Disclaimer: I in no way or form have any ownership over the Naruto series, but I would like to… :(

Summary: Ino was bored, but that didn't mean she wanted an annoying puppet-master weeding his way into her life, especially not when she was on an important mission in Suna for her Hokage. At least, that's what she kept trying to tell herself.

Warnings: There could potentially be sex, but only mentions of it happening. Nothing graphic, most likely.

Rating: T or PG-13. They're roughly the same.

Beta?: I would extremely grateful if someone wants to beta this! I know I'm not perfect when it comes to writing, so I need all the help I can possibly get. Please let me know if you want to take on this grueling job! I pay with love.

Notes: I have been largely disappointed with Ino fanfiction as a whole, and thus planned to fix this with my own take of her. I am trying to make her as in-character as possible in all situations I put her through, so if I fail please do not hesitate to let me know! Though to be honest, this fic actually started as a Gaara/Ino fanfiction, but as I started writing I realized how unfitting they are. So my attention turned to Kankuro, and all of the sudden everything clicked. I know some of you may be apprehensive towards reading this off the wall pairing, but please give it a try and let me know what you think! I will try not to disappoint!

Please read and enjoy!

Weeding and Watering
By Shadow Hunt

Chapter One

Ino Yamanaka had been tending her family's flower shop when she received the summons to the Hokage's office. It was an ordinary experience for any Leaf-nin, yet it shocked her that she was potentially being sent on another mission so soon after her last one. This would have been an everyday occurrence before the Fourth Great Shinobi War, but as of recently high ranked missions had become increasingly scarce due to the peace that had flourished throughout the five nations. No conflict made for less jobs that needed shinobi help.

Now, she wasn't one to be frowning on world peace, but she'd be damned if she didn't admit that she was a little salty about the amount of boredom she went through while waiting to be called in for work. She hadn't trained since birth to become a Jounin only to be restricted to weeding and watering! Voicing these concerns would be stupid and immature of her she knew, so she resigned herself to making sure her flowers out shined miss-competition-from-down-the-lane's up and coming bouquet shop. There had been several emergence's of similar shops due to the same peace that had put her back to work for her father, yet none of them seemed to last very long.

She smiled knowingly. Ino didn't like to boast very often, but her cultivating skills were not to be competed against. While she might not be adept in many other things, this is where she triumphed. No other flower shop lasted more than a few months around her village, while her family's had been around for three generations.

Though even if Ino complained to herself consistently about being stuck in Konoha, it wasn't really like she was doing anything to fix her situation either. Most of her friends who weren't working directly for the Hokage had long since started training their own genin teams. Sakura, even as head medic, had two young pupils that she claimed would make the old Rookie Nine look like wannabes. She was exaggerating of course, but none-the-less Ino found herself jealous over her friend's mirth.

At one point in time, roughly a year ago, she actually had considered training cute, little pupils of her own. She had even filled out the application and everything! It was on her way to turn it in that made her change her mind, as she passed Rock Lee running laps with his three man team. They had all looked utterly miserable, and she could only guess at how much he was overworking his young team. One though, the girl, looked like she was determined to keep up with Lee no matter how far she and her two teammates started to lag behind. Ino had smiled knowingly at the youthful kunoichi.

And that's when she froze.

Suddenly, like eating breakfast and abruptly remembering a bad dream you had the night before, Ino realized she had absolutely nothing to offer the younger generation that other Jounin couldn't do better.

But this was worse than not being able to finish your breakfast, it was like a punch to the gut that made you throw it up entirely.

Ino felt sick. She slowly turned around to slump back towards her apartment, tossing the application in the first trashcan she saw with bitter annoyance. Not even a hot bath eased the growing knot that had formed in the back of her throat, and eventually, even as she demanded herself not to, she began to cry.

Lee's only skill was taijutsu, but he had mastered it to near perfection and thus earned him a physically skilled team that would benefit from his knowledge. Her old teammate Shikamaru was now happily married to Temari, already having one kid of his own and a "troublesome" three man team to top it all off. More disheartening was that even Hinata's little sister took on a genin team nearly a month ago. Rumor had it that her teachings on chakra control were ruthless.

Still though, the point to her crying was that everyone she knew excelled in something noteworthy and were able to capitalize on it to benefit the village one way or another. She on the other hand? Well, she had fucking flowers. Burdocks, sage, gingko, turmeric- you name it, she could grow it, but what good did that do for the village's well being? "Oh your stomach is upset? Here's some chamomile. I hope you feel better soon!"

