Tsuyoku: Glad you've decided to come back for the third installment! I'm getting more along with the story as of this new chapter, so please review and let me know what you think.
Onto it then...
CopyCat Chapter 3
--
Ino wanted to ask what it was for, but the ever prying blonde thought better with one look from Sakura. She was content with teaching her friend the secrets of the Mind Transfer... but what was it for? Ino had slight reservations about this, not to mention the setback of teaching it to someone who was not from her clan.
"I understand about that, Ino," Sakura counteracted once the blonde had gotten enough guts to ask her. "I know that it's a big deal for you; it's the family secret. Lee has been training me for a while. I guess I just assumed that you would too; though Lee's training methods haven't been so secret since the Chuunin exams so it's not a problem for him.
"It's not that, Sakura." She paused and turned the cup in her hands. Ino's kitchen walls were a pale yellow, which the light bounced off of and flooded the area with natural light. The color suited her friend. "I just... I need to know why."
Sakura shook her head mentally; of course Ino would want a reason. And asking something so serious of her, Sakura should be willing and able to present her motivations for such a request. "To become stronger." One of Ino's eyebrows lifted in a curious expression. "I realize that my skills as a medic nin surpass most ninjas, and that's my strong point. However... that last mission that I took I was captured. I was easily taken, and I couldn't even escape. That's why Tsunade had to send the rest of the group... for me."
She lowered her head for a second. Just talking about it made Sakura feel like a failure, but before those thoughts overtook her she reminded herself of the work she'd been doing in her time home. It would just be a matter of time before she had a chance to show Neji what she had transitioned into. "And training with Lee has allowed me to become better in some areas, but I felt if you helped me along then that would just be one more step towards progress."
Ino sat there for a second. How was she supposed to say 'no' to that? Not that she was going to refuse in the first place.
"Let's do it."
--
Sakura practically fell onto her bed. The sun had long set, and it was nights like this that the pink haired ninja wondered to herself why she had suddenly decided to take on so much at once.
Although training with Lee was no longer an issue, she was simultaneously dealing with Ino, Naruto, and Tenten. How she'd managed to convince them to educate her in their ways, Sakura would never know... but it was proving to be a real development in her case.
With Ino and the mind transfer, she'd started learning to morph her chakra and abilities to possess things -- mostly logs and other inanimate objects. That had been a grueling and embarrassing couple of days. Since then she'd actually moved on to the harder levels.
Tenten had been introducing Sakura to weapons usage in the past week, since the pinkette had never been particularly adept to anything but a kunai and other common equipment. This was the most lenient of her training sessions every day, though that did not mean it was easy in the least.
And the rest of her day had been consumed by the most draining session. Naruto, when she had mentioned her training to him over some ramen, had suggested the Rasengan. She'd been shocked. This technique was something that Jiraya had taught him -- was he even allowed to pass it on to someone else? Nevertheless, Sakura knew that Naruto would be true to his word, and if it was a problem for him to teach her then he wouldn't be offering in the first place.
She sighed. And of course she had to do this entire process with Lee's weights still on. Thank goodness she was only meeting Lee once or twice a week to have an in-depth spar. He refused to remove the weights; in fact, Sakura was sure he was secretly increasing the weights when he 'checked' them after fights. But that was all fine and good for Sakura. She wasn't putting many hours in the hospital these days, and this was a great way to fill the time. Her training with Tsunade about chakra had turned out to be indispensable to her current activities.
With a groan escaping her lips, the girl rolled over and looked past her new alarm clock towards the calendar. There, circled in red, was the date she would be leaving with Neji for their mission. It wasn't but a few days away, which made Sakura anxious as to whether her training with Naruto and the others would be complete by then.
Neji. She hadn't seen much of him since their encounter in her very kitchen that night, save a few passing encounters outside of the Hokage's office or on the street. He never said anything, didn't look at her, nothing. It was unsettling because she knew that he noticed her all but staring at him from the other side of the hallway or street.
Sakura used her arms to push up from the bed intending on taking a long luxurious bath, where she could heal herself from the days long drawn activities.
--
Neji sat outside the Hyuuga branch compound attempting to meditate. The chore was turning out to be more and more fruitless by the day as his thoughts were continuously directed towards the pink haired kunoichi.
He looked for peace, but attaining it was harder. This was a true display of how tainted his thoughts had become over this girl. Damn physical attraction... if he had just recognized it when he'd seen her weighed down and defenseless by that nin he might have been able to do something about such feelings. There was plenty of female companionship that the Hyuuga family offered -- a gesture meant to erase any scandal that erupted from a member searching for 'intimate opportunities' on the street, but Neji was not interested in such behaviors.
