Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Closer ❯ Chapter 14

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

I’m sorry…Sasuke…

She yanked Naruto to the left. She could hear Anko talking with someone, a man. Ino felt colder as she moved farther away from Sasuke’s chakra. But she couldn’t….

“Here.” Naruto whispered to her when they came to a particular door. Ino bit her lip and forcefully pushed away Sasuke’s lingering chakra. It was distracting her.

“Sensei!” Ino yelled, telling Anko that she and Naruto were in the room. Anko looked okay but Ino still sensed the cursed seal’s power. She was amazed Anko was holding up so well under the pain. She didn’t know what it was like to have a cursed seal, but she knew it must hurt like hell with Orochimaru so close.

The big nosed doctor, Amachi, was spouting nonsense of world domination, totally insane with the idea of an underwater army. The girl, Isaribi was such a pathetic thing. Serving an insane doctor with the promise of making her normal. Isaribi so wanted to believe him, but Ino knew that Amachi would never keep his word. That was what made her so pathetic, it’s what made Ino’s throat tighten hearing such mournful cries.

The atmosphere changed. Anko noticed it before Ino or Naruto did. “Watch out!” She cried, throwing herself over Ino, covering her protectively as the nearby wall crumbled open. Rocks flew dangerously at them, scraping loudly against the muddy floor.

Anko was dead weight on top of her having been knocked out by one of the rocks. Ino knew she would eventually come to. In the mean time, she and Naruto had to deal with the new arrival. Some geeky dude with glasses and a gloating smile. He towered over them, cracking his knuckles in a wanna-be tough guy kind of way that made her want to roll her eyes.

“We’ll have to finish this quickly.” He told them, starting after a dazed Naruto. The blonde quickly recovered and bolted into action. She let him deal with the guy as she situated herself with Anko, hiding her until she came to.

Ino knelt behind the dueling guys, narrowing her eyes and taking a deep breath before connecting her fingers together, tip to tip, and staring through the small circle. She tried her best to ignore poor Naruto’s painful grunts, mentally wincing and apologizing to him for taking the brunt of the assault.

Staring at him, pieces fell into place. She remembered this guy from the Chuunin exams. He was one of Kabuto’s lackeys. Her lips turned up. If she couldn’t get to Kabuto, then he would have to do. She hoped Shino was kicking the other guy’s ass.

It was easy for her mind-body disturbance jutsu to connect seeing as the rubber man wasn’t paying attention to her. His mistake. Naruto was caught in a death vice grip, having his life squeezed out like a tube of tooth paste. He would be sore tomorrow. Her chakra swarmed madly into her opponents head sending chaotic messages to his brain neurons, overpowering them into submission. The rubber man realized too late what she had done. When his wide eyes landed on her smug smile, she practically hummed in anticipation.

“Mind-body disturbance. Success.” She said, flashing a devious, triumphant grin at him. He was totally at her mercy and she flooded his head with a stun jutsu just so he couldn’t fight back. Right arm. His joints dislocated, and his bones softened. The right arm stretched like taffy, and wrapped around an old pillar. She did the same to his left arm, subduing him in five seconds.

“Let go! Let go! No fair! You bitch!” The glasses freak screamed at her with his faced twisted in agony.

Naruto stood next to her, cradling a wounded arm. “What are you talking about?” He snorted. “There’s nothing fair about being a ninja.”

Well said. “Are you even a real ninja?” Ino taunted.

“Shut up!” The enemy ninja bit back, struggling under her mind’s restraint. The pillars he was tied to gave a great shudder, and the ceiling began to crumble like a dry cookie.

“This place is collapsing!” She told Naruto, backing away to where Anko was. Her sensei was goggling getting to her feat, breathing a bit harshly.

“The plan is to kill us by destroying this whole place.” Anko told them, with returning strength. Shino miraculously appeared, looking unruffled and perfect as usual.

“That entrance is no good. Let’s go this way.” He told them urgently. Ino let go of her hold on the Sound, just as his screams were cut short by a falling boulder. She even heard the sickening splat. She didn’t pay much attention to it though, just hobbled out of the room as fast as she could, supporting Anko with Naruto’s help.

