Hey everyone so here's the new chapter! I know it took an extremely long time but i just lost the urge to write for some reason. Fortunately I've been really wanting to write so i wrote until 5 a.m so here it is. If you see any grammar or spelling error please leave a review or message me on where it is so I can fix it. I've also re-written all my previous chapters so go back and read them if you want. The plot line is still pretty much the same but I addressed some of the issues that many of my reviews pointed out so hopefully I addressed them all. I'm really excited with how the stories going, over 450 reviews. I do ask that you continue to review my work so that I can make the story better. Ideas on what to do in the upcoming chapters would be much appreciated. I'm thinking of bringing the Akatsuki into the fold.
This chapter is more focused on developing Naruto and Ino's relationship. I'm trying not to rush it so tell me how you think this chapter was.
On a strange side note, I've recently been getting into spanish music. So if any of you have any good artists or catchy songs that are in spanish I would greatly appreciate it if you could take the time to give me some recommendations. I know this is kinda weird but oh well!
Once again thanks for reading and PLEASE REVIEW!
Ino was currently kneeling beside an unconscious and severely wounded Naruto Uzumaki. Shino and her had witnessed the massive explosion from the town they stayed in and decided to go back to check for Naruto. Ino knew that Naruto asked them to leave but she figured that due to the force of the explosion that both sides must have been weakened enough for them to enter the fray safely.
She returned to the decimated battlefield to see the blonde haired Uzumaki hunched over against a tree. She darted over to him, immediately knowing that something was wrong. Upon closer inspection she noticed that he was suffering from a severe amount of blood loss from what appeared to be two wounds. One to the left arm and the other to the stomach. Shino stepped back, giving Ino space to begin her medical procedure.
The cut on his left arm was causing Naruto to lose quite a bit of blood. Ino guessed the wound came from some form of swords as the cut was narrow but deep. The slash had nearly cut through Naruto's entire humerus bone.
The other, and much more severe injury was the wound in his stomach. Ino could tell a kunai had been embedded into Naruto's chest region. The kunai ended up puncturing Naruto's stomach, which was a potentially fatal injury if not treated quickly. Similar to the injury to Naruto's arm, his stomach injury was loosing lots of blood.
Ino quickly began to treat Naruto as soon as she deduced his injuries. She decided that she would need to treat the stomach wound first due to its severity. In order to get better view of the wound she took out a kunai and cut off his sleeveless black shirt. Ino immediately noticed the amount of blood that had been lost and concluded that anyone who had lost this much blood should have died. The punctured organ was gushing out blood but somehow Naruto was still bleeding.
As Ino looked more closely at the injury, she noticed small amounts of steam emerging from sides of the deep gash. It was as if…. he was healing himself on his own! She was blown away that someone could possess this amazing ability. She wondered how it was possible as she continued to look at the wound that was healing itself until her gaze fell upon the intricate seal on Naruto's chest. then it hit her,
'The Kyuubi"
She thought that the fox was probably responsible for how Naruto's stomach was seeming to magically be heeling. Ino waited for a couple more seconds, hoping that Kyuubi would close the wound to the stomach but that wasn't the case. Naruto was sill loosing blood despite the healing of the fox.
Ino placed her hands onto Naruto's stomach and began pumping chakra into them, causing a green aura to appear. The situation was starting to get bad. Naruto was loosing ridiculous amounts of blood but was still barely alive. His heart rate had dropped sharply. The biggest issue she was currently dealing with was the fact that despite attempting to close the stomach gash, Naruto was still loosing blood from his arm. She would need to temporarily stop the stomach bleeding so she could slow down the bleeding from his arm.
"Shino get over here!"
Shino quickly ran beside Ino to await further instruction. He saw her remove one hand from Naruto's stomach and reach into her ninja pouch. She pulled out another kunai and cut off a fairly sized portion from the right side of her skirt. She threw her kunai to the ground and shoved the cloth into Shino's hands.
"Apply pressure to his arm with this, now!"
Shino knelt down and started to press hard against Naruto's cut, which began to slow the bleeding down a little.
