It was just one of those 'will this ever end?' days and the rain set the mood. Ino strolled home alone. Shikamaru offered to escort her, but she had shaken her head in response. She wanted to be alone. What a dumbass she had made of herself. She always set out to be the leader, but well that failed.

She found herself sitting under the cover of a tree's leaves. The clouds made interesting shapes she could peacefully stare at while she thought. She wondered what Sasuke was doing. Thinking of him made her smile, always did. Sometimes it was as if he was already her boyfriend and all these hours were spent missing him.

"Hey," a foot nudged her arm. She hadn't noticed the figure approach her. "Here ya go." a little red flag dropped next to her. She didn't know what to say. Was this another mean prank? How should she react not without furthering her embarassment? Once Asuma had appeared smoking his cigarette to the scene of 3 Genin and 2 Chuuin he wasn't pleased at the sight. So right in front of these two older boys the 3 Genin had been scolded and failed on the 'game'. It was one thing to be corrected in front of Shikamaru and Choji, but scolded like a child in front of teenagers?! Ino just wanted to crawl into a hole and cry.

Not receiving a response, Izumo crouched down to be at eye level with Ino, "Listen, I'm sorry about earlier." now she looked to him. "Didn't mean to make you look bad- uh, hey, are you all right?" Crap, he had seen the glaze of tears over her eyes. Just the memory of the incident upset her now.

"I wanna be alone." again, she seemed like a child looking away from him.

"No you don't."

"Yes I do," who was he to tell her what she wanted. However, his words made her blush.

"If I leave you alone, you'll cry." he told her. "If I take you with me, you'll suck it up like a ninja and forget about it."

"I don't want to cry," she sniffled a little, "but I don't know about the forgetting about it part." Why was he being so kind?

"Then come on," thunder rolled in the background. "I'll show ya a good time to make up for what ya been through." A good time? That just didn't sound right... Was this another trick?

"How can I trust you?" her tone was back to normal.

"See, you do act like a ninja." he winked. Standing up, he turned and began to stroll on, "Now come on."