[backlog] [The Teen Years Part One] [Kankurou, Ino] [Closed]
Set one year after this log :3. This is the log that EXPLAINS where the KanIno came from. WE SWEAR.
He didn't expect her to come back, especially a little under a year after she'd dashed out after the chuunin exams and promised---loudly---that she hoped never to see his face again. Kankurou wasn't exactly counting the minutes for Ino's return---or banking on it at all, really---but he was still pleasantly surprised when she passed him in the hallway of the Kazekage's tower one afternoon, looked at him with a look worthy of someone who'd stepped in dog shit, pointed at him, and told him in no unclear terms how much she disliked him and---
---And she'd gone on in a rant about personal space and how he was supposed to keep his dick in his pants that didn't make a hell of a lot of sense until Ino had calmed down enough to explain that they were supposed to go on a mission.
Together. A mission that would require the both of them to don a civilian identity as a young couple in order to spy on a target of interest to both of their villages; as they were both being groomed to go into recon, this would be a good mission for them to whet their teeth on. So, though they were basically strangers and not even really all that friendly, they were to live together and act as a couple for however long it took to get the lay of the city and the information they needed. One of the two was meant to take out the target, and then they'd leave, just as cleanly and easily as possible.
Well, he could always have gotten set up with uglier girls, he figured as he unpacked weapons. Yamanaka Ino wasn't too bad on the eyes, even if her eyes kind of weirded him out still---and even though she was a loudmouth and a flaming bitch. There was that, too.
When Asuma said that this mission was going to be good for her personal growth, she she have known that it was complete bullshit. She was still considered a fairly green Chuunin and had to take missions where she could get them but this was ridiculous. She had traveled all the way to Wind only to find her partner on this mission was-- augh. Ino still couldn't wrap her mind around the fact that they were supposed to be together twenty four hours a day for however long this was going to take. Not to mention she had to learn every damn cultural aspect of Wind life, since they were staying in a village there. Customs, religious beliefs, even slang was important to know in order to blend in. She could always pass for a foreign woman (which she was) but she would drop kick anyone who tried to mess with her because of it.
But she digressed. All she cared about was getting out of this mission alive and without getting molested by Kankurou who, had in fact, looked even bigger and more threatening since the last time they met. There was no way she could let him know that she was just a little bit scared of him. Guys like him loved when women showed fear.
The first thing she did was go to their market place and try to hear the latest gossip about the gang leader that was terrorizing the town. People always talked at the market place and really, Ino needed to get food for their empty place. No doubt Kankurou would throw a fit if he wasn't fed on time. Little bits and pieces of the gang's usual hangouts were given to her by friendly and curious people, ready to accept new inhabitants of their village. They wanted to know everything and Ino spoon fed the lies she made up about herself and her-- augh-- significant other before coming here.
"I'm back," she called out instinctively, not really caring if Kankurou answered or not. If he wanted to be an anti-social asshole that was fine with her. She was just going to put the groceries away and hope that they could get this mission done ASAP.
Kankurou answered in a low grunt, too focused on the task of unpacking all of the various scrolls and weapons they'd brought with them and putting them in places that were both in easy reach should they need to arm up in a hurry and discreet enough not to attract undo attention. Their first inquisitive neighbor had been surprised at how many scrolls he owned---was he some kind of scholar?---and he didn't want to have to fumble around questions like that again. Besides, he wanted to hide as many of his weapons in places Ino didn't know about as possible.
It wasn't that he didn't trust her. He did. Mostly. He just didn't want a woman like her getting her grubby paws all over his shit---it was bad enough that he had to share an apartment with her. Women were second-class and mostly useless, annoying and prized only for that lukewarm spot between their legs. Kankurou had tried dating one girl, once, and that had ended before it'd even began. He had yet to find any reason to keep a woman around---dogs were more loyal and better company. Women like Ino nagged and teased and got on his nerves. He didn't want to like her---hell, he didn't even want to get along with her!---but this was a mission and he had to be convincing.
"Find anythin' out?" Kankurou called back, straightening. He'd hit probably the last of his pubescent growth spurts a couple of months back, so he topped Ino by a good head. He kind of liked that little bit of startled dishevelment that lingered in her eyes for a split second whenever he loomed in a doorway. It made dramatic effect all worth it.
Ino abruptly took his wrist in her hand and turned his hand up until his palm was facing the ceiling. With her other hand she placed a slip of paper in it, crinkled and warm from being in her pocket for a few hours. It had been insanely easy to sketch out the tiny village with all of its kiosks and clay and stone buildings. All the people in her sketches were stick figures since she couldn't draw for shit, but it was pretty accurate. The gang's "hide out" wasn't a hide out at all-- they had a shipping business that was a front for all of their illegal trading and shipping, funnily enough. It was so obvious that the people of the town either pretended not to see or just couldn't connect the dots.
"Tomorrow we're going on a stake out here at the docks. We should be able to get more information at the very least. Then we can plan what to do next," she said, not letting his wrist go until the old woman next door turned her gaze from them. "Darling."
She dropped his hand carelessly and went back to putting away the groceries and trying to figure out what to make with all of these foreign looking foods. Everything was so spicy and strong smelling that Ino was almost scared to attempt cooking them. Well, if she died of food poisoning at least she wouldn't have to share an apartment with this guy. He was slightly less scary now that he was paintless and wearing normal clothes-- good looking, even-- but he still annoyed her. He was too cocky, too confident. There was only so much room for their swelling egos in this tiny apartment before they would smother.
Oh, well he could do a little better than a simple wrist-caress. Making certain the dear old woman next door was watching---and the fucking hag had better watch, because this was going to be a performance---Kankurou dipped down and gave her a kiss before she could squirm away and swat at him (with or without kunai in hand). It was a firm kiss, persistent and lasting a few shocked seconds, though there was no tongue nor mouth-to-mouth spelunking and exploration going on. He didn't know where she'd been---new chuunin or not, Konoha started its prettiest girls young.
She stiffened against him, and he swore he could downright taste her revulsion. Honestly, that was more fun than if she'd actually liked it.
"You're good for somethin', I guess," he grinned cheekily, winking and stepping back to wave at the gracious old neighbor.
Ino had actually felt the bile rise in her throat fresh from her churning stomach at being ki-- ki-- VIOLATED by this guy! Contrary to whatever he thought, Konoha did NOT start their girls out that young. They wanted them to be more experience before making them do real kunoichi missions and Ino had only kissed a handful of guys let alone slept with them and this-- this was unacceptable. Her face automatically flushed bright red, more embarrassed and angry than anything else, and she turned away from him quickly, rubbing at mouth with the back of her hand. The food. Yes. The food needed to be taken care of.
"Don't you dare try anything like that again," she said tersely, swallowing hard as not to start screaming and alerting the neighbors, "or I'll cut your tongue off with a dirty knife, you pervert!"
She wanted to cry. She wanted to beat the snot out of him. She wanted OUT. There was no way both of them were going to survive this mission alive. One of them would be killed by the other. It was just a matter of who would snap first.
"So I should go straight ta th' molestation an' shit?" Kankurou smirked, wide and full as a pleased cat. Ino's flailing was amusing---maybe she really was still a virgin? Oh, god forbid they saddled him with a virgin for this mission. If he ended up getting nothing from his partner, he was going to be pissed. Aside from that, Ino didn't really interest him all that much. She didn't seem overly capable; hell, she wouldn't have survived the chuunin exams at all if he hadn't handed her the information she needed. Really, she owed it to him, unless she had some other secondary use she was hiding in her definitely much more filled out chest.
