(Author note: Okay, before anything, I just wish to clarify, besides Sayaka, currently I have no idea who else I will have enter the harem.
Keep in mind, that when writing chapters, I write what I believe would logically happen based on established character personalities in the show and how the change of Indra being in it would well, effect them and the plot and all that.
Now enjoy!)
--------------------------
The savory aroma of grilled meat filled the air at Yakiniku Q, the Akimichi clan's renowned restaurant.
Shikamaru Nara slouched in his seat, lazily turning a piece of beef on the grill while Ino Yamanaka sat across from him, her blue eyes bright with determination.
"Come on, Shikamaru! You have to help me," Ino insisted, leaning forward over the table. "It'll be quick, I promise."
Shikamaru sighed heavily, flipping another piece of meat. "Using your Mind Transfer Jutsu on Indra without his permission is such a drag. Besides, isn't that technically illegal?"
"It's not illegal if no one finds out," Ino replied with a dismissive wave of her hand. "And I'll be super careful - in and out before he even realizes what happened."
"What a troublesome woman," Shikamaru muttered, but curiosity got the better of him. "Why do you even want to invade his mind anyway? Did he do something to make you angry?"
Ino's cheeks flushed slightly. "It's quite the opposite, actually! I want to look into his mind to figure out what his ideal girl is, so I can become it and steal his heart!"
Shikamaru's chopsticks clattered onto the table as he stared at her with a deadpan expression.
Without a word, he laid his head down on the table and closed his eyes, as if attempting to escape the conversation through sleep.
"Shikamaru!" Ino called, shaking his shoulder. "Shikamaru, are you listening to me? Shikamaru!"
"Why can't you be like normal girls and just ask the guy what his type is?" he groaned, not lifting his head. "Actually, why are all you girls so obsessed with getting boyfriends anyway? Do you realize we're still thirteen?
We're still kids, even if we are technically adults as shinobi. There are years ahead before we need to worry about finding partners."
"You just don't understand love," Ino huffed, crossing her arms. "Now, will you help me or not?"
Shikamaru raised his head just enough to give her a weary look. "I honestly don't want to. Besides, weren't you obsessed with Sasuke last I checked?"
The comment earned him a sharp slap to the back of the head - gentle enough not to cause real pain, but firm enough to express Ino's indignation. Both knew it was more for show than actual punishment.
"Unlike Forehead, I was never obsessed with Sasuke," Ino declared, tossing her platinum blonde ponytail over her shoulder.
"I actually liked Indra from the beginning, but he was clanless then, and the elders of my clan would have disapproved."
She sighed dramatically. "So I tried to move on by focusing on Sasuke, but it never felt right. I couldn't put my heart into it.
But now that Indra's been revealed as an Uchiha, my clan elders can't protest! He's handsome, he's a genius - he's perfect!"
Shikamaru's sigh was even deeper than before. "Again, why can't you just ask him directly instead of going about it in this roundabout way?"
"Because Indra is too kind and gentle to hurt my feelings," Ino explained, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"He wouldn't tell me if there was something he didn't like about me. I need to know from his mind!"
Her expression turned slightly worried. "He hasn't visited my family's flower shop recently, and normally he comes by every week to check if there are new types of flowers available.
Maybe he's found something he doesn't like about me, and that's unacceptable! I need to find it and change it!"
Shikamaru fell silent, contemplating her words. After a moment, he placed some ryō on the table for their meal and stood up.
"Fine," he said reluctantly. "I'll help you. But as your friend, let me say this: if a guy doesn't like you for who you are - when there's nothing bad about you as a partner, like disloyalty or disrespect, which I know you're not - then he doesn't deserve you."
Ino's usual confident demeanor faltered, leaving her momentarily speechless.
"Take that however you want," Shikamaru continued, heading for the exit. "Now, let's go. I want to test my Shadow Possession Jutsu on him anyway.
