MOMENTS IN TIME

DISCLAIMER: I don't even own the prompts, much less the characters and settings. The most I can lay claim to is a bit of creative and ethical derivaty.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:I ask that you please read the prompt at the start of each story (ex. #82 Hemp :: Fate) before reading the entry itself so as to help you better understand the story's implications.

(#76 Dogbane :: Lies)

He didn't really care what they meant, he just thought they looked nice! Or at least that's what he told her (and himself).

"But sensei! Dogbane means lies! Do you really want to give Kurenai Sensei a bouquet that symbolizes lies?"

"I don't give a damn Ino! Put them in the fucking bouquet!"

Because really what does it matter what the flowers mean? The point was he liked Kurenai! Really. He did. Honest.

(#25 Holly :: Foresight)

He should have seen this coming.

Scratch that. He really should have seen this coming.

Deck the halls with boughs of holly his foot! And God damn Ino for noticing it too!

"Why did you have to point it out so goddamn loudly?" Asuma growled as he glared down at his student.

"You were the one looking at the sky! Why didn't you notice the mistletoe before you stepped under it!" She hissed back.

He bit his tongue. She had a good point, why hadn't he noticed it?

"You know," Came the lazy drawl of Kakashi Hatake as he passed them on the street, his nose still buried in his book despite the distinctly amused glint in his lone eye. "The longer you put it off, the bigger the crowd is going to get."

Oh haha-bloody-ha Kakashi! Fuck you! But dammit all he was right!

Growling to himself he pulled Ino forward roughly and crushed his lips against hers in a brutal kiss before raising his middle finger to the crowd and vanishing in a cloud of smoke.

That was absolutely the last time that he was going out until the holidays were over!

(#74 Abutilon :: Meditation)

It was an innocent gesture and a very considerate one at that.

When he thought about it, it was really very sweet of Ino to bring him the abutilon plant for his meditation room. The only problem was that it was very difficult to clear his mind when there was a constant reminder of why he had to meditate so close by.

(#13 Carnation :: Fascination)

He remembers the first time she challenged him to a game of shoji. It was the day after her 16th birthday and she had just returned from a week long mission in Claw Country.

"I want to learn how to play shoji," She announced with a wide grin as she stepped into his living room. "You can consider it a birthday present."

He paused for a minute before shrugging.

"Alright." He said, not mentioning the fact that he had already gotten her something.

He remembers watching her as she sat across from him. That look of concentration on her face as she tried to outwit him, biting her bottom lip as her eyes scanned the board for an opening before glaring up determinedly at him as she made her move, daring him to do better.

He also remembered letting her win that game–not that he would ever admit it or she would ever have known–so that she wouldn't be discouraged from challenging him again in the future. He told himself that it was because it was her birthday, but really it was just so he could have more opportunities to study her without having to look to much into it.

(#88 Oak :: Hospitality)

Asuma had fond memories of the giant oak tree in front of his house going back as far as he could remember.

He remembered swinging from the tire-swing his father had put up when he was four.

He remembered hiding from his friends in a pile of leaves when he was eight.

He remembered running up the trunk as he practiced his chakra control when he was twelve.

He remembered standing under it's canopy and kissing his first girlfriend when he was sixteen.

But what he remembered most fondly was sitting on the top branches at the age of thirty-one and watching the sunset with his students as the warm feeling of home washed over him and his favorite young kunoichi fell asleep against his shoulder in the dying light.

(#43 Lily (orange) :: Hatred)

Asuma hated the look people gave him as he strolled down the street on valentines day next to an exuberant Ino as she filled him in on the details of her latest mission, completely oblivious–and probably indifferent–to the disapproving scowls and presumptuous whispers that followed them as they made their way towards the training grounds.

(#51 Spider Flower :: Elope With Me)

On her twenty-first birthday Ino asked him to marry her. Years later he would joke that it scared him senseless because he knew if she asked again he would have said yes, no matter how drunk she was at the time but when his eyes met her's across the table they both knew that despite the comical grin on his face he was being completely serious.

