The Prince and the Flower

In the Land of Rice, the Village of the Hidden Sound.

Kabuto was pretty much the right hand of the Sannin and former Leaf Ninja Orochimaru. He was walking through the underground headquarters of the hidden village. He walked past training facilities, Class rooms and dojos. The guards that were stationed throughout the hallway, all came to attention when he passed. Well the ones that could be seen that is. As he reached the door at the end, he stopped and readied himself to deliver the latest report about the invasion of the Leaf. He knocked at the door and waited to be told to enter.

“Enter.” His leaders voice heard through the door. He grabbed the handle and opened the door. Stopping in front of the desk in the center of the room.

“Ah. Kabuto. Tell me how do things fair with our plans.” The Sannin didn’t even take his eyes off the paper in front of him.

“So far our troops are ready. We have hit one snag though. The Hidden Sand has turned down the alliance with us.” Kabuto waited for the hammer to fall.

The sannin was upset, but not what he expected. “So the Kazekage turned us down? Did our envoy not at least try to argue the point?”

“He did, but Lord Raza wouldn’t turn against the Leaf. It appears that Minato and his son Naruto fixed the seal on Gaara. Making it stronger, the beast also no longer has the hold on it’s jailer that it once did.” Kabuto told his master.

“I see. Well I guess that road is a bust for now.” The Sannin shuffled through some more papers. “Ah. I see that our envoy to the Hidden Rock has had better results, they are willing to help us against the Leaf.” Kabuto was surprised and the news, but then realized that if any of the Hidden Villages had an axe to grind with Konoha it would Iwa.

“I wasn’t aware you sent and envoy there. But that is good news, they should be a powerful ally.” The Sannin smiled.

“Well it was more of a whim, that I sent the envoy. I wasn’t expecting Lord Raza to turn us down with the spoils we were offering. But they hate Minato and the Leaf as much if not more than we do. A perfect match I would say.”

The Hidden Leaf. Training ground 7.

If one were to come across the two ninja sparing at training ground 7. They would think that neither one of them were trying very hard. It started out serious, they both wanted to train together, but it quickly dissolved into more horse play then anything. Ino had had enough of the tension between the two of them. She blocked a punch aimed at her head, grabbed his wrist and swept his legs out from under him. He landed with a “Umph!” knocking the wind out of him. She followed quickly after pinning him down and capturing his lips. Of Course once he regained his senses he returned the kiss. They broke apart when air was required.

“I hope that is a tactic that you use only with me.” Naruto said.

“Of course! Hope you don’t try that with any other girl.” She replied.He smiled.

“Of course not.” She kissed him again. He rolled them over and pinned her down. They stared into each other's eyes. He leaned down and kissed her again. Needless to say they didn’t get much training done.

As they were headed out of the training grounds, they both sensed a threat and acted. The chakra infused wind attacks came close to landing on target. Naruto knew what the attack was and more than likely who their attacker was. Naruto jumped from the tree he was hiding behind. Flipping through hand signs. “Wind Style! Sand Dust!” When he breathed out, it created a large cloud of dust that clouded vision and also had the added effect of stinging the eyes so the attack had a harder time recovering. He could hear the person he was looking for coughing and complaining. He made his move.

His foot connected with something metal, that confirmed it. “What are you doing in Konoha Mari?”

“You blasted sensor types! Taking all the fun out of this.” She replied.

A quick Gale Palm and the dust cloud cleared, to revile Temari the daughter of the current Kazekage. Wiping the dust out of her eyes, she looked at him smiling. She then throws herself at him kissing him. Needless to say he was shocked. Also needless to say someone was not happy.

“Hey Bitch! Hands off!” Ino yelled. She pulled him out of the Temari’s arms.

“Bitch!?” “I am the daughter of the Kazekage!” Temari yelled back.

“Which means your are not of this village, you are a guest here, and should act like it.” Ino yelled back.

“This is all well and good, but still doesn’t answer my question. Why are you here Temari?” he asked again.

“Father wanted to talk to your Dad about something.” She told him.

Hokage Tower.

Minato, and four other clones of him were working on the paperwork for the upcoming Chunin exams. They were being held in Konoha this time around. This meant added security, arranging places for the other teams would be staying and so on. All in all it was a pain, but it needed to be done. He had just finished reading a scroll and was about to sign off on it when he heard a knock at his office door.

“Enter.” He said as he rolled up the signed scroll. He was surprised to say the least at who walked in.

“Raza. Baki. What brings you here? Well other then the Exams coming up.” Minato asked of the Kazekage.

“Well there is that, and some other news.” He looked back to Baki. Who shut the door. He looked around. “Is it safe to talk here?” He asked his counterpart. Minato just looked at him and pressed his hand on a small seal on his desk, a bit of chakra and a matrix went over the room and then vanished.

“Is now.” He looked at his friend. “What is so important?”

“I was approached by an envoy a new village called the Hidden Sound. They wanted me to join them in a planned attack on the Leaf.” Raza stopped and let that sink in a bit. “They offered me land and spoils if I were to help them. The attack is to happen during the Chunin Exams.”

The Namikaze home.
Temari’s two brothers had come and drug her off to their Hotel room, but Ino was still fuming.

“Can you believe the nerve of that, that sand witch. Kissing you right in front of me.” Ino practically yelled as they walked into the Naruto’s house.

