Nothing is Ok

So, I decided I liked the way the chapter turned out afterall and found an idea for the continuation. I keep thinking “Wow, I wish I had more reviews,” but then I realize that I don’t even review a tenth of the stories I read and I read stories all day and I can’t be such a hypocite…then again, I’m a needy fuck.


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Sakura’s soft snores could hardly permeate the thick silence that hung over the small bedroom. She lay there, sleeping peacefully next to a girl that was anything but peaceful. Despite how tired she’d been last night, sleep fled from her like prey from a predator. Every time she did manage to sleep, she saw the faces of her attackers and would jolt awake. She’d even awoken Sakura several times when she’d cried out from the nightmares. Sakura just wrapped her up even more tightly in her arms and comforted her until she could seem to sleep again.

Now, Ino sat next to Sakura, her hands forming seals slowly for the thousandth time. Every time she tried to finish the jutsu that would allow her to see what she wanted, her conscience halted her before actually completing it. Once again, her hands fell to her lap. She’d been sitting there, battling with herself since the sun had risen and knew that it wouldn’t be much longer until Sakura joined the waking world. It was now or never. Sakura’s mind wouldn’t be this accessible if she were awake and ready to fight off the intrusion and with a sigh, Ino began to form the seals once more.

She didn’t want to open her eyes until the last moment. She didn’t want to look into the peaceful face of her best friend as she invaded her mind. Finally, hands forming the last seal, she opened here eyes only to stare back into Sakura’s which were widened in shock.
The terror at seeing Sakura awake disrupted the chakra and forced Ino to release any semblance of the technique and turn away from her friend.

“Ino,” Sakura started, dumbfounded. “Were you really going to-to try and steal my memories like that?” She didn’t want to believe what she’d seen but she wasn’t a fool. She remembered last night easily as it was only a few hours past. She didn’t think Ino would try something like this though.

Ino said nothing, looking down at the ground to avoid Sakura’s gaze.

“Why would you do that? I told you I didn’t want to share that.”

A surprisingly calm voice came from the distraught blonde, “Why should you be the only one happy?”

Sakura’s shock was increased ten-fold at that, “What did you just say?”

Rounding on Sakura, Ino’s face was contorted in anger, “Why should you be the only one to be happy, huh!? Why do you get a loving boyfriend who treats you like a princess and I get nothing but three bastards forcing themselves on me!? You treated him like shit for years, even forced him to choose against his own happiness and yet here you are, happy and filled with memories that you won’t even share with your best friend!”

Mouth opening and closing like a fish on a river bank, Sakura didn’t know what to say. Everything Ino had said about the way she treated Naruto was the awful truth but he’d forgiven her. She hadn’t quite forgiven herself yet but she was well on her way until now. Her own shame was put aside, however, as anger was brought to the forefront, “How could you say that? He and I are past that now and we love eachother. That’s all that matters!”

“Then why can’t you just share that with me?” Ino yelled, a sob almost breaking through her tirade.

“Would you want someone essentially walking into the room and watching you have sex for the first time!?”

This time, the sob couldn’t be held back, “I wasn’t given a choice!!”, yelled Ino, breaking down and collapsing into her pillow to cry her eyes out again.

Sakura’s anger evaporated and she was by her friend’s side in an instant, rubbing her back gently in comfort, “I know, Ino. I know you’re hurt but you can’t try to do something like this against my wishes. It would be like you violated me almost like you were.”

Ino felt like she’d been doused in ice water. She felt so many emotions at once and couldn’t settle on one. She couldn’t even breathe. How dare Sakura compare her invasion of privacy to being raped! It was nothing like that! It wasn’t like she’d been about to rip away her clothes and have her way with the girl! Sure, she’d see every memory as if she were there but- It was then that Ino realized Sakura had a right to be upset; perhaps even more than she was now. Invading her mind like that may not have been rape but it was teetering on the brink.

