Ino
After taking some time to cool off, Sakura felt as though she was in a better state of mind to properly approach Ino without causing any more drama between them. She figured it would be best to apologize for not having more faith in her abilities as a budding kunoichi and try to get to her to see why what she did bothered her so much in the hopes of salvaging their relationship if she really did ruin it.
Thus she marched herself over to the Yamanaka home and with a quick a knock on their door, waited anxiously for Ino or her parents to answer it, secretly hoping she’d get her parents instead.
What she got was the opposite of that: Ino answered the door with a rather discontented, “What do you want?”
Maybe it’s best to get it out of the way now before she says and does something irrevocably stupid that makes her not want to talk to her ever again, “I’ve had some time to think about what I said when I found out about you trying to fight Itachi and after speaking to Kakashi sensei and Sasuke, I got to see how I was wrong to freak out like I did. I’m sorry about that—I hope we can still be on speaking terms.”
What she never saw coming was Ino’s eyes softening to her apology and the response that came with it, “You must have felt really torn about it if you could speak to Sasuke about this…the you a year ago wouldn’t have ever done that, and the you a year ago wouldn’t have ever apologized either or saw how she was in the wrong.”
“Does this mean—”
She’s met with her dream omega nodding in confirmation, a small smile on her lips when giving her the answer she didn’t see coming, “Yeah, it means I forgive you. To be fair, I did overreact too—I shouldn’t have gotten so upset at you and my dad got me to see why you’d be so upset. I’m still grounded now after what I did, but I’m still allowed to train at least.”
“Oh, he did? What did he say?”
“He said that you only reacted the way you did because you love me and didn’t want me to get hurt.” she was allowed to feel some sort of special confidence that her father had her back, but then she went on to say what else he had told her, “He also said you were probably jealous of Hinata and that’s why you didn’t take the news of her being there too well. Was he right about any of that?”
The last time she had spoken to Ino about this, it was at her place a few hours after the incident with Itachi had happened. The conversation took place in her room and well…it didn’t go over well, needless to say.
She’s not here to think about this, though. She’s here to move forward and make more progress on their relationship that at times feels like it hasn’t really moved much beyond friendship, “…He wasn’t wrong about any of it.”
“Not even the Hinata part?”
“No.”
Ino sighs, her hands on her hips, “You realize she’s in love with my brother so much to the point where she’s the only one I’d ever approve of as a mate for him, right? We don’t like each other like that; why would you be jealous of her?”
It’s embarrassing to admit, but honesty has always been the best policy with someone as blunt as Ino. May as well stick to what she knows works, “It’s hard for me to not be jealous of her, though! I want to be the only one to bring Deidara back with you, no matter how selfish that sounds, because even though I didn’t like the guy I want to do it because it will make you happy and I want to be the only one to do that!”
“You do know that other people and things will make me happy…don’t you?”
“I know, but—ugh, I didn’t word it right.” she tries again, hoping to get it across to her, “Yeah, of course I know other people and things will make you happy, but what I mean is…I want to be the only one who makes you smile so wide that your eyes light up and your scents turns really sweet like it does whenever you are that happy. I want to be the only one who makes you that happy because that’s what a good mate does. I know I’ve messed up a lot in the past, but I’m doing my best now to be the sort of mate that’s good enough for you, who can make you that happy…having Hinata or anyone else involved in your mission to bring him back feels like an obstacle in the way to making it happen.”
Ino doesn’t say much of anything at first, but she does look at her with a glimmer of hope Sakura knows she might crush with whatever it is she has to answer for next, “…As strange as it sounds, I actually find that to be sweet. You’re doing this to prove that you can be a good mate to me and make me happy in a way I haven’t been since Deidara left: it’s sweet when I think about it.”
Maybe she’s off the hook then! Maybe—
“All I want to know is: after everything I’ve told you about my encounter with Itachi, do you think Deidara is innocent or do you think the Uchiha monster was telling the truth?”
Looks like the honesty will screw her over then. Lying about this is an impossibility for her greater than anything else.
“I think he was telling the truth, but that’s mainly because I’ve never been convinced of Deidara’s innocence in the first place. A year ago, I wouldn’t have ever considered the thought of him being innocent…now I can believe there’s a chance he could be innocent somehow in all of this.”
“So, what’re you saying then?”
“That I think even though I believe he’s not innocent, there’s a chance he could be innocent and unlike in the past, I want to hear his side of the story before writing off that chance completely.”
She didn’t take this bad at all. In fact, she looked relieved and her hands were no longer held into tight tense balls on her hips as she moved out of the way enough for her to come in, “That’s all I wanted to hear from you. Do you want to come in?”
“Yeah, why not?”
Knowing she’s on her good side is a relief for her, but she didn’t expect what happened the moment the door closed behind her.
