A/N: Yes, I know, "Of all the things to update, why this?" Well, it was mainly completed in my notebook, so it was easy to transcribe. Don't worry, Raven is at the same state…
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Sakura's Harem
by Shadow Crystal Mage
Chapter 7: "In Which Ino Sympathizes With Sasuke For A Short While" or "That's All HE (because many people make the mistake of this) Wrote"
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did, Pein/Yahiko wouldn't have such a stupid 'bring people back to life' jutsu…
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Ino's partyline for the whole thing was "Nothing Happened!-!-!-!-!-!"
No one– among the female population of the village, anyway– seemed to believe a word of it. Few guys, for that matter, damn Naruto's flapping mouth. For the next several days after Ino dared to step outdoors, she kept encountering boys who congratulated her for "finally coming out of the closet and nailing Sakura like you obviously wanted to" and giving thumbs-ups and similar gestures, and girls who growled their jealous congratulations, held kunai, shuriken and other weapons in 'casual', threatening manners and threatened her to treat Sakura right OR ELSE!-!-!-!-! For that matter, so did several civilian women of various positions, half the kunoichi, the Hokage, the Cherry Blossom division of ANBU and her own mother.
Ino felt a sudden sense of kinship with Uchiha Sasuke. Wherever he was hiding, she hoped he was all right. She wondered if he'd let her hide with him…
Not that she'd be able too…
Her impulsive loss of self-control (that's what Ino called it) had, unfortunately– or fortunately, depending on who was asked– given Sakura, who was depressed and on the rebound, someone to latch on to emotionally. Ino alternately cursed and, secretly even from herself, thanked the kami for the luck that made her visit Sakura before Naruto had.
Sakura, who wasn't an idiot and picked up on the fact that Ino was getting a lot of flack from the situation, was very supportive of Ino, which was probably the only reason the blonde wasn't horribly murdered in her sleep. She also happened to remember more of what had happened "That Night", and though she was mysteriously silent about whether anything had happened, she'd told Ino she kissed better than Sasuke.
She still didn't know about the village-wide crush on her, though.
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Sakura walked down the street towards the Yamanaka's flower shop, even managing a light tune as she went. Naruto had promised her and Satsuki he'd get Sasuke back, and the blond was good on his word. The Uchiha girl hadn't really been that enthusiastic, but Sakura found it hard to blame her. No doubt the girl felt betrayed that Sasuke had abandoned her to seek power to kill their brother. Heck, Sakura felt a little betrayed as well, and she was just a girlfriend!
Guilt still prickled at Sakura at the thought. Was she a bad girlfriend for rebounding so soon after Sasuke? And with her best friend too? it was only a little emotional support– and some kissing that made Sakura blush to think about–but still, so soon?
Shaking off the thought– or at least sticking it in the back of her mental closet– Sakura entered the shop. "Come on Ino, you're going to be late!"
The thick crowd of kunoichi around the counter turned in surprise at this. There were a lot lof them, of various ages, from Academy students to ANBU. Perhaps it was anniversary season or something? Or maybe there was a new fad involving plant-jutsus. Jutsus came in fads just like everything else…
"Sakura-chan!" Ino exclaimed. "Just let me finish up! So that was 2 dozen roses, right?" This to a masked kunoichi, smiling widely. The smile looked like Ino had borrowed it from Naruto…
Sakura waited patiently as Ino cheerfully confirmed orders for several dozen roses of various colors, as many lilies, several cherry saplings, and other random but highly expensive blooms. Money was handed over, seemingly very reluctantly, the flowers wrapped and collected. It was a while before the store emptied and Ino was free to leave.
Ino, holding hands with Sakura, grinned internally for more than just the contact. Threaten her in her family's own shop, will they?
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Naruto eventually went off to train with Jiraiya so he could learn the skills to protect himself from Akatsuki and came back as still wearing the same clothes, except it was now so dirty the blue had turned black. Sakura refused to talk to him until he'd had a bath. Then ten more.
Satsuki– Sasuke OC sister, remember? From the first chapter?– was recruited into the Cherry Blossom ANBU and pretty much replaced Sai. The amount of characterization is about the same, anyway.
Sasuke ate Orochimaru, went on a quest to gain the power to kill Sakura and met the only girl in the world who hasn't heard of her yet, since Karin has technically been living in a cave all this time. He's since realized he likes having a girl around to fawn over him, and they've managed to hold a relationship together since Karin doesn't have a cult worshiping her and threatening to do horrible things to him. He has resolved to keep her as far away from Sakura as possible.
Itachi, having realized Sasuke's attention has wandered off, went to piss off Satsuki, and was finally killed for his trouble. Satsuki was last seen with some pervert in a swirly orange and black mask with only 1 eyehole…
Hinata finally had sex with Naruto, since so many people figures it's bound to happen eventually.
Girl-body Pein mad the mistake of looking at Sakura and he and Konan have since been madly in love. They brokered peace with Konoha, Jiraiya did not die, Danzo was executed for being absent during an emergency, and Naruto, at Sakura's recommendation, became the 6th Hokage.
Ino and Sakura have gotten happily married. The blonde still has to fend off Sakura's cultists every hour of the day, but she's gotten better at it. Never underestimate the wiles of a small business operator.
Zabuza thought, "Screw this" and went off to take over Hidden Mist again. He was more successful this time. His head assistant Haku often takes her vacation in Konoha…
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In Fuyuki city, various women wanted to jump Emiya Shiro bones, ranging from Lolis to… well, anything female, anyway.
Just another normal day in the Nasu-verse…
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- The End, 'cause I'm out of ideas…
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A/N: Where the heck has Sai been? I haven't seen him in the manga in ages…
Please review, C&C welcome.
Until next time, this is Shadow, signing off.