Sakura felt a rush of excitement as her bus merged onto the highway leading out of Kumo. She was thrilled to be out of the city and back on the road. Ishi was a full day's drive away, but Sakura didn't mind traveling. Which was definitely a good thing, considering she'd have to get used to life on the tour bus for her summer tour. It was her first real tour, not just a few introductory shows she'd done in various cities the previous year. Now she'd be playing big venues, the largest name on the marquee. The thought was simultaneously amazing and terrifying.

The bus pulled into the back lot of a hotel late that night, and Sakura was shepherded inside by an entourage of people. They would relocate to a trailer on the Ishi concert site the next morning. For now, it was just her and a luxurious suite, with Shizune next door (rooming with Sakura's wardrobe). It felt strange knowing Sasuke was probably at the hotel next door. He'd told her the name, but Sakura hadn't even seen the sign on her own hotel. Paparazzi had apparently been milling around in front of the building.

The weirdest thing was getting in bed alone. Sakura had grown so used to sleeping next to Sasuke, having an entire king bed to herself felt strange. Wow, she thought, amused by the feeling. Times change weirdly fast.

She was roused early the next morning by Shizune, who was bustling around setting up a makeshift wardrobe station in the hotel bathroom.

"Rise and shine! It's early and we're on a schedule!" She grinned at Sakura's bemused face.

"What time is it?"

"Six! They wanted to move you over to the trailer early, before the grounds open to the public."

Sakura yawned. She'd slept well, despite the nerves that were already rekindling in her stomach. She wasn't even performing that day, she'd just be biding her time until the performance tomorrow. But Sasuke was performing, and she'd finally see Ino. The thought made her sit up and push the sheets back, already brightening. They were planning to meet that afternoon, after Ino's rehearsal ended and when she could sneak away to Sakura's trailer.

"Looking forward to this weekend?" Shizune asked, raising her eyebrows when she saw Sakura was already getting out of bed.

"Yeah, I am," Sakura said with a smile.

She showered and put on the top and leggings Shizune had laid out on the bed. By then, her entourage had arrived to move over to the festival grounds, an endless stretch of pavement behind a huge outdoor arena and a small amphitheater. Sakura had a trailer to herself, with Shizune next door and Orochimaru nearby along with the other members of her team.

It was a strange day: Sakura had no official obligations until her sound check the next day, so she was being left to herself. She fiddled on her guitar but couldn't concentrate, and ended up on the Internet. It had been a week since the release of her album, and sales were still going strong. The majority of the reviews were positive, and Orochimaru was practically floating around, always smiling in a way that Sakura could only think of as sly. She couldn't help being relieved that he wouldn't be coming to every stop on the summer tour.

Sakura left her trailer to wait outside as soon as she got Ino's 'on my way' text that afternoon. She was vaguely nervous, only because of how much time had passed.

And then the security guards parted to reveal Ino, who looked around at the buses and trailers. Sakura waved to catch her eye, and Ino immediately started walking toward her.

Sakura ran forward to meet her and threw herself into her best friend's arms. "Oh my God," Ino said, hugging her tightly.

"And to think we said we'd never be the people who hugged each other obnoxiously whenever they saw each other," Sakura said into Ino's hair. She could smell the blonde's customary lavender shampoo, and it flooded her with comfort.

"I have no memory of that," Ino said. "We have to be dramatic now, you're famous."

Sakura snorted and stepped back. "That doesn't change anything."

Ino looked like she wanted to say something else, but she just shook her head. "Anyway, how are you? You know it's been eight months, right?"

"I know too well," Sakura said, sighing. "I can't believe you're standing here, honestly. You don't want to know the number of times I wished you were with me, just in my apartment or when I—"

"In your apartment with you and Sasuke? Ew, absolutely not," Ino said. "As attractive as that must be—"

"Okay, shut up."

Ino laughed and took a step back, taking Sakura in. "Shit, you're tiny," she said. "I didn't realize."

