Note of apology: Forgive me for not updating in such a long time. I'm afraid my Computer had caught a virius, but Nw I'm back with an entire new system and I hope to udate more frequently(If my school worl does nto interefer as well)
Thanks Very Much for all your reviews!
CHAPTER 11
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Ino was sitting by herself at a table. She was alone for the village festival because Shikamaru had a date and Chouji was with his family.She didn't feel like hanging out with Sakura cause she had a date with Sasuke!
"Man this sucks. Whats the point of getting all dolled up for a festival and then have no one to go with." she said to herself.After sitting alone for wuit a while she decied to go grab some dumplings.On her way to the stand she heard a song playing in the bar.
"No chance,No way I won't say I'm in Love"
'gee,that sounds like something I can relate to.' she thought. All of a sudden she found herself standing in an open dance floor.A song began to play and couples danced there way all over the place.
"Thats just great!"Ino fought her way through the crowd so frustrated that she didn't realize that she ran straight into some one.
"Oh man I'm soo Sorry! I wasn't paying attention"
"No need to apologize miss Yamanaka"
'hang on' she thought' no one else calls me 'Miss Yamanaka except..' as she thought, Gaara was standing in front of her trying not to get pushed around by the dancing cillilians.
The two stared at eachother for what seemed like a very long time. A slow piano song began to play.
"Um soo" Gaara felt his face grow red" Where are your teamates and friends"
"Shikamaru is with your sister and Chouji is with his family"
"So your alone"
"Yeah"
"Kankurou is taking care of political things for me so I'm alone too"
"That sucks"
"So since we're well, not with any friends... W-would you care for a dance?" Gaara felt his face grow hot. He held his breath while awaiting her answer.
"umm...uh.. of course I'd be honored to dance with you Gaara"
Gaara was suprised at her answer. was this not the same girl who had turned him down so many months ago.Not only that, but she adressed his as him, as an individual, not the Kazekage.
Luckily for him, when Gaara became the Kazekage he learned proper dancing eticute.According to Baki-sensei(more like Baka-sensei) it was important for him to know these sort of things for formal gatherings.
abd for Ino, well,being a girl she already knew how to dance formally(she had learned it while in the academy as a Kunoichi attribute.)The slow piano song was still playing and semmed as though it wouldn't end for a long time.
As the two of them took prpoer dancing stance, both of them could feel the tension between them as their brains were frantic with many different thoughts,but their feet made the proper steps to each of the beats of the piano keys.
'wow, he can dance really well, and his hands are so delicate' Ino felt her face grow warmer every time she thought about the fact that she had falllen in love with Gaara.
'She's a girl so of course she knows how to dance well, but she looks so graceful'Gaara thought
The two of them finshed when the song ended.
"T-thank you for your time Miss Yamanaka. I enjoyed speading that brief moment with you, I take my leave now."He bowed and turned to leave when he heard Ino respond
"I realy enjoyed it to. See ya later Gaara"
"Gaara there you are where have you been?" Kankurou asked him
"No where, just got lost in the crowed"
"You?Getting lost, thats highly unlikly, and when is your face so red"
"No reason" Gaara lied
"Ooh I get it you danced with a girl didn't you?" Kankurou laughed at the thought of Gaara dancing
"Yeah so"
"I'm not trying to make fun of you, it's just great that your more social now"
The two of them proceeded to the table where the 5th Hokage and other politcal leaders were seated enjoying the music and disscussing several issues.
"Hey Ino!" Sakura called to here.Ino noticed that Tenten and Hinata were with her also.
"Hey you guys. what happened I thought you all had dates"
"Well we remembered that you were alone and we came to keep you company."Tenten smiled."so where were you? we looked all over for you"
"I was some where" I better not tell them I danced with Gaara or they'll want to know all the details, she thought.
"Were you dancing with some guy?" Sakura smirked.
"M-maybe"
"Guys I don't think she wants to talk about it"Hinata smiled
"Ok then. well lets go find something to do"
Ino couldn't stop thinking about her brief moment and the song that had been playing.
"every time we touch,I get this feeling,"
All of a sudden and explosion was heard and soon people started running and screaming.The jounin and ANBU guards ran straight to the source of the problem.
"Sakura!" Naruto and Sasuke came running to the group of girls.
"Let's go help them! they need as many shinobi as possible" The two let there yukata fall to the ground to reveal their normal outfits and their Shinobi gear.They had also tied on their headbands.
The group of girls did so, suprised to see every one had come prepared with all their gear.
Ino had also been wearing her regular clothes underneath, and the group recieved their orders.
"Ok,Tenten and Hinata you help the chuunin evacuate every one.Naruto and I will help the Jounin fight off any enemys.Ino and Sakura you g uy sgo to the source of the explosion and help the wounded since your thw two medical shinobi" Sasuke told them all to
get to their duties and soon the entire group dissperesd.
"Ok Sakura, you ready for this?" Ino said.
"Of course!I'm always ready for times like this!"
Ino should have been the one who should have been prepared.For when she saw that the source of the explosion was from the "important leaders" area she was horrified.
'On no! What about Tsunade and Gaara!' Sakura noticed that Ino's pace quickend dramatically and she rushed to keep up with her.
Ino arrived at the scene first and ran to one of the jounin
"Is every one ok? wheres Tsunade-sama and the Kazekage"
"We haven't seen them, but we've got ANBU putting out the fires and looking for them"
Ino ran towards the fires and helped the ANBU put them out buy using her chakra to manipulate the water in the wells.
