I woke up in my bed. This was strange, considering that the last thing I remembered was passing my second test and talking to Sensei. It had been noon then, roughly, and now it was… I rolled over and squinted at my alarm clock. Eight A.M. blinked back at me. Did I actually sleep for twenty hours? Nice.

And then the door slammed open. Enter sister.

"Time to get up!" Ino announced. "You have a shift at the shop in an hour!"

"I wish you would consult me before giving me shifts," I moaned. "You suck."

"Too bad!" she said cheerfully, yanking my covers off. I whimpered as I curled up into a ball. My warmth cocoon… stolen from me in the cruelest manner possible. "You've been sleeping for nearly twenty hours! Get up and be productive."

"Will stabbing your face off be productive? Because that's the only reason I'll be getting out of bed in the next few minutes." Despite my death threats, Ino got me out of bed - dragged me, really, kicking and complaining the entire time - and in the shower in about ten minutes. They don't even faze her anymore, I sulked, basking in the hot water. Glorious. I need to figure out a way to make her leave me aloooone.

"We're having a girls day out after your shift is done," Ino informed me as she dragged me to the flower shop, me groaning all the way. "We'll go get lunch, and talk about our teammates, and then don't forget that your flowers need weeding."

"I know, I know," I growled. "'Talk about our teammates' my rear end, you just want to know what Sasuke did." I paused in front of the flower shop, sighing heavily.

"You know me so well," she grinned. "I'll see you later!" Ino blew me a kiss and waved as she ran off. Despite my annoyance, I was glad that my twin was a morning person. She got me places on time.

The day was rather slow, with mostly guys buying their crushes/sweethearts some flowers. I mostly watered the plants, repotted some of the root bound plants, and worked on some orders. The big one I focused on the most was a civilian wedding order. The Yamanaka flower shop was a bit more expensive than the other ones in the village, but we were guaranteed quality and freshness. I was rather proud of that, to be honest.

I was pulling together some flowers for an arrangement when Shikamaru decided to swing by to talk.

"I'm surprised that you lasted with Naruto and Sasuke on your team," he said, leaning against the counter as I began to pull it together. "You always prefer to be on the downlow."

"I was hiding or walking for most of the test," I shrugged. "It wasn't too bad." Aside from being really hyped up on caffeine. That kind of sucked.

"It sounds troublesome to me," Shikamaru sighed, draping himself over the counter. I reached over and offhandedly pat his head.

"It was pretty annoying," I agreed, going back to the arrangement. I pushed some baby's breath aside and after a moment of thought placed a fully blooming hydrangea in the center. "I guess that my career in psychiatry will have to wait."

"Why do you always say that you'd rather be a psychologist?" he asked after a comfortable silence. He lifted his head from the counter. "As long as I've known you, you wanted to be someone important, someone powerful."

"... I guess I prefer for people to not take me seriously," I said after a couple moments of thinking. I began to place sea lavender and snapdragons intermittently among the baby's breath. "It's easier, not carrying the weight of their expectations. The clan, the village, all of them. I'm not the heir, but they still expect me to excel at everything, even though they never wanted me around in the first place." I adjusted some flowers. It was still missing something. After a moment of (distracted) thought, I reached over and grabbed a bunch of honey bracelet, shaping the stems to give the arrangement more grace. "It's easier on Ino, too, if I do my own thing. People think that she's better, and I'm not to be bothered with."

"You look down on yourself too much," Shikamaru said. "You're very talented when you apply yourself." He stared at me. "You can profile people and find their triggers after knowing them for less than an hour. You see things that other people don't, and use that to your advantage. I don't know about you, but I'm glad that you're a nice person, because you have the potential to be very scary." He glanced away, chakra feeling kind of embarrassed. "I don't think you're bad luck," he muttered.

I laughed. "Thanks. I'm glad my best friend doesn't think I'm bad luck."

He snorted and pushed away from the counter. "I need to go. Have fun with an empty shop." I gave him a look and contemplated giving him the finger.

"Stupid Nara," I muttered, tying up the arrangement and placing it in a vase.

The last couple hours went by slowly, making me wish that I brought a book. I had never been more happy to see Ino pop in the doorway.

"Clock out now, sis, because it's time to have some fun!"

"We're getting food, right?" She sighed heavily.

"Yes, Chōji. We're getting food. How are you not the size of a cow already, with as much as you eat?"

"It's because I'm special," I teased, hooking arms with her. "Plus I actually do burn a crap ton of calories, despite how much I like sleeping."

"Har har." Joking aside, I really did enjoy these hanging out times with Ino. She helped me relax whenever I was stressing too much about the future, and made sure that I didn't forget to do my assignments. My memory had never been the greatest, in this life or the previous one.

"Stop thinking so much," Ino poked me in the side. "Which one are you going to get?"

"I don't know," I sighed heavily. "I just want to get all of them."

"Choose already!"

