All In The Name Of A One Sided Love

Sakura hated meditating. Takara said that it was the only way to even begin to 'merge' her two personalities into one, and it immensely bothered Sakura that a complete stranger knew her better than she knew herself. She tried to concentrate on the silence, but 'Saku' and 'Ra' kept talking to each other, i.e. arguing.

Takara said that it was supposed to sound like that at first, and Sakura hated it. She was sitting there, for hours on end sometimes, listening to them bicker about old matters. Takara said that it would be easy to 'move them into the same room' a.k.a. 'merge' the two of them together if they could be silent, together, and if they could think the same things, together.

Sakura thought that it all was bullshit.

'This is crazy. Why in the world would this work?' Saku asked with a pout.

'No, no… it makes sense. If we can find a center and become more like each other, we can fully make up Sakura,' Ra disagreed, as they often did.

'That's the crazy part! Do you really think that there's a chance you'll ever think like me?" Saku asked indignantly.

'No, I think the point is for you to start thinking like me.'

This was only a small sample of the beginning of on such argument. It amazed Sakura how different her two halves were, and she had never even known. Takara said that, most likely, she stopped hearing the voice because she locked it away after Sasuke left, back when it was the major part of her and 'Ra' was dormant. She was empty while Naruto was gone, off to try and retrieve Sasuke, but when he came back without him, 'Ra' woke up and became the major personality.

Or something to the effect of that.

"Saku… Ra. Dinner," Kabuto said. He had started to tease her by separating the parts of her name, as if calling the two different pieces of her mentality.

"Haha," Sakura muttered before standing up and sighing. She stretched quickly and followed Kabuto out of the room that was used for her meditation, a room Sakura was surprised Kabuto let her have, simply for a few hours daily.

----

Ino was having troubles of her own. After finding out that Takara was a mind specialist, Ino was desperately trying to get her to teach her, for however long she'd be at the lair. However, Takara was having nothing to do with her, explaining that she was not into the whole 'teachering' thing.

Ino hated the fact that Takara wasn't even giving her a second glance, as if she already knew that she'd be terrible at it—which wasn't true, for she had pretty much mastered all of the mind jutsu of her family.

"Hey, Takara, I was wondering—" Ino would begin as Takara walked past her.

"No," Takara would reply simply, not breaking her gait, just continuing to walk down the corridor.

"Damn it…" Ino muttered as she passed by. She stepped in place behind her and formed the seal for her Shintenshin no Jutsu. She mumbled the jutsu's name, and the soul traveled in a slow straight line. Ino had noticed that Takara always walked perfectly straight, and so, she knew that the jutsu would hit.

Her soul was right next to Takara, but for some odd reason, it bounced away and went in a completely different line, hitting the wall and stopping, frozen for she had hit a solid object that didn't have a place for a soul.

"Nice try," Takara muttered as she turned sharply right into the library, no doubt to talk to Kabuto.

----

The argument Saku and Ra were having was very awkward during this turn's meditation.

'Sasuke has that whole dark-guy look! And guys do not look good with glasses,' Saku pouted.

'Ch. Kabuto seems at least somewhat stable, and he's much more clever than Sasuke. Also, look at that hair! Could you imagine being with a guy whose hair was silkier than your own? Besides, that color…' Ra said, in a rare bout of teenaged girl talk.

'Uh-huh. Yeah, right. Who wants the bookworm type? Back home, I used to torture guys like that…'

'You were wrong and you know it. I bet he has more loyalty than Sasuke, that's for damn sure…' Ra retorted with a smug tone, knowing she had Saku there.

'And? Living with him in daily life would be boring. Read, read, read, read, read, eat, read, read…' Saku said, going on and on about how much he read. 'I mean, he'd pay more attention to books than me!'

'Yeah, but at least when you'd have a conversation, he'd have something halfway clever to talk about. With Sasuke, it'd be, "Well, I want to kill my brother and gain power from a pedophile, but other than that, I bought some windmill shuriken…" But with Kabuto, he'd have…'

'Conversation doesn't matter. All that matters is how good they look, and how good they make you look.'

'Are you kidding me? Sasuke would make you look way better than Kabuto does? Kabuto looks hot and Sasuke… Well, although he is actually much hotter, he has the personality of a dead possum.'

'Uh-huh. Kabuto pales in comparison to Sasuke,' Saku replied back stubbornly.

Sakura was indeed thankful, for she was tired of arguing with herself over who was hotter/better, when Takara knocked on the door and told her it was lunch time. Normally, you weren't told when meals were, because they were on a scheduled routine, so you shouldn't need to be told. However, because Sakura wasn't allowed to have a clock in her meditation room (too distracting), she needed to be told when lunch and dinner were, provided she was actually meditating at the time.

Sakura immediately jumped up in excitement—which was silly, because lunch was a boring affair—and she flung the door open. She was now contemplating what to make for lunch, and so now, her two sides were arguing.

'Peanut butter and jelly!' Saku demanded.

'We had that yesterday! It's unhealthy to eat the same things day after day! Look, make soup or something!' Ra threw back.

'Ch, but then you'd have to cook!' Saku replied grumpily.

Sakura sighed and pulled out a can of New England clam chowder and put the contents into a pot before adding a can of milk to it, just as the directions said on the back. Lately, she had taken to following Ra's advice, for she was much more sensible and realistic than Saku, not to mention that had been the major part of her personality for the past two and a half years.

She put the soup on, ignoring Saku's rants about it taking too long and about how sweet things were better.

Ino watched as Sakura put on the soup, halfway reaching for bread for a sandwich, as she grabbed the can.

