A/N
So this is me reposting this god awful fanfiction I wrote ages ago for the Naruto world. It's an AU story.
I do apologise beforehand for the awful grammar, seeing as I haven't even gone over it. I'm such a hypocrite consider I normally suggest people to do just that before posting. But to be fair I kinda just wanted to get this story out there. If it's not perfect, I can live with it. But would you find so many errors and mistakes that it's unreadable I will of course go over it once or twice before updating it again.
So please, again, bear with me for this one time? Yeah. My other stories will be shown a bit more attention and love ^^
Sorry for the fact the first chapter is really boring. I will spice things up a bit more after this. Just needed to get a few things "out of the way" before the true story could start.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters unless they are OC's, and the story itself. I may have found inspiration here and there. But not significant that it would be a rip off.
Enjoy
It is interesting to see how time changes people, changes society. Konoha, used to be a small city with a high rate of misfortune and poverty. Today it's one of the riches cities in the world. The people of this city worked their way up over time and eventually they gained the economic stability needed to take a huge step forward in terms of development. Both in the society, but also regarding infrastructure and science. Technology that used to seem old fashion soon improved and developed far beyond what anyone thought possibly. With the increasing welfare came also increased greed. The citizens that lived in the city soon realised the fortune and fame they could gain from education and a well profiting job.
My family was no different. In the older days we soon gained high status in society and were all well-educated. By the time I was born we were well established and money was of no concern to us. As young I was a school prodigy, and the family with ancestors of the Yamanakas could rest assure that I would continue the line with the same greatness as previously shown among my relatives.
From a young age I was taught that happiness and greatness came with those who had a lot. So with that view of life I demanded everything I could. Things such as clothes, toys and everything I pointed at. But I also made sure to know as much as I could. So I valued education and never took it lightly. At young age I surpassed my age group by far. So by the time I was 16 I've graduated High School with straight A's.
The Major of our city is an old man named Sarutobi and is well respected despite his old ways. The way he sometimes speaks makes me wonder if it wasn't truly better back then than it is today. To say that I'm not a 'gold digger' like most people in Konoha would be a lie. Because I tried my best to be the best, and among the best I would become for my age. Not only does Sarutobi often speak of the way things were, but he also speaks of a different philosophy. A view of life I never truly understood. He often claimed that the people of today has lost themselves in what they think they want. That we no longer know what true passion is. I used to think the man was too old and didn't understand the things we had. The ability to reach further. But as I grew up and started to find myself I wonder if he was possibly the only one who actually knew what life was about.
So how would it come that I changed my view of life and started to live for the better?
Well it started with a girl. A girl who had nothing worth calling a life. She was the most innocent person I ever met, still she was filled with wisdom and great knowledge of the things you would never even think about. She was the one who opened my eyes.
But before I can tell more about her, you need to get to know me better.
I was born to Yamanaka Inoichi and Fugai. A well respected pair in the modern world. My father is the head chief of the KPF (Konoha, Police Force) while my mother runs a chain of shops. Mainly focusing on natural medicine from her own green houses. Their marriage didn't last long though. Not long after my third birthday they divorced but kept in contact and on speaking terms for my sake. I however mainly grew up with my dad despite his displeasure. He wasn't too keen on bringing up a girl when he was working with typical male based work. Don't get me wrong though, he's a great dad and gave me everything I could have ever wanted. Both in terms of tangible things like toys and clothes. But also in terms things like affection. If you would ask me, I'd say that I was always closer to my dad. We just seemed to think more alike than me and my mother.
To be honest the relationship between my mother and me is strained. We had long and fruitless arguments about my future plans. You see, my mom moved to Konoha not long before she met dad and was never truly impressed with the way people seemed to think. I growing up in that environment never understood why she couldn't just support me like my dad did. Today we barely talk.
They also had very different ways opinions on upbringing. Whereas my mother is rather free spirited and believe in the soul of things and not just people my dad is loyal follower to logic and strict rules. Growing up with him certainly had its peaks. He would never let me do anything that wasn't good enough or worthy my time and he always made sure I had the best in term of education and social networking.
