This chapter is dedicated to Tsuruga Lia1412: you are so right, and made my day! I really appreciate everyone's reviews and questions - and thank you all so much for reading and following my stories. BTW, I've posted new stories here and on ao3

DISCLAIMER: I own nothing from the Naruto universe but I do have an imagination of my own.

Thinking

Biju, etc. speaking

Biju, etc. thinking

Emphasis

Walking towards the Yamanaka Flower Shop, Naruto was more than nervous. She knew there were things she needed to buy from the shop, which was the absolute best with plants, flowers, and more, but she still wasn't looking forward to seeing Ino-chan again. Ino had been so rude the last two times she saw her at the Academy. Naruto had begged Shikamaru to join her this morning - telling him that he didn't even have to go inside the flower shop - but the jerk wouldn't move out of his bed. Shika had the nerve to tell her that she needed to get this done by and for herself, going so far as to say she was a total wimp if she henged into anyone or anything on her way into town.

He really owed her, too, keeping her up all night with those horrible excuses for movies! What a pain that guy is!

At least the shop wasn't too far from the Nara compound, and so far the streets were fairly quiet. The only attention she'd received from villagers had once again been completely foreign to her. Why the hell were they looking at her like that, and what was with the whistles? Naruto felt like she'd walked into a parallel universe: one that made no sense to her. Things had certainly been different in her past life.

Even before entering the shop, Naruto spotted her. Ino was standing behind the shop's tall counter in the back, looking thoroughly bored, flipping through the pages of a magazine. How many times in her past life had she seen those exact actions and expressions on her old friend?

Naruto and Ino's friendship didn't really begin until after the chunin exams in her first life, and back then Ino thought that Naruto was a stupid boy - so maybe there was still hope for them to be friends again? Naruto's stomach twisted at the thought and memories. It was only after she came back from her training trip with The Perv the first time around that Ino began straight-out asking her questions about her gender. She was always so direct. Naruto had pretended not to know what Ino was talking about until the lighter-haired girl grabbed her bandaged breasts one day. It was then that she began calling her friend "Ero-Ino."

"Naruto-chan?" Ino asked. The way-too-pretty girl Ino thought had been a boy until recently looked completely lost in thought.

"Oh, Ino-chan, gomen," Naruto responded, her voice wavering. As older teens, the girls had gotten along well. They were both sensors and had trained together once they realized it. Of course, by then Ino was over her "All-About-Sasuke-kun" phase and was secretly invested in Sai. Now? Not at all: that had been obvious during their last conversation at the Academy a short time ago.

She looks nervous.

"Is… there something I can help you with?" Ino asked politely, a small smile on her face. She nearly winced when she saw how taken aback Naruto was with this kindness - if you can even call it that. I'm doing just what I'd do with any customer.

"Hai! Ano, I need a lot of plants and flowers actually," Naru said, scratching the back of her head as she always seemed to when she was nervous. She jerked her hand away from her hair and continued. "Maybe some seeds, too? I'm, ano, working on my garden…"

"Oh?!" Ino said with some excitement as she came around the counter, staring into Naruto's blue eyes with her lighter pupilless ones.

Naruto could only hope Ino wasn't doing her freaky mindwalking thing right now; she was standing so close. She definitely didn't want the Yamanaka thinking weird things about her, considering all the emotions and memories from her first go-around that had forced their way to the forefront of Naruto's mind.

"What kind of garden? And how large is it?! Do you have any ideas of what you want: colors, a plan for landscaping...?" Her questions went on and on.

Naruto tilted her head as she considered it. "Yes?"

Ino tilted her head in confusion at that response.

In Naruto's mind, a memory intruded upon her thoughts, one from a slightly older Ino, looking at her in just the same way: "Don't ask me questions when I question you, Naru-baka! It makes it so obvious that you're either deflecting or lying! Just tell me who you're hot for!" Naruto heard those words just as clearly as if that Ino were saying them now.

