Ehe, sorry about the lateness, guys? I've been revamping chapters lately, and whatnot; I almost forgot to do this at all! :O

Enjoy!

"You honestly think I believe you don't care? Really Sakura?" Ino asked, laughing behind me as I stared out of her window. Misty puffs of smoke flowed out of the window in wafting billows. The air was frosty, almost enough for the moisture in my breath to freeze on my lips.

I huffed, knowing I'd been caught in yet another lie. It was a bit of a habit, lying. I opened my mouth, intent on watching the moon, which was still out, for some odd reason; I didn't want to sound like an ass. "I'm a horrible liar, aren't I?" I was smiling, genuinely smiling.

"Yes, you are," she laughed again, more humorously this time. I heard her take a step closer. She continued, "but that's not exactly a bad thing. I love you anyway." Her breath poured over my shoulder, its mist spilling out into the frigid air.

"Pfft, now you're just being a showoff," I chuckled, sighing, "It's going to be a long day, isn't it?"

Ino took my arm away from the windowsill, stepping under it and draping it over her shoulder. Her voice was soft, "I guess so. You'd think that a couple days away from each other wouldn't make much of a difference, but look at us now. I thought I'd never get you back after that stunt you pulled." I cringed at the last sentence, still keeping my gaze on the sky. How could she sound so nonchalant about something like that – like it happened years ago? The hurt was there, but still, how? I wondered for a moment, before remembering I was still in the middle of a conversation.

I gasped, searching for words. It made me feel guilty. "Yeah," I said, "Sorry about that. I was just . . confused. I was being a jerk." I bit my lip. I couldn't bear to tell her about what happened with Hinata, not all of it. That would be the end of the world, no doubt.

Why am I such a cheat?

"It's okay, Saku, don't worry about it too much. You'll drive yourself crazy like that," she said, laughing off yet another one of my hidden confessions, "I understand."

Pff, yeah, drive myself crazy, as if I haven't already done that to you, I thought, sighing. My concussion was still just as heavy as it had been before. I was speechless, though only for a moment. "Um, yeah, I'll try." If only she knew.

She giggled at me, squeezing my hand as she held it captive at her side. "Hey, don't be like that. It's not like you did anything wrong, right?" she asked. Wrong. I rolled my eyes at my luck.

"Uh, sure," I said, not wanting to disappoint her. And the guilt just piles higher and higher. Fitting, I suppose. I deserve it.

Yes, you do.

I sighed, too defeated to even respond. I didn't have to; Ino would keep talking as long as I would listen, so long as what she didn't know didn't come back to haunt her.

"So, whatcha lookin' at up there Saku-chan?" Ino asked, interrupting the silence, "It must be pretty if it can keep your eyes off of me for this long." She laughed.

"Are you trying to say I stare?" I asked, sounding more annoyed than I'd hoped.

"Of course, and it's so cute!" she said, tearing my attention away from the sky.

I was confused. "Cute?" I asked.

She nodded, bouncing a bit as she said so.

"I don't get it."

"That's okay Saku-chan. You don't have to understand." I could almost feel her smiling, even though I wasn't particularly looking. It was unusual, to say the least, almost unnerving.

I yawned, trying to shrug off the feeling that she was hiding something from me. If my suspicions were correct, I honestly didn't want to know. Me cheating was enough. Her cheating would make it all that much worse. It would make sense: since when did anyone shower me with this much attention? Never, not unless it was Naruto or Sasuke, and that didn't count. That alone was suspicious enough. I ignored it as best as I could manage.

"I'm tired," I said, suddenly stretching and brushing past her as I headed towards the bathroom. Maybe a good splash to the face would cure that damned concussion from the night before.

"Wait, where are you going?" Ino called after me.

I sighed, "Nowhere soon, don't worry."

How wrong I was. She bounded after me energetically, taking my hand in hers as she proceeded to lead me down the hall, skipping all the way.

"Ino, slow down. I'm not a morning person!" I yelped, tripping over my foot as we started down the stairs. Cursed converse – why were the wardrobe malfunctions always on my part?

