"Oh, this is no use," Sakura moaned to herself as she pushed away the book she had been reading. Three weeks into the month-long semester break, she had yet to find any ninja disciplines that seemed suited to her particular abilities, and she was beginning to get more than a little discouraged. While she knew she couldn't expect to have an idea of her true strength after only a year of study and training, she also knew that each ninja's particular blend of strengths and weaknesses tended to stay more or less the same over time; it was possible to train to reduce one's weaknesses, of course, but only to a certain extent.

The main problem was that nearly everything a ninja did required at least some expenditure of chakra. From unconscious enhancement of strength and movement speed to deliberate manipulation of the elements, chakra usage figured into all of the ninja disciplines, and Sakura simply did not have the necessary level of chakra reserves for most techniques. Even at the end of the first year, she had only just reached the point where she could use her chakra to stabilize shuriken or kunai as she threw them—something Naruto had been able to do since he was six years old.

What good is 'an unparalleled degree of chakra control' going to do me if I don't have any chakra to control in the first place? she thought bitterly. According to Iruka-sensei, her control was already better than that of most jounin, but the simple and depressing fact of the matter was that in most cases, ninja were rightfully more concerned with power than control. Even medical techniques, perhaps the most delicate and precise of all the ninja arts, required a certain threshold of chakra capacity that Sakura was unsure she would ever reach in the foreseeable future.

So far, she had eliminated taijutsu—including armed forms, as those still assumed a high degree of chakra-enhanced strength—ninjutsu, and now, reluctantly, genjutsu as possible areas of study. While she was fairly certain she could eventually become an adequate genjutsu user, the truly powerful techniques apparently required just as much chakra to perform as any ninjutsu. Still, unless she could find anything better, she supposed genjutsu was her best option, and perhaps some of the less chakra-intensive medical techniques as well; at least that way she could fill a useful role on a team.

Sighing, she decided to move on to a subject that, while no less gloomy, was at least progressing better than her search for a way in which she could excel at one of the ninja arts rather than simply be somewhat useful. She was now on her third complete read through the massive scroll of sealing techniques, and this time she thought she was starting to get a sense of how the various elements of a seal all fit together. Much to her frustration, though, several aspects of her seal apparently failed to follow the guidelines written in the scroll, and there were still too many symbols of which she was forced to guess the meanings.

And this is an advanced scroll, too. Briefly, she wondered if there was a super-advanced scroll with even more information, before deciding that even if such a thing existed, there was no way she would be able to understand it. Still, the Fourth—or whoever had designed her seal—had to have been working from a different set of underlying principles than she had found so far. Four characters in particular disturbed her, as "her" scroll explicitly stated that they should never be used together in a single seal.

Exchange, entrapment, soul, spirit. She ran her finger over the diagram in the scroll that showed the four characters. For all its vehemence, the warning next to them was rather vague regarding what exactly would happen if the characters were combined, and Sakura felt sure that the arrangement was key to understanding her seal. Besides, the fact that it appeared to violate one of the fundamental guidelines of sealing techniques offended her sense of order; at first, she had begun her research into fuuinjutsu in an attempt to figure out if her seal could somehow be harmful to her, but at some point she had come to realize she enjoyed the subject for its own sake.

'Exchange'…that one's easy enough. The state of one thing used to represent the state of a similar thing. Same with 'entrapment'; those two link together in lots of the examples. 'Soul' appears with 'entrapment' most of the time, and sometimes with 'exchange', but only once with both, in that blood sacrifice seal. And there are a bunch of other characters in that one that don't appear at all in mine.

She sighed and prepared to close the scroll again, no useful information gleaned from the examination, when something made her take a closer look at the fourth character. 'Spirit', which she had always assumed was used simply to reinforce or emphasize 'soul', was not the character she had always assumed it was. In fact, it was completely different, and she felt like slapping herself for being so stupid and unobservant.

'Spirit'…as in a god? she wondered. The character appeared as the prime focus in several of the examples towards the end of the scroll, but always with the diagrams' flow radiating out from it, and she was almost positive her seal was different. Grabbing the drawn copy she had made of it so she wouldn't have to keep pulling up her dress or shirt in public—or accidentally do something to mess up the seal itself, though she wasn't sure that was possible—she examined the relevant section just to make sure she was remembering correctly.

