Work Text:
“Are you sure you’ll be alright?” There was a thread of anxiety running through Sai’s voice. It had been present, on and off, for several days now as he counted down to leaving for a week-long mission.
As he stood, at the front door, hefting his backpack over one shoulder, he settled a very worried gaze onto Ino.
“We’ll be fine,” she assured. She readjusted Inojin on her hip, assuring he was holding his own head up without issue, before turning her attention back to Sai. “You don’t need to worry. We’ll be waiting right here when you come back.”
Since Inojin’s birth five months ago, the longest Sai had been away was a day, and he had somehow managed to ensure none of those missions had lasted overnight. The prospect of being away for a full week was bothering him, and he had been increasingly concerned as the time came.
While Ino insisted she would be fine, and Inojin would be fine, she would be lying if she said his worry didn’t delight her. The thought of Sai so devoted to his little family made butterflies bloom in Ino’s stomach. It was both endearing and a huge boost to her self-worth.
Sai hesitated. “I can always get someone else to go, if you need me-“
“Of course I need you,” Ino said, scoffing slightly. “But I can manage without you for a few days.” She pressed her nose into Inojin’s fine hair. “We’ll miss you, a lot, but it’s only a week.”
Sai did not look any more convinced. “. . . Are you sure?”
“Quite sure,” Ino said. “Now go, be safe, and I love you.” She raised herself onto her toes to give him a perfunctory kiss on the lips.
Sai’s gaze, uncertain, darted to Inojin. “. . . He won’t be too much to handle?”
“Too much to handle?” Ino snorted. “He’s a baby, Sai. All he does is sit around making a noise. Stop worrying about us, and focus on what you need to do. I don’t want you getting hurt because your attention is here instead of with you.”
The matter-of-fact tone of her voice seemed to be getting through to him. Sai shifted his eyes to hers, then back to Inojin, before nodding.
“Okay. I’ll be as quick as I can.”
“Be as careful as you can,” Ino corrected, and Inojin made a bubbly ‘bah!’ noise in agreement.
Sai stroked the back of a finger gently down Inojin’s cheek. “Take good care of him.”
“I will.”
“And good care of yourself.”
“Of course.”
“And don’t miss me too much.”
“That I can’t promise,” Ino grinned. She rested her forehead onto his shoulder. “Goodbye, Sai. See you in a few days.”
Reluctant, unsure, Sai nuzzled into her hair briefly, before finally gathering up the strength to leave.
The house was quiet without Sai.
There was a lengthiness to the silence that hadn’t existed when he was only off on day missions. Ino assumed it was the knowledge that he wouldn’t be home for dinner that night, wouldn’t be cuddled up to her in bed, that made this quiet feel so different and present.
“Kinda sucks, doesn’t it?” she sighed to Inojin, setting the child onto the floor. She sat down next to him, while he wobbled in place. “I miss him already. You don’t know what’s going on, but if you did, I know you’d miss him, too.”
She was planning how to fill her days. She could meet Sakura for lunch, and Hinata for tea. Maybe convince Shikamaru and Chouji to come over. Anything to fill in the void left by Sai’s absence.
Five days, she thought, somewhat despairing. Five days without him. Maybe she shouldn’t have agreed to it.
With a long exhale, she lay down on the floor, propping her head on one elbow. Inojin toppled into her stomach, tiny fingers gripping senselessly into her clothes, and babbled importantly. Ino smiled indulgently, laying a hand on his back.
Later, when Inojin began to tire, she rocked him gently in her arms until he fell asleep, and took him to his crib. As she moved to lay him down, she spotted a small, folded piece of paper where his head usually rested. Carefully, Ino shifted Inojin into one arm so she could pick it up, and unfold it.
It was a note from Sai, reading ‘Miss you both, hope you rest well’, followed by a small sketch of a rose. Ino hid a smile in Inojin’s hair, taking in a deep breath. Ugh, she missed Sai already.
She put Inojin down, staring at him for a minute, before studying the note more closely. She had noticed Sai flicking through his sketchbook more often in the past few days, but it hadn’t occurred to her that it had been for her. And given that Sai didn’t do things in half measures, she would bet Inojin’s life that there were more notes hidden.
Satisfied that Inojin was safely asleep and out of trouble, she checked their bed next. Sure enough, tucked beneath her pillow was another piece of paper. This one had a pretty daffodil in yellow pencil, very simply stating ‘I love you, good night.’
Ino sat on the edge of the bed, with both notes held in her hand.
