A huge, HUGE apology to everyone. I've just graduated from secondary, and now I'm in Pre-U! Yay! I'm trying to settle down, what with an upgrade in my subjects and homework and whatnot. Since I'm in Pre-U, I'm also trying to clinch a scholarship and the reason why I've been so silent lately is because I am currently trying to enter a prestigious writing program hosted by the national university (NUS). I'm currently endeavoring to build up my portfolio. So, apologies!

Now, here's a rough timeline:

Yes, Ino is largely involved with Mitsuki's wedding, so you'll see lots of that. Things we will cover will be…

Politics in the Uchiha

Itachi's own personality and his work in ANBU

The relationship between Sakura and Ino

Ino's own final induction into ANBU and her character change

Beta by

Of Gods and Monsters

Chapter Three

Raven

She woke up to a pounding head and waves of white-blond hair splayed across her face. Lifting her heavy head, she winced as pain blossomed in her head like slow, sonorous beats of a hammer to steel. She supported her body on her thin arms, her yellow hair streaming in straight, dull lines down her face and shielding her eyes. Ino forced herself into a kneeling position, her torso stiff as a wooden board and moved long fingers to brush her hair and sleep out of her face.

She stifled a groan when she saw the dark room she was in. Night had thrown her surroundings into shadow, and she could barely discern the silhouette of the furniture in the room. An oval mirror hung high on the wall opposite her, and a tiny amount of shock jolted through her.

Her room did not have an oval mirror. She had a vanity instead. Where the hell was she?

Panic had started to flare within her, aggravating her pounding headache. She resisted the wooden stiffness that gripped her joints like restraints as she turned around, trying to survey her environment, but she could not see clearly. Her eyes felt like wool in their sockets, and her sight was blurred, as if she was seeing underwater and all vision was distorted. She struggled to lift her cold hands to her face, her fingers felt like plastic and the sensations of touch felt skewered and unreal. Sleep and fatigue clung to her like thick cobwebs, but there was a jarring feeling of being displaced. Even her tongue felt alien in her mouth.

She summoned chakra into her hands, letting the green glow surge into her palms and diffuse away the numbness that manacled her arms with a buzzing pins-and-needles sensation. She pressed her palms against her eyes, hoping to restore the clearness of her sight with medical chakra.

An iron hand wrapped around her wrist.

A shriek rose in her throat, only for her mouth to be clamped shut by a hard hand. She cursed her slowness as she threw a clumsy punch in the vague direction of her attacker's face, only to be rewarded by her attacker swiftly removing the hand from her mouth before deftly wrapping around her wrists like steel cuffs.

A jolt of foreign chakra shocked the nerves in her hands, and terror mounted within her when her arms fell heavily to her sides, lifeless.

She turned her head to glare at her attacker, ready to leap up and combat him with her feet, but as sky blue met glinting onyx, her heart leapt into her throat.

Followed by abrupt shame.

"I-Itachi-san," Ino gasped breathlessly, heat surging to her cheeks. Memories surfaced like pooling water and she remembered to her great embarrassment that she was in the Uchiha house.

Oh dear god! Did she fall asleep in a client's house? The Uchiha clan nonetheless! And what about Mikoto-san? Oh, she brought shame upon her family!

Looking into the Uchiha heir's dark eyes, she could not bring herself to look away from his stare. He was tall, with a slender, sinewy build and a darkly, handsome face. Uchiha Itachi was six years her elder at 26, and he had the look of a man with his well-defined jaw and eyes that spoke of experience. There was something rather unnerving about his eyes, thought Ino the longer she stared. They were black, analytical and constantly watchful, constantly thinking and constantly planning.

This was a man that did not rest, and as Ino saw the strange light dancing within his pupils as she did with Mikoto-san, she knew that this was a man who had many secrets.

"My a-apologies, Itachi-san," she stuttered, bowing her head as she scurried upwards. Tiredness still dragged her limbs and she stumbled as she straightened, nearly pitching face-first forward. Throughout her struggle, Uchiha Itachi watched her without intervening, his mood intense and unfriendly.