With a growing sense of disquiet, she traced the connections. 'Exchange' connected to 'entrapment' and 'soul', which in turn connected with each other; the related objects were souls, and the equivalent state was their entrapment. That's creepy enough, but adding the 'spirit' connections too…

Horrified, Sakura rolled up the scroll and threw it in her bag along with the paper sketch of her seal, uncaring of the librarian's ban on her checking out any materials. She had to talk to the Hokage. If she was right about what the characters' arrangement meant, it was far more important that she tell someone than that she preserve the illusion she was unaware of the Nine-Tails' presence within her.

- - -

"I'm home!" Naruto called out. Shutting the door behind him, he kicked off his shoes and headed upstairs to get his practice kunai. After trying—again—to talk to Hinata about whatever was obviously bothering her, he had the distinct urge to work off his frustration at how his best friend had been acting recently.

What's so bad that she can't even tell me? he wondered, kicking one of the steps. Ever since a week or so before the last semester had ended, she had been moody and withdrawn, even for her, and then she had viciously taken down Sakura in their last sparring match of the year. The Hinata he knew wouldn't have struck Naruto himself that hard, and even though he wasn't as skilled as she was, he was plenty tough enough to take hits; against Sakura, it was…well, the sort of thing Sasuke would have done.

"It has to be her father," he muttered to himself as he picked up his kunai holster from where it was looped around the bathroom doorknob. For a moment, he wondered what it was doing there, then remembered he had tossed it there after a particularly grueling workout following the last time he had tried talking to Hinata.

"What has to be whose father?"

The unexpected voice from behind startled him, and he bit back a yelp as he spun around to see his mother looking at him curiously. "Mother!" he exclaimed. "You know I hate it when you do that!"

"And how will you get better at detecting people trying to sneak up on you if I don't?" she asked, her eyes alight with mischief. "Just think of it as a little bit of extra training."

Naruto groaned and rolled his eyes. "You're so mean," he said, sighing theatrically. "Besides, you used to be a jounin, and I just finished my first year at the academy. That's not exactly fair."

"Only corpses expect fairness," she told him, suddenly serious, as she motioned for him to follow her downstairs, "and I haven't been on active duty since before you were born. You need to be working on your stealth and awareness skills just as much as you practice taijutsu or ninjutsu."

"Yes, Mother," Naruto replied, knowing there was nothing else he could say. He loved his mother dearly, and most of the time she was much more laid-back than his friends' parents were, but he had learned very early in his life that there were some things on which she absolutely would not compromise. Anything related to the family honor or reputation was one, and anything that might affect his safety was another—and his ninja training fell squarely into the latter category.

"Now, then, what was that about someone's father?" she asked as the two of them sat down at the kitchen table. Two steaming cups of tea were already waiting for them, and for a moment, Naruto wondered what his mother had originally wanted to talk to him about before she overheard him.

Sighing, he answered, "It's Hinata. She's been acting really weird lately, and she won't tell me why. I think her father must've said something to her, or…I don't know. She even hurt Sakura, and they're really good friends!" Just thinking about it frustrated him, and he really wished he could be doing something to let out his frustration rather than having to sit inside talking.

His mother looked thoughtful for a moment, then frowned. "Haruno Sakura?" she asked, her frown deepening when he nodded. "And you said the two of them are friends?"

"Uh…yeah—I mean, yes, Mother," Naruto hastily corrected himself. "And Ino, too." He wasn't sure what being Sakura's friend had to do with how Hinata had been acting, but judging by his mother's expression, she seemed to have an idea.

"It is possible," she said, sounding reluctant, "that Hinata's father only recently discovered that his daughter had become acquainted with Sakura. I'm afraid Hiashi is the sort of person who would react…unpleasantly to that discovery."

Now Naruto was even more confused. "You mean Hinata got in trouble for being Sakura's friend? I remember Sakura said she never had any friends before she started at the academy, but why would Hinata get in trouble for being nice to her?"

Uh-oh, he thought to himself a moment later. He had only seen his mother wear that expression a few other times in his life, and each time had been after he had done something truly bad. Fighting the urge to cringe, he awaited whatever punishment was undoubtedly coming his way.

