[log] [Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Clearly)] [Naruto and Ino] [closed]
Who: Naruto and Ino
What: Naruto and Ino chill... and play DDR. WITHOUT ALCOHOL.
When: A few days before the festival
Where: Ice cream place and arcade (did you expect anything else? XD)
Warnings: Blondes being blondes? XD
With the day going so well Naruto wasn't so surprised that he found himself lingering around for a little while longer before actually leaving the human realm. Konoha had become a warm spot in his heart so quickly. It was a great place to watch over with all the interesting people he had met already and the threats that kept him on his toes.
As worried as he was for many of his fellow angels Naruto knew they were very capable of keeping care of themselves. Nonetheless it got him irritated at so self reliant they had all become in the last few weeks. Neji and Shikamaru especially. Both of them had always been more introverted than most but they were also the ones that spoke with Naruto more frequently.
After seeing Shikamaru he couldn't get that annoying feeling out of his head that Shikamaru was thinking too much again. That stupid guy would be stuck the way he was forever if he kept going the way he was.
Walking down the street, Naruto let his blue gaze follow the shops he walked past with his hands clutched tightly behind his head. Spending so much time here left him so easily able to blend in but at the same time could sense every single individual in the crowd. Bored, and aimlessly he wandered about.
It seemed more like procrastination.
Nothing healed a semi-broken heart and a weary spirit like a good, honest day's worth of shopping. Ino had thrown herself into her work and into her play, spending more money than she probably had because being active meant she did not have to think about ex boyfriends or her head exploding due to too much feeling (what the hell. She was a woman. All they DID was feel). She didn't have to worry about angels and the unknown and why the hell her life was turned upside down in a matter of days. It was dangerous to worry, to feel anything to an extreme. According to her source (aka, Kankurou), it could put people in danger.
Great. Another thing to make her feel guilty about.
Eating also helped a broken heart, oh yes. Although the scale would taunt her when she got enough guts to step on it again, the ice cream sundae she ordered was worth it. It was nature's cure all-nothing could be bad as long as you were eating ice cream with all the toppings. Three scoops of chocolate ridden ice cream topped with everything that they offered would do the trick for her nerves.
Naruto continued his walk before he brightened at the look of an ice cream shop. It looked lively and full of people and places such as those always allured him. The aspect of ice cream was a good thing too and he decided a bowl wouldn't hurt him at all. Sugar was always a good thing no matter the time of day or year.
He quickly jogged into the joint with a grin on his face. In a nearly childish manner he asked to man at the counter for the biggest thing they had. No harm in sugar at all no matter the size as well!
After giving the man his order he turned to lean on the counter. Blue eyes looked about with a curious gaze as he suddenly found something a little curious. He glanced around and as if some odd sense of fate he spotted a girl that seemed to be thinking too much as well. In a way she looked like she had the same expression as Shikamaru did. He tilted his head before deciding he'd go speak to her.
He walked over with a bounce in his step but just as he got close enough he noticed her perfume. Angel senses he would call them but recalled the smell almost instantly. That was lingering on his Virtue friend. “Hey, pretty lady, do you know a guy named Shikamaru?” He asked bluntly with his sudden curiosity.
Nearly choking on a gummy bear, the woman coughed a few times and dislodged it from her throat and into a napkin none too eloquently. "Excuse me? Why? Does he owe you money or something?" she asked suspiciously, though not too harshly as he had called her pretty lady. That definitely got him a few extra points. Shikamaru didn't look like a gambler or a druggie but it was always possible that he borrowed from this… kid? Guy? Whichever. He didn't look old enough to be a loan shark but maybe the mafia was getting smart and using cute kids to lull people into a false sense of security.
He wasn't giving off any suspicious vibes or anything with bad intent. The blond had a friendly, honest face with an expression that looked as though he had never had an evil thought in his life beyond a few well meaning pranks.
Please don't let this be more weirdness, she thought as she took a huge bite of her ice cream, my heart can't take it.
Naruto blinked at her reaction but smiled brightly at her nonetheless. He couldn't help but notice that she seemed torn between something with the way she hadn't noticed him approaching. Wither it be his senses as a Principle or his own natural concern for others he tried to seem as normal as possible.
