Naruto Shippuden: Wrapped Up In Your Work 2

Tsunade tapped her hand against her desk and leaned back in her chair, her impatience beginning to show on her face.  'Where is that girl...' Tsunade said aloud as she wondered where on Earth Ino could be.  'It's already 2 AM, she was supposed to be back by midnight.  Shizune, have you heard anything from Ino yet?'

'No ma'am,' Shizune replied with a somber tone, 'we haven't recieved an update on her at all.  You don't think...' Shizune stuttered, fumbling to find her voice for a moment.  'You don't think somethiing terrible has happened to her?'.  Tsunade stood up from her chair, a look of agitation and concern conveyed on her face.

'I'll give her one more hour,' Tsunade said in a somber tone.  'If she isn't back by then I'll have to decide what to do next.  Go outside and stand-by for any sign of her approaching'.

'Yes ma'am,' Shizune said quickly.  She quickly exited the room and headed out for the front door, leaving Tsunade alone in her office...

'I just hope she isn't in any kind of trouble...' Tsunade said as she slumped back down in her chair.  'We don't have any idea what's in that cave...what was I thinking sending a kunoichi in there...I should have sent Anko or Kurenai...'

Deep within the cave, Ino slowly began to stir, the sound of water dripping onto the ground from the soggy ceiling slowly stirring her to consciousness.

'Where...where am I...' Ino moaned groggily as she struggled to open her eyes.  'I feel like somebody smashed an urn over my head...huh?!'.  Ino turned her head to realize that she was not moving of her own free will.  She was being carried over the shoulder of a boy roughly her size, a boy covered in bandages from head to toe.  'Hey you!', Ino screamed as she began to remember what happened before she fell unconscious, 'PUT ME DOWN!! RIGHT NOW!!'.  However, Ino's plea fell on deaf ears.  She tried to loosen the boy's grip, grabbing his arm with both hands and attempting to pull his arm from around her waist.  However, she was still too weak and couldn't manage to slip from his grip.  'Please put me down,' Ino began to ask in a quivering voice.  'I'm on an important mission and...'

'A mission to retrieve the scrolls buried in this cave?', the boy asked, interrupting Ino. 'The scrolls hidden in this cave are not jutsu scrolls.  You will not find any treasure or valuable scrolls in this cave, but I have found a treasure for myself.'

'What...what do you mean?' Ino asked, her voice quivering and her emotions beginning to show.  'I don't know how you got down here or why you're here but if you think'...

'You know EXACTLY why I'm here young woman', the boy said, his voice suddenly booming from a somber tone to one of anger.  'I'm surprised to see that you havent aged a day since our last meeting.  Mind you, I have not either, but the circumstances are much different I'm sure.'

'Last meeting?  Haven't aged a day?  WHAT are you talking about?!', Ino demanded to know as the boy's rambllings were now making even less sense.  'I don't have any idea who you are, and what are you rambling about me not aging?  Answer me damn it!'

'You can feign ignorance all you want my dear,' the boy said as he began to cackle softly under his breath.  'You betrayed me once, but now that I have you in my arms again I will make sure that it is those close to you who suffer for your cold-heartedness.'  The boy carried Ino to another door deeper in the cave and forced it open with his other hand.  'Don't worry my dear, very soon things will be as they always were meant to be'...

Forty-five minutes had passed since Tsunade made the decision to wait an extra hour for Ino.  Pacing back and forth in her office, Tsunade stomped her feet, angry and concerned over what she now believed was a mission gone awry.

'It's almost 3 AM,' Tsunade said with a dejected tone, 'and we still haven't heard anything back from Ino.  Something MUST have happened, that cave is only an hour from the village at most it shouldn't take her nine hours to complete a mission like this.'  Suddenly a knock was heard at the door.  'Come in', Tsunade said with authority, re-asserting herself.  She was worried about Ino without question, but she knew she couldn't afford to look weak and nervous in front of others.  The door swung open as Sakura and Naruto entered the room.

'Lady Tsunade,' Sakura said in an orderly and soldier-like tone, 'Naruto and I have completed out mission regarding the mapping of the outlying areas of the forest northwest of the village'.  Sakura handed Tsunade a scroll containing a hand-drawn map of the area around the village.

'That took longer than I thought it would for you two', Tsunade said with curiousity, 'did you two get...distracted with some side-business?'

'No!  Of, of course not!', Sakura stuttered as she tried to articulate herself.  'We were just making sure we were very thorough in completing our mission'.  Sakura began to blush, becoming uncomfortable at Tsunade's suggestion that she and Naruto had in engaged in some kind of distracting activity.

'By the way,' Naruto asked with a tinge of concern, 'why is Shizune standing outside the entrance this late at night?  I know we got back late but that hardly seems like a reason to post a guard at the front door'.

'It's not because of you two,' Tsunade said with a long sigh.  'It's because...well...' Tsunade stopped short of saying the reason, remembering how strongly Ino felt about being entrusted with her mission.  But this was no longer about Ino's pride, Tsunade had a kunoichi missing on a mission that needed to be found.  'It's about Ino.'