Oh, he doesn't like me, she thought with a sinking heart, and deepened her bow.

"I confess I do not know how I could possibly have fallen asleep."

"Asleep?" His dark voice was smooth and sunk in the shadows. "Yamanaka-san, I'm afraid you did not sleep. Rather, you caused my mother a lot of anxiety when you fainted in her kitchen."

Horrified embarrassment crawled up her face at that, and red grew on her cheeks. Fainted? Oh god, she fainted in a client's house?

"I apologise! I- I will go apologize to Mikoto-san before I leave-"

"Leave?"

The door opened and light flooded in, revealing the figure of the Uchiha matriarch herself. She had removed her apron, and was now clad in a plum blouse and red skirt, with her long mane of jet-black hair ever neat and shiny down her back. She looked every bit the impeccable mother and lady of her clan and now she was regarding Ino with stern, disapproving eyes.

"Leave?' She questioned once more, "But Mitsuki still needs flowers for her wedding, dear. I hope you haven't chosen to abandon her. She would be quite upset, as will her fiancée."

Ino blinked, flustered, and started to stutter, shaking her head vigorously. Now under the light, she could see that her pretty lilac dress was crumpled and bunched in unflattering places, and she tugged on the hem self-consciously. "I really am sorry, Mikoto-san," she apologized, her voice small and frightened like a child. "I do not know why I fainted, but are you sure Mitsuki-san and Shino-san still want my family's services?"

"Your services, dear," Mikoto assured her warmly, trying to get the blonde in front of her to lose that child-like fear. Where was the girl who jutted out her chin and had ice fire rage in her eyes? The girl who spoke out of turn and was not afraid to face up to her mistakes? Gone, apparently. Oh my, heartbreak does break other things.

"Mitsuki is still as enthusiastic about your flowers, Ino-san. Don't worry about that. Oh, and I do know why you fainted, Ino dear," her smile widened sharply. "Safe to say, I have placed word to Tsunade-sama, and besides revoking your medical license, she wishes to see you at 9 on the morning after tomorrow."

Mortification choked Ino's throat and her eyes widened. "Excuse me?" Her tone was unintentionally sharp as she blurted, before she realized her mistake and blushed, lowering her head in apology. "I mean, I mean, why?"

"Because okaa-san happens to be a medic-nin too," Itachi interrupted coolly from the corner where he was standing. "And during her assessment of you, she concluded that all your symptoms showed that your body was encountering issues absorbing nutrients, and a significant loss in your blood platelet count. From your dark under-eyes and your constant fatigue, okaa-san concluded that you were taking sleeping pills."

"Too much sleeping pills," Mikoto said sweetly. "I confirmed your sleeping pill use with your parents just now. You fainted due to overdose over a long period."

Overdose? She… had been overdosing herself? Mikoto's statement echoed in her mind and her head snapped up as her mouth dropped open in horror. Oh god, Mikoto had told her parents?

Before she had time to form a proper response, Itachi stepped forward, an arm behind his back as he gestured towards Ino while facing his mother. "Maybe I should escort Ino-san back home."

Ino's head snapped towards him at that, her yellow hair flew as it whipped across her face. "No," Ino said firmly, the strength of her tone surprising even her. All dark heads turned towards her in surprise. "No, is Mitsuki-san still here? I would feel terrible if I went back home without Mitsuki-san having even chosen her flowers."

Unbidden, a warm smile spread across Mikoto's face, and her fair, lovely face looked even lovelier, framed by raven locks. "Mitsuki is in the living room. She was quite worried about you actually. Come, she will be glad to choose her floral arrangements." Mikoto raised her arm to welcome Ino to step out of the dark room, something she gladly accepted with hunched shoulders and eyes drawn to the floor. She was still embarrassed about her predicament, and tried not to flinch as her eyes were forced to rapidly adapt to the change in lighting.

Mikoto pointed Ino to a nearby bathroom so that she could fix her appearance first. Once Ino, flustered, had stumbled into the bathroom, Itachi who had been silent and hovering at the edges finally turned to his mother with an enquiring look.

