Title: Haven't you heard what becomes of curious minds?
Chapter: 0 – Red
Author: Killaurey
Rating: T
Word Count: 1,000
Summary: AU. The night before they're assigned to Genin teams, Sakura wakes up with Ino in her mind—and she can't leave.
Disclaimer: Naruto doesn't belong to me. It's Kishimoto's and I just play with it. Part 0 of ? Unbeta'd.
Notes: This prologue is short—future chapters will be longer.

Forehead, wake up!

Sakura jerks awake and, tangled in her sheets thanks to her nightly war against them, she tumbles out of bed in an undignified heap.

Ino's laughter rings in her head.

"Shut up, Pig!" Sakura snaps back, automatically, as she tries to escape her bedding. As far as retorts go, it comes out rather muffled.

You look like you need help!

Of course, Ino doesn't help her. Irritated even further, Sakura grumbles under her breath until she, at last, manages to yank herself free. Rumpled, Sakura clambers to her feet, ready to give Ino a piece of her mind.

Only to pause as she realizes that Ino isn't actually in her room. Her window is still shut, the curtains pulled tight, all her traps in place. Her door is shut, no light coming from under the door—thank goodness, that means her mom hadn't been woken by her flailing around—there's no one under her bed or in her closet or behind her standing mirror.

Even Ino's laughter has faded.

Goosebumps spread down her arms. "Ino?" she says quietly, hugging herself tightly. "Ino, this isn't funny."

It's a little funny, Ino says, because yes, she would.

This time, Sakura is awake and aware enough to recognize that Ino's voice is coming from inside her head.

"What are you doing?!" Sakura hisses, irritation coming roaring back. "Did you wake me up for some stupid prank? You won't get Sasuke-kun because I'm sleep-deprived, you know!"

The only reason she keeps her voice down is because of her mom. Otherwise, she'd be shouting. As it is, she knows her face has gone red and her hands are clenched. For all the rivalry between them, this is a new low! Ino has never infringed on her at night before, and Sakura wouldn't even dare, not when Ino's dad is a Jounin.

He's the best one! Ino says, with pride. Also what do you mean 'sleep-deprived'? It's barely past eleven!

"We go to sleep early in this house," Sakura grits out. "Get out of my head and let me get back to bed. In case you've forgotten, Pig, we get assigned teams tomorrow."

Ino sighs.

"And," Sakura continues spitefully, "I'll be on a team with Sasuke-kun, not you."

Forehead, Ino says, her inner voice weirdly flat and unreadable. This isn't a prank. I need you to find my dad right away.

Sakura blinks. Then squints.

"Why can't you find him?" she demands. "Can't you just, like, stick your head out of your bedroom and holler? Or, I don't know, wave at him with your mind? I can't leave my house, are you crazy? My mom will kill me!"

Sakura—

"Don't you 'Sakura' me!" Sakura says fiercely. "You haven't told me anything! We haven't spoken in ages and now you come here, in the middle of the night, in my head and tell me to go find your dad! What's going on?"

I can't leave your head, Ino says hurriedly. Also your head is super weird, Forehead. Did you know you've got a second you in here?

"That's beside the point," Sakura snaps. "Don't try to distract me!"

Can we please just go find my dad? Ino sounds tired and, underneath that, a little scared.

That, more than anything, makes Sakura calm her temper. Ino is never, ever scared of anything. Not of bugs, not of boys, not even when the boys are bigger and stronger than her.

But she's scared now.

It makes their rivalry feel small and petty and makes Sakura's stomach twists. Ino may not be her best friend any longer, but she's still… Ino.

Despite herself, Sakura can't quite turn away from that.

"What's wrong?" Sakura says, even as she dumps her blankets back on her bed, knowing that if she lumps them up her mom will think she's in the middle of them. "Look, I'm going to get in so much trouble doing this. You have to give me something to work with."

I don't really know what happened, Ino admits, though Sakura has the feeling that Ino is trying to pick her words carefully. I've never done out-of-body without taking over the body and using a jutsu to do it. I panicked.

"You panicked because of a jutsu going wrong?" Sakura asks, stripping out of her jammies and wiggling into a pair of shorts and grabbing one of her dresses out of her closet. "And your dad will need to see me to put you back in your body?"

Sakura doesn't know very much about Ino's Clan jutsu—or Ino's Clan in general; Ino had always been secretive about that—but she can imagine how such a thing going wrong would be… scary.

"What were you doing with a jutsu this late anyway?" Sakura asks, brushing her hair. The simple motion makes both her and Ino feel better. Sakura is surprised to notice it but, while Ino's fear remains in the back of Sakura's throat like the tang of blood, it's less… fraught, now.

She's never felt Ino's emotions like this before.

It's not that late, Ino says. I wasn't doing any jutsu. I was working on my flowering arranging. We've been getting too many orders for Dad to keep up with lately.

Sakura frowns. "How does that wind up with you stuck in my head? There's no plants that cause out of body… experiences…, are there?"

Ino's laughter tastes a bit like apples. It's weird.

There's plenty of plants that do that, she says. But I wasn't working on any of them. Most of them aren't good for arrangements anyway. They either smell bad or look ugly and no one wants that on their tables or anywhere.

"What happened?" Sakura repeats, leaning over to flick her lamp on, to check her hair before leaving. She straightens and gasps.

Ino stares back at her from the mirror, and Ino's next copper-fear-laden words are like a slap of cold water to her face.

I'm pretty sure I died.