I wave my arm once more and the black void is replaced with Orochimaru's Lab.
"Oh God no." Ino falls down to her knees as the sight of the Lab. "Please say he's not going to experiment on you?"
"He does, he most certainly does." I darkly assure her while making no move to help her up or comfort her. "Just not in the way you think. This memory is the day I truly earned Orochimaru's trust. Now get up. You want to go to Otogakure? I'm giving you a taste of what you're seeking."
Ino forces herself to stand with every scrap of strength and willpower she can muster. "W-who is that?"
She's asking about the body strapped onto the operating table, the one Orochimaru and I are looking down on.
"That is the first innocent I have ever killed." I reply evenly to her question even though I feel sick in my stomach as I force myself to relive this memory. "And the kicker is he's a Konoha shinobi."
"Alvarcus please say your lying." Ino begs me.
"No. This truly happened." I point at the soon to be killed child. "These are the kinds of actions I have done. These are the dark deeds that I did in the name of Orochimaru. This is the kind of life you are asking for. You will watch this."
"No. I don't want to." Ino begs me, completely forgetting that she can leave my mind whenever she wants to. "I don't want to watch this! I don't want to see you do these things!"
"I don't care if you don't want to." I snarl out at her as my hand clamps down on her shoulder, forcing her to face the scene. "Ino you have no idea what you were asking for when you said that you wanted to go to Oto with me. You can't fathom how depraved Orochimaru can be. It doesn't matter if you don't want to watch. You need to. So you're going to."
"That was better than I expected!" Orochimaru praises me as he looks as the shredded insides of the dead genin. "This is a success. You're exceeding all of my expectations today!"
"No more." Ino fumbles as she tries to loosen the grip I have on her shoulder with shaky hands. "I don't want to see anymore."
"No. We're not done until I feel that you fully understand what you're asking for." I wave my arm once more, changing the scene back to the black void again. "Ino you once called me a hero. Once I'm done you'll never call me that again. What do you want to see next, me being tortured or me torturing someone?"
"Alvarcus please stop!" Ino begs me with tears flowing down her face. "I don't want to see you do those terrible things!"
"Both it is." I wave my arm once more. "Remember Ino, this is the life you were asking for. You asked for this."
I crack my eyes open to see the ceiling of my Palace room. I've collapsed on the floor when Ino invaded my mind. I push myself up on my feet and look at Ino who is doing the same.
"So now you understand." I say to her with an even tone. "You know what horrors lie in wait over at Oto. You comprehend the depravity of Orochimaru."
"Y-yes. I do." She shakily tells me while looking at me with a terrifying mix of fear, pity, longing and disgust. "I-I am so sor-."
"Don't you dare say you're sorry." I snarl out. "I am sick and tired of everyone always hollowly apologizing to me. You may have seen my memories but you didn't experience it like I did. The only words I want to hear come out of your mouth are: I am never going to Otogakure."
"I never knew you did those things." Ino doesn't say what I want to hear. "Such terrible things."
"Yeah I know I'm a fucking piece of shit. There is a reason I called myself a monster. Now I want to hear you say it." I demand once more.
"I am never going to Otogakure." She promises me. "But I am still going to hold you to your promise. Once it is all over come back to Konoha. You've suffered enough. You've done enough. You don't deserve to go through more."
"Even after all of that you don't hate me?" I question her. I did not pull any punches, she saw the worst of the worst. I showed her crimes against humanity as a whole, things so fucked up that no one sane would wish it on their worst enemy.
"I don't think I can hate you." She confesses. "I can definitely be pissed off beyond all belief with you but hate? I don't think I can. That being said I will never be able to look at you the same way again. I can't help but have those memories flash through my mind. They're so… so…"
"Fucked up beyond anything else you've ever seen?" I supply.
"Yeah." She slings her backpack over her shoulder and grabs the massive scroll up again.
Glad that's all done with. Hell I bet she doesn't have any romantic interest in me anymore, two birds with one incredibly fucked up stone.
~You're certainly not wrong, that was very harsh. I didn't even have to do anything, it was all you. Although I admit it would have been… amusing to show her one of your fantasies that involves her. Mix in a little pleasure with all that pain.~
Oh hell no! That would have been very counterproductive!
"Oh and Alvarcus?" Ino pauses halfway out of my door.
"Yeah?" I look at her.
"You're way better at kissing than Sasuke." She steps out and closes the door.
"Right." I awkwardly say out to the empty room. "I did not need to know that. I swear that this is going to come back to bite me in my ass. I swear it."
~Ass biting? You have the strangest sexual fetishes.~
"That's not what I meant and you know it!"
With Naruto and Shikamaru
"Naruto let me leave." Shikamaru demands. "How could you leave the two of them alone after that?"