Along the way, Anko seemed to grow more color to her face and gain some strength so by the time they met another stupid dead end, she was walking on her own.“Damn it!” Ino yelled in frustration, trying to maintain some balance as the ground shivered beneath her feet.

“Ino, give us some time!” Anko commanded. Ino understood. Out came her special kunai and she grabbed a pinch of seeds, sprinkling them at her feet. She kneeled, piercing a seed. Her chakra flooded from her coils, feeding the kunai until it glowed bright sea-green.

“Hanging Net jutsu!” Her kunai exploded into light, hungrily seeking out the other seeds. Sticky vines began to grow, climbing up the shuddering walls to brace them.

“I’ll use my Rasengan!” Naruto said caught up in the urgency. Anko quickly caught his hand.

“You can’t. The ceiling will collapse and crush us.” Shino said solemnly.

“Everyone stand back.” Anko commanded them and began going through some familiar seals. Ino waited until the last second before letting her jutsu go. She grabbed both Naruto and Shino’s hand and yanked the stunned pair into the waiting mouth of one of Anko’s summoned snake.

Once outside, Ino breathed in a quick lungful of sea air. It tasted a lot better than the moldy, clammy air she was breathing in the base. She turned urgently when Anko hissed, falling to a knee.

“Anko-sensei…”

“I’m fine.” She snapped at Ino. “We don’t have time to waste. It’s already morning.” Touchy, Ino thought, instantly pouting.

After finding a boat, it took them about an hour to finally find the government ships. Fire was billowing high into the sky, like a flare shot.  Everyone charged into action. Shino told them to leave the remaining lackey to him. Naruto was on a mission to try to get through to Isaribi and she and Anko left to the main ship. Once aboard, she began tossing life preservers off to the floating men who were tossed off the exploding ship earlier.

“You said Orochimaru left two weeks ago.” Ino’s breath stilled at Anko’s voice. She turned, almost frozen. Anko lifted her eyes to Ino for a second. “Where did he go?”

“Beats me.” Liar! Ino’s insides screamed at the nonchalant answer the doctor gave. “Now that I think if it, he had a child with him. I hear he’s really capable. Unlike you.”

Anko’s eyes narrowed. “Sasuke Uchiha.” She breathed.

“I wonder what you had lacked to be abandoned.”

“Shut your mouth!” Ino cried out indigently when she saw Anko actually flinch at his words. She threw some kunai at him. In his surprise, he didn’t deflect them all and one stuck deep in his arm. Anko threw some of her own weapons at him, but the doctor was now on alert and he escaped off the boat, skirting across the water to where he saw Naruto and Iraribi in a little tiff. Apparently, Naruto need some more practice at his diplomatic skills.

“Come on.” Anko told her and Ino followed, sprinting across the water, neck to neck with Anko.  She veered to the right after she saw some men struggling to get out of the water. She would help them, and then get back. Shino seemed to be alright for the moment, kinda at a standoff with the remaining lackey.

While she was helping the men, she felt a very familiar feeling eclipse the whole ocean. So busy she was, that she failed to notice Naruto caught in the doctor’s water prison. She failed to see the water bubble around him as he let loose that strange red chakra. Ino leapt across one of the bobbing men, to Anko. She didn’t know why, but she knew she had to be close to see this. To witness yet again Naruto’s strange powers that made her blood run chill.

“Anko sensei…” She breathlessly landed beside Anko and Isaribi. “Tell me.” She said, swallowing hard. A red plume of red chakra encompassed Naruto’s taunt body and he let out a loud, angry roar. “Tell me what kind of power that is.”

Anko looked at Naruto almost sadly. “Demon power.” She said in reverent awe. “The nine tails had to be sealed. The Forth Hokage had to do it to protect the village.”

Sealed. “Inside Naruto?” She asked in a shaky voice.

History is always important…

That is when the Fox Demon attacked the village and the 4th Hokage died destroying it…

There is a powerful organization after Naruto…

“That’s why I say he’s the same as you Isarabi. Because of the demon, there are many people in our village who calls him a monster.” Anko said, stuffing her hands in the pockets of her trench. All at once, memories of her day of graduation came swarming to her. All the heated whispers, the glares and snubs when he offered one of his hesitant smiles at a staring villager. Anger burned deep in her heart, sadness filled her lungs.

