Title: The Good and the Bad
Word Count: 343
Rating: K for a lack of anything offensive at all.
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters herein contained. I only own the text.
Just your basic cliche. Seriously. How many other people have written stories like this? Wanted to try my hand at it anyway. InoSaku is one of my favorite Naruto pairings. Yuri, obviously.
There are the good days. Sakura laughs, she saves people, heals wounds. She kisses Ino softly, lovingly, with more gentleness than anyone could ever expect of the kunoichi who is legendary for smashing rocks with her bare fists. Ino for her part likes these days best. She doesn't have to walk carefully those days, she can be unreserved, as bitchy and snarky as she wants and Sakura will take it in stride.
There are the bad days. Sakura yells and shouts and screams about anything and everything. Ino screams back—she can't take being yelled at—and sometimes they come to blows. Sakura won't eat, Ino won't cook and neither of them cleans anything. Ino usually stays over with Shikamaru or Chouji or even Kiba and Hinata. Sometimes she stays for days, sometimes she spends weeks shifting from one place to another. Her team says nothing anymore, not trying to reconcile her and Sakura's differences. They have learned as Ino has learned to simply wait for the next stretch of good days.
There are the worst days. Sakura doesn't say anything. Ino comes home to find her curled up in a corner, the torn curtains or sheets or pillows scattered around her, tears streaking eagerly down her face. She whimpers some explanation when she sees Ino—the curtains wouldn't close, the sheets were scratchy—and just keeps sobbing until Ino comforts her to sleep. Sometimes she calls Tsunade to find out just who Sakura lost, just who she couldn't save. Sometimes she doesn't. Sometimes she cries herself, but most times she just tucks Sakura in and sits and thinks, sake in one hand and a kunai in the other.
There are good days, and there are bad days and Ino takes them all. She is cold and unfeeling, like any shinobi should be, and she can handle all of them. Sakura isn't strong, not like she should be, so Ino has to be strong enough for both of them. There are good days, and there are bad days, and Ino takes them all.