Ino turned to say hello to the customer but froze when she saw a certain black haired boy.

Uchiha Sasuke stood in the doorway. He continued in and shut the door behind him. Ino noticed that he had on a blue backpack. A slight smile was on his face. At this Ino smirked, Sasuke never smiled.

"You should smile more, it confuses people," Ino said from the register. He smirked. "You should smile more, it'll keep people off you case," his voice reached her ears. She knew what it was about. She also hated how he twisted her words like that.

"What do you care?" Ino asked, trying to busy herself with arranging a vase full of orchids, not noticing a certain pink haired girl outside the window. "I want to make sure you-"he started but was cut off by…

"SASUKE!" yelled Sakura. She was standing in the doorway looking pissed. "Why are you here? I-I mean we have to leave in a few minutes," she added the last part to hide her jealousy. Ino sniffed a laugh; but it was unsuccessful. Both Sasuke and Sakura looked at her. She turned her back and continued to move the flowers, still listening.

"I'm here cause I wanna be," Sasuke said. Sakura didn't reply. Ino heard them leave; she also heard bits of their conversation. "So Sasuke, are you excited about the mission?" "Hn"

Later, Ino closed the store and walked up the street. She spotted a store. She walked in and started looking around. Most of the stuff was pink. Ino hated pink. She didn't know why. It was either because it was too girly or it was the color of Sakura's hair.

Ino went into a different store. She picked out some clothes and paid. Then she went out to eat at a sushi bar. When she went home she cleaned the kitchen and the living room then walked upstairs slowly. She picked up her lab top and waited while it loaded. She had saved up her allowance and the pay she received as a genin to buy it.

She logged on to her account on myspace and clicked on the bulletin that read "Sasuke is gone." It said that Sasuke had left on a mission. It was also signed by all of Sasuke's fan girls that had read it. Ino deleted it. Ino surfed for a while and went to bed.

The next morning she got up, showered, and got dressed in black shorts and a loose tank top. She gathered her weapons, braided her hair, and went into the forest to train. She walked on the main road that ran through the forest, turning after a little bit. She pushed past a bush to step onto a now well worn path. After a bit of walking she came to her training spot. It wasn't a secret, she just never told anyone. She meditated, stretched and began practicing her taijutsu. After that she molded chakra with a simple jutsu. Finally she threw weapons at a target she had hanging from a tree branch.

The way she saw it, when on a mission, your target isn't going to stay perfectly still like the ones most ninja's practiced with. When the weapon hit her target it swung a little bit. After four long hours of training she lied down in the grass for a breather. Her chest rose and fell as she breathed heavily. Finally she forced herself up and focused her chakra into her feet. Then she walked up a tree and quickly picked some apples, knowing that her chakra was almost gone. When she fell she landed skillfully on her feet.

Ino ate the apples and drank water before lying down for a little nap. In her dream she was floating on her back in an ocean. But the water was red, like blood. She was pulled under by a current and couldn't get back to the top. She tasted blood.

Ino shot up, breathing quickly. She could really taste blood. She started going to strange conclusions but then realized that it was from her nosebleed. She wiped it off with the back of her hand. Then she then jumped to her feet and started doing laps on the slightly visible path she had run on before. She ran thirty laps then stopped for more water. The sun was slowly setting. It was the end of August and the sunsets and sunrises were always smeared with too much color. She gathered her weapons and slowly walked back home. When she got there she dropped her weapons on her floor after closing the door, then she took off her shoes and fell into bed on top of the covers, too exhausted to do anything but fall asleep.

Ino woke up the next day and readied herself for whatever mission she had. She had set up a schedule. Get up, go on a mission or train with the team, go home, work at the shop, train alone, go home, eat dinner and go to bed. Then it just started over again. She stuck to the schedule for the next couple of weeks.

38 ½ days later

Ino went to her training ground. This time she ran first, stretched, and practiced chakra molding. She was about to start taijutsu when she heard a voice.

"Want to spar?"

Ino turned and saw Sasuke. He was just standing there. "Umm…sure, just don't go easy on me," Ino answered him. He smiled like he did back in the flower shop. They positioned themselves opposite of each other in fighting stance. Ino charged at him. He dodged her roundhouse kick, grabbed her ankle, and flipped her over his shoulder.

She stood and kicked his side. He quickly recovered and went to kick her. She dodged and rolled when he went to kick her while she was down. This kind of fighting continued until they were wiped. Ino pulled a box of dango out of her bag. She offered one to him. While they ate Ino rubbed her ankle where he grabbed her in the beginning.

When they were finished, Ino asked, "What to continue with weapons?"

"Hn"

"I'm going to take that as a yes," Ino said pulling out a kunai. They charged at the same time. She cut his cheek and he cut her left shoulder. She roundhouse kicked him and he easily knocked her down. She backed up and started showering him with needles and kunai. Most hit his arms. His head was low. She stopped for a second. When he looked up his eyes were crimson. She stumbled back and fell. He was in front of her in a flash.

He offered his hand to help her up. She took it. His eyes were back to onyx. He had seen the fear in her eyes when she had seen his. She was now helping put a band-aid on his cheek, totally unaware of the groups of fan girls, including Sakura, hiding in the bushes and trees. She stood, "Well bye, I need to go home." "To your family?" "Actually, my dad's on a three day mission, I'm all alone," she turned and murmured, "It's not like it makes a difference." She walked slowly back home. On her way back she was nearly killed by a HUGE group of fan girls that were yelling something about taking their Sasuke.

She went to bed after a brief dinner.