Ignorance can justify fear. Fear breeds hatred…

She didn’t know what her father meant when he told her that. Now…everything seemed to make sense to her. When she asked him about the organization after him, he avoided the question….avoided her eyes. Naruto, were you worried that if we found out, we would hate you like the others?

…no matter what, Naruto is Naruto…

Yeah. Ino thought, clenching her teeth. No matter what Naruto, was Naruto.

“He may have been called a monster, but he is working hard to be accepted by everyone.” Ino said. “No matter what, Naruto never gives up. Not on his word.” Ino turned to Isaribi. “And not on people.”

Naruto let out another loud roar, his demon chakra glowing brighter, stronger, deep scarlet. He looked like a fox, Ino kind of mused. On all fours with his strange whisker marks (now Ino knew why he had them) darkening. If he has that kind of power, how come he doesn’t use it very often Ino wondered. In his battle with Neji, in the fight with Gaara, and this. Maybe he can only use it when he’s in some kind of major stress?

After some more babbling from the insane doctor, and after the resurface of the strange watery blob, Naruto summoned his huge boss frog. After that, Ino knew it would come to an end fast, so she, Anko, Shino and even Isaribi gathered the rest of the scattered men in the water and brought them ashore.

Kimia mission complete Ino scrawled in a small book that she dubbed her exploits figuring when she was old and cranky, she would write a memoir or something. Under casualties she caused, she left a single line. One death this time. Her total, three.  Not too bad, she thought with some dark glee, closing her small book slowly and stuffing it and the pen back in her satchel.

It was evening, the sun felt warm on her skin. The air was salty and her skin felt like it had a thin film on it. Even her smooth, sleek hair was a little frizzy. That was unacceptable in its self. Sea Country was defiantly off of her vacation list.

In the back of the homebound boat, she sat alone on a wooden barrel, looking at the small islands eventually getting smaller and smaller. Her ears perked to the sound of someone’s feet. Their steps were to light to be Naruto’s, yet to heavy to be Shino’s. So she correctly surmised it to be Anko because there was no way fish girl would come and talk to her.

“Having some Ino time?” Her sensei mused, stopping beside her, following her gaze out to the islands.

“Is your seal feeling better?” Ino asked.

“Yes.” Anko said, sliding down on the wooden floor, leaning against the side of the barrel. “That perverted doctor lied to me.”

Ino looked down at her hands. “I know.” She said softly, thinking back on how hard it was to pull herself out of Sasuke’s chakra embrace.

“Why didn’t you go to him?” Anko asked making Ino’s heart thump a bit erratically.

“I could have. He was so close.” She sighed and leaned her head back. “But I knew I wasn’t ready. Not yet.”

Anko picked at her trench in a strange, awkward kind of way. “You’re right. You’re not. But you will be.” She said, turning to Ino with an Anko grin.

A Few Months Later

Ino, Sakura, Hinata and Tenten were crowded in a small booth in Higher Fire Country eagerly waiting for their warm meals. Ino snuggled closer to Hinata, trying to share some of her own body heat. Sakura and Tenten were huddled close as well, rubbing their hands together to create heat friction. The village they were in was very close to Rain Country so the snow fall they were trapped in was a foreseeable problem, but the following blizzard was not in the weather reports.

“We can’t get word to the village about our tardiness. Lady Tsunade is going to be a little pissed.” Tenten said with a sigh, her gloved hands wrapping tightly on her hot cup of tea.

“Tch, a litte?” Sakura mused, pulling her grey cashmere coat higher on her neck.

Ino smiled a little as the two chatted about how angry the Lady Hokage was gonna be and what kind of lecture they would receive. Ino didn’t care. The past week on this body guard mission was a happy break. She liked working among peers her own age. Being with the girls was even better.

“Here you are ladies.” They all perked immediately to the sound of the kind elderly voice of the waitress. Ino’s mouth instantly watered. After completing their escort, they left immediately afterward to avoid the coming storm. This was the first real meal since then and they were all starving.

Little was said as the girls inhaled their food. Even proper and prim Hinata slurped here and there, but then would blush and try and slow down. The food made Ino feel warm. The spicy fish soup brought heat to her cheeks and calmness to her quivering limbs. The little fire in the restaurant was being hogged by some fat little boys who kept throwing their paper napkins into it. Their mother, a chubby thing would absently tell them to stop but of course they ignored her until their father, a skinny reed of a man barked at them to pay attention to their food.

