Work Text:
The first thing Ino notices when she takes the first step past the village gates again is the strange mix of finally feeling at home and of a strangeness she can't fully grasp. Konoha seems the same and yet completely different at the same time; she's not really sure if it's the village who has changed or if she's the one who's been changed. Maybe both.
By her side, Shikamaru and Chouji seem to hesitate as well, like they've been hit with the same feeling as her. There's a tiredness inside Shikamaru's eyes that Ino can feel reflected in her own, a grief that they hadn't been allowed to fully feel yet; when his dark eyes meet hers, she knows he can see it in her too.
They don't exchange words, and instead the three of them only force themselves to keep walking forward.
The house is far too quiet, and quietness doesn't sit well within her. Not anymore. It feels wrong, and it feels like there is something coming, her mind alert for a threat that deep down she knows doesn't exist. She knows she's safe, but it feels impossible to keep her guard down for more than a few seconds.
She clinks a nail against the mug in front of her, hearing the noise echo through the empty kitchen, and wonders if her mother would wake up from that small noise. She's not sure if her mother is even asleep, or if the older woman feels the wrongness in the silence as well. She imagines it may be worse for her mother, to not hear the sound of breathing by her side during the night, and that maybe the lack of that sound keeps her awake.
A shaky sigh leaves her lips, her mouth suddenly dry, and she forces her hand to run against the back of her neck. Her fingers are trembling, and its fingertips come back damp with the thin layer of sweat that covers her nape and wets the roots of her hair. There's a ringing in her ears, her eyes moving around frantically as she looks around the kitchen; she knows the beginning of a panic attack when she feels one starting, and quickly brings her cup of tea to her lips. She tells herself that it'll calm her down as she takes a sip.
It barely works, but the warm liquid going down her throat and the warm cup against her hands helps her to feel grounded. She looks around, starts counting things around the house that she can see. One blue thing, two brown things, three red things… It helps to remind her she's home.
Still, everything is too quiet. The war had taught her to despise the quiet, to link it to a mind suddenly turning silent as a life is taken. She doesn't know if she'll ever be comfortable with the silence again.
There's a knock on her front door out of the sudden, and it makes Ino startle where she's seated, head perking up to look at the direction of the noise. Her eyes move to look at the nearby clock, jaw clenching when she sees it's only nine p.m.
Too early to lose it like this…
She isn't expecting any visitors, although Shikamaru and his mother would often come to visit now any time they deemed necessary, so it wouldn't be a surprise to see them there. In truth, Ino knew they needed the company as much as her and her mother did — she knew they wanted to escape the silence too.
She gets up, feeling her body complain with the movement after the amount of time sitting down in the same position, and walks calmly towards the front door. When she opens the door, clear green eyes stare back at her. She only has time to blink a few times before a quiet, "Sakura?" escapes her lips.
"Ah, hey," is Sakura's answer, quiet against the silence of the night. "I know it's getting late but my mom made too much food again and asked me to bring some to you and your mother."
Ino's eyes are drawn to Sakura's hands and the basket she carries, filled with Haruno-san's cooking. It's a familiar scene, one Ino has lived through many times before when she had been a child and she and Sakura had been closer. The scars on Sakura's hands are new, however — a testament of what they've both been through.
"Ino?"
Sakura's voice calling makes Ino realize she's staring, eyes moving to look up again, into those clear eyes that carry a worry that Ino isn't sure if she appreciates or not yet. She clears her throat, tries to look less like someone whose mind feels like a mess, and smiles at the other girl. The worry doesn't disappear from Sakura's eyes.
"Thank you," Ino says, and she tries her best to make her voice cheery. "Please tell your mother that we appreciate it. I'll send something to you and your family too once I have the time."
Ino reaches for the basket, ready to be done with the interaction, but Sakura's hands don't let go. When Ino looks at her, questioning why she's holding onto the basket still, Sakura only blinks and lets go. Ino can see how her throat moves for a moment as she swallows thickly.
"If you need anything, please tell me, okay?" Sakura mutters, and Ino doesn't get the chance to say that she's okay, that everything is okay and there's no need to worry, because Sakura turns around and leaves.
As Ino watches the other girl go, she can't help but mourn the silence again once Sakura's voice isn't filling it.
