Archive of Our Own

Seas of purple meet seas of pink as the camellias and sumires meld and sway in the gentle winds of an all too familiar flower field. The sun’s last rays cascade over everything they can touch, bathing the swaying flowers of Konoha’s hillside in pale light one last time before disappearing altogether. Ino lays back in the beds of flowers, threading her fingers gently with the jade-eyed girl lying next to her. Ino remembers this place fondly.

Her lips curl up into a relaxed smile, as she recalls the first time she brought Sakura here to lay in the flowers as children. They were so young then. So blissfully naive and innocent to all the hurts of the world. She can still remember the subtle blush that decorated the girl’s features as Ino plucked each flower from their seas of color and explained their meanings one by one.

“This is a cosmos flower.” A young Ino stated, holding a dark pink flower out to Sakura, who tentatively reached her hand out to take it.

“Pretty.” Sakura says softly, reaching out to touch its soft petals with her fingertips. Ino hummed, plucked a few more for herself, beginning to carefully thread their stems together.

“Cosmos flowers are also known as autumn cherry blossoms, and they’re the prettiest flowers in the fall. Their name comes from an old word that means ‘harmony’” Ino states, rather proud of her growing knowledge on botany.

Sakura listened in quiet adoration as Ino rattled off about flowers and their many interpretations of meanings, much more meek and sensitive than she would grow to become years in the future. Ino intermittently weaves the crowned stems through her blonde hair as she talks, hands skilled but still imperfect from working with her father at the Yamanaka flower shop. Sakura watches in wonder, jade eyes blown wide and curious.

When she’s finished, Ino turns to her blushing friend with a devilish glint in her eye.

“So, tell me. Do I look as pretty as a cosmos flower now? Come on, am I cute?”

That subtle blush soon ignited a wildfire on Sakura’s cheeks, rivaling the pink hue of her hair. Ino snickered at her reaction under her breath. It didn’t take much back then for her to fluster or impress Sakura, but each time she did, it was like a prize she secretly cherished.

“Y-yeah.” Sakura answers meekly, tugging at a lock of soft pink hair that rested on her cheek.

“Geez, took you long enough to say.” Ino says, with a comical pout of her lips.

Sakura laughs shyly, plucking a few thoroughworts from the ground. Ino had taught her about these earlier. Suddenly, a thought crosses her mind, as she holds the white flowers up against the patchwork sky, the colors complimenting its absence of.

“Ino…”

The blonde child looks to her expectedly, blue eyes peering out curiously below her lashes.

“Hm?”

“Well...if you’re a cosmos flower, then... am I just a thoroughwort?” The words come quietly from Sakura’s lips, a slight frown tinged on her face as she twirls the mediocre-looking white flower in between her fingers.

Ino thinks for a moment to herself, her head cocked slightly to the side as if she was trying to gather her meaning. She chuckles lightly.

“Now why would you say that?”

Sakura looks up, then back to the flower. Finding it hard to voice her thoughts, she stays silent, that pensive frown still on her face.

“Well let’s see…” Ino begins, carefully formulating her answer. She lays back in the flowerbeds, humming to herself as gray clouds move overhead, muddling the colors of the sunset like watercolors on paper. Sakura soon follows suit, laying beside her as they watch the sky together. Or rather, Ino does. Sakura’s eyes stay glued to her friend’s delicate hands, as they lazily stroke the petals of the flowers tangled in her hair. Finally, Ino smiles, glancing over to Sakura, who’s patiently awaiting her answer.

“Actually...I don’t think you’re a flower at all Sakura. Not yet at least. I think you’re still just a bud...waiting to bloom.”

Sakura’s cheeks fill with color once more at her words. She stutters out a sweet laugh, thinking it over to herself. The sound flits through the quiet of the moment, Ino regarding it in her own mind as another prize in itself. She would never get tired of the sound of her laugh.

“I think you’re right.” Sakura admits finally, the first hints of her typical bright smile making itself back onto her lips.

“Well, I usually always am.” Ino quips comically, and both girls giggle before settling into a comfortable, brief silence before Sakura breaks it once more.

“Ino…?”

“Huh?” She asks softly.

Sakura tugs at the red ribbon on her head nervously.

