Rivals, Friends and Lovers (part 11 of 13)
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AN: I decided to put this chapter up a little earlier than usual for I want to get the story out of my priority list and move on.
I have waited a long time to post this chapter. I am dieing to read your reviews. Of course it is my duty to warn you though.
WARNING: Chapter contains sensitive stuff and shall not be read by the weak hearted. I don't want to go into details about what it is for I don't want to spoil.
italic text is when a character is thinking
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Hurting my dearest of friends...
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The seventh and final day of the week began with the sun coming up from the horizon, gradually turning the sky from black into blue.
The pink haired girl Sakura woke up from her slumber. The first thing her sleepy eyes saw was being face to face with a sleeping blond beauty quietly inhaling and exhaling in her sleep. Just like they had fallen asleep last night, Ino and Sakura were still lying next to each other in a comforting and warming embrace.
Hot sweat was covering Sakura's cold face and her heart beating rapidly because of regret. However this time it was because of something completely different. She was not feeling remorse for accidentally hurting Ino, instead she was feeling regret to what had happened last night.
Last night Ino had confessed her true love and explained everything to her. Just moments after that, they had kissed, almost made love to each other. Who knows what would have happened if Ino's wounds had not stopped them? Carefully, Sakura crawled herself up to not wake Ino and turned herself around to sit down on the wooden log nearby.
Ino loves me? With her entire heart?
It was not that Sakura was being loved that troubled her; it was that the person who loved her was the same gender as her, her best friend to be exact.
I really like Ino...maybe more than a friend...still; do I love her THAT much? Am I like Ino? A lesbian?
Sakura wanted to know if her recently developed feelings for Ino were because she actually loved her or if it had part of her guilt for seriously wounding her. Was she prepared to go through the same future problems as her? What would her parents and friends think? How can Sakura have children if she lives with Ino?
She felt she needed more time to think. Telling Ino all this would not be easy...still, it had to be done.
How can I tell her?
Sakura did not even want to think about how Ino was going to react.
Sakura's deep pondering blinded her senses.
All of a sudden, while she was sitting on the log, she felt a pair of warm arms cuddle themselves around her torso, hugging her tightly and lovely, sweet perfume of lavender was sensed by her nose, wet soft lips kissed her cheek. The warmth from the arms, the scent from the perfume and the lips would normally make Sakura relax and smile widely in enjoyment, instead she did not...
"Good morning Sakura" The familiar voice from Ino really sounded happy. It had been a while since Sakura had heard her sound like that.
"Good morning to you too Ino." Sakura's respond however sounded a little gloomy. "You slept well?" Then asking what she had asked Ino everyday ever since they had gotten here.
"Lovely..." Ino's smile widened "I did not catch much sleep last night. Instead, I stayed awake and took pleasure of feeling your warm body tightly embraced against mine."
Sakura still felt Ino's arms around her chest, how Ino cuddled with her head against Sakura's neck and shoulder. Memories of what had happened last night between her and Ino returned to Sakura's troubled mind.
"Ino..." Sakura began; her voice showed signs of hesitation "what happened last night was...." She did not have enough time to finish her sentence as Ino abrupt her.
"What we did last night is something I will never ever forget Sakura. For so long I have dreamed and fantasised about it and still can't understand that my dream has finally come true. At last I have found a person who truly loves and cares about me"
A silence took place before Ino continued.
"And I can't wait to resume and finish what we did yesterday." She giggled, referring to how Sakura and Ino almost had made love to each other but Ino's wounds had stopped them. Gracefully Ino moved her hands in beneath Sakura's jacket and caressed her stomach with her fingertips and kissed her cheek again.
"Stop it." Carefully, Sakura protested. She cursed on the inside as she did not expect Ino to wake up yet. She wanted to bring her to Konohas hospital first and give her proper medical attention. It was time to say it now. There was no return.
"Ino... I have thought all night. It's not easy for me to say this but..."
"But what's wrong?" The curiosity and worriedness made Ino lift her head away from Sakura's shoulder, bracing herself for the worse possible answer ever.
"What we did last night felt good... but also kind of unpleasant for me. I feel that to me Ino, you are more of a friend...I don't hate you Ino but... I don't think I love either..."
Sakura's heartbeat increased, just waiting for Ino's response and actions. With Ino sitting behind Sakura, she could not see or tell Ino's reaction until Ino quietly said.
"You don't... love me?"
"I have no idea what I think anymore. Maybe I do but I just feel I am not ready to have a relationship with you...I need more time to think about all this"
Again nothing but silence came from Ino. Judging from how Sakura felt Ino's hands tighten their grips around Sakura's arms, how Ino's body trembled slightly told Sakura that she was taking it badly.
