For Daikou.

Her teammate was sulking. Again.

Ino was having none of it!

"Oh, come on! Cheer up already!" she exclaimed loudly. Not even the Food of the Gods, as Naruto had already called his ridiculously large servings of ramen,—and he'd done it, like, twenty seven times since the start of this little get-together—was snapping him out of his broody mood.

The idiot wasn't even supposed to be broody!

What the hell, Naruto?

"Sorry, Ino. I'm just not into it today," Naruto sulked quietly. He stirred his pot with noodles with a downtrodden expression.

"You forced me to drag you to this store! I don't even like ramen!" Ino wailed.

Naruto shrugged.

Just… What. The. Hell?!

She checked for any signs of deception. No, it was still Naruto and not a sucky infiltrator. No one could copy the Fox's chakra.

"Do you know what's wrong with him?" Ino asked the store owner, who supposedly knew her friend pretty well. Taking into account Naruto's obvious fascination with the man's brand of fatty foods, it seemed pretty likely too.

Although Ino was feeling pretty uncomfortable right now; taking advice from someone she didn't even know was definitely not her cup of tea.

The corner of her eye twitched.

This was one strange day.

The man took a moment to think. "Well, from what he's been saying when he comes over, it could be the results of a broken heart. But he's also been eating less, so it could be that someone doesn't want to teach him a new jutsu and he's moping. It could be either," he said honestly.

Thinking back, it almost made sense.

"I never took you for a snitch, old man!" Naruto mumbled furiously.

"Now, now, Naruto… This young lady seems quite concerned for you. The least I could do is tell her," he said.

"And for that you have my most profound thanks!" Ino glowered at Naruto. The coward actually shrunk away from her. "Is it Forehead Girl? What's she done this time?"

"Wh—why would she do anything?!" Naruto stuttered. His cheeks were decidedly a deep shade of red. Naruto had never been an accomplished liar.

Ino deadpanned.

This could not be happening to her. She was not helping her—what was Sakura to her exactly?—her somewhat of a friend, slash life-time rival, slash annoying workmate?

Ugh. It was a stupid relationship anyway. It didn't need any more annoying labels.

"Oh, please," she huffed, "look at you, you are so obvious! And you're already blushing! How could it not be her? You never did let go of her, right?"

Naruto's stuttering made any answer he could give her utterly incomprehensible.

The store owner chuckled lightly. "I'll leave you two to it," he said before returning to his noodles.

She threw the cheerful man a small smile in gratitude. Meanwhile, she did a complete one eighty when she looked back at the subject of her abuse.

"You DO know she'll never stop loving Sasuke?" she asked him exasperatedly.

Judging from the black cloud hovering over his head, Naruto DID NOT know that. Ino was better; she'd seen the light. She knew Sakura's stubbornness first-hand. Hell, they had broken their friendship over that stupid crush with Sasuke!

And Kami… What was up with that? All the drama around here had Sasuke right in the centre! It was kind of disappointing. The guy had been a drama queen all along and she never knew! She'd always pegged him as the silent type of emo. Oh, well…

"You're stupid," she said, plain and simple.

Naruto slumped further.

"But I also know you. You're loyal and hard-working," Ino continued like she hadn't noticed. She leaned into her hand so that she could see him better. "You promised Forehead Girl that you would bring her boyfriend back—or are you going back on your word now, Naruto?"

"No! I'm not!" he yelled. "And that's not why I'm upset!"

"Uh-huh," Ino nodded disbelievingly. "Tell me all about it, lover boy."

They both glared at each other. Unsurprisingly, Ino won their little contest.

Naruto sighed. "Don't laugh, okay?"

"Wouldn't dream about it," she grinned at him foxily.

Naruto glared for a second before he averted his eyes to elsewhere. With his chopsticks, he started pushing around the contents of his bowl. "It's just… What does she see in him? I've always been there for her when he was not and—"

"Except you went away for three years… and she's thick—like really, really thick and she's got an end goal which has Sasuke's face behind it," she interjected. "Frankly, I'm surprised you didn't move on. It's not like she's the only woman in Konoha, you know."

Naruto held his narrowed eyes at her.

"She'll probably never marry the douche, anyways," Ino shrugged the thought dismissively. Because it wasn't her problem if Sakura's tastes were still as horrible as they were when they were kids. It wasn't. "If she doesn't notice other guys, especially if they are much better-looking than any power-hungry emo, then it's her loss. You'll eventually move on and settle down with a nice girl—you do want to settle down some day, right? Have kids? Get married?"

Naruto only stuck his tongue out at her, but his cheeks were flushed for some reason. And that was more than enough for her.

Ino rolled her eyes.

"You still won't grow up—will you ever?" She bemoaned the simple truth: he wouldn't.

"Never!" Sure enough, Naruto laughed at her.

"Why do I even bother?" Ino groaned. "It's not like you won't bounce back to your feet without any moral support! What have I done? Now we won't have any peace around here!"

"Oh, please! You know you like my pranks!"

"I'm done here!" Ino announced, shaking her head dejectedly. She hopped down her stall. "I'm not paying!"

Naruto jumped down as well. "Why the hell do I pay for your meal, Ino!"

"Because you love me and I'm a good teammate, so pay up!" she yelled back.

Teuchi, still cooking, shook his head. "Those two will end up together, I just know it."