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The ducks that paddled around the river curiously picked at the little stones Sakura kept throwing into it from her vantage point on the bridge. She tugged at her hair that kept getting blown in her face and counted to sixty again. She had done that 5 times now, which meant that Ino was 5 minutes late. Her mother taught her last week how to count the time for when she got bored.
And she was so bored right now. Waiting sucked. But Ino had promised to meet her today after lunch at their bridge. Letting her fingers wander over the underside of the railing, which she was finally big enough to look over, she traced the two letters that were scratched into it.
There were many bridges in Konoha, but this one was Ino and Sakura’s favourite one. It gave the best view of the river and sometimes the ducks nested beneath it, which made it a prime duckling watching spot.
When they had discovered this, they were quick to claim it as theirs, not telling any of the other kids of it. Two little hands had prodded at the wood with a stolen kunai until it gave way to the first letters of their names, still a bit unsure as they had only been taught them the day before.
Sakura was already planning to march to the Yamanaka compound and demand they let her friend go when she heard fast steps approaching her. A second later she was almost toppled over when Ino didn’t slow down before hugging her.
“I ran all the way here! My father didn’t want to let me go before I finished my writing homework”, Ino explained out of breath. Sakura turned around to look at her and burst out giggling at Ino’s flushed face.
“You look like a tomato! And one of the very ripe ones too, the ones my mom immediately takes to make into-”, Sakura interrupted herself giggling when Ino threw her hands up to cover her face.
“Stoooop”, the blond whined and swatted in Sakura’s direction with one arm. Sakura thought Ino deserved this a little bit for making her wait, but she liked Ino’s face quite a bit and she waited so long for a reason, so she took deep breaths until she could stop laughing.
“I like tomatoes very much”, Sakura stated as calmly as she could and took Ino’s hand into hers to pull her in the direction of the small forest that they had planned to explore. Ino quickly caught up to her and when Sakura looked at her there was a smile on her face too.
An hour after the two girls ducked into the covering shade that fell from the massive trees, they found themselves engrossed in an imaginary shinobi mission. Hiding behind trees and crouching in bushes, they moved like they had seen the older students do in their training.
Sakura herself had stopped whining about her new shoes getting dirty quickly, her hands and knees now caked in dirt from laying on the ground or the occasional time her superb ninja training failed her and she slipped.
And Ino was not looking much better, there were twigs tangled in her long hair and she hit her knee when her attempt to scale a tree, so she could look for their target, failed.
That’s why their new mission was extremely important: find a nice spot to sit down where Sakura could take care of her teammate, like a good shinobi would.
“There!”, Sakura squealed excitedly, pointing to a space between the trees where the light from the burning sun filtered through.
“Shhh”, Ino gave her a look that was probably supposed to be chastising, “We will be detected if you scream so loud! Also, I knew we would be out of the forest soon.”
Sakura didn’t believe her one bit. Her face probably said as much because Ino folded her arms and explained with a voice that Sakura thought made her sound like a proper adult sometimes: “If you would have been paying attention and not screamed so loudly you would have heard the river splashing, like I did.”
Ino proudly puffed out her chest when Sakura looked at her marvelled: “Woah Ino, you heard the river so far away?”
“Your senses should always be sharp if you want to be good at the academy”, Ino scolded the smaller girl, like she had heard her father say so often.
“You will be a great shinobi!”, Sakura exclaimed then, obviously impressed by her great knowledge.
“Kunoichi”, Ino said and when her friend only looked confused, she explained, “The boys in class will be shinobi, we girls will be called kunoichi.”
Sakura immediately nodded understandingly and filed the new information away in her brain. “Kunoichi then, but either way you are going to be a great one”, she affirmed her statement. Her friend now blushing at the open admission of admiration.
“Come one, I will lead us to the river and then you can show me how well you can treat wounds”, Ino said quickly and took Sakura’s hand.
