A package was delivered to Yamanaka Ino's home one day. The village was being rebuilt and it was going to take another few years to finish so everyone was working on it to speed up the process as much as possible. The package was a bouquet of certain flowers and a card from an anonymous person.

She came out and cocked an eyebrow at it before picking it up and taking them inside. She looked at the flowers, they intrigued her to no end. There was an iris, a jasmine, a lilac, a larkspur, an orchard, a red rose along with a white rose, a sunflower, a sweat-pea, a red tulip along with a yellow one, and a yellow chrysanthemum.

Ino is no dummy when it comes to flowers, she knows their meanings and implications very well. She had to to work in her family's flower shop.

She looked them over and smiled, "One of my many admirers has made their presence known", she said as she smelled them happily. She looked at the card, which she unfolded and it turned out to be a piece of paper with a letter written on it.

It read:

Dear Ino-hime,

I've loved you for years and, now that there's a chance that I won't make it back, it's time you know my true feelings. You don't have to care, just you knowing is enough to make me happy. I might die out on the field of battle, but I will not fail. I can't. I won't allow myself to fail, to not protect you is to fail every part of my being.

I've watched you for years now and I hope you don't think me strange, for I could not take my eyes off you. Your beauty is unrivaled, your techniques are like a beautiful dance, and your intelect is jaw-dropping. I wish I could find the words to truly describe how I feel for you, but, alas, I don't know any words that powerful.

You've always pushed me to be better than I already was, though you would never be able to guess how. You were always focused on others, it drove me mad and gave me the drive I needed to become who I am today, whether that is good or bad is up to your opinion. I always felt so invisible to you, no matter what feat I accomplished. Always focused on Sasuke, Sakura, or Sai, I fell through the cracks so to speak. I pushed myself beyond my limits many time and, the one chance I had to show you how powerful and great I am, I blew it. I won't elaborate, becuase you've either already guessed who this is or haven't and I don't want to bring up those bad memories. It was painful enough for you the first time.

I know your pain, but you don't know mine. I have been shunned, hated, and beaten for a reason I am not allowed to share. Only a few people in this world know my pain and I've failed most of them. They lost their lives to help me stop the man I am doing battle with now and I will gladly give the ultimate sacrifice to save you and all those who actually care about me. You know I act stupid, you know I fake it, you know I don't mean my proclomations half the time, and you know that I'm a hurt, little kid inside. But I know how to feel, contrary to popular belief in the village, and I know what my feelings mean when I feel them. You probably don't care, I honestly wouldn't blame you if that were the case, but I truly love you.

It is no coincidince that I chose those flowers. I studied botany during my training, I was told to get smarter in order to get stronger. The iris is for how you've inspired me to be all that I can be and more with just how amazing you truly are. The jasmine represents just how graceful and elegant you are when you move, fight, and dance. The lilac represents that you are, in fact, my first love and that I would gladly have you be my last. The larkspur means that I believe you have the most beautiful spirit in the entire world. The orchard means that you do have a delicate beauty about you, but you still can handle your own in a fight. The red rose means that my love is real and passionate and the white one is because of how pure and innocent you are despite your "tough girl" act. The sunflower means that I do adore you and have for a long time. The sweet-pea is there to represent just how shy I've been over the years and that this is me breaking that habit because there is a good chance these will be the last words anyone hears from me. The red tulip is a declaration of love on its own, and the yellow one represents that I am, indeed, hopelessly in love with you and always will be. The last flower is a yellow chrysanthemum, which means that I am, and always have been, your secret admirer.

My time to write this has grown short and there is so much more that I have longed to say to you, but I must leave these things unsaid so that I cannot be allowed to die by Kami above. He has shown me great sympathy in the fact that he has let me know you for so long. I wish I could have given you some form of happiness, but I am just the little outcast that the adults would chase all over the village on my birthday to beat. Do not feel sorry for me, I do not deserve it for you are a goddess and I am nothing, I am lower than garbage. So do not acknowledge me, Ino-hime, so I will grow stronger and live on until I can finally come out in the open and declare my love for you without hiding behind these masks. Farewell, my goddess, may you live a life of happiness and success.

Yours forever,

Your Secret Admirer

She must have read it five times before she had figured out just who wrote this letter. She knew it must've been one Uzumaki Naruto. Only he was this unpredictable and sincere. She did know that he wore a mask to hide the pain he felt, but did not know what that pain was a result of. She heard rumors of him going off to fight the founder of the Uchiha clan, Madara, and began to worry for his safety.

