Hello again, I actually had this chapter go in a completely different direction but I didn't think it fit and just ended up rewriting it. I think this version paces things better. Anyway I hope everyone is doing okay, it's still pretty crazy out there these days.

Chapter 5

They were obviously the last to arrive. It was one of Ino's many skills, the art of being fashionably late. She even managed to do it at her own parties, forcing Sakura, who was a stickler for punctuality, to handle the beginning as she took her time beautifying herself upstairs.

Ino gripped Sai's bicep as they entered the brightly lit bowling alley. Of course the hyperactive blond would want to do something that involved a competition. He had a serious problem.

The two actual couples of their friend group were sat around an orange table, clearly engaged in a heated conversation. Well, mainly Sakura, Naruto, and Sasuke that is. Hinata sat there smiling at the trio. When Sai and Ino walked up to them they were greeted with different expressions of shock. If Ino wasn't so nervous she might've actually burst out laughing.

"Look who it is!" Naruto obnoxiously addressed them, giving Ino a particularly tense smile.

"Naruto." Ino grumbled. She gripped Sai even tighter toward her. Both to comfort herself and to stick it to her orange obsessed friend.

Hinata, who was sweet beyond comprehension, patted her boyfriend's arm to calm down his rowdiness. Ino didn't know how she dealt with him all the time. Probably had to take two Tylenol's a day.

"Hey guys." Hinata smiled at them. She had gotten more outgoing as a result of dating Naruto though she was still noticeably more introverted than the rest of them. "You both came together?"

"Hinata, good to see you!" Ino smiled back, glad to have at least one person on her side even if she didn't know it. "Yeah, we're kind of seeing each other now."

She ignored the obnoxious snort that Sasuke let out, choosing to ignore the side of the table he sat on.

"Really?" Hinata's grey eyes lit up as she looked between the two of them. "You guys make a cute couple." She shyly complimented.

Ino really loved the girl.

"Thank you." Ino beamed.

"Hi Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and Hinata." Sai greeted a bit awkwardly. Ino almost groaned. He didn't have to say all their names to indicate he wasn't calling them nicknames anymore.

Ino snuck a peak at Sasuke who seemed surprised to actually be greeted with his first name rather than with an accurately given adjective.

Ha! Take that you jerk!

Sasuke simply hummed a response as Ino rolled her eyes. Well it was better than the usual growl the Uchiha gave him. Progress.

They two of them sat down, Ino taking a seat beside Hinata and Sai taking a seat beside her causing Naruto to slip off the other end of the booth as there was no space.

"Whoops, sorry!" Ino emptily said, inwardly pleased with herself.

Naruto rubbed his backside as he grumpily nudged Sasuke over to sit down. Sasuke didn't seem happy with that either. Two miserable birds with one stone. Ino grinned. Maybe this night wouldn't be so bad after all.

"SO, Ino and Sai how'd you guys get together?"

Or maybe it would be.

Ino glared at Naruto's not so innocent question as he simply propped his head atop his hand.

"Ino got drunk and asked me out." Sai answered. Not exactly a tactful way to say it but Ino couldn't exactly complain.

"Is that so?" Naruto's voice went up at the end. Ino wanted to throttle him. Sai simply stayed composed.

Sasuke looked between the three with a raised brow while Sakura shifted uncomfortably beside him. Ino sensing her friend's awkwardness quickly shifted her turquoise eyes to squint a 'shut-up' warning at her and then quickly turned her glare to her fellow blond.

"Why are you so interested Naruto?" Ino asked with a smile that wasn't exactly friendly.

"Just curious." Naruto said. "What's wrong with that?"

"Be curious about something else," Ino muttered as she promptly kicked him under the table.

Naruto yelped and shut his eyes in pain as Hinata reached over to ask him what was wrong. Ino then took that opportunity to rise from her seat and slap her hands across the table.

"Why don't we play a round now that we're all here? Loser buys drinks!" She said.

Sakura stood up as well, her competitive nature kicking in just as Ino hoped it would. "Get ready to lose!"

With a flip of her ponytail Ino snorted as she walked towards the bowling area, "As if I'd lose to you."

Sai followed after Ino as Sakura and Sasuke trailed not far behind leaving Naruto to yell after them to wait for him and Hinata. Before long they had chosen their groups and were now in the middle of setting up a game.

