Chapter 5: Decisions
"Stay still kid."
"Quit fighting."
"Don't even think about it."
"Tahh!" Ino shouted as she awoke from her nightmare bolt upright and began breathing in and out heavily.
As she was breathing in and out deeply, she heard the sound of her mother through the walls of the house.
"Ino, sweetie, you alright!" Noriko loudly asked her daughter.
"Uh, y-yeah Kaa-Chan, I'm fine!" She replied, still a bit shaken up about the dream.
"Ok!" Her mom replied before getting back to what she was doing.
Ino just fell back onto the bed and tried catching her breath, still unable to cope with what happened to her six days ago.
'Again?' She thought as she laid on her bed.
Eventually though, she got up and off her bed, deciding to keep herself awake so as to not go through that nightmare again.
Once she was off her bed, she got changed and headed to her bathroom.
(Half an Hour Later)
It was 2 PM and both Ino and her mother were currently having breakfast together downstairs.
They were having curry and as they were eating their curry, Noriko looked at her daughter and asked her
"Did you have that dream again?"
Ino flinched upon hearing her mom ask her that, but dropped her head and replied with
"Yeah, they keep getting worse, and I don't know why."
Noriko looked worriedly at her daughter and then told her
"Maybe you should speak with your father about that."
"Yeah right, he already has enough on his mind to worry about, given the village and enemy ninja, I'm not about to give him something else to worry about."
"You're his daughter Ino, he'll cancel everything if it means helping you."
"I know, which is exactly why I don't wanna disturb him for something as silly as a couple bad dreams when he already has enough on his mind."
Noriko wanted to add something, but she knew her daughter wouldn't give up, so she just dropped her head in defeat.
"I'll get over it mom, don't worry" Ino told her upon seeing the look of disappointment on her face.
Noriko though, didn't wanna hear this, so she just picked up her plate, put it in the fridge to keep food on it in good condition, and upon opening the fridge, saw that there was no milk. So she instantly began walking to the door, right as she was about to turn the doorknob though, her daughter asked her
"Where are you going?"
To which she just turned her head and responded with
"To go get milk."
"I'll do it for you" Ino responded with before getting up.
"You sure?" Noriko asked.
"Yeah" Ino replied.
Noriko wanted to refute, but her back was killing her.
'Maybe old age' she thought, despite the fact that she was only thirty-two.
"So what do you say?" Ino asked.
"Okay fine, here" Noriko responded with before handing her daughter the money needed to buy a simple carton of milk.
"Alright, I'll be back" Ino said before heading out the door.
Once her daughter was out of the house, Noriko just headed up to her room and laid down on the bed inside it, ready to just sleep the day away.
(Half an Hour Later)
"Alrighty" Ino said quietly as she left a convenience store with a carton of milk at hand. "Time to head back to the house."
She started walking to the house but as she was, she spotted something from the corner of her eye.
"Hmm?" She hummed confusingly.
What she saw that caught her attention was her savior, Naruto Uzumaki, who was currently helping an old lady cross the street.
The way he was doing it was by holding her right hand with his left and guiding her through the street.
Once they reached the other side of the street though, he let go of her hand and said
"There you go."
"Thank you very much young boy, I appreciate your help" the old lady thanked the boy. 'If only everyone else gave the kid a chance.'
"It's no problem, just glad to help, the boy replied before giving her a thumbs up and then walking away.
As the young boy was walking away, the old lady simply thought
'Poor boy' and Ino thought
'Why?'
This intrigued Ino, as she never saw anybody stop to help out an old lady, so she did something that she never imagined she'd ever do, she followed him.
It may seem creepy or weird, but it was just that Ino's curiosity got the better of her.
'If he's willing to stop what he's doing to help out someone in need, I wanna see what else he'll do, maybe it'll finally answer the question I've been having since the day he saved me.'
The question she was referring to was why in the hell the boy even saved her to begin with?
