Ch5: Babysitting is a bitch!

"Yamanaka flower shop…Yamanaka flower shop…" Naruto mumbled as he walked down the street carrying his passed out team-mate. The name of the place sounded familiar.

He had dumped the cigarette after he had finished it and didn't have another one because it was kind of difficult to light it with Ino on his back.

"Yamanaka flower shop…Yamanaka flo- Oh there it is" Naruto breathed a sigh of relief. Ever since he entered the village people had been giving him funny looks, not that he was surprised by people staring at him, that was normal, but the looks were different this time.

Naruto walked up to the store and noticed a woman with brown hair standing in front of the door with some groceries in her hands. The woman had on a green dress and had her hair in a bun.

"Excuse me" Naruto called out to the woman, who had her hand on the handle of the store.

The woman turned her attention to the person who called out to her and blinked when she saw a whiskered boy (of course she knew who he was) and another head draped over his shoulder.

"Yes?" she smiled at Naruto, kind of throwing Naruto for a loop.

"Um, are you Mrs Yamanaka?" Naruto asked and the brown haired woman nodded her head.

"Why yes I am" Naruto looked relieved and shuffled Ino a bit so that her mother could see her face. Instead of shouting at Naruto, as the boy expected her to do, the woman only blinked in surprise "Oh my. Is Ino sleeping?"

"Er yeah" Naruto said with an awkward grin. The only adults he ever socialised with was the Old Man, Iruka and as of recently he was starting to warm up to Asuma. So as you guessed he didn't know how to talk to female grown-ups "she overdid it today in training and Asuma-sensei asked me to take her home"

The way Naruto said 'asked' made Mrs Yamanaka giggle. It was obvious that the boy had no say in the matter.

"Please come in" Mrs Yamanaka held the door open for Naruto to enter, which the blond boy did, hesitantly mind you.

"I'll take her from you. I'm sure that you must be exhausted from carrying her all this way" Mrs Yamanaka placed her groceries on the counter of the flower shop so she could take her daughter from Naruto, who handed her over.

"Um not exactly" Naruto scratched the back of his head "Ino is very light…I don't think that's a very good thing actually" Mrs Yamanaka gave Naruto a questioning look.

"Oh? How so?" asked Mrs Yamanaka.

"Well um…" Naruto looked down "it's just that, the only time someone is that thin then it means that they don't really eat much, is Ino, um, eating enough?" he didn't want to pry but he was concerned. He knew what it was like to not have something hearty to eat.

Mrs Yamanaka smiled at Naruto's concern. Why couldn't her daughter like a sweet boy like this? It doesn't matter what anybody in the village said, he was a sweet boy that has had a run of bad luck. Maybe it was fate that Ino was put on his team.

Well the older female Yamanaka was going to make sure that the boy knew that not every villager had a clouded view on things. She had a promise she had to keep to the boy's mother after all…

"That's very sweet of you Naruto-kun" the woman smiled down at Naruto with a smile that Naruto had only seen on the Old Man's face and Iruka's face. It was a caring and sincere smile, one that wasn't fake or forced "Ino has been on a diet for a while but recently she has begun to widened her variety of food she will eat and she's slowly getting the nutrients that she needs"

"Thank goodness" Naruto breathed a sigh of relief and bowed "I'll be going now. It was nice to meet you Mrs Yamanaka and you have a nice store, I really like your flowers" Naruto turned to the doorway.

"Hold on a moment Naruto" the boy stopped midway to the door and turned back. Mrs Yamanaka had taken Ino to the back and placed her in a comfortable position on a chair that was in the back room before she came back out.

"Yes?" Naruto asked. The woman smiled at him and reached under the counter. When she got what she needed the woman walked over and grabbed Naruto's hand, making the boy freeze momentarily. The woman placed something in his hands and backed off.

Naruto looked at what she gave him and his eyes widened. It was a packet of seeds. He looked up and saw the same smile on the woman's face.

"I remember when you were little you would stop in front of our shop and stare at the flowers we had" Naruto blushed up a storm "I also remember that one day someone broke our window and stole the cash we had in the register. That person was later found with his pants around his ankles, tape over his mouth and tied up. Oh let's not forget the fact that he was covered in orange paint" the two chuckled.

"I wanted to thank you but I never saw you again after that, you not only returned the money, but you caught the guy who had done the deed" the woman smiled wider "I know that you like flowers and gardening" Naruto began to say something to refute that claim but he was cut off by the older woman "the Third Hokage came to our shop to get some seeds for you for your birthday. He said you couldn't stop talking about 'the pretty flowers at the shop'" Naruto's blush got worse. The Old man is just asking to be pranked now.

