A/n: Just wanted to say a quick thank you to all you lovely reviewers. Thanks so much for the reviews last chapter. I'm sorry that this is so late, I was fresh off of vacation and didn't feel like doing anything. Anyway please enjoy and stick with me people. No matter what this will have a happy ending. Thanks to Smithjohn2020 for checking over the mistakes. And a special thanks to all the musical influences that went into writing this chapter, Skillet, Paramore, a lot of Jrock, Evanescence, and a whole lot more.

Disclaimer: You know I don't own it. If I did Naruto would so totally be with Ino.

"Naruto?"

He turned around to see none other than the pink-haired medic-nin. He wasn't really expecting to see her here. He didn't want anyone to show up at this moment. Naruto found that he had enjoyed the peace. He wanted this time to sit and reflect. He couldn't be rude now, however, so he managed to give her a warm smile.

"Hey, Sakura-chan."

"Hi, Naruto."

There was a moment of silence. Another gentle breeze passed by. Naruto stared up into her jade green pools. There was no reason why she couldn't stay. Naruto decided that his peaceful reverie was over.

"Why don't you sit?" He suggested.

"Sure." She nodded. "I'm actually glad that I found you. I was looking for you."

The green-eyed teen sat down besides her blond-haired friend.

"Really, well now you've found me. What's up?" Naruto wondered.

"That can wait. What's wrong? Why are you sitting up here like this?"

"I'm just thinking." He replied.

Sakura was silent for a moment. She could see that there was something clearly bothering him. She wanted to find out what was troubling him. He was her friend, so naturally she would be concerned. It was up to her to get to the bottom of things.

"Are you sure that's all? What's really on your mind?"

Naruto sighed. He wasn't really sure how he felt about telling Sakura the truth. Did he truly feel comfortable to tell her what was going on? This was the sort of thing he would much rather discuss with someone else.

"It's nothing."

She raised an eyebrow to him in disbelief. He was flat out lying to her. Had they grown so far apart that he felt that he couldn't talk to her? She sincerely hoped that this wasn't the case.

"Luckily for you I'm not Ino, so I can't invade your mind. So are you going to tell me what's wrong? Or will I be forced to use extreme measures?"

"Ino-chan, wake up!" Her mother said as she shook her sleeping daughter.

"No," she shook her head. "Five more minutes."

"Come on, it's a beautiful day. Don't you want to go out and enjoy it?"

"No, not really." She mumbled.

The platinum blonde had only wanted to stay in bed and sleep. At this moment she could think of nothing better. This was the absolute definition of heaven.

"Come on dear, wake up." Her mother spoke as she pulled the covers off of her. Ino reluctantly sat up after the feeling of the warm covers left her.

"Mom!" She whined.

"You shouldn't waste your whole day in bed like this. It isn't like you Ino-chan. I want you to go out and do something."

Deciding that her mother would not leave her alone about this, she knew that she had to get up.

"Alright, alright. Fine."

The blue-eyed girl got out of the comfort of her bed and immediately headed for the shower to wash and get dressed. All the while she wondered just what was she supposed to do. The only person she had really wanted to see was Naruto. She hadn't seen him at all in the past few days. And although she did miss him, she had no idea what to say to him, where to start or how to begin. She wondered if he even wanted to see her. It would most likely feel very awkward between them. A lot of things felt awkward after they had shared their kiss.

"Okay mom, you're getting what you want. I'm leaving."

"Alright, goodbye Ino-chan. Try to have fun, okay?"

"Yeah," she sighed.

Ino walked the streets of Konoha with no goal in particular. She spotted some couples holding hands while they walked together. Oddly enough, it reminded the blonde teen of her and Naruto. Sure their holding hands had been for show, but it had always felt nice. Holding hands with him like that made her think of what a relationship would be like. Yes, she had been on a few dates in her 17 years of life. But a real boyfriend was something that she had never had. She wanted someone to call her own. Naruto was the definition of a perfect boyfriend. The way that he cared about people was proof enough that he would be a great boyfriend. He had treated her with nothing but respect during their "relationship." She knew that having him as a boyfriend would bring nothing but happiness and fun times. As she was passing by Ichiraku's she immediately thought of her whisker-faced friend.

