Yamanaka Ino; 1 Year Later

Age 13

-Do You Love Me?-

Sure, we were ALL worried when Shikamaru didn't return from his mission at the appointed time. But I wasn't about to lose sleep over it or let it hinder my training performance. After failing so miserably in the chuunin exam, I was more pumped than ever to become a great ninja!

No one was going to ruin it for me! Not Asuma! Not Chouji! Not even Shikamaru could POSSIBLY keep me from attaining the ultimate ninjaness!

I know now that it's not hair, looks or brains that Sasuke is attracted to. He is looking for a woman who can be his equal, or even better him, in a true ninja battle. I've cut my hair extra short and worked out more than ever. You could even go as far as to say that I've gone hardcore tomboy… I guess that might be true.

I've become even more distant from Sakura. Her interest in becoming a ninja seems to be dwindling as she focuses her energy more than ever on her looks. I don't mind. Less competition for me.

I was determined to get Sasuke to notice me. It didn't matter who I had to stomp on to make that happen, but he was going to fall in love with me and eventually marry me. We were going to live in one house together and I will help him revive the clan!!

But…uh…ANYWAY…

For the next chuunin exam, I hope to pass with Sasuke. That was going to take a lot of work so that meant waking up early, always being on time for training and working hard like the chuunin exam was tomorrow!

I got up an hour early and did a little extra training before heading out to where I was to meet Asuma and Chouji.

"Hey Asuma!" I said. "Any word on Shikamaru?"

"No, not yet." Asuma answered. "But I'm sure he's fine."

"Yeah." I agreed. "I mean, what's going to happen?"

Shikamaru and his father went on a mission together. I'm not allowed to know the details of the mission since I'm only a genin, but all I heard was that it was dangerous. I'm not entirely sure I believe it though, because if it was really all that dangerous, the Hokage would have sent more than just two incompetent Naras.

"Hey, could we get started?" I asked.

"No, not until Chouji gets here." Sighed Asuma, looking at his watch.

"Could we just start now and have him join in later?" I requested.

"No." Asuma said, not taking his eyes off his watch.

It wasn't like Chouji to be so late. So, while Asuma stood there staring at his watch and not moving at all, I began my training. I kicked the pole, punched it and did a bit of conditioning.

Finally, Chouji arrived. His arms were full with food and it was hard to be angry at him since he graciously offered it to us.

"Why are you late?" Asuma asked Chouji.

"My dad let me sleep in because I was out late!" Chouji answered. "Do you know if Shikamaru came back from his mission yet?"

"No, not yet." Asuma replied.

"Oh…okay." Chouji said.

I had heard enough of this conversation. I knew that if I didn't say anything, Asuma and Chouji would fret and worry about Shikamaru all day long and waste precious daylight. "Can we start with the training?" I asked, trying not to sound TOO impatient.

We started with some conditioning. I could tell Chouji's mind was wandering because he was messing up even the simplest of tasks. When we practiced shuriken throwing, he couldn't hit a single target. Just when I was about to say something, Asuma lost his temper.

"CHOUJI!"

"Yes?" Chouji said.

"Stop letting your mind wander!" Asuma took the words right out of my mouth.

"Okay…okay…"

The training continued. We focused a lot of time on shuriken throwing. I could tell that Asuma was also concerned about Shikamaru since we didn't normally do this much standing around throwing things. I was a little irritated that we weren't moving forward.

I looked over at Chouji who had completely stopped his shuriken throwing and was only staring at one of his ninja stars. He KNEW he was thinking about Shikamaru. Why is everyone so concerned about Shikamaru? He's going to be FINE!

"Chouji, stop thinking about Shikamaru." I said.

"What?" Chouji said, jerking back into reality. "How did you know?!"

"I can tell!" I said. "You've been worrying about him ever since he left and your training has been getting really unfocused! Now, normally I wouldn't care at all but it's starting to hinder MY training ability so I DEMAND that you try harder and pay attention to what we're doing! And you can stop worrying about Shikamaru! He's going to be fine!"

"You don't KNOW that, Ino!!" said Chouji, sounding slightly angry.

"Now now, enough of this." Said Asuma, coming in between us. It's not like I had any intentions to maul Chouji so there was no reason for him to come in between us like that but I guess Asuma has to feel as though he actually does something every once and a while.

"Asuma, YOU tell him." I pleaded.

"Ino, you can't tell me that YOU'RE not worried about him too!" said Chouji.

"I AM!" I confessed, entirely by accident. "But not to the unhealthy extent that you are!"

Suddenly, a jounin ninja dropped down from the trees. I have to admit I was surprised since I didn't sense his presence prior to when he showed himself, but I suppose that's why he's a jounin and I'm a genin.

"Asuma," he said, pulling Asuma aside. He and Asuma had a short conference. I looked at Chouji who was biting his fingernails.

Now I was suddenly nervous too. What if something HAD happened to Shikamaru and it was that ninja's job to break the news to Asuma. I felt really really bad that I had yelled at Chouji and that I hadn't worried about Shikamaru.

