Title: Still There Waiting
Characters/Pairings: Sasuke/Ino
Genre: Gen/Romance
Summary: In the end, she was still there waiting.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Shocker.
Warning(s): N/A
A/N: For Drunksonic who requested this be done. And having the patience to bear with the lazy, procrastinating author. XDD
By nature (and despite contrary belief), Ino is actually a patient person. (But that doesn't mean she's doesn't get angry. In fact, she gets angry very, very often.) Although she has a quick temper and habitually snaps out acerbic comments to foes and friends alike, there's still some shred of patience, however small, within her. (But that doesn't mean Ino what she said.) For her, that usually means waiting until the end. (She hates waiting but does it anyway, because it's her nature.)
She waits for petty things, like for that cute new skirt to go on sale or that fabulous jacket that just perfectly matches her pretty shirt she bought last season. Sometimes, she waits for a set of steel kunai or for a trip to that nice new barbecue that opened last month. (However, Ino would rather be caught dead than admit that.) Sometimes she waits for the day to be sunny or for the week be pleasant and good. But she also waits for less materialistic things as well.
She waits for the flowers to bloom each spring, to collect them for her family's flower shop. It's tricky business, knowing exactly when the flowers are fresh, calculating how long it will take before they will wilt and exactly how much water, sunshine, and care each requires. Each blossom varies; one rosebud may call for one more milligram of water than the other and it makes all the difference on how radiant the flower will be in full bloom. But her patience and hard work pay off and the flowers in the Yamanaka Flower Shop are the most beautiful found in Konoha. (Although sometimes, Ino will slip up and there's one flower that's less vibrant than the other or is wilting far too soon. It makes her feel absolutely terrible and she hates herself when she does that.)
She waited for Sakura to bloom into the beautiful flower and fulfill her endless potential, patiently waiting even when her friend abandoned her. (On occasions, Ino would sometimes find that patience was rather hard to maintain.) And gradually, her friend did begin to blossom into something magnificent and beautiful. (Sometimes though, Ino can still see that fragile, sniffling girl of four or five some years old. When that happens, she hates herself for not always being there for her old friend, no matter how fractured their friendship was back then.)
She waited for the day when Shikamaru would heed her relentless nagging so that one day, he could show the world how intelligent and shrewd he really was. (After all, Ino's seen him beat Asuma-sensei fifteen times in a row in a game of Go and twenty times in a row while playing Shogi.) She waited for the time when Chouji would pay attention to her commands for him to just put down those chips so he could show everyone that his world wasn't completely composed of barbecue and steak and that there was definitely something buried beneath his addiction for food. (After all, she's seen displays of his extreme loyalty to the people who he cares about and respects and she admires him for that.) And slowly but surely, Shikamaru's intellect became well known and respected throughout the village. (Although everyone would still remember the lazy boy who watched the clouds – and who still does. Sometimes Ino berates herself when she sees him lazing the day away and wonders if she really impacted him at all.) And gradually, Chouji finally gained recognition for the man he was. (But that didn't mean he wouldn't chow down junk food and pig out like there's no tomorrow. During those times, Ino irately wonders if she's actually changed him.)
She's also waited for things that end with no result. She's never managed to get Asuma to quite smoking those horrible cigars, even when she has to forcibly wrench them away and hide them. (Ino swears he has a seventh sense or something, guiding him to his stolen cigarettes.) She's never convinced her parents that she was a big girl now and big girls don't need protection from mommies and daddies, especially if the said daddy interrogates every single boy he suspects is interested in her or she's interested in. (Ino suspects that he often uses 'coercive means' more often than not; that nice boy across the street flinches whenever he passes her house, turns ashen when he sees her, but promptly flees when he senses Inoichi is even a mile away.) She's also never managed to have Sasuke recuperate her feelings and even the knowledge that Sakura's stuck in the same rut she's in does nothing to ease that throbbing pain. (Sometimes though, Ino wonders why he tolerated her when she hugged him back in the genin days if he didn't care for her.)
However, Ino's patient and keeps waiting for such things to happening anyhow.
