A story about friendship, adventure, and love. But more importantly a story about hunky men. This is what happens when Ino decides to take the challenge of fixing Sakura's love life into her own hands.
Caution: May include multiple men of hunky status. Side effects may include swooning, squealing like a little girl, and glomping tendencies. You have been warned.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters or the show Naruto.
"You need a man."
The pink-haired kunoichi flicked her gaze up from the book she was reading and looked at the blonde girl that was sprawled across her bed. She looked back down at the heavy textbook she had opened up in her lap and flipped the page. "I don't need a man, Ino."
The tall blonde girl lay on her stomach, her feet in the air kicking behind her. A magazine was open in front of her and she lazily flipped through the pages. "I'm being serious, Sakura." She lifted her pale blue eyes from the glossy pages and stared hard at the medic nin. "You definitely need a man in your life." She furrowed her eyebrows and analyzed the girl sitting criss-crossed on the floor in front of her. "I mean with your looks, it shouldn't be too hard to find someone. I mean, you might have to distract them from your giant billboard brow, but I think other than that you'll have no problem."
"I already told you, Ino pig, I don't need a man and I'm not interested in whatever you're planning." She scanned over the book page in front of her before flipping the page again and writing a small note in the notebook beside her.
"I'm not talking about just any man. I'm talking about a hunky man." She lifted a perfectly shaped eyebrow at the studious girl and let a mischievous grin form on her lips.
Sakura closed the heavy textbook and set it to the side on the floor. She propped her elbows on her knees and laid her chin on her knuckles. "Ino, this is the last time I'm going to say it. I do not need a man." Ino opened her mouth to reply but Sakura lifted a finger to stop her. "I don't even need a hunky man."
Ino propped herself up on her elbows and gave her best friend the biggest puppy face she could muster. "Come on, Sakura!" She pouted her bottom lip and fluttered her long eyelashes at the girl. "Please? Just for the day I get to dress you up and make you absolutely gorgeous." She glanced over the pink-haired girl again and quickly back-tracked. "Well I mean more gorgeous then you normally are." Sakura responded to Ino's obvious brown nosing with a small humpf but let the girl continue. "Then we'll go around town and scout you out a nice hunky man!" The blonde's eyes lit up and she clasped her hands in front of her.
The medic raised an eyebrow and evened her jaded gaze on the blonde girl. "And why should I agree to this?"
"Because you get a hunky man out of it!" Ino replied enthusiastically.
"What makes you so confident that you'll be able to find me a man?"
"A hunky man." Ino corrected her.
Sakura rolled her eyes at her friend in an annoyed manner. "Fine. What makes you think you'll be able to find me a hunky man?" She re-worded the question, putting a big emphasis on the hunky part.
Ino sat up and looked at Sakura with a serious look in her eyes. "Sakura. Are you really questioning my abilities?"
"I'm being serious, Ino. If you somehow fail, I want something in return."
The blonde twenty-year-old threw her arms in the air. "Fine. If I fail, which I won't," she added in eying the pink-haired girl, "then I promise I won't take you on any more of these quests for love and I'll stop trying to set you up. Deal?"
A small grin pulled at Sakura's lips. "Deal."
"Yes!" Ino clapped her hands together and sat back on her heels. A look of mischief danced across her eyes. "Now, what should you wear?"
"You don't think it's a bit much?"
"No, you look absolutely stunning!"
"Ino, I look ridiculous."
The two girls stood together outside in the busy streets of Konoha. Sakura fingered at the bottom of the uncomfortably short dress Ino had put her in and she tried to pull the material down in an effort to make the dress a little longer. The black material stopped just about mid-thigh and hugged Sakura's figure tightly. The v-neck line dropped dangerously low and the straps wrapped around the dainty medic's neck like a halter top. She pulled again at the dress and self consciously played with the dangling gold earrings Ino had also made her wear, insisting that they would contrast with her eyes and that they matched her shoes perfectly. The high heels were also a bit much in Sakura's opinion, but she had promised Ino that she would get to dress her however she wanted to. Sakura just prayed that they failed today so that she could finally be done with all of the blonde's ridiculous set-ups.
"Stop messing with it, you look gorgeous!" Ino slapped Sakura's hand that was playing with the bottom hem of the dress.
