The song used is "You Deserve It" from Bandstand, once again. Man, I love that musical. Also, because I couldn't help myself, I made and entire album for them. let me know if you want it.

Chapter 14

"Absolutely not!"

"But, Papí!"

Kizashi sighed heavily before sitting down at the living room table, Sakura still standing frustrated on the other side of the table. Even though they were trying to mend their relationship (like Sakura calling him and her mom a less formal version of 'Dad' and 'Mom'), they still had their rocky moments. "Because, mi cielo, no one will buy a song like this, not from a thirteen year old. It's a beautiful song, but it's not the right time."

Sakura's mom came in and put her hand on her daughters shoulder. "It'll be okay, mija, you'll see. Oh, by the way," Sakura's mom went by the buffet by the front door and held out a letter to Sakura. "We have another letter from the comé mierda."

Sakura rolled her eyes as she snatched the paper out of her hand. "Naruto isn't a comé mierda." Sakura had to pause because Naruto was a little shit. "Well, he doesn't mean to be," she revised.

"He only writes when Jiraiya needs to send something to Señora Tsunade. That," she raised her eyebrows, "makes him un pedazo de mierda."

"Mámí! You know what? I'm leaving." Sakura walked passed her mom and opened the front door while Kizashi admonished his wife about calling her daughter's friend a piece of shit. Sakura closed the door and made her way to the Hokage Tower. She opened the envelope and only saw a sealed letter addressed to Tsunade. She stopped in the middle of the street, stunned. Naruto usually sent her a letter along with Jiraiya's letter to Tsunade, since they figured that it would be less suspicious for Naruto to send her letters than for Jiraiya to send letters directly to Tsunade.

Something bumped into her and jostled her enough that she dropped the letter. "I'm so sorry!" A male voice spoke, sounding panicked. She looked up and saw Dosu, the boy she was supposed to fight in the Chūnin Exams. A few days after Tsunade healed Kakashi, she had healed Dosu but had kept him in a medical coma until she could figure out what to do with him. The Council has decided to send him to T&I to see what he knew about Orochimaru, which Dosu gave willingly once he heard that his former leader had used Kin and Zaku as sacrifices to bring back the First and Second Hokages. He was then stripped of his genin rank and put under surveillance until the Council deemed him loyal.

Dosu's strangled sound of fear caused Sakura to refocus on him as he took in just who he had run into. He dropped down to pick up the letter and hand it over without looking away. Sakura had mixed feelings about Dosu. Sure, tried to kill Sakura and her friends but he betrayed Orochimaru in the end. Sakura accepted the envelope before taking a deep breath. If I can accept Gaara, I can accept Dosu. "How are you?"

Dosu hesitated, looking around before responding. "I'm ok. I just wanted to say, I'm sorry for what I let K-Kin and Z-Zaku do." His voice cracked on their names before steeling himself. "I will do whatever it takes to make it up to you." He bowed low, eyesight the floor.

"You don't have to do that." Dosu jerked his head up to look at Sakura. She looked uncomfortable before pulling him upright. "Don't bow, we don't need to give them any more fuel." Sakura nodded to the cameras pointed at them, from regular people and paparazzi alike. "You we're doing your job, I can't fault you for that." Sakura's grip on his arms tightened slightly, careful not to hurt him. "Just don't do it again, okay?"

"Got it."

Sakura let Dosu go before continuing on to the Hokage Tower to deliver the letter and continue training. Sakura tried not to think about the fact that Naruto didn't want to talk to her anymore, mostly because training with Tsunade was brutal, but Sakura had been able to break a boulder with a punch! And she was now able to lift 120 lbs without chakra. Her medical training was coming along as well. It was hard for her at first, with having to put 75 percent of her chakra to her seal, but she figured out how to keep the flow consistent enough even while using her chakra to do other things. The poison training with Shizune and the training with Kakashi, Neji and Shikamaru also helped her not use up her chakra too much.

The album was coming along as well. After Kizashi got someone who could write the music for the lyrics they all wrote, the songs came together. Hinata surprisingly wrote a song by herself, as did Shikamaru and Kiba. Sakura wrote a different song, this one more "acceptable" as Kizashi would say. Some wrote songs together and everyone agreed that whoever wrote the song got to sing it, or take the solos. And then it came time to record.

"Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, where are they?"

Sakura was looking frantically around her room, uncaring if her new strength tore a cabinet from its hinges. Growling a noise of frustration, she tossed the last basket to the ground and stood in the center of her room. She went into her pack and pulled out a case. She grimaced before opening it and putting on her glasses. They didn't look bad on her, but she didn't really look like herself.

She walked into the recording studio a few minutes late, apologizing profusely. The producer told her not to worry about it and that they were doing Lee and Tenten's song 'You Deserve It' first that day. Sakura nodded and walked into the control room where everyone but Lee and Tenten, who were in the recording booth,were waiting. "Now hold up," Sakura froze in the doorway as Ino took one look at her before putting up her hands. "When did you get glasses?"

The others made a sound of surprise while Sakura answered, "Since just before graduation. I usually wear contacts, but I ran out early. So…" she shrugged helplessly.

"Oh…"

Shikamaru said what everyone was thinking, "But how come no one knew?"

"I don't know, it just didn't seem important." Sakura finally sat down next to Ino while they listened to Tenten and Lee record their parts for an hour until it was their time to go in and record the bridge.

"I look to my left and look to my right. And see other guys who fight. I'm feeling the rush I'm feeling the high. I'm feeling the rules don't apply. You deserve it, you deserve it! You deserve it, you deserve it!"

"Cause when you got the call you stood up proud and tall and you deserve it!" Lee and Tenten's voice came through the headphones.

"You deserve it! You deserve it, yeah! Do do do do do. Do do do do do!"

"You deserve it, yeah! Cause when you got the call you stood up proud and tall and you deserve it!"

"Ba ba da ba ba, ba ba da ba ba. Do do do do do, wa wa wa!" Everyone finished in tandem. They held their breath collectively before the producer gave them the thumbs up. They let a sigh of relief while celebrating finishing the first song they haven't performed.

—

Sakura stared at the Christmas tree in her living room. She knew that Konoha didn't officially celebrate Christmas, but they allowed the immigrants to keep their religion if they do wished. Sakura never asked anyone to celebrate it with her before, as she knew that they celebrated their own things - also, she didn't really have friends growing up except for Ino who only expressed interest over the flowers used. So, she was surprised when Ino and Shikamaru went over to her house, with a Christmas tree, and some mistletoe.

"I was just going to bring the mistletoe," Ino rushed out, "I remember you telling me about it years ago, but I didn't know where my mom should ship them from, so I asked Shikamaru and he said Ame, but wanted to know why I wanted them and I told him it was because of you and he did some research and-"

"And I said that we should at least help you decorate," Shikamaru sounded tired even after cutting Ino's rambling off. Sakura thanked them before putting them to work. Shikamaru complained the entire time, but did his part after Sakura's mom glared him into submission. A few hours later, and the inside of the house was done, including the tree with an angel on top. The three teenagers sat on the couch in front of the tree and Ino rested her head on Sakura's shoulder while Sakura rested hers on Shikamaru's when the doorbell rang.

Sakura groaned and got up before her mom could yell at her to get the door. Tenten was at the door, a notebook in hand, nervously shifting her weight from one foot to the other and back again. "Hey, can I come in? I didn't want to bother you, but I need help with a song."

"Yeah, sure come on in. Ino and Shikamaru are here, but I can make them leave if you want." Sakura's eyebrows scrunched in confusion. She didn't understand why Tenten was nervous.

"Umm, could you? I'll meet you in your room." Tenten shoot past her and up the stairs before Sakura could ask her what was wrong.

Sakura walked back to the living room and saw Ino and Shikamaru already standing. "We heard." Shikamaru spoke as he pushed Ino passed Sakura. He paused when it was just the two of them, "Let me know if you need anything," he whispered while Ino put her coat on by the door. Sakura nodded, grabbing his hand and squeezing in assurance, before he followed Ino out the door and Sakura ran upstairs to meet up with Tenten.

