Disclaimer: Naruto is the property of Masashi Kishimoto and Shonen Jump magazine as well as other license holders of the Naruto series.
No Regrets
Chapter two : Rest and Relaxation
"Ino darling, will you come down here for a moment?"
The girl in question slowly crawled out of bed in an uncouth manner, stubbing her toes on every little obsticle between her and the door to her room. It wasn't that early, near afternoon as a matter of fact, but she had not been able to fall asleep the night before because her thoughts were filled with a wiskered face blonde that had a smile you could drown in. Luckily today was a day off.
Ino made her way down the stairs as she stretched and stifled a yawn. Her mother was in the kitchen looking over some papers as she sat at the table drinking her afternoon tea.
"Come Ino, I have something to discuss with you. Your fathers watching the shop for me so I don't have much time." her mother stated.
With another stifled yawn, Ino grabbed a bottle of water from the refigerator and sat down at the table across from her mother. The blonde popped open her water and took a chug as she peaked at the documents her mother seemed to be scanning over from the corner of her eyes. Applications?
"Are we hiring someone for the shop? I know that I'm a bit busy with work, but you know I'm always willing to help out if I can." Ino didn't like the idea that her mother was going to spend money on hired help for the flower shop. Although her father and her were pretty well known among the shinobi community, their family was small, unlike some of the larger clans of the village, thus they did not have the wealth like them.
"Of coarse not dear. With the money we spent on having the shop rebuilt there is no way that we could afford to hire someone right now. These are applications for arranged meetings honey." she said, in the same tone that she would use if she were picking out shoes.
"Huh?" Ino replied intelligently. She could see where this was going, it wasn't the first time this subject had come up.
"Dear gods Ino, your hair!" her mother exclaimed, looking at her for the first time since she came down from upstairs. "Its unlady like to be in such disheveled manner, even after waking up!"
Ino just rolled her eyes. Pretentious old hag.
"You're almost eighteen Ino, the only boys I ever see you around are Shikamaru and Chouji, and they are practically family. As a matter of fact, the last time you even mentioned a boy of interest, it was that Sasuke boy from the Uchiha clan." her mother said while still scanning through the profiles of different eligible bachelors once more. "I let you join the academy because of your father and you know I was against you continuing after you had graduated. I think its about time you thought about what your priorities should be in life."
"There is no way that I'm going to get married right now mother!" Ino spat defiantly. Her mother's idea of priorities were either take over the flower shop or get married and become a house wife...while taking over the flower shop.
"Oh hush, I'm not asking you to go off and get hitched today. All I'm saying is that at your age you should at least be dating someone, perferably someone of some stature." her mother hummed.
Ino sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. Her mother was from a small merchant family that had originally started the flowershop they owned and her father's side was fairly small as well, she could understand why her mother was concered for her daughter's future, but this was a bit ridiculous.
"Hmmm... the Inazuka clan? The yongest son Kiba, is he the one always running around with his dog?" the woman asked while looking at a file. She continued without even letting Ino answer. "The boy is probably infested with fleas and that boy Shino from the Aburame clan, I'm not even going to bother with that one."
"They are respectable ninja mother, please don't talk about them with the tone you would use when scraping dog crap from the bottom of your shoes." Ino loved her mother very much, but the woman could be so abrasive sometimes.
"I know they are from respectable clans daughter and I also know your taste in men, I'm just looking out for your best interest." her mother smiled sweetly. "I'll just go ahead and toss out Shikamaru and Chouji since you probably think of them as brothers, that doesn't leave much from your graduating class dear and most of the other respectable shinobi are taken." her mother sighed. "I suppose you'll have to choose from the civilian prospects dear."
Her mother sounded like she was choosing meat at a market. Ino felt like bashing her head against the kitchen table. "And whats wrong with Naruto." Ino half heartedly said under her breath as she looked away irritated.
The older woman broke out into a fit of laughter, well as close to laughter as she could get, but without actually opening her mouth. Did she just snort?
"I'm so sorry honey." the older woman apologized as she wiped the tears from the corner of her eyes. "I thought you just said Naruto, as in Uzumaki Naruto."
Ino felt confused. What was wrong with that? Did her mother have something against Naruto? Maybe because of the Kyubi?
