Hidden Villages

I: First Sleepover

Ino wanted to pummel Ami's face into the ground for what she did to Sakura. She never imagined someone could be so cruel, yet she didn't understand where Ami's animosity for Sakura actually came from. She found herself angry Iruka did nothing to help, but then again he didn't know anything about the situation. As for Suzume, Ino personally had her doubts a teacher who could be bullied so easily would be able to help in a situation where the student was bullied.

"Nobody wants to hear about the outside from an outsider."

Those words stuck with Ino. The way Ami said it felt like she was referring to Sakura as someone who wasn't simply someone from outside Ami's personal group of friends, but someone who was in fact from outside of the village. She found herself still puzzling over words Ami used the next morning.

"What's bothering my little princess?"

Ino's pale eyes blinked. She looked up at her father who was watching her carefully. "Nothing?"

"Nothing? You've not touched your breakfast," her mother said.

"Oh." Ino glanced at the table. "What does it mean when someone calls a person an outsider?"

"Well..." Her mother sat down in order to join the conversation. Her father on the other hand lifted a cup of coffee to his mouth and started savoring it. "It can mean the person was simply born outside of the village, or it could mean the person's bloodline comes from outside of the village. Why do you ask?"

"There's this girl at school who likes picking on Sakura. She says Sakura is an outsider."

Her father's eyes opened and he set the cup of coffee down onto the table. "Whether she's an outsider or not doesn't matter. If her parents came from outside the village then the Hokage wouldn't let them in if they were someone we needed to worry about. It's just someone trying to push social issues on other people."

Ino frowned. "Yeah, but do her parents come from the outside?"

Ino's mother looked over at her husband. "Do they? I don't know."

"I don't either. It's not the kind of thing I get into people's business about. You shouldn't either."

"But how can you not know? Didn't Sakura's parents attend the academy at the same time as you? I mean, Shikamaru and Choji's dads attended the same time as dad."

Ino's mother laughed. "Ino, just because a person has children the same age attending the academy doesn't mean they're the same age."

"But aren't they?"

"Um..." Her mother continued to smile. "Do you remember the other day when I paid Sakura a compliment in front of her mother?"

"Well, yeah. What about it?"

"Do you remember what her mother said?"

"Whenever anyone pays Sakura a compliment her mom and dad say something about how lucky they are to have her."

"I'm thinking Sakura's situation is that her parents are an older couple who didn't expect to ever have a child, yet at the age your father and I are now or even older they got blessed with a bundle of joy they didn't expect. Of course, don't take my word for it."

"So, her parents are older than you guys."

"Yes."

"But you adults all look the same age! They don't look old like the Hokage!"

Her father burst into laughter, but he found himself wiping tears away from his eye. "Oh my. The Lord Hokage is really, really old."

"If he's so old why don't we replace him?"

"Maybe we should have this conversation another day?" Her mother let out a deep sigh.

Ino let out a sigh and headed to school. When she arrived she found a rather excited Sakura who cheered up considerably from yesterday. "What's got you so excited? Tell me so I can be excited as well."

"So, mama saw how sad I was yesterday. She wanted to make me feel better, so she said I could invite you over tomorrow for a slumber party. I've never, had a slumber party before, so if your parents say yes..."

Ino let out a squeal of excitement. "Of course I'm excited! I'm sure my parents will let me."

As such she found herself quite excited. Ami of course didn't like seeing Sakura was happy about something, but the girl of course could do nothing to deflate Ino or her friend's excitement. Her parents also became excited when she told them. Her mother helped pack an overnight bag the day before, but her father personally walked the two girls from school to Sakura's place.

Sakura's mother greeted her, but out of the corner of her eye Ino saw some of the neighbors look at them warily. She saw Ami down the street peeking around a corner glaring, almost as if she were stalking them, but thought nothing more when she got inside the house. Sakura tugged Ino up to her room.

The room was definitely smaller than Inos, but she found herself liking the quaint charm of the room. Sakura sat down on her bed. "Mom says she's got a couple of futons, so we can get more room in the family room if that's okay with you."

Her feet kicked up in excitement. Ino thought briefly for a few minutes to find actual answers regarding why Ami was so persistent in ostracizing Sakura, but these flew as the two girls started in on the activities, particularly when Sakura's father got home and took them to the new movie all of the girls in class were talking about.

When they left the two girls had a new favorite movie, but couldn't stop talking about it well into the night. Not thinking or talking about the school bully, or the gross boys at school was actually quite nice. Sakura let out a sigh. "Why do boys have to be so stupid?"

Ino frowned, realizing they were suddenly on the topic of gross boys. "Where did this come from?"

"How come in the movies the guys are not gross, but the boys in our class are."

The blond haired child thought over the question carefully. "Because the guys in movies are adults and the boys in our class are not?"

"Maybe." Sakura turned over so she could grin at Ino. "Thank you so much for being my friend."

"I should be thanking you. You're a very nice person Sakura."