Chapter Three: Getting To Know You Better

I wanted to thank piratepenguin666 for the comment on Ino. It made me realize something, and it might have just made the plot ten times better. THANK YOU! I didn't think Id update so soon, but this story is making me so excited that I want to know what I'm going to put in next! I'm aware that the group is called the Konoha 11, but since Sasuke hasn't defected, it's the Konoha 12.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, Kishimoto does… But if I did own it, that would be really cool. I own all OC mentioned the story though! Enjoy ^_^v

"GO LEE! Show them the youth that burns within!" Gai cheered.

The day was unusually hot; to the point where if you looked closely, you would be able to see the heat waves. The day was relatively silent along the abandoned streets of the village, since most civilians were comfortably inside, avoiding the harsh weather. Unfortunately for the shinobi of Konohagakure, there was guard duty, missions, teaching, and training to do. They were all miserable in the heat, cursing anyone who was sitting indoors on this scorching day. Most of them had already discarded the thickly padded flak jackets and were begging any elementally based wind ninja to be their fan for the day. But no one was more miserable then the genin. Training ground forty-four (aka the Forest of Death) was currently being circled my thirty genin, which included the Konoha 12.

Tsunade, who wasn't quite sober when she said it, ordered that the genin present in the village were to do a group run together, so that they can see where they stood among their fellow peers. Now, that sounded like a good idea from a distance, but not on a sweltering hot day, when majority of the genin wouldn't even be trying.

Naruto, who normally wore his usual thick, orange jacket, and warm up pants, ended up ditching both in favor of wearing the pair of clothes he had gotten for these days particularly. (think Crescent Moon Mission)

"Keep moving people! You can do better then this!" A nameless Jounin yelled out.

"Easy for him to say…He's not the one sweating up a storm on a day like this. Believe it." Some of the other genin around Naruto nodded in agreement, too exhausted to actually form words.

Naruto looked up at the sky, his mind wandering away from the heat.

"It's been two days since I've seen 'Atsushi'. Kami…why I am even thinking of him? I thought I like Sasuke?"

His mind went blank, his eye twitching and face contorted in horror. Literally dropping onto the ground in the middle of running, Naruto grabbed his head.

"NOOO! No, no! When did I start thinking like that!" Misery lines swirled above his head, as he imagined some god above having fun ruining his life. He avoided the creeped out stares he was getting, and decided to start running again. If you were really listening, you could hear his almost completely silent mantra. Girls, Long Hair, Boobs, Girls, Make-up, pretty…masks, black hair.

"EEHHH! No way this is happening! Believe it."

"Shut up, Naruto!" A chorus of cries rang out.

Ducking his head and grunting, Naruto continued at an easy pacing, looking down at the tips of his sandals. His blue eyes were unfocused and deeper today then usual. And it didn't go unnoticed. Naruto picked his head up, but much to his mortification, Sasuke was running only a few yards ahead of him. Naruto blushed as his eyes wandered farther down then just the Uchiha's family symbol in the middle of Sasuke's back.

"Wow Naruto…I never tagged you as that kind of guy."

Naruto practically jumped right out of his skin. Slowly moving his head to the side he saw Ino, still beautiful even when she was shiny with sweat. It was almost attractive.

"Wha-wha-what? What are you…"

He was abruptly cut off by the sound of giggling coming from her. She whipped her hair back, which was starting to grow long again.

"Look, I'm a Yamanaka. It runs in the family that we're naturally good interrogators and emotion readers. Me being a girl, I've got radars. It wasn't hard to figure out that you like guys, which I kind of get since you had a crush on billboard brow, and she's manly."

Naruto tried denying it, waving his hands wildly in the air, his head shaking from side to side in a frantic movement, but Ino only held up a hand.

"Naruto, you were pretty much tomato red and stiff as a log when we had lunch the other day. It was kind of obvious for a girl to notice. Who would have thought you liked Sasuke-kun." She said in disbelief.

Naruto could easily compare himself to Hinata at the moment because he felt pretty faint. A whistle was heard, notifying them that their torture was finally over, but Naruto wasn't so lucky. He tried rushing off as swiftly as possible, but Ino kept up beside him. Seeing that he wasn't going to lose her anytime soon, he slowed his pace, letting Ino fall in step with him, her hands cutely clasped behind her back. Both of them didn't say anything, and neither knew exactly where they were going. After passing the same bench for the second time, Ino finally spoke.

"Look, in truth I don't like Sasuke anymore…someone else has caught my interest, but what I really want to say is… I know this must be hard to except. My first cousin, Takano is too, and we don't see him a lot now a days. I just want you to know that I'll be there."

Naruto stared at Ino, who was facing forward. She didn't look like she was playing with him, but why was she being so nice? They had hardly talked before, so why was she reaching out to him, even when he wasn't asking for it.

