A/N: Hi hi! Back with another story! This one will be a short one, so don't worry about me forgetting about my other stories, lol. Please enjoy!

Sakura was working through some reports when a knock came upon her door. "Come in."

She barely registered that anyone had come in until the butt of a scroll appeared in her line of vision. She blinked as she looked up to see an ANBU in full gear handing her a mission scroll. She raised a delicate eyebrow as she put her pen down and took the scroll from him.

Sakura sighed as she unrolled the scroll to brief herself on the mission. She really didn't need anymore to add to her already impossible workload.

Her eyes quickly scanned over the messy handwriting of the Hokage. By the time she finished it, her hand was already halfway to her face to smack her forehead. Stupid blond Hokage. She did not need him meddling in her already super busy life. He really needed to stop doing this.

She sighed once more before her eyes flicked between the ANBU standing in front of her and the scroll in her hands. Did Naruto at least pick someone she knew?

With a professional eye, Sakura looked over the hand-picked victim and saw that he was extremely stressed and stiff. She shook her head, as a doctor, she needed to do something about it. As a shinobi, she needed to complete the mission given to her.

"Have you read the mission?" From the air of confusion around the man, she guessed that he hadn't read the mission. She rubbed her temples. Oh Kami, he probably didn't even know that he was part of the mission. "Here." Sakura handed him the mission scroll and went back to quickly finish the report she was working on.

She could practically feel the annoyance roll off his being as he quickly looked over the scroll. She smirked to herself, at least she wasn't the only one who was set up.

Silence once again reigned over the office as Sakura quickly but efficiently finished her report. Once done, she dropped the pen and pushed her chair away from her desk. She laced her fingers together and stretched her arms above her head. Arching her back, she gave a small moan of satisfaction when she heard her spine pop and felt it crack in a few places, loosening any stiffness she previously had.

Then she cracked her knuckles and her neck to complete her process of winding down from being hunched over a table for a whole day. Sakura looked up at her partner to see if he was ready to start the mission. She looked over him; according to his body language, it seemed like he was still in shock over exactly what the mission was calling for.

Sakura sighed once more as she organized all the stray papers on her desk and let him get over his shock. She stood up from her desk and stuffed her hands into her white doctor's coat as she waved him over to follow her into the conjoining room.

Opening the door to her right, it revealed a small bedroom with a connected bathroom that she was constantly using more and more as she stayed overnight, too exhausted to drag herself back to her apartment.

Sakura set up some privacy seals after she closed the door behind the elite nin as he mechanically walked in. She huffed in annoyance, it seemed like he wasn't going to comply easily with the mission's objective.

Of all the people possible, why did Naruto have to pick an ANBU? They had as much emotion as a rock. No, not just any rock but a pebble on the side of the road!

"Do I at least know you?" Sakura asked when he made no move to remove his eagle mask. Then she glared at him when he had the audacity to shrug. Did he not know who she was? Did he not know of her severe impatience with ice cubes?! Apparently not!

Sakura let out a sound of frustration as she tried to restrain her hands from wrapping themselves around his neck. To try to preoccupy her hands, she moved to take her coat off and went to hang it up on the coat rack in the corner of the room. She kicked her heels off and sighed in relief as the arch of her heel relaxed.

"Rawr," she muttered under her breath as she went to sit down on the edge of the bed. She leaned back on her hands as she blatantly checked the other shinobi out. Hey, if she had to do this ridiculous mission, she'd rather do it with someone who was at the very least a bit good looking, though she couldn't really tell with that damned mask of his he had yet to remove!

Another reason why she hated the highest rank possible for most shinobi, they were too strict on regulations and rules. Psh, rules were meant to be broken.

Sakura watched as the shinobi stiffened under her gaze. She smirked, he was uncomfortable. Good.

She crossed her legs and though the mask was still firmly in place, she felt his eyes run over her legs. Seems like he was at least a bit interested in completing the mission.

Sakura stood up and slowly strutted up to the shinobi, flipping her long pink hair over her shoulder with her hand. Then she walked around him purposefully and spotted a telltale sign of his identity. Long chocolate locks ran down his back. Hm, so she was dealing with a Hyuuga.

