Chapter 33 The Confession
Naruto left his apartment and headed towards Ino's house. He was nervous about what would happen if Inoichi was there to put his input into the matter, but he'd have to cross that bridge when he came to it. After all, it wasn't like he could avoid the man forward if he was pursuing a relationship with the man's daughter.
He found the house thanks to Sakura's directions, and with trepidation he knocked on the door. He waited and the moment he heard a click and creak he straightened up as if meeting a client for the first time. The door opened and while it wasn't Ino who answered, he was relieved that it wasn't Inoichi either.
"Hello, you must be Naruto. Are you here for Ino?"
"Yes, I'm sorry, are you her mom?"
"Yes, you can call me Noriko. Please, come in."
Noriko allowed the whiskered blonde to enter the house. While she had her back to him, she did a quick set of hand signs and whispered. "Sight Link Jutsu."
After leaving Shikamaru and Chouji, Ino found herself by Lee's dojo and sat looking into a koi pond he had installed for people to relax by. She sighed, but then jolted as something came over her. Her vision blurred and her hearing got muffled. The surprise made her topple over on the ground, making her cry ouch as she scrapped against some rocks.
"What's happening to me?"
Her vision returned but she wasn't seeing a koi pond or a dojo. Instead she saw the inside of her own house. But she could still feel the dirt underneath her. And some water and mud, so she must have fallen into the edge of the koi pond.
"Am I in a genjutsu?"
She tried to break the illusion, but nothing happened. So she at least scooted out of the pond as best she could.
"Go ahead Naruto, take a seat." Noriko said when the two of them entered the dining area. He sat down but she continued to stand. "Would you like anything to eat or drink?"
"Do you have any apple or orange juice?" Naruto asked.
"I believe so." Noriko said, opening the fridge. "Ino's more a fan of apple so we have plenty of that."
"Do you know where she is?" Naruto asked.
"She's out, but I suspect she'll be back sometime soon."
"Why is Naruto with my mom in my house? Why am I seeing this?" Ino asked, seeing and hearing the entire interaction but from her mother's perspective. She could see Noriko grab a carton of juice and pour some into a glass before giving it to the whiskered blonde. But her sense of touch told her that she had not moved from where she had been before.
"Wait, I know what this is." Ino said, her mind connecting the dots.
The Sight Link Jutsu was one of the Yamanaka clan jutsu that worked to share information between two people. The Mind Link Jutsu was similar in that it allowed one to perceive the memories of another person, but this one allowed one to perceive the present experiences of another person in real time. How it worked was that Person a formed a connection to Person B and later activated the jutsu, which then would allow Person B to see and hear everything that Person A was seeing and hearing right at that moment. It helped to send information quickly and could be used as a distress beacon if Person A was in trouble. The only downsides were that the link only lasted about two hours before it faded if it wasn't used, and Person B was essentially blind and deaf to their own surroundings until the jutsu ended.
'Mom must have set up the link before I left home, but why? Did she think Naruto would come to my house and she wanted me to see it?' She asked, then felt a little tug at her heart. 'He came for me. He still cares about me.'
Naruto accepted the juice and took a sip, not wanting to chug or anything rude. Noriko sat down with a glass of her own and had a sip herself.
"So Naruto, I'm sure you know I didn't invite you inside just to have a drink." Noriko started.
"Not unless you wanted to poison me." He quipped, then felt bad. "Sorry, that was not as funny as it sounded in my head."
"Well rest assured, I'm not trying to poison you. Instead, I'd like to talk about your relationship with my daughter."
Naruto opened his mouth to speak, but Ino's mother continued on.
"Before you say anything, hear me out. I have no problem with you and her being a couple, as long as you're both happy. She did tell me that she wasn't the only girl interested in you, which surprises me. The way she talked about your future, she implied that she expected all these girls to stay with you and she didn't mind. I've never known Ino to be the sharing type, so to hear her say she wants to be with you even if that means sharing you, that tells me one thing above all else."
