A/N: Naruto won his first kiss, but now he has to tell the first (and biggest) secret. The references Naruto makes at the bottom are all true . . . according to the Sand Kunoichi universe.

"Bye Daddy!"

"Where's my kiss?" Inoichi teased good-naturedly. Ino backtracked and dropped a kiss on her father's forehead. "That's my girl."

"I'll be home after dinner. Naruto and I are meeting Shikamaru and Temari at the barbeque place in an hour."

"Chouji will never forgive you," Chouza remarked from his seat across the room playing shougi with Shikaku. "His mission is in Wave Country."

"What Chouji doesn't know won't hurt him," Ino winked at her honorary uncles. There was a knock at the door. "There's my date."

Shikaku frowned. "Stay with Shikamaru and that Sand girl, Ino-chan."

"Yes Shikaku-san," Ino rolled her eyes. She pulled open the door and grinned widely at her boyfriend. "Hello, whisker-boy."

"Hey, Ino," Naruto beamed at her, before nodding respectfully to her father and his teammates. "Are you ready?"

"Yeah. Where to?"

Climbing Hokage Mountain was not on Ino's Top Ten Things I Want To Accomplish list. But she followed Naruto up anyway, because he seemed a little more serious than usual, and it was an unusual place, so he probably had a good reason for it.

Naruto lowered her to the last rock ledge and jumped down after her, steadying himself with one hand on the rock wall. He grinned at Ino and plopped down on the edge, motioning for her to join him. "You are now sitting in the Fourth Hokage's hair," he informed her cheerfully.

"The view is amazing." Ino delightedly scanned the village laid out in front of her like toys. "There's my house . . . and Chouji's . . . and Shika's." She turned back to Naruto with a brilliant smile. "So this is your special place."

"It's not as pretty or soft as your field," he conceded, leaning back with his hands behind his head. "But it works for me."

Ino lay back against him, resting her head on Naruto's chest and tangling her fingers in his necklace. "It's a good place for the future Hokage." She believed firmly in his dream and proclaimed it as truth almost as often as he did. A lot of people did that by now; Tsunade, Jiraiya, Kakashi, Iruka, old man Ichiraku, Konohamaru, Hinata, Sakura, Lee, Gaara, Chouji, Shikamaru, and Temari, but none of them as loud as Ino.

They laid there like that for a long time watching the village, Naruto playing with Ino's hair while she pointed out little things that caught her eye.

Then Naruto spoke up. "I need to tell you a secret, Ino-chan. It's S-class so you can't tell anyone, but you need to know."

Ino tilted her head to look up at him. "Okay."

Naruto stood up and Ino followed his lead. "If you don't like me any more, it's okay. Lots of people don't like me because of this and I'll understand."

"Naruto, breathe," Ino reminded him, griping his forearms to hold him still before he paced off the narrow ledge. "Calm down. I like you. I wouldn't date you if I didn't. Now what's the secret?"

Naruto looked away from Ino's eyes and gazed out over the village. "Yondaime didn't kill the kyuubi. He sealed it . . . inside of me."

"So?" Ino stood on tiptoe to kiss his whiskered cheek. "I knew that."

His eyes widened and his mouth dropped. "Nani?"

Ino stepped forward and closed his mouth with one slender finger under his chin. A tiny smirk played across her features. "I know that you are a jinchuriki."

"How?" Naruto swallowed.

"Shika figured it out after the Chunin exam. And I confirmed it after our mission to Hahajima Island. There are no secrets on Team Ten." She shook her head. "Besides that seal tattoo on your stomach obviously isn't a fashion statement."

"So you've known? This whole time? And you still dated me?"

Ino nodded firmly.

"Why?"

"Because you're mine," she declared. "I saw you first. You'll become Hokage someday, because you're strong, sweet, and you would do anything for your precious people, and I want to be one of them." This was now a little too serious for their dates, and Ino blushed. Determined to lighten the mood, she smacked him. "And I've had it with stuck-up traitors . . . especially when you can do your own angsty drama queen bit."

"Hey!"

Ino looked up at him with one eyebrow raised. "I have a secret, Ino-chan . . . It's alright if you don't want to see me anymore . . . I have a demon inside of me . . . need I go on?"

Naruto winced. "Please don't. You're right. That sounded scarily like Sasuke-teme . . . well, if he actually cared about something."

"And I refuse to date a blonde version of Sasuke, so the next time you have the urge to go all dramatic, don't!" Ino's hand came down on the back of his head hard. He sat down hard and she leaned forward and kissed his forehead. "Got it?"

"Got it, Ino," Naruto muttered, rubbing the back of his head. "No more Sasuke-imitations."

"Good little whisker-boy," Ino cooed. "Now come on and figure out how to get down from here. We're going to be late, and then Shikamaru and Temari will get annoyed . . . or naughty, neither of which I want to witness."

Naruto nodded. "If we climb down another ten feet, there's a pathway that we can follow down from there." He dropped over the ledge and guided her down beside him before continuing. They were half way there when Ino spoke up.

"Hey, Naruto? Next time you tell me a secret, at least tell me something I don't know."

Naruto's grin was distinctly fox-like and mischievous. "Last time Kakashi-sensei was drunk, he said I was the son of Yondaime. Gaara has a girlfriend, the Akatsuki Leader is a bug user, and Sasuke has a sister." At Ino's disbelief, he feigned a hurt expression. "Believe it!"

Ino pushed him off of Hokage Mountain.

Finite.