The flowers seem to help her mother, and Ino can properly smile as she watches the older woman tending to the newly collected flowers and displaying them at the shop. Brown eyes still carry over some sadness that Ino isn't sure will ever go away, but they look lively again. It's a good sight.
The sound of the bells chiming as a client enters the store catches Ino's attention, blue eyes widening as soon as she sees that the person entering is Tsunade. By the look in those amber eyes, the Godaime hadn't gone there to buy flowers.
"Tsunade-sama," Ino greets her, bowing her head politely. Her mother does the same, although she watches the interaction from afar, like she knows that Tsunade is not there for her. "Can I help you with anything?"
"I'm glad you asked," the woman says with a sigh, and Ino frowns as soon as she sees the expression on Tsunade's face. She seems tired, like everyone does these days, but there's an underlying annoyance underneath it, as well as worry. "I need you at the hospital before Sakura exhausts herself to death."
It's easy to understand what Tsunade had meant when Ino looks at Sakura working by her side. Sakura had learned the medical ninjutsu with an ease that Ino envied every once in a while, the pink haired girl's skills somewhat even more impressive than Tsunade's sometimes, but there, as they treated a patient who carried lasting wounds from his fight in the war, Ino sees the way Sakura's hands shake, how the sweat droplets collect on her brow before falling down her face. It looks like shes pushing past her limit, scarred hands trembling a little more than they should once in a while before she holds it together.
It's only then that Ino notices the way green eyes look a little paler, bags forming under them. It makes Ino clench her jaw, an uncomfortable feeling settling at the bottom of her stomach at the sight. Sakura is helping whoever she can at the hospital, Ino knows very well how she spends almost the entire day there now, and if she's been exhausting herself this much everyday, Ino can only guess it won't be long until Sakura's body reacts to the strain.
"Let me handle this from here," Ino mutters, fighting to keep focused on the healing as she speaks, noticing how Sakura's eyes rise to look at her. "Go rest. I can go from here."
There's silence, and then, "I'm okay, I don't need to rest."
Ino's jaw clenches again, a frown on her face. She can feel Sakura's gaze on her — being able to focus on Ino and keeping the medical jutsu going… There's a reason Sakura is Tsunade's most prized student after all.
"Stop being stubborn," Ino says next. Her own hands shake for a moment. "I don't want to have to deal with you passing out on me while we care for a patient, Haruno. You're shaking, and by the looks of it you're on the verge of chakra exhaustion."
The words were meant to sound harsh, to make Sakura listen, but they sound more tired than angry. Her own worry seeps into her voice, and she can see how it takes Sakura by surprise by the way the girl's hands flinch. It takes a few seconds, but suddenly the green of the medical jutsu disperses from Sakura's hands. They still shake.
Ino lets out a shaky breath, almost relieved when Sakura listens to her and stops. She doesn't expect the gentle way one scarred hand moves forward to hold one of her own, the touch soft and yet reassuring. Like this, Ino can feel the calluses on Sakura's hands, the roughness of her fingertips when they run against Ino's skin, a lot less wounded than the other girl's.
"Don't push yourself too hard," Sakura says in a whisper, and Ino can only huff at the irony of the words coming from the one whose hands are still shaking.
"I'm fine," Ino says back, looking up when she hears the quiet amused noise that leaves Sakura's lips. Green eyes stare into blue ones when they look, lips curved into a quiet smile, pink hair falling over her face, escaping the tie that should keep it pushed back.
Ino's hand shakes slightly under Sakura's touch.
"I'm sure you are," Sakura shrugs. "I'll be back soon."
"Come back when you stop shaking."
The smile on Sakura's lips is tired, but still comforting.
"You should stop smoking this thing," Ino mutters with a grimace as she looks at the cigarette between Shikamaru's lips. "It stinks, you know?"
All the answer she gets is a shrug as the boy looks up at the sky, the cigarette smoke making a thin trail up in the air. On the horizon, the sun sets slowly, painting the sky with fire, and the center of Konoha buzzes with life. Some stores, Ino notices, are still closed, some stands never put up again on the streets — a memory of the loss suffered, a picture of grief.
"And how's the work at the hospital?" Shikamaru questions, hands in his pockets and dark eyes leaving the sky to look at Ino again. The girl only raises her eyebrows. "Your mother told mine about it. Said you and Sakura have been working a lot there. I'm sure it's good practice for your medical jutsu, hm?"
