Title: Haven't you heard what becomes of curious minds?
Chapter: 5 - Gray
Author: Killaurey
Rating: T
Word Count: 3,995
Summary: AU. The night before they're assigned to Genin teams, Sakura wakes up with Ino in her mind—and she can't leave.
Disclaimer: Naruto doesn't belong to me. It's Kishimoto's and I just play with it. Part 6 of ? Unbeta'd.
Quadrant Psi, D-Block, 4512C. Clear.
Inoichi always keeps a small part of his mind on the reports his Clan gives him. These are unhindered by the fact that the bulk of the Clan is currently in hiding. Their abilities give 'work from home' a whole new meaning.
If anything changes, he'll know immediately, and after so many years of being the head of the Clan, the drone of voices confirming quadrants of the village are as usual is soothing.
He badly needs soothing.
Right now, the Nara and Akimichi Clans—Chouza himself is involved—are working on preserving Ino's body.
He does not dwell on that or what it entails. He can't.
That his daughter is asleep inside of her best friend is a miracle. It's a delicate, precious gift, and he makes himself focus on that rather than on Ino's body. They'll preserve it. He trusts them and, more, he trusts the alliance bonds that are twined tight around the soul of every Nara, Akimichi, and Yamanaka. Even those who marry in are bound as part of the wedding ceremony.
Inoichi spins his mind out into a million luminous strands that no one (except those of his family) can see. Brushing over everyone in their path, briefly, they scan for abnormalities. Aberrations. This is his village and he knows the people of it intimately.
Ino's body will be kept. It has already been healed. The problem is she's still dead.
They could keep her heart beating, her blood moving, but there's no one in the village with the skill to fix the damage that oxygen deprivation had done—especially to her brain, which is the most complex organ to work with, given how it ties to their bloodline abilities. (He knows this. He does.)
Either they must find a better healer or they must find another way.
And, while doing so, they must maintain absolute security in the process.
Ichitarou, both a cousin and a contemporary, for they were only two years apart in age, caught one of the filaments.
Hokage-sama has been advised that Sanemi and Yuzuriha have taken a leave of absence from active duty. They, along with their teams, will be leaving within the hour. He has not been advised of the particulars, only that this is inter-Clan business.
Inoichi sends his understanding and a question back, with, Good. How is Hokage-sama taking this?
There will be a reckoning later but for now he will back the decisions made. Ichitarou laughs, though there's no humour in it. Including our insistence on advising him of the same solely via our bloodline. He understands why-
-but he's the Hokage and doubtless is concerned we'll go rummaging.
Inoichi knows. He doesn't even blame the Sandaime for his dislike of their bloodline, when used on him. He understands.
It just won't change that particular order, coming from him, Shikaku, and Chouza, in tandem, that all reports regarding this situation will be solely through the Yamanaka bloodline until they decide otherwise, not the Hokage.
The Hokage rules the village and all of the people in it. He commands people to live and die by his orders.
Even he, though, cannot bypass Clan Heads in regard to the management of their own Clans. It is right down in the village charter, word for word.
And a death in the Clan, even a suspicious one, is a Clan matter until the Clans themselves decide differently. It would have been a stickier situation had everything not occurred on their own lands but, well, Inoichi is glad to not have to worry about that particular legal battle.
For now, he knows we have the children hidden. He is aware we have Haruno. He does not know where and has not asked. I doubt he's going to, unless her parents petition the council for intervention. However, given that the girls are known to be best friends, Haruno being in protective custody is easy enough to explain away. I've left Ino-chan's condition nebulous, despite the official story that has gone out.
All right. Keep attention on him, either you or one of the others. Non-invasive, which was code for 'don't go snooping', but ascertain that at no time does he tell anyone else everything he knows.
Ichitarou's assent is wordless and then the connection is abandoned, the filament no longer in use but instead left to go back to seeking, reaching for anything out of place.
