9. Ino Goes Rouge

Ino and Chouji made their way towards the wedding cake, Ino holding the side of her dress slightly so as not to trip on it her other arm was wrapped around Chouji's. When she saw Sakura standing beside Gaara she dropped her dress to wave and immediately tripped over the hem causing her to fall towards the cake. She watched in abject horror her body rushed to collide with the wedding cake, only to have her fall halted before she could destroy the cake. Chouji's arms were securely wrapped around her, keeping her steady, to bad the same couldn't be said for the cake, which tipped precariously from the jarring Ino's contact with the table had caused.

Almost before you couldblink, Anko pinned the base of the cake down with a kunai as Asuma made a grab for the cake topper that was trying to fall from its lofty perch. Ino's face turned red in a blush that could rival Hinata's as she hid her face in Chouji's chest. Chouji, for his part was in sheer heaven even though he knew Ino was just trying to hide.

Sakura knocked Naruto over the head; if it hadn't been for his distracting her she would have gotten a picture of Ino's attempted assassination of the wedding cake. She really hoped someone else had gotten a picture, but she doubted it. She turned to Gaara to see him trying desperately to keep a grin from his face.

Sniggers and laughter filled the room as everyone took in the sight of the wedding cake. It now appeared to be a true shinobi wedding cake, a kunai pierced the base and the bride and groom stood at the top tilted, with the groom faintly imbedded into the cake. Sakura made sure to get a picture.

The cake was cut; the first piece was shared between the couple as they fed each other. With a crooked grin on his face Asuma cut the second piece and handed it to Ino. "I never knew you liked cake so much Ino. You only had to ask if you wanted a piece so badly."

Ino stuck her tongue out at her sensei and carefully made her way to her table. She was never going to live this down.


As the celebrating wound down and guests took their leave, the Hokage complimented the shinobi who had helped Asuma and Kurenai throughout the month on a job well done and made her leave dragging a rather inebriated Jirayai behind her. It was a bad case of the drunk leading the drunk and there were bets placed as to whether or not the pair would make it to their respective homes.

The group was still teasing Ino about her little escapade when she finally got so irate she stomped away from them and headed for the balcony since it was the closest exit. A lovesick Chouji followed her hoping to ease her temper. The others just shook their heads laughing but quickly ran to the balcony when they heard Ino's shrill scream.

The sight that met them was nothing short of insanely hilarious. Chouji had Ino by the ankles and was trying to pull the screaming young woman back over the balcony. With a final tug Ino was placed safely on her feet and she starred doe eyed at Chouji.

"I told you, you should have gotten that dress altered Ino. First the cake and now the balcony, you would be covered with cake and badly injured if Chouji hadn't been there on both occasions to save you." Sakura fought back her laughter as she scolded her best friend. Ino, for her part, just continued to stare at Chouji as if she had never really seen him in her life.

"Chouji, man, you ok? How troublesome." Shikamaru handed his friend a napkin as blood started to trickle from Chouji's nose.

"Purple." Was Chouji's only response as he held the napkin to his nose and continued to stare at Ino incredulously.

"I think there's something wrong with chubby." Sai observed waiting for Chouji to yell at him at the mention of his physique.

Chouji didn't even bat an eye at Sai. "They're purple."

"What are you taking about Chouji? What's purple?" Naruto asked the question on everyone's mind.

Realization as to what Chouji was talking about finally dawned on Ino, and with that came the understanding that he would tell everyone what was purple, so Ino did the only thing she could think to do. With a grim determination to suffer no more embarrassment, and the fact that Chouji looked absolutely adorable as he stood there stunned, she wrapped her arms around him and sealed his mouth with hers. She could get used to this.

With much rolling of eyes, shuffling of feet, and one comment of 'Troublesome' the pair was left to their own devices.

----

"Does this mean we're going out now?" Chouji was still dazed from the kiss.

"Are you asking me out?" Ino asked demurely.

"Yes"

"Then yes." Ino leaned in for another kiss.

-----

"What's purple? I don't get it. And why did Ino kiss Chouji?" Naruto scratched his head in confusion.

Sakura had a bad case of the giggles as she whispered in Tenten's ear and then in Hinata's. Tenten joined Sakura in her laughter while Hinata blushed madly. "Just don't tell the boys, she'll kill us if we're the reason they find out."

"Find out what? Come on Sakura. What is it?" Naruto begged his teammate.

"Nothing you need to know Naruto, and you better not try to get it out of Hinata either." Sakura threatened.

----

Asuma and Kurenai headed home, they would worry about cleaning up tomorrow; they would spend the rest of the night in each others arms. Life was looking good; they had some wonderful friends and each other with a baby on the way. Who could ask for more?


The day after the reception found a very hung over Hokage, who had forgotten her way home and slept in her office,was trying to deal with paper work by herself since her assistant was showing her no pity for her condition. She was very glad there weren't any real missions today because it would seem like most of her shinobi were currently in some state of recovery from over doing it the night before. Except for Gai and Lee; who were doing laps around Konoha, on their hands no less.

Ino was at home trying to talk her mother into believing the reason she needed to learn how to cook was because it might prove useful on a mission, not because she had a boyfriend. Her mother wasn't buying it. It seems word of Ino's new found affection for one of her teammates had spread fast.

Chouji spent the day with a huge smile on his face. He couldn't believe Ino was actually dating him.

Tenten was in a daze because Neji had finally asked her to be his girlfriend. She was quite useless the rest of the day; she couldn't even focus enough to train.

Neji was quite surprised that his uncle had taken the news of him dating Tenten so well. What he didn't see when he left his uncle's study was Hiashi drawing up some of the stipulations he wanted in his nephew's wedding contract. If he had seen that, Neji would have known why he had a sudden chill down his spine while he was eating his breakfast.

Sakura spent the day laughing over the fact that Chouji had seen Ino's panties when he had rescued her. She was very happy she had gotten a picture of his reaction, it was priceless.

Hinata smiled to herself all day remembering how much attention Naruto had given her and how much fun she had dancing with him all last night.

Naruto was working up the courage to ask Hinata out. He didn't think her father liked him and was nervous about facing him.

Shikamaru was saying goodbye to the sand siblings, well he had said goodbye to Gaara and Kankuro and was now giving Temari a very long goodbye kiss. And people thought he was lazy.

Sai was still confused as ever by emotions and now by dating. And he wondered why it was a big deal that Chouji had seen Ino's underwear. The others must not know how to gather information, they were still clueless about what Chouji had seen.

Shino had to have another talk with his bugs, this time about the dangers of getting drunk.

Kiba slept the whole day. Hinabi had tuckered him out with all the dancing she had insisted he do; that and he was still in shock from his mother dancing with Ibiki. There was only so much aguy could handle.

Kakashi was fixing himself a noxious mixture that Genma had sworn would cure his hangover.

Speaking of Genma, he was currently asleep on Asuma's front porch leaning over one of the many boxes there, it seems a drunk Genma, is a hyper Genma and he had delivered the couples wedding presents early that morning.

When Asuma opened his front door later that day, the sight didn't faze him at all; at least there wasn't a small army of shinobi on his porch.

Kurenai spent the day with Asuma talking about changing one of the spare bedrooms into a nursery. The pair was just happy that all the chaos was over and things could return to some semblance of normalcy.

END