Nindō: Dominion

As Naruto reached the Yamanaka Flower Shop, he noticed Ino outside, setting up some plants at the entrance to attract more customers. As he approached her, she instinctively raised her head and caught his presence.

The flood of panic and confusion that went through her at that moment was all too visible to Naruto as she forced herself to display a stoic expression.

"Greetings, Honage-sama," she spoke while suppressing the tremor in her voice. "What brings you here today?"

Her initial reaction to his presence solidified in Naruto's mind that she had a full memory of what the other Ino had done here. Not only that, but she had no idea that Naruto was aware of such a swapping in the first place.

'I might have to severely lower Ino's standing in my plans if she doesn't volunteer the information about her experience and alter-Ino to either me or Shikamaru. The awkwardness regarding that version's actions aside, this is an existential threat on a level greater than even the Ōtsutsuki. If she can't put aside her personal feelings and thoughts in the face of such a situation, I might as well have been better off with the other version. Though it's possible that she isn't aware of the reason in the first place.'

Keeping his thoughts to himself, Naruto smiled at Ino. "What? I can't come to meet my business partner. I wanted you to give me a progress report before we have the council meeting today."

"I thought Shikamaru was keeping you up with the details." The way she shuffled around on her spot before answering told him more than her words.

"He is, but it is always good to hear things from a second perspective. Tell me. How are things going?"

"Well … The main contracts have already been signed and enforced with my oathkeeper jutsu, making sure that the builders and the construction workers can't violate the terms no matter what. As per your instructions, everything has been kept under strict wraps …"

"You are hiding something, Ino." Naruto could visibly tell that she was bothered. Whether it was the situation about the swap or something else, he decided to call her out on it and give her a chance to come clean.

"Despite all of our precautions …" she bit her lip as if deciding to take a leap of faith. "The information that Konoha is building a top-secret facility has been leaked." She gulped and looked at Naruto, whose face didn't betray any thoughts.

After almost a minute of uncomfortable silence, she continued speaking, this time with a slightly hurried tone. "It was a man named Boro. A member of the organization that Sasuke is currently looking for, Kara. I don't know what they plan to do with that information, but —"

"And how did that information leak?" Naruto asked. He was well aware that this was a move made by the alternate Ino, but it didn't particularly feel good to be on the receiving end of a backstabbing dagger.

'It's understandable that her true goal would be to create as much chaos as possible. It was probably a surprise for her that she was taken away so soon …'

"I …" Ino stuttered in response, unable to answer Naruto.

"You were the one in charge of making sure that all of the information was kept airtight, right, Ino?"

She nodded, biting her lip and lowering her head in guilt.

"How did this organization infiltrate us and find out in that case?"

"I don't know." She clenched her fists as she sensed Naruto's presence getting closer to her, forcing her to step back until she was up against the wall of her flower shop.

"I think you do know, Ino. I may still give you the benefit of the doubt if you tell me everything truthfully," he spoke slowly with an intimidating depth to his voice.

Her response was strained and tense. "You won't believe me even if I tell you," she suppressed her sigh and looked up at him with trembling eyes. "Just lock me up. I'll tell you all of the information that was leaked, but you have to keep me suppressed. I'm a liability."

"Still thinking of the greater good of the village, despite the danger of life imprisonment, Ino. How noble," Naruto chuckled, "but that isn't an option for you today. At least not until I know exactly what is going on. You are one of my most trusted shinobis after Sasuke and Shikamaru. You should be aware of that after all the people whose memories I've had you scan and purge over the years. Tell me the exact events from your perspective, and I will decide whether you are a liability or not. It's me who makes that decision, and in case I do, you can consider that night you spend tied up and suppressed in your own shop as a prelude to something much worse."

The woman's face went red in both embarrassment and anger, but she couldn't muster up any resistance and lost the tension in her shoulders before weakly sighing.

"You won't believe me," she said before continuing. "The Ino that you've been talking to for the past few months has been an alternate version. Yes, it's an alternate version. Not a clone, not some kind of imposter, and not one of Orochimaru's experiments. She came from another world identical to ours. While she was here, I was in that world."

"How are you sure that you weren't just in a genjutsu?" Naruto said.

"Maybe I was… But it was even more real than the Infinite Tsukuyomi. You know how I created that failsafe in case I am placed under an illusion of such caliber again. We even tested its efficacy with Sasuke. I wasn't in a genjutsu, Naruto. Not only was I in another world, but it was both similar to and different from ours."

"Tell me more," he stepped back, allowing Ino to breathe in her personal space. "Let's go inside your shop first, though."

"I can't tell if you're believing my words or not …" She mumbled while following him in. "In that world, while you were still Hokage, you had this weird pervert plan implemented in order to revitalize the Uzumaki clan."

"Was I married to you in that reality?" Naruto asked with a smile. "Is that the reason you decided to seduce me the moment I sent Sai on a long-term mission to Suna?"

Hearing Naruto's tone, Ino couldn't discern whether he believed her words or not. After a moment of hesitation, she decided to continue talking about the alternate world.

"…yes," she nodded. "Everyone, really. Me, Hinata, Sakura, Tenten, Karin, and more. Let alone those of your age; you didn't even leave Tsunade-sama and Hanabi. Not only were you married to all of them, but you seemed to enjoy life quite a bit. Going by how the you of that reality has three kids with each of your more than ten wives. You single-handedly revitalized the entire Uzumaki clan."

Naruto sensed a profound bitterness in her tone as his expression turned complicated.

"Did you …" he didn't need to continue.

"Moving on," she bit her lip and looked away. "Whatever plans you made. Whatever was executed. It was all done by that version of Ino, who is married to the other version of Naruto Uzumaki. A few days ago, just as I had disappeared for no reason and woken up in that other world, I abruptly woke up in this world, possessing the memories of what she did and planned. She wanted to create as much chaos as possible in our world for some reason that I can't quite understand."

"I believe you," Naruto said.

"How?!" She whipped her head to look at him, causing her ponytail to hit her cheek. "How could you possibly believe such an absurd story?"

"I just do," Naruto said. "I don't plan to elaborate further. Now, if you are concerned that this replacement will happen again and cause the village some trouble, I have a special seal to mark you with that will help me identify whether you are the real Ino or not. Let me know if you want it after today's meeting."

Ino frowned at the nonchalant way Naruto was dealing with the situation. "Has something like this already happened?" She asked. "And you seem completely unbothered by the fact that your plans have been leaked."

"No point in panicking about something that has already happened," Naruto shrugged. "For now, my focus is on today's council meeting to make sure that the budget allocations are taken care of as I want them. While the chance of an unknown variable popping up has increased, it is still a manageable threshold. For now, I want you to calm down and prepare for today's meeting. I am relying on your support. You are one of the few capable shinobi whom I can trust to help me run the village, understood? I want you to have that trust in yourself and in me that I won't make an incorrect decision."

"But …"

"I understand." Naruto understood what she wanted to say. "But we are on a time crunch at the moment. How about we go out to eat some ramen together once the meeting concludes? Actually, scratch that, we'll go once I return from my long-overdue vacation. You will have enough time to dwell on it. Once we meet, we can talk in detail regarding your experience in that alternate world. Not only that, we can talk about the seal as well. It will allow me to make sure that you are the real you and not some imposter or replacement."

"I guess we could do that." Ino had a lot on her mind, and Naruto's words seemed to calm her down quite a bit. The events of that alternate world had affected her quite a bit, and she needed to talk things out with someone to clear her mind.

***

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