A/N - Alrightttt.

Last one.

Go on.

Go forth.

Do it.

Nike

Disclaimer - I do not own Naruto

Song used for this chapter -vbnd - i wanna know (feat. tola)

My head was pounding, still sloshing and woozy as I opened my eyes the next day. The taste in my mouth echoed all that I had drank last night, yet predictably I was thirsty to wash down the dryness in my throat.

I wish I could say I didn't remember a thing of last night, but I did. At no point did my memory black out or get fuzzy, everything was as clear as it would have been if I were sober.

Unfortunate.

Because I knew Ino had slept with me last night, yet laying on my back staring at the ceiling I adjusted to the feeling of being alone. It shouldn't have effected me that much. It didn't matter if she wasn't there when I woke up, but the tiny little flame that was ever lit in my chest was starting to flare out of irritation.

Because if she had left early to deal with Kiba, I knew for a fact that I wouldn't be able to hide how much it annoyed me.

Sighing heavily, I rubbed my eyes as I tried to make the sharp pain just beneath them to go away. I didn't give a fuck what time it was, it was entirely too bright in my room. Entirely too early to deal with bull shit. So I shoved it all from my head, because years of experience allowed me to pretend I was able to do that without anything effecting me.

Yet, my hand fell to my bed as I blindly searched for my phone. As I felt it bump against my fingers, I grabbed it to tug it to my face. Being sure to turn the brightness on the lowest setting possible, I gave my notifications a look over. One from Temari and Naruto, and another from my mother asking for me to clean the house before she got home.

But none from Ino.

"Got me figured out huh?" I mumbled, vaguely remembering what she said last night. The bitterness in my tone had nothing to do with the sour taste of old beer and vodka coated on my tongue. "Fuck, you and me both seriously never learn a single thing."

Because there I was. Getting annoyed at something so small.

Sitting up using my abs, I rubbed at my eyes again before swinging my legs over the edge of my bed. It was nearly one in the afternoon, which gave me two hours to get sober and clean before my mother had a fit. Luckily I wasn't new to being hung over, I was practically a champ at detoxing.

First to chug some water, next nibble at some crackers before taking a shower. After that I was sure I'd be able to function enough to clean, I only hoped no one bugged me when I decided to trap myself on my room to lay down all day afterwards. Champ or not, I had drank way more than usual.

I could tell by the fact that I was still drunk, almost stumbling forward just from standing up.

Fuck. Maybe I wouldn't be able to clean after all.

Suddenly my door swung open, causing me to stare in surprise.

There was Ino, jumping slightly at the sight of me.

"Shit, I did not think you would be up already," she breathed out, holding her chest from the scare I apparently gave her. Then directing towards me a frown, she continued, "And you shouldn't be. What are you doing? You look like you're going to be sick. Do you need a trash can?"

She was fully dressed, but with different clothes from last night. I remembered she had tossed on aa pair of my shorts and a tank top with me. But now she was wearing my old sweats, and a hoodie that represented our summer AU league.

Shit. I needed to rip her out of them soon. Seeing her wear my shit was effecting me more than I would have liked to admit, even to myself.

"I do not throw up when I'm hung over," I informed, but swallowed at as I felt some vile attempted to make a disagreeing appearance, "But. Yeah. Maybe I'll take that trash can."

Cursing, Ino quickly left the room before just as quickly showing up with the small bin that usually sat in my bathroom. Plopping back down on my bed, I took it with a mumbling thanks before swallowing hard again and staring at the empty thing pathetically.

"Jeez I thought you would be like this," Ino said in an almost a scolding tone, coming to sit next to me while rubbing my back soothingly, "I know you're the top drinker on the team, but last night was way too much Sakura. You shouldn't do that again."

"I'd argue if I didn't agree," I managed to reply, clenching the bin harder, "Fuck. I seriously might throw up."

"What do you need to me to do?" She asked with worry as she continued to rub my back.

"I need water. Big glass of it," I forced out through a passing dry heave as I began to shiver. Any second, and I was going to toss everything in my stomach. I didn't need Ino around for that. But before she left, to give me a bit more time to work with, I added, "And some pills and that huge thing of crackers downstairs."

"Okay, I'll be right back," she replied before rushing out.

Shooting up from the bed, I darted to my bathroom before locking the door and dropping to my knees at the toilet. Shivering again as I felt the urge wave past me, I opened the lid to the toilet and stared at the bowl with displeasure.

