Here is the next chapter! Enjoy.

Just want to say thank you for all of the comments, favorites, or follows I have received on this story. I am not sure what comment etiquette is here on compared to AO3, I am used to replying to every comment on AO3, but do people do direct message replies to say thank you? Do people want a reply if it is just a thank you, or are blanket ones ok unless they have a question? I only know what I'm doing 85% of the time on here lol.

But I digress, just know I appreciate the support if nothing else. On to the story...


The conversation drifted into an awkward silence and Ino knew if there was any way for her to get through this without violence she had only one chance.

She had to make it count.

Ino raised a hand to run it through her hair, before pushing it back over her shoulder with a swish, using the familiar habit to calm herself.

"Look, I know this is all a ploy to get me to go on a date with you, but you're coming on too strong. Who uses a mission as an excuse for a date? Who are you, my Dad? If anything, you should ask me out for dinner, and bring me flowers first."

The boy stopped his approach and looked at her with a blank expression, though Ino could see hints of confusion in his eyes.

Perfect.

"You're start was good, always complement the girl you like, but then it was all wrong afterwards."

He looked at her for a moment longer before bending his head to stare at the ground. He was mumbling to himself in soft tones, but Ino was just able to pick it up.

"This was not one of the potential outcomes for this conversation, I am unable to proceed with optimum effectiveness. Will continue to engage."

When he looked back up Ino was already staring at her nails, ignoring him as any girl would do to a boy she wasn't interested in. At least, that was the image she was trying to portray. In reality Ino was already planning her escape.

"If I were to buy you these... flowers, would you be interested in going on the mission?"

"Possibly... but they would have to be the good flowers."

"Good flowers?"

She let out a haughty laugh.

"Of course! The best are only found at my family's shop, so lets go."

Ino motioned him over and the boy shuffled until he was by her side.

"Remember, flowers first then the invitation to dinner."

"Then you will go on the mission?"

"...Yes!" Uh... no, no she wasn't.

Not giving him a moment to respond Ino continued.

"Anyways, for first dates I will accept yellow roses, they are always a safe choice. Dinner has to be barbecue, obviously. If you go in for a kiss afterwards, I will smack you. Oh, and if you ask a girl out the very least you need to do is introduce yourself first."

"... I will remember that information for the future. My name is... Sai."

Ino batted her eyelashes at him, but inwardly she was calculating his expression. It was obvious he never went to the academy, he didn't have the basic level of infiltration skills all senior year students were required to have. Even if he was a few grades above or below, Ino made sure to know everyone in school, so she would have remembered him.

Especially with a face like that.

"Do you have something in your eye? If you require medical attention I know basic first aid."

"No, its nothing. Don't worry about it." Ino spoke before humming.

Inability to read behavioral queues, or a lack of experience in a social setting. It made Ino want to talk with her Father about what environment one would have to grow up in to be like that. Hopefully he was still at the shop and could help get her out of this mess.

When the two arrived it was already closed for the night. Bad luck, but Ino still had some ideas.

She put chakra into the seal on the door and unlocked it, walking inside with Sai following. She put her hands on her hips and faced him.

"Ok, I'm going into the back room. I will give you a couple of minutes to get the flowers ready into a bouquet, then I will come back out. Remember, it's not romantic if I watch you do it. Surprises are key."

"I understand, I will not fail in my duty." He smiled at her.

Still creepy.

"It better be pretty!" Ino shouted as she walked into the back room. Once inside she took one large breath and went to work.

Ino hurried to a small cupboard and threaded her chakra into the seal on the lock. A soft click echoed and she quickly opened the door. Inside were various glass bottles in a range of colors, but Ino was looking for a specific one. With a quick perusal she found what she was needed and grabbed the bottle. It was a small white thing, unimposing at a first glance, but it was exactly what Ino needed. She popped open the lid and swallowed a pill.

Ino nearly gagged at the taste, but she needed this antidote for her plans. It's effects took place immediately, which helped out with her next phase of the plan.

Ino returned everything in place, making sure the cabinet was resealed, before heading over to the window facing the backyard. She probably only had another minute or two so she had to get this done, fast.

Ino hopped out into the garden and moved over to the section where her family kept the poisonous plants. She grabbed a small white flower, knowing in any other circumstances her Father would have killed her for using it, before heading back to the normal garden to grab filler flowers for a small bouquet.

A minute later she was back in the room counting her heartbeats, willing it to slow down. On fifteen she walked back out front.

"Finished?"

Ino looked at Sai who was standing their stiffly, holding a bundle of flowers in his hands. She was slightly surprised that he picked the correct flowers, even if his arrangement needed some work. She held out her own bouquet with one hand, and gestured for his with her other.

"Here, lets swap. This is what a bouquet is supposed to look like. Take a sniff and see how the arrangement blends the scents of the flowers together."

Sai followed her words and the two swapped. Ino brought the yellow bouquet in her hands up to her nose and gave an exaggerated sniff. Sai followed suit.