'Why didn't I notice before? I mean… when I tried taking over her body in the preliminaries… Something pushed me out. I'm not sure which one it was, though… More than likely Saku, because she seems more like she has will power…' Ino thought to herself. 'But why didn't I notice her major personality change? She went from competing with me to being my friend again…'

'Wait. Maybe… Maybe that incident was when Saku… or maybe Ra… developed…' Ino suddenly thought.

"Ino, I'm returning this ribbon," a younger Sakura said to a younger Ino.

"I gave you that ribbon… And forehead protectors go on your forehead," Ino pointed out, as Sakura tried to hand her back the ribbon that she had given her long ago, back in pre-Academy days.

"From now I'm not a girl who follows you around. The time that I put it on my forehead is the time, as a female shinobi, that I don't lose to you!" Sakura said sternly.

"Good idea. Then… me, too," Ino said as she took the ribbon from Sakura, holding back a small smirk while keeping up a stern façade.

That time… was the time that Sakura began to try to take things seriously. However, she fluctuated from being her stern self to being just as she was when talking about Sasuke—love struck, loud, obnoxious, and self-centered. Ino stood from the table and glanced around, looking for Takara. When she noted that she wasn't present, she turned to Kabuto.

"Where's Takara?" Ino asked quickly.

----

Ino sat across from Takara on Takara's bed. It was soft, and large, and Ino was wondering how long Takara would sit there, posed like that, with her head resting on her folded hands. The way she was sitting reminded Ino of Sasuke, except Sasuke never actually put his chin upon his hands—always only adjacent to them.

Finally, Takara opened her mouth to speak. "So… she got tired of being in your shadow, and Saku and Ra diverged into two different personalities…" Takara confirmed.

"Yeah," Ino replied simply.

"And, so, her happy medium would look like what she was before she met you—the shy, uncertain little girl?" Takara asked.

"No… I don't think that that is what she'll be like at all. I'm not sure what she'll be like, actually. Maybe kind of more like Tsunade… Serious at most times, but with an underlying layer of irresponsibility," Ino explained, looking out of Takara's window as she said so, as if musing.

"Quite possible…" Takara said with a nod. "Okay, you're dismissed," Takara said with a wave of her hand. Ino glared at this haughty action, and Takara froze when she saw the look she gave her.

It reminded her of someone she once knew…

"What?" Ino demanded, her glower somewhat softening, but still there.

"Nothing. Just… leave," Takara finally decided upon, and in a huff, Ino left the room.

----

"Oi, Kabuto!" Takara called, sitting next to Kabuto in the library.

"Yes, Takara?" he asked, his gaze never leaving the book.

"Who is Ino's father?" Takara asked casually.

"Inoichi Yamanaka," Kabuto replied quickly, agitated that Takara was bothering him while he was trying to read.

"Thanks," Takara said simply before leaving.

'Inoichi, huh…? Maybe she does have potential,' Takara thought solemnly as she left the library.

----

"You're… what?" Ino asked, dumbstruck.

"I'm going to train you," Takara replied simply.

"Why?" Ino asked, still shocked. It wasn't that she was being disrespectful, or ungrateful, or anything like that—it was just that, well, Takara had just gone from acting as if she didn't exist to offering to tutor her.

And that was a big step. A leap, in fact.

"Because, I'm only staying until Orochimaru leaves, and I need someone here to be able to check up on Sakura's mental progress, in case she's not really well by the time Orochimaru gets back," Takara explained with a sigh.

"… Really?" Ino asked, the idea finally sinking in, the shock fading away.

"Why would I lie?" Takara asked with an annoyed sigh.

Ino threw her arms around Takara's neck in glee and grinned heavily, before backing up. She took a deep bow and said, "Please take care of me!"

Takara sighed. She might have been the daughter of an 'old friend', but she would be grinding upon her nerves heavily…

----

Takara training Ino meant that Sakura and Ino spent even less time together. Takara training Ino also left Sakura alone with Kabuto for a vast amount of time each day. Ino took to Takara's manner of eating in Takara's room, so that Ino could 'train' while eating—really, this involved Ino blocking out any sort of mental connection Takara attempted to make with Ino while her guard was supposed to be down. In order to keep Takara from finding out things Ino didn't want her to know, she'd have to constantly keep up a mental block.

The first time, without even realizing Takara had snuck into her mind, Takara groaned and asked, "You're marrying that?"

"Yes, I am," Ino glowered and rubbed her finger. She missed her ring, even though she had only worn it for a few days before being kidnapped. Kabuto had taken the ring away, saying it could be used as a weapon. 'Bastard.'

----

Sakura leaned against the chair in the library, and stared at Kabuto as he read. He was leaning back in a soft chair, completely relaxed, reading a medical textbook.

"How can you read something like that in a soft chair without falling asleep?" Sakura asked, voicing Saku's question.

"I like reading it," Kabuto answered, surprising Sakura by actually looking at her. He usually didn't do that, unless he really wanted conversation, or he had to talk about something very important, as Sakura had come to know.

"Really? I'd have fallen asleep by now, especially since that stuff should be review…" Sakura pointed out.

"Maybe I like reviewing…" Kabuto said with a smirk.

"No, you're looking for something, aren't you?" Sakura suddenly asked. Ra had made the observation that Kabuto had been glancing around, and not fully reading it. Besides, why would a medical nin expert be reviewing basics?

"What makes you say that?" Kabuto asked, his smirk turning to a frown.

"The way your eyes glided across the page, I guess…" Sakura replied, folding her hands behind her head and leaning back, a habit she had picked up from Naruto.

"You watch my eyes?" Kabuto asked with a smirk.

"No!" Sakura cried out, turning her head away from Kabuto, for a deep blush had formed on her face.