True Bonds

Battle of the Mind

Awoken by Naruto shaking her body, Ino's eyes snapped open. 'What is it, Naruto?'

'It's Sasuke!' Naruto warned his teammate, already dressed and almost all packed up. 'He's gone! The scrolls too!'

'Well, what are you waiting for? Let's go!' Ino said, scrambling out of her sleeping bag. As quickly as possible, she sealed what was left of their camp in a sealing scroll, darting off to attempt to find her missing teammate. 'Kanji no Jutsu (Sensory Jutsu)!'

'So? Did you find him?' Naruto asked, anxious about whatever had happened to his teammate. 'The teme should be able to handle himself...'

'Found him!' Ino exclaimed, sprinting at full speed towards her right. 'And he's... with another three unknown chakra signatures?'

'WHAT? IS HE CONSPIRING WITH ANOTHER TEAM?' Naruto shouted, before Ino silenced him with a quick gesture.

'Shh!' Ino whispered, the two approaching Sasuke's location. 'We don't want to alert the other team that we're here!'

Quickly moving to hide behind some rocks, the two genin of Team 7 shared a glance, before setting their eyes on Sasuke. Ino and Naruto communicated with their hands, Naruto nodding at what Ino was about to do. Swiftly, Naruto's hands spun into the familiar hand seal for the Kage Bunshin (Shadow Clone), spawning multiple copies of himself around Ino.

'Saya! There are enemy shinobi here!' A purple haired girl next to Sasuke and her two teammates announced, pulling out a kunai knife from her pocket.

'Get the scrolls and keep them safe, Sana!' Saya barked, her ponytails swinging in the wind. 'Mamushi, our new puppet here, and I will take them out!'

'Understood!' Sana replied, pocketing the three scrolls that her team possessed.

'Kugutsu Modoki no Jutsu (Puppet Imitation Jutsu)!' Saya exclaimed, quickly taking control of Sasuke's body. Giggling in excitement, she quickly manipulated her human puppet to unsheath his twin swords, ready to fight. 

'Come on... I just have to hold out for a few minutes before Ino recovers and brings back Sasuke!' Naruto thought, spinning into the hand seals for the Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Jutsu). 'Come on, Gamakichi!'

A few metres away, a ninken looked at the battlefield, observing the fight from afar. Discreetly, the dog named Inumizu sent a silent pulse of chakra into the ground, watching the fight between the two genin teams unfold.

🌊

Ino ventured through the vast mansion that was Sasuke's mindscape, navigating the long and empty hallways to attempt to find where Saya was controlling Sasuke from. The dim lights and dust littering the area reflected Sasuke's loneliness, having his entire clan brutally massacred by his brother Itachi. 'Is it here?'

Staring into another empty room, Ino continued walking along the dark hall. The sound of light laughter filled the corridor, echoing across the entire area. Honing in on her target, Ino utilised her senses to attempt to find the room where the sound originated from. The Yamanaka heir turned her head towards a room with an open door, the Uchiha clan crest proudly emblazoned on the front.

The door creaking open, Saya turned her head to glance at the entrance, attempting to find the intruder. The astral form of the Sunagakure kunoichi pulled out a kunai, ready to fight for control over the Uchiha's body.

'So, your technique allows you to take control of your target, huh?' Ino taunted, challenging Saya's control over Sasuke. 'Sounds like a cheap imitation of the Yamanaka clan ninjutsu.'

Saya stood in place, staying on the defensive. Avoiding going on the offensive, the puppeteer stood still, prepared to engage Ino using her ranged jutsu. 'Magen: Jubaku Satsu (Tree Bind Death)!'

Seeing Ino's frozen body, Saya rushed at her, attempting to eject her from Sasuke's mind and cement her control over the Last Uchiha. The kunoichi held her kunai, about to slash it across Ino's astral form's throat.

Just as Saya's kunai was about to cut through Ino's windpipe and send her flying back to the real world, Ino kicked Saya's chest with as much strength as she could muster in that single moment.

