Warning: Mild yuri
A/N: Sorry updates are so few and far between. Thanks to everyone who has reviewed!
Make Out Tactics: Ino Style
Chapter 3: Strawberries
"Alright girls, time to move on to the next lesson, one of the most important!" Ino announced in a rather boisterous manner, startling Hinata from her daze she seemed to be quite frequently falling into that night.
Ino reached for the bowl at the bedside, grabbing three rather large strawberries, passing two to Sakura, who then gave one to Hinata.
Hinata quietly took hers, a blank expression on her face.
"Making out is key in any romantic relationship, but it's a rather complex skill that requires some training, that is unless you're as gifted as I am," Ino stated haughtily, earning a groan of disgust from Sakura.
"Oh shut-up Sakura. You know it's true."
Sakura rolled her eyes once more before Ino continued on.
"As you know by the saying, you've got to learn to crawl before you learn to walk. Well, making out goes with the saying. You've got to learn the softer kiss first; that's where these strawberries come in to play."
Hinata looked even more confused than before.
"W-we're going t-to kiss strawberries?" she whispered innocently.
Ino stifled her laughter and shook her head slowly.
"Not exactly, but these strawberries will aid in proper lip placement and pressure. Watch Sakura take a bite out of her strawberry and you'll see what I am talking about."
Hinata nodded and turned her attention to Sakura.
Sounding more like a sports announcer than a teacher, Ino began pointing out the key elements of Sakura's method. "See how her lips softly purse around the end of the strawberry. Guys love full lips, and puckering makes for softer, more sensual kisses."
Hinata stared intently at Sakura's mouth, amazed that something so simple as eating a strawberry could have such a completely different meaning. She attempted to take mental notes as her 'instructor' for the night carried on.
Sakura finished a small bite, then smoothly wrapper her lips around the strawberry once again.
"Also notice how moist Sakura's lips are, making them almost glisten. The wetter, the better, I say."
There was a brief silence.
Feeling awkward, and a little confused as to why Ino had stopped her lecture, Hinata raised her eyes to find Ino staring, just as intently as she had, at Sakura's lips, but with a strange glint in her eyes that Hinata just couldn't quite figure out.
"I-Ino?" Hinata spoke just above a whisper.
Ino shook her head, clearing her throat loudly as if to distract herself from her own thoughts.
Sakura quickly finished her last bite of the soft fruit and waited patiently along with Hinata.
"One more thing to take note, which I will demonstrate to you, is how gently you press your lips against the object. You'll see that even though the strawberry is so soft, it will not bruise or dent when I wrap my lips around it."
Ino lifted her strawberry to her lips, and slowly, with much enthusiasm, even more so than Sakura had, wrapped her lips around it.
Hinata's eyes were fixated on Ino's mouth, trying ever so hard to correlate eating to kissing. Unfortunately, it just wasn't making much sense.
Once finished with her small bite, Ino set down the remainder on her bedside table.
"Now you try, Hinata."
Hinata's eyes instantly fell to her lap, and her fingers began their uneasy squirming once again.
"I-I don't know, Ino."
"Don't be embarrassed Hinata. I had to learn at one time too," Sakura encouraged.
"Is th-this how you learned Sakura-chan?"
"Actually, yes. Ino did the same for me several years ago," Sakura replied meekly, her cheeks turning the slightest shade of pink.
"Forehead girl didn't have a clue what she was doing before I taught her!" Ino exclaimed teasingly.
Sakura punched her mental-attacker in the arm.
"Shut-up Ino-pig! You're so full of-"
Ino quickly cut Sakura off. "Go ahead Hinata. This is what you're here for!"
"O-Ok," Hinata replied and reluctantly lifted the strawberry to her mouth. She tried her best to follow all the tips Ino had made, being sure to be gentle, and without even realizing it, she licked her lips just before inserting the strawberry. She felt terribly silly and nervous. Though she was still staring at her lap, she could feel Ino and Sakura's eyes on her. She took a quick bite, and continued with several more quick bites until it had disappeared completely.
"That was pretty good Hinata," Ino stated, "And licking your lips like that; wow! That will drive Naruto wild!"
Hinata's red face deepened in color.
"Sakura, you should have done that," Ino scolded, "What kind of assistant are you?"
"Quit calling me your assistant!" Sakura seethed. "I could just as well, if not better, be the teacher here!"
Ino laughed mockingly. "Sure Sakura. We can compete on that later. Let's focus on helping Hinata for now."
Hinata glanced around the room, feeling awkward being stuck in the middle of Sakura and Ino's frequent little fits and strange innuendos.
"OK Hinata. So you've got a feel for what to do with your lips when you kiss, but you also need to learn how to use the rest of your body, especially your hands." Ino lifted her hands for added enthusiasm. "You can't just let them sit in your lap when you're kissing. If you want to keep Naruto interested and excited, you need to put your hands on him. I suggest in his hair or on his chest, but it's not as simple as just resting your hands there. You need to keep them moving constantly either by pulling him in or groping him."