Ino refocused all of her attention and chakra back onto Naruto's stomach, which combined with the Kyuubi's healing was beginning to close. After another minute of constant healing the wound stopped bleeding.
"Shino switch spots!"
Shino immediately got up and allowed Ino to position herself near the cut to the arm. Shino then began applying pressure to the stomach. Ino looked at the arm wound and immediately noticed that steam was emerging from it, signifying that the fox was healing this injury to. Ino applied her medical ninjutsu to the cut as it rapidly began to close, being much less severe than the previous injury.
After successfully closing both wounds, Ino rapidly took out bandages and began to wrap the arm cut. After putting an initial rapping over the cut Ino proceeded to feel around the humerus bone to see if she could tell if the bone was till damaged. She couldn't be completely sure so to be safe she made a sling out of the bandages.
She then returned her focus to the stomach which Shino was still applying pressure to. She had temporarily stopped the bleeding but knew that the wound could potentially open up again. She would soon need to move Naruto to a more comfortable and suitable area for medical attention. She proceeded to wrap bandages around the area of the wound. Ino knew that Naruto also had back injuries but believed they were much less severe and that the fox would probably take care of them.
"Shino we're moving him to the hotel now!"
Shouted Ino as she picked up the unconscious Naruto and began carrying his body in both arms. Shino led the way as they began the short trip back to the hotel they stayed at. Shino began going at maximum speed in order to warn the manager that they would be needing to use the rooms they had stayed in the previous night. This left Ino who was going as fast as she could but was carrying Naruto with her.
o0o
She made it to the hotel within five minutes and flew open the doors. The manager didn't say anything, having already discussed with Shino the need to spend at least another nigh in the rooms and that one would have to be used for medical purposes. Ino sprinted through the hallway to her room. When she arrived she noticed the door was already open with Shino standing outside.
"Stay outside Shino while I work on him. I'll yell if I need anything."
Shino nodded as Ino walked into the room. She carefully placed Naruto down on the queen sized bed. She then checked to see what his heart rate was. It wasn't as bad as it was when he was bleeding but it was still dangerously low. Ino knew that Naruto needed to get more oxygen into his system.
As she thought about possible ways to achieve this her gaze fell upon the mask which covered his face. Ino knew that Naruto had been keeping that mask on for over a year and would be furious if he found out that it was removed. Ino re-checked the blonde haired boy's heart rate and noticed it was still considerably low. She decided it was necessary to try all possibilities to get the heart rate back up due to the ridiculous amount of lost blood. Unfortunately for Naruto, this would include removing his mask.
Ino reached her right hand forward and grasped the bottom of the Kiri mask Naruto had been wearing since his return. She carefully slid the white and red Kiri mask off of the blonde jinchuriki. She looked on intently as the mask grazed against his golden locks, finally revealing the face of her long-lost classmate that she had been so curious about.
Ino stared at the face of the sleeping Naruto, shocked at the change in his facial appearance. His ruffled and spiky blonde hair covered most of his forehead. She looked at his cheeks which had the same whisker marks that she remembered from his academy days. However despite the remainder of his whisker marks, Ino had to admit that his face had definitely changed.
Ever since Ino found out that the masked swordsman was Naruto she had images of the blonde boy from her younger days running through her mind. On those occasions where she did talk with Naruto, she always pictured the face from her genin days to be behind the Kiri mask. Having looked at Naruto with out his mask she could easily see how he had matured, he no longer looked like a young boy but instead a young man.
Ino found herself entranced at the image of the mask-less Naruto. Of course as a teenage girl she took notice of attractive men when she came across them. Sure she hadn't had any relationships or really gone on any dates but she defiantly kept her eyes out for boys she found cute. As a young girl she was infatuated with Sasuke, looking back it was actually quite disturbing how obsessed she was with him. Never in a million years would her younger self ever consider Naruto Uzumaki to be 'cute'. He was annoying, loud and childish. While in the academy the only thought she ha about Naruto was how annoying he could be.
