What's goooood? I'm back with another banger, just a few words before y'all start reading. Thank you for the support. Thank you for even reading! 2k views! It may not seem like shit, but I'm appreciative everything. Each review, each save, each follow, everything. I tried to make up for the holidays by dishing out this big ass chap so I sincerely hope you guys enjoy it. A quick word of note, this my first fighting chapter so lemme know how I did. I personally didn't fw it but, who knows? Always room for improvement. (Edit: My. Fucking. Bad. I ain't even realize how many errors I missed. Like deadass, call me on it. That's embarrassing as shit. I restructured some things cuz it didnt look right but hopefully it looks better.)
Loud, dull meaty thumps reverberated throughout the forest in quick succession. Two nearly identical figures were in the middle of a sunlight-speckled clearing, throwing powerful blows that could only be seen as blurs. A strong blow caught the spiky black-haired figure in the gut, sending it flying back before it performed a back handspring, sliding back into its stance. The feral-looking figure cracked a vicious grin before it pulled out a kunai, spinning it a few times for extra measure, and lunged at the impassive blonde leaving an afterimage in its wake.
Prepared for an onslaught of attacks, Naruto swiftly reached for his holster and parried the kunai that swiped diagonally towards his chest and countered with a thrust of his own, only to find his left hand know to the right. Unfazed, he quickly utilized the momentum from the force of the block and allowed his arm to swing out wide, bringing his right leg around to deliver a swift roundhouse kick towards the assailant's temple with his heel.
His opponent immediately telegraphed the kick and ducked under and tried to sweep out the lone leg from under this, Naruto jumped with his planted left leg and rotated, carrying the force of the missed kick over. Once the blonde was suspended in the air, he feigned a kick to make the figure react.
As expected, the assailant fell for the feint, and brought up their guard, crossing their arms in front of them. Using this opportunity, Naruto allowed himself to rotate one more time, landing a cruel modified question mark kick to the back of their head, snapping the figure's head snapped downwards.
Naruto hit the ground in a crouch, he stood and turned around, shocked that his opponent wasn't down for the count from the devastating blow he landed. It was then that the demonic-looking figure looked at him with a manic grin on its face, and rushed him again, blood pouring from his scalp and down into its eyes, clouding its slitted pupils.
Standing his ground, Naruto allowed the crazed assailant to throw any punch or kick they chose, as he stepped around each move, not allowing them to touch him. Patiently waiting for the right opportunity by swaying and leaning out the way of the strong blows, the blonde Anbu Captain found an opening and unleashed a strong kick into their side that sent the enemy rocketing into the nearest tree, splintering it.
Still stuck inside of the tree, a deep demonic laugh boomed from across the clearing, "Even after all of these years of being stuck inside of you, you're still quite unpredictable, Boy. A very dangerous trait to have in your line of work."
The cool blonde calmly strolled over to the damaged tree and stopped before the figure, his hand outstretched towards it, "One has to be, Kurama." The demon looked up at the blonde man, blood-red irises piercing ocean blue.
Naruto and the nine-tailed fox demon had grown a lot closer over the years, each gaining mutual respect and acknowledging one another as equals from all the hard battles they had faced together. However, after being sealed inside of Naruto's stomach for twenty-one years, Kurama had understandably begun to start feeling restless after a while. Naruto, understanding how he felt since he's seen the "prison" for himself, collaborated with great youkai to create a Jutsu for him. Thus, Fūinjutsu: Hyōi (Sealing Technique: Spirit Possession) was born. Once the seal was drawn out, the Jutsu allows the user to import their chakra into it and allow them to "control" whatever the seal was inked onto (think of a bastardized version of the Mind Puppet Switch Cursed Seal Jutsu, but like smarter and less risky). Every once in a while, Naruto would let Kurama join him on his messier missions, but primarily he kept it to sparring. One drawback was Kurama hated using straw dummies, opting for the freedom of shadow clones. However, when they did use them, the Jutsu allowed the body of the clone to be more durable, at the expense of altering the clones' features into one of a demon; such as turning their hair black, mutating their eyes, nails turning into claws, and intensifying their whiskers.
"So it may seem," Kurama said before firmly grasping Naruto's hand so he could get yanked out the tree—it was fairly uncomfortable, "You're just lucky I can't go all out in this weak form. Round four?"
Naruto hadn't hesitated a moment before nodding.
"Jutsu?"
"Nothing too dangerous."
The demon cracked a wicked smirk, "You're no fun, brat."
Sliding into his stance, Kurama carefully analyzed the whisker-faced man for any movements, the slightest mistake would cause him to lose their spar and his pride wouldn't allow that to happen, again.