Nothing happened immediately, but Ino didn't expect it too. The poison wouldn't start attacking his body for a couple of minutes, and when it did she wanted to be closer to her clan compound, if possible.

Ino made sure Sai was holding his bouquet before she left the shop and headed towards the 'restaurant'. She didn't need him leaving it there to poison her cousin when he came in the next morning to open.

"Now it's dinner, then the mission?"

Ino nearly rolled her eyes. He was no better than a bird, repeating the same thing over and over. It had to be an incident, Sakura had a similar experience with that man in the horrific jump suit. Ino refused to remember her own experience with the man. That would be one memory she wished her chip had erased.

A few minutes past when he spoke.

"What did you do?"

Ino watched as he stumbled and fell to the ground, showing nothing on her face at all.

"Another lesson for you, when a girl tells you no, it means no."

He lashed out faster than Ino could react. With a kunai embedded in her gut Ino leapt back, cursing her teammates for not training more.

Shuriken flew from her fingers, but Sai easily deflected it with a kunai. He launched himself at her and Ino dogged to the side, flipping over a table and kicking it backwards, the wood creaking at the force. Sai drew his tanto and sliced the incoming projectile, but still advanced towards her.

Palming an explosive tag Ino tied it to her kunai and headed back towards the shop, they didn't make it very far down the street before Sai figured it out, and Ino would rather fight in familiar territory. Her eyes darted around, formulating a plan when suddenly she jumped to the side dodging a shuriken, the whistle of metal loud as it flew past her ear. Her eyes spotted a pile of fertilizer.

She could use that.

Ino threw the explosive kunai as fingers curled around her arm.

A giant fireball erupted from the spot just in front of Ino, and the force of the explosion threw the two apart from the blast. The fertilizer magnified the explosion more than she expected, causing clouds of dirt to linger in the air like a brown fog. It was difficult to see, but that gave Ino the advantage.

She placed her hands together in a seal and reached out with her chakra sense, combing through the haze for her enemy. He had stopped moving, and sat crouched doing something. Not giving him time to finish Ino wove her hands into the signs she has been doing since she was a little girl.

Mind Transfer Jutsu.

She knew it succeeded when she heard the thump of her body and looked down at hands too big to be her own, holding a scroll. Knowing her time was limited, Ino rushed in the opposite direction of her fallen body. Hoping to get his poisoned body as far away from hers as she could get. Ino could feel the poison in his body getting stronger, and she was grateful she took the antidote when she did. When Ino deemed herself far enough, she took a deep breath and drew Sai's tanto.

With one swift motion she stabbed herself in the gut, making sure it was the same spot as her own stab, minimizing the amount of damage to herself. When finished, Ino let go of the jutsu and woke back up in her body.

Ino stood up holding her stomach, blood dripping down her fingers. At some point the kunai got dislodged, and the stab she did on Said was slightly off compared to her original one, but she kept pressure on it and limped back to safety.

To home.

"Ino? Ino!"

She turned around and saw Shikamaru, out of breath and staring at her in horror. His father, who was previously standing next to him, flew to her side, barking out instructions to shinobi she couldn't see, but that could be because Ino couldn't see anything, everything was getting blurry.

At least she was safe, she could rest now...

Right?

.

"Sakura-chan!"

Feeling Sakura-chan go limp was one of the scariest moments of Naruto's life. She always felt untouchable to him, so seeing her like this was an unexpected punch in the gut. He didn't realize how much he leaned onto her steady presence, but really he should have seen it coming.

He did use her as a wall his whole life.

Naruto wanted attention, craved it. Wanted people to look at him and see him, not whatever memory haunted them in their eyes. Most days were fine, he wouldn't let anyone get him down. He was going to be Hokage one day, and when that day came everyone would acknowledge him, believe it!

But, he still had those days.

The days when the words cut a little too deep and the looks hit a little too hard. The days he would find himself sitting next to her in class, the girl who politely ignored everyone, equally. It was a breath of fresh air. Naruto had space to breath because everyone followed an unspoken rule.

Haruno Sakura was not to be messed with.

Even Ami and her goons, like they did to him, avoided Sakura-chan like she was a disease. She wasn't bothered by it, in fact it made him a little scared of her with how much she enjoyed it. Eventually Naruto found himself sitting next to her even on the good days, and he would look forward to the taps he received daily.

Someone who was willing to touch him and not try to hurt him. It made her special, made her his best friend, but now... now it was different.

Guilt, that was all he could feel. For years he looked forward to her taps, but in reality it was because his presence caused her pain. He couldn't help but feel this whole thing was his fault. It was his story they were trying to mirror. His! All of the pain caused to his teammates was because of him.

He had to do something about it, but what? How could he make it up to them?

Naruto shook himself out of his stupor when Sasuke grabbed the teenager by the collar.

