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Description
Bedside Manner

No visitors, huh? The blonde thought as she stood watching the nurses station, thankful that she had found a place where she could see without being seen. Well she should be able to work around that without too much of a problem, she had, after all, had a chance to recover a bit since her battle with Sakura Haruno, a.k.a. Billboard Brow, even if she wasn’t as recovered as she would have liked.

Icy blue eyes watched intently as first one and then a second of the nurses who had been chatting at the station left, leaving just one. O-K, now or never, the blonde thought. This was her chance, if she waited all day she might never get as good a shot as this.

Making sure there was a direct line between herself and the nurse, she quickly seated herself on the cold floor and making a few swift hand symbols murmured, “Mind Transfer no Jutsu.”

Ino smiled as she blinked her eyes into focus, as she looked down at the computer screen that was now in front of her. It had worked, not that she had any real doubt that it would. But using the technique twice in such a sort space of time, especially when her energy was at such a low point…she would be feeling the after effects for the next few days at least.

Quickly she scanned the screen, searching for the name she was looking for and the room number it had been assigned. Making a mental note she moved swiftly within the nurse’s body, she had to get the woman far enough away so that when she returned to her own body she would have enough time to move without anyone seeing her. And that was the other thing, the longer she took the more chance there was that someone find her unoccupied body, something that would lead to difficult questions.

Eyes darting to and fro, they alighted on a sign saying ‘Supplies’ and to her delight found it to be unlocked. Slipping in side Ino walked the nurse’s body right to the back and prepared to release her Jutsu. This was always so much harder when she could not see her own body but that could not be helped, she’d just have to grit her teeth and get on with it. Bringing her hands together to form the correct symbol she said, “Release.”

The first thing that registered in Ino’s fogged mind was that her butt was freezing from prolonged contact with the floor. The second was that every aspect of her being was screaming in pain and that her body was seriously thinking about rebelling after being treated in such a way. Grunting with effort she managed to get to her feet, pressing her hands to the wall to help maintain her balance.

As if she had been hit by a sudden attack of vertigo, her head swam, her eyes starting to blur as dizziness washed over her. Oh yeah, she’d be paying for this for a while. Ideally she would have liked to rest before moving, but there was no time. She had no idea how long it had been since she had left the nurse in the supplies cupboard, it could take up to half and hour for her to regain conciseness after placing her soul in another body. But something was telling her it could not have been more than a moment or two, but that she had to go now.

One hand went to her still spinning head as Ino pushed of the wall and headed off in the direction of the stairs, silently cursing the fact that the person she was after was on the third floor. If she got there without her legs giving out it would be a miracle, but she’s got this far and she’d be damned if she’d give up now. Ignoring her body’s protests the blonde quickened her pace, rounding the corner just as a very perplexed nurse headed back to the station she couldn’t remember leaving.

-------

Sasuke Uchiha stared unseeingly up at the white painted ceiling tracing the cracks in the paint work with dark onyx eyes. He had come too in the hospital room, the curse mark on his left shoulder prickling uncomfortably, with no memory of how he’d gotten there. The last thing he remembered was the pain, like a white-hot knife burning through his shoulder, as Kakashi-sensei had sealed the curse mark and then suddenly he was here.

There was no way of knowing how long he had been unconscious; it could have been hours or even days. Had the preliminary rounds of the Chunin Exam finished already? If so who had been beaten and who had gotten through? And whom would he be facing next? He had so many questions and there was no one around to give him answers.

Then he could hear the sound of footsteps walking down the corridor out side of room his swiftly followed by a gently taping on his door. Then a light female voice was call out to him, “Sasuke-kun? Are you awake? Sasuke?”

Sasuke froze, yes he wanted to know what was going on but if that was Sakura…he just didn’t have the strength to deal with her, and her fangirl obsession right now. Staying silent, he closed his eyes and hoped that if she thought he was asleep then the pink haired girl would leave just as quickly as she had arrived. At the sound of the door opening he tensed and then mentally scolded himself for holding his breath, if the girl through he had stopped breathing there was no telling what she might try and do. The kiss of life could be deadly.

