Tsunade had scheduled a meeting on Thursday morning so Sakura could meet the new members of her team. They were all assembled around a round table, everyone from Shizune to executives of Hidden Sound, as well as new publicity and organization people. It was a smaller group than Sakura's team at Cobra, which seemed like a good thing.

Her final, signed contract with Hidden Sound, now notarized, was for three albums, to be produced within eight years. That span of time seemed ridiculously long—the thought of being twenty-nine was a bit of a scary thought—but Tsunade had assured Sakura that it was a good deal. "You're almost guaranteed a contract renewal, assuming you don't do anything outrageous. The only reason they're asking for three albums is to make sure you'll make them at least a little money. Cobra's still taking the majority of the profits from the first two."

"What if I end up wanting to make more than three albums in that span of time?"

"Classic overachiever." Tsunade chuckled. "I'm joking. But not really. I figured you'd want to do more than that. They'll finance however much music you want to put out. But this is a safety blanket in case you have a particularly long dry spell or want to do something else for a while."

That was a relief to hear; already, everything about Hidden Sound was reasonable and generous. Most importantly, Sakura didn't feel like an outsider in her own meetings. Tsunade and others listened to her opinion, and never spoke above her.

They had met in Tsunade's office, which Sakura had never been to before. Tsunade worked independently, but it was a nice place with a large conference room and multiple offices.

"It's a good thing you came along, I suppose," Tsunade said as she walked Sakura to the door after the meeting. "Otherwise that conference room would never fill up. Your team is ridiculously large. And I cut it down from where it was before. The people I brought on will be much more efficient."

"I trust you," Sakura said. Just from the hour-long meeting, it was clear they would all get along well.

"Anko is the only dark horse," Tsunade said. "She's a great booking agent, but a little disagreeable."

"Seriously?" Sakura said, raising an eyebrow. "Should you even be saying that?"

"Already getting cheeky with me, Sakura? Tsk tsk." But Tsunade smiled wryly. They reached the back door of the building, where a car was waiting to pick up Sakura. "Oh, there's a present for you in the car. Cobra was kind enough to send me every piece of fan mail you've received in the past three months. It was an avalanche."

"Oh wow, I'm sorry."

Tsunade waved a hand. "I put some of it in a box for you. I figured you'd like it."

"Yeah, I would, thanks."

When Sasuke got home from a meeting with Kakashi early that afternoon, Sakura was sitting on the floor of the living room with the colorful contents of a giant cardboard box spread out around her.

"What are you doing?"

"Just going through some of my fan mail." Sakura waved to the box. "Cobra basically just dumped it on Tsunade's doorstep. I haven't looked at any in ages."

"You actually open all that crap?" Sasuke didn't even know where the band's mail went anymore. Kakashi probably had a vault somewhere. Naruto was the only one who was interested in it now.

"As much as I can, yeah." Sakura frowned at him. "People send really heartfelt stuff. It lets you get to know them a little bit."

Sakura's phone buzzed; Ino was calling. "Heyyyy."

"Can you come over? Like, today?"

Immediately it was clear something was wrong. "Yeah. I'll come right now."

"What's wrong?" Sasuke asked.

"Ino asked if I could come over. Not sure what happened, but she doesn't sound good."

Sasuke frowned. "You want me to come with you?"

"No, it's fine. I'm gonna take the car."

"Okay. Text me later."

"I will." Sakura scrambled to find the car keys and shouldered her bag. "See you later."

The two of them were currently leasing the most average car they could find: a beige Honda with a slight dent on the driver's side door. Sasuke and the rest of the band had been doing a similar thing for years; it worked well when you needed to go somewhere without anyone doing a double take. The band swapped out the car every two months for something new, and so far no one had caught on. Sasuke and Sakura had adopted a similar plan for the two of them.

It was times like this when Sakura was incredibly grateful for the scheme, because it meant she could jump in the car and drive straight to Ino's without waiting for a car to pick her up and an inevitable paparazzi caravan behind them. It was a twenty-minute drive to Ino's apartment building, and Sakura drummed her fingers on the steering wheel impatiently at every light. It was just like Ino to be cryptic and not say anything over the phone. I should've at least asked what happened. Sakura's mind ran through the possibilities: she'd lost her job with Karui. Something had happened at home. She was injured. Someone had died. Oh, God.

This was her first time visiting the apartment Ino was renting in Kumo, but Sakura didn't have a thought to spare for the place. Ino texted her the apartment number, and soon Sakura was pounding on the door.

