Chapter 2
* * *Sakura’s POV
For cosmos, the flower of harmony, night brings such sweet dreams. Their intoxicating scent soaked the air, heavy with impenetrable moisture. Dampness blanketed every inch of skin perfuming our clothes and hair.
"Doesn't it smell great here, Sakura?" Ino sat perched on the rim of the fountain with her left leg crossed elegantly over the right. Slowly the left rose poised in the air. Long and slender, every swell of muscle in her leg retained a perfect sense of delicacy, while she planted it down upon the cobblestone below. First the tips of toes touched, rolling onto the ball of her foot, then its heel with the grace of a dancer. Her right leg moved with the same grace as she rose to both feet.
"It's wonderful, I like it," was all I could reply, struck by her balletic movement.
No one besides Ino could maneuver with such lightness. With the inward flick of a wrist so delicate it could break, she might send a kunai towards her foe in a flash of electric silver. Not a drop of blood or a death scream from the target. She is silent, deadly and beautiful excelling light years beyond all kunoichi, female ninja, in Konoha. She is Yamanaka Ino.
"Did I show you my chocolate cosmos?" Ino asked, her gorgeous visage bearing down on me like the sun in midday.
I shook my head under her gaze. "No."
"Oh, then come this way," Ino invited, motioning towards the back of the garden. "We'll see who can get there faster!"
With her knees slightly bent and arms thrust up, the powerful springs of her legs uncoiled propelling her skyward. She straightened out stiff as a pole in midair far above my head. At the highest point of her jump, she snapped into a forward roll splitting the moonlight in two. For a moment, the lunar disc encircled her in a sphere of brilliant silver. Its aura became her own, as she sparkled like a dream in the celestial sky.
When she returned to earth the fleeting dream seemed to end. She somersaulted down, alighting with a feathery touch, as if carried on a mystic wind. Green grass stirred where she landed in front of the cottage, a good thirty feet in that single bound.
I remained breathless, thunderstruck by her acrobatic display of skill.
Ino pirouetted around, stopping halfway to face my direction. "Well, what are you waiting for, forehead girl? Hurry up!" Her cry echoed through the garden above the splashing fountain and chorusing of insomniac crickets.
"A-alright, pig!" In a twinkling, the distance between us closed the distance between us closed to one yard. I had burst into a few short sprints, invisible to the untrained naked eye.
Her eyes the shade lapis lazuli, went wide with shock. "What speed! How'd you do that, Sakura?"
"It's all about chakra control, Ino. The faster you use it, the quicker you move," I explained proudly, tapping a foot on the cobblestone. "When I trained with Kakashi-sensei, he said I excelled in it. I did my best to improve on it, cause I'd never be strong like my teammates."
"You're strong in here." Ino leaned forward poking me in the chest. Then she pointed to my forehead, adding, (I’m not very good with grammar, but, maybe the ‘a’ in And should be lower cased since there’s a comma after adding?)"And you're still just as brainy!"
I countered, teasing her back with a smirk. As my expression changed I drew nearer until a foot divided us. At least I appeared to be confident.
Ino returned a grin of her own and closed in. A sweet aroma lingered around her mouth, hitting my nose in a breath of scented steam. Her lips the color of red cosmos parted and a whisper escaped teasing, "That's what makes you cute, Sakura-chan."
Her hands cupped my cheeks. Her dainty fingers splayed out and their phantom tips danced over my trembling lips. They parted slightly, betraying an unknown inner acceptance. Cosmos lips brushed against my mouth. My tongue darted out tasting their honey wine flavor. Euphoria swept my soul and time stood still. I lived in the moment capturing it like a butterfly. All too soon, a breeze blew by returning time to its normal flow.
"Ino, YOU kissed me!" I gasped, grabbing her by the wrists.
A rosy hue flushed her fair cheeks. "You're cute. That's why."
"B-but!" I shot back with surprise. "We're...we're both girls!"
"So?" The trace of a modest smile played across her lips as if mocking me. She shrugged it off and a girlish laugh rang out, clear like the peal of bells.