Ino doesn't answer right away, her eyes drifting off from her friend towards the busy street. The lights from the stores and their signs are blinding, the darkness of the ones that never opened feels just as blatant.
"It's good practice, yes," she mumbles, but keeps it at that.
Shikamaru doesn't need to know about the lasting damage the war has caused on some, or how said damage had been so bad that some still die even after all that time. He doesn't need to know about the way her hands shake whenever a kid arrives at the hospital for treatment, or how the old lady had held her husband's hand while Ino tried her best to keep him stable, only to lose the battle. He doesn't need to hear about more pain, even if she knows he would gladly listen to her, it being a drag or not.
Still, even with everything unsaid, Shikamaru's eyes look at her like he knows. She doesn't try to hide it, and he doesn't judge her for it. It feels comforting.
"I'm glad to see you and Sakura working together," Shikamaru says with a crooked smile, amused. "A few years ago, you'd be trying to go at each other's throats."
Ino huffs.
"It's serious work. We wouldn't put lives in danger because of our little competitions. Besides, Sakura is exhausting herself to death so she doesn't have the energy to even try."
Shikamaru blinks, eyes studying Ino for a moment. The girl frowns when she notices, staring at the boy when his eyes go back to the sky, the deep orange painting everything with warm light.
"Sometimes I forget how much you care for her," he says, and Ino's frown deepens. He sounds like he's lost in thought. "And then you say something with that tone of voice and remind me all over again."
"What tone of voice, exactly?"
"The one you used just now, where you sound like your heart is breaking just by thinking of Sakura being harmed in some way," Shikamaru shrugs, and Ino looks away. She feels her face burn. "It used to be followed by harsh words to cover it up when we were kids."
"That's stupid. You're stupid," Ino mumbles.
When Shikamaru laughs, her eyes snap back at his face in time to see the grin on his lips around the cigarette before he says, "I guess the harsh words will come to me and Chouji now."
She punches his shoulder, a snicker coming from his lips, and she manages a smile.
Not every day is easy, and Ino learns that quickly. Some days, her exhaustion helps her sleep a dreamless night — no nightmares plague her mind when her brain is too tired to come up with them — and some days her exhaustion stops her from being able to function when she needs to.
The hospital had been filled that day, as it is most of the time, and when the shift ends and she walks home, she enters her house with the weight of the day on her back. It almost stops her from hearing the quiet sobbing coming from her mother's room. Almost.
She doesn't sleep that night, holding her mother close, unable to say a word, too tired to even think properly, but too worried to fully rest and loosen up. She worries that, if she falls asleep, she might lose her mother too.
The next day, in the hospital, her hands shake and her jutsu fails her multiple times. It's frustrating and exhausting, and it's maddening that Sakura notices — but then again, who wouldn't notice?
"I'm fine," Ino says through gritted teeth as Sakura suggests she rests in one of the empty rooms for a moment. She can see the way the other girl clenches her jaw. "Just let me do what I'm here to do."
Her hands shake, her breathing heavy and loud, and when the patient is better all she can do is protest meekly when Sakura drags her out of the room. She follows, pulled by her arm by someone stronger than her, and suddenly they're inside an empty hospital room, the door closing behind them, and before she can say or do anything, she's being pushed back until she's sitting against the mattress of the hospital bed.
"I-"
"If you say you're fine one more time I'll lose it," Sakura spits out. Ino can only pout. "You give me shit all the time for pushing myself too hard and then you go and do the same. Hardly fair, isn't it?"
"I know my own limits."
"Then why are you pushing past them? Do you want to be the one in a hospital bed next?"
"You're being dramatic."
"Have you looked at yourself, Ino?" Sakura says, her voice a little louder, and Ino closes her mouth shut. She has, and she knows exactly how she looks. Not exactly the picture of health. When Sakura speaks again, her voice is softer. "What happened?"
Ino's eyes stray from Sakura's, dreading that the girl would see the answer inside them, but when Ino doesn't answer, Sakura's hand pulls her face up by the chin gently, forcing Ino to stare into green eyes. She can't fully understand why that's the breaking point, and why she finally cries when she looks into those eyes. She hadn't cried since the battlefield, holding back the tears from her grief to stay strong for the ones who needed her to.
