An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
figured i might as well upload all my recent drabbles to one place so they’re nice and organised and on a more reader-friendly site than tumbles, so here they are! (i forgot to post the link when i actually did this but better late than never)
Naruto FemSlash Week Day 3 - Unrequited - SakuHina
Warnings; angst, Neji is alive, onesided SakuHina, mentions of SasuSaku and NaruHina, NejiTen. It was always like this. The hangouts of Konoha 13 were bland, making Hinata enjoy them even less when Sasuke actually showed up. She didn't have anything about the last survivor of the Uchiha clan, she only bore a great sadness, because there was no way that Uchiha Sasuke wouldn't sit without someone pestering him. That 'someone' was Haruno Sakura. Hinata's sadness and dissapointment were imminent as she noticed her life long crush once again talk excitedly with Sasuke, her vivid pools crinkling at the edges and revealing the small wrinkles that begun to form from overworking and stressing out. Hinata had an urge to smooth them out, and even, if she possessed the bravery, kiss her nose, that scrunched up when Sasuke said something particularly unpleasant or sarcastic. She wondered which stars coupled to make the amount of beauty that resulted in her creation. Stark beauty of her smile and laughter made Hinata's face heat up to abnormal levels. People mistakened her love for the medic for affection directed towards the Jinchuuriki, and they couldn't be more wrong. Only Neji sensed otherwise. And when he did so, he would have an excuse for the two Byakugan users having to take their leave immediately. Naruto and Ino would call them party poopers, but the other Doujutsu user would 'hn', along with Tenten, who would just have more reason to sulk for her boyfriend leaving. When they walk out of the barbeque, it is safe territorry to ask. Neji is particularly gentle on such occassions. Weirdly so, but Hinata cherishes it with every cell of hers. "Hinata-sama, do you... still feel heartbroken over Sakura?" when he speaks these words, his Byakugan, white and bland as always actually shows a sprinkle of silver. Unlike Hinata's, whose was sparkling with unshed tears. "Neji-nii... yes... it does very much so... I, I don't know if I'm alive or not some days." "I see." He frowns, as if in deep thought, and his Byakugan activates, Hinata feeling invaded. "Your chakra is akin to the one of a sick man. I deduce further from this that you shoud tell her how you feel, before it all becomes meaningless and you cannot change her mind anymore. A mere, 'I will think about it', from the younger Hyuuga, and they part their ways. Hinata's legs feel like they are made of marble – she must carry it but never damage in any way. Why was it that her emotions revolved so strongly around the brave young woman so much after the war? During, she had kept her cool and remained flat-faced, emptying her heart for anything else other than fighting White Zetsu at the time. Her existence wasn't certain, her life perhaps ending in a few hours, or even before the next sunrise. So she endured. But when she seen the Team 7 emerge afterwards, after they defeated the famed ancestor of both Hyuuga, Uchiha and Senju, Hinata's heart burst with joy, unbeliavably so. Pride was intermingled with – her treasured soul perhaps wanting to merge with Sakura's, for them to feel the same. But life was cruel to the young heiress. Not a lot could be done at this point, so all Hinata looked forward too was the next morning, and her training with Neji. She had mastered her Twin Lion fists, the ones with whom she saved both Naruto and Neji with. She has made unbelievable progress and chosen to prove herself to her clan, reclaiming the supposed place of the heiress of the clan head. She had beaten Hanabi and made Jounin, clearly showing that she wanted to change the Hyuuga. Together with Neji, that is. Hearing about all of her achievements, Sakura beamed proudly at the darker haired female, hugging her in solidarity, the hug platonic, but everything Hinata needed at the moment – somewhat of a madness it was, loving someone who didn't love you back and allowing the fact to hurt you. So Hinata wept that night, because tomorrow, she will have the strength to confess. 