Chapter 3: Arc 1: Chapter 2

Chapter 2

 

As I meditated, my mind wandered. I know I was supposed to find my center and all that, but I really couldn't focus… or not-focus. Yes, that. Either way, I kept thinking back to whatever that was within Naruto. And every time I did, I felt the air grow thicker, and I swear I heard faint trickles of a sinister snicker.

I was chasing shadows. I know.

The mind often played tricks on you when you were completely and utterly terrified. I know this. Rationally speaking. Doesn't make it feel any less real, though.

It seemed that my distraction was shared with my companion though, "You're distracted. What's on your mind?"

I regarded him carefully—he stared at me intently, brows furrowed in a display of frustration. He felt out of his depth, but still wanted to help.

"Am I that obvious?" I could only sigh. I didn't want to be his burden, I wanted to be his light.

"I don't have to be a mind reader to tell that something's wrong," he said with the faint hint of a smirk which vanished before it appeared, "Out with it, Rosebud."

I stretched my limbs in a bid to buy time, to… put words to the experience of the days' everything. It didn't take long for me to start opening up; though I did hesitate at the beginning of the tale. I didn't want to touch on all the drama. The emotions were still somewhat raw, after all.

I wasn't bitter at all. Nope. Just touchy.

Regardless, I pushed through—I know how important the details were here, and I was among family. However, when I got to the situation with Naruto, my dad stiffened, and fear bled through the connection. So it was something even my dad was afraid of, huh.

It wasn't lost on me that one would need knowledge to have such an instinctive fearful response. What also wasn't lost on me was how many people treated the kid.

Dad adopted a gravely serious expression, "Right. Tell nobody, Ino."

"Of course."

"No, I'm serious. What you… discovered is a state secret—poorly kept it may be— but one that cannot be given voice."

I nodded dumbly, letting the gravity of what he said sink in, before asking, "What is it?"

"I can't say," and he didn't need to, as I'd already figured it out from the raw imagery on the edge of his thoughts; His expression bled into a conspiratorial smirk, "But I'm sure you've already figured it out."

I could all but feel the blood as it drained from my face, and I nodded silently.

Right. Of course I sit near to the fucking Kyuubi every day at school.

Oh hey Chouji, what did you do today? Prepared a new recipe? Cool! I'd love to try it sometime. Me? Oh nothing much, I just briefly shared a connection with the Kyuubi. Yep, the same one that killed so many people over a decade back. Oh? You're running away screaming? Can you make space on your back? Thanks.

What even is my life?

"Please continue, Rosebud. I can tell there's more."

Right, more. It's not like I was having a panic attack or something. Nope. Not me. Check with the other heirs. This one's completely fine. Like the Saxifrage, I'm totally copacetic.

That being said, his interruption did help me… move past that, and I continued with my recollection. He became thoughtful, his line of thought mirrored my own thoughts on the spar, and what I'd seen.

I mean, I knew I wasn't seeing anything, the shadow limbs didn't exist. My mind was clearly processing her… intent—desires? future movement?— visually. Somehow.

I had to ask though, "Can we tell Shikamaru? And Chouji?" Keeping this from them had already started to grate on me, I felt like I was lying to Shikamaru, even though I said nothing. Lying to my family didn't feel good.

The moment of silence didn't last long, "That'd be for the best. A moment," and his hands flashed through a flurry of motion, and he disappeared, only to return before long, "They'll be here within minutes."

At times like this, I wished that Jounin actually thought about the techniques they used, rather than performing them with a subconscious practiced efficiency. Would've been neat to learn the Shunshin Jutsu so easily.

But alas, I nodded, and we lapsed into silence, in an attempt to get some practice done.

I failed, of course.

The antsy pinpricks right underneath my fingertips persisted until we heard a single knock, and our guests didn't hesitate to let themselves in.

Uncle Shikaku, uncle Chouza, Shikamaru and Chouji all entered, single file. A pensive expression on all their faces save for Chouji. He was just curious, the oaf.

We all sat cross legged in a circle, cushions having been placed at some point while I'd lapsed in concentration, "What's this about, Inoichi?" My dad nudged me in response, clearly intent on having me take point.

So I started from the beginning, detailing everything I'd experienced—well, not everything. I brushed past the embarrassing moments of drama, and stuck to the details. I tried to be as clinical as I could.

I still ended up rambling at times, much to the amusement of the adults in the room.

When I got to the moment of the spar though, my dad proposed a demonstration—before I could even process what he'd said, his palm flashed towards me, and I'd rolled back out of my position in a quick and fluid motion, only to realize that he hadn't moved.

The adults looked pensive, the youths looked confused. I would've been too, if uncle Shikaku's thoughts hadn't clued me in.

I put on an annoyed expression. I was tricked, fooled.

"Da—" before I could even voice my question, I could see uncle Chouza appear behind me, kunai in tow, and when I rolled forward I saw him disappear from before me, and I quickly rolled to the side to avoid the thrown kunai that both came and didn't.

What.

I could've sworn he threw it, I saw it, somehow. But it was still in his hand as he twirled it between his fingers.

Wait. How was I seeing behind me?

Uncle Shikaku looked at dad with a loose mischievous smirk, "Is there something you want to tell us Inoichi? Seeing any Hyuuga recently?"

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My dad, of course, was affronted, "Wha— I would never!"

"Relax, we know," Uncle Shikaku's smile was full of mirth, "There are similarities but, for one it's not ocular. There's no Chakra involved. Yet she still somehow evaded Chouza's mystery kunai," he winked at me as he said that. If it were anyone else I'd be calling him gross, but I'd grown used to his antics by now.

"Tell us about what you felt, Ino," Uncle Chouza asked while he returned to his seat, his gaze mired with curiosity.

