Sky on Fire: Slow Burn - Chapter 12 (Part 1)
Title: Slow Burn
Chapter: 12 Watch (Part I)
Author/Artist: Killaurey
Word Count: 8318
Disclaimer: Naruto doesn't belong to me. It's Kishimoto's and I just play with it. AU immediately after the Sasuke Retrieval Arc. Part 12 of ? Unbeta'd.
--
Overhead the sky was clear. Pale, chilly blue without a cloud in sight. The vast emptiness of the world above them didn't matter much once they headed out, down the path, and mostly under the cover of the forest.
She was just glad that it wasn't raining. That would've been an awful way to start out for an exam. Like the weather itself was mocking them. Stretching idly, Ino fell into the easy run they would be travelling in.
They had to move quickly, to get there in time, but they didn't have to rush and this ground-eating pace would leave them tired but, for the sensei at least (and, she mentally added with a bit of a laugh, Rock Lee), not entirely wiped out should they be attacked along the way.
If anyone did attack them, though, Ino rather thought that they'd deserve the painful death they'd get. Who in their right mind would attack four Jounin and twelve Chuunin-hopefuls?
Hearing someone else's laughter had her glancing over to see a brunette who she didn't recognize talking to a guy who had to be her teammate. Ino made a note to get their names later. They had to stick together at least that much, even if it was a bit, well, odd to be travelling with so many of shinobi.
Ino glanced back over her shoulder, then ahead of her, and everywhere that she looked there were people with the hitae-ite of her village on their person. Back behind, hidden now in the trees was Konoha.
Shikamaru too. Kick some ass, he'd said. She definitely would. Not for him though-she'd do it because she could. Because she was strong enough this time. Had to be.
Shrugging a bit irritably, Ino focused her attention on Sakura and Chouji. "Hey," she said, "I was just thinking, but--what about our teamwork? We're going to need it for the first few exams at the very least."
They'd all gone through on exam before after all. This time they weren't the rookies.
Sakura looked thoughtful. "If it's a survival test, there'll be no problems. None of us are stupid enough to fuss during that--survival is going to be different anyway, thanks to the change in location."
As Konoha nin, after all, they were far more versed in how to survive in the forests and the plains that surrounded them than anywhere else. But, as ninja, they had to be adaptable. That was true strength.
"Kumo's got mountains," Chouji noted, "it's surrounded by them. We're going to have a lot of stone and not that much in the way of green cover. At least, that's my guess."
Shooting him a quick smile, Ino reached up to tug at her small braids as she considered that. "Your dad's been teaching you earth jutsu, right?" she asked, voice so low that it wouldn't travel past them. There was no helping privacy, not on the road, not while they moved, but at the very least she could do her best to keep from making it easy for the others to figure it out.
Chouji nodded. "I'll fill you in later," he said easily. "But yeah--earth jutsu, and family jutsu mainly. We've also got everything Asuma-sensei's drilled us in."
"Teamwork teamwork teamwork?" Sakura teased them.
Ino tossed her head. "Teamwork," she parroted one of Asuma-sensei's lecture's at Sakura, "is one of the most important skills that any shinobi in the field has. It's not flashy, it's not a new jutsu to wow your friends with, but it'll keep your team alive, and get all of you home in one piece."
Asuma-sensei's laugh rolled over them. "Got it memorized?" he asked easily, falling back into pace with them.
She flushed slightly--it was a little embarrassing being caught out on something like that, considering that Ino probably shouldn't have been lecturing on teamwork. Not after the last few months as their team had struggled to put themselves back together. "It's important, Asuma-sensei," Ino said, almost defiantly.
"We're just trying to figure out what our weaknesses might be in the field during the exam," Chouji intervened quickly. "And we were discussing what we'd learnt in the last few months."
Truth, all of it. And yet not quite the spirit of it. Ino bit her tongue and let it go. Sakura blinked incredulously at her.
"That so?" Asuma-sensei asked, flicking out a cigarette and lighting it in one smooth motion. "What have you figured out so far?"
Sakura let out a sigh. "Survival will have to be figured out first," she said, green eyes still slightly narrowed at Ino. "We're not sure of what we'll be facing so we're discussing what we know of the terrain."
"Mountainous," Ino supplied. "But mostly rock. They don't have a huge amount of vegetation which puts us at a disadvantage because we're used to operating with the foliage and other greenery."
Asuma-sensei nodded, smoke from his cigarette spiraling into the air. "What about temperatures?"
"Depends on the location of the exams," Chouji answered. "The air will be thinner, and that means the base temperature will be cooler, but they're well known for their hot-springs in Lightning Country so we can't rule out high humidity."
"Which could mean that there's fog in the morning," she chimed in, thinking on her lessons with her father. "And in the evening."
"Weapons could be adversely affected." Sakura frowned. "Wire could get loose, rope definitely would with that much humidity in the air, and grips could get slick. All of that would affect our odds as well."
"Good," Asuma-sensei said, looking pleased. "Tell me what you'd do to anticipate those difficulties."
It was an order, not a request. Ino shared a look with Chouji and Sakura; they hadn't exactly planned on getting a lesson while they ran, but there was no use arguing about it when it was actually something useful.
And their sensei could help diffuse things if arguments got heated between her and Sakura. Ino wrinkled her nose slightly as Sakura started listing ways to deal with the humidity. She knew herself well enough to know that keeping her mouth shut was probably going to have to be a major thing to pay attention to during this.
After all, they'd always fought. Ever since Sakura had stepped out from her influence. Ino's lips curved slightly at that thought.
Chouji was mid-way through his opinion about how kunai might be affected when Ino glanced over at Asuma-sensei. "Our kunai shouldn't be too affected," she said, cutting across Chouji's comment. "If the temperatures are hitting Konoha standard then our weapons are adapted for that." She shrugged an apology at Chouji for interrupting him; he rolled his eyes at her and smiled.
"Good point," Sakura said, sounding slightly surprised.
Ino pretended she hadn't heard it. Cool, calm, and dignified. Seriously. Otherwise this team was so not going to work and if it didn't anyway then she didn't want it to be her fault.
"It is," Asuma-sensei conceded. "How about the way the altitude will affect your bodies? The air is thinner up there."
"That'd make it harder to breathe," Chouji said, frowning at that. "And would be an additional burden during a fight, never mind just scouting and travelling."
"You'd adjust to it though," Sakura pointed out.
"Immediately?" Asuma-sensei asked, raising his eyebrows slightly.
"No," Sakura said, flushing slightly. "But if we make it to the finals, with the month between the semi-final exam and the public one, it shouldn't be an issue then."
"Yeah," Ino said dryly, "in a month's time--at the finals."
Sakura glared daggers at her, drawing in breath to response, and Chouji put a warning hand on Ino's elbow.
"Can we spend one day without fighting?" he murmured.
Ino raised her eyebrows at him. "This," she assured him blithely, "isn't really a fight. This is a mild disagreement, so don't worry about it."
His sigh was resigned, but he took her at face value. And it was true, after all, she did much the same with Shikamaru all the time. A minor argument helped make time pass by quicker. At least, that was her theory and she was sticking to it.
She didn't say what they were all suddenly thinking, of course, that it was really up in the air if they'd even make it to the finals. All of their teams had been chosen for a reason, after all, and Ino had no doubt whatsoever that the other villages that were sending shinobi to be tested would have picked only the best and most ready to become Chuunin.
"What?" Sakura drawled insultingly. "You can't tell me that you think we won't make it to the finals. I know you and your ego is bigger than your head."
Oh. Oh it was on.
"And yet, funnily enough," Ino said brightly, in that sharp-edged gleeful way that had Chouji slipping over to run with Asuma-sensei instead of being caught between the two of them. "My ego is still smaller than your forehead."
It was a mark in their favour, Ino admitted, as she bickered with Sakura and Asuma-sensei murmured something to Chouji, that they'd even been chosen, and so young as they were compared to a lot of other Genin. All of the other teams going with them, from their own village even, were older.
Tenten's team was only a year older, but Ino knew how much she'd changed in a year and could only imagine what an additional year would have done to that, if she'd been in her place. The lecture seemed over for now, Asuma-sensei was smiling around his cigarette and Chouji was using his hands to explain something to their sensei; Ino waved Sakura off and stepped up her pace to fall into step with Tenten.
"Having fun, little bird?" Tenten asked, amused and shooting her a smile. "I think everyone in the camp heard you and Sakura going at it there. Anything serious?"
Ino shrugged and laughed, watching as Rock fell back to talk with Sakura. "Not really," she said easily. "It's more of a 'that's just what we do' sort of thing." Ever since Sakura had given back the ribbon, really. That had been when the fighting had started.
"That's going to make it interesting if you're out in playing hide-and-seek for days on end," Tenten observed. "It's unusual for a team dynamic like that to be viable."
"I know," she admitted, "but when push comes to shove, we'll do okay. We're used to watching each other's backs, even if it's only so we can mock the other for being weak enough to need rescue afterwards."
Which was true enough. Ino had certainly ribbed Sakura more than a little about the fight in the forest last time around. Cutting her hair, clinging to Uchiha, Ino still figured that a bit of mocking had been a good thing there. And Sakura had still let her near enough to trust with a pair of scissors, so there was that. Not everything had to be said with words, after all.
Tenten laughed. "I almost feel sorry for you guys."
"Almost?"
"Well," Tenten said slyly, "if you guys are fighting, then there's a better chance of my team getting through, so really I find it hard to fully sympathize."
"Puh-lease," Ino drawled, stretching her arms as she ran. "As if Hyuuga and Rock would let my team take out your team."
"And you think I would?"