When I started school I had already learned how to read and write fluently. To say I was an arrogant child is an understatement. I thought I was better than everyone else, and sadly in terms of academic I was among my peers. It didn't help my arrogance though. However as I reached my teenager years I would say that while I didn't act like a book worm I certainly was one. But to the public eye I was like any other girl in High School. I was self-conscious, gossiped about anything and everything I could get my greedy claws on and made sure to be known by everyone.
So say I was popular would've been both the truth and a lie. I was popular in the sense that my classmates envied me. The easiness that came with everything I did Everything was so natural. But they didn't just envy me, they despised me for the things I could do, for who I was. But I never cared much about them, so their sometimes mean comments went flying by while I looked towards the future.
During this time I befriended a girl named Tenten. She was a few years older than me an in some sense the opposite of me, in other aspects just the same. While she didn't came from a family with a great name she was a prodigy of her own. Her style and personality was however completely different from mine. Whereas I was 'girly' and liked girly things, such as wearing clothes to show of my growing complexion. Obsessed with what I ate to maintain a slender figure. She couldn't care less. She dressed in boys clothes half the time I met her and had her hair up in various styles to make her otherwise long hair appear short. She could eat about anything and wasn't picky like me. She would happily eat a large pizza with all kind of toppings on where I would just gag at the thought of putting something like that in my mouth. She must have had the greatest metabolism though because she was thin like a stick, both in terms of chest and curves. But we somehow got along wonderfully.
By the time I started University Tenten was already a junior, she is after all a few years older than I am. During this time I focused slightly less on my reputation and appearance than my grades. At this point people would point out that I was a spitting image of my father, who I was also named after. But then again. I've learned a lot from him, and he's a fantastic man once you get know him. No doubt in that.
University seemed to just fly by and soon it was time for Graduation. I received my degree and both my parents attended to congratulate me. My dad seemed in particular happy that I graduated with such excellent grades.
Things took off really quickly after that. Young as I was with excellent grades and reputation, finding work didn't seem very hard. But I wouldn't settle so I aimed for the big stuff. Getting work there was however a lot harder than it seemed and instead I had to land an internship before they would hire me. So I got to work as an intern at the 'psych-dep' as we called. Interesting enough Tenten got the same internship. While I was always good at reading people, Tenten was amazing with people. She seemed to have a natural approach towards people that was just inviting. People would willingly tell her things they would never tell me. I suppose I gave off an aura of intimidation and superiority that they didn't like. But for most of the time this didn't bother me. Tenten's job was to talk and make the clients comfortable and get to know them on a personal level. Whereas mine was to analyse and break them down in details.
Working at HED, 'Human Experiment Department' sounds like we were cutting people open, both in the metaphorical and literal sense. It was truly just a lab and hospital that tried to help and find cures for people with illness of various sorts.
Even if we worked at the same department we often found ourselves with different schedules. It was only truly during lunch we could sit down together and talk. Though we were bound to confidentiality we sometimes shared minor stories. One of those would be about this one guy Tenten sometimes worked with. Rock Lee, he was also an intern but worked as a physiotherapist. He was an odd one. He must have had the thickest eyebrows ever to be beheld by the human population. Overall he was a nice guy though. A bit overdramatic and disturbingly similar to his mentor, who he referred to as "Guy Sensei". Not only did they behave similarly but they also distinctively similar sense of fashion. One I was too scared to ask- or even think about.
It was anyway through Lee that Tenten met Hyuuga Neji. A tall guy with long brown hair, similar colour to Tenten. But unlike her he more than often had it let down in a neat low pony tail. At first impression I thought he acted a bit pompous and the way he sometimes talk was just laced with arrogance. Tenten didn't seemed to think that though. She was enthralled by him from the first time they met. He was, according to her 'marvellous'. How anyone could use that word to describe him, I don't kno. But she did. I tried to tell her that it was just a silly crush, an instant attraction. Nothing more. However, she wouldn't have none of it. He saw something beyond his many doctor degrees, face an antics. After long and painful (to watch) tries to communicate with the man she managed to grab his attention. Eventually we would end up sitting at the same table at lunch so Tenten and Neji could have some time together while at work. In fact he made subtle changes while around her. Like offering his chair and get another one himself, making sure she was comfortable and offering his drink if she forgotten to bring any. Lee appeared to be an old friend of Neji and they seemed to belong to a group of people all who was either working as inters or had a full time position. Some of them worth mentioning was Uchicha Sasuke, Hyuuga Hinata, Choji Akimichi, Uzumaki Naruto and Nara Shikamaru. How that guy ever caught my interest is a mystery to this very day.