The groups split with Sakura, Sasuke and Hinata being one and Ino, Sai and Naruto being the other. Ino's turquoise eyes narrowed as she sized up the other golden haired person in their midst. Usually he would insist on staying on the same team as Sakura and Sasuke while yelling that it was the natural order of things, now he had pushed poor Hinata to take his place insisting he wanted to be on the opposite team in order to beat Sasuke.

But Ino knew better. He just wanted to have an excuse to be close to her and Sai without drawing suspicion. She knew that he was probably going to pester her, maybe even try to convince her to stop but she had already begun this charade, there was no going back now.

And if he tried to stop her by threatening to tell Shikamaru…well two could play that game. Ino would just find out something Naruto never told Hinata and use it against him. She was very resourceful with collecting information.

Okay, maybe it was a dirty tactic to use but as she said before, all was fair in love and war. And also she was desperate for this plan to work.

Sai looked at Ino as she smiled quite oddly to herself, she paused when she noticed his eyes on her and shot him a quick grin.

He didn't quite know what to make of everything now. Though he did expect it to be a little difficult to pull off Sai was actually surprised at how well he was taking to everything. Ino on the other hand seemed to be having more of a difficult time. It was obvious how spaced out she was, he wondered what she was thinking about.

Feeling a nudge on his shoulder he slightly turned to see Naruto pointing towards the bowling lane.

"Games started. I hope you don't mind but I put you down first." He informed him.

Sai frowned as he looked at his friend suspiciously. Usually Naruto would jump at the chance to go first in anything. He spared another glance at Ino who was still deep in thought, out of the corner of his eye he could see Naruto do the same.

Was he trying to get her alone?

He didn't know why but he wasn't comfortable with that at all. He felt himself wanting to stay by her side and make sure Naruto didn't do or say anything crazy like he was known to do.

Also, Sai realized one fundamental reason why he couldn't go over there.

"I actually don't know how to play."

Blinking stupidly Naruto gave Sai an incredulous brow. "Are you serious? How do you not know how to bowl?"

"This is my first time." Sai shrugged his shoulders to signify that it wasn't a big deal. Because to him it wasn't, he knew there were a lot of things that he missed out on or didn't know a thing about.

He made peace with…that, a long time ago.

"Oh," Naruto said, suddenly remembering why. "I didn't even think of that. I'm sorry."

Sai smiled, "It's alright."

"Hmm." His friend placed a hand on his chin in thought. "I could show you…" Suddenly his blue eyes lit up as an idea he was clearly fond of came to him. "But I think Sasuke should instead! You know for you two to bond or whatever…"

Lowering a thin brow in contemplation Sai brought his gaze over to the aforementioned Uchiha, who was sitting with a scowl on his face. While practicing the other night Sai got the feeling that Ino had only done this to prove something to the man.

Maybe she wanted him to somehow get closer to him?

Sai looked back at Ino one last time before nodding his head and offering a plainly said "Why not."

Naruto's smile widened even more despite Sai thinking it wouldn't have been possible to do so.

"Great," He said, pushing Sai even closer to the side of the bowling alley Sasuke sat sulking on. "Now go. Make a friend."

Sai stumbled a bit before stilling himself to go over. Though he had hung out with the man a couple of times with Naruto, Sai knew that Sasuke didn't particularly like him. Maybe asking him for help would somehow mend this? He wasn't sure but for Ino's sake he would try.

Clearing his throat he watched as the aforementioned man looked up at who it was and promptly scowled.

"What?" He said through gritted teeth. His gaze had long since travelled back to the empty lanes their group was situated across.

"I was just wondering if you could teach me how to bowl."

At that Sasuke actually looked at him, "What?"

Sai thought better of asking the man if he was deaf instead he just repeated himself slowly. "Is it possible you could show me how to bowl?"

With an irritated huff Sasuke raised a brow at him, his toned arms were crossed as he leaned back on the worn material of the booth. "You've never went bowling before?"

"No." Was all Sai offered in response. He didn't need to know the details. As far as he was concerned no one needed to know.

"Just ask that idiot." He waved him off not bothering to even attempt to teach him.

Sai shugged, "I did, and he told me to ask you."

"He what?"

Sai sighed irritated that he had to keep repeating himself. "He told me to-"

"I know what he said!"

Ino's eyes searched where the shout had come from, it sounded like Sasuke. When she had seen exactly what had caused such a reaction from the normally quiet man she almost yelped in surprise herself. There was Sai unknowingly badgering her best-friend's boyfriend. By the looks of things it wouldn't take long for Sasuke to start throwing punches, he was more of a fight now, talk later kind of guy.

