Ino/Sakura (Naruto)
Title: I Won't Lose To You: Yamanaka Ino and Haruno Sakura
Author: Chiya (achiasa)
Spoilers: The series in general. Specifically, manga chapters 039-088 (the first half of the chuunin exam arc for anime viewers). There is also a small amount of reference to the latest manga arc, which is ahead of the anime.
Notes: I use Japanese name conventions, with the family name first.
I Won't Lose To You: Yamanaka Ino and Haruno Sakura
I'm not sure I actually remember how I got into Naruto. The most accurate reconstruction of events that I can come up with is that some time last year I got tired of reading about it on my friendslist and went to see what all the fuss was about. I read the manga, and I got hooked. In retrospect, I probably should have expected that.
This essay is informed primarily by the manga, because I've read all of it, whereas I haven't seen enough of the anime to be any sort of expert. The storylines are similar enough that hopefully this won't cause a problem or confuse anyone. There are also going to be spoilers, for the series in general but particularly for the first part of the chuunin exam arc (manga chapters 039-088 specifically) and the most recent manga chapters, which are ahead of the anime. So that means probable spoilers for future anime episodes.
There are pairings that you arrive at through fandom, and then there are those that jump you from hiding. Ino/Sakura, unlike Naruto/Sasuke, was not something I'd heard of before I read the manga. Because I was a shounen-ai fangirl with a penchant for rivalry pairings, I took to Naruto/Sasuke like a duck to water. I was happy shipping my boys, and didn't pay much attention to other pairings until I read up to the chuunin exams and got smacked in the face by the proverbial ton of bricks. Suddenly Ino/Sakura was the most obvious thing in the world, and it quickly became my OTP.
Sakura: I won't lose to you.
Ino: Same here, Sakura. I won't lose to you no matter what.
(ch.71 flashback)
Haruno Sakura is the lead female character of the series. Not much is known about her parents, but she seems to have a fairly normal family life. When we first meet her she's twelve, and the protagonist Uzumaki Naruto has a crush on her. Sakura, like most of the other girls her age, has eyes only for the third member of their ninja team, Uchiha Sasuke.
Sakura isn't from an elite clan like Sasuke, or astonishingly strong like Naruto. Her main ability lies in an exceptional memory for theory; she's the least powerful member of Team 7, albeit the most skilled in chakra control. She often feels herself to be a burden on her teammates, and this is the first reason behind her desire to become stronger. She has exceptional self-control, and suppresses the majority of her desires and feelings in favour of attempting to behave in a mature and ladylike manner. This results in what almost amounts to a second personality, Inner Sakura, who says and does all the things Sakura wishes that she could, from shouting and cheering to beating on Naruto when he does something stupid or rude.
As a child, Sakura was clumsy and awkward, and was frequently teased by the other girls for having a large forehead. As a result she became shy and attempted to hide behind her hair, and was usually left out of group activities.
Yamanaka Ino is introduced in the chuunin exam arc as a member of Team 10 along with Shikamaru and Chouji. She also has a crush (bordering on obsession) on Sasuke, and she and Sakura see themselves as rivals for his affection. Her family runs a flower shop, and she helps out there when she's not busy with her ninja duties or training. Asuma-sensei, her team leader, describes her as 'exceptional among female ninja,' and she has the ability to use a family skill, the Shintenshin or mind control jutsu. This ninjutsu allows her to take over another person's body for up to five minutes; it's traditionally used for spying rather than warfare, because it leaves the caster's body vulnerable.
The first interaction we see between them comes at the beginning of the chuunin exam, as part of the introduction of the other genin teams. At this point Ino is presented purely as a rival for Sasuke's affections, and there doesn't seem to be anything special about her relationship with Sakura; they call each other names and are about two steps away from a fight. During the second test, though, a deeper level of friendship and rivalry is revealed.
Team 7 run into trouble at the hands of Orochimaru; Sasuke and Naruto are both knocked out of the fight and Sakura ends up as their last line of defence against a team of Hidden Sound ninja. Ino reacts more strongly to the news that Sakura is fighting than to hearing about Sasuke. We see the first in a series of flashbacks, Ino remembering when she first realised that she and Sakura liked the same boy and couldn't be friends any more.
Sakura: Then… From now on, we're rivals.
