Title; Fabrication.

Chokai wasn't too upset about Sasuke's reaction to the crystal. After all, he often got reactions like that. Then, of course, every once and a while someone would be happy with the way things turned out and he would never see of them again.

That's what he was counting on for his next customer.

Ino was far from being a PLAIN girl. She happened to find herself to be exceptionally glamorous, especially compared to all the other girls in the village. Not many people would argue, either, since there was no getting around the fact that Ino certainly wasn't BAD looking.

Still… if she was such a looker, then why couldn't she get even Uchiha Sasuke to notice her? She had just helplessly watched as he sprinted by her, not even batting an eye in her direction as she waved and called out to him.

Nope…she wasn't even worth a GLANCE.

So, with a heavy sigh and a heavy heart, she made her way to her family's flower shop. Today was one of those days off from her training… which meant she was working all day. Such is the life of Yamanaka Ino!

On her way to work, she caught sight of a small cart that she had never seen before. She walked by this way almost every day so this meant that this cart was completely fresh and new and that could only mean ONE thing! Not many people knew about it and she would be one of the first to own whatever was being sold there!

"This is such a pretty crystal!" she exclaimed as she dove right for a peculiar looking crystal with a glass butterfly inside it.

"Be careful with that, it's very delicate." Said the old man inside the cart.

Ino looked down to see what looked like the remnants of a crystal just like the one she was holding.

"Oh, I'm sorry." She said, cautiously putting it down. "Did someone drop one?"

"You could say that." Said the man. "Are you interested in buying one?"

Ino sighed and battled internally with herself. She knew that she shouldn't but it would look so nice in the flower shop! Besides, she'd kick herself later for not buying one when everyone else had one.

"Well…I don't know…" she started, looking painfully at the price.

Chokai wasn't about to let this sale slip through the cracks.

"Tell me, do you know anything about the Butterfly Effect?" asked Chokai.

Ino slowly shook her head.

"It is said that if a butterfly flaps its wings then a tornado can start." Chokai answered.

"Oh…that's so pretty." Said Ino, peering closer at the butterfly.

"That's a magic crystal, you know." Chokai continued. "You can make a wish on it to change your past and it will come true."

Ino gasped. "Is that true?" she asked eagerly.

Sold, thought Chokai.

"Absolutely true." He nodded.

"Well then I absolutely have to have it!" Ino giggled as she pretty much threw the money at Chokai and grabbed the crystal. "Oh no…I'm going to be late! Thanks so much for the crystal!"

Making sure to be careful with her new crystal, Ino took off to the flower shop.

She pushed the door open with only a few minutes to go until she'd be considered a late contender.

"Ino, you're lucky." Her mother reprimanded her as she hung the apron up on the side of the room.

"I would NEVER be late!" Ino laughed as she quickly tied her apron on.

"Yeah, except for yesterday." Her mother said under her breath. "I'm going shopping for the day. I'll be home tonight."

"Okay!" said Ino, getting behind the counter.

When her mother had left fully, she pulled the crystal out and set it down on the table. She gave a dreamy sigh as she thought of all the things she was going to wish for.

"What do I want the MOST?" she said out loud to herself as she looked up at the ceiling.

While her eyes were off the crystal, she heard a strange noise. It sounded like something flapping their wings but, as she looked around the room, she couldn't see any birds. That's when she quickly glanced down to find that the flapping had stopped and the glass butterfly was still in place.

She giggled nervously to herself as she picked up the crystal again.

"Well, I suppose there's no point in delaying my wish!" she said. "Sasuke… he's so dreamy… so cute… such a great ninja. I love him, I love him! Oh magic Butterfly Crystal…"—the door to the shop opened up—"I wish he was my boyfriend!"

After she finished her statement, she welcomed the newcomer to her shop.

"Welcome!" she said cheerfully.

"Hey Ino." Said the boy she recognized as Kiba as he approached the counter, not wavering at all. He leaned on the counter, acting like he belonged there.

This, of course, made Ino feel very uncomfortable. She didn't know Kiba all that well so why he was acting so friendly was beyond her.

"Is your shift almost over?" Kiba asked.

"What are you talking about?" said Ino. "I just got here. Just a minute ago."

Kiba looked at her with a questioning expression just as the door opened up again.

"Welcome!" Ino said, glad there was a distraction from the task at hand, which was Kiba. But then she became confused when she saw her mother walk back in. "Did you forget something?"

"Huh?" said her mother, going for her apron. "No…I think I remembered everything. Sorry I'm a little late. Good afternoon, Kiba."

"Hey, what's up?" said Kiba.