"Ino…"

Ino gave her a long look. "While I'm here, you're eating, and if your manager says anything then I'll get all up in his face."

Sakura rolled her eyes but couldn't help laughing. "This feels so surreal. Seriously, I can't believe you're here."

"Yeah, me either. I mean, I can, but still."

"So how's the tour? What's Karui like? Are you on the road all the time or do they give you breaks?"

"Slow down, Mom. I'll catch you up. But I want to hear about all of this first." Ino waved a hand around at the surrounding area and then showed her security clearance badge to Sakura. "This is insane."

"I know," Sakura said. "This is going to be the biggest stage I've ever played on, too."

"Worthy start to your tour, then," Ino said.

"I guess so," Sakura said, grinning. She hadn't been this excited about a performance in a while, considering she'd barely performed at all in the past few months. And now that Ino was here, it felt like this happy bubble would be hard to burst.

"So where's Sasuke?" Ino asked slyly.

Sakura rolled her eyes. "He said he would try to come by before their set, but I don't know when their sound check is."

"As long as I meet him eventually. Preferably within the day."

Sakura grinned. "That I can do."

Sasuke made his way over to Sakura's barricaded section of the trailer area after the band finished their sound check. It was clear that they'd upped her security since the last festival. Sasuke wondered if he had anything to do with that, but pushed the thought from his mind. There was no use going down that hole. He nodded to the closest security guard, who let him in after a quick onceover.

Sakura was standing outside her trailer talking to a girl with a blonde ponytail. She was pretty in a Barbie doll-type way, long hair and leggy and wearing a crop top and tight pants. Honestly, she didn't strike Sasuke as the first person Sakura would be friends with, but this had to be Ino.

"Hey," Sakura said, smiling at Sasuke when he reached them. Then she turned to the blonde. "This is Sasuke," Sakura said. "Sasuke, Ino."

"Nice to meet you," Ino said, smiling. She didn't look particularly self-conscious, even though Sakura had told him she had been a huge fan of the band since high school.

"You too," Sasuke said. Ino was looking at him, one eyebrow raised, and suddenly (and strangely) Sasuke was the one to feel self-conscious.

Ino turned to Sakura. "He's actually hotter in person," she said, and Sakura coughed. Sasuke raised his eyebrows.

"I thought you said you'd tone it down," Sakura muttered.

"Tone what down?" Ino said, cocking her head innocently.

Sakura rolled her eyes. "So, any burning questions? Did you bring your poster for Sasuke to sign?"

"Low blow. Which one?"

"I seem to remember a life-size one." Sakura glanced at him, and Sasuke sighed.

"I sold that to a freshman when we were juniors. Sorry, Sasuke." Ino smiled at him, and Sasuke had to admire her total lack of embarrassment. "Got a good price on it, though."

"Of course you did," Sakura said. "Well, thanks for making this meeting about as great as I expected."

"My pleasure," Ino said. "So, are you coming to Karui's show? Are you allowed to?"

"You think I'd miss it? I'll sneak in."

"Good," Ino said. Then she glanced past Sasuke, eyes widening slightly.

Both Sasuke and Sakura turned to follow her gaze and saw Shikamaru approaching them, having slipped through the security barrier.

"We've gotta be on stage in five minutes," Shikamaru said, then took a good look at Ino. His eyebrows went up slightly, and Sasuke smirked.

"Shikamaru, meet my best friend Ino," Sakura said. She glanced at Sasuke, looking amused.

"Hi," Ino said, clearly surprised to be meeting another member of the band. She masked it with a wide smile, however, and Sasuke saw the flirting turn on.

"Hey," Shikamaru said.

"So, should we should leave your boyfriend to it, Forehead?" Ino asked.

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Yeah, sure. I'll meet you later," she said to Sasuke. "We're going to go find a nice spot to watch."

"Sounds good," he said. He'd reserved VIP spots for them, not that Sakura would need proof if she just showed her face.

