Chapter 6

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Pushing through the crowd of people at Konoha's main market, Sakura caught a glimpse of the Hyuuga she had been seeking for the last hour or so. "Hinata!" cried out Sakura in relief, running after the girl. "Do you know how hard you are to find?" she joked.

The white-eyed girl jumped and then turned around. "A-ano, you we-were looking for me, Sakura-san?"

"Yes!" confirmed Sakura excitedly. "I have a proposition to make to you."

"Pr-proposition?"

"You might think this is really forward of me, and in fact, I don't know why I'm asking you this so suddenly, but…" The pink-haired girl trailed off, uncomfortable. It had sounded like a great idea when she'd first thought of it, but for some reason she lost her nerve when she had to ask Hinata. And suppose the shy Hyuuga refused? Wait, no, Hinata would be far too polite to ever refuse, but Sakura had no wish to entangle the sweet girl in something she didn't want to do…

Before she thought better of it, Sakura said hurriedly, rushing through her words, "Wouldyouliketotrainwithmeinourfreetime?"

Hinata blinked.

"I—I mean, we both have something in common. At least, I think we do? I want to do my best to improve, because to tell you the truth, my teammates are way ahead of me… And then I saw you in the training ground, Hinata, and I thought, Hey, there's someone else that wants to improve! Right?"

Pink dusted Hinata's cheeks and ears. "I—I—"

"So I thought it'd be great if both of us trained together! The Hyuugas have a really unique fighting style, so I'm sure you can teach me a lot! And I… I've been learning some jutsus, and I could teach them to you!" offered Sakura excitedly. She noticed the wary look in Hinata's eyes, however, and added quickly, "But if you don't want to practice with me, I understand. It was just an offer, between two comrades—"

"I-I'll ac-accept," muttered Hinata in a barely audible voice. Then, visibly working up her courage, she asked Sakura, "S-Sakura-san, wh-why did y-you ask m-me? Y-you know Naruto-kun w-would help you." As the words came out of her mouth, she looked shocked at her boldness and began frantically apologizing to Sakura.

"No!" protested Sakura against Hinata's apologies. "It's a good question. And—well—Naruto… Sasuke-kun… even Kakashi-sensei… they're all geniuses, in their own way. And yeah, even Naruto—have you ever seen him fail at something serious? They see something, they can do it. I know they've had their own struggles… but they've never known what it's like to be… normal, or as normal as ninja can get, anyways. So, I know… that no matter how close we get, I'll never fully understand them, and they'll never fully understand me." Unconsciously echoing a certain ninja in a green spandex suit with mammoth eyebrows, Sakura continued, "There's genius, which is something you're either born with or not, and then, there's the genius of hard work, which anyone can achieve if they try hard enough. And it's always easiest to do something with a partner, so I thought…"

Smiling radiantly, as widely as Sakura had ever seen Hinata in both her lifetimes, the other girl nodded. An uncharacteristic, mischievous light entered her pale eyes as she rushed forward to enclose Sakura in a quick hug, before the Hyuuga ran off. Sakura smiled at the girl's retreating back, her heart lighter than it had ever been.

Her main reason over inviting Hinata to train, she had to admit, had been selfish. Over the years, Hinata had grown close to her heart, just as close as Ino. But since they had been placed on differing teams, it was unlikely that they would have much contact, so Sakura's situation remedied that.

Second, after many years of friendship, Hinata had broken down one day and told her about those years of hard work that she had undergone to reach her current level. It broke Sakura's heart to think of her close friend going through so much trouble, and she hoped that this time around, the knowledge of having a partner would ease the timid kunoichi's burden.

Third, Sakura hoped to subtly pass along to Hinata some of her knowledge in medical jutsus. That way, if she ever had to reveal to her teammates any of her medic skills, she could brush it off as two exceptionally bright girls studying together who had had a bit too much free time. That was always much more plausible than a lone girl, though she had no idea why.

Suddenly aware that she had been standing in the middle of the hustle and bustle of the marketplace staring into nothing for the last few minutes, Sakura cast one more nostalgic look around bright, innocent Konoha and melted into the crowd.