As time passed her crush on Sasuke began to fade away due to her lack of seeing him and his well…. boring personality. Her lack of focus on Sasuke allowed her to develope her skills as a kunoichi. The time she spent fawning over the last Uchiha was now focused on training. Despite her focus on her work as a kunoichi, she still kept her eye out for attractive men.
There were many men that she found cute but all of them seemed to have their major flaws. Ino was definitely a very attractive young women and drew the attention of many men. She never found one that she thought she could actually have a relationship with. She noticed that many were after her simply for her looks and didn't really appreciate her for who she was.
After seeing Naruto without his mask she could definitely consider him to be an attractive guy. His matured face was one of the cuter ones she'd seen in the past few years. As her gaze traveled down his bandaged covered upper body, she could still see defined muscle. In fact there was pretty much no fat on him at all. Being a ninja required you to be in extremely good shape and most shinobi had good builds, however most still had some body fat. Naruto's body consisted completely of muscle, this was also impart due to his slightly skinnier physique. He wasn't extremely skinny, just more so than most.
She then inwardly began to ridicule herself for checking out her patient while he was still in critical condition. She immediately returned to checking Naruto's heart rate and was pleased to see that was steadily improving. Her gaze returned to Naruto's chest wound that currently wasn't visible due to the bandages wrapped around it. Ino wanted to double-check the injury to make sure that the wound had completely closed.
She unwrapped the bandages that went around Naruto's torso, revealing the wound to Naruto's stomach from what she assumed to be a kunai. She looked at the area of the injury and was happy to see it hadn't opened up at all. She placed her hands of the spot once more and began to apply healing chakra to assure that it wouldn't re-open.
After a few minutes Ino removed her hands from his stomach, pleased with her actions healing Naruto. There was a scar on the spot of the injury, but what slightly concerned was the fact that it paled in size to the large scar on his chest. It looked to be the size of an entire fist! The other mark on Naruto's torso was the intricate seal that occupied most of his lower torso. She knew of the fox sealed within him. She assumed that it was the seal that kept the bijuu inside of him.
She frowned a little at the difficulties he must have had growing up. Of course she didn't really know anything about his childhood, but she did know that she wasn't very kind to him when they were younger. Granted, it was quite hard to be nice to him due to how annoying he was. Ino began chuckling a bit at the memories of Naruto in the academy as she returned her gaze to his sleep induced face. Memories of pranks and promises of becoming Hokage flooded her mind as a smile began to appear. She reached down and started playing with his sunshine blonde locks as she replayed memories of Naruto in the academy.
Ino sighed as she finished running through memories of the younger Naruto. She was happy that she had managed to heal Naruto, he would just need some rest now. Ino began to recount the events of the day. It shocked her that so much had occurred yet it was only around two o'clock.
The platinum blonde remembered that Shino was standing guard outside and figured she should update him on their teammate's status. As she approached the door to the room she remembered that Naruto no longer had his mask. That Kiri mask was very important him, she guessed it provided him with some sense of security. Ino could easily guess that Naruto would be extremely pissed when he found out that she removed it from his head. She guessed he would be even angrier if he found out even more people besides Ino were to see him mask-less, despite Shino already knowing who he was.
She figured it would probably be best to keep Shino out of the room. Ino quietly turned the door knob and opened the door, doing her best to not wake the sleeping Uzumaki
"Hey Shino, good news. He'll be fine, he just needs times to rest."
"Very well. Good job healing him Ino."
Ino smiled and nodded at the compliment.
"Do you mind if I see his condition?"
Ino's smile vanished at these words. She'd have to come up with an excuse to keep him away.
"I'm afraid I can't Shino, I'm sorry. He's still in bad shape and needs his rest. When he wakes up I'll make sure to tell you but I don't want to risk waking him, I hope you understand. I just wanted to tell you that he would be fine."
Ino was inwardly praying that Shino would believe her lie. Fortunately for the platinum blonde, Shino nodded his head and walked towards his room.
