Sometimes I think Ino should be classified as a S-rank criminal. No, not just an S-rank. An S-rank criminal with a kill-on-sight order on her, the dreaded Ruby order. An order that was trumped by few others. An order issued to all members of Konoha and not rescindible, now matter what the circumstances.

"Ginza is... an interesting choice," Neji said to my suggestion. "I believe a cousin of mine went there and found it very... romantic."

I paled, I cringed, I mentally planned how I would kill Ino. Damn it, if she hadn't mentioned the stupid cake I wouldn't have gotten distracted and failed to see she was plotting. And then I could have saved myself from the oncoming onslaught of humiliation.

"Did my glorious flower of youth just ask her teammate out on a date?" Gai-sensei asked, eyes gleaming with either happiness or sadness. I can never really tell. I thought we were lucky running into him and Lee at our normal training ground. Boy, was I wrong.

"Tenten! We can go on a double date! If you can find the the courage to ask Neji, then I can find the strength to ask Sakura-san too!"

First of all, he asked Sakura out all the time. But more importantly, "Lee... that's not..."

"And if Gai-sensei finds a date as well, then it will be a triple date! Think of it Gai-sensei!"

"I can find two dates! And then it will be a quadruple date, Lee!"

"Hang on," I said. "That doesn't even make sense."

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

I hung my head in defeat and found a place against a tree to rest while they went through the normal theatrics. As soon as he was clear of the love-fest, Neji joined me as well. I looked up at him apologetically and was met with a half smile.

"Yamanaka," he said.

I laughed. "Did she get to you, too?"

"In a way."

"I'm sorry. I mean, she's a sweetheart and a great friend. She's just... persistent."

He smiled a bit, just a bit, at that. "She is that."

We stood in silence for a while, watching Lee and Gai-sensei hammer out the terms of their bet. Currently sensei had decided that he would bring an entire harem with him or he would run two hundred laps around Fire Country. Yeah, go ahead and laugh at that but I've seen the way some kunoichi look at him. Some seriously deranged, color blind ones, but you'd be surprised how many of those there are.

"Do you think she's wrong?"

That broke my train of thought quickly. I looked over at him in confusion. "About Ginza? I'm sure the cake is really good."

He looked at me with a hint of impatience. "Not that."

I bit my lip and tried to zero in on what he was asking. But it was like the bull's-eye wasn't visible no matter how hard I looked. I could only think about one thing, but there was no possible way that THAT would be what he was referring to.

"About us."

... well crap. THAT was exactly what he was referring to. I looked up at him and tried to not look completely stupid. But my cheeks were flushing and I was stammering a reply and...

A hawk cried out above the training ground. The four of us instantly grew silent. It was an emergency alert, sent directly from the Hokage. No one said a word, we just took off to our assigned position. I was tearing through the treetops, heading towards ANBU headquarters, desperately trying not to roll his words around in my head.

About us.

My mind was cluttered up until I was strapping on the arm guards. Not concentrating on the task at hand was going to get me killed. An ANBU captain came up and pointed at three of us. For once, I was almost glad that I wasn't in Neji's squad. He was likely with the rest of his family, acting as the eyes of Konoha and scanning for any signs of the intruders.

I slipped the radio into my ear and was rewarded with a lot of chatter. Something had happened at the Uchiha compound. Two ANBU were down, not dead but injured. As was...

I had to stop for a moment or fall off the branch. Part of me wanted to go back and make sure Ino was okay. What happened? Why was she in the Uchiha compound? In my chest, I felt my heart constrict as I remembered our conversation. Was she asking for my help back then? Did she know the danger?

The captain of our squad looked back at me, waiting to see if I would continue with them. I nodded firmly. I couldn't help Ino, that was beyond my control. But finding the bastard that did that to her and beating him to a pulp, that I could do.

"Victim left two notes. One is 'book', the other is an arrow pointing west."

Wordlessly, the captain shifted direction west. A few hand signals was all we needed to understand our mission. Stop the target, retrieve the book. I repeated that to myself. Stop the target, retrieve the book.

Stop the target, retrieve the book.

About us.

