Six Years Ago

  At 7 years old Sakura Haruno was a lonely little girl. As one of the only kids in her class with civilian parents, in a class full of clan prodigies, she felt completely out of place. While her classmates' parents were training them at home and telling them all about the jutsu that would one day be passed down to them, her own parents had little help to offer outside of general diet and exercise advice.

  When the other kids would start bragging about their parents' accomplishments as shinobi, Sakura would do her best to fade into the background, and try not to draw attention to herself. Unfortunately, the child that does their best not to draw attention always catches the attention of the worst kind of classmates.

  Ami’s dad was a Chunin and her mom was a genin. Normally this would place her towards the bottom of the totem pole among the other kids in their class but in Sakura she saw an opportunity: Someone she could point to and say “Well, at least I’m not as low as her”, and Ami took every available opportunity she could to drag Sakura down in order to lift herself up.

  Ami mocked Sakura for her family, her clothes, her lack of friends, all so that she and the little goons that followed her around had someone, anyone that they could feel superior to. She even started making fun of Sakura’s slightly large forehead, calling her ‘Billboard Brow”; a nickname that stuck for years.

  One day, all of the young kunoichi were split away from class to learn about floral arrangements, in order to help them blend in better as ‘normal women’ while out on recon missions. Sakura thought it was stupid, as the boys didn’t have to go study special ‘boy tasks’ to help them blend in, but she knew better than to talk back to the academy instructors. She just quietly bent down in the beautiful field they had been led to and went to work picking the pretty ones that stuck out to her, without a ton of rhyme or reason towards the arrangement.

  Until her eyes fell on the most gorgeous flower she had ever seen. The petals were a brilliant fuchsia that decorated a golden center. As soon as she saw it Sakura knew that she had to make it the centerpiece of her arrangement. She quickly darted towards the gorgeous bloom and reached down to pick it when a foot suddenly landed on her forearm, pinning her hand to the ground. Just out of reach of her elegant target.

  Sakura looked up to see Ami flanked by two other girls, all three of them wearing glares. Amy snarled at her, “Hey Fivehead, I called that one. It’s too pretty for a bland little thing like you.”

  “Please Ami, you didn’t even say anything until I reached for it!” Sakura squealed back while attempting to writhe out from under the taller girl’s foot.

  One of the girls that were backing up Ami scoffed from behind her, “Lying Billboard-Brow! Ami was saying she was looking for one of those, you just didn’t hear her.” The girl was lying, obviously, but Sakura could feel the eyes of their classmates on them and once again no one was coming to her defense. After all, who would defend the civilian girl?

  Ami bent down and got within inches of Sakura’s face, her eyes daring Sakura to try anything in retaliation. “You’re so upset but I bet you don’t even know what kinda flower this is.”

  “So? It’s pretty! Am I not allowed to like pretty things, Ami?” Sakura shot back, exasperated.

  “Nope, you’re supposed to stay down in the dirt where you belong.” Ami got a wicked grin at that and began to reach out towards Sakura. “How many time-.. Grrf!”

  A stem covered in tiny purple buds flew into Ami’s mouth as she was speaking and a new voice called out from the distance “Sorry, with your mouth wide open like that I must have mistook you for a vase!”

  A blonde girl dressed in all purple winked at Sakura as Ami began to charge towards her. “What do you think you’re doing Yamanaka? The Billboard Brow suddenly a friend of yours?” She growled out during her approach.

  “Honest mistake, sorry Ami!” Ino held both hands up before a cocky grin caught her lips. “But you really should go wash your mouth out, didn’t your shinobi parents teach you how to identify Wolsbane?”

  Ami’s face, red with rage, immediately drained to a ghostly white as she looked down and realised just what she had in her mouth. She shot back towards the school to find a sink, shouting “I’ll get you back for this Yamanaka!”

  Sakura watched the whole thing play out in front of her without a word. She hadn’t even moved from her spot on the ground, hand still inches from the flower that entranced her and started the whole ordeal. But Sakura’s eyes were no longer on the plant but on the kind blonde girl that just stuck up for her.

