Mind (Jutsu) Games

Chapter 4

He had to admit, a few weeks later, that she was right. Only Asuma-sensei had made any comment about the number of times he chose to take Ino on overnight missions, and he had made comments like those the entire time they’d been a team. On the whole, it wasn’t so bad having a secret girlfriend. He didn’t get any of those sidelong glances people labeled as half a couple would receive if he mentioned her, and there was none of the teasing they would have gotten when they went off to practice together. Granted, only half the time was ever spent on actual ninja techniques. The rest they spent practicing skills that had nothing to do with ninja missions, or at least, any missions he’d ever been on.

On the other hand, he was getting more than a little frustrated. It seemed that anytime there were getting somewhere, they would be interrupted. The day before, they’d been working on taijutsu out in the woods, and, while he wasn’t going all out, he was still winning when she pulled a dirty, dirty trick. She’d slipped inside his defenses, but as he had both her wrists in his hands and his lower body was turned to the side, he didn’t feel as though he needed to worry about her kicking him, so he’d smirked. But she’d merely kissed him. Merely. He nearly fell over from the unexpected contact and when he finally recovered, it was to see her, having escaped his grasp, several feet away, grinning before she rushed him again.

Never one to be outdone, especially as she’d first broached the subject of using his attraction to her as a weapon, he quickly caught her with his trademark jutsu, moving the shadowy hands slowly upward, caressing her even as they held her captive. She tried to fight against them for a moment, then gave it up, giving him an amused smirk of her own. “Getting groped by shadows? Kinky.”

Ino wanted to die of embarrassment from what she’d just said. Where had that statement come from?!

Sorry, that was me.

What the hell?

Sorry, but it is kinky. Think about it. He’s groping you from a distance so he can sit back and watch your reaction. Honestly, such a perv!

I thought you wanted me to date him?

I didn’t say he wasn’t a cute perv. Not to mention an intelligent, talented, and high-ranking shinobi for his age.

Right. Anyway, please pass any further comments through the logic processors before spitting them out.

Okay.

He cocked his head to the side. He hadn’t actually groped her – yet – but she was asking for it, quite literally, so as a gentleman, he had to oblige. Cautiously, the hand-shaped shadows shifted, clutching at some of her more responsive pieces of anatomy, and he enjoyed watching her blush. Taking a step – she did the same, as he still had her in his jutsu – he neared her, stopping only when he was close enough to take her in his arms, which he did, dispelling the jutsu as her own arms came up toward him. He didn’t want to force her; if she didn’t want to hug him, she had every right to refuse. But her arms kept coming, wrapping around him as her mouth moved steadily toward his own.

“Ino! Where are you?”

Stepping back hastily from their embrace, Ino hoped her blush could be explained away as being red-faced from training as she called out to her friend. “I’m over here, forehead girl! Yeesh, what’s all the shrieking about?”

And that was just one example of many. It wasn’t until they were out on a mission that people would leave them alone, unless they managed to disappear to a place they couldn’t be found. He had some ideas about that, but he wasn’t sure how Ino would react, and he didn’t want to frighten her or pressure her into more than she was ready for. He was still so new to this relationship thing, and didn’t want to screw it up.

But he was getting more frustrated each day, and he hadn’t managed to get Ino as a mission partner for almost a week. Granted, he’d only had two overnight missions in that time, and she’d been busy when he was assigned both of them, but it was getting annoying. He now remembered why he’d avoided dating in the first place.

Though he had to admit, as she came jogging lightly over the bridge to meet him as he and Chouji returned from another mission, that he could also see why he’d thrown his promise to remain single out the window. She was beautiful, strong, and fun to be with, at least when she wasn’t pounding on him for one weird comment or another.

Chouji had stopped about a block back to get something to eat – the mission had taken a little longer than they’d thought, and he’d run out of snacks – so Shikamaru felt no guilt about sweeping his girlfriend up into a crushing hug, spinning her around. When he finally set her down, both of them sported slightly flushed cheeks and glittering eyes, and she punched his arm.

“Shika-kun!” she hissed, “what if someone saw that?”

His response was to shrug before leaning back against the railing. He didn’t really care if anyone knew, and her obsessive secrecy was starting to bother him, but not so much that he’d go to the effort of doing anything about it. “Sorry, you just looked too good,” he apologized, knowing a complement like that, especially a true one, would distract her from anything he might have done. And he was right.

“Well, I guess I forgive you,” she teased, leaning beside him close enough for their arms to touch firmly. “But you’ll have to buy me dinner to make up for it.”