“Why are you so nice to me? You don’t have to be...but you are. What does it all mean?”

She turns to look at her friend, Ino letting out another light laugh as her own blush creeps its way onto her cheeks as she thinks about how to answer that question.

“Well…let’s just say...I thought it would be a waste for you to wither away as a bud.”

Sakura gasps so quietly Ino can barely hear it below the gentle whispers of the wind on their flowered hill. Jade meets blue as their eyes find one another and Ino continues, her tone casual but wistful.

“There’s no meaning to a flower unless it blooms, you know. It might even turn out to be...a flower even more beautiful than a cosmos.”

Sakura laid beside her in stunned silence, as Ino’s words washed over her affectionately. She could only compare the feeling to the warmest of sunrises and the sweetest of honey.

“You mean that?” She asks, her green eyes turning watery.

Ino nods, smiling as the last rays of evening sun hit her face.

“Of course. You’ll bloom into the most beautiful flower, Sakura. I know it.”

And bloom she did.

The memory fades from Ino’s mind in a content haze as she focuses once more on her surroundings. The bulbs of the recently bloomed camellias and sumires tickle her ankles and exposed waist as she lies on her side under the sunset. Once again, many years later, Ino is drowning in color, yet her fascination is focused elsewhere.

Eyes. Nose. Lips. Her fingertips lightly graze over the girl’s features with care, allowing herself to memorize each curve and dip of her face as if it were the last time she’d see it. Sakura flutters her eyes close, her eyelashes tickling Ino’s fingers as she traces over them. Her thumb follows the gentle curve of the older girl’s nose, trailing all the way down to her parted lips, where her thumb caresses softly.

She no longer had to imagine what it would be like to kiss those lips. She had it committed to memory the way they felt pressed against her own, and even though she could kiss them anytime she wanted now, it would still never be enough, she decided. No amount of time with Sakura would ever be enough.

When they were kids, time seemed to be endless. Those days they spent lying in the flowers under the clouds were gone, instead replaced by the constant uncertainty of how much time they would have left. War was unforgiving. And War always took more than she bargained for. Those memories live unbearably in their bodies even after it ended, the things they’ve seen and done at the ripe age of seventeen weighing insurmountably heavy on their lungs. These rare moments with Sakura were some of the only times that Ino truly felt burdenless from that weight, and she’d be damned if she didn’t savor every moment of paradise while she still had it in her arms.

Paradise is with you.

Sakura flutters her eyes open, and Ino feels weightless, as if that particular shade of jade was the only thing keeping her feet to the ground. Ino would never admit it out loud for her pride’s sake, but she finds solace in everything that is Sakura. In the way she laughs until she’s breathless. In the way her eyes light up darkly in determination when faced with a challenge. In the way she smells and breathes and feels. It was all too easy to love her.

“Oi, Ino. You’re staring again.” Sakura teases, arching one thin pink brow in amusement.

Ino shakes herself of her thoughts, a wry smile spreading over her lips. She flicks her long blonde hair from her face with a huff.

“Well it’s hard not to, you know. Your forehead is so distracting.” Ino whines, barely holding back her snicker as she looked down at Sakura.

Sakura eyes narrow slightly at the thought of a challenge, but her easy-going smile returns quickly as she runs her fingers through Ino’s hair, causing her to blush pinkly (much to Sakura’s amusement).

“Very funny, Ino-pig.” Sakura says affectionately. Somehow the old nickname has a whole new meaning coming off Sakura’s lips like that, and Ino finds herself torn whether she could bare to argue over it right now. The way the girl’s fingers are carding through her hair relaxes her too much, and Ino has a sneaking feeling that was intentional. Ino closes her eyes, unwinding into her touch. Sakura always did have a way of figuring out all of her weaknesses before she knew them herself.

For years growing up, all Ino wanted was to beat Sakura, whether that was in battle or in love. It was her goal, her motivation. As Sakura grew stronger, Ino drove herself to work even harder to keep up with her pace, watching her in fascination and envy, much as Sakura did herself when they were kids. All she wanted was to win. But now, after all they’ve seen and all they’ve lost...Ino can’t think of any other place she’d want to be other than by her side. Not in front of or behind. Just with her. Always.

