A soft tap came on her bedroom door. "Sakura, darling, did you hear me call you for dinner?"

"Sakura?" The door swung open, Sakura's mother stepping into the room. "Oh, sweetheart, what's wrong?" Mebuki sat down on the bed beside her daughter, patting the sniffling lump under the covers.

"Nothing," Sakura muttered.

"Nothing doesn't skip dinner and hide in its bed," her mother retorted. "Is it boy trouble?"

Sakura flipped over, pulling the blankets down from her face. Her cheeks were blotchy red, mucus and tears smeared across her lips and chin. "No, mom!"

"Then tell me," Mebuki coaxed. She rubbed a hand over Sakura's knee, squeezing gently.

Sakura bit her lip and flushed even darker. "Ino and I aren't friends anymore."

Mebuki had expected to hear that Ami had been teasing her again, or Kiba had pulled her hair. The usual troubles. And though Ino and Sakura had always had a tempestuous friendship, she'd never said this before. "What do you mean?"

Sakura sat up and pulled the blankets up to her shoulders, leaning away from her mother. "We decided it wasn't going to work anymore. So I gave her back my red ribbon, and now we're not friends." She scrubbed her hands over her face, and took a shivery breath. "It's a good thing."

"Why in the world would you do that?" Mebuki couldn't keep the surprise from her voice. "She's your best friend!"

"Was. She was my best friend." More tears dripped down her chin. "But we can't both love Sasuke. We can't be friends."

Mebuki crossed her arms and straightened up. "Now you listen to me, Haruno Sakura. You march right back there and apologize to Ino. You tell her you were wrong, and you want to stay friends."

Sakura's eyes flashed. "What?"

"Ino is the single best thing that has ever happened to you," Mebuki said, poking one finger right into the middle of Sakura's forehead. She poked it again and Sakura drew back, offended. "Friends like Ino are rare, and you are unbelievably lucky to have her. Boys come and go - uh-uh, don't interrupt. Even boys like Sasuke. And even if you two did go out, you would be worse off without Ino. Sakura, love, you don't throw friendship away."

"But she doesn't want to be my friend either!"

"It's not easy," Mebuki said, and scooched along the bed until she was sitting next to her daughter, and could put an arm around her. "Friendship is full of all sorts of bumps. Sometimes you'll hate her, and sometimes you'll drive her so crazy she'll want to scream. But good things aren't easy. If you throw them away as soon as it gets hard, you'll never find anything truly good."

"What about Sasuke?" Sakura whispered. "She loves him too."

"One more thing you have in common." At her daughter's unamused expression, Mebuki let the grin fade away. "Love, real love, comes when two people care for and respect each other. Maybe someday you and Sasuke will fall in love-"

"I am in love," Sakura muttered.

"-but you can't put your own life on hold. Live your life, and love your friends, Sakura. That's the way to be happy. And," Mebuki winked at her daughter, "the way to make someone fall in love with the real you."

Fresh tears spilled down Sakura's cheeks. "But Ino..."

"Apologize." Mebuki pulled Sakura into her lap. "It doesn't have to be a big gesture. Just say you're sorry."

Sakura clung to her, smearing salt on her blouse. But she a tiny laugh bubbled out. "With Ino, it's got to be a big gesture."

"Then do it," Mebuki said. She stroked one hand over her daughter's sunset hair. Her beautiful, brave daughter. "Serenade her window, bring her flowers. Or maybe not," she mused, "since she works in a flower shop."

Sakura laughed again and snorted back a gob of snot, and Mebuki smiled. It was going to be alright.

Ino looked up when the bell rang, her cheery customer-smile lighting up her lips and eyes. "Welcome to..." She trailed off, the smile fading off her face. "What do you want?"

Sakura closed the door gently behind her, stepping carefully past a bucket of cosmos, long stems shimmering below the water. She took a deep breath, hands balling into fists at her sides. Don't listen to Ino's tone, she reminded herself. "I need to talk to you."