Much to his surprise, though, her anger didn't seem to be directed at him. "There is no reason, Naruto," she said fiercely, her eyes flashing, and for a moment he caught a glimpse of what she must have been like before she retired from being an active ninja. "No good one, at least, and I think I of all people have the right to say that."

Apparently sensing his confusion, she continued, "Do you remember how, last year when you first told me Sakura was in your class, I told you that our family owes her a debt? I said I couldn't tell you why, and I still can't, but the reason for it is the same reason Hinata's father would object to her being Sakura's friend."

"But…" Naruto trailed off, his head spinning. If his mother's goal had been to confuse him further, she had succeeded admirably. He didn't see what a debt had to do with being someone's friend, or how Sakura had anything to do with either the Hyuuga or his own family. He did know one thing, though, and that was that Hinata was miserable the way she was right now; perhaps, if he could find some way to help her be friends with Sakura again, she would be…maybe not bright and cheerful, as she wasn't really that sort of person, but at least back to her normal self.

As though she could tell what her son was thinking, Naruto's mother set down her tea and grabbed his hand just as he was about to stand up and leave. "No," she said, shaking her head. "I know you just want to help, but this is something Hinata needs to figure out for herself. As the Hyuuga heir, she's going to start facing more and more situations like this in the future, and she needs to learn to stand up for herself rather than rely on you all the time."

Reluctantly, Naruto nodded. He was lucky in some ways, he knew; even though he was never allowed to forget who his father had been, he didn't belong to any powerful house or clan. For Hinata, who was one of the shyest and most unsure people he had ever met, the constant pressure and unreachable expectations placed on her as her family's heir had often driven her literally to the point of tears—and while he would always be ready to comfort her as best as he could, he wanted even more not to have to do so.

"Good." His mother looked somewhat unhappy, yet still satisfied. "Now, why don't you go practice like you were going to earlier. We'll talk later about how to start working on your detection skills."

Wincing, Naruto gulped down the last of his tea, now cool, and stood up to leave. Concern over the situation with Hinata and Sakura was already beginning to fade as he thought about what his mother might have in store for him. She had a true gift for devising unpleasant yet effective training methods, and he suspected he would enjoy whatever she came up with this time even less than usual.

- - -

Uh…what? Sakura groggily thought to herself as she blinked open her eyes, wondering why she was sleeping on the floor instead of in her bed. Slowly, though, her memory came back to her, and she let out a disappointed moan that turned into a yawn halfway through.

The Hokage had not been in his office yesterday when she tried to see him, according to the chuunin who guarded his door, and, citing probably-nonexistent "security regulations" with identical mocking smirks on their faces, they had refused to tell her where he had gone or when he would be returning. She had waited around for a few hours anyways, but when dusk began to fall and he still hadn't come back, she had reluctantly headed back to her apartment.

She had been determined not to miss seeing him today, though, and so she had shown up just before dawn and parked herself in front of the door to his office. Even the chuunin guards had yet to arrive, so she was certain she wouldn't miss the Hokage's appearance. She had stayed up all night rereading the scroll of sealing techniques and trying to figure out if her theory was correct, though, and when she found herself with nothing to do but sit and wait, she gradually began to fall asleep.

"Great," she sighed, now fully awake and aware of the midday sunlight illuminating the room. "I must have missed him completely by now. At least the guards didn't throw me out."

Her thoughts were interrupted by a polite cough, and, startled, she turned her head to see who was with her. After the dizziness brought on by the sudden motion faded, she was unable to control her exclamation of surprise at seeing the Hokage himself, busy at his desk with a large stack of paperwork. Someone had apparently moved her into his private office while she slept, as the last thing she remembered before falling asleep was standing by the door to his outer office.

"Well, now that you're awake, perhaps you can tell me what was so important that you showed up here even before I did," the Hokage said, setting down his pen and turning slightly to face her. "I'm sorry I haven't come by to see you since your break started, but there are better times to visit than six in the morning." His voice was amused, but also gently chiding, and Sakura felt herself blush a little.

