Pick Your Battles
It's a skill everyone needs
to have, and a skill Ino is determined to teach to Naruto. Of course, her
reasons for doing so are not entirely selfless... Naruto/Ino NaruIno
“But Sakura-chan...”
The pink haired medic
sighed in exasperation. Naruto just didn't get it. It wasn't that she disliked
him. Heck, she was one of his closest friends. But she just didn't want to go
out with him. Something that Naruto had failed to learn over the past 5 years.
“NO! I'm trying to be nice
about this Naruto, but I don't want to go out with you. I'm fine with being
just friends, if you'll just stop bugging me about it, okay?”
Naruto's face scrunched in
frustration, and Sakura was sure that he was refusing to understand. They went
through this every day, and even though it was really annoying, Sakura just
couldn't bring herself to word her rejection in language strong enough to get
the point across. She liked Naruto, and didn't want to hurt his feelings. She
just didn't like him that way.
She decided to end it for
today. “Look, Naruto. Can't we just be friends? I really do like being around
you, when your not pestering me for dates. And I'm supposed to be going to help
shishou in the hospital now, so if you'll excuse me...”
Sakura stood up from the
counter of Ichiraku's, left enough money to cover her ramen and a healthy tip,
and walked off in the direction of the hospital.
Naruto watched her
retreating back with a hopeless expression. Sometimes it seemed like he was
never going to succeed. But he had to! He couldn't give up! That was his nindo,
yeah!
Leaving a significantly
larger pile of money that Sakura's, to cover his 5 bowls of miso ramen, Naruto
wandered in the general direction of his house. There was no hurry, since he
didn't have anything to do after dinner tonight. Training had come earlier in
the day, and Kakashi had firmly impressed upon his mind that he must
rest if he wanted to get stronger. So no more training for today.
Naruto wandered along the
busy streets, watching people coming home from working, going out to dinner,
playing in the street, and conducting last minute business. He saw shops switch
their signs to 'closed' for the evening.
It was getting dark. Maybe
he should just get home and go to bed. Then he could start training extra early
tomorrow, and impress Sakura-chan enough to...
But probably not. No matter
what he did, she never changed her mind. Naruto heaved a heavy sigh, looking
out at the sunset as he continued down the darkening streets.
Naruto just barely stopped
himself from running into someone standing in his path. “Hey, Ino, I almost
didn't see you there.”
The blonde kunoichi flashed
him a bright grin. Naruto felt uneasy. She had been a lot more friendly of
late. According to Shikamaru, that probably meant that she was leading up to
some big favor that Naruto would find rather unpleasant.
“Hey, Naruto. What's going
on? You looked kinda sad, for a moment.”
Naruto twisted his face
into his foxy grin, squinting his eyes shut. “Just thinking! Even I do that
sometimes, you know!”
Ino was skeptical, but
didn't allow it to show on the outside. That grin might have fooled her years
ago, but she knew Naruto well enough to tell the difference between his happy
smile and his hiding smile. And that last smile was definitely covering
something up.
“Did you get rejected by
Sakura, again?”
The abrupt twitch of
Naruto's face told her the answer even before he muttered in the affirmative. He
immediately brightened up again, his eyes squinted shut once again.
“But I'll impress her
tomorrow with my super-cool new jutsu that Ero-sennin's been teaching me! And
then she'll go out with me for sure!”
“Naruto, you need to learn
to pick your battles.”
The orange-clad ninja just
stared at her as if she had sprouted horns. “What?”
Ino explained carefully,
slightly gratified that she had gotten him to drop the fake smile already. That
was way sooner than she had done so before. Maybe tonight...
“You need to pick your
battles. You gotta learn how to recognize when victory isn't possible. You've
come a long way with your nindo of never giving up, but there are some times
when it's more stupid to keep trying.”
Ino wasn't sure that he got
it, and his confused look, combined with his next statement, only confirmed
this. “I haven't been in any battles, recently. But then next time...”
Ino shook her head. While
his expression was rather cute, she was slightly put off that he wasn't
getting the point.
“To be more specific,
Naruto, I think you should stop asking Sakura out.”
Naruto's eyes grew wide.
“What?! But...”
Ino cut him off. “Just
listen to me for a second, alright?” Naruto nodded slowly. “Sakura has said
several times that she just wants to be your friend. She has turned you down
every time you've asked her since the day you met her. It wasn't just Sasuke.
She just doesn't see you that way.”
Naruto was silent for a
moment, and Ino grew hopeful. Maybe he would see what she was getting at?
“So I've got to make her
see me that way before she'll agree to go out with me?”
Ino rubbed the bridge of
her nose. This was going to be difficult. She should've known. Naruto wasn't
the sharpest kunai in the set, and he didn't want to change his mind about
this. Of course he would be difficult.
“What I'm saying, Naruto,
is that she's not going to agree. Ever. She grew up with you. Your practically
the brother she never had. She doesn't see you as a guy, she...”
“SHE THINKS I'M A GIRL?! I'M
A BOY, AND I CAN PROVE IT!”
Ino quickly cut her mind
off from its current tangent of how Naruto would prove he was a boy, and
managed to keep her blush to a minimum. She couldn't start thinking those
things, or she would get distracted.
“What I meant, Naruto, is
that you are like family to her. It just doesn't seem right to her to date you.
It would be like dating her dad.”
Naruto slumped a little,
and looked at the ground. Ino had to restrain herself from reaching out to
comfort him, because she knew he wouldn't take it the right way. Yet. But if
Ino did this right...
“Besides, Naruto, there are
other girls out there, you know. And they don't all think of you that way.” Ino
hoped she wasn't being to forward, though she crossed her arms under her chest
to make sure he was very aware that she was a girl.
Naruto missed it, still
looking at the ground. “What? But Ino, I don't really know that many girls.”
“Start with the ones you do
know.” Ino flicked her head to one side so that her long, blonde ponytail was
now draped over one shoulder. She moved slightly closer.
“Hinata is already dating
Kiba, and Tenten's dating Neji. Moegi is to little, granny Tsunade is too old,
Hanabi's too mean, and...”
Naruto suddenly found
himself unable to speak when Ino closed the distance between them, grabbed his
head on either side and kissed him full on the mouth. After a few seconds, she
pulled away and looked him straight in the eyes, never letting go of his head. She
was not going to let him look away and when she had something this important to
say.
“I'm single, I'm
your age, and I like you, Uzumaki Naruto.”
Naruto was too stunned to
utter anything intelligible, so Ino cut off his stuttering voice in another
firm kiss.
After almost a minute, when
Naruto had started to respond to her, Ino pushed back away. “Do you get it now,
what I said about picking your battles? You have to choose to fight in battles
you can win.”
Naruto grinned, his true,
happy, lopsided smile that made Ino's heart to somersaults within her, before
his expression became a little more... hungry.
Ino's breath came in short
little gasps as Naruto leaned in very close. “You just want me to pick you.”
His breath tickled her lips, making her face flush.
“Y-yes, I do.”
“I win.”
So did Ino.
Eh, not great, but
hopefully the more I write, the better I will become. At the very least I can
flood ffnet with mediocre one-shots and get my name out there.
Let me know what you think.
-demonicnargles