Memories

By Hibiki

i don't own Naruto, believe it!

Chapter 3: Research

Ino's thoughts were cluttered. A mind jumbled up with hers and Naruto's as she raced away from the still sleeping man, her eyes filled with tears. She cupped her mouth as if to block away the sickness she felt at Naruto's memories and the feeling of her impulsive, unsolicited action as she drove through the evening shoppers towards her and Sakura's apartment. She stumbled as her sight blurred but caught herself against the stairwell for her complex.

Like most of Konoha, housing was built above stores and built high, as Sakura and herself were ninja they opted for the highest level to allow quicker movement from place to place. Ino had never hated that decision more than at that moment. Running up the numerous steps and past the many doors was unbearable to her at the moment. She was unstable, and longer she had to remain around these…. People the more likely she would strike out.

Mental backlash was known for the Yamanaka mind probe with hostile minds, and Ino and her father before her were taught to fight those impulses. But it was not developed to deal with the opposite. Naruto's mind was like an open book, full of both unimaginable forgiveness in spite of such overwhelming and undeserved hate and a calm acceptance of loneliness.

She couldn't accept it. How could she? Her mother and her father both were there at a moments notice should she need them. When she went to work in the shop her mother always greeted her with a hug and a kiss on the cheek. All those little things she took for granted. How could she? She felt so stupid. Naruto woke up each day alone, spent his days alone, went to bed alone. He didn't have anyone to greet him, to hug him, to hold him when he was sad or hurt. When Asuma died she had countless people bombard her checking on her. When Jiraiya died, Naruto had no one but Tsunade and Sakura, and remembering Sakura's temper back then Ino knew Naruto had pulled away. Not that he wanted to, he simply knew no other way to mourn.

She finally made it to her door and pushed it open and slammed it shut behind her. Pressing her back she allowed her shaking legs to let her drop against the door where she curled them to her chest, cradling her head in her arms as she openly cried. Not for her, but for the man who refused to cry for himself. She remained like that for a few minutes before Sakura, sleepily opened her door to see what was the matter. Her pink haired roommate snapped into action seeing Ino in her state and raced over.

"Ino-pig?! What's wrong? INO!" Sakura seized her quivering friend, her hands glowing green as she waved them up and down her friends body, searching for injury. After a moments her puzzled face took in Ino's shaking head as she cried into her vest's shoulder. "What happened?" She finally asked bewildered.

"N-Naruto…. Your question…" Sakura's eyes flashed darkly, promising pain. Ino at once grabbed her friends hands, holding them as she shook her head vehemently. "N-no! D-don't hurt hi-im!"

"What did he do to you?" Sakura's anger filled voice pulled something deep inside Ino, and the blonde's cobalt eyes fixed heatedly into jade green ones.

"Absolutely nothing to deserve that tone, Sakura." She angrily wiped at her tears with the palm of her hand as she tried to stand, Sakura offered her hand and Ino after a moment's hesitation took it. "I did what you asked, but I just didn't expect what I saw." The momentary fear in Sakura's face meant there was more, but what?

"W-what do you mean? W-what did you see?"

"It was very personal. So personally in fact I feel like I raped Naruto's mind, Sakura-a." Ino's voice and breath shuddered at the feeling of guilt and revulsion at her act. Not only was he a fellow leaf shinobi, he was a friend she now realized she wished she knew greater. "No one should have a life like that." Sakura's face went through a multitude of expressions before settling with a sad wizened look.

"How bad?" Sakura's voice was soft and almost unheard.

"Remember the day we met? How Ami was ridiculing and calling you names?" Sakura's eyes flashed darkly again but she nodded, although tersely. "Imagine everyday like that." Sakura's eyes began to water as she tried to imagine it.

"I-I can't… I knew his childhood was... unpleasant, but…. It couldn't be everyday. Maybe the memories just seemed like it. He had to have good days."

