A/N: Welcome back, dear readers and lurkers. It's good to see you again. I wanted to take a moment to issue a content warning. About two-thirds of the way through, there is some erotic prose. No major plot points occur during it, so feel free to stop reading if that kind of writing makes you uncomfortable. Otherwise, please enjoy!

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

Sai and Ino Bond Again

The bird calls had changed position, had neared the top of the cliff.

Inoichi leaned closer, but the milky white mist had coated everything, and gave Ino's father a blurred quality, his outline faint against the backdrop. Reach out to her. It's not selfish to seek help. Sai had a quantity of chakra left, chakra he reserved for the Blotted Ink Barrier to protect Ino in the safehouse, should he go there with her. He could evade, he could fight, but ultimately, he would be hunted down, run into a corner and arrested unless he left the country, waited until the excitement died and he returned on the sly. But really, he felt he didn't have the time to waste. On the other hand, the Hokage Office- -Lord Kakashi and Shikamaru, in particular- -would have an absolute conniption over his presence in the Mist village should they discover his whereabouts.

His wounded shoulder, not to be forgotten, twinged with fresh agony. Thankfully, he was not dependent on his right arm; he was able to use his left for kenjutsu, but ink drawings were out as it required fine motor skills he had not honed with his left. What were his other options?

The Hiding Mole technique, where he could burrow under the earth's surface and wait out the Kiri search squad. Without any better choices, Sai forced his fingers into the proper seals and implemented the technique.

The earth under him churned into grit. He flipped to his belly, ground his teeth against his shoulder's screams, and dove into the loosened silt the technique created. His right arm didn't appreciate any movement, so he swept his left in front of him. In a normal situation, he could manage a good depth, but he was hardly under the surface before the technique relayed the movement of the Kiri squad. Deeper he 'swam' as the stone enveloped him with a cold embrace, moist where the water had seeped into the porous rock. When he had gone a meter or two beneath the surface, he held the technique. Minutes later, he was aware of a buzz in his ears; he felt...detached.

To lose consciousness buried under feet of rock would be his death warrant. Regardless of the Kiri shinobi overhead, he'd have to break the surface and employ a different escape. Instead of moving upwards, he dug sideways with a slow, steady persistence. He fought to crawl forward by inches. Never before had he felt so claustrophobic, so oppressed with weight, and the darkness, closeness, and oppression edged him toward panic. Exhausted, the gnawing teeth of his injury weakening him, he paused for rest, and in part, to experience a sudden feeling of hopelessness.

More than anything, the hopelessness clenched a tight fist around him. He did not often regret his choices, but he regretted ignoring Inoichi's advice and trying to evade capture alone. I should've sought help from Ino.

Her image flared inside him, and with her image, the fear of her in anxiety or danger, and yes, the recent strengthening of their bond, lit up his heart. No. Waiting in the cold dark was unacceptable. Push forward, break out to open air, summon Ino to you. You can do this, he told himself. With renewed vigor, Sai dug and dug and dug. The digging took so long, he hoped no more Kiri shinobi prowled the cliffs, and when, at last, he hauled his exhausted body out of a hole in the cliffside, he gasped at the air despite the humidity and mist which dewed all it touched.

Rain poured with an unrelenting pitter-patter on leaves and ground. Night was dark enough and the encompassing fog dense enough to reflect lights from Kirigakure. He wasn't far, at least. No bird calls disturbed the silent sanctity of the cliff, but he'd proceed with extreme caution anyway. After a side-to-side wiggle, Sai escaped the rather small hole he'd dug through and ended Hiding Mole. Again, the exertion caused him to fade from reality, but when he took a moment to breathe with rapid, shallow breaths, his consciousness returned. Down he descended the slick cliff, careful to watch his step, and when he put both feet on solid ground, he sank to his knees and hunched under the cover of the Konoha cloak, the olive-green coloration gone after the spear strike interrupted the transformation jutsu.

Tittle-tittle-tittle! A pause. At a different tangent from the first call came, Tittle-tittle!

Sai stiffened, alert. The Kiri squad had waited for him to exit the technique, but why had they not called as soon as he surfaced? He had very little time to enact his plan. Low on chakra, his dominant arm useless, and once the adrenaline wore off, he'd feel the weight of his exhaustion.

