Day 4:

Ino is so, so high right now. The most high. Superlative high.

Sakura knows this because Ino's been rolling around on the mattress basically making sweet love to their tarp for the past five minutes.

"Hey, Pig."

Ino merely tangles herself further.

"Pig."

It's just so crinkly…

"Ino!"

At the sound of her name, the aforementioned girl stops molesting their makeshift bedspread and sits up abruptly. "What?"

"You were in the middle of asking me something," Sakura reminds her amusedly. "Something about a bar?"

"I was?"

"Yes. You were."

It takes her a second, and then she jumps to her feet only to nearly fall back down. After spending a moment putting the world back in the proper directions, she approaches Sakura and plops down in front of her. Closer is better, after all.

"Oh, yeah. Do you remember that party I threw when we got promoted to chunin?"

"How could I forget?" Sakura asks wryly. "That was the first night Neji decided to try taking shots and wound up vomiting in Tenten's drink."

Ino grins at the memory. "Oh, yeah. That guy shouldn't drink. In fact, that whole team shouldn't drink."

"Tenten seemed alright…"

"…Until she started using people's beer bottles as target practice," Ino finishes, laughing.

"Still, she hit every one. It's pretty impressive."

"Poor Hinata, though…"

Oh, yeah. Sakura had almost forgotten about that. The one drink she'd been nursing all night was still full when it exploded in her hand after Tenten threw some kind of ball-and-chain thing at it, completely soaking her shirt. So many stares…

Ino seems to be recalling the same imagery. Slowly, however. She blinks once at half-speed, a lazy, amused smile growing at the thought. "That girl has some boobs on her, I tell you what."

"You think they're bigger than yours?"

"Probably. I mean, she goes out of her way to play them down and they're still massive, so I'm sure if she actually showed them off…"

"They'd be huge."

"Oh yeah."

Both women's eyes drift down to their own chests thoughtfully. Sakura sighs.

"Don't worry," Ino consoles her. "I'm sure you'll hit puberty some day."

"…Damnit, Pig..."

"I'm kidding! Besides, you don't need big boobs to be hot, you know."

"Yeah. You just have to be hot." Her tone is clearly self-derogatory, and Ino can't help but roll her eyes. She probably shouldn't have, though. The world smears into a blend of beautiful colors like her vision is an eraser, dragging through the universe and distorting it by the failures of perception, belittling the inherent wonder of a life so filled with bountiful gifts, and yet unable to be fully appreciated in the tragically limited scope of human senses…

Ino blinks. Breathes. Where was she…?

"Oh, come on, Sakura. You've got plenty of things that make you attractive."

"Yeah, I'm sure big foreheads are all the rage in Suna…"

"Foreheads are the new boobs…" Ino trails off, associations and memories tangling in her brain like a skipping stone. "You should make that a TV show."

That's absurd. Enough so to actually make Sakura laugh. "And what the hell would it be about?"

"…Women…!" Ino declares after a lengthy pause. "Women with – with big foreheads, taking what's theirs, fighting for love against the – the, uh – the archetypical stereotypes of beauty! They'd battle big-breasted women and change the minds of shallow men everywhere through long, meaningful monologues about the intrinsic beauty of asymmetrical faces and the importance of polishing one's forehead to maintain a shiny, wrinkle-free appearance –"

Sakura is clutching her stomach at this point.

" – and the heroine would ironically fall in love with a man with a tiny, tiny forehead, and she'd tell him, 'size isn't everything, you know,' and they'd –"

"Alright!" She's laughing so hard it hurts. "Okay, okay, God… how do you come up with this?"

Ino taps her temple. "Drugs."

The melting of the parts of her brain usually reigning in her imagination and inhibitions is certainly helpful. Is that why so many artists are addicts…?

"Good – good point…" Once she's regained control of her body again, Sakura remembers that this all started somewhere. "Weren't you asking me something?"

"I was – oh! Oh, right, the party. Well, do you remember that one guy that came back with us to my place?"

"Kiba's friend? The one with the scar on his chin?"

"I think so..."

"Wound up playing strip poker?"

"Yeah! That's the one."

"I remember him. Why?"

"Apparently Kiba has no idea who that was."

Sakura frowns, confused. "What? You mean he was a total stranger?"

Ino shrugs. "Yep."

"Nobody brought him?"

"Nope."

"Wow."

"I know," Ino nods sagely. Then, after a moment, she adds, "He had a really small penis."

Sakura blushes, mostly from second-hand embarrassment. "Yeah," she laughs. "He did."