Title: Let's Blow This Fairytale
Word Count: 6 691
Rating: K, for a lack of offensive material.
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters herein contained. I only own the text and plot.

So this is basically a mashup of all the fairy tales I could reasonably fit. See if you can name them all. Because, well, why stick to only one. Basically the classics turned inside out and/or sideways. I'm pretty pleased with it, overall. Beta'ed by the fabulous J T Elroy. Enjoy.

x Sakura x

I was born a princess. In most fairytales, the heroine marries and then becomes a princess. But I was born one, so I already had that area covered and therefore had no reason to marry. My parents were less than pleased with this logic, needless to say, but I was fairly adamant. Sure, I had the occasional fling with a duke's son, and I had no problem watching handsome boys, but marriage? Not for me, thank you. My father got married twice, so I figured he'd been married enough for the both of us. Not that I don't like my stepmother—to be honest, I can't remember my birth mother anyway—though she does have some strange tendencies. Always sitting in the same place for each activity, okay. Making me clean my own room and hers when I do something wrong, not okay. I really hate cleaning. That is, after all, why royal families employ so many servants. Try telling her that. I am responsible for cleaning my room every day, including sweeping, as well as my hallway and bath room. And should I so much as slump for a second at dinner—well, my shoulders get tired, being ramrod straight all the time—and wham, I'm stuck cleaning her room too. Ick. Seriously: ick.

I don't mind my stepsister, though a bigger flirt could not be found. I actually have good reason to suspect she is far from as pure as the day of her birth, but I have nothing against it. If she wants to have fun, so be it. And she informs me there are certain ways to fake it so her future husband doesn't suspect a thing, so I don't tell my stepmother, who would be horrified. Temari is really pretty cool, though we don't have much in common.

Sasuke, my stepbrother—who looks as if he could be my stepsister, actually—is a bit more difficult to understand. He insists on remaining as silent as possible, only giving the occasional grunt. The longest sentence I have ever heard from him was, "she is quite ugly, mother, I don't feel that I could look at that face every day for the rest of my life," regarding a neighboring princess who had come of age. Sasuke, being a year older than me, has long been of marriageable age—and good looking enough to attract anyone he could want—so my parents have been pushing for him to marry some princess that would expand the kingdom. So far he has shown no interest—I think he could be attracted more to the princesses' brothers than the princesses themselves, personally—but my parents reason that they have years yet to accomplish this. I don't tell anyone about my suspicions because he really seems to be nice, in a very cool, detached way. He's deflected suspicion from me at the dinner table countless times—did you put a kitten in the henhouse to follow the chicken?—by spilling something, or knocking over his wineglass. Since I am usually the one who did commit what I'm being accused of, this is naturally a welcome distraction, and he never has to clean for his "clumsiness"—I will have to woo a prince, but he can just stand there and let her woo him, so he is held to lower standards of behavior--so I am grateful to him.

Anyway, the real story began on my eighteenth birthday, when I officially came of age—I would have come of age two years earlier, but royalty as a rule comes out late—and was obliged to hold a ball to commemorate the occasion. My parents, in accordance with my wishes, would not be present, but I was strictly told to be back in my room by midnight—perhaps to preserve my innocence, perhaps to prevent my getting engaged too soon—and so I hadto cut the party short at eleven thirty. I didn't really mind—parties weren't my thing. It all went well until I started dancing with a certain young man I'd never seen before. This was fairly strange in and of itself, since I made it my business to know all the eligible men in court, but I dismissed it when he introduced himself as Lord Lee. He was noble, he was handsome, he belonged.

It is a rather crippling flaw of mine that I cannot dance. A basic waltz is within my abilities, but anything more complicated is asking too much and always brings about disaster. When Lord Lee approached me, asking for a dance, I accepted because I expected nothing but what the orchestra had been instructed to play. Unfortunately, as I found out later, a young duchess was rather taken with a new step that I was only passably familiar with, and had requested a song to dance it. At first, the dance with the Lord went alright, and I managed to keep up, if not dance as gracefully as I would have hoped. Inevitably, however, I stepped on his toes. It was probably quite painful, as I managed to do it with my heel as opposed to my innocuous toes, and he immediately threw me from him.

"You," he shrieked, "stepped on my toes!"

"Yes, I'm so sorry, my Lord," I told him peacefully. This, unfortunately, seemed to enrage him.