'How? That genjutsu should have frozen you!' Saya exclaimed, staggering backwards in pain.

'You're in an Uchiha's mind. Genjutsu of this caliber is useless against them.' Ino explained, ready to return an offensive. The Konoha shinobi began a flurry of punches and kicks at her opponent, not wanting to risk overusing the supply of chakra keeping her in Sasuke's mind. Engaging in a battle of taijutsu and kunai bukijutsu, the two kunoichi exchanged blows, evenly matched.

'You stand no chance!' Saya roared, pushing Ino back out into the hallway. Moving from one area to the next, the two ninja took turns forcing the other into another area, neither side able to gain a consistent advantage.

'Gah!' Ino yelped, Saya's kunai grazing her cheek. A small amount of blood trickled out, the Konoha-nin hoping that the injury wasn't serious.

Ino returning the favour by slicing a kunai across Saya's forearm, Saya clutched her wound in agony. The Sunagakure kunoichi's opponent forced an opening, pushing Saya back into another room.

The Yamanaka swiftly resumed a barrage of kunai and taijutsu strikes, Saya unable to block and respond in time due to her forearm wound. Having the upper hand, Ino relentlessly assaulted her enemy, closer and closer to ejecting Saya from Sasuke's mind.

Unable to bear the pain anymore, Saya quickly kicked Ino away from her with all her might, ending the Konoha kunoichi's chain of attacks. 'Finally!'

Deciding that the battle had been going on for too long, Ino lunged at her opponent, her kunai making its way across Saya's throat, discharging the puppeteer from Sasuke's mind. Ino prepared to weave the release seal, Sasuke's mind-controlled body echoing her actions. Suddenly, Ino's head swivelled around to see a vivid image of an ANBU officer seated atop a pole. 'Where is this place? When did I get in here?'

Intrigued, Ino resumed watching, focused on the replay that was playing in front of her. The mind-reader's eyes darted around, gasping in horror at the slew of corpses strung across the bloody road of the area.

'Itachi! Why did you do this!' A young Sasuke ran towards the ANBU officer, tears welling up in his eyes.

'I did it... to test my power.' The ANBU replied, his cold eyes glowing red. Itachi's Sharingan pupil morphed into a strange shape, staring straight at the young Sasuke. 'One day, when you have the same eyes as me, come confront me!'

With that, the eyes of Sasuke flashed red, one tomoe of his Sharingan visible. However, before he was able to do anything, Itachi's eyes began spinning, sending Sasuke spiralling into a different world. For three days in the strange world, Sasuke witnessed his parents being slaughtered by his older brother over and over again, red liquid spilling out of their chests.

Ino watched, her eyes beginning to water. She had never experienced anything close to what Sasuke had. In fact, the only member of their class to ever come close to what Sasuke had gone through was Naruto. Shamefully, Ino wailed loudly in her teammate's mindscape, finally understanding why Sasuke was the way he was. 'Why did I ever pretend to understand him when I didn't?'

The clip resuming, the female member of Team 7 continued viewing the memory, looking as Sasuke pursued Itachi.

Unable to keep up, Sasuke fell to the ground, his body failing him. The young Uchiha angrily locked his eyes onto his older brother, who strapped his hitai-ate back onto his forehead and used his tanto to scratch the mark of a missing-nin on it. Itachi's triple-tomoe Sharingan turned to look at Sasuke one last time, before the Uchiha prodigy disappeared in a poof.

'ITACHIIII! NOOOOOO!' Sasuke shouted, clutching his forehead in agitation. 'Mother, Father... I will avenge you!'

Incapable of continuing to view Sasuke's memories, Ino weaved the release seal, expelling herself from Sasuke's mindscape and back into her own body. Ino's eyelids widened, tired from chakra exhaustion as well as viewing Sasuke's memories. Before Ino could get back up to rejoin the fight, she collapsed.