Fast Forward.
A few years pass by.
Press play.
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They attended the same schools growing up, but never became close friends. They knew each other in that cool acquaintance kind of way – the way where you see someone you know in the supermarket and try to avoid eye-contact, but smile tightly and nod politely when you inevitably fail. Even as their social circles mingled (how could they not, when Sakura adored the bright blonde haired Naruto, who made her feel safe and happy and content – who in turn chummed with Sasuke, perhaps because he was such a calming contrast to his own exuberant personality?), they themselves did not. Of that, Sakura made sure.
She was never deliberately cruel to the youngest Uchiha prodigy – she would never be deliberately cruel to anyone. For some reason, she was particularly sensitive to bullying. She didn't know precisely why – she hadn't been bullied much as a kid, partly thanks to Ino sticking up for her so resiliently, and partly thanks to her own plucky, tomboyish in-your-face attitude. Nonetheless, something rankled inside when kids were mean as kids are wont to be.
That didn't mean she needed to chum up to him, however. On days she sat with Naruto at the lunch table, she only gave perfunctory, polite responses when it was absolutely necessary. In class, when seated near him, she only spoke to him when he pointedly addressed her.
She thought she would grow out of that abject horror she had felt when she met him as a child. She didn't.
One-class primary school gave way to junior high. By 10th grade, they were privileged to choose their own classes and schedules in the block scheduling set up. Sadly, there were only so many college-prep classes offered – it wasn't a large town, and they were both grade-A students, so it shouldn't have come as any great surprise that their schedules still overlapped.
By high school, it seemed as if most girls had gone in-and-out of crush of Uchiha Sasuke. Even Ino had a brief moment in which he had piqued her interest, and jovially, she had teased Sakura, inviting her to make it some game between them.
"Come on, Forehead," she whined, prodding Sakura in the side. "We can be rivals in love – it'll make us even closer! Imagine, loving the same man!" She clasped perfectly manicured hands over her heart. Her blue-sparkled French-tips glittered to match overly-enthusiastic eyes. Sakura snorted.
Ino read too many romance novels – and in all practicality, they hadn't been 'rivals' in years. Though they had shared classes in remedial school and fleeting memories of arguing over the brightest crayons or the cutest backpack lent a backdrop to their relationship, stronger still was the memory of Ino beating up the first kid who had teased Sakura about her forehead when she was a child.
And, of course, Ino often brought that up in that braggart, offhand manner that was so typically Ino. Sakura didn't mind, though, because she knew that unspoken behind it was another memory, of Sakura laying out the first boy who dared tug on Ino's ponytail back in their playground days. In retrospect – knowing what she knew now – Sakura realized the dog-loving little Kiba-kun had probably just been flirting in the way young children do – but at the time, Sakura had only seen tears flash in Ino's eye and had acted on impulse.
They had been best friends ever since.
And if Kiba edged warily away whenever Sakura flashed a glimpse of temper – well – all the better.
Sakura flipped the page of her chemistry book and didn't spare Ino a second glance. "You can have him, Pig."
Ino pursed super-shiny, glossed-up lips into a pretty pout. "Where's the fun in that?"
"It seems stupid to fight over a boy," Sakura replied dispassionately. She had a weird-feeling of déjà vu, like this had all happened before and gone terribly, terribly wrong. It was a feeling she had a lot.
Deflated, Ino collapsed on the bed next to Sakura, wrinkling her nose at the chemistry book. She wasn't going into the sciences, and she made her disdain for the topic known at every possibly avenue. "Oh, whatever. I was just trying to bait you. Everyone knows he has a thing for you, anyway."
Sakura's hand stilled on the page she was about to turn. She started to pick at the edge, but caught herself at it before Ino did. Calmly, she eyed the diagram explaining covalent bonding, and willed her seized heart to beat normally.
"I don't like him," she said carefully. The words tasted bitter on her tongue – but not quite as bitter as the thought of… something else. A thought that flittered just out of teach, tickling her fingertips, but never quite able to grasp into clarity. Sakura shook her head to clear it.
Ino burrowed her chin over Sakura's shoulder, puffing irritatingly into her cotton-candy locks as she pretended to share the study-material. "Yeah, I know. I don't know why, though. I mean, he might be a little reserved – maybe a tiny bit smidgen and broody – but I think it's only an act he's assimilated into to cope with Naruto's over-enthusiasm for life. He's been nothing but polite to you, though."
"And I've been nothing but polite to him," Sakura replied primly. She shifted uncomfortably to her side, meaningfully elbowing Ino off her shoulder as she huffed and returned to the book.
From the corner of her eye, she could see Ino eying her contemplatively, but the blonde bombshell apparently deigned the topic old-news readily enough once it was clear she wasn't going to rile any sort of reaction out of Sakura.
It took her uncharacteristically long to turn to the next page. And when she did, she shoved her hand hurriedly back beneath the book to hide the trembling.
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Press stop.
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