"Sakura made me realize something that day in the mission room. She's not the best friend I had when we first entered the Academy and if I can extend my hand to the likes of her, and I can easily be beside you."

Naruto's eyes were overflowing with tears. This…this was his first real friend. Someone that would stand beside him, support him and actually say it to his face. Sure 'Atsushi' was a great person, but Naruto didn't know where he stood with him, and Sasuke was in the same position, but he was his rival, too.

Naruto tried wiping the tears away, but they kept coming; Ino respectfully keeping quiet so she would at least save him his pride. When all that were left were barely noticeable tear tracks, and puffy red eyes, Ino grabbed his hand and pulled him with her.

"But if you're going to be my friend, then you gotta dress better then that. You can pay me back later."

Naruto was too happy to even fully comprehend what she was saying to him. But he'd find out soon enough.

"What does that mean? I'm not a girl!"

"But you're gay so wouldn't you like dresses!" Ino whined, stomping her foot on the ground. "I never realized it till right now, but those ugly jumpsuits really messed up what you look like. I thought you were fat!"

Naruto sat in the dressing room, Ino standing above him. His hands were tightly grasping the edge of the seat, pinning himself in place. There was no way he was putting on a dress, not even for all the ramen in the world. He was surrounded by several bags of clothes, ranging from pants and shirts to shoes and underwear. That last one was hard enough to buy with another girl, but the dress was just too much.

"Ino! You're not getting me in a dress!"

"Fine…but are you sure. Sasuke might think it's cute on you!"

"Oh god! Bad image! I don't even know if he likes boys! And I'd never where a dress!"

Sighing dejectedly, Ino nodded her head. You couldn't win all the battles. Placing the dark blue summer dress back on the rack, she looked at it longingly. Taking it back of the railing she went to the person at the cashier.

"Well if you're not going to wear it, I will."

Naruto couldn't believe this.

He was shopping with a girl.

Who was going to buy him a dress she had no problem wearing.

Picking up the bags, he followed Ino out the door, and took a breath of relief when she said that they were done shopping. Thankfully, Naruto's apartment came before Ino's, so she made him drop the clothes inside quickly, and towed him over to her house, which was above the Yamanaka Flower Shop. Making sure that both her mom and dad weren't home, she carted Naruto up the stairs and into her room, which was surprisingly a lot less girly then Naruto imagined. Pushing Naruto onto a chair in front of her vanity mirror she looked him over.

"Naruto, what did you do to your hair?" she asked calmly.

"Well I cut it myself." He said nervously. Where exactly was this going.

"Naruto! It looks like you hacked parts of it off with a kunai!"

"Well I couldn't find scissors and those were the only sharp things around!" Naruto yelled back. Ino fell back in shock. It was supposed to be a figure of speech! Naruto was even scared to look at her from the mirror. He could feel something building up behind him, but he kept perfectly still and quiet. "NARUTO! You've got to be kidding me! I hate to admit it, but you've got the best kind of hair a blonde person could ask for, and you're cutting it with a ninja weapon! No wonder your head looks like a porcupine! Well we're going to fix that…from now on you come to me for these things."

Naruto couldn't tell if that was a threat or an offer, but either way, he deeply believed that he was being treated like a doll. Shrugging his shoulders, he let Ino shuffle through her drawers, throwing bottles on the table that he couldn't even recognize. Moving behind Naruto again, she waved at him through the mirror, catching his attention again. She then held up a dark brown bottle.

"This is something I found in a Tanzaku Gai, which is Southwest from here. You can only use it once a month, but it grows back an inch of your hair in less then a minute. I'm only going to let you use it once cause it's really expensive so…"

Dropping some of it in his hair, she let it 'magically' grow and set to work.

"So Naruto tell me about yourself."

Naruto almost moved his head in question, but stopped himself so Ino wouldn't accidentally cut him.

"What do you mean? We've known each other for close to six years."

"Yeah and up until now I thought you were fat, and liked girls. That's not the case anymore, is it." Naruto didn't quite catch the side comment 'I always wanted a gay friend.' but chose to listen to her and respond. Crossing his arms, he watched her from his reflection. "Well what do you want to know."

"The basics…for now."

And so for the rest of the afternoon, he told her about himself. It was everything Ino already knew, or suspected, but it sounded totally different now. Like she was seeing it in a new light. Naruto and Ino both knew that this bond was something they were going to have for a long time. He didn't even get home, until nine that night.

Naruto fingered his new haircut and clothes. He kept tugging at his new garments, uncomfortable with how they looked on him. He wore a cream colored shirt that was low collar and short sleeved. The sleeves and around part of the top had mesh on them. His pants were a dark brown with about five pockets on each side, and was tied down nicely with cream colored bandages. The shoes were black but it didn't throw off the look. It was so not him, and at the same time it was. He missed the orange dearly, and he was tempted to throw on his orange jacket, but Ino had spent her money buying him this stuff, and it would be like spitting on her if he wore his old orange jacket. But out of everything, he most liked his haircut. It wasn't anything that extravagant or new, but it fell nicely around his face instead or looking like he had been struck by lightning. Placing his hand on the dirty old mirror, he looked closely at himself and smiled. He looked a hell lot girlier and at first glance you wouldn't recognize him, but at least he didn't look like he came out of the circus.

