A/N: One-Shot. Naruto and Ino. Naruto anime/manga do not belong to me. Possible spoilers, read at your own risk. TOTALLY AU. Naruto and Ino are 19 in this fic.

For Naruto, Konoha doesn't look so special anymore. He sits upon the Hokage monument, and he wonders about what he's missed. For six years, he's been gone. He's missed the lives of all his loved ones, and he can tell that something's different now. Six years away will do that to you.

He's older now, though some people might not notice. He's only 19, but he feels ancient. For Naruto, death is nothing new. He's played shinigami one too many times to count, and he's finally starting to realize that HE can't save everybody. Too many comrades he's lost, while he's survived. Too many enemies that he's had to kill, to only realize one simple truth. Shinobi aren't fucking people. They're tools, tools for people to use. Being a ninja isn't a higher calling like he once thought. There is no difference between being a ninja and a simple mercenary. His job is simple, to be paid to spy, to protect, and to kill others.

At least samurai have honor. There's a saying that he's learned. Shinobi aren't fucking samurai. We're NINJA. A ninja with honor is a dead ninja. In some ways, he wishes he had never become a ninja. At least samurai have honor. A samurai would rather kill himself then stab someone in the back, but that's routine for Naruto, and the rest of his kind.

The strength of a country is based on the strength of its ninjas, and as such, there is no room for the weak. As a result, the strong survive. Like HIM. He's survived, while others have died from less. He's been beaten, broken, fucking DECAPITATED and he's survived. He's watched his friends die and stood by helplessly, as dying eyes turn from hoping to survive to hatred. Hate for him, because they know he WON'T die. Because, frankly, nobody knows if he CAN. Naruto is no longer the loudest ninja from Konoha. He is Naruto, Demon of Konoha.

---

Sakura sees him first. His face is obscured by an ANBU mask, but she just knows. Possibly because he's standing right next to Jiraiya-sama himself, who happens to be the most recognizable figure in or from Konoha other than Hokage-sama herself. Before she knows what's happened, she's in his arms, and she's squeezing him and yelling at him and crying, because he's home. She doesn't really know WHAT he is to her anymore, he's been gone for so long. Three years turned into four, into five, into six. For a while she'd keep asking Hokage-sama how come Naruto hadn't come back yet, but her sensei would just tell her that he'd be coming home soon.

After a year, she stopped asking where he was. Because she knew. At 17, her, and a number of the Rookie Nine all joined the ANBU together. All with high hopes, after all, their generation was praised as the most promising generation of shinobi Konoha had EVER seen, only bested by the Legendary Sannin themselves. They couldn't have been more wrong. No amount of training and missions as a Genin or Chuunin, could have prepared any of them for what it really meant to be a true ninja. A true ANBU member. Like Naruto, they thought that being a ninja meant protecting his or her loved ones, but they've all come to realize the truth that Naruto has. A ninja does what he or she is told, and when you're in the ANBU, the truth hits home.

On her first mission, Sakura's assassination mission goes deadly wrong, and she's cornered. Most ANBU don't learn about the dangers of misinformation until their third or fourth mission. Unfortunately for her, she learns it on her first. Sakura is eager to please, and to prove that she belongs, so she pounces on the first chance to complete her mission. Most ANBU learn to wait a bit, but Sakura is confident. It becomes her downfall. Instead of one missing-nin, she is faced with four. When she's beaten and captured, she wonders where things went wrong. Pretty little thing, they say. And they take her innocence. All four of them, sometimes taking turns, sometimes all at once. Time passes by in a haze, and she finds herself waking in the arms of a stranger. "Don't worry Sakura-chan, you'll be fine," he says. And she believes him. When she awakens again, it's in a hospital bed, surrounded by her friends. She KNOWS though. Knows exactly who saved her. The next day, she hears of her attackers. They've been found, and it's obvious that they've been tortured to death. The official report is that Sakura was saved by an ANBU member passing through the area, but she knows the truth. She revisits the site a week later, and she can still smell it. The stench of demonic chakra, and only one person in the world has a chakra signature like that. Naruto.

She presses Hokage-sama for the truth, and she gets it. Naruto is voluntarily on a mission with Jiraiya. A seek and destroy mission. Unlike normal ANBU members, who get a few weeks off to regain their sanity, Naruto and Jiraiya are out killing people almost everyday. She knows that whatever her and her friends are going through, it can't be compared to what Naruto and Jiraiya are. Under normal circumstances, no mission like this would've been approved, but war-time is different. Especially with resources spread so thin.

---

"Shikamaru, Chouji, Kiba, and Hinata are dead," Sakura says. Jiraiya's left the two of them alone for a bit, to go catch up with Tsunade. Naruto's taken off his mask now, and he looks nothing like what he used to. Hard eyes, rugged good looks, and long shaggy blond hair are what he's composed of now. The only thing about him that's the same is his hair color. His innocent blue eyes, and boyish good looks, are no longer there. His shit-eating grin remains in place, but his eyes can no longer lie. He's been through more than most ninja's have gone through in a lifetime.

