Author: Thanks so much for the reviews! ^_^

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Grinning to myself I closed my math book and placed it in my book bag. I finished all of my homework and was and now I could spend most of my free time playing with Angel.

Looking down at my watch I saw that Naruto's and Sasuke's football practice was about over. Standing from the bleachers, I slung my bag over my shoulder and looked out onto the football field. All of the guys were huddled up in front of Coach Guy whom was wearing a hideous green spandex jump suit and was currently making some weird poses and calling his players his precious youths.

Shaking my head and declaring that I would one day burn that outfit, I began my descent down the bleachers. Quickly making my way to the bottom, I made my way towards the school to head to my locker. Since I had my homework done, there was no point in even bringing my book bag home.

Entering the school, I looked down the deserted halls before continuing onward. I jumped when the door closed loudly behind me and scolded myself for being so jumpy. Making my way down the halls quickly, I found my locker. Putting in my combination, I opened the door and slid my bag off my shoulder. Unzipping it, I pulled out my books and neatly placed them in my locker. When finished, I folded up my bag and placed it on top of my books.

Slamming my locker door shut, I turned and headed towards the school entrance. With a smile, I stuffed my hands into the front pocket of my hoodie.

The rest of the day had gone without a hitch. Nobody came up to me to harass me or ask any stupid questions...but then again, Sasuke and Naruto were hovering over me like wolves protecting their pups.

Shaking that image from my mind I continued to smile; nothing was going to ruin my day!

"Sakura?"

Spoke too fucking soon...

I turned and spotted Ino walking towards me from a connecting hallway. I sighed heavily, looking towards the entrance doors that weren't even 20ft away from me.

If I run now I can make it. I can bust through those doors and avoid this conversation entirely.

"Hey..."

Shit!

I turned and took a startled step back at realizing how close Ino was from my face. Blushing, I averted my eyes from her penetrating gaze.

"Hey..." I muttered awkwardly.

I stiffened as my eyes widened in surprise…or maybe in horror as I felt a soft hand caress the right side of my face. Ino took a step closer to me and with her free hand she tilted my fitted cap to the side. She lifted my chin up, cupping my cheek in the palm of her hand, gently rubbing her thumb across my now very visible bruise.

"What happened?" whispered Ino.

"I fell this morning; I hit my face on the kitchen counter." The response was automatic and I closed my eyes and subconsciously leaned into her hand with a soft sigh. The gentle caress was easing the painful throbbing I had been ignoring all day.

"Liar."

I snapped my eyes opened and stared into sky blue eyes that glared at me accusingly.

I frowned. "What?"

"You're lying." stated Ino; her eyes boring into mine as if she were looking into my soul. I flinched at the thought and abruptly pulled away from her, taking an unsteady step back.

"Why would you say that?" I snapped, crossing my arms over my chest defensively. I didn't like the fact that she saw straight thought my lie…like…like Naruto and Sasuke; it was infuriating! The two of them doing it was bad enough.

"Because it's true." She took a step towards me and I felt my entire body tense at the action. "Who is hurting you?"

My throat tightened in panic as the blonde was treading on dangerous territory. She took another step towards me and I found myself backing up until I slammed my back against a row of lockers. I felt like I couldn't breathe and my chest was heaving as I desperately gasped for air. I snapped my head towards the double doors, on the verge of making a run for it.

As I was about to do just that, a slender arm block my way and I snapped my head towards Ino with wild eyes, chest heaving as I hyperventilated.. When I realized that she had boxed me in with both hands on the lockers on my left and right, I pressed my back deeper into the locker I was leaning against, wincing when a lock dug into my spine.

"Calm down." whispered Ino calmly.

I gripped Ino's arm, my other clutching at my chest. "I-I c-can't –breathe!" I gasped out.

Ino quickly clutched my face into her hands and forced me to look in her eyes. "Yes you can, just do what I do." She inhaled deeply and then exhaled slowly. She continued the demonstration and I soon closed my eyes and imitated her breathing instructions. After a few agonizing seconds I could feel my rapid heart rate begin to slow and my breathing becoming easier with each intake of air I took. After a few more seconds Ino dropped her hands and took a step back from me.

