Third Person's POV
"What?!" The loud, blonde male shouts through the brightly lit restaurant. Sasuke, who sits right across, signals him to lower his voice by moving his hand down, however, his noisy best friend doesn't get to message. "She seriously just came back?! After all these years?!"
Realizing that he wouldn't be able to quiet him down, and from the lack of sleep he got the previous night, Sasuke caves in his seat and lets Naruto continue with his shouting. "You're not fucking with me are you?!" he directs to Sasuke.
The dark eyed male reaches for the half drank black coffee and shakes his head before taking another sip. Naruto slams his fists aggressively on the wooden table from the pent up anger he has kept up. During the time Ino left Sasuke, Naruto did whatever he could to help Sasuke through that tough time and make sure to keep a smile, but what Naruto really felt about Ino and the situation didn't show.
When she and his best friend started dating, he noticed a lot of changes in Sasuke and his behavior in general. During high school, Sasuke never felt anything strongly for any girl, so when he heard about Sasuke liking one of the popular party girls on campus, he never felt more confused before.
However, one thing that didn't confuse him was Sasuke's true feelings for her. He truly loved her. When Sasuke and Ino dated, his best friend would often ask him for advice on what to give a girl for a gift, where to take them on dates, and how to get through a fight. He even gave Sasuke advice on intercourse and foreplay.
One of the main things Naruto remembers clearly was the way Sasuke looked and talked about her. He would almost glow, and always held a small grin. Although this is how Naruto saw Sasuke's love for Ino, he didn't see the same thing with Ino's love for him. She didn't seem to take him as seriously as Sasuke took her. She didn't love him the way he loved her, but Sasuke never saw it, and Naruto never asked about it.
The day Sasuke told Naruto that Ino was pregnant with his child also stuck in his mind. While Sasuke was very scared and freaked out a lot, especially after his father's reaction to the news, there was a glimpse in his eyes that held excitement and joy. Because despite the coldness he gives women, Sasuke is a family type man, who wants to have a big family, and a strong wife, and during that time, he thought that strong wife was Ino. Until the day she left.
Naruto never felt more anger and discussion for someone than Ino. She abandoned his best friend and sweet daughter without warning, and during a critical time when neither of them had a lot of money and Sarada was a baby so needed constant attention. But thankfully, they pulled through, and only now Sasuke was starting to feel completely happy and less stressed.
"That bitch," Naruto mutters, clenching his jaw and fists. "What gives her the right to just come back? She doesn't deserve to be a part of yours, nor Sarada's life!"
As Sasuke listens to Naruto's rant, he finds his hands rubbing his temples from the noise. "Naruto please shut up."
"I'm sorry Sasuke. I just can't believe she actually came back, and she spent the night on your couch?"
"I found her on it this morning."
"What did you do then?" Naruto asks while leaning in.
This time when Sasuke talks, he actually looks at Naruto. "I told her what I've wanted to say since she left and kicked her out before Sarada woke up."
Naruto lets out a grunt from their conversation and finds himself rubbing his forehead as well. "It's been a long time since I have seen you this mad Naruto," Sasuke mumbles to him.
"Well, yeah! What do you expect? She hurt you and Sarada! I can't just automatically forgive her for this!" Sasuke chuckles at Naruto's response. Both of them then take another sip of their drinks, Sasuke and his coffee, and Naruto with ice water. "What are you going to do now?"
"...How's you and Hinata?" he says to change the conversation.
"Don't try to change the topic, but we are fine... Wait a minute, you're still dating Sakura! Does she know about Ino?"
The text Sakura gave him last night pops into his head, along with the conversation they had on the phone earlier. Before answering Naruto, Sasuke rubs his face. "Well, last night when I first saw Ino through the window, Sakura and I were..." Sasuke stops himself thinking about what they were about to do on the couch, making his face redden.
Naruto starts to go back to his normal self when he catches on to what Sasuke is implying. "You were what?" he says smirking and raising an eyebrow.
"It's not important. Anyways, she saw her too...and I might have left her there alone in the living room with her." The more Sasuke speaks, the quieter he gets.
Naruto, again, raises his eyebrow, but not in a snarky goofy way. "Really?"
"Yeah. I felt bad about it but Sakura and I talked this morning, and we agreed that I should figure this out and spend some time away from each other."
"Wait, so you guys broke up?"
Sasuke stops Naruto's thoughts before he can overthink more. "No we didn't. She and I just won't hang out outside of work. I'm still gonna send some texts to her, but I won't really see her that much."
Even after Sasuke's explanation, Naruto still feels conflicted. "How does Sakura feel about your ex, Sarada's mom coming back? I'm sure it's uneasy for her."
Sasuke lets out a big sigh before answering. "Yeah, I know. But it's not like I am still in love with Ino. I love Sakura. I just... I just don't know what is the right thing to do. Ino kept claiming she wanted to see Sarada and talk to her. A part of me doesn't want them to meet, because how it could hurt Sarada, but maybe she should meet her mom." As Sasuke continues to talk, he places both elbows on the table and rests his head in his hands and pulls on his hair a little. "What if Sarada meets Ino accidentally, or Ino tries to get in contact with Sarada without my knowledge? And lets say that Ino and Sarada do meet, and they become friendly. What about Sakura? What if I have to let her go for Sarada's sake? Naruto, what's the right thing to do?"
