Sakura was leaning in her chair staring up at a wand of gum on the ceiling she hadn't seen there before. She had opted for her usual shinobi gear today with a white lab coat on, mostly for show. A tea in hand she waited until the tests were over for everyone today so her friends and her could go to the training area.

Neji had caught her and Ino yesterday chatting and had joined them for tea. Inviting her and the blond for a group spar, which mostly entailed a large training area and everyone for themselves, it always promised for great trapping, evasion, survival, and stealth training for everyone. Sometimes even denoting a group which would carry blank scrolls they would have to collect. It always reminded her of the Chunin exams and she hoped Gaara would be open to join them. A fresh face was always welcome as it mixed things up for everyone.

But for now she had to wait until their test was over. It was fairly simple actually, all they had to do was sit down, not talk, and listen. From the recording the day before they would hear the voices of random people say "Greeen Tea and Dango are delicious." And each group would listen to the recording, then rate how sexy the voice was. She had planned to do this yesterday but found she was unable to collect everyone due to many individuals having already made plans.

She got up from her chair and began pacing the halls out of sheer boredom. No paperwork to do, supplies for their training already set, no filing to do, and she couldn't go to the hospital to kill time either. She was locked in time until everyone finished. Needless to say she was relieved when she heard one of the groups entering the hall. The men unsurprisingly, they had been short on female voices.

Naruto came up to her and groaned on how boring the test was and enthused about their training which was due to start soon. Though apparently she was the only one ready to go so early and most people left to get supplies leaving her to issue any other invitations.

So it was unsurprising to both people when she approached Gaara. "Hello Gaara, I see you held up better then Naruto through that." She said pointing to where her blond friend had left.

"As it would seem." He nodded.

"Yeah, I always took you for more of a listener anyways. No offence."

"None taken, your quiet right." He said with another nod.

"So I was wondering would you like to join us for a group spar? We're going to the forest of death for training. It's an everyman for themselves type of training where you try to capture each other's blank scroll. Something of a multi-purpose training exercise." She explained.

Gaara seemed to think this over for a moment "Alright, I presume everyone is invited?"

"Sort of, you need an invite but your welcome to invite Temari and Kankuro. The more the merrier." She smiled, glad to have a fresh face out there. Things had gotten bland recently.

"Alright, where will we all meet?"

"Entrance to the forest, we'll all meet up there. I just have one more person I want to invite." She said with a happy smile. He nodded and headed off without her.

Sakura then sighed and walked over to a quiet Itachi, she didn't doubt he already knew what she wanted to ask. Few Ninja would be able to be honest in saying they didn't casually eavesdrop on conversations, she doubted Itachi was an exception.

"Hello Itachi, how'd it go?" she asked, eavesdropping or not it was only polite to be casual about it, or as casual as you could be with Itatchi.

"Hello Sakura," he nodded in greeting "It went fine."

She wasn't surprised that his response was so short "Good to hear. I was wondering if you'd like to join my friends and I for a group spar?"

"Certainly, the forest of death correct?"

"So you were eavesdropping then."

"No but Sasuke often comes home talking about it."

"Oh! Then my apologies for ensuing such a thing then. But yes Sasuke often joins us, though knowing my team mate he comes home and complains no?" she smiled; she knew enough of Sasuke to know his habits.

Itachi nodded and she was sure she saw a friendly smile tug at his lips "That is correct."

"Knew it," She laughed "He's more predictable then he knows in his habits."

"Agreed. When will you all be meeting?"

She waved her hand "As soon as everyone has their gear together. I'll look at the test results later, training is just as important as this. I'm headed there now," she said patting her pouch "I came prepared."

He nodded "As did I."

"Leave it to you Itachi to always be ready for a fight," she laughed "Well then let's go, might as well walk together right?" she offered and only then realized the nervousness had returned. She had been fine speaking to him moments ago but the idea of walking with him alone got her nervous. Part of her told her it must be a crush but she also reminded herself that was quiet normal to be attracted to the Uchiha and to not take it to heart. Besides that part of her brain was still in teenage girl mode she was sure.

"Alright then. Lead the way miss Sakura." He said standing next to her.

"Itachi you don't need to call me Miss. Just Sakura works fine," she reminded him as they started walking.

"My apologies, old habits die hard I suppose." He said as they started walking. She knew that the girls were just finishing up and her other friends knew where to meet her. Ino would have her by the throat with questions if she knew she was walking with Itachi.

"It's fine but.." the slight blush was back and she inwardly sighed trying to find how to say this without making herself feel more awkward. She reminded herself she shouldn't feel awkward in the least, there was nothing to be awkward about, it was just a conversation about names "…well we've been acquaintances for quite some time now. And..I was hoping we could, as odd as this may sound, take our relationship to friends, you're an interesting person and I don't doubt would be a great friend. I realize how weird that came out and probably seemed quite self centered and technical but putting to word things like this is a bit odd."

"Odd?" he said raising an eyebrow, if he recalled she had been quite open to talk of relationships years before and hadn't thought something like this could become awkward later on.

"Yes, to put it simply most times a friendship just happens and while I'm fine with this completely it felt like our relationship was so formal I had to put my intent into words. It sounds silly now as I probably actually didn't have to but at the time it sounded like a good idea." She said feeling even more awkward.

"Alright then." He nodded after a moment of silence and watching her.

"Great, and sorry about the awkwardness. I shouldn't feel like theirs an exception to you but I cant help it." She said with a sigh then laughed "Ino's permanent teenage girl syndrome must be rubbing off on me."

"Teenage girl syndrome?" he raised an eyebrow again; this was a new one to him.

"Never heard of it? I'm surprised but at the same time I'm not... alright the easiest way to explain it would be to remember what I was like as a Genin. Hmm...wait you might not remember enough…okay better explanation. It refers to a girl who tends to gossip a lot, fangirl over boys, tends to get a lot of crushes, isn't exactly focused on anything except boys, gossip, and appearance and…well that sums it up pretty well. I cold honestly say that once you've had it then it never really goes away." She shrugged.

"I see, I do not know Miss Yamato very well but I will take your word for it in that she has this illness." He shrugged, he knew it wasn't a real illness but it was a funny concept. He inwardly at her when she went on to say it wasn't a real mental illness but more of a concept only to let her go on and listen to her voice quietly. Content on letting her carry away their conversation to whatever she wished, really he just welcomed her company again.