Ino moaned as she turned onto her back, kicking at the blanket draped around her waist. She felt a set of hands press on her shoulder before a pair of soft lips touched her own. The blonde kissed the lips against her own desperately, knowing instantly who they belonged to. The lips swiftly pulled away before the hands began to shake her. "Ino wake up. You need to get dressed." Sakura's voice drifted to her. She opened her eyes slowly, squinting at the pink haired girl. "That's it, sit up." She felt a strong arm cradle her back and help her into a sitting position. The florist moaned intelligibly when the pink haired girl thrust her clothing into her arms. Frowning, she begrudgingly began to dress herself.
While Ino was dressing herself, Sakura walked over to the mattress that the Hokage and her attendant were sleeping on, she watched them for a few minutes, gauging their level of consciousness. After deciding they were soundly asleep she returned to the fire she was slowly rebuilding. Ino came to sit beside her. The blonde girl settled cross legged, one arm around her waist. Her body leaned innocently against Sakura's with her head resting on the other girl's shoulder. "Last night was amazing." The blonde mumbled, a smile spread across her face. Sakura sighed, she was still processing what had happened last night and she didn't want to talk about it so soon.
"It was amazing Ino, but we need to talk about something, okay." She paused long enough for Ino to straighten her body up and nod to her. "We can't go around, you know, just whenever we feel like it. There have to be rules. Only in our bedrooms, nothing more than hugging and stuff in public. Also regarding our relationship, I want to know something."
Ino grabbed and held her lover's hand. "What is it?"
"Why now?" Sakura asked, then she clarified what she meant. "Why did you tell me how you felt after all these years, and why did you do it now of all times."
Ino bit her lip. "You don't really need to know that, its was a really stupid reason." Sakura gently pulled the blonde's lip from between her teeth.
"I do need to know, I don't care how dumb it seems."
Ino moaned lowly. "I lost a bet with Shikamaru. He knew that I liked you and I knew that Choji had a crush on him. A few months back we made a bet over one of Azuma's evaluations. The stakes being that that the loser would have to confront they're love. I lost, so I worked up the courage to tell you." Ino hung her head shamefully. "I understand if you feel betrayed or devalued and I'm sorry."
Sakura offered a weak smile as she tilted her chin up. "Look at me." She instructed, looking her lover in the eye. "Shikamaru is a sharp guy, he may act lazy and uncaring, but he always has good intentions with his actions. Even if it was as dumb bet that you thought was set up only to humiliate you, Shikamaru must have figured out my feelings toward you. I just wanted to know why you told me. I'm not angry or sad or humiliated. I'm relieved that Shikamaru devised this plot and that you weren't just stringing me along like a puppet for a laugh." Ino looked visibly relieved. "Come here." The pink haired ninja opened her arms for Ino, who crawled in the her lap. Sakura wrapped her arms around the blonde. "I love you Ino, so many years of denying that have made me realize that I don't care how you realized that you loved me too, or came to the decision to tell me. All I care is that you did, because now we're happy and you should be celebrating that just like I am. I'll repeat that a thousand times." Sakura hugged Ino tight against her. The florist rested her head on Sakura's shoulder, feeling even more relieved then before. The girls stayed in that position, enjoying a private moment in silence.
Ino let her own thoughts take her mind away, while her body stayed to enjoy the warm, tingling sensation of Sakura's skin against her own. Her mind still could not comprehend that Sakura returned her love with equal if not more intensity, she could not help being incredulous. She was so mystified but at the same time she couldn't stop her need to be physically close to Sakura, to touch her. She could not define her emotional and physical attraction to the pink haired girl. Love was such a strange thing.
Ino whimpered as she was abruptly pushed from Sakura's lap to the cold floor of the cave. Sakura hissed a warning about respecting the Hokage. The blond did not understand until she remembered that they were sharing the cave with the fifth Hokage and her attendant. She turned to see Sakura greeting both of the older women. Shizune took a few moment to politely shoo her away from Tsunade, who was hung over.
