"Hello Sakura, Naruto, Chouji, crybaby boy." She teased Shikamaru with her nickname for him.
"Tch troublesome woman." Shikamaru responded.
Sakura had always wondered if there was something going on between the two of them. They seemed to have good chemistry with one another. Yet if there was some truth to a possible relationship between them, they did a good job denying it.
"Seriously I know that it takes three traveling days time. But we sent that letter to Konoha awhile ago."
"Um blame it on the mail carrier." Naruto smiled hopefully. "Sorry but we're here now and ready to go."
"That's Naruto for you always fired up and ready to go." Chouji said.
The sand kunoichi said nothing for a moment. She of course knew all too well how energetic the blond was. She actually respected his drive. If only a certain lazy Nara could have half of his spunk.
"Well you guys just got here and it's going to get dark soon. So you won't have to do anything today. You should probably just rest up for tonight."
"That sounds good to me." The black haired male spoke.
"Of course no surprise there." She rolled her eyes.
"Hey when can we see Gaara how's he doing?" Naruto interrupted.
"Yeah how are Kazekage-sama and Kankuro doing?" The pink haired female questioned.
"Gaara's actually in a meeting right now. We'll all have dinner tonight and you can see him then. Kankuro he's around….somewhere."
Naruto sighed he was really looking forward to catching up with his friend. Well it wasn't like he was the talkative type. It just would have been nice to see him anyway.
"Well I guess that can't be helped."
"Come on I'll show you to where you'll be staying."
Naruto, Shikamaru, Chouji, and Sakura followed behind Temari. They looked around the village. Things didn't appear to be too bad.
"Hey things don't look so bad." The blue eyed male said.
"Yeah a lot of the major damage has already been taken cared of. You guys probably won't have to stay too long here."
"Alright that means that we can get back to Konoha sooner than we thought."
Temari shot Naruto a glare. He swallowed hard he didn't want to go pissing her off.
"Not that it's not good to see you, Gaara, and Kankuro." He started to defend himself. "It's just…."
"He just wants to get back to be with his girlfriend." Chouji laughed.
Temari raised an eyebrow in question.
"A girlfriend huh? Who's the girl huh Naruto?"
Before Naruto could speak Shikamaru answered for him.
"You remember mine and Chouji's troublesome teammate Ino?"
"Oh yeah." She nodded. "So is she treating you good Naruto because if she isn't; I can always have a friendly woman to woman chat with her."
Temari had always been grateful to Naruto for helping out her little brother in such an extraordinary way. Naruto's friendship had changed Gaara for the better. She treated Naruto just like he was one of her brothers. Naruto on the other hand shuddered at the thought of this "friendly" conversation between Ino and Temari. If he knew both girls things could get ugly and it just wouldn't end up a very friendly conversation at all.
"That's not necessary Temari. Ino-chan and I are great." He promised.
"Yeah they are Konoha's hottest couple." The Akimichi teased.
"You and Ino are perfect for each other Naruto. The two of you are loud, blond, and far too troublesome." Shikamaru added his input.
"Everything's troublesome for you Shikamaru." Naruto told him.
Temari, Chouji, and Naruto laughed at this. Sakura joined in as well just because it would have been awkward if she hadn't laughed too. A lot of people would probably agree with Shikamaru though. Naruto and Ino seemed to be compatible with one another. They were both indeed loud with in your face personalities. Besides they wouldn't have been together this long if something wasn't working. Temari took the friends to a very nice apartment. It was spacious so everyone ended up having their own rooms.
"Gaara made sure that you all would be comfortable during your stay."
"This really isn't supposed to be a vacation. But it is very much appreciated." Sakura spoke.
"Yeah I'll say." Chouji agreed with her as he grabbed some fruit from a basked on the table.
Shikamaru sat down immediately placing his hands behind his head.
"Okay well I'll come back when Gaara's meeting is over so that we can have dinner tonight. But tomorrow you guys will get to work that goes for you crybaby boy." She looked directly at Shikamaru.
Sakura held her laugh she really did have a lot of respect for the older kunoichi.
"Don't worry Temari we'll make sure Shikamaru's not slacking off." Naruto promised.
"Right I know. I'll see you all later." With that she left the apartment leaving the four friends alone.
"I'm going to put my things in a room." Sakura announced.
Naruto on the other hand didn't fee like sitting still.
"I'm going to go out for a walk maybe I'll run into Kankuro or something."
"I'll be here." Shikamaru told him as he closed his eyes again.
"Yeah I know when I get back you'll be sleeping." Naruto laughed.
Naruto was about to leave when Sakura had called out to him.
"Naruto be careful okay."
"Relax Sakura-chan I'm just going for a walk."
"Yeah but knowing you, you might get into some kind of trouble." She gently teased.
"Ha, Ha very funny Sakura-chan." He said no more as he left the apartment. He was actually quite eager to get started on helping around the village. He really disliked sitting around and doing nothing. Temari had been right though it was going to be dark soon. There really was no point in starting anything today.
"Man I'm starving." He heard his stomach grumble. He needed to find food and he needed to do so now. The blond found himself at a sushi restaurant. Ramen was of course his all time favorite food in the world and that wasn't going to change. His relationship with Ino had opened him up to different things. She had him try sushi one day and he became hooked. His quick snack of sushi had him thinking about Ino. He wondered what she was up to right now. He almost felt the urge to run into the Yamanaka's flower shop and steal his girlfriend away. Of course he had to remember he was not in Konoha right now. So it wasn't like he could just go and talk to her.