"Seek help from Ino." Inoichi had followed him. He seemed determined to pursue Sai to the ends of the earth. "Connect with her and open a portal to her location. You remember how."

Yes, I remember.

First, a puddle of water. The cliffs were drenched, the rain had increased since he had rested at the foot of them, so he pulled himself to his feet and began a calm, systematic search for a big enough puddle of rain water. He had no cover. The barren limestone was flat, broad, and though the night was dark, too much light diffused in the fog for him to be rendered invisible. He strained his ears for beach sounds, wave after wave rolling against pebbled shores, but he must've been more disoriented than he believed because he could hear nothing but the rain as it pelted the stone.

Behind him, from within the fog, more birds volleyed their noises to and fro. Kiri shinobi closed in. He shuffled from the cliff wall, risking himself on the broad avenue of stone, but he was in favor. A shallow puddle large enough to function as a portal gathered in a depression. He knelt at its edge. Rain splashed around him; cold droplets struck his face, dripped and soaked his hair.

His arm was hot and it pulsated, muscles clenched with pain, the stream of blood diluted with rainwater. Sai ignored the pain, the downpour, the patrol of shinobi who dashed to his position. Into the strange beneath-place he shared with Ino he sank, where he felt no physical pain or discomfort. It was as they had left it: the Sunda Umi beach as the sun struck the chalky cliffsides, the warm, clear-green waters rippled on the sand. He remembered the pull, the tension- -a surreal magnetism which guided him to her spirit.

"Ino, can you hear me?"

If she did not respond, he would have to fly to her as a hawk in the night sky. He needn't have worried. The slight tug on her was enough for her to appear before him on the Sundi Umi beach. Her hair was loose around her arms and along her back to her heels, and she was so near him, his knees weakened with relief. "What's going on?"

"I'm wounded and can't shake the Kiri patrols. Open a gateway to your location."

Confusion bunched her eyebrows together. "What? We haven't begun to explore-"

"I don't have much time," he interrupted. "Get to water and open the gateway for me. Please," he stroked her hair, "please hurry."

He'd convinced her. "I'll be back in a minute. Sit tight."

Sit tight he did. The varying bird songs had spread to several points in his circumference, and with the ticking of seconds, became louder and more distinguishable as they zeroed in on his location. He did not move. He trusted Ino would find her way to water, wherever it was, and he trusted the portal would activate when he needed it to. His only movement was to slide his hand into the cold water and prepare to infuse it with chakra.

As he waited, his senses heightened. The wound throbbed with each beat of his heart. Rain continued to splatter on the stone, a cascading noise which masked other movements. One tittle-tittle-tittle sounded to his right shoulder. A different bird call came a few meters to his left. Though the rain blinded him, he thought he saw shapes in the swirl of the fog, the faint splish of a combat boot in water. The Kiri shinobi had cloaked themselves in the mist, approaching him unseen.

Ino...Ino, the portal. Hurry.

Beneath his palm, a faint electric blue glow emanated, but within seconds, the glow increased in brilliancy. Despite the shallow depression, the water churned, ridges forming on the outer rim of the puddle. He channeled chakra to help shape the water, to open it on his side. Most of him lingered with Ino inside the secret cave, his mind linked with her, their combined strength lay in their forged bond. Their chakra merged in the water, but was outside time and space and basic human comprehension; their minds had unified into a single purpose. Under the film of water, a black tunnel extended downwards, like looking into a well.

He did not wait for an invitation. Out of the corner of his eye, the Kiri squad had materialized from the mist and charged to capture him, their faces determined. They were prepared to subdue any resistance. Their proximity was alarming. In a fluid, abrupt dive, he penetrated the portal and aimed himself to the other end. Sai flickered. Inside of a single moment, he landed at the bottom of the well; on the other side of the portal was Ino.

Sai broke past the second portal's thin water barrier. Ino was knelt, surrounded by dark and dank walls and ceilings. A single shinobi's lantern was clipped to her shoulder and shed light on their environment. Oh, very clever. She had used the flooded secret tunnel as the water source. As he floundered, half out of the water, Ino hoisted the rest of him out of the portal. It closed at his heels. Water sloshed at their knees; a chill had taken a grip on Sai's muscles and bones, but he was with Ino again and grateful for her presence.

