On the occasions when he has shared Ino's bed, she has told him that she knows who he's in love with: Sasuke, Sakura, Gaara. She told him that the rush of emotion on his sleeve is obvious for anyone looking to see it; its own flapping pink elephant. She had told him that everyone knew enough to fully understand and accept him with his heart as it was. And she had let him cry after. For as long as he had needed to, which had been a very long time. And then she had shown him her dungeon, and allowed him to trace the secret histories of all the people who had needed to see her dungeon. History like the grooved leash marks on the padded walls.

"The fuck is this, Ino?"

Ino doesn't reply. She locks the door and puts the string around her neck. She is wearing a black silk kimono draped loosely around her naked body. The key is between her breasts. Her gorgeous breasts that Naruto has become intimately acquainted with. Has secretly given names to.

Naruto looks around in awe. So much metal and leather. It makes sense with who he has come to know Ino is. The person before the make-up and hair.

The first time they had slept together, Ino had made Naruto watch while she took of her make-up. Let fall her hair. She had told him she had no interest in men who didn't want to fuck when she was ugly. Naruto had been intrigued. Stayed to fuck her.

Ino removes her make up layer by layer. Naruto is always intrigued by her. She always lures him to stay. Like now. In the underground basement of her house.

"Does your dad know you have all this down here?" Naruto asks laughing. Somehow he can't picture Ino's dad walking in to find whatever one walks in to find in BDSM dungeons.

"We're mind readers Naruto. Whether he knows or not, he understands I need a place that's just mine. Not quite what he has in mind, though, I imagine."

Naruto laughs easily with Ino. He finds she has a down to earth dry humour that is so unlike her after hair and makeup. But closer to herself.

The first time they had slept together had been Naruto's second night back after the test with Kakashi and Sakura. He had been wondering around the village after dark, found her doing the same thing. He had never thought of Ino as lonely before.

He learns that Ino before the makeup and hair is a very lonely person who does very lonely things.

They'd ended up walking together. Filling each other in on the past two years. Ino is, at first, the gossipy bitch he expects. She fills him in on the tragedies and scandal of Konoha with the precision of a well-practiced big-mouth. He doesn't believe half the things she tells him. That Shikamaru is in an open relationship with Temari. That Shika fucks Neji. That Neji is in love with Shika and takes whatever scraps he gets. It all sounds ridiculous. And Ino is notorious for her spins on truth. How is he supposed to believe that she dated Shino. That Shino's artiste with bugs carries into bedrooms. That Shino's got the biggest cock in all of Konoha. They're laughable thoughts. Far-fetched even. Tenten sleeping with Anko. Lee, the ever loving virgin, publicly declaring he is saving himself for Sakura; Hinata very privately saving herself for Naruto. Kiba fucking anything with a pulse; except Shika for some reason.

Though he doesn't believe her – learns his impulse to not believe Ino after the hair and makeup is right to a certain extent, he has fun with her. It is immediately easy for them to laugh together.

They had ended up at her house. Walking through the front door.

"Ino, your dad."

"We're mind readers. He'd know even if we used the window. So you see, I allow myself these small rebellions."

When they reach her room, Naruto is surprised to see her take off her makeup in front of him.

"Come in. Close the door. I have no interest in men who don't want to fuck me when I'm ugly."

And he had stayed. Watching the padded circles of makeup removed and thrown into the dustbin. Over and over again. Like preparation. She had intrigued him then. And he had started to see that Ino was a woman, not a girl.

Like now. Standing at the doors of the basement like a dungeon master. Empowered in her own private space, Ino is a woman. Naruto understands that this is the last layer of makeup to come off.

"Cuff yourself with those shackles; I'm going to make you forget Sasuke."

"That's a bold claim. You want me to hang from the roof on chains?"

"Yes. Now don't question me again. Do as you're told."

There is an edge to Ino's voice. Naruto finds he is cuffing himself to shackles on the roof. She has intrigued him enough to stay. Like she does. Ino walks to him. Examines him like he is naked flesh up to the slaughter. Like he is himself before hair and makeup.

She cuts his clothes with silver scissors. The metal is cold on his warm skin. And the press of it is deliberate. Naruto feels the scrape of scissors across his back. He opens his mouth to complain, because she is, after all, shredding his clothes. She fits a cock ring around him and there is an edge to her look. A slight raise of her head:

"Don't speak unless spoken to."

