This time, Ino blinked, taken aback. Then she tilted her head, considering. Sakura knew it was a fair question; Ino never went stag to anything. Going alone was preposterous to her and so it was definitely out of the question.
"I'll cross that bridge when I come to it," Ino announced and Sakura's lips curved up.
Right.
"Hinata?" Ino turned to their quiet friend. "What about you? See someone you like?"
"Ino, stop it," Sakura reprimanded as Hinata blushed a fierce shade of red.
"What?" Ino feigned a look of innocence. "What'd I do?"
"Ino."
"What?"
"Ino, come on."
"Oh, alright."
"What's all that about?" Temari wondered out loud.
"Hinata's been into Naruto since forever," shared Tenten and Hinata blushed harder.
"Huh." Temari squinted at the guys' table. "The blond, right?"
"Yep."
"Guys," Sakura spoke softly. "We can pick on the remains of his dead body later, okay? But right now he's ten feet away and Hinata's way the hell uneasy."
"Oh, right. Forgot how you get, Hinata," Tenten said. "Sorry."
"It's okay," Hinata said quietly, still blushing.
Ino leaned forward on the table, clasping her hands in front of her and her gaze on Hinata."Honey, like I always say: you know you can do way better than that."
"Oh my God," Sakura muttered to herself and Ino held up her hands.
"Okay, okay. Sorry. But you know where I stand on that. I do not like him."
"He looks hot," Temari noted.
"Ew," Ino shuddered. "Stop."
Temari tilted her head sideways, confused. "But he is hot."
"Well, yeah," Ino shrugged. "They're all hot. So are the vampires before they suck you fucking dry."
Whoa. Okay.
Sakura sucked in a breath before changing the subject once again. "So what are the plans after cheerleading?"
"The Ramen Stand," Tenten answered instantly.
"Do you even need to ask?" Ino grinned wide at her. "Ramen Stand all the way."
"Do you throw shit-fits at Ramen Stand?" Temari asked her warily.
Hinata giggled.
Sakura merely smiled. "They don't serve diet soda there."
"Thank God," Tenten muttered with mirth in her eyes.
"No, it was good. You got the bitchy part down." Temari told her. "I would've liked to see it again."
"I know, right?" Ino exclaimed gleefully. "That's what I keep telling her!"
The fifth period bell went off then, but Temari carried on, "What's Ramen Stand anyway?"
"Only a place with the best coffee ever," Hinata answered and Ino nodded in agreement.
"I think we have classes to get to," Sakura stated before getting up because if Temari asked any more questions about their favorite café, Ino would no doubt answer them with additional explanation on the paint color of the walls, describe the exact shade of the lights and whatnot, and all of it would take some time.
Everyone followed and Hinata murmured, "We'll meet on the field?"
"Yep." Sakura answered before she heard voices and turned to see Ino and Tenten still at their tired old squabble about Sakura's latest cafeteria chaos.
The part she heard before she tuned out went something like this.
Tenten: It's demanding!
Ino: Good customers are always demanding.
Tenten: It's ridiculous!
Ino: There's nothing ridiculous about it. It's freaking awesome!
Tenten: It puts her on the spotlight!
Ino: Did anyone of our national heroes complain if they were ever in harm's way for stating their opinions? If someone wants a certain type of soda, they should get that type of soda!
Now Ino was comparing Sakura's public stunts to national heroes.
Jesus.
She didn't know why Tenten was spurring her on because Sakura knew Tenten loved her stunts anyway.
Sakura faced to see Temari step close next to her and say, "You're all crazy as shit. I like you guys already."
Another one. Perfect.
A while later, Sakura said her laters and walked down the hall. Instead of taking the usual route, she took a detour to Drama on a mere whim and then she stopped by the nurse's office to see Ms Nohara, maybe to have a quick word about her dating situation since the nurse never minded sharing stuff about herself.
She wondered if Mr Shiranui had scored.
It never hurt to ask.
He did not know what the fuck he was doing here.
