Thank you to the people who reviewed or added this fic to their story alerts or fav stories. ^_^ Cookies to all of you! Here's the next chapter for you guys! Here are some review replies too.

NightWishX: Thanks for reviewing. I'm glad you thought it was ok. ^_^

SakuraPetals14: Yeah, I know. Though I hate Karin more. Here's the next chapter, by the way! Enjoy!

-PASSIIONATE-: Yep, that's right.

Writersrle: Glad that you liked it, but I just thought her with Itachi would be interesting.

itachimeri1989: Well, here's the next chapter, then!

swimgirl080: Thanks for reviewing! I'm not gonna stop the fic. ^_^

TheMissingPieceInaJigsaw.: Thanks!

Bonding or Annihilating?

"So you're sure it's going to work?" Karin asked Ino, still in the cafeteria. Ino nodded her head while biting her nail and glaring at the now laughing Sakura.

"Oh I'm sure. I have my ways of getting people to talk. She is so going down," answered Ino still glaring at Sakura with Karin joining in.

Meanwhile, at Sakura's table, Temari saw the two girls glaring at Sakura. She made a face and turned her attention back to the group.

She then leaned over and whispered to TenTen, "Hey, the president and vice president of his fanclub are glaring at Sakura."

"His? You mean Sasuke?" TenTen whispered back. Then, she glanced at the two girls and quickly whispered back to Temari, "Yeah, they sure are."

"Jealousy, it seems," answered Temari while keeping her eyes on the members of the fanclub. TenTen nodded her head in agreement.

"TenTen, what're you nodding your head for?" asked Naruto. Temari raised her eyebrows and just nodded her head towards the girls.

"Cinder-Sakura's stepsisters are asking for trouble," pointed out TenTen. Sakura turned back to see Karin and Ino giving her death glares. She almost immediately turned her back on them once more.

"I should've known. Sasuke-teme's giving Sakura-chan a bad reputation among the fangirls," commented Naruto, which earned him a smack across the head from Sasuke.

"Ow, teme! What was that for?" demanded Naruto while rubbing his head.

"Keep that mouth of yours closed, dobe," answered Sasuke.

Naruto twitched and yelled back, "What did you say?!" Temari shook her head and all the others sweatdropped.

"Here we go," said Temari, slapping her forehead. All the others kept quiet while the two argued.

Sakura leaned over and whispered to TenTen, "Hey, is that the reason why you guys don't invite Sasuke to this table?"

"Well, that's one reason. Another is his fangirls. You've already made enemies with two of them, and I'm sure there's still a lot more to come," answered TenTen. Sakura just sweatdropped and finished her lunch.

After Lunch

"Bye guys, see you tomorrow!" shouted Sakura before going to her next class with Naruto and Sasuke, which was Science.

Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke had to listen to their Science teacher, Asuma, talk about the solar system, and announced that they had a huge project on the solar system due in one week. That got the class groaning.

"To make life easier for you guys, I'm going to give you each a partner to work with on the project." Saying so, he got out a list of students in the class and started to announce the pairs.

"Sasuke Uchiha and Karin Kimashi." Sasuke let out a groan and banged his head on his table a few times while Karin was giggling with joy. Sasuke glanced over at Karin and she beamed. He resumed banging his head.

"Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka." Ino grinned evilly while Sakura just cast a look at Ino.

"Naruto Uzumaki and Kiba Inuzuka." Naruto and Kiba grinned at each other as a "cool" sign.

Asuma went on with his list and when everyone was put into pairs, he introduced the assignment. "Your project is to create a model of the solar system, and by model, I mean model. The distances and planet sizes have to be to scale. The distances and planets are just going to be shorter and smaller, but they all have to imitate the real solar system. After that, you and your partner have to do a presentation in front of the class. All of that is due in one week."

Before the students could complain, Asuma sent them off to their next class. Naruto was down in the dumps again.

"You gotta be kidding me. Due in one week? Build the whole solar system? This is definitely not my day," complained Naruto as he walked alongside Sasuke and Sakura.

"Cheer up, Naruto. At least you have Kiba to help you out," said Sakura, cheerfully to raise Naruto's spirits.

"Dobe, at least you're not with Karin. I doubt she'll do any work at all," commented Sasuke. Sakura sighed and Naruto smiled.

"You're right teme. I should pity you instead. Good luck working with your 'girl'." On the word "girl", Naruto made air quotes and ran off after saying his sentence, with Sasuke trailing behind him, swearing to catch and kill him.

