She figured that a backpack was all she needed. At least two days of clothes, not counting the ones she would wear to go Tsunade's house. A small bag of bathroom necessities, including her favorite bottle of chocolate-scented shampoo. Three books, ones she read before but wouldn't mind reading again. A drawing pad and two sharpened pencils, and finally a small bag of makeup…if the reason to use it ever came around.
Ino stared herself in the mirror. In her current state, she considered herself to be ugly. Her skin was white and faded, bags under her eyes were large and turning purple, and her eyes weren't faring as well; she started to see things in double, and thick red layers start to develop on her eyes.
She doubted that staying over at Tsunade's house would actually fix anything. But here she was, carrying a bag of what she needed for a sleepover at the Hokage's house. Ino lifted the backpack up and put it on. Regardless of how she felt about the situation, she was still going on with it. Ino didn't think about it as she descended down the stairs to go say 'good-bye' to her mother.
"Got everything?" She asked as she spotted Ino at the base of the staircase.
"Yeah." Ino repeated her new catchphrase.
"I do something for you." Her mother stated as she handed Ino a small red book. "It's my recipe book, or at least a copy. You could try cooking as a way…"
"Yeah." Ino again repeated, snatching the recipe book out of her mom's hands. "Thanks." She at least added. Her mother didn't remark and kept silent as Ino shoved the book into her backpack and went out the door.
Above her laid the constant threatening grey clouds, thick as ever and dotting out as much sunlight as possible. Ino looked up and muttered something under her breath about how she was just used to this. She strolled through the town, passing by people readying for the next downpour. Some called out for her, but she ignored them. Not out of spite, she just though she had nothing to really to talk about in a conservation.
"Ah, Ino!"
But this person did get her attention. After all, Sakura was waving over to her and approaching. "Hey." Ino huffed out.
"I heard that you and Tsunade are going to be spending some time together." Sakura asked. "Got any special plans?"
"Working." Ino interjected. "Just helping her out at home as part of my treatment or something."
"That's great!" Sakura cheered, lightly pounding Ino on the shoulder. "Can I help you carry your things?"
"Got it." Ino shrugged, bouncing her backpack.
Sakura nibbled on her lip, trying to think of something to say. "…you're still underage, so if she shares any booze…"
"I won't take it." Ino shook her head, continuing on her route with a wave behind her to Sakura. Ino almost wanted to turn back and apologize, but she couldn't find the energy to say that. At least Sakura weakly waved to Ino, knowing what her friend was going through. Sakura decided that she would visit Ino at Tsunade's place later, probably bring her something nice.
Ino arrived on the doorstep of Tsunade's home and knocked thrice on the door. It took twenty seconds for Tsunade to rush to the door to open it, but to Ino, it felt like four minutes. "Hello!" Tsunade waved at Ino as she opened the door. "Had a nice walk?"
"Yeah."
Tsunade kept to herself a joke about getting Ino a thesaurus. "Come in." She stood out of the way to let Ino come in. She merely walked in, taking in the place with a slow glance around. Old fashioned, both in look and smell. A hint of booze hung in the air, meaning that Tsunade just had a drink…of three. Ino kept a dirty thought to herself as she went in and threw her backpack onto the couch.
"I have a guest room, you don't have to sleep on the couch." Tsunade pointed to a ajar door that revealed a basic room with a bed, a dresser with a mirror and two nightstands. Ino sighed through her nose as she collected her backpack and threw it into the room, knocking into the door on the way in. "You can unpack later." Tsunade muttered. "Anyway!" She clapped her hands together. "I best show you where everything is kept, this way." She went off towards the kitchen, with Ino dully following behind.
Tsunade went all the way into the back of the kitchen and opened a tall cabinet. Inside were all the cleaning supplies you would ever need; vacuum cleaner, mop and bucket, dust wiper, and various bottles and cans of the different cleaners. "Here's everything. I'll require you to mop the kitchen at the end of everyday, and vacuum every other day during the noon. Make sure to dust first. Windows will need to cleaned as well, everyday, but do them at night."
"Mmm-hhh." Ino merely acknowledged.
"Also…" Tsunade whistled. A loud yet happy oink vibrated into the kitchen as Tonton ran in. "You'll have to make sure Tonton is given everything she needs: food, water…cleaning her…"
"You want me to clean a pig." Ino blankly stated.
"Yes…in both cleaning her and cleaning after her. Daily." Tsunade admitted, pointing to a big cardboard box that held disposable giant bags. Suddenly, Ino did get a little more color to her cheeks. Just not a good color.
"As for bathrooms, once a week." Tsunade continued as they left Tonton to eat his kibble. "Your room does have one bathroom, but only a toilet. If you want to take a bath, you'll have to use the one upstairs."
"So, clean the floors, clean the pig, clean the bathroom." Ino summarized. "That's it?"
"Don't forget windows." Tsunade reminded her guest. "Also, that doesn't count the office work. That will be the majority of work you will be doing for me during your stay. Mostly filing and some light typing, just simple work. The work hours will be from…" Tsunade put a finger on her chin, meaning she was making everything up as she went along. "…are from 7 to 7."
"AM to PM?" Ino asked, whiter than before and her eyes now wide.
"You're lucky." Tsunade snapped her fingers. "Shizune usually starts work two hours earlier and stops two hours later. We got to get you going, and the first step is easy. We need to get you on a easy sleeping schedule. You go to bed at 9 PM, and get up at 6 AM. Nine to ten hours of sleep should be enough for you."
"12 hours of work." Ino groaned.
"There's breakfast, lunch, dinner and another break. Breakfast at 9, lunch at 12, dinner at 5, break at 3. The non-meal break is only thirty minutes long." Tsunade filled in. "No work today, just relax. Have a sip of sake!"
"No thanks." Ino turned away from Tsunade, annoyed by the face that Sakura was able to predict the future.
"Perhaps I should demonstrate what you need to do with Tonton before I allow you to unpack." Tsunade waved to Ino as she went back to retrieve her little pig. Ino hung her head low as she once more followed Tsunade around the house. At least her depressive mood was getting overwhelmed by the sense of dread of having to do strenuous work. That's not to say the cure to depression is hard work, oh no.
But at least Ino's mind would have to be racing to do the work that Tsunade had planned for her, and that was a step up.