This was going to be a long, tedious mission. Kankurou was all for viewing it as a vacation, or as a baby-step mission: this was the first real mission he'd been entrusted with since being swat down by Akasuna no Sasori himself, and then spending months working through a painful recovery. It would have been a fairly simple recovery if not for his own stubbornness and brilliant idea---he'd begun poisoning himself, a little bit at a time, with his face paint. It was, in theory, a stupid thing to do, but it was also ensuring that he'd never get stricken down by poison that quickly or that efficiently. Of course, this meant that he'd spent weeks puking his guts out and unable to do much physical labor, but it was worth it.
Hopefully, they'd wrap up this mission quickly enough that Ino wouldn't realize he still threw up in the mornings like some kind of pregnant woman. His tolerance to the poison was getting better, but it wasn't perfect yet.
That comment did not sit well with Ino at all. He was older than her, already into his late teens which meant his hormones were on HOT DAMN mode. He was also way, way stronger than her. He could easily overpower her if he wanted to and even if he was joking, which she hoped he was, it was a scary thought that she was going to be left alone with him with no supervision from her male teammates. If anything happened to her, anything at all, he was so getting blamed for it. She whirled around quickly and jabbed her pointer finger into his chest as if trying to gauge his heart out.
"Listen. I don't care if you're older and you're a jounin and blah blah blah. I don't even care if you don't like me. But don't THINK for a minute you can just have your way because I'm less experienced than you are. I still have my ways to survive. So if I were you I'd tread really carefully," she said and turned on her heel to stomp towards the bathroom. Ino sounded calm but she was fuming on the inside. Guys like this were the absolute WORST. Just because he was the Kazekage's brother he thought he was sooo awesome.
FYI, ass, you're NOT the Kazekage, she thought, trying to figure out how to make the water turn on.
"HA," Kankurou snorted, and turned the water on for her---what the hell was she doing, yanking it like that? He feared for the first man she tried to give a hand job if her instant-solution to a problem was yank it. "I wouldn't jump your skinny ass if you were th' last woman in this goddamn sand dune. 'Sides, I wanna get done with this mission an' get th' hell back home."
It was just uncomfortable, sharing space with a girl like her. Or. Well. Sharing space with anyone in general. Kankurou was very much used to having his own quarters, and he hadn't shared a bed with anyone since---well---he couldn't even remember. He was big and he was mean and he took up space. Ino and her damn---frilly---stupid---girlness---was taking up entirely too much of HIS space.
"An' I doubt you could pull shit on me. Talk as big as y'want, Yamanaka, but it en't gettin' you far without your big bad sensei and teammates t'back you up. Here, we go by my rules, kennit?"
If looks could kill, Kankurou would have dropped dead hours ago. Ino threw him her most scathing look, all fire and hate and RAWR. There was a line and he just crossed it twice. First he made fun of how she looked AND THEN he went and talked about her teammates. She was not skinny. She had a perfectly nice figure, everybody told her so. Sakura even commented how jealous she was that Ino was getting tall with nice curves. Also? No one talked bad about her team except her. Who the hell did he think he was, the King of the Desert? He was nothing to her, nothing.
"Yeah? Well you can bite me," she said curtly and slammed the door in his face.
That-- that-- FATTY should have felt blessed to be fake married to her! She was gorgeous! She was talented! SHE HAD AN AWESOME ASS! Ino threw off the tunic dress she had on and started washing herself in the lukewarm water. The sun was setting and it was starting to get cold but she didn't care. If Ino had to sleep outside to get away from him she would. At least she had the nice oils she had taken from home to calm her nerves. A little lavender rubbed on her skin, some rose oil in her hair and she was calm. Mint softened her cuticles and vanilla moisturized.
Yes. Calm. Everything would be okay.
As long as Mr. Big Ass Jounin stayed away from her.
Kankurou shrugged. She was a kid, and kids threw temper tantrums. If he'd really wanted to piss her off more, he could have sent her to bed without dinner. BUT he was a kind and giving team leader, so he started rummaging through what she'd bought and began preparing stuff to eat. Ino had shopped like she didn't know what was edible and what wasn't---most of her purchases were either things that she recognized from home or things that were glossy and pretty and exotic. She hadn't bought any meat, probably because all the meat the vendors around here sold was obviously still an animal. Chickens were merely headless and half-plucked---or live and beheaded while you waited---and you could buy your own lambs if you had the pocket change. Ino seemed to be the type of girl who bought a lamb because it was fluffy and cute and not because it was a tasty main course. Kankurou sighed and started chopping up vegetables.
Vegetarian curry and rice, fine. He would suffer the lack of meat until tomorrow when he went out and got game meat like the hunter he was. Fine, fine, fine.
Ino took her time getting ready because it was methodical and comforting to do the same routines she always did at him. She brushed out her long hair and put it back in a long braid because things in the desert tended to get into her pony tail and that was just not okay. Then came a little eyeliner and mascara just because she was supposed to be a wife and weren't wives supposed to look the best for their husbands? It was a damn good thing they were in the desert where they did not question such a young bride. Kankurou looked so much older than her even if he was only two years her senior people probably thought he had bought her in a slave trade or something. Guh. Gross.
The people of the desert were smart, though. In the day they wore clothes made of light material, the women especially donning sleeveless or strapless dresses that could easily be warmed up using a shawl. Now that the weather was cooling off, Ino eagerly dressed more warmly making sure to wear the dress made of heavier material with long sleeves. It was a heavy brocade material rather than thin cotton or silk but still, it was cold.
"Oh look, you're good for something-- I guess," she said airily, echoing his earlier words when she saw him cooking. "How domestic of you, oh wonderful husband of mine."
"Well, I thought it'd be a good idea t'get some food cooked 'fore we both die of starvation," he deadpanned back, swiping at his brow with the back of his hand. The night was rising and cooling the sands outside, but the kitchen was small and hot. Also, the onions he was cutting up were irritating his eyes and---and shit, ow, rubbing his onion-sticky hand over his eyes hadn't helped matters one bit. He blinked hard, willing his eyes not to tear up stupidly. Ino would tear into him for sure. "I en't waitin' 'round for you t'learn how ta cook decently, if that's what you're sayin', oh flower of my heart. ---Fuckin' onions."
Kankurou finished chopping up the vegetables and set some oil to heat, turning his back purposefully to Ino so that he could wipe at his eyes with his tunic without getting teased or reprimanded.
Pursing her lips together and trying not to laugh too loudly, Ino wet a cloth and handed it to him. "This is for your eyes. You should chew white bread while you chop onions-- it makes it sting less. I'm not sure why but Chouji swears by it." She could cook just FINE, thank you very much, but hey if he wanted to cater to her that was his business. It was almost cute how childishly helpless he was when he was trying to be a Big Man and not let his eyes water in front of her. It would have been cute if not for the fact that it was Kankurou, the one she wanted to die in a fire very painfully.
She let out a giggle and soon pressed her hand against her mouth to smother it at how helpless he looked. It was just an onion. This was not serious business.
"Big bad jounin can't handle the heat?"
Kankurou took the cloth, shooting her a highly dirty look in return, and wiped his eyes quickly before busying himself with cooking again. Losing face in front of this stupid little chuunin brat was almost physically painful. It made his stomach do strange flipflops when she giggled at him like that, and he just wanted to hunch over away from her and eat as much good curry as he could hold. Maybe food would squash that weird feeling, stamping it down so that he could function through this damn mission just as easily as ever.
"I c'n handle a helluva lot more'n you," Kankurou groused, dumping ingredients into the pan and checking on the rice. Doing things with his hands always helped quell his nervous jitters, though he wasn't nervous because of HER, and the jitters were just his weariness at traveling to this village manifesting itself. He needed to feed his nausea before it grew to the point of settling him over the toilet with a case of dry heaves. Stupid Ino, stupid poison, stupid goddamn mission... "An' I don't need your help."