"No," she added hastily. "But everyone knows they're the heaviest hitters of the Genin along from Konoha. We've all got skills, but seriously, I wouldn't want either of those two to face off against me."
Tenten nodded, face relaxing. "That's true enough. Weapons, I know you can avoid with a fair bit of accuracy, but getting touched by Neji, or going hand-to-hand with Lee..."
Ino wrinkled her nose. "Exactly. They're not exactly my optimal sort of opponent. I'm not bad at Taijutsu, but I'm not anywhere in Rock's range. And fighting Hyuuga is always a major pain."
Jyuuken was totally a cheat, seriously. But Ino knew that, in this sort of exam, any sort of advantage you could gain over an opponent was a valid and applauded advantage. Not that that sort of thinking really helped on the side of those who had to face up against it.
"Yeah," she said, shaking her head. "I'd much rather go up against you, no offense. You're scary with the weapons, but I could put up a fight against them and know it."
"None taken," Tenten said meditatively. "I get that a fair bit, actually." Her grin sharpened. "People think I'm the weakest link of the team all the time, not realizing that Gai-sensei wouldn't allow any weak links. You, at least, are thinking about it and have gone up against me before. I can deal with that sort of opinion in that case."
Ino silently agreed with that. She didn't know Maito-sensei well, but from what she'd seen of him, and what Tenten had told her of their training sessions during their practices, she honestly doubted that he'd ever let any of his team hang on to an obvious weakness.
"Not like I don't get my share of dismissals either," Ino added. "I mean, seriously, Shikamaru was the only one of our group to make Chuunin, right? And so everyone acts like oh, she's just the girl, because I didn't even go and nearly get killed on that mission. Chouji's left alone, you know, because no one is going to say anything about how he's had to pretty much start over from scratch and work his way back up after--after."
And the look on Ino's face said very clearly that anyone who messed with him that way was going to be dealing with her.
"But me, it's like, most people just go 'oh, and they've got a girl on their team too, what's her name?' and all of that."
"Just like that," Tenten agreed, then gave her a sidelong look. "But maybe the kids around our age are saying things like that, but it does seem like you've been causing a few waves higher up."
Ino blinked at her. "I guess so," she said, a bit dubiously. "I mean, I know that I've been doing well, and Hokage-sama said 'good work' on my last mission, that was a total bitch you've got no idea, but I'm not, like, anything super--I'm not a major genius."
"You don't have to be to get attention," Tenten laughed. "That's really Lee's whole work ethic in a nutshell. Just--I don't know if you've noticed, but you've improved a lot since the last exam, and people notice that sort of hard work."
Normally Ino was perfectly content to preen and accept compliments as her due (Sakura's comments about her ego were not entirely based in fiction, after all) but this made her feel a little weirdly shy.
"I just got tired of being left behind," she said finally. "There's not a whole lot more to it than that."
Tenten's smile was soft. "I think you're doing a good job then. Keep it up."
Ino's eyes narrowed slightly in determination. "I was planning to."
--
Sakura was seated on her bedroll, hunched over a scroll with posture that would make anyone but a teenager cry, and studying it intently. She knew that when it came to offensive jutsu she was weak still--Tsunade-shishou had been more focused on getting her chakra up high enough that she could utilize medical jutsu, and then when they'd gotten closer to the exam, now that she thought back on it, the focus had shifted more to her taijutsu.
Tsunade-shishou, Sakura thought wryly, had known I'd be taking the exam from the start. She wasn't sure how she felt about that; it could have backfired if Ino had put her foot down and refused to play her part.
Lifting her head, Sakura glanced across the camp to see where Ino actually was. The blonde was chattering at Tenten while the dark-haired girl looked to be cleaning a few of her weapons.
Where were you last night? Sakura thought, but didn't voice. For one, voicing that thought across their campground would get her no answers and draw way too much attention. It didn't stop her from wondering, though, and considering that the only reason she even knew that Ino hadn't been in bed the whole night was because she'd woken up to get a drink and noticed her friend gone… Sakura knew that Ino had no intentions of just being open with it.
The fact that Ino looked tired, despite her presumed cheer, just gave her more to think about. Sakura shoved her hair back out of her face and glanced at the sky. Another half an hour and then they'd move out. Time enough to study a bit more then. She had no time to waste when it came to that.
Just about to go back to her scroll, she paused as a shadow fell across her light. "Sakura-kun?"
Giving him a bit of a grin, she looked up at Chouji. "Hey," she said, "what's up?"
He settled down near her and followed her gaze over to where Ino was. "She looks like crap," Chouji observed, his words not hiding his worry at all.
Sakura's lips twitched and she fought the urge to laugh at that. Ino would go spare if she ever heard that Chouji had said that about her. "I don't think she's sleeping well," Sakura replied instead. "She wasn't in her bed for a good part of the night."
Chouji's grimace deepened. "Any idea what's up with her?"
Shaking her head, Sakura considered her scroll, then rolled it up. Half an hour could be spared talking to him--she'd just study a little later that night to make up the time. "She hasn't even admitted there's anything going on," Sakura said, making a bit of a face at that. "Actually, she spends most of her time hanging around Tenten-san. I didn't know they were that good of friends."
It was sort of--weird. Her not knowing. Sakura wasn't sure how she felt about that considering that she'd been living with Ino for the last few months. She had to admit that, for all Ino's talking and chattering, Ino was pretty good at keeping her own counsel.
"They train together a fair bit," Chouji answered. "I guess it started back when they both were covering for Chuunin at the Academy."
Nodding, as that was an explanation that made sense, Sakura tucked her scroll away into her pack. "I wonder if she knows, then?"
"I doubt she'd tell me," Chouji said, sighing. "Ino doesn't tell anyone anything unless she's got enough trust in them to know that they're not going to spill it at the first question--and I barely know Tenten-san at all. I know Neji and Lee a bit better, but we're not very close at all."
"Not surprising," she commented, echoing his sigh. "They're out on missions a lot and you've been training to get your strength back. There's no shame in that."
"It's not about shame." He wasn't looking at her right now, still gazing off in Ino's direction. "Did you hear what Shikamaru said to Ino when we left?"
"I didn't," she admitted, "I was talking to Lee-san, and he's pretty--loud." It was true, and respecting him didn't change that fact at all.
Chouji's grin told her that he understood perfectly what she meant with that comment. Lee was--well, someone she respected, for sure, but he was also very very loud and excitable sometimes.
Well.
Most of the time. But Sakura, after a year of working with Naruto, was pretty good at dealing with 'loud and excitable' especially when Lee-san actually had her respect. Naruto did, these days, but he was her teammate. There was a different sort of dynamic to the respect.
"He said," Chouji continued on, "'kick some ass'."
Sakura considered that, and tilted her head at Ino as she tried to put that together with what else she knew about the whole situation that had developed between the two of them. "...isn't he the one who was telling her before that she wasn't good enough to teach and stuff?" she asked finally, looking away from Ino before the other girl caught on to the fact that she was being watched.
"Yeah," Chouji admitted. "I don't know what's changed--he hated the fact that our last mission Ino was the one who bore the brunt of it, did she tell you that?"
"No," she said, looking at Chouji. "She didn't."
He made a face. "I can't tell you very much," he said, "mission confidentiality and all of that, you know how it goes. But yeah, Ino got into some pretty hot water for a while there and we weren't able to do much to help her out."
"She got out though." Because that was--well, if she hadn't, then Sakura knew that this exam wouldn't have Ino even coming along. She doubted that Chouji would've either or... for that matter, if she would have wanted to go. Shaking her head to clear it of those thoughts, Sakura rested one hand comfortingly on Chouji's arm. "She got clear of the situation on her own?"
"Mostly," Chouji said, smiling down at her hand. "We did help, but most of it was from her. We were a diversion, I suppose."
"What did Shikamaru think about that?" she wondered. "I know he had that whole thing with her needing to be protected while on missions."
Sakura knew that from the way that Ino would come back from practise raging about the formations and plans that Shikamaru was coming up with. She didn't mention to Chouji that sometimes Ino had been so angry that she'd cried and then promptly flung herself even further into her studies.
"I don't know," Chouji admitted. "This whole thing as been one big game of 'who can keep the best secrets' so I'm working on just how well I know the both of them. Shikamaru wasn't happy about any of it--and I don't think he was happy about how the mission was swung even if it all worked out in the end either."
"But he still wished her well for the exam." Sakura tucked a strand of hair back behind one ear and considered that. It was a bit odd, all things considered-almost sweet, now that she thought about it. "I don't know--do you think he meant it?"
Chouji looked thoughtful. "I think that... he did," he said finally. "Shikamaru doesn't lie very often."
That was interesting to know, she thought, pulling a strand of her hair out in front of her face before shoving it back. "I didn't know that," Sakura commented, mostly so that she could say something, anything, rather than go back to just brooding on what was up with Ino.
How could she do this when they had an exam in a hostile foreign country to go through? Ino had the worst timing ever and, Sakura added wryly, was probably the best out of all of them at avoiding a topic when she didn't want to talk about it. That was going to make things a bit of a pain, really.
"Well," Chouji laughed quietly, "it's not like you hung around him much in the Academy."
"No," she had to admit that, "I was busy with other things." Other boys, trying to beat Ino, trying to ignore Naruto, trying to make up for the weaknesses of being a first generation shinobi... "Don't you think it's kind of weird how much has changed in a year and a half?"
Had it really only been that long? It felt like it should've been a great deal longer but that was what the calendar said when she looked at it. So much had happened and some of it was good, a lot of it was good even, but then there was so much bad that her memories were mixed together.
"It's been pretty crazy," he answered her. Glancing over at him, Sakura wasn't surprised to see that he looked calm. "But I think that's a good thing, don't you? We've learnt a lot, and we've got better friends this time, now, than we did last year."
