The end of the week passed in a blur of cheerleading practices and schoolwork. The squad was prepping three routines; there were two games next week, along with a rally in the gym after school on Friday that required long and intense practices. There were usually a few weeks like this per season, but Sakura's overload of schoolwork did nothing to help the situation.

No one was worried about Monday's game; they were playing Yuga, who had never been very good. Friday, however, was a different story: they was playing Kumo, one of their biggest rivals. The majority of Kumo's players were not only huge and ridiculously strong, but incredibly fast. It had been their only loss last year and Neji had beaten himself up over it for weeks afterward. Sakura put what could be impending doom on the back burner, however; she had classes to worry about for now.


"Remember your error analysis!" Dr. Tsunade said loudly. She was walking among the groups during Monday's Physiology class, observing as they wrote observations on the frog dissection they had done the previous week. "Even the best of us make errors. You should always fess up to your mistakes!"

"Oh no," Sakura's partner, a girl named Shiho, turned to her anxiously. "We did that, right?"

"Yeah, I did it yesterday while you were writing the conclusion. Really all we need are the final observations."

"Oh, great. That means we have to look at it again." Shiho said distastefully.

Sakura raised her eyebrows. "You're in Physiology, but you don't like looking at frog organs?"

"I'm not…super into anatomy. I mean, I don't particularly like looking at frog hearts and everything. My family runs a forensics firm so that's what I really want to go into. I—" She lowered her voice. "Don't tell Dr. Tsunade, but I really need her recommendation if I'm going to get into Suna's program."

Sakura nodded with a smile.

"You're probably in it for the class, though, aren't you? I mean, you're really smart."

"Oh…Thanks? I'm really not." Sakura said, embarrassed.

"I don't get how someone like you is so modest." Shiho shook her head.

"You sound like my friend Ino." Sakura said, rolling her eyes.

"Ino Yamanaka you mean? The one who's dating Shikamaru Nara?" Shiho asked eagerly.

"Um…Yeah?"

"I mean, obviously everyone knows her, but I'm so just jealous that she's dating him. We were lab partners in Chemistry last year." Shiho looked away dreamily. "He was never very motivated but he was so dreamy. I'm surprised he wasn't in this class, he's really smart."

"He's not interested. I asked him." Sakura said. "He likes science but he doesn't want to go into medicine. At least I don't think he does."

"Oh, yeah, you two must be friends." Shiho said ruefully.

"Once you get to know him you learn how lazy he is about everything. That's probably the real reason he's not in this class."

"Yeah…" Shiho turned back to the papers on the lab table and started reading.

"Anyway," Sakura said, "I think we should talk about the oversized liver. The book said it's large because the liver's one of a frog's most active organs..."

"Which means it wasn't an abnormality," Shiho said, nodding. She scribbled a few sentences onto their lab sheet.

The bell rang. "Time's up!" Dr. Tsunade called. "Leave your papers on my desk. You're all dismissed."

Several lab groups were still putting last minute additions into their reports, but Dr. Tsunade came around and snatched them out from right under their pencils.

"Wait—" Someone said feebly.

"You don't dictate your time in the real world. You might not always get the chance to finish." She said, throwing the papers onto her desk. "Now get out before you're late, your other teachers were on my back the last time I let you out after the stupid bell."

Sakura gathered her books together and followed her classmates out.

"I can't believe she took people's papers before they were finished!" Shiho said as they got into the hallway and out of Dr. Tsunade's earshot.

"It is Dr. Tsunade. Anyway, it's probably a good lesson. She's right, we're not always going to get extra time." Sakura said.

"That's true." Shiho sighed. "Hey, would you maybe answer a few questions I had about the quiz sometime? I don't really want to see Dr. Tsunade separately. I know we're not, like, friends but I figured you're the smartest person in the class."

"Um, yeah, sure." Sakura said. They joined the flow of people going toward lunch. "How about after lunch."

"Sure!" Shiho said. "One of the empty bio classrooms?"

"Sounds great." Sakura said.

"Okay, I'll see you then!" Shiho turned off to go straight to the cafeteria but Sakura continued to her locker. She had planned to skip lunch that day anyway; she had so much work to do, with the next day's Physiology quiz and a History essay due on Wednesday that she'd barely started. Ino would be mad at her but she didn't have a choice. She hurriedly started to shove books in her locker.

"Hey, Sakura."

Sakura jumped slightly at the deep voice. "Oh, hi, Idate." She said, putting the rest of her books away.

Idate Morino was leaning casually against the locker next to hers. "You want to walk up to lunch with me?"

"Sorry, I can't. I have to go do something." She said apologetically.

"Aw, okay. Sure?"

"Yeah," Sakura smiled. "But thanks anyway."

"Hey, no big deal." He grinned. "I'll see you around. Wish I could come to the game tonight, I wanted to see your guys' routine. But I've got a meet."

"Oh, good luck."

"Shouldn't need it." He shrugged and grinned. "But thanks."

