A/N: Hey all. I'm back with this chapter right now for a variety of reasons. A) I am very, very excited about this chapter, because it is full of Naruto/Ino goodness like we all want. And you can see why I'm also excited when you get to the end of this chapter. B) Because my birthday is coming up and I need ample time to party and go wild and crazy lol, j/k about the wild and crazy part. And C) See reason A. This chapter is by far my favorite. I worked really hard on it and I hope that you all enjoy it as well. Hopefully it goes better than last chapter. I only managed to disappoint one person, so that's a good thing. Anyway enough rambling on please enjoy.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, but Naruto x Ino is forever!
Ino woke up the next morning to find that she was alone. Naruto was not laying besides her. She had no idea where he had disappeared to. His side of the bed was cold, so he had obviously been gone for awhile. She assumed that maybe he had something to do.
"I guess that he didn't want to wake me up."
The platinum blond sat up in the bed. The sun was shining brightly. It looked like today was going to be a beautiful day. It was definitely a much better sight to see than yesterday's rain. When she heard the front door open, she looked up to see Naruto.
"Good morning sleeping beauty." He grinned. "Did you get enough rest?"
"Yes I did, thank you."
The blond male sat down in the chair. He had his back turned to her. Ino began to wonder if maybe she had done something wrong. Had she offended him in some sort of way..
"Um, Naruto?"
"Hai, Ino-chan?"
"Is everything alright? You're acting really weird."
"I don't think so." he replied. "Maybe it's all in your mind."
"No." She shook her head. "What's going on? Did something happen? I'm not going to end our friendship because of what you told me."
There was silence for awhile. Ino waited patiently for Naruto to respond. She wondered why he seemed so distant. He had never acted this way around her before.
"What do you understand about it? You have no idea what it's like to be me Ino."
"You're right." She agreed. "I never said that I knew what you felt. I only said that I can imagine how hard life was for you. Naruto I..."
"I don't want your apologies, save them."
Ino frowned at his behavior. Why was he suddenly acting like such a jerk? Naruto may have been a lot of things, but he was definitely not a jerk.
"Naruto, what's your problem? Geez someone looks like they woke up on the wrong side of the bed."
She then noticed Naruto's shoulders slumped over. He was starting to shake in an uncontrollable manner. This behavior concerned her.
"Naruto?" Ino got up with a worried expression on her face. She tried to touch him, but he only pushed her away from him.
"Stay away." He growled.
The blond girl looked into his eyes, which was now a shade of red instead of his beautiful cerulean blue color. She also noticed the red glow that emitted from his body.
"Naruto what's going on?" She managed to ask.
"Just stay away from me." He told her.
Ino shook her head no. She wasn't going to leave him like this. He was her friend, and friends helped each other. The blue eyed girl proceeded to walk towards him. He didn't even bother to budge. He stared at her with emotionless eyes. The smaller blond tried to touch him. He only pushed her hand away from him.
"Don't!"
"Naruto I just want to help you."
"You cant help me. This is only a little peek of Kyuubi's influence on me. You haven't even begun to really experience the rest of Kyuubi's powers. Do you still want to be my friend after this?" He asked.
Ino nodded. "You know that I'm still your friend. This doesn't change anything."
Naruto sighed. "I'll just have to teach you a lesson that you will never forget."
The boy leaped forward and attempted to maul her down.
"No!" Ino screamed.
She was awoken from her dream, by Naruto putting his hand on to her shoulder. There was sweat pouring from her forehead. He noticed that she looked like a complete wreck.
"Come on, pull yourself together Ino. You know that Naruto would never do that. He got in the way of a sword for you remember?"
"Ino-chan?" He asked worriedly.
She turned to see the concerned face of her whisker faced friend. Ino didn't want to tell him the details of her nightmare, so she gave him a warm smile.
"Hey Naruto."
"Are you alright? You woke up screaming."
"It was only a bad dream, I'm okay now."
"Good." He smiled. "I don't want you to be afraid Ino-chan."
Slowly the smile from his face faded. It was replaced with a more serious expression. Ino studied his features, he looked like he had something important to say.
"Ino?"
"Yes?"
"Aren't you tired?"
She stared at her friend, wondering where that question was coming from. How could she possibly be tired? She was wide awake right now.
"Tired?" She questioned.
"Yeah." He then moved closer to the platinum blond. He put his hand to her cheek. "Aren't you tired of denying that you have feelings for me?"
She blinked. "Huh?"
"Don't be afraid anymore Ino-chan, it's okay." He then leaned forward pressing his lips to hers. She looked surprised by his actions. Yet she soon relaxed into the taller blond's kiss. It was awhile before they broke away.
"See, didn't that feel better?" He asked.
"I...Naruto?"
The young woman woke up once more. Ino felt her heart racing from that second dream. She took a breath in an effort to calm herself down. Ino turned to her left to see that Naruto was still asleep, with his mouth wide open and all. She smiled warmly. This was the lovable goof ball that she was used to seeing. When Ino started to move to get up, Naruto opened his eyes at the movement.
"Hey, Ino-chan did you sleep okay?"
"Yeah I did. Come on, get up alright I'm starving."
"Sure." He nodded.
The two blond entered the kitchen together. She opened his refrigerator and her eyes widened in horror. There was nothing there except for a carton of milk. Which looked like it was on the verge of going bad. Ino was sure she had never seen a refrigerator so bare.
"Damn Uzumaki, when was the last time that you brought groceries."
"Um?" He put his hand to his chin. "It's been awhile."
"Clearly." She spoke. "Alright get washed up, change your clothes, and let's go."
"Go where?" He wondered.
"We're going back to my house, so that we can have a decent breakfast. And I'm sorry but ramen does not qualify. We're going to eat something that does qualify as a good breakfast."
"Aw man." He pouted.
Ino just chuckled at his more than predictable response.
"Go on, I'll be waiting for you."
