"I-Ino?" Ino heard Sakura ask, suddenly jerking out of her daydream. She was still thinking about that man.
Ino threw on a confident smile, hoping to reassure her comrades. She dismissively waved her hand and answered, "I'm fine! I'm going out for a bit, you should report to the Hokage. Everything seems safe in there."
She turned to leave and felt a hand on her shoulder.
"Get off me, Billboard Brow. I said I was fine." Ino's tone was harsh as she ripped her shoulder away from Sakura's grasp.
"Shikamaru." Chouji hinted quietly as Shikamaru readied the signs for his Shadow Possession technique.
Ino panicked, she couldn't move. She couldn't get to the figure that kept urging her on. "Cut it out, Shikamaru." She said dangerously, and precisely.
"Ino isn't fine. Why you ask? Because she's infected, and trying to leave the Leaf village." Shino remained calm.
"Should we take her to Lady Tsunade?" Kiba asked, glancing awkwardly at Akamaru.
"Whatever you decide, make it fast. I can't hold her for much longer." Shikamaru's voice was strained as Ino struggled against his jutsu.
"I thought the plan was to trail Ugly's friend and find out where the shinobi have disappeared to?" Said asked quizzically, motioning towards Sakura as he said her nickname.
"No! Sakura, stop!" Naruto screamed, trying to keep her from cracking Sai's head open.
Shikamaru gave a sound somewhere between surprise and annoyance as his shadow receded back to him, and as Ino bent her knees to jump into a run.
"I've got it! Shadow Clone jutsu!" Naruto leapt after her, with two clones and everyone else on his tail.
Akamaru barked assuredly at Kiba. "Right, as if we'd lose to him." Kiba said in Naruto's direction.
"Ino!" Tenten called shrilly. "Slow down!" Ino blocked the kunai she threw with one of her own, skillfully dodging the distressed citizens.
The wind whipped her hair as Ino absentmindedly ignored the buildings and people she whizzed past. Why were her teammates following her, wasn't her saying she was fine enough? She clutched her arm. What was once excruciating pain was now a dull throb.
As if she'd known him all her life, a portrait of an alluring figure was painted in her mind. He was silhouetted, in essence and mystery. A long, lavender cloak adorned his frame, flowing out around the black space that was her consciousness. Like a moth to a light, she was drawn to him. All she had to do was lose her pursuers. So if trickery was what it took...she stopped abruptly, letting her friends catch up.
Lee landed with a thud, looking exhilarated. Naruto however, coughed out, "What the heck Ino!"
"I said I was fine." Ino retied her hair, after combing it thoroughly with her fingers. The 'wind-blown' look wasn't her style.
"Ino-chan, we were really worried." Hinata stared at Ino, with a softened but undetectable expression. Thankful the chase was over, she deactivated her Byakugan.
Neji and Shikamaru still looked unconvinced, but seemed to back off so far.
Chouji's stomach growled. "So if everything is fine for now, can we go get some barbecue?"
Silently thanking Chouji's appetite, Ino agreed. "Sure, but you know, you should try and cut down on that. Maybe even try a diet. Let me go home and change out of these then." She said, pulling the sweat-ridden fabric from her skin in disgust.
Reluctant and suspicious agreement echoed through the group.
"Sure Ino-pig." Sakura teased slowly. "I'll come too; I can take a look at your arm." She finished, smiling.
Sakura was postponing her meeting with him even further. "I'm a medic too, Sakura." Ino said, but relented when Sakura's face grew more determined. "But if you're sure, just meet me there."
"I'll catch up in a second; I'm going to tend to Naruto. He was heaved over just now." Sakura lied.
When Ino turned, she didn't notice Neji hurriedly clasp a hand over Naruto's mouth, nor did she hear Sakura whispering to the rest of the group.
The fast paced walk to Ino's house wasn't very interesting for either of them.
There was talk about boys, and missions. They shared news about recent discoveries in medical-ninjutsu.
After a lot of silence and awkward side glances around them, Ino pushed open her front door and announced her arrival to her parents.
"Okay Sakura, I'll be out in a few." Ino closed the door to her room behind her.
