Chapter 2: Ready, set, wait aren't we supposed to go?

AN: So here comes chapter two. Sorry I've been dropping off this past year has really kicked my ass but I'm back for the sumer hopefully and I'll try and get some good writing done. This chapter is going to focus mostly on Naruto and maybe a little on Ino. So here we go : )

Naruto is lying quietly in his bed in his apartment contemplating what is about to happen to him. Jiraiya only recently told him that the two of them would be leaving for an extended period of time. Jiraiya was hesitant to put an official time frame out in the open but he ball parked it at around two and a half to three years. Naruto sighs. Leaving his friends behind is going to be difficult for him. He's been away from the village on mission plenty of times but his friends were always with him, at least in part. He always had his team, at least before Sasuke left... And even when it was not his team he was with another familiar team, whether it was Kiba's team or Neji's team or even Shikamaru's team he was with people he knew and trusted. Now it would be just him and Jiraiya, not that he did not trust Jiraiya but being with a man several times his age and infinitely more skilled was an intimidating prospect. Him and Jiraiya may be close but Jiraiya would be his sensei foremost.

'I should probably get up and do something' thinks Naruto. 'I don't really have to pack,' he thinks somewhat bitterly but let's it go. 'Maybe I'll go out and train for a bit.'

Naruto quickly dresses in his usual attire and makes his way to the training grounds. His ninjutsu practice goes over much like normal his improvement with his Rasengan is beginning to impress. He then moves on to some relatively simple target practice, he enjoys throwing kunai and shuriken even if he was never the best it was the one thing he was never all that bad at either. Afterwards he moves on to practicing his taijutsu. It is just the ordinary leaf style taught at the academy and he has not ever really taken to it but Jiraiya insists that he practice it if only to increase his muscle capacity. As much as naruto does not particularly care for it he cannot argue with Jiraiya's logic. However he soon begins to regret his choice in clothing as the summer sun is beating down on him brutally and soon he's losing layers of his clothes. First it's just his jacket, then his t-shirt, then he rolls up his pant legs, then he starts shedding his pouches if only to make his clothes stick to his sweat covered skin less. Feeling a little better he quickly gets back into his training.

Ino sits impatiently behind the counter at her parents' flower shop as she watches the clock on the wall tick ever closer to the inevitable end of her shift. The end cannot come soon enough for Ino, today has been very slow. She does not have any plans she just wants the freedom to move around and do as she pleases. She should probably go training even though her team is not meeting because Asuma is off on a mission. That is exactly what Ino resolves to do as her shift finally comes to an end. The second her dad walks in to take her place Ino bolts right out the door yelling a barely audible explanation back which her father just waves off.

As she approaches the training grounds Ino imediately begins to regret running off so fast because she's already beginning to sweat.

'Damn, it's hot today,' she thinks to herself absent-mindedly as she slows down to a walk.

Ino quickly makes her way towards her preferred area of the training grounds but as she closes the distance between her and the area she can hear the heavy thunks of metal sinking into wooden tartgets.

'Great, someone's in my spot,' thinks Ino slightly irritated, "It better be a really good looking guy or I'm going to be so mad." she says under her breath. Not realizing she was in for quite a surprise.

She moves silently forward with practiced ease making sure she cannot be seen or heard so she can get a bit of an idea of what she's walking into. Slyly moving behind a group of bushes she gently moves some of their branches so she can peer through into the training area. What she sees there leaves her dumbstruck.

'NARUTO!' she yells in her head, 'that dunce is holding up my training and he's not even a good enough looking guy to give me a show to make up for it!' No sooner than Ino thinks those very words does Naruto begin his taijutsu training. 'He looks like a fool,' thinks Ino criticizing his technique, 'he'll never move forward with technique like that.'

