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The first time Ino kisses her, they’re seven years old. Sakura is playing the prince, and Ino is the princess – Sakura would much rather be the princess, too, but Ino wanted to be rescued so she didn’t dare protest. Instead, she dutifully wore the prince’s jacket stuffed in the bottom of the dress up clothes box, wildly swinging her plastic sword as she careened through the yard. “I’m coming to save you, princess Ino!” She yelled, as Chouji yelped and ducked out of the way of her swings.
Ino put a dramatic hand to her forehead, leaning against the tree she was under. “Prince Sakura, you must hurry! Another longer and I-“ Her lip wobbled – Ino was really, really good at playing sad, and the pink-haired girl felt her heart lurch. “The dragon will eat me for dinner!”
“Not on my watch!” Sakura crowed, and that was when Shikamaru finally gave up (to be honest, Sakura was surprised Ino dragged him into this at all). He groaned, pulling Chouji down with him so the two of them lay, collapsed, on the grass.
“You’ve beat us,” Shikamaru said, already staring up past her at the sky. “Go get your princess. Please.”
Well, Sakura wasn’t about to protest, and she giggled, dropping her sword next to them and running for her best friend. “Princess Ino!” She declared, wrapping her arms around her in a hug as the two beamed at each other. “You’re safe, now!”
Ino grinned at her, and leaned in to press a quick kiss to the other girl’s lips. “My hero! Come on, let’s go play ninja!”
Oh, well, she had been hoping they could switch, but ninja worked, too! She nodded, pulling off the jacket. “Can I be from Konoha this time?”
“Sure, sure!”
The second time, they were all of twelve and thirteen. The preliminaries were over, neither of them continuing on, but they had… made up. Reunited.
They were friends again.
Sakura kept sneaking glances at Ino in the bathroom as the two of them cleaned up, hardly able to believe it. She… She had regretted breaking it off, before, but-
But she wanted to stand on her own. And that part, she didn’t regret.
After a few minutes of silence, Ino caught Sakura looking at her – or maybe Sakura caught Ino looking at her. It was hard to tell, and they shared a pair of embarrassed smiles. “I’m… glad we’re friends again,” Sakura finally said, struggling a little to get the words out. “I missed you.”
Ino stared at her, a little taken aback, before smiling. She closed the small distance in between them and pressed a quick kiss to her best friend’s cheek before pulling back, cheeks a little pink. “I missed you, too.”
Sakura grinned, and Ino grinned back. “We’re still rivals, though, right?”
The Yamanaka nodded. “That’ll never change.”
The third time, Sakura’s barely able to stand. Gaara is alive, albeit without the Ichibi anymore. Sasori is dead. Chiyo… Chiyo is also dead.
And all Sakura wants to do is fall into bed and either pass out or cry – she’s not sure which yet. It’s hard to figure that out. But Ino is waiting at the entrance to her house, and Sakura stops. Stares.
Ino gives her a smile. “Hey, Forehead Girl. Your parents are off on missions, so I thought I’d make sure you’re okay.”
Sakura… doesn’t reply, just keeps walking forward until she’s right up against the other, forehead resting on her best friend’s shoulder, and Ino laughs, wrapping her arms around her. “That rough, huh? Heard it ended up alright in the end, though.”
The pink haired girl nods, and Ino presses a quick kiss to her hair. “Come on. You look like you need some food, and sleep.”
God bless Ino. “Thank you.” The blonde just laughs again.
The fourth kiss is barely registered, acknowledged and slotted away. Everyone is waking, everyone is no longer trapped in the fucking moon bullshit, and Sakura needs to find Ino. Sasuke is alright. Naruto is alright. Kakashi is alright.
And while she does care about the rest of them, she really does, Ino is next on her list.
“Ino!” she calls, and frantically scans the masses of shinobi for her familiar blonde hair. It’s hard as hell. There’s so many Yamanakas, so many assorted blonde shinobi from various villages, and Naruto somehow had the chakra to send off a bunch of shadow clones to help people out (seriously, did he ever run out of chakra?). She couldn’t see Ino anywhere.
“Hey, hey, Sakura, over here!” called Naruto’s voice, and Sakura whirled around, lifting a hand to shield her eyes to see where it was coming from. There.
Thirty feet away or so, was Ino and her team, leaning heavily on a Naruto clone, and Sakura sprinted to meet them. It didn’t matter how tired she was. It didn’t matter how long she had been going, how little chakra she had, no-
Nothing else quite mattered.
She wrapped Ino up in an embrace, nearly shaking with relief, and the blonde snorted, pressing a kiss to her cheek and hugging back. “Really, Sakura. I was asleep.”
Sakura laughed a little, pulling back to smile at her. “You could get into trouble without ever leaving your bedroom.”
Ino made a face, indignant. “Hey. You? Have no room to talk.”
The team 7 member has to suppose that’s accurate. She really, really doesn’t, but she just shakes her head, giving her best friend another squeeze. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”
She softens. “Yeah. I’m glad you’re okay, too.”
The fifth time they kiss, it’s Sakura. Their lives are so busy, nowadays. Ino is moving up the ranks in T&I, and Sakura feels like she barely leaves the hospital. It’s her domain, now, every inch of it, and the woman is eternally run ragged.
It’s in a good way, though. There’s the way she felt run ragged and exhausted by the war, every moment living with the fear that she wouldn’t have enough chakra, that this time she’d lose someone, blah blah blah. This? This was the good kind of exhaustion, the well-spent kind when you feel like you’ve truly given your all in something.
Doesn’t stop Ino from being mad when she starts to drift. “Oy,” says Ino, reaching out to poke her on the cheek. “Damn it, Sakura, you can’t fall asleep now. We barely get to see each other.”
Sakura shakes her head, trying to wake up, and stirs her coffee with a sigh. “Yeah. Yeah, I know.” It’s their weekly coffee meetup, Wednesday mornings. It sucks that this is really all they see each other, but… still, she smiles. It’s always good to see her.
“A n y w a y,” Ino draws outs. “Now that you’re paying attention! I’m moving out soon.”
That definitely catches the pink-haired woman’s attention. “Oh? You are?”
She nods. “Yeah. Sai and I are getting an apartment together, we just need to find a good one.”
Her heart twinges a little, but… “Hey, Ino? Are you and Sai… you know, together?”
The blonde stares at her blankly. “…Sai’s gay, Sakura.”
Sakura flushes. “I know he likes men, he’s got a crush on Naruto a mile wide, but given how much time you two have been spending together…” She shrugs. “I can’t ask?”
Ino looks like she can’t decide whether to laugh or cry. Instead of either, she just rubs her forehead. “God, I can’t with you… Sakura.” She inhales, exhales, steels herself. “Sakura, I love you.”
It’s Sakura’s turn to stare, now. She. What?
The blonde smiles a little sadly. “I know you like Naruto, so I didn’t-“
She’s stopped by a finger pressed to her lips. Sakura smiles. “No. When I said that? I was wrong. I’m gay. Very, very gay, a very huge lesbian, and I-“
She pauses, dramatically, and then leans forward. Instead of a finger pressed to her mouth, it’s a gentle kiss. “I want to be in lesbians with you,” she says after pulling back, and Ino’s face goes pink.
“You’re so cheesy, Forehead Girl.” But she smiles, bright and pleased and eyes lit up. “Fine. I’ll be ‘in lesbians’ with you – but only if you kiss me again.”
“Sure thing,” says Sakura, and she leans in.