Naruto, however, stood in a slightly hunched position, his left leg in front and his right leg behind him. Although his lead leg was slightly bent, most of his weight was distributed in his back leg as opposed to the front that everyone was accustomed to. This allowed him to effectively block incoming blows without breaking his footing to compensate. The unorthodox footing made it capable for him to dash or evade at a moment's notice from any position, hence why he chose this style to begin with. His left hand was extended in a relaxed southern dragon claw sign, and his right hand was by his hip, palms open, and slightly upturned while facing outwards. This style was called the Ryūjin (Thunder Dragon). It was a personal style of Jiraiya's that was in a scroll the old pervert gave to him before he passed.
Kurama's eyes sparkled with glee upon seeing Naruto use his former sensei's style. Things were finally getting serious. Sliding into an ancient stance Naruto had never seen him use before, he locked eyes with the calm blonde before letting a genuine smile spread across his lips.
3…
2…
1…
"Naruto," a feminine voice yelled out from the thicket off to the side, "where are you, you asshole!" Kurama's gleeful look immediately fell into a scowl as he looked in the direction of the noise.
"Really? Right now?" Naruto relaxed from his form and bowed slightly, although it was amusing to watch a bijū thousands of years old pout in front of him in his body. How many people could say they have seen that?
"Gomen Kurama, another day."
The demon looked back to him and crossed his arms with a glare, "But you never have this much time. Do you understand how much sparring we could've done?" Naruto's eyebrow raised in amusement from his behavior. It wasn't uncommon, but it still was weird to see. Schooling his features, he pointed at the rustling bushes with a deadpan look on his face.
"Fine! You owe me though, Brat."
"I'm the brat… Right," Naruto thought sarcastically.
"Of course, Kurama."
The nine-tailed fox demon grumbled a couple of curses as he ran through the hand signs to disengage the Jutsu. Recalling the chakra inside of the seal, he flipped his partner in crime the finger as the clone disintegrated into ash.
As Naruto watched the strange, yet familiar phenomenon, Ino burst from the shrubbery with twigs and leaves covering her hair and purple crop top. The only thing unmarred was the furious grimace that was plastered on her face.
"You!" Ino pointed a stern finger at him, her pale blue eyes burning in anger.
"Me," he agreed with a slow nonchalant nod. Ino was thrown off by his smart-ass response before her nostrils flared and her glare intensified.
"I'm going fucking kill you Uzumaki," Ino punctuated her statement by drawing a kunai from the weapons pouch behind her and holding it in front of her body in a reverse grip. He knew that she would be upset since he essentially left her to wander the entire forest by herself without any help or direction, but the fact she managed to locate him at all sparked a flame of intrigue within himself. Curious to see how things were going to go, Naruto crossed his arms—muscles bulging in the sleeveless turtleneck undershirt— and focused his attention on Ino.
The action garnered notice from Ino, but she ignored it, in favor of beating the tall man's face in. Not wasting a second, she dashed at him, seemingly blurring from his view.
Once the object of her fury was within arms reach, she stabbed at him with her blade. Before she could even react, a puff of smoke obscured her vision and a hand firmly held her wrist in place. When the smoke cleared, she saw that it was Naruto that was in front of her, staring at Ino's face with a neutral expression. He held no weapon, but she knew the point he was making. He could very well kill her if he so wished to. Her frustration lowered to a simmer from the confusing situation she found herself in.
"When did you create a clone? You didn't make any hand signs," Ino asked, slightly irked at not being able to harm the blonde.
Naruto, who hadn't moved an inch from his position behind his clone, leaned to the left side of his clone to peer at her. He took the opportunity to temporarily uncross his arms and point a finger behind her, "Your emotions blind you."
Ino's face sported a confused visage as she turned her head, only to find another clone obscuring her line of sight with a kunai hovering mere centimeters from her neck and icy blue eyes boring into hers. A nervous sweat bead trickled down the base of Ino's neck as her eyes widened slightly, "He can control where the clones appear without even moving?! That's gotta be cheating somehow."
His point being made, he dispelled his clones and stood up straight, recrossing his arms, "Come at me with the intent to kill or I will kill you myself." Not that he would, that would be way too much paperwork. Although Ino somewhat knew that he wouldn't kill her, the point still drove home. If she didn't take this seriously, she would never improve. To squander her efforts after getting this far would've made her entire plan pointless. However, that didn't stop her from feeling nervous about facing off against the human powerhouse that was Naruto Uzumaki.
