trapped ➳ naruto | ✔️

Juu Ichi: Finding Ino

Sorry, for such a short chapter! But I'll make it up to all of you in the following chapters c:

Juu Ichi: Finding Ino 
Naruto

     "Where's Ino?" Shikamaru asks casually before he made his move on the board. We are currently playing monopoly and it seems like Sasuke is effortlessly winning and getting everyone's money while I, unfortunately, is losing all my money and is left with a few dollars even though I try so hard to dominate the whole board. I look up from the board and scanned the faces of everyone in the room and realized that Ino really is missing. Where is she? 

      "Yeah, where's Ino?" Ten ten says while counting her money as Kiba groans in the background because he has to pay to Shikamaru again. 

     "Didn't she say she was going to buy something in the grocery store?" Neji chimes in as he looks up from the cards of the places he bought. 

     "It has been two hours, what on earth did she buy?" Shikamaru says with a skeptical look on his face. He has a point. Ino may take long with changing clothes, fixing her hair, shopping or basically anything she does. But just to buy something while there's a party going on with anyone else with her is a little suspicious. 

      "She must have probably spotted Ichiraku ramen, amd then she ate there and forgot about the whole party itself!" I suggest as I try to imagine her eating lots of ramen. I suddenly started to feel my stomach growl. I would do anything to be in her position right now. "I would do that if I was her." I add as I rest my chin on the palm of my hand.

     "Idiot!" Ten ten yells as he whacks me behind my head, 'causing me to yelp in pain and rub the back of my head. "Maybe you would do that, but she's not you." She says harshly.

     "She must have taken the long way here after doing a thousand jumping jacks and push ups to celebrate her youth!" Lee exclaims cheerfully who was the banker, and was currently organizing all the cards, money and houses and buildings. "I know I would do that." He adds cheerfully. 

     "But she's not you." Neji states in an annoyed tone.

     "And who on earth, except you and Gai-sensei, of course, would do that in the middle of the village?" Ten ten yells in exasperation before throwing the closest thing near to her—a book. It quickly flew to Lee's way and hit him on the face hard. The book slowly slipped from his face and landed on his lap, leaving a red book mark on his face. 

       "That hurt, Ten ten!" Lee groans as he rubbed his red face. "Frowning and throwing things at other people isn't a good way to spend your youth!" Ten ten glared at Lee, before throwing her shoe at him, which he luckily missed, but when she threw her other shoe, he wasn't able to dodge it. It hit him once again on the face, making his face even redder, if that's possible. "How dare you do this, Ten ten!" He says, tears forming his eyes. "After all we've been through!" 

      Ten ten arches an eyebrow at him. "Did we even go through something?" She says coldly while narrowing her eyes at him. I wanted to laugh at Lee's reaction but Choji spoke up, making us focus our attention at him.

      "What if she didn't buy something at all?" Choji suggests while chewing on a chicken leg. He wasn't part of the game. He just decided to watch and eat the whole time. "What if she went somewhere else?"

     "B-but why didn't she tell us?" Hinata asks softly. She was looking down at her piece that was stuck in jail and her cheeks were bright red as always due to her shyness. "I-i-it isn't like her." She adds.

     "Yeah, she would usually tell us everything and she would come back quickly especially since there's a party going on. Knowing her, she would want to always be there and witness whatever is going to happen." Ten ten says, agreeing with her as she folds her arms across her chest and leans against the couch behind her. 

     "And if she really is doing something else, then what is it?" Sai adds as he held his chin to probably think of possible answers. 

     Everybody remained silent to think for a while until Sasuke stood up from his seat and everybody turned his attention to him. "I have to go somewhere," He muttered loud enough for everyone to hear before walking out the room. I quickly stood up as well and followed him. 

     "Sasuke, where are you going?" I ask him as I follow him out of the house. 

    "To where Sakura is," He replies in a hushed tone. I tilt my head in confusion.

     "Why?" 

    He lets out a long sigh before turning to look at me. "I have a feeling that Obito informed Ino about Sakura's whereabouts but she decided not to tell anyone because it's your birthday and she doesn't want to ruin it. Either that or there must be something we don't know about. Anyhow, I have to get there immediately especially since Sakura is probably still in the state of confusion and shock especially since she's surrounded by Itachi, Obito and other fakes, adding another fake has a great probability that'll take an effect on her."

    "How are you so sure about this?" I ask, finally getting serious. I couldn't help but wonder what Sakura-chan’s condition is now. We just left her at that state a while ago. When I found out about my party from Obito, at first Sasuke and I were quite hesitant because we knew we had to stay by her side, especially since she's sick, but we knew we had no choice and we had to find new information about this world. This small sacrifice was for all our sakes. 

     "Think about it carefully, Naruto, like what Ten ten said a while ago, she wouldn't take that long and she would tell us. Not only that, Obito told her about Sakura's condition to me, her supposed to be lover in this world. Obito would probably have notified Sakura's own best friend and her parents too, right?" Sasuke explains it as if he just read it from the back of his hand. It was expected from a genius to figure this out so quickly. I finally nodded in agreement, finally realizing everything. 

     I suddenly had the urge to see Sakura-chan as a thousand questions ran through my mind like: is she okay? Has she gotten sicker? Is she resting well? What did she do while we were gone? How is she with Itachi and the rest? And many more. Without second thought, I marched toward the exit but Sasuke grabbed me by the wrist. I looked at him and he looked back at me seriously. "You can't." He says gravely. "Wouldn't everyone else be suspicious because you disappeared as well? Especially since you're the celebrant here?" 

     Realization hit me like a rock. There's nothing I could do to help Sakura-chan now. I can't even use Shadow clone jutsu because for some weird reason, I can't do it. I knew that all I could do left is rely on Sasuke. I let out a sigh and reluctantly nodded in agreement. "Tell them that I need to go home early because I have to help oka-san with some chores." He tells me as he lets go of my wrist. I just simply nod, feeling so useless. "And don't forget that we're going to meet tomorrow okay?" He reminds. I nod once again. 

     He was about to leave until I called his name, 'causing him to stop. I believe in Sakura-chan's strength, in fact with just one punch, she could actually pulverize me and turn me into a stain. But I just couldn't help but worry so much about her. 

      "Make sure Sakura-chan is okay, alright?" I say, looking down at the grass.

     "Hn."