Sakura quietly shut the door to her room and looked around. Tenten was sitting at the electric keyboard, pressing keys to pass the time. She looked up when she heard the soft sound of the door closing and stood up. "Sorry, I just wanted to see if you could write the music for a song I wrote. I know you did it for your songs, but I don't want it to be a solo song." Tenten bit her lip, "I know I'm asking a lot from you, but I trust you more than the people your father got. Also, I can't stay here too long because Neji, Lee and I are training for the Chūnin Exams in a few weeks." Sakura felt a burst of guilt. She had been training with Neji for months now, and it completely slipped her mind that he wasn't a chūnin yet. She knew from the documents she did for Tsunade that they were coming up, and that after the international disaster the last multinational Chūnin Exams were, that they were going to be Konoha and allies only. Sakura hadn't been in there when the peace treaty was signed between Konoha and Suna - Sound had not been included since no one could find Orochimaru or anyone who was loyal to Sound - but she remembered the smug look on Tsunade's face after she turned away from Gaara and had a feeling that Suna had to pay them back.

Tenten hadn't noticed Sakura's inattention and continued talking. "I could help if you need a bass, but that's it. I know it's last minute and I'm really sorry, but I really red to pass this time."

At Tenten's imploring look, Sakura smiled reassuringly. "No problem Tenten. I know how it goes, just let me know if you pass. I got this."

"Thanks so much, Sakura!"

As Tenten left, Sakura looked from the lyrics to the keyboard. "Well, this shouldn't be too hard."

—

"Why is this so hard!?"

Sakura places her head on the keyboard, careful to not break it when she banged her head against it. She was glad that her parents let her get a soundproofed room when she asked for the keyboard, otherwise her mother would be in here yelling at her to stop that racket.

"Why's what so hard?" At the familiar drawl, Sakura looked at her window and there sat Kakashi.

Sakura squinted a little at him before asking him why he was there. "Well, I was about to help this little old lady cross the street when my Teacher Senses started tingling and wouldn't go away no matter how much I read, so I decided to see what my loyal little student was up to."

Sakura rolled her eyes as she turned back to the keyboard in front of her. "Sure, Kakashi-sensei, sure. But, I'm trying to write music for a song Tenten wrote, but I didn't realize how hard it was to write music for a song you didn't write, and therefore, don't know what it should sound like."

Kakashi had made it into her room and onto her desk chair as she ranted and rolled over to her. He knew that she knew that he lied about helping a little old lady and about his Teacher Senses (capitals essential, he was told). While he wasn't a good enough teacher to have the Senses, he could still tell that Sakura was getting frustrated. It was like an itch in the back of his mind along with Neji's growing anxiety and Shikamaru's wariness. As none of the younger ones showed any signs of knowing his emotions, he thought it was because he mastered his powers already. He thought about what helped him get over his own self hatred and it clicked, but first, he had to deal with the frustrated pinkette. "Do you have a guitar?"

"A what?"

"A guitar."

"...Yeah, it's in the den. Go downstairs and make a left, it's the tan room."

As Kakashi returned with the guitar, Sakura had been able to write another bar and erasing it again before groaning. "This is hopeless."

"No it's not. You know, I once had a mission where I had to pretend to be in a band."

"You did?" Sakura seemed skeptical.

"Yup. So, as your teacher, I am going to help you with the song. Now, I know nothing about writing music, but I'll do what sounds good. Okay?"

Sakura took a breath before smiling slightly, "Okay."

The next two weeks were filled with the two meeting after Sakura's training and getting anything down on paper. Their training with Shikamaru and Neji were also put on hold so that Neji could focus on the Chūnin Exams and Shikamaru could help his teammates get used to the new teammate, a pale boy named Sai. Shikamaru said that Ino liked him, but he also said that was because he called her "Miss. Beautiful". By the time the song was ready, Tenten had only been able to give her vague approval before rushing off with Lee and Neji to the train station where a train would take them out of the village to the first Phase of the Exams.

The next week was relatively peaceful in the village, at least until word came that the Exams had been cancelled because of an unknown event after the second Phase. When Tsunade returned Sakura found out that someone had attacked Gaara and a participant. Tsunade refused to tell her who it was because of confidentiality laws, but she did say that it was someone from another village. Sakura's worry disappeared. She knew that the Suna Siblings had all been made chūnin, since Gaara decided to have his siblings as close to him as possible to make up for lost time.

