"What is wrong with you?!" Ino demands, her screeching sure to garner more unwanted attention. Sakura nervously fingers her kunai as she scans the tree line for any indication of more Konoha warriors. She isn't fool enough to believe they are alone.

"I asked you a question, forehead!" Ino shrieks, jabbing at a soft spot on Sakura's shoulder. It hurts less than the reminder of their friendship. Ino-pig! Sakura would have shouted in retaliation no less than nine months ago, but that was a long time past.

Sakura can only give a sad, half-smile before quickly pocketing her kunai. In the distance, the dark behind Ino tells Sakura this conversation is already over.

"You wouldn't understand," she says simply, beginning to turn away.

"Wouldn't understand?!" Ino mimics in anger. She blinks rapidly, and clenches her fists. "You bet I don't fucking understand! Look at me when I'm talking to you, forehead, or has your mind been so clouded by Sasuke-kun that you've picked up his other bad habits besides abandoning your village?"

Seething, Sakura unleashes a barrage of kunai as she turns around, but Ino has already flung herself out of the way.

"You don't understand, Ino!" Sakura backflips away from her friend and straightens as she tightens her gloves. She's poised over the ground, one punch away from tearing the earth right out from Ino's feet. Behind Ino, the darkness shifts. "You can never understand. I love him, more than you can imagine, more than you could ever know."

She couldn't possibly understand, Sakura thinks. Ino, who flits from one boy to the next, has never understood a longing so deep in her soul that it physically weighed her down, or experienced a desire so strong that one breath threatened to rip her body in two. Ino, with her clear eyes and strong hips, who could snare even the coarsest of men, could never know a love so pure it bound her soul to another, unwavering in the thickest of storms.

"What would you do?" Sakura sneers, voice low and brusque. "What would you do if the man you loved betrayed Konoha?" she asks, knowing Ino has never held interest in any man for more than five months, or proclaimed love for any of her boyfriends. "How could you stand by and simply watch as he disappears into the darkness?"

Across the way, Ino narrows her eyes, tension in her coiled muscles. "Shikamaru would never abandon our village," she answers in a measured tone.

Sakura starts at surety of her words. The possibility that Ino could find such a love in the short time Sakura had been gone had never crossed her mind. In that brief moment, struck by the absolute absurdity and yet reality of that occurrence, Sakura is caught unawares, and Ino strikes.

She runs forward, raising a leg to aim for Sakura's head, and nearly lands a fatal hit had Sakura not snapped to attention seconds before impact. Sakura's clumsy fumble to the side causes her to stumble ungracefully to the ground, staining her newest disguise from the town two miles back, dirt smearing across the worn threads of faded blue. Snapping back to attention, she jumps to her feet, ready to send a shuriken in Ino's direction when her hand stops mid-air. A coil of shadow squeezes her wrist painfully, and the shuriken drops harmlessly to the grass.

"Shikamaru!" Ino exclaims.

"That's enough, Sakura," comes Shikamaru's even voice. He gives an imperceptible nod, and his shadows wrap Sakura's body immobile.

Panicking, Sakura struggles against her restraints, gasping, "Let me go! Shikamaru, let me go! Please, before—"

A shriek rents through the air, and Shikamaru's eyes snap forward. Sasuke, hidden in the dark of the forest, had rushed forward and pulled Ino in a tight chokehold, a knife to her throat. His red eyes spin, and he says calculated voice, "A life for a life, Shikamaru. Let Sakura go, and I won't harm your wench."

Shikamaru's eyes light with hatred, but a whimpering gasp from Ino as the knife digs deeper into her pale skin gives him pause. With a reluctant grunt, he releases his shadows, hand seals dissipating as Sakura falls unceremoniously to the ground.

"Sasuke," Sakura begins, scrambling to stand, "Sasuke, please. Let Ino go."

"A life for a life," repeats Shikamaru. His face is calm, belying the rage that boils within. His fingers twitch, and the shadows behind Sasuke flicker.

Sasuke levels a disinterested gaze at Shikamaru before sliding the knife sharply against Ino's throat, shoving her away from him. A sharp cry rises from Shikamaru as blood seeps down Ino's neck; she hits the ground on her knees, her wide eyes searching Shikamaru's in terror before she falls forward in a dead faint.

Sakura, hastily grabbed and hauled into the tall trees by Sasuke, begins to cry. Wrapped in his arms, she can do nothing but pound his chest as they hurl through the forest from branch to branch, leaving behind a despairing Shikamaru with Ino's motionless body.

"Sasuke!" she demands, slamming her fists against him. He winces. Sakura hits harder. "Why did you kill her?! Why?! You said—"

"She's not dead."

Quieted, Sakura stills her fists.

"I merely scratched her when I knocked her out," Sasuke explains.

"What?"

"Shikamaru will be too occupied with her to follow."

"Sasuke—"

"Enough talk. We need to leave."

Sakura blinks the tears away and wraps her arms around Sasuke's neck, clinging to him as they escape Fire Country.

In Konoha, three days later, Ino stares at the scar on her neck through the mirror and tries not to dwell on the certainty that Sasuke spared her only because of Sakura. She lifts a finger to trace the faint marking on her skin and lets out a tense breath. Shikamaru, his arms snug around her torso and nestled beneath her bare breasts, presses his cheek against hers and shuts his eyes tightly. She is comforted by his hot skin against her back, and runs a hand through his unbound hair, wondering what she would do if it were Shikamaru who turned his back on the village.

She turns to kiss his cheek, to reassure him that she is still whole, and hides the seeping tears as she realizes that yes, she could understand Sakura after all.

Author Notes: I have elected to ignore the travesties that are Chapters 699 & 700. Any and all fanfics henceforth shall diverge from canon entirely.