"Sasuke-kun's going to be very upset with what you've done with his bird," was the first thing I could think to say as Naruto was already rummaging through his stuff trying to find writing implements.
"Did you wanna write, or should I?"
"I should. Your handwriting is atrocious." My heart was beating a million miles a minute at the prospect of communicating with Sasuke-kun, but my brain was still numb to the actual notion.
Naruto placed a piece of paper on his desk with a pen and I sat down in front of it tentatively. He turned on a lamp. "What should we say?!"
My hands were shaking as I wrote out 'Dear Sasuke-kun,' in the most careful handwriting I could muster. I didn't know what to put after that. There was so much to say.
"Hey bastard, how are you?" I didn't put the 'bastard' part. "You think he'd tell us how he is?"
"It doesn't matter. I already wrote it down. That's just a thing you should put in letters anyway. Maybe we should have a plan first, on what we want to say, so we don't forget anything."
"Well, obviously, we have to ask if he's okay with us having sex when we aren't all together because this is kinda terrible." I blinked at Naruto. "I mean. If that's what you even want. Maybe you don't…"
"No, that's okay. I don't really mind. If it's okay with Sasuke-kun. I don't know how to write this."
"Just write what I said!"
"No! Well, we can write drafts, and just get rid of the ones we don't use. Um," 'Naruto and I are doing well.' It felt like such a lie as I wrote the words down. I could feel my pulse pounding in my fingers grasping the pen. 'We are patiently waiting for you to return.'
"Really patient!"
'We both really miss you and hope to continue…' I wrote slowly. Our what? Our arrangement? Our relationship?
"And can we fuck?"
"Naruto! I'm not writing that!"
"So, you won't ask him in writing. Would you ask him ever or has it been an excuse this whole time?"
"It's not an excuse. It's embarrassing to write. Hold on. There's got to be a more tactful way of putting this." I had accidently ended the last sentence with 'friendship'. 'Admittedly, things have been a little awkward between Naruto and I…'
"What?"
'... and we have a lot of questions. Naruto and I are unsure how we should participate in our relationship while you are away. We have currently put it on pause, as we don't want to leave you behind. If this is how you will like it to remain, we of course will appease your wishes. Please respond honestly.' "I think that's harmless enough."
"Alright, fine. But you also have to tell 'im about your apartment, and Kakashi-sensei, and Rock Lee's new jutsu, and they added a new item in Ichiraku's menu! It's got swordfish in it!"
"Not so fast. It also has to be able to fit on a page or two. We need to concise this down. Only the things that are important."
We spent all night working on the letter, Naruto pacing back and forth. He talked rapidly in unorganized sentences, pouring out his heart. I tried to translate it into something suitable but neither of us could put our feelings into words. I couldn't bring myself to say, 'We love you.' The letter wound up being rather unremarkable and boring, no different than any other normal letter a person might read.
"Maybe it will be better after he responds," I said, hating every word I had written down. "You know, like a conversation; we will have his reply to work with."
Naruto made a noise in the back of his throat as he read the words that I had managed to put down. "Okay."
I was able to force myself to write, 'Love' before signing my name at the end, and Naruto hurriedly and clumsily wrote his name after mine. It took another 10 minutes and quite a bit of teamwork to attach the letter to the angry bird, and with its release, it flew away like it would never in its life come back.
"He's not going to respond," I said, watching the bird fly like a bat out of hell. I felt Naruto take my hand as he gave a laugh. In retrospect, I wondered if Sasuke-kun not responding would have been the kinder thing to do.
It took some time, but Ino and I finally did find an apartment. It was a two bedroom, with a full bath and even a little bit of a yard. Ino and I still had to compromise, as it wasn't her first choice, and it was a little bit over my price range. Naruto had somehow blabbed about this to Kakashi-sensei and before I could stop it, he had already paid my first month's deposit. I told him I would pay him back, but he wouldn't hear of it.
I was pretty excited about the new place, and even before I unpacked, I was already itching to try the tub. Besides, moving was a lot of work, more tedious than actually physically exhausting, and my brain was telling me that I could use a break.
I had been soaking for about five minutes before the bathroom door barged open. I gave a startled shout at Ino.
"See? Bathroom lock doesn't even work!" She had been picking out imperfections with the place since we were given the keys. "Why didn't we check this before we gave away our money? And who uses yellow tile for a bathroom? Ugh, this is so ugly."
"Ino, was there something that you wanted?" She didn't even knock.
"Come out with me to celebrate us being independent. Be my wingman. The goal is that we don't come home tonight!"
"We finally have the apartment, and you don't want to sleep in it?"
"Come on, Sakura. The whole point of getting this apartment is so that we can be far away from our parents! We decide when we want to be in it."
"I haven't even unpacked any of my clothes yet. I wouldn't know what to wear," I said half-heartedly.
"Don't worry. I'll fix that." Ino had already unpacked a bunch of things, including dressing the bathroom with hand towels and soap. "You're shaving, right?"
"I wasn't planning on it…"
"Let me see! Come on! Raise your leg!" Since I wasn't sure she wasn't about to grab my leg from underneath the water anyway, I raised it. Because of my natural hair color, it wasn't noticeable if I skipped a few days of shaving, and I smirked at her when the leg looked perfectly fine. "Uh-uh, we need to do the touch test!" She grabbed my leg. "This is no good! You need to do at least below the knee if you are going home with someone tonight!"
"I am not going off with some stranger tonight, Ino! And what are you talking about?" I touched my own leg. A little prickly but I wasn't planning on anyone touching me, at least not to live to tell the tale. "I told you I haven't unpacked any of my stuff yet. I stole your body wash," I said unashamed.
