Author's Note: An update! Sorry it's taken me a while (though not nearly as long as my Sweetheart story, thank goodness). I didn't do much editing so if you see anything crazy let me know!

Chapter Eleven

Sakura trudged through the front gate, waving tiredly to the two guards on duty. It was way after midnight and she was glad reporting in could wait til the morning. All she wanted at the moment was a long hot shower and her soft sheets.

Her latest mission had been pretty rough. There was a sickness targeting some children in a small village. The Konoha hospital had been able to diagnose it based on the reports so she left with an already prepared medicine, but it still took a bit to nurse the kids back to health and her only help was an old woman who knew some of the basics, but was hardly mobile anymore, and her granddaughter, who had no apparent interest in anything medical.

Luckily, everyone had made a full recovery, but the journey was long and she was ready to be home.

Once Sakura had made it up the two flights of stairs to her apartment door, and had done a thorough re-examination of the importance to her of a decent view of the city, she unlocked her door and entered her apartment. The familiar smell that greeted her began to soothe her at once, and she eagerly kicked off her sandals with little regard to where they fell. She would worry about that in the morning.

She walked straight past everything, not even bothering to turn on any lights past the entryway. Her mind was set on that shower. She closed the door of the bathroom behind her and turned on the water. As she waited for it to heat up, she peeled off her mission clothes and piled them in the corner as something else to worry about for the morning.

Finally, she stepped into the shower and nearly fell to her knees in relief at the warm water rinsing away the grime and soothing her tired muscles. After a few minutes of basking in the warmth, she reached for her shampoo and heard a click.

"Sakura? That you in here?"

Still mid reach, Sakura slipped and screamed, before scrambling back up and readying some chakra in her fists to attack.

"Sorry! Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you!" the voice said again, and Sakura released the gathered chakra back into her system, now recognizing the intruder.

"What the hell, Ino?! Of course it's me! Who else would it be? More importantly, what are you doing?"

"Oh, uh, yeah, well I actually had something I was wanting to ask you about and I knew you were supposed to get home tonight, but wasn't sure when. I used my key and must have fallen asleep on the couch. The sound of the shower woke me up."

Sakura shook her head, regretting for a moment giving Ino a spare key to her apartment. She was always nice enough to keep her plants watered and things dusted while she was gone on long missions, but occasionally overstepped some boundaries.

"So, uh, you have a second?" she heard Ino ask a moment later.

"Can't it wait a few minutes?! I'm kind of naked here."

"Eh, nothing I haven't seen before!"

"That's at the public baths, Ino! When you go there, you kind of expect that someone might see you. If I was expecting that at home then I'd have a freaking window instead of a door on my bathroom!"

"I can't see anything anyway. Your shower curtain is pretty thick."

"That's not the point! I just got back from a long mission and I just wanted to shower and go to bed. Can't this wait until morning?"

"I guess…" Ino said hesitantly. She really didn't want to wait.

"It's about your teammates. I saw something bizarre earlier today so I went snooping around town and I've heard some crazy stuff. Some stuff about Sasuke in particular."

Ino heard something clatter onto the floor of the tub along with a quiet curse and took it as a sign to continue.

"I know for a fact that Hinata and Sasuke had lunch together after training two days in a row. And, I found out they've been spending a lot of time together. One person even said her friend overheard some fangirl saying they saw Hinata knocking on Sasuke's door late one night all dressed up and that she didn't leave until the next day."

Sakura stuck her head out from behind the curtain and Ino felt a little bad for being so insistent when she saw the bags under her friend's eyes.

"Give me a second to get finished in here. Go make some tea and I'll be out shortly."

"Kay!" the blonde exclaimed excitedly, before scampering out of the room. She'd make sure to make Sakura's favorite tea and do it exactly like her friend liked. It was the least she could do. She could put out those cookies she brought, as well. Maybe that would help.

