Chapter 15

Recalling the shock to her system when that idiot landed a lucky hit reminds her of the very nasty downside to the jutsu. There is a lot of pain that comes with being forced out of the mind transfer. Despite the throbbing anguish in her head—going so far as to make her forehead and neck sweat—she immediately sits up again, focusing deeper on one detail of her out-of-body attack on the Dead Last. It's a dull growth of monumental realization as she slowly leaves her spacious bedroom, and ends up running by the time she reaches her father's study. The room is normally only used by him but it has all their books on botany, from roots to poisons and all the various ways they can be used.

With her pounding headache, Ino has to put great effort into focusing as she quickly skims through various books and scrolls. After some time, she finally comes upon several specific books that might help her remember why that distinct petal stuck to Naruto's disgusting jumper is so important. It must've been years ago, but she knows that petal came from an orchid. Fifteen minutes of searching and Ino wonders if she's made a mistake with the book currently in hand and has to read through all the books to find out why this is so important. Make no mistake, Ino knows it's important, she just couldn't say why yet. That is until she finally finds it on the highest row, the fourth-to-last book.

"Rarest Flowers in the World," she breathes, and the image of the petal on Naruto's back, under the white flap, begins encouraging bits of information she'd long stored away when she first read this book. Flipping through the pages, Ino surely finds the target of her query.

"The Fire Slipper Orchid," she reads aloud, slowly moving to her father's comfortable chair behind his desk. With the photo alone, she instantly confirms the petals from the book and the one stuck on Naruto's jumpsuit were the same. "One of the rarest orchids in the five nations; characterized by its red stripes and long side petals. Primary area of growth is forests within elevated areas from 950ft to 1300ft above sea level. Not only is the flower rare, but it can take up to fifteen years to blossom!" Ino broke eye contact with the book in great surprise, easily understanding why the orchid was so rare. Returning her attention to the reading, she learns exactly why her spectacular mind was so fixated on the petal. "Because it's so difficult to find much less grow within a controlled environment, this orchid species has a high market value where it is sold for as much as seven hundred and fifty thousand ryo per stem!"

Eyes wide, Ino leans back in utter shock at its value, the compounding aches in her brain doing little to slow down thinking of all the possibilities. Her most immediate concern being that bottle of perfume she absolutely begged her parents to get. She has an allowance and was more than ready to use it all if it were enough. She tried everything, but her parents wouldn't give her the remainder, they wouldn't give her an advance, and they wouldn't even give her extra shifts at the flower shop since it would cut other employee hours.

Ino needs that bottle and whatever else would give her an edge. She's already losing more ground to the Forehead than she'll willingly admit to—lest she stumbles into a great ice-cream filled depression. For the thousandth time, she wondered why she couldn't be teamed up with Sasuke-kun instead of Team 10. And for the thousandth time, her brain told her it was because of her father's partnership with Shikamaru and Choji's dads. She felt the injustice constrain her chest every time she thought of it. It was wrong to assume she would make a good team with the lazy-ass and the fat-ass simply because the three clans grew up close.

It's not that she hated her teammates but they definitely stood in her way, blocking Sasuke-kun from view, and letting the Forehead that much closer to her man. She'll be the first to admit she didn't need to be irrationally angry with her teammates; she knows it's not really their fault but she just can't help it. It gets to her every time the Lazy-ass just wants to sleep, or the Fat-ass just wants to eat, which happens all the time. The constant crunching of salty chips slowly drives her mad until she can't help but snap at them. It's not how she wants to spend her days and they—including her smoke-stack of a sensei—don't even seem to care.

Ever since the team assignments, she's been having one miserable day after another, 'but this,' she thinks, looking at the picture of the beautiful orchid. "This changes everything," she comments to herself, smiling all the while. She hadn't felt very pretty in a while but the possibility of finding the rare, expensive flower is rejuvenating. Doing the calculations in her head, her eyes go wide. "That's at least an A-Rank mission without the hard work or splitting it with the team!"

Quickly standing to her feet, hugging the book happily, she realizes aloud, "and if there's more than one stem, that's… way over S-Class pay... just for me!" Her mind is a cloud of euphoria for seemingly hours until one unpleasant thought bursts that intoxicating bubble of happiness... Naruto.

Groaning in pain, she rushes back to her room. Rather than changing into her typical shinobi gear, she merely hops into a white mini skirt and her purple halter top that shows off her taut stomach and rushes out the door in search of the orange idiot, praying the entire time, "I hope that idiot didn't destroy it." If the red and black stripped petal was stuck on his back, than clearly, he must've landed on one. Ino prays to Kami that the rare, highly-valuable flower wasn't too badly damaged, or that there's at least one more stem out there.

Finally finding him in the market, exiting a food stand with a disgustingly distended belly—looking just as filthy as she remembered from her time in the Starling—she rushes straight at him.

"Naruto," she calls the orange-clad boy, suddenly feeling the physical exertion of running around the village for over an hour with dull throbbing head pain. It hurts so bad, she wonders if her swollen head is as bid as Sakura's. With her hands on her knees as her strained and hot lungs painfully catch her chalky breath, she notes the golden-blond idiot is clearly curious about her sudden appearance. 'And why wouldn't he be,' she imagines. Ino knows this the first time she's ever sought him out, much less this desperately.

"Hey…uh, you okay?" he asks with a clear note of concern in his voice.

She puts up a single finger, hoping he understands she wants him to wait. After a minute, she grabs him by the shoulder. "Hey- What the-" he complains as she pulls the red stripped petal that was stuck on him; caught under the white turtle neck of his atrocious jacket. Examining the soft, colorful, fine-haired petal. It was indeed the extremely valuable plant from the book of rare flowers. Turning to him she demands to know, "where did you get this?"

The startled agitation was clear on his face, and his eyes squint with suspicion, but he looks at the petal in her hand and answers, "what is it?"

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