Standing in the Way of Control [Naruto, Ino/Sakura, NC-17]
Fandom: Naruto
Title: Standing in the Way of Control
Recipient: yellow_spatula, for naruto_wishlist 2006
Author's notes: Title stolen from The Gossip.
Pairing(s): Ino/Sakura
Warning(s): Explicit girlsex, autoeroticism, or more specifically, some combination thereof.
Rating: NC-17
Word Length: 2,900
Description: Ino and Sakura go on a mission. Ino gets bored. Interesting things happen when Ino gets bored.
"You know what's boring?" Ino asked, in the tone that meant she was going to tell Sakura what was boring, whether she wanted to hear or not.
"Recon is boring," she concluded.
Sakura countered with words drilled into her head by late nights with flashcards. "Reconnaissance is one of the most important steps to a fruitful ninja mission. Careful reconnaissance can be the deciding factor in the outcome of a mission, far more important than any single jutsu."
Ino rolled her eyes. "No matter how many times you repeat our schoolbooks, it doesn't make recon any less boring."
Though she wouldn't ever admit it (because to concede defeat to Ino in any small way was never an option), Sakura was inclined to agree with her. They had been sent to the Rain country to observe a man suspected of gathering intel on operatives from the Leaf Village and her allies and selling them to the highest bidder. After three days, all the girls had been able to establish was that he was a butcher. Normally when someone said that about the subject of a high-level ninja investigation, it meant the person was evil, or at the least a little frightening. But this time, it actually meant a butcher.
Ino continued on her tirade. "Aren't masters of espionage supposed to do at least something shady? Three days, and all we've seen him do is spend the day cutting the heads off pigs and go home to his wife and kids every night!"
"I don't know. That thing he was doing with his wife was pretty shady," Sakura shrugged.
"That thing he was doing with his wife was filthy and gross and I don't ever want to talk about it again!"
Sakura smiled deviously. "So you and Shikamaru never..."
"No, me and Shikamaru never, and did you forget, but we aren't going to talk about him anymore!" Ino shrieked this all in one breath.
Sakura had forgotten, but it didn't seem that Ino minded too much. They had been "not talking about Shikamaru" for the past six months, ever since he had told Ino that, as he had maintained initially, relationships were just too much of a bother for him. She took away from a lot of his precious shougi time.
"Anyway, large foreheaded one, before you made our conversation perverted we were discussing the fact that our mission is a bust."
Their discussion was interrupted by a nervous-looking young man who engaged Ino in a ten-minute discussion on the language of flowers only to buy a single pink camellia for his potential sweetheart.
The cheaply set-up flower stand catty-cornered from the butcher shop had been Ino's idea. Her argument was that it was something mundane they could pull off convincingly, and it's probable lack of success would leave them plenty of free time to spend on their target.
She had not expected their sudden popularity, which kept them busy for much of the day.
"How was I supposed to know we were offering all non-native species of flowers?" She had asked this of Sakura.
"I suppose we should have done some research before attempting an infiltration mission into a foreign country," Sakura had responded.
"I guess we'll know better next time," Ino replied, ignoring or missing the sarcasm.
Three days in, however, their stock was soon to be entirely depleted or dead, so they would soon need a new cover or a new target.
"So, mission is coming up zero," the ever-persistent Ino reminded her teammate.
"Are you sure you haven't found anything worthwhile when you were in his body?"
"Pigs, chickens, and sadistic pleasures of the flesh."
At the look on Sakura's face, Ino clarified, "Pleasures of the human flesh. Not. Ew. And I always bailed pretty quickly on those. Anyway, nothing useful. This is not our guy."
"Well then, I guess we have no further choice. Let's head back to Konoha and tell the Hokage that she has the wrong guy."
"Whoa, whoa, not so hasty! Explain to me why you're in such a hurry to make a big journey to tell the leader of our village she's wrong."
In truth, Sakura was in no such hurry. Telling Tsunade she was wrong was a lot like that time she taught Naruto some medical jutsu - ill-advised, painful, and resulting in scarring.
