Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

Consequence	By : YoukaiFate Category: Naruto > General Views: 1905 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, fandom, etc., of Naruto. This story is for entertainment purposes only, and not for profit.

Chapter List
- 3
- 4
- 5
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, etc., of Naruto. This story is for entertainment purposes only, and not for profit.
Consequence
A/N: So it’s been a while since I posted on this story, but I’ve been in a limey sort of mood, and what’s better served than some yummy Akatusuki lime-ade? You are warned… =P
Chapter Four
Emerging outside the underground base, Ino curiously looked around, wondering where they were. There was nothing distinctive about the trees; it was a forest like any other. There was a profusion of mossy rocks, and more moss covered the south side of the trees in thick green carpets, draping green swathes from wide limbs. The air was damp, and slightly cool. Looking up to catch a glimpse of the sky, she saw lowering clouds that promised a drippy rain later. An idle wind feathered through her long ponytail, which she had finally managed to tie up with a borrowed band from Deidara. She shivered at the chill breath of it, missing the sunny warmth of her home.
The same wind played through Deidara’s golden mane as Ino looked over at him. He stood slightly in front of her, his attention seemingly on something in the distance, his Akatsuki cloak fluttering around his braced calves. Those red clouds on black distracted Ino; they looked like splashes of blood. She remembered, suddenly, just whose blood had last been splashed across that design, and felt her throat catch. She looked away, and fought back the pain with a growing dull anger at what fickle fate had taken from her.
She started, reflexively shying as Tobi suddenly appeared at her elbow. "Hime-sama! Tobi is a good boy and brought your purse, yes?"
"Oh. Thank you, Tobi-san." She took the weapons pouch with numb fingers, automatically hooking it to her belt. The familiar weight at the small of her back felt comforting, but she missed her tanto. She frowned. "Where’s my sword?"
"You won’t be needing it today, yeah."
She looked up as Deidara approached with a distracted air. One hand was buried beneath his parted cloak. She wondered what he was digging for, but Tobi distracted her by propping his masked head on her shoulder. "Maybe we can play with knives later, yes? Tobi likes to play with knives!"
The glee in his voice made Ino shy again. She stared up at him. Thin as a rail, he towered over her. He was a good bit taller than Deidara, who was hardly short. There was something ominous about the way Tobi stared at her, the swirling orange mask hiding more than just his face. Ino had the uneasy feeling that there was a lot Tobi hid. His goofy behavior made her forget just what he was, a member of Akatsuki. She wondered if he took the same childlike delight in slaughtering people as he seemingly did everything else. That thought disturbed her more than even Hidan’s misplaced religious fervor or Kakuzu’s blunt monstrosity. At least they were straight-forward in their homicidal tendencies.
"Am I supposed to spar with both of you?" she asked, nervously reaching inside her pouch, fingers making sure nothing was missing.
"Oh, no, Hime-sama! Tobi only watch for now." The pumpkin tilted, and he drawled out luridly, "Tobi likes to watch."
"Pervert," Deidara muttered.
Tobi only giggled.
Ino made an inarticulate sound, edging away from the tall nin. She almost bumped into Deidara, who gave her an annoyed look. Surprised by it, she wondered what was wrong, for the blond looked both distracted and...anticipating? Anticipating what?
"Ah, you haven’t exactly explained what we are going to do? What I’m supposed to do?" Ino ventured tentatively.
Deidara shrugged. "I suggest you run."
"Run?" She was confused. There was a gleam in the blue eye he cast down at her, one that made icy tendrils crawl down her spine.
"Run, Hime-sama!" Tobi clapped his hands in delight. "Deidara-senpai’s fast. You gotta be faster!"
"What do you mean?" Okay, that was an obviously downright stupid question, but Ino was hoping to stall them for a few seconds so that she could wrap her brain around the crazy look in Deidara’s eyes.
"He means, run." Deidara leaned close to whisper in her ear. Her eyes widened at the feel of his warm breath against her skin. She snaked a hand behind her back, palming a kunai, and reflexively jumped back. Putting herself in a defensive stance, Ino warily eyed both of them, trusting neither. Deidara’s hand emerged from his coat, and his fingers were moving rapidly, smoothing something...clay? She remembered the beautiful white sculptures scattered over the bookcase in their room, and watched in confusion as a small hummingbird emerged. It was perfect, if a little abstract in design, the eyes oversized blank holes above its needle-thin beak.
