A/N: Hello to everyone who's actually taking the time to read my fic! I really appreciate it. If there are any of you out there please follow or review or let me know somehow that you readers exist!
This is the first fanfiction of anything I've ever written so please be kind to it!
I've read Naruto based fanfics before and figured I may as well take a shot at writing my own. I'm gonna do my best to update as much as possible depending on what life decides to throw at me. I plan on making this fic about 15-20 chapters, more if enough people read it; or possibly because I have too many ideas for this fic that it might expand to 30-40 chapters I really don't know haha...
-This is rated M to be safe. There may be a lot of swearing and 'mature' themes in later chapters. You have been warned. It's not my fault if you decide to skip over the long boring author's notes.-
And I'd like to say right now, any story I start, will ALWAYS have an ending. I think it's safe to say that unfinished fanfictions kill people. In the future, I may stop posting new chapters for weeks, months, and possibly (but unlikely) years due to crap going on in my life that I have to deal with. I may also update this less frequently since I'm also writing chapters for The New Kid.But every fic I write WILL for sure, have a closing chapter.
I promise.
*I do not own Naruto or any of the characters, this is a work of fiction*
Life was alright I guess. I mean I have a lot of friends, so I'd say I'm kind of popular. I'm an average student, always keeping my grades at a decent level. I have the best parents in the world, and they trust me to be on my own so they never really enforce any rules. Which I really like because I couldn't stand it if they were overbearing and controlling of me. I'm pretty responsible, so if I'm out they're the first to know when I'll be home or if I'm sleeping over at a friend's or whatever.
I also have an amazing girlfriend. She's got the greatest personality. She's incredibly sweet, caring, and the nicest person I know (assuming I'm on her good side). She's also got the most beautiful smile. I'm fortunate to get to see it nearly every day. Everything seemed to be going great for me. I had a healthy relationship with my parents, all the friends one teenager could possibly need, and a fantastic girl I could call mine. But..I don't know how things will go now, because of what happened yesterday, since she came back into my life.
I'd say, everything started a few months back, mid-November of my junior year in high school.
It was late autumn, the sky had been cloudy since the seasons changed, and it was nearing winter soon.
I sat against the cold, hard wall with my arms wrapped around my legs, my knees pulled up to my chin; ducking in the small alley behind the school gym where no one hung around.
My breathing was heavy, my heart aching in pain.
No...this couldn't be happening. Not now..not like this.
I could feel the water overflowing in my eyes as tears spilled down my cheeks. Trying to control my sobs, I put my head down and cried to myself.
"Hey there.. you alright?" I heard a voice call from a few feet away.
I slowly peared up, to see a worn pair of Vans, beige skinny cargos being loosely held up by a black belt with a silver Batman buckle, dark gray zipped-up hoodie, white headphones, and long crimson hair.
It was Tayuya, a girl that was in 2 of my classes. She never spoke much, even though she sat right behind me in both classes. A lot of the time she'd seem to be dozing off at her desk, considering our classes were towards the end of the school day.
I wondered why, why was she talking to me? She never seemed to care much about anything. More importantly though, why was she back here where it's practically deserted?
Tayuya stood there, skateboard in one hand, a Starbucks cup in the other. Black backpack slung over one shoulder, and navy blue beanie pulled low.
I'd never seen her without a beanie or hat, but I noticed she always had a long red bang that slipped from her beanie that hung to the bridge of her nose.
My eyes slid up to meet hers, and I wiped the tears off my face. After 3 months of sitting right in front of her 5 days a week, I realized that we never once made eye contact. If we did, there's no way I'd forget it.
Tayuya's big brown eyes were on me and I couldn't help but stare back. Wow..she has such beautiful eyes.
After I didn't respond for god knows how long, she cleared her throat, eyes darting away from mine to look down at her shoes. She seemed a bit nervous all of a sudden.
"Uhh..you're Ino right?" She asked. Wait why is she.. ! I've been staring at her and I haven't said anything for like the past 3 minutes no wonder she's weirded out.
"Y-yeah..." I barely managed to stumble out.
She took a few steps towards me, kneeling down to place her skateboard on the concrete. She turned to put her bag down.
Tayuya sat down next to my side, crossing her legs, and held her cup to me.
"Do you want my hot chocolate? I haven't had any yet. You can take it."
Damn...If I didn't have such a sweet tooth maybe I could resist her offer...
"Thanks.." I said, taking the cup from her hand and having a sip.