They sat by the river for a long time. Until Sakura was satisfied with her friends bandaged knee scratch and Ino finished braiding a flower crown. When Sakura finally nodded approvingly and stood up, holding out a hand to help Ino up, Ino sat the crown on her head. The small pedals the same colour as Sakura’s hair.
“Here you go doctor Sakura, your payment for the treatment.”
“Thank you kunoichi Ino. Let’s get you home then.”
When they made their way back to the bridge, dirty, tired and a bit bloody, Sakura thought she had never been as happy as she was in that moment.
~~~
She should have brought a book, at least then she would have something to do while dumbly standing around like she had nothing better to do. Because she had! Ino and her were arranged to meet for a training session. They even stalked out a corner of the Academy’s training ground that no one really used at this time so they would be undisturbed.
But now Ino was late and if she took any longer, they would have to start training when the sun went down.
Sakura let out an annoyed huff and let herself fall onto the grass, threading her fingers through it. Without anything to do the only thing her mind was producing was possible reasons why Ino could be running late.
An earthquake, unlikely she would be late then too. Household chores, probable but she skipped out of them a hundred times so today wouldn’t be different. Homework, they had already done it together so Sakura could rule out that possibility.
There was no other reason…oh, but there was. Sakura’s mood darkened even more than it had before.
For a few weeks now a few girls in their class, including Ino, had started fawning over Sasuke. They had been sitting in the same classroom for a few years already but somehow now all Ino could talk about was how great and talented and cool Sasuke was.
He wasn’t even so cool, it’s probably just because he was so good at throwing shuriken, and they want to score some of his tips. She had heard the boys whisper about that too. If Sasuke was the reason she would be joining ranks with Naruto, the loud boy almost as intensely hating Sasuke as the others admired him, she would need to get her head checked out.
What if Ino was trailing behind Sasuke right now? Completely having forgotten about her. An ugly feeling settled on her chest and made her feel like crying, even though kunoichi never cried.
But it made her so mad that she picked herself up and wanted to start stomping home when a flurry of purple fabric and blond hair runs into her. Her reflexes make her grab the persons arm and hold her back from falling before she can register the definitely familiar figure.
“Sakura! My saviour, thank you”, Ino brought out breathlessly and grabbed onto Sakura to regain her footing. When she was safely on her own legs again, she held a little bag in Sakura’s face, who was still too shocked to interrogate Ino where she had been and reprimand her for making her wait.
“Took your breath away, huh?”, Ino laughed lightly and opened the bag, “I got you something from the bakery as an apology. You may not believe it, but I know I’m…a bit late.”
Still reluctant, Sakura snatched the bag from Ino and peered inside. The little treat inside appeasing her enough to not immediately yell at Ino. But she couldn’t hold back at least one salty comment. “Stalking after Sasuke got you so busy?”
To her surprise though, Ino laughed at that and clapped her shoulder. “Sasuke? Sakura, I do have a life you know. Stalking after some boy? You should know me better.”
Sakura didn’t like being made fun of when she was being mad for a good reason, but denying the relief she felt when Ino so completely dispelled the idea of choosing some boy over her would have been futile. So, she settled on mildly annoyed and curious instead: “What were you doing then? I had been waiting for half an hour by now.”
Starting to walk to the training ground now, Ino called over her shoulder and Sakura was quick to catch up to her and noticed annoyed that Ino had gained a few inches on her. “Had to help my parents in the shop. There is a big wedding today and mother needed help delivering the flower arrangements to the venue, so I stepped in. Father is on a mission.”
Oh. It was a side comment, but Sakura knew what it meant anyways. When Ino’s father was on a mission these days it was most likely a very important one and thus also probably dangerous. Until her father was back safe in the walls of Konoha, Ino and her mother wouldn’t be able to relax completely.
“Then let’s get you out of your head, shall we?”, Sakura aimed for light commentary and it seemed to work. Her friend’s shoulders dropped a bit and there was the glint of a challenge in Ino’s eyes that meant she would focus solely on the thing before her to win.
