In Sasuke's dreams...
It was dark. The sky, the forest, everything. Sasuke could barely see anything, even with the heightened vision given him by the Sharingan. “Ino. What’s your position?” He asked quietly through the radio at his neck.
“Fifty meters north of you. Do you see the target?” How was he supposed to see anything under the thick forest canopy, on the night of a new moon? There weren’t even any fireflies.
“Negative. You?” He was starting to get worried. If they’d missed the rendezvous point, or overshot their timeframe, they would have to try again tomorrow. He hated assassinations. The son of a smalltime daimyo in the Lightening country wasn’t exactly tough to deal with, but the environmental conditions were hell.
“Negative. Wait. I see…something. It’s moving fast. Check your one o’clock. Should be within your interception range in ten seconds.” Ino’s voice sounded tense. What had she seen? He moved in the direction she mentioned, and in the exact amount of time she indicated, he found himself standing face to face with a figure his own height, shrouded in a long, black coat. Upon further inspection, he saw the red clouds, outlined in white, scattered over the coat. Looking up to the figure’s face, he saw only blackness, but knew that he was looking into the eyes of his brother.
“Ah, Sasuke. How nice to see you. I didn’t expect to find you here. Especially with such a…lovely partner.” Itachi’s black-nailed hand reached inside his coat, and pulled Ino from its dark folds. Damn. He should have known that Itachi would have gotten to her, but then, how could he have known? Ino was bound, and she was struggling like mad. He had to give her credit for that. She had guts. Not necessarily brains, but guts, yes. One of Itachi’s hands held a kunai, and it was pressed against Ino’s throat. She made a small whimper, and Itachi leaned down and whispered in her ear, just loud enough for Sasuke to hear, “Don’t squirm, darling. It will all be over soon. Then you and I can have a bit of fun. Won’t that be nice?”
Of course, Ino went still, her eyes widening, and falling onto Sasuke with the “if-you-save-me-I’ll-love-you-forever” look in them. Damn. He hated his brother. Then, suddenly, the light in her eyes changed, and they flicked from Sasuke to Itachi and back again, then blinked a couple of times. She had a plan? Guts, and maybe brains too. That would be nice. So, he kept the man talking for a couple of minutes.
“Before we do this, I want to know something.” Sasuke made his voice sound oh so very angry. He even said this through clenched teeth. “I want you to tell my why. Why did you do it?”
His brother laughed. He laughed long and hard. “Foolish brother. You have no idea the power that you have denied yourself. You could have had the same power I did long ago, but refused it.”
“That’s because I don’t need the Mangekyo Sharingan to defeat you. I can do it on my own, without cheating.” Itachi’s eyes had burned then. They flared, the chakra flowing into them making them glow. “Oh, yes. You’re cheating, Itachi. You couldn’t get stronger on your own, so you killed your best friend to do it. You’re pathetic.” Just then, Ino made her move. Using a variant of the Shintenshin, she paralyzed Itachi, and pulled away from him.
“Ok, Sasuke, it’s now or never.” He looked at her, straining against Itachi’s will. Her face was pained, and she said, “Hurry up! I can only hold this for ten more seconds!” That had him snap out of whatever had been holding him there, staring at her. He went over to his brother, and pulled the katana from his back.
“Gomen, Itachi. I wish you could have been saved. For our clan.” With that, he took Itachi’s head. Ino collapsed to the ground, and Sasuke sagged. He turned to her, chuckled lightly, and said, “That was anticlimactic. I always imagined a huge battle, one that would destroy half the Fire Country.” He slumped down to the ground and leaned against her.
“I guess the daimyo’s son will have to wait?” How did her voice sound so calm? He had carried out one half of his lifelong ambition. For that matter, why wasn’t he doing a little dance of joy? He made an affirmative grunt, and she leaned her head on his shoulder. “You okay?”
“Yeah. Just drained.” They fell asleep just like they were, leaning on each other.
In the morning, with the light filtering through the trees, Sasuke had awakened to find Itachi’s body, and realized that it had not been a dream. He shifted, and lay Ino down gently so that he didn’t wake her. Then, he dragged his brother’s body to the edge of the clearing, and used the Katon Gokkakyu no Jutsu to burn his body. He stood there, watching it burn, and soon heard footsteps behind him. Ino came to stand next to him. “You loved him, didn’t you? When you were little?”
