That Kind of Beautiful

"People will worry if you stay up here until morning," Shikamaru informs her, a real edge of worry hidden underneath his normal nonchalance. It almost makes this whole thing worse than it already is. "You're not actually the only thing that hangs around the shore line."

Ino rolls her eyes at him, the edge of her caudal fin shooting out to smack his arm. "I know you're worried, Shika. Everyone and their nestmates know you're worried."

"Worried about you? I'd rather eat a jellyfish."

"Then why don't you go back to the trench and have a nice, relaxing night? My plans really don't require a chaperone. In fact, chaperones are highly discouraged from hanging around."

"Ino-" She wiggles her fingers meaningfully, doing nothing to hold back her smirk, and Shikamaru cuts himself off with an exasperated groan. "I don't need to hear about your sex life. I don't even want to know that you have a sex life, Ino."

"Then you should leave before that changes," she says cheerfully.

"Chōji will-"

"Chōji will pat you on the shoulder and say something along the lines of, 'I'm glad you tried, Shika, but we both knew how this was going to end.' At least he knows that I don't need to be watched like I just hatched out of my egg."

His face does that thing where it goes through a dozen different expressions in a split second before settling on one, this time a deep frown to go along with his crossed arms and sharp flicks of his pelvic fins. Reading him is just as simple as knowing where the current is headed.

Her smirk fades into a smug grin but even that only lasts a moment before she's back to glancing up at the surface again. It's almost sun-down now, only the last flickers of light left to bother her eyes, and Ino still hasn't seen a certain gorgeous goddess. If she were in Shikamaru's position, she would almost certainly be floating an awkward few feet away as well. None of the pod just spends the better part of a day this close to the water's surface.

Sakura better have a good explanation when she decides to show up. For all she knows, Ino could have spent the entire day alone and starving, anxiously keeping track of the waters around her in case of a predator.

Not that there is any truth to that. The only really annoying things about this are the effort of staying in one place and Shikamaru's dark, worried gaze fixated on her.

"What if she doesn't show?"

Ino shoots him a dirty look over her shoulder. "I thought you were leaving."

"Ino."

"What? She's going to show up. I doubt you want to be anywhere near us when it happens, Shika dearest," she says, dragging out the sarcastic endearment.

Shikamaru sighs, making her wince automatically.

Ino recognizes that sigh. She can recognize almost all of the various sighs and groans he makes. Her and Chōji numbered them all once, laughing as they called this particular noise, "Number 27: The Don't Come Crying to Me When This Goes Wrong Sigh." It isn't as bad as some of the others, and certainly not as horrifying as the groans she still remembers from that warm season a few years back when the neighbouring shoal shared their territory for a while because of a shark infestation and everyone had to double up on accommodations.

It makes her stomach churn with her regret and she immediately turns away from him again, her shoulders tense.

"Whatever." Shikamaru sighs a second time and she can feel the water shift behind her as he turns back towards the trench. "Just don't come crying to me if this all goes to shit."

"I won't!"

He pauses briefly, ready to hear her out.

If only the words weren't impulsively pouring out of her mouth. "You want to know why, Shika? I'm not going to slink back to your shelf, crying, because Sakura is going to show up and prove you wrong."

The only sign of Shikamaru is a flash of his scales when Ino briefly glances over her shoulder and then he's gone entirely.

Ino huffs and focuses her attention back up to the pier above. Her cheeks are blown up with indignation, to the point where it's almost a little embarrassing. Not that she's really worried about where things stand between them, even if she checks the ridge Shikamaru disappeared under every few moments or so. No amount of arguments or promises to the contrary would stop him from pulling her into his shelf if she comes back upset. Just like every time one of them is upset about something.

The rain starts to fall after a long moment, finally giving her something more interesting to look at than her unchanging surroundings. It always looks like bubbles floating down from the surface, blurring her view of above the water. She watches it absentmindedly as she swims in slow, lazy circles. If it were anything more than this, she could probably wait for Sakura on the pier itself but instead it is just enough to be pretty and not much else.

Sakura loves watching this sort of thing.

Regardless of what Shikamaru said, she would be here. Sakura wouldn't miss this for anything, not even the dramatic word-ending problems she seems to deal on a semi-regular basis. At least, the boy can handle it themselves for one day without everything falling apart around them. They've done it before. Only that they've mostly useless without Sakura around to keep them in line.

Ino groans, rubbing at her eyes while she leans back. Then the water shifts right near the surface and she can see a pair of feet in the water, as clear as can be.

A wide smile spreads across her face and she moves through the water, pulling herself up between long, muscular legs with ease. Sakura yelps, her hands flailing until they land on the wooden pier behind her. Gorgeous green eyes still greet Ino as they always do, their colour only made more vivid by the violet God Mark in the middle of her forehead.

Ino's gills flutter in one last attempt to draw in water but by the time her lungs kick in, she's scowling impressively. "You're late."

