Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Closer ❯ Chapter 7

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

The massive group of genins filed into the huge classroom where rows and rows of tables crossed from one wall to the other. Ino, separated from her classmates, was seated in the middle of a whole row of smelly guys.


The room was kinda stale and the air was filled with anxiety. The surrounding windows nicely ushered warm sunlight, a small reminder that the rest of Leaf Village’s citizens were going about their lives, unaffected by this moment. Despite her serene expression that stayed static on her face, she was a ball of nerves. She didn’t know what to expect as she sat on her cold metal chair, surrounded by strangers and watchful higher ranking ninja.


When it was first announced that the first part of the exam would be a written test, there were shocked cries of surprise and outrage all around. Though none were so loud as Naruto who gripped his hair in distress, moaning out loud. Everyone was subdued as the papers were handed out. When Ino got hers, she slumped in her chair, tapping her fingertips on it. Of all the things she had expected of the exams, a written test was not one of them. She felt like she was back in class, after a long break only to be side railed by a waiting pop quiz her first day back. She unconsciously scowled. Iruka-sensei loved pop quizzes.


She saw that at least the loud mouthed blonde was by someone he knew (unlike her). Hinata sat docilely next to him. Even from her place behind them, Ino could see a blush stain her cheek. Ino mentally coached her to take advantage of her place, but she doubted the shy Hyuga could even manage a smooth sentence. She had never been that close to him before.


Once everyone was settled, Ibiki began going over the rules. At first, Ino thought that it was the basic rules, no talking during the test, no wondering eyes and such, but as he explained that there would be points taken away every time someone was caught cheating had her frowning. Usually, when someone was caught, they would fail right away. But taking points away for getting caught was strange. Ino sat upright, suddenly listening very closely to the rules. She wasn’t the only one who found it odd. Sakura voiced her confusion and a ripple of mummers cut across the classroom but Ibiki quickly told everyone to shut up. As he continued, he used a very interesting word. Carefully.


Cheat carefully? Was that what she was hearing? She didn’t know. It seemed weird, and she didn’t want to put all her trust in such a cryptic rule. She looked down at her paper, gingerly picking up her blue sharpened pencil and began scanning the questions. These are really hard, she thought with a defeated sigh. There was no way half the people in the room would know these, except maybe Sakura or even Shikamaru. She tapped the butt of her pencil on the paper, looking to her side at a higher ninja who she recognized. He was a little older than her, but just by a little. He winked at her and she bit her lip to keep from smiling. It broke some of her tension. She rolled her eyes at him, hating the little spread of color that warmed her cheeks.


She then began working her first problem, some ciphering when a loud thunk made her glance up in surprise. A guy behind Naruto rose from his seat.


“What is the meaning of this?”


A chuunin examiner didn’t even move from his lazy slouch. Instead he just smirked. “You screwed up five times. You fail.” Ino silently watched the guy stiffen. “Teammates of his, leave immediately.”


As the three older teens filed out, Ino lifted herself from her slouch. He messed up five times, so he was caught cheating more than once. She smiled. So she was right the first time. Well, if that was the case then she would only need to get caught three times.


She found a shiny head on pink hair amid the sea of bobbing heads. Sakura was hunched over her paper, totally in her own world. Ino didn’t have to wait long until she was finished. She had to give her credit for being super smart. There was no way she could have answered all of the questions without some help. She might have been top kounichi in her graduating class, but she was never too good with tests. Luckily Iruka-sensei would give them a review sheet a couple of days before an exam. Ino would almost have to memorize the entire content in order to pass.


Ino’s eyes zeroed in to Sakura’s back and very deliberately, she gathered her chakra with care and held out her hand, connecting her slender fingers into a circle, initiating her family jutsu. With a little smile she pushed her conscious into Sakura’s unprotected mind. When her jutsu had the surprise advantage, it was quick work to push aside the foreign body’s consciousness and gain quick control. It only took a few minutes for her to gather the pink haired girl’s answers before she went back to her own body and then fed the answers to a waiting Shikamaru (who had about half of the answers filled in) and then Choji. All the while, more and more teams were being thrown out until only a fraction of the starting genin remained.