"I guess from the look of your face you did say it. Lets be realistic daughter. The boy is the hero of Konoha, he's a celebrity, not to mention the Hokage practically thinks of him as a son. I'd say he's a bit out of your league dear. I also hear rumors from other villagers that he might be a secret son of the Forth Hokage! Can you imagine if that were true? The inheritance alone would make him richer than most of the larger clans in the village!"
Ino felt a vein pop from the side of her forehead.
"All joking aside Ino, I want you to look through some of these and at least try to think about your future." her mother said as she handed her a stack of profiles.
"I'm going to go take a shower." Ino said irritably, quickly getting up from the table and going back up stairs, WITHOUT the documents her mother had given her.
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Naruto sat in front of the Hokage's desk while twirling a kunai around out of pure boredom. He sported a black T-shirt and an orange vest that had the ever so present red spiral on the back, along with a matching pair of orange shorts. His hair hung over his eyes since he still haven't found his hitaiate, he must have lost it during the battle with Madara. He would have to ask Ba-chan to get him another one before he went back to active duty.
Speaking of the old hag, where was she? He had been waiting for her for over an hour already. She had summoned him earlier in the morning to go over some stuff and he came because the message said that it was important.
The double doors to the office opened and Tsuande entered while holding on to a small wooden box covered in seals, followed by shizune who was carring TonTon in her arms.
"Good, you're here." the woman stated.
"I've been here for over an hour!" Naruto whined.
"I'm sorry Naruto, getting this took longer than expected." the woman said as she took her seat at the desk and placed the box on top between her and Naruto.
The boy looked at the box cursiously.
"Its something that was left for you by your parents Naruto-kun." Shizune answered as took her usual place next to the Hokage and gave him a delighted smile.
"Even though this was suppose to be given to you on your eighteenth birthday, It's no secret to you anymore who your parents are, so I managed to convince the old crones from the council to let me give it to you a little early." the busty woman told him. "Although you still have to wait until your birthday to receive your full inheritance."
"This is from my parents?" Naruto inquired. "Whats in it?"
"We aren't really sure, but your father took alot of effort to place seals on it so that you were the only one that could open it. My guess would be scrolls of secret justus left by him as well as trinkets and such he had collected before he became Hokage."
The boy smiled excitedly at the prospect of secret jutsus left by his father, the Fourth Hokage himself.
"Unfortunetly, other than that box, all of your parent's assets were liquidated over time since you were born, but the Third Hokage funneled all of the profits into a savings account under your mother's name which has been paying for your living expenses thus far. You will have full access to the account once you turn eighteen."
Naruto smiled softly as he thought of his parents. Although he had no idea who they were while growing up and had only found out recently, he was learning little by little just what type of people they really were. He took the small box and stared at the intricate seals that surrounded the box. He was no seal master, but they sure looked complicated.
"So, how have you been feeling." the Hokage asked him.
He broke his attention from the box and gave the woman a healthy smile. "I'm feeling great! I think that I can go back to training soon!"
"Don't be so hasty Naruto. At least let me get the test results back before you do anything rash. Besides, there haven't been many missions since the shinobi alliance and I suspect that the down time won't last long since the war is finally over, so you should enjoy yourself while you can." she instructed.
The Hokage wrote some directions onto a scrap of paper and handed it to him. "Shizune and I will be there sometime this evening as well as some other shinobi I have invited, you should ask some of your friends and meet us there."
"The new barbecue place?" he asked looking at the scrap of paper.
"Yeah, apparently its a well known chain throughout the land of fire." Shizune added.
Personally, he would rather eat at Ichiraku ramen over barbecue any day, but he wasn't so picky that he would refuse free food. "Ok, I'll see if anyone is free tonight." He replied as he got up. "Do you think Sasuke will be there?" He asked hopefully.
"Sasuke won't be released from the hospital until a few more days so he won't be able to make it." the woman stated flatly.
Naruto was hoping that he would get a chance to talk with Sasuke about what his plans were for the future and ask him if there was anything that he could do to help. Perhaps he should go and visit him at the hospital.
"Sakura is going to be there." the Hokage added in a suspisious tone.
"Sounds good." he replied, although without the usual hyper activness he has when it came to the pink haired kunoichi. "I guess I'll see you all there then."
