I wrote this because the images of team 7 on google would not stop and they have no right looking that cute together, honestly. How can anyone who likes any one member of Team 7 not ship them together?! I'm not sure. If I had an OT4+ this would likely be it.

I think, for now at least, these will be connected drabbles (not really quite one-shots)/ snapshots into the more domestic lives of team 7 following the war. If you've got domestic headcanons you wanna see let's hear 'em while I'm taking suggestions.

If you don't like the idea of polyandry relationships, then don't read.

If you're fine with that but hate Haruno Sakura, also don't read.

Non-canon pairs (except for the SasuSaku) and side pairs featured.

Flamers not welcome.

I don't own Naruto—no duh.

Also I do not own songs or lyrics used.

Summary: Team 7 has a bond that's transcended words. They know they belong to each other; it's unspoken. But thanks to a new law, the world knows it too. A series of snapshots that show the evolution of Team 7's dynamics after war, the momentous, the mundane, and the inevitable shift that changes everything.

This whole world will take me down

Without you standing by my side

My side

You're holding onto me

You're making everything inside

Come alive– "Beating My Heart"; Jon McLaughlin

Sakura sighed deeply in contentment. Kakashi's apartment, which she had only been to maybe twice now, was surprisingly nice. Tidy, for one—something Naruto's wasn't—and spacious enough for the whole team to gather comfortably.

Her teammates, Sasuke included, were sprawled around her in various states of relaxation. None of them looked particularly like the trained and deadly warriors they were known to be on the battlefield. She herself knew that in her tight green shorts, yellow t-shirt, and red vest she looked just as much like a civilian as the rest of them.

Sai's civilian clothes weren't that far from his normal outfit, though. Maybe the tight black clothes provided a sense of familiarity that brought comfort. He was still getting used to being his own person that was fully in control of himself, after all. Having acted on Danzo's behalf as an emotionless soldier for as long as he could remember, Sakura felt Sai had more than earned his freedom after the year he'd been on Team 7.

And after the war, they'd all more than earned this. Simple moments lounging around with nothing in particular to do. Sakura and Sai shared the couch; she was doing what she considered light reading—"Nu-uh, that's practically a dictionary Sakura-chan!"—her legs resting across Sai's lap as he studied her recently painted toes, lightly stroking the soles of her feet unconsciously. Kakashi was with Yamato in the kitchen, their light-hearted conversation drifting to her as Yamato prepared drinks.

Naruto was dozing on the plush carpet, using one of Kakashi's ninken as a pillow. Luckily, the big mastiff, aptly named Bull, seemed not to mind. And Sasuke, their wayward teammate, had decided at long last to return to Konoha. Of course, his return did not come without repercussions. He had done a lot of no-no's while he was a rogue.

In the heat of the moment on the battlefield, she had simply been hit with an overwhelming surge of relief and happiness and maybe even some nostalgia, to be fighting alongside Sasuke again. But when the threat had passed and the dust had cleared, reality sank in quickly for Sakura. Sasuke was no longer the young boy who left them, full of anger and frustration but without the true capacity to take a life.

He was a young man who had hurt people, some innocent and some not. He had a lot to answer for, and she wasn't in a position to object that he be held accountable. Especially since, deep down she felt wary of him. Sure, he seemed to have gotten it all out of his system, but her trust in him was frayed, and it would take time to fully mend.

For Naruto's sake, she could put her own feelings aside momentarily, but at some point things would need to be addressed before he could be fully accepted back into the fold. Currently, Sakura was on guard, hoping that things would work out but fully prepared that they may not. Sasuke was never one to be kept somewhere he didn't want to be.

The Uchiha had swallowed his pride and given himself over to the judgement of the Hokage. Currently he was basically on lock-down until further notice, living with Kakashi and under the direct surveillance of ANBU. His dojutsu had been sealed indefinitely, a condition of the counsel—aged, belligerent bags of wind that they were. Attempting to activate any ocular powers would cause him excruciating, debilitating pain from what Tsunade had explained to her. Then, there was the fact that he had been told that he was stuck with simple C and D-rank missions doled out at the Hokage's convenience, assignments a shinobi of Sasuke's caliber had long since outgrown.

It was further insult to injury for the proud Uchiha; but Sasuke was smart enough to understand it was a test to see how far he'd be willing to comply and how serious he was about seeking penance. And so he accepted the conditions without argument. Was he happy? Sakura highly doubted it. But these were the prices paid for his actions.