Then the final question was announced. To answer the tenth question and get it wrong, or to not answer and have a second chance. Ino wasn’t even concerned. Whatever it was, she was sure her team could get through it because Asuma-sensei had faith in them. That coupled with her own determination made her confident that they could pass this exam. The only thing she was worried about or rather, the only person who had her worried, was the fidgeting blonde who sat a couple of tables in front of her. It was her deepest desire to see all of the rookie nine pass this test. Naruto looked like he was trembling, and for a horrifying minute, it looked like he was going to give up. Both Sakura and Sasuke’s heads were turned in his direction.


But Naruto was full of surprises. He slammed his fist down on the table, declaring that he would not be intimidated, that he was going to be Hokage som eday. That hot headed remark made all the tension and the doubt and unease, vanish. Ibiki saw it as well, his stone cold eyes softened a little with surprise and appreciation. Ino knew she was grinning, she was proud of him, proud of the rookie nine left in the room.


Ibiki’s scarred mouth lifted into a little smirk.  “Nice determination.” He commented. “Everyone here, for the first exam passes.” He finally declared.


No one celebrated more than Naruto. He jumped up from his chair and hollered his joy, much to the embarrassment of his teammates. Ino let out a happy sigh, leaning back in her chair. Her pencil dropped from her fingers. Were all the tests going to be this nerve wracking? Little did she know, this first test would be the easiest. Her first clue should have been the entrance of the second examiner. Anko Mitirashi…


Ino left to the bathroom before Anko took them to the second exam. Whatever that meant. She had to make a big scene just to go pee! Jeeze! Good thing Naruto helped her. With both their whining, the other genin started complaining and so Anko really had no choice. Ah, she loved how alike their minds were sometimes. She asked Hinata to accompany her.


The school bathroom was empty for the most part. A few redheaded girls from the academy were talking quietly to one another as she entered, followed by a few other graduated genin, Sakura being one of them. With her business finished, Ino vigorously began washing her hands with same vigorous compulsion that had attached itself to her after that certain mission. A chill worked its way down her spine when she thought of Kabuto. He was innocently standing just outside the academy with her clueless friends. She had to warn them to stay away from him without sounding too crazy or paranoid.


The exam made even Leaf ninja regard each other warily. In the ninja world was one made of the weeding out the weak. Jobs were issued based on talents and strength. To have the opportunity at becoming a Chuunin at such a young age made Ino feel almost like a genius.


The younger girls that she first saw when she came in hadn’t left yet. They quietly huddled against the wall, staring at her with big interested eyes.


“Yes?” She asked as she washed her hands.


“You’re Ino Yamanaka right?” One of them asked brightly. Ino raised a brow. “You are!” She gushed before Ino even had a chance to answer. “I’m Nami, and this is my sister Ashi.” She said without so much of a breath.


“Uh…nice to meet you I guess.” Ino said, pulling some paper towels from the dispenser. Hinata and Sakura lingered by the door, curious about the girls and their interest in Ino.


“Wait! Is it true?” Ashi had a spray of freckles across the bridge of her nose. She was older, and prettier than her younger, more boisterous sister.


“Is what true?” She asked with mature patience as she wiped her hands dry.


“That you and Sasuke Uchiha are dating!” Nami exclaimed, stepping in front of her sister. Her hands stilled for a moment, but she quickly recovered and gave them a smile in answer.


“What?” Sakura cried out. “No it’s not true!”


Ino’s surprised grin faded into laughter at Sakura’s pink face. “It’s not true.” She said with a conceited nonchalance. “Not yet anyways.” She added.


“Ino!” Sakura growled. Ino just ignored her and grabbed Hinata’s arm. The Hyuga had made herself invisible, not wanting to get pulled into the familiar war.


Ino had a huge smile on her face when she returned to the waiting genin group. Together, everyone made their way across the huge school yard to a place they were forbidden to go to. It had always been there, but no one really cared to know why such a place was gated off until now. Anko waited by the gate as they gathered to peer up into the dark, twisted forest she had introduced as the Forest of Death.


“You will be able to experience why this place is called the Forest of Death.” She said with a level gaze. Naruto made the mistake of mimicking her and without even blinking, Anko threw a kunai at him with amazing speed and then in the next second she was behind him.


“Boys like you die the fastest.” She tilted his head to the side, sliding a finger up his cheek to catch dripping blood from the cut she had inflicted with her kunai. Naruto was a still as a statue. Ino’s eyes grew round. Anko was so cool! She turned to Shikamaru and Choji to tell them so.


