What Friends Are For

Ino walked into the Hokage's office to find the Sannin talking with her apprentice.

Nodding, she greeted the pair warmly, "Tsunade-sama, hey, Sakura."

The pink haired medic narrowed her eyes. "What do you want, Ino?"

"What do you mean?" Ino questioned, looking taken aback at the accusation.

Sakura rolled her eyes. Her friend was smiling, she just called her 'Sakura' and she was being nice. She instantly knew the blonde was after something from her. "Come on, Ino, I know you, you don't act like this unless you want something."

"Can't I just be nice?"

"No."

The blonde shrugged. "How are you anyway?"

Crossing her arms over her chest, Sakura replied, "Fine, what do you want?"

"Nothing, what are you doing?"

Sakura frowned. She wished her friend would just ask for whatever she wanted so she could turn her down instead of dragging it out which would only frustrate her. "I was having a conversation until you interrupted."

Smiling, Ino apologised, "Sorry about that."

There was a small silence. Ino stood there smiling, Sakura was waiting for her friend to speak with increasing impatience and Tsunade watched in amusement.

"Hey, Sakura, can I borrow a dress?"

"No."

Ino pouted. "Why not? I'll return it."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Yeah, that's what you usually say when you 'borrow' something."

With an innocent expression, Ino shrugged as if she had no idea what the pinkette was on about. "You always borrow my clothes."

Sakura groaned. "Only when you insult my own wardrobe and insist I have to wear something of yours. At least I return the items."

Ino frowned. "What have I ever not returned?"

Sakura shook her head at the blonde. "Do you want a list?"

"Sure."

Thinking for a moment, Sakura took a breath. "Five medical textbooks, three skirts, two dresses, a pair of shoes, an umbrella, nail varnish, half my groceries, three reading books, a saucepan, several hair ties-"

Ino held up a hand to stop the ongoing list. "Well, I'll return that stuff. I give you things back eventually, I mean, I returned your toaster and-"

"When the hell did you take my toaster?" Sakura stared at the blonde, mouth agape.

Covering up her 'oh she didn't know' face Ino smiled again. "Never mind... Please?"

Sakura was really getting irritated now. "No."

"Pretty please?"

"No, Ino."

Pouting, the Yamanaka shrugged. "Fine, I'll have to borrow it myself."

Sakura frowned. "Pig, you will not break into my house to steal some dress."

Smiling, Ino replied, "Good, you can let me in. By the way you're coming to a party with me tonight. I'll head to your house now. Come on!"

Before Sakura had a chance to reply, her friend had already left the room. Tsunade smirked as her apprentice attempted to burn a hole through the door, where the blonde had disappeared, with an angry glare.

Trying to keep the amusement out of her tone, the Hokage addressed her student, "Sakura."

The same couldn't go for her amused smile. Sakura frowned, crossing her arms in annoyance as the Sannin tried not to laugh at her.

"Does she usually do that?"

"All the time," Sakura murmured. "I don't know why we are even friends."

"So she can steal your stuff and so that you have some form of a social life."

Sakura's mouth opened in surprise at her mentor's statement before she frowned at the smug blonde."Thanks, Shishou," she said, her tone full of sarcasm.

Still smirking, the Hokage nodded. "No problem, and I'll want those reports by tomorrow."

Sakura sighed. "All right."

"You'd better get going before Ino raids your house."

As if remembering the blonde's small speech, Sakura nodded and rushed to leave.

"And, Sakura."

Pausing the young medic glanced over her shoulder. "Shishou?"

"Can I borrow a bottle of sake?"

"No."

The door slammed and Tsunade shrugged.

Well, it was worth a shot.

Author Notes:

I cleverly clicked the delete option twice on the original of this story and redid it straight away from memory. It's a shame the redo is never as good. This one is a lot older than the story I uploaded beforehand and is probably around half a year old.

I've now uploaded 3 of my stories in the past day or so and I was pretty taken aback by the amount these actually get read. I want to thank everyone who has favourited my past two stories, reviewed and subscribed to me - that may only be three people but I really do appreciate it, including the others who have read my stories but not particularly taken any action afterwards ^_^.

I'm also a little stumped about what to do now. I have 138 stories and story ideas (only a few finished but a lot a good way in) so far, but I certainly do not want to swamp this website all at once. It's also made me think about which I should upload. These were written over a span of a year and they differ in quality, style and length. The three I've uploaded so far are all short humour stories but I have written over 10 romantic pairings (some a lot more than once) and I have some very long stories. These are not all humour either. I have darker ones and random ones and some with wacky situations that I've thrown Sakura (mainly) into. I guess this is more directed at the people who now follow my uploads, because I want to be uploading content that you will enjoy.

I'll stop before I throw the word count of this story from 600 odd to over 1000... Merry Christmas!

*Edit* Too late! It's already over 1000, whoops, sorry! Merry Christmas again!

*Later Edit* Going through all my old stories and changing any grammar mistakes I find... This is another old, cringe-worthy story. I guess it's good to feel like that when you look back, though.