"Please, come in and take a seat," Shibi said, waving us over.
Shino led us inside, and we took seats on the cushions. Ino sat by my side, while Shino and his dad were opposite us. Kumoko stayed on my shoulder.
I took a few seals and popped out pastries. There was tea and other refreshments already prepared, but I wouldn't let the opportunity pass to spread some pastries love around.
"Thank you for welcoming us," I said. "You already know Yamanaka Ino," I added, shoulder-bumping her.
"Yamanaka-san," Shibi greeted.
Ino gave a polite bow, all proper and no sass.
"This is Kumoko," I said, giving the badger a quick scritch behind the ear. Not long enough for her to accuse me of petting her, just enough to blur the line between a gesture and a point. "She's the daughter of the clan's patriarch."
"Welcome, Kumoko." Shibi said and bowed.
He served the tea, even setting a cup for Kumoko. He nodded at her. "Has Hinata explained the details?"
Kumoko's tail lashed frustrated, and I stepped in.
"Ah, I apologize, Shibi-san. Kumoko is my bodyguard," I said, and pretended I didn't see Kumoko preening and Ino holding back a snicker. "With your permission, I'd like to summon another badger so you can negotiate with them directly."
Shino and Shibi exchanged looks, then the clan head nodded.
I brought my thumb to my lips, bit down, but Kumoko stopped me before I summoned the badger.
"Stop, snake-girl."
I froze, then looked at her.
"Not here. Outside," she said, tail lashing. Then, uncertainly, she added. "And... away from the pretty flowers?"
Uh, I didn't like where that was going.
Shibi seemed to catch on faster than me. He got up. "Follow me, please."
The clan head led us away from the pleasant gardens and flowers, around a few trees for an open area without buildings.
"Is this enough?" he asked Kumoko.
The she-devil looked around, then nodded.
Butterflies waged war in my gut. I had never summoned a big badger before. The biggest being one of the guards, the horse sized ones, and just so they could collect stuff and go back to their nest.
In all of this, Ino seemed more entertained than worried. Which I couldn't blame her for. She only knew Kumoko, and despite her being a grumpy badger, she was small and cute; her grumpiness coming off, at least to me, endearing more than anything else.
I took one last deep breath. There was no need to worry. Everything was going to be fine. I bit my finger again, the accelerated regeneration had already clogged the old bite injury, preventing blood from leaking out. Then, I slapped my hand on the ground, keeping in mind everything Kumoko had said about Mitsuna. Chakra gushed out of me. A freaking lot more than it took to summon Kumoko. The summoning felt different, like something trying to wrench the technique from my grasp.
Smoke exploded outward, covering everything. Even before it cleared, I felt the chakra. It was massive. It wasn't the same larger-than-life feeling of facing Tsuchigaru, or even glancing in the nest's darkness and seeing the giant form in the shadows.
Behind me, Ino let out a strangled gasp. I heard more feet shuffling.
I looked up, then up and up and up again.
She was… enormous. Bigger than my apartment. What the heck?
Glinting beady eyes stared at me unblinkingly. There was a rumble, which I noticed too late. It was a chuckle.
"Summoner," her voice was surprisingly gentle, given all her size, then her eyes shifted to Kumoko. "Baby 'Moko, why haven't you visited me again?"
There was a moment of pause. Kumoko froze on my shoulder. Then more sounds in the distance. It sounded like some alarm of some sort.
"Koromi," Kumoko said, ears flat against her head, tail lashing in some manner I had never seen before.
A gigantic claw approached, offering one wicked nail. Kumoko sighed, then climbed on it. Then the giant badger… baby talked to Kumoko for the entire part of five minutes, uncaring for all the surrounding pandemonium, with more and more ninja showing up. I saw more of the Aburame clan; I saw a few of the Uchiha's police, even a few ANBU skulking about in the shadows.
I gave Shibi a chagrined look. He just chuckled.
It took a lot of explaining. It wasn't an attack. No, Koromi wasn't an enemy. Yes, Shisui knew about the meeting. YES, I had told Shisui the day before, goddammit!
All the while, Koromi was more interested in fussing over Kumoko more than anything, but I wasn't fooled. I had, in the recent months, learned from Karin how to distinguish changes in a person's chakra. Not enough to know their actual emotions, but I could make good guesses. And Koromi was anything but relaxed.
Some half hour later, the kerfuffle died down. After the bunch of ninjas had left, Koromi passed Kumoko back to me. The she-devil just flopped on my arms. It was like she was trying to hide her face. Somehow, it reminded me of kids being ashamed when their parents were overly affectionate in front of the entire school. But it couldn't be that, could it?