“Oh? Is she gonna be your new idol then?” Choji asked, half serious, half sarcastic. Ino grinned, pulling a kunai from her pouch and twirling it around her finger.


“Maybe. Can you guys imagine how cool I would be? With looks like mine and an attitude like hers, I would be the envy of all the kounichi!” She crowed deviously. Shikamaru rolled his eyes.


“If we can get past this next test, you can do just that. It’s not wise to get ahead of yourself.” He cautioned. Ino’s bubble promptly burst.


“Gods, you’re so negative!” She whined, turning to Choji who just patted her shoulder sympathetically.

“Looks like we have a lot of hot-headed people here today.” Ino returned her attention to Anko who scanned the crowed. “Interesting.” She left Naruto glaring at her. Ino looked around. Ooops, did she miss something? Why was she feeling that last remnants of tension coming from the others? Sakura was pale and wary and Hinata was looking worriedly at Naruto.


She didn’t contemplate it much because Anko continued. “Now, before the second exam starts I need to give everyone one of these.” Anko reached into her kaki trench coat and pulled out a stack of paper. “Consent forms. Everyone needs to sign them.”


“Why?” Naruto asked seemingly recovered from Anko’s little action.


Anko’s mouth twitched in dark pleasure. “Well, from this point on, people are going to die.” Ino stiffened. “If you don’t sign them, we might be held responsible for your deaths and no one wants that.” She said brightly with a laugh. Ino turned to her team. Shikamaru was alerted and Choji was pale. The gleeful Anko explained the rules of the next part of the exam about survival and the scrolls.


“Bring both scrolls to tower within the time limit. 120 hours or five days.”


“Five days?” Ino was incredulous. This exam wasn’t like an overnight thing. It was like a real mission with real dangers!


“What about food?” Choji cried out in panic.


“There are resources within the forest. You’ll have to scrounge up your own.” Anko told him with an amused glint in her eyes. No doubt loving the fear she was creating in the genin group. Yeah, Ino liked her a lot.


“But there are also man-eating beast, bugs and plants.” Kabuto piped in. Ino glared at the back of his stupid head. She couldn’t believe he and his team made it to the second part. She had hoped he would have failed and left. If they were going to be on their own, against everyone here, she wanted to make sure that she stayed away from Kabuto and his team. There were no rules on how a team obtained a scroll, no higher ninjas or teachers to make sure they were okay this time. It was do or die. Pass or die. Ah, troublesome.


“Excuse me.” Shikamaru raised his hand. “Can we quit in the middle?”


“Shikamaru!” Ino hissed, pulling his hand down. He just sighed out loud and shoved his hands back in his pockets. Ino gave him a warning glare and one to Choji for good measure.


“You can’t quit or you’ll fail.”


“And we’re not failing.” Ino said, pinching his skinny side. He squirmed away. When the consent forms were sent their way, Ino eagerly took hers, reading over the paper carefully. She needed a pen, she thought looking around. Everyone had separated, deliberating whether or not to sign their life away or keep it and fail. In the distance she saw Sasuke, sitting near a rock. Sakura was nowhere to be seen, so she dropped her revenge-against-Sakura act and wandered to him.


“Hey.” She said, kneeling next to him. She noticed that he already signed his form. He nodded to his left.


“They’re using that curtain to hand out the scrolls. No one will be able to see who gets what and which team member has it.” He told her. Together they both watched a couple of teams turn in their forms and head to their assigned gate.


“I see.” She plucked his pen from his fingers and used the rock’s smooth surface to write her name neatly on the line. Next to the signature line was a box, where you had to leave a print in blood. She rubbed her thumb over her bottom lip before gathering enough courage to bite her flesh open.


“I hate looking at my blood.” She murmured.


“Squemish?” He taunted playfully. Ino shrugged, popping her thumb in her mouth to stop the bleeding.


“Nervous though. There are a lot of strong people here.” She looked at each of the groups, wondering what each of them could do. Her eyes landed on Kabuto’s team. “Sasuke, I want you to do something for me.” She turned to him. He saw that she was serious. “Don’t trust anyone, especially Kabuto.”


He followed her gaze. “The guy with the glasses?” He asked with a frown. “He doesn’t seem like much to be worried about.”


