Okay this particular fan fiction takes places during the time skip, after Sasuke leaves but before Naruto returns. Once again this is a Naruto fan fic where the blue eyed blonde will not appear in for it is mostly a shoujo ai story.
I will warn you up front that I'm not very gifted when it comes to grammar and spelling, so please don't mind the errors in the story that I probably missed.
I guess that's enough of my blabbing nonsense, so with out further ado. I PRESENT YOU WITH THIS FIRST CHAPTER OF-
A PLACE TO CALL HOME.
Warmth emitting from the sun struck down ruthlessly, scorching the land that made up the fire country. The village that was supposedly hidden with in leaves was not well foliaged enough to escape this heat wave. As it is well known, being active during these high temperatures is unhealthy for the untrained body. So it is only natural for human beings to be more relaxed during the summer, to be vacationing, taking a nice trip to the wave county for some recreationally time, right? Well sure you can do that...as long as you're not a ninja.
Summertime hardly meant playtime for the hard working ninja class, it was during this time when waves of lethargic ness and waves of heat beat down upon the honorable town that D and C rank missions come poring in harder then rain falling down over the hidden village of rain. Yes usually these mediocre tasks are handed down to the seedlings of the village other wise known as genin. But seeing as the tiny buds don't fully develop (graduate) until fall, these burdens are placed on more reliable shinobi whose talents are wasted on the painfully easy tasks, that would be consider acceptable for the new batches of deluded and sheltered ninja's.
The head ninja of Konoha, Godaime Hokage wiped an annoying strand of perspiration from her brown as she read over the mission log of one of the more promising ninja of their generation. At the age of 14 made chunin and now at the age of 16 had many successful A and B rank missions under their belt, and who in the last 36 hours completed 7 D rank missions and 3 C rank ones.
"Good work Ino." The Hokage said. She tiredly looked away from the papers and gazed at the towheaded kunoichi who looked just as worn out as she. Tsunade gave the hard working teen a warm smile and added, "I'd say you've earned a few days rest."
As heavenly as not being assigned another annoying mission sounded, Ino reminded herself of what she was and who she was talking to as she bit her lower lip and half heartedly replied; "Thank you for your kind offer Hokage-sama, but I can still do more missions if it is needed."
It was obvious to the member of the legendry Sannin that the young girl barely wanted to move let alone be condemned to other low ranking mission, which was all the Hokage could offer her at the present time. Scowling at formal decline Tsunade went about the matter in another way. "If any more troublesome missions come up I can always assign them to Shikamaru, I'm sure he won't mind."
The thought of her lazy teammate running around doing the kind of work he loathed as a genin brought a grin to the pale girl's face. "I'm sure Shika-kun wouldn't mind that," Ino said grinning evilly.
"Good, now get out of here." Tsunade replied lightheartedly and nodded her head towards the door that was flanked by two ANBU ninja's. Ino bowed her head before turning towards the door. "Oh and Ino," Tsunade called out.
Ino turned around and answered; "Y-yes Hokage-sama," a little nervously, fearful that she changed her mind and had another assignment for her.
"When I do call you back from leave, be prepared for at least a B rank mission," Tsunade said.
"Yes ma'am." Ino said one last time before excusing herself for the Hokage's office. After the young chunin left Tsunade attempted to resume working on the monstrous amount of paper work that seemed only to be getting lager rather then smaller the more time she spent on it.
"Ano...Hokage-sama," one of the ANBU asked carefully.
"What," she replied shortly not even looking up from her work as she spoke.
"Is it really such a good idea to entrust those mission's to the Nara boy...I mean he's not exactly...motivated to do such work," he stated truthfully. The other ANBU who stood opposite of the talking one nodded in agreement.
"True..." Tsunade agreed. "But he needs to get his head out of the clouds." She said and waved a few documents in the air that looked an awful lot like mission applications. "I think that this is just what the doctor ordered...Hiro!" she barked out. The silent ANBU stepped forward.
"Bring Nara Shikamaru to my office," Tsunade commanded in a stern tone that didn't quite match the playful glint in her eyes. Hiro bowed politely as Ino did mere minutes ago, before leaving the office in a flashy poof of air. "This should be amusing." The slug summoner mused, comparing the thought of the lazy chuunin doing work, to her doing work. A sigh escaped from the heavy chest of Tsunade whilst she resumed her duty to the village and sorted though the mass amount of paper work that needed to be done.
The sun that seemed to torture Ino while she labored over tedious tasks out in the blaring heat, now seemed to smile down upon her as she walked home knowing that she wouldn't be called in, for at least week or so. In fact the blazing ball of fire made her smirk knowing that Shikamaru would be getting his just deserts for his resent idleness...Then again it always seemed as if the genius chunin was always sluggishly dragging himself about.
Noises coming from small children playing 'ninja' in the street was a common sound to hear in Konoha. Now having the leisurely time on her hand to do such things Ino stopped walking so she could watch the mischievous tikes run around throwing paper projectiles at each other. The shortest kid with a beat up plastic forehead protector positioned on his head was the supposed bad 'missing nin' due to the long scrapes all over the hand-me-down.
