Ino had her whole line of questioning planned in advance. 'Wow, Naruto, what
a surprise to find you here!', and then 'Oh, are you alone today?', to end in
'Where are your teammates, did they abandon you?'
She knew perfectly well where Forehead-girl was; with the Hokage, leaving them
all in the dust. Sometimes that seriously bugged Ino's competitive side; but
then sometimes it also really hurt to think of everything Sakura was passing
by in her mad quest to make herself worthy of a boy who was dead inside.
... The point was, she didn't know what their new teammate -- Sai, he'd said his name was -- did in his spare time. No one seemed to know; thus, no one could tell her. And if she didn't know, well, she couldn't very well just happen to bump into him, now could she?
It was crazy that no one she knew remembered going to the Academy with that boy. He was probably an extraordinary genius, graduated long before she entered... Mmh.
Sakura had proved distinctly unhelpful about Sai, though. Ino would have thought that she was hoarding him, like she had hoarded Sasuke-kun, but while Ino's type had stayed dark-haired, mysterious, handsome boys in general, Sakura's type had narrowed down to one individual in particular.
Ino got the feeling that Sakura wasn't quite alright with her interest in Sai for some reason... but she would have found the time in her busy schedule to warn Ino if she'd thought Ino needed to know. With a little luck, Naruto would be more forthcoming.
And she knew exactly where he was...
"Wow, Naruto, what a surprise to find you... there..."
... But not what he was doing.
Naruto was standing under the waterfall, wet locks plastered to his neck, water sluicing off his tanned shoulders and back; for a few seconds, as the surface of the river frothed and bubbled white around his waist, she thought he was naked.
He was wearing boxers, as she discovered when he lifted his arms and created another of his swirling jutsu, making the waters part behind him; but it wasn't much better, because they were pale blue and clung to his backside tenaciously.
... Wait, yes, it was better. Added a whole teasing, mysterious aspect to the appeal, even though said aspect was far from being mysterious enough to make anything less than an "ohmygod"-grade ass a possibility. Perhaps it even rated a drool-check.
She wasn't drooling over Naruto, though. No way. He was... He was blond.
And silly. And too loud. And too tanned. And there was nothing mysterious about him, what you saw was pretty much what you got...
Sai's abdominals were very nice, but they had nothing on Naruto's back.
Except, well, yes, he was too tanned for her usual tastes. He didn't have the pallor she found so noble and romantic; his skin spoke of long hours under the sun. She would be surprised if it was still soft. He probably had calluses in many places...
... like his hands, the hands he held open like claws over his head, parting the waterfall, water dancing in transparent sheets all around him, unveiling and hiding his body again and again, and really, it was a good thing he was tanned, because being as pale as Ino usually liked them would have made him look washed out. What with that hair. The hair Ino didn't like, because manly men had black hair. Which Naruto didn't.
Naruto, she decided as she stepped forward, was very much not her type. Tight, muscled ass or not. She didn't seriously want men who wore their hearts on their sleeves for anyone to see and steal a piece. Men truly worth keeping were men worth pursuing; at least when you finally won their hearts, you knew that they were yours and yours alone.
If you ever managed to reach them.
Naruto probably wouldn't need more than the work it took to reach out and pat that tempting ass.
She was almost glad when he abruptly stopped the jutsu, because the wave suddenly crashing over the riverbank, drenching her legs and spraying her face, was just cold enough to break her out of her crazy sun-induced musings.
"Sorry Ino, didn't see you there!"
Ino wiped droplets off her face and pulled the front of her top away from her skin as the excess water dripped off. She gave Naruto a harried glare.
She kept on pouting at him even as he climbed out of the riverbed; otherwise, she would have had to turn away pointedly because his underwear was just as clingy in the front as in the back.
"Mou, Naruto! This is a new top!" she protested, to keep his attention off his state of undress.
Not that she wanted him to keep being indecently wet. Well... not that she actively wanted him to. She wasn't one to look gift horses in the mouth, either.
"Sorry, sorry. It won't be hurt by a little water, will it?"
Naruto's nipples were brown; water dripped from the lock plastered to his cheekbone and rolled over his collarbone before making its way down his chest.
"Well -- what if I was wearing silk?"
"It's not silk, is it?" Naruto reached out, blinking his clueless, open blue eyes at her, and rolled the edge of her collar between two rough, dripping fingers.
Ino huffed in annoyance, and slipped both hands behind his neck to reel him in for a kiss.
He was taller than she was now, and she didn't know why this was so surprising. And he didn't have a clue what to do with his hands, and her top was now clinging to her skin, where contact with his chest got it wet.
She leaned back into his hands -- strong and large around her waist, and maybe he did make her feel sufficiently owned, protected, cradled -- and glared up at him imperiously. "Geez. You're so careless."
He was still blinking at her uncomprehendingly, but his hands were warm through the chill of the water, and he didn't let go.
This time he kissed her first. He was a little clumsy and a little too enthusiastic -- gave of himself too freely, with nothing left for Ino to coax out -- but his arms were strong, and he was just tall enough to wrap himself around her. He surprised her with a few tricks of his tongue; she leaned against his body and countered his tricks with hers. She wasn't going to let him steal the lead so easily.
Maybe she would ask about Sai another day.
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Toffee: And Naruto... this actually makes me wonder about what he was thinking.
Me: Naruto's thinking "oh hey, is it Christmas already?" u.u