Yamanaka Ino; 3 Years Later

Age 15

-The Hardest Mission-

Sasuke and I had been going on missions together a lot lately. So it came to be expected when we were assigned for missions together.

"We completed our mission." I said as I opened the door. Something that WASN'T expected was seeing Shikamaru in the Hokage's seat. "Shikamaru?! You're not the Hokage!"

"Yeah well…" Shikamaru said. "The Hokage's on vacation. I'm filling in."

"Aren't there OTHER people who are more qualified that could fill in?" Sasuke questioned. It was a valid question.

Shikamaru didn't look too thrilled about the question though. "I guess. You'll receive your payment tomorrow morning. You are dismissed."

He obviously just wanted us to leave. It's not like I wanted to hang around for very much longer though.

Sasuke and I walked outside. He was quiet, but he wasn't trying to leave. I took a deep breath and decided to go for it. I wasn't going to be pushy and I wasn't going to be annoying. I was going to be polite and courteous and consider his feelings.

"So Sasuke…" I said slowly.

"Yeah?" he said, looking up and at me.

I quickly averted my eyes. "What are you doing for the rest of the day?"

"A shower." He replied. "I don't know. Probably just hang out."

I was really nervous. How could I be so nervous? When I was younger, I used to ask Sasuke out all the time. Why was it suddenly so difficult?

"Do you want to hang out maybe… together?" I tried, looking at him again.

It was his turn to look away. He was silent.

"Well…" he started. "I have…stuff…to do."

I let out the breath I had been holding. That was all right. He didn't want to go out with me and I had promised myself I wouldn't be annoying about it.

"Well, I'll see you around." I said to him, walking a little quicker. I felt embarrassed now and didn't want to walk next to him.

"Around when?"

I stopped dead. Had I heard that right? That WAS Sasuke, wasn't it?

"Around…seven?" I said slowly.

"Around seven." He replied.

I spun around with a big smile. "Okay!" I said happily.

He waved to me, and I waved back. I could feel like my heart was going to jump right out of my throat or that I was going to sprout wings and fly all the way home. As soon as I was out of Sasuke's sight, I ran home as fast as I could to call someone. WHAT was I going to wear?

Half way home, I took a detour and went over to Tenten's house. I knocked on the door frantically. Tenten opened it.

I let out a loud gasp. "Tenten!" I said.

"What is it?" she said, looking concerned.

"I'm going out with Sasuke tonight!" I exclaimed.

The two of us shrieked like typical teenage girls as we jumped up and down. She was legitimately happy for me. I went inside her house and explained the whole story beginning to end. I finished up with telling her that I had nothing to wear. None of my dresses from when I was twelve would ever fit my new fifteen-year-old body.

"I know what you can wear." Tenten said, going over to her closet and pushing some things around.

"I'm so nervous!" I said. "And I bet Sasuke is too! He's going to be really awkward about going on a date with me!"

"Maybe you should invite some other people to come along?" Tenten suggested.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Like…instead of it being just a date between the two of you, it'll be a big group in order to wean Sasuke into the idea of going out with you." Tenten explained. "Eventually, you two will get away from the group and go out ALONE."

She pulled a purple dress out of her closet. It had short sleeves and would reach my knees.

"That's a great idea!" I said, taking the dress. "And a great dress. Though, I'm going to hate myself forever."

"Why?" Tenten asked.

"If I invite anyone else along, I mean." I replied.

"You should call Hinata." Tenten said. "She's liked Naruto for ages. Maybe you can set them up too."

"Aren't you coming?" I asked.

"No." Tenten answered. "Neji's going to talk at the academy to ninja hopefuls and he asked me to come along."

I raised an eyebrow. That didn't seem right. "He asked YOU?" I said.

Tenten shrugged unconvincingly. "Okay, okay…" she said. "I volunteered to come along to reach out to the female portions of the class…"

"Uh huh…" I said. I knew she liked him. It was so obvious.