"Oh, don't look at me like that," Mikoto retorted, not looking at her son. Itachi raised a dark eyebrow and persisted, only for Mikoto to finally turn to him and grip his chin in a scolding, motherly fashion. "You'll understand one day."

At this, Itachi raised both eyebrows in a rare show of surprise. "I'm not following."

But Mikoto only answered with a serene smile, and Itachi furrowed his dark eyebrows in disapproval. "I sincerely hope you're not planning to match-make me to Miss Yamanaka."

Itachi watched as his mother blinked and turn to him with genuine surprise on her face. "I wasn't planning that," but her eyes and smile suddenly turned wickedly mischievous, and her dark eyes glittered. "But I could do that if you want."

Outwardly, Itachi was not impressed, but inwardly, he knew his mother was capable of such… transgressions. How did you think Uchiha Mitsuki and Aburame Shino ended up falling in love?

"No," he replied with polite curtness, "I really do not want that."

Mikoto only laughed.

~0~

"Well, tough luck then, because I need that autopsy report NOW and so they can shove all their pending cases backwards, because this is a PRIORITY ORDER," she snapped into the face of the dumbstruck nurse behind the reception desk. The orange-haired nurse blinked, before quickly gathering her wits about her and opening her mouth to argue, her brow furrowed in offense.

"Okay, what part about 'sent from the Hokage's office' don't you get?" Ai interrupted brashly, fingers clawing into the wooden surface, ready to lunge over the reception counter and strangle the life out of the dim-witted nurse. Ai's shoulders were raised and her back was hunched, her stance both signifying her immense irritation and verging hostility.

The body of the dead ANBU, Badger, had been sent to the morgue for a forensic autopsy. After much deliberation with her collegue, Kaito, and discussion with Morino Ibiki, they had decided to open a small-scale investigation into Badger's death. People did not suddenly hemorrhage after experiencing a large loss in chakra. They collapsed, or they died after forcefully expending and wholly depleting their reserves. The end. That's it.

If Badger had died of foul play, they would then be forced to expand their investigation to encapsulate his comrades as well, but if Badger had died of complicated, perfectly natural causes due to perfectly explainable reasons, he would become a cautionary tale and she'd just consider him another investigation done. But if Badger had died due to unknown circumstances, they would either investigate further or be forced to file him away as a cold case while putting ANBU shinobi on temporary high alert.

Nonetheless, she was hoping it was the second option. She was not just an ANBU internal affairs investigator, dammit, she had other files and documents to do. She was one of the only six logistical and administrative civilian officers who were in charge of ANBU's clerical work. Considering ANBU, she had a damn huge workload.

"Miss, we just can't put our other cases on hold simply because ANBU has a body they want to hurry up. That's unfair and could be seen as unethical preferential treatment-"

"I am not asking for 'preferential treatment'! I only seek the morgue's understanding that this is a pending investigation regarding his death. It's not like I'm asking you to drop what you're doing and hop on to his body! I'm only asking that he be shifted as a priority case up the very, very long queue!"

"Miss-"

Long, hard arms wrapped around her waist and she gasped in shock as she was lifted bodily and placed to the side like a store mannequin. Ai watched as a man with a shock of silver hair and his face partially covered by a black mask, lean over the counter and start to talk in low, lazy baritones to the nurse with a charming smile in his eyes.

Ai blinked, her mouth opening in shock and fury as she sucked in a huge breath. She leveled a scorching glare at the back of his head, wishing that it would drill into his skull.

Hatake Kakashi continued flirting with the nurse, while she blushed and stuttered at having to deal with this well-known ninja. Subconsciously, the nurse flipped her long hair over her shoulder, and Ai fumed, finally turning on her heel and stalking out of the morgue's reception area.

God, she hated ninjas.

After awhile of storming down streets and forming furious proclamations inside her head, she decided, with a sort of angry rationality, that since it was lunch time and she was having such a terrible day, she would treat herself to a nice lunch and an even better ice cream. Oh, screw ninja!

As she entered the diner, a figure slipped from the crowd behind her and she groaned inwardly. She walked towards the booth with the figure following her with all manner of casualty, and as she sat down, he slid into the seat opposite her.

