Chapter Text
Over the few months since the Not-Poison Incident, things had been slowly escalating. The Miura sisters had wrangled a number of the other girls into their respective posses and seemed bent on getting their revenge. Where Ami seemed to be gunning for Sakura at every turn, Nao was the one focused on Ino. At least her best friend got a break from not being in the same class, whereas Ino’s self-proclaimed nemesis was more than happy to be a constant bother. Everywhere Ino turned there was another one of them, smirking and whispering behind their hands, and she didn’t even have to hear them to know they were saying something mean. It was infuriating. It started with pointed interruptions in class whenever either girl went to say something, and then things started going missing from their bags whenever they went out to lunch. In response, Sakura and Ino bought matching locks for their backpacks after her favourite cupcake eraser had disappeared. The thievery stopped, but new confrontations began.
Sakura and Ino had taken to going everywhere together, even the bathrooms, because they never knew just when the sisters would pop out. Instead of spending their breaks with the circle under the tree, they now sat on the opposite side of the playground by the fence where the best daisies grew to eat lunch. They’d not been completely successful in avoiding trouble, of course.
Lunchtimes saw their daisy-chain making sessions interrupted by groups of the sisters’ cronies kicking pebbles and dirt in their direction on their way past and suddenly their out-of-the-way spot was a lot less nice to sit in, especially when it also meant out-of-sight. They’d tried migrating to the swings instead for a while, but this just meant they had to deal with the bullies shoving them off the swings when they weren’t paying careful attention. It was like a game of chicken, where instead of daring each other to run in front of oncoming carts, the bullies would make a game of trying to catch them off guard to send them flying. So, then they’d sat themselves next to the Hyuuga heiress at the girl’s usual bench by the entranceway.
Sakura was reluctant at first, unsure if the princess of the usually uptight clan would even allow them to sit, but Ino dragged her timid friend up and got the two well acquainted. Hinata was even shyer than Sakura could be sometimes, and it made Ino proud when Sakura seemed to recognize this and instinctively included the stuttering Hime into their conversations. The pink haired girl seemed to relax a little at the realisation that the heiress wasn’t going to look down on her for her clan-less parentage and, by their second lunchtime, all three had happily resolved to make this their new thing.
Besides, Ino beamed at the Byakugan user, Hinata’s doujutsu was terribly useful in dodging their bullies at breaktime.
It was only after they’d sensed defeat at lunch, that Nao had started the trend of sabotaging them during Taijutsu lessons. In first year, instead of katas, the Academy focused on building strength, stamina and flexibility. This involved lots of stretching and running and obstacle courses. All Ino wanted to do was concentrate on running the obstacle courses, but now she and Sakura had to contend with the other girls pulling their hair or trying to trip them. It was lucky most of the girls had lower stamina otherwise they might have had a lot more trouble.
Ino and Sakura were fairly safe during stretching, where Iruka and Mizuki gathered the class together and watched over the group carefully to reduce the chances of anyone pulling a muscle. Running was usually okay too, since Nao and the other girls often lagged behind and Ino could tug Sakura into the middle of the pack with their other classmates around them as Hinata shot them both worried looks.
It was the obstacle course that could be a real pain.
This afternoon, Yui had already made Ino trip once, scraping her knee against the rough dirt. Iruka had called out in alarm, but she gritted her teeth and pulled herself up and back into a jog again. The civilian girl was looking nervous as she caught up, looking this way and that, and making a wide berth between them. Ino refused to even glance her way and put on a burst of speed to catch up with the leading group.
Her eyes narrowed as she caught the figure of Sakura running up ahead. She’d told the other girl to keep going without her and that she would catch up, but now Sakura was being boxed in up ahead by Akari and another girl. Every time her friend sped up, her bullies would too, moving in closer so she was trapped to either side. Ino’s knees stung from where she’d fallen on them, and there was a little too much space between her and the three girls ahead. She avoided looking down at her too-warm knee, instead trying to focus on whatever Akari seemed to be planning. Her Dad was probably going to ask about that later, Minoru too – protective chickens the both of them.
The tyre swing was coming up - Ino watched the group nervously. It was a black rubber tyre suspended above a very muddy ditch by a length of rope attached to crossbeams. The aim of the obstacle was to time your leap from a platform at one side to get to another platform on the opposite bank. This involved matching your speed with the swing of the tyre so that you landed with your feet in the ring, to get safely across. Everyone had fallen in at least once in the class, so it wasn’t too embarrassing, but it made the rest of the course really difficult to complete with slippery mud everywhere. Miss the timing of it, or pace your run wrong, or jump for it too weakly and you’d land straight in the ditch, mud up to your waist.
Or -Ino thought worriedly as the trio ahead neared the obstacle - if someone pushed you.
The girls were lagging a little behind Sakura, their stamina no match for a girl that actually gave one-hundred percent to everything she did, but it wasn’t quite enough. Her pink haired best friend was still in arms reach of the bullies. “Sakura-!” She called out in warning.
Sakura’s face screwed up in anger, clearly having had enough of her tail. Her face suddenly donned a hard glare. “SHANNARO!” Ino blinked. The yell was loud enough that birds broke out of the nearby trees as Sakura pulled up and ahead of the two startled girls and leaped for the tyre swing. In no time at all, she was across and running on, past even Sasuke leading the head group, leaving the other two to fumble for momentum.
Ino grinned. Yeah, Sakura was really cool.
She wasn’t going to fall behind either.
Now that the school year was in full swing, Dad was taking up a lot more responsibilities. When he was home, he was spending more time in his office than in his bed asleep, and more time in either of those places than with her at all.
Her neatly planned days, which used to start with breakfast with Dad and Minoru and grumpy Inojirou-jii, now missed a person entirely. At the start of the school year, Dad had already sat her down to explain that her grandfather would be taking over her morning exercises because he had to head in to work early, but now, she wasn’t even awake when he left in the mornings. Minoru would feed her breakfast when he was off-duty and drop her off at school, but when he was away from the village on missions it was Inojirou-jii she had to contend with.