"It's open!" Ino yelled. Sakura entered a tiny living room. Ino was on the couch, a colorful tabloid newspaper on the table in front of her. She wore a tank top and baggy sweatpants, and her face was red and blotchy.

"What happened, are you okay?"

"Temari Sabaku," Ino said. "He was fucking cheating on me with her."

"What?"

Ino thrust the newspaper at her. Sakura stared at the two grainy photos of Shikamaru and Temari Sabaku on the front page. In the first, they were standing outside a nondescript building; she was holding onto his hand. In the second, they were kissing, hands still locked together. The huge black headline read: Finally Back Together? Temari was a member of the band the Sand Siblings, and Sakura only knew vague details about the past relationship between her and Shikamaru. They had been on-again-off-again for a few years. A long time for two people in their early twenties.

"Ino, are you sure...?"

"What does it look like, Sakura?"

"It's a tabloid. They get everything at the wrong moment, I'm sure there's an explanation for—"

Ino stared at her for a moment. "Are you taking his side?"

Sakura was exasperated. "Of course I'm not taking his side. I don't even know the full story, Ino! You haven't told me anything about what happened."

"I'm not an idiot, I know what tabloids do. But he lied. He told me he was flying to Oto for a family thing. And then he shows up with her, on the coast. Does that seem innocent to you?"

"No," Sakura said, frowning.

"Jesus fucking Christ," Ino said. "I can't believe I ever thought—I was so stupid."

"Ino..."

"Just look at them," Ino said in a low voice. "They dated for over a year and were hooking up all the time before that. Of course they'd get back together once she broke up with her boyfriend. Which happened last month. I checked. I'm blonde, so I guess I was enough like her in the meantime."

Sakura sat down next to her and offered her shoulder. Ino slumped against her for a moment, then sat up and dug her hands into her hair. "The night before he left, we did it for the first time. Long and slow." She snorted.

"And it was good?"

"Yeah it was fucking good. At least, I thought so." Ino wiped her nose. "Like, I thought it was the best sex I'd had since...I don't know, ever? Now it makes me want to throw up."

"Yeah."

"I just—this is the problem with catching feelings! I let myself believe it was different, that he wasn't like every other fucking rock star." She sniffled.

"Have you been here since this morning? Why didn't you call me earlier?"

"I was gonna clean myself up and then call you. Plus you probably had a meeting or something. But I couldn't get off the couch."

"You should've called me this morning. I would've come immediately no matter what. There's no excuse now that we're in the same city."

"Ha. Yeah, I guess not. Fuki, that's my roommate, she showed it to me," she motioned to the tabloid, "this morning, and I saw the picture and read the article and I was so calm, right? It was like it wasn't him. I thought maybe it was edited, considering he should've been in Oto. But I looked it up online and the story's all over the place. And then suddenly it was like I melted. God, I'm no better than any other lame girl obsessed with an asshole. I never thought I'd be that girl. But I just want to lie here and eat ice cream."

"Has he called?" Sakura asked.

"Once. Like an hour ago. I didn't answer it. "

"Did he leave a message?"

"If he did then I'm not fucking listening to it."

Sakura wanted to tell her to give him a chance, but stopped the words. No matter the explanation Shikamaru might have, the situation was too suspicious to deserve anything but sole loyalty to her best friend.

"Why can't I have a fairytale thing like you," Ino said. "Never thought I wanted that until now."

"About that...There's something I should tell you," Sakura said hesitantly. Ino turned toward her, frowning. "I wasn't completely honest this past winter, about Sasuke. I knew you were suspicious, so I didn't tell you about it because I really wanted to prove you wrong about him. But we had a fight, in January I think. It was before we were out in public together. And we broke up for a few days, because he said some really shitty stuff and I walked out."

"Whoa. Seriously?" Ino was gaping.

"Yeah." Sakura sighed. "I felt bad for not telling you, but glossing over it felt better. Things were so weird then, and after that everything was so much better between Sasuke and me. I didn't want you to harp on it."

"Wow, Forehead. I get it, I totally get it, but still." Ino shook her head, but looked amused rather than offended. "So what was the fight about?"

"Ugh. I don't want to relive it."

"Just tell me the gist? It'll distract me from my own shit."

