Summary: They were Team 7; they are apprentices of the Legendary Sannin. But two of them vowed to keep history from repeating itself. Set after the timeskip.

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, Naruto does not belong to me, but if it did, well... let's not go into that.

Also, I do not accept flames. I'm sorry if the grammar or punctuation is incorrect, and if it is a really big mistake, and then please tell me.

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Chapter 1: It begins

Beep . . .

Beep . . .

Beep . . .

BANG!

These were the noises heard as a very grumpy, pink haired kunoichi turned over in bed, mentally making a note to replace her newly broken alarm clock. She sighed; this would be the fifth this week. She groaned slightly, turning over once again to shield her eyes from the rising sun. Yawning, she snuggled into her comforter and closed her eyes, preparing to sleep once more.

Knock . . .

Knock . . .

Knock . . .

Oh, for kami's sake! What now? The noise was coming from behind. She twisted so she was facing the window. She was vaguely aware that the sun wasn't as bright as it had been a few minutes ago. Then she realized that this was because something or someone was blocking the light. She sighed again, getting up from the bed this time, and walking over to the window. Pushing it up, she let the rather brightly clad ninja into her bedroom.

"What do you want, Naruto?" She asked, stifling another yawn. She glanced at the clock. Remembering it was broken, she looked outside, trying to guess what time it was.

"It's six- thirty in the morning. What could possibly be so important that you had to wake me up at six 'o' clock on my day off?" She asked, hands on her hips, her face showing every sign of annoyance and anger. Oh, yes, Sakura Haruno was definitely not a morning person.

However, the same couldn't be said for the blue-eyed shinobi in front of her.

"Hehe... it's kind of funny you should say that ... ano... Tsunade-baa chan wants to meet you in her office, in –, "he broke off, glancing at the broken alarm clock. "- at 7:00."

He rubbed the back of his neck as he looked at her uncertainly. He had been on the same team as her for six years, but for Naruto, it was still hard to know what Sakura was thinking. Unfortunately, because of this, Naruto often found himself in hospital, with a bump the size of an apple on his head.

"Err... Sakura-chan?" he asked. Sakura was looking at the ground. Strangely enough, Naruto found no killer intent radiating from the kunoichi standing next to him. Without a word, Sakura dragged her feet to her wardrobe, picking out her daily training outfit (a red turtleneck, a black pleated skirt, with black shorts underneath and black ninja boots), and some clean underwear. She walked into her bathroom closing the door behind her. After he heard the click of the door locking, Naruto allowed himself to relax. He scratched his head.' Girls can be so confusing'; he shrugged, making his way to Sakura's kitchen. 'It must be that time of the month'

Behind the locked door , Sakura slid down to the ground. She stared off vacantly into space. 'Tsunade-shishou knew how much this day meant to me. I've been putting in extra hours at the hospital every night, so why would she call me now, I guess she wouldn't have asked for me, if it wasn't important.' With that thought in mind, she raised herself from the ground and began to run the shower.

15 minutes later, Sakura rushed down the stairs. She looked around, there were food packets strewn all over the floor, and Naruto was crouching down, his head in one of the cupboards. When he finally got out, he was pouting.

"Ne, ne Sakura-chan, where's the ramen?" he said, rubbing his neck and grinning sheepishly. Sakura, against her will, smiled. Some things just never seemed to change. Naruto and his passion for ramen was one of them.

"You ate it all the last time you came" she said, trying very hard not to break out into a fit of giggles, as she looked at his crestfallen face. "Really, Naruto, how many times have I told you that you can't live on just ramen. "

"Yeah, yeah," he grumbled. It was obvious he was sulking. Sometimes, Naruto was just a child in a man's body. It was almost cute in its own way.

Without a word they left Sakura's house and raced along the rooftops of Konohagakure, both preoccupied in thought. It didn't take them long to reach there. When they reached Tsunade's office, they saw that they weren't the only ones to be called. Shikamaru was sitting on a chair, trying to sleep, mumbling something being 'troublesome' and Neji and Tenten were having a heated discussion about fuma shuriken. In the corner stood Hinata, touching her index fingers together at realizing that Naruto had entered the room. Upon seeing this, Sakura sighed for what seemed like the tenth time that morning. Really, somebody had to do something about those two. Naruto was so oblivious to Hinata's feelings, and Hinata was just too shy. Also in the room were Chouji, Ino, Lee, Kiba and Shino. It's seemed as if all the Rookie Nine and Team Gai had been called. Everyone except Sasuke. Sakura felt a familiar pang in her chest. She swallowed and willed the thoughts to go away. She was stronger now; it would do her no good to remember him. She was brought out of her musings by a cough from the Hokage.

"I've called you here today for a very important mission" Naruto almost fell asleep as he heard those words. Yeah, Yeah. It was the same every time. He could handle anything she threw at him. He was getting closer to achieving his dream of Hokage every day. He could feel it.

"I'll get straight to the point. About a week ago, I sent some ninja to gather information about Orochimaru. They arrived in Otogakure safely; they were only ambushed by Rain Ninja. However when they got there, what they found was not a sight for sore eyes. There was blood on the walls, the weapons lay scattered and only a few people survived, but they were injured terribly. All those who survived are now mute, and they were always illiterate, so they cannot tell us who or what did this to them. What we do know is that there were only two people missing. The medic, Kabuto is also dead. There were only two people missing at the time of the attack; Orochimaru and Uchiha Sasuke."

As she said this, she gazed directly at Naruto and Sakura. She couldn't tell what they were thinking. Sakura's eyes were glazed with unshed tears, and for the first time in his life, Naruto was silent and somber. But she could predict that there was a mixed feeling of hope and dread. Hope at the fact that the Uchiha survivor was alive, and dread at the possibility that Orochimaru might have taken over his body all ready. Godaime Hokage inwardly sighed.

At the back of the room, Sakura held back a sob. Sasuke- kun. She all ready knew what the mission was. She could see it in her shishou's eyes. She didn't know whether to be happy or to be angry. It really was a cruel game that fate was playing. She almost laughed; she was beginning to sound like Neji.

"I'm sending the most gifted young shinobi that Konoha has to offer on this mission. We have a taijutsu specialist, two byakugan users, and excellent sense of smell, one weapons specialist, a bug user and a great hulk of physical strength, one mind jutsu specialist and one shadow jutsu specialist. Not to mention my own apprentice, herself, and Konoha's Number One Knucklehead ninja.

'Your mission is to retrieve Uchiha Sasuke'

Yeah, sorry, this chapter was really short, and if you couldn't guess, I'm new to I don't know whether that puts anyone off or anything... Just to let you know, this is a little AU, and you'll find out why if you keep reading. I'm not going to ask you to review, because all I really want is to write a decent Naruto fan fiction.

Sayonara,

Froodles