I cursed loudly, drawing attention from my ANBU teammates. This was a disaster, plain and simple. I couldn't keep my mind on the task at hand. All I could think about was what exactly I would have said if that hawk didn't show up. Yes? That would be simple enough, but suicidal. She's crazy? Well... I could have said but Neji would have seen it was a lie. I wanted to be mad at Ino for breaking this carefully constructed balance I had achieved. I got to grow into the kunoichi I always wanted to be, judged not by her teammates but by her own skills. And I got to stay near him, toying with the idea that maybe, someday, things would evolve.

I just didn't want it to be today. Or tomorrow. Or any time soon. Because if we tried to advance from constant teammates to something else and it failed...

Ino's condition was being reported on constantly; I could pick out Sakura's voice in the mix, shouting orders about how to stop the bleeding. The team to our south made contact and finally my focus shifted completely to the upcoming fight.

"Here we go," the captain said, fire and smoke appearing quickly in our field of vision.

We jumped into the fray just as the other team was defeated. The defector looked less then pleased to see us.

"I'm getting kind of tired of this," he stated. "At least offer up a bit more of a fight."

The ANBU captain let loose a fireball, giving us the chance to jump to the trees for cover. I rounded the enemy, preparing to flank him from the side. The captain had his katana out but it was proving completely ineffective against the enemy. Our earpieces were a stream of information suddenly. Suigetsu Hōzuki. Sound-nin formerly from Mist. Waterform Technique. Things clicked in place immediately for me but before I could warn the captain of the danger, he was thrown into a tree and slid down it, unconscious.

"Lightning," I called out. It gave away my position but I couldn't risk the warning getting lost in radio chatter. Immediately, I felt the air around me ionize as one of the ANBU prepared to strike. Suigetsu was there beside me instantly, likely thinking that they wouldn't risk a strike with me nearby. Safety of an ANBU squad was important, but not paramount, and so I was still in range when the lightning strike hit us both.

It wasn't lethal, just enough to cause a lot of discomfort. I fell out of the tree, Suigetsu following suit. We hit the ground and he seemed to be more water then flesh for a moment. I took the chance and reached forward, fingers curling around the book and pulling it towards me. He fought back, slowly reforming and reaching for his sword.

I recognized that sword. It was one of the swords of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist. I had a model collection of those when I was a kid. If I wasn't mistaken, that was Zabuza's sword. I suppose it would have been real neat to see it in person if he wasn't planning to cut me in half with it.

I put my hand in my pocket and pulled out a kunai. The piece of paper on its end fluttered as I threw it at him. Suigetsu jumped back, expecting an explosion as it hit the ground, but was instead met with a deafening boom and a flash of light.

Stop the target, retrieve the book.

Those were the orders. Not kill the target, stop him. And I was very good at following orders. Suigetsu was momentarily blinded. He missed the branch he was aiming for and fell backwards again. I didn't waste too much time wondering why the other squad members didn't go after him as fast as I did. I reached him on the ground and picked up the book, holding it close to my chest. My white chest plate was blackened, singed from the lightning strike. I didn't want to think about my hair. It was probably a mess.

"This is squad nine," I said into the mic. "Target stopped. Book..."

I trailed off. Someone jumped from the foliage and landed behind Suigetsu. I took a step back, wondering where the hell the rest of the squad was. When I got a good look at him, I knew.

"Uchiha Sasuke," I said softly, watching as he came towards me. He stopped, looking down at Suigetsu.

My earpiece erupted with voices. I drowned them all out. It didn't matter what they said now. I knew what I had to do.

"Uchiha Sasuke," I said, firmer tone this time, slipping the book in the space between the chest piece and my stomach. "Konohagakure has issued a Ruby order on you for acts of treason." More voices. I thought I heard the Hokage's in the mix demanding to know who issued the order. I had to be wrong on that. Only the Hokage could issue this order.

"You will go no further," I stated, pulling a kunai from my pouch and holding it in front of me. I'd like to pretend it was steady but I knew I was wavering. I tried to ignore the growing feeling of panic that was collecting in my stomach.

He smirked and looked at me. "What is one ANBU going to do against me?"

I cut into my forearm, drawing blood. Instantly the hidden tattoo on my skin came to life. It was beautiful, almost a crime that it was never meant to be seen. The pattern was just like all the brush strokes on my weapon scrolls, a deep black that swirled into barely legible words. I felt it start to draw on my chakra, infusing the blood as it fell the ground.

"Blow you to Hell," I replied. The blood caught fire as soon as it met soil. It snaked away quickly, leaving a thin trail of fire as it shot out and disappeared into the forest.

