“No way is a girl faster than me!” Kiba crowed.
“Quit talking and get ready to eat dust Kiba-kun.” Ino called back.
“Ino, when I win try not to be too jealous ok?” Kiba attempted a wink with middling success.
Somewhere in the background Ino could hear Sakura counting down, Five!… Four!… Three!… Ino smiled sweetly at Kiba and in a voice even sweeter said, “Kiba? Eat shit and die.”
“Start!” Shouted Sakura. Ino tore down the agreed upon track, cackling madly as a completely flabergasted Kiba remembered that he was supposed to be in a race. Shouts of cheating and dirty tricks started echoing behind Ino as she crossed the finish line. A blustering Kiba came in a few seconds later demanding a rematch which Ino agreed he could have one year from now when he’d gotten a bit faster.
“Nice win Yamanaka-san!” A voice came from behind her. “I’m curious what you could have said to leave him standing their gaping like an idiot!” She recognized the voice, now laughing happily, and turned slowly to find Uchiha Sasuke smiling at her. “It was almost like you used genjutsu on him!”
“Ah, uh, thanks Uchiha-san!” She said, scrambling for what to say. She wondered if he had noticed how closely she had been watching him the last few months. Definitely too closely. She tried not to wince. “Y-you can just call me Ino by the way!”
Still laughing at Kiba, he responded “Of course Ino-san, then you should call me Sasuke!” Over Sasuke’s shoulder Ino saw Sakura staring daggers at her.
“Hey! I wanted to congratulate you on yet another first place in class for reading and writing! What’s that now, 6 months in a row?” Sasuke continued cheerfully.
“Oh haha,” Ino laughed nervously. Steam was starting to rise out of Sakura’s ears now. “Congrats yourself on being #1 with throwing weapons two months running! I wish I was better at it.”
“Thanks! I wish I was better at writing. I don’t know how you can practice for so long; if my mom wasn’t there to poke me in the ribs every 5 minutes I’d fall asleep.” It was bizarre speaking to such a cheerful Sasuke, who Ino and Sakura had been thinking of as evil for so long, even without knowing him.
She was dimly aware that Sasuke was waiting for an answer… What had he just asked? If she wanted to practice writing and throwing together? Don’t blush don’t blush don’t- ahhh shit.
“Oh! Practice with me?” She couldn’t help but ask prettily. Sakura burst a blood vessel while Sasuke nodded enthusiastically.
After giving Sakura a sympathetic smile Ino finally gave a straight response. “I’d like that Sasuke-san but Sakura-chan is actually the reason why I got so good at writing in the first place!” She began waving Sakura over. As Sasuke turned to look Sakura coughed, ducked and turned around to give herself a moment to control her cataclysmic wrath.
“We always practice writing and reading together, so I bet we could both be helpful! And we could both learn from you about throwing!” Ino flashed her blinding smile and could tell it had worked, even on Sasuke who froze for a second after being caught by it.
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Yes! Anko-sama would be proud!
“Y-yeah that sounds great! I’ll talk to my mom about it tonight! Oh hey Haruno-san!” Sasuke was always very respectful.
“H-hi Sasuke-san.” Sakura said shyly. “You can just call me Sakura. I’d love to join with the practice, just like Ino-chan said.”
“OH! HEY YOU GUYS ME TOO!!” Came the all too familiar yell of the force of nature known as Uzumaki Naruto. Exasperated looks immediately settled across all three faces, but just as it looked like Sakura was going to yell at him Ino pulled it together.
“Naruto-san, you should ask politely if you can join us, not just invite yourself ok?” Ino said in a stern but not unkind voice. Naruto looked shocked, although Ino was not sure if it was because she had actually responded to him without yelling or if he had never considered the possibility of asking for something politely.
“Oh! Ok, yeah! Hey, can I come and practice with you guys?” He looked to Ino for confirmation and she gave him her best disappointed-mom frown. “Oh! Please! Please please please?” Naruto belatedly added, earning the barest of smiles from Ino. Sakura was looking at Ino with a look of confused dismay; Sasuke just looked annoyed.
Ignoring Sakura’s frantic attempts to covertly signal “Don’t you dare”, Ino asked, “Naruto-san, I’ll talk to my parents about having you over. Where should I send an invite to in order to reach you? Is there an Uzumaki house or compound?”
A multitude of emotions warred over Naruto’s face throughout her question, ending with something like sadness. It was the same emotion Ino saw on him at the end of every school day.
“You can send it to the orphanage in the Orchid District.” He mumbled, already turning away. “They’ll give it to me. But your parents won’t agree.” He’d started walking away and seemed to be talking more to himself than anyone, and Ino barely caught, “Parents always hate me.”
“Yamanaka Ino.” Sakura had managed to maintain some of her earlier fury. “Why on earth would you invite him?”
But Ino was too caught up examining Naruto’s body language, facial expressions, tone and words. Orphanage! Why didn’t I even think about that! It all made sense now, like the last clue of a mystery falling into place. His appearance during the winter, his melancholy watching other kids get picked up by parents. Even his desperate need for attention!
But what was that about adults always hating him? My parents didn’t hate him, but then again, they did treat him differently than other poor children…
She resolved to question her parents about it and see what she could gather. Even if they lied again, she’d be able to use her new information to pose new questions, and each question would cause what her dad referred to as “micro-reactions.” Little changes that a skilled shinobi would be able to draw conclusions from. She could almost taste the joy that future Ino was going to have. Armed with the Yamanaka clan’s psychology background and Anko-sama’s confidence and swagger, she was going to be unstoppable.