For Aile Anna, thank you for helping me become closer to the type of person I want to be.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. I wished I did, but I don't. T-T

Chikadzuku

Chapter 1: False Pretenses

If someone had told Yamanaka Ino years ago when she was an overbearing genin that she would one day come to deeply respect Konoha's Uzumaki 'Dead Last' Naruto she would have laughed in their face and continued along her merry little way.

It's funny how a few words can deeply change the perception of another.

It was the summer before Naruto's 16th birthday and Ino had been working the family flower shop. Contrary to the popular opinion of Konoha, Yamanaka Ino didn't hate running the shop, she loved it. It was the one place she knew that she could claim sanctuary in. After all, who in their right mind from her age group would want to visit a flower shop unless they had too? The lazy days where there were no customers to take care of was Ino's favorite. There was no one she had to boss around or pretend for. The flowers liked her as she was, never judgmental and always attentive when she spoke to them.

Yamanaka Ino would never admit it to anyone, but she was tired; tired of all the lies and facade that she had somehow managed to trap herself into. She had never intended for them to get so big, or to be so time consuming, but somehow they did. She was tired of chasing after Uchiha Sasuke – the so called village hottie; especially since her heart wasn't in it. It hadn't been, for a number of years now. She had only continued the 'obsession' to get Sakura to realize that a rivalry between friends over a boy wasn't worth the trouble.

Like many other things that Ino had done on a half baked whim, it failed.

Now she was stuck into "liking" the Uchiha boy who looked at her and the girls of Konoha village with ill-concealed contempt. She wanted to stop, she honestly did, but that would mean that she would have to admit to her other errors and if it was one thing that Yamanaka Ino didn't want to do, it was to admit her mistakes. A girl's got to have pride after all.

Even if it bothered her to no end.

Everyone expected Yamanaka Ino to loud, bossy, arrogant, and thoughtless. She might have been that years ago when she was a genin, but she was different now. Or so she liked to think. It bothered her now that she had to go around throwing childish tantrums when they didn't give into her persona's whims.

Yes, it was definitely funny how some things can change a person's life.

Ino would never forget how her heart felt as if it had nearly stopped when she had heard that her teammates were gravely injured. To see Choji when he came back to the village, so pathetically thin and uninterested in food... had nearly crippled her with grief. The heartache was slightly lessened when she saw that Shikamaru was in better condition, but that's when the epiphany struck. If she acted any differently now from what they expected, the dynamics of Team 10 could change dramatically and things may never return to normal. Choji may never want to eat any more, and Shikamaru... well, he'd be even more sluggish than usual since he actually had cause for it. So with a sinking heart, Ino remained the same.

It wasn't as if she didn't have a clue to how Konoha reacted to change. After all, she had first hand experience in witnessing those reactions. Uzumaki Naruto, who had once been known as the Konoha's #1 hyperactive ninja, was the object of much attention these past few years. Ever since Uzumaki had defeated Hyuuga Neji in battle, he had been different. There was a guarded wariness in him that wasn't there before. He talked and smiled the same as he usually did, but there was deliberateness to his actions. It was as if it was more of a reflexive behavior than his actual personality. At first Ino had attributed it growing pains since her own teammates Shikamaru and Choji were often like that, but it didn't make sense. Things simply didn't add up. Asuma-sensei had told her, as he had heard from Team 7's sensei, of Uzumaki Naruto's unexpected diligence and success at becoming stronger. It seemed that the village loser was ready to get serious. Naruto had stopped bothering his fellow teammate Haruno Sakura out for dates, and didn't antagonize the village anymore with his pranks.

Well, not as much as he used to anyway.

Ino was practicing ikebana- the art of flower arranging; when she heard the musical tinkle of the doorbell announcing the arrival of customer. More than a little annoyed that she had been interrupted, Ino barely managed to restrain the urge to attack the customer and settled for a fairly unenthusiastic "Irrashaimase!" instead.

"Irrashai," came back the response. Nearly dropping her flowers, Ino turned around to watch as Uzumaki Naruto entered the store to browse. He stopped every so often to look at a few plants, but made no move to touch one. He perused the aisles for nearly half and hour before he finally reached out to examine one. Ino automatically held her breath. This was where most customers managed to mar her careful creations.