The medic looked at the blonde through highly mascaraed eyelashes and narrowed her eyes. "Well what's the plan now?"
"Now that your dressed to impress, we're going to find some hunky men!" The girl pointed straight ahead in an exaggerated manner and grabbed Sakura's wrist. "Now let's go!" She ran forward, dragging Sakura behind her.
"Okay, first target acquired." Ino whispered over to Sakura who was squatted closely beside her.
They were just outside of the first training area and were hidden in the bushes. "Ino this is crazy!" Sakura whispered back.
"Just be quiet!" Ino whispered loudly to the other girl. She strained her eyes across the field and saw the boy she had scouted out approaching them. "Okay, now!"
The blonde girl roughly pushed Sakura out from behind the bushes and the medic stumbled out into the clearing. The force of the push caused Sakura to nearly run head first into the boy walking by.
"Whoa, hey there, Sakura." The boy grabbed her by the arm to help her steady herself.
She lifted her eyes and met the brown-eyed gaze of none other than Kiba Inuzuka. "Sorry about that, Kiba." The gold heels Ino had forced her to wear were proving to be more trouble than they were worth. "I think I just tripped on something. It was the weirdest thing, this root just came out of nowhere and caught me completely by surprise." She said the last little bit with an edge in her voice directed towards the bushes.
"Okay?" The dog boy looked at Sakura curiously, clearly confused by her explanation. "Well, what brings you here?" He gently let go of her arm and stepped back to give her some space. It was only then that he noticed what Sakura was wearing. "Dang, Sakura. You look, uh, different." He lifted an eyebrow at her. "Going anywhere special or something?"
"No, I just felt like dressing up for the fun of it. I mean it's not like it's weird or anything to be wearing a dress and heels to go walking around town, right?" She glanced over to the bush where Ino was hidden, trying to point out the ridiculousness in her outfit.
"I guess not?" Kiba said in an uncertain voice.
A bark sounded behind them and Akamaru came sprinting over to the pair. The giant mutt nearly knocked Sakura over and jumped up to cover her face throughly with slobbery kisses. "Hey there, Akamaru!" The pink kunoichi laughed lightheartedly. "Is it just me or has Akamaru gotten bigger since the last time I saw him?"
Kiba scratched his head and studied his partner. "Hmm, well I guess he might have gotten a little bigger. I can't really tell though since I'm with him all the time." He shrugged his shoulders and threw his arms behind him so that his hands folded together at the back of his head. "So what have you been up to, Sakura?"
"Not much, just working on some new techniques." She replied nonchalantly.
The dog boy grinned at her and raised his eyebrows. "Oh? And what kind of techniques would these be?"
She tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear and smiled at Kiba. "Actually they're just some medical techniques that might make it possible to construct completely new organs for people. As of right now we can only speed up the rate of cell multiplication when we mend tissue wounds. We can't make completely new tissue without any preexisting cells." She shrugged her shoulders slightly. "With this new technique we'll be able to copy current cells already in the body and be able to morph them into new functioning cells. Although doing this would require precise knowledge on all the human tissue and the procedure itself would be very tedious. It would open up a whole new door to the medical field!" Her eyes lit up in excitement.
Beginning to regret his question slightly, Kiba tilted his head to the side. A look of complete and utter confusion crossed over his face.
After pausing for just a moment to catch her breath, Sakura continued. "Just imagine, if a person needed a new kidney, we could change a transitional cell from the bladder into a functioning kidney cell and from there multiply that cell into millions of other kidney cells until the person has a brand new kidney. Another plus to this would be that since the cell would've already originated from the person, they wouldn't have to worry about their immune system trying to destroy the foreign tissue which would then lead to the person to having to take special medicine to lower the immune system. Now this would also be bad because then they are at high risk of contracting an opportunistic disease which leads to a whole other set of problems." Sakura tapped a finger to her chin before continuing. "The only major problem is the whole process of manipulating the new cell to function in a new way. I mean with the kidney example, the kidneys are very intricate organs and developing the tissue so that it has functioning nephrons would be a very delicate process. It's hard to imagine being able to replicate the Bowman's capsule and the loop of Henle found in the nephron. It's almost an impossible task. You know what I'm saying?" She looked at Kiba expectantly.