Soon after he starts Naruto stops. 'What? That's it?' wonders Ino confused, 'I thought Naruto was all about training and he's done already?' But that is far from the reality of the situation which Ino quickly learns. 'Oh my god he's taking his clothes off!' thinks Ino deeply weirded out but she continues to watch. 'If he starts taking off his pants I'm intervening,' she resolves as he continues to strip. Things do not progress that far, however, and Ino remains hidden. Though, now she finds herself much less concerned with Naruto's fighting technique and more focused on his body.

'Wow, Naruto's actually pretty well built,' thinks Ino without even realizing. 'He's definitely bulked up since that mission he went on with Anko-sensei and I.' Ino thinks back to the only mission she's ever been on with Naruto. 'I guess he'll have to if he ever wants to bring Sasuke back.' Suddenly she feels a pang of guilt. She had seen Naruto as Kakashi brought him back after the failed mission to retrieve Sasuke, she had thought he was going to die. She worried that about nearly everyone who had gone on that mission. but Naruto by far seemed to be the worst of them all. Choji was emaciated, Neji had taken an arrow through his back almost hitting his heart, Kiba had nearly killed himself trying to get that freak out of his body, Shikamaru had only broken a finger, but Naruto... Naruto had taken Sasuke's Chidori through his chest. Ino had seen first hand what that chidori could do at the chunin exams. It is a miracle he had not bled to death or had his heart ripped from his chest. But now looking at Naruto she cannot even find a scar on his back or chest. Ino's gaze softens 'How does he do it?' she wonders, 'I've seen him do so much that I can't even imagine doing. Maybe I should have a little more faith in him.'

Getting up Ino walks into the clearing but Naruto does not notice he is too busy laying into the training post. As Ino approaches she can see his muscles bulging and rippling as they strike the hardened wood of the post and she blushes in spite of herelf.

"Hey, Naruto!" she says trying to sound chipper even though he is still invading her spot.

Naruto turns around with a startled motion and says, "Ino! You scared the hell out of me! What are you doing here?"

"What kind of ninja is caught off guard?" She asks teasingly. To which Naruto only blushes and stutters while he fumbles around grabbing his clothes. "Anyway I'm obviously here to train like you are, but somebody took my favorite spot..." she answers his question trying to drive it home that he's invading her territory without sounding too hostile.

"Really?" responds Naruto, "Who is it? Can't you just take over their mind and force them out?" Obviously not taking the hint from Ino's inflection, to which Ino sweatdrops but ignores it in favor of teasing him more.

"I don't know it's some young blonde idiot in a pair of ugly orange pants. I probably could invade his mind but I think all I would find are thoughts of ramen..." she continues trying to make it as apparent as possible that she is talking about him.

Naruto just sits there pensively until suddenly he says, "Hey you should take me to meet this guy, he sounds pretty awesome!"

All Ino can do is sweatdrop again and shout "It's you, you dunce!"

"Oh," says Naruto, "Hey! My pants aren't ugly!" he shouts back indignantly. As he finishes getting dressed. "Besides you never even wear pants so I doubt you wuld know what looks good." he adds without even thinking of how angry it could make Ino.

'Did Naruto just insult my fashion sense?' she wonders a little dumbfounded. "I would too, better than you at the very least," she shoots back. "I'll go prove it to you too! Let's go I'm making you go shopping with me." she finishes completely forgetting about training.

"What! NO WAY!" shouts Naruto, "I'm not going to be seen shopping with you!" he finishes less than tactfully.

"What's that supposed to mean?' replies Ino relatively offended. "You don't want to be seen with the most beautiful Kunoichi in Konoha?" she ends making Naruto blush a little.

"It's not that," Naruto says somewhat shyly, "It's just that all my money is packed away and if I let you pick out clothes for me they'll probably be all girly and stuff."

Ignoring the comment about her girly tastes, Ino turns the conversation elsewhere. "What do you mean your money is 'packed away'?" she asks confusedly.

"Well I'm supposed to be leaving with ero-sennin for an extended training trip thingy so I packed away all of my important things to bring with me." he responds

"Ero-sennin? Extended training trip? How long are you going to be gone?" interrogates Ino as she gets more and more confused.