“Hai.”
“That never really dies, you know.” She looked up at him, and scrunched up her nose. “You’ve got his blood all over your face.” Ino then handed him a small canteen and a handkerchief. He wet it and wiped the blood away. She threw the thing onto the makeshift bier, and it burned with Itachi’s body. They stayed there until the body was completely burned, and then buried the ashes. Then they went back to their mission as if nothing had happened.
The daimyo’s son was dead by the afternoon.
--
Ino watched Sasuke toss and turn in his sleep. What was he dreaming about? She could remember being on missions with him when he’d wake up screaming, and she’d have to jump on him and shut him up. That was always frightening. She knew he’d seen and done some horrible things, but she still wondered what went on in his head. He started making noises, and his brow furrowed in distress. From her futon, she could see that he was frightened. What was he dreaming about?
She sat up, and reached out a hand, laying it on his shoulder. He became still, but he was still whimpering. The sounds were so pitiful that Ino couldn’t help but feel for him. Swallowing her dislike for him, she decided to take the high road and be a good person. She scooted closer to him, and sat next to his head. Her hands smoothed his hair, and she made soothing sounds that soon turned into a gentle humming. He became relaxed almost instantly as she began to hum.
She watched as his face became peaceful, and he seemed to be much calmer. When she tried to move, he started whining like a little boy. He looked so…young when he was asleep. It was as if he was ten years old, maybe even less. When he was awake, he seemed much older than he was. Life had done that to him, but he had helped it, too. Again, she moved, and again he made a soft cry, as if he really knew that she was there.
Ino came to the conclusion that if she moved too far away, he would eventually wake up screaming, and she didn’t need that kind of heart attack just now. To avoid any such (extremely unpleasant) occurrence, she pulled her futon over next to his and lay down not more than a foot and a half from him. For a long time, she watched him in the fading light. His skin seemed almost to glow. Her eyes closed, and she remembered back in the bath, when she had been singing, and he had unknowingly joined her. He had sounded so…happy. Her thoughts became fuzzy, and she dozed off, with a rumbling baritone voice floating through her mind.
--
21:00 hours
Day 4, Mission to Tea Country
House of Green Leaves, an inn
There was warmth not far away. It was welcoming, and he reached for it. In the sleepy bliss that blanketed him, he felt himself wrap his arms around the warm thing. It was soft, and smelled nice…like cinnamon... And it was moving, ever so slightly. Moving? Eyes fluttering open, Sasuke found Ino’s face mere inches from his own, sleeping soundly. He was (and this is the understatement of the year) utterly surprised. Had he moved in his sleep? Did he roll onto her futon? After raising his head slightly to find that this was not the case, his mind started to work at a very high rate of speed. What had happened? Jumping to conclusions would be a very bad thing, and he decided that he should just wake her up.
Yet, again, there was the problem of how to do so without her flipping out. He thought long and hard about it, and decided that there was no way to avoid the verbal (and most likely physical) assault he had coming. If he wanted to know what had happened, he was going to have to face her wrath. So, as gently as he could, he moved a sheet of hair that had fallen into her eyes, hooking it behind her ear so that he could see her face. “Ino? Ino, wake up.”
Her eyes opened, hazy blue, still half asleep. She seemed confused. “Sasuke?”
“Um, Ino, I have a question.” For the first time in a very long while, he blushed, ever so slightly. The room was darkened, so she wouldn’t have seen it (but still, he blushed!). He still hadn’t really stopped holding her. The hand that had pushed her hair out of the way was resting lightly on her shoulder, and Sasuke still had his arm under her body. “How did you get so…um, that is to say, why are you so close to me?”
Now completely awake, she smiled slightly. “You remember how until the mission six months ago when you killed Itachi—“
Sasuke frowned, “When we killed him.”
Rolling her eyes, she continued without amending herself, “—you would wake up screaming?” He nodded, and his frown deepened. Those had not been good dreams, and he hated having to depend on her to calm him when they happened. “You would always start whining in your sleep before you’d start screaming. I heard you whining, and I calmed you down, even though you were asleep.” Sasuke eyed her appraisingly. He was unsure what to make of that. “Then I tried to lay down on my futon, and you started making those awful noises again. Any time I moved, you’d sound like you were about to cry, or scream, or both. I didn’t want you to scream, Sasuke. It scares me when you do.”