I placed it down, not knowing what else to say. She began taking off her jacket. She only wore a thin black and white baseball tee, which wasn't enough to stay warm in this weather.
While adjusting her headphones, she shifted moving one leg to be outstretched on top of the other. Then Tayuya draped her jacket over my shoulders while I remained in my curled up form.
"You're shivering." she said looking straight ahead with her arms loosely folded across her stomach. I just then noticed how cold I was.
"Why are you being so nice to me?" I asked, turning my head to look at her.
Tayuya didn't move. A few seconds later she met my eyes once again.
"Why shouldn't I be?" Her question was so direct that it caught me off guard.
"Well…" I started.
My mouth remained parted but no words came out. I couldn't think of how to continue. I shifted, stretching out my legs in front of me and put my hands together on my lap.
We stayed quiet for a few minutes before I began to tug her jacket off. She caught my hand, stopping me from pulling it any further.
"You're going to get sick if you don't stay warm. You can have it back." I pressed.
A small smile slipped from her lips.
"It's alright I don't mind." she breathed out, taking her hand off me.
Tayuya closed her eyes, her head leaning back against the wall. I didn't think there was any sense in arguing with her, so I stopped urging her to take her jacket.
While I took a sip of my hot chocolate, I couldn't help but notice how relaxed she was. Tayuya seemed to be the kind of person who lived life without a care in the world.
"So are we just going to sit here or are you gonna tell me what's up?" she asked, not moving at all.
"What do you mean…" I mumbled.
Tayuya sighed. "Look Ino, I know it's not my place to ask you about your personal life; whether you want to talk about it or not, but... I just want to know if you're okay."
I hadn't seen how close she was to me until I shifted to face her. We were inches apart. Her brows furrowed. Once again, her eyes were on me, steadily focused on mine.
I sighed as I began to tell what had happened.
Class was going to end in the next few minutes. I was consumed in my thoughts as Mr. Umino told everyone to pass up their classwork.
Thank the lord that it's Friday. I can't wait to go home and pass out, I'm fucking exhausted.
The girl behind me gave me the papers, seeing as I sat in the front of the row. I always saw one paper in the small stack that had writing that filled the entire page, whilst others only had a few sentences for every question. It surprised me a bit when I saw it was Tayuya Miryoku. For a someone that sleeps half the class away, she's actually an efficient worker.
Since the beginning of the school year it always puzzled me how this girl got so much done in less time than everyone else.
Of course everyone else except Shikamaru, and coincidentally he hangs out with Tayuya. But I don't think I've ever seen that kid when he wasn't napping. Yet I'm pretty sure that he'd be one of the top students of our junior class; if he actually bothered to do his homework.
But every time Mr. Umino made him wake up to do an assignment, he'd finish in a few minutes and go right back to sleep. I really think that Shikamaru might make class valedictorian one day.
As the final bell rang, I was relieved to get to go home to sleep and not think about school for the next 2 days. I finished shoving my stuff into my backpack and hurriedly left the room. Right when I stepped out the door, I saw a familiar face.
My smile stretched from ear to ear.
I hopped over to give my girlfriend a hug, and a quick kiss. She didn't seem very responsive but I assumed she was more tired than I was, being a senior and all.
We had met last year, and after a few months we developed feelings for each other and she asked me to be her girlfriend.
"Hi Ino." She gave me a small grin. I immediately noticed there was something wrong.
"..Are you okay?" I frowned. She didn't reply right away.
"I have to talk to you about something..it's kind of important." She refused to look directly at me.
"Oh..alright...Do you want to talk somewhere a little more private?" I asked. She didn't say anything; just nodded.
She was a good 5 steps ahead of me, while I followed behind her trying to catch up as we dodged students and left the hall. We were walking towards the school gym, where there was a little alley around the back of the building.
My heart was beating so fast, I swear it was going to jump out of my chest. Still, she wouldn't look at me. Her usual bright eyes seemed dull, even dead-like as if they were losing their usual tint.
I saw her face was hard; and her hands were balled into fists. I reached out to hold her hand but she pulled it away at my touch.
"Hey..what's going on? You can tell me." I looked at her and tried to force a small smile.
"I...I don't think we should see each other anymore." she replied quietly. I felt my whole world crash down. Thoughts began to cloud my mind. What did I do? Is this my fault? Maybe I wasn't there enough. Maybe I made her upset.
But the only thing I could manage to say was "Why?"
She brought her head up, turning towards me. "I think I have feelings for someone else."
