A/N - A short story I thought of. It won't be very long. Hopefully wrap it up with that many chapters. But, I feel like I can cause enough destruction with the timeline. So, here ya go.

Let's get started. A nice time waster.

DISCLAIMER - I do not own Naruto

Song used for this chapter - Wale - Day By The Pool (Summer on Sunset)

Let me lay down the scenery.

Me and Ino grew up together. My memory was blurry for how long she had actually been around, but what I remembered clearly was us in elementary school. She was being teased, again, by the kids in our class. Back then I was a little shit, I didn't care much about anything around me. Life was a joke.

Pretty dark for a kid to think that already after barely breaking out of kindergarten.

But for whatever reason, I got annoyed with the kids always coming at her. Maybe because I was teased too, something about my forehead until I shut the shit down with a punch in the nose. Kid was out the next day, and I had gotten detention.

So I found myself wandering over to Ino that day.

The kids had just dispersed, and my asshole self back then gave her this frown as I watched her sniffle and wipe her eyes.

I remembered looking down at her and saying, "They pick on you because you're pretty."

And shit, maybe it was ever since that first blush she gave me that I found myself stuck. Her watery little smile as she brushed her eyes again didn't help. "You really think so?"

After that?

I forced out a smile and nodded, and I also found myself promising, "But don't worry. They won't make fun of you again."

She didn't completely understand back then, and I didn't bother to explain. I hadn't planned on handling it myself, only to give her a boost of self esteem to hopefully carry herself out of the stupid shit. But no.

Instead I found myself in detention the very next day for stomping one of the kids at recess. They told my parents he was 'defenseless' and 'already had a bloody nose when he hit the ground'. When my mom asked me later about it, I told her in my defense I had asked them to stop picking on Ino nicely and that one guy in the group thought he was tough enough to tell me no.

Mother of year award went to her. She laughed and told me even if that were true, I had to find a better way to stop bullying.

She was right of course, but it wasn't like I was some sort of vigilante.

I stopped my bullying by punching the guy in the nose.

And stopped Ino's bullying with a few kick in the ribs.

In my eyes, back then, everything was set. There wasn't any other reason to fight. Because when I got back into class the next day, seeing Ino brighten just by the sight of me was all that I needed.

And ever since she had been stuck with me. Hanging off my shirt. Whining whenever she didn't get her way, beaming whenever I gave in, and always giving me this nervous look if someone started to talk about her.

She had a right to be nervous. Because I was always ready to fight for her.

And that was it. That's how we became best friends.

Flash forward, and we are in high school summer of senior year.

I graduated top athlete for females.

She graduated as head cheerleader.

Sounded simple enough, right? A little bow wrapping the whole story up to make it look pretty.

But that summer... man.

There was nothing pretty about the shit that went down behind closed doors.

There we go, scene set. See, we just get to jump right into it.

Same as always, I don't usually post a story now without showing my commitement, so we have about 5 more chapters after this for you to get a taste and feel of it.

Now on to the others. Let's get started.

Shy will see you in 5 chapters if you manage to get that far. Out