Sakura's green eyes slowly found the hunched form of her former teammate on the carpet in a meditative pose, several safe feet from the snoozing blond. Sasuke sat pensively on the floor, looking to be in a deep state of contemplation. Maybe he was just trying to ignore Naruto's snoring though.

Either way, a shaky peace had returned to them with the end of the war and reunion of Team 7, both old and new.

"Are you content?" Sai asked quietly, still studying her light green toenails.

Sakura glanced at the dark-haired artist and he slowly lifted his head. His dark eyes, normally blank, were watching her intently. Sakura smiled slightly. "I…yeah, I think this is the first time I'd be able to use that word in a while. What about you?" For someone who had been in ROOT, that was a loaded question. Not so long ago Sai wouldn't have even understood the concept.

Sakura watched as his struggled to piece together his feelings and put them into words. "If you had asked me that a year ago, I'm not sure I would have known what to say. But, being a member of this team has taught me so much in a short time. I now understand bonds. And with the bonds of Team 7 repaired, you and Naruto are both happy. I…It makes me happy too." Sakura sat up and wrapped an arm around his shoulders in a hug.

Sai had come such a long way in a year. Feeling their happiness as his own. That would've been inconceivable before.

It was at that moment that the two sensei entered the room, Yamato holding a wooden tray with mugs of tea, and Kakashi with a plate of freshly made riceballs.

The silver-haired jonin nudged Naruto with his foot as he walked by. "Up you go,"

Naruto grumbled sleepily, burrowing his face further into Bull's side, much to the large dog's amusement. Locking eyes with Kakashi, who winked at the ninken, Bull's drooping face stretched into a sagging grin. Standing slowly with the blond still sprawled across his back, the dog began bucking around, much like his namesake. Naruto opened his eyes with a yelp, clinging to the mastiff for dear life.

"I'm up! I'm up! Somebody get me off this thing!" he cried.

He could hear Kakashi and Yamato chuckling and Sakura's more feminine giggle. He turned to her in betrayal and noticed even Sai was smirking at him.

"Alright, I think he's had enough." Kakashi said. Instantly, the dog came to an abrupt stop that sent the blond flying off his back.

Unfortunately, he landed directly in Sasuke's lap, something the Uchiha was far from happy about. Naruto, his face planted into his teammate's groin, groaned, lifting himself up. "Thanks for breaking my fall." he grinned stupidly.

"Get. Off." Sasuke growled, quick to shove the blond away with a huff.

"Well. Now that we're all up, how about some tea?" Yamato smiled, carefully passing everyone a cup. "The weather's perfect for it." True to his words, the Fire Country, and thus Konoha, was now fully immersed in fall. November had come without much notice. Everyone was too preoccupied with finishing the repairs to the village following Pein's assault that had been put on hold with the announcement of the war. Suddenly leaves were changing color and the air had a crisp feel.

Walking through the village had become somewhat scenic.

"Naruto! Don't hog those!" Sakura scolded, slapping the blonde's hand away as he tried to take all the rice balls. "You can have two but everyone else has to eat some you know."

"Aw Sakura! That nap made me work up an appetite!" Naruto complained.

"How can doing absolutely nothing exert any energy?" Surprisingly, it was Sasuke who spoke.

"Oh like you can talk!" Naruto huffed, biting aggressively into his snack. "You've been here all day too!"

"Actually, Sasuke and I did a little training earlier." Kakashi's visible eye crinkled cheerfully. For whatever reason, even with the recent absence of his Sharingan, Kakashi kept the habit of wearing his headband slanted to cover one eye.

"What?!" Naruto squawked indignantly. "You trained without me?"

Kakashi looked away sheepishly. "Well, you were so cute sleeping there and—"

"Cut the crap!" Naruto snapped.

"Naruto," Sakura sighed, calmly sipping her tea. She'd have to get Yamato's recipe later. It was delicious. "If it'll keep you from whining for the rest of the day, I'll train with you later."

This instantly appeased the blond as he turned to his female teammate with sparkling eyes of gratitude. "R-Really?" he blubbered, crawling closer to her. "J-just the two of us?"

Sakura blinked. Was he trying to take advantage of this and call it a date? "Sure, why not?" Even so, she relented.

"Yosh!" Naruto fist pumped. "I get to be alone with Sakura-chan!" He gave Sasuke a smug grin. "All you got was training with Kaka-sensei."

The Uchiha narrowed his dark eyes dangerously as the blonde gloated.