She obeyed, to a degree, and stopped dragging me by the wrist, instead opting for an impatient tug as our feet scrubbed against the wine colored carpet. I was relieved. "Fine, fine," she said, "but just so you know, it's practically three in the afternoon, so it's technically not morning. I'll let you off light this time though." She smiled, looking back at me.

"Pfft, right," I sighed, asking, "So, to what far end of the universe have you decided to take me to now?"

Ino giggled, "Silly, you'll see soon enough."

"This tin can of a city has a bus?" I wondered aloud, trying to tell whether or not I was seeing things as a hulking green and black contraption came to a stop before us. "And here I thought you were joking. This has to be a dream." I looked over to Ino with quirked eyebrows. The side of the bus read, 'Fast, Safe, and Affordable. If you don't ride with us, who can you trust?' The word, 'Affordable,' was marked out and 'Free' was sloppily written over it in what appeared to be red marker, with a sticker that said, "Government Sponsored Transportation," down below. Needless to say, I had a hard time believing that. The thing looked like it could've fallen in half at any second, and sounded like it too.

She smiled. "Every day is a dream, sleepy head. It's just that some of us are too caught up in our nightmares to notice," she said, nudging me in the side with an elbow.

I laughed, pointing at the thing, fenders wobbling as it idled, waiting on us. "Only you would say something like that, Ino," I said, staying put, "I mean, come on, the damn thing looks like it could disintegrate if we went over a bump! You expect me to get on this thing?"

She entertained my joke, giggling. "Saku, you're one to talk," she chuckled, walking past me. "No wonder Temari says you're a chicken. Get on the bus already!"

So, I got on the bus. I was surprised to find that there was even anyone on the thing. Well, anyone who wasn't half-dead, old, or crinkly – a rare find, in this city. I spotted some of Ino's friends, Chouji and Shikamaru, towards the last few rows. "Are you sure this is safe?" I asked, slumping down into the seat in front of them. The synthetic leather crumpled under my weight as I looked out of the window. I could see Ino greeting them out of the reflection.

Chouji laughed, his round form jiggling as he commented. "Heh, I was wondering the same thing, actually," he popped a potato chip into his mouth, punctuating the sentence. I cringed at the rather loud chomping, but he didn't seem to notice, or care, and continued, "I heard that this was the same bus they've been using for the past sixty years or so. Talk about antique, huh?"

Ino smiled at him, sitting cross-legged beside me, facing backward. "Yeah, but I figure if it's lasted this long, it'll last a little longer," she said, flipping her hair. I sighed, facing the window.

Shikamaru stretched, sticking his feet out into the aisle, tugging on his green vest with a sigh that rivaled my own, "Yeah, but you deluding yourself into believing that isn't going to hold this thing together, you know." He sat back up, still limp, to a degree, "It's a bus, not a drug addiction." I tossed my hair in acknowledgment, now leaning against the glass.

"So where are you guys going?" I asked, watching the ground slowly begin to go by as the bus started moving again.

"A water park," Shikamaru answered disdainfully, groaning. He palmed his forehead, adding, "It was Chouji's idea."

"It was not!" the brunette quickly defended, spewing potato chip crumbs over my head. For once I was thankful that I had horrible posture. "It was her idea!" He pointed to Ino.

So that was who she was talking to earlier this morning, I thought, I knew I should've stayed up.

"You weren't supposed to say that!" Ino yelled, smacking him playfully. I giggled to myself and she turned around. "What's so funny?"

"Oh, nothing, nothing. I'm just a little excited is all," I replied, savoring the strange looks everyone was giving.

This is going to be fun..

We arrived at the park and started to get off of the bus. As I was about to stand up and slide out of my seat, Shikamaru shouldered his way past me. I sighed. Naruto had mentioned that Ino's friends were pretty much a bunch of jerks, somewhere along the line, I remembered.

"Sorry," he said, smirking a bit. I laughed humorlessly, following him and hopping out of the door. At the last step, I tripped. I landed on my leg, twisting my ankle and scraping my knee through my jeans. It stung violently. I winced.

