FicWad

Ino slept an hour late the next morning, which meant that she got up at seven instead of six. Training had been canceled today. It was Christmas; a holiday so old that no one was quite sure how it had come about. The old texts made vague, often impossible references to a child in a stable and a fat old man in a red suit, but most simply took the holiday as what it was; an excuse to honor family and give gifts.

Wrapping herself in the coat Naruto had given her, she padded downstairs and past the study. She ignored the light creeping under the door to that particular room, knowing that her father, who had been aShinobi for so long he couldn't sleep in even if he tried, was in the habit of using the mornings to attend to business matters.

Reaching the kitchen, she pulled a kettle from the rack and set water to boil.

When her mother shuffled into the room at nine, she found her daughter sitting at the kitchen table, sipping a mug up hot chocolate and, rather disconcertingly, idly running a kunai across a whetstone while reading a scroll spread out on the kitchen table.

The woman shook her head at the sense of contentment radiating from her daughter as she moved to the fridge and set about making breakfast. She deeply loved her family, but she had learned long ago that all ninja were simply strange.

Once breakfast was cleared away, an elegant tokkuri and three sakazuki were set on the table, along with six wrapped gifts. Inoichi, with a good deal of reverence, poured the toso from the tokkuri.

Ino watched her father eye the two gifts in front of him for a moment before hefting one and handing it to her.

She unwrapped the gift with the same care she had shown the night before, the paper coming off free of tears.

When she was finished, she set the two items on the table. One was a snug black turtle-neck, the other the other a pair of loose pants in the same deep purple she had always treasured.

She took the shallow bowl of the sakazuki and faced her father, who held his own before him.

"That as the year changes, so may you."

They both drained the traditional sake from the bowls and set them down. This time, Ino was the one to fill them.

She took one of her packages and held it to her mother with both hands.

Her mother unwrapped the gift with no less ceremony than her daughter, and was soon holding an elegant belt knife, the smooth wood of the sheath painted with the entwined stems of flowers , all blooming along the handle.

Again the girl raised the shallow bowl.

"That you will always be safe, else I could not bear us to part."

This time it was Ino who spoke, and again she drank the bowl.

Ino's mother refilled the sakazuki and immediately handed Ino a gift.

Ino held the long thin box for a moment before unwrapping it. She stared as she opened the slim, plain wooden box.

Inside the box was an almost painfully functional ninja-to. The sheath was of plain, well tanned leather, stained black; the handle of wrapped rawhide died the same color. Almost hesitantly, she lifted the weapon from the box and drew the blade. The cold steel gleamed dully in the morning light from the windows. A single blood channel ran down the blade, but otherwise the weapon showed no marks. As she lifted it, she could tell that the balance was perfect, the grip solid; a marvelous tool.

She looked up into her mothers solemn eyes.

"That you may last through the dying time, and live."

Ino barely felt the heated drink burn down her throat, too focused on her mother's words. She filled the bowls mechanically before tearing her attention from one parent and giving it to another as she gave him her gift.

The jounin looked bemusedly at the small metal charm.

"That you may be blessed with luck, and always return to us."

The man smiled at that, and filled the cups.

As her parents exchanged gifts, Ino's attention wandered back to the gifts she had received.

New clothes and a weapon, what do they mean to tell me?

A painful thought struck her.

Does Tou-san think I'm aslut? She frowned, thinking back to her father's emotions as he gave her the gift.

No, not disappointment...more like amusement...and...pride?

The new clothes were confusing, but her mother's gift was frightening.

Her eyes, she's scared for me...Kami what could make Kaa-san scared, scared enough to give me a sword?

Then the ritual was over and her father was raising his sakazuki over the table. Ino hurried to follow the movement, waiting for her father to speak the traditional phrase.

"The year has died, and been born anew, so may it always be."

The three drank, letting the fifth bowl of toso roll over their tongues and down their throats. After a moment, her mother stood and left the room, heading towards the stairs. Her father collected the empty tokkuri and the three bowls and glided towards the kitchen, his feet silent on the tatami.