Yeah, real useful.

Besides her natural green thumb, her only other claim to fame was her clan's Mind Body Switch Technique. Ino's father had declared that she had perfected it, but, while he was never was one to sugar coat, somehow the satisfaction she should have felt was never really there. In concern to teaching genin, it was forbidden to teach her clan's ability to outsiders. This left the only things she had left to teach were her barely decent skills in taijutsu and medical ninjutsu. Neither of which were anything to brag about.

Anyways, that was all a year ago and she had long since come to accept those simple facts. Being a herbalist who occasionally went on S-ranked information missions, like the one she assumed she was being called on for now, was simply the life she planned on living. Until she got married and had kids of her own at least, but seeing as her last relationship ended in total disaster seven months ago, that seemed a long ways off.

Ino was promptly ushered into the Hokage's office once she arrived and was greeted by Naruto's grinning face starring at her from behind his desk. She smiled back politely, still not use to Naruto's new rank even though it had been two years since the council had unanimously voted him into office after Tsunade's eager retirement. At first Naruto wanted the village to call him the Bestest Super Great Hokage, or something along those lines. Only with the numerous pleas from his friends did he finally settle down his whims so that now they only had to greet him him a short, "Good morning, Hokage."

"Yeah, yeah. 'Morning to you too." Naruto said with a wave of his hand, motioning her to sit. "You still single Ino-chan?" He winked at her knowingly, making her laugh pitifully.

"Oh Naruto, how I would love to date you, but it seems you're already engaged to a rather beautiful lady." Ino waged her eyebrows at him with a nudge to the picture of Hinata he had placed on his desk.

It was comforting for Ino to see her friend blush at the mention of his bride-to-be. Noticing Yamanaka's second laugh, this one directed towards his reddening face, Naruto quickly cleared his throat and pulled out a scroll from his bottom desk drawer. "You'll be happy to know I have a mission for you. It's solo."

Excitement grew in her as she took hold of the large scroll Naruto handed to her, fiddling with the edge of it in anticipation of reading it's contents after the mission briefing. Solo missions were rare for her, and the break from society was warmly welcomed. Camping out in the woods all by herself, sneaking into enemy territory without any backup, living on the thrill of-

"You'll be going to Suna."

"What!" Ino scrambled to open the scroll, confusion knitting her brows together as she scanned over the contents. Her mission was to be a herbalist for Suna, for as long as they needed her. Meaning, potentially years if it came down to it. She had heard about these 'strengthening country alliances' missions, but never in a million years did she think she'd get stuck with one of them! This mission meant no more S-ranked adventures, not until she was done in Suna at least. "You're kidding me, right?"

Naruto sighed, leaning forward to rest his chin on one of his arched palms. "You heard about the drought in Suna I assume?

Ino scoffed. "You mean the fact that instead of having two rainfalls a year they've had none? Then yes."

He nodded in return, ignoring her sarcasm. "Due to this drought, they've had to allocate all of their fresh water reserves to the sole purpose of hydrating the people. As you can imagine, their natural habitat has suffered because of it."

"Hokage, I mean no offense, but I only have a very limited knowledge in dessert plants. I don't see how I would be of any help. Besides, wouldn't it be best for Suna if they contacted Kirigakure to send a Water-nin? I'm sure they could very easily provide them with enough fresh water to fix their environment."

"They have already made a contract with Kirigakure, and that's where you come in." Ino looked at him quizzically before he continued, "The Mizukage has made sure Suna now has a well stocked reservoir of water that should last them until their next storm season- for a price at least. Greedy bastards. Anyways, they're having no problem regrowing their own plants, but Gaara has expressed a desire to build a medical greenhouse in light of their new surplus. And, because I'm such an amazingly kind person, I said I would be happy to send help."

The smile he was giving her left her with no choice to bow her head in defeat. Sometimes Naruto's 'Let's help everybody!' mindset sure did leave people like her to suffer. Not in any torturous way of course, but this damn boredom just never seemed to cease. The desert's heat would only add upon her agony, she just knew it.

"When do I leave?"

"Ah, in two days. Around noon, I think. Temari will be accompanying you to Suna so you can work out the official time with her. She said she wanted to visit her brothers or something."

