Chapter 4: Progress
(Three Years Later)
Naruto/Ino age: 11
"Riiiiiing!" An alarm sounded.
Ino shook a bit in her sleep before waking up entirely due to the alarm.
After waking up entirely, Ino just rubbed her eyes awake, and turned off her alarm. Once she turned off her alarm, she looked at the clock and saw that it was 6:30 A.M.
After seeing this, she stretched awake, said
"Time to get up" and began getting ready.
(One Hour Later)
Ino was having breakfast with her mom and dad when outta nowhere, her dad asked her
"Why are you so ready?"
"What do you mean?" Ino asked.
"You woke up two hours early for the academy, took a shower, changed your clothes, and overall are just overly ready for today, and I'm just wondering, why?" Inoichi explained with a question at the end.
"Don't you know what today is Tou-Chan?" Ino began. "Today is the day my class gets put into teams."
"Is that so?" Inoichi asked.
"Yeah, I just hope I end up with Sasuke-Kun" Ino responded with a smile at the end.
Inoichi just rolled his eyes at that and then got back to his breakfast as he knew that today was gonna be a long day.
Once they were all done with their breakfast though, Ino got up and walked over to the door.
"You're leaving already?" Noriko asked her daughter.
"Yeah, early bird gets the worm" she replied with a smile before her mother said
"Okay, be safe though."
"Of course Kaa-Chan" Ino replied before leaving.
(Ten Minutes Later)
Ino was still making her way to the academy and was doing so as quietly as possible, so as to not disturb anybody who may or may not be outside at the moment for whatever reason.
It was shockingly still really dark outside despite the fact that it was 6:40 A.M so she was watching her step and making sure she didn't trip on anything.
'I should be there in a little bit more' she thought as she continued making her way to the academy before spotting a strange grown man across the streets from the corner of her eye.
He was just looking at her, really weirdly, not only that, but he was surrounded by six more grown men who were all looking at her the same way.
'Okay' she thought before continuing to make her way to the academy.
She thought nothing of it, as seeing a little girl outside when it was so dark out was probably really strange to the men, or anyone in general, so she just dismissed it as nothing too weird and continued making her way.
However, after taking just five steps, she started hearing footsteps behind her, which were progressively getting louder and closer, she tried brushing it off again, until what sounded like running was heard and she took off as fast and as far as she could as a result.
The second she began running she turned around and saw the group of men running after her, all with sadistic looks on each of their faces, and so she looked forward again and tried to lose them again.
She eventually ended up entering a nearby forest in order to hide from the men, and when she reached a hidden bush that seemed like a good hiding spot, she ran behind it, covered her mouth, held her breath, and tried to remain as calm as possible.
'Stay absolutely quiet Ino, stay absolutely quiet' she inwardly repeated to herself while looking through the bushes in order to make sure nobody was coming.
After about three minutes, she thought
'Maybe they're gone' that was until she heard
"There you are."
As soon as she heard that, she got ready to run again, but before she could, one of the men subdued her and another tied her arms with really strong rope.
It didn't take long for the men to completely restrain her arms and once they did, they simply told her
"Get up, you're coming with us."
Ino got up, but attempted to make a run for it, not yet realizing that her arms were tied, till she fell flat on her face as a result.
"It's no use, you're tied up, now come with us, you don't have a choice" another man said.
Ino, understanding the situation, began crying before one of the men pulled on her rope and forced her back up to her feet.
"I said, you're coming with us!" The same man yelled as he pulled on her rope again and forced her to walk with them.
She was scared and crying way beyond belief, but tried her best to think of a way out while also praying for someone to save her.
'Someone, please, anyone' she inwardly prayed while crying and walking before getting an idea. 'Wait a minute.'
She then reached for her hair, began pulling out small strands, dropped them on the ground, and repeated the process.
She was doing this to make a trail so that hopefully, if anyone was out there, they'd follow the trail and save her.
'Please, someone, anyone, help me' she thought while crying quietly.
After about two minutes though, nobody came, she didn't stop though and kept holding out for hope.
"How much do you think we're gonna get for this mission?" One of the men asked another
"I don't know, hopefully a lot though" he responded.
"This Yamanaka kid is gonna make us ri-" one other man began before an inaudible punch knocked him out.
Nobody heard the punch or noticed that the man didn't finish his sentence, and so they continued moving.
One after the other though, each man was knocked out very quietly and very secretly, before eventually, all of them were down for the count.
Ino didn't realize this though and instinctively kept walking with her head down.
That was until she bumped into her savior.
She didn't know it was her savior though, so with her head down still down, she apologized immediately.
"I'm sorry, please don't-"
"It's okay" her savior interrupted her.
She widened her eyes after hearing the voice, because it didn't sound like any of the men.
'C-could it be?' She inwardly asked herself before lifting her head up and seeing her savior, Naruto Uzumaki, right in front of her. "It's you?"
"Yeah" Naruto replied before bringing out a kunai and cutting the ropes off of Ino. "It's me."
"Why did you help me?" Ino asked after being freed.
Naruto just told her
"Because it's the right thing to do" and began walking away.
As he was walking away though, Ino reached her hand out and shouted
"Wait!"
Naruto turned around after hearing this and once he did, he asked her
"What?"
"C-could you walk me there?" She stammered shyly.
"Why?" He asked.
"Please!" She begged.
Naruto just shrugged his shoulders, said
"Sure" and waited for Ino to come closer.
She indeed walked up to him and got really close and once she was close enough, they began walking.
However, after taking just five steps together, Ino ran to Naruto's left side and held onto his arm tightly with both her hands.