(#42 Hyacinth :: Jealousy)

Ino called it chivalrous, Kakashi called it protectiveness, Lady Tsunade called it childish.

Call it want you will, all Asuma knew was that it felt damn good to knock Genma through that wall after he had specifically told him to keep his lecherous, dirty, wandering hands away from his student!

(#85 Plum :: Independence)

"What is it Sensei?" Ino asked and she held up the box.

"It's a surprise and—don't shake the box!" He said, grabbing her wrist gently but firmly and shaking his head.

"Oh! Sensei!" She whispered as she lifted the little gray ball of fur from the box and held it close to her chest.

"I know you're a Chunin and that you don't need anyone to look after you anymore but I just couldn't let you go knowing that Shikamaru, Choji, and I might not be there to watch your back." He said, frowning slightly in anticipation of the (possibly) volatile reaction this statement might earn from his extremely unpredictable student.

"Oh, Sensei." She repeated, her blue eyes shimmering softly as she threw her arms around him and buried her face in his chest.

"His name is Gin," He continued, not at all surprised to hear his voice had dropped to just above a whisper as he returned the embrace. "And I've already asked Kakashi about helping you train him."

"And Ino," He said, taking her by the shoulders and holding her at arms length, his sudden seriousness prompting her to meet his gaze. "I want you to keep that pup with you always you hear me? Your teammates might not be able to protect you like we do when you use your mind transfer technique but I promise that dog will. If I ever hear that you tried that jutsu without Gin there to protect you–I don't care who your teammates are–I'll kick your ass. Do you understand me?"

Her only reply was a soft smile and a kiss on his cheek before leaning back against his chest and cooing adoringly to the small creature in her arms but that was all the answer he needed. Because as long as that puppy adored her half as much as she adored it Asuma knew she would be safe.

(#50 Rose (black) :: Death)

Anyone who had ever fought with Asuma–be it by his side or at his throat–knew that it was when he got quiet that he was most dangerous.

Now any civilian can tell you that it's a shinobi's ability to stay hidden that makes them so dangerous, but any witness can also tell you that there's a world of difference between staying quiet and the eerie silence that falls around Asuma when he has truly lost it.

And so when Asuma's hand grips the shoulder of a rogue Mist ninja so hard you can hear the man's bones fraying and he growls for him to 'back the fuck off' his student, you can sure as hell bet that only an act of God could save that man now.

And when he looks into her eyes and tells her to turn around, that he doesn't want her to see this, she does so without hesitation and covers her ears for good measure because she has never seen her Sensei's eyes so cold before and she doesn't want to know what he's capable of doing to that man with that look on his face.

(#8 Iris :: Wisdom)

It wasn't until Ino's 19th birthday party that Asuma really appreciated just how wise his young kunoichi truly was.

It was as he watched her drifting from friend to friend that it really struck him. She was like a one-woman menagerie! For each person she was something different, something that they desperately needed.

For Sakura she was a rival, someone with which Sakura could judge her own merit and push herself to the next level for. For Shikamaru she was motivation, constantly badgering him into doing his best, something he would almost never do without someone else pushing him. For Hinata she was confidence, always giving her the support and encouragement she so desperately lacked. And for him–

For him she was Ino, softer-spoken then most would believe and far too compassionate for the life of a shinobi. For him, and him alone, she put away her masks because it was his job he told her, to be what she needed and not the other way around.

(#17 Violet :: Simplicity)

Asuma never remembered his dreams. Never. Except one: A reoccurring dream he had had since he was a child.

He was always older in the dream, about forty-five, and there was always a woman with him who he'd guess was about thirty. They would sit on his front porch and watch as the fireflies zig-zagged across their lawn and two small children (a six year old girl with black hair and blue eyes and her dirty-blond, blue-brown eyed little brother) chased gleefully after them with empty jam jars in hand.

It wasn't until their second wedding anniversary that he finally realized the woman sitting next to him in his dream was Ino and that those were their kids he was watching.

(#31 Lavender :: Devotion)

Asuma always thought it was funny how Ino smelled distinctly of lavender despite being surrounded by so many different types of flowers all day long.