"Nothing much, how are you?" said her mother with a pleasant smile, which certainly threw Ino off. "You can go now if you want, Ino." Said her mother invitingly.

Even though Ino was vastly confused, she wasn't about to argue with her mother letting her off early. REALLY early.

"All right, I do want to!" said Ino as she took off her apron and set the crystal down someplace where everyone could see it. "See you later, Mom!"

As she walked out of the shop, she got the haunting feeling that someone was following her. She stopped in the doorway as the door shut and that certain someone crashed into her.

"Hey, why'd you stop?" Kiba asked.

"Why are you following me?" Ino said.

Kiba let out a laugh. But then when he got a look at the stern expression that Ino wore, he stopped. "Wait, are you serious?" he said.

"Yes." Ino answered. "And how do you know my mother?"

Now Kiba was OFFICIALLY confused. "I see her practically every day…" he explained. "Are you all right?"

"I'm FINE." Said Ino as she started walking, figuring her annoyed huff would be enough to ward Kiba away. But, even as she started speed walking, she noticed that Kiba was STILL following her. Finally, she spun around. "Stop doing that!" she yelled.

"Doing WHAT?" Kiba said. "I thought we were going to hang out today!"

"Hang out?" said Ino. "With you? Why would we do that?"

"We ALWAYS do that." Kiba said.

"I hardly KNOW you!" Ino said, getting frustrated.

"What do you mean, you hardly know me?" Kiba said, ALSO getting frustrated. "Is this a sick way of breaking up with me? Because I'd rather you just tell me that you don't like me anymore—"

"Stop." Said Ino. "Backtrack. What did you just say?"

"I'm asking you if you're trying to break up with me." Kiba said.

"Break up with you?" Ino gaped. "How would I break up with you? We're not dating!"

"Yes we are!" said Kiba. "At least, we WERE. If you really are breaking up with me then I guess we're not anymore…"

Ino took a deep breath and tried to sort herself out.

"Am I going crazy?" she asked.

"You must be." Said Kiba as he reached for her hand but she pulled it away quickly.

"Don't touch me!" she yelled.

"Oh I get it." Kiba said, rolling his eyes. "It's that time again, isn't it?"

"How dare you!" said Ino angrily.

"What am I SUPPOSED to think?" Kiba said. "YOU won't tell me anything! Did you hit your head or something? Are you sick?"

He reached out a hand to touch her forehead, but of course she backed away from him. She didn't need weirdo Kiba that she didn't even know touching her.

"Look, at least tell me WHY you're breaking up with me." Said Kiba, putting his hands in his pockets and turning around.

"I'm not breaking up with you…" Ino began.

"Then what's this all about?" Kiba asked, obviously trying to sound a little gentler than he had earlier.

"I didn't mean that." Ino said. "I'm just not sure what's going on. Since when are we dating? What made you think that we were?"

"Well, remember that time when you were trying to ask Sasuke out to a local genin dance and he said no?" Kiba said. Ino nodded as she remembered doing that. "And then, do you remember that, out of desperation, you asked ME to go with you? And I said yes because I had nothing better to do? And then we saw more of each other after that? And then you got mad at me because I didn't remember our one-month anniversary? I pretty much knew that at least at THAT point we were going out, but it could have started before that."

"What?" said Ino. "I don't remember any of that! I remember Sasuke saying no, but I definitely don't remember asking YOU and I CERTAINLY don't remember the past year of us being together!"

"Maybe it's not that you don't remember… you just don't care." Said Kiba, looking hurt. "You still like Sasuke, don't you? I was just a distraction this whole time, wasn't I? Well, fine. Whatever."

With that, Kiba flipped his hood on and stuffed his hands deeper into his pockets, trying to accept rejection coolly without losing his head.

Ino stood there for a minute with her mouth hanging open.

"Wait." She said to herself.

But she didn't exactly know where to go from there.

"Hey Ino!" came a voice that she knew as Sakura's as she came from the direction Kiba had just left from. She obviously had passed him because she looked back to where he had walked off. "Are you two in a fight?"

"Hang on." Said Ino. "Wait."

Sakura waited, but Ino didn't go on.

"Waiting…" Sakura said.

"What just happened?" Ino said finally.

"I don't know." Shrugged Sakura. "I wasn't there."

Ino looked at Sakura and then started to laugh. "I know what happened." She laughed finally, but the laugh sounded awfully nervous. "Kiba wanted to go on a date with me so he made up this whole story about us going out for a year! That is SO like boys!"

She continued to laugh, but when Sakura didn't join in, slowly her laughter died down.

"Ino, you guys HAVE been going out for a year." Sakura said. "Well, it'll be a year in two weeks… you haven't stopped talking about what you expect him to get you for your gift—"

"Sakura, no, that isn't right." Ino commanded.