Ino knew that he wouldn't go all out since she was nowhere near his level, but he was in the Anbu! An Anbu Captain at that; the best of the best. Only the most elite shinobi ever graced that rank, hell, Naruto being Jinchūriki alone placed him at Kage-level!
"Just what the hell have I gotten myself into…"
Steeling her nerves, she relaxed her form and took a deep breath. Looking at the tall, imposing, broad-shouldered man before her, she spoke with clear determination, "I'll do whatever it takes to get stronger, I won't be left behind." Naruto felt a strong sense of deja vu from that particular statement, it almost felt as if he were looking at a shadow clone.
Mentally shaking his head, he cleared his mind of all emotions and thoughts and prepared himself to see what the young woman had to offer, "I'm dying to be killed."
She smirked, "Anything goes?" Naruto promptly pulled out a brown book from his weapons pouch and sat down cross-legged on the short, green, vibrant grass, letting out a yawn as he read it.
"Duly noted… Asshole," she muttered to herself as she quickly performed a shunshin into the thicket of trees to create distance and develop a plan for her spar with Naruto.
"Smart." Naruto hadn't looked up from his book but he still had to commend her for not falling for the obvious tactic, it was common sense for shinobi; when you didn't have a clue what a stronger opponent was capable of, regroup and discuss a plan to attack or retreat.
Meanwhile, Ino's mind was running a mile a minute as her eyes were trained on the uncaring blonde, "Mind Jutsu are definitely out, thanks to his fuzzy friend, hell, even my water Jutsu are shit out of luck. I didn't see a single water source since I entered this stupid forest. A straight-up attack is simply out of the question since I already can see that I'm not capable of dealing with the bullshit he can do up close…and I would rather not find out the hard way, again." Ino paused for a second once she realized something, "Wait, didn't he suck at genjutsu back then?"
Hands already in motion, her eyes confidently locked onto him, "Let's try this," Ino opted not to shout out the name of the technique as she finished the last sign of the Jutsu, whispering out, "Chōshinka (Butterfly Needle Fire)." The effect was subtle, yet efficient.
A single blue butterfly materialized, and flitted about in front of her seemingly unaware sparring partner in an erratic fashion, dancing on the wind as if it were a stray leaf. However, Naruto paid it no mind as he idly turned a page in his book, unbothered by the insect. Ino had to physically restrain herself from smacking her forehead as she mentally berated herself, "Of course! It wouldn't work because it's a sight-based Jutsu. He needs to look at the butterfly for it to activate!"
"Leave it to fucking beaver," Ino was annoyed beyond belief. What did it take to stop one person? She was fighting an uphill battle and was already left with no other choice but to reveal her trump card, which sucked because it hadn't even been five minutes.
Putting her fingers together, crossing her first two fingers on each hand in front of her, four shadow clones burst into life. The massive dip in her chakra almost caused her to lose her footing on the branch she was on, but she managed to still herself so she wouldn't give her position away. The most she could do without straining her reserves were five, so she still had a decent amount of chakra to work with.
Looking at her clones, she nodded and they raced off towards their predetermined positions, "Now, that leaves me." Ino reached for the small silver chakra dagger that resided above her weapons pouch behind her, and held it in her hand, ready to move at a moment's notice.
Still sitting on the grassy clearing, Naruto sighed through his nose, even since he was little, he hated sitting still; it was partly why he despised recon missions. He long since abandoned his focus on his book, resorting to flipping the page only to keep up the act he'd been displaying, much like Kakashi. He had previously stretched his senses to survey the entire area, so he was well aware of the five Ino's in their respective locations. Although he was very curious to see what strategy she was going to implement with them.
As if she were responding to his boredom, he sensed danger closing in quickly, "About time."
Fireballs barreled in from four angles, coming in from the left and right, also covering both behind and in front of him. Without as much as a thought, four clones poofed into existence around him and dispersed the flames with a powerful wind Jutsu she hadn't seen him use before, dispelling once their purpose was fulfilled. Utilizing the distraction the clones gave her, she channeled chakra into her legs, as well as the blade, and launched herself into the air to attack him from above.
As Ino silently fell from the skies with her chakra dagger held out in front of her, she felt something extremely dangerous making its way to her, however, she couldn't see anything in between her and Naruto. Not willing to ignore the alarm bells ringing in her brain, she brought up her first two fingers and crossed them again. Pulling a page from Naruto's book, a copy of Ino burst into life with its hands around her ankles and swung her out of harm's way as a sharp blade of wind cut through it before, dispelling into smoke.
"If I get bisected before losing my virginity, I'm so going to rip Kami a new one," Ino bitterly thought as she saw the clone get sliced in two. Hitting the ground with a roll, she popped to her feet, hunched over.