Deidara looked up at her, a light in his blue eyes that made her stomach tighten. He brought two fingers of his free hand up to his mouth in a hand-sign. Ino’s eyes narrowed, noting how Tobi was inching away from the shorter blond with deliberately theatric movements. Once he’d backed away a good yard, he scuttled off like a surprised cockroach.
Deidara murmured something, tossing the small bird into the air. There was a pop, almost like a short explosion, and the empty-eyed sculpture suddenly came to life. Ino’s eyes widened, she hadn’t been expecting that. It hovered, wings beating a mile a minute, and slowly turned to face her.
"Pretty, isn’t it?" Deidara asked, that wicked light in his eyes creeping her out.
"Um, yes," Ino offered noncommittally, her eyes fastened on the bird, which hovered there. Her legs tensed.
"You don’t like it?" Deidara appeared startled, a golden brow coming down in a fierce frown.
"It’s beautiful," Ino honestly admitted, for it was. But there was something about those empty eyes that had her brain shrieking at her even as it hovered so innocently, its wings beating so fast there was a faint drone in the air. She continued, too nervous not to be frank, "But it scares me."
"Really?" Deidara looked flattered.
He was as nuts as the rest of them. She was done talking. Tossing her kunai, Ino bolted.
�@
ooOOOoo
�@
What a typical ploy for a Leaf-nin. One would think they could come up with something more creative than trying to distract their opponent with a thrown knife so they could retreat. Sliding slightly to the right, Deidara easily caught the kunai between his teeth as the little hummingbird shot forward, after the girl, who had disappeared among the trees. Deidara followed almost leisurely, his hands absently molding another hummingbird even as he leapt to the nearest tree limb. Sending a thread of chakra to his feet, he automatically ran along the intertwining branches. There was a scramble off to his right, and he grinned at the sight of a long ponytail streaming down to earth like a waving ribbon as she leapt back down, barely avoiding the hummingbird which darted after her with lightning-fast moves.
Shit, she was slow. Even with those long legs, she was barely keeping ahead of his little bird, and he could hear her harsh pants as she threw aside stealth for pure flight. Sliding to an easy crouch against the fork of the tree he was currently resting in, Deidara watched her for a moment, bemused by the spectacle as she shied and twisted, trying to stay one branch ahead of the flying explosive. What a tempting target she was, so fragile looking but yet so tough and flexible. She did an acrobatic handstand, legs barely getting out of the way in time as she swung herself up over the branch she used as an impromptu high-bar just as the hummingbird darted under it. One of the downsides of using this particular sculpture was that while it had quick reflexes, it was slow to react. Such a little head gave it little room for thought, and its psuedo-intelligence was limited. If he made the head a little bigger, it was a much better weapon, but he was going easy on the girl, this being just a test and all.
A test she was failing miserably. For all her jumping and darting, he wasn’t impressed. If this was typical of a Konaha chunin, than their supposed reputation for having the best shinobi was blown all out of proportion. He watched with a frown as she flipped over her branch, disappearing into the thicker underbrush. He decided to up the ante, and was about to toss a second hummingbird into the air when he heard the faint whirr of something sharp coming straight for him. With a surprised cock of his brow, he jumped up to the next branch, and three shuriken thudded into the trunk he’d just stood beside.
*Not bad, hmm.* He grinned around the kunai still held in his teeth, and knocked the second set of shuriken aside using the end of the blade, leaping back as a third set landed in a wide arc just over his head as he dropped back down to the ground in a wary crouch. *There!*
He tossed the kunai, and the agitated shaking in the bushes confirmed his guess. Ino emerged, shying behind the nearest tree and he watched her shimmy up it. Wow, she had a nice ass. She vanished behind some leafy branches, and he released his second hummingbird, sending it zooming straight at her location.
Bringing his fingers to his lips, he smiled. "Katsu."
The top of the tree exploded in a brilliant shower of glaring light and roiling smoke. Shattered leaves fell like rain, their ends lit into glowing red streaks, like falling fireflies. Admiring the beautiful display, Deidara grinned to see a long, white-gold ponytail disappearing into another tree, much lower than before. He set the first hummingbird after her, quickly forming several small hornets with his hands. They would cause only tiny explosions that couldn’t hurt her if she got out of the way in time, of course, but would keep her occupied and distracted for a while. He wanted to test her hand-to-hand skills as well, and so set off at a quick run after sending the hornets streaming ahead of him.