If he thought back he might have been able to trace the phenomenon to the first time he met his team and how he had commented–after Ino told them that her family owned a flower shop–that his favorite flower was lavender, and that even though it didn't look the nicest the smell always reminded him of home.

(#44 Grass :: Submission)

It took a long time for Asuma to break. He spent years in denial, stubbornly fighting with and berating himself because of how wrong it was! But ultimately he was just a man, and all men have their limits.

He hit his on New Years Eve fifteen years ago. She was twenty-two, he was thirty-seven, and neither were as drunk or as sober as they could have been.

It's all kinda hazy now but what he does remember vividly is how beautiful she looked lying on the grass in her pretty white party dress as she stared up at the sky, her brilliant blue eyes reflecting the fireworks as they cascaded down around them.

(#89 Southernwood :: Banter or Jest)

One of Asuma's absolutely favorite things about Ino is her quick wit. He loves the way they could banter back and forth and how easily the quips slide off her tongue. And when Kakashi asks him why he puts up with her constant jibes he grins and tells him that it's good training, but in truth he is just as addicted to her retorts as he is to the cigarettes he so constantly craves and he would take her smartass remarks over Sakura's hero-worship and Hinata's demure, appeasing manner any day.

(#90 Heath :: Solitude)

Asuma was a solitary man by nature.

That wasn't to say that he didn't enjoy the company of others, it was simply that he enjoyed the silence that came with seclusion more; the opportunity to sit and reflect on the world, himself, and the laws that govern the universe from his front porch or to watch life taking place from the top of his oak tree as a cool autumn breeze ruffled his hair were things he thought made life worth living.

It was for this reason that he so cherished the friendships he had with people like Kakashi and Shikamaru, people with whom he could sit in companionable silence for hours on end and walk away feeling like he knew them better for it.

Ino was decidedly not one of those people. She craved people and involvement and voices and energy above all else, to sit in silence was to miss out on life in her opinion.

And yet...

And yet when she would stop by his place in the late afternoon and see him staring off into the distance contemplating things too profound for her to even consider she would never disturb him.

Instead she would loupe silently to his side and study him for a few minutes before slipping into the house. And when the wonderful smell of homemade miso soup finally drew him out of his meanderings and he would wander dazedly back inside she would always smile softly at him before nodding towards the two freshly laid out placemats and the still-steaming bowls of soup.

It was for this reason (among others) that he so cherished her. She might not be the silent philosopher type like Kakashi or Shikamaru but she always appreciated the fact that he was and let him have his quiet contemplations.

(#24 Cosmos :: Modesty)

When Ino was nineteen Asuma remembers going with her on a mission to the Land of Iron in the heart of winter. It was a simple B-ranked retrieval mission and the only reason it qualified as a B-rank at all was because of the weather conditions. The mission itself couldn't be simpler: All they had to do was retrieve a message from one of the military outposts near the border and deliver it to a Konoha council member who enjoyed corresponding with one of the guards there.

Normally they would use a messenger bird for this sort of thing but due to the recent onslaught of blizzards in the area all attempts to deliver the message by other means had been thwarted and so, never one to overlook an opportunity to exploit a future favor from a council member, Lady Tsunade decided that he and Ino would be in charge of seeing to it that the letter was safely delivered to it's recipient.

The problem with simple missions though is that they rarely-if ever-go as smoothly as planned and this time was no different.

They couldn't have gone more then five miles over the Iron border before a blizzard set in and they found themselves in complete white-out conditions. Within minutes all evidence of their previous course had been erased and due to the constant barrage of ice and wind against their hands and faces they couldn't get a good look at their compass. Looking back there wasn't a doubt in Asuma's mind that if it hadn't been for the pure, unadulterated luck that led then to stumble upon-or rather into-that dry little cave, they probably would have frozen to death.

"A-su-ma Sen-sei?" Ino stammered as she hugged her arms tightly to her ribcage in a futile attempt to retain body heat.

"That's not gonna do an ounce of good until you get out of those clothes girl." He told her as he rummaged through his pack to find the emergency fire supplies he had packed in preparation for the less-than-ideal conditions he had predicted they might encounter in Iron Country.

