Ino was furious. That asshole, after dodging her questions, ditched her at the restaurant. She didn’t even get to have a second coffee to help make the horribleness of her chakra exhaustion go away. She walked down the street, she was a classy and important person, unlike some people. She saw the orange jacket and sped up. She may be classy, but being ditched at a diner was unforgivable… Even if he did pay.
Her impromptu cat-and-mouse game continued. She would speed up, but still be walking. He would look over his shoulder and flinch, at what was no doubt a murderous expression on her face, and run a little. Thankfully the Asshole was not that good at hiding his tracks. A combat sandal footprint here, a woman angrily shaking her fist there, a glimpse of the orange jacket and bright yellow hair over yonder.
The Ditcher tried to lose her at the gate. It looked like he tried to transform into a random forester, but he walked like a shinobi. Like a cat that was stalking a mouse. He would roll into his steps, his head would be level and constantly swiveling, eyes scanning the crowd. Really, it was too easy to notice what he was.
So, she one-upped him. She transformed into a man in his late forties. His skin was tanned, he had a wife and four children, unfortunately, one of them died at birth. His face was scarred from a sawmill accident when a blade was opened wrong and it sprang and slashed his face open. The sawyer idled up to the disguised Naruto. Both waited in line to be checked for their passports and other identification to leave the town. Can’t have sensitive information leave, or allow peasants to think that it is easy to move to a better town.
Eventually, Naruto’s fakeness even alerted some of the militia at the gate. Even they noticed that something was shifty with him. Really it was ridiculous that such a thing could happen. But that's what you get when your specialty is heavy combat, and you are trained to your own detriment by a heavy combat expert.
They almost pulled him aside for questioning, Ino had other plans. She bumbled her way next to him. Placed her hand on his shoulder and started to talk the guards down. Really it wasn't that hard. They had a long line they needed to get through and were not paid enough to care about two assholes. She explained that her friend was a dumbass that just broken up with an ex and was too antsy looking out for her. The guards obviously didn’t care and waved them through without asking for any paperwork.
Hands firmly on the Dumbass, they passed a couple of bends in the road to break eye contact with the town.
“Look asshole. Do. Not. Ditch. ME!” Ino was furious. “We are on a fucking mission together. Stop being immature and answer my questions like the adult you are supposed to be! DO Not. I repeat. DO NOT, LEAVE ME WITHOUT PERMISSION!” She let her anger boil. She reveled in its heat. But, Ino’s righteous fury was unproductive, she was a leader, and she needed to act like it. “Look, I’m tired, sore, and dirty. You said you found an onsen, let’s go there and relax. We can take today to write our reports, and figure out our next moves ok?” They were in what was effectively an unsecured location. He tried to lose her in a crowd and then was almost apprehended by an underpaid gate guard. Apparently, his immaturity was the reason for not being promoted.
“Uh, sure. I was on my way there. Also! Good job spotting me! That had to be hard to do with so many people there!” Ino could literally see him vibrate. “I didn’t even think you’re that man! You’re great at this!”
Little did he know, flattery would get him far, usually. Except, at the moment she was absolutely not in the mood to deal with it. She pushed him forward implying, hopefully very overtly, that he was her prisoner now, and he needed to bring her to the hot water, now.
They ran on the road, it was almost always faster, but less secure. 40 minutes of running and an unfortunate number of turns later they made it to an onsen ryokan. She could hear the hot springs bubbling away in the background. The hotel attached to them also looked quaint. The red-tiled roofs of the hotel looked quite clean, the same with the stone lanterns lining the walkway to the entrance.
Inside Ino saw the telltale sign of chakra smoke disappear into the air. Apparently, Naruto had the foresight to have a clone come and make arrangements ahead of time. Not wanting Naruto to waste money, Ino walked up to the frightened desk lady.
She was fairly pretty for a civilian, with nice brown hair, brown eyes, and not even any disease scars.
“I am Yamanaka Ino. There is a discount for me.” Sure, Ino was a bit brisk in her dealing with the peasant, but she needed a break. The desk lady jumped, looked at her, and paled just a little.
Ino knew she looked better than the normal civilian. She knew that in general shinobi were better-looking than most good-looking civilians. Shinobi were more active than most peasants and shinobi also had a much more robust and helpful medical system. Where the childhood diseases that would scar or disfigure the peasants, the shinobi children were cured. Having a peasant have debilitating childhood diseases was an acceptable loss, but it took 15 years to properly train a shinobi. Having childhood diseases cut that already small population down is unacceptable.
The woman reached under her desk, and a book with a Nara clan symbol dominated the front of the book. The woman opened the book. Ino saw that inside were lists of pictures, with various symbols underneath. She flipped to the end of the book, meaning that the order was alphabetized by clan name. Ino saw her picture. It was a current picture, at most a year old. She had the Yamanaka Daimyo prayer beads and haori. The book was current.