"Kami," she panted, slightly out of breath, the chakra drain was starting to get to her, "you're not pulling any punches are you?" Sweat began to bead on her forehead and her chest was heaving a bit.
Naruto closed his book and got up to stretch, "We have yet to start." He crossed his arms in a very Gaara-like fashion and stared at her as if to tell her to attack him.
Ino wanted to scream and throw a fit about how unfair it was to have a jackass of a teacher who could quite literally level a village. But as the saying goes, "beggars can't be choosers". Lifting her chakra dagger in front of her with her right hand, allowing her left to relax by her waist, she settled in her clan's taijutsu style before disappearing in a cloud of dust. Ino's sudden burst of speed slightly caught Naruto off guard, however, after being taught by Kakashi for most of his younger years, he always expected the unexpected.
A Naruto clone quickly came forth to bat away the incoming swing with a backhanded strike to her sword arm that had enough force to throw the limb across her body. That was immediately followed by a monstrous kick to her midriff that caused her to fold over the outstretched appendage, before flying backward, tumbling across the clearing and slamming into a tree.
Ino had felt like the entire Hokage mountain fell onto her stomach. Her head was ringing, her vision was blurry, and she was pretty sure she busted at least four ribs. That man was certainly not cutting her any slack.
Wheezing, she forced herself up, resting her hands on her knees as she vomited a mix of bile and blood. After wiping her lips, she hobbled over to the tree and grabbed the blade off of the ground, taking a deep painful gulp of air and pointing it at Naruto.
"That stung a little Uzumaki," she said breathlessly, "I'm gonna have to make you pay for lunch too." Naruto didn't bother to give in to her charade, he was aware that she was trying to bait a conversation out of him to kill time, which proved to be a pointless effort. But, the fact of the matter was; what for?
Taking another painful breath, she disappeared again, almost moving faster than the previous time as she dashed around Naruto, darting in and out to strike the blonde. Multiple clones poofed into existence, in an effort to repel her attacks, but it proved fruitless. The blonde woman was weaving around the clones in a conscious effort to not get hit again.
Naruto now had a slight frown on his face, however, it wasn't from the lack of hits his clones were landing, it was why the mind-walker was stalling. What did she have planned that required so much time to complete?
Taking his eyes off the girl, he glanced into the forest where the clones previously occupied, " …She hasn't dispelled them?" At that moment, Ino capitalized on the momentary lack of attention and performed a shunshin well within Naruto's guard, all but prepared to get a little payback for the kick he dished out earlier. Ino appeared in front of him, leg poised to strike his ribs, but was stunned to see a clone holding her leg in place. She was slightly pissed, she really
thought that she would've had him for sure!
When she felt the alarm bells in her head ring again, she looked down to find an expressionless Naruto, crouched and ready to launch a devastating punch into her stomach that would've sent her flying into the air had she not performed a Kawarimi at last possible second.
"Not bad…" Naruto found her a few feet away, down on one knee. He stood up and recrossed his arms, his icy blue irises boring into Ino's battered form.
The exhausted woman watched the impassive Jinchūriki from her position on the grassy earth, trying her hardest to fight off the blackness surrounding the edges of her vision, "Fuck me." Behind Naruto, she spotted her clone, perched on a branch in a rather tall tree, she could barely make out the hand signal it was trying to convey from the one hundred-yard distance. Luckily for Ino though, she didn't have to try too hard. There would only be one reason for her clone to feel the need to get her attention.
Shakily holding her hand up, Ino pointed at Naruto, looking him square in the frosty pools that were his eyes. She smirked before she lifted her thumb, mimicking a finger gun, and uttered one singular word with a smile.
"Gotcha."
With that, Ino's back hit the ground with a soft thud. Her clones, who had been channeling chakra since she summoned them, for some reason hadn't dispelled, meaning Ino still had enough consciousness to make sure her clones remained. They jumped down from their respective positions amongst the trees and pressed their hands onto the soft earth. Not a single clone yelled out the Jutsu name as black ink resembling a string raced towards Naruto and surrounded him before he could even prepare an escape. He looked around to find four Ino's crouched down in the same four directions the fireballs came from. Not a moment later, the black ink shone a brilliant white as he found himself and his clones unable to move.
"Hm," Naruto said with an appreciative nod, "Tajū Isshi Tōjin (Multiple String Light Formation)." He couldn't help but feel impressed at Ino's forethought and execution. To know that she was hopelessly outclassed in terms of raw ability and not throw her chakra around uselessly until she found something was very wise in his opinion. She would be quite the formidable opponent under his tutelage with her ability to execute elaborate plans like so.