It'll be a good gauge of his strength and whether we should avoid him during the upcoming Chunin Exams."
Ino quickly gathered her things and followed him out of the restaurant, her mind buzzing with thoughts and plans.
------------------------
Training Ground 11 was quiet in the late afternoon, save for the rhythmic sounds of kunai hitting targets.
Indra moved through a series of complex maneuvers, practicing the footwork for Yua's Wind Step Technique while simultaneously launching projectiles at targets scattered throughout the area.
He was so focused on his training that he almost missed the subtle shift in the air that signaled someone's approach. Almost.
Without breaking his flow, he adjusted his trajectory slightly, sending his next kunai to embed itself in a tree trunk mere inches from where Shikamaru Nara had just stepped into the clearing.
"I'd announce myself next time if I were you," Indra said calmly, lowering his hands. "What brings you here, Nara?"
Shikamaru regarded the kunai with mild interest before stepping fully into the training ground. "Just thought I'd see how you're doing. Haven't talked much since you moved in with Sasuke and became an Uchiha officially."
Indra raised an eyebrow. "I didn't 'become' an Uchiha. I always was one - I just didn't know it."
"Right," Shikamaru nodded, moving closer with his hands casually in his pockets. "Must be quite the adjustment. New clan, new identity, new expectations."
"Is there something specific you wanted to discuss?" Indra asked, his tone polite but guarded.
Shikamaru wasn't one for casual social visits, and his seemingly aimless conversation was setting off warning bells in Indra's mind.
"Actually, I was curious about something," Shikamaru said, glancing around the training ground as if assessing the terrain.
"With the Chunin Exams coming up, everyone's wondering how the teams will stack up against each other. Your team is a bit of an unknown factor."
Indra smiled thinly. "And you thought you'd come gather intelligence? That's unlike you, Shikamaru. Usually you'd find that too troublesome."
"Maybe," Shikamaru shrugged. "Or maybe I'm just curious about how much you've improved since the Academy. I heard you awakened your Sharingan during that mission gone wrong."
As Shikamaru spoke, he was subtly shifting his position, moving to place himself between Indra and the sun, which was now low on the horizon.
Indra noticed the maneuver immediately. He's positioning himself for his Shadow Possession Jutsu, he realized. Clever, but obvious.
"I did," Indra confirmed, deliberately taking a step to the side, away from Shikamaru's lengthening shadow. "It's been... enlightening."
Shikamaru's eyes narrowed slightly at Indra's movement. "I bet. Must be nice having a bloodline ability."
"It has its advantages," Indra agreed. "Though I'm sure your clan techniques are equally valuable in their own way."
Shikamaru nodded, seemingly casual as he took another step forward. "They have their uses. Want to see a demonstration?"
Without waiting for an answer, Shikamaru's hands formed a seal, and his shadow suddenly stretched forward with surprising speed, heading directly for Indra.
But Indra was ready. He leaped backward, executing a perfect backflip that carried him well out of range of the shadow's reach.
"That was rather direct for you, Nara," Indra commented as he landed gracefully on his feet. "Usually you're more subtle."
Shikamaru's shadow retracted. "Sometimes the direct approach works best against those who overthink."
"And sometimes it's just a distraction," Indra replied, suddenly spinning around as he sensed movement behind him.
There stood Ino, her hands already forming the final seal of her Mind Transfer Jutsu. "Mind Transfer Jutsu!" she called, her body going limp as her consciousness shot forward.
Indra's eyes widened in genuine alarm - not for himself, but for the girl. "Fool!" he exclaimed, a rare expression of fear crossing his face as he realized what she was attempting.
Ino's consciousness soared free of her body, rushing toward Indra in an invisible stream of pure spiritual energy.
As a disembodied spirit, she could perceive things normally invisible to the physical eye - and what she saw made her tremble.
Surrounding Indra was not the usual gentle aura she'd encountered when using her family's technique on others.
