intraspective | Konohagakure no Sato, Sunday Morning

Ino	There was one good thing to be said about exhaustion. It meant that she hadn't spent the intervening hours panicking over what she'd done, that she'd sold out her team, that she'd possibly made a mistake that there was no going back from. No, sleeping through those hours had probably been for the best. Even if that meant, now, that she was sitting, perched really, on a chair and staring at the door with thinly-veiled apprehension. She didn't know what had changed Hokage-sama's mind. Before sleeping, her understanding had been that they'd go to where the team was supposed to meet up and deal with it. Now…
Tsunade	Tsunade pretended to be oblivious to the nervous energy the girl was radiating. Paperwork, always more paperwork, was a good way to pretend. A few covert glances—not that she had to work hard at stealth, not with the girl so preoccupied—said that at the very least, Yamanaka Ino had gotten some sleep. Her decision for moving the confrontation from the gates of the village to her office had not been done lightly. Having it here would generate more talk amongst her shinobi (and all shinobi gossiped like fiends) but that could, in turn, dissuade them from attempting to leave on their own. Right now, it was time to wait. Already her ANBU would have picked up the two Chuunin. She reread another document and waited.
Chouji	It'd been obvious what was going on when the ANBU members showed up instead of Ino. It all added up, but Shikamaru had hoped against all ends that he'd been wrong. Chouji had been insistent on it, Ino couldn't have ratted them out. That wasn't her. Team 10 came first. The humiliation of being dragged to the Hokage with an ANBU force as escort meant very little to him when they entered the Hokage's office. "Ino," Chouji wasn't as good at containing his surprise.
Ino	She sat with her back straight, shoulders up, chin set. The very picture of stubborn determination. Ino might've made a mistake, the way they were looking at her cut her heart to shreds, but she was going to stand by it. There was nothing else that could be done now. So she just met their eyes with a gaze that said, yes, she'd done this and yes, she was sticking by it. No, she hadn't been caught and forced to confess. That might've been the only answer they would've accepted. Ino kept her mouth shut.
Shikamaru	Shikamaru set his jaw and he looked away, shifting his body just so she'd be out of his sight. She'd turned her back on their team, it was only right he'd do the same. "You wished to see us, Hokage-sama?" he addressed Tsunade. Chouji only glanced away when Shikamaru spoke and then copied his stance, waiting for the Hokage's answer.
Tsunade	Tsunade took a moment to study the three of them. The flash of hurt on the girl's face as she realized that they hadn't ever thought that maybe she'd told not of her own will. A lack of faith. The conflicting emotions on the Akimichi boy's face: betrayal and concern and surprise all mingled as if he couldn't decide what he wanted to feel or which emotion was right. The Nara boy's face was unreadable but for the way he stood, deliberately not looking at the one who'd sold them out. "I did," she said evenly. "Explain your presence at the gates."
Shikamaru	She already knew the answer, but Shikamaru followed the order nonetheless. "The mission to capture the Akatsuki hasn't been called off yet," he pointed out. "We were going out to finish the orders we'd been given. Ino was coming with us," he added, as an afterthought. As if she didn't belong naturally to the team that had meant to set out.
Tsunade	The girl's eyes blazed. "Another team has already been sent to the last known location of the Akatsuki," Tsunade said, fixing them with a stare and speaking before the girl decided to flare up. Tsunade was acquainted enough with the Yamanaka temper. "You were notified of your change in orders." For them to remain within the village for the time being. Until another plan was hammered out. They had chosen to ignore that order.
Shikamaru	"I came up with a plan," Shikamaru defended. "Assuming I had Team Ten's support. We could have taken them on and finished the battle."
Tsunade	"And in doing so placed your personal loyalties over your loyalty to your village," Tsunade pointed out. "You were given different orders. Your vendetta does not and will not take precedence over the village." Her eyes were cold. "I will be blunt, of Sarutobi Asuma's Team Ten, only one of you has acted with forethought and true loyalty. Your mission would have been a suicide mission."
Shikamaru	Only for one of them, but Shikamaru didn't say that. He didn't say anything, letting the words slide past him as he stared ahead, just over Tsunade's shoulder. It was Chouji who to Shikamaru's surprise spoke up. "It would have worked."