Naruto could only nod. He found no point in arguing with the platinum blond. Besides, who was he to pass up a free meal. The only down side was that it wasn't going to be ramen. He washed up and changed his clothes. Deciding to wear a black t-shirt and his trademark orange pants. Ino was waiting for him outside of his apartment. Once he joined her, he locked the door and the two teens departed for Ino's house.
"Alright breakfast awaits." She cheered loudly.
Naruto felt his stomach grumbling at the mere mention of food. Ino turned to look at him, she smiled.
"It looks like someone is pretty hungry too."
"You bet." He grinned. "I' am starving."
She noticed Kiba and Hinata holding hands. They were walking in their direction. Ino suddenly put his arm around her and leaned her head on his shoulder.
"Hi you guys." Ino smiled.
"Hello Ino-chan, Naruto-kun." Hinata smiled back.
Kiba nodded, giving the blond duo the thumbs up.
"Hey you two." Naruto spoke. "You're out kind of early."
"Yeah, well so are you." The brown haired teen pointed out.
"I'm making my man breakfast at my house. Is that okay with you Kiba?"
"Okay." He laughed. "Geez, why are you so touchy this morning. Oh I get it, is it that time of the month or something?" Kiba whispered.
Ino's eyes turned white, Hinata turned red, and Naruto looked worried. He knew that Ino was about to explode. It was only a matter of time.
"5...4...3..." He started to count.
"What!" Ino shouted. "I'll kill you Inuzuka." She then punched him upside the head.
"Ow, Naruto control your girl. She's out of her mind."
"Heh." Naruto laughed. "Ino-chan is her own person. I can't control her."
"I'll show you out of control Kiba. Hina-chan excuse me while I kill your boyfriend."
"Ino-chan?" Hinata went wide eyed.
Kiba hid behind Hinata while Ino proceeded to yell at him. Naruto was growing weary of this constant bickering. He suddenly picked the platinum blond, throwing her over his shoulder.
"Naruto! Put me down."
"Come on Ino-chan you can kill Kiba later, remember breakfast awaits." Naruto spoke hopefully.
"Alright, Alright just put me down."
"I will if you promise not to kill him."
"I'm not afraid." Kiba laughed. "Come on Yamanaka bring it."
He was testing Ino by trying to see how far he could push her. Ino decided that she would not fall into his trap. She would be the bigger person this time.
"Okay come on Naruto lets go. Bye Hinata, bye Kiba this isn't over." She promised.
"Whatever." He laughed again. "I'll be waiting."
"Shut the hell up. Naruto put me down already."
Naruto nodded and finally placed the blue eyed girl down on the ground. The two blond's continued on to Ino's house. Both of them doing their best not to bring up her earlier confrontation with the feral boy. Once at her house Ino opened the door and walked in first. All of the lights were off showing no signs of her parents being home.
"Mom, Daddy?"
She cut the lights on. Naruto stood there looking around, when he noticed a note on the table.
"Hey Ino-chan, it looks like they left you a note."
He handed her the piece of paper with her mother's neat handwriting. She quickly read through the note. It basically said that her parents had went to visit some family.
"Oh." She sighed in relief. "They went to visit my aunt. Well, at least I don't have to worry about them. Naruto have a seat okay. I'm going to go change out of these clothes, and then I'll see what I can cook for us."
Naruto looked completely surprised. He could only hold his mouth open. He was unable to form any words at that moment. Ino had her eyebrow raised in question.
"What? What did I say?"
"You can cook?"
"Yeah." She nodded. "Of course I can."
"I didn't know that. You were always talking about dieting. I thought that you disliked food or something."
The blue eyed girl could only sigh, leave it to Naruto to say something to that effect. Just because she used to be a diet fiend, that didn't mean she disliked food.
"Never mind, I wont even respond to that. You just relax okay. I'll be right back."
She then turned to go upstairs. The blond male sat down on the couch. In true Naruto fashion it didn't take long for him to get restless. He got up from the couch and started to look at all the items around the house. Things were kept in such a neat manner. He almost felt bad for not being able to keep his apartment half this neat. He knew for a fact that he would never be this tidy.
"They're all a bunch of neat freaks." He thought.
He then noticed all of the pictures. There was a picture of a 5 year old Ino standing next to her father. He smiled at how cute she looked in the photo. He had almost forgotten that she used to have short hair. To him, she looked pretty either way. He also saw other various family photos. But when he noticed a picture of a small blond haired boy he paused. Who was he? Naruto was sure that he had never seen him before. The boy looked a lot like Ino. He was obviously a family member.
"Do you see something interesting?" He soon heard Ino's voice.
He turned around to see the platinum blond coming down the stairs.
"Yeah." He nodded. "Ino-chan who is this?" He pointed to the boy with the long blond locks. Ino walked over to him, so that she could see what he was talking about.
"Oh." She whispered. "That's my brother. We don't really talk about him too much."
"Why?" He wondered.
"He um, died when he was younger. I never actually met him." She admitted.
"I'm sorry." Naruto apologized.
Ino nodded. She wiped the single tear from her eyes. She wished that she did have the opportunity to meet her older brother. Unfortunately she had never been given the chance to know him. She did however always notice how much they looked alike. They could have been twins for gods sake.
"It's not your fault. He was really sick."
She then placed a warm smile on her face. "I'm going to see about breakfast. Why don't you sit?"
"Do you need some help?"
"No." She shook her head. "I'll be okay, you're my guest after all. I can't have you doing things, what would my mother think?" She laughed.
Ino said no more and disappeared into the kitchen. The blond boy looked at the picture once more before sitting back down. He never knew that Ino even had a brother. She hadn't ever mentioned him, not one single time. He had always assumed that she was an only child. He realized that there was probably a lot more to Ino than he first knew.
"I just though that she was a pretty, loud girl who really liked flowers. I guess that there's more to Ino than meets the eye."
"Ow." He soon heard.
"Ino-chan are you okay?"
"Yeah everything is under control."