"Sakura..." Ino whispered growlingly "do you have ANY idea what last night meant to me?"
Turning her body around to face Ino, Sakura saw her looking down at the ground, not being able to see her face at all but only her blonde scalp. Sakura really felt bad for letting Ino to know all this in the morning after what happened last night but she needed to say it.
"I am so sorry Ino but I can't lie to neither myself or to you."
"You...are...sorry?" Ino said, still with her gaze down to the ground, whispering angrily while breathing heavily from being so emotionally upset along with having a punctured lung. Ino's life and world were collapsing inside of her. Her hopes for a good future were crumbling to dust while her hands around Sakura's arms tightened themselves so much that it started to hurt.
"You are hurting me Ino!"
Sakura tried to struggle a little to break free from Ino's iron hard grip, to tell her to let go before Ino raised her face again. Her face was totally red with tears coming out from her eyes and grinding her teeth in anger.
"You are sorry???" She spat out straight into Sakura's face who cowered backwards with fear. "Do you have any god damn idea what last night meant for me Sakura??? For two years I have not been able to sleep at nights! For two years I have felt depressed and even suicidal! Not a single day has passed during these two years that I have thought about how my life is going to be! What are my friends and parents are going to say when they find out that their friend and daughter is a freaking lesbian!?"
Ino was so furious that it almost looked like her eyes were burning.
"Ino please calm down! Let me go!" Sakura tried to calm down the hysterical and angry Ino who did not bother to listen.
"For the first night ever in two years I could sleep without having any guilt, remorse or bad feelings!" Ino kept screaming into Sakura's face before finally letting go of her. Then she limped away some meters away from Sakura while cursing viciously. "Why the HELL did you tell me that now? You could have told me last nigh and I would have taken it better! But no! You want me to suffer and just waited for the right time to strike!"
"Ino I know that this was not what you wanted to hear..." Sakura was not sure what to say or do. She had seen Ino angry before but never this much.
She watched as Ino pulled out a kunai from her kunai holster and kept it ready as if to attack. Frighteningly, Sakura's gaze jumped back and forth between the kunai and Ino's face who was smiling wickedly, the same smile and face before she almost fell down from the mountain although now it looked more sadistic.
"What... what are you going to do?"
"You have saved me two times already Sakura! What do you say; you want to score a hat trick, huh Sakura?" What she was going to do was so shocking as if it was taken from a bad nightmare.
Ino pointed the kunai towards Sakura before raising her own head up so that her throat was very clearly seen. In front Sakura's shocked eyes; Ino put the sharp edge of the kunai on the left side of her throat and started to slowly drag the blade across the skin, leaving a trail of blood and slashed flesh. She flinched and hissed a little from the pain though she did not let it stop her and kept moving the knife across her throat.
"NOO!!!" Sakura yelled panicked and immediately dashed forward towards Ino to stop her from killing herself!
She needed to stop her before her blade could reach her throat artery, thus ending her life! Trying to take the kunai out of Ino's hands with force would be extremely risky; instead she needed to stun her. Pulling back her clenched fist, Sakura aimed for Ino's stomach.
"You are too late!" Ino yelled as she saw Sakura quickly approaching to stop her.
The sharp Kunai only came closer and closer to Ino's artery. To avoid the punch from Sakura, Ino twisted her body to the right.
It was then something dreadfully happened...
The girls looked at each other as Sakura's punch connected heavily with Ino's body. A strange sound was heard when it landed as if something wet, something hard and something soft all broke at the same time. The power from the combined dash and punch made Ino and Sakura stagger quickly backwards into tree where another sickening sound was heard from inside Ino's chest.
Both the girls froze in that position with Sakura's fist still pressed against Ino's body. The kunai in her hand hit to the ground with a metallic clang, the sound of it creating a weak triumphant smile for Sakura as she saw that she had done it, she had saved Ino again. If Ino had cut about one inch more to the left her life would surely end.
However when Sakura looked at Ino's face again, she saw something completely different. She had seen many kinds of faces and expressions from Ino: angry, sad, happy, when in pain and when sleeping but never ever had she seen the facial and emotional expression Ino had right now.
Ino's entire body was quivering; her eyes and mouth wide open in shock, wearing a completely white face as if she had seen a ghost.
The seconds went on. For the girls it felt for like an eternity. They continued to stare into each others eyes before suddenly a crystal tear rolled down on Ino's cheek while a dark blood drop rolled out from the corner of her mouth. It was then Sakura realized something really was not right and had gone terribly wrong. Was she too late? Had Ino managed cut her throat? No... the cut did not look deep enough and the cut was far away enough from the critical areas.
