"Al... Alvarcus?" Ino ask in uncertainty.
"Shit."
Instantly the hold on my mind is released. Ino retreats back to her own body, and not a moment too soon. Who knew when the Jiongu would start its attack? At least this time she made it out at least unscathed by the Jiongu. I'm sure realizing who I really am was a hefty blow.
I open my eyes to see Hiro standing over me. I collapsed when Ino's jutsu connected. She's just waking up too, the free twin is by her side. We both rise to our feet.
Her eyes are wide in hope and disbelief. "Al-"
"Earth Flow Spears!" I call out.
Spears rise out of the earth and surge towards Ino and her companion. He dodges right while she dodges left. I waste no time, I don't have any to spare. I tear across the field straight at Ino, nothing is going to stop me. I viciously attack her with taijutsu.
"Wait! Stop! I know it's you!" She dances away from me, dodging my assault.
That doesn't matter right now. What matters is that no one else can know. With a burst of speed I manage to get past her guard and sock her right in the gut. Her eyes go wide and all the air rushes out of her lungs. She doubles over in pain and is trying to breath regularly.
"Ino, I am sorry for this." I quietly say as I form a few hand signs. "Earth release: Rolling Hill." The ground beneath the downed Ino surges to life and carts her away into the forest. This has the added effect of getting her tangled up in my webs, with the speed and height she was at there's no hope to doge them.
It still isn't good enough. I need to make sure she's caught. I can't risk her not being traped, plus I also can't risk her shouting out my name. I need to gag her.
I chase after Ino and find her all tangled up in webs. I snag some webs that are nearby and make a makeshift gag. It isn't pretty and frankly is pretty gross but I don't exactly have any other options.
"You -wheeze- bastard." Ino rasps out once she knows what my plan is.
"We'll talk later."I assure her as I put the gag in place. "I promise. I'll be right back."
"MMMMPPH!" Her eyes are furious.
This is ridiculous. Sai knows who I am. Ino knows who I am. What's next? Naruto popping out of nowhere and figuring it out too? Better yet Itachi shows up and unmasks Sasuke. At this rate it could happen.
I go back to the clearing, there are still two shinobi to deal with. Or there were two shinobi to deal with, my teammates caught them. At least something is going my way today.
Ikki has trapped the Ame kunoichi in another prism barrier seal and Hiro has knocked the twin unconscious.
"Well done team. This round goes to us." I say to my teammates. The words feel hollow. We might have won the battle, but I have to deal with Sai and Ino now. That's going to be terrible, I guarantee Sai has a message from Danzo for me and I need to convince Ino to keep her mouth shut.
Fan-fucking-tastic.
Who first? Sai or Ino? Danzo's schemes or my friend's need to bring me home? Definitely Sai first, I'd rather deal with the schemes of a wannabe dictator.
"Alright Ikki, Hiro. I'm going to go chat with their leader, maybe he'll give me some information about his defenses. Might as well get a back up plan for our offense."
I make my way to the trapped Sai. He's stuck spreadeagled on a mess of webs. He's not going anywhere on his own. Once he sees me he respectfully nods his head. Unfortunately that's the only thing not stuck to a web.
"Spider." He respectfully greets me.
"Sai." I calmly respond. Freaking out here won't get me anywhere. I need to know why he's here first then I can freak out later.
"You know who I am?" His face gives nothing away, it's void of all emotion but I think I surprised him. I'm not supposed to know who he is after all.
"I know many things. I know you're part of an organization based in Konoha's ANBU unit called ROOT. I know that you're actually skilled enough to have dodge me when I lunged at you. I know that you want to talk to me. It is what I don't know that concerns me. For instance, why do you know that name? Why do you know that it is my name? What is your purpose? Sai, why are you here?"
"I'm here on orders, I'm supposed to give you a scroll." He nods towards his hip pouch.
"That's it? You came all this way, interrogated my old friends -yes I know about that too- and enrolled in the Chunin Exams on the off chance that I'd be here to give me a scroll?"
"Yes."
"Orders from who?" I want to see if he's allowed to tell me.
"Danzo-sama." So he is allowed to tell me about Danzo. Interesting. "The leader of ROOT."