She quickly moved to head over there and diffuse the situation only to be stopped by Naruto who stretched his orange clad arm in front of her, effectively blocking her way.

"Naruto, move or you'll regret it."

"Bup bup bup," He hummed, "Not so fast."

Crossing her arms Ino threw an icy glare Naruto's way. "Okay how about this? Move or I will literally skin you alive."

"No." Naruto answered, unrelenting and still blocking her way. He frowned not too long after as he looked at Ino annoyed. "Plus, that would make Hinata- my girlfriend and your friend- very sad."

Ino shrugged. "She's a pretty girl, she'll find someone else."

"Ino."

"Naruto, seriously move."

"No we need to talk." He put his foot down, taking one step closer and causing Ino to take one step back. "You need to stop."

"Seriously?" She laughed humourlessly. "How about you mind your own business for once in your life?"

The blond frowned even more. Ino never really saw him make those expressions before, it seemed mismatched on his normally happy face. "You and I both know that this is different. Shikamaru is one of my closest friends."

"And I'm not?" She regarded him with an expectant look, and she knew by the split second his blue eyes looked away from her own, guilt marring his features, what his answer was. She wasn't his friend in the way Shikamaru was, never would be. Despite all that talk about how much he loved all of them even Naruto played favourites.

She was tired of being judged, why should she be the only one who didn't get their happy ending? Naruto himself should know how she felt, Hinata almost left him behind for some guy her family wanted her to marry. It wasn't until then that he realized how much he loved her and asked her out, chasing after her for three months. And she supported him then as well as Sakura- the same one who was now telling her to stop what she was doing. Nobody cared to even see her side of things or grant her the same benefit of the doubt.

Nobody cared how she felt.

"Go fuck yourself Naruto."

She shouldered past him shaking off the hand he tried to place on her shoulder not too long after.

"Ino, come on," Naruto was trailing after her, maneuvering himself around the glued in place tangerine booths so he could stand in front of her once more.

"Leave me alone."

"I can't do that."

Ino quickly spun around with wild blue eyes. "And why not?!" She realized her error as several people around them watched the scene with curious eyes, including a concerned Sai and a curious Sasuke. Quickly she grabbed Naruto's arm and led him outside to the side of the building.

She sighed, watching as her breath took corporeal form and drifted in the cold air. She could see where Sai parked his ridiculously expensive car not too far from where they stood.

"Ino please, I'm asking you again. Stop this, tell Shikamaru the truth."

"Like I said before, it's none of your business so stop bothering me about it." She glared at her friend as he mirrored the expression right back at her.

There was a time in high school where people had thought they were related, like cousins. It was when she was dating Shikamaru and as a result would always spend extra time around Naruto. They used to laugh it off then saying yes to anyone who asked. If somebody were to ask her now she would promptly dismiss it as a lie.

Back then, when they broke up Naruto had told her that it didn't matter, nothing would change between them. But she knew that wasn't true. In situations like these people always chose a side. And now she could see that for many of their friends it hadn't been hers.

"Really Ino, ask yourself if you think this is fair to Shikamaru?"

With a bitter expression Ino looked at Naruto, "Again, why do you care so much?"

"Because Shikamaru doesn't deserve something so messed up from one of his closest friends."

"Oh really?" Ino raised a brow, her glossed lips twisting upwards to bare just a hint of teeth. "So then why did I just find out who this 'Temari' is? Why did I only meet her one week ago when she's supposed to be his fiancée? Is that how you treat your closest friend Naruto?"

He stumbled on his reply before recovering. "Maybe he had his reasons, I don't know."

Ino frowned at the blond. He said it so suspiciously. But she couldn't be so concerned as to why because her mind reminded her rather urgently that an unsupervised Sai was still hovering around one asshole Sasuke Uchiha, and she hadn't prepared him to handle a situation of that magnitude.

"Look Naruto, I get what you're trying to do but if you really wanted to help?" She crossed her arms as she looked at him pointedly. "Then get lost. There is literally nothing you can say to change my mind and if you even think about telling Shikamaru, I will, one, never forgive you and two, make it my new mission to ensure your life is a living hell."

She smiled sweetly at that last point, watching Naruto shudder as his eyes glazed over in imagination.

"Yes. Exactly like that."

"But, its wrong Ino, I can't just ignore that."

She huffed as she glanced back at the glass walls of the building hoping she could get a glimpse of either Sai or Sasuke, but she frowned when the entrance was all she could see. She just hoped Sai was capable of holding himself together for a while longer.