"Hey, it's almost six!" Tenten said, trying to change the subject. "You better get home and get ready!"

"Oh right!" I said. "Thanks for the dress, Tenten! I'll give it back to you after my date with Sasuke!"

I loved the sound of that. "My date with Sasuke." How easily it had just rolled off my tongue like that! I got home and showered and blow-dried my hair. There wasn't much I could do with it since it was so short, but I found a clip that matched the dress perfectly and put it in to make me look a little more feminine.

I couldn't find any shoes to wear. My feet had grown out of all of my shoes so I crept into my mother's room. My parents weren't home, so I'd just slip the shoes back unnoticed.

I practiced walking around the room with the heels on. I kept looking desperately at the clock as it reached 7:10. Was he going to come? Was I getting myself excited for no reason?

Then there was a knock at the door. I ran over and flung it open, realizing that maybe I should have waited so it didn't look like I was standing obsessively at the door even though I was.

"Hi Sasuke!" I said, trying not to sound nervous.

"Hi." He said.

He looked a little blank. "Is something wrong?" I asked.

"No." he replied after a moment's pause. "Nothing."

"Okay." I said, shutting the door behind me. I figured I'd tell him about the group plan. "I hope you don't mind that I invited some people along."

"Some people?" he said.

"Yeah!" I said. "We're only hanging out after all. I tried setting up Hinata and Naruto since they OBVIOUSLY like each other. Then I figured I'd try to get Lee and Sakura together since Lee's liked Sakura since before FOREVER and Sakura might have some feelings for him…"

I noticed that he still looked a little blank.

"Sasuke…are you sure you're all right?" I asked.

"Uh…yeah—" he said.

I asked everyone to meet us at a little club that played music and served food. It was a neat place for us to hang out and maybe potentially lose everyone else.

"What is this?" Sasuke said, making his first declarative statement of the night so far. "It's not a restaurant."

Of course it wasn't! "It's a club." I said.

"Oh. I knew that."

"Oh look!" I said, waving to Naruto and Hinata. "There's Naruto and Hinata!"

"Naruto and Hinata?" Sasuke said.

I grabbed him by the arm and pulled him over to where Hinata and Naruto were sitting.

"Hey guys!" said Naruto.

"Hi Naruto, hi Hinata!" I greeted them.

"Hey Ino, didn't you say that Sakura was coming?" Naruto said.

"She said she might come if she felt like it." I said, sitting down in a chair. Sasuke sat down next to me without uttering a word.

"Hey guys!!" yelled Lee excitedly as he ran over. We all said hi to him, but he wasn't concerned with us. "Is Sakura not here?"

"Weren't you picking her up?" I asked since we had talked about that.

"She wasn't at her house so I figured she was already here." Lee answered.

Lee sat down next to Sasuke with a heavy sigh. I felt really bad for him. I knew Sakura wasn't going to show up.

"She'll show up." Naruto said.

The air felt really tense so I figured now was a good time to get away.

"Um…hey, how about we dance?" I said, turning to Sasuke. "Sasuke? Do you know how?"

"Uh—" he said. "…Yeah…"

"Okay, let's go!" I said, pulling him out of his chair. I figured he didn't really know how to dance because, really, where would he have ever learned? So I put his hands where they needed to be and started us off. I began to lead only because he wasn't. It started to make me laugh because I knew that he didn't know HE was supposed to lead.

"Sasuke, you're supposed to lead." I said, trying not to laugh.

"What?"

"You're letting me lead." I told him.

"Um…okay?"

"That's okay, I don't mind." I said, figuring it was pointless to explain it any further.

"So um…" Sasuke said suddenly after a few minutes. "That was uh…nice of you. To set up Hinata and Naruto. And Lee and Sakura."

