Unforeseen Consequences
Chapter 11: Three Hearts Beat As One
"So what do you think?" Naruto asked as he had just finished off explaining everything that had been going on lately. He hoped that both Yamato and Kakashi could at least give him something to go on. He was so confused and torn between both girls that he had no idea what to do.
Yamato looked to Kakashi he had no idea what to do in a situation like this. He had no experience when it came to a problem like this. He wasn't even sure that besides Naruto, he had ever known anyone with this kind of problem. Sure maybe there were times you liked two women but you choose one early on before you got into the relationship. But having two women after you at the same time, that you both liked as well? That was something that had never happened to him. He wasn't sure if Naruto was blessed or cursed with that.
Kakashi closed his eyes in thought this was certainly a nasty place to be. It was a true rock and a hard place and he doubted the whole 'looking left and right at the same time' thing would work in this moment.
"I have to admit you're in a bind here," Kakashi finally said although that was a disappointment to Naruto. He already knew that much himself. "Are you sure you're not certain which girl you like more?"
"I have no idea, before I would have picked Sakura-chan, but lately things with Ino-chan have been very nice..." Naruto trailed off thinking on that. Normally he would have picked the girl he had feelings for since he was a kid. But Ino wasn't just 'the friend' anymore, she was obviously something more to him.
"Well you can't pick that then, and knowing those two picking one wouldn't have good results either." Kakashi still remembered how Sakura and Ino were over Sasuke. The fact that they were both after the same boy again could mean a restart to that whole rivalry.
Yamato looked a little lost as he hadn't been around during that time. Kakashi waved it off as he would explain things later. Looking back at Naruto he could see that the same thoughts were running through the boy's head now. It would be very troubling for Naruto and the team to go through something like that. If he picked Ino, he couldn't see Sakura taking it well and it would affect the team. But then again if he picked Sakura and he later found himself liking Ino more, then that would start to get in the way as well.
This was why Kakashi felt that unless you could be and adult about it, relationships inside of teams were risky.
"Well the way I see things you're options are limited." Kakashi said looking up at the sky slightly. "You can't avoid them so you will have to pick no matter what the outcome. You could say, go on a date with them, after the two dates you would get a better idea of how it would be with each girl and it would make for a more informed choice. You could also choose not to date either of them."
"Huh?" Naruto blinked at that.
Kakashi shrugged, "If you're not ready to date or be in a relationship then maybe you shouldn't forced yourself into one. At any rate I think those are you only choices in this. But whatever you do, I highly suggest that you let the girl you don't pick down easy. Heart break is never a good thing and you can't prevent all the pain but you can make is easier."
"My only choices huh?" Naruto said a bit depressed at that. He honestly couldn't see any other alternative then what Kakashi has told him.
"Well unless you can date both girls I don't see any other option," Kakashi said trying to lighten the mood seeing how depressed his student was.
-Sakura and Ino-
"So just how do you expect to pull this off with him? This is your great idea after all." Sakura asked Ino.
"Well just go over to his place and explain what we came up with." Ino said simply.
"We?" Sakura asked her friend.
"So I came up with it, but you're going along with it," Ino told her.
They were currently in a small examining room in the hospital taking care of their injuries from their little 'sparring' match earlier. Since going to Naruto looking all cut up, bruised and messy wouldn't be the best way to start things off. So they managed to get a small examining room that wasn't in use to heal up. Ino had healed up Sakura and now she was returning the favour.
Ino had to admit at how easy Sakura managed to get them a room for this. Then again Sakura spent more time here, plus Sakura was the one most said would replace Tsunade in the world of medicine one day. Ino knew it was true, sure both of them had trained under Tsunade but Sakura had thrown herself into it full force. Of course now Ino really knew what had motivated the girl thanks to the shared memories. In her place Ino had to admit she would do the same, in fact she was. She had been spending time trying to catch up. Of course maybe she should find her own little thing to do, because she knew there was no way to catch up to Sakura in being a medic.
Sure Ino spent time here, all combat medics were required to put in a set number of hours. If they didn't they could get their medical license suspended for a review. It wasn't that big an issue, but it was a black mark on your record that could hurt you. Someone that had this happen one too many times and if they didn't have good reasons, well then you could get it revoked permanently. It was a good thing that going on missions went to that count. Between her training with her father, her team, and part time work at the family store with working some hours off here. Well it was no wonder she had no social life until now.