Hinata nearly choked at the mention of 'groping'; something that triggered terrifying thoughts in her feeble mind.
Clearly seeing how uncomfortable Ino's lecture had made Hinata, Sakura put a hand on Hinata's restless hands. "Don't worry so much Hinata! You'll do just fine. You'll be surprised how natural a lot of this is when you get into the right moment. Besides, I highly doubt Naruto has any experience. After tonight, you'll probably be teaching him!"
Despite Sakura's empathetic pep-talk, Hinata felt no increase in her own confidence.
"Would it make you feel better to see the whole make out act played out before you?" Ino suggested.
Hinata sat in brief silence, trying to determine how Ino could possibly demonstrate without a boy in the room. To her utter astonishment, Ino gave her not a minute to come to a conclusion.
"Sakura," Ino stated simply, turning to her 'assistant'. Sakura obliging shifted her seat on the bed to allow her to face Ino head-on. And without any further warning or explanation, Hinata found herself gaping as Ino put one hand behind Sakura's head, entangling it in her soft pink locks, and the other hand on Sakura's lap. Ino quickly leaned in, pressing her lips gently against Sakura's.
Hinata sat in silence, shock taken over as she witnessed her two friends kiss freely, passionately, without any inhibitions.
Both of Sakura's hands made their way to the back of Ino's head, just below her blonde ponytail.
It felt like seconds were minutes to Hinata. She was absolutely astonished, not the least bit capable of taking mental notes or making any cognizant thought for that matter.
Ino pulled Sakura's head closer, deepening the kiss. Hinata could easily tell that Ino's tongue had made its way into Sakura's mouth as she could see Sakura's cheek pressing out ever so slightly. Before Hinata knew it, Ino had pushed Sakura back on the bed, without breaking their kiss for even a second. The hand that had just been resting firmly on Sakura's thigh had now made its way up and under Sakura's shirt to firmly grasp her right breast.
Hinata sat completely motionless, even her almost constantly moving fingers had now frozen as she took in the amazing sight.
With Sakura on her back, Ino positioned herself fully atop, forcing a knee between Sakura's legs and slid it up beneath her skirt, pressing firmly against Sakura's sweet spot.
Not realizing it, Hinata's mouth had gone just as agape as her eyes. Despite how horrifying the situation should have been, she found herself unable to tear her eyes away. Soon her ears had grown peculiarly acute to the sounds Sakura and Ino were making as they groped and kissed fervently. The soft wet noises of their lips and tongues mixed with soft moans and groans murmured against said lips, made her all the more uncomfortable.
Suddenly realizing there was an innocent bystander, Sakura struggled to push the aroused Ino off her. Unfortunately Ino was far too into it and only used more force to keep Sakura still beneath her.
"Ino!" Sakura growled against Ino's crushing lips. "Ino, get off! Hinata's here!"
Realization finally sinking in, Ino quickly released her firm grasp on Sakura's hair, and slowly slid off.
Ino and Sakura cleared their throats uncomfortably as they both attempted to straighten their disheveled clothes and hair, and remove the excess moisture from their mouths. The two sat back up on the edge of the bed again, looking at each other once more in surprise of their own actions before turning to the dumbfounded Hinata.
"Sorry," Sakura murmured.
"Yeah, sorry about that," Ino stated, but with much more confidence and lack of shame than Sakura. "Sakura's quite the assistant I guess!" Ino laughed, only making the other two girls feel more awkward. "So I hope you took notes, 'cause that's exactly how it should be done! Would you like to try on Sakura now?"
"Ino!" Sakura hollered, clearly not thrilled with the idea. "She's not like that! Can't you see you've completely terrified her!?"
Hinata's mouth still hung wide open. She hadn't even heard Ino's question. Not that if she had it really would have fazed her after what she had just witnessed. Nothing could really faze her now.
"What?" Ino whined, playing off a fake expression of bewilderment. "She's got to practice somehow, and there's only you and me in this room." Knowing it would irk Sakura more, she leaned forward to look past her, and turned to Hinata, forwardly offering another choice to the red-faced, open-mouthed, girl. "Would you rather try it out on me?"
This time, Sakura decided to use her friend's nickname in hopes of getting her full attention.
"PIG!"
"Forehead!" Ino hollered back mockingly without turning to acknowledge her verbal attacker.
"You can't just ask her to kiss another girl," Sakura seethed just under her breath, as if Hinata couldn't hear from her seat directly beside her.
Hinata's daze had slightly worn off, her mouth now closed, but she had began tugging nervously at the strings of her hood, fear in her eyes as she helplessly watched her two friends wage verbal war.
Ino now turned her attention to her infuriated friend. "Why not? I asked you several years back when you were learning, and you didn't have a problem then." she pointed out, earning a soft pink blush on Sakura's cheeks, which was obviously not just due to anger.
