Ino fled into the forest with Naruto. After consoling the devastated man they quickly left the town. They left the quickest way they could, by going over the wall. As they passed Ino quickly scouted the wall. She knew that it would never be properly staffed. A weakness to be exploited.
Ino followed Naruto as he jumped through the treetops. He was shaking. Did the thought of using the bounty stations really upset him that much? It was the way the world worked. If you broke the law, you got put in jail. Jails needed to make money, so they sold their prisoners. It was very simple. If you don't want to be enslaved, then don't break the law.
"RAAAAAA!" Naruto screamed. Deep and guttural. Seems like his shaking was in anger than in sadness.
"FFFFUUUUUCCCCKK!" Seems he was very angry. Ino dropped to the forest floor. Naruto followed. He paced around the area. Obviously distraught. His pacing brought him to a tree. He drew back a fist. And let it fly.
The tree evaporated.
Ino could not believe her eyes. The tree was wider than she was tall. It was an old-growth hardwood. The trees in Fire Country were able to survive the regular forest fires the country was plagued with. During the wars, trees could have had explosion tags completely wrapped around them and barely lose a leaf. She knew Sakura when she was going all out, could punch a tree down.
She has never seen one be obliterated into nothing.
Naruto walked away from the hole in the ground that used to be a tree older than Konoha. He looked at her. His blue eyes pierced her. He looked at her with such derision. Ino hated that look.
"What the fuck!" Naruo stomped up to her. She was expecting the ground to cavitate from his steps. The leaves didn't even crinkle. "EXECUTIONS! WHY! WHY KILL PEOPLE LIKE THAT?"
"They probably were tortured the night before." Ino needed to stay calm. The most powerful being the world has ever seen was raving mad. If she didn't do this exactly right then she would die here. A casual blow would erase her from existence.
"WHAT! WHY TORTURE THEM!" Ino saw his ocean-blue eyes begin to darken into the red. She knew from Sakura that the Kyuubi's chakra was red. Was he drawing on the monster's strength? That's not good.
"To get information." Ino tried to be calm. She really did. But, her voice shook. She didn't want it to. She was a professional, trained since birth to deal with high-pressure negotiations. Apparently, she couldn't hack it.
"WHAT FUCKING INFO DID THEY NEED!" Ino almost sighed in relief as Naruto started to pace around the newly cleared clearing. "IF THE MAGISTRATE," he spat on the ground, as if the mere words were too vile to handle, "WANTED ANY INFO, HE COULD HAVE ASKED ME! THEY TALKED TO ME ALL NIGHT!"
That was new news to Ino. She did not expect Naruto to have gotten so friendly with the bandits. She knew they were on good terms from their greetings, but, Naruto was always on good terms with people.
"The, Magistrate probably didn't have time to ask you. Remember, we went right to the movies after dropping off the bandits." Ino needs to halt his rapid descent into using the Kuubi chakra. Before Ino went on the mission Sakura pulled her aside and told her how to deal with an enraged Naruto. Touch, and distract.
Ino carefully walked up to the enraged beast that looked like a man. She made sure to rustle the fallen leaves and crack a couple of branches. No need to take him unaware. She hesitantly reached out and put a hand on his shoulder.
"Why don't you tell me about your book? This topic is really heavy, and we need to discuss it when you aren't so angry." Ino felt like she was trembling. Dealing with enraged wildlife was always Chogi or Kiba's job. They could walk up to mother bears and kick their cubs while laughing.
Naruto stilled. His pacing stopped. He looked over his shoulder at her. He was so tall. Ino needed to reach up to hold his shoulder. She wanted to hide behind his back. But she held still. She needed to be confident. Confidence was key.
They stared at each other. His deep blue eyes into hers. Ino could see the red slowly recede. Her imminent death was once again fleeing into the future. Naruto sighed. Ino could feel the tension leave his shoulders.