"You really think this will work?" Sakura asked worried about it all. "I mean what if he doesn't go for your idea?" That was the major issue, it would all hang on what Naruto said about the idea. Plus there were other issues as well but they could cross those when they came to it. First the big step, then they could take the other steps after it.
"How many boys would actually give up on a deal this good?" Ino smirked. "He's getting two hot girls for the price of one. Although I'm more worried about what kind of ideas he might get in his head."
Sakura thought about it, now with memories of Naruto and Ino, she was finding it easier to think what either of them would think about. It was still all very weird and sometimes even a bit scary. Ever since they came here, she had memories that weren't her own, just pop in her head. It felt like she was losing herself and had said so to Ino. The fact that her best friend felt the same thing, Sakura wasn't sure that was a relief or not. Ino did say that in time the other memories would fade a bit more and it would be easier to deal with it.
Now with Ino's crazy plan, Sakura was thinking how Naruto might react. She knew of a few things that Jiraiya had tried to do to corrupt their Naruto. She would have to have some words about that with him the next time she found Ero-sennin. She giggled a bit at that, she was even thinking of Jiraiya as that.
"What's so funny?" Ino asked.
"I keep calling Jiraiya-sama, Ero-sennin in my head." Sakura admitted.
Ino smiled and giggled, "Yeah same here. I can't believe he tried to push a woman on Naruto on his fifteenth birthday."
That was a memory that Ino had come across earlier in Naruto's mind. It had happened on his training trip in some nameless village that Ino didn't recall the name of. Jiraiya had apparently thought it would be a good idea for Naruto to get some experience dealing with women. So he dragged him into one of those seedy bars and paid for a call girl to flirt and talk with Naruto for an hour. That had been something that was totally embarrassing for Naruto. He didn't know how to be with women like that, and all he got was a full face blush and sweating from being so nervous. Although she knew that a part of him liked it, but also because he was saving himself for Sakura.
Ino felt a bit jealous that Sakura had been on his mind even back then. But now she was going to change that, she was going to ensure that he thought about her as much as Sakura. Suddenly another memory popped into her mind, this of Sakura with Tsunade talking recently. Her eyes widened as she looked at her friend.
"Wait a minute, the Hokage and the old Pervert!?" Ino yelled out causing a startled Sakura to jerk back.
"What the hell Pig?" Sakura said annoyed and hoped that her ears wouldn't be ringing for too long.
"Sorry, but I just remembered that you were talking to the Hokage about her and Ero-sennin. You got to be kidding me right? Did she actually try something with that guy?"
Sakura had forgotten about that, although it hadn't been long ago, she did have other things on her mind. "I honestly don't know. I haven't seen her since really but that is something I should ask about." Then she groaned at something hit her. Ino asked what was wrong so Sakura went into what she had been thinking. "What will she do when she finds out about the three of us, if your plan works? You know how protective she is of Naruto."
Ino sweat dropped at that, she hadn't even considered that. She was still trying to think how she would tell her parents that she had a boyfriend and was sharing him with Sakura. She hadn't even considered how others would react. Well it was too late to turn back now, she thought to herself gathering her strength. They were going to try this, and damn anyone that had a problem with it. They were just trying to be happy and to hell what others thought. She was pretty sure their friends wouldn't abandon them or anything. Sure it would shock the hell out of them, but they would deal. She just hoped that her parents and Sakura's could be as open minded.
"Well nothing ventured, nothing gained right?" Ino sighed.
Sakura could only smile and nodded. She finished up with the healing glad to see all physical evidence of their spar was gone. "Well that should be it, we should shower and chance. Meet up in two hours at Naruto's?"
"Oh yeah, I think an extra hot shower will help with the kinks I still feel." Ino only half-joked. Sure the damage was mostly gone but the muscles were still a bit stiff in some areas. Plus it would give her more time to think on just how to talk to Naruto about the idea she came up with.
-Naruto's Apartment-
After his disappointing time with Kakashi and Yamato, Naruto felt like he needed to get home and just try and relax. He had been so high strung from all of this that he couldn't think straight. So here he was laying on his bed looking up at his ceiling. The only thing he really came to the conclusion was that the place could use a new coat of paint. The white walls were boring to look at and it just reminded him too much of all the times he was on the hospital. He wanted to get his mind off things so much that he actually cleaned his place.