Sakura asked, "Do you want to continue our investigation, then? Because I don't really have any leads and we were definitely instructed to engage in reconnaissance only. Purely no contact, you remember?"
"Of course I remember, Sakura. Our mission briefing took forever, just to cement in those very points."
Ino sat on the ground behind their makeshift flower stand, leaning against the wooden exterior of the nearby store. Her pose was casual, legs spread slightly wider than usual, fishnet peeking from beneath her skirt as she stretched - even when they were undercover, Ino had a hard time losing the fishnet.
Sakura blushed a bit when she realized she'd been contemplating how Ino got such an even tan on her inner thighs. Thankfully, it seemed to go unnoticed.
Ino turned to her friend with a sparkle in her eye that could only be described as mischievous. "Sakura! Have you ever thought about playing hooky?"
Sakura's eyes opened wide. "Skipping out? On a mission?"
Ino nodded with a grin.
"I don't know if you noticed," Sakura responded, but we carry a lot of our leader's responsibility - we're chuunin. Playing hooky is not something funny, it's a capital offense."
Ino stood up, placed her hand on Sakura's right arm, and looked her straight in the eyes.
"Did you ever ask your teacher - our fearless leader - why she took such a long vacation from the village?"
Sakura had asked, but had never received a satisfactory answer.
Ino continued, at Sakura's tacit response. "My theory is that it's because ninjas never get any time off. They have to scratch a mark through their village symbol to get a break.
"The real question is do you want to get as tightly wound as one of those Hyuuga types, or do you want to take a little vacation?"
Sakura's resolve was weakening, and she knew it showed on her face. Ino struck, wearing down her last defense.
"Come on, no one will ever know we're gone! It's just us on an open-ended mission. When will we ever get this chance again?"
"Well, I suppose you may be..."
"All right! It's settled!" Ino set about packing up the rest of their floral merchandise, jabbering all the while.
"You may have been leader for the mission part of our mission..."
Sakura didn't remember this ever being more than nominally true.
"But I'll take over for the fun part of our mission. No offense, Sakura, but I think you've forgotten how to have fun the last couple of years."
Sakura did take offense, but Ino remained oblivious.
"The first thing we'll require - after we get all this shit cleaned up - is large amounts of alcohol!"
Sakura suspected she had made a huge mistake.
***
This shouldn't be comfortable, Sakura knew. Sprawling on the floor with nothing supporting her weight except Ino's hip, who sat next to her, shouldn't be comfortable.
She would not find this acceptable if she were not stone drunk, but she was so she did and that was that.
Sakura snorted, and Ino looked up. "What are you giggling about?" she asked.
"I think in circles when I'm drunk, apparently."
Sakura had never been drunk before. She had seen Tsunade too deep in her sake too many times, and had learned to always stop far short of her limits. But there had been a challenge in Ino's eyes when she had poured the first shots of the Rain country's traditional corn liquor.
Her eyes had seemed to taunt Sakura, to echo that she had forgotten how to have fun. She was unable to back down from that, she was determined to match her rival drink for drink! She would show Ino fun!
Ino could drink a lot, Sakura reflected as she leaned back on the animal skin sleeping mat and watched the ceiling spin. Sakura had matched her drink for drink as she had vowed, but she couldn't help but notice that while Sakura was slowly slouching closer to a sub-table position while desperately trying to make the room sit still, Ino seemed to be unaffected. She might have been a little louder than usual. Hard to tell with Ino.
As Ino had shouldered her back to the hut where they were staying, one hand gripping Sakura's waist firmly, Sakura couldn't help but think, "Just another defeat to Ino."
She found herself murmuring it again now. "Defeat" was a familiar word in her mouth - she repeated it over and over, tasting it.
"What are you saying?" Ino interrupted.
"Defeat," Sakura pronounced. "The word, its connotations, the monotony of the event itself."
"OK, next time I cut you off...two drinks earlier, I think."
"Why would there be a next time?" Sakura asked. She sat up swiftly but immediately lay down when she realized this was a stupid move.
"Why would there be a next time?" Sakura repeated. "You already won - a rematch would only constitute rubbing it in."
Ino straddled her body in one easy movement, hands planted on either side of Sakura's head.