0===0 Quiet morning was a familiar thing at the Hyuuga residence. Hinata wondered what Sakura's mornings were filled with. Did she wake up in a warm bed or with her back hurting at some hospital chair. She would bring her breakfast, perhaps even prompt her to go out, and take a brief walk. Then she would return to her residence and train. Train her heart out, just like she planned to do now. The training was taxing, but she needed the exaustion to tether her to the Earth before she ran to Sakura's apartment and confessed, particularly poured her soul out. And the evening when she would go and confess came. It looks like things run past all too well and all to quick when one keeps themselves busy. Hinata didn't want to think about the negative results, nor get her hopes up. She pretended she was going for a rapport, something fact-based and clinical. As Hinata passed Hanabi and her father, who smiled curtly (ever since grandfather died he has become more pleasant) and nearly ran to the still bustling streets of Konoha. While walking to the apartment of the pinkette, she actually shook in her tracks – her arms giving up, but she clenched – both her fists and her heart. The Hokage tower was near her apartment, so Tsunade-sama could call upon her greatest student when needed. The brown building rose up, and up, but Hinata couldn't be bothered with admiring Konoha's architecture. She entered the building nimbly, concealing her chakra. She felt a bile rise up her throat – but she decided, today is the day. The day that I leave it all behind, or make an unbreakable vow. The one set of stairs that led to Sakura Haruno's apartment was the longest flight of stairs Hyuuga Hinata ever had to pass. She even counted them – just to move her lips and occupy her brain. She noticed the cracks that were inflicted by the tooth of time, even if Konoha was rebuild years ago, there were tainted surfaces and slight cracks; she counted those, too. Reaching the door and cupping her own cheek, she knocked loudly, three curt times. There was a shout of, 'I'm coming!' and the lily-haired kunoichi towered over Hinata in no time. "Oh, Hina-chan!" She had that wide smile on, the one thing in this world that sometimes kept Hinata going. Her cheeks would puff out real nice, so the softness would seem to spill over the rims of her soft face, and crow's feet would form. Adoration that would spell out a shy, dorky smile on the Doujutsu user's face, as she entered, the exaustion dissolving from her feet and bones immediately. "So, what brings you here? I didn't expect you to come over." Hinata remembers that she jus tinvited herself over, and wanted to slap herself. "I-I'm sorry if I interrupted you in anything, I didn't mean to-" "Hinata," Sakura shook her head once more, "it's alright. Now what do you need?" Hinata blushed furiously, taken aback by the kindred soul across her. "I-well I..." she knew this would be tough. Actually saying it out loud – she had practiced many times with Neji, more than the Revolving Heaven these days, to say, 'Sakura-san, I harbor these feelings of love and affection towards you! Please accept them!', but nothing could prepare her for the actual moment of truth. "Hinata, please. If you'd-" "The truth is Sakura, that I don't know what to say." Tears fall. Gush. Tremble. Are reborn and die on her mouth – cheeks – neck. The subconcious drawing of the fucked up universe. "I know that I love you, first of all. I would die for you. And I said these words so many times in front of a mirror, it was insane. So, so even if you never love me back, I will always be by your side! 'Till the day I die! Because you are so strong, brave, intelligent, and you never stop amazing me, and I am proud of your achievements and development! Haruno Sakura, I love you very much and I hope you will give me a shot!" Silence. All except for the steady trickle of Hinata's tears down her pale cheeks – hollow eyes searching for an answer. Sakura looks as if she had been pierced by a Chidori – a thing likely to never happen, but the expression of amazement and horror was etched deeply into Hinata's mind from then. Eternities passed. Sakura gathered her hands in her lap, slightly trembling. Hinata waited for her lips to form an answer – and then, heavier than the Sun, Sakura speaks, "I can't." Hinata sinks. Everything in her burns – then rots – then slowly dies. What? Somehow everyhthing in Hinata sinks and darkens, blasting sanity away for a hundred feet. She doesn't know how she gets out, she doesn't know where she's going or where she's been, all she knows is that she is far away from home, perhaps even from Konoha, and that she is so weak. She spends the night in a nightmare. 0===0 Neji carried her, as it turns out. He had been caring for her for three days – and deceived the rest of the Hyuuga well. Hinata thinks the rehabilitation period is disgusting. Sakura was already in a relationship with Uchiha Sasuke, and Hinata's heart broke finally at its seams. Her Byakugan wouldn't activate, since there was no clarity of heart. Just a voidal hole in her chest – all consuming and inherently familiar. She thinks that it will come to pass, but it never does. Not even when she marries Naruto, just because. Not when she watches the renewed Uchiha Clan, its greatness shunning both Uzumaki and Hyuuga, which changed from the root. But Hinata watches from a distance. She and Sakura don't talk nearly as much, their connections and comunnications limited. So Hinata enjoys the heartbreak. Arises again. Repeats.