I looked back at the table to see Naruto and Hinata still sitting there at the table. Why didn't he ask her to dance? "Yeah…" I said. "But I don't think Naruto likes Hinata very much. But she likes him so much! The same with Lee to Sakura and Naruto to Sakura. And Sakura to…" I suddenly felt awkward. What if Sasuke had some deep hidden feelings for Sakura? "…you…"

I let go of him. I felt like everything I was doing was wrong.

"Sasuke, I'm forcing you into this." I said. "I'm so sorry."

"Forcing me into it?" he asked.

"It's okay," I said, feeling incredibly stupid. "I didn't have any right to do this sort of thing to you."

"What sort of thing?" he questioned.

"Are you kidding me?" I said, feeling like I was going to start crying. "You don't want to date me. You never have and you never will. I'm sorry."

I was trying really hard not to cry.

"Ino, I'm sorry." He said.

I hadn't been expecting THAT. "What?"

"I don't know." He replied.

"Who do you think you are?!" came the voice of Sakura. I turned around to see her standing there. "How DARE you do such a thing! You ask Sasuke out behind my back and trick him into coming out with you and then you try to cover it up by making it a group get together thing! You KNEW I loved Sasuke!!"

I didn't even know how to react.

"Sasuke, look deep into my eyes." She said to Sasuke.

"I'm looking." He said.

"And tell me you don't love me." Sasuke said.

Oh no! Oh no! My head was going to explode. If I had to hear him falter, I don't know what I'd do! Was he faltering? I looked at him, trying not to look anxious.

"I don't love you."

I felt like cheering, but that would have been rude.

"NOW," she continued even though she should have left. "Look deep into my eyes again!"

"And?" Sasuke said.

"And tell me that you love Ino."

Now he was faltering.

"Well?!" Sakura said when she noticed he couldn't answer.

"I…" he started. Oh, don't say it, Sasuke! Don't let her force you into saying something is untrue! If he said he loved me just to make Sakura go away, I would completely understand!

"I…" he tried again.

I couldn't stand this. Sakura standing there looking so demanding and Sasuke standing there looking so helpless. "Sakura, don't put Sasuke in this situation!" I said. "You're a terrible person and you seriously need to reevaluate everything you stand for!"

"How dare you, Ino." Said Sakura. "I thought you were my FRIEND."

We hadn't been friends for years. "Well, I thought so too." I said. "But not anymore."

That got through to her. She finally left.

I turned to Sasuke who didn't look like he was going to pursue her. Sakura hadn't apologized, so I would have to. "I'm SO sorry, Sasuke." I said.

"It's not your fault." He said. "I know you just invited everyone else so that I wouldn't feel as awkward, and not so you could make it look like we were just hanging out instead of having—"

He stopped. "A date?" I filled in.

"Yeah, one of those." He said, clearing his throat. "But you didn't have to."

"I wanted to." I said.

"I'll walk you home." Sasuke said.

He wanted it to be over. I followed him out of the club.

"I hope Naruto and Hinata's date goes okay." I said out loud.

He only nodded. I felt so awful.

When we reached the front steps of my house, I couldn't leave him without apologizing one last time. "Sasuke, I'm sorry." I said.

"WHY do you keep saying that?" he said.

"Because I AM sorry!" I said, stomping my foot. I felt my ankle collapse under me because the heel snapped off and I fell forward, grabbing onto Sasuke to keep myself from falling down the stairs.

I was so embarrassed. He probably thought I meant for that to happen.

"I didn't mean for that to happen." I assured him. "And these heels were really expensive too… they were my mom's. I borrowed them from her because I didn't have anything that would match this dress…it's actually Tenten's since I don't have any dresses and—"

I couldn't finish my sentence because he suddenly kissed me.

Don't end! Don't end!

Everything has to end. He pulled away and looked at me. I stood up, not knowing what to say.

"Good night." He said finally.

That helped. "Good night." I answered, opening the door.

I shut the door behind me.

"Yes, yes, yes!!" I cheered but quickly threw my hand over my mouth so he wouldn't hear me.