You probably expected me to find this tonight, she thought, smiling to herself. Okay, then . . . does that mean you’ve left more, thinking I’ll find them through the days as I go about my routine? Ino wasn’t one to wait, and she certainly wasn’t one to care for other people’s schedules.
She pounced towards her dresser, nearly flinging her make up aside as she scrounged about. The next note was under her hairbrush, folded small and innocuous. She pulled it free, other hand catching a tube of mascara as it attempted to roll away.
‘You’re beautiful’, it read, with a sprig of jasmine inked below.
Delighted, enthralled and unwilling to wait to ‘accidentally’ stumble upon any others, Ino prowled the rest of the bedroom. She hurled the blankets off the bed, but found nothing. After digging about in her closet, she came up with no new notes. Pausing, back against the closet door, she decided to think strategically.
Okay, think, she mused, trying to imagine Sai’s thought process. That could be convoluted and wayward at times, unpredictable even though it always followed a steady logic. Sai’s intent was for her to find them as the week progressed. As she did her usual chores, her usual things. You won’t have hidden them in odd places, then. They’ll be in places that I would usually look.
She ran through her normal evening routine. After Inojin was in bed, she liked to take a quick shower, and spend a few minutes pampering herself. Ino pushed off the closet, heading for the bathroom. She peeked into the shower, squinting about extra carefully. She didn’t want to accidentally drown the note, if there was one to be found. Nothing was obviously apparent, and she moved to the mirror, shifting aside all the products there, shoving her hair dryer aside, shaking out the hand towels. Nothing.
I know you’ll have left one here, she thought. But where?
She ripped the cabinet doors open, bending over to inspect the inside. Nothing. After rummaging around, amongst spare towels and a number of empty boxes they had yet to throw out, she gave up. Closing the cabinets with less force than she wanted, so Inojin wasn’t woken, she stood up and contemplated her next move. If she couldn’t find the next note in her predicted nighttime routine, maybe she should try for the morning.
She went to the kitchen next. Her first move of the day was always to make tea. After peering carefully into the kettle, not wanting to boil paper to mush, she lifted it up and inspected it closely. Success came when she grabbed for her favourite mug, and found a piece of paper tucked inside.
“Yes!” Ino cheered softly, delighted at her spoils. She pulled the note out, unfolding it quickly.
This one had a border of little daisies, surrounding the text ‘Look after yourself’.
Ino grinned, holding the note close to her chest. She looked around, wondering where to go next. Inojin’s nap would probably give her enough time to ransack the entire kitchen. She darted for the fridge, in case something was hiding amidst the food. Pulling it open, she immediately began rummaging around, shifting food without care, lifting up a block of cheese in case something was nestled beneath it. After scrounging for a while, she deduced that maybe the fridge wasn’t the best place to hide a note.
She seized this new revelation, and yanked open the cabinet with all Inojin’s things in it. She hurled several bottles aside, flinging his cute little set of matching plastic dishes over her shoulder. They landed with a clatter on the kitchen table, and Ino closed her fingers around a piece of paper.
“Gotcha!” she cheered, before instantly snapping her jaw shut. She waited, but there was no distressed wail from Inojin. Gleefully, she sat onto the kitchen floor and opened the note. ‘Hope you and Inojin are doing okay. Give him a kiss from me,’ with a little singing bluebird.
I love you so much, you dork, she thought, smiling madly. She tried to close the cabinet door and, when it jammed on the things she had misplaced, she gave up and moved to a different cabinet. The next note was hidden in her little not-so-secret stash of chocolate, claiming ‘You deserve a treat now and then’ with a cheerful looking marigold.
Damned right I do, Ino thought, snagging a chocolate to go along with her growing collection of papers. While she ate, she idly searched other cabinets, finding another note amidst the cutlery and one hiding in plain sight, stuck onto the fridge next to the shopping list.
When Inojin awoke from his nap, Ino took him with her into the flower shop to continue her quest. She found only one note – tucked into the pocket of her apron, decorated with a beautiful lily and Sai’s flowy handwriting telling her ‘Don’t work too hard, make sure you take plenty of breaks’.
“Your dad’s the best,” Ino said to her son, who blew spit bubbles at her from lying on the floor on his blanket. “He’s the sweetest. Bet you’ll miss him by tomorrow.”
Inojin might not be able to comprehend Sai’s absence, but Ino certainly could. She could pin the blame on baby hormones for the way her voice caught as she talked, and she had to blink away tears.
“Come on, sunshine,” she said, picking Inojin up again. “We still need to check the rest of the house.”