He didn't believe her, something in her tone of voice told him otherwise. She sounded like she was in pain. He entered the kitchen to see Ino holding her bleeding finger.
"You're hurt." He quickly noticed.
"It's nothing, really." She smiled.
"Where do you keep your band aids?"
"In that cabinet right there." She pointed.
Naruto reached for the band aids, then took her by the hand. He led her to the sink and ran the water over the cut. Once the bleeding had stopped he put the band aid on.
"There its all good now."
"Thank you." She nodded. Ino soon noticed that he had yet to let go of her hand. "Naruto, I'm okay you can let go now." She reminded him.
"Oh okay, I'm sorry."
"Now get back out there so that I can finally get breakfast started, at last." Ino added.
"Fine, alright, yes ma'am." He smiled.
He only hoped that she wouldn't hurt herself again. Sure it was only a small cut, but for some reason seeing her bleed didn't sit well with him. He felt the urge to make sure that she was okay. He assumed that it was simply because they were friends. He sat back down on her couch. He soon heard the front door open and he was greeted by Mr and Mrs. Yamanaka.
"Oh." Mrs. Yamanaka spoke in a surprised manner.
Inoichi looked exhausted. It looked like he hadn't gotten a good nights sleep in days. To be perfectly honest the man looked like hell. Naruto was sure he had never seen him look this way before. He usually looked more serious and intimidating. But right now the bags under his eyes were saying otherwise.
"Um, I am very tired. Am I seeing things or are you Naruto? Honey is that Uzumaki Naruto sitting right there in our living room. I could be wrong."
"Yes dear it is. Hello there Naruto."
"Oh hi Mrs. Yamanaka, Mrs. Yamanaka. You're probably wondering why I'm here right?"
"Yes." Inoichi nodded. "If you are here then where is my daughter?" He immediately asked.
"She um..."
"Oh god, what happened. Is she hurt? Did she get lost somewhere? Did she meet some other boy." His voice was now in a dangerous tone.
"Ino-chan is..." Naruto started again.
Ino ended up coming out of the kitchen when she heard voices. She smiled upon seeing her parents.
"Hi mom, daddy. I invited Naruto over for breakfast, is that okay?"
"Sure it's definitely not a problem." Her mother spoke.
Inoichi walked over to his daughter. He sighed before wrapping his arms around her in tight hug. Ino coughed, while trying to breathe.
"Thank Kami you are alright."
"Daddy calm down. I was only gone for a few nights. There's no need to worry."
"And nothing happened to you. You aren't hurt or worse. You didn't get lost or anything like that. You're back home in one piece. And you didn't meet any weird, strange boys on your trip?"
"No, unless you're counting Naruto." She smiled. "I was with him the whole time. He was great company, right Naruto?"
"Sure." He nodded.
Inoichi tiredly sat down in the armchair across from the couch. Naruto waited for him to say something. He only hoped that Inoichi was too tired to threaten to kill him.
"Thank you Naruto for taking care of my daughter."
"No problem sir."
"Alright, now that, that's over I'm going to finish making breakfast."
"Do you need any help dear?" Her mother asked.
Truthfully she really wanted to do this on her own. She wanted to prove to her whisker faced friend that could indeed cook.
"Mom I sort of want to show Uzumaki that I can cook."
"Alright." She nodded. "I'll just be your assistant. I'll let you do everything."
"Sure." Ino agreed to this, knowing that her mother would not back down. The two blond females entered the kitchen, leaving Naruto and Inoichi alone. The older male opened his tired eyes. He then focused his attention on to the whisker faced boy.
"Naruto it's okay. You can tell me if anything happened on your trip. I wont get upset."
Somehow Naruto seriously doubted that. What was he supposed to say.
"Oh guess what. I slept in bed with your daughter, not once but twice."
He already envisioned his death at the hands of Mr. Yamanaka. If he told him that the older male was sure to blow a fuse.
"We got into a fight with this weird guy. But we managed to pull it together in the end. We're both okay Mr. Yamanaka."
"Good, that's good. I'm glad that you're both okay. So why the Land of Waves." Inoichi wondered.
"I went to visit a family over there. Ino-chan wanted to come with me, and you know how she is." Naruto laughed. "She's her own person."
"Yes." Inoichi nodded. "I see. Naruto I appreciate the fact that you took care of her. She is my only daughter so I often worry about her. I want to be honest with you son. I can see why my wife liked you so much in the beginning. She said that you were good for Ino-chan. I agree, I don't think that I've ever seen her happier. I have one question to ask you though. Did you have the chance to tell her about the Kyuubi yet?"
Naruto nodded, he would never forget the events of last night. It had been such an emotional moment between the two of them. It was a moment that he felt was very important for them. He hadn't expected her to shed those tears for him. In fact he had wished that she hadn't. He couldn't stand to see anyone crying.
"Yeah, Yamanaka-san I told her. She was very understanding."
"Hm." He nodded. "I knew that she would be. I' am glad that you told her, this will make things a lot easier for the two of you."
"Yeah I'm glad that I told her too."
Meanwhile inside of the kitchen, Mrs. Yamanaka decided that she would have a conversation with her daughter. She wanted to know what had happened on the trip to the Land of Waves.
"So how was your trip with Naruto-kun?"
"Um, it was interesting. I learned a lot when I was with him. He has really great friends mom. I met a really nice family when I went to the Land of Waves with him."
"That's nice dear. But you said that you learned a lot. Did he perhaps tell you something important?"
Ino grew silent as she continued cooking breakfast for everyone. She knew that her parents had to already know about Naruto's secret. So they wouldn't be the least bit surprised to learn about it.
"Yeah, he told me that he was a jinchuuriki. He told me all about the Kyuubi. So I know everything now."
Ino's mother nodded. She was glad that Naruto had finally gotten the chance to tell her the truth. It would be much better now that she knew.
"How do you feel about that Ino-chan?"