I soon found out that they boy must have been the laziest guy I ever met. He never seemed happy or excited about anything. Not even over his position as analyst and founder of many medical concepts. He eventually came out to pursue me after I was turned away by Sasuke. Why I even tried with that guy is beyond me. At first he seems mysterious and to say that he's not good looking would be a lie. But at closer inspection you will notice that he's even fuller of himself than Neji, which is a feat even I can't get close to. At least I have some sense of compassion. Sasuke on the other hand would bother to spend his breath at you and only respond with throaty answers if responding at all.
Anyway. I had been mopping around when he had openly denied me what I wanted; him. I can't say I take losses very well. After all I was Yamanaka Ino. The girl who got anything she pointed at. So to be denied something or in this case someone was rather embarrassing. Shikamaru seemed to have had enough of me at some point though and came up to me one day. All he said was that 'I was even more depressing than he was' and that I should move on with my life. Well perhaps, persuade isn't the right word for what he did. He basically called me pathetic, after all. But he did succeed to get me to do and think about other things than Sasuke. The next thing I remember was to turn around, flicking my long hair as to show that his words didn't affect me. The floor must have been newly mopped, because I lost my balance and my face was soon to be closely in contact with the cold floor. But nothing happened. And when I looked up he had caught me. Looking at me with those lazy eyes, but still managed an intense stare.
It wasn't long after that he and I became close friends and shortly after started to date. Life seemed perfect. I was satisfied at work, even hoped to get a promotion after some rumors from my new friends. While I waited for this likely promotion to happen I spent most of my spare time with Shikamaru and sometimes with Tenten. I even lived with him during the weekends when we were both off.
It paradise didn't last forever however and we soon realized that we weren't in love. Not to say that many was in modern times. But for some reason it just didn't feel right to be together when our feelings didn't past that stage of friendship. To say that we were merely attracted to each other may sound harsh but we both confessed that there was nothing more between us than just that. Attraction. Even if Shikamaru appeared to be a lazy slob he truly was a genius. He would sometimes be called in to special cases of diseases and injuries and help the doctors work out what method would be the best approach to save the patient's life. If the rest of us that was working there could weigh our knowledge in gold his could be weighted in pure diamond with the veil of dirty carbon. Scratch on the surface and you will be blinded by the intensity of his mind. And while he was lazy and had to 'drag' himself to work and make some 'troublesome' decisions I still seemed to be unbelievable attracted to him. I could never really complain when we were in the privacy of our bedroom.
But as I said, we eventually broke up but remained close friends. I would still spend weekends at his and occasionally when we both were in the mood for it have casual sex.
Regardless of my bond with Shikamaru it was the loud mouthed Uzumaki Naruto who would be the start of what changed my life and who I am today. He was the only one at our lunch table that was working in the lab full time with the exception of Sasuke. Not that he would ever share what it was he was doing or even what position he had. All in confidentiality of the lab and their wicked experiments. Anyway, unlike Sasuke, Naruto worked as a technician of some sort, monitoring the heavy equipment and other necessary areas where he might be needed. At first glance he doesn't appear very bright, and to be fair it didn't take me long to understand that he wasn't. But once he learned something we was exceptional. So I suppose at some point he gained all this knowledge through experience and it just stuck with him.
The Hyuuga girl, Hinata, have a huge crush on him, but he of course was oblivious to that. Instead he seemed to repeatedly talk about this one, very special girl.
