Disclaimer: Naruto Belongs to Kishimoto
Author's Notes: just a bit of percolation… you think you know where it's going to go? Heh. Don't count on it.
-o-o-o-
Ino had been told by her father countless times, that no matter what she did, who she tried her family techniques on, she was never, EVER supposed to use them on one Naruto Uzumaki. He wouldn't tell her why, only that it was one of the few, rare times where her batting her big blue eyes up at him had not made him melt into agreement. Instead, it had only hardened his eyes into cold flinty orbs as he'd told her flat out that she was NEVER to do it.
Unfortunately, Ino had never been very good at doing what she was told.
-o-o-o-
"What… the?" Ino blinked widely as she looked around, staring at the grimy, desolate walls around her as she waded lightly through the thick, soupy mess of what seemed to be a sewer. "Ewww… Why the hell am I in here instead of in charge…?"
"Hmph, what have we here?" The voice rumbled through hallways as a flash of crimson caught Ino's eyes and her attention turned slowly backwards.
A pair of burning, malevolent eyes were watching her from behind a thick steel gate with a growing smirk of sharp, hungry teeth. "Mmm a bit scrawny, but it's been so long since I had a nice snack."
"Wh… what the hell?" Ino scrambled backwards as she fell into the sludge, her eyes wide as she stared up at the massive, shadow shrouded face looming so high behind the gate.
"Hell… such an… interesting term that." The face seemed to pause at that, its mouth falling shut, before a look of consideration flashed in what features Ino could see. "Yes… This is Hell. My, personal Hell, and now, here you are, little shi-no-bi… A brief little lull in this limbo."
"How… how do you know I'm a ninja?" Ino was shaken, that much was rather obvious as she stared with wide eyes up at the creature in front of her.
"Please, besides that damned symbol you wear on the belt, so proudly even in your own mental image..? You are here… in my prison, in his mind. "
"Prison…? But this is… Naruto's mind is your prison?" There was a gulping gasp of shock in the girl's eyes as she stared, fearfully up at the creature in front of her.
"The BOY is my prison." Claws bigger than she was slammed through the bars of the cage, earning a startled squeak from the girl before a low, hiss of frustration, before suddenly those eyes narrowed into slits and a slow dark chuckle echoed through the sewer. "And of course… now he's YOURS as well, little shi-no-bi."
"… Ok, enough of this, I am soooo out of here." Ino gulped loudly before immediately holding up hand in a familiar symbol, only for nothing to happen.
"What, having a little bit of trouble escaping?" The creature laughed softly as it slowly shook its head. "This whole place is a prison, foolish little mortal. Crafted by the Death God Himself. Just because you're not in one of the cells, doesn't mean you're not trapped here, with me."
"Like hell I am! Release!" She focused again, bringing words to her command as she focused on her technique as her father had taught her. And again, nothing happened. "Release! Release! RELEASE!"
As the girl continued, growing more and more frantic with each repetition, the voice's dark chuckles echoed in the 'air' around them. "As I said… Welcome to my Hell, little shi-no-bi." And suddenly, the inky darkness of the cell was illuminated by a burning crimson glow, and Ino was confronted by the vicious smirk of a massive, demented looking fox-like creature with a mess of tails swirling behind it.
As recognition hit Ino's mind, a wave of instinctive terror erupted inside of her as she scrambled even further back. "K-k-k-kyuubi!"
The explosion of dark laughter that erupted out of the creature's mouth shook her all the way to the deep, primal part of her soul. If Konoha had its own devil, its own private boogieman, it was this creature in front of her. Faced with it, Ino did the only thing she could comprehend doing. She turned and ran.
"Go ahead, run, little shi-no-bi… There's no escape. Hehehehehe… Here, in this Hell, there is no solace, no salvation. Just me."
And still, Ino ran as that dark, chuckling voice haunted her panicked, sloshing steps.
-o-o-o-
Ignorant of the trouble happening inside of him, Naruto Uzumaki blinked as he felt a slight… buzz of some sort before it seemed to fade by the way side. Still, he paused and began to carefully look around. It wasn't quite going away, leaving him to frown as it subsided, but he could still feel it, things just feeling… off.
"Mah, Naruto, have you seen Ino?" The sudden lazy drawl rippled through the air as Naruto turned his head and noted Shikamaru and Chouji walking towards him. "Our sensei told us to come find her, and she's being troublesome to find."
"Err, not recently?" Naruto glanced around, half worried the mention of the girl would summon her. "The last time I saw her, I um, kinda, sorta…"
"… I know." Shikamaru groused sourly as he shook his head. "She was damned troublesome all week after that."
"Errr, sorry?" Naruto shrugged his shoulders helplessly for a moment, before smirking back at the lazy boy. "But, can you tell me that she didn't have it coming?"
"She's Ino." Shikamaru pointed out with a snort and a shake of his head. "Of course she had it coming." He paused then, glancing around carefully before smirking just a bit. "And even if it was troublesome, it was damned funny."
"I am to please." Naruto agreed with a sage nod of his head and a visible smirk, before he glanced between the two. "So, you two got stuck with her and still managed to pass?"
"… Do you have any idea what she'd do to me if we hadn't?" Shikamaru countered with a snort as he lightly crossed his arms about his chest.
"No, not really." Naruto agreed with a cheeky grin on his lips before sighing slightly and glancing around. "Lemme guess, you want me to help you find her?"
"You did make her extra troublesome for a while." Shikamaru pointed out.