"I'm only sorry that I didn't become his friend a lot sooner. I could have been nicer to him. I should have been nicer to him. And I wish that things weren't so difficult for him when he was growing up. You know what, he never once complained. And Naruto tries harder than anyone I've ever seen. But despite the past Naruto is still my friend. I wont change my opinion of him, just because of his secret.
"That's very good Ino-chan. Naruto is a fine young man. I told you that he would be good for you. It seems that I was right."
Ino nodded in agreement. She then gave her mother a warm, bright smile.
"He is, I agree with you. I wish that he didn't wait so long to tell me though."
"You can understand why he was so reluctant though, can't you dear. A lot of people have treated him unfairly just because of his secret. He had to be nervous about telling you. He didn't want you to end up rejecting him like some of the other villagers. People can be unnecessarily cruel you know."
"Yeah, I understand that. But he really didn't have to be, everything was going to be okay. Naruto is still the same person to me. No matter what he had to tell me I wouldn't change who he is to me."
Mrs. Yamanaka listened carefully to her daughter's tone of voice. It was obvious to her that Ino cared about him very much.
"You really care about him, huh?"
Ino began to put the food on the plates. She had her back turned to her mother. Only Mrs. Yamanaka needed no words. She could almost sense her daughter's feelings.
"It's alright. You don't have to say anything Ino-chan."
Naruto soon looked up when he saw Ino and her mother coming in with breakfast for everyone.
"Okay Naruto we can finally eat, sorry it took so long."
"No problem. You're father kind of went to sleep though." He pointed to the sleeping man in the chair. Ino's mother chuckled lightly.
"I'm going to help your father up the stairs. You two just enjoy breakfast alright. Come on Inoichi-kun let's get up the stairs okay."
"Hm, five more minutes." He mumbled.
The two blond teens simply smiled at the older man's behavior. They then sat at the table so that they could finally eat their breakfast. Naruto wasted no time in digging in. He was clearly starving. Ino waited to see what his reaction would be. When his eyes lit up she assumed that he liked her cooking.
"Wow Ino-chan this is really good."
"I told you that I could cook."
"Yeah, I might have to get you to cook for me at my apartment sometimes." He laughed.
It was then an idea came to the platinum blond. She didn't have time to east her breakfast right now. There was something that she just had to take care of now. Eating would simply have to wait awhile longer.
"Naruto hand me the keys to your place."
"Huh, what, why?"
"I um, I think I left something at your place. I want to go get it now. You stay here and eat alright. I'll try to hurry back as fast as I can."
Naruto reluctantly handed the blue eyed girl his keys. He wasn't really sure what to make of the whole thing. The only thing he knew right now was that eating was extremely important. Besides, the food was too good to just get up and leave.
"Um, alright Ino-chan."
"Arigato, I'll be right back."
She ran out the front door and didn't look back. Naruto simply shook his head, then continued to eat his breakfast. Ino did now go to his house right away. She did however run down to the grocery story. She hurried around the aisles picking up various items. She even managed to throw his favorite instant ramen in the mix. She wasn't sure if it really mattered what flavor she got, he was bound to eat it anyway.
"Knowing him he'd eat anything that said ramen. The flavor really doesn't matter, not to Naruto anyway. He is however going to be completely blown away." She thought with a smile.
She soon paid for all of her items and left the store. She was so busy carrying the groceries she didn't see who she had walked in to.
"Oh, I'm sorry I..." She looked to see that she had bumped into Sakura of all people. "Never mind it's just you forehead. In that case I'm not really sorry."
"Ino-pig I haven't seen you around for a few days. Is everything okay?"
"Yeah, everything is fine. Now if you'll excuse me I have to go."
"Why are you in such a rush?"
"No reason, I just want to get away from you." Ino teased with a smile.
Sakura ended up smiling back. She knew that Ino was just kidding with her. The smile on the pink haired teen's face slowly faded. She then looked her friend directly in the eyes.
"Did you leave the village or something?" She asked knowingly.
"As a matter of fact I did. It's not really any of your business though."
"Right, okay." She nodded. "I'll see you around alright pig. Oh, and tell Naruto I said hi okay. I hardly ever get the chance to see him anymore."
"I will forehead. After all he really does like spending all of his time with me. See ya." She waved.
Sakura stood there watching her friend walk away. She wanted to be able to get some answers out of the platinum blond. Only she decided that right now wasn't the time. She folded her arms across her chest.
"I'll wait before I ask them. But something is definitely up for sure."
Ino made her way to Naruto's apartment. She placed all of the groceries into his refrigerator. She then scribbled a quick note and placed it on the front door. Ino smiled at her handy work. She felt good doing this for him. He was in desperate need of groceries.
"Alright, that takes care of that. I'd better get back now."
Naruto had long since finished breakfast. He was now helping Mrs. Yamanaka wash the dishes.
"Naruto-kun, you don't really have to help me."
"It's fine Mrs. Yamanaka, I don't mind."
"You are a very helpful young man. Why it's no wonder why Ino-chan likes you so much."
The spiky headed blond paused. She noticed that there was a slight blush on his face. It soon faded away as if it had been there.
"Y...Yeah." He stuttered. "We're friends so she has to like me right?"
"That's not really what I meant. Never mind, I'm sure that you two will figure it out sooner or later."
Once the dishes were clean and put away, the two blonds went back into the living room.
"Oh that's right. I better go open up the shop. Naruto-kun do you..." She paused as she noticed the way the picture of her son was now placed. It wasn't in the place that it was usually kept in.
"I'm sorry Mrs. Yamanaka. I was looking at it earlier I thought I put it back in the right spot."
"That's alright Naruto-kun." She then walked over to the picture and fixed it. "My son." She started. "He looks a lot like Ino-chan, huh?"
"Yeah." Naruto nodded.
"They look like they could have been identical twins or something. Of course he is a few years older than her. So they couldn't possibly be twins for real. I just always found it funny how much they truly look alike. It was very hard on Inoichi-kun and I when we lost him."
"I'm sorry for your loss."