There was no way that she could argue with that. Sakura knew that, now that she looked back on her Academy days, that she'd never really had many friends--Ino's friends, for a while, and then she'd deliberately separated herself from them. Then with her team...
Naruto had taken her a good while to warm up to, he wasn't her type at all, not for a friend, but now that he was one, she knew that she had him for life as a friend. Sakura's smile went a bit rueful; a friend, even if he wanted more than that. Uchiha Sasuke...
Shaking her head, Sakura pushed thoughts of her former teammate and Kakashi-sensei from her mind. Uchiha, once Sasuke-kun to her, was a minefield of emotions and she didn't want to deal with that right now. And Kakashi-sensei... she didn't know what to think these days when it came to him.
Tsunade-shishou had shown her what a good teacher really was. She'd learnt more in the last six months than she had in the year before that and some days Sakura wondered if it had just been because he'd been so focused on Sasuke-kun that he hadn't even cared what she did. But that was uncharitable.
"We do," she said, realizing that Chouji was waiting for and answer, and making a mental note to talk to Kakashi-sensei about that when they got back to Konoha. It was something, Sakura realized, that she wanted answers to. "I mean," she continued, a grin growing on her face. "I'm friends with you now, right?"
The look on his face was utterly worth the effort of saying that. It was true too.
--
Tucking her hair back with her hitae-ite she slipped out of her house, careful to avoid making noise near Sayuri's-her younger sister-room. Tsubaki wasn't in the mood to deal with Sayuri's fighting this morning.
And not in the mood to fight back, as her sister expected her to. Tsubaki wanted the quiet peace of the morning to last just a little longer. Trotting down the street, she waved to those who she recognized, and headed out for the practice fields.
The practice area was like many of their areas: rocky, and all one shade of it to boot. There was a small stream of water at the far end, but other than that it was pretty much their standard. Trees were less common in Kumogakure, and weren't to be wasted on areas where the ninja practicing could easily kill them. No, the foliage was mainly concentrated in areas where there was more likely to be chakra control practices, or a lecture-type lesson.
For them, though, this area was the best, even if she was going to be studying genjutsu. Taka needed to practice is taijutsu-Yukio-sensei had promised to help him-and Masanori wanted to try out a new Katon jutsu that he'd been reading up on.
That suited Tsubaki just fine.
It was a study day today, rather than a mission, or anything else, so while Taka was practicing his forms under the watchful eye of Yukio-sensei, and Masanori was studying from a scroll, Tsubaki settled herself down, back to a rock, and closed her eyes.
Though it probably looked like it, if she were seen by someone who wasn't a ninja, she wasn't slacking off at all. There was a certain order to things and before she could practice her genjutsu Tsubaki had to make sure her mind was carefully ordered.
She had a fair bit to consider, after all. Especially with the Chuunin exams starting in only a few days. Her smile turned slightly wry. Sayuri was determined to turn the exam into another of their competitions. Tsubaki just wished that her slightly younger sister would grow out of that need soon enough--faster rather than slower as it was--and waited eagerly for the day when that happened.
It wasn't her fault, after all, for having been born eleven minutes before Sayuri and thus been made the heir to their clan.
Not, Tsubaki admitted, that she was eager to give up her position as heir, even if Sayuri was showing a marked preference for their family skills rather than Tsubaki's rather lackluster interest in them but that wasn't something that was a useful thought right now.
Not when she had to focus her mind on the illusion she wanted to create.
A lot of the genjutsu that she'd looked up had been of the nightmare sort--people who'd believe that their limbs were being melted off, people who'd see their loved ones tortured in front of them and fully believe that there was nothing they could do but answer the questions poised to stop it.
Those weren't very interesting to her. Tsubaki smiled, forming the chakra needed for the first step of her own jutsu. Her hands slid through the seals that controlled this jutsu with ease that spoke of long practice. As it should; she'd been working on this one for years.
A flickering butterfly appeared in the air in front of her, glittering with the chakra that gave it the appearance of life. Wings of wavering blue and pink kept it afloat. As it fluttered around her head Tsubaki added a few more of the butterflies, as many as she could without feeling over whelmed-thirteen, she noted, up one from last week, that was an improvement-and let her breath out in a sigh.
Her genjutsu relied on, rather than horror, dreams.
Not the dreams that came while you slept, no. But rather the ones that crept through your mind while you were lost in work, lost in thought, the ones that gave pleasure and distraction from whatever mundane task was on-going. Daydreams. It seemed almost a gentle sort of genjutsu-her sister certainly took it as such, with her scathing comments, but Tsubaki had long since learnt to give as good as she got back because to do otherwise would only make her look bad.
And looking bad was something that had to be avoided, personal inclinations or not. Brushing back her hair, some if it always escaped from her hitae-ite, Tsubaki carefully, through her chakra instructed the butterflies to lift off and fly further away from her. Sweat trickled down her face as the effort she was exerting took its toll on her-controlling so many chakra constructs was not an easy task, especially not when, under usual circumstances, it only took one or two to achieve the same effect on a person.
But Tsubaki didn't want to ensnare only one person in her genjutsu at a time. If it was going to be really useful, then it was going to have to have a wider range of impact, and that meant, in short:
Practice, practice, practice.
It was the root of everything, that. Tsubaki understood that well, knowing that it wasn't simply a matter of natural selection or anything like that--no matter how strong a base you were given by an accident of birth there was no point to it at all if there was nothing ventured to keep the base strong.
Make it stronger. She set her chin stubbornly as the butterflies flew further and further away from her. Tsubaki sent them dancing up above her head. Five feet, ten feet, fifteen feet--and then, almost panting with the effort, she forced them even further.
Thirteen of them was a number that was definitely draining her reserves quickly. Tsubaki knew that, had it been in a real situation, that using this many would have been a last ditch effort.
But that was why she worked on it. If she could get the distance, get the range, then her jutsu would be one that would make people wary of coming across her at all. It wasn't the same as what her family would have her do, but Tsubaki, at fifteen, knew well her own limits.
This was more her style. Beautiful, graceful, and deadly.
It was easy, after all, to end the threat of someone while they were so wrapped up in the day dreams her butterflies plunged them into that the real world was the one that seemed like a hazy dream.
"That's enough, Tsubaki-chan," Yukio-sensei called. "Take a breather and stretch out. You're low on chakra."
"Yes!" she gasped out, and began the process of dispersing her creations. If done right she could reclaim a tiny bit of chakra to help shore up the sudden weakness brought about by the end of the jutsu. Weaknesses, though, could be corrected.
Letting the last butterfly go, Tsubaki let out a sigh and leaned back against the rock.
"Here," Masanori said, offering her a canteen. "You probably need it."
Her lips curved into a smile. "Thanks," Tsubaki said, greedily drinking from it. "How did it look?"
He was the best of them, after all, at spotting weaknesses from the outside. Masanori slid down the rock to sit next to her, pulling out a pad of paper as he did so. "I was thinking about the wings," he began, and she leaned forward to listen.
In the background, Taka and Yukio-sensei continued their practice. It was just another day.
Seven days until the Chuunin exam. They'd be ready for it.
--
There was no light.
That fact reached her slowly. It was alright, at first, before it sunk in. At that point, at first, the darkness was almost soothing, the fact that she was bundled up seemed safe, and the lack anyone else to keep her company was something that just didn't occur to her anything needed to be worried about. It just doesn't hit her radar as anything important. Nothing was important in this darkness.
It's safe, somehow.
As she kept on going, moving, and now she was walking even though there was another part of her that is still bundled up--how, a small, more awake part of her mind protested, can she be walking and yet bundled up--as she moved and that's when things start getting just a little weird.
The ground, inky dark and smooth as silk, started feeling more like dirt. Like rock. There were little bits and pieces of gravel under her feet and now they were stinging at her knees-
she crawled along, only determination keeping her going
-and there's nothing around her but rock and darkness. It pressed down on her, crushing her, and she couldn't breathe but can't stop either.
On and on she moved, somehow still alive; there's something wrong--her hands bleed but all the pain is in her back and her hair is long now. Far longer than it was during the mission and it's so blonde that it almost glows in the dark. She could see it even though she can't see anything else-not even her hands. Loose and her hair spills down her shoulders, tangling her knees and hands until she was sliding down a rock slide and bruised and bleeding everywhere.
Pain.
She's still struggling, still breathing, still moving and trying to crawl but then she's also walking and there's chains on her hands-bandages cover her mouth and that's why she can't scream and there's tears creeping down her face as a deep sullen rumble splits the air, splits the dark, and there's nothing but rock coming for h--
Ino jerked awake sharply, rolling over onto her stomach and then struggling to get out of her bedroll. Trying to be quiet, trying not to get the attention of anyone else, even as tears trickled down her face and her breathing was coming in harsh, short pants.
"Yamanaka." It was Hyuuga, and she closed her eyes as his sandals came into her view.
"Go away," she rasped, forcing arms that were trembling with residual fear to support her as she fought out of her sleeping bag and revelled in the feel of air against her shaking limbs. Air is more than what she had in her nightmare. "I'm fine."
She could feel him staring at her, didn't want to look up to see his expression, and despised herself for being so weak. The nightmares hadn't been much while at home--it was hard to have bad dreams when everything was normal, usual, and things were soft and warm and even if she did wake up it only took a few seconds to confirm that her dad and mom were around before she could drift back to sleep.
Adult in the eyes of the village, yes, but Ino was still deeply glad for her parents. They stabilized her, secured her, gave her safety even when there was none to be had.
Then Hyuuga knelt down in front of her, one hand cool when pressed on her forehead. Ino flinched at the unexpected contact and blinked up at him. His face was unreadable to her; she wondered if it was to Tenten and Rock. Ino just didn't know him well enough to see beyond his mask.
