Inoichi sat on a stool behind the counter at his family's flower shop. Many civilians – and even some ninja – thought it was amusing that a jounin was running a flower shop. Few thought of the various plants that could be useful in certain shinobi fields like interrogation, or that running a flower shop wasn't a full-time job. What it did mean was that Inoichi got to amuse himself any time he was behind the counter just by interpreting the body language and tells of various customers that didn't realize that appearances can be deceiving. His entertainment was increased when the customer was a ninja.
He checked the clock and started moving to close the shop when the door opened and in walked an orange-clothed blonde. “Ah, Uzumaki-san. I was about to close the store. Do you need anything for your plants?”
It was easy to see that Naruto seemed preoccupied with something. Maybe he should suggest someone work with the boy on hiding such things better. “Wha...? Oh, no. My plants are fine. Can we talk? It's about Ino.”
Inoichi drew himself up in full protective-father mode and stared at the boy. “Did you do something to my princess?”
“No! Me pranking or otherwise doing something to her would be a lot easier to deal with.” Complete with frantic hand-waving and nervous appearance. Inoichi mentally patted himself on the back for not being rusty on intimidating people. He paused his thoughts and patted himself on the back again, because Uzumaki were not intimidated easily.
“Very well. Let me close up the shop, and we can speak.” Inoichi sped up his usual pace for closing the shop while making it look like he was taking his time – important skill to have there, just look at Kakashi's success with it – and used the time to subtly examine his guest.
Worry. Check. Concern and slight panic. Check. Desperation? Hm, why would he be desperate to have this talk regarding Ino? Did she do something, as odd as that seemed with her current state? And, mostly buried under the other emotions, solid determination. Very interesting and not at all usual for the boy.
Inoichi finished up his work and gestured for Naruto to follow him. He made sure to turn off the lights in the shop as they exited – his wife was quite upset the last time he had forgotten – and led Naruto through the shop's primary greenhouse. Inoichi felt he'd be quite worried about the conversation at the rate things were going, because Naruto wasn't paying the least attention to the various flowers and other plants like other times he'd been in the greenhouse.
They cleared the greenhouse and Inoichi curved away to the side as they crossed a grassy area. He stepped up to a building off to the side, a fairly unassuming one-story structure of a traditional design. One end of the building was connected by a covered walkway to the home opposite the greenhouse. The two entered, revealing a dojo space within. He gestured for the boy to sit before doing so himself and waiting for the boy to start.
“I need you to get me into Ino-chan's mindscape, tonight.” That would explain some of the emotions rolling off the boy, except that it explained absolutely nothing. Time to see where things led to, because there seemed to be a mystery afoot and involved his daughter.
“One's mind is a very private thing, Uzumaki-san. The Clan has strict guidelines on when we can enter the minds of allies–”
“What about for mental health? I'm sure you noticed your daughter acting off starting a few days after the accident with Sakura-chan. I mean, off even from how she was acting after the accident prior to that point. Frequent twitching that's slowly occurred less and less as time goes on?”
“While I'm glad you're looking out for her, it's not out of possibility that such things occur normally when someone is dealing with a traumatic situation like she was in. Her surroundings could've been causing her to think about the accident, leading to the twitches. That they've been getting less is simply a sign of her getting past the issue.” Inoichi noted equal parts frustration and annoyance from Naruto. And an increase in the desperation. What in the world had him so worked–
“It's not trauma! It's that damn Shadow that's been a guest in her head nearly every time I've seen her starting a few days after the accident! Can't really make out an appearance, but it's been saying or doing things to Ino-chan that causes the twitches like she's fighting whatever is happening.”
Inoichi mentally blinked. Nothing but honesty off the blonde. Now they were getting somewhere, but there were holes all over this story. “A shadow person that you can see with her, that's in her head, that no one else has ever mentioned seeing, and it's responsible for Ino's change of behavior?”
“Yes!”
He sighed. If nothing else, the boy clearly believed it was all true. “Uzu– Naruto-san, think about what you're saying. The Yamanaka Clan specializes in the mind. If something like that was true, we'd know about it by now. The fact that you'd use a story like that to try to get inside my daughter's head–”
“Fuck your Clan's specialization! What you know about the mind doesn't scratch what's affecting Ino-chan!” Inoichi blinked. Desperation was the overwhelming emotion for the boy now. Desperation and determination. He allowed Naruto to gather his thoughts and take a breath. “Take me into her mind. You'll be with me the entire time, right? We go, find Ino, make sure she's okay. If she is, I'll accept whatever punishment you decide.”