"I…I'm sorry, Hokage-ojiisan," she said as she stood up and brushed off her clothes, trying to gather up her courage for what she would say next. "I found out something really important yesterday, and I didn't think the guards would let me in to see you since they wouldn't even tell me where you went yesterday when I tried to see you. I didn't mean to fall asleep, though, really."

Curiosity and a sort of expectant wariness had replaced the other emotions on the Hokage's face, and Sakura swallowed uncomfortably, aware that his full attention was on her now. "In that case," he said, "I think you should tell me what you found out."

"I know."

It wasn't what she had intended to say, but the short phrase burst from her lips unbidden. She watched as the Hokage grew very still for a moment, his face tight with some emotion she couldn't recognize. Standing up from his desk, he walked over and, with one hand on her shoulder, guided her to sit down in one of two chairs facing each other across a shogi board. He sat down in the other one and looked at her intently.

"Who told you?" he finally asked. His voice was calm, but the anger and disappointment in his eyes was plain to see.

Sakura shook her head. "Nobody," she said, forcing herself to meet his gaze. "I found out a year ago, after reading this scroll in the library." Reaching into her bag, she pulled out the scroll of seals and laid it on the table between them.

With a certain sense of satisfaction, she saw his eyes momentarily widen in shock, and she continued, "It wasn't really hard to figure out after that, with the way everyone always acts towards me. Nobody else my age has ninja guards following them around, either. I'm still not sure if they're there to protect me from people or kill me if I ever start turning into…it."

It was only meant as an observation—if her classes at the ninja academy emphasized any one thing, it was pragmatism, even towards one's self—and one she was genuinely curious about, but the Hokage seemed to take it as an accusation, and he winced painfully. "Both," he said, after a moment's silence. "I requested that guards be assigned to you after your mother's death for the former reason, and the Council agreed for the latter."

My mother? Sakura wondered briefly. I thought she died giving birth to me. She dismissed the thought, though; while it was interesting information, it had nothing to do with what she wanted to talk about.

Apparently the Hokage must have realized that as well, as he leaned forward slightly and said, "If you have known about this for a year, though, why choose now to tell me?"

"I wasn't ever going to tell you, since I didn't think you wanted me to know," she admitted, surprised in spite of herself at the disappointment that showed on his face. "But I've been looking through that scroll ever since I found out, trying to figure out if the seal is why my chakra reserves are so small. I still don't know, but I found something else last night that's even worse."

Holding up a hand to stop her, the Hokage picked up the scroll and, after an astonished glance over at her upon reading its title, quickly skimmed through the contents. Sakura sat patiently and waited for him to finish, but inwardly she was bursting with the desire to show him what she had found.

"Well," he said, setting it down again after he finished, "I'm amazed—no, more than amazed—that you were able to decipher this scroll, but I can see how it would lead you to your initial discovery. This was likely one of the references the Fourth used when creating the seal he used on the Nine-Tails."

Sakura nodded. "But the seal on me doesn't follow the rules in that book…see?" She pulled out the copy of her seal she had drawn and set it on the table between them, pointing to a few of the problem areas she had found.

To her astonishment, the Hokage's face turned chalk-white when he saw the paper. Grabbing it away from her, he tore it to shreds and performed a quick, one-handed fire technique to burn even the scraps to ash.

"Foolish girl!" he shouted, so much anger in his voice that it terrified her. "Do you have any idea what could have happened to you—what that thing could have done to you?"

"I—I don't understand," Sakura stuttered, shrinking back in her seat. "It's just a copy. I didn't want to accidentally do anything to the real seal, so I thought it would be safer if I made a sketch to look at."

"You really don't know, do you?" the Hokage asked, shaking his head. Some of the anger had gone out of his voice, but it still scared her. "This is exactly why information on ninja techniques, especially advanced and very dangerous techniques, should be kept safely out of public circulation.

"Sakura-chan," he said quietly, obviously trying to control himself when he saw how frightened she was, "that 'copy' you made is one component in actually performing the Shiki Fuujin. While you probably would have been safe, since I am certain you could not have learned the corresponding hand seals, the consequences would have been more severe than you can imagine if by some chance you had done so. That seal—"

"—offers the soul of the user to a god in exchange for imprisoning the soul of the target, and as long as one is trapped, the other is too," Sakura finished for him in a monotone, her mind numb with fear at what she had been carrying around for the last several months.