Warnings; implications of sex and homophobia. Sasuke Uchiha, the ruler of the Five Great Nations, together with his brother by the sword, Uzumaki Naruto, ruled the Five Great Nations and the smaller ones that surrounded the Great ones. Sasuke was a man of great strength, had a beautiful wife, and together, the two couples were the ones recognized as the most powerful – in diplomacy and actual combat. There was, however a catch, in his life – his wife had a female lover, Sai Shimura's Ino. In an arranged marriage the Uchihas greatly encouraged, everything was to be expected, and only the fiercest female warriors were to be the wives of the Uchiha. Sasuke wasn't either sad, furious, or svayed. He acknowledged the relationship fully and allowed it – under two conditions: Sai was not to find out, and Sakura would have to produce him an heir. Sasuke was not in love with Sakura in any way or bore feelings of any nature other than philial and platonic. So Sakura Uchiha, nee Haruno was in a great push-shove situation. Sneaking around with Ino was always a delight, eating ice and fruit in the Royal Chambers, and then even licking at each other, feverish love making that was a special feast to these two women – who loved each other madly. Ino brought Sakura the finest silk and clad her in the most beautiful purple garments, encasing them in amethyst. All the while Sakura loved to see Ino just in skin and warmth – both free from their husbands in the moments they spend together, cuddling naked, indulging only in each others' presence. It would be truly a fairytale if I could say the two noblewomen hid their relationship like this for an eternity, the strongjawed Sai Shimura never finding out. But sadly, I cannot, so I shall tell you of the terror his small Village Hidden in Roots wanted to shower upon Konoha. - A soft, late summer day. Ino layed in Sakura's strong embrace, both seated in matching blue dresses – jewels adorning their ears. The shade of the strong oak that was covering their forms was godgiven. "What are you thinking about, Sakura? The blonde, as always is the more assertive and dominant of the two. Cancellation of their own feelings to this arrangement was neccessary. "Nothing in kind, Ino. Just... things about our kingdom." "Huh?" "The false peace we have created with your Village and the Faction of Stone and Grass? Will it last?" We cannot know... and yet so many things are there that we do not know. I am afraid of a war, even through I was raised to fight." "I have the same feelings, sweetness." Ino has a stern, unmoving expression now. "How?" "I fear my husband suspects something... not about us, but, well... you know that Danzo is his father. With him alive, there will never be peace. Sakura knows. She has met the disgusting old man that had fathered Sai with a young Uchiha, Izumi. He murdered her in cold blood after Sai was born, since she had no other purpose to him. Of course Sasuke was furious, wanting to slaughter Danzo, but was powerless without any hard proof. "Ino... we will be alright in the midst of all this adversity. We have to be." "We will, and after everything is settled and we bear and birth the respective heirs, we will raise them old enough to understand and run away together." "Ah! That sounds wondrous!" Sakura gets excited and sad, the strange mix rendering her temporarily useless. Ino's kiss sobers her up, her hand chaste on the back of her head but not for long; it runs over the arch of Sakura's spine, staying at her lower back, the other sinking into the tresses of pink and on the strange sun, sprinkles of lilac. They kiss more, tongues intwining at this point – both starving for each other, both weeping at the distance, Ino feels like the closeness doesn't put out her fire, but it heightens the heat and makes the flames grow. "What are these actions, belonging to a heretic!" The two jolt, like two magnets of the same poles, away from each other. The man who spotted them was Sai. Heavens eat me, Sakura thought, her heavy dress forcing her to the ground. Or was it the fact that their secret is out? "I have thought that my wife had an affair with the younger one, the dumb Uzumaki! But no! It was the Uchiha's wife! What filth is it so great that you two are capable of such demonic acts!" He acts as if he saw something unforgivable, something disgusting, like a shitstain on his silk clothes. "You are going with me woman! And I shall behead you in the Land Of Root!"He reached down to the parted women, harshly throwing Sakura away, pulling Ino