�@
ooOOOoo
�@
*Ohgodohgodohgodohgod.*
Gritting her teeth, Ino threw a kunai at one of the buzzing white insects, pinning it to the tree beside her through one clay wing. It buzzed in agitation. She ducked, dropping down to a lower branch as it exploded with a muffled boom, swaying the branch she clung to like a leech. The other clay insects used the noise to orient on her position, and she cursed under her breath as she abandoned stealth to jump for the tree beyond. She ran, feeding chakra into her feet and wind, her heart in her mouth as she barely avoided a falling branch, muffled explosions following in her wake. She slipped slightly, and winced as a muscle tore in her leg. Ignoring the pain, she stopped long enough to perform the needed hand seals. One hand glowed green with healing chakra as she repaired the muscle, using her other to fold an explosive tag around a kunai and toss it behind her. The muffled boom-boom of bomb meeting bomb made her wince, but it wasn’t enough to break her concentration. Satisfied that she had healed as much as she could, she darted around the next tree, and came face to face with the hummingbird.
*Shit!*
They stared at each other for a frozen moment, than Ino jumped, tucking herself into a ball and praying with all her might as the world exploded above her. She felt something sear across her shoulder, another burn along her calf, and fire caught in the trailing end of her too-big shirt. She couldn’t hold back a whimper of pure terror as she finally hit the ground rolling, and kept rolling to put the fire out. Dry leaves and small twigs tore at her skin and clothing, and she realized too late as the ground slipped away right from under her. She went tumbling end-over-end down a steep gully, and landed with an undignified "Mmph!" at the bottom. Spitting out a mouthful of leaves and dirt, she froze, hearing the sound of footsteps. Deidara certainly wasn’t bothering to hide his presence, the arrogant jerk. Holding her breath, Ino tried to locate him by sound. There, up above her. He was probably following the broken trail of her graceless fall into the dumb ditch.
Glancing up at the thick tangle of leaves and branches above her, Ino wondered if it might be possible that he didn’t know where she was, for the footsteps went back and forth, hesitating and then stopping, as if he were searching for her. Taking a gamble, Ino stilled her mind, sucking in her chakra and thinking fiercely of "nothing." It had the dual effect of covering her chakra and projecting the generic thought to anyone within range that there was really nothing there. It had worked well in childhood games of hide-and-seek. She hadn’t thought of that trick in years, but she was desperate enough to try anything at this point.
It seemed to be working, for risking a glance upwards, she could see Deidara pausing at the edge of the gully, a fierce frown on his face. His eyes passed over her numerous times, and she had to keep the elation from breaking her concentration. She watched, eyes narrowing, as he finally started descending the steep slope, following the broken trail of scattered leaves, eyes actually scanning the other slope, where he probably thought she had climbed out. A hornet buzzed beside him, agitatedly sweeping from side to side, and her guess was confirmed that his hideously beautiful explosives used their target’s chakra to orient themselves on their victims. They could probably even detect when a ninja used chakra to hide his chakra, thus rendering the typical defensive jutsu ineffective. But Ino didn’t need to use chakra to blank out her mind like this---it was just part of her telepathic gifts, and didn’t need anything but her stubborn will. Something that’d been perfect back when she was a kid, when she didn’t have the training or ability yet to use her chakra.
Ino tensed as Tobi suddenly appeared high in a tree above them. "Where’d she go, Deidara-senpai? I can’t see her."
"Shut up, yeah." Deidara scowled at the puzzled pumpkin, his attention on the other side of the gully as he crouched near the bottom. She could have reached out and touched him, he was so close. Ino hid a shiver, noting that he liked to paint his toes as black as his fingers. What was up with Akatsuki’s freaky nail-polish fetish, anyway? All of them painted their nails, some even going emo with the eyeliner. Deidara and Itachi were both in that camp. Kinda sexy, in a way, but still weird.
She was distracting herself, trying to gather up enough courage to take him by surprise. His techniques and jutsu had all been distance fighting, Ino was hoping he had perfected those strengths in order to make up for a lack of close-combat skills. She couldn’t lie here forever, although the idea really was tempting. But the burns on shoulder and thigh were starting to itch, and she had numerous scratches and abrasions from her headlong roll through the dirt that were sending distracting messages to her brain that they weren’t too happy with the current situation. Neither were her muscles, which were showing the strain of having to stay so tensed and still for so long. It wouldn’t be long before a cramp started, and she couldn’t take her concentration away from maintaining her disappearing act to ease it with some judicious ninjutsu.
Well, the situation wasn’t going to get any better by her sitting back and doing nothing. She’d lose the element of surprise in another second, when Deidara decided to move. He was already starting to turn his head away, his shoulders turning slightly. It was the perfect opportunity to throw him off-balance---now!