"Those were the good days Sakura." Ino's shoulders slumped. She felt weary and aged. Like some part of her had been stripped away and she was a raw band of nerves and wounds. She stumbled to the couch and relaxed as Sakura wrapped her arms around herself, trying to stem off the tears that wished to fall, Ino watched but had little sympathy. Sakura was a regular tormentor back then, and as Ino's slightly corrupted mind tried analyze the biased memories, the rosette's reactions to Naruto's pain just irritated her. After a few minutes Sakura calmed but by then Ino had seen enough. With rigid annoyance Ino rose and turned for her room.

"Ino?" Sakura's voice caught her at the threshold of her sanctuary. Sakura took her pause as a sign to continue. "About the reason… Is it alright if I ask how?" Ino nodded but then said nothing else. "Um…. How can he do it then?"

"It because of…" She thought back to him standing before the mirror, his tears running down his face as he tried over and over to feel the image he had of his father and mother. The sister that became his sexy jutsu. "Desperation." With tears returning to her eyes Ino closed her door and retreated leaving a confused and saddened rosette.

_-_-_-_

It took Ino two whole days locked in her room to clear her mind well enough to function normally. Two days of a worried Sakura coming and going with fixated frequency. Sakura had left leaving a note and some now cold miso and rice. Apparently Sakura had been needed at the hospital so it was just Ino and the blonde was never more grateful.

She still felt haggard and beaten down but she was Shinobi, she could not let memories of a horrible childhood affect her so. So with that in mind she trudged into the apartments small facilities. The mirror pictured how she felt and then some. Dark circles hung round her normally clear blue eyes, her hair was limp and strands hung down in her face, and the over all effect aged her years in a bad way.

"God Ino you let yourself go, and all over a boy again." She turned on the faucet and splashed her face with cold water waking her senses and cleaning the tear tracks that had built up. When she rose some of the old Ino stared back at her. "Stupid girl, your not even dating him."

Part of her wondered why? How far had she and others slipped not to see how fake that smile was? How stubborn yet quiet he could be when facing something he couldn't accept? How he always had advise for those who had hardships or words for those spoiled to believe only they were suffering? He was so much deeper and observant than he let on. Coupled with the intense loyalty and unyielding drive that he showed normally it was a wonder others hadn't noticed the man.

Hinata loved a facet of him, in ways the most unrealistic and forced, but she at least recognized his potential. Sakura seemed to have changed her mind of him as well, but whatever the reason was connected in the fear of what she was hiding, and it worried Ino as it meant there was potentially something far worse than Naruto's life being neglected and mistreated. Apart from the two, Ino had her suspicions if Temari's eyes had not been so focused on her lazy teammate the obvious respect and fondness the Suna nin had for the other blonde might have become something more.

Even before he had left the other girls, no matter who, had always commented about his eyes, that he was cute, but the brooding Uchiha had always rated higher, parents, hers included, pushed their children towards the one who wanted nothing to do with them, while discouraged contact from the one who did. It was like the Sun and the Moon. Sasuke was a dark and elusive boy, forever alone in the pursuit of vengeance. Naruto was a bright soul whose warmth was always ready to be there for anyone. And that was before he left.

During those two years only Sakura or Hinata would bring up Naruto, and usually in Tsunade-sama's presence asking for news about him. So when he came back, as that tall, ruggedly handsome man the girls took notice, at least that he was eye candy but the taboo of him was still strong.

As Ino finished her shower and daily rituals came to the thought that she had done Naruto wrong, greatly. While it was true she had no idea it was connected to something so private, she and Sakura had no right to snoop in his mind. She would make it up to him, and she had an idea how, she just needed access to some files. Only two people would have that access. Tsunade and Sakura. Knowing how protective Tsunade was of the man, that left only one source. Ino smirked. Forehead owed her.

_-_-_-_

"I can't Ino." Ino growled at the upteenth question/demand/beg failed.

"Why can't I? And don't give me the whole I can't look, as a medic I can access his files incase of a mission with him goes wrong. Which has happened." Sakura looked annoyed in more ways than one.