Sakura sighed. "Well, our relationship was all physical in the beginning, right? So we were having this conversation and I was talking about my parents, I don't remember how it started exactly, but then he just casually dropped the fact that his parents were dead. We'd known each other for four months, and that was the first time I'd heard about it. So I got angry, because I was sick of dealing with his, I don't know, internal walls. It was a mess, he told me I was wrong to think I was his girlfriend, I thanked him for clearing up that small misunderstanding, and then I left the apartment."

Ino snorted. "That sounds kickass on your part."

"I can't believe I held it together." Sakura played with the edge of the blanket draped over the couch. "I started sobbing as soon as I left his place. Then I shut myself in my apartment for about two days."

"Jesus, Forehead, that's serious drama. What happened? Please tell me he apologized?"

"Yeah, of course he did. You think we'd be where we are now if we'd just kept having sex like nothing had happened? He came over to my apartment and told me about being scared of being vulnerable, you can probably fill in the blanks. And he straight out apologized. And then he told me he was in love with me." She couldn't help blushing as she said it.

"Oh my God," Ino said. "That's honestly swoonworthy."

"So then we kissed in my kitchenette for a bit and then I stopped us and we sat down and talked about our relationship," Sakura said.

"Sounds like classic Sakura," Ino said, shaking her head. "So that's when you decided to go public."

"Yeah. I don't know, after that day everything became much easier. I mean, he's still surly Sasuke sometimes, but he doesn't close himself off like that anymore."

"You guys are honestly amazing together. Thanks for telling me about that, even if you're seven months late."

"I just didn't want you to tell me to dump him. I was already worried you and I were growing apart, or something. I don't know, I wasn't sure of anything at that point except knowing that I was definitely in love with Sasuke."

"Yeah, understandable." Ino shook her head. "I hope the moral of that story wasn't about giving members of Firestyle second chances, though."

"God, no. I just thought I should tell you. So you knew my relationship with Sasuke wasn't all peaches and cream. It still isn't, not all the time."

Ino nodded and pulled the blanket over herself. She wiped at her cheeks. "I guess the moral of the story is that guys can be real assholes."

"I'll drink to that," Sakura said mildly. Then, "I'm really sorry about this, Ino. I keep thinking about how I told you to go with it. I shouldn't have said anything, it's not like I really know him other than through Sasuke."

"Oh, shut up. You couldn't have known. Plus I was already on that downward spiral, I just needed you to encourage me." Ino sighed. Sakura had never seen her look so forlorn.

"Do you want to stay over at our place tonight?"

"No, I—okay, I realize this is irrational, but seeing Sasuke will just rub it in."

Sakura nodded. "Yeah, I get it. I'll come back tomorrow as early as I can, okay?"

"Not before eleven. I plan on getting drunk and sleeping in."

"Whatever you say."

Sakura sent a quick text to Sasuke before she drove back; she'd completely forgotten to update him. Everything's fine-ish. Leaving now, see you in 20. It was cryptic, but she didn't have the heart to explain everything over text.

When Sakura got home, Sasuke was on the couch. "Hey," she said. "So have you talked to Shikamaru today?"

Sasuke raised an eyebrow but shook his head. "He's at the coastal studio. Recording something with Temari. Her idea, or something."

"More than recording, I think." Sakura plopped down on the couch next to him. "The tabloids picked up the story. Ino was pretty blindsided."

"Jesus Christ." Sasuke leaned his head back. "The two of them an exclusive thing right now?"

"Ino thought so," Sakura said. "Do you know what happened? Did anything happen?"

"Don't know," Sasuke said. "He doesn't come back until tomorrow."

"Can you ask him?"

"Yeah," Sasuke muttered. "How is she?"

Sakura shrugged. "I told her about our break-up to make her feel better."

Sasuke winced. "How much about it?"

"I didn't give her all of the details. The intervening months have helped. Like, it didn't make her hate you."

"Thinking about that still makes me sick," Sasuke muttered.

"Let's not think about it, then," Sakura said.

Sasuke went over to the band's apartment the next day for the purpose of talking to Shikamaru. It was obvious how upset Sakura was about it, and Sasuke actually felt slighted offended on Ino's behalf, because Sakura was her best friend. Even if Shikamaru was one of the people he was closest to.

"He's asleep," Kiba said when Sasuke arrived. "You see the photos from the other day?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Yeah."

"He's in deep shit." Kiba chuckled. "Came in looking exhausted. You think that's who he's been seeing lately?"

