Hmm…I know almost nothing about how the whole Beta thing works…but if anyone wants to be one for me I'd be very pleased. (:

PS: It's AP testing season so my life sucks

Contact: Sakura

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SAKURA! Are you excited about the field trip next week?!

Of course! I love going to museums! They're so serene!

Uh…sure...but I meant the part where we go out to eat with the entire freaking Art class

Naruto.

Since Kurenai's paying for us all, I'm going to eat until I EXPLODE!

Hinata is such a lucky girl.

It was the first Saturday of March that Sakura decided to hold herself to her own promise.

Though the self-defense gym was within walking distance, she begged Shizune to drive her (without explaining what had happened to her before), which only took a few minutes. So there she was, staring at the entrance with a few nervous butterflies dancing around in her stomach. She was dressed in a very neutral outfit of black spandex leggings and a Konoha Pom Squad tshirt, paired with her favorite green tennis shoes.

There was no turning back. (Since she was already dressed, obviously)

With a goodbye wave to Shizune, Sakura opened the door to the medium-sized building, immediately being hit with the smell of disinfectant and rubber. At least that means they clean the place…

A pretty girl with a brunette bob smiled at her behind the front desk.

"Are you Sakura?"

"Uh..yeah," she answered nervously, inconspicuously glancing around the gym.

"Your mother called earlier. You're scheduled with our best trainer, Zabuza," the girl assured her. "Go into the main room, he's already here."

"Thanks!" she said before hurriedly walking over, the floor covered with a thick mat not unlike the kind you would find in a gymnastics gym. A few punching bags littered the surrounding area. But she didn't see any teac—

There was a light tap on the back of her neck.

"If I had any sort of weapon, you'd be dead right now," she heard a deep voice growl. Whipping around, she came face-to-face to one of the most intimidating men she'd ever seen. He was extremely tall with choppy dark hair, and there wasn't an ounce of fat visible on his body. However, he wasn't bulky like the stereotypical boxer, instead being long and lean.

"Aren't you a pretty little thing," he smirked. "Start stretching while I talk to you."

She frantically dropped to the ground, spreading her legs and leaning forward to loosen each limb.

"Hearing that you were a dancer, I thought that we'd start at the intermediate level, but seeing you in person, you're far too small for that," he said professionally, looking her over with a critical eye. "You'll need to gain more muscle, particularly in your arms."

"I have lots of muscle!" she protested without thinking. "It just doesn't look like it!"

He frowned.

"Then prove me wrong," he said quietly. "Land one punch on me."

"A p-punch?" she stammered out. "But I've never done anything like that!"

"Prove me wrong."

She took a deep breath and rose up, trying to look more confident that she felt. While looking him dead in the eye, she flew her first forward, aiming for his abdomen before he caught it easily.

"Try it again."

She aimed for his shoulder only to have him dodge once more.

"Again."

She narrowed her eyes before releasing a full-fledged attack on him, throwing dozens of hits but not landing a single one. At that point, she began to realize that it was pointless, and she sank back down to the ground, trying to regain her breath.

"You might think that being a dancer helps you, but right now it's only hurting you," he said smoothly, without a single sign that he had been moving around. "I'll count this as your pre-screening. Come back next week, and I'll have a full plan and schedule for you."

"W-what?" she gaped, still on the ground.

"Your Aunt was very specific when it came to your training," he mused, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Said something about 'waking up that girl's inner beast.'"

Sakura sighed. At least she knows what she wants...?

"I'll have Haku call you as soon as we're ready," he finalized, gesturing to the girl at the desk. "For now, try doing as many strength exercises as you can at home."

"Yeah, okay. Thanks!" she smiled, now realizing that she had a week until she would have to face him again.

"Oh, by the way, you go to Konoha, right?"

She nodded.

"Heh, I happen to know a guy who teaches there..." he said quietly, trailing off.

Not wanting to push the matter (he was a very intimidating man, after all), Sakura silently left the gym, making sure to wave goodbye to Haku.

"Students! Calm down!" Mrs. Sarutobi begged frantically, trying to keep her eyes on twenty high school art students at the same time. "Remember! We're here for the art!"

"I'm here for the food!" Naruto cheerfully added, earning a smack on the arm from Sakura. A few students muttered their agreements.

"Shut up, idiot," Sasori growled, clearly being one of the only ones there that was actually interested in the paintings and sculptures surrounding them. Not even Sakura, the overachieving honors student, was fully paying attention.

"Okay, if you don't listen carefully, you won't know about your upcoming project...worth 200 points of your grade."

