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Ino had done her best to act tough the whole night, and she wasn’t gonna give it up any time soon. Sakura insisted on having Ino hold on to her arm while she maneuvered them through the darkened forest that surrounded the camp, something she didn’t mind nearly as much as she’d made it sound in the beginning. Another thing Sakura couldn’t find out. As far as she knew, Ino was merely allergic to the practicality of the buddy system, though she did stay close.
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“...and when they went back the next night, everything was gone. Like nothing even happened. The only trace left... were the marks left on the girl’s shoulders!”
Ino suddenly leapt to her feet, breaking from the counselor campfire circle. “These ghost stories are fucking lame,” she said, with high hopes of seeming anything but scared. Shikamaru and Sakura had been exchanging smug glances over her reactions the whole time, and it was infuriating to watch them team up in any capacity. Plus, she wasn’t even scared. She wasn’t.
Finding an opportunity to goad her, Sakura spoke up. “What you’ve heard tonight is nothing. Baby stuff. Wanna see something real freaky, Ino? Come with me into the forest, past the campgrounds—since nothing scares you. If you can stand five minutes out there without pissing your pants, maybe I’ll finally respect you.”
Ino glared at her. “I don’t need your respect, skank!” She’d fired off the first insult she could think of and pretended not to notice Sakura’s look of bemused contempt at the irrelevancy of it, or the silence that came after. Ino cleared her throat. “Like I’d ever actually go anywhere with you, especially alone.”
“Actually, Ino,” Tenten piped up from what was left of the circle, where Shino of all people was stuck to the side of her neck like a leech. “I’m gonna need the cabin to myself tonight if you don’t mind.” She came off a bit sheepish considering the circumstance but firm enough to keep from being dissuaded, Ino noticed. It was like the stupid, creepy stories made everyone even hornier than usual. As if she wanted to be anywhere near that tonight.
Ugh. Ino couldn’t stop herself from dragging a hand down her face in exasperation. Bug Boy better thank her for letting him get some out of the kindness of her heart, especially after the absolutely disgusting story he told about that haunted wasp colony. So weird and gross.
She turned on her heel to face the source of her escape route. “You know what, Sakura? I will go with you. Maybe it’ll finally give Shikamaru time to shack up with the sailing instructor.”
Predictably, Shikamaru blanched at the mention of Temari. It did make Ino feel a bit better to get him where it hurt.
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“Did you ever hear about the creepy shit going on by the lake, anyway? I didn’t bring it up during the campfire tonight because it’s seriously freaking me out—”
“Oh my god you’re fucking kidding me. Another ghost story? Now?” Ino’s whispers came out as hisses. “Is that what you were trying to do? Isolate me in the forest so you could scare the shit out of me some more?” If Sakura went through the trouble of coming up with this prank, maybe it meant that Ino was on her mind more than she assumed. Not that it mattered to Ino in the slightest, but it was a flattering thought.
Sakura laughed at her, an unconcerned chuckle that didn’t quite penetrate the sounds of nighttime forest around them. “Relax, dude.” It looked like they were getting close, since Sakura was slowing down. “I’m surprised that you were actually scared of those lame stories back there. You’re more of a baby than I thought.”
”Am not,” said Ino shot back, realizing she sounded like a big baby saying it.
Sakura mercifully didn’t take the opening to tease her. “To be honest, I didn’t want to come here by myself, so… thanks for actually tagging along. Watch out.” She used the leverage of Ino holding onto her to lead them through a tree root that stuck out in the middle of the path. “If you’d let me tell you the story—“
“Tell me the fucking story, then!”
“You’re impossible,” Sakura sighed. “We’re basically here, anyway. I guess you’ll see for yourself soon enough.”
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It’s just a fucking normal lake. Ino held on to the thought for dear life when Sakura turned the flashlight off after they broke through the trees. Sakura had stepped away from her, and while their eyes adjusted to the lower level of light, Ino could feel the goosebumps coming on—whether it was the cold night catching up to her or Sakura’s sudden distance, she couldn’t say.
Through the chill, the scene before them was still striking, like something out of a postcard. During their walk Sakura did at some point tell her it was a well-known make-out spot for campers; Ino couldn’t stop herself from wondering if Sakura knew this from personal experience. Her cheeks had flushed lightly at the surfacing feeling, one she was afraid to identify.
