I've been updating this story as soon as I can because classes would resume and that means I wouldn't be able to update easily due to schoolworks and stuff. Please do understand that I'm trying my best. And don't worry, I'll finish this story. You'll just have to give me time. For the meantime, here's the 8th installment of the Wedding Sniper. I apologize for the short episode. I promise I'll make it up to you guys. Anyway, please dont forget to R&R. Your continuous support inspires me. Thanks much.

~ Ino Ishii

Ino didn't even try to hide it. Not that she could have anyway since his picture was right there on the screen. Instead, she pushed her questionnaire, still opened to page three, to the side so he'd know this was a tit for tat kind of invasion of privacy.

As opposed to just a plain ordinary invasion.

"You lived in England for three years," she commented. "When your father was stationed there."

"You run a six-minute mile," he countered. "While listening to Disturbed."

She was outdone by the sergeant. As she was thinking of something to say,

"Your mother and father were both cops."

Frowning, she swiveled around in the chair. "That wasn't on the questionnaire."

"No, but it was in your personnel file." His gaze drifted to her clothes, and her legs. "Nice skirt."

Ino was sure her frown deepened.

"Is that a ploy to get me to forget you were in my file?"

"No. It's a ploy to let you off the hook for snooping in mine." He let a small black velvet box in her lap, right on her skirt. "If you want to know something about me, Yamanaka, just ask."

She would have questioned him about that personal leave, but the box suddenly captured her complete attention. It was the right size and the right shape. Well, depending on one's perspective, it was right. it was not so right from her perspective.

"Is that what I think it is?"

"It is, if you think it's an engagement ring." He proceeded to fix his communicator under his collar. "We need it for the announcement."

Okay. So those two simple words, 'engagement ring' shouldn't have sent her stomach into a tailspin, but they did. Jeez, it was such a girl reaction. And for nothing, since it was all show anyway.

Ino opened the box as if it were live explosives and came face to face not with some gaudy lifestyle statement but rather a tastefully delicate diamond set in beautifully etched gold. Definitely a wow.

"It looks real." She mumbled while tracing the gold band with her forefinger.

"It is. It belonged to my mother." Replied the spiky-blonde male.

"Oh sheez." His mother's? Could this possibly get any more uncomfortable?

"I cant wear something like that." Ino shook her head. Her long platinum blonde locks swayed from side to side as she shook her head.

"Sure you can. Well, provided it fits." He took it from the box and slipped it onto her finger. No fan-fare. No awkward pause to ponder the moment. Certainly no romantic words or gazes.

It fit.

"Okay, let's go." He ordered.

He would have probably been out the door if his phone hadn't rung. Ino grabbed her purse while he answered it. As she moved the meager sunlight slanting through the windows caught the facets of the diamond and sent a rainbow dancing around the room. She turned the ring around so it wouldn't happen again.

She needed rainbows about as much as she needed a real engagement to Uzumaki Naruto.

"Did he?" she heard Naruto asked his caller.

But it wasn't the usual inquiry. Like the ring box, it snared Ino's attention and caused her to tune in to his conversation.

"No. No change in plans," he continued. He hung up and looked at her. "Guess where Tomoyama's headed to?"

"Perfect Match?" Ino repeated the words and took out the questioning inflection. Of course, that's where Tomoyama would go. He wanted answers as to why Sasori had brought him into this investigation. And that meant if they hurried, they had the opportunity to hear what Sasori was saying to his shrink. A way to kill two birds with one stone.

Naruto paused and combed his gaze over her. "Are you sure he won't recognize you?"

"Positive."

Well, not positive, exactly. She had no idea if Sakura had ever shown Tomoyama her photo, but she couldn't let a mere possibility hold her back now. If Kabuto was at work, it would be the first time they'd have their three primary suspects under the same roof. It was perhaps the break they'd been looking for.

Or maybe it would be the very confrontation to make a killer snap.

Ino checked her primary and backup weapon to make sure she was ready.

As they'd planned on the trip over, Ino lured the receptionist from her desk with a bogus emergency request for her to show her the location of the ladies room. Naruto used the ploy to walk past the clients who were filling out questionnaires so he could slip unannounced into the hall that led to Sasori's office. Since Dr. Tomoyama wasn't around, that meant he was probably in there with Sasori.

Along the way, Naruto looked for the security guard and cameras to make sure he hadn't missed one.

No guard today, and the only he spotted was the one in the reception area. It had obviously supplied the photo for the newspaper article and could still possibly be monitoring the hall. So he plastered a silly grin on his face while he was trying to eavesdrop.

Best to keep up the façade of the happily engaged man.

Unlike Tomoyama. Who didn't sound happy at all.

The man was was practically shouting.

Naruto heard him when he was still several yards from Sasori's office door. Not a very shrinklike behavior. Rather, Tomoyama seemed to be in the middle of a Prozac–required moment.

"But why even mention my name?" Tomoyama snarled.

Thankfully they'd left the door slightly ajar. Naruto saw Sasori shake his head.

"Im not sure I did." Sasori replied.

"But you must have! What the hell, Sasori, these people think you might know something about those two shootings. Why would you purposely let them believe you're unstable by telling them you were in therapy?"

Another head shake. This one more frantic than the first.

"I swear, I don't think your name even came up in the conversation. And they don't suspect me. They cant. They said their visit was just routine." The red-haired male responded.

Ino emerged from the other end of the hall, which meant she'd found a way to the office without going back past the receptionist. She puckered her lips in a 'shh' gesture and quietly walked to him. One glance at the camera in the reception room, and she stepped into Naruto's arms.