She looked away from him. So, she had been concerned? Or was it just that she didn’t want to deal with the annoyance? His thoughts moved in a downward spiral from there, each darker and more self-pitying than the last, but then Ino said, “I have a question, too.” He snapped his eyes back to her face. “What are you doing?” Her eyes fell to his hand, still on her shoulder, now absently playing with the soft cotton of her yukata’s sleeve. His eyes widened, and snatched both of his hands away so quickly that she was rolled onto her back. “Ahgh. Did you have to do that? I was actually pretty comfortable.”
Sasuke blinked, staring at her. “I thought you didn’t want me anywhere near you.”
“I never said that.”
“I thought you hated me?” He had to either confirm or allay his fears in some way, and this seemed the best method.
“Sasuke, I was, and I suppose still am, very angry with you. I don’t hate you.” How could that be? She was so utterly angry before, he was sure that she hated him. Had he been mistaken, or was she lying? There was one sure way to find out, but he was scared to try. He nearly laughed at himself. If Naruto could see him now, he would be laughing. Uchiha Sasuke, Ice Prince Extraordinaire, was scared to death of Yamanaka Ino. One might ask why he was frightened. There were multiple reasons, actually. The first, and most obvious, was the fear of bodily injury. While he was much stronger than her, he knew she fought dirty. Secondly, there was emotional risk involved. He was much more ready to gamble with his life than his feelings. And the list went on from there.
Fear, anxiety, and a life of solitude were all weighing down on him then, and with Ino looking at him like that, as if he were a real friend, someone she could trust…his brain just stopped working altogether. “I’m sorry,” He said, miserably. Though, had anyone else but Ino heard it, they would only have heard a slightly raspy tinge to his voice, so that he sounded as if he had a frog in his throat. She blinked. And blinked again. How in the world could Uchiha Sasuke ever apologize? That seemed to be the question written in her eyes as she turned back onto her side. “I’m sorry I spied on you, Ino.”
“Why did you?” Her voice was almost sulky.
“Curiosity. I wanted to understand you better.” She opened her mouth, but before she could speak, he said, “I wanted to know why I was so unimportant to you all of a sudden.” She nodded slowly, understanding. But she said nothing for a long moment, just looking at him. He felt as if she were coming to some kind of conclusion about him.
“So…” She said slowly, enunciating her words carefully, “You were insecure, because I stopped acting like an idiot just to get your attention?” He frowned at her as she said this, but grudgingly nodded. “Oh, that’s funny, Sasuke. Okay. Let me explain this to you in terms that your man-brain can understand. I am me. I stopped being Sakura’s twin a long time ago, so obviously I wouldn’t act like her. Hell, even she stopped acting like her after you left. That doesn’t mean that I don’t like you. You just make me so…angry sometimes. It’s like you feel that everyone has been put here for your amusement. I’m not a toy for you to play with, Sasuke. Do you understand that?”
He nodded. “Truce?”
Ino smiled. “Truce. Now let’s get back to sleep so we can wake Sakura up bloody early in the morning!” Her smile turned evil at this last, and she let out a malevolent chuckle.
Sasuke had no objection to that. But when Ino moved her futon back to where it had been, he had to hide a small frown of disappointment. She wasn’t the only one who felt comfortable the way they had been. He lay down, facing the window, and covered himself with his blankets. “Good night, Ino.”
“Good night, Sasuke.” He heard this, but the proximity of the sound seemed wrong to him. It was right next to his ear. He started slightly, and then felt something soft and warm press against his cheek. Had the room not been dark, there would be, for the world to see, a dark flush staining his cheeks. She had given him a good night kiss. His hand strayed to the tiny patch of skin that her lips had grazed. In minutes, he was asleep, a tiny smile on his own lips.
--
06:30 hours
Day 5, Mission to Tea Country
10 kilometers to Fire Country Border
Sakura yawned. “Why the hell did you wake me up so early? It’s not like we needed to rush. Our mission was easy. I don’t even know what people were worrying about. And I need my beauty sleep, damn it!” Both of her companions seemed to be trying not to laugh.