Even Sandaime-sama has trusted confidants whom he would usually confide in. Inoichi isn't risking that. They don't know yet if the assault had been carried out by a Konoha native or if it was an attack from another village. Until they did, he is keeping everything to do with his daughter under lockdown, as much as he was able to.
The fact that they had not yet located the killer is not surprising. Konoha was a large village. A large population of them were killers (all shinobi were, eventually) who wouldn't dwell on what was just another job.
The only difference was, this time, it was his daughter. He will find out who had been in the greenhouse that night.
Wami here, comes the soft mind voice, one that slipped up against his shields to knock for attention. He gives it to her as she says, Shikaku-san and I have reached Haruno-chan's residence.
Let me know how it goes, he orders. And don't let Shikaku get side-tracked by pet-theories.
He does out-rank me, Uncle. It's too late, besides. He is fixated on Haruno-chan's age well and truly.
It takes Inoichi a second to remember what was interesting about that—ah. A minor enough matter. Following up on it takes nothing away from anything else. I'll allow it.
As if he could really stop Shikaku, once he had the bit between his teeth. It wouldn't be the first extraneous detail Shikaku followed and it wouldn't be the last.
Alright. We're knocking now. I'm withdrawing.
And then Inoichi is left alone in his mind to continue his task. Chouza and Shikaku were doing their parts. He'd do his.
He wants to have most of this scan done before Ino wakes up. He wants to be there for her, if he can. If he can't, she'll understand, but…
My daughter is alive but body-less.
He wants to be there for her. He needs to be there for her.
Shikaku finds he's looking forward to this.
Sure, he's missing Yoshino's cooking (always a pity when that happens) and he's wearing a henge that makes him look like a bland, inoffensive looking Chuunin of indeterminate lineage. Henge no Jutsu always make him itch, though Inoichi says it's just his imagination.
With him, also disguised, is Yamanaka Wami, her long, easily recognizable hair and eyes, turned to dark brown curls that brush her shoulders and honey-brown eyes. Unlike him, Wami actually is a Chuunin—having been promoted two years earlier.
Most of the actual work will be hers, as ostensibly this is just a meeting to inform Haruno's parents of their daughter's death.
And then we'll see what comes out of them, once shaken up, interjects a light, easy-going voice. Wami smiles faintly, her attention ostensibly on the street about them.
He grunts, though he's pleased. Anything out of the ordinary yet?
Only how very civilian these streets are, Shikaku-san, Wami says serenely. In thought and appearance.
It is one of the most painfully civilian areas of town they're walking through now. Not many shinobi come through these streets or come from them. Even the buildings show that they're not meant to be defensive—wider windows, the lack of jutsu wards, the lack of structural reinforcement. Even just the way people walk down the streets shows that they're not paying attention.
He doesn't like it. Even at leisure, in shinobi-heavy areas of town there's more surveillance.
If this part of the village was ever attacked, it would be nothing but a death trap. Had he not always been itchy under a henge he'd have blamed his nerves on this alone.
You could consider their confidence in being defenseless as faith in our forces.
Don't be ridiculous.
Haruno Sakura's house is just as cookie-cutter civilian normal as the rest of them. If the rumours of the attacks that occurred yesterday have reached here, there's nothing to indicate that they have.
Oh, but he is looking forward to this.
What reason could a loving, doting (by all accounts) civilian family have for putting their sole child into the Academy and lying about her age to make her older? It's a small oddity in the midst of a tragedy. It might not amount to anything.
But it bothers him. It offends him, too, for they are used to civilian parents making their children a year younger on their Academy entrance forms. A good half of them enrolled at the Academy have lies like that in their files.
The village expects this and while it's technically against the rules, no one is really in a hurry to call out civilian parents for giving their first-generation hopeful an extra year or two of schooling. It's in the village's best interests to not notice such indiscretions as it means more first-generation shinobi graduate which, in turn, means the eventual formation of more Clans which strengthens Konoha in the long run.
