Chapter 11: Day Off
"- and I'm so glad that I look good in so many colors. I look good in white and black, blue and red, and I look really really good in purple. It is just to bad you look terrible in anything but red and white. At least, I got you out of that pink monstrosity you always used to wear." Ino says while sitting on her bed.
"Hey, miss all the fashion of the rainbow who is actually only ever seen in purple." Sakura retorts.
"And... It wasn't that bad..." Sakura lies in an obvious manner.
"And my favorite color was pink..." She mutters finally.
Ino simply raises a single thin blonde eyebrow in amusement at this.
"You're just unhappy that you can't make red and white look this good. Miss purple everything." Sakura deflects.
"Humph, I will have you know that I look even better than you in red, I just look my best in purple." Ino snorts in disdain.
"Yeah right, I will believe it when I see it," Sakura disdains back.
"Oh, is that a challenge I hear? I accept." Ino then gets off her bed and struts into her closet and closes the door behind her.
After a while, the door opens and Ino comes out in a red skirt and top. She grins knowingly and raises her arms above her head and doesn't say anything. She knows she doesn't have to; she looks fabulous.
Sakura bites her lip. She was just deflecting before but why does she feel like she received a terrible blow just now.
"That's not fair. Why do you look so good in red too?" She points at Ino.
Ino smirks, "I told you, I look good in any color... Well, all the good colors anyway. I mean green and orange... those colors look terrible anyway."
"That's not true, I have seen some girls able to make green work, and don't think I didn't notice how you completely ignored yellow." Sakura replies.
This time it's Ino's turn to bite her lip, "Fine, I actually look terrible in yellow. Happy now?"
Sakura rewards her with a smile, "Ecstatic actually, now you know how I feel about pink. I knew it looked bad, but I still wanted to wear it anyway. It's just... I am eight now and shouldn't believe in childish dreams such as one day spontaneously looking good in pink." She finishes dramatically.
"Oh yes, the old woman over here once again reminding the young me that she is the older and wiser one, until I turn eight in September anyway." Ino jokes.
Sakura also smiles at that. However, after a time, her smile turns into a look of concern.
"Should-Should we be doing this?" Sakura worries.
"What? Having fun?" Ino looks at her like she is insane.
'Maybe she is right.' Sakura thinks. "Well... I mean shouldn't we be training to become a ninja right now?"
"Humph, you make it sound like we should be training all the time and never ever having any fun. Even ninja have days off you know." The blonde retorts.
"Yes... I just feel like I should be doing something. Something to become a better ninja. But all the really useful things are classified, and these summer vacations every year just seem to make what they do give us feel even slower. I mean there is only so many times I can practice shurikenjutsu and Kakuremino no Jutsu by myself before it stops helping anymore."
At that Ino's look changes from disdainful to thoughtful, and she puts a finger on her chin, "Yeah, I can see your point, sometimes I even forget that you come from a civilian family. Those summer vacations the academy gives us is forced on it by all the ninja familys, not just the clans, because every ninja, not just clans, has secrets that they want to pass down to their children and the summer is when they all do it. You think the ninja academy actually wants to give us summer vacations?"
"But I don't think it matters as much as you think it does, even most kids from clans don't really work on the basics that are being taught by the academy in the free time. They are all working on their family jutsus or styles. These looks fancy, but when you get right down to it, the basics are basic for a good reason. I don't know of anyone who hones the basics as much as you do, Sakura. The only thing you are not the best at in the academy is taijutsu and that is just because you had to start a little later, and even then you have been getting better at a very fast pace, recently your right hook has become scary, even the boys have to take care to avoid it. Once you actually become a ninja and have access to more things, I am sure you will become very good, very quickly." Ino finishes.
"Yeah... I guess your right... Maybe, I just feel a little weird taking a day off training. Maybe during this summer, I have been training even harder then when I go to the academy." The pinket finally agrees.
Then its Ino's turn to become serious, "While we are talking about serious things. I have seen you... You like Sasuke too... Don't you?"
At that Sakura is shocked and her cheeks go as pink as her hair, "Wha.-what are you talking about?" She looks to the side and lies very unconvincingly.
"It's completely obvious! You may not announce it to the world like the others, but I have seen you go even more pink when looking at him sometimes." Ino condemns her her.
"Well... he is handsome..." Sakura concludes.
"Yeah... He is..." Ino looks off into the distance her own cheeks becoming pink.
"But, I don't want to do anything about it. I promised myself several months ago to focus on becoming a ninja. I mean which girl doesn't wish to be the next Tsunade, but I plan to actually try rather than just boasting about it like other girls seem to do." Sakura explains.
"Humph, shows what you know, I plan on focusing on being a ninja, becoming the next Tsunade, AND getting Sasuke." Ino boasts.
"... So what do you like about Sasuke..." Sakura finally asks after a pause of silence.
"He's so handsome." Ino eyes glaze over again and her cheeks go pink.
After waiting a while, Sakura realized that Ino was finished. "...And?"
Ino focus back on reality, "And what?" She says looking confused.
"... Ino, I may not be the best at boys, but even I know there is supposed to be more than that."
"... What else could there be?" Ino asks still looking confused.
'... Yes, she's right... what could it be... snacks? No, when I become a ninja I can buy my own. Meaningful conversation? Yeah right, boys are to dumb for that...' Sakura thinks hard.
"... I don't know... Maybe... Its something we learn about when we are older, but there definitely is something else. I have seen many women with unhandsome husbands who seem perfectly happy." Sakura pushes on regardless of her doubts.
"What... What could it be?" Ino looks lost at the idea of marrying anyone for anything other than handsomeness. "I mean, what are you suppose to look at when they are bragging to you? I mean, without handsomeness, boys are just dumb and either boastful or show offs."
"Hum? What's the difference between boastful and show offs?" Sakura inquires curious despite herself.
"And I thought you were smart Sakura," Ino looks disappointed with her, "Obviously, the boastful ones are those that brag about what they have done, can do, or will do and the show offs are the ones that can actually do those things. The boastful ones are like Naruto and the show offs are like Sasuke. The show offs are naturally better, especially if they are handsome like Sasuke." She puts her hands on her cheeks as she finishes.
Sakura nodded agreeing, obviously Sasuke >> Naruto, "Oh... That makes sense."
"But anyway you ruined my little plan for this talk." Ino contiued, "I wanted to come up with some reason for you to become my rival, but you just gave up on Sasuke without a fight."
This throws Sakura into confusion, "Why did you want me to become your rival all of a sudden?"
"Well... I heard my dad mention to a friend of his that the fastest way to become a better ninja is to have a rival who is better than you... And you beat me in every basic skill except taijutsu." Ino reveals.
This time its Sakura's turn to raise a single thin pink eyebrow in amusement.
"If you plan to try to compete with me in the theoreticals, well... I wish you luck in your future endeavors."
Ino seems to grasp what she is hinting at, "No... you didn't..." The blonde gasped astonished.
"The only thing not classified is the civilian courses... And well... I got bored with our speed so I started to work ahead."
"How far ahead." Ino demands, obviously taking this new rival thing that she randomly decided to do very seriously.
"... I'm already finished with all the theoretical courses the academy teaches." Sakura finds the look that put on Ino's face comical.
Ino's mouth pops open, her mind collapsed. Then, after a time of silence, she snaps herself out of it, and tugs hair in frustration, looking downward.
"... looks like I have some serious reading to do..."
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