I am so sorry for the late update. Again. (I got sidetracked. Again.) Please forgive me.

Chapters 6-8 were originally conceived to be one chapter...but then it got too long, and I thought a shorter update now might be preferable to a longer update later haha.

Thank you to everyone who favorited/followed/reviewed/read this story! You guys are AMAZING :)

Chapter 6

The morning breeze is a gentle caress against her face as she rests, cross-legged in the shade. Her classmates lie scattered around the Academy field in groups of twos and threes, some bickering and giggling as they wait for Iruka-sensei to finish arranging his notes, others sprawled across the grass sulking.

Sakura taps her fingers against her knee. In fact, most of the kids look to be varying degrees of disgruntled. Probably because the Academy is starting to schedule morning classes on weekends: there is simply too much to learn and not enough time.

Hence, a two-hour long meditation class on a Saturday.

Personally, Sakura doesn't really understand why the prospect of weekend classes are met with such dismay by her classmates-she, at least, is infinitely grateful for any chance to learn and protect herself. Better to lose a couple of lazy afternoons than to involuntarily lose her head one day.

With a sigh, Sakura leans back against a tree, allowing her mind to calm in preparation for an intense meditation session….

"Oi." comes a grunt from above. Sakura opens her eyes to Nara Shikamaru collapsing to the ground on her left, head hanging heavily from drooping shoulders as a muffled yawn hisses past his lips.

Sakura levels him with a neutral-flat-stare. It's become a bit of a routine over the past few days.

"You're late."

This prompts a heavy sigh from the boy, along with a string of half-hearted mumblings about 'troublesome classes' and 'troublesome mothers' and 'troublesome birds' until he decides that complaining is starting to get troublesome, too.

She stares at him from the corner of her eye, one side of her lips ever-so-slightly curved. She doesn't know why, but this boy is refreshing. His laziness, grouchiness, easiness in interacting with her-for the first time in a long while, she feels almost comfortable.

A knot within her chest loosens slightly, and she inhales.

"You're probably not in trouble though. No one missed you."

He sputters and she casually looks away, biting down a faint smile as she runs a hand through her hair. It's getting long, she notices vaguely-almost to her shoulder blades now, and her bangs now hang below her chin. Longer than it's ever been. She tries not to think about it too hard.

"Do you think I should get a haircut?" she regards the still-indignant boy abrupt tilt of her head.

His scowl softens, and he blinks in bewilderment. "Uhm, if you want to, I guess? It doesn't really matter does it?" He looks away. "It looks nice right now," he offers in a mumble.

"Oh. Th-thanks. I just thought, my forehead….you know…." She makes a vague gesture at her exposed forehead, blinking helplessly.

"What about it?"

He looks so confused that Sakura has to look away, something thick and burning bubbling through her gut that she cannot name. "It's gigantic," she rolls her eyes, tries to sound angry-like she knows, she accepts it, like 'how can not see it aren't you supposed to be a genius?'-but her voice is so small, and the burnings starting to travel up her spine, and Ami's laughing at another girl's joke twenty feet away, and-and what a stupid thing to be worrying about, now.

"Obviously," she scoffs.

"..What?" He sounds so lost it's almost comical, "It's like the same size as mine. Do I have a big forehead?" And now he sounds vaguely worried, which actually does make Sakura chuckle, a short huff of amusement that is really more like three-fourths disbelief and one-fourth exasperation.

"Nevermind. I guess it doesn't really matter."

A snort. "Okay. But your forehead is actually totally fine, you know that right." The end of his sentence tapering off into a yawn.

"...Okay."

He hums in acknowledgement and might have said something else, but then Iruka-sensei is there and passing out blindfolds and the happy buzzing of chatter is soon smothered into a low drone of confusion.

"This will all make sense in a moment kids, don't worry!" Iruka-sensei smiles as he hands out the last few strips of black cloth. He then sits at the center of the clearing and crosses his legs.

"Today we are going to begin lessons on a new type of meditation called chakra meditation." He waits a moment for the wave of whisperings to subside. "Unlike normal meditation, which we do to increase your reserves of spiritual energy, chakra meditation is primarily used to improve your sensitivity and control over your chakra. We learned in class before how chakra is created at our centers through the mixing of spiritual and physical energy. This chakra can then be drawn to other parts of our bodies through chakra pathways…."

