Her father clears his throat, then decides to eat rather than speak as her mother slowly voices, "I can''t say I was expecting that…"


    Ino feels more in line with her center—direct and fearless—and delves to further admit, "and I want him to be my boyfriend."


    "Boyfri-" Inoichi manages before his throat forcibly ejects the nourishment half-way into his throat. "KOFF! CRUGHGH! Uuhhh… Uhhhh…"


    "…Breath, sweetie," her mother reminds her father as she pats his hand. Turning to Ino, her motherments, "you''ve certainly given us a lot to think about."


    Just then, the entrance bell sounds, to which Inoichi gasps, "oh, thank Kami." Still clearing his bung-up throat, he hoarsely asserts, "I''ll get it."


    After her father rushes out of the room, her mother remarks, "you''re going to send your father into an early grave if you don''t ease him into information like this."


    "Sorry," Ino says, though she can''t help but feel a little better about speaking her truth. "I wasn''t thinking, plus, I wanted you both to know."


    "Well, I''m happy you finally told us," her mother responds. "What changed your mind?"


    "You did," Ino admits. "I feel lucky to have parents like you and tou-san."


    Mother reaches for her daughter''s hand and gives her a grateful squeeze when they hear Inoichi call, "Ino, it''s for you."


    Unexpectedly following her father is Sakura, and Ino asks her parents, "may I be excused?"


    "Actually," Sakura starts, turning to the head of the Yamanaka n. "If I may, I have a favor to ask of you, Inoichi-san."


    TENTEN


    The very edge of Kubikiribōchō bit across the length of Dānyī''s less than muscr chest, drawing blood and feeding the legendary sword. For as much as his daughter as his pride, the tied down retired shinobi does not allow more than a groan out of his throat upon the slow and longceration of his skin and bby muscle.


    The bleeding wound wasn''t deep enough to kill or maim, but an agitated Tenten pulls at her binding at the horrible sight, trying desperately to free herself to help her groaning father.


    "Alright," Tenten yells, looking from her restrained father to the Kiri madman. "Alright, ask me whatever you want! Just leave him alone!"


    Though Zabuza stops slicing millimeter by millimeter into the seated and restrained older man''s pectoral flesh, he doesn''t remove the de either. Zabuza simply holds therge heavy de cutting into her father''s flesh with a single extended arm as if it weighed no more than paper. Her sweating father''s breathing is shallow so as to not inte his chest.


    Therge de doesn''t allow a single trickle of blood to leak down his torso as it fed on him.


    "Tell me about the blond ninja you were trying to steal Kubikiribōchō from," Zabuza demanded from a distressed and tied up Tenten.


    "I don''t steal," Dānyī hollers at the Kiri assassin through shallow breaths. "It''s not stealing when you and that demon brat are the filth beneath the heel of society!"


    Trying to keep her father from aggravating the situation, Tenten hisses, "Otou-san," pulling on her restraints as she leans forward.


    Turning his curious attention from Dānyī to Tenten, Zabuza quizzically repeats, "demon brat?"


    "It''s- It''s what a lot of the vigers call Naruto-kun," Tenten quickly answers the assassin''s small curious brows.


    Wide-mouthed and head back, Zabuzaughs greatly from his thin gut, and to Tenten, there was nothing joyful about the cruel mocking sound. The Kiri-nin eventually rubs his eyes as hements, "of course he''d be a demon."


    Unsure if she was being brave or foolish, a very nervous Tenten fights the vibrant paralyzing mucge coursing through her motor functions to ask, "how- how d-did he get Kubikiribōchō?"


    "Ten," her angry and wounded father calls, impressing her he could be so angry under such killing intensity. No one in that room is under any delusion; Zabuza can kill them both before their brains can even grasp the end of their life has been reached.


    Along with her wounded father, Tenten doesn''t have her team, the skills, or the diplomacy to survive this tall pale man, and under such a state, the most her training and strength can conjure is avoiding weeping tears of doom. Even speaking to this known killer is taking great effort for a kunoichi who''s never been so near to death.


    Dryly, Zabuza asks, "you want to know how he imed Kubikiribōchō?" His small eyes re into her stressed brown eyes, and though feeling like her insides are ready to spontaneouslybust, she can only manage not looking away.


    Watching him lean back in his chair, uninterested, Tenten knows instinctively she''s nothing to him and feels further dismissed when he shrugs and says, "it''d be a waste to tell you? You''re the furthest thing from a ninja there is."


    Taking a deep breath, she adds a courageous amount of heat behind her words, replying, "I- I am not!"


    "Ooohh," Zabuza mildly smirks, humored, as her father calls, "Ten- Ugh!" Her father''s words are cut off when Zabuza digs Kubikiribōchō just a little deeper, cutting a good inch into the elder man''s loosened muscle.


    "Otou-" Tenten tries when Zabuza interrupts her again.


    "I''ve killed your type more times than I can count," Zabuza retorts with disgust. "You delusional-type talk because it''s all you''re capable of and because you''re an obedient little sheep that follows."


    Though his sweating and wincing head lulls some, Tenten''s father calls out, "as if there''s something wrong with following thews and regtions of thend! That''s how proper civilization runs you degenerate bastard- UGGHH!"


    "Rather chatty for a thief with a big ass sword cutting across your chest," Zabuza amusinglyments, delighting in the pain he''s causing the ryo grubbing thief. "Kubikiribōchō appreciates the grub though." Turning back to a highly worried and moist-eyed Tenten, Zabuza continues, "fuck society.


    One of the best lessons I ever learned was that people are nothing but sheep." Removing Kubikiribōchō from Dānyī hemorrhaging chest, the long wound finally bleeds red trails down his round torso as Zabuza moves closer to Tenten.


    Dānyī yells, "stay away from my daughter-" and is cut off with a cry of pain when Zabuza slices a fresh gash against the tied man''s stomach. The thin trails dribbling from the pulsing red wound at his chest reach Kubikiribōchō edging into her father''s stomach, feeding the starving de yet again.


    "Say one more word and you''re not going to like what I do next," Zabuza warns the helpless father. Returning his small devilish eyes on Tenten, he tells her, "my father was the monk of the only temple in our vige.


    I was five years old at the time, a young demon even then, and one day, before he spoke to the gathering of followers, he pulled me aside and told me, ''son, this is wherefore the function of a Ninsō shall at each moment always be superior to that of a lowly shinobi.''"...