DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN NARUTO!

There was a knocking at the door.

"Could one of you get the door?" Sakura called from her bedroom upstairs "that's probably my new study partner."

"I'll get it Sakura-chan!" Naruto yelled excitedly and raced to the front door, swinging it open "hel-…!" he promptly had a heart-attack.

Sakura frowned and hurried downstairs when she heard Naruto cut himself off suddenly "Naruto?" she called "are you alright?" she approached the front door and caught sight of her housemate on the ground, body still twitching and her rather surprised study partner in the doorway.

"He collapsed" Shi explained, shrugging "you did warn him that I would be coming, right?"

Sakura's cheeks turned slightly red at the reminder of the time she had been forced to ditch her housemates pre-arranged dinner at a restaurant in order to attend a scheduled study session with Shi (that had resulted in a hysterical Naruto calling her at five minute intervals demanding to know when she'd be arriving despite her informing the others that she would be unable to make the dinner) "of course I did!" she protested.

"Sakura-chan" Naruto mumbled, returning to consciousness. He stared at the now empty doorway (Shi having stepping over him) and sighed heavily with relief "it must have been a dream."

"You're having hallucinations?" Sakura asked worriedly.

"No Sakura-chan, ju-…" Naruto cut himself off and pointed a finger at Shi "he was supposed to be a figment of my imagination!" he protested "why is he here?"

"This is my new study partner" Sakura said, blinking "remember? I told you my new study partner would be stopping by? It's really convenient. Shi has already taken some of my classes and he agreed to tutor me when we aren't studying together for the classes we share."

"No!" Naruto wailed, shooting to his feet "he's EVIL! Your study partner is supposed to be a GIRL!"

"I never said that my study partner was a girl" Sakura snapped.

"What about Ino?" Naruto demanded.

"She's switched her major from nursing to botany" Sakura replied "and since she's minoring in Psychology Shi and I will study with her for our Psychology classes. Remember? I told you about her major switch, and my major is pre-med not nursing."

"Karin?" Naruto asked weakly.

"She's majoring in Biology" Sakura snapped, hands on her hips "and minoring in Chemistry."

"Hinata?"

"Naruto you baka!" Sakura snapped "she's majoring in Economics with a minor in Art!"

Shi was beginning to be amused.

"I know, Shizune!"

"Shizune GRADUATED!" Sakura screamed at him "she isn't even in the country! And before you ask, Kabuto ALSO graduated!"

Naruto had made a face at the mention of the male "I wasn't going to ask about him" he mumbled darkly under his breath "I don't approve."

"I'm not asking you to" Sakura retorted.

Naruto suddenly brightened, pointing at her "…you're underage, you're jailbait…he's a PEDOPHI-…!"

Sakura's fist cut him off as she broke his nose.

Sasuke Uchiha, her other housemate, snorted as he entered the room on his way to the kitchen "who would want to date her?" he asked "she's flat-chested with anger iss-…"

A second later he had joined Naruto in crouching on the floor, cradling his broken nose.

"Sorry about that Shi" Sakura said tightly "we can go study in my room. It's up the stairs, this way."

"Sakura-chan" Naruto mumbled, reaching out to grab her leg "keep the door open and your pepper spray close."

Sakura promptly kicked him, delivering him to unconsciousness.

The study session was productive in more ways than one in Shi's opinion. For one, he got to see a different side of Sakura Haruno than he had before. For another…he eyed her thoughtfully, he hadn't looked at her before as a potential partner/girlfriend but…he could see the possibility now.

Over the next two weeks, Shi and Sakura met six times for study sessions. Shi also avoided a total of seven water balloons, two buckets over the door, twenty-four spit balls, three oversalted or over-peppered lunches, thirteen bananas, four contaminated food offerings, eight pieces of contaminated candies, and shared lunch with Sakura three times after his went missing.

Naruto, meanwhile, received three months of detention after being caught trying to ruin Shi's homework and Sasuke fell down a flight of stairs after trying to trip Shi down the same stairs.

Shi's friends declared with complete disgust that it was clearly true love before quietly discussing among themselves if perhaps Shi was going insane for putting up with so much just to continue having Sakura Haruno as a 'study partner'. Naturally after Sakura Haruno was invited to have lunch with them and ended up cowing Uchiha and Uzumaki into behaving and paying for her dessert when they came over for their daily offering of 'not threats but warnings if anything untoward happened to Sakura' to Shi, she was loudly invited back whenever she wanted.

The idiots.

