Author Uozumi
Genre AU/General
Rating G
Disclaimer I do not own nor claim to own this. The characters, ect...contained within are not my property. This is an act of fandom and I do not make a profit from this endeavor.
Summary Before school started, Ino encountered a mysterious boy while playing.
Note I might continue this, I might not. I’m not sure yet. So I’m giving it an ending that can let it stand on its own but isn’t final final.
Yamanaka Ino was the nicest girl her age. All of the flower shop customers always remarked to her mother and father how mature she was and responsible as she helped out with the store. She only did small things like sweep up, but she was happy with that. It was a chance to spend time with her family and she loved how the store smelled with all the different flowers. Sometimes she went out to play with the neighbors’ children. Her parents told her never to go beyond the Northeast training ground which was in their backyard so that they would know where she was always. Ino always obeyed because it never occurred to her to go outside the area her parents had told her to stay in.
One summer evening, Ino was outside with her next door neighbor Shikamaru playing hide and seek. Naturally, Shikamaru finding it so “troublesome” was the person who went and hid. He always hid in the area she was confined to even though he liked a different training grounds to hang out in most the time. She didn’t mind seeking him out so much. She had always hated hiding and waiting so finding was much more her style. As she wandered across the field, her dark eyes scanned the dying light as fireflies began to appear. She heard a noise nearby and stopped. That jerk! Shikamaru was hiding on the edge of her sanctum!
She marched over to the noise, ready to start in on her friend about how he shouldn’t hide so far when the rustling died. Eyeing the bush that had been moving a bit ago, Ino slowed. There was something, maybe someone there, but suddenly she was unsure if it was Shikamaru. “Shikamaru…?” she asked tentatively as she took another step. “Is that you?”
The rustling started again and a blonde head appeared before her eyes met the scared blue eyes of a boy she had never seen before, or at least couldn’t place. They locked eyes and she took a step back. She had never seen anyone hold such fear in their eyes. The instant she moved, he shot off through the woods.
Startled, the five-year-old blinked and then started in after the boy without thinking. That’s when a large hand grabbed her arm. She knew the grip. Looking up, she tried to swallow her doom. “Daddy…”
“It’s time you came inside, Ino,” her father intoned, his voice slightly stern.
“I’m looking for Shikamaru,” Ino offered, hoping this might not get her in trouble.
“Shikato came and got him a bit ago,” her father’s eyes narrowed, “which is when I saw you heading pointedly into these woods.” At Ino’s expression, he simply took her hand, “Come on, it’s time for dinner.” Whenever Ino looked guilty, he always left it up to his wife to discipline their daughter because he bring himself to at these times.
Her mother explained why she wasn’t allowed to go into the woods. She grounded Ino from going outside after coming home from the shop for a week. That night up in her room, Ino looked out at her window, watching the woods beyond the training grounds intently. The farther she was removed from the meeting, the more she doubted that the boy had existed. Sighing, she looked over at her bookcase where one shelf was dedicated to fairytales. It had to have been her imagination.
For a week, she dreamt of a fearful little boy who lived in the woods behind the training ground near her backyard. He had an almost Peter Pan quality to him along with a hesitance that was frustrating in her dreams. On the last night of her punishment, Ino stood on a stool as she helped her mother dry dishes.
“Mama,” she began as she carefully set a plate aside, “does a boy live in the woods?”
Her mother was taken aback by the question. “No,” she answered after a time. Then she asked, “Why?”
“No reason,” Ino replied and dried a glass. Just as she had suspected, it had been a dream.
Shikamaru had a friend over the next night. Ino had seen Choji a lot and wasn’t sure if she liked him or not. The three were trying to catch lightening bugs in the training grounds under the supervision of their fathers. Choji was in charge of the jar, Ino ran around trying to catch the most, and Shikamaru simply stood around and managed to get the bugs to come to him. As she ran by the woods where she had encountered the boy, she noticed the bushes moving out of the corner of her eye. Pausing, she looked at the bushes and resisted the urge to go and investigate, especially with her father watching her.
“What’s wrong, Ino?” she heard Choji ask.
She shook her head. “Nothing…I just was thinking.” Then she took the jar from him and put her new catch in it.
That night, she waited until her parents were asleep and then she climbed as best she could out her window and over to the nearby tree. Almost falling, she somehow managed to keep from it and got to the ground without incident. Since last year she had been challenging Shikamaru to climbing races. He rarely gave a full effort, but she always did. She enjoyed climbing up the poles on the training ground and trees weren’t much different.
Carefully, she pulled her robe around her tighter and walked carefully out into the dewy grass, careful to make sure she wasn’t being watched. Running across the training grounds, she finally found the bush that she had seen the boy behind, but after close inspection, he wasn’t there. She knelt down and looked at the grass behind it. There were small footprints and other indications that someone who was about her size, maybe a bit smaller, had been there many times.
Frowning, Ino looked deeper into the woods and thought about following the footprints, but without a flashlight, it would be difficult and even more difficult to return home without anyone knowing she was gone. Standing up, she looked around but there was only the sound of the crickets and the fireflies were slowing down and disappearing. Traipsing back to her home, she managed to climb back up to her room and get back into her bed without incident.