"Naruto?" She whispered.

(Back at the Hokage Monument)

Naruto turned to look at his pink-haired friend. He knew that she would be able to see through his lie. Naruto gave her another smile.

"I guess that I can't lie to you, huh, Sakura-chan?"

"Nope." She shook her head. "So spill it."

Naruto nodded. "I sort of have a lot on my mind."

"Yeah I can see that. Naruto, what's going on?"

"It's such a long story... Why don't you tell me why you were looking for me? Maybe I can help out."

Sakura thought about what had happened before she came up to the Hokage monument.

(Flashback)

Sakura was sitting with Tenten and Hinata. The friends decided to meet up for the day. Only Sakura found that she was unable to tear herself away from the subject of Naruto and Ino. It seemed that their relationship was her favorite thing to talk about these days. Sadly, it seemed that nothing else really mattered.

"And you know what else...?" Sakura began.

Tenten sighed heavily. She was sick of hearing Sakura complain about Konoha's favorite blond couple.

"Sakura, please cut it out. We don't care what your theories are."

"But..."

"Sakura for the love of Kami let it go. Leave Naruto and Ino alone all ready."

"Sakura-chan, you have been talking a lot about Naruto-kun and Ino-chan's relationship." Hinata added.

Sakura sighed. Her friends didn't even want to hear her what she had to say right now. Where was the love and support? Friends were supposed to be there for one another no matter what.

"It's because there's something funny going on between them. Why won't you guys listen to me?"

"We have been listening." The brunette spoke. "And right now we're tired of listening to you. So why don't you shut up already?"

Tenten hadn't meant to sound so harsh at the time. She was just fed up with listening to Sakura go on and on about the blond couple. Sakura was clearly jealous about them, if she would only admitted it to herself.

"Fine." Sakura spoke. "I see what kind of friends you are. I'm going to go and see if I can find Naruto. He'll admit the truth to me. Bye."

"Bye Sakura, good luck with whatever you're doing."

Tenten waited until Sakura was gone before whispering to the blue-haired girl.

"Sakura needs a hobby, or a man, or something. I think that she's totally losing it."

(End of Flashback)

"Well Naruto, besides the fact that I don't really see you that much anymore..." She started.

"I'm sorry about that Sakura-chan. I went to the Land of Waves so I wasn't around for awhile."

"That's not what I meant. I haven't spent much time with you ever since you've been dating Ino... Wait, you went back to the Land of Waves? How's Inari and his family doing?"

"They're doing well. Inari's gotten really tall. The boy is a complete and total pervert though. He wouldn't stop making comments about Ino-chan."

Sakura let out a laugh. It was hard to picture. Who would have thought that the shy little dark-haired boy would turn into a teenage pervert.

"Really? Wow, a lot has changed."

"Yeah." Naruto nodded.

"Especially if Inari is into girls like Ino-pig."

Naruto frowned. "That's not very nice Sakura-chan."

"Yeah, I know. I was just kidding, sorry." She said in between giggles.

The two friends sat there quietly. Neither one of them talking for awhile until Sakura spoke first.

"Naruto, I really missed you, you know. It hasn't been the same between us. It feels like we've grown apart ever since you've started dating Ino-pig. I don't like to have that feeling, you know."

"I'm sorry Sakura-chan. I don't want you to think that I've been avoiding you or something."

"No, I don't think that at all. Ino has been holding you hostage though." She laughed. "Anyway, speaking of you two, how are you two doing?"

Naruto did not answer her right away. Technically, he and Ino were not in a good place at this moment. He had no idea where he stood with her. He hadn't spoken to her or seen her at all in the last few days. So, he came up with the only answer that he could at the time.

"We're fine."

"Naruto, you aren't lying to me again are you? Come on, tell me the truth."

Meanwhile Ino was still walking around when someone called out to her.

"Oi, Ino."