She looked directly into Sakura's eyes. This vantage point must have been why she had chosen this odd position, Sakura rationalized.
"Haruno Sakura, you complete idiot! This is not a contest! You may not have noticed, but we aren't silly little girls fighting over a boy anymore! We're two adult women, and I just wanted to have a fun time with you, and you always have to turn everything into a battle!"
Sakura shook her head slightly, the feeling of her brain rattling against the back of her eyeballs waking her slightly. Ino was upset. Had she ever seen Ino upset? She knew, intellectually, that Ino must have been upset at some point in her life, but Sakura couldn't remember ever having actually seen it.
Asuma's death had inspired an icy desire for revenge. The breakup with Shikamaru had summoned a righteous indignation.
But this was new - when Sakura tilted her head she would swear there was a glint of fiercely contained tears in the corner of her friend's eyes. And Sakura was feeling clueless about the cause.
"I'm...sorry?" she ventured.
"God, you don't even know why I'm angry, do you?"
Sakura knew the look on her face confirmed the suspicion.
"Look," Ino's voice lowered to normal-person conversational level, "I keep trying to get you to see me as your best friend, or..." she trailed off, then started over. "You're so stuck on us as lifelong rivals, on it all tying in to your duty to the village, your need to be stronger to protect others, to make up for the past, and I just wish you would let go. Let the fuck go of all that for just a second and be less of a ninja and more of a girl. Just for a second."
Sakura was silent for a bit, processing this speech through her drunken haze.
"I'm not sure I..."
"Oh what the hell," Ino broke in.
Ino closed the short gap between their lips, and things came into a much sharper focus for Sakura. This was confusing on the surface, but there was a certain rightness to the liquor-tinged tongue brushing hers, the quick bite felt through the numbness of her lower lip. There was a comfort to the warmth of Ino's body hovering above hers, the suddenness of their nipples grazing when she arched beneath her.
Really this was all kinds of wrong, though. They were often sent on missions together, recently, and this would alter their dynamic, could lead to lots of problems. But still, she wanted this.
Ino's kisses suddenly stopped and she shifted her weight so her left side lay on the floor.
"You're thinking again, Sakura. Always thinking, analyzing, rationalizing."
"I'm sorry! I can't exactly stop."
Sakura inhaled sharply as Ino's thumb started tracing the swell of her breast. Hard to think while that was going on.
"I have an idea for how you could. Just for a bit," Ino said as her fingers continued their tour of Sakura's chest.
"I've thought about this a lot, and I think the Mind-Body Switch is just what you need."
Sakura was concerned at first, but as Ino explained it, she grew more intrigued.
"Have you done this with other people?" Sakura asked, a little scared of an answer.
"No, it would be pretty one-sided with most people. Generally people aren't aware I'm there and don't really feel what their bodies are doing, not in a conscious way. But if this works right, you, at least your scary other you, should be able to enjoy this. And if it doesn't work, you should at least feel seriously relaxed afterwards."
Ino herself seemed very relaxed, Sakura noticed. It was as though now that this thing between them was out in the open - nothing had been said, but there was an understanding of sorts - something had been released. The tightness around her eyes was missing, and she'd lost a sense of forcedness behind her actions that Sakura had never even noticed was there before.
"Are you ready?" Ino asked.
Sakura nodded her head, and tried to will forward the more fiery side of her personality, the part of her with the strength to resist total sublimation.
Sakura felt as though she blinked out of existence for an instant and when she returned her fingers were toying with her nipple.
It was different from how she touched herself, rougher. And her shirt and bra were on the floor beside her - she never did that when she was alone. Part of her wanted to force her hand, to show Ino how she liked it, to cover her exposed skin, but she settled in to the unfamiliar sensations.
There was a warm breeze fluttering across her torso, heightening the feeling of Ino's nails - no, Sakura's nails - scratching a light circle around her breasts and then up and down her spine and finally up her inner thigh.
She removed her skirt and Sakura marveled at the oddness involved in wondering where her own hands would next travel.
The answer was inside her panties, which remained on. Her hand moved inside the warm confined space, her fingers bending to massage her clit while her spare hand returned to her breast.
