"Ino! The target is moving to the left!"
Asuma's shout arrived half a second late, so Ino blinked out of her daydream just in time to see the swinging training log graze her ear and the gust of wind mess up her bangs.
"Damn it!"
She threw a kunai out of reflex, but it was a sloppy shot, so the weapon bounced off the bark and fell sadly to the ground.
"Cut," Asuma said, lighting a cigarette with a sigh. "Ino, your head is in the clouds. That log would have decapitated you if it were a Mist ninja. What's wrong with you today?"
Ino crossed her arms, feeling the heat rise to her cheeks, since she couldn't tell her sensei, a bearded thirty-year-old man, that she had been distracted because she was thinking about how the village's biggest idiot had lifted fertilizer sacks in her shop.
"Nothing, Asuma-sensei. The sun got in my eyes, that's all."
"The sun?" Shikamaru, lying in the shade of a nearby tree, opened one eye. "It's cloudy, Ino. What a drag of an excuse."
"Shut up, you slacker! No one asked for your opinion!" Ino turned toward him, pointing an accusing finger. "At least I'm standing up trying to train, not pretending to be a bush."
"I'm working on mental strategy," Shikamaru muttered, closing his eye again. "And observing, because you've been staring at that azalea bush for ten minutes like it owes you money. Problems at the shop?"
Choji, who was finishing his second bag of potato chips of the morning, nodded with his mouth full.
"Maybe she's hungry, and hunger makes you lose focus. Want a chip, Ino?"
"I don't want a chip, Choji, and I don't have problems at the shop."
Ino dropped onto the grass in frustration, knowing it was a lie and that she did have problems, a problem that had a first name, a last name, and wore a shade of orange offensive to the eyesight.
Naruto Uzumaki.
Ever since the blond had entered her shop, her mind was chaos remembering the ease with which he had moved the heavy merchandise, because Naruto was noise and disaster, but that day, for a moment, he had been useful and even chivalrous.
And then there was the offer.
"I need you on my team. I can make you strong."
Ino tore up a handful of grass while processing the memory.
"Ridiculous," she muttered to herself. "Drawing with blood on my back... it's the most perverted thing I've ever heard and I should have hit him."
"Hit who?" asked Shikamaru, who apparently had very sharp hearing for someone who was half asleep.
Ino tensed up immediately.
"No one. A rude customer."
"Was it Naruto?"
Ino turned around so fast she almost hurt her neck.
"How do you know that?"
Shikamaru shrugged without getting up.
"He's the only one dumb enough to annoy you and loud enough for Choji to hear him complaining about his jaw yesterday, saying you have a 'deadly' right hook."
"He deserved it," Ino huffed, though a small smile of pride crossed her face. "He came with nonsense."
"What kind of nonsense?" Asuma asked, approaching. "If Uzumaki is bothering you..."
"It's not that, sensei. Just... nonsense."
Ino looked at her hands, which were clean and manicured, then thought about Sakura's hands the last time she saw her, which had small cuts, ink stains, and were rough.
Sakura was changing, as rumors said she had broken a bridge in the Land of Waves and that Hinata Hyuga, the girl who apologized for existing, had fought like a lioness, which meant they were moving forward while she was still here, missing shots at static logs and worrying if her nail polish was chipping.
"You'd be the best Yamanaka in history," Naruto had said.
The phrase repeated in her head like a catchy, annoying song.
"Hey, Shikamaru," Ino said suddenly, breaking the silence of the clearing. "Do you think... do you think Naruto is strong?"
Shikamaru opened both eyes this time and sat up, looking at his teammate with a calculating expression.
"He's the most unpredictable ninja in Konoha. He might look like an idiot, Ino, but he survived the Land of Waves and helped Kurenai-sensei defeat a ninja specializing in assassination." Shikamaru scratched the back of his neck. "Yeah, he's strong. In a weird and troublesome way, but he is."
Ino bit her lower lip, thinking that if Shikamaru, who analyzed everything to death, said Naruto was strong, then it wasn't just hot air from the blond.
"Why the question?" insisted Shikamaru. "Did he say something to you?"
"Of course not!" Ino jumped to her feet, dusting herself off. "I was just asking out of morbid curiosity, but that's enough resting. Asuma-sensei! I want to practice the Mind Transfer Jutsu again!"
"That's the attitude," Asuma said, smiling.