Although the Jutsu's sole purpose was to immobilize the opponent by restricting any movement, he shrugged off the confines of the seal without too much of a hassle and strolled over to Ino. The clones had no idea what to do, their sole purpose was to carry out the sealing process, they had no idea that he would shrug it off like it was nothing. Instead, they released the Jutsu since it wasn't containing anything, and dispelled themselves.
Bending down next to her, he fished around in his weapons pouch, pulling out a clear case containing a number of orange medium-sized spheres. Popping the case open, he took two out and held them out for Ino to eat.
"What…the hell…are those?" she gasped out, her lungs were working overtime to supply her body with oxygen.
"Food pills," he stated platonically, "eat up." Ino grumbled out a half-hearted 'Itadakimasu" as a joke before she opened up her mouth for him to drop the balls in (I couldn't help myself). The half-dead bombshell quickly found out that they tasted a lot better than the normal food pills, and the chakra recovery rate was much faster than she was accustomed to. After allowing her reserves to build up for a while, she suddenly spoke up.
"Ne, Naruto?" the tall blonde who had resorted to sitting a couple of feet away from her, looked over at her, "Those were homemade weren't they?" Ino received a curt nod before he looked away again. Realizing she felt a lot better, she started to sit up but Naruto was there in an instant, pressing his large hand on her shoulder.
"Relax," he commanded, "you're in no shape to move." That was an understatement. Although he kept the blows away from her face and chest area, she still had seen better days. Her hair was muddled with dirt, twigs, and other debris. Her face, arms, and legs were swollen and sported bruises and cuts from her tumble on the ground, and her stomach had a rather large nasty bruise that displayed itself proudly across her midsection. It looked as if someone took a tree branch and tried to hit a home run using her belly as the baseball.
Wordlessly, he gathered healing chakra in his hands and hovered it over her legs in an effort to heal her wounds. From her position under him, she realized that the chakra from the Shōsen Jutsu (Mystical Palm Technique) was a frenzied flame of teal as opposed to the traditional calm, glowing green. Ino was slightly nervous about this because she didn't know how proficient with the Jutsu he was, all she remembered was that Naruto's chakra control was terrible. If he used too much chakra, he would unintentionally put her in a coma for Kami knows how long and unsurprisingly enough, being in a coma wasn't on her agenda today.
After a few brief moments of laying there, she realized she was worried about nothing. She could feel her wounds closing on their own, much quicker than the usual time. Ino also noticed it felt good. Really good. Almost too good.
Noticing her body began to heat up, she began to writhe slightly as he worked his way up to her stomach. Feeling her nether region throb when he passed over it to start healing her bruise, a blush flared to life across the bridge of her nose. Squeezing her eyes shut, she fought the intense urge to let out a moan.
"Why the hell does this feel so good?!"
As if he sensed her discomfort, he canceled the flow of chakra to his hands, "Gomen. An Iryo-nin would be more efficient." As he tried to stand up to give her space, she hurriedly grabbed his arm, flinching from the pain in her ribs.
"No!" Naruto turned his head to stare at her blankly, as if he didn't understand what she meant, "Wait, like—I meant—um, that it's fine! You, uh, you did a great job." Realizing she was still holding onto his sleeve, she immediately let go of it.
"Sorry!" she squeaked out, face flushing red once more. Naruto paid her no mind, and he continued to stand up, looking out into the clearing.
He let out a small "hm" before focusing his attention back onto her as he mended her ribs, "You did well," the mind-walker was taken aback by the seemingly random compliment, "your execution was reckless, but given the situation, and who you were fighting, I'll take it."
Ino's mouth hung open after he finished speaking. That was the most he's spoken to her date, and it was to praise her no less! Her eyes began to water a bit upon processing the information.
You did well. That's all she heard. She didn't know how badly she wanted to hear those words after her father had passed. It wasn't that she didn't get compliments or anything of the like, she just hardly received praise or any acknowledgement for her hard work, there wasn't anyone that could.
Turning her head to hide the tears sliding down her muddied cheeks, she quietly whispered out a small "Arigatou" before looking at him with a sincere smile etched onto her face, "It means a lot…"
Giving a slow nod of understanding, he stood up and held up a hand in her direction, looking at her expectantly in which Ino looked at it in confusion. Realizing she was still laying on the ground, the beautiful woman sheepishly took the appendage, allowing him to gently pull her to her feet, surprised by the lack of pain she felt in her side.
Remembered something she said earlier, "Say, Naruto-kun," the girl announced impishly to the tall broad-shouldered man looking off into the forest with his hands in his pockets, "let's have a repeat of this morning."