"Hey come on stop that," he yelled in high pitched voice. The red headed boy held up his arms to block the fast approaching barrage of shuriken. He proceeded to keep his arms up blocking what would be important vitals if the weapons were real, but for now just served as a haven from the hail of paper. Due to the force at which they were thrown the academy student fell flat on his arse after the volley ceased to continue and tears began to swell in his eyes while the other children laughed at his expense.
Ino frowned in disgust when one of the older kids stepped forward shoving other kids aside so that he could most likely kick the smaller boy while he was down. "Know the pain of disgracing your village, you cry baby ninja," he said in a deep high and mighty voice and prepared his right foot to hit the roughed up boy in one swift movement.
However when the bully moved his leg forward he came in contact with nothing but air, causing him to lose his balance and fall in the same spot where the red haired boy laid mere seconds ago. "Hey where'd that brat go," he yelled in confusion, he whipped his sandy colored head around trying to find his pray. His confused brown eyes spotted the object he was looking for in the arms of much bigger kid whose pupil less cerulean eyes flashed angrily at him. "Who're you?" he asked and began to crab walk backwards, for the first time in his life the sandy haired youth could actual feel the murderous intent that was poring out of Ino.
She gave the kid a sinister sneer and replied in a cool tone, "Backup." Ino then pulled a real shuriken out of her pouch and prepared to throw it. At the sight of the sharp metal pointy thing all five boys got up and ran away before she could even release the weapon from her hand. "Humph, and they called you disgrace, nothing's more pathetic then cowards who don't stand their own ground." She stated. Ino then looked down at the upset child in her arms "Ne?" she asked giving this kid a much kinder smile then the one she gave to the fleeing children.
"M-mmm," the small boy nodded sucking in a sob and rubbing the tears out of his eyes. "T...thank you," he said meekly to Ino after she gently placed him back on the ground.
"No problem." Ino smiled and ruffled up the boy's red hair, she began to walk away from the kid until he yelled out.
"Kenpachi, my name's Aiko Kenpachi, thanks again Onee-san" Ino turned around to see Kenpachi grinning at her wildly. "Onee-san you're really a ninja aren't you" His blue eyes lit up as he looked Ino over.
His first clue was the forehead protector around her waist with the Konoha emblem engraved into it, but her entire attire just seemed to shout out 'I'm a Ninja!' most non-shinobi women in the village never wore fishnet, and if they did it was mostly to show off and flaunt 'inappropriate things' as Kenpachi's father would say. But Kenpachi himself didn't see anything wrong or inappropriate about the small spots fishnet on her elbows and knees. Also whereas most girls in the village wore long frilly skirts Ino's skirt was a bit different, it had shorts underneath it so she could jump high leaps and bounds without having to worry about her knickers showing. Her top was fairly normal, just a sleeveless button up shirt, that showed some of her midriff. But that bare patch of skin that was unclothed only showed part of her well muscular stomach, not only her stomach but her exposed legs and arms also seemed to be fairly well built as well. All in all when Kenpachi looked up at Ino he couldn't help but think 'sugoi' and admire the female ninja.
The blonde shinobi gave Kenpachi a sheepish grin, for the last couple of minutes the kid was eyeing her up and down with an expression she couldn't quite place. "Yeah...I'm a ninja." Ino said and idly sheathed her shuriken. Kenpachi beamed even more when he saw the arsenal of ninja tools hidden beneath the flaps of her skort.
"Wow!" he chirped. "Ne ne Onee-san what rank are you," he asked excitedly practically bouncing up and down on the heals of his sandals.
"Chunin." Ino replied warily. It seemed like a good idea a few minutes ago to help the kid out but now she began to regret it as he looked up at her with saucer-sized watery eyes.
"Amazing!" he yelped. "Ne Onee-san," he said once more, erupting a sigh from Ino
"What?" she asked her face dropping noticeably with each passing second. 'Geez this kid's annoying...maybe if I draw another shuriken he'll run away like the others...'
"I wanna be a cool ninja like you someday," he said happily before running off to find new friends to play with. Ino had barely enough time to comprehend what exactly he just said. In fact when she went to call out his name she realized that the young ninja to be was long gone. With no trace of him to be seen Ino frowned and continued her walk.
If anything she wanted to warn him that being a ninja meant you had to grow up fast. Real fast. Once you graduate from the academy you're too overwhelmed with happiness and excited from all the praise given to you from peers and family, the fact that you just sold your mind, body, and soul to the village doesn't even occur to you. Being a ninja isn't a game like the one Kenpachi and the other boys were playing. Although their was some truth that could be found while 'playing ninja'. For example if you fall behind on a mission and are surrounded by the enemy, you had better pray to kami or what ever higher being you believe in that a teammate will come and save you because other wise you're name will be engraved in a stone that only one jounin that Ino knew of visited very often.
'Being a ninja...' Ino thought as she walked past a flower shop with her family name written in bright colors '...means you can't rely on your parents forever' while exhaling her last breath loudly Ino trudged the rest of the way towards the two bedroom apartment that she was now forced to regard as home for the time being.
Sorry for the slow start
Next chapter is where Sakura shows up and the story really begins. Thanks so much for reading this and it would be very much appreciated if you left a review.