Settling Tsunade's necklace above his shirt, he wrapped his holster around his leg, and stepped out of his apartment, stretching his arms above his head. It was a beautiful day compared to yesterday. It was still sunny, but there was a light breeze in the air. Any lover of Konoha could tell you that it was the best place on earth on a day like this. Naruto checked the time, and seeing that he had time to spare, he strolled over to Ino's flower shop, where she was probably working this morning. It was funny how much a new pair of clothes and a hair cut could do to you. A lot of the older generations that often looked at him in disgust before, glanced at him confuse and curious and then surprisingly smiled like an old memory was brought forth. It was like he looked like someone they used to know. It was kind of creepy. He lengthened his strides to the flower shop, almost jogging through the front door. Ino was facing the other direction, placing a few boxes onto shelves and wiping down the cabinet she was stepping on. Naruto waited until she was off the cabinet (in fear that he might make her fall) to speak.

"Ino…how do I look?"

True to his assumption, she jumped in surprise before whirling around. She gave him an I-don't-know-you look but realization dawned on her. Hearts growing in her eyes, she squealed before vaulting over the cabinet in front of her and tackling him in a hug.

"Oh my gosh! You look gorgeous! I bet you had some heads turning today! I'm that good, people!" She pumped her hand in the air, and started picking up her stuff so she could leave with Naruto. The whole time, she was ignoring his protests at being called gorgeous instead of handsome. When she was finally ready, she emitted another loud squeal, causing footstep to be heard above them. "You realize we'll look super awesome walking together. Two gorgeous blondes with sparkling blue eyes! We'll be like two models." Flames appeared behind her eyes, her voice growing cockier at the sound of the new social title. Naruto just stood their in exasperation, but turned his focus when Iniochi Yamanaka and Shikaka Nara walked out of the door which was behind Ino before she rushed to Naruto's side, babbling about this face crème he should try. Both fathers only glanced at Naruto before continuing their conversation, but abruptly stopped again. Snapping their heads back in his direction while he was walking away with Ino, they watched him go.

"Was that Naruto Uzumaki."

"To hell if I know." Shikaku commented, walking over to the entrance and watching them go. It looked like people were moving out of their way or something when they traveled down the street.

"But this is going to be a troublesome day."

Back with Naruto and Ino, she was drilling him about how he was going to approach Sasuke. Naruto was too flustered to answer back in full coherent sentences, but calmed himself down as they entered the Hokage Building (which also contains the mission's room).

"Is your team even in the mission's room?" Naruto said, breaking her speech about how he should swing his hips a little more. Yeah, that wasn't happening anytime soon.

"Probably. We get our missions around the same time, so they should be there already. It's too bad that some of the others won't see you."

Naruto sighed in relief. This was enough for one day. It wasn't even noon, and it felt like the end of the day needed to come already. They neared the door, and it made him even more nervous. His heart started to thump in his ears, and by the heat coming from his cheeks, his facing was red again. But what was there to be embarrassed about? He was going to be Hokage one day and that always turned heads! Squaring his shoulders, he stood up tall (at least for his short height) and confident, but still letting Ino lead the way. Ino just about skipped the rest of the way and threw open the door.

"Morning Shikamaru! You know I saw your dad at my house talking to my dad." He merely grunted back, showing disinterest. Look back behind her, she noticed the missing blonde beside her. Raising her fist in irritation, a vein pulsing on it, she stomped back towards the door. Poking her head out, she saw Naruto sneaking away, but he wasn't quick enough. Grabbing him by his hand, she tugged him back to the room, laughing the whole way. Pushing Naruto on the back, he stumbled in.

"Guys! I want you to meet my new friend." She slung her arm around his shoulders, waiting to see their reaction, and she wasn't disappointed. Asuma's mouth fell open, cigarette falling to the ground, followed by Choji's bag of chips and Shikamaru's voice.

"Holy hell. Naruto?"

Waving his hand nonchalantly, he tried pretending like there was nothing to be surprised about. "Hi guys. It's a fantastic morning, believe it!"

Hearing the door click open again, all of them turned their heads, watching the rest of Team 7 stroll in. Sasuke's head was the first to turn.

Ayyy yeah! Cliff hanger! That's right people let the suspense begin! So it was kind of hard making Naruto look girly but not exactly act like it because I want to stick to a good chunk of his personality as much as possible. It's kind of sad that I didn't really add a lot of 'Atsushi' or Sasuke in this chapter, but the next one will have a lot of them! Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed! Review!