In just a few minutes, Sakura was sitting at the table in her pajamas, hair wrapped in a towel, and Ino was pouring tea into the two cups sitting in front of them.

"So, what is this about Hinata and Sasuke?" Sakura asked, getting straight to the point. Ino slid the plate of cookies over to her friend, who rolled her eyes, but grabbed one and stuffed it in her mouth. Ration bars weren't very tasty, but when travelling in a hurry it was better than having to stop to cook. Ino's cookies were heaven in comparison. Then again, they were already delicious to begin with. She wondered if her blonde friend had learned the recipe just to use them to bribe people for gossip.

Ino launched into the story of everything she'd witnessed earlier that afternoon, as well as everything she'd heard in town afterward. Sakura continued to eat the cookies, washing them down with tea that Ino continued to refill until the kettle was empty.

By that time, Ino was finished with her story. "So, what do you know? I figured if anyone knew what was actually going on it'd be you."

"Honestly, I have no idea," she said, shaking her head. "I've been gone for a month on that mission and the last thing I remember was the night at the dance club and Sasuke wasn't even there. At the time it seemed pretty obvious Hinata still had strong feelings for Naruto."

"True," Ino said, sitting back. She was slightly disappointed, but shouldn't have expected a wealth of information. She'd kind of forgotten just how long Sakura had been gone.

"As far as I could see today, it still looked as though Hinata had feelings for Naruto. She was definitely upset after he said he'd never ask her on a date. But she and Sasuke also seemed pretty comfortable together. And I mean that. Comfortable. I'd never describe Sasuke as comfortable around almost anybody. He even went after her when she left. I have no idea what they talked about, but Naruto definitely looked jealous at the two of them."

"So you think Naruto has an idea of what's going on?" Sakura asked. She and Sasuke had been dancing around whatever they were for months now, and he was still not very forthcoming with information. She knew he talked to her and Naruto more than most people, but that wasn't really saying all that much. She had no idea he and Hinata even spoke regularly. She'd only ever seen them nod at each other or share a polite greeting whenever they'd passed one another on the street. But if Naruto knew anything, she was sure she'd be able to squeeze it out of him.

"Maybe? I'm not sure. It seemed like he at least suspected something, but I couldn't say for sure because even if he did think there was something going on between Sasuke and Hinata, it's pretty obvious she still has strong feelings for Naruto. I have a hard time believing she would date Sasuke while feeling that way about Naruto - especially given her knowledge of your feelings for Sasuke. But I just can't figure this out. There's way too much talk for nothing to be happening."

Sakura sat back and rubbed her temples. This was not what she needed right now. She just wanted to sleep, report in, then sleep some more before starting her hospital shifts up again the day after. But this was also not exactly something she could ignore. It really seemed like she and Sasuke were making some progress! Even if there wasn't something romantic going on between him and Hinata, you'd think he'd have mentioned their friendship at least in passing.

"I think we should spy," Ino piped up, eyes gleaming with mischief and excitement.

"Ino, we're not children."

"I know! We're shinobi! It's like our job to spy!"

"Not for gossip! We get paid to spy on dangerous criminals, not our friends!"

"Just think of it as training. Sasuke and Hinata are probably some of the hardest people to sneak up on, right?"

"You can't spin this to make it seem like anything other than being nosy, Ino."

The blonde crossed her arm and humphed.

"But fine. We'll see what we can find out ourselves and maybe try to figure out what Naruto knows."

Ino perked up again, fisting her hand in the air in triumph. She started to jump up to hug her best friend, but now that everything was out of her system she could see just how exhausted Sakura was. Instead, she helped her up, and led her to the bedroom where she helped her into bed. Ino rinsed the dishes in the sink, not wanting to leave them for Sakura to do when she got up, and reminded herself to bring some breakfast in the morning for the both of them. She was sure it was going to be a crazy day.

There you go! More craziness added to the mix :-) This story is pretty fun to write so I hope y'all are continuing to enjoy reading. Let me know what you think!