Title: In Their Shoes

Summary: Sakura wants Ino to back off Sasuke-kun when he returns to Konoha. Ino wants to know why the hell Sakura would approve... 'it.' Post Manga. 800 words.

Pairings: Eh...subtext. Not just between Naruto and Sasuke--Naruto and Sakura too. And Ino and Sakura if you want (lord know there's enough of that in the manga too xD).

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"I don't see why what I do is any of your business, Forehead Girl!"

Ino stomped heavily into the store, Sakura trailing in behind her, quiet since her heavy statement a few moments ago.

Ino was pissed, no, beyond pissed. There she had been, about to hug Sasuke-kun like she had when they were children (she had seen Sakura standing by him and Naruto), when Sakura had intercepted her, grinningly grabbed her arm, and said she had something to tell her before dragging her away.

And, apparently, it was that under no cicrumstances was she to come near Sasuke-kun with dreams of dates and romance. There had been no hysterical undertone in her voice like their insane fights over the boy usual carried--she had been, Ino thought, almost hatefully serious.

Behind her, Sakura pursed her lips to keep her famous temper down. It was a warning look that would have sent Naruto hiding in the bread aisle ("Sakura-chan's afraid of carbs!" He tried to explain to Ino, Suigetsu, and Sasuke's disbelieving faces when they found him there after forty-two hours straight), had Sai switching places with an ink doll, or any other just backing away slowly, but Ino looked away uncaring. "So yeah," she snapped, "explain that to me since you followed me in here." She narrowed her eyes, "Being as you never come in here anymore as it is. Why should I do what you say!"

"Because," Sakura said quietly. Or maybe it just seemed that way after Ino's loudness, "Because you're interfering with the time they have right now. I can't fight off both you and Karin, Ino."

"Peh!" Ino said haughtily. "Sasuke-kun and Naruto, Sasuke-kun and Naruto! They're together all the time now! You need a crow bar to get Naruto away from Sasuke-kun! And when Sasuke-kun isn't with his mental-hospital escape group of crazies he's around Naruto too!"

""Sasuke-kun just killed his broth--"

"He was a complete psycho-maniac! Who wouldn't want to kill him? It's..." Ino sucked in her breath and glared as she spun around. "It's almost like you like them acting like a couple of gay boys!"

Sakura flinched at the harshness of that voice, but held her ground. She lowered her head. "..."

Ino snorted and turned her back on her. She lifted up the slab of wood to get behind the counter, pulled out a vase and began to arrange around it. She wasn't sure what she was mad at exactly--if it was being told 'no' or that it was Sakura who told her no. She narrowed her eyes and clenched her teeth, her grip on a forget-me-not nearly making it welt with the faint heat of intent rolling off her body.

And besides, she thought irritably, if she didn't fight with Sakura over Sasuke-kun, what was there to tie them together? Their friendship had never been stable since--

"Ino." Sakura's voice broke in.

Since...

I don't need you anymore. I stand on my own.

"Ino..."

"Yeah?" Ino said grumpily as she arranged another flower vase to calm herself.

"...I...if what happened to Sasuke-kun and Naruto had happened to you and me, I'd want you all to myself right now too."

Ino's hands stilled.

"We used to be really good friends didn't we?" Sakura pleaded. "I...I looked up to you all the time. You helped me, even when my parents were fighting and I didn't want to keep being a ninja because that was what some of the arguments were about. You told me to keep going, I wasn't lonely and... And I messed up really bad, I know that." She closed her eyes. "Now, you say I'm stronger, and that's because I wanted so badly to protect them. Protect Naruto because I love him so much..." Her voice was shaking, her eyes heavy with a dark memory of something that frightened her. "Protect him from the world, from himself. Because I see myself in him. Because while he was plummeting to hell without Sasuke-kun...I could understand too, what it would be like to lose someone you were determined to keep a rival for pride, afraid to bring them closer to where they could hurt you and admit they meant more..."

She swallowed and looked away, wiping a tear from her eye quickly. "I want them to be safe," she whispered. "I want them to be happy. And I know how to do it..because it's so easy to put myself in their places a little. And right now, Sasuke-kun needs a brother more than ever, after...after Itachi..."

Ino stared, wondering for the thousandth time how someone could be so legendarily strong and still so soft with her heart. Like an undying, persistent flower. "Sakura..."

The black-gloved hand at her side clenched to a fist. She looked at Ino fiercely.

"I will not be useless to them again, I swore that to myself on my very life. So please Ino, stop pursuing Sasuke-kun. I will only ask you once before I show you I'm not kidding when I say I'll do anything for them...

Even if it's you in my way."

Standing behind the counter, Ino couldn't stop her breath from catching at the force and will behind Sakura's eyes. And behind them she saw the pain fostered over years of regret, the maternal instincts Ino herself had lost to bitterness but Sakura continued to foster and give even at the cost of herself. Those feelings she felt for her partners...yes a love for a partner was completely different one felt for a friend, a lover, or family member, if one tried it. What Sakura felt for her partner Naruto...Ino resigned herself to not participating a long time ago now, when Shikamaru had left for Sand after all.

And now...Sakura...Ino had never been more aware that that fist had enough chakra infused there to collapse her entire flower shop in a single punch, or so the hairs on the back of her neck told her.

Huh.

She'd grown in the merciless wild into something more beautiful than anyone could have imagined.

Ino's lips were dry and her heart was hammering, but she knew how to break the silence: "A kajillion bugs."

Sakura blinked. "Huh?"

Ino grinned. "That girl you keep beating away with a stick. With the red hair and the temper when Naruto's around. We should totally have Shino filter a kajillion bugs into her bed."

Sakura blinked again in shock and then her serious expression turned a little shy. "Ah...actually I was just thinking we could first invite her to lunch sometime and...hope she's not so bad since Sasuke-kun did seek her out..."

"And then unleash the bugs?"

"I don't want to start a war with Sasuke-kun's team! You're merciless Ino."

"Only because I'm happy to be fighting with you for something again!" Ino said breezily. "Something important...and something that's just the two of us."

And while those winking blue eyes chattered away about how she would scare Karin off for sure with "A Talk"...Sakura thought of another pair of blues that hadn't been shining like that for years.

Happy to be fighting with you again.

Just the two of us.

"Hey Sakura-chan!" Naruto shouted across the street to her merrily as he and Sasuke made their way to the ramen stand after sparring on the training grounds.

Ino's blue eyes in front of her...so happy now...

"Sasuke-kun means a great deal to Naruto doesn't he?"

"Yes Sai, he does."

"...I think it goes both ways..."

Just...us.

Yeah... she knew someone else who was happy about that too...

And Sakura smiled.

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A/N: Sakura's such a yaoi fangirl. She wants the smexy back.

I wasn't originally going to continue this, but this one-shot slid right into the post-manga-verse I was angling for...so...and I've got a few more POV's planned, including Karin (92 percent done), Suigetsu, and a more personal Sakura one as well. Maybe Naruto and Sasuke, but...they're so darned hard!