Chapter 7: Arc 1: Chapter 5

Chapter 5

 

A mere two months after the incident, I found myself walking out of the forest that had become my new home. Today was a rest day, which meant I didn't meet up with Shikamaru and Chouji immediately. We'd still walk to the Academy together, of course.

The cold steel in my palm helped ground me in ways that I didn't know that I needed until I had it.

I halted my steps as I could tell something was different though. Something more.

The very air felt heady, and everything around me felt like it had more tangible weight to it. From the trees, to the leaves, to the very dirt I stood on.

I could feel… everything so clearly.

The grains in the wood, the life-giving liquid that flowed through the trees. My bottom lip trembled as a squirrel flitted from branch to branch.

It was… a lot, okay?

Even worse, I could see myself. My own body, my fingers, the dirt under my nail that I'd missed, each strand of hair in its entirety. It'd have been disorienting if I weren't at least a little bit used to seeing so much already.

However this… this was too much. Despite the darkness of the forest—the light halted by the canopy— I could feel it all. My focus flitted between targets with every jittery motion, and it took all my self control to not chase my focus with my eyes as well.

I'd been practicing, after all.

Compared to before, I felt like I'd been blind this entire time. My focus had an intensity to it, such that it felt like I pressed upon my surroundings with a never before seen weight.

I fingered the steel shuriken in my palm absentmindedly, it helped me find my calm. Grounded me somewhat.

Something entered my range with haste, it headed in my direction. I watched as the hair on its head flowed as it ran—sprinted at me.

It stopped a few paces away from me.

It approached slowly, carefully.

It spoke, the cadence both familiar and foreign. I found myself mesmerized as the very air was displaced by the sound. By the way its throat moved as it spoke. I had an urge to look deeper, see how it worked.

I dragged my focus to its face, eyebrows set in a dissatisfied furrow, as he muttered utterances that I couldn't put context to.

He placed an arm on my should—

—I flinched back, "Wha-Shikamaru?"

He eyed me with scrutiny, "You were completely out of it."

I nodded hesitantly while he continued to stare, waiting for me to elaborate, "I can…" my voice hitched as I sought the words for what I had experienced, "I can see so much now," but in the end I chose simplicity.

Silenced reigned as his mind moved furiously, "I see." Troublesome.

He turned and walked, "Let's go."

We walked on in comfortable silence—well, I was never really in silence. Not anymore.

"I can't push you anymore," his voice was even, but he was betrayed by the frustration that sang from his very core. It stung that I had surpassed him, it stung that he couldn't help much anymore, not directly at least. My reply would also sting, but I didn't want to lie to him.

I had to wade through too many lies in my daily life. It exhausted me.

"Mmm, I know. I need… a faster opponent. No offence."

When I'd all but caught up, and then even surpassed his capabilities in speed, Shikamaru tried deception. He tried trickery. He tried plans within plans within plans, but they'd worked less and less as I grew better, faster. They all paled in comparison to my cheater of a mind, which revealed all the climaxes beforehand.

He couldn't not think of the steps of his plans, he was too deliberate. Normal shinobi didn't think so much and so clearly during fights, it was primarily trained instincts, with predetermined simple strategies. The more complex one got, the more avenues for catastrophic failure.

Shikamaru spat on all of that.

Against a normal opponent, that would have worked well.

I was not normal. It was unfair, I know.

He waved me off flippantly as we walked on, "Uchiha?"

I cringed, and he chuckled. He didn't even have to look back to see my reaction. The bastard.

"Inuzuka?"

"Kiba?" I hummed in thought, seriously considering it, "Maybe if he used Akamaru… but I'm not that close with him. Or at all, really."

"Uzu—"

"—No," I cut him off resolutely, and only received a curious gaze in response.

"Mhmm. Hyuuga?"

I thought about it for a few moments, "I could ask her."

Hinata, all things considered, didn't have the temperament, didn't have the drive. But she had the skill.

We lapsed back into silence, only the backdrop of rustling trees and the faint cries of the deer were audible, before Shikamaru ruined it, of course, "How are you… you know."

"I'm okay, I think," I said with an unbidden sigh, "I'm coping better, at least."

"Good," Shikamaru was a man—well, boy— of few words. He said little but meant a lot.

"Aww, thanks for caring Shika," I wrapped him in a side hug, to which he obviously responded by trying to escape, but alas, I was the stronger one now. He groaned as he gave up his futile attempts with a muttered "Troublesome," before he accepted his fate.

 

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My fingers rubbed lines across my thighs under my desk, and I took pleasure in how toned they'd started to become. It took a lot of effort to get here after all. A lot of sweat and tears. More tears than sweat, even. But it did inevitably pay off.

My arms became toned as well, and at first I despaired, but I'd been getting more and more stray looks from my classmates—boys and girls alike— so I must've been doing something right.

It was certainly an ego boost, especially after losing my confidence so much in the beginning of this journey.

But there were two sides to every ryou, it wasn't just my peers that were paying me extra attention. Random creeps would often look on with heated gazes, and I couldn't even ignore them as they blatantly did so. They all but screamed their lurid desires at me from the comfort of their own mind.