"No time Sakura, you reap what you sow," I encouraged, swallowing weakly as I felt liquid begin to climb before the sensation vanished completely. Taking a quick breath, I braced myself before shoving a finger down the back of my throat.

Shit if I was going to do it might as well get it over with.

Ten minutes later I was showered and brushed away the disgusting taste in my mouth. When I came back with a towel wrapped around my waist and the same sports bra across my chest, Ino was sitting on my bed waiting on me. I wouldn't have thought anything of it if I hadn't walked in to see her doing nothing to occupy herself, not even looking at her phone.

Her eyes found mine as I walked in and I watched as they lingered down to my lack of attire before she looked away quickly. Raising an eyebrow, I walked to my dresser and grabbed another pair of shorts, a pair of boxers, but left out a new tank top. It was hot and if I began to sweat with being this hung over I'd be miserable.

Throwing up did make the sloshing in my head disappear though, which was a fair trade off in my book. Going from feeling like complete shit to mild shit and being able to walk properly was fine by me. I just had to take it easy for a bit and I was sure I'd be fully functional. Which was a blessing, because of all days to hear my mom's mouth, today wasn't ideal.

I went into my closet to toss on my boxers and shorts and hung up my towel before wandering towards Ino on my bed.

She gave me a look, asking carefully, "Are you choosing not to wear a shirt?"

"Too hot," I answered while sitting down next to her. I was grateful to see the cold glass of water, two pills, and a plate of crackers on my night stand. Hardly bothering with anything but the water, I began to chug it down.

"Sakura, stop you need to take the pills too," she scolded, all but ripping the glass from my hands. Huffing, I took both the water and the pills from her before swallowing as instructed. Polishing off my glass, I sighed in relief. She gave me an amused look, "Better?"

"Much. Thanks a lot," I said with a small smile of my own, but slowly it dropped to a curious frown when I asked, "What are you still doing here, though? I thought you left."

"I went downstairs to call my mom. She had left me a ton of messages asking where I was." Laughing at my worried look, she ensured, "Don't worry, I refrained from mentioning why I needed to stay the night. Actually I bit the bullet and told her I was too toasted to leave. When I was done your mom had came down asking that I remind you to clean the house. And well I figured you'd be passed out a lot longer so I went ahead and cleaned up for you."

My frown instantly hardened, "Fuck are you serious? You didn't have to do that."

"Yeah well it wasn't like the place was dirty," she replied with a shrug. "Plus I had nothing else to do while waiting so I figured why not."

I mumbled my thanks, feeling like a complete ass hole. My best friend cleaning my own house, what the hell was next. Shaking my head, I asked, "So what, you've been chilling here all day?"

"Waiting on you to wake up, yeah," she answered with a small smile, "I had a feeling you were going to have trouble."

I hummed in response, sighing, "Thanks for taking care of me."

"Like you wouldn't do the same?" She countered with a shrug.

I shook my head, but didn't bother replying. Instead I asked, "Do you want me to take you home now? I can function enough to get there and back."

"Yes, but only so I can grab my clothes. I'm spending the night again." Wait, what? I blinked at her, completely thrown off. She smiled, "Yeah, I asked mom and she's fine with it. And I asked your mom and she said it was okay. So we're good."

"But. Why?" I asked, legitimately thrown off.

"So we can spend time together. Just the two of us. It's been awhile hasn't it?" She was watching me, amused by my stunned reaction, "Unless you don't want me to stay."

"No that's not it," I rushed out, a bit too quickly for my liking. Looking away, I licked my lips and attempted to redeem myself, "Just uh… would rather you walk around in my clothes all day instead of grabbing yours."

The silence that followed caused me to glance back at her, and the faded blush on her cheeks slipped a smile to my lips. Finally, some ground gained.

"Well, if that's the case then at least let me grab some underwear," she sputtered out while tucking a piece of hair behind her ear.

I grinned, standing to snatch my keys from my dresser, "Deal. Maybe grab some food while we're at it. Better than crackers for breakfast."

"I'm thinking your mom is going to cook though," she said, standing with me. I shoved the keys in my pocket as I shrugged , replying, "Honestly after last night I am fucking starving. Sure I'll have room for both."

Before leaving I grabbed a random tank top from my drawer and turned just as I went to slip it on. For the second time, I caught Ino running her eyes down my body. When she noticed me watching, she quickly looked away again.