Noriko paused to smile and give him a reassuring look. "My daughter must truly love you, Naruto Uzumaki."
"You sure? I mean, the whole reason this thing started was because Sakura said I don't know what my type is so she, Hinata, and Ino agreed to show me what it was like to date different women so I could figure out what I wanted in a girlfriend." Naruto explained.
"Even so, Ino agreed to share you, and that's not like her. Think about it, if someone had made this exact same arrangement for Sasuke Uchiha do you think Ino would have gone along with it?"
Naruto shook his head. Even if such a scenario was happening now instead of three years ago, he couldn't imagine Ino or Sakura agreeing to share Sasuke just to find out what his type was. And he definitely couldn't imagine one of them kissing Sasuke without the other one getting aggressive about it.
He had to admit this kind of made him feel a little special.
"When Ino came here, she was crying her heart out. I've seen my daughter upset before, but this was the first time I had ever seen her heartbroken. She's had feelings for other boys before, but even when Sasuke Uchiha left Konoha she wasn't this hurt. I always heard that you had a gift for connecting to people and making friends, and my Ino is proof of that gift. Honestly, I think she may have even loved you for much longer."
Naruto raised an eyebrow. "How? I mean, I always thought of Ino as a friend but she never really spent that much time with me until recently."
"No, but it's often the little things that build up to bigger feelings. When I was younger, Inoichi and I barely spent any time together outside of a mission. I saw his true character once in a while, including our own chuunin exams, and there's what I heard of him from teammates. I might not have known a lot about him, but what I did know, I liked and respected. And when I took the time to learn more and spend more time with him, I fell in love with him not too long after. In a way, I already knew he was lovable before I even dated him, I just didn't know it until I took the chance to see it for myself."
"So, you knew he was a good man, but you kind of needed a reminder?" Naruto asked. 'Like with Sakura and Dark Sakura?'
"You could say that."
Naruto smirked. "Same thing happened with Ino. She knew how I helped other countries in the past but she still needed me to remind her. And from there she showed me a lot more respect than she used to. You think she always respected me but didn't really think about it until she spent more time around me?"
Noriko nodded. "Indeed. Sure, Ino may not have been your biggest fan when you were kids, but since then I never heard her say anything actually bad about you. I'm sure that on some level of her mind she's always known you were a good man. And now after getting to spend so much time with you, all doubt has left her. She knows you're the one for her. I guarantee that if she comes home and you're still here, she'll forget all about trying to leave you and pull you into a hug neither one of you will want to end."
Naruto puffed his chest out. "When I see Ino, I'm not just going to hug her. I'm going to kiss her and beg her to trust me that whatever she's afraid of we can get through together. I'd rather be in trouble with her than safe without her."
'Oh, Naruto...' Ino thought, feeling tears in her eyes. She could imagine him doing just that to her right now and it made her think about what would come next. At the same time she hoped no one was around, because it would look weird to be staring off into space while blushing.
"Naruto, while you're here, if you're going to continue a relationship with Ino, there's something I believe I should tell you." Noriko said, at first smiling but starting to look a little sad. "But please, do not hold this against Ino at all. She is innocent in all this and does not deserve any blame."
"What's wrong?" Naruto asked.
'Mom, what are you getting at?' Ino asked, just as confused as the whiskered blonde.
"Naruto, does Ino know about... your secret?" Noriko asked.
Naruto nodded. "I told her as soon as she and the others decided to stay with me. I wanted her to know what she was getting into, she deserved to know."
Noriko sighed in relief. "That's good. And she accepted?"
Naruto nodded. "She didn't hate me at all."
"Good, because what I'm going to tell you will probably hurt you, but just like how you trusted Ino, I'm trusting you."
Noriko paused to look out the window, as if hoping for something to delay what she was about to say. Or just looking for a reason to not look her guest in the eyes when she spoke next.