“Sasuke-kun? Are you…oh. You’re asleep…cute.” Sasuke willed his body to relax even though he could sense that whoever it was had by now, not only come into the room, but was standing very close to the bed. The one thing he knew was that the girl, whoever she was, was not his team mate. Sakura’s scent, after training with her for so long, was well known to him, it was fresh, sort of sharp and minty and after a while it clawed at the inside of his nose. But this scent was different, kind of earthy with a subtle floral undertone, not all that unpleasant he had to admit.

He felt that air around his head shift, as if the girl watching him had reached out to touch him, but at the last moment had thought better of it and pulled her hand back. “Well I know you’re alright, so I’ll let you sleep.”

The foot steps were light, as the person moved swiftly away from the bed, her shoes occasionally squeaking on the floor as she went. When he had judged that she was almost at the door, he risked opening one eye to see who it was who had been in to see him. The pale skin and dark purple outfit were instantly recognisably to him, even if like light blonde hair was a hell of a lot shorted than he remembered.

“Ino?”

Shit, he’d said that out loud and he really hadn’t meant to and the blonde who had had one hand on the door handle jumped violently as if she’d just been stung. She turned round, nibbling her lower lip slightly and offering him a lopsided apologetic grin.

“I’m sorry Sasuke-kun, I didn’t mean to wake you up.”

“Hn,” came the typical Uchiha response, there was no way he was going to let her know he’d only been faking but he was curious as to what she had been doing in his room to start with, and said as much. “What are you doing here?”

“Umm, here?” Ino racked her brains for a suitable answer, the truth was a none starter after all. She couldn’t just tell him she wanted to reassure herself he was all right, so what could she tell him? About Rock Lee and Gaara, and how he was meant to be facing Gaara next? No, she couldn’t tell him that, he’d find out soon enough anyway…

“It’s not what you’d call a hard question,” Sasuke snapped getting irritated. Was this really the same girl who had practically jumped him in front of everyone at the start of the Chuunin Exam? Cus right now she was looking more and more like Hinata Hyuuga than anything resembling the Ino Yamanaka he knew.

“No, I guess not.” Again she offered him a half-hearted smile and shrugged slightly as if she was embarrassed by the way she was acting. “I just thought you’d want to know the Naruto beat Kiba, it was a pretty intense fight. He’s your team mate so I thought you’d like to know…”

Ino trailed off, even to her that reason sounded totally made up, and from the look on his face she could tell Sasuke was thinking the same thing and his words soon confirmed her theory. “So Naruto got Kiba, huh? And you thought I’d like to know how he did what with him being me team mate…so are you going to tell me who Sakura had to face too?”

For a moment Ino could have sworn that the dark haired Uchiha was smirking at her. He knew all about the rivalry between herself and her former best friend, knew too that he was the root cause of enmity they now shared. And now here he was, by his standards, almost teasing her by dragging up the pink haired pain in her ass. “Since it seems you have to know everything, she faced me, alright?”

“And you lost, did you?” Immediately the hands, which Ino had been twisting together subconsciously, stilled and for the first time since he had spoken to her looked Sasuke full in the face. Her baby blue orbs were burning with anger, her expression clearly saying that it was only because he was in a hospital bed that she hadn’t beaten him to a pulp. Though they both knew that even if she could have hit him, the way she felt would stop her from doing so.

“No, I bloody well did not!” she yelled, fury sending her blood pressure through the roof, and she could feel a vain in her neck pules with the thump of her heart. “Me? Lose to Billboard Brow? As if!”

“So you won, did you?” Sasuke asked innocently, raising one eyebrow a fraction of an inch. This was more like the Ino he knew, loud, over confident, she always seemed to take up all the space in a room, as soon as she came in she wanted everyone to know it.