"Uh- Uhm, I-" Hinata hesitated, trying to carefully break the fight without further irritating the quarrelling couple. They obviously weren't going to let her though, as they were quick to interrupt as if not noticing her speaking, yet alone her presence for the moment.
"Ino-pig! Now is not the time or the place to discuss our past or present experiences!" Sakura snarled, looking Ino fully in the eyes.
Ino laughed derisively, her blond ponytail swinging to her other side as she tossed her head and rolled her eyes. "Forehead, you really need to stop being so prude!"
Hinata just looked on in amazement, stunned that two friends could have such a... complex and... bizarre relationship. One minute they were being rather friendly, offering advice that they both seemed to be in agreement on, the next minute they were arguing, and that somehow turned into... intimacy, and then back to the arguing again. It was almost like some twisted version of a married couple.
Sakura released a long, deep sigh. Though she wasn't one to give up a fight so easily, especially not against the Pig, she really didn't want to put Hinata through anymore of this. She turned to Hinata and forced a gentle smile of reassurance and apology, despite the fact that she could feel Ino's contemptuous smirk of triumph hovering over her shoulder.
"Hinata, how do you feel about this? Would you like to try kissing Ino or me? You certainly don't have to. I'm sure you've gotten the idea enough from the strawberries and from..." She cleared her throat uncomfortably as she tried to finish the last of her sentence. "...watching Ino and me."
Ino snickered childishly, but Sakura refrained from lashing out at her and patiently awaited Hinata's reply.
"Uhm... well... I- I don't... I don't know," Hinata stammered, unable to even come to a conclusion in her head. She had never thought of kissing a girl before, but if it were to better her chances with Naruto, she really felt she would try anything.
"It's OK if you don't want to try it out with either of us. We won't be offended."
Sakura's compassionate tone was calming, but it certainly did nothing to foster Hinata's decision.
"Yeah, it's alright if you don't want to kiss Forehead! I don't entirely blame you. I only do it for demonstrational purposes." Ino butted in on the conversation, obviously only to rile up Sakura some more, not to aid Hinata. Though she would never admit it to anyone, and not that it wasn't completely obvious with the perverse grin on her face, Ino got her jollies from watching Sakura fume with anger. "Sakura might get jealous, though, if you start kissing me with more talent than she's had in the last six years, and there's definitely a big chance for that."
It took every ounce of will power Sakura held to restrain from pummeling Ino's head through the headboard of her bed and straight into the wall behind it, but she held her somewhat calm smile for Hinata, whom thankfully seemed not to have been picking up much of what Ino was rambling about.
Hinata looked fearfully around the room, as if trying to find something to hide in. She began tugging at her hair, unknowingly, in a rather violent manner. Sakura took notice, and decided she would make the decision for the poor girl.
"Don't worry about it Hinata. I think you've got this down. Why don't we work on finding you a cute outfit to wear tomorrow," Sakura suggested in as cheerful of a tone as she could manage.
"Are you kidding Forehead?!" Ino exclaimed, fake shock on her face. "We need to teach her the next step! She's only got enough to get her through first base!"
"I thought kissing was second," Sakura replied, truly confused.
Ino chuckled and shook her head slowly. "Forehead, I'm ashamed in you. How are we going to teach Hinata when you don't even know?"
Sakura's expression and demeanor took an instant turn for the worse. "How dare you say I don't know the bases in a relationship! Just because you're the village whore who has slept with anything with two legs and enough money to take you out, doesn't mean you know anymore than I do!" Her fists were curled into tight balls at her sides. She was more than ready to beat the living snot out of Ino, without care for the innocent bystander this time.
Rather than taking offence to the low blow, Ino laughed even more tauntingly. "We'll deal with the outfit tomorrow morning. Let's show her how to take it to the next level first. I'll be right back ladies. I need to get more props for this." With that, she pushed herself up from her seat on the bed, and disappeared through the door.
Hinata turned to Sakura, her fidgeting down to gentle twirling of her long dark hair. "S-Sakura-chan...?"
"Sorry Hinata. If we're making you too uncomfortable, you're welcome to leave at any time," Sakura spoke sincerely.
"No... I... I appreciate you and Ino helping me," Hinata murmured, her gray eyes staring awkwardly at her lap.
The two sat in silence for a few moments, before Hinata finally spoke up again.
"S-Sakura-chan?"
"What is it, Hinata?"
"Wha-what's the next level?"
Sakura had to think about that. She actually wasn't too sure herself. She turned her attention to the door, reassuring herself that Ino was out of hearing range before turning back to Hinata with her reply. "Honestly, Hinata, I'm not sure what's next with a boy. I... I've only ever experimented with Ino." She was now turning an equally dark shade of red as Hinata, embarrassed that she was not anymore experienced with boys than the shy Hinata. "I can only imagine what Ino has in store for the both of us."