Hi! I've been gone a while, and wanted to flex the writing muscles out again. This is a short little multi-chap full of InoSaku awkward goodness. It should be around 3-5 chapters, so I hope you stick around.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Chapter 1: Like all great predicaments in this world, it started out as nothing.
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"What?" Sakura scoffed, irritated that her idiot of a teammate could even suggest such a thing.
Shikamaru hid a snicker, Choji completely ignored everyone in favor of his food, and Ino's sharp soprano laugher echoed louder than Sakura's complaint.
"I'm just saying!" Naruto shrugged, cheeks bloated with rice and barbecue. His features had become sharper with age, but it always warmed Sakura's heart that he would never really change—and she wouldn't have him any other way. "You and Ino should totally make-out in front of Kakashi-sensei. It would be the perfect birthday gift."
"We would break him, wouldn't we Forehead?" Ino said, casually draping an arm around Sakura's neck and winking at her direction for full effect.
"And we'd never get him to stop asking once we start," The pinkette rolled her eyes, albeit chuckling at the silliness of it all.
Team 10 and Team 7—Sai and Sasuke would join on some days—had developed a ritual of having lunch together at least once every two weeks. It started off with the boys tagging along Ino and Sakura's 'lunch dates' until eventually it was the norm for them to show up at the same place and time, consistently. Shikamaru pretended it was 'troublesome' but hadn't missed a single one since; Choji and Naruto just liked having friends to eat with.
"So… you would make out with one another?" Naruto gently prodded, his chopsticks pausing halfway up to his mouth while his eyebrows wiggled.
"Isn't it a normal girl-bestfriend thing or something?" Shikamaru asked with mild interest. "I mean, at this point in their friendship I wouldn't be surprised and it probably wouldn't bother them."
"Are we seriously letting them have this conversation, Ino-pig?"
"Cute. You even have nicknames." Shikamaru teased.
"Maybe if you punch him full-force he'll shut up." Ino replied in all seriousness.
"Perhaps," Sakura nodded sagely, already picking up on her bestfriend's mischievous aura. "But maybe the boys would shut up if we just give them what they wanted before trying it out on sensei."
At this point, the three boys had effectively paused from eating and were staring slack-jawed at the pair.
"Like, right here?" Naruto sounded a little too hopeful for Sakura's liking and Shikamaru was smart enough to not say a word.
"Hmm, maybe you two could make it quick?" Choji said earnestly. "The barbecue will either burn or get cold if it takes too long."
At this, the girls had broken into fits of laughter.
"Keep dreaming, Naruto." Sakura ruffled his hair as she settled her chopsticks across her bowl and began to reach for her belongings.
Naruto narrowed his eyes. "I thought you were going to—"
"We were just messing with you." Ino rolled her eyes. "Sakura's forehead is way too big for her to get that lucky."
"Hah, as if I'd want to kiss you, little miss piggy." Sakura shot back, already slinging her bag over her shoulder.
"Leaving so soon?" Choji looked up, disappointed.
"Tsunade-shishou's orders." Sakura replied apologetically.
Ino and Sakura bid their farewells and ushered themselves out of the little booth back into the streets and to work. After the war ravaged the land, people with Ino and Sakura's talents—an exceptionally powerful Yamanaka and a Byakugo-seal holder who both have significant medical prowess—proved to be invaluable. Sakura had earned a place up there with Tsunade, a true master of the fist and the scalpel. Ino helped heal more subtle wounds: the ones whose minds had been scarred by war. Konoha Hospital was lucky to have both within their hallways.
"Girls are so troublesome," Shikamaru sighed, looking out the window to see Ino and Sakura walk side-by-side and immediately start arguing about something that they probably didn't really care about.
"I know, right? For a minute there I really thought they were going to make out!" Naruto said with wonder. "And then they seemed so comfortable about it, but then turns out they haven't, so now I'm confused and—"
"Naruto, I think Shikamaru said that because they skipped the bill." Choji supplied.
Naruto's stomach sank—Gama-chan the wallet was not in good health.
"What?! S-Sakura-chan come back!"
"Stop complaining," Shikamaru resigned himself. "You did the same to them last time."