"Do not patronize me!" he insisted shrilly.

"I would never dream of it, my Lord," I assured him. He started trembling. I wondered how he had hidden his madness until this point.

"Yet you continue! Hear this, then, o siren!" Siren, I thought angrily, I am nothing of the sort! "You will bleed from a simple injury, and then you will sleep for one hundred days until you are awakened by a kiss from your true love. He will then be able to rescue you, but not before!" and then he stalked from the hall. I stared after him, wondering if he was crazy, or if he was really a magician. I was weighing one outcome against the other when the clock struck midnight. I only managed to remember to shout a farewell behind me as I raced up the stairs toward my room.

I did not make it, of course. My stepmother was waiting for me when I burst in at exactly seven after twelve.

"You shall have to clean both my rooms and those of your step brother and sister, since you cannot seem to remember to be back in time," she told me serenely, sweeping out of the room. Well damn.

I can say with all honesty that I had no intention whatsoever of telling my parents what had transpired at the ball. My stepmother would have freaked out and made me keep away from anything at all that could inflict a "simple injury" and my father would have grunted and ignored it. He doesn't believe in magic, and ignores all mentions of it. But of course something this big was good gossip, and my parents heard of it from somewhere. Just as I'd expected, they confronted me over dinner the next day, reacting exactly as I'd expected. My stepmother fluttered her hands a lot, and insisted I not have a knife to cut my steak. My father ignored the magic and told her it was ridiculous to expect me to eat steak without a knife to cut it. Temari said nothing at all, just ate silently. Sasuke spilled both his wineglass and then my father's, when the first didn't work, but no one paid attention. And I just sat there, waiting for it to be over. Eventually, when my stepmother had conceded the knife and insisted upon the removal of my fork and my father argued, I pretended to faint. Neither of them paid heed, and Sasuke, who saw my partially-open eyes, ignored me as well. Figuring I was in the clear, I grabbed a biscuit and made for my room.

x Ino x

My stepmother owned a mirror that told the watcher what they wanted to hear. When I got bored, I would ask it questions. It was comforting to hear exactly what you wanted, and I got amusement out of tricking it into saying obscenities. I never asked it anything important, and no one else seemed to care that it even existed, so only my stepmother and I ever used it. I cannot say what she used to ask it in private—she was a quiet sort of woman, and fragile in a way I never was and never would be—but I do remember when I was nine and she brought me into her room to ask it a question. Her beauty was still noticeable at that time, but already fading. When you looked at her, you saw not so much how beautiful she still was, but more how beautiful she used to be. Her own daughter, Hinata, was already growing up fast, just as I was, but it was obvious she would never be beautiful. Pretty, yes, but not beautiful. I think she saw me as her last hope to raise a daughter to be beautiful—why this was and is important to her is not something I understood or understand even now, but it was one of her great desires. I played along with the daily beautifying ritual for her sake, even though I was only ten at the time, and in the same way, I accompanied her back to her chamber for whatever task she wanted me for. We ended up in front of the mirror, and she asked her question.

"Who is the fairest of them all, mirror?" I remember not really caring, but trying to look interested. She was delighted when the mirror pronounced my name. I wondered at the time whether she knew what I already did—that the mirror catered to the gazer. I can only conclude now that she did not, but I did not tell her. She rushed at me and hugged me, near tears. My beauty regime, from that day onward, was much more rigorous, and I began to get bored with it. Eventually I complained to my father, who told me that if I would play along—for all he wanted was to make her happy, then and now—he would get a woodsman to take me to the forest and let me explore. Naturally this incentive was enough, and I began to venture into the wood bordering our castle. I learned quickly how to tell trees and plants by their leaves, birds by their songs and animals by their tracks. The apex of these excursions, of course, was when we found a dead boar. The woodsman cut out its heart to bring back to my stepmother, who was ill. Where I grew up, it was said that a boar's heart was the best cure for the coughing sickness. It seemed to work, though she got quite the shock when the man brought it to her. She was convinced he'd killed me and brought back my heart as proof.

x Sakura x

Naturally, I injured myself the very next day. These things never want to be put off, and always happen as soon as possible. To be honest, I don't really remember much. I remember tripping, and scraping my knee and tearing my dress. I remember vaguely laughing at the irony, that even my stepmother couldn't have predicted or prevented this kind of injury before I fell asleep.

