A/N: Um was this even funny? Long chapter, be grateful!

Chapter 4:

She had to admit, there was that warm feeling.

It started from the center of her chest, trickled in a warm slick line towards the midst of her tummy. Once there it danced and unfastened itself like an inkblot. It was slow but very sensitive. And worst of all, she couldn't find herself ignoring it.

And that was just a touch.

When they finally got out of the basement the sight of their linked hands had another jolt of sensation drive at her nerves. It was simply too much, and only because she had that sense of flawless memory, she could recall practically yanking her hand away and ripping her fingers off of his grasp.

Oh, but was it an absolutepain to have that awkward scenario play over and over in her mind, especially when she was trying to get something to eat. Her appetite has been deteriorating ever since, not even the sight of her favorite junk food has been enticing lately.

Ugh. With that grain of absolute thought in mind Ino grabbed a hold of the medical analysis paper she received earlier. It crumpled slightly in her hand but she ignored it. After, Ino frowned eyes scanning over the sheet of paper one last time. That damn medical analysis paper said the exact same thing, only in different letterings,

Lack of chakra, erratic chakra distribution, sporadic dispersal of chakra…only to name a few.

It was all the same bs to her, bottom line was that Naruto's chakra was imbalanced which could definitely explain all that slag in regenerating his energy. So from all that wonderful analysis, she came to the conclusion that the idiot was simply poisoned and nothing more. She had to open his chakra channels and keep them that way, which meant medicine and all those wonderful needles.

She sighed as she glanced down at her hands, feeling a pinch in her palm. She raised an eyebrow, staring down at the paper in its entire creased and crinkled state. A sudden frown sprang on her lips as she lifted the paper for further inspection.

He's not even here and he still bothers me.

She felt her shoulders tense as that idea suddenly flickered into thought. As foul as that idea was, it quickly passed her mind as she propelled herself forward into the swinging doors that lead to the hallway, exerting as much force as she possibly could at that moment and content to feel herself relax. Actually, the only way to get out of it was to keep her body occupied.

Suddenly, anything that held a rigid form became a venue of stress relieving. Ino banged her fist against the firm walls of the hallway, going against some form of beat that she insisted on whistling along to. Her free hand was reduced to simple flicking of the fingernails as her eyes wandered to the tiled ceiling.



It was silly to behave this way but Ino always believed in keeping a busy mind, there would be no questions when she was too busy making beautiful music with simple taps and banging on the wall. At the time she didn't realize just how many residents overheard her incessant thumps from the other side of the wall, but that was an entirely different matter.

After five full minutes of busying herself, she suddenly paused when she reached the end of the hall and towards the door of a patient she was getting to know oh so well. Her fingers clenched against the doorknob and with a small twist and jerk she pushed herself into Uzumaki's room.

Eyes instinctively darted towards the opposing side of the room, towards an empty twin sized patient bed. She raised a curious eyebrow as a shot of wonder filled her senses, not to mention that minor sense of disappointment she decided to brush aside.

Where-?... At that quick notion she set her arms to her sides as she gave the room a swift once-over. There was nothing peculiar that attracted itself to her but that was to be expected. The window to the side was left ajar, allowing a small breeze to press itself into the room. The curtains fluttered softly against its cool waft of air. Ino pushed most of her weight onto one leg as she leaned against a wall. With a prompt jerk of her leg she gave the door behind her a little kick as it closed gently behind her. Her eyes darted from one side to the room towards the other as she allowed silence to linger.

Who is he kidding?

The scenery was much too pleasant to accept its emptiness. It would be much too perfect for her to think that he wasn't in here; in fact she was beginning to believe that he would want her to think just like that. A grin suddenly plastered her lips, if only for a second until she replaced it with a bitter frown.

"Geez, that Uzumaki…" she trialed off, tip toeing her way towards the bed in careful steps. She focused on the empty space underneath as she continued, "…what a pain and a pest I don't think I can stand him much longer…" she stressed her words, fingers quietly latching onto a pillow. She held back a laugh while she clutched the end of the blanket.