Sakura followed Tsunade around be hospital like a lovable puppy. "Come on, Shishou! You can't tell me all that and then not tell me who passed! Please?"

Tsunade smiled indulgently at her student as they returned to her office and gave Sakura some medical paperwork that she was too lazy to do. Once she made sure that her office was properly secured, Tsunade sat down and looked over her student, who was sitting on the counter to her right, having ignored the paperwork beside her. "I'll tell you if you do the work without complaining."

As Sakura cheered up and got down from the counter to sit in a stool, Tsunade continued, "Remember, this is all under the table. We can't have civilians knowing that everyone in the Konoha 10 are chūnin, now can we?"

Sakura perked up. "They all passed?!"

"Yup, even the new guy on Team Asuma, Sai. They all showed that they can handle things under pressure and have the skills to be recognized as chūnin."

—

"Congratulations!" Sakura wrapped her arms around Neji's neck, which he allowed for a few seconds before brushing her off with a light air blast. Sakura spun and landed lightly on her feet as Shikamaru rolled his eyes and muttered about how troublesome girls can be before giving Neji a fist bump of congratulations.

Sakura rolled her eyes at the boys interaction before wading into be nearby stream. She had been working on freezing water and manipulating it to still do what she wants; it was proving to be trickier than using mist or fog. She heard the boys start sparring, the ground trembling was a good indication, as they waited for Kakashi to show up - they knew by now to wait a few hours. Sakura took a deep breath as she put her hands in front of her in a large, loose circle before jerking her arms up, ice forming in a circular column under her arms. She looked up at Shikamaru's exclamation and saw a boulder flying towards her. She instinctively shot out a punch and ice covered her fist and shattered the boulder and the ice in one hit.

Sakura looked irritatingly at the lazy genius, her lips pursed. "Really? You're lucky I'm Tsunade's apprentice, otherwise that would've killed me." Shikamaru sheepishly looked away. Sakura looked at Neji next, "Don't think you're off the hook either, mister. You could have blasted the boulder to smithereens instead of just blowing it away." Neji resolutely kept Sakura's gaze, unwilling to give her an inch.

Sakura sighed, she already had to deal with one emotionally stunted teammate, she didn't want to deal with another one. Sakura left the stream and walked to Neji. He shot Shikamaru a look, who then proceeded to work on whatever it was he was working on, (he refused to tell Neji and Sakura until he deemed it safe he said. Sakura had rolled her eyes while Neji looked ready to throttle him and Kakashi patted his head and said not to blow up anything.) When Sakura and Neji were assured of their privacy, Sakura grabbed Neji's hand. She looked up at him, the few inches he had on her made her crane her neck a bit. "Don't do that. Don't shut us out, please?"

Neji dropped his gaze before meeting her eyes again. He was been getting better at opening up to his new team, but he still had his moments. His superiority complex acted up in odd times, forcing him to pull away from them. He squeezed her hand before pulling away, nodding and manipulating a soft breeze to circle Shikamaru in apology. Shikamaru closed his eyes, head tilted back and sighed. Sakura wondered what he felt when this happened, Neji had yet to do that to her, mostly because she stopped whatever fight was going to break out between her two boys.

Neji suddenly turned his head up towards the treetops and that was the only warning the three got before Sakura dodged a fireball while Shikamaru put up a wall and Neji deflected it. Kakashi jumped down from the branch he had been standing on. Sakura looked at her watch, she didn't think they were practicing long enough for Kakashi to be her but sure enough her watch said that they were. "Aww. It's nice to see my new team bonding."

"New team?" Sakura asked as the chūnin made their way over to him.

"Well, unofficially. Shikamaru and Neji are still a part of their teams, but as they do most missions with us…" Kakashi shrugged nonchalantly. "We're going to have to tell Tsunade eventually but that can wait. Now, I'm going to give the three of you a gift."

"Gift? What gift?" Shikamaru asked warily.

As Kakashi gets out a scroll shock runs through Sakura's body before happiness broke through, a smile breaking out. "Oh my gosh!" A breathless laugh left her mouth as her hand went over her mouth. She gasped, "Oh my gosh! That's your summoning scroll, isn't it?"

