Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters, merchandise, TV rights, ect… (I think you get the point.)

Summery

Sometimes in life you have to see things right through to the bitter end, even if you wish you didn't. (Sasuke/Ino)

Like all of my work this is just something that happened to float through the empty void inside my head. Like it or hate it please R and R as honest opinions are always welcomed, as are random acts of worship.

Lamb: As always sorry for any bad spelling and if you feel the need to throw things at me please wait until I've hidden behind the sofa kay!

Muse: On with the fic!

Cause you're hot then you're cold,
You're yes then you're no,
You're in then you're out,
You're up then you're down,
You're wrong when it's right,
It's black and it's white,
We fight, we break up,
We kiss, we make up,

Start to Finish

Two months in and Yamanaka Ino was finding it hard to resist the urge to abuse her power and just put her charge, and there for herself, out of his misery. The only thing that held her back was the fact that she didn't think that the Hokage, Konoha's number one Knuckle-head ninja, would agree that 'breathing too loudly' was a good enough reason to kill Uchiha Sasuke. And at the moment Naruto was not particularly well disposed to dealing with anything that was not of the utmost importance.

He had wanted the job, and though many had said he was too young, Lady Tsunade had been all for it, but as a compromise had agreed to act as an advisor to their newly appointed leader. One of Naruto's first acts, after he found out the amount of paperwork he was now expected to do, something the blonde Sannin had forgotten to mention, was to ban the consumption of alcohol within the Hokage tower. And he also threatened to outlaw gambling everywhere in Konoha. Predictable, Tsunade had hit the roof, and a privet war had been raging between the two ever since.

So between facing down his 'Granny' and having to deal with all the day to day complications that came with his office, Naruto was hardly likely to be happy to have to clean up after Ino if she went on a killing spree. But it was proving to be very tempting. She glanced sideways, her lips twisting into a thin line, as she eyed the moody profile of the pale skinned male walking at her side. Ill tempered did not even come close to describing Sasuke's disposition most of the time. The only time he seemed vaguely human was when they were training, normally under the watchful eye of Hatake Kakashi, or in the evenings when they were alone in the small house which for the time being served as their joint home.

"Hey! Ino-pig!" The loud greeting broke Ino from her musings and she looked up to see Haruno Sakura walking quickly down the street, moving in and out of the bustling crowd, towards them.

"Oh no." The blonde smirked at the whispered exclamation that came from the male at her side. "Yamanaka I swear I will do whatever you want just save me from her."

"Yeah, billboard?" Ino called back heading directly for the pink haired kunoichi, Sasuke following her, though grumbling the whole way.

"Hi Sasuke-kun," The medic-nin said smiling coyly up at him before returning her attention to her friend/rival. "What are you up to piggy?"

"Nothing much," she responded with a casual wave of her hand, Ino knew her friend was hoping to be able to tag along wherever she, and there for Sasuke, were going. "Just trying to run a few errands, but it's not easy with sulky here."

"I'm not sulky." The Uchiha muttered but it was pointless as neither female was listening to him.

"Oi! Don't call him that." Sakura said a little defensively while the dark haired male in question just scowled, he didn't like the way that Ino was acting one bit, it could only mean that he was headed for trouble.

"Well he is. But if you want to baby-sit him for a while be my guest." Ino flashed Sasuke one of her brightest and also most devious smiles. "Just make sure you don't let him out of your sight. No matter what."

There were, Sasuke knew more horrible grins than the one Ino was currently giving him. But only on the sort of grinner that was orange with black stripes, had a long tail and hung around in the Forest of Death waiting for unsuspecting victims it could grin at. And even then those malevolent felines would have had a tough time out smirking the blonde who had a looked of fiendish satisfaction plastered all over her smug little face.

"Yamanaka-" Sasuke started but got cut off.

"And what if he says he needs to use the bathroom?" Sakura queried quickly picking up on Ino's mood and since she was getting what she wanted was only too happy to go along with it. The blonde could hardly contain her laughter at the stricken look on the Uchiha's face. An expression that only darkened further when Ino next spoke.

"Then you go with him and hold his hand," And because she couldn't resist pushing Sasuke's buttons just a little more added, "Or anything else you can get a grip on."

"Yamanaka!" Sasuke's bellow of rage followed the blonde as she bounded down the street, her mood rather better then it had been at the start of the day.

