Chapter 3

Flashback - Four months ago

Gaara wondered again why he let Naruto pick dinner, as he greeted the Ichiraku owner for the second time today. "Remind me to introduce you to a new restaurant next time," he mumbled to the blond.

Naruto, having arrived earlier, was already downing his second bottle of sake and third bowl of ramen. He smacked Gaara in the back to keep up with the celebration. "What for? If it is not broken, don't fix it." He concluded his statement with a satisfying burp.

Gaara grimaced in distaste, but shrugged it off. They were celebrating Tsunade's official preliminary announcement about nominating Naruto to be next in line. His friend asked Gaara to join him to share his knowledge since he was the only other person who could relate having been in that role. Not that there was much Gaara could say since he gave it all up 12 years ago to his brother, when he requested a transfer to Konoha.

Back then everything was simple, even when he was alone and everyone thought he was a psychopath. When he transferred permanently to the Hidden Leaf Village, he truly believed it was the third happiest day of his life…

"Do you ever miss it Gaara?" Naruto asked, noticing his partner's mood. The silence was normal but his friend seemed more pensive than usual. The blond proceeded. "Does love still conquer all?"

The redhead frowned to himself while Naruto continued, "I could never see myself ever doing the same" a quick glance to a blank-stare Gaara, made him correct himself. "Not that I've ever been in love to know."

His eyes narrowed on his wedding band, and his lips curved in a soft nostalgic smile. "It's funny that you would say that," he stated, while he twirled the ring on his finger. "You showed me the importance of bonds and the sacrifices we make to protect our precious people." Although he was grinning, the words fell flat in his ears. He finished his drink and looked away.

Naruto, noticing the mood shift, opted to change the subject.

Ino regretted her choice of footwear within a few hours after setting out.

Narrow stripes of sunlight appeared in between the branches as they crossed from tree to tree. With the day's progress, the heavier her limbs and breath became. On top of it all, she forced herself into a tummy wrap this morning, and it was digging into her skin.

In the midst of Summer, many of the older female nin requested time off or to be sent to a mission to the coasts since the weather was enough to cause hot flashes. Yet Ino's eyes strayed to Naruto in frustration. The blond man seemed oblivious to the rising temperature. Sweat bedewed her temples and in between her breasts and in more places than what she cared for, yet the male seemed completely fine. Although she glared at him, she vowed not to complain out loud. She had told him she could take it.

Besides, Naruto already had to stop three times to accommodate her. First, to take back the equipment she was supposed to help carry, then twice for her to catch up and take a break.

Despite his help, they were behind schedule. The night caught up to them, and they had to set camp.

She was grateful Naruto didn't blame her and instead continued trying to cheer her up. Out of gratitude, she shared her packed ice tea whiskey with him, insisting when he talked about about needing to get up early. A half hour later, both inebriated blondes were laughing while reminiscing on their embarrassing missions together.

Half of her regretted that as soon as Naruto brought up that incident. The one where he accidentally gave her a golden shower. Naruto had to dodge midway through re-telling to avoid Ino's shoe.

After a while, all they could hear was the campfire. Ino could tell Naruto wanted to say something, but was struggling with starting. "Come on, Naruto, if you talked about pissing on me, you obviously don't spend that much time thinking about what to say. Just spit it out."

Even then, he hesitated. Naruto leaned back on his arms, stretching his body. "Just wondering what your plans are when you get there. Are you sure you want to do this?" His cerulean eyes usually full of humor met hers seriously and Ino sobered up, while straightening.

"Sure know how to kill a buzz," she muttered.

"It's just that Gaara doesn't make these decisions lightly and if you don't have a plan-"

"-Naruto, don't," she interrupted, and he stopped noticing the fluctuation in her voice.

His lips tightened and nodded to himself. Then while staring at the fire he changed the topic. "You know, I remember back when you were pregnant with Heero" At her silence Naruto continued "...you were so excited…you reminded me of Lee."

Ino scoffed before rolling her eyes. "This coming from the hyperactive one…who kept asking to rub my belly."

Naruto made a show of ignoring her comment before moving on. "I don't remember seeing you being sick, or ever complain about the pregnancy. You actually seemed very put together," he added.

After a moment of silence, Ino spoke up. "Sakura was jealous that I had such an easy pregnancy." Thinking about her son, Ino's eyes softened. "Heero was such a calm baby. Besides the usual kicks, he never troubled his mommy."

Naruto soon confessed, unsure. "You were the first pregnant friend I ever had... I remember thinking you were the most beautiful creature I had ever seen."

Ino's lips parted and looked back at him in disbelief. "Beautiful creature?" Her eyes widen before she covered her mouth, but she still mumbled, "did you... had... a weird fetish for pregnant ladies?" he choked in humor during her statement.