Tsunade	"Nara Shikamaru, Akimichi Chouji, both of you are to be confined to village until further notice. Any attempts to leave the village will result in harsher punishments. I understand you are both grieving." She leaned forward. "I will not lose more of my shinobi. You are dismissed. Yamanaka Ino, remain behind for a minute."
Shikamaru	Shikamaru didn't need to be told twice. He and Chouji bowed. Despite their anger, she was still Hokage and deserved their respect. Ino was a different matter and Shikamaru turned so he wouldn't have to look at her as he left the room. It was tempting to leave, but Chouji lingered behind him outside the door and maybe there was one more thing to be said. Shikamaru lit up his cigarette as he leaned against the wall, waiting for Ino to come outside.
Ino	There wasn't much more that Hokage-sama had wanted to tell her. When her portal would be, how she was pleased with her actions. Ino barely heard it, really, remembering how her team had looked. That hurt, piling on top of the hurt of her failing Asuma-sensei, of him dying. Take care of them. She was unsurprised when they were waiting for her. Ino studied them for a moment, then made to keep going. Anything they had to say, she knew she probably deserved. She didn't want to hear it.
Shikamaru	"You do not have the right to ignore us now, Yamanaka," Shikamaru pushed away from the wall, standing in the middle of the hallway now. If he was angry before, her trying to ignore them only made it worse.
Ino	Crossing her arms over her chest would've made her look defensive. She settled her hands on her hips instead. And waited. Yamanaka. Right. Well, that was one of her names. Ino tried to pretend it didn't hurt.
Shikamaru	Dammit, but he wasn't going to be talking to her back. If anyone should turn their backs, it was them. Not her. It was tempting to use his jutsu and make her turn, but he wouldn't lower himself to that and so he moved in front of her. His face was a mask, but his dark eyes betrayed his anger and his loathing. "You betrayed us," he spoke quietly. There was no need to have Hokage-sensei involved in this. "You betrayed Asuma-sensei's will. No true member of Team Ten would have ratted us out like that."
Ino	"I obeyed Asuma-sensei's last order to me," she said, her eyes livid and her voice forced low. Doing her best to hide how much it hurt having to listen to that. "He told me to take care of you two." Not, some small mutinous part of her thought, that they deserved it right now.
Shikamaru	"And he gave us all the task to protect his child," Shikamaru spat, revealing the words that Asuma-sensei had spoken to him alone. "They are important, not us. You're a traitor."
Ino	"Oh yes," she flared, "a traitor for keeping you safe. A traitor for keeping Chouji alive. That's important to me!" It always had been. "If Asuma-sensei had wanted us to take care of his child," she continued mutinously, "he would have told all of us. He told me something quite different than what he told you. You don't know anything." Ino wasn't sure she'd done the right thing. It would keep them alive. Wasn't that good enough?
Shikamaru	"Maybe he knew he couldn't trust you with it," Shikamaru shot back, his mask crumbling for a second. Then it was back in place and he took a step back. "Go back to your island, Yamanaka. There's no place for you here. Your own team can't trust you."
Ino	She jerked back like she'd been slapped. Ino had—had expected something cruel, she had, but that was… Her hand lashed out to slap him, all of her strength into the blow, faster than he'd probably thought her capable of. She'd been training; it showed. Go back to her island? Fine, she would. "My team stopped trusting me years ago," she said, voice brittle. "Long before I did anything to deserve that. More the fool I, for loving them anyway."
Chouji	"That's not true," Chouji was suddenly there beside Shikamaru, stepping half in front of him. It wasn't clear which of the two he meant to stop. "I trusted you to be with us. So did Shikamaru. We wanted you to be there, but you weren't. You're never here anymore," he sounded more disappointed than angry.
Ino	She wasn't. That was true. In the last few months she'd spent more time in Zack's world than in her own. "Before that," she said, sounding resigned. Everything else boxed away, closed off, she embraced being numb. Everything else hurt too much. "But it doesn't matter now, does it? You've made up your minds and I… made my choice. I choose keeping you two alive over avenging Asuma-sensei." "I can't regret that."
