Uchiha Sasuke; 4 Years Later

Age 16

-My Hopeful Girlfriend-

Today was set aside for nominating ninjas to promotion. When going from genin to chuunin, one required his teacher to nominate him in order to take the exam. When going from chuunin to jounin, it was much more complicated.

If you wished to be promoted, you would inform the Hokage. The Hokage would mull over the decision for a little while and then when the Jounin exam got slowly closer, he or she would announce in front of everyone whether or not you would make an attempt at the exam.

That's why you never tell anyone whether you requested to be nominated.

I was standing in a room with numerous other chuunins and jounins. Chuunins came to be nominated to the jounin exam and jounins came to be nominated to the special jounin level or the ANBU squad.

One of the many people in the room was Ino. She still confused me.

"Come on, Sasuke…" she said. "Tell me…did you ask to enter the Jounin exam?"

I shook my head. I wasn't going to tell her.

Sure, I had. Of course. I asked every chance I got. The sooner I became a jounin, the closer I was to killing Itachi. And the sooner I was to killing Itachi, the happier I was going to be.

That's when the door opened and the Hokage came in. Beside her was Shikamaru, carrying a slip of paper that I knew held the names of those who were being nominated for promotion.

The Hokage sat down. Shikamaru opened up the paper and addressed us.

"The following jounins have been selected to have a try at joining the ranks of special jounin or ANBU." He said. What followed was a list of names that I mostly didn't recognize. When he sounded like he was nearing the end, he sort of stumbled over the last name. "…Nara Shikamaru…"

Stupid Shikamaru…

"The following chuunins have been selected to have a try at joining the ranks of the jounin." He read. He proceeded to ramble off a bunch of names, but I was only listening for mine. "—Hyuuga Neji—"

Stupid Neji…

"—Aburame Shino—"

Stupid Shino…

"—Mi Boshi—"

Stupid…Mi Boshi…whoever you may be…

After reading off the final name, he folded up the paper.

"Thank you." He said. "If you have not been chosen to compete in the upcoming exams, then don't be discouraged because you have plenty of chances to succeed. And, just because you have been nominated, doesn't mean that you are a new rank."

"You are all dismissed!" said the Hokage with a wave of her hand.

I tried not to openly react and just pretend as though I hadn't entered.

"Oh, too bad!" sighed Ino. "I put my name in. Oh well!"

We both left the Hokage's office. I tried not to sigh, but I had really wanted to become a jounin so I could go on more advanced missions in order to get more experience. And then I could kill Itachi.

"How about that Shikamaru?" Ino said. "Pretty cheesy of him to read his own name, don't you think?"

"I don't think he knew it would be there." I said.

"Maybe." Ino shrugged.

She took my hand.

"So, what should we do for the rest of the day?" she asked. "Train? Go dancing? Both?"

It was hard to keep up with Ino. She certainly was a handful. She wanted something different every day and even though she'd ask me what I wanted to do, she normally already knew what she wanted and we'd end up doing that.

We've been going out for almost a year, something I never thought I'd be able to just say about any girl.

"I don't know…" I answered, knowing that no matter what I said it would be irrelevant to what we actually did. "I'd kinda like to train…"

"You ALWAYS want to train!" Ino sighed. "Let's do something else for once."

See what I mean?

"I'm not in the mood to go dancing." I said.

"Oh, okay." She said. She looked up. It usually helped her think.

It was then that Chouji suddenly came by us, looking like he was in a hurry.

Ino stopped and spun around.

"Chouji!" she said. "What's up? Where are you running off to?"

"Oh, hey Ino!" he said, turning around. "Did you get nominated?"

"No, not this time." She said. She considerately didn't mention that I didn't get nominated either. "But guess who did?"

"Shikamaru?" Chouji said, his eyes widening.

"Yeah!" she said. "Sasuke doesn't think he knew it was coming."

She grabbed my arm and hugged it. I shrugged and nodded.

"That's funny!" said Chouji. "I was just on my way to see him! I'll make sure to congratulate him!"

"Try not to embarrass him!" Ino called after him as he left.

I thought about Shikamaru's promotion as Ino and I continued to walk.

How could someone like him…someone who graduated above ONLY Naruto, possibly already be entering an exam that would qualify him for participating in ANBU? Especially since I was still a chuunin, not even being nominated for the jounin exam?

He had been working at the Hokage's right hand ever since he was only in the chuunin rank. How had he done it?

"Hm…" Ino said out loud. "I just thought of what we can do."

"What?" I asked.

"Follow me!" she said. She already had a firm grip on my arm and she began to pull me. I didn't resist and eventually moved on my own in the direction that she wanted.