Naruto is quiet after that. He is quiet through the threatening caresses of a tawse. He is quiet through the light 'thwack' of it on his skin. He is intrigued enough by the pain to stay. The pleasure. He even stays quiet when the hit of leather to his now raw skin makes him want to scream. He is quiet through the almost unbearable sensation of her sharp nails scraping lightly across his back. He bites his bottom lip to bleeding, staying quiet. Tear stains streaked down his face, his eyelashes wet.

"Good boy. You look good with my markings on you."

Ino licks the trail of blood down Naruto's chin. Follows it back to the source on his bruised lip. Sucks on it, bites down. Wants more blood. She pulls back his hair and sinks her teeth into his jugular, makes the slightest of puncture wounds. She grips his cock. Pulsing, leaking, aching. An ugly manifestation of pain. Pleasure. Intrigued enough by both to stay. She is pressed right against him, breasts and all, gripping his cock. Naruto thinks he'll die if he doesn't come.

"I'm going to take this off. Don't come until I tell you to."

Naruto almost sags with the relief when the cock ring comes off. But then he remembers not to be relieved, he remembers there is something else like a vice grip at the base of his cock.

Ino drags a metal chair and sits down in front of Naruto. Her hair is fallen across her shoulders. She opens her legs and touches herself slowly. They've slept together enough times for Ino to know Naruto likes to watch and be watched. She touches her nipple, arches into the teasing pinch of her fingers. She rubs her inner thigh slowly, spreading her legs wider, sinks lower in her chair. Naruto sees the hungry, wet flush of her cunt. And there is no polite way of thinking it. Ino's cunt is fucking glorious. Like the woman she is.

When Ino does eventually. Touch herself. Her clitoris, her cunt. It is slow and torturous. Naruto sees that by the flutters of her abdomen. When she puts he fingers inside herself, four at once and suddenly, Naruto thinks he'll die if he doesn't come.

Her eyelids are lowered. Hooded. She is smouldering at him in a way only Gaara can. Fucking herself, thoroughly. She takes her pleasure, and most of his. This is someone who doesn't need him to want what she wants. There is no makeup here. Nothing left to be stripped but the slow unfurling pant of her heavy breathing.

"Naruto. Come for me."

And he does. Come. For her. Having completely forgotten about Sasuke, who he normally comes for. As if Ino's ragged voice is the link between his cock and his pleasure. His pain. He comes without even being touched. They are so fucking sexy together, he thinks. He is glad he was intrigued enough to be lured into this trap.

x

Afterwards. They lie in her bath together. Steaming water soothing the break of his skin.

"I'm in love with Sakura," Ino says looking up at the ceiling, "always have been. It's always been her. Even when it was Sasuke. It wasn't, not really. I think I always hoped it wasn't really Sasuke for her either. But it is. Always has been. And it's fine, except it hurts like I know only you can understand. Loving Sakura is hard. Especially when she won't love herself."

"Does she know?"

"Yes. No. She's my dom."

"I thought she was celibate."

"She is. She comes to my basement and chains me to the wall. She's fierce, Sakura. Knows exactly what she's doing. Always has. Even the first time, it came to her like maternal instinct. We were fifteen I think. You'd just left. Sasuke had just left. She needed something."

"How did it start?"

"No-one could cheer her up so I kissed her. Her mom had asked me to sleep over and do what I could. She pinned me down to her bed, held my wrists down and fucked me. She didn't let me touch her once, still doesn't. Apparently she's celibate if she's not the one getting fucked. Even if the person she's waiting for to fuck her gives no shits if she's celibate or not. I can see how my story ends. I see the writer penning it: Ino ends up the housewife to some dreary fuck like Sai. And, lucky you, you'll probably marry Hinata. "

Ino splashes water on her face. Naruto watches, intrigued, as she gets out of the bath and wraps her black kimono around herself. He has also been fascinated by her acts of putting on again. Like preparation.

"I know you and Kiba are basically only doing each other, but my basement will always be unchained when you need it."

And she knows he will need it. Like he knows. Because he wears his emotions on his sleeve and they flap like pink elephants over his palm. Gaara, Sakura, Sasuke. They will need each other through what's coming. Long after they have turned seventeen, Naruto will still unchain her basement whenever he needs to forget Sasuke.