Epilogue

"Charming Gardeners"

...

Ino had evidently been unconscious for five days before she found Sakura, which had scared the ever-living hell out of the inner personality inhabiting Sakura's body. It hadn't helped when Ino mysteriously began hacking up blood. Thankfully, she'd already been in a hospital, or else it might've turned out much worse. She woke for only a few hours and then slept for a week more afterward, her mind, body, and chakra totally depleted, and when she at last returns fully to consciousness, she remembers everything.

Every. Little. Bit.

She's not sure if it's a good thing or not. Certainly, some of those memories are precious, but even back in the tangible world around her, Ino still isn't sure if they're really real. Do they count? Does it mean anything?

Apparently Sakura has been asking herself the same questions, though she doesn't say so explicitly. The first thing Sakura does when she finds Ino awake in the hospital is hug the ever living daylights out of her, all teary eyed and sniffling, and Ino hugs her back and waits for her to speak first because she doesn't know what to say yet.

There's a long, painfully awkward silence, and then Sakura fills it by catching her up on what she's missed.

In the downtime, Tsunade has nominated Ino for a promotion at Shikamaru's recommendation, albeit with a few caveats, which Ino plans to accept so long as Choji can join her.

"Probably," Sakura smiles. "Tsunade-shishou is actually quite empathetic, even if she doesn't seem like it."

"Shishou?"

Sakura explains her medical training – a lot of dodging trees and boulders and healing half-dead fish, not to mention a bunch of jargon that Ino doesn't fully understand, but Sakura looks so proud of her newfound knowledge that Ino doesn't dare interrupt her to tell her that.

The biggest news of all is that Sasuke and Naruto are gone.

"Together?" Ino asks suspiciously.

"Yes. They're with Jiraiya-sama – he agreed to train them both. They'll be gone for two or three years, I think," Sakura says a bit forlornly. "But I'm sure it'll be worth it. And they'll take care of one another."

"If they don't kill each other first."

Then, when all the latest developments have been explained, the silence stretches between them once again. Ino waits. Sakura stands halfway between the door and Ino's hospital bed, shuffling her feet and probably having a conversation with herself.

(Just ask her already!)

You say it like it's easy...

(It's just a question, Sakura – besides, she's definitely not going to say no. Think of all the things that happened –)

There's no way she likes us that way, she was just confused – !

(Confused is like throwing your whites in with your colors, Sakura, not seducing someone away from her pretend – and very bland, by the way, like what the hell –fiancé.)

You can't remind me of that right now! I'll get too embarrassed!

And indeed, her face grows steadily redder by the second, but Ino simply waits good-naturedly, not commenting on her obvious inner turmoil.

(Fine! Let me ask her, then. I probably should anyway, since you got to have all the fun.)

Sakura gladly switches with her. Ino observes the physical indications and raises an eyebrow at Sakura's other half, who clears her throat rather dramatically. Inner Sakura points a finger at Ino like she's about to challenge her to a duel. "Ino!"

"…Yeah?"

"You…! Uh, we should… um… what I'm trying to say is…" Her arm drops. The wide grin on her face falters. "Damn. This is hard."

Told you!

"Uh, hold that thought," Inner Sakura mutters.

(You should probably be the one doing this.)

What?! But – but you just said –

(Yeah, well, I was wrong, okay? This is terrifying.)

So what makes you think I can do it?!

(Because! You're better at overcoming this kind of thing! Just do that thing you do where nothing matters!)

But it's Ino! Of course it matters!

(I totally believe in you, Sakura, you'll be completely fine, now just get out there and – )

H-hey, you can't just shove me like that –

"Oh, c'mon!"

"But I can't –"

"Just do it!"

"Why don't you do it?"

"Honestly we should probably both –"

"But what if she –"

"You realize she can hear us –"

"Well if you stopped shoving then maybe –"

"I'm just trying to help you be brave…"

"That's a terrible excuse for –"

Ino watches Sakura argue with herself, her body like a puppet with two people pulling at the strings in opposite directions, and is rather amused. Also bewildered. She has an inkling of what they're arguing about, but they're obviously not getting anywhere with it, and she's becoming increasingly worried that they're going to hurt themselves in the process.

"Hey, Sakura…s?"

They freeze in a rather humorous position, as if they'd been in the middle of a dance. Slowly, Inner Sakura – somehow still at the forefront – unwinds her body into something relatively more normal. "What's up?"

"Wasn't there something you wanted to ask me?"

"Nope – ow!" Sakura lifts a hand to her temple. "Who knew you could be so loud, jeez… um," she clears her throat again, stalling for time, but when it becomes abundantly clear that her other half isn't going to come save the day, she finally finishes the question. "Sakura was – er, I – um, we, wanted to…"

Well, almost.

