First things first: Chapters 3 and 4 have been completely changed… so you need to go back and read those. All-together, I'm hoping all 4 chapters flow well enough without being too jarring.

Takato: Alright. So I'm finally writing a new, new chapter for you all. It's been far too long, and I apologize. My consciousness finally got the best of me and told me to fix my mistakes (original ch 3 and 4) and to continue on with this story. It can go places, even though I'm not sure where to go. -shrugs-

Disclaimer: I think you all know I don't own Naruto, so lets move on.

Alright. After personal debate, I'm going to name Ino's mom Yuuna. Now wait- I did put time into this and didn't just go 'LOL Final Fantasy 10 hurrr. XD' The site I'm using for names gives the meaning of Yuuna as 'Sun Plant'. Now, while I did look through the I's for a Japanese name, there really weren't any that I was taken to and thus went with 'Y' for Yamanaka (and I went for Japanese since the last time I tried to name Ino's mom Adelaide, people flipped out and went 'OMG ENGLISH NO!' so there. I tried- that's also from the original chapter 4).

We've got all night just to make it all right
Would you take a walk with me?
I'll give you all I've got just spare me your time
And I promise you won't want to leave
Are you, are you falling for me?
This time, we'll find what we both need

Mae, Singularity- Just Let Go

Mrs. Yamanaka observed her daughter gardening outback with a small amount of worry. Now, it wasn't that Ino was acting strange or trying to hurt herself in depression. No, it was that jacket. Yuuna was well aware of her daughter's sense of fashion, and wearing Naruto's jacket around the house (and sometimes, even when she decided to go out at night) like some sort of security blanket was really starting to bother her. She supposed if it was Ino's way of getting comfort, it was alright. But still, that orange was somewhat obnoxious, and she truly wondered how Ino could stand it. Surely Ino could have clung to something less painful on the eyes then the jacket, right?

Sighing softly she walked towards Ino in an almost ninja-like silence, "Ino, dear…"

Ino paused and looked up to her mother, "Yes?"

Yuuna thought about her next move for a moment, shifting, "Don't you think it's about time you returned that jacket to Naruto-kun? I'm sure the boy misses his jacket terribly…" adding thoughtfully in her mind, 'Even if he does have more than one.'

Ino blinked and looked at the atrocity she allowed herself to indulge in, "It's not that bad… and he doesn't mind. " with a pause, she half pondered, 'At least, I don't think he does…'

Yuuna forced a small smile on her face, "Ah, well, please do return it to him soon? It's not good to keep people's things for too long, you know?"

Ino nodded, "Alright, alright. I'll return it to him soon, I promise."

Yuuna's smile became more prominent and joyful, "Good. How about you invite him over for dinner sometime or something? Perhaps bring him a lunch someday to maybe get him off of all that ramen he eats, neh?"

Ino blinked and looked up to her mother with a bewildered look on her face, "What am I, his caretaker?"

Ino's mother sighed and rolled her eyes, "Of course not, but honestly- that boy really should be treated better, and I'm sure no girls… Not even Sakura has ever treated that boy to a homemade meal. You could beat her at being especially courteous, you know?"

The blond teen just stared at her mom somewhat put out. This conversation was just going in a really strange direction, "Uhm… sure mom. I'll do that right now, alright?"

Yuuna smiled with a bit of mischief, "Please do. And don't forget to put that jacket in the laundry, would you dear? It's covered in dirt and I'd hate for you to return it dirty. It's just not good manners, you know?"

Ino rolled her eyes and wiped the dirt off of her knee's, "Whatever. I'll take some money on my way out."

"That's just fine, now get going."

Ino waved as she entered the house, "Yeah, yeah…"

Yuuna smirked almost foxily as she entered the house, glad her suggestions worked.

Meanwhile, Ino quickly freshened up and changed into more civilian-like clothing. If she was going to cook, she did not want to wear her ninja clothes. She might be pretty good when it came to what she could cook, but she made a huge mess of it when she did.

Dressing in a simple purple top similar to her usual ninja-gear one and a pair of almost-black pants, she started on her way out before running into her father. "Oh! Hello father."

Inoichi smiled, "What are you up to?"

Ino shrugged, "I'm going out to get some groceries."

Her father nodded a moment before thinking of something, "Can you do me a favor?"

Ino blinked and nodded after a moment's thought, "Sure."

"Can you go to the storeroom and get that old red scroll box I keep near the back? There's a few jutsu in there that I want to look over."