The two girls turned and started walking back to Sakura's trailer.

"Damn," Shikamaru said.

"Thought you said we had to be onstage in five minutes," Sasuke said, smirking.

"Yeah, we do," Shikamaru shook his head and the two of them headed back towards their own area. "You think she's single?" he muttered.

Sasuke shrugged.

"I thought I knew an interested girl when I saw one," Shikamaru said, sighing.

"Of course she's interested. Look around," Sasuke said, then regretted it. Ino was Sakura's best friend, after all. Fame wouldn't be a motivator.

Shikamaru gave him a look that Sasuke knew meant he was thinking exactly the same thing.

"I'm surprised, I thought you'd want to talk to Shikamaru," Sakura said once they were out of earshot of Sasuke and Shikamaru.

"Oh, he'll come back later with Sasuke," Ino said confidently.

"You realize who you're talking about, right?" Sakura said. "He's not nearly as easy to bewitch as other guys. He's seen all the tactics."

Ino waved a hand. "I know an interested guy when I see one."

Sakura shook her head. "Let's go."

They headed to the stage through a back route and passed through the security barrier easily enough to a spot backstage reserved for guests.

"This is crazy," Ino said, looking around at the exposed sound equipment. "Could you do this even if you weren't with Sasuke?"

"Probably," Sakura said, thinking. It startled her to realize that at this point she could request VIP tickets for whatever show she wanted. She wondered what Sasuke's reaction would be to her now if they hadn't met that day in Iwa. Had he changed at all in the past few months?

Her gut said yes, even if it didn't seem likely.

The crowd was deafening and the show hadn't even started. Sakura's stomach swooped thinking about how this would be her tomorrow. Part of her was nervous, but she also couldn't wait to be out there.

The band came up through the floor to thunderous noise from the crowd and a cloud of fog.

"This never gets old," Ino said, grinning.

Sakura laughed as the band launched into the opening chords of their latest single. From this vantage point it was impossible to see Sasuke's face, but she knew he was enjoying it. He hated performing once they played their material into the ground, but this was the first time playing anything live from the latest album.

And it sounded amazing, of course. Ino was watching with her mouth open, even with the distorted sound from their less impressive angle backstage. The screams from the crowd didn't waver for the thirty minutes they were onstage.

"They've still got it after five years," Ino said, shaking her head. "Pretty impressive."

"Yeah," Sakura said. The way the music industry moved, it was impressive.

"I wanna be out there in the crowd," Ino said, bouncing up and down on her feet. "The adrenaline's kicking in."

"About time," Sakura said. "That's all I've been running on for the past day." They were practically yelling.

Ino checked her phone. "Shit! I have to go, emergency rehearsal. Damn it damn it damn it."

"Go, go," Sakura said. "I don't want you to be late."

Ino hesitated, clearly loathe to leave.

"We'll meet up with them later," Sakura said, rolling her eyes. "Don't worry."

"I'll see you later, then. I'll be looking for you in the crowd if I'm not in the zone."

"Hopefully you won't see me, otherwise other people will," Sakura said. "Good luck!"

"Thanks, Forehead." Ino dashed away, pushing confidently past the security barrier.

Two hours later, Sakura found herself back at the stage where Firestyle had just performed, this time part of the queue streaming into one of the higher sections. This was possibly the most daring thing she'd done in a while; she hadn't told Orochimaru, otherwise she wouldn't have been allowed to do this. A good percentage of her fan base likely overlapped with Karui's, so Sakura had decided on the least desirable section of seats as her safest bet. She was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, along with a brunette wig supplied by Shizune under a baseball cap.

"You're still gonna get recognized," Sasuke had said skeptically when she came out of her trailer. "Might regret doing this."

"Shut up, you," Sakura said. "I'm not going to regret anything, I'm watching my best friend perform in Ishi, the way it's supposed to be seen."

Sasuke didn't have an argument for that. He was staring at her, head cocked slightly.

