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"So, dear, how is your team doing?"

Ino looked up from her plate and swallowed the mouthful of goose she was chewing before responding to her mother.

"The doctors say Chouji should be back on light duty in another week, and Shikamaru's already grumbling about his post in the intelligence department."

"It's good to hear that Chouji will be able to recover." Her father said softly, setting down the cup of tea he had been nursing.

The rest of the meal was finished in silence, not an uncommon occurrence in the Yamanaka household. When Ino had eaten at the Akimichi's or the Nara's homes the meal had been filled with idle conversation, but in a household full of mind-readers, such conversation was redundant. For a Yamanaka, each movement of the body combined with the quiet buzz of thoughts could convey emotions and feelings in an instant. Words were only needed for the more specific things.

The meal continued in silence, but interaction was rife. As Ino handed her Father the bread in answer to his unspoken request, she glanced out the window, noting the soft flakes of snow blowing by in the wind, she was unable to repress a soft shudder as she remembered how cold it was this winter.

Out of the corner of her eye she caught the small, reassuring smile her mother directed her way, at the same time as she felt the thought of a warm fire drift in from her father's direction. She smiled at both of them, thinking on how much they meant to her.

The meal continued in that fashion and at the end, her mother stood to clear the table while her father sipped at a small choko of warm nihonshu. She was about to join her mother in the kitchen when her father set the choko on the table and gestured for her to stay.

"Ino-chan..."

Ino suddenly paid closer attention to the man. Her father rarely hesitated, something was wrong.

Before the blond man could continue, the door rang. Feeling the spike of exasperation from her mother, Ino quickly bowed to her father before standing at his silent approval.

She padded to the front door, rather awed that anyone would be out given the weather.

When she slid open the door, however, no-one was there, only a box wrapped in vibrant reds and yellows. Picking up the strange package before once again looking around the seemingly deserted street, she saw her name scrawled on the top. She closed her eyes and spread her mind, searching for whoever was hiding.

.../Happiness...PainSadnessDespair...RageHate...Denial...CheerKindness...Warmth.../

Her eyes snapped open as the tide of disjointed emotion washed over her. Out of instinct she snapped her senses closed, trying to bring some semblance of order back to her mind.

She clutched at the doorframe and tried to calm her self, her heart was racing, mind whirling. Who on earth was that mind, it was terrifying.

But it was aterror at the power. There was no malice towards her in the surge, no sign that the gift was anything more.

So she took it inside and went up to her room, setting it on the bed to remind herself to open it, before returning to her father at the table.

Even as she knelt on the cushion, she could feel that the indecision had left him, replaced by a touch of regret and fear and a feeling she could only describe as aweight, like some unseen burden tugged at him.

"Ino-chan, now that you are a Kunoichi, it is time to..." there was the briefest pause, "...time to choose a suitor. You will be taking missions outside of the village now, with the shortage of shinobi, and the Yamanaka family cannot die out."

Ino quashed the immediate urge to scream, this was her father, instead settling for throwing her distaste for the idea at her father, feeding his tightly controlled guilt. In the Yamanaka family, this was the equivalent of the coldest glare imaginable.

As disturbing as it was, the idea was in fact important. While they had never organized themselves as a huge clan, like the Uchiha or the Hyuuga, the Yamanaka family was not a minor one. Allowing a major asset like the mental bloodline to die out would be a huge blow to Konoha, and one of the greatest prides of the Yamanaka's was that their family had been a member of the original alliance that had chosen the Shodaime and settled in the region.

At this point in her musing, her father felt she had had enough time to think and continued.

"I had hoped that you would grow close to either Shikamaru-kun or Chouji-kun, but since that is not the case, I will leave it up to you."

There was another pause, shorter this time.

"I will not make your choice for you. But I do ask that you begin to think about who you would be happy with."

His hand twitched towards the stairs, a tact dismissal.

Ino took her time in the shower, honestly trying to think things through rationally.

She had known this was coming, though not quite so soon. For years she had set her sights on the Uchiha. Not only was he handsome, in a surly, slightly girly sort of way, but the Sharingan doujutsu and the Uchiha name would have been great assets to the Family.

Now the Uchiha was gone, however, which left her with few options. She supposed she could go after Shikamaru or Chouji, but they were so much like brothers that the prospect was a rather sickening one. Lee and Neji were out of the question, they both scared her out of her mind, admittedly for different reason.

So much green!

She shook her head, cutting off that line of thought before she lost her dinner.

She turned off the water and grabbed a towel. Kiba was to macho for consideration she refused wed a boy who had told her to her face that she needed protection because she was a girl.

Besides, she would not be surprised if he occasionally skipped his weekly bath.

She pulled alose pair of slacks and a baggy shirt on before stepping into her room, shivering slightly. Her room was fairly far from the main heater and a bit drafty.

Shino was respectful enough, but given her incurable fear of insects he was probably abad choice.

She noticed the package on the bed. Picking it up, she sat down in its place, holding it in her lap.

She hesitated as she touched the ribbon; it seemed harmless enough but...

Who would want to kill me anyway?

She pulled off the ribbon, then carefully removed the paper, revealing a box with a note taped to the top.

You looked cold

There was no signature, just a doodle of a grinning fox sitting next to a bowl of rammen.

Frowning, she opened the box. Inside was a coat.

Not just any coat though, this coat was a sturdy service coat from one of the better shops, tough, supple canvas lined with good silk and both the inside and the out covered in pockets and straps for equipment and weapons.

And it was purple, the color of the Kami themselves.

The only bit of the thing that wasn't a deep purple was a patch on one shoulder, a dark orange spiral.

The spiral clicked with something, and she recognized who it must be from.

That guy...

She had seen him earlier that day, staggering under the weight of a pile of presents "for his family," which had confused her since it was well known he was an orphan. He had noticed her shivering before she opened her mouth, but had been polite enough not to comment on her choice of jacket.

It was her own fault anyway, she had bought the thing almost a year ago in an attempt to catch Sasuke's eye. It was purple, snug and stylish.

It had failed spectacularly, but she had waited to long to return it, and she didn't have the budget to buy a new one, which had left her stuck with the poorly cut, thin rag in the middle of the Konoha winter, which tended to be dry but very, very cold.

How the only blond she knew outside her family could chose such a gorgeous coat escaped her, given his usual dress, but the more important question was why he would do such a thing.

She shrugged and decided not to worry about it for now.

Pulling on the new garment she was astounded that Naruto had been able to guess her size so closely. In fact, if she assumed he had gone one size up from his guess to be safe, than he had been dead on the money. The coat was loose, but not enough to be bothersome or uncomfortable.

And it was warm.

She wrapped herself in the purple fabric and crawled under her blanket, burrowing into the soft futon in a purple and yellow ball.

Maybe he would make a good choice...

The thought drifted across her mind in a half-sleep haze.

She was asleep before she could dismiss the possibility.

o0o

Naruto perched on the underside of a tree branch smiling as he looked through Ino's window. He was glad she had accepted the gift, even if she couldn't possibly understand the significance of it.

He knew why he had gotten her that coat, and it had nothing to do with friendship, camaraderie or romance.

He was going to be Hokage, and a Hokage always took care of his people.

When they were sick he saw to them, when they were in danger he protected them, when they were hungry he fed them.

And when they were cold, he gave them warmth.

I will be the best Hokage ever, I swear it!

Uzumaki Naruto had made a promise to his village.

And he would die before he went back on his word.