Sakura thought that maybe today she would have let her win to get Ino’s spirits up. But she was quickly proven wrong.
Apparently, Ino’s extra training with her clan’s elders paid off as she parried Sakura’s throws and kicks steadily. But Sakura wouldn’t admit that, rather blaming the now noticeable height difference when they sat under one of the trees to enjoy its shade.
And if Ino made efforts to chat and gossip longer than normally, she chose to not mention it and instead properly enjoy how wonderful the day had turned out in the end.
~~~
Nervously kneading her fingers was a habit Sakura had tried to break in the last few months, as it was unbecoming of a kunoichi to show she was anxious, but right now she couldn’t help herself. It had been a week since she saw Ino strut through the village and her curiosity had been bigger than the uncomfortable rivalry that dictated their relationship now.
Ino had considered her from head to toe as if she had to think about if Sakura was even worthy of knowing what she was so obviously very proud of. But just as Sakura, Ino caved and explained to her proudly how her team got picked for a mission that would take them out of the village for several days.
She couldn’t give out all the details as they were not supposed to surrender them to others, but it was very important. So much so, that her father had expressed how proud he was of his daughter, who was improving so quickly to take on more than mere D-rank missions already.
Contrary to what Ino would have expected, Sakura agreed with her father and said as much. She of all people could clearly see how much more refined Ino’s skills had become after Asuma-sensei began training her. Her team was also a perfect match, perfectly balanced in skills. Just like their parents were.
Sakura felt envious because Naruto, Sasuke and she were as far away from balanced and a good team as it could be. Naruto and Sasuke were incredibly strong and powerful but one emotionally incompetent and the other had no regard for his own safety. It was a full-time job to juggle them.
That much had become clear after their, in Sakura’s opinion, catastrophic mission in the land of waves.
But she didn’t say any of that to Ino, they weren’t on ‘I’ll run to you if life gets hard and complain until it’s a little less so’ terms for a long time.
Instead, she wished them a save journey and good luck before quickly continuing her way to training with her team.
That had been one week ago and since then Sakura hadn’t been able to sleep properly. She was tossing and turning in her bad as her mind came up with a million scenarios where Ino’s team got in trouble. She spent hours categorizing them from most to least likely and how great the extend of injuries would be.
And now she was standing on the gates to Konoha through which she assumed Ino would return. It wasn’t really her intention, but she just really wanted to know that Ino was safe and didn’t have to witness her mentor or friends getting hurt…not to mention Ino herself being injured.
After 10 minutes she felt silly, after 20 as if she was loitering and at the 30-minute mark she could feel the looks the gate guards kept throwing in her direction. Sakura already made up her mind to leave and lay awake this night yet again as a voice from the gate grabbed her attention.
“Oh finally, if I had to listen to either of you for another minute, I would have thrown myself into my kunai!”
Yep, that was definitely Ino. Sakura didn’t want to turn around, suddenly embarrassed to be there. They weren’t even really friends anymore! Ino would make so much fun of her if she saw her. She could hear the blond chattering loudly, so she must be fine. All Sakura’s concerns had been useless, and she had just been a worrywart as always.
“Sakura?”
Oh no. Ino had noticed her. Here the gloating, self-reverent speech came. But Sakura didn’t want to run away, so she turned around to face a probably smirking Ino, who smelled a century of jokes on Sakura’s expense.
“Hi”, Sakura started and hit her head against something solid mentally. ‘Really intellectually refined’, her inner voice sneered, ‘Let’s try this again.’
With a better formulated sentence in mind, Sakura turned around and instantly got the wind knocked out of her before she could even take a breath to say anything.
Ino was hugging her. Ino was hugging her!
They hadn’t so much as friendlily glanced at each other for months and now Ino was hugging her. Sakura’s brain short circuited, fortunately triggering her most basic instincts. She hugged Ino back, arms, that were constantly getting stronger, wrapping tightly around her friend, who she had missed so much. Which she hadn’t even noticed until a feeling of deep relief filled her chest, as if a hole her heart was stuffed.
