Chapter 23

The door opened up to two guards bringing Naruto in. He looked over to Ino with a smile and didn't miss the way her lips curled up slightly. He then looked over to the blank faced hooded ANBU agent a few feet behind her. When he was sat down, the two guards nodded to Ino and the ANBU agent before leaving the room. They sat there in silence and Naruto looked as though he were about to say something.

"Well-.." he began until he was cut off by Ino putting a finger up, silencing whatever he was about to say. He looked at her strangely for a second until the ANBU agent started to wobble on his feet. Naruto stared at him in confusion when he fell over and began convulsing. He looked back to Ino to see her smiling at him. He grinned back at her, catching onto whatever was happening.

"Hey…" she said with a smile and watery eyes.

Naruto smiled back at her. "Hey…"

Ino bit her grinning lip, trying to find words to say. "I uh… I brought you something!" she said happily pulling her bag up. Reaching in, she pulled out a bottle of ink and a brush with a few papers. Naruto smiled at her. "For practicing your calligraphy and what not." She said nodding his way.

He nodded back. "Oh yes, of course." He said as if it were obvious. He looked at her in amusement.

"What?" she asked. "Can't do it?" she asked. He grinned and held his wrists up, showing her the cuffs as if she couldn't see them. She gave him a slick smile and began crawling across the table seductively. In a smooth motion, she pulled a kunai out, whirling it about before driving it down into the metal table, lodging it into the surface right between his hands, he didn't even flinch. "Get yourself out Mr. ANBU." She mocked as she laid down on the table with her feet crossed behind her, much like a kid laying before a fireplace.

"Ah… not gonna make it easy for me?" he asked with a smile, remembering their first conversation.

"Where's the fun in that?" she replied, catching on.

Naruto chuckled and pulled the kunai from the table. After a bit of messing with the lock, the cuffs finally opened, freeing his hands. Rolling his wrists out, he stood up and removed his shirt, giving Ino quite the sight as she stared at his chiseled body that seemed like he hadn't missed a day of training. She grinned at him and watched as he laid the sealing paper in front of her and began marking it.

"You sure you know what you're doing?" she asked. "It's been a while."

He smirked, "I've seen these seals every day for five years. I know what I'm doing."

"Guess you're lucky they didn't put any on your back then huh?" she asked him.

He chuckled. "That, my dear, is the confidence of these simple minded fools."

"Like me?" she asked him playfully as she flipped over to her back.

He continued to mark the seals on the sheet of paper. "Well, you're nothing like them now are you?" He asked rhetorically. "No… you're slightly better."

"Slightly?" she asked him.

He put the brush down and stood to where his face was directly over hers. Ino's eyes continued to dart between his lips and his eyes as he spoke. "Yes, slightly." He said nodding. "You're still stuck in this fantastic little mind of yours." He said tapping her forehead. "If you can step outside of that, then you'll be free." He said going back to the seal.

"Will you free me?" she asked him.

He halted his writing and looked at her. "…Perhaps." He said simply, going back to his work. Ino got off the table and stripped Toshi of his ANBU attire. When there was no more need for him, she performed a low level fire technique she knew and burned the body. When she turned around, Naruto was staring at her with a look she wasn't familiar with regarding him. It was close to amazement with a hint of further amusement.

"What?" she asked him innocently with the burning body behind her still raging with flames.

Naruto smiled at her. "Nothing… but, I am done." He said taking the paper and slapping it to his chest. It began to glow for a few seconds until Ino could visibly see the prison seal begin to slide off of his body as if someone were pouring water down his frame.

Naruto's eyes shot open as if he were a junkie who just got their fix. It was the first time chakra has coursed freely through his body in five years. Holding his hands out, he created two Rasengan and chuckled. "You, Doctor, have done me a great service." He said stalking over to her, letting the balls of blue chakra die out.

Ino continued to smile at him as he came closer and closer. Before he came too close, she put her fist on his chest. "We're not done yet." She said patting the ANBU uniform on the table. He raised an eyebrow but got the hint. He slipped into the uniform as Ino watched him from her seat hungrily.