"I'm gonna go talk to him," Sasuke said, not wanting to go into the whole story. He went to knock on Shikamaru's door and there was a groan in response. Sasuke sighed and pushed the door open.

"Figured it was you," Shikamaru said from the bed.

"You have a nice vacation?"

"I'm guessing Sakura found out and told you? Though by now it's probably everywhere."

"Aa."

"I was really fucking stupid," Shikamaru muttered.

"No shit," Sasuke said. "What happened?"

"God, it was like no time had passed. We met up for a drink, as friends, and Temari just suggested recording something and I was drunk and it seemed like a great idea. You know how Temari is, she knows exactly how to play a situation. She'd said she wanted to talk and I figured it'd be good to clear the air. And then we were on the plane to the beach and it seemed harmless. Plus things with Ino were getting serious, and I was freaking out about it. Since when am I in serious relationships?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Good thing Kiba and Naruto don't know. You're an idiot."

"Yeah, I realized that myself, thanks."

"How far did you go?"

"We just kissed. The paparazzi caught the whole thing. We kissed for a minute or two, then I pulled back because it felt all wrong." He let out an impatient sigh at Sasuke's skeptical look. "I swear to God, that's it. Anyway, then I saw a camera and asked her if she'd planned the whole thing. She wasn't too happy about that. Then I just left. I felt sick."

"Did you explain to Ino?"

"I tried. She wouldn't pick up. I left her a message, but it sounds absurd. She's already stubborn, she's not gonna take this. I don't blame her. I fucked up and now I'm paying for it."

"You really care about her?"

"It was just a hookup at first. Then...I don't know. She's crazy, pretty sure she and Sakura are polar opposites. But I couldn't stop thinking about her, you know?"

Sasuke smirked.

"God, I don't know what I'm gonna do about this," Shikamaru said.

"Are you and Temari..."

"No. God, no. That's not happening again." He sighed. "Ino, though…I think I'm in love with her. Jesus, what a mess."

"Don't know what to tell you." It was just like Shikamaru to back out of something in fear and make a mistake like this. Sometimes Sasuke forgot how similar they were. Not that Sasuke's first inclination after realizing things were getting more serious with Sakura was to hook up with an ex. Though his response hadn't been excusable, either. And it had left him and Shikamaru in a similar position. "You sure you're in love?"

Shikamaru scowled. "Right, I suppose you'd know. Why, does it seem unrealistic?"

Sasuke shrugged. You let yourself go to the coast with your ex. Even if he could maybe understand it, the whole thing was still ridiculous. "How long've you been seeing Ino?"

"Two months. We spent a ton of time together. Don't look so skeptical, you had puppy eyes after one date with Sakura."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. Because it was Sakura, he wanted to say, realizing how cliché (and biased) it was. "You gotta fix it," he said instead.

"I know," Shikamaru snapped. "I'll try."

When Sakura went back to Ino's after lunch the next day, it looked like the blonde hadn't moved. There was a half-eaten bowl of cereal on the table, along with a bottle of vodka.

"Okay it's time for me to repay you for all the good advice you've given me over the past few months. So get off the couch."

"What?" Ino blinked up at her. "Just warning you, I'm not totally sober right now."

"You've had your time to cry and eat ice cream. Now it's time to get back to being Ino. I don't care if it means being angry. You need to get out of the house. You're the one who constantly told me in high school not to let boys dictate my life. That's what you're doing right now, and I don't like it."

Ino smiled reluctantly.

"So what will make you feel better?" Sakura asked. "Because I'm up for whatever you want."

"Can we go out? I just want to look hot and break some hearts myself," Ino said. "But I know you don't do the whole public places thing."

"You know what? Let's do it anyway. I'll wear a disguise."

Ino snorted. "Seriously?"

"What? If we go to a club, it'll be dark. No one will know. It's Friday, everywhere will be packed."

Ino grinned. "If you're sure."

The front door opened just then, and a girl with curly red hair came in, a gym bag slung over her shoulder. "Ino, who's—Oh my God."

"Hi," Sakura said. "You're Fuki?"

"Yeah. You—You're—"

"Yeah it's fucking Sakura Haruno," Ino said. "And if you tell anyone she was here, I'll flush all your fucking clothes down the toilet and tell Karui you tried to go after Omoi in Ishi."

"God, Ino, I won't tell anyone," Fuki said, pouting. "Why do you have to be so mean? How do you know each other?"