Lifting his chin in a confident gesture he said, “No none at all, but he does own me more stories!” Referring that Shikamaru really had to tell him more about this girl. She seemed interesting in only a moment of seeing her. “He seems to think about you a lot, I think. That or he really likes your perfume. Did you know that?”
Noticing that he was rambling again he laughed, “I'm Naruto. Shikamaru is a friend of mine.”
"…" Ino boggled at him for a few moments, unable to conjure up a confident response to any of his statements. "I only just met him a little while ago. Maybe he likes perfume, who knows?" Yep. It was bordering on weird again. She wasn't sure which she preferred: the mysterious and grouchy Shikamaru, the hamburger eating rude and loud Kankurou, or… This kid.
How did they all find her? Did she have some sort of weirdo pheromone or something?
"Um. Yes. Hello, Naruto. You seem like a nice guy and all but as I said, I barely know Shikamaru so…"
Naruto furrowed his eyebrows a bit and tilted his head. For sure he knew that this woman looked very much like someone Shikamaru would tend to like. The soft features with hints of a feisty personality in bright eyes and the long blond hair. Over his years of knowing Shikamaru (which you be nearly two thousand years) he knew that Shikamaru tended to drift towards girls that looked like her.
He lifted a had to his head and rubbed at the back of it before he felt a little tad embarrassed for just randomly going up to he and asking such forward questions. He needed to work on the brash side of him or something. Or not.
The man at the counter shouted that his order was ready and with a nearly joyful bounce he went to go get it. As if a child who had hardly any attention span he retrieved it and then moved back to the table the girl was at. Even looking twenty something years old, Naruto probably looked like a kid ready to have the time of his life. “Look at this friggin ice cream!” He said with glee. “Can I sit with you?”
"I… guess," Ino said uneasily, shifting in her seat and smoothing out her skirt. At least he was adorable. If he was a serial killer or something he surely didn't look the part. He was more of the "annoying younger brother" type of guy that some girls were crazy for. Of course, she liked her men more mature and worldly, but cute was still cute. "I'm Ino." It was only polite to introduce herself, wasn't it? Even if he was a complete stranger who knew another complete stranger that waltzed into her life only days before.
Wouldn't it be a kick if he knew Kankurou as well?
He smiled brightly at her after he finished a large spoonful of cool ice cream. “It's nice to meet you, Ino-chan.” Was his reply and seeing as he already gave his own name he finished with that.
The blond angel looked down at his ice cream for a second before he said, “I hope I didn't freak you out with those Shikamaru questions! I bet I sounded so uncool.”
"No, no, it's fine," she had to crack smile when he actually said uncool. He sounded like he was probably a college kid, one of those silly frat boys who stole underwear and did keg stands. "I just don't know much about him to give you any sort of information. Maybe you could fill me in on some things?" This was a perfect opportunity to figure out why he looked so familiar. Shikamaru claimed to have gone to high school with her and Chouji and yet Chouji had no idea who he was either.
Naruto didn't look familiar either but was friendly with Shikamaru. Had she also met him at some point and just forgot. It seemed so unlikely. But with all of the strange events happening, nothing was impossible.
Angels. Empaths. Good God, she was too sober for this.
This one question was sort of difficult for Naruto to answer. What the heck should he say about Shikamaru that didn't give away what he really was? It was a task of a Principle to protect but in the midst of all that he had to make sure that Shikamaru didn't mess up as well. Naruto mentally shrugged, there were a lot of things he could say about Shikamaru. Stuff like they were in the war together, that Shikamaru saved his life, that Naruto and he were really messed up when it came to their wings, that Naruto felt very close to Shikamaru for the sole fact that they both had punishment laid upon them by the holy creator.
...He couldn't just tell her all that crap.
“Well, he is really lazy and he smokes, and plays chess really well.” He started, looking like he was thinking hard, “He's got an obsession for blond people I think, and he likes clouds.”
He paused to think about what he said for a moment before he laughed gently. There was so much more things that would have been so much more about Shikamaru.. but... that was things that Shikamaru would have to tell her himself.