"I know who leaked your secret to the public after you were born."
Naruto froze, and off where she was, Ino momentarily became unable to breathe.
"What?"
Noriko nodded and looked to him. "I'm sure you've always wondered how it is the whole village found out about your secret if it was supposed to be kept a secret in the first place. Well, that person is... I mean, was... my father-in-law. Inoha Yamanaka."
'Grandpa?' Ino gasped, hearing this. 'That can't be true, can it?'
Naruto looked on in shock. It was like he had no idea what to say, or was afraid to say anything to the mother of one of his girlfriends on such a matter.
Noriko took a moment to compose herself and then continued. "You might be skeptical, but think about it like this. In order for the village to know that there was a demon inside you, such information would have to come from someone who already knew. Someone like a high-ranking shinobi, like a clan head informed by the hokage. And said someone would need to be able to tell numerous people who also could tell more people before anyone got caught. Do you follow?"
Naruto just nodded.
"Even with that in mind, there are a few problems with this scenario. Why would the average citizen of this village be willing to believe this? Why would they take this person's word for it? Why would they believe that a demon can be sealed inside a child in the first place? Why would so few give you the benefit of the doubt? People as a whole are generally dumb and gullible, but there are always individuals who see the holes and are willing to call them out. Surely someone had to speak in your defense, the hokage if nobody else, so why was the defamer the one people ultimately believed?"
"Did he... manipulate people's minds in order to force them to believe?" Naruto asked.
Noriko shook her head. "Not that I'm aware of, and even if he did, he couldn't have done it on a big enough scale for it to matter. No, if anything, Inoha relied on the reputation of the Yamanaka to do that for him."
"Reputation?"
Noriko nodded. "Yes, you see, the Yamanaka are known for more than just flowers and mind jutsu. At our core, we are information gatherers. Spies, interrogators, code breakers, thieves, you name it. It is our job to find information, authenticate its accuracy, and ensure that it gets to the proper source. To do that, we have to be very good at knowing what is true and what is false, and we have to be very good at making sure those who need to know do indeed know. So to the other clans and the civilians, the Yamanaka are considered to be a highly reliable source of answers. And if our own clan head is telling people that the Yondaime trapped a monster inside of a child using an unknown seal..."
Naruto slumped. "...then no one is going to have reason to doubt him."
Noriko nodded again. "Yes. That's how he got the public against you. He told people just enough information to know that you were a host, and implied that there was a non-zero chance of you becoming a threat to everyone sooner or later. And the rest is history."
"And everyone really believed him?" Naruto asked.
"The Yamanaka may not be the most ethical of ninja, but we're not known to be liars."
Naruto hit his fist on the table, thankfully not damaged it, and looked like he had angry tears in his eyes. "What the fuck?! I was just born! I didn't ask for any of this! Why would he do this to me?! What did I ever do to deserve this?!"
"You did absolutely nothing wrong. But as for why, well, sadly I have no answer. We never got a motive before his execution, not-"
"He was killed?" Naruto interrupted.
"Yes, the penalty for breaking this law is death. Always has been. What kind of message would it send if the guy who broke it right after it was made was allowed to get away with it?"
Naruto said nothing, taking another sip to prevent himself from doing so. But he still looked angry.
"As I was saying, Inoha was identified as the culprit and arrested. He confessed and told us how it happened, but insisted he acted alone. When interrogated, he never gave any motive. The Sandaime wanted to postpone the execution in hopes of getting one, but everyone told him that he was acting soft and this would only encourage others to break the law too. So sadly, my husband's father was executed and everyone saw that the hokage was serious about not talking about the fox anymore. So since then, everyone kept quiet and tried to fix the damage. His teammates, the grandfathers of Shikamaru and Chouji, were never proven to be involved, but they did try vouching for Inoha's character. So they weren't arrested, but they were stripped of their positions as clan heads. And you know the rest."