"What about the rest of us?" Naruto asks. Always the same. Always putting other peoples' needs ahead of his own.

"We still haven't been able to locate Sasuke since the death of Orochimaru three weeks ago, but Shino, Ino, and myself are back in the village, getting some well deserved rest."

"How'd you guys react to the ANBU?" Naruto knows what the ANBU will do to you. Except the only difference is, he's been through worse.

"Shino and myself are in the running to be Jounin teachers, we're done with the corps I think. Being teachers will help us hopefully put the ANBU behind us… Ino, on the other hand…" Sakura stops. Sakura can't say anything about Ino. It's not her place to say anything.

"Don't worry, I know about Ino." Naruto says. Even though he's been gone, he's always kept up with the news of his friends, and the only reason he's asking about them now is because he has nothing else to talk about. "Where is she now?"

---

Sakura's directed him to a seedy bar, and as he walks in he spots her right away. Platinum blond hair that just stands out. She's chatting up a guy and her hands are everywhere they shouldn't be. He watches them for a while, until the stranger stands up to go to the men's bathroom, and she follows him. Naruto sits down at the bar, and orders a drink. His thoughts are a whirl, and he contemplates what he plans to do. Him and Ino were never close, and the fact that he's been gone for six years definitely doesn't help. But Naruto never gives up his friends, no matter how shortly they've known each other.

He knows all about how her fiancé Chouji died, killed in a raid by Sound two nights before their wedding. And he knows how her best friend Shikamaru, blinded by rage, struck out on his own to destroy Sound. No matter how hard Ino begged him not go, he wouldn't stop. Shortly after, Ino quit being a shinobi and started living on her savings. For the past six months, she's given up on life, and love, and she's been frequenting the same bar, every night. Every night, a different guy, a different fuck to make her forget. The assholes don't care that she's screaming someone else's name, because for them, she's the hottest piece of ass they're ever gonna get their hands on.

She steps out of the washroom first, smelling like sweat and sex. Naruto can smell it all over her, and he's strangely aroused. She walks out the door, satisfied for the night. Naruto follows, and for a while just walks behind her down the street. One second he's following her and the next she's gone. Naruto is pleasantly, surprised that she's as fast as she is.

"Who the fuck are you, and what do you want?" she asks. A kunai is pressed to his throat, and he smiles.

"Good to see you too, Ino-san," he replies. The next second, his body turns into a log and Ino is pissed. Fucking Kawamari-no-jutsu. The next instant she's the one with a kunai pressed against her throat, and he's got her hands locked. She can't do any seals. "Don't worry, I'm not here to hurt you."

"Then let me go asshole," she spits. And surprisingly, he does. She spins around quickly and gets into a fighting stance, but like most others, she recognizes him immediately. "Naruto…" His blue eyes give him away. Beautiful eyes, that are now painful to look into, because they carry so much pain. Naruto examines her, because he never got a good look at her in the bar. She's beautiful, more so than when he left. Like him, her face is hard but her eyes are the gateway to the soul. And like him, she's in more pain than she'll ever let on.

"So I hear you like to fuck," Naruto's never been one to mince words. So he says it like it is. Her face registers shock, then disgust and the next moment his face is stinging.

"You…" her face is red and she's wondering just how many ways she still remembers how to kill a guy, when she hears him laugh. She takes a deep breath to calm herself down, and takes a good look at the prankster. He's no longer a kid anymore, that's for sure. Orange doesn't seem to be a prerequisite of color for his clothing anymore either, which she has to admit is a good thing.

"Relax Ino, I'm kidding," He smiles, and he takes her hand, and he drags her along with him. At first she protests, until she realizes that it'll take more than just a few words to get him to let go. Slowly, they talk about nonsensical things. Stupid things, and then he starts talking about his… mission. His voice changes, and his eyes grow even harder, if that's possible, and for Ino, his pain is real. Just as real as her own. For the first time since she's quit being a ninja, she's found somebody with pain to match her own. A kindred spirit so to speak, so she opens up. She tells him everything about herself, before, and after the Chouji incident. Throughout the entire thing, she cries, she laughs, and he listens. That's all that she really needs, someone to cry on. Her tears come fast and furious, as the rain also begins to come down. Soon, they're both soaked, but neither of them want to stop. It's like the rain is washing away their pain, and for both of them, they feel more free than they've felt in years.

Strangely, they end up in front of Naruto's apartment, one that he hasn't been in in six years. "I guess this is the end of our journey, Yamanaka Ino," he says. He smiles, and it's a real one, for once. He's happy that he's been able to help somebody, somebody that really needed it. Because he always ignores his own problems, but now his own problems don't seem so bad. Maybe it's the rain, or maybe it's just being around Ino, and being able to talk about his own shit. She smiles at him too, and a part of her feels sad. She doesn't know why, not yet, but a part of her feels like there's something missing from the night.

