Okay, this is my first fic in a really long time. Simple NaruIno oneshot. It starts at the ending of Episode 192. You don't need to watch it to understand the story but the first few lines are directly from it. Anyways, read and (hopefully) enjoy. And please don't forget to review. I know there's probably plenty of stuff for you readers to criticize so please just help everybody out by telling me what I need to improve on. And don't mindlessly flame me or the pairing.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. That Kishimoto guy does. Or at least I think his name's Kishimoto. Eh whatever, you get the point.

X X X X X X

"You never know about people's preferences."

"No, I definitely won't admit it. Boys like girls that are slim!"

Uzumaki Naruto sighed as he watched as Yamanaka Ino run off down the dirt path in the sunset, yelling something about dieting. Naruto didn't really care about any of that "slim girl" stuff Ino was always going on about. He thought she was way too skinny. He had considered commenting on it but after watching her go on and on about that obese guy, he had decided against it for his own well-being. It was irrelevant anyways as Naruto was only concerned about the figure of one girl in particular, and he already thought she was gorgeous.

"Ah, that pink hair, those long legs…" Naruto whispered to himself as he sighed again, dreamily this time, closing his eyes and imagining her blowing his a kiss in his mind for what had to be the millionth time. Unfortunately for him, with his eyes closed, he never saw her hand coming. The loud sound of a hard slap rang throughout the area.

"OW! What the hell was that for?" Naruto yelled at a fuming Ino while rubbing his reddened cheek. He narrowed his eyes in anger as she closed hers, also in anger though a much calmer one. "Well?" Naruto demanded. Ino opened her eyes as her calm demeanor disappeared in favor of an attitude even less controlled than Naruto's. At the time, she attributed it to her rivalry with Sakura. Rage burned in her pale blue eyes. Ino started to yell but then closed her mouth, confused about her reasoning. Sure, she and Sakura were rivals but was it really worth the attention of the loud, obnoxious Naruto. However, Ino decided to continue anyways.

'Besides, he's kinda cute when he grins like that – Whoa girl, get a hold of yourself. This is Naruto here. Stupid, loud, obnoxious, Sakura-fanboy Naruto. Naruto.'

"You were daydreaming about her, weren't you!"

"And so what if I was?"

"Well why would you? All she does is sit around and cry about how she isn't strong enough to do anything. Why would you bother dreaming about her when there are so many better women? She's nothing compared to me."

"You'd rather have me think about you?" Naruto's surprisingly clever comment caught Ino completely off guard. However, she quickly recovered her composure after slapping Naruto on the back of his head. He grumbled and glared at her as she continued yelling at him.

"Don't you even dare think about thinking about me like that. I'm just wondering what anybody could see in her. I mean, she's just so – "

"Are you quite done yet?"

"Ugh, you're hopeless! Just keep pining over her like you've done for so long and see where it gets you. Especially if you get Sasuke back – "

Ino immediately knew she had let her anger get the better of her and crossed the line. The hurt look in Naruto's cerulean blue eyes that confirmed her mistake quickly shifted to a look of silent anger.

"Naruto, I – "

"Yeah, I know, I'll bring him back and she'll just fall for him all over again. So let's just hurry up and get back home. After all, the faster we get back, the sooner I can go get Sasuke back. And the sooner I do that, the sooner you and Sakura can resume pining over him, along with the rest of the village. Then we can all move on with our lives and I can go back to the end of the line where I belong."

Ino opened her mouth to speak but Naruto wasn't in a mood to continue the discussion, closing his eyes once again, putting his hands behind his head, and walking off down the path in typical Naruto fashion. Unfortunately, thanks to Ino's words, instead of Sakura blowing a kiss to him, she had her back to him. When she turned around, he appeared behind her. Naruto felt his stomach twist as Sasuke put his arms around her and grinned at Naruto. Sakura laid her head on his shoulder and the pair began to fade into the distance, leaving Naruto all alone inside his thoughts. Suddenly, a loud, high-pitched scream resounded throughout the empty darkness of his mind.

The scream brought Naruto out of his nightmarish reverie and back into reality. Without a single thought, he ran towards where he had heard the scream come from, having recognized the voice.