Naruto grabbed her hand, leading her to an old knarled root protruding from the ground. They sat. They looked out at where Naruto erased a tree from existence, with ease. He still held her hand.
Reaching into his jacket he pulled out the small worn book.
"Here." Ino could see him look lovingly at the book. The cover was old and faded. The words on the front were scribbled over and a new title was sloppily written. The handwriting was so bad She couldn't figure it out.
"What does the title say? Is that your handwriting?" She didn't want to handle his prized possession. It looked like that little book was old enough to have survived both the war and the prelude to it.
He chuckled. "It says Uzumaki Naruto's Amazing Most Ultimate Super Delux Guide to being the MOST POWERFUL Shinobi in existence! Written and compiled by Wonderful Amazing Most Splendiferous Naruto Uzumaki, with minor editing and super small suggestions by The Pervert Sage, Jiraiya. Hay! Don't Laugh!" Ino laughed. "I wrote that when I was like thirteen!" She laughed more. Big gut-busting laughs. He waggled their still-connected hands at her. "We just started out on the road, and the old perv always had some random bullshit rule or advice so I wrote most of them down."
He relaxed, sliding down onto the forest floor, using their tree root as a backrest. Ino followed him. They looked up through the canopy into the clear skies. It was a wonderful fall day.
"The actual book is one that Jiraya wrote. It was his first actual book. Ya know, before Icha Icha. Which ya, his book is also part of the guide. You need to read that first before any of the rules really matter." Ino could hear the wistfulness in his voice. He was whispering, almost like she was just on the periphery of people he trusted with this. She was on the outside looking in. She wanted in.
"What's your favorite rule." Ino tried to read what he wrote in the margins. She couldn't. The handwriting was both really terrible, and there were more spelling and grammatical errors than coherent statements.
"Ninja rule 1.0. It wasn't the actual first rule, but I think it's the most important." He took his book back placing it back into his jacket. "It says Good and Bad are relative. Good people can do bad things, and bad people can do good things. You must understand before you condemn, or congratulate. I think that almost all of the people I've fought, every single one has had a reason. Ya Know. Most of the time they had good reasons…" They both fell into silence. His hand snaked back into hers. She let it.
"I miss him. Jiraya." He had that wistful look like he was not here with her anymore, but back in his memories. "When I'm awake at night, I expect to hear him snoring. Ha. The toads croaking was quieter."
"I miss my dad. He was a pain, always trying to protect me from stuff. Like, he hated that I wanted to wear a crop top as my uniform, so he made the coverup with bandages." She missed him. "They were useful a few times. Especially before I got good enough with medical jutsu." Chogi had so many scars across his body from those early days. They always made a joke that her stripping was so amazing it could bring the dead back to life. Her dad never liked those jokes.
"Ya. Some mornings I just expect to hear him bitch and moan about his hangover. But, that's never gonna happen anymore." Ino leaned onto her big lug. How could she have been scared of him? She looked back at the hole. Thats how.
They needed to talk about what they were going to do next. Naruto had volunteered to clear out the bandit enclave. Except, with his new knowledge of what will happen to the people they capture, he probably won't want to continue it.
"Are you less angry now?" She looked over at him. A sunbeam fell through the canopy highlighting his jawline, and the even tan of his skin. His clan whisker marks adding maturity to his face. A big blue eye met her own.
"Ya, I'm less angry now… I just… Why? Why kill them. Why not just heal them and sell them. Why do they need to be killed…" She could see tears start to well up in his eyes.
"Because Healing costs time and money. Making a festival of their deaths is more profitable than calling for a shinobi or temple healer, or waiting for the doctor to fix um. Med Ninjas are very expensive. To heal that chunin from his stab wound, you remember him?" Naruto nodded. "If he paid for that, which he won't cause shinobi get free healthcare, it would cost at a minimum 20,000 ryo. That's almost a year's wages for a peasant. The surgeries I did on the other bandits, millions." Naruto just looked at her. His eyes were wide like he's never even contemplated the cost of healthcare… Which, seeing as he's a Konoha shinobi it's within expectations.
