Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Cat & Mouse ❯ Chapter 1

Enter standard disclaimer here. Nope, not mine, not mine at all…damn…

Cat and Mouse

By - Wicked Innuendo

Sarutobi Asuma leaned against the tall Fir in southernmost Jouin training grounds of Konoha Village, taking another long drag from the filtered cigarette. He held the smoke in his lungs until he felt the nicotine induced calmness begin to ebb through his body. Exhaling, he thought of her and her unwavering persistence, the girl he had known had grown so fast, transforming from bossy blonde into sadomasochistic femme fatale. She was starting to play downright dirty and her mild flirtations turned heavy innuendos were taking their toll on his usually lax persona.

She had become a demanding student; insisting on mastering his steel blade knuckles and eager to get her hands dirty at the first opportunity. She excelled in everything she set her mind to and had an endless thirst for knowledge. Perhaps, she felt she needed to make up for her Gennin years, when she shied away from her shinobi duties or maybe she had simply grown up. At twenty, Yamanka Ino had matured into a damn fine kunoichi, favoring more non-conventional styles of combat; she had no qualms with using her natural beauty to seduce a stronger opponent or using the low blow technique otherwise known as a swift kick to her opponent's crotch to incapacitate him. With Ino, there were no rules, everything was fair game and there was no such thing as second place. She played to win and once she set her eyes on her goal, it was as good as hers.

"Speak of the devil," Asuma half grinned in the direction of his hidden watcher and lit a second smoke. He had felt the familiar presence of his only female student nearby.

"And she shall appear," Ino stepped from behind a nearby tree, sauntering towards the smoking Jounin. "You've been thinking of me?" she asked playfully, matte cornflower blue daringly sized up her target.

He took a long drag off the cigarette; the accumulating ash at the smoke's lit end fell to the dirt ground near his sandaled feet.

"I've been looking for you," she reached for the cigarette between his fingers and placed it between her lips, receiving a quick nicotine fix. The only time she ever smoked was when she was with him, and the only time she ever smoked with him was when he had a half smoked cigarette in hand that she could pilfer from him.

For Ino, it was like two degrees of separation, from his lips to filtered tips to her pink lips.

Frowning, she exhaled a ring of perfect smoke circles and asked, "You switched brands?"

"These are lights," he accepted the cigarette back from her.

"Planning on quitting?" She raised a thin gold eyebrow at him, "You might as well ask a leopard to change his spots?"

"Quitting? I'll quit when I die. This was all that the corner store had left. " he chuckled, scratching his trimmed beard. "So, you were looking for me?"

"I was. I'm working on a new technique, so to speak." She smiled, pleased to discuss jutsos in the making with him.

"And you need a practice dummy?" he teased her. Asuma was one of her few peers that would allow her to practice the Yamanaka family jutso on him.

"Sparring partner." Ino corrected, wrapping her long braided topknot into bun secured with a senbon.

"Is there a difference?" He jested.

She laced her fingers behind her back, stretching her shoulder and back muscles. "Are you admitting that you might be a dumb? I hope not, I have no time for idiots…Now, adorable bearded Jounin on the other hand-"

"How many bearded Jounin do you have time for?" Asuma played along.

"Well Sensei, there's one, and he's very dear to me. He smokes like a chimney and when he's serious, he has the meanest right uppercut in all of Konoha. He's forever ignoring my advances, though he's never straight out asked me to stop. I don't think he takes me sincerely. Maybe I should try another angle."

"This technique?" He asked, rerouting the conversation as she expected him to do and always did when her flirting began to cross over the playful line and venture into something more serious.

"Did I mention he's a notorious subject changer?" she scowled at him, "The technique is a modified Shintenshin No Jutso, it doesn't really have a name, I'm still perfecting it. Basically, I have complete control of my body and my opponent's body. I divide my conscious; one third remains, two thirds leaves. My personality is dominant enough and will is strong enough so that it works okay plus there's also some advantages. I can skim my captive's thoughts."

"You'd have access to all my memories," he frowned.

"No, it still isn't a perfect technique. I can sift through thoughts at the forefront of their mind. I'm hoping to master it and have access to all my mark's memories; I think that would all but guarantee me a place in Anbu's special espionage unit."

"And you want me to let you do that to me?"

"Course not, where's the fun in that." Ino shrugged out of her Jounin vest, wearing her snug Jounin shirt and a pair of dark low slung cargo capris. She armed her right hand with bladed knuckles, just like Asuma used. "I intend to fight you, fair and square."