"What?"

"The brown hair. Looks…Different."

Sakura laughed. "I can imagine. It's not even necessary, I think I'm overestimating how many people would recognize me."

Sasuke snorted but didn't say anything.

"Alright, I'm gonna go," Sakura said. "You're coming, right?"

"Aa." Sasuke was going to watch from the VIP area backstage. He wasn't exactly looking forward to it (honestly, Karui had always annoyed the hell out of him), but he'd agreed to go when Sakura insisted the previous day. It wasn't like Karui would mind if he showed up.

Shikamaru caught up with him just as Sasuke was leaving the trailer post-show. "Mind if I tag along?"

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "No?"

"Don't say it," Shikamaru said, rolling his eyes. "I'm just intrigued."

"By Karui?" Sasuke smirked.

"Shut up."

"How'd you even know about Ino being part of her show?"

"Sakura mentioned it a while back. You were there."

Sasuke was slightly ashamed at that, but even more ashamed half an hour later, watching Karui's set. Ino was a really good dancer. And he'd been skeptical, which he would admit to no one because of how obnoxious it was. Internally he'd been a total asshole, actually. Scoring a job of this caliber, barely out of high school, meant you had serious talent. He'd been quick to judge because of the blonde hair.

He and Sakura had promised to be honest with each other, but it was one honest thought that Sasuke didn't even want to acknowledge with himself.

"Damn," Shikamaru muttered again. His eyes were locked on Ino, which was an achievement considering Karui's antics and the sparkling silver cape she was wearing, which looked like it was miles long. At least until she inevitably ripped it off to reveal what Sasuke guessed would be a chest-baring, shiny leotard of some sort. Some things never changed.

"Let's get out before she comes off," Sasuke said.

"What, you think Karui's gonna make another pass at you?" Shikamaru snorted. "You flatter yourself too much."

"She's gonna ask why we're back here," Sasuke said.

"She's too self-absorbed, she won't care."

Sasuke glared at him, and Shikamaru relented. "Fine," he said, rolling his eyes. "We'll go after the next song."

"You'll see her later, anyway," Sasuke muttered. "Thought you'd be able to wait at least a few hours."

"I gave you no shit whatsoever the day after you couldn't resist hooking up with Sakura," Shikamaru said. "You want me to dig back into that? You were such an asshole at her show because you found her repulsive or whatever. And then you go and realize, wait—"

"I get it."

Shikamaru smirked. "No comments about this, then."

Sasuke nodded and turned back to Karui's performance. He'd never been able to stomach her music, but even he had to admit she was a good performer.

"Ino, that was awesome!" Sakura threw herself into her friend's arms for the second time that day an hour after Karui's performance ended, when Ino came back to her trailer. "I could've watched it for ages."

Ino smiled ruefully. "Good thing you didn't see how sweat-soaked my clothes are at the end of that routine."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "It looked amazing."

"It felt good," Ino said, a real smile taking over her face. "And it went pretty well, we only had a few slip-ups."

"Well, none of them were visible. Was Karui singing live?"

Ino nodded. "She thinks she'll 'break her voice' over the summer if she keeps up like this. Whatever that means."

Sakura laughed.

"So what does your schedule look like tomorrow?" Ino asked.

"Rehearsals and prep all day," Sakura said.

"Jesus," Ino said. "I guess that makes sense." Again, Sakura was reminded of how much had changed since they'd last seen each other.

"We should go out afterward, though," Sakura said. "I'll be free after my set, and you never got to meet Naruto and Kiba."

"You'd introduce me?" A flash of surprise had crossed Ino's face, almost impossible to detect.

"Um, yeah. Of course," Sakura said. "Who do you think I am?"

"God, sorry, Forehead. I think I just forgot—"

"My celebrity boyfriend?" Sakura smiled almost sadly.

Ino rolled her eyes. "Your celebrity influence."

"You're the first, then."