There was a note tucked into the sash of their bedroom window. Ino always closed it at night after Inojin went to bed, to ensure the room was warm enough. Having found it, she hurled the pillows off the bed, ripped the sheets off just in case something else was hidden. When her efforts turned up nothing, she gave Inojin a gentle kiss, and slipped away for a quick shower.
She found the note in the bathroom when she turned on her hairdryer and a tiny, folded, paper plane was flung into her hair.
“You’re a goof,” she giggled to herself, imagining Sai carefully slotting the note inside so it wouldn’t be immediately apparent. She wondered how many times he had tried to get it into the correct position, and if he had tested to see if it would fly out. She unfolded the note, pressing it down crisply, smiling broadly at the miniature field of daisies that sat below the sentiment ‘You’re already beautiful but I’m glad you’re taking the time to focus on yourself. Give Inojin a hug for me.’
“I will in the morning,” she promised. She liked the idea of talking as though he was there with her. The house felt so empty, even though Inojin was nearby. For so long it had been the three of them – Ino didn’t think Sai had left her side for a solid two months after Inojin’s birth, and since then nearly all his missions had been single days only.
Despite the lonely house, Ino was feeling incredibly loved. Knowing Sai had put in the effort to not only take notice of her routine to hide notes where she would easily find them, but also take the time to write, draw, and stash them all made her heart swell. She owed so much to her silly husband, and she made her own mental note to point out to him how special she felt and how far he had come.
“Told you that you could learn to love,” she muttered, because that had been a sticking point early in their relationship. Sai had questioned her intentions, wondered why she would take a chance with someone broken like him. Because I saw what you could become, she picked up the note, holding it near to her heart. And look how right I was.
Over the next few days, Ino destroyed the house in a frenetic attempt to locate every note. Part of her wished Sai had numbered them so she had a guess of how many there were, but another part of her loved that she never knew when the end was coming. It drove her onwards, motivating her to search every corner of the house.
Some of them were obvious – tucked into her favourite shoes because Sai knew she was meeting Sakura for tea and cake. Under the neat pile of Inojin’s laundry that Sai had folded before he left.
Others were better hidden, like one slipped into Ino’s shinobi headband that she hadn’t worn since going on maternity leave – but she found it while happily flinging all her weapons around on the off chance there was a note inside. And there was.
And Sai’s little sentiments ranged from the simple ‘I love you and I miss you’ to the endearing ‘I’m thinking of you right now’ (Which Ino fully believed) and the cheeky ‘Can’t wait to get home and kiss you’. Ino’s house scavenging rampage had made the time fly past, and while she was aware Sai was away, the days didn’t drag as badly as she had expected.
On the night before he was due to return, she curled up in bed with all her collected notes, looking through them one by one, placing them in a reverent stack next to her.
“See you soon,” she murmured, settling down to sleep, eyes on the notes. She clicked off the bedside lamp, cuddling down under the blankets, and smiling softly at the thought that this was the last night sleeping in their bed alone.
Sai had counted down the days, then the hours, until he returned home. Leaving Inojin was a struggle, and his small child had occupied his thoughts most of the time. What was Inojin doing now? What funny noises was he making? Was he crying too much?
Would Ino cope all alone, without Sai there to step in as he usually did?
Sai knew that these feelings would settle with time, and long missions wouldn’t be quite so daunting in the future, but for now he was anxious to return home and pull his little family into his arms.
He could feel his heartrate lowering as he approached the house, a soft, indulgent smile spreading across his face. Finally, finally home. He knocked gently on the door to let Ino know he was there, in case she was putting Inojin down for a nap, or feeding him. Then he opened the door, slipping inside.
“Beautiful?” he called softly. “I’m home.”
“We’re coming!” Ino’s sunny voice carried to him, and Sai moved to seek her out. He noted, puzzlingly, that the couch cushions were flung onto the floor. And the books on the bookshelves were flung askew. And the kitchen cupboards were all open, crockery spilling out.
He entered their bedroom, suddenly worried that someone had ransacked the house in his absence. The bedroom looked no better – the blankets on the bed fling wildly about, some pillows half on the bed, others on the floor, and the closet open with clothing shoved up against the backs of the shelves.
But Ino was standing there, with Inojin blinking sleepily on her hip, one hand scrubbing at his face.
“What . . . what happened to the house?” Sai asked, slightly bewildered.
Ino beamed at him, giving Inojin a proud kiss on the head.
“We found the notes,” she explained.