At least he was giving her a decent amount of time to pack. Last mission she had only been given 30 minutes, barely enough time to grab all her needed weapons let alone cloths. Ino started to stand, "Thank you Hokage. Now if you excuse me, I need to-"

"Ino! Oi! What made you think we're done? There's still a part of your mission I haven't explained!"

Ino perked up a bit and sat back down. Was there something to her mission that couldn't be written down in a scroll?

Naruto coughed into his fist before elaborating. "We're on good terms with the Mizukage, of course, but recently there have been a few... worrying happenings going on around her village." Ino had heard about a recent fire that had burned a portion of one of their farm villages actually, but she hadn't guessed that the Land of Water had any other troubles besides that. "It's suspected that a small group of restless shinobi have been the cause to several disturbances in the Land of Water. These shinobi seem to be under the belief that since people have called upon Kirigakure less and less for shinobi help recently, that any problems they create will result in an increase of shinobi hiring."

"Oh!" She exclaimed suddenly with a smile on her face. "So you think one of the shinobi sent to Suna might have tampered with their well system just stir up some trouble?"

"Exactly!" Naruto shouted with a small cheer that Ino gladly returned. "Now hurry and pack up! I'm leaving the protection of Suna in your hands!"

"You can count on me sir!" And then Ino left in a hurry to prepare for an indefinite stay in Suna.

When Ino could be seen running back to her apartment from the upper story windows of the Hokage's Tower, Hinata slowly made her way into her fiance's office with a worried nibble on her bottom lip. While her nervous habits had long since been obsolete, it was times like these that they would reemerge. "Naruto?" She said as she walked over to sit on the desk in front of him. He looked up at her with his beautiful blue eyes, and all she wanted to do was kiss him. Now was not the time though, she reminded herself.

"Hinata! What are you doing here? I thought this was your shopping day?"

"Ah yes... It was." She trailed off and stared at the window behind Naruto's spiky head of hair. Ino was long since gone.

Naurto looked confused. "You know I love spending time with you Hinata, but I have a meeting with the council in five minutes." He paused. "Unless... You wanted to do a quicky?" He wagged his eyebrows at her lewdly, making her blush horribly at his suggestion. They hadn't done it in his office yet...

But no this was not the time for that! She quickly shook her head to rid herself of those obscene thoughts. "No Naruto!" She squeaked out. Pausing, she tried talking again, "It's about Ino."

Suddenly Naruto's demeanor slacked as he swiveled to look out the window she had been starring at only shortly before. "It's for her own good. I mean, it's not like she really has to agree to anything in the end. She still has a choice, yeah?"

"I know." She whispered as she put her hand on his. His eyes pivoted to meet hers with a sadden air about them. Sometimes, being the Hokage taxed Naruto more than she liked to admit. "But you didn't have to lie to her about the Land of Water. The fire last week was caused by a dropped lantern and you know it."

He laughed nervously. "She was just so sad about her mission! I'm just trying to... liven it up a bit, ya know? No need to send a depressed puppy to make nice with the Gaara's brother."

She sighed. "Why is Kazekage-kun so adamant about marrying off his brother anyways?"

Naruto scratched his chin in thought. "I suppose it's for the same reason I thought to send Ino as a potential bride. They're both miserable as they are now, so who's to say that they don't need a little push along in the right direction?"

"But who said this is the right direction?" She responded easily to his ponderings.

"Eh, I don't know. I guess she'll find out or something. Anyways, she's Gaara's problem now. 'Cause you know, he really does want to build a medical greenhouse. I wasn't lying about that."

With a small giggle she swirled Naruto around in his chair and gave him a quick kiss before standing up again. "When she finds out you set her up though, I'm not going to save you from a premature death!"

"Oi! Wives aren't suppose to say stuff like that!" He shouted back to her as she left the room. But he sighed when the door closed, and turned back to stare out the window. He really hoped he was doing the right thing.

-X-:-X-

Back at her apartment, Ino was quick at work wadding through her piles of laudry to find her most suitable desert attire to take with her. She had no idea she was being sent off to be Kankuro's potential bride-to-be.

Then again, neither did Kankuro, but Gaara was sure his plan was going to work out flawlessly.

TBC. So what did you think? First chapter is a little short compared to my other writings, sorry! But I would love if you clicked that little button right below and gave me your thoughts! :)