Far too early she felt Ino unwrapping her arms from around her body and reluctantly let go too. But it was worth it because now Sakura was able to see Ino’s face which decorated a big smile, her eyes shining with excitement.
“I have to tell you so much! You won’t believe what happened!”, Ino exclaimed and grasped at Sakura’s hands to drag her back to her team which she had left standing at the village entrance.
“We saw so much interesting stuff. Did you know that there are over 200 kinds of tea being served in every tea house there, even the really small ones! I sound like an asshole, but I don’t think I can drink tea in Konoha anymore after that. I brought some so you could try too!”, Ino began explaining while Sakura let herself be dragged by her hand.
Content to just let Ino talk and detail everything she had seen, heard and done in the last week, Sakura looked a bit more closely and noticed her tense shoulders and a few bruises on her arms and face.
Not everything had been as easy-going as the things Ino told her right now, but maybe she would tell Sakura later when it was just the two of them and she did not need to be afraid to not be fine.
She must have looked a bit to serious because Ino stopped her retelling of an interaction she had with an older woman who had been as rude as she was old and gave her a deep, serious look. ‘Later’, it said and Sakura nodded slightly, smiling again and prompting Ino to continue telling what she verbally threw at the old hags head.
They would be okay again. She knew it.
~~~
Well, that wasn’t how she had planned tonight.
“Everything is looking awkward! This one doesn’t fit me anywhere anymore! When did I go shopping last? Five years ago? This is unbelievable.”
Ino had been raging for half an hour already while Sakura camped on her bed. They had planned to go to the festival in town today as their friends were all in town right now and there were supposed to be live music and great food discounts for shinobi (an opportunity none of them wanted to go to waste).
And then Ino had set it in her mind that all of them should be dressed properly. ‘By which I mean don’t you dare show up in uniform. I better see at least a yukata!’, as Ino threatened them. Unfortunately, Ino had not checked her own closet before setting her rule and now she was ravaging through it because she herself could not find ‘at least a yukata’.
Well…there were a lot of yukatas but most of them didn’t fit Ino anymore because since the last time she wore one she had gotten bigger and most of them hung way too high on her legs while the sleeves were too short.
They had grown a lot in the last years and Ino had gained a few inches on Sakura, as well as a lot more muscles. A fact that Sakura very much enjoyed as she lay on Ino’s bed, skimming over a magazine she found in her room while Ino stomped around, changing every three minutes.
“Just go in your uniform or we will be late. You look great in that one too”, Sakura tried to argue but she knew it was futile, just like the last three times she brought it up.
“Just because you think I look hot in uniform doesn’t mean I want to wear it today!”
Sakura blushed at Ino’s throw-away comment, sticking her nose deeper in the magazine to hide it. She couldn’t remember when she began to respond to Ino’s playful teasing like this, but it seemed to encourage Ino every time she got her to slightly lose her composure and right now, she would not let her get distracted by it.
It had started out as just a few thoughts on how glad she was to have Ino in her life as a friend, developed into appreciating her skills with her weapons of choice and how good she looked while handling them and now Sakura was pretty sure she was in love with Ino. Now she just had to wait until Ino figured out she loved her too or for her to fall for someone else.
“How about this one?”
There was a moment of pause before Sakura looked up at Ino and the blush she was trying to get rid of returned in full force. Ino was wearing a purple yukata with light pink flowers on it and fit her perfectly, as if it was just waiting for her in the back of her closet. ‘Pink flowers…like my hair. Will she notice?’, she asked herself, silently giddy that they’ll kind of match now.
“What? Is it not good? It’s one of those my mother got me for my grandmother’s birthday, but then I was out of the village…never wore it so it just sat there but I thought this might be-”
“It’s amazing Ino, perfect even. You look beautiful”, Sakura interrupted her and stood up to take Ino’s hand and make her twirl slowly. When Ino faced her again her face was redder than it was before. ‘Ha! You’re not the only one who can play this game’, she thought smugly and didn’t let Ino’s hand drop from hers.
