It's Not You, Ino-chan
For the longest time, Ino Yamanaka, who just so happens to be my very best and only real friend, has been lying her ass off to me—to my face, and to the faces of others.
Well, not that I didn't copy her moves exactly, and in fact, amplifying them to the point where I thought I was actually in love with the emotionally disturbed Uchiha.
But still. She had been lying to me since just a little while after we met.
"I mean, I think I really love him!" Ino cried out, her movements exaggerative. Her hand motions were so far from her norm, that I couldn't help but roll my eyes. I knew she was lying. She was definitely lying—she never, ever acted the way she was acting now, after all.
"Right. Uh-huh," I replied, a sarcastic tone permeating my words.
"It's not like you don't like him," Ino pouted back. I couldn't tell what she was thinking, I just couldn't. She was so much harder to read than normal that I just blew up.
"And? What does that have to do with it?! I-I mean, you can't possibly…!" I began, but my breathing was hitched. I was crying lightly, and I knew it. I just had to fake it until I made it—I had to keep steadfast in my argument.
"Anyways," I started again, a gaping Ino in front of me. I pulled out the ribbon she had given me so lovingly nearly two years ago. We had been best friends ever since, but this was tearing us apart. It was best to end our façade of friendship before we really became enemies. "Here. I want you to have this back. When… when I'm older, I'll fight you for real. And then, I'll be wearing my hitai-ate like a real ninja. I won't be holding back," I finished. I had basically made up something to appease her, to hopefully not allow her to figure out that I was lying, just as she had.
She had always lied to me. She lied about liking Sasuke—I don't think she ever liked anybody. She only acted like that when she wanted to be obnoxious. The other times, she was well, not silent exactly, but deeper, and truly expressive. She was clever, and thought things through, and showed a wider range of emotions. That Ino was the fake Ino she showed for everyone else—the other Ino was just for me.
Okay, so I liked her. I don't anymore—I have now admitted to myself that I love her. Which is why I also pretended to like Sasuke—to hide my dirty secret, the fact that I, Sakura Haruno, was in love with my best friend, and a girl.
I hate myself for lying like that. Well, perhaps not lying, but hiding. I have always hidden. Whether it was hiding my huge forehead behind bangs, or hiding my real feelings, I have always hid. I keep running, and running, and running from reality. I just can't face the cold hard truth.
I never could.
----
"Hey, Sakura," Ino crowed from behind me. I jumped on the inside, but let out a low growl on the outside. I unintentionally continued the façade.
"Hey, Ino," I replied, my tone just as singsong, just as obnoxious. She would not beat me at lying.
"Ne, forehead girl, has Sasuke mentioned how much he loves me yet?" Ino asked, a smirk playing on her face.
"Are you kidding me? He is totally in love with me and only me! You see, we've been talking lately, and he's been giving me these looks…" I trailed off. Indeed, I even kept the façade up around Sasuke. And I wasn't stupid—the looks I've been getting were death-glares. The only looks he's been giving out were towards Naruto's ass, anyways.
"Oh, do they look like this?" Ino asked as she pointed a finger towards her own face, and then made a face that seemed as if she was gagging. "Because, seriously Sakura, that means he's about to lose his lunch," Ino finished. I think she had actually thought that one up before coming to talk to me, because that one was really played out.
"No, he keeps giving me these leers, like he wants me…" I trailed off, sighing happily, as if I had just seen a romantic movie. I felt so fake.
"Why do you keep this up?" I asked, after a long period of time. I had finally had enough of the lies we were telling each other constantly.
"What do you mean?" she asked, tilting her head to the side, to show confusion in more than just words.
"You know. I mean… This façade we both keep up!" I exclaimed, throwing my hands into the air—only this time, it was really what I felt.
Ino sighed. "How could you tell?" she asked, slumping against a nearby building.
"Because… It's not you, Ino-chan," I replied, using the name I called her when we were younger—mainly to get my point across, but also to simply say it.
"What do you mean, it's not me?" Ino asked softly, placing a hand on my shoulder, and turning me to face her again. Somewhere after saying that it wasn't like her, I had turned away from embarrassment.
"I mean… You're being fake again… But, I've been fake, so…" I didn't know how to explain it. It was something I had been pondering for so long, and my thoughts made so much sense to me, that I didn't ever think of how to put my thoughts in words. How would you put something like that into words?
Ino was being silent. She was averting her gaze from me, and I was rambling about my train of thought, even though I'm sure she didn't get it. Finally, she mercifully stopped me.
"Sakura… I… Are you saying that you like me?" she finally asked. Okay, maybe it wasn't merciful. I nodded, my throat now feeling like it was closing up. I couldn't actually say 'yes'. She ran a hand through her long, beautiful blond hair—lucky damn hand—and sighed.
"How will we make this work?" Ino finally asked, turning to me with a small smile.
"I… Wait, what?" I was confused—and besides, she skipped a step!
"I like you, too… I have for the longest time, but… You're right. We've been lying to each other and hiding… Well, we should stop. I like you," she explained, her words getting more and more confident as the sentence went on.
"… I think, that, if anyone says anything, we'll tell them very politely to go cut their wrists off with a rusty spoon," I finally said after a length of time, answering her old questions. "So, why hide it? I'm sure most people know that we don't care," I said, giving Ino a small smirk. She smiled, and I felt elated when I saw her face light up.
Ino walked over to me and hugged me tightly. I burrowed my head against Ino's shoulder, savoring the smell of fresh flowers and hair supplies—perhaps not the best-sounding combination, but it was entirely Ino's scent. Ino pulled away before placing a gentle kiss on my cheek, before placing another one not a millisecond later on my lips. She lingered longer on the second kiss, and I finally was taken out of my daze enough to kiss back.
She leaned harder against me, and my back collided with the building behind me, which deepened the kiss. She slid her tongue into my mouth and past my lips, rubbing against my tongue tentatively. It was the first time we had both kissed like that—to my knowledge, anyways—and Ino was dominating the kiss. I wanted to gain dominance, but when Ino's tongue began to massage my own, I let out a moan and stopped any resistance. My tongue began to move on it's own, and it caressed Ino's gently as she continued to explore my mouth.
She pulled back and took in a shallow, shaky breath. She gave me a small smile before leaning in again, and before our lips met, our tongues did. As we continued the motions from before, Ino's hands came to rest on my hips rather than around my neck, her hands gently rubbing my thighs in small circles. My hands fell to Ino's lower back, but I was uncertain on how to move.
"Ahem," a soft cough came from our left. We immediately stopped—though still in our embrace—and turned to the people that had been watching. For how long, I didn't know, but they had been. Shikamaru looked as if he had been the one to cough, and he was smirking at us. Next to him stood a Chouji, who was eating chips faster than before, and an uncomfortable-looking Asuma. If I wasn't mistaken, I think I saw Chouji hit Shikamaru after the "Ahem".
"We, uh, wanted to pick Ino up for training…" Asuma said uncomfortably, rubbing the back of his head. I sighed and turned to Ino.
"Go on," I motioned, giving Ino a quick peck on her lips. "Training is important," I added, though I was really actually disappointed.
"I know, I know…" Ino pouted, before leaving my embrace and walking off with her childhood friends and her sensei. I leaned against the wall and watched them walk away with a small smile on my face.
There was hope for me yet.
A/N: Yet another SakuIno oneshot. Ch, it was meant to be a one-sided type of thing (when I first started), but obviously, it ended up mutual. I'll do a one-sided thing later on with Ino, I think.