"How…" Ino wheezed, taking deep breaths. Sweat poured out of her every pore. "Is this…" She lifted her arms, tried to punch the dummy. "Even possible?"
I understood Ino very well. Training with seals was a different beast, but I still think she was overdoing it.
"Lower the weights a bit?" I wrote, showed Ino my board.
She wanted to get stronger, but it was her first time doing this. Abusing it like she was now might backfire.
Ino's scathing glare was my response. She still hadn't let it go, huh?
I wrote more words. "Ino-chan, It took me almost two years to reach the same amount in each seal." I tried again.
"And… how… old— " Ino shuddered, wheezed again. "Were you?"
I looked away. I was seven, maybe eight? I didn't remember the details that well. I looked back at Ino, still trying to hit the dummy. I wrote more words.
"Fill your arms and legs with chakra. It helps." Once the blonde had read, I erased the words and wrote others. "In the evening, soak in hot water. It'll hurt tomorrow, but don't give up, okay?"
If she wasn't backing down, the least I could do was help.
It was the third day since my return, which left me two days to what would be the most embarrassing dinner of all time and three days to what could be a deadly confrontation with the Hyuga.
I wasn't keen on entering the Hyuga compound. I had only agreed because Shisui promised to come with to mediate things. Whatever that meant.
But right now, I sat on the grass of training field three. Ino had her head on my lap, and I pretended I didn't see the tears in her eyes.
Silly girl. Abusing weight seals on her first day wasn't smart.
When I went to her house this morning and found her worse than a shambling zombie, I tried to convince her to stay in bed and rest for the day, but Ino refused. She put on a brave face while we were still in front of her parents, only to break down once we were alone.
Could I do something to help?
"Ino-chan, I'll try something that might help, okay?" I whispered. At this point, I didn't even know why I didn't speak all the time. The pain from speaking was nothing when compared to the bone seals. Habit, maybe?
Ino, the poor thing, groaned. I took that as a yes.
I wasn't a masseuse, but I was utterly familiar with my muscles and body, given the amount of meditation time I spent trying to learn all the details about the seals and after resting from my training sessions.
The tip of my index finger touched the shoulder I'd seen Ino try to relieve the pain more than once. I pushed my chakra inside the muscles, circled it, and stimulated it like I did to mine after a training session.
The breathy moan-sigh Ino let out told me it worked.
I stopped the chakra flow and removed my finger. Ino whined, like I had just taken her favorite candy away. I created many, many chakra threads. Who needed fingers, right? Why not go all in?
My ears were still burning hours later. It had been a success on all accounts. What I had forgotten was how massages can cause pleasure, even more so after intense training sessions. Ino's moans would haunt me until the end of my days.
But it had worked! Within fifteen minutes, Ino recovered enough to move. The improv massage session lasted for about an hour.
"…"
Now, we were discussing training strategies, and I was trying to convince Ino Kage Bushin was the training cheat.
"Shadow clones?" Ino asked.
I nodded, and my threads wrote the message. "You need to be careful because the jutsu splits your chakra between the clones, but it helps with training."
"How so?"
Well, this might be a secret, but maybe not? Kakashi-sensei already knew it, Naruto also knew it.
"The clones are independent copies," I wrote. "Once they disperse, you receive their memories and experiences. Even if you create just one clone, it's like double the training time."
Ino scowled. "So, is it just more training? I'll have to suffer double?"
I opened my mouth. Closed it. Ino wasn't wrong. I nodded.
Ino's scowl turned worse.
After Kage Bushin, I taught Ino Shunshin no Jutsu, and Doton: Moguragakure no Jutsu.
Ino, for her part, taught me a trapping technique for which she had no name. I recognized it for what it was: the one she used when fighting Sakura in the original show to trap her with hair. Ino's family used this technique to immobilize the enemy and hit them with mind transfer. She also taught me another one, which Azuma insisted her team learn, a defensive earth release that created a wall on demand: Doton: Renga no Jutsu.
Right now, Ino was showing me her family jutsu.
"Let me show you," Ino said. Her hands flashed with seals. She pointed towards me, and immediately, I felt the chakra trying to invade my head. My own rose in response, but this time, I held it back. This was a demonstration of her family's techniques; there was no need to interrupt Ino's jutsu.
There was this moment of weightlessness like I wasn't in my body anymore.
"Huh? It worked?" I heard my voice say. I felt the sting of pain in my throat, but it was distant, muted.
"Ow, ow, ow," I heard it again. "Why does it hurt so much?" My voice whined. The chakra inside my head vanished, and I regained control of my body.