Ino released a sigh of relief as she re-entered Naruto's room. SHe looked over to her new patient and smiled again at how peaceful he looked. She approached the side of his bed and pulled up a chair. She was relatively tired from the vents that transpired today and from the amount of chakra she expended healing Naruto. She slowly drifted off to sleep at the bedside of her fellow blonde.
o0o
Ino was currently asleep in a chair, her body leaning forward as her head rested on Naruto's bed. She began to stir as she lifted her head up from the bead it had been resting on. The platinum blonde looked up to see that Naruto was still asleep. She looked at the clock and noticed she had dozed off for a couple hours. She stood up from her chair and lazily stretched, having just woke up and let out a relatively loud yawn.
She immediately threw her hands over her mouth, inwardly cursing herself for making noise while Naruto was resting. She soon heard rustling as Naruto began to move around in his bed.
Naruto began to open his eyes due to what sounded like a loud yawn. The last thing he remembered was being blown back by the explosion caused by his black rain technique. He also recalled having two relatively severe injuries before blacking out. One on his arm and the other to his stomach. He was concerned while fighting the Kumo nin because the injuries weren't healing as fast as he was accustomed to. Typically the fox would rapidly heal any injury he had.
He assumed it must have been due to the severity of the injury. He knew, having studied the human anatomy to find vital spots to hit with Nuibari, that a wound to the stomach could potentially be fatal. Maybe it took longer to heal because it was more severe. It made sense for it to take longer to heal more critical injuries then minor ones. He shrugged the whole thing off, he was still alive and he assumed nothing severe happened besides blacking out.
He finally began to open his eyes but squinted due to the light. For some reason everything seemed much brighter than usual. He took into account the fact that he'd just awoken from blacking out, but it was still abnormally bright to him. He began to sit up but felt a shooting pain go through his chest causing him to groan in pain and lay back down on his bed.
"Don't move!"
Naruto heard as he looks over to his right, still squinting. Despite the light bothering him, he was able to clearly identify the person as Ino. She rushed over to him and put her hand on his chest.
"Your still injured, don't move too much."
Naruto shivered slightly at the feeling of Ino's hand on his bare chest. He looked at her hand as it started to emit green chakra.
Ino had noticed the shiver Naruto had at her touching his chest. She looked up to his eyes which were focused on the hand currently on his chest. While Naruto was unconscious she obviously didn't get to see his eyes. Having looked at them she was taken back by how…. well… mesmerizing they were. They were two beautiful pools of light blue and Ino couldn't help staring into them. She was so accustomed to seeing him with eye slits opposed to actual eyes.
Naruto continued to gaze at the light green chakra that was being emitted from Ino's hand. He had to admit it was somewhat weird to have someone touching his bare chest. He wasn't even use to basic touch yet having been in the cave for so long. As he continued to look at the hand on his chest he realized his eyes were readjusting to the light.
He began to stop squinting as his eyes became acclimated with the light. Naruto noticed that his vision was much different then he'd been accustomed to, everything was so much brighter than usual. Typically his mask made things much darker. Naruto then began to connect the dots as he frantically moved his hands up to his face.
As he moved his hands up he grunted loudly in pain once more due to his injured arm. He proceeded put his injured down by his side while reaching to touch his face with the other. Instead of touching the cold and hardened plaster he had become accustomed to touching, he felt his own soft and smooth skin.
Ino heard Naruto grunt loudly in pain and began to yell at Naruto once more to stop moving.
"I told you to stop..."
"WHERE THE HELL IS MY MASK!"
Screamed Naruto causing Ino to step back away from him at the force of his tone. Naruto's facial expression had drastically changed. He had gone from calm and a neutral expression to one of rage. His teeth grinded against each other as his eyebrows narrowed.
"Clam down Naruto, let me explain!"
Ino ignored the Naruto's anger filled tone and expression. He was still not completely healed and she wouldn't jeopardize a patient's health over being frightened.
"YOU CAN EXPLAIN WHEN I GET MY FREAKING MASK BACK GOT IT!"
Roared Naruto as he released a massive amount of killer intent. He had kept that mask on for around two years, just like Kushimaru had and he was extremely pissed that Ino had taken it off him. Who did she think she was?