It is at this point that Sakura gives Shikamaru a sharp jab to the side with her elbow. The poor victim chokes in the middle of a deep inhale and spends the next several seconds gasping-from the pain or lack of air, Sakura isn't sure.

"You know, I hear that constant naps when you're young leads to awful snoring in your teens."

The boy mock-glares at her. "That's just a saying-and even if it were true, your method of 'aid' is still completely unnecessary!"

She offers him a casual shrug using minimal shoulder movement, eyes facing unwaveringly forward; Iruka-sensei's lesson recap has yet to end. "Sure, tell me that again when you get your arm chopped off on a mission because your snoring gave your position away."

"Oiiii," Shikamaru hisses, trying to speak using only the corner of his mouth, "don't jinx it! If that ever happens I'm holding you morally accountable."

"Just trying to keep you out of trouble."

He gives her another glare, grumbles something that sounds vaguely in between a 'thanks' and a 'shove off,' then finishes it with a grumpy 'troublesome' and turns away with a loud huff.

Iruka-sensei is still talking.

Sakura closes her eyes. The breeze is cool against her face, and she thinks, in this transient moment of weightlessness, that she's almost happy, with warmth seeping into her right shoulder from Shikamaru's left, the grass soft beneath her palms, Iruka-sensei's voice a pleasant murmur in the back of her mind. But Shikamaru shifts slightly, and the grass begins to prick at her skin, and Sakura rarely zones out during class, even when she already knows the material. The moment passes.

"Alright, now everyone find a partner or group and see if you can start feeling for your chakra and making it move around your body. Becoming aware of your chakra and getting in tune with it is quite difficult at the beginning, so help each other, share tips and encouragement! Close your eyes and tie those blindfolds on. The darkness should help you focus. Let's get started!" With that, Iruka-sensei grabs his clipboard and begins to meander among the class, checking students' progress as he walks.

"You any good with tying knots in the dark?"

"...Huh?" Sakura replies, eloquently.

"Nevermind," Shikamaru sighs, "turn around. I'll tie your cloth."

Cool darkness slips over her, a sharp contrast to the sunny field, and Sakura blinks a couple of times beneath her blindfold to orient herself. She sees nothing; the cloth is thick and the knot is tight.

"Now do you think you can tie mine without messing up too much?"

"Pfft," Sakura can't help but pout, "better than you can tie your own at least." She shuffles over behind him and feels for his head. Two ends of cloth slip into her hands and she knots them as best she can, working from memory, fumbling around his spiky ponytail.

"Oii! Not the-ouch! Don't pull the hair!" She tugs once more, just because, then pulls away.

"You're horrible, woman."

She smiles, a little, because she knows he can't see. "Hardly, I am barely even a girl yet."

He grumbles again, and she hears him shift around a bit, a soft ensuing thunk as he rests his head against the tree trunk at their backs. He sighs, and for a moment it is quiet.

Then: "I don't feel anything."

She snorts.

"Hey, you laugh woman but I don't see you faring any better!"

"Of course not. You shouldn't be seeing anything right now. Unless you're cheating." She decides it's best not to mention the chakra meditation exercises she's been practicing the past month-at least not during class. It would be too complicated. "I think I'm getting something, kind of."

"Eh, really? Wanna share some tips? How's this supposed to work?"

"It's sort of like a thrumming, mixing ball in your abdomen. It's hard to describe….a spinning center near your gut? You have to really force your mind to calm and be blank before you'll start sensing anything."

He hums in thought. "Alright. Lemme give this another go."

Slipping back into her subconscious, Sakura evens her breathing and concentrates. In the artificial gloom, her chakra spins in a breathtaking web of light throughout her body, and the vision is more vivid than usual as she begins her normal meditation routine of drawing chakra from her core to circulate around all of her pathways. Distantly, she hears the low muttering of Shikamaru-"Still nothing"-and she hums in response, body too peaceful to be disturbed. Slowly, she feels the steady trickle of warmth course through her with the flow of her chakra: up her spine to her forehead, down to the bottoms of her feet, out to the tips of her fingers...

