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{ honor }
"Oh, Chouji!" Ino squealed, her face beaming. "It's the playground! Can we go? Please? It'll be just for a minute, then we'll go wherever you have planned. I promise."
"Silly woman." Chouji chuckled, pulling her forward by their clasped hands. "This was our destination all along. Come on," – he gestured to the swing set – "I'll push you."
With Chouji's help, Ino rose higher and higher and higher, filling the night air with her breathless laughter. She held her head back, gazing up into the starry sky, and let the turbulent breezes created by her swinging run through her hair. Carefree and young, she felt so grateful to the man behind her. Many in their line of work lost that spark, that ability to be truly alive, long before they could even be considered proper adults. She had lost that vitality once, too. But Chouji brought it back to her, cultivating it with his kind heart and unfailing loyalty, and now she, a war-hardened kunoichi in her mid-twenties, held a lightness in her heart that she had not felt since her childhood.
Wrapping a strong arm around her waist, Chouji stopped the swing and spun her around so that she faced him. He peppered her face with kisses, grazing over her cheeks, nose, and lips. Then he took her hands into one of his own, pulled a small box out of his pocket, and knelt before her. "Ino, I–"
"Yes!" Ino exclaimed, throwing her arms around his neck.
"But I haven't even asked yet." Chouji chuckled softly into her ear. "You're ruining the moment."
"I don't care," she said. Then she pulled away from him, her eyes narrowed critically. "Unless, of course, that's not an engagement ring in that box. In that case, you'd bit in a lot of trouble, Chouji Akimichi."
"I suppose that's good for me, then," he replied, opening the box to reveal a tiny gold flower, the stem of which had been fashioned into a delicate circle band. Then he placed it on her finger.
Ino studied her hand, marveling in the way the moonlight shone on the precious token of their love. The beauty of it, of him, brought tears to her eyes, but she took a deep breath and held them in. She had a much better use for that overflow of emotion. "Come on," she said. "Let's go to your place."
"My place? Isn't it kind of early? I mean, I still have other things planned and–"
"The only thing left on the agenda for tonight," – Ino grabbed him by the belt, pulling him close – "is for me to thoroughly ravish you."
"Yes, dear," Chouji huskily replied as she led him away.