'Ino…'

– – – – – – –

Leaping through the trees, Naruto saw her in a small circular clearing, maybe twenty feet across. She was bound and gagged, struggling desperately. He landed on the ground next to her, glancing around, searching for threats. He looked back at her but cocked his head to the side in confusion at her expression. Her light blond hair was flowing everywhere as she struggled as hard as she could, rolling back and forth on her side. Her eyes seemed to be…pleading with him. She was shaking her head and was desperately struggling against the gag. As soon as he took it off her, she gasped loudly before yelling, "It's a trap!"

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, he heard it. The soft, subtle sound of leaves swishing on a branch. Despite the stereotypical view of Naruto as a happy yet unlucky idiot with which the villagers looked down upon him, Naruto wasn't quite that unintelligent. True, he was no genius, but he was clever enough to realize that the leaves hadn't been disturbed by the wind. Grabbing Ino, he gathered as much chakra in his feet as possible in a millisecond and jumped to the side, two kunai planting themselves firmly in the ground where he had been kneeling less than a second before. 'Damn, this is bad.'

"Who are you? Show yourself!" Naruto yelled at the surrounding trees. He listened as carefully as possible but was unable to figure out where his enemy was. Without turning around, Naruto took a kunai out and cut the rope restraining Ino who slowly got to her knees, placing her back to his and watching the trees in a similar manner.

In the trees, a pair of eyes looked on cautiously, eyeing the boy. 'How could he possibly be that fast? Well, if I can't hit him, there's always the other one…' The figure grinned and readied another kunai.

"Attacked after a mission? Are you kidding me?"

"Ha, another chance for me to prove my worth as future Hokage! Hehe, just sit back and watch!"

Ino rolled her eyes, regretting her momentary lapse of concentration instantly as she felt a sharp pain insert itself into her right leg. She grasped her shin as the slight numbness from the initial puncture of the needle began to wear away and was replaced by pain. She winced as she tried to move her leg, testing the damage. The wound was deep. She cursed herself for being so inattentive, as well as cursing the simple, not to mention extremely odd, mission for putting her off guard. She felt Naruto shift around behind her.

"Ino? Hey, you're hurt!"

"Heh, thanks for noticing." Ino glanced back at him, though staying alert for any more attacks. "Ugh," Ino said quietly, her voice getting weaker as she spoke. "I've never felt the pain spread like this before…" Exhaustion suddenly gripped Ino's body, giving her no time to react to the sudden loss of strength and energy, and she fell face forward onto the ground.

"Ino!"

The next minute or so flew by quickly for both Naruto and Ino, though for different reasons. Ino could barely stay awake, the darkness of unconsciousness looking more welcoming than usual.

'So tired…' Ino began to let her eyelids droop but they shot open as the sound of metal on metal resounded behind her, a little off to the left. 'Naruto!' Ino tried to pull herself to her feet but only managing to push herself up a few inches before collapsing again. Unfortunately, seemingly as a result of her struggle, pain flared up all over her body, causing her to twitch slightly. 'This doesn't make any sense. It was just one needle…so why do I feel like I've been hit by thousands…'

As soon as Ino had fallen to the ground, Naruto had sprung into action. When Ino hit the ground, Naruto heard the unknown assailant hit the ground and dart towards them. Naruto turned just in time to see a figure charge at them. Suddenly the figure disappeared and a man appeared behind him, back to back, him charging towards Ino. Naruto didn't give it a second thought.

"I'm not going to let you hurt her!"

The man threw a needle. Naruto jumped in front of it, taking the shot for Ino. Not even flinching from the pain, Naruto immediately punched the man, his fist connecting solidly with the man's right cheek. The man was thrown back to the opposite end of the clearing. Before the man could even begin to stand up, Naruto was on him. Naruto grabbed him by the front of his shirt, lifting him up and slamming his against a tree, a confident grin on his face.

"Heh, told you to just sit back and watch, Ino." Silence. "Ino?" Naruto turned around, saw the one needle and Ino's limp form, and then turned back to the assailant, a new fury in his eyes. The man didn't seem to be anything special. With short, spiky, brown hair, dark eyes, and a headband of Sunagakure, Naruto figured the man was a missing-nin, simply attacking whatever shinobi he happened to pass by. Naruto also noted that the man was young, somewhere in his late teens, and had no battle scars, explaining the ease Naruto had had in hitting him. But this was all forgotten as Naruto was consumed by anger.

"What did you do to her?" Fear suddenly overcame the man's face as Naruto lifted him higher, noticing a slight red aura on his hand. Normally, Naruto would've suppressed Kyuubi, but seeing Ino lying there seemed to be bringing out a bit more sadistic side of Naruto.