Danzo does have the Hokage's office under surveillance, I always wondered if he did. That is very bad, I'll need to tell Tsunade to do a very detailed sweep for eavesdropping equipment. Actually, it's very possible that it isn't equipment but people. Danzo seals ROOT members, he could have one of them on the Hokage's bodyguard roster. Plus, what is limiting him to just one member? For all I know it could be half!
"Do you have the scroll on you?" I ask. I might as well see what is in it. Even though it is a slim chance, maybe Danzo will turn out to be on my side.
"Yes, it's in my hip pouch." He nods at it again.
Then again, it could be an elaborate ruse to kill me. I wouldn't be surprised. "I'm not going to blow up if I touch it am I?"
"I don't think so. I am not allowed to open it."
"Yay."
I reach into Sai's pouch and pull out the scroll. It's a simple one, obviously intended as a message or a very well made trap. Well, no time like the present. I open the scroll, it's a lengthy letter. Thankfully it didn't explode or something like that.
"So it's safe. I'll read it later." I roll it back up and tuck it away into one of my coats pockets. "Don't worry about taking my reply, I'll get it to him myself. Nice talking with you, but I have to go now."
"Of course."
I walk away from the trapped Sai. I wonder what Danzo wants with me? It isn't everyday you receive a hand written letter from someone like him, it has to be important. I'll figure it out later, now I have to go talk to Ino. Kami this is going to suck.
I cross through the clearing to get to Ino, she's on the opposite side from Sai. I made sure they were when I tossed them into the forest, I didn't want either of them to overhear something sensitive. As I pass Ikki and Hiro I give them a casual wave, no need to be rude.
"Hello Ino." I greet the bound and gagged Ino. She's livid. "If I take off the gag are you going to scream and yell?"
She shakes her head. The fury in her eyes doesn't lessen at all. I reach out and take off the gag.
"You son of a bitch! Alvarcus you're a despicable person! This whole time you've said nothing to us? You didn't even think to say 'Hey guys I'm alright!' Then when I figure out who you are you attack and gag me? What is wrong with you?! I think I hate you."
I raise my hands in mock surrender. "Hear me out before you judge."
"No! I don't want to listen to a thing you have to say!" Her tone is scathing, it cuts me to my core. She's still my friend. I hope.
"Too bad, you're not going anywhere." I pointedly look at her bound limbs.
"Then I'll start screaming!"
"Then the gag goes back on." I threaten her. "I don't need you to talk, I need you to listen."
"...Fine."
"Ino, you have to understand I wanted to talk to everyone. I wanted to reach out to you all, to assure you I'm okay." I calmly explain. I want her to understand, I need her to.
"Then why didn't you?" She spitefully asks.
"Because if I did then you all would try to force me back to Konoha! I can't go back, I won't abandon Sasuke to face Orochimaru by himself."
"Then we'll bring him back too! You both belong in Konoha! It's your home." She demands.
"He doesn't want to go back to Konoha. He wasn't kidnapped, he wasn't forced to go to Sound. He decided for himself, he willingly chose to go to Orochimaru for power."
"He wanted to leave? He chose to leave us? To leave me?" She sounds defeated, all of her anger is gone now. She must have thought he was kidnapped, I bet the idea that he left willingly never occurred to her.
"I'm sorry Ino, he did." I somberly confirm her fears.
"Then why did you leave? Did you abandon us too?" She accuses me with tears forming in her eyes.
"He asked me to go with him. I think it was because he didn't want to be alone again. I went missing nin to protect Sasuke, you of all people should know how fragile he really is. He needs me there, I'm the only person who will look out for him."
"So... you didn't leave us, you just went with him?" Wow, that sounds really shitty when someone says it out loud. That makes it sound like I picked Sasuke over everyone else. Well I did, but I still care about the others too.
"Basically yeah. I'm still a Konoha shinobi, I still serve her interests even if I'm wearing the wrong shinobi symbol." I flick the music notes. "Who chooses music notes? Talk about stupid."
"It does look bad." She sounds a bit happier. Happier isn't the right word, she's less distraught. She's still a long ways from happy. "Are you going to be okay?"
Bye Gina. I'll miss you. SNAP!
The only thing left is a thick reddish brown chunky paste. I did that to a child!
...
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