Sakura's eyes and her gaze pull those tears from her, until they're falling against her cheeks, wetting her face and making her vision blurry. The pink haired girl doesn't seem to want to ask questions after that, and instead Ino feels herself being pulled closer, until her head rests against Sakura's chest and her arms wrap around the other girl's torso, keeping her close. She feels calloused hands holding the back of her head, keeping Ino's face pressed against her beating heart, until all Ino can feel is Sakura's presence and the comfort of being held back for once.
"Don't come to the hospital tomorrow," Sakura mutters, and Ino feels calloused fingers running through her hair gently. "Take some time to rest. I can hold my own here alone."
"And let you kill yourself from exhaustion? I don't think so," Ino says back, her voice rough from the crying. She doesn't make a move to get away from Sakura's embrace, holding the girl a little tighter. Her next words are a whisper, a thought said out loud, and she hates how vulnerable she feels as she says, "I'm not losing anyone else."
Sakura's silence is one of understanding, and Ino knows she's able to pick up that that's what's plaguing Ino's mind. Sakura has always been able to read her, the same way Ino has been able to read her too. She presses her face more closely to Sakura's chest.
"You're not losing me," Sakura whispers.
The promise makes Ino let out a breath that she hadn't known she had been holding.
"I don't understand how you like this game," Ino huffs, trying once again to understand why she can't move her piece to the direction she wants it to.
In front of her, Shikamaru sighs again, hands pressed against his face. While he's not looking, she moves one of his pieces back.
"It's a good game to keep your mind occupied," he mumbles, frowning as soon as he eyes the board again. Ino looks away, watching Chouji taking a nap under the morning sun and pretending she hasn't done anything. "And you sure would be good at it if you paid attention and stopped cheating."
"I'm not cheating," she hums, moving her piece. When Shikamaru doesn't complain, she knows she moved it properly. Still, it doesn't make much sense. "Why did you want me here, by the way? Hopefully for something better than playing shogi."
Shikamaru stays quiet for a moment, Ino's eyes rising to look at him and seeing the way his lips are pursed. There's something he wants to say but isn't sure if he should, then. At least that's what that face always seemed to mean when it came to Shikamaru.
"Your mother talked to mine the other day," he says, quietly. Ino's face turns serious then. "She asked my mom to talk to me and get you to hang out more. She seems worried about you."
Ino blinks, staring at Shikamaru for a moment before her lips press together tightly.
"I am fine."
Dark eyes stare at her like they don't believe her. She wants to punch that look away from his face.
"I am fine," she repeats, a little more harshly.
"Of course you are," he hums, shrugging a little, eyes back on the game. "I'm not. I lost my mentor and my father, and a few friends too. I am terrified all the time of losing more people, and I keep a straight face because I don't want others to worry about me. The nightmares might be the worst part. I think it's the same for you, right? But you're fine."
Ino feels her throat closing, her eyes going down to her own hands, resting on her lap. They shake a little. She should've known Shikamaru understood what's happening to her more than anyone else. They went through the same hell, and they're still going through it.
"I don't like when you open your mouth, you know?" Ino mutters, moving one of her own pieces. When Shikamaru moves it back to show her it's wrong, she moves one of his in retaliation, making him huff. It gets a smile out of her. "I just need time."
"I don't think there'll be enough time in our lives for us to deal with all this," he mumbles. "But I found out that having other people around me helps. Makes it easier. You've been keeping yourself away from others lately, me and Chouji barely see you anymore, unless we seek you ourselves."
"It's not really conscious," she shakes her head, tries moving one of her pieces again. Shikamaru doesn't move it back this time. "I've been exhausted from the hospital and taking care of things at home."
"Take a break," he deadpans, and Ino is about to open her mouth to say that it's not that simple when Shikamaru keeps going, "I'm serious. I'll talk to Kakashi-sensei tomorrow to get you and Sakura to take a leave. You and her have been going past your limits lately for all I've heard."
"Sakura will kill the Rokudaime if he does that," she hums. Shikamaru only shrugs.
"He's fast, he can run from her fists. And from what I've heard, she's been too tired to properly do anything, anyway."
"Don't doubt her strength of will when she wants to punch someone."
The flower field looks the same as it did when she was a kid. Her eyes look around, taking in the familiar sight while the scent of the flowers fills her brain with good memories. She remembers going there with the other girls in the village before the Academy, remembers the training to be a kunoichi in the future and remembers just playing there whenever she had the chance.
