Hi.
So, I wanted to let you know that I don't have a schedule when it comes to putting out new chapters. I write them whenever I have free time (not often) and publish them as soon as possible.
Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.
Enjoy the new chapter...
Ino's POV:
- 3 days later -
We walked through the main gate, Izumo and Kotetsu greeting us. "Welcome back! Hokage-sama would like to see you for your mission report, Kakashi," Kotetsu said. "The
kiddos also have to be there for debriefing."
When the worn-out group was out of sight, Izumo turned to his friend.
"Do you know the kid that was next to Kakashi?" the former questioned.
"I've never seen him before," Kotetsu replied, frowning.
- At the Hokage Tower -
Me, the rest of Team 7, and Haku were leaving Hiruzen's office. All of us were tired, dirty, and injured in some way. Naruto was pretty pleased, though. After promises of a
better life, a little bit of sympathy from Naruto, and some time to himself, Haku wanted to live in the leaf village. Hiruzen also agreed after a couple of bottles of sake and a
briefing on Haku's power. I was surprised that he caved so easily. He was more of a smoker than a drinker. Personally, I found it fucked up that he agreed due to Haku having
a one-of-a-kind Kekkai Genkai, but Naruto saw no problems. Haku also needed a place to stay while Hiruzen found him a suitable apartment.
He can't stay with Kakashi. None of us even know where he lives. Sasuke-kun would probably end up fighting the boy if they stayed together. Now that I thought about it, he
would also probably lose. I was confused as to why that thought didn't upset me as much as it used to. Back to the living situation, Naruto was out of the question as well. His
diet was terrible. Haku might just die from food poisoning or his kidneys might fail from unhealthy food before he got a chance to adjust to the Leaf Village. I cringed just
thinking about Naruto's all-ramen diet: Terrible for weight loss and a good figure. No villagers would be willing to take in a foreigner, either. So, Haku's only good option was
living at my house. Yay… I didn't think this was the best option; I was upset that he had nearly killed Sasuke-kun. I didn't want to live with him. I might attack him! I took
great offense at the fact that Lord 3rd prevented Haku from bunking with Sasuke-kun because he was worried about a big fight, but thought my skills weren't good enough to
be a threat to Haku in a fight. He, of course, didn't say it like that. But Naruto did.
Well, that was the end of the discussion. I was taking Haku, no further arguments.
I went home, Haku trailing behind me uneasily. I stayed just long enough to introduce him to my parents and explain his situation before I left to find Sakura. Yeah, we were
on bad terms, but the throwaway comment that Naruto made bugged me more than I wanted to accept and I wanted to talk with someone. I saw her walking into the
barbeque restaurant with Choji, Shikamaru, and Asuma in tow. "Hey! Forehead!" I yelled out, waving my arms wildly. "I wanna talk to you!"
She hurried over, giving her team a wave and a "Give me a minute, please!"
"Pig. What do you need?" the pink-haired girl asked. There was no trace of venom in her voice. Wow. I guess hanging around certain people for a few months would chill her
out. Shikamaru, Choji, and Asuma, that's impressive, even for y'all, I thought. Suddenly, I felt unsure of myself. What do I say now? Will she think my reason for seeing her is
stupid? Pull it together! It's Sakura. It'll be fine.
"U-Um - it's just - do you ever feel like you're dragging your team down? Like people don't consider you equals in terms of power?" I reluctantly stammered.
My old friend stopped walking. She turned to me. "Ino, what's this about? And why would you come to me?"
I hesitated. "As you know, my team's first mission outside of the village was ranked wrong and we ended up fighting shinobi of at least B-rank. I felt useless."
"Why did you come to me?" Sakura repeated.
"We were best friends," I answered simply.
She appeared to be thinking something over before saying, "Okay. Let's talk, then."
I continued the story: "Naruto and Sasuke-kun did nearly all of the fighting when Kakashi couldn't help us, and with little to no hesitation. Sasuke-kun almost died, a kid
named Inari did die, and the whole time I was standing in front of the client with a kunai drawn. I used my mind transfer jutsu once, for three seconds."
The pink-haired girl's eyes widened. "Someone died?!" she whispered harshly.
My eyes filled with tears.
"Yeah. There was this boy who was the grandson of our client. Naruto really helped him get past his sadness and anger at losing his father figure. In the end, Inari - he
wanted to help us defeat Gato's mercenaries so he rallied the village together. There was a battle, in which our side came out the victor. But… Inari didn't make it. Someone
impaled him through the chest."