Naruto cut his eyes to her, unsure of what she was talking about. Ino blushed furiously and quickly made an attempt to correct herself once she heard how it sounded out loud, "Wait, I'm not talking about when I came over! I'm talking about breakfast, like, let's go get lunch!" While Naruto had understood what she was trying to get at, it was certainly entertaining to watch her frantically try not to embarrass herself and fail.
He nodded and looked at the sky. It was a little past midday, and he could go for some ramen.
Feeling a lot more energized the blonde bombshell pumped a small fist, "Yosh! Let's get a move on then!" she marched off towards the direction of the village, "Cmon slowpoke!"
"You're going the wrong direction."
Ino froze in her tracks before turning around and walking in the other direction at a swift pace with her head down, "Stupid asshole. Thinks he knows everything."
"...That's still the wrong direction."
The scream of frustration that Ino let out was heard for miles all around.
"I wouldn't expect you to eat here after all this time. I guess some things just don't change," Ino quipped from her position next to the taller blonde.
He hadn't said where they were going to eat, as Ino opted to follow him and dine at whatever establishment he chose. She wasn't picky like her billboard brow of a best friend Sakura–years of eating with a glutton and a lazy bum honed that specific trait. As they approached a small cream-colored ramen shop, Naruto didn't bother to hold the red and white curtains open for her as he entered, allowing it to flap in front of her face.
"So chivalry is dead after all. Duly noted," she said off-handedly as an attempt to get a response out of him. Casting him a glance, it was as she expected, Naruto paid her no mind, preferring to stare off in the kitchen.
His calmness was still a pretty strange sight compared to what she used to know of him. Directing her focus on the menu, she tried to figure out what she was going to order. Ichiraku had slightly expanded their dishes beyond ramen, picking up items like fried rice, chicken katsu, and egg foo yung.
Eventually, her thoughts circled back to Naruto again as they sat in comfortable silence. She found that she was thinking about him a lot today. Ino couldn't help it, he was an enigma to their entire gaggle of friends. Since his disappearance, no one knew anything about the man, yet here she was eating with him for the second time today.
Thinking back to her spotty appearances at the shop, she remembered how he'd boisterously announce his presence to the back to get their attention. Now, he patiently sat on his stool. His eyes even appeared glossed over from her seat next to him, as if he were deep in thought. She knew so little about the mysterious shinobi that was her mentor. What happened to Naruto that was so traumatic, that it invoked a complete personality shift with him.
That's when it hit her.
"Does Naruto suffer from PTSD?"
It all lined up. The constant influx of missions he took on would be the self-destructive behavior, the persistent guard he always had up, even when off of missions, the dissociation from friends, the lack of emotional expression—everything pointed to it. Ino had considered that it could be from the Anbu, but deep down, she felt that that wasn't it. They've been killing shinobi since they were twelve for Kami's sake! Before she could delve any deeper into it, her thoughts were interrupted by a cheerful greeting.
"Welcome to Ichiraku! Sorry for the long…wait… Naruto-kun?" A slender girl with long, dark brown hair, large brown eyes, and fair skin appeared out from the back. She looked to be in her mid-twenties and donned a white robe with the sleeves folded, alongside a surprisingly bright white bandanna on her head. With a dazzling smile adorned on her face, she dried her hands on a dark blue apron with ribbon ties at the top.
"Wow," she exclaimed merrily, "You haven't been by in months! How have you been?"
Ino's mood soured slightly at the mention of the affectionate suffix, "Naruto-kun?"
She couldn't figure out why it bothered her but she quickly doused the negative emotion and watched the friendly interaction with interest since it seemed that there was at least one person who maintained contact with him throughout all this time.
"I'm well. Lots of missions," he said in a seldom bored tone. The mind-walker was taken aback at the response.
"He's even like that with her?!" She expected him to at least be more open with the ramen girl, she's known him practically his whole life!
"Oh, well that's understandable. You're in Anbu after all," the ramen cook dismissively waved, "I completely get it."
"And she's rolling with it?!" Maybe it was something she was missing.
"How's Teuchi-san?"
"Oh! That's right, he's remarried now!" With that tidbit of information, Ino leaned forward in intrigue. One couldn't let a piece of gold like this go untouched.
"Took him forever."
"I know right! I told that old fart that if he wanted to keep this ramen shop alive, he'd have to pop the question!" Ayame giggled after her small joke.
A sudden shift of movement caught her eye; that's when she took notice of the beautiful, yet dirty and bruised-up woman staring at her with a mischievous gleam in her eye.
"Ino-san, right?" she asked, not even blinking at Ino's current state of dress. Upon the her nod, Ayame bowed deeply.