Any hints of modesty vanished as she snaked out my grasp. She walked along the cobblestone path that continued to the back of the garden. A crisp wind fluttered the hem of her purple dress, tussling through her platinum blond hair. She tipped her head up, rendering her profile in soft relief against the starry sky. Moonlight showered down in a stream of luminous silver, transforming her into an unearthly beauty, a celestial gliding through her moonlit garden. Light glinted off the jet of water spurting up from the fountain, its every droplet raining down in the pool below like a cascade of watery jewels. And it turned the lawn into a sea of luminescent grass between ivy walls. Then it fell on the bushes and trees. And turned their dewy leaves to shimmering emeralds.
The wind that tussled her hair breathed into my ear. "Go and follow her," it seemed to say.
Moonbeams peeked in from the awning of the banyan tree, illuminating the stony path ahead. I strolled over it to Ino under the canopy. Its heavy boughs swept the ground in a low hug embracing the two of us.
"Look, Sakura. Those are my chocolate cosmos. " Ino sank down onto her knees in rich, freshly tilled earth.
Dew kissed the cosmos's maroon petals, tinged by purple and brown, the hue of dried blood itself. They glistened like the richest velvet, with an eye almost black as midnight. Their foliage clump reached three feet in height, in a tangled growth of wiry stems that upheld each bloom. Each clump was chock full of bobbling blossoms, which caught a pleasant night breeze.
A fragrance that mingled with both cocoa and vanilla wafted to my nose, and smelled of the finest dark chocolate ever made, teasing my senses beyond sweet torture. The very thought made my blood sugar rise in a heartbeat.
"I love chocolate cosmos," exclaimed Ino, stroking their silky smooth petals. Passionate eyes burned with admiration, as thickly lidded lashes closed lightly over them. Her nostrils inhaled their delicious scent. She said as if enraptured in a dream, "They are beautiful at night when no one is around because they smell their best. They're also elegant, graceful and strong." She showered the cosmos with an affectionate gaze brighter than the sun at noon.
"They are special to you, aren't they, Ino?" I asked quietly, kneeling besides her, awed by her depth of reverence.
Ino gave a deep meaningful nod and her voice brimmed with hope. "I see them as the ninja I want to be. Not just any ninja, a kunoichi who is skilled and stealthy, but most important of all, elegant." The mere mention of that word caused a smile to cross her face. "The most elegant there is."
Ino's lilting words crept across the nape of my neck, just ahead of her gentle hands caressing my naked shoulders. Flesh quivered in ecstasy as a sudden wave of rolled over, a minute little swell nonetheless enticing. Urging the senses to explore a world unfathomed, in the arms of a goddess unknown, a lady wrapped in moonlight.
"This is for you, Sakura. My very best friend," Ino said in gratitude. She rose softly to her feet like a bud that sprouted up, reaching gracefully toward the night sky. As she stood up the full moon's glow encircled her head in a misty shroud of light. Once again, its aura became hers, and the stars brightened her countenance. In her palms joined together, turned up to face the heavens, she offered me a gift precious than diamonds: a chocolate cosmos with a red ribbon tied around its stem.
"Ino, it's your most precious flower and my old ribbon!" I cried, springing up to my feet.
"I'll put it on you, like we did as kids. Come inside my house." Ino guided me to the porch steps with a thoughtful arm around me.
I paused before the steps of the cottage porch. Ino continued up. My sight misted over with tears flooding in my eyes. The image of the lovely cosmos twiddling in my fingers blurred. She must of thought about me every night holding that ribbon in her hands. All those years I envied her as being smarter, stylish, and better than me when in reality, deep inside she still cared.
"Hey, forehead girl, what's up with you tonight?" Ino muttered in an irate tone, with crossed her arms, glaring down from the porch's wide expanse.
I shed a few tears, allowing the darkness to cloak my sad visage. "I've been thinking."
"You always do, Sakura." Ino chuckled, half joking, half serious. "So come in and we'll discuss it over tea."
I said no more and followed.
TBC
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