Shikamaru, Lee, and Naruto had tried to find Sakura by the way anyone would: they asked her parents at her place and went to the Yamanaka household to see if she’s still there or if Ino knows where she is at.
It had been decided that Naruto would be the one to knock since Lee wasn’t too keen on seeing Ino again so soon and Shikamaru acknowledged that he shouldn’t be anywhere her place at the moment. As such, Lee and Shikamaru kept themselves at a great distance away from her home while Naruto was left to knock on her door alone.
“Sakura? You’re here?”
“Yeah, what are you doing here?”
Her tone screamed skepticism and her slowly forming frown was starting to give him more of a warning than what he needed, “Uh, well…I was gonna see Ino, but I wanted to ask you something too.”
“Okay.” her frown is currently absent yet he can tell he’s treading on thin ice here around her, “Has Ino been acting strange to you lately?”
She rejected this notion immediately, her desire to shut the door on him growing stronger the longer they speak, “No. I haven’t really talked to her ever since our disagreement on the day she confronted Itachi, so I can’t say. Today is the first day we’ve talked since then and it’s going great so far. Please leave if you have nothing urgent to tell me.”
“Did you notice anything strange about her when you talked to her today or on the day she fought Itachi?”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“It’s just…” he doesn’t see the point in lying about it; it’d be best if she knows anyway, “okay, Lee is worried about Ino. He thinks she’s been acting strange lately because she hasn’t been in the flower shop and she hasn’t really been talking to many people lately. He just wants to be sure she’s alright after everything.”
Sakura doesn’t mind answering this for him, “She’s been grounded after what she did in confronting Itachi; that’s why she hasn’t been at the flower shop or out with anyone. Her dad is still allowing her to train, but other than that, this is her final day of being grounded.”
Which is not a lie: Ino had told her as much when she entered her home and she made her some tea after she had indicated she’d like some. In fact, she remembers Ino’s exact words being, “I’m actually happy you came. My parents won’t mind you being here and I know they won’t get mad at me for having you over like this.”
“I guess they really did punish you this time, huh?”
“Yeah, it wasn’t the same as the first day when I went after Deidara with you. That time around, all they did was try to comfort me and keep a close eye on me. Now I’ve actually been grounded, which is pretty weird after everything. Like, I can’t go to work in the flower shop, I can’t see my friends outside of training or running errands…all I can do is speak to my friends if I see them in public or when I’m heading out to train. Other than that, they want me at home to make sure I’m not going to run after Itachi with someone I’ve talked into it.”
“Geesh, how long are you being grounded for?”
“Today’s my last day, actually, so it’s not too bad.”
“Lucky! My parents wouldn’t have gone so easy on me.”
Ino hands her the tea—a white tea with a soft aroma—and shrugs, “I’m used to punishments like this. My parents are not big on it. They think going hard on discipline creates an environment of distrust, so they’d rather go easy on Deidara and I than hard.”
“Yeah, they always have been that way.” she took a few sips of the tea then, doing all that she could to get that image of Deidara out of her head.
“Oh. I see then.” Naruto then has to ask because he is curious, “Why hasn’t she spoken to anyone lately, though?”
“Because she hasn’t seen anyone while out on errands or training.”
“Where is she now anyway?”
“She’s taking a shower, but I’ll let her know you stopped by.”
She really is taking a shower, but that’s a story she’d rather not think about with her teammate right here.
“Great.” Naruto did seem relieved, but for reasons that escape her at the moment, “I’ll see her tomorrow then. Thanks for letting me know, Sakura!”
She was about to shut the door on him, yet she kept it open for a brief moment longer to tell him, “Yeah, sure…hey, I spoke to Sasuke today and he was really worried over you. Next time, don’t make him so upset; I don’t want to deal with a pissy Uchiha, got it?”
He stares at her wide eyed upon hearing this, “Wow, you really have changed…okay, I’ll be sure to keep that in mind from now on. See you later.”
She does shut the door on him after this, finally free to get back to her time alone with Ino in a house while Naruto is quick to report back to his friends: “Don’t worry, guys! Ino hasn’t been around anyone much because she was grounded after what happened with Itachi!”
Shikamaru accepts this pretty easily, much to Naruto’s surprise, “Lemme guess: they went pretty on easy—as in, way easier than any other parent out there would after what she did.”
“Yeah, all they did was make her not work at the flower shop—”
“Ah, so she got a vacation then? Typical Yamanaka method…”
“and she wasn’t allowed to see her friends, but she could speak to them if she ran into them while out running errands or training.”
He huffed to this, “Again, typical Yamanaka method. Looks like we may have jumped to conclusions guy…though to be sure, we should ask my dad since he’s best friends with Inoichi and he would know what’s going on with that situation better than anyone else.”