“Sakura,” Sasuke’s voice cut through the air at her as they ran through the treetops, “it was your idea that we deviate from our original plan. We’re well rested. What were you doing all night?” Oh, he was definitely trying not to laugh (just looking at his smirk was making her want to knock his head off). Finally, he stopped smirking, and said, “If we hurry, we can be home by sunset. Come on.” He ran ahead, and the girls had to push themselves to catch up. Once they did, the small group fell into a rhythm, and did not stop until they were within sight of the gates of Konohagakure.
“Oh, come on, forehead-woman. You can make it.” Ino panted, and dragged Sakura away from the tree she was leaning on. How did she keep up with Sasuke like that? He was almost as much of a stamina freak as Naruto. Of course, her friend had been going on missions with Sasuke for a lot longer than she did when they were on the same team. Once the Hokage found a team that worked, she tended to keep them together until one of them died, retired, or the partnership went sour.
“No, really, Ino, I can’t move.” Sakura swatted Ino’s hands away, and was surprised with the blonde woman scooped her up and slung her onto her back. Apparently, Ino wasn’t keen on stopping.
“I want to eat dinner in my apartment tonight, Sakura.” She started toward the gates at a low trot, and Sasuke fell in next to her as she carried Sakura.
“I can carry her if you want.” He said quietly. Ino shook her head. “If you insist, but as soon as she starts getting too heavy, let me know.” Sakura was not a little affronted by this comment, but it was clearly not meant for her to hear, so she kept her mouth shut. She was just glad that her little plan had worked. While the room-switching thing had been a little blatant, she knew that Sasuke had never suspected her Henge. It was almost more than she could stand to be in the men’s bath. It was just a good thing that there was just she and Sasuke in there.
Ino soon deposited Sakura in front of her house, and Sasuke grunted, “Mission report tomorrow, at noon,” before the two of them simply disappeared, using a teleportation jutsu. How they had that kind of chakra left, she would never know.
--
18:00 hours
Home of Uchiha Sasuke
“You okay, Sasuke?” Ino asked, flopped on the couch. She wiggled her nose, and he nearly laughed at her. It reminded him of the tiny gray rabbit that he had as a very small boy. The little bunny had a habit of wriggling its nose, and he had thought that the gesture was the absolute most disgustingly cute thing in the world. On Ino, it just seemed funny.
“I’m fine. What’s with the twitch?” He was lying in the middle of the hardwood floor, letting his back settle. It had been a while since he’d done the whole ‘run-all-day-until-you-get-home’ thing, and his back was killing him.
“Oh.” She grinned sheepishly. “I smell. Bad.” That did make him laugh. A semi-awkward silence followed, and she got up from where she had been half-lying on the couch. “I guess I’ll go home now. I have got to take a shower.” She made to leave, but Sasuke caught her ankle. Looking back and down at him, she said, “Yes?”
He let go of her ankle and pushed himself into a sitting position. There was that same fear again. Sasuke’s stomach seemed to clench, and his heart tried to stop. [Calm down. You’re friends. She won’t completely freak out.] Once he’d convinced himself of this, he said, “Stay?” She blinked down at him. Her expression was completely unreadable.
“Why?” This was the really big question, and one that Sasuke wasn’t really prepared to answer, even to himself. [Shit. I never have been good with words.] He reached up and pulled her hand until she was sitting down as well. Then he (very awkwardly) drew her close to him in a tight embrace.
“Because I want you to. Please?” The last bit was so low and whispered that he was sure she hadn’t heard it.
“Well, if you put it that way...But no peeking while I’m in the shower.” He was so shocked by this that after he pulled away from her, he failed to see the amusement in her eyes.
“What? I wouldn’t! I mean, that is—“
“Chill out, moron. I was just kidding. Is it somewhere in the Uchiha family code that you can’t have a sense of humor?” She stood up. “I need a shower, and I need one now. Where is it?” He jumped to his feet, and led her down a hallway to he master bathroom. It was large, the walls painted a dark blue, with a separate shower and bathtub, both with gleaming white tile, as well as a long black marble dressing counter. Ino raised an eyebrow. “Nice. Do you have any clothes I could borrow? All of mine are dirty.” Sasuke started. He hadn’t thought of that.
