Broken Hearts, Shattered Dreams

[2]

Ino had flown home after that night at Naruto's. She was like a totally different person and everyone saw it but no one asked any questions. It was so rare to see her in a good mood lately that no one wanted to spoil it. She was smiling so much that it was hurting everyone else's faces. Shikamaru had given her two days before he decided to check on what the deal was. He had asked her to check on Naruto on Wednesday and it was now Friday. Her mission was to get him out Saturday and he wanted to know if the mission was accomplished. Walking into the flower shop he was greeted with a blinding flash of teeth and a loud screech.

"SHIKA! Just the person I wanted to see."

He winced and realized he should have made a run for it.

"Sigh. Hello Ino. How did your mission go? It wasn't too troublesome I take it?"

"That's for me to know and you to find out."

Shikamaru cocked his eyebrow at this and scowled.

"So you didn't get him to come huh?"

"For your information I did talk to him and he said maybe. You'll see Saturday night whether he comes or not. If he does, where are we going?"

"Everyone has decided to meet up at the karaoke bar. You know the one for shinobi and civilians. So troublesome. I don't like the atmosphere there but it is nicer than the one exclusively for shinobi."

"That's true. Well I gotta get back to work Shika. I'll see you tomorrow ok?"

Receiving a grunt for an answer, she turned and began making plans for tomorrow. Wait a minute; didn't he say the karaoke bar? Ino grinned evilly and thought 'Perfect'. She could get Naruto to sing there and everyone would realize how great he was and that she was on the arm of the hottest guy in town. Maybe she could even get him to sing a love song to her…whoa, whoa slow down girl. One step at a time. She turned back to the bouquet she was working on and began humming happily.

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Saturday flew by quickly and Ino found herself in a frenzy over what to wear. She hadn't been this exited about a date in years. She was glad that Naruto had grown out of his orange jumpsuit phase and had in recent years actually become something of a fashion plate. That would go nicely with her, as she always liked to look her best. She finally decided on a little black dress (every girl's secret weapon) and a pair of black heels. She wore her hair in her usual ponytail down her back since she knew that Naruto liked his women natural if at all possible. He didn't like fakes or phonies. Since her beauty was natural anyway she forsook makeup and just put on some lipstick. A couple of hoop earrings and some gold bracelets and voila! A complete knockout for the evening. She only hoped that he had put forth an effort as well. Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard a knock at the door. Rushing to the door, she nearly tripped over her shoes. 'Calm down Ino. It's only Naruto. He cleans up well but you've got him beat in the looks department tonight.' Oh how wrong she was. She opened the door and there in front of her was an Adonis. Ino had forgotten how tall he had gotten. Even with her heels she wouldn't reach the bottom of his chin. He was a giant. She looked up into his eyes and saw that he had on his foxiest grin.

"Good evening Ino."

She didn't even hear him. She was too busy drinking up the rest of him with her eyes. He was wearing a white button down shirt with golden stitching that ran like flames up to his chest and his blue jeans had a yellow fox with nine tails crawling up one leg. Custom made stuff, very nice. She traveled down to his shoes and saw that they were leather boots of a reddish tint. She unknowingly licked her lips and continued to travel over his figure to his studded belt and saw that he had his white battle coat on his arm. That was his signature, his father's coat. Suddenly a thought came to her head, her date was HOT! And he was all hers for the evening. Sasuke be damned, Sakura had let a fine fish back into the sea and Ino had caught him. She was brought out of visually eating him up when she heard a chuckle and looked up to see Naruto scratching the back of his head while looking away.