A/N: Sorry it took sometime to post this. I had some college projects to work on. But they are all but done. I should have much more time to work on the Fic. Anyway, I want to thank those that reviewed. I really appreciate your words. Feel free to flame me for the punctuation/spelling/grammar mistakes. I don't mind being roughly critiqued so long it has a meaning. Don't just flame because your a loser bastard.
Anyway, I just like to tell you where the idea of this story came from. I live in Florida and we recently got hit by Hurricane Charley. After the storm, I was out of power for 5 days. And from complete boredom I decided to dust off the old pencil and notepad and write. What resulted was chapter 1 and 2. We got hit pretty hard, my neighborhood was trashed, every other tree was uprooted. Anyway, the rage of the storm made me write something about it. And, well this basically it.
Chapter 4: A Coming Disaster
Heaven, thats the only way Hinata could describe it. Here she was, the shyest girl to ever walk the streets of Konaha, on a date with the boy she loved. Well, she couldn't give herself any credit, he was the one who finally said something. Otherwise, she would still be hiding herself behind some tree, watching him and dreaming about finally confronting him.
"Hinata-chan? Your not eating, you okay?" Naruto question his new girlfriend.
"Yes Nar . . .Naruto-kun." She popped out of her thoughts. "I'm just really hap. . .happy to be. . . be here."
"Well, you would be even more happy if you would eat some raman, its the greatest thing on earth, its Kami-sama's gift to the world."
Hinata couldn't help but to chuckle, Naruto's huge grin only expressed that he was very happy, and spoke the truth about his precious raman.
"But . . .Naruto-kun, aren't I . . . a gi . . .gift to you?"
"Of course!" Naruto yelled out, then embraced his love, giving her a passionate kiss on the cheek. This of course caused Hinata to blush the most darkest red.
The two sat there, enjoying each others company, talking and flirting. Seconds before they were finished however, they were confronted by a member of Hinata's team.
"Hinata?" Kiba gasped "Why are you here with Naruto?"
"Well, I . . . Um . . . well . . . we are to . . ."
"Were dating, duh." Naruto finished for her.
Kiba's eye exploded with jealousy, "DATING!!!, but Hinata, I thought we were . . ." Kiba stopped, remembering his mission." Forget it, I don't have time, I was looking for Naruto, figured this place was the most likely spot."
"What do you want with me dog piss?"
"Naruto-kun, dont ca . . .call him names" Hinata scolded
"Forget it, I'm not insulted, anyway dobe, the Hokage wants to speak with you, don't know why she couldn't just get you herself." Kiba announced.
"Fine, Hinata, want to join me?"
"O . . . of course."
Naruto gave Kiba a quick nod, then with Hinata in tow dashed towards the Hokage's office. While running, Naruto could hear the shouts of Kiba from behind, he purposely left in a hurry so Kiba would have to pay the bill. Naruto couldn't help but chuckle, thats what he gets for interrupting me and Hinata. After a short distance Naruto, with Hinata behind him found themselves at the Hokage's office. The ANBUs guarding the front door, once realizing that it was the fifth's "little brother," let him in without question.
"Finally your here, sure took long enough." Tsunade taunted
"Shush old woman, I was having a lovely lunch with my girlfriend, until your dog message boy ruined the fun."
"Girlfriend?" Tsunade looked at Naruto with questioning eyes, then she noticed a petite figure hiding herself behind the boy. Her lavender eyes downcast, and a look of utter embarrassment covered her face. "Ah yes, you must be Hyuga Hinata, the heir to the Hyuuga clan, I'm surprised someone as shy as you could fall for such a loudmouth baka."
Hinata's pale eyes showed the smallest hint of anger, she slowly appeared from behind her boyfriend, and began to push her finger together with nervousness.
"Naruto-kun isn't a . . . a baka, hes . . . very sm . . . smart." Once she was done defending her love, she quickly got back to the safety of her boyfriend's side.
"Ah, what a cute couple." Tsunade teased "Well anyway, the reason I called you here Naruto is very favorable for you. In fact I'm sure you will just love it. After much talking between the village elders and I, a decision has been made. I'm sure you will love . . ."
Naruto didn't have the slightest idea what the old bag was rambling on about, he quickly wanted this to get over with so he could go back to spending time with Hinata. "Thats all fine and dandy, would you just tell me why I'm here already!" Naruto shouted out.
"Whoa, calm down, I'm getting there." Tsunade yelled back, she wasn't going to let this boy get the better of her. "Okay, I'm here to tell you that you have gained the acknowledgment of the village elders and myself. We would like to promote you to the rank of chunin, that is of course if you agree."
Naruto's eyes grew to an unbelievable size "REALLY!!! Woohoo, step two for becoming Hokage down!!!"
"So I take that as a yes?"
"No, thats a hell yes!!"