"Because they needed to talk things out." Naruto says as he blocks yet another attempt from Shikamaru to escape. "Plus after that's all done Alvarcus is coming here to apologize to you about the knocking you out thing."
"Hey." I poke my head into the room to see Naruto strong arming Shikamaru. Literally, he's holding him back with an arm. "Sorry about you being so inept at being a shinobi that you didn't see the huge white spider on the ceiling and he managed to poison you. Buh bye!"
I quickly pull my head out of the room and slam the door shut.
"Hold up is that all I get?" Shikamaru asks in confusion. "That was more of an insult than an apology!"
"It's Alvarcus. Are you really that surprised?" Naruto asks.
"As sad as it is, no. I'm not even remotely surprised."
"Right." I start stuffing scroll after scroll into various coat pockets. "I'm getting the fuck outta here before anything else can go -"
"So loverboy." Anko says as she's leaning on my doorframe. She's even inspecting her nails to add a dramatic flare. "How'd it go?"
"It was fantastic." I dryly retort to Anko as I continue stuffing things into my coat. "So good that I have to run away because I don't think I can control myself around her anymore."
"Really?" Anko asks hopefully. "Damn I knew you'd be good but Ino is too? She's been holding out on me, the little minx!"
"No you moron." I scoff out with a roll of my eyes that goes unseen. Stupid sunglasses. "We barely even kissed and I put a halt to that as soon as possible."
"WHAT?" Anko roars. "Why the hell would you do that?!"
"Here." I pick up a scroll. "That will explain everything."
I throw it at her.
"Aw did you write her a love letter?" Anko snags the scroll out of the air. "It's a bit sappy but -"
POOF
The scroll explodes into a thick black cloud of dust. The cloud quickly expands to encompass the whole room, casting it into pitch blackness.
"Bitch you better not be running away from me!" Anko shouts through the thick smoke.
There's no reply. I already jumped out the window and am two roofs away.
"Dammit!" Anko stomps her foot as she leaves through the door, it's the only exit she can reliably find in the dark. "I never got them to boink!"
~You sure that was a good idea?~
"Oh shut up I said bye to everyone." I sassily reply to Sureddo as I'm sprinting over snow. I'm already outside of the city the Palace is in, it only took around two minutes to escape to the wilderness of the Land of Snow. "Well not really Shikamaru but I think he'll be okay with that. We were never that close to begin with. And about Ino, it's for the best that I make a rift between us. I wasn't kidding when I said she deserves better and that I don't have time for a relationship. Not to mention that I totally ruined whatever could have formed with that memory stunt."
~No not that. Anko can be scary and you just pissed her off. The next time you two meet it isn't going to be pretty.~
"You don't need to tell me that." I heave out a sigh as I'm sprinting towards a specific location. "She is one of the select few that Orochimaru has trained. She's got to know some very… intense jutsus."
~I have no doubt about that. So is there a reason you're heading west? The port is to the south.~
"I'm finally going to go see what this little doodad does." I pull out the Hexagonal Crystal and hold it up so it can twinkle in the light. "Really hoping for a super weapon."
~What are the chances it's something lame like a rainbow machine?~
"If it's a fucking rainbow machine then I'm blowing it up."
"Kakashi!" Anko bursts into his room without bothering to knock. "Your student up and ran out on us!"
"Huh." Kakashi barely spares her a glance from his book. He's revisiting the green one. "I'm surprised he managed to stay this long. He stayed a few extra days past what I expected, I thought that the instant Koyuki was safe he'd leave."
"You're not freaking out?" Anko asks in confusion as the masked jonin pays more attention to his book than the news she just shared. "We can get everyone together and chase him down. With your tracking skills it'll be a joke."
"No thanks." Kakashi turns a page in the book his favorite student gave him. "I'm at a good part."
"What the hell do you mean he left?" Shikamaru almost yells at Anko. He's pissed but not insane, he knows better than to actually yell at her.
He's seen what she's done with Ino, he doesn't want to become her next plaything.
"He left. Simple as that." Anko casually says as she's eating a snack. "Total dick move too, he threw a scroll at me that must have had a smoke bomb sealed into it. I hate those things."
"He tricked you?" Shikamaru sounds mildly impressed. It's not easy to fool a jonin, special or otherwise.
"I may have been a smidgen distracted. I was basking in my own potential success." Anko shrugs. "They kissed, and while it's not exactly what I wanted it's a start. I'm not giving up yet, they'll meet again. I can feel it."
"You do know that he rejected her right?" Shikamaru asks in confusion. "Pretty sure that ended whatever could have been. Ino has a vengeful streak in her, I know that first hand."