Well he hasn't changed, Sakura thought amusedly. "No problem. I'll see you around, Idate."

"See ya." He jogged off to join some friends and she rolled her eyes. Even she could see how much of a show-off he was. At least he had niceness going for him.

Sakura took out a few notebooks and her History textbook and was just closing her locker door when she heard, "Sakura-chan!" Oh, great. Naruto. Just what I need right now.

Naruto and Sasuke were coming down the hallway together. Sasuke sped up and continued past them but Naruto stopped at her locker with a suspiciously wide grin.

"I saw you talking to Idate," he said, wiggling his eyebrows. "Something up between you two?"

"Shut up, Naruto. You're so obnoxious."

"So there is something going on!"

She glared at him. "There is nothing going on! You're such a girl. Jesus Christ."

"Aw, come on, Sakura-chan. I know you guys dated before but it'd be cool if—"

"I'm not in the mood right now, Naruto." Sakura said through gritted teeth. "Why do people not understand the fact that a girl can talk to a guy without being in some kind of romantic relationship with them! Do I talk to you? Yes. Are we in a relationship? Definitely not."

"I was just checking! You're being unfair!" Naruto protested. "Come on!"

"Yeah, sorry. I jumped down your throat." And you deserved it. Honestly, this is ridiculous, she thought. I can't talk to any guy without someone saying something about it.

"That's okay. You want to come to lunch with me, Sakura-chan?"

"No, sorry, I have to go work." She said. "I'll see you for the game this afternoon. And no more questions about any relationships," she threatened.

Naruto held up his hands in surrender. "Deal! I'll see ya later!" He ran to catch up with Sasuke, who was long gone around the corner.

Sakura sighed, rubbed her forehead tiredly, and then headed for the nearest empty Bio room to work on her essay and wait for Shiho.


"Sorry I'm late!" Shiho said what felt like a minute later. Sakura looked up at the clock, startled, to realize that twenty-five minutes had passed. She'd already written three paragraphs, which wasn't bad.

"No problem. I didn't even realize the time." Sakura said. "Here, pull up a desk."

"I just have a couple of quick things to ask you about." Shiho said.

A crowd of people was walking past the room so Sakura got up to close the door. She glimpsed Sasuke in the crowd, surrounded by the football team, but she shut the door and returned to her desk before they passed the room.

"So what were your questions?" Sakura asked Shiho, taking out her notebook.

Shiho smoothed back her messy ponytail and adjusted her glasses. "First, about the circulatory system, there was something on the diagram…" She riffled through her notes and pulled out a packet.

The two of them stayed in the classroom until the last minute and Sakura had to run to make it to English on time.

"Just in time, Haruno," Genma said as she rushed into the room.

"Sorry," she said, sliding into her seat next to Kiba.

"Don't worry about it. Unlike a few others I won't mention by name, you're usually on time."

Sakura smiled.

"You look kinda stressed." Kiba muttered. "Everything alright?"

"Fine." She said breezily, taking out her books. "Lot of work. Same old, same old. The second half of the week should be better, hopefully."

Kiba grinned. "Ready for the game today?"

"I hope so. You?"

"Pretty pumped. We're gonna smoke Yuga."

Sakura was planning to just go on autopilot for their routine in the game that afternoon, and not think too hard about anything; she wasn't doing any flips or being tossed, thankfully. Still, the game ended up being a lot of fun and almost erased the thought of the schoolwork she had hanging over her head; there was such a difference between Konoha and Yuga's teams, it was almost comical. At the end of the first half, it was twenty-seven to zero and Yuga hadn't managed to advance at all. Ino's lecture about Sakura skipping lunch was short-lived because, like every Konoha fan, she was in such a good mood.

Sakura felt a bit bad for Yuga, because Konoha fans stopped any chances they had of scoring with their enthusiasm for the home team. At halftime, Sakura saw the quarterback approach Sasuke and the two of them talked for a moment before the Yuga quarterback jogged back to his own team.

"What was that about?" Sakura asked Ino.

"Beats me. Hold on a second, I'll go see." Ino ran over to talk to Shikamaru for a minute and then came back. She was laughing. "Apparently he said 'Sorry for wasting your afternoon. Clearly we shouldn't be playing you guys.'"

"Well, at least he's a really good sport." Sakura said with a smile. "I feel sorry for them, they're probably having a horrible time."

"Seriously? I think it's hilarious." Ino said with a grin. "Come on, let's go out and do our thing."

Not doing flips gave Sakura a break, because the rest of the routine was basic. For once she actually enjoyed the screaming crowd as they did their routine; there really was nothing like the performing high, like Ino always said. Even the Yuga kids gave them a huge round of applause, because at that point, they had already been completely humiliated and didn't care anymore. Walking back to the school, Konoha fans complained (fondly) that the margin of victory was so huge, the whole thing seemed like a joke.

Friday's game was going to be a completely different story.


A/N: Midweek update because snow days are awesome.

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