"Alright then." He flicked the cigarette butt onto the dirt ground and stepped out the faint embers.

"Aren't you going to run?" she wickedly smiled at him, widening her stance.

"From you?" he asked crossing his arms over his broad chest.

"Sarutobi Asuma, I'm going to make you eat your words."

"You, sure talk al-" Ino didn't give him time to complete his sentence, she spun one hundred degrees into a back roundhouse. Asuma blocked with his forearm, using the momentum of her kick to jump back several feet and up into a tree.

She followed throwing three kunai, the second nicked right arm, "I thought you were going try out a new technique, not cut holes in my shirt," he called out unsure of her position.

"I'm just warming up," she answered, armed with an identical set of razor knuckles; she cocked her first back, focusing the brunt of her attack on his chin.

Asuma dodged, tackling Ino around her midsection. They tumbled out of the tree, falling 15 feet below and hitting the ground hard. Ino gasped, the impact knocked the air from her longs and her deadly knuckles flew from her grasp.

He lay atop her, in a tangle of limbs. He slowly pushed off of her as she swallowed gulps of lost air.

"What the hell was that about, Ino?" He sat up, straddling her body. "You trying kill cut my face in half or maybe shave my beard off."

"Something like that." Bones cracked and popped, readjusting themselves in her back as she stretch. Her hand went to her face to push back stray strands of blonde, tucking what she could back in the bun. She watched him, waiting for him to let his guard down. Slim fingers removed the senbon, pretending to tidy her blonde locks and when he looked away for half a second, she thrust the senbon towards the sensitive pressure point in the side of his neck.

"God damnit, Ino!" He caught her hand. "What's your prob-"

Frozen

He was paralyzed, Asuma forced chestnut eyes towards Ino's free hand, surprised to see that it was in the final seal of Shintenshin. She could perform one handed jutsus? The though fleeted through his mind.

"Just this one," his mouth opened and she answered his question with his own voice.

Asuma tried to budge, but he was unmoving inside his body. She moved him; his voice spoke and he began picking dead leaves from Ino's hair, not because he wanted to, but because she controlled his movements. He was coherent and watched but his will was not his own.

"Gotcha!" Ino spoke from her own pink lips.

She concentrated her essence inside of him; seeing through his eyes, mingling with his thoughts and recent memories.

He wasn't worried with her in his psyche, anybody else and he'd be fighting his damnedest to get the invader from his head but he trusted, and he was slightly miffed that he fell to her tricks again. Only Ino could get one over on his so easily, he should raise his expectations of her.

"When I'm inside you like that, I can feel impressions of your emotions. Shintenshin is evolving into something more empathic. When I'm in here, I like seeing myself through your eyes; you think I'm feral and cunning and beautiful. You see through me to my soul, without even knowing it."

She released the jutso and he remained above her, straddling her narrow waist, holding her wrist that wielded the senbon in a loose grip.

"What you're asking for isn't appropriate, it's taboo and there could be consequences." He released her wrist and she raised herself onto her elbows.

"We're two consenting adults; anyone that has a problem with that can go to hell. As much as you speak against the possibility of us, I know how you see me; you want this as much as I do." She spoke truthfully. Ino was frustrated to know that one of the factors that kept him at bay were what others might say. So what! People would talk, they always talked. Everyone would have an opinion and they were entitled them, Konoha democracy allowed freedom of speech and thoughts no matter how asinine. But when it was all said and done, opinions were like assholes, everybody has one.

"Ino, I'm not as young as you are." He spoke his second rebuttal, laying his cards on the table. God, he needed another cigarette or two or three and not these worthless lights he had in vest pocket. Maybe some reds, cloves, black jacks or anything with a higher nicotine ratio and faster calming effect than what he had on him at the moment.

"Age is just a number, Asuma. If that's your final argument, it sucked. Why don't you shut up and kiss me already." She spoke adamantly, pale cobalt eyes intently watched him, making no attempt to hide the desire that she felt for the older man.

When he didn't answer, Ino grabbed a handful of his dark blue shirt and pulled the brunette haired Jounin towards her, locking lips with his in a bruising kiss. His short beard tickled her soft skin and his kisses tasted of sweet smoke. She could kiss him like this forever.

He broke the kiss, pulling back. Her pale skin had the softest rose flush, and for a moment she had a youthful sweet aura about her. "That wasn't so bad now, hn?" she smiled up at him, a devious glint sparkled in her crystalline eyes.

"Not at all, Ino. Not at all." He dipped his head, kissing her again, thinking perhaps he should've given into her cat and mouse games sooner.

~end