Instead, a massive cyclone of dark energy swirled around him like a living storm, its edges crackling with power that seemed almost sentient because of how intense it was.
What is that? she thought in sudden panic as a force began pulling her toward the darkness. Indra has a yin affinity... And it's enormous!
Her father's warning echoed in her mind suddenly: "Ino, keep this in mind, and never disobey what I will tell you now.
Never attempt your jutsu on Naruto - or anyone with a strong yin affinity. Their souls are immensely powerful and could crush yours by accident, even without intending to."
Terror seized Ino as she realized her mistake. The black hole-like pull of Indra's spiritual energy was drawing her in, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.
Her spiritual form began to distort as she approached the cyclone's edge, stretching and thinning like paper caught in a windstorm.
I'm going to die, she realized with horrifying certainty. My soul is going to be torn apart.
Tears formed in her spiritual form as she braced for impact, certain she was about to be destroyed.
Just before she crashed into the cyclone, she heard Indra mutter "Foolish girl" - but instead of being obliterated, she found herself falling through the darkness, as if Indra had granted her permission to enter at the last possible moment.
The sensation of falling seemed to last forever. Ino tumbled through layers of consciousness, each darker and more complex than the last.
Finally, with a jolt that felt like hitting solid ground after falling from a great height, Ino's consciousness landed on what felt like a stone floor.
The impact left her disoriented, her spiritual form trembling with the aftershocks of her near-destruction.
"I'm... alive?" she whispered, her voice echoing slightly in the confined space. "He saved me..."
Slowly, Ino gathered herself and rose to what passed for feet in her spiritual form. She found herself in a long, narrow hallway lit only by flickering candles mounted on ancient stone walls.
The air - if it could be called that in a mindscape - felt heavy and charged with an energy she couldn't identify.
"This is nothing like Dad described," she murmured, reaching out to touch the wall.
The stone felt cold and real beneath her fingers - another impossibility according to everything her father had taught her about mindscapes.
"Minds aren't supposed to be this... solid."
Gathering her courage, Ino began to walk forward through the narrow hallway.
The candles flickered as she passed, casting dancing shadows that seemed to follow her movements with an intelligence of their own.
Several times she paused, certain she'd heard whispers just at the edge of hearing, only to find nothing when she turned to look.
After what seemed like an eternity of walking, the hallway widened, and Ino came upon two doors standing opposite each other.
The contrast between them was so stark that she stopped short, staring in bewilderment.
The door on the left stood partially open, revealing a bright, cheerful room that looked like it belonged to a child.
Toys were scattered across the floor in organized chaos - wooden kunai, stuffed animals, building blocks arranged in the shape of what might have been a castle.
Colorful drawings adorned the walls - simple but precise renderings of flowers, trees, and what appeared to be the Konoha skyline.
A small bed with First Hokage-themed sheets sat in the corner, neatly made but with a slight depression as if someone had been sitting on it recently.
The room radiated innocence and warmth, inviting entry.
The door on the right, however, was a stark contrast that made Ino shiver involuntarily.
It was dark red with black veins protruding through its surface, pulsing slightly like living blood vessels.
Strange symbols were carved into the wood - circular patterns with tomoe-like marks and unfamiliar characters that seemed to glow with an inner light.
The door itself seemed to radiate a cold power that pushed against Ino's spiritual form, as if warning her away.
'Two soul rooms?' she thought, recalling her father's advanced teachings.
'Some people experience an event so life-altering that their soul palace splits into two parts - one from before the revelation and one after.
But Dad said that's incredibly rare - he's only seen it once in his entire career.'
She stared at the contrasting doors, wondering what could have happened to Indra to create such a division within his soul. What could possibly have changed him so fundamentally?
After a moment's hesitation, Ino approached the right door - the dark, forbidding one. If she wanted to understand the current Indra, this was clearly where she needed to look.
She reached out, her hand trembling slightly as it grasped the handle.
It was ice-cold to the touch, sending painful shivers up her arm, but she gritted her teeth and pushed the door open.
