Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters, merchandise, TV rights, ect… (I think you get the point.)
Summery
Drabble Series - Two completely different people. Sometimes they are like ships that pass in the night and sometimes their lives are twisted and intertwined. (Sasuke/Ino)
Like all of my work this is just something that happened to float through the empty void inside my head. Like it or hate it please R and R as honest opinions are always welcomed, as are random acts of worship.
Lamb: Yeah I know I've kept you waiting, but by know you should know what I'm like when it comes to updating things. Speaking of which, I have just started a SasuIno multi chapter fic in case any of you want to check it out.
Muse: Why don't you just beg them to read it and be done with it? Anyway thank you to WolfFlowerz, Drunksonic, 1010'jin, naruxinoxsasu.10, AkemiYumikov3, shadowphoenix10, and Yoruichi 'Ino', you can each have… well I've run out of ideas so, help?
Dedi: This drabble is dedicated to 1010'jin
Lamb: Also I would like to say a big thank you to my beta reader, hakuisagirl.
Muse: On with the fic!
Riding along in my automobile,
My baby beside me at the wheel,
I stole a kiss at the turn of a mile,
My curiosity's running wild,
Cruisin' and playin' the radio,
With no particular place to go,
Drive
Maybe she had been a bit too impulsive this time, the blonde seventeen-year-old thought as she stalked along the side of the road. But the pink haired bitch had just been getting to her too much and it had been a case of either leave, or stay and hit the girl, which would have probably resulted in Sakura's parents asking her to leave anyway. So either way she would have ended up walking the streets alone at midnight. But if she'd have been thinking clearly and not so blinded by her rage she would have gone to Hinata's or Temari's, rather than her own home, which was on the opposite side of town.
On the plus side, it was midsummer so the air was still fairly warm. This was a good thing, as she had been so enraged she just grabbed up her bag and marched out of the house without changing out of her pyjamas. The upshot of which was that she was prancing around the town in ridiculously short cream colour hot-pants and a light purple strap top that had been a bit on the tight side when she was fifteen. Over her left shoulder was slung the backpack that had all of her stuff in it, including the outfit she had been going to wear into town before Sakura had decided that she didn't want to go any more. Selfish cow.
Ino pressed the skip button on her iPod trying to find something that would help keep her in her bad mood. At least if she was angry then she was too busy to contemplate how stupid she was being for walking around at night, on her own, only party dressed. Though still nowhere near as stupid as Sakura, who looked set to throw away a lifetime's friendship over a boy. True he was the hottest guy in their school, and he was smart as well, but did it really matter if they both liked him? Whatever happened to Bro.'s before Hoe's? Or should that be sisters before misters? She couldn't recall off hand.
The stretch of road ahead of her was suddenly illuminated and instinctively Ino hugged the hedge that ran alongside the sidewalk as she waited for the car to pass her. The path ahead of her was being shown in ever-increasing detail as the car closed the space between them and the blonde found herself holding her breath as she silently counted waiting for the vehicle to come into view. It did, but rather than just speeding past her as the others had done, it drew to a stop, engine still running just a little ahead of her.
Damn it! Ino cursed in the privacy of her skull, just what she needed, some creepy curb-crawler trying to pick her up. As she approached, her blue-eyes saw the passenger window roll smoothly down and reluctantly she hit the pause on her iPod. If worst came to the worst she could always hit the guy with her backpack and then leg it. She was wearing trainers and had made it onto the track team for a reason.
"Hey." The voice was deep and smooth with just a hint of a question in it. "Yamanaka, Ino right?"
"Uh, yeah." For a moment Ino was almost sure her eyes must have bulged unattractively out of her head like a startled goldfish. You fight with your friend over a guy and the next thing you know you are confronted by said guy. What're the chances? "And you're Uchiha Sasuke."
"Meh," The dark haired male gave a soft snort of mild disgust, there wasn't a person that went to Konoha High who didn't know who he was. "It's kinda late to be walking the streets alone isn't, especially half naked on a Saturday night."
"I wouldn't exactly call one thirty late, more like early." Ino said cocking one hip as she braced her weight on her other leg, her right hand, in which she held her iPod, going to rest on her waist while the other continued to grip the strap of her backpack.
"Whatever. Get in; I'll give you a ride." He rolled his eyes at the sceptical look on her face and her immobility. "Oh just get in already."
Their eyes locked and some sort of silent battle of wills seemed to take place, but the end result was the blonde sitting in the passenger seat.
