Unplanned

Inojin

This chapter was beta-read by: Sakura's Unicorn

Inojin growls, tongue between his teeth, and leaps to his feet as if his sudden mobility will keep his white mage from being completely decimated by his opponent. It's some guy from the Sand Village, according to the user stats, and he's an absolute defensive tank. None of Inojin's spells are working.

It's as his mage finally runs out of mana and becomes the victim of an area-of-effect trap that a sudden slam downstairs rattles the house.

"I'm home!" he hears his mother yell. "Sai? Inojin?"

"In my room," he calls back. "Everything go all right?"

"It was shopping, not urban warfare" is his mother's muffled reply from downstairs.

"I don't know, some of those little old ladies get vicious if you cut in line," he muses.

He gives a final futile key mash and throws down his controller with a groan. His mage has finally died, giving Tanuki1 yet another victory over him. He will definitely need to get Boruto and Shikadai to help beat this guy.

Not that that will happen any time soon. Boruto is stepping up his training with Sarada's father, while Shikadai is grounded from any and all forms of fun for the foreseeable future. Inojin isn't quite sure what it's about – Shikadai was sort of vague on the details. Apparently, it involves his Uncle Gaara, poor judgement, and the encouragement of bad habits.

Aunt Temari was angry, and that's all that matters.

It's just as well. Inojin hears his mother skipping up the stairs which means she's probably about to kick him off of the game system and insist he help prepare supper or something.

The screen flickers a message asking him if he'd like to quit or respawn, and he chooses the former. With a yawn, he throws himself backward onto his bed and stretches, waiting for the inevitable Hurricane Ino that is his mother at the end of the day. You'd think someone who works in Intelligence wouldn't have much to say, but somehow, she always manages to have a crazy story or two to share.

To Inojin's surprise, her footsteps don't even pause outside his room, let alone enter. He hears the soft pad of her socks heading down the hall, followed by the slam of a door.

And then silence.

Okay, that's kind of weird. Mom always stops to check in with me when she gets home.

She's actually obsessively annoying about it. When he complains, she always shrugs it off as something her father used to always do with her growing up. Which of course means he can't say anything because talking about Grandpa Inoichi makes her sad.

Maybe she got into another argument with Aunt Sakura?

They do that often enough. Inojin understands that they're never really angry with each other for keeps, but sometimes after a spat, Mom stews in angry silence for several hours until Dad comes home and either says something clueless to make her laugh, or points out exactly how stupid the topic of the argument was. Then Mom will either laugh or yell at him that he doesn't understand, but she'll look sheepish and the mood vanishes immediately. The next day, she and Aunt Sakura will once again be on speaking terms.

Until the next argument.

It's a vicious, unbreakable cycle.

Inojin doesn't think he'll ever understand women –

The unnatural silence in the house is shattered by a worryingly loud thunk and a stream of swearing that wouldn't be uncharacteristic of Uncle Shikamaru or Aunt Karui.