by the long blonde hair and rolling her in the grass like a pig. She struggled, but it was no use. Then Sai seethed something and pulled the small blade out. Everything strung loose and confused in Sakura from there on. Sakura acted on reflex, her limbs moving at the accord and existence of an another being possessing her. She was pulled by a strange force, removing the emergency knife on her inner thigh from its sheath and as Sai was ready to stab Ino's crystal blue eye – Sakura stabbed him. In his left side brain. The blood gushed, but Sakura did not quite register his death, life, or yelling. It was only white noise, just noise, Ino gripped her somehow, and they ran for their lives, their dresses ripping and Ino making Sakura move because Sakura could not run as fast as she usually did – she had killed Sai of the Root and there was no turning back. "Ino, INO!" She yelled at the blonde, and they stopped just when they sighted the castle. The blonde turned around forcefully, dragging the rosette to at least walk – she knew that it was a rough patch they walked into. More like hell, anyway. "We cannot face my husband." "Sasuke won't be mad. He knows that this was a matter of life or death. He would kill you, too, if you hadn't killed him first." Sakura knew that the pig would do exactly that, but she still could not shake off the terrifying guilt she felt. Ino's soft footsteps reminded her that she still had some semblance of normalcy; everything will just royally fuck up itself from here. "I will carry you, and we run to the castle. Understand?" Sakura didn't have time or conciousness to answer, because she has fainted, and in the darkness – no guilt existed. - She was in an all too bright room, Sasuke was peeling oranges for her next to her head. She opened her mouth to speak, but Sasuke shoved some of the orange into her mouth before she could mutter the question. Sasuke had a knack for foretelling all of Sakura's questions, so when she saw Ino get in the room, the blonde feeling pure relief when Sakura's perfect emerald orbs stared at her, and was hugging her in a few seconds flat. Sasuke's eyes however had relief and tiredness mixed in them, albeit he spoke, he done so with a defeating heaviness. "Sakura," he stopped, the time waiting for no one, "we are at war."
Day 7: Free day! Tenten goes out shopping with Hinata, but actually doesn’t make it any easier to pick the right outfit since she thinks everything her gf tries on looks perfect
Naruto FemSlash Week 2017 - Day 2 - First Kiss - SakuKarin
Small.
Smaller.
Smallest.
The roots have been crushed in small pieces, the wood ripped clean – Sakura’s doing. Karin’s soft movements exceed by the bareness of this holy ground. When Sakura’s training ended – she thought it to be equally as destructive as Sasuke’s. Ground bare. Sky screaming. Animals running away because those humans were walking disasters. Althrough she didn’t trust Sasuke (how could she again, Karin’s bones were brittle, she had always bit her tongue and torched her dreams – a mind made of thorns and secrecy), she had trusted – no – loved Sakura with an overwhelming force.
Spending those days in the cursed, wretched hospital, healing from the dark-haired nin’s lightning jutsu, Sakura shown kindness that had Karin weeping after the rosette would exit the room. Does it hurt Karin-san? Would you like me to not look now? It’s still a private part. Can you do this, please?
The amount of kindness displayed was… weird… fucked up even. Because how can one live and coexist with such kindness and not grow attached to it? It seemed as if thr affection she held for the youngest Uchiha never existed.
She would ask her if she wanted to go hang out, talk, or train. She would learn her favorite drinks and foods – she would learn to play Karin’s favorite melodies on the ocarina. She had beautiful fingers which held even the most deadly poison or weapon with a certain gentleness. She had a gorgeous smile, and her laughter wasn’t like a sound of thousand crystal bells – it was loud, proud and rang though her cavities, filling up the room with warmth and Sun, healing Karin’s old scars, making them meld into her forgotten skin.
So when the redhead, equally as red eyes mixed like red velvet, almond shaped with a tinkle of spun gold in them, arrived at the place where the gentle kunoichi trained, the heavily clad one – as for the winter not to bite her, since Karin learnt that Sakura’s body temperature was everpresent and didn’t change much – even when she was overly warm or cold.