Sakura stopped.

That's when everything suddenly fell into place. "The crystal!" Ino practically shrieked as she threw her hands over her mouth.

"The crystal?" Sakura repeated.

"It's the crystal!" Ino said.

"What's the crystal?" Sakura said frantically, wondering why she was left out of this revelation.

"The reason for all of this!" Ino answered, giving a sigh of relief. "When I wished for SASUKE to be my boyfriend, it misunderstood and made KIBA my boyfriend!"

She let out a laugh but then stopped.

"Why Kiba of all people?" she said.

"What ARE you talking about?" Sakura said. "Sasuke's been going out with Hinata ever since you started going out with Kiba."

Ino gasped and looked ultimately betrayed.

"What did you just say?" she barely managed to whisper.

"Come on, Ino, don't act as though you didn't know that you broke Hinata's heart when you started going out with Kiba." Said Sakura. "Sasuke found her crying, one thing led to another and then they started going out. So what?"

"SO WHAT!" Ino yelled, grabbing Sakura's shoulders and shaking her a little bit. "How can you say SO WHAT! This is SASUKE we're talking about!"

"Yeah…and…?" Sakura said. "I'm over him. I thought you were too."

"And who are you going out with?" said Ino, putting her hands on her hips. "Shikamaru?"

"Well yeah." Said Sakura as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Ino's mouth dropped open like a cash register.

"You're WHAT?" she screamed.

"Ino, calm down!" said Sakura as she did her best to stop Ino from potentially destroying the entire village with her rage.

"You have to show me." Ino demanded.

"Uh…okay…" Sakura said.

Sakura led Ino across the village to where there was a little restaurant.

"See?" Sakura said, pointing in the window to see Hinata and Sasuke sitting across from each other, engaged in what seemed like intelligent conversation.

"What…?" Ino said, stuttering over her words and unable to emit anything anywhere near to the intelligence exchanged between Sasuke and Hinata.

"Come on, I'll show you." Said Sakura, grabbing Ino by the arm and leading her to the door.

"No, we can't go in there!" Ino said, pulling Sakura away from the door.

"Why not?" said Sakura.

"Won't he get mad?" Ino said, looking back to where they were sitting.

"Uh…no…" said Sakura, appearing slightly uneasy with Ino's strange behavior. "But, if you're feeling a little unstable and psychotic right now, we could NOT go inside if you want…"

"I don't need to see that up close." Ino said as she started storming away.

"Ino, are you all right?" Sakura asked, chasing after Ino.

Ino rounded the corner to see Kiba sitting by himself, staring off into space. "Oh God, there he is." Ino said, ducking back behind the corner and putting her hand on her head.

"What?" said Sakura, peeking around the corner but Ino pulled her back. "Oh come on. He already knows you're there. You said yourself that he can smell you a mile away."

"I said that?" Ino said, rubbing her forehead. "I think I'm going to be sick."

"Look," said Sakura as she started pushing Ino in the direction of where Kiba was sitting. "Whatever you guys fought about, it's obviously tearing you apart inside so I think it's time you two made up?"

Ino looked down to see that she was standing right over Kiba who was looking up at her.

"Uh…hi…" Ino said, waving nervously.

"Hi." Said Kiba.

"Ino wants to tell you something." Sakura said, giving Ino a little push.

Kiba stood up.

"Uh…yeah…I guess I do…" Ino said. "Okay…today, right before you came into the flower shop, I bought this crystal at this new cart store thing… and the owner said that I could make a wish on it to change my past and it would come true…and it DID come true!"

"What?" said Kiba and Sakura at the same time.

"And I wished that Sasuke could be my boyfriend…" Ino went on. "But somehow the crystal must have gotten confused and made YOU my boyfriend. I don't know why! But it changed my past and made it so we've been going out for a year even though we haven't really! Do you get it?"

"Listen…" said Kiba after a moment's pause. "Just TELL me that you want to break up."

"I'm not making it up!" Ino protested.

"Ino's feeling a little under the weather." Sakura said, jumping in front of Ino before she could say anything else outrageous. "I think you should just take her out to help remind her of all the good times you guys had!"

"She obviously doesn't want to so I'm not going to force her." Kiba said solemnly.

"I'M going to force her!" Sakura said, grabbing Kiba's hand and grabbing Ino's hand and thrusting them together.

Ino gasped and immediately pulled away.

"Sakura!" Ino said. "Why can't you respect that this is all just one big misunderstanding?"

"YOU'RE the one who's been going out with Kiba for a year and are now trying to break it off in the most insensitive way possible!" Sakura accused.