But she didn't just step.

She immediately launched into her lover's pose.

She pressed her body against Naruto's and brushed a kiss on his jaw.

"Routine?!" Tomoyama repeated. "There's nothing routine about a police interrogation. Please tell me your lawyer was here when you spoke to them." The doctor's eyes were tight shut.

"No." Sasori paled a little. "I didn't think it was necessary."

"Well, from now on, it is. I cant afford to have my name dragged through the mud again." after delivering a terse goodbye, Tomoyama turned and stormed out. He paused when he spotted Naruto and gave him only a dismissive glance. Tomoyama might have done the same to Ino if she hadn't buried her face against Naruto's neck.

Definitely not good.

"I though you said he wouldn't recognize you?" Naruto whispered when Tomoyama was out of earshot.

She shook her head. "He didn't."

Which of course, didn't answer his question at all.

"Why are you here?" Sasori asked. He was staring at them through the now fully opened door.

"We'd like to talk to you." Naruto made sure he grinned. Ino did her part by sliding her body against his.

Well, it was more than just a slide. She hooked her fingers onto his belt – and into the waist of his pants.

"We have great news." She said by adding a supposedly excited tone in her statement.

Sasori mumbled something indistinguishable, sighed and shoved both his hands through his hair. "Give me a couple of minutes." And to make sure he had that time to himself, he shut the door.

Naruto clicked off the communicator, checked to make sure hers was off as well. And looked down at her.

"Put your hands in my pants this time, and I'll take you where you stand."

Ino didn't look quite as shocked as he'd hoped. In fact, she didn't looked shocked at all.

She looked…well..interested. and a little bit disgusted with herself for showing that interest.

Naruto knew exactly how she felt.

"We're in trouble here Uzumaki," she added a shake of her head to his disgusted expression. "Because I swear that sounded more like foreplay than a threat."

He fought hard, to hold on to what little composure he had left.

"I really didn't need to hear that, okay?"

"You're right." Another headshake. She huffed and glanced at Sasori's closed door. Like Naruto, she was probably hoping the man would open it. Soon. It might save the both of them from doing something they'd almost certainly regret.

"Besides, it's just all this forced intimacy that's making us think like this," she mumbled. She even repeated a slightly different variation of it as if trying to convince herself.

Again, Naruto knew exactly how she felt.

"We just have to remember that the kissing and touching are fake," she concluded.

But Naruto wasn't ready to conclude things just yet. He had one point of contention left. "Including the part where you put your hand in my pants?"

"Would I do something like that just for amusement?" But she waved him off. "Don't..dont answer that for your own sanity, let's just say…everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, we've done for the past couple of days has been an act."

It was the right thing to say. The right thing, period. She'd given them both a much-needed out. That's why Naruto couldn't understand why he didn't take that out.

Instead, he slid his hand around the back of her neck and dragged her to him. Not that he had to drag her far.

She was already so close he could almost taste her.

So that's exactly what he decided to do. He lowered his head and took her mouth as if it were his for the taking.

The jolt was instant.

No cool, gentle touch of lips. Not this. This was all fire. All pleasure. All silk and heat. Not that Ino expected anything less from Naruto, and that made it all the more dangerous.

Did it stop her?

No.

One jolt from his mouth and she was beyond a place where reason and stopping made no sense at all. Instead, she took. She let him claim. Ravage. And when she thought it couldn't possibly get any better, or worse, he upped the ante with the mating of their tongues. The intimate joining of their mouths. The warmth of their bodies sliding against each other, practically fighting to get closer.

To touch more.

To feel more.

It was as close to sex as they could get without clothing removal.

He twirled his tongue inside the soft recesses of her mouth while his hands began to slide up and down her back. The spiky-blonde male crushed the smaller blonde's frame into his sturdy build as he French-kissed her deeper.

He made a sound. A groan of breath that was male through and through. And possibly the most erotic sound Ino had ever heard.

The platinum blonde felt the world tilt on its axis. The sound of his groan sends a different pulse of electricity in the center of her thighs she didn't want to name.

This was wrong. So wrong. But everything about it seemed so very right.

She thought of stopping but she just couldn't.

She moaned against Naruto's mouth. His kiss was driving her real mad. She wanted to lose herself. If only he'll take her now.

Not wanting to lose the battle, she returned the kiss with as much passion. Her hands traveled over the terrains of his sculptured chest. Her fingers exploring his rock hard abs underneath the tailored shirt he's wearing. She sucked on his tongue while her fingertips familiarize on the body beneath her touch.

Both blondes were very much enjoying this sudden display of their so-called fake affection. As Naruto kissed his partner deeply, his hands roamed to cup Ino's breasts, which immediately earned him a moan from the platinum blonde female.

It looks like Ino has no intention of letting up, she slid her hand to the crotch of Naruto's pants and gave his already hardening member a playful and seductive squeeze.

"Mmmhhmm..." Naruto moaned as he felt his partner grab his most lethal weapon.

Somehow, after several more minutes of tongue wrestling, exchanging of moans and groans and a few intimate touches here and there, Ino managed to force herself to back off. And she almost lost that battle. It took a moment before she managed to say anything.

"That wasn't for show," she informed him. A really dumb thing to say, but what the heck? It was hard to beat the mother of all dumb things – that kiss.

"I figured that out by myself." He ran his tongue over his bottom lip. The gesture gave Ino goosebumps as she stared at his swollen lip. "We cant do it again though because it…felt better than it should have."

You bet it did. And not only that. It felt better than it should have while they were standing only yards away from a murder suspect.

A suspect who opened the door.