"That's okay. He was a very sick child. I suppose that it was inevitable, that doesn't mean that it hurt any less though. We've never really gotten over his death. He was our first child. Inoichi-kun's first and only son, and you know how father's can sometimes be about their son's."
"Yeah." Naruto whispered.
"But we we're very blessed to have Ino-chan years later. I suppose that's why Inoichi-kun is so protective of her. She's his princess, his pride and joy, the only child that he has left. Yes, we were very lucky to get the chance to have our little girl after he died."
"How old was he when he died?"
"He was about 6." She answered. "He was such a warm, respectful child. He always tried to smile no matter how sick he was. And he always wanted a little brother or sister. I'm glad that I had the chance to give him one, even if he's never actually met Ino. He was my angel. We loved him very much. I wished that there was something that we could have done for him, anything to stop him from dying." She whispered that last part with tears in her eyes.
Naruto appreciated the fact that Mrs. Yamanaka was sharing such a personal experience with him. In a way he felt very honored that she would even want to share this with him. It made him feel a little bit closer to the Yamanaka family than ever before.
"I think, no I know that your son would have loved his little sister. He would have probably spoiled her rotten, and be just as protective of her as Mr. Yamanaka." Naruto spoke. "I know you wish that you could bring him back. And you'll probably wish that for the rest of your life. But Mrs. Yamanaka it wasn't your fault. You can't blame yourself for what happened to him, okay." He tried to smile. "It was no one's fault, try to remember that. Besides I doubt that he would want you to blame yourself."
The older blond haired woman managed to smile back. He had no idea who much she appreciated those words at this moment.
"Thank you very much Naruto-kun. Those were very comforting words. When you have a family of your own one day, all I can say is cherish them."
"I will." He nodded.
"Good, now I better go open up the shop, take care."
"I will, bye Mrs. Yamanaka."
Before long the front door opened. He looked to see that Ino was back.
"Oh hey Ino-can. Did you find what you were looking for?"
"Huh, what are you..." She paused. "Oh yeah, everything is good. Here are your keys." She then handed him back his keys. He was more than just a little curious. What did she leave at his apartment that was so important?
"Um..." He started.
"So." She interrupted. "How did you enjoy your breakfast?"
"It was great." He smiled. "You're really awesome Ino-chan."
"Thank you. I certainly try."
The two teens stared at each other for a moment. There was a sort of uneasy silence between the two of them. Ino couldn't help but wonder what she should say at this moment. Only before she had the chance to say anything, Naruto spoke first.
"Well, I think that I should go." Naruto started.
"Why? You don't have to you know. You can stay for awhile."
"Yeah I know. But I'm going to go. Thanks again for breakfast, it was great."
"It was no problem. I'll see you Naruto and don't be a stranger okay. You don't ever need an invitation to come over to see us."
He nodded then gave her a warm smile. He really appreciated her words right now. Naruto was thankful that their friendship hadn't changed any, because of what he told her. In short, he had worried for no reason at all. She didn't hate him and they were still friends.
"Thanks a lot Ino-chan, take care okay."
"I will." She waved goodbye. "I'll see you around."
"Bye Ino-chan."
Naruto walked back to his apartment in a great mood. There was nothing that could possibly ruin his mood right now. When he got closer to his apartment he noticed Tenten and Lee. They were holding hands, and looked very happy as usual. Naruto simply smiled at the couples happiness. He secretly wondered if he would have that for real one day. Not that pretending with Ino wasn't an experience in itself. He just wondered what it would be like to one day have that kind of relationship for real. He opened the door to his place. He immediately went to the kitchen for something to drink.
"Man, I'm thirsty. I guess that it's milk for me then."
He remembered that he needed to go grocery shopping as soon as possible.
"Note to self, buy some groceries."
The blond male opened the fridge to see that it was completely stacked.
"Whoa," he paused. "What the..." He was so focused on the inside of the refrigerator, that he hadn't noticed the note that fell on to the floor. Once he did he bent down to pick it up. There was Ino's neat handwriting.
"Just doing a favor. Remember to always keep your fridge full, Uzumaki."
He smiled at the girl's thoughtful behavior. She really didn't have to do any of this for him. He was certainly more than a little grateful.
"Wow, so that's why she wanted my keys." He folded the note up and put it into his pocket. He wouldn't forget this for a very long time. He had to repay her for her kindness one day.
"Hm." He smiled. "Thanks a lot Ino-chan."
(Days later)
The platinum blond was in an extremely great mood. Her mother had let her take the day off from watching the shop, so she now had nothing but extra time on her hands. As far as she knew she had no missions to be on. And there was only one person she wanted to spend this time with.
"I wonder where Naruto is?"
She checked Ichiraku's first, hoping that his stomach would lead him here.
"Hey Teuchi-san good afternoon."
"Oh, hello there Ino-chan. Are you here for a bowl of ramen?"
"Um no, not really. Have you seen Naruto? I was hoping to catch up with him."
"No I haven't seen Naruto yet. But he should be by soon. It's nearly three he'll be needing his ramen pretty soon." Teuchi laughed.
Ino laughed as well, agreeing completely with the old ramen chef. Ino really did hope that the spiky headed blond would come by here. Sh e wanted to treat him to a bowl of ramen. She was in a very generous mood right now.
"I'll just wait for him here. You don't mind do you Teuchi-san?"
"Not at all, why don't you have a bowl of ramen while you wait. It's on the house."
"Alright Teuchi-san if it's free."
She couldn't say no to Teuchi-san, not now, not when he had offered it to her for free. So she happily ate the entire bowl. She was especially hungry since she had skipped out on breakfast that morning. The blue eyed girl decided that one bowl of ramen a week was something that she could do. But there was no way that she could eat as much as Naruto. She could never pack it in the way that Naruto was able to.
"Ah, you were pretty hungry." Teuchi noticed.
"Yeah I guess so." Ino nodded.