  “Hah, doesn’t even know that it’s the root that's poisonous.” The girl snickered, before approaching softly and bending down in front of her, with the flower between them and the sun highlighting her golden hair.

  Sakura was mesmerized. “So pretty…”

  The girl let out a giggle “It’s called a cosmos, they symbolize peace and harmony. Great choice for your arrangement.” She gave Sakura another encouraging little wink. Sakura was definitely too shy to tell the girl that she hadn’t been talking about the flower.

  “But Ami…she said I’m too plain for such a pretty flower.” Sakura looked away.

  “Nonsense, with hair like that? One day you’ll be even prettier than a cosmos!”

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Present Day

  “Forehead.” Ino said with a bow.

  “Ino-Pig.” Sakura bit back as she bowed in return. The words tasted like ash on her tongue, but she did not allow her expression to show anything but disdain for her former best friend.

  “Begin!” Hayate once again declared before jumping back from the girls.

  The arena was quiet but not silent. Many of the shinobi on the balcony were talking amongst themselves, only half paying attention to the battle that was about to begin. It seemed expectations for this fight weren’t particularly high.

  Sakura drew a kunai and charged towards Ino right as Hayate gave the go ahead. She darted in with a right handed strike but Ino quickly countered it before following it up with her own.

  They tested each other like this, quick clashes just to see how it felt, for a few moments. Ino definitely had more upper body strength now than in the academy, but that was to be expected. Otherwise, neither of them seem to have developed much in the way of taijutsu and Ino appeared to have drawn the same conclusion as she put distance between them once again.

  “For old times sake Sakura, how about you just forfeit now. The Yamanaka clan techniques are beyond you and I’d hate to hurt an old friend.” Ino called out in a playful tone that hid venom underneath.

  “Quit showing off for Sasuke and just show me what you’ve got.” Sakura growled back. As his name left her lips Ino’s eyes shifted to contain fury and she let a kunai fly out towards Sakura who leapt to the side to dodge.

  “Always, always dragging him into this. Fine. Yeah, I want Sasuke to see me kick your ass, and he will!” Ino engaged Sakura with fists this time, the first 2 strikes went wide but the third landed squarely on her cheek and launched her back.

  Ino stayed on her, catching her with a kick to the stomach that pressed Sakura into the ground.

  “You and I both know that this is about way more than that, but if you wanna keep this stupid game up then we will.” Ino loomed over Sakura, hissing her words so quietly she was sure only the other girl could hear as she continued to press her foot down into Sakura’s stomach.

  Sakura’s plan going into this fight was to try to avoid using Athena, she had an undiscovered Kekke Genkai in her back pocket and she wasn’t going to show it to her competitors unless she had to. She had assumed that she could take on Ino without Athena’s help, but so far they were mostly even with the odds leaning slightly in Ino’s favor. It was time for Plan B.

  “None of this is stupid, you just don’t get it. How could you?” Sakura argued while gripping Ino’s leg between her hands and giving it a twist that knocked the girl sideways. She capitalized on the moment she had and leapt back putting her hands into the tiger seal.

  “Today I’m gonna show you that I can have something of my own. Something I achieved without you. Bond Release: Fool - Athena!”

  A flurry of sakura blossoms flooded the arena behind Sakura, and Athena, in all her stoic, terrifying beauty, burst out of them. Ino’s breath hitched and gasps could be heard from above.

  Ino looked up at Athena in pure disbelief, “What the hell is that thing!”

  “Let’s go, Athena, we have a fight to win!”

  “I am with thee!”

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Two Years Ago

  “Sorry Sakura, I’m gonna have to get a rain check on after school dessert again. Dad says we are at ‘an important juncture in training’ and that it has to come first.” Ino sighed as the girls departed the school gates.

  Cancellations had become more and more frequent as of late as Ino’s Father had begun to teach her to secret jutsu of the Yamanaka clan, one that allowed a shinobi to delve into the minds of others for information and, eventually, total control. It apparently took years of study to master and it was expected for clan shinobi to be able to use their secret techniques by graduation.