(ch.53 flashback)
Ino is conflicted over whether to risk her team and life to try to help Sakura, when the likelihood is that she too would be defeated. While she worries, Sakura is captured by the female Sound nin, who holds her by the hair and mocks her for putting her appearance above her duty as a shinobi. Sakura reaches crisis point, and is forced into growth. Tired of always needing protection, she decides that this time she will be the one to protect what's important to her, and frees herself by hacking off her own hair.
Ino: Everyone makes fun of your forehead, huh?
Sakura: Who are...?
Ino: I'm Yamanaka Ino, what about you?
Sakura: I'm... Sakura... Haruno Sakura.
Ino: Ahh... I see. So this is the big forehead. So you try to hide it with your hair. You look like a ghost.
(ch.54 flashback)
Sakura uses everything she has to try and fight off the Sound nin, refusing to give up. Ino is startled by her tenacity, and we see another series of flashbacks, beginning with their very first meeting: Sakura is crying because the other girls teased her, and Ino befriends her, giving her a ribbon to tie back her hair.
Ino: They make fun of you more because you try to hide it. You have a cute face so show it off confidently. Confidently!
(ch.54 flashback)
Ino introduced Sakura to the other girls as her friend, and gradually Sakura's shyness seemed to fade, although Ino mentioned that she was actually only hiding her real feelings; it's interesting to note how far back the divide between Sakura and Inner Sakura goes. The beginning of their rivalry is touched on again, and the first utterance of the words that come to define their relationship: "I won't lose to you."
Ino reaches breaking point, and drags her teammates out to protect Sakura, who's reached her limit, and Team 10 take over the fight. Sakura's reaction to Ino's protection isn't anger or annoyance, as might be expected when you consider their rivalry, but smiling determination. Their antagonism seems to be put aside when it really matters, which suggests that the original friendship is still there underneath.
Later, when Naruto awakes and they're out of danger, Sakura plays her dramatic haircut off as nothing very important, and Ino comments that she's hiding her feelings again. They resume their bitching and sniping at each other, but Ino is fixing Sakura's hair for her. There's a striking difference between actions and words there, which makes explicit the deeper levels to their relationship.
Perhaps the single most important and telling event for the two of them comes in the prelims for the third test. They're matched against each other in an all-out, one-on-one fight - the first time they've ever fought seriously, perhaps even at all. Both of them are shocked by the announcement, but where Ino is worried Sakura is determined. We see another flashback to their childhood which is basically Sakura's point of view on their friendship and her admiration for Ino, who's not only a popular and fashionable girl but a strong ninja as well. Ino explains flower arranging to Sakura, and stands up for her when a group of girls try to bully her. We see the two of them through flower metaphors - Sakura as the cherry blossom of her namesake, spring's flower, and Ino as the cosmos of autumn.
Ino: If you ask me, you aren't even a flower. You're just a bud.
(ch.71 flashback)
The gift of the hair ribbon is touched on again, with Ino explaining that she wanted to help Sakura grow:
Ino: I thought it would be a waste if you ended as a bud. A flower is meaningless unless it blooms, right? And it could grow into a flower even more beautiful than a cosmos.
(ch.71 flashback)
Before their fight begins, Sakura deliberately baits Ino, trying to provoke her into thinking of them only as enemies. She takes her forehead protector from her head and ties it onto her forehead, and we flash back again to when they first became genin and Sakura returned the hair ribbon Ino had given her, instead using the forehead protector to keep her hair back.
Sakura: The time I put it on my forehead is the time, as a female shinobi, that I don't lose to you.
(ch.71 flashback)
She's signalling to Ino that she's very, very serious about this fight, and that she's taking Ino seriously as an opponent. They're going to fight all-out against each other - and they end up needing to, because they're so evenly matched. They frequently mirror each other's actions and moves, and when Sakura taunts Ino about valuing her looks, Ino uses a kunai to cut off her hair, just as Sakura did in the forest. It's a feint, though - she uses the discarded hair to hold Sakura still enough so that she can use the Shintenshin no jutsu and force the dead-heat match to end in her favour by making Sakura forfeit.
Sakura has an ace up her sleeve, though - Naruto reminds her of just how far she's come, which (along with her annoyance with him) wakes Inner Sakura, who pushes Ino out. Ino's shocked and disturbed by the fact that Sakura seemingly has another, separate personality.
Ino: Two minds... What are you?
Sakura: Didn't you know? Women have to be tough to survive.
(ch.73)
In the end, the match finishes in a tie - they knock each other out simultaneously. When Sakura comes to, Kakashi and Asuma have propped the two of them up against the wall together, battered and bruised, and Ino is smiling at her.