"You're not fine," he said in a low tone of voice. "Get up and walk with me. You won't be able to sleep while in a state like that."
He spoke as if from experience, Ino swallowed the urge to retort when she remembered that he, too, had nearly died while out on a mission. She wondered if that gave him nightmares. "I," she said, hands trembled still despite her attempts to quell their movement--and that did nothing for the few leaked tears that she angrily brushed away. "You're on watch, then? I can--help."
That idea was more palatable than the one that suggested he didn't need help and was being kind. Ino could only hope that this would go unremarked by the others travelling with them. It was probably too much to hope for that the Jounin hadn't woken up, but if she were lucky Sakura and Chouji wouldn't have noticed...
She reached for her sandals, glad that they hadn't been too misplaced in her tossing and turning, and slipped them on before Ino forced herself to her feet, pretending that Hyuuga didn't need to steady her when she nearly turned her ankle on a rock and had to bite down a shriek because that hit just too close to her nerves right now.
Thank goodness the exam wasn't being held in Iwa, she thought fervently. There was no way she'd have been able to handle that.
It was a blow to her pride, that fact, but Ino couldn't deny it. In the three days they'd been out of Konoha, she'd discovered just how little control she had over her thoughts while she slept. And that was when the rock, the creeping pressure that made it impossible for her to breathe always came back.
If she knocked on the ceiling in her dreams would it all fall down on her? Shuddering, Ino decided that she didn't want to know. "I can walk," she said, when he didn't show any inclination to remove his hand from her elbow. "It wasn't anything--big."
Just the dirt and the dark and the pain. Her hands ached with the memory. Shaking them out, she watched as he raised one eyebrow. The Byakugan was active now; she said nothing as he looked right at her, knowing that he was seeing more her circulatory system than anything else.
"There's no chakra irregularities," he said instead, turning his head away while checking out the area.
"Of course not," she muttered back, keeping her voice low. "It was just a bad dream, okay? It wasn't anything more than that."
"It's a poor time to start having dreams," he said, not rising to her bait.
Ino narrowed her eyes at him. "Not like it was my idea, Hyuuga-san."
The faintest hint of what was almost a smile brushed his face before disappearing. "I suppose," he acknowledged. "Nonetheless, the fact remains that your ill-timed dreams may prove to make the exam more difficult."
"Oh goody," she murmured, keeping an eye out for rocks and wondered what he was getting at. Why was he even talking to her? They didn't get along; they'd never talked before or anything.
There. That was a much better thing to ponder than--than what she had going on in her head right now. "Why're you even bothering?" she asked. "I mean, it's not like my losing is going to affect you at all. In fact, if I fall out of the running, then your odds are better."
"And Konoha loses the prestige of the fact that our women are as strong as our men." He shook his head.
That... was so not an answer. "Uh," Ino said, "I mean, great, I'm totally strong in my own way--but you're, like, you." Not her most articulate comment ever, but Ino was going with the fact that it was late and she'd just woken from a nightmare and was talking to someone who... had never paid her any attention before to excuse it.
Besides, the way he sort of winced at that sentence was worth it.
"What I can do," he noted, "has little bearing on what you can do. The more Konoha nin who make it to the final exam and are seen to be strong the better we come out of this situation. Kumogakure is unlikely to be doing this for fun."
"Or for peace," she said shrewdly. "I mean, that makes sense why Hinata-chan wasn't sent along. She'd be too big a prize, and Hokage-sama wouldn't allow it even if Hyuuga-sama did." Which she doubted, really, after the effort of trying to shove Hinata into a marriage she didn't want.
He looked mildly startled.
"I do manage to keep up with Shikamaru," she informed him. "I'm not stupid."
His smile was less brief this time. "I wouldn't have thought you'd be sent along if you were."
As compliments went, it wasn't huge, but at the same time--it was from him and he was a genius. Ino would count it as a fairly big one. "Which way did you want to patrol?" she asked instead of saying anything that might end up only embarrassing them both.
"This way," he said, taking a left into the trees and undergrowth. She followed him on silent feet, making a face when she realized that her hair was probably totally a mess thanks to sleeping. She was in a forest with Hyuuga Neji, alone, and her hair was a mess.
That's it, she thought, I've totally lost my girl cred. Ino snickered quietly.
"Something amusing?" he asked dryly.
Ino gave him innocent eyes. "Utterly nothing."
He 'hmm'd' like he didn't believe her and they walked in silence. Mindful of the fact that they were technically patrolling, Ino tried to keep her focus on having a look out but the fact that the darkness lurked everywhere--under leaves, and snuggled up beneath the canopy of branches--and the fact that there were rocks, she wasn't getting much less jumpy.
Nearly tripping, again, she swallowed when Hyuuga stopped and glanced back at her. "Are you alright?"
She was fine, she was fine. "I'm alright," Ino said tightly, "it's just the woods. I'm being stupid." There was no reason for the dark to be freaking her out. She was being stupid. Ino wished she knew how to quit it.
"I dream of falling," Hyuuga answered, walking on.
Ino puzzled over that, struggling to figure out what that was supposed to mean-oh. Nightmares, right? Had to be. Was she supposed to say something in response to that? It wasn't like he was being cruel or anything. He was... nice. If she freaked out here then it'd be only him who'd know.
"The dark crushes me," she said finally, "and there's nothing but rocks and pressure until I can't breathe."
He paused, just for a split second, then continued on. "Last mission?" his voice smooth and almost incurious.
Ino was grateful for the seeming detachment. "Something like that," she said, "bit of a tunnel problem, really. I--don't think I'll like them for a while." Or the dark, or really anything that had anything to do with rocks and crawl spaces.
"Did you still manage to accomplish your mission?" he asked, and somehow it sounded like he was actually interested in the answer.
Because of that she thought about a bit more than she probably would have had he seemed to just be asking to make conversation--though since when did Hyuuga, this one at least, talk just to make conversation? She was definitely going to have to ask Tenten about it when they were on the road later that day.
Ino considered his question seriously while she wrapped her arms around her torso, trying to stay warm. It was a bit chilly, this late at night, and she hadn't bothered to throw on a cloak. No way was she going to complain though.
You didn't complain about the temperature to Hyuuga Neji. That was just--not what happened. It was totally unfathomable. Just not done. Besides, it wasn't like anyone died from temperatures like this. It was just a bit uncomfortable.
"Yeah," she said finally, "we did. It wasn't an in and out mission, it was a stick around for a while sort, and by the time things wound up fucked up we'd gotten what was needed."
Information that Oto was sticking their nose into things that didn't concern them. Ino didn't know the whole story behind all of that and given her security clearance wasn't surprised. She wondered idly how much her 'Onee-san' knew about everything that had gone on after the fact.
"Then you'll recover from your nightmares," he said matter-of-factly. "It'll fade in time because you've got something to put against it as balance."
Ino tilted her head at him. "Does that work for you?" she blurted. "Because--you're talking from experience, so I..."
She had no clue. It was too late for this. Ino bit her lip and continued pacing beside him.
"It helps," he answered finally, shaking his head. "Anything beyond that is up to you. What works well for me may not work for other people the same way. I can only imagine, though, what failure would mean to a nightmare like that."
Ino didn't even want to imagine that. Ever. For one, she'd be dead. What sort of dreams did the dead have?
Swallowing hard, she tucked a strand of hair behind one ear and debated if her next question was actually worth it. She didn't want to piss him off, or anything, but if he was going to be out here and answering questions then it was sort of hard to want to hold back from being, well, rather impudent with her words.
"What are you thinking about?" his voice broke in on her thoughts. Almost amused she noted, and wondered what was funny about her thinking.
"Uh." Ino shrugged and decided that, really, she might as well ask because even if he got pissed it wasn't like she couldn't bolt for the camp and the Jounin would surely not let him kill her or anything, right? "Well, I mean, you're talking about triumphs and stuff to hold against nightmares, right?"
Last chance to back out, her mind warned. Ino ignored it. She was pretty good at ignoring warnings when it suited her to.
"But, didn't you, like, fail the mission that you probably dream about?" Ino wasn't sure how 'falling' worked into that, but it sounded a bit like something that Shikamaru might say and Ino knew that it wasn't a mission that would be easily forgotten. "Didn't you--fail and barely make it back alive?"
There were probably more diplomatic ways to have worded that, but diplomacy wasn't Ino's strong point at crazy o'clock at night. She tugged at her hair, wishing it was longer, and waited for him to say something, anything, to her question. Ino wondered what Shikamaru would say if she asked him that.
She wondered if she'd ever have the courage for that; asking Shikamaru. Didn't you, like, fail? Ino didn't want to know what dreams haunted him--not when it still burned that he'd left her behind. Feeling sorry for him, in that moment, wasn't ever on her list of things to want to do. Ino wasn't trying to be cruel, but she had her reasons for being angry and they were, to her, perfectly valid ones.
It didn't mean that she wanted her feelings undermined by the fact that he was having issues. Ino wasn't that kind. Or that forgiving. Maybe, in a few years, she'd get around to asking him and be able to expect an answer that wasn't going to hurt her or unsettle her. While she thought, her mind flowing like a waterfall, Hyuuga continued his walking, his patrolling.
She followed, of course. Ino was well aware that he'd likely spot anything long before she did--his eyes were designed for that, after all--but that didn't mean she was going to be just utterly useless if anything did happen.
And, in all honesty, it was curiosity that compelled her on.
Ino wanted to see if he'd give her some sort of answer or if he'd just ignore it and hope that she never brought it up again.
Fat chance, she thought, giving him a sidelong glance. I don't give up easy. Ask anyone.