“But he is.” She forcefully insisted. “He’s not what he seems. Trust me. I wouldn’t lie about this.” She wanted to say more, she wanted to tell him what had happened. But it was a rule not to discuss closed missions until two months had passed.


“Okay. I’ll take your word, but you have to do something for me.” He said, standing up. Ino’s scowl folded into surprise. What could he want from her?


“What?” She took his offered hand and he pulled her to her feet.


“Be safe.” He told her quietly, tightening his hold on her hand. The butterflies that were fluttering in her tummy since the beginning of their conversation were a fill blown swarm now.


“You too.” She said softly. She didn’t know how long they stared at one another, and she was actually amazed that she kept eye contact with him for so long. She wanted to stay like this just a little longer, but unfortunately, it was final call and Shikamaru and Choji were yelling for her.


“We need to talk when this exam is over.” He told her, letting go of her hand.


“Yeah.” She breathed. Great, now her nerves decided to wake up. Damn her blush! Quit trembling foolishly she scolded herself. She paced her turn, wanting to run away and hide her face. Luckily she was composed enough to keep her nonchalant image, even though the visage threatened to fade away under her nerves.


She met up with her team. “Let’s see.” She demanded, holding out her pale hand. Shikamaru sighed and Choji grunted when they gave her their forms. She carefully looked over them, making sure they signed it right. Good thing they did, she thought, getting in line.


After turning in the papers and receiving their earth scroll, an older chuunin began escorting them to their gate. She spotted a few people she knew or heard about. Earlier when the exam started, she asked around to get any info on the teams. Like the team of Neji Hyuga. She learned that he was only a year older than her and graduated the top of the class like Sasuke. Still, an impressive history didn’t make her like him any better. She wondered what the story was concerning Hinata and her cousin.


Ino halted, her wandering eyes landing on Sakura who was trailing behind Naruto and Sasuke. “Ino!” Choji exclaimed when she left the group. She ignored him and grabbed Sakura’s arm, whirling the surprised girl around. Naruto and Sasuke halted, staring at the pair in curiosity. Ino pulled her aside and Sakura angrily shook off the blonde’s firm hand.


“What?”


“I want you to remember something.” Ino began in a low, warning voice that made Sakura’s bright jade eyes sharpen. “I want you to remember that Sasuke isn’t the only one on your team.”


Sakura’s mouth dropped open. Ino didn’t know if it was because of insult or outrage, but it didn’t matter. She had made her point, now she was coolly walking away. She could feel the curiosity emanating from everyone who watched the exchange, but she knew Sakura wouldn’t say anything.


The wait at the gate seemed to take hours and hours. Now that they were at the brink of entering the Forest of Death, the full weight of this next part of the exam hung around her shoulders. When they entered, teams were commanded to get their opposing scrolls in any way possible. Killing was allowed. The idea made her feel small. So many entering genin were way older and more experienced than her and her friends. What if one of them died?


Her hand instinctively went to the special kunai that was nestled in her waist pouch. It was her shiny personal surprise. Shikamaru and Choji only saw it that one time but since then, she had been tempering her skill with the help of her father and Asuma-sensei. Yeah, Ino suddenly perked. Ever since that mission, all of her team had been working hard to temper their own sills.


We trained like hell to get here. Kiba’s voice rang in her head and she smiled looking at the daunting forest trees just behind the electric fence. “We won’t lose to you.” She murmured. In the distance, a shrill whistle blew. The chuunin turned the key in the lock and her team bolted into the gate with surprising speed.


“The first thing we need to do is find a good hiding spot.” Shikamaru ordered. When he saw the argument form on Ino lips he went on. “To think about what we’re going to do.”


“Yeah. We’ve never been in the Forest of Death before so we don’t know what’s here. We need to get our bearings.” Choji chimed in. Ino wanted to argue, but she knew they were right.


“Fine.” She turned away in a pout falling behind them. “Lead the way.” She told Shikamaru who stopped on a tree ahead of her.


“Ino, this is serious. You know we’re right.” Shikamaru said defensively. Ino folded her arms.


“Do you see me arguing?” She asked through her clenched teeth. She could tell the boys didn’t know how to take her sudden submission.


“No.” Choji said slowly. “And that scares me.”


“Let’s just go!” She said in annoyed exasperation, satisfied that Choji jumped at her remark.