She turned around to see her black-haired friend. Ino gave him a smile. It was definitely good to see a friend right now.

"Hi, Shika."

"Hm." He nodded. "What's wrong with you? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." She lied.

"Tch,"He snorted. "You're lying." He said plainly. "If everything is fine then how come this is the second time I've seen you walk by here?"

She was caught. She couldn't think of a good excuse to tell him. Besides he would most likely be able to tell that she was lying to him.

"Do you want to go somewhere and talk about it?" Shikamaru asked.

She did need someone to talk to, and she doubted that going to her mother would help. She decided to take Shikamaru up on his offer.

"Alright." She nodded.

The two friends sat down at a spot underneath a tree. Shikamaru put his hands behind his head and leaned back against the tree.

"Shika, you know that I hate it when you smoke."

"Yeah." He whispered. He then put out his cigarette, then turned to his friend. "What's on your mind, Ino?"

"Well, I guess I just have a lot on my mind."

"Yeah? Ino, you aren't in trouble or something, are you?"

Sakura frowned at Naruto's silence. He had to be really thinking of something important to not respond.

"Naruto, how can I understand what's going on if you keep lying to me? I thought we were friends?"

"We are Sakura-chan."

"Then you should be able to trust me enough to tell me what's going on."

"Sakura, it's a long story... It's a confusing time for Ino-chan and me."

Sakura didn't understand what he was really getting at and immediately jumped to the wrong conclusion.

"Naruto!" She exclaimed. "You and Ino aren't thinking about taking that next step, are you?"

Sakura stood up from her spot on top of the Yondaime's head.

Naruto blinked. He held his mouth open in shock.

"Sakura-chan?"

"Omigod." She panicked. "You guys aren't going to be that stupid, are you? You've only been together for what, a few months? Come on Naruto, think about the consequences."

"Sakura-chan?" He repeated.

"This is unbelievable I didn't think that this would ever happen. Naruto, don't make me a godmother, yet. Please." She begged.

"Sakura-chan." He stood up, putting his hands on to her shoulders in an effort to calm her down. "You are overreacting. Ino-chan and I aren't there yet."

"Oh, good." She sighed in relief. "I don't think I could handle that."

Once that whole misunderstanding was out of the way, the two friends sat back down.

"Sakura-chan, Ino and I..."

"Are you guys having problems?"

"Um, yeah."

"Well, all couples have problems Naruto. Do you think its perfect for Hinata and Kiba, or Lee and Tenten, for that matter? I'm sure they have their issues as well. You aren't thinking of calling it quits, are you?"

Naruto sighed to himself. He figured that he might as well confess the truth to her. She was, after all, his best friend. And, in truth, he felt that there was really no point in lying any further.

"There's something that you should probably know about Ino and me."

Sakura stared wide eyed at her whisker-faced friend. This was the moment of truth. Naruto was about to confess to her something huge. She could feel it. She would finally learn what the big secret was.

"I wonder what he's going to say?"

"Alright, what is it Naruto?"

"We um..."

"Yeah, yeah." She urged him to continue.

"Ino-chan and I..."

"For Kami's sake Naruto, spill it already?"

"Ino-chan and I were never really a couple in the first place. There ... I said it." He admitted.

Ino turned to look at her dark-haired friend. Shikamaru stared back at her. He was clearly expecting an answer.

"You know what, yeah, I'm in trouble."

"You are? Ino, what did you do?"

"I did something really stupid. I fell for a guy that has feelings for someone else."

Shikamaru hadn't been expecting her to say that. He expected her to say that she was in some serious trouble, like with her parents, Tsunade-sama, or even during a mission.

"Ino, you knew that Naruto had a thing for Sakura from the beginning. Why did you even get involved with him? I really don't see how I can help you out of this." He spoke honestly.

"I know. I just wish that you could Shika, but no one can get me out of this."

Shikamaru sat thinking to himself for a minute. He could think of only one thing to say to her. It was the only thing that made any kind of sense.

"Ino, you should dump him. Break up with him before you really get hurt."