Kushina was hanging up the beding to let it air. They had come in through the back yard. She looked over at them as they walked up to where she was. She looked at her son.

“What is up with her?” She asked. Naruto explained what had happened.

“So Temari found you, and she attacked you guys then kissed Naruto.” She said making sure she got it right. Raza and his kids must be in the village for the upcoming Chunin Exams.

Meanwhile Ino was still going on about it. She had walked up to one of the practice dummies and screamed out her anger and a well executed chakra enhanced punch into it. The wooden dummy made a loud crack. Naruto looked over at his girlfriend. Walking up to her.

“Feel better?” He asked taking her hand and checking it over. Her knuckles were bleeding and they needed to be cleaned up and iced before they swelled.

“A little.” She answered him. She winced when he touched her hand. He shook his head.

“Let’s get inside and clean this up and get an ice pack for it.”

They walked into the kitchen. He grabbed the first aid kit. She was too upset to concentrate on using the mystic palm technique to heal it herself. He started cleaning her wounds.

“It meant nothing you know.” He told her. Still looking down at his work. “I hung out with Temari while I was helping Dad with Gaara's seal. I guess she read more into it then there was.” He just considered her a friend, something more hadn’t even been on his mind.

He finished taping up her hand. He looked into her eyes. “You know I love with you right? No one else.” She looked at the floor. He lifted her chin up so she could see his face. He leaned in and kissed her. He poured everything into it. She returned the feelings.

After they broke the kiss. Their foreheads still touching. “I know. I just don’t want to lose you.” She told him.

“You won’t. I promise you.” He told her. Outside his mother watched the two. She saw how Ino and Naruto looked at each other. It was the same she looked at Minato, and he, her. There was love there. About that time a pair of strong arms wrapped around her.

“You had better be my real husband and not a clone being me a message.” Her words had the edge of warning to them. The clone let go.

“I am glad he is finally returning her feelings. Which gives us a little problem.” The clone told her. He looked at the two young lovers. “I am guessing by Ino’s hand being bandaged up that they run in with Temari?” His wife just nodded.

“Thought so. Cause Temari has set her sites on our son, and with part of what I heard from Raza she might be pushing for a marriage contact.” He told her and braised for the fallout.

“SHE WHAT!” Kushina screamed. Drawing attention for blocks around.

Chunin Exams Day 1.

Minato had heeded Raza’s warning about the attack set to happen during the last part of the exams. He set up more security as quietly as he could, but he would have to wait and hope for the best. All the teams were headed for the first part. Konoha used a written test where there was no choice but to cheat to get the answers. Of course that wasn’t the actual objective, not getting caught cheating was the trick. Naruto had it covered for the most part. His team had figured out a system that would allow them to gather the information needed. Amazing the things you could do with Shadow Clones. At any rate some teams were eliminated and they moved on to the next part. The survival test.

“All right kiddies. This place here is called the forty-fourth training grounds, or as it is lovingly called the Forest of Death.” The smile on Anko’s face was like a psychotic child. Ofcourse Naruto was used to her antics, she was dating Kakashi after all.

As he was checking over his gear and thinking of what he might run into, or what plans might work for getting them through this part of the exam. Sakura attention seem to be on something, or in this case someone else..

“Wonder what’s bothering Ino.” She said out loud. They had talked before the exams started and she seemed to be ok, even though Temari was trying to butt into their relationship cause she wanted what Ino had. He looked over at her. She did seem bothered by something.

“I’ll talk to her.” He told his teammate as he walked toward his girlfriend.

“Hey Dope. There’s time to get your love life in order after we are done.” Sasuke yelled toward him as he walked away. There was the sound of smack then and complaint from Sasuke, more than likely what happened was Sakura had smacked said teammate upside the head for his comment.

Naruto smirked at the Teme’s pain as he walked towards Ino. She saw him and smiled, he could see she was still bothered by something.

“What’s wrong?” He asked. She bit him bottom lip, looking down at the ground.

“You know, just nervous about the test.” It was a lie and he knew it. The he gave her told her as much.

“It’s Temari isn’t it?” He asked. She shied and nodded.

“I told you, you have nothing to worry about. I want to be with you, not her.” His hand on her check. She leaned into his touch.

“I know, but what if she pushes for the contact? What if Dad won’t, then there is the council and the fact she's the daughter of the Kazekage, and your the son of the Hokage and..” He kissed her, and she melted.

After he broke the kiss. “You're not playing fair.” She pouted.

“And you are being silly. I am yours, you know that.” He smiled trying to reassure her. She knew it was true, but still losing him was something that might just be the end of her. They said there goodbyes and readied for the test to start.

Hokage tower.
Inoichi let out a held breath. The night Ino came home and she was about in tears. He asked her what was wrong, and the flood gates opened. The Kazekage’s daughter had designs on Naruto. He also knew how much losing Naruto would set back everything that Ino had accomplished. He was very proud of her. So he would do anything to make sure that didn’t happen. So here he was about to do something that he had hoped he would have to worry about for at least a few more years. Besides having Naruto as a son in law wasn’t a bad idea really.

He knocked on Minato’s office door. He heard his Hokage’s command to enter and opened the door and walked in.

“Inoichi. What can I do for you?” Minato asked. He liked that about Minato, he was always ready to listen and help in any way he could. Kushina happened to also be there.

“I have something I wish to discuss with the both of you. It is about Ino and your son.” He told both of them. They both smiled and looked at each other.