“I was going to do that anyway,” he replied, shrugging and pressing against her slightly. He’d missed her while he was gone, and just being close to her, feeling the skin of her arm against his, smelling her perfume lightly on the breeze, was enough for the moment. Someday, he’d like more, but for now, this was enough.

~~~~*~~~~

Azuma sighed to himself as he watched his students from one of his favorite hiding places in a tree near the bridge. He knew this day was inevitable, that they couldn’t help being attracted to each other, but it still didn’t make his life any easier. Now he had one more variable to compute in the complicated calculation of team dynamics. Fortunately, Shikamaru didn’t seem to be taking Ino on many of his missions, and they were both busy enough that he didn’t have to worry about them sneaking off to do anything inappropriate, not that he thought they would, but the danger was always there.

With another sigh, he lowered himself from the branches and went off in search of Kakashi. If anyone knew what to do about romantic entanglements within his team, Kakashi did. After all, everyone knew about the crush his Sakura had nurtured for years. Rumor had it she still hadn’t given up, even though her love had been declared a traitor to the village.

Finding Kakashi would be the challenge, though. And what would they do after he found him? He decided the question of what to do about his wayward pupils could wait until Kakashi, Kurenai, himself, and the rest of the jounin instructors got together later that evening. Well, all the rest that were in town currently, he amended. They’d been working at least twice as hard as they ever had with their teams, and still had to keep an eye on their students and give weekly reports on the kids’ status and skills. It was enough to drive a sane man mad.

~~~~*~~~~

The next day, Shikamaru once again left the Hokage Tower with a mission scroll clutched in his hand. The sun had barely lifted above the horizon, but he was already racing across the village, determined to catch Ino before she got roped into another task by someone else. When he reached her house, it was silent, and her mother was the only one in the shop next door. Hoping luck was with him, he carefully made his way up to her window-ledge and peered through the glass.

Her bed was tucked into the corner hardest to see from the window – he couldn’t blame her, as there was a streetlight just outside and he had heard her complain about the glare more than once – but it made his task that much more difficult. Carefully opening the window, he poked his head inside. Judging by the toes sticking out from the bottom of the covers and the splash of white-blond across the periwinkle pillowcase, she was still asleep. Coming completely inside, he heard her father call his goodbyes from downstairs, and Shika hastened to shut the window before Yamanake-san could see anything amiss from the street.

Turning back to his girlfriend, he moved over to sit in her desk chair, watching her eyelids flutter slightly as she slept on. Once or twice, he thought he heard her murmur something, but he couldn’t quite be sure what it was, her words being slightly slurred. But the third time, her speech was clear enough and he blushed when he heard her moan his name as she reached out slightly, as if trying to grasp something just out of reach.

With a silent chuckle, he slid off his boots and vest – it was a bulky, uncomfortable thing – and lay cautiously beside her, ready to spring up at a moment’s notice should either of her parents return. The hand found his shirt and pulled him closer, snuggling her head just under his chin. Taking deep breaths to keep anything untoward from occurring, he slipped his arms around her, stroking her hair and soothing her back to deeper levels of sleep.

It was torture of the sweetest kind, holding this gorgeous young woman, but not being able to do anything more as she shifted against him in her sleep, throwing a leg over his and rubbing places that felt aflame in the aftermath of her touch. And she didn’t have a clue the agony she put him through.

Nearly an hour later, which was still reasonably early, her alarm went off and she tried to roll within reach of it, but something was blocking her. Looking up, she saw Shikamaru carefully search for and locate the off switch before turning back to her. “Ohaiyou, Ino-chan,” he whispered.

“Ohaiyou, Shika-kun,” she returned just as softly, a bit confused. “As much as I enjoy seeing you, what are you doing in my room?”

He smiled and kissed her forehead. “You up to going on a mission today?”

Ino looked puzzled for a moment before laughing. “Is that what this is all about? I’ve been helping other people out, so you catch me before they have a chance to ask?”

“Something like that,” he blushed.

Cocking her head to the side, she shook it. “You are sooo lucky I told Sakura I couldn’t come help out at the hospital today because I was helping my mom. She understands sudden missions, though how I’m going to explain you showing up in my room, I don’t know.”

He blinked down at her, then grinned. “She’s already over at the shop, and your father left a while ago, so if I can sneak back out, they’ll never know.”

“Fine, fine,” she said with a giggle, “my genius boyfriend has everything planned from the beginning. Now, if you don’t mind,” she gestured meaningfully toward the door, but he simply looked at her, confused. Finally she gave up trying to be subtle. “I am not going on a mission in my pajamas! Out!”

Both laughing, they climbed out of the comfortable bed and Shikamaru, carefully controlling his blush, made his way into the hall. There were years worth of family pictures on the walls, and he smiled fondly as he gazed at them. Even as a child, Ino had been a sight to behold. Her smile had been infectious, and her eyes were still the bright, shinning beauties he saw staring at him daily. She’d also always been rambunctious, as pictures of her climbing, playing, tackling, and running could all attest.