But to age their child up…
Shikaku huffs, no one noticing except for Wami, who glances at him but says nothing aloud or in his head. She's already said her piece regarding Sakura's age, his preoccupation with it, and tattled to Inoichi, so Shikaku ignores that.
Besides, they've reached their destination. Somehow, in the sea of sheer civilian-ness of this street, the Haruno home manages to be even more civilian-esque than its neighbours. It leaves him uneasy in ways that don't have names, fluttering pieces of half-formed intuition.
Be wary, his instincts tell him, and that's ridiculous, this is a civilian home and while he's uneasy about that, it's hardly… well. Whatever. Nothing to do about it but go through with this. They're already here and there is no hesitation in him as he keeps walking, pace even and steady matched step by step by Wami, who does allow a frown to cross her face, but it's a mild one, one that goes with her words.
"That's the place, right?"
Shikaku makes a vaguely affirmative noise in the back of his throat.
The civilians are watching them warily, since they've come in uniform, official Chuunin style from their vests to their sandals to their hitae-ite, but at that, the question just loud enough that a few others will hear and his non-verbal answer, he watches as they relax a little.
Of course, the ninja would go to the Harunos. Their daughter is training to be one. It's nothing we have to worry about.
They don't have to say it aloud and he doesn't have to be a Yamanaka to know what they're thinking.
Let's get this over with. But carefully, Wami murmurs in the back of his mind as they stop outside the door, and she knocks politely.
Child, I've been doing this longer than you've been alive, he thinks back, the retort automatic but also absentminded as he wonders why this home would scream it's civilian-ness to the rooftops while allowing the daughter to first attend the Academy at all but secondly to have her attend it early.
There's none of the wannabe signs of a family who wants to look affiliated with the shinobi of Konoha. Nothing at all. Even though Sakura had seemed—
Like a newly graduated, first generation kunoichi, with all that entails. Which wasn't a bad thing, new blood had to come into the ranks, but it coming from a family like this, a house like this, was… unusual. He adds this new oddity with the other and resolves to keep an eye on it. These aren't red flags, not in and of themselves, but they don't fit together right. The shape of the puzzle hasn't been discovered yet.
The door opens with the twinkling sound of wind chimes swaying, and a pink haired man stands there.
"Haruno Chikafusa?" Wami asks. She does not bother to introduce herself.
Haruno nods, a frown crossing his face. "Yes, that's me," he says warily, but friendly enough. It's not the question of a man expecting an axe to fall upon him.
"May we come in?" Shikaku says, keeping his voice blandly pleasant, nonthreatening. "We need to speak to you and your wife."
There's a moment's hesitation—entirely justified, Shikaku allows—before Haruno allows them inside and shows them to a painfully clean and well-ordered living room. He murmurs all the right words and leaves, off to fetch both his wife and tea that neither of his shinobi guests are going to drink.
Why do civilians always try to feed them? Only the basest of Genin would go for that without considering the potential ramifications.
Because it's good manners, Wami says lightly as she stands, looking at one of the bookshelves, not touching anything.
I'd rather be rude, Shikaku says, narrowing his eyes slightly as he catalogues the ways out of the room, where each path is likely to go, and what would be the most efficient way to leave if there was an attack. He doesn't expect one but it's an old, old habit from the war and he's disinclined to break it. Better rude than dead. Especially when they're not making the tea in front of us.
Wami's henge-given brown curls, as she tilts her head and smiles, lend her an impish mien that suits her well enough that it might even be a look of nothing but sheer truth under all the lies. Yamanaka tend to be like that, brats one and all, and far too used to getting their own way.
I'm not drinking the tea either.
Obviously.
They're both seated back on the couch they'd been left on, nothing out of place, when Haruno Chikafusa comes back a few minutes later, tea and snacks on a tray, and his wife smiling in a way that doesn't hide her nervousness.
