I'm re-writing this chapter and taking it a whole different way then originally intended. This chapter, looking back sucks along with chapter 4. Amazing, you're all getting 3 chapters without even knowing it! Also, I'm going to go with manga/anime from here-on-out, and not be so linear with it. It's been QUITE some time since I updated (-dies-) and I'd rather take this in a different direction. I apologize for non-continuity if it occurs (new readers/re-readers). I'll try my best to make flow.

This story was last updated 11/12/06- Revamped/Re-written 8/12/08

Anberlin, Cities. "The Promise"

When your day is through,
and so is your temper,
You know what to do,
I'm gonna always be there.

Sometimes if I shout,
it's not what's intended.
These words just come out,
with no gripe to bear.

Originally by When In Rome

Ino stared at herself in the mirror, introspecting on her life and all that she had accomplished. Sasuke's leaving gave her a new form of strength and fire as a ninja. Watching Sakura be so torn up about a guy and down herself as a ninja in her accomplishments was in a way, very distressing. They weren't the best of friends they had been before, but that still didn't mean Ino didn't know of how strong the pink haired girl had become.

Yet, looking back, Ino found she really didn't like the way Sakura pulled Naruto around begging him for this or that. It wasn't until he had gone off to train that Sakura had gotten completely serious about being a ninja.

Did she seriously have to loose two of her teammates to realize how important she was in the whole scheme of things? Ino sighed as she tied her hair up for the day and promptly left the house, troubled by the fleeting past ghosts that clung to her.

Walking through the town slowly, she made her way to the outskirts where she could sense Naruto training (It was rather obvious, what with the copious amounts of chakra he was using. That and the new waterfall and Cliffside that had appeared). Along her way she picked up enough food for four ninja's and continued walking, humming softly to herself. As she made her way she greeted random villagers and pondered to herself, in a fleeting moment, if any of them had hurt Naruto on purpose while they were growing up.

She paused for a moment, startled at her thoughts. Why would she think that? She knew Naruto had been treated pretty badly, and while she didn't have a full understanding of just how far it had gone, it couldn't have been that horrible, could it?

Could a place as welcoming as Konoha really be so cruel to one of its own?

She slumped in a small internal form of defeat at the edge of the training grounds. How much did she know about Naruto? How many times had he surprised her in just one conversation? Sure, he'd been horribly obnoxious as a twelve year old, but now he was more mature. Not completely an adult, but not a child. Graceful, and yet still awkward in his step.

But there had always been something off, hadn't there? Something that was so incredibly wrong and unsafe about him, even though he was probably where one could feel safest-

Ino jolted and shook herself, 'No, no calm down, just stop this train of thinking and enjoy the nice day. Besides, it should be interesting to observe Naruto's 'secret' training.' With that in mind, she jumped into a tree and settled herself to observe.

In the end, Ino wasn't sure if it was a wasted effort, or if what insanely ingenious.

One thousand Naruto's held leaves in their hands. At first, Ino was incredibly confused until she realized he was slicing through the pieces of greenery with his chakra. 'Why in the world is he training through that method? What good do a bunch of Bunshin do him?'

Soon, she got her answer. Suddenly, one of out of the hundreds made a shout and excitement happened for a moment before all of them disappeared at once, leaving only one Naruto behind. After a few words with Kakashi and Yamato, Naruto passed out from what seemed to be exhaustion.

Ino blinked and got out from the tree she had perched in and went down to speak with Naruto's two sensei.

"Well if isn't Ino, what a surprise." She looked to the masked Jounin who had spoken to her nonchalantly. He'd probably spotted her long ago.

"I was interested in this super special training for Naruto that I've been hearing about."

Kakashi nodded to himself as Yamato got up and dusted himself, "It's nothing particularly interesting to look at, despite the vast amount of effort going into it…"

"What are you training him in exactly? I mean, I can tell it's something to do with chakra but I'm a little lost…"

Kakashi put away his Icha Icha with much personal regret and looked at her blankly, "We're training him how to use his elemental chakra."

Ino quirked an eyebrow, "Really? Which one?"

"Wind. He's a wind user."

Ino paused for a moment, her eyes widening a little. 'He has the same element as Asuma-sensei…' "That's… Isn't that difficult?"

Kakashi nodded, "Of course. Especially since we're trying to combine it with en even more difficult attack. I won't give you anymore details then that, but it is rather difficult- impossible even."

Yamato nodded, "Of course, since we're talking about Naruto…"

Kakashi smiled, "It's quite possible."

Ino was rather surprised by their answer and wondered what exactly she was missing from the big picture here… "So why all the Bunshin?"

"Naruto has always used Kage Bunshin, which is a forbidden technique used for information gathering. Naruto learned it, and with each bunshin he gains its knowledge and skill. Thus, using say, a thousand bunshin, he gains each clones knowledge and experience."

Ino pondered this for a moment before nodding slowly, "I understand."

Kakashi smirked, "Good. Now if you'd like to hand over some of those rice balls, I'd be quite happy to take a few off your hands…"

Ino rolled her eyes and gave him and Yamato a box, "Greedy old perv."