He was amused to see several pictures of himself with her scattered along the walls. They’d been friends, or as close as a boy and girl could come to being friends, their entire lives, but he’d almost forgotten what they’d looked like then, as he saw her everyday and the changes were generally gradual. Their fathers had been teammates, and the running joke for years had been how long it would take for the two children to wind up as a couple. He knew her father wouldn’t mind Shikamaru dating Ino anymore than he would any other boy in the village, but Ino was still his only child. Fathers, Shikamaru knew, had a tendency to be overprotective of their female offspring, and he had no desire to provoke any ill feelings from the man.

Chouji was also in a few pictures, but as he and Ino had never gotten along as well as either of them did with Shikamaru, there were understandably fewer of their third teammate.

At the end of the hallway, a series of pictures captured his attention. The original “Shika-Ino-Chou” trio with their sensei on their first day as a team smiled at him, and he couldn’t help the slight upward turn of his lips as he looked at how young his father had been. And he laughed outright when he realized that the picture beside the first looked practically identical, though the people were definitely different. First the Shikas, both bored, hands stuffed in pockets, obviously wishing they could be elsewhere wasting their time in a manner they wished rather than taking a stupid picture. On the far side were the Chous, both stuffing their faces from bags of prepackaged food. In the back, their senseis, looking harried, but smiling. And in the middle, the Inos, both happy, both proud, and both so sure that they would be the best ninja the village had ever seen.

“You look so much like him, it’s almost scary,” a voice from behind made him jump, and he smiled sheepishly as Ino came to join him.

“You look a lot like your father, as well.”

She shrugged. “I’d seen the picture before, but I never paid much attention to it until ours got hung beside it. My mother laughed for an hour when she saw them side-by-side.”
He nodded. “It is kinda disturbing.”

“Anyway,” she changed the subject in the most direct way possible, “what’s this mission?”

“Courier duty, nothing fancy. Honestly, it’s easier than a lot of the stuff they assigned us as genin, but I can’t blame them. After all, we are a little short-handed, and we can’t really afford to turn down any jobs if we have even the slightest chance of succeeding with them.”

“Is it really that bad? I mean, I know we lost a few in the battle with Sound, but surely…” she trailed off, hoping he’d contradict her.

Shaking his head, he sighed. “It’s that bad. Why do you think they’re giving me so many missions on my own despite the fact that I’m just a new chuunin? And why do you think our sensei has been getting so many missions on his own?”

“I hadn’t really thought about it,” she admitted sheepishly. “It never really occurred to me that this was that out of the ordinary.”

“It is,” he affirmed before holding out a hand which she took, letting him pull her against his chest. “So, how are we going to get you out of here without your mother realizing I spent the last hour in your bed?”

“You were here that long, and you didn’t wake me up?” her voice held the slightest hint of a threat, but it was mostly laughter.

“You looked peaceful. I didn’t want to disturb you. Besides, you’re cute when you sleep.”

“Oh, so I’m not cute when I’m awake?”

“No, you’re not,” he replied, trying to hold in his laugh as he looked down to see her glaring at him. “You’re gorgeous.”

Wrinkling her nose, she let him off with only a soft punch, at least by her standards. “Back to the topic at hand. You’d better go out through the attic; remember the skylight we used to sneak through? Then you can come knock on the door like any normal person and my mom won’t suspect anything.”

“Good plan,” he nodded, stooping to kiss her lightly before pulling down the steps to the attic – had they really needed to have her sit on his shoulders to reach the string not that long ago? – and disappearing into the gloom. He made his way onto her roof with relative ease. They’d snuck out this way so many times as children, he didn’t doubt he could have made the trip blindfolded. Then, after traveling halfway up the block, he hopped down to the ground and shuffled his way up the street. Troublesome mothers, making him backtrack just so things would appear proper.

When he got back to Ino’s house and rang the bell, she actually made him wait a full minute before she opened it. He was glad she had, however, when he saw her looking far more disheveled than he remembered her being only moments before. “Shika-kun? Do you have any idea what time it is?” she whined, pulling him inside and shutting the door.

“Time to kiss my girlfriend,” he replied, and did just that. When they both surfaced for air a few minutes later, he sent her off with a gentle shove. “Go, finish getting dressed. I’ll give you mission details when you’re done.”

“I already am,” she replied, and released her henge no jutsu. He hadn’t thought of that and was clearly impressed as he gazed at the fully prepared kunoichi in front of him. Every hair was meticulously placed, and her clothing was just as carefully arranged to take advantage of her shape. And shapely she was.

Shaking his head to clear that thought, he briefed her on the mission, walked her next-door so they could say goodbye to her mother – who only made a few embarrassing comments – and led her out of the village. The minute they were out of sight of the guards, their hands slipped together naturally. They never even thought another pair of eyes might be watching them.

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I wish I could differentiate between mental commentary and the rest if the story a little better, but until I figure out how to put italics in here, I'm afraid we'll just have to muddle through. Let me know what you think, or if you have any questions.
Have a great day, and good reading!

Crimson Iris