The blonde woman stared at him with a thoughtful expression that kind of made him nervous, like she was plotting something.
Naruto nervously said his goodbyes and quickly left the Hokage's office with the wooden box.
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If brooding was a form of taijutsu, Sasuke would easily be a grandmaster at it. Sakura had already came and left saying that the Hokage had her running errands today so she couldn't stay long and to top it off she would be with the Hokage in the evening as well. Funnily enough, even though he had treated her so coldly when they were younger, it was him that wanted her around and to not leave his side.
Sasuke sat in the hospital bed facing the window where he felt sunlight shinging through. He heard the chirping of the birds outside as well as felt a soft breeze flowing in through that window. It was near the end of September, but the Autumn wind had yet to get too cold to where it was uncomfortable. It was ironic, now that he had lost his eyes, it felt like he could truely see what was important to him.
He smelled a faint scent of odango coming from the other side of the room.
"If you keep brooding like that, your face will get stuck that way and then no girl will want to marry you." Naruto joked.
Sasuke had to admit, he no longer wanted to kill the blonde, but his former teamate sure had a way of pissing him off.
"Shouldn't you be out signing autographs or something." he retorted with his own snide remark. He could hear Naruto walk over to him near the bed and take a seat in the chair that Sakura used.
"Is that something you should say to the person who was so kind enough to sneak in some food for you?"
"Hn..." was his only reply.
"So, do you plan on asking Ba-chan to reinstate you once you are out of here?" Naruto asked him.
"Are you that much of an idiot? Can't you see that I'm blind? Besides why whould she take back a traitor." he said bitterly.
Suddenly the blonde threw a quick jab at his face which he easily caught the oncoming fist. "Pretty good for a blind man if you ask me."
"Well nobody asked you." he really hated how Naruto always tried to help everyone.
"Come on Sasuke, you and I both know that even without your sight, you're better than half of the Jonin in Konoha." Naruto stated. "And I'm sure I can get Ba-chan to get you reinstated."
"Don't you ever get tired of being so optimistic?" he asked retorhically.
"Of course not, you know first hand I don't ever give up!"
Sasuke could see the shit eating grin on the boy's face even without his eyes.
"Anyway, I just came by to say hi and give you this." Naruto said as he handed him the plastic bag. "I got you some odango, I know that its not exactly like the food at the new barbecue place that opened but it was the best I could do. I guess a bunch of us are going there for the grand opening tonight and I didn't want you to feel left out."
Ever the thoughtful one.
"Seriously though, think it over, getting reinstated again."
Persistant too. "Yeah, yeah." he replied as he slowly started to open the bag.
"I got to get going but I'll talk to Ba-chan about it tonight at the restaurant." Naruto assured him on his way out.
Sasuke stopped opening the bag as he heard Naruto. The Hokage? That means Sakura will be there! His grip on the plastic became tighter as he thought about it. It wasn't that he hated Naruto, but he knew of the blonde's feelings for Sakura and he felt a sense of fear that he was going to loose her to him. He knew that it was petty, but she was all that he had left that Naruto didn't have.
"Oh, almost forgot I also got you some cake. Its in the bag as well." Naruto said as he stuck his head back in the room. "Anyway, I'll talk to you later." and he was gone, for good this time.
Sasuke slowly crumpled the bag and tossed it into the trash can next to his bed. He hated sweet foods.
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Ino couldn't believe she let her mother talk her into this. The man sitting across from her Fujiwara Saito was in his early twenties, the son of a wealthy family in the import and export business that had just moved into the village. He wasn't ugly in any way, short wavy brown hair, brown eyes, and a suit that was probably worth more than her entire month's salary. She would say he was rather handsome if anyone had asked her, howerver, the man's personality left much to be desired.
"...so then I said, put it on my tab!" the man barked in laughter at his own story. "The look on the poor fool's face was priceless!"
Ino had no idea what the punchline was or why it was so funny because she hadn't been listening to the man for the past thirty minutes. She just feigned interest, doing her best not to be rude.
"Ah, I kill myself sometimes." Saito complimented himself as his laughter subsided.