"This is a token of my gratitude. I'm sorry there's not much else I can give you but those seeds are Lantanas and they are beautiful orange flowers" Naruto forgot all about his blush and looked down at the seeds in wonder those would look great next to his other plants "also feel free to come by any time you're always welcome here"

Naruto looked up at the woman and saw no hint of deceit in her face or in her voice. She was genially saying he was welcome. Naruto smiled at the woman, a real smile that he very rarely showed to others.

"Thank you Mrs Yamanaka!" Naruto bowed his whole upper body "you don't know how much this means to me. I swear that I will come back!" the boy stood up straight and made his way to the store front.

As he opened the door Naruto walked straight into someone, who reacted in time to catch the boy by his shoulders to keep him from falling.

"You okay there kid?" Naruto opened his eyes and saw a blond man looking at him in concern.

The man had on the standard Jounin outfit with a red cloak over it. His sandy blond hair was pulled back into a ponytail.

"I'm fine. Thanks" Naruto grinned at the man and straightened himself before turning back to Mrs Yamanaka, who was giggling "thank you again Mrs Yamanaka. Oh! And tell Ino that she's gotta be at the training ground by 10 am sharp!" he moved past the blond man and ran down the street "bye!" he shouted.

The blond man watched Naruto vanish around a corner with confused eyes. He turned back to the store and saw Mrs Yamanaka still giggling. The man raised a brow at the woman.

"Was that Naruto?" he asked and the woman nodded her head "How come he was here?" the man asked.

"Oh. He was just dropping off Ino-chan" Mrs Yamanaka stopped giggling and was now smiling "apparently she over worked herself and Naruto carried her home"

Inoichi nodded his head. He didn't really like boys touching his princess of a daughter but he knew that Naruto wouldn't do anything to Ino. Inoichi knew that if Naruto was even half like his parents then that meant he was chivalrous.

"That was nice of him" the man's shoulders slumped "I'm just a bit disappointed that Ino wasn't paired up with Choji and Shikamaru to continue the InoShikaCho Trio" the woman walked over and patted the man's back.

"There, there dear" the woman smiled "there's always the next generation and hey if Ino plays her cards right the next Ino of the trio might even have another clan's blood running through them" that made Inoichi's depressed aura vanish to be replaced with a curious one.

"You're not suggesting that she get together with the Uchiha boy are you?" Mrs Yamanaka shook her head and left her husband's side so she could take the groceries upstairs.

"No, but I will say that the our grandchild might come out as a redhead" the woman vanished up the stairs leaving a shocked Inoichi in her wake "Oh yes, and take Ino-chan to her room please"

If you asked Team Seven to honestly say what they thought about D-Ranks then you're guaranteed to get so many pages of complaints from them it would dwarf the amount of paperwork the Hokage receives in a week (which is a lot).

It took all their strength to get up and get ready for a hellish day of D-Ranks, yet they did it without fail and only minor bitching.

Of course they bitch; they're the three loudest people of their graduating class (if you didn't count Sakura, that is).

Their volume tended to rise when they got in heated debates or arguments. That didn't stop them from getting the D-Rank jobs done though. Heck, the three argue on the D-Rank missions and still did a good job.

If Asuma would try to pin point the reasons for his team's performance on their missions he could very well do it with in a heart-beat.

Teamwork

Team 7 probably had the best teamwork of all the graduates of their year (that's was in Asuma's opinion). Why is that you ask? It was simple. They had no distractions to hinder them.

Asuma noticed that when it came to certain teams there was always some kind of drama that kept them from reaching their full potential. Take the three Sannin for example.

Don't get Asuma wrong. The tree Kage level ninja were known all over the elemental nations as the strongest. However their teamwork…that was something that needed work. Not that they could work on that now.

Love is a weird thing. It can either make you or break you. Asuma shuddered to think what would have happened if Sakura or Sasuke had been on the same team as either Ino or Naruto.

And since we're talking about the Genin of Team Seven, why don't we look in on what they were doing at the moment.

"Team Seven are next, Hokage-sama" said Iruka as he sat down the paper he was holding, on the desk in front of him.

"Okay, let them in" the aged Kage said as he stared at the door that led into the Mission hall the two were currently sitting in.

"Yes Hokage-sama" Iruka turned to the door and raised his voice a bit "you may enter!" he called, how he wished he didn't the minute they walked in.

"You're wrong!" Naruto was the one to shout the minute that the three walked in. However, he wasn't shouting at the Hokage or Iruka. Oh no, the blonde male was shouting at his two team-mates, more specifically Ino.