Whatever surprise Sakura felt fades into an impassive air, entirely unlike the Sakura Ino knows. There's too much Goddess of the Tides in there and not enough Sakura, even if it makes her look like she was created to rule the world, hair stuck to her face and all. It is a beautiful look, except only because Sakura is always beautiful. People may worship her strength, intelligence and beauty but the distant default she shows them is not what Ino wants here.

Here, on this wobbly little pier in the middle of nowhere with her tail hanging down into the water, Ino wants her lover. She lets out a shallow breath, more fond than exasperated, and pulls at the thin string keeping Sakura's top in place.

A high pitched squeak of surprise echoes across the water as the knot at the back of Sakura's neck loosens and then comes undone entirely, the colourful cloth fluttering down to reveal her breasts. Or it would have if Sakura doesn't scramble to pull it back up to her chest. Her plan works even better than Ino hoped because Sakura the Goddess vanishes with a tight jaw and flared nostrils, only leaving behind Sakura the person.

"Ino," Sakura hisses, "what was that for?"

Ino smirks, managing a small kick to give her the momentum to press a brief kiss to Sakura's lips. "Your breasts are so pretty that I just had to see them. I don't know why you hide them all the time, especially out here where no one can see you."

"Not everyone is as comfortable revealing themselves to the world as you are!"

"I know," Ino says with a fake pout, "It's such a shame."

The rain starts to fall harder around them, its force almost hard to bounce off of the ocean's surface. It makes it easier to breathe until Sakura's cheeks start to redden and she's suddenly unwilling to look Ino in the eye. Ino frowns, all too aware that she's still clinging to the dock instead of in the water, laughing at Sakura's outrage. Blushing over something like exposed breasts is not quite the Sakura Ino knows.

Then the rain comes down in sheets and something clicks into place.

"This is you?" she blurts out.

Sakura stares over Ino's shoulder with an invested interest in the horizon. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Right, of course not. Then I'll just have to make it clear for you then. Sakura, are you making it rain?"

Awkward silence meets her, an answer in itself.

"You are!" Ino laughs brightly and the space between them is suddenly much too wide, even as one of her palms digs into the edge of the pier. Rather than listen to the startled protest no doubt waiting on Sakura's lips, she propels herself upwards, gaining just enough momentum to throw her arms around Sakura. They both hit the wooden planks, her caudal fin almost entirely out of the water. "This is so amazing! I knew I was a positive influence on you. Now, tell me, is it just the rain or can you do other things now too?"

Sakura manages a small smile as she pulls her hands out from underneath Ino's chest. "There are other things too. I found out last week that I can breathe underwater."

"You can?" Ino asks, her voice low and heavy.

Sakura gives her a firm nod, smile briefly fading.

All at once, Ino is aware of just how close they are to each other. It's been so long since they were last able to do this and her gaze drifts down to Sakura's lips without thought. She can feel every inch of her body like this, pressed between her legs with her loose dress hiked up around her thighs. Everything is just a touch too warm but Ino has long since accepted that as one of the consequences of falling in love with someone who walks on land.

It's Sakura who cups the back of her neck and pulls her down. Their lips find each other with ease and Ino sighs into the kiss.

"I missed you," Sakura says when they briefly part.

Ino smiles softly. "I missed you too," she says and then her smile widens. "But I have to know. If you were to fall into the water right now, would you have to worry about drowning at all?"

"No, but Ino-"

There's no talking Ino out of this no, not when she's just gotten the news of a lifetime.

She leans to the side, dragging Sakura along with her. Both of them hit the surface with a loud splash and Ino hardly takes a moment to readjust to being in the water.

That isn't the case for Sakura, her dress tangling around her legs as she attempts to regain some sense of where she is. Taking advantage of that is child's play to Ino and she wraps her arms around Sakura before pushing them away from the pier. Right at the surface of the water at first, Sakura spluttering in her arms, but then she dives down until the bubbling surface is a good distance above their heads.

Being underwater is a good look on Sakura. Her cheeks puff up with what little air she managed to get before Ino tugged them under, her eyes wide as she attempts to seek Ino out. They aren't made for these conditions, pupils blown wide to the point where the green is hardly visible at all. Then bubbles burst from her mouth, quickly floating up to the surface and leaving nothing but the normal rise and fall of her chest. It's not quite the flare of Ino's gills but it's more than enough for her.

Sakura being able to breathe underwater like this is like her hatching day and the summer solstice all wrapped up in one big present.

Sakura pushes short, pink strands of hair from her face. "Did you really have to do that?"

This isn't some mixture of her hatching day and the summer solstice, not unless Ino manages to add the half-moon onto that. She laughs, her eyes wide and bright. Sakura's voice is captivating without the strange sharp, crisp edge that being above water gives it.

Ino had given up hope of ever hearing it like this.

"Ino?"