She takes a flower from the ground as she sits down, smells its perfume, and rolls it between her fingers, watching the twirling of the petals. The world seems simpler there — quieter, easier to deal with.
"There you are," she hears a voice behind her, turning her head to see Sakura walking her way. Ino's gaze gets caught by the red ribbon on her head, tied as a bow. "Did I make you wait too long?"
Ino doesn't answer, still staring at the red ribbon. It makes Sakura stop walking, frowning for a moment before apparently realizing what Ino is staring at. The girl seems to flush.
"Ah… I found it in my things the other day," she says with an awkward laugh, fingers playing with the ends of the bow gently. "I might have ruined my hitai-ate while training with Naruto earlier, so I thought…"
Ino nods, smiling a little and trying to push away the strange feeling that seeing Sakura wearing that ribbon brought her.
"It still suits you," Ino finally speaks, seeing Sakura's lips tugging up into a small smile. "Now, come here, forehead. The food is going to get cold."
Ino pokes the basket next to her with the food she had brought for them, hearing Sakura huff at the old nickname but coming closer anyway.
The wind blows fresh against their faces, ruffling the leaves of nearby trees and the taller grass as they set everything up for their small picnic. There's nothing much else to do now that they're banned from the hospital — a week, the Rokudaime had told them, only to get a rough treatment from Sakura; the clone had disappeared as soon as she shook it too violently, which showed Ino that he knew his student well to not set himself to the task of giving those news to her personally.
It's only after a few minutes and pointless conversation that Ino realizes there's a new scar on Sakura's hand, red and harsh against pale skin. Her eyes are drawn to it immediately when she notices, the pink haired girl not noticing where Ino's gaze is for a whole minute before she stops talking to follow Ino's eyes.
"Ah, I got this from that training with Naruto that I mentioned," she shrugs, looking at the scar like it's nothing much. "I tried healing it but my chakra reserves are low lately… It didn't close completely."
With a quiet sigh, Ino takes the hand into hers without much of a thought, not warning the other girl first. Sakura doesn't pull back.
Ino is barely aware of her actions when she notices the green glow on her hands and that she's healing Sakura's hand herself. Blue eyes move to look into green ones, looking for some kind of disapproval in them, but clear green eyes just seem surprised.
There's a faint flush on Sakura's face too, Ino notices, cheeks almost matching the tone of her hair. It's enough to make Ino turn her gaze back to the hand she's holding, feeling her face matching Sakura's flush.
She watches as the scar closes slowly, until it becomes only a faint white line mixed with many others that cover the girl's hands. When she deems it good enough, she stops the jutsu, the green glow going away slowly, but she doesn't let go of the hand. She can feel the callouses on its palm and fingertips, she can feel the rough skin full of scars, but she can also feel its warmth, and how it somehow fits against hers.
She doesn't want to let go.
Sakura's free hand moves, and soon there are calloused fingertips under her chin and raising Ino's face so blue and green meet again. The flush is still there, painting Sakura's cheeks a light pink, and Ino is sure that her face isn't much different. The bow on the pink haired girl's hair blows with the wind; it follows the movement of the flowers around them. She had been right all those years ago, she realizes: out of all the flowers on the field, Sakura had grown into the prettiest of them.
"Thank you," she hears Sakura mutter, eyes accompanying the movement of the girl's lips for a moment.
"Anytime," Ino mutters back.
When she finally lets go of Sakura's hand and Sakura lets go of her chin, Ino feels like there's something missing out of the sudden.
It's almost therapeutic to slowly fill the rice with jam and close it to make the onigiri, placing the rice balls on a plate one by one, while the radio plays something quietly in the back and her mom hums the melody, sitting on the desk while letting Ino do all the work.
Her mother's humming stops, and Ino guesses she's taking a sip of her tea again, back turned to the woman while she cooks, but instead of humming, her mother's voice sounds into the room after a few seconds.
"Ino?" She calls, as if to make sure Ino is able to listen to her.
"Yes, mom?"
"Have I told you I appreciate that you're taking care of me?"
Ino frowns, stopping her work to turn her head back in order to look at her mother, seeing brown eyes staring at her. There's softness inside the brown irises, but there's a pinch of worry as well, Ino notices. She just doesn't really know why.