I looked into his eyes, seeing the wheels of Sharigan turning. He was seeing what I already knew. This was a weapon's summon, a very specific one. It was for a bomb. A bomb that had just ignited and was rapidly approaching detonation. I could see him try to determine how to stop it, looking for the source of this power so he could plug it back up.

Some people have kekkei genkai, a genetic gift that makes them superior ninja. Some people have endless supply of determination to power them through to be the best. Me? I just had my weapons. I made them, I loved them, I excelled at using them. And this was my best weapon of all.

Each drop of blood continued to eat away at the forest, slowly turning things to ash. It was creating a pattern, a large circle that once complete, would destroy anything still inside it. Killing me would just make it go faster. I held the kunai to my neck to dispel any thought of trying to trick me into stopping it. It would take too long and I'd do my damnedest to make sure I was dead before he even started. I saw all his plans turn in his mind until he began to realize there was only one thing left. So I made sure he understood that that wasn't going to work either.

"You'll never clear the blast radius in time."

Suigetsu got up just as Uchiha disappeared. He spared me a glance before following after the Uchiha. I knelt on the ground, pressing a trembling hand to my ear. The chatter hadn't stopped, it was more fervent now. Calmly, I announced the blast radius into the mic, hoping to give the other ANBU teams enough time to get out of range.

I wanted to ask about Ino but I didn't have the heart. Either she made it and I wouldn't see her again, or she didn't and we'd meet again soon.

About us.

I was crying without realizing it. Stupid Ino, if she hadn't have said anything I would have gone to my grave thinking love would always be unrequited. Now I was afraid that it might not have been.

I always thought you saw your past in moments like this. Instead I thought of all the things that might have occurred if Ino had succeeded with her plots. There would have been double dates with Lee. Dinners at places like Ginza all the time. Quiet evenings watching the stars and mornings of waking up no longer alone. All the hopes and dreams for a full life that I had pushed away in pursuit of my goals as a kunoichi. I was going to die in the line of duty, as any kunoichi would be proud to do. And it meant nothing in comparison to the what-if.

I took off the ear piece. It was getting to difficult to listen to the voices. Some of them must have realized who I was and the pleas were getting too personal. I placed it in my lap, the mic still attached. My chakra was almost gone. The skin on my arm had started to burn, the final stage of ignition.

About us.

"She was right," I answered.

I closed my eyes and waited for the final burn. I didn't hear the birds anymore. I didn't feel the wind. All there was, was a gentle sense of...

"THIS IS AN EMERALD ORDER."

I blinked, quickly looking down at the mic. I quickly picked it up and held it to my ear.

"Maintaining the Uchiha Book is now classified as an EMERALD ORDER. Hokage seven seven, two five one..."

I listened the code number, praying that it was right, that this was real. Emerald orders were the highest, reserved for only the most desperate of times. The Hokage had just trumped the Ruby order for this one. The book would be destroyed by the explosion if I continued on course. I held on to the kunai tightly, looking at my arm, searching for the kanji I needed to slash to kill the bomb. It was so hard to see. The fire was so intense around me and I was so tired.

"COMPLY!" the Hokage yelled.

I tried. I tried but it was so difficult. I couldn't see or breath or...

There was a breeze and the sound of a footfall behind me. The kunai was gone from my hand. I tried to concentrate but was lost in the sea of white and brown.

"Which one?

It was Neji.

Neji who had hated our team when he first met them. Who had trained with me even though I was so much weaker. Who put up with me on missions even though I could barely keep up with him and Lee.

He had helped me get to Chuunin. To Jounin. To ANBU. To be one of the best kunoichi of my generation.

He put up with my crazy female friends, allowed me to drag him to dinner and always waited while I ate dessert. He would help sharpen my kunai, watch me paint kanji on scrolls, and listen while I told him how to disarm the explosive ones.

Ino had been right. About us, she was completely right.

He pulled off my ANBU mask, grabbing my chin so I was looking at him. I could see his eyes, staring back into mine, filled with something I never thought I'd see. Fear. It occurred to me that there was no way he could have reached me if he had only started when the Hokage issued the Emerald order.

"Which one?" he asked again.

I smiled. What other kanji would be appropriate for saving my life? "White," I said.

He cut with the kunai and the world went black.