"There's a problem with that. I can't exactly break up with someone that I was never actually dating in the first place."

Shikamaru stared at Ino. She didn't give him any eye contact. To be honest he wasn't really expecting her to say that. He had assumed that the two of them were dating. They'd given him no reason to think otherwise.

"So you guys had been faking your relationship."

"Yeah." She nodded. "We did it for a lot of reasons. I thought it would be a good idea for him to get over Sakura. And I thought that it would be fun to tick Sakura off a little."

"Yep, sounds like something you would do, Ino."

"Yeah. Well, that was my reason at first. But soon, I realized that Naruto was a good guy, you know? So I wanted him to get all the things that he wanted. And we both know that has always been Sakura. I..." She paused. "I just never expected to fall for him."

Shikamaru could have told Ino from the beginning that this plan was a stupid one.

"Ino, you had to know this plan of yours was bound to have consequences."

"Yeah I guess so. I know that I probably should have thought things through better. I just really didn't expect to fall for him. I know it was stupid Shika, but I can't help how I feel now."

Shikamaru slowly put his hand on to his friend's shoulder.

"So, Ino, what are you going to do now?"

Silence filled the air on top of the Hokage monument. Sakura closed her mouth. The surprise slowly leaving her face. She had finally received the answer she had been looking for this whole time. Now she knew why the idea of Ino and Naruto was so weird to her. They had never been a couple in the first place.

"So you guys were just pretending this whole time?"

"Yeah." Naruto nodded.

"Ha!" She shouted. "I knew that something weird was going on between you two. You guys had me fooled for a moment. But your relationship just happened way too fast."

Sakura continued to go on and on until she noticed how quiet Naruto was. His facial expression seemed sad. She had not meant to hurt his feelings in any way.

"Oh." She paused. " Geez, I'm sorry Naruto. I didn't mean to go off like that. Hey, what's wrong?"

"It's nothing."

"Naruto, quit lying and talk to me."

"Sakura-chan, it's complicated."

"May I ask a question? Why would you two go so far to pretend that you were a couple?"

She really had to know the answer to this question. She knew that she would never be able to let this go until she found out why.

"Well, it was mainly to get you jealous."

"What?"

"Yeah, Ino-chan wanted to help me get you to admit that you had feelings for me. So we ... well it was really mostly her idea ... we decided to pretend to be a couple just to get your attention."

"Hm." Sakura thought about it. Now that Naruto had admitted the truth to her, it made perfect sense. For as long as she could remember, Naruto had held very strong feelings for her. She didn't know why she hadn't seen them pulling something like this before.

"It sounds like something Ino-pig would do."

"I don't even know why we went through with it. It was probably a real stupid plan to begin with. I had my doubts from the beginning. I probably should have talked Ino-chan out of it or something. And now..."

"Now what, Naruto?"

"Nothing. It was all for nothing."

Sakura gently put her hand to Naruto's shoulder. She didn't want to see him down like this. He was her best friend. She had to see him through this. Judging by his facial expression there was something else that he wasn't telling her. She came to a conclusion. She wasn't sure if there was some truth to this, but it was worth a try to ask him.

"Naruto, I could be wrong. But I'm going to ask this anyway. I just want you to be honest with me okay?"

"Sure thing, Sakura-chan."

"Naruto, do you think..." She hesitated. "Well, I was wondering, have you fallen for Ino?"

Ino sighed to herself. She was now sitting with her arms around her knees.

"We kissed." She whispered. "And now I don't know what to do."

"Did you like it?"

"Huh?"

"Did you like his kiss?"

"Yeah." She answered. "I really did."

"So, you got your answer. You go to Naruto and tell him how you really feel."

Ino shook her head no. She couldn't do that, anything but that.

"No, he still likes Sakura. I don't stand a chance. I'm not going to even bother. As you would say, it's too troublesome."

Shikamaru frowned slightly. This wasn't the Ino that he knew, his friend, the girl he knew his whole life. She seemed like a completely different person.

"Come on Ino, you don't even sound like yourself. Where the hell did all your confidence go? Where's that troublesome girl I know so well?"