"His what now?" Neji's eyebrow shot up. Sakura was distracted enough to feel envious of his talent before her attention was once again on Kakashi.

"His summoning contract. He has a contract with dogs. It's pretty cool." Sakura nodded slightly in response as she looked at Neji in excitement.

"Yes, Sakura, this is my summoning contract. It will soon be yours too." Kakashi threw the scroll up in the air before catching it. "Now, this contract is different than most summoning contracts, because of the nature of the animals. Dogs are extremely loyal, especially to the alpha of their pack, but the beta is just as important. My pack recognizes me as alpha and Pakkun as my beta. Every pack is different and no one can call on another summoner's pack. The beta member of your pack are the only ones that will be able to speak in Common, although you will be able to understand the rest of your pack as well. Your beta will also take less chakra to summon, as they are the most common for you to summon and the one that matches your chakra the most."

"But, why give it to us? Why now?" Shikamaru asked, seemingly against his will.

Kakashi's visible eye darkened for a second before he closed it to smile. "Well, it's to help you. Neji, your anxiety masquerades as superiority complex. Sakura, although you got better at controlling your anger, now you internalize everything while wanting everyone to tell you everything and them not getting it in return. Shikamaru, you seem to have inherited Sakura's short temper and have gained some trust issues. Well, to be fair, you all seem to have trust issues."

At the jōnin's blunt honesty, the other three looked down uncomfortably. Sakura didn't want to hear any of this, she thought that she was handling her emotions well, thank you very much, but apparently she wasn't. She thought back to her mother sitting on her bed forcing Sakura to write feelings on her mirror saying, "It's okay to feel things, mija, I promise. Otherwise it will destroy you." Sakura might know what she was getting at now.

Sakura looked at Neji and Shikamaru, who avoided everyone's eyes like the plague. Sakura risked a glance at Kakashi and wished she could see his face, that helped her with Sasuke and helps her with Neji. She heard Kakashi sigh heavily before continuing, "Okay, maybe bluntness wasn't the way to go, but too late now. And as for why now, well, I was planning on giving it to my team when they all became chūnin, but that couldn't happen for obvious reasons. So then I thought to myself, 'Hey, don't I have another team of recently made chūnin that don't seem to be going anywhere?' 'Wow, you're so right, Me. Aren't I amazing?'"

Sakura opened her mouth in confused disbelief and looked at Neji, who looked slightly disturbed, and Shikamaru, who who seemed to try to make sense of Kakashi's rambling. "...Okay, then…" Sakura said slowly.

"Just think of it as an early Christmas present." Kakashi relented and Sakura lit up.

"Yay! Thanks Kakashi-sensei!"

"So, how do we do this?" Shikamaru butt in, annoyed that it was taking so long.

"First, you have to sign your name in blood along with your fingerprints. Both must have a small bit of your chakra. This is to ensure that no one else can summon in your name if they somehow get your blood. When you're ready, you will do the following hand signs: Boar, Dog, Bird, Monkey, then lastly Ram. If they accept you, then your new beta will appear. They will be with you nonstop for six months in order to properly bond with you. They will also tell you their names. Don't worry," Kakashi eye smiled, "it's harder than it seems."

"That doesn't exactly instill confidence in us." Neji sounded incredulous, and Sakura agreed. She knew it wouldn't be easy, but she has no idea how she's going to tell her parents that they will now have a dog for six months.

"Okay, so. We need enough blood to not only sign, but also enough for fingerprints." Shikamaru started.

"Which means, biting won't work." Neji continued.

Sakura rummaged through her weapons pouch and pulled out three senbon. "I think this should work. One for each of us." At the boy's looks, she continued defensively, "So that none of us get anything from each other."

After the boys acquiesced, she took the remaining senbon and pierced her right pointer finger. She looked over and saw Shikamaru do the same while Neji pokes his left pointer finger. "You're left handed?"