--
Previous Chapter // Chapter List // Next Chapter
Chapter: 12 Watch (Part I)
Author/Artist: Killaurey
Word Count: 8318
Disclaimer: Naruto doesn't belong to me. It's Kishimoto's and I just play with it. AU immediately after the Sasuke Retrieval Arc. Part 12 of ? Unbeta'd.
--
Overhead the sky was clear. Pale, chilly blue without a cloud in sight. The vast emptiness of the world above them didn't matter much once they headed out, down the path, and mostly under the cover of the forest.
She was just glad that it wasn't raining. That would've been an awful way to start out for an exam. Like the weather itself was mocking them. Stretching idly, Ino fell into the easy run they would be travelling in.
They had to move quickly, to get there in time, but they didn't have to rush and this ground-eating pace would leave them tired but, for the sensei at least (and, she mentally added with a bit of a laugh, Rock Lee), not entirely wiped out should they be attacked along the way.
If anyone did attack them, though, Ino rather thought that they'd deserve the painful death they'd get. Who in their right mind would attack four Jounin and twelve Chuunin-hopefuls?
Hearing someone else's laughter had her glancing over to see a brunette who she didn't recognize talking to a guy who had to be her teammate. Ino made a note to get their names later. They had to stick together at least that much, even if it was a bit, well, odd to be travelling with so many of shinobi.
Ino glanced back over her shoulder, then ahead of her, and everywhere that she looked there were people with the hitae-ite of her village on their person. Back behind, hidden now in the trees was Konoha.
Shikamaru too. Kick some ass, he'd said. She definitely would. Not for him though-she'd do it because she could. Because she was strong enough this time. Had to be.
Shrugging a bit irritably, Ino focused her attention on Sakura and Chouji. "Hey," she said, "I was just thinking, but--what about our teamwork? We're going to need it for the first few exams at the very least."
They'd all gone through on exam before after all. This time they weren't the rookies.
Sakura looked thoughtful. "If it's a survival test, there'll be no problems. None of us are stupid enough to fuss during that--survival is going to be different anyway, thanks to the change in location."
As Konoha nin, after all, they were far more versed in how to survive in the forests and the plains that surrounded them than anywhere else. But, as ninja, they had to be adaptable. That was true strength.
"Kumo's got mountains," Chouji noted, "it's surrounded by them. We're going to have a lot of stone and not that much in the way of green cover. At least, that's my guess."
Shooting him a quick smile, Ino reached up to tug at her small braids as she considered that. "Your dad's been teaching you earth jutsu, right?" she asked, voice so low that it wouldn't travel past them. There was no helping privacy, not on the road, not while they moved, but at the very least she could do her best to keep from making it easy for the others to figure it out.
Chouji nodded. "I'll fill you in later," he said easily. "But yeah--earth jutsu, and family jutsu mainly. We've also got everything Asuma-sensei's drilled us in."
"Teamwork teamwork teamwork?" Sakura teased them.
Ino tossed her head. "Teamwork," she parroted one of Asuma-sensei's lecture's at Sakura, "is one of the most important skills that any shinobi in the field has. It's not flashy, it's not a new jutsu to wow your friends with, but it'll keep your team alive, and get all of you home in one piece."
Asuma-sensei's laugh rolled over them. "Got it memorized?" he asked easily, falling back into pace with them.
She flushed slightly--it was a little embarrassing being caught out on something like that, considering that Ino probably shouldn't have been lecturing on teamwork. Not after the last few months as their team had struggled to put themselves back together. "It's important, Asuma-sensei," Ino said, almost defiantly.
"We're just trying to figure out what our weaknesses might be in the field during the exam," Chouji intervened quickly. "And we were discussing what we'd learnt in the last few months."
Truth, all of it. And yet not quite the spirit of it. Ino bit her tongue and let it go. Sakura blinked incredulously at her.
"That so?" Asuma-sensei asked, flicking out a cigarette and lighting it in one smooth motion. "What have you figured out so far?"
Sakura let out a sigh. "Survival will have to be figured out first," she said, green eyes still slightly narrowed at Ino. "We're not sure of what we'll be facing so we're discussing what we know of the terrain."
"Mountainous," Ino supplied. "But mostly rock. They don't have a huge amount of vegetation which puts us at a disadvantage because we're used to operating with the foliage and other greenery."
Asuma-sensei nodded, smoke from his cigarette spiraling into the air. "What about temperatures?"
"Depends on the location of the exams," Chouji answered. "The air will be thinner, and that means the base temperature will be cooler, but they're well known for their hot-springs in Lightning Country so we can't rule out high humidity."
"Which could mean that there's fog in the morning," she chimed in, thinking on her lessons with her father. "And in the evening."
"Weapons could be adversely affected." Sakura frowned. "Wire could get loose, rope definitely would with that much humidity in the air, and grips could get slick. All of that would affect our odds as well."
"Good," Asuma-sensei said, looking pleased. "Tell me what you'd do to anticipate those difficulties."
It was an order, not a request. Ino shared a look with Chouji and Sakura; they hadn't exactly planned on getting a lesson while they ran, but there was no use arguing about it when it was actually something useful.
And their sensei could help diffuse things if arguments got heated between her and Sakura. Ino wrinkled her nose slightly as Sakura started listing ways to deal with the humidity. She knew herself well enough to know that keeping her mouth shut was probably going to have to be a major thing to pay attention to during this.
After all, they'd always fought. Ever since Sakura had stepped out from her influence. Ino's lips curved slightly at that thought.
Chouji was mid-way through his opinion about how kunai might be affected when Ino glanced over at Asuma-sensei. "Our kunai shouldn't be too affected," she said, cutting across Chouji's comment. "If the temperatures are hitting Konoha standard then our weapons are adapted for that." She shrugged an apology at Chouji for interrupting him; he rolled his eyes at her and smiled.
"Good point," Sakura said, sounding slightly surprised.
Ino pretended she hadn't heard it. Cool, calm, and dignified. Seriously. Otherwise this team was so not going to work and if it didn't anyway then she didn't want it to be her fault.
"It is," Asuma-sensei conceded. "How about the way the altitude will affect your bodies? The air is thinner up there."
"That'd make it harder to breathe," Chouji said, frowning at that. "And would be an additional burden during a fight, never mind just scouting and travelling."
"You'd adjust to it though," Sakura pointed out.
"Immediately?" Asuma-sensei asked, raising his eyebrows slightly.
"No," Sakura said, flushing slightly. "But if we make it to the finals, with the month between the semi-final exam and the public one, it shouldn't be an issue then."
"Yeah," Ino said dryly, "in a month's time--at the finals."
Sakura glared daggers at her, drawing in breath to response, and Chouji put a warning hand on Ino's elbow.
"Can we spend one day without fighting?" he murmured.
Ino raised her eyebrows at him. "This," she assured him blithely, "isn't really a fight. This is a mild disagreement, so don't worry about it."
His sigh was resigned, but he took her at face value. And it was true, after all, she did much the same with Shikamaru all the time. A minor argument helped make time pass by quicker. At least, that was her theory and she was sticking to it.
She didn't say what they were all suddenly thinking, of course, that it was really up in the air if they'd even make it to the finals. All of their teams had been chosen for a reason, after all, and Ino had no doubt whatsoever that the other villages that were sending shinobi to be tested would have picked only the best and most ready to become Chuunin.
"What?" Sakura drawled insultingly. "You can't tell me that you think we won't make it to the finals. I know you and your ego is bigger than your head."
Oh. Oh it was on.
"And yet, funnily enough," Ino said brightly, in that sharp-edged gleeful way that had Chouji slipping over to run with Asuma-sensei instead of being caught between the two of them. "My ego is still smaller than your forehead."
It was a mark in their favour, Ino admitted, as she bickered with Sakura and Asuma-sensei murmured something to Chouji, that they'd even been chosen, and so young as they were compared to a lot of other Genin. All of the other teams going with them, from their own village even, were older.
Tenten's team was only a year older, but Ino knew how much she'd changed in a year and could only imagine what an additional year would have done to that, if she'd been in her place. The lecture seemed over for now, Asuma-sensei was smiling around his cigarette and Chouji was using his hands to explain something to their sensei; Ino waved Sakura off and stepped up her pace to fall into step with Tenten.
"Having fun, little bird?" Tenten asked, amused and shooting her a smile. "I think everyone in the camp heard you and Sakura going at it there. Anything serious?"
Ino shrugged and laughed, watching as Rock fell back to talk with Sakura. "Not really," she said easily. "It's more of a 'that's just what we do' sort of thing." Ever since Sakura had given back the ribbon, really. That had been when the fighting had started.
"That's going to make it interesting if you're out in playing hide-and-seek for days on end," Tenten observed. "It's unusual for a team dynamic like that to be viable."
"I know," she admitted, "but when push comes to shove, we'll do okay. We're used to watching each other's backs, even if it's only so we can mock the other for being weak enough to need rescue afterwards."
Which was true enough. Ino had certainly ribbed Sakura more than a little about the fight in the forest last time around. Cutting her hair, clinging to Uchiha, Ino still figured that a bit of mocking had been a good thing there. And Sakura had still let her near enough to trust with a pair of scissors, so there was that. Not everything had to be said with words, after all.
Tenten laughed. "I almost feel sorry for you guys."
"Almost?"
"Well," Tenten said slyly, "if you guys are fighting, then there's a better chance of my team getting through, so really I find it hard to fully sympathize."
"Puh-lease," Ino drawled, stretching her arms as she ran. "As if Hyuuga and Rock would let my team take out your team."
"And you think I would?"
"No," she added hastily. "But everyone knows they're the heaviest hitters of the Genin along from Konoha. We've all got skills, but seriously, I wouldn't want either of those two to face off against me."