"I do appreciate it, you know," she smiles, and Ino is able to see the lines on her mother's face when she does that. "But I hope you know I want you to care for yourself too."
"I care for myself," she says, still frowning at her mother. The woman sighs.
"You needed to be told by the Hokage to take a leave from the hospital," the woman says, and Ino turns away again, hands going back to making the onigiri, trying to run from her mother's gaze. She still feels it on her back. "And you spend your nights in my room to keep me company when you should be sleeping. I'm not saying I don't appreciate your care, but I want you to do things for yourself as well, Ino."
The woman's voice is quieter than before when she continues with, "I know your father would want it too."
She closes another rice ball, putting it on the plate, before finally stopping. Her hands are dirty and her shoulders feel heavy.
"I'll be okay, because I know I still have you," her mother continues. "I know you'll be there for me if I need, the same way I hope you know I'll be there for you too. But I think it's time for you to let me deal with my pain alone so I can make peace with it, and for you to process yours too, my love."
When Ino doesn't move or say anything back, still letting her mother's words sink in, the woman seems to realize she has to be the one to fill in the silence.
"The war is over," she says, and somehow that information had never felt more true than now, after her mother had said those words. "You can let your guard down now. You're safe, you're home, and you're alive. Your father fought for that. You owe your father to live."
For the second time in a long while, the tears come again, falling over her face warm and thick. It isn't long until she feels her mother's arms wrapping around her, holding her close the same way she does to the woman at night when they go to sleep. Her dirty hands hold her mother's clean ones, but the woman doesn't seem to care. The radio keeps playing, the night keeps falling outside, and the world keeps turning. It hasn't stopped moving.
Ino wipes sweat away from her face as she focuses as best as she can on keeping the jutsu going, already feeling the strain on her body. Sakura doesn't look much better, her lips pressed together tightly while her brow is dotted with sweat beads, her hands shaking a little, just like Ino's are. They've been there for hours, making sure to keep the shinobi's body working despite how it seems to do its best to fail.
Ino closes her eyes, too close to chakra exhaustion to keep going but too intent on not letting the shinobi die on her to stop.
"Let me keep going from here," she hears Sakura's voice saying, her eyes opening again to look at the other girl. The fact that Sakura is not looking back at her and instead focusing on her own hands and on her task shows that the girl is at her limit as well. "Take a break."
"And let you do double the work? Not a chance."
"Ino-"
"Shut up and focus on the healing, Sakura."
Ino is able to hear the way Sakura murmurs, "Stubborn," under her breath. It takes a smile out of her, despite the fatigue she feels.
As if knowing the two of them would pass out soon, the door of the room opens and Shizune enters, another medic nin just behind her. Her eyes look from Sakura to Ino quickly before she's gesturing to the other medic to move. She takes a place by Sakura's side, the other medic standing by Ino's, before their hands glow green and they start doing what her and Sakura had been doing for hours now.
"Alright, move, the both of you," Shizune quickly says, and neither of them have the strength to contradict the woman.
They both stop their jutsu, stepping back and letting the other two take charge of caring for the unconscious shinobi, their breathing heavy and ragged.
"Tsunade-sama is coming soon to deal with this, so you don't have to worry," Shizune quickly says. Ino can see how relieved Sakura seems to be after hearing that. "Go rest. But stay in the hospital. We'll need a report on this case once Tsunade is here. I know it's the middle of the night but we'll need you both."
They both nod, seeing Shizune nodding back before dismissing them. As soon as they're out of the room, Sakura's hand takes Ino's, dragging her through corridors with a surety that leaves no room for Ino to question that she knows where she's going. She's not even sure he has the energy to question Sakura at that moment, only allowing the girl to take the lead.
They go to a more distant part of the hospital, emptier as well, and soon enough Sakura is opening the door to an empty room and dragging Ino inside. Ino remains quiet when the pink haired girl drags her towards the bed there and gestures for her to lay down, climbing on top of it as well soon enough. The bed is by no means big, and they're in each other's space, but it feels good. Ino has been sleeping with her mother a lot in the past few months, so the feeling of another person by her side is comforting. Sakura doesn't seem to mind either, scooting closer, face pressed against Ino's back.
