Disclaimer: Do not own Naruto.
Ino knew her relationship was a sham. She knew from the moment that he kissed her that it was all a lie.
When Sasuke first appeared on her doorstep that rainy night and kissed her roughly, she felt her heart burst open with her love. She had finally done it. She had finally beaten Sakura to their beloved Uchiha and had garnered his love. She had won…but it was all a lie.
It was later that she learned of his true reasons.
At the age of 24, two years after his return, he was still the mysterious heartbreaker she remembered in their genin years. When she first saw him when switching shifts at the hospital two years ago, he was staring out of the window, his raven hair blowing gently in the breeze of the open window. She felt herself become winded; he was still as beautiful as she remembered. Untouched by time.
Days later, news spread of his return as he continued his recovery. Sakura was assigned as his personal nurse, much to her own disappointment. When she passed by his door in the evenings, she could see the serene smile on his face and hear his beautiful laugh as Sakura took care of him. Maybe this was when their relationship had begun to fall apart?
The days melted into weeks and Sasuke was steadily recovering from his various injuries. It was those days that his visitors began to steadily trickle in. Naruto, Kakashi, his replacement Sai, Tenten, Hinata, Neji, Lee, everyone, but she would only see him smile when Sakura was with him. And it hurt even more to see the longing look in his eyes when she left for the night.
Sasuke soon recovered and was allowed to go out in the streets. It was all he could do. He couldn't leave the village as his punishment. Even the elders admitted begrudgingly that house arrest would be too cruel for a man with a home that held memories as painful as the ones engraved upon his heart.
When she walked in the streets and called his name, he would walk on, or if she was lucky, give her a glance and slight nod before going on his way again. It was all she could hope for, but she loved every moment of it.
On the days when she would pass the original Team 7 at Ichiraku, she would gape at the bowls of ramen by Naruto's arm, then chuckle at his antics, but her gaze would stray to Sakura who was oblivious to Sasuke's adoring gaze and it never failed to kill the smile on her lips.
She remembered a little later, he stroked her pink hair and Sakura look back and smile at him before returning to her conversation as jealousy boiled within her. 'Why couldn't that be her?' she'd ask herself. Then Sasuke would place his hand over hers and she'd give him a small smile before giving his hand a squeeze and talking again. He seemed happy with Sakura and that's when she started to distance herself from her old best friend.
It continued for two years. His touches and small smiles were all for her, never herself, but her pink-haired best-friend-turned-enemy, but Sakura never seemed to notice. She would just smile at him and say, "Hi Sasuke-kun."
It didn't take long for her to become sickened at the voice and for Sasuke to become completely enamored with Sakura, but he still turned up on her doorstep in the night, the cold rain and even colder winds beating at his back before he kissed her senseless and fucked her till she screamed.
Weeks later, she found out why he had turned up on her doorstep. He had seen Sakura in the throes of passion with her lover, Kakashi. Apparently, it had been going on for a while. Only their inner circle of friends knew.
Once word got out, the village as in uproar, but they didn't care and soon, neither did the village and the calm returned.
When had they started seeing each other? When had Sakura gotten married to him? Was she ever going to tell her? Her. Sakura's best friend. But a bitter smile came across her face as she realized that she hadn't exactly been on speaking terms with Sakura. When was the last time they had talked? Roughly two years ago if memory served her right, but still, why hadn't she told her? But a voice in her head reminded her venomously that it had been her fault. She was the one who started the rift in the first place.
Nowadays, people could see her and Sasuke all around the village. They would never hold hands or kiss in public. There was always at least a foot between them. They never even touched each other when they were in private unless they were fucking each other. But every time they spotted Kakashi and Sakura together, Kakashi lifting his wife in the air and spinning her around as the sunlight bounced off the golden bands on their ring fingers, Sasuke would ball his hands into fists and roughly shove her against a wall and kiss her senseless. As soon as the couple left, he would pull away roughly from her and stalk away as she tried to regain her wits and chase after him.
It was night once again and the sounds of his bed slamming against the walls of his home rang throughout the empty house. She said 'his' because it was never 'theirs,' it was never hers to begin with, it was his.
The bed creaked as he continued to slam into her, screams escaping her as he continued to drive deeper and deeper into her in their love-making. Another lie. It wasn't lovemaking because love would have to be involved. The same love she saw in her old best friend's eyes and her husband's. No, this was just primal, carnal fucking, but she liked to think they were making love.
Ragged moans escaped his lips as he hunched over hers and she felt a familiar sensation explode inside her. Her inner muscles contracted and sent him into release as she screamed his name, but the name that left his belonged to another. "Sakura…"
As she lay on her side of the bed, Sasuke sleeping on his, she thought back on their relationship. He had never held her. Only once on that rainy night when he sought human comfort as he nursed his shattered heart, but now, there was nothing.
She smiled bitterly to herself as thoughts filled her mind. Life just loved to fuck with her. Just when she thought she got what she wanted, it turned out that it didn't want her. Sasuke didn't want her. Friends didn't want her. Love didn't want her. It wanted Sakura. Everyone wanted Sakura.
Sakura was the one who could solve your problems with ease, make you smile and laugh when you thought it impossible, and give you everything you wanted and more. Sasuke wanted that, but he couldn't have it. He couldn't have her. Kakashi had her and she had Kakashi. What did she have? She had a broken heart and a lie to live. The man she loved, the man who saw her everyday, didn't actually see her. All he saw was a way to release his pent-up frustrations. When he looked at her, he didn't see sapphire eyes; he saw emerald. When people saw blonde hair, he saw bubble-gum pink. When she gave him her willing heart, he saw her give hers to another.
Though she wanted to blame Sakura, she couldn't. It was all her fault and hers alone. She was a fool. She was a fool to believe he could love anyone but Sakura, and she was a fool to believe he might just change for her. He didn't see Yamanaka Ino when he looked at her, he only saw Haruno Sakura. He didn't see a woman who was desperate to give him everything he needed, he only saw one thing and she knew it. She would never get his love for his heart belonged to another.
She was just a replacement.