She makes a frustrated noise and slams her head into the doorframe repeatedly. The only logical solution, really. "Why. Is. This. So. Hard." Then she stops and turns back to Ino. "Listen, I want you to know that this is really scary, alright? So don't laugh at me."

"Okay," Ino agrees cheerily, thoroughly entertained by the spectacle of the normally outspoken girl's apprehension.

"Good! 'Cuz, uh, I – we were wondering if you'd – if you'd – uh – go – outside – no, wait…"

"Hmm?"

"You know, I've never had so much trouble saying words before…"

"Seems that way," Ino agrees mildly. It's getting harder not to laugh, but she did promise.

"And, you know, I can tell you how I feel all day long, but somehow this is much harder…"

"Fear of rejection, I'd guess."

"Yeah… yeah, that must be it. It's really – hey! Wait a minute!" Sakura realizes abruptly, pointing at Ino's incriminating smile. "You totally know what we're trying to ask you!"

Ino turns so that she's facing Sakura directly. Her feet dangle off the edge of the hospital bed as she sits with her elbows on her knees, chin in her hand, and just so damn put together that Sakura is even more unsettled than before.

And Ino knows that, of course, but it's just so fun. "I assure you, I have no idea."

"You totally do!"

"Nope."

"How can you not know after a comment like that?!"

"Not know what?" Ino asks, feigning confusion.

"What we're asking for!"

"Which is?"

"A date! – oh. Oh," Sakura's eyes narrow. "You sneaky..."

Ino shrugs and flips her hair over her shoulder in the process. "You obviously needed help. I mean, I really wonder what you keep behind that forehead of yours, because it's clearly nothing useful."

"Oh ho ho," Sakura mock laughs. "You say that like you don't know exactly what's behind our forehead now."

"Th-that's Sakura's forehead," Ino says, recovering quickly from the remark. "I don't even want to know what kind of fantasies you have."

Damn. As soon as it's out of her mouth, she knows she's lost the advantage, if Sakura's cocky smile didn't tip her off to it, first.

"That's not what I hear."

Flustered, Ino quickly changes the subject. "Aren't you supposed to be convincing me to go out with you?"

"Convince you? Why wouldn't you want to? We're totally awesome!"

"Mhmm."

"And...! Uh… we're really into you?" Sakura tries, a little less sure now.

"A lot of people could say that."

"…You'll get two presents on our anniversary?"

Huh. She hadn't thought of that. "I'll think about it," Ino concedes, "and I'll let you know."

That's not the answer Sakura had been hoping for, but it's not the worst one possible, either. "…It's not a no?"

"It's not a no."

Sakura's shoulders slump a little. "Did I do something wrong? 'Cuz I thought… I mean…"

"You didn't do anything wrong," Ino reassures, voice dipping into a more serious tone. "There's just something I need to figure out first. But I promise it's not a no."

"Okay. I can live with that. We probably need to hammer out the details ourselves, anyway…"

Too true.

(So, like, when we have sex, which one of us –)

Too soon.

(But –)

No!

(Ugh.)

…

…

(…Hey, will you share that one again, after the arcade when she did that thing with her – )

Sakura!

(What?! You're the one that did it…!)

#

Poor Shikamaru. He's lying on his back, peacefully observing the sky from the roof of the hospital and watching the clouds float along at their strolling pace. It's so beautiful up here, so calm, so simple and easy, not at all like the hands on his shoulders that yank him into an upright position and half pull, half carry him down the stairs. No, he thinks as he drags his feet through the dirt, now on the ground and so much farther from his precious clouds, he knows that life is not like that at all. Nobody in this world has such a drifting, thoughtless existence, because there are always people.

People like Ino.

People who complicate things when they shouldn't.

Then again, maybe he shouldn't have picked the hospital roof to lie on top of, since he knew she was getting released today, but it's one of the tallest buildings in Konoha, so the risk had been worth it – until it hadn't, anyway.

She doesn't say a word as they reach her house and enter her room. The routine begins. He flops on the bed, back to his much beloved cloud gazing. She turns on the shower but remains silent. That's how he knows it's serious. Unfortunately, that also means he'll have to do a lot of work now… So troublesome, these women…

"Something wrong?" He calls out.

No answer. There's no shampoo sounds, no fluctuations of water. She's just standing there, thinking. Then, a sigh. "Sakura asked me to go on a date with her."

"So she actually managed to do that, huh…?"

"She's braver than you give her credit for, you know."

"It's not a matter of being brave," Shikamaru corrects, hating how many words are in this sentence. "It's a matter of her feeling like she's 'worthy' enough to date you. I'm just surprised that she's willing to risk altering your friendship, and that she feels good enough about herself to ask in the first place."