“Ahh, umm. Well you see…the thing is…no.” Ino let out a sigh which had the long bang the hung down over her right eye fluttering softly against her cheek; a cheek across which a lived bruise was already starting to form on. “We kinda tied, so neither of us have gone through.”

It was then that the realisation hit Ino, she was not going to be able to go on and gain the rank of Chunin, not this year anyway. For now she would continue to be stuck as a Genin, and a silly little flower girl working in her parents shop. “And it would have been during this fight in which you tied that you lost your hair?”

“Ugh.” It was a disgusted sound from that back of her throat, and Ino reached up a hand to finger the short strands, all that remained of the hair that had been her crowning glory. Feeling too dejected to care; she plonked herself down on the end of Saauke’s bed for once all thoughts of gaining the attention of her long time crush fleeing her mind. Sure she had started to grow her hair cus of the rumour that Sasuke like long hair, but had fallen in love with it herself and the feeling of the silky strands had been so comforting.

“Look Ino, you didn’t come here to tell me about Naruto or Sakura or anything to do with the exam, did you?” His tone was bored, but not unkind. It wasn’t kind either, Ino thought looking up at him, but at least he hasn’t kicked you off of the bed or anything. “So just tell me the real reason already.”

“Oh, no. I guess I didn’t.” Ino caught herself just in time to stop herself doing the small smile thing again, and mental question herself on when she had turned into such a sappy little fool. It was Sasuke after all and it wasn’t as if he didn’t know how she felt, so she should just tell him and then get out. “I just wanted to make sure you were Ok Sasuke-kun.”

“Oh.” Sasuke couldn’t think of anything else to say. He hadn’t expected that to be her reason for coming, he didn’t know what he had been expecting only that that had not been it. But that was strange in its self, this was Ino Yamanaka after all, the girl who was always fighting with Sakura for the title of ‘Sasuke Uchiha’s number one fan’. So why hadn’t he realised that she would have come here just to see how he was?

“Yeah, and I can see that you are. So I…” again Ino trailed off, but this time it was because she thought she had heard the sound of footsteps along the corridor. It was one of those pesky nurses; she just knew it, of all the rotten luck.

Sasuke was looking at her intently, watching the way her head was tilted slightly to one side like a small bird. Then he too heard the sound of someone approaching his room and saw the way that Ino immediately stiffened as the nose grew louder.

“Ino? Are you meant to be here?” She looked at him; her face all wide eyed innocence, a look totally at odds with her tough chick attitude, but said nothing. “Did you sneak in here without permission?”

“Umm, not really. A nurse showed me which room you were in.” Not exactly a lie, but not quite the truth either, Ino reassured herself. But Sasuke continued to watch her steadily and she knew that there was no point trying to hide the truth from him, he’d only work it out on his own anyway. “OK, you win. I used my ‘Mind Transfer no Jutsu’ on one of them and then snuck up while no one was around. Happy now?”

“Very resourceful.” The tone was meant to be mocking but the trace of laughter, which made his voice drop half an octave, slightly ruined the effect. Ino simply settled for rolling her light blue eyes in a way that was meant to say, so glad you approve, before sliding off of the bed.

“But I better go before someone finds me here, and starts asking difficult questions.” She raised her hand in farewell and hesitated while inside her head an argument ragged.

On the one hand she had just gotten closer to Sasuke than she ever had before, had actually had a conversation with him. A conversation more over that didn’t just consist of him grunting while she babbled on like a verbal incontinent. She’d even made him laugh, well almost laugh at any rate, so why spoil everything now, why not just leave on that high point before a nurse came and found her?

But on the other hand, she had different fingers? No! Well yes, but not the point. On the other hand, since when had she, Ino Yamanaka, ever been satisfied with what anyone else would be? Never. It just wasn’t in her nature; she had always been the type of person to go after whatever she wanted with single-minded determination. If you weren’t prepared to give 100% you might as well not even try, right?