The icy feeling receded to leave only shame behind and she leapt up to wrap Sakura in her arms, “I’m sorry!! I’m so, so sorry, Sakura! Please forgive me! I didn’t think-I didn’t mean to…”

Sakura just hugged the hysterical girl to her and shushed her, “Shh, it’s ok. You’re forgiven.”

After an hour and a few more bouts of tears, a knock came to the door causing both to look up.

“Princess, it’s Daddy. Breakfast is ready if you want to come down.”

Despite being a little hoarse from crying, she managed to answer, “I’ll be down in a little bit, Daddy.”

Sakura smiled at Ino, “Let’s get cleaned up and get some food in our bellies. This emotional roller-coaster has left me starved.”

Ino chuckled slightly, “Yeah, it’s pretty taxing.” Getting up from the bed, she pulled two sets of clothes out of her dresser and tossed one to Sakura, “Here. You can take the bathroom down the hall. I’ll use the one in my parents room.”

Taking the clothes, Sakura grinned, “Just don’t use all the hot water, Pig!”

“Speak for yourself! It probably takes a lake to clean that huge forehead!”

The two laughed as they left the room, both doing their best to forget the anger and misery from before.

Sakura was down and at the breakfast table fairly quickly, waiting on Ino. It seemed to be taking Ino a lot longer than usual to get ready. As her father looked up at the stairs in concern, Sakura decided to check on her.

When she got to the bathroom, she was surprised to hear the water still running. “Ino? Everything ok in there?”

When she got no answer, she cracked the door open and called out again, “Ino? It’s Sakura. I’m coming in.” Pushing the door open, she entered carefully, immediately blanketed by the heavy steam coming from behind the shower curtain. She heard Ino moving around in the shower and mumbling to herself and called out again, “Hey, you ok?”

Sakura could hear the sound of Ino gasping from being startled, “Sakura! You nearly gave me a heart attack! I’ll be out in a minute. I just can’t seem to get clean.”

Before she could say anything, the shower curtain opened and Ino stood there, holding out a brush, “Could you wash my back?” Sakura seemed to freeze and Ino shook the brush at her, trying to get her attention, “C’mon! I can’t reach all that well!”

Reaching out, Sakura’s hand passed the brush and touched Ino’s shoulder right on a nasty looking scrape, “Ino, what have you done?” She took stock of the blonde girl and barely held the tears in check. All over her friend’s body were scratches and abrasions. Her pelvis seemed to get the worst of it. It looked like Ino had been scrubbing so hard that blood was now trickling down her leg. It wasn’t terribly severe by ninja standards but to scrub so hard would have been intensely painful.

“I know, I know. I’m still filthy,” Ino said with a depressed sigh. “Guess I won’t be down for a while yet.” She went to pick up an already bloodied wash-cloth and begin again but was stopped by Sakura grabbing her arm.

“You need to get out of the shower, Ino. I need to heal that before it has a chance to become infected and we need to talk to your dad.”

Ino looked at Sakura a bit confused, “But can’t you see that I’m still dirty?”

That was enough to break Sakura’s resolve and she wrapped the dripping wet girl into a hug, “No, you’re not dirty, Ino. You’re perfect.”

“But…I still feel dirty,” Ino complained, her voice losing the strength of conviction it had moments ago. “I still feel their touch.”

“Ino, they’re gone. They aren’t touching you. Their filth has been washed away completely. Remember? Naruto made sure they couldn’t hurt anyone ever again.”

A sniffle erupted right next to Sakura’s ear as Ino collapsed into the other girl’s embrace, “They’re really gone, right?”

Sakura just nodded, “Yes, Ino. They’re gone and they can’t ever come back.”

“When I saw Naruto kill them, I wasn’t scared at all. Not of him, anyway. Even when I saw him mutilate them, I knew he wasn’t the monster. They were.”

“That’s right, Ino. Always remember that.” She pushed Ino back a bit and sat her on the edge of the tub so she could heal the abrasions. “This won’t take a minute, then we’re going to get you down to your dad and get you some help.”