He was so rash to have hidden under the bed. It was but a rookie move, quite juvenile. Certainly she was not that dense, she felt his chakra the moment she stepped into the room. His chakra was obviously suppressed but he wasn't very skilled in completely hiding his energy, she figures.

"Dummy!" came her cry. She pulled at the blanket and chucked the pillow into the void of darkness that was under the bed. What followed afterward was a boost of self assurance with a pinch of arrogance. Ino found herself simply too engulfed in her magnificent scheming she stood erect once more and placed her hands firmly against each side of her hips. A proud laugh echoed inside that tiny room as she threw her head back in satisfaction.

All other thoughts aside she actually settled on the idea that this was fun; this was amusing in its own right and she should enjoy her clever thinking.

Ino expected Naruto to crawl out the other side, rubbing the side of his head with some sort of squirmed expression fixated on his features. She half expected him to whine a bit before throwing that pillow in her direction.



But after she had finished in her playful laughter filled with spite she was surprised to find herself unscathed and standing. Her breathing accelerated.

"Hey, okay…come out now, I've had my share of fun." She stated with a swift eye roll. Without so much as a thought she bent down and peered under the bed in her curious search. Upon further inspection she found that it was bare with not so much as a layer of dust coating the surface of its floor.

Too bad curiosity could not stop those blasted dust bunnies from attacking the cotton fabric of her white skirt. Dress code policy or not now became the time to rant about nurse outfits and the like.

She groaned, lifting herself off of the cold tiled floor. One glance down at the hem of her skirt and she cursed. Suddenly all that useless energy spent on laughter and smiles was replaced with groans and a spike of irritation. As tempting as it was to dwell on her anger Ino never had the chance to leave the room. When she finally perked her head up to face the direction of the door she was met with a pair of bright blue orbs staring in her direction. It held her gaze, those pair of brilliantly blue eyes and she found herself stuck. There was a smile on that face but that too was ignored when she recoiled with a shout of surprise.

"What-?!"

"Not so clever, are we?" He replied rather smugly. That grin of his grew as he folded his arms.

Too close. She took a step backward as she lifted her chin to examine his oh so proud stature. It was only inches away where he stood upside down, arms folded ever so proudly with a smirk to match. Chakra had kept his socked feet attached to the ceiling above her, she concluded with a heavy sigh.

"Neither are you. You're just as childish." A frown curled her lip. Wait a minute…brilliant? Brilliantly blue, Ino?-

"Aha!" He shouted, cracking her concentration. As a token of gratitude he shot her another one of his smiles. From what Ino observed it appeared that he practically lit up at that moment as he stood in front of her and wagged that incessant finger in her direction. There came no end to his liveliness.

"'Just as childish'? As in you're just as childish as I am!" She watched him clasp his eyelids shut, nodding off as though he made perfect sense, which he didn't.

"…" she gritted her teeth.

He could have kept at it with his pestering but suddenly realized that there was something quite different about the girl that stood in front of him this morning. He expected the usual high pony tail of hers that held her hair in a tie on the crown of her head, there was none. Instead, this very morning Ino had her blonde hair straightened and parted to the side. Today a few bangs covered a portion of her eye whilst the rest lay at the sides of her face. It was feminine and girly-not unlike her but unusual nonetheless. It was the first time he became aware of the length of blonde hair that ended at Ino's waist.



It was Ino's turn to ponder over that slight change in facial expression; fortunately it was not very long as Ino quickly ran out of her patience, "What?" she asked flatly.

Another one of his smiles was now plastered on his face and before she knew it he brushed his hand against the bangs from her forehead.

He could have sworn, honestly, that he had said something soothing something comforting something along the lines of Ino, you're pretty today but there came a disparity between what he thought and what he actually said because suddenly he found himself blurting,

"You actually look like a girl today, what a surprise!"

Did she actually slap him at that very moment? She couldn't recall. But she wanted to, like hell she did. Unfortunately someone interrupted her chance at doing it because suddenly a voice was heard from behind.

"Naruto what are you doing up there??" Naruto instinctively glanced over his shoulder to meet Sakura's curious stare from afar. She stood leaning against the door at the end of the room, hand still clutched against the doorknob as an amused expression graced her features.

