Welcome to my first submitted story! I'm still trying to figure out this website, but so far it's going pretty easy. I wrote this story in a contemporary setting. If compared to the Naruto world, the ninjas graduate earlier (in age) than we would if you are considering "school life". Because of that, the timeline is a little bit stretched.
In any case, I've tried to stay true to the Ino (albeit modern) from the series. But because she is the main character, the "behind the scenes" you don't get in the series is expanded. (Or rather, imagined. )
In this chapter, how Ino met Sasuke, gained a crush on him, and their current relationship is explored.
Please enjoy!
"I'm very impressed with your essay, Ms. Yamanaka," her teacher smiled graciously and handed her paper back. She smiled in response. Ino Yamanaka was top brass in her class, from when she was little to now, her senior year in high school. She had been ever since she decided when she was a little girl. That's the way Ino always had been. It wasn't a matter of asking, "Could she? Does she have the ability?" it was simply a, "She decided she's going to, so she'll do it."
...
"Ah! Sasuke! Highest in the class again," the teacher went on to the boy sitting in the row behind her. "One of the very few who caught those last points too." Ino was top-notch, but it was an overall high score. If one was to examine in detail, they'd find out she was only number one in one category: Theatre. Other than that, she was second, second, second. Mostly to the boy sitting directly behind her: Sasuke Uchiha. But, as much as she wouldn't mind being better than the boy, she never minded that he beat her. If anyone was going to beat her in anything, the only person she'd allow would be him. That's what she decided when she first fell in love.
A long time ago, back when they were in elementary school, she had decided that she loved Sasuke. The first time that she ever noticed him, was when he was running around the P.E. field after school got out. Ino had stayed late to help a teacher decorate their classroom, and there he was running. Just running. She didn't understand when almost everyone was gone, why he would run outside. Sure, the evening was coming near, the air was getting cooler, but it was still blasted hot out. It was certainly enough to grab her attention and keep her focus on him for the next year.
As she watched him throughout the year, she noticed something. He excelled at everything. Not only was he naturally gifted to get the best grades, he was also disciplined enough to strive for greater. Every day after school, Sasuke would go outside to the field, and he would run. Run or go mad back and forth on the monkey bars in the playground, or dribble a soccer ball back and forth from one side of the field to the other. One day, during the year she had observed him, she went up to him after school let out. "Why on earth would you bother being out here working up such a sweat? You already have the top grades! What? Do you wanna be an Olympic medalist?" she asked him, standing right in his way to the field.
He looked at her with a smirk and replied, "Maybe." Certainly that wasn't enough to satisfy Ino, so she blocked his path again as he tried by her. Sasuke laughed at her persistence. "Fine," he smiled, "My brother doesn't get out till later to pick me up cuz of his soccer practice, so I've been spending my time training."
"Training? For a medal?" Ino asked as he tried by her again.
Sasuke looked sheepishly to the side for a moment before returning his attention to her. He answered her with the brightest smile she had seen from a boy. "Well… I want to be just like my brother, so I'm practicing so I can run as fast as him," he beamed, "I'm going to be an all-star in everything, just like him!"
With that Sasuke flew by her and left her stomach with butterflies. From then on, throughout the year, Ino would talk to Sasuke from time to time. She would ask him how his training was going, or she would ask him to help her on a worksheet, or what he was going to practice that day, or simply a random question like his favorite color or snack food.
Almost every week, Ino would go home and talk to her mom and dad about Sasuke. Ino had become unaware of her obsession with the boy. It got to the point where she would strive to do better in her own life. Not only would she make sure she was cleaner and cuter each day, but she would study harder as well. Her mother had always trained Ino about flowers, and her father had always trained her, mostly by fun games, about psychology and theatre, and Ino used to begrudgingly go through the lessons, regarding them as something she had to do to please her parents. Now, however, she didn't wait on them to call her for a lesson, she would go to them. In the end, her innocent obsession with the boy had helped her realize how much she really loved the things her parents taught.
And then something happened to the boy the beginning of the next school year- their third-grade year; something big that entire country heard of. Sasuke Uchiha had become nationwide news in one single night. Ino, however, heard about it before any of the other kids did.
