"Tsunade!" With hands on my shoulders, Ino shook me like I was a tree sapling. "You're choosing her, right?"
The idea was tempting, really, but I still needed to decide what to focus on.
"I want to, but hear me out?"
More sapling shaking ensued. "You've got to pick her, Hinata-chan. It's the slug princess we are talking about!"
It was late afternoon, the sun almost dipping beyond the mountain. The few clouds we could see had taken on an orange hue that announced evening wasn't far away.
"Training with her would be nice," I started, "if I wanted to learn more about healing and taijutsu."
"And you don't?"
"I do! But I need other things more."
Ino made a face, but didn't contradict me.
"I've been trying too many things at once, and because of that, you got hurt. If only I had trained more and been more decisive." I found places to look at, a lot of them. Everywhere but Ino.
"Nonsense," Ino scoffed. "We're ninjas. We get hurt, we stand up and keep fighting."
I understood Ino's feelings, but it still felt like I had let her get hurt because I wasn't taking things seriously enough. With a lot of time to reflect on the battle, I could have killed Haido without ever letting Ino be even closer to danger.
"Still, I need to think about where to focus my training. Tsunade would be great for getting better at taijutsu, better yet if she teaches me how to punch mountains." I made a few punching motions, while Ino giggled at my antics. "Yamato could teach me a lot more about mokuton. And since I don't deplete all my chakra anymore, it might be the best bet."
Ino nodded.
"Then there's Shisui. Gosh, imagine that? Teleporting all around all the time? Zoom, zoom, zoom!" I couldn't contain my excitement and might have pretended I was teleporting with cool poses while zooming about.
Ino burst out laughing. My ears burned.
"But there's another possibility too," I said, my smile turning devious.
"What is it?" Ino asked between bouts of laughter.
My evil grin intensified. I pulled out a kunai. Ino's eyes bugged out. It was a distraction, though. While Ino was preoccupied with the not-exploding kunai, I popped out threads and threads, then put them to work tickling Ino.
Focusing on threads (and explosions) would be a more challenging path to follow, since, as far as I knew, there was no puppet master in Konoha, nor any explosion master. Still, the idea appealed to me: an army of teleporting, exploding puppets.
That also didn't take into consideration the black chakra receivers. I had done no real testing with them yet, but would I be able to puppeteer a body the same way Pain had done in the original story?
Distracted by thinking strange thoughts, I didn't see Ino lunging at me until she tackled me into the field of flowers again.
I pushed the thoughts of training away. I had time to decide. One or two more days wouldn't change much in the end.
Before evening fell, we walked hand in hand toward the commercial district.
People stared.
It might have been because Ino didn't hide that we were dating or the PDAs, or maybe it was our clothes and hair: Ino still had a few grass leaves poking out of her mane. If she noticed, she didn't seem to care.
I was past caring either.
It felt strange being so happy when most of the common people were tense and alert. The realities of war hadn't sunk in for me yet. I knew things were bad, but I was so happy and protected from that mess that it felt like a story happening to someplace else.
After a picnic date, we decided to visit the ramen stall at my request. I missed the sunshine brat, and Ino didn't seem to mind the idea of slurping noodles. Before we arrived at the stall, I heard something that made me stop.
"Did you hear that?" I asked, straining my hearing.
"Hmm?"
I closed my eyes, ignoring the sounds of city people. Amid the mess of walking, talking, and haggling, I found what caught my attention: someone crying, a child.
Leading Ino toward the sound, I said, "Come, not far."
Across a busy street and through an alley, we arrived at a small park. I hadn't ever come here before, even if the place looked familiar. I'd seen this park many times while crossing the highways, but had no reason to stop here.
Now, there was a boy – he looked about five – sitting alone on one bench and bawling his eyes out.
Ino didn't need prompting. She pushed ahead and stopped by the boy.
"Hey there," she whispered. "Are you hurt?"
The boy, dressed in a pretty blue kimono with a few red details, stopped crying long enough to look at both of us. "Mister Tama is missing," he said before the crying started again.
With gentle words and gestures, Ino coaxed the details from the boy: His pet cat, a fat tabby called Mister Tama, had gone missing this afternoon. The kid, Naoya, had sneaked away from home with his cat to play at the park, but the cat had gone missing, and now Naoya couldn't return home without his pet.
"We'll look for Mister Tama," Ino had hugged Naoya and said, while patting his hair. She looked at me, and I knew what she wanted.
"Four?"
Ino nodded, released Naoya after whispering something to him. "Four."
Together, we performed the hand seals. In a puff of smoke, clones appeared around us.
Naoya gaped, his crying almost forgotten.
I looked at the clones. They looked back at me, then at Ino's clones. Ino's clones had a mischievous, hungry look on their faces. Original Ino's face had turned beet red.
"Oh," was all that I had time to say.
Ino covered Naoya's eyes and the clones, instead of going out in search of the damn cat, decided that making out was more important. After covering Naoya's eyes, Ino had to cover his ears as well. She didn't, however, dismiss the clones. Neither did I.
It took a while to wrangle the clones into compliance. I had to make promises and concessions. Somehow, Ino's clones were even more gung-ho about the whole making-out part, but we made it work.
For helping us search for the cat, we wouldn't unsummon them until it was time to sleep. After that, the traitors left in pairs. I was still skeptical about the whole thing. Would they really go looking for a cat?
There wasn't much to do except wait. To keep Naoya from crying, I took out my koto and played a few songs. That cheered the kid. He even started laughing at a few songs. Maybe one hour later, when the sun had disappeared behind the horizon and the sky was almost entirely dark, a pair returned, holding a tubby tabby.
My clone didn't even have the time to ask if that was the cat when Naoya shouted. "Mister Tama!"
Well, they did it. Color me surprised.
The clones didn't stay long. They delivered the cat, then fled the scene. Like they were in a hurry to be somewhere else. Ino's face was still flushed.
"Thank you!" Naoya said, hugging the chubby cat.
"You're welcome," I said back, smiling, glad the kid was too young to notice my burning ears. I looked around. I offered my hand to the kid. "Come, we'll take you home."
Naoya took my hand and started pulling. Ino grabbed my free hand, and like that, we walked.
Naoya knew where to go, because he led us through a few streets and alleys, and it didn't take long until I knew where he lived. The blue kimono with red details should have clued me in.
Not long after, we were in front of the Uchiha compound.
Worse yet, Mikoto and another woman were at the gates, waiting for us.
"Naoya!" the other woman said. She didn't look worried, but still opened her arms to hug the boy. Her son, maybe?
Mikoto just smiled at the scene, then at us. She didn't seem to mind that Ino and I were walking hand in hand.
"Hinata-chan, Ino-chan," she said, still smiling. "Thank you for helping find Mister Tama."
I scratched my cheek. "You're welcome."
"Please come in; we were about to have dinner," she invited.
I looked at Ino, who just nodded. Feeling more awkward than ever, I stepped inside the compound to have dinner with the Uchihas.