The cute girl waved excitedly to her, so contrasting to the tenacity she displayed. Again, Karin’s love for her bursts and blooms – her lungs overwhelmed by a pleasant pain, yet it still wasn’t pain, it was Sakura’s hand, around her heart that said ‘You are mine, and mine alone’.
So Karin appears at the edge of the now cleared field, the snow gingerly falling on her typical white Konoha coat. The cream colored snowflakes not noticing the beauty of Sakura’s destructions they were supposed to honor.
And yet, Karin stood there, thinking how Sakura could slap her and she’d say thanks.
How dandy, Karin, she’d think morbidly.
“Karin! I just trained so… excuse me for being all huffy and puffy, hehe. Did you want to talk about something?”
Karin blushed furiously, forgetting how to breathe. “N-no. Just… wanted to spend time with you.”
“Sure. Let me grab my stuff and off we go.”
It was three years after the war and Sasuke left for his travels, Suigetsu, Juugo, Sakura, Lee and Karin building themselves a slightly larger home in the place where the Uchiha compound once stood. Sasuke told them to. He said that it didn’t deserve to be barren land for eternity, cursed by old hatred and useless oaths.
So Karin seen every change in Sakura, every droplet of her charisma deflate and expand – and thought of her affection towards her to be useless. Sometimes, Karin would feel as if every being in this world teamed up against her – to never love her, never know her or feel her for the person she’d been. Even Sakura didn’t notice the deep bond and affection.
Karin sulked.
Over the course of the night, they sat at the dango shop, had lemonade, drank sake and talked about everything that fell on both women’s mind. Karin relished – a sole thought remaining, the one that some days kept her alive at the hospital.
This woman’s kindness will partially always be directed at me.
Even if she will always love Sasuke.
And so her heart would weep as Sakura gently took her hand, into her smaller one, her fingers shorter than hers, middle finger having a weird, small bump at the top (Karin’s mother used to call that the writer’s anomaly) and Karin positively adored to pass her digits over Sakura’s, gathering that small semblance of intimacy.
The cancellation of her own brain when in the dark, snowy street she was stopped by Sakura, a thoughtful expression stuck to her face, scared her, rattling her bones.
“Saku-what?” The now taller of the two, had been wearing heels so she asserted some non-existent dominance over the beautiful god-like vision accross her; astounded at the bashfulness this usually confident person displayed. “Karin… I know that… I know that I’m maybe annoying with all the presumed love and affection I hold for Sasuke-kun… but I will let you know that I have stopped loving him long ago… My… my affection,” she takes an awkwardly long intake of air, and Karin thinks she stopped breathing. “My affection is being held by another person.” And Karin loses it, everything in her fucking breaks because if it isn’t Sasuke who is it who is it who isitwho-
So Sakura mumbles something, just white noise through Karin’s ears – because Sakura said something, the redhead wanting to ask her to repeat it, but Sakura already leant forward – her soft features puckering, since she touched Karin. Their lips were broughttogether in a perfect dance of emotions and passion, Sakura guiding. None had their hands to each other, until the dam that held Karin back for so long burst – and burst hard, leaving Sakura for the redhead to devour, her maddening scent driving the sensory nin up the wall, her hands were roaming everywhere – Sakura’s hair, shoulders, under her cape, her ass. Karin lifted her up in the middle of a dying blizzard, abandoned street not caring for the antics of the couple, and driving Sakura up the wall as she kissed her – throuroughly and fiercely. Sakura’s legs were forced around the other girl’s hips, enjoying the rough surface of the wall. Opened up her mouth – wanting everything Sakura had to give, and when she started sucking on the tongue of the pliant pinkette she actually lost it. Karin lost it. She sucked it like the tastiest candy she ever put in her mouth, the afterthoughts of mint and seduction dancing on her beautiful lips. Sakura’s hands were trembling in Karin’s messy tresses, which have been stung up in a messy bun, but Sakura’s skillful, fast hands ripped it away during their fevered makeout.
Karin had the rosette moan in her mouth, and that’s when she decided it was enough. Karin will stop, here.
“K-Karin… agh… does that mean…?” Karin had the feeling she could murder her. How the fuck did that kiss not prove her all of her emotions, and more?
