'Damn,' Ino cursed in her mind after gazing at the tall apartment complex before her. 'Why did I have to choose the one on the top floor?' She mentally asked herself while climbing the annoying staircase. Even though a few stairs shouldn't even be considered a problem for a ninja, she couldn't help but wish that her room was closer to the ground at the moment. 'Then again...' she thought when she looked at the view the higher altitude had to offer, 'I suppose it's not that bad.' She lingered at the top of the stairwell for a while enjoying for the first time in a while the sense of freedom she now had. When Ino first obtained the title chunin, everyone was proud of her and the other half of rookie nine that succeeded in passing the test held in the hidden village of Cloud.
Hinata and Sakura were the only ones who didn't pass that time; and Gai's team didn't even show up at the exam because Gai felt that they should wait a little while before attempting another chunin exam. Seeing as what happened at the last exam (Lee being taken off of active duty for several months and Neji...not quite acting like Neji after losing to the 'drop out of Konoha') his subordinates didn't argue with him. Sakura also wasn't able to participate as well, because of her illegitimate team formation (With Sasuke gone missing and Naruto off gallivanting god knows where with his new perverted sensei) she couldn't take the exam by herself.
Even though Hinata surprised everyone by winning her match in the third part of the test she just didn't seem to be worthy enough for the title chunin or at least she didn't seem capable like that in the eyes of the Raikage and the other judges of that exam. But another chunin exam latter Gai's team passed with flying colors in the Grass Country, while Hinata and Sakura teamed up with another leaf genin and passed the exam on their third try.
But as everyone began to grow into stronger and more independent shinobi, they either began to drift away from their respective clans or gained a higher status making them more influential to their family and to the village. Hinata, as most everyone knows is the successor to the head family of the Hyuuga clan. Because of this both she and Neji have been on less dangerous missions and more diplomatic ones.
Ino didn't even want to think about what went on in the Aburame clan so she wasn't sure where Shino stood in his family, but he was certainly starting to look more important or at least more secretive with all the overcoats and trench coats he wore, plus she could have sworn that bug boy owned more sunglasses the all of Konoha put together. Kiba wasn't really all too attached to his family to begin with. The Inuzuka clan dwell in the forests surrounding Konoha so that they could be more at peace with the wolves they consider companions. Ino once overheard Kiba speaking to Shino that his mother had yet again kicked him out for a few days. Not that Kiba minded much he was used to the outdoors and as long as he had Akamaru with him he could careless what his mother wanted him to do.
Chouji was beginning to look more and more like his father with each passing day since the 'big boned' ninja went through several growth sprits and became more muscular rather then chubbier. The Akimichi prodigy is now responsible for a new development in the Houren pill making them less dangerous for the consumer of the pills and also more effective for longer periods of time. She hadn't seen him around much since his research began but Ino could just picture Chouji working his fingers to the grind to produce the incredible pills.
Her other teammate Shikamaru was hardly ever around anymore. Always hiding out in his own secluded little world, trying to avoid the troublesome things life throws at him. He was the first one out of their graduating class to make it to chunin, and because of his early promotion Shikamaru tackles most missions as the squad leader. Because of his constant away ness he hasn't kept much contact with his family. Ino didn't blame him; if her mom were that intimidating she would have moved out sooner as well.
The reason for Ino leaving her home wasn't because her parent's kicked her out or because she got sick of them and left. As chunin Ino's missions became longer and more complex; her assignments were no longer 'escort the important Daimyo back to his country'. But more 'infiltrate this missing nin's and rescue one of our own, the rank and number of ninja's guarding it are unknown, but take down as many of them as you can.
Nothing like coming back to the village after killing seven or eight men, reporting yourself to the Hokage, only then to rush home to eat dinner with your folks. Staying at home with her parents just became awkward after a few missions like that. So it was a mutual agreement when the young florist moved away from home. She still continued to train with her Father on weekends when they both weren't busy, which was proving to be rarer and rarer as time progressed. But aside from those few training event's she was completely unattached to her family. It was a sort of freedom that Ino feared at first but was now comfortable with.