"I SAID WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO HER?"

"P-poison." The man stuttered, obviously scared out of his mind by the fact that Naruto's pupils had just gone from calm cerulean blue to a blood red that gleamed with blood lust.

"Antidote?"

"T-there is none." The comment shocked Naruto as he was suddenly faced with the concept of Ino's death. His grip loosened as the red chakra that had been surrounding his body faded away and his eyes returned to blue, a shocked and troubled look in them. He stared past the man who was now confused as well as still afraid. He dropped the man to the ground and turned around to look across the small clearing at Ino. The young man considered stabbing him in the back, but a flash of the blood lust in those red eyes sent him running as fast and far as possible.

Naruto ran over to Ino and knelt down beside her.

"Ino?" No response.

"Ino, come on, wake up." He spoke louder and more forcefully this time, shaking her arm, shuddering at how cold she felt. Still no response.

"Damn it, Ino, you're not dying on me." He rolled her onto her back, recoiling at the peaceful look on her face. "No way. You're not dying." Picking her up bridal-style, he leapt up into the trees. As he began to run towards Konoha, Naruto felt a numbness begin to spread from where the needle had hit him. Gritting his teeth against the blinding pain that soon followed it, Naruto kept on running.

"You're too…pretty to die on me."

Ino stirred as consciousness slowly returned to her. She felt like she was floating. 'Oh, please don't tell me Naruto let me die.' She slowly opened her eyes, which turned out to be quite a painful action. Her entire body felt as though it was on fire, every nerve having a hot needle driven into it every time she moved. 'Heh, I must be alive. No way death could be this painful…' She could barely see anything, just green and brown blurs passing overhead. She felt herself being held and could just make out an orange form above her.

"Naruto-kun…" She whispered inaudibly. She tried to lift her head but only made it about half an inch before the pain overwhelmed her and she slipped back into unconsciousness.

Naruto felt Ino shift a little in his arms. She was getting colder by the second.

"Damn it Ino, don't you dare die on me. You can't die. You just can't!"

Naruto pushed on harder, gathering more and more chakra in each jump, speeding through the trees faster and faster.

"I won't let you."

– – – – – – –

Ino stirred, regaining consciousness once again and instinctually bracing herself for the hot pain. However, to her relieved surprise, it didn't come this time. Her senses took a moment to return. When they did, she realized she was lying on a soft bed. She slowly sat back up. She still felt exhausted, but thankfully not as exhausted as she had been when she had been hit by the needle.

With that thought, it all came rushing back to her. The overwhelming thought process nearly made her fall back down. She lightly shook her head, resulting in the sensation of her brain banging against the inside of her skull as she realized she had a huge headache. She opened her eyes, trying to take in her surroundings with as little movement and thought as possible.

She found herself in a simple hospital. It seemed to be the style of Konoha Hospital, meaning she had made it home. There was bright light behind the curtain. She silently thanked whoever had kept them shut, not wanting to think about the kind of pain she'd be in with the bright light of the sun shining on her eyes with her head in its current state. She looked around the room and her eyes fell on an object on the table next to her, causing her to draw a sharp breath.

A cosmos flower was lying on the table. It seemed so simple yet elegant. Ino reached out and picked it up, brining it to her chest, gladly welcoming its pleasing aroma. Looking down at it, she remembered the happy days when her and Sakura were best friends. The memories brought a smile to her face. With Sasuke's departure, those feelings were starting to return, albeit rather slowly.

'Didn't figure Sakura would drop this off though.'

Ino looked up and what she saw beyond the table caused her to draw yet another sharp breath.

"Naruto!"

The young boy was sleeping in a chair by the door. Ino smiled as she held the cosmos against herself. She realized that she had never taken a good look at Naruto, always dismissing him just like everybody else.

'He must've brought me back here after I passed out.' She smiled to herself.

She gazed at his peaceful face, his spiky, blond hair, the whisker-like lines on his cheeks.

"He really is kinda cute…"

"Oh really, Ino? I had no idea you felt that way." Ino nearly fell out of the bed.

"Wha – What? S-Sakura! I – I – " For one of the first times in her life, Ino was completely speechless.

"I can't believe you think he's cute."

"It – it must be this headache of mine. Really bad, you know." Ino smiled sheepishly, blushing bright red, though she knew trying to cover it up was futile.

