52. Deep in Thought
What Ino loved about a man, was a man who was serious, driven and knew what he wanted in life.
She needed someone strong, someone who pushed her beyond her limits and someone she could be proud to call her man .
That's why she first thought that the raven haired boy in her academy class was the perfect specimen of a man who met all her preferences. He was serious about becoming a ninja, he wanted to be the best and worked hard to be that. He was the strongest boy in her class and because he didn't talk to the girls who were always slacking in their training like Sakura for example she knew she had to be the best for him to notice her and to become the woman he needed by her side.
She always thought that Uchiha Sasuke would be the man she one day would marry. She had everything planned out. The names of the children they would have, how she would decorate their house, and even the place they would marry.
But after the chunnin exams, a blond boy, who was lower than dirt in her opinion began to unraveled under her very nose.
He had passed the first part of the exams, and the second too. He was out of it when Sakura was ambushed by those three sound ninjas, but they made it to the preliminaries, all because of Sasuke of course.
But he won against Kiba, who according to the academy records was better than the whiskered boy all through out the fight. It was just a lucky win actually. To fart on the face of a Inuzuka who had the best noses out there. But as the last part of the exam came, he surprised them all. Winning against the prodigy of the Hyuuga clan, the very same boy who had almost kill Hinata.
And he fought against all odds and came out victorious. And that made her pay a little more attention to the dead-last of her class.
When Sasuke left the village and the five boys went to retrieved them she saw, from behind a bush what her rival and ex-friend asked of the boy.
To bring Sasuke back to her… not the village, but to her.
And that made her so sad for the blond boy. She, and probably all the village, knew that Uzumaki Naruto loved Haruno Sakura. Just like how they knew his dream was to become Hokage.
But the smile he gave her, as a promise to do his best to bring him back, made her heart twist.
Here was a boy, who would sacrifice his happiness with the girl he loved just so she could be happy. She at that time thought it was so very sweet, but also, so very stupid of him.
And she waited. For her teammates to make it back, and the others as well.
She stayed behind the bush as Sakura was lead inside the walls by a recuperating Lee.
She prayed to whoever god was out there to help them and for them to make it back here alive.
Two hours later, a team of medic ninjas were dispatched to get the four genin and one chunnin back to the village.
One hour later came the first two medics with a very skinny Chouji, and she gasped. She couldn't wrap her mind around the idea that her teammate would be carried like this from this mission. She knew what this meant though. Chouji had used his family clan pills. And that made her nervous, she knew that Sasuke was a good ninja, but he was only chunnin level at least. And there were five of them. So that meant Sasuke wasn't alone.
She waited for another hour and saw that Neji was brought back in similar state as Chouji,
But when Shikamaru and Kiba walk-limped back she had a little bit of hope that the blond had actually managed to bring back Sasuke. She followed Shikamaru as he walked to the hospital to get information about the ones they had left behind.
Ino bowed her head. She didn't want to listen to what had happened and to the extent of Chouji's injuries, for she had seen them already.
After a few hours later she was just going out to buy something to eat because there were no other news about Naruto. But as she was opening the doors she saw a blue and orange blur pass by her and she dashed behind them.
The orange and blue jacket was marred by blotches of red. And she couldn't take her eyes away from the source of all the red. A big red spot continue to grow on Naruto's left shoulder. Just over his heart she thought.
Ino always knew Naruto would never be as powerful as Sasuke, but to see the extent the raven would go just to get stronger left a bitter taste in her mouth and her heart.
She had worshiped the ground the raven walked upon, she always thought Sasuke was a good person, just lonely and in desperate need to have company. She thought that maybe being on a team would break the walls he put around himself the day his family was murdered. She always thought she would be the one who would be the one Sasuke opened up to and decided to make a life with. She had prepared everything. What she hadn't thought about was how deeply his resolve to get stronger went. So much so that he would betray them to actually go to the enemy to get stronger.
That he would actually would kill his teammate to go to the snake sannin to get what he wanted.
She stood helpless on the bench outside his operation room beside Kakashi-sensei. She didn't hear when Tsunade-sama left the room and Sakura asked where Sasuke was. Her mind was a chaos, her feelings fluctuating between disappointment, anger, hope, despair, and everything in between.
She was so confused. For one she was actually glad that she had witness this so her infatuation with Sasuke would go to hell. But she felt so bad and helpless about her other friends.
She wanted to tear Sakura a new one because she was asking about Sasuke but not once she thought about Naruto. But before she could do something to her she stood up and walked away in a daze. So much so that she didn't hear Sakura asking about the blonds room number.
A couple of days later, Ino was visiting Chouji, flower vase in hand filled with orange flowers the other one with a basket of food. First she was going to drop the flowers to Naruto's room then leave quietly. But as she was opening the door. She hear the pink haired girl say to the blond that she would train hard and when he came back they would go and get Sasuke back together. And once again her heart gave a painful twist as he heard the blonds response. Sakura who was so excited about the prospect of getting Sasuke back didn't catch the fake excitement in the blonds tone.
On the two and a half years after Naruto left Ino had not once thought about raven hair or cold coal eyes, but instead of bright smiles, loud voice and bright blond hair.
She had dated Kiba for a while, and just because it remind the Yamanaka of Naruto. They were alike in so many ways, but so different in others that she thought better and they broke up a month later.
And then that late morning her mom made her go give Chouji his lunch box his dad had drop off on the way to a meeting. She saw him.
He was laughing and smiling and she couldn't believe this man, standing there. All bronzed and tall, and handsome guy was actually the blond knucklehead who had farted to win his pass to the third part of the chunnin exams almost three years ago.
She sucked in a breath, as her eyes roamed his frame, but as her eyes traveled back to his face she saw him turn around and his blue eyes caught sight of her, she felt his eyes burning every inch of her body as they roamed her figure too.
But as he started to recognize her, his lips quirked in a blooming smile and she dared her raising blush back.
"Naruto?"
"Hey Ino" the way her name rolled of his lips and the glint of something she's always seeing in the eyes of men all over the village, but never on him, not even for Sakura made her knees weak.
"when did you get here?" she asked
"Today" he said smiling again.
"Oh".
"Ino is that for me?" asked Chouji interrupting the awkward vibe between the blonds. And Ino silently said a thank you to her chubby teammate.
Really who knew Naruto would become such a hunk.
And as they parted ways, she thought that maybe she should start thinking names that went well with Uzumaki, because after much thought over the years, she knew that she preferred a man who would be there for her, who could made her smile, who was serious when needed and fortunately the blond in front of her was all this and more. He was determined just as Sasuke, was strong, he was also loyal, and knew what he wanted out of life and he would become someone worthy of being her man
But mostly because Uzumaki Ino sounded definitely better than Uchiha Ino.