My first proper fanfic!

Again, this will probably be quite OOC for most characters. Especially Gaara.

It's set sometime in between Naruto and Naruto Shippuden, at a chunin exam. I think it's the second one after Naruto leaves (these things are yearly right?) so some characters are chunins and some aren't. Lots of things probably aren't very accurate. And Gaara's kazekage. I haven't seen much of Shippuden, so I don't know whether it's ever covered when Gaara becomes kazekage… Anyway, I'm rambling – so here's a story!

"I can remember when we were here," said the pink haired girl, gazing out to the arena below.

"It was only last year!" said her friend, smiling.

"Really? It feels much longer ago."

Ino looked at Sakura and raised an eyebrow, but the girl's attention was fixed on the fight. She shrugged, leant backwards in her chair and yawned. The fight ended quickly, and Sakura sighed.

"Well, that was dull," she said.

"What? It's over?" Ino remarked sarcastically opening one eye.

Sakura laughed.

"Choji's up next," said Sakura, and Ino sat up.

"I guess I better watch then," said Ino, "Seeing as that's the reason I came."

"Sakura!"

Sakura jumped as someone shouted her name, and turned around to see Tsunade – the fifth Hokage and her teacher, smiling at her from her seat.

"Come up here! You can see better."

Sakura looked at where the hokage was sat, next to the new kazekage. They had the best seats in the stadium, separated from the others.

"Come on!"

Sakura nodded, and looked back at Ino.

"See you later…" she started, but was interrupted once more by Tsunade.

"Bring her too!"

"Do you want to come?"

"Sure," said Ino, grabbing her bag.

She looked down into the arena and checked that Choji's fight still hadn't started before following Sakura through the rows of seats. Sakura sat down next to the hokage, and Ino sat down uncomfortably next to her. She listened to Tsunade and Sakura talking for a while, but soon grew bored of the conversation.

"Hurry up and start…" she muttered to herself, watching the arena.

The fight started soon, and Ino cheered enthusiastically for Choji, but her cheers faded as Sakura didn't join in.

"Ino…" Sakura whispered.

"What?" Ino snapped.

"You're drawing attention to us…"

"Let her have her fun!" said Tsunade, "He's your team-mate, you should support him."

Ino smiled at the hokage and cheered again, but less enthusiastically this time. Eventually, her cheers faded all together and she watched the fight keenly. She groaned as the fight finished – Choji had lost. She looked pleadingly at Tsunade.

"Please let him through," she said to the hokage, "Please."

"Ino!" Sakura exclaimed, but Tsunade smiled.

"I'll see what I can do," she replied, and the kazekage glared at her.

Ino looked at the Kazekage. She couldn't see much of his face under his hat, and she assumed that the majority of his face was concealed anyway, like many of the other sand shinobi. He seemed emotionless, his attention hadn't once strayed from the battles.

"That's not how it works," he said, his voice flat, "Only those who have shown themselves to be good enough can become chunins."

Ino crossed her arms, and was about to speak back to the kazekage when Tsunade spoke for her.

"I know that," she said, "And I think that that kid'll make a good shinobi."

The kazekage glared at her again, his green eyes narrowing. Tsunade ignored him and sat back down to talk to Sakura. Ino said nothing until all the fights had finished.

***

The next day, Ino sat behind the counter in her shop, absent-mindedly arranging a small vase of roses. Business had been slow, and she was getting tired. As she was thinking about closing for the night, the bell above the door rang, and a red-haired boy walked in. He was tall and handsome, but there was something about him which didn't seem right. Ino looked at him again – he looked familiar. She gasped as she realised it – the boy was the kazekage. He couldn't have been much older than her, but his eyes… there was no mistaking who he was.

"Excuse me?" she asked, and he turned to look at her, "Um… can I help you?"

"No… thank you."

He went back to looking around the shop.

"Are you looking for anything in particular?" Ino asked.

"No," he said, "I'm just looking."

"Why?"

He sighed.

"Flowers don't grow in the desert."

Ino said nothing more, and left him to look at the flowers. After a while, he walked back through the shop, as if to leave, when he said:

"You're the girl from the chunin exam, aren't you?"

"Eh?"

"You wanted your friend to become a chunin."

"Yes…" said Ino hesitantly.

"Good news," said the kazekage, with a slight smile, "he got the promotion."

Ino beamed at him from behind the counter.

"Thank you Kazekage-sama!" she shouted, and the boy cringed slightly.

"Gaara," he said.

"Eh?"

"My name is Gaara."

"Thank you Gaara," she said, quieter than the last time.

As he was about to leave, she picked one red rose from the vase on the counter and threw it to him. Surprised, he caught it, and looked at it in his hands.

"I thought you'd like it," said Ino, smiling.

Gaara returned her smile, and left the shop. Outside, he looked up at the sign above his head. He smiled to himself.

"Yamanaka," he whispered, "Ino Yamanaka."

Thank you for reading! Please review!

This won't be very long, but I might write more if you like it enough. Reviews make me write quicker!