Exhaustion, blood loss, and chakra depletion had hung him in a heavy, weakened daze. Vaguely, he recalled Ino had slung his arm across her shoulders, her arm supported his waist. The world dipped and spun about in a sickening reel. Somehow she coaxed his limp body up a ladder, across the cellar floor, and up the secret staircase into the safehouse.

He was in and out of consciousness. Ino was at his side; later, she manipulated his arm as spangles pricked him; still later, a warm, spreading tingle in his chest as she transferred chakra into his coils. The new chakra revived him and he was awake. Had the patrols followed them? They'd have notified their office of an intruder. More search squads would be assigned to track them. While the safehouse was secret, it wouldn't hide them from chakra sensory or scent tracking. He did not consult Ino. With the chakra she had gifted him, he implemented an Blotted Ink Barrier to give them privacy and to protect her. His rapid hand seals had taken Ino by complete surprise, so the jutsu fired off without her interference. What she'd given him was enough, but he had none for a rudimentary technique.

Incensed, Ino leaned over him, her face wan and cross. "Sai! What're you doing? You can't seal us in here!"

"Kiri shinobi could've followed us. We're both in danger of capture."

"They have not! Drop the barrier. I might need medical supplies or food or any number of things! Am I supposed to save your life with no room to work, no resources, and no help?"

"Yes. Everything you need is here in the safehouse. I'm sure you've found what I mean." Supplies stashed under the floorboards…

She responded, but he'd faded from the conversation. Loud humming in his ears drowned out Ino's vociferous gripes as unconsciousness overcame him.

When he woke, Ino was to his side, a scowl etched into her features. Her hands hovered over his shoulder, the green healing chakra aglow in the dim atmosphere of the safehouse. Sai said nothing to disrupt her concentration, did not attempt to reach for her through their weird connection. Instead, he studied the fall of her hair as it hung in straight sheets over her shoulders and back. He memorized the curve of her chin, the lines of her throat and neck. She was pale, and sweaty, and had stripped off her clothes to panties and the net band she wore to support her breasts. The bush clover tattoo wafted in an unseen breeze on her left thigh; his scent suppression seal rode low on her right hip.

She'd stripped him, as well, down to his drawers. He was in the single bed under the covers, his injured arm exposed. To his horror, he noticed folded blankets on the floor beside the bed. Had she slept on the floor this entire time? How much time had passed? A few hours or a few days? Shikamaru would issue a missing-nin alert for him if he didn't send a missive. He'd delayed and stalled too long; whatever excuse he gave would have to be good. And perhaps word had already spread to the Office about Takahino's whereabouts and their fight with the clan in Sorutotaun.

Ino hissed, bringing his attention to her. The green chakra fizzled out, and she wiped perspiration from her forehead with the back of her hand. "Shoot, I'm out again," she said. "This tear in your arm has been a bitch to heal, but I don't think you'll scar. I'm getting there."

"Thank you. Your care is appreciated."

"Tch, don't you start," she snapped. Her blue eyes sparked with anger. "I can't believe you! You think you can call a girl through a mindlink and in two seconds she can be the hero and save your ass. I should've let those Kiri shinobi have their way with you to teach you a lesson."

In a fit of disgust, she stalked into the bathroom where he heard water run. He did not know from where her annoyance had stemmed. With careful movements, he tested the mobility of his arm. It ached, but the pain and stiffness didn't hinder him too much. A faint, jagged strip of discolored skin marred the area. As she wasn't finished healing him, the skin would return to normal once she was done. Ino exited the bathroom, caught his gaze, and pointedly pivoted from him, the flick of her hair contemptuous.

Sai detected a distance between them, one that hadn't existed before. Ino settled on the last available seat in the place- -the desk chair. Her aura was prickly. She was not the same Ino who had rocked him in her arms and called him her darling. Why was she angry? He thought to ask her outright about her feelings. His own stirred within him, groping in the emptiness for her, seeking a solution to the problem. But whenever Sakura was angry at something he'd said or done, and he asked her point blank, Sakura would huff and tell him women expect men to figure out their needs without them directly saying. Ino had sat with her bare knees parallel to the front of the desk, a novel in her lap.

"Can we talk, please?" he asked her. He thought he could find a hint through conversation.

She licked her thumb with a deliberate arrogance and turned a page in the novel. She didn't look at him. "No."

