Ino's face was more than a little irritated as she practically banged on the front door of Sakura's house. The blonde's expression was set into an irate scowl, her blue eyes flashing with anger so prominent that even Shino kept a respectable distance from her, watching the scene unfold.

The reason for her anger was mostly concern for her friend's well-being, true, but she was still angry and had no intention of letting Sakura escape her wrath for making her this way.

She growled lightly, making Shino lean away from her in discomfort. As wary as he was of her though, Ino could still see the subtle tension in his shoulders, the feelings that he couldn't quite show thanks to his clan's monotonous language leaking through into his body language. Most people wouldn't have been able to detect it, but Ino was the daughter of the head of T and could see through him like he was made of glass. Shino was worried about Sakura, just like she was.

Ino didn't really interact with her fellow clan heir outside of the specific circumstances that Sakura happened to bring them together, but she knew that Shino cared about their friend just as much as she did, as proven by the fact that he hadn't hesitated to follow her on her little mission today.

Now if only Sakura would open up Ino she could give her a piece of her mind!

"Argh! DANG IT SAKURA! OPEN THE DOOR, I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE!" Ino raised her fist higher to pound on the door even harder, only to pause as it suddenly swung open. Only the person on the other side of the door was not the one that Ino wanted to see.

Mebuki Haruno stared down at Ino with unimpressed eyes. Ino's anger faded into deep embarrassment as she realized what she had just been doing. Her face beginning to burn, she gave the woman a sheepish smile, "H-Hello, Mrs Haruno."

Mebuki didn't say anything, just continuing to stare down at her. Her eyes flitted between Ino and Shino who had begun to shift awkwardly behind her, before she raised an eyebrow, "Hello, Ino, Shino. It's nice to see you again. Would you mind telling me why you're trying to break down my door?"

"I-uh," Ino sweated at the look in the woman's eyes. It reminded her of her mother, "We're looking for Sakura…? We need to talk to her."

Mebuki didn't say anything for a long moment, making Ino sweat harder, before the woman moved out of the way, gesturing for them to come inside, "She's up in her room. Please keep the volume down. Hanami is napping."

There was a bit of danger hidden beneath her tone and Ino didn't want to know what the consequences would be for disobeying.

"Yes ma'am." She said quietly, not looking at the intimidating woman as she made her way inside. Shino followed after her, giving Mebuki a silent nod, before the two of them began to make their way into the house.

As the door closed behind them and Mebuki walked away to do something in the kitchen, Shino gave the blonde a look, "She is oddly frightening for a civilian."

Ino shuddered, nodding in agreement, "I think that's just a thing with moms. Kaa-sama is the same way when she's mad at me."

Shino tilted his head, "Interesting. My own mother has never acted like that before."

Ino couldn't hold back the snort at the Aburame's words, "No, I bet she hasn't. You were probably more well-behaved than me and Sakura combined."

"That is true."

Together, they ascended the staircase to the second floor, heading to where they knew their friend was waiting. Having already been over to Sakura's house a few times before, they both knew where the girl's room was. They made their way to the end of the hall to a large cherry wood door that looked just like all of the others except for the sakura tree that had been painted delicately on its dark surface.

Ino turned to look at Shino who was standing a few feet away, already knowing what she was about to do. He gave her a nod which she returned, before reaching down and grabbed the doorknob, wrenching the door open angrily.

"Sakura! We need to talk right no-OH MY GOD!"

Ino's words were cut short by a shocked scream at what she saw inside of the room. Startled by her exclamation, Shino walked up behind her, wanting to know what had caused the reaction within the Yamanaka, only to pause as well at what he saw.

Sakura was sitting in the middle of her bedroom floor, cross-legged with her ink-stained fingers fiddling with something in her hands as she stared at them with wide eyes. Scattered all around her were random materials, bits of wood and gears and springs, as well as dozens of papers covered in complicated drawings that Ino could barely make out, much less understand. A scroll was unraveled right next to her, the same drawings covering its surface though they seemed even more complicated, if that were even possible.