Naruto gasped at the sudden grabbing of his arm and also blushed a little bit, simply due to it catching him off-guard, and embarrassing him in the process.
'I can't even explain it' Ino began to think. 'But being closer to him makes me feel safer and more protected.'
Naruto was of course caught off-guard by the sudden grabbing but dismissed it, as Ino was probably still really scared and if holding onto his arm so tightly helped her calm down, then so be it.
'I hope her mentality didn't take too big of a hit' Naruto thought while looking at Ino while still walking. 'I'm gonna have to mention this to Jiji.'
(One Minute Later)
As they were walking and making their way to the academy, the sun was beginning to rise, and as it was, Naruto turned to look at Ino, saw that she was still shaking in fear, and decided
'Maybe I should make small talk' and so he asked her "So, what were you doing walking out when it was dark anyways?"
Ino just turned to look at him and said
"Well it's the final day of the academy where we're going to be put into teams, I wanted to wake up bright and early for this one."
"Is that so?" Naruto asked.
"Yeah" Ino replied. "How about you?"
"Same" he responded.
"Is there anyone in particular you wanna be paired with?" Ino asked.
"Yeah, my two friends, Hinata and Shino" Naruto answered.
"Well considering it's gonna be groups of three you might actually get the chance" Ino responded.
"I hope so" Naruto said back as the two continued moving and making their way to their destination.
(Later)
The two continued talking for the rest of their walk till eventually, they reached their destination.
After reaching their destination and having talked with the blond boy for a long time, Ino thought
'I never expected for me to ever start respecting Naruto as much as I do now' with a smile.
After she thought this though, Naruto looked at their destination and saw that every other kid beat the two of them to the academy, as they were all gathered right outside of it, in the yard, waiting for the doors to open.
So he simply turned to look at Ino and said
"Well we're here."
"Y-yeah" She replied stammeringly.
Naruto then looked at the arm that Ino was currently holding onto, then looked Ino in the eyes and said
"You can let go of me now."
"Ok-kay" Ino again stammered before reluctantly letting go of her savior's arm.
As soon as she let go of his arm though, the bell to the academy rang and as soon as it did, Naruto thought
'Better go meet up with Hinata and Shino' and was about to head inside before realizing something.
The second he realized it, he grabbed Ino by the wrist, which caught her off guard, made her blush, made her gasp, and then told her
"Come on" before dragging her inside the building.
(Half an Hour Later)
All the students were in their seat, just waiting for the class to start and for their teacher to walk in.
As the students were waiting, Hinata and Shino were waiting for Naruto.
'It's the final day of class, he told us he was gonna be early and yet' Hinata thought.
'He isn't here' Shino inwardly finished Hinata's sentence without intending to.
The two were more confused as to why Naruto wasn't here rather than why their teacher wasn't, but when they heard the door to their class open, and saw Naruto and Ino walk inside the classroom, their confusion faded away.
As Naruto and Ino walked into the class, if you looked closely enough, you'd see that Ino was holding onto Naruto's arm.
Nobody noticed this aside from Hinata and Shino, and the reason why was because every other girl in the classroom aside from Hinata were too busy fangirling over Sasuke to notice this.
As for the boys, all of them aside from Shino were busy staring at the fangirls of the Uchiha.
Since Hinata and Shino were the only two that noticed this, they were of curious as to why it was happening.
'Huh?' They both thought with funny/confused faces.
Once the two were at the center of the room, Naruto looked down at Ino and nodded at her, silently telling her to let go, and of course, she reluctantly did.
Once she did, Naruto made his way over to his seat, which was next to Shino and Hinata, and Ino made her way over to her seat, which was right by one of the windows.
Once Naruto was in his seat, both Shino and Hinata were looking at him with a confused look on their faces, so he of course looked at them and said
"What?"
Before either of them could speak though, Iruka finally entered the classroom, which caught everyone's attention, due to the fact that today was the day that he would assign each of them into separate teams of three.
However, instead of telling them their new team names, Iruka just looked up at all of the students in his class and told them
"I'm very sorry to all of you, but we will have to postpone the team placements for next week."
"What?!" Almost everyone complained.
"Due to recent events Hokage-Sama said we must postpone the placements for next week" Iruka began to explain. "And also, class is dismissed for now and the rest of the week, so you may all go home now?"
Almost all the kids left the room disappointedly, disappointed at this sudden change of events.
The only two who didn't leave were the only two who weren't surprised or upset when Iruka said that their placements would have to be put on hold.
Once the rest of the kids were gone, Iruka asked them
"Would you like me to take you guys there or are you fine?"
"We're fine" Naruto said before picking up Ino again and then rushing out of the room.
(Ten Minutes Later)
Naruto was making his way to The Hokage Tower with Ino on his arms, and after just ten minutes, he arrived outside the window of their Hokage's office.
The moment they arrived there, Naruto's grandfather figure opened the window and let them in.
Once they were both in and right in front of the old man, the old man said
"Okay, so fill me in on exactly what happened."
And so both began explaining everything.
To Be Continued...
Author's Note:
What did you guys thinks of this chapter? Let me know in the comment section.
Clarification:
So that nobody gets mad at me for making Ino 'fall' for Naruto quickly again, just let me just clarify that Ino does not have romantic feelings for Naruto. She feels safe around him and grew a lot of respect for him, but that's it, she just respects him and feels safe around him because he saved her and they talked a lot together. So there, please don't get pissed off at me like you did in the original version of the story for actually making Ino fall for Naruto too quickly.