He watched her in dumbfounded silence. What had he said or done? Now the distance hurt like a slow stabbing knife slipped between his ribs. Was this about Takahino? He had promised to bring Takahino to her, safe and sound, and in the natural progression of events, Sai had broken his promise to her, his second ever promise to her. Hadn't Naruto told him an oathbreaker was worse than scum? Powerful guilt swept into him. It sat like a lodestone on his chest. He didn't think of what to do; his body moved by itself. He stood from the bed, went to Ino, and ripped the novel from her hands.

"Hey, idiot! What're you-"

She didn't get to finish as Sai fell to his knees at her feet and planted his face into her lap. "I'm sorry," he mumbled to her legs. For added measure, he hooked the backs of her knees inside his embrace. "I'm sorry for breaking my promise. I thought Takahino was with me the entire time. When I had flown away from Sorutotaun, I discovered he had evaded me with a clone."

A long silence as he squirmed with the guilt. She said, "I'm not mad about the promise."

"No?"

"No."

He lifted his gaze to her. She remained stiff, formal, cold, the blue in her eyes remote and icy. But she told him the truth. His broken promise wasn't what angered her. Studying her, he said, "I'm sorry I couldn't rescue Hikarino and the rest of your clan from Miyazato's influence."

"I'm not mad about that either. You did all you could to rescue her and keep Takahino safe. Try again, preferably from the-hey! Stop it!"

He smoothed his hands along the defined muscles of her calves. She wiggled to free herself, but he locked his arms behind her knees again and prevented her from standing. Ino pried at his fingers, hands, his arms and elbows. "Will. You. Let. Go!"

Her efforts were ineffectual against his iron grip. Though she used force in her attempts to loosen his hold, she was careful with his shoulder. Miss Beautiful, you always try to get away. I won't let you go. Sai kept his cheek to her thigh, her tugs on him lessened until she quit trying to break his hold on her. He wished she would pet his hair, but he wasn't close enough for her to take pity on him yet. While he trapped her on the chair with his weight and his need and his strength, his mind wandered, without explanation, to Sasuke, of all people.

What led him there were his thoughts of his first sexual experience with Ino, and afterwards, his conversation with Sasuke to convince him to shift his attitude away from frigid indifference to objective guardianship. Surprisingly, Sasuke had humored him as Sai had persuaded him Ino could be managed with the right approach, if he would care to know. Sai'd demonstrated his point with an ink bird. In the lesson, Sasuke had tried to cage the frantic bird in his hand with force, which had resulted in the ink beast losing form. But when Sai told Sasuke to try again, with less force, with a loosened grip, he managed to keep the bird in hand. Sai had tightened his grip on Ino, had created the barrier against enemy forces, but Ino may have interpreted it differently.

I must loosen my grip. I must give her freedom to keep her near.

He understood what he must do. Sai set a free hand on the wooden floorboards. His chakra reacted to the invisible jutsu he used to lock them in and everyone else out. "Release."

The barrier receded and disappeared, and with its dispersal, the tense atmosphere lightened. He ventured a glance at her. She had an astonished openness to her features, as if she couldn't quite believe he'd lowered the barrier.

"You are free to go whenever you wish. I'm sorry if I seemed to distrust you. I was only thinking of how to protect us from the Kiri shinobi."

Ino sighed, her eyes slid shut. She bent double to rest her forehead against his, her nose touched his nose. "You are too genuine to stay mad at for long. I sort of want to punch you in your perfect face for it. C'mon," she patted his arms, "get up. You've marinated in your juices for the last couple of days. Time for a bath."

Sai, grateful for the swift forgiveness, released his grip on her legs. Ino was at perfect ease, and he was tentatively confident the distance between them had been bridged. He did not question or argue with her when she told him to take off his underwear and sit on the bamboo shower stool. He and Ino were slim, but even then, the bathroom was a tight fit for two occupants. They discovered with him seated on the stool, Ino had space to stand behind him. His forehead was inches from the porcelain sink, though, and Ino's hair brushed along his shoulders and back as she moved. She hummed a jaunty tune as she got the shower hose adjusted for the appropriate water pressure and temperature.

He kept his hands loose on his knees, trying to contain the burn of sunshine in his chest because she intended to bathe him. But he felt a smile stretch across his face, so he put his head down, frightened Ino would see his smile and stop what she was doing. Plenty of romance novels had scenes in the bath, not public baths but private ones, and he'd read how one partner bathing another symbolized a deep emotional connection. Grooming and caretaking indicated familiarity and love, and for Ino to offer to bathe him told him her true feelings for him whether she intended to or not. He had begun to bathe her in Sunda Umi, but her concern (and their subsequent argument) over Takahino had interrupted him.

