10

Ino knew what was good in life. Or she knew what was good for her, which might as well be the same thing with a different coat of polish… Ah. Stop right there. She was intruding on someone else's territory and that was no good.

That was Sakura's thing. Semantics, that is; quibbling over the most inane stuff as if it meant the fate of the world and everyone in it.

That wasn't Ino. That was Sakura. That was what she did; Her counterweight. Her balance. Her complementary opposite. The very literal yang to Ino's yin, their chakra balances diametrically opposed; the heat to her cold. The calm to her excitement.

It was how it was.

When Sakura took the time to stop, to think things through, to weigh the costs, Ino did. She took. She took the opportunity when it came, however and whenever it came. Because if there was anything worse than taking an opportunity that didn't pan out, in getting pebbles instead of diamonds, it was missing the opportunity that did pan out.

She wouldn't be where she was now if she hadn't rolled some very risky dice.

"S-Sakura. What are you-" Ino couldn't help but giggle breathlessly and scrunch up a shoulder as the much taller girl buried her nose into the crook of Ino's neck. Buried, and kept it there with a combination of leverage and an arm around Ino's waist, an inescapable trap. "Noooo~"

Worth it.

"What am I doing? I don't know now, now that you ask." Sakura hummed, her lips on Ino's skin turning up in a slight smile as she took in a deep breath that felt like it had stolen the last of Ino's on the draw. "I thought this was a hug."

A hug.

Yeah.

"A hug," Ino echoed her own thoughts in a hushed whisper as one of Sakura's hands grazed her stomach, making it hitch as the blonde reached up to touch her friend's head and she took in air. "That explains it." Ino's fingers found themselves intertwined with pink locks in short order, normally straight strands curling around each digit. "My mistake."

Ino knew what was good in life. Not much else to say about that.

"Your mistake." Sakura agreed as she shifted her weight, the arm around Ino's waist going higher until it was just under her breasts; Ino's offended gasp fell on deaf ears as she was forced to join in on Sakura's swaying. "You might be wondering why."

She had been wondering why the hug, actually. Just a little. Not that she minded. Sakura gave the best hugs, and she gave them rarely enough that it made them precious.

But, well… Time and a place.

Sakura was fond of saying that when Ino did something she thought was pushing things. And Ino, right now, from her spot behind the family cash register, in the middle of the afternoon and long before closing time, had to say that it very much applied.

"I am at work." Ino studiously ignored her mother working on a flower arrangement at the farthest end of the family shop. Her mother, in contrast, didn't return the favor. The older woman just continued to primp a funeral arrangement while giving them both a soppy look… If Ino were a dumber person, she'd have told her mom to mind her own business. But she wasn't. The point was moot. "So it crossed my mind."

"We got the Tora mission today if you must know. It wasn't that hard." Sakura paused with a sigh, sounding tired. Tense. Anxious for sure, and not at all like that last mission had been as easy as she'd said it was… Ino had heard that one was hell, but she didn't think that was it for some reason. "And I also got a C-rank."

Oh.

There it was.

That explained everything.

"Ahh." Ino nodded, a knowing smirk fighting for the right to exist even as she forced it down. Her mom was right there and watching, after all. "Feeling stressed?"

Ino knew what was good for Sakura too if things came to that…

Just saying.

She'd always liked that thing Ino could do with her fingers.

What thing?

Anything.

"It's too soon," Sakura whined and shook her head in understated distress, saying yes to Ino's question in her own way. "Do you know what Kakashi-sensei has taught us so far, Ino?" Sakura shook her head yet again for emphasis. "Do you?"

"No. No way." Ino lowered her voice. This was a jounin they were talking about. "Still nothing?"

It had been a month. That...wasn't a lot of time to teach anyone much of anything. Ino had to grudgingly admit that. But when someone did less than Asuma-sensei...

"Nothing on purpose. Just on accident." Sakura kept her face where it was, still in Ino's neck as she held up a single, well-manicured finger. "One. Thing."

Ah. Yes. The like-a-mole jutsu. The newest jutsu in Sakura's lineup that Ino knew about. The one that Ino refused to bring up on sheer principle. Of course.

That one.

The one that made Ino the teensiest bit mad to think about.

Sakura's entirely earnest dismissal of how ridiculous it was to have picked up a jutsu on sight, while in a fight, without a doujutsu, made Ino's skin itch.

There were limits to any friendship. Or whatever it was they had together. And that was one of them right there.

Ino switched tacks before she felt tempted to do something she'd regret. "Wasn't he helping you with your hand-to-hand?"

There was a short, uncomfortable hitch in Sakura's swaying at that easy observation.

"Ah. Yes. Taijutsu practice. You're right." Sakura lifted a reluctant second finger. "He's helping me find the limits of my pain tolerance as well. That is important..." A touch of dark satisfaction entered her voice. "And he finally stopped asking about Yan-Yan."

"Did he now?"

"He did." Sakura gave her middle an affirming pat. "I must have convinced him it wasn't worth it."

Ino returned the pat on the back of Sakura's hand. "Or he got tired of the joke."

She preferred that explanation. She really did. Having one of the village's strongest ninja have an obsession with a stuffed animal made her - uncomfortable.

