Sakura was on the hunt for a boy. Or rather, she was on the hunt for a bug, but she figured this boy might have a better chance than she did to find it. She never knew Shino that well when they were younger and the Aburame had all but disappeared once the dust had settled after Danzo's assumption of the Hokage title. She had seen him while they were all in the Academy together for the second time, but he was as distant and she had been distracted by many other demands on her time. She hoped that he wouldn't hold this against her when she asked for his assistance.

She first went to see Shikamaru, interrupting his shogi game with his father.

"Aburame Shino? What about him?"

"You're still in the Academy with him. Do you know if he hangs out somewhere other than his clan compound? That's totally off-limits to outsiders and I wanted to ask him something."

"I don't know where he is. I can ask your question for you when I see him tomorrow?" Shikamaru sometimes reacted strangely to her talking to the other boys in their age group, which she found hilariously cute.

"No, no. This would really require more of a discussion. Can you just ask him to meet met outside the Academy after classes end tomorrow? I might be a bit late because of our team training." She had clasped her hands together, looking pleadingly at him. He had folded like a deck of cards, much to his father's amusement.

The next day she had managed to trick Kakashi into letting her leave slightly early by pretending to need time to get to the market for extra fresh eggplant for dinner. Sakura figured that it was a win-win scenario: she used his favorite food against him whenever necessary and he got his favorite food, cooked by someone other than himself for free.

Sakura arrived at the Academy just as classes were letting out and she saw Shikamaru walking uncomfortably with Shino. She caught his eye and waved.

"Shikamaru! Shino-san, thank you for agreeing to meet with me."

He nodded at her. "I admit that my curiosity got the best of me. Shikamaru wouldn't tell me any details."

Shikamaru looked irritated. "Couldn't tell you. She didn't tell me, either."

"I need some help locating a specific rare species of insect. I know it's endemic to Fire Country."

Shino perked up considerably. "That does sound like something I can help you with. What do you need it for?"

"I'm going to extract their poison for personal use."

Shikamaru immediately protested, "What? Sakura, you can't be serious."

"Why not? My research indicates that the tarrat beetle has exceptionally strong poison, but because it is usually so unattainable, no one has bothered to synthesize an antidote for it. That would obviously be my first goal after the extraction."

Shino was very still, his hands slightly shaking. "You're looking for the tarrat?"

"Yeah. Do you think it's possible? I've looked into, er, private traders, but the prices of those who claim to have some are ridiculous."

"Nearly everyone who has come in contact with that beetle has died, Sakura-san. I don't think you understand how dangerous your request is."

She pouted. "So you won't help?"

"I didn't say that. I'm just making sure you know what you're asking."

Shikamaru looked between them. "Are you two insane? Shino, didn't you just say that almost everyone dies when they go looking for this bug?"

He nodded. "Yes, almost."

Sakura beamed at him. "See? No worries, it's not one hundred percent positive we'll die!" She patted Shikamaru's arm comfortingly. "If there's anything I'm good at, it's avoiding weird and unusual deaths."

"The fact that you have enough experience to make that statement is not at all reassuring."

Sakura shrugged, palms up in the air. "What can I say? I lead a crazy life."

"You just go looking for crazy. Like this, right here. Crazy."

"Sure. So what do you say, Shino-san? Are you up to the challenge?"

He adjusted his sunglasses carefully. "Of course. When would you like to start?"

"Tomorrow, same time? I have to make Kakashi-sensei his bribe dinner tonight, otherwise I'd be all for it."

"That is acceptable. I will meet you here after the Academy classes end." He nodded to both of them and left, quickly being swallowed by the crowd of people who were out and about.

"Thanks for asking him to wait for me, Shikamaru. I'll let you know how our search goes." She turned to leave herself, but he caught her by the elbow.

"No, I don't think so. I'm coming with you tomorrow."

"Uh, what?"

He frowned at her. "I'm not going to lose my shogi partner to some bug. You're not going alone."

"Shino will be with me, remember? Plus, I've definitely faced worse than a poisonous insect, Shikamaru. I am a shinobi, you know."

Shikamaru's frown intensified. "Still. I'm going."

Sakura sighed. "Fine, but if you complain the entire time, I'm going to tell your father that you're the one who hid his sake."

His mouth flattened to a thin line. "Sometimes I get the feeling you like my father more than me."

She grinned at him. "What can I say? Maybe I've got a thing for guys with scars."

