"She's back here again. What a rude little girl, breaking into the greenhouse like this."

"But she does take care of the plants while we're on missions. She seems to know a lot about them."

"If you approve of her so much, why don't we go talk to her? It's better than waiting here while you all but stalk her." His black side was getting irritable.

"It's not stalking if she's on our property."

"Is… is somebody there?"

"Now you've done it, she's heard us."

"Itachi-san? Sakura? Are you two making out in here again?"

"Itachi has a girlfriend? I thought he and Kisame were an item…"

White Zetsu shook his head and was about to melt back into the tree, but his other half stopped him. Just as he was about overpower himself, the girl who had broken into his sanctuary turned the corner and saw him.

Her bright blue eyes were wide with surprise as she stopped in her tracks to stare at him. If he had been anyone else he might have felt a bit self-conscious under the stare she was giving him as she took in everything about his appearance. He didn't miss the three or four times she looked at his appendages growing out of his head, though he wished she would pick something else to focus on. Wasn't his multi colored face enough to distract someone?

"Who are you and why are you in my greenhouse?"

"S-sorry! I didn't know it was yours," she said, looking shocked and apologetic at his harsh voice. "Itachi-san showed it to me and said I could come in here if I wanted to, I thought it was just a--"

"Itachi-san let you in here?"

If she wasn't questioning her sanity before, there was no doubt she was now going through her family history in her head trying to remember any cases of delusional grandfathers or something of the like.

"Did… did your voice just change?"

He mentally sighed. He had been hoping for a slightly more original question. Did everyone have to word it the exact same way? "It does that," he said automatically.

"So you have two minds, but they can both… I mean, you can talk with different sides of your personality?"

He was surprised, though he didn't show it, nobody else had reached that conclusion before, and it was very interesting. Maybe he wouldn't eat her. Instead he nodded.

She looked around the room nervously before she spoke again, her clear voice laced with fear she was trying hard not to show, "I really didn't know this was your greenhouse, I'm very sorry for intruding." She lifted her foot as if she was going to take a step forward, but seemed to decide against it and looked around the building again.

"The pretty little girl is scared and we're blocking the only exit," his black half said with a snicker. He was enjoying himself at least.

She shook her head causing her long blond hair to shake and the tip of it resembled a snake slithering back and forth, "It's just rude to go somewhere without permission," she looked thoughtful for a moment, and then added "from the owner."

Zetsu looked at her in curiosity for a few moments, wondering not only what she was thinking, but how her thought process worked. Normally the first question he had to answer was about his appendages or about why he 'was talking like that' before the person ran off screaming. But she wanted to know how it worked? That was odd.

"Why are you here?" the look on her face showed that she had misunderstood so he continued before she had the chance to apologize again. "I didn't know we were getting new members," he clarified.

"Oh…" the girl said, ducking her head to keep herself from staring, "We abounded our village and we ended up running into Deidara, and he led us here."

"There's more of you running around here and breaking into people's property?"

"Three others," she said, though she used the same tone as when she answered before. She wasn't afraid of his other half. "We're all from Konoha. Sakura's been here before, and she thought that Itachi-san would let us stay…"

"Since when did he care about anyone else? This story doesn't add up. I think she's an intruder."

"If you don't believe me ask him. Just don't ask Deidara or Sasori, they don't like me much and would deny it just to see what happens…"

"I wouldn't put it past them. What's your name?"

"Yamanaka Ino," she said, her voice uncertain. She was smart enough to know that if she angered him too much she would lose the fight, he was S-Class, but her shinobi training had taught her to never reveal information. Zetsu could see the internal struggle going on behind her eyes.

"Good luck then." And with that, he disappeared.

Ino stood there blinking for a few minutes, trying to make sense of what had just happened. Finally she came to her senses enough to realize that she was still in his greenhouse and should probably leave before he got angry again. And she knew exactly where she needed to go.

ZxI ZxI ZxI ZxI

She was in Konoha again, wearing a red formal looking kimono and standing on the balcony of the Hokage tower to the left of her shishou. A large grin was on her face, but it was nothing compared to the boy standing next to her. The hat looked good on him. Tsuande had just silenced the cheers that had erupted when she named Naruto Hokage, and was now naming her student Head of the Konoha Hospital.

She felt ecstatic, this is what she had dreamed and worked so hard for. Her best friend was Hokage and she was now Chief of Staff. On top of that, Sasuke stood leaning against a wall so that he was hidden from the public eye (which he had always preferred) yet still very much in the moment. When the Godaime finished her speech the three teammates just smiled at each other, still too excited to speak.

But something wasn't right.