Right! Sasuke was still looking at her standing by his bed, one of her hands raised in the air, and again one dark brow was raised ever so slightly. All or nothing, Ino chanted the words over and over in her head as she stepped back towards the bed, moving up to stand next to Sasuke’s head; her eyes never once dropping from his face.

Was she really going to do this, a voice in her head screamed? But it was too late for that kind of question; Ino had already taken a deep breath and was lowering her head towards Sasuke’s. Those few seconds seemed to last for an eternity; an eternity in which she could imagine the cool skin of Sasuke’s cheek under her lips. She let her eyes fall close as she breathed in the sent of him; light and clean with just a hint of sweat, so good.

“Eep!” Ino’s eyes flew open in shock and stared into a pair of inky black orbs. At the last second, driven by curiosity, Sasuke had turned his head to look at Ino who was starting to act strangely, the up shot of which was that it wasn’t his cheek with which her lips had made contact but rather his mouth.

A thousand thoughts screamed in Ino’s mind. Stay still! Pull back! Lean in! Sasuke hasn’t pulled away!

It was the last one that froze Ino in place, kept her feet rooted to the spot even as her legs threatened to give way beneath her. Though whether that was her body protesting at all the chakra she had used or because of the electric current that was buzzing through her lips, she couldn’t tell. All she knew was that her head was spinning far more than it had been earlier. She was reeling far worse that after Sakura’s fist connected with her head. And Sasuke was still not pulling away.

Almost against her will, Ino felt her eyes slowly drifting shut, this was surreal. Of course she’d always fantasised about kissing Sasuke, but now it was happening and she had no clue what to do. She’d never done this before and she didn’t even know why Sasuke was continuing to let her. True she was always mouthing off to Sakura about how the Uchiha survivor was hers but she had never thought, never imagined this.

She tasted good, Sasuke thought, as he watched Ino’s clear blue eyes softly close. Different from anything he had ever tasted before spicy and dark, if you could use that word to describe a taste, yet somehow sweet at the same time, but not a candy kind of sweetness. She tasted…good. Very good in face and unable to stop himself Sasuke parted his lips gently, letting his tongue run slowly along Ino’s bottom lip. He heard her gasp slightly, drawing her breath in sharply and unintentionally opening her mouth.

He should stop, something in his head told him so, but he was finding it impossible to listen. His normal iron self-control seemed to have evaporated with that first wondrous taste of her lips, and though his mind saying no something else was telling him yes and it was proving to hard to ignore. Taking the opportunity, Sasuke coaxed Ino’s lips further apart with his tongue, feeling the girl submit to him almost instantly.

Ino could not help but moan lightly as she felt Sasuke’s tongue caress her own, and reached out to brace her hands on the edge of the bed. Summoning all her cordage she allowed her tongue to gently sweep over Sasuke's and was reworded by his hand being placed to her unbruised cheek before sliding round to the back of her neck and pulling her deeper into the kiss.

It was just so easy to give in, not that Ino could think of any reason to fight in the first place. It was almost as if the whole world was spinning out of control and she could see and feel the violence of its movements but was separated from them. Her mind was a jumbled mass of confused thoughts and emotions and Sasuke’s tongue freely explored the warm cavern of her mouth. His lips were like liquid fire and she could feel herself melting into him.

“What is going on here?” The pair broke apart, Sasuke sinking back onto his pillow, Ino almost falling to the floor but luckily managing to steady herself with the grip she had on the bed.

Occupied as they had been, both had failed to hear the sound of door opening and the first they had known of the visitor was when she had barked out her question. Several things picked that moment to make themselves know to Ino, the first being that this was the same nurse whose body she had used earlier on. The second was that was Sasuke was leaning back, his head resting on his crossed arms, smirking at the ceiling. And the last was that her cheeks were burning with embarrassment.

“Well I’m waiting,” The nurse barked out again. “Which one of you is going to tell me what’s going on here?”

What was going on here? That, Ino had to had to admit, was a difficult question and one she too would kind of like the answer to as well.