"Are you ok now?" questioned the blonde.

Without opening my eyes, I leaned my head back heavily against the locker behind me and sighed; I suddenly felt extremely tired.

"Yeah…" I whispered.

I could hear Ino adjusting her shoulder bag and I opened my eyes and looked at her curiously. She was biting on her bottom lip and was currently looking down at the floor, fiddling with the strap of her bag.

"Judging by your reaction…" she started suddenly before turning to look me in the eyes. "I must have struck a nerve."

I gritted my teeth and averted my gaze.

"Why won't you tell me?"

"Because it's nobody's business but my own!" I snapped. Why couldn't people understand that?

"Then why do Sasuke and Naruto know? Why couldn't you tell me and girls what was going on too?"

I looked at Ino and saw the hurt and anger burning in her rapidly watering eyes. I shifted my gaze to the floor guiltily.

"It's not like I wanted them to know, Ino! You don't understand."

"Understand what?!" I cringed, Ino was definitely pissed now.

"All I seem to understand is that you value their friendship better than you do ours!"

"That's not true!" I yelled, appalled that she would think that.

Ino sneered at me. "Yes it is! What makes them so fucking special that you can trust and confide in them but not us? You, Temari and I have been best friends since kindergarten and with Tayuya since the second grade! We used to tell each other everything and then one day you blow us off and start giving us the cold shoulder. Hell! We have to pick fights with you just to get you to say something to us now a days!" Ino paused, turning from me. "I don't even know who you are anymore…are we that meaningless to you that you could throw us away that easily?"

Ino had tears falling freely down her flushed cheek, she was trembling with her hands bald up into tight fists. My heart ached at the sight and I could feel myself drowning in guilt; I had never intended for them to feel like that.

My body seemed to move on autopilot as I stepped forward and took ahold of Ino's arm. I tugged her forwards until I was able to wrap my arms around her. I pulled her flush against me, embracing her tightly as I rested my chin upon her shoulder.

"I do care about you guys; just as much as I do Naruto and Sasuke." I whispered in all honesty.

Ino clutched onto the front of my sweatshirt. "Liar!" she accused as she buried her face into the crook of my neck and I could feel here trembling against me. I tightened my embrace when I felt her tears trailing down my collarbone.

"What did I do that was so wrong to make you hate me so much Sakura?" she whispered brokenly. "I just want my best friend back. You don't know how bad this hurts."

My heart clenched painfully in my chest and I could feel tears burning in my eyes. "I don't hate you Ino…and I don't hate Temari or Tayuya either. You just…you just don't understand."

"Then help me to understand."

I sighed tiredly. How do I explain this without giving too much away? "I'm not the same person I was two years ago Ino…my life has become extremely complicated and there's been a lot of things that's been going on that I'm not too proud of." I furrowed my brows in frustration. "Why can't anyone understand that I don't want anyone getting involved with my problems?"

Ino gripped my shirt even tighter. "Why can't you understand that people care about you and want to help you through your problems?"

I froze at that statement. Naruto and Sasuke had said the same thing to me a few months ago.

"You wouldn't want to be my friend if you knew."

"Shouldn't I be the one to make that decision?"

I opened my mouth and closed it with a snap. Once again, another statement Naruto and Sasuke tossed at me.

I frowned. "Why do I get the feeling you're going to pester me to no end like those bumbling idiots."

I could feel Ino smirk against my shirt. "Because you've always had good intuition."

I snorted. "I beg to differ."

Ino laughed, pulling away from me and wiping at her tears with the back of her hand. "I can't believe I was crying." She muttered more to herself than me.

I reached out my hand to swipe away the tear that was hanging off the side of her chin but the blonde swatted my hand away, face blushing furiously.

I smirked. "You know…I don't think I've ever seen you cry before."

"That's because you were always the one doing all of the crying."

I scowled. "I do not recall that!"

Ino rolled her eyes. "You are definitely the crybaby of the group."

"I am not!"

