It's Complicated Ch. 2

"Well Ino, you've made this choice more complicated than it needed to be."  Kurenai calmly drank out of her bottle of chilled tea before setting it down on a pile of papers on her desk.  Ino was grateful for the quiet corner of the staff room, and even more so that the rest of the teachers had gone home for the night; otherwise they might have been present for the royal grilling she had just received.

Ino sighed and accepted that she deserved the stern talk from her teacher and mentor.  In other circumstances it would be required for her to excuse herself for getting too close to the boys asking for finances from the student council, except that Sakura was away on a trip for the school's academic team and was otherwise unable to replace her duties.

"I'm not so much concerned about the money Ino.  You still have to get the approval of the rest of the student council as well as Shizune San's approval, so either choice you make is one well spent."  Kurenai's eyes returned to the paperwork in front of her, it seemed an odd distraction but Ino could not help but admire her penmanship.  The way she quickly scrawled kanji was truly impressive.  "It's not even a problem that you are going on a date with both of them.  It's only natural that the finance chair on the student council be a normal teenager who goes on dates, like I said, it's not really up to you who gets the money – you can only make your recommendation."

Kurenai set down her pen and touched the picture of her late husband that was on her desk.  Ino was well familiar with Asuma, her old teacher, but Ino couldn't help but feel sadness in Kurenai's eyes, though not an empty one – one filled with happy and warm memories.  "I know both of these young men Ino.  I've seen you flaunt your looks before, but for all the tears you've shed you don't know what it feels like to have a broken heart.  I think that's why you really came to me."

Ino found she had nodded involuntarily, but knew that was what she felt.  "Yeah.  I think so to.  I don't know what to feel.  It's hard enough when you like one boy, you don't know what to say, what to do."  Memories of her off and on relationship with Sai only made that thought more clear, she broke up with him because she never knew what he was thinking (though after their breakup he really seemed to have blossomed from that strange art prodigy funk he had been in).

"You'll never know exactly how you feel until you go out and experience it though.  I say go for it Ino."

"But, what am I supposed to do.  I have to make a decision; I don't need the added distractions of the fact I really like both of Chouji and Kankuro."

"So don't think about it."  Kurenai simply put down her pen.  "Ino, the trick to relationships is that so much of it is built up in our own minds even before we talk to the person.  Even with relationships that start in a moment, love at first sight, we form so many opinions and impressions about people that we often wind up thinking of others as something that they aren't.  That's what makes it hard to be with people we like, because we expect them to behave and act a certain way.  You never learn who someone is until you've spent time with them.  You'd be surprised how many boyfriends I had when I was younger, and how wrong I was about some of them.  I ever tell you about the time I went on a date with Kakashi?"

"You what?"

"Yeah, we all thought he was so cool back when he was in high school.  But when I finally did get him out on a date, he was so awkward with other people it all became clear why he acted so aloof all the time.  He might be a genius, but he's no Casanova when it comes to women."

Ino had to laugh at her teacher's expense, trying to think of Kakashi Sensei as a student made her giggle for some reason.

"Don't be so nervous.  Trust your feelings Ino, I know how grown up you are, I'm sure you'll make the right choice."

Feeling much calmer, Ino finally went home and hit the sack early.  The homework in her bag had already been completed in school while still in class (thankfully her position on the student council offered little rewards like knowing the homework problems for her classes in advance, otherwise she'd get nothing done).  Dreams of a free weekend passed before her mind's eye before the alarm woke her up on Saturday morning.

The usual routine of exercise and cleaning the house took up her time.  Dad would already be back from picking up the new flower deliveries, Mom would be manning the store, and customers would come in and out of the shop that dominated the lower floor of their house.  Ino had to finish upstairs before she was expected to take over downstairs.

Mom would take over in a side room then and make custom flower arrangements for customers while Dad would make deliveries to customers and take the leftover flowers from yesterday to the hospitals and rest homes in town (and even a few widows he had grown close to over the years, her dad never missed the opportunity to bring a flower and a smile to any face he could).  Too many times people had asked him why he stopped his job as a psychiatrist and became a flower seller, he'd smile and say 'I wanted a job where I could make people happy and save them money.  Flowers and a warm smile are cheaper than time spent on a couch, but just as valuable.'

