Hi everyone, this is my first fanfic so please be considerate if you choose to review.
Note: I do not own Naruto, Naruto Shippuden or any of the characters associated with said franchises.
Sakura gazed idly at the water flowing like silk at her feet as she dropped a handful of auburn leaves one by one onto it's smooth surface and watched out of the corner of her eye as they drifted past, oblivious to where they were going and making no effort to control what fate had planned for them. She let the last one go and stared into the water and at the partial reflection on its surface like liquid glass; the green and blue of slate on the riverbed blended with the creamy complexion of clouds on the backdrop of a burnt sunset reminding her of a Titian painting. Sakura loved evenings like this. She leant back until she lay on the soft grass with her toes still submerged in the wandering current of the river. The sky had a fiercely calm quality to it, like the arms of a loved one; gentle and comforting, but strong and protective also. She continued to gaze at the vast expanse and picked out the first few stars as they shone as bright as beacons, brilliant white against warm orange. Sakura must have been lying there for a while, she realised, as she shot awake at the touch of a hand on her shoulder.
"Hey Ugly," the soon-to-be-receiver-of-her-wrath greeted with a sickly sweet fake smile. The flush of anger in her cheeks disappeared as soon as it arrived.
"Hello to you too, Sai," she sighed in defeat. Punching him wasn't going to help, she'd tried that multiple times before. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"
As always, Sai was completely incapable of picking up on the sarcasm dripping from Sakura's voice, but, instead of resuming his casual fake smile, his expression turned deadly serious.
"Lady Hokage wishes to see you immediately."
Sakura's feet carried her with ease and slick speed across the rooftops of Konoha towards the Hokage building. She didn't even have to think about where she was headed, she'd been working for the hokage for a little over six years now and most of that entailed working in that building. It's a good thing she didn't have to think about it either, her thoughts were too cut up and panicked to think about where she was going.
Why would Tsunade be demanding I see her now? In the middle of the night?
Has something happened?
Was someone killed or fatally injured and needed emergency medical attention?
Was it someone she knew?
Oh God, oh god, oh god, please don't let it be the latter.
She halted her spinning thoughts as she climbed the steps outside her destination and abandoned the cool air of the now dark night in favour of the warm, dimly lit hallways of her workplace. It smelled musky and dusty in the Hokage building, not much different to the smell of an old library, but more homely and comfortable. Sakura picked up on this as she kept up her hurried pace through the halls. The smell was in sharp contrast to the clean, clear air of the outdoors even in Summer, and the place was unbearable on a hot day, but it was still like a second home to her and since her mother passed away two years ago, Tsunade had been like a second mother. Sakura felt dread build in the pit of her stomach at the thought that something may have happened to her.
Sakura knocked on the office door and heard her tutor's voice not a second later.
"Come in!" Her mentor yelled.
Well, I guess she's okay then.
Sakura turned the handle to the door and walked in. Her mentor sat at the desk at the back of the room, its legs audibly groaning from the amount of paperwork stacked upon it like paper skyscrapers. In front of the desk, Kakashi Hatake - her former teacher and elite ninja - stood facing her, his one black iris watching her differently, almost to the point of boredom.
The two of them used to have quite a good relationship when they'd still been teacher and student, but since she became a jounin, and therefore his equal, they had just never had the time to speak to each other apart from the odd greeting when Kakashi wasn't too engrossed in his pornographic novels. In honest truth, Sakura missed him and missed the conversations they had, but she'd been a jounin for two years now and was still too new to the scene to find any time to search him out and catch up.
"You wished to speak with me Lady Hokage?" Sakura enquired.
"Yes, come here."
Sakura moved awkwardly to stand next to her ex-sensei.
"We have had an emergency mission request sent from one of the large towns just over the border of fire country, hence the urgency. Here are your mission files." She handed two scrolls to the ninja before the desk. "I'm sorry that you have to do this, Sakura, I would have chosen someone else to do this mission had there been anyone else available."
Sakura read the description and her eyes went wide.
"A reconnaissance mission? You don't mean..."
"Yes, I'm sorry, there honestly was no one else to assign the mission to."
Sakura knew the nature of these missions. They were commonly assigned to kunoichi like herself, a mission where they were to use sexual methods of extracting information instead of the usual methods like stalking or torture. She couldn't believe that she'd been given this mission, THIS mission of all. Sakura was still a virgin and had only ever been pecked on the cheek! She hadn't even had a proper kiss yet!
"You will be working for a man called Yukkio at a strip club where you'll be posing as a dancer for the next three months to obtain information. Someone murdered one of the dancers there and we need to find out who the murderer is. You won't be staying at the strip club like most of the dancers, the club owner claims he hasn't got the funds to put you up."
Sakura's stomach clenched in a ball of nerves. She'd really have to pose as a stripper for three months, THREE MONTHS? And then the thought came to her:
"But, Shishou, I...I-I'm a...a...y'know..." she didn't want to say it with Kakashi being here, it would just be too embarrassing, her raging blush probably said it all anyway.
"Yes, I know that you probably don't have any knowledge whatsoever in this department, Sakura..."
Sakura's stomach began to relax in relief that Tsunade knew what she meant and therefore didn't have to say it aloud. Perhaps she'd let her off, postpone the mission and send someone else instead and she could just get back to working in the hospital and healing people.
"...Which is why I'm sending Kakashi to teach you."
A/N: dun dun dun! Hope you guys liked the first chapter! Please review!