"We've been best friends since first grade," Sakura said. Fuki gaped at her.

"Why are you back, anyway?" Ino asked. "Aren't you part of the afternoon rehearsal? You interrupted my wallowing session."

"I'm going, I'm going." Fuki held up her hands. "I forgot a costume change. I can't believe you didn't tell me."

"Yeah. Hey, do you still have that black wig from Halloween? Sakura needs a disguise."

"Yeah, I totally have it." Fuki looked at Sakura eagerly. "You can keep it if you want!"

"Oh, that's okay. Unless it gets really dirty, then I can pay you back," Sakura said.

Fuki laughed. "No, don't worry about it. This is seriously an honor." She ran to the bedroom and came back with it. "The bangs might be a little long, it's pretty cheap."

"The longer the better," Ino said, and Sakura laughed.

Fuki was out the door a minute later after a last long glance at Sakura. "She'd better keep that secret," Ino said darkly.

"You weren't exactly nice about it. I think you probably terrified her into silence."

"Let's hope so."

"Okay, so do you want to come over to my place and borrow something? I've got a large selection of tiny, skin-tight items of clothing. All courtesy of Cobra."

"Yes, please," Ino said. "Will Sasuke be..."

"He said he'd be at the band's apartment until late tonight. It'll just be us."

"Cool."

Ino ended up picking a tiny sequined top of Sakura's and a gold miniskirt. Sakura rooted through her closet for something that wouldn't bring back too many memories, and settled on a simple black dress.

Sakura finished her makeup (committing to her costume with heavy eyeliner and dark lipstick) before Ino and left the bathroom to find her wallet. She jumped at the sight of Sasuke coming in the front door.

"What are you doing back this early?" Sakura said.

"Finished early. What are you doing?" Sasuke raised his eyebrows and eyed her short, black dress.

"Ino and I are going out to a bar," she said, grabbing her bag from the couch.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, seriously. She needs it," Sakura said. She rolled her eyes at his look. "Oh, come on. I'm just going to dance with her. She just needs some time to work it out."

"I'm coming with you," he said, frowning.

Sakura snorted. "No, you're not. You'd get all the attention immediately. This is girls only."

"Don't be ridiculous," Sasuke said.

"I'm not being ridiculous." Sakura lowered her voice. "Sasuke, she's beat-up about him. If you came it'd just be a reminder."

"Fine," Sasuke muttered. "You'd better have a good disguise."

Sakura held up the wig. "This should do the job."

Sasuke couldn't help laughing. "Wow."

"It's great, right?" Ino appeared next to Sakura. "Can we go? I'm ready."

"Yep. I'll see you later tonight," Sakura said to Sasuke.

He frowned and sat back on the couch. "Have fun."

"Good on you for claiming him," Ino said once they were out in the hallway with the door closed behind them.

Sakura shook her head, amused. "What?"

"He didn't threaten you about talking to other guys at the bar, or tell you to put on another dress, or something. Why can't all guys be that secure?"

"He knows if he said anything, I wouldn't let it go."

Ino laughed. "Good."

"Plus we've reached the point where neither of us are insecure about each other's feelings. I hope," Sakura said.

Ino nodded and started to walk faster. "You know what? Now I am angry. Like, I've been angry since I saw that photo, but now it's really here. What an asshole."

"There you go," Sakura said. "He doesn't deserve you or your tears."

Ino wrapped an arm around Sakura's shoulders. "I love you, you know?"

"I love you too," Sakura said with a smile. "And I'll always have your back."

"Even if Sasuke's loyal to Shikamaru?"

"I don't think it's come to a choosing sides thing yet, but yeah. Sorry Sasuke was back early, I didn't think we'd overlap."

"It's fine. It was dumb to want to avoid him, it's not like they're the same person." Ino pulled down the neckline of her top even more. "Is this obvious enough?"

"How about you just be a confident woman in charge of her own body and see where that leads."

"Good plan."

They took a cab to the club Ino had picked out, a place near her rehearsal studio. Sakura had to admit, she felt different walking around with the wig on. The only reason people looked twice at her, she presumed, was because of her short skirt.

"Can I buy you ladies a drink?" A tall, blond guy sidled up to them immediately.

"Yes, please," Ino said.

"No, thanks," Sakura said.

"Two shots," Ino said to him. "Thanks, handsome."

The guy grinned and headed to the bar.

"I'm already glad we're doing this," Ino said as they waited for him.