"Gomen nasai! I get tunnel vision when it comes to Naruto, I didn't mean to ignore you!"
Ino mentally grumbled in displeasure, "Tunnel vision huh."
Realizing that her annoyance was misplaced with the usually cheerful cook, she waved her hands in a placating manner, "N-no it's fine! Water under the bridge."
With the pleasantries settled, Ayame pulled out a notepad from within her apron pouch and started taking the blonde duo's order, "Yosh! Let's get you two some food. What can I get started for you, Ino-san?"
"Shrimp fried rice with a side of gyoza, please."
Scribbling her order on the pad, Ayame walked away calling out to Naruto as she turned the corner, "The Uzumaki special for you, right, Naruto-kun?"
"Hai."
A bewildered Ino turned to the man in question, eyes wide with shock, "You have your own special?!"
However, the one who responded wasn't Naruto.
"Only if you're able to deplete the entire store's ramen supply on a weekly basis like he can." Wondering who it was, Ino turned her head towards where she heard the voice.
In front of her stood a tall man with long spiky black hair that covered up one of his deep black eyes. The man donned a black cloak with purple lining, and a black, long-sleeved turtleneck undershirt with a standard gray Anbu vest on top, paired with black pants and matching sandals similar to Naruto's.
Ino stared owlishly at the man, however, Naruto hadn't bothered turning around, speaking in a calm tone, "Back so soon, Sasuke?"
"S-Sasuke-kun?" Ino stuttered out. Talk about a guest appearance.
"I was looking for Naruto," he said, walking over to take a seat next to the aforementioned blonde, "but he likes to go off the grid."
Naruto shrugged as he pointed a thumb at the dirtied beauty next to him, "Blame her."
Ino's cheeks burned red in embarrassment from the accusation, muttering an embarrassed "asshole."
Ignoring her, Naruto turned his head to speak to Sasuke again, "Why are you here?" It may have seemed rude to any bystanders in the way he said it, but that was how the typical conversation between the two unflappable males went.
"Glad you asked. We're going on a mission soon." This garnered Ino's attention, even though she had been not-so-subtly listening in on their conversation.
"When?"
"Couldn't say…I wasn't able to get that much information."
"Source?"
"Kakashi."
"So you were eavesdropping, like Ino here?" Ino's face flared red at getting caught but opted to turn her head in the opposite direction, not giving them the benefit of seeing her in such a state.
Sasuke had a small smirk on his face from his fellow companion's actions, "Yeah. Pretty much."
Ayame then chose that moment to come out the back of the kitchen with two towel-covered arms full of piping hot steaming bowls. The only person who reacted was Ino, whose eyebrows skyrocketed into her hairline. Momentarily stopping in front of the surprised woman, Ayame placed a bowl of fried rice in front of her and allowed a small bowl full of gyoza to slide off of her arms.
"One fried rice bowl with gyoza for Ino-san, and for Naru-kun," she stepped over to the blonde man and let the rest of the hot bowls of ramen slide off of both of her arms, "the Uzumaki special! Six miso bowls with extra pork, three shoyu bowls, and three tonkotsu bowls." Once she placed the food down, Ayame gave Sasuke a questioning look, as if asking if he was going to order. After politely shaking his head no, she bowed and walked towards the back of the kitchen.
Sasuke was unbothered by the ungodly amount of ramen that was placed in front of the Anbu Captain. He's eaten with the bottomless pit of noodles that was Naruto for almost their entire life, it wasn't new to him. For Ino though, it was as if her brain couldn't comprehend the amount he supposedly ate regularly. She sat on her stool, chopsticks in hand, staring at her rice with a glazed look in her eyes.
"Twelve. Bowls. Of fucking ramen! Where the hell is he gonna put it?!"
"You should eat. Your food is pretty good," Sasuke said as he popped her gyoza into his mouth. She looked confused by the black-haired man's words. It took Ino a moment to even realize where he had gotten the gyoza in the first place, but once she did…
Angrily pointing her chopsticks at Sasuke, she ripped into him, "I don't give a damn how handsome you are. You steal from my plate again and I'll stab you in the fucking eye, rip your eyeballs out, fingerfuck your empty eye sockets and piss in it right before I force-feed your eyeballs to you. You understand me, Uchiha?" Ino then proceeded to happily munch on the flavorful food without a care in the world.
Silence.
There was no sound after that. Sasuke was dumbfounded by the foul language that burst forth out of the beautiful woman's mouth. Unbeknownst to the trio, Ayame was absolutely floored. Literally. She was as pale as the white bandana on her head, twitching on the floor. The ramen cook had never heard such foul language before, much less from a lady. Even the unflappable Naruto had paused from eating his sixth bowl and spared a glance at the hangry woman.