Of course, that was nothing compared to when Uchiha got caught trying to sneak into Shi's room to do… something. He wasn't sure what it was because Uchiha got caught and handed over to Morino Ibiki who was in charge of school disciplinary actions. Naruto, meanwhile, actually succeeded in sneaking into Shi's room and stealing a pair of underwear. Unfortunately for him, the underwear he stole was actually Samui's (Uzumaki, for some reason, believed that Shi actually wore thongs) that had been left over after she 'visited' her boyfriend Darui at the dormroom when Shi was tutoring Sakura the previous day (Shi actually knew what had happened since he had come back to find the couple wearing different clothes). Unfortunately for Uzumaki, Darui, Shi and Omoi shared a suite and the second pair of underwear he grabbed was also not Shi's but Karui's that she'd left behind after 'visiting' Omoi (it had been a surprise to Shi too). Evidently Uzumaki had grabbed clothing out of the laundry area that the three shared. Shi ended up driving Sakura to the hospital so she could visit Uzumaki, but decided not to visit himself.

Due to Uzumaki and Uchiha being in detention for pretty much the rest of the year Shi was prepared to enjoy himself and enjoy many other 'study sessions' that involved grabbing dinner at one of the local restaurants (they went Dutch, since Sakura insisted on it) but then Sakura insisted on inviting him to the house near campus that she shared with Uchiha and Uzumaki. Seems that in their freshman year of middle school the trio had been tutored by then high-schooler Kakashi Hatake who had remained close to them since and resulted in him staying at their house when he was in the area.

The introduction went well, if one ignored the death threats Shi received in sign language when Sakura wasn't looking, or the fact that Kakashi wasn't reading porn (as Sakura had warned him he would be) but instead had picked up a new book titled '101 Ways to Dispose of a Body'. It had been fun switching his dinner with Uzumaki's and his drink with Uchiha's. Kakashi had gotten his dessert.

The next day Sakura had called bright and early to make sure that he hadn't gotten sick like the other three males had. Uzumaki and Uchiha ended up missing three days of school.

It had been very peaceful. If one overlooked the fact that Sakura got kicked out of her house for two days while it was inspected for contamination (in case the three males were inflicted with a deadly virus that the house was responsible for) and due to her house being placed under quarantine she ended up staying with Samui and Karui. By the end of the two days the three girls were good friends.

Uzumaki and Uchiha gave him the evil eye when they were forced to thank him and his friends for taking care of Sakura. So did Sakura's best friend, who returned from her trip shortly after the incident. She loudly announced that Shi was hot and she 'totally' approved of him studying with Sakura, cheerfully ignoring how Uzumaki and Uchiha had dramatized panic attacks behind her before she dragged them out and proceeded to scream loudly at them about how Sakura was almost 18 and it would be morally wrong to allow her to turn 18 without having a boyfriend and did they want Sakura to die a virgin? The immediate reply was yes and resulted in her kicking their legs. Ino's boyfriend Shikamaru, meanwhile, was keeping Sakura distracted by complaining about how troublesome homework was and wondering aloud if it wouldn't be easier to just skip doing it.

Meanwhile, Kakashi had mysteriously vanished from the hospital shortly after he was admitted, from what Shi heard it was usual for him to do it and the hospital staff were loudly discussing the possibility of drugging him next time. Shi knew he was fine since he kept on getting death threats written on the backs of pages torn out of erotica novels. It was almost as amusing as the death threats written on the backs of the cardboard packaging of 'cup of noodles' ramen and the 'death threats written in blood' that was actually tomato juice and/or ketchup.

Shi also got introduced to Sakura's other housemate Sai who had been on a study abroad trip for his Art major until recently. He insisted on calling Shi 'pedophile' but then switched to calling him 'Doctor Hack' or 'Hack' for short. Shi decided not to complain since Sai called Sakura 'ugly' and Uzumaki and Uchiha were 'dickless' and 'duckhead' respectively (Uchiha was also 'traitor' sometimes, which led Sakura to explain about how Sasuke got accepted to attend Oto High School which was the 'sworn enemy' of the high school Konoha that the four had planned on attending and later did).

Sakura apologized profusely, and he ended up agreeing to let her treat him to lunch the next day, though she was a bit confused on why/how he ended up paying. He didn't explain, or listen to protests as he handed over his credit card, but he did distract her when Uzumaki, Uchiha and Sai were dragged out for causing a disturbance.

He was invited to Sakura's 18th birthday party by Ino who arranged the party. Darui, Samui, Karui and Omoi tagged along to congratulate her. All five were amused by how Sakura received brand new pepper spray, a button titled 'pervert alert', a taser, a book titled '101 Ways to Fight Off a Pervert' and a book titled '101 Ways to Spot a Pervert'.

At the end of the party Shi turned to Sakura and formally asked her out. When she said yes, he relieved her of her first kiss to Uzumaki and Uchiha's horror while Ino whistled, recording the incident on her phone, and Shikamaru groaned loudly.

Five years later, Uzumaki got drunk at their wedding.

"It was supposed to be a girl" he complained as he watched a smug Shi and a blushing Sakura get into a car and drive off "why did the study partner have to be a guy?"