As time went by it didn't seem like Naruto was coming. The platinum blond was beginning to get restless. She stood up from the stool.
"Teuchi-san, I'm going to go try to find him. If you happen to see him could you tell him that I was looking for him."
"Sure thing Ino-chan, bye."
"Bye." She waved.
For awhile Ino wandered the streets alone, looking for any sign of her whisker faced friend. His loud, all to recognizable voice, that wild unruly blond hair, or even his trademark orange and black jumpsuit. Unfortunately she hadn't seen or heard any of those things. Soon two voiced pulled her out of her thoughts.
"Hello Ino-chan, how are you on this very youthful day." Lee asked.
"Hey Ino." Tenten said.
"Hey you guys, you um, haven't seen Naruto around have you?"
"Oh." Tenten tried to remember.
"Yes, I saw him training. But that was much earlier."
"Thanks Lee. I think I know where he is. Maybe he's still there, bye." She then ran off.
"But wait..." Lee called out.
"He wasn't alone." Tenten finished, only the blue eyed girl hadn't heard them because she was already gone. Ino had a feeling that he had to be at the training grounds where the former team 7 used to train. She was happy to see that she was right. She spotted that head of spiky blond hair. Only she was less than thrilled to see who he was with. Naruto was not alone. Her smile quickly faded when she saw who he was with. It was none other than Sakura. Ino quickly hid herself in the bushes, as to not be seen by either of them.
"Come on Sakura-chan let's get serious already." He grinned.
"This is just practice Naruto. You don't want me to really get serious." She smiled back.
Although it was something completely innocent like training. Ino felt like it was something much more than that. She observed the way that they were looking at each other, their smiles, the laughter. It left her with an unsettling feeling.
"Naruto you have to teach me the rasengan one day."
"Hm, it's not easy Sakura-chan. You've got to be determined."
"I' am." She nodded.
"You've got to be precise and have skill." He smiled.
"I've got that, definitely." She spoke confidently.
"Also..." He started.
"What?" She wondered.
"You have to be ticklish."
"Huh?"
He ran over to the green eyed girl and began to tickle her furiously. Sakura started busting out laughing. She fell to the ground, bringing Naruto down with her. The blond in the bushes couldn't believe the display. The other two teens were now on the ground, and according to Ino they were too close for comfort. Naruto had his arms wrapped around her waist, and Sakura was now leaning into his chest.
"Get the fuck away from him." Ino thought.
"Okay, okay." Sakura laughed. "Let me go right now or I'll punch you." She threatened.
Naruto quickly let her go, he didn't want to suffer from the wrath of the pink haired girl.
"You got it Sakura-chan." He stood up first. He then took her hand so that he could help her up as well.
"Come on it's late, we've been out here all morning. I'll treat you to some ramen. Or do you have something else that you need to do?"
Naruto stood there thinking for a moment. He was positive that there was nowhere that he needed to be right now. Ino on the other hand was hoping that he would turn the other teen down. It was still early, and she had nothing but free time.
"Come on Naruto, tell her no."
Only she wasn't really expecting him to turn her down. She was Sakura after all, and this was an offer of free ramen. To him this was probably a dream come true.
"What am I thinking? There's no way that he would turn her down."
Naruto's stomach had answered Sakura's question. The pink haired teen laughed.
"Come on let's go get that ramen."
"Sure thing Sakura-chan."
It was then that Ino decided that she would follow them. She didn't want to admit it to anyone, but right now, at this moment she was feeling extreme jealousy. She hated to feel that. She hated to see them together. Ino had to make sure that Sakura kept her hands to herself.
"Wait, why the hell do I even care. It's not like he's my boyfriend or anything."
"It's the principal of things Ino. You have to protect what's yours." Inner Ino spoke.
"I..."
"No, you know that I'm right. Are you going to let forehead steal him right from under your nose?"
"But..." Ino whispered.
"You've got to fight for your man Ino."
"Yeah." Ino agreed. "She'd better keep her hands off of him."
"Okay." Inner Ino cheered. "That a girl."
The platinum blond waited awhile before following after them. By the time she got near Ichiraku's they were already seated inside. She wanted to stay close enough to hear, but not too close because she didn't wish to be seen. The whole thing was pretty ridiculous. This was not the way she had planned to spend her free time. She could think of better things to do than follow these two around. Luckily with the volume of Naruto's voice, she could hear everything clearly. He sounded happy to her. She wished that she was the one sitting besides him right now. She wanted to be the reason why he was happy.
"Well of course he's happy. He's right where he wants to be, with her."
"Oi, Ino." Chouji noticed her.
"What the... Chouji?" She ran over to him and placed her hand over his mouth. "Chouji be quiet before they hear you."
"Huh?" The brown haired teen wondered.
"Ino, what are you up to now?" Shikamaru asked.
Ino pouted at his insult. Why did she always have to be up to something? Why was she the number one suspect. Couldn't a girl spy on someone in peace?
"Will you two just be quiet before they hear you."
Shikamaru was about to ask her who she was talking about, only when he heard Naruto and Sakura's voices his questions were answered.
"Oh." He nodded.
"Whatever." Chouji spoke. "We're going to get some barbecue. Do you want to come?"
"Not right now, no thank you. I'm kind of busy."
"Alright if you say so."
Shikamaru looked at his friend for a moment. Her behavior was actually concerning him.
"Don't you trust him?"
"Huh?" Ino wondered.
"Well, you're spying on Naruto eating lunch with Sakura. You seem like you don't trust him. He is your boyfriend isn't he?"
Ino became silent and avoided Shikamaru's gaze.
"Of course I trust him. It's forehead that I don't trust. She is totally jealous of our relationship. I'm just protecting what's mine."
Shikamaru only shrugged his shoulders then shoved his hands into his pockets. "Whatever." He sighed. "Come on Chouji, good luck with spying on Naruto, Ino, see ya."
"Bye." She waved.
She turned back around to see that Naruto and Sakura were leaving Ichiraku's. She hid behind a wall of a building, so she wouldn't be noticed.
