Angel

Summary: Ino mourns her lover's death.

Warnings: shojo-ai, SakuIno/SasuSaku.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto nor the song 'Angel'.

She lived like she knew nothing lasts

Didn't care to look like anyone else

And she was beautiful, so beautiful

I still hear her laugh like she's here

I buried my lover today. It wasn't as much a shock as I would've thought it'd be because women in our position die quite frequently – we are kunoichi serving our hidden villages to keep peace.

Let me tell you about my lover. We met when we were quite young – she was being picked on for her overly-large forehead and her unusual shade of hair. We soon became friends, only for a boy to come between us. We were rivals for quite a long time, eventually returning to a strong friendship. The boy left the village and returned some years later, and by that time we were together.

She and I spent nights together, snuggled in each other's arms telling our deepest, darkest secrets. By day we'd walk through our village together, arms linked and smiling, laughing with our friends. Between missions, she would spend her time at the hospital, and I would gravitate between a medical clinic and my parent's flower shop.

Things changed when the boy – man – we once fought over asked for her hand in marriage and she was compelled to take it. The funny thing was, I never saw it as a betrayal. Sure she spent the majority of her nights with him in the hopes of conceiving a long-wished for child which she would never have with me, but there were times when she spent lonely nights with me. Before anyone asks, yes her husband did know about them – he encouraged it for her happiness, not that she was completely distraught at being his wife and the mother of his children.

I became godmother of their first child – a beautiful little boy who had the colourings of his father yet the soft looks of his mother. I watched him – and their other two children – grow into strong children. It complicated things further, yet somehow things worked out.

And when I go to sleep at night

I'll thank you for each blessed thing surrounding me

For every fall I'll ever break

Each moment's breath I wanna take

Confidence and conscience

Decadent extravagance

Never ending providence

For loving when I had the chance

The last time we were together, she had embraced me warmly and kissed me fiercely. We spent our night lying in bed telling each other our hopes and dreams, our deepest and darkest secrets and desires. "I want you to be happy, Ino," she had told me, "If anything were to ever happen to me, I'd want you to know how much I love you and how much I'd want you to be happy." I laughed and agreed, saying that I'd want the same for her – for her to continue loving her husband and children. I was certainly not a selfish a lover as some would've though.

Two days later, at age thirty-five, my lover Sakura died on a mission. It was her husband who told me, and stayed with me until my tears stopped. "She told me that I was to comfort you if anything were to happen…" he said, "It's only right that I do this duty for a woman that loved us and my children."

"She certainly was an amazing woman, wasn't she Sasuke?" I replied. He nodded sadly, mirroring every feeling that I felt.

"I never resented her loving you," he said.

"She loved us equally – she told me the day that you proposed, and I couldn't deny her happiness with you."

"I knew how much you meant to her too."

"Thank you, Sasuke."

"I need your help, for the funeral and the arrangements…"

"Anything, just tell me what I need to do. How are the kids?"

"Upset… Would you be able to look after them while I go to the hospital?"

"Will you be alright by yourself?"

"I think so."

Today we buried her – our angel, my lover, his wife, their mother, her daughter, their friend, their team mate, their student. She was everything to us, and we were everything to her. I spent my evening at home – alone with a picture of the two of us staring out at me from beyond the glass.

'I'm glad neither you nor Sasuke are jealous of each other – I love you both equally, and it'd hurt me to have my loved ones fighting over who loves me more…'

I smiled at that memory – the week after her wedding and her first night with me in over three weeks. "We had enough fights over your husband to last a life time… I think I can manage sharing you with him and any children," I winked. We had kissed then, laughing at the memories of the adventures of Ino-pig and Billboard-brow, fangirls of Uchiha Sasuke.

'I love you Ino,'

"I love you too, Sakura."

Angel

I hope they love you like we do

Forever angel

I'll be proud to be like you.

"Angel" – The Corrs (Borrowed Heaven)

Author's Note: That has to be the first time I've ever attempted to write something with elements of yaoi/yuri. Yes, I know I mixed it with SasuSaku, but I wanted to go for something unusual… Also note that this isn't a songfic, I've used parts of the lyrics of the song to set the mood for the fic.

Like it? Hate it? Tips? Tell me please!