Ino slowly gathered her gifts and returned to her room, trying to think through the soft haze the alcohol had given her. Leaving the gifts on her bed, she tossed her jacket on top of them and stripped off her nightclothes. Leaving them on the floor to deal with later, she walked into the tiny bathroom attached to her bedroom and stepped into the small shower, letting the hot water wash over her skin.

Leaving the room, she looked for a moment at the clothes on the bed, then rummaged through her dresser for one of the few pairs of underwear she owned, pulling them on and grabbing her bandages to bind her chest. Then she pulled on the shirt, which hugged her to mid thigh, and belted the pants on over it with her hitae-ate, tying them at the ankles as well. She looked at the ninja-to for a moment before clipping it to two loops on the back of her jacket, leaving the handle raised above the right shoulder before pulling on the bulky coat.

At the door to the house, she paused to pull on the light, sturdy boots most ninja wore during the colder months. After securing the footwear, she slid open the door, and left the house, setting out for a good long walk.

o0o

Naruto lounged in the hollow of a tree, snuggling into the embrace of the new clothes he had bought as his Christmas present. He'd had to use Henge to avoid getting overcharged, of course, but the fact that the new clothes actually retained heat was more than worth the small stoking of his anger.

Chewing on the dango he had bought for lunch, he slowly unrolled another section of the scroll he had snitched from Baa-chan's office. This particular one detailed the finer points of raw chakra manipulation, and while he was far from ready to use most of the skills described the theory was both interesting and useful.

He could already think of dozens of new ways to prank people.

If I'd known even half of this stuff Raesengan would have been so much easier.

The thought caused him to frown, was Jiraiya purposely trying to keep him from progressing? He dismissed the thought, he had more than enough experience telling when people were being cruel, and Jiraiya wasn't.

Absentminded and irritatingly perverted, yes; mean and prejudiced, definitely not.

Probably slipped his mind, what with all the hookers in that city.

He chuckled at the likely statement before going back to the scroll.

Several minutes later, he looked up when the sound of sobbing reached his ears.

Poking his head out of his nest halfway up the tree, he looked down to see a sheet of blond hair at the base of the trunk.

Ino?

Rolling the scroll up and tucking it into one of the four nin-pouches he had bought, Naruto swung out of the hole and walked quietly to the base of the tree, pausing a few feet above the distraught girls head and leaping off to land softly in front of the blond.

When he turned around, Ino was staring at him with red rimmed eyes, sliding a kunai back into the holster on her thigh. Naruto grinned, scratching the back of his head.

"Gomen, I didn't mean to startle you, Yamanaka-san."

The girl looked away and mumbled something incoherent before laughing softly.

Naruto frowned, she was embarrassed? Why, it wasn't like he had made fun of her or anything.

"Anou, Yamanaka-san, what's wrong?"

The girls head snapped around and stared at him.

Somehow, he had a feeling of impending doom.

o0o

Ino looked at the blond fox, hard. He had changed since the day before, his "kill me orange" clothing gone, replaced by deep orange pants and a black coat in the same style as the one he had given her, the later worn open over lose, blood red shirt.

It was the eyes that stopped her from pulling out a kunai and castrating the boy where he stood. There was no laughter, no pity, no greed.

Nothing but a warm, sincere gaze.

What the hell...

"I can't understand my parent's gifts. Their trying to tell me something, but I can't..."

She trailed off, turning to stare at the ground.

With a thunk, Naruto dropped to the ground and sat next to her, looking up at the trees in an easy silence.

"My mother gave me this." Ino said after a few minutes, holding the ninja-to out handle first.

Naruto took the blade carefully, tilting it this way and that before handing it back.

"It's magnificent."

Ino stared at the dull sword in her lap.

"She was so scared. It was like she thought Iwas going to die."

"Smart woman."

Ino rounded on the blond boy, expecting to see a condescending grin. Instead, his eyes were closed, face vaguely troubled.

"Yamanaka-san, what clearance does your father have?"

"S-rank, why?"

Naruto did smile then, but it was flat, dead.

"He probably told your mother what's going on with the village, that's why she's scared."

"Why though, I know that with the casualties from the Oto/Suna invasion the genin will be taking more c-rank missions, but that wouldn't scare her that much and..."

"War." Naruto broke in, "She's scared of War."

"War with Oto? But with the support of Suna we should be fi..."