The old man seemed to take joy in making her temper explode. His latest thing was to click his tongue or tap his foot at the dining table – not enough to be regular or to discern a pattern – but enough that it made her want to scream! And then he would say she needed to learn better self-control! Oooh, that man!
He would do it during their stretches, do it while she was scoffing down his awful cooking, even as she was tying her shoes by the door. One time she’d forgotten her homework because she’d rushed out the house too fast, trying to get away from the ticking and the tapping and the whistling!
When she came home from classes, Dad was never home either. He used to greet her most evenings when she used to go out to play with her cousins, but now when she came home from school, the house was usually empty. On the one hand it was great, because it meant she could check on her garden and dance in her room and sing at the top of her voice and no one could say anything about it! She’d invited Sakura over a few times but the other girl had seemed a bit spooked at playing in the empty house and in the end they’d gone back to the Haruno’s to play instead. On the other hand, it meant that it was kind of lonely when she got home and there was no one to talk to.
On days like that, Ino busied herself in the flower shop.
The shop itself was mostly manned by Etsuko and Genji, civilian Yamanakas, who mostly didn’t mind if Ino got underfoot for a few hours. Mostly, she did the simple stuff, since she was a little too young to work the till, Etsuko had said with a kind laugh. She swept the floors, dusted the displays off and cleaned the surfaces. It seemed like every time she cleaned the place, more dust and soil would float by and all that work would be wasted. She could sweep the place thrice and still not have the shop clean!
Her favourite part about working in the shop though, was watching bouquets being made. Etsuko mostly ran the front shop, smiling warmly at customers and suggesting appropriate flowers for the occasion. Genji’s domain was behind the counter. Apart from keeping inventory of the shop, he was also the one who made the bouquets.
You would think large hands shouldn’t be able to make something so delicate, but the man was brilliant. Etsuko would send Ino through to him with a request and he would take the slip of paper from her hands and nudge her onto a stool by the work table with a fond roll of his eyes. There were rolls of pretty fabrics and glossy papers in the back workshop. Spools of coloured ribbons and wires and tapes lined the walls, next to gleaming shears and scissors and thin blades of assorted sizes and widths. Genji moved with quick, smooth movements; a flick of his wrist to de-thorn a prickly rose, a precise snap as the shears closed around the base of woodier stems, scissors gliding across coloured papers with a soft shhhhhh . Sometimes Ino liked to watch him move. Sometimes, she closed her eyes just to listen.
The finished bouquets were always beautiful, no matter the tag attached to it. Clusters of baby’s breath and daffodils, bursts of bright peonies and delicate forget-me-nots, tied together with soft satin ribbons.
Eventually the customers would filter out and business would slow and the shop would shut for the day. She would wave Genji and Etsuko goodbye and then make her way through the back into the house behind it. More often than not, Dad would still be working despite the fact that the sun was setting and she’d have dinner with Inojirou-jii (which usually meant burnt rice and very little seasoning to suit an old person’s taste!) and if she was luckier, Minoru who could actually cook.
Ino wasn’t sure what it was Dad was working on. Perhaps he’d been putting it off for a long time, waiting until she was busy with school, but it seemed like he hadn’t been this busy until she started the Academy. Some nights, she’d wake to the sound of the floorboards creaking past her room on the way to the study. Other times she didn’t hear anything at all.
He even worked on weekends now! It made Ino want to yell at him, because he hadn’t taken her out to eat ice cream since that time she’d called Nao something rude. Or done any flower arranging together! Dad loved ikebana, and now that she had classes in it he should have been eager to strongarm her into practicing it, not busy with work!
She’d scarcely even heard him say the word “Flower,” to her in a whole month, not that she liked the nickname, or anything.
Chouji’s and Shikamaru’s fathers were Dad’s best friends, weren’t they? She wondered if they knew anything about it. Or was it something they were working on together, the old Ino-Shika-Cho reunited? She was almost tempted to actually ask the boys for real. Almost.
That would require speaking to them, she frowned.
“Concentrate!”
“Yes, jii-san.” She huffed a sigh. Ah, well, if it was something the war veterans Ino-Shika-Cho were working on together, she was sure they’d come out victorious!
The more time Ino spent with Sakura, the more she learned about the quiet girl. The truth was, Sakura wasn’t actually that quiet. When it was just them in Sakura’s bedroom, the girl was more than happy to chatter about this or that, comparing cute erasers their parents had bought them or defending which of the Princess Gale movies were the best. Sakura was firmly of the opinion that the third movie was the best, while Ino just plain preferred the mangas. It was something they had agreed to disagree on, but it was fun to argue about regardless.
One of the things her best friend prided herself on was her hair. And rightly so. Sakura’s hair was a lovely shade of baby pink, exactly like the cherry blossoms she was named for, styled into a cute bob that hung around her shoulders. Ah, if only Ino had such pretty hair, she’d never stop styling it! The other girl took care of her hair routinely and carefully. Whenever she went over to the Haruno’s for a sleepover, Sakura always ran a brush through her hair at least a hundred times before bed.
“It makes me feel…pretty.” The other girl would say as she climbed under the covers, hair silken and soft.
And no matter how much Ino rushed to reassure her, the girl never seemed to believe it. Ino firmly believed in telling the truth - okay, well, that wasn’t strictly true… but if there was one thing she refused to lie about: it was how someone looked.
Even objectively, Sakura was a pretty child. Her colouring, although not the most exotic, was eye catching. Delicate pink paired with clear green eyes, just looking at her reminded you of cherry blossom viewing in late spring. The Haruno’s were a handsome looking couple too, so it wasn’t as though her best friend would grow up to be ugly either.
But children could be mean sometimes, as Ino had discovered attending the Academy. Ami’s nickname had spread throughout the school and though most were decent kids who didn’t resort to name calling, it didn’t mean that their eyes weren’t drawn to the other girl’s forehead even if they weren’t trying to be rude. Sakura herself was keenly aware of it, Ino knew, pushing and tugging at her fringe constantly during the day to make sure not a hair was out of place. Even in kunoichi classes when they had to pin back their hair for makeup, the other girl would leave her fringe down until the last possible moment and, once Ino was finished, quickly smooth it out again.