Next stop: a certain blue-eyed, blond-haired girl's family-run flower shop.

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Ino leaned over the counter of her family's flower shop, bored out of her mind. The floral smell had become a bit stifling in the heat of Konoha's summers, and the Yamanaka longed to go outside for a quick break. She knew she shouldn't, however, but that was the only thought that kept her behind the counter.

Shuffling her feet again (they had started to hurt from having to stand on the ground for the last few hours), Ino adjusted her immaculate blond ponytail. She caught a glimpse of herself in the window and decided that, though just a bit disheveled, her makeup was still passable and her cornflower blue eyes were still twinkling.

Desperate for something to do, she turned her back to the door and began rearranging some of the flowers on display behind her. She put the flowers that had been showing the first signs of wilting in the nearby refrigerator and replaced them with fresher ones.

The doorbell made a jingling noise as a customer walked in.

Taking a deep breath, Ino turned around and began brightly, "Welcome to—oh. It's Forehead Girl. What are you doing here?"

Sakura looked back at her, her green eyes solemn. Despite herself, Ino felt a tinge of pride at the girl Sakura had blossomed into. And it was all because of her… When she saw Sakura, she got the same feeling she got after arranging a particularly attractive bouquet. Not exactly pride, but a combination of accomplishment and satisfaction. All the same, she had been hurt that Sakura had ended their friendship over Sasuke-kun. Ino had thought their friendship meant more than that to Sakura. But apparently it had not, and even though Ino held no real attraction towards Sasuke, and had not for a rather long while, she still pursued the dark prodigy in order to spite her former friend. Pathetic, really, she supposed, but it was the way of things and also what had defined her for so long: her love of Sasuke and her hatred of Sakura.

Was it hatred though, really? There was definitely bitterness and resentment, colored with feelings of nostalgic longing. But there wasn't any of the sort of hates that she had heard about, the white-hot hate or the smoldering hate or the cold hate.

"Ino pig," said Sakura, breaking the tension-filled silence like a knife through hot butter.

"Here to ogle over my flower arrangements again?" asked Ino haughtily. "I'm sorry, but we don't allow ugly people in here."

"What are you doing in here, then?" retorted Sakura automatically.

"Oh, sorry, I meant, we don't allow people with big foreheads in here." Ino almost felt sorry for needling Sakura like that. She knew that the girl was still sensitive over that particular part of her body.

The blond expected a bitter retort, or at least a pointed insult. She did not expect Sakura's pensive smile—she didn't even know that Sakura of all people, light-hearted, careless Sakura, could look like that.

"Doesn't this bring back memories, Ino?"

"Look, Forehead, what are you high on? You've been acting weird ever since graduation! Urgh, whatever; if you don't have anything good to say, just leave, will you?"

Sakura took a step forward, her verdant eyes heavy. "Look, Ino, I'm sorry. I've been doing a lot of reflecting, and I've realized how absolutely stupid it was of me to break such a valuable friendship over some stupid crush. I—I still have a crush on Sasuke-kun, but… I was wondering… if we could be friends again." Her stance, previously so defiant and brave, suddenly collapsed, and the pinkette turned her eyes to the ground, as if waiting for Ino to turn down her offer.

And the blue-eyed girl found she did not like Sakura's stance one bit.

"Stupid Forehead! I was wondering when you'd come around!"

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Short, again! Let me explain though: last chapter, I said I wouldn't have internet access for quite some time. (We're switching providers… again! Blah) But anyways, today, I got an hour or two online, so I thought I'd quickly type up something and put it up. ^_^ It turned out as more a filler chapter than anything else, but I sort of liked the idea of Sakura trying to make amends with everyone.

And this brings me to my question: would you like more frequent updates, but shorter chapters, or less frequent updates, but longer chapters? I prefer the former, but I'll try to do what you guys say!

So, there's my explanation for this (extremely short) chapter, and also, my reminder that I probably will be dead for the next week or two. (: