You Naruto readers certainly are the silent horde. 500 hits but just 4 reviews for one of my fics, lol. Still, to the vocal minority, thank you for all your kind words. Sorry for not responding to each individual one, review alert is on the fritz for me :P Nothing else to say, so on with the fic!

Disclaimer: Naruto and its associated characters and locations are not my property, and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Ino sighed; it had been a slow day. She'd offered to look after the shop for her parents so that they could go out and enjoy some "alone time" or whatever, but nobody seemed to feel the need to buy flowers today. Simply put, she was bored.

Shikamaru and Chouji had stopped by earlier to see if she wanted lunch, and she'd told them that she'd be closing up for lunch in around half an hour. Chouji had gone on ahead to their favourite place to eat to reserve some seats, while Shikamaru had said something about "going to find a good cloud spot nearby". He really was weird.

Just as she was about to get ready to leave, the bell above the door rang, causing her to look up.

"Welcome to Yamanaka's Flower Shop, how may I…"

She trailed off when she saw who had just opened the door. While he probably wasn't the last person she'd expect to come into the shop (Rock Lee had been barred ever since an occasion where he'd attempted to buy out everything and send it to Sakura in what he called "An Explosion of Youthfulness" and Orochimaru wasn't known for his great love of flowers) he certainly ranked in the top few.

"Naruto?" she asked incredulously. "What are you doing here?"

Naruto stuck his head in and looked from side to side furtively, as if he didn't want anyone seeing him entering. Of course, the sight of his orange clad lower half was probably just as recognisable as his head, so the passers-by would easily have been able to distinguish which Genin was about to enter Yamanaka's. Still, this thought hadn't occurred to him. When he was certain that there was nobody else inside the shop, he went in, flashing Ino his impish grin.

She rolled her eyes, but smiled back despite herself. "I was just about to pack up for lunch. You'd better be quick; otherwise Chouji will have eaten everything before we get there. What do you want?"

Naruto walked over to the counter, stealing a glance over his shoulder as if to check that he wasn't being followed. Then, whispering in the tone of someone delivering covert information he said:

"I want to buy some flowers."

Ino gave an exasperated sigh and hit him over the head with an empty ceramic pot that was lying around. Naruto scurried back clutching his head, a hurt expression on his face.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"Of course you're here to buy some flowers, why else would you come to a flower shop? What kind of flowers do you want?"

Naruto removed his hands from his head and instead put them in a thinking position, his brows furrowed. He hadn't thought this far ahead.

"I dunno," he said at last. Just as Ino was about to reach out and thwack him again with the pot, he suddenly seemed to have an idea.

"Hey, you're friends with Sakura, right? Do you know what kind of flowers she likes?"

Ino blinked at this. Naruto was buying flowers for Sakura? She supposed she shouldn't be surprised. 'After all, nearly half the boys in Konoha like her,' she thought, and Naruto certainly made no secret about his feelings. She wasn't bitter about this though. After all, half the boys Konoha definitely liked her. Still, the ones who liked Sakura seemed to be far more pro-active about their crushes…

"Hmm? What's the occasion?"

"Well, I'm going to be going away for Konoha for a pretty long time…I just wanted to give her something special…"

Ino smiled. He could be a real sweetheart sometimes. "Don't worry; you've come to the right place!"

She got out from behind the counter, leaving the pot behind (much to Naruto's relief). It had been a while, but the memory came back to her as if it had just been yesterday that they'd been friends, playing in the field or the park…She selected a variety of different flowers, arranged them, then wrapped them up expertly.

She went back to the counter and rung it up. Naruto rummaged about in his pockets until he brought out a cute little frog wallet. Ino had always liked frogs and toads; it wasn't ladylike, but as a child she'd always keep bringing them into the house, much to her mother's chagrin. He emptied quite a lot of its contents out, causing it to deflate and look notably less happy. She went to count out what he owed her, but he stopped her, shaking his head and tapping the side of his nose.

"Hey Ino…Sakura's going to be pretty lonely for a bit without me around to keep her company," (Ino doubted that) "so let's just leave that there as…a deposit. What do you say?" He dropped what he no doubt thought was a sly wink, but what in actuality just made him look like a huge moron. Which he clearly was.

Ino looked him directly in the eye. Calmly, and without a word, she drew back her fist, and then swung it forward in a full bodied hook, sending him sprawling across the floor. She walked up to him and bent over him. He was clutching the side of his face.

"Now Naruto," she said. Her tone was still level but the look in her eyes made him flinch again. "I'm sure what just happened there was a misunderstanding. I know you didn't just try to…buy my services to help Sakura." He shook his head vehemently. "And I'm sure what you meant to do was ask me to keep Sakura company in your absence." He nodded along. "Also, no doubt you appreciate that, if my friendship could be bought, it would take a great deal more money than what you just offered." He nodded again. "Good. I'm glad we understand one another."

She went back to the counter, finished taking out the cost of the flowers from the change, put it into the till then pushed the rest of the coins to the side along with the flowers. Naruto staggered to his feet, hastily shoved the money into Gama-chan, gingerly took the flowers, and then rushed out of the shop as fast as he could.

Shikamaru heard the door to the shop close again. A couple of minutes earlier he'd turned his head to see if it was Ino, but it was just Naruto, in a hurry for some reason. This time it was her. "Shikamaru, what the hell are you doing?" the reprimanding tone in her voice reminded him of his mother. How troublesome. He swung his feet off the bench he had been lying on and sat up. He glanced lazily in her direction.

"Watching the clouds." What did she think he could have been doing? Hadn't he told her as much earlier?

"You've probably be scaring my customers away! Come on, let's get moving."

Shikamaru dragged himself to his feet and followed her. After a few brisk steps to catch up (she seemed to be moving quite quickly for some reason) he realised that she was heading in the wrong direction.

"Hey, Ino, where are you going? The restaurant's back there," he said.

"I know that, I'm just following Naruto for a bit. There's something I need to see," she replied, not breaking stride. Shikamaru sighed. 'At this rate, Chouji will have eaten everything by the time we get there,' he thought. '…How troublesome.'

Once they'd caught up with Naruto, it immediately became apparent as to where he was headed. He'd probably arranged to meet Sakura at the bridge earlier, as he was making his way there now. Ino was curious as to what was actually going on, and had been formulating a plan so that she could find out. It was brilliantly simple. All they needed was some cover…

Just then, the bridge came into site, with Sakura waiting on it. She glanced in their direction, no doubt hearing Naruto coming, and Ino pulled back into a nearby bush, sticking out her arm to indicate to Shikamaru that he should stop as well. She needn't have worried; Shikamaru had hung back, walking deliberately slowly so that he wouldn't get caught up in all this business. She glared at him when he sauntered up and hunkered down next to her.

"Mind telling me what's going on?" he asked. She made a hushing motion to quiet him, and he rolled his eyes. They were around 10 metres away and upwind. There was no need to be overly quiet. Still, he humoured her and remained silent. When Ino judged everything to be safe, she began speaking in a low voice.

"I just want to know what's going between Naruto and Sakura," she confessed. "I dragged you along because I need someone to make sure nobody sees me passed out in the bushes while I use Shintenshin." She frowned. "I'm going to have to go into Naruto's mind. Sakura managed to detect and expel me in the Chuunin exam, so he's probably the safer bet."

Shikamaru, who had been thinking about how troublesome it would be for him if he was caught with an unconscious girl in the bushes, noted a flaw in her plan. "No," he mused. She looked at him with a raised eyebrow. It was rare that he went against something she said, so this must be important. "You don't want to go into Naruto's mind either…"

"Why not?" she interrupted.

"Because…there's something there. Something really malicious. You remember him in the fight against Neji, right?" She nodded. "That awful chakra that came out when he was fighting…that belongs to something, and I don't think it would appreciate you butting in."

Ino shivered. Shikamaru was right; no way did that chakra belong to something human. Its oppressive feel, its colour, everything. She furrowed her brows, thinking.

"But how else am I supposed to get close enough to here them?"

Just then, her question was answered. A small frog hopped out of the river and onto the bank. She'd not really tried entering animal minds, but they couldn't be more complex than human ones, right? Shikamaru followed her gaze and his eyes widened.