With a renewed smile on her face Ino turned away from the landscape she was gazing at and walked towards her room. '165...166...167...168...' she counted in her mind while looking at the black numbers written on the doors as she walked by them, and stopped once she reached the door that read 169. Ino then opened the door and walked into bare yet homey apartment, and closed the door behind her with no intention to lock it.
In the shinobi world a locked door isn't even considered to be an obstacle, so in a town where 75 percent of the populace were ninjas there was no reason for her to lock it. And if some kind of unwanted visitor were to show up Ino would kindly escort him or her to the window with a kunai lodged in their back. Now if the unwanted visitor were lucky enough Ino wouldn't be present at the time of their arrival so her roommate would have the honor of greeting them. Meaning they'd live...However, they would be living out the rest of their days in the very hospital at which Sakura worked at.
Haruno Sakura was the other occupant of this particular apartment, after having yet another fight with her mother their final falling out resulted in Sakura moving out. The girls bumped into each other while searching for apartments in the same area. After swapping stories the two agreed rent would be easier to pay if they stuck together. Now that Sasuke was gone their really wasn't much for the two of them to argue about. Then again ninja's are required to look underneath the underneath for a living, so the two chunin still find many random things to squabble about.
"I'm back," Ino half shouted while relinquishing her aching feet from the binds of her sandals.
"Ino-chan," Sakura spoke and looked away from the scroll she was reading while lying on the couch, one of the few pieces of furniture they owned. The others being the beds on which they slept. Two tables (one in the kitchen, the other in the living room) and a few chairs. "You're back awful early." She commented after taking a brief look out the window.
A grin washed over Ino's facial features while an interesting thought plagued her mind "I only came back to prep for my next mission," she replied in a fake tired tone she then sprawled out on the living room floor in an exhausted position.
"Oh, what rank?" Sakura asked, the resent D and C rank missions Ino had been assigned to hardly required prepping for.
"A top priority S-rank mission that the Godaime thought I could handle." Ino said and looked up to see the priceless expression on Sakura's face.
"S...S-rank...how long should it take?" Sakura asked her voice betrayed her feelings of jealously and partly fear. S-rank missions were hardly something to laugh at, that rank of missions always had a high mortality-rate. Then again to have the Hokage herself recommend you for one is a high honor.
"Oh...I'd say about seven or so days starting affective immediately," Ino said.
"Affective...immediately," Sakura repeated, she was slightly confused by the wording until she saw the grin on Ino's face. "And what exactly is the objective of this 'S-rank mission,'" she asked and raised a suspicious eyebrow.
"To relax and do absolutely nothing for seven days, eat as much as I want, and sleep in till the cows come home," Ino replied.
Sakura's face lit up, "You're on vacation!" She exclaimed.
"Yep the only missions coming in right now aren't worthy of my talents so Hokage-sama told me to take a few days off," Ino yawned.
"Lucky you," Sakura scoffed and returned to reading over her medical scroll, but after several minutes she soon found it hard to concentrate on the script with Ino staring at her. "What?" she asked and once again looked down at her roommate.
"Huh?" Was the blank reply that came from Ino, who hadn't even realized she was staring at Sakura. "Ah my bad, I was just thinking about what to do with the time off but your big forehead must have distracted me."
If one were to look hard enough they might have been able to see the small vein that seemed to pop on Sakura's oh so large forehead. "Is that so?" Sakura asked her mouth twitching ever so slightly.
Ino grinned it was all in good nature that they teased each other like this. "Yeah, don't you have a paper bag or something to cover that humongous thing up or are there none large enough for you...dekochin-chan," Ino teased.
The small vein that you had to squint to see a few seconds ago was now progressively getting larger as the taunting continued. "Well we certainly know that they're no paper bags in existence that are big enough to hide you hideous body...Ino-buta." An identical vein appeared on Ino's head whilst the two kunoichi glared daggers at each other. The staring contest continued for a few seconds until it ended abruptly when the two broke out simultaneously into laughter.
