Predecessor

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Imo holds up her bouquet of beautiful flowers next to Sakura's to compare the two. A few moments pass and then the Yamanaka makes a face of horror, face-palming.

"Lilies and cosmos do not go together, Sakura! How many times do I have to tell ya?" Ino cries out, glaring at what she deemed a monstrosity in terms of flower picking.

"But I thought the color - "

Ino slaps her hand over the Haruno's mouth. "It's not just about color! You've got to consider the smell, the texture and the meaning," the Yamanaka preaches passionately. "Flower picking would be pointless without everything else! It's as delicate as chakra control!"

Sakura watches as her best friend continued to ramble on about the importance of gathering the right flowers together but no matter how many times Ino explains it to her, she did not get why this is even an exercise.

Then again, Sakura has trouble following the guidelines of the kunoichi lessons they take in general. She can not see the significance in learning how to pick flowers, or walk in heels, or acting ladylike. Sakura can do none of these things. She isn't on par with the other girls who find these exercises more fun and valuable than the gritty work they do at the academy with the boys.

Sakura supposes she's strange, for she would rather dig her fist into someone's smelly mouth than practice the tradition tea ceremony.

"Try again," sighs Ino, undoing both of their bouquets. "This time, the theme is romance."

And Sakura screws that one up too.

"Yellow roses mean friendship, Sakura!" Ino says, "Are you trying to tell your potential husband that you're burying him deep in the friend zone? No!"

Ino picks up her own flower assortment and shows them off. "See, I've used - " And she begins to name all the flowers she's used that Sakura doesn't recognize. Listen, Sakura can name eighteen common herbal poisons off the top of her head. But this... "I just thought about how much I love Sasuke-kun and pretended like these flowers were a letter confessing my feelings to him."

Ino pauses, mind drifting to the gloomy Uchiha, and then she lets out a high pitched squeal, placing her hands on her cheeks as they go red.

"Kyaa! I really, really can't wait for Valentines' Day!"

Sakura's best friend gets sidetracked almost instantly and launches into her plan of action for Valentines' Day. That's the day she oaths to make Uchiha Sasuke hers.

Sakura's purpose for even being at Ino's house so early in the morning is thrown out of the window, and Ino pulls out her recipe book where she's circled the perfect chocolate recipe. The Haruno only wanted to get help so she can pass the upcoming kunoichi tests as she can't understand why she's so awful at it.

When she tells Anko about her struggles at the end of the day, Anko just barks with laughter, ruffles her head of hair and says, "Well maybe you're just not cut out to be a kunoichi. Besides, who the hell wants to play with damn cosmos all day? Booooring."

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Sakura's head is buried, once again, so far in a book that she doesn't notice a small ball of dark purple zooming towards her. Her instincts (thank them) kick in almost immediately however and she just narrowly misses running into another body.

Her head snaps up when she hears a squeak of fright and catches the back of someone's collar before they go face-planting into the ground.

Sakura shuts her book with one hand, tucking it beneath her arm, and uses the other to reel the person in.