The tune she hummed was interrupted as she ran the spray over his head, along his back, shoulders, arms, and chest. The water was welcome on his parched skin. When she shampooed his hair, her firm fingers and longer nails scrubbed his scalp- -it was bliss, and he'd melt in the palm of her hand in a heartbeat. Once the shampoo was rinsed from his hair, she lathered her hands with bath soap and started to rub and massage his back. The exhaustion had sunk into his muscles, the hard wear and tear of his lifestyle knotted everything, and with Ino's expert touch, those hotspots dissolved. He let his logical brain shut down to preserve power for the sensate brain, her slippery hands spreading, rubbing, the soap to his lower back, up his flanks, and under his arms. The soap gave a new dimension to the touch of her palms and fingers as she slowly and competently stroked along his chest, belly, and thighs to his calves.

Lizard Brain had woken from slumber when she ran her hands over his knees to his groin. His penis twitched under her hand's light caress, grew engorged with the gentle strokes she gave to encourage his reaction. Her fingers were just the right tightness as they glided up-down, up-down, up-down. Pleasure rose in a tense wave in his back; to accommodate the wave, he arched backwards into Ino. Yes, please, yes. He was ripe for an orgasm, his testicles hot and hard, breath coming in shallow pants- -almost, almost, almost- -when she let go and her hands wandered away from the ready erection. To say he was a mess of nerves was an understatement. Ino renewed the lather on her hands and worked the soap into his arms, between his fingers, and picked under his nails with her nails. Then, as if she hadn't rubbed him to the edge of oblivion, she dashed the water on him, the suds sloughing off him and into the drain.

It was a game, he knew it was a game she played, and he knew she left the next move for him to make. Lizard Brain hissed in his ear, kept suggesting images of his penis as it fit inside her vagina, her bare round breasts with pink, pert nipples. A tremor ran through him, steamy and lustful and unsatisfied. Ino had stepped to the towel rack beside the sink. He got his hands on her hips and in one deft movement, pushed her flush to the sink.

Ino said nothing to him. She stared with expectation bright in her face.

Sai peeled her panties over her hips and thighs and tossed them aside when she stepped out of them. Her pretty navel was eye-level at him, her hip bones small mountains under her taut skin. The secret bush clover tattoo burned itself into his brain. She had a perfume, a womanly smell, and half intoxicated, he kissed her belly. He gripped the meat of her backside, fingers sunk into soft flesh, to bring her closer; he kissed downwards, over the bristle of her pubis, and parted her thighs to reveal the pink frills he'd become acquainted with recently. He put his mouth on her labia and gave her an intense kiss, erotic and prolonged, earning him a sudden and extended groan from his lover.

As he flicked his tongue, circling against the little pink pearl-like clitorus, Ino's hips flexed in his hands. He glanced upwards along the field of peach skin. Ino had thrust her chest out, her shoulder blades flush to the mirror, and her hands were behind her, gripped on the sink. At some point, she had taken off the net band, and her breasts swayed freely, her nipples hardened the exact way he imagined they would be. He tasted the salt of her sweat mixed with a different tang she secreted as he undulated his tongue in her intimate cleft. She repeated his name, over and over, her legs in convulsions, rib cage expanding and contracting, and Sai sucked her with his whole mouth.

He tasted a burst of flavor from her as her back whammed into the mirror; her cry a guttural sound of lust and sweet release.

For her, he throbbed. Ino's orgasm was complete, but she wasn't finished yet. Nor was he. He was ready to burst, he was so tight and swollen in his skin. She brought him to his feet. Regardless of where his mouth had been, she stretched her arms around his neck and shoulders and kissed him. His heart was full of the sunlight; it was enough to drive him mad and he had a greed for her, an avarice he'd never known. His erection rubbed along her thigh while he fondled her round breasts, teasing her nipples with his fingertips, and impatient, he thrust between the crevice of her wet thighs. Release. I must have release…

"I have a position I want to use," she whispered, her breath a humid rush on his cheek. "Would you like to try it, my darling?"

"Yes."