Ino: You did make it bloom. A beautiful flower.
(ch.73)
And then a mention of Sasuke sends them right back into their comfortable, well-worn rivalry again. Strangely, after their fight Sakura is calm and happy, and Ino is downright cheerful, despite the fact that both of them have been knocked out of the exams. It's also worth noting that despite all the verbal barbs and taunts they throw at each other during their fight, Sasuke isn't mentioned at all.
One of the main themes in Naruto has always been that a fighter can gain strength from the need to protect someone important, a 'most precious person'. Ino and Sakura aren't each other's Most Important Person, at least not yet. Both of them would probably put Sasuke at the top of that list (they're twelve-year-old girls with crushes for much of the series so far), with their other teammates close behind. But it's clearly obvious that they're important to each other all the same - Best Friends in that way that young girls can be, a relationship that's often more important that any superficial crush.
Their relationship is built out of layers - admiration, protectiveness, friendship, rivalry - that tie together. Ino's protective tendencies underlie the surface enmity, if it can even be called that, and prevent her from taking it too far. She's perfectly capable of sustaining the two seemingly incompatible emotions at the same time, as when she fixes Sakura's hair for her in the second test. Sakura's admiration for Ino ("I wanted to be like you") plays into the dynamics of their friendship and rivalry - it's part of why she wants to be stronger.
What's implied rather than said is that neither of them want to defeat each other so much as they want the other to acknowledge their strength. They both want to be seen as a worthy opponent - in essence, they want to be equal. Sakura sees herself as having chased after Ino, while Ino is refusing to let Sakura grow beyond her - if Sakura gains strength, she will match it. It's this drive for equality that underpins their entire relationship. To have worth in each other's eyes, to be respected, to be relied upon, to be trusted, to be important to each other.
Ino and Sakura's fight in the prelims isn't about winning or losing, and it isn't about Sasuke. It's about forcing each other to acknowledge just how far they've come, about winning each other's respect as ninja. The friendship they already have means that they know each other well enough to predict moves; Sakura knows how to provoke Ino, and Ino knows how to fool Sakura and how to get through to her. They understand each other better than they do their teammates, even.
The fact that their fight ends in a dead heat shows that they've reached new ground in their relationship - they are equal, now. Sakura has gained the determination and self-confidence that Ino wanted for her, and can stand on her own. Ino has had her fears that Sakura will grow away from her protection and friendship set to rest. The effect on their relationship remains to be seen, but the most likely outcome is probably an erosion of the rivalry coupled with a strengthening of their friendship, especially considering Sasuke's absence. We've seen Sakura, now a medical ninja and the Hokage's apprentice, since the timejump, but how Ino has grown is as yet unknown.
As a couple, their relationship is about partnership. Although they've never been paired in a fight so far, they know each other well enough that they should be able to work together effectively. I would dearly love to see the two of them teamed up, turning the mirror in which they reflect each other against a common enemy. They have enormous potential as allies for that reason. Although the mirror has turned slightly, with Sakura specialising as a medical ninja while Ino continues work with Team 10 as a chuunin, that only strengthens their potential, because they now complement each other. Their teamwork should mesh in much the same way as Tsunade's and Jiraiya's.
Even as twelve-year-old children, when it comes down to the wire they are there for each other - backup, shared strength, and a bond of friendship. As teenage chuunin, that bond should be even stronger. As adults in a relationship, they will know each other inside and out, and rely on each other. Ino/Sakura is about respect, admiration, friendship, equality and trust. Trust that the other will always be there to catch them if they fall, just as Ino dragged her team into Sakura's fight in the second test. In the end, it boils down to that one undeniable fact: they care about each other. And they'll risk their lives to protect that.
Sadly, the Ino/Sakura fandom is tiny. For a shoujo-ai (femmeslash) pairing, it's popular - one of the most popular in Naruto fandom. Slash and het pairings, though, are much more popular and productive, which is a shame because Ino and Sakura do have such an interesting relationship and one which is worth digging deeper into. To quote sarolynne, if they were boys, yaoi fandom would be all over them. That said, there's a very high percentage of good fic out there. naruto_yuri is the place to go to look for fic and art, although it's not a pairing-specific community. I also have a few recommendations to begin with:
One-shots:
Pink by shakti_86
Waking by lynnxlady
Ino's Ribbon by suzukiblu
The Journey Between This and That by suzukiblu
Solstice by ceresi
House by space_machine
Series:
Night Thief by Ceresi [prologue, 1, 2]- incomplete, but well written and intriguing.