A nervous laugh was all he could muster afterward. "Well uh-ya know…hanging around?"

Ino mentally flinched at that stupid, stupid, stupid pun. She could only pass Sakura an apologetic stare. I'm sorry for Naruto's stupidity, it said. As satisfying as it may have been to see him struggle like that she wasn't completely off the hook for having him stand there either. She couldn't help but recall Sakura's helpful advice the day before on responsibility and how Ino took all the blame when it came to Naruto…

What was Sakura implying by that, anyway? It wasn't as if the guy was under her sole custody or anything. They were all old enough to think for themselves were they not?

Sakura's laugh had Ino come back to her senses. "Right." Sakura nodded, "Naruto, don't over do it with the fooling around. Take care of yourself, will ya? You've been here one too many times…."

He chuckled sheepishly as he agreed with her. Ino glanced from one person to the other as she watched them chat idly for a moment or so. It wasn't until Naruto did an about face in her direction a few minutes later that she found herself breaking from a daydream. "What?" she asked again, still befuddled by her lack of concentration.

Sakura giggled as she waved nonsensically at the two of them. Apparently there was a joke that had been mixed in between conversation that Ino never had the chance to pick up but that thought quickly left her. It was the sound of the door clicking into a close that had her truly breaking from the already forgotten daydream.

"Well she just asked if I had…" he ran a swift palm into his hair full of golden locks as he spoke rather casually. He meant to tell her the now debunked joke but was suddenly caught off guard with the sudden sensation of release. It seemed as though his chakra had conspired against him and had decided to cease from all existence as it suddenly stopped gripping itself to the ceiling.



Though Naruto never engrossed himself into these silly thought he reacted with the sense of falling as diligently as any ill fated, quick thinking person could; by yelping as high and as loud as he possibly could. Gravity had taken its course and within moments he found himself colliding against Ino in an upside down (or right side up) crash. He heard a scream that once rivaled his from underneath and the sudden feel of vibration had his nerves twitching. Placing both palms on either side of Ino he lifted himself an inch against gravity. In such obvious stupor he felt the room twirl for a second and watched for the hint of rouge to manifest above the bridge of Ino's nose.

Ino simply stared, convinced that blinking would eventually solve the problem of being so close, so unnecessarily close. To Ino, silence became the next best step. In such an unusual manner Ino was now dumbfounded and was left to transfix her stare into the eyes that were only inches away.

Her stare was blank and held no absolute expression. Naruto flinched at the thought of his inability to register her expression, why oh why he thought in such daze as he felt the repulsive feeling of guilt filter its way into his senses. He automatically pressed his palm onto the side of Ino's warm face, coating her flushed cheeks with his fingertips.

Fear and guilt were two distinct and perpetually awful emotions.

"Sorry, I'm sorry." he blurted out in utter sincerity. He found his body pressing against hers but that thought was immediately discarded. He wanted to rid of that vacant look in her eyes, minus the blush. He suddenly regretted acting out a second ago.

"What?" she asked one last time, squeezing her eyelids shut. She then fought against his grasp, to look away but gave up after a moment or so. There also came a weak attempt to push his weight off of her but that idea was also renounced.

There was that distinct smell of store brand hospital soap that seemed to impose itself in her senses. She always hated to have to wash her hands with it every now and then, but this time in this silly situation she thought it was fitting to have to inhale that artificial scent of lavender. She didn't hate it as much anymore.

It was sort of on a whim because at the moment it seemed relevant but Naruto did something he didn't think he ever could. He felt awkward on top of all those other lovely things he had swirling in his abdomen and while he had to deal with this graceless moment he simply also had to act on impulse. The sudden flicker of uneasiness flashing through Ino's light eyes had him a bit captivated with the idea of making it go away.

He just couldn't have her feeling that way, no matter how petty it was. So he kissed her forehead, combing away her long bangs with his free hand, pressing his closed lips against the surface of her soft skin.

He felt stupid no doubt but once he pulled back he was more than surprised to find that she didn't drive her fist into his jaw, instead she tossed him a vivid stare-a completely perplexed stare but it was vivid indeed.

He didn't feel so stupid anymore.