Well he cleaned most of it at least, well it was clean for him at least. Mainly no garbage on the floor although the sink still had some stuff in it, nothing was wiped down or anything fancy like that. He remembered how Sakura had made sure that he didn't live like a pig after that last time she was here. He didn't know that if you leave a mess like that roaches would show up, plus it was only just the one. She was the one that slipped and had his boxers fall on her head.
Then again, if he hadn't left unfinished food laying around and did his laundry more those two things wouldn't have happened. Well, that and the roach had most likely attracted to all the food. But it was just because he had been too busy lately. With all the missions and training he just didn't have the time. Granted when he used that excuse when she was giving him a slight beating for living in filth, she had said then why hadn't he just used his shadow clones. Well truth was he had just forgotten to use them for that. Plus sometimes they didn't always do as they were told, having the exactly the same personality wasn't always a good thing. Sometimes a clone would get distracted or had an accident and dispel early.
Although he had to admit that even angry, Sakura always did have this nice look about her. She got this passionate expression on her face and her eyes just seemed more alive.
He sighed as his mind had just went right back to Sakura. He didn't mind it when she used her fists, at least she was the one that actually made sure he was well behaved. He never had that growing up, no parents to show him what was or what wasn't acceptable behaviour. He wondered if Ino would be the same, helping to make him a better person?
"Damn it now I'm thinking about Ino-chan," Naruto said as he slapped his cheeks with his hands to break his thoughts from it. "Come on think on something else for a change. What was I thinking about before? Oh yeah, new paint color. Maybe orange, yeah repaint my walls orange that will be nice. No more stupid white like the stupid hospitals."
"Maybe a mission will take my mind off things...no that won't work either. Sakura-chan would most likely be sent with me and there is no way in hell I'm doing D-rank missions. Maybe I should find some of the others and just hang out?" Naruto asked himself. He really needed a distraction from everything. He was about to think of something to do when a knock was heard on his door. He sighed as he got out of bed and walked to the front door. He was hoping that maybe it was one of his friends visiting. That might take his mind off things.
When he opened the door he froze at what he saw. Standing there side by side was both Sakura and Ino. It was at that moment that he truly felt that either Kami or karma hated him. Maybe this was payback for all those pranks he pulled when he was younger. If he had known that life would get him back for it, he wouldn't have done it.
"Oh Sakura-chan, Ino-chan what are you two doing here?" Naruto asked nervous. He had no idea if either girl knew that they had confessed their feelings to him and kissed him.
"Well we needed to talk to you about a few things," Sakura said to him not sure how you even approached someone with this kind of thing. Thankfully it seemed like Ino was the one that wanted to take charge.
"Yeah so can we come in?" Ino said to him although from the tone in her voice not letting them in wasn't an option. Naruto nodded as he backed away from the door as the two girls entered. Ino took him lightly by the arm and led him to the couch and made him sit there in the center. Ino looked around, the place could be a bit neater, but at least it was better than on its worse day. A quick look to Sakura and Ino could see the pink haired friend was thinking the same thing.
Naruto felt a little subconscious as they looked around.
"Well at least there's no food left out this time," Sakura sighed at that. It was too unhealthy for Naruto to leave food out too long. She worried about his health sometimes, sure the Kyuubi could heal him physically but she wasn't sure just how far it went. It sure didn't help him from getting sick from drinking expired milk. Another memory that she had gotten from Ino's time in Naruto's head, she would have to talk to him about that time he posed as Sasuke at some point.
"I've learned not to do that," Naruto scratched the back of his head. It seemed odd how something he was thinking of earlier was coming up so soon.
"Well anyways we need to talk," Ino said to him gently. "About us, all three of us."
Naruto winced, he knew this was what they were going to talk about. He wondered how they found out, maybe one told the other and they got into another fight. Although they didn't look like they had gotten into a fight, which was good. He knew how much the friendship between Ino and Sakura went and he didn't want him to break that bond. Bonds of friendship were one of the most precious things in life, he couldn't stand it if he caused a break in such a thing. He knew that Sakura and Ino had gone through that once already and it took years to repair it.