Her mother of course knew what she had done. There was no way Ino could have slept in her bed the whole night and got her feet that dirty or gotten that odd scratch mark along her right leg. Her parents told her how disappointed they were in her and how much they worried at the thought she might do it again. So for the second time that summer, the child was grounded again until she started school that October. This meant that she wasn’t going to be allowed to see the Chûnin exams this year at all.
Quietly she swept the floor in the shop and watched as people came in and out of the doors. A little girl with pink hair came in with her mother but the girl kept her face hidden behind her mother’s skirt and Ino couldn’t tell much other than the unique color of the girl’s hair. Then as she watched the mother and daughter leave, she almost dropped her broom. It was the boy! He was talking to the man across the street, he looked like he was imitating some of the adults who had to haggle the price with the man.
“Ino…?” her mother looked down at her then followed her daughter’s gaze in the direction of the little blonde boy. Mrs. Yamanaka’s face darkened a moment. Then she reached into her pocket and pulled out some coins. “Ino, why don’t you go get us some apples from that stand?”
Ino looked up at her mother and watched the woman take the broom and put coins in her hand. As the broom left her hands, Ino nodded and left the shop, carefully crossing the street to the vendors.
“You just gave the apples to that lady for thirty don, why do I have to pay fifty?” the boy demanded as Ino walked up to the cart.
“Just give me fifty don or get out of my face,” the man growled.
Ino stood just a bit behind the boy as she watched. After a few more exchanges between the two, Ino watched the boy begin to grumble and then he turned away, stalking off. Ino watched him go and then she heard the vendor calling for her attention. “Can I help you, Miss?”
“Oh! Yes,” Ino said, “I need three apples, please.”
“That will be fourty-five don,” the man told her. Ino nodded and gave him five ten don pieces and put the five don piece in her pocket, accepting the three apples in a bag.
As soon as she had her apples, she took off after the boy. She was going to give him one and she knew that’s why her mother sent her out there in the first place. “Wait!” she squeezed between two people, her target still in sight. “Wait up!”
The boy didn’t hear her, was ignoring her on purpose, or was convinced she wasn’t chasing him down. Growling slightly, the girl sped up and just as the boy was about to speed up too, she managed to get in front of him. “There!” she crowed.
“I – I didn’t do anything!” the boy held his hands up so his arms were bent at the elbow. “Honest.”
Ino watched him. He was just a slight bit shorter than her and had odd facial marks on his cheeks. His hair was dark blonde and his eyes were as blue as his skin was tanned. Although he still looked afraid. His eyes watched her suspiciously as she took him in. Finally, she sighed and reached into her bag. Producing an apple, she held it out to him. “Here. This is yours.”
The boy didn’t take it. He kept his eyes on her, stepping back slightly like a dog that mistrusts humans. “Iruka-sensei told me never to take things from strangers.”
Ino huffed inwardly. “I’m not a stranger!” She had seen him enough in her dreams that she felt like she knew him.
The boy stared at the girl. He had been watching her and her friends playing outside the woods for a while now, but only once did she actually see him, maybe even twice. He supposed that it could mean they knew each other, but a little voice in his head that sounded very much like a Chûnin he trusted told him to be careful.
Ino wanted him to take the apple. What was his problem anyway? She considered putting it back in the bag and leaving or just shoving it in his hands and leaving, but she remained still with her hand outstretched, apple offered. He was like this puppy she saw the other day. If she stayed like this, maybe he would take the gift.
He seemed to be watching her intently as though debating something. Finally, he asked, “It’s not poisoned, is it?”
Ino stared and then she shouted, “Of course it’s not! Why would it be?!”
The boy didn’t reply to that. He watched her and then approached cautiously before looking around as though something would happen if he took the apple. Finally, he put his hand around it and convinced that something was going to happen; he took it from her hand and cautiously bit into it. Making a face, he frowned. “It’s sour.”
Ino sighed. Did this boy know that the green apples were sour? They were her mother’s favorites though, which is why Ino had bought them.
The sourness didn’t seem to deter the boy now who was almost finished with his apple. Knowing he would probably take off after finishing his apple, Ino said, “I’m Yamanaka Ino, who are you?”
“I’m Uzumaki Naruto,” he replied and dropped the apple core on the ground. They stood there for a moment, neither saying anything. Then Naruto opened his mouth before closing it as though deciding against something.
Ino wanted to invite him over or to watch the exams or to do anything, but she was grounded and the longer she stayed out of her mother’s sight, the more grounded she was most likely. “What year in school are you?”
Naruto shrugged. “I might go this year,” he scuffed his sandal on the alley floor, “Iruka-sensei is working on it.”
“Oh,” Ino replied awkwardly. She had thought since he was talking about a sensei, that he was already in school. “I hope we can see each other there then,” she said after a time.
Naruto blinked and looked at her as though judging if she meant the statement or not. Ino gave him a rather blank look as she tried to figure out what his problem was now. He was unlike any other boy she had ever met. Finally, she gave him a small wave. “I need to go back to the shop or Mama will ground me again.”
Naruto nodded and gave her a small wave back before breaking into a grin after she left. Maybe he had made another friend.