"Someone...else..? I don't understand.. I…" I couldn't contain myself. My chest was aching at the mere thought of it.
"Who is it.." I practically whispered.
"Karin." She blurted out.
"Karin...? I thought she was dating that guy Jugo.."
I didn't know what to think now. But really.. Karin?
"She is..it's just..." she sighed and ran her hand through her hair. "I don't think it's fair to stay with you if I care about someone else."
"So what if you care about her? That doesn't change what we have... As long as we still love each other-"
"That's the thing.." she cut in. "I don't know if I love you anymore." she said, threatening to cry.
'"I don't know if I love you anymore." '
Damn, I thought it was bad when she said we should stop seeing each other.
"I've thought about this for a few days already. Our relationship hasn't been going anywhere. I made up my mind that I have to end things between us, before I hurt you any more." She choked back a sob.
I was about a step ahead. I was already crying, anger building in my core, but overwhelmed by grief. I leaned my forehead into the wall beside me, my fists on the cold bricks in front of me, my head hanging low, and I felt this urge to punch holes into the wall.
After a few silent minutes, I dropped my arms and looked up. She stood in the same place, patiently waiting for my reaction. Once I had turned to her, she slowly pulled me into a hug. My arms dangled at my sides, feeling too heavy to hold her.
"Please know that I never wanted to hurt you...You mean so much to me, but things are complicated right now." She whispered into my ear. After what seemed like an eternity, she let go, moving her hands to my shoulders and she gave me a small peck on the cheek.
"I'm so sorry...but I think some time apart would be good for me... For both of us. Goodbye Ino."
She let me go and left the alley, leaving me alone. My bag dropped to the ground and my back slammed against the wall as I slowly slid down to the floor to hold myself. Only to run into the redhead who always slept through class, moments later.
"Wow...that's terrible. I'm sorry." Tayuya replied softly.
I nodded my head, tears building up in my eyes. She scooted closer and put her arm around me. My head dropped on to her shoulder as I spoke.
"I thought everything was going great between us. We were happy. I don't know how this could've happened." My voice cracked and I started to cry all over again.
Tayuya pulled me into her.
"She told me she loved me.." I whispered.
I buried my face into her neck, my hand gripping her opposite shoulder as I cried.
She wrapped both arms around me, and quietly waited for my sobs to die down to the point where I could easily regain my breath. Tayuya's heat radiated off of her; the warmth seemed to comfort me. I'm not sure how long we stayed like that, but it felt...relaxing.
I lifted my head back up. We stared at each other silently for a moment. I pulled my gaze away and looked at the concrete, as I wiped the tears off of my face with my sleeve.
"Uh, I should get going I have a bunch of homework I have to do.." I stuttered out.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Tayuya nodding her head.
"Okay."
She pulled her arms away and shifted to stand. She bent down to pick up her backpack and skateboard.
I stood up, holding Tayuya's jacket in my hand.
"Uhh..."
Tayuya chuckled. "Don't even try, you know I won't take it. Just keep it." She smiled at me.
I smiled back and nodded, putting her jacket on before I picked up my stuff.
"Do you walk home?" Tayuya asked suddenly.
Usually my girlfriend walked me home. I can't stand walking around alone, especially at night; the thought always seemed to scare me. It still seemed a little early to be nighttime already.
"Yeah, I don't live very far from here."
"I'll walk you home if you want me to." she replied. It was strange, like she knew exactly what I was thinking.
"Oh, no, I couldn't ask you to walk me home I'm sure you have other things to do."
"It's getting dark, are you sure?" I looked up at the sky and Tayuya was right.
The sun hadn't been out all day, and now the clouds looked darker than they did earlier this afternoon.
Have we been out here that long? Her snicker interrupted my thoughts.
"I'll take that as a yes." Shit did I say that out loud?
"Yes you did." she teased me. Crap...
We walked, well I walked, Tayuya was on her skateboard slowly cruising next to me, occasionally stopping so I could catch up, as we started to my house. Surprisingly, the silence between us didn't feel weird.
I drank my hot chocolate silently. I then remembered a question that was burrowed in my head since she found me in the alley.
"So..what were you doing behind the gym?" I asked. Tayuya looked at me and laughed.
"I like to sit back there and read my Batmans. But sometimes I'd see you and.. her... there, so I'd just go read in the library." she smiled.
I remembered all the times we hid back there when we wanted to kiss without other people gawking at us.
