XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Ino's POV (Entry to Courtyard of Iron Arena - Land of Iron)
Ino had not enjoyed hiding from her friends. It was lovely to reconnect with Sakura. She had grown to miss the days they had spent gossiping and hanging out in the past. But she felt bad for not showing herself to Naruto. She had wanted nothing more than to talk things through. But she had been worried about distracting Naruto. He was the type to drop everything to help a friend and certainly didn't need the distraction. But if she was sincere, she held back because talking things through would've been too easy. Naruto would forgive her instantly; he likely didn't even realize he should be angry with her.
But I didn't want things to work out smoothly; she felt she had to earn Naruto's forgiveness. Maybe, truthfully, it was for herself; perhaps she just wanted to prove to herself that the mistake didn't define her. Ino had gone through much during her difficult training with Anko. She had become confident in her abilities and knew she could be more than she had been before.
Kakashi had suggested she pick up a support role early on in forming Team Seven. He had explained that both Naruto and Neji were natural frontline combatants and that it would be helpful if she could further her support skills to ensure their team was adaptive. At first, Ino had been OK with this; she did not love training, and truthfully, before, she had never seen a reality where she could stand beside her powerful teammates. But over time, she had hated being behind them. Being helpless, if she hadn't gotten lucky, she wouldn't even be here…
No more. Ino had become a true kunoichi. Anko had told her a kunoichi was a merciless, intelligent woman willing to do whatever was necessary to fulfill her goals. Ino wasn't sure about that definition. But she was sure a kunoichi must be as equally graceful as she was powerful. She needed to stand firm to her ideals. She stands proud whenever it's needed. Ino would become a true kunoichi.
It was her time…
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Samui's POV (Courtyard of Iron Arena - Land of Iron)
Samui marched calmly forward. It took a shocking effort to maintain her calm and controlled demeanor. It wasn't the crowd staring, nor would she soon engage in potentially lethal combat. Instead, the thing that shook her infamous calm was her own anger. She was no stranger to emotion; she often found her team to be a bit much. Too goofy, too emotional, too much. But she had grown to love them despite their oddities. Their bombastic personalities were cool in their own way. And they were loyal; loyalty was probably one of the coolest traits Samui knew of.
Samui didn't have many friends, not due to a lack of social skills or others being interested. She simply did not care most of the time to make them. Samui had learned early on one must be picky about who they choose as friends. People tended to be uncool and untrustworthy. She had learned years ago, such as when Atsui and her parents had been exposed as spies. The price for such betrayal was steep, and her parents had acted rashly, knowing their time was coming. They had led a violent escape attempt, killing anyone in their way, before A himself had stopped them. A had appeared before Samui and Atsui shortly after. Covered in the blood of their parents and here to potentially kill them both, Atsui had become utterly enraged and attempted to kill A himself.
Samui's world had fallen around her, but desperation had made her decisive. She couldn't afford to lose her cool and fight pointlessly. She had engaged in no treachery herself and couldn't stand to watch her brother die. How could she save him and herself?
Before A could finish off the beaten Atsui, Samui had lunged in front of her brother. She pleaded for his life and offered her utter loyalty of a shinobi for such. Samui had been calm, confident, and determined. She remembered how A had suddenly calmed and laughed at her. He had agreed to her terms that her brother had been detained and would be kept alive and well as long as she served.
She had been thrust into the world of shinobi suddenly and with little mercy. Samui learned quickly to focus, stay calm, and keep cool. It had been a constant balancing act when she had become efficient. Honestly, she rarely realized she was even doing anymore.
Naruto shattered that control of her. Samui felt more lively and responsive around the blonde for reasons she couldn't pin down. He had quickly become an odd but cool friend. He almost reminded her of Atsui, fiery and determined as he was. There were undoubtedly several differences between the two; primarily, Naruto seemed to be the type to never betray allies, while Atsui had shown such to be untrue.
Maybe that's why she felt a passion she hadn't felt in quite a while as she waited for her opponent. Samui had always intended to defeat Ino; she was confident it would be relatively easy. But now she felt focused on defeating her. Motivated even, if you could say so. Samui hoped Ino was more impressive than she had seen. Otherwise, she might have to enjoy beating Naruto's teammate.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Tayuya's POV (Secret Prison of Hidden Leaf Village - Land of Fire)
Tayuya panted, exhausted, as she collapsed to her knees. One may be confused looking at her; she looked fresh despite some dirt and minor bruising, yet she looked utterly defeated. "Kami, that- the bastard was tougher than I thought." She complained to her allies.
"Indeed…" Dosu said, voice filled with pain. The man was prone on the ground, seemingly unable to move much. "He managed to kill Zaku…" Dosu said with a groan. His tone was complex, sounding bothered but somewhat accepting of such. Zaku lay shortly in front of the two others, curled into a ball with a bleeding chest and mouth. Kabuto had managed to sever his lungs from within, and the death had been anything but short.
"I couldn't keep you all alive… to be honest, I thought the four of us would be overkill." Guren apologized as she rose from the defeated Kabuto. "He was quite the foe indeed. But it was necessary to take him out."
"You're right about that; Orochimaru uses him to get traitors. Damn shitty bastard has ties seemingly everywhere. But why was it necessary to take him out?" Tayuya asked, confused. "Won't this alert Orochimaru to the fact we've defected?"