XXXXXXXXXX

Some two hours later Ino wondered happily down a narrow street in the down-town district of Konoha, a bag of shopping under one arm and a neatly wrapped parcel under the other. It had been so nice to be able to shop by her self for once, to get whatever she wanted without having to listen to grunts of disapproval coming from a moody companion.

She had spent a joyous half-hour just looking though racks of cloths, trying on whatever took her fancy and had bought a beautiful oriental style dress. With a high neck and short capped sleeves, the tight dress hugged her body though it barely reached her mid-thigh. It was the colour though that had been the final deciding factor; the silk was a pale pearly lilac covered with a pattern of tiny golden flowers. The only downside, as far as Ino could see, was that she had nowhere to go in the wonderful creation and no one to ware the dress for. Well there was one option, but Sasuke was hardly deserving of that honour.

From there she had gone and visited with Yuhi Kurenai, the pretty red eyed sensei had become a sort of substitute mother to Ino. After the death of her own sensei, the blonde had found a kindred spirit in the older woman whether it was their shared grief that had brought them together Ino couldn't say. All she knew was that whatever it was she would be eternally grateful for it. They had sat talking together, sipping green tea and laughing over the antics of her departed sensei's seven-year-old son.

Ino suddenly turned left and headed up a short path until she reached a front door at which she knocked sharply. It took a few moments for the door to be pulled open a head of messy silver hair appearing in the gap and one dark lazy eye regarded the blonde with amusement. Ino stepped out of her sandals before gently, but firmly, pushing a topless and also mask-less, he'd obviously read her chakra signature, Kakashi out of her way. She entered his home and pausing only to drop her shopping in the hallway entered the living room and threw herself down upon the sofa.

"D'you think anyone would really mind if I killed him." The older man chuckled slightly at the petulant, all be it somewhat muffled, tone of his guest's voice.

"He likes you, you know." Kakashi said, slapping Ino's legs lightly so that she would roll over and move enough so that he too to settle on the sofa.

The blue-eyed kunoichi scoffed, but resettled her self so that her legs where resting over his lap. "Not after what I've just done."

At the inquiring look she smirked wickedly before quickly explaining her little act of revenge. "So I left him in Sakura's tender care and left her explicit instructions that she was not to let him out of her sight for a single moment. And even if he needed the bathroom she was to go with him and hold his hand, or any other body part that took her fancy."

"Yes, I agree that after that he might not like you," He looked in a bemused fashion at the giggling young woman. "But he's still captivated by you. I'm not talking undying love, this is Uchiha we're talking about, but I've seen the way he looks at you, Yammy."

"Kinda the way you're looking at me Kakashi… sensei?" Though he had never been her sensei, even if he had taught her much, it still gave her great pleasure to add the honorific to the name of the lover that was over a decade her senior. Ino smirked and pushed her foot gently into the copy-nin's groin, laughing when he hissed and grabbed the offending limb.

"Yes, just like that. But it's not just cus you're on hand eye candy Yammy." His thumb absent-mindedly stroked around the slender bone of her naked ankle "You're an attractive one blondie, that's for certain. But there isn't a kunoichi alive that isn't. It's sad but true, no one really cares what male ninja look like, but if you're female and want to make it as a ninja you have to have the looks. Why d'you think that even with her high rank Tsunade-sama puts as much effort into maintaining her looks as she does?"

"Vanity." Ino promptly responded, knowing that she was right and knowing that her piece of 'on hand eye candy' knew it too.

"Fair point. But it's more than that with you; you're inside his head Yammy, you intrigue him. But more than that, Uchiha just can't stand the fact that you don't want him any more." Kakashi suddenly released the blonde's foot and moved so that he lay on top of her, his weight supported by his hands which were either side of her head. "Or at least he thinks you don't want him."

"Meaning what, Hatake?" Ino snapped, shoving him off of her so that he rolled completely off of the sofa and landed on his back on the floor.

"Just that I know you better than he does," The silver haired jounin said mildly, making no move to get up from his recumbent position. "And while it's true that you dislike him, you'd have no qualms about letting him screw you senseless if the opportunity… arose. Would you?"