Hurling herself at him, Ino’s hands glowed as she focused her chakra into her fists. She caught him off-guard, for a wide blue eye stared at her in astonishment as he tilted his head back. Her grip tightened around his shoulders, hoping to shove him flat on the ground, but she was suddenly somersaulting right over his shoulders as he bent over. She kept her grip, hoping to pull him after her, but he was rooted with stronger chakra to the ground. They froze for a long second in that awkward position, her back to his front, her arms back over her head and he half bent over from her drag on his shoulders.
*Not good! Move, stupid!* Ino let go, shying as an arm tried to snake around her waist, and fended off his hands with a quick series of flat-handed strikes. They exchanged hand-combinations in a flurry of lightning-fast moves, and she was surprised at just how quick Deidara was. She was one of the best in hand-to-hand combat---although Tsunade-sama didn’t like her getting so close, since a medic-nin’s number one priority was staying alive to keep the other members of her team the same. Gritting her teeth, Ino glared into the blue eye that smiled down at her. He was toying with her, the jerk. Her eyes narrowed, and she suddenly switched it up, jumping off his bent knee to slam a foot into his belly. He went sailing through the air with a loud "Oof!" of exploding air, and she grinned.
"Not...so…weak...huh?" she panted, and then scooted as he launched himself at her. They circled and leapt, exchanging blows and twisting out of the way barely in time to avoid direct hits. Ino had a renewed respect for Deidara’s strength, and barely kept out of grabbing range by using several acrobatic flips and twists. He managed to land a solid chop on her shoulder, and she managed to kick him in the leg---not that he showed any strain, damn it. Better was the hit she gave to his upper right arm. The blond actually winced, which made her grin, though she couldn’t let that inflate her confidence. He was good, almost as good as Might Gai, who was the strongest taijutsu shinobi the Leaf Village had. If she hadn’t been saving so much of her chakra, she’d be in more trouble than she was. But this physical exchange was something she was good at, and she actually relished sparring with someone so unpredictable. Feeding her chakra into her physical body, Ino was able to match his speed. She couldn’t keep it up forever, but that just meant she had to up the ante again.
Diving under Deidara’s arm, she managed to reach back into her pouch and pull out several kunai. The single blond brow she could see beneath the thick fall of his golden hair lifted, and Deidara grinned at her. He dodged the first she threw at him, and caught the second, sending it straight back at her. Ino caught it with a smirk, and threw it back. This time he dodged and tried to tackle her. She escaped by using the kunai in a way he couldn’t expect. Thrusting it into the tree trunk beside her, Ino used it to swing herself up, adding chakra to her knees so that she sat sideways looking down at him on the tree’s vertical surface, her long ponytail hanging over her left shoulder as she smiled and panted.
Deidara didn’t follow her up the tree like she expected. He just stood there, a faint smile on his lips. Suspicious, Ino risked a look up and her eyes widened at the hornet that hovered just above her. *Crap!*
It dove, and she let go of the knife, swinging around the tree and racing up the other side as it zoomed after her. Pulling an explosive tag and blade out of her pouch, Ino zigzagged back around the tree, now heading back down in a rush towards the ground as the deadly clay bomb closed in. She’d have to do the last thing Deidara would ever expect to avoid being hit. He was still standing down at the tree’s base, looking up at her. *Perfect.* She timed the distance, hurling her kunai even as she leapt free of the tree.
The hornet and tagged kunai collided and she added chakra into her downward dive, praying fervently that it would be enough to escape the explosion and that Deidara would still be there to catch her before she broke every bone in her body against the unforgiving earth. His eye widened just a second before she fell on him. His arms reflexively curled around her, and they toppled over as fire blossomed all around them, cracking the top of the massive tree in half and hurtling it straight towards their sprawled position on the ground.
Deidara was fast. Rolling them out of the way, he was on his feet and jumping for the safety of the next tree, Ino hanging onto him like a monkey as he used one arm circled around her waist to keep her there and the other to swing himself up onto a larger branch that could better hold their combined weight.
"What the hell were you thinking, un?" he demanded as the destroyed tree fell over behind them with a groaning crash that shook the forest for a mile round. Fire crackled along its length, and the missing-nin tried to push her off of him. Ino clung like a leech, wrapping her legs tightly around his body and locking her arms just under his. He tried to shrug her off, using the hand wrapped around her waist to drag at her, but Ino stubbornly kept her hold. "What are you...?"
"Nothing you do will make me let go!" she hissed even as he deliberately slammed her back against the solid tree trunk trying to do just that. "Ow!"
