Damn one shots are multiplying like, well, one shot plot bunnies. I have one more to write before I can finish the latest chapter of A Reason to Stay. I promise it's coming.

This one takes place way in the past, when Sakura gave back Ino's ribbon. It's the flashback we see during Sakura and Ino's Chuunin exam fight.

Disclaimer: This sweet moment belongs to Masashi Kishimoto and the various publishing people around the world.

Ribbon Friends

Ino-pig! You're late!

Sakura clenched the red ribbon in her fist. Noticing the action Sakura released her grip and smoothed the ribbon out again. She didn't want to give back the gift in such a sorry state, she'd even ironed it this morning. It looked as fresh as when Ino had given it to her.

Sakura knew what she was about to do was dangerous. It might be the final nail in the coffin of her friendship with Ino. The Kamis knew that they'd both put enough nails into it over the last year. Frowning as she thought of many incidents where they'd both let their competitive natures get the better of them, Sakura had to wonder just when things had turned like this.

It was well before she'd discovered the love of her life, in fact Sakura was sure it stemmed back to before she'd met Ino. It stemmed back to when she'd started lying.

Ino finally arrived striding through the trees, clearly the fact that she was not in Sasuke's team was biting her. Good.

"Sakura!" She yelled upon seeing her erstwhile friend.

"Huh, so you finally made it." Sakura said putting as much of a sneer into her voice as possible.

Ino scowled. Since they'd both fallen in love with Sasuke Sakura had changed. Ino remembered wishing Sakura would be more self confident, but this was too much. Challenging her for Sasuke, who did the little cry baby think she was?

"What did you want to tell me, forehead girl?" Ino spat.

Tap tap. Sakura thought smiling grimly.

She'd started lying when her family had moved to Konoha. There were many reasons her parents had moved away from their village, one of them was Sakura.

If you looked at early photos of Sakura there was a chance that you wouldn't connect them to the graceful, long haired girl standing at the edge of the woods. There wasn't a picture where she wasn't sporting bruises, cuts, scrapes, bandages, even a cast. The only four year old to have broken her wrist, because if squirrels could climb trees then so could she.

With her short hair, her eternal scruffy appearance, and the complete absence of anything girlie in her wardrobe you'd swear it was her brother. Add to it the fact that she had no girl friends, only little boys equally rough that she ran with.

What you couldn't miss in the pictures was the grin a mile wide on her face. As she ran foot races, jumped ditches, crashed into things, climbed over things, fell down and got back up, always grinning.

That she was known for her bossy nature, her penchant for using her fists to keep her little gang in line, and her sharp tongue didn't bother her. She had her friends she had her freedom.

Then she started school.

"I'm on the same team as Sasuke-kun..." Sakura began.

Ino scowled and looked to the side. She didn't need reminding!

She remembered clearly wriggling impaitently in her mother's arms as her mother tried to cleam her face a second time. Remembered rejecting outright to wear a dress on her first day. Her friends were waiting for her, they wouldn't be wearing dresses.

She imagined the fun they would have, she imagined ruling the school yard like she had the playground. Her and her friends were going to have the best time. And she was going to lead it.

It didn't quite work out like that.

There was a hidden line that somehow her friends had crossed the night before school, and someone had forgotton to tell her she was supposed to have crossed it too.

They were boys, stronger, faster, meaner. She was a girl, weaker, slower, a cry baby. At first she'd tried to push past it. Force them to play with her, but boys who'd once been so pliant to her will had turned rough and stubborn. She had her first and last schoolyard fight with her former best friend over whether she was a bossy, loud mouthed, pushy, brat or not.

It was after the fight that her parents started to talk about going to Konoha, her grandmother had lived there, they could bypass alot of redtape if she spoke to a few old friends.

Sakura soon found out that she was noone's favourite at school. Her loud behaviour brought her punishment in class, her hate for dresses and dolls alienated her from the other girls, her desire to be the best turned the boys against her.

She became the butt of every joke, the last to picked for anything, the only one who ate alone. If she ate.

Crying to her mother one day, Sakura asked her why she couldn't make any friends. Her mother had sighingly explained the expected behaviour of a young girl and Sakura had listened to her wide eyed and believing.

However she found that her reputation at school was not going to be forgotton just by wearing a few skirts. She felt more and more helpless as days went by. The tears came more and more easily.

When they moved to Konoha she felt a stab of hope. If she started out acting like she was supposed to, then she'd be accepted. She could have friends. She just had to act like her mother had told her.

