• WHY DOES THE RAIN FALL WHEN THINGS GO WRONG? •

Eventually Ino's common sense won and she managed to get Mebuki to leave Sakura alone in favour of taking shots from the minibar downstairs. Sakura sighed when her mother left and collapsed on her bed, crying. Now she was taking her incompetence out on her mother. How low could she go?

"That wasn't very nice you know?"

Sakura gave a little eep, too tired to scream louder. Standing awkwardly in her walk in closet was Hinata. Sakura frowned. "Why are you here?"

"I was told to reorganize the closets. I was doing yours when you walked in angrily and locked the door." Hinata explained with a small smile. She had chosen wisely not to say anything during the screaming drama because Mebuki would've definitely transferred her aggression towards her. It would've been more disastrous than it was before.

Sakura said nothing, just continued crying into her pillow. She felt her bed dip when Hinata came to sit beside her. "What happened at the date?" She asked as she ran her fingers through cherry blossom locks.

Sakura raised her head up, cheeks red and make up botchy, and looked at the ravenette. "There was no date." She whimpered.

"What?"

"Sasuke-kun hates me for sure now, I'm so horrible!" Sakura began to go down a thought spiral but Hinata gently pulled her out of it.

"Hey hey calm down, tell me what happened from the top." The other girl said softly. Her sisterly voice encouraged Sakura to talk. She explained everything that happened at the date from why Sasuke was really searching for the girl he met at the ball to how cold he was to her when he found out the truth.

"I shouldn't have impersonated you to have a shot at Sasuke-kun. I shouldn't have lied at all but ...but I really wanted Sasuke-kun to notice me." Sakura wailed into Hinata's lap while the other processed the information. She did remember Itachi from when her mother was still alive and she used to hang around the bakery but she never knew that he was Sasuke's brother. It saddened her a bit to hear about the man's condition. He was so nice to her and everyone around him. Somebody like him didn't deserve to die so young.

Pushing the thoughts aside Hinata focused on Sakura who was already self destructing on her lap. "I think what you did was admirable, Sakura." She spoke honestly. Her step sister begged to differ.

"Admirable my butt. I was only moved to tell the truth after I met Uchiha-san. Before I felt bad about lying to Sasuke-kun but I didn't do anything about it. I was going to endure the guilt just to keep being with him. I am not admirable."

"But you still told him the truth and that is all that matters. I think it is better to form a relationship honestly than to base it on lies and deceit. If you and Sasuke had continued being friends that way it would have ended really badly and you and Sasuke would be more hurt than you both are now." Hinata raised Sakura up and dried her tears with her hands. "I think what you should do now is not ponder about your mistakes in the past but start afresh and form new and honest relationships. Don't try to pretend or change who you are for anybody Sakura, you're better off with a few people that love you for who you are than a lot of people that secretly hate you."

"Surely you hate me." Sakura wasn't looking up at Hinata. She couldn't. "I've been nothing but horrible to you. I make you do all the chores and treat you badly and other horrible stuff. I'm sure you hate me." Why was she just realizing that she had been a terrible person after all these years? Aside than angry with herself, Sakura was ashamed that it took her losing who she thought was the most important person in her life to realize where she was lacking as a person.

"Well I do admit that it didn't feel nice and your attitude needs a bit more working on but I could never hate you. I know you're very nice deep down and that niceness is just waiting for an opportunity to emerge. I might've felt bad sometimes but not enough to hate or spite you." Hinata answered with a beautiful soft smile that made Sakura feel so overwhelmed that she almost wanted to puke.

So many things flooded her mind to say but she settled on, "are you that nice or just stupid? I would've hated me if I were you."

Hinata chuckled instead of picking offense though. "Well consider yourself lucky I am not you." She said between laughs. Sakura joined her and both girls giggled at their inside joke which nobody but them understood.

"Speaking of starting all over," Sakura spoke once her giggling fit died out. "Will you give me a chance to prove myself a better person?" The pinkette didn't know how Hinata was going to reply. A rational part of her told her that there was no way Hinata would deny a chance of being a better person but another part of her, the one that was afraid of rejection, told her that Hinata didn't want anything to do with her so she was nervous. It didn't last for long because Hinata was soon reassuring her.

"Of course. What are sisters for?"

Sakura laughed happily for the first time in... she wasn't sure but she was genuinely happy with the first relationship she formed on an honest basis. "Thank you." And she really meant it.

...

Sakura dreaded talking with her mum because of the whole fiasco that happened a while ago but she had to do it. Poor Ino was stuck with the woman outside, she had to relieve her best friend from her insufferable mother. She was insufferable but her mother nevertheless. Going downstairs met Sakura with a very tired looking Ino looking like she was going to snap at any minute with Mebuki rambling to her while waving around an empty bottle of vodka.

"Sakura!" Ino screamed with relief when she saw the pink haired girl. "Save me from her!" She whined.

"I'm sorry for troubling you Ino. Thanks for taking care of my mum." Sakura went over to her mother and led her up the stairs to her room. It was surprisingly not too hard to lead a drunk Mebuki up the stairs but Ino was more baffled by Sakura apologizing and thanking her for something. That only happened when they first became friends and Sakura was still new money. She used to be so soft and polite, thanking everybody and apologizing for things she didn't even do but that went away as she got used to being the top dog.

Seeing Sakura reverting back to her old ways was...strange. "What did you do to Sakura?" Ino asked Hinata who came down after Sakura did.

"Why do you assume that I did something?" Hinata asked, amused at Ino's reaction.

"Well did you?" Ino shot back.

"We just had a nice conversation is all." Hinata replied. Ino perked up.

"She told you what happened at the date? Tell me! Tell me!" Always one for gossip, Ino was. Hinata would have been more willing to engage had the matter been less personal. But it was so she decided that it was best Ino heard the story from the mouth of the pink haired girl herself. "You're no fun." Ino pouted when Hinata refused to say anything.

"Sorry." Hinata apologized but Ino waved her off.

"It's okay. I'm not brazen enough to disrespect people's boundaries."

From there Ino raised another topic and they continued talking until Sakura came downstairs after putting her mum to bed. The three of them had a nice chat in the living room until Ino's chauffeur put an end to the fun.

***

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