"It would help." Chouji finally paused in his consumption of chips to add his agreement with a nod of his head.
"Fine." Muttering lightly under his breath, Naruto made a single sign before suddenly an explosion of clones filled the area around them. "All right, you know what to do. Find her, and then either come tell us, or get her to chase you back here."
It was only an instant later, before a voice suddenly spoke up. "Um, boss? I found her."
Blinking slightly in confusion, the three boys walked over to where the clone spoke up. Sure enough, there was one Ino Yamanaka, completely unconscious and sprawled lightly out on the soft grass. Blinking slightly, Shikamaru groaned audibly. "Great… she decided to go jump into somebody's head. Tsk Troublesome."
"Errr… Jump into someone's head?" Naruto blinked, then blinked again as he looked back at Shikamaru with a look of incomprehension on his face.
"Yamanaka clan techniques, they can jump into people's bodies and take over." Shikamaru shuddered slightly. "She likes to use it to get back at people by jumping in and having them well… yeah."
"… The ballerina?" Naruto asked even as he felt a slow, sinking sensation in his stomach.
"The ballerina." Chouji affirmed with a nod of his head and a slight snicker. "Fortunately, she can only hold it for a short time…"
"How short?"
"She should wake up at any second." Shikamaru agreed as he put his hands in his pockets and stared down at Ino.
"Yeah, any second. She can't really hold it very long, but don't tell her I said that." Chouji added with a visible wince.
The sinking pit in his stomach only grew as horrifying thought began to sink into his head, even as he nodded weakly. "All right… any second."
Ino's two teammates blinked back at Naruto curiously, who only managed to grin weakly back at them. An uneasy silence descended onto the trio, as the time ticked by. Finally, after several minutes, Naruto spoke up again.
"Um, so… is it supposed to have been this long?" Naruto put forth, visibly worried now.
"No… it's not." Shikamaru agreed as Naruto's worry infected his own words.
"You said this was a clan technique, right?"
"Yup. And I think we need to get her to her father. Now." Shikamaru spoke up as an unreadable expression flashed across his eyes.
"I… I think you're right." Without being asked, Naruto reached down and scooped up Ino's body into his arms. "Well?"
"… Right." Shikamaru frowned slightly as he filed Naruto's reaction into the back of his mind to look into when his teammate's health wasn't in question as he lead blond genin to the Yamanaka Household.
-o-o-o-
"Hmm? Shikamaru? Chouji?" Inoichi Yamanaka blinked slightly as he saw his daughter's teammates. "If you're looking for Ino, I'm sorry but she's not he…"
"We know where Ino is… Physically at least." Shikamaru cut in, before lightly stepping aside to reveal a very nervous looking, and pale faced Naruto looking up at him with a worried smile.
"Um… Hi, Yamanaka-san… We kinda, um… found Ino all passed out and well, Shika said that you guys used funkin techniques to jump into people's bodies and, that Ino liked to use them to get back at people, and since I kinda sorta pissed her off a bit back…"
Inoichi's face grew as pale as Naruto's as he looked directly into the boy's eyes with a probing, unreadable look, only to have the boy shrug helplessly in response. Nodding curtly, he turned and faced the other two boys. "Shikamaru, Chouji, please inform Asuma that Ino is… indisposed. Uzumaki-san, please come in."
"Is Ino going to be all right?" Chouji spoke up as he glanced nervously at the look on the face of his teammate's father.
The silence he received as the man he'd known as practically his uncle his whole life calmly and politely shut the door behind Naruto, send a sudden shiver of dread down his spine, before he turned and looked at Shikamaru. "This… is bad, isn't it?"
"Troublesome," Shikamaru said in way of agreement, before he grabbed hold of his friend's arm. "Come on, the sooner we tell Asuma-sensei, the sooner we can come back for some answers."
Chouji didn't even offer a token protest as he nodded and quickly followed after his suddenly motivated friend.
Back in the house, Inoichi wordlessly gestured for Naruto to put Ino's body down on the couch, before he spoke up quietly. "I understand you have been… informed of it, during that… incident with the traitor?"
"Mizuki-sen-… yeah, the bastard told me." Naruto bit out as he carefully put Ino on the couch before quickly looking up at the man. "Look, I didn't know she could do that kinda thing! If I did I totally wouldn't have pranked her…" Naruto paused before muttering a bit under his breath. "No matter how much she deserved it."
"I'm not mad at you, Uzumaki-san." There was a pause, before the man let a frown cross his lips. "Well, not very much at least. I specifically TOLD Ino to NEVER try any of the family techniques on you."
"Then she knows…?" Instantly Naruto paled even further, as he imagined just what kind of trouble Ino could cause him from a slip up of her rather big mouth.
"Not before today." Inoichi countered as he pinched his nose. "I couldn't tell her WHY she couldn't try them on you. Just that she couldn't."
"… So, basically you told Ino. As in Ino Yamanaka, NOT to do something without telling her WHY?" Naruto stared incredulously at the man. "Even I know that's like giving her an engraved invitation!"
"What ELSE was I supposed to do?" Inoichi growled out as he glared back at the boy. "Because of the law…"
"Did you try talking to the old man about it?" Naruto shot back as he crossed his arms about his chest and glared back at the old man defiantly.
"Well…" Inoichi actually looked embarrassed at that as he quickly glanced away
Groaning audibly Naruto pointed a finger accusingly at the man. "You didn't, did you?"
"I never thought of it!"
Again, Naruto groaned, before reaching up and rubbing irritably at his temples. "Great, just great…"