The biggest attention catcher though, and what caused Ino's surprise in the first place, was what looked like the severed head of a woman sitting on the pinkette's desk just a few feet away, the face framed by a curtain of disheveled black hair.

Ino's mouth opened, a scream building in her throat, but as her eyes focused on the disembodied head, she realized that something was off. The skin on the face was extremely rough, with a grainy texture, on top of being an extremely odd color. She studied it closer and could just barely make out a seam extending from the lower edge of the mouth down the chin. It was a hinge, just like the ones you would see on a… puppet.

It was a puppet head. Right. The key component to the profession that Sakura had been touting that she would master for the past two and a half years. That thing.

As Ino berated herself for not seeing something so obvious, Sakura broke out of her shock, her tired mind just now realizing that she had visitors.

"Oh, hey guys. What are you doing here?" She asked curiously even as she turned her attention back to the thing in her hand which, as she moved it around, Ino realized was a prosthetic hand. Ino watched, still too stunned to speak as Sakura manually articulated the fingers and thin needles popped out of the fingertips for a quick moment before retracting back inside, leaving no sign that they had been there in the first place.

Sharing a look with Shino, the anger Ino had been feeling reignited inside of her chest and she quickly remembered why she was here. Scowling angrily, she stepped into her friend's room, careful not to step on any of the probably dangerous things that were scattered around the floor.

"What do you mean, 'what are we doing here'? This is the only way we're able to see you outside of class anymore!" Ino said, careful to keep her voice down so Mebuki didn't come up and throw her out, while also making sure that Sakura knew exactly how angry she was with her.

The pinkette was either oblivious to her ire or completely ignoring it though, as Sakura made no effort to acknowledge Ino's anger, "That doesn't really explain much, Ino. You see me all the time when I come over to your house.

"You haven't been over to my house in over a month! Hell, we don't even spar anymore!" Ino yelled, raising her hands high into the air in her frustration, causing Shino to take a small step back at the sudden movement.

Sakura blinked, "Wait really? I could have sworn I was there last Thursday."

"That was five weeks ago." Ino growled as she and Shino walked into the room, careful not to step on anything as they did so, "I tried to get you to spar with me and you said there was no point."

Sakura gave her a look like she was the weird one which made Ino's eyes twitch, "Well yeah, why would we need to? You're pretty much better than me now when I'm not using my chakra strings. There's not really anything I can teach you so there's no reason for us to spar anymore."

The sleep deprivation was clearly lowering Sakura's mental facilities because there was no other way she wouldn't have heard the implications of what she had just said. That was the only reason that Ino hadn't marched over there and wrung her neck for basically saying that they didn't need to be friends just because Ino was good at taijutsu now.

Even so, Ino growled, glaring at the pink-haired girl who continued to work on her wooden limb as if they weren't even there, "That's not what this is about! I don't care if you don't want to spar anymore, but you haven't even visited! My mom has been asking where you've been and I couldn't tell her because I didn't even know! You're constantly disappearing from class the moment it's over and don't even eat lunch! We haven't spoken more than three words to her in a week!"

Ino's words finally seemed to work their way into Sakura's thick skull as the pinkette began to look somewhat apologetic, "Oh. Sorry, Ino, I guess I've just been so busy that I haven't really thought about it."

"That is why we are worried, Sakura." Shino said, "It is clear that your training is having adverse effects on your health. Perhaps it is time to take a step back and take a break. You are already set to graduate near the top of the class. You can take a little bit of time off to rest before exams."

Sakura shook her head stubbornly, turning her attention inside of the arm, "That's not what it's about, Shino. I know I'm going to graduate near the top, that's not a question, but I'm not where I want to be. There's still so much that I want to get done before I become a genin."

"And that's worth working yourself to the point of exhaustion?" Ino asked, "There are some ninja who do that, but they're all crazy and you're not even a ninja yet. You can afford to take a little time off."

"I'll be fine if I-"

"Sakura, you almost lost to Naruto during class. Naruto."

Sakura scowled lightly, her jaw clenching in remembrance, "I wasn't expecting him to come up from the ground with a headbutt. Who does that?"

