A River Flows in You

by SerasCain

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any way, shape or form.

A/N: This is my first attempt at writing any sort of story so...be as brutal as necessary, hehe. Kinda wondering how well I did or if I did anything right at all. Thanks. This story is centered on Sakura and Ino's perceptions of Naruto as they both get closer to him.

"Speech"

'thoughts'

"Inner Sakura"

Flashbacks

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She was six at the time, and strong as she was, she still couldn't help but cry as she rubbed her bruised and bleeding knee. The little blonde haired girl had been quite careless as she ran along path leading through the park, admiring the beauty of the cherry blossom trees that surrounded her without paying much attention to her route. As such, she was caught completely off guard when she tripped on a root and went tumbling down the side of the hill, scraping her knee after coming to a crashing halt. She continued to clutch her injured leg while trying valiantly and vainly to stop the tears from cascading down her cheeks. A hand suddenly appeared before her, reaching down to help her right herself, and she looked up to see the smiling face of a small blonde haired boy. His eyes were closed in a squint and he had a gentle grin on his face, as he waited for her to take his hand. The most curious markings adorned his cheeks, looking very similar to whiskers, and his canines appeared a little longer than normal. After a moment, his eyes opened and she could see the azure lights sparkling brightly in his eyes, a genuine look of concern crossing his face as he kneeled down to get eye to eye with her.

"Are you alright?" he asked as he glanced quickly down at her injured knee and pulled out an orange handkerchief to gently dab and clean off the blood that was slowly accumulating. She couldn't find the words to say so she just nodded at him as he continued his gentle ministrations of tending to her, leaning in to blow lightly on the scrape. He looked back up, a large smile returning to his face as his bright blue eyes met hers and he reached his hand out to her again. She took it without hesitation this time, and he lightly pulled her up to her feet, his smile growing even brighter than it was before.

"My name's Uzumaki Naruto!" he exclaimed loudly as he continued to grin, "Here, you can use this to clean yourself up. Are you feeling better now?"

He handed her the handkerchief and glanced back down at her leg again to make sure she would be ok before returning his gaze to her, eyes returning to a squint as he maintained his smile. She smiled gratefully at him and bowed a little in thanks as she took the handkerchief.

"My name's Y-"

She gasped as she was cut off by a rock pelting the boy in the side of the face. She whipped her head around to see who could have done such a thing before spotting a few adults on the path preparing more rocks to throw at the boy. She turned again to help the boy and froze when she saw the look on his face. His eyes were no longer bright, and they appeared dull and lusterless as he stared at the ground, his head not moving from when he was struck by the rock. She turned on her heel, prepared to yell at the villagers when he spoke up.

"It's ok…don't worry about me."

Her head spun around again as she stared at him, open-mouthed and speechless as another rock smashed into his side. He grimaced but did nothing to stop or dodge it.

"Get away from that girl, you monster!"
"Stop harassing our children! You shouldn't be here!"

The villagers continued to yell and throw rocks at the boy, when a few started coming dangerously close to her. Still in shock at the situation unfolding around her, she couldn't get her legs to move when a rock flew at her and in a flash the boy was in front of her. The rock connected with the back of his head and he let out a grunt, falling to his knees before looking back up at her with a pleading look in his eyes.

"I think…" He paused as another rock hit him in the back, "you should probably go - you can keep that."

She didn't know what to do as she watched him, her hands clutching the orange piece of cloth he had given her. One more look at his azure eyes and she turned to run, her mind trying to grasp what had just happened as she whispered , "Thank you…"

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She woke with a start, shooting straight up from her bed with her hands clutching her nightshirt as she looked around frantically, her eyes blinking rapidly while she tried to gather her thoughts. Her room was illuminated with the glow of early morning, the sunlight peeking through the blinds of her window and seemingly wrapping around the walls. She glanced at the clock on her nightstand and noted it was 6:00AM. Stumbling out of her bed, she slapped haphazardly at the clock to make sure its alarm wouldn't go off and then proceeded to her bathroom, set on taking a long hot shower to clear her mind. She wasn't sure why she had dreamed about that memory as she hadn't thought of it in years.