"That's what I was going to tell you," she continued in a voice barely above a whisper, when it became apparent the Hokage wasn't going to say anything. "I should have guessed that you would know already, but I just had to…the Fourth's soul is…"

Her eyes filled with tears, and she looked down at her lap, sniffling a little. Even here, she was useless, it seemed—no, worse than useless: dangerous. She didn't know what would have happened if she had somehow performed the Shiki Fuujin, but without her soul in her body, would the Nine-Tails have stayed sealed? Would it have been able to take over her soulless corpse? She had only been trying to learn about her seal, but in her ignorance she might have unleashed the worst horror in the history of the Leaf and made the Fourth's sacrifice meaningless.

"I need to go," Sakura whispered, standing up and crossing blindly over to the door, fumbling for the knob through a haze of tears. "I promise, I'll never do anything like that again. I didn't know…I didn't want to hurt anyone. I'm sorry."

Suddenly she was pulled away from the door and enveloped in something warm and smelling of incense. She struggled for a moment before realizing the Hokage had wrapped a blanket around her and was holding her in his arms. Looking up, she saw him looking back down at her, all the anger vanished from his face to be replaced by a mixture of fondness and worry.

"What am I going to do with you?" he sighed. "Nine years old and able to figure out the central tenet of an S-ranked sealing technique, just by inspecting the resulting seal and reading a single scroll that should be years beyond you."

"I'm sorry," Sakura murmured into the blanket, not even noticing the tears sliding down her cheeks. "I…am I going to have to leave the village? Please don't let them kill me."

"Kill you?" The Hokage sounded horrified at the thought, and she drew some small comfort from that. "No, Sakura-chan; if anything, you have proven today that I was right to argue in favor of your life all those years ago. If you truly did intend harm to us, you would have had no reason to tell me what you had learned and every reason to continue working in secret.

"But," he continued, "I am curious why you chose now to tell me. You said it was because of what you learned about how the technique operates, but I don't understand why that in particular would motivate you to do so."

Sakura frowned, trying to think of how to explain herself. "Well…if the reason the demon's soul is trapped is because the Fourth's is too, then doesn't that mean he'll never be reborn, or be able to move on to…whatever else there is?"

"You are quite correct," the Hokage said, his voice sad, "but you still haven't answered my question. What did you hope to gain by telling me this?"

"I don't know, really," Sakura admitted, frustrated at her inability to make her point. The Hokage seemed to have just accepted the imprisonment of the Fourth's soul as a depressing but unavoidable fact, but Sakura couldn't do the same; it was wrong, and she wanted to…

"I want to fix it," she said, her voice quiet at first but gradually gaining strength and confidence as she realized how to put into words what she felt. "I want to learn how he made that seal, and figure out how to make a better one so that his soul can be freed without freeing the demon too. There has to be a better way, and I want to find it."

She felt her face flush as she realized how arrogant she must sound, but to her surprise, the Hokage didn't laugh at her. Instead, he regarded her silently for quite some time, as though he was judging her. Finally, he nodded once, apparently having come to some sort of decision.

"You realize that, while the Fourth created this particular seal in just over a month's time, it is nevertheless a product of the most brilliant fuuinjutsu master in the history of this village—perhaps in any of the villages," he said, his gaze intent upon her. "What you propose is literally the work of a lifetime, and it is quite possible that no solution exists at all."

"I know," Sakura replied, though she was unable to repress a feeling of disappointment at the idea of failing. "I'm not really very good at being a ninja, though. Maybe this is something I can be better at."

To her astonishment, the Hokage actually snorted with laughter, and she blushed again, this time in embarrassment. "Do you have any idea how silly you sound?" he asked her. "Just because you have yet to figure out your strengths doesn't mean you have no potential at all. You've only just finished your first year at the academy."

Meekly, she nodded, not wanting to contradict him. He wasn't finished yet, though. "Still," he said, "sealing techniques would seem to be a better fit for you than most of the other ninja arts, and a little knowledge is, as they say, a dangerous thing. Right now you have a very little knowledge regarding a very dangerous topic. Perhaps the best course of action would be to indulge your curiosity—in a controlled manner.