“It means everything, dear. I love you so much.” She smiled, her glasses fogged up from the feverish embrace. Sakura makes a strange sound, between a whine, groan, and a breath stuck in her throat. “I love you too, Karin. So, so, much…” The girl bearing the Byakugou leans in her throat, settling in the crook of her warm neck. Karin lifts her, walking like that, and Sakura protests weakly how she should let her down, because she can walk on her own. “No. I wanna carry my beautiful girlfriend all the way to our house, and then cuddle with her, and then sleep, since we pretty much shared the apartment since, always.”
Sakura blushes at Karin’s, maybe all too bold remark. Karin stops in her tracks, bewildered as she fears that she has not insulted Sakura in some way.
“Was I – too straightforward?” Sakura laughs at the cute pout, the action had always been quite endearing to her.
“No, never. I mean, I can’t wait too, since we have a lot to fill in on.”
look if i don’t write for this ship then no one will damnit
wasn’t quite sure what to do for this one, but i wanted to write something sweet and silly and i’ve really missed writing my beloved daughter yodo and i never need an excuse to indulge in height-difference shenanigans
---
“I already said I don’t care!”
“Well start caring, I’ve chosen the last five days, it’s your turn!”
“Why does it even matter? Let’s just eat what we had last night.”
Chouchou could practically feel her blood steaming in her veins. “Nuh-uh, no way, we’re not gonna eat the same thing two nights in a row, just choose something!”
Her girlfriend’s steel-blue eyes rolled, but it didn’t stop her fingers clicking on the buttons of her gamepad at the same frantic pace they had been since the argument started. “Ok then, fine, I choose nothing! We can just starve if you’re gonna be such a fussbutt- Hey!”
She turned and ran from the living room before Yodo could leap up and grab her game back; it was petty, but then again, so was her girlfriend, so who cared?
Skidding into the kitchen, she started scoping out hiding places, but a battle cry from behind and a weight slamming into her back quickly stopped that.
“Give it back!” Yodo screeched directly in her ear, short arms flailing to reach the thing.
Chouchou stretched her, much longer, arm out as far as she could manage, the other automatically securing itself under Yodo’s thigh – just because she was being a brat, didn’t mean she wanted her to fall and hurt herself. “Not until you make a decision, c’mon it’s not hard, just say what you feel like eating!”
The groan lasted at least ten seconds, though her arms didn’t stop grasping for a moment, in fact she’d even started pulling herself onto Chouchou’s shoulders to get more reach. “I. Don’t. Care.”
For the love of-
With a shake that jerked Yodo back down, rough hands flapping to catch her grip again, Chouchou marched determinedly to the fridge, glancing over her shoulder to look her girlfriend straight in the eye.
“Oh, don’t you fudging dare-”
The handheld game console dropped onto the surface with a dull ‘clunk’, she immediately pulled Yodo off of her and dropped her on the floor next to it.
For the next five minutes, she just stood back and watched, grinning as her adorably short lover tried and failed to scale the thing and retrieve her property, fingers not even brushing the top edge, even when she stretched and stood on her tiptoes.
It wouldn’t actually be very difficult for her to get her game back, were it not for the strict no-jutsu-in-the-house rule – after a particularly rowdy playfight that had ended with the landlord chewing them both out for over three hours – and Chouchou idly kicking her away whenever she went for a dining chair.
“You know, there’s a really easy solution here,” she said when it looked like she was about to start screaming in frustration. The growl she received let her know exactly what Yodo thought of that. “Oh, stop being such a baby, look-” she stepped forwards to open the fridge door and pointed to what they had on offer “-I can make oyakodon, curry, or some leftover motbunabe, which one would you prefer?”
She didn’t let Yodo’s typical toddler-pout deter her; so long as she kept silent, she’d give in eventually.
“…Curry,” she finally muttered, refusing to look her in the eye.
“Cool, I’ll get started on it then,” she said, easily reaching to rescue the console. She held it out to Yodo, but just before she could snatch it back, she once again raised her arm above her head and gave her biggest shit-eating grin. “But not before I get a kiss.”