"A… blond obsession, huh?" she asked, almost unsure whether or not to question it. Every guy had his kinks but a blond fetish? Maybe that explained his unusual interest in her. If he played chess well, that probably meant he was pretty intelligent. That was always a plus. This had to be one of the weirdest conversations she'd ever had, though, and if Naruto had been anyone else, she would have believed that this was just a very bad pick up line.
There had to be more to this. Much, much more.
"Hey!" she said brightly, "what are you doing after this? Are you busy?"
Naruto blinked at the question but instantly grinned in excitement and shook his head. In truth he had to be up in heaven in a little while to training with flaming swords with a certain female cherub but he figured that could wait a little while longer. After all, Ino seemed to be a really sweet girl and now that she seemed a little more happy, Naruto wanted to spend time with her. An instant adoration that Naruto often got for others.
“I'm not doing anything at all!” He replied happily.
What would a guy like Naruto want to do? If she could butter him up a little bit she could probably pump him for information. Craning her head, Ino spotted a popular looking arcade filled with high school and college kids. That was definitely up this guy's alley, no doubt about that. Ino herself liked to play video games, something she learned from hanging around Chouji and other guys all her life.
"How about going to the arcade for a little bit?" she asked cheerfully. "My treat!"
It would be loud and noisy and all the flashing lights were seizure inducing, but his guard would be down around games. Men were just like that.
Naruto blinked with wonder before he instantly nodded his head with enthusiasm. He hadn't gone to play video games in what like ages so no doubt would he agree to something like that. Ever since the creation of the video game Naruto had been trying them out and seeing what each new one came out like. For an angel to be alive for so long, they always ended up following trends that the humans liked. Besides, who couldn't like video games?!
“Yeah lets go!” Naruto replied back while nearly bouncing out of his seat. He swept his spoon down hard into his icecream and began to eat it with all he could, gulping it down bite by bite. He felt the cold chill of the food burn his throat but he didn’t even recognize the freeze.
Once the ice-cream was gone, he leaped up from his seat, “Will you play ddr with me, Ino-chan?!”
How didn't Naruto get brain freeze? He was wolfing down the cold treat as though his life had depended on it. Something was definitely not right with this guy. Unless, of course, he was a frat boy who smashes beer cans against his head for fun therefore killed his sense of pain.
"Uh…" Truthfully, Ino hadn't played that game since she was in college and she had at least ten shots of tequila in her system. She had pretty good rhythm (which made up for her horrible singing voice) and she was wearing flat shoes. "Okay! If you think you can keep up with me, sure~!" It might be fun. It was just the thing to cheer her up… as long as she didn't lose sight of her goal.
Besides, how could she say no to that face?
Naruto beamed brightly at Ino and with a grin followed towards the nearby arcade. Thinking about playing around in arcade made him feel much younger but he felt like that on a majority anyway. The place was of course crowded and full of youths who all seemed completely absorbed with their games.
Ino seemed to be a lot more fun then he first though with this request. If indeed this was the girl that Shikamaru was thinking about all the time he was suddenly very proud of his angel friend, maybe even a little bit jealous. He was already starting to feel like he could come to really adore a woman like Ino.
Smiling, he pointed to one of the less busy ddr machines, “I challenge you, Ino-chan!” He piped.
Bending down, Ino rolled up the bottom of her dark jeans so that she wouldn't trip over or step on them and fall on her face. This whole escapade was already embarrassing enough; no doubt they would draw a crowd if their DDR-ing was good enough. She wondered if she was the oldest person in the establishment besides maybe the people who worked behind the counters.
Although she was slightly disappointed that she didn't finish her ice cream, Ino had no choice but to follow Naruto. He had such a fun, friendly air about him and this challenge had sparked her naturally competitive nature. There was no way Yamanaka Ino could turn down a challenge and run.
"All right," her lips twitched into a leer, "it's on."
Naruto grinned at her but his blue eyes narrowed at the challenge in good nature. The angel was always one to ruff his feathers up in order to show what he could do even while playing video games. The challenge now set in stone, Naruto jumped onto the machine and threw in the right amount of coin before shuffling around in the songs at a high pace.
“Alright!” Naruto yelped, a fire burning in his eyes, “The one to get a higher score at the end of all four songs wins! The loser has to get the other a whole three bowls of ice cream!” His voice was upbeat and fiery and he physically shook with excitement.