"That was great Sakura-chan, thanks a lot."
"No problem Naruto. Hey, come with me there's something that I want to buy." She then grabbed him by the arm.
"Uh, sure Sakura-chan."
Ino didn't know what to do about this. Naruto was now going to go shopping with her. To Ino there was nothing like shopping that brought to people closer together. Naruto had never once gone shopping with her, and he was supposed to be her "boyfriend".
"I don't believe this."
Ino watched as Naruto and Sakura walked from store to store. They looked very happy as they talked and laughed together. She also noticed that Sakura had yet to let his arm go. Anyone who saw them now would swear that they were a couple
"Does she have to touch him like that?"
"So Naruto how are you and Ino doing?" Sakura soon asked.
"Huh, oh, we're great."
"That's good. I'm glad that everything is working out for you two."
"Yeah." Naruto nodded. "Thanks Sakura-chan."
The two friends went into one last store together. Sakura had finally found the item that she had wanted and purchased it. Naruto noticed a necklace with a blue butterfly on it. It was identical to the hair clip that he had seen Ino wearing. The color blue had even reminded of him. Her eyes were almost the exact same shade of blue.
"Ino-chan." He thought.
He stared at the necklace the entire time. It was like he could see nothing else but the piece of jewelry in front of him.
"Naruto are you going to buy something?" Sakura asked.
"Yeah."
The cashier then turned his attention to what Naruto was staring it. He smiled widely, today was his lucky day he was about to make another sale.
"So do you see something that you like young man?"
"Yeah, can I have this." He pointed to the item.
"Yes, it is certainly a beauty isn't it. I'm sure that your girlfriend over there will love it."
As soon as he said this Naruto and Sakura turned to face each other. She shook her head no.
"Oh, no we're not together. He already has a girlfriend."
"Yeah, we're just friends." Naruto said.
"My apologies. I just assumed that...oh well never mind let's just wrap this up in a gift bag for you. What color would you like?"
Naruto's eyes immediately landed on to the purple colored bad. It was perfect for the platinum blond.
"I'll take the purple one."
Once the gift was placed in a box, and then put into the bag. The two teens left the shop together. They were now heading towards Naruto's apartment. Ino only hoped that Sakura wasn't going to go inside with him. Her mind starting to wander on to the things that could take place behind closed doors. Ino shook her head to get rid of those impure thoughts. The only thing Ino could really think about was confronting him. She was going to give the whisker faced boy a piece of her mind. She wanted him to know how upset she was. Naruto stopped at his apartment, he then waved to his friend.
"I'll see you later Sakura-chan. It was fun training with you this morning."
"Yeah it was. I'll see you soon Naruto, be good." She smiled.
"Right." He nodded. Without waiting another moment he entered his apartment. He placed the purple bag on the table. Ino was going to love this gift that he got for her. He saw it as a way of saying thank you for buying all those groceries for him the other day."
"Ino-chan will love this." He thought cheerfully.
Meanwhile outside the platinum blond waited until Sakura was no longer in sight, before walking up the stairs to Naruto's apartment. She had no idea what she was going to say to him. She took a moment to gather up her thoughts before knocking on his door.
"Just a minute." Naruto's voice was heard.
Naruto came to the door wearing nothing except for his pants. Ino found herself turning bright red. She did however always wanted to see him without a shirt. And she had to admit it was a very impressive sight. Naruto was pulling a very dirty trick. How dare he answer the door shirtless like this, was he purposely trying to confuse her. Get her brain so confused that she would forget why she was angry.
"Um..." Was all she could say.
"Oh, hey Ino-chan. I was just about to grab a shower. Come on in okay."
She nodded then entered his apartment. Naruto assumed that Ino had come over for a reason, so he put his shirt back on. That shower would just have to wait a little while longer.
"Ino-chan thanks a lot for buying all those groceries. You didn't have to."
"That's alright Naruto, I wanted to do it."
Silence filled the entire room. Naruto wondered what he should say to break the silence.
"So what's up? Is everything alright?"
Ino stood there with her eyes focused on the floor. This behavior concerned the spiky headed blond. It made him believe that something was wrong. He put his hand to her shoulder.
"What's wrong?"
"Everything is not okay." She whispered.
"Huh?"
"It's not okay." She raised her voice. The platinum blond looked up into his eyes. Naruto blinked in confusion. What was wrong with Ino? She didn't sound like herself right now.
"Um Ino what happened?"
"What happened?" She repeated. "Naruto, where were you this whole day. Do you want to explain to me why I haven't seen you at all."
"Oh, I was training, then I went for some ramen. And then..."
"Really." She cut him off. "And did you do all of these things alone, or were you with someone?"
He blinked.
"I was with Sakura-chan."
"So you were with forehead all day. Naruto, I was looking for you and you were with forehead the whole time!" She shouted.
"Ino why were you looking for me. I didn't know that you needed me for something."
She turned around with her back facing him. He waited for her to respond.
"Of course you wouldn't know if I had needed you. You were to busy spending your day with... with her."
Ino didn't want to admit to Naruto the truth. The truth being that she was jealous. She hated seeing him with Sakura today, even if it had all been on a friendly level. She just didn't want to have to watch any of it.
"Ino-chan I'm sorry. What did you need me for anyway, maybe I can still help."
"It doesn't matter anymore."
"Tell me." He then turned her around so that they were facing each other. He wanted to have her full, undivided attention.
"My mom gave me the day off today. I had some free time on my hands. I wanted to spend that time with you Naruto. I wanted to hang out, maybe grab a bowl of ramen together. I just wanted to spend my day with you." She admitted.
Naruto held his mouth open for a moment. He wished that he had the right words to say to her, but he felt that anything he said would only upset her more. He had never been in this situation before, so he really didn't know how to handle it.
"Ino..."
"No." She shook her head. "You spent your day with her. You did everything with her. You did all of the things that we could have done together, and you did them all with her. Naruto you even went with her shopping. Naruto, did you have fun?"