"Naruto," Sakura started up seeing the look on his face. She knew that he was worrying about this whole thing and she wanted to put him at ease. "Ino and I have been talking a lot and we both think we came to a solution."
"A solution?" Naruto wasn't sure to be worried or relieved that they had thought of something. He just hoped that it wasn't going to be something like he had to pick one then and there.
"Y-Yeah," Sakura felt very nervous about this. It was a huge step for them all but it was the best way to deal with things. "See, both Ino and myself really care about you Naruto. We both want to be with you and we understand that you don't want to hurt either of us. We don't want to hurt you either and won't make you choose between us."
Naruto let out a small breath he hadn't known he had been holding. He was so relieved to know that they weren't going to make him choose.
"Yeah you see we both went through that with Sasuke-kun," Ino sighed remembering all the lost years of their friendship. "So don't want to go through that again. So here's our proposal." She took a breath as she readied herself. She felt her heart hammering in her chest from her nerves. Ino also could tell that Sakura was the same way, this was the moment of truth.
"Sakura and I, well we came to an agreement. If you want, we'll share you." There she had said it, she had put the offer out on the table and only waited for Naruto to say something. There was a long ugly pause as Sakura and Ino waited for his response. Naruto had the same look on his face for a fully minute and both girls were starting to worry.
Finally Naruto said something.
"Huh?"
Both girls nearly fell over at that unexpected word, that was not what they wanted to hear as now they're nervousness was being replaced by irritation.
"What do you mean by 'huh'?" Sakura said forcefully. "We said you can date the both of us and we'll share you between us and that's all you say?"
"Jeez, Naruto do we have to spell it out?" Ino said to him crossing her arms.
"You're both serious?" Naruto wasn't sure if this was really happening. He never thought that he could date both of them. Wasn't it wrong to do something like that, or was it just to date two girls at once if they didn't know about it? He was sure the last one was wrong, but they did come to him with this idea and they seemed pretty serious about it.
"That's right, we've talked about it and well, it's the only option really." Sakura said with a shrug. "We both care for you and we don't want the other to lose out, it avoids all the heart ache and pain as well with just picking one. Plus I'm okay if it's with Ino."
"Yeah, we're comfortable doing this together." Ino stated as she placed a hand on Sakura's shoulder to show how firm they were in this belief to him.
Naruto saw how close they were together and something Jiraiya had introduced him to once stuck in his mind. Mainly it went back to their training trip when he tried to drag his mentor out of the red light district for some training. He had to go into one of those bars that he liked to hang out in, and he found him with a girl on each arm as they were laughing and drinking. This was after the incident with his birthday and that woman. Something he still couldn't think about without blushing. But anyway he had seen the women kiss him on the cheeks, he had said something and both girls laughed as they leaned in and kissed each other.
It was Naruto's first look at girl on girl action. Later when he did managed to get Jiraiya out of there he had asked what was going on. The old man just laughed it off saying that sometimes people liked more than just one type of person. Plus others were comfortable showing it. He also said that having two girls who were totally okay with each other in that way, was a guy's ultimate dream.
Naruto didn't understand it until this moment as that image came into mind. He replaced the image with Sakura and Ino. That got him a slightly blush and nose bleed.
"W-When you say together do you mean…" He trailed off not sure he could even finish it.
Ino gave Sakura a look as she smiled. "Well you know Naruto-kun, I have to admit that Sakura-chan is a nice looking girl. Maybe we should try something out." Ino slowly moved herself closer to Sakura who to Naruto's shock wasn't moving at all. In fact she looked to encourage this action. Naruto was on his seat (literally) watching as the two girls were moving ever slowly closer together. Just as their lips were about to touch, they quickly turned to face him. They stuck out their tongues and pulled one of their lower eyelids down at him.
Naruto fell off his couch to hear the girls laughing.
"See told you he'd think we would do something like that," Ino said as she helped Naruto up and placed him back in his seat. "Honestly Naruto, Sakura and I are straight what in the world would you think that just because we agree to share you, automatically means we're bi?"
"Naruto you should have known better," Sakura said with a smile. Naruto was currently pouting at being tricked, which just looked so cute to Sakura at that moment. He looked all innocent and childish, almost like he was that young loud boy she had known in school again.
But ever the prankster, Naruto had to admit that they did get him good with that. So in the name of his good humour he took it as he smiled at them. "Good one, but are you serious about me seeing you both? Won't that be weird and how will that work?