"You'll have to set the pace."

"Okay."

Desire was a burning agony under his skin, in his chest, inside his brain. She turned her back to him and half-bent over the sink, to reach between her legs for him. He stepped in, felt her hand along his shaft when she guided his tip to her slickened entrance. Then she pushed backwards. He filled her, by the gods, he was fit deep inside and he was on the precipice of devastation. Her clan tattoos showed through the waterfall of her hair, and he pulled the blonde length aside to stare at the muscles in her back, the interlocked black bands inked into her unmarred skin. Seeing them calmed him, dialed down the sense he was about to lose any restraint.

Ino hiked up one leg, bent at the knee. "Hold me under my thigh."

He held where she told him, placing his other hand on the curve of her waist. She employed one hand to balance herself against the sink; she stood straight, arching her back to his chest, and to Sai's disbelief, he shifted even deeper inside her. Ino had made a strangled noise from her throat, her breasts rose and fell with her heavy breathing, and her other arm reached up and over so she could touch his hair. He was one-hundred percent invested in the outcome. Already he was signaling her spirit to join him in their hidden place, the beneath place where they were alone, and he was so sensitive to her, he felt pulsations inside her where they were physically united.

"Positioned…like this…won't…take me…long," Ino gasped. Her fingers clenched a few locks of his hair. "Loops…please."

When he began, he had no idea of the potency of the response. She jerked, a high keening noise filled the bathroom, and Lizard Brain reveled in the pleasure which smashed into him. He was blind to everything but the pace of his hips as he dipped in and out of Ino's clenched muscles, her noise too loud in the too small area- -she was borderline at a shriek until she clapped her hand over her mouth to push back her voice. Sai for his part was quieter, but grunted his ecstasy to the side of her neck. Up his left hand wandered to fondle her breast; he couldn't help to taste the salty-sweet of her skin with his tongue. But those actions were mindless behaviors, he wasn't within himself, Lizard Brain had taken over the control panel, for Sai was in the sky with Ino, both flying and tumbling at the same time, tangled and together and the tension mounted, oh did the wire pull taut.

He had in his mind a vision of the sun cresting a crystal blue lake, cool-looking and placid under summer skies. The living green shades of forest flora enclosed the borders of the lake. It was peaceful, eternal. As he let wind lift them higher and higher, a violent shudder rippled through Ino as her climax took her. Sai heard her scream from behind her hand, and having flown close to the sun, Sai let the fire of it overtake him as well. He gloried in the orgasm, gorged himself on the delicious strain of organs and muscles, his ejaculation short but long enough.

In the moments after their explosive passion, they recovered skin-to-skin in the moist heat of the bathroom. Sai let Ino's leg go. She slumped over the sink, weakened from the vigorous expression of emotion. He stood away, a paltry two steps, her body releasing his flaccid penis, darkly red, and a white stream of fluid which leaked from her vaginal opening. He remembered his anatomy lessons- -the language of the textbooks and the gender-specific illustrations to show the reproductive process. We can create a new life between us. Children. While he'd known all along his semen carried sperm which could fertilize a woman's egg and produce a child, he had conceptualized children and sexual reproduction as theory, not a possible reality. I could have children with Ino.

Not that he would press her for children or that he would have them with her specifically. The possibility was enough. He'd remember to be careful of her, to give her room to do and decide as she wished. More of the brilliant sunshine poured in his chest. It had built up, dense and wholesome, and living creatures grew, crawled, toward it. Needing a physical connection to her, he settled his hands on her hips. "Are you okay?"

"I'm wonderful." Ino stepped around to face him, to grin at him, and the sun had clustered behind his throat and his eyes, pressed them, seeking release, and he smiled it out at her in turn. "Thank you."

When they kissed again, Sai felt a change in her feelings, a sense she had given in, had revealed a vulnerable piece of herself. A lowering of iron walls to offer a most precious gift. Her spirit flowed with his, fluid water with thicker ink, the sun and the moon opposite but the same. Two bright bodies shared the same blue sky, cooperating and complementing. He promised himself he would keep her offering close to his heart, out of the dangerous reach of ones with evil intentions.

A/N: My apologies. Not much conversation happened in this chapter. The next time we see Ino and Sai, they will talk to one another, I promise. I hope you enjoyed. Leave some love in the comments (if you want, of course). I'll see you all again next week!