What lay beyond defied everything she knew about mindscapes.
Instead of a room containing memories and emotions, Ino found herself standing at the entrance to what appeared to be an enormous labyrinth.
Stone walls stretched in all directions, covered in the same strange symbols she'd seen on the door.
The passageways twisted and turned, some leading upward, others downward, creating an architecture that defied physical laws - stairs that led sideways, doorways that opened onto vertical passages, bridges that connected platforms floating in mid-air.
"This is impossible," she whispered, her voice echoing strangely in the vast space. "Mindscapes are supposed to be metaphorical representations, not... not physical constructs like this."
She took a tentative step forward, half-expecting the floor to disappear beneath her.
It remained solid, though she could feel a subtle vibration through her feet, as if the entire labyrinth were quietly humming.
"I've never seen anything like this," she murmured, gazing up at the impossibly high ceiling, "Dad never mentioned anything even remotely similar."
Steeling herself, Ino chose a path at random and began to walk, passing countless doors along the way.
Each door was unique - some ornate and inviting, others simple and plain, while still others were marked with warnings or seals that she instinctively knew not to touch.
The further she ventured into the labyrinth, the more unsettling it became.
The air grew colder, the shadows deeper, and occasionally she would catch glimpses of movement at the corners of her vision - dark shapes that vanished when she turned to look directly at them.
"Hello?" she called out, her voice small in the vast space. "Is anyone here?"
Only echoes answered her, bouncing back from multiple directions until they seemed to form whispered words just beyond understanding in their softness.
As she rounded a corner, the floor suddenly gave way beneath her feet without warning.
Ino screamed as she plummeted toward what seemed like endless darkness below, tumbling helplessly through the void.
"Help!" she cried out, though she knew there was no one to hear her. This was it - she was going to be lost in the depths of Indra's mind forever, her real body left an empty shell.
Just as despair threatened to overwhelm her, a small hand shot out of nowhere, grabbing her wrist with surprising strength.
Ino looked up in shock to see a young boy - perhaps seven years old - with black hair and eyes that were unmistakably Indra's, though softer and more innocent.
With a grunt of effort that seemed impossibly real for a mental construct, the child pulled her up to safety, hauling her back onto solid ground with strength that belied his small size.
"Thank you," Ino gasped, her spiritual form trembling with relief and residual fear. "You saved me."
The boy nodded solemnly, his dark eyes studying her with an intelligence that seemed both childlike and ancient simultaneously.
"You shouldn't be here," he said, his voice higher than the Indra she knew, but with the same measured cadence. "It's dangerous."
Ino studied the child with fascination. This must be a manifestation of Indra's inner child - a fragment of his psyche preserved from before whatever event had split his soul.
He was adorably cute, with round cheeks and a serious expression that seemed too mature for his age, yet still undeniably childlike.
Unable to resist, she suddenly reached out and pinched his cheeks gently. "You're so cute!" she exclaimed, the action partly to distract herself from the terrifying experience she'd just had. "I think I'll call you Ra-chan."
The boy blinked in surprise, his serious expression momentarily replaced by childish confusion.
He touched his pinched cheek with one small hand but didn't protest the nickname. "If you want," he said with a shrug. "I'm here to help you since you got lost heree. But you really shouldn't stay - my older self doesn't like visitors."
"Can you help me find my way out?" Ino asked, looking around at the bewildering maze that seemed to shift subtly even as she watched. "I'm completely lost."
Ra-chan nodded, his expression becoming serious again. "I can help you find my older self so you can leave before you fall into a trap that kills you."
"Kills me?" Ino repeated, her spiritual form going cold with renewed fear. "But this is just a mindscape - mental constructs can't actually harm a visitor's consciousness... can they?"
"This place is full of traps," Ra-chan explained, taking her hand in his small one. The contact felt impossibly real, warm and solid. "They're games, really. Dark games. I like games, especially playing games of death with enemies."