The next day after their usual routine of soul-crushing training with Kakashi, Sakura had pressed bentos into the hands of her team, telling them that she would be away for the evening and to behave.

Naruto took the food, but whined at her. "Sakura-chan, we're not babies!" She just looked at him unblinkingly until Sasuke dragged him away muttering, waving over his shoulder. Kakashi stood there, looking at the box she had put into his hand curiously.

"This isn't necessary, Sakura-chan. Technically, I'm an adult who can feed himself without your intervention."

"Oh, really?" She eyed him narrowly. "Tell me, sensei, what does the inside of your refrigerator look like?"

He rubbed the back of his head and laughed sheepishly. "I never should have let you monsters into my apartment."

She smiled smugly. "Admit it, you love us."

"Aa, you're all very tolerable most days." He tucked the box under his arm carefully. "What's so important this evening that you sent the boys away?"

"I have a project that I'm working on with Shikamaru and Aburame Shino." She stared over his shoulder, refusing to look him in the eye.

"Should I be worried?"

"Of course not, Kakashi-sensei! I am a very responsible person."

"I actually meant worried for you more personally. Shikaku has been telling me some very interesting stories about you and his son."

She frowned, hands on her hips. "That man is a menace. I swear, he's convinced that Shikamaru and I are going to get married any day now."

"Hmm, maybe I should chaperone your little trip."

"Sensei, that's really not necessary."

Her insistent refusal made him feel more insistent that he come along. "Sakura-chan, you've pretty well convinced me that it is now very necessary."

She sagged in defeat. "Fine, but you're probably not going to like it."

He nodded sagely. "I assumed as much."

"Let's go. I'll explain once we meet up with the other two. Shikamaru insisted on being there. So troublesome, to borrow his catchphrase." They hopped the rooftops, making it to the Academy in no time at all. Shikamaru's eyes widened when he saw Kakashi with her, but Shino was as impassive as always.

"Shikamaru, Shino-san, this is Kakashi-sensei, the jonin that the Hokage leashed us with."

They nodded politely and he waved a hand. "Yo. Sakura-chan, that was a very unkind introduction."

"I'm not feeling very generous."

"Maa, always so mean to your poor sensei!" He clutched his chest, faking pain. "So what are we doing here, kids?"

Shino spoke up, to her surprise. "Sakura-san has tasked me with finding the tarrat beetle. I took the liberty of sending my kikaichu out last night for tracking purposes."

Kakashi turned to his student. "And what does Sakura-san need this particular insect for, hmm?"

"I'm just going to make an antidote! And tip my weapons in its poison? And maybe start building up my resistance to the poison?" The sentence was said very quietly, because she knew it would not be received well.

"What?!" Shikamaru fairly screeched at her as Kakashi stood in silence, radiating heavy displeasure. Shino, however, nodded approvingly.

"I thought as much when you mentioned your research. You've already started with other poisons?"

Sakura's eyes lit up with excitement, eager to share. "Yes! It's not a difficult process to put yourself through if you know how to control your bodily functions through chakra! I mean, it's not pleasant, but so incredibly useful …"

"I've been working on something similar, but it's specific to my clan's techniques. Do you think you'd be able to share your antidote processes with the Aburame if you're successful?"

She scoffed. "You mean when I'm successful. I don't do things half-assed, Shino-san."

"Hey!" They both turned to look at Shikamaru. "There was no mention of you poisoning yourself yesterday."

She shrugged. "Mostly because I knew you'd react like this. You never noticed any other time I did it. Why should this be different?" Shikamaru sputtered, unable to reply in the face of his extreme disbelief.

Kakashi said, "So when you tried to train through "the flu" three weeks ago?"

Sakura winced. "That was the last and largest dose stage of a poison I discovered from one of the scrolls I ordered from Suna. They make them real nasty there." Kakashi sighed, uncomfortable with the entire situation but feeling powerless to do anything useful. He had discovered over the past year that she could be remarkably stubborn and Kakashi knew that ordering her to stop was essentially telling her to hide it from him.

"Do the boys know?" Sakura didn't answer and that was enough for him. "I know you'll keep it up no matter what I say, but please keep me in the loop when you do. Otherwise I'll tell Naruto and Sasuke and then you'll never hear the end of it."

Her tiny face screwed up in a mulish pout. "Blackmail, Kakashi-sensei? That's a low blow."

"A good shinobi always makes use of any available resource."

She sighed. "Fine. But I don't want you to interfere when I do! If I don't work through the entire process, my tolerance to them will be unrefined."