"We might be fine, if we hadn't killed most of Suna's high end Shinobi during the invasion. Unfortunately, Suna is in just as bad shape as we are right now, which means the alliance everyone is talking about is really more of a trumped up nonaggression pact."

"But surely Oto can't be that big a threat on its own? After all, didn't Kabuto-san say they were a small, new village that was fairly weak?"

Ino was shocked as Naruto let out a bitter laugh, before opening his eyes, staring hard at Ino's own.

"That bastard's opinion would hold more weight if he wasn't a traitorous little snake."

"What..."

"He was an Oto spy. That's why his opinion is irrelevant."

Ino was silent. When Naruto had spoken about Kabuto he sounded almost...murderous. She glanced towards his hands, seeing the white knuckles trembling.

"It gets worse."

Ino looked up sharply. How could it be worse?

When Naruto was done, she would curse herself for asking.

"What do you know about Orochimaru?"

"Orochimaru was one of the Sannin, the first and only team of genin taught by the Sandaime. Years later, he fled the village after he was implicated in human experiments, and hasn't been heard from since. What does a old traitor have to do with any of this?"

Naruto turned his attention from the sky to her face, and immediately had to fight down a snort of laughter. The look of confusion was priceless.

Pity the conversation killed any attempt at levity.

"Orochimaru is the leader of Otogakure."

Ninja were trained from the moment they stepped through the academy gates to put pieces together and make connections. Naruto had known that Ino was bright, but he was still surprised at just how fast the color drained from the blonds face.

"He promised to teach Sasuke, didn't he, and now he has a Sharingan he can breed. Kuso!"

Naruto let out a grim laugh.

"It's worse than that, actually. He's developed a Jutsu that transfers his own mind and soul into another's body, destroying what was there before."

Naruto looked at Ino, waiting for her to make the connection.

She gasped.

"Then he can use the Sharingan himself, and breed a line of new Uchiha to possess whenever his current host dies."

Naruto nodded once.

"Like I said, your mother's a smart woman."His face hardened. "Too many people have already died, and it won't stop anytime soon."

The conversation lapsed at that point, receding into a pensive silence. At last, Naruto broke it.

"What about your father?"

Ino jumped.

"What about him?"

"You said your parents' gifts confused you. Your mother gave you a sword, what about your father?"

Naruto snickered as Ino turned a remarkable shade of pink.

"clothes" Ino mumbled, looking at her knees.

"What?"

"Clothes. Tou-san gave me a new set of clothes."

Naruto cocked his head at her, mildly confused.

"What's wrong with that? I thought girls Liked getting clothes."

He winced at the glare sent his way.

"Girls like getting nice clothes, a new kimono of a nice hat. He gave me long pants and a long sleeve shirt with a high collar, what if he thinks I dress like a whore?!"

Ino was panting by the end of the rant, and it wasn't until she caught her breath that she noticed that her unlikely companion was laughing.

More accurately, he was clutching his sides, rolling in the snow and roaring with mirth.

All of which explained perfectly why she grabbed his shoulder, pulled him around to face her and decked him.

After he clamed down, she opened her mouth to scream at him, but he cut her off.

"From the description, I assume you're wearing his gift now?"

At her nod, he continued.

"You do realize that without al that skin exposed, it would be far harder for an enemy to spot you? His gift means exactly the same thing as your mothers; in fact, it's actually far more practical."

"What?"

She silently fumed at Naruto's condescending look.

"The cloths just have to be worn to be effective. Without training, that sword is more likely to kill you than anyone else."

She thought about that for a moment before Naruto flicked her forehead, hard.

"Ne Ino-chan! You need to eat more, you're to skinny."

Instantly enraged she took a swing at the other blond, only to have it vanish in a puff of smoke.

"You'll have to be faster than that, Ino-chan!" called Naruto from behind her.

"Stop calling me that you brat!" Ino growled before taking off after the grinning blond boy.

She didn't spare a thought for the fact that said boy had single handedly pulled her out of her morose mood and returned her to her normal self.

o0o

Back in the hollow of the tree, Naruto watched and smirked. She wasn't moping anymore.

Good, Mission accomplished.

Future Hokage, two for two.

Maybe he should get some Ramen to congratulate himself.