.
"You are speaking in circles, Takenouchi-san." Neji remarked sternly, giving no illusions that this was anything but a business discussion.
Takenouchi denied it, chattering on in his overly cordial Let's make this work! voice and Tenten could see the irritation settling into her husband's features.
"You mean to call me a liar?"
Takenouchi choked, stuttered and fanned himself with one hand. "No, not at all Hyuuga-san!"
"Then explain to me how exactly it is that you saw fit to harvest crops from Hyuuga land without our consent?"
And almost on cue, the grovelling and talk of reparations began and Neji had Takenouchi exactly where he wanted him. Tenten smirked and leaned just a little closer to her husband. Half an hour later, they finally reached a negotiation and the fatigued four withdrew to two rooms to slumber.
"Shishou!"
With a glare, Tsunade grit her teeth as her original apprentice came barreling through the door into her office, effectively distracting her from her ever-growing pile of paperwork. Just her luck; the one week she actually put effort into getting through more tedious side of her job everyone wants to interrupt her.
"This had better be serious, Shizune."
The warning tone her voice carried made clear that this was not one of her good days. Familiar with her mentor's temper, Shizune got straight to the point.
"It is! We have reports that Iwagakure has added Tsuchiya Takumi to their Bingo Book and will be sending an assassination squad soon. Our time frame for information gathering has been substantially shortened. What do you want to do, Tsunade-sama?"
Shit. Something like that was exactly what Tsunade had been hoping wouldn't happen. The situation was urgent now, she couldn't wait on the Hyuuga.
"Pull Yamanaka from interrogation, we're sending her now."
Neji awoke tired and irritable as the evening light creeped into the room. Had he really slept half the day away? It felt like only minutes. Propping himself up on an elbow his eyes fell on Tenten, stirring slightly in the beginning stages of waking up. If he knew her as well as he thought - and he did - she was likely enjoying this trip even less than he was. He'd given her so little attention as of late and still she'd quietly supported him, keeping her frustrations to herself. He owed her for her dedication to him, he really did. She turned towards him, stretching with a quiet groan before her eyes fluttered open and met his gaze. The ex-kunoichi stared at him momentarily before her voice, hoarse with sleep, broke the silence.
"What?"
Hints of a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. "Nothing."
Tenten rolled her eyes and pushed herself up, leaning in to capture his lips. It was unlike Neji to linger in bed, usually he was up and gone long before she woke up. Part of her wondered if something was wrong. That part was silenced when he deepened the kiss, gently pushing her back until she was pressed into the pillow...
The Valley of Bones was a seedy area to say the least, not that Ino had been much surprised. The kind of place so run-down and neglected that loyalty could be bought by the highest bidder and when people went missing, well, that was their business. A wet dream for a criminal like Tsuchiya. He could disappear like a needle in a haystack or parade down the streets as the town's high roller. He kept six bodyguards around him at all times, mostly higher-end thugs and one or two ninja academy dropouts if Ino gauged them right. Nothing some well-placed senbon and a chloroform-soaked handkerchief couldn't solve. She'd get rid of them, mind-dive Tsuchiya and get out of there. At least, that was what she thought until she'd isolated him in a dark room and quickly discovered that Tsuchiya had a seventh bodyguard:
Miyamoto Hazuki. Page thirteen, second from the bottom in Konoha's Bingo Book. Also known as "Hazuki of the Scarlet Snow". (*赤雪の葉月)
Wonderful.
Almost there. Konoha's close. Please, let me be close.
Ino thought she could smell the familiar scents of home drifting in the air but she wasn't sure, maybe she was hallucinating, a strong enough pain could induce those. Ino hoped it was real, needed it to be real. She was running on fumes as it was and a disappointment now would make her remaining determination evaporate. Pride had made her stay and fight when she knew she should have run and she was paying for it. Her chakra was too depleted to even heal the minor wounds, let alone the serious ones. If she could just-
With hazy detachment it registered to her that she was completely horizontal, indistinct voices and faces coming towards her and she could hardly pay attention. Sound and sight shifted and blended into each other until left was soprano and loud was down.