She chose a straight red dress, and practiced smiling in the mirror. Not a grin, a shy little girly smile. It felt fake but it looked good.

She tried it on the class. It almost worked. She acted bashful, weak, unsure. She agreed with everyone else, she let the others tell her what to do. She played down her intelligence, and flattered the boys. Shrieked in fake fear when they came by and ran away when they threatened to splash water on them. Played dolls until she thought she really would cry.

Then it happened.

"I won't lose to you, Ino." Sakura said, finding the words easier to say as she kept going.

"Same here, Sakura... I won't lose to you no matter what." Ino promised.

Sakura felt something light in her chest, this was the friendship she wanted to earn. Equals.

"Hey! Forehead girl!" Kisho called out.

"Huh?" Sakura said unsure if he was pointing at her or not.

The girls sitting in a circle with her giggled. Trembling Sakura lifted a hand to her forehead. A group of boys came to join Kisho, encouraging him.

"Yeah you, with the giant forehead! You're forehead girl!" Kisho grinned.

"Forehead girl!" Some of the girls whispered delighted.

Sakura felt tears tremble on her lashes as she darted a glance around the school grounds. Everyone was looking at her. She could see them whispering to each other. She knew what they were whispering.

Almost imperceptably the other girls turned their backs on her, cutting her out. They didn't want 'forehead girl' hanging out with them.

Suddenly it was just like the last time.

It wasn't fair, she cried to herself. She'd tried, she changed and they still didn't like her. She'd tried so hard, she'd worn dresses, she'd crushed herself down, she been like them, why didn't they like her?

That was the day she met Ino. Ino was part of a group of children that kept themselves apart from the others. Sakura wasn't sure why they were special, but she knew they were. Just like their families.

When Ino had offered her the red ribbon, she hadn't offered it to Sakura. She'd offered it to the little crybaby that Sakura appeared to be.

If you looked at photos of her from the Academy you wouldn't think they were of the same confident, feisty kunoichi waiting for her very best friend to arrive. There almost wasn't a picture where she wasn't trying to hide behind someone, usually Ino. If she did find herself singled out in a photo, she always adopted a pose Ino had taught her was cute, pretending she was Ino.

"Would you be my friend?" She'd shyly asked, and Ino had accepted.

And Ino liked her, and Sakura was happy, so Sakura had kept pretending. Until they both chose Sasuke. And Sakura found herself on the opposite side of a war from Ino, the one person she both did and did not want to fight.

Because Sakura was tired of pretending, she didn't want Ino to be friends with cry baby Sakura any longer. She wanted Ino to be friends with the real Sakura, with her.

Because she needed Ino to be friends with her real self. Because it mattered to Sakura that Ino liked her. Because it was important that Ino recognised Sakura's real self.

"I'm returning this ribbon." Stiff armed Sakura held it out.

Too late Sakura realised she was crushing it in her grip again. No time to smooth it out now. Ino looked at it and it took her a moment to recognise it as the ribbon she'd given Sakura. The ribbon Sakura never took off. It hurt.

She hardened her face before her surprise could show too long and glared at Sakura. Sakura matched her glare for glare.

"I gave you that ribbon,..." Ino said, breaking off to hide the hitch in her voice.

Ino's eyes roamed up to Sakura's hair. She saw Sakura's forehead protector had taken its place. Sakura's arm, offering the ribbon back, didn't move. Ino injected as much anger into her voice as she could.

"...and forehead protectors go on the forehead." Ino snapped to end her sentence.

Sakura ignored the acid in Ino's voice.

"From now on I'm not a girl that follows you around." Sakura said evenly.

So she'd come up with this plan. She had to end the friendship between cry baby Sakura and protector Ino. She had to get Ino to see the real her. She had to become Ino's equal, in everything. She had to hope that Ino would be okay with it.

Sakura took a deep breath in, time to end this. She put her hand up to her forehead protector to give herself the strength to finish her plan.

"The time I put it on my forehead is the time, as a female shinobi, I don't lose to you."

Sakura waited holding her breath. Ino gave a small, hard smile.

"Good idea...then me too." Ino said reaching for Sakura's fist.

When she felt ready, when she felt strong enough, she'd go back to Ino, and she'd ask one more time.

"Would you be my friend?"

Sakura allowed herself a tiny smile as rather than just taking the ribbon Ino took Sakura's hand in strong grip.

"Until that time."