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  But that didn’t stop Sakura from feeling annoyed at her friends' near constant flakiness, especially after Inoichi’s shooting down of Sakura training alongside her best friend. Sakura had argued that she had no one to share the techniques with, but the clan head wouldn’t hear of it.

  “It’s fine, I should do my own training as well,” Sakura eventually replied, trying to hide her downcast expression.

  “Tomorrow though, for sure, I promise!” Ino declared with her trademark wink and peace sign before darting off in the direction of the Yamanaka Clan Compound.

  “Sure…Tomorrow.”

  Sakura trudged off towards one of the academy training grounds to begin practicing her Shurikenjutsu, feet dragging across the ground. It wasn’t just that she barely spent time with her best friend outside of school bringing her down. Ino was beginning to overtake her in class as well.

  Even with extra training piled on top Ino was far ahead of Sakura in most practical fields as well. She mastered the Clone jutsu over a year early, and her Transformation jutsu was coming along nicely. Sakura also had a losing record against her in sparring, and it wasn’t close.

  Ami and her ilk had even taken to calling Sakura ‘Ino’s Sidekick’ and that felt like the general consensus. When other girls in school tried to make plans it was with her and Ino. When Sakura talked to her parents about falling behind the clan shinobi in school her parents' only idea was to ask Ino.

  Ino was important.

  Sakura was just Sakura.

  There were no grand expectations placed on her. No paths to becoming a legendary kunoichi open before her. It felt like at 11 years old Sakura was already falling into becoming average and she hated it.

  She studied harder than anyone else, and it showed as she was top of her class on paper. But ‘on paper’ didn’t matter when she was middling in spars and had no access to outside jutsu training.

  Without even noticing, Sakura had made it to the training ground. It was a mostly empty field with training dummies regularly interspaced throughout, but on it stood a boy dressed in dark blue. He had spiky dark hair and black eyes that reflected light like pools of water at night. His expression was one of pure focus as he threw shuriken after shuriken with pinpoint accuracy.

  Sakura recognized him from class, the boy was named Sasuke. The only thing Sakura knew about him was that he was “The Last Uchiha”, the only remaining member of a once legendary ninja clan. Sakura knew that lots of girls in class had a crush on the brooding boy, but she had never paid much attention to that stuff.

  “Tch, not good enough.” The boy admonished himself before approaching the dummy to retrieve his tools, not even sparing her a glance.

  It was then that Saukra decided to focus back to her own training and spent the hours practicing her throws until sundown. When she was caked in sweat and grime she decided to call it a day and head home for dinner. Before she left, she looked back to the Uchiha boy.

  He still held that look of focus, and showed no signs of ending his training any time soon. Sakura departed without a word.

  The boy stayed on her mind over the course of the next few days. He didn’t seem to have a curfew as Sakura spotted him at the training grounds no matter how late she stayed. It seemed strange to her that his parents weren’t worried about him staying out so late.

  Oh.

  The LAST Uchiha.

  The boy must not have parents to worry about him.

  But that’s crazy, surely someone would have adopted a child with such a pedigree, right? So Sakura took it upon herself to learn more about the boy. He shot down all attempts at conversation, quickly brushing past her, but that didn’t kill her interest so she started to ask around.

  Sasuke lived on his own. He had no tutors, family, or guardians and was directly a ward of the village. His knowledge was gained through his own study and his strength achieved through his own training.

  Sasuke was a clan shinobi in name only. He stood above the entire class, with only Sakura slightly above him in test scores and not a single student in class able to best him in sparring.

  He was everything Sakura wanted to be. He motivated her to be more, to push past the clan shinobi with her own efforts.

  Somewhere along the way he became her first crush.

  One day, while she and Ino were out for dessert together the topic of crushes came up and they both confided in each other that they had a crush on one of their classmates but Sakura was much too shy to say who it was.

  “C’mon we can tell each other at the same time, that way neither of us has to go first!” Ino pleaded.