"Troublesome?" She repeated, her mind still preoccupied with thoughts about Naruto. Normally she would have jumped at berating him for using his trademark phrase to describe her.

"Yeah." He gave her a small smile. "You and Naruto kissed. That had to mean something to the both of you. And how do you know if he even still likes Sakura? Did you even bother to ask him? Besides, I thought that you promised Asuma-sensei that you wouldn't lose to Sakura, in ninjutsu or love? Suck it up and go tell Naruto the truth already."

Ino flinched when he said Asuma's name. Shikamaru was only trying to give her a bit of tough love, a push in the right direction. She appreciated what he was trying to do for her. When she turned to face Shikamaru again, there was now a glint of determination in her aqua-colored pools.

Shikamaru smirked when he saw that same determination he was so used to seeing in his friend's eyes.

Ino reached over and hugged him.

"Thank you, Shika."

"It's not a problem."

"You're right. I'm going to go tell Naruto how I feel. I'm going to take a chance and go for it. I would never want to disappoint Asuma-sensei." She smiled.

Ino let her friend go and then stood up. She suddenly found her strength again. She needed to do this now before she lost her nerve.

"I'll see you Shika and I'll let you know how it turns out."

"I'll be around." Shikamaru promised.

"Bye."

She gave him another smile before heading off to Naruto's apartment.

Naruto didn't answer Sakura right away. Instead he sat there staring into the sky.

"It's alright Naruto. You can tell me if it's true or not."

She had truly wanted to know the answer. Had Naruto fallen for Ino in the process of their plan? It was definitely much more than a possibility. Naruto still hadn't answered her question.

"Naruto? Naruto, please answer me."

"Yeah." He soon spoke. "That kiss wasn't faked, Sakura-chan. When we kissed, I felt something that I've never felt before. I thought she felt the same. I really thought that the feeling was mutual."

"You guys had kissed before. What was so different about this time?"

"Oh, you mean that time where you saw us. It wasn't really a real kiss. I didn't kiss her back at that time. But when we kissed a few days ago it felt..." He paused. "It felt..." He tried to put his feelings into words.

"It felt right." Sakura finished, unsure of why her heart suddenly felt empty.

"Yeah. It felt really right. I thought that she liked the kiss too, but I guess that I was wrong."

Sakura placed her hand on to her friend's shoulder.

"Well, what did you say Naruto? Maybe you just misunderstood her. You know you've always been a bit dense when it comes to relationships." She teased gently.

"Hey!"

"Well." She chuckled. "You have been known to be more than slow in that department."

"Yeah, well I didn't misunderstand anything this time."

"What happened Naruto?"

"Ino-chan regretted our kiss. She said so herself. She wanted to forget that the whole thing happened. And to make things worse, she didn't even believe that I wanted to kiss her in the first place."

"Why? You don't just do things for no reason. Naruto, what else is going on?"

When Ino arrived at Naruto's apartment, she stopped before knocking on the door. The platinum blonde gathered up her courage, and then proceeded to knock on the door.

"Naruto, open up okay."

There was no answer. Ino knew that she couldn't blame him for not wanting to speak to her. She had been practically avoiding him for days. But Ino knew that she had to keep trying.

"Naruto, open up already. We really need to talk. I know that I ran out on you the other day, and I'm sorry. I'm here now, so we can make things right."

There was still no response from him. He wouldn't ignore her this much, no matter how upset he might have been with her. He would have come to the door by now. She came to the conclusion that Naruto was simply not home.

"I need to go find him."

She searched everywhere – Ichiraku's, the training grounds, ... She even asked everyone she met during her search, but no one had seen him.

"Are you sure that you haven't seen him, Ten?" Ino asked the brunette.

"No, I'm sorry Ino. I haven't seen Naruto. I have to get going, or I will be late for my mission. I'll see you around, okay? I hope that you find him."

"Yeah, thanks. Bye, Tenten."

As she was about to give up, an idea suddenly came to her.