At last, the shampooing begins. That's a good sign. It means Ino's not staring catatonically at the wall anymore. "I don't think she does, really, it was the other Sakura that actually did the asking, and I'm pretty sure that's only because…"

A few seconds pass. Shikamaru rolls into the spotted sunlight on her bed and sighs. "Hmm?"

"Well, I may have…"

"…Yes?"

"Done… something to encourage it."

"Something?" He repeats.

She'd partially filled him in on what happened while she'd been unconscious, but he hadn't missed the way she glossed over certain parts. Ino had been carefully ambiguous about some of the events, and though Shikamaru can fill in a few things his friend had done just by knowing her personality, there were others he couldn't safely assume. Until now.

"Just – just something."

"That's not helpful."

"Yeah, well," she scoffs, "a lady doesn't talk about those things."

Oh. That explains it. "Apparently they do by omission."

"Shut it," she warns. There's a loud thunk as the shower is shut off. "I'm not going to share details with you."

Mildly offended, he grumbles, "I didn't ask you to… And anyway, if you did something to encourage her, doesn't that mean you like her the same way?"

"It's not a matter of liking. It's a matter of dating."

"What's the difference, in this case?"

Again, she doesn't answer. He turns away from the bathroom to face the wall as Ino exits to dress. She still hasn't spoken by the time she's thrown on a long t-shirt and hit fifteen out of a hundred hairbrush strokes. She's too busy staring at her reflection in the mirror, thinking.

First of all, she really needs a facial. All the dry air in the hospital had been terrible on her skin.

Secondly, she thinks about Shikamaru's question. She's sure he knows the answer already, at least in a general sense, because not every pair of people who like each other go out, just like two people in love can have a horrendous relationship. Affection isn't always enough to cement those bonds into a functional structure. It's not always that simple.

And in this case, it's downright complicated.

"There are three people involved, first off," Ino says at last. "You can't tell me you don't see all the ways that could go terribly wrong."

"That's true, but you like them both, right?"

"Well, yeah, but… but, that means I'll have to buy two gifts on their birthday."

"And you'll get two on yours," Shikamaru points out reasonably. Annoyingly reasonably. "When do you ever complain about presents, anyway? You love giving people things."

Damn. Ino's lost count of the hairbrush strokes. She starts over. "But what if one of them gets jealous or something?"

"It's not like Sakura hasn't lived with herself this whole time. They're obviously capable of working out their own issues."

"But what if one of them wants to break up with me and the other one doesn't? How will that work?"

Disgruntled, Shikamaru at last lifts his head from the bed to look at her, but she avoids his eyes in the mirror. "Ino."

She pretends not to notice that he's trying to get her to face him. Twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-seven…

"Ino."

Twenty-eight, twenty-nine…

"Oy, Ino!"

"What?! You're making me lose count again!"

When he doesn't answer, doesn't even make his usual 'I find this annoying' noises, she finally faces his reflection in the mirror. He looks serious. He's making that face he makes when he's actually going to invest the proper amount of emotional energy in something, and defeated, Ino turns around.

"All these things you're worried about, with the gifts, and the jealousy, and breaking up – that's all normal relationship stuff. Everyone worries about those things, regardless of whether they're dating one person or two, so that hardly matters. I don't know why you're making excuses," he deadpans. She looks like she's about to yell at him, and he continues quickly, "Besides, do you honestly think that Sakura would ever, ever break up with you? She'd sooner cut off her own arm."

"I know that!" Ino shouts, chucking the hairbrush at him because she really does hate it when he's right. Which is to say, ninety-nine percent of the time. "That's the problem!"

He skillfully turns his head to avoid getting nailed by the brush. Thankfully, she hadn't actually intended to hit him with it, or it wouldn't have been that easy… "The problem is that she worships you? I'm pretty sure that's something you'd like…"

Ino glares despite his rather solid point, but her hostility fades quickly. She stands, pacing the room and making a lot of emphatic hand gestures as she speaks, "I do like it, and I'm not still wondering if I deserve it or anything, because I am basically the best –" Ah. Shikamaru wonders if perhaps he'd shot himself in the foot by helping her regain her self-esteem the last time they'd talked… "But, we're teenagers, Shikamaru, and I know you're right – Sakura would never break up with me, ever, and forever is a long, long time, and I've only ever dated like three people and that was just one date a piece because they sucked, and she's never even looked at anyone else this way, but she's already devoted herself to me in every sense possible, and there's no telling what could happen a week from now, or a year, or –"

"You're scared of breaking her heart," Shikamaru interrupts.

Ino deflates instantly. She flops on the bed next to him, hugging her pillow to her chest. "Two hearts. Two incredibly fragile ones that think my approval is the most meaningful thing in the world. If something happens, I don't know if they'd ever recover…"

"Weren't you just saying that I don't give Sakura enough credit?"

