Sakura sat at her desk the next day running through the papers from the previous day's experiment. The current test was currently in the process of preparation, random people which were not part of the immediate experiment were donating their voices downstairs in a recording room. Meanwhile Sakura was compiling data from yesterday and awing over what she had already discovered within one experiment.

Ino burst in announced holding a platter of tea "Hey forehead whatcha doing?"

Sakura looked up from her files "Ino don't go around barging into my office, I don't need another Naruto running around." She joked taking the offered glass of green tea.

"As if that's possible, but I'll repeat my question. What are you doing?" she asked again taking a seat next to Sakura and placing the tray on her desk, she had thoughtfully bought her some breakfast to go with her tea.

"Thanks and I'm compiling the information from yesterday. I've already found a link between the sense of smell and mate selection!" she said excitedly.

"Hold up already? What did you find?"

"Well okay as it stands a few stuck out really badly and I think it's safe to give names here. When you all ran through the process of sniffing shirts it's obvious some of the guys and girls are related, case in point Hinata and Neji. Well when both of them came up to the shirt of the other person they listed it as 'extremely unsexy' and it happened with others to that were related."

"So?"

"So this indicates that smell alone can give the red flag for incest!" she pushed further "A long time ago we know people ran around and just because somebody didn't have the title of brother or sister that didn't mean they weren't related to you. Social taboos were light if there at all. And biologically offspring from an incestuous pairing can have horrendous defects. So Nature had to give us some way to identify relatives and from this experiment it seems to be in the sense of smell!"

"Oh I see!" she said looking at the numbers Sakura had racked up.

"This is a great start in the project and I want to look into smell a bit more, in truth we don't know much about it either so it's a great start. I already have something to tell the council should they want to see something in terms of progress." She said poring over the papers. "I'm also going to look into a few more things regarding the choices made but those ones are confidential." She said firmly.

Ino smirked "Awww come on forehead then how about you tell me if you found any of them a 'sexy' smell."

"Ino-pig this is confidential information. In regards to me as well. You can go boast on your choice's but I won't squawk."

"Your no fun." She huffed "So what's today's experiment?"

"You'll see later." She shrugged "As in tomorrow, we need to record the voices for it."

"Voice recordings?" she said looking bewildered "What we examining pillow talk now?" This got a glare from the pinkette.

"Leave it to you Pig to let your mind go there. Why would I think of intruding on people's privacy like that?!"

"Sakura my dear your studying human mating, I would think for a doctor it would be a big deal. Its only healthy to try out the contro- OW!" she cried out as Sakura wacked her on the side of the head, the girl blushing slightly.

"Ino you pig! That is really unnecessary!"

"Are you blushing? Oh come ON Sakura don't tell me you've never read erotica before. I mean Kakashi openly reads porn constantly I figure- ow!" she said rubbing were she got hit again but Ino being Ino smiled and got out of immediate range of a fist "Come on Sa-ku-ra! I'm sure more than once you've let you head fall into the gutter!"

Sakura got up to jump at her "Ino.." she growled in warning, the blush only spreading.

"Who was the person in your head? Was it Naruto? Sai? Sasuke?"

"Ino you have 5 seconds.."

"Kakashi? Yamato? Kiba? Shikamaru?"

"4."

"Choji? Kankuro?"

"3."

"umm…Neji?"

"2,"

"Rock lee?"

"Oh hell no!" she yelled shuddering, remembering the kids creepy attitude back at the chunin exams. Ino laughed

"Okay who else…Oh! Gaara or Itachi?" Sakura sent her a death glare. "OOOOOOH one of the two then?"

"…doesn't have to be just one…" she admitted "Ino really if you're going pester me to death with this can we go somewhere else with it? Maybe someplace where our voices don't echo?"

"Sure thing! Leave your paper's here and lets go to the tea house, I hear they have new Dango for diets!"

"You never change." Sakura sighed and followed her friend out and to the new tea house. The atmosphere of this place always calmed her nerves, she paid most of the credit to the decor meant to 'balance chi' as the owner had once told her. It worked that was for sure. Both girls took their usual wall booth spots and laid in their orders.

"Okay Sakura spill! It's been way to long since we got to have a heart to heart chat like this!" she said clearly getting pumped for this.

"It hasn't been that long Ino, we did this-"

"6 months ago, too long a time forehead." She huffed.

"Right….well okay so what exactly do you want to hear?" Sakura said looking around in case anyone was ease dropping.

"Okay well CLEARLY you have something for one of two stoic men, both of which are making legends of themselves." Sakura huffed at her friend "BUT you not the only girl out there so don't get your knickers in a knot over it. A crush is a crush so tell me which one it is."

"Well…That's the thing. Remember back in the Academy when even though I know we both had it for Sasuke it was normal to get little side crushes?"

"Yeah?"

"Well this is one of those times. Except..well it's kind of both of them really." She tried to explain, one thing she hadn't anticipated as a child growing up is that explaining relationships were harder when it wasn't all black and white and you didn't want to sound like a crazy fan girl.

"Go on." Ino pushed her.

"Hmm…okay to put it in lay man's terms their both hot. That much can be said for, both of them also have this heavy hanging aura. As of currently its more Itachi then Gaara since Gaara has opened up a bit more and he is my friend. But it feels…awkward to be alone with either one in a room or to sit next to one another. I'm more used to sitting and talking with Gaara but doing so alone or when we're not out with everyone is nerve wrecking. And with Itachi it's even worse." She said realizing as she had been talking she had been moving her arms as she talked, something she only did when agitated.

Ino nodded and sipped the tea which had just arrived "Keep talking, I'm listening."

"Like I said he's got this almost aura of formality. Its stifling, yet I know for a fact he's a very nice and even gentle person." She said taking a sip of her tea hoping to calm herself.

"And you know this how?"

"I'm observant. He may be the all too lethal Captain of an ANBU squad but he's got grace to his movements, did you notice he can walk on hollow wood with minimal sound? That minimal is nearly silent. And the few times I have gotten more than a sentence out of him he's been very collected. Ironicly he can be so dainty when grabbing at things." She chuckled "His mother always sits me next to him and across from Sasuke when I go over, provided he's even home."

Ino jolted at this and gave Sakura a hard stare, her stare was almost like it was screaming her thoughts although Sakura couldn't place them before she got a sly smirk.

Nothing good came from that sneaky knowing smile.

"Soooo his mother is trying to hook you up, eh?" she hinted.

"Excuse me?" she looked at the blond dumbfounded "Ino were talking about Mikoto. Mikoto doesn't hook her prodigy son up with a shinobi girl from the most common part of town. Mikoto doesn't hook people up period. Sure she hosts parties but she doesn't hook people up! Isn't that something more teenage heart robbers like you do?" she asked raising an eyebrow.

"Let it not be said that I'm not something of a match maker. After all Temari and Shikamaru are planning their wedding!" she smiled proudly "And I even got that stuck up Neji to let loose and ask Tenten out already. The sexual tension was driving me crazy." This elected a laugh out of Sakura. "But seriously forehead, I think his mom is trying to hook you up."

"Again you're crazy pig. She's being polite, I'm fairly sure the biggest reason why I feel so nervous about being alone with them is intimidation. Their 2 powerful men, and while I'm a powerful kunoichi, socially I'm standing in a pool with the water over my head."