Nindō 0063: Overestimating Oneself

"What are you talking about?" Naruto asked Ino with a harmless yet hardened smile. Showing her exactly the emotions that he wanted her to see.

"A little over three weeks ago, I sensed a very brief spike in chakra from the vicinity of the Hokage's office. One that I wouldn't even have seen if I hadn't already been monitoring the barrier at that time," Ino spoke, a slightly smug yet sultry smile on her face as she raised her hand to trail it along Naruto's arm. "Something changed in you, didn't it, Hokage-sama? That's why I heard from Hinata how you've grown so much more affectionate with her, reminding her of the days when you two had just gotten married. Along with that, the thing with Sarada that Sakura told me about — you've taken the girl as a disciple much earlier than a Hokage candidate should be taken in. Without something changing, you would never have taken the actions that you took in the first place."

Without a word, Naruto waved his palm, and a gust of wind flipped the sign of the store to show that it was closed. He went further to establish a simple genjutsu that would make people subconsciously ignore the presence of the store in the first place. At the same time, Ino found multiple black spheres appearing around her. She wasn't able to speak a single word before they morphed into belts that wrapped around her. Holding her wrists together, the first belt pulled them above her head, another wrapping around her throat to negate any jutsu she might try to cast, and one around her legs to keep them restrained. The morphed orbs lifted her off of the ground, making her float in front of Naruto at his eye level.

Ino grunted, struggling to free herself as the smug expression on her face disappeared. She realized that her chakra mobilization had been essentially negated by whatever Naruto had done, and she had lost any possible use of her mental jutsu.

"You took a huge risk on a hunch, Ino," Naruto said, a dark undertone in his voice. "For all you know, I am an Ōtsutsuki who has possessed Naruto Uzumaki's body. I could kill you right now to silence you."

"You won't do that," Ino said, a sense of weakness pervading her voice despite her defiant tone. She wasn't panicking or even regretting her actions. She had expected such a reaction from Naruto when she spoke those words. But expecting to feel weak and powerless and actually feeling that way were two completely different things.

"Why do you think so, Ino?" Naruto asked, cupping her chin with his hand. "Do you think that I don't dare to destroy this entire village?" The woman's expression warped a little at his condescending touch. However, she didn't seem as resistant to it as Naruto had expected.

"You won't do that, Naruto," she said, calming herself while looking into his deep blue eyes. She couldn't use any of her mental jutsu due to the suppression effect of the Truth-Seeking Balls, but she could still read Naruto's subtle expressions and emotions as a testament to her natural skill in analyzing people. "You're still the Naruto Uzumaki I know."

A gleam appeared in Naruto's eyes, "Am I now?" He asked rhetorically as more belts wrapped around Ino, two around her chest, constricting her breasts and hampering her breathing, one around her stomach, and two more around her legs, forcing her to straighten completely. Her struggles were forcefully killed as the belts affixed her into a stiff position. She let out a weak whimper in response but gave up on invoking pity after a few seconds, focusing on breathing manually due to how constricted her torso felt.

"Those Ōtsutsuki are different …" Ino's voice was undoubtedly strained at this point, "You may have changed, but you are still Naruto. I know."

"How could you possibly know?" He asked, amusement dancing on his features as he traced his thumb across Ino's lips.

"Intuition," she said, unbothered by Naruto's inappropriate actions and expressions, "I just know it." It seemed that while unused to the helplessness, she wasn't that shaken up by the situation.

Naruto exhaled, pulling his hand away. "I don't believe your explanation. But fine," he said, walking around Ino as she was left floating above the ground. "Tell me what you want from me." Naruto sat on her chair and looked at her impassively. "If I am satisfied, you might be allowed to keep your memory of our current conversation." Ino slowly rotated while in place to face him again, allowing Naruto to admire her emphasized curves from all angles.

"You do know that I'm the one who usually removes people's memories when needed …" She smiled, but her eyes showed a different emotion, one of frustration and annoyance mixed in with apprehension.

"You could gamble that I don't have the means to do the same thing to you," Naruto said, leaning back comfortably. "Or you could do your best to convince me otherwise by honestly telling me what you want from me." His gaze naturally drifted all over Ino's sexy body, making her feel like she was some kind of commodity.

"You won't agree to it …" Ino said, still struggling fruitlessly.

'He's just looking … I should be used to this, why am I getting rattled …'

"Try me," Naruto said. "Maybe your seduction did work on me, and I'm willing to go beyond certain limits if I get sufficient enthusiasm from your side."

"You're messing with me …" She said with a strained voice. "I want to take over the Yamanaka clan."