Sakura slipped into her medic's coat with a spring to her step. Their bi-monthly lunches out always put her in a better mood for the afternoon shift; it felt a little bit like having a breath of fresh air that didn't smell like antiseptic and gauze. Picking up a clipboard, she cross-referenced the errands she had listed down mentally with the ones she'd written down in ink—Naruto was due for some immunizations before a week-long mission to Amegakure; Sasuke was reporting back to Kakashi sometime this week—he likely needs to replenish his medical supplies and has a gash (or ten) that needs stitching and disinfecting; Shizune was waiting on the results of a new poison Sakura had analyzed, and she promised to take the task of synthesizing an antidote off of her shoulders; Ino had referred one of her patients to Sakura—a poor chuunin whose temple was in the way of a senbon.
The patient was of particular interest to both kunoichi because aside from his state of mental disarray and sudden loss of control over his speaking faculties, he was in perfect health. The field nurses were quick to assume it was mental trauma and sent him to Ino's way, but Ino confirmed that the case was actually neurophysiological: a small lesion to an area of the brain which caters to awareness and speech—an area so small that only someone with perfect chakra control can perform corrective surgery without causing even more damage.
Sakura smirked at the thought of Ino, recalling their earlier banter. She brisk-walked down the corridor towards the Psychiatric ward with the intention of acquiring the patient files from the aforementioned blonde. Out of nowhere though, a little, timid thought snuck into the earth of Sakura's mind like an incessant worm:
Kissing Ino… wouldn't actually be that bad.
It wouldn't be bad at all, the more she thought about it. It's not like she wanted to—it was just admitting the fact that if she had to, it wouldn't be the end of the world. Ino by all standards is a very attractive young woman who was more intelligent than she let people notice. Sakura wasn't just anybody to Ino, and she knew the best and the worst of the free-spirited woman like nobody else did. It was just a fact: If she had to kiss Ino, it wouldn't come up as any sort of problem or compromise.
But Sakura wondered, would Ino feel the same about kissing—no. She was not going down that line of thinking.
"Forehead? You almost bypassed my office." A familiar voice pulled Sakura out of her musing—matched with a 'poke' to her purple rhombus.
Habit dictated that she huff indignantly, swat the offending hand away, and fire back a well-practiced retort involving the world 'pig'. However, Sakura's body didn't feel like listening to 'habit' today, and instead flushed the slightest hint of pink at the neck and jumped back like a child caught with her hand in the cookie jar.
"Uhm. Earth to Sakura—are you okay?" Ino stepped back (did her hair always cascade around her shoulders that way when untied?) and put her hands to her waist, inspecting Sakura. "You looked super spaced out one minute and caught off guard the next."
"I—Uh. Yeah. I'm fine, just thinking about a lot of things." She countered swiftly, smoothing out her coat on habit once she's collected herself. In truth, there was nothing to be frazzled about—she was just a little guilty at bumping into Ino when she had just been thinking of kissing her. "Came by for the patient files, I'll need some time to prepare and consult with you before I plan out the operation."
"Got them right here," Ino winked, tossing Sakura a folder.
"Thanks." The pinkette replied, busying herself with scanning through the files while hiding relief that Ino let the former issue go. "These are good—I'll come by if I need more."
"So clingy." Ino sighed exaggeratedly, flipping her hair. "Next thing I know you'll be taking up Naruto's suggestion."
"Please," Sakura did her best to sound annoyed. "We both know that's your way of asking for it, so don't pretend it's me."
Ino rolled her eyes, sharing a good laugh with Sakura over the silly joke. "Whatever, forehead. Let's have coffee and do our nails later, what do you say? The sooner we go over Mr. Brain Lesion, the faster he can talk again."
"Sounds good," Sakura's eyes were already glued to the paper, absorbing information as fast as she could—he was 21 years old, no family history of psychiatric or congenital disorders, and was previously hospitalized for a broken wrist. When Sakura started, it was hard to pull her out of 'the zone', so Ino took it upon herself to usher the medic out of the Psychiatric wing and back to her office. Sakura waved her friend a quick farewell while Ino licked her pink, vanilla-glossed lips and flashed her a smile.
Sakura paused mid-step. Shit.
Did she seriously just think 'pink, vanilla-glossed lips' about Ino?
I hope you have the time to leave a review and toss some ideas if you have any! I plan to just have fun with this - no major drama or anything like that. Thanks for reading!