Shino nodded approvingly again. "You are very thorough, Sakura-san." He looked off to the side for a moment. "My kikaichu indicate that there may be a nest of tarrat several miles outside the walls."

Sakura grinned. "At least someone appreciates me!" She hooked her arm through Shino's, to his great surprise and Shikamaru's badly-hidden frustration. "Shall we go?"

They traveled by ground to accommodate the two Academy students, with Kakashi taking up a rear guard position naturally. He watched Sakura interact with them, amused to see that while she treated Shikamaru just like she treated her boys, she was more bubbly and personable with Shino. Looks like I was worried about the wrong boy.

Uncharacteristically, Shino had asked her about the missions she had been on now she had been a genin for a year. Shikamaru cut in before she could respond, "She managed to get attacked by pirates on her first C-Rank."

"You act like I personally invited them to invade the ship I was on." She frowned at him.

Shino was intrigued, but trying not to show it. "Pirates?"

"They barely qualified, as far as I'm concerned. Right, Kakashi-sensei?" She craned her neck to look back him, where he was reading his ever-present book.

"True enough. But you did have the ship named after you."

Her eyes widened and she hissed. "We were never supposed to speak of that again!"

He looked at her innocently and said in a flat tone. "Oops."

Sakura grit her teeth and turned to Shino, smiling dangerously. "It was an unusual mission, Shino-san. When you graduate, you'll mostly have D-Ranks to look forward to for quite some time. I hope you like cats."

Kakashi snickered and Sakura whipped one of her senbon at him without looking, aiming for his neck. He caught it, of course, like she expected. Still, it would be very satisfying if she managed to hit him just once. One day.

Kakashi moved forward and threaded the weapon back through her messy bun, tapping the top of her head affectionately. "One day, Sakura-chan."

The two boys looked at each other, both slightly confused by the strange relationship. Shikamaru filed it away with all the other odd things Sakura has done since he came to know her and Shino was quietly starting to form his own opinions on her eccentricities.

They came to the end of the beaten trail and stopped for a moment. "Which way?"

Shino tilted his head, listening. "If we turn left here and travel south for approximately two miles, we will be close to the possible breeding ground my kikaichu scented."

Sakura smiled appreciatively. "So precise! That's incredible, Shino-san." The boy turned to lead the way, but not before Kakashi saw the slight flush on his cheeks. Ah, young love. Shikamaru cut off Sakura as she moved to follow behind Shino, leaving her to walk with Kakashi instead.

He leaned down to whisper to her, "What are you playing at, Sakura-chan?"

His student looked up at him guilelessly, an expression he knew by now not to trust. "I'm sure I don't know what you mean."

"Hmm." He didn't press, but he made a mental note to keep an eye on her non-team interactions when he could. Sakura-chan was a trouble magnet, worse than Naruto and Sasuke put together in some ways.

The group trooped together in silence for a short time before Shino called a halt. Sakura took a look around at the near swampy conditions of the area around them with satisfaction. "This environment is exactly what I had anticipated from my research. I'd say your kikaichu are on the right track."

Shino couldn't help but be curious. "Where did you get your information? Not many people have the ability to find them like my clan does."

She waved her hand airily. "Oh, I have my sources. I'm pretty good at getting what I want." Shikamaru coughed in the background, sounding annoyingly like his father and Kakashi grinned behind his mask. She glared at both of them briefly before turning back to Shino. "I would be willing to work out an exchange with you, Shino-san."

"If we are successful at this venture, that sounds acceptable."

Shikamaru muttered, "He means if we live through this."

"You're so negative, Shikamaru! I even brought Kakashi-sensei as protection for you against the big, scary beetles." She teased him mercilessly as they slowly picked their way through the wet, mushy earth.

"Is that why I'm here?" Kakashi had stowed his book away, more entertained by his companions at this point.

"Well," she whispered in a conspiratorial tone that everyone could hear, "It was better than saying that my jonin-sensei doesn't have anything better to do than follow his students around."

"So your options were to insult Shikamaru or insult me?"

She grinned at him and swiftly used chakra-balanced feet to catch up with Shino, where they discussed trapping and extraction strategies with a disturbing fervor. Never a dull moment with any member of Team 7.

Shikamaru grunted beside him and he looked down to see the boy frowning irritably, an expression that seemed to have been grafted on his face. "Something wrong, Shikamaru-kun?"

"This is a terrible idea."

"Yes," he said agreeably. "It probably is."