Tenten nodded, face relaxing. "That's true enough. Weapons, I know you can avoid with a fair bit of accuracy, but getting touched by Neji, or going hand-to-hand with Lee..."
Ino wrinkled her nose. "Exactly. They're not exactly my optimal sort of opponent. I'm not bad at Taijutsu, but I'm not anywhere in Rock's range. And fighting Hyuuga is always a major pain."
Jyuuken was totally a cheat, seriously. But Ino knew that, in this sort of exam, any sort of advantage you could gain over an opponent was a valid and applauded advantage. Not that that sort of thinking really helped on the side of those who had to face up against it.
"Yeah," she said, shaking her head. "I'd much rather go up against you, no offense. You're scary with the weapons, but I could put up a fight against them and know it."
"None taken," Tenten said meditatively. "I get that a fair bit, actually." Her grin sharpened. "People think I'm the weakest link of the team all the time, not realizing that Gai-sensei wouldn't allow any weak links. You, at least, are thinking about it and have gone up against me before. I can deal with that sort of opinion in that case."
Ino silently agreed with that. She didn't know Maito-sensei well, but from what she'd seen of him, and what Tenten had told her of their training sessions during their practices, she honestly doubted that he'd ever let any of his team hang on to an obvious weakness.
"Not like I don't get my share of dismissals either," Ino added. "I mean, seriously, Shikamaru was the only one of our group to make Chuunin, right? And so everyone acts like oh, she's just the girl, because I didn't even go and nearly get killed on that mission. Chouji's left alone, you know, because no one is going to say anything about how he's had to pretty much start over from scratch and work his way back up after--after."
And the look on Ino's face said very clearly that anyone who messed with him that way was going to be dealing with her.
"But me, it's like, most people just go 'oh, and they've got a girl on their team too, what's her name?' and all of that."
"Just like that," Tenten agreed, then gave her a sidelong look. "But maybe the kids around our age are saying things like that, but it does seem like you've been causing a few waves higher up."
Ino blinked at her. "I guess so," she said, a bit dubiously. "I mean, I know that I've been doing well, and Hokage-sama said 'good work' on my last mission, that was a total bitch you've got no idea, but I'm not, like, anything super--I'm not a major genius."
"You don't have to be to get attention," Tenten laughed. "That's really Lee's whole work ethic in a nutshell. Just--I don't know if you've noticed, but you've improved a lot since the last exam, and people notice that sort of hard work."
Normally Ino was perfectly content to preen and accept compliments as her due (Sakura's comments about her ego were not entirely based in fiction, after all) but this made her feel a little weirdly shy.
"I just got tired of being left behind," she said finally. "There's not a whole lot more to it than that."
Tenten's smile was soft. "I think you're doing a good job then. Keep it up."
Ino's eyes narrowed slightly in determination. "I was planning to."
--
Sakura was seated on her bedroll, hunched over a scroll with posture that would make anyone but a teenager cry, and studying it intently. She knew that when it came to offensive jutsu she was weak still--Tsunade-shishou had been more focused on getting her chakra up high enough that she could utilize medical jutsu, and then when they'd gotten closer to the exam, now that she thought back on it, the focus had shifted more to her taijutsu.
Tsunade-shishou, Sakura thought wryly, had known I'd be taking the exam from the start. She wasn't sure how she felt about that; it could have backfired if Ino had put her foot down and refused to play her part.
Lifting her head, Sakura glanced across the camp to see where Ino actually was. The blonde was chattering at Tenten while the dark-haired girl looked to be cleaning a few of her weapons.
Where were you last night? Sakura thought, but didn't voice. For one, voicing that thought across their campground would get her no answers and draw way too much attention. It didn't stop her from wondering, though, and considering that the only reason she even knew that Ino hadn't been in bed the whole night was because she'd woken up to get a drink and noticed her friend gone… Sakura knew that Ino had no intentions of just being open with it.
The fact that Ino looked tired, despite her presumed cheer, just gave her more to think about. Sakura shoved her hair back out of her face and glanced at the sky. Another half an hour and then they'd move out. Time enough to study a bit more then. She had no time to waste when it came to that.
Just about to go back to her scroll, she paused as a shadow fell across her light. "Sakura-kun?"
Giving him a bit of a grin, she looked up at Chouji. "Hey," she said, "what's up?"
He settled down near her and followed her gaze over to where Ino was. "She looks like crap," Chouji observed, his words not hiding his worry at all.
Sakura's lips twitched and she fought the urge to laugh at that. Ino would go spare if she ever heard that Chouji had said that about her. "I don't think she's sleeping well," Sakura replied instead. "She wasn't in her bed for a good part of the night."
Chouji's grimace deepened. "Any idea what's up with her?"
Shaking her head, Sakura considered her scroll, then rolled it up. Half an hour could be spared talking to him--she'd just study a little later that night to make up the time. "She hasn't even admitted there's anything going on," Sakura said, making a bit of a face at that. "Actually, she spends most of her time hanging around Tenten-san. I didn't know they were that good of friends."
It was sort of--weird. Her not knowing. Sakura wasn't sure how she felt about that considering that she'd been living with Ino for the last few months. She had to admit that, for all Ino's talking and chattering, Ino was pretty good at keeping her own counsel.
"They train together a fair bit," Chouji answered. "I guess it started back when they both were covering for Chuunin at the Academy."
Nodding, as that was an explanation that made sense, Sakura tucked her scroll away into her pack. "I wonder if she knows, then?"
"I doubt she'd tell me," Chouji said, sighing. "Ino doesn't tell anyone anything unless she's got enough trust in them to know that they're not going to spill it at the first question--and I barely know Tenten-san at all. I know Neji and Lee a bit better, but we're not very close at all."
"Not surprising," she commented, echoing his sigh. "They're out on missions a lot and you've been training to get your strength back. There's no shame in that."
"It's not about shame." He wasn't looking at her right now, still gazing off in Ino's direction. "Did you hear what Shikamaru said to Ino when we left?"
"I didn't," she admitted, "I was talking to Lee-san, and he's pretty--loud." It was true, and respecting him didn't change that fact at all.
Chouji's grin told her that he understood perfectly what she meant with that comment. Lee was--well, someone she respected, for sure, but he was also very very loud and excitable sometimes.
Well.
Most of the time. But Sakura, after a year of working with Naruto, was pretty good at dealing with 'loud and excitable' especially when Lee-san actually had her respect. Naruto did, these days, but he was her teammate. There was a different sort of dynamic to the respect.
"He said," Chouji continued on, "'kick some ass'."
Sakura considered that, and tilted her head at Ino as she tried to put that together with what else she knew about the whole situation that had developed between the two of them. "...isn't he the one who was telling her before that she wasn't good enough to teach and stuff?" she asked finally, looking away from Ino before the other girl caught on to the fact that she was being watched.
"Yeah," Chouji admitted. "I don't know what's changed--he hated the fact that our last mission Ino was the one who bore the brunt of it, did she tell you that?"
"No," she said, looking at Chouji. "She didn't."
He made a face. "I can't tell you very much," he said, "mission confidentiality and all of that, you know how it goes. But yeah, Ino got into some pretty hot water for a while there and we weren't able to do much to help her out."
"She got out though." Because that was--well, if she hadn't, then Sakura knew that this exam wouldn't have Ino even coming along. She doubted that Chouji would've either or... for that matter, if she would have wanted to go. Shaking her head to clear it of those thoughts, Sakura rested one hand comfortingly on Chouji's arm. "She got clear of the situation on her own?"
"Mostly," Chouji said, smiling down at her hand. "We did help, but most of it was from her. We were a diversion, I suppose."
"What did Shikamaru think about that?" she wondered. "I know he had that whole thing with her needing to be protected while on missions."
Sakura knew that from the way that Ino would come back from practise raging about the formations and plans that Shikamaru was coming up with. She didn't mention to Chouji that sometimes Ino had been so angry that she'd cried and then promptly flung herself even further into her studies.
"I don't know," Chouji admitted. "This whole thing as been one big game of 'who can keep the best secrets' so I'm working on just how well I know the both of them. Shikamaru wasn't happy about any of it--and I don't think he was happy about how the mission was swung even if it all worked out in the end either."
"But he still wished her well for the exam." Sakura tucked a strand of hair back behind one ear and considered that. It was a bit odd, all things considered-almost sweet, now that she thought about it. "I don't know--do you think he meant it?"
Chouji looked thoughtful. "I think that... he did," he said finally. "Shikamaru doesn't lie very often."
That was interesting to know, she thought, pulling a strand of her hair out in front of her face before shoving it back. "I didn't know that," Sakura commented, mostly so that she could say something, anything, rather than go back to just brooding on what was up with Ino.
How could she do this when they had an exam in a hostile foreign country to go through? Ino had the worst timing ever and, Sakura added wryly, was probably the best out of all of them at avoiding a topic when she didn't want to talk about it. That was going to make things a bit of a pain, really.
"Well," Chouji laughed quietly, "it's not like you hung around him much in the Academy."
"No," she had to admit that, "I was busy with other things." Other boys, trying to beat Ino, trying to ignore Naruto, trying to make up for the weaknesses of being a first generation shinobi... "Don't you think it's kind of weird how much has changed in a year and a half?"
Had it really only been that long? It felt like it should've been a great deal longer but that was what the calendar said when she looked at it. So much had happened and some of it was good, a lot of it was good even, but then there was so much bad that her memories were mixed together.
"It's been pretty crazy," he answered her. Glancing over at him, Sakura wasn't surprised to see that he looked calm. "But I think that's a good thing, don't you? We've learnt a lot, and we've got better friends this time, now, than we did last year."
