"It sure looks good"
"Yeah it does"
"Is that why you're always ditching classes?"
"Some of the time, other times I just get tired of the teachers being mean to me"
"Do you know why? W-why they're mean to you?" she hated how she stuttered out that last sentence, she was not Hinata damn it.
"Yh, I do"
They both just continued looking at the clouds moving lazily in the sky
An awkward silence ensued, neither party willing to broach the subject until she gathered the confidence to do so. She had already come all this way to look for him, what was the big deal with a few more questions
"Did you do something bad?"
"Nah, I'm just a symbol of something that gives them bad memories"
The fact that he was so forthcoming with his answers was surprising, she always assumed he was the secretive type, just like Sasuke. Cue a head shake. She shouldn't-no-couldn't think about Sasuke. Thinking about him always made her feel shitty, she hated feeling shitty, hence why she was here in the first place
She looked at his whisker marks and wondered what they would feel like. Probably like skin, to be honest, she doubted they would feel like how they looked.
"Hmm, what memories?" she continued
He stared at her face for the first time since she came into the clearing and stared. Was there something on her face she mused, she felt incredibly self-conscious all of a sudden. He turned back and continued staring upward.
"It's a secret," he said so softly, she almost didn't hear him.
"Why're you here Ino? Shouldn't you be in class right now?"
She shifted her foot on the blades of grass under her feet, they felt wet. She didn't like the feeling.
"I don't know"
"You don't know? I didn't take you for the impulsive type"
She closed her eyes and sighed, she wished the tightness in her chest would loosen a bit
"I fought with Sakura again, I don't like when we fight"
"Hmm," he said as looked at her and stared again.
"Then don't fight"
She sighed again, if only it was that simple, but then again it was. She just has to give up on "him", she shook herself to get rid of that thought. It was unfair that she had to be the one to do so.
He sat up all of a sudden and sighed
"It's weird that I of all people caught your attention you know. This is like the third time you've come looking for me here. If people found out, they'd get worried"
She looked at him and reluctantly agreed, she didn't know why she was seeking him out in the first place, it had been born from the simple curiosity of wondering where he was always stalking off to, to the then slight challenge of actually concealing herself so as not to be caught and branded as a stalker. She sometimes just wondered how his thought processes worked. He was an enigma like that.
"I didn't come looking for you this time. I just like how quiet this place is, your being here is just a plus"
He looked at her and squinted, was this the same Ino he knew, he knew she was the bold and straightforward type always ready to say whatever she believed to be true. But this was a bit out of pocket.
"Ino, are you trying to flirt with me?" he questioned
"Hmm, I'm surprised you know what that word is, you always seemed so dense" she replied with a smirk
"Haha, very funny" he replied dryly with a slight frown
"Whatever, catch you around," he said as he rose to his feet and began dusting his pants
"Wait" she ground out. "Will you come to class tomorrow? We both know you need to especially considering that our final exams are in a few weeks"
She hated that she sounded so weak and desperate at that moment, she couldn't even rationally explain what was going on right now. Shouldn't this be the other way around, with him chasing her and she being the one to act coy?
He took a long look at her and walked off
She watched his retreating figure and felt so shitty, she wished the ground would just open up and swallow her up. God was that embarrassing, it felt so much worse than she expected. It hurt more than when Sasuke would reject her numerous advances, hell it hurt more than whenever she and Sakura would get into the occasional scrap. It just hurt. She saw the first teardrop before she felt it and just curled into a ball on the ground and wept.
'Was this how Hinata felt'? she mused, it felt so pathetic.
Naruto was many things, but a fool he was not. He didn't know what trick Ino had up her sleeves trying to get all close and chummy with him, but he would rather die than willingly put himself in the line of fire of whatever diabolical plan she was cooking up. Speaking of cooking, he was rather hungry. It would be inconvenient to head home right now, mostly because there wasn't anything to eat.
'Might as well head to Ayame-nee' he mused.
He started heading out of the dense forest on his way to his regular fast food joint before the sound of a grunt caught his attention. He looked around and decided to take cover in the canopy of trees above. It seemed like someone was training nearby.
He scoped out the area and saw two figures blurring around each other and would earmark this moment as the beginning of everything. There was a green blur around a white blur, both moving so crazy fast he couldn't make out anything beyond the occasional grunt from the green blur and the sounds of flesh being smacked.
He watched as the green blur ran around the white one repeatedly looking for an opening, while the white one just remained in one position, occasionally moving quickly to avoid the various blows and punches thrown at it. He saw as the white one held his hand in a ram sign and veins suddenly bulged around his eyes.
"Hmm, a Hyuuga" he mused. They were pretty popular in town, there was even a quiet one in his class if he recalled, when he was younger he always assumed they were blind snobs, turns out they saw better than the majority of the populace, ninja or otherwise.
The activation of the eye thingy by the Hyuuga pretty much turned the tides of the fight, where before they seemed to be on equal footing, it was now obvious that the green one was losing ground quickly. He also seemed to be favoring his left side, something that happened after the Hyuuga poked his opponent a few times on the shoulder.
The fight seemed to come to a head when the green one stopped moving so frantically and began to speak, he had to strain his ears to hear what they were saying.
"Always so amazing Neji-kun" he heard the green one say.
"Keep your compliments to yourself, come at me instead" the now-identified Neji replied.
"Your flame burns so brightly my rival, I shall come at you with all I have left in me, any less would be an insult" the green one responded.
The Neji guy only seemed to grunt in response and changed his stance, he seemed to lower himself in response to whatever attack the green one intended to present. The green one on the other hand seemed to be gathering chakra, if the wisps whipping around his shoulder were any indication. Naruto was left slack-jawed, he had never seen visible chakra in his life, these guys were something else. He already knew they were pretty strong right from when he couldn't track their movements, to their sleek fighting techniques. It looked like chuunin-level stuff, but they looked young. If he didn't know better he'd have assumed they were still in the academy. He had to leave that train of thought as he saw the green one move.
'Fast' was the only thing he could think of at that moment.
If before, he could see them move albeit not clearly, now he was barely seeing shit, just outlines. In a few seconds though, he saw the Neji guy slow down and the green one fall back and begin to cough before he spat a bit of blood and gave a thumbs up at his opponent, that seemed to be the signal of the end of the match as he saw the Neji guy roll his shoulder and relax.
He then turned to look in the direction Naruto was hiding and frowned
"You can stop hiding now"
The other green one looked surprised and also looked over in Naruto's direction
Naruto for his part just sighed, he was still hungry and he was not in the mood for dealing with any bullshit, also if a fight were to break out, there was no way he was going to be defending his ass with the moves he had just seen the other two bust out.
So he did what any logical self-respecting ninja would do and bolted
Looking at the retreating figure of Naruto, the two ninjas left in the clearing just looked at each other before Neji shrugged and seemed to walk away
"Eh, he just ran away, are you ok with that" the green one spoke
"Leave him, it would be pointless to do so" Neji replied
"But - he saw you use your new moves"
"Don't bother yourself with that Lee, there is nothing to be obtained by chasing after him, and they were bound to be found eventually, I intend on using them in combat after"
Neji then looked up at the sky and frowned, the memory of a certain white-eyed relative souring his thoughts
"Pathetic" he spat as he began to leave the clearing
Lee just looked confused
"What just happened?" he wondered to himself