"That would be unwise." Dosu chimed in. "I have just escaped a narrow brushing of death from your cousin. I would prefer it if I didn't have a Sanin also pursuing me."
"Ye, of little faith," Guren said with a smirk. "We cannot hope to escape the Snake by running or hiding. We need to strike back and ensure he falls."
"Ya hate to break it to ya, but we wouldn't have even been able to deal with Four Eyes if he hadn't decided to kill all the guards and necessary patrols." Tayuya replied evenly.
"Indeed." Dosu added. "He is nearly at the level of a Kage. I imagine even most Jounin would be helpless against him. Orochimaru is much more than that. It would take nearly all of his follower even to threaten him, which would still lead to their demise."
"You two still treat him as something special." Guren said with a smile. "I'll admit to not being much different; Orochimaru is one of a kind, after all. Normally, we couldn't even truly hope to hurt him. But with Kabuto missing and with a few other factors, I think we can hurt him badly, badly enough for us to escape easily."
"That sounds nice, but you haven't offered any fucking details." Tayuya complained as she rose. She helped Dosu stand weakly.
"It's my job as a leader to worry about the fine details," Guren said with a smirk. "Your job to do what I say. Speaking of which, we should leave unless the two of you feel up to fighting off a massive wave of angry Leaf Shinobi?" The two sighed heavily but nodded as the group's bodies quickly flickered out.
As Leaf Anbu and Jounin arrived, they saw an odd sight in the cell. The room had been utterly wrecked, clearly the sight of an impressive battle. In the center of the room was a massive hole in the floor. Some more curious shinobi examined it and released the hole that went absurdly deep and seemed to be actively filled with crystal.
Ibiki arrived with the reinforcements and observed the scene as the men swept the area for the traitor Kabuto Yakushi and the prisoner Tayuya Uzumaki. He saw the odd hole as crystal filled it, sealing off whatever had happened. Ibiki growled, confused and annoyed. "What the fuck happened here!" Ibiki then eyed the dead young man on the floor. "Who the fuck is this?!"
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Ino nearly glared at Samui. She couldn't truly help it; while struggling with Naruto, this woman flourished with him. Anko had warned her Samui had seemed like quite the shinobi. Samui hadn't spurned Naruto in the heat of the moment. Ino knew precisely what she was doing. Humans often grew envious and spiteful when stressed. They would pick someone convenient to put the blame on. Even more so when they were motivated against that person. But as Ino met the blue eyes of Samui, she noticed the raging fire behind those eyes challenging her, presenting a sort of frustration with her. Yet she seemed calm enough and focused, unaffected by the crowd.
Ino was far from as composed. She felt the eyes of the crowd, and while she usually loved attention, it felt utterly overwhelming here. She felt nervous about failing her goal. Could she truly shine on stage when even the genius Neji had failed?
Ino remembered her training before. They had spent the day working on dodging and hand signs. Usually, they would go their separate ways after training. Ino had asked her to go out with her so she could pick her brain. Anko had agreed for sake and dango.
"Anko Sensei, why do you keep training?" Ino asked quietly, sipping at her bottle of sake. No one dared bother the two with Anko present. This was Anko Sensei's favorite haunt.
"Huh?" Anko asked, pausing to consume her dango with gusto. "Why would I stop? I have a point to prove."
"A point?" Ino asked, confused.
"Yep, princess, a point. I wanted to prove to everyone I wasn't nothing like my sensei. Figured becoming a big-shot shinobi would ensure it. Still working on that, though." Anko explained before draining her glass with a happy sigh.
"Isn't that a petty reason to be a shin-" Ino didn't get to finish on account of Anko slamming a fist into the top of her head.
"Damn straight! Whatever reason you need to fight is more than enough. You'll never get what you want pussy footing around!" Anko mocked while she laughed.
Ino's eyes narrowed as she finally stood directly opposed to Samui. She could see Kakashi nearby, seeming a little tense. But it mattered little to Ino.
She marched forward, stopping in front of Kakashi and turning to face the crowd. She felt judged again but gritted her teeth as she prepared to begin. Then, she suddenly stopped as Samui stepped in front of her with a glare. Ino frowned at it.
"I need to ask you why you are avoiding your teammate after what you did." Samui asked, her voice calm but with audible fury.
Ino mind was stunned, realizing she knew. "I made a mistake. I didn't mean what I said; there was just a lot going on, and… well, I intend to make it right."
"Which you're doing poorly at." Samui countered. "Nothing like avoiding the friend you insulted unfairly."
"I know! That's not who I am; I just made the wrong choice!" Ino growled.
"You did, and I think that's incredibly uncool." Samui said with narrowed eyes. "You better bring your A game, or else I'll crush you."
Ino shoved past the woman as she once again faced the crowd.
"My name is Ino Yamnaka! I am a member of Team Seven and proud of it! I dedicate this fight to my teammate and one of the best guys I've known, and if you don't like him, then screw you too. All of you. His name is Naruto Uzumaki!" Ino screamed boldly to the crowd. "I'M PROUD TO BE YOUR FRIEND!"
Samui's eyes widened as Kakashi smiled at Ino.
Samui recovered and smiled as she fell into a stance. Shifting her balance low and lazily resting a hand on her back, she sheathed her tanto. "That was kinda cool. Still gonna have to beat you here."
"I won't give up!" Ino replied with a grim frown.