Tsunade couldn't help but laugh at the excitement of her little brother. She could tell that this was a very happy day for him. Unfortunately, that was about to change for everyone.
With all of her agility and speed, Ino was dashing about, throwing blunt kunai and shurikens, all were targeted for Chouji. She smirked as he easily dodged them. He has become fast she thought, there was a time when he wasn't able to dodge them and just stood there, munching on his chips and taking the hits. But now, with speed that came very close to Lee's, he was dodging them without even breaking a sweat.
Chouji jumped into the air, before landing he performed a double back flip while simultaneously throwing shurikens. They were headed straight towards Ino with blinding speed. She better move soon, he thought. Ino saw the amazing acrobatic display and was stunned to see 3 shurikens speeding her way. She bent down, forcing as much chakra as possible into her feet and bolted up. She looked down to see that she dodged the shurikens by mere inches, a smiled crept over here face. Looking up to find here sparing partner, she was confronted by another shuriken that seemed to appear out of nowhere. She had no way to dodge, she was still in mid-air from her jump, the only thing to do was to take the hit. The blunt shuriken rammed full speed into her stomach, making her bend over in pain. The brute force of the shuriken caused the air to get knocked out of her lungs, and she went limp. She couldn't help herself from falling straight towards the ground at high speeds.
"Ino!!" Chouji yelled in fear.
With unearthly speed, he sprang from his position, the ground exploded behind him and a dust trail followed the blazing Ninja. Chouji leaped into the air, catching the out of breath girl in his arms, he landed as light as a feather, and took her to the shade of a nearby tree.
"Ino, I'm so sorry, I knew that I shouldn't have thrown that shuriken so hard." Chouji's eyes began to swell, tears were only seconds away. He couldn't believe he just hurt her so bad.
Ino couldn't talk, she was struggling to get air back into her lungs, after a brief period, she came around. "Its okay Chouji, this is training after all, its my fault for not realizing you threw another one."
"Doesn't matter, I shouldn't have thrown it will all my strength, I still haven't experimented enough to know my own power, I fear if that shuriken would have hit you in the head, you might have had a concussion . . .or worse."
"Well, it didn't , so stop worrying about it" Ino smiled, hoping to get the regret of her friend off his chest.
"Well, okay, but I think we should stop training for right now." Chouji looked up, and found the sun. "It looks to be a while after lunch, and I'm pretty hungry, why don't we go ahead and eat those lunches we bought."
Ino smiled, giving her partner a nod, she slowly got up. Together they went over to their bag, where the 2 packs of lunches were kept. Sitting in the shade of a grand tree, they began to eat.
Silence filled the forest as Chouji and Ino sat side by side. Enjoying their meal. Chouji felt like something was wrong with the silence, so he decided to break it.
"So Ino, deep down, do you feel that Shika and Temari are a good couple?"
Ino leaned back, eyes slightly larger from the abrupt question. "What!! What kind of question is that. Of course . . ." She lowered her voice. "Yeah, I suppose they are cute . . . well cute for them. Shikamaru is still my friend, and if hes happy with that sand-ninja, well then so be it."
"Do you still have feelings for Shika?"
"Why would you care?"
"I'm just wondering, trying to talk to you as a close friend here, maybe you need to talk to someone about it, make you feel better."
"Hmmf, when did you get so smart?"
"I've always been smart, hanging around a person like Shika, with an IQ of over 200 kinda helps. In the past I was just too busy . . . eating, to really express myself."
"Okay . . .whatever."
"Just answer the question Ino, do you still have feelings for him?"
Ino lifted her head in thought, Chouji had no right to ask such a question. Yet, she felt obliged to answer.
"No, after I found out about him and his "fan" girl, It went away."
"Went away? I don't think feelings like that can just go away."
"Hmmf, well it did, not only that, once the feelings for Shika disappeared, I realized that he wasn't my type, and I also realized that I had feelings for someone else."
"Who?"
Ino didn't know what to say, she was speechless, its true, she didn't like Shika anymore, and she did have feelings for someone else. But, that someone else was . . .
"None of your freaking business!!" She yelled
"Whoa, okay okay, sorry. Didn't think you would get so upset about me asking such a simple question."
"Yeah simple question, extremely hard answer."
Chouji was hoping she would say his name. After all these years of secretly harboring feelings for her, he thought that now was the best time to get her. But maybe being strong and handsome wasn't enough for Ino.
"Sorry, please forgive me for getting you upset." Chouji apologized, he lowered his head expecting Ino to shout something about how he should have known.
Ino looked at her teammate, he was sulking, he thought he really upset her, but he didn't. She upset herself, her mind was telling her to tell him, yet her mouth betrayed her. Suppose I could start slow she thought, maybe give out some hints instead of blurting it out. Maybe then my body won't betray me.
Ino scooted closer to Chouji, and lifted his head with her index finger. "Its okay, I didn't mean it, I shouldn't have yelled at you for no reason." Ino then stroked his cheek. "I'm the one thats sorry."