"I told you already!" Ino said. "It didn't REALLY happen! It was the magic Butterfly Crystal I got at the old man's cart!"

"Ino, just forget it." Kiba said. "I get the idea."

With that, he was gone once again.

"See?" said Sakura, looking utterly disgusted. "I hope you're happy! You just destroyed the best thing that ever happened to you!"

"But it didn't really happen!" Ino protested. "I'll show you! Follow me!"

Ino ran back to the flower shop, not really caring whether Sakura was following her or not. But, of course, Sakura needed an explanation for Ino's irrational behavior so she simply HAD to follow!

"Ino, what are you doing back here?" Ino's mother greeted her. "Weren't you going out with Kiba?"

"No, Mom, I wasn't." Ino said as she led Sakura over to where she left the crystal only to find it missing. Ino looked briefly around in the area and then at her mother. "Mom… where did the pretty crystal with the butterfly in it go?" she said, her voice shaking.

"Oh that?" said her mother. "That was yours?"

"Mom…" Ino started.

"Someone came in and asked if it was for sale." Her mother said. "It had a price on it so I had figured it had accidentally come in with our shipment and you had put it out this morning."

"Who bought it." said Ino, though it was more of a demand than a question.

"Kiba's mother." Her mother answered.

Ino slapped her forehead. "Are you kidding me?" she said.

"No." said her mother, looking a little annoyed that she was being so rudely interrogated.

"Ino, you might as well go over there." Sakura said. "You owe Kiba an apology anyway."

"We're just going to go, get the crystal and get out of there." Ino said as the two of them left the shop.

"And apologize to—Oh hi Shikamaru!" Sakura suddenly shrieked as she started waving her arms around. Ino peered ahead of them just in time to see Shikamaru's back slowly turn as he looked behind him to check to see who was calling out to him.

He put a hand up in response.

"Hey," he called back. Sakura ran to catch up with him and Ino only half-heartedly joined her.

"Where are you off to?" Sakura asked as she got up WAY to close to Shikamaru for Ino's comfort.

"Just someplace where I can see the clouds." Shikamaru said as he did absolutely nothing to put distance between himself and Sakura.

"Can I come too?" Sakura requested in her sweetest voice.

"You'll just get bored like last time." Shikamaru said, but he was definitely smiling.

"Then we can find something else to do together." Sakura said.

Ino didn't even realize that she had a disgusted expression plastered on her face, but it was kind of hard for Sakura and Shikamaru not to notice. So, after standing there in an uncomfortable state for a few moments, Sakura finally cleared her throat.

"Ino's not feeling well." Sakura said.

"That's not true!" Ino argued.

"She got in a fight with Kiba." Sakura whispered, though everyone could hear her perfectly well.

"That's too bad." Said Shikamaru, but it was quite obvious to Ino that he didn't really care all that much.

"Shikamaru!" Ino finally managed. "Sakura is SO not good for you! What are you THINKING?"

She barged through them so they separated and stormed off. Both Shikamaru and Sakura looked at each other and shrugged as they walked off to watch the clouds together.

Ino was now officially angry. How could two of her current friends being going out? How could Sasuke be going out with HINATA of all people? And, most importantly of all, WHY KIBA? She didn't even know him!

After a few minutes of blindly walking around, she quickly came to the realization that she had no idea where Kiba lived.

So, cursing her terrible new life under her breath, she slumped down on the ground and threw a rock across the street. When that didn't dilute her anger, she threw another one.

"You wanna talk?" came a voice from above. She looked up to see Kiba standing over her.

Quickly, she stood up. "My mother accidentally sold something to your mother a little earlier." She said, trying not to waiver. "And I want it back."

Kiba pulled the Butterfly Crystal out of his pocket and held it up. "This?" he said.

Ino reached out her hand for it but Kiba pulled back. Ino tapped her foot and put her hand on her hip. Then, with her free hand, she held out an open palm.

"It's mine." She said. "I bought it. So give it back."

"I think I deserve an explanation first." Kiba said. "If this is the only way to hold your attention for more than five minutes then I'm going to keep it until you explain to me what happened to us so suddenly."

"Kiba, I already explained it to you." Ino said. "There never was an 'us'. It was all fabricated from a wish gone bad. I meant to wish for SASUKE to be my boyfriend, not you."

"Sasuke's going out with Hinata." Kiba reminded her.

"No he's not!" Ino said. Kiba raised an eyebrow. "Well, he's not REALLY! Not in the world that I come from!"

"The world you come from?" Kiba said, sounding exasperated.