She jabs him in the shoulder with her finger. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Shikamaru shrugs away from her prodding. "Sakura's not a lightweight when it comes to emotional pain, and when it comes down to it, she'd do anything for you. Including bear that pain," he grumbles, and then, with what looks like a tremendous amount of effort, he hauls himself up and off the bed. Ino has evidently hit the end of Shikamaru's patience for participating in her emotional distress, and she knows these are the last wise words she'll get out of him.

Which is okay, really, because the vast majority of their serious conversations are spent whittling him down just to get him to this point.

"If she loves you like I think she does, then she values your happiness above all else, whether or not she's the one that's causing it," he continues, stretching and heading for the door. "All your fears of the future are just as normal as your other ones, Ino. Everyone worries about breaking up or where things will lead. Even if it's a little more serious for you, if people let stuff like that stop them, nobody would ever date anybody else. It's a risk we take because we feel the rewards are worth it, no matter how it ends up, so you just have to figure out if it's worth it for you."

Ah, Shikamaru. So wise. So helpful... So lazy that he can't even be bothered to close the door behind him. Her parents aren't home anyway, so Ino leaves it ajar, preferring to roll fitfully around her bed in the throes of indecision.

It's not like she doesn't believe Sakura is capable of handling things. She hasn't forgotten the pit of despair inside the other girl's mind, the one that nearly drove Ino mad in the short but painfully long time she'd spent there. Her very existence had hurt her in that realm. Sakura lived that way for a long time.

But then Ino remembers the way she'd snapped at Sakura when they chased Sasuke the first time, the look on Sakura's face that made it seem like the world had cracked open and she wished for nothing but a quick death. Just from a single remark. If something were to happen, if it didn't work out between them, which one of those two events would foreshadow her reaction?

Ino doesn't know. It's driving her nuts.

She doesn't want to break Sakura's heart, and she hopes she won't, but sometimes lives are long and unpredictable. Sometimes they're short and unpredictable. There's no telling what might happen.

But there's no telling what might happen any which way she looks at it. Ino could go on a mission tomorrow and die in the field, simple as that, or she could live to be seventy-five, old and gray and wrinkled.

I should ask Tsunade how she holds up her henge sometime…

Ino sighs and tosses the blankets off her where they've knotted around her body. She moves to the window and stares at the clouds, taking a page from Shikamaru's book. Maybe it'll help her think. What would he say, if he hadn't left to go lay in the grass somewhere…?

Perhaps she's asking the wrong questions. The uncertainties buzzing around her brain have no answers. She could never really know the future; all she has is evidence the present gives her, and that evidence points clearly in one direction: Sakura loves her in a way that surpasses something as one-dimensional as a romantic relationship. If Ino were unhappy, then Sakura would do whatever it took to fix that. Even if it meant letting her go.

And Ino…

Are my feelings that strong? How can you really know something like that…?

No, no. She shakes her head and sighs, pressing her forehead into the cool glass of the window. Even if it hadn't been real, she'd thought it'd been real, and that's real enough. Ino already died for her, and not even to save her life. Just so she could die at Sakura's side – so Sakura wouldn't think she'd leave this world alone.

That's not something you do for someone you don't love.

Everything leads her to believe that, at least for now, they'd be happy together. And the future is uncertain. The future is always uncertain. There are always risks; relationships are a gamble, a bet you make against yourself. With three people involved, the stakes are higher. Triple the risk, triple the reward…

So, is it worth it?

Ino doesn't know. She tells Sakura yes anyway.

And, the next evening, when Sakura shows up at her door with the most inelegant bouquet Ino has ever seen – a huge, fist-sized red rose; tangled vines of sweet pea; a wooden stem capped with a pristine, white gardenia; a deep blue cluster of hydrangeas; velvety lamb's ear; and a bright yellow chrysanthemum in the center – Ino knows she's made the right choice.

She doesn't worry anymore.

#

...

...

...

A/N: That's it, folks! For those of you that might not remember, the bouquet is comprised of the same (meaningful!) flowers that Sakura originally chose from their first flower-arranging lesson.

For those of you InoSaku fans that struggle to find good fanfiction, I feel your pain! I'll do my best to keep writing for this pairing. In the meantime, I'd recommend checking out "At dawn" by youte. It's a fun superpower/hero AU that stars InoSaku as its main pairing. It's long, entertaining, and totally worth the read. Kay Ross also writes some squeal-worthy, shorter InoSaku fics for a quick fix.

Lastly, thank you to everyone for coming with me on this journey! Your reviews, follows, favorites, and the time you took to read this story are invaluable to me. Thank you, thank you, thank you. :)

-Xinthos