Sakura’s forehead wasn’t even that big. And frankly, not even noticeable. Most were inclined to notice the girl’s bright hair first than they were her hidden “fault”. Honestly, it was just that she kept fidgeting with her hair that brought attention to it and since she kept it hidden, well, Ino assumed it just made other kids think it must be humongous. In turn, it only made them look more.
A vicious cycle.
She’d been pondering on the subject whilst out with Minoru one weekend. It was Akimichi Chouji’s birthday the following week and, as heir to his clan, there was to be a party including most of the Yamanaka and Nara. Seven was the age most of the children got introduced to their parents’ friends and associates, so it was an important birthday too. Any younger and they would be too young to understand what was going on, Minoru had explained nonchalantly, and reaching seven was a sign that they could start fending for themselves. It wasn’t that long ago that children hadn’t had the security of the village to protect themselves, after all.
Which was a really morbid thing to hold a party for, Ino thought.
Dad would be presenting something more ceremonial on behalf of the clan, but he’d not so subtly hinted that it would be a good gesture to present Chouji with something herself, heir to heir or whatever. So reluctantly, Minoru was out here with her on his day off, helping her find a present.
The issue, of course, was that Ino didn’t really know Chouji that well, beyond ‘I think he likes food’. That week, she’d been trying to keep an eye on the boy to see if there was anything she could deduce he liked or would appreciate. The conclusion she came to after observation was that the Akimichi heir was content if he had a snack in hand, and that his favourite thing to do (apart from the obvious) was hang out with Shikamaru. And it wasn’t like she could tie up the lazy boy and present him at the ceremony gift-wrapped, Ino resisted the urge to snicker, although that would be hilarious.
She milled between stalls, keeping half an eye on Minoru doing some shopping himself, and tried to stay on track with the amount of pretty trinkets that grabbed her attention. There were baubles of different shapes and sizes, a stand selling an intricate and dainty selection of blown glass, sheets of silk that hung from rolls inside a stall and people calling their wares everywhere she looked.
They had been walking through the marketplace for the better part of the afternoon now and her feet were starting to tire. Ino was almost tempted into just buying him a gold necklace or something ornate and just be done with the whole thing, but Dad had said she should spend her allowance, not clan money, especially since the clan had the ornate and gold thing covered. Ino jingled her coin purse with a huff. She was a little reluctant to spend the money she had earned helping out around the house and the shop on someone she wasn’t even friends with, but even more hesitant to turn up without something to the party.
And if she was going to gift something to Chouji, she might as well put some thought into it, even more especially if it was coming from her own purse. She was just about to turn to tell Minoru they should try another district when a stall caught her eye. Bento boxes…at least that’s what she thought they were. There were ones with adorable little kitty faces, a puppy barking happily and even a cute bunny one that, Ino eyed it starrily, would go perfect with her pencil case!
“Ah, can I help you, young miss?” The stall owner was a young gangly looking man, not much older than Minoru, wringing his hands a little nervously.
“Ano,” She started, tilting her head in a way that always made Daddy cave. “Mister, are these bento boxes?”
“Oh, right, yes.” The man started, lifting up a thin black one to show her. “Very efficient for shinobi, there’s a seal inside that makes the volume it can hold larger than it’s physical capacities, perfect for storing rations for a ninja on the move, they come in various materials and sizes and I can personally customise the –“ He paused his rambling of what was very clearly a rehearsed speech, blinking at the small child in dawning realization. His cheeks flushed pink.
“Mister, I’m not a shinobi yet!” Ino giggled. But they did sound kind of useful…especially for a boy who liked eating snacks in class… She gave the rabbit box a mournful look, before widening her eyes cutely at the man. “But I’m buying a present, can you make one that looks like a pencil case?”
The man stared at her for a moment, before recovering slowly. “- A pencil case…? I suppose that’s doable.” And, in a mutter she was probably not meant to hear, “basically the only business I’ve had anyways.”
Ino scrunched her nose, reviewing all her observations of Chouji over the week. A plain pencil case would be pretty boring… what about… “Can you put a teddy bear on it?” Because, now that she thought of it, Chouji did kind of remind her of one. A roly poly kind of teddy bear. He was cute, not in the pretty way that Mizuki was, but like the one time Etsuko had brought her girlfriend’s tiny puppy over and all the little thing had been able to do was mewl adorably. It made Ino want to squish Chouji’s cheeks mostly.
The stall owner nodded, his curly brown hair bobbing with the movement. “Sure, I can do that. Umm…it’ll take a few days,” He murmured a few calculations under his breath. “That’ll be one hundr-“
Ino turned the power of The Tilt and The Eyes up, “It’s my friend’s birthday!” She added cutely.
She practically grinned when the man wilted. With a slump to his shoulders he turned away for a moment before presenting another rack of goods before her. There were a few metal pieces of jewellery, simple, and a few other accessories. They were roughly made, without the finesse of an actual jeweller’s stand, but looked sturdily built. Likely also targeted at shinobi then, especially since the metal had been dipped in something that reduced the shine. But what made Ino straighten was the wide satin ribbons draped along the rack between them. There were yellows and oranges, blues and purples, some patterned and some not.
“I’ll throw in one of these, then,” He gave her a searching look, probably aware of how easily he had caved. She resisted the urge to cackle. “But… the price will have to remain at one hundred and fifty ryo for the lot.”
“The red one!” She pointed at the beautiful ribbon happily. She knew exactly just who would appreciate the colour. Huh, two problems solved at once! Ino was so clever! “Please, mister!”
“Those are just…” The man scratched his head, “fine.” He sighed and untangled the ribbon.
“Thanks, nii-san!” He jolted as Ino tipped her coin purse out onto the table and watched the money she’d saved up clatter onto the wooden surface. Taking the ribbon from him, she pushed the pile of coins towards him. One hundred and fifty was pretty much all she had on her anyways. She watched as he counted the money into a tin. “You can send it to the Yamanaka Flower Shop once it’s ready!”
“Ino!” She heard Minoru call above the din of the marketplace.