The third night into their survival was a lucky one. While hiding in the trees, they came upon a sleeping team. The grass nins would have been easily bypassed if it wasn’t for the loud snoring guy who was camouflaged as a small sapling. It was an amusing sight, a little snoring tree bobbing up and down, shivering even though there wasn’t a breath of wind.


Ino looked to Shikamaru who nodded and laced his hands together. It was a tricky move to use his shadow technique since it was night and the moon was falling away from the open canopy. Ino had Choji stand behind her while she slipped into the sleeping man’s mind.


Sleeping people were really easy to breech. All she had to do was scan her surroundings in the person’s mind, or dream and then morph into whatever she saw. Mental blocks usually appeared as doors. When someone was aware that there was a foreign entity in their mind the doors usually locked. If you surprised someone, you had to open as many doors as you could before they locked them. But when they were sleeping, it was a free reign of unlocked memories and thoughts. The doors were like any other kind of doors. The older the memory the older the door, the newer the memory, the newer the door whether it was by paint, or design. When she used her family jutsu, the chakra involved was trained to give her these images. It knew the age or importance of a memory. Important memories had various locks on them. It took time to work out the locks because you had to do it one at a time. She had to go through four important doors before she found the one she wanted.


When she went back to her body, she told Choji where to get the heaven scroll. All of it was done while the grass nins were fast asleep. It seems too easy. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on ends when she heard something in the distance. It was loud enough to wake the robbed nins. Her flight or fight instincts waged a brief war before she pulled a kunai from her pouch and stuck it in the eyes of the closest nin. It felt like poking a warm boiled egg or stabbing defrosting jelly. Uggh…


While the blonde teen grass nin howled in anguish, Choji and Shikamaru handled the others with a quick meat tank charge while Shikamaru held them still with what little chakra he wanted to use. The other two weren’t exactly dead. Choji’s meat-tank roll left only shallow stab wounds but thoroughly smooshed grass-nins. Shikamaru then fashioned a kunai rope and began wrapping and tangling it around the smooshed nins in very intricate and careless knots.


The remaining nin warily was held by kunai point by Ino while the boys worked. His right eye was swollen shut and bleeding freely. She felt a little bad about what she did to him but it was part of the job. She hoped he knew that.


“Sorry.” She murmured to him, dropping her kunai. He silently regarded her before tossing her bloody kunai at her feet. She felt safe enough to reach down and retrieve it. She wiped the blade on her skirt before slipping it back into her pouch. “Look on the bright side. Some women like men with eye patches!”


“Just leave!” He barked not amused whatsoever.


“All done. Let’s go.” Shikamaru declared, cutting his kunai from the ropes.


“Are you sure we should have just left them there?” Ino asked at they fled the scene.


“It’ll take a while for that guy to untie his team. By then let’s hope that we’re out of here. We need to stay out of trouble. Avoid anything that could be troublesome.” Shikamaru said. With both scrolls in their possession, the whole team was on alert. All they had to do now was make it to the tower, but they suspected it wasn’t as easy as it sounded. Shikamaru’s plan to stay hidden in the shadows was a safe bet.


“Shh. Listen.” Choji stopped them. They heard some feet shuffling on a nearby tree and the whole team shared look before dashing into the bushes, holding their breaths.


“Stop hiding and come out.” Someone said.


“But we hid so fast.” Choji moaned in a whisper.


“Jeeze, that troublesome Hyuga found us.” Shikamaru sighed in annoyance. Neji? She didn’t even have a chance to see who it was before Choji pulled her into the bushes. If he was a Hyuga then he knew who they were. Would he hurt someone from the same village?


“Plan number 1, hide and avoid troubled failed. Are you surprised?” Ino bit at him sarcastically. “Now what? Plan number 2?”


“I don’t like any of your plans.” Choji muttered.


“Do you have any ideas?” Ino moodily shot at him, a little hurt that he thought like that.


“No.” He mumbled.


She stood, straightening her clothes before pasting a bright smile on her face. “What a surprise! How lucky of us to meet last year’s number one student.” She gushed. She sauntered ahead of her team, fighting the rolling anger churning in her stomach when she thought of poor trembling Hinata. “When I first saw you, I thought, ‘I really need to meet him’.”


His face was set in stone and his eyes were emotionless. Not like Hinata’s, full of feeling and tender vulnerability. “Did I fulfill your expectations then?” He asked.


