The kinochi looked out the window, and sighed. It wasn't fair, her love was away on a mission, and she was stuck here. She blinked and turned away her bare feet padding along and stopped at the mirror, she grabbed the hair elastic from her wrist and pulled her blonde hair back into its usual ponytail.
Ino turned away her eyes traveling to the pictures, the old one of her and a girl with pink hair playing in a field, and the new one… the one of Ino and the pink haired girl smiling together and holding hands. Ino picked it up and wished for the thirteenth time that day, Sakura was here.
They had been together for what was it now, about a half year? Ino wasn't sure, the time had flown by. It wasn't fair that with Sakura time disappeared and without her seconds felt like an eternity. They kissed often but anything else had stopped short of that, it was hard to find time alone with your girlfriend when you were secretly dating.
Ino decided to stop dwelling on the things she couldn't change, and went to the flower shop to work. She numbly walked around and sold flowers when a black haired shinobi came in. "Sasuke?" Ino asked.
"Hello, Ino." Sasuke replied his voice was missing enthusiasm, he was gloomy too. He had only been in the village for seven months and though he was free of guard, he still wasn't allowed to go on missions. So as a resulted his former team, which consisted of Sakura, and Sasuke's own secret sweetheart, Naruto, had left him behind. Ino and Sasuke were in the same boat, although, he was not aware of that.
"So what are you doing here?" She asked him, when she saw him walk over to the bright orange flowers, the ones Naruto always picked up when he helped Ino out at the flower shop, she snickered, "Here to pick up a nice welcome home gift for Naruto?"
"Shut up" Sasuke said, glaring at Ino angrily, "It's not fair you can hold this over our heads just because you accidentally stumbled upon us."
Ino busied herself watering flowers, then said softly, "I promised I wouldn't tell anyone and I won't. I would want you to treat me the same." Sasuke nodded, bought the flowers and left. Ino closed up her shop later. She crawled back to her apartment, dragged herself up the stairs and dropped into bed with a thud and dreamt about Sakura.
Sakura walked into Konoha beside Naruto. She glanced at Naruto, he was fidgeting. No surprise there they hadn't been in Konoha for three weeks. She herself could hardly stand walking through the village, but it would look a little strange if she ran as fast as she could to Ino's house in the middle of the night after a mission.
Sakura and Naruto came to a fork in the road. They waved goodbye to each other, and headed in there separate directions. She came to Ino's apartment and snuck in, she smiled at the sleeping Ino. Timidly Sakura crawled into bed beside her careful not to wake Ino, she didn't even care that she still wore the clothes from her mission.
When Sakura woke, Ino was missing from the bed. Sakura sat up and wiped the sleep from her eyes. She looked outside, the sun was barley up from the horizon, she glanced at the clock 8:47 a.m. She got out of the bed and when into the living room of Ino's apartment looking for her.
Ino was reading a book quietly at the table, she looked up when she heard Sakura come in, "I was hoping you would sleep longer you need the rest." Then she glared, "After I quietly got out bed, even though you gave me a heart attack when a realized there was another body beside me."
"Sorry Ino." Sakura said settling in the chair across from Ino, "I was so tired. It's good to see you again." She shifted a little in the chair, "Uh Ino… I was thinking…"
"Spit it out, Sakura." Ino said, she hated when Sakura got all shifty and mumbled for words, it just wasted her time.
Sakura looked down trying to find words, "I was hoping that…. Well, um, we've been dating for 5 months and things have been going pretty well, but it's really hard to come up with excuses when we go to each other's house everyday. Plus you live in this tiny apartment so," Sakura whispered the next sentence, "I want you to move in with me."
Ino blinked surprised. She sat there for a moment taking in the information and letting her mind process it, finally she brightened and stumbled out of her chair and threw herself at Sakura. "Of course!" Ino shouted gleefully as she embraced Sakura, holding her tightly, Sakura returned Ino's grip partly because she was happy and partly because Ino had knocked over her chair and she was trying to keep herself from falling over.
When Ino let go Sakura regained her balance, Ino's hand traveled to her face, titled it up slightly, and kissed her. Sakura responded by licking Ino's lips, asking her to let her in. Ino opened her mouth to find Sakura's tongue. They lingered like that for awhile.
When they finally released, Sakura said, "There's enough room we'll have separate rooms so no one will wonder. I'll help you pack."
Ino blinked, "Right now?"
Sakura shook her head, "No tomorrow, I have a report to give to Tsunade-sama." She smiled regretfully, "You can start without me I should really go see her now." Ino nodded and Sakura left to go see the Hokage.
When she opened the door to Tsunade-sama's office she saw an unusual sight, Shizune wasn't there. Sakura frowned and asked, "Where's Shizune?"
Tsunade-sama looked up, "Sakura." She said wearily, "She's just getting some rest. So how did your mission go?"
Sakura's frowned deepened God-hime looked so… well old. Even though she still appeared twenty, Sakura could see she was worn out. I shouldn't be surprised. She thought Even if she looks young, Tsunade-sama is still 58. "It was fine; Naruto and I handled it, with Kakashi being sick." Sakura continued to tell Hokage about the mission and waited quietly when she finished.
Tsunade nodded, "You're dismissed." Sakura bowed to her former teacher and left. Tsunade sagged in her chair, Shizune came in later. "Shizune…." She said.
Shizune went over and stood behind Tsunade, she put her hands on Tsunade's forehead, "Your warm, love." She said. The knowing silence stretched between them.
Tsunade finally said, "It's almost time."
Shizune wrapped her arms around Tsunade, "I know."