The blowing blizzard winds made the windows shudder, but luckily the restaurant was insulated pretty well so no stray breezes bothered them.

After dinner, everyone bundled up and quickly and head back to the inn where they rented rooms for the remaining duration of their stay. However long the blizzard decided to howl. Ino and Sakura shared a room with twin beds. It was a rather nice dwelling considering that the whole little town looked like a rundown miners retreat. The bedding was warmed by heated rocks before they entered and the floor was carpeted. Ino plopped on her bed, lazily kicking off her shoes and falling on her back in ecstasy. It was really a comfortable mattress.

“Hopefully we can leave tomorrow. I don’t really care for snow.” Sakura mumbled sleepily, sitting on her bed to peel off her winter clothes.

“Snows not so bad.” Ino murmured and then yawned. “I can’t believe how long this day wore on. I wonder what Shikamaru and Choji are doing?” She suddenly said with a frown loosening her lilac scarf from around her neck. The last time she was on a mission with her team was more than three months ago. Shikamaru’s birthday was coming up, she thought with a little smile. And hers was right after.

“I feel so alone sometimes.” Sakura groaned, tossing her gloves to the study desk where their bagpacks were. “Sasuke is gone, Naruto is gone and Kakashi is gone.”

“Kakashi?” Ino turned to her friend with frown. “He’s gone too?”

Sakura’s jade eyes lowered in sadness. “Training. Something about activating the Uchiha’s Mangekyo Sharingan…”

Ino’s head began to buzz and she bolted up, remembering and fearing what she knew was going to come. The room began to fade into darkness. She could hear Sakura’s cry, but then that too faded.

Her breathing was shallow, but strangely loud, echoing in her surrounding land of red skies and shadowed memories that were not her own. She materialized next to Sasuke, staring at the lone figure standing against the back drop of a huge moon. Itachi.

“This is a lie. My brother would never do such things.” Little Sasuke said in a heartbreaking insistent tone. She was back to the night of the massacre, except it was a little different. Death still hung in the air and tears were running down little Sasuke’s cheeks.

“I played the role of the older brother you wanted to test your capacity.” Itachi said. Ino winced at the coldness in his tone. In her heart, she felt sadness and anger and it wasn’t her own feelings. She looked between the two trying to place who was feeling these things. Sasuke sure, but…it could have been Itachi too. It was making her head hurt.

“The one who can test my capacity…you have that potential. You thought of me as unpleasant and hated me. You’ve always wanted to surpass me. That’s why I’m going to let you live. For my sake.” Itachi said in a low voice, it didn’t seem natural. His face was a mask, blank of anything he was feeling yet, Ino felt her heart rebel against those words. Those fake words…those pained words…

“You are also capable of activating the Mangekyo Sharingan. But there is a requirement for that.” The wind picked up, leaving the tension in the air as little Sasuke stared at Itachi with big dark, unbelieving eyes. “Your best friend. You must kill him. As I have.” In her mind, the name Shisui Uchiha danced by like a fleeing ghost.

“That? Brother…” Ino held her breath. Even after all of this, Sasuke stilled called Itachi brother so—so…lovingly. “To Shisui you..?”

“That’s right. And because of that I was able to obtain these eyes.” Itachi paused, his body ridged as if hesitating to go on. But he did, he lowered his chin, skewering little Sasuke with eyes that seemed like glass rocks. “At the main temple of the Nakano Shrine, underneath the seventh tatami mat on the far right side is the clan’s secret meeting place. There, you’ll find the history of the Uchiha’s Clan’s doujutsu and for what purpose it exists. The real secret is there.” Then Itachi gave a taunt smirk, seeing little Sasuke listening to him carefully. “If you can activate it, the number of people, including me, who can use the Mangekyo Sharingan will be three. If that happens, there is a reason to let you live.” He chuckled softly as if amused by some kind of sick inside joke. “But at the moment you aren’t even worth killing.” Because you are too important to kill. The fleeting thought almost escaped her if she hadn’t been focused so intently on the jumbled feelings twisting inside of her.