Eyebrows bunching together, I glanced down at myself with a frown, "What? Am I getting fat or something? That's something you're not allowed to be shy about Ino, I need to know this shit early so I can get on top of it."

"No," she rushed out quickly before biting her lip and muttering, "Actually you look really good."

Eyebrows raising in surprise, I looked down at myself again. I used to have better abs but they were fading because of my beer drinking. But if a girl could still tell me I looked good, then the practices must have kept me in good enough shape.

"I'm jealous, that's all," Ino added after a moment in an awkward sort of way.

I only grinned, "No need, you look good yourself. We're definitely a pair of attractive best friends. Now quit acting weird dork, let's go. I'll buy your food since you cleaned up for me."

"Okay, but I want Sonic."

I rolled my eyes, "Of course you do. One day you'll get tired of the nerds slushy."

"That isn't possible."

"Maybe because you're a nerd too," I mused as we walked down the stairs, laughing as she pushed my shoulder in annoyance. (2)

X

Mom was thoroughly impressed with my 'cleaning of the house'. So much so, that she didn't even bother to check in about the party last night. I wanted to tell her I really didn't do it as she raved about everything looking so nice in the kitchen, especially since Ino was sitting on the couch next to me hiding a small smile at every praise, but for the greater good I kept it to myself

Mom would flip the fuck out if I told her Ino did it all herself. If I would have helped she wouldn't have minded so much. But I knew my mother. So I just had to take the L on it, or maybe the win depending how you looked at it.

My dad came strolling through from work few hours later, but with them both lingering downstairs I took Ino upstairs with me. I was doing her a favor. They were asking Ino a thousand questions about what school she planned on going to and what did she want to major in. While she sounded happy to answer, I could see the uneasy look on her face as she fidgeted with her fingers.

When we got up to my room, I gave her an apologetic look, "They haven't seen you much this summer so they just wanted to catch up. Sorry about them."

"It's okay," Ino replied with a small smile, but she still looked uncomfortable about everything, "My parents are doing the same thing. It's more torturing with them, though. Not like I can excuse myself when they randomly bring it up."

"True," I agreed, sighing as I fell on my bed and turned on my TV. Ino sat next to me as I laid on my stomach flipping through the channels.

Carefully, in a soft tone, she asked, "Have you chose? You know, from your scholarships."

I shrugged, "I still have some time. Haven't figured it out yet."

"Oh alright.."

I gave her a glance and caught her biting her lip, an indescribable look on her face. Frowning, I asked, "What's up? Are you having trouble on where you want to go?"

"No, it's nothing."

My eyes slightly narrowed on how she brushed it off so quickly, but I knew Ino. Usually whenever she was ready to talk about whatever was bothering her, she'd come up to me herself. I decided to give her some time before I pressed her about it.

We ended up watching a movie before dinner, and after that, since Ino was over, my parents decided they wanted to sit at the table to eat together. Usually we split to do our own thing, but I didn't mind too much. Despite that most people hated hanging out with their parents, I enjoyed their company. Mom was a complete dork and I loved hearing about her funny work stories, and my dad was pretty much my coach when it came to basketball.

So we chatted for an hour before they decided to turn in and leave us for the night. Ino had offered to help me wash the dishes, but I had refused to let her.

"Who do you think you are, dude? Go away and watch TV or something like a proper guest," I said with a small glare as I waved her off. "I don't know what you're planning, but I'm always going to be the favorite child, alright?"

She only laughed and rolled her eyes, holding up her hands in surrender before wandering to the couch to watch TV.

It took me longer than normal to get the dishes done, mom had went all out and didn't spare a pot in expense for the nice meal. I felt like I was scrubbing for hours, and I wouldn't have admitted it but I was seriously regretting not taking Ino's offer to help. But, I eventually finished and plopped on the couch with Ino. She was watching late night cartoons, curled into a little ball at the other end of the couch.

I snorted at her small figure, she looked so much like a kid sometimes. "You cold?"

"Very," she replied with a pout, "Go get me a blanket."

I narrowed my eyes at her demand, but she only smile sweetly at me. Rolling my eyes, I went to find one but discovered mom had taken them all to wash. Huffing, I trudged all the way upstairs to grab her the hoodie she was wearing earlier today.