Her body leaned back, her shoulders grinding against the grain of the floor, and closed her eyes, all tension and craning of the neck and pointing of the toes until she submitted to the tremors of release.
When they had recovered a bit, Ino released the jutsu and returned to her own body. They lay on the floor breathing deeply and enjoying identical sensations of post-orgasmic nothingness.
***
Reporting to Tsunade on their mission findings - the Hokage-assigned one, rather than the Ino-assigned - was not as bad as they had feared. New information had come to light in their absence that suggested that the culprit was actually the butcher's wife, which prompted an immediate return to the Rain country.
Their second mission was not nearly as fun as the first, though, as Konohamaru was sent along with them. Tsunade didn't voice them, but she seemed to have suspicions about how long their mission had taken. Sakura was afraid of how much the Hokage knew, or thought she knew, about herself and Ino. She was very perceptive.
It wasn't that Sakura was ashamed of her relationship, exactly, it was just that she herself wasn't sure what that relationship was.
One night after their return from the rain, and before they headed out on their next, separate, missions, Sakura had Ino over to her apartment for dinner. It was clear that they weren't quite sure how to act with one another. Were they not supposed to argue anymore? Were Shikamaru and Sasuke now completely taboo topics?
It was odd to Sakura to notice the way that Ino chewed lightly on her bottom lip when she was thinking. She had noticed it before, but it had never giving her this feeling in the bottom of her stomach before. She was lusting after Ino, and that was an odd thought, now that she was sober and back to her normal life of teammates' lives resting in her hands and people trying to kill her on a daily basis.
She and Ino weren't lovers - they were childhood friends, rivals who spurred each other to become stronger. Or could they be all three?
"Sakura, you need to smooth the wrinkles out of your giant forehead. All that worrying is really affecting your looks, and I don't think you can afford it."
"Ino, you should really back your big pig snout out of those noodles. Your appetite is destroying your already plump figure."
The two girls grimaced and readied themselves for battle. Then they burst into laughter at the sheer silliness of this.
Maybe they could be all three, Sakura thought, as she leaned in for a kiss.
Title: Standing in the Way of Control
Recipient: yellow_spatula, for naruto_wishlist 2006
Author's notes: Title stolen from The Gossip.
Pairing(s): Ino/Sakura
Warning(s): Explicit girlsex, autoeroticism, or more specifically, some combination thereof.
Rating: NC-17
Word Length: 2,900
Description: Ino and Sakura go on a mission. Ino gets bored. Interesting things happen when Ino gets bored.
"You know what's boring?" Ino asked, in the tone that meant she was going to tell Sakura what was boring, whether she wanted to hear or not.
"Recon is boring," she concluded.
Sakura countered with words drilled into her head by late nights with flashcards. "Reconnaissance is one of the most important steps to a fruitful ninja mission. Careful reconnaissance can be the deciding factor in the outcome of a mission, far more important than any single jutsu."
Ino rolled her eyes. "No matter how many times you repeat our schoolbooks, it doesn't make recon any less boring."
Though she wouldn't ever admit it (because to concede defeat to Ino in any small way was never an option), Sakura was inclined to agree with her. They had been sent to the Rain country to observe a man suspected of gathering intel on operatives from the Leaf Village and her allies and selling them to the highest bidder. After three days, all the girls had been able to establish was that he was a butcher. Normally when someone said that about the subject of a high-level ninja investigation, it meant the person was evil, or at the least a little frightening. But this time, it actually meant a butcher.
Ino continued on her tirade. "Aren't masters of espionage supposed to do at least something shady? Three days, and all we've seen him do is spend the day cutting the heads off pigs and go home to his wife and kids every night!"
"I don't know. That thing he was doing with his wife was pretty shady," Sakura shrugged.
"That thing he was doing with his wife was filthy and gross and I don't ever want to talk about it again!"
Sakura smiled deviously. "So you and Shikamaru never..."
"No, me and Shikamaru never, and did you forget, but we aren't going to talk about him anymore!" Ino shrieked this all in one breath.