She sighed in relief when saw that it was a light tentative touch that many employed when handling delicate or antique items. Surprised and faintly pleased with the respect that Naruto showed, Ino decided that he was worth the interruption of her work. Pushing herself off of the table she had been leaning against, Ino asked "Need some help?"

Naruto carefully removed his hand from the flowers he had examining to answer Ino. "No thank you Ino-chan. I'm just shopping for flowers."

Curiosity peaked at the admission and Ino couldn't help but ask, "For whom?" She wanted to know who it was for since it had been a while that Naruto had a crush. He hadn't shown any signs of interest in anyone since he had defeated Neji and gone after Uchiha Sasuke.

"For myself," came the simple reply. Since his merge with Kyuubi was nearly completed, Naruto found himself with increasingly sharper senses, particularly those of smell. He found himself often missing the scents of the forest when he returned home from a day of training or a mission. Most particularly, he missed his favorite spot in the forest where he was surrounded by the river that teemed with marine life. It was the perfect spot for thinking or fishing.

"Oh," was all that Ino could reply. She watched as Naruto moved away from the winter lilies that her father personally tended to in their gardens at home to the less commonly tended plants. She saw him reach for the himawari - sunflowers which Ino had once grown in droves as a child, and smiled. "Do you like Himawari?"

Naruto's hand stilled for a moment before he continued to reach out and cup the flower. He stared down at the himawari intently for a moment before he answered her. "No, not particularly." His thumb brushed aside a petal as he continued on, almost as if he was talking to himself. "To be known to the world only for one face, is sad. No one would know that you wept even as you laughed-" Naruto caught himself, as if he was surprised that that he had said that rather than something light and flippant. "Excuse me," he said a little stiffly, noting Ino's surprised expression. "I think I am more tired from my mission than I thought. I'll take those please," he said, pointing at the Moon-Lotus blossoms.

Ino nodded as she moved to take the plant for packing. What a sale this was! She marveled. The Moon-Lotus flowers were one of the most expensive blossoms in the store since it was so hard to raise and care for. As she wrapped up the plant, Ino's brow furrowed in thought as she played back their conversation. Naruto stood against the counter, waiting for the total. Ino took a peek at his face, and noted -probably for the first time, that Naruto had grown up. Decision made in a split second, Ino handed him the wrapped plant as she said, "No charge Naruto-kun."

Eyes blue as the skies of summer, were startled as they met hers. Ino smiled, fighting the urge to blush at her lapse of Ino-ness superiority. "Go on," she said, flapping her hands. "Shoo. You need to get those flowers home and taken care of otherwise they'll die and my gift will be for nothing." She flapped her hands at him again for a good measure, somehow managing to usher him out of the store while simultaneously shoving the list of directions he would need to follow in order to care for the fragile blossoms in his pocket.

When he was safely out, Ino slammed the door shut as she quickly flipped the closed sign on the window. She leaned against the door with a sigh as she thought of Uzumaki Naruto. He had definitely changed. Before, she would have never felt comfortable enough to let go of the tight control she held over herself, but when she had heard those words from him, it had sparked something inside of her. For that brief moment that she had caught a true glimpse of Uzumaki Naruto, Ino had been compelled to show him her real self as well.

It was odd, thinking of Uzumaki Naruto that way. She had never thought she would see him as a mature person. Ino supposed that in her mind's eye, she had always expected him to remain the same, unchanging like Uchiha Sasuke who still didn't any room for his life for anything but the need to become stronger so that he could kill Itachi. This was one of the reasons why Ino couldn't really bring herself to be quite so interested in him. Just what the heck did Sakura see in him anyway?! He was just so... boring. Even Shikamaru -who drove her crazy with his penchant for old man games, was more interesting than Mr. I-need-to-kill-my-brother-for-revenge.

