Ricochet
Neji's eyebrows drew together as he watched his brand-new subordinate smooth out her outfit while her hospital gown lay pooled on the floor, forgotten. She collected her weapons from the nightstand at her bedside, eager fingers replacing them to the rightful areas of her body where they belonged, smiling all the while. She'd gotten an earful from Sakura earlier about 'putting her though emotional hell' and couldn't wait to get out of there as fast as possible. Neji's frown deepened.
"You convinced them to let you out early."
The smooth timbre of his voice resonated from behind her and Ino couldn't keep a small smirk from working itself across her lips. "Yeah...I've recovered well enough. I don't really like to do anything slowly." She heard him shift to lean his form against the doorframe, his body language likely radiating disapproval. "Oh stop. I don't need eyes in the back of my head to know you're pouting."
"I am not pouting."
"Pouting!", Ino peeked over her shoulder to see but her partner had already schooled his features back into complete indifference, one eyebrow arching haughtily at her obvious disappointment. Ino turned back around and continued her task. "I'm not sorry for it, you know. So don't stand there like you think I owe you an apology or something."
He snorted. "You were reckless."
"It was my call to make."
"And it was the wrong one. It was egocentric and inconsiderate; you gave no thought to the people who were here waiting for you to come home alive."
Ino rolled her eyes crossly as she stripped the sheets from the bed to make it easier for the person who'd have to come clean her room. "Right, because doing exactly that must have been a grave disappointment to them."
"You were half dead. Do you have any idea of the inconveniences you caused? Of the stress you put on others?"
Ino put down a pillow with a little more force than was necessary and whipped around, jawline tight and eyes hard. Her hands rose up in front of her in mock-surrender. "Okay, you're right. I get it."
She marched out the door, brushing past him briskly but the intended effect was lost as he easily fell in step beside her as they walked down the hallway. She was vexed, he knew, but she had provoked him first. An eye for an eye.
"No, you don't. You're just humoring me because you're upset."
Her jaw tightened that much more as she paced onward. "That obvious, huh?"
He ignored her blatant sarcasm, grabbing hold of her elbow to still her, make her look him in the face. "Why?"
Ino's deathglare faltered under the intensity of his gaze. It wasn't a look she was familiar with, not from him. This was not the face of a superior demanding an answer from a subordiante, it was the look of someone who genuinely wanted to know. The look of someone who was attempting to understand her. For some reason, it pissed her off even more. Was that what it took, her rebounding from death for him to try to understand her?
"Fine, you want to know why I'm upset? It's because everything's always business with you -calculations, criticism, commands- it's like you can't hold a normal conversation! I mean, would it kill you to say 'Good job, Ino.' or 'Nice improvisation.' or even 'Hey, I'm glad you didn't die.' ? I haven't heard you say a single positive thing since the day I met you. I don't get you, Hyuuga Neji. I don't get how you can just switch from caring one moment to not giving a damn the next. Because, you know, dying for my village would've been incredibly selfish of me. The issue of me dying is obviously a problem because it might mess up someone's day, not that my actual death would matter worth a damn."
Mindful of the orderlies bustling around them, Neji drew a deep breath and attempted to calm her. "Yamanaka,"
"Hey Beautiful."
Both of them tensed as Sai appeared from one of the rooms they'd passed and smiled blandly at Ino, who looked genuinely surprised. He seemed to want to say more than a simple Hello and Neji had the irrational urge to yank Ino by the wrist and keep walking. Ino wiped a hand from forehead to chin, as if literally trying to wipe her previous expression from her face.
"Hi Sai." She turned back to Neji, some of the earlier tension creeping back into her face as her tone of voice turned flat and inexpressive. "Is there anything else, Neji?"
She was dismissing him, his brain dully noted, and he couldn't help shooting a glare in the painter's direction before answering.
"Yes. We have a mission two days from now, I expect you to be in prime condition and ready." The Hyuuga's body read uncertainty for a fraction of a second, his eyes softening almost tenderly before reverting back to complete professionalism. "...You're not allowed to die."
"I don't plan to."
Neji turned, drifting down the corridor in the stream of women dressed in white before disappearing around a corner. Ino watched the space where his back had been. Sai watched the hints of rage still dancing across Ino's face.
"He must be your Sasuke."
The blonde jolted out of her trance and stared at Sai in a moment of pure shock before she recovered her senses. "Why would you say that?"