The moon was waning above them, reflected on the surface of the water. Everything was quiet save the occasional rustling of leaves or the hushed cries of nocturnal creatures. Putting aside their original reason for coming, it was kind of nice. Maybe Ino didn’t need to be scared of the weird lake, of Sakura, of anything.
“Hey, Sakura.” Feeling like she could be more honest than usual Ino began to speak, but was interrupted by the expression on the other woman’s face.
Sakura’s brow seemed knotted in stern concentration, eyes fixed on the lake’s surface. “For weeks now, people who come here to get some privacy end up scared out of their wits and head right back to camp with their tails between their legs. None of the stories I’ve heard have been consistent, but they all have to do with something freaky happening in the water. We should be on guard.”
Ino swallowed her words and shifted focus back to their surroundings. As if reacting to their uneasiness, a thick fog seemed to erupt from the water and spread out so the ground beneath them was no longer visible.
Since she was used to reconnaissance work, Ino was more sensitive than average to changes in the atmosphere. Though she wanted to concentrate on getting her bearings, the buildup of fear at direct confrontation crawled up her spine and made Ino call out again. “S-Sakura...”
“Ino, Hold on to my hand.” Ever the model counselor, thought Ino as she grabbed it. No camper left behind. The way Sakura said her name was decisive, reliable. Ino knew that if shit hit the fan they might have to split their point of contact; in the meantime Sakura’s hand was warm, an anchor of safety.
The water’s surface that was once still and smooth began rippling, and they both felt a presence that hadn’t previously been there. A massive shadow appeared beneath the lake, spiraling upward at a startling speed. A pointed snout broke out of the water, and they saw a huge finned body breach the surface, its outline rimmed by moonlight.
It was true that Ino and Sakura had influenced each other early on. In perfect unison, they said: “A fucking shark?!”
The creature made an arc in the air for a brief second, then dipped back in. They watched the shadow of it shrink and jump out upwards, landing directly in front of them, feet resting on the now-still lake surface. It looked more like a guy than a shark once he stood upright.
Sakura had a look of shocked recognition on her face. “Is that...”
The fog cleared instantly, and before them stood the figure of a shark-skinned man with great abs. Ino could see that he had gills under his eyes, on either cheek. He definitely knew Sakura, and she knew him.
“Kisame?”
He answered kind of tightly, but not impolitely. Actually he was pretty fucking chill for a shark monster that had been leaping out of the air moments before. “Sakura. Long time no see.” He looked pointedly at where her hand and Ino’s still intersected.
Ino looked between the two incredulously. “You know this guy?” If it stung a little when Sakura pulled her hand away, Ino didn’t dare show it in front of a stranger, and certainly not Sakura.
”It’s a long story,” she responded, clearly not wanting to talk about the details. “It’s… good to see you again. What the hell are you doing here, though? For a second we thought you were going to kill us?”
When Kisame laughed, he revealed the rows of pointed shark teeth inside his mouth. Not usually the kind of thing Ino was into, but he weirdly made it work. The guy was actually… hot. Oh no.
Kisame seemed hesitant to talk for a second, almost ashamed. “Yeah, my bad. I’m just doing combat drills out here. This lake is actually, like, super awesome for the kind of stuff I’m trying to do. I was able to train during the spring without a problem, but for the past few months I’ve suddenly been having to scare off all these random teenagers.”
Ino spoke up for only the second time during the conversation. “Ah, that’ll be the random teenagers from our camp.”
Kisame hooked his thumb under his chin at Ino’s words. “To be honest, I didn’t even think to check why there were so many people wandering over here. I just wanted to be alone.”
“Yeah, we have camp,” Sakura said after a long beat. The silence was palpably awkward.
”So you both just came to investigate? Wow, I never thought I’d end up as a summer camp myth.”
Ino could tell Sakura was trying her best to hold on to a friendly, placid expression. The occasional twitching made her look a little insane. “Well, we’d appreciate it if you didn’t scare the campers half to death. They’re just kids, you know? They’re not supposed to come out here, but since they do anyway I wanna make sure they’re actually safe. I hope I can trust you with that.”
Her last statement seemed to strike a chord with her shark-friend. “Yeah, I can do that. I guess I do have ways to deter people that keep the horrors to a minimum. It’d also help me if you made this place sound really not worth the trip.”