There was no way Naruto was going to ever admit back then that she was pining for her former sensei: Ino would either gross-out or throw Naruto to the wolves and tell everyone!

"You know, Naruto-chan," Ino said, getting the other girl's attention again as she tapped her finger on her cheek, "I don't think you were ever in kunoichi classes, right? Do you know anything about plants and flowers?"

Naruto's eyes widened. She's being… sincere? "You're right, Ino-chan… I was kind of kept out of those classes. But after I got bonked, Iruka-sensei tutored me about them, plus I've always been good with plants - even when I didn't really know what I was doing with them."

I'm a regular Hashirama Senju; Naru snorted internally at that thought. She let out a little laugh, "I only had Iruka-sensei to 'home school' me. You would've loved the look of not-so-concealed horror on his face: seeing him discussing 'female' things - especially female body issues... I let him go on and on about it, even though I knew all that stuff already just to see if he would really faint!"

Kami! Naruto realized that, once again, she had said too much: Iruka was going to get her back for this if he ever heard about this conversation, come hell or high water!

Ino laughed deviously, before setting worried eyes on the girl in front of her. "I would have loved to have seen that… Ne, Naruto-chan: what did you mean by getting "bonked?"

Naruto's eyes widened - she hadn't even realized that she'd referred to the attack on her all those years ago. When Itachi-kun saved me… Shaking the odd thought off, she waved at Ino dismissively. "Ah, no biggie; just got into a bit of a spot is all!"

Ino watched as Naruto's face flushed. She could tell the other blonde was lying and was also doing it to cover for something really bad. Suddenly she was consumed by guilt. "Ah, okay." Ino really wanted to go back to talking about flowers and such, but her mouth decided to spit out what she was really feeling. "Naru-chan; gomen! Do you mind if I call you that?" Naruto quickly shook her head as her blue eyes seemed to dance in excitement. It made Ino want to laugh, but she was too wrapped up in a question that had been bothering her ever since the last time she spoke with the girl. "Did I upset you that day outside the Academy? Ano, I - I guess I know I did," she said bitterly, looking at the floor. "Sakura was being a real bitch, and I didn't exactly stop her. Plus maybe I was…"

"Rude as hell?" Naru asked, her diarrhea-of-the-mouth kicking into overdrive. Thankfully, Ino chuckled.

"Hai - gomen, Naru-chan," she answered easily. "Sometimes I don't know what gets into me. Honestly, I don't really remember exactly what I said, but I've known it was bad ever since. Especially after the way Shikamaru and Choji reacted." Naruto grimaced - she could only imagine. "They've been my friends since like, forever: we have pictures together from when we were babies, for goodness' sake!"

"Ooo... I'd like to see those," Naruto replied. Shikamaru was really adept at keeping her away from his baby photos, especially after his mom pulled them out to show her one day. Shika had taken off into the forest with the photo album, his mom yelling and chasing him all the way. Naruto never did get to see past the first page of pictures. And now I can't dig around for them anymore because I've moved out, she mourned.

"We can definitely do that! But that's if... " Ino made a face. "What do you think about starting over again? Maybe we can be… friends?"

Lame it may be, but Naruto had to keep herself from jumping for joy. Those feelings were dampened a LOT when she realized that this Ino still had it bad for the Bastard. Meh, I can work on that with her! "Yeah, Ino-chan. I'd really like that," Naruto said shyly. Ino immediately grabbed her hand and dragged her through her shop, chatting her head off about plants, plans, and "boys." Hopefully, her old friend didn't see her wipe the tears from her eyes a couple of times. Ino didn't say anything: she was cool that way - at least she had been in the past/would be in the future.

Kakashi lazily walked through the gates of the compound. Looking ahead, he saw a sea of Narutos pulling weeds and planting - or something like it. On the porch, he saw more Narutos unsealing scrolls of potted plants and flowers. He couldn't help but feel that he was watching an army. An army of my wife - that's a little scary. He purposely stepped on a branch, allowing her to react to his presence.