"No, I'm not!" Ino shouted right back, almost in Naruto's face. Her male counterpart didn't even flinch at the girl shouting in his face.

Iruka was about to raise his voice to remind the two that they were in the presence of the Hokage and that they had to show the proper respect to their leader. He was, however, interrupted by someone else shouting at the two.

"Both of you shut-up!" Kiba shouted at his two team-mates with a tick mark on his forehead. Their former teacher was about to thank the brown haired boy, but Kiba wasn't done shouting at the two "You're both wrong!"

"What?!" Naruto and Ino shouted in surprise, disbelief and anger "HOW?!"

After that, the shouting snowballed into a full on argument between the three. Strangely, they never mentioned what they were arguing about. By this point, even ANBU were trying to pop their ear drums, which were slightly blocked because of the volume the three were producing.

Iruka, having seen/heard all the disrespect he could take from the three, got up from his seat and stomped over to the, still arguing, Genin.

"OW!"

"OW!"

"OW! What the hell?!" Naruto shouted as he and his team-mates held their heads with pained expressions on their faces "Why'd you hit us Iruka-sensei?!"

"DO ANY OF YOU KNOW WHERE YOU ARE RIGHT NOW?!" the three almost felt like they were going to be blown away by the wind that Iruka produced when he shouted at them.

"Ichiraku's"

"Clothing Store"

"Home"

BAM

Naruto, Ino and Kiba got chopped on their heads at the same time, by Iruka and Asuma.

"You're in front of the Hokage" Iruka sighed well rubbing his temples. All three of them were a pain to deal with when they were in the academy together. Thankfully, they weren't on speaking terms back then. Now it was another story "show him the proper respect" he walked back to his seat.

The Chunin paused in his trek, to turn back to the three, who were getting up from the ground, where they fell the first time they got hit on their heads.

"What were the three of you arguing about anyway?" he asked the question that many in the room wanted to know.

"The weather" the three answered, without missing a heartbeat. Their answer made Iruka face-fault and the people in the room sweat-drop.

"You three…No…I'm not dealing with this anymore" Iruka said as he got and made his way to his seat again "You three are someone else's problem now" he sat down and tried to calm down the headache that was threatening to turn into a migraine.

The Third Hokage cleared his throat with a cough making everyone focus their attention on him. The aged Kage grabbed some papers that were in a pile on his right hand side.

"So, I'm assuming that you three are here for more missions?" the Genin in the room made disgusted looks when the Hokage said Missions.

"Yes Hokage-sama" Asuma answered for his team "Team Seven reporting for duty" he felt their pain, he really did, but damn, it was fun to watch the three suffer the hell called D-Rank missions.

"Well we have plenty to choose from" When he said that the Genin of Team Seven groaned. The Third shuffled through the papers in his hand, as he did he read the descriptions of each one "we have Misses Takeshi, who needs someone to pull out the weeds in her backyard. The Academy has requested that we send a team to help them sort out some of the files for next year's students. The Akimichi's have asked for a Genin team to help scrap off the grills in their restaurant, and finally we have a request from an orphanage, the lady who runs it has passed away and they are looking for someone to replace her so they need a Genin team to look after the kids for a couple of days" Hiruzen put the papers down and looked at the team standing in front of him "those are your choices"

"Well, it's up to you guys" said Asuma, he at least let the three choose the missions they wanted to do. He wasn't that evil.

"Which orphanage is it?" Naruto asked. His team-mates noticed that the blond boy had a very intrigued look on his face.

"Second Hope Orphanage" it was Iruka that answered, after he took a look at the name on the paper "it's the one-"

"Next to the park" Naruto nodded his head with his eyes closed "we'll take that one" he said stepping forward to take the scroll from the wrinkled hand of the Hokage.

"Wait, Wha?" Ino had a confused look on her face "we didn't agree to that" she was obviously talking about Kiba and herself.

"Please?" Naruto turned around with a sheepish grin on his face "I'll owe you one Ino-chan" the blond boy didn't understand it, but every time he called her Chan, the girl would stop arguing and her face would turn red. He at first thought she was sick, so he had placed his hand on her forehead and put his forehead on the back of his hand to measure the temperature. That got the boy a punch in the gut, a few angry words from Ino and having to suffer from Kiba laughing at his misfortune.

Only when Asuma explained that the Yamanaka was blushing did Naruto understand. When he asked why she was blushing the bearded Jounin just shrugged and answered with:

"Girls are a mystery"

"Fine" she said looking off to the side well crossing her arms "but I expect you to pay me back ten-fold"

'Tsundere' everybody in the room, except Naruto, thought.