Getting into position he clicked start on a random, fast and techno heavy song.
It was on.
What: Naruto and Ino chill... and play DDR. WITHOUT ALCOHOL.
When: A few days before the festival
Where: Ice cream place and arcade (did you expect anything else? XD)
Warnings: Blondes being blondes? XD
With the day going so well Naruto wasn't so surprised that he found himself lingering around for a little while longer before actually leaving the human realm. Konoha had become a warm spot in his heart so quickly. It was a great place to watch over with all the interesting people he had met already and the threats that kept him on his toes.
As worried as he was for many of his fellow angels Naruto knew they were very capable of keeping care of themselves. Nonetheless it got him irritated at so self reliant they had all become in the last few weeks. Neji and Shikamaru especially. Both of them had always been more introverted than most but they were also the ones that spoke with Naruto more frequently.
After seeing Shikamaru he couldn't get that annoying feeling out of his head that Shikamaru was thinking too much again. That stupid guy would be stuck the way he was forever if he kept going the way he was.
Walking down the street, Naruto let his blue gaze follow the shops he walked past with his hands clutched tightly behind his head. Spending so much time here left him so easily able to blend in but at the same time could sense every single individual in the crowd. Bored, and aimlessly he wandered about.
It seemed more like procrastination.
Nothing healed a semi-broken heart and a weary spirit like a good, honest day's worth of shopping. Ino had thrown herself into her work and into her play, spending more money than she probably had because being active meant she did not have to think about ex boyfriends or her head exploding due to too much feeling (what the hell. She was a woman. All they DID was feel). She didn't have to worry about angels and the unknown and why the hell her life was turned upside down in a matter of days. It was dangerous to worry, to feel anything to an extreme. According to her source (aka, Kankurou), it could put people in danger.
Great. Another thing to make her feel guilty about.
Eating also helped a broken heart, oh yes. Although the scale would taunt her when she got enough guts to step on it again, the ice cream sundae she ordered was worth it. It was nature's cure all-nothing could be bad as long as you were eating ice cream with all the toppings. Three scoops of chocolate ridden ice cream topped with everything that they offered would do the trick for her nerves.
Naruto continued his walk before he brightened at the look of an ice cream shop. It looked lively and full of people and places such as those always allured him. The aspect of ice cream was a good thing too and he decided a bowl wouldn't hurt him at all. Sugar was always a good thing no matter the time of day or year.
He quickly jogged into the joint with a grin on his face. In a nearly childish manner he asked to man at the counter for the biggest thing they had. No harm in sugar at all no matter the size as well!
After giving the man his order he turned to lean on the counter. Blue eyes looked about with a curious gaze as he suddenly found something a little curious. He glanced around and as if some odd sense of fate he spotted a girl that seemed to be thinking too much as well. In a way she looked like she had the same expression as Shikamaru did. He tilted his head before deciding he'd go speak to her.
He walked over with a bounce in his step but just as he got close enough he noticed her perfume. Angel senses he would call them but recalled the smell almost instantly. That was lingering on his Virtue friend. “Hey, pretty lady, do you know a guy named Shikamaru?” He asked bluntly with his sudden curiosity.
Nearly choking on a gummy bear, the woman coughed a few times and dislodged it from her throat and into a napkin none too eloquently. "Excuse me? Why? Does he owe you money or something?" she asked suspiciously, though not too harshly as he had called her pretty lady. That definitely got him a few extra points. Shikamaru didn't look like a gambler or a druggie but it was always possible that he borrowed from this… kid? Guy? Whichever. He didn't look old enough to be a loan shark but maybe the mafia was getting smart and using cute kids to lull people into a false sense of security.
He wasn't giving off any suspicious vibes or anything with bad intent. The blond had a friendly, honest face with an expression that looked as though he had never had an evil thought in his life beyond a few well meaning pranks.
Please don't let this be more weirdness, she thought as she took a huge bite of her ice cream, my heart can't take it.
Naruto blinked at her reaction but smiled brightly at her nonetheless. He couldn't help but notice that she seemed torn between something with the way she hadn't noticed him approaching. Wither it be his senses as a Principle or his own natural concern for others he tried to seem as normal as possible.