She glared at Hatake Kakashi. He crinkled his eye back at her.

"Don't be jealous."

Jealous?! Hah! As if! She felt like taking a plank and beating him upside down with it.

Although, she admitted to herself, he probably would not feel anything.

"So what did the nurse say?" she plunged immediately right into the subject matter, partially determined to get her work over and done with and partially still angry with the man in front of her. Ai's copper hair shone a strange red, the color of dried blood as she leaned eagerly forward with her eyes focused and sharp. Ken Ai was a young woman who had reached her early thirties, with short clipped hair that halted below her jaw line and who favored a daily diet of long-sleeved turtlenecks and jeans dyed a morose, dark color. She was not a pretty person, but underneath her normally frowning, sour visage, Ken Ai was rather attractive-looking.

Hatake Kakashi surveyed her as a slow grin spread across his first. He saw her muddy-blue eyes hiding behind thick, black-framed glasses and impulsively reached out to snatch it off her face.

She made a sound of shock and irritation, her hands jumping too late to snatch back her glasses. Blue eyes, dull and almost grey, glared at him with full force, the face twisting into a scowl; but Kakashi merely pocketed the glasses and returned to grinning at her.

"You're unbelievable," she shot at him. "But I'm effective." He countered back quickly, lips moving beneath his black mask, his eyes twinkling and teasing.

Ai's scowl lessened and she relaxed her posture. "Fine," she admitted grudgingly. Now she propped up one elbow on the table's surface and rested her chin into her open palm, her demeanor no longer as stiff and professional as it initially had been. "I sense this is leading to a deal." Kakashi leaned forwards, putting both arms on the white, plastic table. "You have sensed correctly," he affirmed.

There was a moment of staring, accompanied by a silent, playful tension as blue-grey eyes looked unflinchingly into brown. "Fine," she relented after a beat, but then her face morphed into a scowl, "I'll treat you to lunch, right here, and then you'll help me with my little… morgue situation."

Ai thought Kakashi would accept the deal, there and then, but to her surprise and utter irritation, he wagged a finger in front of her face teasingly, his eyes sparkling with a playful light. "Aah-ah. You're asking me to flirt with the poor, poor nurse. I'm afraid that itself has a very high price."

Ai merely stared at him in shock, a little stunned at his rejection as thoughts whizzed and formulated in her mind. What could he possible want?

And then she saw the darker, more dangerous look in his eye, lust interwoven with light mischief and playfulness. It was a shadow barely there, a spark of black light, and her eyes widened. Oh, oh.

She glared. "No," she snapped, and then she rubbed her face with her hands in exasperation. "We're practically living together, can't you do this for me? Please? Just this once?"

Please. She had never said 'please' in a pleading tone to anyone else ever before. Ever.

Kakashi merely smiled lazily, like the cat that ate the bird. "No," he drawled, and his grin was the most smug she had ever seen. He was enjoying this. Stupid shinobi.

"Fine," she relented, her shoulders sagging in defeat. As a consolation, he leaned further forward, and fast as lightening, pecked her softly on the lips. "Don't worry," he smiled as his long fingers pulled up his mask, "you'll enjoy it." Kakashi's eyes turned wicked, darkly wicked. "You always do."

Ai flushed. God, she hated shinobi.

~0~

Dinner had been a horrid affair. The whole thing had been a horrid affair.

She had spent three hours with pictures and blueprints spread across the table, shots of magnolia gorgeously interwoven with orchids and roses in full bloom among violets as Mitsuki in turn displayed pictures of color themes and large arches. Aburame Shino, Mitsuki's silent fiancée, hovered near her, listening to the conversation yet not partaking in it.

Ino had kept her eyes trained to the photos and papers on the table, flickering upwards to look into the faces of Mitsuki only when necessary. She could barely keep eye contact with her own client! The embarrassment of her little fainting episode combined with Uchiha Mitsuki's own vocalized concern tempted her to just bolt out of the door. A hundred things besides Mitsuki's wedding preparations were running through her head like skittering insects; her parents finding out about her sleeping pill dependence, the Hokage wishing to see her and Shikamaru.