"Wait, don't I get a say?" Kiba spoke up, noticing that Naruto didn't try to plead with him also.

"Nope!" Naruto laughed as he strolled out the room with his hands behind his head and a grin on his face. A, still, blushing Ino followed after him.

"I did NOT agree to this!" Ino shouted as she and Kiba were tied back to back. Akamaru was on top of a wardrobe shivering in fear as children surrounded the puppy's safe haven all of them trying to reach up for him.

It was chaos the minute Team Seven set foot in the orphanage. When they entered the children instantly surrounded them and stared in wonder.

The Chunin that was behind the counter almost broke the sound barrier with how fast he exited the building with nothing back a rushed goodbye.

When the three turned around to see where he vanished to they saw a note pinned to wall next to the door.

Got some errands to run

I'll pick up some lunch for you guys

Later

Asuma Sarutobi (AKA your sensei)

If that wasn't insulting enough, there was a badly drawn picture of a chibi Asuma holding up a peace sign.

Ino ripped the piece of paper apart after she read it finish. Her sensei was pushing her buttons and he knew he was doing it by pulling these stunts. He was doing things that got on Ino's nerves like, for example, accidently dropping a can of paint, or anything else that can leave a stain, close to her so the solo female member of Team Seven had to either dodge in a spilt second or have to sit and scrub her stained dress all night.

When Ino turned around she noticed that it was only her in the hallway and everything was oddly quiet.

"Hello?" she called and walked further into the building. When she didn't get an answer after a few seconds she tried again.

"Naruto? Kiba?" however only silence met the blond girl.

There was the sound of giggling behind Ino making the blond girl turn around. What greeted her was an empty hallway and that freaked her out.

The Yamanaka was reminded of the horror movies she would watch with Sakura (they hung out, even though they were rivals) when the pinkette would stay over. This scene reminded her of the one where the pretty blond girl was in an empty hallway and something…jumped…out at…her…

If anybody would ask Ino what a happened next she would feverishly deny that she got the scare of her life by a bunch of kids jumping out from, God knows where. She would also deny that she screamed so loud she was sure that people 10 blocks down could hear her.

"Grovel before your king!" Naruto laughed loudly as he stood atop a mountain of stacked tables and chairs. He wore a make-shift crown on his head and a cape that was made from a former curtain that had once been used to cover a window.

"Damnit Naruto!" Ino shouted as she was dog piled onto the floor by a bunch of giggling toddlers "Get off there and help me!"

"That is NOT how you talk to your king!" Naruto pointed his "scepter" at the girl. The scepter was basically a ruler that had a tennis ball on the end that he was pointing at Ino.

"Respect the king!" a little girl that was sitting on Naruto's shoulders shouted with her hand raised to the sky "all hail King Naruto-nii-san!"

"Hail the king!" the other kids shouted, even though half of them didn't know what "hail" meant.

"Naruto Uzumaki!" Ino glared at the boy as one of the girls grabbed her hair and started pulling it into 'hairstyles' "If you don't help me, or call your little minions off me I'm gonna beat the living hell out of you!"

"Naruto-nii-sama, she's disrespecting you" said a boy who sat on two chairs stacked on top of each other next to Naruto "she should be punished"

"I agree" Naruto pursed his lips and nodded his head. He opened his eyes and pointed the scepter towards the door of the room they were in "send her to the chair!"

The 'chair' was basically a swivel that was located at the front desk of the orphanage. However, whoever they put in the chair was tied up and subjected to endless torture, namely having their faces drawn on with crayons and/or markers. Not only were their faces defaced (pun intended) but their clothes also got a 'make-over'.

So surface to say, Ino was terrified of the 'chair'. She had seen what had happened to Kiba after he had been captured trying to escape.

Ino had counted herself lucky that they were so focused on Kiba that they didn't notice her slip away. But before she left the girl said a quick prayer for her team-mate.

Her freedom was short lived, because the other children noticed her running down the hallway and gave chase.

"Wait! Wait! Wait! Wait!" Ino shouted and winced when the girl trying to play hairdresser, tugged her hair to put it in a second ponytail "C-Come on N-Naruto…" she gave a weak chuckle "W-We're f-friends…right?" she tried to give the best puppy dog face she could.

"Friends…?" Naruto grabbed his chin in thought and squinted his eyes "we are friends, yes" Ino sighed in relief, but she instantly sucked it back in when Naruto continued talking "but you disrespected your King. So you must be punished somehow"

Ino went pale as she heard the sounds of the chair's wheel getting closer to her current position. Dirt from the floor she could handle, a small stain of milk could be washed out. Permanent marker and paint? The long hellish nights…she could see them now. What was even worse was the fact that she would have to throw out her clothing if she couldn't succeed in getting the marks off.