If you don't, I might! She just wanted to quickly get the dinner over with so that she could go home and forget that this night ever took place. "Don't you think that we should give our order soon Saito-san?" she inquired, trying to move things along.
"Ah, but of course!" the man replied as he snapped his fingers. "Waitress?" he called out.
A young and rather cute looking girl with short dark hair came to their table to take their order. "Yes sir, what can I get for you this evening?"
"I will take the most expensive thing on your menu and maybe a side of you." he replied with a greasy looking smile. "I jest, nothing on your menu is that expensive." he laughed at his own joke. "I jest again, just bring us what ever is most popular here."
The waitress rolled her eyes as she took the order and then disappeared around the corner into the kitchen. Saito seem to eye her behind the entire length it took her to get from the table and around the wall. Ino felt like vomiting.
"So, your profile says that you are a shinobi of Konoha? Isn't that line of work a bit vulgar?" he asked, returning his attention back to the blonde. "I mean, being a kunochi of your beauty, you must have taken some missions that might be considered to be quite risque, if you catch my drift."
Ino wanted to stab the man in the face with her spoon. "It can be quite dangerous at times, yes." she replied with restraint.
"I'm looking forward to you showing me the way of the kunoichi after dinner." the man said rather suggestively as he licked his lips.
Thats it! To hell with being polite! Ino stood up angrily, ready to strangle the man to death.
"Yamanaka Ino?" a voice called out. "It is! Well I'll be damned, its a surprise seeing you here."
Naruto?
"And you are?" Saito inquried rudely.
As if noticing the other man for the first time Naruto apologized sheepishly. "Oh, Im so sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. I'm Uzumaki Naruto, a shinobi here in Konoha. Ino and I work together sometimes." the boy explained.
Saito didn't look convinced.
"I mean we do missions together sometimes, but Ino here works mainly with the interrogation unit." he elaborated.
"Interrogation unit?"
"Yeah, she spends all her time there torturing people and stuff. Its why im so surprised to see her here, she hardly ever leaves the place." the spikey haired blonde said with a smile.
Saito seem to turn pale.
"I think she secretly enjoys it if you ask me. Rumor has it, she's castrated more shinobi than there are trees in Konoha. Some say she does it as recreation." he continued as if talking about the weather.
The man sweated nervously while seeming to cover up his crotch area with his hands. "Oh my! I've completely forgot that I had an important business meeting with someone right now. I apologize Yamanaka-san, we'll have to continue this some other time." he said as he quickly got up from the table, nervously eyeing the butter knife that Ino had unconciously grabbed when she stood up. "No need to contact me, I'll contact you." he said hastily as he excused himself and switly left the restaurant.
Ino just stood there with a dumbfounded expression.
"Well that didn't take much." Naruto commented as he took the other man's now empty seat. "But, I suppose his type is usually more bark than bite."
"What the hell are you doing here?" Ino asked confused.
"Apparently saving you from a bad date." he retorted with a smile.
Ino blushed angrily and sat down in a huff. "I didn't need your help. I know how to take care of my self."
"Oh? So you were going to show that man the way of the Kunoichi then?" he teased.
Ino scruched up her napkin and thew it a the blonde as he chuckled at her expense. She crossed her arms in annoyance and looked away, still blushing angrily.
"You look great by the way." Naruto commented. "Having your hair up suits you, I can see your face better now, compared to when you usually have it down covering half of it."
Ino blushed even more, but this time for a different reason.
"Why are you really here?" she tried her best to hide her embarrassment.
"Ba-chan told me to gather some friends and come here, Shikamaru and Chouji are here as well." he explained. "She'll be coming later with some other people, we just got here a little early is all. I guess she wanted to have a little get together or something. You should join us." he invited.
"I don't know if I should..." she replied hesitantly. She felt a little overdressed for just a get together, in her navy blue evening gown. Her mother had insisted that she dressed proper for her meeting. Not to mention she was sure that Sakura would be there.
"Come on, it'll be fun." he coaxed her with a smile as he took her hand and led her to the private dining area that the Hokage had reserved for them.
In the banquet room sat Shikamaru and Chouji, the latter already stuffing his face with some of the food laid out on the table.
"That didn't take long." Shikamaru commented lazily. "Naruto had pointed out that you were here with some slimey looking guy, I figured your mother had put you up to it again."