Ino falls asleep with the warm feeling of Sakura on her back, one of the girl's legs resting between Ino's, tangling their legs together almost unconsciously.
Unfortunately, the peaceful feeling doesn't last long, the nightmares taking over as soon as she's fully asleep. She sees her father's face, sees Uchiha Madara and the Juubi, and she feels it again, the horrifying feeling of a mind being killed and the silence that follows. She wakes up with a start, her breathing failing her for a moment and her body moving to sit up as fast as she can, eyes scanning the room to make sure that she's safe, that she's not in the battlefield again.
There are arms around her after a few seconds, and she turns her head to see who it is, finding Sakura's eyes staring at her with worry all over them. Her lips are moving, Ino realizes, but she's not really able to listen — the ringing in her ears is louder.
Slowly, the ringing stops, Sakura's arms holding her still and the other girl's warmth calming her down slowly. She can finally hear what Sakura mumbles repeatedly, a quiet chant of, "It's okay, you're safe, I'm here," leaving the girl's lips and working to slowly pull Ino from her panicked state until she's finally able to relax again. Her face is wet, she finally notices; she had been crying.
"Sorry," Ino mutters when she's finally able to, her voice barely coming out, throat far too dry for her to be able to talk properly. "I didn't mean to wake you up."
"Don't be sorry for that," Sakura sighs, seemingly relaxing once she sees Ino is finally back, head resting on Ino's shoulder. Unconsciously, Ino leans back, into Sakura's arms a little more. "I really don't mind."
They fall silent, both of them finally calming down. Ino's head leans a little, cheek resting against the pink mess of Sakura's hair. It smells like springtime wind, Ino realizes; it's a familiar smell that calms Ino down even more.
Sakura's arms are wrapped around Ino's body, holding her tightly still, like she doesn't want to let Ino go. Ino's hands move to touch the other girl's arms, taking one of her hands on her own; Sakura holds the hand back, thumb brushing against the back of Ino's hand in a soft caress. When Ino closes her eyes, she doesn't see the nightmare again like it would normally happen. It's only Sakura there, around her, keeping her calm and safe.
She still hates that Sakura saw her in that state after the nightmare, she feels vulnerable for it, but she's glad for the girl's presence.
"I have nightmares too, you know?" Sakura mutters after a long moment of silence, and Ino purses her lips, eyes still closed. "Been having them after the war every night. This is the first night I didn't have one."
"What changed?" Ino mutters back the question, feeling Sakura raising her head again.
She finally opens her eyes again, turning a little to look into Sakura's face as best as possible, seeing clear green eyes staring back at her in the darkness of the night, moonlight making her able to see the other girl's expression.
"I had you with me," Sakura says, quiet, like a secret only Ino could know. The words make Ino's heart skip a beat. The smile on Sakura's lips doesn't help it. "It's like when we were kids. You beat whatever wants to harm me."
Ino looks away, her face flushed, but she keeps her hold on Sakura's hand, making no moves to escape the small safe space they've created by holding each other. When one of Sakura's hands touches her face and gently pulls it to look at her again, Ino doesn't try to stop her, blue eyes back to facing green ones once more. When their lips touch, all Ino does is lean into it.
The kiss feels long coming, like it's something that needed to happen. The softness of Sakura's lips on hers and the feel of her hand holding Sakura's makes Ino realize too many things at once. She can't tell for how long she's loved the other girl, or how long she wished for the softness of that moment — there's a faint hope that she's not the only one who's been feeling this way for so long.
As the kiss ends, as she feels her nose brushing against Sakura, and as they open their eyes to look at each other again, her mother's words from the other day come back to her mind. The war is over, she's safe and alive, and she can let her guard down. She can allow herself this.
As the room falls silent and they just hold each other, Ino realizes she doesn't mind the silence as much as she did — not when Sakura's arms are around her, and not when they share the silence together.
The field is filled with flowers, spring causing them to bloom and spread their perfume all over the open space and their colors all over the green grass. Still, of all of the flowers around her, Ino's eyes remain on the girl walking towards her, seeing the way Sakura seems to flush with the attention.
As she extends a hand to Sakura and the pink haired girl accepts it and allows herself to be guided to Ino's lap and embrace, Ino knows she's holding the most precious flower of all Konoha. Like this, with Sakura close, she feels fully at home again, and like life can go on. She would be okay.
