Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. What a shock. Yes, I know, take my finger out of the light socket...

Note: I'm a little hesitant to write out-and-out girl/girl smut. The only time I've written girl/girl smut was when I was roleplaying, and only that once. So... this will be semi-graphic. Once I get my confidence in writing girl/girl, I'll be sure to write more explicit stories.

Warning! InoSaku, SasuSaku, and SasuNaru. Surprise, surprise. And I really do like Sakura. I tend to put the characters I like through nasty situations.

Dead World

By Spinny Roses

In this world, how can you tell someone is dead inside?

Can you determine when you died?

She hated Ino. After all, Ino-pig was her rival for Sasuke-kun's attention.

Sakura loathed the girl with passion.

She could never beat her. Ino was always a step ahead of her, always able to win.

More than that, Ino was beautiful. Sakura could never have that beauty. She hated it. She hated seeing it, knowing all she had was extra space on her forehead.

She didn't have beauty. She couldn't win a fight.

Ino-pig was digusting. Flaunting what she did have...

Flaunting what Sakura always wanted...

She'd beat Ino-pig. Someday.

***

Ino offered to train with her.

Sakura hated the idea. That would mean admitting the girl was better than her. That she needed the training from the pig.

Naturally, she turned down the offer.

But Ino-pig kept telling her. Day after day, saying she'd train with Sakura if she wanted to.

Sakura didn't need Ino-pig's sympathy.

She'd get better on her own.

***

Sasuke-kun asked her out on a date. How could Sakura say no?

But the date felt weird. Sasuke-kun took her out, and barely paid attention to her. His mind seemed turned somewhere else...

Well, she could fix that.

If only Sasuke-kun would stop talking about Naruto. That annoying boy... he was nothing but a parasite on their relationship.

Naruto was like the male version of that Ino-pig.

She hated how Sasuke-kun said Naruto's name. It was interested. He wasn't disgusted or annoyed by the fox-like boy.

Maybe she should take Ino-pig up on her offers. If she got better than even Naruto, Sasuke-kun would notice her.

***

Sakura looked up at the ceiling of her room, wondering to herself why she trained with Ino.

She wasn't getting better.

She wasn't getting worse.

The only thing the training did was that she was often in close contact with the pig.

That insult rang hollowly in her head. Ino-pig. She had called her that after stating Ino was her rival against Sasuke-kun.

Ino had been her first friend. And her first rival.

Maybe she could be nice to Ino. After all, Ino was nice to her now.

***

Sasuke-kun...

She liked Sasuke-kun.

She had to remind herself of this.

Why did her lips tingle, then? Sakura pressed her fingers against that flesh, surprised.

Ino had kissed her.

It was a lot like the kiss Naruto had given Sasuke-kun at the beginning of their Shinobi career. Ino had tried to pin her, but her arms had slipped and her lips and touched Sakura's.

But it had felt good. She hadn't been disgusted by the kiss.

Would Ino feel the same if she kissed her?

***

Sakura hated Naruto.

Naruto, who had his grubby little hands all over Sasuke-kun's body.

Naruto, who had his nasty mouth on Sasuke-kun's chest.

Naruto, whose name Sasuke-kun was moaning.

She hated him, knowing he had what she had wanted.

At least, one thing she had wanted.

***

She had asked Ino one night a question.

The sun had just set, and the moon was about to rise. They should have started home, but the sweat was still drying from their skin.

Sakura had traced a pattern onto Ino's shoulder, murmuring her question. She had wondered if what they were doing was right... if this is what they should have done.

Instead of answering, Ino kissed her. Her fingers slipped down between Sakura's thighs, driving the thought of her head with awkward fingers and a warm mouth.

Maybe what they were doing wasn't right.

***

Sasuke-kun explained to her why he kept taking Sakura out on dates.

The Uchiha clan... exterminated except for Sasuke-kun himself and his brother... Itachi. It was a duty to rebuild the clan.

Sakura would be a great mother to any Uchiha children.

Besides that, she annoyed him the least out of all the women in the village and she knew about... him.

Naruto. The one Sasuke really had his heart in.

While letting Sasuke use her body to impregnate her, she noted how something she always wanted felt wrong.

Sasuke's body was too hard.

It didn't smell like Ino's.

It wasn't Ino.

***

Ino hated her.

She waddled around the village, picking up food for tonight. Naruto and Sasuke were always hungry after a mission., and Sakura could use the extra nutrition. She was due in a month or so, after all.

Sasuke always took care of her, almost as if he was guilty for using her this way.

Sakura didn't mind. She was helping Sasuke.

But Ino hated her. Hated her for carrying Sasuke's child.

Sakura's hands trembled on the package of meat, a clear tear dripping from her face.

She didn't want Ino to hate her.

***

It had been an ambush. Missing-nin had ambushed the Chuunin teams.

Naruto had died protecting Sasuke.

Sasuke had died trying to protect the item they had tried to retrieve.

And she was in labor.

Hours later, the doctors told Sakura the news.

The fetus had strangled itself on the umbilical cord.

No, that wasn't right.

Her unborn son had strangled himself.

***

If she looked up, that shadow would belong to Ino.

Three years later, Sakura still hadn't been put on active duty. They said her mind was too fragile, her body still recuperating from the aborted pregnancy.

She stared hard at the shadow, not wanting to look up at Ino's face. Sakura didn't want to see her face.

She didn't want to see the face she had loved.

"Sakura, are you doing anything tonight? Shika and I would love to have you over."

Ino had gone to Shikamaru after Sakura had shyly told her she was carrying Sasuke's child. It wasn't surprising... each girl went to a teammate.

"I-ino. But..."

"But nothing. I want to make sure you're eating."

Sakura looked up at the mature version of the face she had known. "But don't you hate me? For... what I did?"

Ino looked away. "I never hated you," she said distantly. "But, Sakura... I never loved you."

The End