Night Out Chapter 1

A/N: I honestly have no idea what inspired me to get back into fanfiction and I have no idea if I will actually ever finish this. But I wanted to write this, so here I go.
Ino's POV
The course of true love never did run smooth, or at least that's what I think I read in tenth grade English. But it's been a long time, and I was always a little bit more concerned with my hair than my grades back then.
My name is Ino Yamanaka and I'm currently 22 years old. My attention to my hair grew into a career and I now work in a salon as a stylist, but I'm hoping to become a fashion designer someday. I work on clothes in my spare time, and maybe someday it'll benefit me.
But that wasn't what I was talking about, it was my disastrous love life that I was going on about. I thought things were going great with Neji Hyuuga! The dark haired, pale eyed man is a year older than me and extremely handsome. I thought we complimented each other well, but he says that he "doesn't feel much of a connection" with me and that we "should see other people".
After things hadn't worked out with Sasuke or Sai or Kiba, I really thought I'd found the one this time, but here I am, single again! And it's time to follow in my normal "I-just-got-dumped" pattern, and go hang out with my girl friends.
Sakura Haruno, Hinata Hyuuga, and Tenten Senshi were my closest friends growing up, so I normally go out with them when I'm down. However, Hinata is Neji's cousin and Tenten is a close friend of his and was the one to introduce us. I doubt either of them will want to hear me ranting about how much better off I am without him.
Instead, it seems I'll be falling back on some girls who come to the salon often that I ended up becoming friends with, Shiho Marasuki and Karin Uzumaki. I call Sakura first, then Karin, and both agree to meet me at my favorite club. Finally, I call Shiho.
"Hello?"
"Shiho? It's Ino. My idiot boyfriend dumped me, so I'm going out with some friends tonight, wanna come?"
"Who all is coming? Sakura or Chouji or...Shikamaru?" She tries to be subtle about it, but her crush on Shikamaru is extremely obvious. I hadn't planned on inviting the guys, but just because my love life was a disaster didn't mean that Shiho couldn't have a little fun tonight.
"Sakura is, and Karin too, but I haven't called the guys yet."
"Well, I think I'll be able to, probably..." Her voice sounds hopeful, no matter how hard she tries to disguise it. I grin to myself as I encourage her to dress up a little more and maybe put some contacts in- the poor girl will never get anywhere if she keeps dressing so plainly!- and then hang up.
Chouji Akimichi and Shikamaru Nara have been my friends since practically infanthood. Our dads were all best friends, so we frequently played together when we were little and pretty much stuck together our whole lives. It isn't hard to convince Chouji to go, but Shikamaru takes a little more work. He reluctantly agrees after I play the just-got-dumped sympathy card with him, and I hang up to get ready for my night out.
~X~
All of the girls, even Shiho, look positively stunning tonight. Sakura's pink hair it in an up-do and is wearing a red dress. Karin's usually unruly red hair is straightened- I see she's following my advice!- and she's in a lilac top and black skirt. Shiho, it seems, is really putting forth an effort tonight.
Her blonde hair is still a little bit messy, but for once in her life, her bright green eyes aren't hidden behind thick lenses. Seeing as how she isn't stumbling (too much) in her heels, she must be wearing contacts. She's in a white blouse and navy skirt, not too flashy, but she probably doesn't have anything better for club-going.
When the guys show up, we all go inside together. They, of course, are just in t-shirts and jeans, but still look pretty nice. If they weren't my childhood friends, I might even consider dating one of them. Shikamaru, with his dark hair and sharp features is pretty hot, and the slightly-pudgy-but-more-muscular auburn haired Chouji is cute.
As soon as we're in, I hit the dance floor. Sakura and Karin go with me, while Shiho sticks with the guys, who aren't really in the mood for dancing. When Sakura is approached by a man with light blue hair, Karin and I grin and encourage her to dance with him.
After a little bit, Karin shouts that she was thirsty over the music and leaves me to get a drink. Pretty soon, me, Sakura, and her new friend decide to go join my group, but on the way back, Sakura suddenly stops short.
"What is it?" I ask.
"Uh, Ino...I think Neji's here."
I groan, but decide to not let it get to me. "Whatever, it's a public place, he can come here if he wants to."
"Yeah, but can he hit on your friends if he wants to?" She points and I see that he is, In fact, chatting it up with Karin and they seem to be getting pretty cozy. Perhaps I should have told Karin a little more about my ex than just "he's an idiot." Like what he looks like or at least what his name is.
"It doesn't matter," I finally say. "We're broken up, if he likes Karin, there's nothing wrong with that. She's a nice girl, they'll get along just fine, I'm sure."
I think Sakura can tell that I'm lying, but she keeps her mouth shut as we go over to the table with Shiho and the guys are sitting. Her friend introduces himself as Suigetsu and seems to fit in with the group alright.
Shiho, on the other hand, is just plain awkward. Shikamaru is completely oblivious to her crush on him and she's struggling to fit into any of the conversations. In a desperate attempt to fit in better, when Shikamaru orders his first drink, so does she, though anyone can tell she isn't a drinker with how she studied the menu and sounded confused as she ordered. I can tell this is going to be interesting.
Not this interesting, though! I can see Karin approaching our table, and with Neji in tow. I'm not in the mood to face my ex with my friend hanging all over him, so before they can get close, I excuse myself and walk off.
At this point, it's safe to say that I'm pissed off. I know it's not Karin's fault, since she has no idea he's my ex, but Neji! Who would have thought someone as serious as him would be hooking up with hot redheads in clubs on the same day he broke up with his hot blonde girlfriend? By the time I reach the bar, I'm fuming. I barely notice the stranger to my left as I order and down my first drink.
But as I order my second and prepare to down it, he says, "Better slow down, there." I look over with annoyance to see who has the gall to tell me how to spend my night. He seems to be older, and has broad shoulders, long white hair, and a square jaw. All in all, not bad looking, but I'm too irritated to really notice.
"Why should I?" I snap.
"Well, do you really wanna be too out of it to have any fun tonight? Isn't that what girls your age come to clubs to do?" he asks.
"I did come to have fun and forget about my idiot ex, but then I saw him all over my friend, so I guess that calls for a change of plans." Normally, I don't tell my life story to strangers, but, like I said, I'm pissed off, and he's asking for it.
"He certainly is an idiot," he murmurs, giving me a once-over. I'm aware of how great I must look to him and almost start to cheer up a bit. "That doesn't have to ruin your night, though," he continues. "How about, instead, you let me pay for that drink so your money isn't wasted, leave it sitting here, and come dance with me?"
The question takes me by surprise, but I don't contemplate it for long. Maybe if Neji sees me with another guy, he'll get just as pissed off as I did. Sounds like perfect payback to me!
"Alright, I think I can do that," I reply. "My name's Ino, by the way. What's yours?"
"Jiraiya," he says, and he pays for my drink, takes my hand, and leads me to the dance floor.
A/N: Next chapter will be Shikamaru's point of view. The story will be from his, Ino's, and Chouji's POVs, and maybe their respective love interests, but probably not. I'm trying to keep it strictly Team 10-centric.