The Hope of the Senju Clan

Chapter 13: Apprentice.

-Konoha-

The sun rose as usual into clear skies over Konoha and the Yamanaka Flower Shop in the early morning. Yamanaka Ino had been given the early shift by her mother. "What a way to start my last free day before I begin my team training". She grumbled aloud. "And after tomorrow I have to spend most of my time with lazy-ass Shikamaru and Choji the gluten. I can't even go track down Forehead Girl and get her to tell what happened in her team exam, although I know they passed, as she with Sasuke and Naruto-kun, the two best Ninja's from our class!"

Ever since her little stumble with Naruto, Ino could not help but think about Naruto, and his dreamy clear Blue sapphire eyes, when she stared into them when she had landed on-top of him in class. At first Ino tried to brush the images off but every time she did, she would subconsciously think about them and Naruto's face and the feeling of being on top of him, which made her blush each time. What more when she went to bed she had several dreams of her and Naruto being together, one where Naruto was her prince charming and swept her off her feet, another was her and walking down the wedding aisle with Naruto waiting for her at then end. The third was her Naruto together with three blond little children (two girls and one boy) standing in front of them, while she held and blond baby girl in her hands.

After the dream, Ino had brushed it off again; thinking her mind was playing tricks on her, as she loved Sasuke-kun. But the next day after Shikiamaru, Choji and she had passed their team test and had finished celebrating at the barbeque restaurant, (where Choji gorged himself on the pork). Ino decided to see how Sasuke was doing and if he wanted to celebrate with her on passing their team exams by going out on a date. But as she headed toward the Uchiha compound, she noticed several kids soaked to the skin from top to bottom, running as fast as they could out of an ally. Along with hearing Naruto voice shouting "...and if I ever see you picking this pup or any other animal again I do more than wet you".

When she looked in she saw Naruto helping a scared hurt pup, where he then healed it and fed it, upon healing the hurt pup. He came out of the alley saying something about bringing the pup home, after hiding and then following Naruto (while staying hidden) she saw him bring the pup to the Inuzuka Kennels, which Ino guessed was were he came from. After talking to Kiba (more like argue) along with an older girl and women, (who Ino had guessed were Kiba's mother and sister), for a few minutes Naruto left. But not before the pup started biting onto his Shinobi pants to get him to stay, where Naruto promised to comeback and visit.

After that Ino continued to follow Naruto while staying hidden, where she then saw him make solid clones of himself (much to her surprise) and the trained with himself by either Tajutsu or using his sword or practicing his throwing and aiming with his Kunai, Shurikens and Senbon needles. She also watched him eat some sandwiches and giving his leftovers to some hungry birds and animals that were staring at him nearby. After which he went back to training, as Ino watched him, she could not help but see that Naruto was a very kind person, she of course quickly tried to tell herself that Sasuke was just as nice. But of course she couldn't lie to herself, as in all the different times she had followed and watched Sasuke, she had never seen him once do anything remotely nice to anyone or anything like Naruto had done.

Later on when she got hungry and her stomach started to growl, as she eaten anything at the barbeque, as she was dieting. But when she had tired to hush her stomach's growls she had noticed two ham sandwiches on a small red cloth on the ground next to her. Naturally she had been surprised and wondered where they had come from, but she quickly figured out that somehow Naruto knew she was watching him, and had sent a clone to sneak up to her and lay the sandwiches next to her. At first Ino tried to ignore her hunger as she was dieting, but her resolve had ended soon and she ate the sandwiches, upon which she decided to go home, knowing she had been caught.