Chapter 16

Her eyebrow twitches but Ino valiantly holds in her frustration. Taking a deep calming breath she looks around and notices all the faces, some looking at her with lewd gazes, but some looking—well, glaring—at the boy next to her. The worry in her mind, however, isn't in how much thigh or stomach she's showing, or even in how innately Naruto seems to annoy everyone. It's in the idea that someone in this busy market place might know the value of what she's holding in her hand.

Without a second thought, she commands him, "come on," as she grabs him by the collar of his filthy jumpsuit, pulling him along with her. After twenty minutes of marching, they're in a small deserted park, and she turns to him, staying as close to his sweaty musk as she can stand so he doesn't grate her patience too much. Normally she would've said something by now, but this is too important to risk.

"Naruto," she starts. "I need to know where you came across this flower."

"You sure that's a flower?" he asks peering at the flattened petal. "Doesn't look like one."

"That's because you-" Ino cuts herself off and takes a breath. The last thing she wants to do is make this unnecessarily harder by insulting him too much. "Look, this is a flower petal from an orchid that I'm looking for. I think it was stuck to your back because you fell on it. So I really need you to tell me where you've seen a flower with this kind of petal."

Naruto hums in deep thought for several seconds before answering, "I'm not sure. I don't really pay attention to flowers, especially when I'm training."

"Is that what you were doing today," she asks excitedly, scanning his rough and sweaty exterior. "Where! Where were you training?"

"Uhh, well," he starts nervously. "I... I can't say," he weakly finishes, but she's not taking no for an answer.

"Naruto, please," she pleads, her bewitching face instantly forming an adorable charming look she uses on her father when she really wants something. She even bends her knees so she's looking up at him, using the psychology that says men normally prefer to look down into a girl's eyes than up. She's also quite aware that he ought to be able to see a bit of cleavage, not to say she's the most abundant in that area, but she's certainly ahead of many kunoichi, developing quicker than most. She can easily tell it's working by the way he flusters and tries to avoid looking too far down. "I really, really need this," she whines prettily. "Won't you help me?"

"Ah, ano," Naruto fumbles, looking at her chest a moment before clearing his throat and looking at her pupil-less blue eyes. "Uh, sure!" Not completely for effect, she jumps up happily with a giggle. "I... I'll help, but, you absolutely cannot tell anybody where I'm taking you; it's my secret training spot."

"I guess. Where is it?" she asks curiously. 'How could any training ground in Konoha be secret?' she mentally asks. 'All active shinobi use them, you idiot.'

"It's in the forest, about three hours north of the Hokage monument," he answers.

"What?" she gasps. "Why would you train so far away?"

"It's secret training that's going to make me the strongest ninja in Konoha!" he happily tells her. Though she doesn't believe for a second that the Dead Last in their class can beat anyone, let alone be the strongest anything, she says nothing, content to play along until she has her treasure secure in her hands. He continues to say, "that also means I can't show you what I'm doing. I don't mind taking you where I was, but you can't see my training. Sorry," he awkwardly tells her as if she cared.

She may have completed a step in her journey, but now she has to travel three hours through a dense forest without any assurances that the flower is there or still intact if it is. "You're sure you don't remember seeing it," she asks again, moving the petal closer to his face.

"Sorry, Ino-chan," he replies. She ignores the chan as he continues, "I more or less remember where I was, so I can take you there, but I was too focused on my training to remember any flowers."

He chuckles at his own idiocy and it annoys her, but she moves on. "I have a team meeting tomorrow morning. It shouldn't be anything serious, like training," she clarifies. "He just wants to tell us something important, so I can meet you afterward; by the Hokage monument."

"Sweet," he says brightly. "I'll see you tomorrow."

And with that he was off, leaving her in delicious anticipation of better days to come. "Finally," she yells. Ino felt she needed something good, and for it to happen as soon as tomorrow, was thrilling. Ino walked home content and ready for good fortune to take her.

Meeting at their usual tea shop, Asuma-sensei took a single drag of his cigarette prompting her to yell, "either put that out or tell us what this is about, sensei. That's horrible for my skin, you know!"

"I actually agree with her," Shikamaru tells his sensei. "This is our day off and it's really early."

"It's nine am," Asuma corrects the lazy boy with a smirk.

"Like I said," is all Shikamaru responds with.

"…These three," Asuma mutters to himself before explaining why he called their meeting. "I called you all here because Konoha will be hosting one of the Fire Daimyo's daughters, Tomoko-hime. During her stay here, I'll be her escort, so I won't be able to stay with you for most of the day like we've been doing. That doesn't mean I want any of you to slack off."

"Are we going to meet the princess," Ino asks hopefully.

"Maybe," Asuma answers after taking a sip of his tea. "You're my students after all. That's pretty much it. Any questions?"

"Are we still doing D-ranks?" Choji asks between a handful of chips, his constant, audible chewing annoying Ino to no end.

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