Chapter 2: A Girl Named Ino Yamanaka

A young girl was currently playing with her best friend in the park.

They were just having basic kid fun, pushing each other on the swing sets, playing tag, and more.

The girl was currently play-choking her best friend, as they were now just playfully wrestling.

"Whacha gonna do, heh, Sakura-Chan?" She asked her friend.

Her friend just tried pushing her off but was too weak to do so, so after a little more time had passed, she tapped out.

After feeling and hearing the tap, the young girl let go of her friend and then both just dropped down and sat on the ground.

As they were sitting down, the young girl's best friend, Sakura, told the young girl

"You've got quite a strong grip there."

"I know" the young girl replied with a smile.

The name of this young girl, was Ino Yamanaka.

(Ino age: 5)

After telling Sakura this, Ino just laid down on the ground and started looking at all the clouds that were forming. After a good minute or so of watching the clouds, Ino, without turning her attention away from the clouds, asked Sakura

"Sakura-Chan, do you think we'll be friends forever?"

Sakura just looked at her friend, smacked her forehead, and yelled

"Of course you dummy!"

Ino simply rubbed the spot that Sakura smacked and with her head still turned towards the ground, she smiled.

"Great!" She shouted before standing up and turning to look at Sakura. "Then that means we're best friends no matter what!"

Sakura simply stood up and loudly replied to this with

"You bet!"

And like that, both embraced before playing a game of tag together again.

(Two Hours Later)

After two hours of playing tag, both Sakura and Ino were tired and were about to head home, when something else caught their attention.

It happened right as soon as they left the park, Ino saw the boy she liked, just walking through the streets, only problem that she didn't know at the time was that Sakura liked him too. She learned this the hard way when she heard her best friend shout

"Sasuke-Kun!" While waving her hand back and forth,

The boy who she shouted at paid her no attention at all and kept walking throufh the streets.

As soon as the boy left their line of sight, Sakura's hand fell to her side, upset and down, as the boy she had a crush on still didn't pay any attention to her.

"Well... that's sucks" Sakura said before dropping her head in sadness.

When she raised her head up again though and turned to look at her friend, Ino, she saw that the young Yamanaka had a strange look on her face.

She looked both hurt, bothered, and confused.

So Sakura asked her

"What's wrong Ino-Chan?"

"Y-you like Sasuke, Sakura?" Ino asked her best friend.

"Yeah, why?" She asked.

"No reason" she replied before looking at the ground and thinking this through. 'Me and Sakura, my best friend, like the same boy, what do I do?'

Sakura easily was able to realize that Ino was lying and that she was hiding something, so she told her

"Come on Ino-Chan, you know you can tell me anything. So tell me, what's really wrong?"

"But that's the thing, I can't tell you, because I don't know how you're gonna take it, and what's worse, you might hate me because of it."

Sakura just walked up to Ino, hugged her, and then told her

"I could never hate you" before separating herself from Ino and then again, asking her "So tell me, what's really bothering you."

"Okay, fine" Ino replied before taking deep breaths in order to compose herself and get it off her chest. "So, Sakura-Chan."

She paused after this.

"Yes" Sakura responded after Ino's sudden pause.

"Okay? Well Sakura-Chan, I really like Sasuke too" Ino confessed.

Just hearing this caused Sakura's initial smile to turn upside down and then turn into a scowl before angrily saying

"What?"

"I know, you like him too, but so do I and I just don't know what to do right now."

"Well sorry to say it Ino, but there isn't anything you can do, because he's going to be mine and that's final"

Ino gasped at what Sakura just said, not that Sasuke would be hers, but the fact that Sakura no longer added the honorific of -Chan- to her name.

"Sakura-Chan."

"Don't say that. Don't call me Sakura-Chan, don't call me Chan, don't call me anything."

"But Sakura-Chan, we just said we wouldn't let anything get in the way of our friendship" Ino pointed out.

"That was before I knew you were crushing on my future husband you... Ino-Pig!" She yelled angrily.

Ino was clearly very hurt by this and so she angrily replied with

"Fine then... Forehead!"

The second that word left Ino's mouth, Sakura rushed her.

"You bitch!" She yelled before going for a very sloppy punch that Ino managed to dodge.

"Sakura-Chan, stop, we don't have to do this, we don't have to fight!" Ino tried to reason.

Sakura however, wouldn't listen. She took that insult that Ino threw at her to heart and was trying to show her just how much it hurt her.

"Shut up!" Sakura yelled before throwing more and more punches, trying her hardest to land as many as possible.

However, Ino was easily able to react to and dodge every last one of Sakura's floppy and very easy to avoid punches, and while she didn't wanna do it, she kicked Sakura in the stomach.

As soon as Sakura got kicked in the stomach, she clutched it, and when she did, Ino snuck up behind her, and like when they were wrestling, put her in a headlock.

Sakura knew there was no point in fighting it, as she knew Ino was stronger than her, so she tapped out and waited for Ino to let her go.

Ino indeed let her go, but didn't just release her hands, she brought her arms back, and then tossed Sakura to the ground and then yelled at her.

"What the hell are you doing!?" She started. "Yeah I like Sasuke too, but guess what, I wasn't actually going to fight over him, but now you just showed me what kind of friend you really are! You also showed me what I need to do in order to win his heart though, so get out of my sight, now!"

Sakura who was still sitting on the ground, just gnashed her teeth, got up from the ground, and glared daggers at Ino.

"Fine then, from now on, we're not friends anymore, we're rivals!" Sakura declared before turning and walking away from her former best friend.

"Alright then, that's fine with me!" Ino replied with an equally loud yell.

Sakura just stopped to gnashed her teeth at this, but then proceeded to walk it off.

Once Sakura left her view, all Ino had to think was

'It's best that happened, she would've only gotten in my way of me getting with my Sasuke-Kun anyways.'