Author: Chiya (achiasa)
Spoilers: The series in general. Specifically, manga chapters 039-088 (the first half of the chuunin exam arc for anime viewers). There is also a small amount of reference to the latest manga arc, which is ahead of the anime.
Notes: I use Japanese name conventions, with the family name first.
I Won't Lose To You: Yamanaka Ino and Haruno Sakura
I'm not sure I actually remember how I got into Naruto. The most accurate reconstruction of events that I can come up with is that some time last year I got tired of reading about it on my friendslist and went to see what all the fuss was about. I read the manga, and I got hooked. In retrospect, I probably should have expected that.
This essay is informed primarily by the manga, because I've read all of it, whereas I haven't seen enough of the anime to be any sort of expert. The storylines are similar enough that hopefully this won't cause a problem or confuse anyone. There are also going to be spoilers, for the series in general but particularly for the first part of the chuunin exam arc (manga chapters 039-088 specifically) and the most recent manga chapters, which are ahead of the anime. So that means probable spoilers for future anime episodes.
There are pairings that you arrive at through fandom, and then there are those that jump you from hiding. Ino/Sakura, unlike Naruto/Sasuke, was not something I'd heard of before I read the manga. Because I was a shounen-ai fangirl with a penchant for rivalry pairings, I took to Naruto/Sasuke like a duck to water. I was happy shipping my boys, and didn't pay much attention to other pairings until I read up to the chuunin exams and got smacked in the face by the proverbial ton of bricks. Suddenly Ino/Sakura was the most obvious thing in the world, and it quickly became my OTP.
Sakura: I won't lose to you.
Ino: Same here, Sakura. I won't lose to you no matter what.
(ch.71 flashback)
Haruno Sakura is the lead female character of the series. Not much is known about her parents, but she seems to have a fairly normal family life. When we first meet her she's twelve, and the protagonist Uzumaki Naruto has a crush on her. Sakura, like most of the other girls her age, has eyes only for the third member of their ninja team, Uchiha Sasuke.
Sakura isn't from an elite clan like Sasuke, or astonishingly strong like Naruto. Her main ability lies in an exceptional memory for theory; she's the least powerful member of Team 7, albeit the most skilled in chakra control. She often feels herself to be a burden on her teammates, and this is the first reason behind her desire to become stronger. She has exceptional self-control, and suppresses the majority of her desires and feelings in favour of attempting to behave in a mature and ladylike manner. This results in what almost amounts to a second personality, Inner Sakura, who says and does all the things Sakura wishes that she could, from shouting and cheering to beating on Naruto when he does something stupid or rude.
As a child, Sakura was clumsy and awkward, and was frequently teased by the other girls for having a large forehead. As a result she became shy and attempted to hide behind her hair, and was usually left out of group activities.
Yamanaka Ino is introduced in the chuunin exam arc as a member of Team 10 along with Shikamaru and Chouji. She also has a crush (bordering on obsession) on Sasuke, and she and Sakura see themselves as rivals for his affection. Her family runs a flower shop, and she helps out there when she's not busy with her ninja duties or training. Asuma-sensei, her team leader, describes her as 'exceptional among female ninja,' and she has the ability to use a family skill, the Shintenshin or mind control jutsu. This ninjutsu allows her to take over another person's body for up to five minutes; it's traditionally used for spying rather than warfare, because it leaves the caster's body vulnerable.
The first interaction we see between them comes at the beginning of the chuunin exam, as part of the introduction of the other genin teams. At this point Ino is presented purely as a rival for Sasuke's affections, and there doesn't seem to be anything special about her relationship with Sakura; they call each other names and are about two steps away from a fight. During the second test, though, a deeper level of friendship and rivalry is revealed.
Team 7 run into trouble at the hands of Orochimaru; Sasuke and Naruto are both knocked out of the fight and Sakura ends up as their last line of defence against a team of Hidden Sound ninja. Ino reacts more strongly to the news that Sakura is fighting than to hearing about Sasuke. We see the first in a series of flashbacks, Ino remembering when she first realised that she and Sakura liked the same boy and couldn't be friends any more.
Sakura: Then… From now on, we're rivals.
(ch.53 flashback)
Ino is conflicted over whether to risk her team and life to try to help Sakura, when the likelihood is that she too would be defeated. While she worries, Sakura is captured by the female Sound nin, who holds her by the hair and mocks her for putting her appearance above her duty as a shinobi. Sakura reaches crisis point, and is forced into growth. Tired of always needing protection, she decides that this time she will be the one to protect what's important to her, and frees herself by hacking off her own hair.