She never understood, cuz while she never by any means beat him up or treated him like dirt, they weren't in any way, shape, or form friends, so she was wondering why he did it.
So with all this in her mind, she followed the boy, wondering what he'd do next.
(One Hour Later)
After half an hour of following the boy, Ino saw him do so many more commendable things.
She saw him help more old ladies and old men cross the street, pick up things that were on the ground, and more, but as of right now, he was currently just laying down and sleeping on a bench in the street.
'He's so silly at times' she thought with a smile as she saw him snore in his sleep until eventually waking up again.
"Ahh" he yawned as he stretched awake. "What time is it?" He thought before looking at his watch. "Oh, it's time." He said before getting off the bench and running back to his apartment as fast as he could.
As he was doing this, Ino had one thought on her mind.
'Time for what?'
Almost as soon as she thought this though, the boy returned from his apartment, with three bouquets of flowers at hand.
'That was fast' she thought.
"I bought these last week at the Yamanaka Flower Shop" he whispered to himself before holding them tightly.
'He's not wrong' Ino inwardly replied to this. 'I was the one who sold them to him.'
After she thought this though, Naruto just stretched again, thought
'Now I finally get to use them' and then began walking again.
'Where he heading now?' She thought before again, following behind him.
(Twenty Minutes Later)
After twenty whole minutes of walking, the two stopped, right in front of the Konoha Cemetery.
'I wonder what business he has there' Ino thought before Naruto just took a deep breath and entered, with Ino following suit.
As soon as Naruto entered the cemetery, he immediately started making his way to the center of the cemetery, where the tombstones of the past three Hokage resided, and once he got there, he got on his knees and lowered the flowers down onto the dirt of the tombs.
As soon as he did this though, he heard what sounded like a twig snap and turned his head.
The sound obviously came from Ino, but before he could see her though, Ino hid behind a very tall and very thick tree, away from Naruto's point of view.
'Probably just a squirrel' he thought before turning his attention back to the tombs of the past Hokages.
'That was close' Ino thought while breathing in and out as quickly and as quietly as possible.
After catching her breath though, she poked her head out of the tree and while hiding behind the tree, continued watching what Naruto was gonna do next.
She saw Naruto put his hands together, in a praying type of way, look at the grave of the first Hokage, and with his eyes closed, he said
"Thank you for creating this village and giving me someplace to call home, Hashirama-Sama."
He then turned to the tombstone of the second Hokage and with his hands still pressed together and eyes still closed, he said
"Thank you for helping and tutoring my Jiji, Tobirama-Sama."
Lastly, he turned to look at the tomb of the fourth Hokage and in the same position, he told him
"And thank you for protecting the village, Minato-Sama."
'Oh, he's just paying his respects' she thought as she continued studying the boy.
The boy opened his eyes right as Ino finished her thought, and when he did, he looked at the tombs of the first, second Hokage, and fourth Hokage, and said
"I could really use some of Jiji's wisdom, but sadly, he isn't in the village right now.'
'Really?' Ino wondered, as she never heard word of the Hokage leaving the village and was beginning to wonder why.
Her answer was immediately answered though as Naruto continued on by saying
"You see, he's currently in Kumo to settle something that happened a little while ago."
Upon getting her unasked question answered, Ino heard Naruto continue even further.
"So I was hoping you three could help me with something that's been bothering me for the longest time."
'I wonder what's been bothering him?' Ino thought before seeing Naruto take another deep breath.
After finishing his deep breath, Naruto looked at the tombs one last time, before telling them the thing that's been bothering him for the longest time.
"Six days ago I saved a girl, but the problem is that I don't even know why I did it, my body just kinda reacted on it's on."
This really caught Ino's attention, as he was in a way, answering the question she was always wondering.
"Me and her aren't even friends and while she never physically or verbally hurt me like a certain other girl with pink hair and green eyes, I still couldn't figure out why I saved her."
Ino was a little bit hurt, as while she was well aware that the two weren't friends, it still hurt to hear him say it to the tombs of their past three Hokages.