Returning her fiery gaze to the same annoying self-righteous blond before her Ino raised a brow at his earlier sentence.

"You can't ignore that?" She pressed glossed lips together and tossed her ponytail behind her shoulder. "Of course you can because it's none of your business actually."

His (admittedly to Ino's chagrin) well sculpted brows dipped lower. "If it concerns one of my friends, then it is."

"Am I not one of your friends Naruto?" She said, almost bitter. She had asked him before, but he didn't answer and the way he was acting was really starting to piss her off. She knew from the years they were together how close Shikamaru and Naruto were but for someone who always blabbed on and on about how he loved everyone equally, she was beginning to sense that even the irritatingly honest Naruto could lie.

Naruto blinked as if what she said was something so alarming, so offensive, that he couldn't even process it. Then he crossed his arms and gave her one of his more irritated expressions. "Of course you are Ino. Stop fucking asking me that."

"Then do me this favour, and don't tell Shikamaru."

"I don't do favours that will hurt someone, especially those I care about." He said it so matter- of-fact that she wanted to smack him.

"Yeah, let's just ask Sakura and Sasuke about that one."

She was of course referring to the favour Naruto did for Sakura when Sasuke was making it a point to be the world's biggest dick and disappeared off the face of the earth after telling her he was falling in love with her.

Naruto, as he so jokingly told at numerous parties, was basically the reason their probably ridiculously good looking future children would exist. He was the one who hunted down Sasuke, who had cut them out of his life with his own brand of drama queen flair, after he temporarily moved during his parents almost divorce and told Sakura his whereabouts. After numerous failed attempts on Sakura's end to win him over, Naruto was also the one who forced them, literally forced them by locking them both in a cabin he had told neither one the other would be at, to face their feelings.

It was a ridiculous story, an incredibly ridiculous and sweet and fantastic and all those gooey feelings story that Ino was secretly jealous of. Though she'd rather die than admit that to anyone.

In return, Sakura had repaid Naruto by helping him shape up to win over Hinata's stick in the mud father and equally as strict, but scorching hot, cousin, essentially stopping her arranged engagement to some weird and shiver inducing creep. Tonara? No that wasn't his name. But that was besides the point.

Ino had stood by those friends like she always had, with supportive words and an encouraging smile. Even if what they were doing was ridiculous or, slightly in Sakura and Sasuke's case, unethical, above all else she supported the future happiness of her friends.

She didn't understand why they couldn't do that for her.

"That is not the same thing." Naruto said.

"Well then how about that guy Hinata almost married, Toneri?" Oh yes, that was his name. She silently applauded herself for her amazing memory, if she had messed up his name it would've undermined her point.

"Well." Naruto frowned. "Well…"

"Well what Naruto?" She looked at him expectantly with a certain gloating quality in her eyes.

"Well that's not fair." He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair in methodological sweeps before jutting his chin and placing his hands on his hips. "Fine, you know what. You're right. Still I don't know if I can just stand by and do nothing. Temari is nothing like that guy, she's actually nice."

"You met her already?" Ino looked at him with surprise.

Ino figured Shikamaru had told Naruto over the phone or something, not in person. He wasn't the kind of guy who liked to speak face to face if it wasn't absolutely necessary. That's how he told everyone they had started dating. Through a random group text that ended with 'Don't bother me about it at school.'

She felt an emotion bubble in the pit of her stomach, but she didn't let it sit long enough to actually show on her face. Still, she could identify it clearly.

She was jealous. And now even more irritated than before.

Looking like a kid that had just been caught Naruto's lips widened into a tense smile. "I mean yeah but you met her too though."

The words came out all weird and if she really cared she would've called him out on it but the one thing on her mind at the moment was getting him to stop his self-righteous tirade and heading back over to make sure Sasuke didn't murder Sai. She needed Sai.

She knew she should have much more faith in the man. He was doing fine so far, and he hadn't appeared too out of place, well not more than he usually did anyway. Still, she couldn't help but overthink things. And Naruto wasn't making it any better.

She heaved her shoulders upwards with a sharp breath and slowly dropped them with a long exhale. She was counting numbers in her head to calm herself down, this conversation was dragging and if she was completely honest she didn't care what Naruto had to say at this point. He was one giant hypocrite.

When she opened her eyes all she saw and felt was ice.

"Naruto." She spoke, her voice firm and to the point. She flashed a humourless smile at him, the kind that didn't quite reach the eyes and laid a firm hand on his shoulder. "Like I said if you really want to make things right? Mind your fucking business. Pretend Sai didn't say anything and if you tell Shikamaru I will personally castrate you and then feed the remains to Kiba's dogs. Get it?"