“Let me grab my money and we can go”, Ino said after considering herself in the mirror one last time
“Finally!”, Sakura shouted happily, but sighed as soon as she looked at the clock, “But, I don’t think the others waited around for us this long. I bet they are already roaming through the streets.”
Ino just shrugged her shoulders and dragged her out of her room as if she was the reason they were late and she had been ready to go the entire time. “Then we’ll have to enjoy the night by ourselves.”
And as if Sakura would say anything against that.
They enjoyed the festival thoroughly. The streets were lit with lanterns and candles, everywhere you looked people were talking, laughing and leisurely strolling between the different stands which made them hold onto each other even closer to not lose the other, reminding Sakura of the time when they were children and running through the forests.
Ino found the booth that sold cheesecake and paid for two pieces which Sakura thought was cute before Ino put one of them in her pocket ‘for later’. So Sakura dragged her through the streets for fifteen minutes, passing a few people they knew and greeted shortly, to buy herself two Takoyaki and refused to share them, savouring every bite while Ino, who knew it was useless to beg, watched her.
Somehow, they ended up on top of the roofs and watched the bustling crowd from there. Sakura was laughing about a man who drunkenly tried to approach a group of kunoichi, wondering out loud which of his bones they would break first, when she felt Ino’s hand on her face.
The words died on her lips when she turned towards Ino. The moonlight caught in the hair that framed her face, making it glow and Ino look ethereal. Ino’s eyes shifted between Sakura’s and her lips, a sliver of unsureness sneaking its way into her eyes as she hesitated.
Encouragingly, Sakura leant forward and gently caressed Ino’s jaw. She had waited for Ino for so long, she could help her take the first step together. So, she brought her lips to Ino’s an kissed her softly only for a moment, leaning back slightly but leaving an invitation behind.
Ino’s breath was going fast and her eyes were completely focused on Sakura, everything else forgotten for now. Sakura could see her mental gears turning, trying to decide what do to next. With a deep breath, Ino took Sakura’s invitation and brought their lips together again, her hand sliding to Sakura’s nape to pull her even closer than before.
Sakura almost fell forwards at the sudden tug and steadied herself with one hand on Ino’s thigh, smiling into the kiss. They separated for a moment and Sakura couldn’t deny herself gleefully whispering into the small space between them.
“Glad you decided to not let me wait any longer.”
~~~
If Yamanaka Ino didn’t move her ass around that corner soon, Sakura would personally barge into T&I to get her out of there. It was Ino’s birthday and she had planned the evening thoroughly…well, she reserved a table at the barbeque place Ino loved and bought an expensive bottle of wine, but still her entire plan was getting overthrown by the fact that Ino was not here.
It wasn’t the first time Ino got held up at work but normally Sakura could just put the food on the heater and read until Ino gracelessly barged into their flat, probably complaining about whatever made her come home late and Sakura could cuddle up to her while she plated their food.
But today was supposed to be a special day for Ino, Sakura wanted to show her girlfriend how much she meant to her and spoil her a little. It had been an act of strength to organise this, and she was sure she would not be able to pull a stunt like this again in the near future.
She leaned backwards to peer inside the restaurant. The big clock showed thirty minutes past seven. Alright, Ibiki Morino better prepare a good reason right now!
All her murderous energy left her as a pair of hands, she luckily knew well enough to not throw their owner onto the ground, covered her eyes. “Guess who”, Ino whispered from behind her.
“Guess who is late? That’s too easy don’t you think?”, Sakura shot back and turned around. Her girlfriend tucked her hear behind her ear sheepishly. “There was something really important I had to take care of. Don’t be mad”, Ino said and smiled apologetically.