My face began to burn from my cheeks to my ears when I remembered all the times we were back there because we couldn't keep our hands off of each other. Oh jeez...did Tayuya see all of that.. I don't know why, but it made me uncomfortable knowing that Tayuya had seen us together, even if it was for a few seconds.
Her light-hearted laugh caught my attention again.
"Don't worry I didn't see much."
I swear she's reading my mind somehow.
"Do you hang around that alley a lot? Y'know..when I wasn't over there with her?" I wondered.
Tayuya paused for a second thinking of her response.
"Well I don't like to go home after school, so I'll stick around on campus for an hour or so." she replied.
"Why not?"
Tayuya's smile disappeared as she explained.
"My parents don't get along very well. I try to stay out as long as possible to avoid them. Same with my brother Gaara, he can't stand being around them either... They don't really care when or if I come home."
I realized I may have hit a sore spot and started to apologize.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"
Tayuya stopped me.
"It's alright you didn't know." She flashed that easy going smile at me assuring me that everything was fine.
We fell into a comfortable silence the rest of the way. As we made it to my front porch Tayuya kicked up her board and held it by the truck. I turned to her.
"Thanks for today.. I really appreciate it." and I meant it.
Chances are, no one would go up to a hysterical sobbing girl (that's a bit of an exaggeration) that was scrunched up on the floor. At least I don't think so.
"No problem. I'm always here if you need to talk." she grinned.
I don't know why I did what I did but I lurched forward to hug her. Tayuya was startled, but happily obliged.
She held on as long as I did, and didn't let me go until I dropped my arms first.
"So, what are you gonna do now?" I asked, knowing she wasn't going home.
"I might head to my friend Shikamaru's. He's that guy that's always sleeping in class. His parents like me, so they don't mind if I crash at their house."
Is it possible Tayuya and Shikamaru are dating?
The sky noticeably became much darker, nearly pitch black. The temperature had also gone down, colder than it was a while ago. Even I felt the cold through Tayuya's jacket. She must be freezing. I unzipped her hoodie only for her to stop me again.
"Hey, hey, hey, I told you keep it." she insisted.
"I'm already home, you're gonna freeze at this rate." I pouted.
Tayuya smirked at me. "What'd you think I meant earlier when I said to keep it? You agreed, there's no taking it back now!" she laughed.
"Oh come on that's not fair!" I whined.
I tried to give my best puppy dog face. Too bad it didn't work.
"Nope, not gonna get me like that." she shook her head.
"But you're gonna get sick!" I complained.
"I don't get sick that easily Ino." she calmly replied.
"Fine, you win this time, but I'll get my revenge." I joked.
"I'm sure you will." Tayuya winked at me.
I smiled at her remark.
"I'm gonna head out now. You going to be alright?" her eyes grew soft, and I caught myself staring into them for about the 10th time today.
"Yeah I will be. Thank you again..It means a lot to me that you would take the time to help me feel better."
Tayuya nodded and tossed her board onto the pavement. She put one foot on it and turned back to me.
"See you on Monday." she said right about to push her other foot off the ground.
"Hey…" I found myself blurting. Tayuya stopped to hear what I wanted to say.
"You want to hang out sometime?" I asked feeling heat fill my cheeks.
I'm not sure why I asked, but I felt like Tayuya was a good person and well, I liked her.
"Sure, that'd be cool."
Tayuya got off her board and walked back over to me. She pulled a pen out of her backpack and grabbed my hand. She turned my hand over and wrote her number on my palm.
"Text me if you want to meet up." she said.
Her hands were so warm, instantly heating up mine. Guess she wasn't kidding when she said didn't feel cold.
"Don't lose that kay?" Tayuya grinned as she dropped my hand and hopped over onto her board.
She waved her arm up at me. I watched her ride down the sidewalk, away in the darkness.
I unlocked the front door and went inside. No one was home but me. My mother had been away visiting her sister, and my father occasionally picked up a few extra hours at his office.
I left the hot chocolate on the kitchen counter and went upstairs to my room, dropping my bag on my bed. I grabbed a towel from my closet on my way to the bathroom. I entered Tayuya's number into my phone before hopping in the shower.
After stepping out, I walked to my room wrapped in my towel and grabbed sweatpants and a t-shirt from my dresser.
I decided I may as well finish my homework before going to bed so I could just sleep for the next 2 days. I sat at my desk and pulled my homework out of my bag. I stared at the papers for a moment, but I couldn't focus. I kept thinking about everything that had happened today. My first break-up. Tayuya giving me her hot chocolate. Crying on Tayuya's shoulder. Tayuya walking me home. Tayuya's soft skin brushing against my hand. Tayuya.