"Sakura…"

"That made me sound really bitter, shit. I didn't mean—"

"Look, you don't have to explain yourself. Let's have a heart to heart at some point, be good to get all those feelings out."

"That sounds like the best idea you've ever had."

"I hope not, because that'd be really lame."

The two of them reunited briefly before Sakura's performance the next day, but Sakura had to leave Ino to go to the venue for her sound check. Sasuke had joined them as well, looking more than conspicuous in sunglasses.

"I feel bad leaving you," Sakura said. She adjusted her sparkly crop top.

"Don't worry about it, Forehead," Ino said. "I've got my fancy VIP ticket."

"Just go with Sasuke, you'll get through the security barrier easier," Sakura said.

"Awesome," Ino said. "Assuming Sasuke doesn't mind babysitting me?" She grinned.

"Tch." Ino assumed Sasuke was rolling his eyes. The two of them were probably the king and queen of eye-rolling.

"It's time, Sakura," her manager said, appearing in the doorway of Sakura's trailer. He struck Ino as a slimeball, and she was tempted to ask him when he'd last washed his hair.

"Alright, I'll see both of you after," Sakura said.

"You're gonna do amazing," Ino said, and Sakura grinned.

Sasuke intercepted her before she left and she gave him a quick kiss. He muttered something that Ino couldn't hear, and Sakura smiled slightly. Then she was out the door with a quick squeeze of Sasuke's hand.

Ino and Sasuke walked over the venue together using the path meant for performers, but neither of them attempted to make conversation. It had been easy to talk to him with Sakura there, but when it was just the two of them, Ino wasn't sure what to say. He was an intense presence, and she didn't find many people intense. Just getting over the fact that this was Sasuke Uchiha was taking more effort than Ino would ever admit. He was her best friend's boyfriend, after all.

Come on, Ino, she told herself, exasperated. "So does it feel like déjà vu going to watch Sakura at a place like this? I heard about how you guys met."

Sasuke had taken off his sunglasses, and he glanced at her, raising an eyebrow. Was it just her, or was he blushing slightly? Oh, I have to ask Sakura about this. "Circumstances were pretty different," he muttered.

"I can imagine," Ino said, grinning. "She said you couldn't stand her."

Sasuke closed his eyes for a second. "Of course you want to talk about this."

"I'm her best friend, so yeah, duh. Also I'm vetting you. No pressure."

Sasuke shook his head. "Everything's changed since then."

"That's pretty obvious," Ino said. "Which is a good thing, otherwise we'd be having a very different conversation right. I'd have a knife, for one." She smiled dangerously at him.

"Jesus." Sasuke raised his eyebrows but didn't look particularly perturbed.

"I told Sakura I wouldn't say that to you, but I couldn't resist," Ino said.

The faintest smile appeared on Sasuke's face. Success!

"I also told her I wouldn't share any embarrassing teenage stories, and I'm going to respect that promise."

"That's fine," Sasuke muttered. "Don't want to know."

"No, you don't." They reached the venue, and Ino felt slightly more confident. At least he speaks, she thought, amused. Getting to know him so late into Sakura's relationship was going to be a challenge, but Ino was determined to succeed. Even if Sasuke Uchiha was the least talkative, most brooding guy Ino had ever met. As of now, that was unclear.

A/N: Wow, okay. It's been a really stressful few weeks. I'm really sick of saying 'sorry I haven't updated in a while' because I'm pretty sure I say it every time I update. At this point I should just keep announcing hiatuses or something, but I'm not going to bother. I want to get this finished, because the fact that it's still not done is always nagging me. I just haven't been feeling fanfiction recently (ie the past year?), and I've had terrible writer's block in general, which is really unnerving for someone who used to write all the time. I'm trying to sort through it, along with the weird existential crisis thing I've been having recently. In the meantime, I'm gonna try to eke this story out bit by bit. Ino's POV is always a mood booster, so hopefully you enjoyed this.

Anyway, reviews would be nice. Thanks.