Neji nodded at her question and wrote his name. Even his writing was elegant, which Sakura found so unfair. Everything about him was pretty and perfect and it wasn't fair, damnit! Shikamaru went next and his writing was a mixture of cursive and print, but still better than Sakura's writing, which looks like a ten year old did it. She even had to stop halfway because she didn't have enough blood. Once their fingerprints were down Sakura used her healing chakra to heal all but one thumb from each chūnin. After doing the proper hand signs, the three slammed their hands on the floor and puffs of smoke appeared in front of them.

—

"Hey! I'm so happy you came! Everyone else is already here." Sakura hugged Tenten at the front door of her house, Neji and Lee behind her.

"We wouldn't miss it for the world, Sakura-chan!" Lee shoved Tenten out of the way and hugged Sakura tight. Sakura was sure that if it wasn't her training with Tsunade, as the Hokage liked to wrap her arms around Sakura's and squeeze, that she would have passed out. She ushered Lee inside along with Tenten and gave Neji a hug as well, his Doberman puppy trailing after him, who sprinted off in search of the playmates she smelled.

It was a week after their successful summons and Sakura was still getting used to her copper colored fur ball running after her. She made damn well sure that her new puppy was potty trained in as soon as possible. Unlike Neji's Doberman and Shikamaru's Rottweiler, both of which looked purebred, Sakura's puppy looked like a mix. After some research, she found out her big ball of fluff was a Golden Shepherd, a Golden Retriever and German Shepherd mix. She knew that both breeds were not native to the Shinobi continent, but didn't know where they were from exactly (other than a 'German' place, obviously).

She was brought out of her head by Ino, who lightly touched her shoulder, her blonde hair now reaching a few inches past her shoulders in beach waves. Sakura's hair now reached just below her shoulders. She couldn't really pull off a shorter look, considering her hair just decided to start curling recently and refused to not frizz, so she just scrunched her hair and hoped for the best. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Sakura smiled reassuringly. "Let's go eat some food."

Before they started eating, Kizashi mentioned that their album got approved and would be released in the new year. Sakura felt more nervous than when she too her genin test. She managed to get some pork and mashed potatoes down before she could make herself sick form overthinking things.

After the meal, the Konoha 10 moved to the den, where a table was set up for dominos. "So, usually we play Riverian Train Dominos. Do you know how to play?" At the unanimous denial that went around the table Kizashi started to explain. "So, usually everyone plays individually, but as you can have up to eight people playing everyone will be on teams…"

Sakura got up while he was explaining about the fichas, or tokens used to show when someone was open, and went into the kitchen to get herself some punch. She bumped into Neji on her way back to the den and almost spilled her punch. "Oh! Sorry!" Sakura laughed nervously.

"It's no big deal."

"Mistletoe!" Kiba's voice broke out. Sakura and Neji both looked up and sure enough, there was a mistletoe hung innocently in the doorframe. "You know the rules!"

Sakura's face turned red. She had never kissed anyone before. At one point she almost kissed Sasuke, but he had to run off for some reason, but she can't lie to herself and say that she never thought about kissing Neji; after all, he was very kissable. A small part of her hoped that her first kiss would be Ino, but she wouldn't mind kissing Neji if he was okay with it. She risked a glance up at his face and saw that he was contemplating it as well, a slight blush on his cheeks. She ignored the others in the room as Neji lowered his voice and asked for permission. Inner took control enough to lightly nod before Sakura pushed her back down, but didn't change the answer.

Neji slowly bent down, his hand on her cheek and pressed his lips to hers and Sakura's eyes fluttered closed. It was nice, more than nice, actually. Her stomach was doing flips and her heart raced. For her first kiss, it wasn't bad. His warmth in front of her made her lightheaded as he opened his mouth slightly and tilted his head to get a better angle. Sakura brought her hand to the side of his neck to better ground herself. They continued for a few more seconds, softly kissing before pulling away, staring at each other.

"Wow." Sakura breathes out, smiling slightly.

"Yeah." Neji agreed just as quietly.

"Well, if you're done, can we get back to this game?" Ino asked sharply, glaring at the two of them. Sakura finally remembered her friends were there and noticed her parents had disappeared.

"Uh, yeah." Sakura looked up at Neji and smiled before sitting down in her chair, her puppy jumping into her lap, and let the game begin, all the while trying to avoid Ino's looks and trying not to think about how kissing Neji made her feel.