Ino placed her hands on her hips and arched a brow at me. "Oh really? Don't you remember that time back in summer camp when you busted out crying because you put too much glue on your Popsicle stick you were building a bird house out of? Oh my God and the time Shikamaru told you that you had a big forehead! You cried for three days after that one. ..hmm…and now that I think about it; you were definitely balling your eyes out when we first met! "

I growled. "You made your point Pig!"

Ino smirked. "Do you really want to go there Forehead?"

I felt my eye twitch at the nickname. "You are such a bitch."

"You damn right I am." Ino grinned at her declaration.

I snickered, with a small shake of the head and Ino grinned at me before placing a hand on my shoulder. "Look, I'm being serious when I said I want my best friend back…you can tell me anything Sakura; I won't judge you."

"I do miss you guys…" I shook my head slightly; I couldn't believe I'm actually considering talking to them again.

Ino scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest. "Yeah right."

I pouted. "I do miss you guys. We did have a lot of good times together."

"And what exactly did you miss about us?" came the blonde's snippy reply.

I smirked again; I'll play along with her game. "Well, I do miss brawling in the backyard with you guys at Granny Chiyo's house...well…more like beating you guy's ass at Granny Chiyos."

Ino scoffed in protest and I grinned. "I miss staying up late and watching gory horror movies at your house. I miss hanging out at the mall shopping and hanging out at the ice skating rink… but…" I paused, taking a step closer to her. "What I miss the most is just being around you guys in general."

I saw a small smile tugged at the corner of Ino's lips. "Whatever."

"I speak the truth."

"Yeah, well you still need to talk to Tayuya and Temari. They feel the same way as I do."

I nodded. "Yeah…I'll handle that eventually." I sighed, shifting my gaze to the floor. "Look…I'm going to try and let you guys in again but don't expect me to pour my heart out to you and reveal all of my secrets."

I rubbed at the back of my neck nervously. "It's hard for me to talk about this…and I'm not exactly comfortable with talking about it either." I shifted my stance. "To be honest, I barely told Naruto and Sasuke anything; they kind of found out everything under some fucked up circumstances that played out. I'm still not too happy about that."

"You don't have to tell me everything all at once…you can tell me a little at a time."

I nodded slowly as I processed that slowly in my mind. "Okay…I think I can handle that." I muttered unsurely.

Ino grinned. "I promise I won't pressure you into answering anything you don't want too." She reached down and dug into her bag and pulled out a pen and a sticky note pad. She scribbled down something quickly than tore the paper off and handed it to me. "I have a cell now so you can text and call me whenever."

I smiled. "Okay." I plucked the pen and notepad from her hand and scribbled my own cellphone number down than handed it back to her.

"The same goes for you."

"So…" Ino looked up at me shyly. "Are we friends again?"

"What do you think Pig?" I asked mockingly. I grinned in victory when Ino's eye finally twitched at the nickname I gave her years ago. It was good to know that it still struck a nerve just as bad as her nick name did me.

"Anyway…" grumbled Ino. "Why don't you sit with us at lunch tomorrow?"

"As long as you don't terrorize me with stupid questions." Ino narrowed her eyes on me and I couldn't help but fidget under the lock.

Why the fuck was she looking at me like that?!

"A little birdy told me you were calling us the terror squad."

I sputtered. "W-w-what?"

Ino giggled. "So it's true…interesting."

Instead of denying it, I turned and glanced towards the double doors once more and something caught my eye. Frowning, I turned fully towards the door and looked through the glass window that was embedded within the door itself. I suddenly froze as I saw the last person I wanted to see stumbling up the sidewalk and entering the school premises. I felt my blood run cold as I took a hesitant step forward.

What the fuck was she doing here?!

"Hey Ino…I'm going to have to catch you later." I mumbled distractedly as I continued my advancement towards the door.

This was bad…

This was really bad…

I eyed the nearly empty bottle of cheap vodka that my mother held loosely in her hand as she stumbled her way into the school gates.

I gulped.

This was really… really bad.

My mom was drunk off her ass and she didn't look too happy either. I pushed open the door, preparing for the storm that heading my way.

Fuck my life!

Author: So that another chapter done ^_^ Hoped you liked! Please review!