x Ino x

I ran away from home on my nineteenth birthday. I could say that I had a good reason, that my parents abused me, that I was going to be killed, etc, but the reality is that I didn't want to marry the guy they wanted me to. Ours being a small kingdom, I of course was to be wed to the richest prince. Not exactly my pot of tea, I tell you. So off I went. Being fairly apt at survival in the wild, I wasn't worried in the least about dying. I didn't really have a plan, other than getting away. I found the tower on the fourth day of wandering. I had the vague idea that I was in the kingdom next to the one that neighbored my own, but nothing more specific than that. The tower was huge, and floating about twenty feet off the ground. I walked around it and found it to be triangular in shape, and about five hundred feet high. Clearly the product of sorcery. I walked around it in the same direction I had been going earlier. In my experience, sorcery was to be avoided, and meddling would only bring misfortune on my head. I was smarter than that. Unfortunately, something landed on my head at the last minute, pricking my scalp quite painfully. I yelled in pain and anger and swirled around, but the thing stayed firmly attached to my scalp. Eventually I managed to reach up and rip it off and found the thing to be an orange cat. It looked distressed, if that were possible, but didn't try to claw or bite me, so I figured it was just scared.

"What's wrong, scaredy-cat?" I asked it amusedly, setting it down.

"I'm not a scaredy-cat, bitch," it informed me acidly. I blinked, then frowned down at it. The fact that it could talk didn't seem weird at the time, so I didn't think to question that.

"Then what do you want?" I asked, equally acerbically.

"You have to help me rescue him! He's asleep in the tower, and he could be my prince!"

"What?" The cat looked exasperatedly at me.

"You're the only person who's ever come by this tower in ages—a hundred years, even! You have to be the one to rescue him!"

"Uh, no thanks. Magic really isn't my thing, you see. And this is clearly magic, so I think I'll be going," I told it nicely, trying to sidle away. No matter the temptation of a prince in need of rescuing—particularly a handsome one—I was still not ready to stick my nose where it didn't belong.

"I'm sure there's a nice reward…" the cat trailed off expectantly. I ignored it and continued moving away. "You could become a member of his court…Or maybe he has a nice brother!" it yelled as I reached the edge of the clearing and gave no sign or stopping. I took the last step out of the clearing, already thinking about my dwindling food supplies, when I was gently pushed back. I took the step again and found myself pushed back again. Frustrated, I reached out my hand, encountering a strange tingling right in front of me. Right where the edge of the clearing was, actually. More magic, I thought irritatedly. I tried running on the barrier, but was pushed back again, less gently. The cat snickered as I got up, rubbing my backside.

"And…you can't leave. Ready to help yet?" it asked snarkily. I glared, but set down my pack.

"What exactly does helping entail?" I asked carefully, still not ready to commit myself.

"You just have to climb up and…uh…kiss him. I think."

"You think?" I asked, derisively. Kissing didn't bother me—I'd kissed more than my fair share of boys back home.

"Well the magician wasn't terribly specific, you know," it informed me sarcastically.

"Assuming you're right, how am I supposed to get up there in the first place?" I asked, well and truly annoyed by now.

"Uh…I--" the cat started, but was interrupted by the appearance of a man in a bright green jumpsuit and terrible haircut.

"You have uttered the magic words and called me!" he pronounced importantly, with an enthusiasm I wasn't sure the situation merited. I raised an eyebrow when he gazed at me, and he seemed to take that as a sign to continue.

"I have erected--" here the cat snickered, but he took no notice, "this tower to house the one within! A great curse I placed upon them a long time ago, and now only one person can wake them. Their true lo--"

"Oh for god's sake!" I exclaimed. "Not "true love"!"

"Indeed, that very one," he told me sagely. I couldn't think of a reply, so he continued.

"All you have to do is climb up--"

"And how am I supposed to do that?" I interjected, acidly.

"How silly of me to forget!" he exclaimed. "You must utter the password, of course." I gave him the raised eyebrow again.

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel--"

"Rapunzel?" I asked incredulously. "What does Rapunzel mean?"

"It sounded good and youthful!" he told me, enthusiastically. "Anyway. Rapunzel, Rapunzel of the beautiful hair. Let it down so I can climb it!" he exclaimed.
"That doesn't really rhyme," the cat commented dryly. The magician seemed to notice him for the first time and jumped into the air, hovering a few feet above the ground.

"You!"

