Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters!
It was one of those beautiful days in Konoha. The sun was just rising, golden rays of light filtering through the dark green line of trees behind Sakura Haruno's flat. Birds were chirping away happily as a cool morning breeze rustled their feathers. Sakura sat up in her bed and gazed out of her window, her expression slowly changing from serene to thoughtful. She glanced at the clock that sat on her bedside table. It was ten minutes past seven. Her eyes widened.
"Shit! I slept late." She cursed as she threw away the covers and jumped out of her bed.
Half an hour later, she was dashing through the streets of Konoha, heading for the Hokage's office. Was she too late? She thought back to last night. She had been so excited that sleep just refused to come, till the sky started to pale.. As she ran up the steps to the office three at a time, she collided with someone who was coming down as fast, and both fell down cursing.
"Shikhamaru! Where the hell were you looking?" Sakura yelled at the ninja who lay sprawled on the steps.
"I could ask you the same! What's the hurry?" Shikhamaru raised an eyebrow questioningly.
"Aah... The Hokage asked me to come really early today. He said he had an S-rank mission for me!" Sakura replied excitedly, getting up on her feet.
"Oh.. Is that so? Well.. Stay safe, I guess.." Shikhamaru shrugged. Was it worry she was seeing on his face?
"Hey! Don't tell me you are worried, now." Sakura frowned at him.
"Well.. I had given this word to Naruto.." Shikhamaru said quietly, turning his head away so he wouldn't have to look her in the eyes.
Sakura sighed. She didn't want to think about them now. It was painful even to hear their names..
"I won't die that easily." She tried to grin, but failed. Knowing she won't be able to bear any more of this conversation, she abruptly turned and left for the Hokage's office.
Once she was before the door, she knocked gently.
"Come in!" The voice of a man called.
She opened the door and entered into the office. Everything about the office was same as when Tsunade-sama was the Hokage, except for her photo now framed along with the other four Hokages before her. She gazed steadily at the man before her and bowed a little.
"Sakura.. You are feeling alright?" Obito asked. "You look a bit pale."
"Uh.. Yeah. I'm fine." Sakura lied, smiling a little, earning a sigh from Obito. To her relief, he did not say anything further about it.
"Right. Then we will get straight to the point. As you know, we have gathered intel that there are some offensive elements associating in the village of Hidden Grass, with the main objective of jeopardizing the unity of Alliance. You are to go there under the pretense of a civilian doctor. You will have to dye your hair something else so it won't stand out. Your main objective is to deliver this message to our spy in a pre-arranged meeting place without blowing either of your covers." He handed her a scroll, tied neatly with a small red ribbon. "He will be around your age, and you will know his identity as soon as he speaks."
"How can I be sure that I recognize him? Have I seen him before?" Sakura asked, confused.
"That, I cannot say right now. But you will know, I assure you." Obito smiled at her mysteriously. "After he gets your message, he will take you to a place where you will stay until he returns with a man. That man is to be brought back here alive, along with the spy. We need that man for further interrogation."
"Um.. I know this is not my place to say this.. But.. I'm a medic.. If you want to bring a dangerous prisoner back, wouldn't it be better to send of a combat person, you know, like Lee-san or Tenten?"
"It would have been better, except.. there are some things only you can do, Sakura. Don't ask me why. You will know it soon yourself. Now hurry up and get out of here. The details of the mission are in this scroll." He gave her another scroll, this one tied with a green ribbon. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have other works to do." Obito ordered her jokingly, waving her off.
As soon as she was about to leave, Obito glanced at her again. "Sakura, don't forget to bring back our spy, whatever it takes." His words were casual, but his eyes betrayed his tone. Something about the spy was important, she knew.
It was close to noon when she left the gates of Konoha. Her hair was dyed dark brown and was pulled up in a ponytail. Instead of her jounin uniform, she was wearing grey T-shirt and brownish green pants that she hoped would not make her stand out among civilians. She had a backpack on with her things and some medical supplies that civilian doctors used. She dashed through the trees as quick as she could. It would take one day at her full speed to get to the village of Hidden Grass, and only after meeting the spy and delivering the message, she was supposed to take rest. It was not that hard, considering all those missions immediately after the war when she had gone days without sleeping.