She rolled her eyes up the ceiling, throwing her hands up at the ceiling in a dramatic gesture. "You're such a man. I'll set the table then," Ino reached around to him get two plates and silverware, wiping them off first before setting them down on the table. Out of her shopping bags came a few bottles of beverages-- ones she hoped were non-alcoholic. Being the desert, their water wasn't the greatest so they drank a lot of fruit and malt liquors to make up for it. There was no way Ino was going to let herself or her partner get drunk on this mission. Talk about making a bad situation worse.
"I have no idea what this is, so if it's something really gross like the blood of lambs don't tell me. It smells pretty good," she opened the cap to one of the bottles that the owner of the store had called 'fenny' and sniffled at its contents. "Kind of like coconut. It smells really yummy."
...she'd bought liquor? Well, a girl who bought liquor on a mission wasn't so bad in his book, even though her previous offenses still outweighed this new startling discovery. They let kids like Ino drink at fifteen? Geeze, and Konoha badmouthed Suna for being uncultured---he hadn't had his first night with a bottle of hard alcohol until the day he'd achieved jounin status. Kankurou finished the curry and put it into a large bowl, so that they could sit down and...well. Do whatever it was normal people did when they sat down for dinner. Kankurou wasn't used to sitting down to eat---his family was hardly old-fashioned---but he had a strong feeling that most people ate and talked when they sat down together. He was going to go out on a limb and say that this was a normal activity for normal families, and---and oh sweet sands, why was she pouring that like water?
Kankurou set down the bowl and took the bottle away from Ino. She'd poured herself a full glass, and that was enough to get even him drunk as shit. "You plannin' on drinkin' all that?"
Right, and she was secretly an alcoholic. This mission was getting better by the minute.
It was only because the curry was so spicy that Ino kept taking sips of her drink. It really did taste good-- it was thick and sugary and went down smoothly. There was a strange after taste that she wasn't sure she liked but she felt warm and comfortable and this felt more okay than arguing. Kankurou had done a surprisingly good job with the food. Ino was hungrier than she thought and ate heartily-- it wasn't like she needed to pretend to be ladylike with him. As the moments ticked by, she found herself caring less and less about how she was acting. She had already unbuttoned the top two buttons of her dress due to the immense heat of her face and debated a third as her tongue burned from the curry.
"I don't like the desert, it's SO hot," she complained, "everything was sticking to me I was sweating so much, even my-- my underwear," Ino said in a hushed voice. "Then I had to take it off but you had no idea. But now you know~"
Kankurou was such a good listener! Maybe she had judged him wrong all this time. He was totally her BFF. She was going to make him a hemp best friend bracelet! With beads! To cement their newfound friendship.
It was like watching a disaster happen in slow motion. He could feel that it was wrong to let her keep drinking, tell that it was wrong to just watch, but he still just sat and ate, fascinated. By the time he was on his third helping of curry and rice, she was tugging open her top---baring the swells of two nicely-developing breasts, white as milk---giggling at every witty comment he wasn't making, and relaxing in a profound, loose way that one can only do when drunk. Color stained her cheeks, making her nose cherry-red, and he'd have to just guess at how unfocused her eyes were because he didn't have any experience judging the focus of eyes without pupils. Kankurou had to keep his hands busy again---this time by systematically shoving every last bit of food into his mouth---or else he would have found something else to do with them.
Were there rules for cross-gender, cross-village missions? Would he get in trouble if he messed around with her a little? Who would know, even? Kankurou chugged down a little bit of the fenny himself, drowning that flip-flopping feeling that food hadn't managed to pack down.
"Uh...so. You feelin' okay?"
"Just fiiiiine," Ino assured him, waving her hand and getting up in a very wobbly fashion. She didn't know why she felt so weird. One moment she was eating her curry, the next she felt a little light headed and happy. She made her way over to Kankurou and grabbed his face in her hands, eying him very carefully. He wasn't as bad as all that. "You look really good without the face paint. You have a good looking face," she said matter-of-factly. "Sort of mature looking. You're still a big jerk, though! But that's okay because since you're my husband and all, I can forgive you."
Apparently, when Ino was drunk she babbled.
"And I guess if it's okay if you want to kiss me to impress the neighbors but I haven't kissed THAT many people. They want to kiss me but I was like 'ew'. Most of them aren't good enough for me. You're a jerk and kind of a fatty but you ARE a jounin and good looking so you if you have to, it's cool."
It wasn't often that the girls beat him to the molestation part of the night. Kankurou was aptly baffled, round-eyed and gaping as his temporary teammate all but threw herself at him, settling herself down in his lap and cupping his face in her hands. It sort of unsettled him to have her looking at him like that, really looking, touching his cheeks and chin and giggling over the lack of paint. His paint was comfortable, and usually people looked at that instead of him---and he liked it that way.
"High-rankin' guys get all th' chicks," he agreed, far more shakily than he would have liked. Ino was messing with him, and---and his body was reacting, and it was taking great strength of will to not want to just get it over with, and he didn't HAVE strength of will, and---and--- "An' I en't fat, fuck. Ever had a real close look at that teammate of yours? He could prolly EAT me."
Ino took that as an invitation to feel around his arms and chest area, poking at his stomach a bit. True to his word it was all muscle with no fat anywhere to be found. Fancy that! So he wasn't a fatty-- he was just a brick wall. It was so much more fun to call him a fatty, though. "Okay so you're not fat. FINE~" she laughed and threw her braid over her shoulder. "Very impressive. I take back what I said."
She absently played with his hair, amazing at how it managed to stay in one position like that. It defied all laws of science, sort of like Shikamaru and Chouji's hair. Crazy. "High ranking guys totally get girls. Because they're strong enough to handle me."
Awww, he looked so cute when he hair was messy. She liked having him as her new BFF!
This was too much. There was no way anyone could blame him, now: she was petting him just about all over---hair, face, chest, stomach---and he was rapidly trying to decide if he should try getting her to pet lower. She was basically inviting it, wasn't she? Girls didn't act like this when they were drunk unless they actually wanted it---right? He swallowed squeakily, his throat so dry as to make him take another long swig of fenny. Ino was leaning against him, and when she shifted her weight he overbalanced backwards, falling over half-painfully.
Okay. That was gravity, and he was a little bit tipsy but still under gravity's iron fist. "Yeah, I could handle you alright," he growled, though his words were empty. He couldn't. She'd gotten better at this kunoichi thing since the last time they'd met.
Ino reflexes were definitely not up to par but she managed not to land on top of him in an awkward manner. She was on her knees and looking very confused as to how she was on the ground when she was standing only moments earlier. So weird. The kunoichi stood up shakily, brushing herself off and holding her hand down to Kankurou as though she could help him up. Riiight, gravity would definitely not be on her side for that one. She gave him a huge, silly grin, immensely amused at the way he was sprawled on the ground.
"Are you okay? I think you're drunk," she said seriously. "Only drunk people fall over like that!"
Was he drunk? That wasn't good. What if he threw up? Then Ino would be forced to take care of him. Oh well, since they were bonding she would do what she had to to make sure that he survived this mission. She had seen a person die choking on their own vomit and it was not cute at all. She had also seen someone choke on their own blood (her fault-- making the wrong cut is really not good to do on a mission) which was equally as... not good.
"I'm tipsy," Kankurou said, working himself back into a seated position. He wasn't really...used to his new height yet. The last growth spurt had been a big one, and he felt all weird and gangly, especially with a little bit of alcohol in his system screwing with his perceptions. "An' you're drunk. There's a difference. I think I'm. I'm jus'...gonna sit here for awhile. Gimme a minute."
Things were tipping a little, pleasantly dizzy, and he was afraid nausea would rock him if he tried moving around too much. Too much alcohol, too fast; dammit, he knew better than that. Ino was looking at him so curiously, as if she was actually worried, and that made him feel all...strange. He didn't like it. This bonding thing was uncomfortable, lubricated with alcohol and whatever imagined paste was sticking them together as sudden and fast friends---whatever that meant. Ino was just a friendly drunk, and she'd go back into being that miserable, useless brat as soon as she sobered up. He either wanted to touch her, feel the firmness of her breasts against him, or lock her in the other room and get away from those weird, stupid looks of hers.