Sakura perked up, alongside the other students like her that took the class because it was required.

Deidara, Sasori, and the other "true artists" leaned in for different reasons.

A chance to prove my superiority...Sasori smirked to himself.

A chance to show that asshole Sasori who's really the best! Deidara silently grinned.

"Now that I have all of your attention," Kurenai said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "Let me remind you that this project will consist of 20% of your grade for this semester."

Some quiet protests and grumblings were heard throughout the crowd. Sakura inwardly sighed. Didn't people understand yet that this class was only graded on effort? How else would she have an A+ in the class with no artistic talent whatsoever?

"Your theme is ambiguous on purpose," Kurenai grinned, white teeth contrasting brilliantly with her bright red lipstick. "That way you can use as much creativity as possible!"

"Well what is it?" Deidara whined. "Tell us!"

Kurenai shot him a dirty look. Just because the kid was an artistic genius did not mean she'd take his bullshit.

"Innocence."

A loud chorus of Whaat? and Huh? Resounded throughout the students. But the brunette teacher was not to be stopped by her students' "obvious lack of appreciation."

"You can choose the pure, the corrupted, those just within darknesses' grasp…anything to do with morality and the struggle of good and evil," she trailed off, eyes glimmering with possibilities. Sometimes, Sakura wondered if Mrs. Sarutobi would be better off teaching some literary analysis class. (Or a drama class, if they had one)

Unfortunately, since she was so lost in her own thoughts, she completely misread the kids' blank, horrified expressions as being stunned with joy.

I'm such a good teacher…she thought proudly. Better than Asuma's silly French shit. Even if he does sound really hot when he speaks the "language of love"…

It didn't take long for the field trip to be over, and when it was, the students all sat in the art room together, waiting for the day to end. The only good thing that came out of it was that they got to miss an entire day of school (you know, the classes that actually counted?)

As you could probably assume, Sakura was not too pleased to have missed a day's worth of lectures and notes, very evident by the fact that her mouth seemed to be set in a firm grimace. Nevertheless, Deidara was hopeless when it came to picking up on social cues and tried to talk to her anyways.

"Hey Sakura, guess what~?" Deidara sang out, running his finger down her arm. However, before she could give him a glare, Naruto beat her to it.

"What do you want, Deidara?" Naruto grumbled. "I'm sick of hearing you talk! You and Sasori spent that entire field trip arguing about stupid art techniques!"

"Naturalism and Existentialism are two very different perspectives in any medium," Sasori frowned distastefully.

"Shut up, Sasori. They're both depressing and outdated," Deidara whined.

"That's rich, coming from someone who—"

"WHAT did you need to tell me?" Sakura growled out, tired from being stuck in the middle of art-philosophy debates.

"Well..ahem," Deidara started. "I've chosen my subject for the 'Innocence' project."

"What is it?" she deadpanned, looking oh so obviously interested in whatever he had to say.

"You!"

Sakura froze for a second. "…me?"

"Yeah! I'll probably be mostly using oil pastels, and then some-"

"Then I'm doing Sakura, too," Sasori interjected without hesitation, and you could practically see the immediate tension that filled the air.

"Ew," Naruto giggled immaturely until Sasori's cold stare shut him up. "But what do you guys mean?"

"We have to draw something, so I've decided to make it some-ONE," Deidara hastily explained, more focused on Sakura's reaction than if Naruto understood or not.

But to his subtle despair, her expression was trained to that of cool indifference…which could also be interpreted as "I am tired of taking this bullshit."

"Make it a contest," Naruto giggled, masculine as usual. "Whoever gets the highest grade gets Sakura's hand in marriage."

Glare from Sakura.

Grin from Deidara.

Blank expression from Sasori.

"Marriage, my ass…," Sakura grumbled.

"We get your ass?!" Deidara cheered, this time getting Sakura to react (oh, she did alright) by smacking his frantically waving hands away from her.

"Okay, wouldn't it make more sense to just ask for a date or something? Geez…," she sighed, obviously not seeing that her words just sealed her own fate.

"Whoever wins gets a date!" Naruto yelped, making Mrs Sarutobi look over and shush them by pointedly putting a finger to her lips.

"Fine."

"Fine."

"NOT fine!" Sakura hissed.

"My theme will be springtime, and the absolute rapture of innocent youth that only lasts a moment before dying away!" Deidara announced, smiling proudly.

"My theme is a secret, but Sakura will be the perfect subject," Sasori said a little quietly, void of his usual smirk. Perhaps the possibility of competition scared him a bit?