"Yep, me," the cat said disinterestedly. The magician flailed his arms, as if unsure what to do with a cat talking to him.

"You have clearly not learned your lesson!" he yelled, pointing. "For this you must continue your search, for this tower holds not the one to break the curse!" And then he disappeared. I stared at the place he'd been, wondering if the past few minutes had really happened. The cat recovered much more quickly.

"Damn it," it muttered angrily, pacing toward the edge of the clearing.

"Where are you going, cat?" I asked, curious.

"My name's Naruto, and I'm going home!" it shouted back, as it encountered the barrier, with the same results I'd had.

"Fuck!" it yelled angrily, getting up on its back legs and clawing the air. I watched with amusement for a moment before calling to it.

"I guess your only choice is to come with me, darling."

"I'm not a darling," it grumbled as it made its way back to me. "I'm a boy, damn it." I raised an eyebrow but made no comment. It jumped on my shoulder, looking up at the tower expectantly.

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel of beautiful hair. Let it down so I can climb it." I called up. Nothing happened for a moment, but gradually a long rope of pink fell down the side of the tower. I looked cautiously at it—it seemed terribly thin and frail. But the magician had said we could climb it, so I started up.

Climbing the rope of hair was exhausting. Eventually Naruto got bored with my slow pace and jumped off my shoulder to make his own way up the rope to the top, where he watched my progress and shouted encouragement. When I finally managed to flop onto the balcony at the top, I could think of nothing but rest for a few minutes. Eventually I managed to stumble to my feet and make my way inside the room the balcony ran around. It was a pretty sad room, really. The bed took up most of the triangular room, and there was just this one candelabrum in the other corner. The bed was one of the really fancy ones though, the kind I had in my room at home. Really elaborate headboard and posts, and a nice velvet canopy and curtains. I sighed and headed toward the bed, pushing aside the curtains and wondering what kind of prince had pink hair. But as it turned out, the person in the bed wasn't a prince at all. No, laying there was a princess. And even though she was one of the most beautiful girls I'd ever seen with exceptionally long pink hair—even her larger than average forehead was beautiful—I was not about to kiss her.

"Oh no," Naruto and I said at the same time. We were both playing back the magician's words, trying to find a hint that instead of a prince awaiting us, it was a princess. There was none, of course, and I was rather inclined to think he'd done it on purpose.

"Well that's it, then," I said, backing away towards the door. "Sorry, but that's it." I turned toward the door, reaching out. Naruto stopped me, of course.

"What if you don't have to kiss her! You could just touch her! You can't just leave her here!" he lamented at my back, loudly.

"And if I touch her, will you let me go?"

"I suppose," he muttered. I sighed and started back toward the bed, only to trip over the cat. This, of course, catapulted me through the open curtains around the bed and straight onto the person in it.

x Sakura x

I woke up to someone's lips against mine, as I'd expected. I let them kiss me for a moment before opening my eyes to see a girl clambering off of me, looking more surprised than anything else.

"Oh," I said, reluctantly.

"Yes. Oh," she replies acerbically, glaring at an orange cat sitting on the floor.

"I take it you kissed me on accident…?" I asked carefully. She seemed to realize that she was being bad-tempered and looked vaguely repentant. The cat snorted and looked away.

"I—wait. Do you know what the curse around you was?" she asked, carefully. I sigh.

"Not really. I remember something about true love and sleeping," I told her. She scowled deeply and turned to the cat.

"This is all your fault!" she screamed at it. I jumped at the sudden increase of volume, watching wide-eyed as she kicked at the cat. It yowled and jumped, clawing at the foot. I sighed and stared at the bedcovers, tears blurring my vision. It's not supposed to be like this. It's not, I told myself sadly. The girl seemed to be chasing the cat around, yelling angrily. I tried to ignore the tears dripping onto the comforter, at the same time pushing away the voice in the back of my head protesting about true love. I wiped my eyes when I stopped hearing the two chasing each other around, only to feel an arm wrap around my shoulders.

"Look, I'm sorry for acting the way I did. I know this is probably as hard for you as it is for me." This just made me cry harder, and I leaned into her. She held me and whispered into my hair while rubbing my back. When I'd finished crying, I pushed back from her angrily.

"Just—just go away. I—I don't need you." She frowned as I pushed on her shoulders, then glared at me.

