Yamanaka Ino; 6 Years Later

Age 18

-He's a Keeper-

I hadn't really actively attempted to set Sakura up with anyone. I hardly had time to shower between missions, let alone try to find time to get Sakura a date. I was sure she'd be fine without me though because her attitude seemed to be improving… at least, as far as I saw.

Being a jounin was hard work and believe me, there was plenty of it. But something that made it that much more bearable was the fact that Sasuke was always there by my side.

And, now that I was eighteen, I was officially able to date him. Even though I had been dating him for going on three years, my parents didn't have to know that. As far as they were concerned, he had only just recently asked me out on our first date, I had accepted and then I offered to bring him home for dinner! My father required that he come home for dinner.

"We should be getting ready for our mission tomorrow." Sasuke said as I brushed something white off his shoulder. Dandruff? No, not dandruff. Just something white. "We don't have time to do this…"

"Oh Sasuke, don't worry about it." I said, grabbing his collar and playing with it with a tug. I knew he hated it when I did that, but that's why I did it.

I let go of him and went over to the mirror, checking my hair one last time as he fixed the collar I had played with. We were currently over at his house, a place a spent a lot of my free time at.

No, no, no. We had never…er…you know.

Sasuke just…well, he wasn't ready. He's a lot shyer than most girls might think.

"Do you remember the story?" I asked him.

"Yeah…" he said.

"Okay." I said, spinning around. "Just remember, if my dad found out that I've been dating you for this time without telling him then he's going to immediately make assumptions."

Sasuke suddenly found interest in the floor and turned slightly red in the cheeks. He's so shy!

"Everything has to be absolutely perfect!" I repeated over and over to the point in which I think he was nauseated. But that only meant I was doing a good job drilling it into his head.

"I still don't know how you possibly kept this a secret for three years." Sasuke said.

The first thing that popped into my head was that it had been easy because there was only one set of parents to deceive. I was going to say it out loud, but I quickly caught myself before I did. That wouldn't be a smart move. I usually avoided bringing up his family as much as possible.

Instead, I smiled. "It's hard sometimes." I admitted. "But we won't have to keep it a secret anymore."

"You know…" he said, coming over to me and taking my hand. "It'll come out sooner or later."

"Hopefully, we'll all be older and be able to look back at that and laugh." I said as he brought his face close to mine. I've kissed Sasuke plenty of times, and Sasuke has kissed me plenty of times, but there was still a feeling of anticipation and excitement every time he brought me close like that. Sometimes, he pulls away at the last second to tease me, and sometimes he'd turn my head to the side and only give me a light kiss on the cheek. Then, of course, sometimes he was feeling romantic he'd give me what I wanted. I think he likes to keep me guessing so I don't come to expect anything from him.

"So…?" he said, lowering his voice. "Is it time to go?"

I looked past his shoulder at the clock.

We were supposed to be at my house fifteen minutes ago!

"Oh no!" I yelled, letting go of him and throwing my arms up in the air in surprise. I accidentally smacked him right in the nose.

He gave a little yelp and grabbed his nose.

"Oh, Sasuke, I'm sorry!" I said as he lowered his head. "I didn't mean to! Are you all right?"

"I think my nose is bleeding—" he said, standing up straighter to reveal that there was blood dripping out of his nose. Actually, it wasn't really dripping… it was more so… FLOWING out.

"I'm so sorry!" I yelled again, running into the other room to get a napkin. I came back and worked my way in past his hands and tried to stop the bleeding.

"Ow, ow, ow…" he said, pulling away slightly as I squeezed his nose.

"Don't be such a baby, Sasuke!" I said. "We're late!"

"I'll take that." He said, but I could barely understand him. He took the napkin from me and held it up to his own nose, angling his head upwards. "I think we're going to need more napkins."

"Oooh…" I said as I went to get more napkins. How could I have done such a stupid thing? Now we were going to be really late.

…And Sasuke had a bloody nose…

But that wasn't as important.

"Has it stopped yet?" I asked, throwing nearly his entire stock of napkins and paper towels in his general direction.

"What do you think?" he said.

"Sasuke…I'm so sorry!" I said. "Are you angry at me?"

He didn't answer at first.

"Sasuke?" I asked hesitantly.

"No, I'm not angry." He said, looking back at me and taking the napkin away. We both waited for his nose to start bleeding again…and it did wait for a second or two before suddenly going at it again full blast.

"Are you a hemophiliac or something!" I said as he ambushed him with napkins in attempt to do SOMETHING to stop the bleeding. I looked longingly at the clock to see that we were now eighteen minutes late. "Sasuke, you'll have to stop the bleeding on the way there! We're way too late!"

"All right all right…" he said as I dragged him to the door and flung it open.