"He told everyone? And didn't even say why? This man destroyed any chance I had at a normal life, and I don't even get an excuse?" Naruto asked, sounding like he was on the verge of unleashing some bijuu chakra and the fact that he was in Ino's house was the only reason he hadn't yet.
"I'm sorry."
"Why are you telling me this now?" Naruto asked.
"You're going to be my son-in-law someday, and I don't want to keep this from you anymore if that is the case." Noriko admitted.
"Can you really be so sure of that? Your clan clearly doesn't want anything to do with me unless it involves hurting me. Your husband says your clan avoids me because people think I'm one of you and you just told me it's your clan's fault everyone thinks I'm a monster in the first place. When your clan hears Ino likes me, they're going to raise hell until someone suffers for it, be it me or them." Naruto said, then sighed. "Now I understand why Ino tried to leave me."
"You're not changing your mind, are you?" Noriko asked.
Naruto rose from his chair. "I'm not going to punish Ino for what someone else did to me. I don't punish the innocent with the guilty, unlike your clan. I still care about Ino, but I don't think I can trust another Yamanaka. Not even you."
Noriko flinched at that.
"I'm not going to make Ino choose between me and her clan. I wouldn't deserve her love if I did. So as long as she trusts your clan and wants you in her life, I will not be your enemy. But I will not be your ally either, and I will tell Ino why."
Noriko nodded. "I understand."
Naruto then shook his head and turned. "I'm leaving, I've had too much happen to me today and I need some downtime. Tell Ino she's still welcome at my home anytime she wants, if she wants."
Noriko just nodded and watched the whiskered blonde depart her house. After the door closed, she released the jutsu she had been casting.
Ino's vision went white for a split second before it went black and then she got her sight back. She saw the area around Lee's dojo and the koi pond, and of course the mud she had gotten on herself from her tumble. No one else was around, which was probably for the best.
Ino closed her eyes and took a deep breath while rising to her feet. 'Naruto, trying to leave you was a mistake. The Yamanaka apparently will hurt you whether I'm with you or not. So why hurt myself if it's not going to stop them from hurting you?'
She opened her eyes and ran off towards Naruto's apartment, taking to the rooftops and jumping from one to the other for maximum results. In no time she got there and without thinking she opened the door, momentarily noting that it was unlocked. Surely that was a good thing.
Inside there was Sahino who was seated on the couch, with a small toad on the table. Sahino looked a little scared, and turned to Ino.
"Oh Ino, good, you're here. Please tell me Naruto-kun is with you."
"Uh... I thought he came back. Or maybe he's on his way?"
Sahino sighed and shook her head before looking to the toad. "Tell her what you just told me."
"Hi." The toad said, turning to the platinum blonde. "I'm Gamatatsu, an old friend of Naruto. He told me to tell the girls in his home that he's going to be gone for a day or two. He just needs some time to get his head on straight. I didn't even know it was crooked. Shouldn't he see a doctor for that instead of us?"
Ino stepped back, eyes wide. "Hes'... gone?"
"What happened?" Sahino asked.
"Too much happened." Ino answered. "Gamatatsu, can you bring us to him?"
"Sorry, but you're not toad summoners. I can't do that. You'll have to wait for him to come back." The small toad replied.
Ino sighed. "Where are Sakura and Hinata?"
"They went home. They thought Naruto-kun would come back with you and want some alone time."
"Then why are you still here?" Ino asked.
"Where else is there for me to go?"
Ino could only nod in sympathy. "Mind if I stay here? I don't exactly feel like going home tonight."
"Sure. I don't exactly like being alone."
"I'll let Naruto know you're waiting." Gamatatsu said before disappearing in a puff of smoke.
Without a word, Ino sat down next to Sahino.
"Maybe you should take a shower." The fusion girl suggested, then grinned. "Mind if I join you?"
Ino blinked but then shook her head. "Sorry, I've got too much on my mind too to enjoy anything like that."
"What a day."