“My foolish little brother, if you want to kill me, despise me, hate me, and live a loathsome life. Run away, run away and cling to life. And then some day, when you have the same eyes as I do, come before me.” Itachi’s eyes changed…his Sharingan was so blood red, it was the only thing that glowed in the night. The atmosphere changed and Ino’s world became dark again as little Sasuke fainted. But before she felt the cold embrace of the blood soaked ground, some caught her, or rather caught little Sasuke.

Foolish little brother…

Itachi’s warm, tearful voice vibrated in her brain…

“Ino. Ino…” Ugh, she didn’t want to open her eyes. Her head was pound so fiercely she felt nauseated. Who was calling her? Why was she so cold? Where was she? These as well as a million other things crowded her mind.

“Why did this happen again?” Ino painfully cracked one eye. The fuzzy figures of her dad and Lady Tsunade slowly came into focus. From the smell hitting her nose and the feel of scratchy sheets against her skin, she knew she was in the hospital.

“Her exposure to Itachi’s Sharingan is not a mild case. Not by far. He left triggering memories in her head that causes her to go into these comas.” The Hokage explained.

“Why would he do that?” Her dad asked with a stressed hand through his hair.

“We’re not sure. Even Ino doesn’t really know. He wants to show her things for some reason. Probably because of her relationship with Sasuke.”

“There’s no way to stop it?”

Lady Tsunade sighed. “No, and believe me, I’ve looked. There seems to be no lingering effects, if that gives you some comfort.”

Her dad snorted lightly. “Only a bit. Thank you for trying.”

“Sure. I’ll leave you guys alone.” Lady Tsunade glanced down at her briefly before leaving the room with Shizune trailing behind her.

By now, her head was feeling much better and Inoichi gently helped her sit up in bed. The first thing she did was check her hair, praying that it wasn’t a rat’s nest in the back. Her dad smiled and magically produced a brush from the overnight bag sitting on the floor.

“Daddy knows.” He mused when she took it in surprise. She smiled and he leaned in and kissed her temple. “Ah, what am I going to do with you?”

Her time in the hospital wasn’t very long. Lady Tsunade had just wanted her to stay a little longer to monitor her. Afterwards, she was summoned to the Tower with Anko and Ibiki to tell what she had dreamed about. They looked concerned when she told them. Especially Ibiki. She didn’t know what to think when she was hustled out of the office. She blinked at the closed door a little irritated. Well, if they couldn’t include her on their little meeting, then she wouldn’t feel guilty about not telling them everything. She didn’t tell them about the secret meeting place, or Itachi’s haunting thoughts that made her more confused than ever. To unwind this little mystery she found herself in, the first place she could think about going to was the old Uchiha compound.

It wasn’t a hard place to find. A forgotten tomb for the once mighty clan. She stood at its closed gates, feeling a bit daunted by the thought of entering the place where hundreds were killed. Still, she had to go. She had to see what Itachi was talking about. She jumped the gate with learned finesse, landing on the overgrown road that led into the heart of the compound. It was a sad place. The buildings were vacant and the wood was beginning to bleach, seemingly untouched since the massacre. Her heart felt heavy as she silently made her way to the Nakano Shrine behind the old police station. The hilltop was barren. The cold soil sapped life from the grass, leaving brittle straws. Her feet crunched softly as she hiked up the stone steps, closer and closer to her destination. The door to the shrine was unlocked and slid open smoothly. She took off her shoes at the doorway and then looked at the grey room. Light barely filtered though the small rectangular windows that lined the top of the building.

The seventh tatami mat on the far right side…she carefully counted and kneeled. Her thin fingers slid under the mat, catching the pulling string that hooked to the wooden trap door. She peered into the inky depths before looking around the shrine for a candle or something. She found one by an upturned table and grabbed the flint rock next to it. With the secret place illuminated, Ino proceeded down the tube like entrance, landing safely on the cold stone floor. She lit the two fire lamps on either side of her and watched in amazement as the walls came to life in the orange glow. There were two scrolls that wallpapered the wall in front of her as well as the carved rock below the first. She scanned over it, blue eyes shrewdly taking in every kanji.

