Chapter 2: You may be right, I may be crazy
Present
"Ow ow ow ow…"
"Here, Ino, let me help."
"No! Stay back. Don't touch me." Quickly Ino turned back into the spray, being careful to get rid of all the shampoo in both her hair and her eyes. She reached her hand back, blindly searching for a wash cloth. When one was handed to her, Ino's automatic "Thanks" was greeted with a much warmer "Your Welcome" followed by a soft giggle.
With the small bathing crisis averted, Ino could finally focus on the very large bathing crisis. Turning around and speaking very slowly, as if to a child, Ino said, "Sakura, why are you here?"
"Do you mean why am I here in general or why am I here in the shower? I mean, I'd love to have a philosophical discussion with you about why we're all here, but I don't want to do it at 4 in the morning."
"Dammit, Sakura!" Ino, flustered at being teased as much (well okay, not quite as much, but it was close) as by Sakura's nudity. If it had been a couple hours earlier or a couple hours later, Ino would also have realized that she, too, was naked, and then her brain would have stopped functioning altogether. Luckily, Ino never looked down.
"All right, all right. Remind me never to talk to you until after you've had a nap. Sheesh, I never knew you could be so cranky." Noticing Ino's twitching left eye, and guessing that it wasn't from the shampoo, Sakura decided to cut Ino some slack.
"Look, I heard you come clomping up the stairs…"
"I don't clomp."
"And then I heard the shower running and…long story short, I thought I'd join you. Maybe even help you relax a little," saying that, Sakura reached forward in an effort to grab Ino. The look of surprise on Ino's face was to be expected, but Sakura was startled by the hand that pushed her back towards the end of the tub, followed by a short, sharp, "No!"
"Geez, Ino." Sakura said, getting frustrated, "If you didn't want to mess around, all you had to do was say so. You didn't have to push me."
"What!? Mess around…" Ino closed her eyes and chanted "You're not real. You're not real. You're not real." After saying this a dozen times (just in case), Ino opened her right eye to a narrow slit. Once she was sure that she was alone, Ino opened both eyes wide and sighed with relief. 'Phew, just a dream. See, this is what happens when you push yourself too hard. You start to hallucinate.' Grabbing a loofa, Ino continued with her shower. 'Of course,' Ino thought, 'if I had to hallucinate, at least it was Sakura. What if it had been someone else, like Shino?' Physically shuddering at the thought, Ino finished washing and turned off the water. All she really wanted right now was to fall into bed and pretend that she wasn't going crazy.
Pushing the shower curtain aside and reaching for a towel, Ino stopped suddenly. There, in the doorway, stood Sakura.
"Hurry up and finish in here. We need to talk. I'll be in the kitchen." With one last glare, Sakura turned and stalked off.
"Ok, fine. But at least put some clothes on!" Ino wasn't sure what was going on, but one thing she was sure of, she was enjoying the view, which meant that she was crazy; absolutely and completely mental. So much for a relaxing shower…
9 hours earlier
With a warm meal in their stomachs and their bodies protected from the rain by a canopy, the ninjas in the camp allowed themselves to slowly relax and gradually the mood around the fire pit became jovial. Thanks to Choji, none of them had to eat one of the processed MREs, something that every ninja dreaded. In fact, the ninjas were in such a good humor that when Sai asked Kakashi about his own Chuunin exam experience, instead of brushing him off, Kakashi started to regale them with tales about the mishaps of all of the ninja that year who had taken the exam.
Ino listened half-heartedly, privately keeping an eye on Sakura in case the pink haired shinobi should try and get back at her for her earlier stunt in the woods. Sakura, for her part, was completely absorbed by what Kakashi-sensei was saying. 'Really,' she thought, 'this is like a psychoanalysis of all the current Jonin. Guy in particular. She'd have to share the story about the pants and the glue with Lee when she got back.'
"Psst. Hey. Psst. Sakura."
Sakura continued to stare at Kakashi, trying to look even more interested than she already was.
"Psst." poke "Psst." poke "Psst." poke
Gosh, that story was sooooo fascinating. If she tried hard enough she could almost imagine the look on Kurenai's face when…
"Psst." poke poke "Psst." poke poke "Psst." poke
"ARGGG! Alright Ino, what do you want? Stop touching me," Sakura yelled loudly, momentarily halting all conversation. "Uh, just ignore us." Quickly grabbing Ino by the upper arm, Sakura hauled her up and away from the camp to the edge of the clearing.
"What the hell, Ino?"
"Hey, it's not like you were busy. Don't tell me you were listening to that lamebrain story."
"Unlike you, I actually try and learn from my elders."
"Whatever." Ino shrugged dismissively. "At least I don't try fawning allover them. I mean, I knew you were desperate, but come on. The man is your teacher."
Sakura looked indignantly at Ino. "I was not fawning. Besides, he was all the way on the other side of the campfire. That puts him out of fawning range. Now, tell me why you were being so annoying earlier so I can get back to ignoring you."
"Well, if you're going to be like that…"
"Spit it out Ino."
"Fine. I was wondering if you wanted to sleep on the left side or the right side of the tent."
The resounding crack of Ino hitting the tree was noticed by everyone. As Sakura stalked back towards the light of the campfire her fellow shinobi did their best to act like nothing had happened and avoided eye contact at all costs. They weren't sure what she would do if she knew that she had witnesses.
Elsewhere, in the nearby forest, someone else had witnessed Sakura's fantastic display of strength. Before, he had dismissed her as only a moderate threat, preferring to focus on the older man in the mask. Now, he was scared. He would have to eliminate the kunoichi before dealing with the other ninja. His only chance would be to attack her sometime that night while her guard was down. Good thing she was so distracted by the blond. It only made his job easier.