"Oh, I wonder what he'd say if he knew Ino had a crush on him. Should we find out?" Sakura started moving towards Naruto, causing Ino to gasp once again.

"Sakura, don't!" Sakura looked away from Naruto and back towards Ino from the foot of her bed. Ino bit her lip nervously. "It's just…"

"You must really be out of it though. Honestly, watching you take five minutes to look around the room and not even noticing me was amusing, if not simply boring."

"Hey, you're not the one who nearly died and only escaped with a huge headache. What happened anyways?"

"I don't know. Naruto showed up with you two days ago. He turned you over to Tsunade-sensei and you went under some emergency treatment. Seems you were poisoned, but that's all Naruto would say. It was pretty close though. If he had shown up only a few minutes later than when he did, you probably would've been dead."

As a result of the headache, it took Ino another minute to realize what had happened.

"But wait a minute. That poison took me out in a few minutes. We were still about a day's walk from Konoha. How could he possibly gotten me here that fast?"

"Naruto's quite a guy. He's full of surprises. And he'll do anything to protecting those he cares about." Sakura smiled widely. "Though I must say, getting through a forest while carrying you in that kinda time. He must really care about you."

Sakura winked at Ino, making Ino blush an even darker shade of red.

"I just said he's a little cute, that's all. 'Sides, he's still pining over you."

"Ah, but what better to get him over me than another love?"

"Can we please change the subject? Oh right, thanks for the flower."

"Hehe." Sakura giggled, alerting Ino that something was up. "I didn't bring that. I believe that flower is a gift from the young boy sleeping over there."

Ino perked up and looked over at Naruto again.

"Yep, he brought it in yesterday. Though he asked me what kinda flower you'd like. But don't tell him I told you that."

If it was possible, Ino blushed yet an even darker shade of red, causing Sakura to giggle louder. Naruto stirred slightly, stretching his arms and yawning.

"He's been here as much as possible. Tsunade-sensei had to come drag him out of here last night when you still hadn't woken up. But seeing as that's the end of the story and Naruto seems to be waking, I think I'll go. And Ino," Sakura said as she looked down at her friend, "He'd make a beautiful flower."

Sakura couldn't help but openly laugh as she walked out. Ino's face couldn't get any redder. Sakura's laugh woke Naruto from his peaceful slumber rather rudely. Naruto groaned as he used the chair to help get back onto his feet, rubbing his back.

"Sheesh, couldn't they just say wake up – Ino!"

Naruto was over by her side instantly.

"Hey, what's wrong with your face? You're almost as red as when ero-sennin spent an entire day in the hot springs."

"Huh? Oh, I'm fine, Naruto-kun."

Ino slapped a hand over her mouth as subtly as she could. 'Since when is he Naruto-kun to me?'

To Ino's relief, Naruto didn't notice. He was distracted by his rumbling stomach.

"Naruto, you should go get something to eat," Ino said in a concerned tone.

"I'm fine. But you, how're you feeling?"

"Don't worry 'bout me, I'm fine now. All thanks to you."

Ino smiled up at Naruto, slightly embarrassed. He grinned back at her.

"Eh, it was nothing."

"No, Sakura told me what you did. And I want to show my appreciation, not only for saving me, but for this." She held up the flower and he scratched the back of his head, blushing a bit.

"Oh, well I just…"

"Come on, let's go."

Sticking the flower in her hair above her right ear, Ino jumped out of bed, relieved that she was still wearing her traditional purple dress and bandages. Before Naruto could even protest, she had grabbed his arm and pulled him out the window, racing down the street, Naruto trying to keep up without tripping. He was about to pull a Kage Bunshin and escape when Ino stopped. Naruto then saw that going along with her had been worth it.

"Old man Ichiraku! One bowl of beef ramen, please!"

Ichiraku grinned as Ino walked in behind Naruto.

"Oh, and one for Ino-chan too," Naruto told the man, grinning the typical Naruto grin.

"Naruto, I'm on a diet. I can't eat this."

"Oh come on Ino-chan, you're too skinny. If you put on some weight, you might actually be able to put some power into your punch."

Ino barely restrained herself from pushing Naruto's face into his face. After resisting the violent urge, she decided to eat the ramen that Ichiraku had placed in front of her.

"Okay, I'll do it for you, Naruto-kun."