Description
Bedside Manner

No visitors, huh? The blonde thought as she stood watching the nurses station, thankful that she had found a place where she could see without being seen. Well she should be able to work around that without too much of a problem, she had, after all, had a chance to recover a bit since her battle with Sakura Haruno, a.k.a. Billboard Brow, even if she wasn’t as recovered as she would have liked.

Icy blue eyes watched intently as first one and then a second of the nurses who had been chatting at the station left, leaving just one. O-K, now or never, the blonde thought. This was her chance, if she waited all day she might never get as good a shot as this.

Making sure there was a direct line between herself and the nurse, she quickly seated herself on the cold floor and making a few swift hand symbols murmured, “Mind Transfer no Jutsu.”

Ino smiled as she blinked her eyes into focus, as she looked down at the computer screen that was now in front of her. It had worked, not that she had any real doubt that it would. But using the technique twice in such a sort space of time, especially when her energy was at such a low point…she would be feeling the after effects for the next few days at least.

Quickly she scanned the screen, searching for the name she was looking for and the room number it had been assigned. Making a mental note she moved swiftly within the nurse’s body, she had to get the woman far enough away so that when she returned to her own body she would have enough time to move without anyone seeing her. And that was the other thing, the longer she took the more chance there was that someone find her unoccupied body, something that would lead to difficult questions.

Eyes darting to and fro, they alighted on a sign saying ‘Supplies’ and to her delight found it to be unlocked. Slipping in side Ino walked the nurse’s body right to the back and prepared to release her Jutsu. This was always so much harder when she could not see her own body but that could not be helped, she’d just have to grit her teeth and get on with it. Bringing her hands together to form the correct symbol she said, “Release.”

The first thing that registered in Ino’s fogged mind was that her butt was freezing from prolonged contact with the floor. The second was that every aspect of her being was screaming in pain and that her body was seriously thinking about rebelling after being treated in such a way. Grunting with effort she managed to get to her feet, pressing her hands to the wall to help maintain her balance.

As if she had been hit by a sudden attack of vertigo, her head swam, her eyes starting to blur as dizziness washed over her. Oh yeah, she’d be paying for this for a while. Ideally she would have liked to rest before moving, but there was no time. She had no idea how long it had been since she had left the nurse in the supplies cupboard, it could take up to half and hour for her to regain conciseness after placing her soul in another body. But something was telling her it could not have been more than a moment or two, but that she had to go now.

One hand went to her still spinning head as Ino pushed of the wall and headed off in the direction of the stairs, silently cursing the fact that the person she was after was on the third floor. If she got there without her legs giving out it would be a miracle, but she’s got this far and she’d be damned if she’d give up now. Ignoring her body’s protests the blonde quickened her pace, rounding the corner just as a very perplexed nurse headed back to the station she couldn’t remember leaving.

-------

Sasuke Uchiha stared unseeingly up at the white painted ceiling tracing the cracks in the paint work with dark onyx eyes. He had come too in the hospital room, the curse mark on his left shoulder prickling uncomfortably, with no memory of how he’d gotten there. The last thing he remembered was the pain, like a white-hot knife burning through his shoulder, as Kakashi-sensei had sealed the curse mark and then suddenly he was here.

There was no way of knowing how long he had been unconscious; it could have been hours or even days. Had the preliminary rounds of the Chunin Exam finished already? If so who had been beaten and who had gotten through? And whom would he be facing next? He had so many questions and there was no one around to give him answers.

Then he could hear the sound of footsteps walking down the corridor out side of room his swiftly followed by a gently taping on his door. Then a light female voice was call out to him, “Sasuke-kun? Are you awake? Sasuke?”

Sasuke froze, yes he wanted to know what was going on but if that was Sakura…he just didn’t have the strength to deal with her, and her fangirl obsession right now. Staying silent, he closed his eyes and hoped that if she thought he was asleep then the pink haired girl would leave just as quickly as she had arrived. At the sound of the door opening he tensed and then mentally scolded himself for holding his breath, if the girl through he had stopped breathing there was no telling what she might try and do. The kiss of life could be deadly.