When he was fully dressed, he put the mask on.

"Let's get out of here." She said, until he stopped her.

"Just one more thing." He said going through hand signs. In a poof of smoke, a naked Naruto clone stood there. Naruto wrote a few seals on his chest and the clone put his white clothes on. He then looked back over to the spot the body was being burnt. He went through a few hand signs and used a much more powerful fire technique that completely incinerated the body within seconds.

When that was done, he performed a duo technique of wind and water to cool the room back down to normal temperature. From there, Ino and the 'ANBU' left the room while the two guards came back in and escorted 'Naruto' back to his room. They walked out of the Asylum with absolutely no question being asked. No one stopped them, or looked at them what so ever. Naruto Namikaze was free.

-break-

Naruto left the village via the ANBU secret entrance, with Ino following his every move. When they were on the outside of the wall, Naruto breathed a sigh of relief. "Well, thank you very much for your help Dr. Yamanaka. You, I must say, have been my favorite doctor." He said as if they were parting ways.

"Wait… What?" Ino asked stepping closer to him. "What are you talking about?" she asked him urgently with a very awful feeling welling up in her stomach.

Naruto raised his eyebrow at her. "I am thanking you for your services up to this point." He said simply.

Ino shook her head. "What does that mean? Does that mean you don't need me anymore?"

"Precisely. Now you're getting it." He said clapping his hands together.

Ino couldn't breathe. "No… no, no I fucking helped you!" she yelled at him.

Naruto shortened their distance in a second and pinned her to the tree behind her with her collar in his hand. "No!... No, what you did was try and warp my perception. You left me in a black hole of rage and confusion." *wink*

Ino shook her head. "No… I love you." She told him desperately.

He smiled at her and began chuckling.

"I love you!" she yelled louder. "And you love me too!"

He let her shirt go and began to pace around. "Oh is that so? Hahah!" he laughed again.

"Yes! You do!" she yelled. "You feel like no one has ever loved you before, so you won't accept my love because you're afraid it's not real." She said giving him so insight into what she deduced within her own mind.

Naruto stopped in his striding. "Ah, how wrong you are." he said stalking towards her. "No, love causes weakness when your so called 'lover' is weaker than you. That's why this little… fling between us ends here." He explained pulling a kunai from the holster on his leg.

"What are you gonna do? You gonna kill me?" She asked.

Naruto chuckled and threw the kunai her way. Ino didn't move or flinch what so ever when the kunai hit the tree a few centimeters close to her head. Naruto seemed impressed by that if even a little. "…No… no, I'm not gonna kill yah." He said stalking closer to her. "If you die, it is because you're weak and this little… spat of ours will have been for nothing…" he said pulling the kunai from the tree.

"What are you gonna do to me?" she asked him, not a hint of fear in her voice what so ever.

Naruto stared her in the eye as if judging her resolve. "Well.." he said turning around. "Follow me and you will see. You may back out at any point of our little… experiment. If you choose to do so, you may possibly have time to return before they realize you're gone." He said as she followed him through the woods.

She walked right next to him and looked him in the eyes. "Never." She said seriously with a fire in her eyes that Naruto just had to notice.

"Yeah well, we'll see about that." He said.

They walked through the woods surrounding Konoha for what felt like hours until they came upon a somewhat secluded area. Naruto bent down and pushed chakra through the ground and a secret passage way began to open up.

He stood to his feet and pointed into it. "After you." He said with a daring smile. Ino didn't hesitate and went right in. She stumbled through the darkness for a few seconds until the torches lining the walls seemingly lit themselves. When they did, she knew exactly where they were.

They were in one of the bases of the notorious psychopath Orochimaru. There were various broken glass tubes and quarantine signs all over the place. It would seem as though this one was already disassembled so what were they doing here?