The dog boy grinned nervously at Sakura and scratched his head. "Yeah that sounds pretty great..." He looked around and then seemed to suddenly remember something. "Oh yeah, sorry but I just realized I was supposed to meet up with Shino and Hinata for lunch, so, I'll catch ya later." He gave her a small smile and whistled to Akamaru. The brown-haired boy walked briskly by her with his loyal partner right on his heels.
"Okay, bye then!" Sakura shouted after him as she waved goodbye.
Once Kiba and Akamaru had made it a safe distance away (which didn't take very long since they walked fairly fast) Ino pried her way out of the dense bush and shook her head sadly at Sakura. "Now that was just sad."
"Why, what did I do wrong?"
"A better question would be what didn't you do wrong!" Ino paced in front of Sakura and stared hard at the ground. She paused for a moment to face the pink-haired girl. "Okay, new rule. When you are talking to a guy and they ask you what you've been up to, you either respond with nothing much, I've just been a little busy lately with missions and the hospital, or that you just decided to go for a walk. You can even talk about kittens for all I care." She waved her arms in the air to emphasis her point. "But whatever you do, don't talk about your work or any new medical techniques you're working on." The blonde girl planted both of her arms on Sakura's shoulders and looked her straight in the eye. "Is that understood?"
"I don't see what the big deal is. I think Kiba found it very intriguing." Sakura shrugged her shoulders apathetically.
"Are you kidding me? Did you see the look on his face when you started going into detail about the whole thing? Not to mention how fast and eager he was to get away! Trust me, guys could care less about what you have to say. All they hear is blah blah blah." Ino shook her head to herself. "When it comes to flirting and communication only seven percent of it is actually what you're saying, thirty-eight percent is your tone and the other fifty-five percent deals with body language." She looked at Sakura. "Now what you really need to work on is the body language and tone. But also what ever you do, stay away from talking about medicine. That kind of thing comes off a little nerdy and will definitely chase any guy off." The blonde rubbed her temple in small circles to ease off an oncoming headache. "It's no wonder you've had such a hard time finding a man. Who knows what would've happened if I hadn't come along?"
The medic placed both her hands on her hips and glared at Ino. "Well, excuse me for trying to answer honestly about what's going on in my life instead of giving some boring rehearsed response."
The blonde rolled her eyes at Sakura and waved her hand in the air in front of her. "Never mind that, Kiba isn't even hunky enough for you. We'll just have to keep searching for someone else."
Without any warning Ino grabbed Sakura's wrist again and led her away from the training grounds.
Ino had dragged Sakura across town to a small little shop and the two girls were standing around the corner of it.
"You know what to do this time, right?" Ino whispered over to Sakura.
"Bat my eyelashes, pout my lips, touch their arm a lot in a playful manner, flip my hair, and never talk about my recent work because it'll scare them off." Sakura listed off on her fingers.
The blonde beauty clapped her hands together and let out a small sigh. "Perfect!" She crept forward around the corner a bit and poked her head around the side of the shop. "Target's approaching just as planned. Get ready on my cue." She held up a hand to Sakura and slowly counted down on her fingers. "Walk out in five, four, three, two, one!"
Just as Ino had made her rehearse, Sakura walked out from around the shop and spotted her target a few meters away from slowly walking towards her. "So that's who she picked out for me next?" A small mischievous smile formed on her lips. "This'll be more fun than I thought." Remembering what Ino had taught her, Sakura walked up to the man with an overly exaggerated hip swing and flipped her pink hair over her shoulder. "Is that you, Neji-kun?" She squealed in a high pitched voice.
The hyuga clan prodigy lifted his cold gaze up and looked at Sakura questioningly. He gave her a small head nod and continued to walk on his way.
The high heels were really starting to get on Sakura's nerves right about then but she ignored them and continued on with her little act. "Wow, isn't this such a little coincidence that we ran into each other here?" She gave him a big flirtatious grin and batted her eyelashes as fast as her eyelids would allow.
"Actually, no not really. This is my usual route I take from the Hyuga compound to the training grounds. I take it everyday on the way to meet up with my team. Now if you would excuse me I have to get going." He said in a curt tone.