"Kaka-sensei?" Kakashi repeated, perplexed.

"Yes. Naruto and Ugly have been calling you that for a while." Sai supplied, smiling innocently.

"I-I see." Kakashi nodded.

Yamato smirked, elbowing him. "Cute. You've got a nickname now, senpai."

"They have one for you as well, taicho." Sai continued.

"Really?" Kakashi asked curiously. Though no one had seen it, he had already eaten his rice balls, and his cup of tea was half empty. "Let's hear it."

"Well…" Naruto began.

"S-Sai!" Sakura hissed, clamping a hand over his mouth.

"Hm?" Yamato leaned in, "It's not anything bad, is it?" By this point he had pulled out his flashlight from nowhere and made the face that always freaked Naruto out. It worked. Naruto jumped into Sakura's arms with a squeal, causing her to topple over onto Sai unexpectedly. Blushing furiously from the middle of the dog pile Naruto caused, Sakura groaned, shoving the blonde off.

"Geez! Give somebody a warning, would ya?" Sakura huffed, trying to avoid looking at Sai as she lifted herself up. One of his arms had rested loosely around her lower back, and his touch was acutely warm against the bare strip of skin where her shirt rode up.

Sasuke looked at Naruto with clear annoyance. "Dobe…" he mumbled.

"What was that?!" Naruto roared, already recovered.

"Boys, boys…settle down." Kakashi attempted. He managed to effectively grab Naruto and sit on him before he could tackle Sasuke. Their years of separation and the tension between them before the war had only seemed to make both of them more anxious to pick up where they left off regarding their rivalry. However, Sasuke spoke even less than he used to. When he did speak they were almost always insults directed at Naruto.

Sai watched with interest as Naruto attempted to reach Sasuke, despite Kakashi literally pinning him down with his body weight. It didn't work as effectively as it once had when he had three young genin who he could almost crush just by sitting on them, but Naruto was still down nonetheless.

The Uchiha seemed entirely unconcerned by the threat of the blonde possibly retaliating, instead finishing up his tea and closing his eyes.

"I still would like to know what this nickname of mine is." Yamato looked at Sakura expectantly.

"I-It's nothing bad! Really!" Sakura said nervously. "J-Just…doriru gunso."

"Ah," Yamato's thin lips curled into a small smile. "A nickname I'll wear proudly then."

"We…thought you might." Sakura blushed slightly. She yelped suddenly as something cold and slightly wet pressed against her thigh. Yamato looked at her in confusion, until he noticed a small dog had appeared in the kunoichi's lap. One of Kakashi's ninken.

"Yo!" the dog greeted, lifting a paw.

"Pakkun!" Sakura picked the dog up and held him in front of her face. "You almost gave me a heart attack!"

"Yeah, sorry about that…" he sighed. "It's just…it's din-din time and Kakashi's kind of in the middle of something. You might feeding us?" He pointed toward the small hallway near the living room, and Sakura could see six more heads peeking around the corner pleadingly. Bull had lumbered over from the corner he'd been resting in to stare at her.

"Uh…"

"Would you, Sakura?" Kakashi asked sweetly. "It'd help a lot. Naruto still hasn't settled down…"

"Let me at 'im!" the blonde cried from under his sensei.

"Right." She set Pakkun down and stood with a nod. The dogs gave murmurs of delight, coming out of the hallway with tails wagging. "I guess I should take my cup to the kitchen anyway."

"Sakura." She was surprised as Sasuke stood gracefully. "I'll come too."

She was aware she was gaping, and slowly closed her mouth. "T-Thanks."

They wordlessly collected everyone's cups and took them into the small kitchen, a procession of dogs following. After Sakura had rinsed the cups in the sink she turned to Pakkun, expecting the little pug to take charge as usual.

"It's up there." He pointed to a large bag of kibble above the fridge. Her eyes widened when she saw the brand. This was pricey stuff from what Kiba had once told her. Kakashi certainly treated his dogs well.

Sakura easily pulled it down and the dogs eagerly lined up near their respective bowls. It was then that she noticed each dog had his own bowl with his name written on it in Kakashi's handwriting.

'How cute!' She couldn't help but smile at the thought.

"Don't forget the beef cuts." One of the dogs reminded. He was standing in front of a bowl that said "Bisuke".

"B-Beef cuts?" Sakura asked.

"Well we're ninken. You didn't think kibble alone would do it, did you?" answered another dog standing in front of a bowl that said "Akino".