"Are you crazy?" he demanded, the muscles along his arm bulging as Ino increased the chakra into her hands, locking them in place.
"No, but I’m betting you aren’t crazy enough to blow yourself up!" she retorted, even as his free hand slid up her shoulder, trying to dig into a pressure point. She ignored the pain, saying triumphantly, "You’re not about to use one of those damn bombs to kill yourself, are you?"
Deidara suddenly threw back his head and laughed. It was a crazy laugh, and she could feel the shudders going throughout his body. Ino smirked, deliberately tightening her legs around his waist to emphasize her point. *Ha! Got you!*
Deidara’s taut muscles slowly relaxed, and the look he turned on her grew lazy, the blue shadows in his eye darkening. Ino’s eyes widened in reaction, and she was suddenly conscious of their position---her arms and legs wrapped around his body, his arm encircling her waist as his other hand lightly rested along her neck and shoulder. His thumb was idly rubbing circles there and she was aware of the hard, immovable surface of the trunk behind her as he dipped his head close to hers, his long blond hair coming forward to mingle with hers as he whispered huskily, "There are other ways to make you let go, yeah."
Ino’s breath sucked in sharply as he pressed a teasing kiss on her lobe, nibbling lightly. Her heartbeat quickened and her eyes fluttered closed at those warm lips moved past her ear and down her neck, a warm, wet tongue flicking here and there as he traced a feathering path down the white column of her throat. She trembled as the unknown, heady sensation set tiny explosions off in her belly, lighting little fires all over her skin, which suddenly felt so thin and transparent as he nibbled lightly at the base of her throat. She couldn’t seem to find her breath, and she opened her eyes in confusion when his free hand moved up to trace the line of her jaw, his fingers tangling in the short hair that fell over her ear without the normal barrette to keep it back. His palm was strangely damp, wet and tickling in a way that distracted her. There was a heat in Deidara’s gaze that turned the blue of his eyes electric, and Ino unconsciously licked her dry lips, her eyes searching his in nervous anticipation.
He dipped his head again, and closing her eyes, Ino lifted her chin slightly, her heart beating rapidly at the thought that she was about to receive her first, real kiss. And not from some stupid, fumbling boy with wet, sloppy lips or that chicken-like peck at the end of her first school dance. This was from a man, and those first, lousy attempts didn’t really count. She puckered her lips, and trembled when he hesitated, drawing out the moment, his breath warm on her trembling lips. She opened her eyes, confused again, and he smirked. Her brows came down, angrily, and then his lips were suddenly on hers and she gasped, eyes closing as his talented mouth worked over hers with deliberate, teasing motions.
His lips were soft, the pressure light and then hard, his tongue sweeping across her mouth with that same feathering pattern he had used on her neck that had made her toes curl. He traced the bow of her lips leisurely, lightly sucking her bottom lip into his mouth and then biting it. Ino trembled at the sensation, and eagerly opened her mouth when he murmured coaxingly against her lips. His tongue surged inside to twine with hers, and she tried to gasp through her nose when he sucked her tongue into the heat of his mouth, mapping and nibbling and doing something with his hips that had her body tightening all over as fiery sensations were set off in her belly. She was conscious of the rough, unmoving surface behind her, the electric heat of his skin where it touched hers. The heady feel of his muscles playing along his back where her palms now lay flat, her fingers curling into him in unconscious motions as he deliberately pressed himself between her legs. Her thighs trembled as he dragged himself across her core, and there was a heady, rushing sensation to that area, as if pure lightning were being sent straight through her body from the contact of his. Her legs loosened and she moaned softly, the sound almost despairing and hungry and so utterly overwhelming as she completely lost herself inside it---but he was suddenly lifting his head away, and Ino looked up with dazed incomprehension when Deidara smirked down at her. She would have sagged if he didn’t hold her up with his strong arm wrapped around her waist.
Deidara pressed his forehead against hers, the metal of his slashed headband digging slightly against her skin. Locking eyes with her, he said softly, "I win."
Ino abruptly realized how her legs and arms had fallen away from around him as he manipulated her senses into thoughtless stupidity. Damn it! She glared, and tried to push him off of her as he laughed. Ino punched his shoulder, but he only tightened his hold around her waist, plucking her up off her feet and hauling her up over his shoulder like a prize. Ino growled at the undignified position, trying to wiggle free, but Deidara lightly smacked her bottom with his free hand. "Now, now, it isn’t nice to be such a sore loser, un."
"Shut up!" Ino snapped. "And put me down! I’m not a bag of dog food!"
