Disclaimer: I told ya before, didn't I? That long-named dude owns Naruto, not me!

Hmm...I keep thinking that if I could own Naruto I would make some awesome changes...sure, get rid of a couple unnecessary people, plots, some people that died get to stay... but then again, that would suck. I'm just now realizing that if the thrill of thinking some way that opposes the maker were gone, then the whole point of fanfiction would be ruined! O 0 O So thank God I don't own Naruto!

CHAPPIE DOS: AT THE RAMEN PLACE

"Hnnng..."

Ino's blond hair floating back and forth in front of her mouth was the only sign that she was alive. Her sheets, which surprisingly were light blue, were curled around her legs and covered one third of her upper torso. She lay on her belly, arms embracing her pillow, and turned her head slowly as possible to see what time it was. At first, she was too groggy to see the numbers on her alarm clock clearly. Then she tossed her hair out of the way and turned around to go back to sleep. Oh, it's olny 1:30, she reasoned, and snuggled deeper into her pillow.

Something must've clicked, because suddenly her eyes flew open, she flung her body up, and screamed, "OH MY GOD IT'S ONE-THIRTY!" She scrambled off the bed, then promptly fell flat on the floor as a result of the sheets tangling their way up to her thighs. Flinging them off, she got up and bounded to the bathroom. Uck, I really don't have time for a shower, she lamented even as she turned the water on and jumped in, screeching at the cold.

After barely five minutes of scraping her scalp with shampoo, she stumbled out of the bathroom and let her towel fall. Just as she was about to pull on her underwear she caught sight of her open window. Immedietly it was closed. Hey, Naruto's been hanging around that perverted Jiraiya waaaay too much for my liking, were her thoughts while warily continuing to pull everything on. I wouldn't be surprised if a couple recent panty raids were his doing!

As soon as she had done her make-up (because preps will melt if they don't have make-up) she zoomed out of her apartment building and to the training grounds Asuma had claimed for his team, but when she got there it was empty.

Ino growled. Then her stomach growled. She realized she hadn't had time for breakfast, which she'd started to eat again after news of Sakura's success, and she hadn't packed a lunch. There was only one thing left to do: eat out somewhere. But where? She wandered the marketplace, muttering to herself as she passed clothing stores. "Mm...that is so last season...hey, what's this? Ooh, I so need that! What! $200! For that! That's sick. Ah, some earings would do something to frame my face...but I already have some on, and I don't feel like getting a double piercing today." Something caught her eye. "What the--?"

"Hey! Ino-chan!"

Naruto waved to her from his stand at the counter of the ramen place. Except this time (wonder of wonders) he wasn't alone: sitting next to him were Hinata on his right and Lee on his left. On Hinata's right were Neji and Tenten, Shikamaru and Temari, and Chouji. On Lee's left were Gaara, (yes Gaara they must've dragged him there) Kiba, and... Shino. Ino fought down a blush, glared at Shino, and hoped that God would be graceful and spare her the embarrassment of having to sit with them.

Of course, Naruto, being the innocent and oblivious block head that he is, was heedless of her discomfort and continued waving until Ino gave him a small smile to aknowledge him. "Come on, Ino, come and sit with us!"

The smile evaporated. "Uh, no, I don't think I will."

"Puh-leeeeeeeeease? We wanna talk to you!" Naruto never was one for giving up.

"Why? I'm not even hungry." It was very convenient for her belly to give off a particularly loud rumble at that exact moment. She cursed it to hell.

"Right." He grinned. "Pull up a chair."

Ino sighed, then stole a stool from a random couple's table and began dragging it up to the counter. She stopped. Where Chouji was sitting on the far right was the last seat unless she wanted to stand, so that left the seats to Naruto's left. Crap. Shino was at the very end, and there was no way in hell she was going to face him after what happened the night before. But... there weren't any other seats, and she didn't feel like fighting today. "Well?", said Naruto.

Cursing her bad luck and grumbling about getting back at him someday all the way, she dragged her stool next to Shino's and plopped herself on it. Ayame popped up in front of her with a notepad and pencil. "What would you like?", she said, way to cheerily.

"Just plain old ramen," grunted Ino, face in her hands.

Ayame's smile wavered. "O-okay. Coming right...up." Then she tried to get out of there as fast as possible.

"Geez, Ino, way to go. I think that's an all-time-record for scaring innocent people for life," Kiba grinned at her.

"Shuddup." The tone in her voice sent Akamaru whimpering and Kiba scooched a little over to Gaara, who narrowed his eyes at him. Ino didn't care. She was in a really bad mood and didn't feel like talking. Too bad for her.

"Ino," she heard a voice say, and squeezed her eyes shut, attempting to ignore it.

"Ino," it said again, and this time it seemed to seep through the cracks in her fingers to get to her ears. She grunted to aknowledge him.

"Whadaya want?" This is the part where you say, "Nothing", she silently begged.

No such wish. "I just want to know what's up."

"Nothing is... up," she said, eager for him to be his normal, quiet self. "Nothing but the ceiling, anyway."

"Funny." He didn't sound humoured. "Now tell me, really."

Ayame pushed a bowl of ramen into Ino's forearm. She glanced up and ate with one hand, the other occupied with holding up her head facing away from Shino. She picked up a few noodles in her chopsticks and pretended to study them closely. Apparently Ayame had taken, 'just plain old ramen' to be meant literally. She thought she saw a speck of mold.

"Ino," he said suddenly, "this isn't about last night, is it? It's not that big of a deal--"

"YES IT IS!" Ino slammed her chopsticks down on the counter, stood up, and pointed at him. "AND YOU PROMISED NOT TO TALK OF THAT!"

"I promised nothing," he said calmly, "you're the one who's drawing attention to it."

All too suddenly she realized what she was doing. Everybody was staring at her, boring into her, gawking at her. And she just stood there with her arm pointed at Shino, the blood rushing to her face, totally aware that she was looking like a complete idiot, and that Shino was looking pretty damn cool and collected. Damn him, why couldn't he slip up instead of her? Better him than me, bastard.

Five whole seconds passed. Then, all at once Ino picked up her bowl of ramen, aimed, and threw it at Shino's face, screaming, "THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT YOU ASSHOLE!" Shino, of course, barely dodged it just in time, which would have angered Ino further had she still been there. But as soon as she'd flung the bowl she'd escaped out of the ramen place, not looking back to see everyone but Shino chase her to the door and call after her. She didn't care. Okay, so she did, but she sure as hell wasn't planning on showing her face in public for at least six months.

And poor Shino was just sitting there, ditched and very thouroughly confused.

A/N: I'm making this up as I go along, can you tell? Sorry, but I'm working on a different Naruto parody that's gonna be multi-chaptered too, and another one that doesn't have anything to do with Naruto. So, bye, and tell me if you think I should keep going!

ShinoXIno 4eva!