Naruto lifted his hands in defense. "Hey, I was sixteen! And it caught me off guard! I didn't know how to react to it!" he sputtered. "If you go prancing around glowing, and your belly was big and full of life, any normal teenager-" The more he talked the louder Ino laughed. "Alright! I blame Kurama. I think he was definitely influenced by your pheromones." He gave up, amused, before adding. "But it was nothing compared to when I saw you breastfeeding Heero for the first time."

"Okay, Naruto, that's... you have a problem-"

"-No, baka, listen to me, I'm trying to finish my point!" he said in full blush. "I wasn't focused on you... I was focused on Gaara" At Ino's look, Naruto hurried to clarify "he was standing there, and I didn't recognize him. He...he was so happy. A complete 180 of who he was when we met."

Ino's head lowered until, her bangs falling on her eyes. "Yeah, well, we were truly happy..." she said hesitantly, "until I fucked it up and killed our second child."

Naruto got up and knelt next to her. "Ino... nobody blamed you for what happened."

Ino turned to the male blonde. "Not out loud, but Gaara did, and you probably did too…You probably supported Gaara in his decision to leave me, didn't you?" She looked away from Naruto's hurt reaction.

Naruto reached out for her shoulders with both hands. "Stop it!" He jerked her once to get her attention. "Ino you're important to me too! I only wanted the best for both of you..." When she didn't respond, he sighed before getting up. As the embers of the fire were dying, he looked away from her. "We should call it a night..."

Ino agreed to let it lie. She stood up and winced at her sore feet. "I'm sorry," she apologized to the retreating man but she needed him to understand. "Naruto…I don't want to lose them," she said full of emotion.

Naruto stopped without turning. "I know."

While Naruto snored away, Ino stayed awake, thinking of the past.

The next morning had a groggy Ino trying to wash her face with a bottle of water from her backpack. She was already in a bad mood at forgetting her concealer, she now had to suck up the dark bags under her eyes, but she found herself glaring again at the happy-go-lucky blond male.

"Ready?" Naruto inquired innocently. She got up and adjusted the mid body wrap and her clothes before nodding. As she winced with each step, she was hopeful they would make better progress today.

By the end of the day, she wondered if she should have just stayed sleeping. Despite that she was a little bit more used to the strains, midway the body wrap was constricting her. She was sweaty, disgusted and distracted with rehearsing her words for Gaara. She had failed to notice a dislocated branch and landed awkwardly on the ground- correction- wet ground. She groaned and tried to get up, just to bite her lower lip and swallow a painful gasp.

Naruto dropped the bags to the side and squatted by her to extend his tanned hand. She accepted, embarrassed. She knew if she had been in better shape this would not have happened. Didn't Asuma stress out the need for stretching before any strenuous physical activity? Even the fresh-from-the-academy genin knew that. When she put pressure on her injured leg, she hissed and dropped back on the mud.

Naruto, confirmed with her which leg hurt and then removed the shoe to inspect it. The ankle was twice as swollen now, and tinted blue. "Is it fractured?" he asked, since she was the better expert on first aid.

She yelped when she tried rotating it. "…No, just sprained it." Naruto nodded and with a few hand signals created a couple of clones to carry their equipment, then offered his back to Ino.

"Get on."

She was mortified. "No Naruto, I can't-"

"—it's okay Ino-chan, this is just additional training for me. What kind of a Hokage can I ever be, if I can't even offer a ride to a piggy once in awhile?" Ino glared at him.

"I know you meant to say piggyback ride, right?" she added tightly. Naruto nodded with an apologetic smile.

Ino shook her head in resignation. "I doubt that is one of the up-coming Hokage's listed duties. I think you just want to feel the body from your childhood fantasies." Naruto turned, shocked, until he saw her shit-eating grin. His cheeks tinted red when Ino hooked her rounded thighs on his hips. His hands reached back to shift Ino higher and ended cupping her ass instead. The bump on the top of his head that followed was expected.

"Tch, I swear you spend too much time with Sakura-chan," grumbled Naruto. Once her body was settled against his, he willed his blush away. "All right, let's go."

Thanks to Naruto's stamina, they made much better progress for the remainder of their trip. At this rate, they would be at Suna before the end of the week.

A few hours in, Ino shifted gingerly on Naruto's back, blowing her bangs of her face. Her throat felt dry as a bone and extremely hungry because she refused to eat, despite Naruto's protests. Until she was as thin as when Gaara met her she would not eat again, except to prevent fainting. She was already conscious enough having had Naruto carry her more than 2/3 of the way. At the thought of snacking once she made it to Suna, her stomach growled against Naruto's back. The male blonde frowned and stopped, putting her carefully down and refused to go on further unless she would eat one of his energy bars.

Determined to get to Suna as soon as possible, Ino reproachfully ate it.