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Seeing You Again
Rain glittered as it hit the pavement. Ino hurried along under the downpour, a stack of books hugged close to her chest. She'd forgotten to return them and they had been sitting on the floor of her bedroom for a week. A whole week! The blonde kunoichi picked up her pace. She didn't want to have to deal with the extra payment for keeping the books as long as she'd done. And if she didn't return them today, the fine would be even higher.
But life was life. Shielding her cargo from the spring rain, Ino concentrated on avoiding the puddles that covered the sidewalk. In her dash to the library, her shoes had been soaked by the rain, but she didn't want them to get any worse than they already were.
Raindrops fell harder, stinging her shoulders. Why didn't I bring an umbrella? Ino screamed at herself silently, shaking her head. She had rushed out the door so fast she had forgotten to even put on a coat. The tank-top she was wearing was nearly soaked. Luckily enough, spring rains like the one that was falling were rarely cold. The warm drops made the air soft and heavy.
She ducked into the opening doors of a bus and waited impatiently in line. After handing in her ticket, she stood next to the window, looking out at the rain-filled city and the cherry blossoms bowing their heads in the downpour. Briefly, she wondered when Sakura would be returning from her mission. The pink-haired girl had been gone two months. Two long, almost unbearable months. Ino had settled into the rhythms of life without Sakura, but it didn't feel right at all.
Ino was jerked out of her thoughts as the bus came to a stop. She glanced up, recognizing that she was close to the library. She walked out into the rain again and quickened her pace. Almost there.
Ino was too busy shielding the books from the rain to see Sakura ahead of her. She wouldn't have expected the girl to be back from her long mission anyway. Ino felt herself crash into the pink-haired kunoichi, who made a small noise of surprise, and then she saw the books fly from her arms and land on the pavement among the deep puddles of rainwater. She felt herself slipping too, about to fall down on the rough concrete, but then she was standing upright again and Sakura's arms were around her waist.
"Sorry you almost fell," Sakura said with a rueful smile. "I think I caught you just in time." The girl removed her arms from Ino's waist and stepped back, rushing to pick up the fallen books. She handed them in a neat stack to Ino, who took them slowly. The paper of the pages was sopping wet and curling from all the moisture.
"These are useless now . . ." Ino murmured, the realization hitting her. "I can't give these back to the library in this state."
Sakura's brow furrowed anxiously. "It's my fault, Ino. I'm really sorry I bumped into you—"
"No, not at all," Ino said, surprising Sakura with a bright smile. "I guess this is the way it was meant to be. I . . . don't really mind."
Sakura tipped her head to the side, genuinely confused. "Why not?"
Ino looked down at the stack of books in her arms and then back up at Sakura. She smiled fondly at the pink-haired kunoichi. The books dropped from her arms and she hugged Sakura fiercely, squeezing the breath out of the medic nin and then pulling back, only to kiss Sakura tenderly on the lips. The two stood in the heavy rain with the crowd of people moving around them. In those few moments nothing existed but the two of them and the slow pitter-patter of the rain and the blue-grey sky.
Ino pulled away and couldn't help but smile. "I love books, but there are some things that just don't compare to seeing you again, Sakura."
The pink-haired kunoichi's eyes widened as Ino hugged her a second time, and then her lids closed in contentment.
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