"No, you’re not, hmm." His hand turned caressing, and Ino froze as his fingers lightly trailed up the back of her thigh, something wet and warm licking a tickling pattern that made the taut muscles jump. She closed her eyes at the sensation, heat burning straight to her belly. Deidara laughed again, smug in his male superiority, and she half-heartedly poked him in the kidneys.
"Just put me down." Ino grit her teeth. "You’ve proven your point, dang it."
"Only if you say please, yeah." His head tilted, probably to look back at her, but she couldn’t see anything but the stupid red clouds on his stupid Akatsuki cloak. That, and too many branches between them and the ground. His long hair tickled her waist where the mesh didn’t cover her skin.
"Not on your life!" Ino spat, more angry at herself than at him for getting herself into such a ridiculous position. God, this was humiliating, and that smug bastard seemed to take some cruel delight in it. Stupid Akatsuki jerk.
He laughed again, and then she had to grab onto his cloak as he launched himself out of the tree. Leaping from one branch to the next, Deidara swiftly descended. He didn’t let go of her like she’d half-hoped he would when they finally reached the ground, and she resigned herself to the indignity of being carried like this all the way back to the base. Propping one elbow on his shoulder, Ino put her chin on her hand and scowled. "This is not cool, you know that?"
Right on cue, here came Tobi. Ino closed her eyes and didn’t bother to hide her groan.
"Deidara-senpai? Why are you carrying Hime-sama? You didn’t kill her, did you?"
Ino made a face. "No, he didn’t kill me."
"Yet!" Tobi said, and then laughed hysterically.
Ino shivered. That guy was creepy.
Deidara scowled. "Shut up, yeah." And then stalked off, taking her with him. Tobi followed, skipping from side to side and humming a cheerful little ditty in a bad key.
Ino closed her eyes. This really couldn’t get any worse.
�@
ooOOOoo
�@
Except, of course, it did. For even as they reached the hidden entrance to the underground base, they were greeted by the sight of two others emerging. Well, she didn’t get much sight of them past the lower lengths of their black cloaks and their feet. But one pair was grey-blue, and the other had purple toe nails, and she knew that that meant---
"Itachi."
"Deidara."
The exchange was rather cool, even a little malicious on Deidara’s part.
"Caught yourself a pretty little fish there, Deidara-san," Blue-Feet said, slapping him on the shoulder as he leaned down to peer at her. "Why, hello there. Yamanaka Ino, right?"
She was startled by the inhuman face staring down at her. He looked like some kind of shark-man, and those teeth he flashed at her were as sharp as the weird yin-yang-plant-thang from yesterday. He smelled, unsurprisingly, like the sea, but she wondered why it seemed so familiar. She was unbalanced enough to stutter politely, "Uh, nice to meet you."
"Hoshigaki Kisame," he supplied, and bowed. He had a huge sword wrapped in bandages slung across his back. When he straightened, Ino had to tilt her head back to look up at him. He was freaking huge.
She was so distracted by the shark-guy, she’d nearly forgotten Itachi. Standing beside the blue man, he appeared shorter than he really was. Both were dressed in the high-collared Akatsuki cloaks, and carried strange conical hats with multiple strips of white cloth attached. She wondered where they were going, and started when Itachi’s black eyes suddenly cut to hers, effectively pinning her with a cold look. She froze, for his eyes narrowed, a rather expressive gesture for someone so stone-faced.
"We will speak, Yamanaka-san." He imperiously gestured. Ino blinked as Deidara’s arm tightened around her waist, effectively restraining her.
"Why, yeah?" he demanded bluntly.
Kisame’s forehead wrinkled in a strange way. The gesture distracted Ino, for it pulled the gills on the upper part of his cheeks into prominence. He really was half-shark, like that girl she had met in Sea Country. She wondered if Doctor Amachi had messed with him, too.
Itachi’s attention transferred to her captor, and he said coldly, "Leader would speak with you, Deidara, about the girl’s proficiency. We will escort her back to your room."
"Oooh, Deidara-senpai, it isn’t wise to keep Leader-sama waiting! We better hurry!" Tobi trembled all over with eagerness.
Deidara gave in with ill grace. Slipping Ino off his shoulder with one arm---an excessive show of strength, really, that had her eyes rolling for the macho display---he finally let her go. His fingers trailed over the curve of her waist in a too-familiar way as he finally set her on her feet. Embarrassed, Ino uncomfortably moved away. The blond turned without a word, stalking inside the hidden entrance, Tobi ducking after.