"Fine!" I ordered the thing that reminded me of a churro, of all things, and happily took a bite. I sighed in bliss. "Try it," I said, pointing it at her face.

"I'm on a diet," she said.

"Eat it."

"It's way too fattening and I'm on a diet! That's one of the rules of a diet!"

"Rules were made to be broken. Eat it." She reluctantly took a bite, but I could see the bliss on her face as the flavors coated her tongue. "I could probably write poetry about this," I grinned. "You see why?"

"It's not that great," she shrugged, but I could see her eying the rest of my not-churro.

"Don't even think about it," I warned, turning away and attempting to shove the rest of it in my mouth.

"Inoko! Give me some!"

"You said it wasn't that great! You don't deserve the not-churro!"

"What the hell is a churro?!"

"... Inoko? Ino?" We both looked up to see Sakura standing in front of us, her usual cheer missing. "What are you doing here?"

"Having a girls day out," Ino responded promptly, dusting herself off as if nothing happened. "What about you?"

"Oh, nothing, just… my mom wanted me to do some shopping." Sakura looked at her feet, rocking a little.

"Are you ok?" I asked bluntly. "Your eyes are all red." Sakura's eyes filled with tears. She shook her head and started wiping. "Come here." I hugged her tightly. "Ino and I will help you with your shopping, and then we're getting ice cream." Sakura made a sound that was somewhere between a laugh and a sob. Saugh? Lob?

Between crying breaks and grocery shopping, we found out that Sakura's Inuzuka sensei had failed her team. As in completely and utterly failed them. He said, and I quote, "The three of you are absolutely hopeless. You have no redeeming qualities whatsoever. You can barely fight, your jutsu are shabby, and your teamwork is nonexistent." I mean, I'm sure it was true, but there were probably nicer ways to say it.

"So that's how we failed," Sakura finished sadly, poking at her strawberry ice cream. "Pretty stupid, huh?"

"Well, I think that he's dead wrong!" Ino said heatedly. She stabbed her chocolate ice cream with her spoon. "He's just a dumb jōnin who can't see that you alone are enough to carry that team."

I took a bite of my own ice cream, which was a mixture of green tea, chocolate, and vanilla. And hot fudge sauce. Because reasons. "Ne, she's got a point."

"Which one of us?"

"Both of you," I said, taking a bite. It was, in hindsight, the wrong thing to say at the moment. Sakura started crying again and Ino glared at me as she comforted her. "That… was not what I meant to say. I apologize, Sakura, I'm an idiot who still doesn't know how to speak properly after twelve years of being alive." She giggled a little at my deadpanned apology. "Now, I vote that we go crash at Chōji's house and eat some more. Ino, if I hear one word about your diet, I will stab your spleen out with this spoon." I pointed my spoon at her for good emphasis. "There are these things called cheat days, and by the time you see Sasuke next, you will have recovered from it." Sakura laughed again, a real one this time. I nudged her gently as Ino paid. "For what it's worth, I took a peek at the Academy scores the other day, and I beat you by a half point. If you had gotten one more point, we would be in very different positions." She smiled at me, and I could feel that we were all good. The guilty feeling in my gut eased a little. A little white lie never hurt anyone.

Chōji opened the door when I knocked. I was not surprised by the fact that he had a bag of chips in his hand. He glanced at Ino and Sakura behind me, then back at me. "What's up, Inoko?"

"We need food," I announced. "You're the man to hit up when I need lots of junk food."

"Ok," he said slowly. "Why do you need our pantry?"

"Sakura failed her test so we're eating our feelings. We'd go to my house, but because someone refuses to have junk food in the house because she's on a 'diet', we don't have any decent food to eat our feelings with.

"... Ok." He was used to my weird explanations after some seven years of friendship. Shika was too. Sakura was friends with the boys, due to multiple interactions by being friends with me, but wasn't as close as I was. We were all laughing soon enough, and Sakura seemed somewhat happier than she had been earlier.

We walked her home afterwards, and I was proud of the fact that Ino hadn't mentioned her forehead once. Not once! Personal growth.

I gave her a final hug. "Maybe try talking to Iruka-sensei about it?" I suggested. "I'm sure he has some ideas, or at least knows some people who have ideas. Maybe he'll have some advice."

Sakura nodded, eyes bright once more. "I'll do that. Thank you, Inoko. I mean it."

I flushed, waving it off. "It's no big deal, honestly. I know you'd do the same for me."

"Regardless, I owe you one. So… thanks."

I was quiet for the most part on the way home, content to listen to Ino rant about Sakura's temporary sensei. For someone who was supposedly enemies with her, Ino had a lot to say on Sakura's behalf.

"I don't know about you, but I had fun today," Ino said as we brushed our teeth, ranting finally over. I grunted in response and spat. Now that I wasn't focused on making my friend feel better, I could feel the guilt weighing down on me. "We really ought to do that again!"

"Uh-huh. I'm kind of tired, so I'm going to bed now." I just… wanted to be alone for a while.