"Excuse me?" Ino squeaked, her face turning bright red.

"You're clothes are soaked from trekking through the snow, if you want to get warm you'll have to take them off." He said evenly, not even raising an eyebrow at how her mind had instantly jumped to that conclusion.

"Oh." She replied sheepishly, something in her voice prompting him turn around.

"You did bring a spare uniform didn't you?" He asked flatly, knowing the answer by the look on her face before she even had a chance to open her mouth.

"I did but-" She tilted her pack towards him and he shook his head disbelievingly. She had forgotten to put her spare uniform in a separate, waterproof bag inside her pack and so it had suffered the same fate as everything else she was carrying: Total saturation.

"Here." He sighed, tossing her a dry shirt from his pack. It was force of habit now that he carry two shirts instead of the standard single spare most shinobi carried, since in the old days-when his team was just starting out-at least one of his students always forgot to bring an extra uniform.

"Th-thank you S-Sensei." She stuttered, her teeth chattering together loudly from the cold.

"Don't mention it." He said, waving his hand dismissively and turning back to his pack to fish out another uniform and give her a little bit of privacy while she changed-a courtesy she defiantly did not return.

He turned around and just was about to tell her to 'take a picture, it would last longer' when the words died in his throat.

Holy. Fucking. Hell.

"Wow." No! No! Not wow! That was not what he had meant to say! Wow was not an acceptable comment to make to about his student no matter how good she looked in his clothes! And-Was she blushing? Was Ino Yamanaka the loudest, most boisterously over confident kunoichi in all of Konoha blushing?

"Well then," He said, not able to help the roguish grin that spread across his face as she bit her lip nervously and tried determinedly not to stare at him. "This should be a interesting."

(#2 Daisy :: Gentleness)

Their first kiss wasn't gentle. It wasn't sweet or loving. It was brutal, angry, and callous and it was because she frustrated him so God damn much.

"But Sensei—"

"No Ino."

"But Sensei–!"

"I said no Ino."

"Sensei!"

"God dammit Ino I said no!" He growled and turned to face her, his palms colliding with the tree trunk on either side of her head, trapping her there as he glared down at her.

"But I–"

"Shut. The. Fuck. Up." He snarled slowly against her ear, satisfied when the only sound she made was a surprised squeak.

"Good girl." He smirked, bringing his lips down to meet hers in a forceful kiss for good measure because that at least would keep her quiet for a while.

(#4 Pansy :: Remembrance)

Asuma remembered many things about Ino.

He remembered her beautiful blue eyes and soft blond hair, her tinkering laugh and quick wit, her soft curves and mischievous streak.

But when asked what he remembered most about her by his grandson the year after she passed away he replied 'her loud mouth' as a sly grin spread across his face and he could swear that as he picked the boy up and slung him over his shoulder that he could hear an angry female voice yelling 'ASUMAAA!' off in the distance.

(#3 Petunia :: Resentment)

When Ino was twelve Asuma resented Sasuke because she was more interested in that boy then the lessons hehad to teach her.

When Ino was thirteen Asuma resented Sakura for keeping her from getting to the next stage in the Chunin exams.

When Ino was fourteen Asuma resented Lady Tsunade for sending him on a three month long mission without his students.

When Ino was fifteen Asuma resented Shikamaru for not keeping her safe on that trip to Demon country.

When Ino was sixteen Asuma resented her mother for allowing her to change her uniform into something so distracting.

When Ino was seventeen Asuma resented Iruka for allowing his academy students to line the streets with mistle toe as Christmas decorations.

When Ino was eighteen Asuma resented himself for the obvious and irrepressible jealousy he felt towards any guy who she'd give the time of day to.

When Ino was nineteen Asuma resented Kakashi for his perceptiveness and not so subtle jibes regarding the blond beauty and her sensei.

When Ino was twenty Asuma resented the council for the way they mettled in the affairs of others that quite frankly were none of their damn business.

When Ino was twenty-one Asuma resented the bar tender that had supplied her with so much alcohol that she had asked him to marry her-and not really meant it.