With wide eyes the blond finally nodded. She could tell that he still wasn't happy with the situation but her threat had registered loud and clear. He stepped back just a little and shook his arms wildly about. "You know what? You're right, none of my business."

"I'm always right." She smiled, tossing her ponytail over her shoulder once more as she turned her head. "Just to emphasize. Talk, castrate, dog meat." She paused and pursed her lips before adding, "Oh, and I'll hate you forever."

But she guessed that went without saying. Not caring if Naruto was behind her, Ino glided, (because even in urgent situations she never ran), her way back toward the bowling aisle their party was situated at. To her surprise she found that nothing incriminating or crazy was currently occurring, to her even bigger surprise it looked as if Sasuke and Sai had been getting along. Sasuke nodded his head toward Sai who had just managed to knock down half of the bowling pins on his turn.

What had happened?

She blinked. And then blinked again. But she still couldn't quite place the sight as something she was really seeing.

Sakura who had noticed Ino's gawking and walked over to her with a soda in hand and easy going smile, sighed, "Pretty amazing right?"

"How?" Ino, didn't mean to sound so shocked but it was a truly amazing sight.

"Well I'm not exactly sure, one minute it seemed like Sasuke was going to start a fight but then Sai didn't react, just sat down in one of the empty booths and then after a few minutes Sasuke sat down too with this weird look on his face. Then as I was showing Sai, who as clueless as usual, doesn't know how to bowl, how to throw the ball Sasuke got upset and said I was doing it all wrong, so then he started to teach him and then Sai managed to get a few pins down." Sakura reached for her straw like what she just said wasn't just the most insane thing Ino had ever heard.

Noticing her standing at the edge of their isle, Sai made his way over to a blank faced Ino. He frowned at the sight. Had Naruto said something to upset her? Usually she had some sort of haughty expression on her face, but now she looked, confused? Exhausted?

He couldn't quite place it. Maybe it was both.

"Ino, I have learned to bowl." He said smiling slightly.

Ino nodded her head, her turquoise eyes wide as she looked at him like he was a foreign language. "I see that. And Sasuke helped you."

Sai nodded. He was quite content that he was able to achieve some sense of cordialness with the usually brooding man like Ino had wanted. Sasuke hadn't even scowled at him more than twice.

Ino blinked and suddenly smiled at him, Sai raised an eyebrow in question before she started laughing.

"Uh, Ino are you okay?" He asked.

"It's just that, you're really amazing Sai." She grinned, pink gloss shimmering under florescent lights as she reached her hand to rest just above his shoulder. He found himself blushing despite his embarrassment threshold.

Was it embarrassment? He didn't exactly feel like hiding away in shame. Instead he felt all warm and fuzzy inside, a feeling he wasn't familiar with.

He averted his gaze from Ino's feeling a discomfort creep upon him. She however paid little mind to Sai's weird behaviour and instead returned to her conversation with Sakura, this time including Hinata, with a noticeable positivity in her demeanour. She looked less nervous, clearly beginning to enjoy herself.

Watching her Sai felt his earlier concerns for the blonde dissipate, but to his confusion that warmth continued to grow.

It stayed when Naruto had come back and Ino had given him an indecipherable look, it remained when Sakura had gotten three strikes in a row and Ino had burned in jealousy, claiming foul play, and it burned when Sasuke had shown Sai one of his bowling techniques and he had caught her eyes, twinkling in both amusement and happiness as she watched the two getting along.

He wondered to himself if this is what it felt like to have a good time.

When all was said and done, Sai had waited outside for Ino to finish talking to Sakura before walking back to his car.

As soon as she saw him she jumped, throwing her arms around him in a giant, giddy hug.

"You won't believe it, but Sakura said that Sasuke said that you're a pretty okay guy. I mean just 'okay' isn't amazing or anything under normal circumstances but considering where your footing was with him earlier today, I'd say you just managed to pull off the impossible!" Her words tumbled out of her in an articulate flurry, and Sai was amazed at how she managed to enunciate every word despite the speedy delivery.

She let out a heavy sigh and he watched as her breath puffed into visible clouds in the crisp air.

"Sai seriously, you're the best. Keep this up and this whole thing might just work! Not even Shikamaru will be able to resist."

She was smiling at him so brightly and Sai found a small smile ghost across his lips. He realized that he liked seeing her happy, so he would continue to do his best.