Well, that didn't go as planned, I thought, picking myself up from the concrete and limping to a standing position. Shikamaru looked at me curiously, still wearing the same smirk.

"What?" I spat. I didn't like being stared at.

He sighed, "Oh nothing, nothing."

"It'd better be nothing," I muttered, half-stumbling over to Ino, who had started walking off already. She took my hand in hers as I caught up, heading down the cobblestone path that led into the park.

An hour had passed since then, and by that time, we were all floating around in some kind of wave pool, near the deep end. Yellow little donuts bobbed up and down with the current, most of them occupied. Shikamaru was in one such donut, too lazy to swim like the rest of us were doing. Chouji and I were swishing around in the middle of the water, a few feet from Ino and another blonde girl, who I later learned was Temari, a friend of the same Kin that I'd abruptly beaten up not so long ago. I furrowed my brow. Between all the splashing, going under, and water-fights, I managed to understand that both Temari and Kin would be at the park for the rest of the evening.

What fun, I thought, grimacing as the water slapped my chin repeatedly.

"You alright?" Chouji asked, giving me a weird look. I jumped.

"Oh, yeah, perfectly fine," I replied. It was entirely untrue. I was unbelievably jealous, and apparently, he noticed.

Chouji was about to say something, but a wave caught me and I was too busy spluttering to hear it. I floundered until I could catch my breath again and coughed, wiping the chlorine water out of my eyes. "What?" I sputtered miserably, cursing the wave pool to hell and back.

He laughed, leaning back comfortably in the swells as I struggled to stay afloat. "I said, are you sure about that?" He kicked a bit, moving away from the group, out to where Shikamaru's inner tube was positioned. Now I was extremely jealous. Why did he get to float? I gargled in annoyance as he continued, "We can talk about it if you want."

"Over barbeque? Fat chance," I yelled back, too occupied with keeping my chin above the surface to swim over to him. I clawed my way up to keep from drowning, realizing that I hadn't really planned my evening all that well. As Chouji and Shikamaru conversed, I went under for a third time until my feet touched the bottom, gasping for breath and taking in water. I screamed into the sky blue emptiness, gurgling and spasming in the sea of blurs.

When I finally came up for air, it was the absolute greatest feeling of accomplishment and utter glee I'd ever experienced, even with the coughing and tears that came with it after I'd resurfaced. God, I was grateful – so grateful that I was willing to move away from Ino and Temari so that my toes could touch the bottom again, even if it meant being called a chicken for the rest of the day, or whatever other consequence that could possibly come forth from my behavior. I was that happy to be alive, and that much more happy that I'd probably never see that heaven forsaken water theme park again, seeing as to how bored Ino was looking.

While I was alone and able to breathe again, I scanned the rest of the wave pool, looking back and forth between swimmers as they floundered about in the water, some of them sunburned to sickly shades of red, others ghost white. I was trying to catch a glimpse of Kariyo. Sure, one would think that finding yourself in an ocean of ghastly, goggle clad, ethnic people would be trivial, no pun intended, but apparently, my eyes were playing tricks on me and it didn't turn out to be so easy. I looked left and right, scanning, but each time I thought I'd found her, it'd just be some swimsuited cosplayer splashing around in a pink wig or some other, a good bit of those being male, too. I blanched, finding this disgusting – not the fact that they weren't female, but at the attire – speedos, bikinis, and the like. I paled and gagged even more so as a particular sight for sore eyes came into my view; I needed a change in scenery, fast.

I returned home later that day, despite my own inhibitions, to find a thin layer of dust blanketing my possessions. Had it not been my room, as I'd walked in and settled down on my bed for a few minutes, I probably never would have noticed. I sighed. Once again, I was home alone. No doubt, my mother was probably still gone, drinking herself away or gambling, as my father always did. I sighed.

I had grabbed my clothes from earlier and set them in the wash for a bit. They would not be done for another hour or so. I'd managed to snag them from Ino's on my way back from the water park, which, for the life of me, I was clueless as to how I'd escaped in one piece, what with the women mobbing me on the way back, and not all of them in pleasant ways either. I had the feeling that some of them would've liked to detain me. Thankfully though, I was able to get back on the bus and Ino had left everything unlocked for me when I got back - three hours after falling asleep during the ride. She must have figured that I'd want to take off and grab my stuff after all that.