The woman bowed deeply. “Greetings, Lady Yamanaka. This Nara onsen ryokan will provide you with the utmost care. May I have the name of your companion?” The woman stayed bowed, as her social status dictated.
“My companion is Uzumaki Naruto.” The front desk woman flinched harder than before. A full body flinch that made her hair jump and led to the bow of her obi lose its shape just a little bit.
The front desk woman turned to look at Naruto, but didn’t turn back. After seeing a small line of drool leak from the corner of her mouth, Ino needed to see what the man was doing. Which wasn’t all that much.
Ino just saw that Naruto had unzipped his jacket, and leaned back against a portion of the front desk. His jacket framed his body just perfectly right, his hard flat chest just ever so slightly peaking past the opening. He had a slight sheen of sweat from running to the hotel. The light from the windows hit his hair and eyes, making them vibrant and sparkle. His bandaged hand flipped through the old book he was constantly reading. He leaned on the other hand, which with his jacket sleeves rolled up to his elbow, showed off just the right amount of flexed forearm.
Ino couldn't stop looking either. She knew aesthetics when she saw it. And Naruto looked absolutely hunky right now. Except, Ino had shit to do today aside from perv on her subordinate. She cleared her throat. Which brought the other girl back to reality. She flipped through the important people book and found Naruto near the end. Again he had various symbols under his picture, different from Ino’s own. She would need to steal the book later tonight to determine who the Nara classified as important and what the symbols meant. Could never have too much information on your allies.
With the appropriate amount of fanfare that an allied daimyo required, they were brought to the “Emperor's” rooms. The tatami mats were fresh and sparkling white, they had a separate room for sleeping, a kitchen in a different room, a full bathroom, and private hot springs directly leading out the back off a freshly polished veranda. All-in-all Ino would rate it a 6 out of 10. Good for the middle of nowhere, but could use some improvement with the furniture and air conditioning, it was very humid in the room.
“Ok, Naruto. I’m gonna use the hot springs first. You take the first lookout. Then we can switch, and while we soak we can talk about the mission without you running away.” With that said Ino took the hotel-supplied cotton yukata and made her way to the bath. She could absolutely hear the other blond rummaging around the various cabinets and closets. Hopefully, he was looking for spy holes and other devices. She untangled her hair in the attached shower section, she knew he was probably looking for snacks. She always did. With her usual team, if you didn’t touch your snacks and call dibs, then Chogi would eat everything, and room service is always slow.
Unsealing her beauty kit from her back pouch, Ino removed the various wires and needles ensconced in her hair. Usually, she had her mom, Sakura, Hinata, and sometimes even Shikamaru to help her untangle the ungodly mess. But she could do it herself, it was just an absolute pain in the ass, especially with a nice and hot, and steaming natural hot springs right there.
She undressed, uncaring if Naruto saw anything. They were going to be on a multi-year-long trip. It would be inevitable that they would see each other naked. So, there's no point in making it weird, after all, it's only weird if you decide to make it weird.
In the attached shower section Ino quickly washed off the dried blood from her hands. Then she used her special blood-stain-removing chamomile-scented shampoo to wash out the tougher blood stains from her hair. Rinsing off the suds from her body she almost skipped over to the steps of the springs.
Ino stepped into the hot springs, took exactly one step to the side, sat, and relaxed. She had her back to the room. Maybe it was her tiredness from performing days worth of surgery in one day, or the 40-minute run only 20 minutes ago, or the sprint to the magistrate that morning. Either way, she was upgrading the hotel from a 6 to an 8. Pretty great, may remember for later.
Ino tilted her head back, to look at the other blond. His hand was deep inside a chip bag, frozen in place, face redder than her now thoroughly submerged body. He was obviously looking. The pervert.
Ino sighed. She knew he was inexperienced, but this was too much. Well, she may as well make this a teachable moment.
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“Hay, Naruto.” At her catching him, staring like a slack-jawed idiot, he flinched, jumped, and spun about-face. It was kinda funny how all the chips flew everywhere. “We're a two-person team, so we need to get used to each other. So, stop being embarrassed. This is how things are going to work for the foreseeable future. You’ll be on overwatch when I'm indisposed, like when I'm bathing, or going to the bathroom. And, I’ll be on overwatch for you. So stop being immature and get over it.”
Ino’s hair felt too heavy. She took off the towel that she put it in, and let it flop onto the ground behind her. She loved her hair, It fit her aesthetic perfectly. She also liked to braid it, just like her dad used to do when she was a child. She remembered when she was five, and she just got out of the bath, her dad tried to braid her hair with her mom laughing non-stop. So little Ino said if he wanted to have her wear his braids out and about, he would need to practice. Her father started to grow out his hair the next day.