"She's crashing!"
Ino felt faint, as if her limbs were weightless and her thoughts quieted to whispers, to silence. She would have thought she was blacking out if she didn't know any better, but she did know better, and she knew that each second of time that faded away was taking a piece of her with it. There was a small but insistent push from her body, as if her soul were spilling out with her blood, until she had been completely expelled from it. It was the first time she had ever involuntarily left her body and the feeling was strangely surreal. She lingered beside herself, observing as her skin paled and lips drained in color from pinkish to a mute blue. Sakura, Shizune, Tsunade, and first floor supervisor Oyone-san were crowded around her body working frantically.
And then she felt something pull.
Alarmed, Ino tried to re-enter her body only to find it hopeless. It was like being locked outside of a house. She felt the pull again and things began to fade. Shizune's lips moved but Ino couldn't hear her and she watched as the raven-haired medic stepped back from her body and Tsunade did the same. Her vision blurred and she could just make out the glittering tear that rolled down Sakura's cheek as she kept at it, forcing more chakra into her vacant body. Death clawed at her, unrelenting, and Ino struggled to stay. She could sense the approach of the rumored Shinigami and had no desire to meet it.
Come on, Sakura. You can do this, I know you can, but I need you to hurry!
Sakura was sorry. She couldn't even think straight about what or why or how many things but oh god, she was sorry and if only Ino was awake she would scream a hundred and one apologies at her but the monitors screeched as Ino flatlined and Sakura pushed her grief aside. An iron will she'd forgotten she possessed fired up, refusing to lose.
You can't do this to me, Ino. I won't let you.
"Shizune-sempai."
"Yes?"
"Massasge the heart using chakra. Oyone-san, go get 500ccs of blood plasma ready in an intravenous drip. Tsunadae-sama," Sakura looked at her master, her eyes focusing on the small diamond-shaped mark of chakra storage on her forehead. She remembered the day years ago when the Sannin explained to her the theory behind latent chakra storage. "I have an idea."
Tsunade stared at her pupil almost in awe of the young girl's hope. Despite managing to seal Ino's wounds, the kunoichi had suffered a Class IV Hemorrage exceeding over fourty percent bloodloss, maybe even a full half of her blood volume. Noone she had known had ever rebounded from that, not even with aggressive resuscitation. She doubted they even had enough blood in storage to pump back into her, which would take time, and time was a medic's worst enemy. A human brain would start to damage after two minutes without oxygen in the blood, but without any bloodflow at all? Every second was a losing battle.
Sakura placed her hands over one of Ino's thighs, chakra almost humming from the amount she was forcing inward.
"We can try using your Creation Rebirth jutsu to restimulate and accelerate blood production in her bone marrow. It should be enough to sustain her, once Shizune gets her heart going, until we can inject plasma."
The Hokage shook her head.
"I've told you, Sakura. This is a forbidden jutsu and something that is specialized and tailor-made to my body. I can't use it on anyone else."
"With all due respect Milady, I'm not asking you to use yours on her, I'm asking you to create one for her. If I build up a mass chakra storage for her, can't you draw it out and direct the technique?"
Tsunade paused.
Adapting an intransferable technique. She really has surpassed me.
"Yes."
Tsunade put her hands on the opposite side of Sakura and began initiating the technique.
Only this girl could have brought this out of Sakura.
"I know, man. She's scary good, some kind of pink-haired miracle. I mean, did you see the girl when she came through? Did you see her? She was bleeding buckets."
"No shit. Would've been tragic to lose a beauty like her. She's so nice too. Who else would flirt with you when you're laying in a bed reeking of blood, sweat, and dirt?"
"Yeah. It's lucky she and the Godaime's apprentice go way back. I heard they were best friends or something."
"Really? Huh. The old folks always said the good ones gravitate to each other. Magnetism or something, I don't know. Oh, Hyuuga-san. Welcome back."