"Wait…" the chair stopped, making Ino release the scared breath she was holding. The girl on Naruto's shoulders had placed her hands on Naruto's head and leaned forward to get a closer look at Ino.

It appeared that this girl and the boy on the chairs had established themselves as the second and third in command, who was which Ino didn't know.

"She's kind of pretty" the girl squinted her eyes "I say she becomes our Queen!" Naruto and the boy gasped.

"You want to replace me/Naruto-nii-san?!" they shouted.

"No way!" the girl sat up again and crossed her arms "we girls want a female role model to look up to alongside Naruto-nii-san" she pointed at Ino "so she will become our Queen alongside Naruto-nii-san"

'Queen…?' Ino blinked in confusion. That was the last thing she expected to come out of the girl's mouth, Ino took comfort in the fact that she had called her pretty. However something in the girl's proclamation was weighing on Ino's thought process.

"So…she'd be Naruto-nii-san's wife?" the boy made a disgusted look "gross" he said.

"Well, I like it" the girl placed her hands together and stared off dreamily with a sigh "it's romantic. A humble king falls in love with a commoner girl, she tries to be the Queen that her subjects want but she's so clumsy. The King doesn't care though, and continues loving her and showing support" the girl and the other females of the orphanage gave a dreamy sigh.

"So romantic!" they all said at the same time. It appeared that she was a big dreamer.

"No way!" the boy shouted crossing his arms "Naruto-nii-san doesn't need no girl to rule" he frowned "stop living in a fantasy!"

"Oh yeah? Well why don't we let Naruto-nii-san decide" the girl leaned over so that she could look Naruto in the eyes with puppy dog eyes.

"Um…well…" Naruto chuckled and scratched the back of his head "I guess…if it's okay with you guys" he looked at the other children, who cheered.

"Yeah!" the girl cheered and straightened herself to point at the children "get her royal clothing and make her a throne next to Naruto-nii-san!" she clapped her hands together "a husband and wife must rule alongside each other!"

Ino had tuned out what the girl was saying when the boy said she'd be Naruto's wife. A bright red blush had taken over majority of her face and she could not process what was happening around her.

The next thing she knew, the girl was sitting next to Naruto with a similar cape on around her neck, only this one was pink instead of red.

"All hail the King and Queen!" the girl cheered making the other children in the room cheer as well.

"Wh-What happened?" Ino shakily asked as she turned to look at her second male team-mate.

"We're married now…I guess, Dattebayo" Naruto chuckled with a small blush on his face.

"WHAT?!" Ino shouted.

"Kiss!" the girl, who had climbed off of Naruto's shoulders and stood next to the boy, shouted. That set off the other girls in the room, who also called for a kiss.

The two pre-teens snapped their heads towards the crowd of children in shock.

"N-No!" Ino shook her hands "Th-The-There's n-no way w-we can k-k-kiss!" if her face was red before, now it was inventing new shades of the colour.

"Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!" the girls chanted, some of the boy's started chanting as well when they saw the distressed look on Ino's face.

"NO!" Ino screamed, but she doubted she could be heard over the children's chanting, which was getting louder by the second "A k-kiss i-is between two s-special people wh-who lov-"

Ino's shouting along with the cheering stopped dead in its tracks. Why did that happen? Well, Naruto had taken it upon himself to give the children what they wanted.

He pecked Ino on her cheek well she was shouting at the children. That had replaced the chanting with cheering and Ino staring at him with her hand on her cheek, where Naruto had kissed her.

"Soooo…how was it?" Asuma asked his unusually quiet team.

Kiba was walking with his hands in his pockets and his head facing the floor, he had his hood on so that no one would see the art that the children drew on his face. Akamaru was walking alongside his master with his head down and his tail between his legs.

Naruto was walking with his hands behind his head and a cigarette in his mouth. Of the three of them, he looked the most normal, if not tired.

When it came to the last team member of Team Seven Asuma REALLY wanted to know what happened. Ino's face was blushing a bright red that could very well be mistaken for a beacon to draw in ships. Not only that but she was looking at the ground well poking her fingers together. She reminded Asuma of the Hyuuga heiress, who would do this when she was around Naruto.

Actually…Ino kept glancing at Naruto from the corner of her eye and looking away.

'Maybe we should skip missions tomorrow' Asuma closed his eyes with a sweat drop.

We're here...Thank the great loli God in the sky... (Because it sounds fun reference). Hope y'all enjoyed!