"... No," Sakura denied stubbornly. "He just didn't have the will to keep trying."

Ino let out a quickly stifled bark of laughter as the shop's bell rang and the door opened, heralding a customer… Sakura and her priorities. Just adorable; the smirk that had been trying to come into existence for a while now died a final death as it was replaced by a fully-realized customer service smile and a chirping lilt. "Welcome to Yamanaka Flowers!"

Sakura lifted her head to place her chin on Ino's shoulder with a sigh. "Yamanaka flowers. Best flowers in all of Konoha. Are you looking for a houseplant to take care of? Something for a special occasion? Whatever it is, we've got it." Sakura waved in the customer's general direction, but didn't even make a move to pull away from Ino's side… She must have been really stressed out. "How may we help you today?"

We?

Ino's lips twitched, that laugh threatening to bubble up again. "Those are my lines, Sakura." Her shoulders shook once before that shake turned into a roll. "And my s-store."

Sakura had to know exactly what she was implying with words like that.

Pushing it.

Sakura was pushing it.

…Ino was never quite sure what to say when Sakura did this stuff. Anything else, sure. Stuff like this?

She knew better.

Sakura should know better.

"So they are." The pink-haired girl shrugged while the customer, an older woman that better have vision problems with how hard she was squinting at them, politely declined the offer to look around the store on her own. "But there's nothing wrong with sharing."

Ino took Sakura in from out of the corner of her eyes, wispy pink caressing her cheek as she did so; the woman puttered around the decorative plants, not doing nearly enough to distract Ino from what was good in her life.

There was good. And then there was too good.

Ino's face was burning up and she wasn't happy about it.

Honest.

"C-rank," Ino rasped as she grabbed onto this possible safe harbor with both hands. The hands that she'd forced down on the counter for the sake of not embarrassing herself more than she'd already had. The hands that were no longer trying to hold Sakura's face between them. Those hands. Damn it. "You're going on a C-rank?"

There was another hitch in Sakura's sway at this change in the conversation. Longer, this time.

That had hit somewhere tender.

"Ah. Yes. Yes, I am." She started. Painfully. Like someone had threatened to remove her teeth. "With my team."

She really wasn't happy about this, was she?

"Who else would you be with, Sakura?" Ino asked to lighten the mood… When Sakura snorted, Ino knew she'd done right. For now. At the moment.

She was sure they could find something in her room, after her shift, to turn things around some more.

"That was a silly thing for me to say. But you know what I meant." Sakura huffed. "I'll be going to Wave. To keep a bridge-builder safe while he does his job."

"A bridge-builder, huh? Not going to lie, that doesn't sound like someone that has a lot of enemies." Ino straightened up as the customer, carrying a small fern, turned towards the register. "But if he's paying, he's paying. Right?"

"I suppose."

Sakura didn't reply any further at first. Not until money and goods had been exchanged and the platitudes had been said, content to do nothing more than what she already was… Hanging off of Ino, that is, through the whole transaction.

…And Ino must have heard the woman wrong when she thought she heard her grumble 'just get married already'.

Ino must have misheard.

And, if she hadn't, that woman could mind her own damn business. Ino would say it too. To her face. And, this time, without fear of retribution. There were some benefits to being the heir of a minor clan, after all. And what was the point of having those perks if they weren't put into use; Telling a nosy old biddy to get out of her store wouldn't bother her at all.

That was the truth.

"And you'd think that he doesn't have enemies… But he's scared of something. And I don't believe it's bandits." Sakura continued once the door closed. Once Ino returned to giving her full attention and the woman was halfway down the street, plant in her arms. "That would be too easy."

But, maybe, it was just a C-rank? Maybe it was just that? Maybe nothing would go wrong? Maybe everything would be fine?

Maybe?

"And how long are you going to be gone, you think?" Ino asked that instead of what she wanted to ask… She'd do that later. When the sweat was drying on their bodies and Sakura wasn't letting her nerves do the talking. "Long or short term?"

Sakura took a second to think about it. It might as well have been an eternity for her. "Slightly less than a month."

"Two weeks?" Ino hazarded a guess as she shrugged the shoulder Sakura's chin was on, forcing her to move it away; Sakura's head was heavier than it looked. Or not. That was a lot of hair. "That's not too bad."

"It's still two weeks."

"Two weeks is a long time when you're young."

A bundle of white and yellow chrysanthemums suddenly hit the counter and Ino hopped in surprise; Sakura's arm kept it from going any further than that and Ino's mom only got a single laugh out of it instead of a story to tell her dad.

"It's slow today. Ready this for pick up and I'll let you two go." The brown-haired woman gave them a tight and, embarrassingly, knowing smile. "How does that sound?"

Great. It sounded great.

"But the store is supposed to close in another-" Ino started on reflex anyway; it was only natural, in a boring sort of way. In a 'something her dad would say' sort of way.

Ino could feel her hair turning white, then and there.

"It's a slow day." Ino's mom waved her off before she could finish saying something stupid. "Don't fight with me, young lady. Not unless you really want to stay?" She looked around the store with a critical eye. "I believe your father wanted to do something with the compost heap. We could start there if you'd like?"

