So this is the last chapter in Arc 3.5. Next chapter is like a prequel to Arc 4 so I'll probably just label it as the start. I'm sad to see my favorite arc of the story go but, well, it couldn't last forever.
Patreon got Chapter 54 today, Sakura's experimenting with fun mechanics beyond her comprehension.
As a note as an author, just in general, I've been receiving a lot of motivation-damaging comments lately. It's fine to argue a little but people have been downright rude to me, on both sites, and I'm sick of it. I was writing the Patreon chapter this morning, saw post, and genuinely lost motivation to write until like eight hours later. Maybe I'm too sensitive, or maybe it's just built up to be a problem it wasn't before, but the blatant disrespect and sometimes flat-out insults need to stop. If you can't be polite and friendly and have an actual discussion in good faith, I'm just not going to respond to you anymore. I'm done with it, I can write the story or I can argue and I'm here to write a story. Disagreeing with me is fine, and sharing good-natured criticism is fine, but for some people being negative is their entire existence here and, well, they're about as unwelcome here as they can be while still following SV rules.
Just be nice to people, it's not hard. 100K+ words are free here, there's over a novel, take it or leave it but leave me out of your attitude.
For everyone else, please enjoy the story, I hope making this decision will allow me to write better chapters, and I might take a look at some of Arc 4's chapters so far and see if I can improve them, because the demotivation hit a few of them.
One of the questions Sakura asks herself on each ride is how she feels about this.
When the boat brings them into darkness and lovely music plays, Ino leans against her and breathes softly.
When they go on the Ferris wheel, the same thing happens. There are tea cups, they share a meal, and there's even a game of 'ninja' where they act as teammates and get kicked out for being actual ninjas and therefore unbeatable by civilian couples.
The festival itself lasts hours, and yet, Sakura barely takes it in. How long has Ino liked her?
Is she making things worse? Were these feelings real or magically orchestrated? Is she a terrible friend or a great one? More importantly, Ino took her first kiss earlier today. Does she care? Why doesn't she care?
It just seems that if she had to give that kiss to anyone, her best friend doesn't feel like such a bad choice. She's never understood the sentiment over a first anyway, and Ino, well Ino's amazing. There's a splash to the side which draws Sakura's attention away, "Oh, what-hey!" Ino shouts at a couple passing by on the boats. A glance at the irate blonde and Sakura can't help but admire how Ino looks soaked. Her hair's dripping, her expression is so pouty… It's cute.
Not in the way Ino wants her to find her cute, but cute. She can appreciate it in the way a friend can… But what is a friend? What's the difference? What is this feeling everyone else has that makes an invisible difference she can't grasp?
She loves Ino, so why doesn't she love her like she wants to be loved? What is the crazy difference that she can tell is there, but can't comprehend? "It's our fault for walking this close to the water." Sakura points out.
"That was Ami!" Ino growls, "she did that on purpose."
"Probably, but she's simping after my roommate now so I can't be mad at her…" Sakura titters at the thought, "she's donated so much money…"
"Naruto?" Ino asks, blinking several times at her in confusion, even as a little dark makeup slips down her cheek with a droplet of bitchy vengeance from, who knows. Ino did something to piss the girl off, she's sure.
"No, I uh, picked up a new roommate in Wave." Sakura admits. "My parents were pissed."
"I'll bet, you can't just invite random people to live in their house." Ino says, holding Sakura's arm to her chest for comfort and warmth from the dreaded water. Also possibly to subtly wipe her hair on Sakura's shoulder to dry herself a little. "Don't you understand how ninjas work? You don't sleep near anyone you wouldn't trust with your life."
"Ah…" Sakura can't help but think about that, it's a nice distraction from the current issues at hand… "You think that's the issue? They were really mad…"
"Yes!" Ino giggles, before leaning in and stealing Sakura's cheek with her lips for a brief moment.
"You get, tomorrow we're just friends again." Sakura says. "Don't get too used to that."
"Shhh, that's tomorrow's issue." Ino says. "Wanna spend the night at my house? We can continue the game until morning."
"Uhhh…" How to answer that?! What if the affection score hits her after the date and Ino's all 'time to bathe together Sakura!' or something absurd like that! She already gets enough of that nightmare from Haku… Okay he's never tried to bathe with her but he's hella chased her into the bathroom with a brush!
Telling her no would create an odd precedent in their friendship too. No more sleepovers just because Ino was honest with her about her feelings? That's the opposite of what she wants, she just wants things to return to how they were.
But they can't, can they?
Can they? She wished she had the slightest clue what was going on. Dozens of books on the subject, not one straight answer. It's almost as if everyone in charge of teaching this concept doesn't know themselves.
"Yes." Sakura decides, after a long moment. "We should get going anyway, your uh, clothes are soaked."
"My fault for letting a civilian of all people get the best of me." Ino sighs, throwing her head back to loudly exhale.
"She didn't pass?" Sakura asks.