Shikamaru has been silent for a while, she dimly thinks over the soothing rush of chakra in her ears. Gently, naturally, easily, she reaches a bit farther, probes for him in the gloom, slips outwards….

He is asleep.

'Of course,' Sakura thinks. 'How could I have expected anything less.'

His chakra pathways are quiet, and still, and many are empty. Clearly, Shikamaru has not been able to feel his chakra and coax it to flood his channels yet. At his core, the ball of mixing spiritual and physical energy spins erratically, much like the way hers used to whirl uncontrollably before she began her daily meditation exercises. But much slower. In fact, everything about his chakra feels...slow, sluggish, drowsy. The way it steadily thumps in time with his slowing heartbeat, the way it faintly buzzes as if in echo to is long, deep breaths….it's how she figured out he was asleep, she realizes. From the signals that are manifesting in his chakra patterns.

But Sakura has no time to marvel at her new discovery, because as soon as she comes to this understanding she is blinded by a sharp burst of light that overwhelms everything in her inner vision and just continues, on and on, in an endless wave, and then she sees everything-Shikamaru's lazy chakra and the angry fluttering of Ami's energy-the confused flashing of everyone else in the class and the outline of Iruka-sensei's bumpy flow-the cool, dim blue of the trees-the tiny spark of a squirrel scampering up above-a field of light beneath her feet-grass-inlaid with countless jewels-every beetle and spider and ant, she sees.

And it hurts.

A gasp of pain escapes her as she screws up her eyes and recoils with every fiber of her being, folds within herself, scrambles to pull every lingering strand of chakra back into her core as fast as she can as if scalded-distant voices, muffled movement, a gentle touch on her back, a firm hand at her shoulder-and, finally, cool darkness.

Every last drop of her chakra has been threaded back to her core, still frayed and sensitive but spinning, spinning….safe, shielded. Sakura slowly relaxes.

The blindfold is no longer rubbing against her eyelids. Someone must have taken them off. The grass is soft against her cheeks and arms, and her eyes flutter open to the warm, tender sun, mouth opening to inhale a deep lungful of sweet, fresh air. She sits up.

"Are you alright, Sakura?" Iruka-sensei hovers anxiously above her.

Her brain is a scrambled mix of cotton and gravel. "Yeah, headache." She mumbles, and some other excuses-she isn't sure what. "Stretched my chakra the wrong way maybe. Too dark."

"That's possible. Trying to control your chakra at first may sometimes overstrain you if you're too forceful or abrupt. Are you sure you're alright?"

She nods, head lowered. Most students hadn't noticed the disturbance, blindfolds still on. Only a couple groups nearby had stopped to watch. Like Ami's.

"Yeah, I'll be fine in a few moments."

He seems convinced. "Sure. Tell me if you need anything at all." He nods at her side. "You guys take it easy for a bit, okay?" It is only then that Sakura becomes aware of the sturdy presence at her side, hand still securely at her shoulder. Shikamaru nods, eyebrows furrowed.

Iruka turns away. "Okay class, focus! Blindfolds on, everyone! I'm taking notes on your progress!" He takes out his clipboard, walks off.

They don't move. A breeze ruffles her hair, rustles the trees around her. Sakura closes her eyes again, breaths evening out, heartbeat slowing. She's fine. She's okay.

"What was that?" His voice is quiet. Palm warm through her shirt. She exhales.

"I don't know."

He doesn't press, just pulls her backwards so they are both resting against the tree, and they stay like that, quiet, until Iruka-sensei dismisses the class, and students begin taking off their blindfolds (or not, if they're asleep) and complaining about the lack of results.

"You good now?" It's casual and off-hand and concerned underneath, and she smiles.

"Yeah."

So he releases her shoulder, grins, and stands up, offering her a hand. And she takes it.

"Thanks." He'll understand what she means. "Let's go before Iruka-sensei comes back over here." The man is making his way over already, voice rising over the chatter, bidding them to keep the blindfolds and practice more at home.

