50Title: The Art of Escape
Summary: In which Inojin is shown to have inherited his father's drawing ability and his lack of tact.
Pairing: SaraJin/InoSara
Disclaimer: Naruto, not mine since 1999.
In the kitchen, Sasuke paces back and forth like a lion. Someone is trying to shower one of the women in his life with their stalkerish, unwanted attention, and Sasuke will absolutely not stand for that. He will go straight to Ino, he raves, and demand to see her receipt book so he can track down the culprit.
Beside him, Sakura sighs and rolls her eyes. She knows exactly who's been sending those flowers and who they're for, but unlike Sasuke, she thinks Sarada and Inojin's "hidden" relationship is adorable.
It is the worst kept secret in the village that their daughter is dating Ino and Sai's son, but somehow Sasuke is the only person that doesn't know. Sakura figures she should probably tell him at some point, but she wants the kids to have a little bit more time together before Sasuke submits Inojin to the Bingo Book.
"-no coward that refuses to sign his name or show his face will be setting foot near either one of you. I will personally ensure that he's stuck in an infinite tsukuyomi of pain if he ever attempts to contact you in person-"
Just as Sasuke's rant is ramping up, the crash of shattering glass can be heard from down the hall. Before Sakura can utter a word, Sasuke is flying toward Sarada's room.
Groaning, Sakura takes off after him.
"Crap crap double crap."
The problem with making out with one party on top of a dresser full of flowers is that their enthusiasm was bound to cause a mess.
Unfortunately, it was a very noisy mess.
Sarada hurriedly sweeps the pieces of the broken vase under her bed as Inojin throws the scattered flowers out the window. To their mutual horror, they hear the sound of thundering footsteps and Sasuke's bellowing voice in the hall.
"Sarada! What's going on in there!"
Beyond him, Sakura's muffled voice responds. "Calm down, Sasuke-kun, she probably just dropped something. There's no need to get so worked up."
But Sasuke is intractable. "Like hell there isn't. There's a boy in there, I can smell him."
"Get out," Sarada hisses, shoving Inojin toward the window.
But they're two seconds too late as the door abruptly slams open, revealing a Sasuke whose face starts purpling as soon as he lays spinning sharingan eyes on Inojin, who is half hanging out of the window.
Inojin turns deadly white (well, whiter than he usually is) and scrambles to free himself from the window.
"YOU LITTLE RUNT, HOW DARE YOU ENTER MY HOUSE AND DEFILE MY DAUGHTER," Sasuke roars, yanking Kusanagi out of its scabbard and charging toward the window.
"Papa/Sasuke, stop!" Sarada and Sakura yell together, but Sasuke is deaf to them.
Outside, Inojin whips out his sketchbook as he stumbles through the garden, struggling to pull his brush out of his pants pocket. Sasuke, being faster than even most ANBU, is already out the window and way too close for comfort.
Inojin jerks open the sketchbook, hurriedly breezing past the pages that hold what looks suspiciously like risque drawings of a certain Uchiha daughter to a blank page. His brush swipes across the page, and he sends one ink creature after another in hopes of distracting Sasuke, or at least slowing him down.
But Kusanagi slices through the ink like…well, ink, and the Uchiha isn't slowed down in the least.
Reaching the end of a street, Inojin takes a sharp left, only to find himself cornered in a dead end. He turns and gulps as Sasuke stops in the alley entrance, chokuto brandished and sharingan spinning rapidly.
There's no time left to think. He has one last, desperate move up his sleeve. If he uses it, he's definitely dead, but it will buy him time to get away for now.
Biting his lip, Inojin rapidly draws a series of swirls and curves and lets the ink come to life. He's already scrambling up the back wall with chakra-coated feet as Sasuke can only stare in first surprise, then realization, and then finally murderous fury.
Left behind in Inojin's wake is an inky likeness of a naked Sakura, winking and waving at Sasuke.