They weren't friends. Kankurou didn't have any need for friends.
"I am?" she asked curiously, tilting her head in a kitten-esque manner. She had never been drunk in her life! The smell of alcohol wasn't all that pleasing when her father and his friends and it often got them in trouble with their wives. They acted like idiots, singing and dancing and carrying on about the old days. Ino wasn't singing or dancing and there were no old days to talk about. She just felt a little warm and tired, comfortable though and a little giggly. Everything, for some reason, was funny to her. So she was just in a good mood! Nothing more, nothing less.
But they had drunk the same thing at dinner. Huh. Could it be?
"Maybe we should go to bed," Ino suggested helpfully.
"I'll sleep here," Kankurou said, very firmly. He'd made friends with the floor. The floor was nice and safe, if a little hard and gritty. The thought of sharing a bed with---with her made his skin crawl unexpectedly, and the fact that he actually wanted to do it made his conflict only grow. Half of him wanted to fuck her. Hard. Half of him wanted her to go away and leave him alone. Very alone. What was going on with his head? "We don't...y'know, hafta pretend t'be together all th' time. Unless you wanna. I mean---fuck. D'you...?"
What was he even ASKING? Why was he asking? He didn't ask! He took! He just took! Took without caring that he was taking because girls were stupid and whiny and that little wet spot between their legs just happened to be comfortable and nice.
Kankurou rubbed his temples with his hands, frowning.
One eyebrow raised in confusion, not really following his thought pattern. He was babbling, words mixing together strangely. Or maybe it was just that her head was swimmy and a confusing place to be in general. "Won't it look weird if you do that? Besides it's cold and the floor will be even colder," she said logically, swaying a bit as she held up her finger matter of factly. "We'll use uh-- chastity pillows between us or something if you don't like it."
Ino laughed again. Chastity pillows. She was so witty. Kankurou didn't seem the shy type but hey, maybe he wasn't comfortable sleeping next to a girl.
Or maybe he was gay?
"It's cold," she murmured, shivering a bit. "The ground is freezing under my feet."
Chastity---?
This was not going to end well. This was going to be a long, frustrating night, and Kankurou was cursing as many gods as he could mentally list. WHY had they sent him on this kind of mission? He was going to have some fierce words for his brother as soon as he got back to Suna, that was for damned sure.
"You stay on your side of th' chastity pillows, an' I'll try t'stay on my side," he said solemnly, standing up a little woozily. Ugghhhh and there came the nausea. He would be regretting this in the morning. His belly churned, and it took a couple of deep breaths to keep it settled. "Deal?" Hopefully it was a big bed, lots of blankets. Kankurou liked sleeping with enough blankets to smother a normal person, and if Ino was one of those bitches who stole the covers, she would not survive the night. He wobbled towards the bedroom, pulling his tunic off over his head and loosening the knot holding his pants up.
That sounded like a good enough plan to her. Face burning, Ino turned away from him to give him privacy to change and to find something for herself to sleep in in her pack. Luckily she had swiped a long sleeved shirt from Shikamaru before leaving which would make for a nice, warm nightgown. It was a little hard to get the buttons to her dress undone, especially in the dim lighting of the bedroom but eventually she did it without too much work. Since Kankurou had said he wasn't interested in her little girl body, she wasn't highly embarrassed to have her naked back facing him. Besides, her hair covered most of it, anyway. Any perversion would all be in his head.
"Is it always this cold at night?" she asked as she struggled to put the shirt over her head. The wind was howling loudly, enough to rattle the windows. No wonder the building were made of such dense, sturdy material. "It never gets this cold in Konoha. Damp, but not cold."
As she spoke, desperate to break the silence, Ino took her hair down and started to brush it out. The alcohol effect was waning a bit and she was getting her footing back. It was now more scary than anything to spend a night in a foreign place without her team...
He'd never slept in the same bed as a girl before. Sure, he'd slept with girls, but he'd never slept with a girl, not since he was five and shared a bed with Temari---and that did not count. What if she minded that he slept in his underwear? Did he care if she cared? And the blankets---goddammit, she'd BETTER not take his blankets. He didn't sleep with much clothing on, so he NEEDED his blankets to keep warm. Ignoring her as she undressed---his imagination was better than the real thing, anyway---he crawled into his side of the bed and started arranging pillows and blankets to ensure they stayed on their own sides and nothing unfortunate happened. Like blanket stealing. Or sex. Kankurou swallowed hard.
He had this feeling he wouldn't be getting a lot of sleep.
The bed sheets were cold and when she finally settled beneath the blankets, it felt as though she were sleeping on a cube of ice. They were doing nothing to keep her warm and her shivering wasn't only from the cold; the room was too dark and the house was too scary and she missed Chouji and Shikamaru and Asuma-sensei. Sure, she had gone on missions without them... actually, no, not yet. All of her missions had them on it, or two of the three, or whatever. She wasn't ready for this. Why did they think she was ready? She was so not ready for this.
And she didn't have her piggie plushie. This was so upsetting.
Ino sighed and hugged her pillow, trying to squeeze warmth and comfort from it if such things were possible.
Kankurou could basically feel her shake, the tremors of her shivers quivering through to his side of the bed, and Kankurou rolled his eyes towards the shadowy ceiling. Why was he even asking, this was trouble, but---
"'re you cold?" He asked flatly, rolling over onto his side. Maybe he could sacrifice a blanket. Maybe. ONE. If she was going to die. Or whatever. "We don't really have...y'know, a heater 'r nothin'."
He didn't really care, he told himself. It would just be difficult to explain it all away if Ino ended up frozen and dead the next morning.
She took that as an invitation to burrow against his side, stealing some of his body warmth because he still had plenty to share. Even if he wasn't a "fatty" per se, he still had more body mass than she could ever hope to have and combined with the blankets, they could stay very warm. Besides, it was a little comforting to have someone next to her-- not as cuddly as Chouji and not as familiar as Shikamaru, but it was better than nothing.
"If we stay like this then we can keep warm."
It was basic survival training. Body warmth = no hypothermia = no losing fingers = living. Simple.
Kankurou couldn't breathe, for all of ten seconds. He panicked. She was small and warm and smelled---smelled like something he couldn't quite place, and her hands were so small and so cold and he just wanted her to stay like that, right there, because it felt good. He forgot to breathe, he forgot to swallow; he just stalled, mentally roadblocked, and fought his sudden, rabbit-like urge to dash away. What the FUCK was she doing to him?
He patted her shoulder awkwardly when he remembered how to inhale again, dizzy and overwhelmed. He didn't know where to put his arms or legs---everything felt out of place and uncomfortable---but Ino seemed to naturally know how to burrow herself into him and fit her smaller curves to his more angular body in the way that God had intended when making man and woman.
Her bed partner had gone so stiff that Ino wondered if he had actually died in the few seconds that passed by between their speaking. She could feel his heartbeat-- a rapid pulse, a little sweating, etc. etc. so he was alive. He was probably just cold, too. Even CHOUJI would be cold in this sort of weather! Going from hot to cold like this, how did people survive in a place like this??
Mystery.
"What's wrong?" she asked sleepily, voice heavy now that she was warming up. "You're not having a heart attack, are you?"
"No!" Kankurou snapped, trying to inch himself away from her---but dammit, she was clinging to him. His skin was prickling with sweat at the contact of skin against skin, and he wasn't entirely sure he was breathing properly. She was just so---she had to keep to the other side of the bed. He couldn't handle this. "Jus'---stop---you're too warm, geddoff!"