Ill-at-ease, Ino stood beside the two nin. Itachi was staring at her, his look hard. "Kisame, leave."
Kisame’s forehead wrinkled, but he went with a casual shrug and a friendly nod to Ino before sauntering off into the forest. They were suddenly alone, and Ino fidgeted, avoiding Itachi’s flat gaze, as she nervously tried to fill in the awful silence. "So that’s your partner? What is he? Some kind of---"
"What were you thinking?"
"Huh?" She blinked, confused by his sharp demand. He took a step closer, and she unconsciously took a step back. His dark eyes pinned her with impatient disdain.
"It’s obvious you were kissing him. Deidara." His voice was icy. "Are you really such a thoughtless twit? Or do you just like the idea of being an Akatsuki whore?"
Ino’s mouth fell open. *Whore?* It was so unexpected, it took her brain a minute to wrap around the unfair accusation. Who the hell did Itachi think he was, accusing her of something like that? Just because she’d just kissed Deidara---what the hell! Her eyes flashed, and her right hand instinctively twitched, wanting to slap him, hard.
He glanced down at her hand. "Don’t even try it."
"How dare you!" she hissed, blue eyes glittering as her fingers curled into a fist. "You don’t even know anything about me, and you dare accuse me of being...of being…" She couldn’t even say it, the slur was so horrible. No one had ever said such a thing to her before.
The look Itachi gave her would have been pitying if his voice wasn’t so cuttingly sarcastic. "And what else would anyone think? Except maybe you’re a flirt and a tease? That you’re such a child that you would forget your mission so easily for a handsome face and a quick tumble in the bushes?"
"But...I...we…" Tears sprang to her eyes and Ino shook with anger at the injustice of his accusations.
"Are you really that stupid? Or truly that innocent?" He gave her a disgusted look. "These are men, not boys. It would be foolish of you to try your little games on them. They will eat you alive."
Ino flinched, for a small, unwilling part of her had to admit there was some truth in his harsh words. It had been a game between her and Deidara, at least, there at the end. A part of her had been curious and strangely excited by the whole challenge of it. She was even a little flattered that so handsome and dangerous a man as Deidara wanted to kiss her, and there was a delicious excitement, some tang of the forbidden, that added a certain spice to the intriguing thought. His casual manhandling had been strangely exciting, too, for there was really no one she had known who had ever stood up to her. Certainly not her father, or any of her friends. The casual way Deidara could dismiss her struggles was both scary as hell and secretly intriguing.
That admittance sat sour in her stomach, and Ino felt craven and silly and unworthy of Konoha’s trust in her. She dropped her eyes, suddenly feeling like the child Itachi named her. Itachi didn’t help, for he said icily, "Do you even know the danger in such games? For a kunoichi, your education is rather lacking."
Ino’s head snapped up, the tears drying instantly as anger suffused her. She froze, though, at the bloody dance that spiraled in Itachi’s unblinking gaze. For a moment, she unwillingly stared at the hypnotic dance of that swirling pattern, and then wrenched her eyes away, shaking her head as her temples pounded.
"That doesn’t work on me, remember?" she snapped, her breath harsh in her ears as her heart sped up for some strange reason. The world seemed to sway, the edges blurring and dissolving to then reform, but that might have been only a symptom of her growing migraine.
A cool hand cupped her cheek and Ino shied in surprise. Itachi stared down at her, his voice dispassionate, his red eyes dispassionate for all the swirling dance within them. "Your father did you a grave disservice trying to protect you from the world."
Ino bristled and tried to jerk her chin free, but his grip tighened, his calloused thumb tilting her chin up as he bent his dark head over hers. Ino’s breath drew in with a sharp hiss as Itachi’s eyes dropped to her lips, the red depths heating slightly as the codas continued to spin idly. Her heart fluttered, and she was surprised by the sudden surge of heady excitement that had taunted her before when Deidara had paused just this way before capturing her mouth with his. Prickles danced across her skin, and she shivered at the recognition of it even as Itachi’s mouth descended on hers.
His kiss was different from Deidara’s. His mouth was hard, demanding, and brutally efficient. He did not waste effort on teasing a reaction from her. Instead, he drew it out by manipulating her reactions, easily sweeping aside her inhibitions and evoking a strange, restless hunger that left her reeling, even as she recognized in shock that it was the same, overwhelming reaction she had just had to Deidara. And then that thought was stolen, too, as his hot mouth worked over hers.