Ino opened the drawer under the sink, pulling out an unopened box of razors. "Borrow mine. I just bought this one with five blades, and I'm pretty sure they are made by ex-ninja with how sharp they are."
"My legs are fine."
"No, feel mine." She planted her foot on the wall of the tub.
I did, stroking her shin. "Oh. Wow. It feels like I'm touching your thigh it's so soft."
"I know, right? Now touch my thigh. It's like you can't even tell you're touching anything!"
"Okay, fine." I said, taking the razor. "But I'm not shaving above the knee, and I'm not going home with someone."
"As long as I do, I don't care what you do after. Hurry up, I already know what I want you to wear." She left, closing the door behind her somewhat loudly. I wasn't sure if I wanted to squeeze myself into something that was Ino's. We weren't shaped the same way and I was afraid that such facts would make it glaringly obvious of all my flaws.
I finished my bath and Ino wrestled me in a tiny black dress that no longer fit her. I didn't know why she bothered keeping it, then decided to pack it, and then bring it over to the new apartment if it didn't even fit. It barely even fit me, I thought as I stared at it in the mirror, trying to pull the hem farther down my thighs.
"It'll have to do in a pinch," Ino sighed. "At least it's not red."
I gasped. "Red is my favorite color!"
"Yeah, I noticed. Red and pink clash. I don't know why no one hasn't told you this yet."
"The ribbon you gave me when we first met was red. I find it symbolic."
Ino stared at me in the mirror. "Are you serial, Forehead?" she asked, putting her hands on my shoulders.
"Well, yeah. I can't think of a more confident color. And you told me to be confident and stop thinking about, you know, this," I said pointing at my forehead.
"Oh, wow! That's sweet of you." She kissed the side of my head. "I guess I'll hate you in red a little bit less."
"You hate me in red?!"
"Sakura." She pressed her cheek up against mine. "Let me do your makeup."
"No! I don't have the face for it. I'll look silly." It somehow made me look younger rather than older. Probably because I didn't know how to put it on properly, and I was always accidently smudging it.
Ino laughed. "Everyone has a face for makeup. That's what faces are for! Please, please!"
"I'm already wearing your whore outfit and going out with you when I have a nice new apartment to sleep in."
"But you owe me!"
"Owe you? What are you talking about? My share of the apartment was paid for."
"You saw Sasuke-kun's penis!" Ino declared, letting go of me. "And who knows what else. The least you can do is spend time with me. We've grown so far apart you don't even tell me these things."
"Ino…" I would have been feeling more guilty if I didn't know Ino would be holding this information over my head for as long as she could. It was bad timing moving in with her after she found that secret out. "Fine! Whatever. Do what you want, but you're going to have to drop the Sasuke-kun thing if I go along with you."
Ino squealed in glee.
I let her put globs of makeup on me. My eyelashes, now black and coated, seemed to stretch out forever. I actually didn't hate it, since I wasn't even aware that I had eyelashes until she put on the mascara, and I kind of liked the pink lipstick.
I wasn't sure what I was really expecting. Maybe for us to get some food, or go to a dance club, but Ino placed a card into my hand before we headed out.
"What the hell is this?"
"That's just a precaution. They don't usually ask for IDs at the door," Ino said as she put on her heels. She was wearing a purple tube dress that seemed to squeeze her in the best possible way.
I gaped at the tiny picture of me. "What? How? Where did yo-"
"Shikamaru makes them for me in exchange for lying to his mom about where he is." She straightened up from her shoes. "Which is really easy, because his mom adores me."
"So, you are at least talking to Shikamaru again?"
"Yeah. Talking to him again," Ino confirmed, but she was avoiding eye contact with me while she fussed with her outfit. "He feels guilty or something. No matter how many times I tell him, I am not heartbroken over Chōji!" She stomped her foot, which sounded loud on the wooden floor before the door.
I decided to drop it as I looked back down at my fake ID. "He changed my name to Cherry?"
"You, unfortunately, are like, famous or something. People might know who you are. You're going to need heels. Put these on; they match." She handed over a pair of strappy black shoes from the closet.
"Exactly. People are going to see my face and know who I am!"
"Not with the way I've made you so pretty." She pinched my cheek.
"The pink hair is going to scream 'Sakura'! Unless you want to dye it black-"
"Like you're the only pink haired girl in Konoha…"
"Yeah! I am, Ino!"
"It's fine. Boys are stupid. Besides we kept Haruno on the ID. You're Sakura's lesser known, sluttier older sister." Ino winked.
I stared at her in disbelief, jutting out my hip as I crossed my arms in a huff.
"Damn, girl! You look hot." I rolled my eyes as I bent down to put on the shoes. "But not as hot as me, of course." She checked her reflection in a handheld mirror. "Lace was a good choice, by the way." I squeaked when I felt Ino reach to grab my bare ass cheek.
"What the hell!" I immediately straightened to protect myself.
"I usually go with a thong but showing a little bit of pantie is the way to go with that dress."
"Oh, no, you can see?" I tried to crane my neck to look behind me.
"Only when you bend over, so you have complete control of it. See someone you like, 'accidentally' drop something, flash a little booty. You know, flirt." I frowned. "Selfie time!" She held up her phone and took a picture of us. I barely had time to put on a fake smile. "Come on, roomie. Let's go!"
"Okay, I hate it here already," I said as soon as we walked into the first establishment.
"It does look like this is where depression comes to die," Ino said, as her eyes scanned around the dark place. The few people that were there all sat by themselves, no one concentrating on anything other than their own drinks. "But it's still early. As the night goes on, it'll get better," she promised as she led us over to the bar.
"I don't think there is anyone here younger than 50," I hissed into her ear as she waited for the bartender to come over to us.