When Ino and I ventured to her place, she did in fact grab the bare minimum. Everything she brought was barely enough to fill up her hold bookbag, and as promised she didn't bring any clothes. I was partially joking before, but had no complaints about her running around in my old track gear and the smallest shirt I owned; which was my jersey for my old basketball team. They were meant to fit loose back then, so the thing practically engulfed her.

She complained when I tossed her the hoodie, but I only shrugged, "I guess mom was trying to give you some clean sheets to sleep with on the couch tonight. They are all in the dryer right now. Don't freaking know why though, of course you're sleeping with me in bed."

"I don't have a choice?" She teased with a small smile.

"Damn straight you don't have a choice," I answered while giving her a glare, "So wear the hoodie and be happy."

Her laugh made me smile slightly. Sighing, I settled back on the couch and watched some weird cartoon I only saw twice in my life as she tugged the hoodie over her head. When she popped back out, she huffed as she flapped the sleeves around, "Why do I have to be so small but you're allowed to grow like an average human being."

I laughed, because it was true it seemed like she stopped growing in middle school. But I couldn't completely agree, seeing as she had a way better figure than back then. Mind slipping to the gutter, I cleared my throat and replied, "Because you're a child, and children are small little brats like yourself."

She glared while kicking me with her foot as she laid back down, but I only grabbed her foot and tickled the arch, causing her to accidentally squeal as she attempted to get away. She was such a kid man, like who else was almost eighteen and still ticklish.

Shushing her quickly, I stopped my antics, "Come on, my parents are going to have a fit if we aren't quiet."

"Then leave me alone!" She glared, curling into a tighter ball so I couldn't reach her.

I laughed and rolled my eyes.

We settled back into silence for awhile, and watching the cartoon was so boring I began to yawn. But I wasn't going to complain, I was just happy she was with me. The best part of it though was the fact that she hadn't picked up her phone once while she was here, and it didn't got go unnoticed by me. I could only imagine Kiba was blowing up her phone, so it made me happy to know he was being put on the back burner.

As the silence stretched though, just as I was about to doze off, Ino asked quietly, "Why are you way over there?" I raised an eyebrow at her before scooting closer. When I settled again, the little brat had the nerve to complain some more, "No, come lay down with me. I'm still cold."

Rolling my eyes, I shifted to lay down behind her. Before I could myself, she took my arm and wrapped it around her waist. Smiling slightly, I tugged her close. She pressed her back against me, shifting closer as I ran my nose across the small amount of skin exposed at her neck. Sighing in content, she slipped her fingers across my arm.

"Today was really fun," she mumbled as she traced random shapes across my skin.

I nodded, eyes shutting as I took a breath, "Yeah it was."

There was more silence before she whispered, "I'm sorry we haven't done this more often."

"Don't worry about it, Ino," I brushed off gently, wondering why she genuinely sounded apologetic about it. "We are both busy. You got that boyfriend, and I have my practices."

"I want to do this more often, though..."

"We will," I assured without thought, "Don't worry."

"Promise?" She asked in such a small voice I couldn't help but smile sleepily.

"Yeah, promise."

Silence settled again for awhile before she trailed her tracing fingers down my arm to lace her fingers with mine. Tugging our hands up to under to chin, she snuggled into them before we laid like that for the rest of night.

When we woke up, it was to my mom taunting us about how cute we were the next morning.

I guess we were.

But I guess it really didn't matter...

Did it?

(2) Sneaks in a way to flame my best friend. That's right. I've gotten creative. Fight me about it then dude.

Wheww. We did it. We got through it. Nice work folks. Real nice work.

Now. It's been awhile since I did a Sakura and Ino story. I think, to be honest, every time I do one it's in Sakura's pov. Don't know why. Hmm interesting. I just realized that.

Alright, so like I said this is supposed to be a lil shorty. Something on the side.

The low commiment it takes to do the chapters though kinda push me to update more. So far I've been going back to the story idea and writing it. As you can see, we got about 5 technically 6 straight chapters here. So I'm digging it enough to post it.

That, and you got Kat pressuring me to keep going, so if you got that one loser on your side for this story it's bound to wrap up quickly.

So do me the favor bruh.

Read and review. Tell me what you think.

Are you excited about it? Tayuya is my bae but we got to see Sakura's roots. We have to see where she came from.

That's a hint btw.

I'm outta here.

Shy has nothing going on with her life. Loves. Out.