“I’m not mad at you, I just wanted this evening to be great for you and then work comes and almost ruins it”, Sakura explained, calmer now than before. “And I was afraid we would have to cancel and I prepared something so that would have gone down the drain then and…”
If there was a better way to get her to stop rambling, Sakura didn’t need to get to know it. Ino’s soft lips on hers made her skin tingle and head spin and most importantly stopped the spiralling thoughts in her brain. She could get lost like this, but when someone cleared their throat, she remembered where they were and looked at Shikamaru who was standing in the door to the restaurant.
"So should we start without you or are you finally coming inside?", he asked smugly.
“You’re back from Suna? It’s so good to see you”, Ino exclaimed and let go of Sakura in favour of hugging him. Shikamaru immediately dragged her inside and Sakura could hear Choji shout from inside: “Ah our birthday girl has finally arrived? Come over here then!”
After taking a moment to watch Ino greet all their friends who were already sitting at the table one by one, Sakura stepped inside again too.
It had been difficult to arrange for everyone to be in the village at the same time, but Sakura was an expert at coordinating by now and even though it took three colour coded schedules, she made it work. For Ino, no effort was too great.
Speaking of the love of her life, Ino had finished her round and was now sitting between Shikamaru and Choji, looking at her fondly.
“Surprise”, Sakura chuckled lightly, “and happy birthday.”
Ino reached out with her arms and Sakura awkwardly bent over Choji so Ino could kiss her on the cheek.
“I love you, thank you. You are the most wonderful girlfriend.”
Even though they had been together for a year now, Sakura couldn’t stop the blush and love-sick grin that spread over her face. “Anything for you”, she said and broke the moment before she climbed into Ino’s lap, “So let’s finally eat, shall we?”
Excited agreement aroused around the table and Sakura squeezed Ino’s hand once more before taking her place next to Naruto. Who conspiratorially leaned over with a piece of meat between his chopsticks and murmured: “You did really well with this. There is not much that’s more valuable than your friends.”
Sakura looked back at Ino, how she was laughing and joking with the people around her, people who chose her as a part of their family and who loved her so much. She wasn’t the little girl that was surprised by how insightful Naruto could be, so she just lay her head on his shoulder. “Thanks. For being here.”
“I wouldn’t want to miss this for the world.”
Her head shot up again and looked befuddled at Naruto. This was Ino’s birthday, and it had been important for her to have Ino’s most favourite people all together but that was still a bit too serious from Naruto, wasn’t it?
But he was already slurping down some noodles and when Hinata pushed a bowl in her direction, Sakura remembered that she had also been basically starving before and gratefully dug in.
As the evening progressed, bowls were changed out for cups and instead of food, a steady stream of sake was ordered to their table. Not enough to take any of them out of commission but alcohol never missed to help forget the everyday worries. Their conversations flowed freely from loud, intense discussions to roaring laughter at stupid jokes, that mostly came out of Naruto’s and Kiba’s direction (alcohol made them even more…them).
At some point Shikamaru had suggested changing the venue, which had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that the other patrons seemed to very hastily want to leave the restaurant at the sight of a bunch of rowdy shinobi and kunoichi.
This is how Sakura found herself walking through the clear night, the moon a full silver light over them, holding hands with Ino and not any less boisterous friends around them.
Suddenly the conversation shifted, everyone grinning and taking a piece out of Ino for almost missing her own birthday party, which Sakura thought only fair. Maybe it would teach her to set better boundaries at work.
She looked over to Naruto who seemed to intently listen to the others quips and elbowed Ino jokingly in the side as soon as he noticed Sakura looking at him.
“Lucky she didn’t want to propose, would have been quite awkward if you came too late for that!”
Sakura’s heart jumped for a second. She had confided in Naruto a few weeks ago how she had a silly dream where she and Ino got married, okay maybe she gushed about an hour about how her perfect wedding would look like but that wasn’t something he was supposed to go spreading around!
Especially not with Ino around, what if she wasn’t ready for that yet? Anxiously she looked at Ino only to see that she threw her head back in laughter, letting go of Sakura to clap Naruto on the shoulder.