"He said that he liked to go up to the Hokage monument. Maybe he's up there. Yeah, I'll check the Hokage monument." She decided. And with that she ran off towards her destination.

"Naruto, what else is going on?" Sakura asked again.

"She thinks that I only kissed her because I didn't have you to kiss at the time. She thinks that I was just using her as a replacement for you." He admitted the truth.

Naruto knew this to be true. It was probably the reason why she had left like that in the first place. Sakura turned her attention elsewhere, while she allowed her mind to process everything.

"Naruto, can you really blame her? If this whole thing was to make me jealous, don't you think that she would automatically assume that?"

"Yeah." He just nodded.

"You weren't doing that were you?" Sakura asked. "Because, Naruto if that's what you were doing..."

"No." He cut her off quickly. "I wasn't using her in that way at all. I wasn't even expecting to kiss her. Besides, trying to make you jealous didn't even work anyway. You were never jealous, Sakura-chan."

The pink-haired teen swallowed the lump of nervousness in her throat. Since Naruto had been so truthful with her, she felt the need to be honest with him as well. He had a right to know the truth.

"That's not entirely true, Naruto. I was j-jealous."

"Huh?" He blinked.

"Yeah," She nodded. "I was jealous that you were spending all your time with her. It felt like I was losing you or something. I guess that I never thought about losing you before. Naruto, you're important to me and I don't want to lose what we have."

"Sakura-chan?" He whispered.

"I know that I haven't always been nice to you, and I'm really sorry for my past. I should have never treated you that way Naruto. You didn't deserve it. Yet, no matter what I did or how I treated you, you were always there for me. You were always helping me, protecting me, cheering me up if I needed it. Naruto, I appreciate everything you've done. I really do."

Naruto nodded.

"Sure Sakura-chan, I told you before that I'm always going to be here for you."

She smiled at her friend. Then she leaned her head on his shoulder.

"Naruto, sometimes I feel like I really don't deserve you. I used to be terrible to you when we were younger."

Naruto slowly put his arm around the green-eyed girl.

"We've been through a lot together."

"Yeah, we really have." She agreed. "We've been through hell together. Maybe that's why we're so close. I don't ever want to lose the bond that we have."

"Sakura-chan, you won't."

"You don't know what could happen Naruto. Neither one of us can predict the future. So, that's why we have to promise to always be there for each other, for as long as we can."

Naruto stared at his pink-haired friend. She was acting very strange to him. He turned her around so they were facing each other.

"Sakura-chan, are you alright? Why are you talking like this?"

"I just shouldn't have ever taken you for granted. I'm going to make things right for my behavior. I promise Naruto."

"I..." Naruto started.

"Naruto, don't say anything. Don't say that I don't have to make up for the way I treated you, because I do."

"Sakura-chan." He whispered. "I never held any grudges. I just accepted you for you. And I'm grateful to have you as a friend. You will always be Sakura-chan to me. You can always count on me. So enough of this feeling guilty because of the past. We're okay now."

The pink-haired teen wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Thank you, Naruto. Thank you so much."

She slowly pulled away from the embrace and stared into his cerulean pools.

"Um...Sakura-chan?"

"This feels nice Naruto. Let's sit here like this for awhile."

"Um, sure." He agreed.

She replaced her arms around his shoulders and leaned into him. He had his arms wrapped around her waist. Their faces leaning extremely close to one another.

Just then, Ino arrived to the top of the Hokage monument. She knew that Naruto had to be up here. She stopped briefly to catch her breath.

"Man, I really need to get into better shape." She teased herself.

She looked around for any sign of Naruto. She paused when she saw him sitting on top of the Yondaime's head. The smile from her face quickly faded when she noticed that he was not alone. He was holding Sakura in a tight embrace, the kind that one would find two lovers in. And were they kissing? She wasn't completely sure what they were doing over there. Their faces were so close it looked like they were indeed kissing, about to kiss, or had already kissed.

"No." She shook her head in shock.

