Oh, I am so sorry this one took so long! But this one is for my sweet baby xaburame15 who, last month, said this:
"I dont know if this is a scenario( sorry if its not) but like for choji and ino you could make it like a 2-man life threatened mission that got ino to see choji as boyfriend material other then her bestfriend."
Well, I know I said that I wouldn't really do anymore InoCho because I just didn't really feel the juices with flow with them story wise (hence the month wait), but when my most precious darling asks for it I WILL DELIVER!
Ino sighed roughly as she sagged into the seat, her head falling froward so that it hit the wood of the kitchen table in a very familiar spot, one she had come to know frequently in the past few months.
"What happened this time?" Sakura asked, picking up one of the chocolate covered strawberries that Ino had been so kind to bring with her. Really, they were probably the only reason that she had let the blonde in the door. That and maybe because she happened to be best friends with the girl.
"I just... don't know..." She sighed, talking into the wood. Sakura picked up another one of the delicious treats and studied it, wondering if she really should eat it. After all, since she had had Karin keeping weight off felt like an uphill battle, those last five baby pounds stubbornly clinging to her waist. And sure, Kakashi didn't complain, but she just didn't feel all that kindly towards the new softness to her belly.
But the damned treat was just calling her name.
"Sure you do. Just get it out already, I don't have all day to just sit here and wait for you to talk. I'm very busy" She said, biting into the treat delicately and savoring the flavor as it exploded into her mouth. Ino sighed again.
"It's just... Choji."
"Hmm."
"We... I don't really know. It's like we're just walking around in these circles again and again and again, and I'm starting to get dizzy. We haven't even slept together yet."
"That's a record for you. It's been, what, near six months now?" Ino sighed again, nodding her head against the table in confirmation. "So why is it that you're getting dizzy and keeping your pants on?"
"There isn't anything wrong with him, in fact it's kind of the opposite. He's a really great guy. He's nice and sweet and considerate and thoughtful and just... great. But I just can't sleep with him. It's like... when we do that, we won't be able to go back. He won't be Choji, my-best-friend-who-I'm-dating, he'll be Choji, my lover, and we won't ever be able to look at each other the same again."
"Why not?" She asked, picking up yet another one of the little devils. She'd just have to borrow one of the physical therapy wing's exercise machines and work it off.
"Were you able to look at Kakashi as your teacher after you slept with him?"
"Point taken. Proceed."
"Well, usually when I'm dating someone there's this... burning, you know? Like a fire that would burn everything at the slightest touch. But with Choji it's more of a simmer, and I'm afraid that that means it just won't work between us. Maybe we just aren't right for each other."
"Or maybe a simmer is better than a fire." Ino tilted her head towards her, looking at her questioningly.
"The fires in your past relationships burned out, and there really wasn't anything you could do because you went through all of your fuel too quickly. But when everything is on simmer it can last and you can even turn up the heat when you want to so you can keep things... fresh. A simmer would probably suit you better because you burn your fires too hot." Ino stared at her for a moment and was about to retort when Kakashi walked in with Karin on his hip.
He sat the girl down to grab a bottle of water out of the fridge and she walked wobbly over to her mother, lifting her arms so that she could be pulled up into her lap. "Did you have a nice nap?" The woman asked the soon to be four year old, brushing her pale bangs out of her eyes. She nodded and silently leaned her head against her mother's chest, not yet fully awake. Sakura unconsciously grabbed another strawberry, looking at it in mild shock and annoyance.
She had already had five and she knew she had to stop or else the softness at her waist would become an even bigger problem. But it was just so tempting, sitting there calling out to her like it was, seducing her with deceptively innocent and sweet looks.
Just as she was about to cave her fingers were surrounded by a pair of warm lips, dark eyes flicking up to meet her's. Sakura felt the flush growing on her cheeks at just how suggestive her husband was being even with both Ino and Karin there, and she ignored the little and familiar tingle of pleasure to instead glare at him.
"That was mine." He straightened up and chewed, slipping his mask back in place before Ino could see the face he kept hidden from everyone but his family. "You didn't want it anyway. I was just doing you a favor." He paused for a moment.
"You're welcome."
Sakura fumed, glaring at the receding back of her husband as he left the room to head to a meeting he was already an hour late for. He could have made it on time, but Karin had decided to take a nap with him in his bed and he hadn't wanted to disrupt her sweetly sleeping face.
"He doesn't even like sweet foods!" She declared, looking over to find Ino staring at her drolly.
"What?"
