Curiosity Broke the Scissors

Chapter 6

-Last Time-

They stayed like that for a long time, no more words spoken as the whiskered blonde comforted the otherworldly princess as best he could. It was to this sight that Naruto's clone was greeted with when he finally returned with Ino in tow.

"Oh jeez, I was really hoping you were exaggerating." The gossip queen muttered to the clone as they slowly walked up to the pair sitting on the bed.

"Me too Ino, me too." The clone said before dispersing.

-And Now-

"Thanks for this Ino." Naruto said quietly as he and Ino watched a somewhat recovered Star enjoying a bowl of rainbow sherbet as she giggled at a comedy movie he'd put on for her, Gary the Label Guy. "I'll pay you back as soon as I can, I promise."

"Don't worry about it Naruto, this is my treat." Ino said with a wave of her hand while she served herself and her fellow blonde some mint chocolate chip. 'And by me I mean my Mom, thank kami she showed me where the emergency 'Emotional Breakdown' scroll was before she left.'

Being a clan that specialized with the human mind, and more than a few being outright psychologists, almost every single Yamanaka had such a scroll somewhere in their homes or on their person. Said scrolls consisted of just about everything someone might need to give someone emotional support, from comfort foods such as ice-cream and sweets to stuffed animals and soothing incense.

"I wasn't talking about the Ice-cream," Naruto stated as he accepted the bowl Ino offered him, "Thanks for dropping whatever you were doing to help Star-chan, she really needed it."

"Again, don't mention it, I'm just glad to help out a friend." Ino said, patting the whiskered blonde's shoulder comfortingly with a smile. "Besides, you looked to be doing just fine cheering her up by yourself."

However, instead of smiling back, Naruto sighed with a deep frown as he slowly took a bite of his minty dessert. "Yeah right, it's my fault that she got so upset in the first place."

"Oh please, so a bunch of idiots decided they wanted to be pricks. How could that possibly be your fault?" Ino asked.

"Because I should have known that it would happen, Kami knows I have to deal with people's Kuso enough to know how bad they can be." Naruto grumbled bitterly, earning a raised brow from his fellow blonde.

"Aren't you being a bit overdramatic Naruto? So people ragged on you a bit for being a baka and those stupid pranks of yours, it can't be that bad." Ino said with a frown of her own.

"If only that was the problem." Naruto muttered under his breath almost too quietly to hear... almost.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ino demanded, her brow rising even higher at the whiskered blonde's remark.

"Nothing, it's nothing," Naruto said quickly while mentally swearing for thinking aloud. "Look, forget I said anything."

Before Ino could say anything in response, Naruto walked away and sat down next to Star, who immediately wrapped two of her left arms around his waist and pulled him close as they watched the show.

'That didn't sound like nothing.' The damage was already done though. The blonde had poked the sleeping beast and caused it to stir as Ino stared at him with a mixture of confusion, curiosity, and suspicion. 'What are you hiding Naruto?'

Whatever it was, the idea of her finding out scared the hell out of Naruto if the way his voice had hitched meant anything, and that in itself was surprising as she had never seen him freaked out like that.

'Though given what I've learned since yesterday, that's not really surprising huh?' Ino thought as she took her spot in the unoccupied recliner. If someone had told her two days ago that she'd be hanging out in Naruto's apartment, eating ice-cream while helping him comfort his roommate, she would have laughed her ass off before punching them in the face.