...wait, was he actually worried that he could lose?

Nah, he must have a stomachache or something. After all, he's never even complimented Deidara's art, let alone declare it a threat.

But the bell then sounded off proudly, interrupting everyone's train of thought, save for a silently scheming strawberry-blonde.

"Naruto!" she whispered sharply, pulling him to her before he could walk away with everyone else. "Could you do me a favor?"

"How was your field trip yesterday?" TenTen asked brightly as she walked side-by-side her favorite little Freshman. Thankfully, the walking unit in gym meant that they got to spent the entire gym period just walking around the track, getting 45 minutes to gossip and chat.

"…Interesting," she mused, thinking back to Sasori and Deidara's little "competition" with a slight frown. She hadn't even agreed to it, for fuck's sake!

TenTen nodded, watching the expressions dance across Sakura's face. Does she even know how easy she is to read? She wears her heart on her sleeve without even realizing it…

"You know…," the brunette started with a faux-innocent tone. "Are you free tonight?"

"Why?" Sakura asked, a little bit suspicious. After all, TenTen had a bit of a sassy side to her, and while it reminded her of the adventures Ino would coax her into, it was still disconcerting.

"I'm getting people together to see a movie tonight!" she said proudly. "Do you wanna come with? I can drive you there!"

"Like who?"

"Um..Me, Hinata…other people…," the girl said a bit nervously,

"Is this some sort of group date?" Sakura asked sternly.

"Uh…Of course not! We're just going to see a sappy romance movie and gorge ourselves on buttery popcorn. Nothing relationship-y about that! Heh…heh…"

"Oh well then that's perfectly fine," Sakura grinned happily, making TenTen feel the sliiiightest bit guilty…but at the same time, not at all.

(It's all for the greater good. She thought to herself proudly)

"I'll pick you up at seven, okay?"

"Sure. Sounds great!"

Later that night, by the time TenTen picked her up, Sakura was starting to get a sense that the girl had something planned.

"Do you have perfume on?" she asked suddenly, making Sakura give her a weird look.

"I showered this morning. I put on deodorant. Is that not good enough?" she asked slowly. "It's not like there's someone I'm trying to impress or anything…"

"Open up the glove-box, okay? There's a bottle of vanilla-smelling stuff. Spray yourself a view times."

And why did that sound more like a command than a friendly suggestion?

Nevertheless, she obliged, causing TenTen to sigh in relief.

"Did I smell bad?" Sakura asked, now worried.

"No, you just needed to smell a little more flirty"

"What does that even mea-"

"WOW LOOK AT THAT, WE'RE HERE ALREADY!" TenTen exclaimed loudly, pulling haphazardly into a parking spot right in front of the large movie theater. As they walked in, Sakura couldn't help but notice that her friend was now frantically adjusting herself, smoothing down her hair, rubbing imaginary dust off her clothes, and taking a deep breath.

"What is wrong with you?" Sakura gaped. However, when they walked in, her question was answered by a big green blur racing past to envelope TenTen in a bone-crushing hug.

"TenTeeeen! We were so worried that you got lost trying to find Sakura's house or something!" Rock Lee said dramatically as he wrapped his arms around her, overly dramatic as ever.

Wait…we?

Sakura turned her head, only to face Naruto and Hinata (holding hands and looking like an adorable couple in general), and…Neji.

He nodded towards her, which she knew was Neji-speak for "hello, nice to see you," but nevertheless only made the situation a little more awkward.

"Huh, Neji. I never really saw you as a movie person?" Sakura commented, looking around and noticing that everyone already had tickets. Thankfully, Hinata handed one to her (Oh yeah. Didn't have to pay) as they all were ushered into the crowded theater. The only open row was the one in the very front, so they all had the wonderful pleasure of craning their necks up to see the screen properly.

Sakura sat near the middle, with Neji on her right and Lee on her left. The movie started almost just as they sat down, so she got to be perfectly snuggled next to her favorite brunette sophomore and an exuberant boy in green holding an extra large popcorn.

"If you need any popcorn, just reach over!" Lee assured everyone around him, save for Naruto and Hinata, since they were smart enough to buy their own so that they didn't have to keep bugging everyone else. And Sakura, being the ever-so-smart girl she was, forgoed the large soda, because she definitely did not want to get up to pee every 30 minutes.

As the movie's intro sequence began, the soft music relaxed her a bit, almost making her forget how Neji was centimeters away from her arm, exuding his usual attractive-boy aura.

Almost.