Ino knew what water did to her body, what parts floated, and which areas people's eyes gravitated to. Her specialization mandated that she be taught and trained in these seduction techniques. After all, when people lose their clothes, they feel safer, and if they feel safer, then they leak more information. If they are distracted, then they will not pay attention to what they say, only what you do.
Ino, let her legs float to the surface of the hot water. She loved the hot water, but the water near the bottom was just a tad too hot for her liking. Dunking a hand towel in the water, she laid it across her face, just letting the warmth soak deep into her overtaxed mind. Fuck Sakura's ridiculous ability to do surgery, that shit’s hard.
Well as long as she had the virgin stuck there, may as well finish the mission rundown. “Naruto, tell me what you think could be improved from the mission we just had.” Ino stretched her arms above her head. Her back felt really tight and that stretch really helped.
“Uhhhhh, I…” She felt his eyes roam her body. Ino knew she was hot. She liked the appreciation, she worked hard for her beauty. Unfortunately, now was not the time, she had to actually debrief the idiot. “I think everything went really great. We found the village, we stopped the bandits, we healed the bandits, got a nice meal from the village, and got some money the next day… OH! How much did this cost! I don’t get that much money to spend, ya know?”
“First of all, the mission was a success. We lived. Good job. But, if I were to grade your performance as a leader of the mission, I would give you a solid F.” Ino heard him sputter. Ino could feel a draft from just how much air he was breathing in to argue his failure.
“Shut-up. I’m gonna go over the mission in roughly chronological order and point out what you did, both right and wrong. Usually, I would have you tell me what you should have done.” She dunked her face towel again to warm it up. “But because of all the surgeries, I'm too tired to deal with it. So just think about what you should have done, Ok.” Ino hid her distracting parts under the clear water so he had less to be distracted by. She knew he gave a solid nod.
“Ok, good job on telling me that there was conflict happening off in the distance, and waiting for permission to engage.” He fist-pumped in a premature celebration. “Then you ran off, literally leaving me in the dust. And you failed to use proper basic anti-ambush protocol.” Ino peeled a corner of her towel off so she could look at his reaction. She thought he looked like a drowned puppy, kinda cute.
“Then when we did reach the destination, you waited for me to signal to engage. Good.” again another fist pump. ”Then you went and dispersed the enemy combatants across a wide area breaking their formation and allowing for easy one on one encounters. Again, good job.” He jumped and hollered across the room, really immature, the fist pumps were a nice and subdued method of rejoicing for following the bare minimum of mission competence. “Since you’re specialized as a heavy combatant, this type of tactical thinking is expected of you.”
“Then the thing that absolutely failed is that you allowed me to fight off five bandits alone. Especially after you have successfully subdued your own combatants. Utterly unacceptable.” She heard a loud thump as the idiot fell to the ground.
“You needed to help me with the combat. I am not a fighter.” Again she felt a draft coming from his big mouth. “Yes, I can fight, obviously. But for my entire life, I have been training for infiltration, high-level espionage, and information gathering. I have people to fight for me, and my position as Daimyo to the Yamanaka clan and their lands puts me in the place to utilize those skills. That is why I am here with you. I can't teach you to punch better, but I can teach you how not to make an ass of yourself at important dinners.”
“Oh, Sorry. I thought that you were a fighter, you look like one.” Ino knew his backhanded compliment was in good faith. But it still slightly spoiled her bath. She really needed to teach him to think before he spoke.
Really, did the exposed arms, midriff, and skirt not spell out that she didn’t fight as a first option? That was the reason Lady Tsunade put her on this mission anyway. She was probably the only person that could stand up to Naruto’s charisma and have valuable insight for him to learn from.
“Then when the combat was finished, you used our real names. Never use our real names unless they’re already compromised. Now that village in the middle of nowhere, which we don’t know if they have spies inside it, knows that we are in the area. Our enemies now know where we are, and more importantly, where we are not.” Ino splashed some hot water on her face. It felt nice especially after the cold rag bath the other day.
“Whatever.” She could hear him start to walk into the onsen. The water puddles she placed when she washed herself doing their job. “Our value to Konoha is very high. You are a deterrent for many countries wanting to attack another. If they know that you are indisposed, at the ass end of nowhere, then those countries have a window for attack. You needed to use a code name, so if that was leaked, we could pinpoint where it leaked from. This is basic info-security.”
Ino felt like she was boiled enough. She had only been in the bath for like 30 minutes. But any longer and she would fall asleep. “Then after that, you let it be known that I have medical ninjutsu training and skills. So if our enemies question anybody in the village that we are known to have been at, they will know to target me first because of those skills. Not good.”
