That Fateful Mission 12/09/2007 16:03:00

Chapter 1

The Unwanted Assignment

"What?!!!" Sakura's scream could be heard past the village's exiting walls. Countless villagers turned to face the Hokage's office building wondering what exactly was going up there.

"You can't be serious!" Sakura exclaimed after throwing the palms of both of her hands on to Lady Tsunade's desk causing it to crack.

Tsuande took a deep breath preparing to explain the situation to her impatient student and the young men standing in the room. "Sakura, Sai needs protection just like any other traveler, and just like any other traveler that asks for our assistance, we give it to them." She said trying to keep her voice from rising.

"Yeah, but Sai?! Why can't he just go himself. I mean he thinks he's soo high and mighty," she demonstrated by throwing her arms in the air and twirling around.

Neji watched Sakura arguing with the Hokage when he heard someone whisper to themselves more than anyone else. "Troublesome…. women are so troublesome…." He turned to see Shikamaru sitting on the couch with his head laid back and his eyes closed. He silently laughed at him thinking 'Try as you may, but you will never tune them out.'

"Tsunade, do you realize that if I have to protect that asshole, that I might just give him to the people that want to kill him if I don't kill him myself?"

Tsunade rolled her eyes and walked to the front of desk so she could be face to face with her oh so stubborn student. "Sakura, the men trying to kill Sai are bad news. If they get their hands on him, they'll drain his power. If they contain that power, they'll destroy every village in sight. And they'll definitely come here considering he housed him."

"Do we know who they're working for?" A voice came from the dark corner of the room. He was only visible from his chest down. He wore black pants with a plain white shirt with no sleeves that came down past his hips. It was a loose fit, but tight enough to see his perfectly shaped chest and shoulders. He stepped out of the shadows to reveal himself, as if no one already knew who he was.

"Well, no, Sasuke… not yet." Tsunade regrettably answered. "We have very little information about the people after Sai's unique pow-"

"What's so unique about his powers anyway?" Shikamaru asked whit his head shooting up. He had a look that told everyone in the room he was now very interested.

"Well, there's something… inside him."

"Wait, what?!" came a blonde's voice. "You mean like me and Gaara? Is he like us?" Naruto and everyone along with him were more than anxious to get these answers.

"No, no he's not. He can't call forth the powers he contains. He can't use them whenever he wants. It's kind of a cursed power, if you will. A power so strong, it has almost forbidden itself to be used. It has no name and no one knows how it came to be."

"Well then how did Sai come to get this power?" Neji asked, speaking for the first time.

"The power never dies. Not even when its host goes to the next life. When its host dies, he flows free until it finds a newborn to live in."

"Wait…" Sakura began with a now calmed voice. "If it can't be used, what do these people want with it? How can it possibly benefit them if they can't use it?"

"Like I said before, we don't know much about them, but we figured that if they want it so bad and are willing to kill for it-"

"They must have found a way to use it." interrupted Sakura. She was speaking to herself when she said it, and when she realized she had, she looked at every one of her friends expressions. They had the same blank look except Naruto who had his regular determined look on his face.

"So when do we get started old lady Hokage?!"

"Well, you can't get started if you're dead, and I promise you if you call me that again… you will be."

"Uhh… yea… right, sorry old- I MEAN Lady Tsunade, our great leader."

He finished his ridiculous cover up with a bow and a sigh of relief.

"All five of you will leave as soon as Kakashi gets here with Sai."

'All five of us? These guys must really be bad news.' Sasuke thought. He looked around at his comrades and knew they were going over the same fact in their heads. At that moment, Kakashi Sensei came up on the window with Sai right behind him.

"Sorry I'm late." Those three words were the usual words that came out of his mouth.

"You're not late." said Tsunade with an almost satisfied smile.

"What? But you said be here at 11 a.m. Its nearing 1 p.m."

"Oh, so you do listen." Tsunade took a seat at her desk and placed her tangled fingers on her des in front of her. "I told you 11 because I knew you'd be at least and hour and half or 2 hours late."

"I have a good explanation though…." Kakashi tried to get himself out of his newfound grave, but fail miserably.

"Whatever, Kakashi Sensei! You were reading your pervy, romance novels again." yelled Sakura. Naruto was by the door snickering while the other three wanted to, but they were 'too cool' for that.

When they all were finally at the village gates and ready to go, Sakura had one more thing to make clear.

"Okay, Sai lets get one thing straight." Sai looked up at her as did everyone else. Sasuke just grinned and thought 'That's my Sakura' 'Wait what!'

"I don't like you. I never did and I can damn near guarantee that I never will. Now, I wont let those guys that are after you get you, but I can and will promise you that if you piss me off enough, I'll end this mission, end their search," she said pointing into the forest. "and kill you my damn self. Okay?"

She finished her speech with a smile that could have scared anyone with common sense. "Um, yea… sure, Sakura."

"Good." And with that, Sakura kicked off the ground and was immediately jumping from tree branch to tree branch. Sasuke, Neji, and Naruto followed right away while Shikamaru was waiting for Sai to leave.

"You know, I can't I leave until you do."

"What- oh yea. Sorry 'bout that." Sai answered snapping out of his own visual of Sakura throwing one of her power puches at him again. 'Damn those hurt.'

"Hahaha. She really got to you didn't she? Don't worry, she's got that effect on a lot of people. You're not the first. She's done it to all of us."

"Uh, yea." Sai said with a nervous chuckle. "I've never seen anyone make threats like her right on the spot…. It's not human."

"Yea," Shikamaru chuckled back. "She's, just uh… gifted in a disturbing way, I guess. Well we kinda have to go. Another minute, and we won't be able to find the others."

Shikamaru and Sai took off on the branches and caught up with the others in less than a minute. They were waiting for them and Sakura wasn't happy. She wanted to get this mission over and done with so she could get home and go on with her 'normal' life.

'I have better things to do…' She thought. She glanced at Sasuke' direction for a second, but quickly turned away and kept on the trail.