Chouji was dumbfounded, and once realizing Ino was stroking his cheek, he couldn't do anything else but to blush. He thought to himself: shes touching me.
Ino backed away, hoping that caught the boy's attention. She knew it had some effect, he was blushing a very deep pink.
Chouji thought that maybe this was his chance, she just showed a side of herself that he rarely saw, maybe he could give some affection back.
Staring at Ino, who now was looking off into the clouds, He found her hand laying gently on the ground. Taking a breath and taking a chance, he reached for it and held it with care.
Ino felt something on her hand, at first she thought some type of bug was crawling on it. But it felt too good to be some nasty critter. She looked down and was surprised to see a hand resting on hers. Following the the arm up, she met eye to eye with the suspect.
"Chouji?" the girl gasped.
Chouji was about to let ago and apologize, but he didn't, he found strength and decided that it was now or never.
"Ino, I . . . Well . . . I have had feelings for you a while now." He felt more scared now then ever, he would happily face that sound-nin again. This was horrifying, but he kept on. "but, I never thought that I was good enough for you. But after I came back from that mission a changed person. I think that maybe I'm someone that you could count on. I just want to let you know. I like you, I like you a lot."
Ino couldn't help but to be shocked, thats exactly what she wanted to say, but had nowhere near the guts to do it. Either way, it was music to her ears. Her stomach filled with butterflies and she felt like she was walking on clouds.
"Chouji, I . . .that . . ."
Chouji saw the shock in Ino's eyes, he thought that it was a mistake. Releasing her hand, he scooted back. He was ready to get up and walk away when. . .
"Chouji, I like you too." Ino breathed out.
Chouji stopped where he was, had she just said what he thought she said?
"You . . . you do?"
"Yes of course, You've always been there, in fact I've always had feelings for you, But things kept getting in my way. Namely stupid boys such as Sasuke and Shikamaru. I'm sorry that it took a heart break and a complete change on you part for me to finally come around."
Chouji was about to respond, when Ino lunged at him, arms stretched wide. She latched herself on to her new found love. Squeezing tight, and resting her head on his chest. He didn't wait to return the hug. He felt warm, her head on his chest was the greatest feeling he had ever experienced. They sat there, enjoying the warmth of the embrace.
Ino looked up, tears in her eyes. Chouji couldn't help but to notice. Thinking something was wrong he asked. "Whats wrong?"
"Nothing, I'm just really happy. I can't believe things worked out so fast. I didn't expect it."
"Yeah me too, I haven't been this happy for a while now."
They once again fell silent, they stared into each other's eyes. Ino made the first move, she lifted up and placed her lips on Chouji's. They were much more soft then she expected. Chouji was experiencing pure nirvana, Ino's lips were pressed against his. They were sweet and soft, he never wanted this to end.
Several minutes passed, then finally Ino pulled away. She wore a beautiful smile, her blue eyes stared straight at her teammate. They leaned back against a tree, still holding each other tight. They were content on just sitting there, periodically giving each other small kisses. Soon time passed, and Chouji found that the kisses from Ino stopped. He looked over and found her sound asleep. He smiled, and thought to himself: might as well join her.
Naruto was still in the Hokage's office hugging Hinata tightly, he was filled with excitement from his new promotion. She was glad for him too, and wasn't afraid to return the strong embrace.
"Wow you two should get a room . . ." Tsunade stopped there, that was a little wrong to say, they were only 12. "Well, never mind."
The excitement ended as a freaked out junin plowed through the door, startling everyone.
"Hokage, sorry to disturbed you, but we have some bad news. Reports from the city say that a tremendous storm just made landfall. Its going to hit us soon."
"A storm, we're far inland, a storm isn't that dangerous."
"No Hokage, its not just a storm. Its a level 5 Typhoon, in fact, its the strongest ever recorded. Its top speeds over 400mph. And even worst, its so strong that when it finally does hit us, it will only weaken by 5 percent!"
Tsuande was shocked, and her eyes conveyed it. "A level 5, its been nearly 2 decades since one that strong has been anywhere near us. When will it be upon us?"
"By night fall."
"Nightfall? Damn its fast. Okay this is what we need to do. Go ahead and evacuate everyone to the caves, the ninjas should stay behind and board up all the windows, and wait until the last minute to make sure there are no civilians left behind. The walls of the village should give us some protection."
"Yes ma'am" At that, the junin left the room and went to spread the word.
"Naruto, you have a mission, your first as a Chunin, I want you to go and gather up all the ones that are training, they are most likely in the forest, make sure you check every training field, especially those outside of the walls. Be fast about it, this isn't something to take lightly."
"You can count on me" Naruto turned around and faced Hinata. "You heard her, I have to go, You should go get your family and get them to the safely of the caves."
Hinata nodded. They both left the room together, each with their own mission.