Steam began to rise from her shower as she stepped in, gasping a little at the near scalding water splashed against her light coloured skin. She immersed herself in the path of water, letting a moan escape her lips as the heat relaxed her tensed muscles. Leaning forward, she braced herself against the wall with an arm as her blonde locks dropped around her face, water cascading around her head like a waterfall. Her thoughts returned to her dream as she remembered the day in question. She felt bothered by her memories, unable to place her discomfort as her mind was hazy, so she lingered in the shower, allowing the comforting warmth to bring her at ease. Suddenly, her head shot up as her ice blue eyes widened, realization dawning upon her.

"My name's Uzumaki Naruto!"

She quickly got out of the shower, turning the water off as she scrambled to dry herself and wrap her towel around herself. She rushed into her room and threw open her desk drawer, pawing around until she found the item in question and pulled it out. The orange cloth hadn't changed much over the six years that she had it; she had kept it with her for everyday for a month after that day before she decided to put it away for safekeeping. While grateful for what the boy had done for her, over the years as she watched as all the adults around continued to yell at the boy, saying what a failure he was and how he shouldn't be around to ruin the children of the village, she began to wonder if she should ever talk to him again. As time went by, she began to forget what had happened and she was influenced by the adults and other children around her – making fun of the poor blonde child seemed like a normal thing to do because everyone else always used him as the scapegoat. A pang of guilt went through her heart as she realized what she had done to the boy who had helped her that day - the boy who she had still thought of as a failure, even up until the chuunin exams. Pocketing the handkerchief, she got ready for her day, fixing up her hair into its usual pony tail while her bangs draped over the left side of her face.

Looking into the mirror, Yamanaka Ino was pleased with her appearance, her hair swaying side to side gently as she turned her head to make sure everything was right. She made up her mind to find the loud hyperactive whiskered ninja that day and apologize for the way she treated him before. He may be obnoxious and ridiculously dumb, but he had been kind to her in the past without even knowing her and that was more than she could say in return. She headed downstairs to eat breakfast before she headed off to the flower shop, intending to take a half day off so she could search for the boy in the afternoon.

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The sun was high above the sky, shining brilliantly over the peaceful village as people went about their business as usual. The Sound-Sand war seemed to be a memory of the past now as life resumed its serene characteristics before the tragic battle during the chuunin exams. The streets were bustling with people, shouts of merchants trying to sell their wares and laughter filling the air. The godaime Hokage had done a wonderful job of restoring the spirit of the people, and the repairs of the village were practically complete. Everything seemed to be going back to the way it was supposed to be, and a certain pink haired girl was happily making her way through the streets, humming a tune to herself as she headed to her friend's store.

Haruno Sakura's thoughts were occupied by the raven haired boy that was her teammate, and she felt grateful for the Godaime returning to the village and healing her crush so quickly. She giggled to herself as she thought about her plans for the rest of the day. She was going to buy some flowers for him and then go see and take care of him for the rest of the day, and perhaps if she was lucky, even get a hug or a kiss as a thank you. Shannaro! He'll definitely fall for us now! There's no way he can resist this! She shook her head, trying to quiet her inner self but she couldn't keep the huge smile from appearing on her face as she made her way into the flower shop.

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The bell hanging over the door gave a ring to alert the store employees that a customer had entered, and Ino looked up from reading her magazine behind the counter. She spotted a bouncing blob of pink hair over the aisles of flowers in her store and smiled, knowing her friend was coming. The day had been relatively slow for her as customers came and went, and she was beginning to get antsy because she still wanted to have enough time to go out searching for the blonde loudmouth that had been in her dream last night. The fact that her friend was on the same team as him and was now heading towards her helped her out immensely as she could probably ascertain his whereabouts from her, although she knew that her friend didn't really treat him that well either. She didn't bother thinking about it more as she called out, "Oi! Forehead girl! What's up?"

