@Vesvius A little swordfighting omake. All points to Ninjutsu please!
The two of them had met here. Ino didn't really remember, she was way too young at the time, but it was true nonetheless, and that really did hold some power to it. Three League Park had always felt a little special, at least to her and when she felt like Daisuke was acting strange, she had immediately steered them here. She refused to ask outright, she knew that's what he wanted her to do. No, he was going to break down and tell her, and it would be much better than her having to ask. It didn't matter the information that was just waiting for her to learn, nothing mattered, she just had to wait, if it took every ounce of patience she had. She was just going to ask him a little leading question, something to get the ball rolling. An opening move as Shikamaru might have said.
"Is something bugging you?" Ino was never known for her patience. "You've been acting weird all day."
"It's just… something about my kenjutsu." Ino knew that she was being lead. She couldn't really see where it was going at the moment, but every instinct in her eight year old brain was telling her that something was happening. Either way, she never could resist this kind of thing.
"Is it not going well?" She asked. "You didn't start that long ago. Maybe it just takes time?"
"No! It's going great really." Said Daisuke. "It might even be going a little too well honestly."
"Too well?" She asked, narrowing her blue eyes a little. She could start to see the net forming, the knots starting to tie, but she couldn't quite figure out how she fit in it. "How is that possible."
"It's hard to explain, but I'm reaching the limits of what I can do. Actually, that's the whole story really." Daisuke lay back on the wooden picnic table, Ino sitting behind him on one of the benches. "I just don't know how much further I can get with my kenjutsu without a consistent partner, because the dummies just aren't doing it any more."
"So, what?" Ino tossed her golden hair back, sending him a look that seemed to scream, what does this have to do with me. "What does you not having a sparring partner have to do with- wait… Daisuke, you know I can't. I have my families techniques to learn!"
Daisuke just looked at her, a pleading look on his face. The net had lowered.
"Daisuke, I don't even have a sword." Sometimes Ino didn't think that Daisuke realized that having a mother who would buy anything you asked for was definitely not normal.
"I've got an gift for you!" Daisuke pulled a scabbard from his side, pulling out a Wakizashi of cheap steel. Ino wrinkled her nose.
"You want me to use that?" The lowest member of the Yamanaka clan wouldn't usually deign to touch such cheap work. Ino was raised around Shinobi, around steel, and her standards were much higher than this. She raised the sword, and could feel it wiggle a little bit within its hilt. "This thing isn't fit for a common bandit."
"Well, it's all I can really afford myself." Daisuke scuffed the ground a little bit with his feet, his head hanging low. Ino felt a sharp pang of guilt. He had gotten that for her... "I had to do some extra chores to get the money for it. If you don't want it though-"
"No! I'll just… get another just in case, I love it- really!"
"So you wanna learn with me how to use a sword?" Daisuke finally looked up, a soft smile breaking the morose look.
"Yeah sure." Ino just wanted to move away from her faux pas. Now she needed to figure out how to explain it all to her father. Along with the need to buy her a new shortsword.
"Awesome! I can't wait."
Daisuke sprang off the picnic table and started strolling away. Ino followed as best she could, catching up with a burst of effort. As they walked she started to realize something she hadn't thought about in an effort to make up for her upsetting her friend.
"You just bought me that sword so that I would learn how to fight and could spar with you."
"Yep."
"Your mom would have gotten you a much nicer sword you could have given to me if you had just asked her. But then I wouldn't have felt like I needed to help."
"That seems likely."
"You're way too sneaky for your own good."
"Probably."
"I'm gonna learn to use this sword, but not for you. I'm gonna teach you to regret messing with me."
"I'm shaking in my sandals."
"Daisuke."
"Yeah Ino?"
"You should be."