"That's hilarious!" Sakura shouted, howling with laughter as she pounded her fists on the table in front of her, unable to keep back the amused tears any longer. "Ino-pig, with a BOYFRIEND!?"

"It's true!" Ino exclaimed, huffing and folding her arms across her chest angrily. Then, she turned her attention to Chouji. "You believe me, right, Chouji?!"

To keep from getting pounded into the ground, Chouji chose, wisely, to munch on yet another handful of potato chips, not wanting to tell Ino that he didn't quite believe her, either.

"I hate you all." Ino growled and grumpily sat back down, glaring at Naruto who was laughing just as hard as Sakura, right in front of her. "WHY THE HELL IS IT SO FUNNY?!?"

Naruto looked up at Ino with tears in his eyes, seeming to try and calm himself down, before breaking into a fit of snorts and giggles yet again.

"I-I think that if Ino-san says she has a boyfriend, then it must be true." Hinata said shyly, a faint red blush tinting her cheeks.

"THANK YOU, Hinata!" Ino shouted, tackling the girl who was sitting beside her, causing her to blush even further.

"Are you sure you're not just imagining this boyfriend of yours?" Tenten asked seriously, smirking and lilting her head to the side mockingly.

Ino's right eye twitched uncontrollably as she snaked her head around to look at Tenten, eyes narrowed into slits. "And what exactly is THAT supposed to mean?"

"It's just a rumor, but I've heard that you've been out in one of the training grounds at night, talking to yourself." Tenten said, shrugging her shoulders.

"What do you all think I am, some kind of psycho?!" Ino shouted, once again standing up and banging her fists on the table. "I was talking to my boyfriend!!"

"Then why is it you refuse to reveal who it is?" Neji asked calmly, not interested in the matter at all, but figuring he'd try making a sound argument, just for his pride's sake.

"Because it's too troublesome." Ino growled, glaring at all of them. "He doesn't like conflict, and if I told you all, you'd never stop hounding him about it. Especially you, Naruto."

Naruto looked up and blinked rapidly, trying to work his mind around what Ino had just said. "Ne, Shika, what've you been teaching her? She just said something was troublesome."

"I haven't taught her anything." the previously silent Shikamaru said, sighing out of boredom and scratching the back of his neck. "She picked it up on her own."

Ino glared at the lazy boy and whacked him on the head, hard. "I didn't pick anything up, baka!"

*****

Later on that night, Ino made her way into Training Ground 15 and sat herself down on her favorite tree stump, waiting for her boyfriend to arrive. Her mind began to recall the earlier conversation she'd had with everyone, still seething with rage. How dare they assume she was a liar?! And besides, why would she lie about something like that? If she were going to lie, she'd say that she had met up with Sasuke and was going out with him now. But no, she hadn't been lying.

Snapping her head up as she felt someone's presence, Ino cast her eyes to a particularly shady circle of trees, a small smile appearing on her lips when she realized who it was. "You're late."

"I didn't know if you'd want to talk to me, after today." Came the low, smooth reply. Ino shivered a little as she realized from the tone of his voice, that his eyes were trained on her.

"Why wouldn't I? You didn't do anything." She said, her voice coming out a bit choked. "Well, you didn't help me out, but it couldn't be helped, right?"

Ino could practically feel his eyebrow raising as he took in her reply, knowing that he'd probably be a bit confused as to why she wasn't yelling at him now, like she usually tended to do. "You're not angry?"

"Of course I'm angry!" Ino shouted, glaring as she looked down at the ground, shuffling her feet into the dirt in frustration. "But not because of what you said. Because they didn't believe me."

"What else did you expect?" He asked, and Ino could feel him smirking. "After all, you run into the shop, saying that you have a boyfriend all smugly, but refuse to tell them who it is."

"Why the hell should I have to tell them?" Ino pouted, stomping on the ground. "I mean, I like you, and I'm happy with you. Why the hell should they get to hound us? Because we both know that's all they're going to do if we tell them."

Her boyfriend sighed audibly, and she caught him scratching the back of his neck as he thought through everything quickly. "As troublesome as it is, wouldn't it just be easier to tell them? I mean, they would, as you say hound us, for a while, but they'd eventually give it up and move on with the other gossip. Whereas, if we keep it a secret, they'll keep trying to figure it out, and will keep bugging you about it. And if they somehow find out on their own, it'll be even more of a shock, and the hounding will go on longer than otherwise."

Ino looked up and glared at her boyfriend, seeing the logic in his answer [there was always logic in his answers] but not wanting to tell everyone just yet. For now, she just wanted to keep her boyfriend, and this secret, all to herself, as selfish as that was. She wanted to savor the moments alone with him before people would undoubtedly start hanging around them constantly, wanting to see if it was just some kind of cruel joke. Normally, Ino would have said all of that, wanting to get everything that was on her mind out in the open, but she knew she didn't have to. Her boyfriend would know exactly what she was thinking. He always did.

Ino heard a rustling in the trees as his boyfriend made his way through the shadows until he was standing just behind her. "Ino..." he whispered, wrapping his arms around her waist and hugging her from behind, his body still hidden within the shadows, "..lets wait another week to tell them, then. If that's what you want."

Ino nodded her head slowly as a sense of calm washed over her, snuggling back into her boyfriends arms, a small smile on her lips. Somehow, he always knew what to say to make her happy.

To anyone passing by at that time, it would have seemed as if Ino were simply talking to herself and smiling at her thoughts. But at that particular moment, Ino didn't seem to care. She was happy to be wrapped in her boyfriends' arms, away from prying eyes, with no one around to destroy the moment of peace for the two of them.

"I love you, Shika."