"Are you sure you have to get going?" She grabbed onto his arm and hooked hers into the crook of his elbow. "Can't you just stay a little longer? We can even go get some lunch together!" Sakura pouted her bottom lip at the boy and gave her best puppy dog imitation.
"No, I already told you I have to go. My team is waiting on me and you're going to make me late." His face stayed as emotionless as ever and he maneuvered his arm away from under her clutches.
"Oh, come on, Neji-kun! Just one quick bite to eat!" Sakura decided to push him even further and grabbed for his arm again.
He turned around to face her, a scowl forming on his face. "No, Sakura. Although I do hold you in high respect because of all you've done for my team in the past, I must say that right now your behavior is unacceptable and completely inappropriate. Now for the last time I must go." Neji turned on his heel and continued to walk away.
"Well if you insist. I'll see you later, Neji-kun!" Sakura yelled at the leaving man in a high squeaky voice.
The man walked away in a brisk manner and before long disappeared from sight. Ino stormed out from behind the shop right up to Sakura and planted her hands on her hips. "Okay, what was that?"
"What're you talking about?" The girl answered innocently as she twirled a pink strand of hair around her finger. "I was just doing what you told me to do."
"Yes but you took it way too far! When I said to touch their arm playfully, I did not mean to grab it in a death grip and try and force them to stay with you! That's one of the last things any man wants! No one likes a clingy control freak, which is exactly what you came off as!" She tapped her foot angrily and shook her head in frustration. "I swear, it's like you're trying to sabotage this whole thing."
"What, me? I would never!" Sakura placed a hand on her chest and gasped loudly at the girl in an overly exaggerated manner.
"Whatever, Neji has a stick up his butt any way. But just you wait, billboard brow. You may think you're home free, but I have plenty of other men in mind for you!" An evil grin crept over the blonde's face.
"Okay this time I want you to make light conversation, bat your eyelashes occasionally, maybe add in a hair flip, and just stay away from touching their arm at all." Next Ino had brought them to the other side of town right in front of Ichiraku's ramen. "Hopefully it'll all go well. I mean it'd be a little hard to mess this one up." Ino gave Sakura a thumbs up and motioned for her to walk into the store.
It was still Sakura's goal to mess up each encounter she was set up in, but when she walked into the small restaurant and saw who Ino had matched her up with, it was more than she could take. "Absolutely no, Ino!"
The blonde haired boy sitting in the restaurant turned around and gave Sakura a cheeky grin. "Hey, Sakura-chan!" A giant bowl of ramen sat in front of him and a small stack of empty bowls had collected to the side.
Ino walked into the restaurant after hearing Sakura's yell. "What now, Sakura?"
The medic pointed her finger at Naruto, who was sitting at the counter and was now facing the two girls. "This is a joke, right?"
"Why do you think I'd be joking? You two would be perfect together! You've known each other for so long and he's definitely grown out of that dorky kid he used to be. I mean, he may not exactly be hunky, but he's not bad looking either."
"Well, excuse me, but I think I'm pretty damn hunky!" Naruto stood up to join in the conversation.
Sakura placed a hand on the taller boy's shoulder and forced him back into his seat. "You stay out of this."
"But I wanna know what you guys are talking about!" Naruto said loudly and tried to get back up.
Glaring jade eyes turned on Naruto, fire leaping from their depths. Naruto immediately shut up and sat quietly in his seat. Sakura turned her gaze back towards Ino and crossed her arms. "Sorry, Ino, but I'm not doing this one."
"You are being way too stubborn about this. If you just gave it a chance I swear you two would be perfect for each other!"
"No means no, Ino."
"Ugh, you are impossible! Isn't a tiny part of you at least a little curious whether or not you two would work?" She asked.
"No because that tiny part of me was squashed by the bigger and more logical part of me."
"I am so confused right now." Naruto stated.
"Don't worry about it. Just turn around and finish your ramen." Sakura told him.
The boy did as she said with a small pout and grumbled into his ramen bowl.
A scowl was plastered across Ino's face. "Fine, have it your way. You've already thoroughly ruined any chance for this one to work. But if we want to find you a man by the end of the day we've gotta hurry. Time's a wastin!" She marched out of the ramen shop and Sakura was left with no choice but to follow her.
