Rivals, Friends and Lovers (part 4 of 13)
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A/N: Believe it or not but this chapter was the second hardest to write due to that I could not come up with anything good or enough to write. I skipped this chapter to instead work on chapter 5 and up.
I did not want to write a chapter that was only 1000 words long when the rest of the chapters are all over 2000. However, after a troublesome period of writers block, I finally managed to rewrite the chapter completely and brought it to as it is now ).
Italic text is when a character is thinking
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A Good Start
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It had finally begun; the journey that was started in order to change their rivalry into friendship. It seemed to be a hard task, if not impossible. Whether they wanted to change or not, they still had to stay in the forest for seven days. This could become to be worst week of their life…
The gravel road Sakura and Ino were walking on looked to go straight on for many kilometres with no turns, hills or slopes, just straight and plain. To the left and right side of the road, several green bushes and trees in all kinds of shapes and sizes stood planted. As usual by this time of the morning, the sky was light blue with only some white clouds soaring among it. The wind that blew past Sakura and Ino was carrying the scent of flowers and grass to their noses.
It was a beautiful day indeed. Yet, none of the girls seemed to enjoy it much as they had not said a single word to each other since they left the Leaf village behind them. The sight of the Village had disappeared from view long ago. Only an hour had passed since that, still they were already longing to return home and just wanted this thing to end as soon as possible.
"Hey, Sakura" Ino finally broke the eerie silence between them. She wanted to talk about something that was mentally bothering her a bit. Maybe talking about it with Sakura would make thing worse between them, yet Ino wanted to give it a try. Besides, this long silence between felt frustrating, even for Sakura.
"Yes? What is it?" Sakura said with a semi-uninterested tone and turned her head around while walking to look at Ino who did the same. Their gazes locked with each other as Ino commenced the conversation.
"You and I, we really fight and argue a lot like our Sensei's says right?"
"Well, yeah" Shrugged Sakura "What about it?"
"But we are not always doing that are we? I mean, sometimes we do have our good moments. Maybe not so often lately but it happens"
What Ino said made Sakura ponder a bit. Ino was right. This last year, Ino and Sakura's rivalry had really become more intensified and more heated, extra hateful. Yet, there were still some rare moments where they laughed, smiled together and talked civilized without showing any signs of hate or disgust.
Again Sakura shrugged and replied
"Yeah…I guess you are right"
Ino liked Sakura's answer but did not like the way she said it with that unsure and uninterested tone. She wanted her to at least show some more enthusiasm and be more positive. Nevertheless, Ino held her irritation back and replied calmly instead of risking starting another pointless fight.
"Hey come on now Sakura, here we are, you and I walking towards a forest that we don't know anything about and where we are suppose to spend seven days alone"
Hearing that, Sakura smirked and smiled weakly "You don't need to tell me what I already know silly"
"Yes but unlike you Sakura I am going to give this a shot but only if you do the same" Inos voice turned more serious, telling that she was indeed serious and not joking or fooling with Sakura.
Sakura did not answer Ino immediately for her pondering had gone down into heavier and deeper thinking. She was thinking of about everything Ino had said the last past minutes. She was right. There were moments were Ino and Sakura were good friends. In fact, those moments were nice to experience. Sakura's memory went further backwards into time to think about how it used to be in the old days when Ino and had taken care of Sakura like a sister. It was Ino who had supported Sakura and helped her to build up a self confidence to make her fit in better into society.
It was even possible, that if it was not for Ino, then maybe Sakura would have not joined the Academy and thus she would have never become a ninja. How would Sakura's life look if she had not met Ino and how would her life be if she never became a ninja of the Leaf? Then Sasuke had showed up that had caused their friendship to turn into bitter rivalry. How much Sakura wanted to have the old days back…
"Hello? Earth to Sakura?"
Sakura's deep pondering got snapped as she noticed Ino waving her hand in front of Sakura's face to get her attention. Smilingly, she turned her head and looked at Ino, simply saying "Yes"
"Yes what?" Ino raised an eye brow in confusion, waiting for a proper explanation which she got immediately.
"To hear all that honesty coming from you Ino makes me believe that you and I can actually change if we try hard enough." Sakura shrugged, still smiling. Hearing those words made Inos face shine up with happiness.
"That's great to hear Sakura! So you mean it? You will…"
"Yes Ino. I guess I will give this an honest try myself. Even if it holds or fails I think it's worth a try"
Inos smile turned wider, filling her with hope about the future. Maybe the wont not be so bad after all…
She smirked quietly. She was beginning to feel better already. Even the nervosa knot in her belly faded away a bit.
After a couple of more hours of walking and small talk, Ino saw something far away in front of her.
"Hey look!"
She said while pointing her finger out towards the far horizon. Sakura focused her eyes and tried to see what Ino was pointing at. At first she did not understand what this was all about until she saw same thing as Ino. Finally after hours of walking, they now saw their destination, the forest of life.
"Finally…" Ino said quite tiredly and sighed. Neither of them could hold back a weak smile of victory.
It took them an additional hour of walking until they arrived just outside the forest where they stopped for a bit to look at it from a closer view.