There was no way that she could argue with that. Sakura knew that, now that she looked back on her Academy days, that she'd never really had many friends--Ino's friends, for a while, and then she'd deliberately separated herself from them. Then with her team...
Naruto had taken her a good while to warm up to, he wasn't her type at all, not for a friend, but now that he was one, she knew that she had him for life as a friend. Sakura's smile went a bit rueful; a friend, even if he wanted more than that. Uchiha Sasuke...
Shaking her head, Sakura pushed thoughts of her former teammate and Kakashi-sensei from her mind. Uchiha, once Sasuke-kun to her, was a minefield of emotions and she didn't want to deal with that right now. And Kakashi-sensei... she didn't know what to think these days when it came to him.
Tsunade-shishou had shown her what a good teacher really was. She'd learnt more in the last six months than she had in the year before that and some days Sakura wondered if it had just been because he'd been so focused on Sasuke-kun that he hadn't even cared what she did. But that was uncharitable.
"We do," she said, realizing that Chouji was waiting for and answer, and making a mental note to talk to Kakashi-sensei about that when they got back to Konoha. It was something, Sakura realized, that she wanted answers to. "I mean," she continued, a grin growing on her face. "I'm friends with you now, right?"
The look on his face was utterly worth the effort of saying that. It was true too.
--
Tucking her hair back with her hitae-ite she slipped out of her house, careful to avoid making noise near Sayuri's-her younger sister-room. Tsubaki wasn't in the mood to deal with Sayuri's fighting this morning.
And not in the mood to fight back, as her sister expected her to. Tsubaki wanted the quiet peace of the morning to last just a little longer. Trotting down the street, she waved to those who she recognized, and headed out for the practice fields.
The practice area was like many of their areas: rocky, and all one shade of it to boot. There was a small stream of water at the far end, but other than that it was pretty much their standard. Trees were less common in Kumogakure, and weren't to be wasted on areas where the ninja practicing could easily kill them. No, the foliage was mainly concentrated in areas where there was more likely to be chakra control practices, or a lecture-type lesson.
For them, though, this area was the best, even if she was going to be studying genjutsu. Taka needed to practice is taijutsu-Yukio-sensei had promised to help him-and Masanori wanted to try out a new Katon jutsu that he'd been reading up on.
That suited Tsubaki just fine.
It was a study day today, rather than a mission, or anything else, so while Taka was practicing his forms under the watchful eye of Yukio-sensei, and Masanori was studying from a scroll, Tsubaki settled herself down, back to a rock, and closed her eyes.
Though it probably looked like it, if she were seen by someone who wasn't a ninja, she wasn't slacking off at all. There was a certain order to things and before she could practice her genjutsu Tsubaki had to make sure her mind was carefully ordered.
She had a fair bit to consider, after all. Especially with the Chuunin exams starting in only a few days. Her smile turned slightly wry. Sayuri was determined to turn the exam into another of their competitions. Tsubaki just wished that her slightly younger sister would grow out of that need soon enough--faster rather than slower as it was--and waited eagerly for the day when that happened.
It wasn't her fault, after all, for having been born eleven minutes before Sayuri and thus been made the heir to their clan.
Not, Tsubaki admitted, that she was eager to give up her position as heir, even if Sayuri was showing a marked preference for their family skills rather than Tsubaki's rather lackluster interest in them but that wasn't something that was a useful thought right now.
Not when she had to focus her mind on the illusion she wanted to create.
A lot of the genjutsu that she'd looked up had been of the nightmare sort--people who'd believe that their limbs were being melted off, people who'd see their loved ones tortured in front of them and fully believe that there was nothing they could do but answer the questions poised to stop it.
Those weren't very interesting to her. Tsubaki smiled, forming the chakra needed for the first step of her own jutsu. Her hands slid through the seals that controlled this jutsu with ease that spoke of long practice. As it should; she'd been working on this one for years.
A flickering butterfly appeared in the air in front of her, glittering with the chakra that gave it the appearance of life. Wings of wavering blue and pink kept it afloat. As it fluttered around her head Tsubaki added a few more of the butterflies, as many as she could without feeling over whelmed-thirteen, she noted, up one from last week, that was an improvement-and let her breath out in a sigh.
Her genjutsu relied on, rather than horror, dreams.
Not the dreams that came while you slept, no. But rather the ones that crept through your mind while you were lost in work, lost in thought, the ones that gave pleasure and distraction from whatever mundane task was on-going. Daydreams. It seemed almost a gentle sort of genjutsu-her sister certainly took it as such, with her scathing comments, but Tsubaki had long since learnt to give as good as she got back because to do otherwise would only make her look bad.
And looking bad was something that had to be avoided, personal inclinations or not. Brushing back her hair, some if it always escaped from her hitae-ite, Tsubaki carefully, through her chakra instructed the butterflies to lift off and fly further away from her. Sweat trickled down her face as the effort she was exerting took its toll on her-controlling so many chakra constructs was not an easy task, especially not when, under usual circumstances, it only took one or two to achieve the same effect on a person.
But Tsubaki didn't want to ensnare only one person in her genjutsu at a time. If it was going to be really useful, then it was going to have to have a wider range of impact, and that meant, in short:
Practice, practice, practice.
It was the root of everything, that. Tsubaki understood that well, knowing that it wasn't simply a matter of natural selection or anything like that--no matter how strong a base you were given by an accident of birth there was no point to it at all if there was nothing ventured to keep the base strong.
Make it stronger. She set her chin stubbornly as the butterflies flew further and further away from her. Tsubaki sent them dancing up above her head. Five feet, ten feet, fifteen feet--and then, almost panting with the effort, she forced them even further.
Thirteen of them was a number that was definitely draining her reserves quickly. Tsubaki knew that, had it been in a real situation, that using this many would have been a last ditch effort.
But that was why she worked on it. If she could get the distance, get the range, then her jutsu would be one that would make people wary of coming across her at all. It wasn't the same as what her family would have her do, but Tsubaki, at fifteen, knew well her own limits.
This was more her style. Beautiful, graceful, and deadly.
It was easy, after all, to end the threat of someone while they were so wrapped up in the day dreams her butterflies plunged them into that the real world was the one that seemed like a hazy dream.
"That's enough, Tsubaki-chan," Yukio-sensei called. "Take a breather and stretch out. You're low on chakra."
"Yes!" she gasped out, and began the process of dispersing her creations. If done right she could reclaim a tiny bit of chakra to help shore up the sudden weakness brought about by the end of the jutsu. Weaknesses, though, could be corrected.
Letting the last butterfly go, Tsubaki let out a sigh and leaned back against the rock.
"Here," Masanori said, offering her a canteen. "You probably need it."
Her lips curved into a smile. "Thanks," Tsubaki said, greedily drinking from it. "How did it look?"
He was the best of them, after all, at spotting weaknesses from the outside. Masanori slid down the rock to sit next to her, pulling out a pad of paper as he did so. "I was thinking about the wings," he began, and she leaned forward to listen.
In the background, Taka and Yukio-sensei continued their practice. It was just another day.
Seven days until the Chuunin exam. They'd be ready for it.
--
There was no light.
That fact reached her slowly. It was alright, at first, before it sunk in. At that point, at first, the darkness was almost soothing, the fact that she was bundled up seemed safe, and the lack anyone else to keep her company was something that just didn't occur to her anything needed to be worried about. It just doesn't hit her radar as anything important. Nothing was important in this darkness.
It's safe, somehow.
As she kept on going, moving, and now she was walking even though there was another part of her that is still bundled up--how, a small, more awake part of her mind protested, can she be walking and yet bundled up--as she moved and that's when things start getting just a little weird.
The ground, inky dark and smooth as silk, started feeling more like dirt. Like rock. There were little bits and pieces of gravel under her feet and now they were stinging at her knees-
she crawled along, only determination keeping her going
-and there's nothing around her but rock and darkness. It pressed down on her, crushing her, and she couldn't breathe but can't stop either.
On and on she moved, somehow still alive; there's something wrong--her hands bleed but all the pain is in her back and her hair is long now. Far longer than it was during the mission and it's so blonde that it almost glows in the dark. She could see it even though she can't see anything else-not even her hands. Loose and her hair spills down her shoulders, tangling her knees and hands until she was sliding down a rock slide and bruised and bleeding everywhere.
Pain.
She's still struggling, still breathing, still moving and trying to crawl but then she's also walking and there's chains on her hands-bandages cover her mouth and that's why she can't scream and there's tears creeping down her face as a deep sullen rumble splits the air, splits the dark, and there's nothing but rock coming for h--
Ino jerked awake sharply, rolling over onto her stomach and then struggling to get out of her bedroll. Trying to be quiet, trying not to get the attention of anyone else, even as tears trickled down her face and her breathing was coming in harsh, short pants.
"Yamanaka." It was Hyuuga, and she closed her eyes as his sandals came into her view.
"Go away," she rasped, forcing arms that were trembling with residual fear to support her as she fought out of her sleeping bag and revelled in the feel of air against her shaking limbs. Air is more than what she had in her nightmare. "I'm fine."
She could feel him staring at her, didn't want to look up to see his expression, and despised herself for being so weak. The nightmares hadn't been much while at home--it was hard to have bad dreams when everything was normal, usual, and things were soft and warm and even if she did wake up it only took a few seconds to confirm that her dad and mom were around before she could drift back to sleep.
Adult in the eyes of the village, yes, but Ino was still deeply glad for her parents. They stabilized her, secured her, gave her safety even when there was none to be had.
Then Hyuuga knelt down in front of her, one hand cool when pressed on her forehead. Ino flinched at the unexpected contact and blinked up at him. His face was unreadable to her; she wondered if it was to Tenten and Rock. Ino just didn't know him well enough to see beyond his mask.
