Broken Hearts, Shattered Dreams

[7]

The silence in the air was deafening until the 'clink' of a dropped fork broke it. Ino stared at her mate and narrowed her eyes in disbelief.

"What the hell do you mean you don't know anything about weddings? You were married once weren't you?"

Head nodded in agreement and others voiced their opinions on the matter. Naruto just sighed and wondered why he had agreed to this dinner date with his new family. Ino's parents were dumbstruck and the looks from Tsunade and the others wasn't helping him any. Putting his hands to his temples he rubbed them trying to make the headache go away.

"Ino, I was married. That's true. But I never had a wedding. Sakura was pregnant with Hikaru by a couple of months and didn't want to have a wedding. And Tsunade should know this since she was the one who signed the papers."

He glared at her pointedly and Tsunade took that moment to knock her sake back and avoid eye contact. Looking away from his mother for the moment, he locked eyes with Ino's parents. Yuka had tears in her eyes and Inoichi had a stupid look on his face.

"You mean to tell all of us that you have never been in a wedding? Never said vows? Never gotten to eat wedding cake?"

"Um…no? What does it matter anyway? As long as we love one another, what does the wedding matter?"

A strong wave of fear overcame him at that moment and he saw that all the women were staring at him with intent to kill. His ears lay back on his head and he began to whimper. Inoichi clapped a hand on his back and Jiraiya did the same.

"Naruto, you don't understand. The wedding isn't for the both of you. It's for Ino. Women have a built in need to mark what is theirs and a wedding is their way of showing you off and saying 'This is mine. Hands off.' Sorry kid, but if you don't do it, you die."

Naruto sighed and put his head in his hands. Why him? He was Kyuubi, Lord of all Foxes. Why did he have to do something he didn't want to do? Oh yeah, his mate was evil incarnate and would make his life a living hell. Now he knew why Shikamaru called her troublesome all the time.

"What the hell did you just say Naruto?"

All attention snapped to Ino and quizzical looks were given in her direction. Naruto raised an eyebrow. He hadn't said anything out loud did he? He turned to Jiraiya and gave him a questioning look. Jiraiya shrugged and looked back at Ino.

"What do you mean by that? Naruto didn't say anything out loud."

'Yeah, I only thought that. I didn't speak out loud. Hmmm, Genmaki did say that our link was strong. Let's test-drive this. Hey Ino…here's what I plan on doing to you tonight…'

The only thing they saw was Ino turn blood red and fall out of her chair, a small smile on her face and blood dripping from her nose, her tail wagging happily. After the shock wore off and Yuka and Tsunade had helped Ino back into her chair, she looked at Naruto and blushed again. Naruto just raised his eyebrows and smirked.

"I thought so. You read my mind and didn't even know it. Did you like my ideas dear?"

"….."

"I thought so. Now then, it appears that Ino can read my mind. Looks like I won't have any privacy at all for quite some time. Oh well, moving on. No, I have never been in a wedding, I have no idea what to do in one, and I'm pretty much useless at this point. Just plan what you want and tell me what time to show up."

Ino looked like she was about to burst into tears.

"But…but Naruto, I wanted us to do this together. We have to. It'll be our only wedding and I want your input. We need to pick colors, arrangements…"