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Ino was, in a word, bored. She was so tired of the many men who kept trying to win her hand, of the arrogant fools primping and preening and displaying themselves like peacocks.
If only she'd been allowed to marry one of her childhood friends. Sure, they were more brothers to her than potential lovers, but she at least knew them and could get along with them.
So rather than pout and protest, which admittedly hadn't done her much good, Ino had decided to try a different way of culling her suitors. She'd had to ask Chouji and Shikamaru for their help, but neither man had even considered turning down her request. After all, they were her best friends, and they knew better than anyone just how to put off those who would not be a good match for her.
Plus, privately, Ino was hoping that eventually all suitors would be discouraged from trying for her hand, and she would be able to seek out her own partner or spouse.
And so it had come to this – a three-tier contest. First, a show of character, which Ino's father carefully monitored and manipulated to narrow down prospects while they thought the contest had yet to start. Second, a show of intelligence, in which Shikamaru and his father Shikaku would get rid of those not smart enough to keep Ino satisfied or even interested. And, third, a show of strength, in which Chouji would act as Ino's champion and face her remaining suitors in a challenge of brute strength after they had battled between themselves to whittle down numbers further.
So far it had worked a treat, but Ino was so bored with it. Every man was the same – dressed in their armour, primping and preening and puffing out their chests as they presented themselves to her between the second and third challenge.
Ino just wanted to see something different, something new and strange and exciting.
She didn't think she was going to get it.
It took three years of these contests, each time the pool of suitors growing smaller and smaller, for something to change.
Ino was, as usual, sitting bored on her throne beside her father's, blue eyes drifting absentmindedly across the crowd, taking note of those who had attempted the challenge the year before and had been unsuccessful in some way or another. There weren't many who returned, and those who did usually only struck out in the third and final challenge.
But there was something different in the air, this year. Ino had noted it right from the start, but had been unable to find the source of the change. Some of the second-attempt men were nervous, eyes darting around even as they flexed their muscles in the sun. Wonderful eye-candy, sure, but all very same-same.
And then Ino saw them.
She couldn't tell if the person was a man or woman, the latter of which there had actually been a few in the previous years, but the person stood out among the crowd like a sunflower among wheat.
They weren't overly tall, weren't as broad as some of the men, but their face and hair was hidden by a wrap like those worn in Wind Country by natives. Rather an unusual sight in Fire Country, but not unheard of. Their arms and visible legs were muscular, but not overly so – whatever strength they held was formed through years of hard work and battle, rather than through rigorous training like many of Ino's would-be suitors.
Ino was fascinated.
Not only was the strange newcomer hiding their face, their clothing hid most of their body but left their arms and legs free, and they didn't wear the shining armour many of the others did. They had somehow made it through her father's test, and through the Nara's intelligence test, and now here they stood ready to begin the strength challenge.
Yet, unlike those around them, they weren't trying to show off before the third tier even started.
Ino was looking forward to seeing what this unusual stranger could do.
Ino was pretty sure she was in love.
The stranger had thrown around their competitors with ease, had brutally and efficiently brought down every single person that came up against them. And all without losing their head-wrap or revealing their face.
Ino could appreciate that sort of skill, that sort of subterfuge.
Finally, it came down to the three-way free-for-all that was the final battle before the suitors faced Chouji. Ino's friend was one of the strongest warriors in the country, and usually by the time they reached their battle with him a suitor would be too tired to take him on properly.
But Ino's stranger was different, was showing no signs of fatigue yet, and Ino couldn't help but lean forward a little in anticipation as her father gave the signal for the battle between her stranger and the other two champions to begin.
Both the other potential suitors, apparently of a single mind when faced with the threat of Ino's stranger, immediately lunged for the scarf-wearing figure. They ducked as the two men grabbed for them, one of them making a lucky grab and succeeding in tugging off the head-wrap.
Ino's eyes widened as short, vibrant pink hair fell free, the owner of the hair scowling fiercely at the two men who had just unveiled her.
A woman.
Not entirely unheard of, barring the fact that women had never made it this far into the contest before.
The woman, Ino's stranger, had bright pink hair and vibrant green eyes, and the shock Ino felt at seeing her rippled and echoed through the spectators.
The man who had succeeded in grabbing the woman's head-wrap scoffed derisively, tossing it aside, and Ino saw those green eyes narrow dangerously in his direction.