  “No way, Ino! If I talk about it, it’ll be a jinx and ruin my chances!” Sakura shot her down.

  “If you do it, I'll pay for dessert the next 3 times!” Payment was usually determined with a bullseye competition that Ino had been on a winning streak of as late so this was tempting to Sakura. Especially with the new Giant Peach Parfait that had been added to the menu last week.

  “Fine, on three! One...Two..”

  “Sasuke!” They both shouted at the same time. Happy expressions falling as realization hit. Ino’s into one of confusion, while Sakura’s fell into anger.

  No. This was hers. Ino gets everything. A beautiful flower shop to spend her time in, secret techniques to destroy people’s minds, training under Jonin level shinobi. Sasuke was the one thing that Sakura had of own and now she wanted him too?

  “You too?” Ino asked quietly.

  “No.” Sakura spat, causing Ino to look up at her with wide eyes.

  “What do you mean no?” Ino asked, confusion lacing her voice.

  “Sasuke is MINE!” Sakura suddenly shouted at her. “Just one thing, you have everything! Why can’t you leave just one for me?”

  Ino’s expression fell into a glare. “What’s that supposed to mean? No I don't! And isn’t that up to Sasuke to decide?”

  “He will and he’ll pick me, we have way more in common. You wouldn’t get it, you're just another clan kid who gets everything handed to them!”

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Present Day

  Sakura stood with an expression of pure confidence as Athena floated above her like a sentry. She felt as if victory was assured now that her other self had taken the field, her doubts pushed aside as chakra coursed through her.

  “Let’s open it up with an Arrow Rain!” Sakura declared with a point towards Ino. Athena brought down her spear and a swarm of chakra arrows launched down towards the blonde, catching her off guard. Before Ino could move she was caught in the radius, arrows falling all around her.

  But, not one came into contact with the blonde kunoichi.

  “Ha! You missed Forehead!” Ino laughed before sticking her tongue out at the floating centurion.

  “Wha..? But how?” Sakura sputtered in disbelief.

  “I swear to protect those precious to me” Athena whispered down to Sakura, echoing her oath.

  Suddenly she remembered, every time she used Arrow Rain while her or her allies were in its area of effect all of the arrows seemed to completely miss them and only hit her enemies. Athena’s skills could not harm those that Sakura considered precious.

  Sakura could only laugh. It was loud, almost manic. Of course it was this way. Sakura had spent years telling herself that she hated Ino. That they weren’t friends anymore, but enemies. ‘Rivals in Love’ Ino had declared them once. But she couldn’t ignore the truth that her own soul was telling her.

  Ino was precious. Ino was still her best friend. And Athena would never be able to strike her down.

  It was just so stupid. What had she been doing for these last few years? Wasting a bond that could last a lifetime. Ino was the first person to see Sakura as anything worth investing time into and Sakura had repaid her with nothing but jealousy.

  Then she felt her joints lock up. Her mind began to slip away. She looked back to Ino just in time to see what she knew to be the seal of the Mind Transfer Jutsu as Ino’s consciousness overtook her own, and blackness took hold.

  After what could have been seconds or days as far as Sakura knew she opened her eyes to find herself within a field, empty of all but a massive looming sakura tree in full bloom, petals scattered all around it.

  “It’s a lot prettier in here than I expected it to be,” Ino’s voice came from behind her. Sakura whirled around to see her friend standing there in the field with her.

  “Where are we?” Sakura questioned.

  “Your mind. One massive sakura tree in an empty field, kinda on the nose isn’t it?” Ino shot back with a wink.

  “The MInd Transfer-”

  “Failed.” Ino interrupted. “I’m in here with you, not out there. There’s something weird with your head girl, and I’m not talking about the billboard on it’s front this time. It feels like you have a dozen consciousnesses inside of you, but they are empty. I simply hopped along for a ride in one of those empty slots.”

  “So…out there, what’s happening?” Sakura wondered.

  “We’re probably just staring at each other dead-eyed across the arena” Ino stated with a giggle.