At this point, I was sobbing, Sakura holding me up as tears also ran down her face. When I finally pulled it together a few minutes later, I continued: "I was weighing my team
down the entire time we were there. We ended up bringing Haku with us because he was misguided, or whatever Naruto said. We were with Lord 3rd, not too long ago, him
deciding Haku's fate. He said that Haku could live here and there was a discussion about where he would stay while we found him a permanent residence. Sasuke was ruled
out because he might get into a fight with and injure Haku, leading to me being chosen! Naruto came out and said that I couldn't really do any damage to Haku! I'm not the
best, but I'm a kunoichi, damn it! And none of the others said anything to disagree, either."
"Ino…," Sakura hesitated. She looked unsure of how to respond to my outburst. "You're not weak. You come from a very powerful clan. Remember that you have Sasuke
Uchiha on your team. That's a lot to compare yourself to. Also, Naruto may be an idiot, but from your story, he actually bested Haku when Sasuke-kun couldn't. That's
impressive. You've been on your squad for only a few months. I say that you should go to your father and ask him to teach you a new jutsu or help you perfect the one you
already have.
"Originally, I also felt like the weak, useless one on my team. I talked to Asuma-sensei one day, and Team 8's sensei, Kurenai-sensei, has been teaching me the basics of
genjutsu ever since."
"Genjutsu basics?!" I yelped, shocked. "Genjutsu is for experienced shinobi and kunoichi with amazing chakra control! How did you-?"
She shuffled a bit, self-conscious. "Asuma-sensei saw me pick up a training exercise that required a lot of chakra control really fast and tested me to see how precise I was.
That's why he chose Kurenai-sensei to teach me."
"Wow…," I muttered. I'd never admit this aloud, but that was cool. She was being trained by Konoha's genjutsu mistress. "Um… I've got to get going," Sakura explained. "I'm
joining my team for lunch."
"No problem," I said cheerily. I surprised her - and myself - when I pulled her into a hug, saying, "Thank you, Sakura."
I pulled away, waving at her as she said bye and left. I thought for a second before deciding to find Kakashi and ask him. Then, I realized that I didn't know where he lived.
Okay, so I was going to see my father first. I rushed home, eager to follow Sakura's advice and become stronger. The little bell above the door to our flower shop tinkled when
I walked in. I headed for the back, where our residence began. The other part was upstairs. Sitting at our kitchen table, were my mother and Haku, talking over tea and
snacks. My mother noticed me immediately and said: "Ino! You're back! Haku and I have been talking since you left. He's so polite and has interesting stories."
"Hi…," I said, a little too stiff. I had forgotten about Haku. "Is Dad home?" I asked my mother. "Yes, honey. He's in his office upstairs."
"Thanks, Mom. See you later, Haku," I said.
I went up the stairs and down the hall until I spotted my father's closed office door. I knocked three times - fast - to signal that it was me at the door.
"Enter," my father's voice said.
I opened the door and saw him reading *T & I reports. I walked next to him and hugged him before returning to my original spot on the other side of the desk. He looked up
saying, "What do you need, sweetheart?"
I fidgeted a little bit before asking, "Can you teach me a new clan technique?"
His response was immediate: "No."
"Well, can you tell me where Kakashi lives, then?"
"He does not want that information given out without his permission."
I sighed, a little exasperated.
My father noticed. "However, I will tell you Naruto's address. He probably could use some company and you need to see your team outside of training and missions. It could
be fun. If nothing else comes to mind, you could at least spar with him."
I had not forgotten Naruto's comment from earlier, but I also knew that he didn't mean it to be rude.
"Well… that's not a terrible idea," I said. "And I have nothing better to do so…,"
He handed me a slip of paper, waving me out of his office as he did so.
Ten minutes later, I was standing in front of an apartment building that was in a mild state of disrepair. I checked to make sure I had the right address after I recovered from
my initial shock. Yep, that's it. I took one more look at the paper before discarding it.
I climbed a few flights of stairs, reaching the top level. It was not difficult to find the door that belonged to Naruto; there were words like "demon" and "monster" and
"dangerous" graffitied on the door with the number from the address. How could anyone meet Naruto and label him a "demon"? I wondered silently. He was more like a
friendly puppy or a ray of sunshine, honestly. I knocked twice and the door was opened by a disheveled blonde boy.
"Hi, Naruto," I greeted.
He frowned slightly, apparently confused. "Hey, Ino. What's up?"
"Are you up for some training and maybe a spar?"
Seemingly snapping out of his stupor, he responded, opening the door wider:
"Sure, just let me get changed real quick. You can come inside to wait."