Naruto gently lowered Sakura-chan to the ground, taking a moment to fix her hair since he knew how much Sakura-chan cared about her appearance. Her furrowed brow worried him, she must still be in pain despite being unconscious. He put a finger on it trying to smooth it out, ultimately failing in the end.

Naruto felt a comforting presence sweep past him.

"Sasuke, I can take it from here." Kakashi-sensei put a hand on Sasuke's shoulder, but kept his eyes on the doctor. Sasuke didn't look happy but he disengaged at Sensei's words. Sensei dragged the man off to the side to talk in private, and Naruto hoped he would beat him up a little.

He deserved it.

Naruto saw what that doctor did, breaking Sakura-chan out of her genjutsu, but why?

Why did he do it?

Naruto suppressed a growl, he could feel his tenant push against his control as his anger rose, yet despite the desire to pummel the teenager to pieces he didn't want to hurt Sakura-chan, so he pushed back. One deep breath later and Naruto was back in his normal state.

'Idiot, my servant will be fine, but keep an eye on that man... he smells familiar. Give me control already and I can take care of the wimpy human.'

'You stay right where you are Kurama, I'm not letting you out. Kakashi-sensei will take care of it, and if I have to, I will send a clone to watch him.'

'You should have done that in the first place, why are you my prison? I would rather have the sulky whelp than you.'

That hurt a little more than expected.

'No one would want an old man in their head like you, but I'll send a clone out now to keep you happy.'

'Barely adequate, but I will accept it.'

'Go back to sleep you grumpy fox.'

'Hmph.'

Naruto glanced at a plant in the corner of the room and subtly nodded his head. A leaf wiggled in response. When there was an opening that clone would follow the man back, hopefully to some answers. He looked back at Sakura-chan, her state unchanged. Naruto reached out a hand and lightly patted Sakura-chan on the face.

"Come on Sakura-chan, wake up. I'll let you hit me as many times as you need, if you do."

"Like that's gonna work Dobe, you don't have your chip in anymore. Use that tiny brain for once." Sasuke said, crouching next to his teammates.

"Shut up Teme." Naruto retorted, though his heart wasn't in it. "Her chip might still register its me without mine in... can you put her under a genjutsu?"

"Hn."

A couple hand signs later, the genjutsu settled over the small group, and Naruto could see the benefits immediately. Sakura's face smoothed out and seemed to be relaxed. It worried Naruto it took so long for the flares to go away. From what Sakura-chan told them about the Burning the flares were relatively short, the weird alien people must of really changed her chip. It would be safer to keep her in the genjutsu until she woke up.

"How long can you hold it?"

"A few hours at most, my chakra control could be better."

Naruto ground his teeth, if only he knew how to cast genjutsu, then with his chakra size he could have had it on her for days, it was the least he could do. When the mission was all over he needed to talk to Kakashi-sensei.

He would learn a genjutsu, believe it.

"Sakura-chan!" The man Sakura-chan hugged earlier, Furukawa, pushed through the crowd of onlookers to get to their side.

"Is she alright?"

Naruto shared a glance with Sasuke. "She will be, she just needs to rest for a little bit. Sakura-chan is strong, she wont be down for long."

"Is there anything I can do?" Furukawa asked, as he hesitantly put his hand on her forehead.

"Keep the civilians away as we take her out. We have what we came for so we can leave." Sasuke said, motioning at their surroundings.

Yes, they had to get Sakura-chan out of here.

Naruto tossed Sasuke the wine and picked Sakura-chan up in his arms, leaving the building.

"Excuse me!"

The two boys turned around at the voice, and Naruto saw the black-haired women Sakura-chan bid against run out after them.

"Myself and my master are doctors, we are willing to take a look at her in exchange for the wine."

"The last 'doctor' that looked at her made her unconscious, we don't need you phonies making it worse. Let's go Naruto. " Sasuke spat out.

"Yeah, Sakura-chan is already the best doctor. She can heal herself when she wakes up." Naruto agreed.

"I assure you that my Master and myself are the best in the world, so please reconsider."

Naruto raised his nose.

"No! Sakura-chan can already do the Mystic-Palm Jutsu, she will heal herself just fine."

Naruto lowered his voice for the next words.

"And if you were real doctors you would have just offered to heal her with no payment. So as far as I'm concerned, you two are the worst doctors in the world! There is no way we will give this wine or Sakura-chan, to you."

A voice rang out from the second floor balcony.

"What did you call me, brat?"


Ino makes it to safety, but not without some damages and we have our first look into Naruto's brain. I had to do some research on the mind transfer jutsu since I forgot how it works, and had to rewrite that scene a few times to account for it.

Fun fact: The explosive tag Ino used was given to her by Sakura the last time they met up. Sakura and Ino are both paranoid little shinobi, for a good reason though and it worked in Ino's favor. Making Ino know that fertilizer was explosive makes sense to me, since she grew up in that environment handling who knows what.

Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter! The plot is moving along and we are over halfway done with the story. (Well, if don't get too carried away lol.)

Next chapter will be out October 22nd.