"We don't want to run into someone that might recognize us anyway. This is good. Can you imagine accidentally running into someone like Kakashi here?"
I looked around paranoid. "Actually, this is the exact kind of place I would expect to find Kakashi-sensei!"
"Wha…? No! Why would the Hokage come to this dump? He could have the finest sake delivered to his office for him. That's what Tsunade-sama did."
I threw my arms into the air. "I don't know! I feel like he'd hate that, for some reason."
"How old are you girls?" The bartender asked us with suspicious eyes. I immediately went for my purse, trying to find the fake ID as fast as possible.
"Twenty," Ino answered, glaring at me to silently tell me to keep it cool.
"Alright. What can I get you?"
"You don't want to see our IDs?" I squeaked. Ino kicked me; I hid my wince better than anything else I'd done since we walked in.
"I believe you. What can I get you?" he repeated.
"A Sex on the Beach for me," Ino quickly answered. Of course. I rolled my eyes. I tried to look at the menu that was on the back wall, but it was dirty and hard to read. I leaned over the bar, trying to get a better look. "Do you need me to pick something for you?" Ino asked impatiently.
"Whiskey on the Rocks," I answered, my feet finding the ground again.
"Whiskey?" Ino asked in disbelief. "Do you even like whiskey?"
"It's the cheapest thing on the menu and I don't have a lot of money."
"You only have to afford the first drink!" Ino said with a wave of her hand. "Afterwards, if you're doing it right, men will be buying the rest of your drinks for you."
I grimaced. "I don't want to be promising things that they're not going to get." I looked around the sad place again. I was pretty sure the man at the far end of the bar was asleep, and it wasn't even 7:30 yet.
"You're not promising anything. And if they think that you are by accepting a drink from them, that's exploitation."
"Isn't it exploitative to expect other people to pay for your drinks?"
"Shut up," Ino told me as we received our glasses. She picked hers up. "Let's go mingle with the locals." I followed much more reluctantly.
Ino went over to a table that sat a very unclean looking man that I would have guessed was in his 60s based on his gray unkept beard. "Is this seat taken?" she asked the man while pulling out the chair across from him anyway.
"Ino," I whispered. "He's a hundred years old!"
She turned to me and mouthed, 'It's for practice', before turning back to the man. "This place is so poppin' there's just nowhere else to go!" I glared at her. This place was empty, but it didn't seem like the man noticed as his eyes had widened at our approach and he had not taken them off Ino at all.
He did realize that Ino had asked him a question, and I could see his brain working to backtrack to recall what it was. "By you… now."
Ino laughed like that was funny and pulled another chair over closer before practically kicking me into it. "I'm Ino, and this is my friend Cherry." Why did she get to keep her name?
"I've never seen you girls here before." He didn't introduce himself.
Ino laughed again. "Oh, that's because we're so young and recently legal." She studied her nails for a moment. "We're just newly discovering our freedom."
"Ah!" He pushed his drink away and folded his hands together on the table, giving Ino his complete attention. "That's great! What do you girls do?"
"We're ninja," I responded. Ino kicked my chair.
"We're barely ninja," Ino waved her hand. "We haven't even passed the academy yet."
"Aren't you a little old to be in the academy?"
"Oh. Well. It's just-" Ino sniffled, "so hard!" I rolled my eyes and tasted my drink; It was nasty, but at the moment it wasn't as disgusting as watching this performance. "Not only do you gotta like, run a lot," the man nodded his head at her as if in understanding, "but you gotta be smart or something! I know we're not like kids anymore but, being a girl in this cruel world, I wanted to learn something that would help me become more independent."
The man patted her arm. "Oh, I know. I used to be a ninja before my early retirement."
"Oh, wow! You must have been super strong!" I had already finished my drink and stole Ino's glass from off the table. She ignored me.
The man shrugged his shoulders. "I did pass the academy. I was a genin."
"No way! You must be way stronger than me!" The man nodded. "But… I don't know if you'd be stronger than Cherry."
The man stopped his nodding. "You mean your friend here?" he asked in surprise.
"Oh, yeah! Cherry's like super smart and stuff." I had to remember to close my knees together as the attention landed on me.
"Is that so? And what are your hopes and dreams, young lady?"
I had learned to hate that question. I sucked on Ino's straw, searching for traces of liquor still in the ice. "I don't know. Maybe run my own hospital someday."
"Oh. Yes, you'd have to be pretty smart to do that." What the hell was Ino's game here? Obviously, she wouldn't want to go home with this man, right? And I was pretty sure she wasn't trying to dump him on me. I just couldn't see a reason to.
"But she's like, more than just smart! She's really strong too! She always beats me in arm wrestling. I never stand a chance." She pinched my arm before covering her mouth. "She's a little manly sometimes," she whispered even though I could clearly hear her. She glanced over to me. "I forgot to contour your cleavage." I gave her a shove that almost had her topple off her chair before she turned her gaze back over to the bearded man. "I wonder if she could beat you? I mean, you said you were a genin though, so maybe not."
The man laughed into his drink. "I don't know. I'm still pretty strong for my age."
"Wouldn't it be cool if she could try though? I mean, that would be so fun. I'd bet 2,000 yen for her to win. Well, that's all the money I have at the moment."
There was a pause as the man thought about it, before he shrugged his shoulders. "Sure, why not?"
"Yay! Goody!" Ino jumped up from her chair before wrestling me into it. "Don't make it look too easy," she said to me without moving her lips.
"Wait," I said, staring at the grungy man before me. "Um, when's the last time you washed your hands?"
"That's right!" Ino took out a small bottle of scented hand sanitizer from her purse and squirted some on the man's hand. "Good hygiene from the future doctor!" she sang. The man smelled his hands before rubbing them together, nodding his head to the pleasant scent.