"If this is truly something you wish to do, once your classes begin again, you will study with me every Saturday afternoon. Outside of those lessons, you absolutely will not try to practice anything I will be teaching you. It's too dangerous, for more reasons than one."

Sakura nodded, barely able to contain her excitement. "I think I understand," she mused. "People would get worried if they knew I was studying anything about seals, wouldn't they? Because of the Nine-Tails."

"Exactly," the Hokage said. "You were very lucky nobody ever realized what scroll you were reading. For the same reason, I think it goes without saying that you are not to tell anyone, even your friends, about our lessons."

Sakura nodded again, and he smiled down at her. "Now, I am afraid I have quite a lot of work to do today," he said, letting her go and unwrapping the blanket from around her. "You should go enjoy the last few days of your break, because you'll be seeing more than enough of me soon."

With that, he sat down behind his desk again and picked up his pen. After bowing to him, Sakura slipped out the door and, ignoring the curious glances the chuunin guards were giving her, left the building feeling better than she had in quite some time.

The Hokage himself is going to teach me! she thought, actually skipping a little from sheer excitement as she walked down the street. And no matter what, I will find some way to save the Fourth. Keeping this from her friends—especially Naruto—would be difficult, and she had no doubt that her training would be hard as well, but she was sure everything would be worth it in the end.

- - -

Shikamaru was bored and uncomfortable—something that would have surprised anyone who knew him, he was sure. While it was true he enjoyed few things more than being able to lazily sit under a tree or on a hillside and watch the clouds move through the sky, right now it was cold outside, and it would be getting dark soon as well. Also, he was fairly certain he was sitting on a splinter.

Chouji, who was sitting next to him, looked over at the blonde girl who had so abruptly dragged them out of their comfortable, warm homes and out to this ancient bench on the edge of the Nara family preserve. "Inoooo," he whined, "why are we still here? Naruto still hasn't shown up, and I'm hungry."

"So what else is new?" Ino snapped back, shivering a little as she pulled her light jacket tighter around her. "He didn't tell me what he wanted to talk about, but I bet it's about Sakura. Hinata's finally started acting normal again, sort of, so of course she has to get all weird instead."

"But I thought Sakura is your friend," Chouji said, now looking a little confused. "Aren't you worried?"

Unnoticed by either of them, Shikamaru felt like slapping his forehead. He could have told his friend that that was exactly the wrong thing to say to her; even—no, especially—if Ino was worried about something, there was no chance of getting her to admit it. It was just one of the things that made conversations with her so troublesome. Still, if she was right and that was the only reason Naruto wanted to talk to all of them, he was going to be very annoyed. Why bother worrying about something that would fix itself in time?

As if on cue, a second blond, energetic ninja trainee seemed to appear virtually out of nowhere, hopping onto the bench next to Shikamaru and squashing him uncomfortably against Chouji. The bigger boy scooted over a little, starting a chain reaction of shoving back and forth between him and Ino that ended with the blonde sitting half-off the bench and glaring evilly at him.

"Hi guys!" Naruto greeted them, apparently oblivious to the byplay resulting from his appearance. "Sorry I'm late, but I went to see if Hinata could come too. She's busy with some Hyuuga thing, though." He frowned a little as he said the last part, an expression echoed by Ino.

"She's been doing a lot of that since classes started," Ino said unhappily. "She hasn't slept over at my house at all lately, and she was almost too busy to come to your birthday party."

Naruto nodded, then shrugged. "Oh well," he said, clearly dismissing the matter. "At least she'll talk to me now. But anyways…have any of you noticed anything weird about Sakura?"

His eyes shone with guileless curiosity, and Shikamaru unsuccessfully fought the urge to sigh. You mean like the way everyone glares at her whenever they see her, and us too if we're with her? he thought. Or how about how none of the teachers except Iruka-sensei ever call on her in class even if she's the only one who knows the answer? And then there's how Ino said her parents specifically told her to stay away from Sakura, at least before she started at the academy.

None of those things were hard to notice, but his friends seemed utterly clueless about them. Finally, wanting to get this whole irritating "secret meeting" over with so he could get back home where it was warm, he was about to tell Naruto what the other boy apparently wanted to hear.