One single thought echoed in the minds of the other people present, "Don't come in between a woman and her food…duly noted."
Clearing his voice, Sasuke then spoke to the potty-mouthed woman, "How's training with Naruto?" Ino, who was halfway finished with her rice, looked up at him with a skeptical splayed across her face.
"How do you know that?"
Sasuke lightly shrugged his shoulders, "He didn't deny it. I know Naruto better than anyone, he'd only be in three places. Since I couldn't find him today, it had to have been you who trained with him, judging from that large bruise on your stomach. How you managed to get him to train you, I don't know, and I certainly don't care."
Under normal circumstances, Sasuke wouldn't have entertained a conversation with Ino, and she knew this very well. He would've offered a one-liner and that would've been the end of it, but since his engagement to Sakura, he's become more personable. He was still an ass but in a more...pleasant manner. It was still odd to see the personality switch between Naruto and Sasuke. Naruto became the closed-off, cold, loner, while Sasuke turned into somewhat of a people person.
As if the sun and moon had switched places.
After giving it some thought, Ino went back to her food, speaking in between bites, "Well, yeah, I guess that makes sense. But he kicked my ass to hell and back, though. I couldn't help but feel like I was in too big over my head."
"You are."
That stung her a bit, "Sheesh. No mercy."
"But if he's willing to train you, he thinks there's something special within you that he could cultivate." Ino had finished eating and set her chopsticks down, turning to him as he spoke, "He doesn't just train anybody, look at Konohamaru."
The Third Hokage's grandson was a very formidable ninja at the young age of seventeen, having buried himself with training after losing almost all of his living family, his little cousin Mirai being the sole family member he had left. He was a Chūnin for the time being, but his skills boasted that of a Jōnin, and it was Naruto who helped nurture that hidden strength of his.
"Don't count yourself out," Naruto suddenly said, placing his twelfth bowl onto the large stack of others.
It wasn't much, but to have two of the most powerful shinobi in the world rooting for her; it made her feel damn good.
"Hai, Naruto-sensei, I did tell you I wasn't going to give up after all. There's definitely no point in giving up now!" Naruto looked at her again, before standing up and turning around to leave.
"Stop calling me sensei," he said without giving as much as a wave to the other shinobi present. It had become somewhat of a habit for the two, suddenly dismissing themselves when the business they had was done. If they ever needed anything from one another, they could just locate each other through the sun and moon seals on their palms that connected them, although Ino didn't know that.
Standing up abruptly, Ino called out after him, "Uzumaki! What the hell? Where are you going?" The blonde man continued his stroll outside the ramen shop, with Ino hot on his heels, until he suddenly vanished. No swirl of leaves, no gust of wind, he was just gone.
Dejected, Ino walked back inside the shop with slumped shoulders, "I seriously hate that Jutsu. That's literally the second time today."
"You get used to it." Naruto was called "Ghost" in some countries from his tendency to show up and disappear whenever he felt like it, it had become somewhat expected of him.
Looking towards Sasuke, Ino gave him a pleading look, "Ne, Sasuke-kun, you wouldn't happen to know where Naruto went, would you?" Locked in a staring contest with big pale blue eyes, Sasuke relented and turned his head away from her, with an annoyed sigh. He had enough of that bullshit with Sakura.
"Kanzaki Market. Most likely trying to catch a sale." Naruto was a bargain shopper? That was news to her.
"The one across town?" Upon receiving a nod, she bounded out the door, determined to locate the blonde.
"Arigato, Sasuke-kun!"
Watching her leave, he couldn't help but shake his head. It was eerie how similar the two of them acted, Sasuke momentarily wondered if anyone in their friend group had seen how they interacted. For him, it was clear that Naruto was interested in the beautiful woman, just not for reasons anyone might think. And anyone with a brain could see that Ino was just as interested in him.
Sighing to himself, he spoke out loud to no one in particular, "How those two became close, I don't know, and I certainly don't care. But I do know that something is going on between those two." He was going to ask Sakura about it later.
Ayame then came out the back again with a steaming bowl of udon noodles, "I got Naru-kun's note. I didn't know you were so shy! But here's the Kake Udon you wanted. And don't worry about the payment, Naru-kun covered everything." With her business done, she retreated into the kitchen without a second glance.
Sasuke looked at the noodles in front of him with skepticism, "How the hell did he know I wanted this?" Stomach growling, he mumbled a small "itadakimasu" and dug in.
"Dobe."