"Ok," she responded happily, giving me a hug and a kiss on the cheek before bouncing downstairs.

There was a mirror on Ino's vanity. I would always look at it before I left the room or just after I entered. I guess it reminded me of something similar in my last life. Sometimes I saw a glimpse of who I used to be. Sometimes I saw nothing but the girl I was now.

Today I saw a thief. A liar who had somehow cheated her way into the spot someone else deserved.

Flopping onto my bed, I stared at the ceiling. I haven't even actively done anything yet and I've already ruined someone's life. My stomach turned. Sakura was supposed to grow on Team Seven. She was supposed to learn the important lessons, supposed to become Tsunade's apprentice, and become the second coming of the Slug Princess. And I've ruined it. I've ruined everything. I should have stayed out of the Academy and let the plot take its course. I should have… I should have… My vision blurred. What have I done?

"WHAAAT?!" Naruto's horrified screech snapped me out of my daze. "This is what we're doing?!"

"... I'm confused, what's going on?" I said as Naruto gaped at the scroll Sensei had given him. We'd met up bright and early in front of the mission desk - Sensei only took two hours to get here, so I napped against the wall until Sensei arrived. I'd gotten pretty good at falling asleep against walls over the past few years. Then I had fallen into a bit of a daze realizing something of monumental importance that escaped me now. Eh. If it was that important I'll remember it later. "We're taking a mission, right?"

"You really ought to stop spacing out so much," Sensei observed, sticking his nose in his book. "You'll get yourself killed~"

"That's not something you should say like that, Sensei," I deadpanned, blinking slowly. "But seriously, what are we doing?"

"Boys, don't tell her," Sensei grinned as he took the lead. "This is what Inoko gets for spacing out."

I mean, fair, but. "... I hate you all."

It turned out to be weeding an old lady's garden. Which wasn't bad, considering that I had been weeding my own flowers just yesterday. I ended up replanting half of the things the boys uprooted after yelling at them for not knowing the difference between lavender and a weed. Sasuke said something along the lines of "it's all the same anyway, blah blah," and then Naruto demanded a challenge to see who could pull the most weeds. He instantly began pulling up the angel wing, and I was about to pull my hair out. Then they started getting into a physical fight, which I was content to ignore and take care of this honestly lovely garden until they rolled into me.

My following actions were entirely justified, even though Naruto was hiding behind Sensei as I grouchily drank some tea. Sasuke was wisely minding his own business at the other side of the garden, carefully checking each plant to see if it was actually a weed.

"... Have you considered anger management classes?" Sensei asked after several minutes. I glared at him and projected what little killing intent I had figured out. He snickered. "On second thought, you're almost kind of cute doing that. I guess having genin isn't so boring after all."

"... you sounded vaguely like a pedophile there, Sensei."

"Don't say something like that so lightly," he scolded playfully. "You could ruin your teacher's life."

"Challenge accepted," I said dully. "Moving on to something more interesting, like what I'm going to eat later."

"That's very hurtful, Inoko."

"Good. It was supposed to be."

"I have come to the conclusion that D-ranks were invented to break the heart and souls of genin," I announced to anyone who was listening as I flopped on the couch. Ino made a noise that I assumed to be an agreement from the floor. "I swear, I'm going to murder both of my teammates before the week is out."

"Sounds like you're being productive," Dad said from his chair, looking over some papers that I was fairly sure shouldn't be anywhere near us.

"I signed up for the life of a shinobi," Ino said, her words muffled by the carpet. "Not being a babysitter."

"Picking up trash, walking dogs, painting fences," I agreed.

"Babysitting brats, weeding gardens, grocery shopping," Ino groaned. "I'm exhausted."

"I think I might actually be asleep before twelve tonight."

"Thank god," Dad muttered under his breath.

I scowled at him from the pillow I was burying my face in. "I heard that."

"Well, dear," Mother said, carrying in a tray of cups and a teapot, "that's just what genin do at first. When your sensei thinks you're good enough, he'll let you go on low level C-ranks. As you become more experienced, you can go on higher level missions. Just be patient."

"Mother, I love you to bits," Ino said, lifting her head. "But what on earth do you know about early shinobi life? You didn't even meet Dad until you were twenty."

"She was a chūnin before we were born," I pointed out. Ino spun towards me, shocked.

"What?! Mother?! Really? How did you find out? Mother never told us! Mother, I never would have guess you were a shinobi!"

"You never asked," Mother said in singsong as she poured tea for us, careful not to stain her sleeves.

"I found her chūnin vest a couple years ago when I was going through her closet for chocolate," I explained, accepting my cup of tea.

"..." My family all stared at me.

"I used to store chocolate in there?" I offered. Mother sighed and settled down next to Dad with her tea. I wriggled onto the floor and up against their legs, resting my head on Mother's kimono. She began to gently stroke my hair.

"You are by far my strangest child," Dad said, going back to his papers with an exasperated but fond smile.

"And that's why I'm your favorite," I replied sleepily.