“Yeah, luckily I’m the one who brought the ring.”
‘What.’
Sakura watches as if in slow motion as Ino went down on one knee, swiftly producing something from her pocket.
‘She is really doing this?’
For the second time in a matter of moments she felt her heart skip a few beats. ‘Is she joking? Is this real? Someone call a medic, this feels like heart failure.’
“Haruno Sakura”, Ino started, still on her knees and absolutely grinning up to Sakura, “Would you do me the honour and become my wife?”
There was no hesitation in Sakura as she stepped close to Ino, grabbed her face a bit too enthusiastically and kissed her.
“Is that a ‘yes’?”, Ino asked as soon as Sakura let her go for a second.
“What do you think, idiot?”
“Oh, thank god, or else this would have been completely embarrassing.”
“What? As if our friends haven’t seen you do stupider things”, Sakura chuckled before she caught Ino look behind her and turned around to see what she was referring to.
Behind them a small crowd had gathered next to their friends who were all clapping and cheering them. She could see Ino’s father and mother standing next to her parents. Her mother had tears in her eyes and was excitedly talking at Mrs. Yamanaka.
“You hijacked your birthday for an engagement party, you mad genius”, was the only thing Sakura could think of.
“As easy as a human mind”, Ino joked before tilting her head and admitting, “For one exception…”
“You weren’t late because of work”, Sakura squinted at her and then to the box in her hand that still held the ring. Carefully Ino took it out now and put it on Sakura’s finger.
“Fits perfectly now.”
~~~
Saying ‘everything is fine’ was probably basically an invitation for something not fine to happen, but right now it was the only sentence that helped Ino not lose her mind. This was the most important thing she had ever done. Over weeks she had been planning every detail of this day, had held important discussions with her clan and Sakura and now…now they were finally getting married.
Her father’s hand on her shoulder and her mother’s calmingly caressing her back helped slightly to ground her. Everything was fine. But some small part of her mind didn’t stop thinking ‘what if it wasn’t’ and it was getting on Ino’s nerves.
Finally, the universe had mercy with her and Sakura’s father, Kizashi, appeared on the path that led up to the shrine Ino was standing in front of with her parents and most of the wedding party. They invited only their closest friends and family, even though the elders of the clan had initially insisted on holding a grand ceremony with half the village attending.
Kizashi was grinning excitedly and gave her both thumbs up before he turned back and waited for the two women that followed him. Mebuki held Sakura’s arm who laughed at something her mother had just said before they joined her father. He held his arm out and Mebuki took it, ushering her daughter to go in front of them.
All the chaos in Ino’s brain was silenced once Sakura was standing in front of her and smiled gently. She looked stunning, the white kimono elegantly pleaded on her body matching the one Ino wore.
“Hi”, Ino said a bit breathlessly and much less eloquent than she had prepared. But Sakura just chuckled, nervous as well. “Hi to you too. You look beautiful.”
And just like that all nervous tension fell from Ino’s body as Sakura’s infectious smile spread to her. “Thanks, my wife chose it for me. She likes to control things like that.”
“And am I not great at it”, Sakura said, threading her fingers with Ino's, “Nervous?”
“Never, I have you at my side.”
“Well, that’s great because I am absolutely terrified to fail one of your very important clan traditions today.”
“You’ll do great. I’ve seen you study”, she whispered in Sakura’s ear and began leading them to the shrine, “And if not, I think the future clan head is very fond of you.”
“I would certainly hope so”, Sakura joked and Ino felt her tension slip as well.
That night when all their guests had danced and eaten to their body’s limits, Sakura’s father had said his very last bad joke of the day for Ino’s mother, who always found them way funnier than any of them, and Naruto bid his good-byes as the last person to leave, Sakura sat down next to Ino on the steps.
She leant her head on Ino’s shoulder and closed her eyes.
“Waiting for you was worth it every time.”