He would have to conquer this obsession through any means. If these conceptions overlapped with the coming mission, his teammate (and object of chagrin) would boast a certain advantage over him since she obviously was above fantasizing over him.
He had never been plagued by such prospects; it was unnerving.
His leg moved from underneath him, and he leapt into a standing position to head towards the main house. What was the point of continuing his meditation when he was already unsettled? He was getting nowhere in his normal daily activities as these thoughts over took him. There was only one way he was ever going to get through this -- talk to her. There had to be some flaw about her that might distract his attention from her and force him to focus on his training as before.
But how was he going to go about that?
It wasn't as if he was able to walk up to the woman and ask her to 'hang out' for a bit -- even Neji knew that they weren't close enough. However, he did have to set up some kind of meeting with her; it was his only chance. The Hyuuga clannie walked straight towards his room and melted into his desk for writing.
'I must meet with you. The training grounds, south side, six o'clock. I expect you not to be tardy.' He quickly jotted down his name and folded it up enough that he could slip it underneath her door, which would ultimately save him the trouble of having to ask (or demand) it of her himself.
"She had better be there tonight," Neji murmured. "My sanity depends on it."
As he strode down the sandy, rocky roads weaving in and out, Neji wasn't able to look as proud as he usually seemed. He assumed that it was something to do with the fact that he was carrying a letter such as this. People walking past him paid him no attention, or at most a nod or batting of the eye, but in his mind they all could tell what he was doing. It was as if he had 'I am committing scandal' written on his chest.
Paranoia was not very becoming of a Hyuuga, and it was quickly shifting into his downfall.
He met gazes with her front door as the clan member scanned the insides to check it's inhabitants. He blinked in relief as his Byakugan resulted no one in the dwelling at the current time, and once the envelope disappeared from sight underneath the door Neji might as well have teleported out of there for how fast he left.
As he had mentioned, this behavior was very, very unbecoming of a Hyuuga.
--
Sakura found herself standing across from Ino in the field near her apartment about to commence the last of her training with her best friend; she took in a hard breath for the moment and prepared her mind and chakra.
"Just imagine it all; you'll have to use your chakra to cross over into someone else's body and shove their own mind into the back of it.
"I don't see why I have to be the guinea pig for this experiment!" The orange suited man (having taught Sakura all he knew was of little use if not for some testing) wiggled about against his specially knotted ropes. If Sakura's trial run went successfully, she was to untie the ropes around him using his body, ropes knotted to the tree so specially that there was only one way to undo them.
"Shut up, Naruto! You're going to break her concentration!" The long haired blonde swiveled to Sakura, "I've taught you everything piece by piece, it's now your job to apply it all together." Truly Sakura was beginning to feel the chakra in her body pushing against their wells as she remained still with her eyes closed. Behind her lids the scene was just a blurry, blue representation of what surrounded her, which was materialized in her mind by the chakra. And in the midst of it all was something, or rather two somethings glowing ahead of her. Now that her companions were silent, Sakura moved her mind around to the two entities, but she couldn't quite tell which one was which. The chakra was waiting for her, however, and burst out of her in a straight path to the closest mind -- there was a flash of light behind her eyes.
"Ugh, that hurt," it had taken Sakura a moment to react from the would-be shockwave, but when she opened her eyes she was next to Naruto. Her head shook side to side, "I guess it didn't work, but I have no idea why. Everything felt right. She reached up and easily loosened the ropes around his raw wrists.
"Sakura, what have you done?" Sakura turned her head toward Ino and adjusted her eyes, which were slightly blurry from the blast... when everything cleared she realized that Ino was already sitting up from her position a few feet from her. Hands came up to rub her face awake until she realized that her nails weren't usually painted this color, and Ino wasn't usually that pink.
"Ino...?"
"Sakura, what the hell did you do?!" With the images now clearing, Sakura was suddenly staring into a carbon copy of herself... or more like she was actually looking at herself, only it was Ino, but it was her as well.
"You're supposed to take over Naruto's mind, not switch our bodies!!!"
Ino grabbed Sakura, who was currently in her body, and ran from the training grounds as fast as she could -- which wasn't very fast at all considering Lee's weights were on Sakura's body and Ino wasn't able to lift them very well.
Sakura shoved Ino onto her back and flew toward her apartment.
--
Sakura's foot, or rather Ino's to be precise, scraped the side of a paper as she walked though her front door with her best friend trailing behind. "What the?" Her own hand, which was currently under Ino's control grabbed at the offending envelope and made to rip its contents open.