Ino could only nod with a faraway look in her eyes. She wasn’t there in the bathroom with Sakura healing her wounds. She was back in the moment where Naruto came to her rescue. The pain was there but the overwhelming sense of relief dwarfed it by comparison. She felt no end of gratitude for the boy in her memories and couldn’t help but be in awe. Now that she remembered it, the power she had seen was unreal. He may not have been evil, but he certainly had been a monster for those moments. The power coming off of him was unreal. Idly, she wondered if there was such a thing as a good monster.

“C’mon Ino, arms up.”

Snapping back to reality, she was surprised to learn that she’d been almost completely dressed by the pink-haired girl in front of her who now held a while t-shirt in her hands. Doing as she was told, she allowed Sakura to slide the shirt down and into place where it reached below the waistband of the sweats she’d brought in with her.

Ino looked back up and into the eyes of her friend and smiled, “You’re a good friend, forehead.”

Returning the smile, Sakura pulled Ino’s hair into a messy ponytail and helped her to her feet, “Yeah, I know.”


When they reached the table downstairs, Sakura noticed that the food had been cleared and Ino’s father sat at the head of the table, his face in his hands and looking immensely frustrated.

Leaning over, Sakura whispered into Ino’s ear, “Think you can give him a hug?”

The question was ludicrous and Ino could hardly even believe she’d been asked until she tried to make herself walk up to the man before her. It took so much more effort than it should have. Still, she managed to take the steps without alerting the distressed man to her presence and wrapped her arms around his neck, “Morning, Daddy.”

Inoichi had just barely resisted the urge not to jump out of his skin when the object of his thoughts was suddenly hugging him as tight as she could. It only took an instant before he responded in kind, tears dripping from his eyes. It took a while to get his voice under control but he finally managed to return her greeting as Sakura just sat down at the table next to them.

When the hug broke, it looked as if the tension in Inoichi’s form had as well. He smiled at his daughter who sat across the table from Sakura on his other side, “Are you hungry, princess? I can have your mother heat up the food. We just put it in the fridge while you were in the shower.”

“That’s ok, Daddy. I’m not that hungry right now,” said Ino, pulling at her ponytail nervously.

“Mr. Yamanaka, we need to talk. It’s about what I found when I checked on her.”

Inoichi looked at his little girl who just looked down in shame then back to Sakura, “Is she ok?” He hated talking like his daughter wasn’t sitting right next to him but he knew he wouldn’t get the answers from her.

“Physically, yes. She needs counseling as soon as possible though. She was cleaning too much and actually began to cause damage. That’s what was taking her so long. I don’t have much practical knowledge on rape victims, but Ino’s going through text book symptoms of shame and a lack of empathy.”

Inoichi nodded sadly while Ino herself looked up at Sakura, “What do you mean, ‘lack of empathy’?”

Sakura just sighed, “When you tried to enter my mind without my permission, there was a minute where you didn’t have any idea that you were doing something wrong.”

Ino wanted to argue the point, but she really couldn’t. When Sakura had yelled at her, she couldn’t understand why until she’d been talked down. Her face simply fell further but she nodded, “I’m so sorry about that, Sakura.”

“Don’t be,” Sakura smiled, reaching over and grabbing Ino’s hand. “Like I said, it’s part of what you’re going through. I don’t blame you at all.” Turning her attention back to Inoichi, she smiled, “She needs help from someone far more qualified than myself.”

Inoichi nodded, “I’ll go set something up for tonight then. I’ll find Anko. She’s been through more grief counseling than anyone I know. She can certainly give me some ideas on who could help. What will you do until then?”

Sakura looked at Ino and shrugged, “I didn’t have any plans for today.”

Ino lifted her head and smiled slightly, “I want to stretch my legs a bit. Let’s eat first and then go for a walk. I want to try out being in public again. It’s been a few days.”

As soon as Ino said the word eat, they heard her mother toss the food into the microwave from the kitchen.

“Guess mom heard us, eh forehead?” giggled Ino.

“Seems that way.”

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I’m not sure if I should end it there but my muse has left me and as such, I have no choice. Next chapter, I have to decide which way I want to go. Soon as my muse returns, I’ll hopefully figure it out.