Ino stood from the water and started to climb out of the nice hot spring. Naruto’s face made her feel really good. It feels nice to be able to turn a stupid man stupider just by having water trail down her stupendous body. Still, if this man was going to be in high-level negotiations, then he would need to be immune to such tactics. Which unfortunately for her, meant she would need to desensitize him to womanly wiles.
“Then after that, we were given rooms in separate parts of the village, which we need to be by each other and standing watch. We are a two-person team, we need to have watch shifts.” She picked up a nice fluffy towel. Naruto was obviously thinking this was a free show. She would need to shave tonight, she was feeling prickly.
“Ok, I’m done with the bath, I’ll be overwatch, you bathe. You stink worse than Kiba.” Ino laughed to herself, turnabout is fair play. He gawked at her, so she would gawk at him. His already flush head went even deeper. Oh, teasing him was fun.
Ino went back to the room and unsealed some chain mesh armor to go under her yukata. She also rummaged around the room for some food. After all, she wanted dinner to go with her show… Even if it was only lunchtime.
When Ino got back she started her overwatch. Ino put her hands into her mnemonic ram seal and closed her eyes to concentrate. Infusing her chakra she needed to delve deep into her sputtering power. She was trying to find that feeling of damp, constantly flowing, ever-shifting. Finding a strand she pushed the strand out of her closed sixth gate, the gate of joy. She could feel her chakra mingle with the steam and moisture in the air, she could feel everywhere the moisture touched, through the vents in the room, over the privacy walls of the onsen, she could feel herself wrap around Naruto.
Ino opened her eyes, years of practice and dedicated training allowed her to have the sense she created to run in the back of her mind. She could tag when a large body moved in her mist, and also know when air currents changed. The longer she puts chakra out, the larger her sphere of detection. She just felt so tired, but the promise of revenge gave her a fifth wind.
She sat on the veranda that overlooked the hot spring. Naruto had conveniently already undressed and bathed. If the day was younger then the steam may have concealed him better, but it was noon, and the light gave her a perfect view of his body. She made a show of appreciating it. He didn’t want to notice.
“Next thing you fucked up on is chatting too much. We are professionals, we need to be nice and silent when dealing with downed enemies. Any half-decent information specialist can connect dots from idle chit-chat. Just because you think it’s unimportant, doesn't mean it is. Also, it takes away the mystique of shinobi. For us non-combat types, having that element of fear and mysticism is extremely important.” Something was off about the blond. Oh, he didn’t take off his arm bandages. Weird.
It was very entertaining to see him not be able to relax at all in the hot springs. Very fun to see him try to relax. His spine was straighter than the stick up Hiashi’s ass. Ino wanted to up the uncomfortableness. She slipped off the veranda and loudly walked behind the other blond. “Next fuck up is using clones of yourself. The only thing more conspicuous than 17 ninjas walking down the main thoroughfare of a town to the jail, is having 16 of those ninjas be the exact same, and carrying prisoners on their backs. Everyone knows that we’re in the area now. Not good. But, because of our prestige, it was inevitable that someone would spot us eventually.”
Ino crouched directly behind the man, and the man he was. Looking down his back were expertly sculpted shoulders. She wanted to lick them. His traps, and pecks left much to be desired, as if she wasn’t actively eating off of them. And his abbs she could grind steak on. Really, a very, very nice body. But again, something felt off. Oh, he didn’t have scars. Even weirder.
Carefully without touching him, she breathed into his ear, “See how uncomfortable it is to be in this position.” She gently blew on the back of his ear. He shivered. Slowly she went behind his very well-sculpted back, dragging her bangs across his neck. In his other ear, she moaned, “It’s inevitable that you’ll see me. But don’t perv out like you did earlier. It’s unprofessional. Be an adult.”
Ino went back to the first ear. “The only reason I let you look is because we are on a mission. I would rather you take a peek if that means I can relax for a little while. But, if we were in Konoha and I caught you…” Ino, let her raspy voice linger in his ear. “That necklace you have would be mine. Instead of those green jewels, it would be your own. And, everyone would congratulate me.”
She stood up. A couple entered a room three hallways down, and after the door closed, they immediately jumped on each other. Ino went back to the table, snacking on some sweet bbq chips while pouring some acceptable drip coffee. “Also, the room was free. I am the Yamanaka Clan head. This hotel is owned by a vassal of a branch family of the Nara. So I was able to get the week and all the food complimentary. You can thank me later.”
Ino set about completing her report. Needing to write what the mission was, what they did, and what Naruto could do better. She also made a note about the potential conflicts that may arise in the future.
Naruto came out of the bath fully clothed in his cotton yukata, but he decided to not wear any underthings. Like the good kunoichi Ino was she surreptitiously looked.
They made arrangements for sleeping, Naruto would take the first watch.
Ino fell asleep immediately.
Naruto didn’t wake her up until the morning. The asshole.