"Fine. It's not like it was an inconvenience or anything to climb all the way up here. Forget it." She stormed toward the door, opening and slamming it. My conscience pricked at me—and that voice continued its speech about true love—and I climbed up and followed her out the door. She was looking over the drop irately.

"How am I supposed to get down?" she asked the cat crossly. It shrugged.

"How should I know?"

"Maybe because you knew about how to get up here?"

"Still a no."

"I'm sorry," I muttered, coming up behind her. "I didn't mean to be rude, I just—I didn't think my true love would be…well, another girl."

"Yeah, and I did?" she replied sarcastically, turning around to face me. I really looked at her for the first time—she was beautiful, with long blonde hair and piercing blue eyes and an attitude I was sure she'd acquired from many male conquests. I sighed.

"Nevermind. Let's just forget this happened, okay? I'll go home and marry some lord or something, and you go back to where you came from and do whatever. But first we have to figure out how to get down." On my words, Lord Lee appeared, looking incredibly pleased with himself.

"You have asked the question, and an answer ye shall receive!" he exclaimed with expansive hand gestures. "As punishment, you've slept for a hundred days that felt like years, only to be woken by true lo--" the girl and cat groaned together "—ve's kiss. Now, I return you to your castle." And with that, we were there.

x Ino x

I looked around in shock at the room we'd found ourselves in. It was far more elaborate than anything in the castle at home, but otherwise seemed to be just an ordinary room. The other princess's hair, I noticed, was back to a manageable length just below her chin. A woman entered the room and rushed at her, embracing her and crying. I looked on disinterestedly, shuffling my feet and wondering when I could leave. Deciding after a man entered and also rushed to hug his daughter that nothing was holding me back, I exited the room and began to wander hallways in the hopes of finding the front door or something. I was supremely surprised to find none other than the Prince Sasuke Uchiha, who was, as far as I could figure, doing the same thing as I. I blushed, remembering how I'd run away to avoid marrying him.

"Princess," he murmured politely. I curtsied, returning his greeting.

"Do you know how to get out of here?" I asked carefully. He raised an eyebrow.

"I could show you, if you want," he offered.

"Why thank you, Your Highness. That would be most appreciated." We set off silently, though I could tell he wanted to know how I'd gotten there.

"I rescued her," I blurted out to him as he led me through the maze of halls. He paused for a moment.

"Then why are you leaving her?" he asked quietly without turning.

"I just—I don't know what to do," I answered honestly.

"You should—stay, get to know her. True love—that's rare. You should treasure it, even if you choose to remain friends." I mulled over this statement. He seemed sincere, though he tried to hide the longing in his voice. He wants true love for himself, I realized. I also realized that I really was throwing away something valuable.

"I'll stay," I said, softly, still unsure. He just nodded and continued walking.

He didn't lead me back to the room where she was, only to a guest room. I walked around it once after he left, and then fell asleep on the large bed.

x Sakura x

I looked around after my stepmother and father had finished hugging me, only to find that the girl was nowhere to be found. I felt a strange hole in my chest, but I ignored it. The cat was still hanging around, seemingly waiting for something. My stepmother insisted on throwing me a dinner party, with my rescuer at the head of the table. I sighed, telling her that I was tired and in need of rest—she seemed to forget I'd gotten one hundred days of it already, so she let me go. I fell asleep as soon as I hit the covers.

x Naruto x

I watched as the princess—I should probably have bothered to learn her name by now—left the room, parents in tow. Everyone seemed to have forgotten about me, so I set about exploring the castle. It was your basic castle—big kitchens, big hallways, big rooms for nothing. The only difference in the monotony was when I came upon a young man, sitting slumped against the wall and tossing a golden ball into the air. I watched for a few moments, transfixed by his fine features and simple beauty. Eventually he noticed me, and rolled the ball my way. I brought it back to him, waiting for him to toss it in the air again in the same appealing fashion. Instead, he threw down the hall again, so I chased after it and brought it back, ignoring the fact that I was acting like a dog. The third toss I brought back as well, but commented acidly, "I'm not going to keep fetching without a price, you know."

He looked at me, startled.

"What's your price then, cat?" he asked curiously, with one eyebrow raised. I was inexplicably annoyed by this, so I blurted without thinking, "A kiss." He gazed at me for a moment.

"Alright." That was all the warning I got before he pressed his lips to my nose.

x Sakura x

When I woke up, not only was I in bed with the girl who'd rescued me, but my stepbrother and a young man I'd never seen before were also there. Deciding that this bordered on too surreal to be borne, I threw back the covers and launched out of bed.

