Woah! I guess this was pretty short. It's only four pages. I should really make this a double chapter day, but I really don't feel like it because I'm writing a novel for school and thirty pages has to be done by the 3rd. Maybe a while after. . .

Hikari's POV

I sneezed almost as soon as I got home. Or rather, Sakura's home. I guess someone's talking about me.

I sighed and got up to the guest room and flopped on the bed which creaked. Now, Shikamaru knows about me. Hopefully, he makes the right decision and doesn't say anything about it.

I heard a door open and it was Sakura. "Hey, Sakura," I said.

"Hi, Hikari-chan, what did you do with Shikamaru?" she asked.

"Oh, he just brought me here. He's a pretty nice guy," I said.

"No, he's a lazy ass," she said. "You know what? I think he likes you."

"What?" I asked. "Are you crazy? He's only seen me once!" For now, I had to act like normal girls would.

"He never helps a girl in need. Not even his teammate!" she protested.

"I'm sure he's not like that," I frowned.

"Well, sometimes he would help," she said.

I shrugged. "Well, I don't know him. He didn't even talk to me on our way back," I said.

"Are you sure?" she asked. "You're standing up for him, too."

"What?" I asked.

"Don't tell me. . . I have to get you two together!" she squealed.

"Sakura, I dot like him," I said. And I thought only Ino was that girly. Well, that was what I used to be.

"Sure you don't," she said rolling her eyes. "I can see the romance, the love," she said with hearts in her eyes.

I backed away a little. "S-Sakura, are you okay?" I asked.

"Yes!" she said. "Oh, yeah! I'm back with dinner!"

She held out a bag of takeout. "I have some dango for later and some ramen," she said.

I reached out for the bag, but she pulled it away. "Only if you tell me if you like Shikamaru," she said.

I pouted. "Well, he's kind of cool," I said.

"Ha! You do like him somehow! You know, he's a good chuunin. He's going to be a jounin soon," she said.

I made another reach for the food and got it. I got out from my bed and walked towards the dining room with Sakura.

I took out the box and the chopsticks and said "Itadakimasu!"

We ate in silence for the night. Tomorrow, I still had training to do. I sighed, more back-breaking labor for me. At least I would learn how to do chakra infused punches.

I smiled in thought. I then looked at Sakura. She's been so nice to me since I came. I guess, I shouldn't blame her for killing Sasori. She didn't kill him anyways, it was Chiyo.

"Hey, Sakura," I said.

"Hm?" she asked.

"I hears about the Akatsuki. Did you fight any of them? Do you think I can fight them?" I asked.

"Yeah, I did," she said. "There was this Alatsuki member Akasuna no Sasori. At first, I thought that all of Akatsuki was bad and that they were monsters. Technically, Sasori wasn't human. He was a puppet, or he made himself into one. His parents were killed when he was still young, so he never had love. At the end, he let his grandmother and me kill him with his parent's puppets. I guess not all of Akatsuki is that bad at all," she said sadly. I nodded.

"And, you if course you can defeat them! You're a jounin! I'm just a chunin. You can stand a chance," she said.

"Thanks," I said.

"No problem." I guess staying here isn't as bad as it seems.

The next day . . .

"Okay, now that you have gained more control in your chakra, I can teach you how to infuse it into your fist. First, channel your energy and then punch the ground. It seems easy, but you need perfect control," Sakura said.

I nodded and tried to channel my chakra into my right hand. And then, I punched the ground as bard as I could. Only a small crack was made on the earth and my hand hurt.

"Ouch," I muttered.

"It's okay," Sakura said. "You only didn't put enough in." She started healing my hand quickly.

I nodded and concentrated again. I felt my chakra flow to my hand and exhaled. I saw my hand glowing blue and I slammed my fist on the ground below me.

I smiled in success as the ground broke up creating a narrow crevice on the floor.

"Good job, Hikari-chan!" Sakura said.

"It wasn't as good as I expected it to be, but what can I say? I've impressed myself," I said. "It didn't hurt as much as I thought it would."

"I thought the same thing, too," she said.

"And I thought it would be an epic failure," I sighed. "I should practice a little more."

"It's a good idea. Just don't push yourself too hard. Chakra infused punches take a lot out of you at first," she said.

"Sure," I said.

"I'm going for lunch right now. You can come if you want," she said.

"I'll eat later," I said.

She shrugged. "Whatever floats your boat," she said and walked away.

I sighed. Now for practice.

Meanwhile

No one's POV

Tsunade sat in her office waiting.

Someone knocked on the door. "Enter," the Hokage said.

The door opened and two men walked in. They were Kakashi and Asuma.

"Greetings, Hokage-sama, what are we here for?" Kakashi asked.

"I need to prove Kusagi Hikari's allegiance to Konoha. I would like to give her a team mission with Asuma and others. I need permission from both of you,"

Tsunade said.

"Why not?" Kakashi asked.

"Sure," Asuma said.

"Okay, that is all. You can leave," she said and they both disappeared. She sighed. "At least they used the door in the beginning," she muttered.