After what seemed like forever, the ninja finally left and Asuma turned back to us.

"What happened?" Chouji asked frantically.

Asuma began to laugh. Obviously nothing bad had happened to Shikamaru.

"Shikamaru has returned from his mission!" Asuma announced. "He is unscathed and doing just fine!"

Chouji let out a sigh of relief, but I was angry at everyone for making me worry and regret so much. "Let's go visit him!" said Chouji.

"Didn't you hear Asuma?!" I demanded. "Shikamaru's FINE! We don't have to visit him!"

Chouji only looked at me blankly.

I knew we'd never get on with training unless we visited Shikamaru. So I gave up and gave in. I had to go and work in the flower shop today so I'd need to return back to the village soon ANYWAY.

It's not like Asuma was in a hurry to disagree with Chouji either! We all went back to the village and straight to Shikamaru's house.

Chouji had a skip in his step. I could tell he was relieved that Shikamaru was back and couldn't wait to hear the details of the mission… even though technically, we're not supposed to know about them since we're only genins. But we could usually harass the specifics out of Shikamaru.

Chouji knocked on the door and Shikamaru's mom answered it.

"Shikamaru's in the backyard." She said, sounding pleasant.

"Thank you." The three of us responded as we all went into the backyard.

"Shikamaru!!" Chouji exclaimed. Shikamaru was lying on the lawn, looking up at the sky absentmindedly as if he had nothing else to do. Why am I even surprised? That's what he's always doing! "We're so relieved you're okay!"

Chouji ran over and engaged himself in an enthralling conversation with Shikamaru. I really didn't care all THAT much. I mostly just wanted to hear what the mission was all about.

"What were you doing on your mission this time?" I asked.

"I can't share the details of this mission with a genin." Said Shikamaru in such a way that it sounded almost like one word. He's said that phrase so many times that it's pretty much second nature.

"Please, Shikamaru?" I pleaded.

"I can't share the details of this mission with a genin." He repeated.

He was being tough today. Usually, he would at least break eye contact to show that he was close to faltering. He's too lazy to keep secrets. He's too lazy for pretty much anything, as a matter of fact.

"At LEAST tell us why you were late!" I said.

"I can't share the details of this mission with a genin."

"Fine." I said, getting a bit offended. "Well, I have to go to work anyway."

He probably just got lost and didn't want to admit it. That would definitely be like Shikamaru.

So I left Shikamaru, Asuma and Chouji there. I knew they didn't want me to hang out with them anyway.

It didn't bother me that Asuma liked the boys better than me. I didn't really care… as long as I got trained. I knew I would become a chuunin soon so there was no reason to worry about being taught under Asuma for very much longer.

I looked at my watch and realized that I was a little behind schedule.

I picked up my apron on the way over, which only made me even later. When I finally got there, my mother looked pretty angry. Just as the customer left, she looked at me.

"Ino, you are fifteen minutes late!" she said.

"Mom, I went training this morning." I said. "But Chouji was late and Asuma wouldn't start until Chouji got there! So we started late!"

"You could have left early." She said crossly.

"Yeah!" I said. "But you know how Shikamaru's been away on a mission for a few days? Well, he came back today and Asuma and Chouji wanted to go over and welcome him back so we had to do that!"

"Ino, enough with your excuses." My mom sighed.

She took off her apron and went towards the door to leave.

At least she didn't comment about liking my hair long. I think that annoys me more than her yelling at me for being late.

"Oh and Ino…" she said, turning around.

Here it comes.

"How about you grow your hair out?" she said. "It looked so pretty when it was long."

"Mom, it got in the way!" I said.

"I'm JUST saying!" she said as she left.

She was always like that. I think she liked me a lot better before I got serious about becoming a good ninja. She and I used to shop and do our hair a lot but now I train all the time. She really has no idea what it's like for me! It's impossible for me to get anything serious done with her pestering me all the time AND making me come in and work at the shop.

I started practicing a little bit, when I heard the bells that signaled someone entered the shop.

"Welcome!" I said instinctively before I even checked to see who it was.

It was Sasuke!

"Oh, hi Sasuke!" I said dumbly. I thought it was really strange that Sasuke was in the flower shop. He had never come in before. "What are you doing here?"

Sasuke didn't answer. He only looked at the flowers.

I knew he wasn't there for the flowers.

I went over to where he was.

"Are you looking for anything in particular?" I asked him, hoping to start a conversation.

"No, not really."

"Are you sure?" I said, continuing to follow him. But he replied with only one word answers as I tried to get some specifics about why he was there.

"Ino," he said in a final tone. "I can't find the type of flower I'm looking for. So I'm leaving."

He went to the door.

Why HAD he come in, then? It wasn't just to see me, that much was obvious. He was running off now, probably to meet up with Sakura.

"Sasuke, wait!" I called.

He stopped.

"Sasuke…tell me honestly. Do you love Sakura?"

He left without answering.

WHY did I ask that? It just came out of my mouth when I wasn't paying attention. I felt so stupid. I had probably just ruined all my chances of ever becoming the woman Sasuke would marry.