He smiled innocently, as if he'd said something completely normal. "It's kind of like my grandpa who likes to dance."
"Your... grandpa?" Ino asked, confused. "Who's your grandpa? I didn't know Indra had any living relatives besides Sasuke."
Ra-chan put his finger to his chin thoughtfully, his brow furrowing. After a moment, he shook his head and spread his arms in a gesture of childlike helplessness. "I don't know!"
Seeing that he genuinely couldn't answer, Ino decided not to press further. "Let's focus on finding our way out," she suggested, still holding his small hand. "Which way should we go?"
Ra-chan pointed to a narrow passage that seemed to spiral upward. "This way first. But be careful where you step - the floor isn't always what it seems."
As they began their journey through the labyrinth, Ino was struck by how utterly unlike any normal mindscape this was.
In her training, she'd learned that minds typically organized themselves into symbolic spaces - libraries for memories, gardens for emotions, chambers for secrets.
But this place defied categorization - it was a physical maze with real dangers, as if Indra's mind had constructed actual defenses against intrusion.
"Watch out!" Ra-chan suddenly cried, pulling Ino back just as she was about to step on what looked like ordinary stone. The section of floor immediately crumbled away, revealing sharp spikes below.
"That was close," Ino breathed, her spiritual heart racing. "Thank you."
"You have to watch for the patterns," Ra-chan explained, pointing to nearly invisible markings on the floor. "See? The dangerous ones have these little marks."
Ino peered closer and could just make out tiny symbols etched into certain floor tiles - the same strange circular patterns she'd seen on the door, but miniaturized. "I never would have noticed those."
"That's the point," Ra-chan said with childlike simplicity.
They continued their journey, navigating through corridors that sometimes narrowed until they had to turn sideways to pass, and other times opened into vast chambers with multiple exits.
In one such chamber, a massive pendulum blade suddenly swung down from the ceiling, missing them by inches as Ra-chan yanked Ino backward.
"That wasn't marked!" Ino exclaimed, trembling from the near miss.
"Different rooms, different rules," Ra-chan explained. "In here, you have to listen for the sound of the wind before the blade comes."
Sure enough, when Ino concentrated, she could hear a faint whistling sound preceding the next swing of the pendulum.
They timed their dash across the chamber to the rhythm of the blade, making it safely to the other side.
As they ventured deeper into the labyrinth, Ino couldn't help but ask questions. "Why is your soul like this, Ra-chan? So complex and full of traps? I've never seen anything like it - my father never even mentioned the possibility of a mindscape this elaborate."
Ra-chan shrugged as he led her around a corner. "I don't know everything. I'm just a part of him. I know the traps are games - my older self likes to keep secrets, I think. Important ones. Dangerous ones."
"What kind of secrets could be so dangerous they need this level of protection?" Ino wondered aloud.
Before Ra-chan could answer, the wall beside them suddenly sprouted stone hands that reached for them with grasping fingers. Ino screamed as one caught her arm, its grip painfully cold and strong.
"Don't fight it!" Ra-chan instructed, remaining perfectly still as another hand grasped his shoulder. "They're testing your intent. If you struggle, they'll crush you."
Forcing herself to relax despite her terror, Ino stopped resisting. After a moment that seemed to last forever, the stone hands retreated back into the wall, releasing them.
"This is insane," Ino whispered, rubbing her arm where the stone hand had gripped her. The sensation of cold lingered, though her spiritual form showed no marks. "How can mental constructs feel so real? How can they cause actual pain?"
"The mind makes it real," Ra-chan said simply. "That's what my older self always says - well thinks. I only know, because you looking in my room made me exist."
They continued their perilous journey through the maze, encountering and narrowly escaping more traps -
floors that turned to quicksand, ceilings that descended to crush anything below, walls that suddenly slammed together like massive hands clapping.
Each time, Ra-chan's knowledge of the labyrinth saved them, though several close calls left Ino trembling with fear.
