Authors Note: Hey there! To my readers who were here eight years ago reading the original story, I'm amazed. To my new readers, thanks for reading and believe me you do not want to know what this story was like eight years ago. I've kept my overall good ideas and plot lines in the story and reworked it, as well as added a lot of new things. Hopefully you all enjoy, and don't forget to leave a follow and a review if you like it so far! Inner thoughts are italicized just like sounds, and outer monologue is in regular text.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters. I only own my ideas.
RING! RING! RING!
Ino groaned as she continuously slammed her fingers against her phone trying desperately to land on the off button displayed on its alarm screen. Monday mornings were always like this for her. Working at the family's flower shop full time since she was a child wore her out during the school year, and her already bad sleeping habits didn't help her case. She was more than happy to help out around the shop for her mother, she loved flower arranging anyways, and the money didn't hurt either. Actually, because of the flower shop she was able to discover her love for wedding planning and get a head start on wedding planner skills before she was even done with school, she just wished she could get more sleep before having to deal with a full eight hours of her high school classes.
Only two more years of this and I'll finally be able to get some good sleep. Ino thought to herself.
It was late August now, she was almost a whole month into the school year, but it already felt like it had been three months with the rate these classes were going. Ino sighed to herself as she sat up and began to wearily trudge over to her bathroom. On the way she grabbed her bathrobe off of her vanity chair where she had left it the previous morning and proceeded to the bathroom, closing the door behind her. Passing by the bathroom mirror she subconsciously tried to smooth down the blonde hairs she had seen were sticking up in a strange fashion and turned the shower water on to her preferred temperature.
Her morning routine went smoothly as usual, early shower followed by blow drying her hair and wrapping it into her usual high ponytail. Ino went for her usual makeup look only using light products to accentuate her soft features before finally putting on her school uniform that consisted of a dark green-grey skirt, a white shirt with the Konoha symbol on its short arm sleeve, and a red neck scarf. The boys uniform consisted of a white button up shirt with the same symbol on its sleeve and black pants. Of course, the school gave other options for the students, such as optional dark pants for the girls to wear and students were allowed to wear colored cardigans if the weather got cold enough, though in Konoha that happened rarely. Ino made her way downstairs into the kitchen where her father was already seated eating the breakfast her mother had laid out onto the table.
"Mom left for the flower shop already?" Ino asked with a bit of shock lacing her voice as she noted the time of only 6:30 am on the clock before sitting down opposite of her father to eat her breakfast as well.
"Please Ino, don't speak so shrilly in the morning. Your mother wanted an early start preparing the shop today for that big wedding order due this weekend." Inoichi stated continuing to eat his breakfast.
"Oh, right I forgot about that. Man! I was hoping to get some sleep sometime this year y'know." Ino sighed and rolled her eyes as she picked at the eggs sitting on the plate in front of her. They were still warm from the cover that was over her plate before she sat down, but she just didn't have an appetite this morning.
"Hm? I know it's hard working full time and going to school, but your mother relies on you to help her out. Besides, just think of it as a little bit of training for when you have your own wedding planning business. That'll bring a lot more work than just arranging flowers." Inoichi flashed a small smile in reply to Ino's sigh before getting up and placing his dishes in the sink. He walked over to the front door that was adjacent to the kitchen and grabbed his jacket off the coat rack.
"Have a good day dad, be careful and tell Shikamaru's dad hi for me." Ino said as she too stood up and scraped her remaining breakfast into the trash can.
"Of course. Love you, bun." Inoichi said using Ino's childhood nickname he had given her before closing the door behind him.
He moved so quickly out of the front door that I didn't even get to say it back. Ino thought to herself.
Her father, along with a few of her other school mates' parents, like Shikamaru's dad, were part of their town's police force. The crime rate in Konoha was nothing compared to other cities, but that was probably thanks to the police force's officer in command, Fugaku Uchiha. Ino had occasionally come into contact with Fugaku through having to drop a late dinner off to her dad on more than one occasion, as well as from school events since Fugaku was the father of a classmate of hers. From what she could tell he was a strict man and was brilliant at his job.
Ino placed her dish into the sink and walked over to the front hall closet where her school shoes were placed. After tying both shoes and grabbing her school bag and keys, she made her way to the shiny white car she had gotten as a present when she turned sixteen. Getting in and turning on the ignition she gave an aggravated sigh at the thought of the final destination she was going to be heading before pulling out of the driveway and making her way down the street that lead to one of her closest friend's houses.
Upon arriving and pulling into the driveway she quickly pulled out her phone to send a quick 'I'm here' text to the friend she was once again giving a lift to school. Ino waited patiently as she scanned through the radio stations before finally deciding on a light upbeat pop song. The weather was beautiful as usual, sunny skies with a few drifting clouds adorning the sky. There was a slight breeze in the air and Ino guessed the temperature couldn't be more than seventy degrees right now. She watched as a bird circled overhead before flying off towards the tree line that ran behind her friend's house.
Come on its already been almost ten minutes, what's this idiot doing? Ino made an aggravated sound as she reached for her phone again but stopped when she saw the front door open revealing the dark-haired boy she thought about only seconds before.
"Sorry I took so long; I overslept and just couldn't bring myself to get out of my bed." Ino's friend spoke as he took his seat in the passenger side of her car. He leaned his head back onto the headrest slightly flattening his short tied up hair that resembled a pineapple and shut his eyes before Ino even had the chance to reply.