"Kakashi gives you kibble and beef cuts?" Sakura asked skeptically.

"Of course," Pakkun answered solemnly.

"Well, okay…"

Sasuke, who she had almost forgotten was in the room, pulled the door of the fridge open, and sure enough, there were pre-chopped beef cuts in a large bowl, covered in plastic wrap.

"Mm…" Pakkun licked his lips, stubby tail wagging. "Lay it on me already!"

"I-I guess if this is what they normally eat…" Sakura trailed off, using the scoop she found in the bag to try and ration an appropriate amount of food into each dog's bowl. Pakkun's bowl was the smallest, so she gave him the least. Bull's was naturally the largest, so he got the most. She gave the other dogs medium-portions.

"Hey, you're an Uchiha, right?" asked the dog standing by the bowl that said "Shiba".

" 'Course he is! Look at 'im! It's the same Uchiha whelp from Kakashi's team all those years ago." The dog named Uhei snorted.

Shiba moved a little closer to Sasuke, sniffing his foot. "So it is." The dog nodded to himself. "Anyway, rare meat's not really my taste. How about a little fire jutsu to cook this thing a little."

Sakura wasn't sure Sasuke would comply. She reached out to take the bowl from him. "Um, it's fine, Sasuke. I can just put it on the stove for a mi—"

Her eyes widened as she watched Sasuke breathe a small amount of fire over the meat, cooking it instantly. Sasuke followed up by sliding a portion of meat onto each dog's serving of kibble.

"Mm…fresh kobe steak!" Guruko commented as they all attacked their meals ravenously.

Pakkun at least had the courtesy to turn to them and dip his head. "Thanks kids, you're lifesavers." He turned away and began tucking in.

Sakura chuckled as she watched them. Their tails were whipping furiously as they ate, looking no different than ordinary dogs excited for a good meal. She turned to the man leaning against the small table as she put the kibble back above the fridge. "Thanks for that. You know, cooking it for them. They really seem to be enjoying it."

Sasuke glanced at the nin hounds behind him as they chowed down noisily, slurping, chewing and crunching.

"Anything to get away from Naruto's yammering."

Ah. She should have figured as much.

"Well anyway, I wouldn't have been able to cook it for them so quickly, so thanks."

"Hn."

There was an air of awkward silence that curled around them after that, in which Sakura tried to decide if she should attempt to restart the conversation or leave it as it was and slip out of the room.

Her train of thought was broken as she heard Naruto's ranting start up again. "She's been in there with the teme for a long time! What if he's doing something weird?! I'm gonna go check—" Naruto came barging through the door, Kakashi with a firm grip on his black t-shirt.

"Sorry about him. He insisted we had to rescue poor Sakura from Sasuke's villainous intentions."

Sakura sighed while Sasuke grunted. "I'm not you, dobe. You're not even subtle."

"Yeah, well at least—"

"Wait a minute," Kakashi cut off another argument at the pass. "Why are…the dogs eating the beef I put aside for dinner?"

Sakura gaped and Sasuke turned to the man with a finely arched brow.

"W-What?" Sakura spluttered. "But they said—" She glared at them, but they continued to eat innocently as if they were normal dogs who couldn't understand.

Most of all she was upset and disappointed in the small leader of the pack, who she had trusted at his word. 'PAKKUN!'

Just an introduction into the domestic side of Team 7 but like I said…it's the focus of this particular fic. At the end of this chapter I'll have a headcanon I or maybe someone else, gave me that will be featured in this story.

Also, in this fic, Sasuke will receive an ongoing form of punishment that does not amount to a slap on the wrist. Why? Because I'm not a Sasuke sympathizer and so the way things turned out in canon with him basically being totally pardoned and then taking a "trip of atonement" or whatever you wanna call it, is BS to me. :/ People can say whatever they want but Sasuke only got off clean because as Kishimoto has long-since admitted, Sasuke is among his favorite characters, you have only to read or watch Naruto to see that. So if for whatever reason this puts you off—I know some people who are fiercely protective of Canon!Sasuke and his decisions and I won't pretend to understand why—then maybe you shouldn't read. I'm not going to say it'll be full out assault on his character, just that I'm taking a different approach to how that went down.

The "nickname" they gave Yamato means drill sergeant, because of how strict he is with training.

Headcanon Established: Kakashi's ninken all live with him and there are dog bowls with each of their names on them in his kitchen.

Please review.