When Ino was twenty-two Asuma leaned back in his chair, taking a slow drag from the cigaret dangling between his lips and smirked arrogantly at the resentful stares from the bar's other patrons and reflected that perhaps his father had been right: Good things really do come to those who wait.

(#17 Gardenia :: "I love you in secret")

Despite what Ino thought Asuma was not completely oblivious to the world of flowers. In fact he distinctly remembers asking his mom what that pretty smelling white flower was when he was seven and so when Ino presented him with one the day after she passed her chunin exams as a 'thank you' he knew exactly what she was really trying to say.

(#22 Queen Ann's Lace :: Fantasy)

Ino was by far the most imaginative member of squad ten. Her ability to turn tales and spin lies was par none as far as he was concerned and for that he was eternally grateful because without her knack for fast talking he was sure they would have been caught months ago.

(#29 Buttercup :: Childishness)

What most people didn't know was that Ino actually proposed to him twice. The second time they were walking back from a nice dinner at a fairly exclusive restaurant specializing in wagyu beef dishes. They had stopped on to watch the sun setting when she had asked him and he had been completely flabbergasted.

"What?" He asked incredulously, his eye twitching slightly.

"I said 'Will you–"

"I heard what you said."

"Then why did you–"

"Take it back."

"WHAT?" This time it was her turn to be flabbergasted.

"I said take it back! I've been trying to work up the courage to ask you all month dammit so you can't do that! Now take it back!"

"I-Um. I take it back?"

"Good."

"Asuma? Asuma where are you going!"

"I'm going home. The moment's completely ruined."

"I-Dammit Asuma you get your ass back here!"

(#100 Centaury :: Delicacy)

Holy. Hell.

Her father. Was going.

To kill him.

(#79 Tamarisk :: Crime)

"This is...wrong."

"Sensei?"

"Yes?"

"Be quiet."

(#82 Hemp :: Fate)

When Ino passed away it had been unexpected. She was young (relatively speaking), healthy, and showed no outward signs to suggest there was a problem. It was as if one minute she was there and the next she wasn't.

He had gone to the store to get some rice for dinner and she had decided to take a nap until he got back and she simply never woke up.

It was something that Asuma had never really prepared for. At 15 years her senior the idea of Ino passing before him had seemed ludicrous. Yes they were shinobi but—Well, honestly he thought that at the very least they would die together, back to back with kunai in hand and even that idea had been pushed aside when their daughter had been born and they retired from active duty.

It was ... heartbreaking.

Asuma wasn't a man who cried. He didn't cry at his father's funeral when he was twenty-eight and he hadn't cried at his mother's funeral when he was seven. He hadn't cried when one of his oldest and dearest friends–Kurenai Yuhi–died at the age of thirty and he didn't so much as whimper when Mizuki turned out to be a traitor.

Asuma. Didn't. Cry.

But he did for her.

(#97 Freesia :: Trust)

"Ino I need you to relax."

"I know but it's a lot easier said the done."

"It's a trust building exercise Ino, it's not supposed to be easy."

"I know that."

"Do you trust me Ino?"

"Of course."

"Then trust me to catch you."

(#34 Mistle Toe :: Affection)

"Asuma where are we going?" Ino asked as she pulled her coat tightly around her.

"To town."

"But Asuma you never go to town during the holidays! Not since that time when I was seventeen and we got caught under the mistle toe." She said and was surprised when he turned to her with a roguish grin and pulled her close.

"Exactly." He purred.

(#55 Feverflu :: Protection)

They may not have planned to have their daughter In their first year of marriage but they never regretted and it only took five seconds after seeing his little girl for the first time for him to vow to protect her always.

(#5 Tulips :: Declaration of Love)

"He loves me, he loves me not. He loves me, he loves me not. He loves me, he—"

"Why don't you try this one instead? I think you'll find it yields better results."

"But one of the petal's is missing."

"Well you want an honest answer don't you?"

"Of course."

"Then you'll need an odd number of petals sweetheart."

FIN

Reviews are appreciated and critics welcome.

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