If she didn't get that sweet-smelling hair out of his face, pronto, he couldn't be held responsible for anything he did.
Part Two :D
He didn't expect her to come back, especially a little under a year after she'd dashed out after the chuunin exams and promised---loudly---that she hoped never to see his face again. Kankurou wasn't exactly counting the minutes for Ino's return---or banking on it at all, really---but he was still pleasantly surprised when she passed him in the hallway of the Kazekage's tower one afternoon, looked at him with a look worthy of someone who'd stepped in dog shit, pointed at him, and told him in no unclear terms how much she disliked him and---
---And she'd gone on in a rant about personal space and how he was supposed to keep his dick in his pants that didn't make a hell of a lot of sense until Ino had calmed down enough to explain that they were supposed to go on a mission.
Together. A mission that would require the both of them to don a civilian identity as a young couple in order to spy on a target of interest to both of their villages; as they were both being groomed to go into recon, this would be a good mission for them to whet their teeth on. So, though they were basically strangers and not even really all that friendly, they were to live together and act as a couple for however long it took to get the lay of the city and the information they needed. One of the two was meant to take out the target, and then they'd leave, just as cleanly and easily as possible.
Well, he could always have gotten set up with uglier girls, he figured as he unpacked weapons. Yamanaka Ino wasn't too bad on the eyes, even if her eyes kind of weirded him out still---and even though she was a loudmouth and a flaming bitch. There was that, too.
When Asuma said that this mission was going to be good for her personal growth, she she have known that it was complete bullshit. She was still considered a fairly green Chuunin and had to take missions where she could get them but this was ridiculous. She had traveled all the way to Wind only to find her partner on this mission was-- augh. Ino still couldn't wrap her mind around the fact that they were supposed to be together twenty four hours a day for however long this was going to take. Not to mention she had to learn every damn cultural aspect of Wind life, since they were staying in a village there. Customs, religious beliefs, even slang was important to know in order to blend in. She could always pass for a foreign woman (which she was) but she would drop kick anyone who tried to mess with her because of it.
But she digressed. All she cared about was getting out of this mission alive and without getting molested by Kankurou who, had in fact, looked even bigger and more threatening since the last time they met. There was no way she could let him know that she was just a little bit scared of him. Guys like him loved when women showed fear.
The first thing she did was go to their market place and try to hear the latest gossip about the gang leader that was terrorizing the town. People always talked at the market place and really, Ino needed to get food for their empty place. No doubt Kankurou would throw a fit if he wasn't fed on time. Little bits and pieces of the gang's usual hangouts were given to her by friendly and curious people, ready to accept new inhabitants of their village. They wanted to know everything and Ino spoon fed the lies she made up about herself and her-- augh-- significant other before coming here.
"I'm back," she called out instinctively, not really caring if Kankurou answered or not. If he wanted to be an anti-social asshole that was fine with her. She was just going to put the groceries away and hope that they could get this mission done ASAP.
Kankurou answered in a low grunt, too focused on the task of unpacking all of the various scrolls and weapons they'd brought with them and putting them in places that were both in easy reach should they need to arm up in a hurry and discreet enough not to attract undo attention. Their first inquisitive neighbor had been surprised at how many scrolls he owned---was he some kind of scholar?---and he didn't want to have to fumble around questions like that again. Besides, he wanted to hide as many of his weapons in places Ino didn't know about as possible.
It wasn't that he didn't trust her. He did. Mostly. He just didn't want a woman like her getting her grubby paws all over his shit---it was bad enough that he had to share an apartment with her. Women were second-class and mostly useless, annoying and prized only for that lukewarm spot between their legs. Kankurou had tried dating one girl, once, and that had ended before it'd even began. He had yet to find any reason to keep a woman around---dogs were more loyal and better company. Women like Ino nagged and teased and got on his nerves. He didn't want to like her---hell, he didn't even want to get along with her!---but this was a mission and he had to be convincing.
"Find anythin' out?" Kankurou called back, straightening. He'd hit probably the last of his pubescent growth spurts a couple of months back, so he topped Ino by a good head. He kind of liked that little bit of startled dishevelment that lingered in her eyes for a split second whenever he loomed in a doorway. It made dramatic effect all worth it.
Ino abruptly took his wrist in her hand and turned his hand up until his palm was facing the ceiling. With her other hand she placed a slip of paper in it, crinkled and warm from being in her pocket for a few hours. It had been insanely easy to sketch out the tiny village with all of its kiosks and clay and stone buildings. All the people in her sketches were stick figures since she couldn't draw for shit, but it was pretty accurate. The gang's "hide out" wasn't a hide out at all-- they had a shipping business that was a front for all of their illegal trading and shipping, funnily enough. It was so obvious that the people of the town either pretended not to see or just couldn't connect the dots.
"Tomorrow we're going on a stake out here at the docks. We should be able to get more information at the very least. Then we can plan what to do next," she said, not letting his wrist go until the old woman next door turned her gaze from them. "Darling."
She dropped his hand carelessly and went back to putting away the groceries and trying to figure out what to make with all of these foreign looking foods. Everything was so spicy and strong smelling that Ino was almost scared to attempt cooking them. Well, if she died of food poisoning at least she wouldn't have to share an apartment with this guy. He was slightly less scary now that he was paintless and wearing normal clothes-- good looking, even-- but he still annoyed her. He was too cocky, too confident. There was only so much room for their swelling egos in this tiny apartment before they would smother.
Oh, well he could do a little better than a simple wrist-caress. Making certain the dear old woman next door was watching---and the fucking hag had better watch, because this was going to be a performance---Kankurou dipped down and gave her a kiss before she could squirm away and swat at him (with or without kunai in hand). It was a firm kiss, persistent and lasting a few shocked seconds, though there was no tongue nor mouth-to-mouth spelunking and exploration going on. He didn't know where she'd been---new chuunin or not, Konoha started its prettiest girls young.
She stiffened against him, and he swore he could downright taste her revulsion. Honestly, that was more fun than if she'd actually liked it.
"You're good for somethin', I guess," he grinned cheekily, winking and stepping back to wave at the gracious old neighbor.
Ino had actually felt the bile rise in her throat fresh from her churning stomach at being ki-- ki-- VIOLATED by this guy! Contrary to whatever he thought, Konoha did NOT start their girls out that young. They wanted them to be more experience before making them do real kunoichi missions and Ino had only kissed a handful of guys let alone slept with them and this-- this was unacceptable. Her face automatically flushed bright red, more embarrassed and angry than anything else, and she turned away from him quickly, rubbing at mouth with the back of her hand. The food. Yes. The food needed to be taken care of.
"Don't you dare try anything like that again," she said tersely, swallowing hard as not to start screaming and alerting the neighbors, "or I'll cut your tongue off with a dirty knife, you pervert!"
She wanted to cry. She wanted to beat the snot out of him. She wanted OUT. There was no way both of them were going to survive this mission alive. One of them would be killed by the other. It was just a matter of who would snap first.
"So I should go straight ta th' molestation an' shit?" Kankurou smirked, wide and full as a pleased cat. Ino's flailing was amusing---maybe she really was still a virgin? Oh, god forbid they saddled him with a virgin for this mission. If he ended up getting nothing from his partner, he was going to be pissed. Aside from that, Ino didn't really interest him all that much. She didn't seem overly capable; hell, she wouldn't have survived the chuunin exams at all if he hadn't handed her the information she needed. Really, she owed it to him, unless she had some other secondary use she was hiding in her definitely much more filled out chest.
This was going to be a long, tedious mission. Kankurou was all for viewing it as a vacation, or as a baby-step mission: this was the first real mission he'd been entrusted with since being swat down by Akasuna no Sasori himself, and then spending months working through a painful recovery. It would have been a fairly simple recovery if not for his own stubbornness and brilliant idea---he'd begun poisoning himself, a little bit at a time, with his face paint. It was, in theory, a stupid thing to do, but it was also ensuring that he'd never get stricken down by poison that quickly or that efficiently. Of course, this meant that he'd spent weeks puking his guts out and unable to do much physical labor, but it was worth it.
