Nowhere else but here, Sakura/Ino
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It had been a bad idea from the beginning.
Blind dates almost never turned out any good. She should have listened to Sasuke when he told her this. But then she had seen him gaze at Naruto with that look and pointedly decided to ignore his better advice. Which lead to what possibly was one of the worst dates of her life.
Her date was a cocky, pitiful excuse of a man that knew nothing than what lay in his pants. The moment he decided to reach for her, she knew it was time to end her misery. After quickly twisting his hand - in a way that must have been quite painful judging by the crack that sounded resolutely through the air - Sakura got up in the middle of the movie and left the jerk to rot by himself.
By the time Sakura made it out of the theater, the sun was still out-it was summer after all-though it was slowly fading in the sky. The night was still young, and she didn’t have a mission for another two days, not to mention, here she was all dressed up with makeup on. She was not going to waste it. The teenager quickly flipped out her phone and her fingers seemingly moved on their own without her giving any thought as to whom she was calling.
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"Next time you decide to get set up on a blind date, remember to ask me instead of Kiba." Ino raised her shapely eyebrow. "I can’t believe you even went to him in the first place."
Sakura sighed, playing with the paper umbrella at the edge of her glass. "I…didn’t want to ask you," she replied slowly, trying not to stare at her pitiful reflection from behind the bar. "Besides, I didn’t feel like being free for yet another Friday night!"
Beside her, Ino downed a shot. "You could’ve done something with me, you know. Jeez, Sakura, are you that desperate to get laid?" Ino’s light laughs echoed throughout the small bar as she gave Sakura a light jab in the arm with her elbow. "Cause I know a few guys that I could hook you up with."
Sakura rolled her eyes and turned to look at her friend defiantly. "I am not desperate! And please, I’m not willing to pay them like you are." The giggles that followed were heightened by her growing intoxication. "Besides, I’m looking for a relationship; not kinky sex, unlike someone I know."
The blonde huffed. "Please, if anything, they would pay me." Sakura gave Ino a pointed look at that; whore, on the tip of her tongue. "But they don’t," Ino defended quickly, "They just come flocking because of my skills and unique techniques in bed."
"Skills that you have yet to acquire, which is why you’re lacking any ass, my dear," she added after with a wink.
Sakura only responded with a sigh before finishing her drink. "Just how do you do it, Ino? I wanna know." Her chin propped up lazily in the palm of one hand while she waved the other at the bartender. "I mean, the only attention I’ve gotten in the past few years was from either Naruto or Lee. And though Naruto grew up to be cuter than expected…I don’t think he’d ever look at me the way he looks at Sasuke. There’s just such…intensity, longing, between those two that makes me sort of jealous sometimes." She paused as she took a large sip from her newly filled drink. "And Lee? I’ve gotten into the habit of thinking of him as ‘fuzzy-eyebrows’! Hanging around Naruto too much will do that to you."
Her actions were becoming more and more animated as she spoke, and her head was swimming; but the happy kind of swimming, the floating kind. It never took long for Sakura to get drunk, especially whenever she went drinking with Ino - she could just let herself go.
"Sakura," she heard her best friend say, a slight slur falling at the end of her words. "You’ll find someone, I know you will. Someone who will love you, respect you and at the same time, be the best damn fuck of your life. So." Ino raised her glass. "To the future filled with love and constant sex! Cheers!"
Sakura clanked her glass a little too hard against Ino’s that some of the alcohol spilled over the sides. Not to mention, she followed with a "cheers" that was verging on embarrassingly loud, but Ino didn’t seem to mind. She just laughed. And at that moment, Sakura thought Ino’s grinning face - her mouth open wide, showing lots of teeth; glowing cheeks, that accentuated her high cheekbones; and her soft, blue eyes, always looking out - made her feel more content than she had in a long while.
But then again, she was in a drunken haze and it was probably the alcohol making her want to pause and linger forever on this comfortable warmth.
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