It was as if the idiot had forgotten her strength in seeing she was a woman.
Both men were laughing and jeering now, confidence oozing from them in a way that they definitely didn't deserve, and the pink-haired woman rolled her eyes. She gripped her own top, a loose-flowing tunic, and tore it off her body even as the idiots facing her made derisive comments about her.
Ino leaned further forward in her seat at the sight of the intense musculature of her prospective suitor. Now clad only in fitted shorts and a breast binding, the pink-haired woman cracked her knuckles and made a beckoning gesture to her challengers that drew all of Ino's attention to her strong arms.
"You're drooling a little," Shikamaru murmured, and Ino threw a dirty look his way even as she sat further back in her seat.
"Can you blame me?" she demanded of him, and he rolled his eyes.
"Considering my type doesn't run towards 'female', yes, I can," he drawled. Ino rolled her eyes back at him before refocusing her attention on the battle.
Just in time, too, for the pink-haired woman drew back a fist and let fly, her punch landing square on the chest of the man who had ripped off her head-wrap. There was a moment's pause, and then the man was flung backwards, thrown clear across the arena to smash into – and partially through – the stone wall.
Silence descended upon the crowd, all eyes on the man half-embedded in the wall before they turned to the pink-haired woman.
The remaining contender was last to look at the woman, his jaw slack and eyes bulging wide.
"I forfeit!" he screamed after a moment, turning tail and bolting for the exit.
The woman snorted into the silence that fell.
"Coward," she scoffed, and then turned her eyes towards Ino and her father. "There is one more for me to face, yes?"
"Chouji," Ino murmured, and her loyal friend straightened in his place beside Shikamaru. "Don't go easy on her, but surrender if you cannot win without permanent damage to yourself."
"Of course, Princess," Chouji murmured, bowing to her and then taking two steps forward to launch himself out of the royal box, landing easily in the arena.
The ground rumbled slightly as he landed, dust puffing up around him, and the grin that formed on the pink-haired woman's face was almost feral.
"You will face me, challenger," Chouji rumbled. "I am Akimichi Chouji, personal guard to Princess Ino. Your name?"
"I am Haruno Sakura," the pink-haired woman declared, spine straight and chin raised proudly. "Student of Senju Tsunade."
Ino about swooned, even as the crowd murmured and gasped.
Senju Tsunade was a demigoddess, the daughter of the Whirlpool Witch Uzumaki Mito and her lover Senju Hashirama, the god of all living things. For this woman, Sakura, to be a student of Senju Tsunade...
Well, legends were closer to the everyday than most thought, and things were about to get very interesting.
Sakura glanced past Akimichi Chouji's shoulder, just for a moment, her bright green eyes seeking out one more sight of the princess before the battle begun.
She'd been captivated by the Yamanaka princess for years, and had pushed herself through her training even harder when she learned of the three-tier contest for the gorgeous blonde woman's hand.
Tsunade had laughed at her, of course, but Sakura had just accepted her teacher's mirth with long-suffering silence and had then pushed herself even harder. And now, three years later, she was ready to face the final obstacle between herself and the woman she had come to admire from afar.
"Begin!" Yamanaka Inoichi, King of Fire Country, called, and Sakura smirked as she channelled power through her limbs and core. She might only be one-eighth god/dess, but she could still channel divine energy much like Tsunade and her son Yamato did.
"I apologise in advance for any injury, Akimichi," she said, and as the large man lunged for her – with surprising swiftness for a man his size – she hauled back a fist and aimed a punch at the ground. She released a wordless roar as she did so, only peripherally aware of the fact she was glowing with her power, and released her energy as her fist impacted the ground.
It shattered.
The earth cracked, shattered and heaved beneath her blow, sending Akimichi flying as the crowd screamed and shouted in fear and surprise.
Sakura didn't allow Akimichi time to process what she'd done, launching herself after him with a feral smile curling her lips. He had managed to reorient himself, and was attempting to control his landing, but Sakura wasn't about to give him the chance.
She grabbed hold of him by the front of his armour, using her own momentum to spin them and augmenting her strength just enough to throw him back the way he'd come.
Sakura landed hard, the earth cracking beneath her as she crouched, ready to launch herself back the way she'd come to continue tossing Akimichi around.