Hopefully, they'd wrap up this mission quickly enough that Ino wouldn't realize he still threw up in the mornings like some kind of pregnant woman. His tolerance to the poison was getting better, but it wasn't perfect yet.
That comment did not sit well with Ino at all. He was older than her, already into his late teens which meant his hormones were on HOT DAMN mode. He was also way, way stronger than her. He could easily overpower her if he wanted to and even if he was joking, which she hoped he was, it was a scary thought that she was going to be left alone with him with no supervision from her male teammates. If anything happened to her, anything at all, he was so getting blamed for it. She whirled around quickly and jabbed her pointer finger into his chest as if trying to gauge his heart out.
"Listen. I don't care if you're older and you're a jounin and blah blah blah. I don't even care if you don't like me. But don't THINK for a minute you can just have your way because I'm less experienced than you are. I still have my ways to survive. So if I were you I'd tread really carefully," she said and turned on her heel to stomp towards the bathroom. Ino sounded calm but she was fuming on the inside. Guys like this were the absolute WORST. Just because he was the Kazekage's brother he thought he was sooo awesome.
FYI, ass, you're NOT the Kazekage, she thought, trying to figure out how to make the water turn on.
"HA," Kankurou snorted, and turned the water on for her---what the hell was she doing, yanking it like that? He feared for the first man she tried to give a hand job if her instant-solution to a problem was yank it. "I wouldn't jump your skinny ass if you were th' last woman in this goddamn sand dune. 'Sides, I wanna get done with this mission an' get th' hell back home."
It was just uncomfortable, sharing space with a girl like her. Or. Well. Sharing space with anyone in general. Kankurou was very much used to having his own quarters, and he hadn't shared a bed with anyone since---well---he couldn't even remember. He was big and he was mean and he took up space. Ino and her damn---frilly---stupid---girlness---was taking up entirely too much of HIS space.
"An' I doubt you could pull shit on me. Talk as big as y'want, Yamanaka, but it en't gettin' you far without your big bad sensei and teammates t'back you up. Here, we go by my rules, kennit?"
If looks could kill, Kankurou would have dropped dead hours ago. Ino threw him her most scathing look, all fire and hate and RAWR. There was a line and he just crossed it twice. First he made fun of how she looked AND THEN he went and talked about her teammates. She was not skinny. She had a perfectly nice figure, everybody told her so. Sakura even commented how jealous she was that Ino was getting tall with nice curves. Also? No one talked bad about her team except her. Who the hell did he think he was, the King of the Desert? He was nothing to her, nothing.
"Yeah? Well you can bite me," she said curtly and slammed the door in his face.
That-- that-- FATTY should have felt blessed to be fake married to her! She was gorgeous! She was talented! SHE HAD AN AWESOME ASS! Ino threw off the tunic dress she had on and started washing herself in the lukewarm water. The sun was setting and it was starting to get cold but she didn't care. If Ino had to sleep outside to get away from him she would. At least she had the nice oils she had taken from home to calm her nerves. A little lavender rubbed on her skin, some rose oil in her hair and she was calm. Mint softened her cuticles and vanilla moisturized.
Yes. Calm. Everything would be okay.
As long as Mr. Big Ass Jounin stayed away from her.
Kankurou shrugged. She was a kid, and kids threw temper tantrums. If he'd really wanted to piss her off more, he could have sent her to bed without dinner. BUT he was a kind and giving team leader, so he started rummaging through what she'd bought and began preparing stuff to eat. Ino had shopped like she didn't know what was edible and what wasn't---most of her purchases were either things that she recognized from home or things that were glossy and pretty and exotic. She hadn't bought any meat, probably because all the meat the vendors around here sold was obviously still an animal. Chickens were merely headless and half-plucked---or live and beheaded while you waited---and you could buy your own lambs if you had the pocket change. Ino seemed to be the type of girl who bought a lamb because it was fluffy and cute and not because it was a tasty main course. Kankurou sighed and started chopping up vegetables.
Vegetarian curry and rice, fine. He would suffer the lack of meat until tomorrow when he went out and got game meat like the hunter he was. Fine, fine, fine.
Ino took her time getting ready because it was methodical and comforting to do the same routines she always did at him. She brushed out her long hair and put it back in a long braid because things in the desert tended to get into her pony tail and that was just not okay. Then came a little eyeliner and mascara just because she was supposed to be a wife and weren't wives supposed to look the best for their husbands? It was a damn good thing they were in the desert where they did not question such a young bride. Kankurou looked so much older than her even if he was only two years her senior people probably thought he had bought her in a slave trade or something. Guh. Gross.
The people of the desert were smart, though. In the day they wore clothes made of light material, the women especially donning sleeveless or strapless dresses that could easily be warmed up using a shawl. Now that the weather was cooling off, Ino eagerly dressed more warmly making sure to wear the dress made of heavier material with long sleeves. It was a heavy brocade material rather than thin cotton or silk but still, it was cold.
"Oh look, you're good for something-- I guess," she said airily, echoing his earlier words when she saw him cooking. "How domestic of you, oh wonderful husband of mine."
"Well, I thought it'd be a good idea t'get some food cooked 'fore we both die of starvation," he deadpanned back, swiping at his brow with the back of his hand. The night was rising and cooling the sands outside, but the kitchen was small and hot. Also, the onions he was cutting up were irritating his eyes and---and shit, ow, rubbing his onion-sticky hand over his eyes hadn't helped matters one bit. He blinked hard, willing his eyes not to tear up stupidly. Ino would tear into him for sure. "I en't waitin' 'round for you t'learn how ta cook decently, if that's what you're sayin', oh flower of my heart. ---Fuckin' onions."
Kankurou finished chopping up the vegetables and set some oil to heat, turning his back purposefully to Ino so that he could wipe at his eyes with his tunic without getting teased or reprimanded.
Pursing her lips together and trying not to laugh too loudly, Ino wet a cloth and handed it to him. "This is for your eyes. You should chew white bread while you chop onions-- it makes it sting less. I'm not sure why but Chouji swears by it." She could cook just FINE, thank you very much, but hey if he wanted to cater to her that was his business. It was almost cute how childishly helpless he was when he was trying to be a Big Man and not let his eyes water in front of her. It would have been cute if not for the fact that it was Kankurou, the one she wanted to die in a fire very painfully.
She let out a giggle and soon pressed her hand against her mouth to smother it at how helpless he looked. It was just an onion. This was not serious business.
"Big bad jounin can't handle the heat?"
Kankurou took the cloth, shooting her a highly dirty look in return, and wiped his eyes quickly before busying himself with cooking again. Losing face in front of this stupid little chuunin brat was almost physically painful. It made his stomach do strange flipflops when she giggled at him like that, and he just wanted to hunch over away from her and eat as much good curry as he could hold. Maybe food would squash that weird feeling, stamping it down so that he could function through this damn mission just as easily as ever.
"I c'n handle a helluva lot more'n you," Kankurou groused, dumping ingredients into the pan and checking on the rice. Doing things with his hands always helped quell his nervous jitters, though he wasn't nervous because of HER, and the jitters were just his weariness at traveling to this village manifesting itself. He needed to feed his nausea before it grew to the point of settling him over the toilet with a case of dry heaves. Stupid Ino, stupid poison, stupid goddamn mission... "An' I don't need your help."