"You have to understand!" Ino said. "None of this is real! It's like some kind of alternate reality that was fabricated because I accidentally wished for you to be my boyfriend instead of Sasuke!"

"Someday, when I have a more mentally sane girlfriend, I'll tell her about how you went about breaking up with me." Kiba said, shaking his head. "And I'll very nicely request that she think up something else."

"I don't mean to hurt your feelings!" Ino said.

"It's pretty creative, though, I have to admit." Kiba said with a nod.

Ino sighed. "I promise you won't care as long as you give me that crystal." She said, presenting her palm to him once again.

Kiba looked at the crystal with a sigh. "This crystal is more important to you than I am?" he said.

"It's the only way I can get things to be back to normal." Ino insisted.

"I thought we meant something." Kiba continued as he handed over the crystal.

Ino was starting to get a little annoyed. He certainly was mellow dramatic and making a big deal over nothing.

"I'm sure you'll find a girl that will like you and appreciate you." Ino said, though she didn't really know why considering it would all be over soon and hopefully, he wouldn't remember a thing about it.

"I thought I already found that girl." Said Kiba as he started walking away.

Well, after that last comment, Ino actually kinda felt a little bad for him and just couldn't leave him on that note.

"Haha!" she laughed. "Just kidding!"

"What?" said Kiba, turning around.

"I was just kidding this whole time!" Ino said.

"What are you talking about?" Kiba asked, walking back over.

"I was just testing to see how much you ACTUALLY loved me." Ino said with a nod, though she didn't know what was possessing her to do so.

"You were testing me?" Kiba said.

"Yup!" Ino said. "I was just kidding the whole time! Funny, huh?"

Kiba looked down at the ground as Ino waited. Then, she heard quiet laughter escape from him and, pretty soon, he exploded with full-fledged laughter.

"That's so sick!" he said finally. "Ino, you are so sick!"

"Uh…" Ino started, beginning to think that maybe she had just left him before claiming it was all a test. As he started advancing towards her, she began to step backwards, not really wanting to taste his wrath.

It didn't take him very long to catch up to her as he reached out and grabbed her, pulling her in very close to him.

"H-h-hey!" Ino stuttered. "Stop!"

"You put me through hell today." Kiba whispered. "So I think you owe me an apology, don't you think so?"

Ino watched as he started leaning in. Was he going to KISS her?

She tried struggling but he was a lot stronger so she started hitting his shoulders in attempt to get him away. He stopped and pulled away but the crystal dropped from her hand and smashed on the ground, shattering into a thousand tiny pieces.

Ino gasped and threw herself to the ground, trying to collect up the pieces. She looked back up at Kiba.

"Sorry…" he began.

"My one chance of getting things back to normal and you ruined it!" she screamed.

That's when she suddenly noticed something odd.

She was in her flower shop. Kiba was still standing there in front of her, but they were in the flower shop. And he looked utterly confused, while holding some flowers.

"…Um…what?" he said.

"When did we get back here!" Ino demanded.

"Uh." Said Kiba as he put the flowers down on the counter.

"Don't think you can woo me over with flowers!" said Ino, pushing them back towards him.

Kiba raised an eyebrow. "I want to BUY these." He said.

Ino stared long and hard at Kiba.

"Why?" she asked suspiciously, eyeing him.

"They're for my mom." Said Kiba, looking around and making sure that she was talking to him. "It's her birthday."

"Sure…fine…" Ino said as she entered the price into the register and Kiba paid, slowly backing away from Ino just in case she suddenly lashed out again. "Wait, hang on!" Ino called just as he reached the door.

"Um…what?" Kiba asked, pushing the door open…just to be safe.

"You and I…we're not… a unit… are we?" Ino asked.

"A unit?" said Kiba. "Me and you?"

"Yeah." Ino said.

"Wow." Said Kiba. "I never thought YOU'D be the first girl to ask me out."

"I'm not asking you out!" Ino protested.

"The answer is no." Kiba said, taking a step outside. "Sorry. I'm sure you'll find a guy who will like you and appreciate you."

Ino cocked her head to the side as he went to leave.

"Wait!" she yelled, stopping him again.

He looked back at her. "What?" he said.

"Sasuke and Hinata?" she said.

"What about Sasuke and Hinata?" Kiba asked.

"They're not going out, are they?" Ino said.

"Not that I know of." Kiba said.

"And what about Shikamaru and Sakura?"

"Are you asking me if those two are going out?" Kiba said.

"Yes." Said Ino.

"Not as far as I can tell." Kiba said. "Hey, can I leave? You have no idea how weirded out I am right now."

"Oh…" said Ino with a slight laugh. "Trust me. I have an idea."

Next chapter: Old Friend