That left Sakura alone in the hallway. She shrugged and was about to go to her next class when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned around to see a blond girl with baby blue eyes, Ino Yamanaka.

"Hi. You must already know me, but I'm Ino; your partner for the science project," Ino introduced herself.

Sakura twitched before replying, "Yeah, I know. And you know me, don't you?"

"Of course, Sakura. You know, you've been quickly getting popular around the school since lunch time, when you invited Sasuke-kun to sit with you," Ino rambled.

"Uh huh, I see. Well, nice talking to you Ino, but I gotta get to my next class." Before Sakura could take off, Ino grabbed her arm, jerking her back.

"Come on Sakura, we both have the same class. Why rush? Let's talk about Sasuke-kun, ne?" Ino prompted.

"I really don't want to be late for class, Ino, but maybe we'll talk after school? About the project?" offered Sakura. Ino smiled and nodded. Then, the two girls headed off to their next class.

"Why is she talking to me? Being nice, even? Just at lunch time, she was glaring at me," thought Sakura, trying to figure Ino out.

"You think she's over Sasuke?" suggested her Inner. Sakura shook her head mentally.

"Nah, it can't be. But it has a possibility. I dunno. I'm not gonna think about it right now. I have class." Sakura then entered her next class with that last thought.

After School

"Bye Naruto, Sasuke. See you tomorrow!" Sakura waved to the two boys, who walked home. She was about to go home too, when she saw herself face to face with Ino.

"Hi, Sakura. You promised that we'll talk, so let's talk," said Ino. Sakura tried to think of an excuse to get out if it, but the only one she could think of was lame.

"Sorry Ino, but I got homework to do, so…" Sakura was quickly interrupted by Ino.

"Come on, Sakura. Forget about homework for a while. You're smart, you'll finish it in no time. Let's talk," prompted Ino, pulling Sakura over to a small car.

Sakura's eyes widened when she saw the car. She asked Ino, "You can drive a car? A Porsche?" (AN: I spelled the car right, right?)

Ino nodded and said, "Uh-huh. My dad got it for me. He said that I was cautious enough. So, get in." Saying so, the blond girl pushed Sakura in the passenger seat.

"Wait, where are you taking me?" demanded Sakura, when Ino pushed her in.

Ino herself got in the driver's seat and answered, "To my house, of course. We'll talk there, and we can plan out the project."

"I kinda have a bad feeling about this," thought Sakura uncomfortably.

When they reached Ino's house, Sakura was shocked. Her house was huge, with a big and beautiful garden consisting of almost all sorts of flowers.

"Wow, Ino. Your house is huge! And your garden is so pretty," complimented Sakura.

Ino smiled sweetly and replied, "Thanks, Sakura. My family has a lot of flower shops all over the world. We're pretty famous. Follow me."

Sakura and Ino walked into the house and up the steps into Ino's room. The walls were painted light purple and smelled really fragrant. Beside her bed was a vase containing some kind of flower and a lamp. There was a table and chair near the door, and a vase with the same kind of flower by her bedside was placed on the table.

"Ino, your room is really nice. You must really like that kind of flower a lot, right?" questioned Sakura.

Ino replied, "Those are cosmos. They go well with any flower when you put them together. I sometimes wear a cosmos when something formal comes up."

Saying so, Ino walked over to her table and picked up one of the flowers, and placed it near her head. "So, how do I look? Cute right?"

Sakura nodded along, "Yeah. You look nice." In Sakura's mind, Ino actually looked nice and innocent for once. She didn't look like the girl who had glared at her during lunch at all.

Ino tucked the cosmos in her hair. "I think I'm going to wear this now. That's for the compliment, Sakura. Now we can talk."

"Uh, sure Ino," said Sakura, sitting on the soft carpet laid out in Ino's room. Ino joined her, sitting in front of her.

"So, what do you think about Sasuke-kun? You don't really seem to like him when you first came here." Sakura sighed when Ino asked that. Ino made a confused face.

"Well, yeah, I didn't really like him because he reminded me of someone I really, really don't want to be reminded about," answered Sakura. After answering, she quickly realized what she had said and regretted it.

"Why the hell did you say that?! We've never told this to anyone before, except for Sasuke! No one knows about this, not even our parents!" yelled her Inner, furious.

"I don't know. It just slipped. This is strange," thought Sakura. Ino was still talking.

"So that guy must have either looked a lot like Sasuke-kun or acted a lot like him, right?" Ino asked again. Sakura nodded slowly.