Once I was satisfied, I clenched my teeth and put my elbow on the table, offering my hand. "I'll go easy on you at first," the man reassured me.
"I hope you don't strain yourself too hard," Ino warned.
I was at a little bit at a loss when I felt the man grasp my hand. At first, I didn't let my arm budge when he started to apply the pressure. I felt Ino's seething rather than saw, so I let him slowly start to push my arm down. "Oh… gosh…" I cried, trying to sound like Ino. "You're so… strong…" I let him push me dangerously close to the tabletop.
"Come on, Forehead!" Ino cried, jumping up and down before beating at the wood. "You can do it! Crush him!" Her yelling was causing a lot of attention from the few others in the quiet bar.
I started to push back slowly, making myself tremble. I let us get to a standstill for a moment, my opponent becoming more and more sweaty by the second.
"Yeah! Yeah! Go! Go!" Ino flung her long ponytail in a circle, and I gently kissed the back of the man's hand to the other side of the table. "WHOO! 2,000 YEN!" She pressed her lips to my cheek, surely leaving behind a lipstick mark. "IN YOUR FACE!"
By now we had attracted a whole crowd.
"That girl just beat Genji."
"Genji's 68 years old. Let me try." Soon a line of contestants was before me, Ino stating whoever could beat me would receive a kiss from one of us, charging them all a 2,000 yen fee.
I was starting to get into it after the first couple or so, the power getting to my head a little. Ino fawned over me as my personal cheerleader as each man that challenged me lost.
"BAM!" Ino shouted as I slammed yet another fist down. "The Pink Haired Kunoichi of Konoha wins again!"
"This is ridiculous. You guys are getting bested by a little girl. Let a real ninja try!" A large man with the sleeves ripped off from his outfit wormed his way in. "Let me handle this. Hey girly, you better be prepared! I was in the Fourth Great Shinobi War!"
"Oh," I replied unimpressed. If he wasn't lying, he must not have been on the front lines, because I didn't recognize him.
"Hey! You know the terms. In fact, 5,000 yen for you. What do you think, Forehead?"
"Let's take the fucker down," I said. It didn't even last 30 seconds, as I slammed the large man's hand down, breaking the table. The entire place exploded into cheers.
Then we were kicked out for damages.
They all booed as we left, the regulars stating that they hadn't had such entertainment in 30 years. "We'll come back another time!" Ino answered, and I gathered the money we had won. "Besides, we have more bars to hit up! We will see you all soon. Goodbye!"
Ino and I left giggling, hand and hand with each other. "This covers for the drink I had to pay and then some! Come on Billboard Brow! To our next location!"
The next place we went to was a lot more crowded and loud, but we were still able to find two stools next to each other at the bar. After we had ordered our drinks, I divided up the money evenly between us. "We made 65 hundred each. You are amazing! I have more money on me than when I left the apartment!" I shouted over the noise.
"You played your part perfectly, though Sakura-chan. You are so strong."
"You're so pretty."
"You're so pretty!" We held onto each other's arms, partly because I thought I was going to slip off this slippery stool.
"You know one of those guys… from the other place. I thought he looked like Guy-sensei."
"The third guy? The one with the eyebrows!" Ino exclaimed. "I was thinking the same thing!"
We burst into more laughter when I accidentally brushed against the man sitting next to me.
"Excuse me," he apologized. I spun my stool just a bit, leaning back onto the bar as I looked at him through my eyelashes. He was decent looking, though I wasn't sure if he would be someone that I would consider attractive if I were more sober. At this point, anyone under 40 years old seemed like fair game.
"Excuse me! " I probably wasn't keeping my legs closed enough but was too tipsy to really care.
"It looks like you girls are having fun tonight."
"I am fun," I said. "But know who's more fun than me?" I whispered. "This girl, behind me. Fucking con artist, she is."
The man laughed. "I'll be sure to keep an eye on my wallet."
"You should keep an eye on your heart. She's a fucking heart stealer!"
Ino lightly smacked me. "Shut up!"
I clumsily slid off the stool and gracelessly tried to switch places with Ino. She laughed as we both almost fell to the floor, but she managed to get her round ass on my seat.
"Oh. Wow. You're gorgeous," the man exclaimed once he got a good look at Ino.
She went to brush the long bangs on the side of her face behind her ear, but seemed to change her mind, and instead peered at him with one eye. "Am I?"
"I-yes, of course! Can I buy you a drink?"
I was thinking I was the best, most effective wingman on the planet. I accidently started to sip on Ino's drink instead of mine, but I couldn't remember if we had been drinking something different or not. I was having a lot of fun and was so glad that Ino dragged me out with her tonight. I hadn't done anything fun for a very long time. This didn't involve my boys and was completely drama free. I think I had forgotten such things existed. There was no worrying about Sasuke-kun breaking my heart, or fear of not being strong enough to fend off Naruto's sexual tension. I could just be me. We should do this more often.
I spaced out a bit for a time, simply enjoying the music as Ino talked to the man. I was having my own little jam session in my head when Ino suddenly threw her arms around my neck.
"Sakura, mh-mh! I don't like this one. He's gross." I slid off my stool in surprise, lifting Ino off of hers so I could return her to her original seat.
"Oh, come on! Don't be like that," said the young man, reaching out for Ino's arm. "Just because I said I was into it, doesn't mean I want you to do it."
I pushed his arm away. "Hey! She said no!" Once Ino was perfectly settled, I put my hands on my hips to glare at the guy, though I still had to look up at him, so that probably affected my scary face.