Securing the ribbon in her pocket with a skip to her step, Ino moved back towards where she’d last seen him, calling one last time over her shoulder to the young man at the stall. “You’re in the wrong district if you want shinobi customers, by the way!” She waved back at his startled expression cheekily. “Bye!”
Sakura was going to be so pleased!
It was when Sakura said that Nao had told Haruno-san that her daughter had cheated to get her top mark that Ino had finally decided enough was enough. When she made it home from her best friend’s house for dinner, she’d told Minoru (and Inojirou-jii by extension) all about what was happening in school angrily, gripping her chopsticks so hard she thought they might break.
Minoru had sighed, ignoring her grandfather’s tutting as he leant on one elbow heavily on the table. “Brat, the Academy’s not actually there just for fun, y’know?” Ino had spluttered in response, opening her mouth to retort. “You’re shinobi-in-training, most of you anyways, just ignore the bint.” He gave her a sympathetic shrug. “The Academy doesn’t discourage bullying.”
Ino had fumed in her seat, slamming her rice bowl down. She’d ignored Inojirou-jii’s huff at another child with bad table manners. “That’s not fair! I can’t just let her get away with it!”
Minoru had said nothing, simply patted her on the head and risen to clear the dishes. Instead it was the old man who replied, smacking the back of her head.
“Ow!”
“No one’s saying that!” He had snapped, also rising from his seat. “Yamanakas are to be stepped on by none.” He took a long drag from his pipe and then turned to exit. “There are other things the Academy does discourage though.” He called over his shoulder, deliberately mysterious, the old coot!
The grumpy man had given her a starting point at least. If the Academy could do nothing, especially when Ino had no proof that it was Nao and Ami behind all the incidents, then she’d just have to find some dirt on them that the Academy would punish them for and somehow get them to do it in front of the teachers. She relayed her plan that weekend to Sakura who had beamed, and that very Monday began their big sting operation to catch Nao and Ami in the act!
First, they’d asked Iruka for the teacher’s rulebook which he’d been happy to lend to them as long as it didn’t leave the classroom. Sakura had copied the rules (because she had the neatest writing) into her notebook. The issue was, they then discovered, that there was little the Academy did punish students for.
- Being caught cheating in an exam
- Significant lack of attendance
- Intentional destruction of property
- Swearing as Ino had discovered.
- Blatant disrespect of authority
- Intent to do harm outside of sparring
Of course, most of these rules had the caveat that they had to be proven to a member of staff or been witnessed by one. And though neither Nao or her close friends Suzu, Akari and Yui were particularly clever, they were smart enough to avoid doing anything too obviously whilst the teachers were looking their way.
This changed nearly a month after Chouji’s birthday.
They were running the obstacle course again. Ino was breathing hard, glad she’d thought to wear shorts today instead of the dungarees she’d originally decided on. It had rained last night, so while the ground and equipment were a little slick in places, at least there was a cool breeze blowing as she ran.
The obstacle course had a number of stages, likely designed to test different things, and although it was initially fun to crawl under a dirty net or balance on a long moving beam like a see-saw, the excitement quickly wore off after the first few days. The thirty pupils of Class 1-A were split into three groups of ten. Group one would start first and once most of that group had made it to the halfway mark, group two would begin, and so forth. This meant that there was always one group recovering while the other two ran.
At the start of the course, Mizuki would usher them into starting positions, before giving them a count down to begin.
This afternoon, Ino found herself standing alongside Kiba and Ito, with Ichika a paces away, getting ready to begin. The blonde girl rolled her shoulders once, twice and then lowered herself into a sprint-ready position. According to Iruka, her best time so far had been just over four minutes for the course, and, today, Ino was looking to beat that.
She kept getting close, but missing out by a few seconds, and she wasn’t sure whether it was her breathing that was the problem, or her pacing, or her rhythm. As far as the rest of the class went, there was both faster and slower kids. Sasuke was the quickest, followed by either Shino or Rui depending on who was in better condition that day. Of the girl’s Hinata was the quickest but Ino was quite happy to come in second right behind her. Still, the girls were lagging behind the boys, and she was adamant to change that soon.
“On your marks -”
Ino trained her eyes on the first obstacle.
“Get set – “
The crawl net wasn’t the worst thing they could have started with.
“GO!”
Ino pushed off her heels, sprinting for the first obstacle and closing the distance as fast as she could push her pace, in order to keep enough stamina to last until the end. Almost immediately, Kiba was past her and kneeling at the start of the netting. She reached the obstacle just as the other boy was slipping under it, dropping to her knees, uncaring at the rough landing.
The net was made of wiry cord, thick but smooth, so that it didn’t catch too much on their clothes and hair. She scrambled beneath it, knees following after her elbows, keeping her mouth shut to avoid getting a mouthful of dirt. The trickiest part of the obstacle wasn’t the scrambling or the dirt, but the net itself, which draped around them loosely, but didn’t allow them to rise above a crouched crawl. There was a little congestion up ahead where someone had clearly gotten stuck; so she circled around it – it would cut into her time a little but that was better than waiting for them to detangle themselves. Emerging from the end of the net, she broke into a run again.
Ahead, Kiba and Naruto were squabbling near the base of the next obstacle – a wooden ladder construct that was several feet across and even more feet high.
“Hah! I’m going to beat you this time, dog-breath!”
“Shut up, whiskers!”
Boys, honestly. They should save their breath for actually moving faster! With a delicate scoff, Ino closed the distance latching onto the first slightly wood-damp rung with one arm.
“Wha-hey!”
It was lucky they had smoothed these beams otherwise she’d definitely be getting an armful of splinters right about now. Once she had the first rung, the next five were considerably easier, until she was hauling herself over the top rung to begin her descent on the other side. Descending the Ladder was a lot more difficult, because now there were other people ascending on the other side. Ino inched to the left as she narrowly avoided Naruto’s foot, feeling the edge of his ratty sneaker scrape her pinky. Gross! Dropping the last few feet to land in a crouch, she pushed off for the next obstacle.
If Kiba and Naruto didn’t insist on arguing every time they were put in the same group or competing against Sasuke, they might actually give Shino or Ito a run for their money. Maybe not all the time, but somedays definitely. It was a shame they didn’t focus on themselves as much as they did other people.