Ino got into position forming the seal with her hands and aimed at Choji, but in her mind she didn't see Choji, instead she saw very serious blue eyes and an outstretched hand offering her help with some boxes.
Damn it, Naruto. Get out of my head because that's my job.
Evening fell over the village and training ended, so Ino walked toward the flower shop with an aching body and an even more scrambled mind.
Upon arriving, she saw that her mother had left a note on the counter: "Went out to a clan meeting. You close up. Water the begonias."
"Great. Alone again," Ino sighed, tying on her apron.
She started spraying water on the plants, moving mechanically through the aisles of colorful flowers while thinking that Sakura had Tsunade-sama, Hinata had Kurenai-sensei and that idiot Naruto, but she only had flowers and two teammates who only thought about eating and sleeping.
She stopped in front of a mirror hanging on the wall and looked at herself, confirming she was pretty, popular, and talented.
"And stuck," she told her reflection. "Sakura is going to leave me behind, Billboard Brow is going to be a great medical ninja, and I'll be the flower girl who knows how to control minds sometimes."
She squeezed the spray bottle tightly.
"If only Naruto's offer wasn't so... gross. Blood? Seriously? Couldn't it be a magic scroll or a rare fruit? It had to be blood and touching my back."
But then she remembered how he hadn't made fun of her when she asked for help with the boxes.
Ding-dong.
The sound of the bell snapped her out of her thoughts, so Ino turned around putting on her best fake customer service smile.
"Welcome to Yama Flowers...!"
The smile died on her lips because the door opened slowly with exaggerated caution, and the first thing that entered was a yellow and worn object.
A construction helmet.
Then came aviator goggles pulled down over blue eyes that looked left and right as if crossing enemy territory.
Naruto Uzumaki entered the shop walking on tiptoes, prepared for war.
Ino lowered the spray bottle slowly because her first reaction was to look for something heavy to throw, so her hand closed around an empty ceramic pot on the counter.
"Naruto?" Her voice came out dangerously soft. "If you're coming to say another obscenity about blood and backs, I swear this pot will become your new hat, and it doesn't match orange."
Ino raised the pot, but Naruto finished entering, raising his empty hands in a sign of surrender, although they weren't entirely empty, since in one hand he held the helmet he had adjusted poorly and in the other...
"Wait! I come in peace! S-Rank Diplomatic Mission!" he shouted, protecting his face with his forearm.
Ino blinked while looking at his outfit.
"Diplomatic mission with a helmet? You look like an armored scarecrow that escaped from a construction site. What do you want?"
Naruto lowered his arm slowly seeing that the pot wasn't flying toward him yet, so he cleared his throat and adopted a rigid, almost martial posture, extending his arm toward her.
"I bring offerings!"
In his hand was a bunch of vegetation that couldn't honestly be called a bouquet, as there were half-closed dandelions, some daisies that looked like they had been stepped on by a horse, and long green weeds tied with what appeared to be a used ninja bandage.
"My infallible logic told me: 'Ino likes flowers, Ino works with flowers... so if I bring flowers to the flower girl, it'll be a critical hit!'."
Ino lowered the pot slowly to the counter and looked at the "bouquet" with a mixture of professional horror and an amusement she couldn't suppress.
"Naruto..." she pointed with a manicured finger. "Are those dandelions? And is that... catnip? You've basically brought me the trash from someone's garden."
Naruto seemed genuinely offended, so he pulled the bouquet back against his chest as if it were a treasure.
"Hey! I picked them myself! They're wildflowers! They have... wild spirit! Like me."
Ino snorted.
"Besides," he continued, gesturing with the weeds, "I couldn't buy flowers here to give to you because that would be like selling ramen to Teuchi. It would be redundant! I wanted to bring you something you didn't have!"
Ino let out a sigh that transformed into a short laugh while crossing her arms and leaning on the counter to look at him, noticing how the aggressive tension in her shoulders dropped a bit.
"Bringing flowers to a flower shop is like bringing sand to the desert, idiot, but I guess the intention counts, even if it is weeds."
She looked at the yellow helmet on his head.
"Fine, you have thirty seconds before I kick you out. Why are you really here? And take that thing off your head, you look ridiculous and you're making me nervous."
Naruto hurried to take off the helmet and goggles, leaving them on a nearby chair, revealing his flattened and messy blond hair that gave him an even more childish yet serious look at the same time, and he walked to the counter looking her in the eyes without a trace of a joke.