“Sasuke-kun? Are you…oh. You’re asleep…cute.” Sasuke willed his body to relax even though he could sense that whoever it was had by now, not only come into the room, but was standing very close to the bed. The one thing he knew was that the girl, whoever she was, was not his team mate. Sakura’s scent, after training with her for so long, was well known to him, it was fresh, sort of sharp and minty and after a while it clawed at the inside of his nose. But this scent was different, kind of earthy with a subtle floral undertone, not all that unpleasant he had to admit.

He felt that air around his head shift, as if the girl watching him had reached out to touch him, but at the last moment had thought better of it and pulled her hand back. “Well I know you’re alright, so I’ll let you sleep.”

The foot steps were light, as the person moved swiftly away from the bed, her shoes occasionally squeaking on the floor as she went. When he had judged that she was almost at the door, he risked opening one eye to see who it was who had been in to see him. The pale skin and dark purple outfit were instantly recognisably to him, even if like light blonde hair was a hell of a lot shorted than he remembered.

“Ino?”

Shit, he’d said that out loud and he really hadn’t meant to and the blonde who had had one hand on the door handle jumped violently as if she’d just been stung. She turned round, nibbling her lower lip slightly and offering him a lopsided apologetic grin.

“I’m sorry Sasuke-kun, I didn’t mean to wake you up.”

“Hn,” came the typical Uchiha response, there was no way he was going to let her know he’d only been faking but he was curious as to what she had been doing in his room to start with, and said as much. “What are you doing here?”

“Umm, here?” Ino racked her brains for a suitable answer, the truth was a none starter after all. She couldn’t just tell him she wanted to reassure herself he was all right, so what could she tell him? About Rock Lee and Gaara, and how he was meant to be facing Gaara next? No, she couldn’t tell him that, he’d find out soon enough anyway…

“It’s not what you’d call a hard question,” Sasuke snapped getting irritated. Was this really the same girl who had practically jumped him in front of everyone at the start of the Chuunin Exam? Cus right now she was looking more and more like Hinata Hyuuga than anything resembling the Ino Yamanaka he knew.

“No, I guess not.” Again she offered him a half-hearted smile and shrugged slightly as if she was embarrassed by the way she was acting. “I just thought you’d want to know the Naruto beat Kiba, it was a pretty intense fight. He’s your team mate so I thought you’d like to know…”

Ino trailed off, even to her that reason sounded totally made up, and from the look on his face she could tell Sasuke was thinking the same thing and his words soon confirmed her theory. “So Naruto got Kiba, huh? And you thought I’d like to know how he did what with him being me team mate…so are you going to tell me who Sakura had to face too?”

For a moment Ino could have sworn that the dark haired Uchiha was smirking at her. He knew all about the rivalry between herself and her former best friend, knew too that he was the root cause of enmity they now shared. And now here he was, by his standards, almost teasing her by dragging up the pink haired pain in her ass. “Since it seems you have to know everything, she faced me, alright?”

“And you lost, did you?” Immediately the hands, which Ino had been twisting together subconsciously, stilled and for the first time since he had spoken to her looked Sasuke full in the face. Her baby blue orbs were burning with anger, her expression clearly saying that it was only because he was in a hospital bed that she hadn’t beaten him to a pulp. Though they both knew that even if she could have hit him, the way she felt would stop her from doing so.

“No, I bloody well did not!” she yelled, fury sending her blood pressure through the roof, and she could feel a vain in her neck pules with the thump of her heart. “Me? Lose to Billboard Brow? As if!”

“So you won, did you?” Sasuke asked innocently, raising one eyebrow a fraction of an inch. This was more like the Ino he knew, loud, over confident, she always seemed to take up all the space in a room, as soon as she came in she wanted everyone to know it.

