Decaying Bluebells

Arc XVI - Obito

At least not... Not the way she wanted to.

Ino glanced at Kakashi who stood at the memorial stone with Ino. Nao was still in the hospital, refusing to leave Sasuke's bedside. Ino didn't understand why her sister felt so guilty, but she wouldn't pry.

"You have... a very intuitive little sister," Kakashi remarked.

"I know," Ino said.

"Do you know, by chance, if Jiraiya-sama talked to her earlier today? Before he left with Naruto?"

Ino felt her spine stiffen minutely. Ino may not have been a combat genius, but she was a natural when it came to reading people. Chichi had always told her that she would surpass him in that regard before she even reached seventeen. It was another of the things Ino was proud of. Her spine had stiffened when Kakashi had asked Ino that question.

The question itself would seem harmless enough, but there was something in the underlining of his tone, in the subtle stiffness in his posture. He was calculating. He was reading Ino's movements and trying his best to read her.

Something was off.

Something had happened.

"Why do you ask?" Ino asked slowly, keeping her tone light.

"It was just something Nao said... It got me thinking, that's all," Kakashi replied, his tone just as light.

Ino knew her sister was a bright girl. Intuitive, actually. There were times where her sister knew things that she shouldn't have known about because no one told her. They were usually small things, favorite foods, birthdays, names... Chichi and Haha never picked up on it because they didn't spend as much time with Nao like Ino had when Nao was little. Oh sure, Haha would visit her nearly every day, but those were just little visits. Chichi would visit every day, but he only came to help Nao heal and acted as a sort of therapist. Neither really spent time with Nao, like Ino had.

When Chichi explained Nao's mutation, Ino immediately associated Nao's second ability. Her 'intuitiveness', if you will.

It was a very dangerous ability if ever found out. Even if Konoha was Ino's home, she wasn't so blind. If Nao's ability was found out, it would be ruthlessly exploited and her sister's life would be turned into a living hell.

Ino did not like that thought. She did not like that thought at all.

So Ino had to think every quickly. It was something that happened today. Something to do with Sasuke's coma and Nao's mutterings. Ino had visited Nao at the hospital, intent on giving her sister some lunch and offering her a shoulder. Nao had hugged tightly onto Ino, muttering under her breath of how she should have thought of Sasuke instead of Naruto first. Of how Naruto at least had Jiraiya, but Sasuke had no one. When Ino did inquire (not pry or push, just inquire), Nao had said, Because of me, because of my words and my actions, I might have ensured Naruto-kun's safety from... from the men in black cloaks, but I sentenced Sasuke-kun to this instead. I think... I think...

Ino didn't know who the men in black cloaks were, but she could guess what had happened. And now, with Kakashi inquiring things, she had a very good guess at what had happened. Nao's intuitiveness took control of her. The men in black must have been pursuing Naruto and Nao knew about it before she should have been able to. It must have been something only Jiraiya and Kakashi knew about... but yet she found out... She must have allowed, either intentionally or not, Kakashi to know that she knew in the process of 'ensuring Naruto's safety'. And now... And now Kakashi was asking questions.

Ino did not want her sister's life to be a living hell.

Ino could not protect her sister in the normal sense.