HEYYY! This Meagan and welcome to teh first chapter of Bright Eyes. Named for my love of the band! InoSaso cause I like it :3. I hope you enjoy! And I hope you will review cause they make me happy and make me continue to write even when I can't. I actually wrote this pretty quick like listening to pandora. But enough about me! I hope you enjoy.

disclaimer: I don't even own the title :P

Chapter One: 50 cents

It should have been faster then this. She should have been diving into darkness right about now. She should have known the secret everyone eventually learns. What happens after you die.

Instead she was still here. She opened her eyes slowly, vision blocked by blood and blonde hair, and saw the man in front of her. He had green eyes. Were they green? She felt that maybe they were blue green. She didn't know why she was thinking this. There was so much she should have been thinking about.

Like what was her name? Ino. Her name was Ino. She used the past tense in her thoughts because this time she felt she was going to die. It was about time she got used to past tenses.

" You can kill me," she didn't know where the courage came from. This man. What was his name? She didn't know. She tried to bring her hand up to brush the blonde out of her face. It didn't move from beside her.

" Don't try to move," the voice was calm and almost dull. She hadn't heard a voice like it in a very long time.

" Are you killing me?" Ino asked trying to open her eyes, her sight was distorted and she couldn't make anything out.

" No, close your eyes."

" OK…" Ino told him. She blinked and it got dark.

Ino rushed to the Hokage's as fast as her legs could go. Well, maybe not as fast. She didn't want to hurt herself after all. She stopped only once and that was to help a kid who had gotten themselves stuck. She couldn't just wiz by. The boy, who was blonde, reminded her of herself as a young academy student. Always getting in trouble. It felt like many years had past since she was a kid.

She still was very much a kid. She still wasn't eighteen or anything and just barely a Chuuin. Still it felt like a great many years had passed her by. That was what she was thinking when she finally made it to the Hokage's. She looked around seeing other females in the room.

" Oh." Ino looked around seeing all the other faces. "Hey?" She was beginning to think she was the last person to arrive.

" Ok we can start not," Tsunade told the other girls who looked bored, even Hinata who always tried hard to look interested. Ino sweat dropped and took a place in between Sakura and Tenten.

" I need all of you to do a mission for me," Tsunade told the girls opening up various scrolls and maps. All of them gasped, surprised. Not because of a mission, missions were common. The fact that only females were going was the thing that most surprised them. Ino always had to go with the boys because poor fragile Ino couldn't do all by her lonesome.

The very thought made her sick.

But this? This could actually be interesting.

" We need better relationships with a small village off the coast," Oooh Ino thought inwardly grinning , I hope the weather is super nice! She stopped listening for awhile thinking of sun and hot boys. She was a teenage girl. She was allowed to let her hormones get the better of her sometimes.

" I want you to treat this mission with tact," Tsunade continued and Ino started to listen again. The end of mission briefs is really the only important part, she learned that when she first became a real ninja.

" And use your feminine charms to win over the hearts of some of the reigning princes."

Ino could not believe it. The Hokage wanted her to flirt up some boys! How easy! Now she was excited.

" But!" Sakura was the first to complain! Of course she would complain! Ino cursed in her mind. Sakura just can't appreciate a good vacation! Sakura and Tenten were grimacing at the very idea. Hinata just looked plain embarrassed to be alive, playing with strands of her long locks.

" You have to do this, Sakura, for your village." Ino scoffed at the Hokage's reply to the complaining. As far as she was concerned every single Hokage in living memory has used to ' for your village' card and would continue using it.

After much convincing and many ' I don't want tos' later the girls were finally leaving for their mission.

They walked in silence for a moment. Ino really didn't know all of them too well and she didn't know what to say. They were all girls around her age and yet they really didn't spend that much time together, save Sakura. And even then talking to Sakura always ended up in an argument even though, as much as Ino did not want to admit it, Sakura was her best friend.