Ino could feel the hairs sticking to her sweaty forehead as she ran, glad for the cool breeze. There was the tight rope next: two lengths of rope drawn tight over a knee-deep trench of murky rain water. One rope at chest height, another at foot height. This one was her favourite by far, she resisted the urge to grin as she made quick work of it, and the one she was best at. She overtook Ito and Ichika easily after that, flashing the other girl in the group a grin as she ran past.
Yes! She made it, head of the group! Leading the group! Beat that!
She could even see a few stragglers from Group One on the next obstacle – obviously they’d fallen behind and couldn’t catch up with the ones that had already finished the course. Usually, Iruka and Mizuki liked it when they kept some distance between different groups so numbers didn’t get too muddled but as it was Ino could practically feel herself beating her personal best. It was a race, no matter what the teachers said, a race against herself. And she was absolutely going to win!
The climbing net was quite similar to the crawl net, only that it was secured both to the ground and to a long wooden bar, ten feet in the air, and then to another bar in the air, before being secured again to the ground, forming a trapezoid shape altogether. Where the ladder was more of a test of strength, the climbing net was one of balance and agility – at least that’s what Ino had figured. People like Naruto and Chouji practically threw themselves over the ladder, where someone like Shikamaru found the climbing net a lot simpler.
Ino grabbed onto a part of the net nearer to the edge, where the taught rope gave it more strength to hold her weight, and began to climb. Theoretically, the best place would be the middle of the net, where you had little chance of falling unless you were mon-u-men-tally stupid. But the middle sagged under any weight, so while it might be safe, it wasn’t the fastest route. Usually, Ino picked somewhere in between the middle and the sides, especially when there were lots of people on the net - it was far too easy to be shoved off, after all – but there was only her and another girl up near the top so she felt pretty safe.
Passing the other girl, she began moving herself over the top of the crossbeam, onto the flat part of the netting, when her head jerked sharply.
“Ow!” She couldn’t help but splutter out, craning her head back to see what was – oh. She’d been meaning to ask Dad to cut her hair for a while now, but he was so busy that she kept missing her chance to ask him. Her white-blonde ponytail was stuck now, thick strands caught between fingers. “Let go!”
“No.” Nao smirked, tightening her grip, hair pulling sharply at her scalp.
“Miura! Stop!” Ino tried to tug against it, using her weight to pull but Nao’s grip held. Her time! She was losing seconds just sitting here! “Let me go, Nao!”
“Not until you say sorry!”
Ino felt her lips twist, “Sorry? For what? That I didn’t realise how mean you were until it was too late?” She let out a gasp as her hair was yanked back.
“For being horrible to my nee-chan!” The purple-haired girl spat. “I don’t know why you – “
“Wha-HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!”
The loud shout startled them both, Nao loosening her grip on Ino’s hair, and abruptly there was so much less force holding her in place and Ino had been straining so hard to hurry up and let go, her hands slipped off the damp rope. Her only warning was the slight widening of Nao’s brown eyes and then - then there was no rope where her left hand was and her body was dropping – Ino flailed wildly for the rope but she had leant too far left –
“In-“
She didn’t even have time to shriek before she hit the ground ten feet below, feet first awkwardly into the hard dirt and then toppling backwards, head slamming onto the crash mat.
“-o!”
For a moment, she just lay there breathing harshly and staring upwards at the net above. Nao stared back down at her, eyes blown wide and lit up by the bright sky. Everything felt bruised. Her heart felt like it was beating so loudly surely people could hear it from Suna. She thought she’d missed the crash mat but she was lying on it now, sort of, so – what -
“Ino?” There were hands on her shoulders, “Can you move?”
She nodded, feeling hands pull her upright until Iruka’s worried face came into view. The class was gathered around them, Naruto babbling some nonsense whilst Sakura kept shooting angry glares to a point out of view.
“Did you hit your head, Ino?” Iruka was asking, his arm now around her shoulder as Mizuki was saying something to the class. She strained her ears to catch it but then found her eyes drawing back to the brown haired chunin.
“I-I don’t think so?” Her voice sounded croaky and strange and she went to lift her arm but found it feeling hot and sore so she left it where it was. “My arm…” She said, trying to tell him, the backs of her eyes beginning to sting…and her right foot – she hissed in pain when she tried to shift it, “…my –“
“I’m going to move you inside, okay?” Iruka said, just as Mizuki and the rest of class disappeared out of sight. “You took quite a nasty fall,” His tone was deceptively light and he smiled reassuringly although it couldn’t quite hide the worry in his eyes. Slipping an arm around her waist and another carefully under her knees, Ino found herself being carried inside the Academy building by Iruka.
Iruka set her down on a bench, grabbing a first aid kit out of a nearby cupboard and a couple of tissues. “Here,” He said, holding them to her face as her breathing hitched. His face blurred for a moment before her fingers met the soft tissue and she scrubbed her eyes. “Bet that was scary, huh?”
“M’hmm,” Ino sniffed, feeling the tears well up again as he eased her shoe off to look at the damage.
Iruka made a sympathetic noise, air whistling through his teeth, before reaching past her to grab a floppy looking blue bag from the green kit. Quickly he pressed something inside it, which made a snap sound and then helped her prop her ankle up on the bench – the cold compress wrapped in a few cotton bandages on top. “It’s not broken, just a bad sprain.” He said, patting her knee before moving to the scratches on her arm.
“I-is my Dad coming?” She asked hopefully, feeling her chest go tight. The alcohol stung where Iruka was dabbing it and she didn’t realise she had sucked in her breath until he told her to relax.
Iruka nodded, “I’m sure we’ll be seeing him soon. Ino…” His face went stern, and for just a moment she could see that he hadn’t always been a teacher and chuunin wasn’t a rank to scoff at lightly. “Everyone saw what happened.”
“Everyone?”
He gave her a wan smile, “Naruto shouted loud enough that even some of the classes inside heard him.”