"Hey, Ino-pig!" She replied loudly, her friend's usual insult greeting bouncing off her happy countenance. She was in too good of a mood to let her friend's teasing affect her today, and she was inwardly glad that she had her friend back now anyways. They had been the best of friends when they were younger, but fighting over the dark haired boy had created a deep rift in their friendship which was only healed when they both realized how much they truly valued each other during the exams. Now they had a friendly rivalry still, but they had an understanding with each other that they wouldn't let something like that destroy what they had with each other again either. She grinned as she continued, "Not much, just needing to buy some flowers for my Sasuke-kun."

Ino felt her eye twitch as she glared at the beaming face of her friend. She shook her head and sighed, knowing full well where this was going. "Sure sure, billboard-brow, we both know he's busy dreaming about me."

"Cha! As if, we both know he wants me. Anyways I need some red camellias, so hop to it!"

"Ooh, 'you're a flame in my heart', eh? I see I see," Ino teased as she got up from behind the counter to gather the flowers. She grabbed two and came back to the counter, wrapping them up cutely and handing them to her friend. "So everything's good now, Sasuke-kun is ok?"

"Yeah…he's still being quiet after Hokage-sama healed him but…I feel like everything's finally getting back to normal after Gaara."

"Thank god, Sasuke-kun was strong enough to defeat Gaara, huh? If that didn't happen…jeez, who knows!"

"…" The pink haired girl looked down at the flowers she was buying, contemplating whether or not she should say the thoughts on her mind.

"Thank you, Sasuke-kun. For that time you saved me from the grip of sand."

"…No."

"What?" She said with a look of surprise on her face.

"…The one who saved you was Naruto."

"No way. You're just being modest. Sure, Naruto is getting stronger but that sand guy –"

"It's the truth," he replied coldly, "To save you, that guy risked death. Up until now you haven't really seen him, so you haven't seen his strength either."

She continued staring, lost in the memory of that day when she found out what Naruto had done for her. She felt bad for wronging him, for not accepting that he could be that strong, for not believing that he would go that far for her. In her heart, she knew it would be wrong to deny him that, to deny him recognition, and she wondered how badly she had hurt him already. She was awoken from her thoughts by her blonde haired friend poking her in her side and looking inquisitively at her.

"Oi, forehead, you ok? You zoned out on me there."

"…It wasn't Sasuke-kun." She continued to look at the flowers in her hands.

"Huh? What are you talking about? Who else could it be…" Ino looked at her friend as if she had sprouted a new head. She was confused by the behavior the pink haired girl had begun exhibiting at the mention of Gaara, and wondered if perhaps she dragged back some bad memories. Stooping a little to see the face of the other kunoichi, she was surprised to see a small peaceful smile on her face.

"It was Naruto…he saved us…me…"

"…" Ino was startled, she knew Naruto was strong after defeating Inuzuka Kiba and Hyuuga Neji, but to think that he was capable of defeating the psychotic redhead from Suna was an entirely different thing. Her mind drifted back to her dream from last night as she subconsciously began playing with the cloth in her pocket; she quickly remembered this gave her the perfect opportunity to ask Sakura about her teammate.

"Hey…Sakura, I was meaning to ask you…do you know where I can find him? Naruto?"

It was her friend's turn to look inquisitively at the blonde haired girl. She quirked her eyebrow, "Hm...knowing him, he's probably going overboard training at our field. Why are ya looking for him?"

"Oh…I just remembered something he did for me a long time ago…I wanted to thank him" She smiled, hoping she wasn't sounding too suspicious and that the pink-haired girl wouldn't pry anymore.

Sakura shrugged and waved, "Well, I'm going to go take care of Sasuke-kun now. Are you going to drop by later?"