"Is this seat taken?" he heard.
He looked up blue eyes meeting a pool of jade green orbs.
"Sakura-chan?"
"Yeah I couldn't take another moment of Shikamaru's sleeping or Chouji's eating."
Naruto nodded and watched as the pink haired girl sat down. She ordered something as well she couldn't help it. How could she not be hungry after all the traveling they did to get to Suna?
"It's still so weird to see you eating something other than ramen."
"Yeah Ino-chan had me try a lot of new things."
Sakura simply nodded she didn't want to talk about Ino right now. It seemed like for all this time the platinum blond was constantly mentioned. She only wanted to have a moment where Ino wasn't talked about. Was that really so much to ask for? As the bill came Sakura reached in her purse for some money.
"It's okay Sakura-chan I'll pay for it."
He suddenly took out the all too familiar frog change purse that he always carried. The pink haired medic nin's eyes twitched.
"You honestly don't still have that thing do you?"
Naruto frowned and a look of seriousness washed over his face.
"Sakura never insult Gama-chan."
"Okay geez I'm sorry." She suppressed a laugh. "I guess some things never change."
After exiting the restaurant the two friends walked side by side. This felt nice. Sakura almost wished that things could always be like this; just her and Naruto like old times. Only it wasn't going to stay this way. After the mission was over he would be going back to Ino. She was after all his girlfriend and she on the other hand was just his friend.
"Sakura-chan you're pretty quiet is everything okay?"
"Hm?" she turned to look at him. "I'm fine I was just thinking. You know this is the first time that we've been on a mission together in a long time."
"Yeah." Naruto nodded. "Well we always did work well together huh Sakura-chan?"
"Yeah." She nodded in agreement.
In some ways Naruto had been her best friend. They had become really close after he returned from his two year training trip with Jiraiya. After awhile she began to notice her growing feelings for the blond. Only she could never bring herself to tell him; mainly because she didn't know how or where to start. In the past she had rejected his feelings and then there was her childhood crush on Sasuke. If she had told him what she felt for him who's to say that he would have even believe her. Sakura stared at the back of Naruto's head. She wondered all the time if things would have been different if she had told him. Would he have accepted her? Would they be together now? Or would he still be with Ino.
There were so many questions that had been left unanswered. The pink haired girl wanted to ask those questions. A part of her just wanted to tell Naruto the truth. Only she had to respect his relationship with Ino. And in truth she really didn't want to hurt Ino. She would always consider her a friend, seeing as how Ino was indeed her first friend. She couldn't do the selfish thing in this situation. In fact sometimes she wished that Naruto could be a bit more selfish. If there was even the slightest chance that he still had some feelings for her she wanted to know. Out of respect for Ino he wouldn't admit to it. Naruto was a loyal man plain and simple. There was just no way that he would do the selfish thing and betray her.
"Naruto, Sakura."
The two shinobi turned to see none other than the familiar face of Kankuro.
"Hey Kankuro still playing with makeup eh?" Naruto spoke.
"Quiet little boy." Kankuro teased back.
"Hi Kankuro how are you?" Sakura asked.
"I'm good. I was actually sent to find the two of you Gaara's waiting. You're friends are already there at the Kazekage mansion."
"Right." Naruto smiled. "Come on Sakura-chan I'll race you. We can't keep Kazekage-sama waiting now." He laughed.
"Naruto wait." She started. Only he was already running off.
"Come on Sakura-chan while we're still young." He shouted.
Sakura narrowed her eyes and hit her fist in the palm of her hand.
"Okay just wait until I catch up to you." She whispered with a slight smile on her face.
A young woman with blond hair stood with one hand on her hip and the other holding on to a nearby chair.
"Are you ready to talk now?"
"I don't have anything to say."
She frowned that was not really the answer she was looking for.
"Wrong answer." She pulled his finger back. He flinched as a cracking sound was made.
"Bitch." He muttered.
She pulled out a kunai shoving it into his hand.
"Do you want to repeat that? Only louder this time so that everyone can hear you."
"You stupid blond bitch…."
She punched him square in the jaw. His head tilted back.
"I'd watch my mouth if I were you, you asshole. You ready to talk or what? Or do I have to make these ropes tighter?" She threatened.
"I'm supposed to be afraid of some little girl like you? What are you going to do paint my toenails and make me do your shopping?" He taunted.
A look of anger flashed across the blonds face. Yet her aqua colored orbs held its calm expression.
"I have all day and so many different ways to torture you. It's really up to you how we approach this. We can do this the easy way or the hard way it's your call. I'll come back to check on you and then we can play some more." She turned to leave.
The man frowned and readied himself to spit on her. Ino turned slightly throwing a shuriken at him. It wasn't intended to hit him as it went passed his face just nearly grazing him.
"That was just a warning shot. Try that shit again and you'll see what torture really is."
The blond closed the door behind her slamming it shut.
"How's it going?" A deep voice was heard.
"Ibiki-sensei he hasn't cracked yet but he will." She spoke confidently.
"This is your first interrogation but I have confidence in your ability." The taller male nodded as a way of saying goodbye before continuing down the hall. Ino stood in silence for a moment.
"Ibiki-sensei has faith in my ability. Okay I'm going to finish this asshole off for Ibiki-sensei and for you Naruto. I can't wait to tell you all about my first interrogation." She thought to herself as she re entered the room with more determination than before.