Sakura looks a great deal like her mother, though her mother's hair is strawberry blonde and her eyes blue—he's not sure where Sakura got her green eyes from as Haruno Chikafusa's eyes are hazel—but that resemblance only goes so far. Already, Haruno Sakura has the body of a ninja. Civilian lean, civilian in-shape, just don't match up.
"Haruno Nyoko, I presume?" Wami asks as tea is served and the Haruno take seats opposite from them. Chikafusa looks calm, if a little confused, while Nyoko looks warier, even as she smiles as politeness dictates.
"Yes," she says. "What can we do for the two of you, Shinobi-san?"
"We're here on official business," Shikaku says, taking the lead so that Wami can go sifting through memories without having to focus on external stimuli.
This is the right thing to say as both of them relax a little. If it's official business, civilians assume it can't be that bad. For the most part, they're right, and those that are wrong are never heard from again.
"We're always happy to assist the Hokage and his shinobi in anyway we can," Haruno Nyoko says.
Chikafusa nods slightly. "Though we're not sure how tailors can be of any help."
Nyoko's laugh at that is self-depreciating, a little rueful. "Unless Hokage-sama needs something made."
Shikaku smiles faintly, just enough to keep her from feeling awkward as he leans forward a little, drawing attention away from Wami. "We'd like to talk to you about your daughter."
Immediately, Sakura's parents look—exhausted. Wounded and haunted and-exasperated.
Exasperated?
"It's been over three years," Chikafusa says, old pain in his voice as tears well up in Nyoko's eyes. "Must we go over her death yet again?"
… wait, what?
Wami! his mind's voice cracks out the order. Tell Inoichi immediately. Get him to pull records from three years ago, anything to do with an incident where a child died or where the Harunos are mentioned.
Yes, sir. Wami's voice is crisp and professional, none of her earlier sass.
Neither of them had expected this and now that means they're flying blind—which he loathes—but also that there's a bigger situation than having to lie to Sakura's parents about her current status and indulging his curiosity.
There's no way that Sakura is an imposter. Her mind has been combed through by most of the Yamanaka Clan at this point and both Shikamaru and Chouji have confirmed that she's the same as she's always been, so far as they're aware. A point which would be less compelling without the Yamanaka Clan's affirmation but a point that cannot be ignored either.
So, if Sakura is Sakura but also Sakura died three years ago—
Someone has tampered with the Haruno. Someone has been tampering with the Haruno.
Sakura left their house only last night.
And yet…
He thinks back to the entryway. He doesn't remember having seen shoes in Sakura's size or any jackets and there's no pictures on the shelves of a happy family. Shikaku doesn't know enough about Haruno Sakura to know the ins and outs of her life, not yet, but children have a way of bleeding into everything.
And this room, the front hall, give no indications of a child having existed here.
Outwardly, he doesn't flinch, doesn't give any indication of his surprise or disquiet, and instead just looks sympathetic. Slightly. It would be overdone if he were to look too invested in the feelings of two civilians whom he'd never met before.
"I'm afraid it's protocol," Shikaku says, a note of apology in his voice. "Would you please walk us through the incident? In your own words."
"What purpose does this serve?" Nyoko asks as Chikafusa shakes his head, reaching for a cup of tea, obviously trying to compose himself. Despite the tears in her eyes, Nyoko seems more together. "Three years later? Protocol doesn't mean anything."
She's brave, too, to question a shinobi outright.
Shikaku-san, it appears that the incident was never resolved, Wami murmurs in the back of his mind. As far as the Haruno are aware, it is an unsolved case.
Any details?
I'm working on it, she says.
"It grieves the Hokage greatly to know that your daughter's death remains unsolved," Shikaku says, each word carefully measured and gauged for impact. He's not sure what he's stepping in and that's always a pain in the ass.
Now, instead of the vaguely sympathetic shinobi, he sheds a little of that veneer, edging towards more professionally brisk, but crouching it in a layer of an earnestly expressed desire to be helpful. "He has newly assigned myself and my companion to her case in hopes that fresh eyes can provide you with answers and put your daughter's spirit to rest."