"I..."
"Of course you did, you were with forehead the whole time. I don't know I just assumed that maybe you would want to spend your time with me first."
She didn't know why she was getting so bent out of shape. It wasn't as if Naruto was at fault. All he did was spend a little time with a friend. Everything that the two of them did was all on a friendly level. There was no romance involved, or anything even close to that level.
"Ino-chan calm down."
"No I will not calm down. Am I wrong for wanting to spend time with you?"
"No you're not."
"Did you know that there was no one else that I wanted to be around today? You were my first choice, my only choice."
Naruto could see that the platinum blond was hurting right now. He wasn't sure but he felt like he had caused this. Didn't she know that he had been thinking of her too? She had indeed crossed his mind today. In fact she was almost always on his mind these days. He wouldn't have minded spending his entire day with her either. One thing he knew for sure was that he had done nothing wrong.
"Ino-chan I didn't do anything wrong. We can always spend time together, you know that."
"Never mind, you don't understand at all."
She tried to leave, only Naruto grabbed her by the arm. She couldn't just leave things like this. It felt wrong, it felt unresolved.
"Don't leave, make me understand."
"I..."
"Go on explain it to me Ino-chan."
"Naruto it just hurt alright. Seeing you with her, it really hurt. I hated watching how happy you were with her. I wished that I was the reason that there was a smile on your face."
The platinum blond continued on with what she had to say. Naruto could only stare at her. The words literally starting to go in one ear and out the other. He had lost her somewhere between how much she hated watching him with Sakura, and how much she really wanted to spend time with him. He had to do something and he had to do it fast.
"Ino-chan?"
"No! I'm not finished."
"Ino?"
"Naruto let me finish."
He placed his hand on to her cheek. This caused her to look up at him.
"Naruto?"
"Ino-chan." He leaned down lowering his lips to hers. He smiled before whispering to her. "Ino-chan be quiet okay." The spiky headed blond then pressed his lips to hers. The shorter blue eyed girl opened her eyes in surprise. It took her a moment. But then it slowly started to sink in. This was real, this was not a dream or an illusion. This was really happening. Naruto was actually kissing her. It started off soft and slow. She did her best to resist the kiss. Only she eventually gave in and began to kiss him back.
"Holy shit, he's kissing me. I'm kissing him back."
Neither one of the blonds had expected the kiss to feel this good. Naruto placed his arms around her waist, only pulling her closer to him. She put her arms around his shoulders, only deepening their kiss further. Their tongues met for a split second before it came to a sudden end.
"I can't believe that we're doing this." Ino thought. "But it feels to good to stop. Yeah, I almost don't want it to end."
"This is incredible, wow." Naruto thought. "Maybe I should have kissed her a lot sooner."
The blond male ended up pushing the shorter girl up against the wall. She moaned into his mouth, while running her fingers through his spiky locks. Their kiss only intensifying with each passing moment. Ino was sure that she had never ever been kissed like this before. Sure, she only had one kiss in her life and that happened by accident. This was by far the most passionate kiss she had ever had. Not even what she read in the romance novels could compare to what she was feeling right now. All of their emotions were rushing to the surface now. It was obvious that the two blonds had wanted this kiss for a very long time.
After a few more minutes of their passionate lip lock. They both broke away at the same time. The two blond shinobi stood there staring at each other. They were both slightly out of breath from their intense kiss. Ino closed her eyes. She could feel her heart literally pounding through her chest. She hadn't expected Naruto to kiss her like that. And she certainly didn't expect that she would kiss him back, with equal the amount of emotion and passion. In words it felt amazing, wonderful, it sent shivers down her spine.
"Ino?" He whispered her name.
"Naruto this is so fucked up." Was the first thing that came to her mind.
"You're telling me." He agreed.
Ino walked over to his bed, she took a seat. She placed her hands into her lap, and avoided his gaze.
"When the hell did it get like this? When did things get real? Naruto this was not supposed to happen."
The taller blond sat down next to her. He sighed before reaching over for her hand. He took her hand and squeezed it within his.
"Ino, did you want to kiss me? Did you really feel what I felt."
Naruto had been feeling so many different emotions at this time. He really enjoyed that kiss with the beautiful blond kunoichi. He wanted to do it again. He found himself with the urge to grab her right now, and kiss her the same way. Naruto found himself wanting to make their faux relationship real. He wanted to have what Lee and Tenten had. Ino turned her attention elsewhere. What could she say to him right now?
Should she admit these growing feelings to him. Feelings that she had been trying to ignore this whole time. But she couldn't fight them off any longer could she? Their kiss was proof of that. Could she actually breathe light into the current situation.
"Naruto I did want that kiss." She admitted. "It felt,... I can't even begin to describe to you how it felt. I've never actually felt anything like that before."
"Yeah." He understood.
He had never felt anything like that before either. The two of them had decided that in no way shape or form would they get involved for real. This whole thing was supposed to be for public appearance only. Ino didn't know when she started to feel real feelings for Naruto. She couldn't pinpoint the exact moment. The only thing she knew was that she felt them. She felt them and they were not going away. In honest it was starting to scare her.
"Ino?" He called out to her.
"Yeah?"
"What are we going to do now?"
The platinum blond shook her head. She didn't even have any answers for herself. So how could she possibly begin to give him any. She didn't know what to say to him. She had to think of something though. Ino knew that he wanted an answer. She took a breath before turning her attention towards her whisker faced friend.
"I don't know Naruto. I honestly don't know."
A/N: Best chapter ever Lol. I guess by now you figured out that we will be at the present time next chapter. I hope to hell that you all enjoyed. Oh and I know this is random but does anyone else find it funny that Ino and Deidara from Akatsuki look alike. Okay maybe not lol. Anyway all I can say is Review, review, review. I hope that you all are excited for the next chapter as much as I am, I will update again sometime after my birthday. Stay tuned for more.