Her hands were full, carrying the orders of coffee and snacks for her collegues. Walking back to the hospital from her car, Sakura was thinking about how to avoid Uchiha Sasuke when she spotted the figure running out of the hospital, towards her. Before she could react, Ino had crashed into her, causing her to drop everything in her hands. The cups of coffee flew from her hands and all over both her trench coat and Ino’s silver water-like material halter top and her white plait skirt.

“Oh, drats… How dare you? I just bought this! Are you blind?” Sakura watched as the blonde muttered to herself, unaware of the doctor’s presence yet. Attempting to wipe off the dark drink before her clothes could be stained,  Ino had ignored Sakura completely.

“Hey… Uh, I’m… sorry,” Sakura squeaked when she saw that Ino’s clothing were completely ruined. Ino looked up with her mouth open, as if ready to retort.

There was no way Ino could mistake Sakura for someone else with her emerald eyes and pink hair. ‘Most probably dyed.’ Smirking, Ino stopped wiping off the coffee stains and pointed at her top. “So what are going to do to compensate me? For starters, you can pay for my clothes. Then, you can end off your compensation by becoming my servant for the whole month.”

“What? I can pay for your clothes, that’s not a challenge to me, but to serve you? Never.  You can’t just take this chance to force me into being your servant? Do you always stoop that low?” Sakura look at the blonde with disgust. She did not like the girl from the start, and now she detested Ino.

Ino stood with her mouth open. “How… how dare you! No one insults me like that. No one! How do these people stand you?” Raising her arm, Ino was prepared to strike Sakura across her face. But the hit never came. Instead, Sakura heard Ino gasp in surprise. Holding her arm back was a pale hand which belonged to Sasuke, Ino struggled against his iron grip. “Sasu-kun?! What… what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be with that special patient of yours? Let go of my arm!”

Sasuke stared down at her. “Were you trying to injure one of my staff?”

“She started it! She bumped into me on purpose and egged me on! She was asking for it!” Sasuke looked at Sakura, eyes questioning her. Sakura shook her head, Ino scowled. “Sasu-kun… You won’t believe her, will you? It’s such an obvious lie!”

Letting go of Ino, Sasuke walked towards Sakura. “Did she hurt you?” Sakura shook her head. “Go on in first, I’ll talk to you later. Tsunade’s finding you.”

Sakura nodded and briskly entered the hospital, avoiding eye contact with Ino. She could feel the glare of the blonde at the centre of her back.

“Ino, I need you to go.”

Ino stared at him. “Go where, Sasu-kun? Back to your place?”

“Don’t play dumb with me, you know what I mean. I want you to go back to wherever you came from. I don’t want you here, you’re distracting me from my work,” Sasuke looked away from the shaking girl in front of him.

“You don’t want me?! What does that mean, Sasu-kun?! You love me! I know you do!”

“Ino, listen to me. Ino!” He grabbed hold of her shoulders to keep her still. “Listen to me!”

“I’m not listening! I don’t want to hear this!” Tears had started to roll down her cheeks, smearing her mascara.

“Ino… At least listen to me. Please,” Sasuke muttered under his breath and waited as Ino stopped sniffing and settled down. “Ino, look. I love you the way friends do and nothing more. You are a wonderful girl, everyone would love you. But I don’t deserve you, any man would treat you better than me. So you should find someone who would love you more than I do, that is the kind of man you should be with. Not me. Do you understand now, Ino?”

“I don’t want to be with any other man! I want to be with you. Nobody else deserves me!”

“Shikamaru does. I assure you, he’ll treat you ten times better than me. So, Ino, cherish him,” Sasuke wiped away her tears with his handkerchief and passed it to her. “I’ve called him to come down and get you. So why don’t you go back to your hotel room and pack up? If you want, you can go and buy whatever it is you want and send the bill to me, okay? How does that sound?”

Ino laughed while wiping her own tears away. “I’ll hold you to that. Damn, my makeup’s ruined.”

“If you want, I think Sakura would be able to help you out with that problem. I think she has some makeup somewhere. Go talk to her. Politely!” He added to her retreating back.