Diclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any way, shape, or form. All characters used belong to Masashi Kishimoto.

Pairings: ShikaIno, NejiTen, SasuSaku, slight NaruHina

Worth Waiting For

by insert cliche

"Ino, are you okay?" Hinata's voice was calm and soothing, and Ino wanted nothing but to fall into the smaller girl's arms and sleep. The two of them, plus Sakura and Tenten, were sitting on the Hokage mountain watching the sunset.

She yawned. "Yeah. I'm just tired."

"Were you up all night again?" Tenten glared a little bit, and Ino shivered. During all the years of being his teammate, Tenten had picked up quite a few of Neji's tendencies. His famous glare was one of them. "Don't lie."

"...yeah."

Sakura sighed. "You know it's not good for your body, Ino. Why do you keep doing it?"

"Shut up, Forehead! I can't help it! He's on an A-class mission, and I keep thinking that he's going to die any second! What if he leaves me?"

A silence descended upon the group until Ino spoke again.

"How did you guys deal with it? I mean, Neji's been on two- and three-month missions, Sasuke goes on A-class all the time, and who knows what Naruto's doing half the time. It's only been a few days without Shikamaru, and I already miss him so much!"

Tenten looked into the orange-red sky. "Everyone deals with it in their own way. When Neji went on an ANBU assignment after our wedding, I didn't sleep for almost six days straight. It got so bad that Hiashi-sama himself had to send for medic help. They put me out with sleeping drugs for a couple days, and when I woke up, Neji was back again."

Sakura laughed. "I remember that! When I first saw you, I could've sworn you were a ghost!"

Hinata giggled along. "Even Father was really worried. He had a talk with Neji-nii-san after Nii-san came back."

Ino laughed slightly, but pressed on. "What about after that? You don't do that anymore, you know."

Tenten smiled. "I know. After that, I started training myself to exhaustion to sleep better. I felt better, too, after beating the heck out of all the training posts."

Sakura cut in. "But Neji made you promise to sleep normally when you got pregnant with Hizashi, didn't he? I remember you telling me that after asking for some sleeping herbs."

"That too. I just hung out around Hinata-chan after that." The brunette looped her arm around Hinata's shoulders for emphasis. "And Neji went on shorter missions while I was pregnant." Tenten's voice lowered and she leaned in like she was going to tell them a secret. "I'm pretty sure he bribed Tsunade-sama with sake."

Ino groaned. "What about some advice for those of us who aren't pregnant? Or married, for that matter?" She was referring to herself and Hinata, respectively.

"Then I don't know. Sometimes, if the mission was really long, I'd do a couple D-ranks in Konoha to waste the time."

"I can't even do missions! I have to watch the shop pretty much all the time!"

"Don't worry, Ino-pig. It's a universal rule that the first couple missions after marriage are the worst. You'll be okay."

Hinata spoke up in a soft whisper. "Have you tried cooking? I do it when anyone important to me is away. And when they come back, I can give them all the extra food. And Naruto-kun likes when I make different ramen variations."

"Shikamaru doesn't care about food. I can't cook well, and he says that 'as long as I'm healthy, then anything's okay.' And since Naruto's going to be Hokage one day, you won't have to worry about him leaving all the time." Hinata turned bright red.

"Ugh. How difficult can you be, Pig?"

"Less than you, Forehead. Remember when Sasuke went on that S-class and you wouldn't stop following me? You were miserable for a whole two weeks! Even I'm not that bad."

Sakura flushed indignantly. "So? We weren't married then, and that was the first time he'd left Konoha without me in at least a year. What if he had left again?"

A dreary silence settled over the four as they tried not to remember Sasuke's defection and all that had happened afterwards.

Sakura spoke again. "But you can come help out in the hospital, if you want. I'm there pretty much all the time, even when Sasuke isn't around."

"Can't. I have to watch the shop, remember? And I'm only a basic field medic."

"It's better knowing something than nothing," Tenten said suddenly. "You wouldn't believe how hard it is complete A- and S-class missions without basic medic jutsu. ANBU missions are even worse."

Ino sighed for the nth time that evening. "Have you guys run out of ideas already?"

"Pretty much. Want us to list them off again?"

"Sure."

"Okay..." Sakura said. "Sleeping drugs."

"Wouldn't take them."

"Training."

"Shop."

"That rules out pretty much everything possible." Tenten mused. "Was there anything else?"

"Cooking?" Hinata asked.

"Can't do it. I'd probably end up poisoning him by accident if I tried something new."

"Yeah, we've officially run out of ideas." Sakura nearly laughed at Ino's sad expression. "Sorry!"

"You guys are no help, you know that?"

"Whatever, Pig."

"Forehead."

"Pig."

"Forehead."

"P-" Sakura froze suddenly as she looked at a spot behind Ino.

"I...guess we'll be leaving now."

Tenten jumped up quickly and brushed the dirt off of her maroon training pants. "Yeah, let's go. Bye, Ino!" She started to jump through the trees.

Ino was confused. "Wait, guys! What are you doing?!"

Hinata was the last to leave. "Ino-chan, look behind you, okay?" The Hyuuga then sprinted off.

The blonde tried to follow Hinata's advice, but she felt herself freeze suddenly. Her body started twisting around of its own accord, and Ino had a sneaking suspicion who it was. She would have been pleased beyond belief, but the fact that her husband had decided to play with her annoyed her quite a bit.

She finally turned around, and saw a spiky-haired jounin smirking at her.

"Miss me, troublesome?"

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