“Ahh, umm. Well you see…the thing is…no.” Ino let out a sigh which had the long bang the hung down over her right eye fluttering softly against her cheek; a cheek across which a lived bruise was already starting to form on. “We kinda tied, so neither of us have gone through.”

It was then that the realisation hit Ino, she was not going to be able to go on and gain the rank of Chunin, not this year anyway. For now she would continue to be stuck as a Genin, and a silly little flower girl working in her parents shop. “And it would have been during this fight in which you tied that you lost your hair?”

“Ugh.” It was a disgusted sound from that back of her throat, and Ino reached up a hand to finger the short strands, all that remained of the hair that had been her crowning glory. Feeling too dejected to care; she plonked herself down on the end of Saauke’s bed for once all thoughts of gaining the attention of her long time crush fleeing her mind. Sure she had started to grow her hair cus of the rumour that Sasuke like long hair, but had fallen in love with it herself and the feeling of the silky strands had been so comforting.

“Look Ino, you didn’t come here to tell me about Naruto or Sakura or anything to do with the exam, did you?” His tone was bored, but not unkind. It wasn’t kind either, Ino thought looking up at him, but at least he hasn’t kicked you off of the bed or anything. “So just tell me the real reason already.”

“Oh, no. I guess I didn’t.” Ino caught herself just in time to stop herself doing the small smile thing again, and mental question herself on when she had turned into such a sappy little fool. It was Sasuke after all and it wasn’t as if he didn’t know how she felt, so she should just tell him and then get out. “I just wanted to make sure you were Ok Sasuke-kun.”

“Oh.” Sasuke couldn’t think of anything else to say. He hadn’t expected that to be her reason for coming, he didn’t know what he had been expecting only that that had not been it. But that was strange in its self, this was Ino Yamanaka after all, the girl who was always fighting with Sakura for the title of ‘Sasuke Uchiha’s number one fan’. So why hadn’t he realised that she would have come here just to see how he was?

“Yeah, and I can see that you are. So I…” again Ino trailed off, but this time it was because she thought she had heard the sound of footsteps along the corridor. It was one of those pesky nurses; she just knew it, of all the rotten luck.

Sasuke was looking at her intently, watching the way her head was tilted slightly to one side like a small bird. Then he too heard the sound of someone approaching his room and saw the way that Ino immediately stiffened as the nose grew louder.

“Ino? Are you meant to be here?” She looked at him; her face all wide eyed innocence, a look totally at odds with her tough chick attitude, but said nothing. “Did you sneak in here without permission?”

“Umm, not really. A nurse showed me which room you were in.” Not exactly a lie, but not quite the truth either, Ino reassured herself. But Sasuke continued to watch her steadily and she knew that there was no point trying to hide the truth from him, he’d only work it out on his own anyway. “OK, you win. I used my ‘Mind Transfer no Jutsu’ on one of them and then snuck up while no one was around. Happy now?”

“Very resourceful.” The tone was meant to be mocking but the trace of laughter, which made his voice drop half an octave, slightly ruined the effect. Ino simply settled for rolling her light blue eyes in a way that was meant to say, so glad you approve, before sliding off of the bed.

“But I better go before someone finds me here, and starts asking difficult questions.” She raised her hand in farewell and hesitated while inside her head an argument ragged.

On the one hand she had just gotten closer to Sasuke than she ever had before, had actually had a conversation with him. A conversation more over that didn’t just consist of him grunting while she babbled on like a verbal incontinent. She’d even made him laugh, well almost laugh at any rate, so why spoil everything now, why not just leave on that high point before a nurse came and found her?

But on the other hand, she had different fingers? No! Well yes, but not the point. On the other hand, since when had she, Ino Yamanaka, ever been satisfied with what anyone else would be? Never. It just wasn’t in her nature; she had always been the type of person to go after whatever she wanted with single-minded determination. If you weren’t prepared to give 100% you might as well not even try, right?