Her girlfriend snorted and placed both her hands on Chouchou’s broad shoulders, pulling herself up with lean, but strong, arms.
The kiss was short and so, so sweet… up until Yodo headbutted her.
By the time the room had stopped spinning, the other girl had already nicked back her gamepad and was charging through the apartment, her hyena-cackle of a laugh bouncing off the walls.
Chouchou couldn’t help laughing herself – her girl was such a dork – before starting on their dinner, humming an annoyingly catch song Yodo’d introduced her to a few days ago.
It took her twenty minutes to realise her phone was missing from her pocket.
“Damnit Yodo, if you’ve chakra stringed my shit onto the roof again you’re dead!”
naruto femslash week 2017
day 5, july 21: partners in crime/betrayal
time is an illusion; what are deadlines. warning: swearing and the implication of sex.
one night only/just the rest of our lives/i’d burn the world wholly/just to keep you alive
“Well,” starts a familiar voice much too loudly for the way Sakura’s head is pounding and her mouth tastes like death and sunlight is streaming violently through the suddenly open curtains, “this isn’t quite what I was expecting to find when I came looking for my wayward student.”
The brilliant flash of the camera is blinding and Sakura groans as her stomach rebels for the pain.
“What the fuck, shishō?” Sakura mutters, her voice scraped thin.
Tsunade-shishō cackles. “Watch your fucking mouth, kiddo. I’m not the one currently getting caught after a wild night spent drinking.”
Sakura attempts to squint at her teacher and Hokage, but her eyes slam right back shut at the still too bright light now filling her bedroom. Or, well, like, the corner of her crappy shoebox apartment that doubles for a bedroom/office/floor closet.
“Aaaargmpphssspshhhuuugh?” a different familiar voice slurs out.
Sakura frowns, her eyes still closed, and pats around on her bed.
“Fuck off,” Ino snarls when Sakura’s hand smacks her on the face.
Or, at least, that’s what Sakura assumes she meant to snarl given the pure venom shot through the smashed up jumble of sounds, like the rumble of the earth in the moment after Sakura forces her chakra through her hand and down, hairline splinters racing outward before everything shatters.
“What the fuck?” Sakura demands again, her voice louder now, enough to make her wince at her own volume.
“Put some clothes on, you two,” Tsunade-shishō orders. “I’m going to go get myself a drink.”
Sakura blanches.
A drink.
Oh no.
“Ino,” she hisses, “did we seriously steal sake from the Hokage last night and get drunk?”
The previous evening is starting to come back to her now.
Ino pinches Sakura’s hip, making her squirm. Then Ino buries her face deeper into Sakura’s hip.
“No, idiot, we got drunk and then we stole the sake.”
Sakura says a few prayers.
At least—and this is by no means going to save them, but Sakura is at peace knowing her life could be ending more painfully than it surely will once she and Ino drag themselves out of bed and into her crappy kitchen to face off with the Godaime Hokage—they aren’t the ones who managed to miss the drunk chūnin who broke into the Hokage’s residence and made off with a crate full of high-end sake from a thankful merchant client for a job well done.
“We’re dead,” Sakura manages feebly.
Ino grunts. “I think I’m already dead.”
They lie together in mutual suffering for a moment.
“I’m waiting,” Tsunade-shishō’s voice singsongs.
Sakura is sitting up and throwing herself out of bed on reflex at that too pleased sound, adrenaline screaming through her veins because they are so dead, so dead, Ino making a distressed sound and reaching for her, before she can think.
And then she clutches her head and doubles over, trying not to heave.
It’s understandable then, really, that it takes Sakura so long to realize that she’s completely naked.
And that she’s got hickeys peppering her breasts, her stomach, and the inside of her thighs.
Sakura’s head whips around and stares at the equally nude Ino scowling on her war zone of a bed, sheets pushed down around her knees from Sakura’s mad scramble to standing.
The last few memories from the previous night’s multiple adventures come crashing through Sakura’s mind.
Oh.
So that’s what Ino tastes like with sake on her lips, starlight in her hair as she sprawls across Sakura’s sheets with Sakura’s fingers pressed into her and curses on her tongue.
