Chapter 174: Ino
Konoha, Yamanaka Flower Shop.
Fresh flowers that had just been put out were sprinkled with a few drops of water, looking delicate and beautiful in the morning light.
When Sakura passed by, she smelled the fragrance of the flowers and a thought stirred in her heart.
"Hmm, should I buy a flower before I go?"
Thinking this, she lightly tapped her foot, changed direction, and turned into the flower shop.
Speaking of which, although she and Ino had a good relationship, this was only the second time she had come to her family's flower shop to buy flowers. The last time... was more than half a year ago, during the Chunin Exams, to visit several injured classmates. She didn't expect to be walking into the Yamanaka Flower Shop again so soon.
It seemed that every time she stepped in here, it meant that a close comrade was seriously injured.
The pink-haired girl shook her head, dispersing the inexplicable melancholy thoughts from her mind.
"Is anyone here?" she said, pulling aside the exquisite hanging chains on the door curtain and walking in.
The Yamanaka's flower shop was not small, but it had been decorated by the shop owner to be winding and secluded, giving one the illusion of smelling only the fragrance of flowers but seeing no one.
Sakura blinked her eyes. Her green eyes scanned from left to right, confirming that this was not an illusion—there really was no one in the shop.
"Hmm...?" She tilted her head and let out a low hum of confusion.
Suddenly, a hand slapped heavily on her shoulder.
"Hey! Sakura!" someone said loudly from behind.
Haruno Sakura pretended to be startled, shrank her neck and trembled, then turned her head.
It was Ino.
Her chakra was so obvious, and she had no intention of concealing the sound of her footsteps. Haruno Sakura had, of course, discovered her long ago. With a prank like this, even the Sakura from before joining the Anbu wouldn't have been scared.
However, she still pretended that Ino's prank had succeeded, and put on an expression of wide-eyed shock.
"Haha! I scared you, didn't I!" Ino said smugly, her eyes crinkling into a smile.
Actually, no... Sakura said secretly in her heart.
But if I put on an indifferent, "I knew you were behind me" expression, Ino would probably be very embarrassed. —Sakura was still a person who could be considerate of a girl's feelings.
Ino was unaware that the gap in their strengths had recently widened so much. Just pointing this out might actually become an obstacle to their friendship. If the gap seemed too large, would it make people unconsciously pull away? Then again, she wasn't some arrogant, cool, overbearing Long Aotian-type character. She didn't need to check the strength of her friends before she could make them, right?
"Long time no see, Ino," she said with a smile, "calming down" from her "surprise" and sizing up her friend.
She seemed to have grown a centimeter or two taller. Among the girls in her class, apart from Sakura herself, Ino was the tallest. Her figure was still as tender and slender as a budding girl's, but the small hills on her chest were beginning to become quite impressive.
Her gradually maturing features, with light, exquisite makeup, penciled eyebrows and rouged cheeks, her beautiful eyes glancing about—one could almost see her future peerless beauty.
Sakura had observed so many girls, and whether in terms of figure or appearance, Ino was the undisputed number one in their class.
While Sakura was sizing up Ino, the latter was also looking at her with the same gaze.
"Have you taken a liking to wearing bodysuits recently?" she said, clicking her tongue in wonder, and tugged at the Anbu uniform on Sakura. The sleeveless black uniform contrasted sharply with the girl's fair skin, forming a clear dividing line on her arms.
She walked a circle around her, and during that time, she even grabbed a handful of her chest. "You're not padding!"
Sakura was speechless... Are you the only one who's allowed to grow up?
"This is the Anbu uniform... stop touching me!"
She was also starting to get used to wearing the uniform all day like Yūgao, to deal with the emergency gatherings that could occur at any time.
Seeing that Sakura didn't really react, Ino also lost interest and changed the subject with a serious expression. "Are you here to buy flowers again?"
Without waiting for Sakura to answer, she took her hand and walked into the depths of the shop.
"There are more beautiful flowers inside. Come with me."
Her hand and her words were both soft, yet very strong. Sakura followed.
"I..." She moved her lips, just about to speak, when Ino pulled out a bunch of plain white flowers.
"Is it to visit a patient?" she asked, as if she had guessed what Sakura wanted to say.
"Hn..." Haruno Sakura replied. She wanted to explain, but she saw a trace of strangeness in Ino's eyes. "You know?"
"I went to see him yesterday," Ino said softly, her tone carrying an indescribable melancholy.
The "him" she was referring to was, naturally, Uchiha Sasuke.
Sakura watched her as she looked down at the flowers in her hand, unconsciously pinching a green leaf on the stem.
It seemed that something had happened.
Sakura looked at her wavering gaze and became even more certain.
"What happened between you two?" she said with a sigh. "That guy Sasuke likes to say one thing and mean another. Sometimes the things he says aren't what he means. You mustn't take it to heart!"
She defended Sasuke half-heartedly.
Actually, she didn't know what had happened. It was just that Sasuke was also a person who was quite friendly to his comrades and classmates. He shouldn't have been so rude to Ino as to hurt her feelings, right?
Emmmm... could it be that he loved her and left her? Or was he caught two-timing?