Shikamaru. Even now, he invaded her thoughts like a disease. He was like mould, creeping up, hiding in plain sight, his presence so heavy and often in her mind that she barely knew what it was like to be free of his presence at all. Shikamaru. He lingered in her mind, a memory she could not store away, or freely discard. Even now she wondered, what was he doing? He was in Sunagakure, of course, but was he with Temari? Did he… did he miss her?

Hours passed, each second agonizingly slow in its own right. Uchiha Mitsuki, with her pretty warm eyes and shy smile finally chose the classic color theme of ivory and pale olive green, which besides symbolizing her transition out of Uchiha clan and into the Aburame, it cemented the couple's loyalty to Konohagakure.

It was a pretty political statement, Ino had to admit, to use on your own wedding.

Finally, the clock reminded them that it was nearing too late into the night, and Ino was finally allowed to gather her materials and tiredly shove them into her cloth bag. Outside, the sky was inky black and thick through the windows, smoke clouds hazing the diminished sickle moon as a cold breeze blew, hinting of frigid rain the next morning.

Mitsuki bid Ino her thanks, making appointments with Ino for the continuation of their discussion. She hid a small yawn behind her hand as Shino quietly led her away, throwing a shy smile over her shoulder at Ino before she left. Ino smiled hesitantly in return. Mitsuki was a lovely person with a good heart.

Mikoto stood in the space vacated by the couple, smiling kindly as she saw Ino's tired expression, her sky-blue eyes dazed and blinking blearily. 'Are you all right, Ino-san?" she asked, and Ino nodded heavily, thick yellow hair spilling over her shoulders. Mikoto was about to turn away when her eyes shifted to the shadows that shrouded the entrance of the hallway, and right on cue, Itachi emerged.

The Uchiha matriarch displayed her surprise by blinking once, mildly stunned before something akin to questioning dawned on her face. Itachi acknowledges his mother by briefly connecting dark eyes to dark eyes, before turning to face Ino, his face closed and guarded, onyx glass staring brightly out from a pale face.

"It's proper for me to escort you home."

And just like that, the polite statement, turned fact by his fathomless voice was made into a command and Ino's eyes widened as she felt his hold of command tighten like a sheet around her. The magnetism of command, a captain. She bowed her head like a dog and moved towards the door.

Over Ino's bowed head, Mikoto threw a look at her son who received it with indifferent acknowledgement, serving to make the dark glitter within her eyes flare into a dark ember. Itachi quickened his steps, a barely discernible twitch to his lips as he left a trail of teasing amusement in his wake. Mikoto only huffed.

That son of hers.

Night had sunk Konoha into the world of hushed breeze and the gentle whispers of rustling leaves, dipped in navy blue shadow and silvered with moonlight. It cloaked the houses in velvet sleep as the stars twinkled lonely and small in the sky, separated from each other by vast expanses of night-black. Itachi walked next to her, a thick pocket of air and tension that seperated the two of them as he walked not quite by her side. She looked down, half nervous to be so near the heir of Uchiha. Even though she felt the presence of night and cold air bullying out goose bumps on her skin more than anything, his presence was still a poignant sensation that brushed her skin and mind with anxiety and… fear.

Formidability. Cool wind whipped his raven locks about his pale, aloof face, chiseled with narrow cheeks and inset with eyes of charcoal that seemed to perpetually burn with smoldering flame. He walked with a sharp sense of purpose, of a heavy, important burden but his movements were tempered with grace and agility, cloaked in authority and that; formidability.

Ino's blue eyes shied away. He was magnetic, his aura of dark steel drew eyes, but it was his aloofness which made them shy away in nervousness.

She felt awkward, her body automatically edging away from him inch by inch, but he showed no reaction, no emotion. So cold, Ino shivered, and immediately, she was reminded of warm skin and dark hair, lazy brown eyes and a mouth which, when pulled into a smile, meant more than anything in the world.

As always with him, pain lanced like cruel lightening through her chest, and her breath caught sharply in her throat.

