Naruto Primer: Rock Lee and Ino
The Set-Up
Ino loved Sasuke with all her heart.
Rock Lee loved Sakura with all his heart.
Ino was waiting by herself in front of a café area. She had gotten a letter signed 'S' in beautiful, pink, cursive penmanship. The letter asked her to come to that café at that exact time. She figured that the letter must have been from Sasuke, after all, S is for Sasuke, and she had recently helped him with an embarrassing predicament. He probably wanted to pay her back with a date.
"Come on Sasuke…" she complained to herself as she leaned over, trying to see further down the street. She couldn't see her beloved approaching her with a giant bouquet of flowers.
Instead, she could see the familiar face of Rock Lee approaching her with a giant bouquet of flowers.
"Um…what are you doing here?" Ino said nervously.
"I'm waiting for someone." Lee replied dreamily. He, too, had gotten a letter from a mysterious person signed with a pink, cursive 'S'. He assumed it was Sakura because…well…just because. Who else would it be from?
"Who?" Ino asked.
"A secret admirer!" Lee said.
Ino looked at Lee with both her eyebrows raised. "…Right." She said. "It's not, by any chance, Sakura?"
"Well, I don't know for sure, I think so." Said Lee.
Ino cleared her throat a few times. "Well, I'm waiting for Sasuke." She said when she realized that he wasn't going to ask her while she was there.
"Really?" Lee said, surprised. "For a date? Did he ask you?"
"Sort of." Ino replied. She looked down the street again. Suddenly, she caught sight of Shikamaru out in the distance. Walking in her direction. She blinked a few times. Shikamaru? Could he be the 'S' in the letter?! It couldn't be! It was supposed to be Sasuke!!
Her heart skipped every other beat as Shikamaru got closer and closer and then…just… walked right by her. Ino let out a heavy sigh of relief but suddenly, Shikamaru turned around.
"Oh right, Ino!" he said.
"NO!! GO AWAY!!!" she yelled.
"It doesn't matter what you do." Shikamaru said. "You still owe me that game. I helped you out."
Ino paused. "Is that what this is all about?" she asked.
"What do you mean 'this'?" Shikamaru said. "I don't feel like playing right now, so I'm going home." With that, he turned and left.
Ino gave ANOTHER sigh of relief. "Okay, so it's not Shikamaru…"
"What was that all about?" asked Lee since he was STILL there.
"I got a little worried that it was actually Shikamaru who asked me to come on this date." She said.
"You don't know who asked you out?" Lee said in an almost patronizing tone since it didn't occur to him that he didn't know who asked him out either.
"I do KIND OF." Ino said. "Who else could it be? Sasuke's the only one who would ask me out on a date. I had always thought that Shikamaru kind of liked me but he would never do something as 'troublesome' as a date."
"Oh right." Said Lee as if he understood.
"It's kind of weird that both of us were asked anonymously to the same place at the same time." Said Ino.
"Yeah, weird the way the world works." Lee agreed.
They stood there in silence for a minute.
"My date is late…" Ino said, looking at the clock.
"So is mine…" Lee answered.
It was silence for another period of time in which you may decide.
"I'm kinda thirsty…" Lee said suddenly. "Do you want to get something to drink at this place while we're waiting for our dates to come?"
"Um…sure… this isn't a date or anything though…" Ino assured him.
"Of course not." Lee said quickly. "I hardly even know you! Plus, my heart is only for Sakura."
"Right, and my heart is only for Sasuke." Ino replied.
The two went into the café area and ordered some beverage of the reader's choice. At that moment, Sakura jumped out of a bush and stood triumphantly where the two were once standing.
"Haha!" Sakura announced. "Operation Hook-Up-Love-Obstacles was a success! But will it last?"
Yes Sakura, will it last? No one can really tell with young love these days. Then again, I doubt Ino or Lee are experiencing any love vibes between the two of them considering they both have an unhealthy obsession with someone else that is NOT each other. So the question still stands; will it last? Personally, I think not. They probably entered, got something to drink, waited around for a couple more hours, got fed up and left. Of course, both leaving and assuming that the mysterious 'S' was probably a prankster and definitely NOT their appointed crush setting them up only to crush their hearts. For they both were convinced that their crush actually shared feelings for them. Poor, poor misguided fools. Oh well! Tomorrow's a new day!!