Ino blinked her sky blue eyes as she stood a little ways away from her father. This would be the fifth party she had attended over the course of two weeks for her fathers' work. She never liked these little things, there was no purpose to them, in her opinion at least. Unlike what most thought, even though she was the child of a wealthy man she was anything but happy. Ino was aware that she could have anything in the world she wanted, but money could never buy her happiness.

She wanted what money couldn't buy; she wanted time with her father, she wanted love, and most of all, she wanted friends her age.

More than half of the people her father worked with were either too old to have children, their children were already grown adults, or their children were much too young for her taste. The only difference at this party was the fact that there were actually children in her age group here, and just like her, they stayed out of their parents way. She recognized all of them, her father had talked about them to her. He even shown her pictures of their families and told her how each of their families planned to work with her own, not that she had cared all that much. She knew who they were though.

Ino hadn't been dumb enough to ignore her father's whole speech. Hinata Hyuuga: the older sister of Hanabi Hyuuga and the first daughter of Hiashi Hyuuga. Their family was known for their many martial art dojos across the globe. Her father didn't see it, but Ino saw that Hiashi seemed to favor Hinabi over the eldest and was forced to stay quiet. To be pretty, and do as she was told, that was Hinata's job.

Naruto Uzumaki: The only child of Kushina Uzumaki and Minato Namikaze. His family was famous for their Japanese styled restaurants in over half of the world. Sadly, once again, what went unnoticed by her father was the fact that it seemed that his parents never had the time to even introduce Naruto to their friends and business partners. Honestly, it was quite sad in Ino's eyes. They were the only ones who seemed like they could have been decent parents.

Then there was Sasuke Uchiha, the second and youngest son that Mikoto and Fugaku Uchiha. His family was well known for their special olive oil and their gasoline, two of the weirdest things to be known for in Ino's opinion. It would be a lie to say that Mikoto didn't at least try to get their son involved. Fugaku most certainly wasn't one for that and only included their oldest son Itachi in most business matters. It left Sasuke in the shadows just like Hinata, Naruto, Gaara, and herself.

Speaking of Gaara, he was the last and youngest child of three as well as the youngest of the group of teens. His father, Rasa, was a very successful businessman, he was like a modern renaissance man. It seemed as if Gaara was most certainly the one who was the most feared. He was the least favorite of Rasa's children, though, and was forced to hide in the shadows of his oldest sister, Temari, and his older brother, Kankuro. Now, at this very silly party full of uncomfortable dresses and prissy people, she saw them all together making light chit chat with each other.

Ino would never admit it, but it made her feel a little envious of them. She was Ino Yamanaka, she was a woman of class and obedience, her father would be disappointed in her for feeling such a nasty emotion as jealousy.

" It was not fit for a good child such as yourself "

She could hear her father now, she could almost laugh. Turning her baby blue eyes back to her father she felt her stomach drop. Just as she had turned to look at her father, the four that she had been analyzing before were now making their way towards her. What could they possibly want from her? She was half tempted to just walk away and go somewhere else, avoid them completely, but she would be seen as rude.

Their families worked with each other now. Could she really afford to risk her father's business relationships simply because she didn't want to talk with them?

"Ino Yamanaka, am I correct?"

Inot turned to them, a tiny, but fake, smile painting her face. It had been Naruto who had spoken to her first, she nodded.

"Yes, just call me Ino if you'd like. You must be Naruto Uzumaki, a pleasure."

Ino curtseyed in his direction and offered her hand to him to be shaken, which he gave a firm shake with a big grin on his face.

"Nice to meet you.", he told her, she nodded.

"You all must be Hinata Hyuuga, Sasuke Uchiha, and Gaara No Sabaku, it's a pleasure to meet all of you."

She gave a tiny smile as she repeated the same greeting gestures that she had done to Naruto.

"A pleasure, Ino.", came the soft voice of the Hyuuga Lady.

"Hn.", was the only reply she had received from Sasuke.

She only received a silent yet chilly nod from the young red haired Heir known as Gaara.

"What may I assist you with?"

Ino tried her best to be polite, not wanting them to think her rude or snobby.

"We just noticed you were standing alone, and since all of our families will be working together from this point on, we decided that we'd like to get to know you."

Hinata offered a small smile, for some reason what Hinata had said made her a little upset. Would they not had attempted to talk to her had their families not been working together?

"Is it because you four are in the shadows one way or another? Is it because I share that with you that you found the interest to talk to me?"

Ino spoke in a steady tone, concealing her anger. She wasn't one to be around the bush when it came too these things. If she were to take over her father's business when the time came, she would have to be forward and unyielding. Naruto and Hinata blinked in surprised, Sasuke narrowed his eyes, and Garra crossed his arms over his chest with a harden look on his face, yet none of them said anything.

"I'll take that as a yes. Although our families work together now, that doesn't mean that I have to become friends with any of you. I'm much more comfortable in the dark where I can make my father proud. Please excuse me, I must take my leave. "

She hadn't meant to be so harsh. Ino turned to look back at her father who was waving to her. She smiled warmly and waved back to him, everything washing away from her mind now that she had a little bit of his attention.

"You're just saying that."

The voice she heard was raspy, and she once more turned to see that it was Gaara who had spoken this time. She didn't give him another chance to speak and walked away towards her father so she didn't have to hear anything else they had to say on the matter. Ino could feel their hardening gazes on her, but brushed it off. Alerting her father that she was tired, she headed home for the night. The Yamanaka heiress had every intent to forget about the group that attempted to make friends with her.

They only liked her because she was in the same boat as them, nothing more and nothing less. She watched the many cars they drove by flying in a blur. Her mind was stuck on them, and she hated it. Refocusing her eyes she looked at her reflection in the window. They went from her baby blue eyes that burned with the anger of her thoughts, she looked over her fair skin, and her knee long bleach blonde hair that she hung over her right eye while the rest was in a high ponytail.

Turning her eyes from her reflection she looked down at her clothing. She had dressed in a no sleeved royal purple gown that went down to her knees, the skirt itself was a teacup. The top hugged her body and the back of her dress went down until it made it to the middle of her spine and the part that covered her chest was almost heart shaped. Her heels were black and had ribbons that wrapped around her ankles. She had a beautiful rose quartz necklace that her father had gotten her for her birthday, she had worn it ever since.

"M'lady, you're home."

The driver had snapped Ino out of her train of thought and she nodded, "Thank you for driving me home, Belle.

Ino gave her gratitude before she had stepped out. Without a moment to waste she went inside the estate her father and she had called home. The home was elaborate and beautiful and for some reason it always smelled as sweet as a flower.

"I guess it pays to be a lover of flowers."

She muttered to herself as she made her way up the stairs to take a bath, only God knew how much she needed to relax.

"I need to get my mind off of tonight…"

Ino kept muttered as she walked into the bathroom. She filled the bath with slightly hot water and browsed through the many milk baths that she had in her cabinet. She had always bought them on Esty from a person named Luvmilk, she loved the many things that they made and just how wonderful it all smelled. Deciding that she wanted to smell like sweet watermelon and cherry she had chosen Southern Belle and poured it into the water. Once the smell had drifted around the room she turned the water off and began to strip from her clothing.

Her body had been engulfed in the sweet aroma as the milk bath softened her skin to her liking. Ino felt like she was in her grandmother's house in the country, nothing but home cooking and the smell of fresh cut watermelons, she loved it there. It had only been an hour since she had been in the tub did she hear her dog wolf hybrid, Darla, barking up a storm. Ino found it quite odd for her since she was normally so tame no matter who was at the door, so that could only mean one thing: strangers were at her door.