In retrospect picking her starting point for this study wasn't the easiest. Sakura sighed sipping her tea as she watched the females of the room move around. She couldn't help but pity them because this test had to be one of the grosser. Still science was science and she was sure that they would all appreciate the tea after this. She watched as each girl, pen and paper in hand, would walk up to a jar which contained a shirt, sniffed it, then filled out the paper. At first she didn't blame the girls for being rather grossed out at the idea of smelling sweaty shirts in jars. But it was a necessary sacrifice.

She watched in irony as Ino cringed at one of the jars, in hindsight the girl shouldn't suggest testing a sense that wold require some gross interaction.

The idea was that the nose, a powerful but subliminal sense, could help a person find a good mate and even identify poor choices and even family members. The idea came when she thought of how dogs interacted by scent and with the use of pheromones. This prompted her to get everyone, male and female, to wear a white shirt and work out till soaked in their own sweat. She collected the shirts and put them in jars, recording who were the owner of the numbered jar using the codes G and B for girls and boys scents. In another room the guys were being subjected to the same thing and she bit back a laugh at the image of some of the more reserved guys, and uppity in some cases, sniffing sweaty shirts. She had everyone fill out a paper giving their opinions on the shirts. Girls of course prior to had to record their state of ovulation.

It felt weird observing this from the girl's standpoint and left another supervisor to watch them and walked out of the room and across the hall to where the guys were and checked on them, tea still in hand, and saw them doing something similar, Sasuke saw her come in and so did others though none of their reactions were as amusing as the glare Sasuke gave her and she shrugged away a smile of amusement. She hoped she wasn't putting them through this for nothing. She watched as Kiba smelt the shirt she had and then left. The guy would know it was her's, hell he'd probably know most of the smells owners, and she wasn't sticking around to see him give her an amused smirk.

Sometime during her interviews she must have had a brain fart because she had miscounted the male to female ratio. 11 guys, 10 girls which was a problem because she needed even numbers, so to make due she had to throw in her own sweaty shirt to keep it even, for the girls an extra shirt to smell was nothing but she didn't want the guys standing around to mock each other. They probably felt awkward enough as is and hoped none of them hated her for putting them through this.

She could only imagine the heated glares she was going to get from this, fearing most Itachi's and Gaara's. They could truly be terrifying people without even trying. She went to the main room and made sure the tea was still good, hoping the pleasant smell of tea and rice balls would appease them as an apology.

It was within the next 15 minutes everyone started coming from the rooms and Ino was the one to hurry ahead "Forehead!" she boomed and Sakura smiled apologetically and handed her friend her favorite blend of plume and blackberry tea. Ino looked at the tea then at Sakura and huffed taking it and smiling at the first smell "Your forgiven."

Sakura let out a held breath of relief hearing this but avoided all other eyes for the time being. However Sauske approached her directly "What was that?"

"Sorry Sasuke I warned you in the interview, and the contract, and in the form, and in the log book, AND in the posters that this study might put you in an awkward spot." She explained "I didn't lie."

"That was beyond awkward." He huffed "It was degrading even."

"I'm sorry the potential process of human mating disgusts you?" she rolled her eyes, she wasn't sorry but now was not the time for a fight.

He huffed and grabbed some tea. Everyone seemed to be sitting either with their immediate friends or off on their own. Case in point being Itachi sipping his green tea by himself on one of the chairs Gaara with Naruto, Sasuke, and Sai.

ITACHI'S POV

'Well that was interesting' he thought sipping the green tea quietly as everyone around him chattered. Contrary to popular belief the Uchiha prodigy did enjoy people's presence and conversation. A passer byer would think he was lonely sitting on his own yet he felt quiet socialized listening to everyone around him. To him it was more a matter of presence, he was a man of few words but enjoyed another human being's company as much as anyone else.

In his peripheral vision he watched the head researcher herself serving tea to some other subjects and apologizing for any discomfort. He didn't see why she bothered, they were warned as was he about personal and social boundaries for this study, that was the whole point. Break down a human's animal instinct to breed, plain and simple. What was the drive and what was the hindrance.

