For allurement
Pairing: Orochimaru/Ino
Word count: 891
Prompts/specifications (ha): dark!fic, third-person, alternating POV, introspective, "And the songs get louder each one better than before."
Notes: I mention all the extra specifications I was given, because I am totally cool with people doing that for me. Just don't give me a summary, and I can write it. Also, this request was made ages ago, and I'm writing this as a semi-AU, with Orochimaru having succeeded in taking Sasuke's body.
So this is my not-crack – not the last one, like some people thought, hah – and… it's not that dark. Ah well.
ALSO! A lot of people asked for a continuation to the last one. So that'll be up someday. :D

-x-

Sakura was falling in love with Naruto. Ino doubted that she noticed it, but the signs were there.

If Sasuke came back now, Ino knew that he would break the two of them up, without even meaning to, and she didn't want that. She didn't want Sakura to pine after anyone anymore, not when she had Naruto, who would give her the world if she so much as asked.

When she saw Sasuke, headed for the village, she stopped him. he looked different; cheeks sunken in, gaze hungry. Still gorgeous, though. Of course.

"What are you doing here?" she demanded, heart banging against her rib cage. She wondered if he could hear it. Maybe.

He looked at her, and his lips flickered in an instance of a smirk. Thud thud thud. Her blood hummed, and she hated herself. She hated him more.

"I live here," he said. Rasped, more like. No one to talk to in Oto.

"Not anymore, you don't," she said, flipping out a kunai. "Get out of here."

He inclined his head towards the gate, only a few miles away. "My teammates are waiting for me."

"They're not," she said. Lied. "Leave them alone. Sakura doesn't need you in her life."

Sasuke smiled, and Ino flinched.

"I wasn't talking about Sakura," he said, and for a flash, his gaze turned yellow, snakelike, "Or Naruto."

Ino's eyes were wide.

Orochimaru smiled. "I do owe Sasuke a favor, however."

-x-

he had wanted to take that village, to break that village. He had wanted to see Tsunade again, show her what he had done to one of her most prized citizens. To see Jiraiya, the fool, to take everything everyone had to offer.

Sasuke wanted his clan rebuilt. Orochimaru was fine with that; more Sharingan-wielding vessels to sustain him for years. Sasuke resisted; he wanted a family that was free, that was happy, or none at all. But then, Sasuke wasn't the one in control anymore.

Sakura, his little pink-haired teammate, had been Sasuke's first choice, but Orochimaru thought the blonde in front of him would do quite nicely. She was here, Sakura was there. It was all a question of convenience, really.

She stood defiant, raging, a little scared. Orochimaru could taste it in the air, crackling, swirling around them.

"You can't stop me," he said, and activated his Sharingan. It made him a little giddy, to use it, to command it. A twinge in the back of his mind showed Sasuke's immense displeasure. Orochimaru could ignore it.

"Get away from here." Her voice shook. Then she shook her head. "Why are you here?"

"I told you," he said. "I owe Sasuke-kun a favor." At this he reached up, trailed his fingers over the planes of his new face with a sigh. "I have a beautiful face, don't I?" His gaze sharpened. "You see it, too."

The blonde took an unwilling half-step back, and Orochimaru knew it was true. He smiled. It was hard to do in Sasuke's face.

"I won't touch your village," Orochimaru said suddenly. He had time to carry out his vengeance on Konoha, after all. He wanted some fun now.

she was suspicious, not unreasonably so.

"Not the people, either?" Ah, clever girl. He approved. "Not Sakura or Naruto?"

so that was her concern. Orochimaru smiled. She was a romantic. Well, so was he.

"All I ask is one thing," he said. Leered. She swallowed, hard. "What's your name?"

"Ino," she said without hesitation.

"Ino," he echoed. "How would you like to help a fellow citizen of Konoha?"

-x-

Ino wasn't in love with anyone back home. She had a minor crush on Shikamaru, had once been interested in Sai, was in awe of Kakashi, but that was it, but for her undying passion at twelve years old, for none other than the boy standing in front of her.

You had to sacrifice for your village, Ino knew. She was okay with this. What she wasn't okay with was being okay, and even she knew how little sense that meant.

But this was Sasuke, in body at least, touching her and kissing her and whispering against her skin. So what if his movements were a bit too serpentine, if his gaze on her was a bit too amused? He still had Sasuke's perfect features, perfect body, perfect everything-exterior.

Still, when she leaned into his touch, when she swept her tongue along his, when she moaned just a little too loud, it was easy to forget that she was doing unforgivable things with the enemy.

She had sometimes dreamt of this when she was younger, though perhaps in more innocent detail. But that was when there was Sakura, who loved Sasuke, who Ino loved more than any boy. She couldn't hurt Sakura then, so she would wrap herself around Sasuke – around Orochimaru – now.

"That's a good girl," he hissed, snakelike, in her ear when she shook with silent sobs. "You're such a good girl," and he laughed.

"I hate you," she said, and he kissed her on the mouth.

"I hate you, too," he said fondly.

Her heart beat – thump thump thump – her blood hummed, there was a rushing in her veins, and it was so loud, threatened to consume her as they moved. The song spun around her, getting steadily louder, steadily better.

Ino wept.