"Hmm, sometimes I think you know me too well." Ino sighed as she slipped off of the sofa and onto Kakashi, smiling sly at the look that crossed his face when she rolled her hips into his. "You're right. I think he's a traitorous cold-hearted snake and I wish he'd never born, or that he at least had the decency to have remained a missing-nin. But yes, I do find him attractive and I would, as you so delicately put it, screw him senseless as long as I could gag him first. Happy?"

"Meh," He grunted non-committally, as he ran his hands up her sides dragging up the dark purple fabric of her top as he went. "Not as happy as you're about to make me."

Under different circumstances Ino would have come out with a pithy comeback, but for too long she had been starved of physical affection, so instead of speaking simply bent down and captured Kakashi's mouth with her own. The copy-nin immediately rolled so that their positions were reversed and Ino instantly gave up on being upset with the current state of her life and wrapped her arms around his neck. He left hot trails of kisses along Ino's jaw line, and then moved himself in a more dominant position; Kakashi growled huskily and nibbled her neck affectionately. He kept coming back for a second helping of her neck, unable to resist her taste.

Ino's hands trailed down his back, her nails scraping at his flesh and leaving red lines across his skin. All pretence of tenderness was discarded, mouths feasted greedily and fingers sort to remove the clothing that hampered and hindered as swiftly as possible. Kakashi was pulling at the blonde's skirt while her hands were busy with the fastening of his pants when the harsh sound of someone knocking at the door froze them both in place. There was a moment of silence before the sound came again, louder and more insistently, and with a growl Kakashi got to his feet and headed for the door, pausing just long enough to snatch up his mask.

"Oh great." Ino mumbled, rubbing her hands over her eyes and silently bemoaning how unfair her life had become and how there was only one person to blame for all of her misfortune.

Uchiha Sasuke. Because of him and how she was forced to act as his live in nanny she had no time to do what she wanted or needed to do for her self. Getting irritably to her feet, Ino straightened out her clothing and then flung herself down onto the sofa and fought the urge to cry. And to make everything worse she hadn't had sex for over two months damn it.

"I have to go." Kakashi said in a resigned tone as he walked back into the room. "Nar… The Hokage has an important mission for me." Through mismatched eyes he watched as his blonde lover hastily fixed a smile on her face, trying to act as if she didn't mind but he could clearly see the disappointment in her eyes.

He felt his heart go out to Ino, she was stuck with a difficult and trying assignment she did not want and he could not help but feel partly responsible for her situation. Before approaching Ino, Naruto had asked his former sensei if he would be willing to take charge of his returned student. But Kakashi had taken Sasuke's betrayal very hard, and harbouring a deep dislike and distrust of the last Uchiha had said no. Looking back he wondered if he would have made the same decision if he had known that Ino would be the next to be asked.

"But this is me," Kakashi whispered, snagging Ino's arm as she made to walk past him and pulled her body tightly to his. "Fifteen minuets?"

"Time for a quickie?" She asked softly, looking up at him from under demurely lowered lashes, it was the look that both of them knew he could not resist.

"For you," He said, pulling down his mask so that he could nibble on the sensitive skin of her throat. "Always."

XXXXXXXXXX

"What's that?" Ino looked up, startled at the sudden question which was practically the first thing Sasuke had said to her in the hours since she had returned and almost had to pry him free from Sakura's clutches.

"What's what?" She asked looking up from her book and glancing around the small living room hoping to gain some insight into to what he was talking about, only to have anger leap like a flame inside of her when he spoke again.

"On your neck… a love bit?" His tone, Ino thought, was a nice mix of fury, disgust and incredulous disbelief. "So you left me in the clutches of Sakura just so you could go around acting like a common little whore!"

"Let's get one thing clear Uchiha." Ino hissed, her blood boiling with fury as she carefully placed the book she had been reading down on the coffee table. Loosing her temper now would not do her any good, better to turn the insult around so that it would end up being him whose actions were called into questioned.

"What I do and who I do it with is no concern of yours… and besides," The contempt glittered in her eyes as she stared him down. "Why would you care what a common little whore was doing anyway?"

Sasuke stared dumbfounded at the doorway through which the blonde had vanished. Why did he care? And why, when she threw his own description of her back in his face, did the words make his blood feel, not only as if it was on fire, but as if it might boil right out of his veins?

Please R and R I'd love to know what you thought.

Big love and inspiration

Lamanth