After Sakura had returned to the fire, Shizune began to sooth Tsunade. She massaged her neck to ease the pain of her headache and clear her eyesight. Then she made her stay lying down while she made some tea over the fire and found her something to eat. While Tsunade chewed on a piece of smoked meat and sipped the hot tea, Shizune voiced her concerns in a whisper. "We've been in here for a long time. Did you tell anyone where you were going?"
Tsunade nodded. "I told my protection unit, they know that they should come by tonight if I haven't returned. Come lay with me." She patted the spot next to her on the futon. Shizune sighed but slipped under the blanket to lay with her lover again. She put one arm under Tsunade and rested her head on her shoulder. The blonde woman began murmuring to Shizune, who murmured back to her.
When it seemed that the older women had slipped into their own world, Sakura crawled into Ino's lap and snuggled against her. She wasn't going to lie, she was craving Ino's touch. If it were up to her, she would spend all day wrapped in the blonde's arms. After a few silent moment of cuddling. Ino whispered what had been on her mind since the night before. "What about Sasuke?"
At first Sakura pretended not to hear, but after Ino repeated herself five times, that was no longer believable. "What about him." She asked flippantly.
"Don't give me that. What does he mean to you?" Ino pressed.
"He was my friend, my teammate, and in a way my brother." Sakura answered, her body stiffening as her voice became harsher.
"You were throwing yourself all over him, Sakura. Did you love him?" Ino finally got to the point.
"L-love him?" Sakura stuttered then her voice gained a sliver of assurance. "Yes I loved him, as a friend, as a teammate, as a brother. I was crushed when he left me, no left us. He left me, Naruto, and Kakashi. He left us all behind. But I didn't love him like I pretended to for all those years. Sasuke could not be loved romantically, he was too cold and stony. I knew that, but I pretended to anyway. But when he left I lost much more than a crush. I lost a friend, a teammate and a brother, I lost three important people, not just one. He took a part of my soul with him." Sakura confessed for the first time since Sasuke had left. She had surprised even herself because before she had not admitted these thing to herself. Now these words rushed out of her mouth. The pink haired clapped her hand over her mouth as she realized what she had just said. "I didn't mean to say that, I was being melodramatic!" She backpedaled helplessly.
Ino smiled sadly and pulled the other girl into her lap. "You meant exactly what you said. Sasuke was all those things to you. You lost three people when he left. I shouldn't have brought it up." Sakura was silent for quite awhile before she opened her mouth again.
"It needed to be brought up. I've been sitting on those feelings, those words, for so long. I needed a reason to express them. You gave me that reason. I should be thanking you." The girl pressed her body close to the blonde's. "What did you think of Sasuke?"
Ino blew out a breath. " I think that for awhile I wanted to love him. I wanted to be normal but I couldn't look at boy that way. As we got older together, I found myself becoming attracted to you in the way I wanted to like Sasuke. I was freaked out, I couldn't let you find out so I pushed Sasuke between us. I didn't want to face rejection if you did ever find out." Ino answered.
"That's really screwed up. We were in love but were too afraid to admit it. We went years, feuding over a boy that neither of us was really interested when we could have been loving one another." Sakura sighted "What about now though, I know that I won't reject you but what about our peers? Are you willing to accept that you maybe ostracized for who you love?"
Ino looked amused. "What are you talking about Sakura? We are trained to be tolerant, why would that change for someone's sexuality. We have to be able to work together at all times or we could die. All ninja have that mind set, even when we're at home we have to trust each other and be open to one another. All of us understand this. I'm more worried about the civilians, they are the prejudiced ones. Civilians are the ones that don't have to be in the trenches with us, they won't trust us. That's why we have to be careful in public." Ino almost lectured her.
Sakura blushed and changed the subject. "Ino could you see us together, lasting together for five, maybe ten years?"
"I've dreamed about it for years. Life is unpredictable Sakura, I'm happy to just follow our paths and do our best to keep them together." Ino answered realistically. "I'm willing to try if you are."
"I'm willing to try, to strive to keep both of us happy." Sakura answered. "If we agree on that then I guess we're set."