Sakura and Ino shared a look as Sakura spoke. "We're not totally sure."
"Yeah, there's not really any set rules for something like this," Ino tried to smile but it wasn't working. Both girls had no real idea how something like this worked out. There were no rules or guide to any of this. "I guess we just play it by ear and see what works and what doesn't."
Naruto guessed that made sense, he had no idea how you even began this kind of relationship. "Well as long as it's fair. I mean I like both Ino-chan and Sakura-chan and I don't want to put one of you in front of the other."
Both girls smiled at that, that was the kind of thing that made them like him so much. He always put others in front of himself. To make sure others were happy was a very noble trait but he always seemed to sacrifice his own. Well they were going to make sure that all the years he lost out, would be given back to him. Ino smirked as went over and she slide up to Naruto's left and snuggled against him. He blushed at the close contact as she did so. Sakura not wanting to be outdone did the same only to Naruto's right.
"Well how's this for a start?" Ino asked him seeing his face turn a full shade of red.
"V-very nice." Naruto said not sure if he trusted himself to say more. When he first noticed that girls were really nice he had hoped for something like this. Girls were soft and smelled nice and now he had two of them resting against him. He could smell Ino's hair, she smelled of flowers and the skin he could feel was very soft. Sakura shifted a bit and he could smell something like cherries.
"Now that we got that out of the way, there is only one major step left," Sakura sighed as she wished it was step they didn't have to do.
"What's that Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked.
"Telling our parents about this," Sakura said flatly and Naruto's happy mood dropped.
Naruto liked that Haruno family, and he wasn't sure how they would react to this. The thing was he hadn't met Ino's parents yet. That might actually work against him too. Then there was how everyone would think about it, he wasn't worried for the most part. Mainly how Tsunade might feel and what she might say about it.
"Thanks for killing the mood Forehead," Ino muttered.
"It had to be said, we can't pretend the problem isn't there." Sakura said back as she pushed off Naruto to face Ino.
Ino did the same as she mirrored Sakura's actions. "Yeah I know, but couldn't we at least enjoy the moment for a bit before you drag it down?"
"Someone has to be the responsible one."
"You're saying I'm not responsible?"
"What about that that first plant you tried to take care of?" Sakura smirked as she was using some of Ino's own memories against her. She had a memory of Ino as a young girl that was tasked with taking care of a plant. She kept forgetting to water it and it had nearly died.
"I was a kid!" Ino said in her defence.
"Wait a minute," Naruto said quickly trying to get between the two. "Can we not argue for the moment? We can deal with it later, but we should deal with it at some point."
He figured that getting both points across would help calm them down. He also suddenly got a feeling that the down side to this new relationship, that he was going to have to play referee between the two when they got like this. For a moment he wasn't sure what would happen but slowly the girls moved back into their previous spots. Naruto sighed, this was definitely going to get some getting used to.
"You know now that we got all this out of the way there are some good things about this," Ino smirked as she faced Naruto.
"Huh?" Naruto said as Ino got a bit closer. Then he felt Ino's lips on his own, they were just as soft and this wasn't like the kiss from before. This one was slow and she was taking her time enjoying it. After a slight shock he closed his eyes as he felt himself fall into the kiss. She felt Ino's hand on his cheek as she made a small pleasured sound from kissing him. Naruto lost all track of time as he got the best kiss in his life.
"Ino, don't hog him all," Sakura snapped as she had been patiently waiting for her turn.
Ino pulled back feeling the blush on her cheeks, that had been a very good kiss. She wondered if it was because things between them were just right or if Naruto was just naturally a good kisser. Now she saw Naruto's dazed expression when Sakura turned his head and watched Sakura and Naruto kiss. Ino would have felt some kind of jealously normally but she trusted Sakura and Naruto. She laid her head on his shoulder as her hand rubbed his chest watching them. When they pulled back both were blushing and smiling at each other.
"So how was it Naruto-kun?" Ino asked teasing him.
Naruto could only grin, maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.
Chapter 12: Dropping the Bombshell
I've thought about it and if I do make a sequel it will only be Naruto/Sakura/Ino, I already have an idea for a Naruto/Sakura/Hinata/Tenten idea so I'll save Hinata for that story.