After what felt like hours of wandering - though time was difficult to judge in a mindscape - they came upon a massive door that seemed different from all the others they had passed.
It was made of polished obsidian that reflected their images like a dark mirror, and it emanated an aura of importance and danger that made Ino's skin prickle.
"The Guardian Room," she whispered, recognizing what it must be from her father's teachings. "Be careful - guardian rooms are protected by what the individual believes to be their greatest protection in the world."
Ra-chan nodded solemnly. "This is the most dangerous part. The Guardian doesn't like strangers."
They entered cautiously, pushing open the heavy door to reveal a vast chamber unlike any they had passed through before.
The room was dark, seemingly boundless, with no visible walls or ceiling - only an endless expanse of shadow broken by a few flickering candles that floated in mid-air, casting small pools of light on a stone floor that stretched into infinity.
"I don't see any guardian," Ino whispered, staying close to Ra-chan as they ventured further into the room. "Where is it?"
"It's watching us," Ra-chan replied, his voice hushed. "It's always watching."
As if summoned by his words, Ino felt a sudden chill run down her spine - a sensation of being observed by something. Slowly, she raised her gaze upward, into the darkness above.
Two enormous red eyes opened in the void, each larger than her entire body - Sharingan eyes, with three tomoe spinning slowly around each pupil.
The eyes fixed on her with an intensity that froze her in place, seeming to peer directly into her soul, judging her worth and her intent.
Cold sweat drenched Ino's spiritual body as she stood paralyzed, unable to move or speak under that terrible gaze.
This was no mere mental construct - this was power in its purest form, a manifestation of Indra's bloodline and will combined into a guardian entity that could destroy her consciousness with a thought if it deemed her a threat.
Indra it seems believed his greatest protection in the world to be being an Uchiha.
Ra-chan stepped forward, looking up at the massive eyes without fear.
Though no words were exchanged, Ino could sense a silent communication between the child and the guardian - an exchange of intent and emotion.
After a tense moment that seemed to stretch into eternity, the massive eyes blinked once, slowly, and their gaze softened almost imperceptibly.
A door at the far end of the infinite room illuminated with a soft glow, becoming visible where before there had been only darkness.
"He says you can pass," Ra-chan said, taking Ino's hand again. His small fingers felt warm and reassuring against her cold spiritual form. "He knows you're not an enemy."
Still trembling from the encounter, Ino allowed Ra-chan to lead her toward the illuminated door. "What... what was that?" she whispered once they were beyond the guardian's direct gaze.
"Part of my older self," Ra-chan replied simply. "The part that watches and protects."
They passed through the door and found themselves in a short hallway with two exits - one at the end, a pitch-black door with strange gray rings etched into its surface and a purple handle, and another to the right, glowing with white light.
"That's the exit," Ra-chan said, pointing to the white door. "Now you can go, just like I promised. The other door leads to my older self's true soul room - no one is allowed in there."
Ino nodded, seemingly heading for the exit as instructed. Then, suddenly, she broke into a sprint toward the black door at the end of the hall.
"What are you doing?" Ra-chan shouted, running after her with surprising speed for his small legs. "We had a deal! You promised!"
"I'm sorry!" Ino called back, not slowing down. Her curiosity and determination had overcome her better judgment. "I really need to know what his type of girl is! I'll apologize to him later!"
She reached the door and grasped the purple handle, feeling it warm beneath her touch.
With a deep breath, she pulled it open just a crack - but before she could peek inside, a hand clamped firmly around her wrist, stopping her with unyielding strength.
Ino turned to find herself face to face with the real Indra - not the child version, but the thirteen-year-old boy she knew from the Academy and village.
His expression was cold with anger, his eyes hard and unforgiving.
"What do you think you're doing?" he demanded, his voice quiet but filled with controlled fury that seemed to make the air around them vibrate.