"Wha-how could you not know? No, she didn't pass!" Ino shouts, "she's a failure! She spent way too much time going after Sasuke and well, that's that."
"Sasuke doesn't even know her name," Sakura smirks, "I'm not even completely sure he knows mine, I think he uses a word game."
"Yeah?" Ino asks, stealing another quick peck on her cheek, the girl really is taking to this a little too well… Is this going to be their new norm? She's not, not, comfortable with that, but that feels cruel to Ino.
"Well, I think he looks at my hair and then sees pink, and then remembers Sakura blossoms are pink, and then he's like 'right, Sakura.'" Sakura says.
"You think if you dyed your hair he'd have no idea who you were?" Ino asks, "we should do it."
"Dye my hair?" Sakura asks, scrunching up her expression a little at the thought.
"Yeah! We'll pick up some products on the way back to my place and do it tonight, what do you think, blonde like Naruto and me?" Ino asks. "You keep calling him brother, why not mess with him too?"
"I think I'd like that."
Things'll feel normal in time, she just has to accept that boundaries have been broken with Ino.
What's the right thing to do? She has zero clue, and honestly, that's okay.
She's been clueless most of her life, at least Ino's smiling.
She looks odd in the mirror. She's changed her hair into pigtails, because she felt it would work better blonde, and she looks a lot more innocent if nothing else. "This is going to really screw with Naruto." Sakura inhales, unable to completely place the face staring back at her in the mirror. It doesn't help that she still has eyeliner on, among other things, and how they managed to dye her hair without messing up her makeup she has no idea. Ninja magic, she assumes, Ino did it she just sat in a chair and looked pretty while playing her back-up Ino's house gameboy.
"And what about Sasuke?" Ino asks, caressing one of the tails beside Sakura's head. They're really long, and she's probably going to keep this look for a little while, so she's got to get used to moving with that additional consideration to her sword play.
Otherwise she'll end up with a lot shorter hair after she accidentally swords it. Which is a reminder, she needs to go get her sword tomorrow.
Ding! You have successfully completed the Melody of Hearts Event by taking Ino out on a date!
You have been awarded: +3 Charm!
Ino has been awarded 1000 affection score, bringing her affection score with you to 9,320 out of 10,000
Ino has moved from [Deeply In Love With You and Sad She Can't Have Your Babies] to [Might Create a Jutsu to Get Your Babies Someday]. |
Oh… That's not a lot at all then. Well, it is but, it's not in the same way she was worried about it. She blinks her pretty eyes and pretty lashes up at the box. She figured Ino'd be at like 1300 and was worried it'd boost her through a ceiling, that's not even an eighth boost. It's not like it broke ten thousand, that might have been an odd barrier.
Also, that brings her to nineteen charm! She checks her stats before doing a happy Haruno wiggle, wavy arms included.
She's almost a functional child!
"Hey Ino, you don't feel any different, right?" Sakura asks.
"What, no, why would I?" Ino gives her an odd look. Not at the wiggle though, they're besties, she probably just assumes she really likes the dye job. It is so well done, Ino's a professional.
"No reason… You know you could probably open up a beauty shop?" Sakura says, "my hair feels so silky too, what'd you do?"
"Herbs." Ino pops her lips.
"That's all?" Sakura asks.
"How am I supposed to open up a shop if I give away all my secrets?" That twinkle in her bestie's eyes tells her everything is going to be okay.
"So apparently Ino likes me." Sakura says, dealing with the dishes for her parents, her father's off doing something with Naruto while her mother sits and drinks some coffee while watching her. One day she'll be trusted to wash dishes on her own, but not today. Go on missions, fight dungeons, kill bandits, yes. Dishes? No. "I never noticed, but that's not too bad, she must be really good at hiding her feelings because no one else noticed either."
"Sakura…" Mebuki sucks her teeth behind her, "the girl dyed her hair pink once and wore a matching outfit with you, for like, two months straight of the academy."
"That really made me feel like I fit in." Sakura admits, "she's such a good friend."
"Sakura, she once wrote you a poem about how much you mean to her." Mebuki's tone shakes a little.
"It was really sweet, I was feeling so down about myself, it really picked me up." Sakura nods.
"For your eleventh birthday she made you heart frosted cupcakes, when you asked her what she put in them she just answered 'love.'" Sakura can hear the quotations in the air behind her.
"She made them for Sasuke." Sakura reminds, "she only remembered it was my birthday after I reminded her."
"And how many did Sasuke eat?" Mebuki asks.
"Um, zero, but he's a jerk." Sakura shrugs, rubbing down the awkward crevice at the bottom of a closed top cup. Why do they make these? Why did they buy them? These suck.
"... I give up." Mebuki throws her hands up suddenly, and storms out of the kitchen as dramatically as Naruto after no one liked his joke.
"Wait… but Ino didn't like Sasuke." Sakura ponders to herself, now alone to do a duty she's apparently shifted to 'trusted to do' in the last five minutes without notice. "Why'd she make cupcakes?"