So when she waits for Sasuke to come back from Konoha, it's not a terribly big ordeal for her to deal with. Every night, just as the sky slips into inky darkness, she flicks the light on the front porch on, one of the few lights dotting the landscape of darkness that make up her village. (Sometimes when she's coming home late from a mission, it reminds her of fireflies and the thought makes her laugh a little.) She likes to think of it as a beacon, calling him back home to the village, to his old life, and to her. (Sometimes, Ino likes to think of herself as home, as unconventional as it is; After all, Sasuke's home is empty and lonely, filled with terrible memories and she thinks that he deserves more than that, especially after all he's been through. So she decided she would be home for him.) And every night before going to bed, she walks through the front foyer, peeks out through the curtained windows and glances out into the illuminated darkness, hoping the catch a glimpse of raven black hair, equally dark eyes. It becomes a ritual and a tradition, integrating itself into her life like her daily nagging at her team, her usual friendly bickering with Sakura, and her job at the flower shop.
However when Sasuke finally shows up, Ino is no means prepared for his appearances. In fact, she was rather startled.
Her day was just like any other day; she woke up at a little past seven thirty, brushing her hair with a loud yawn, and dressing herself meticulously and making sure her clothing was clean and in place. She gathered with her team to train and pestered them as usual, met up with Sakura for lunch as they caught up with each other while inserting a few jabs at each other here and there, before running off to work at her family's flower shop in between random intervals of the day. (However, she spends most of the time behind the counter reading that interesting romance novel Sakura recommended.) Ino had a dinner composed of a few leftovers, seeing as her mother was picking up an exotic order of flowers from some distant country and her father was off at a mission. (She finds it a little lonely but she manages. After all, they have just as busy lives as she does.) And as usual, she flicked the lights on her front porch and looked out the window before heading off the bed.
She's soon awoken by a loud knock on the door and stumbling out of bed with a kunai in her hand; she cautiously opens the door, the kunai still grasped tight in her hand but it soon clatters to the ground when she sees Sasuke, illuminated by the glowing yellows lights on her porch. Her heart skips a beat and she realizes, that she's almost forgotten how handsome he was. erHe's changed a lot, she notes. He's gaunter than she last remembered and well muscled, with a slightly hollow look in his eyes but there's still a flicker of the same sharp intelligence that she remembers back during the Academy days. He grunts a little, looking aloof as usual and after getting the initial shock, she invites him into her home. (But she still keeps a kunai in her hand just in case, even though her heart breaks to think of possible bad intentions.)
Ino's never imagined meeting him like this with her hair a mess and her usual make-up off of her face but she focuses with the current situation at hand and focuses on finding something for him to eat. (Ino's always imagined stunning him with her beauty but in her current disarrayed state, she knows it isn't possible. She's also imagined a much more lively reunion but then reminds herself it's freakin' one in the morning and both are tired.) Briefly wondering why he had chosen her house of all houses, she ponders for a second, hesitating as she searches the pantry for some food before brushing the thought out of her head; she was sure he had his own reason. (Ino momentarily wondered if it was because of the lights before shaking her head. That would be too coincidental to be true, she decides. As much as she hates to think about it, Sasuke ending up Sakura's house would have been more realistic.) She finally digs up some cookies her father had hidden in the back cabinet and offers some to him. He declines with sharp courtesy and she can see by the bags under his eyes and haggard expression that he desperately needs some sleep. (But, Ino still notes, he looks as handsome as ever.) So, being the hostess that she is, she offers him the couch in the living room and apologizes for not providing a more adequate place to sleep. By then, he's too tired to even protest and soon he's fast asleep on the couch, although she can tell by how his hands fly to the kunai at every sound that he's as alert as ever.
She stays up far past three, watching him sleep and trying to make as little sound as possible as she sits watching him. Finally, when his breaths turn more relaxed and the grip on his kunai relaxes, she feels like she can finally breathe again. His face is more relaxed, she notes, more vulnerable than she ever thought he could look. After deciding that her guest is as well as he'll ever be (especially when he has a long day ahead of him. She can already imagine the village's shock at his arrival.) So she leaves, padding softly to the porch and flicking the lights off before heading up the stairs and Ino casts one final look at him.
"Welcome home Sasuke-kun," she says as softly as possible.
Something that resembles a smile flickers across his face for a moment and she smiles too.
Welcome home.