Inoichi considered his options, and when his daughter could be in the balance it wasn't much of a decision. “I'll go tomorrow. Alright?”
Naruto shook his head frantically. “The twitching's nearly stopped. Whatever's happening, I'm sure tonight is the last chance to do something about it. If you're right, we just disturb Ino and she'll be extremely pissed at me. I get punished, and everything's fine. But what if you're wrong? The sooner we help her, the better.”
“You keep saying 'we' and wanting to go in. I can handle anything I encounter in her mind short of a biju.” Naruto glanced to the side briefly on mention of a biju. Did he know...?
“You can't handle this.” Pure certainty, complete with eye contact. Curiouser and curiouser. “Please.”
Inoichi gazed out a window of the dojo. What should he do? Logic would say that Naruto was spinning a yarn to get into Ino's head for some reason, but it didn't make sense when his emotional state came into play. And the idea of a Yamanaka not having a clue how to handle a matter of the mind... well, to be fair they were well aware that aspects of the mind where still beyond their comprehension. But not even a hint of something? Wait. Naruto said, “that damn Shadow.” Not “shadowy thing” or “shadowed thing,” but “shadow.”
“Naruto, you know what we're dealing with, don't you? Maybe not specifically who, but certainly what it is?” The boy nodded. “Why did you wait until now to come to me then?”
“Would you have believed me? I mean, you still don't really believe me now. I... I didn't want to come to you at all, but I couldn't find her on my own. Maybe I don't know her well enough, or I'm not familiar enough with her 'scent' or signature or whatever. Maybe I'm just bad at tracking. I've been trying since I realized the problem, but I'm out of time. This is my only option to get into her mind in time to help. I can explain what I can as we go.”
Inoichi faced the decision. Everything he knew urged him to say no to letting the boy in, to postpone and check it out himself. But at the same time, it was his daughter at stake if the boy was right. All veteran shinobi learned to listen to their instinct in the field, and his had been trying to chime in most of the conversation.
Ten minutes later he was standing outside a structure that had a vague similarity to his home, Naruto standing next to him. “Huh. So do all mindscapes look like this? 'Cause mine looks like a sewer, and I'd like to think I'm not the odd person out.”
Inoichi started striding forward to the front door. Naruto followed behind him, unzipping his jacket as they went. “Actually, when we enter minds, we enter the mindscape, not the front yard of the mindscape. And each mind is different. Our thoughts, feelings, experiences... they all help bring form to one's mindscape.”
“Even the thoughts and feelings we hide and bury away because they aren't 'us'?”
He stopped just inside the house. Despite the appearance outside, the interior layout wasn't entirely similar to his actual home. Plus, there seemed to be plants growing through the walls and seemingly starting to replace them. “Those can have an effect on the mindscape, yes. But generally not as much as the parts we don't hide away. Hm. Ino's mindscape has been altered since I last saw it while training her.”
“The plants aren't supposed to be here?”
Inoichi nodded. “The plants aren't supposed to be here. I guess the good news is that the doors seem to be knocked out by the vines, so we can search faster. Now, as we start searching, I want an explanation. What is a Shadow?”
“Ahh, that might be an easy to accept concept for you. From what I understand, Shadows are, um, suppressed thoughts and feelings a person has, but given form. And they're usually pretty pissed about being the ignored/suppressed parts of a person. Denying that they're a part of you gives them strength and eventually they might decide to kill you to 'become' you. As far as anyone knows, that plan just doesn't work though.”
That... made a disturbing amount of sense. “So all Shadows would be generally the darker side of people that they don't want to admit to having? Then why has the Yamanaka not encountered them before?”
“Eh, I'm not sure. It could be that no Yamanaka up to this point has had the special whatever needed to spark the contact. Maybe they weren't in the right place to do so. I hear that there's this waterfall up in Lightning Country that let's you see your inner reflection. That could be a way to meet your Shadow.” Naruto paused for a moment to look into another room they came across. “Heck, for all we know, they might've met their Shadow and were killed by it. Without knowing of their existence, it's just have been considered a training accident.”