Right! Sasuke was still looking at her standing by his bed, one of her hands raised in the air, and again one dark brow was raised ever so slightly. All or nothing, Ino chanted the words over and over in her head as she stepped back towards the bed, moving up to stand next to Sasuke’s head; her eyes never once dropping from his face.

Was she really going to do this, a voice in her head screamed? But it was too late for that kind of question; Ino had already taken a deep breath and was lowering her head towards Sasuke’s. Those few seconds seemed to last for an eternity; an eternity in which she could imagine the cool skin of Sasuke’s cheek under her lips. She let her eyes fall close as she breathed in the sent of him; light and clean with just a hint of sweat, so good.

“Eep!” Ino’s eyes flew open in shock and stared into a pair of inky black orbs. At the last second, driven by curiosity, Sasuke had turned his head to look at Ino who was starting to act strangely, the up shot of which was that it wasn’t his cheek with which her lips had made contact but rather his mouth.

A thousand thoughts screamed in Ino’s mind. Stay still! Pull back! Lean in! Sasuke hasn’t pulled away!

It was the last one that froze Ino in place, kept her feet rooted to the spot even as her legs threatened to give way beneath her. Though whether that was her body protesting at all the chakra she had used or because of the electric current that was buzzing through her lips, she couldn’t tell. All she knew was that her head was spinning far more than it had been earlier. She was reeling far worse that after Sakura’s fist connected with her head. And Sasuke was still not pulling away.

Almost against her will, Ino felt her eyes slowly drifting shut, this was surreal. Of course she’d always fantasised about kissing Sasuke, but now it was happening and she had no clue what to do. She’d never done this before and she didn’t even know why Sasuke was continuing to let her. True she was always mouthing off to Sakura about how the Uchiha survivor was hers but she had never thought, never imagined this.

She tasted good, Sasuke thought, as he watched Ino’s clear blue eyes softly close. Different from anything he had ever tasted before spicy and dark, if you could use that word to describe a taste, yet somehow sweet at the same time, but not a candy kind of sweetness. She tasted…good. Very good in face and unable to stop himself Sasuke parted his lips gently, letting his tongue run slowly along Ino’s bottom lip. He heard her gasp slightly, drawing her breath in sharply and unintentionally opening her mouth.

He should stop, something in his head told him so, but he was finding it impossible to listen. His normal iron self-control seemed to have evaporated with that first wondrous taste of her lips, and though his mind saying no something else was telling him yes and it was proving to hard to ignore. Taking the opportunity, Sasuke coaxed Ino’s lips further apart with his tongue, feeling the girl submit to him almost instantly.

Ino could not help but moan lightly as she felt Sasuke’s tongue caress her own, and reached out to brace her hands on the edge of the bed. Summoning all her cordage she allowed her tongue to gently sweep over Sasuke's and was reworded by his hand being placed to her unbruised cheek before sliding round to the back of her neck and pulling her deeper into the kiss.

It was just so easy to give in, not that Ino could think of any reason to fight in the first place. It was almost as if the whole world was spinning out of control and she could see and feel the violence of its movements but was separated from them. Her mind was a jumbled mass of confused thoughts and emotions and Sasuke’s tongue freely explored the warm cavern of her mouth. His lips were like liquid fire and she could feel herself melting into him.

“What is going on here?” The pair broke apart, Sasuke sinking back onto his pillow, Ino almost falling to the floor but luckily managing to steady herself with the grip she had on the bed.

Occupied as they had been, both had failed to hear the sound of door opening and the first they had known of the visitor was when she had barked out her question. Several things picked that moment to make themselves know to Ino, the first being that this was the same nurse whose body she had used earlier on. The second was that was Sasuke was leaning back, his head resting on his crossed arms, smirking at the ceiling. And the last was that her cheeks were burning with embarrassment.

“Well I’m waiting,” The nurse barked out again. “Which one of you is going to tell me what’s going on here?”

What was going on here? That, Ino had to had to admit, was a difficult question and one she too would kind of like the answer to as well.