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Their laughter echoed across the lake as they stumbled back to their cabin. Ino had made sure to rent an entire lake house because she figured things would get wild, but she wouldn’t be surprised if they were still waking up half the people at the resort. Right now, she was too high on joy and sake to really care.
She hugged her friends closer--Hinata on one side, Tenten on the other. Temari was laughing and trying not to trip as she wove strands of Hinata’s hair in messy braids. Sakura was skipping along beside them. She had considered inviting Shizune, Tsunade, and Kurenai, but she wasn’t sure she wanted her mentors as witnesses when she really let loose (though Lady Tsunade was notorious for enjoying a good night out). She had also invited Karui, but she was busy with business in the Hidden Cloud, and they didn’t know each other super well yet. They’d have to party together some other time.
“Anyone want to go skinny dipping?” Tenten asked mischievously as Sakura unlocked their cabin.
“What?” Hinata squeaked. She was really pretty when she was buzzed. She was pretty normally, of course, but it seemed particularly noticeable in this moment.
“We’re too drunk,” Temari laughed, collapsing onto a couch.
“But it’d be fuuuun,” Tenten giggled, collapsing on top of her. Those two were rarely so friendly with each other. Apparently having your back nearly broken by someone in your youth was hard to forgive. But at this moment they were cuddling like the best of friends.
“It’ll be fun for like two minutes until y’all drown, and I am not going to spend all night resuscitating you. This is supposed to be a weekend free from work.” Sakura leaned against the door frame, though it was a more casual lean than an attempt to find support. She could handle her alcohol better than most. Ino suspected it had something to do with her medical ninjutsu strengthened body, but she wasn’t sure.
“You’d save me, right?” she asked, wrapping her arms around her best friend and leaning into her. “It would look pretty bad if you returned from this weekend as the sole survivor of a tragic accident, especially since you’re the best medical ninja in the universe.”
“Not true.” Sakura gently pushed her away. “I am not saving anyone because no one is risking their lives for a swim until they’re sober.”
“Aw man!” Tenten moaned. “You’re no fun.”
“Sakura-chan is right,” Hinata hummed. “Besides, we have all weekend to go swimming.”
“Know what I think would be fun right now?” Temari asked, extracting herself from beneath Tenten to the other’s groans of protest. “Pajamas. And then maybe ice cream.”
“Ooh, actually ice cream does sound good.” Tenten heaved herself up off the couch. “Race you!”
She was already shooting past Sakura when she said this, and the other scrambled to follow her upstairs to the bedrooms. They changed quickly, and soon they were racing back downstairs to the kitchen where Temari and Tenten began fighting over the chocolate ice cream. Hinata tried explaining that there was plenty for both of them, but the two competitive kunoichi had already made it a game to see who would win. Ino grabbed a bowl of chocolate chip and escaped to the back porch as globs of ice cream began flying through the air.
The sky was already dark, a thin streak of lavender on the horizon the final proof of what had been a beautiful summer sunset. They had watched it from a rooftop bar and restaurant where there had been karaoke and perhaps too much sake. Ino loved vibrant atmospheres like that where she was surrounded by noise and people and a sense of life, but she also enjoyed quieter moments like this with insects humming on the warm night air as stars winked into view. She appreciated the range in experiences and the beauty that came from different moments.
“I see you escaped the chaos, too.”
Sakura sat down beside her on the porch steps, bowl of caramel pecan ice cream in hand.
“I barely made it out before they started flinging sprinkles at each other. Hinata’s threatening to take the chocolate ice cream away, but I think that’s backfired and she’s now caught in the middle of it all. I did manage to smuggle the cherries out, though.”
“Thanks!” The lid of the jar made a soft popping sound as Ino twisted it off. She fished a cherry out by its red-stained stem, popping it into her mouth and licking the juicy syrup from her fingers.
For a while the two friends didn’t say anything, simply enjoying the warmth of the night and the sweetness of the dessert. The buzzing of insects and muffled shouts from the food fight inside were a sort of background music to their companionship. The lake before them reflected the increasing constellations nearly perfectly, its surface marred only by the occasional fish attempting to snatch bugs foolish enough to land on its surface.
“So,” Sakura said, breaking the relative silence, “you’re getting married in a week.”
“I am.” She still felt a rush of excitement every time she remembered this fact. She fished for another cherry.
“Do you think you’re ready?”
“Everything’s been ordered and arranged, if that’s what you mean.” She popped the fruit into her mouth. “And I wouldn’t have said yes to Sai if I wasn’t ready to spend the rest of my life with him.”
Sakura hummed in agreement and took another bite of her ice cream.
“It is a lot different than how we thought it would be as kids, though, isn’t it?” Ino mused.