"Shino," Shibi said, turning to his son. "Why don't you give a tour of the compound to our guest while I talk with Koromi?"
"But—" Shino said, then sighed.
"If you don't mind," I interrupted, "We," I said gesturing to me, Ino and Kumoko, "could wait in the gardens. It wasn't far, and Shino might have questions of his own about the bees." I said, giving Shino a push toward staying in the negotiations.
"If you don't mind," Shibi said.
I looked at Ino, who shook her head.
We left the big uns' to their negotiations and backtracked our way toward the gardens.
"And she asks why I avoid her," Kumoko grumbled once we were far enough.
Ino giggled. I laughed.
Koromi wasn't who we were supposed to summon. The badger — badgeress? Was that even a word? — had always been the type to treat Kumoko like a cub, which yeah, I could see it now. I mean, I'd love to have someone babying me like that, but I'd also be super embarrassed, really.
We set out a fabric near one patch of flowers, one that Ino didn't know. That became part of our picnic, really. Like every good picnic, there were pastries, juice, and I even took out my koto for some ambient music.
I played a bit of traditional songs taught in the academy, but soon after got away from that, playing renditions of music from the before. A calmer version of Party in the ANBU Way, Ninja Face, and even re-hashed that version of Bowie's Rebel Rebel.
That drew Ino away from the flowers, and she sat by my side, swaying to the rhythm or even singing along with the two ones she already knew from the academy days.
I was building my courage for some more daring renditions. I wanted to sing and play for Ino, one by Queen Kate Perry, another by a singer I didn't know the name of, but I've heard the music lots and lots. They were love songs.
I plucked the first string, and voices broke me from the moment.
Kids, a couple of them.
With everything happening, I had forgotten where we were. Music and sweets drew children like honey drew bees, except, in this case, the bees were already part of the children. I had to hold in a shudder, because after seeing them, I couldn't unsee the hives living inside their body.
There were three of them. Two boys and a girl. They looked too young to be at academy age.
A quick glance at Ino showed she had also forgotten where we were. She was the one who spoke. "Do you want to join us? We have sweets."
Tentatively, one boy did, and once he had sat down and eaten one pastry, the other two followed. I had to look away again, pretend I wasn't seeing stuff, because it wasn't only the kids eating.
Seeing the kikaichu seeping from under their clothes and devouring the sugary treats was going to give me nightmares. Worse yet, when the kids got comfortable, Ino pulled the girl on her lap. Of course, the others wanted it too. I hesitated for just a moment, and the boy's face turned into a sad frown. I slapped myself mentally. I was being a judgmental biatch, letting my dislike for bugs influence how I treated the children.
I pulled one on my lap, then deposited Kumoko on the third one's lap, so he wouldn't feel left out. Didn't even need to tell Kumoko to play along. She was surprisingly gentle with the kids.
Playing the koto with a kid on my lap wasn't easy, but I made do, abusing the threads to pinch and press strings whenever needed, instead of doubling over the instrument.
"Let's teach them that one, Hinata-chan!" Ino said, clapping. The girl on her lap clapped along.
"Which one?" I asked, confused.
Ino gave me a mischievous grin. "Explode it Off!" she declared, "but you have to dance too!"
The kids cheered. Even Kumoko looked interested.
Oh god, why?
Hours later, wanting to die from embarrassment, but feeling surprisingly happy, we left the Aburames. They didn't reach a full agreement with the badgers yet, but wouldn't also need my intervention again. Koromi had shared a way for them to get into contact with the badgers. Kumoko left with the big un', and now it was only me and Ino walking toward her house.
Feeling lighter than I had been for a long while, I considered if I should do this more often.
It felt good to just relax and have a pastime with Ino. It wasn't a date, but I was still happy. Ino seemed to think so too, because she'd been smiling the entire afternoon. I didn't even mind having to remember the dance moves from when I was a kid, or that even more Aburames had showed up to watch and eat pastries.
We stopped in front of her house. She looked at the door, then at me.
"Do you want to stay over?" she asked.
I wanted to, I really freaking did, but I shook my head.
Ino's shoulders slumped. I walked closer and gave her a hug. Thinking about all my clones' obsession with Ino, for a moment I debated if I should, but the chakra observing us from the residence's windows put away that idea. How did she always know when we were here?
I kissed Ino's cheeks. Maybe it lasted a bit too long there, because her face was a pretty shade of pink when I let go.
"Training tomorrow?" she asked.
"I'll meet you here in the morning," I said.
Ino nodded, gave me another hug, then a peck on the cheeks too. After that, she turned around and fled inside the house.
I left too, now feeling sad, despite everything.