"Well, I somehow saw you were behind me, even while I saw you in front of me. And then you did something and threw a kunai, but it never came."

Chouji muttered a "cool," but Shikamaru never lost his pensive stare.

"Right; I think you were right on the money, flower princess," I internally squirmed at uncle Shikaku's term of address, warring with my desire to both preen, and pummel him in indignation, "It's not future-sight or anything so superfluous, it probably has something to do with that mind-reading magic you're dealing with, and a little bit of something extra," he trailed off with an unsure wave of his palm.

"Something extra?"

"Yes. Close your eyes," I did so obediently, and he lobbed something at me. I could still see it clearly, two of them, even. One clearly felt real— I could feel them? Weird — while the other felt… like a projection. Kind of.

I disregarded the latter, letting it pass through my hand, and caught the former. It was round, fabric laden and fluffy. Just a ball, then. "Right, so that's the similarity with the Hyuuga then. Some spatial scanning? It having no Chakra fluctuations is big, though. Harder to fool."

I tossed the ball repeatedly, marveling at how it doubled in my 'sight'. It felt like I was juggling, but also not. Neat. The adults huddled together to discuss theories. Their thoughts flitted between topics and hypotheses that came as quickly as they went.

Shikamaru and Chouji took seats surrounding me, and Chouji wrapped me in a one handed hug that made me drop my current toy. I couldn't even be annoyed with him showing his support.

"Thanks for sharing that with us, Ino."

A smile blossomed on my face unbidden as I leaned into the hug, "No problem Chouji. We're basically family, after all."

Shikamaru groaned from my right, and willed himself not to join in. Too Troublesome, apparently.

Eventually the adults wrapped up, and I grimaced as I already pieced together what was coming. They'd been going through ideas of a new Ino-Shika-Cho formation, and as a result, a new Taijutsu style that'd fit my role; One with a high focus on agility, reactivity, and flexibility. The amount of physical training that such a thing would need was… daunting, so say the least.

Yeah, I grimaced alright. I didn't like this one bit.

Uncle Shikaku regarded me carefully, then clicked his tongue, "The girl's gonna be an op-sec nightmare, huh."

Dad nodded seriously, "She already figured out you-know-who in her class," uncle Shikaku grimaced, but dad paid that no mind, "Rosebud, we were discussing a training regime for you," and pointedly ignored my deepening grimace, "I know, but it's for your future."

I couldn't even muster much of an argument against it; I watched their discussion real time after all. But I had to try something, "But my figure!"

Uncle Chouza chuckled, but dad pressed on, "But rosebud, think of it," he moved so fast that it looked like teleportation, and even though I saw it coming, I let him; He crouched behind me, and wrapped an arm around my shoulders, "Just imagine it, Ino the untouchable," I gulped, reveling in his imagery of a future-me being able to fight countless Shinobi, "Ino the invincible," Me casually evading and deflecting a myriad of blows, with a graceful smile that never left my future face, "The Yamanaka Empress", me sitting on a throne, carried on none other than Sasuke's back.

I couldn't help but smile, even though that last one was a bit silly, "Fine, you win this time." I wanted to pout, but he'd won me over easily.

"Great, you'll thank us later."

I won't.

The amount of pride dad was radiating was palpable. Physical, even. I was lucky that I couldn't see it, else I'm sure I'd have been blinded by it.

"Hey Shikamaru," Uncle Shikaku called out for Shikamaru's attention, "Go spar with her. But start slow; get her used to the new senses."

Shikamaru groaned, but we all got up and headed towards the small training field we had setup in the backyard. As we cleared out of the room, I heard uncle Shikaku all but shout, "This generation's Ino-Shika-Cho will surely be something, huh. Can't wait to see it."

The adults went into dad's study to discuss things. While the kids went to play. And by play I meant spar. Which was not fun.

Shikamaru's expression eased from pensive to one of understanding, and as we faced one another, I could feel the dots connect in his mind as concern overcame his face, "So… yesterday was when it first started showing, right?"

I nodded, and he pressed on, "And the nosebleed was an information overload? Hrm. So this morning, was it Uchiha?"

I knew he was quick at drawing conclusions, even though I purposefully omitted that, he pieced it together. I was touched by his concern. It's always a duality with this one, he loved jumping between sweet and annoying.

Regardless, I groaned, "Yeah."

He fell into a silent war with himself. I could see him convince himself to say something, knowing full well he had a sort-of-audience, but his nature to stay quiet fought staunchly. It was funny, really, "You deserve better, anyway."

I grinned and pulled him into a hug, which he fought, of course.

He escaped, "Troublesome," but he had one more question, "What about later in the class? With the Uzumaki."

I grimaced. Of course he paid attention to who I was looking at, "Uhm, apparently I walked right into a state secret. My lips are sealed, but I'm sure you'll figure it out," he nodded, and we began moving.

His offence was at a toddler's pace, which would have been insulting if it were not for the fact that I was still getting confused. I could visibly tell which limb was real, the feel of them clearly different. One had weight, the other had… potential? Possibility?

It was just that, in real time, for some reason even though I knew that the limb with no weight wasn't real, my mind still instinctively reacted as if it were real.

So really, it wasn't an issue that I could just will away. I had to practice, and constantly scale it up until dealing with the information was intuitive and instinctive.

As Shikamaru often says, Troublesome.

Somehow, it was easier with uncle Chouza because his movements were so quick and immediate that I didn't even have to focus on the real one, I clearly reacted to only his intent. Or future movement, whichever.

It took a lot of losses—brief, light taps to the arms and neck— before I could keep up with Shikamaru, and then he'd immediately increase the pace.

I could tell this was going to take a while, and the process was annoying, but necessary. So we toiled, and Chouji swapped with Shikamaru occasionally.

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