“What are you thinking about?” Sakura asks softly, continuing to play with Ino’s hair. Ino opens her eyes, finding herself on her back as Sakura looks down to her, the sun’s colors still lighting up the sky above them.

“You.” Ino admits truthfully, her cheeks tinged slightly red.

“What about me?” Sakura asks, intertwining her calloused fingers around Ino’s soft ones.

The wind picks up slightly, and Ino watches in wonder and confusion as the the bright pink bulbs of the camellias next to her face are plucked from their stems by an invisible force and scatter in the sky.

“Just that…” Ino’s words trail off, eyes glued to the flying pink and purple bulbs. Sakura seems to not notice the petaled frenzy, strangely enough, even as they whip through her soft pink hair. She just stares down to her, as if nothing else mattered or existed in that moment but them.

“You’ve... bloomed into a beautiful flower.” Ino says softly, getting lost in the seemingly infinite jade of Sakura’s eyes. It was all she could think to say, too swept up in her confusion and affection to think of anything but their first meeting here as kids. She’d always wanted to tell her that...wanted to know that she remembered that conversation they’d had all those years ago.
But as she said those words, reality began to bend and warp around them. The colors of the flowerfield drained and swirled like the inside of a kaleidoscope. Ino looked around wildly, unable to move or speak.

Suddenly everything is dark. The disorienting blending of her surroundings has ceased, and Ino finds herself staring up blearily to a smoldering sky. There’s pain. A lot of pain... pain so intense it’s hard to keep her eyes open. She’s unable to vocalize it, so she just lays there for a moment, blinking slowly and trying desperately to remain conscious.
The first thing she can taste is the blood...hot blood on her tongue, tingling in a metallic bitterness. Soon she can smell it too, clinging to the air around her in a thick, nauseating fog. It stains her long blonde hair a dark crimson as it mats and sticks to her face that’s slick with sweat. Everything registers slowly, and the ringing in her ears soon quiets down enough for her to hear the faint mumbling of words.

“...-mmit...dammit...dammit!” That voice. So familiar...

She doesn’t have much longer to think about the voice before her vision blurs, the dizzying pain returning in waves. The ground beneath her suddenly rumbles, and many things occur to Ino all at once. The first, is that she’s lying in the middle of a battlefield. The second, is that the war isn’t over. It never was. The third, is that something is terribly wrong.

Ino wills her body to move, wills her eyes to see, wills her mind to have the answers she’s desperately searching for in her delirious state. But none come. She still doesn’t understand how her memories were tampered with, or how they felt so real...whether it was some sort of genjutsu or not... but as a hint of pink swims around the edge of her vision, Ino’s mind snaps to awareness.

She blinks rapidly, her heart beating loudly in her ears. Her vision blurs in and out until the image comes in focus. Her eyes follow the familiar pink in clarity to find that Sakura’s been here all along, leaning over her in the same way she did just moments earlier in the flowerfield. Except... she’s different. Sakura’s chest heaves heavily in her jonin vest, her head bent down as she focuses on something with fierce intensity. Ino can only partially catch her expression. Sweat clings to her face, her brow tensed in concentration, and tears...tears streaming hotly down her face. Ino’s first instinct is to reach out to her...but her body only permits her to stare. Sakura’s eyes waver in exhaustion as she stares down to her crimson hands which glow a familiar blue light. She’s desperate. Ino’s never seen her this desperate. It made her heart ache.

Looking at her hurt.

Sakura’s body shakes as her sobs threaten to overcome her. The blue light illuminating her features begins to flicker as she weakens. Ino can feel her exhaustion radiating off her, along with the comforting warmth of her chakra that’s steadily been flowing through her body for who knows how long. Ino catches another glance at Sakura’s face, her features just as striking as they were that day in the flowerfield, only harsher...sadder...worn down by each loss they’d faced. All she wants is to be able to trace her fingers over her love’s face once more to soothe her, to tell her everything would be alright...and to make it be so. But the thought is lost on her as she surrenders her body to the dirt, and a seemingly endless black sky.
“You can’t die Ino.” Sakura sobs, her words wavering with emotion. “I won’t let you”.

