Author's Note
The following chapter contains discussion of sexual abuse.
Chapter 149 - Amuse-Bouche
There were two weeks of quiet, after that first date.
The invitation for the second date came through the mail, rather than through Naruto.
And by the third date, Sasuke had mustered up the courage to call her on the phone. "I was afraid that… someone else was going to pick up," he explained.
"The children won't mind if you call," Ino said, though she didn't quite believe herself yet, and she doubted Sasuke did either.
At the end of that date - following another dinner, sans the candles and all the other preparations-Ino decided that it was high time to get Sasuke to let his guard down at least a little.
At the gate, as they said goodbye, she kissed him, once, on the cheek.
Sasuke covered the kiss with his hand when she pulled away, and his eyes wavered.
"You don't have to return the favor right away," she told him, tilting her head girlishly. "Okay?"
"Ah… Sure," Sasuke replied, and stumbled through the rest of his goodbyes before making his way back to Naruto's. Ino had never before seen his face so red.
Even after the dates became regular, almost every weekend at most, Ino found herself leading the way in everything but the invitations, and the theme of the dates. Sometimes it would be dinner, always handmade by Sasuke, but some nights - nights Ino suspected Naruto needed to be home - they would go out to a restaurant or a movie, and talk for ages otherwise.
At the end of the night, he would sometimes send her home with a gift; leftovers, or sweets, and the occasional knit item. For Nadeshiko's birthday, he sent her home with a wrapped parcel, with express instructions that Ino tell him how she liked it. The gift, Ino discovered later, was a mint green cardigan with lace insets around the waist and small pearl buttons.
It suited Nadeshiko very much, unlike Karai's gift from a few months before: a fluffy sweater in an outrageously eye-catching shade of pink.
Privately, Ino felt that Karai, who hated drawing attention to herself, was just being polite in wearing it out.
(Privately, Karai was absolutely touched that her father, for one, personally made her something, and for two, made her something that obviously singled her out for attention.)
All the same, Sasuke smiled warmly, when he heard that Nadeshiko was wearing his gift. "I'm so glad she likes it," he told Ino. "It's the very least she deserves."
By then, the growing kindness in his voice - especially regarding Nadeshiko - no longer took Ino by surprise.
In conversation, Ino took to supplying Sasuke with the news he used to meekly ask for, about their children and grandson, before moving on to Sasuke's own life. He was hesitant in opening up, at first, which didn't surprise her. But little by little, she learned about his students, his friend Juugo, his life with Naruto. There was nothing too sensational, his stories full of tiny annoyances and greater joys.
By all accounts, he seemed to be perfectly fine without her.
But even with all of this, and the food and gifts and obvious attention, something weighed at the back of Ino's mind, and it took her months of consideration and courage-gathering to even bring it up.
Considering how much she'd taken charge with the other aspects of the new situation with Sasuke, Ino took it for granted that everything overtly romantic she had to initiate herself, from hand-holding to the most innocent kisses. But while Sasuke seemed to have changed in everything else - his courtesy, his gentleness, his hesitation - she realized that his reluctance with romance hadn't gone anywhere.
His awkward, first-date proposition only reaffirmed this, besides. He'd obviously been preparing himself, with that, and hadn't brought it up since.
So Ino waited until a night when they were both alone at Naruto's, when he didn't have a gift obviously prepared, when there was nothing to do but talk.
And when the night came, she asked him, "Sasuke, are you gay?"
They'd been sitting on the couch together, and had just finished talking about his frustration with Naruto not even trying to clean the house now that he was there, so Ino felt the transition had been as smooth as she could possibly have made it.
Still, Sasuke sputtered in reply, obviously shocked. "E-excuse me?"
"I'm honestly fine with that, if you are!" Ino continued, trying to sound as understanding as she really felt. "I mean, I've suspected something for a while, but…"
"Ino, no, I'm not - why would you-" His face grew redder as he exhaled. "Well, I suppose you have good reason to think so, what with me and Naruto and… well… yeah, I haven't exactly been doing a good job at being good date, either, haven't I..."