But apparently that wouldn't be necessary, for Akimichi Chouji simply rolled to a stop, lay there for a moment, and then shakily pushed himself up to his feet while holding a hand in the air like a surrender.
"I forfeit," he called, and the crowd murmured between themselves as both Akimichi and Sakura turned their attention to the royal box.
Princess Ino looked like she was almost bouncing in her seat, her pretty blue eyes alight and a little smile on her lips, but it was her father, the King, who spoke.
"I declare Haruno Sakura the winner," the man declared, standing and moving to the edge of the box. "Come forward, Champion."
Sakura stepped forward, coming to a halt directly in front of the royal box.
"Whose child are you, Champion?"
"I am the great-granddaughter of Senju Touka, Goddess of War," Sakura declared, calling up her small reserves of divine power and pushing it to the visible spectrum. "What say you to this, King Inoichi?"
"I say, welcome to the family, for my daughter's hand is yours," King Inoichi responded, his lips twitching but his face remaining otherwise still as stone. "The marriage will be formalised at dusk."
Sakura bowed, just far enough to not be disrespectful, and when she straightened Princess Ino's eyes were focused unerringly on her. She inclined her head towards the beautiful woman, the gesture one of respect, and smiled just a little at the responding, cheeky grin.
Ino wasn't bored anymore.
No, she was about to marry a beautiful, strong woman who was apparently a descendent of a goddess known for her combat prowess. Knowing that, now, it wasn't exactly a shock she had beaten Chouji.
Still, Ino wasn't bored anymore, but now she was nervous. Excited, jittery with anticipation, but nervous.
She was about to get married.
She'd thought she had a foolproof plan to avoid it, or to at least get to pick her spouse, but that had been blown out of the water with Sakura's appearance in the contest.
Though, really, Ino couldn't find any reason to complain. Sakura had shown her strength of character, her intelligence, and her physical strength as was required by the three tiers to the contest. Sure, being a goddess's descendent had likely helped with the last task, but she wouldn't have reached that point if she had failed the first two.
But Ino didn't know anything about her wife-to-be. It was that not-knowing that had her nervous, really.
"Please calm yourself, Princess," Ino's best female friend and handmaiden, Hinata, murmured, gently combing Ino's long blonde locks back into a high tail.
"I'm calm," Ino lied, pouting, and then huffed when Hinata turned disbeliving lilac eyes on her. "Fine, I'm panicking."
"I'm aware," Hinata said mildly, and then went back to arranging Ino's hair for the wedding. "But you have no reason to. Sakura is a wonderful person."
"You know her?" Ino asked, curious.
"My cousin is wed to one of her best friends," Hinata gave an elegant little shrug. "Neji told me Sakura planned to enter the contest for your hand, though I did not think it would be this year."
"Oh." Ino fell silent, standing when Hinata prompted her and allowing her handmaiden to drape her in her marriage silks. "You would have told me if you knew it would be this year, right?"
"Of course," Hinata murmured, adjusting the folds of the outermost layer until it fell just right. "There, you're ready."
"Physically, maybe," Ino sighed, and then drew herself up and donned her 'Princess' mein. "Lead the way, Hinata."
"Of course, Princess."
Soon after sundown, Sakura was alone with her beautiful new wife. She had known she would win the contest – she hadn't even attempted it until she was sure she could win it – but she hadn't expected such a swift wedding.
Ino looked absolutely stunning, draped in her wedding silks still, and Sakura swallowed hard at the thought of why the two of them had been left alone in a bedchamber.
"Well, wife?" Princess Ino asked her, one eyebrow raised elegantly above a sharp blue eye. "Are you going to take me to the marriage bed?"
"I'll take you wherever you wish," Sakura said, perhaps a tad too honest, and Ino's eyes widened. Sakura felt her cheeks growing pink with a blush at how forward she must have seemed.
Before she could stammer out an apology at her forwardness, though, Ino's entire expression softened and she took a step closer to Sakura.
"I'll let you take me anywhere," the blonde said softly, holding out her hands towards Sakura, and the pink-haired woman reached out her own calloused pair in turn, gently grasping the fine-boned fingers in her grip and bringing both of Ino's hands to her lips, brushing soft kisses across her knuckles. Then she tugged on her new wife's hands, drawing her close enough to sweep up into her arms.
Ino gasped a little, but then curled into Sakura's hold with a little hum.
