I landed in front of the flower shop. Before going in, I made sure I was presentable. Rebellious strands of hair went behind the ear, shirt smoothed over, cupcake crumbles dusted off. Ready, I pushed the door open and walked in.
The Receptionist-san blinked, like he was surprised to see me here. I gave him a nod, then hurried inside before he could say anything.
Walking into someone's home uninvited wasn't exactly polite, but I was already here — kind of. Circumstances made fuzzy with clones and all.
The place was quiet.
I crossed the living room, looked at the picture frames on the wall and photos of a young Ino and her family. I walked up the stairs and, without knocking, pulled the door open.
Hug-chan was in bed, hugging a sleeping Ino. There was this tiny spark of jealousy that I quickly squashed. It was dumb and not the time. My clone tried to disentangle herself, but sleeping Ino wasn't keen on letting go. My clone signed a message.
I followed her suggestion, lay on the other side of Ino, and hugged her. It didn't take long until Ino turned around, releasing my clone and holding me instead. Hug-chan took the chance to make her escape, not before hugging Ino one last time.
Once she was up and about, she signed a few more messages and unpopped herself without fanfare.
I was inundated with a whole afternoon of thoughts, ruminations, memories, and sensations. It was… a lot.
I scowled at the ideas from her. Telling people secrets was how things stopped being secrets. But she wasn't wrong. Obsession or not, I liked Ino, and I did want to get closer to her. It wasn't fair to involve her further and keep her in the dark.
The real question now was: did I want to involve Ino?
Honestly, no. Not because I didn't trust her, but because I didn't want to endanger her. That was such a patronizing sentiment that I even wanted to slap myself. It was how I felt, however.
Could I push all this on Ino? Was it even fair? I've been doing my best to enjoy my life, but my time was running out. This most recent brush with death only highlighted that this wasn't a world where things always worked out in the end.
A chakra bundle entered the house. It made a beeline to Ino's room. I watched the door open.
The Yamanaka matriarch — whose name I still didn't know — stood in the doorway, watching us. She looked regal and collected.
Now, I know. How could I not know Ino's mom's name? Well, Ino never introduced her mother and never called her anything other than mom. I wasn't around for any family reunion, so there's no way I might have overheard Inoichi. I wasn't going to ask the mind ninja his wife's name or even Ino her mom's name. That was just weird. A label slotted into my mind. Yamanaka Mother. That was good enough until I learned the woman's moniker.
Our eyes met. She gave me a nod. Pulled the door close.
Was that approval? Or maybe she just didn't want to wake up Ino? At times like this, I did envy Karin's ability to know how others were feeling based on their chakra. That was such a nice thing to have, privacy be damned. It would make social encounters manageable for me, especially with all the social hardships to come.
Shisui said I should gather allies. Maybe the Yamanaka clan? I didn't have that much contact with Ino's parents, but I think they didn't dislike me. At least, I hoped they didn't.
Who else could I call upon?
"…"
Kakashi-sensei? He was famous, and I also think he might be somewhat fond of me. Or maybe I was projecting. Yamato, maybe?
I had the inkling that I should have done more to build connections instead of training to be a good shinobi because, unless I reached Madara levels of absurdness, I might lose the battle to politics.
Or I could flee. There was always that possibility. Just harder now that they also knew about my new jutsu.
Ino stirred, rubbed her face against mine. It was almost like a cat. I even imagined the purring.
"Hinata-chan?" she mumbled.
I threaded my fingers through her hair. It felt nice. "Hello, beautiful," I husked out. I blamed the clone for putting all those ideas in my head.
Ino stared at me from ten centimeters away. Her crystalline blue orbs were intense. "What happened?"
For the third time that day, I told the story. But this time, I didn't censor the details. I spoke in low, hoarse whispers, trying to lower the hurt in my throat, but also unwilling to get up from the bed to write down my explanation. It might have been a spur of the moment, but I didn't keep anything from Ino.
I told her about the labs, about the clones, about my breakdown.
Ino's face changed when I recounted the betrayal. She cried, then I cried when I told her about the prison and escaping. Like me, she didn't have a good impression of the badgers, even if Kumoko was still cute, in an 'I'll kill you' kinda way.
When the recounting was done, maybe an hour later, we were still in bed, still hugging.
"I'm sorry," she said after a moment of silence.
I shook my head. There wasn't anything she needed to apologize for. "None of that," I whispered back. Swallowed the blood. "It wasn't your fault."
"I know, but," she said.
I stopped her again. "I'm back, but I'm still in trouble," I admitted.
"What do you mean?"
More words spilled forth. I told Ino about all the discrimination over the years, and the council wanting me gone or worse. I told her about the Hyuga and the issues with the clan head and the matter of the eye. I told her about Shisui's suggestion, to gather allies, but I had none.
Aside from my past life secrets, I told her everything.
My worries about how Sasuke was behaving. About me not being myself, about other me's trapped in some dungeon being experimented on. I might have become a bit incoherent midway. I wasn't sure.
It all spilled out even when I wanted to keep it all in.