She rolled her eyes up the ceiling, throwing her hands up at the ceiling in a dramatic gesture. "You're such a man. I'll set the table then," Ino reached around to him get two plates and silverware, wiping them off first before setting them down on the table. Out of her shopping bags came a few bottles of beverages-- ones she hoped were non-alcoholic. Being the desert, their water wasn't the greatest so they drank a lot of fruit and malt liquors to make up for it. There was no way Ino was going to let herself or her partner get drunk on this mission. Talk about making a bad situation worse.
"I have no idea what this is, so if it's something really gross like the blood of lambs don't tell me. It smells pretty good," she opened the cap to one of the bottles that the owner of the store had called 'fenny' and sniffled at its contents. "Kind of like coconut. It smells really yummy."
...she'd bought liquor? Well, a girl who bought liquor on a mission wasn't so bad in his book, even though her previous offenses still outweighed this new startling discovery. They let kids like Ino drink at fifteen? Geeze, and Konoha badmouthed Suna for being uncultured---he hadn't had his first night with a bottle of hard alcohol until the day he'd achieved jounin status. Kankurou finished the curry and put it into a large bowl, so that they could sit down and...well. Do whatever it was normal people did when they sat down for dinner. Kankurou wasn't used to sitting down to eat---his family was hardly old-fashioned---but he had a strong feeling that most people ate and talked when they sat down together. He was going to go out on a limb and say that this was a normal activity for normal families, and---and oh sweet sands, why was she pouring that like water?
Kankurou set down the bowl and took the bottle away from Ino. She'd poured herself a full glass, and that was enough to get even him drunk as shit. "You plannin' on drinkin' all that?"
Right, and she was secretly an alcoholic. This mission was getting better by the minute.
It was only because the curry was so spicy that Ino kept taking sips of her drink. It really did taste good-- it was thick and sugary and went down smoothly. There was a strange after taste that she wasn't sure she liked but she felt warm and comfortable and this felt more okay than arguing. Kankurou had done a surprisingly good job with the food. Ino was hungrier than she thought and ate heartily-- it wasn't like she needed to pretend to be ladylike with him. As the moments ticked by, she found herself caring less and less about how she was acting. She had already unbuttoned the top two buttons of her dress due to the immense heat of her face and debated a third as her tongue burned from the curry.
"I don't like the desert, it's SO hot," she complained, "everything was sticking to me I was sweating so much, even my-- my underwear," Ino said in a hushed voice. "Then I had to take it off but you had no idea. But now you know~"
Kankurou was such a good listener! Maybe she had judged him wrong all this time. He was totally her BFF. She was going to make him a hemp best friend bracelet! With beads! To cement their newfound friendship.
It was like watching a disaster happen in slow motion. He could feel that it was wrong to let her keep drinking, tell that it was wrong to just watch, but he still just sat and ate, fascinated. By the time he was on his third helping of curry and rice, she was tugging open her top---baring the swells of two nicely-developing breasts, white as milk---giggling at every witty comment he wasn't making, and relaxing in a profound, loose way that one can only do when drunk. Color stained her cheeks, making her nose cherry-red, and he'd have to just guess at how unfocused her eyes were because he didn't have any experience judging the focus of eyes without pupils. Kankurou had to keep his hands busy again---this time by systematically shoving every last bit of food into his mouth---or else he would have found something else to do with them.
Were there rules for cross-gender, cross-village missions? Would he get in trouble if he messed around with her a little? Who would know, even? Kankurou chugged down a little bit of the fenny himself, drowning that flip-flopping feeling that food hadn't managed to pack down.
"Uh...so. You feelin' okay?"
"Just fiiiiine," Ino assured him, waving her hand and getting up in a very wobbly fashion. She didn't know why she felt so weird. One moment she was eating her curry, the next she felt a little light headed and happy. She made her way over to Kankurou and grabbed his face in her hands, eying him very carefully. He wasn't as bad as all that. "You look really good without the face paint. You have a good looking face," she said matter-of-factly. "Sort of mature looking. You're still a big jerk, though! But that's okay because since you're my husband and all, I can forgive you."
Apparently, when Ino was drunk she babbled.
"And I guess if it's okay if you want to kiss me to impress the neighbors but I haven't kissed THAT many people. They want to kiss me but I was like 'ew'. Most of them aren't good enough for me. You're a jerk and kind of a fatty but you ARE a jounin and good looking so you if you have to, it's cool."
It wasn't often that the girls beat him to the molestation part of the night. Kankurou was aptly baffled, round-eyed and gaping as his temporary teammate all but threw herself at him, settling herself down in his lap and cupping his face in her hands. It sort of unsettled him to have her looking at him like that, really looking, touching his cheeks and chin and giggling over the lack of paint. His paint was comfortable, and usually people looked at that instead of him---and he liked it that way.
"High-rankin' guys get all th' chicks," he agreed, far more shakily than he would have liked. Ino was messing with him, and---and his body was reacting, and it was taking great strength of will to not want to just get it over with, and he didn't HAVE strength of will, and---and--- "An' I en't fat, fuck. Ever had a real close look at that teammate of yours? He could prolly EAT me."
Ino took that as an invitation to feel around his arms and chest area, poking at his stomach a bit. True to his word it was all muscle with no fat anywhere to be found. Fancy that! So he wasn't a fatty-- he was just a brick wall. It was so much more fun to call him a fatty, though. "Okay so you're not fat. FINE~" she laughed and threw her braid over her shoulder. "Very impressive. I take back what I said."
She absently played with his hair, amazing at how it managed to stay in one position like that. It defied all laws of science, sort of like Shikamaru and Chouji's hair. Crazy. "High ranking guys totally get girls. Because they're strong enough to handle me."
Awww, he looked so cute when he hair was messy. She liked having him as her new BFF!
This was too much. There was no way anyone could blame him, now: she was petting him just about all over---hair, face, chest, stomach---and he was rapidly trying to decide if he should try getting her to pet lower. She was basically inviting it, wasn't she? Girls didn't act like this when they were drunk unless they actually wanted it---right? He swallowed squeakily, his throat so dry as to make him take another long swig of fenny. Ino was leaning against him, and when she shifted her weight he overbalanced backwards, falling over half-painfully.
Okay. That was gravity, and he was a little bit tipsy but still under gravity's iron fist. "Yeah, I could handle you alright," he growled, though his words were empty. He couldn't. She'd gotten better at this kunoichi thing since the last time they'd met.
Ino reflexes were definitely not up to par but she managed not to land on top of him in an awkward manner. She was on her knees and looking very confused as to how she was on the ground when she was standing only moments earlier. So weird. The kunoichi stood up shakily, brushing herself off and holding her hand down to Kankurou as though she could help him up. Riiight, gravity would definitely not be on her side for that one. She gave him a huge, silly grin, immensely amused at the way he was sprawled on the ground.
"Are you okay? I think you're drunk," she said seriously. "Only drunk people fall over like that!"
Was he drunk? That wasn't good. What if he threw up? Then Ino would be forced to take care of him. Oh well, since they were bonding she would do what she had to to make sure that he survived this mission. She had seen a person die choking on their own vomit and it was not cute at all. She had also seen someone choke on their own blood (her fault-- making the wrong cut is really not good to do on a mission) which was equally as... not good.
"I'm tipsy," Kankurou said, working himself back into a seated position. He wasn't really...used to his new height yet. The last growth spurt had been a big one, and he felt all weird and gangly, especially with a little bit of alcohol in his system screwing with his perceptions. "An' you're drunk. There's a difference. I think I'm. I'm jus'...gonna sit here for awhile. Gimme a minute."
Things were tipping a little, pleasantly dizzy, and he was afraid nausea would rock him if he tried moving around too much. Too much alcohol, too fast; dammit, he knew better than that. Ino was looking at him so curiously, as if she was actually worried, and that made him feel all...strange. He didn't like it. This bonding thing was uncomfortable, lubricated with alcohol and whatever imagined paste was sticking them together as sudden and fast friends---whatever that meant. Ino was just a friendly drunk, and she'd go back into being that miserable, useless brat as soon as she sobered up. He either wanted to touch her, feel the firmness of her breasts against him, or lock her in the other room and get away from those weird, stupid looks of hers.