“Hm. Wait here. I’ll go see if I can find anything that would actually fit you.” He ran to his bedroom and started rifling through his drawers. In the end, he found (for reasons unknown to him) one of the oldest t-shirts he owned, one from when he was a genin. The other piece of clothing he found for her was also from his genin days. Everyone would recognize his signature white shorts. Both were a little worn now, but they were the only things he had that wouldn’t fall off of her. Once he’d gotten these things, he went back to the bathroom.
He found the place filled with steam, and a vague pinkish shape in the glass shower stall. Sasuke averted his eyes, just to be safe. “Um, Ino? I found you some stuff to wear. I’ll just leave it on the counter.” He nearly stammered. And, he was blushing again. He really needed to get control of himself. However, just when he thought things couldn’t possibly get any worse, the door to the shower started swinging open. He heard it, but he couldn’t move. “Ino, wait. I’m still in the—“
She stepped out of the shower, wrapped up in a towel. [Oh, thank you, Kami-sama.] He pointed at the clothes on the counter wordlessly and left the room as quickly as he could. Sasuke thought he heard her laughing as he walked down the hall to his room again. When he got there, he stripped himself of his jounin uniform, and threw it on the floor. It was beyond soiled, but he didn’t even have the will to put it in the hamper. Walking into his own small bathroom, he turned on the shower and stepped in. The water felt wonderful.
For what seemed like hours, he simply stood under the spray, feeling it so hot against his skin it nearly burned him, but still making him want to stay there. Finally, he took up a wash cloth and the soap, and cleaned away the grime of the day’s travel, then washed his hair, only getting a tiny bit of shampoo in his eyes. After turning off the water, Sasuke reached out of the shower curtain to get his towel, only to find it missing. His frown appeared, and he stuck his head out of the shower. Then, he remembered. He hadn’t gotten a towel at all.
As he grumbled to himself about being a moron and how it was cold in the house, he trudged to the door, next to which was a cabinet where he kept the towels. He dried himself, then wrapped it around his waist, heading into his bedroom to get into something comfortable for bed. Bed. That sounded really good. He was growing more and more weary by the moment. Finally settling on a dark gray pair of cotton pajama pants and a sweatshirt that Naruto had given him for his birthday (on the front was, in large print, “I’m a Bunshin. He went that way,” with an arrow that pointed to the left) which Sasuke had nearly fallen down laughing at. He wore it when he went jogging. More than one fangirl had been (against all reason) fooled, and he needed to remember to thank the moron later.
Now warm and comfortable, he left his room and went in search of Ino. He found her in the kitchen, raiding the refrigerator. “Ugh…” He heard her say.
“I haven’t cleaned that for a while, now. Maybe we could order?” She closed the refrigerator door, and Sasuke blinked. The door had been blocking his view of her, except for her head and shoulders. Now, he saw that maybe his regular clothes would have been better to give her. The shirt was extremely tight, and the shorts…how did they get that short? Trying his best to ignore the fact that he would never be able to look at those clothes the same way, he pulled three menus from the refrigerator door.
The first, Ichiraku Ramen, was ruled out, simply because they didn’t feel like it. Then there was the Korean Barbeque, which was also ruled out, because Ino went there often enough with Chouji. That left the Blue Dragon. Sasuke picked up his telephone and, before dialing, asked, “What would you like?”
Ino stared at the menu, and it looked like she was about to fall asleep. Finally, she said, “Yakisoba. What are you getting?”
“Oh, I usually order off of the Chinese menu. Steamed dumplings and sesame chicken are good together, but I’m really hungry, so I’m getting the vegetable fried rice, too.” She peered over at him, an amused smile on her face. “What?”
“You must be hungry. They always give you a hell of a lot of food.” He just stuck out his tongue at her and then smiled and proceeded to order the food. An hour later, they were sitting on the floor in the living room, and Ino kept stealing his dumplings. “You were right, Sasuke. This stuff is good.” He shoved her away from his food.
“Eat your yakisoba, piggy. You leave my dumplings alone.” As he wagged a finger at her, she leaned her head to one side, and then picked up another dumpling and threw it at his head. Shifting very slightly, he caught it in his mouth. “Thanks!” He said after he was done chewing it. “You’re so considerate, Ino.” He gave his best smirk, and it had the desired effect. She huffed, and crossed her arms under her breasts. This allowed him to eat the last dumpling. His plan had worked brilliantly.