However, he looked directly at the tomb of the second Hokage and kept talking.
"That was until Jiji told me something, something that he said you always told him Tobirama-Sama."
'What is it?' Ino thought before paying extra close attention to what the blonde was gonna say next.
"He told me that you always you to say,-Whenever a comrade is in danger, even if it's someone you don't get along with, your body just kinda reacts and tries it's hardest to save them- and you were right. Cuz to this day, I don't know what else to say about it other than my body just reacted to what was happening."
'So that's what it is' Ino thought as she listened to the boy speaking with the past Hokage. 'Well at least now I know that the reason he saved me despite the way I treated him for so long is just because he's a very good person.'
After thinking this, Ino smiled and then left the cemetery.
As she was leaving though, Naruto heard what sounded like a twig snap and turned his head to see what the source of the sound was, but saw nobody. He just shrugged his shoulders and continued speaking with the past Hokage.
(Tomorrow, at the Academy)
It was the next day and both Ino and Naruto as well as all their classmates were back at the academy, waiting for their sensei to come in.
Naruto, Hinata, and Shino specifically, were all currently sitting in the same seat together, and were just waiting for their sensei to walk through that door and announce the teams.
As they were waiting though, Shino noticed Naruto's palms getting sweaty and asked him
"Naruto, why are you so nervous?"
Naruto then turned to Shino and told him
"I'm not nervous."
Which prompted Hinata to say
"Yeah you are, we can tell by how sweaty your palms are getting. What's wrong?"
Naruto was shy to answer their question, but since they were his best and only friends, he steeled his resolve and explained it to them.
"It's just, I'm worried, cuz what if we don't end up in the same team together?" He revealed.
"Ahh come on, where's that usual optimistic and very hyper-active Naruto everyone knows?" Shino asked.
"Shino-Kun is right, be hopeful Naruto-Kun, we'll be in the same team, I just know it" Hinata added with a smile.
"Thanks you guys" he told his friends before the sound of squealing fangirls was heard.
"Oh my gosh, it's Sasuke-Kun!" One of Sasuke's fangirls shouted when they were right beside him.
"Sasuke-Kun!"
"Sasuke-Kun!"
"Sasuke-Kun!"
That was all the group of friends heard and rolled their eyes in annoyance to.
After rolling his eyes though, Naruto turned to see if Sasuke was just being his casual self and sure enough, he was, however, he noticed something else.
He expected to see a certain blonde haired girl with blue eyes, but saw that she was nowhere to be seen.
That was until he saw her with the corner of his eye.
She was just sitting in her own seat for once, and wasn't even looking at Sasuke, she was just looking out the window right next to her seat.
As she looked out the window, she thought
'Why am I still so confused?' Before turning to look in front of her, seemingly towards Sasuke.
When Naruto saw her look back at Sasuke, he just shrugged his shoulder and got back to talking with his friends.
However, Ino wasn't looking at Sasuke though, she was actually looking at his fangirls, and as she saw how ridiculous they acted around him, she thought
'Is that really how I looked?' Before turning her attention back to the window near her seat. 'Seriously, I wish I wasn't still so fucking confused.'
She was still a bit hung over on what she learned by following Naruto and was inwardly battling with herself to figure everything out.
'I followed him for a long time yesterday and I'm still confused' she thought.
Speaking of that day, thankfully when Ino arrived home, her mom was still asleep, so she just put the milk she bought from the convenience store in the fridge and went to her room for rest for the rest of the day. So she never got caught by her mom or dad.
As she was thinking about yesterday though, her class's sensei finally walked through the door, and the second he walked through the door he got to his desk without saying anything, and after clapping his hands to get everyone's attention, he told them
"Alright, let's not waste any time and get straight to the pairings."
To Be Continued...
Author's Note:
Did you guys enjoy this chapter, let me know in the comment section below, and if you have any idea for anything please let me know.