They weren't friends. Kankurou didn't have any need for friends.
"I am?" she asked curiously, tilting her head in a kitten-esque manner. She had never been drunk in her life! The smell of alcohol wasn't all that pleasing when her father and his friends and it often got them in trouble with their wives. They acted like idiots, singing and dancing and carrying on about the old days. Ino wasn't singing or dancing and there were no old days to talk about. She just felt a little warm and tired, comfortable though and a little giggly. Everything, for some reason, was funny to her. So she was just in a good mood! Nothing more, nothing less.
But they had drunk the same thing at dinner. Huh. Could it be?
"Maybe we should go to bed," Ino suggested helpfully.
"I'll sleep here," Kankurou said, very firmly. He'd made friends with the floor. The floor was nice and safe, if a little hard and gritty. The thought of sharing a bed with---with her made his skin crawl unexpectedly, and the fact that he actually wanted to do it made his conflict only grow. Half of him wanted to fuck her. Hard. Half of him wanted her to go away and leave him alone. Very alone. What was going on with his head? "We don't...y'know, hafta pretend t'be together all th' time. Unless you wanna. I mean---fuck. D'you...?"
What was he even ASKING? Why was he asking? He didn't ask! He took! He just took! Took without caring that he was taking because girls were stupid and whiny and that little wet spot between their legs just happened to be comfortable and nice.
Kankurou rubbed his temples with his hands, frowning.
One eyebrow raised in confusion, not really following his thought pattern. He was babbling, words mixing together strangely. Or maybe it was just that her head was swimmy and a confusing place to be in general. "Won't it look weird if you do that? Besides it's cold and the floor will be even colder," she said logically, swaying a bit as she held up her finger matter of factly. "We'll use uh-- chastity pillows between us or something if you don't like it."
Ino laughed again. Chastity pillows. She was so witty. Kankurou didn't seem the shy type but hey, maybe he wasn't comfortable sleeping next to a girl.
Or maybe he was gay?
"It's cold," she murmured, shivering a bit. "The ground is freezing under my feet."
Chastity---?
This was not going to end well. This was going to be a long, frustrating night, and Kankurou was cursing as many gods as he could mentally list. WHY had they sent him on this kind of mission? He was going to have some fierce words for his brother as soon as he got back to Suna, that was for damned sure.
"You stay on your side of th' chastity pillows, an' I'll try t'stay on my side," he said solemnly, standing up a little woozily. Ugghhhh and there came the nausea. He would be regretting this in the morning. His belly churned, and it took a couple of deep breaths to keep it settled. "Deal?" Hopefully it was a big bed, lots of blankets. Kankurou liked sleeping with enough blankets to smother a normal person, and if Ino was one of those bitches who stole the covers, she would not survive the night. He wobbled towards the bedroom, pulling his tunic off over his head and loosening the knot holding his pants up.
That sounded like a good enough plan to her. Face burning, Ino turned away from him to give him privacy to change and to find something for herself to sleep in in her pack. Luckily she had swiped a long sleeved shirt from Shikamaru before leaving which would make for a nice, warm nightgown. It was a little hard to get the buttons to her dress undone, especially in the dim lighting of the bedroom but eventually she did it without too much work. Since Kankurou had said he wasn't interested in her little girl body, she wasn't highly embarrassed to have her naked back facing him. Besides, her hair covered most of it, anyway. Any perversion would all be in his head.
"Is it always this cold at night?" she asked as she struggled to put the shirt over her head. The wind was howling loudly, enough to rattle the windows. No wonder the building were made of such dense, sturdy material. "It never gets this cold in Konoha. Damp, but not cold."
As she spoke, desperate to break the silence, Ino took her hair down and started to brush it out. The alcohol effect was waning a bit and she was getting her footing back. It was now more scary than anything to spend a night in a foreign place without her team...
He'd never slept in the same bed as a girl before. Sure, he'd slept with girls, but he'd never slept with a girl, not since he was five and shared a bed with Temari---and that did not count. What if she minded that he slept in his underwear? Did he care if she cared? And the blankets---goddammit, she'd BETTER not take his blankets. He didn't sleep with much clothing on, so he NEEDED his blankets to keep warm. Ignoring her as she undressed---his imagination was better than the real thing, anyway---he crawled into his side of the bed and started arranging pillows and blankets to ensure they stayed on their own sides and nothing unfortunate happened. Like blanket stealing. Or sex. Kankurou swallowed hard.
He had this feeling he wouldn't be getting a lot of sleep.
The bed sheets were cold and when she finally settled beneath the blankets, it felt as though she were sleeping on a cube of ice. They were doing nothing to keep her warm and her shivering wasn't only from the cold; the room was too dark and the house was too scary and she missed Chouji and Shikamaru and Asuma-sensei. Sure, she had gone on missions without them... actually, no, not yet. All of her missions had them on it, or two of the three, or whatever. She wasn't ready for this. Why did they think she was ready? She was so not ready for this.
And she didn't have her piggie plushie. This was so upsetting.
Ino sighed and hugged her pillow, trying to squeeze warmth and comfort from it if such things were possible.
Kankurou could basically feel her shake, the tremors of her shivers quivering through to his side of the bed, and Kankurou rolled his eyes towards the shadowy ceiling. Why was he even asking, this was trouble, but---
"'re you cold?" He asked flatly, rolling over onto his side. Maybe he could sacrifice a blanket. Maybe. ONE. If she was going to die. Or whatever. "We don't really have...y'know, a heater 'r nothin'."
He didn't really care, he told himself. It would just be difficult to explain it all away if Ino ended up frozen and dead the next morning.
She took that as an invitation to burrow against his side, stealing some of his body warmth because he still had plenty to share. Even if he wasn't a "fatty" per se, he still had more body mass than she could ever hope to have and combined with the blankets, they could stay very warm. Besides, it was a little comforting to have someone next to her-- not as cuddly as Chouji and not as familiar as Shikamaru, but it was better than nothing.
"If we stay like this then we can keep warm."
It was basic survival training. Body warmth = no hypothermia = no losing fingers = living. Simple.
Kankurou couldn't breathe, for all of ten seconds. He panicked. She was small and warm and smelled---smelled like something he couldn't quite place, and her hands were so small and so cold and he just wanted her to stay like that, right there, because it felt good. He forgot to breathe, he forgot to swallow; he just stalled, mentally roadblocked, and fought his sudden, rabbit-like urge to dash away. What the FUCK was she doing to him?
He patted her shoulder awkwardly when he remembered how to inhale again, dizzy and overwhelmed. He didn't know where to put his arms or legs---everything felt out of place and uncomfortable---but Ino seemed to naturally know how to burrow herself into him and fit her smaller curves to his more angular body in the way that God had intended when making man and woman.
Her bed partner had gone so stiff that Ino wondered if he had actually died in the few seconds that passed by between their speaking. She could feel his heartbeat-- a rapid pulse, a little sweating, etc. etc. so he was alive. He was probably just cold, too. Even CHOUJI would be cold in this sort of weather! Going from hot to cold like this, how did people survive in a place like this??
Mystery.
"What's wrong?" she asked sleepily, voice heavy now that she was warming up. "You're not having a heart attack, are you?"
"No!" Kankurou snapped, trying to inch himself away from her---but dammit, she was clinging to him. His skin was prickling with sweat at the contact of skin against skin, and he wasn't entirely sure he was breathing properly. She was just so---she had to keep to the other side of the bed. He couldn't handle this. "Jus'---stop---you're too warm, geddoff!"
If she didn't get that sweet-smelling hair out of his face, pronto, he couldn't be held responsible for anything he did.
Part Two :D