"You've been a wonderful date lately, Sasuke, it's just…" He'd denied it, and even all but trace amounts of her beliefs holding on to her mind, she continued. "It's more than just… this. Our dates, I mean. Back when we were… together, I just couldn't help but notice that you didn't seem… interested in me that way."
"Ah…" Sasuke's head lowered. "I know. I'm sorry. I… I've been trying to fix that, but…"
"Trying to fix your… interest?" Ino said. "Sasuke, honestly, if you… like men more than women, then-"
"It's not that, it's not that, okay? That's not the issue here!" Sasuke's voice rose momentarily, his eyes locking with hers, before he went back to staring at his knees. "I just… I have problems with that… sort of thing. In general. It's nothing to do with you." He closed his eyes. "And that just makes me feel worse about it, to be honest…"
Ino scooted closer to him on the couch, so that their hands were almost touching, but not quite. "You mean, you have… problems with romance, or…?"
"I've been talking to… people about it. But it barely helps," Sasuke said. "No matter what I do, I can't… do it. I can't even think about it without feeling…" He groaned. "Ino, I'm so sorry, this has caused you nothing but trouble. Can't even… touch you without thinking about…"
Ino's heart began to thud in her chest, and there was a feeling there that she could only compare to finally finding the center of a knot, where all the loops met and could be pulled apart.
"You can't have sex with me, can you." It was a statement, not a question.
Sasuke grimaced. "I can, but I don't… no, I can't bring myself to even wanting it. And it's not you!" he added, quickly, looking at her with transparent desperation. "Honestly, it's not you! You're… you're beautiful, Ino, I should have no problem with this, but…!"
"But…?"
His eyes fell, and pain entered them. "I just… keep thinking about… about everything that I had to go through, and…"
Ino, carefully, laid her hand on top of his, and put on a voice she'd used with her children, but never her husband. "Is this about what happened to your family?"
"No," Sasuke said. "It happened after."
The silence between them was heavy, full of unspoken words. But Ino waited, knowing not to press, for pulling or prying would only hurt him and what they'd managed to build.
Finally, Sasuke opened his mouth, and he spoke openly, and quietly, without stopping.
He told her about how, as a child, he'd been more concerned with the process of reproduction than the emotions that were meant to preclude them, when he learned the wet, sticky details. It was just another science, another subject to master, and understand better than everyone else.
The understanding was clinical, sterile, and only worsened once Orochimaru got involved.
Though Orochimaru's goals were ultimately to take Sasuke's body for his own, he was almost more invested than Sasuke was in restoring the Uchiha clan.
(Though his goals were less inclined with the glory of a clan's lost reputation and more with having a small, beautiful army of ruby-eyed geniuses at his beck and call.)
He had a far better idea about what would have to happen, for the Uchiha clan to return in full force. He didn't want to wait for a smattering of infants to grow up and have children of their own. He was practically immortal, but he hated waiting.
Luckily, Orochimaru had supplies. Labs, and in-vitro equipment, and great henhouses of stolen women for surrogates.
Sasuke already kept his body in perfect shape, that much he could count on. But the small things, he had to ensure himself.
Orochimaru prescribed vitamins and hormonal supplements, to ensure a healthy body and a healthier sperm count. Sasuke had to provide samples every week for analysis.
(Ino, here, touched her mouth in gentle horror. Sasuke's face was blank, detached, as he continued.)
Nobody would be inseminated yet, no, no, not until Sasuke's body was safely in Orochimaru's keeping. But that didn't mean that Orochimaru couldn't ensure that everything would be ready for when the day came.
So samples were given each week, regularly and dutifully.
(And Sasuke's feelings of disgust and obligation only grew with each cold hour he had to spend alone with a plastic cup, until not even a meaningless orgasm could dull the discomfort he felt.)