Ino folded her arms. "I thought we were done talking."

Sakura moved up to the counter, stopping beside a trellis of morning glories, their blooms furled up shyly in the beams of bright afternoon light. "Just listen to me, Ino." She couldn't keep a little bit of snap from her voice, and Ino's expression hardened.

"I- Woah, what are you doing?"

Sakura held the kunai in both hands, the blade shaking a little bit. Ino took a step back. "Okay, Sakura, there's no need for that. We can talk if you want to."

"I'm sorry, Ino," she said, all in a rush. "I didn't mean it yesterday. I mean, I meant it, but I don't anymore. I want to be friends again."

"Knife." Ino looked pointedly at the steel still between them.

"Oh," Sakura said, and reversed the blade. "I want to be your friend again, Ino. And if that means giving up Sasuke, I'll do it." She grabbed a hunk of her hair, and with a deep breath, yanked the blade through it. Strands fluttered to the floor. Her heart pounded, but it felt oddly good. She grabbed a second clump and sliced it off.

Ino screeched. She flung herself around the counter. "What are you doing?"

Sakura dropped the second handful of hair. "Fixing us. You can have Sasuke; you just have to be my friend again."

"You don't need to cut off your hair! Gods, Sakura!" Ino pulled the kunai away, and brushed her hand futilely over the ragged ends. "You idiot. You'd think with a forehead that big, you could fit in some brains."

A smile tugged at Sakura's lips, and the fear started to wash away. "So we're good?"

Ino hugged her roughly. "Your hair isn't good." She let go and pushed Sakura back an arm's length, studying the mess she'd made. "But we can fix that."

They sat on the floor of the bathroom, listening to the quiet snick of scissors as Ino trimmed the rest of Sakura's hair back. It brushed the tops of her ears in front, but Ino managed to salvage most of the back, layering it cleverly to keep enough length to brush the nape of her neck. "This is going to take a long time to grow back."

Sakura shrugged carefully. "Doesn't matter."

"You really mean it, don't you?" Ino said after a while. "You'd give up Sasuke."

"I missed you," Sakura said. She tangled her hands in her lap. She wouldn't be able to say this if Ino were looking at her, but Ino was safely behind her, knees pressed up against her back as her hands tugged at her hair. "You spent all this time talking about Sasuke, following Sasuke. I thought maybe we would be closer if I did, too. And then I found out that he's amazing, and wonderful, and I'd do almost anything to be with him. But I still missed you."

Ino's hands went still. Had she just ruined the fragile truce they'd reached? Sakura's fingers clenched tighter.

"All done," Ino said, and stood up. Sakura passed a hand over the new haircut, feeling the odd lightness and bristle of the trimmed ends. "My turn."

It startled Sakura into looking up, but Ino was already kneeling gracefully down in front of her, handing the scissors over her shoulder. "I'm thinking maybe chin length. I may as well try wearing it down for a while. Won't that surprise my dad?"

"You can't cut off your hair!" Sakura said, horrified. "You've had it long forever!"

Ino turned around, meeting Sakura's eyes. "We'll make a pact. Until our hair grows back, neither of us will chase after Sasuke. And even when it does get long again, we won't let anyone come between us. Not even him. Okay?"

Sakura stared at the hand extended between them, and swallowed hard. "Okay."

Sakura lingered nervously outside Ino's house the next morning. She couldn't keep a nervous hand from rustling through the short hair framing her face. Was Ino going to regret what she'd done last night? Was this going to work?

The door banged open and Ino tumbled out, bellowing farewells over her shoulder at her mom. She turned and saw Sakura, a huge grin washing over her face. "Aren't I cute?" She fluffed the pale curtain that tickled her chin. A blue flower tucked behind one ear matched her eyes perfectly.

Sakura beamed back at her, relief flooding every muscle. "I've never met a cuter pig in my life."

Ino smacked the back of her head, then linked their arms together. "Come on, pinky. Let's get to class."