Sakura had forgotten, but it didn't seem that Ino minded too much. They had been "not talking about Shikamaru" for the past six months, ever since he had told Ino that, as he had maintained initially, relationships were just too much of a bother for him. She took away from a lot of his precious shougi time.
"Anyway, large foreheaded one, before you made our conversation perverted we were discussing the fact that our mission is a bust."
Their discussion was interrupted by a nervous-looking young man who engaged Ino in a ten-minute discussion on the language of flowers only to buy a single pink camellia for his potential sweetheart.
The cheaply set-up flower stand catty-cornered from the butcher shop had been Ino's idea. Her argument was that it was something mundane they could pull off convincingly, and it's probable lack of success would leave them plenty of free time to spend on their target.
She had not expected their sudden popularity, which kept them busy for much of the day.
"How was I supposed to know we were offering all non-native species of flowers?" She had asked this of Sakura.
"I suppose we should have done some research before attempting an infiltration mission into a foreign country," Sakura had responded.
"I guess we'll know better next time," Ino replied, ignoring or missing the sarcasm.
Three days in, however, their stock was soon to be entirely depleted or dead, so they would soon need a new cover or a new target.
"So, mission is coming up zero," the ever-persistent Ino reminded her teammate.
"Are you sure you haven't found anything worthwhile when you were in his body?"
"Pigs, chickens, and sadistic pleasures of the flesh."
At the look on Sakura's face, Ino clarified, "Pleasures of the human flesh. Not. Ew. And I always bailed pretty quickly on those. Anyway, nothing useful. This is not our guy."
"Well then, I guess we have no further choice. Let's head back to Konoha and tell the Hokage that she has the wrong guy."
"Whoa, whoa, not so hasty! Explain to me why you're in such a hurry to make a big journey to tell the leader of our village she's wrong."
In truth, Sakura was in no such hurry. Telling Tsunade she was wrong was a lot like that time she taught Naruto some medical jutsu - ill-advised, painful, and resulting in scarring.
Sakura asked, "Do you want to continue our investigation, then? Because I don't really have any leads and we were definitely instructed to engage in reconnaissance only. Purely no contact, you remember?"
"Of course I remember, Sakura. Our mission briefing took forever, just to cement in those very points."
Ino sat on the ground behind their makeshift flower stand, leaning against the wooden exterior of the nearby store. Her pose was casual, legs spread slightly wider than usual, fishnet peeking from beneath her skirt as she stretched - even when they were undercover, Ino had a hard time losing the fishnet.
Sakura blushed a bit when she realized she'd been contemplating how Ino got such an even tan on her inner thighs. Thankfully, it seemed to go unnoticed.
Ino turned to her friend with a sparkle in her eye that could only be described as mischievous. "Sakura! Have you ever thought about playing hooky?"
Sakura's eyes opened wide. "Skipping out? On a mission?"
Ino nodded with a grin.
"I don't know if you noticed," Sakura responded, but we carry a lot of our leader's responsibility - we're chuunin. Playing hooky is not something funny, it's a capital offense."
Ino stood up, placed her hand on Sakura's right arm, and looked her straight in the eyes.
"Did you ever ask your teacher - our fearless leader - why she took such a long vacation from the village?"
Sakura had asked, but had never received a satisfactory answer.
Ino continued, at Sakura's tacit response. "My theory is that it's because ninjas never get any time off. They have to scratch a mark through their village symbol to get a break.
"The real question is do you want to get as tightly wound as one of those Hyuuga types, or do you want to take a little vacation?"
Sakura's resolve was weakening, and she knew it showed on her face. Ino struck, wearing down her last defense.
"Come on, no one will ever know we're gone! It's just us on an open-ended mission. When will we ever get this chance again?"
"Well, I suppose you may be..."
"All right! It's settled!" Ino set about packing up the rest of their floral merchandise, jabbering all the while.
"You may have been leader for the mission part of our mission..."
Sakura didn't remember this ever being more than nominally true.
"But I'll take over for the fun part of our mission. No offense, Sakura, but I think you've forgotten how to have fun the last couple of years."
Sakura did take offense, but Ino remained oblivious.
