A/N: This story passed fifty reviews. As such, this is the reward. Your reward is a very early update. Every 50 reviews something special will happen. For 100 reviews, the reviewer who is the 100th will get a chapter here featuring a couple they like, excluding Sasuke and Sakura.
Oh, this chapter is less humor than normal, but hopefully still entertaining all the same.
Happy Thanksgiving to all my fellow Canadians.
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Reason Seven: Ino
Now, Sakura knew for a fact that Ino was lying about not 'liking' Sasuke.
Well, at the very least she was pretty sure. Yes, she knew that the blond had, indeed, liked him when he they were all very young (Partially the reason for Ino being so willing to help Sakura destroy her chances of ever being able to date and/or become more than friends with Uchiha Sasuke, though the blond denied it at every moment).
However, recently (Not recently as in the last six days, as those had just flat out been crazy), and not so recently as well, Sakura had been noticing a couple of odd things that just might lead her to think that Ino might have a crush on Uchiha Sasuke.
Unless Sakura was mistaken, Ino went into a dreamy state whenever his name was mentioned.
She had tested it out, in fact, and she could almost prove it to boot.
The first time she tried this out was when Ino stumbled upon a topic Sakura didn't care too much to talk about. This topic was the mating patterns of cheetahs. How they got onto the topic actually made a fair amount of sense once it was laid out, but Sakura would rather not go down that particular memory again.
Anyhow, onto the main point, Sakura testing her hypothesis on Ino, she had immediately cut the blond girl off when she had began talking about what female cheetahs did to male cheetahs and said, "Hey, guess what Sasuke did the other day?"
And just like that, the blond girl seemed to go into an almost zombie state. "What did he do?" She had asked in a sort of dazed voice, and Sakura went on to spew nonsense about what she had eaten the night before for dinner.
Ino didn't even act like Sakura was talking.
So, it was because of this that Sakura was almost completely sure that Ino might've had a crush on Sasuke.
Besides, if Ino did have a crush, then it would give Sakura a very good reason to not date Sasuke as well.
After all, dating in general brought strain on friendships. Dating someone Ino had a crush on would bring more awkward moments than ever.
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The beginning of the events which would inevitably explain why Ino might've liked Sasuke did not begin with Sakura leaning against her locker.
It was shocking, but this series of events ended up happening at Ino's house, sitting in a circle on the blond girl's floor with a bag of chips to one side and enough empty cans of diet soda to feed a family for a month.
For every Friday of every week, unless one of the girls happened to be on a date, Ino, Sakura, Hinata, and even Tenten, despite her being older than the previous three, (Tenten had actually been to the same daycare as the three others, and the friendship stuck, surprisingly. One might've thought that Tenten was sort of like a mentor to the other girls, telling them what being kissed felt like when they were younger, getting them into the older, more 'popular' things, things like that. However, this is all rambling and really doesn't matter ultimately.), would all gather in order to discuss the progression of the week. This would include discussing who liked whom, which teachers were psychotic, and having Tenten tell them all about what to ask each teacher to make them annoyed and embarrassed.
As such, they were all talking about various guys at the current moments, it being a normal action for their Friday nights.
Tenten leaned over the chip bag, looking Hinata straight in the eye, "I've heard from a certain someone that you--our innocent little Hinata has a crush on someone!" She sang, poking the purple haired girl's forehead.
The mentioned girl began blushing instantly, "I-I d-don't…" She whispered. At this point, both Sakura and Ino were also leaning over, anxious to see Tenten eventually get the information out of her. Of course, to all except for Naruto himself, it was obvious that Hinata was infatuated with the blond boy. This didn't mean the girls had ever acquired a formal acknowledgement of the infatuation from Hinata, and they tried every single week as well, each with Hinata giving 'hints' or changing the subject.
Tenten smirked; obviously she had something up her sleeves on this particular day. "Well, I have heard some information from a certain cousin of yours!" She gave an almost evil laugh when she saw Hinata's eyes widen, "That's right!" Tenten exclaimed, "Hyuuga Neji has provided me with the information on who our very own Hyuuga Hinata has a crush on!"
Tenten grabbed her hairbrush from her bag and held it to Hinata's mouth, as if it were a microphone, "So! Will the lovely Hinata admit to us about who she likes, a boy certain to go for her if he knew," Hinata smiled slightly once she heard the last of what Tenten said, "Or will she bail out once again and leave her darling friends in the darkness of this obvious infatuation?"
"C'mon Hina, tell us!" Ino exclaimed, grabbing a small handful of chips.
"Al-all right…" She muttered, "It's… Naruto." She practically whispered the last part, but it was loud enough for all the other girls to hear.
Ino jumped up, throwing her arms in the air and sending the handful of chips flying into random directions, "I knew it!" She squealed, high-fiving Sakura while doing a small victory dance, much to the purple haired girl's embarrassment.
"Naruto's my good friend, Hina, he'd totally go for you." Sakura said, putting a hand on Hinata's shoulder. Hinata blushed and hugged a pillow to her chest.
"Would… you help me?" Hinata asked.
Sakura smiled, "Help two of my good friends date each other happily? Totally. I'll talk to him for you." It was nice for her to finally admit to her crush, it gave Sakura permission to get the two together, after all.
"Speaking on other issues of the heart!" Sakura suddenly exclaimed, pointing her hand to the sky, "There is someone in here who has a crush on someone, and isn't admitting it!" Everyone made false shocked sounds, except Ino, Sakura noted, who looked very nervous suddenly.
"How could someone?" Tenten exclaimed, dramatically waving her arm, "We must get to the bottom of this, men!" She practically yelled before throwing whatever was in her hand (A hairbrush, this time), to the side. Then, she sat down quietly, "What other news do you have, sergeant?"
"Well! I do know that this person happens to have a crush on, wait for it, Uchiha Sasuke!" Sakura said, "Now, we all know that I go out of my way to make sure Sasuke doesn't like me, and Hinata has just admitted to liking Naruto, not Sasuke…" She elaborated, "Which means it is either you, Tenten, or Ino-pig!" She giggled.
"Can't be me, sergeant." Tenten replied, "I am happily single." She smiled, "Which means…"
At once, Sakura and Tenten both pointed at Ino, "I swear, it isn't me!" She replied.
"Oh really?" Sakura replied, "I've seen you go all dazed whenever his name is mentioned!"
"But…"
Tenten cut the blond girl off, "You know, now that she mentions it, I've seen you look at him the hallways as well…"
"You know, Ino-pig, I won't care if you do. I don't like him that way, after all." Sakura replied, "And it gives me another reason not to date him…" She muttered the last bit under her breath, and thankfully, no one seemed to take notice to it.
Ino bit her lip, "Fine… I like him." She admitted. "But… I know he likes you Sakura… Everyone knows."
Sakura smirked. This gave her another reason not to date Sasuke, after all. It would put a strain on their friendship, and friends often lasted longer than dating.
The pink haired girl smiled, if only Ino knew how much she was helping the cause of them not being together.
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A/N: Not really humor, but I couldn't think of a whole lot of humor with Ino as a reason.
I love my Tenten. She has no character depth, canon-wise, so I chose to portray her however I felt at that current moment.
Thanks for all the reviews! I'll update next weekend, most likely. Suggestions still welcome, and reviews will make me a very happy litter authoress.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, I make no money from this.