"Yea," she says. She turns around, and begins walking away. Tears are coming down her face again, and she's not totally sure why. She feels his hand come to rest on her shoulder, and she stops. Naruto hesitates for a moment, and then he moves. He spins her around hard, and slams her into the wall. Under normal circumstances, Ino would be bitching about the pain, but now all she can think about are the pair of lips on her mouth, and how she can't get enough of them. It feels like an eternity before they separate, and as they catch their breath, Ino tries to regain control. "Naruto, I don't-" she's cut off before she can finish. He doesn't care what she thinks, all he knows is that he feels more alive now then ever has in six years, and that he NEEDS her. Ino struggles for a second, and then gives up. Her hands are all over him, and his are all over her. It's a miracle they make it up the flight of stairs, into his apartment, and onto his bed, all while having their mouths firmly attached to each other's skin.

In his room, dust covers everything, including his bed, but neither of them really care. In a second her clothes are off, torn off by him, and his own follow quickly. And then he's inside, and she's screaming and nothing makes sense anymore. The sex is rough and hard and there's nothing romantic about it, but for some reason, they both feel more connected to each other than they have to anybody else before. He presses deeper with every thrust, trying to get closer to her, and she spreads her legs further and grinds herself deeper into him, because she can't get enough of him. Before long, they both climax, and within minutes they're both at it again. It's not until she wakes the next morning, that she realizes something; throughout the entire night, she was calling his name, and nobody else's.

---

She gets up to try and leave, but he pulls her back down, and pulls her body closer to his. "Naruto, let go," she says. She tries to get up again, but he holds her tightly. She looks at him, and he opens his eyes.

"If I let you go now, you're never going to come back," he says. She thinks about that line for a moment, and she knows exactly what he's asking of her. "I want you to be mine," he says, and he kisses her possessively, hungrily. She pushes him away, and asks him a question.

"Why?" The truth is, she wants to be his too, but she doesn't know why, and she's scared of it. She's scared of getting hurt again, scared of losing another loved one.

"I don't know why, but there's something," he stops for a moment. Naruto's never been good with words. "There's something about you, that I just can't let go of. If I let you go now, I'm going to lose you forever. And I wouldn't be able to live with myself if that happened."

"Naruto," she tries one more time to get away, trying to give Naruto a reason to make her leave, because she knows she can no longer leave on her own. "I'm damaged goods, you don't want me." And Naruto smiles at her, and his eyes are twinkling.

"But baby, I'm damaged too." he says. And she laughs. Laughs at the absurdness of it all. It's probably the corniest line she's ever heard from anybody, but it works. She kisses him and this time, it's different. The sex is slow and powerful and passionate, and when they look at each other, they just know. Naruto's eyes tell her that he's never going to let her go, and if anybody hurts her, hell, looks at her the wrong way, he'll rip him or her apart. And to her, it's very touching. Chouji never looked at her like that. And Ino's eyes… for the first time in a long time. They're alive again.

---

The Rokudaime's funeral is over now. The only person left standing by the casket is Ino, as everyone has finally left. She's angry, angry at the world, angry at fate for taking away another loved one. She wants to curse Naruto, for dying to save a village that never really loved him until the day he died. But she can't. Years ago, Naruto brought her back to life, so to speak, and now she wishes she could do the same for him. But she can't, because he's dead. Really dead. Nobody thought it was possible, but apparently it was, and it happened. Ino wants nothing more than to crawl away, back into that hole that Naruto dug her out of, but she can't. Because she's Uzumaki Ino. Because Naruto wouldn't have wanted her to do that. And because Naruto hasn't really left her alone.

"Ino…" a voice says behind her. She turns around, and she seems him. Her precious baby, Uzumaki Arashi. Sakura's holding him, as Ino says her last goodbyes, to the man that she loves.

"Naruto… thank you. I love you," Those are Ino's last words to Naruto, and she turns around. She holds her head high, after all, she IS Uzumaki Ino, the indomitable wife to the most powerful Hokage the Leaf had ever seen, and probably will ever see. And she promises to Naruto quietly, that she will never give up her life again, and that she'll always live her life to the fullest, for Naruto, and for their child.

A/N: an experiment encouraged by Ian (I'm saying Ian because you change your penname every other day ), hope u guys enjoyed. VERY difficult for me to write ;( Totally didn't want to kill Naruto, but I felt like it needed to be done. Like Geno Calamari once said…"But this is Naruto, and to be deadly honest, it is absurd that so many characters still maintain the potential for happiness at this late date. It is odd to me that with such a large supporting cast, so few of them have suffered fatal or crippling injuries.
I like the happy ending, but few characters will achieve it. Expect suffering, because life has a large share of suffering in it, and the characters in Kishimoto's manga do not share in it enough." Also throughout the story you might've noticed that my writing style might reflect that of other writers, it probably does but it's not because I don't have my own, it's just because I've been reading fanfic for 5 years + now and some of the good writer's have been rubbing off on me. Hopefully you readers can still see elements of my own writing style in the story though. The idea of a much darker, cynical Ino and Naruto comes from Geno's stories, but the entire plot line is mine… If somebody feels that this is plagiarism then I'll take the story down. Anyways hope you enjoyed reading this, it was a tough write. Shout out to all the authors in my "Favorite Authors" section, 'cause they're all DAMN good.