Chapter Text
The first time Kakashi really looked at her was during the mission to avenge Asuma.
Ino’s role was support, as is expected from her jutsu - hell, Shikamaru literally ordered her to fallback after she tracked the rogue-nin for them -, no one thought less of her for not being able to face the S-rank shinobi in close-range battle. But he could tell she did.
Her speciality simply wasn't in close combat. No, it was her mind techniques. Those required an absolute mastery of chakra control, if they were to be used to their fullest extent. Kakashi knew the girl had asked Tsunade to teach her medical ninjutsu just to compete with his own student, Sakura-chan, and had actually been surprised the Hokage had allowed that rivalry to get heightened under her.
With the Sanbi sealing fiasco, he realised that wasn’t the case at all - medical ninjutsu relied entirely on chakra control. Her’s wasn’t as impressive as the other three kunoichi in the sealing team, but being under Tsunade’s direct tutelage ensured the girl got serious about honing her skills. The Godaime never did anything without a plan, indeed.
Their paths diverged after that mission, Team Kakashi was again looking for Sasuke. On their way back to Konoha, Tanzo and Team Kakashi got reassigned while Kakashi made it back with Team Guy to report immediately. Until his team came back, he didn’t have much to do besides read and train. That’s how he found the purple clad kunoichi in the training grounds, training atop the lake, her skills already seeming to have improved in mere weeks. Asuma would have been proud.
Kakashi started taking note of her training and assignments, then. Keeping an eye out for her, for Asuma.
Then those missions started. Kakashi knew a kunoichi like her would inevitably be assigned those, especially since purple scroll missions were prohibited by the Godaime. A pretty Yamanaka girl had the advantage of getting into a target’s head without having to get into their bed. It involved a heavy dose of contact with the target still, Asuma had commented on the possibility of her taking those due to her training under Ibiki. He had been against it.
Kakashi should have taken the little free time he had to rest. He hated donning the ANBU uniform again, but Asuma was gone and she didn’t really have anyone outside of the T&I to guide her. So, without much thought, he had marched into Tsunade’s office and demanded to shadow her for that first mission. The Hokage looked at him with amusement behind her amber gaze, but seeing as she didn’t have a mission that would require his skill level and Ino’s should only take two days, she allowed it.
That was the first time he saw her in her element. And it really is her element,
He remembers nights out drinking with Asuma; her mentor complaining about her flirty nature. The Sarutobi promised to murder a new boy every week and then he’d drink himself half to death, leaving Kakashi to carry him home to Kurenai. The girl was simply too nice and pretty, the boys didn’t stand a change. A couple of years later, she’s using that to her favour and getting flirty with her targets. Kakashi was somewhat mesmerized by how easily it came to her, how fast she slipped into character. At times, he wondered if she was acting at all.
Somehow, it became routine: if Ino was assigned a purple scroll, Kakashi would become her shadow.
Not that there were many, only another two missions while Naruto is training at Mount Myouboku. Her talents really were wasted on any mission that didn’t center around intelligence. She would make contact, let the target win her over, and once they thought she was tipsy enough to take advantage of, she’d make her move: letting them guide her out of the bar, acting giddy and eager. The idiots would let their guard down and she extracted every bit of information she needed. They didn’t even know she had been in their mind. The perfect agent.
Yamanaka Ino didn’t need a shadow. Kakashi shadowed her anyway, and blamed it on a misguided sense that he owed it to Asuma.
This mission had been different.
Her target’s strength had been misreported, he could feel it right away. She did her routine, revealing civilian clothes, a concealed tanto sword in her high-heeled boots, attracting the man’s attention without causing suspicion. A single Sharingan watched them slip out of the bar - the man’s greedy hand on her waist as she giggled -, and disappeared again into the man’s motel. He jumped to a tree closer to that building and waited, all his focus on the window of the room Ino and her target were occupying.
He had a bad feeling about this mission, the target was more dangerous than she was used to. The soft candle light visible from his hiding spot on the tree flickered widely, Kakashi had nearly stepped out of the darkness.