"I'm coming to apologize. Really, Ino."
Ino arched an eyebrow in surprise.
"The thing the other day... sounded super bad," Naruto continued, scratching the back of his neck uncomfortably. "I'm an idiot at explaining things, you already know that, but I didn't mean to be a pervert, I really didn't. I respect... you know, your space, your strength, and that you're a girl, a lot."
Ino studied him, noting there was no malice in him, just monumental clumsiness.
"Hmph. At least you admit it," she said, softening her tone. "It was gross, Naruto. You made me think you were a pervert."
"I know! And I'm sorry!" Naruto leaned over the counter invading her personal space with his usual intensity. "But the offer... Ino, the offer was real. Not the pervert part, but the making you strong part."
Ino stepped back instinctively, though she was curious.
"You're still on about that."
"Because it's true!" Naruto tapped gently on the wooden counter. "Look at Sakura-chan. Have you seen her? She walks differently. Look at how she broke that bridge in Waves. Look at Hinata, she has more confidence in herself. That's not a coincidence, Ino, it's not just normal training."
Ino felt a prick of jealousy at the mention of Sakura and Hinata, because it was true that they were changing.
"I can help you be that strong," Naruto said lowering his voice as if sharing a state secret. "Your Mind Transfer Jutsu... is great, but your body is left vulnerable, right? If you had more speed and more chakra, you wouldn't need Shikamaru and Choji to cover you so much, so you'd be unstoppable. You'd be the best Yamanaka in history."
The best Yamanaka in history. The words hit Ino's ego and ambition again, so she stared at him looking for the lie.
"Why me?" she asked, her voice losing its arrogance. "You have Sakura, you have Hinata. They're already strong. Why waste time with me?"
Naruto smiled.
"Because you're smart and you're brave," he said simply. "And because you punched me so hard you almost sent me to the Sand Village the other day. You have fire, Ino, and I need that strength in my... in my secret team."
Ino felt herself blushing, as she wasn't used to Naruto praising her without a "Sakura-chan is better" at the end of the sentence.
She looked at the horrible "flower" bouquet Naruto had left on the polished wood, which was wilting fast, and reached out to take a half-crushed daisy, twirling it between her fingers.
"I'm not going to let you draw on me with blood, Naruto," she said firmly, though without looking up from the flower. "That's still a hard 'no'. It's unhygienic and weird."
Naruto slumped his shoulders, deflating.
"But..."
"BUT..." Ino looked up, locking her blue eyes with his while a spark of defiance shone in them. "If Sakura really has become strong because of you... and if Hinata, who is the most sensible person I know despite her shyness, trusts you that much..."
She bit her lip weighing her options between staying behind or taking a risk with the idiot.
"Maybe I'll listen to your 'Plan C'," she conceded. "If you manage to explain how it works without sounding like a serial killer or a textbook pervert, maybe I'll give you a chance. Maybe. A chance to explain yourself, not to touch me."
Naruto's face lit up as if he had been given free ramen for life.
"Really?! Awesome! Incredible!" He jumped in place making the counter vibrate. "I'll think of a better explanation! One without blood! Or with less blood! Or with red ink that looks like blood but isn't!"
"No blood, Naruto! Zero bodily fluids!"
"Got it! Zero fluids! I've got it!"
Ino couldn't help but laugh at his enthusiasm, which was contagious.
"Get out of here before I change my mind," she said pointing to the door. "I have to close the shop and your yelling is going to wilt my petunias. And take your helmet, you look like a lost miner."
Naruto grabbed the helmet and goggles running toward the door, but stopped at the threshold and turned around.
"Thanks, Ino! You won't regret it! I'm going to think of the best explanation in the world!"
He went out to the street tripping over his own feet from excitement, but regained his balance and kept running, raising his fist in a sign of victory toward the evening sky.
Ino remained alone in the silent shop and looked at the bunch of weeds on the counter.
"Idiot," she whispered, shaking her head.
She walked to the back room to grab a simple glass vase, filled it with fresh water and floral preservative, and returned to the counter to carefully place the dandelions and crushed daisies inside, putting it next to the cash register. They looked ridiculous next to the perfect orchids, but they were hers.
"The best Yamanaka in history, huh?" she murmured, caressing a petal. "Well... I guess listening doesn't hurt anyone."