She easily slips behind a big gaggle of students and heads for the Academy gates, Shikamaru close behind. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees the distinct purple of Ami's hair moving closer, and she increases her pace: slides around a bespectacled boy, ducks beneath the flailing arms of a blonde kid, past a long-haired girl-the gates are in sight-

"Shi-ka-ma-ru!"

The boy falters, and then is dragged away. "What, Ino?" She thinks she hears, but she isn't sure-she can't stay to find out. Ami's almost there, and she hastens out the gate and into the crowd of parents waiting outside to pick up their kids. Safe.

Shikamaru's disappeared, and she doesn't even know where to begin looking for him in this sea of legs and torsos. Sakura meanders onward. He likely wasn't going to hang out with her after class anyway. Yoshino-san is probably here somewhere, waiting to pick him up for lunch. But where should she go, now? It's not like she has any Saturday plans, besides afternoon training. Maybe lunch at the marketplace? Expensive. Onigiri? She has some leftover umeboshi at home...okay, good. She isn't that hungry yet, though. Library, then? Library then lunch then training? Okay. Okay, that might be nice.

And then she sees him. Standing at the edge of the crowd. Sakura takes an involuntary step forward, the events of the morning rushing back to her, then hesitates. His presence is as quiet and calming as ever, but….different, somehow. Sakura can't quite put her finger on it. She lingers behind a woman's skirt. And then one of her classmates-Sasuke, she remembers-jumps onto his back and laughs. "Carry me home, aniki!" He shouts. She doesn't hear Itachi's response, but she does catch the miniscule tilt of his lips, the slight warming of his eyes-and Sasuke's arms tighten as he laughs again, hair messy and cheeks bright, and something in Sakura squeezes, and she turns away.

Yes. To the library.

The road is busy and the sun is hot and Sakura doesn't think about anything but what scroll to read next, when she finally reaches the cool shadows of her destination.

"Oii!"

Sakura blinks and slows, allowing the boy to catch up alongside her, huffing and puffing.

"Way to ditch me back there!" He scowls at her.

"I'm sorry. Ami was approaching and then I couldn't find you."

"Oh. Troublesome."

"Your mom isn't picking you up today?"

"Ah, no, I usually go home by myself." He rubs the back of his head. "But anyway, Okaa-san asked if you'd like to come over for dinner tonight?"

"Tonight!" Sakura exclaims, stopping in her tracks. "I mean, of course! But I, I don't have a kimono, or-"

"Oh don't worry about that, it's gonna be super informal, Okaa-san told me to tell you there's no need to dress up."

"Oh. Oh, okay. But I should still make some food to bring with me." She mentally shifts her destination to the marketplace instead. "I guess I'll spend the afternoon making some dessert, then. What do your parents like to eat?"

"Uhmm….well Okaa-san likes anmitsu, and….fruit, I guess-strawberries and peaches and blueberries? Otou-san really likes mochi and red bean stuff...and tea, if that helps?"

They reach the market square and Sakura makes a beeline for the fruit stall, Shikamaru drifting along at her heels.

"That's actually perfect." Sakura picks up a crate of fresh, ripe strawberries. "I'll make some strawberry daifuku then, since I happened to start making some red bean paste yesterday. "

"Wait, I love that stuff! You know how to make that?" Shikamaru perks up, straightening slightly from his signature slouch.

"It's not too difficult." Paying for the fruit, she hefts the crate under one arm and starts off towards another stall. "And I like making sweets."

"Did your mom teach you?"

"No. Kaa-san….wasn't at home a lot."

Shikamaru pauses, then pales slightly, then rapidly shifts gears. "How much more stuff do you need to buy?"

"We've got the fruit and the red bean, so I think I just need to grab some flour. How many people are going to be at dinner again?"

"Well it's gonna be our weekly dinner with Ino and Chouji's families, so including you….probably around ten?"

"Ten!"

Shikamaru shifts awkwardly for a moment. "Yeah, something like that?"

Sakura's eyes narrow. "Wait. There is no way Yoshino-san would have told you to inform me of such a big dinner on the day of."

"...Ino reminded me about that just now." He finally mumbles, shrinking slightly beneath her gaze.

"Of course," Sakura says, flatly, then continues onward.