The lock clicked open after jostling the door a bit and Sakura and Ino walked into the medic's apartment. Sakura let the door close shut behind them and she tossed her keys onto the small kitchen table to her right. She kicked off the highly uncomfortable heels Ino had forced her to wear and flopped down onto the couch in her living room. The couch cushions sunk under her weight and she hugged a pillow close to her head.
Ino stood in front of the couch with her hands on her hips. "Are you happy now?"
The pink-haired girl rolled over onto her side so that she was facing the blonde and let a wide grin cover her face. "Yes, yes I am."
"Oh wipe that grin off your face." Ino said with a hint of disgust. "You really shouldn't be so excited about this."
"Why not? You didn't find me a man and now I'm free from your torture forever!" Sakura turned on her back and kicked her feet in the air. "That was the agreement, right?" She glanced quizzically at Ino.
"Yea but I don't think you're seeing the whole picture. What's even more important is that I failed in finding you a man." She sat down on the other side of the couch and held a hand to her forehead. "I never fail when it comes to love!"
Sakura sat up and placed a hand on her best friend's shoulder. "It's okay, you did everything you could. Some people just aren't meant to find love."
"No!" Ino looked at the girl in bewilderment. "Everyone has someone out there for them. There's nothing more important in the whole world!" She dropped her head and looked at her hands. "I just don't understand how I failed. I tried Kiba, I tried Neji, I tried Naruto, I tried Shikamaru, I even tried Choji and Lee." Ino buried her face in her palms. "How did I fail? I mean Lee's been in love with you since we were genin! Yet he even ran away screaming!"
"Now hold on, I think the term screaming is a bit of an exaggeration."
The blonde looked seriously at the girl. "He literally ran away screaming at the top of his lungs. Something to do with you being a disgrace to youth everywhere?"
A small smirk formed on Sakura's face but she did her best to try and hide it from the blonde. "Well maybe he found someone else or something who's more youthful than I am. It'll be okay."
"We have to fix this now!" Ino dramatically stood up from the couch and started to walk towards the front door. "There's gotta be at least another hour or two in the day. We've still got time to find your man!" She yanked the door open and looked expectantly at Sakura. "Come on, we have to leave now if we still want to find anyone."
"No, Ino." Sakura shook her head at the girl. "It's already eleven and I have a double shift at the hospital tomorrow. I'm done."
"It'll just be for another hour though! There's still some time to-"
"Good night, Ino." Sakura said a little more forcefully, hinting the girl should leave.
Ino stood up straighter and gave a small humpf. "Well if that's the way you want it, then so be it. Have fun dying alone!" She twisted her head to the side and stormed out the door, pulling it closed behind her.
"Thank goodness that's over with." Sakura thought to herself.
She laid back on the couch and stared up at the ceiling. It wasn't that she didn't want a man or anything, it was more that she didn't have the time to be in a relationship. She just had too much going on in her life at the moment. From working shifts in the hospital to going on missions with Team Seven, she barely had any time left to just relax. Well, except the time she had to go hunting for men all day with Ino... Okay, so maybe the whole not enough time thing was false, but it was better than admitting to herself that she was scared of having a relationship. But was there really anything wrong with that? She was sure she'd want to settle down eventually. She just hadn't found the right person and she was fairly positive she wasn't going to find Mr. Right prancing around town as Ino's barbie.
Sakura sighed to herself and stuffed a pillow over her face in frustration. Well it wasn't worth worrying over it now. Tonight was a win in her book and now she was finally free from Ino's set ups. But what if one of the guys Ino picked out for her had actually been a good match? She had been too busy trying to sabotage the whole thing to think about actually finding someone.
Oh well, it was done with and now if she wanted to find someone she could do it on her own, without any fancy shoes from Ino.
She hefted herself up from the couch and walked into her bedroom after turning out the rest of the apartment lights. She replaced the ever too short black dress for some comfy shorts and an old t-shirt. The heavy makeup that had been plastered across her face was soon removed after a little bit of water and some furious scrubbing with a wash cloth that left her pale skin pink. She turned out the lights and slipped under the covers. Now all she needed was to get a good night sleep and forget about the day.
So I intended to make this a two part story so the other part shall be coming shortly! In the meantime make sure you leave a review! Pretty please? I can haz review? (Puppy face)