"Please, he's just playing hard to get." Anko waves off Shikamaru's words. "Extremely hard to get with the whole different villages thing. Stupid boy thinks that's going to stop me, like he knows me! Something as little as that will only make it more fun!"
"Yeah… I'm not touching that." Shikamaru turns and leaves the slightly insane kunoichi alone. "Why do I always get stuck with the crazy ones?"
"He's gone?" Naruto looks up from a very tiny toad that he was playing with. He was bored and took Alvarcus' advice: summon a toad to hang out with. Unfortunately this blue and green toad is too young to talk so they've resorted to playing a few games of tic tac toe.
Naruto is losing badly.
"Yep." Shikamaru lazily drawled out from the doorway. "Anko confronted him and he bolted. Not too surprised by that."
"Can't blame him for bailing." Naruto shrugs and turns back to the ongoing game. "Anko is… well…"
"Yeah." Shikamaru agrees with Naruto, no words were needed to convey the meaning. "Who could have guessed that she'd change Ino so much so quickly?"
"Dude I know right?" Naruto makes his move and hands the pencil off to the toad. "Kinda makes you wonder if Anko pushed Ino into going after Alvarcus."
"Most definitely." Shikamaru doesn't even pause to think about that, he came to the same conclusion a very long time ago. "Anko has been pushing Ino a lot. I can't wait to see Inoichi's reaction to his daughter's new style."
"That's going to be… eventful?" Naruto scratched his head as he's working on his next move. "Is that even the right word?"
"Close enough." Shikamaru turns to leave. "By the way Naruto, your toad is cheating."
"WHAT?!" Naruto shouts as he pins the toad in a mock angry glare.
"No I'm not!" The toad croaks out while holding his front legs up in a placating gesture.
"Wait I thought you couldn't talk?" Naruto accuses the toad.
"Er uh…" The toad looks around as if an excuse will conveniently jump out from around a corner. "I meant croak?"
"So Ino." Anko throws open the door to their shared room. "A little birdy told me that you and - Ino? Are you okay?"
Ino is sitting on her bed with her knees drawn up to her chest. She has her arms wrapped around them, hugging them closer to herself. She has taken a blanket and wrapped it around her shoulders and is staring blankly off into space.
"Ino?" Anko asks softly again after a long pause.
She still doesn't get an answer.
"Ino Honey?" Anko sits down next to her on the bed and lightly lays a hand on Ino's shoulder.
Ino flinches badly at the contact, jolting her whole body away from the gently gesture.
"Anko?" Ino asks in distracted confusion. "When did you get here?" She just noticed her fellow kunoichi.
"Not too long ago." Anko tells her as she wraps the young girl in a hug. "Ino what's wrong? You can talk to me."
"I… I don't know how to do that." Ino confesses as she scoots deeper into the comforting embrace. "It's so complex and strange and outlandish that I don't know if you'd even believe me. I don't know if I believe it and I was there."
"Start from where you think is best." Anko gently starts rubbing Ino on the back. "Take your time, we're in no rush."
A long silence falls between the two Konoha kunoichi. Anko keeps rubbing Ino's back to try and comfort the distraught girl and is waiting patiently. Ino's face is switching from emotion to emotion over and over. They range from fear, disgust and revulsion to smiles, happiness and longing.
"Anko?" Ino finally musters up enough courage to speak. "Can I ask you something?"
"Of course." Anko instantly replies. "I'm here for you."
"You were Orochimaru's student for a while." Ino says as Anko stiffens slightly, just enough for the genin she's hugging to notice. "Did he ever… ever make you do bad things? Terrible things. Like torture and killing innocents and worse?"
"Ino where is this coming from?" Anko has stopped rubbing Ino's back.
"Alvarcus." Ino shamefully admits. "I might have overreacted and invaded his mind and he showed me what life in Oto is like. He showed me horrible things. Things that I couldn't even begin to imagine yet he's lived them. He's done them. I want to know if he made it all up. I want to believe that he's not capable of those atrocities but they were so real. You're the only other one here that knows Orochimaru, would he force someone to commit murder because he wanted to test their loyalty?"
"Yes." Anko clutches Ino tighter for comfort. To comfort Ino or herself she's not sure anymore. "Orochimaru is more than willing to do that. He's done it before Alvarcus and Sasuke went to him, I don't see him changing. Ever. Ino whatever you saw was real."
"O-oh." Ino wilts in Anko's grasp.
"I'm sorry you had to see those things." Anko needlessly apologizes but she feels like she has to regardless. "But I have to ask Ino, why did he show you them? It must have hurt him so very, very much to relive those experiences. They're some of the worst parts of our lives. If not the worst part of our lives. Orochimaru is that bad. So why did he show you them?"
"To protect me?" Ino says even though it is more of a question than an answer. "I think he wanted to protect me from myself."