Ino began to shiver slightly at the KI (Killer Intent) radiating off the injured Naruto. The Yamanaka was getting nervous that Naruto would get out of bed and throw Nuibari right through her if she didn't clam him down immediately.
"Y..You can't put your mask on Naruto its..."
Sputtered Ino trying to tell him what happened but his loud voice cut her off.
"AND WHY THE FUCK NOT INO!"
"SHUT UP NARUTO AND LET ME TALK!"
Shouted Ino as loud as she could causing Naruto's eyebrows to raise in surprise. She sounded like a freaking banshee! He now remembered one of the contributing factors to why he had found Ino annoying in the academy to go along with her fan-girl attitude. She was as loud as he was when he was younger!
Ino let out a huff of air as she watched Naruto begin to rub his ear due to how loud she yelled.
"Now that you've calmed down from your fucking temper tantrum I can tell you what happened. God, your like a baby getting a toy taken away."
Said Ino causing Naruto to growl. She giggled at how easily riled up he got but she also knew she had to be careful. Naruto was ridiculously powerful and could seriously hurt her if he actually wanted to.
"Well then, as you probably know you blacked out after that final explosion. Shino and I came back to check if you were all right and I found you under a tree unconscious. You had a cut to your shoulder and a wound directly to your stomach. The cut to your shoulder nearly cut directly through your humorous, fortunately it stopped half way. The wound to your stomach directly punctured the stomach. For most people that's a fatal wound."
Naruto was somewhat surprised by how severe his injuries were. Despite gaining this information, Ino still hadn't told him why she removed his mask. He was about to speak up but Ino started talking again.
"I had to heal you on the spot I found you due to the severity of the stomach injury. I started healing the stomach and was able to close it up with help from your….tenant."
Naruto's eyes turned to the of saucers and his mouth dropped at her last sentence. She knew about the fox! This was not good, how did she find out in the first place.
Ino looked up after her last sentence to see his reaction from her knowing of the fox. He clearly didn't take it well. His mouth was agape and his eyes were completely wide.
"Despite the… help healing your injuries you were still in critical condition. You had lost so much blood that your heart rate was dropping rapidly. I closed up the cut on your arm so that just left your heart rate. Shino and I then moved you back here to your hotel room. Despite me closing up the wounds, you still weren't producing enough blood to replace all that you lost and weren't getting enough oxygen."
Naruto recovered from her statement about the fox and continued listening to her story. He would question her about that soon. When she mentioned his lack of oxygen he could easily guess why she took off the mask.
"So in order to get you more oxygen, I thought it would be a good idea to remove your mask. I know you never take it off and it was important for you to keep it on but I had to try everything to keep you alive. So if that's not a good enough reason for taking off your mask I don't know what is."
Ino huffed and crossed her arms under her chest while looking away from Naruto.
Naruto hated to admit it, but he felt like a complete douche. He had freaked out on Ino for basically saving his life. Naruto sighed in defeat as he looked up at Ino.
"Look… I'm sorry for freaking out on you Ino but as you said, that mask is really important to me. I've kept it on constantly for the past two years so when I didn't feel it there… I guess I just lost it."
"You can say that again…"
Said Ino in a sarcastic tone causing Naruto to sweat drop. She was a handful to deal with.
"I'm sorry Ino, I really am. I should be thanking you for apparently saving my life…."
Naruto said the sentence quietly causing Ino to smirk.
"Hmph , well I suppose it's better then nothing. Your not really good at this whole apologizing thing. Or saying thank you for that matter."
"Well, being completely honest I don't really care if you accept my apology."
Muttered Naruto causing Ino to sweat-drop. Naruto smirked at her reaction. She may be difficult to deal with, but she did make him laugh.
Ino noticed Naruto smirk and smiled. It looked so natural for him to have a smile on. She hated his stupid mask, she didn't get to see how he was feeling at all. On the other hand, she guessed that was part of his motive for wearing it.
"What are you smiling at?"
Questioned Naruto with a raised eyebrow.
"I was just thinking that I like you better without your mask."
Naruto was slightly confused by her statement.
"Why do you wear that creepy thing anyway?"