"Probably, I'll go later when I'm not busy," she waved to the girl and went about the store to get ready to go. Her thoughts drifted back to the blonde boy and she wondered just how much Naruto could really surprise people. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, she yelled upstairs to notify her mom that she was going to leave, "Mom! I'm going out now, store's all yours now!"

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She let her mind wander over what Sakura had said earlier about the battle with Gaara as she strolled through the fields, slowly making her way towards training ground 7. Once again, she found herself feeling a strange sensation in the pit of her stomach as she thought of the hyperactive ninja. To think that her dream boy, Sasuke, would steadfastly state that it was Naruto who had saved them all from the wrath of the Sand ninja was pretty amazing…the more she thought about what the blonde shinobi had accomplished, the more she began to wonder how much more there was to him than he let show.

The sun was beginning to descend in the sky as the afternoon dragged on, the comforting orange glow waning as the first stars appeared in the deepest blue regions of the heavens. A gentle breeze was blowing through the field, the grass swaying quietly as the shadows cast by the three wooden logs in the field stretched out towards the small river running through the training ground. A lone figure stood on the banks of the river, his head tilted back as he gazed up at the sky. The figure looked down and began to move, a series of slow and fluid movements as he danced in an elegant kata around the river shore before stepping into and onto the river. His golden hair ruffled in the wind as he continued his exercise above the river, eyes closed while he let his mind clear in meditation. His shirt and jacket lay discarded on the embankment, still wet from his earlier practice in the river. He continued, as he had for the past few hours, tuning out his surroundings so he was unaware as the blonde kunoichi approached.

Ino finally sauntered up the path towards the training ground and saw the boy she was looking for moving about on the river. She stopped to watch for a few moments, wondering if he would stop when he felt her presence. His graceful movements soon had her attention, and she crept closer to have a better look, trying to keep quiet so as to not disturb the ninja. Her eyes widened as she sat down by the wooden logs, leaning against it as she watched the blonde ninja continue his kata, oblivious to his observer. She couldn't help but be amazed at the self-control and refinement he showed in his training, all signs of the normally exuberantly energetic shinobi gone as he had a strange look of peace and contentment on his face.

'Is this really Naruto? After that dream yesterday…it seems like everything's changed about him,' she pondered, her eyes never leaving the gleaming figure on the river. She felt the blood rush to her face as she realized he was shirtless, his muscles glistening from the water and sweat as the fading sunlight washed over him. She noted that he was surprisingly well defined, never having seen what he looked like under his ridiculously bright orange and blue jacket before.

'My god, it's like he's two different people…no, that's not right…it's just that I never knew him before,' she felt a pang of guilt strike her heart as she watched him. 'I came here to apologize to him…for treating him the way I did before, but it still hasn't changed…I still don't know anything about him.'

He began to finish his kata, coming to a standstill in the middle of the river, his arms crossed in front of him as he concentrated. His hands moved together quickly, forming the ram seal as he gathered his chakra, intent on improving his chakra control further. As he felt the familiar swirl of water around his feet, his energy swirling out from the center of his body, a particularly intricate spiral pattern appeared on his stomach, faintly glowing red. The blonde kunoichi was quick to notice, her eyes riveted on the strange mark now adorning the boy on the river. 'What…what is that? I've never seen anything like that before!'

She stood up and walked down to the embankment, still staring at the boy's stomach before she realized that she had gotten too close. The boy tensed up, the small swirl of water around his feet dissolving into the river current as his eyes shot open. The sparkling blue met her own as she stood frozen, unsure what to do and what he could possibly be thinking. She panicked a bit, the fright showing in her face before she could stop it and in return she saw a flash of anguish cross his azure orbs, and the boy's shoulders sagged a bit, his head dropping before he picked himself back up. He looked up, back into her eyes, a large grin plastering his face as he said, "Hey Ino! …What are you doing here?"

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