Ino nodded, "Alright." With that, she made her way across the Yamanaka property and went into the storehouse. Looking around she took note of small nick-knacks and old tools from the past. Wandering around for a while, she took a small amount of time to appreciate a piece of antique jewelry, a random intricately engraved throwing star, and an older leather kunai holster until she came upon the item in question. The red scroll box. Ino nodded to herself as she made sure it was the correct one and went to pick it up before she realized there was a small blue box on top of it.

Ino paused, picking up the strange new item and took note that there was dust under where it had laid. "Did this fall recently?" She looked up and noticed some of the other boxes on the upper rafters had shifted, and others still seemed to be about ready to fall. The blond huffed to herself, "Dad needs to check this place more often. Who knows what else could have fallen and possibly broken."

Looking around to make sure there weren't glass or pottery shards littering the floor, she redirected her gaze to the little blue box. For a moment, she wondered if she should leave it alone, but in the end curiosity won out and she slid it into her empty money pouch to look at later. She then picked up the item she came for and left without hardly moving any of the dust within the storeroom.

Entering the shop again, she found her father, "Got it."

Inoichi smiled, "Thank you."

Ino paused, "What's so important about the jutsu in there anyway?"

Her father shrugged, "I was just thinking of teaching you a few more techniques is all."

Ino smiled with excitement, "Really?!"

Inoichi nodded, "There's even a genjutstu here. But I needed to double check and make sure that they aren't too difficult."

Ino jumped in excitement, "I'm totally prepared for anything, so don't hold back just because I'm your daughter, got it?!"

Mr. Yamanaka laughed, "Alright alright, now get going. You know where the money is."

Ino smirked, "Sure do." and with a laugh and a twirl she left the shop with enough money to buy groceries for two.

Naruto was not having a good day. No, the fact that his sink had over flowed, his front door had broken off the hinges, and that something had gone terribly sour in the fridge… All of those things were nothing compared to the ruckus the little old hag in front of him was making.

"Time and time again I've told you to stay the hell away from my store you vile creature! I don't want you to be within even 15 feet of it! I swear, I'll have a restraining order placed on you if you can't bother yourself to be courteous to us normal humans who far more superior-'

Naruto sighed and rolled his eyes, 'Does this woman not need to breathe!? Dammit! I just wanted to get some new hinges!'

"-nd another thing! I'll have you know the last time you passed by here I ended up falling-"

Naruto groaned, his shoulders slumping as the onlookers who had decided to watch the skeptical started wondering whether they should continue their hatred for Naruto, or hate the old lady who would not. shut. up.

It was during this "exchange" that Ino happened upon Naruto and the crowd that had formed. She glanced around at the villagers and noticed people had started taking bets on how much longer the 'demon child' could stand the old woman patronizing him, or they took bets on how much longer the old woman could go without taking a single breath.

Ino sighed heavily and pushed her way through the crowd, trying to get a better idea of just what Naruto had done to piss her off. "Naruto-kun!"

Naruto turned to Ino confused for a moment blinking, "Oh, Ino-chan-"

The old woman clubbed Naruto over the head with her cane for turning away from her, "how dare you disrespect me! I'll have you know-!"

Naruto growled as his patience reaching the end of its tether, "Old Lady…"

"How dare you threaten me! HELP! HELP!! THE DEMON CHILD-!"

Ino, by this point, was done. She walked over, grabbed Naruto, and stormed away before Naruto or anyone else could do anything.

"How DARE you, you vile vixen! Don't you ever come to my store you fox slut!"

Silence. Wind stirred in the streets as Ino turned slowly to the old woman, a look of rage overcoming her before Naruto could even react to what the old woman said, "Mrs. Tachikawa, I suggest you watch your words. I don't exactly know what your problem is with Naruto here, but if you dare to think you can get away with calling me some slut- Me, a ninja of Konoha, I suggest you pack your bags. Because if Tsunade doesn't get to you first, my father will. And I'm sure you know all about his and his team's exploits during the war."

The old woman froze up a bit, suddenly realizing she had just called Ino Yamanaka, Tsunade the Godaime's second apprentice, a fox slut. Yet, not only that, but Inoichi Yamanaka of the original InoShikaChou team's daughter a vile vixen. She immediately started bowing profusely to the two, "I apologize, you're welcome anytime! Please forgive me!"

Ino sniffed and turned while pulling Naruto with her, "Whatever." People like you make me positively sick.

Naruto watched silently as Ino cooked in his kitchen. Sure, he had fought and fussed over those horrible vegetables she said she would force upon him, but otherwise he felt rather elated at the prospect of a home-cooked meal. Normally he really didn't care, but after the fiasco he'd endured today… Well, he'd eat a few veggie's in thanks for helping him buy his new door hinges and the necessary chemicals and tools to fix his sink with far more ease then usual.