"Because the expression you were wearing is the same one Ugly wears whenever I talk about Sasuke. It's ugly, but it looks better on you than on Ugly. It's ugly/beautiful. This is your best face."
Ino sighed, exasperated. It suddenly felt so much later in the day than it actually was. Was this Sai's sorry attempt to cheer her up? "Gee, thanks."
"Anytime."
Seemingly unaware of the concept of sarcasm and it's usage, Sai smiled again at Ino and tried his best to practice his skills in small talk. Ino couldn't wait to go home.
"Look out!"
The sudden dampness and clinging of her shirt to her shoulder alerted Tenten, belatedly, that she'd bumped into someone on her trek through the village center. A moment of disgust hit her as the stranger apologized and she assured the person that she was at fault. Bumped into someone? When was the last time someone had gotten so close to her without her awareness? If Gai could see her now, surely he'd be disappointed. She wondered if Neji could see how quickly her shinobi training was dissippating, especially now that he had a new female partner to compare her to.
A partner that, she heard, he had gone directly to the Hokage to request.
It was Ino, she was sure. He'd never paid so close attention to any other teammate, male or female. He'd never gotten so upset over someone either. Tenten would never forget the look of unbridled rage etched into her husband's visage as they'd passed Kotetsu and Izumo, nor would she ever forget the glacial way he'd ignored her after she moved to hurt Ino. Whenever the blonde was involved, the padlock on Neji's emotions seemed to spontaneously combust. He was never that way with her, showing the full extent of his temperment, not when he was angry or happy or sad.
She'd always thought it was a special courtesy that he gave only to her, a means to spare her perhaps. Now she wasn't so sure.
Ino peeled off her halter top, her nose scrunching up as the fabric passed over her head. Her clothes smelled of bleach and antiseptic, and while she was thankful to the hospital staff for washing them for her, the scent was no more pleasant to her than those of sweat and blood. She pushed her skirt downward over her hips to drop to the floor, her mesh shorts following quickly afterward, and then removed the mesh bandeau compressing her breasts. She stepped away from the pile she'd just made on the floor, mentally noting to re-wash them to get the foul smells out as she made her way to her bathroom. Ino had no idea what had happened to the clip she usually wore on the side of her hair - it must have been lost during her fight - but she slipped the elastic band holding up her ponytail out of her hair and leaned to turn the knobs of the shower. She stepped in under the spray, cool beads of water delivering small shocks all over her front side and tilted her head upward, her eyes sliding closed.
She thought about what he said. Reckless. Egocentric. Inconsiderate.
She turned around, the quickly-warming water hitting the top of her head, beating a rhythym onto her sore shoulders and pasting her hair to her back. Reckless. If Neji had said it, then it was probably true; she'd never known him to exaggerate. He hadn't sneered at her, hadn't tossed it at her as an insult, but as a reprimand.
Don't stand there like you think I owe you an apology or something.
You were reckless. You gave no thought to the people who were here waiting for you to come home alive.
That was his answer, his justification. She had made a grievous error somewhere in her choice during the battle, not because she was willing to fight to the death for her homeland, but because people needed her to live. She had fought no holds barred without crediting her life with a shred of significance, and for that she had caused others pain. He was right, in a roundabout sort of way. She did owe an excuse for her thoughtlessness, and maybe she had overreacted to his telling her that at the time but Ino had meant every syllable of every word she'd said to him. She didn't know how it was possible to coordinate so well with someone on one level and not understand them at all on another one. He was straightforward, yet not. Compassionate while simultaneously frigid. He drove her crazy in all the wrong ways with just a few honest words, yet could do the same thing in all the right ways with a simple look.
She didn't get him.
Although, she supposed that was to be expected. She was the epitome of Summer, made of fire and passion and adrenaline while he was the definition of Winter, tranquil and cool and contemplative. Fire and ice, summer and winter.
And the two could never meet because there was always Autumn in the middle.
Ino finished her shower, toweled off, and re-dressed herself in a pale blue tee and old beige shorts before padding downstairs to relieve her mother behind the shop counter. Settling in on a stool, Ino heard the back door click shut as her mother wandered out into the garden out back. She pulled an apron from one of the hooks behind her and tied it on as she gave the area a cursory glance and tried not to look too bored. Five minutes later found her slumping over the counter, chin in hands and so lost in thought that her reaction to the front door opening was delayed.