"How goes your career, Yamanaka-san?"

The question was a lilt in the night, a muted break to the silence, but Ino's face snapped to face him as if he had yelled. He met her eyes with a calm expression, a polite query in his eyes.

She looked back out into the dark night. "It goes… well, I would say," the words tumbled in messy alphabets out her mouth, "I… I am chunin and when the time comes, I will take the test and make jonin. Until then, I– I…" she struggled to rein in her stutter and summon an answer. Come on Ino, what do you want to do?

I don't know.

The answer came as a startling realization that jolted her. She had never considered her career path.

How… How foolish.

"I'll… continue helping my father in both his work at Interrogations and the Flower Shop."

It sounded meek and unsure, and immediately she detested herself for it.

Itachi stared unnervingly at her from the corner of his dark eyes, his face closed off from all telling emotion, but he merely regarded her wordlessly. "I see," he said, after a beat, a swell of tense silence that passed between them. Then-

"I admit myself a little disappointed that Yamanaka-san does not look ahead in her ambitions."

It was a razor-cutting remark, not an admonishment nor a rebuke. It was uttered in such an off-handed, detached tone that it bordered on verge of insult and Ino, her dignity stung, snapped her sky blue eyes to his face, their suddenly icy depths clinging onto his own dark gaze.

"Excuse me," she asked coldly, her voice clear and imbued with hidden strength. Weariness and gray had been wiped clean off her face by righteous indignation.

"Must you be so burdened by the drama of your own life that you must nose into the business of my own?" Ino flung the sharp statement at him like a burning coal, and he responded accordingly by scorching his black eyes into her face and harshly flaring his chakra, the dark power like an oppressive suffocating cloak that tightened threateningly around her own. Ino flailed internally, struggling to reign in her own chakra to define her stand, but then, in a flash, his chakra was gone, and cool air flooded back into its place.

She sucked in a huge breath, sweat beading her forehead.

He stood there half a meter away from her, a hint of annoyance on his face. "Yamanaka-san, you are not acting very wisely for one with chakra exhaustion." Ino looked at him weakly, her visage now a pale, fading gray that accentuated the shadows that dipped between her eyes, sweat nor poured down her forehead as she hunched a little.

Chakra exhaustion. No wonder. As she bent over panting, her stringy hair slowly drifting down to cover her face, her blue tired, tired eyes watched wearily as the emotionless Itachi merely looked at her with regard, like an ivory statue clothed in black. Something about that scene ate at her with fury, with disgust and pure, undiluted, irrational rage. She was angry! At everyone! At the world! At Shikamaru, at Temari, at Mikoto Uchiha who disturbed her, for Sakura who inched further and further away from her, at Choji who had tried, tried to be there for her but couldn't. She was ANGRY.

WHO WAS HE TO LOOK AT HER LIKE THAT?

"I am–" Ino spat as her eyes slowly turned glassy, straining to catch her breath while an unsympathetic Itachi loomed. "I am," she seethed, "pathetic, alone, living my entire life in a lie where I thought I was safe." The words rushed out of her mouth like a blast of hot sulfuric air, stinging her tongue with the bitterness of their tone as she struggled to pump out her rage through her breaking-down body. Finally, just finally.

Yamanaka Ino was finally breaking down.

"Lied to! I've been lied to. I've been cheated, deceived, left deluded by my own stupid, stupid little fantasy. I am nothing. I can't live up to my own family, I can't even," she choked out, tears catching in her throat as she sank further down to her knees. "I can't even make my own father proud," she gasped out as hot liquid finally spilled down her sallow cheeks. What followed next was mindless babbling as she started sobbing, for the first time, not for Shikamaru, but for her, for what she had become.

Who was she?

2018~mockingtale

Do you know what's ironic? I never did get that scholarship. Instead I fell into a long depression, almost flunked out of school, had to keep moving in and out of different households and got diagnosed with ADHD. I did get into that writing course... and it went nowhere. I stopped writing. Then I stopped reading. I took myself off social media. Stopped talking. Now I'm in a different country. In college.

Life is weird.