"Nothing. It's just that that didn't look very much like a simmer to me." Sakura flushed and tossed the stem from the strawberry at the girl. "Shut up! We were talking about you!"
Ino rolled her eyes. "Yeah, and I didn't really get it." She held up her hand before the pink haired girl could protest, setting up. "Don't bother. If it doesn't make sense to me now it probably won't when you explain it again. And anyway," She said, looking over at the small clock that hung above the stove, "I've got to go. I've got a mission meeting in about ten minutes. You can have the rest of the strawberries!" She called, walking out the door.
Sakura glared after the girl and then over at the offending plate, knowing that if she even dared to think about it she'd cave. Looking down she nudged her daughter awake, knowing that it would affect the child far less than it would affect her hips. "Hey Karin, do you want some strawberries?"
Naruto passed Choji the mission scroll. "I picked the two of you because you work good together and because I thought it was best if there was a medic nin on the mission as well, and with your particular abilities I figured that you'd be the best suited for the mission, Ino."
"The mission is for the two of you to sneak in and try and find an experimentation lab hidden in the mountains. We have tips that they have captured children and are doing experiments on them, some of them continued from Orochimaru's notes. We need to check this out before something really bad comes out of this. If you do find the facility do not try to rescue them on your own because you'll just screw it up. Try and figure out their numbers and report back so we can get enough people together to kick the bastards' asses. Got it?"
"Yes." They both said, nodding. They left Naruto's office and passed by the latest in the lines of Naruto's assistants. This one had an absurd amount of makeup on her face and ridiculously bleached hair. Her shirt was pulled down so far that it was illogical that her breasts even managed to stay inside the cloth at all and was so tight that she looked like she'd rupture her spleen if she dared to even breathe. She was currently sharpening her blood red talons and as they passed by she gave them a once over, her nose twisting as she took in Choji.
That bitch.
Ino knew what it was like to look at Choji and just see his size and the way he always had a bag of chips at hand -she had done it herself when she had been younger and stupider- but Choji was so much more than what that narrow minded bimbo was seeing. Really, she should just walk over there and teach that girl a lesson by pulling out her absurdly cheap looking extensions. After all, no one looked at her Choji like that.
"Hey, meet you at the gate in an hour?" Ino nodded and they separated to go and pack for their mission, though a part of Ino wanted to go back and give the tart just what she deserved. But, since she figured rescuing innocent children from impending doom came first, she went to her apartment.
Ino jumped from branch to branch in the high tree tops, not having to focus on her leaps as she dashed through the forest faster than the eye could see, this lack of focus leaving her mind free to focus on her pink haired friend's earlier words.
She was so used to the familiar and overwhelming burn of desire when it came to her relationships with men that this low simmer forced her to take pause, to stop and try and figure out what to make of this new low and pleasant heat. She knew how to handle the fire –you just screwed each other's brains out until it died- but how did she handle this?
Thinking back to Sakura's words and to her past relationships, Ino could understand what her friend had meant. They had all been so hot, so focused on sex and on the heat of the moment that before she had noticed it they had all ended, and it wasn't that any of them had ended badly, they had all just sort of died and faded away. But after so many times and so many dead fires that had once burned so brightly, she had found herself alone with only a bad taste in her mouth and a heart that had never even had a chance to be scratched.
Wasn't that what had made her end up with Choiji? That depressing realization that she was stuck with piles of ashes spread around her, alone in a world where everyone else had suddenly found exactly what she hadn't known she had wanted and had no way of knowing how to get? That was what had sent her to the rooftop that night, and maybe that was what had made her kiss Choji. Maybe it had been something of a last ditch effort -an effort filled with desperation and depressing sadness- that had made her shift those few inches and kiss Choji that first time to try and find the answers.
And suddenly, leaping through those high trees, she found them.
There was nothing wrong with her relationship with Choji, nothing wrong with him or with her or with the heat that spread between them. Those old fires had burned too brightly, threatening to incinerate everything that dared to wander near their heat until they eventually even burned themselves, but what she had with Choji was better.
It was like the warmth of the sun on her face during a clear summer day, like the comforting feeling of a cup of hot chocolate in her hands while the winter chill beat at her door. It was like the pleasant feeling she had when she woke up in the morning after a rare full night of sleep, wrapped up in her blankets as she peacefully and lightly dozed.
It was like the feeling of her hand being surrounded by his, quietly and happily reveling in the strength she found in his gentle hold.
She had always loved Choji as one of her best friends, a strong and dependable man who was there for her at every unpredictable turn, and she could slowly feel herself stepping hesitantly down an unexplored path, one that would lead her to a deeper and more dangerous depth of feelings.