Even over the intense smells of popcorn and half-opened candy bars, she could detect a faint masculine smell, something crisp like cologne, yet a little softer. It then registered in her mind that it was a strong possibility that the smell was Neji.

Mmmm..

(She had to admit that she rather enjoyed it)

In fact, she enjoyed it so much that she subconsciously had scooted over as close to him as possible, pressed directly against the armrest with her knee brushing his. But it didn't really seem to make him react, unless of course that was a faint hint of a blush she saw on his—

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh! A shrill voice cried, making Sakura jump a little in her seat and nearly have a heart attack. Neji turned to her.

"Are you okay?" he said quietly, brow furrowed. Not wanting to admit that she had completely ignored whatever the first few minutes of the movie were, she just nodded mutely and faced the screen, only to see a buxom blonde being sliced in half by a rusty chain saw.

As the actress' wails were replaced by the sounds of her choking on her own "blood," the audience cheered, making Sakura jump once more.

"W-wasn't this supposed to be a romance movie?" she hissed to TenTen, who seem just as surprised at the amount of gore and guts occupying the screen at the moment.

"I think we got into the wrong theater," TenTen whispered from her left, narrowing her eyes. "Or Naruto bought the wrong tickets."

The panicked look on Naruto's face explained the situation rather quickly.

"But I bought the ones for Life is Short but Sweet!" he gaped out.

"Naruto…," Neji sighed, "The romance movie was called Screaming and Crying."

At this point, Naruto was getting nervous under the glares of all his friends.

"Okay! You can obviously see how one could confuse those, right?" he explained rather loudly, catching the attention of the people in the row behind them.

"Hey, shuttup!"

"Sit still, asshole, we're trying to watch!"

"You guys can't handle this? Seriously?"

The six teenagers sat perfectly still, though Sakura could tell from Neji's glare that he very much wanted to say something back.

"It's probably better if we just sit and watch," Sakura whispered to her friends, all of them nodding in response. However, the screams came from the speakers once more, making her instinctively bite her lip in fright.

Lee saw the way she clutched the armrest and gave her a worried look. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," she assured quietly, hiding a grimace as a knife sliced through the torso of yet another pretty actress. "I'm just not the biggest fan of horror movies."

"Well you're going to have to get used to blood if you wanna be a doctor!" Naruto said roughly, making sure the people behind them didn't scold them for talking again.

"I think the senseless violence is what's bothering her," Neji broke in, rolling his eyes. "Unlike some people, she's probably not desensitized by video games and mindless cartoons."

One of the people behind them let out an exasperated sigh, effectively shutting them up.

Neji gave Sakura a tired smile, though the friendly gesture looked really awkward on him, as if he was unused to it. If Sakura remembered correctly, Hinata had told her before how Neji had never really had the chance to "enjoy his childhood," as his family had always expected him to be mature and professional in order to maintain appearances. But at the moment, such business looked far from his mind, as he squinted slightly at the screen, looking as if he was trying to find some sort of plot underneath the gore. The way his eyes focused, she could tell that he would need glasses sometime in the future, and for some reason, she found it quite adorable.

Without realizing it, the corners of her lips began to rise.

TenTen looked over for the briefest second, and was met with a cute sight: Sakura, completely focused on Neji, ignoring the movie in favor of watching the expressions flit across his face. (Though he was mostly just confused as to why people would intentionally pay to see something so vulgar) Before, it was entirely her intention to set Sakura up with Deidara, but now she could see why Hinata was so enamored with her cousin and Sakura together.

She sighed lightly to herself, leaning her head on Lee's warm shoulder. First, there was Deidara and Sakura, artist and muse, but now there was also Neji and Sakura, two attractive overachievers. Shit…were there any more boys she neeed to know about?

(Oh TenTen, if only you knew)

The group of teenagers left the theater in a sleepy haze, unused to the bright daylight shining down on them, making their eyes sting. Naruto still clung to a bucket of popcorn sopping with butter and artificial preservatives, while Lee's hand found its way around TenTen's.

Neji and Sakura walked awkwardly next to each other, unsure of what distance was appropriate. Their arms hung limply at the their sides, trying to avoid the fact that they were essentially on a triple date, and now that NaruHina and LeeTen had partnered off, they were expected to as well.

"I can't say I liked that movie very much," Sakura said quietly to herself as they almost reached the parking lot, looking around at all the kids their age milling around the front of the building.

"I would not recommend it to any pleasant company," Neji replied curtly, receiving a soft smile from his strawberry-blonde companion.

Unfortunately, Naruto had to ruin the mood.