"Good," Sakura said, amused.

The guy came back with their drinks. Sakura almost pushed her fake bangs fully out of her eyes, then realized that might be a risk. She pushed them gently to the side so they wouldn't tickle her eyelids all night. "Can I pay you for this?" she asked after she downed her shot.

"No, that's on me," he said.

"Stop trying to bail out everyone you know," Ino hissed at her.

"Any interest in dancing?" he asked Ino.

"Hell yeah. You okay here?" Ino asked her.

"Yeah." Sakura waved a hand. "See you later."

Ino grabbed the guy's arm and led him out to the dance floor, where they promptly moved from holding each other's hands to his hands sliding around her hips and her backing up against him. Sakura turned away with a grin. It felt good to be in a public place and not be the center of attention.

"You look lonely." A guy was leaning up against the bar next to her. "Wanna join the fun?"

"I'm good, thanks." Leers from random guys who weren't either intimidated by her or keen to respect her (the two responses she typically received) wasn't something she'd missed.

Sakura danced on her own, enjoying the solitude. A few random girls joined her and she introduced herself as Tenten.

Ino reappeared next to her. "What happened?" Sakura said loudly over the music.

"He got too handsy," Ino said. "Not for me. Let's get another drink."

The blonde threw back three more shots while Sakura looked on. "Mm," Ino said, tapping her finger on the bar and looking around the room. Despite her makeup, the tiredness showed on her face. "Let's dance!"

Sakura followed her out onto the dance floor and they danced together. "You've gotten so much better," Ino said. "I'm impressed."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Thanks."

"Ino? No way!" A muscular, dark-haired guy had shouldered his way through a few people to get to them. "Didn't know you'd be here, too."

"Oh, hey, Idate." Ino smiled at him. Sakura shot Ino a questioning look. "Idate, meet my friend—"

"Tenten," Sakura said.

"Right, Tenten. This is Idate. He's a dancer for Karui, too." Ino grabbed his hand and he grinned at her.

"Oh, nice," Sakura said.

"So what are you doing here?" Idate asked Ino. "It's been a while since you've come out, thought you were busy with some other guy." He chuckled.

Ino waved a hand. "No. What are you doing here? You come with anyone?"

"Nah, just wanted a drink. Rehearsal was a bitch, you're lucky you didn't have to come."

"I gotta go tomorrow, though. That'll be interesting. How sore are you right now?"

"Uh, not that sore." He raised an eyebrow at her.

"Good. You wanna dance?"

"Hell, yeah, why not?"

The two of them went out to the dance floor again. For about a minute, it was evident that they were both professional dancers; even drunk, they moved to the music in a way that attracted attention from everyone around them. There was no awkwardness at finding the beat: Idate was smooth without hesitation. Ino swung her hips and rolled her body against his, loose and confident. A minute later, however, they lost any interest in dancing and started making out. Sakura bit her lip and turned away.

She stayed near the bar, brushing off advances from a few people. Ino came back after about twenty minutes. "I'm gonna go home with Idate," Ino said. She glanced back and Sakura saw Idate making his way through the crowd toward them.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah." Ino poked Sakura's arm. "Thanks for coming with me. You good to go home alone?"

"Yeah, of course. But Ino, is this really...?"

Ino's expression hardened. "This is what I want, Sakura."

"Okay."

"Don't judge it, I just...I need this."

"I get it. I promise I'm not judging you."

Idate reached them and slid his arm around Ino, reaching his hands around her hips. "Ready?"

"Yep," Ino said.

"Nice meeting you," Idate said to Sakura.

"Yeah. You too. I'll talk to you tomorrow, Ino?"

"I'll call you," Ino said.

Sakura went home feeling none of the alcohol she'd ingested that night. She pulled off the wig before trudging up the stairs to the apartment. Sasuke was still up, lounging in front of the TV.

"How was it?" He was looking at her with a slight frown.

"I'm not wasted, if that's what you're trying to figure out," she said, flopping down on the couch next to him. "I think I'm completely sober, actually."

"Something happen?"

"No. Ino went home with a guy she knows from Karui's tour." Sakura shrugged. "By all accounts I guess it was a successful evening."

"Seems like she's moved on alright," Sasuke said. He glanced at her and raised his eyebrows in response to her frown. "What."

"Oh my God, Sasuke, you don't know her at all. Just because she's partying it up doesn't mean she's over it. It means the opposite."

A/N: No one freak out.