"Ha! That's not what I heard," he said. Ino was reaching for the drink he had bought her like she was afraid he was going to take it away from her. "Come on babe, tell her-"
He took a step closer, and I shoved him back with a pinch of chakra, sending him several feet into the crowd. "Get the fuck outta here!"
Ino leaned on me. "Get outta here!" she echoed, sticking her middle finger past my head.
"Shit," he muttered as he tried to disentangle himself from bodies before promptly getting the hell away.
I turned back to Ino. "What did he say?"
She was too busy chugging her entire drink to answer. It took several moments to get it all down her throat, and by the time she was finished, it could have been conceivable that she forgot I had asked a question. She grabbed my wrist. "Let's go dancing!"
She dragged me away, me tripping slightly in my heels and trying to remember to tug down my dress. "Wait," I panted. "My dress is riding up."
Ino went behind me, her hands on my waist. "I'll keep you covered," she whispered in my ear. She began moving her hips in a slow, very seductive swing, my hips having to follow the movement in order to not be pushed over. Her hands moved down my thighs, inconspicuously pulling down my dress a few more inches before traveling back up my sides. I raised my own arms up as we danced, reaching back behind me to play with Ino's gorgeous silky hair.
Ino was a much better dancer than Naruto. We moved sensually to the music together, me occasionally grinding up against her, and when we dropped toward the ground, she effectively used her hands to hide my momentarily uncovered crotch.
She spun me in a circle. "You're my favorite person here!" I shouted.
"You're my favorite person, like, everywhere!" she laughed.
"I love you!"
"I love you!" The longer we danced, the sloppier we became, and instead of trying to be sexy it turned into us more just whirling around each other and laughing.
Once we got tired and thirsty, Ino would talk to some boy to get him to buy her a drink, which she would then take, before stealing his drink as well, and then disappearing into the crowd to find me. It was like she had become some wonderful golden booze retriever.
After we finished another dance, Ino put her mouth to my ear so I could hear her. "What do you want next?"
"I was kinda thinking of switching to water!" I shouted back.
Ino shook her head, still dancing to the music. "Water's free!"
"I just want… to try to get ahead of the hangover!"
"You get hungover? You're a medical nin!"
"I know, but I still get headaches."
"You get headaches?"
I laughed, nodding my head. "I get headaches!"
Ino put her hands on either side of my head, letting soothing chakra leak from her fingertips. "I will get you water," she told me seriously. She poked my cheek. "You've had lipstick on your face this entire time!"
"What?" I still couldn't hear her well over the noise. She licked her finger and started to rub my cheek. "Ew!" I tried to crane away. "Why didn't you tell me?!"
She led me to a high table that was empty. "Stay here and I'll get water!" I climbed onto the stool and looked at the reflective mirror-like tabletop, trying to see the rest of the red smudge that was still there.
"Haruno-san?" I looked up automatically in panic. There was some guy staring at me from across the table. "I mean… are you Haruno Sakura…?"
"... Yes?" I found myself answering before I could think of a lie. "Do I know you?"
"Taniko Aiko. I was in the third division during the war. I mean, I can see why you wouldn't remember me. I was really only an apprentice."
"OH! I think I do remember you. Wait, how old are you?"
"Uh, twenty?" he answered after a pause.
I laughed. "Me too!"
We giggled for a bit before he asked, "You have a boyfriend?" At least he was direct.
"Ah, not exactly a boyfriend. It's complicated." I took my eyes off of him and started to search the crowd for Ino. It shouldn't take that long to get water, right? She didn't have to sweet talk her way into getting it for free.
"Oh yeah. I understand 'complicated'." Aiko shook his head. "In kinda a situation myself. Hey, can I buy you a drink?"
"Actually… I think I'm done drinking for the night."
"I can get you a water. I think I need a water too."
"No that's oka-" He left before I could finish protesting. He even returned with two glasses before Ino did. Where the hell did she go?!
"Thank you," I said, accepting the water and taking a gulp. I murmured after swallowing and feeling the cool liquid flow down my throat. I was thirsty. Pure water certainly quenched better than liquor.
"So, tell me about this complicated situation," Aiko asked, leaning on the table to gaze at me. "Does it have something to do with denying Morio back during the war, or is this more of a recent development?"
"Morio?"
"I think he wrote you a love letter or something."
"Oh yeah! Oh no." I covered my mouth. "I felt so bad for him."
"Eh, Morio always kinda looked like a kick puppy. His face is permanently like that, so don't take all the blame."
I laughed but was caught by surprise as an arm flung around my neck and a leg over my lap. "Ino-" I started to say before she shoved her entire tongue into my mouth. "Mph!" I held onto her waist instinctively so she wouldn't slip off. Her mouth tasted so much like booze, I wondered if someone could get drunk from the contact alone. Good thing Aiko had brought the water because it appeared Ino was empty handed.
She lifted her face to stare at me with lidded eyes. "Take me home, Sakura-chan…"
"Um, okay!" I glanced at Aiko, who had been leaning his face in his hand before his jaw had dropped open several inches. "Oh, this is my roommate," I tried to explain.
Ino shrieked out a laugh before clutching me more tightly. She pressed her face against mine as she stared over at Aiko. "We're roommates," she said rather seductively.
"Okay, time to go home!" I said brightly, trying not to be embarrassed. I slid off the stool, my hands securing under Ino's butt to keep her in my arms. I was trying to conceal her underwear as much as possible. It really wasn't helping. Her dress was going over her hips in order to have her legs locked around me. "It was nice to meet you or meet you again. Thank you for the water!"
I went to put Ino down, but she stubbornly hung on to me when she felt the movement, so I opted instead to leave as fast as possible.
Once outside, she let me put her down and immediately grabbed my arm and started pulling me about. "Where to next, Forehead?"