"Who are you?" I spat at the blond sitting in a chair and smiling.

"I'm Naruto. I was the cat." This, of course, I had no response to. There was silence for a few seconds before Sasuke cleared his throat.

"Mother decided that he'd rescued you and arranged the wedding for two weeks from now. I thought you might like to introduce yourselves," he informed me quietly, as if he knew there was someone in the bed, even though the curtains were shut. And then it came to me—he'd led that girl into my room, knowing I'd get in bed without looking! I tried to punch him, but he was too fast, and actually smiling. This alone stunned me, and I gave up quickly. And for a moment, I could see the bond my stepbrother and Naruto shared: true love. It was beautiful enough to take my breath away, even though it was only just beginning. In that instant, I wanted that bond more than anything, whether it was with a nice, dark-haired prince or beautiful, blonde girl. And then the instant was over and I was left only with the longing.

x Ino x

I woke up to a radically different situation than the one I'd gone to sleep in. The cat—Naruto—had been transformed into a blond-haired, blue-eyed young man by the kiss of true love from the Prince Sasuke Uchiha. I was scheduled to marry said prince, given his reluctance to tell his mother—rightfully so—about his true love being a man, or even existing at all. Furthermore, the princess I'd rescued—who introduced herself as Sakura—was about to wed Naruto on the same day planned for my wedding. Out of the frying pan and into the fire.

I had to hear all of this from Naruto, who seemed very pleased with how things turned out. He just gave me a cryptic look when I asked why, so I guessed it was because he and Sakura had agreed to an "arrangement". I was considering the merits of making one with Sasuke as opposed to running away again when Sakura burst into the room.

"Sasuke said you wanted to see me…?" she said. I just looked at her.

"What?"

"He said you wanted to see me."

"Well I don't." She looked kind of hurt. "I mean, I like seeing you, but I didn't call to see you." She looked happier.

"Oh. Well…do you want a tour, since you'll be living here?" I didn't tell her that my living there was a toss up and instead accepted the tour. I got dressed out of my pack and set off with her. She seemed happy enough to lead me around, though I knew I'd never remember where everything she told me about was. The high point was running into Naruto and Sasuke kissing quite heatedly in a deserted corridor. They sprang apart quickly, blushing heavily, but Sakura and I were already laughing hysterically. They disappeared after that, and Sakura and I continued with the tour. I found out that she liked working with the earth in the gardens, but couldn't dance. She hated embroidery but liked fencing, and couldn't draw at all. I laughed at that—neither could I, really. In return, I told her how I could grow the most beautiful flowers, but killed most herbs. I could dance quite well, and liked embroidery fine, but always lost at fencing. We ended up sitting on a bench in the rose garden, just talking. I don't know how long we talked for—it was likely several hours—until eventually her stepmother found us and insisted we come in for lunch. With that, the spell was broken, and things were awkward again. We didn't talk on the way to the dining hall, but I was thinking quickly. If I stayed around her much longer, it would be that much harder to leave. I could feel our bond growing, flourishing into something we could never break. And it scared me.

x Sakura x

I felt it as I talked to her, to Ino. I could tell that we were growing together, bound by what we were. I tried not to think about it—no matter how happy the prospect made me, I could see in Ino's eyes that it frightened her. She was the kind of person that just moved on when things were too hard to deal with. Lunch was quiet—Sasuke and Naruto were talking to each other in the way true soul mates can without words, Ino seemed nervous and my stepmother was focused on redesigning her sitting room. My father was currently absent, out in the village somewhere. I generally spent the meal squirming and trying to ignore the oppressive silence. It didn't work, and by the time it was acceptable to leave the table, I was more than ready to escape the table.