"The first thing we'll require - after we get all this shit cleaned up - is large amounts of alcohol!"
Sakura suspected she had made a huge mistake.
***
This shouldn't be comfortable, Sakura knew. Sprawling on the floor with nothing supporting her weight except Ino's hip, who sat next to her, shouldn't be comfortable.
She would not find this acceptable if she were not stone drunk, but she was so she did and that was that.
Sakura snorted, and Ino looked up. "What are you giggling about?" she asked.
"I think in circles when I'm drunk, apparently."
Sakura had never been drunk before. She had seen Tsunade too deep in her sake too many times, and had learned to always stop far short of her limits. But there had been a challenge in Ino's eyes when she had poured the first shots of the Rain country's traditional corn liquor.
Her eyes had seemed to taunt Sakura, to echo that she had forgotten how to have fun. She was unable to back down from that, she was determined to match her rival drink for drink! She would show Ino fun!
Ino could drink a lot, Sakura reflected as she leaned back on the animal skin sleeping mat and watched the ceiling spin. Sakura had matched her drink for drink as she had vowed, but she couldn't help but notice that while Sakura was slowly slouching closer to a sub-table position while desperately trying to make the room sit still, Ino seemed to be unaffected. She might have been a little louder than usual. Hard to tell with Ino.
As Ino had shouldered her back to the hut where they were staying, one hand gripping Sakura's waist firmly, Sakura couldn't help but think, "Just another defeat to Ino."
She found herself murmuring it again now. "Defeat" was a familiar word in her mouth - she repeated it over and over, tasting it.
"What are you saying?" Ino interrupted.
"Defeat," Sakura pronounced. "The word, its connotations, the monotony of the event itself."
"OK, next time I cut you off...two drinks earlier, I think."
"Why would there be a next time?" Sakura asked. She sat up swiftly but immediately lay down when she realized this was a stupid move.
"Why would there be a next time?" Sakura repeated. "You already won - a rematch would only constitute rubbing it in."
Ino straddled her body in one easy movement, hands planted on either side of Sakura's head.
She looked directly into Sakura's eyes. This vantage point must have been why she had chosen this odd position, Sakura rationalized.
"Haruno Sakura, you complete idiot! This is not a contest! You may not have noticed, but we aren't silly little girls fighting over a boy anymore! We're two adult women, and I just wanted to have a fun time with you, and you always have to turn everything into a battle!"
Sakura shook her head slightly, the feeling of her brain rattling against the back of her eyeballs waking her slightly. Ino was upset. Had she ever seen Ino upset? She knew, intellectually, that Ino must have been upset at some point in her life, but Sakura couldn't remember ever having actually seen it.
Asuma's death had inspired an icy desire for revenge. The breakup with Shikamaru had summoned a righteous indignation.
But this was new - when Sakura tilted her head she would swear there was a glint of fiercely contained tears in the corner of her friend's eyes. And Sakura was feeling clueless about the cause.
"I'm...sorry?" she ventured.
"God, you don't even know why I'm angry, do you?"
Sakura knew the look on her face confirmed the suspicion.
"Look," Ino's voice lowered to normal-person conversational level, "I keep trying to get you to see me as your best friend, or..." she trailed off, then started over. "You're so stuck on us as lifelong rivals, on it all tying in to your duty to the village, your need to be stronger to protect others, to make up for the past, and I just wish you would let go. Let the fuck go of all that for just a second and be less of a ninja and more of a girl. Just for a second."
Sakura was silent for a bit, processing this speech through her drunken haze.
"I'm not sure I..."
"Oh what the hell," Ino broke in.
Ino closed the short gap between their lips, and things came into a much sharper focus for Sakura. This was confusing on the surface, but there was a certain rightness to the liquor-tinged tongue brushing hers, the quick bite felt through the numbness of her lower lip. There was a comfort to the warmth of Ino's body hovering above hers, the suddenness of their nipples grazing when she arched beneath her.
Really this was all kinds of wrong, though. They were often sent on missions together, recently, and this would alter their dynamic, could lead to lots of problems. But still, she wanted this.
Ino's kisses suddenly stopped and she shifted her weight so her left side lay on the floor.
