The previous night had been awful enough for them; Sakura and Ino had enjoyed an all-night sleepover moviefest and currently lay conked out on the carpet of the living room. Neither one had made it past five that morning, nor even twenty minutes in to "Justin and Kelly" (rented simply because it was an awful movie).
Ino's father simply looked at the girls with quirked brows, sipping his coffee and dressed in boxer pajamas and an old gym shirt, when Ino stirred suddenly at found herself locked in a gaze with him, mildly noting to herself how freakishly similar their eyes were.
Her usual nit-picking returned, even though she had only gotten two hours of sleep so far and was actually half asleep at that moment, and she grimaced at her dad. "Aaah, dad, you can't put on a robe or something?" she whined, splattering her slender fingers over her eyes in a makeshift manner, her bright blue eyes peeking out at him through her slender fingers, carefully painted red nails in beautiful contrast to her skin.
He only grinned, suddenly proud to have embarrassed his daughter, and strutted in a self-important manner towards the refridgerator. To his delight, Sakura started to wake up, and he immediately laughed when Ino's previously faint blush grew deeper and deeper.
"Ino," whispered Sakura discreetly, "...why is your dad wearing happy face boxers?"
"Shut up, Sakura." hissed Ino, grabbing her pillow and shoving it over her friend's eyes. She fumbled up stiffly from her place on the soft white carpet and went stomping over to her father, shooing him out of the room despite his playful protests.
"What a dork." she hissed with a grin, plopping down on the couch near her friend and turning on the TV. Sakura slid up from the floor to the couch sleepily, clutching the plush bedcover they had ripped off Ino's bed last night and dragged downstairs to sit on while they watched TV, and yawned widely.
There were a few minutes of silence, in which both watched the Muppets sing about happiness, when Ino turned to Sakura and said, "You know what we should do today?"
"What?" she asked.
"Be pretty."
Sakura glared at her. Ino quirked a brow at her and suddenly broke out laughing.
"I didn't mean it as an insult. I meant we should do some face masques and stuff." she laughed, adjusting her slenderly-strapped camisole and examining her nails momentarily.
--
Once Ino's father was safely out of the house and to work, and her mother was out for a day of errands, Sakura grabbed the phone and called for a pizza. Truly, there was nothing better with face masques and nail painting than pizza.
"Let's see... here's some masque with peaches, and here's one with some kind of mint thing. And some nail files, a cuticle-trimmer, strengthening polish, nail clippers- wow, I'm actually glad my mom is so vain right about now." she giggled, rifling through the medicine cabinent in her parent's bedroom and pulling out her favorite bottles of her mother's perfume, teeth whitening strips, nail polish colors, scented lotions, and tweezers and mirror.
All of this stuff she tossed into Sakura's arms, and told her to take it into the living room so they could watch television while they applied everything. Running into her bedroom and then the bathroom, nabbing a couple of bathrobes, washcloths, and even a soda as she passed the refridgerator.
Sakura was thrilled to see the robes. "Ah!" she giggled, pulling on the plush terrycloth and snuggling into it most comfortably, and despite the warm weather outside, the swamp cooler in the home kept things freezing old inside.
Grabbing a huge glop of the peach face masque, Ino smeared it carefully over her face, and Sakura did the same with the minty one. Ino broke out in mad laughter upon seeing her best friend's face turned completely green, but Sakura informed her with an equally hysterical laugh that the blonde's face looked like it was dripping with chicken grease.
Next came the whitestrips. Although they tasted a bit gross, and the clothy strips felt very strange over her teeth, Sakura managed, and Ino was very disappointed to see that there weren't enough in the box left for her. Glancing over the box, Ino found out that the strips weren't very heavy duty, and were really only for a light cleaning effect.
Heading back downstairs and plopping down on the floor, and nabbing a pair of tweezers, Ino made a sudden lunge at Sakura, grinning and pincing the tweezers open and closed.
"Sakura, Sakura, Sakura. How many times have I told you that you need to pluck those silly Haruno eyebrows? They're not thin enough for a girl." she teased, although completely serious about pulling hair from her friend's face.
Sakura gulped. "Ino. You're my friend, and I trust you, and I want skinny eyebrows, but... I... uuh, I- um, I don't trust you."
Ino narrowed her eyes.
"If you don't let me pluck your eyebrows, I will tell your mother about that one day when you left the house in a turtleneck and changed into a ultra-low cut shirt when you got to school."
"So what?" questioned Sakura daringly, "That's not that bad."
"...and don't think I didn't see you 'adjust' your bra so noticeably right next to one Rock Lee." grinned Ino mischeviously.
Sakura's jaw dropped and clearly submitted. There was no arguing with Ino's blackmail. Everyone knew that every adult alive knew that the blonde-haired, blue-eyed beauty was completely trustworthy.
Twenty minutes and seven shrieks of pain later (Ino had accidentally grabbed parts of Sakura's skin and not hair), when Sakura's left eyebrow was perfectly shaped and plucked, and her best friend was just starting on her right one, when the doorbell rang.
"The pizza!" cried Sakura gleefully, grabbed her wallet off the counter, and she and Ino set off to collect their lunch.
Swinging open the front door, Ino and Sakura, previously forgetting their thick face masques, bathrobes, whitestriped teeth, and Sakura's one plucked eyebrow, now remembered, as they stared into the face of one extremely surprised Uzumaki Naruto.
A cap advertising "Akimichi Pizza Co." was tossed lopsidedly over his wild blonde hair, and his beach tanned skin flattering with the cool blue polo shirt he wore, he just stared at Ino and Sakura, growing a bit red in the cheeks.
"Uh- uhm, wh- well, here's your pizza, Ino." he finally mustered, flashing a bright white smile and attempting to appear comfortable. "It'll be fifteen twenty."
Ino ripped the wallet from Sakura's hands, furious at Naruto, and as she fished for money, Naruto sent the pink-haired beauty a flustered, happy smile.
"Hi Sakura."
Nervous by this attention, especially while covered in such embarrassing stuff as green goop and teeth-whitening strips, she could barely muster a "hi, how are you, Naruto?"
However, because of the teeth strips, her words came out muffled and stupid-sounding.
"Haii, howe ar yuu, Nahruto?" she said, starting to laugh when she heard how silly her voice was. Ino stuffed the money at Naruto, and took the pizza from his hands, waving sarcastically to him as she slammed the door.
"Bye Sakura!" he yelled through the door, and the two girls heard him break out in laughter as he walked down Ino's front yard to his car.
Once they were safely back in the living room, Sakura's whitestripes discarded in the trash, she said, "That is undeniably one of the most embarrassing things that has ever happened to me. I hope nothing that stupid and cliched ever happens to me again."
It was at that exact moment that Ino vaguely remembered her father briefly telling her something about having business asscociates over Monday and how she was supposed to do some-
Her blue eyes grew wide when the squeaking of black leather shoes became noticeable and men's laughter reached her ears, and how quickly these sounds were becoming closer and closer.
She regretted having to inform Sakura that, in fact, this was going to be very embarrassing.