The offending chakra ceased to exist a split second before he slipped into the room. Her own signature relaxed, he stilled again on the tree branch. The rain came down harder, and had his sharingan been covered, Kakashi might not have picked up on the small blood splatters on her cheek as she ‘drunkenly stumbled’ out of the motel. Then something happened that even his sharingan didn’t predict.
Ino looked up, straight at him, and nodded.
The next moment she was stepping on the same branch he stood on and passing right by him, retreating back to the cave just outside the small town where she had hid her traveling bag and changing back into her uniform. Kakashi watched as she started making her way back to Konohagakure at full throttle, not bothering to wait for him to follow. The Yamanaka had acknowledged him, but they hadn’t spoken. The Copy Nin had kept his distance, kept to her shadow until she stepped through the village gates.
Kakashi is a quiet man; that night, Ino had left him speechless.
The rain had followed them home, it made the cemetery look every bit as grim as it was. Kakashi silently made his way through the hundreds of graves, flowers in hand, he had a few to visit today; Asuma's was his first stop.
There was someone crouching in front of the grave, a purple umbrella shielded her almost entirely from his gaze, but there was no mistaking her. He should have known he'd find Ino here today. Killing comes naturally to a shinobi, the Yamanaka was no exception. However, this had been the first time she had needed to resort to it in one of those missions, and having shadowed her for all of them, he could tell she considered it a failure to complete the mission within its parameters, failed to keep the target alive and ignorant.
Not wanting to interrupt her, Kakashi decided to visit Asuma another day and turned to leave.
“You should know better than to try and sneak up on a Sensor.”
The Copy Nin froze mid turn. She sounded more amused than annoyed. He watches as she stands to her full height and turns to him, “I'm about finished anyway, sensei.”
He steps closer to stand in front of Asuma's grave with her, four identical flower arrangements in hand, he looks down at the name carved on white marvel and places one of the bouquets next to the one she had left there too, the colorful arrangement contrasting vividly against his monochromatic one. The rain intensifies and just as he silently curses himself for forgoing his umbrella, hers reaches higher and covers him too. Kakashi's eyebrows furrow and he looks down at the kunoichi. She’s looking at the flowers in his hands.
“Glad you picked those up on time, sensei.” Kakashi looks down at the flowers on the grave and nearly chuckles, she’s never the one at the counter when he picks up his flowers, but he should have expected that it is her that prepares his order.
However, “There’s no way you prepared these and had time to be here long before I arrived, Ino-chan.”
“Those have been ready since morning. You always order the same three - now four - white lily bouquets the day after arriving from a mission, sensei. You’re getting predictable”.
Kakashi slouches in defeat and they stand there in silence for a beat. A deep sigh from the blonde brings his attention back to her. She's looking down at the grave in front of them, chewing her lower lip, an anxious tell.
“Thank you.” She finally looks up at him. Kakashi gives her a quizzical look. “You didn't interfere … Trusted my judgment.”
Kakashi nods, but she's already looking away again. “You knew I was there the whole time?’’
A smirk formed on her lips, “Not immediately, but you got too close. Almost attacked you, but then I recognized your chakra.”
“You're not mad?”
“More like insulted, but I figured Tsunade-sama didn't want to lose a Yamanaka on their very first solo A-rank mission.”
“Actua-”
“Anyway,” Ino cuts him off, places her umbrella in his free hand and steps into the rain, leaving him in the protection of her own umbrella, “I'll leave you to it.”
“Ino!”
“You'll get sick, dumbass! And I don't feel like dealing with a pissed off Sakura at the moment.” She waves him off, her back already turned, walking away from him. Kakashi sighs, great, not only had he been caught and become predictable, she is now calling him a dumbass. The next generation really was something.
“She'll get mad at me if you get sick because I took your umbrella.”
“Forehead doesn’t know. Besides, I'll be home in five and I’m a medic.” With that, she was gone in a flash, leaving the Copy Nin speechless again.