"Hey, that's mine!" Sakura's grabbed at Ino, but the sly woman wriggled free.
"Yes, and it's addressed to Sakura. If you haven't forgotten, right now I am Sakura. Besides, it's such masculine handwriting." Sakura's accosted her own body in vain as Ino's green eyes were scanning through, "Oh, it's from Neji! He wants to meet you in the secluded training grounds later today!" Sakura's blonde head shot up; that fact that it's sender was Neji was enough to shoot back memories of their last meeting -- her pressed against his chest in defiance, his eyes boring into hers. She gulped and blushed for an instant before Ino's silence made it apparent that she waited for an answer.
"What?"
"What do you mean, 'what?', Sakura? You have something going on with the Hyuuga; I can sense it." Ino couldn't blame the girl; Neji Hyuuga, as arrogant as he seemed sometimes, was one of the men she'd never been able to sway. Just a turn of his head toward her, a kiss with his soft lips, Ino sighed. A girl could definitely dream. She woke of her reverie at Sakura's stuttering about the kitchen; had Sakura succeeded where she hadn't? "Come on - you can tell me, Sakura," in fact, Ino figured her gorgeous pink head might explode then and there if her companion (in her body) didn't set the record straight.
Haruno turned, "that's kind of funny coming from the village gossip! There's nothing going on." When Sakura looked up at her own body waving the letter, she sighed, "does any part of that letter seem romantic or endearing to you?"
"Hn, no. But I always pegged Neji for the 'hard love' kind of guy."
"You don't get it, Ino; it's not about that. Tsunade gave me some missions, and in a few days I'm going with Neji toward the land bordering the other countries. They've been tracking a rebel group at the Hokage's office, and we're just going to gather some surveillance." She moved to sit on a bar stool near the counter, "I guess he feels like he could go alone, bit there's a high chance of retaliation should we be discovered. Therefore a medic was included as well. Ever since he found out, Neji's been hinting (not too subtly) that my best interests are to go to Tsunade and resign the assignment."
"Psh, slim chance that you'd ever do that; what Neji doesn't realize is your stubbornness knows no bound, like his." She shoved the note to her own hands, Sakura picking up the document in her body. "It says not to be late; are you going to go?"
Sakura nodded, "but how are we going to switch back? I can't go looking like you' he'd never believe me when I told him about our -- my screw up. Though if he did, I'm sure he would take good pride in witnessing the consequences." Ino showed worry for a moment.
"We'll just have to wait until our chakras reverse to normal by themselves. I have no idea how this would work, and I'm not going to ask my family since they'd kill me for teaching you in the first place. If it doesn't happen by then, I'll go in your place." Sakura looked a little weary of letting Ino go out in public as she. They're personalities might resemble one another in the slightest, but how they showed it was definitely a different story. "But Sakura," Ino paused on her way out. "Don't forget that being egotistical sometimes does not define Neji -- there's a person there too you know. I'll be back before six to go over what you want me to say if we don't switch back." Ino turned and walked out as best she could; she needed a little time to get used to being in a different body.
Sakura stood at the kitchen counter just staring at Neji's beautiful script. 'He must meet with me...' the short term blonde rolled that around in her head for the time being. 'It just seems less demanding and more desperate, but that's not Neji in the slightest, is it?'
The man in front of her had punched every nerve of hers since they were little, but she wasn't going to let him bully her into backing down from this -- she needed this mission if only to prove to Neji (or herself) that there would be no more damsel in distress anymore. Her breath was as obvious to him as his was to her; they could feel their chests push against each other, but neither cared in their little staring competition.
Sakura didn't realize how close they'd been... How fine was the line between wanting to prove herself to him, and her obsession over it? For the moment, she couldn't help but blush, which for once in her life wasn't amplified by her hair. She didn't even like Neji, as she was positive he felt the same toward her, and the last thing she expected to be doing was desiring him of all people. It had been a long time since she'd been intimately involved with a man, let alone hankered for one. This couldn't happen; it would only hinder her personal mission should she even cogitate the subject of her and Neji Hyuuga together like that in any way, shape, or form.
--
Ino puffed and huffed her way home, regretting leaving Sakura's house in the first place, but there was no turning around once she'd gotten this far. 'Darn, how does she make walking in these weights look so damn easy?'
"Sakura?" Shit. Now Ino was really regretting leaving her friend's residence: it was Rock Lee.
"Hi Lee," she didn't even know how Sakura was treating fuzzy eyebrows these days.