Ino backed up a little. She felt a slight pang in her heart. The tears threatened to come down her eyes. All she wanted to do was make things right with him. And here he was with Sakura. He couldn't even wait to be with the pink-haired girl.

"This hurts. It hurts so bad." She cried to herself. "Why did he have to do this to me? I thought our kiss meant something to him."

The platinum blonde turned around so that she could leave. There was no way she was going to stand there and watch the rest of this display.

"I guess that I really shouldn't be surprised. Maybe I shouldn't have waited so long to tell him the truth. Why should I be surprised? He would jump at the opportunity to be with Forehead."

Ino wiped the tears out of her eyes, only to find that the tears wouldn't stop coming down. The painful feeling in her heart wouldn't go away.

"Why does it hurt this badly? He's just another guy, isn't he? It shouldn't have to hurt this much. It wasn't even supposed to be a real relationship anyway."

The platinum blonde could not get the image of them kissing out of her mind. It completely took over her thoughts. She felt almost as if she had been stabbed in the chest. She never felt this kind of pain before. Ino closed her eyes and another tear came strolling down her cheek.

"There's a reason why this hurts so much." She whispered.

She could only come up with one conclusion.

"Do I love him? Does this hurt so much because I love that blond baka?"

Ino had known that she felt something for Naruto. She had cared for him a lot. But her feelings for him had been deeper than she had first realized. She noticed how upset this was making her. It wouldn't have hurt this much if she didn't love him. Suddenly all the fond memories they'd shared together flooded her mind – everything that led up to their kiss a few days ago. That amazing, wonderful, passionate kiss. The kiss that made her realize just how she felt for the whisker-faced male.

Ino nodded to herself sadly and whispered, "I love him. I really love him."

Ino didn't see any other explanation except for that.

If this had been anyone else besides Naruto, she probably wouldn't have cared half this much. But Naruto wasn't just some guy to her. He was so much more than that. She thought of all the things that he had done for her, how he had protected her, and how sweet he was to her. No guy had ever treated her in the way that Naruto had. Naruto was somebody to hold on to. And, in truth, now she really couldn't imagine her life without him in it, in some sort of way.

Ino laughed to herself.

"It's funny, who would have ever thought that I would ever have these sort of feelings for Naruto."

If someone would have told her all those months ago that she would end up falling for Naruto. She would have never believed them. It seemed like such a far-fetched, crazy, unbelievable idea. The two of them together would have probably seemed like the most ridiculous match ever. Yet, now the idea of being with him didn't seem ridiculous at all. In fact that was all she wanted. She wanted to be his girlfriend for real. Only, having witnessed what she had just seen had lowered her confidence. She had lost him without ever really having had him in the first place.

"He was never really mine to begin with. I never had a chance with him."

The determination that was in Ino's eyes left her. There was no point in having it any longer. She had lost to Sakura.

"Well," She thought. "At least our plan wasn't for nothing. It looks like you got what you wanted in the end, Naruto. I'll try to be happy for you."

The platinum blonde decided that she should just go home. She wanted to curl up under her covers and stay there. Ino wanted to forget all about the name Naruto Uzumaki. She wanted to bury her feelings for him. That was, of course, easier said than done.

"Come on Ino, pull yourself together. It'll be okay. This was the way that it was supposed to be. You're a big girl, you can handle this."

As she was walking passed the benches she noticed Shikamaru sitting there gazing up at the clouds. He looked her way when he heard her footsteps. Shikamaru stared at her. He stood up and put out his second cigarette of the day.

"Ino, you're back fast. What's wrong? Are you alright? You look like you've been crying or something." He noticed.

Ino turned her head to the side for a moment, before running into his arms. She was more than glad to see him right now. Shikamaru stood there with a surprised look on his face.

"Shika." She cried out.

"Man, what do I do?" He thought. He took a breath. Shikamaru slowly hugged her back. He didn't really have any other idea what to do for her right now. This seemed like the perfect solution.

"It'll be okay Ino. It'll be alright." He whispered to her soothingly.

A/N: Ha, how's that. Review please and let me know what you thought. See you all for the next chapter. Ja ne.