"Uhm." Shikamaru finally hedges, meekly, breaking the ominous silence. "Are you mad?"

A decidedly wicked look flashes across Sakura's face. "Of course not," she chirps, sounding quite chipper. She shoves a heavy bag of rice flour into his chest. "You're going to help me make them, right?"

Shikamaru can only nod.

"I mean, your job is going to be quite simple," Sakura assures as she drags the poor boy to her house. "You don't really need to know how to cook at all."

"I don't?" He looks at her warily.

"As if I'd let you near the stove your first time in the kitchen." She lightly nudges him with her shoulder as they arrive at her front porch. "Welcome to my home."

"It's cozy." Shikamaru follows her into the kitchen. "And bright. I like it."

The words sound nostalgic, somehow, and Sakura's breath catches in realization, because he's the first person to enter this house with her in so long, the first person she's invited over since….months. She stares at his back for a moment.

"Thank you."

He doesn't respond, just dumps the sack of flour onto the counter and turns, an easy smirk slipping onto his face. "So what's my job?"

"I'll take care of the bean paste." She makes towards the sink and pulls out the bowl of red beans she had left soaking overnight and a strainer. It was a big batch of beans-hopefully it would be enough.

"You," she drawls, pointing at him with the strainer, "are going to help me whip up the mochi."

He groans, but gets to work.

Smirking to herself, Sakura strains and mashes up the red beans, then heats up the paste in a pot and stirs in sugar. Taking the runny rice flour mixture from Shikamaru, she steams the batter while setting the boy back to work cleaning the strawberries, then rummages around the cupboards for a nice box to put the confections in. Container found, Sakura dusts the finished mochi with flour and the two begin assembling the desserts together: spreading a thin layer of bean paste around each strawberry, then wrapping the whole thing in a mochi skin. It is late afternoon by the time they finish.

"Do you think we have enough?" Sakura eyes the cloth-wrapped box of desserts doubtfully.

"Definitely. We made like thirty!"

"Thirty-two," Sakura corrects, dumping the used bowls into the sink and turning on the faucet. "Should we leave soon?" The sun is still high in the sky, but it is summer. The days are long.

"Dinners probably in about an hour, so we can start walking in a bit." He splays his arms out beside the daifuku container, groaning in pain. "Let's take a break first. My arms are falling off." His head hits the table with a hollow thunk.

She lets him rest as she washes the kitchenware and wipes the counter of any leftover flour, then pokes him roughly between the shoulder blades. He jumps up with a yelp.

"Oi! What was that for?"

"Time to go, you lazy bum. I gave you enough of a break."

He grumbles at her but obeys. "...Do I need to grab the box?" Still contrite about his lapse in memory, it seems. She takes pity on him.

"It's fine, I got it." She grabs the treats, then leads the way to the door. "Are you sure I don't need to get dressed?"

"Yeah, you're totally good, woman."

"Girl! Do I have any flour on me?"

"No."

"Sugar?"

"No."

"...Bean paste?"

"No."

"...Okay. If you're sure-"

"You look fine!"

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Oh. Oh, okay."

"Troublesome girl."

"...Thanks."

"...No prob. You ready?"

"Aa."

Until next time!

Some responses to reviewer comments/questions:

xXWinterRoseXx: Thank you! I hope the dinner turns out well :O (Also, let's see how Itachi's going to navigate those possible Sakura-Sasuke interactions :P) And thank you for the comment feedback!

Dango Town: Awwww thank you! I am such a nerd with all this chakra-theory stuff and I am SO HAPPY you feel the same! You made my...past 6 months, or however long it's been since I last updated. (Which is too long ago. Sorry D:) Chapter 8 is likely going to be another theory-heavy chapter ;P

Allie: I hope that "I hope to read about you soon" meant something like "make a profile page" because I saw your comment back in March and so I made one! (Incidentally, I was planning on updating in March before I got sidetracked.) Kakashi will be coming soon~ and no worries about grammar/spelling :)

Sasusakui: I've got the outline of the whole (very, very long) story planned out and I do not plan on dropping it any time soon!

All of your reviews made me incredibly happy! I think I'm going to keep a review-reply section here from now on. Thank you for all the motivation!