The Outfit That Causes Even Sasuke to Stare: Ino & Sakura
"Hey Ino, wait up!" Sakura caught up with Ino, who had now stopped running. "What do you think you're doing?"
"Come on, Sakura! Let's just go shopping! We're the ones who don't know anything about what to get Lee! If you think about it, we're practically slowing the process down! So I say, why fight it?" Ino shrugged her shoulders, convincing herself along with Sakura, "Tenten has Lee as a teammate, Temari has brothers, and Hinata has a cousin she lives with. Neither of us have that kind of knowledge."
"I don't know, Ino… I feel kind of bad abandoning them to sort this out themselves…"
"Oh, stop being such a tightwad! We're seriously doing them a favor," Ino explained, crossing her arms, "besides, if we see something on the way that might be suitable, we can always buy it and call it a day."
"Well… okay! But we have to keep a special eye out for—"
"Yeah, yeah, LET'S GO!!" Ino grabbed Sakura's arm and dragged her all the way to her favorite store, A Woman's Necessities. It was packed with clothes, jewelry, makeup, and dietary supplements. The music playing was so loud, that you could hear the store before you got within thirty feet of the store. It also smelled strongly of perfume, but Ino was used to all of it now. She skipped in, already skimming through racks of clothes.
Sakura sighed, as she was thrown millions of outfits. In a few minutes, you couldn't see her head over the stack of clothes she was carrying.
"Ino…!" Sakura hissed from behind the mountain of cloth, "You're going to buy out the entire store! Will you just try these on already??"
Ino agreed grudgingly, and the two went to the back of the store, where the dressing rooms were. They were surprised to find Ayame, who was the daughter of the owner of Ichiraku Ramen, standing outside one of the stalls, examining herself in the mirror.
"Hey, that dress looks great on you, Ayame," Sakura panted from behind the mound of clothes, "are you going to buy it?"
Ayame looked behind the garments, and was relieved to see it was Sakura. "Oh, it's you! I was going to get it, but I don't think I'd get a chance to wear it, since I wear my apron all day. I see you're getting some shopping done, though." She said, nodding at Ino's future purchases.
"Oh no, these are Ino's."
"What? Ino is here? That's perfect! She told me to let her know if I ever found out anything about Sasuke and—"
"DID I HEAR SOMEONE SAY SASUKE??" Ino ran over to where Ayame and Sakura were talking.
"Yes Ino, I have a hunch about Sasuke's preference to clothes."
"WHAT?? TELL ME!!" Sakura dropped the heap of clothes as she screamed at the same time as Ino.
"W-well, he was eating ramen at the shop the other day and this girl visiting from another village came in. They weren't saying anything to each other, but when she left, Sasuke's eyes followed her out like a hawk! He then proceeded to follow her like a puppy dog out of the shop, forgetting to pay!"
"B-but Sasuke is never unfocused like that! Was she pretty at all? Like, prettier than me?" Sakura inquired. Ayame started to answer, but Ino cut in.
"Please, that wouldn't be saying much. Was she prettier than me?"
Before Sakura could protest, Ayame shook her head. "No, I couldn't say she was better-looking than either of you. She was quite plain, actually. But she was wearing this really colorful dress. No one could miss that thing! I was even staring at her from the kitchen for a while!"
"Do you think if we wore it, Sasuke would notice us?" Sakura asked eagerly.
"Maybe. It's just a hunch, after all. But if you're interested, I saw it in this catalogue…" Ayame grabbed it from the small pile of clothes she was trying on. She flipped the pages, until she found what she was looking for. She gave it to Ino and pointed. "She was wearing this."
Ino and Sakura stared at the picture of the dress. "…Well, I could see how this could draw someone's attention—"
"Are you sure Sasuke liked this sort of thing?" Ino asked skeptically, interrupting Sakura once again, "It doesn't look like something I would typically wear."
Sakura rolled her eyes and snatched the catalog from her. "That's the idea, Ino-pig! And stop interrupting me! …I think it's worth a shot!"
Ino nodded in agreement. With a quick thanks to Ayame, the two headed off to the store advertised by the magazine. It was a generic clothing store, and had pretty much anything. Sakura had been there a few times, but Ino didn't buy anything that was off-brand, so Sakura took the lead.
While they were on the escalator, Sakura started to have doubts. "Ino… do you really think Sasuke would really chase a girl just because she was wearing something he liked?"
"Of course, Billboard Brow! All men are the same: they judge by appearance before getting to know a girl. That's why I do my best to keep my body looking slim! I will get Sasuke to notice me one day, and if this dress is going to help me, then I'll take it!"
"Hmph, well, I think Sasuke is a little deeper than that, but I agree," Sakura grumbled, "but call me Billboard Brow again and I'll make sure your dress is ruined for good!!"
Unfortunately for Sakura, Ino's attention was suddenly drawn elsewhere. "…What the…? WHAT THE HECK ARE THEY DOING??"
"What?? Who??" Sakura hastily spun around, and her mouth dropped open. She stared in utter confusion at the sight before her. On the opposite side of where they were going, were Tenten and Temari laughing maniacally. However, the thing that really stunned her was that they were each clutching a pair of men's underwear in their hand. "What do you think they could possibly be laughing about…? They've gone completely insane…!" Sakura blurted, completely flabbergasted.
"What?" Ino turned slightly to face what Sakura was staring at, and then grabbed the top of Sakura's head and yanked her to what she was really looking at. "Not that! Those two are going to take the last pair of dresses!"
"OH NO THEY DON'T!!" Sakura and Ino raced up the escalator, Sakura completely forgetting the strange sight she had just seen. They made it just in time to rip the dresses from the other women's hands, and dashed downstairs to buy them before anyone else could take them.
