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At the beginning of the lunch break, Take-sensei had let them out to the schoolyard. Ami, Rika, and Ino all gathered at their bench and started talking about what happened at school that day. Sometime during the conversation, they had started to gossip about their classmates.
Ami had commented, “Sakura’s so ugly!”
Rika had then responded, “Yeah! Her pink hair is so weird! Why is she even here?”
Ino had never even looked at Sakura before and didn’t even know who they were talking about. So, she asked Ami and Rika who this Sakura was.
“She is the baby over there in the corner who never talks to anybody. I think she’s trying to be cool and mysterious for Sasuke-kun.”
Ino turned around to find a pretty girl with cherry blossom pink hair sitting alone by the tree in the corner of the school yard.
“Ami, why do you keep saying she’s ugly? She’s so pretty! We should go talk to her.” exclaimed Ino.
Ami’s face scrunched up and she confusedly replied, “What? She’s a loser, Ino-chan. We shouldn’t talk to her.”
Rika nodded along to Ami in agreement.
Ino for the first time felt something bad inside of her towards her friends. She replied instead to the surprise of the two girls, “Well, I think I’ll go talk to her and become a loser then!”
Long blonde hair swished with justice as she walked towards her new friend. Ino crossed the school yard and lifted the small branch that fell right in front of Sakura’s face.
“Hey, what’s your name?” asked Ino. She was small, but the brightest person Sakura had ever seen. Ino had light yellow hair and blue eyes with a wide smile looking down at her. She offered a hand to the girl down in front of her.
Sakura sat at the base of a tree at the back of the schoolyard. Her emerald green eyes looked up at the hand in front of her, lightly callused, tan, and strong. She looked up to meet the blue eyes that looked at her confidently and shyly smiled upwards.
Sakura’s small, pale, lightly callused, civilian hand reached out towards Ino and grabbed onto her hand. She had never stood with someone else during lunch break. Ino walked Sakura over to the bench she normally sat with. All of the other people who normally sat with Ino, the popular girls, all walked away to a separate bench, muttering under their breaths.
Sakura looked over at the girls who were walking away and looked back at Ino, her confusion must’ve shown because Ino just smiled and said, “They were being meanies. You looked pretty. I wanted to be your friend!”
Sakura’s emerald green eyes widened. She asked, “You think I’m pretty?”
Ino looked a little shy but readily responded, “Yeah! You’re hair is really cool!”
Sakura’s face flushed pink, and she looked down at her toes and mumbled, “Thank you.”
Ino looked down at her little friend. She was furious that anyone could have ever said anything bad about her. She was the most adorable person ever! Ino was never going to be friends with Ami or Rika again! Ino decided that she would be the best friends with Sakura-chan and make sure that no one said anything mean about her new best friend again.
“Anyways, let’s eat lunch! I’m starving!” said Ino as she opened up her bento.
“Yeah” replied Sakura. They both finished their lunches up as break finished and walked into the classroom together. Ino sat with Sakura at the back of the classroom, and as the class resumed one seat in between Ami and Rika was conspicuously absent. Everybody glanced towards the back of the classroom thinking that Ino was just pranking Sakura and things would return back to normal. However, as the days went on Ino kept sitting besides Sakura. They had become inseparable. Both quietly whispering to each other, training with one another during break, and always within reach of each other, they became Sakura and Ino.
By the time all the other girls had started having crushes on boy within their class, mainly Sasuke-kun, Sakura and Ino stopped wasting time on people and started making sure they were ready to be ninja. All wrapped up in each other, they became stronger together.
By the time of graduation, Sakura and Ino had surpassed even Sasuke-kun graduating at the top of their class. Sakura was placed on Team seven with Sasuke and Naruto. Ino placed with Shikamaru and Choji.
Months passed on their teams, both girls began to love their boys. Families formed. Sasuke lost the thought of trying to leave in the first place, and Naruto had a place to return to. Shikamaru actually respected women and Choji was still Choji. Sakura and Ino did not separate due to a petty rivalry about boys because in this universe they had never loved anybody else but each other. They grew up with sleepovers complaining about their boys, crying over terrible missions, and watching horrible movies. But, they also grew up loving each other.
By the time they were sixteen, they had moved out to an apartment together. Sakura’s parents not surprised by the way Sakura and Ino’s hands intertwined as they walked up to the new apartment. It came as a shock to Inoichi who hadn’t expected Ino to fall in love with someone introverted and he trailed behind slowly looking at the two girls with a new perspective. Their relationship didn’t come as a shock to their friends who had placed bets on them from the time they graduated as to when they would finally announce their relationship. Kiba had only said, “Couldn’t you guys have just waited two more days? Then, I wouldn’t have had to lose to Shikamaru. Again.” They all laughed and made the place feel full and filled with happy memories
By the time they were twenty, matching rings glistened on their fingers. Sakura had just been through a ten hour surgery carefully connecting nervous tissue back together only to tell the shinobi lying in bed that they wouldn’t be able to go into the field again.
The mortality of their lifestyle hit Sakura like Orochimaru’s snakes.
Immediately, she went to look for rings with Naruto and Sasuke because she couldn’t stand the thought of being somehow separated from Ino if one of them died. They spent weeks looking over displays.
Ino started getting suspicious the day that Sakura had found the ring. She followed Sakura out to one of the main markets and saw her meeting up with the boys. They all were laughing as Sakura looked to be relieved? Ino was still curious but nothing was wrong, so she returned home.
Sakura returned late that night and Ino was annoyed. Something had been up, so she decided to confront Sakura about it after dinner. Ino was washing the dishes, building up the courage to confront her girlfriend when she felt a slight tap on her shoulder from the pink haired woman she loved. Ino turned around and stood shock still for a second. Sakura had fallen down to one knee to reveal a box that had a beautiful titanium ring.
She asked, “Will you marry me?”
Ino started crying and tackled Sakura into a hug, “Yes! Yes! Of course, I will marry you stupid. I could never put up with anybody else.”
They went to the marriage registration office the next day, to make it official. Neither of them wanted a large ceremony as it would draw enemies, but the simple certificate was framed and placed above the couch in their living room.
By the time they were thirty, they looked at each other happily as Sakura read a story to put their children to sleep. Sakura and Ino had retired from their careers tired of fighting and wanted to train the next generation and make sure they didn’t have to suffer the same hardships they did. As they couldn’t have their own biological children, they stopped by the orphanage to meet the children there. They found two twins sitting together along from the other kids. Sakura found herself reminiscing back to when she first met Ino. She knew that Ino would never be able to let them go now. So, she pushed Ino forward to greet the children.
“Hey, what are your names?” asked Ino.
Both little boys turned their heads upwards, shocked to see someone looking at them. They stumbled over to introduce themselves first. Ino continued to talk and get to know the two children as Sakura made preparations to adopt the two. She knew that Ino would never be able to let them go.
They lived happily will smiles on both their faces, holding each others hands as the let out one last breath before they died together.