Summary: He always slithered back into her life at the perfect moment, striking just when she thought she was happy or when she was vulnerable enough to fall back into his arms. She won't let it happen this time, though. This time, she is determined to let him go.
Short Note: So... don't mind this. Just a little emotional venting in the form of a one-shot. Not too much rereading went into this, just kind of the standard proofing, so feel free to point out any errors. This is pretty odd, for me anyway, and pretty sad.
Let You Go
By: Socially Suicidal
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
When Ino heard the first words spilling from Sakura's mouth over the telephone, she was up and looking for her car keys before her pinkhaired friend had finished her sentence. The shaking voice in which the pinkette mumbled into the phone, the rattling sound of her finger nails being thrummed against a hard surface, the uneven pitch with which she spoke, all signified to Ino one thing.
Sakura had spoken to him again. And she needed a friend, now.
Promising to break all sorts of traffic laws on the way, Ino hung up and quickly dashed out of her apartment to head over to the young doctor's house in the outskirts of the city. The evening light was just beginning to wane as the blonde threw her car into gear and began flying down the street, the fallen red and brown leaves being violently tossed about in her wake.
She arrived outside of the small, simple white house in which her friend and, sometimes, her friend's boyfriend of over a year resided in record timing and wasted no time in running up to the door and throwing herself through the threshold, blue eyes wide and searching for the familiar form of her friend.
Sakura's bobbing pink head was made visible readily, seated with her back facing Ino on the couch of her living room as she was. Slamming the door shut behind her, the tall blonde crossed the space in a few strides and swung around the small couch, kneeling at the side of the fragile looking female seated there.
"What happened?" She demanded, prying Sakura's trembling hands out of their vice-like grip on the pillow and holding them steadily in her own.
Wide emerald eyes finally lifted to meet her gaze, the owner of which spoke in a small voice, "He called me."
A curt nod, encouraging her to go on, was the response she received.
Despite the fully body trembles she was experiencing, Sakura breathed deeply and straightened herself before diving into the details of the phone call that had undoubtedly ended mere minutes before Ino's own phone had rung.
Although most of the background details concerning this particular individual about whom her best friend was talking were unfamiliar to her, Ino knew, if by no other indication by the wracking frame of the girl before her, just how influenced Sakura was by this person. She knew that every time he called, though, thankfully, those calls were few and far in between, Sakura would lose her ability to speak, to think, to act with the rationality that the young protégé doctor prided herself.
Ino knew that Gaara meant something deeply to her pinkheaded friend, something that Sakura's sharing of a few stories and small details of their relationship, one that was now in the considerably distant past, could never grant her true understanding of.
The enigmatic redhead, whom she had seen an old high school photograph in one of Sakura's draws once, was known, by only Ino and Sakura respectively as the pinkette had refrained from telling another soul about it, to call or otherwise contact the young doctor once in a blue moon. The occurrence was so rare that the shock of it on the pinkette's face was still evident as she stuttered on about what he had said, or not said, as he was usually described as being somewhat monosyllabic, this time.
"He asked how Naruto was," Sakura confessed harshly, the shaking of her body slowly reducing as Ino's steady, supportive hands held hers. "I told him the truth. I don't know why I did, but I told him how I've felt like Naruto hasn't any time for me anymore."
Ino frowned. If she had learned nothing else about the redhead, she had learned he had a knack for convincing Sakura – in that taciturn way of his – whatever he wanted her to believe. And, often, what he told her was that things in her life were undeserving of her. Surely he would have pounced on that confession. Ino simply hated the way in which a brief conversation with the phantom could leave her friend dizzy and confused for weeks to come.
Regrettably, Ino's assertions were correct, "He said I didn't deserve that, I didn't deserve someone that ignored me. I told him Naruto didn't ignore me, it's not his fault he's busy. He finally got his dream job, you know, and who am I to take that away?" Ino soothed her softly, cooing and rubbing her thumb across the distressed female's fingers.