"It's…. complicated." Sakura gained that look again and Ino frowned. Just WHAT was so specific about Naruto that it was classified all the way up to the Hokage's assistant? Why would it make Sakura so worried about her knowing?

"I can't even get a edited file then?" Screw the secret, she didn't care. What she wanted couldn't be. Sakura looked at her intensely that made the blonde blush self-consciously. After a few moments Sakura opened her desk drawer and pulled out a dog-eared folder and tossed it onto her desk in front of Ino. Ino picked it up noting the worn state of the vanilla colored folder before giving Sakura a questioning glance. The blush she received answered her questions as she opened it and her amused smirk faded into a frown. It was more what WASN'T edited on the document. Name, DOB, Blood type, and Physical description were prominent. Other than that the page and the ones behind it were a mass of black censorship. Ino's face was livid as she stared at the hidden names under Mother and Father. How could Naruto's family, past, EVERYTHING be so dangerous it was classified so much?!

Sakura looked uneasy as Ino slapped the folder down keeping it under the hand as the rosette stared at her friend with an untrusting glare. After a few calming breaths Ino turned and walked out of the office, slamming the door it almost broke the glass in it and marched out of the hospital. There was one last place she could look before she had to confront the Hokage herself. The hall of records. She knew Naruto's date of birth, his last name. Maybe she could find his mother. From there she would have to rebuild his family piece by piece.

_-_-_-

It had taken her most of the day to locate a Uzumaki Kushina. The former whirlpool kunoichi was the right age and was removed from the roster on Maternity leave just seven months before Naruto's birth, dying due to complications of childbirth. The photo was what finalized it for her as the woman reminded her so much of Naruto. The same smile and confidence, but her eyes and hair were completely different. Long red hair framed a angels face from which piercing green eyes shone forth. No spouse but that information rarely entered in unless the man married into the family and the registry changed.

Often Ninja marriages were short lived as one would die or the marriage was hidden away as a ninja's carrier could bring harm to their significant other and their children if their enemies found out the weakness. Ino couldn't also put aside the possible chances of rape while in mission. It was a scary truth that kunoichi had to watch for. No record of such an event was logged so Ino suspected the father was a Konoha ninja. The list of male ninja at the time was long, but as Naruto was an orphan since birth it made sense that his father had died shortly after conception or during the pregnancy.

The book holding Ninja deaths of that year was triple the size of any other, and Ino struggled to remember what had happened to cause it. For the moment it alluded her and since the day was growing shorter, she resolved to find Naruto's father. No Uzumaki was listed other than Kushina, as she assumed, so she was forced to go through each page starting from time of conception onwards.

It should be easy as Naruto's hair and eyes, which Ino assumed came from the father's side, were incredibly rare. So rare for a moment she thought her father could have been Naruto, but Inoichi loved his wife, there couldn't have been an affair, her mother would have skinned the man alive no matter what, and no other Yamanaka males other than her father were conceived.

That left someone else in the village with blue eyes and blonde hair. Page after page the dead ninjas faces stared up at her but not one looked anything like Naruto. She was nearly through a third of the book when the signature abruptly changed. The stamp of authentication changed from Yondaime to Sandaime. Every page after that change, the ninja died on the same day. Ino looked to the date. The same as Naruto. Naruto had been born during some sort of attack, and had lost both parents in it? Ino bit her lip, she was tired of seeing more and more sadness for her friend. It was then she turned the page.

For a moment she thought she was looking at Naruto. So startled she froze taking in the whisker free face for several moments before she looked at the name. Namikaze Minato. KIA tenth of October barely minutes after Naruto's birth. Uzumaki Naruto was born to Uzumaki Kushina and Namikaze Minato she finally had it however something else caught her eye. Under Minato's name was an alias. Konoha no Kiiroi Senkō. Filing the name in her memory along with images of Naruto's parents Ino returned the books to their place and headed out.