After doing a 360 around him, she stopped right in front of him. Sakura cursed under her breath as she had to tilt her head back a lot to look up at him. Then without warning, she reached up to remove the mask herself.

A hand shot out to grab her wrist just before the tip of her finger touched the mask. She tsked. "Do you want to do the mission or not?" Making it seem like they actually had a choice.

"I really don't care about your rules or regulations. Just let me see who you are." Sakura tried to reach once against but the grip on her wrist prevented her hand from moving an inch.

She clicked her tongue. As she pull her wrist out of his grip, she stepped back. "Fine, if you are so against doing the mission, I'll just tell the Hokage that you were uncomfortable with it."

Then she ignored him as she turned her back to him and unzipped her black pencil skirt and shimmied out of it. Left in just her blouse and black tights, she turned back around to her partner of the failed mission and frowned.

Sakura put her hands on her hips and arched her eyebrow. So now he was interested? Right when she decided that she was going to take a nap? Screw him. She was going to take her nap.

She already gave up talking to him so she didn't even try. She figured that he'd get the message soon enough. So she rolled her eyes and turned back around and continued undressing. It didn't faze her one bit that there was someone else in the room or that it was someone male. Sakura was a confident girl, and she was confident in her body. One of the benefits of being a kunoichi was that she was always fit, she had no ounce of extra flab on her entire body.

Sakura unbuttoned her blouse and moved to take it off when she sensed that the shinobi had appeared right behind her. She continued removing her shirt and then tossed it to the side. She looked up over her shoulder at the stubborn man. "Yes?" she asked.

She probably looked a bit ridiculous in just waist-high black tights and a black lacy bra with her arms crossed under her chest. Oh well. "What do you want? Wanna actually do the mission now? Then take off your mask, I do not intend to get in bed with a faceless man."

She didn't move or flinch when she felt hands on her hips. She glared at the wall. What the hell was up with this wish-washy man? One moment he says no, the next he says yes.

But now was her chance. With his hands preoccupied, she quickly reached up behind her and snatched off his mask. Whirling around, she let out a gasp at the ivory eyes that stared back at her. It wasn't the fact that they were almost indistinguishable from the rest of the eye but the fact that they were a set of familiar pearls that stared back at her.

She knew him. But she didn't know him.

They were in the same group of friends but rarely ever talked to each other. "Neji?"

In a flash her surprise was replaced with anger. "You little! Ugh! You jerk! I obviously know you! Why didn't you just take your mask off in the first place?!"

She grit her teeth as she hit her fists against his chest. "You infuriating, arrogant–ugh!"

It didn't help that he was smirking down at her. With his hands still on her hips, he pulled her towards him, effectively stopping her fists, trapping them between their chests.

Sakura snarled at him as she tried to push away. She didn't feel like doing the mission anymore! Aurgh! Not with this bastard! Instead of helping her get rid of her stress, he was building it up!

She glared up at him. "Why were you put on this mission?! You don't seem stressed at all!"

Sakura may have hardly spoke to the man but she never shied away from yelling at anyone who pissed her off. She narrowed her eyes even more until they were slits.

Neji's playful visage disappeared after what she said. He sighed, then he let go of her and stepped back. His emotionless mask slid back onto his face.

Sakura's face scrunched up into a 'what the hell' expression. What was wrong with this man?! Bipolar much?

Then it hit her. She walked back out to her office to retrieve the mission scroll that was left forgotten on her desk. She ignored the way his eyes followed her every move. Sakura brought the scroll back into the attached resting quarters and read over it quickly again.

Now she knew why he was assigned this mission.

"How did it happen?"

If it was even possible, Neji got even colder and even more expressionless. Sakura let out a frustrated sigh. "Is this the first?"

His eyes flickered towards her before he looked away. After a few seconds he nodded. Sakura sighed sadly. "The first is always the hardest to deal with."

Sakura threw the scroll onto the bed and walked up to him, careful to be as welcoming and as warm as possible. "I lost my first teammate during the war."