Everything was as it should be… but something was missing. But it couldn't be, the picture was complete, in fact she could see Ino running over to her right now with a congratulatory grin on her face. Kakashi was also nearby, smiling at Naruto behind his mask while the two of them were discussing something she wasn't listening to. Her sensei, her three best friends, the title she had always wanted… what was missing?

Sakura sat up quickly, her eyes snapping open as someone started violently shaking her. "Wake up," the voice insisted angrily. "Your little boyfriend just landed me in a load of trouble!"

"I don't have a boyfriend… I'm too busy running the hospital…"

The voice, and the body it came from, was still for a moment before it became louder, "What?!"

She blinked a few times, before shaking her head in an attempt to clear it before turning to her best friend, "Sorry, I was having a weird dream. What's the problem?"

"The problem," Ino began, her face flushed. "Is that—"

Ino's soon to be rant was interrupted by Hinata's rather abrupt entrance into the room before she quickly, and yet oddly quietly, shut the door and all but flew under Sakura's bed. The girl still sitting on the bed was pinching herself, under the impression she was still dreaming, while the blond beside the bed was looking between the door and the last place she'd seen her friend in confusing. A moment later there was a knock on the door before it was thrown open, without invitation, to reveal Deidara… with his hair down… and his cloak missing.

"Am I not supposed to be taking a nap?" Sakura asked in disbelief. "Or did the cousins decide that today was a good day to harass me?"

"Sorry Sakura-san, yeah," Deidara said, though his eyes were sweeping the room. "I need to find Hinata-chan… she stole my hair tie."

"Why would she do that?" Ino asked, a thin eyebrow raised. "And why would she be in here?"

"I don't know! One minute she was offering to wash my cloak and the next thing I knew my hair's in my face and she's running down the hall!"

"That doesn't sound like something Hinata-chan would do," Sakura said skeptically. Are you sure that's what happened?"

Deidara grumbled something in response before exiting the room to continue his search for the dark haired girl. Said missing girl poked her head out from under the bed to look up at her friends before mouthing a thank you and going back under to continue hiding. Any good shinobi knows that you don't reveal your hiding spot so soon after being nearly found for the person might come back to check.

"So… what'd you do to Deidara-san?" Sakura asked after a few minutes.

"I was going to everyone's rooms t-to ask for their clothes so I could w-wash them," Hinata explained, still not coming out from under the bed that her two friends were now sitting on. "He said he had a cloak that was dirty and he went to g-grab it… and when he did his hair tie got st-stuck on something and got yanked out. He stood up and l-looked really m-m-mad and thought that I stole it from him, so… I ran away…"

"Getting these pulled out hurts," Ino explained, stretching out onto the bed. "He wasn't mad at you, just mad that he something was pulling his hair. And since you ran away it made you look guilty."

"He just l-looked so angry… it scared m-me."

"Nobody here's gonna hurt you, Hinata-chan," Tenten said, appearing out of thing air and causing Sakura to fall off her bed in shock.

"Tenten-chan's here?" Hinata's voice asked.

"Apparently," Ino said uncertainly. She then reached down to help her friend up. "Some kunoichi… can't even tell when someone enters her room." Sakura muttered threats under her breath.

"What were you saying about Itachi earlier, Pig? It was so important you had to wake me up…"

"Oh yeah… the strangest thing happened to me today in the greenhouse Itachi-san showed me." She told her friends about her meeting with the strange man, carefully describing everything about him that she could remember, from his appendages to his voice. "He reminded me of the Chuunin Exam," she said after her explanation was finished. Tenten glared at the memory and Sakura had a far off look on her face. Ino sighed, none of the girls liked to remember that time for it had a bad memory for each of them, but she wanted to explain. "When Sakura and I fought and I was in her mind… there was someone else there. Someone meaner, like a different personality or something."

"Inner me," Sakura mumbled, an embarrassed smile on her face.

"Yeah! That! It's the same thing, except his other half is able to talk."

"So… Ino-chan…" Tenten said slowly, "what you're saying is that there's some really interesting plants in that greenhouse. Right?"

"Oh of course!" Sakura agreed. "And I'm sure they have some really nice smells coming from them as well!"

"There's a giant shark running around here," Ino said in a monotone. "And you guys don't believe that there's a plant with multiple personalities?" Sakura and Tenten nodded, and Hinata let out a small giggle from under the bed. "You guys are the worst friends ever!"

IxS DxH ZxI SxT

I'm soooooooooooo sorry for the late update! But finals were coming up and I had to study so much I didn't get a spare second to write anything. But everyone gets some Zetsu/Ino so it all works out, right? And I also have this updated on my birthday! So everyone give me lots of reviews for my Sweet 16 and I will love you forever!

Saku-baka