Fan Fiction, Family and Tears

By Bashfulglowfly

Minako Aino waited for the connection to go through on her laptop.

The only sign of her impatience was the tapping of her right index finger.

Suddenly, the screen cleared and her cousin, Sakura Haruno, appeared. Her pink hair didn't look like it had been brushed that day and her green eyes were red-rimmed.

Minako smiled "Hey! I read that new story you posted last night. Really enjoyed it!"

Sakura smiled wanly. "Thanks. I'm glad you did. I just got a comment about it saying that the main characters wouldn't act that way and that I was a coward because I moderate comments."

Minako rolled her eyes "Really? It's called fan fiction for a reason! So, what did you do?"

Sakura managed a grin. "Tagged it as spam then deleted it!"

"Bravo!" Minako laughed. Then she leaned forward "Hey, it's a good thing that you moderate the comments. One of the older writers told me that there's a person with the user name of 'g.o.d.' is posting comments again. Apparently, this person hates guy on guy action and actively looks for it and makes nasty comments. My friend didn't say what this person posts but it's not nice."

Sakura's eyes widened. "I think I know who you're talking about. I've had them post before but I got one the other day that was from a guest account with the same words. Called it spam and deleted it."

"Good." Minako sighed. "So, Shinobi Slug, how are you really doing?"

Tears rolled down Sakura's face. "Oh, V…my heart is breaking. I knew he had issues. His brother really messed him up, but we didn't think that he'd leave us and become a villain!"

"How are Fox and Crow taking it?"

"Fox thinks that someone got to Raven and brainwashed him. Crow…is…well, he's just shut himself away. Dolphin says that we need to leave him alone for now."

"So, who's going to run your team? They aren't going to let the two of you go it alone, are they?"

"No, we're getting someone called Cat who will lead us, and someone called Ink will be joining us. Apparently Ink has more experience than Fox and I." Sakura shrugged. "I hope we'll get along with them both."

"Good. You shouldn't go it alone."

A pink eyebrow rose. "Like you did?"

"I had Artemis!" Minako said defensively.

Sakura had found out that Minako was Sailor V one night when her family had been visiting and their mothers decided that they needed more sister time together, so Sakura was sleeping on Minako's floor on a futon when Minako had to go and battle a villain. Minako ended up waking Sakura because she'd forgotten the other girl was in the room and had stepped on her after crawling in her bedroom window…before she untransformed.

Minako was the one Sakura told when she had been Chosen to be a Shinobi of Konoha. Minako wasn't really able to give her cousin any advice as their skill sets and villains were very different.

"Uh huh…By the way, what's up with your team? Some of the others seem depressed."

Minako rubbed at her temples. "They don't remember everything like I do but two of them killed their soulmates recently."

"Shit."

"Yeah, and they don't remember but they killed them back in our past lives."

"You know, that's just not fair. You have this sort of impressive past life where you were royal princesses and superheroes and now, you're a superhero again and will eventually become a Queen. And here I am…Shinobi Slug." Sakura glared at her cousin through the computer screen.

Minako gave a small smile. "Well, I may have to kill the man I love…again. At least you only have to deal with is a stupid hero name and two idiot teammates."

"One idiot teammate and a traitor."

"Not if Fox has anything to say about it."

"And he's saying a lot." Sakura looked over her shoulder then back at Minako. "Mom's calling me, so I have to go."

"I understand. May the soles of your feet be firm."

"Selene's blessing on you."

Two computer screens went dark and two young girls, with responsibilities that would cripple most adults, went about the rest of their day.