"Yeah what else is new, I swear Shikamaru you take longer to get ready than me, and I thought that wasn't even possible. You're lucky we live so close to each other otherwise I'd just leave you stranded without a ride." Ino huffed as she pulled out of the driveway and made her way to Konoha High. Shikamaru only shrugged in response before lowering the radio's music.
"Man, how can you chicks listen to this stuff they try to pass off as music anyway? I'd rather listen to crickets chirp than this crap." Shikamaru stated, annoyance dripping from his voice.
"Shikamaru you probably do listen to crickets chirp for fun anyway. If you hate it so much why don't you just take your driving test already and get your own car." Ino rolled her eyes but let him lower the music without an argument. She was too tired to even try and defend her music taste this early in the morning, and with the amount of sleep she had gotten she'd rather save her energy for the rest of the school day.
"Taking a driving test seems like such a drag, I'm not doing it until someone forces me too."
"Knowing your mom, I'm sure she'll end up dragging you there at some point this year." Ino giggled at the thought and Shikamaru shook his head knowing full well that she was probably right.
The streets were particularly busy this morning, but it still only took them about fifteen minutes to arrive into the school parking lot and find a space. From across the parking lot she could see most of their friend's had arrived by now and would already be in homeroom.
As they made their way across the parking lot and into the school the voices of students standing idle in the hallway and walking to class grew increasingly louder. Shikamaru raised his hands to his forehead and rubbed his temples in response to the noise and Ino simply walked forward keeping her eyes straight ahead. What Ino failed to see was the watchful gaze of another dark-haired student as he walked slightly farther behind the pair, also making his way to his own classroom. He admired her long blonde hair swaying side to side in her ponytail before reluctantly breaking his gaze and heading into his first period classroom.
"Hey, Ino over here!" Ino's gaze snapped over to the voice calling her name and landed on a pair of emerald green orbs and cherry blossom pink hair. She smiled in response and walked away from Shikamaru and over to the empty chair next to her cheery friend finally taking her seat.
"Morning Sakura. You seem awfully energized this morning, what did you eat for breakfast a bowl of happy flakes?" Putting her school bag down beside her she turned to Sakura who was still smiling beside her.
"Ha-Ha very funny Ino," Sakura rolled her eyes, "I can't help that I'm a morning person and you're…well you look half dead behind that face of makeup."
"Hey, I do not look bad!" Ino huffed, then sighed before continuing, "Okay I've seen better days, but I had to pull a late shift at the flower shop. My mom has a bunch of orders for a wedding this weekend too and I'm the only one there to help her, so I'm sure this week is going to be hell."
Sakura nodded in understanding before replying, "Hey listen, I'm free this week if you guys need any help in the shop. Believe me, I'd rather be helping you out for free as opposed to helping my mom repaint our basement. Again."
"Didn't you guys just paint that basement a few months ago?" Ino replied.
"Yeah," Sakura sighed resting her chin on her hand, "she totally hates the color and wants to redo it. But I'm sure I can get out of it if I say I'm helping you and your mom instead since they're friends and all."
"Alright sure! This way I'm sure we can finish the work faster together and maybe I'll actually be able to get some sleep this week." Ino's blue eyes glimmered at the idea of sleeping soundly in her soft bed for more than just a few hours, but her daydream was soon broken by two pairs of voices shouting at each other.
"Sit down you ass you're giving me a headache. I'm not arguing with you about this anymore!" Ino and Sakura looked over at the culprits of the suddenly loud outburst.
Of course, it's those two going at it again. Ino thought to herself.
When are those two ever going to stop arguing about such ridiculous things? Sakura too thought to herself.
"Hey! You're the ass! After all you're the one that thinks my team could ever lose to those music note wearing clowns! Just because you're transferring back to your hometown next week doesn't mean you should bash on us. We were your teammates for a whole school year!"
The two arguing were none other than Kabuto Yakushi and Naruto Uzumaki respectively. Kabuto smirked, his eyes glinting behind his round glasses as they glared into Naruto's bright blue eyes. This had been the same morning routine for nearly two weeks. Ever since Kabuto told his soon to be former basketball captain, Naruto, that he would be transferring back to his hometown of Otogakure they've been at each other's necks. Of course, Kabuto was just trying to get under Naruto's skin by arguing about which team would win against who this season, but Sakura at least could tell it was Kabuto's way of making it easier for both of them to go up against each other when the time came. After all, they were teammates for all of sophomore year. The first few times they had argued, others from the basketball team got involved, but the routine got old quickly and now everyone was either completely ignoring the two, or casually watching them waiting to see if a fight would happen.
"Alright break it up! I'll be damned if you guys are going to start an all-out brawl in my classroom. And on a Monday morning? Naruto get back to your seat." Finally, the student's homeroom teacher, Iruka-Sensei, had finally showed up. Naruto grumbled and reluctantly took his seat next to Fugaku Uchiha's second son, Sasuke. They were in the row directly in front of Ino and Sakura who simply shook their heads at Naruto's normal antics. Sakura's green eyes shifted from Naruto to look at the raven-haired boy in front of her who went on to call Naruto an idiot before resting his head back onto his folded hands propped up in front of him. Sakura giggled in response and Ino could see the Uchiha slightly smirk at the sound.
As Iruka-Sensei began with the morning lesson of their history course, Sakura sat up straight and began to diligently take notes while Ino on the other hand, couldn't help but slump a little further into her seat before her eyes slowly but surely fluttered closed.