Lifting his chin in a confident gesture he said, “No none at all, but he does own me more stories!” Referring that Shikamaru really had to tell him more about this girl. She seemed interesting in only a moment of seeing her. “He seems to think about you a lot, I think. That or he really likes your perfume. Did you know that?”
Noticing that he was rambling again he laughed, “I'm Naruto. Shikamaru is a friend of mine.”
"…" Ino boggled at him for a few moments, unable to conjure up a confident response to any of his statements. "I only just met him a little while ago. Maybe he likes perfume, who knows?" Yep. It was bordering on weird again. She wasn't sure which she preferred: the mysterious and grouchy Shikamaru, the hamburger eating rude and loud Kankurou, or… This kid.
How did they all find her? Did she have some sort of weirdo pheromone or something?
"Um. Yes. Hello, Naruto. You seem like a nice guy and all but as I said, I barely know Shikamaru so…"
Naruto furrowed his eyebrows a bit and tilted his head. For sure he knew that this woman looked very much like someone Shikamaru would tend to like. The soft features with hints of a feisty personality in bright eyes and the long blond hair. Over his years of knowing Shikamaru (which you be nearly two thousand years) he knew that Shikamaru tended to drift towards girls that looked like her.
He lifted a had to his head and rubbed at the back of it before he felt a little tad embarrassed for just randomly going up to he and asking such forward questions. He needed to work on the brash side of him or something. Or not.
The man at the counter shouted that his order was ready and with a nearly joyful bounce he went to go get it. As if a child who had hardly any attention span he retrieved it and then moved back to the table the girl was at. Even looking twenty something years old, Naruto probably looked like a kid ready to have the time of his life. “Look at this friggin ice cream!” He said with glee. “Can I sit with you?”
"I… guess," Ino said uneasily, shifting in her seat and smoothing out her skirt. At least he was adorable. If he was a serial killer or something he surely didn't look the part. He was more of the "annoying younger brother" type of guy that some girls were crazy for. Of course, she liked her men more mature and worldly, but cute was still cute. "I'm Ino." It was only polite to introduce herself, wasn't it? Even if he was a complete stranger who knew another complete stranger that waltzed into her life only days before.
Wouldn't it be a kick if he knew Kankurou as well?
He smiled brightly at her after he finished a large spoonful of cool ice cream. “It's nice to meet you, Ino-chan.” Was his reply and seeing as he already gave his own name he finished with that.
The blond angel looked down at his ice cream for a second before he said, “I hope I didn't freak you out with those Shikamaru questions! I bet I sounded so uncool.”
"No, no, it's fine," she had to crack smile when he actually said uncool. He sounded like he was probably a college kid, one of those silly frat boys who stole underwear and did keg stands. "I just don't know much about him to give you any sort of information. Maybe you could fill me in on some things?" This was a perfect opportunity to figure out why he looked so familiar. Shikamaru claimed to have gone to high school with her and Chouji and yet Chouji had no idea who he was either.
Naruto didn't look familiar either but was friendly with Shikamaru. Had she also met him at some point and just forgot. It seemed so unlikely. But with all of the strange events happening, nothing was impossible.
Angels. Empaths. Good God, she was too sober for this.
This one question was sort of difficult for Naruto to answer. What the heck should he say about Shikamaru that didn't give away what he really was? It was a task of a Principle to protect but in the midst of all that he had to make sure that Shikamaru didn't mess up as well. Naruto mentally shrugged, there were a lot of things he could say about Shikamaru. Stuff like they were in the war together, that Shikamaru saved his life, that Naruto and he were really messed up when it came to their wings, that Naruto felt very close to Shikamaru for the sole fact that they both had punishment laid upon them by the holy creator.
...He couldn't just tell her all that crap.
“Well, he is really lazy and he smokes, and plays chess really well.” He started, looking like he was thinking hard, “He's got an obsession for blond people I think, and he likes clouds.”
He paused to think about what he said for a moment before he laughed gently. There was so much more things that would have been so much more about Shikamaru.. but... that was things that Shikamaru would have to tell her himself.
"A… blond obsession, huh?" she asked, almost unsure whether or not to question it. Every guy had his kinks but a blond fetish? Maybe that explained his unusual interest in her. If he played chess well, that probably meant he was pretty intelligent. That was always a plus. This had to be one of the weirdest conversations she'd ever had, though, and if Naruto had been anyone else, she would have believed that this was just a very bad pick up line.