'Ino...what about Ino?', Sakura asked with concern in her voice.  'I didn't see her at the mission office when we got back but I figured she'd already gone home for the night'.

'No...' Tsunade said with a sigh.  'I sent her on a mission a short distance from the village.  An old cave was recently unearthed after the harsh weather we've been having and I sent her there to investigate the possiblity of hidden jutsu scrolls being buried there.  But that was at 5 PM, she should have been finished with the mission and back here over eight hours ago.  I had Shizune watch the door for any sign of her passing through'.

'Where is the cave?!', Sakura blurted out with a concerned yet demanding tone.  'I'll go and look for her!  If something's happened and she's in trouble we can't just...'

'Calm down before you run short of breath,' Tsunade quipped as Sakura was almost hyper-ventilating.  'This is why I didn't want to tell you, because you'd over-react.  I can't send you after her because the only way we could locate the cave was with an old map that Ino brought with her.  We haven't memorized the route to the cave, so there's no way to track it down.'

'Then what do we do?!', Sakura asked, frustrated at Tsunade's response.  'If Ino's in danger we can't just sit around and wait, we have to find some way to track down that cave'.

'I'm working on that Sakura', Tsunade said, getting slightly more angry wtih Sakura's combative tone.  'I'll try and figure out a way to track down the cave's location, but we can't do anything right now.  Go back home and get some sleep and we'll try to figure something out in the morning.  Hopefully...Ino's just lost trying to find her way back here.'

Sakura and Naruto exited the office and headed outside.  Sakura kicked a small hole in the wall in frustration over the situation.  

'In the morning?!', Sakura yelled as she threw a second kick.  'What is something happens?!  What if she's...'

'Calm down,' Naruot said with an assertive tone as he grabbed Sakura's foot before she kicked teh wall a third time.  'If old grandma Tsunade isn't gonna do anything right now, then we're just gonna have to find that cave ourselves'.  Naruto pointed out of the village.  'Come with me, I have an idea'.

Deep in the cave the bandage-covered boy had taken Ino deep into a large room.  The boy lowered Ino from his shoulder and set her down, standing her up against a large piece of silver-colored wall.

'What exactly do you want from me?!', Ino demanded to know as the boy stepped backward while maintaining his focus on Ino.

'What do I want?  I want revenge, I want justice', the boy said in an angry tone as he raised his bandage covered arm.  'You are the cause of my suffering.  All those years ago you betrayed me, tricking me into using my jutsu in that battle.'

'I don't have the slightest clue what you're talking about!', Ino screamed.  She was getting tired of the constant rambling of this strange boy, and she felt that time was running out for her to figure out a way to escape.  'I don't KNOW you, I've never MET you and I sure as hell don't WANT anything to do with you!  Now let me leave before...'

'YOU don't want anything to do with ME?!', the boy yelled with an echoing rage in his voice.  'It is because of YOU that I am cursed!  YOU brought this upon yourself with your betrayal!  Now YOU will suffer the fate you brought upon ME!'  Within an instant several bandages flew from the boy's wrapped up arm.  The bandages quickly snagged Ino by the wrists and pulled her arms above her head.  The bandages slid through a small pin at the top of the wall, fastening Ino by her wrists and hoisting her high enough that her feet no longer touched the ground.  Another set of bandages flew from the boy's arm, wrapping around Ino's ankles and slipping through a pin below her feet, effectively fastening her to the wall without allowing her to touch the floor.

'No!', Ino screamed as she struggled to get loose.  'Don't you dare!  If you do this my friends will...mmph!'.  Ino's threat fell short as three bandages cleaved between her lips and fastened around the back of her head, gagging the fiery kunoichi and preventing her from finishing her threat. 'Lemph meph gomph!!', Ino screamed as the gag made it nearly impossible to understand her.  Ino thrashed about, twisting from side to side and trying to thrust her feet forward, but the bandages would not break.

'Now you will pay for turning me into this,' the boy said as he leaned forward to take a closer look at Ino.  'You turned me into this, this mummified husk of a prince.  Now I will return the courtesy to you and all you hold dear, and in doing so I will fashion a new kingodm for myself.  I, Prince Anbu will have revenge on you for spurring my love and trust'.  Anbu lifted up his other arm and a set of bandages flew both from his arm and his mid-section.  The bandages slowly began to take shape on the floor, forming a pair of feet.  Ino watched in horror as the bandages took more shape, beginning to form a human body.  Ino began to squirm at the site, as the bandages finished taking form, forming the shape of a girl with a two piece uniform and fishnets on her elbows and knees.  To Ino's horror, she realized this mass of bandages was being shaped in HER form, down to teh style of her hair.

'This is only the start', Anbu said with a soft chuckle.  'Form-Replica Jutsu!'.  With the verbal command a blanke of bandages encased the Ino-looking form taking shape in the room.  The blanket of bandages fell away revealing a second Ino, identical to the real one hanging helplessly on the wall.  Ino let out a muffled yep, unable to comprehend what she was seeing.  'Now, everything begins...'.  Anbu began to laugh to himself, overcome wtih emotion he had not felt in the many long years since being locked away.  'I have you in my hands once again, and now you shall play a part in fashioning my new kingdom'...