Sakura pretended to be oblivious to the slight sound the door's lock made, and to the click of the window inside the room opening. She made almost no sound too, as she exited the front door and signaled Lee with her hand.
"Step away from the Hidden Leaf gates, Ino." Neji took his 'Gentle Fist' stance.
The rest of her comrades were nowhere in sight. So it was just Neji? Fine.
"Honestly Neji, you're so overdramatic. I'm just taking a stroll outside the village for a bit, before we go to get barbecue." Ino rolled her eyes. Neji seemed… off. It was probably because he didn't really want to fight her.
"Ino, I know what you're trying to do. I know you're sick, but in order to stop whatever is going on, you need to cooperate." Neji said with white eyes.
Ino didn't move for a while. "Tell everyone to come out, I've sensed them already. And Naruto, stop that stupid henge."
Naruto undid his transformation and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.
Kiba nudged Neji playfully, "He did a pretty good impression of you, eh?"
Neji lightly scowled.
"So, what you're saying is, I can go?" Ino asked cautiously, using most of her will not to throw a smoke bomb and leave now.
"Yes." Shikamaru sighed heavily. "But we're trailing you."
"Good, keep up then." With a flip of her hair, Ino dashed ahead.
"Hey, how do you even know where you're going!?" Naruto lagged behind everyone else.
? POV
It wasn't happening fast enough for him. Only about 65% of Konoha's ABNU/Chunin population was here, and he wanted all of them. He wanted them to panic, right before he struck his prey.
He glanced at the sedated humans around him, all with his parasite squirming around in their bodies. Funny, he had all these shinobi, and was still extremely bored. Should he move up his plans?
"Ino, are you positive this is it?" Lee, like everyone else, was dumbfounded.
They stood in the middle of a basin, surrounded by a jagged wall of rock on almost every side.
"If there's no obvious way, we'll forge a way in!" Lee reasoned, before a hand pulled him back.
"Watch Ino." Tenten pointed.
Ino's steps rippled the water they stood on with every touch. Her pace was slow, but deliberate. She purposefully reached out a hand and touched the rock.
It dissolved at her touch, and her skin started…crawling. Something was moving underneath her arm, like it was trying to break free.
Suddenly, a door appeared, as if triggered by that thing under her arm. No amount of calling and pleading seemed to reach Ino, as she entered, her friends following her inside.
"Ah, welcome. Thank you for unwillingly aiding my cause, children." A man with auburn hair said. "Join your fellow Leaf Shinobi over there and await my orders." He motioned smugly, and turned, causing his cloak to twirl elegantly in the dimly-lit cave. It looked like a place fit for bats, and maybe bugs, but not humans.
"As if we'd do that!" Naruto yelled, taking a step forward. His tone caused all the glazed-eyed shinobi and their leader to sharply turn towards the group.
"Well, you might not, but your friend…" The man smirked as Ino leapt, then landed next to him.
"If you're not here to join me, then you shouldn't be here at all." The man's voice grew louder as he slammed a bleeding hand on the ground.
Nothing happened, and the Konoha 11 unbraced their arms.
"Uh…" They looked around. Was this a genjutsu, or just a really lame enemy?
That's when the ground shook, and the design the man had made started to glow.
"Those are—" Shikamaru tried to warn everyone, but he was a second too late. Thousands of bugs started to fly out of the ground from that spot. They looked like fleas, but were only half the size.
Hinata's voice came out startled, "They're filled with chakra!" she yelled, as she took several steps back.
Suddenly a wall of black divided the group from Ino, the summoner, and his other captives. It buzzed with life, and started moving towards them. Shino spread out his hands, and his insects poured out of his sleeves.
Shino gasped, as the 'fleas' rushed forward and devoured his insects without stopping.
"They won't respond anymore. That is because they've joined that mass of bugs." He told everyone.
"If you won't join my cause willingly, let my children convince you in another manner." The man raised an arm towards the shinobi.
"Don't ingest any of those things; you'll wind up like Ino and the rest of them." Shikamaru jumped backwards, covering his mouth.
