Himawari

A/N: This chapter is more of a humour chapter but it's still important. I seriously just can't live without humour. XD

Chapter 2

Mitsue was silent now. She lay uncomfortably across Chouji's shoulder. Her body bobbed with Chouji's every step until they finally reached a small town where she was finally placed back on her feet. The girl knew that if she turned back now, it would become dark before she even reached the halfway mark back to her house.

The sun had a quarter of the sky left before it set as the four of them walked into the pretty normal town. Chouji stared at the two sturdy posts on either side of him which marked the core of the village. He smiled to himself, 'This is definitely the place.' They continued to walk but had to pass by a group of teenage boys.

"Man, she's hot!" whistled a perverted guy who sat and stared with his gang from the side of the road.

"You think she's taken?" his friend asked as if the ninjas were deaf.

"If she isn't, I will," said another guy, lifting his sunglasses.

Though Ino knew they were only mocking them, she was flattered. She was at least delighted that her beauty was obvious to even scumbags like them. She was rarely noticed back in Konoha. She concluded that the Leaf bachelors were so immature. They would go on with their business not even thinking that just a hint of romance would spice up any girl's life. As a result, Ino had to lower her standards to people like... those things.

Meanwhile, Chouji saw that Mitsue had gripped her fist closed before he realised what was really going on. He bit his bottom lip, wondering what would happen to Ino's ego once she noticed as well. Of course, Shikamaru knew all along but he couldn't believe that Ino would be so absorbed into their 'positive comments' so easily to not even notice. He sighed. "Ino, they're..." he started to warn her, but then someone said something they shouldn't have.

"I bet that fat dude could snatch her before you can even get her name," the hooded guy laughed at his sunglasses friend.

"..." Ino was shocked. She didn't want to think that they were referring to Chouji... But he was the first and only person she thought at the mention of 'fat dude.'

Shikamaru sighed. "Here it comes," he said as he watched Chouji marched up to the male teen.

"I can get her easy," said the dude with the shades.

"What did you just call me?" Chouji confronted the hooded guy.

"Hey there pretty lady," the guy with the sunglasses said as he hit on Mitsue.

"What? I only called you fat," said the other guy.

SMACK!

The both guys had both been punched in the face simultaneously, one by Chouji and the other by Mitsue. And both clearly took their anger out on them. Plus, Mitsue probably had some additional anger stored up in her that had been bottled up from earlier that day.

"I feel so stupid." Ino's sweat dropped. "So the whole time, they were only talking about that girl."

"Pretty much. You're a little slow," commented Shikamaru. Seeing Ino's disappointed face, he turned her attention away from her embarrassment. "Do you think we should stop them, Ino?"

Ino perked up a little bit and giggled. "I think Chouji's about done," she said, aware of the time.

Growl.

"Oh no," Chouji exclaimed as soon as he saw that was sun was nearing the horizon. "The buffet special is going to end soon!"

Shikamaru sighed once again leaving Ino wondering how many times he had sighed that day. "Hurry up and bring Mikazuki-san," he instructed.

Chouji wasted no time and snatched Mitsue before she could plant her fist against the flirt's face again. Mitsue pouted, knowing that she had a little bit more anger to release.

"What a violent girl," added Ino as they left two men being examined – and laughed at – by their comrades. Ino assumed that Mitsue had to learn how to fend for herself with her little brothers around. What else could she have learned to be so fierce?

But something else couldn't leave Ino's mind. Compared to when they pulled the girl away from her own family, she actually seemed angrier now.

*****

The restaurant manager stared at Chouji in awe as he gnawed his way around the giant spear rib. The man was thankful that the buffet special had ended just before Chouji came and entered the building. At least now the manager would at least receive money for all the food that had disappeared within the last ten minutes. But that didn't go so well for the people that had to pay for it.

