Cotton candy
I was out searching for Ino to discuss our training the next day, so far, I was having no luck. I had checked the usual places twice. I had looked in the Yamanaka flower shop, the chocolate shop, the various clothing shops and even the training grounds. It seemed as if my blonde friend had disappeared of the face of the Earth the one time I need her most. She never left me alone, but now she was gone.
Shikamaru was no help. He only said that keeping tabs on her was troublesome and left. Kiba had to spend a few minuets to remember who she was, which was rather funny, and Naruto shivered at the mention of her name. The others, like Hinata, just told me that they hadn't seen her. In fact, the only person I hadn't asked was Choji. I suppose he would know, since he was her team mate.
My course altered and I headed to the ramen stand, where I had seen Choji when I went to ask Naruto about Ino. Hopefully he was still there and I wouldn't have to worry about tracking down another missing shinobi. Finding Ino was hard enough, and I could do without the added search for Choji. The next thing after that would be Shikamaru and then all of team nine would be gone!
Luck was with me and he was only just getting up, paying for his ramen. Now that I had a good look at him, I still didn't see why Ino complained about having the Akimichi boy on her team. He wasn't bad-looking and a little weight never hurt anyone. His face was kind of cute with the puppy fat too. I almost laughed when I saw him pull out his signature packed of potato chips.
"Choji-san, wait a minuet!" I called out to him. He turned around and looked at me for a little while. Apparently, by the expression on his face, he couldn't really remember who I was. Like one of those times you think you know someone, but you can't remember who they are.
"Sakura-san?" He asked, remembering my name. I grinned and ran over to him, stopping quickly as my short hair ruffled slightly. Choji watched my hair move for a few second, but looked at my face again soon enough.
"Hello!" I said. He had a confused look painted across his face and I found it almost comical, but very cute.
"Why are you talking to me?" Choji asked bluntly. I was taken aback by the question and a stunned expression adorned my features. I couldn't help but wonder why he had asked that kind of question.
"What do you mean?" I wondered.
"A girl like you wouldn't even look twice at a guy like me unless you needed something." He stated nonchalantly, as if it was an everyday thing to explain.
"What do you mean; 'a girl like me' and 'a guy like you'?" I questioned him. He was seriously making no sense, or I just didn't get what he was trying to say.
"What I mean is; you're pretty, strong, popular and bold. I'm…well…I'm me. That should be reason enough for you to not talk to me." He informed me.
"Well, in all honesty, I wanted to know if you had any idea where Ino is. Although, I have something way better to do than find Ino now." I stated happily.
"What?" He asked.
"Do you want to go to the park with me?" I questioned him. Now, it was his turn to appear stunned. It seemed that he had never been asked out before, but that didn't matter. I was completely serious when I asked him and I didn't plan on taking back my question.
"What's the catch?" Choji asked me suspiciously.
"No catch, I just want to go to the park with you." I promised. "But, if you don't want to go…" Turning on my heel, I began to slowly walk away from him, but he took hold of my wrist gently and held me from walking further away.
"Let's go." He said. I smiled and took his hand, running with him to the park. We obviously looked like a bit of an odd couple. Also, we've never been seen together, just us before. It was always when I came to see Ino or he came to speak with Naruto about ramen. Either way, we hardly spoke.
When we got to the park, I immediately dragged him to the swings and sat down. Pumping my legs back and forth, I began to swing. He followed suite and we were both swinging high soon enough. We went on the see-saw next, than the slide and ended our time together by sitting on the grass, watching the clouds.
"This is something Shikamaru would enjoy." He told me. I giggled slightly and smiled at him. "You know, your hair looks like cotton candy." Choji told me.
"Oh." I said, not sure how to interoperate his words. He either meant that it was completely unnatural, or sweet. I had no idea. However, his next action confirmed my suspicion as the latter. Choji grinned widely at me.
"Cotton candy has to be on of my favourite sweets!" He told me. I joined his grinning and we both laughed. "Want an ice cream?"
"Sure." I said, getting off of the grass and brushing myself free of invisible dirt. He did the same and we were soon both walking to the ice cream stand. When we got there, he ordered a double chocolate scoop on a cone for himself and looked at me.
"What flavour do you want?" Choji asked me. I pondered his question for a few seconds before replying.
"Single strawberry scoop on a cone please!" I requested with a grin. We got our ice creams and walked away, licking the cold dessert with every step. I stole a glance a Choji's face, but turned away when he looked at me and turned a little pink.
"Y-You have some ice cream on your nose." Choji told me. I blushed again and tried to wipe it off, but me attempts were in vain as it stayed in place and refused to budge. Choji seemed to find my predicament funny as he began to laugh at my struggle with the blob of pink on my nose.
"It isn't funny!" I yelled playfully at him. He just shook his head and sighed, bringing up his hand to wipe the ice cream away from my face. I blushed heavier as he did so and his own marked cheeks turned a complementary shade of pink.
"Gone." He stated. I looked at him and giggled at little. "What?"
"You have some ice cream on your face too!" I said, laughing a little as I said it. He had a blob of brown, chocolate ice cream on his left cheek and was trying to wipe it off, getting everything off but the offending chocolate flavoured ice cream.
"You get it off then, since you think it's so funny." He said dryly. I obliged and wiped the ice cream away with my index finger.
"Wow. It's getting late; I should probably be heading home." I told him. He nodded and we said our good byes. However, just before I left, I licked the little bit of chocolate ice cream off of my finger.
'Hmm…chocolate tastes way better than strawberry.' I thought to myself. Little did I know, not too far away, Choji was having a little thought of his own…
'Cotton candy might be my favourite dessert, but her hair is defiantly better than any amount of it in the world.'
The konoichi and shinobi, both lost in there own thought of each other, walked home. Not noticing the blonde-hair, blue-eyes girl, sitting in a bush, congratulating herself on a job well done.