After she had cleared a way for her to get through she ran forward to where the leaders would have been seated.she looked around frantically and noticed a trap door on the floor was wide open.
Her first impulse was to tell the ANBU ' but what if they draw to much attention? No, I can handle this on my own' she lpt into the trap door closing it behind her.
The tunnel was dark, Ino had to feel along the wall to see where she was going.
"Gaara?" she called out " Tsunade-Sama?" the onyl response she heard was the sounds of her own foot steps and breathing.
It seemed she had been walking forever until she came to a large room alit with torches along the walls. she saw Tsunade's green jacket lying tattered on the ground.
"Oh no, this is bad,this is bad!" Ino's mind was frantically searchign for what to do. she realized that when she kneeled to pick up the jacket, the floor was covered in a gritty substance.
"sand? that means they were here!" Ino rushed on ahead.She was suprised to find out that she was terrified of what was ahead, but yet she still ran ahead.Perhaps it was because the one she cared about was there( not to mention the hokage)
She saw some one ahead and it appeared to be Tsunade.
"Tsunade-sama!" Ino called out. Tsunade turned around to see theh flower girl.
"Ino! what are you doing here!?"
"I came looking for you and the Kazekage, where is he is he ok"
"I'm afraid not, but I can't be to sure. The enemies we're dealing with are masters of chakra maipulation"
"Enemies? meaning theres more than one"
"Yes, these guys can blend themselves into the walls using their chakra.I have no idea how many are listening to us now and how many have gone ahead to where Gaara is"
"Where is he"
"He pursued the leader through that hallway you see. If you go back him Up I can handle these vermon on my own"
Ino didn't hesitate to start running down the hallway.Behind her she heard the sounds of battle which probably ment Tsunade had begun fighting.As Ino continued running forward she saw a light at the end of the hallway. and she began to make the shape of an open door.
She dashed through the door waiting to see something devastating.She saw a man, wearing a dark green shirt and a Grass Village headband standing behind Gaara with a kunai aimed at his back.
"Gaara!" Ino's voice startled the shinobi and Gaara used it as an opening to grab the mans forearm and throw him forward.While the man was recovering from the fall,Ino ran beside Gaara.
"Are you alright?" She asked him.
"I'm fine, is Tsunade"
"Yeah. Just who are these people"
"Shinobi from the grass village who planned to infiltrate the Leaf's Police records. apparently they wanted to break some one out of your prison and start and uprising in Konohagakure"
"Well like that's gonna happen now" Ino pulled out a kunai to use as a knife as the grass shinboi regained his balance.
"Ha hah ha. whats this more vermon for me to play with" he looked up and saw the Yamanaka flower girl
" Oh and it's a girl this time. This should be more enjoyable now" He dashed towards the two of them.Gaara jumped to the lef t to avoid being hit. Ino jumped in th eopposit edirection, and she saw that the enemy was pursuing her and not Gaara.
"Crap! He's so fast!" Ino thought as she went for a dodge, but the enemy was faster than she was, and he managed to wrap his hand around her neck and began to take away her ability to breathe.
"Killing women is fun. You get to here them as they scream for help and it's so invigorating hearing them calling out for their lovers with their last breath"
"You Bastard!" Gaara had siezed the Grass shinobi with a coil of sand and began to crush all the bone sin his body.
Ino felt to the ground gasping for air. She saw Gaara run beside her and kneel by her side while keeping the opponent locked in his tecnique.
"Ino are you ok?" Hi svoice seemed frantice
"Y-yeah, I am having some trouble b-breathing" she took long spaced breathes before she realized that their oponent had allies. All of which looked very fierce. The one that Gaara had trapped in the Sand coil had broken free by using the same amount of chakra in which was molded into the sand
to break free.
"You won't be able to kill me that easily Gaara of the desert, and now you and that girl will be begging for mercy"
All of his reienforcements stood in a semi-circle around Gaara and Ino and made identical hand signs.Large metal blades emerged from the floor of the room and were sent flying to Gaara and Ino.A barrier of sand came between them and the blades but the Grass shinobi had more trickes. Wires were connected to the ends of the
blades in which all the eneimies sent their chakra through. The chakra was allowing th eblades to penetrate Gaara's barrier of sand.
"Crap!" Gaara picked up Ino and tried to jump out from behind the wall of sand, but they sent more blades flying in their direction every time they tried to move.
"What are we gonna do?" Ino asked
"I don't know." Ino noticed Gaara looked exhausted, he probably used most of his chakra to keep the sand barrier up, not mention the coil earlier before.The tips of the blades began to be visible through the thick sand.Ino imagined how it would end if they couldn't get out. She imagined the pain of the blades piercing her skin.
She had been so caught up in her painful images she hadn't realized that Gaara had wrapped his arms around her.He made of doem of sand aroudn the two of them.
"Sorry about teh tight fit" he said " but this is the safeest approach I could think of"
"Oh no it's ok I don't mind" despite the situation, Ino felt her face grow warm. 'get a grip Ino!' she thought ' your in a life or death situation! but still, there's that feeling again'
The two saw the tips of a lot of daggers now, and they new it would be a painufl end, until.
"Ino! Gaara!" Tsunade's and Sakura's voice along with Temari and Kankurou's was heard, and the sounds of battle came and went.
END CHAPTER 11