Her soft words bring Ino’s eyes back to her, drinking up everything that is her as if it’s the last taste she’ll ever get. Sakura is silent for a long moment, closing her eyes to gather herself. There’s another rumble Ino can feel through the ground and she can smell soot strongly in the air. Sakura shakes her head as she watches her hands work, before it snaps up in determination. Her jade eyes ignite in that familiar fiery look Ino is so fond of as she turns to her for the first time.

“I won’t let you.” She repeats, this time her voice more self-assured than before.

Ino’s lips twitch up into a small, half-smile at her words. She loved to see her like this...so insistent and stubborn. Determined. It’s what she loved about her. One of many things, at least. Ino’s mind rushed with memories of the things she loved the most...both the mundane and the significant. Everything that is Sakura, embodies her own personal paradise. It’s in everything she is without even intending to be.

It’s in way she holds her tea, from the bottom, cupped in her hands because her fingers often get cold without her gloves. Ino always warns her she’ll burn her fingers --and she does-- but Sakura is relentlessly headstrong and does it out of principle now, tolerating the sting. It’s in the way she sleeps...lips parted and expression serene, all the while hogging the bed sheets. Ino can’t bring herself to get mad about it, because it’s rare that she’s able to see Sakura so unguarded and domestic. Ino would stay up late just watching her breathe, validating that this was real...that they were real and that she had her in her arms safe, even if just for the night. The days were always uncertain, but the nights were theirs and theirs alone.

It’s in the way she breathes Ino’s name when she wakes and smiles up at her like she’s the prettiest cosmo in the world…Ino can feel her heart beat heavily in her chest. Her vision blurs as she slips in and out of consciousness.

Loving you is too easy.

Sakura’s face is illuminated once more with a bright blue light. Ino can feel the warmth of her chakra coursing through her body, soothing the sharp pains in her chest and abdomen slightly. Sakura’s hands move expertly, repairing the damage as carefully as she can. Her eyes narrow in concentration as she tries to remember everything her master taught her all these years. It takes every bit of energy she has left not to lose her composure, but she persists, staying focused. She has to, for Ino. For Ino…

Ino’s face twists in pain and a stab of worry settles in Sakura’s gut. She had to do it now. She couldn’t bare to watch her suffer. It hurt enough to see her hands stained red in her lover’s blood.

“H-hold on Ino. I’m putting you back under the genjustu, okay?” She breathes, using one of her hands to stroke Ino’s dirt-stained cheek. Her palm glows as she effortlessly lulls Ino back into her illusion of memories, a skill she had perfected from years of studying the art of genjutsu.

Ino accepts the feeling willingly, allowing herself to fall deeper and deeper into the trance. The world of soot and red blends together around her and falls apart all at once. Ino closes her eyes, the weightless, kaleidoscope effect causing her mind go blank. All thoughts of the war, and her wound, and the fear in Sakura’s eyes leave her, and all she’s left with is the smell of honey-sweet blooming flowers. Ino knows where she is before she even opens her eyes. Rays of sunlight hit her face, and she can feel strong but gentle arms around her waist.

“Ino…” a familiar voice whispers sweetly, breath tickling against the side of her neck. Ino’s eyes slowly flutter open. She turns her head over her right shoulder, and suddenly her paradise is real and in front of her once more.

“Sakura.” she whispers with a mix of relief and a strange sadness she can’t place.

Sakura stares back affectionately, swallowing Ino’s blues with her endless jade. Ino lets out a bated breath as she allows herself to get lost in her beauty… her parted pink lips and gentle blush on her cheeks... the petals tangled in her hair. Ino chuckles quietly at the sight, bringing her hand up to tug some of the colorful buds free. Ino remembers this day almost as vividly as the first time she brought Sakura here all those years ago.

She remembers sprinting fast, the sun high in the sky as her bare feet moved quickly through the fertile soil of the flowerfield. Sakura’s laugh carried wistfully through the Springtime air, as she herself sprinted, only slightly ahead of Ino, her smile cocky and competitive as they raced between the trees at the top of a steep hill.