Ino: Everyone makes fun of your forehead, huh?
Sakura: Who are...?
Ino: I'm Yamanaka Ino, what about you?
Sakura: I'm... Sakura... Haruno Sakura.
Ino: Ahh... I see. So this is the big forehead. So you try to hide it with your hair. You look like a ghost.
(ch.54 flashback)
Sakura uses everything she has to try and fight off the Sound nin, refusing to give up. Ino is startled by her tenacity, and we see another series of flashbacks, beginning with their very first meeting: Sakura is crying because the other girls teased her, and Ino befriends her, giving her a ribbon to tie back her hair.
Ino: They make fun of you more because you try to hide it. You have a cute face so show it off confidently. Confidently!
(ch.54 flashback)
Ino introduced Sakura to the other girls as her friend, and gradually Sakura's shyness seemed to fade, although Ino mentioned that she was actually only hiding her real feelings; it's interesting to note how far back the divide between Sakura and Inner Sakura goes. The beginning of their rivalry is touched on again, and the first utterance of the words that come to define their relationship: "I won't lose to you."
Ino reaches breaking point, and drags her teammates out to protect Sakura, who's reached her limit, and Team 10 take over the fight. Sakura's reaction to Ino's protection isn't anger or annoyance, as might be expected when you consider their rivalry, but smiling determination. Their antagonism seems to be put aside when it really matters, which suggests that the original friendship is still there underneath.
Later, when Naruto awakes and they're out of danger, Sakura plays her dramatic haircut off as nothing very important, and Ino comments that she's hiding her feelings again. They resume their bitching and sniping at each other, but Ino is fixing Sakura's hair for her. There's a striking difference between actions and words there, which makes explicit the deeper levels to their relationship.
Perhaps the single most important and telling event for the two of them comes in the prelims for the third test. They're matched against each other in an all-out, one-on-one fight - the first time they've ever fought seriously, perhaps even at all. Both of them are shocked by the announcement, but where Ino is worried Sakura is determined. We see another flashback to their childhood which is basically Sakura's point of view on their friendship and her admiration for Ino, who's not only a popular and fashionable girl but a strong ninja as well. Ino explains flower arranging to Sakura, and stands up for her when a group of girls try to bully her. We see the two of them through flower metaphors - Sakura as the cherry blossom of her namesake, spring's flower, and Ino as the cosmos of autumn.
Ino: If you ask me, you aren't even a flower. You're just a bud.
(ch.71 flashback)
The gift of the hair ribbon is touched on again, with Ino explaining that she wanted to help Sakura grow:
Ino: I thought it would be a waste if you ended as a bud. A flower is meaningless unless it blooms, right? And it could grow into a flower even more beautiful than a cosmos.
(ch.71 flashback)
Before their fight begins, Sakura deliberately baits Ino, trying to provoke her into thinking of them only as enemies. She takes her forehead protector from her head and ties it onto her forehead, and we flash back again to when they first became genin and Sakura returned the hair ribbon Ino had given her, instead using the forehead protector to keep her hair back.
Sakura: The time I put it on my forehead is the time, as a female shinobi, that I don't lose to you.
(ch.71 flashback)
She's signalling to Ino that she's very, very serious about this fight, and that she's taking Ino seriously as an opponent. They're going to fight all-out against each other - and they end up needing to, because they're so evenly matched. They frequently mirror each other's actions and moves, and when Sakura taunts Ino about valuing her looks, Ino uses a kunai to cut off her hair, just as Sakura did in the forest. It's a feint, though - she uses the discarded hair to hold Sakura still enough so that she can use the Shintenshin no jutsu and force the dead-heat match to end in her favour by making Sakura forfeit.
Sakura has an ace up her sleeve, though - Naruto reminds her of just how far she's come, which (along with her annoyance with him) wakes Inner Sakura, who pushes Ino out. Ino's shocked and disturbed by the fact that Sakura seemingly has another, separate personality.
Ino: Two minds... What are you?
Sakura: Didn't you know? Women have to be tough to survive.
(ch.73)
In the end, the match finishes in a tie - they knock each other out simultaneously. When Sakura comes to, Kakashi and Asuma have propped the two of them up against the wall together, battered and bruised, and Ino is smiling at her.
Ino: You did make it bloom. A beautiful flower.