Sasuke pleads to Naruto for an answer. For anything. Naruto contemplates everything that Sasuke has just thrown at him, and comes to an answer. "You may not like what I'm about to say, but...as much as I don't like her... I think you should give Ino a chance. Let her explain why she is back. It's not like she is going away now, so you should tell Sarada and confront this issue before anything spirals out of control."
After Naruto gives his advice to Sasuke, the two sit in silence as the noise of others break through. Naruto continues to drink his water, and Sasuke stares out the window. While doing that, he reaches into his pocket that holds the phone number, along with his keys and the red and white fan keychain Sakura gave him after going to the amusement park, and opens it, and reads the seven digit number again.
Then Sasuke pulls out his keys and eyes on the fan in his hand, squeezes it a little, and places it back in his pocket. "I'll tell Sarada about this tonight."
"Where should I put this Sakura?" The said woman turns to see her best friend with dark long hair holding one of the boxes labeled clothes.
"Just put those by the closets," she responds, while holding two other boxes. Hinata slowly walks to the closets in Sakura's new apartment and places them without much grace.
While wiping some of the sweat on her forehead from the labor, Hinata examines her friend's actions. When she was asked by Sakura to help move Sakura's belongings into her new home, Hinata accepted quickly, and once she made it to Sakura's house, she took notice of who was there to help; her, Sakura's parents, and Sakura herself. One person Hinata thought would be there was the raven haired boyfriend, but as soon as the four of them started putting boxes in the car and moving truck, she learned that he wasn't coming.
Because of that, Hinata has been paying attention to Sakura's movements and face. Doing this she realizes how tired and upset she seems to be. While it could be stress from moving, she asks about it anyways. "I like your sweatshirt, Sakura. Is it new?" Hinata asks, knowing that it isn't Sakura's or new by the size, which is too big for her, and how the sweatshirt looks a bit old.
Sakura, who was spacing out before, jumps a little hearing Hinata talk and grabs onto the old sweatshirt she mentioned. Sakura rubs the fabric in her fingers thinking about Sasuke. After the phone call they had, Sakura only saw Sasuke the next day at work, but they didn't really talk a lot. Now that Sakura decided to move, she took the rest of the week off to pack things, sell and buy new things, and move into her new apartment.
The most contact Sasuke and Sakura have is through 'goodnight' and 'good morning' texts, but the texts don't help ease Sakura at all, so Sakura chooses to wear a black sweatshirt Sasuke gave her during the night. The smell of Sasuke and warmth from it helps a little more, and now, she wears it during the day too.
"Ah, the sweatshirt belongs to Sasuke," Sakura answers.
"How is he?"
"Alright." Sakura gives a short response to try to change the conversation from him, but that only makes Hinata more concerned. However, before she can say anything, Sakura's parents appear by the front door, attempting to get the old love seat through the door.
Her mother is inside the apartment trying to pull the couch in, but because of the angle it is at through the small door, there is no way it will make it through with force. "Try to angle it so the couch is at a 90 degree angle," she demands to her husband who is on the other side of the couch pushing.
As Sakura's father turns the light gray loveseat, it gets more jammed in. "Maybe we should take off the legs if we can."
The annoyed older woman lets out a hostile grunt and agrees with her husband aggressively and tries to push the couch back out. "Do you want some help?" Sakura asks.
"No," her mother groans. "We got this. Once we get this out of the door, you and Hinata get the new shelves and set them up."
Looking at her parents struggling to get the love seat out of the doorway, Sakura realizes that it's going to take a while for them to do that, so she and Hinata take the opportunity to rest. Both girls walk over to where the bed will be placed and sit down with their backs along the tan walls. As Sakura leans her head back and closes her eyes to get some relaxation, Hinata gets a better view of her best friend's dark circles and pale skin.
"Sakura, why haven't you gotten any sleep?" Hinata says directly, hoping for Sakura to be honest.
This question prompts the pink haired girl to open her eyes quickly and to look at Hinata. It isn't normal for Sakura to ever lie to her best friend, but if she does tell the truth, she will have to explain what is happening with Sasuke. "I just have been stressed about moving. I'm gonna be living on my own now, so I haven't been too calm."
'I'm sorry Hinata, but I don't think I should tell you about Sasuke's issues without him,' she thinks. While Hinata and Sakura stare at each other, Sakura's parents make one more push and get the love seat out of the door.
"Ugh, finally!" her mother exhales.
Quickly, as soon as her mom talks. Sakura jumps back up and says, "Come on, we still have a lot more stuff to get out of the moving truck. I wanna get this done so I can drink my Sunny D." Hinata tries to stop Sakura from walking away by speaking, but it doesn't work. She is already out the door and walking down the stairs.
'She is definitely hiding something from me.' Hinata rises off the floor slowly. 'Maybe I should ask Naruto about this.'