She followed Naruto as he walked deeper into the base. Soon, they entered another room and onto a platform, overlooking vats of some kind of black liquid. "You see that?" Naruto asked her pointing into the stuff. Ino was getting a little worried at this point. "That is what made me the man I am today… that is your trial… you bathe in this liquid… and I will accept this uh… this love of yours." He explained.

Ino looked back into it to see it was boiling. In other words it was probably like acid at this point and would most likely kill her. She looked at him with a broken heart. "…I know what you're trying to do…" she said staring at his chest, unable to look him in the eyes. "You want me to kill myself… so that you don't have to deal with me anymore." She said. Naruto showed no expression at her astute observation.

"No, I want you to prove your devotion." He explained. "Prove your love to me."

Ino shook her head. "You know I'll die if I touch that stuff… You're not an idiot, and neither am I." Still, he was unfazed.

"So… you're saying you wouldn't die for me?" he asked her casually staring her in the eyes. Ino's eyes moved up the length of his face until they were deadlocked in a staring match. He was daring her to do it. He really wanted her to die. It hurt her heart worse than if he had just taken that kunai and plunged it into her chest. After everything she's done for him, she was nothing but a nuisance to him? Ino truly believed she had found a connection in someone.

Clearly her assumption was misplaced as he didn't seem to care much about her. She fell for him twice and got hurt both times. What more did she expect? She slowly back peddled until her feet were hanging over the ledge. Turning around, the vat of chemicals was less than a foot away from the ledge. So hot, the bubbles that popped splashed up and hit her ankles, burning her a bit. If Naruto didn't want her, then no one would. More accurately, if she couldn't have Naruto, then she no longer wanted to live anymore. Maybe death was what called her at this point. Slowly, she began to fall back.

In less than a second, she thought back to all of her best moments in life. Most of them involving Naruto himself. Even as she was a few milliseconds from death, she couldn't help but love the redheaded psycho. This was the cause of unrequited love. Death.

She could feel the heat of the vat of chemicals burning her back at this point, but she could also feel something tugging her. Opening her eyes, Naruto was holding the front of her shirt. The bottom of her hair was dipped in the chemicals but her feet were still on the ledge. He… he saved her…

A tear leaked out of her eye as she looked up into the blues of Naruto who was smiling down at her. "Now that." He said with a chuckle. "That's proof." Pulling her up closer, he leaned down and kissed her. Ino melted into the passionate connection and wrapped her arms around his neck. He pulled them back onto the platform and she deepened the kiss immensely, not wanting this moment to end. A duo was born that would shake the world like natural disasters.

(3 hours later)

Ibiki checked over the sign in sheet finding it weird that Ino would come and see Naruto as late as she had last night. Especially with the circumstances of Inoichi's death, so he was headed to check on the redhead to ensure he was still alive. Maybe she had done something to him. With the tray of breakfast in his hand, he opened the door.

Naruto was laying on his mat staring up at the ceiling. He looked over at Ibiki but didn't say anything. "Hey, Naruto." He said walking over to him. "I was just coming to check up on you is all."

Naruto still didn't respond.

Ibiki ignored it and put the tray down next to him. "I know Ino came to see you last night." He said questioningly. "Was there… there any reason for that?"

"No reason. Just to talk." He responded with a sudden smile.

Ibiki was surprised by that. It was weird of course, but Naruto was always weird so he didn't pay too much mind to it. "Right well…" he said looking at his shirt. He stopped and a sickening feeling dropped to his gut. Slowly he looked into the eyes of the patient to see a mocking glint in his eyes. Ibiki new. This was not Naruto Namikaze. The sealing ink on his body was smudged. Meaning it was written with paper ink, not body ink.

He pulled a kunai from his pouch and drove it into his body. He took a timid step back when it actually stabbed him. For a second he thought he was hallucinating and he actually killed a patient, but then the body disappeared in a poof of blood and smoke. God damn it. Naruto Namikaze was not here.

Ibiki stood to his feet and ran out the room as fast as he could. This was not good. This was far from good. He ran out of the Asylum intent on informing the Hokage of the troubling news. No one would be ready for what was coming… no one.