  “Why are you in such a good mood then?” Sakura grumbled at the girl.

  “When the jutsu is initiated I get a flood of all of the target's recent thoughts and memories. I’m too precious for your crazy jutsu to hurt me.” Ino winked again.

  “Oh.”

  “Don’t get all shy now best friend! I wanna hear that realization straight from your lips, or well your mental representation of your lips at least.”

  “Never.”

  “Then here we sit!” Ino immediately took a seat in the empty field and started to pick at the surrounding grass, “Screw the fight, I want my best friend back and I’m not deactivating the jutsu til I have her.”

  “I thought you hated me, I was so jealous Ino. It felt like I couldn’t catch up, like I was always gonna be your sidekick.”

  “I hated jealousy on you, sure. But deep down I always knew you were still that sweet little girl, pretty as a cosmos. Let’s go back to getting dessert and talking about everybody else behind their backs!”

  “But Sasuke…?” Sakura couldn’t accept that her friend was just willing to let it all go, they still both had feelings for the same person after all.

  “I still like him.” Ino clarified. “But who says rivals can’t be friends?”

  “Rivals…I think I'd like that Ino.”

  “Then promise me. Promise not to let some boy, some jealousy over clan privilege, the desire to be the best kunoichi we can be, get in the way.”

  Sakura looked Ino straight in her eye, and could feel the love of her best friend pouring back. “Ino, I promise to be your rival. I swear an oath from this day forth that nothing will get in between us ever again, because nothing can separate the bond of rivals and best friends!”

  The promise held a weight Sakura had only felt once before, when she made her oath to Athena, and just like that time power flooded her body. The once empty field around them began to bloom into a wave of cosmos as a new bond was solidified.

  “Bond Release huh? Looks like I just made our fight even harder for me now.” Ino gave a laugh as she picked one of the cosmos that had bloomed around her. “Show me our bond then, Rival.” Ino held her hands up in the seal once again, and both girls faded out of the mindscape and back into the arena.

  Light returned to both girl’s eyes at the same time. Hayate had been waving a hand in front of Sakura’s face but jumped back as consciousness was restored. “I’m not sure what just happened to make you both dead on your feet but if you’re back, please resume fighting.”

  Sakura could feel power thrumming under her skin, while Ino looked exhausted. It appeared their conversation in the mindscape had been sapping Ino’s chakra the whole time. She had been almost completely drained.

  “Don’t look down on me, Rival! I wanna see the best you’ve got!” Ino shouted, willing as much energy as she could into the declaration.

  “Thank you Ino. I don’t think I ever would have made it this far without you. So I’ll win this and keep going forward for both of us. Bond Release: Lovers - Leanan Sidhe!” Athena collapsed into a swirl of Sakura petals that began to shift. The petals transformed into cosmos petals and then coalesced into a new form.

  It was a thin feminine body, where Athena had been broad, this new being was lithe and unarmored. She was wearing a long flowing purple dress with a high collar than opened into a very revealing low cut that dived down to her stomach. Behind eleven ears she tucked golden hair that wrapped around her back before spraying out in brilliant locks behind her. In her hands she held a cosmos flower. She was brilliant and beautiful and gods she looked a lot like Ino didn't she?

  Ino held a barely steady kunai in her hand and let a smile grace her lips “She’s beautiful Sakura.”

  “We won’t hurt her. Just end this.” Leanan Sidhe commanded Sakura with untold grace.

  Sakura knew the skill that could end this battle painlessly for her rival, she didn’t have the strength left to resist. “Marin Karin” The words tumbled out and a thin beam shot from her new ally to the brain of her rival, who immediately held up a hand and declared that she conceded the match, the brainwash having taken hold.

  Sakura released the brainwash as soon as the match was declared. Ino began to sway as control returned to her, her body finally running out of energy but before she could hit the ground Sakura was there to catch her. As cheers erupted from Naruto and Lee on the balcony above the girls embraced each other as they walked off the battlefield. Friends and rivals once again.