"Hey isn't that Sasuke?" he exclaimed without thinking, pointing off in the distance. Everyone's steps faltered, particularly Sakura, who froze immediately. Unconsciously, Neji's hand made its way to the small of her back in attempts of a comforting gesture.

She looked to where Naruto had so brazenly pointed.

A group of kids, two of them wearing Sound High School sweatshirts stood a few feet from the corner of the movie theater, wisps of cigarette smoke implying that at least one of them was breaking the law carelessly in public. And sure enough, standing at the center of the delinquents was Sasuke Uchiha, a small frown adorning his handsome face. A plastic baggy dangled from his clenched fist, filled with something green that Sakura couldn't identify. (But somehow, Lee and TenTen knew, for they started whispering about it immediately)

"Let me go over there and-" Naruto started, only to be cut off by Neji.

"We're going home."

He looked like he was deliberating it in his head, but after seeing Sakura's hurt expression, he immediately decided to comply.

"Uh…yeah. That makes sense. I mean, I have a lot of homework to do and stuff…" he trailed off, and no one called him out on his blatant lie.

TenTen gently released herself from Lee.

"I'll take you home, Sakura. Everyone else can find their own rides," she faux-teased, failing to maintain any sort of happy atmosphere.

And so they left hurriedly, not bothering to look back at Sasuke who had definitely seen Neji's hand on her back, and certainly not bothering to say anything although Sakura wanted nothing more than to go over and scream at him for making bad decisions and ruining his own life.

TenTen, being the ever-caring friend she was, didn't even make Sakura talk the entire ride home.

(She would just ask Hinata for the back-story later)

"Well, I've graded all the projects," Mrs. Sarutobi exclaimed happily to the class. "And I am quite pleased with the results. You all seemed to have taken this project quite seriously!"

The class nodded and grinned, all except Sasori and Deidara, who were grumpily staring each other down. Naruto and Sakura just sat in anxious silence.

"Who got the highest grade?" a kid in the front asked brashly, crossing his arms and waiting for an answer.

Kurenai sighed. "Well, technically I'm not allowed to say that, but if you wish, you may talk amongst yourselves as I pass out the grading sheets."

And so she quickly walked around the room, passing out sheets with red markings stapled to the original projects.

"What did you get, yeah?" Deidara perilously asked Sasori, though a smug smirk tore across his tan cheeks.

"You first," Sasori growled. Sakura rolled her eyes at the two, frowning a bit at the 98% she received. (Just barely an A+….)

"100 percent" they both exclaimed at the same time, surprising each other. Without explanation, they lunged for each other's papers to make sure the other was telling the truth. (They were)

"This is actually pretty good…," Sasori grunted out, as if it pained him to admit.

"Yeah, yours isn't so bad either," Deidara admitted. "Though that's probably because you decided to use Sakura. She's the only reason you got this grade."

They sat in silence, pondered over each other's work.

"So who wins?" Sasori asked Sakura with a glint of something in his amber eyes. (Did he look…nervous? Aw..)

At that exact moment, Mrs. Sarutobi dropped Naruto's grade in front of him, giving him a bright smile.

"I was so glad that you decided to draw something other than food, Naruto," she praised, patting him lightly on the back. "So I gave you some extra credit. Hopefully you can continue this level of work in the future."

The sheet fell in front of them.

"…..103%?!" Deidara gasped.

"Is this a joke?!" Sasori exclaimed, uncharacteristically loud.

"Nah, just hard work and dedication," Naruto chuckled, rubbing the back of his head. "And I draw a picture of Sakura hugging a fox. Creative, huh?"

"That's not even remotely creative…," Dediara grumbled, stopping as soon as Sakura shot him a glare.

"I thought it looked cute," she pouted.

"You knew about this beforehand?" Sasori asked sharply. Sakura's cheeks flushed for the briefest of seconds, suddenly caught.

"Heh…I may or may not have asked him to participate in your little contest," she let out sheepishly. The two artists groaned.

"Ugh, Sakura, why do you do this to me, yeah," Deidara muttered under his breath, while Sasori just brooded silently.

"Well, ladies," Naruto grinned. "I believe Sakura over here owes me a date. Though I'm not sure if it qualifies as one, exactly, because I'm definitely bringing Hinata and Neji with me."

"Neji?" Deidara frowned. "Wait—that's not fair, yeah!"

"Even though Neji can be a prick, I'd rather have him around Sakura than you two!" Naruto teased, sticking his tongue out and watching the other two boys fume.

Sakura just giggled.

Happy mother's day I guess. Heh…I definitely did not check this for mistakes because I wanted to upload it quickly.