"Where to? I thought you wanted to go home!"
"I only said that to get you away from that guy. You said you didn't want to be whisked away by some stranger!"
I paused for a moment. "I wasn't going to go home with him. You didn't have to do all that."
"PA-lease! As soon as he started talking about medical ninjutsu you would have been sucking his dick in no time."
I shook my head, fighting back the affronted noise I wanted to make at the statement. "No, I saw that guy nearly shit his pants when the white zetsu attacked us. Knowing that about him kills any attraction he might have had. But let's go home anyway. You seem pretty drunk."
"I'm not that drunk! Besides, I haven't found a hookup yet," she pouted. I felt unsure as she begged me to stay out with her, but she did walk a pretty convincing straight line, and I finally relented with a smile.
It took several tries before finding a suitable match for Ino. We were trying a bit harder than before as the night was running out. They couldn't be too drunk. They couldn't be too old. They couldn't be a fellow ninja, but they couldn't be out of shape either. He couldn't be too boring or too smart. It was really quite a task. Any 'no's were easily chased off by me. I tried to get Ino to forget about looking for a guy by distracting her with more booze or dancing. We were having so much fun together, why did she need to leave me? I think it was Ino's own frustration that made her all of a sudden declare that she had found the one.
Okay, he was kind of cute, at least from the back, as that was all I could see from my vantage point. He had broad shoulders, dark hair in a loose ponytail, and maybe he was wearing earrings. "Are you sure?" I asked. The abrupt selection seemed to be too good to be true. "He looks pretty ripped, maybe he's a ninja."
"He's not." Ino waved her hand. "I checked his chakra signature. He's just a civilian that's a little too into himself."
"That's what you want?"
"I'm into myself! We'll be perfect for each other."
I stared at her for a moment longer. "You don't have to do this," I said. "We can save it for a different night-" My words might have had the opposite effect as Ino gave me a shove.
"Oh, I just saw him smile. His teeth are straight."
"Hmm," I stared at him as the man was talking to his friends, laughing. He seemed friendly, and if Ino could read chakra signatures, surely she couldn't make a mistake. "He looks kinda like Shikamaru."
Ino glared at me hotly. "Don't ruin this for me, Forehead. Besides, Shikamaru would be too busy sleeping to fucking smile. Hold my drink. I'll text you if anything goes wrong." She straightened her hair tie. "Which it shouldn't. He's a civilian. Go on ahead home. I will be fine."
"I'm not just leaving you."
Ino grabbed my head and kissed my forehead. "You're so good to me, Sakura-chan. Listen, let me talk to him for a bit, and if he turns out to be a dud, then forget it. But if not, go home. You seem tired."
"Okay," I pouted. There didn't seem to be any convincing Ino into coming home with me tonight. This would be the first time I slept in a place by myself, but there would be other nights with Ino. "Stay safe though."
"I will."
"Use protection." Ino stuck out her tongue as she abandoned me. I watched her swing her hips as she pretended to walk past the man. She hesitated just slightly, to see if he'd look up from his conversation. When he did, she went behind his friends to appear to order a drink, staying in his line of sight. The bartender appeared to be too busy to help her, and her slightly exaggerated display of disappointment had the man quickly come to her rescue. I watched them talk for a moment before Ino shot me a subtle thumbs up, and I realized that was my queue to leave. I finished the remainder of our drinks before turning to go home.
Once outside, I was still humming the tune of the last song that had been playing, trying to find a suitable pace that hurt my feet a little bit less. The shoes Ino gave me had given me blisters, but I had been having too much fun to have noticed until now. I decided to take them off, bending over to clumsily pull open the tiny buckles. In the middle of it, I remembered bending down exposed my behind and straightened up. "Oops!" I said aloud to no one. It seemed deafeningly quiet now that I was alone. I spun around in a circle once, stretching out my toes as my heels swung in my hand.
"Sakura-chan?"
I looked up and saw Naruto perched on a rooftop like some gargoyle. He seemed to belong there. Even in his orange jacket, he blended in with the night. "Whadda you doing here, Naruto?"
He jumped down to the street. "I'm just coming back from that long boring mission I told you about. Remember?"
"Oh yeah… That's why you couldn't help me move!" I accused.
"Sakura-chan…" He seemed embarrassed for some reason. "Were you on a date?"
I waved my free hand, shoes still swinging about. "I was just out with Ino!"
"A date with Ino?"
"HA! It's not what you think. I was just being used for some elaborate plan for her to shack up with a Shikamaru looking man who's not even Shikamaru."
"How rude."
"I know!"
"Well, you look really nice. I almost didn't recognize you."
"But you did, right? Is it because my hair is pink?!"
He grinned at me. "Have you been drinking?"
I put my hands to my hips, staring above Naruto's head rather than his face. "We might have been drinking."
He took a step closer to me, forcing me to make eye contact with him. "Your lipstick is smudged. You been kissing people, Sakura-chan?"
I blushed red, realizing what this might look like to Naruto. "It was-It was only Ino, and it wasn't really… She was protecting me!" Naruto raised both of his eyebrows, waiting for an explanation to that line. "There was this guy- from the war. He recognized me, and he was asking about boyfriends or something, so Ino put on a show to get him to back off."
Naruto's expression changed but I couldn't quite put my finger on how. Was he jealous? Was he mad at Ino? "Bothering you, huh? What's his name?"
I shook my head and waved my hand. "I'm not telling you that. You would probably beat him up!"
Naruto did a grin that flashed his teeth. "Nah, I just wanna talk to him," he teased.
"You'd make him cry."
"Pretty sure you don't need my help in making boys cry, Sakura-chan."
"Hm. Do I make you cry?"