Sakura looks to her crappy kitchen—little more than a hotplate and a mini fridge and a scrounged up kitchen table she bribed Chōji and Kiba to help her move with food—where Tsunade-shishō is drinking tea of all things and watching them with a sly smile that has too many teeth to be comforting and then back to the other surprise blonde in her apartment who is now curiously examining the bloodied crescent moons pressed into her shoulder blades.
Sakura looks to the window and seriously considers bolting.
“If you jump out that window, Haruno Sakura, I will sic my ANBU on you to drag you back through the streets,” Tsunade-shishō warns.
Sakura pushes her chakra out, scanning for any familiar signatures at the edge of her limited range. She matches the signatures to her knowledge of the ANBU duty roster and considers it; she could probably outrun Bear, but Crane is a tricky motherfucker.
Sakura’s about to try her luck when—
“If you leave me alone to deal with this, Forehead, I will tell Lee your favourite flower and promise to give him discounts for the rest of his life,” Ino hisses at her.
Sakura takes a breath, ready to—
“And I will tell your mother that you could have married the Daimyo’s nephew but you refused.”
Sakura stops.
“You wouldn’t dare,” she says.
Ino raises an eyebrow. “Wouldn’t I, though?”
Sakura could always go missing nin. Tsunade-shishō probably wouldn’t let anyone kill her for it.
Probably.
Maybe.
“If you book it out of the Village,” Ino says, “then I won’t go on a second date with you.”
Sakura’s mind skips a beat and falls on its face.
She blinks.
She opens her mouth.
She closes her mouth.
She blinks again.
“Was last night a date?” Sakura asks.
Ino rolls her eyes aggressively.
“If you two don’t put some clothes on and get over here,” Tsunade-shishō warns, “I’m taking another picture for more blackmail.”
Sakura picks up a shirt and pulls it over her head.
It’s purple and doesn’t quite cover the line of hickeys down her abdomen and is obviously Ino’s. Sakura pulls on a pair of underwear too, and decides that that’s good enough.
Ino just wraps herself in a sheet and glides to Sakura’s ramshackle kitchen table like a queen.
“I like your spunk, Yamanaka,” Tsunade-shishō compliments.
Ino smiles.
Sakura slumps into the seat next to her, not an inch of grace in her.
“Now then,” Tsunade-shishō continues, “I think a late morning spar should make for a nice start to your morning. Meet me at our usual training field in fifteen minutes. Don’t bother changing into anything fancy; it’s just going to get ruined.”
Tsunade-shishō smiles broadly at them and saunters out of Sakura’s front door.
Sakura sets her head down on the table.
“My ANBU will make sure you get there safely,” Tsunade-shishō trills as she shuts the door behind her.
“Well,” Ino says, “that wasn’t so bad.”
Sakura lifts her head up to stare blankly at Ino.
“If we run now, we might make it to the Village limits before they notice we’re fleeing.”
“Sakura—”
“Ino, I want to actually live to get to our second date.”
Ino pauses. “I mean, she isn’t going to hurt us that badly? It’s just a sparring match?”
Sakura stares at her some more. “Yup, that’s it, we’re going. Quick! How many kunai do you have on you?”
##
Ino kisses her bruises better much, much, much later when they’re bundled up into hospital beds.
“I tried to warn you,” Sakura mutters.
“Shut up,” Ino commands as she presses another soft kiss to Sakura’s knuckles, “you have broken ribs, you shouldn’t be talking.”
“Should have ran when we had the chance,” Sakura continues on, undeterred. “Would have been romantic. Lovers on the run.”
“We would have been dead,” Ino reminds her.
“Well, yeah, eventually. But, I mean, we’d maybe get, like, a movie about our lives out of it,” Sakura muses.
Ino’s head whips up, blue eyes flashing, and she grabs Sakura by the jaw, pulling her in close.
“When I’m done with you,” Ino tells her, promise and honey dripping from every syllable, “the world will never be the same.”
Sakura blinks and then, slowly, nods.
Ino’s fingers make the her bruises cheek ache but she doesn’t pull away.
Sakura believes her.
She’d follow Ino as she burned the world down.
(Sakura has hands for healing and hands for breaking. Ino touches her, and she is unmade.)
