Pairing: SakuIno as a BroTP I suppose? Could also be construed as a romantic pairing, though I didn't originally write it that way.

Prompt/theme: Requested under the prompt "Sakura and Ino meeting as equals".

The pink haired kunoichi faced her opponent without fear or hesitation. The missing nin had threatened her village, and she was either going to kill him for it or die trying. She watched with disgust as he spat on the ground between them, the saliva hitting the dust ten metres away. In response, she raised a pink brow, eyes giving away nothing.

"Now, that was just rude." she commented coolly. The nin glared at her angrily, his chest rising and falling quickly in his rage.

Reinforcements would arrive soon, Sakura was sure. All she had to do was keep him occupied until they did - and inflict as much damage upon him as she could.

Without warning, the nin sprang forward, flicking through the hand signs for a shadow shuriken technique in a blur. Sakura easily dodged the barrage, flipping herself backwards to escape the flying pieces of metal. As she landed, she countered his move with a blow of her own, slamming a chakra-enhanced fist into the earth to create a crater in the ground, the shock of the blow reaching the nin from fifteen metres away. The shinobi quickly regained his footing, though Sakura noticed with some satisfaction that she'd done some damage to his leg. He didn't give her long to appreciate her own handiwork, however, before he was upon her again, this time seemingly realising that trying to hit her from a distance wasn't going to work.

Unfortunately for the missing nin, Sakura was also a medic nin, and a damn good one at that. When he came at her with a slicing jab of his kunai, dragging the blade across her upper arm viciously, she used his own momentum against him and slammed a palmful of incisive medical chakra into his stomach. His eyes widened in pain; he stumbled back quickly, moving away before she could cut his insides enough to inflict serious damage. Sakura, too, could feel the effects of his slash across her arm. She didn't allow any pain to cross her face, but absently sent some medical chakra into the cut on her arm, allowing it to begin to heal.

A small cough snapped her attention to a presence behind her. The blonde kunoichi was glaring fiercely at the missing nin, medical chakra already gathering in her hands.

"Ino." Sakura let out a relieved sigh as the girl pressed her hand to Sakura's arm, healing the muscle and tissue much more quickly than Sakura could have done for herself.

"Thanks." she smiled fondly at the blonde. Ino gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze before falling into a defensive position beside Sakura, her eyes locked fiercely on the missing nin.

"I don't like it when people hurt my friends." Ino called out to the man, voice like a razor. "And Sakura here has quite the temper, you'll find." Sakura bared her teeth in a grin at the man. Unfortunately, the idiot took one look at the two petite girls before him, and laughed.

"Oh, I'm terrified." he mocked. Sakura and Ino remained silent, a shared glance between them enough to convey their plan.

"Let's kill him." Ino commented bluntly, her elbow brushing against Sakura's.

"Dango after?"

"Of course."