Ino was taken back. “What do you mean?”


“You tried to hide it.” At her confused expression he continued in clarification. “Your dislike. But I’m a keen observer. You need to practice masking your feelings more. Be gone.” He then turned on his heel. All Ino could do was blink at his back. She allowed her eyes to narrow knowing full well that he had his Bykugan trained on them.


“I’ll keep that in mind.” She said aloud to herself. If he was looking at them with his blood limit, then he knew full well that her team had both scrolls. Why wasn’t he taking them? Shikamaru seemed to think the same because he put a hand over his side pouch, where they had placed the valuable items.


“Let’s keep going.” Shikamaru said, motioning Choji to follow. Half an hour later, Choji told them they needed to stop. For a snack. He settled on a high overlooking branch and began munching on some freshly picked apricots he found. It had been a while since they had a peaceful break. Ino sighed and leaned against a tree, looking up to the sky. What was it? Noon? Late afternoon?


“Hey guys! Come and look!” Choji’s urgent call made her jump to attention. Seconds later, they were up in the trees, looking at a surprising sight.


Sakura was facing off with three serious looking sound nins. Naruto and Sasuke were lying under a huge hollowed tree.


“Hey, it’s the guy from Neji Hyuga’s team.” Choji observed. It was the guy Sasuke was asking Kabuto about. Lee Rock.


“Let’s get closer.” She had a bad bad feeling about this. And she was mad. Sakura was just sitting there while Lee was fighting on her behalf! Will that girl ever learn?!


“Maybe she’s protecting Sasuke and Naruto.” Choji said. Ino’s head whipped to the side in surprise. “Yeah, you said it out loud.” He turned back around.


They landed unnoticed behind the fight just in time to see Lee run to Sakura’s aid. He looked unbalanced and the sound nin had him on the ground in three seconds. “Looks like Naruto and Sasuke are out of it.” Shikamaru said. “Lee looks like he’s been beaten and now it’s only Sakura.”


Ino didn’t take her troubled eyes off of the scene. She felt Shikamaru’s heavy gaze on her, waiting for her to say something. She knew what he wanted her to do, but for an angry minute, Ino didn’t care.


“What are you going to do?” He asked.


“What do you mean?” She bit back, glaring at him.


“Sakura’s in danger. Is that okay with you?” She flinched at his tone. No it wasn’t. Despite everything, Sakura was still someone important to her. But this…Ino had to hold back, just for a second…


“Ino…”


“S hikamaru…we can’t just interfere. She has to do this…on her own.” She sounded like she was pleading. Maybe she was. All she knew was this was a pinnacle moment for Sakura.


“You’re a hard teacher. You know that right?” Shikamaru said in a disapproving voice.


Ino ignored that comment, ignored her hurt and focused on the battle. The female sound ninja had Sakura by the hair, yanking her head back and forth while the taller of the boys advanced on Naruto and Sasuke. Ino’s heart was thumping painfully in her chest. Should she move now? She licked her dry lips, her fingers inching to her weapons pouch. Just when she was about to move, Sakura pulled a kunai and with one fluid, utterly surprising move, she cut her hair, freeing herself from the enemy female nin’s claws.


She cut her hair. Her precious hair. Sakura worked so hard at getting her hair to grow longer and she just cut it. To protect them…to protect Lee too. Ino saw the set determination in Sakura’s pretty jade eyes and even though she wasn’t as skilled as her teammates, Sakura was fixated on doing what she could, no matter what. It was inspiring to watch though terrible to see so much blood.


She’s doing it…Ino wiped her tears. She’s finally blossoming into what Ino knew she could be so when Sakura had tackled the taller sound nin to the ground, Ino knew it was her queue. In spite of the impressive show of courage, there was only so much the little pink haired girl could take and only so much Ino could stand.


Sasuke was only half conscious. Unconscious enough to be unable to move, but conscious enough to hear what was going around him. He knew his team wasn’t alone. There were people who were trying to kill him for some reason and Naruto was still unconscious. Whoever Orochimaru was, he must have done quite a number on the loud blonde to knock him out for so long. Just how long had he been in this condition? A few hours? A day maybe? The only thing he vaguely remembered (when the pain in his shoulder wasn’t killing him) was Sakura tending to both he and Naruto. She was talking to herself, coaching herself not to fall asleep, to be vigilant.