"Fine, fine. I'm in." Ino pouted slightly as she dumped her bag down by her feet but then grinned as she sank happily into the seat. She sighed contentedly as they moved off; enjoying the smooth feel as the car ate up the road.
Sasuke chanced a sideways look at the girl that was already relaxing in his car before a little reluctantly returning his gaze to the road. He'd seen her before, normally wandering through the hallways or once or twice in one of his classes. Most of the time when he spotted her she was on the sports field or in the gym or in the pool. The girl worked out a lot, and was on both the track and swim teams, a fact he knew since some of his friends were on the male equivalent. But even if he hadn't have known it would have been easy enough to guess just by looking at her. She was all long limbs and hard muscles without any real curve to her figure. And yet there was still something oddly attractive about her.
It was a sweet ride Ino had to admit as she settled more comfortably into the seat, loving the sensation of the smooth leather upholstery against the bare skin of the backs of her thighs. She'd always found certain types of car a turn on, especially the fast sporty types. Cars when it came down to it that were just like this, not that she had the faintest idea what make it was. All she knew was that the sleekly built black machine was one of the sexiest things she'd ever laid eyes on; right up there along side its driver.
Her older half brother Deidara kept saying it was only a matter of time until she started dating boy racers. She just kept telling him that he was stupid, true the cars were amazing, but most of the guys that drove them were prats. Where as Sasuke on the other hand, 'Mr. I'm so cool even ice-cubes are jealous' was everything she'd ever fantasised about. He was what she fantasised about. Unable to resist any longer, she let her eyes fall shut as she revelled in the fact that she could feel the base from the sound system moving through the seat and into her body.
"So what are you doing out, all alone, at this time of night, dressed like that?" The Yamanaka cracked one eye open just in time to see the obsidian eyed male behind the wheel running those same eyes over her bare legs.
"Believe it or not I didn't intend to be walking the streets at this hour." Silence was the only response, but it was not the comfortable silence of before. This was an 'I'm going to just wait until you give in and tell me the rest' sort of silence. "Ok, so I was meant to be staying with a friend of mine, Haruno Sakura–"
"She's got pink hair right?" Sasuke wrinkled his nose in a way that could only be described as cute. "Two of my mates fancy the hell out of her, can't see the attraction myself."
" – anyway we ended up getting into a fight and me being me I just walked out in my Pj's not caring that it was well past midnight." She blew blonde bangs out of her face and smiled ruefully.
Sure here and now it sounded like a really stupid thing to do and no doubt her lazy assed Shika would denounce her for being troublesome when word got out. But at the time it had seemed like a perfectly normal thing to do or at least a very Yamanaka Ino sort of thing to do. And so she had done it.
"Nice and even better I didn't even have to buy you dinner to find out what you wear in bed." Ino made a sound somewhere between a snort and a laugh, it was almost as if he was flirting with her but at seventeen she knew better than to read too much into the actions of any guy. "So what was this fight about?"
"Oh, just some guy." Again came the silence, the blonde had known people who would chatter at you until you just gave in and told them what they wanted to know, but Sasuke just listened at her. In a way it was worse. "Fine, there's this guy that I sorta like but the thing is, it turns out Billboard Brow is carrying a massive torch for him too. And when she found out that I like him she started this fight and well, I've never been the sort to back down from a challenge."
"That's stupid." Privately Ino agreed with him, she didn't want to lose her friendship with Sakura over something as trivial as a boy, even if that boy was Uchiha Sasuke. Hell, she didn't want to lose her friendship with the girl period. But the fact was fate didn't care what you wanted, just as it didn't care whether or not life was fair.
"Maybe, but that's life." Sasuke shot her a disbelieving look before flicking his eyes back to the road. "Sure I can see you don't believe me, but there's evidence all around. Just listen."
'A Knife Call Lust' by Hollywood Undead was playing on the stereo, which was on loud enough to be heard without preventing conversation. It was a song that Ino had liked since the first time she stumbled across it on the Internet and which she had then spent weeks trying to find somewhere to buy it from or somewhere to download it. A task that proved far harder than it really should have, but she'd got it in the end, after all she was Yamanaka Ino and had made a point of getting her own way whenever she could.
She smirked across at Sasuke before giving in to temptation and mouthed along with the words.
Nostalgia hit and it's time to quit,
And everybody acts,
Like it don't mean shit.