“Huh. Itachi was telling the truth.” She said out loud, pushing her bangs from her face. How many times did Sasuke come down here to read this? How did Itachi discover this in the first place? She sat down and brought her knees to her chin in silent contemplation, looking over the characters explaining how to get the powerful Mangekyo Sharingan. Killing the closet person to them, it was a barbaric way to gain a power. One had to feel the chaotic and sorrowful emotion of losing that person in order to attain it. One had to be heartless in the face of their closet person. A best friend. A lover maybe.

But Sasuke didn’t kill Naruto. Ino thought in protest. He could have from what Naruto had told her (after she weaseled the battle out of him). He could have killed him but he didn’t. She didn’t have much time to mull over it. Someone was in the room with her. Quickly she got to her feet and pulled out her special kunai, prepared for whatever it was that was lurking in the dark.

“Who are you? Why are you here? You are not Uchiha!” It was a loud, yowling voice.

“Of course I’m not an Uchiha.” Ino scoffed, suddenly not very afraid of the person or thing in the room with her. “A blonde Uchiha? Do such things exist?”

There was a hiss, and then the person/thing came into view with burning green eyes. Ino had to blink a few times. “You’re a cat.” She said a bit dumbly. The black cat was rather larger than a normal house cat and had cat-like ninja clothes on with a kunai strapped to its side.

“So keen you are.” The cat said back, coming closer. “Who are you?”

Ino got over her initial shock at the intruding talking cat. “Are you a summons?”

The cat snorted. “No. Your name.” It ordered. She wasn’t sure of the sex of it so for now, it was an it to her.

“Ino Yamanaka.” She finally supplied. “Do you have a name?”

The cat studies her intently before giving an inclining nod of acknowledgment. “It’s Aio.” The cat said with a little smile. “Yamanaka huh? You must be who he was talking about.” Aio relaxed enough to begin to clean its paw.

“Who? Who is he?” Ino demanded.

“Itachi. He said to keep an eye on you.” Aio said absently like the information wasn’t rocking her world. Like Ino should know who it was talking about and Aio’s explanation was humoring her.

She forced herself back into her nonchalance attitude and raised a brow. “Really? That’s kinda strange.” And unnerving. Itachi was keeping tabs on her? For what? To make sure that her exposure to his Sharingan was doing its job at making her pass out every time something triggered?

…now you will be forever tied with him Ino Yamanaka…Oh, scary. She shook her head to erase it from her mind.

“Yes. It is strange. But the Uchiha are long time clients of Elder Cat. When one asks us to do something, we do it.” Aio said a bit proudly, its green eyes sparkling in the fire like emeralds.

She became a little defensive and resisted the urge to fold her arms. That would show weakness. “So what? Are you gonna follow me around? Become a bodyguard or something?”

Aio grinned a strange little grin. “Something like that.”

Oh how she loved being left out of the loop. Aio left just as mysteriously as it showed up, but Ino was sure that was not the last time she would be seeing the cat. She was being watched, being monitored. What was he expecting her to do? She turned back to the scrolls on the wall. What she learned, coupled with the secret meeting in the Hokage Tower was just making her more curious.

“Itachi, what are you doing? What are you up to? Why do I feel like there is so much more to your story than even Sasuke knows?”

Ino thought that she would have had more time to get used to the idea of becoming a secretly willing kidnapped person. When the plan was first presented to her when she was thirteen, she had little time to actually think about it. Then she was thrust into mind numbing training under Anko and Ibiki. That filled her days. Now, at fifteen (as of four days ago), the whole dawning realization came crashing down on her. Standing in front of three Sound ninja she was beginning to regret doing this. Sure she would love to see Sasuke again, but being so close to Orochimaru? Kabuto? It was making her scared. Could she really do this? Was she really up for this?

“This is the point of no return.” That was what Anko had said as she and some ANBU escorted her to this place. Ugh, how come she had to say it like that? She made it sound like she was marching to her death. How could Lady Tsunade be sure Orochimaru wouldn’t kill her?

“He likes collecting Leaf Ninja who are captured by his Sound nin. He has a soft spot for them. He’ll try and turn them into missing nins and get them to become his ninjas. Those who don’t conform are used as lab rats, or killed depending on his moods I guess…”

“Make sure they see your headband. You have to make sure…” Ibiki had cautioned her.