(Orochimaru had begun asking this of him when he was thirteen, barely a month after moving into the Sound compound. By sixteen, he dreaded these weekly offerings more than any sort of confrontation with his past.)
(Of course, he never let it show. He had duties, then, and an obligation to his past.)
In the meantime, Orochimaru experimented. He waxed fantastically about clones, gene-transplants, accelerated gestation. He went through women for these purposes like test tubes, slicing them open and pulling at their insides, unraveling why they failed like a kitten playing with a ball of yarn.
Sasuke said, or at least he said to Ino, that he should have known better when Orochimaru came to him one year with what he said would be a "wonderful surprise." At that time, at that age, he assumed it would be some sort of improvement to his curse seal, or a new jutsu.
What Orochimaru gave him was a laboratory filled with beds, and on those beds were gaunt, shriveled women with swollen bellies. There was a stink like blood and ammonia in the air.
"This is the future," Orochimaru told him, a hand on Sasuke's shoulder. "The women who will bring forth the next generation of the Uchihas."
The way he said it, Sasuke was obviously supposed to be impressed, understanding. After all, only a massive effort with several women at once would be able to create children on a scale that would allow the clan to be of a respectable size.
This was what Sasuke truly wanted, wasn't it? What he should have expected.
His clan, mass-produced. Exactly what he needed to restore it.
("Did he… actually go through with it? Any of it?" Ino said, hushed, almost nervous.)
What he remembered most strongly was a young girl, barely older than thirteen, writhing on her bed with a large bloody spot on her sheets, shining as she hemorrhaged.
And Orochimaru scoffing, idly treating her as she bled, an undone proto-Uchiha fetus destroying her from the inside out.
(Sasuke shook his head. "No. Nothing ever came of it.")
Sasuke managed to keep his face straight, at the time. Stoic, almost disinterested. "This won't happen when there are actually… Uchihas to be born, will it?" he said, trying to sound disappointed.
"Trust me, Sasuke-kun. I'll get everything ironed out by the time we have to get down to business."
Orochimaru's gloved hands were rust-colored with diseased blood. The girl's lips were pale, and her wide, brown eyes glazed over as she lost consciousness.
Sasuke never had to go back there again, though he avoided the area if he could help it.
(Yet he did return, years later, when the land had grown over and swallowed the pain-saturated labs.)
(He was too preoccupied by shadows and brothers to notice the hills that hadn't fallen, the doors that were barely covered by leaves and moss.)
(Or the woman with the wide, brown eyes, whose belly never carried another child, even though she wanted for one so badly when the scars had healed and the snake had died and set her free.)
(Fate, delivered by water and anger, was a strange thing.)
No, he never did go back. But the memories came with him, as he was pulled out of a war and back into peace.
So when the time came for him to be an adult, a husband, and to do the things that made a family, the memories unpacked themselves and made a mess of his mind.
Sex was a duty, an obligation, one that could be scheduled and regular and on his terms. It could be predictable. Safer. But even though he wasn't alone any more, and he had a woman instead of a cup, it was no less uncomfortable, no less painful. At least he knew, with Ino, that he was actually making children, that it was for his own sake and not for experiments. But that was hardly a comfort.
The births were another story.
(Ino, who for years and years had assumed his reluctance to be there for the births of his children was due to some sort of unspoken masculine code, put her hand on his shoulder here. "Sasuke, no wonder… I'm so sorry, I had no idea.")
("Nobody did," Sasuke replied.)
(What he didn't say was that the day Takeru was born, hurried and terrifying as it was, the loudest thought in his mind was that he would lose both Ino and the baby.)
(What he couldn't say was that this was not a fear born of love, but of ownership, and how hard it would be to rebuild his clan with them gone.)
Even as the years passed, and their relationship grew warmer, things never got easier. Sasuke just got better at hiding his discomfort, for the sake of making things easier to negotiate with Ino.
"I'm… ashamed to say it," Sasuke said, after another long pause, after his story ended, "but the… only reason I married you was because you were the only woman in my life that didn't hate me. I don't… think I even loved you."