"So that means that waiting for them to get better from the torture, would cost lots of money, money that selling them into slavery would not cover. So the magistrate executed them. To save money for the town. If he was rewarded for selling tickets or whatever, that's fine. Lots of magistrates, even in Yamanaka territory are allowed the same privileges." It was very standard. Magistrates and others in the warrior cast were not allowed to own land or any means of production. That was only for the Daimyo and artisan class. She was always told that an army not being paid by you is an army you don't control.
"That's Bullshit!" Naruto pounded the ground with his free hand. He left only a small crater. "People shouldn't die just cause they are expensive to keep alive! That's actually evil! What the Fuck!"
"It's how the world is Naruto. You need to accept that." She didn't like it either, but the world was built by her ancestors. They were in a deep hole, and she can't see a way out, so she'll just try and stay on the top of the pile. If that meant using all of her resources, then she would.
He looked furious, fire in his eyes. "I won't accept that. You shouldn't accept that. You said I was powerful. You said you were powerful. It doesn't matter what has been, what matters is what we make of it." He stood. He held his hand out for her to grab.
She didn't take his hand.
"We can't change it Naruto. I can't change it. There's too much." Ino knew that if she tried to emancipate her holdings, then most of her vassals would rebel. She would have a civil war in her territory. She would be assassinated, her clan destroyed, and anyone of her family that survived, would be enslaved.
The naive savior stood. The sunbeams haloing him. "There's never too much. Ya just gotta do it." Ino wanted to take his hand.
"I can't. You know how much of the world is run on slaves?" She could tell he didn't. " Your jacket materials were made by slaves. The steel in our kuni and hitai-ate was mined and refined by slaves. Too many of my vassals can only operate their factories because they use slaves. We can't get rid of slavery." Ino knew it was impossible. Slavery was too endemic in their life. Too all-encompassing to do anything about.
"Then we change it. People deserve to be free. People deserve freedom more than you deserve money. More than your vassals deserve money. People. Deserve. Freedom." He was steadfast in his notions of freedom.
"If I abolish slavery, then my territory would be underproductive. That is a weakness. If other Daimyos find that weakness then they'll exploit it and destroy the Yamanaka. I can't do that." What was more important to her, her life and that of her family, or the lives of peasants. Ino knew that answer, she knew that answer very well.
He still stood. Still righteous. Is this what his enemies felt. That he just knew the correct way of things, and that he could actually pull it off. "If you have a weakness, then fix it. If you are scared of people fighting you… Well, ya got me. That has to count for something, right?" Ino knew that if Naruto stood by her side as she declared total emancipation, then outsiders wouldn't attack.
Her main problems weren't those on the outside. The problems were the Hyugga, the Saratobi, and other Konoha clans. It didn't matter that Naruto stood with her, he would never be allowed to fight the other Konoha clans. It wouldn't even be fistfights. The combat would be in smoky bars and backrooms. The combatants would not be slinging fire and mud, but sake and fine silks. If she needed to destroy a mountain she knew he could deliver, but to convince a small clan to utterly abandon their entire way of life and continued profit. It would be impossible as he is now.
"I appreciate your offer. But that isn't helpful. This fight won't be fought, it'll be negotiated." She stood. This was her actual mission. It was to make the best Hokage ever. One that could negotiate the backroom deals. In places that she grew up in, she had more contacts she forgot, then Naruto had clones. She needed to lead him and help him grow his own contacts. "This is a good goal to go for. Except, as you are right now, the only thing that will happen is civil war and death. Abolition won't happen." She could see him deflate. The light left his eyes, she was looking at a corpse. She killed him.
The corpse turned away from her. Its golden hair shadowed its once gleaming eyes. "Am I evil?" How could Ino tell him? He was not evil, he was using the system as intended. "I brought thousands of people to their death and enslavement. I did all of that so my pervert of a master can go whoring. I am evil."
