Who Am I?

Chapter 7: The Final 24

Ino didn't know what else to do. The moment it dawned on her what had happened, she took off out of the room, running back up to her office. It was taking its time to sink in, but she wasn't sure exactly how to process it. There was no way that Tenten's software was that grievously incorrect; everything was perfect, from the shape of her face to the thickness of her hair. The margin of error couldn't be that wide that it would just coincidentally look like her... right? Not a chance. No way. What were the chances of that even happening? It had to be incredibly low if it happened at all.

After seeing her leave the room rapidly, Sai followed behind, hesitating outside the woman's office. He didn't know what he should say about the situation; it was evident now that she hadn't known a thing about her history. Something her parents had likely kept from her, he surmised. This had to be quite the shock; finding out that you were someone else that had been missing for over two decades was the kind of thing that would uproot someone's whole life in an instant. He only wished that Dr. Haruno wasn't away for the weekend; he would have immediately gone to her and asked for her assistance. She was Ino's best friend; that ought to be enough to get her to talk.

Nevertheless, he was in this on his own, and he would have to deal with it. Raising a hand to the door, he rapped lightly with his knuckles, hoping she was in there. "Miss Yamanaka? It's Sai. Please, we should discuss this."

Ino heard him from the opposite side of the door, and she felt angry. The way he'd reacted, he had to either know or suspect what had been happening. He'd treated her like she was hiding something, thinking all of this and not bothering to tell her? The information she'd found out had silenced the rational part of her, and the irrational–or rather, emotional–side of her had taken over. That jerk had known the whole time and kept it from her. Hadn't it become obvious that she was completely in the dark? And to let her find out this way–what was she, a tool for him to use and abuse at his pleasure, all for the sake of his case? Was she not a person with feelings, a person whose life had just been completely turned upside-down?

"Go away," she snapped, fists clenched as she had her back against the door. "I don't want to talk to you. Just–go away." Sai was the last person she wanted to talk to. In fact, she wanted to talk to Sakura, but that was impossible right now; Sakura was busy, away from the city for the weekend. Ino couldn't bring herself to ruin the pinkette's weekend with something like this. She'd finally managed to convince her to take a weekend off, and Sakura had somehow managed to get Sasuke to go with her. If she ruined that, she'd be the worst friend in the world. For tonight, she'd just have to go home and deal with it on her own. Do her own research, find out what she could, and come armed with information when she had to confront it.

Because she would, oh, she would confront it, all right. She'd march right up to her parents' doorstep and demand answers if she had to. This sort of thing could uproot her entire career; she would have to fight to make it clear she'd known nothing over the years. It could very easily look like she had taken up a position in law enforcement just to further her parents' agenda–no, to further Akatsuki's agenda. That looked even worse.

Her life as a prosecutor could be over, after all the work she'd put in.

Sai heard her demands from the opposite side of the door, feeling mild disappointment from her quick dismissal. Surely she understood the position he'd been in; if he'd given away what he knew, then it could have ended poorly for them. He had to be absolutely sure that she had nothing to do with things, and this point convinced him that she did. His only option was to remain silent and distance from her a bit, at least until she'd calmed down enough to talk things out. He silently made his way into the meeting room, opting to wait until she was leaving for the day before he'd make his move.