Ino stared at her hands, the skin of her knuckles had torn and gone red and puffy. She had been hoping someone would catch Ami or Nao red-handed, but she hadn’t been hoping to fall off the net! She shuddered.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t fast enough to catch you.” Iruka said, head bowed. “As your teacher I’m supposed to make sure you’re safe.”
“It’s okay, sensei – I shouldn’t have gone too close to the edge – “ She rubbed the tissue over her face again and took a loud sniff. “- I – I messed up my times, didn’t I?” Ino had to fight not to burst into tears all over again. She had been so close! So close to beating her score! She’d even overtaken some of the boys and maybe for once – the fastest time could have been a girls’! A few frustrated tears dripped down her chin anyways.
“Ah, Ino, you did well, fastest over the ladder today, and the tight-rope too.” His tone was comforting but it didn’t make her feel any better. There was a beat of silence as the teacher continued to treat her scrapes, adding a cute but large pink plaster over her arm and elbow, before it was interrupted by a swirl of leaves.
“Ino!”
Her shoulders dropped in relief, tears springing to her eyes again. “Daddy!”
Dad was angry. He took her straight home and bundled her up on the couch in her pyjamas and brought down the pink duvet from her bed to wrap herself in, muttering sharply under his breath. The house was quiet. Minoru was out of the village on a mission and Inojirou-jii usually liked to keep his afternoons for smoking and sipping tea with his old war buddies. Ino watched him bustle around for a moment – she felt a little pebble of guilt in her stomach for being secretly pleased to see him when he had so much work on.
Steeling herself, after he’d given her half a painkiller tablet, she reached out a hand to snag his sleeve.
“Daddy, it wasn’t – Nao didn’t–“
At his raised brow, she stuttered to a stop.
“Your teachers said she had you by your hair, ten feet off the ground,” He fixed her a stern look that had her burrowing a little under the blanket. “I don’t think the Academy has slipped so far as to not inform you all how dangerous it is to mess about on the obstacle course.”
“But they do that all the time to us, try and trip us up and stuff,” She interjected, why did it feel like he was scolding her instead? “Mi- erm - someone said that they ‘don’t discourage bullying!’”
Dad dropped beside her onto the couch with a heavy sigh. “They don’t.” He said bluntly, pushing his fingers into his hair loosely. “Being tripped up isn’t fun, but usually it does little harm. Enemy-nin will do far worse, trying to keep you from reaching the finish line. So the Academy doesn’t discourage a few insults, or a few rough fists - kids will be kids.” Even as he said it, it didn’t sound at all like Dad agreed with it. “But they do have to draw a line,” His eyes went to a spot above her head, like he was thinking of something else, before it was gone, and he was looking at her again. “That she tried to sabotage you so high up off the ground, not only shows stupidity but also a lack of planning and understanding of consequences. Essential, for any good ninja.”
Ino stared at the wrap around her ankle, remembering Nao’s face above as she lay on the ground. Sakura visited once school broke out, a sheaf of neatly copied out notes in blue ink for her and a wet sheen to her eyes. Her best friend had bobbed her head nervously at Dad when Genji had led her through the back of the shop to the house, but had all but sprinted towards the couch when she’d seen Ino. They spent the rest of the afternoon watching Princess Gale films and chatting about who the lead totally should have fallen in love with over pints of ice cream, while Dad worked in the kitchen, occasionally popping his head in to check on them before he went back to working.
Even though the day had been mildly disastrous, as Sakura chirped out a “I’ll swing by tomorrow!” Ino couldn’t help but feel happy. Okay, so she’d fallen, but on the plus side, Nao had been caught, and she’d gotten to spend the day at home and Dad had hugged her and sat with her until Sakura had stopped by. Even as a grumbling Inojirou-jii wandered in from the veranda door, she couldn’t help the smile that crossed her face.
“What’re you smiling at?” The grumpy old man eyed her suspiciously as he dropped onto his favourite armchair with a bit of a wheeze.
“Nothing!” She sing-songed airily and pulled her warm duvet tighter around her, so that she looked like a ball of pink that had an Ino-head sticking out the top. “Did you have a good day, jii-san?”
“No,” He harrumphed, turning back to the dancing figure of Princess Gale on the telly.
“I fell, and” She said, scrunching the toes on her left foot (since her right foot hurt) to see if she could see it moving under the mound of blankets (-she couldn’t), “Sakura came to visit and we had ice cream, see!” She didn’t point, Ino would have to take her arms out of the cocoon for that, but she did try and gesture with her eyes to the now empty tub on the low table in front of the telly.
Inojirou-jii’s wiry silver eyebrows arched in a way that distinctly reminded her of Dad. “Don’t be sick later – Inoichi!”
Dad appeared in the doorway to the kitchen nearly at once, hair trailing out behind him. His face relaxed when he saw who it was, shoulders slumping. “You’re here, good,” He strode forwards and bent at the waist to plant a kiss on Ino’s cheek, who wrinkled her nose at the feeling of stubble. Gross! Dad needed to shave! “I’ve got a meeting to attend, so don’t wait up for me.”
Ino opened her mouth to protest. Already? She thought he’d taken the rest of the day off – and besides, she hadn’t even asked about getting her hair cut yet. Before she could say anything, he was ruffling her slightly bruised scalp and darting for the door, sweeping up his papers with a hurried – “See you later.”
“Bye…” Ino called after him, voice trailing away.
Across the table, Inojirou-jii was watching her carefully.
“What?” She scowled as the old man set out a bowl in front of her, dinner that she hadn’t even noticed Dad put down before he left.
“If you want your father to spend more time with you, you should just say so.”
Ino rolled her eyes. She leant forwards to grab her half full rice bowl and a few veggies before sitting back again. “Dad’s busy, jii-san.” Duh.
Her grandfather let out a snort, muttering something under his breath that she couldn’t quite catch. On the screen, Princess Gale was just being confronted by her evil best friend, traitor to her country.
“Princess Gale, somehow I knew it would be you!”
“Fuyuki, tell me this storm isn’t your doing?”