Shikamaru heaved another sigh. It wasn't like he could do anything about it. Chouji had specifically chosen this village as the stopover just to come to this restaurant. Ino felt that she should have seen this coming once she saw Chouji's huge grin (with a bit of drool on the side) just as they walked into the town. But Chouji denied his desire to go to this restaurant. He had told them that he had merely taken the route around a steep cliff which consequently led them to this village. He was forced to choose so with Mitsue's attitude. He doubted that she would trust them to carry her down the cliff when she wouldn't even trust them to even escort her. And she obviously wouldn't be able to walk – or fall - down the cliff without hurting herself.

"Okay this is that last dish for you Chouji!" scolded Ino. "I don't want to go in debt for the wants of your stomach. At least this girl says she's not hungry so we don't have to worry about her," she said with a huge grin. Chouji's stomach was equivalent to at least three stomachs so at least without Mitsue's stomach to feed, their team's wallet was happy.

"No wonder you're fat," remarked Mitsue.

"What did you-?" Chouji's anger suddenly started to build up once again that day.

"Fatty!" Mitsue simply said.

Chouji stood up from his chair and grabbed Mitsue by the shirt with one hand. "Why you stupid-!"

Growl.

Mitsue immediately held her stomach, annoyed that it disobeyed her orders. Chouji's fit readily waited in the air, but he couldn't bring himself to hit her. Reluctantly, he offered her food. Chouji cursed his gentle heart. He couldn't let her go hungry.

But her simple answer totally insulted Chouji. "No." He offered her food – FOOD! – of all things and she refused. But it was natural for Mitsue to refuse. She knew that often, when someone gives you something, they expect something in return. She didn't want to deal with them at all and avoided interaction when possible including accepting gifts.

A few minutes later, Chouji was about to eat his last bite and place his chopsticks in his mouth – only... that was all he tasted. Chopsticks. Not chops of pork. Chopsticks! Enraged, his eyes scanned his surroundings to find Mitsue, beside him, satisfying her hunger on his last piece of pork chops. He was in shock.

Meanwhile, Shikamaru and Ino's mouths just dropped wide open. "Uh oh," was something they wanted to say, but their mouths suffered from the shock. The one thing that was taboo besides calling Chouji fat was taking the last juicy slice of meat that he would savour and enjoy since it was always the tastiest. But this girl – this naive girl – took it from him without even a flinch.

Mitsue couldn't help herself. She was hungry. It took all of her energy to hold back while she watched Chouji enjoy the food she wouldn't eat because of her stubbornness. She held her stomach, looked away from the food, anything that would silence her hunger. But, her hunger managed to escape by squeezing through a tiny hole in her self-discipline.

Once Chouji moved even just one of his muscles, Shikamaru and Ino immediately intervened. Ino pulled Mitsue off her chair away from Chouji while Shikamaru had to use his shadow jutsu for the second time that day. Chouji only calmed down once Mitsue's stomach growled again and realised how pitiful she was. He tried to deny that he could relate to Mitsue's hunger, but his compassionate heart stopped him once again.

"We'll buy you one more dish Chouji," Ino stated once everything had calmed down. "And that's it!"

Once again, a growl was heard from Mitsue's stomach. She had completely surrendered to her hunger and gave them a face that pleaded for food.

Shikamaru gave in. "Order as much as you want," he told Mitsue.

But, even before five minutes were up, Shikamaru wanted to eat his words. Both Mitsue and Chouji were happily eating their food whereas Shikamaru and Ino were quite the opposite. Mitsue was a bottomless container of food – almost as bad as Chouji. She would gobble up food and it looked like it didn't make her stomach any less hungry. And because Chouji was forced to watch Mitsue enjoying her meal, he pleaded for more food and Ino had to negate her restriction on him.

"Could we have more, please?" the two meat eaters said in unison as they held out their bowls towards the two ninjas.

'Could we leave, please?' the two wallets whined at the same time as they let their heads fall on the table.

A/N: Bleh... nothing really happened much in the first couple of chapters. Sometimes I wonder if I should still continue this story when Hidden Candles is better. But then again, I already planned other ideas for the later chapters and they're pretty good. Anyway, please review/ correct/ criticise. :)