Naruto didn't answer me. Instead, he took off his jacket and put it over my bare shoulders. I blinked at him. "You looked cold," he responded. "Hey, let me walk you home."
I held Naruto's jacket tightly around me. I hadn't been feeling cold when he first put it on, but I decided that I quite liked wearing it. He walked beside me, a few inches away, and even though he was close, it felt like he was too far. I kept waiting for him to take my arm, or sling his around my shoulder, but he didn't.
We were silent until we stopped at the foot of his apartment. I looked up at the building. "This is your home, Naruto."
"Oh, shit! I'm really sorry!" he said frantically. "Tell me where you live again? I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking." He blushed, more embarrassed than I could find reason to.
Until I realized I forgot where I lived. "Oh, no. I don't remember!"
Naruto laughed.
"This is terrible! I'm lost!"
"It's alright, Sakura-chan!" Naruto finally put a hand on my shoulder. It was so much warmer than the coat. "What's your address? I'll get you there." I told him the address and he shrugged his shoulders. "Oh, yeah, I know where that is," he stated confidently.
He took my hand and started to lead me in the right direction. Now that we were holding hands, I was feeling much better. I swung our arms back and forth as I skipped next to him, prattling on about my night.
He was uncharacteristically quiet, but there was a smile on his face, so there must not have been anything too wrong. "How was your mission?"
"Dull."
"Why are you so smiley?" I asked. His grin grew, lifting the dimples in his cheeks. "You got smiley cheeks!" I attempted to reach for them with the hand not holding his, but that one was still holding my shoes, and they almost hit him in the face. Good thing Naruto had excellent reflexes.
"We're getting close to your street. Point out your building, kay?"
I let go of Naruto to prance myself over to my door, my arms out for balance, bent at the elbow like I was trying to creep up on my new home. "You haven't seen the inside yet!" I said as I dug for my keys in my purse. "Ino has already unpacked all her shit. She has so much stuff!" Naruto didn't make it up the first step of the doorway. Instead, he stood back staring at me, the smiley smile now gone. I reached for him. "Let me give you the tour!"
"I don't know, Sakura-chan…"
"No, Ino's not here! I could show you the thing!" Of course, Naruto didn't know what the thing was, so I explained, still holding his hand in my grasp. "Ino has a giant black dildo." Naruto's eyes widened. "Come, come! I know where she hides it!"
"Sakura-chan-" He broke eye contact with me, trying to find words for his sentence. "You are… so cute." He reached for the hand that was holding his arm, slowly and effectively prying my fingers loose without me noticing. "How 'bout this. You can give me a tour of your new place some other time, like when it's daylight, and you're sober, and not wearing that dress," he mumbled more quietly. His eyes flashed me up and down. "And when Ino is home."
I blinked at him before shaking my head. "No, if we do it when Ino's here, I can't show you the dildo!"
Naruto laughed.
"It's bigger than Sasuke-kun!"
"ARH! Stop putting images in my head!" Naruto shook himself before grabbing me by the shoulders. I knew for certain that I wanted him to keep touching me. "Go to bed. I'll see you in the morning."
I pouted at him. "But I'm all alone!" He moved his hands to my face and kissed my forehead. I wanted people to stop kissing my stupid head. My mouth would have been better. His lips stayed on my skin for such a long time, I had hope that he was going to change his mind.
He let go of me and stepped back. "I'll see you tomorrow." He took a few more steps back and I frowned at him, sluggishly leaning on my door. "But let me stare at you for a few more moments."
I grinned at that and lifted an arm and my chin as if I was posing as a model for a magazine. He held his hands up, as if he was holding a camera, looking at me through his fingers. He clicked his tongue, taking a mental picture. "I'll be thinking of you, Sakura-chan."
I smiled, pleased.
I heard the TV on in the living room much earlier than I expected Ino to be home. I looked over at my clock and saw that it was 7:32. I cracked the door open of my bedroom, and I could see the top of Ino's blonde head over the back of the couch. She was watching a RomCom movie that I was familiar with, and if she started from the beginning, she was an hour into it.
"I didn't expect you home so early," I said good naturedly, despite the uneasy signs that last night must not have gone well. As I got closer, I noticed a large open box on the coffee table filled with cream stuffed doughnuts with chocolate icing. Three of them were missing. That was definitely a bad sign.
I cautiously rounded the couch, and slowly settled myself beside her. Her face was incredibly straight, glued to the TV screen. Even her makeup from last night was still intact, though she had changed into comfortable pajamas and wrapped herself in a blanket. Her hair laid free against her shoulders and back which I wasn't used to seeing.
"This movie is dumb," she finally said. "All the characters are so fucking stupid."
I nodded my head, though since she wasn't looking at me, she couldn't see it. "So, are you going to fill me in on last night's details? Isn't that the rule? Or do you get a free pass, because I'm such a terrible friend?"
Ino glared at me once before turning back to the TV. "I'm a woman now." She tightened the blanket around her.
I nodded again, staring at the TV as well. "Congratulations. Mission accomplished."
"Yeah."
"So, I'm assuming that Shikamaru-look-alike didn't have a good reason to be so into himself.
Ino let out a short breath. "I ghosted that guy. He turned out to be a virgin."
I turned to her. "What? You found someone else? I thought we agreed to perfectly make your selection together!"
"Sakura, he was a virgin! I can't lose my virginity to another virgin! That would defeat the whole point of trying to gain experience!"
"I mean, both Naruto and I had been virgins…"
"Exactly, you two have probably been doing it wrong this whole time, and you don't even know it!"
I laughed. "I don't think it works like that. There is definitely a learning curve. My first time was so bad-" I stopped myself when I noticed Ino's lips trembling. "What happened? Are you okay?"