“All my life, I have –“ CRUNCH
Ino tore her eyes away from the screen, scowling at the loud crunch as her dinner companion munched happily on pickled carrots. Did he have to be so loud? And she’d thought old people had weak teeth! The screen flared up with light, the explosion blaring from the speakers. As the smoke cleared, Princess Gale stood tall, her dark hair flickering behind her in the wind like a flame.
“Fuyuki, you were my blood-sister, my sworn comrade, I have treated you like family, I see now I was wr-”
“What a load of tripe!”
“Jii-san!” Ino glared at him, half-heartedly. It wasn’t the best Gale movie but it certainly wasn’t ‘tripe’, Sakura would faint if she heard! “I was watching that!”
The old man chewed his food, watching her with pupil-less blue eyes. “Bah!” He said at last, dropping the remote onto the armchair beside him and out of Ino’s reach. “Don’t watch the telly while you eat, it’s bad for digestion.”
“…I don’t need a stinky smoker like you to tell me what to do…” She muttered below her breath, shoving a bit of food in begrudgingly.
“Did you say something?”
“Nope!” She beamed at him innocently. Inojirou-jii’s brow twitched.
After dinner, which involved her grumpy grandfather tapping his pipe against his leg impatiently while Ino did her best to take tiny sloooww bites, they went through her meditation. Being injured didn’t change that at all, it turned out.
Her clan training – the part of the meditation meant to focus her mindscape and enable her interactions within – was at a bit of a standstill, currently. According to Minoru – because Inojirou-jii liked his mystery – there were stages to learning the Mind-Body techniques that their clan was famous for. He hadn’t been particularly informative about the number of stages or how long it had taken him, but Ino wasn’t even halfway to stage one yet! Mostly, her grandfather would let her drop back into her head and let her work a bit more on the details of her mind’s persona. She still wasn’t much further than her ankles, but at least the ghostly limbs she could form felt more like her own now.
Her sensory training - on the other hand – seemed to be going backwards! No one had believed her when she said she’d sensed the street outside the flower shop that one time, Inojirou-jii most of all. He seemed to think she must have dozed off a bit during the meditation and dreamt it all! Which was stupid because if she’d had the option to dream while meditating uncomfortably in his house, she would have dreamt of something far more interesting than the route from the sitting room to the street. What a lame dream! Her grandfather had smirked and said if she was so sure, then she should do it again, and here lay the problem.
Ino couldn’t. Every night after dinner under the old man’s watchful eye she tried to reach out to the street again, spreading her senses as far as she could until she felt like a rubber band close to snapping back. And every time, she only got as far as the gate to the courtyard! The gate!
She breathed heavily through her nose, flaring her nostrils. Okay – focus. Con-
“Concentrate.”
Right. The TV was quiet now, no sign of the strange electrical whine that usually accompanied flickering pictures. Her breathing and Inojirou-jii’s soft puffs were audible above the faint rattling of wind against the house. She could hear the fridge, whirring quietly under it all, from the kitchen. It was strange training at home instead of at her grandfather’s house. If the Yamanaka Flower Shop faced the main street, then Ino and Dad lived directly in the rooms adjoined behind and above it. She could hear the civilian Eri-oba calling out for last call sales of her handcrafted jewelry, but this was less because her sensing had improved and more to do with how close she now was to the main road (and how loud Eri-oba was.)
There was a general hum of chatter from the street, gossip probably, but nothing she could really make out beyond the fact that yes, there were voices. Would the gossip be about Nao and her today? Ino had…Ino had been hoping the other girl would get in trouble. She had been hoping the sisters might try something in view of the teachers so that their infuriating behaviour would stop. It would be a lie to say that she and Sakura hadn’t been carefully watching the other girls in hopes that Iruka and Mizuki might catch one of therm. And it had been paying off too – last week, Izumi had been caught by their kunoichi teacher in music class trying to cheat off Sakura’s worksheets and gotten a scolding in front of the whole class, and there had been a lovely lull in the bullying, until today at least. But she hadn’t meant for – on top of the climbing net, Ino hadn’t been saying very nice things either.
Perhaps, if she’d been less frustrated about her time and more aware of where she was, she might have gritted out an apology instead. Or at least answered more politely, neg-o-ti-a-ted her way out instead. She hadn’t meant for this to happen.
The scrape on her arm itched.
“Ino.”
She flinched, breathing in again deeply. Right. Training. Meditation. She tried to ignore the itchy feeling of her arm and focused again on the room. Her nose twitched at the bitter smell of Inojirou-jii’s pipe, it almost seemed stronger than usual, slightly nutty and dry on her tongue. It mixed oddly with the faint smell of the rice and vegetables they’d finished, the empty bowls still waiting to be cleaned. She could still hear the fridge going, the sound of the wind, although it was odd to not hear the creaking of the gate by her grandfather’s house, - instead there was the sounds of Eri-oba packing up her cart, the jangling of metals and stones like bells. There were footsteps going down the street. The heavy plodding of patrons heading to the food district for late dinners, or the pitter-patter of children running. For dessert, perhaps.
Ino felt herself straighten as light footsteps approached the alleyway that ran down the side of the flower shop. Light tread, even steps, but hesitant.
There was a loud knock on the front door.
“How many?”
She concentrated, listening to the faint exchange of whispers. “Two…it’s…” Her eyes flickered uncertainly behind closed eyelids. “I think it’s Shikamaru-kun and Chouji-kun?”
Inojirou-jii sighed and she could hear him drop his elbow onto the armrest of his chair heavily. “Alright, go on then.”
She blinked her eyes open, pushing away the mound of blankets she was under and stumbling awkwardly to her feet as she adjusted to the bright room again.
“Do you want my cane?”
She shook her head, no way, was she going to open the door holding a cane like some old person! “No thanks!” Her right foot was bandaged up thickly around a splint and couldn’t really bear any weight, but Ino could hop and flap her arms so she figured she’d be fine. “Coming!” She called out as she wobbled her way through the kitchen into the hallway.
There was a bit off shuffling outside the door.
Carefully, dropping down the step by using the shoe cabinet in the entryway for support, she hopped the last bit over to the door. “Who is it?” She asked, hand reaching for the lock. Minoru had snorted the first time he’d heard her do it but hadn’t said anything but ruffle her hair.