Sarutobi Hiruzen will not argue with this much, should the Haruno make their own inquiry. The Hokage is a nasty, cunning old man under the patina of kindly grandfather, and a lie like this is oftimes necessary but also not that far from the truth.
If a child has been killed in Konoha and the death has gone unsolved and it had not been done on orders—well. That is something the Hokage will care about. It is one of the reasons the Sandaime has allowed them to be so high-handed in their handling of their Clans with Ino-chan's death.
A child has died and not on his orders.
Deaths that haven't been ordered happen every day, whether it be accidental or suicide or illness, but unauthorized murder is… a bad look, in a village where buying a paid assassin is as easy as writing and requesting one, so long as payment can be made.
But did Sakura actually die? Shikaku doubts it, but that's a different factor altogether. For now, he must act as if it did since the Haruno believe in it.
"We know that this will bring up hard memories for both of you," Wami says, her voice softly sympathetic. "We apologize for that."
"Please," Shikaku says, "tell us about your daughter and the days that led to her death."
The Haruno exchange a long look, one of those glances that an entire conversation can happen within in seconds, before Chikafusa sighs, long and slow. "Alright," he says. "We'll tell you about Sakura."
"But please," Nyoko says, "please solve her murder." This time, she doesn't say, but the words are there, underneath.
"We'll do our best," Shikaku assures them.
By the time they leave, night has well fallen, the recitation of facts and details having taken much longer than he or Wami had originally allocated for the task. He thanks the Haruno for their time and for their courage in having told their story. Wami is silent, bowing when she needs to, but Shikaku has spent a lifetime around Yamanaka and knows she's in some pain. Whatever it had been she'd encountered within the minds of the Haruno had been more than they had planned for.
Once they've left the civilian district and are well away from anyone who might have seen them there, though they still wear their henge, he orders her to go eat, sleep, and get herself rested.
"Report back to Inoichi," he says. "And let him take it from there. That's his job so let him feel useful."
Wami's laugh is startled and vaguely guilty. "That's my Clan Head you're talking about, Shikaku-san."
"That's why I'm saying it, not you," he says. "Go. You did well today, so get some rest and let the others in your Clan sort through everything you've picked up from both of them."
"I wish them the luck of it," Wami mutters, but she doesn't explain that, just nods, bows, and hurries down one of the alleys, heading for one of the Yamanaka safe spots, just a street over.
Shikaku keeps an eye on her until she's safely inside, without looking like he's paying any attention at all, and then stretches his shadow out through the night. Whoever it was that killed Ino-chan is still out there and they don't know if it's a threat to all three Clans.
Until they know more, it's dangerous for even him to go about carelessly.
So, instead, I'll only look careless, Shikaku thinks wryly, taking a meandering path away and through the village, giving it another twenty minutes before he drops his henge in the darknesses between two bars. And see if anyone takes the bait.
He doubts they will. It's one thing to go after a newly graduated Clan heir. It's another thing entirely to go after a Clan Head who rose to Jounin through the war and who is the Jounin Commander of the village.
I'll pick up a few things from home, he decides, wanting to walk his way through some of what the Haruno had told them before he has to repeat it to Yoshino and the others at the safe house. Grab something to eat and then head back. By that point Inoichi will have gotten Wami's report and he'll be there, hovering over his daughter and Sakura.
Shikaku frowns slightly, then changes course slightly and listens to see if—no, alright, they weren't following me, just heading in the same direction.
That's the worst of all of this. They cannot feel safe in their own village right now.
I'll get Chouza too. He'd eventually hear it, by the end of the night surely, but it's better if we go over it together.
Their personal alliances are as strong as ever but the careful juggling of the Clan alliances sometimes takes more babying and he doesn't need some of the Akimichi getting their noses out of joint on Chouza's behalf.
Besides, Chouza will feed him. That works out rather nicely.
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