Gross.

I didn't want to know what they wanted to do to me, or what they wanted me to do. And even though I'd been getting more and more… tolerant of the errant fantasizing thought, I still wanted to cover myself up in silent protest. I wanted to take a cue from the Aburame, and find a nice hoodie.

Chouji, however, convinced me otherwise, "Why let weirdos determine what you wear? Take pride in it, Ino," it warmed my heart with how nice he was to me.

I wasn't quite there yet, but I'd been getting better, and eventually it'd just be white noise to me. Well, I had to hope it would. It was either that, or despair.

And heirs didn't do despair.

…I think.

I'd also been doing much better in spars up until now; Now that my body had adapted to the torture I put it through, I had a lot more energy to spare. My latest spar against Sakura resulted in a flawless victory. I'd felt vindicated in a way, and I wanted to gloat until I saw her face.

Until I felt her disappointment.

Damn.

I said nothing.

The Taijutsu style that I'd been working on was one of extreme flexibility and fluidity. If I had to block something, I'd already messed up. I focused on freedom of mobility, and the art of controlling momentum. Which allowed me to deflect or minutely evade just about everything I'd been up against so far.

It wasn't something that was typically viable, as even the vaunted Uchiha—rest in peace— couldn't see ahead, only the present. I, however, was a cheating cheater who cheated, of course; But it was as uncle Shikaku said, "If you're not cheating, why bother playing in the first place?"

I'm sure it was something like that.

I was lacking in offence, though; It was hard to gain proper leverage when my stance was kept so light. Dad wanted to get me into learning Kenjutsu, but there weren't many that were capable of using it, much less teaching it in Konoha.

Which was unfortunate. I'd have to stick to Kunai and Shuriken for all my needs in the short term.

I'd also kept up on learning the Yamanaka Hijutsu, but they'd felt so… lacking in comparison to my gifts. It was as if I could do everything our Hijutsu enabled, but without the need for chakra, or the limitations. I'd still learn them, of course—the Yamanaka legacy rested on my shoulders, after all— but I didn't need to focus on them, not really.

I was broken out of my musings by Hinata taking her usual seat beside me with a wave, "Hello Ino, Shikamaru, Chouji, you three are early today."

"Hey Hina," I returned her greeting with a playful nudge with my shoulder, overlapped by Shikamaru's groan—he'd already had his head down, and drifted off into light slumber— and Chouji's cheerful greeting.

Not long after class started though, Shikamaru nudged me and pointed to Hinata.

"Oh. Right," I'd completely forgotten about our discussion that morning, "Hey Hina," I called out to her lightly, "Think you could be my sparring partner sometime?"

Of all the things I expected, her freezing up was not one of them. "U-um," her anxiety rose in ways I hadn't seen in months, and I panicked as I felt that I'd set our progress back tenfold.

"Hey, it's okay if you can't, relax okay?" I grabbed her criminally soft palm in a bid to help her calm down, to soothe those turbulent waves of panic that rose within her. At first, it had the opposite effect, as it normally did.

Eventually though, my sincerity reached her, and I felt as she calmed herself down, mentally repeating a mantra of it's okay to herself. She asked in all but a whisper, "W-why me?"

"Well… for one, I need someone fast, and you're one of the fastest in my age group," I said while consciously rubbing the back of her hand, "And secondly, I needed someone trustworthy, and we're friends so… yeah, no brainer really."

"Oh…" she took a deep breath and gathered her confidence, "Okay…"

"Hey, don't push yourself Hina, it's ok—"

"—No!" she yelled, arousing the interest of the entire class at once, before pulling back, "I'll… I'll do it, we're friends after all."

I was so proud of her in that moment, that I grabbed her in a hug, absentmindedly deflecting multiple chalk projectiles in the process—apparently class had started, I didn't even notice. One of the projectiles screamed through the air into the back of the head of one Uzumaki Naruto. Oops.

He woke with a start, "Oi!"

"Sorry Naruto," I sheepishly apologized even though it totally wasn't my fault, and I transitioned to catching them instead of deflecting them. I steeled my neck and resolutely didn't look his way though. I avoided his glare in fear of seeing more than I ever wanted to.

Of being stared at by another pair of eyes, deeper within.

I shuddered. Nope, no Kyuubi here. Just me, and a blond brat.

Nope.

"Yamanaka Ino!" Sensei yelled my name, somehow looking both upset and impressed at my feat.

"Yes sensei?"

"Please refrain from distracting your classmates."

"Okay."

Class continued in silence, with everything sensei said going in one ear and out the other, until I noticed Hinata's nervousness had spiked.

Upon looking at her, I only now realized that I was still holding her hand, "Oh, sorry," and went to pull my hand away, but she caught my retreating palm with a smile.

"It's okay," an easy smile made its way onto her face, even as her mind raced chaotically. She squeezing my hand tightly in defiance of her own inner turmoil.

I couldn't help but grin, and I gave her a fond shoulder nudge. I really was proud of her when she made headway like this.

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