“Can’t keep up huh, Ino-pig?” Sakura taunted, tossing her a facetious look over her shoulder. Ino competitively narrowed her eyes as she picked up her pace, slowly pulling ahead of Sakura, soft purple sundress and long blonde hair whipping behind her as she ran. She wasn’t even sure why they were racing, really. Just that Sakura had badgered Ino into another it after they finished their lunch picnic, and Ino knew she wouldn’t be satisfied until she used up all the energy bubbling up inside her. Sakura had only just turned sixteen last week, and since then, Ino could sense there was something inside her that had changed. She couldn’t pinpoint what it was exactly, but it kept her on her toes, always waiting for Sakura’s next impulsive scheme. Ino keeps pace with Sakura effortlessly, jutting up her chin with a “humph.”

“As if I’d ever lose to you, Billboard Brow.” She lowly taunted back. But Sakura’s lips curled into a roguish smile, alerting Ino to an ulterior motive. Ah, that’s the look. Still, the sight of that smile made Ino’s cheeks burn red and her stomach flip in strange, fluttering ways. Watching Sakura sprint through the fields of flowers with that determined look in her eye...and the sound of her laugh carrying through the trees...she could only describe it as-

Beautiful.

“Oi Sakura, what are you-” Ino starts shrilly, gasping as Sakura grabs her wrist and pulls back hard. After a moment of weightlessness, the momentum sends them both tumbling backwards down the flowered hill. Rolling, rolling, and rolling. Flower stems snap and bulbs tangle as they roll, the dirt staining their sundresses and slightly bruising their shoulders on impact. Sakura’s laugh comes out in hysterical puffs as she hits the ground over and over. And soon Ino is laughing too, at the ridiculousness of it all. She hasn’t felt this young in such a long time.

When they reach the bottom, Sakura rolls unceremoniously onto Ino’s chest, flushed and out-of-breath from laughing. Ino finds her face heating up at the contact, staring straight up into Sakura’s eyes with uncharacteristic nervousness. She swallows once, her heart beating in her ears as Sakura’s hand moves idly from resting on her wrist to thread their fingers together, calloused fingers meeting her delicate ones. Ino’s eyes follow the motion, silent and careful, as if she somehow misunderstood the gesture.

“Sakura?” She asks quietly, turning her head back to the pink-haired girl leaning on top of her. S he notices for the first time that Sakura’s face is just as red as hers is. Maybe even more-so. The sight reminds her so vividly of the timid Sakura she knew from childhood, and that memory makes Ino’s heart beat so loud in her chest she’s afraid she’ll hear it. Her eyes dart from the pink-haired girl’s eyes to her lips, anxious from all the quiet. She can feel a rough thumb gently brushing over her own, and she finds herself wondering what it would be like to kiss every one of the girl’s calloused fingertips.

But before she can get the chance to find out, Sakura leans forward boldly, her nose brushing Ino’s as she hesitates before pressing their lips together decisively. The kiss is soft, lingering for a few moments, before breaking away. It wasn’t their first kiss by far, but Ino would always feel like it was, blushing madly like a schoolgirl with a crush. Sakura had learned early on how to use this secret weapon of hers whenever she wanted Ino to shut up. And it worked.

“I win.” Sakura says with a sly grin as she sits up. Ino narrow her eyes at her as she follows.

“You cheat... You’re lucky you’re cute.” She grumbles back lightly, and both girls chuckle quietly. Ino and Sakura stare down at their entwined fingers, tickled by the blooming bulbs of delicate peonies and the warmth of their affections. For now, this was enough.

Ino sighs contently at the memory of their perfect day, continuing to idly pull petals out of Sakura’s hair as her mind returns to the present. They’d stayed here long enough into the evening that the sun was starting to set, talking about everything and nothing, kissing when there was no more left to say. It had been silent for a few moments, as Ino retraced back the events of that day, trying to make sense of it all as if she’d just awoken from a confusing dream and needed clarity.

“It’s getting late, don’t you think? Maybe we should head back, mm?” Sakura asks sweetly, staying still as Ino pulls the last of the petals from her hair. Ino isn’t quite sure where they would be going back to, but she was sure that her place to return to was wherever Sakura was.

Ino shakes her head, to Sakura’s surprise. She picks a bright red peony, twirling it between her fingers before gingerly tucking it behind Sakura’s ear.

