This is the first of 100 themes that I will be writing. Every short story will focus on a different aspect of a Naruto Uzumaki x Ino Yamanaka relationship. The different chapters will not proceed in chronological order, but will instead jump around. For the full list of themes that will eventually be included, check my profile. I will not be writing right down this list, but will pick and jump around.
BlakBlt2
Introduction
By the age of 9, Naruto Uzumaki was no stranger to heartbreak. In fact, heartbreak was probably the young boy's closest friend. Not a day went by in which this "friend" did not at least pop his head into Naruto's life. It came every time a child ran away from him, when he only wanted to play. It came when those children who were naïve enough to entertain him were forcibly dragged away by their parents.
Eventually, Naruto came to believe that he was forever destined to wander through life alone, miserable and unloved. Eventually, he finally gave up trying to make friends. Eventually, there were no longer any naïve children anymore. Eventually, his life followed a rigid schedule. He woke up at 6:00 every morning. By 6:10, he was in the shower, always cold. (The landlord was a cruel man, and Naruto was lucky that all he did was stop up the hot water pipes for his apartment). He was out and in the kitchen by 6:20. At 6:23, he enjoyed his morning cup of instant ramen. At 6:25, the cup was in the trash and Naruto was back in his bedroom dressing. 6:30, he locked the apartment door (not that it ever stopped the determined villagers from trashing the place) and was on his way to the academy for classes. He always arrived at exactly 6:50, and spent the next 5 minutes in his favorite swing, watching the parents that walked their children to school. By 7:00, Naruto was sitting in his chair (always the same one – 4th row back, 6th seat in – smack dab in the middle of the classroom) waiting for Iruka to start the lectures.
The next 9 hours were the only ones that did not fit with the strict schedule Naruto kept. Iruka always mixed it up so the students wouldn't get bored. Classes always let out, however, at exactly 4:00 in the afternoon. Naruto would, once again, spend 5 minutes in his swing, watching as those parents who dropped their children off came back and picked them up. By 4:30, he had dropped his school bag back in his apartment and was down in the park across from his apartment building. Here, his schedule varied. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, Naruto would practice the ninja skills he had learned so far. He always worked on something different every day, and always focused solely on one challenge. One day, he might work on molding his chakra. (During the practical instruction, Mizuki had purposely taught him a slightly varied version of the ram sign. Naruto didn't know that this was the reason he couldn't mold his chakra correctly). Another day, Naruto tried to create a simple clone, just like Iruka had in class that day. (This time, Mizuki had instructed him to put too much chakra into his clones. This was why they always turned out so sickly).
Every Tuesday and Thursday, Naruto would forego his training and just sit on one of the park benches, simply enjoying the day. This was always the time that he took to plan the pranks he would pull. These pranks always waited until the weekend, when Naruto did not have to worry about school. No matter what day of the week it was, however, Naruto was always back in his apartment by 7:00, unless Iruka had searched him out and invited him out for ramen. He spent the next hour unwinding from his day by sitting on the couch and reading a book. (People always assumed that Naruto was stupid, but he just chose to remain in the background and not draw attention to himself in school). At 8:00, Naruto fixed himself another cup of ramen for dinner, and by 8:10, he was always cleaning his apartment. (No matter what, some villager always found their way into his apartment and trashed something. The worst was when they had set fire to his couch and bed. Luckily, the Hokage had found out and had replaced them the next day). By 9:30, no matter how messy his apartment, Naruto was always passed out in bed. The cycle repeated the next day. (If it was the weekend, he replaced his time at the academy with his pranks. Saturday was spent pulling all the ones he could, and Sunday was always spent cleaning up after them).
Naruto had followed this schedule everyday of his life, ever since he had started attending classes at the Academy. Not a day had gone by where Naruto didn't follow this unwritten calendar. After all, he didn't have any friends to throw a wrench into his carefully planned (some thought obsessively planned) day. And so it was that on November 17th of his 9th year of life, at exactly 4:02, one of Naruto's fellow classmates found the blonde boy exactly where she knew he would be. She marched up to him, tapped him on the shoulder, and, when he turned around to face her, stuck out her hand and opened her mouth to speak.
Naruto wasn't aware of it at the time, but the next 7 words would forever change his life. From this day on, his life would no longer follow the strict timesheet that he had been following. He didn't know that he was meeting his best friend, teammate, girlfriend, lover, and, one day, wife and mother of his children. All he knew at that moment was surprise that someone was finally talking to him after a year of loneliness.
"Hi. I'm Ino Yamanaka. What's your name?"