I walked in behind him, only to freeze when I saw how messy his apartment was. Empty instant-ramen cups littered the table and overflowed in the trash. Dirty clothes were
either heaped into piles in a corner or strewn on the lumpy-looking couch. This is when it sunk in that I had been very ignorant when it came to my teammates' lives outside
of Team 7. Naruto had been living in a run-down apartment with no parental figures. People wrote hateful comments and names on his door for no apparent reason. There
was a serious reason why he ate ramen all the time, and I had relentlessly - albeit unknowingly - nagged him about financial issues.
Needless to say, I felt like a pretty shitty teammate and person in general.
However, I said none of those things, instead yelling, "Naruto! It's so messy here. Do you ever clean?! This is gross!"
He poked his head through the gap between his door and the frame. "Why would I need to clean? It's fine how it is. It's not bothering anyone."
"It bothers me, Naruto! Clean this up, or we're not sparring!"
"Alright, alright. Calm down, I'm going to clean."
I looked for a place to sit upon indignantly, but found no open, hygienic surfaces. I settled for crossing my arms over my chest and tapping my foot impatiently. With help
from a few shadow clones, Naruto had his apartment in good shape by the time we left. He grumbled all the way to Training Ground 7, me only catching short phrases like
"pointless work" and "waste of time".
"Do you wanna spar with or without jutsu?" I asked as we both crouched down.
"With," was his answer.
"Ready?"
"Go!" he shouted.
I launched forwards instantly, aiming to get an easy punch in. Naruto wasn't very fast when we were at the academy, but I supposed he had gotten a little quicker. However, I
was expecting my punch to land. It didn't.
Instead, Naruto ducked just in time before throwing his own punch at my midsection. I didn't move away fast enough and his fist connected. As I tried to regain my footing,
he crossed his fingers in a seal. About 30 shadow clones materialized around me. I jumped into the nearest tree at the edge of the training ground. Maybe I can lose him in
the trees. And then I can ambush them one by one. Naruto falls into even the most obvious of traps sometimes.
With an actual plan, I felt a little more confident that I could win. I began tree hopping, making sure to be more careful of my tracks. I didn't have the stealth abilities to erase
them completely, but I could land more in the shadowed areas. I also didn't have a lot of forest to work with, as we were confined to Training Ground 7 for this fight. I settled
down in a tree to wait, checking my supply of smoke bombs, kunai, shuriken, and explosive tags.
The smoke bombs would be useful if I was found before I had a chance to take the targeted clone out. The other items would be for the ambushes.
Naruto was not quiet. I could hear shouting and tree branches snapping in all directions.
There was a flash of orange and yellow, and I had eyes on my first victim. I didn't know if Naruto was even in the forest, or how I would distinguish him from the other clones
if he was, so I aimed for non-fatal injuries. The first clone was dispelled in a puff of smoke, as I had thrown a kunai in its arm.
I guess Naruto's clones aren't very durable. I retreated back into the leaves, waiting. One by one, I picked off 27 clones. The more I dispelled, the more that came within
striking distance at one time. Did they decide to work in pairs? Or is something else going on? I soon dropped that line of thought, though.
I heard a faint rustling and looked down to see Naruto attempting to sneak over to my spot with the remaining three clones in tow. The orange kind of gave him away.
I had a moment of panic: Which one is the real one? What if I injure Naruto badly? How do they know where I am?
I was pulled from my questions by a kunai flying at my face. I jumped, but a few strands of my long, beautiful hair were severed. Suddenly, I was very focused. Oh, he's
going to pay for that! What if he had taken more off?! Would Sasuke-kun hate it? They say he only likes girls with long hair…
I grabbed the branch above me and hoisted myself onto it. I flung a mixture of kunai and shuriken at the orange blurs below me, smirking with satisfaction when there were
three puffs of smoke.
I had wanted to practice my mind-transfer earlier. Now, I have a great target!
My hands came together in front of my face, forming a window. I lined up the window with Naruto and cast the jutsu.
My mind went blank for a split second before my consciousness reformed in Naruto's head. I did my best to suppress Naruto's determined consciousness while looking for my
body. I spotted it falling out of the tree. My heart sank.
I should have been more stable before I left myself unconscious! Ugh. I went to catch my body using Naruto's body, but was frozen by the greatest amount of killing
intent I had ever witnessed.
I heard an evil laugh that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up and turned in Naruto's mindscape, shaking, to see a narrowed pair of blood red eyes glaring at me.
My last thought was, Oh, shit, before I was ejected from the mindscape and fell into unconsciousness.
*T & I stands for Torture and Interrogation
Thanks for reading!