“No. I want to stay. Just a little longer…” She says, the words tinged with more of that strange sadness from before. She shakes it off, focusing on the girl in front of her instead of these unknown, distant feelings of hers.

“No complaints from me.” Sakura says quietly as Ino’s fingers run through her messy hair.

“Ah? That’s a first.” Ino quips back, a devilish glint in her eye. Her glance lingers on Sakura sentimentally as a sudden fear gnaws at her, the image of never seeing her again imprinting itself in her mind. She’s not sure where these feelings are coming from, but it’s making her uneasy.

Sakura grins, preparing her next --likely snide-- comment, but before she can get the words out, Ino’s lips are on hers, desperate, with a surprising amount of emotion. The kiss is chaste at first, but soon they both melt into it, bathed in flowers and the last remaining rays of sunshine.

Ino would need more than just a little longer to fully savor this moment, she thinks to herself. She could stay here for eternity and never get tired of everything that is Sakura. Here...where there’s no war, no pain...just this.

And that would be more than enough.

Sakura breaks from the heated kiss for air, breathing heavily as she rests her forehead against Ino’s. Wind begins to pick up in the distance and the sky begins to darken as the sun passes under the horizon. Shadows descend on the flowerfield, dancing over the skin of their hands and arms and cheeks. The peonies at their feet fall victim to the wind, barely hanging onto their rooted position in the soil. Sakura trails her fingers up Ino’s arm, causing her to shiver, stopping only when she reaches the girl’s neck, resting the palm of her hand there lightly.

“Come back to me.” She says, ever-so-softly, the sound just slightly louder than a whisper.

Ino laughs lightly, pulling apart from her to look into her jade eyes.

“Sakura, I’m right here.”

“Come back to me.” Sakura repeats, her voice choked and wavering with emotion. Ino frowns pensively, trying to decipher her meaning. Where else would I go? The wind’s gusts pick up once more and the peony tucked behind Sakura’s ear is carried off into the sky. Ino watches as it twirls and spins, weightless in the air, as a strange sense of déja vu washes over her. She turns her attention back to her lover with bated breath, the image of the twirling flower still ever-present in her mind. Sakura bites her lip as it trembles.

“I can’t lose you.” The words bleed out of her like ink in water, distant and wavering. Ino grips the girl’s hand tighter, as flashes of sumires and camellias dancing in the air flood her mind. She’s felt this before. She’s seen this all before. The petals of the flowers surrounding them begin to lift off their stems in the wind, circling in the air as if controlled by a mystical force. But this time, Ino’s eyes don’t budge from Sakura. The strange sadness returns, but now she knows where it came from. She pushes it down, grounding herself there in that moment, in what she has to say.

“You’ll never have to,” Ino says firmly, her tone serious. “You have me…”

The flowers are ripped from the hillside by sharp winds, blowing furiously into the sky as the world around Ino --and eventually her love-- blends into mixtures of greens and pinks and then into nothing. Tears stream down Ino’s face but she can’t bring herself to be afraid.

“Always.”

With those words, Ino’s false world of illusion fades away to never-ending white, blinding, and seemingly infinite. Her eyes open once more to a milky black sky, the first signs of morning peeking out from the soot as yellows and oranges linger like a blanket of color.

Her body aches with pain and longing. Longing for someone... for the sweetness she yearns for that’s just slightly beyond the reach of her fingertips. For Saturday mornings where pale light leaks through the window, bathing the bed sheets in gold and the girl with the jade eyes lying next to her in a soft glow. For Saturday nights on a roof overlooking the village, the stars bright and undiluted above them, and the air chilly as calloused fingers thread through her own like they had countless times before. For sunsets in flower fields and sprinting until her lungs had no more air to breathe. For that gentle laugher carrying through the hillside trees and honey-sweet kisses that flushed Ino’s cheeks with color like it was the first kiss she’d had all over again.
For Sakura.

Ino can hear her breathing, the sound choked and exhausted, but there. Real. She peels her eyes from the muddled colors of the sky to face the sound, twisting her head, letting her sticky blonde hair fall in her face a bit. Jade meets blue and Ino lets out a breath she didn’t know she was holding in. One look is enough and everything flows back through her mind in overwhelming flashes. The war. The genjutsu. Her wound. Sakura.