Ino didn't want to ask, but she had to. "And you still don't?"
And Sasuke looked up, not at her, not at anything, and he inhaled deeply. "I don't even know. I'm trying, because that's what you deserve, but…"
But he couldn't finish the sentence, and he couldn't ignore Ino's hand leaving his shoulder.
When she finally spoke, her voice broke through the quiet with the clarity of a knife. "If you didn't care about me, you wouldn't be making this effort, Sasuke."
"Care about. Not love," Sasuke said.
Ino sighed. "I don't see the difference. Not here. And, Sasuke..." She pursed her lips, judging the words. "I… I do still love you."
He looked far more shocked than she was expecting. "You don't… have to lie to me."
"I'm not lying. I might even love you more now, because I see all this effort you're going through, when I used to think you didn't care about anything but…" She shook her head as she trailed off. "You're changing, Sasuke. Even if… years ago you didn't feel these things, what you're doing now is what matters."
Sasuke made a small groaning sound. "Ino, really…"
"Sasuke, you just… seriously opened up to me about something that for years I thought was my fault! Did you know that? All this time - and I knew you hated having sex with me, Sasuke, I've known that for years - I thought it was because I was ugly, or because you weren't into women, or-"
"Ino, you're not ugly, it's all-"
"Shh, Sasuke, I know, just let me talk for a moment!" she said. She felt herself smiling, but she couldn't quite place why. "So when you first asked me out, and you tried to go to bed with me? Sasuke, how much of an effort did that take?"
"Well, I just… wanted to make you feel… good, I suppose, or at least show I cared…"
"Even with everything you've told me?"
"…that's what normal people do, isn't it?" Sasuke said.
Ino leaned over and rested her forehead on his shoulder, now laughing softly. "All this time, this is what was going on…" She sat up. "I suppose I can't have expected you to have talked to someone about it, but… if you have that much difficulty having sex, you could have said something!"
"It isn't exactly something I'm proud of…" Sasuke said. "And I'm trying to… fix it, you know."
"Are you talking to someone about it?"
He shook his head. "You're the… first person I've ever told, actually. Not even Naruto knows what I've… had to do."
"I can't… imagine why you would tell him," Ino said. "I'm sure there are people at the hospital you can talk to, though."
He shook his head again. "No, not about this. I've been… talking a lot, with people, with Naruto, about you, the family, but this…" He exhaled. "This is something that only you've had to… put up with. From me. And it's not that important, anyways…"
"Not that important? Sasuke, it's very important."
"Well, we're not having any more children, so…"
"Sasuke, it doesn't have to be about that. Heck, for most people, it isn't. This obviously bothers you."
His reply – another uncomfortable groan – was all Ino needed to hear.
"I don't want you to have to deal with this. I do want you to be happy, you know," she said. "Even if you don't think you deserve it."
"…well I don't want to talk to anyone about it, not about this…" he said.
"Then talk to me. Whenever you feel like it. I'm here." Ino put her hands on his hands and smiled of her own volition; he didn't tense up at her touch. "Okay?"
Sasuke looked back at her with such an expression of vulnerability that she honestly thought he was going to burst into tears. "I don't know what I did to deserve you," he said.
"Absolutely nothing," Ino replied. "You don't deserve me. But you have me."
She held him for a while after that, easing her arms around his back and stroking his arm gently. He leaned into her touch and half-lay there, his eyes closed, his face troubled. "I'm not going to let you go through this alone anymore, Sasuke," she said, almost whispering. "You're already doing so much, and it's my turn to give back."
And once she was sure he was comfortable enough, she asked to sleep over.
Sasuke's body immediately stiffened. "If that's… what you want, then-"
"Not for sex!" she said. "Sasuke, there is no way I'd do that to you after hearing all this. But I think… it would be nice to sort of… practice being husband and wife instead of just going out like this, for a while. Sharing a bed, at least. Away from the children."
