In honor of my missing Sep 23... I shall now try to stick Ino in as many of these as I can. Because I suck. But you like it. I think.
36 precious treasure
Ino is laughing, because the girl scaling Chouji's head is small and adorable and Asuma's, and she loves her for being cute and cheerful and clumsy, she loves her for more than being her teacher's living legacy. Although it figures that the miniature brunette scrambles off and hits the ground running when she sees who just turned the corner.
"Blondes never win," she pouts, even though Shikamaru is the only one who can hear her.
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Sarutobi Chiyoko adores Hyuuga Hinata as a sister, and Hyuuga Hanabi as a partner in crime. Hanabi spent a week going through all the old closets for all the clothes she could, because if Hinata was Kurenai's kinda-daughter, then Chiyoko was Hanabi's kinda-little-sister, and Hanabi had always wanted a doll for herself.
Hinata was grateful for the excuse to keep visiting her sensei. Team 10 and Team 8 often met up for lunch before making their way over to Kurenai's apartment.
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It's no surprise now the three year old girl has adopted a huge family for herself. Konohamaru was pissed for a little while that his cousin liked Hanabi more. Hanabi gave him her patented look of superiority and resumed showing Chiyoko how to clip the little plastic poppies in her hair. He took it out on her during physical training class. Well… he tried to. It's not her fault the only thing he knew how to do was imitate Naruto's ridiculous excuse for a henge.
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Hanabi, like Chiyoko, is a child, and as such, a precious treasure to protect. They skip in the street, toddler and almost-teenager, the beaded ornaments in their hair glimmer and dance like fireflies.
Hanabi doesn't notice until she turns around that her sister is holding hands, with Sasuke of all the people in the world. Her expression goes blank, and then she is doing her level best to impress in Chi-chan's little mind that boys are icky awful things, that need to be avoided at all costs, because they make you go stupid like Ino-nee.
Ino is about to take offense at that, but her eyes light on joined hands and her expression changes too, and then she is coiled around Hinata's other arm purring nonsense about springtime and youth and some girls having all the luck.
-vovovovov-
Sasuke has long mastered ignoring idiot babble.
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Ino, light as she is, is unexpected weight on her ankle. Hinata represses the urge to wince, but she can't stop her fingers digging deep into Sasuke's palm. She throws him a desperately apologetic glance as she tries to pry her friend off.
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Somehow not being on the receiving end of Ino's affection, watching the terminally reserved Hyuuga heiress suffering through the world's blondest barnacle, it's funny. An honest to god grin manages to worm its way onto his face, and both kunoichi are mildly entranced by the sight. The realization makes him quickly school his expression into one of his usual disdain.
-vovovovov-
Hinata unconsciously cradles the image to her, because if Sasuke is handsome when he's being a jerk; he's absolutely breathtaking when he smiles. She might understand now why he was so easy to fall in love with.
The thought that she might bring such a gloriously human expression to his face would make any girl go through hell and back to try. But hell hurts too much, and one smile is not worth blood and sweat and tears and shattered fragments of hopes and dreams and moments of time from memories beyond recall. She knows.
She's seventeen, had a first love, lost it but got back the part of herself that was most afraid of disappointing him. Having a man touch your heart hurts; more than life and death it's pain and helplessness and she's not helpless.
Having to sleep three feet away from him would have been very difficult five years ago.
It's probably the healthiest thing she's done, given her current lifestyle, falling out of love with Naruto. Every grin that made her heart skip a beat was a threat to her, and she'd like to think she's smart, not suicidal or masochistic.
He's still in love with Sakura, and she's actually alright with the idea. He deserves love, she wants it for him. And she's not so selfless a person that her own pain, virtuous and self-sacrificing as it is, can satisfy her.
Not falling in love with Uchiha Sasuke is imperative.
Her treacherous mind sees him again, amusement tugging his lips into a sensuous prideful curve, warming the ice in his eyes.
Not falling in love with Uchiha Sasuke is going to be very difficult.