It was at the end of the first day of school when Ino saw Sasuke. He was his normal, "cool" self, as she would call it. Over the summer, during their time apart, Ino had pondered a lot about the conversations they would have from time to time, and a thought came to her. Why didn't she ever ask if they could hang out? Why not? It was a simple enough thing. The boy had a small group of friends already, sure, but what was one more friend? After all, she hung out with boys often enough. Reality was, she only had one real female friend. So she decided. She was going to ask him the first time she saw him when she got back. And that was exactly what she did.
Ino didn't dally too much when she went up to him. She began by asking him how his summer went, how his brother was, and how his training was going. Sasuke responded with, "Good," and , "Very well," and, "needs some work." Asking the simple question why got the boy started on a very short, but very enthusiastic story about how he and his brother had gone fishing just the day before, but the only fish Sasuke was able to bait, he almost lost. If it wasn't for his older brother, Sasuke would have let the fish leap back into the ocean-along with all the equipment he was using to catch it. Sasuke sulked slightly as he recounted what had happened, but smiled sheepishly yet happily when he mentioned that his brother had warmly told him that he needed a little more practice.
Ino smiled at his story, hanging on each word until it was over. "Sasuke," she began, "let's hang out sometime. Mind if I grab your phone number? I can ask my parents tonight when they think will be good, and you can ask your parents tonight. I'll call you. Does that sound okay?"
Sasuke smirked slightly, but his half-smile quickly turned into a full warm smile. "Sure," he answered simply. Then, after relaying their home phone to Ino, off he went to practice something before his brother came to pick him up, and off Ino went to meet her dad and go home.
When Ino got home, she immediately asked her father what day he thought would be best. Her father chuckled and said that they'd talk about it over dinner with her mother. Ino couldn't wait, but her father wasn't giving her a choice. So she settled with helping her mother cook dinner to buy the time.
After the family ate together and spoke about times the boy could come over, and he would have to come over at least the first couple of visits, and they had to be when Ino's dad was there, Ino prompted her father to call their home. Her father gladly obliged his daughter and told her to go do her homework from his lesson the day before, so Ino obliged him gladly in return.
That night, however, she did not receive the speedy reply she had waited through dinner for. It was almost her bed time and her father had yet to come into her room and tell her what was decided on by both families. Finally, Ino cleaned up her things for the night and decided that she was going to go see what on earth was happening. As she went to grasp the knob to the door, her father opened it first. Ino looked at her father with a half giddy smile and half impatient scowl. Instead of the happy news she was expecting, Ino's father sat her down on her bed. He had gotten off the phone with the police a while ago, and had talked to Ino's mother for a while before he decided to talk to Ino. Sasuke's whole family had been murdered, safe for he, and, hopefully, Sasuke's older, unaccounted for, brother. Ino wept.
Finally, after she had calmed down enough to speak, Ino asked her dad what she could do. Her father kept silent for a long time before finally telling Ino, "Love him." Ino tilted her head oddly at her father's response.
"D-dad… Don't you think that's gross? He's just my friend… And what good will that do?..." Ino responded glumly.
Her father gave her a warm, tired smile. "Don't you love me? Don't you love your mother? And flowers? And your best friend?" Ino nodded slowly. "There isn't anything else you can do."
From that moment on, Ino recognized that she loved Sasuke. But she never spent time with him after school, and they hardly ever spoke again. Sasuke had completely changed. He still kept his high standing, but now he was empty of friendliness. As Ino realized this, she made it her goal to continue to study hard and never be beaten by anyone but him. If he was ever going to let anyone in, she wanted to be right there by his side in every single way that she could. She was going to fight for him, she was going to watch over him, and she was going to love him- even if he never let it be closer than afar.
Trivia?
-In the (first I believe) Naruto Handbook it says that Ino has the best overall grades.
- During the series, Ino's reactions when Sasuke is involved are varied. Most of them being perceived as shallow. Later on in the Shippuden series, her reaction (though also possibly viewed as shallow) is out of tears. I decided to use her crush on him as an opportunity to produce possible reasons for her reactions and for other parts of her life. (Such as her grades and her reaction to Sakura's crush on Sasuke. )
- Sakura and Ino had only been friends for a couple months shy of a school year before Ino met Sasuke.
