The Other Jinchūriki - A Naruto Fanfiction

Chapter 51

Of all the people Sakura had to fight, Sōma thought as he gripped the railing. It had to be Ino...?

"Go Sakura!" Naruto cheered. "You can do it! Don't lose!"

"Yeah!" Rizaki added. "Beat her up!!"

"Are you both ready?" Hayate asked. Both girls nodded. I need to stop asking at this point. "Begin."

The girls immediately began with their Taijutsu, blocking each other's kicks and punches for a few minutes. They both jumped back and Sakura pulled out her shurikens to shoot at Ino, who was able to catch one and shot it right back, making both cancel each other out.

"Oh no," Choji said nervously. "I just knew it!"

"Sakura's totally blowing Ino out of the water in this battle!" Naruto chirped.

"What a fool," Shikamaru grumbled. Naruto turned to glare at him.

"What did you say to me?!"

"Want to make something out of it?" The boy rolled his eyes. "Then go ahead, 'cause you'll lose." The blond now fully turned his body to him as he growled.

"Who do you think you are?!"

"That's it?" Neji asked. "That's as good as a Kunoichi can get at hand-to-hand combat?" Rizaki turned to him this time.

"Look!" She growled. "If you're going to underestimate a girl, you can do it when none are around you!" Neji scoffed at her.

"What? You think you can do better?" Rizaki stomped up to him and got into his face.

"I bet I can, bastard! And I'll start off with you, how 'bout that?!" Rock Lee pulled her back.

"Sorry, Rizaki," he apologized with a sweatdrop. "But if you want to fight him you have to wait until the board says so." The blunette voiced a 'tch' but nodded, taking a step back and grumbling.

"When I hear him say that again, it's on sight..."

"Neji," TenTen sighed. "It's not because they're girls, y'know. It's just that those two are using kids gloves." Naruto raised a brow in confusion.

"'Kids gloves'?"

Eventually Ino finally punched Sakura in the stomach (which Sōma couldn't help but wince at), who coughed out spit due to the impact. As she was about to punch her again, Ino stopped in her tracks.

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"Hahah! Look how big her forehead is!"

"Yeah, and her eyebrows!"

"Billboard-Brow!" Little kids, probably ages 6-7 were laughing as a little pink-haired girl with a navy-blue shirt and beige leggings curled up and hugged her legs.

"I-I wanna go home," she mumbled. "I-I want my brother..." her brother was hanging out with some boys on the other far side of the playground, so he had no idea what was happening to her.

"Hey!" A high-pitched voice shouted. "Leave her alone!"

The girl turned to see a girl with short light-blonde hair, an orange shirt and shorts. She also had a little flower in her hair. The kids raised a brow at her.

"Yeah, that's right!" She yelled again. "I said leave her alone!" They scoffed, but shrugged and walked off. "You okay?" She then asked the girl on the floor. "What's your name?"

"S-Sakura Haruno," the timid girl uttered, trying to cover her forehead with her bangs. "W-Who are you?"

"My name's Ino! Ino Yamanaka!" She pulled out a red ribbon. "Can I do something real quick?" Sakura hesitantly nodded, and Ino sat beside her, wrapping the ribbon around her head and pulling the 'bangs' away.

"H-Huh?"

"You don't need to hide your forehead," she explained with a kind smile. "In fact, I think your forehead is beautiful." Sakura blushed a little at that, and the blonde winked. "Don't wanna hide anything beautiful, right?" Sakura nodded with a small smile of her own, and before she said anything someone called out to her.

"Sakura!!" It was her brother. "Come on, Mom wants us home!!"

"O-Okay Sōma!" She turned to look at Ino and smiled. "Thank you, Ino! S-See you tomorrow!" She waved at the Yamanaka before running off and grabbing Sōma's hand, who guided her down the village path.

Ino smiled a bit to herself, picking a cherry blossom before walking off to her own home.

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"Ino?" The Yamanaka, now the age of eight, noticed the female Haruno walk up to her as she sat on the bench.

"What is it Sakura?"

"From now on...we're rivals." Ino's eyes widened in surprise, then confusion.

"What? Why?"

"I know the rumors about you liking Sasuke are true." Sakura's hair shadowed her eyes. "And I like him too. We can't be friends and like him at the same time, so I'm now rivalling you for him." Ino got up and tried going to her.

"B-But Sakura—!" She was cut off.

"Goodbye, Ino." She walked off.
The friendship between the two was now officially over.

And all Ino could do was cry with quiet sobs.

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"What's going on, mini Genins?" Everyone on the sidelines turned to see Kezuka.

"Kezuka-sensei!" Rizaki cheered. "You made it!"

"Yeah, thank goodness. What's going on?"

"Sakura's fighting Ino," Naruto said simply. Ino finally had the courage to slap Sakura in the face, making him gasp and Sōma flinch. "Ouch..."

That was when Sakura pulled off her headband that was wrapped around the top of her head, staring at it. Sōma's grip on the railing tightened, so much so his knuckles were turning white. Kakashi noticed this and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Kakashi-sensei?"

"I understand," he said sympathetically. "There isn't much for you to do except watch, but trust me, your sister can handle it. I know from experience." His eyes landed on Kezuka, who looked back at him and gave him a small peace sign. "Besides, it's just a bit of rivalry. Not like I'd know though." He then turned to look at Guy, who was on the opposite side of him. When he looked back the scarecrow-looking Jonin just waved. "Hi there."

"I understand, Sakura," Ino said with a smirk, taking off the headband around her waist. Both girls tied them on their foreheads with a determined look on their faces. Immediately afterwards, their fists collided together.

The battle of former friends has truly begun.

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1035 words

It's been almost a week, my bad-
My algebra teacher just decided to give us projects this week that don't even have enough information on how to do it. Not to mention having to write a whole-ass proposal on how we do it as a test grade, like huh? 💀💀💀

But yeah, my apologies. So far these are easy to write/revise cause I'm just pasting them from my doc but anyways-

Hope you all enjoyed the chapter! <3