Together and slowly, Ino and Sakura moved their gazes down to where Sakura's fist still remained. It all made sense now; it was not Ino's cut that had caused all this. Sakura's punch had landed but not at the spot where she had aimed at.
It had landed straight on Ino's broken ribs, just where her punctured lung and heart were! Sakura's jaw dropped as she knew how extremely sensitive Ino's wound were. Just stroking her ribs was enough to make her yell in pain so how much pain and damage could a powerful punch do?
"INO!!!"
Sakura terrifyingly screamed her friends name and looked at Ino's face again. Larger amount of blood were now coming out now from the other corner of her mouth and more tears from her other eye. Her facial colour was diminishing.
At that moment Ino's body jolted and coughed up a large amount of blood, some drops landing on Sakura's face, making her go almost as pale as Ino.
"Oh my god! What have I done??"
"Sak...ura..."
Ino stammered weakly. Her voice sounded raspy as something liquid was in her mouth and throat. She staggered a couple of steps forward away from three before the strength in her knees instantly failed her, making her fall into Sakura's arms. Sakura went down to her knees while holding a shaking Ino in her arms.
"INO! Please talk to me!" Sakura yelled panicked out.
"Why Sakura...Why...do you keep saving me?"
"Why?" Sakura frowned a bit shocked. That was not what she had expected Ino to say. "Don't think I will just stand and watch my best friend commit suicide" she replied
"But...I don't want to live...I want to die..."
"Don't talk like that!" Sakura gave Ino a weak slap "Remember that I told you I will never ever let you die!" She firmly told Ino that she intended to keep her promise no matter what.
"You have already killed me Sakura... you have killed my heart. There... is no... reason for me to live anymore."
"I...I had to be honest Ino...I just could not lie to neither of us..." Sakura shamefully broke the eye contact with Ino to look at the ground instead.
"Sakura...don't you get it...for years I have loved you in secret... but I was so afraid...so afraid that you would reject me...now you have found out about me... and just as I knew...you don't love me back as much as I do."
"But you can always find a new one Ino, maybe even a guy. I will help you as much as I can."
"No..." Ino shook her head "you are my only true love Sakura... it is either you...or no one..." I
Ino said before her body jumped again, more blood got coughed up, this time a lot more so it stained both Sakura's and Ino's clothes. Ino grabbed her left chest and held it tight while grunting heavily in pain.
"What's wrong?!" Sakura asked nervously.
"My...heart...it hurts!" Ino stammered. Her breathings started to become more serious.
"Fight it Ino!" Sakura grabbed Ino's hand tightly while Ino coughed up blood again. It was then Ino realized what was happening to her...the same thing she had realized when she was dangling at the cliff although this time it was truly inevitable.
"Sakura... I'm... dying. I can feel it!" More tears ran out from Ino's eyes and down her cheeks.
"No you are not! You are going to live!"
But Sakura's word could not change what was happening to Ino. She just felt how her body got weaker, her senses dulling, hearing getting muffled and eyesight blurry. Everything started spinning for Ino as the nausea came back in her mind.
"I feel so tired... so cold...." She said weakly and rested her head against Sakura's chest Sakura listened to how Ino's breathings just got slower and quieter with each passing minute, the interval between each inhale growing longer.
"Ino please...stay awake" She embraced Ino tightly to warm her cold body. Tears were now coming from Sakura's eyes too, dripping down onto Ino's face. With the last of her strength, Ino said something Sakura would never forget.
"To kiss you...to feel your body...to feel your love...only for one night...to me...that's worth dying for." The sentence was whispered by Ino very weakly into her ears. With a blood stained hand she stroked Sakura's face, leaving red trails on her and smiled again. She looked so tired...so weak...yet...so happy...
Sakura's hand felt Ino's grip gradually weaken until it became totally limp. While still looking into Sakura's eyes, Ino's shivering eyelids slowly closed themselves. The last thing that was heard from her was a long sigh as her lungs exhaled a long breath. One final thought ran through her diminishing mind.
So this is how it feels when you...
...it feels just... like... falling... asleep...
Everything went black...
A short moment of silence and stillness passed.
"Ino, you still awake?" Sakura whispered and shook Ino gently once to get her attention. "Please say something Ino!"
Like before when Ino had showed no life signs after saving her from falling, Sakura put a shaking hand on Ino's chest...waiting a few seconds until she felt...
"No..." She whispered terrified.
Ino's heart had stopped beating...
End of chapter 11...and the end of Ino?
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AN: Is this the end for Ino? What will Sakura think for what she has done?
2 more chapters to go...
Onwards to Part 12
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