Disclaimer: I don't own Ino, Sakura, Tenten, Sasuke, or the Yamanaka Flower Shop. Ah whatever. I don't own Naruto in general.

When They Were Young

"Sakura-chan!! What do you wanna do today, huh, huh?"

"Hi Ino-chan! I don't know, do you wanna go for a walk?"

"Sure! Let's go!"

Seven-year-old Ino grabbed her seven-year-old friend Sakura by the arm and dragged her out of her house. Sakura's mother watched out the window as the two laughed and played with each other.

'They're so inseparable...' she thought to herself. It was true; you would never see one girl without the other, ever since they met each other a couple years ago. It was a wonder that they never got tired of each other. They saw each other every single day, one going to the other's house. Other girls got jealous and envied the close friendship Ino and Sakura shared. They were also confused about the two ever since they found out Ino and Sakura were the best of friends. Why would Ino, one of the coolest girls in the Ninja Academy, want to hang out with a wide-forehead girl like Sakura?

Nobody figured out why, and nobody bothered to ask Ino. Nobody would ask Sakura either, because almost nobody liked Sakura, and even when she and Ino became friends, still not a lot of people liked her. It was like there was a secret rule not to like Sakura. And Ino wondered about that, why nobody liked Sakura. 'I mean, just because she has a big forehead doesn't mean people shouldn't like her...it's not like she has a scary split personality or anything!' Ino thought one day.

But it didn't matter to them what anybody thought. All that mattered was that they were best friends, and that nothing would change that.

So today was their usual daily routine, when they had a day off of the Ninja Academy, that is. Sometimes, they would head to a certain destination and stay there for hours, talking about this and that, and playing a few of their favorite games. Sometimes, they would do their homework together, or practice their chakra control, since the academy didn't teach seven-year- olds any jutsus yet. Or, sometimes they would just take a walk around Leaf Village, like today.

If they didn't know someone in Konoha, they would introduce themselves. Therefore, they knew everyone in Leaf Village. And everyone in Leaf Village knew of these two sweet little girls.

Not everyone in the village liked them though. There is a group of young girls in the village that would tease them, every single day. Ino and Sakura tried to ignore them, but they just kept coming. But today...today would be different.

"Sakura-chan," Ino called to her friend as they walked through the village.

"Yeah?"

"You know those girls that always follow us around everyday?" Ino asked.

"Yes, those three girls. I think they're just jealous of us, aren't they?" Sakura giggled.

Ino grinned. "Hah, of course they are. Anyway, I think I might have a plan for getting back at them today when they come by."

Sakura stopped in the middle of the road and so did Ino. "Really, what's that?"

"Well...did I tell you about this cool new Jutsu my daddy taught me the other day?"

No, the academy didn't teach the seven-year-olds any jutsu yet. But that didn't mean that their parents couldn't teach them any...

-::-::-::-

"Ino! Sakura! Get out here! It's us, Tori, Tenten, and Mai!" a girl yelled into Yamanaka's Flower Shop.

"Yeah, we have something to talk to you about!" a second girl yelled. "This is gonna be so fun..." she whispered to her two other comrades.

After waiting a few seconds, she sighed. "Tori, they're not coming out!"

"Quiet, Tenten. We'll get them to come this time," the first girl, known as Tori, said.

"Ino, Sakura! We're giving you five seconds to come out or else we're going in! One! Two! Three!....um..." she turned to the third girl, Mai. "What comes after three?" she whispered. Mai didn't seem to notice her at all.

"I-it's...it's Sa...Sasuke-kun!" she blurted out.

"Sasuke-kun isn't a numbe....SASUKE-KUN?! Where??" She turned around to face the door and sure enough, there was "Sasuke-kun". Tori and Mai started to blush.

"Hi...Sasuke-kun," Tori said, shyly. She started playing with her brown locks of hair. "What are you doing here?"

Tenten rolled her eyes. What was so great about this Sasuke anyway? They were eight years old, for crying out loud! 'Boys should come later in life,' she thought.

Sasuke suddenly started to talk. LOUD.