Tugging her bottom lip between his, he bit it sharply, evoking a startled gasp as the strange mix of pleasure-pain hit straight to her core, leaving little lightnings in its wake. Itachi’s tongue lathed the spot, slipping deep inside her mouth, and Ino melted against him. Caught up in a whirlwind of raw sensation, he bent her head back under his, his hands tangling in her thick hair as her eyes fluttered closed. She moaned, a lost sound, and tried to crawl inside his heat, her body suddenly tight and aching with a need she could not name, only that it felt like the whole world had been taken over by a fierce hunger that left her lightheaded. Yet she felt so heavy, acutely aware of how her body was pressed to the solid strength of his, how her breasts felt full and aching and her limbs weak and oddly numb. He suckled her tongue into his mouth, and all thought slipped away as the world became complete sensation, a fire burning along her blood that she needed to...needed to...what, she didn’t know, just that she had need, and it was beautiful and terrible and so utterly all-consuming, and---
And he drew back, and she was abruptly alone and abandoned as she blinked up in confusion and saw cold assessment in his too-black gaze. Realization washed over Ino with icy mortification, and she flinched away, horrified by how easily he had called up the same tumultuous reaction that Deidara had. The fact that Itachi could, and seemingly without being affected in any way, just made her feel all the more mortified, so weak and stupid, and his icy words just sent the kunai that much deeper inside her heart.
"You’re not ready to play a man’s game, Ino-chan." The casual endearment between friends was an insult from him. "What you felt was desire, something any base animal is capable of. Notice how easy it was for me to manipulate you, and merely with a kiss. Don’t read anything into it---I was only teaching you a lesson, one you should already know."
"Damn you…" Ino whispered, hate and humiliation blurring her vision with angry tears she refused to let fall. He just stared down at her, as cold and uncaring as the marbled god he so resembled.
"Resent me if you must, Yamanaka-san. I just served you a harsh truth: playing with fire will only get you burned."
Burned she did, with shame for the silly fool she had just been made. She had just been taught a poignant lesson, one she wouldn’t soon forget. Wrapping her arms around herself, her knuckles whitened as she dug her nails into her upper arms. Ino refused to look at him, and something flickered in his eyes, which had darkened once more into black obscurity. "Trust no one, Ino. Including yourself, for your innermost passions and emotions can easily be turned against you. Your only value lies in how the Akatsuki may use you. Remember that, little Leaf."
She loathed the endearment he spoke so mockingly. Itachi leaned close, and she refused to flinch away, though she stubbornly kept her eyes averted. His words curled inside her heart, making her go cold. "You once loved my brother, did you not? And where has that gotten you? You’re weak, Ino. Too weak to survive Akatsuki. Just like your teammates."
Her heart stopped.
He relentlessly continued, the knife of his words twisting deeper. "They died, and you were too weak to save them. How tragic."
"Shut up."
He straightened, his cold voice dripping scorn. "You can be manipulated so easily, kunoichi. It’s pathetic."
The anger was so intense she shook with it. Her eyes snapped to his, hard and glittering, and Itachi smiled slightly. He bowed his head, a brief nod of mocking acknowledgement for the burning fury in her gaze. Ino wanted to claw the mocking grin from his face, and struggled with the overwhelming urge to attack him, the cold-hearted bastard. She hated him at the moment, like she hadn’t any one ever before.
Itachi only smiled, as if that was the reaction he had desired all along, the manipulative jerk. The realization suddenly dawned on her, in icy recognition, for she could and had manipulated others just as easily, if not for such a horrible reason as only to make them feel unworthy and small. Itachi had tried to break her with words, but he was stupid. She wasn’t so easily broken, and she wouldn’t give that bastard the satisfaction of seeing her give in to her rage. She would show him that she wasn’t weak, that she could handle whatever the Akatsuki threw at her, and then he would rue this day.
Ino’s head came up and she gave him a scornful glance. "Are you finished?"
He tested her, reaching a casual hand out to tuck a stray lock behind her ear. Ino stood her ground, her hard eyes never wavering from his as he baited softly, "For now, Yamanaka-san."
She refused to acknowledge the subtle double-meaning that laced the simple words.
Itachi gestured towards the hidden entrance, his manner suddenly courteously polite, as if they had never exchanged such horrible words. If he wanted to throw her off balance, he wouldn’t succeed. "Shall we...?"
"After you," she said, icily polite. The anger was a cold knot inside of her, one she would keep close and turn to her own benefit. Ino suddenly understood what Kakuzu had meant when he said that anger was good, and could be of use.
Use it she would.
�@
�@
�@
- 3
- 4
- 5
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Consequence