At first, he had tried to help her with cooking but soon found how useless he was and simply conceded to defeat and sat down out of her way.

"So, what is it you're making again?"

"Sukiyaki."

"Oh."

A moment of pause before Naruto sighed. Why was this so awkward?

"Hey Naruto?"

"Hm?"

"What was going on today with you and Mrs. Tachikawa?"

He sighed heavily, "Nothing. I accidentally breathed in her direction. I forgot that I usually never take that route because of that psycho bitch of a grandma…"

Ino pondered for a moment, "But… that doesn't make sense. She's usually a very nice lady… Even if she did call me a slut."

Naruto thought about how to answer that, "You know how most of the village hates me, right?"

Ino nodded, "Yeah, but that's the thing. What exactly did you do? And why do they keep calling you a demon child, and associating you with foxes? I mean, the whisker marks on your face do make you seem a bit fox-like, but not that much. It almost makes you think they believe you're the Kyuubi, which is totally stupid considering the 4th Hokage destroyed it."

Naruto felt a chill run down his spine at how on the mark she was, "Uh, yeah. You'd think." He laughed nervously as he rubbed the back of his head.

Ino quirked an eyebrow at his behavior, "What the heck's your problem?"

Naruto waved her off a bit, "Nothing, nothing. I just thought of how, uh, interesting your theory was."

The blond girl blinked and shrugged, "Whatever Naruto."

He sighed as he stared at the few items Ino had left to the side and wasn't cooking to try and calm his nerves, "Hey Ino?"

She pulled out serving dishes for their meal, "Hm?"

Naruto tilted his head slightly, "What's with that box?"

Ino blinked, "Oh that? I found it in the storeroom today."

Naruto nodded and got up to take a closer look at it, "You check it out yet?"

She placed the plates, cups, bowls, and spoons on the table before replying, "Nope. I was going to look after dinner though."

"I see." Naruto nodded to himself thoughtfully. There was something that was bothering him about the box, but before he could think of what it was Ino pulled him to sit down at the table again.

"Time to eat."

"Oy! No need to be so rough about it…"

Ino smirked, "Don't be such a wuss Naruto."

He rolled his eyes and checked his food over before stuffing the horrid, wretched vegetables in his mouth. He grimaced and forced himself to swallow the vile things that should never have had to have been considered so healthy and necessary in one's diet. Ino rolled her eyes at his behavior and smirked a little to herself. 'He should be thankful, considering I took the time to make sure he had far less vegetables than what was in there originally. Jerk.'

Meanwhile, Naruto forged on in his war and won with surprising ease. He paused, "Did you take out some of the vegetables?"

"Yup. I might not know you that well, but I do remember your absolute loathing of vegetables…"

"Oh…" Naruto fidgeted in his seat, thinking of what it was that you should say before it came to him, "Uh… thanks."

Ino paused and looked to him before she smiled nicely, "You're welcome."

Naruto's eyes widened for a moment, never having seen Ino (or most of anyone) give him such a pleasant face, "Uhm… They.. Uh.. They tasted pretty good." For veggie's.

Ino's smiled broadened, "Hm… maybe there's hope for you yet, Naruto."

He scrunched his face, "Uhm, no. I'd really rather not…"

She laughed suddenly, "I'm just joking."

"Oh."

They continued eating.

Takato: Sorry, sorry if Naruto and Ino seemed a little OOC. DX I hope it wasn't too bad… If it was I profusely apologize… But I wanted to get a new chapter out- Like, a New, New chapter for you all.

I've come to find that I wish the last filler arc (SORA!!) hadn't occurred while Asuma was alive. It's given way for so many possibilities and plunnies, yet… at the same time it cramps them. I'm not sure what I'll do to implement anything from that filler arc, but I must say- In comparison to pretty much all of Shippuden to that point, the Sora Arc was full of win and awesome.

If you have any prompts or ideas for this story, please let me know in a review. It would be helpful. I've stated that I would like to deviate away from the manga, especially with how much time has passed since I started this (-dies-). I apologize for taking so long, but writing for me can come and go, and it doesn't help that the e-mail for this account is one I never go to.

So, on that end, I hope you all enjoyed the new chapters 3 and 4, and enjoyed this last chapter.

Please let me know what improvements I need to make to make the story better, and please forgive me if I was a little rusty. I'm hoping to get to Ino and Naruto's core personalities, and I think I sort of failed this chapter. -sigh-