"You're not fine," he said in a low tone of voice. "Get up and walk with me. You won't be able to sleep while in a state like that."
He spoke as if from experience, Ino swallowed the urge to retort when she remembered that he, too, had nearly died while out on a mission. She wondered if that gave him nightmares. "I," she said, hands trembled still despite her attempts to quell their movement--and that did nothing for the few leaked tears that she angrily brushed away. "You're on watch, then? I can--help."
That idea was more palatable than the one that suggested he didn't need help and was being kind. Ino could only hope that this would go unremarked by the others travelling with them. It was probably too much to hope for that the Jounin hadn't woken up, but if she were lucky Sakura and Chouji wouldn't have noticed...
She reached for her sandals, glad that they hadn't been too misplaced in her tossing and turning, and slipped them on before Ino forced herself to her feet, pretending that Hyuuga didn't need to steady her when she nearly turned her ankle on a rock and had to bite down a shriek because that hit just too close to her nerves right now.
Thank goodness the exam wasn't being held in Iwa, she thought fervently. There was no way she'd have been able to handle that.
It was a blow to her pride, that fact, but Ino couldn't deny it. In the three days they'd been out of Konoha, she'd discovered just how little control she had over her thoughts while she slept. And that was when the rock, the creeping pressure that made it impossible for her to breathe always came back.
If she knocked on the ceiling in her dreams would it all fall down on her? Shuddering, Ino decided that she didn't want to know. "I can walk," she said, when he didn't show any inclination to remove his hand from her elbow. "It wasn't anything--big."
Just the dirt and the dark and the pain. Her hands ached with the memory. Shaking them out, she watched as he raised one eyebrow. The Byakugan was active now; she said nothing as he looked right at her, knowing that he was seeing more her circulatory system than anything else.
"There's no chakra irregularities," he said instead, turning his head away while checking out the area.
"Of course not," she muttered back, keeping her voice low. "It was just a bad dream, okay? It wasn't anything more than that."
"It's a poor time to start having dreams," he said, not rising to her bait.
Ino narrowed her eyes at him. "Not like it was my idea, Hyuuga-san."
The faintest hint of what was almost a smile brushed his face before disappearing. "I suppose," he acknowledged. "Nonetheless, the fact remains that your ill-timed dreams may prove to make the exam more difficult."
"Oh goody," she murmured, keeping an eye out for rocks and wondered what he was getting at. Why was he even talking to her? They didn't get along; they'd never talked before or anything.
There. That was a much better thing to ponder than--than what she had going on in her head right now. "Why're you even bothering?" she asked. "I mean, it's not like my losing is going to affect you at all. In fact, if I fall out of the running, then your odds are better."
"And Konoha loses the prestige of the fact that our women are as strong as our men." He shook his head.
That... was so not an answer. "Uh," Ino said, "I mean, great, I'm totally strong in my own way--but you're, like, you." Not her most articulate comment ever, but Ino was going with the fact that it was late and she'd just woken from a nightmare and was talking to someone who... had never paid her any attention before to excuse it.
Besides, the way he sort of winced at that sentence was worth it.
"What I can do," he noted, "has little bearing on what you can do. The more Konoha nin who make it to the final exam and are seen to be strong the better we come out of this situation. Kumogakure is unlikely to be doing this for fun."
"Or for peace," she said shrewdly. "I mean, that makes sense why Hinata-chan wasn't sent along. She'd be too big a prize, and Hokage-sama wouldn't allow it even if Hyuuga-sama did." Which she doubted, really, after the effort of trying to shove Hinata into a marriage she didn't want.
He looked mildly startled.
"I do manage to keep up with Shikamaru," she informed him. "I'm not stupid."
His smile was less brief this time. "I wouldn't have thought you'd be sent along if you were."
As compliments went, it wasn't huge, but at the same time--it was from him and he was a genius. Ino would count it as a fairly big one. "Which way did you want to patrol?" she asked instead of saying anything that might end up only embarrassing them both.
"This way," he said, taking a left into the trees and undergrowth. She followed him on silent feet, making a face when she realized that her hair was probably totally a mess thanks to sleeping. She was in a forest with Hyuuga Neji, alone, and her hair was a mess.
That's it, she thought, I've totally lost my girl cred. Ino snickered quietly.
"Something amusing?" he asked dryly.
Ino gave him innocent eyes. "Utterly nothing."
He 'hmm'd' like he didn't believe her and they walked in silence. Mindful of the fact that they were technically patrolling, Ino tried to keep her focus on having a look out but the fact that the darkness lurked everywhere--under leaves, and snuggled up beneath the canopy of branches--and the fact that there were rocks, she wasn't getting much less jumpy.
Nearly tripping, again, she swallowed when Hyuuga stopped and glanced back at her. "Are you alright?"
She was fine, she was fine. "I'm alright," Ino said tightly, "it's just the woods. I'm being stupid." There was no reason for the dark to be freaking her out. She was being stupid. Ino wished she knew how to quit it.
"I dream of falling," Hyuuga answered, walking on.
Ino puzzled over that, struggling to figure out what that was supposed to mean-oh. Nightmares, right? Had to be. Was she supposed to say something in response to that? It wasn't like he was being cruel or anything. He was... nice. If she freaked out here then it'd be only him who'd know.
"The dark crushes me," she said finally, "and there's nothing but rocks and pressure until I can't breathe."
He paused, just for a split second, then continued on. "Last mission?" his voice smooth and almost incurious.
Ino was grateful for the seeming detachment. "Something like that," she said, "bit of a tunnel problem, really. I--don't think I'll like them for a while." Or the dark, or really anything that had anything to do with rocks and crawl spaces.
"Did you still manage to accomplish your mission?" he asked, and somehow it sounded like he was actually interested in the answer.
Because of that she thought about a bit more than she probably would have had he seemed to just be asking to make conversation--though since when did Hyuuga, this one at least, talk just to make conversation? She was definitely going to have to ask Tenten about it when they were on the road later that day.
Ino considered his question seriously while she wrapped her arms around her torso, trying to stay warm. It was a bit chilly, this late at night, and she hadn't bothered to throw on a cloak. No way was she going to complain though.
You didn't complain about the temperature to Hyuuga Neji. That was just--not what happened. It was totally unfathomable. Just not done. Besides, it wasn't like anyone died from temperatures like this. It was just a bit uncomfortable.
"Yeah," she said finally, "we did. It wasn't an in and out mission, it was a stick around for a while sort, and by the time things wound up fucked up we'd gotten what was needed."
Information that Oto was sticking their nose into things that didn't concern them. Ino didn't know the whole story behind all of that and given her security clearance wasn't surprised. She wondered idly how much her 'Onee-san' knew about everything that had gone on after the fact.
"Then you'll recover from your nightmares," he said matter-of-factly. "It'll fade in time because you've got something to put against it as balance."
Ino tilted her head at him. "Does that work for you?" she blurted. "Because--you're talking from experience, so I..."
She had no clue. It was too late for this. Ino bit her lip and continued pacing beside him.
"It helps," he answered finally, shaking his head. "Anything beyond that is up to you. What works well for me may not work for other people the same way. I can only imagine, though, what failure would mean to a nightmare like that."
Ino didn't even want to imagine that. Ever. For one, she'd be dead. What sort of dreams did the dead have?
Swallowing hard, she tucked a strand of hair behind one ear and debated if her next question was actually worth it. She didn't want to piss him off, or anything, but if he was going to be out here and answering questions then it was sort of hard to want to hold back from being, well, rather impudent with her words.
"What are you thinking about?" his voice broke in on her thoughts. Almost amused she noted, and wondered what was funny about her thinking.
"Uh." Ino shrugged and decided that, really, she might as well ask because even if he got pissed it wasn't like she couldn't bolt for the camp and the Jounin would surely not let him kill her or anything, right? "Well, I mean, you're talking about triumphs and stuff to hold against nightmares, right?"
Last chance to back out, her mind warned. Ino ignored it. She was pretty good at ignoring warnings when it suited her to.
"But, didn't you, like, fail the mission that you probably dream about?" Ino wasn't sure how 'falling' worked into that, but it sounded a bit like something that Shikamaru might say and Ino knew that it wasn't a mission that would be easily forgotten. "Didn't you--fail and barely make it back alive?"
There were probably more diplomatic ways to have worded that, but diplomacy wasn't Ino's strong point at crazy o'clock at night. She tugged at her hair, wishing it was longer, and waited for him to say something, anything, to her question. Ino wondered what Shikamaru would say if she asked him that.
She wondered if she'd ever have the courage for that; asking Shikamaru. Didn't you, like, fail? Ino didn't want to know what dreams haunted him--not when it still burned that he'd left her behind. Feeling sorry for him, in that moment, wasn't ever on her list of things to want to do. Ino wasn't trying to be cruel, but she had her reasons for being angry and they were, to her, perfectly valid ones.
It didn't mean that she wanted her feelings undermined by the fact that he was having issues. Ino wasn't that kind. Or that forgiving. Maybe, in a few years, she'd get around to asking him and be able to expect an answer that wasn't going to hurt her or unsettle her. While she thought, her mind flowing like a waterfall, Hyuuga continued his walking, his patrolling.
She followed, of course. Ino was well aware that he'd likely spot anything long before she did--his eyes were designed for that, after all--but that didn't mean she was going to be just utterly useless if anything did happen.
And, in all honesty, it was curiosity that compelled her on.
Ino wanted to see if he'd give her some sort of answer or if he'd just ignore it and hope that she never brought it up again.
Fat chance, she thought, giving him a sidelong glance. I don't give up easy. Ask anyone.
--
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