On the other side of the village, a certain blonde was limping through the gates, with the aid of Shikamaru and Chouji. He was hurt beyond a normal person's comprehension, but Naruto is no normal person. Even he, container of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, could barely endure that much pain and come back for more. His right arm was being cradled and was bleeding out of a gash on his forearm. His eyes were barely open, but the red tinted blue was still visible for miles. His chest was cut up and he had broken every bone in his left leg. He had scratches all along his face, but his normal, foxy appearance was still obvious. He had a concussion and sprained his left wrist. He had five broken ribs and was dangerously low on chakra, but he knew he would make it. He knew he had to make it. He hadn't told Ino how he felt directly yet.

Waiting for him, was Sakura, who instantly began berating him on his recklessness and foolishness. She was worried and that made Naruto feel even worse than the injuries. He saw a figure moving quickly towards him, but couldn't make it out due to all the blood in his eyes and the concussion and exhaustion causing blurry vision. Ino was the one running toward him and she embraced him in a tight hug, causing Naruto to wince and his eyes opened as wide as possible, which was about as wide as they would be normally when he was just waking up. "You idiot! You had me worried sick! I thought I'd never see you again! I thought I'd never get to do what I should've done a long time ago...", she said and her voice lowered when she finished her sentence, the yelling gone as she cupped his cheek gently and, at a painfully slow pace for Naruto, she leaned in and closed the gap between their lips.

Sakura, Shikamaru, and Chouji all had wide eyes when she did this. These two were definitely unpredictable, but this was something they'd never have expected, even if they were given an infinite amount of time to come up with everything they might do. She broke the kiss and let him breathe, well cough and spit blood would be more accurate, but he got some oxygen in his lungs also. She frowned but he was grinning even bigger than his usual, "mask" grin. His life's goal complete, he felt his eyes close and he fell into unconsciousness.

When he woke up, he was in a hospital room with Ino sitting beside him, he was bandaged up even worse than he was four or so years ago when he failed to stop his best friend/rival. She was tired, he could tell that at a first glance, she hadn't slept since he got back and she had healed him herself. He squeezed her hand gently with a little grin on his face and she smiled sadly. "Hey there, sleepyhead", she said with a voice that, even though it was plagued with exhaustion and threatening to fail her, was music to his ears.

He sat up and groaned in pain, but kept upright, and looked at her. "Why are you doing this, Ino-hime? You've never noticed me before, as far as I could tell. You knew all about how I faked how I acted and yet you seemed to not care even though I can tell you are very unhappy. You were betrayed by that bastard, left by your sensei, and you only get attention by men who only want your body. You are miserable and yet, you seek more misery by choosing me?", he asked in a soft voice that she loved to hear him use.

She shook her head slowly and smiled up at him. "I seek utter bliss by being with my knight in shining armor. You are so handsome and strong, yet you need a woman to nurse you back to health. I want to be that woman, Naruto-kun, please don't stop me", she said while leaning up and he stopped her by pressing his forehead against her's.

"Do you truly love me or do you feel sorry for me? You don't have to lie and say that you love me to spare my feelings, I know how to take a hit, as you can clearly see... A woman used a henge on my fourth birthday to transform into a woman with long, blonde hair and shining blue eyes and she told me she was my mother. She waited a while and then she started to attack me. I thought that was the end of my pathetic life, that even my own mother hated me for what I held inside... But I found out she had lied when I escaped and heard her talking to some drunks that usually beat me pretty badly on my birthday... She dashed my trust in women for a while... I used to turn everything into a joke just to make things bearable... My heart was so full of pain that I considered suicide at the age of five... I would've succeeded had Sandaime-sama hadn't found me hanging from a tree... He cut me down and scolded me for hours on end... I thought that I had made even him hate me... He showed me that I was loved by very few... But to me, that was enough... I was happy with the small amount of those who actually cared... Sandaime-sama died and that cut that number in half... Iruka-sensei was the only one left... I was sad for him for a while, but I knew he had found peace... I later met Jiraiya-sensei... He loved me for a long time and eventually, even he was taken from me... Yeah... I know how to take a hit, alright...", he said and the tears were streaming down his face like a steady river from each eye.

She was crying too and the crystal tears from her eyes met his as she mashed her lips against his and shared a kiss that explained to him just how she truly felt. He had stared into her eyes the entire time to see if she was true or if she was trying to commit emotional murder. He saw no trace of any deceit in her eyes and let himself give into the kiss. He didn't care that it was damaging his injuries even more than they already were, he had his goddess of the flowers, and, to him, that made up for the rough path it took to get him here.

Brewdog here, guys. Hope you enjoyed the fic. If I get ten reviews, I'll make it a two-shot for in the future. It will be played by ear where as this was somewhat planned by me and a good friend. I don't own Naruto and I certainly didn't know what the flowers meant before I looked it up and found the perfect ones for this. Thanks for being a great audience and I'll see you guys later!