In the room he inwardly admitted it was strange. Clever but strange all the same. When they had first arrived she had handed out the t-shirts and then declared what they were going to do. In the case of shinobi she had sent them to train until they sweat like pigs seeing as the civilian volunteers needed less work to sweat them self's soaked. He had noticed that she had worn one of the shirts and even knew exactly which one was hers.

Itachi was no pervert, but he knew Sakura's smell well. It hadn't gone over his head that his mother always sat her next to him, he was a genius for a reason. But being there had allowed him to observe some of her habit's. He remembered when the diamond on her brow had begun to form and knew she carried it with pride, how when she got nervous a blush would dust her cheeks, and just what set off her temper. But he also knew her smell, a warm smell that reminded him of summer winds. When she sweat she had a stronger smell but became more like a hot day smell of dust and work.

He knew exactly which shirt was hers.

He wouldn't lie when he saw her sit with her friends he partly wished she'd come sit with him. She was interesting to listen to with her intelligence. He remembered when she had spoken with him at the compound and had watched her quiet down more and more than becoming silent and getting her nervous blush back. It was charming in its own way and amusing in many others.

Gaara's POV

He smiled softly as Sakura took a seat with them, profusely apologizing for putting them in a spot, not that he minded. Living with a demon inside you had a tendency to remove ones concern over such small things. If anything it was interesting to him how the test had gone. It ideally made a person rely on a sense and in turn their instinct, something he knew well with Shukaku who only made his own wilder. Like being more an animal then a human, at one time he thought that was just another sign of being a monster, now he was coming to terms with it.

In spite of the event which seemed to shake the others a bit everyone was chipper as ever, he wasn't much for tea but drank his anyways, wishing the smell didn't wash out his senses like the others did. He had enjoyed it when he found which shirt belonged to hers, it reminded him of an oasis in the desert.

Said girl was drinking her tea and explaining her reasoning for the test. He didn't care much but listened anyways, letting his mind drift around within his memories of the girl. He'd admit when he first met her he wasn't impressive aside from her hair color. He had been more amused by Sasuke then her and she had faded into the background. When she had fought her friend Ino he had at first been surprised that she hadn't backed out, which back then usually meant he had bothered to notice a small detail. Then during the fight he had expected her to fall prey to her friends mind justsu, but instead broke it though some inner force. At first he speculated if she too had a demon, but given her condition he dismissed that as impossible. Temari had been the one to suggest that she had some sort of kekki genkai but that was dismissed again after a while.

Temari was the one to get the most amusement when both girls knocked each other out, making it a tie.

He still hadn't cared much, but the selling point in her character was when she had the guts to stand between him and Sasuke. It was a stupid move in every aspect of it yet it left a deep running message to him. It was he love he had lacked, back then it was a one sided love but even then it struck s cord on him that people would lay their lives down to protect somebody they loved. Nobody had don't that for him, and after his fight with Naruto and had made his resolve he admitted he wanted to feel that kind of love.

It was a driving force when he became Kazekage and even now, he'd lay his life down to protect his village. And his siblings would protect him with their lives, yet it wasn't enough. He had wondered if he was getting greedy now but knew platonic love wasn't what he wanted now. Hoping it wasn't too much to ask for something a little more romantic in nature. It was a normal thing for regular people to want, why couldn't he wish the same?

BACK TO SAKURA

Once she was done talking to the group she supposed now it was her turn to go do the deed. She cringed at the idea of sniffing the shirts but also acknowledged that she was part of the study too, she just hadn't done it with the others since she was too busy supervising,

She said goodbye to everyone and headed down the hallway to the examination room where the jars sat. Closing the door behind her she sighed and took her own paper coming to the first jar and cringed, she hadn't even taken a wiff but could feel how weird and gross this was and once again pitied the others.

Still she made her way through the jars, her responses expectable to many but found her reaction to 2 of the smells rather…alarming. Worse off it belonged to two men she found that made this even more awkward. Itachi and Gaara.

'Thank god only I know the owners of this, Ino would never let me live this down.' She cursed and then sighed trying to rationalize that it wasn't a big deal and nobody would know. Not if she had anything to say about it.

Just so you guys know these test are based off an actual documentary