“Uh, Chouji and Shikamaru.”
She’d been right! She turned the lock with a grin and hopped back a few steps to open the door. The boys were stood on the front step when she saw them, Shikamaru slouching over small box in his hands and Chouji slightly behind him holding a tin.
“Erm, hi,” She said, smile dropping slightly as they both sort of twitched funnily, both flicking eyes to the pink plaster on her arm. “Do you – uh – want to come in?”
Ino turned to fetch them a pair of slippers each when they nodded, hearing the lock click shut behind her. There weren’t many kid-sized ones in the cupboard but after a few long moments of rummaging, she did eventually manage to produce her old pair (which were pink with love-hearts) and the pair Sakura sometimes used (which were also pink but had Princess Gale). She dropped them to the floor and hopped up the step to the hallway.
“Sorry about the pink, we don’t really have any other ones your size.” She said, feeling self-conscious.
She could see they weren’t ecstatic about wearing girly slippers, but they didn’t complain as they followed behind her wobbly hopping, heading back into the kitchen.
“Er, Ino-chan, are you sure you should be up?” Chouji’s hands would probably be flapping nervously if they weren’t busy holding things.
“It’s – fine – “ She said, it was really tiring though. She dropped into the chair at the dining table ungracefully, but gratefully as she tried to catch her breath. “Please – sit.”
Inojirou-jii had disappeared from the room, leaving the windows cracked and the door, leading to the veranda and the rest of the compound, open. The boys seemed to share a glance and clambered into seats on one side of the table.
“Um…” Surprisingly, it was mild-mannered Chouji who spoke first, pushing the metal tin across the table. “I brought you some cake.” He said hesitantly as Ino lifted the lid off, ignoring the Akimichi logo on the top. The cake inside looked amazing, delicious looking buttercream spread over the top and dusted with pink and purple sprinkles. It didn’t look as professional as some of the bakeries she’d seen by the Akimichi compound and the icing wasn’t very smooth over the top – but it did look yummy.
And judging by the reddening hamster cheeks – “Did you make this?” She gaped at the boy.
“My mum helped.” His face went tomato red and his eyes dropped to the cake again.
“Oh.” Ino fidgeted in her seat, feeling a matching flush of her own rise up. She tucked her hair behind her ear. “That’s – it looks good – thank you.”
There was an aggrieved sigh before a heavy thunk sounded as Shikamaru placed his box down on the table. “It would be troublesome if I didn’t turn up with a gift too.” And then proceeded to wrinkle his nose at it. “Don’t open it indoors, it stinks.”
Ino’s eyes dropped to the innocent looking box in alarm. “W-what is it?”
“Deer musk.” Shikamaru made another face again, and it was honestly the most expressive she had ever seen the lazy boy.
“Thanks, I guess. It’s for my foot, right?” The boy nodded. Ino glanced at them both again. Did their parents send them? After a second of deliberation, she decided it didn’t matter. They’d still given her some medicine and cake, though it would have been easy to share the dessert between themselves and just leave the oil somewhere in the village. She glanced down at the cake tin again – it was only fair. ‘Do you guys want a slice?’ She meant to say as her fingers closed around the metal lid, instead what came out was: “I thought you guys didn’t like me.”
Ino’s eyes widened and she had to fight the urge to drop the lid of the tin, in favour of covering her mouth. She hadn’t meant to say that! “I…I mean, I thought – “
Shikamaru’s lips twitched into a frown as he shared a glance with Chouji. “We thought you didn’t like us.”
“Wh-what?!” She tried to think over her interactions with them both these past few months. They’d never asked her to come play with them – and they’d never come to by the flower shop, not even with their parents. “But you guys were the ones ignoring me!” Ino protested. They hadn’t even said hello at the Academy!
Chouji’s brow furrowed, his fingers curling and uncurling in the fabric of his jumper. “But Ino-chan, you never came to the park to play with us – “ He said softly, looking at Shikamaru again, some sort of boy code passing in their eyes that made Ino want to huff. “Everyone else was there, even Sasuke.”
“That’s ‘cause Daddy didn’t let me!” Ino burst out, missing both the boys’ jumping at the sudden volume. She was too caught up to even be embarrassed about calling her father Daddy. “He said it was dangerous! And I wasn’t allowed out the compound by myself until I started the Academy!” Even now, when she was allowed to walk home by herself, she still had a curfew! She bet Chouji and Shikamaru didn’t get curfews!
“Why?” The Nara asked, leaning forwards now that it seemed the outburst was over. “All the other clan kids did it.”
All of them? It was Ino’s turn to slump. “Daddy gets very…” Her nose wrinkled. “Protective. I think. I mostly played with my cousins up until now.” It was true. Her friends before going to the Academy had been Genji and Etsuko in the flower shop, and Mariko who was genin now and didn’t have time to play anymore. Minoru-baka didn’t count! Some kids would come in with their parents to buy flowers but not regularly enough that she got to know any of them.
“Troublesome,” Shikamaru was nearly face down on the table at this point, head pillowed on his arms. “We thought you were avoiding us because you didn’t come to the park, so we didn’t talk to you at school. And you thought we were ignoring you at school, so you didn’t try either.” And the dinner at Yakiniku-Q had only seemed to make things worse, he didn’t have to say.
Ino frowned. When put like that it sounded… kind of … dumb?
“We- “ Chouji opened his mouth to say something and then shut it again. She sort of wanted him to just say whatever it was he was hesitating about but Shikamaru gave her a long look from where his face was half-hidden by his arms, and so she kept quiet. “I have – I use the bento box you got me for snacks at school,” He said, at last, cheeks pinking. “I don’t - I like you, Ino-chan!” Ino could feel the flush burning immediately up her neck and she spluttered for a response as Chouji seemed to realise what he’d said. “I mean – I think it would be nice to be friends!”
“Um! I!” For lack of words, she shoved her face into her fingers, peeking through them and feeling far too warm.
Shikamaru looked a little warm himself, scratching his neck with a put-upon sigh. “You’re troublesome – but I don’t mind it.”