Ino glared at her pineapple haired teamate, he was way too perceptive for his own good.
"I told him it was too troublesome to get involved, but he insisted on helping anyways." he said with an irritated sigh.
She glanced at Naruto who had a guilty looking smile on his face. He looks cute even with that kind of smile.
"Anyway, I guess you'll be joining us now. Parties are so troublesome."
"Oh? Would you rather I sent you on a mission instead?" Tsunade said as she entered the room with the rest of the rookie nine, minus Sasuke, team ten, and Gai-sensei. "Perhaps one to Suna? I hear you're pretty familiar with the route."
Ino giggled at the busty woman's comment knowingly.
"How troublesome..." was Shikamaru's only reply.
"If its a mission, you can send me Ba-chan!" Naruto chimed in oblivious of the joke at Shikamaru's expense.
Everyone facepalmed at Naruto's denseness. "What?" he asked in confusion as he looked around at everyone.
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Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves at the dinner, you could hardly tell that a war had just ended. At some point after Kakashi showed up fashionably late and Gai dragging Lee off after some alcohol mistakenly slipped into his drink, the group split up in two. The guys in one and girls in the other.
The Hokage had insisted that all of the girls have some alcohol along with her, stating that it would be rude of them not to, as an excuse to get them to drink. Ino had to admit that she was getting a little tipsy from the sweet sake she was nursing.
"So the word is that our little Hinata confessed to Naruto during Pein's attack." Tsunade started.
Hinata spit out the juice she was drinking and coughed violently as she choked. Her face was beat red from embarrassement, the girl was so easy read.
Ino felt a tinge of jealousy for some reason as she downed the sake in her dish.
"That a girl Ino! Show these light weights how its done." the Hokage encouraged as she poured some more sake for her.
Tsunade went back to interrogating the poor Hyuga girl. "Well? have you gotten any responses from Naurto?" she inquired further.
Hinata looked down at her glass with a hint of sadness in her face. "Naruto came to me not to long ago..." she started.
Ino's ears perked up as she paid close attention to Hinata's words while she drank her sake acting uninterested.
"He thanked me for sharing my feelings with him..." Hinata said as she took a big gulp of her juice before continuing. "However, he said he truely saw me as a great friend, but there was someone else in his heart already and he couldn't return my feelings for him." Surprisingly the girl didn't cry.
Ino, looked over in Sakura's direction, she saw that Sakura was feigning disinterest as well. Two faced bitch. She took another shot of sake. Who am I kidding, Im not any different.
"Oh? did Naruto say who his heart belonged to?" the busty woman asked as she drank the sake in her dish and poured herself another.
Hinata gave knowing glances in the pink haired girls direction a couple times before answering. "He did not, Hokage-sama, but I have a good guess as to who it is..." the girl said quitely in dismay. She took another swig of her juice like it was some kind of liquid courage before continuing. "However! I want that person to know that I haven't given up!" she finished in a much braver tone.
"Well good for you Hinata, thats the spirit! It takes alot of courage to confess to someone they love, especially in front of others. I wouldn't want anything less from my subordinates." Tsunade encouraged.
Ino couldn't help but think how cunning the woman was as she drank yet another shot of sake, she was getting to feel alot more than tipsy now. She built up her courage with one more shot and was about to stand up and say something until someone beat her to the punch.
"Naruto!" her childhood friend shouted as she stood up from the table. Everyone looked at the pink haired girl, including the guys from the other side of the room. "Naruto...I..." she stuttered.
You bitch! You better not be saying what I think you are. Ino couldn't help but feel a little bitterness at Sakura for standing up before her.
"Tomorrow!" she said with more resolve. "Meet me at the top of the Hokage monument tomorrow night before sunset. There is something I want to talk to you about. Its very important!" the girl pleaded.
Ino looked away from where Naruto sat, she didn't want to see what kind of expression the boy had on his face. Please say no! Or say that you're busy or something!
"Um, ok Sakura-chan I'll be there!"
Even though she didn't want to, Ino quickly turned to Naruto's direction with a sad expression already knowing what she would see. She could feel tears well up at the corner of her eyes.
Naruto had a blushing smile. The kind of smile that she wished he would give to her.
To be continued...