Ino sighed as she brushed aside some soil for a bulb. She didn't even know why she was doing an analysis on the boys in her life when she wasn't even content with her own self-analysis. Sometimes, Ino wished that shoe could just drop the facade she had locked herself into, but that wouldn't be a good idea given Konoha's current frame of mind. Orochimaru's jutsu of swapping bodies had made the entire village a little more than paranoid. Ino didn't fancy the idea of Anbu members taking her in for "questioning". She could still remember with stunning clarity, of Morino Ibiki's chilling testimonial the first time she had tried to become chuunin.

Ino shook her head, pale blond hair flying as she tried to dislodge the thoughts running amok in her mind. Konoha already had so much to deal with since her first attempt for the chuunin rank: Hyuuga Neji's defeat at the hands of the village loser Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke's mad trip to Orochimaru in search of more power so that he could kill his brother, Hyuuga Hinata's leaving of her ancestral home to live as she wished, Naruto's retrieval of Sasuke that had almost cost her both teammates Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Choji; it had been a hectic two years. The last year wasn't any better either since it was dedicated to helping Choji heal, motivating Shikamaru to act with her classic Ino-style bitchiness, and her own ascension to the rank of chuunin.

There was a knock on the door before it opened, revealing to Ino her 10 year old sister, Momo. "Ino-neesama." Her sister had taken to calling Ino with the sama honorific when she had become chuunin. Ino didn't particularly care for it since it was a sour reminder of the role she had trapped herself into, but since Momo didn't ask much out of Ino, the honorific stayed.

"Hmm Momo-chan?" Ino replied as she was putting the last finishing touches to the ikebana.

"Otou-san wants to know if you'll still be practicing with him this morning."

Ino froze. She had forgotten about the training appointment with her father this morning in her rush to the flower shop for some peace and quiet that had been interrupted by Naruto's visit. Ino exploded in a flurry of action, moving with a grace and skill that most people didn't expect since they had assumed that her rank had been a fluke.

Momo watched in silence as Ino whirled about, putting the shop to rights. It never failed to amaze her that Ino – who had once been so frivolous and weak, had attained the rank of chuunin. It strange though, when she saw Ino outside of their home; Ino was -and Momo hated to admit it, bitchy and below average.

Many shinobi of Konoha, who had not traveled with Ino to Sand Country for the chuunin testing, believed that Ino's ranking was a mistake. Known as one of the village beauties with her ice-bye eyes and flowing blond hair, many thought and whispered that Ino had either charmed or worse, slept her way to the rank. Those who had traveled with Ino, however, knew better. They had seen Ino fight like a striking snake, utilizing the training that she had received from her father and Asuma-sensei for the past three years after she had failed her first attempt for the chuunin rank.

Momo blinked as she came into sudden view with her sister's chest. "Momo-chan," she heard Ino say. She could detect a hint of impatience from her older sister. Ino had probably been trying to catch her attention several times now.

"Hai Ino-neesama?"

"Here are the keys Momo-chan. I gotta run off to meet 'tou-chan, so close up for me will ya?" Ino dropped the keys into Momo's hands as she disappeared in a puff from smoke.

End of Chapter 1

Terms:

- Genin: apprentice ninja

- Ikebana- the art flower arranging

- Irrashaimase!: means welcome! It's what Japanese shopkeepers say to customers entering their store

- Irrashai!: what the customers can say back to the greeters if they wish

- Kyuubi: the nine tailed fox demon that Naruto has sealed within him

- Himawari: sunflowers

- Anbu: an elite team of ninjas assigned for special jobs by their villages. There can be more than one team of them.

- Chuunin: a middle ranking or average ninja

- Shinobi: ninja

Author's notes:

Thank you all for taking the time to read my fic! As you can tell, this takes placed 3 years in the future after the beginning of the Chuunin exams. Time has been slowed down, so instead of the few days or weeks that it was in the manga, it will have taken a bit longer to have gotten Sasuke back. Naruto and the gang that went with him to retrieve Sasuke will have been gone for a while. This fic will be in conjunction with Deeper Than Indigo, but it really isn't a Naruto/Hinata fic though there will be flashes of that pairing. Chikadzuku is more of a Ino centric fic. Please review me to let me know what you think!