“Put on a good show Blondie. Fight all the way to the end…” Anko’s way of cheering Ino thought a bit fondly.

 Yes, this was the point of no return Ino thought as the first Sound ninja came after her. This was make it or break it. All the training was coming down to this, her first S class mission. Gods, so much pressure! The first ninja was incapacitated easily enough.

He clumsily made her way to her in a hurried pace and she sent a high kick to his chest to halt him. He stumbled back with a grunt and she did a little half flip, kicking the side of his face with a loud slap. She created a seal quickly, capturing him in a mild mind disturbance jutsu that only muddled his mind halfheartedly before landing a final punch to the nose. He fell to the ground, unmoving. She had to admit, Anko’s speed training was well worth the endurance weights she had to wear for five whole months. Curse Guy and Lee for giving her “free” samples of the ones they used.

When the other two came after her at the same time, she had to take drastic action. Putting distance between them with a kick to the groin to get one of them to back away, she pressed her special kunai into the soft dirt in hiding as she corralled them to it. She skillfully ended up behind them and took possession of the shorter one, halting him in place. The other skidded to a halt just as his partner was sucked into the ground, knee deep. Just one more to go. Were they all this easy? How could she allow herself to be captured by ninjas like them? She had her pride!

The mobile one took out a strange looking flute and played a nice little tune for her. Except the nice little tune came with strong sound waves. They knocked her back and threw her body out of sync. Her head began to scream in protest and her whole body was vibrating. The very first ninja she took out picked himself up from the ground, flicking some stray leaves from his clothes. He was just acting, Ino thought, falling to her knees with a groan, trying to recover her bearings. Jeeze, what kind of flute was that? Everything around her looked like it was shaking, like her whole world was vibrating. She closed her eyes tightly and took a few deep breaths, but it didn’t help.

“Enough. She’s Leaf.” The first ninja told the guy with the flute. “You’ll liquefy her brain with those waves if you’re not careful.”

“Bitch tried to knee me in the balls!” He protested, but thankfully stopped playing his damn flute.

Ino chuckled and got to her feet. “If I had wanted to knee you in the balls, I would have done it.” She said, swallowing her nausea. “Rather, I had something else in mind.” She said, bringing her hands together. “You jumped out of the way to avoid my knee, but in doing that, you have straddled my trap.”

The flute guy looked down in horror as the ground rumbled where she put her special kunai. The ground hardened and sharp rocks protruded, lengthening and catching the flute guy in his groin. His whole body was like meat on a kabob and the top of his skull make a loud pop as the sharp end of the rock stuck out of his crown. The short one still caught in the ground cried out in horror. Even she was a bit horrified, but Anko said she had to make it good. She had to be serious.

“I bet that took a lot of your chakra.” The first ninja mused, seemingly not caring a bit that his teammate had just been killed. He was mid range, somehow knowing that that was a safe place for him. If he had been closer, she could have done some taijutsu, if he had been further away, she could have used a mind technique. But he was in the middle so he would be fast enough to halt her if he saw her create a seal and safe enough to be out of close range. The first fight had just been his way of gauging her skills. Clever. Anko would have been disappointed that she didn’t pick up on that earlier. It was kind of a fast and easy fight and nothing like that was ever too good to be true. She pulled the thin wire attached to her special kunai and her jutsu faded away, leading the dead ninja crumpled by the struggling one stuck in the ground.

Her chakra was still holding the short guy, but he was wriggling out of it and would soon be free. What to do now? Run? Seemed like a safe idea if the first guy wasn’t watching her so closely. He was waiting, she realized. Waiting for her to tire out, to drain her chakra. Ino’s eyes kept moving from one guy to the other. Reaching into her side pouch, she replaced her special kunai and produced a regular one.

Fight all the way to the end. She had to let the sort guy go. Once she did, she and the first guy went head to head finally. He had been holding back the first time they had fight. He was a lot quicker. A lot. Her head was still kinda buzzing from the flute guy, and it seemed to get worse. Behind the grunting and heavy breathing, she realized that he was humming. The louder he hummed the more her head swam. The world began to vibrate again. She pathetically fell to the ground, holding her hands over her ears.

“Mintobi, finish her off.” A hit to her head was the move and then the world went dark. The first part of her mission was complete…