"Jiraiya, is taking me away from the village so he can teach me while maintaining some kind of network thing. He didn't really say specifically how long it would take but he said it might be two to three years." explains Naruto to Ino's vague dissatisfaction.

"Two to three YEARS! When are you supposed to leave? Why didn't you tell any of us?" Ino begins firing off questions in rapid succession.

Naruto backs up a little, subconciously, at the verbal assault.

"I'm supposed to leave later today," he replies cautiously, "I'm just waiting on ero-sennin to finish up whatever he needed to see baa-chan for."

Ino quiets down for a second, then gets even louder than before, if that is even possible. "LATER TODAY! WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL US?" she screams repeating her second question.

Naruto backs up a little more fearing Ino's hostility. "I'm sorry, Ino, I just didn't think it would really matter all that much, especially not to you." admits Naruto, causing Ino to shut up entirely.

'How could he think that? I may not be the nicest to him all the time but I don't hate him... we're still friends.' thinks Ino approaching him slowly.

Naruto notices Ino moving and does not move backwards but remains on guard. That could not have saved him under any circumstance when Ino's hand connects with his cheek with inhuman speed.

"OF COURE IT MATTERS YOU IDIOT!" Ino screams in his face while he rubs his cheek. "I may be a bitch to you sometimes but that doesn't mean I don't care. We may not talk very often but that doesn't mean you mean nothing. And what about the rest of the rookies? What about Shikamaru, and Choji, and forehead, and Hinata, Kiba, and Shino. What about your sensei and Gai's team?" Don't you think they all deserve to know why you've magically disappeared? How mad do you think we all would have been when you came back?" Ino rants as Naruto regains feeling in his face.

"Sakura-chan knows, though. She's Tsunade baa-chan's assistant now, I figured she would explain it to you guys if she felt it was necessary." explains Naruto trying to justify his actions, or lack there of.

"That's not the point though," starts Ino, "it's upsetting that you were going to just leave us all behind without even saying goodbye... It may not always show but we all still care." she finishes in a strangely quiet tone. An awkward silence falls over the two of them as Ino waits for Naruto to respond. He does not say anything but instead pulls her into a hug, something Ino certainly is not expecting. Naruto mumbles a quiet "sorry" into her ear as she returns the hug slightly awkwardly. 'When did he get taller than me?' wonders Ino as she tries to make the hug as least awkward as possible. Soon enough the both of them let go and Naruto begins to walk off.

"Where are you going?" asks Ino.

"I have to go meet ero-sennin, it's probably getting close to the time I have to leave." he replies without his usual enthusiasm, Ino's words obviously weighing heavily on his heart. Was he really being that selfish? Could he truly not see that his "friends" really cared about him more than he thought? Would they really have been upset that he left without saying goodbye?

"Wait, I'm going to come with you, someone should see you off." states Ino firmly but compassionately. She did not mean to make him feel that bad, she just wanted to help him get his head out of his ass.

With that they both walk off the training grounds heading for the Hokage's tower. The journey is silent as they are both deep in thought. Naruto pondering his actions and his relationships. Ino pondering Naruto's hidden low self-esteem, she had never known that Naruto harbors such thoughts of self-worthlessness. Is she partly to blame? Do they not show Naruto enough that they care? How can she have not seen this before? She may be a mind reader but she does not always need to invade someone's mind to read them and she completely missed it this time. How?

Eventually they both reach the tower and make their way to the Hokage's office only to be turned down by Shizune.

"Sorry, guys, but Tsunade-sama isn't here. Jiraiya-Sama and Sakura went to the hospital with her but I don't know why." explains Shizune. "I'll give you a note with an order to bring you two to her in the hospital, though I don't imagine you'll need it." she says writing a quick note an handing it to Naruto. They quickly say goodbye and Naruto and Ino move towards the hospital.