Ino shrugged one shoulder, looking up once in an attempt to keep her face straight. Her behavior was worrying me, and in a panic, I asked, "Did he hurt you?!" I shouldn't have left her! Trust her? She had been drinking. "Did he force you?! Who was it? I'll kill him."
"No. I mean. It did hurt. But I told him to. So, it wasn't his fault."
"What's wrong? What did he do?"
Ino shook her head, digging her fingers into her sinuses. "He wasn't any different than any of the other men we ran into last night. They are all the same. Disgusting, stupid, clueless fucks! I thought… I don't know what I thought. I just wanted… someone to make me feel special instead of used. I wasn't asking him to marry me or anything, but like, maybe hold the door open for me, or offer me a towel, something! I'm starting to think that maybe my father was the last decent man in the world and now he's dead."
"Oh, Ino-"
"He was still dumb too though," she continued to ramble, "but he could attempt to be romantic… You know, he used to buy my mom a rose every Friday. Which is so stupid- We own a flower shop! He was supporting our competitors!" A sob wracked through her body. "Mom loved it anyway!" I reached out for her.
"No! No!" She shooed my arm away with a wave of her own, pulling her head over the backrest of the couch. "If you hug me, I'll cry, and this makeup was expensive. I'm trying to get another day out of it." She fanned her hands over her face as if that would dry her eyes.
I pulled her over to me anyway and the tears were immediate. "You're ridiculous," I muttered. She clung to me. I found myself rolling onto my back on the couch with her weight on top of me, her face pressed into my chest, ruining her expensive makeup on my white T-shirt. I clutched her, stroking her hair, telling her how sorry I was as she sobbed.
Eventually her cries stopped, and we laid there, watching the movie. "If…" I started. "If he hurt you, or even just treated you shittily he should still face the consequences. Tell me what happened."
Ino let out a short laugh. "If I tell you any more details, you'll freak out more than you are now." That did not make me happy. "I can literally feel the anger radiating off your body right now." She snuggled into me. "Let's just forget about it. Have a do-over with someone else. Someone nice," she mumbled.
"Hmm." I squeezed her back, feeling overprotective. I was going to have to let her go eventually. I began thinking again of last night and wishing for some way of having a time machine. "You feel dehydrated," I said. "You should be drinking water, not coffee." I saw that she had a paper cup with her doughnuts. I used my chakra to relieve some of the pressure under her hair.
"In a moment. I'm comfortable right now." My stomach made a noise and Ino reached out to tug the doughnut box closer. "Eat these for me. I've already ruined my diet."
I reached for one. "I don't think I can eat all of them. Though, this is my favorite kind."
"Ugh, the most fattening kind. And yet you are so skinny. You'd think if I had to snuggle a girl on a couch instead of a man, she'd be a softer pillow."
I pinched her. I didn't throw her off of me though as she still felt sensitive and broken. A few moments of silence went by, the movie reaching its climax. "This is one of my favorite movies," I admitted.
"It's yours. I unpacked your stuff while you were sleeping. It was bothering me." Ino's cell phone buzzed on the coffee table. She groaned as she reached for it. "Fuck. It's Shikamaru. I was drunk texting him all night. UGH he's coming over." She rolled off of me. "Can you answer the door? Tell him I'm asleep. I'm too embarrassed."
I sat up. "Um, sure." She went to go hide in her room just as there was a knock on the front door. I got up to answer it.
"Hi!" Shikamaru stood there, holding a plastic bag and staring at me with an unreadable expression. I stared back, trying to figure out what he was thinking. It was always difficult to tell, but a lot of the times I thought it was because he wasn't actually thinking about anything.
"Hey," he finally said. "I brought… medicine."
"Oh!"
"For Ino. For her hangover. You probably got that covered, but here." He handed me the bag. "How she doing?"
"Tired," I answered, taking the bag. "She's asleep."
He gave me a look. I wasn't the best lying ninja, but I didn't think my answer warranted doubt.
"You're welcome!" he shouted past me.
"Go away!" I heard Ino's muted response.
The corner of his mouth tilted. "I trust you to take care of her?"
"Of course!"
"Good. Thanks. See ya." He turned around with a wave of his hand. I smiled. That was awfully sweet of him. Ino had stated to me that Shikamaru had absolutely no interest in her romantically during a rather short crush she had on him, but that was back when we were kids. Boys tended not to develop interest in girls until they were a little bit older. My grin was now almost hurting my cheeks when I brought the bag inside.
Ino was glaring at me as I sat the bag on the kitchen counter. "It looks like Shikamaru has brought some of his family's medicine for your headache," I said with glee.
"This is what I mean about all men being stupid! Why would I need headache medicine when I live with the greatest medical ninja in Konoha!"
"Hm. Speaking of that, you need to drink water." I got a glass ready. "And I'm not the greatest in Konoha."
Ino rolled her eyes as she went through the bag. "I was connected to every shinobi in the war." I handed her her water. "You're the best." I felt myself blush a little, even though the casual way she had said it could have just been her accepting the glass of water.
Abashed, I returned to the original topic on my mind. "So, Shikamaru."
"Don't!" Ino waved her hand before swallowing the pill. She made a face in disgust that I wasn't sure was from the medicine or the idea of dating Shikamaru. "He doesn't like me. He told me he doesn't like me."
"Yeah? When? How long ago was that?"
"It doesn't matter!"
"I don't know, Ino. Feelings change."
"Ugh! Gross! Let's watch more movies so I can crush on imaginary men instead. You can go back to rubbing my head too because that was better than sex."
"Ha! Sure thing, your majesty! Whatever you want."
We stayed in and watched movies all day.