For the first time in his life, Naruto stopped eating his ramen. He stared blankly at Ino, who had begun to eat her own ramen, though she did so at a reasonable pace. A smile slowly found its way across his face, transforming into yet another typical Naruto grin, and he returned to his ramen, finishing it seconds later.

"Hey Naruto, where's Sakura today?"

Ino looked away as Naruto looked up, tapping his chin in thought.

"Um, I haven't seen Sakura-san lately. I've had to stay in the hospital so Shizune-sama could heal me and then I stayed with Ino-chan. And then she took me here."

Naruto didn't realize that he had let what he had been trying to hide slip until Ino brought it up again. Two seconds later.

"Heal you? Naruto-kun, what happened?" Naruto blushed a bit and looked away from her piercing glare, unable to look into her pale blue eyes. "Why did you need to be healed?" She asked in a much more demanding tone. He mumbled something that none of the three, Ino, Ichiraku, and Ayame, could hear. "Naruto…" He recognized the rising anger in her tone and decided he'd rather just tell her instead of getting hit again.

"I got hit when you were down and the needles were tipped with poison. But hey, there was no way I was gonna let you die out there." He looked back and grinned but his eyes were closed. Ino looked at him silently, contemplating just what exactly she would say. Or do.

Leaving the money for the ramen on the table, Ino grabbed Naruto's hand and pulled him out of the small ramen stand and down the streets. This time, Naruto went along silently, wondering what Ino would do to him.

'Hehe, she's kinda cute when she's all angry…What am I thinking? She's Sakura-chan's rival and…and…she's…' Naruto sighed in defeat. He knew Sakura would never feel the same way about him. In truth, those feelings had been completely forgotten when he had watched Ino while she was under intensive care. 'With Sasuke still out there, she'll act nice and not hurt me anymore. But it'll never be mutual. And Ino…I can't get close to her. She's…'

Naruto suddenly realized they had stopped in a field of flowers, coincidentally the same field where the young kunoichi had helped Sakura make a bouquet of flowers so many years ago. And then Ino hit him.

"What did I do this time?"

"How dare you nearly get yourself killed for me!"

"You were a lot closer to dying than me," Naruto muttered.

"That doesn't justify it."

"Justify it? I saved your life. You'd rather have me justify leaving you there to die?"

"Why?"

"What?"

"Why?" Ino whispered. "Why did you save me? It wasn't a mission and – and I was treating you with none of the respect you deserve."

"What, Ino-chan's finally decided to show some respect and humility?"

Naruto was looking at the ground when he heard a sniffle. He looked up to see an utterly shocking sight. With the sun setting behind her, Yamanaka Ino was on the verge of tears. And to Naruto, she was more beautiful than Sakura had ever been to him. Her ponytail had been undone and her light blond hair cascaded down her back, her pale blue eyes full of sorrow, the cosmos flower in her hair fitting the image perfectly. A single tear slowly rolled down her cheek.

"You shouldn't have saved me."

"Ino-chan, don't cry."

Naruto moved over to her, forgetting about everything except for Ino and her tears. He moved her arm away from her face and touched her chin lightly with his other hand. She looked at him, both of them at the same eye-level. He wiped her tear away softly.

"There was no way I could possibly let a girl as smart and pretty as you die out there. I care about you too much."

'What the – Where did that come from?' A million thoughts ran through Naruto's head in that moment, one of the most prominent being the question of how he had been daydreaming about Sakura no more than three days ago and now he was telling Ino, who he had barely known beyond a first name basis, that he hadn't been just doing his duty as a shinobi when saving her, but had risked his life because he cared about her. A lot, he quickly realized.

All those thoughts instantly perished as Ino leaned into his arms, resting her head on his shoulder. He looked down at her in amazement, stunned for a second before regaining his composure and pulling her into his chest, putting his arms softly around her back.

"Naruto-kun…"

"Yeah?"

Ino took the cosmos flower out of her hair and held it up in front of the sun.

"It's beautiful, isn't it? The flower, the sunset, the field." She looked up at him. "Us…"

"Uh-huh," He said, nodding uncertainly. She giggled softly, a sound he knew that he would come to love.

"Thank you, Naruto-kun."

Full cerulean blue eyes looked down happily upon pale blue eyes that looked back up just as happily. She leaned up on her toes and the next thing Naruto knew, he was kissing Yamanaka Ino, the new girl of his dreams.

X X X X X X

Well, that's that. Hope you enjoyed it. Please review and feel free to compliment and/or criticize. After all, without feedback, nobody improves.