"But what about Ino? We can't leave her!" Sakura tried to stop everyone from exiting the cave, still clinging to the hope that she could save her best friend. She thought back to her earlier conversation with Ino:
"I'll come too; I can take a look at your arm." Sakura finished, smiling. She wasn't going to let Ino go off alone, she knew when something was wrong with her best friend.
"I'm a medic too, Sakura." Ino said, but seemed to relent as Sakura grew more determined. Ino isn't fighting this battle alone, Sakura promised that to herself.
"I'm a medic too, Ino." Sakura said. She tore off part of her sleeve, and tied it around her mouth and nose. She had practiced holding her breath, and was adept at it. She'll treat this like Sasori's poisonous gas.
"Sakura, get back here." Shikamaru sighed, she was being troublesome. He cared about Ino too, but going back in there was suicide. They needed to regroup, and they needed to think of a plan to save Ino. Scratch that, he needed to think of a plan to save Ino.
Sakura smashed a fist to the ground, and pieces of flying rock caused the fleas to move apart for just a second, but a second was all she needed to get through them and over to Ino.
"Sakura let go. I'm a ninja, and I'm supposed to follow orders. My orders are to stay here and help destroy the Leaf Village." Ino said, dazed. Luckily, she didn't protest as Sakura carried her on her back, and busted through the fleas once more.
They met the rest of their friends outside and readjusted to the sun. From inside they heard the man say, "That's right shinobi of the Leaf, go back to your pathetic village. Tell the tale of your retreat at my hands."
Carrying Ino once more, they headed back to the leaf village, taking one last look at the basin as the black insects completely surrounded it.
Shino seemed sad. "My insects are gone…" he whimpered.
"I see, so one could call him an insect specialist." Tsunade rested her elbows on her desk, and her chin on her intertwined hands.
She listened to her shinobi's accounts of their mission, and was disturbed. This sickness was actually a literal bug.
"Shizune, I want you to go issue an order to close down the Hot Springs for now, and get some ABNU to guard it. Instruct everyone to allow no entry, unless permitted by me." Tsunade finished signing the official document and handed it to Shizune.
"Hai, Hokage-sama." Her assistant said before quickly exiting the room.
"Bring Ino here, Sakura." The Hokage sat Ino in a chair and a green chakra glowed around her hands as she brought them to Ino's arm. She gasped and pulled her hands closer, looking with more intensity.
"There's some sort of worm crawling around in her arm, and it's slowly making its way towards the surface of her skin."
The shinobi grimaced in horror as something long and white exited out of a small hole in Ino's arm. Tsunade put the specimen in a clear jar filled with water, and quickly applied alcohol to the open wound.
Ino screamed as the parasite left her body, before widening her eyes and clutching her arm. "It's gone! I can think straight again. That thing entered my mouth when I had my head under the spring. It was so small; I thought it was just water."
"That must be its premature form, as a flea." Sakura stated.
"Some forms of Insects are drawn to water, as a means to be ingested by a human. These bugs however, are full of chakra, and are controlled by a singular person. They act as a parasite and affect the mental state of the infected." Shino told the inhabitants of the room.
"So that guy planted those things in the Hot Springs?" Naruto asked.
Shikamaru stared at the worm wriggling around in the jar. "No, I don't think so. You saw how he summoned thousands of those things. I think he released them all over the village, and the Hot Springs has been the easiest way to get infected. They seem to mainly target shinobi, he did mention wanting to cripple the Leaf."
"It's like a plague…" Ino said wistfully.
Tsunade stood up. "Fine, we'll combat this bug specialist with our own. Get me the pride of the Aburame Clan, Aburame Shibi."
*I know that was an extremely long chapter, 2274 words. Sorry? For some reason, I couldn't find out who the official head of the Aburame clan is, so I just went with Shino's father, Shibi. Thanks for reading this! :-P
Also, did you know the parasite I based this off of is somewhat real? It's called the Guinea Worm, they start out as small larvae that fit inside of water fleas. Water fleas hang around in pools and then the people swimming in the pools ingest the fleas. They grow two to three feet long inside of the body, and they burrow to the surface of the skin. The burning blister it creates makes people want to dump it in water and it reproduces all over again. It's really creepy!