I found myself in front of her house.

"This way!" she said, pulling me around back. She jumped up into a tree and beckoned me to follow her. I did, and then she pointed at her bedroom window. She jumped inside.

After a moment of hesitation, I did too.

"Shh!" she hissed.

I looked around her room. What did she want to do?

As if I didn't already know…

Everything felt so backwards…so upside down.

This wasn't right.

"Sasuke, I've been wanting to show you this ever since I first fell in love with you after the disaster happened to your clan." Ino said, sitting down on her bed.

Why did I suddenly feel so sick?

"I have I sit down…" I said, feeling a little dizzy.

"Sasuke, are you all right?" she said. "I'm sorry I brought up your family. But you really have to see this!"

"I can't…" I said, putting a hand on my head and turning away. I couldn't do this, not yet anyway.

"Look, Sasuke."

I didn't look.

"Sasuke…look."

I slowly opened my eyes and turned to face her. She was holding a piece of paper that was scrawled on with crayons. I couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief as, thankfully, the room stopped spinning.

I took the paper from her and turned it around so I could see it better.

It was a poorly drawn illustration of two people walking and holding hands. They had red and purple hearts floating above their heads.

"You drew that our first day of school." She explained. "And you gave it to me."

I looked at the paper once more. I examined the people more closely.

"Is this supposed to be me?" I questioned, noting the Uchiha fan that only I could be associated with. She nodded. So then I looked at the other person. It was quite difficult to tell who or what exactly it was.

But then my eyes fell down to the bottom of the picture where, in very sloppy handwriting and clearly written by someone with only five years of coordination, the words, "Uchiha Sasuke and Ino".

"A picture of us." I said finally. "You kept it all this time?"

"Yeah…" she said. "It's been a secret. I've always had it. I look at it all the time. I always wondered why you didn't put my last name there either. I know it's because my name is long and hard to spell for someone your age… but I also like to think that you mentally gave me the name 'Uchiha' even at that age."

She had obviously had a lot of time to think about this. But I didn't remember ever thinking about marriage at that age. As a matter of fact, I never really thought about marriage at all, seeing it only as a step I had to go through in order to revive my clan.

"Ino…really." I said. "That's highly unlikely."

"I know." She sighed, pulling one knee up to her chest as she sat down. "But I can dream, can't I?"

"I guess." I shrugged.

I could hear footsteps coming up the stairs. I knew right away that it had to be Ino's father, Inoshi because her mother would have lighter steps than him. Ino also looked painfully aware of this fact too.

"Quick!" she said in a loud whisper. "Hide!"

"Hide?" I said, somewhat surprised.

I didn't have any time to react at all because she nearly hoisted me up right off my feet and tossed me under her bed. Then she jumped onto her bed just as the door swung open. I didn't say a word or move, only listened.

"Ino, I didn't see you come in." said her father.

"Oh really?" she said. "I did."

I felt a sneeze coming on.

"Well obviously." He said. "Your mother's making dinner. What do you want to have?"

"Anything's fine." Ino replied. "I'm not that hungry."

"All right then." He said, shutting the door.

I sneezed.

Ino let out a sigh of relief and then leaned her bed, looking at me.

"Hey!" she said.

"What was that all about?" I asked.

"I haven't told my parents about you yet." She said with a smile.

I found that to be completely surprising. I happened to know that she kept her fanatical obsession with me public… but I guess that was only when we weren't going out. I suppose that now since we were an official couple, it had to be a big secret.

"You going to sit under there all day?" Ino said.

"Guess not." I said, pulling myself out. I stood up and she sat on her knees on her bed so we were about the same height.

"I have to go downstairs now." She said softly.

"I gathered." I said as she took my hands.

She bounced our hands in place. "Sasuke, you're so shy." She said.

Shy? I've never been called shy before.

"I've never…been called that before." I said.

"See?" she said. "You're blushing."

I didn't feel myself blushing.

She kissed me. "I'll see you tomorrow." She said.

"I'll be there." I said.

I went over to her window and hopped up on the windowsill. I waved to her and she dreamily waved back. I jumped to the tree and then to the ground.

I thought about her.

She had waited for me all this time just because of a silly little drawing from when we were five years old.

Girls really were complicated.

But I suppose it was my duty to try and understand someone like Ino who isn't just a rabid admirer whose love is based solely on infatuation.

Could love really be real at such a young age?

My hormones told me it was true, but my head told me not a chance.

I had never pictured myself having a girlfriend before Itachi was killed. But Ino was something special. Something special, all right. She was different than Sakura… different from all the other girls. I guess that's why she's my girlfriend.