And your friend will stab you,
Just to fuck some girl,
Put your hands in the air and scream,
Fuck the world!
"Ok so you might have a point." Sasuke admitted grudgingly, after all like he said, two of his friends were gagging for the Haruno chick, and while it was true that they hadn't come to blows yet, there was every chance that they might. "But we're guys, you girls you're different."
"Yeah, most of the time we're more viscous." Her voice sounded almost bitter, and when he looked at her the dark haired male could see the scowl twisting her features. "Female of the species and all that… Kipling had a point you know."
The pair fell into silence once more, the only sound being that of the stereo. Ino's voice broke in as she gave directions, since the Uchiha had no idea where her house was situated. Which wasn't surprising, even considering that Deidara hung around in a group that included Sasuke's older brother. Not that they came round to her house that often anymore. Not since they had wolf whistled at her when she was sunbathing in her bikini and she had flipped them off and then denounced the lot of them as perverts. Yeah, after that Deidara hadn't brought his friends home much, though try as she might she couldn't fathom the reason why not.
"This guy… he wouldn't be blond by any chance, would he?" Sasuke broke the silence after about five minutes, changed gear, brushed his hand through his hair and then let his hand rest on the gear stick once more.
"Your mate?" Ino shook her head, but couldn't resist a smile. So much for Sakura's claims that the Uchiha was as good as hers, the girl really needed to lean when to stop boasting. "Sorry, he's not a blond. And before you ask, No, it's not Rock Lee either."
Again silence descended, and again it was Sasuke's 'I'm going to listen at you until you give in' sort of silence. But this time Ino was determined not to give in. If she had been a bitchy sort of person, well Ok she was bitchy but she wasn't spiteful, but if she had been she may have given up the emerald-eyed girl. She might well have told Sasuke that it was he himself that Forehead was lusting after. She could have done a brilliant character assassination job on her in the bargain, thereby ruining any chance Sakura might have had with him. She might have done all of that if she was spiteful, or if it hadn't have meant she would have been indirectly confessing her own feelings for him.
So as it was she just sat there matching Sasuke's 'I'm going to listen at you until you give in' silence with an 'I'm not going to say anything so you might as well give up' one of her own. For someone used to loud verbal battles this silent warfare was a whole new ball game, but as she had pointed out before, she wasn't the sort to back down from a challenge.
"You're not going to tell me, are you?" Sasuke knew he sounded sullen but he couldn't be bothered to try and hide the fact. The listening trick always worked on Naruto so why hadn't it worked against this loud mouthed blonde? Man life could be so unfair.
"Nope. Left here." She chirped grinning broadly, feeling far prouder of herself than she should have. Then again, to an athlete wining was everything. And anyone who spouted that whole 'it's the taking part that counts' load of crap could shove it where the sun didn't shine for all she cared. If you came in second that just made you the first loser.
"No reason why you should…" He said it half to himself, half to her as he gazed intently through the windscreen for some indication of where the girl lived. "Where are you?"
"Just drop me here." Ino said, already undoing her belt. She looked up when she felt Sasuke's curious gaze on her. "Older brother. Sure you know he wouldn't care if I brought a different guy home every night. But he'll jump on anything if it'll give him an excuse to pry into my private life."
"Hn, I know the feeling." He nodded as he pulled up to the curb and watched the leggy blonde hop out. Itachi, his older brother, was always poking his nose where it wasn't wanted i.e. inside his baby brother's personal space.
"Thanks for the lift." Ino bent her head and smiled at him through the open window, the soft summer wind blowing her bangs into her face even as she reached up to brush them away.
"Not a problem." Sasuke waved off her thanks, but instinctively called out to her before she had taken more than a couple of steps. "Hey Yamanaka, if that guy you like isn't into you then he's real stupid."
"Oh I don't know." She gave him a half-hearted shrug and bright grin, which caused dimples to form in her cheeks, before turning and starting to walk off. "I wouldn't have said you were that thick."
-------
Ino was half way down her road when the black car pulled up alongside her for the second time that hour. There was a soft click as the door was opened from the inside and pushed as far open as the driver could manage. Sasuke looked up at the smiling blonde who nodded slightly at his silent invitation, dropped her bag into the foot well and then, without a word, climbed in after it.
"You're right," He said eventually, as the car truned out of the road. "I'm not thick."
Please R and R I'd love to know what you thought.
Big love and inspiration
Lamanth