"You're rambling, honey."
Sakura nodded curtly a few times, as if forcibly clearing her mind of the clutter and redirecting her focus, "Right, sorry. He ignored that. He asked if I would see him. I told him of course no; I felt guilty enough talking to him to begin with. Naruto would have been heartbroken and -"
"Now," Ino interjected sternly, "You did nothing wrong. You can talk to whomever you wish, Sakura. There is nothing wrong with that," told the ever independent bombshell.
She nodded again, mumbling, "Right, right, you're completely right."
"What did he say when you told him you wouldn't see him?" Ino asked, wasting no time in getting her friend back to the matter at hand.
"He… well, he said Naruto had been his best friend for years and he had no intention of trying to ruin our relationship." Sakura huffed out breathlessly, and Ino encouraged her to continue, "And I told him I appreciated and respected that but I still didn't think it was right of me to see him. Then he asked if that was because I had unresolved feelings for him still and I didn't know what to say. I told him I didn't think Naruto would like it and he tried to say that he doubted he'd mind and-"
Ino frowned, interrupting the ramblings of the distraught pinkette, "That's bullshit and you know it, girl. How would he feel if his girlfriend was gallivanting around with her ex's?"
Sakura jumped animatedly, wailing exasperatedly, "Yes! I said that! And do you know what he said? He said, 'If I trusted her, I don't see a problem. Does he not trust you, Sakura?' Which is bull – shit, to be quite honest."
The blonde nodded, whole heartedly agreeing. Her pink haired friend had begun ranting about how her blonde boyfriend did in fact trust her, thank you very much, before she was interrupted again. "Wait a second, Sakura, was he right?"
Emerald eyes blinked confusedly back at her.
She sighed, "Do you have unresolved feelings for him?"
Sakura's lips parted for a moment before closing promptly, her eyes casting a glance to the side as her brow furrowed. Ino pursed her lips, pushing herself off of the floor in favor of seating herself next to the slouching girl, whose hands remained firmly grasped between her own.
"I think that's something you need to figure out, hun," said the blonde hesitantly, "If you were happy with Naruto, I really don't think Gaara's words could affect you like this. I mean look at you, you're shaking… from a phone call."
The laugh that was forced out of the pinkette's throat lacked any sort of mirth.
"You're right again, there. This is ridiculous. I'm ridiculous," she moaned, her head falling forward to be caught by one of her hands as she slipped it free of Ino's grip.
Ino cooed levelly, rubbing her friend's back with her newly freed hand, "You are not ridiculous. You're human; you can't help how you feel. But at least now you can start to figure out if there's a problem between you and Naruto… If you're truly happy or not."
She nodded into her hand.
After a moment of deliberative silence on each of the party's behalves, Sakura's head suddenly shot up, her lips set in a grim line.
"I'm happy with Naruto," the pinkette insisted confidently. How could she not be? She was in a committed relationship with her best friend. It was the perfect fairy tale ending. A girl simply couldn't ask for more. "Really and truly, I am. That call did not have an effect on me."
Ino didn't look convinced, eyeing her best friend wearily, but had nary a chance to voice her concerns before the pinkette spoke up again.
"I will tell you this though," Sakura turned to face her friend fully, green eyes pinning her as the pink brow above them furrowed, "If you ever meet a guy that makes you physically tremble just by giving you his attention, I will kill you if you let him go."
Swallowing thickly, Ino nodded, returning the level stare, "Trust me, I know." The blonde had no intention of allowing her love life to become as complicated as her best friend's.
"I'm not going to give into him again, Ino," said the pinkette slowly, eyebrows furrowed. Ino was unsure as to which of the two of them her friend was trying to convince.
Regardless, the blue eyed female gave her friend a confident smile in return, "I know you're not, girl."
When Sakura smiled in return, it was a sad mockery of something that had once been a sincere expression of true and unadulterated happiness, something that Ino had long since seen regularly adorning her friend's visage.