"Ah, well, then…" He pulled himself away from her arms and cupped his hands over his knees. "If that's what you want…"
Sasuke gave her some of his clothes for pajamas, and let her use the bedroom while he dressed in the bathroom. He knocked on the door before entering, and held himself like a thirteen-year-old at a folk dance who'd never even touched a girl's hand before, looking at the floor, a flustered grimace on his face.
"I promise. Nothing's happening tonight," Ino said. She sat down on the bed, and patted the space beside her. "Let's tuck in."
It took a while for both of them to fall asleep, both of them wondering if the other was truly comfortable with this.
And in the morning when, truly, nothing had happened, Ino grinned triumphantly at Sasuke when he got out of bed and stretched. "Was that so bad?" she said.
Sasuke didn't say anything, but he smiled sheepishly in reply.
(Of course, Naruto noticed Ino leaving in the morning, and gave Sasuke a great many winks and elbow-digs on their way into work.)
(Sasuke betrayed nothing, sending back sighs of exasperation and the reminder that, "She's my wife, you idiot.")
(The children also noticed Ino's evening absence, and money was exchanged between Takeru and Inou once the coast was clear.)
("Told you they were gonna do it eventually," Takeru said, relishing Inou's discomfort more than the petty cash.)
They practiced in this manner for a few more, random evenings – Naruto was out of the house suspiciously more often than usual – before, one night, Ino gently rapped on the bathroom door while Sasuke was changing, and kissed him on the mouth as he began to leave.
"Wh-what's this for?" he said, as he pulled away. "Did I do something…?"
"More practice. For the fun of it," Ino said. "Is that okay?"
"I, um…" Sasuke's eyes darted with embarrassment. "Well, if there's nothing else to do…"
"On the bed. We'll make it fun," Ino said. And he joined her there, facing each other on their knees, as they exchanged hesitant, then increasingly eager kisses. It was pretty good - better, at least, than when they were living together - until Ino felt Sasuke's hand traveling to the hem of her shirt, and he began to reach upward.
Of course, as soon as he noticed what he was doing, he jerked his hand away and held it as if it were an animal trying to escape. "Oh – Ino, I'm sorry, I didn't mean for that to happen, um…"
Ino, of course, reached forward and took the guilty hand, and led it back to the hem of her shirt. "It's all right, keep going," she said. "Go ahead."
With reluctance, he started the next kiss, resting his hand on her waist, and soon enough he was gasping for air again, and his hands began to wander.
Then, things were great.
Ino might have thought it strange, Sasuke's hands going places that only Shikamaru had once traveled, had it not felt so wonderful. Knowing it was Sasuke, wanting it, maybe even wanting her, only made it better.
"I have… no idea what came over me, um…" Sasuke said, lying back against his pillows after they'd grown tired and overheated.
"It's called making out, Sasuke. And yes, it's totally okay," Ino replied.
And so it continued in this manner, ending their dates with kisses and shared sleep, Ino no longer setting anything off, letting Sasuke make the first move, letting him take things as far as he was comfortable with. And she noticed – with no small amount of amusement – how very much like a child he seemed to be about it all, teaching himself how to kiss properly and behave around a girl.
And one summer night, a few tries after Sasuke had dared to undress Ino and proceed the rest of the night mutually shirtless, he finally, honestly and obviously, became aroused.
(It was quite possibly the most celebrated erection in Konoha's history, if only privately.)
Ino proceeded gently from there, with Sasuke's insistence that he was ready, that he wanted it. "We're not doing this for children… we're doing this… because it's fun…" he managed.
It was pretty good sex – not that there was much to compare it to, being that they hadn't been together in over ten years – and Ino was glad she wasn't out of practice, but nothing compared to the rush of joy and pleasure she felt from Sasuke finally, finally looking like he was enjoying himself with her.
When she dared to look at his face, he was smiling, biting his lip. There was no pain, no discomfort. Things were as they should have been.