"Take me to bed, wife," Ino murmured, and Sakura leaned down just enough to press a light kiss to the princess's forehead.
"Anything you wish, wife."
Ino wasn't exactly innocent to sexual activity, but never had disrobing been such a sensual affair. Sakura took her time, carefully removing layer after layer of bridal silks, pressing feather-soft kisses to every inch of new skin revealed to her as she went. Every time Ino lifted her hands towards Sakura, intending to help remove the simple leathers of a warrior from her new bride, the pink-haired woman would catch her hands and press kisses to her knuckles, and then reach for another layer of Ino's complex wedding outfit.
Ino felt... treasured. Not like some sort of priceless gem, as she had in her early teenage years, but as something that was precious for the memories and feelings it evoked.
Sakura paused when Ino was left in only two layers of silk, sinking to her knees in front of the blonde woman and leaning forward to rest her forehead on her new wife's stomach. Ino only hesitated for a moment, but then slid one hand into Sakura's hair and cradled her head. Sakura's hands came up, resting on Ino's hips lightly, fingertips barely brushing against her skin, and Ino shivered. It was so different to have this strong warrior woman kneeling before her, to be able to almost feel the reverence the pink-haired woman held towards her.
"Please give me a moment," Sakura murmured, breath hot against Ino's abdomen through the thin silks, and Ino felt her nether regions clench and throb.
"As long as you need," Ino whispered back, unsure if the peaking of her nipples was due to chill or arousal, but desperately wanting to find out.
Once Sakura had regained her control, she stood and brought her hands up from Ino's hips to cradle her face instead, one calloused thumb dipping to trace over the princess's painted, full lower lip.
"Are you going to kiss me, wife?" Ino asked, the words close to a taunt but her breathy tone anything but.
"I think I am," Sakura murmured back, and leaned in towards the princess she had won.
Ino's lips were soft beneath hers, and when Sakura tested her receptivity with a gentle swipe of tongue over lower lip Ino parted hers with a breathy sigh. Tongues met, tangled gently, stroked over each other as Sakura coaxed her wife into a deeper, more intense kiss.
Ino moaned when Sakura's hands, once more on her hips, tightened their grip, and Sakura reluctantly pulled back from their kiss to look at her flushed, beautiful spouse. Sakura smiled, leaning back in for another, much more chaste kiss, and then she slipped her hands beneath the second-to-last layer of Ino's silks.
"May I?" she asked quietly, and Ino nodded silently.
Gently, carefully, Sakura unwound the silk from Ino's lovely form, letting it fall to the floor as the rest of the layers had and then placing her hands on her princess's waist.
"Beautiful," Sakura whispered, leaning in for another gentle kiss, and this time when Ino reached for her clothes she didn't stop her.
Sakura's wedding clothes, the leathers of a warrior, fell to the floor heavily, and within a minute she stood nude and confident in front of her barely-clad wife.
The faint hitch in Ino's breathing was gratifying, and Sakura held out her hands towards the beautiful woman she had somehow won the right to marry. Ino placed her hands in Sakura's, and the warrior gently reeled her in for yet another kiss. She slid her hands slowly along the bare skin of her new wife's stomach and sides, her left hand drifting to the clasp holding up the final layer of Ino's wedding silks as her right pressed to the small of the blonde's back, pressing her body closer to Sakura's.
Nimble fingers undid the clasp, deft and sure in their movements, and when Sakura rather reluctantly pulled back from the kiss she let go. The pale cloth slid to the floor, pooling around Ino's feet, and finally the princess was bared to her wife's gaze.
"Take me to bed, my champion," Ino murmured. "Now." Sakura smiled as she wrapped her arms around the beautiful blonde, relishing the warmth of the pale body pressed along hers.
"As you command, Princess."
Ino squeaked cutely when Sakura gripped her by the rear and lifted her up, and Sakura smirked a little as she took the few steps forward necessary to set the blonde down on the bed awaiting them.
Then she sank to her knees, hands resting on her pretty wife's thighs, and slipped her shoulders between Ino's knees as the blonde parted her legs almost shyly.
"If you want me to stop, tell me," Sakura ordered, and then leaned forward.