The boy looked at him, perplexed. "Then why are you allowing it?"

Kakashi shrugged. "Something I've learned about Sakura-chan is that if I put down a barricade, she will find a way around it. Even if that means she has to punch through it forcefully." He winced slightly, remembering the training ground they had left in shambles last week. He had gotten a half-hearted scolding from Tsunade, whose eyes were shining with mirth as she read the report. "Though I'm pretty sure that's her favorite way to do anything. It's just better to be here in case something does go wrong."

Shikamaru just huffed testily and stared Shino and Sakura, squinting at something that was just beyond them.

"There's something weird about that tree, guys." They looked at it questioningly, a feeling of unnatural resonance suddenly permeating the general area.

Shino waved his arm to send out kikaichu to investigate and Sakura's eyes widened. "No, Shino, don't-"

WHUMP.

Suddenly the four of them were mashed together inside a damp, dripping cell, the abrupt transportation knocking the breath out of Shikamaru for a moment and then again when Sakura landed heavily on his stomach. Kakashi had managed to keep his balance, keeping Shino from face-planting directly onto the muddy floor. The jonin surveyed their surroundings in the dim light emanating from the corridor outside the cell door.

"Well. This is new. Sakura-chan, do you think-"

Sakura glared up at him from the floor. "Do not even finish that sentence, Kakashi-sensei. Team 7 will go on strike if you try to add this to our training." She rolled off of Shikamaru and held out a hand to help him up. He took it, but gave her a strange look. "What?"

"We were just subjected to an unknown jutsu and are trapped in what looks to be an underground jail. Why aren't you more concerned?"

"Meh." She shrugged and pointed a thumb at Kakashi. "If he starts taking it seriously, I'll worry." The man was humming as he placed his hands on different spots of their small cell, looking for weak spots.

Shino was brushing off his grey overcoat, looking curiously excited. "This is already much more than I was expecting. We must stay in contact after this excursion is over, Sakura-san."

"Of course, Shino-kun." In the low lighting, Shikamaru could see Shino flush at the change in honorific. For some reason, his hands felt tingly. He looked away from them and noticed several bones protruding out of the floor. He fervently hoped they were animal in nature.

Kakashi was considering using a doton to just move the compacted earth that their cell seemed to be made of, but if they were really that close to poisonous beetles, he didn't want to take the chance of encountering them mid-jutsu. Sakura poked him in the side as he was thinking. "Sensei? There doesn't seem to be any chakra compression seals here or even anyone else around. I could just break the door?"

He spread out his senses to corroborate and also felt nothing but the usual wildlife. Why had they even been taken if there weren't any jailers to watch over them? He tried to remember the details of area they had last been in. The tree had seemed to be the focal point, but he hadn't sensed anything out of the ordinary right until Shikamaru had pointed it out. Was that a feature of the jutsu? A notice-to-me-not unless they did notice?

"Sakura-chan, did you see anything unusual before we were dumped here?"

"Yeah, I think so." She looked thoughtful. "I didn't catch it until it was too late and I barely saw the patterns before we were whisked away, but I think it was a seal."

Shino bowed to them briefly. "It was clearly my actions that brought us here. I apologize."

She waved away his apology. "No worries, Shino-kun. It's not a big deal."

Shikamaru felt the need to interject. "We are still in a cell, Sakura. That's slightly a big deal." He pointed toward the bones, expression saying "That could be us."

"Meh," she said again and looked at Kakashi in question. He nodded so she went over to the door and plucked it off its hinges like a flower. "I think we'll manage."

Kakashi took point and she ushered both bewildered boys out in front of her, after she set the heavy iron door against the wall. Shikamaru trudged along stewing in anger, because Sakura had never shown that sort of strength when they were sparring, which meant that she was holding back on him and still winning every time.

She poked him in the shoulder and smiled when he scowled, understanding dawning on her. "Don't think so hard, Shikamaru. You still have shogi."

Kakashi lifted his fist in the air, calling for a halt. With a series of hand signals to Sakura, he left them and disappeared further into the corridor.

Shino looked at her. "Should we follow?"

"No, he wants us to wait here while he investigates."

Shikamaru squinted at her. "My father has gone over signals with me that aren't taught in the Academy and I still didn't recognize anything Kakashi-sensei used."

She snorted quietly. "Naruto and Sasuke made up their own system through a series of arguments and bets and broken furniture. We've adopted it as a team thing."

"You have a very unusual team dynamic, Sakura-san."

