Never in my existence did I think the first Naruto fic I wrote would be Shikasaku. But hey, it took me a long time to come up with enough of a understanding of Sakura to like a LOT of her couples.

Disclaimer(which I forgot in my first two fics and will have in my future ones): I do not own Naruto. If I did, I would be a character in it- duh.

"Yeah, Tsunade-sama?" Shikamaru opened the door by leaning on it, like he hadn't the energy to really push.

"Come in and sit down, Shikamaru," Tsunade gestured blandly to one of the two chairs opposite her. He recognized Sakura Haruno sitting in the other chair, looking misleadingly at attention. But he knew this pink-haired kunoichi, at least passingly as he'd worked with her, and she had problems with focus unless she was on the battle field. He didn't bother to keep near the same posture when he slouched into the seat next to her.

"You will be working together on a mission to the Sand Village," Tsunade cut right to the punch. She always started with the main point, and worked through the rest of the details afterwards. Both he and Sakura knew this, so they just sat patiently and waited for her to continue.

"Children have been disappearing left and right over there," Tsunade said, tracing a red nail across her papers, though she probably had it all memorized. "In our village, of course, such thieves would be easily found and disposed of. Suna is about at its wits end about this, though. So, we decided to send our most clever chunin to help them track him. It should be fairly simple."

Shikamaru did not miss the word "chunin," in there rather than "shinobi." Tsunade wasn't even trying to pretend this would be a difficult job- they were sending rather over achieving chunin to make sure Suna knew they were counted as a worthy ally, who was taken quite seriously, rather than wasting their best jonin when they could be protecting Konoha.

"Where will we be staying?" Sakura asked. Shikamaru noticed she'd been tracing her own finger across her lap with a focused expression, like she was taking notes.

"The place people won't kill you in your sleep for 'stealing Sunagakure's former glory and independence'." No one jolted at the surprise, but Sakura did turn rather quickly, and Shikamaru's eyes darted to the side, as if to catch the intruder in his peripheral vision.

"Kankuro-san?" Sakura asked. "Temari-san?"

The Sand nin were in the doorway of the Hokage's office. Neither had bothered to come in completely.

Shikamaru smirked and finally sat up. "And where would that be?" he was very obviously addressing Temari, though Kankuro had spoken.

"The Kazekage's own dwelling," she answered, though Kankuro was saying something or other very loudly to protest being ignored. Her face was in the same arrogant smirk, and the alarms in Sakura's head went off. This was possibly the most obvious moment of mutual attraction pre-date that she'd ever seen. That would be at least one thing to talk to the blonde about on the way to the Sand.

"Will that be okay with Gaara?" Sakura asked Kankuro, and the boy very literally stepped in front of Temari to avoid being looked over again.

"Yes, he's fine with it," he sounded more like he was trying to speak louder than his now silent and ambivalent sister than like he was sure.

"Why wouldn't he be?" Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at the girl and she looked away, a bit embarrassed, but mostly annoyed, and that's what showed. So, she was still just a tiny bit afraid of Sabaku no Gaara- the clearest memory she had of him, he'd been trying to kill Sasuke, and almost killed her. She knew he was no longer dangerous, it wasn't that big a deal. It wasn't like she'd freak and run away the second she saw him, she just didn't want to upset him by accident.

"Never mind."

"Well, this is all fine and dandy then. But why do we need chaperones to travel to the Sand? Both of us know the way by now, the trip's not that big a deal."

"Scared of someone who'll whip your butt to get you awake in the morning, Nara?" Temari rolled her eyes. Shikamaru didn't even look at her this time, but Sakura still felt the chemistry. Yep, she'd have to meddle a bit while the four of them were on the road.

"Apparently, the elders in the sand are giving this kidnapper higher rank than we are," Tsunade murmured. Sakura frowned, surprised, and Tsunade made eye contact with her student. The woman had often related how annoying she found it that Konoha's elders so often underestimated other country's problems.

"Are we gonna leave or just stand around talking about it?" Kankuro sighed, one foot still out the door.

I know, this beginning really isn't much. I just wanted to establish why they were going, that Shikamaru and Sakura couldn't really care less about each other at the moment, and have some fun with Temari and Kankuro. (It pained me not to actually HAVE Gaara in this chapter, but ah well.) Review Please. J