Tayuya's sincere smile and calm expressions seem to ease me. My mind goes blank practically every time I look in her eyes. Something about them just makes me lose all sense of thought. She's so nice and so caring, I wonder why I hadn't ever talked to her before.
I've never thought about her this way, she was always just that redhead that sat behind me in class. Wait what am I doing?
"Ughhh..." I groaned as I slammed my head down onto the table.
"I need a break.." I mumbled to myself.
I grabbed my phone and shoved it into my pocket as I got up and went to my window. I'm just tired, no big deal. It's been a pretty long week. I propped the window open and grabbed a pillow from my bed.
I looked over to the top of my dresser where I left Tayuya's jacket. I pulled her hoodie on and zipped it up. In all fairness, her jacket actually kept me pretty warm.
I climbed through the window frame, bringing each leg through one at a time while I stepped out onto the roof. When I was younger I figured out how to get out there and not fall off the side and faceplant in my front yard. Some of the roof was flat, but slanted going down.
I used to sit out there when I wanted to get away from life. When my parents had arguments (which wasn't too often, but it still stressed me out), when I wanted to relax and not think about schoolwork, or I just felt like looking up at the sky.
I hadn't done this in a while, so I didn't realize how much taller I got when I didn't bring my head low enough and slammed the side of it on the top of the frame.
"Agh, dammit.." I swore.
Really on top of your game tonight aren't you Ino?
After I finished cursing to myself I put the pillow against the wall next to my open window and sat, with my back on it and my head resting on the hard surface behind me. It was still chilly out, but the cold didn't seem to bother me this time.
I took my phone out of my pocket to turn on my music. I listened to k-pop occasionally after some of my friends suggested it to me. But I didn't feel like listening to bubbly Korean music at the moment.
A few weeks ago I had found this song on my own (1) . It was in Chinese, and there weren't many English words, but the tune always brought my spirit up, even though it wasn't super upbeat I'd have it on repeat for hours.
My eyes had now shut, as I started rethinking my whole life, and the people who were really there for me.
It felt like my girlfriend, well ex-girlfriend, was with me the whole way, although we had only met last year. But that doesn't matter now, she's gone. She isn't apart of my life anymore.
Sure I had my group of friends, but I wasn't as close to them friend-wise as I was with her. She was my first girlfriend. My first kiss. And my first love.
I sighed, feeling sorry for myself. When I really do think about it, she was right. Our relationship hadn't been going anywhere, so eventually we would've broken up. Maybe this really is for the best.
I heard the sound of wheels rolling across the pavement and my eyes shot open. As I sat upright, I saw Tayuya boarding down the sidewalk. She stopped suddenly to kick up her board. She began walking across the street. Towards my house.
What's Tayuya doing here?
(1) The Chinese song I mentioned was 第一者 (Da Yi Zhe) or 'The First One' by MissTER, a Taiwanese androgynous girl group. I know the lyrics seem kind of weird, but Chinese (like many languages) don't translate to English directly. A friend of mine actually told me about this group like a year ago, but I never listened to their album until about a month back and I flat out got addicted to this song. So, I just thought I would share it.
A/N: Yay, first chapter is done! Which was incredibly long btw it was about 14 pages on Microsoft Word. I actually spent around a month and a half writing this on and off because of school and was constantly editing it. I never got around to posting it until now even though this was written nearly a year ago.. I don't plan on making more chapters this kind of length, but maybe if I have time or cook up ideas on how to punch you in the feels (which so far, I've proved I'm not good at).
So who is Ino's ex-girlfriend?! Some of you may have already figured it out, but you'll find out eventually. The story isn't really going places so far, and I threw a little bit of drama in there, but don't worry it'll pick up within the next few chapters!
I'm still debating on whether or not I'm going to make separate chapters in Tayuya's POV that mirrors Ino's, or just interchange the POVs as the story goes on (opinions please?).
Right now, the story takes place in the past. In the present it's about 7 or 8 months ahead so July or August depending on where I take this (I'll make a note when the fic gets to that point; it's gonna be a long ride). I haven't planned out the entire story line just yet, but I have some ideas and hopefully when I string them altogether they'll make sense.
Yes, I like k-pop and now apparently so does Ino just cause I want her to. And I think Batman is pretty damn cool so Tayuya can be a dorky comic book geek.
Alright, I'm just about done boring you.
Thanks for reading!
-Hashbrowns