Kotetsu finally diverted his attention from their conversation to greet the small convoy and Izumo hurriedly scribbled down their names and arrival time. The group of Hyuugas carried on, barely slowing in their steps until Izumo unwittingly rekindled their conversation.
"We should go see Ino, 'tetsu. Return the favor and flirt with her while she's bed bound and mummified."
Neji's footsteps stalled and his group paused awkwardly some paces ahead of him as he stiffly stood and listened for more details from the gossiping pair.
"Are you kidding? She almost died, 'zumo. She's probably not even conscious yet. Let's wait until tomorrow."
...almost died?
"You're right, she's probably out cold. Heard she took out that bastard Hazuki! She earned the sleep."
Neji's eyes narrowed as realization set in.
The Valley of Bones. Tsunade sent her anyway.
If the way Naoki and Hachirou quickly stepped away from him were any indication - and it was - Neji was furious. He seemed to be a deep breath away from exploding. Tenten paled at the look on his face.
"Neji?"
He began walking again, his movements oddly smooth as if the last thirty seconds had never happened. Cautiously the three of them trailed behind him until, finally, he spoke.
"Take Tenten home."
"Neji! Fortune must be smiling at me to see you here today. Have you finally come to accept my challenge of an honorable bout of brawling?"
Neji scowled at the too-bright green of Lee's bodysuit and too-happy smile on Lee's face. Too much of everything, it was insufferable. He rudely turned his back to the taijutsu master, walking away almost as though completely ignoring him before he gave an answer over his shoulder.
"Take off your leg weights."
Battleworn and significantly less resplendent than the last time she'd seen him, Neji calmly waltzed into Tsunade's office. She'd been expecting him, of course, but before she could say anything in defense of her choice he cut her off with a demand. Not a request.
"I want her as my subordinate. Exclusively. I will personally assume responsibility for the completion of her missions."
Tsunade stiffened; she hadn't quite been expecting him to say something that audacious. The idea of the young Yamanaka being placed into a permanent partnership was rather contrary to what she had been planning. All things considered now that she'd had time to sit back and think, although the A rank mission had nearly killed Ino to complete it, she had in fact gotten the job done while completely unassisted. It was something only a handful of people - Mitarashi Anko, Gekkou Hayate, and Hyuuga Neji himself, to name a few - had accomplished as a chuunin and a feat unheard of for a member of her clan. That in and of itself was grounds enough for a promotion; the blonde had proven herself a worthy leader and the Hokage found herself more than a little loathe to ignore that. To place her into a partnership now was almost a waste of potential.
"What do you stand to gain from this?"
"What do you stand to lose?"
Tsunade stared at Neji and he held the stare with a look that said You owe me this. She turned it over in her mind.
...a partnership would keep her from dying before she reaches her full potential.
"Fine. Hyuuga Neji, you will hereafter be held personally accountable for Yamanaka Ino. You are to see to it that she is up to standards for each and every assignment. I expect you to maintain your mission success/failure ratio. And should something happen to her..."
"Understood, Hokage-sama."
"You understand that this may mean an increase in mission frequency and complexity in exchange for the raise in pay grade?"
"Raise?"
"I'm promoting Yamanaka under the conditions of this...arrangement. You work as a team, you get paid as a team. I don't want to regret this later, do I make myself clear?"
"Yes."
She tried to read his expression, and failed. He was a shrewd, shrewd man. She wondered if she would ever understand Naruto's generation. With a wave of her hand she dismissed the enigmatic genius and called for her apprentice once he was gone. Shizune skittered into the open doorway.
"Yes, shishou?"
"Noone else comes through this door unless someone's dying or Konoha is in danger."
A / N : Ino died (for a minute) are you shocked? If you've read a certain other story of mine you might feel a little deja vu but hopefully it reads better here. Anyway, still rebuilding ch5. And you guys cracked 100 reviews with last chapter! Tell me, why so epic? :) A lot of you made guesses where this story is going, and some of you are right. I have such smart fans :D