There had to be more to this. Much, much more.
"Hey!" she said brightly, "what are you doing after this? Are you busy?"
Naruto blinked at the question but instantly grinned in excitement and shook his head. In truth he had to be up in heaven in a little while to training with flaming swords with a certain female cherub but he figured that could wait a little while longer. After all, Ino seemed to be a really sweet girl and now that she seemed a little more happy, Naruto wanted to spend time with her. An instant adoration that Naruto often got for others.
“I'm not doing anything at all!” He replied happily.
What would a guy like Naruto want to do? If she could butter him up a little bit she could probably pump him for information. Craning her head, Ino spotted a popular looking arcade filled with high school and college kids. That was definitely up this guy's alley, no doubt about that. Ino herself liked to play video games, something she learned from hanging around Chouji and other guys all her life.
"How about going to the arcade for a little bit?" she asked cheerfully. "My treat!"
It would be loud and noisy and all the flashing lights were seizure inducing, but his guard would be down around games. Men were just like that.
Naruto blinked with wonder before he instantly nodded his head with enthusiasm. He hadn't gone to play video games in what like ages so no doubt would he agree to something like that. Ever since the creation of the video game Naruto had been trying them out and seeing what each new one came out like. For an angel to be alive for so long, they always ended up following trends that the humans liked. Besides, who couldn't like video games?!
“Yeah lets go!” Naruto replied back while nearly bouncing out of his seat. He swept his spoon down hard into his icecream and began to eat it with all he could, gulping it down bite by bite. He felt the cold chill of the food burn his throat but he didn’t even recognize the freeze.
Once the ice-cream was gone, he leaped up from his seat, “Will you play ddr with me, Ino-chan?!”
How didn't Naruto get brain freeze? He was wolfing down the cold treat as though his life had depended on it. Something was definitely not right with this guy. Unless, of course, he was a frat boy who smashes beer cans against his head for fun therefore killed his sense of pain.
"Uh…" Truthfully, Ino hadn't played that game since she was in college and she had at least ten shots of tequila in her system. She had pretty good rhythm (which made up for her horrible singing voice) and she was wearing flat shoes. "Okay! If you think you can keep up with me, sure~!" It might be fun. It was just the thing to cheer her up… as long as she didn't lose sight of her goal.
Besides, how could she say no to that face?
Naruto beamed brightly at Ino and with a grin followed towards the nearby arcade. Thinking about playing around in arcade made him feel much younger but he felt like that on a majority anyway. The place was of course crowded and full of youths who all seemed completely absorbed with their games.
Ino seemed to be a lot more fun then he first though with this request. If indeed this was the girl that Shikamaru was thinking about all the time he was suddenly very proud of his angel friend, maybe even a little bit jealous. He was already starting to feel like he could come to really adore a woman like Ino.
Smiling, he pointed to one of the less busy ddr machines, “I challenge you, Ino-chan!” He piped.
Bending down, Ino rolled up the bottom of her dark jeans so that she wouldn't trip over or step on them and fall on her face. This whole escapade was already embarrassing enough; no doubt they would draw a crowd if their DDR-ing was good enough. She wondered if she was the oldest person in the establishment besides maybe the people who worked behind the counters.
Although she was slightly disappointed that she didn't finish her ice cream, Ino had no choice but to follow Naruto. He had such a fun, friendly air about him and this challenge had sparked her naturally competitive nature. There was no way Yamanaka Ino could turn down a challenge and run.
"All right," her lips twitched into a leer, "it's on."
Naruto grinned at her but his blue eyes narrowed at the challenge in good nature. The angel was always one to ruff his feathers up in order to show what he could do even while playing video games. The challenge now set in stone, Naruto jumped onto the machine and threw in the right amount of coin before shuffling around in the songs at a high pace.
“Alright!” Naruto yelped, a fire burning in his eyes, “The one to get a higher score at the end of all four songs wins! The loser has to get the other a whole three bowls of ice cream!” His voice was upbeat and fiery and he physically shook with excitement.
Getting into position he clicked start on a random, fast and techno heavy song.
It was on.