" So… um… I hope this goes well," surprisingly it was Hinata that decided to break the ice. Ino was kind of proud of her in a odd way.

" Yeah!" Ino feeling it was OK to talk now, seeing that she wasn't the one who started the conversation. " And no annoying boys! No more your troublesome for a while!" She was honestly excited. Maybe she could get the really cute price that wanted to know everything about her and at the end of their mission they would have a teary goodbye where he would admit he honestly fell in love with her. Then she would have to tell him it was all a mission and he would tell her he already knew but that didn't stop him from his love.

She really had to stop reading those 50cent novels her mom bought.

" I'm going to miss Naruto and Sai a bit," Sakura admitted as she walked. Ino scoffed. She knew that Sakura says that but in a week she'll be really happy to be away from Mr. Too Much Emotion and Mr. I Never Show Any Emotion. She liked Sai, but he was really starting to irk her. Telling her she was lovely but she wasn't sure he was telling the truth.

No one seemed to tell her the truth anymore. Ino dreaded on this thought as Tenten talked about Neji. It's so obvious she likes him! Ino thought as she continued under her black cloud. She looked at Sakura and that made her think of Sasuke.

Sakura, what would you say if I told you I gave up on him? Ino thought while looking at the ground. Would you be happy?

" I'm kind of nervous," Hinata admitted as she too seemed to have a black cloud over her. " I just don't know why the Hokage choose me."

Ino chocked on her own spit. It was obvious why Hinata was chosen. Just look at her! She had guys falling for her left and right. She just never noticed, since she had already fallen so hard for Naruto. ( Which Ino would never for the life of her understand. Love wasn't something the blonde wasn't too familiar with, honestly. Well except for those damn novels and novellas)

" Hinata," Ino smirked. " Shut up. Your like the prettiest girl ever. Really. And boys find shy girls to be oh so sexy!"

" What Pig means to say is, you should be more confident!" Sakura came in, putting a hand on Hinata's thin shoulders. " You're a beautiful ninja! Not only that but you are strong willed and humble. You don't even need beauty but you have it, so cheer up." Ino frowned. That was basically what she said just it sounded better.

People were always doing that to her. Like it was her fault she couldn't always say she was thinking! It wasn't like she was an author or anything. She did sometimes secretly wish she was, late at night. But she was barely even a ninja much less a talented author.

Not like she would admit that to these girls. They wouldn't believe her anyways.

For a while their was no talking. They needed to make it to a place to pitch camp before sunset. And make enough distance so they could make it to their destination at a reasonable hour the next day. Ino loved the camping part of missions. She loved the stars and how they seemed to be look after her in the sky. She used to think when she was just a child that the stars were up their to keep the moon company.

They were beautiful like art. Ino didn't know exactly what art was but she was pretty sure that the stars counted. She also thought the clouds counted for that matter. Maybe her partner rubbed off on her more then she thought.

This made her sad. Yeah, she promised herself she was going to have fun but already she was missing her partners. She shook her head and remembered the fight.

She couldn't believe she had forgotten it.

She couldn't believe they actually said what they said.

The fight was stupid. The fight was about how she was annoying. It entailed how she was the only member of heir team that was just a dead weight. It had even gone so far as to calling her just a weak, stupid girl.

Ino already knew all of this but she didn't like being reminded.

So the rest of the trip she went in silence. The voices of the other girls just murmurs in her ears now. She couldn't quite hear them anymore. She didn't want to. Not for a while anyways.

" Ino!" Sakura yelled, getting Ino out of her own thoughts.

" I want you to go ahead for camp, Hinata fell and I need to take a look, Tenten is scouting in the opposite direction!" Sakura instructed as she went to Hinata. Ino really didn't care. If she was in a better mood she might have complained but being a lone was OK.

If only she knew what was waiting for her. If only she had noticed the red hair and green eyes.

She blinked. All it took was a blink and they were there.