"Why are you limping, sweet; I thought you were able to walk fine with the weights now?" Shit again; he was right, Sakura had no trouble walking in these things anymore... lucky bitch.
"Um, yeah. I just tripped over my own legs and , err, hurt my leg, but it's fine, no bad."
"Why don't you just heal it as usual?" Damn again -- Ino obviously hadn't though this through. Ino had no idea how to heal something as well as Sakura could; the pink one was always there to do that stuff.
"I'm just sticking it out on my way back to the apartment," she smiled hoping it was convincing enough for the annoying man to back away and leave her alone -- at least until Sakura and she traded bodies again.
"Ah, trying to buff up the old pain tolerance, eh?" Lee slugged her arm. Ino kept her smile in place even as small pains screamed in her arm. "You're going home? I thought was back there; you're going the wrong way, you know."
'Oh hell; he's not going to quit!' Ino sighed inwardly, the smile she persisted to hold was wavering in her undying annoyance. "Yeah, just got turned around a bit!"
"Oh, well, allow me to escort you; I have some things to tell you about since you're obviously not good for some training today," he turned and squatted down. "Would you like a ride since you're only slow us down?" Her green eyes twitched and she almost glared at him. Sure, for treating Sakura the same she deserved it. Sakura, on the alternative, would not appreciate being seen carried by Lee by any of the townsfolk, would she?
"Sure, sounds good."
--
A pair of white eyes in the forest looked up from a scroll to see Sakura Haruno being carried by Rock Lee of all people. He grimaced inwardly for them both and shook his head -- he lowered his gaze and began reading once more.
--
"Ino! What are you doing in my Sakura's apartment?" Sakura lifted her head at Lee's bellow upon entering the unlocked door. Past him Ino stood smiling, but at least she had the decency to look slightly sheepish about it as well.
"Ino is here visiting; I told her to meet my at my place to... help me with my fashion sense. Right, Ino?" Lee looked slightly confused and Sakura openly glared at her friend.
"Yes, Lee. I'm here out of the goodness of my heart; I had some free time because all my boy chasing has yielded me with no boyfriend of my own, so I have to bother poor Sakura with my presence." Behind Lee, Sakura could see her own body positively fuming. 'Take that, Ino.'
"Why, I outta -- "
"Okay," Lee interrupted before anything erupted while he was there. "I'm going to head out now; just remember everything I told you, Sakura. I'll expect to have another sparing session with you before your next mission." At his leave, Ino slammed the door behind him.
"What was that all about?"
"What do you mean, Ino? You started it with bringing Lee here in the first place, and then you went and said that stuff to boot!" Sakura walked over to the couch and clicked on the TV. Ino went into the kitchen to put enough space between them.
"What was I supposed to do? He commented about my walking, or lack thereof, and what I said I'd just hurt my leg he offered me a ride back to my place. I didn't want to have to walk all the way back here!"
"Wait, he gave you a ride here," once again, Ino nodded sheepishly. "Who knows who could have seen you! Alright, we're going to change back now; you've obviously done enough to my image already."
"And what about my image?"
"What about yours? I've done nothing but lay low in the short time we've been like this, and that's exactly what you should have been doing -- and will continue to do if we can't switch." Sakura stood, "You're better than me, so you try it." Ino frowned, but sat down no loss and started concentrating on Sakura's form in her mind.
"Fine, I'm tired of looking like a freaking piece of cotton candy already!" Sakura let that one slide. Ino finally threw her chakra out of Sakura's body toward her own. "Hey," she thought looking down and examining her own body. "Nice to be home, eh Sakura?" The pink body, however, was slumped over on the bare counter seemingly unconscious. "What? It didn't work? Dam nit!" She slammed her hand on the counter and quickly switched back once more.
"Ouchies!" Ino grabbed at Sakura's now wounded hand...
"Did you even try?"
"Of course I did, Pinky, and it didn't work. I was in my own body, but yours was empty. This had better not be permanent.
"I hope not," she slammed herself back on the couch in a flurry of long blonde hair. "Now sit down; you're not going anywhere until you meet with Neji."
"Whatever, I can't go anywhere no matter what," she motioned to Sakura's weights as they both slightly smiled at each other before jamming onto the couch next to their own bodies.
--
"Don't do anything stupid, Ino, I mean it." The girl just rolled her green eyes for the fiftieth time that day.
"I won't." Sigh.
"Just make it clear that you -- I -- whatever, won't say 'no' to Tsunade and then leave him. Nothing else, you hear me?"