Then Lee’s voice perked his interest, rousing him from his unconscious state for a moment. What was he doing here? He passed out soon after Lee’s arrival. Now he could hear the enemy threaten to kill their own teammate if it meant accomplishing their goal. He would have just succumbed to the calling of darkness if he hadn’t learned that Ino had used her family jutsu on the very teammate they were threatening to kill.


Ino—when did she come? Was she alright? Was she worried for him or Naruto? She had promised to be safe…and Sakura. He was concerned for her as well. She must be exhausted. He knew she was probably hurt. Even though she was annoying, she was part of his team and he needed to help out. She was weak and didn’t know much about staying safe. Enemies could easily pick up on that and they targeted her. So he, Naruto and Kakashi had to protect her.


The thought made his eyes snap open. Chakra he never felt before stirred in him. Powerful, dangerous abundant chakra. His body hungered for it, tempting him to let go of the little control he had over it. It hummed around his person like a swarm of bees.


If you don’t have power you can’t do anything, you can’t protect them, you can’t protect her. She could die, like mom and dad died….she could…


He forced his battered body to stand. His eyes slid to a stunned and bruised Sakura before they roamed to the unconscious blonde in Shikamaru’s arms who had blood dribbling down her chin. Anger exploded, and dark, sinister killer intent rippled through the whole field paralyzing everyone it touched.


“Sasuke?” Sakura croaked. Sasuke looked away from her, his blood red eyes landing on the sound nin female. He could see Ino’s soul shimmering in the dark eyes. He could also see her fear.


“Don’t worry.” He told her. “I can feel power surging inside me.” He tightened his fist, a cold smile gracing his lips. “I feel good now. He gave it to me.” My purpose. “I finally understand now.” My destiny. “I’m an avenger. I must obtain power no matter what, even if I must let the devil take a hold of my body.” Understand. He paused, eyes narrowing. “Tell me who the hell hurt you!” Again, he wasn’t looking at Sakura. One of the sound ninja noticed this, Dosu, and quickly grabbed his possessed teammate’s arm and yanked her to her feet.


Sasuke stilled, not moving one muscle. But his eyes, they locked into Dosu’s one eye. He was going to enjoy this.


Ino struggled to get free and stomped on his foot making Dosu released her.


“Now Ino!” Shikamaru called out and the shadow manipulator and Choji wisely moved to the side, away from the impending battle. Ino quickly laced her fingers together and then the body she inhabited slumped to the ground. When Ino stirred in her own body, he moved seconds later…



Ino didn’t breath through the whole battle. Sasuke was moving so fast her eyes couldn’t keep up. And the chakra…the black marks across his body, that cold indifferent way he was attacking the guy…is was so terrifying.


The enemy ninja, the taller one named Zaku, was his sole target. Sasuke had him on his knees, with his foot on his back with both of Zaku’s arms behind his back. The Uchiha smiled in insane anticipation.


“You seem to really like your arms.” He commented, pulling them higher. Ino heard the bones crack. Choji had turned away and covered his ears in panic, but she couldn’t turn her horror filled eyes away from the gruesome sight. Zaku hit the floor belly down with a big oof. Sasuke didn’t even pause to take a look at what he did. He just turned his blood red eyes to the last standing ninja, Dosu, who was shaking like leaf with fear.


“That leaves just you. You better entertain me better than him.”


He was like a stalking predator, advancing on wounded pray. Entertainment? Was this how he was viewing the fight? As amusement? The thought made her feel sick. Sasuke wasn’t like that…was he?


Please…don’t…Sasuke.

She wanted to stop him, to run and tackle him down but her legs were numb, paralyzed with terror. She hated his chakra…it was like that mission…


Please…stop…

XOXO

Sasuke…please…no̷ 0;no…


His footsteps faltered. Ino?


Please…he felt someone’s arms slid around his waist and hold him in place.


“It’s enough! Stop!” It wasn’t Ino, but Sakura’s tear-filled voice ripped him out of the embrace of the dark chakra. The power rushed out of him, leaving him drained, exhausted and confused. He fell to the ground, looking at Ino. She was pale and shaken. Was it her voice he heard? How?


Sakura stopped him…Sasuke…I don’t like being scared of you…


The loudness of the thought made him take a few deep breaths. It was…but how? Her lips weren’t even moving…