“Well a lot of things happened that we didn’t expect as kids.” War, losing loved ones, heartbreak--those unexpected developments were left unspoken. That wasn’t to say that all of the deviations from their childhood dreams were bad. They had found greater strength and a greater capacity of love than they could have imagined. And Sai--strange, savage, beautiful Sai--was more incredible than any boyfriend she had thought up in the romantic musings of youth. If all of the twists and turns of her life had brought them together, Ino figured she could live with that.
“That’s true. I never expected to let you have Sasuke, for one,” she teased. Sakura rolled her eyes, but the reaction wasn’t as playful as it could have been.
“Sasuke isn’t the boy we thought he was.”
“And we’re not the women we thought we would be.” Ino dug her spoon into her ice cream. “But that’s not a bad thing. One of these days Sasuke will come back to the village and to you. You just have to give him time.”
“I know.” Sakura twirled a cherry stem between her fingers thoughtfully. “I just wish I knew how much time he needed, y’know? Naruto’s already married, you and Sai practically are, and I feel a bit..stuck. It’s like you’re all moving on with your lives and I’m still waiting to take the next step.” There was no bitterness in her words, just sadness.
Ino didn’t have any sufficient words of comfort. Sometime during their years of crushing on Sasuke she had realized that loving him would be a long trial of endurance. She wasn’t patient enough to wait for him, and she wasn’t kind enough to help him pick up the pieces of his life. It wasn’t that she didn’t still love him, it just wasn’t the love he needed. She loved him like she loved Shikamaru or Chouji or Sakura. They had been part of her life for too long to discard easily, and she wanted to see them happy and thriving. But she wasn’t strong enough to help Sasuke. Her best friend, though, was a healer to her very core, and she had a bigger heart than anyone she knew. Sakura was strong enough to walk with Sasuke into his future and all of its uncertainty. Their love would never be easy, but it would endure, and that made Ino sure they would be alright.
“Y’know sometimes,” she confessed, “it feels like I’m running after you.”
“Ino, you don’t need to lie to make me feel better,” Sakura sighed.
“I’m serious! Every time I think I’m getting ahead, I look up and you’re already excelling. I mean, you’re beautiful, you’re smart, you’re changing the world… You’re the whole package, girl. I’m an average medical ninja with an average mission record who sucks at one-on-one combat. You’d cream me if we fought right now.”
“I don’t think so. You’re better than me at a lot of things.” Sakura offered her the cherry jar. “Remember our chunin exams? You nearly beat me.”
“That was a long time ago,” Ino reminded her, fishing for one of the fruits. “Besides, you nearly beat me then, too.”
“But I couldn’t. You came up with a response for everything I threw at you, and you threw some curveballs at me, too. That was the first time I felt like we were equals. For a long time I looked up to you, Ino. I still do, in some ways. I don’t think I’ll ever be as confident as you are. But seeing everything you’ve accomplished makes me want to do better. You motivated me to work hard to keep up with you and Naruto and Sasuke.”
“I am nowhere near on the same level as Naruto and Sasuke,” Ino laughed. “But it’s sweet of you to say so.”
“I dunno.” Sakura scraped her spoon around her bowl to get the last of her ice cream. “I think you’re more powerful than you realize. That thing you did with your mind jutsu during the war--where you connected every shinobi in the allied forces so we were all on the same page and of the same will? That was incredible ! I don’t think we would have made it without you. You saved us just as much as Naruto or Sasuke or anyone else did.”
“Aw, Sakura.” She felt warm and full and beautiful and believed in. “That’s really sweet of you to say. How did I get lucky enough to have you as my best friend?” She wrapped her arms around her and squeezed.
“Yeah really, I have no idea,” she laughed, flicking cherry juice at her friend playfully.
“Hey!” Ino squealed and withdrew.
“No! I only just got these two to stop fighting.”
They turned at Hinata’s groan. She, Tenten, and Temari were standing in the doorway, giggling and messy with ice cream and toppings.
“Who won?” Ino asked.
“The kitchen floor,” Temari smirked. “Someone dropped the ice cream during the struggle and it exploded everywhere.”
“It definitely wasn’t me,” Tenten declared.
“It doesn’t matter,” Hinata sighed. “But we have a giant mess to clean up now.”
“I know a good way to get cleaned up,” Tenten declared mischievously. “Swimming!”
She was already streaking down the path to the dock before they could stop her, pulling her shirt over her head and discarding it in the grass.
“Wait!” Temari laughed, two steps behind her. The other girls exchanged a rueful look.
“Be careful!” Hinata called, following more slowly and picking up their discarded bits of clothing.
“I’ll go grab some towels,” Sakura laughed. She took their empty ice cream bowls and disappeared inside.
Ino smiled to the sounds of splashing and laughter. She snatched the last cherry out of the jar and popped it into her mouth. She sure had gotten lucky with the people in her life. With a flick of her hair and an excited whoop, she raced to join her friends.