"Welcome to the Yamanaka Florist Shop! Oh. Hey Shika."
The brunette quirked an eyebrow at her, drawing close to lean a forearm on the counter casually. She didn't miss how his eyes flitted over her form in appraisal.
"I heard you were in the hospital while I was gone." He'd heard more than that, obviously. It wasn't in the Nara's nature to start conversations unneccessarily. He was here because he wanted to hear what happened from her ; and knowing him, he'd store that information in his brain, analyze every single detail, and think of a way for it to never happen again. Shikamaru did not like mistakes. The only thing he hated more than mistakes were fatalities but, unlike Neji, he tended to be less confrontational and Ino was thankful for the reprieve.
She placed a palm on his forehead and, using one of her father's tricks, closed her eyes and showed him mentally what she'd seen and thought on the mission in the Valley of Bones. Technically, the information was classified and forbidden to share with anyone not involved on the mission, but Ino didn't worry about that. Even if Team 10 was officially dissolved, as far as Ino was concerned she, Shikamaru and Chouji were Team 10 for life and sometimes you had to break rules for teammates. She showed him everything, from finding the town to her fight against Hazuki of the Scarlet Snow to just making it past Konoha gates. When she finished and opened her eyes, she could tell Shikamaru was doing his best to look indifferent but she could read the emotions in his eyes. Fear. Anger. Guilt. Neji's voice replayed in her head, refusing to be ignored.
You gave no thought to the people who were here waiting for you to come home alive.
Damnit, she hated when she was wrong.
Ino decided it was a good time to redirect attention.
"So, now that you've seen everything, I have a question about something." Shikamaru snapped out of his thoughts, mild confusion sweeping his face as Ino lifted one leg of her shorts a few inches, exposing more of her thigh. There was what appeared to be a bruise on the front of it, a dark violet crescent shape the size of a coin, the open ends of the mark tapering into a slightly lighter color. He couldn't tell if it was freshly forming or just starting to go away, but Ino solved that question before he could ask. "Sakura, Shizune, and Tsunade herself healed me. I was in the hospital for three days, and this was here when I woke up. It keeps getting darker. I don't know why it hasn't gone away."
"You're asking me about medical stuff?"
"I don't think this is medical, Shika. Normal bruises heal, not get darker."
Shikamaru stared at the mark, from the deepest color of the crescent to the faint outline at it's open edge. At closer inspection, it looked more like a hollowed circle.
"Does it hurt?"
"No."
He reached as if to trace it, the sun from the window behind him casting the shadow of his hand over her thigh. Through his shadow he could feel the thrum of Ino's chakra pulsating. He pulled back.
"How did they heal you? Do you remember?" She shook her head 'No' and Shikamaru looked unsure as he turned things over in his mind, slipping his hands into his pockets and shifting his weight on his legs. "It's not a bruise. There's a lot of chakra behind it, and if it's getting darker then that means it's probably absorbing your chakra all the time."
"But I don't feel tired. Something like that would lead to chakra depletion pretty quickly."
This time he was the one who shook his head. "It's only collecting a portion. You can still access your chakra, can't you? It's only drawing chakra you aren't using. Must be a jutsu."
A jutsu! It made sense, when Ino thought about it. Bruises tended to be irregularly shaped, and when she really looked at the mark she could make out a perfectly circular shape. A perfect rendition of the Haruno family crest.
Sakura did this.
Her mouth opened in amazement.
"I know what this is. It's a chakra storage point."
Making his way across the grass of the Hyuuga compound, Neji couldn't help but feel tense. He didn't understand this; didn't understand her. At least, he didn't understand what she wanted from him.
I haven't heard you say a single positive thing since the day I met you.
He hadn't pegged Ino as the type of person to put value in such inane things as praise, and he was still fairly sure she didn't. She was perfectly emotionless when it came to her duties as a warrior, but when it came to her comrades Ino was practically an open book. She shared her things, loved to make conversation, and was always trying to help even when assistance wasn't asked for. He had the sneaking suspicion that she liked to befriend everyone she worked with. Ino valued people, not words. Why would she care for his words?
I don't get how you can just switch from caring one moment to not giving a damn the next.