That is, it worked brilliantly until Ino decided to tackle him. She landed on him, squarely against his chest, and he couldn’t breathe. He fell backward and hit his head on the floor, his vision going blurry for a moment. As he blinked and tried to get his air back, he saw her grinning down at him in triumph. Oh, she fought dirty. “Itai…you know, I don’t think I like the direction this is going.” He sighed, then took her wrists and pinned them at her sides. “You need to chill out, Ino. My head hurts, I’m tired, and I’m getting slightly annoyed.”
“Oh, I’m really scared, Sasuke. Besides, this is fun.” He raised an eyebrow. How was it fun when he had her trapped? Of all the women for him to be stuck with, why did it have to be her? She was strange, loud, and just plain crazy at times. Sasuke let go of her and gently pushed her off of himself. He gave up on trying to analyze the situation, and took the empty containers his food had been in and brought them to the kitchen where he could throw them away. Ino’s footsteps followed, and she put her leftovers in the refrigerator.
“I’m going to bed.” He said, his annoyance still clinging to the edge of his voice.
“Where am I going to sleep?” She asked, a curious expression on her face. Damn. He hadn’t thought of that.
“Um, there’s the couch, and there’s my bed. The rest of the rooms are all dusty.” He tried very hard not to sound like he had planned this, which was a good thing, since he really hadn’t. She looked over his shoulder at the couch, and her brow furrowed.
“Where are you sleeping?”
“My bed, of course.” He was confused. Where had she thought he would be sleeping. Oh, she thought he was going to take the couch. “I’m not nice enough to give up my entire bed, Ino. If you want to share, I’m fine with that, but that couch is really hell on my back.” She snorted, and made a shooing gesture, meaning that he should lead the way to his bedroom. He knew he was sulking, but he couldn’t really help it. When you’re used to getting your own way like Sasuke was, when you don’t (and this is meaning his dumplings…he was still hungry), you have a slight tendency to be grumpy.
When they got to his room, Ino looked around. He had never let her in here before. In fact, the only person besides him who ever had permission to come in here since he got back was Naruto (on the extremely off chance that he ever overslept). The room was relatively small. It was the same one he’d had since he was a little boy, though it had been repainted. His mother had painted cats onto the walls when he was four, and he loved them, but they reminded him too much of things that hurt. The walls were now a dusty grayish blue. His bed dominated the room, which wasn’t surprising. It was more than two meters wide, and there were times when he had to roll six times until he got to the edge.
Sasuke saw her looking at the mess on the floor, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. He was just too tired. After he checked the windows, he flopped down onto the bed, immediately crawling under the covers. Ino laughed quietly. “That’s so cute it makes me want to puke.” Peeking out from where he’d burrowed into the blankets, he saw her smiling at him.
“Are you going to come to bed, or not?” He asked, impatient to have the lights off.
--
Ino flipped the light switch, and now the only illumination was coming from the moon outside. She padded over to the opposite side of the bed, and slid in, a full four feet from where Sasuke lay. He was so amusing! She made a mental note to thank Sakura for being a meddler by nature. If she hadn’t meddled with Sasuke and herself, she’d probably still be mad at him. When did she stop being angry with him? It didn’t matter, really. All that really made any difference was that she was in a warm bed, and her state of mind wasn’t as chaotic anymore.
The bed, though she would like to think of it as warm, actually wasn’t. It was rather cold, as most large beds tend to be. Soon, she found herself scooting over toward Sasuke. His sleepy voice said, “What’re you doing, Ino?”
“Trying to keep warm. It’s freezing in here.” He’d given her the absolute smallest set of clothes he had, which fit her just fine, but they were not exactly warm. He grunted and allowed her to do as she wished. He was warm, to say the least. It would be more accurate to say that he was like a human furnace. Closing her eyes, Ino snuggled into the warmth around Sasuke. Sighing happily, she fell asleep in short order.
--
Sasuke wondered what in the world he was supposed to do. He had another person (a woman, at that) in his bedroom. Someone else was in his personal, private space. Not only that, she was sleeping right next to him. Ino was probably the one person besides Naruto and Sakura that he really trusted, but with her it was a different kind of trust. Yes, they had been through hell together, but there was more than just the kind of bond that he had with Naruto from saving his ass (and getting his own saved). Or, at least, that’s what Sasuke would like to think.