Ino needed to stop this. Her blond idiot was not allowed to be sad. She walked up to him, threading her arms around his waist. He felt limp, all the fight drifted away. She needed to hold him up, emotionally if not physically. "You are not evil. You did what you thought was right at the time. That's not evil. That's being ignorant of the wider world."
"The intentions do not matter. Only outcomes. Ninja rule number seven." Ino felt her lug lean back into her. He needed the touch, he was like a cat or a sad puppy. Yes, Ino decided, he was a puppy.
"Sure. But, how do you know that those people you put in bondage don't belong there? I know you wouldn't just bring any person to the bounty stations." Ino could feel her sad puppy twist in her arms. She was so short he rested his chin on her head. He hugged her right into his chest. It felt nice, if a little uncomfy due to his pendant.
"Who knows. I thought that they would have gotten at least some sort of trial. I didn't think that just cause I was a shinobi my captures would be immediately assumed guilty. I should have known that. Why didn't I know that." He was crushing her. But in a good way. Like when she was grieving, she would just need to hug a pillow, just to feel an anker to the world. She can be an anker.
Ino knew that he needed to act. On anything. A puppy should never be still for too long. "You should have known. This was taught to us at the academy. A lot of this was taught at the academy."
He only sadly chuckled. "I could barely read when we were at the academy. The first book that I really read was this one." One of his arms that was wrapped around her tapped on his rule book. "Nobody really tried to teach me to read until Jiraiya. Gramps was too busy, the teachers had other kids to deal with, and the only people that kinda knew that I wasn't a strong reader were Ayame and Teuchi." At last her Naruto chuckled, a real chuckle. "They switched the menu one day, and I only memorized what other peopled ordered. So when I ordered a miso with ingredients not on the menu anymore they suspected something and asked. They taught me to read a little from their coupons that day…"
They talked a little while longer. He needed to be touched. He needed to be grounded. That his past actions were not what he would forever be branded with.
She needed to bring up the topic again. "It's ok to be sad Naruto. You did something you regret. We all have regrets. It's ok." She kicked the puppy. He looked appropriately kicked.
"Ya. But do you have the blood of thousands on your hands? I ruined these people's lives forever. Lots of them are probably dead."
"Yes. I do have the lives of thousands in my hands. Hundreds of thousands." She pet his soft hair. She loved it when her dad did that to her. "I am the Diamyo to the Yamanaka clan. I rule over hundreds of smaller clans. You worry about giving criminals to the bounty stations. I worry about how to fund and regulate the bounty stations. I profit from every single interaction in my lands. I have so much more blood on my hands than you Naruto… Much more." It was insensitive of her to dismiss his own plight. He needed to grieve, but he also needed to know the reality of the situation. His problems were not a personal failure. At least not on his part. It was a systemic failure.
One that she maintains.
"If… When you make it to Hokage, you'll be able to use your political capital to change this. At least for your lands." Ino pet him more. It was really tiresome to reach all the way up there to his head. So she brought him back to the ground and laid his head in her lap. Much easier to pet her puppy now. "I will help you all the way there. You got it. We can't do anything now. But that doesn't mean we can't ever do something."
His smile was infectious. It may have been the afternoon, but his smile outshone the sun. She wanted more of it. She liked sunbathing and wanted more.
"Thanks, Ino," He was using that husky voice that made Ino vibrate in all the right ways. "I know I can count on you." He reached up and stroked her back. Ino also liked that. "But. I still need to right my wrongs. I sold people into slavery. I need to break them out."
Ino was on board. This would be a great time for him to see the seedy underbelly of the world. It's not all world-ending battles and fights for the future of countries. Most of the time shinobi were in the factory, ensuring the sausage was properly ground.
It was time for Naruto to see how the sausage was made.
Ino only hoped that he didn't end up like the peasants that actually work there, that he won't lose something important in the machinery.