(ch.73)
And then a mention of Sasuke sends them right back into their comfortable, well-worn rivalry again. Strangely, after their fight Sakura is calm and happy, and Ino is downright cheerful, despite the fact that both of them have been knocked out of the exams. It's also worth noting that despite all the verbal barbs and taunts they throw at each other during their fight, Sasuke isn't mentioned at all.
One of the main themes in Naruto has always been that a fighter can gain strength from the need to protect someone important, a 'most precious person'. Ino and Sakura aren't each other's Most Important Person, at least not yet. Both of them would probably put Sasuke at the top of that list (they're twelve-year-old girls with crushes for much of the series so far), with their other teammates close behind. But it's clearly obvious that they're important to each other all the same - Best Friends in that way that young girls can be, a relationship that's often more important that any superficial crush.
Their relationship is built out of layers - admiration, protectiveness, friendship, rivalry - that tie together. Ino's protective tendencies underlie the surface enmity, if it can even be called that, and prevent her from taking it too far. She's perfectly capable of sustaining the two seemingly incompatible emotions at the same time, as when she fixes Sakura's hair for her in the second test. Sakura's admiration for Ino ("I wanted to be like you") plays into the dynamics of their friendship and rivalry - it's part of why she wants to be stronger.
What's implied rather than said is that neither of them want to defeat each other so much as they want the other to acknowledge their strength. They both want to be seen as a worthy opponent - in essence, they want to be equal. Sakura sees herself as having chased after Ino, while Ino is refusing to let Sakura grow beyond her - if Sakura gains strength, she will match it. It's this drive for equality that underpins their entire relationship. To have worth in each other's eyes, to be respected, to be relied upon, to be trusted, to be important to each other.
Ino and Sakura's fight in the prelims isn't about winning or losing, and it isn't about Sasuke. It's about forcing each other to acknowledge just how far they've come, about winning each other's respect as ninja. The friendship they already have means that they know each other well enough to predict moves; Sakura knows how to provoke Ino, and Ino knows how to fool Sakura and how to get through to her. They understand each other better than they do their teammates, even.
The fact that their fight ends in a dead heat shows that they've reached new ground in their relationship - they are equal, now. Sakura has gained the determination and self-confidence that Ino wanted for her, and can stand on her own. Ino has had her fears that Sakura will grow away from her protection and friendship set to rest. The effect on their relationship remains to be seen, but the most likely outcome is probably an erosion of the rivalry coupled with a strengthening of their friendship, especially considering Sasuke's absence. We've seen Sakura, now a medical ninja and the Hokage's apprentice, since the timejump, but how Ino has grown is as yet unknown.
As a couple, their relationship is about partnership. Although they've never been paired in a fight so far, they know each other well enough that they should be able to work together effectively. I would dearly love to see the two of them teamed up, turning the mirror in which they reflect each other against a common enemy. They have enormous potential as allies for that reason. Although the mirror has turned slightly, with Sakura specialising as a medical ninja while Ino continues work with Team 10 as a chuunin, that only strengthens their potential, because they now complement each other. Their teamwork should mesh in much the same way as Tsunade's and Jiraiya's.
Even as twelve-year-old children, when it comes down to the wire they are there for each other - backup, shared strength, and a bond of friendship. As teenage chuunin, that bond should be even stronger. As adults in a relationship, they will know each other inside and out, and rely on each other. Ino/Sakura is about respect, admiration, friendship, equality and trust. Trust that the other will always be there to catch them if they fall, just as Ino dragged her team into Sakura's fight in the second test. In the end, it boils down to that one undeniable fact: they care about each other. And they'll risk their lives to protect that.
Sadly, the Ino/Sakura fandom is tiny. For a shoujo-ai (femmeslash) pairing, it's popular - one of the most popular in Naruto fandom. Slash and het pairings, though, are much more popular and productive, which is a shame because Ino and Sakura do have such an interesting relationship and one which is worth digging deeper into. To quote sarolynne, if they were boys, yaoi fandom would be all over them. That said, there's a very high percentage of good fic out there. naruto_yuri is the place to go to look for fic and art, although it's not a pairing-specific community. I also have a few recommendations to begin with:
One-shots:
Pink by shakti_86
Waking by lynnxlady
Ino's Ribbon by suzukiblu
The Journey Between This and That by suzukiblu
Solstice by ceresi
House by space_machine
Series:
Night Thief by Ceresi [prologue, 1, 2]- incomplete, but well written and intriguing.