The war.. It was something she avoided thinking about. Two years.. Two long years had passed since all their deaths. She remembered those moments with a gnawing pain in her chest. Sasuke's body was nowhere to be found. Naruto, stupid Naruto.. he had fell off a precipice, taking the enemy and his dreams with him. Kakashi sensei had died protecting her and Obito from black zetsu. Tsunade sama was dead saving thousand's of shinobi lives at once. And Sakura.. she had broken down there, in the middle of all the chaos, trembling like a leaf, and crying her soul out. She had never felt that useless in her life. Afterwards, she would often wonder why she was the only one left.. maybe it was a punishment for being not strong enough.. Anyway, she had abandoned trying to become strong in battle, and concentrated her waking hours on medical jutsu, and that alone. At least she could save some lives with that..
She was surprised when a tear ran down her cheeks. She had rarely cried after that. The pain had been there, always, whether she remembered or not. But it was now a part of her. But for many days now, tears just would not come. Why, she never knew, and a part of her never wanted to know.
She dashed through the thick forest for the rest of the day, even at night, stopping only to have her packed meals. By the time dawn came, she was sleepy and tired; but still pushed on. And she finally came to the edge of the forest. The trees were thinning out and she could see a village further off. It was a beautiful village, cradled in a valley between a lake and the forest. The village was not fully awake. At least not the civilians, though she could see a few Grass ninja guarding the perimeter. Carefully, she took to the narrow road leading to its gates and walked. She acted as if she was a civilian, tired and hungry, looking for a place to rest. At the gates, she produced the fake identifications of a civil missionary doctor to the ninja guards there. They looked up at her curiously, but did not say anything as they let her inside.
As she entered, she could see that the village was very poor, compared to Konoha. Most of the people there wore ragged clothes. The houses were small and looked ready to topple down at any moment. Children looked lean and hungry, some clinging to their mothers with fear when two ninjas walked by them. Sakura took it all in. She was grateful the war had not affected Konoha as much as these people.
She walked on, searching for the inn that was the landmark for the meeting place with the spy. Though the village was poor, it was beautiful, because of its proximity to the lake and the forest. Huge trees shaded most of the village, some bloomed beautiful red flowers and other had yellow blossoms on them. She spotted the inn almost instantly, partly because it was the only tall building in the area. She walked towards it, stopping at a place where two roads met and glanced around. The location she was told to wait must be somewhere around here.. That was when she spotted it. Two trees stood side by side as if they were twins, their branches searching for sunlight in opposite directions, making it look as if it was a single tree. Beneath the trees was a little pond, with people sitting there chatting about their daily lives and children enthusiastically running around them. These people seemed to be living better off than those she had met at the entrance. They glanced at her once when she approached the place, and turned back to continue their conversations.
Sakura walked towards the little pond and sat at its edge, wondering about the spy. How was she to identify him when she didn't even know who he was? That was when she felt a rough, but gentle hand covering her mouth. She was about to panick, when someone whispered, "Shhh... I'm the one you are looking for!" in her ears. The sound, though whispered, felt frighteningly familiar. She turned slowly to find a young man bent over her, trying to hide her from others. He was dressed in a simple yellow T-shirt and white shorts. He had reddish blond hair that looked as if they wanted to spike up at all angles. His cheeks, if you looked carefully enough, had three marks on each side. He looked like a civilian, but his eyes betrayed him, at least to her. His eyes were clear blue, and staring at her with barely suppressed excitement. His lips were trying in vain to hide a happy grin.
"N-Naruto.." She whispered, her eyes practically falling out of her sockets.
A/N: Hi there.. :-) Hope you enjoyed this chapter. I assure you, Sakura won't be that useless anymore. Any suggestions or constructive criticism is welcome.. And please review..