Kakashi's head poked back around the corner. "That's a nice way of putting it, Shino-kun. Coast is clear, let's head out."

They followed him single-file through the winding path, with Kakashi stooping slightly when the ceiling became uncomfortably low. The children inched around a horse-sized centipede, recently dead but with disturbingly twitchy legs. Shikamaru hadn't even heard Kakashi kill this thing. The corridor became brighter as they finally rounded the last curve to see the open air and they emerged, blinking in the late afternoon sun, still standing close to one another.

"Ah, that's it!" Shikamaru was pointing at a tree not barely twenty feet from where they had surfaced from their underground adventure.

"At least it didn't send us to Iron or somewhere equally nasty." The boys started, the thought of being sent across miles or even borders having never crossed their minds.

"Iron Country is that bad?"

She shuddered and Kakashi laughed. "It's a long story, Shino-kun. Maybe I'll tell you when it's socially acceptable for me to drink."

They circled around the area where the seal was, having realized that it was the kikaichu's chakra that had activated it the first time. Shikamaru was trying to avoid a large swampy patch of ground when he heard a squishy crunch under his feet. He looked down to see several shiny purple leaf shapes skittering around him, quickly climbing up his legs.

"Uh, Sakura? What do the tarrat beetles look like, anyway?" He stood stock still and tried to calm his panicking heart, knowing she was going to confirm his worst fears.

"Ah? They actually kind of look like magnolia leaves, but all the scrolls I had could never confirm their color. Makes me think that maybe its dependent on their diet. Biological studies on them are pretty scarce for obvious reasons."

Crap, he thought.

"Well, the good news is, I think I found them. The bad news is, I definitely killed about six of them and they're kind of all over me." From the corner of his eye, he could see Shino's head whip in his direction. He could feel, rather than hear, Kakashi and Sakura move closer behind him.

Shino stopped several feet in front of him. "Don't move, Shikamaru-san."

"Yes, obviously." He was sweating with the effort. "Any ideas?"

Kakashi spoke up behind him. "One, but I don't think you're going to like it."

"I haven't liked anything we've done since we left Konoha."

The man sighed. "Sakura-chan was right, so negative." He could hear his voice closer behind him, perhaps only a few feet away. What is he going to do? Shikamaru kept his mind thinking of possible strategies to avoid thinking of his precarious position. He felt another beetle skitter over the top of his toes.

"Shino-kun, can your kikaichu pull chakra out of the tarrat?"

"They can do that with anything that has chakra."

"Please direct them to all the beetles currently on Shikamaru-kun's clothing." Shikamaru saw a swarm of appear out of thin air in front of Shino and they were redirected toward him with a nightmarish swiftness. The beetles were quickly subdued thanks to the kikaichu's sheer volume and as the last one fell from his pant leg, he was thrown in Sakura's direction as Kakashi performed a modified replacement jutsu on him. He dropped to his knees, intensely nauseated by the second abrupt seizing motion in one day.

Sakura worriedly patted him down, either looking for injuries or more beetles, he couldn't be sure. Shikamaru just laid there and let her fuss over him, feeling exhausted by the short-lived ordeal.

"All clear?"

"Yes, Kakashi-sensei."

"Good." To her and Shino's horror, Kakashi set fire to the entire area, including the mysteriously sealed tree. Shikamaru watched the beetles burn with intense satisfaction.

"What are you doing?!"

"Removing a danger to Konoha, Sakura-chan," he replied, cheerfully applying a suiton jutsu to put out the raging inferno he had caused.

Shino sidled up next to her, with a glass jar in hand. "Sakura-san, my kikaichu were able to salvage two carcasses before your sensei decided to indulge himself in pyromania." Her eyes brightened and she peered inside curiously. The beetles were obviously dead, but intact. She stowed the jar away in her pack, mind racing through the ways she could carefully portion out the small amount of poison she was able to obtain.

Shino asked her about her dissection procedures and they had a rousing conversation about internal organs and cooling techniques, while Shikamaru and Kakashi just listened in slightly dismayed silence. Sakura promised to trade notes with her brand new friend once they returned home.

She was all smiles on their journey back, exhilarated despite the fact that Kakashi had just murdered her closest supply of a rare poison. Now that she had gotten Shino interested in them, Sakura knew she could count on him to help find another location in the future. She bumped shoulders with a grumpy, silent Shikamaru. "See? Wasn't that fun?"

He gave her a sideways glance and sighed. "Life is never boring when you're around, Sakura."