"Ino, you can't seriously be thinking about-" She answered his question by collapsing, seemingly lifeless, into his arms. "Dammit." He rested her on the ground, and then watched the frog.

He saw it blink once, then twice, then three times. He'd noticed that this often happened when Ino took over a body, as she fought to get control of it. The blinking stopped, and the frog seemed wave towards his hiding spot, causing Shikamaru to roll his eyes. Then, full of purpose, the frog continued onwards to the bride to better eavesdrop. Ino settled down in the damp near to were the two were standing.

"…I already said not to worry about it Naruto," Sakura seemed to be saying. "You're nowhere near as late as Kakashi-sensei usually is." It didn't look like she'd missed much of the conversation. Ino still felt pretty uncomfortable in the frog's body, but it wasn't too bad, as long as she suppressed the creature's mind.

"Anyway, what was it you wanted to talk to me about?"

Naruto rubbed the back of his head in the way he often did when put in an uncomfortable position. "Um…I'm leaving to go train with Ero-sennin later today."

Sakura's smile faded. "Oh…that's…nice, I guess. Are you- How long will you be away?"

"Well, Ero-sennin says it'll take Orochimaru three years until he can transfer himself into…Sasuke's body. So that long, I guess."

Sakura's head dropped further at this, but she tried to maintain the smile. "Well, I hope you have fun-"

That was when Naruto brought the flowers out from the bag, offering them to her. It seemed to do the trick of snapping her out of her depressed trance, as she exclaimed in delight.

"Oh, these are my favourite! How did you know?" He just grinned and flashed her a thumbs up.

"These are to remind you of me, and the promise I made. I'll get stronger and come back…and we'll bring back Sasuke together!"

At this point, Sakura did something Ino saw as completely unexpected; she flung her arms around Naruto and hugged him. She couldn't be sure, but it looked like she was crying.

"Come back safe, okay? I don't want to lose you like…like I lost Sasuke," she told him, half sobbing. Naruto, initially as surprised as Ino, smiled at this and held her until the shaking slowed. When she pulled away, wiping her eyes with arm, it was clear she was smiling.

"And don't forget, we're in this together. I'm going to get stronger too, so we can both help convince him to come home…" Sakura trailed off, her eye fixed on a spot on Naruto's left cheek. "Hey, is that a bruise? Looks pretty nasty. How'd you get it?"

Ino grinned inwardly at his response ("Oh, I fell over on the way here"). What she saw next startled her; Sakura's right hand began to glow, and when she gently touched him where Ino had made contact, the purpling skin began to heal and return to its normal colour. Once she was done, Sakura leaned forward as if to inspect her handiwork, but instead gave Naruto a light kiss on the cheek. When she pulled back, her face flushed, Naruto's hand went to the spot, disbelieving…

'Dammit!' thought Ino, 'Time's almost up. Going to lose control soon-'

Just as she said this, the frog's natural instinct broke free, causing its tongue to whip out and grab a nearby fly for a quick snack. That was all it took to catapult Ino back into her own body, gagging. Shikamaru glanced down.

"Back? Learn anything-" She gave him a glare that silenced him instantly. Instead, he helped her to her feet and steadied her. Once she was done coughing, she said,

"Come on, let's go. Chouji's been waiting, and you know how he hates to see food go cold." Shikamaru nodded, not pressing the point. He knew he'd seen Naruto and Sakura embrace, but it had been from a distance. It could have been anything. 'Asking would just lead to trouble,' he thought. And if there was one thing he could do without, it was trouble.

On their way back, Ino spoke up. "Hey, I was thinking about inviting Sakura to come train with us tomorrow. What do you think?"

Shikamaru shrugged. "Whatever you want."

He was so whipped.

Why didn't Naruto's demon fox regenerative powers heal him, you ask? Because that would have made for a less interesting scene, that's why :P.

To clarify, as a friend of mine didn't get the joke: Ino smacks Naruto because he's basically paying her to complete escort-like services, which our blonde haired kunoichi no doubt objected to. Explaining a joke means it probably wasn't a very good one, so my apologies if you didn't get it.

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