Chapter 3 has been re-done! Not a whole lot of Naru/Ino interaction, but I'm playing catch-up and re-think for this story. Now on to re-making chapter 4!! WOOO!! -dies-

Change 8/23/08- I'm going to put the original chapter 3 here- Though I would like to cut out a Naruto/Ino childhood meeting out of it since I didn't like it in retrospect. I hope that it still feels like the moment I wanted from this chapter was "accomplished" but I really can't tell. The reason I'm putting the original back up is that, while reviewing reviews, I felt readers did enjoy the chapter, and I don't know if this chapter re-make lowered the quality in comparison to the original. Either way it's pretty much the same "moment," Just a different kind of way going about it.

So in short: This chapter has 2 possibilities. My original below, and the new version above.

-In copying it over, I lost some italics/etc. Also, Ino's Mother's name is now Yuuna... just, I had originally decided on Adelaide.

And then people flipped out because it wasn't Japanese. -sigh-

Ino sighed longingly as she fully stretched out while laying on her bed. It had been a few days since Asuma's passing, and even though Team 10 had very desperately wanted to go out after Akatsuki, the fact that they still had to have a Jounin sensei accompany them had kept them back from leaving at their desired timeframe.

So here she was, Yamanaka Ino, stuck training, and waiting around until a Jounin sensei was available.

Great.

The feeling that it would take a while burned at her, frustrating her and her teammates, even though the other two were far better at concealing such feelings than she was.

With the thought of training some more in mind, Ino made herself get up and head out to the training grounds.

Once she reached her destination, Ino began warming up before working on her taijutsu first. Taijutsu, while not her best skill, was growing due to the small arsenal Tsunade was supplying her with. She and Sakura were similar in the area of strength to chakra, though, Ino was still growing in her training, and was behind the pink-haired girl in this area due to the fact that she didn't have some of Sakura's natural talent, nor did she delve into it (the attack aspect of medi-jutsu) as deeply as Sakura.

It was during her Taijutsu practice that she remembered that Naruto was training somewhere with Kakashi-sensei, and some other sensei on the outskirts of Konoha's training grounds.

With this thought in mind, Ino decided that she'd had enough of her training and headed back to her home to freshen up. Once done, Ino picked up Naruto's jacket, put it on, and headed out again to find which training ground Naruto was actually training in.

It took Ino until mid-afternoon to locate the Naruto trio, and Ino immediately decided to take a break and watch what was going on. To be honest, seeing a massive amount of Naruto clones try and cut a leaf with wind chakra (which chilled Ino a bit with the fact he was a wind type like Asuma-sensei) was both an amusing and awing experience.

While watching, Ino continuously noticed how Yamato-taichou-perhaps was his name?- was seated, and how repeatedly Naruto would have to dispel clones so that whatever was going on with him and his chakra would stop.

Well, the whole thing in general was interesting and confusing for her as an 'outsider.'

It was after a while that Ino decided to get comfortable to watch Naruto train, since while she didn't feel like doing much of anything, and even though she knew she should probably be doing something else, she wanted to watch Naruto train. He had only been back for a short while, and she did really want to see how he could grow as a ninja. It was really sort of captivating how Naruto could completely come out from a total lose-lose situation and win it.

Observation would give her the chance to see Naruto without him having to keep all of his pretences up.

His guard was down around these people in regards to his true self, and she wanted-needed to know something more, if not for anything than to be able to satiate her curiosity.

The sky was overcast with rain pouring as she sat, curled in on herself with a few scrapes on her right arm and hands as she waited for her father to come for her. Her mother had been talking to some friends in the market when she had stated she wanted to go to the park, and her mother relented, saying her father would fetch her later.

It had been fun for the first couple of hours, playing with the other kids…

That was, until it rained.

Ino sighed as she shivered from the wind that would sometimes pick up, making the play-set she was sitting under for shelter rather useless. She knew it was getting late, especially with how hungry she was getting, but she just couldn't remember how to get home from here. Tears built up as tiredness, the chill, and frustration started to get to her. Ino began wishing she hadn't left her mother's side, even if it had been really boring, just standing there…

She had started to fall asleep when she heard the scuffling that happens when one walks on the pebbles that covered the expanse of the play and swing-set area of the park, which caused her to wake up and look towards the source of the sound.

It was a boy with an old, somewhat worn grayish vest, underneath it was a medium yellow shirt with an orange spiral, and brown shorts. He held a broken-down umbrella, that though an adult couldn't really use it anymore, a child their age could fit under what was still usable of it easily, perhaps even two.

Still, even though his clothes weren't in the best-of-shape, it was his eyes that made Ino somewhat frightened of him. While the scars that marred his cheeks didn't really bother her, his eyes always somewhat frightened her.

He was a kid her age, yet his azure eyes were so hollow and angry and it just scared her in a way that she wished it hadn't.