Long before his brain shut down for the night, he decided that he, in all honesty, simply didn’t care if she kicked the crap out of him when she woke up. His arms slid around her and pulled her close, giving her warmth in exchange for the comfort that he got from her. “Good night, Ino. Sleep well.”
--
08:00 hours
Home of Uchiha Sasuke
“Hey, Sakura-chan, look at that.” Naruto nearly giggled as he pointed through the window at a large lump in Sasuke’s bed. The lump had two heads. One with hair black as night, and the other the color of pale sunlight. “Should we wake them up?” Sakura shook her head, and Naruto pouted. He was glad that Sasuke seemed happy. The guy was practically smiling in his sleep. Sakura, for her part, seemed pretty smug herself. He narrowed his eyes at her. “Sakura-chan, what’s going on, anyway?”
“Oh, not much, Naruto. I just gave them a little push.”
“You mean you tricked them into liking each other again.” He chuckled and stepped back from the window. “Well, whatever you did, it looks like it worked.” He and Sakura walked out of the Uchiha compound together, and later met up with Neji and Hinata. Naruto, of course, couldn’t keep his mouth shut about what he’d seen.
--
Bright light. That was the first thought she had. It was very bright. When she opened her eyes, she found herself staring at black cloth. This turned out to be Sasuke’s shirt, which she was pressed against. She was also rather trapped, since his arms were fully around her. Ino’s head was on his shoulder, and his chin rested on the top of her head. It was altogether the most comfortable position she’d ever woken up in. However comfortable it may be, she was starving, and the sun was bright enough that it was time for them to get up anyway.
“Sasuke. Sasuke, wake up.” After poking him in the stomach, he began to stir. When he moved his head, she looked at him, and smiled. He never had been a morning person. “Good morning, sunshine.” He rolled his eyes at this, and tried to close his eyes again to go back to sleep. “Oh, no. If I’m awake, so are you. Come on. We need to get up. Mission report in probably no more than two or three hours.” He still didn’t respond. “What do I have to do to wake you up, baka?” That caused a low, rumbling chuckle to come from him.
He leaned his head down and kissed her forehead, smiling slightly. “Nothing. I’m already up.”
“Liar.” She accused. “Don’t make me drag you out of bed, Uchiha. I’ll do it.” Ino started kicking him toward the edge of the bed, but he locked her legs with his and stopped her kicking.
“Now, that’s not how I wanted to start my day, Ino.” She craned her neck up so that she could look at his face. How could such a simple statement seem so suggestive? [Oh, that’s right. It’s Sasuke. Everything he does is like that. Especially when he looks at me like that.] She suddenly felt very uncomfortable, and tried to push away from him, but the grip he had on her was like steel. “I won’t bite…” He said this softly, slowly, and with such a seductive tone that she had a hard time just keeping herself from turning into a puddle of mush.
“Sasuke? Ano—“ Ino was interrupted when he leaned over to her again, and actually thought that her brain had turned literally to mush. Sasuke’s lips took hers in a gentle kiss that said ‘good morning’ and ‘why get up?’ at the same time. She didn’t know why, but she felt tears rolling from her eyes. He pulled away from her, and she was taken aback, because… “Sasuke, you’re blushing?”
“So are you.” He smirked.
He was right. She shrugged. “So I am. Is it a problem?”
Sasuke shook his head. “Not for me.”
--
A/N: So what did you think? Let me know! I don't usually like Sasuke and Ino together, but I somehow loved this idea.
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Chapter notes: Ok. Here's the last bit. I like this chapter soooo much. It doesn't make me like Sasuke any more than I did before, but I like the chapter. Warnings: dark Itachi behavior and Sasuke killing Itachi, and complete unadulterated fluff at the end. Sorry. It had to be done. Sue me. Things to have fun with in this chapter: Sasuke gets cranky because Ino-pig eats his dumplings (no, that is NOT a sexual reference...get your heads out of the gutter!), Sasuke blushing, and just utter fluffy goodness.
Legal Stuffiness: I don't own Naruto or any of the characters therein. Kisimoto Masashi, sole proprietor. He also owns my soul.