Sakura gave him a firm nod. It would get done.
With that acknowledgment, Kisame seemed about ready to disappear. “It was nice to see you again. Good to know you’ve been taking care of yourself.”
“You too. Good luck with the... drills.”
Kisame blinked once. “Yeah, thanks. Don’t be a stranger.”
“Cool, I’ll make sure to call out your name when I’m near a large body of water,” she said with a stiff, nervous chuckle.
He raised an eyebrow. “You say that, but it might work.”
With an impressive vertical leap, the man known as Kisame disappeared into the lake, going deeper than was seemingly possible. The surface went back to perfect stillness soon after and his presence disappeared, as if he’d never been there in the first place.
All Ino could really do was stand there in shock.
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Sure, it took Ino a few minutes to get her head around the encounter by the lake, but that time was also enough to piece some things together based on Sakura and Kisame’s interaction.
“Oh-ho-ho, so he’s the freaky thing you were talking about!”
“That’s not—”
It was basically free real estate for ridicule, and Sakura’s reaction confirmed everything Ino needed to know about Sakura dating the dude. “Is he a good kisser? The sharp teeth don’t get in the way, do they?”
“Come on, stop rubbing it in!” Sakura was hot in the face and steaming like a tea kettle. At least that’s how Ino imagined her in the half light, watching Sakura retreat into herself like she had when Ino teased her as a kid, before she learned to fight back.
The stress of the last few hours had dissipated and it was by then that Ino realized her guard around Sakura had vanished. Her lips had been pulled into a smile as she looked on at her.
“The thing with Kisame wasn’t serious,” Sakura said after a while. “It was fun and we got along well, but we both wanted different things. I didn’t think I’d ever see him again, that’s why I went for it.”
The mention of Kisame tugged at Ino’s chest. “I guess I didn’t expect that kind of thing from you,” Ino responded. “I would’ve never thought that was your type, is all.”
Sakura looked away. “You don’t even know my type,” she said, almost spitefully. “Sasuke’s not the only guy in the world.”
The edge in her comment made Ino laugh. “Before you started chasing after Sasuke, I used to be the one taking care of you. Remember that?”
Usually the other girl hated when Ino brought up their days of childhood codependency, and though Sakura was quiet as if Ino’s words had gotten to her, the expression on her face was one Ino didn’t recognize. Her gut told her it seemed like longing, but that couldn’t be right.
Then Sakura did something Ino didn’t expect. She slipped her head onto Ino’s lap. Maybe seeing Kisame made her wistful, or the trek and the activity simply tired her out; there was nothing else Ino could think of that didn’t feel like she was inserting her own assumptions into Sakura’s gesture.
“I have an idea,” Ino proposed suddenly. “You might not like it, though.”
Sakura didn’t say anything, but she did turn face-up to look at Ino from below.
“There are things that are easier to share as thoughts than say out loud. If you’d let me connect our minds, you can just think at me. I’ll get it.”
It felt like a very forward statement to make. Ino and Sakura stopped being glued at the hip long before Ino had honed her mind-reading technique, and Sakura had no reason to accept it, she thought. Yet the thought of less barriers between them felt right. After the night they had, maybe it was Ino who was too tired to put up the facade of being an enemy to her longest friend.
Sakura had been quietly scanning Ino’s face for a long time before she replied. “Yeah. Do it.”
Ino focused her chakra like she’d done hundreds of times. She had expected Sakura to say no. She wasn’t gonna do it without asking her, but asking felt like the bravest thing Ino had gotten done during this night of terrors.
Ino placed the tips of two fingers gently on Sakura’s forehead. Once their thoughts were linked, Ino could feel a pleasant familiarity. Scenes of them playing together lingered at the edge of both their memories. They were both remembering what it was like to be enveloped in each other’s worlds, just like before.
You look really pretty, Ino let her know. And tonight, I was actually scared. I’m glad you were there. It was easier this way to share what she really felt, and Sakura’s smile, though shy, was honest.
And you’re the reason I started liking girls in the first place.
Ino spent her days dreaming of openings in Sakura’s defenses. She didn’t think something as simple as a string of honest words from Sakura’s heart would be enough to open hers. She didn’t want to believe it, but she had to before the chance to do so slipped away.
The way that Sakura looked back at her made Ino think of only one thing: kissing her.
So she did.
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