Ino's hands were moving before her mom had finished talking. Anything but that. That was not good for Ino. "I'm going, I'm going!"

"That is the right choice, dear. I was starting to worry you weren't yourself." Ino's mom fingered the brooch at her collar with a hum. "And how have your parents been, Sakura? Well, I hope? I haven't seen them in so long."

Sakura straightened up at the question, giving Ino some much-needed room so that they could leave as soon as possible. "Still with the caravan, miss Yamanaka. It keeps them busy."

"I see. Shame. We really must catch up one of these days. Compare the accomplishments of our children over tea and all that rot." The brown-haired woman clicked her tongue. "And how many times must I tell you to call me Clarisse, dear?"

"At least once more, ma'am."

If the air got any thicker with the essence of awkwardness that was your mother trying to relate to your friends while you were in the room, you'd be able to cut it.

"Feels like I'm home again… Heavens, the wit on this one," Ino's mother muttered. "I'll just have to keep trying then, won't I?" She turned to Ino with a familiar light in her eye: Mischief. "If you only just moved in already, then I'd have all the time I needed to wear you down."

"Mooooom!" Ino growled as her face grew hot enough to boil water.

Sakura was a sensitive, introverted soul that didn't need the sort of stress the older Yamanaka could bring to bear.

Did she have no shame? No compassion?

… What was Ino talking about?

Of course she didn't.

"The faster you finish, the sooner I can stop bothering your friends, dear," she tittered back, not at all threatened by Ino's dark looks and mumbled nonsense. She knew exactly what she was doing and Ino didn't like it. "Haste is a virtue."

When it doesn't make waste. Ino remembered the rest of it. And, still mumbling under her breath, she did what she had to do, how she had to do it. Got out the ribbon. Whipped out the scissors. Tied everything together without bending any petals or putting a bend in a stem and made it look good for the sake of an audience that wasn't there.

She'd been doing this for years, since she could walk and talk and handle sharp objects without cutting anything or anyone she shouldn't. This specific arrangement she was working with, at least twice a month since then. Ino couldn't have messed this one up unless she was trying.

Not even her mom making things weird for the sake of her foreign sense of humor could change that. Or how she could finish this up in less than a minute while under pressure; scissors hit the table at the end. Roll of ribbon was thrown into the nearest open drawer. Flowers were, gently, put in the traditional vase. Sakura's hand was in hers and she was gone.

"Have fun." Ino's mom called after them as they escaped out the back entrance and into the alley that lead to the Yamanaka compound. "And try to think of the neighbors, if you would?"

Oh, god. Faster. Faster, damn it. Vacate. Vanish.

Don't be here.

"BYE, MOM! SEE YOU AT DINNER!"

She didn't wait to hear a reply.

It was for the best. Shocking to anyone that didn't have context, but it was true. Ino didn't wait to hear her own mother's reply.

It was for a good reason. Really.

Sometimes, it was hard to believe that her mom had been of foreign nobility before she'd been shipwrecked and met her dad. Or that her dad had found her charming once she'd learned enough of the local language to be understood. Especially at times like these, when she dusted off that odd sense of humor and put it to use.

Ino knew what was good for her and in her life.

And hanging around when Sakura was there, just waiting for her mom to build up a head of steam, wasn't that.

"That - might have been my fault, once I think about it," Sakura said, her shoulders pulled up and tone sheepish as she admitted this simple truth, and acknowledging Ino's unspoken thoughts.

Ino looked at her with narrowed eyes as they both took to the rooftops with a jump. A Yamanaka guard, one of her many cousins several times removed, gave the both of them a cursory, bemused look before letting them pass unchallenged; Sakura might as well have been a breathing, mobile fixture around here at this point, so it was only expected. "Might?"

Sakura winced.

Good. She knew what she'd done; It wasn't as if she'd known Ino's mom for more than half her life or anything. Oh. Wait. "What's done is done."

"What's done is done? Done!? She's going to be insufferable for days! You know that!" The blonde poked Sakura in the tricep midjump. And again when they landed and Sakura didn't react. "If I'm not done before you leave, so help you…!"

She wasn't normally that open about what she was after, that being a licking, but the situation warranted it.

Not like her mom wouldn't be making things weird all throughout the compound later anyway. People that thought that Ino liked to gossip had never met her mom... So, screw it. Sakura wasn't the only one feeling stressed.

This was getting done.

"I'll regret it. I know." Sakura sighed. She didn't roll her eyes or anything so crass, but it carried the same energy. "I'm sure I'll make it up to you before I have to leave tomorrow."

Barely enough time to make up for this mess then, in Ino's estimation.

Ino huffed as they landed at her front door, crossed her arms as Sakura moved past her to open the door. "I'll be the judge of that."

Sakura didn't say anything to that.

Or at all.

Instead, she gestured at the entrance of Ino's home, the muscles in her arm playing smoothly under her skin in a fascinating and intimidating display of control and power that never failed to make Ino…

The blonde readied herself for war. A war with Sakura.

Ino stepped forward, head held high.

The short walk from her front door to her bedroom would have to be enough.