"Well, she's always busy on Saturdays," Ino said, startling him. He hadn't known that, but then, Ino spent far more time with Sakura than he did. "Every Saturday since classes started, I mean, and she wasn't last year. That's weird, isn't it?"

Chouji was nodding slowly, his face scrunched up in thought. "Yeah, and she couldn't come to Naruto's party, remember?" he said. "And I didn't see her at the memorial ceremony that night, either."

Against his will, Shikamaru found himself growing interested in the puzzle that was one Haruno Sakura, and he mentally cursed Naruto for bringing up such a bothersome subject. "Do any of you know when her birthday is?" he was startled to hear himself ask.

A round of blank looks greeted his question. "No…" Ino said, trailing off thoughtfully. "And I'd remember if she told me, because she gave me a really pretty hairpin for mine and I never got her anything back."

"So she's an orphan who lives by herself, we don't know when her birthday is, and hardly anybody, especially the adults, likes her," Shikamaru summed up. "Is that it?"

Naruto looked as though he was trying to figure out whether to say something or not, relenting only when he noticed everyone staring at him. "Well…there is something else," he said reluctantly, "but I think my mother might get mad if I said anything about it. She didn't say to keep it a secret, but…"

Cringing under the glare Ino leveled at him, he hastily continued, "Um, anyways, there's some sort of connection between her and my family. And the Hyuuga, too, I think. I don't know, Mother said she couldn't tell me much."

Couldn't? Shikamaru wondered. Not wouldn't? That seemed like an unusual phrasing, especially coming from someone as formidable as Naruto's mother. In any case, it intrigued him further, and he felt dismayed as he realized that his rarely-indulged sense of curiosity had definitively won the battle with his laziness.

"So, I'll ask Sakura when her birthday is, Naruto—and Hinata too—can figure out what their families have to do with her, and…um…" Ino trailed off, tapping one finger against her chin in thought. The way she casually took charge almost annoyed Shikamaru, but he decided it really wasn't worth caring about, especially when he had no doubt she would get her way in the end regardless of what he said.

"Chouji and I will see if we can find out anything about her family," he said, drawing looks of astonishment from the others, who were no doubt amazed that he had actually volunteered for something. At least this way, though, he would be able to sit inside the library rather than do whatever Ino would come up with; knowing her, it probably would have ended up being something like chasing Sakura around town trying to figure out where she went on Saturdays.

Chouji looked somewhat uncertain, though. "Should we really do this?" he asked. "I mean, Sakura's our friend, so why are we going to spy on her? We should just ask her if we have any questions."

"We're ninja, silly," Ino retorted, sticking her tongue out at him. "Spying on people is in our job description. Or, well, it will be when we finish school."

Shikamaru was fairly certain that didn't extend to spying on one's friends, but, wisely, he chose to remain silent. Besides, she had a point, even if she didn't know it; he had a feeling that even Sakura herself didn't know the answers to some of their questions. Nobody else raised any objections to Ino's plan, and so the four academy students split up to head back to the comfort of their homes—Naruto and Ino obviously eager to start on their parts of the plan, Chouji still appearing unsure, and Shikamaru just hoping his father never found out he was willingly involving himself in something like this.

Oh well, he thought. I can just blame it all on Ino. He'd definitely believe me then. Not only was she a Yamanaka, she was a girl, and he remembered his father saying on more than one occasion that it was far more trouble than it was worth to argue with members of either category. Yes, he decided, blaming everything on Ino seemed like an excellent plan.

- - -

Author's Notes: Wow, thank you all very much for the reviews for last chapter! Hopefully this one didn't disappoint anyone. I know I didn't get to the subject of Sakura's mother like I had intended, but it ended up being too much of a disruption to the pacing of the story if I had left it where it was originally, so I decided to move it to next chapter. In any event, hopefully some of the main plot points are clearer after this chapter.

Next chapter should cover up through graduation from the academy--which somewhat leads into a question I have. A few people have already said they would prefer longer chapters, but I've also found that some people don't like it when chapters get too long. It doesn't really make any difference for me (shorter chapters appearing more frequently, or longer chapters less frequently), but I'm curious about which you all prefer. So, if you leave a review, could you add a small note about which you like better?

Thank you all for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it!