"STOP TRYING TO FIGHT WITH INO-CHAN AND SAKURA-CHAN! THEY DIDN'T DO ANYTHING TO YOU SO WHY DO YOU ALWAYS PICK ON THEM?" he screamed. Then he looked confused. The girls looked at him, at a loss for words. Then they ran away, Tori and Mai starting to shed tears.

"Ino...chan? Sakura...chan? I don't get it...they never hang out with each other..." Tori mumbled while she was running.

Mai, however, was bawling. "Why Sasuke-kun...why??"

A few people watched as the three girls ran off.

-::-::-::-

Meanwhile, back at the flower shop...

Sasuke giggled like a little girl. Well, maybe because there was a little girl inside of him that temporarily took over his brain. She walked inside the flower shop as Sasuke where Sakura was waiting in the back, watching over Ino's real body. Of course, Sakura was watching through the open door.

"Ino, that was awesome!" Sakura said giddily as she gave 'Sasuke' a high five. "I saw the whole thing from in here. Who knew they were so scared of Sasuke?"

'Sasuke' nodded, then grinned. "My daddy's jutsu is the coolest!" Suddenly, 'Sasuke' began to wobble around, holding his head. "Ugh...I think I've been in his body for too long...I mean, I just learned this thing..."

After a few seconds of rubbing her head, Ino decided that she'd had enough. "Time to return back to my body..."

"Wait! Ino-chan! What would Sasuke think if he were here? He'd find out what we did then he might tell on us!" Sakura said.

"Fine, I'll go outside...stay here," "Sasuke' said. He then stepped outside. Ino put her hands in the position her father had told her about yesterday to get back to her normal body, not once sensing a dozen pairs of eyes focused on her.

"Dispel!" 'Sasuke' said. Then he rubbed his head.

"Ow...my head hurts," he said to himself. Suddenly, a few villagers came up to him and started yelling.

"Why you little brat!"

"How dare you yell at those poor little girls like that?"

"Honestly, of all the nerve!"

"Hey aren't you an Uchiha kid?"

"Hmph, I expected better from the most powerful clan in Konoha!"

Sasuke covered his ears. "What? What are you talking about?" he whimpered. After being ridiculed, and still without an answer, he started to run back home, the villagers chasing him all the way. "Mommy!!" he cried.

-::-::-::-

A pink-haired girl and a blonde-haired girl giggled while walking away from the flower shop.

"I still can't get the looks on their faces out of my head!" Sakura said, hugging her best friend. "I bet they won't bother us again. But...I was wondering, why did you scream at them?"

"I don't know, Sakura-chan. I wasn't trying to scream at them...but guess what? I'm going to perfect this jutsu so I can stay in a body longer! Then we'll see what kinds of jokes we can play on them..." Ino said with an evil smile. Then her expression turned into a thoughtful one. "Hey, do you think Sasuke wanted to scream at them for us?" Ino said.

"Why would he do that? We don't even know him, and he doesn't know us! I wonder why those girls like him so much...?" Sakura asked. Ino shrugged.

"Ah...well in that case, Sasuke's my hero!" Sakura said, jokingly.

Ino laughed. "No! Sasuke's my hero!"

The two girls started to giggle again.

-::-::-::-

AN: A revised edition of the original. I wanted to make it a little better, after reading it over again...I found that there was some stuff I could have added, and some I could have taken off. If you read the original version, Sakura and Ino were 5. I upped their ages a little in this one, to make them seem a little more thoughtful and to make Ino learning a jutsu more believable. And I tried adding a headache in there because since she just learned the jutsu the other day, she's still having a bit of trouble with it.

This story is before they knew anything about Sasuke, and before Sasuke's family was murdered. That's why he's still a bit vulnerable. Tenten was added in this story merely because I thought she belonged in some sort of group when she was that age...but with her little character development, she could have been anything, hehe. If you didn't notice, she was a bit more mature than the two other little girls she was with, though. Uhm...oh and Tenten is a year older than Sakura and Ino...just in case you guys forgot, so that's why she's eight. xP

Oh, and I changed the title "When We Were Young" to "When They Were Young"...mostly because...it's in third person so if I kept the "we" in the title it would seem like I was talking about myself...or something...

And that's the end of that. Please review, I want to know if I can improve this story in any way. And I'm not continuing, it's just a one shot.

Thanks! Kawaii Yoshi