"You're thinking again, Sakura. Always thinking, analyzing, rationalizing."
"I'm sorry! I can't exactly stop."
Sakura inhaled sharply as Ino's thumb started tracing the swell of her breast. Hard to think while that was going on.
"I have an idea for how you could. Just for a bit," Ino said as her fingers continued their tour of Sakura's chest.
"I've thought about this a lot, and I think the Mind-Body Switch is just what you need."
Sakura was concerned at first, but as Ino explained it, she grew more intrigued.
"Have you done this with other people?" Sakura asked, a little scared of an answer.
"No, it would be pretty one-sided with most people. Generally people aren't aware I'm there and don't really feel what their bodies are doing, not in a conscious way. But if this works right, you, at least your scary other you, should be able to enjoy this. And if it doesn't work, you should at least feel seriously relaxed afterwards."
Ino herself seemed very relaxed, Sakura noticed. It was as though now that this thing between them was out in the open - nothing had been said, but there was an understanding of sorts - something had been released. The tightness around her eyes was missing, and she'd lost a sense of forcedness behind her actions that Sakura had never even noticed was there before.
"Are you ready?" Ino asked.
Sakura nodded her head, and tried to will forward the more fiery side of her personality, the part of her with the strength to resist total sublimation.
Sakura felt as though she blinked out of existence for an instant and when she returned her fingers were toying with her nipple.
It was different from how she touched herself, rougher. And her shirt and bra were on the floor beside her - she never did that when she was alone. Part of her wanted to force her hand, to show Ino how she liked it, to cover her exposed skin, but she settled in to the unfamiliar sensations.
There was a warm breeze fluttering across her torso, heightening the feeling of Ino's nails - no, Sakura's nails - scratching a light circle around her breasts and then up and down her spine and finally up her inner thigh.
She removed her skirt and Sakura marveled at the oddness involved in wondering where her own hands would next travel.
The answer was inside her panties, which remained on. Her hand moved inside the warm confined space, her fingers bending to massage her clit while her spare hand returned to her breast.
Her body leaned back, her shoulders grinding against the grain of the floor, and closed her eyes, all tension and craning of the neck and pointing of the toes until she submitted to the tremors of release.
When they had recovered a bit, Ino released the jutsu and returned to her own body. They lay on the floor breathing deeply and enjoying identical sensations of post-orgasmic nothingness.
***
Reporting to Tsunade on their mission findings - the Hokage-assigned one, rather than the Ino-assigned - was not as bad as they had feared. New information had come to light in their absence that suggested that the culprit was actually the butcher's wife, which prompted an immediate return to the Rain country.
Their second mission was not nearly as fun as the first, though, as Konohamaru was sent along with them. Tsunade didn't voice them, but she seemed to have suspicions about how long their mission had taken. Sakura was afraid of how much the Hokage knew, or thought she knew, about herself and Ino. She was very perceptive.
It wasn't that Sakura was ashamed of her relationship, exactly, it was just that she herself wasn't sure what that relationship was.
One night after their return from the rain, and before they headed out on their next, separate, missions, Sakura had Ino over to her apartment for dinner. It was clear that they weren't quite sure how to act with one another. Were they not supposed to argue anymore? Were Shikamaru and Sasuke now completely taboo topics?
It was odd to Sakura to notice the way that Ino chewed lightly on her bottom lip when she was thinking. She had noticed it before, but it had never giving her this feeling in the bottom of her stomach before. She was lusting after Ino, and that was an odd thought, now that she was sober and back to her normal life of teammates' lives resting in her hands and people trying to kill her on a daily basis.
She and Ino weren't lovers - they were childhood friends, rivals who spurred each other to become stronger. Or could they be all three?
"Sakura, you need to smooth the wrinkles out of your giant forehead. All that worrying is really affecting your looks, and I don't think you can afford it."
"Ino, you should really back your big pig snout out of those noodles. Your appetite is destroying your already plump figure."
The two girls grimaced and readied themselves for battle. Then they burst into laughter at the sheer silliness of this.
Maybe they could be all three, Sakura thought, as she leaned in for a kiss.