Shikamaru	"Then maybe you lost trust in us long before this too," Chouji spoke quietly and he couldn't hide his hurt the way Shikamaru did. "She's right, Chouji," Shikamaru laid a hand on his shoulder, gently pulling him back. Her handprint still burned hot pink on his cheek. "It doesn't matter, she made her choice. Let's go."
Ino	That was unfair. If she'd been—herself—she would have pointed out why that was unfair. If keeping trust and keeping faith was a scorecard, then they'd stopped trusting her first. She just watched, instead, as they left. Eyes and face shuttered. Traitor, was she? Maybe she was. Maybe she hadn't done right. But all the maybes in the world couldn't change what she had done. Ino couldn't even find it in her to cry. Traitor.

Ino	The sun was slowly rising. Ino felt fragile, brittle—almost like someone had shattered her. She'd spent hours just walking. Just thinking. Not crying. There would be a time for tears she felt, knew, but that time wasn't now. That would be too much weakness to show here. While she walked with shadowed eyes through her home village. When she reached her house, she didn't go inside and instead took a turn down another street. Wending her way through the village, memory and feet leading her more than her mind. It was the greenhouses that eventually she stopped by. A few handseals, more reliable a lock than a key, gained her entrance. She perched carefully, painstakingly, on a stool and closed her eyes. The greenhouse was warm and humid. The air stuck in her throat and her eyes burned. Ino set her jaw and refused to let any of the tears fall. Traitor. Was she? For wanting to keep them alive rather than avenging someone already dead? Ino didn't know. And that hurt too. She buried her head against her knees and concentrated on just breathing. Maybe then she wouldn't hear Shikamaru saying that word over and over again in her mind.
Inoichi	One of the things about his daughter, Inoichi knew, was that she was sensitive. Oh, she was about as tactful as their namesake boar and prone to leaping headfirst into erroneous assumptions. But she felt. That was more important than any of her faults in his eyes. Of course, he was massively biased. He'd been having breakfast when the news of what had happened with her team reached him. Mui's eyes widened in surprise as she dropped a plate that shattered with a sound that rang far too loudly in their kitchen. Inoichi, though, felt his heart break in his chest. His darling girl. Chouza looking grave—he'd come to tell them after getting the story from his son, Chouji. Inoichi set his cup down, the glass chinking against the table, and brushed past his teammate without a word. He knew his daughter. Knew where she'd be. The greenhouse wasn't far from here. Inoichi was right though he felt little pleasure in being so. Curled up on a stool, arms wrapped around her head, forehead pressed to her knees, shoulders shaking, was his daughter. "Ino."
Ino	Her head jerked up at the sound of his voice. Her back creaked at the sudden movement, pain lighting up down her spine as she realized that she'd been curled up there for hours. But her face was dry. Ino considered that a victory. Something to hang onto. There wasn't not much she can cling to right this second. "Dad?" Her voice sounded odd to her ears, like it was coming from a great distance. What was he doing here? Ino didn't see him move.
Inoichi	Move he did. Across the greenhouse in a flash to wrap his arms around his daughter's slim shoulders. "I heard, princess," he said quietly. That was all he said.
Ino	And her face blanked. That was all that needed to be said as she leaned against him, clung to him, and still stubbornly refused to give into any emotion. She would rather be numb, it hurt less. Time moved—oddly. In bits and pieces, broken and scattered as she struggled to keep her head, to not fall apart, to breathe. The only solid thing she was aware of was her dad. And he said nothing, just held her and let her fight this battle on her own. "D-Did you hear what they said?" she asked eventually, voice strained. Quiet. Stretched so tight it wanted to snap. She never wanted to ask, she needed to ask.
Inoichi	"I did," he answered, after deciding that she really wanted the answer.
Ino	"What… what…" What had she done? What did he think? The words were stuck in her throat.
Inoichi	Inoichi pressed a kiss to the top of her forehead. "I can't tell you if you did right, princess," he said quietly. "But I'm proud of you."
Ino	That hurt. That helped. She curled against him, trusting his strength to keep her upright. In awhile she'd have to go back to Fandom. Right now, though, she was going to cling to her dad and nothing else. It helped. Just a little.