"You don't trust me?" Sakura threw her friend a look that said, 'You know very well that in this situation you wouldn't trust me either,' yet she refrained from saying it aloud. It didn't really occur to Sakura at the time that sending Ino out to meet Neji posing as her was one of the most important ideas that would ever strike her mind.
The able girl threw Ino onto her back for the second time that day, "I'll take you as far as the woods, where you'll meet and then return here. I'll be waiting -- you shouldn't take that long."
Ino limped slowly but surely to the training grounds, heading south where Neji would be waiting. The young girl pondered for a moment what she might do if he had been there waiting for her in secret instead of Sakura... there wasn't much room for error here since it was Sakura's neck should Ino overstep her boundaries in her best friend's body, yet the opportunity was so appealing that the would-be blonde was almost tempted to do so. The woods were so quiet, the usual nins that inhabited the ground during the day had given up their obsession to go home to their families, to their beds, etc. Ino scanned the areas with her senses before she felt a small lingering ki that set back from the normal path; Neji was being careful and hiding it until he could confirm it was her, she supposed.
The Hyuuga genius leapt from the tree, where he'd chosen to watch for his most recent partner. "Glad you made it on time."
Ino was taken aback for a fleeting period at his bluntness before she regained composure. "Why wouldn't I? You're letter demanded it." His eyebrow raised for a second.
"You deft to do everything I demand?"
Ino frowned, he had caught her there. How did Sakura handle him as he was? Her feet shifted in her boots against the rough, brown dirt in the grounds. It almost echoed between them in their silence.
"What did you call me for, Hyuuga? To convince me to leave you alone with this mission?"
"Perhaps."
"Well if that's the objective then you'd best to just save your breath," Ino fought back the chance to get as close as she'd imagined on the walk over. Her steps toward him turned into strides until she was close enough to make out every feature of his in the fading Konoha light. "I'm not going to back down; you're going to have to give me one good reason to resign this duty that I have been assigned."
He measured the strength in her eyes for a moment before lamenting inwardly. Was there no action that she could take, which would relieve his obsession of her? She stepped closer, and even without the Byakugen he was able to tell that there was something different about Sakura than the last time they'd interacted. She never took her eyes off his as she rose her hand to hover over his cheek, not daring to touch lest he disagree.
Ino was screaming at herself inwardly, her heart was beating so faithfully that it threaten to burst open her chest or knock the very breath out of her at the thought of touching Neji. He had forever been this trophy on the mantle that she could never reach, and now that he was within grasping distance she would take her chance for just one taste of the sweetness that had evaded her for so long -- even at Sakura's expense. She might even be doing the girl a favor.
Neji was just as nervous and confused at her actions than she was. "You wanted to meet, but you chose such a secluded place...Why was that, Neji?" He took a chance and leaned into her floating hand, not relaxing like she'd hoped, but remaining as stiff as a board in this new, unknown territory. Wind wrinkled their hair, and with the moon showing through the colors of the sun losing luster, it was a perfect setting. She put pressure on his face as Ino compelled himself to let her a chaste touch before her time as Sakura was up. He let her lead him -- his eyes a never-ending pale void that remained fixed onto this kunoichi's face until they were close enough to kiss.
"What the?" Sakura rose from her sitting position against a tree at the edge of the woods. She grasped her heart with some vigor as a new pressure echoed off the insides. Behind her eyes it was white for a full instance as she knelt to the uneven ground and returned to her rightful place.
"Neji?" Her eyes widened for a moment as she suddenly blinked and found herself not an inch from the man of her thoughts. What had Ino done--
He had been hovering behind the boundaries for some kind of sign, anything at all that would break the barrier between them and allow him some kind of action. As she paused and then spoke his name aloud, all Neji's reservations about backing away faltered and he closed the gap between them.
Sakura gasped inside as he touched lips with her.
--
Ino found herself kneeling in front of the woods once again in her own body. She froze in realization at the position she'd just put Sakura in... it fell heavily upon her shoulders and she couldn't really think. The blonde just rose and walked in a bee line toward her home with a sadness in her eyes. And to think: after all that she hadn't gotten the side of Neji she wanted.
--
Tsuyoku: Hi guys! Long time no see, unless you've been following along with my SoundSleep fic, which will have explained my new found muse (dusts off her muse) and I'm ready to better serve you guys! How did I do? Questions, comments, concerns? I would love to hear from my avid readers, so please click on 'review' and let me know, kk? As usual the feedback gives me more and more motivation! ^.^ [Note: if there are any holes, let me know as well, k? I hadn't too much time to proof read.]