"I - I'm sorry," Ino stammered, suddenly realizing how bad everything is what she'd done when met with anger from the boy that never had been anything but gentle with her.
The labyrinth, the traps, the guardian - all of it had been warning her away, and she had persisted out of selfish curiosity. "I just wanted to-"
"I don't care what you wanted," Indra cut her off, his grip on her wrist unyielding. "You invaded my privacy, my mind, without permission. Do you have any idea how dangerous and inappropriate that is?"
"Please, I didn't mean any harm," Ino pleaded, genuine remorse in her voice. "I just wanted to know what kind of girl you like..."
"That's your excuse?" Indra's eyes narrowed, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. "You risked both our mental well-being for something so trivial? You could have simply asked me."
Without waiting for her response, he pulled her away from the door and toward the glowing exit. "This conversation is over. It's time for you to leave. Don't you dare tell anyone what you saw or I'll never forgive you."
"Wait, please-" Ino began, but Indra had already opened the exit door. With a firm push that brooked no resistance, he sent her through, and Ino's world exploded into blinding whiteness as she was forcibly ejected from his mind.
-------------------------
Ino's consciousness slammed back into her body with such force that she gasped aloud, her eyes flying open as she found herself lying on the ground of Training Ground 11.
Shikamaru was kneeling beside her, concern evident on his usually impassive face.
"Ino! Are you alright?" he asked, helping her sit up. "You collapsed the moment you cast your jutsu."
Before she could answer, a shadow fell over them. Indra stood there, his expression unreadable but his eyes cold with suppressed anger.
"Never do that again," he said quietly, each word precise and measured. "You have no idea what you could have done to me."
Ino shivered, remembering the labyrinth and its deadly traps - the pendulum blades, the grasping stone hands, the bottomless pits, and most of all, those massive Sharingan eyes watching from the darkness.
"I'm sorry," she whispered, genuine remorse in her voice. "I didn't realize-"
"No, you didn't," Indra agreed. "And that's precisely the problem. You acted without understanding the consequences."
He turned to Shikamaru, his gaze hardening. "And you. I expected better judgment from you Shikamaru."
Shikamaru had the grace to look ashamed. "It was troublesome, but she would have tried with or without me. I thought at least this way I could make sure she didn't get hurt."
"A poor excuse," Indra replied. "Next time, try talking her out of it instead of enabling her."
Without another word, he gathered his training equipment and left the field, his back straight and his movements controlled despite the obvious tension in his shoulders.
Ino watched him go, a mixture of emotions swirling within her - shame at her invasion, fear from what she'd experienced, and something else she couldn't quite name.
The glimpse she'd had of Indra's inner world had changed something fundamental in how she saw him.
"What happened in there?" Shikamaru asked quietly. "You were only gone for a few seconds, but you looked terrified when you came back."
Ino as he asked remembered what Indra told her, "Nothing. Nothing happened." She told him, not wanting Indra to not forgive her if she talked about what she saw.
Shikamaru looked unconviced, but as he saw that Ino and Indra looked fine - though Indra looked angry - he decided that it wasn't really his business.
As they made their way back to the village, Ino couldn't shake the memory of those spinning Sharingan eyes watching her from the darkness, or the strange symbols she'd seen throughout Indra's mindscape.
What did they mean? And what was behind that final door that Indra had been so determined to keep her from seeing?
She shook her head, as guilt filled her again. She had no right to be curious.
He was right. Who knows what could've happened - she nearly died and no one truly knows what could happen to a dojutsu user is their mind is messed with.
She decided she will do all she can so that Indra forgives her.
No matter what.
------------------------------
(Author note: Hello everyone! I hope you all liked the chapter!
Do tell me how you found it.
Don't worry, Ino didn't learn anything really dangerous, besides Indra experiencing a life altering event - which the Shinobi test of Yua is a perfect cover for, since the age of the child soul isn't determind by when the event happened, but what was lost - innocence.
Well, I hope to see you all later,
Bye!)