"You are already the head of the Yamanaka clan," Naruto said pointedly.

"Yeah, some head. I don't even attend most of the council meetings. I have some say, yes, but you and I both know what kind of clan head I am," She said, her struggles dying down completely as she went limp in her bonds.

"I know you didn't need to seduce me to ask me for help regarding something as basic as this," Naruto said. "Not to mention, I can't involve myself in the Yamanaka clan's internal politics. If I do, the precedent it sets will cause me unnecessary inconveniences. Now tell me your actual reason."

"I have a plan, okay? I have a slightly intrusive plan for the village that I don't think you will approve," Ino said. "I can't kill my uncle and the other elders of the Yamanaka Clan. So instead, I plan to take the necessary actions to take control of everything without them being able to do anything against it."

"Go on," Naruto said while lustfully tracing his eyes over Ino's restrained body that was screaming at him, calling him out to defile it. He maintained a thoughtful expression on his face throughout the duration, but Ino knew that he was just trying to shake her up.

Ino didn't seem daunted by Naruto's perverted gaze toward her and continued, "I want to take over the communication system completely. Not the one that the barrier corps uses with the Yamanaka clan, but the commercial one that's in the Civilian Council's hands. Since almost everything has been damaged after the Ōtsutsuki attack, I can spearhead the reconstruction effort to make the necessary modifications."

"You want the Yamanaka clan to be responsible for the entire village's communication lines, commercial and military," Naruto said thoughtfully. "I understand now why you wanted to seduce me for this. Under normal circumstances, I would never agree to give so much power to the Yamanaka clan."

"Exactly …" Ino said as her struggles resumed, still as unfruitful as they were before. By now, her crop top had been raised so much that it was raised higher than the belt under her breasts, revealing her entire stomach. She wasn't even able to breathe freely due to the belts that were compressing her torso, but that didn't stop her from acting defiant.

"As I just said, Ino. Under normal circumstances," Naruto said. "I am not completely averse to the idea of the communication system being revamped."

Ino couldn't help but widen her eyes. "You're serious …"

"I am," Naruto nodded. "Not only that, I might even take things a step further and try to turn it into a technological innovation for the citizens …" He trailed off in his thoughts, "One that we can eventually extend over to the other villages as a product which can be used as an extension of monitoring their activities …"

"Naruto," Ino called out, "If you really like my idea, then can you let me go? It feels weird to be restrained like this. We can talk in-depth about my idea after that."

"No," he refused, "Not yet, at least. You have to understand, Ino, that you can't just go around and try to seduce me. I might just bite your bait and not let go. I won't be nosy and comment on your relationship with your husband, but Sai is a good friend of mine, and to see his wife act in such a manner leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth. I am going to let you spend the rest of the night reflecting on your actions toward me and how they have made me feel. You have to think about how they would make your husband feel. And you especially have to think about how they would make your son feel. Think about it. Inojin would be devastated if he found out that his mother essentially offered herself up to me to gain more power in the village."

Ino couldn't meet Naruto's eyes anymore as her fists clenched, and she averted her gaze from him. The woman felt herself being lowered as Naruto stood up from the seat, and she found herself sitting in that very seat. Her limbs were moved around as if she were a marionette puppet; her arms were tied behind her back, attached to the chair, and the belts around her torso also shifted and went around the chair, forcing her to sit in parallel with the backrest. The same was done with her legs; two pairs of belts went around her ankles and thighs and forced her legs apart as Naruto stood in front of her.

He cupped her chin with his hand and made her look up at him, "Don't try to psychoanalyze me, Ino. Your skills are good, but not in front of me. Such actions will eventually come to bite you in the ass. Since it's already late, no one will try to come into your shop, allowing you to take your necessary reflection time. Once I leave, you will have a very brief window of a few minutes where you will be able to use your chakra freely. You are free to try and get yourself out of these restraints, but I wouldn't bet on it. Instead, I want you to let your son know that you will be busy for the night so that he doesn't get worried. As for calling someone for help, you can try, but it will only result in your becoming a spectacle for them. I'm the only one who can free you."

Ino couldn't even process Naruto's words completely; her mind was lost in her thoughts.

"The restraints will naturally free you by the time the sun rises, at which point you can return home. This belt, however," Naruto hooked his finger through the collar that was around her throat. "This one stays. It's going to make sure to keep your chakra and jutsu-casting ability suppressed. I will come by tomorrow evening, and we will talk about your plans. Goodbye." He turned around and left Ino alone in her shop, turning off the lights on the way.

"You dummy, I will need to use my chakra to communicate with the barrier corps in case there's an intrusion!" Ino screamed just as she came to her senses.

***

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