Ino covered her mouth with one hand before she turned to the side and spilled her guts out. Her face crumpled on a mess of tears and snot.
What happened?
I got up, walked to Ino, knelt beside her. I rubbed slow circles on her back. Once we cleaned the mess, Ino hugged me like I was a lost puppy who needed help or something. I didn't mind being hugged, but I wasn't sure why she was hugging me.
It took her minutes to speak again.
"Why are you always in pain, Hinata-chan?" Her voice trembled.
I tilted my head. Thought about Ino's jutsu. Ah, right, damn. I hadn't considered that.
"Orochimaru left seals inside my body," I whispered.
Ino shuddered.
"One of them is trying to kill me, and I'm failing to contain it."
Ino gawked at me, her expression caught between disbelief and anger. Then she shot to her feet and yanked on my arm, trying to haul me up. "We're asking Dad to help."
I didn't budge. Ino kept pulling my arm, but she wasn't strong enough to move me if I didn't want to be moved. She yanked again, and again. When I didn't follow, she whirled on me.
"What?"
How could I tell Ino I didn't trust people in the village to poke around my insides? I was willing to trust Inoichi, but he wasn't a seal master or a medic-nin, to my knowledge. Could I really let some stranger tamper with the seals inside me? What if that person screwed up? What if they didn't have my best interest in mind?
"Remember I told you about Danzo?" I wrote out.
Ino read the message, nodded.
"How can I be sure whoever your dad finds won't be a spy?"
Ino's face turned dark, teeth clenched. "Can't we just talk to him, please? Maybe he knows something that might help, even if you don't let anyone check the seals."
Ino's pleading eyes stabbed my heart. Could I refuse it? I couldn't. I sighed, nodded.
Ino's face lit up, and she dragged me toward her house.
One thing followed another. Before I knew it, I was being led into Konoha's hospital, except instead of a regular room, we went underground. Ino and Inoichi never left my side, which went a long way in making me feel better. With the mind ninja here, the chances a spy would try to mess with me were all but nil, right?
Unless the mind ninja was the spy.
I shuddered, pushed away that thought. Couldn't live without trusting people.
The underground room stretched wide, looking like it took up the entire floor. Against the walls, I saw computers and other diagnostic tools, a trolley, desks, computer monitors, and several other tools that were a mix of medicine and fuinjutsu.
The door opened, and two people entered. One I recognized immediately—the new Hokage. The other was a young woman dressed in a black kimono with a fishnet shirt under it.
"Hello, Hinata-san," Shisui said when he approached. Now that I was closer, I got a better look at the woman: short dark hair, black eyes, and a sallow and tired face. "This is Shizune," he said, gesturing to the woman. "Tsunade's apprentice."
Oh… oh! Damn, Shizune was here? Fangirl-sama, who had been sleeping for the past days, stirred.
"I see you recognize the name," Inoichi said. There was this strange gleam in his eyes I couldn't place. I nodded.
The door swung open again, cutting the conversation short. Another figure stepped inside.
Tall and broad-shouldered. Spiky white hair pulled into a long ponytail. Red lines slashed down his face. A forehead protector stamped with the Kanji for 'Oil.' The big rolled scroll strapped to his back.
Jiraiya walked until he was in front of us.
I shook, just a bit. I had seen the Ero-sennin once when Naruto taught me the frog summoning jutsu, but at the time, I was too tired and didn't interact with him; but now? The man, the legend, was here on my behalf. How could I stay calm?
"You're…, you're…" My whisper was hoarser than usual.
Ino gave me a strange glance, then looked back at the newcomer.
Jiraiya heard me. He smiled. Took a pose.
"I'm the most holy hermit of Mount Myoboku: the Frog Sannin. Pleased to meet ya, young lady!"
Shisui looked at me; I caught the brief hints of a smile. "I invited Lord Jiraiya. He might know more about Orochimaru's seals."
My mind focused like never before, inspiration struck. I knew what I had to do. Something that was missing, and only now I realized. A fundamental part of me that couldn't be denied. Something I couldn't not do it, if I was ever to be myself again.
With trembling hands, I rummaged through my stuff, happy I had already started resupplying my essential supplies. Out popped my comms board, and my threads wrote my message. That got me a few raised eyebrows from everyone around, aside from Ino.
I took samples of my good impression kit v:2.2. Out popped the cupcakes and tea. I turned the board around so that people could read my message.
My words spelled: "Please, take care of me, Ero-sennin!"