Her fascination with him started one random morning as she found herself wandering Konohagakure, searching for something to cure her boredom. Normally on days off from the academy she would spend time helping around her family's flower shop, however her father had T&I work today and thus had to close shop.

Indeed, it was by sheer chance that Ino Yamanaka just so happened to chance upon the scene of Naruto Uzumaki acting quite suspiciously. His eyes were darting around, taking in his surroundings, and he was clutching something against his chest that she couldn't see from this angle.

And it was only a spur-of-the-moment decision that had her following him out of sheer curiosity as to what he could possibly be up to this early in the morning. She was inclined to believe that it was simply him setting up another of his famous pranks, however he was never particularly subtle about those.

Whatever he was planning Ino was sure that it would at least be mildly more entertaining than just wandering around aimlessly. That's why, when he started to move, she followed him. It was no easy feat, however, as Naruto was surprisingly good at going undetected, and she almost lost him a few times.

Who knew that the class dropout actually had such impressive skills! If she hadn't had prior training she probably would have actually lost him. As it was, though, Ino did have prior training and Naruto didn't know she was on his tail so he wasn't trying to give her the slip.

Eventually Naruto seemed to reach where he was going, a little out of the way patch of wooded land near the edge of the village. He gave one last look around before he dove headfirst into the foliage.

Now this is where a lesser kunoichi, like Sakura, may have faltered, however Ino had been brought up to be a ninja. That meant that, though she may not like it, a little thing like this wouldn't be able to stop her curiosity.

Taking a calming breath she then lunged into the foliage herself, ignoring the way the branches caught on her clothes and dug at her skin. Thankfully the trip was short and Ino found herself stumbling into a glade.

Ino felt her breath catch in her throat as she surveyed her surroundings. The glade was breathtakingly gorgeous, flowers of many shapes and colors littered the clearing, the soft sunlight coming down from above doing wonders to accentuate them.

What caught her attention the most, however, was the young boy standing with his back to her, watering a grouping of sunflowers that were taller than himself. The sunlight glistened off of his bright blonde hair, making him appear as though he was glowing.

Ino then promptly realized what she was thinking and tried to reign herself in. After all she liked the cool, collected boy named Sasuke. There's no way that she could possibly feel anything for the loud obnoxious boy named Naruto. Right?

'Impossible.'

Right, it was simply a trick of the light. Her heart would stop beating rapidly soon enough and everything would go back to normal. Yet, despite her conviction, she still found herself continuing to stare at the boy across from her.

What finally pulled her out of her stupor was when she realized that he was still watering the sunflowers. As the daughter of a florist she learned quite a bit about plants and she knew that was far too much water for sunflowers.

"Stop!"

Ino's sudden shout startled Naruto out of his reverie, causing him to splash himself with water as he jolted in surprise, swinging around to face her.

"Ino? What are you doing here?" He questioned, confusion lacing his tone.

"I followed you here." She admitted.

"You followed me?"

"You were acting suspicious so I was wondering what you were up to. That's not important though."

"How's that not important?"

"What is important," she continued on as if she hadn't heard him, "is that you were watering those sunflowers too much. Sunflowers don't need a lot of water, if you gave them much more then you would've drowned the roots and killed them."

"Really?"

"Yes, really."

"Huh. Well, thanks for stopping me then. I'd hate to have killed the newest additions to my garden."

"You're welcome. Wait, your garden? You mean you planted all these here?"

Naruto looked at her as if she were stupid, which was kind of offensive coming from someone who failed basically every test the academy gave them.

"Duh. Who did you think planted them?"

"Honestly I just figured that they grew here naturally."

"Yeah, well, they don't. I put in a lot of work to set this place up."

"I can tell. It's absolutely breathtaking Naruto. Take it from someone who lives in a flower shop, I know how hard it can be taking care of flowers."

Naruto looked genuinely shocked at her praise, as if he had expected her to ridicule him or something. Ino didn't like the roiling feeling in her stomach at the implications.

"Ah, er, thanks." He thanked her, a light blush dusting his cheeks as he scratched the back of his head.

"You're welcome."

"Hey, umm, Ino?"

"Yeah?"

"If- If you don't mind could you teach me about the rest of the flowers? I don't want to accidentally kill them."

Ino couldn't stop a smile from forming on her face, despite not being entirely sure why.

"Sure. I'd be glad to Naruto."

And that's how Ino found herself spending the next few hours tending to flowers with Naruto as she took the time to explain the name, meaning, and proper caretaking methods for each type of the wide variety of flowers that called the glade their home.

"Thanks a lot Ino," Naruto thanked her, "I didn't know flowers could mean so many different things! I thought people just liked them 'cause they're pretty."

Ino laughed at that.

"Honestly? Most people do. Very few people actually care about learning floriography."

"Floriowhat?"

"Floriography. It's the language of flowers."

"Oh! Well I think it's cool! It's really cool how you know so much Ino."

Ino wasn't quite sure why hearing his compliment sent her heart aflutter, but she decided that she didn't entirely dislike the sensation.

"Thanks. And I think it's really cool that you've made such a beautiful garden."

Naruto chuckled shyly and gave her an appreciative smile.

"Seriously though, why are you trying to hide this? It's amazing!"

Ino felt her heart sink as Naruto's smile took on a sad tone. Had she said something wrong?

"People already don't like me, I don't wanna give them more reasons to make fun of me. Plus I don't want it to be wrecked." He told her, whispering the last part under his breath.

"They won't make fun of you Naruto! And if they do, then I'll do something about it!"

"Thanks Ino," he thanked her, the sad smile still on his face, "but I don't think that's a good idea."

"But-"

"Please."

"Alright," she relented, "It'll be our secret."

"Thanks Ino!"

And as Naruto beamed at her only a single thought pervade her mind. That Naruto's smile was bright.

'Bright like the sunflowers in his garden.'