The weekend passed by quickly, and now it was finally Monday, the day that students usually dreaded the most among any other day. Little Sakura, however, joyfully marched to the academy, feeling excited to see her best friends - and also Sasuke, now that she already regarded him as a friend.

The weekend's lunch at Sasuke's home was superb to say the least. She really liked Mikoto and her cooking. Shisui and Itachi were fun to be with, though Itachi seemed to be more of the silent type. Fugaku seemed okay and Sasuke was still as peculiar as ever. All in all, she thought that the Uchiha family was good people.

That day, she went back to the orphanage with Shisui and Itachi escorting her. Of course, the fact that Itachi was towed by Shisui to walk her back was noticed by Sasuke as well. Thus, he followed along like the loyal little brother that he was.

She directed them towards Konoha orphanage and thanked them for walking her back when they arrived there. Shisui said he'd train them together next weekend and Sakura asked whether she was allowed to bring other friends along. She had thought of asking Ino and Naruto to join her and Sasuke. Sasuke refused the idea vehemently but Shisui accepted her proposal and Sasuke could do nothing to change the turn of events.

Today, Sakura was planning to inform her best friends of Shisui's plan and persuade them to join her and Sasuke. Sakura went inside her classroom happily and saw Sasuke already sitting at their table.

Sasuke scowled when he saw her. He was sure she was going to tell the Dobe and that screeching blonde girl about their plan for the weekend, which was surely going to be annoying for him. He thought he'd have a peaceful weekend with his older brother training him, even if the pink girl and his cousin would be present. But Dobe plus another screeching girl? Yeah, right, no thanks.

Sakura took his scowling in stride, already used to his peculiar behaviour by now.

Once peculiar, will always be peculiar.

She put her bag beside him and went outside in search of Ino. She found Ino chatting with two boys that she came to know as Shikamaru and Chouji.

Shikamaru was… lazy, for the lack of a better word. He was always sleeping inside the class and Iruka sensei always shot him with an eraser to wake him up. He would open his eyes lazily when that happened, but soon went back to sleep. Though, now that she looked at his unsleepy eyes, she realized that his gaze seemed intelligent.

Chouji… was a foodie. That was the first impression that Sakura got when she saw him. He always brought a pack of chips wherever he went. She dearly hoped he wouldn't bring it to the toilet as well. That would simply be too unsanitary.

Ino waved her hand to Sakura and Sakura ran to her while waving her hand back.

"Ino! I was looking for you!"

"Oh?" Ino raised her eyebrow.

Sakura stopped in front of her and asked, "Are you free this weekend? Uchiha Sasuke and I are going to train together with his brother and cousin. You can join us if you want."

Ino stared at her with bulging eyes, "Sa-Sasuke-kun? How… what… wait."

Ino turned towards the two boys, "You two can go inside first. I'll have a girl talk with Sakura."

Shikamaru raised his eyebrows, put his hands inside his pant's pockets, and walked away while muttering something that suspiciously sounded like 'troublesome'. Chouji simply shrugged and followed Shikamaru inside while munching some of his chips.

Ino put her hands on Sakura's shoulders, catching her attention back to her blonde best friend. She looked into her eyes seriously and uttered two words, "What happened?"

Sakura blinked at the serious atmosphere that suddenly surrounded them and started to explain everything that happened during the weekend at Uchiha's district. Ino listened attentively and nodded her head eagerly every once in a while. It seemed like she was so interested in anything Uchiha.

"Wow, Sakura. Do you even realize what you've done?" Ino responded after Sakura finished her story.

Sakura tilted her head to the side, "Hm? Didn't I just tell you everything?"

"Not that. I mean, the situation as a whole."

She looked at Ino quizzically, totally unable to understand what she meant.

"Hah... " Ino sighed. "You just befriended the Ice Prince of our batch!"

"Ice Prince?" Sakura almost laughed.

"Don't laugh at me! It's how everyone else calls him. He's like the dream boy of every girl, you know!"

"Dream boy? We're all just a bunch of five years old, Ino. Shouldn't we like a guy later when we're teenagers or something?"

"Feelings don't work like that, Sakura," Ino shook her head in disapproval.

"And what about you?"

"What about me?"

"Do you like him too?"

Ino thought for a moment before answering, "Of course, I do like him! I mean, he's so good-looking and mysterious, who wouldn't like that?"

Sakura raised her eyebrows at that last sentence.

"But, I don't think I like him that way, though. When I saw how he seemed to always look at you during class and break time every chance he got, I decided I'll just idolize him like a fangirl towards a celebrity."

Sakura showed a bewildered look on her face, "What? Why am I being dragged into this?"

"Whatever. I don't think you'll understand even if I explain it to you," Ino waved her hand.

Sakura just shrugged her shoulders at that, "So, what about the training that I mentioned before?"

Ino's mouth turned downward, "I want to join you all, but I have Ino-Shika-Cho training during weekends."

Sakura's eyes widened, "Ino-Shika-Cho? What's that?"

"It's the name that my dad, along with Shikamaru's and Chouji's dads told us to use as a way to call our little group," Ino waved her hand indifferently.

"You, three families, are that close, huh?"

"Yeah… our dads were basically a team back in the day and want the three of us to continue the legacy by training together as a team."

Sakura huffed, "Well, it can't be helped then. I'll just ask Naruto to join us."

"You'll ask Naruto, too?"

"Of course! You both are my best friends."

The school bell rang loudly and Sakura started to walk back towards the class. Ino chased her and put her hand on Sakura's shoulder.

"What do you mean he's also your best friend? You're supposed to only have one best friend! And that means me by default."

Sakura raised her eyebrow, "I never heard you can only have one best friend."

"It's true, trust me!"

They continued walking with their hands on each other's shoulders and chatted some more. The school bell was suddenly forgotten.