Ino didn't have quite his enthusiasm, but his smile was infectious.  It was a rather common occurrence when a customer would wake her up form some daydream or another, lost in thoughts of love amidst the scents of her flower shop home.

Before she knew it, afternoon hit and her parents let her go for the rest of the day.  Hurrying up to freshen up, Ino finished and rushed downstairs to find Chouji waiting for her.  He was wearing that silly grin of his that made her feel like a kid again.  Back then he would fake that smile as he was often alone, but that was in the days before they had been friends.  Now he would still have that same smile, but she knew he meant it.  Perhaps he was just practicing that smile for when he would have friends to smile at.

A quick goodbye to her parents and Ino was out the door and onto the back of Chouji's moped.  Everyone else had laughed at first, but truth was Chouji rode with such a confidence that everyone was soon in awe of his style (even Kiba, who himself had a motorcycle in his family's garage, even if his mother Tsume wouldn't let him touch it until he was 18).

After putting on her helmet and grabbing onto Chouji as they rode off, Ino realized she hadn't asked him where they were going.  Her parents had that all-knowing look on their faces, as though they had already put him through the ringer with twenty questions so perhaps it wasn't necessary at the moment (not that she could with the helmets on).

For the moment it was a bit of a problem getting out of all the traffic and onto the highway leading out of town.  The open air and the farms began to spread out as they got away from the city.  The reflective glass of the steel and concrete buildings was replaced with late afternoon reflections form the river and greenhouses of the country roads.  As often as Ino wanted to identify with the fashionable and glamorous looks in the magazines, at heart she knew she was a country girl and she loved that part of her.  There was something so safe and comfortable about it all, lost in another mini-day dream she found she was hugging Chouji's back more closely than usual, and also that they had stopped.

Getting off she found they had stopped at a rest station a few miles out of town.  It was a refill station for long-distance trucks, but she remembered this park well.  This park had been dedicated to the memory of the principal from their old school Sarutobi.  The distance from town made it a popular spot for people going on morning jobs; the gardens were the spot of choice for the local Tai Chi group.

Pulling a basket from the storage compartment of his moped, Chouji placed a small tablecloth on a bench and set down the food.

"I hope the sodas are still cool.  The compartment is close to the engine so things in there do heat up a little."  Cracking open the glass bottle of cola, Ino drank it and shook her head.  The cola was fine; Chouji always had a way of worrying over things that were good.

"Well Chouji, you brought me out all this way.  Are you going to make your case for why the judo club should get the funds?"

"Nope."  Chouji said while rifling through the basket and bringing out plates and tupperware filled with what looked like freshly rolled sushi.  "I showed you everything yesterday; I don't think I need to state my case again.  I trust you'll make the right decision even if you do decide to go with Kankuro's project in the end."  Ino felt her face flush for a moment at Chouji's casual mention of Kankuro, and wondered how he knew.  "Don't act so surprised Ino, after you left school he and I talked for a few minutes.  That's how I know.  I thought you'd be feeling a lot of pressure about this situation so I wanted to bring you out here to get away from it all, to enjoy the open air, the sunset, and some good food."

Finishing the spread, Chouji smiled that carefree grin of his and handed her a pair of chopsticks.  Breathing in deep settled her nerves, and she took the chopsticks from Chouji and set in to the meal.  They talked gossip, rumors around the town, played a game with the license plates of cars passing by, and before long Ino could hardly even remember her problems.  Though Chouji did laugh so hard he wound up getting a grain of rice go down the wrong pipe, which when he coughed up only made him laugh harder.

The sunset was amazing, the world wrapped in one last warm glow before the sun said its "goodnight" to the world.  Her hand found Chouji's and was holding his.  Still separated by plates once filled with sushi, they were still apart, but the feel of his strong hand around hers made her feel much closer than they were.  One last squeeze and Chouji got up to put everything away and get ready for the ride home.

Despite how easy Chouji had made this all out to be, he had in fact made things even harder for her.  There is no way to let go of someone when you have let them hold your heart in their hands for even a moment, and Chouji would not be the last man to hold Ino's heart.