"Naruto does, and that's the problem, Sakura." Shino said as Ino huffed at the girl's stubbornness, "Normally, you would have expected and easily been able to dodge something like that. Your reaction times have slowed with your exhaustion, as have your reflexes and coordination. You are slipping."

"I'm not-"

"Don't even try to argue." Ino interrupted her friend again. Sakura glared at her and Ino glared right back, "Don't. You know it's true. I'm pretty sure even Ami could get a lucky hit in on you with the state you're in."

"That's too far!" Sakura immediately shot back, her green eyes angry at the idea that someone like Ami could ever land a hit on her, "She can't even keep up with Akamaru!"

"And you could?" Ino challenged, putting a hand on her hip, "I saw you trip over your own feet on the way to the bathroom, Sakura. You're lucky you didn't bruise that massive forehead on the door frame."

As Sakura growled at her friend's jab, Shino held his hands up placatingly, "We aren't asking you to stop training altogether, Sakura. We would just like you to cut back a bit before you hurt yourself in a way that forces you to. I understand that you want to be the best kunoichi that you can be, but I bet you have begun to see diminishing returns on your training, right?"

Sakura didn't say anything, but the look on her face was all Shino needed to see. He nodded, putting his hands into his pockets, "You need to rest. It would be best to spend some time away from training and focus on one thing at a time instead of running yourself into the ground. It would be best to let yourself recover before you do something foolish like take the wrong poison while working on your resistance."

At the Aburame's words, Sakura's expression suddenly went blank, and Ino watched with disbelief as her cheeks and ears began to slowly turn red.

"Seriously Sakura?" She asked, staring at her friend as she blushed in embarrassment, "Really?"

"It wasn't my fault!" Sakura protested, mortified by the way her friends were looking at her, "Hanami messed with my vials and the poisons looked similar. I was only sick for a few days!"

Ino's face told her exactly how much that mattered to her and Sakura looked back down at her project, turning it over in her hands as she thought. Ino went to say something else but Shino put a hand on her shoulder, shaking his head. Huffing lightly, Ino shut her mouth, letting Sakura think in silence.

After a minute, Sakura gave a small sigh, putting down her wooden hand and looking up at them apologetically, "...You guys are right. I've been going a little too crazy on the training, recently. I guess I got so focused on it that I didn't notice. I'm sorry."

"There is no reason to be sorry, Sakura." Shino reassured her while Ino carefully held her tongue, "We both understand that you are serious about your goals. Just please remember not to forget your own needs in pursuit of your goals."

"I'll try not to." Sakura said with a small smile, "But you'll help remind me if I do, right?"

"Well duh. What kind of friends would we be if we didn't?" Ino said with a hiff,before a light smile appeared on her face as well, "Glad to see we managed to get through that thick skull of yours, Sakura. Took a little work but we finally did it."

Ino held out her hand to Shino. It took the Aburame a moment to understand what she wanted but he hesitantly reached out, slapping her hand with his own and causing her to grin.

Sakura raised an eyebrow as her friend's high-fived, "Was that a forehead joke?"

"It could be." Ino shrugged, "Now hurry up and get all of that stuff put away. We're getting you out of this room. There's a yakisoba place near the clan compounds that I've been wanting to try forever so we can go there and see what happens after, I guess."

"Yakisoba?" Sakura asked as she reached down to the scroll at her side, "That sounds good but I thought you didn't eat noodles."

Ino scoffed, "That was forever ago, Sakura. I haven't been on a diet for a while now. Taijutsu and chakra exercises take way too much energy so I'm able to eat as much as I want and still keep my figure!" She turned to Shino, "Tou-sama says this place was really good when he, Choji, and Shikamaru's dad went there and I got my allowance early so I can pay for all of us."

Shino gave her a nod, "That sounds agreeable. I've never had Yakisoba before."

"You're in for a treat. It's super good." Ino said, before her grin turned slightly evil as she turned back to Sakura as the girl began sealing the mess away into her scroll, "And when we're done, you're coming back to my house to explain to my mom where you've been. She's been worried, you know?"

Ino would be lying if she said she didn't enjoy the way Sakura's skin immediately turned pale at her words. It served the girl right for making her worry.