The army jumped, turning toward him, some clones brandishing weapons. He held up his hands as he faced the nearly blinding smiles of so, so many blue-eyed blondes. "You're here," most of them chorused excitedly, although he was sure that he heard at least one of them whistle and say "Nice ass," as he passed.

Wow: his wife was something else…

The army went back to work as what he could only assume was the original ran toward him, grabbing his arm and pulling him up the porch's stairs. Kakashi noticed that she was in a particularly good mood, chatting away to him about the purchases she'd made this morning and a reconciled friendship.

He was getting used to her, somewhat, he thought.

Her presence was so bright and bubbly, it had at first been… intimidating. Kakashi wasn't one to socialize with people so chatty, and certainly not those who were the touchy-feely type - outside of Gai, whom he tried to avoid like the plague. But Naruto had a certain way about her: she was welcoming and warm. Entering his new home - the thought of that made him feel what could only be described as butterflies in his stomach - he realized the Naruto hanging on to his arm was not the original after all. Standing in front of him was the blonde herself, once again working in the kitchen.

Naruto dispelled her clone, then realized that the damn clone holding onto her husband had told Kakashi about her morning. Receiving her memories, she felt a little jealous of her clone being so close to Kakashi. She scoffed: I need to get over myself, literally. She smiled up at her former sensei, with whom she was now living. Suddenly feeling shy she looked down and bit her lip, "Hi, Kakashi." What's with me? I can't feel this way if we're living together: I'll die!

Kami, she was nervous!

Realizing he was already missing the warmth of her body - or the clone's body - that had been beside him, he greeted his roommate, er - wife, "Yo!"

Why is she blushing? "What are you up to, Naru-chan? Aside from tearing up the yard…"

"I'm not tearing it up, I'm putting in flowers and herbs!" She pointed a wooden spoon at him threateningly as she continued to speak. "You'll appreciate those herbs at least in your meals and such!" He watched her cheeks pinken even more as she began tapping the spoon on the edge of a shiny pan. "Ano, if you'll allow me to cook for you, ya know. You don't have to…" She turned away from him and he noted that it must be out of embarrassment or worry because she wasn't focused on her task and seemed to take a deep breath to calm herself.

"Maa, and why wouldn't I want you to do that, Naru-hime?" Without thinking about it, he had stepped in beside her. "You're a great cook unless you were playing me about cooking that morning," he said with amusement. She looked up at him in shock, shaking her head emphatically.

She was just too cute.

"Hmmm…" Kakashi sighed out loud, scratching his masked chin. A thought occurred to him, something he felt like he should do - but would it be out of line? It was tradition, after all, in Village culture - as well as in many other places. He heard Naru asking him if he'd like one dish or another right now… He wasn't sure what he agreed to as he watched her putter around their kitchen; he was really unsure if this was the right action to take. Their marriage was only on paper so far, but it wasn't like it was a farce, not at all. He liked her, and… with that, he decided.

"I should have been here earlier before you came in," he declared, getting her undivided attention. She tilted her head, wondering what he meant, and was just about to ask when he threw her over his shoulder. She made a little shrieking sound and he chuckled...

- A deep sexy chuckle that Naru realized she hadn't heard before. (She thought Kakashi only giggled like a girl - as he did when reading his damn perverted books.) Kakashi carried her out to the porch and set her down, a grin on his face and a blush reaching just over his mask.

"Here we go, ne?"

Naruto had no idea what was going on until he lifted her up bridal style and carried her back into the house, kicking the door closed behind them.

"You - you carried me over the threshold?" Naruto asked in either amazement or bewilderment, he wasn't sure which. Her incredible blue eyes were wide and twinkling, and she was blushing again, her pretty mouth open in shock but with a little grin added. He nodded his head sheepishly and looked away. He felt her arms wrap around him. Looking down at his little wife, his heart began beating rapidly at seeing the sweet smile on her face as she looked up at him. That look changed as he realized she was now looking at his masked lips. He looked at hers - so full, pink, and lovely… Without further consideration, he bent down and met those sultry lips with his own.