"Hm, I see. So how do you feel about Sasuke-kun now?" Sakura just sat there, lost in thought while Ino waited for her to answer.

"How do I feel about Sasuke? I like him as a friend? I partly hate him because of his brother?" As Sakura was thinking this, her Inner folded her arms and shook her head.

"Just tell Ino that you like him as a friend and get the easy way out," suggested Inner Sakura. The real Sakura mentally nodded and got out of her thoughts.

"I like him as a friend. And I guess I kinda pity him." Sakura then mentally slapped herself. Why did she have to say the last part?

"Pity him? Like how?" encouraged Ino. Sakura had no choice but to continue.

"Um, no offense, but girls are kinda torturing him. He doesn't really want to be stampeded by fangirls like that. No offense again, Ino." Ino just nodded her head, seeming to be in deep thought.

"I see. But he doesn't mind your company?" Sakura raised an eyebrow but answered the question anyway.

"I guess he doesn't. He doesn't really push me away when I hang out with him, but Naruto's also with us," Sakura quickly added.

"Hm, I see. So do you have a feeling that Sasuke-kun might actually like you as more than a friend?" Sakura blushed lightly when Ino brought up the question.

"I-I don't know. I mean, he's never shown any interest in me. I mean, no guy has, except one. And that one is such a jerk." Sakura mentally slapped herself again. Now she was telling Ino almost everything she has never told anybody.

"Sakura! Why are you spilling everything?!" shouted Inner Sakura, fuming mad.

"I don't know! It all just came out!"yelled back Sakura, mentally to her Inner.

"You're just too honest with people. I mean, Ino's the only one who has actually asked you this before. Sasuke, he only asked part of it." Sakura mentally nodded in agreement.

"A jerk? So you had a boyfriend once, but he was a jerk to you? That's gotta be harsh. What did he do anyway?" Sakura was hesitating this time when Ino asked her that. So, she continued, "If you don't want to tell me, then that's ok, but if you do, I promise that it's a secret between us."

Sakura started to stammer, "I-I've never told anyone this before, b-but you seem like you can k-keep it in I-I guess." Sakura took in one breath and started talking again, "This guy cheated on me with some other girl, and later, left me to be with that girl. He never mentioned her name, but only addressed the girl as 'her' or 'she'. That was that, and now, I'm trying to forget about it and move on, not sticking to the past," finished Sakura.

Ino smiled and nodded her head in understanding. "That has got to hurt you a lot, Sakura. And I might have a pretty good guess about who you're talking about."

Sakura froze for a minute before asking, "W-Who's your suspect?"

Ino kept smiling and answered, "Someone who looks a lot like Sasuke and acts a lot like him. A person who has a lot of fangirls, and a player." At the word "player", Sakura began to fume. Ino continued, "A person who's name is… oh, Itachi Uchiha?"

At the mention of the name Sakura's anger burst and started shouting, mostly directed to Itachi. Ino was shaken by Sakura's outburst and tried to calm her down.

"Sakura, calm down. It's the past, the past! This is the present, forget all about the past, forget about it! Now sit back down and calm down," said Ino, soothingly.

Sakura, for some reason, immediately calmed down. "Thanks Ino." She then sat back down on the carpet.

"No problem. Now you gotta stop hanging on the past. You seriously need to," advised Ino.

"Give that girl a prize. She can calm you down this quick," congratulated her Inner. Sakura ignored her.

"Yeah, I know. It's just hard to let it go, especially the anger part." After saying that, Sakura looked at her watch.

She got up immediately and said to Ino, "Sorry Ino, but I gotta go. I don't know how long we've talked, but I don't want my mom worried, since I usually come right home after school. So, see you tomorrow."

"Sure Sakura, see ya." Sakura bolted out the door and when Ino was sure she was completely gone, she took out a small voice recorder from her pocket, grinning.

"Thank you, Sakura. With the comforting smell of flowers in my room, how can any person keep in a secret when someone else asks? This is going very smoothly." Ino then took out the tape in the recorder and put it in her desk drawer, locking it in the process.

Then, she took out her cell phone and punched in Karin's cell phone number. The phone rang and rang, and finally, the redhead picked up.

"Hello, Ino? How's everything going?" asked Karin, who was in a very good mood today.

"It's going according to plan. Actually, it's going even better. It won't take long now. Be patient, Karin. The end is just beginning," said Ino in a threatening voice.

End of another chapter! Ino and Karin are cruel, aren't they? Well, review please! At least 5 reviews in order for the next chapter to come out. ^_^