Wouldn't You Like To Know

Yet another long delay as I was trying to get this chapter done. Oddly enough, I started writing it right after the last post...but then, shit happened. My dad got back from visiting his relatives with the news that his sister had died. My uncle, his brother, died two weeks later of a sudden, massive heart attack, and it took everyone by surprise. Life deals us strange blows at times. Still, here is my salute to my uncle, a note to him that I intend to laugh for him in his absence.

In loving memory of my uncle, Fadel, 52 years of age and beloved father of my cousin and brother of my father.

I do not own Naruto, and I don't want to own Naruto, because I now have my own boy toy/boyfriend to play with...though I'd love it if he took flexibility lessons from the cast. ::waggles eyebrows::


~~~()()~~~

“Did you really see that?!”
“As surely as I’m standing here.”
“Well, you’d better not be wrong.”
“And what would happen if I was?”
“...I don’t know yet. But it probably won’t be a good thing.”
“Yeah.”

It had been said, by a long-dead person, that poison is a woman’s weapon. Women can certainly be more subtle than men, who look more for the fist to the face or the sword to the gut than the soft sting of a dart. The sword and the fist, if aimed properly, kill just as well as the poisoned dart, but another truism is that people just aren’t on the lookout for the dart. The life of a shinobi, despite being veiled in secrecy and sealed with a lie, is surprisingly open. The fist and the sword are well within the norm, despite the obvious hypocrisy.

Facts like that are the reasons why the long-dead person was dead and the female kunoichi are more feared than the male, despite their relative rarity.

“They were really going at it?” Yamanaka Ino, famous for her elaborately coiffed blond hair and innocent-appearing blue eyes, delicately used her chopsticks to lift a piece of finely sliced fish to her mouth. She chewed slowly, awaiting the answer that would come from her companion’s mouth.

White eyes crowned by dark, arching eyebrows crinkled a little in memory, then cleared. “With everything they had,” Hyuuga Hinata replied softly, scooping up some curry to bring to her own mouth. “It looked as though they were really getting into it, as well.”

“Wish I could have seen it,” Ino said dreamily, a faint bit of fish clinging precariously to one corner of her parted lips. “It must have been something.”

“It was a beautiful display,” Hinata agreed, sipping at her cup of water. “I wish I could have taped it.”
“Me too,” Ino sighed. “I guess we can’t have everything.”
“No, but we can take life’s blessings for what they are.”

Ino clenched her hand around the chopsticks and pointed them angrily at Hinata. “Yeah, and you, lucky bitch, got to see them!” Despite the tone of her words, her expression was affectionate enough to take the sting out. “Dammit! Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time!”

“It will happen again, Ino-chan,” Hinata said soothingly. “You were on a mission. You already know you couldn’t have sped it up. The delicacy of the situation--”

Ino snorted. “Delicacy,” she said, spitting the word out like a rotten piece of fruit. “Yeah, it’s real hard to be delicate when the target in question is too busy ogling my ass--though he certainly has good taste--to even notice that I’ve left a clone, am busy busting open the safe, and have gotten about halfway down the road to Konoha before the clone dissipates. Yeah, that’s ‘delicate.’”

“You were the only one who could have done it, Ino-chan--” Hinata tried, doing her best to placate her friend.
“So what?” Manners she had spent a lifetime perfecting kept Ino from actually slamming her fist down onto the table, but the restraint, as shown by the fist that was hovering a centimeter above the polished surface, was not as complete as she would have like to believe. Her voice was something she had never learned to lower. “It still doesn’t excuse the fact that I missed it!”

“I’m sure you’ll see it another time, Ino-chan,” Hinata attempted again. “It’s not like they don’t do it every chance they get.”

Ino just sighed. “But don’t they get tired later on?”
“Doesn’t look like they would, or do,” Hinata replied. “They both have a tremendous amount of stamina, after all.”
“Yeah, I know Naruto did,” Ino said thoughtfully, “but who would have thought that Sakura could stand up to him like that?”

Hinata just smiled a little in memory. “Her chakra always managed to get to whatever place Naruto struck, reinforcing her skin and keeping her in the fight,” she replied. “As it was, she’s always been more economical with her chakra than Naruto has.”
“It’s not like he has to be careful with it,” Ino pointed out.
“True.”

The fights between Sakura, a recently made powerhouse courtesy of Tsunade-Hokage-sama, and Naruto, a strong fighter in his own right, were becoming nearly as talked about in Konoha as the fights between Naruto and Sasuke. Naruto and Sakura’s spars usually included all aspects of shinobi training, and it was not uncommon to see them simply standing still, flaring with chakra, hands whirling in signs too fast to see. Sparring sessions between Naruto and Sasuke, due to the conflicting nature of their personalities, often tended to be a great deal more physical.

The three of them rarely sparred together, which was unfortunate. Exhibitions of skill from all three of them were sought after eagerly, which was why everyone wanted to know where the next spar was. In addition, the betting pools on whoever would win that sort of fight were well into the million yen range.

The only thing that outdid that particular betting pool was what Hatake Kakashi looked like under his mask...but most people, despite the few who wouldn’t give up, felt that a lost cause anyway.

Ino personally thought that it was just as well that they weren’t in the habit of having a three-way brawl, anyway. She kind of liked Konoha in the shape it currently was.

“I still wish I could have seen it,” Ino said with less force than before. “I always learn something new.”
“It is a good learning tool,” Hinata said absently. Suddenly, she appeared to be a lot less focused on the conversation.

Frowning in confusion, Ino gently waved her chopsticks in front of Hinata’s face. “Hello?”
Abruptly, Hinata looked more alert. “Sorry about that,” she said. “I was just remembering part of the fight that puzzled me.”
“What?” Ino leaned forward onto the table, her breasts pushing outward in her hurry to hear what Hinata was about to say.
“It was Sasuke,” Hinata remembered. “He had been watching the fight rather...closely.”

“Sasuke-kun?!” Ino leaned even more forward. Her breasts strained the cloth in her eagerness. “How closely?”

Hinata took a moment to think. “Very closely,” she replied slowly. “He was very very focused.”

Ino’s face darkened, and the rest of the meal was eaten in silence. One thought was going through Ino’s head the entire time.

If he’s interested in Sakura, then I’m going to make sure he isn’t looking at her for too much longer.

~~~()()~~~

Oh, what a tangled web they weave...or rather, have me type...

Why did I bring Hinata and Ino into this story? For the same reason I couldn't leave them out; they pushed their way in by force. I'm not complaining (who'd argue with two kunai pressed against close-to-the-surface blood vessels?) and they're helping set up one or two little subplots that weren't in my original idea of the story. This is a good thing.

Mind giving me some feedback?