She lets go of Sakura to swim around her in lazy, intimate circles. The water lets her spread out her fins as far as they will go and they brush against Sakura's skin intentionally, like newly joined couple. Each circle brings her a little bit closer again until she can wrap her tail around one of those long legs. There is much more of her tail left than she would have guessed and Sakura seems so small now that Ino can stretch out to her full length, no piers or beaches to warp her understanding of their differences.

Another reprimand never comes, even as Sakura watches her ever so carefully. "Do you always act like this or is it just me?"

"Just you, sweetheart." Ino stops behind her, nuzzling into the crook of her neck. "Are the boys able to do this as well?"

Sakura recoils, the muscles in her back tense, but it isn't an unfamiliar reaction when it comes to the two other gods she roams the land with. "Can we not talk about Naruto and Sasuke right now? I don't bring up Shikamaru and Chōji when we're in the middle of things."

"We're in the middle of something? I didn't know that," Ino says, purposely oblivious.

"No, but-"

Sakura cuts herself off and scowls before she pulls away. Ino's hold on her loosens in her surprise, giving Sakura just enough space to start swimming towards the surface.

All Ino can do is follow and watch as Sakura breaks through and starts gasping for air, much more desperate than she's ever seen her. The title of Goddess brings a lot, enough that a mountain could come down on her head and Sakura would almost certainly survive. Her face is pale when Ino surfaces herself, the bags underneath her eyes a bit too prominent. Not as bad as the time she went too long without visiting one of her temples or when the festivals in her name go badly but close.

"Sorry," Sakura says, hardly more than a murmur. "You were so excited that I completely forgot about the time limit. I'll work on it though and then maybe in a few years, I'll actually be able to spend a decent amount of time underwater."

Ino huffs dramatically and roughly pokes Sakura in the side, satisfied with the yelp she gets for her effort. "Stop while you're ahead, Billboard Brow. Where do you get off on being unbelievably amazing and then apologizing for it? Trust me when I say I don't intend on complaining about this."

"You should be complaining, though."

"I thought we went over this." Sakura welcomes her touch when Ino comes up behind her and starts absentmindedly swimming them further from shore. "You're some sort of fledgling goddess and that means two things. One, you're amazing and badass without compare, and two, I can't complain when you take off for months at a time to be amazing and badass."

"Do I have to go over the differences between a goddess and a demi-god again?" Sakura asks dryly.

"When it comes to you, they're the same thing," she says.

"They aren't!"

"They are. That may not be true for your companions but you're already in an entirely different category from them, gorgeous."

Sakura twists around so that they're facing each other, half floating in the water and half swimming. "You're obligated to say that because we're seeing each other. And Sasuke is a God, even if he travels with me and Naruto. He doesn't have any annoying human bits to deal with."

"I happen to enjoy your human bits, thanks," Ino counters, her fingers tracing absent patterns along Sakura's shoulder. Not touching Sakura is much like the ocean ignoring the pull of the moon, leaving Ino no choice but to obey. Even when they were children, Ino would take every opportunity she could to tug at hair or clothes. "But if you tell me that Sasuke isn't as emotional as you and Naruto, I will leave you to swim back to shore alone."

Sakura glances back towards the rapidly disappearing shore line and frowns. "He isn't, though. He doesn't really care when people give him tributes or when others are wronged."

"That's just the Uchiha in him. He just represses and represses and represses. It doesn't mean he isn't emotional."

"It does."

"Yeah? Well, beautiful, your little wind god certainly doesn't manipulate people into falling in love with him and I'd say that Uchiha belongs to those ranks."

"That's-" Sakura cuts herself off, colour draining from her face. "No, I would have noticed something like that. I spend almost all my time with them, I wouldn't have missed Sasuke being in love with Naruto. Ino, tell me you're wrong about this."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night."

Sakura groans and goes limp against her chest, ignoring the soft laughter filling the otherwise silent night. Of course Ino could trust Sakura to miss something going on right in front of her eyes. All that shoving and pushing didn't come from hating each other's guts, at least not just from that, and it had taken Ino all of a few moments to see the real source of their fighting.

Not that she cares in the face of Sakura's wandering fingers. It starts with a small circle traced just underneath her collarbone before they travels further down, pausing briefly along her waist. There aren't too many scales there and it isn't as sensitive as her hips but it almost makes Ino stop moving, both of them briefly dipping a few inches further into the water.

The breathy sigh Ino can't control and it certainly doesn't stop Sakura. Ino wants nothing more than to pause here and tug Sakura into a kiss, to keep going until it consumes them both. She would if the sun wasn't close to setting, if they weren't so far away from the island she found just off the coast. Its cave system is perfect, not quite underwater and not quite aboveground, yet secluded from wandering eyes. The weeks Ino spent bargaining with the sirens who normally control the area aren't about to go to waste.

Maybe if today were another day, Ino wouldn't care quite so much.

"Oh, right," Sakura mumbles against her chest. "Happy anniversary."

Ino smiles. "Happy anniversary."