Funny thing though. No one seemed to know who she was. He mentioned once or twice that she was a bit younger than him, but you could still tell that she was gorgeous. He used to be able to describe everything about her in detail, the way her skin looked, her hair, the small, almost invisible freckles over her nose, and so on. The way he described you'd think he been standing in front of her countless hours just taking everything in. Every little facial detail he could come over. What had me ponder about the things he said was however how he described her. He always described how she looked how fair she was, but never any personal traits. The few times he did, it was almost as if he guessed. Like he didn't know. I know I thought of the whole thing as a bit peculiar, Naruto never seemed to be the shallow type. And I should know, having a brief crush on Sasuke, just for his appearance and smarts. But even I would describe more than what they look. Such as personality, the way they move. How they talk. But no, Naruto would never give out such details. Why I even noticed all this about him was because at times he could act as if obsessed with her.
I decided one day during lunch break that I'd ask him about it. I mean, we were friends and even if the others either didn't care or dared to ask about it I knew at least some of them was just as curious as I was. For all we knew, we might actually know who she is. I didn't want to make Hinata uncomfortable so I made sure to wait until she left. Since her shift always starts a few minutes earlier than most of us it would give me the perfect opening.
"Hey Naruto" I said, trying to gain his attention.
He turned his head up from his lunch, which was as always, ramen. Where the hell he got the stuff from was a mystery. As far as any of us knew there were no places nearby to buy it, but he would still bring up a hot meal at lunch.
"Yeah?" He replied, unaware of my intentions of this conversation.
I rarely spoke to him so I understood the confused look in his eyes. One could say I in our early meetings hadn't been too nice to him.
"Wo's the girl?" I asked carefully. Not sure how he would take the question. I leaned my chin on one of my hands to let it rest while I waited for his answer.
A smile I couldn't define was quickly taking over his face. It wasn't the usual happy smile he wore when speaking of her. He almost looked sad.
"Well? Who is she?" I knew I pushed maybe a bit more than I normally would. But I was curious so who could blame me. At this point most of the others around the table had halted their conversation to get the answer from their otherwise so joyful friend.
"Well… She's, uh… a patient" he eventually replied. I got an odd feeling that he was struggling to define what or who she was. As if patient didn't really cut it. I didn't really see a problem with that. What's so wrong with being a patient? I've seen plenty of handsome male patients here. It was a combined lab and hospital after all.
"Is she ill?" I asked trying to sound sympathetic to the reason why he seemed so sad. Not just that, but I also wanted to know more. This was the most I knew about her apart from what he told us before.
Patients was never my fortune and growing more and more impatient with Naruto's lack of words, which he normally so eagerly spits out I lost it, to a degree.
"Is she mental?" I know, it was rather blunt of me saying something like that. But at least then I would understand why he never tried to speak of her personality.
His response, however, caught me off guard. He rose from his chair so quickly that his chair fell back and hit the floor with a loud clang. His eyes stared into mine with such intensity that I grew uncomfortable under them.
"Just because everyone isn't as high and mighty as you are Yamanaka, doesn't make them mental" he sneered out. In response I could only stare in shock, unaware of what I said was so bad. I after all worked with these "mental" people. I meant no harm by what I said.
Growing defensive I gained my composure and stared him square back.
"So why won't you just answer my question. What could possibly be the reason?" I frowned at him almost as much as he did at me.
"She's asleep! Okay. Just… Just leave it alone, will you?"
With that he left is unfinished ramen and the rest of us staring confusedly after him.
Feeling my own temper go back to normal I started to feel bad for what I've done and said. I looked around but they were quick to go back and mind their own business. I caught Sasuke returning his gaze to the papers in his hand after staring at Naruto's back. Instead of trying to get anything from them I turned towards Tenten
"Did I say something wrong?"
"Leave it Ino. He's been like that all week. I think something might have happened" She reached out her hand and stroke my arm in comfort, knowing it was a blow to my ego to be yelled at like that.
I never asked about the mysterious girl again, I've learned my lesson. Naruto didn't mention her for a long time either and it got me to wonder if he had some genuine feelings for her.
A/N
This was the first chapter. Please feel free to review. And if you to decide to do so, feel free to say what you in particular liked or disliked. Any feedback is good. But try to be constructive about it. No need to be harsh about it.
The next chapter should be up fairly soon, just need to rewrite it quickly and go over it... maybe...
Cheers!