Naruto sighed, how did she end up knowing the most about him in the village? Ino was definitely not one of the people he thought he'd develop some form of a bond with once he returned. She'd barely ever crossed his mind while in Kushimaru's cave.
Ino noticed his hesitation to respond and guessed he was debating whether or not he would tell her something.
"Do you want to know something funny?
Asked Naruto causing Ino to look at him quizzically.
"I have no clue why, but somehow you manage to find out more about me then anyone else in this village. We barely talked when we younger yet you somehow are able to have conversations with me. Hmph, weird huh?"
Ino thought about what he said. He was right about them not talking when they were younger. They always ended up clashing about Sasuke or about him being annoying. She did find the idea of him talking to her the most since his return kind of funny since they had barely had an actual conversation until now.
Naruto didn't know why he felt willing to talk to Ino. Maybe it was the fact that she wasn't terrified of him. After all, most of the village was. She was one of the few who knew he he was and wasn't scared or creeped out by him. He also felt like he owed her somewhat for saving him.
"That mask previously belonged to a great shinobi. I took a vow that I would make that man proud and surpass him. I originally began to wear that mask to honor him in a way. Now… now I wear it to keep my emotions hidden."
Ino was surprised for two reasons. First, he was actually revealing information about himself to her. HER, the gossip queen of Konoha! What was he thinking?! Secondly, he said he wanted to hide his emotions, why would anyone want to do that? Ino was a bout to ask another question before Naruto abruptly interrupted her.
"No more questions Ino, I already answered one of yours. Now you have to answer one of mine."
"What! I definitely don't need to answer any of your questions!"
Naruto chuckled at her response, she was too easy to rile up.
"True, I suppose you don't HAVE to, but it would be a nice thing to do. Plus don't you think you kind of owe me?"
"How the hell do I owe you!"
"Well I did single handily fight off all those Kumo shinobi, you could consider this a thank you gift to me."
Naruto had a sly smile on his face expecting Ino to get angrier at this statement but her face instantly dropped. He was confused at her change of mood.
Ino had trained hard the past three years. She had mastered almost all of her clans techniques. She had been an apprentice under Tsunade and was one of the best medical ninja in the Leaf. She was even an apprentice at the Torture and Interrogation unit under her dad. Despite all her training she had been useless in this battle. She was just as much hinderance as she was in her genin days during missions.
"D..Did I say something wrong?"
Naruto cursed himself. Here he was, finally having a normal conversation with someone and he just has to go screw it up. This was why he enjoyed wearing his mask in Konoha. It intimidated people discouraged them from conversing with him. It prevented whim from screwing up in social interactions, something he obviously wasn't good at.
"No…its nothing you said. Its.. its just that I've been training so hard not to be a hinderance to anyone on missions. Yet once again I need someone else to fight for me while I just sit by and watch or run. Nothings changed from when I was a genin.
Naruto was somewhat shocked that Ino was telling him this. It seemed like pretty personal information. He was also kind of mad she was telling him this. She obviously needed some form of comforting but he wasn't really sure he could provide it. It's not like he needed to lie to her. He could tell she had become much stronger. She had managed to essentially save his life, showing great medical abilities and he imagined she had progressed greatly with her clan techniques.
"Don't say that Ino, you're not weak at all. I didn't mean for my statement to come across like that. You obviously are a great medical ninja, and I'm sure you've progressed with your clan techniques. Your plenty strong."
Ino brightened up at those words, a smile gracing her face.
"Thanks, that really means a lot coming from someone as strong as you are. "
Ino paused as she walked closer to Naruto's bed.
"I didn't know you could be so sweet Naruto, I thought you were an emotionless pit…. but I was obviously wrong!"
Naruto sweat dropped at the 'emotionless pit' part. His reputation around the village clearly wasn't very good. However, he didn't want his reputation around the village to be that he was 'sweet' either.
The jinchuriki became startled when he saw Ino lean down and wrapped her arms around him. He began to blush at the close contact with the gorgeous platinum blonde.
Ino ended the embrace, removing her arms from the sunshine blonde. She looked down at Naruto to see he was blushing and slightly sweating, causing her to grin.