The forest it self looked like any other forests they had seen, trees and bushes in different sizes and shapes with many kinds of coloured leaves. Singing forests bird could be heard inside and sometimes small mammals such as squirrels and rabbits were seen but no signs of any predators.
After a minute of stationary observation, the girls resumed walking and entered the forest. Walking there was a bit troublesome due to the terrain but got easier once they had found a steady path to follow. Theirs sense of smelling could clearly feel the different smells from the forest, their ears the constant singing of birds.The time passed until it became nightfall and the time came to camp. The sun in the sky went down in the horizon, gradually turning the horizon dark orange and red before disappearing down completely. The final light from the sun vanished. The once singing day birds were not heard anymore. Instead Sakura and Ino had to listen to the noises of owls, crickets and other small night creatures that only dared to come out from their nests while it was dark.
The whole forest was now covered with darkness except for a small spot where a camp fire had been lit.
Sakura and Ino sat on opposite side of the warm and sparkling camp fire that spread a crimson coloured light around in the area where they leaning their tired bodies against two big fallen logs. The light and heat from the fire attracted several flying insects soaring around it.
"Hey, Sakura…" Once again it was Ino who broke the silence to talk with her friend about something else that she had in her mind.
"Hm? What is it?"
"Do you…remember the old times? When you and I could talk about anything?" Ino could not help but to smile a little. Those were good and happy memories.
"I do" Sakura nodded "I thought about it earlier today when we both decided to give this our best" Sakura smiled back.
"It has been a long time since we had a talk like that…" Ino said and Sakura nodded again.
Around Inos neck and below her throat, Sakura saw something metallic reflecting the orange light from the fire. She had never seen it before. The curiosity was too big to let her ignore it.
"Ino, what is it that you have around your neck?"
Looking down to see what Sakura was talking about, Inos eyes saw her heart shaped silver medallion that she had taken from her home before she left. It had somehow jumped out from beneath her green shirt to become clearly visible for any ones eyes. What purpose or meaning it had for Ino was unknown. She cursed herself for not hiding it better.
Damn it. I should have concealed it better! Now I have to explain to her what it is
"Oh this?" Swallowing her frustrating and acting normally, Ino pointed at her medallion before grabbing it with her fingers and took it out to let Sakura see it better. "It is a special medallion that was given to me by my grandmother. I have not bothered to wear it so often but I thought I wanted to have something special with me from home" Ino said while looking the medallion in her hand, flipping it and tossing it a bit into the air.
" Special to you? In what way?"
Of course she had to ask Grumbled Ino inside and put up a fake smile. Smirking, she started to explain.
"Heh…this might sound a bit silly but I have been told that if you keep a picture of your true love inside the medallion, they will one day fall in love with you and you will live happily ever after."
"Ohh…so you do keep a picture inside it eh?" Sakura smirked back. She thought the whole idea of the medallion was indeed silly. As if the whole thing was something fancy for young under aged girls being in love.
"Well…yes" Ino suddenly showed small signs of hesitation. Her voice grew a bit quieter while she broke the eye contact with Sakura.
"Its Sasuke-Kun right?" Sakura thought. It would be obvious for someone as Ino to carry around something like that. But she did not confirm Sakura's suspicions.
"I am not saying. It's a secret" Shaking her head, Ino put the medallion back under clothes, feeling the cold metal against her skin.
"Why are you not telling me Ino? If it is not Sasuke-Kun then I am really dying to find out. Is it Shikamaru?" Sakura felt confident that both Shikamaru and Ino had at least some feelings for each other. She had tried before to find out in order to get Sasuke for herself but neither of them had said anything that Sakura could take use of.
"Maybe…" Ino said and shrugged, quietly while looking into the flames of the camp fire.
"If it is neither Sasuke-Kun nor Shikamaru? That does not sound right to me Ino. I think…" Sakura did not finish her sentence as Ino signalled Sakura to be quiet.
"Sakura…I am feeling very tired and don't want to talk about it…" She said with a raised hand to gesture that she wanted it to stop, still looking into the flames. Sakura nodded slowly understandingly but her curiosity had not been satisfied. She would have to try again later.
"Ok…it's just that I thought you wanted to have a special talk like we used to have so many times before"
"I appreciate it Sakura, but we have almost a whole week ahead of us. There will be plenty of time" Ino smiled before stretching her limbs, yawning tiredly. "I think I will go to bed now. That long walk drained most of my energy" She tiredly said.
"Yeah. I will do the same then" Sakura nodded
The first day out of the seven reached its end as the girls as they both put out their sleeping bags and moved themselves into them. The comfyness from the average soft ground and sleepingbags were nothing when compared to their beds back home.
The last thing Sakura thought about before falling asleep was about who's picture Ino had inside her medallion. Tomorrow they were going to go out and explore the forest. None of them could predict tomorrows horrible events.
End of Chapter 4
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A/N: So…once again, what is so special about Ino's medallion? In the next chapter you will see the first out of many cliff hangers ) Do not think that they are going to have an easy time in the forest.
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