And she found that she didn't really mind that thought.
Her musings were suddenly interrupted as her sharpened senses detected a weapon hurtling towards her. She leaped up and back, pushing off of the branch just before the unidentified projectile hit, disintegrating the place where she had just stood in an explosion of wood splinters and fire.
Ino continued to leap rapidly from branch to branch as explosions followed in her wake, feeling the bits of wood scratch at her skin and feeling the heat of the flames as they licked at her heels. Sweat began to roll down her face as the the heat rose, her breath coming out in shallow pants as she tried to focus stay ahead of the bombardment. She heard the sudden sounds of a fight behind her but she didn't turn to look, instead zigzagging through the branches to make sure there were no more explosives coming to her before dropping down, pushing off of the trunk of the tree on her way down so that she went towards where she could hear the sounds of the struggle.
The noise stopped but she continued until she felt a presence at her side. She was already and automatically reaching for a kunai to attack the person but stopped when a familiar and large hand caught her wrist, the chakra signature suddenly registering to her.
"How many were there?" She asked Choji as they turned and continued on their original path, now on high alert for the enemies that had no doubt sensed the explosions and fight.
"Just two, but there will be more soon." Ino nodded and they continued on, fighting their way through the enemies they met up with, eventually finding a tree with branches that twisted to make a dense curving wall, the perfect cover for them to get a bit of rest and heal before going on and finding the facility. Ino focused on healing Choji's arm where he had taken a kunai, her forehead furrowing in concentration.
"Did you get anything out of the guy when you looked at his mind?" He asked, referencing to the briefly held captive they had had earlier. She had only had six minutes with the man but he had been weak willed so it had been easy to break into his mind, though it hadn't been so easy to sort through the jumbled mess of memories he had held inside of him.
But yeah, she had gotten something.
"They just moved the facility because someone tipped them off that interested parties were seeking them out, and they left these guys here to destroy the old place and take care of any intruders that came before they were done."
"Did you get where they're at now?" Ino shook her head as she finished closing his wound, brushing her fingers lightly over the now smooth and freshly healed skin. "They didn't tell them. Apparently someone was supposed to come and pick them up a couple of days ago but they didn't."
He nodded, both of them understanding that this organization had sacrificed these people mercilessly, not caring in the least whether they lived or died when the inevitable search groups came through. He settled back against the tree trunk, planing on taking a brief but invigorating nap while Ino took first watch but said blonde kunoichi shifted a little closer to him and placed her hand on his arm, making him pause.
She looked away from him and off into the dense leaves, obviously trying to find her words. "I've been thinking."
"Oh?" Choji questioned, bracing himself, wondering if this was the talk he had been feeling coming on for a while now. She was always distancing herself, always finding some excuse. Maybe their relationship was reaching it's final and inevitable end.
"Yeah and I was wondering if -when we get back- you want to come over to my place for dinner." Choji blinked, his tensed muscles relaxing in the face of his confusion. She was asking him to dinner while they were on a mission? Was it really that important? True, food was always important to Choji but Ino had never put too much stock into it but for the nutritional value and calorie count.
"Dinner?"
"Dinner." She confirmed, nodding. She paused, almost seeming to hold her breath as she turned to give Choji a hooded look through her eyelashes. "And maybe... desert?"
The meaning of her words hit him right in the gut, leaving him to stare at her breathlessly and wordlessly. He managed to dumbly nod his head and she smiled at him brightly. "Good, it's a date. You better get some sleep." He nodded again and she moved away to take first watch, leaving him to stare at her back wide eyed as he tried to catch his breath.
Apparently, he still had a chance to keep her, one that was getting bigger by the moment and one that he wouldn't be stupid enough to squander.
Not exactly what you asked for, but still, look! InoCho!
I got the idea when I was shaving my legs (seriously, I usually get my ideas when I'm washing my dishes or taking a shower. Maybe Kathy likes water) and suddenly my beloved muse popped in and went, "Bitch, put that razor down before you cut yourself like the idiot you are and get your laptop." So, tada!
And I know you also asked for KakaSaku (Welcome to the team! Here, have a cookie and a complimentary pencil.), so to hold you off a bit I added them in there at the beginning.
I have a list of requests coming together, but I'm always happy to take more! I live merely to make all of you beautiful people happy. (But I won't promise whose will come out first because I write by whichever idea hits me or wakes up Kathy. But I can promise you that I'll write it for you eventually.)
Until next time!