All he knew was, he needed an easy class.
So he'd picked Debate.
Fucking Debate.
Naruto scowled at the handout he'd been given by Mei Tarumi, a pretty auburn haired teacher they'd had around ever since they were sophomores with way bright pink lipstick that she somewhat managed to pull off.
He didn't feel too great.
He thought this would be easy.
If the weekly time table was any indication, it was not.
Fuck.
It was sixth period, the last class of the day.
Ino was glad the day was almost over. She had a ton of shit to talk about with Sakura and Hinata and go over their days. And she was also glad because the last class was Journalism.
After lunch, Ino separated from her best friends, whereupon Hinata headed for World History class, Sakura headed for Drama and Ino hoofed it to her favorite class ever, Home Ec.
She loved the class because of many reasons.
Firstly because of her teacher who made the class interesting (not that it wasn't already interesting, but her jokes helped). Secondly simply because it was Home Ec and Ino loved it. Thirdly because she excelled at it.
So she rode the wave of excitement through an easy introduction to sewing (like she didn't know that shit by the time she was five years old, but hey) and meandered out like she had all the time in the world when the bell rang.
And now, finally it was Journalism and that meant they were free. Well, at least she and Hinata were. The building next to the school that used to be an old ratty-assed library was being converted into space for the Journalism department to use, since the department was way overdue an upgrade to accommodate the expansion of the school paper. The school paper, which, incidentally, was a big deal in Konoha, almost as big a deal as the real paper.
The place was apparently still being organized, and so the regular members of the Journalism department were making sure it was being just that. Which meant Sakura was there with the J-Squad right now, probably bossing around those fuckers with flair.
Good for her.
Ten minutes ago, Ino caught Hinata at her locker and led her down the hallway to the large double-doors, from where they headed directly to the huge field.
Which brought her back to now—insanely content in the bleachers as she watched the football team practice on the field.
She watched a guy she didn't know stop at the corner of the field and shed his T-shirt quickly.
Boy, was he ripped.
She didn't even try to close her mouth.
It was safe to say Ino was glad the new members of the J-group got to sit out the refurnishing crap.
"Ino." She heard from next to her.
"Just a second, Hinata."
"But Ino—"
"A minute."
"Ino, there's—"
"One minute."
"Uh, you don't—"
"Ino!" That wasn't Hinata.
She had a pretty good idea who it was.
She whirled on the voice to confirm and yep, she was right.
It was Coach Maito.
Now Ino closed her mouth.
He stood on the bleachers next to Hinata, smiling huge at her.
Christ, she should've listened to Hinata and they should've made a run for it.
"Hi, Coach!" Ino called out, fake enthusiastically because first, she wasn't too fired up about being interrupted while she was surveying the talent (Sakura's words) and second because no amount of enthusiasm could match his, so she didn't even try summoning something real. "What's up?"
"You girls going for the cheerleading team this year too?"
Ino groaned inwardly. "I'm co-captain," she reminded him of something he had to know since she reminded him of it every time they met.
"Oh, yes. Hinata? You?"
Hinata opened her mouth to answer but Ino beat her to it.
"Sports really aren't her thing, Coach."
Coach Maito sighed. "Too bad. I hear the girls' volleyball team is good this year."
Now Ino sighed too.
He was well-known trying to ambush unsuspecting students into joining teams and practices but come on.
"She'll check it out," Ino lied, knowing that no way in hell would Hinata ever check it out, seeing as sports really weren't her thing and neither had she taken up cheerleading no matter how much Ino or Sakura begged her to.
But it did the trick.
Coach Maito shot a blinding smile their way. "That's all I can ask, kids. It'd be great if you did. We got a cracker football team this year. Would like something more on for the girls."
Yeah, sure, great.
Ino smiled at him. "Of course."
"See you girls later."
"See you later, Coach." Ino replied and Hinata repeated after her.
Ino resumed looking back towards the shirtless dude, who was now running wide with the ball in his hand.
Yes, yummy.
This was the life.