Ino weeps silently, the burden of all she’d seen weighing on her like it never had before. She tries to focus on one thing at a time, but all her mind registers is pain. The pain that never left. The pain that haunts her dreams and leaves her shaken, breathless in Sakura’s arms when it refuses to leave her. It grips her heart like a vice, her only escape staring back at her with wide, watery eyes that reflect her own.

Sakura’s pink hair clings to her sweat-stricken forehead. Her lips are parted, breathing heavily, and her whole body is worn with exhaustion. She looks so small, lying there in the dirt...like she once did in the seas of flowers when they were kids, tiny fingers curled around a thoroughwort. The image only makes Ino shake more, every memory more overwhelming than the last.

“Sakura.” Ino chokes out, those three syllables overflowing with emotion.

“Ino.” Sakura replies back, her lips curling into a smile of relief as tears of exhaustion spill down her cheeks, cutting through the soot staining her skin.

Sakura shakily drags her hand weakly through the dirt, desperate to touch the other girl, even in her current state. Desperate to soothe her...to hold her and never let go. Her body protests the movement, entirely drained of energy and chakra from working to repair Ino’s wound for two days straight. The large gash in the girl’s abdomen was complex, requiring meticulous hours of work, and careful, controlled movements as she repaired the damage of Ino’s internal organs with her bare hands. She was so close...so close to losing her. That thought alone sent a hot flicker of fear in her gut. Her hand reaches Ino’s jonin chest. She clutches it desperately, moving upwards until she reaches the girl’s face.

Eyes. Nose. Lips. Her shaking fingertips lightly graze over the girl’s features, committing the sight to memory after almost losing her altogether. Her thumb gently wipes the blonde’s tears away, following the slope of her nose and stroking her bottom lip shakily.

Their words lie silent in the air, not needing to be spoken but understood. Once the little bit of energy left in Sakura’s body runs out, she just smiles, allowing her hand to fall back into the dirt. She turns her head back to the sunset, content with the knowledge that Ino is okay. That they would both be okay. And she couldn’t ask for anything more that. This was enough...this would always be enough.

Ino’s gaze is glued to Sakura’s face, watching as patchwork colors bounce of her skin and her jade eyes, sparkling much like they did when they would watch the sunset as kids. However, this time, instead of being confined to nights, they watch as a new morning emerges from behind the horizon, and a new hope with it.

Maybe... just maybe...the days could be ours too.

Ino’s fingers twitch, mustering all the energy she can bare into her left hand, inching closer in the dirt until she reaches Sakura’s. She takes the girl’s fingers into her own gently, desperate for anything to keep her grounded in this moment. Once their hands link, Ino swears she can feel the invisible tickle of the sumires and camellias against her skin.
Ino allows herself to melt into this moment with Sakura, thoughts of eternity flooding her mind as she finds herself lost in the familiar color of jade once more. Forever with Sakura...the thought makes her heart seize in her chest in affection. Forever...That’s the sweetest paradise she could imagine.

They lay there until the first traces of morning burn into day. The battlefield is quiet now, the soot clearing its previous stain across the sky. Ino is sure the fighting is over, for now anyways. She can’t bring herself to think about the future...it’s too uncertain...too unpromised. A pang of fear twists through her as Ino imagines their colorful flowerfield without Sakura lying next to her in it. The thought of it makes her wince, and she instantly feels a reassuring squeeze around her hand. Seemingly sensing her fear, Sakura smiles, her eyes burning with a convincing fire. That look alone makes her feel as if she’ll never have to know that pain ever again.

“You have me…” Sakura breathes, tightening her grip on Ino’s hand.

Sensations of invisible flower petals tickle her lips and cheeks and fingertips. Ino listens with bated breath as the girl echos her own words from earlier, the sound somehow sweeter coming off her lips. She can’t help the smile that burns its way onto her lips as she finds herself lost in her lover’s eyes, never wishing to be free of them. Seas of purple meet seas of pink as the camellias and sumires meld and sway in the gentle winds of an all-too familiar flower field. The sun’s rays cascade over everything they can touch, bathing the swaying flowers of Ino’s paradise one last time before disappearing altogether, Sakura’s warmth replacing it as an ever present reminder of eternity.

“Always.”