But…I guess I did a little too much fling…

Because the door smashed right into Sasuke's forehead.

The force of the door hitting him without warning made him fall over right onto his back.

I spun around.

"Oh my god!" I exclaimed as he sat up. He had dropped the napkins and was now bleeding all over his nice shirt and he already had a big mark on his forehead from where the door had hit him. "Sasuke! Are you all right!"

"I don't think I'm going to survive the night." He said.

I practically shoved more napkins up his nose while I ran to his room to grab him another shirt. He was standing up and putting his free hand to his forehead when I came back.

"Come on, come on!" I said. "We'll just tell my dad you got those from a mission we were just on!"

I pretty much took the bloody shirt off and put the clean shirt on FOR him since he was too busy clutching his battle wounds.

Now, with a little more control, I opened the door and led Sasuke out.

I kept looking back at him in vain hope that the bleeding was stopping… or at least slowing down.

We reached my house at twenty-five passed. I looked Sasuke over. He had a huge egg on his forehead that was turning all sorts of lovely colors but at least his nose had stopped bleeding for a minute.

"Okay, are you ready?" I said, taking a deep breath.

"I guess…" he said, wiping his hands off on the napkins.

I let the air out and opened the door.

"Mom?" I called from the doorway. "Dad? I'm home!"

I wanted my parents to come to the door so it wouldn't be as if Sasuke was welcoming himself in.

"Ino!" said my mom as she came in. "We were wondering where you were! And this must be—" Her eyes widened at the sight of the lump on Sasuke's forehead. She quickly tried to pretend as though she hadn't been staring at it with her mouth gaping over like a fish. "—and this must be the famous Uchiha Sasuke that we've heard endless stories about! Won't you come in?"

"Hi Mrs. Yamanaka." He said, but he sounded really congested because of the bloody nose.

I took his arm and led him in.

"Hey mom, sorry we're late." I said. "We uh…were running behind schedule."

"It's all right!" my mother said. I knew that my dad minded though, but he would pretend as though he didn't.

She took us into the dining room and I introduced Sasuke to my dad. They shook hands, which kind of made me wince because I think my dad noticed the blood on Sasuke's hands. My father and mother sat down across from us and we sat down on the other side of the table.

"We were getting ready to send out a search party!" joked my dad but I could tell that he was annoyed.

"Haha…yeah…" I said, pretending as though I thought he was joking.

I looked at the two extra place settings.

"Mom…Dad…are you expecting someone else tonight?" I asked as I took a sip of my water.

"Oh well…we figured that Sasuke's parents were coming along." My mother said.

I nearly spit all the water all over her. Sasuke's nose suddenly exploded with more blood.

"Oh, Sasuke!" I said, quickly trying to cover him up with a napkin.

"Is something the matter, Sasuke, dear?" said my mother ignorantly. How could she NOT know about the Uchiha massacre! My mother was so stupid sometimes!

This wasn't going well at all!

Sasuke waved his hand. "No, nothing's wrong." He said. "My parents were unavailable tonight."

"Oh…that's too bad." Said my mother. "Well, I'd sure like to see them sometime."

"I would too." Said my father.

Now, he had no excuse. He SHOULD know about what happened to Sasuke's family. But I did have to applaud Sasuke for not losing his temper at them for bringing up his family.

The meal was all around very silent. Once Sasuke's nose dried up again, we were able to eat in peace. My mother began to clear the table as my father got a look on his face that suggested he was ready to start interrogation.

"So…what made you have interest in my daughter?" We hadn't rehearsed that question.

"Her tenacious ambition as a ninja." Sasuke answered. "She impressed me because she wasn't like all the other girls who only became ninjas so I would notice them."

Was he telling the truth? Or was he just saying that to impress my father?

"Yes…Ino is a very gifted ninja." My father said. "I myself wasn't a jounin until I was twenty-four. Ino?"

"Oh…yes?" I said, taking a moment out of being flattered.

"Could you give Sasuke and I a few minutes to talk?" he asked. "Man to man?"

"Um…sure!" I said, looking at Sasuke and standing up at the same time. He nodded with a confident look on his face. The bump on his head looked so silly. I left the two of them in the dining room and went into the kitchen where my mother was.

"Ino, I like that Sasuke!" she said. "He's a keeper!"

"Mom!" I said. "You've hardly talked to him! How do you know you already like him?" I didn't know what made me say something so incredibly stupid, but it had just popped out of my mouth.

"It's my woman's intuition." She said. "I can just tell that he's the right boy for you."

"How can you possibly know something like that?" I said.

"You two have a chemistry that suggested you've been close for years." She said. Uh oh, did she know? "Once you have a daughter, you'll understand, Ino. He's a keeper. He's a keeper."

He's a keeper, she said.

Well, I knew that much. I just hoped that my dad thought so too.