She shook off the initial feeling of anger and replaced it with determination, determination to get with her Sasuke, and prove to Sakura that she was the better girl.

So she rushed home as fast as possible.

(One Hour Later)

Ino's father, Inoichi, was currently about to set up the closed sign for his family's flower shop and then head to his room in the shop when he heard what sounded like his daughter shout

"Daddy, don't lock the doors yet!"

And turned to see his young daughter sprinting as fast as possible to get inside the store before he locked the doors.

("Why were you running so much?" Inoichi asked.

"B-because" Ino stammered with pants. "I, w-was running f-from."

"Okay stop right there" Inoichi told her. "Sit down and take a breather, then you can explain everything to me."

"Okay" she replied before sitting down and catching her breath.

After about five minutes, she caught her breath and explained everything to her father, and after she did, all Inoichi could do was shake his head in disappointment.

Ino could see the disappointment in her father's face and so she asked him

"Daddy, why do you look so disappointed?"

Inoichi just stopped shaking his head and just told her

"Because I am disappointed, for more than one reason."

"In who, me or Sakura?" Ino asked.

"Both of you" he replied. "I mean for starters, you both stopped being friends over a boy... a boy."

"She was the one who wanted it not me" Ino reasoned.

"That may be true, but it's to be expected, her parents are both drama queens with nothing else better to do in the world. You on the other hand, I was expecting for you to find a way around that, a way to stop her from acting like that around you."

"I tried daddy, believe me. She and I were friends for a whole year, how was I supposed to know that today, I would find out that we were both crushing on the same boy?"

"Which leads me to the second reason I'm upset in both of you" Inoichi started.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Ino asked.

"I'm upset that you guys stopped being friends over a boy, but even more upset that it was over the Uchiha of all kids" Inoichi said.

"What are you talking about?" She asked. "There's nothing wrong with Sasuke?"

Inoichi just facepalmed at this and said

"I can already tell from that simple response of yours that you don't know the kid, at all, because if you did, you'd know that he's bad news."

"How, what could he have done?" She asked him.

"Oh boy, where do I start?" Inoichi began with a starch and a sigh, knowing that the long list of horrible things the Uchiha had done was going to take a while to list entirely.

He didn't get to explain though, because as soon as Ino heard her father, she sighed and went to her room not interested in what he had to say.

"What's the matter, you don't wanna hear what that little devil has been doing all this time?" He asked his daughter.

"No, I'm just not interested in hearing the many pointless lies that you're gonna say about my future husband!" She shouted before going into her room and slamming her door.

"Can't say I didn't expect that" Inoichi said before sighing at how arrogant and stubborn his daughter could be. "She's still young, so I hope she gets over this little crush on that Uchiha, because if she doesn't, I worry for her."

Inoichi was then about to walk over to his own room and rest for the rest of the day, even though it was still 5 PM.

However, Noriko, Ino's mom, wandered into the room and asked her husband

"What were you going to say?"

You see, Noriko wasn't a ninja, she was a regular citizen who fell in love with and married one of the elite ninjas in Konoha. So she was completely oblivious to the many horrible things that Inoichi was gonna say, which is why she wanted to hear it.

Inoichi realized this and knew that Noriko had a right to know, as she was his wife and Ino's mom, so he let out a deep breath and then told her everything.

"A couple of weeks ago, he used to have this little group of boys, there was total of eight of them, counting Sasuke, and he used that little posse of his to torment other little kids. For example, this one time, there was this little boy with a kite, he was just minding his own business when outta nowhere, Sasuke and his little posse appeared, beat the kid up, and stole his kite."

Noriko couldn't believe what she was hearing and covered her mouth to show it.

"His little gang of delinquents was disbanded though."

Noriko was relived to hear this, and removed her hands from her mouth, but still asked her husband

"Why?"

"I don't know, but I hope he was taught a lesson."

"I agree."

"However, just because he no longer has his little posse, doesn't mean he is t still causing problems for everyone."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, he's still beating up kids and taking their things for no reason. However, that's all I know, and if I find out anything else, I'll be sure to tel you immediately."

"How do you know all this?" Noriko asked.

"Because I was always there to save the kids that Sasuke was beating up with or without his gang" Inoichi said.

After telling this to his wife, Inoichi turned around and was about to start heading to their room again, when he heard his wife say

"Wait, Inoichi-Kun" and turned around to asked her

"What?"

"Why haven't you told Lord Third about any of this?" She questioned.

Inoichi just closed his eyes, ready for his wife's reaction, and told her

"I have."

Noriko widened her eyes and angrily asked him

"Why hasn't he done anything then!?"

Inoichi then opened his eyes, turned his head, and while gnashing his teeth gritted out

"He can't, and the reason why is because Sasuke's parents are protecting him. They don't believe a word I tell them, say that their son would never do anything like that, and that if I continued spewing lies about their son, they would rebel against the village. And knowing the strength of the Uchiha, Lord Third isn't doing anything, in order to protect us."

"So to summarize it, if Lord Third punishes Sasuke for whatever reason, then The Uchiha Clan will declare war on Konoha and kill us all" Noriko asked.

Inoichi simply nodded his head and after he did, Noriko gnashed her teeth and clenched her fists, angry that the kid was getting away with everything just because of his parents.

Inoichi, seeing what mood his wife was in, decided to leave the room and let her vent.

Instead of going to his own room, he just went outside and decided to go for a walk.

'That boy should take notes from and listen to his older brother since he is clearly the only one in his family that actually cares about him due to him being the only one who beats him for all the shit he does' Inoichi began to think while walking, "Either way, I hope Ino gets over this little crush of hers before it's too late.'

When that thought left his mind, all the man could do now, was wait and see.

To Be Continued...