The Golden Fox And The Crimson Dragon Blade

Chapter 16: A Moment Of Love In A World Of Starlight

The forests outside the village hidden in the leaves were dead silent, suddenly a white blur came flashing by and vanished before the second was gone. Dom sat behind Ino who was leaning up against his chest and relaxing while they were on their way toward their destination, Dom had his eyes activated and guided Ragnar in which way to run while the wolf did to real moving on his own. It had been a few hours since they had left Konoha's main gates and caused quite the ruckuses with Ragnar's rather loud exit, since then they had been crossing the deep forests of the country one after another. Ino had her eyes closed as she seemed to be sleeping or something akin to that, she had earlier told him of the endless discussions she had with her dad concerning the matter of her leaving and how he had told her no several times. Dom was both glad and a little flattered at her persistence against her father to come with him, it made him slightly embarrassed and happy at the same time.

Right now, he just wanted to hug Ino but that would be out of order for the time being, instead he found a crafty way to kind of do it without really doing it. She was leaning against him, and he didn't want her to fall of now, so he wrapped her in his arms and held her as she seemed to squirm a little, before relaxing with a smile showing on her libs. In turn he also smiled and held her tighter than before which only succeeded in making her squirm closer into his chest...

Another 5 hours had passed, and time was nearing night as the three neared the town of their destination, Ino was slowly opening her eyes after falling truly asleep once she felt herself wrapped in Dom's arms. She could still feel it as she opened her eyes and looked up into his, when he noticed he made to release her as his excuse no longer would be valid but to his surprise she quickly grabbed his arms and wrapped them around her again.

To her it felt calming and relaxing to have Dom's strong but not overly muscly arms around her and she blushed a little at her own action but fell back into a nice feeling just as quick. Ragnar had a big grin on his face as he landed on top of a small hill with view over to small tourist town which were briming with night activity. Both Dom's and Ino's eyes landed on what seemed to be a night festival and got off Ragnar's back, after all it would spoil everything if someone saw a giant white wolf just casually strolling through town with two 13-year-olds on its back and that wasn't what they needed right now.

Dom let go of Ino as soon as they were off which made her pout a little, but it would be impractical for them to walk around like that in town, so she just accepted it, Ragnar transformed into a normal ninja dog around the size of a golden retriever and together they all went down to the town entrance. Together they walked through the gate showing their headbands to the guards which granted them instant access much to their delight, the first major thing they noticed was that everybody were walking around in Kimono dresses made for both guys and girls alike. Obviously it was a much more important festival than they first gave it credit for and it made them look like lower class grunts when they showed up in their usual shinobi clothes. Dom was about ready to dismiss it and move to the nearest hotel when his arm was grabbed onto, he turned his head to see Ino staring at him with determination present in her eyes. He just sighed and allowed her to drag him along, the first stop was as he would have predicted the clothing store, they would have to get Kimonos since it was festival time, and he knew she wouldn't have it any other way. Relenting he followed her inside where they were greeted by a woman in her own Kimono who seemed about ready to head out herself, she looked at them and saw Ino's pleading face but didn't seem to care until she saw Dom next to her and developed a plotting grin on her face.

To her it was obvious what was going on there and she would be damned if she didn't help that little girl make a good impression on her relatively good-looking friend. She greeted them both with a smile and lead Ino into the female section while telling Dom to wait outside for the surprise that awaited him. He waited for around 30-minutes before he heard them approaching again and turned around to look at the results, as soon as he saw them he almost passed out from overheating his brain in a blush, which didn't go unnoticed by neither Ino nor the young woman beside her.