I wandered around for what felt like hours. I didn't really know what to do—all the stories I'd been told as a child had culminated in the rescuing of the princess and marriage, with the blanket ending for all of them being "and they lived happily ever after." But what were you supposed to do if your true love didn't want happily ever after—or any kind of ever after--? I managed to make my way to the lily garden. They reminded me of her: slender and pale, but surprisingly strong. I made my decision, after a long time thinking. I would leave her alone, and let her choose what we would be. It was frightening and painful, but I knew we would be nothing more the acquaintances if I pushed her now.

x Ino x

When I saw Sakura for dinner, she was detached and solemn, brushing aside my attempts at conversation. Since her stepmother and father were arguing about colors for a sitting room and Naruto and Sasuke—he'd insisted on being called only by his first name this afternoon--were doing that thing again, the only conversation to be had was with Temari. Since her interests seemed to extend from fencing to knife work to riding, we quickly lapsed back into silence. When dinner was over, I made my way back to the bedroom Sasuke'd led me to earlier and lay on the bed, trying to fall asleep. I couldn't, of course—you always fall asleep when you need to stay awake and not when you want to—and so I thought. I wondered why Sakura had become so quiet, and whether she still wanted nothing to do with me. I was slowly becoming accustomed to the fact that she was a female, but I still had a hard time imagining us together. Maybe if we got to know each other better…but that would mean I'd have to stick around. I guess I'm sticking around, then, I thought muzzily just as I fell asleep.

x Sakura x

I didn't sleep in my bed that night, too afraid that Ino was already sleeping there. I didn't sleep well, worried about how Ino would act the next day. When I went down to breakfast, however, she was pleasant enough, and conversation was easy. Two weeks passed very similarly: easy conversations and lazy days spent in the garden. My stepmother only occasionally cornered us occasionally to have fittings for our wedding dresses. Ino's was a beautiful violet, and mine was a nice dark pink. Before I really knew it, it was the morning of, and I still wasn't sure what was going to happen with Ino. It seemed that something should be decided before we both got married, but she showed no sign of thinking about it at all.

x Ino x

I spent the two weeks before my wedding worrying about what to do with Sakura. And then, suddenly, the day was there and there was no time left in which to do anything. All I knew was that the thought of her spending her life with Naruto twisted something in my chest. And I guess that was my answer—I was in love with her, had fallen head over heels sometime during our walks. It was with this in mind that I searched her out that morning. When I found her, I grabbed her arm and dragged her into an alcove in a deserted hallway.

"Look. I know that we haven't gotten along the entire time, but I love you. And I have no intention of letting you spend the rest of your life with someone other than me," I told her fiercely. "So you better be okay with it." She looked at me as though I'd just told her I ate babies in my spare time. I waited for several eternities before realizing I'd gone and wrecked everything.

"Oh, I—um, I'm sorry," I managed to say before backing out of the alcove. She still didn't move, only stared into space. I tried not to think about she wasn't coming after me as I raced down the hall.

I found Sasuke in his usual room, getting ready. We'd talked occasionally over the past weeks, and spent hours in silence more often. In a way, I loved him too—as a best friend, a man for whom I could feel affection—and right now he was the only one I trusted with my sadness.

"Sasuke," I wailed quietly, tears coursing down my cheeks, "I've ruined it. My only chance, and I totally blew it." He looked startled at my sudden appearance, but held me just the same.

"Blew what?" he asked, quietly.

"My life with Sakura, my chance for happiness, her loving me back, take your pick," I mumbled into his shirt. "I love her so much. Really. Now I know why we're true loves—we go together so well. Only now I've ruined that, and I don't know what to do."

"I think not," he said from above my head. It sounded like he was smiling. This was so odd that I lifted my head, only to see Sakura in the doorway, panting.

"I'm so sorry," she told me, "I was just in shock, and you left before I could say…"

"Say what?" I whispered.

"That I love you too," she said, crossing the space between us. Sasuke let go of me as I moved toward her, then disappeared tactfully out the door. I grabbed Sakura's waist, looking into her face carefully.

"Good," I replied happily, "then you won't mind if I do this." And on the day we would both marry other people, I kissed the true love of my life.

Epilogue
Sakura

That day was the happiest of my life. Naruto and Sasuke both agreed to let us be together unofficially—we couldn't marry each other without serious problems for the kingdom—if we would let them. It was a good arrangement, and socially acceptable. I was just happy I'd finally gotten the rescuer of my dreams—though it seemed rocky at first—and was going to live happily ever after with her. She, on the other hand, was less than content with this prospect.

"Happily ever after?" Ino asked incredulously as the four of us stargazed on a tower roof.

"Yeah. Can you think of anything better?" I asked her.

"Of course. Happily ever after would get pretty boring, don't you think? And I don't think we'll always agree—that would be a foolish assumption."

"Then what do you propose?" I questioned perplexedly.

"Together ever after," she replied simply.

"Yeah," I agreed. "That is better."

And that's how we lived our lives—always together, ever after.