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Ino is trying very hard not to be annoyed.
Sai is clueless, he doesn’t even know what he’s doing, she’s sure. Sakura had told her about how her new teammate was totally lacking social skills. But this was something else!
Sai was leaning over Sakura’s shoulder, their heads close together as they contemplated the item in Sakura’s hands. Ino couldn’t see what it was from here, and it didn’t really matter. She tightened her grip on her purse, trying to ignore them and move into the next aisle.
“Hey, there’s Sai and- is that Sakura? Whoa, they look cozy!” Choji laughed as Ino rounded the corner. Shikamaru groaned at Choji’s lack of situational awareness.
“Dude,” He said, and Ino didn’t turn to look, but she could practically hear the ‘cut it out’ gesture he gave their friend. She dug her purple finger nails into the leather of her purse harder, and continued down the aisle, putting real effort into making her steps something less than a stomp. Her eyes scanned the aisle unseeing, mind still racing.
Ino guessed she hadn’t been super public about her courting of her friend, but she’d thought her intentions had been clear to Sakura at least. She couldn’t imagine her friend would do this to her on purpose. Ino froze suddenly.
She wouldn’t, would she? Sakura and her went way back, before they were a courting pair, before they were even alpha and omega, even before they were shinobi, they’d been Sakura and Ino, best friends. She’d spent so many of her sun dappled childhood hours playing with Sakura, so many of her nights pressed up against her side, squeezing onto Ino’s twin bed and giggling late into the night. But it was true that Ino hadn’t been seeing a lot of Sakura. Well, she’d seen more of her recently since she’d begun her medical ninjutsu lessons with Lady Hokage and her, but before that, genin training and missions had kept the friends apart.
Ino thought she knew Sakura best, but maybe she was wrong. She had been inconsolable when Sasuke left, and she’d gotten weird and quiet when Naruto followed him months later. But since Naruto’s return a light had come back into her eyes. And they’d been so close since starting training together. Long hours side by side, hurried lunches, exhausted after hours dinners. Every moment had felt like it had in childhood, sweet and special, just because Sakura was by her side.
Ino wasn’t prone to self doubt, but now she was analyzing every moment in her head for signs of where Sakura had been pulling away. Of where her suit had been rejected. But it only served to bolster Ino’s nerve- there were none. They were watertight!
She marched up behind the pair. Behind her she heard Shikamaru sigh with exasperation. And cleared her throat loudly, folding her arms, and allowing some of her annoyed lily jasmine scent to escape her.
Sakura and Sai looked up. Sakura immediately seemed to understand how she had been caught, and sprang away from Sai. Sai smiled up at Ino guilessly, his dark eyes curving into perfect crescents.
“Ino!” She yelped.
“Hello Ino,” He says, his voice mellow and light and perfect. Ino hates him ferociously for a moment. It doesn’t escape Ino that Sakura tries to turn herself to obscure the shelf they’d been surveying from her. Annoyance flared higher in her.
“Hi Sai, Sakura,” She said. “What are you guys up to?” She tries hard to keep her tone artificially light, but her pheromones betray her annoyance. Sakura’s eyes shift back and forth, suspiciously. She takes another subtle half step to cover the shelf and Ino cranes her neck.
“We were actually shopping for-” Sai starts, but Sakura claps a hand over his mouth. Their casual closeness is annoying to Ino, even though she tries to suppress that instinct. Seeing Sakura so close with another omega, even Sasuke, had always bothered her. To her shock, a growl bubbled out of her mouth. Suprise rippled across Sakura’s expression, and she could hear Choji’s gasp from across the store. Ino blushed, schooling herself and coughing, trying to disguise the jealous sound.
“Shopping for Yamato-taichou’s birthday!” Sakura speaks over him. Ino narrows her eyes. Sai cast a look at Sakura, who glared back at him meaningfully. There is something suspicious there, but Ino doesn’t know what. She glared at her. Sakura met her glare, pink cheeked and obstinate, crossing her arms.
“Well! Good luck then!” She huffed in frustration, and stomped away. Her bewildered teammates were exactly where she had left them.
She could hear the sigh of relief her friend let out as she gave up. Ino snatched the mascara she’d come there for and marched to the register, not giving them a second glance, but listening hard for their conversation. She heard Sakura’s exasperated hiss as soon as she thought Ino was too far away to hear her.
“Sai- you almost blew it!” She scolded.
“I don’t understand,” Sai admitted genially, barely lowering his voice. “If the gift was for Ino, should we not have consulted her on her tastes?” He hissed, and there was a thud of flesh on flesh as Sakura presumably struck him. There was a wheeze from Sai. Ino felt smug. Of course it was for her. She shouldn’t have had any doubt.
“That defeats the purpose!” Sakura hissed. “I’m supposed to know this kind of thing! She’s my best friend! And courting gifts are supposed to show how well you know the other person.” Sai makes a sound of comphrension, still a little out of breath.
“But you do not know what she would want,” He realized. Ino’s heart melted a little as she inched forward in line for checkout. Sakura was asking Sai for help for a gift for her, presumably because he was the other omega she was closest to. Sakura let out a frustrated groan.
“No! She likes all kinds of pudding. There’s way too many options.” Sakura gave a deep, sighing groan. “This is the kind of thing a good alpha would know!”
Sai hummed an agreement, but the rest of their conversation was obfuscated as Ino finally reached the front of the line. By the time her teammates had caught up with her, Shikamaru stuffing a carton of cigarettes into his flak jacket and Choji with an armful of chips, Ino was in a considerably better mood.
“Got that out of your system?” Shikamaru asked around an unlit cigarette, his eyebrows high with amusement. Ino just huffed.
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Ino didn’t have a favorite kind of pudding, to be honest. But she grew to love the one in little glass jar that Sakura brought her for lunch the next day, smiling up at her best friend, her future mate.
“This is one is the best kind!” She exclaimed, heart full as she watched Sakura blush.