"Hmmm, looks like Konoha's homicidal masked swordsman has a glaring weakness."
Ino placed her hand on Naruto's chest, causing him to gulp and his blush to darken. She leaned down beside his head and whispered into his ear.
"It seems he hasn't had much close contact with women, have you Naruto?"
Questioned Ino in a sickeningly sweet tone causing Naruto to stutter before Ino broke out into laughter. 'If only I had my mask…' thought Naruto as he smiled slightly at Ino's laughter. After she began to stop laughing he decided he would finally ask his question.
"Now that you've had your…. fun, you'll answer my question."
Ino sighed and spoke up.
"FIne, ask away."
"How did you know that I'm a jinchuriki."
Gone was any smile or joking attitude around Naruto. His eyebrows slightly narrowed, seemingly concerned that she knew he had the Kyuubi within him. Ino figured she would simply tell him the truth. She was forbidden by Lady Tsunade from talking to anyone about Naruto being a jinchuriki, but she was talking to the jailor himself.
"Well, Lady Tsunade told all of the rookie-nine along with team Gai after the retrieval mission. Sasuke was starting to talk about a red cloak of chakra that had covered you so I guess Tsunade felt she had to tell everyone."
Naruto's gaze moved to the ceiling, not wanting to look Ino in the eye. He didn't know what she would think about him. She had been nice to him recently, but that might simply be for the sake of the mission. What if she was one of those people who thought he was a monster?
Ino saw Naruto look away from her, obviously concerned about what she thought. She was slightly offended that Naruto thought so little of her that he would think she wouldn't like him due to the knowledge that he was a jinchuriki.
"Naruto, I don't think any differently of you. You're the same person to me, with or without the fox."
Ino saw Naruto return his gaze to her, a look of surprise on his face.
"I'm kind of pissed you'd think I wouldn't talk to you because you're a jinchuriki."
"I….. I'm sorry, it's just a really sore subject for me and I know many people treat me differently because of it. It wouldn't be too farfetched to believe you would think like them."
"And why is that!"
Said Ino in an irritated tone. Naruto clearly didn't think much of her.
"Well… when we were younger you didn't pay much attention to me. You mostly just yelled at me or hit me. I guess I just believed that your parents may have told you to stay away from me like most of the others did."
Ino was speechless. People's parents told their kids to stay away from him? Sure he was slightly annoying but to keep your kids away from a young boy over something he couldn't control angered Ino.
"Was it hard growing up?"
Ino immediately regretted the question. Naruto's eyes darkened as a sad smile appeared on his face. He look over to her and spoke.
"That's a conversation for another time Ino."
The Yamanaka heiress nodded her head, understanding how difficult a subject it was for him to discuss. The two sat in silence for a few minutes before Ino saw Naruto yawn.
"You need to rest Naruto. We'll be heading back to the leaf tomorrow despite your injuries. You should be fine to travel slowly."
Naruto nodded his head, happy to be able to return to sleep.
"Is it okay if I put my mask back on?"
"No."
"What!, why not?"
Shouted Naruto, confused to why he couldn't wear his beloved mask. Ino smirked again at his emotional response.
"Because your much cuter without it on."
Said Ino with a a sly grin on her face, causing Naruto to blush profusely.
"I'll be back in a few minutes, I have to talk to Shino. I'll be sleeping in that chair to make sure you sleep fine through the night."
Naruto nodded his head before closing his eyes and drifting off to sleep.
0o0
Ino walked out of Naruto's room with a smile on her face. She had an actual conversation with Naruto and it was quite entertaining. She had laughed and found out information about his past, including info on his mask. She refocused her attention on talking to Shino. She walked across the hotel hallway and knocked on his door. He quickly opened it and she spoke up.
"We're good to travel tomorrow, Naruto's recovered very well. I'll be spending the night in his room tonight to make sure he's fine so I'll see you in the morning."
Shino nodded his head before closing the door.
Ino walked back to Naruto's room and entered. She sat down in the same chair she had earlier and began to fall asleep.
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