"That's… what it's supposed to feel like…?" he gasped, in the aftermath.
"Yeah… that's about it…" Ino replied.
And there in bed, Sasuke laughed a little, tears leaking out of his eyes. Whether they were happy or regretful, Ino couldn't tell, nor did she want to.
Of course, even after that miraculous night, Sasuke rarely went that far again, only on particularly good nights, and Ino never pressed him on it. The fact that he was asking to be with her freely and enjoying himself at the same time was enough for her. The tension in the air that surrounded the end of their dates, over whether or not Sasuke felt like it, over whether or not they'd do anything, disappeared in time, and Ino felt herself wondering as she lay awake at night, "Is this how people like Sakura have it?"
(And another thought, almost as frequent but much darker, was "How long before things go wrong again?")
(She turned into the covers and silently fumed at that thought, banishing it as well as she could.)
He continued giving gifts to her, but something in the giving seemed to have changed. They were gifts given out of affection, or "just because." There was no longer a feeling of debt attached to them, or obligation. For Christmas – and of course they went on a date, as did practically every other couple in Konoha – he gave her a string of pearls that were obviously very expensive.
"Sasuke!" She tried to sound outraged as he fastened it around her neck. "Why all this?"
"Because you're worth a lot more than a couple hours towards a sweater," he replied, and kissed her.
Ino found herself wearing them every day after that, a sense of warmth and wanted-ness touching her heart whenever they were on her. Call it irrational, but it was there.
So when word reached her on Kumori's birthday of the gift and sacrifice Sasuke had made for Hajime, she was surprised, but hardly astonished.
"Ninako honestly thought that you'd planned this with Hajime," she told him over dinner, about a week after everything quieted down. "I mean, I heard nothing about this from you, so…"
"Ah, yes, I was… trying to keep this a bit of a secret," Sasuke replied. "Mostly because I wasn't… really sure if it was even going to work in the first place."
"Well, it did! And Sasuke, I have to tell you, he seems so much happier," Ino continued.
"I'm glad to hear it," Sasuke said.
"It… certainly would be nice if you could actually see it for yourself," Ino said, into her glass.
"Ino…" He sounded disappointed.
"I'm just saying," she said. "It's been… what, a year since you've been home?"
"It has," Sasuke said. "I just don't think I'd be welcome at this time."
"When do you think you would be welcome?"
Sasuke laced his fingers together, and his eyes narrowed. He inhaled with purpose.
(And Ino, for a moment, grew nervous. It had been so long, yet these silences always used to precede harsh words.)
Finally, he spoke. "…I'm just trying to be considerate. I know you'd welcome me, Ino, but the children… I don't want to hurt them."
Ino reached for him across the table. "I don't think there's any way you could hurt the children now, Sasuke," she said, and took his head. "You've changed."
His eyes fell. "Maybe I have. But I'm not going to go where I'm not welcome." He pulled his hand away. "You'll just… have to tell Hajime that I'm glad he's happy."
"I will," Ino said, and kept the conversation away from Sasuke's charity for the rest of the night.
It was the closest they'd come to an argument in all their time back together, and Ino had the feeling that, even with all of the progress she had made, there was much more work to be done to get Sasuke back to the family.
All in all, and despite Ino's best efforts, it took another year for Sasuke to even speak with his children in person.
It was a quiet year, with no major hiccups, and was almost boring if it weren't for the little victories in between that made things worth talking about. Kumori learned to walk; Sasuke's students, one after the other, were promoted to chuunin and freed up his time as they found jobs in the village; and Takeru learned to fight again, using a spider-like construction that he sat in and manipulated from the inside. He shared a secret smile with Shikake over its design.
There were birthdays and weddings and parties as well, but no matter how kindly and gently Ino asked, Sasuke would always refuse. "I won't go where I'm not welcome," was always his reply.
She resigned herself to thinking of this as just another hurdle, another step in Sasuke's journey of… whatever it was he was going through that was making him change like this. He was her husband again, yes, but only on the weekends. He wasn't yet the father of her children, much less a grandfather.