It was with those blank, hollow eyes that he stared at her with. He seemed a little bored perhaps, the rain and wind not really bothering him despite his small body. She noticed he was trying to think of something to say, when he finally just walked over to her and grabbed her ice-cold hand and pulled her up and under the cover of his umbrella. She stared at the boy rather surprised as he looked to the ground, deliberating something until he handed her the stem of the umbrella. Ino looked at it a moment before taking it, and found herself a little surprised when he took his beat-up-yet-dry vest off and put it around her shoulders before taking the umbrella back.

She blinked, "What are you…?"

The blond shrugged slightly and took her hand in his again, "Are you lost?"

Ino paused, and then slowly nodded, ashamedly, "Mmhm."

The boy nodded, and tugged her hand lightly, keeping her close as he took her with him in a direction she didn't recognize.

While confused, Ino didn't press on where the boy was taking her. The main thing that really mattered was getting warm again, she could feel a small scratching at her throat, signaling that she was probably getting sick because of being out in the cold summer rain for so long…

She looked at the boy a moment, realizing she knew of him, yet didn't know his name, "Hey."

The boy looked at her slightly annoyed, "What?"

His reaction annoyed her, but she let it slide, "What's your name?"

The boy blinked, somewhat surprised, "Uh… Naruto… Uzumaki Naruto…"

Ino pondered a moment, not recognizing the clan name, but shrugged it off and nodded, "I'm Yamanaka Ino."

The boy seemed to smile just slightly, "I know who you are. I know who all the kids are…"

Ino looked at Naruto a little strangely, "You know everyone?"

Naruto nodded, "Yeah, but… no one really likes me…"

He turned his head away, still holding her hand, signaling to her that he really didn't want to talk anymore.

Ino nodded slightly, somewhat sad by this piece of knowledge.

After what seemed like forever, Ino started noticing things she could recognize, and before she could really mull it over, she and Naruto were standing in front of her home, the Yamanaka Flower Shop.

He looked at her, "This is where you live, right?"

Ino nodded, "Yup. How'd you know?"

Naruto smiled somewhat mischievously, which was something she hadn't remembered ever having seen from him, "Your last name's Yamanaka, silly. This is the only flower shop with a girl like you that holds that name."

Ino blushed, "O-oh."

Naruto seemed about to say something else when the door flung open, "Ino!"

The two children started (Naruto seemed to not only jump, but also release her hand and flinch back) when the distraught mother opened the door. Ino quickly found herself whisked up into the arms of her mother into the dry doorway of the shop, "Oh Ino, I was so worried! I couldn't figure out where you'd gone, once I found out your father had gone off on a mission with his old team and just, oh, I'm so glad you're back!!"

Ino struggled a little with the affection, though she also welcomed it. Then, just as suddenly as she was being cuddled, her mother picked up Naruto swiftly, surprising the boy and making him squawk.

The boy struggled a bit, before calming down, realizing the elder Yamanaka wasn't going to hurt him or chuck him out like any other adult would have other than the Old Man- who actually cared about his well-being.

Naruto blinked and looked up and Ino's mother confused, "Huh?"

Yuuna smiled just slightly, a little compassion for the boy appearing on her demeanor, "I'm going to reward you for bringing my little Ino-chan home."

Naruto opened his eyes, blinking a little as a ghost of a smile appeared on his face. He'd managed to pass out after his last bought of clone dispelling, and it seemed he'd been left alone after that, his training for the day obviously finished.

He didn't know why he had dreamt of one of his few good childhood memories, considering he honestly had completely forgotten about that incident with Ino, but it left him with a nice feeling. It had been a really strange day for him when Ino's mother had taken care of him until the storm was over.

Naruto sighed as he pushed himself up into a sitting position before forcing himself up onto his feet. He then went under the waterfall Yamato-sensei had created and took a quick bath (Hey, it was cold water!) before he stretched languidly before looking around himself, suddenly sensing something on the outskirts of the training grounds. Being interested, he tracked the faint chakra signature to its source.

A manic grin appeared on Naruto's face as he found a sleeping Ino, sensing some irony in the situation. Or was it coincidence. Bah- whatever it was, Naruto was a little amused, though put-off by it. That, and she was wearing his jacket, again!

He rolled his eyes before deciding to watch Ino sleep for a few moments. During that time Naruto decided there was only one thing he could do- bring her home where she wouldn't get a horrible crick in her neck.

Carefully, Naruto picked Ino up bridal style and made the somewhat long trek back to the Yamanaka Flower Shop.

(Original Author Notes)

Well guys, there's a chapter for ya. I hope it was enjoyable after a whacked Haitus. Hopefully I'll be able to think of something else soon, though one thing I will say is that it's really easy for me to write one-shots that have a main theme and can flow together without having to have a continuative story and plot. To be honest, I don't have specific plans for this story. I never had one from the start, but like my Sun and the Moon fic, if I can actually manage to think of some sort of plot for this, I will. Though, it'll probably have to time jump, and randomly flashback to possibilities from the Hurricane Chronicles.

For some reason in my art, I've gotten into Gender Bending Danny from Danny Phantom. Someone, please review to get me out of that weird rut.

Please.