A/N: I've got my InoSaku ideas hat on at the moment ...Unfortunately I have been COMPLETELY unable to write the alternate version of my other InoSaku fic, Customary for a Confession. Nyoro~n. Anyway, I hope you enjoy. Also, reviews are HIGHLY APPRECIATED.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Naruto or its characters. But, I'll tell you what; how about I let you know if and when I own anything more significant than a Konata Izumi statue, Mai-HiME DVDs and a bokken(my most prized possessions), ne?

A punch. A kick. A shove to the ground. As she shoved, the other grabbed her. They fell together. She pushed herself up so that she straddled the other. She pulled her fist back. Freezing as she saw the mix of emotions in the other's eyes. The emotions which didn't show on her face. They were all so clear. The pain. The ecstasy. The fear. The loneliness. And the emotion she had mistaken for hate for so, so long; the love. The unfaltering love in those beautiful, soulful blue eyes. She kicked herself. This was supposed to be her (ex-)best friend. But she'd believed the mask. That it was a painstakingly well constructed mask didn't matter. That it was so practised didn't matter. That she'd unknowingly helped create it didn't matter. That she wore the same one didn't matter. All that mattered was that she had failed the one she (never)claimed to love.

Her breathe caught in her throat, and she blinked furiously in an attempt to rid herself of the tears she could already feel invading her eyes. She let her fist drop to her side. She placed her other hand on the other's cheek, all the while watching for a sign that she'd been wrong in her identification of a love that mirrored her own in the other's eyes. None came. All she saw was a flicker of hope. Inner Sakura smirked.

"Ino..." She breathed the other's name, seconds before the lips connected.