Could it be that Sasuke's love life has been very rich recently?
She quickly cut off the boring high school drama plot speculation in her mind. Although she hadn't spent her days with Sasuke for several months, Sakura still considered herself one of the people who understood him best.
Sasuke was not this kind of person.
So she didn't say any more and just quietly waited for Ino to speak.
The blonde girl pursed her lips, her expression tinged with a trace of sorrow. Her delicate brows were pressed down, making her bright and beautiful face look even more pitiful.
She was silent for a long time.
Finally, under Haruno Sakura's pressing gaze, she spoke the truth.
"I confessed to him..."
Oh... Sakura was instantly enlightened. She probably already knew what had happened.
However, what Ino described was different from the usual routine: Sasuke had rejected her, but at the same time—
"So you're acting all tragic just because you found out you never actually liked Sasuke at all?"
Sakura held her forehead and looked up at the sky, feeling speechless.
"And Sasuke was the one who told you this?"
The tearful blonde girl nodded vigorously.
Sakura found it difficult to understand Ino's thoughts. It seemed she wasn't sad at all about being rejected by Sasuke, but because she had discovered that she had liked someone for several years, only to find out at the end that she had never really liked him at all.
She probably just enjoyed the feeling of liking someone...
Was this the so-called "falling in love with love"?
No, no, at this little girl's level, she couldn't yet talk about something as profound as love.
Actually, she just liked Sasuke's handsome face. This was the so-called "face-con," or "lookism."
Judging a person by their appearance is a common human failing, but most people, after they've passed the chuunibyou stage, will no longer be like this, purely and fanatically pursuing only appearances. Obviously, Ino also belonged to this majority. After leaving the Ninja Academy and the environment of mutual comparison among little girls, she had gradually come to realize her true feelings.
So these tears also represented Ino's growth.
Haruno Sakura, who had been promoted to the role of the understanding big sister, hugged Ino and gently patted her back.
The faint scent of perfume from the girl's hair wafted into her nose, mixed with the fresh fragrance of lilies and other flowers, which was somewhat sweet and intoxicating.
The feeling of a soft fragrance in her arms was very good.
—It would have been even better if Ino hadn't used her clothes as a tissue to wipe her tears.
She comforted Ino with a few words and soon coaxed the little beauty to smile through her tears. For her to laugh so easily, it was indeed just this girl throwing a little tantrum.
However, there was one question that even the understanding big sister asked, but Ino did not answer: "So how exactly did he help you confirm your feelings?"
Haruno Sakura's doubts were still unresolved even when she left the shop—Ino seemed to be very shy about this question and refused to open her mouth.
It felt like Sasuke might have used some rather drastic or even excessive means. To make a person's thoughts change so dramatically all of a sudden, the suspicion of a Sharingan genjutsu is very high...
But when the topic was discussed to this point, Ino refused to say any more.
She thrust the bunch of flowers into Sakura's hand. "Alright, you should go! This bunch of flowers is a gift for you. No charge!"
Then she forcefully pushed her out of the shop.
"Remember to take good care of Sasuke for me!" Ino said to the pink-haired girl in a "you two must be happy" tone.
After speaking, without waiting for Haruno Sakura to reply, she turned around and went back into the shop.
"Hey, we're not in that kind of relationship!" Sakura shouted at Ino's back with a frustrated look on her face.
However, the other party only paused for a moment, neither looking back nor paying her any mind, and just walked away.
"Tsk, ever since Naruto left Team 7, without the BL-vibes that those two constantly created, I've been frequently misunderstood like this..." Haruno Sakura said speechlessly.
It was clearly just a very normal teammate interaction. How could people always smell the scent of dog food!
The problem was, her comrade was seriously injured and lying in a hospital bed. How cold-hearted would she have to be to not go and visit him? And, isn't it normal to bring a bunch of flowers when visiting a patient?
Why was I misunderstood again?
She was a noble single-dog who wanted to carry out her single-ism to the very end!
Love and romance... was not her style.
The twenty-something years she had lived before transmigrating and the dozen or so years she had experienced after, which one had a greater influence on her? The answer was really hard to say. The former was twice as long, but the latter occupied an advantageous period of time. But it was absolutely impossible for a scenario to occur where one side's influence on her completely disappeared.
Although in many of her thoughts and actions now, she was no different from an ordinary girl.
She was even far more charming than an ordinary girl.
But she still insisted on certain strange principles on many issues. For example, her resistance to makeup, her resistance to skirts, and her preference for understanding things with rationality rather than emotion.
Falling in love would only make her feel awkward, not happy. If she had that time, she would rather go and research a few ninjutsu.
Sasuke was also a single-type. With a family feud on his back and the heavy responsibility of reviving his clan, his interest in falling in love was far lower than that of other restless young men of his age.
So she and he were basically the most unlikely CP, right?
"In Sasuke's heart, family affection and the bonds of comradeship and friendship are much more important than so-called love, right?" Sakura concluded.
On this point, the Sasukes of both worlds were exactly the same—the Sasuke of that world had also frankly said that he "didn't want to play a love game," even though the Haruno Sakura there had given so much for him.
At this time, she had already reached the entrance of the Konoha Hospital.
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