Lee can breathe a bit easier to know it was something benign all along, but he won’t feel any relief until they get the confirmation from Shikamaru’s dad. He doesn’t know why, but he has a bad feeling in his gut about this…a bad feeling that he hopes will go away soon.
When Ino’s done with her shower, she is dressed in nothing more than a sleep shirt and some black shorts, her own face still red at the memory of why exactly she needed to leave Sakura alone in her room to take a shower.
It is something she is a tad bit—no, more like extremely embarrassed to think about.
Maybe it’s because she’s on her period, but something about Sakura’s scent when they were in her room, on her bed, talking about what’s been going on this past week for the both of them, had accidentally make her leak a little bit of preslick that Deidara had always said could happen. His advice had been to remove herself from the scene and take a cold or lukewarm shower to make it go away.
He did warn her of this before he left particularly because she had gotten closer to Sakura at the time and they did have a habit of cuddling together, scenting each other. He said such a thing would happen when she gets closer to the age of her first heat, but he also said it was normal to happen to omegas who were taking in the scent of someone they had a rather big crush on in a space where they were too close to them for a bit too long. Of course, she’s not focusing on that aspect—only the horror she felt when Sakura commented on it, "Ino, no offense, but your scent just changed and it’s a strange one I’ve never smelt from you before.”
“Oh…uh…” that was when she felt it and it was just Deidara said it would be: thick, gross, and possessing a strong scent that she could smell on herself, “I have to shower, I’ll be right back.”
“Hey wait, what’s causing this? You’re not dirty or anything, why would you need to shower?”
“It’s nothing, I swear! Just some gross omega period stuff, that’s it!”
It was better than the alternative, but Sakura’s smarter than that so naturally she read right through it, “We both know it’s not that; if it were, your scent wouldn’t have gotten that strong. C’mon, you can tell me anything, I promise I won’t tell anyone!”
“No, really, it’s nothing—” then Sakura placed her hand on her forehead to see if she was sick or not, which led into her letting out some warbled, jumbled mess of a sound that she thinks was supposed to be a purr that came out horrendously wrong, leading Sakura to sort of click it all together, “Are you having preslick right now?”
“W-Why would I? I wouldn’t ever—”
“Ino, don’t lie to me. Your brother never stopped sleeping in your room whenever I spent the night here because you used to cuddle me to take in my scent nonstop. I know all about preslick and I don’t mind it—all I want is for you to be honest about it.”
It was so disgusting because it almost felt like discharge from her period, but thicker and stickier and somehow more endless in the way it was coming.
At the same time, she knew it was pointless to lie any longer. As such, she owned up to it in the only way her instincts would let her. In other words, she muttered a ‘screw it’ underneath her breath, grabbed Sakura by her shoulders, and kissed her with all the awkwardness that comes with attempted passion in a first kiss.
It wasn’t really magical or anything fairytale, storybook worthy like other omegas she knew had said their first kiss was…but she would never deny the sparks she felt or way she was able to feel lighter when prompted to come out with it when Sakura had asked, “You like me back? Since when? I thought you didn’t want to date or be with me as anything more than a friend.”
“It’s just—you’ve changed so much that you’ve become the sort of person I can say I think is hot. You’re no longer sexist, controlling, demeaning, or judgmental—you’ve become open minded, encouraging, freeing, and someone who sees me as an equal enough to actually talk to someone you swore you’d hate for the rest of your days in the past to get advice about how to make things right with me.” she sighed when explaining it further, “Maybe I was forming a crush on you or maybe I had one on you back when Deidara was around and I didn’t know it, but the idea of dating anyone else, being with anyone else that isn’t you—it makes me uncomfortable and almost sick to my stomach. All you’ve done is make me like you too much to hide it anymore with how much you’ve grown.”
She couldn’t meet her eyes, her face was feeling incredibly warm, and she was positive she made a complete idiot of herself.
That was until Sakura cleared her throat and gave her an answer that left her feeling okay about everything enough to meet her eyes, “That’s good—for me, at least, because I still want to date you and be your mate someday if you’ll have me.”
When Ino had no immediate response for it, she told her, “You don’t have to answer me now. Just go on, take your shower, and meet me back in your room. We can talk more about it or about something else if you want—don’t stress out about it. We can always work it out later if you want.”
While she is incredibly grateful that Sakura let her get a change of clothes and rush over to the bathroom without another word being said, it didn’t make things easy on her to confront her when she did return to her room. With a bated breath, she mustered up the courage to face her in the room.
What she didn’t expect was for Sakura to find the letter from her brother and greet her with her hurt being displayed so clearly on her face, “Ino, were you really going to meet him without telling me?”
She glances over in horror at the fact that when getting herself a clean pair of panties, her letter from her brother had fallen out from where she had hidden on the floor alongside the panty she hid it under.
This is not how she expected this conversation to continue on.