The note I'd left for Hinata was still sitting where I left it, undisturbed. How polite, I thought, stripping out from most of my clothing, which was sopping wet from the bus ride back home. Tossing my shorts into the hamper, I grabbed another pair from my dresser and slipped them on, only to find Kariyo's pale form appear in front of me. I yelped and stumbled until I fell on my butt in the center of the room, startled. I had most certainly not expected that.

She laughed, much to my chagrin, as I half-frowned up at her, mostly out of pain. I'd fallen on one of my school binders and one of the rings was wedged in a decidedly pained area of my rear. I sat up and tossed the thing away. "What are you doing here?" I asked, curiously, obviously not having run across her on my way to the house. "Where have you been?"

However, Kariyo just shrugged. "Where have you been?" she asked.

"The park?" I answered, confused.

"Then I was with you," she said simply.

I furrowed my brow at this, standing up and going to lie down on my bed. "Explain, please?"

She sighed, "This is hopeless.. Sakura, I'm a part of you – I go where you go. Remember?"

"Then why couldn't I see you?" I asked, "I was beginning to get worried." I instantly recoiled as I rolled on my back, suddenly remembering the damned notebook that I'd managed to fall on. My ass was burning like missiles on summer festival.

She laughed at my gesture, "Guess you just weren't trying hard enough."

A particular painful scent piquing my interest, I huffed, "Seems as if it's the only thing I do around here these days – try." I sighed as a shirt came up from my torso and found its way over my shoulders and past my ears, before finding itself in a heap on the floor. The rest of my clothes soon followed, reeking of my still drenched body's chlorine odor; I would shower before redressing.

"Yes?" I pressed the hot, plastic brick that I'd come to know as a cell phone to my ear gingerly in greeting – not for Naruto, not for Sasuke.

A gasp and stutter, "Sakura?" It wasn't Ino.

"Hnn?" I answered gently. Kindness and manners didn't come as the first thoughts to my mind here, but I ignored the rest, too entirely busy not to. "This is she, just in case you're wondering why I'm not too interested in barking your head off," I went on lazily, again rifling through my clothing. The last wash had resulted in a few pairs being too tight for even a body as preteen-ly as my own.

"It's Hinata," the girl said from the other end; I understood clearly.

I rummaged through a drawer impatiently, pulling out shirts and pants left and right. "Oh, hello then," I managed between breaths of frustration, and eventually gave up, heading out of my room and to the kitchen, wearing nothing but flip-flops and a frown; why I was bothering to wear the former evaded me at that particular moment. I didn't voice this, however.

"What's u-up?"she asked, attempting a casual conversation. This flopped miserably.

I looked into the fridge, finding that, to my displeasure, the very black coffee I'd meant to discard long before all this time had broken through its paper prison and made a mess of the entire interior of the refrigerator, brown muck and unused sweetener caked onto the white plastic in lakes and lumps. I was not pleased. However, I stuck to my original mood for her sake, aping the classic, "Oh, nothing, you?"

She drew an apprehensive breath over the line, and like I thought she'd never ask – nervous girl and whatnot, whispered, "So I suppose you're with Ino again?" I could almost feel the bitterness radiating from her as she pointedly ignored my question.

Half inbetween the sink and unsightly horror on the other side of the kitchen, I sighed gently and thought I might lie. The notion left my mind as I snagged a roll of paper towels and seized a bundle of the paper sheets, putting them under the water of a nearby sink and transferring them to the atrocity that I knew I'd better clean up before anyone important arrived home. Gritting my teeth, I murmured, "No." At this, I heard a gasp, and knew it was one of excitement, but I continued. "We had fun." That much was a lie, "but no, no."

"Oh."

To be continued...

Okay, okay, so not my best work, but I honestly tried. I did, after all, turn this thing from a skeleton to a chapter in a day and a half, kay? *smacks self* Why did I do that. Oh well, anyway, until I update again! More drama on the way!