Something didn't seem to add up. If a Shadow was the darker side of a person that's been hidden away, and a Shadow killing the real self to become them doesn't work, then what about Shadow death? “What happens when you kill a Shadow? Is the person it's linked to affected by the action?”
“Not if the person is alive. There's Shadows that are linked to living people. They tend to look like their real self, but with enough power, they transform into a different appearance. Those Shadows can't actually be killed. As along as the real self lives, they live. Might need time to recovery, but they'll live.” He glanced into another room. “Aren't there supposed to be memories or something floating around in these rooms or something?”
Inoichi had hoped the boy wouldn't pick up on that possibility, but it seemed he was more observant than people thought. Or just lucky on his guesses. “Not necessarily. However, Ino-chan shouldn't have the mental discipline and experience to do something like that yet. What about Shadows that aren't linked to living people?”
“Those? They largely lose their intelligence and the memories of their real self and wander around like wildlife. Kill those, they stay dead. Don't think it's possible to wipe them all out though. I mean, I think a few million or billion people died during the fight involving the Sage of the Six Paths. That's a lot of Shadows.”
Inoichi noted the comment regarding the Sage, but let it slide for now. The two continued their exploration, finding nothing but empty rooms and plants as they progressed. Inoichi decided to bring up another question he had from the earlier conversations. “Why didn't you think I could handle a Shadow, Naruto-san?”
“Um. Well, you don't have a Persona. Those are the best things to combat a Shadow with.” At a gesture, Naruto continued. “A Persona is... a tamed Shadow from what I understand. It's your true self. All persona have different strengths and abilities. Some are stronger than others. A lot like ninja, ya know?”
By now, there were no more side corridors or rooms. A meter ahead of them laid one last doorway. If Ino was in her mindscape, she couldn't be anywhere except past those doors. It was troubling to him that the walls, floor, and even the ceiling were plants here. The only exception being the wall the door was on. “Naruto-san, stay here. I'll go in first and see what the situation is.”
“But if it really is a Shadow, you going in first makes you a target. Couldn't we just slide the door open a bit and look in first, all sneaky like?”
He gazed at the blonde. It was seemed surprisingly hard to not smile at the kid with how he ended the question, despite the circumstances. “Fair enough, though if she's fine, I reserve the right to throw you in to suffer her wrath while I exit to safety.”
The boy was wise to the horrors that were angry females it seemed, given how he shivered and tried to plead for mercy with his eyes. Unfortunately, Inoichi hadn't been part of the T&I division for nothing, and he easily ignored the plea as he slid open the doors. Or just one door, apparently, as the other seemed jammed in place.
What. The. Hell. There were two Inos in the room. One looked like her current self, the other looked like a possible older version of her. And the conversation.... He was glad he listened to his instinct now. Inoichi glanced at Naruto as the boy slid the door shut.
“Um, good news Inoichi-san! We're apparently in time to save Ino, and I was right about a Shadow being involved. Bad news, that's not the general shape of the Shadow I've been seeing.”
“More importantly right now, Naruto-san. What is it doing to my daughter?”
“Well, you know how I said that a Persona is a tamed Shadow? Do you know what happens when the reverse happens? When a Shadow tames their real self? Because I have no idea. It's never been tried that I know of. I guess there's only one thing to do then.”
He raised his eyebrow as the boy lined up with the doors. “And what would that be?”
“Well, I've never rescued a princess before, even if she's only that to you, so it's time to pop my rescuing princesses cherry.” Naruto thankfully paused in confusion, allowing Inoichi to restart his thought processes. “Actually, what does that phrase even mean, 'popping my cherry'? Every time I ask an adult, they tend to get blushing or stammering before muttering something and fleeing the area. Or yell at me and chase me off.”
Inoichi coughed and glanced anywhere but at the door leading to his daughter or Naruto. Why did he have to be stuck in the mindscape with this question? “It's... Let's just say it's regarding a topic that you shouldn't be concerned about for a few more years minimum.”
“It's something perverted, isn't it? I knew it!” Naruto smacked his fist into the palm of his other hand. He shook his head. “Whatever. Okay, bust in there, un-tame Ino-chan – no matter how much more bearable she'd probably be like this–, defeat her Shadow, save the day. Simple.”
Inoichi had one last thing to ask as the boy prepared to go save the girl. “Naruto... what are you doing?”
“Well, I get to make a heroic entrance. And when it comes to that, a phrase comes to mind – go big or go home.”