Ino would deny until her dying day that she squeaked when her wonderfully strong new spouse pressed a kiss to the sensitive skin at the join of thigh and body, Ino's hands darting to Sakura's head to slide into pink locks and hold firm. Sakura chuckled a little into Ino's thigh, and the blonde whimpered as the kneeling woman shifted just enough that her warm breath brushed across Ino's slick folds. The arousal that had been burning low from the moment of their first kiss flared, igniting as Sakura's mouth made contact.
Ino's hands tightened in Sakura's hair, gripping hard but not pulling, as Sakura's tongue delicately traced over the blonde's clit. Her thighs were trembling with tension as Sakura pressed just a little firmer, and she whimpered when Sakura slid a finger into her already-wet cunt. She fell back on the bed, no longer willing to strain to hold herself up, as Sakura's tongue and finger moved in tandem, stroking and curling and pushing her ever-closer to a climax. It had been months since Ino had had any hand on her but her own, and the touch of another – the touch of her wife, her strong warrior woman – was almost too much to bear.
She gasped a little, whimpered again as Sakura slid a second finger into her, stroking and thrusting and curling just so, arched her back with a bitten-off cry when Sakura's tongue pressed hard against her clit. Her entire body jerked, clenched down around Sakura's fingers, throbbed with the sudden tumble from climbing arousal to orgasmic lassitude.
But Sakura didn't stop, didn't ease up, didn't back off even as Ino's body convulsed with the aftershocks of her orgasm. Her fingers stilled inside Ino, pressing firm against her in a way that prolonged the sensations causing her vision to blur, but her mouth – gods and goddesses, her mouth – continued its sweet torture of Ino's now-oversensitive clit.
Ino tossed her head, gasping whimpers breaking upon her lips, her body arching towards Sakura's mouth and hand even as it tried to escape the overwhelming pleasure singing along her nerves. Her hands stayed buried deep in her wife's pink hair, holding her close rather than trying to push her away.
A second orgasm, as startling as the first and just as intense, crashed through Ino's body when Sakura gave a single thrust of her fingers, and there was no way for Ino to hold back the startled, pleasured scream that tore from her lips. Her back arched, every muscle in her body held taut and quivering for a long moment, before she collapsed back to the bed with a shakily exhaled moan.
This time Sakura was kind enough to back off, gentling her touch and shifting her mouth to instead press soft, damp kisses to Ino's inner thighs, fingers still once more and now relaxed, simply a presence as Ino's body throbbed around the digits.
Ino's chest heaved with her gasping breaths, her fingers still tangled in Sakura's hair but no longer gripping like her life depended on it, and when she felt Sakura's fingers slip out of her she couldn't help the whimper – half protest, half relief. Sakura chuckled against her thigh, and Ino gave a faint tug on the handfuls of hair she still held, coaxing her wife up from between her legs. Sakura went easily, slipping one thigh between Ino's as she spread her body out over the blonde's, placing gentle, loving kisses along Ino's trembling body as she rose.
Sakura's arms slid beneath Ino's shoulders, gently shifting her further up the bed so she was on it properly, and Ino gave another, slightly impatient tug to her wife's hair even as she tried to regain her breath. Sakura was smiling, almost smirking but not quite, as she followed the guiding pressure to kiss Ino again. Ino moaned a little at the taste of herself on Sakura's lips, hands shifting from hair to shoulders as she tried to pull Sakura closer. Sakura shifted, just enough to press their bodies together without crushing Ino's more delicate form beneath her muscular one, and deepened the kiss when Ino made a noise of satisfaction.
What seemed like an age later, Ino pulled back from the kiss to catch her breath, lips swollen and red.
"This wasn't what I expected when I went to the contest this morning," she admitted, and Sakura laughed as she ducked her head to press her mouth to the junction of Ino's neck and shoulder. Ino's breath hitched.
"I wasn't expecting exactly this, either," the pink-haired woman admitted, breath warm on Ino's throat. She lifted her head again to meet Ino's gaze, green eyes sparkling with mischief. "But this is so much better, don't you agree?"
"That was the best sex I've ever had," Ino admitted, cheeks flushing pink, and Sakura grinned. The expression was almost as feral as her smile before her battle with Chouji.
"If you think we're done, I've got news for you," the warrior informed her princess, and Ino gasped as a calloused palm curved around one breast, thumb brushing her nipple.
"I don't have any complaints," she managed, and surrendered again to her wife's skilled hands and mouth.
No, she definitely wasn't going to be bored anymore.