Still, she found happiness where she could get it, in Sasuke's arms and with his time, and in the sense of healing that warmed her home with gold and cream-paper light.
Sasuke's gifts continued, as they always did, feeling less like penance and more like distant love with each giving. Ino's messages to him about the children made them far more personal, and he began to include long letters with them - of course, not for her to read.
Most surprising was on Nadeshiko's 20th birthday. Ino expected something simple, another sweater or a book perhaps, when Sasuke presented her with a thin envelope and a wary smile. "Please tell me what she does with it," he said.
Ino expected money, but what she got instead was a deed to a plot of land on the corner of the Uchiha Memorial, within walking distance of the original home. Included was a letter from Senritsu Hashiki, promising a consultation visit and the beginnings of a house.
"Oh, finally, somewhere you can go where you won't bother us," Takeru commented, at the party, though he was smirking in a friendly manner.
"What made you think of that, Sasuke?" Ino said, when the met afterwards, after gushing for a fair amount of time.
"She's an adult now, and she should have somewhere of her own to live," he replied.
"Well, of course, but…"
"But?" Sasuke leaned forward.
"Well, Hajime and Ninako are a bit older than her," Ino continued, "and they're still living with me, so…"
His face fell slightly. "Ah. I suppose you do have a point, what with… the baby and everything…" He mumbled through the rest of the meal, and stayed on his own side of the bed that night, wrapped in thinking.
Ino, mulling over it, didn't know what amazed her more: the fact that he seemed to have put Nadeshiko first for once, or that he thought so much of her - seemingly - to give her a plot of land to do with as she pleased.
Nadeshiko moved into her home not long after, and with Hashiki's very approving help, she filled the earth around it with a small forest of flowers and trees. Whether it was the flowers or the house, Ino couldn't tell, but she noticed Nadeshiko smiling much more than usual once she was settled.
And sure enough, on Hajime's birthday the following September, he received his own plot of land, with plenty of space for his family of three. According to Ninako - since Hajime remained tight-lipped on the matter - the letter that came with the deed said something about how the gift was "long overdue."
Takeru, in November, didn't receive a house for his birthday, though there was an understandable reason for that. For a while before that, he had been taking diplomatic missions in Sand, and by the time his birthday rolled around, he'd already rented out an apartment there, and spent a great deal of his time away. "I have a perfectly good room at home for when I am home," he explained, at his party - because, of course, he was home for his birthday.
Sasuke instead sent him a first edition copy of Song of the White Sand, a sweeping epic concerning Wind Country bandits. Takeru seemed unimpressed, despite the fact that the book was beautifully ancient and known to be very hard to find.
(Of course, privately, he was very impressed, and wondered how in the world someone like Sasuke had gotten a copy.)
(Of course, Sasuke had connections.)
(And by connections, of course, that meant Naruto and his long-distance friendship with the Taki family. They were able to acquire it easily enough.)
Ino received no land for her September birthday, which was obvious, since she already had a perfectly usable house. But Sasuke ended up taking her on a vacation to a resort on the eastern coast in the Land of Waves, where they had a private cottage for the better part of a week.
"Hm. I'm glad the reviews were honest," Sasuke said, towards the tail end of the trip, as they sat in bed together, watching TV.
"Why, did you hear bad things?" Ino said.
"No, I just wanted to make sure it was somewhere nice before I… well, I suppose you'll see," Sasuke said, and crossed his feet almost cheekily.
As Ino would later find out, that exchange was the closest they would get to discussing family the entire time, which ended up making the whole stay extremely stress-free. When they weren't on the beach together - Sasuke got terribly sunburnt, but made an effort at laying out in the sun with Ino anyways - they were in restaurants, or in bed, and very comfortable.
Given all of this distant, yet generous, altruism, it was therefore completely unexpected when Sasuke presented Ino with her second Christmas present: divorce papers.