Neji did care for her well-being, he didn't know how she didn't see that. He did more for her than any other teammate he'd ever had! He went out of his way to give her as much safety as he could. He took personal responsibility for her. He allowed from her rants and critiques that would warrant punishment and possible dismissal from anyone else. Metaphorically speaking, he let her get away with murder. How did that add up to having no regard for her? If anything, he'd spoiled her rotten.
Neji reached his doorstep and opened the door automatically, stepping into his home and drifting towards the back. Tenten popped out from the narrow hall leading to the laundry room to greet him. She flashed a smile that didn't reflect in her eyes, barely blooming completely before it withered away. She wrapped her arms around his middle and Neji marvelled at how the gentle action instantly relaxed him.
"Welcome home."
Her face tilted up to look at him and Neji held her gaze before closing his eyes, folding his arms around her and nestling his face in the crook of her neck. He felt...bad, somehow. Beyond the admiration and love swirling in his wife's chocolate orbs he could see hints of loneliness and the blame for it rested squarely on his shoulders. Tenten didn't have friends - nobody on Team Gai had, really - and while she wasn't particularly close to her small family, here they lived, surrounded by in-laws she barely knew and with nothing more to occupy her time than domestic duties. To marry him, she'd given up her lifelong dream and what had he done for her? Nothing. She had been so patient, so selfless, so giving...she'd make a wonderful mother one day.
Yes, perhaps she'd be happier with children to chase after and comfort and love. His uncle had been pressing the matter, maybe the time was right to start a family.
Neji lifted his face, drawing back and loosening his hold on Tenten. He let one arm drop to his side as the other hand trailed down to her wrist and took hold there. Silently, he led her to their bedroom.
She rained feather-light kisses along his face and neck and he allowed her some minutes of control before he turned them over, reversing their positions. He forged his own trail of kisses across her skin, open-mouthed, stronger and more sensual than the ones she'd given him. He slowed as he reached her neck, a lingering scent there on the opposite side of where he'd nestled his face earlier. She smelled vaguely sweet and floral, as if she'd taste of nectar if he lapped at her skin. He tried it, and while practice didn't confirm the theory, he wasn't disappointed. Something in his brain whispered that the scent was hauntingly familiar, perhaps reminiscent of a place he'd been. He tried to remember, eyes sliding shut as his mind searched for an answer he wasn't sure existed. He pictured open fields, cool afternoon breezes and fresh summer skies so perfectly skyblue...
Blue.
Ino.
Neji stiffened abruptly and below him, Tenten rolled her hips to grind against him encouragingly and he bit back a groan, forcing his eyes open. Lavender. He recognized it now, Tenten smelled of lavender and, by proxy, smelled like the walking bouquet that was Ino. His mind must have subconsciously made the connection and for a second, he tried in vain to believe that it didn't mean anything that his wife smelling like his mission partner turned him on. He tried to focus on the smooth caramel of Tenten's skin and the low resonance of her breathless moans. He closed his eyes again to help concentrate as he began to move faster. All of his nerves were alive and singing and he had to open his eyes to run from the image that was building behind them like a mosaic. The heavy-lidded orbs that peered back at him were brown but all he could see was blue, blue, blue...
And he couldn't deny it anymore: he was attracted to his partner. Majorly.
Tenten trembled and shuddered beneath him and Neji followed her, his mind blissfully blank for a precious few seconds until he was still, breathing deeply and sweating as his wife drifted off to sleep. He rolled off of her and onto his back, staring up at the ceiling some seconds before blocking it out with a hand over his eyes. The full weight of his overworked mind came down to crush him and Neji had no choice but to lie there, an unwilling captive, as repressed thoughts rushed him ruthlessly.
He was attracted to Ino. He had denied it since the mission in Rice Country, telling himself the need to stop her pain was the heat of the moment and nothing more, but in truth he had only wanted to touch her. Get a little closer, see a little more, feel a little bit. Just a little.
A little what? There was no future with the Yamanaka and he had everything he should ever need at home. Here. With Tenten.
He grimaced, reluctant to accept he'd let an infactuation begin, let alone spread this far.
This. Is. A problem.
A / N : All aboard the DOOM train! The first scene was initially planned as mild fluff and evolved into an argument. Fail. Sorry if you never saw the original ch5, you might not get the SaiIno part. And, my goodness, I can hear some of you screaming all the way over here. Through the internet. xD