"We really haven't matured much since we were little, have we?" Sakura chuckled.
"I don't know about you Sakura but I certainly have matured," Ino said and patted her chest to further anger the medic nin.
"Ino-buta!" Sakura hissed through clenched teeth before throwing a pillow at the snickering blonde.
"Hey!" Ino protested and threw the soft object back at Sakura who skillfully dodged it, by jumping behind the sofa. Ino retrieved the pillow and ambushed Sakura from behind. The hiding girl yelped when the cushion was slammed over her head. It was when Ino brought her arms up to swing again that Sakura saw an opening to launch her next attack. With slender dexterous fingers she tickled Ino's exposed stomach. With no cloth to shield her from the sensation Ino dropped the pillow and let out a string of giggles. "Sakura stop that" Ino yelled as she too fell to the floor. To be able to continue her devious onslaught Sakura got on top of Ino and pinned her flailing arms down, she then used free hand to tickle the blonde's ticklish sides. "Kami-sama...stop...please!" Ino begged in between bursts of laughter.
"Oh and why should I do that?" Sakura asked and let out an evil laughter.
"Cause snicker you chuckle you're chortle nice giggle Not there! And snort merciful" she tried to reason whilst the laughter overwhelmed her to tears. When Sakura contemplated stopping Ino used her free arm and rubbed her fingers against Sakura's underarm. Which caused her attacker to gasp and release Ino's other arm. With both arms now useable Ino pushed Sakura off of her and onto the ground where Ino then hovered above her and attacked the pink haired girl just as she did to her mere moments ago.
"Ino-chan stop!" Sakura protested, she then found herself immobilized from uncontrollable giggling.
"Oh and why should I do that?" Ino asked and grinned wickedly when she used Sakura's own words against her. Sakura glared at Ino with the utmost intensity she could muster while laughing her guts out, which didn't prove to be all that intimidating.
Their small tickle fight continued for nearly an hour with the two kunoichi rolling around on the floor trying to out match each other. It wasn't until they both collapsed to the ground gasping for breath that a truce was called for. "So it's another tie?" Sakura asked while she laid virtual on top of her rival.
"Looks like it." Ino said her eyes were shut tight as if opening them would take too much strength away from her. Her already redden cheeks became even more flushed when she felt Sakura's depleted breath against her ears. "O-oi dekochin get off of me." Ino said and gave Sakura a light shove to encourage the pick haired girl to move.
"Alright, alright Ino-buta," Sakura replied as she sat up; while sitting up Sakura couldn't help but notice the blush in Ino's face grow redder (if that was humanly possible). She was technically still sitting on Ino just not laying on her, but from this different view point Sakura could see that their rolling around on the ground and attacking one another caused all but one of the buttons on Ino's shirt to come undone. Luckily Ino had bandages around her chest to prevent the situation from getting uncomfortable. A feeling of dread washed over Sakura as she remembered that she didn't wrap bandages around her chest, and that she only wore very thin fishnet shirt under her zippered top.
Mortified Sakura moved her pink head downwards and looked at her own top to see that the zipper had been completely undone. Moving at a speed that would put Rock Lee to shame she was completely off of Ino and was soon fixing her top 4 feet away from the other chunin. Meanwhile all air flowing the blonde's lungs had completely constricted, as that image of Sakura was forever burned into her mind.
Absentmindedly Ino sat herself up and re-buttoned her top. She looked over at Sakura who was now competing with Ino over who had the most blood residing in their face. The silence that filled the empty void where their laughter and giggles once frolicked was beyond awkward. Ino attempted to kill it by coughing...but that didn't seem to help the mood much. "Well Sakura..." Ino said and stood up only to walk past her friend and move into the kitchen area. "You've certainly matured into quite the flower." Years of shinobi training helped Ino hear the near inaudible reply from the embarrassed medic
"Pervert."