His head jerked up sharply as his eyes met hers. He was confused. All the members of Team Seven were still alive and well. She gave him a sad smile. "No, it wasn't anyone from Team Seven," she said, answering his silent question.

"It was a hastily put together team. I was the captain." She looked down at her fiddling fingers. "And I let one of them die on me."

Sakura clenched her jaw as memories assaulted her mind's eye. It would've been worse if she was with Team Seven and had lost one of the members, but the fact that she barely knew her lost teammate just made it harder to bare. He had entrusted his life to her, for just one mission, and she couldn't even keep him alive to do another with a better captain.

Tears formed in her eyes as she quickly blinked them away. Neji was the one who needed comforting, not her.

She looked up to see Neji with a pained looked on his face. Sakura slowly reached up and held his face. She rubbed her thumb over his cheekbone.

At times like this, one needed to be reminded of physical contact, to show that they were still alive and that they had to live on to revenge the lost life.

It started out slow as Sakura wrapped his arms around her and as she wrapped hers around his neck and rested her head against his chest. "It'll be okay. We're shinobi. We taunt death everyday. We spit in its face until, one day, it reaches out to grab us. But by then, we have learned to come to terms with it."

She looked up at him as she tiptoed and kissed him. "It'll be okay."

Small intimate gestures never failed to warm the heart.

He looked down at her, eyes forlorn. Then he asked quietly, unsure of himself, "Really? Will it really be okay?"

She gave him a small reassuring smile and nodded. He closed his eyes and leaned his forehead against hers. If anyone saw them right now, they would've thought they were lovers.

They were far from being lovers. Apart from the fact that they barely talked to each other, the reason for all the intimacy was far from yearning or showing love.

Sakura was helping Neji reconnect with himself after he blamed himself for his teammate's death. Neji was letting Sakura use his body to wind down from all the stress she was dealing with. All-in-all, it was a win-win situation. Both parties left with their respective worries diminished. Not completely wiped away, but just lessened a great deal. Even then, it was still helped a lot.

Sakura felt the arms around her tighten before she felt a pair of lips on her own. It was his 'thank you' for helping him cope, cope with the great responsibility and depression one felt when one lost a teammate, even if that teammate was only supposed to be a fleeting presence in their life.

Sakura's hands reached up through his long dark hair and her long swift fingers undid the knot to his hiate ite with ease. She pulled it off and threw it to the side, not caring where it landed. With one hand hooked around his neck, the other traced his bare forehead. Naruto had kept his promise.

Her hands reached up again to massage his scalp. He hummed in pleasure. She giggled when he started doing his part of the mission and let his hands wander.

With his eyes closed, he saw with his hands as he ran them up and down her sides and brushed them against her bra. Then they fingered the hem of her tights around her waist. He slightly moaned in displeasure when the relaxing massage on his scalp stopped.

Sakura pulled back. "Hold on." She remembered one important fact from the other times she had these destress-therapy missions. Unless she didn't mind having her tights ripped, she needed to take them off by herself. She smirked when she felt Neji's eyes travel down her legs as she took her tights off.

"Is this your first?"

"Hm?" He was too distracted to think for himself.

"Destress-therapy mission?"

"No."

"Ah." Sakura felt a bit disappointed.

"Second."

"Oh." That made her feel a bit better. "Who was your partner for your first?"

"A teammate of mine." Neji's eyes slowly clouded with lust when the tights were finally completely off and left forgotten on the floor. "After a failed mission."

"I see," Sakura murmured as she walked sultrily back over to him and assisted him with taking off his ANBU gear.

One kiss.

"Was she your first?"

Two kisses.

"Yeah." All his armor was off and scattered on the floor.

Three kisses.

Sakura hmm'ed and started working on his belt while purposely brushing her hand lightly against his groin.

Four kisses.

He groaned as he faltered in taking his shirt off. She giggled and helped him pull it all the way off.

Sakura finished undressing him for the most part as his pants pooled around his ankles. She gripped his shoulders, jumped up, and wrapped her legs around his waist.

Neji easily adjusted to her weight as his hands automatically went to her bottom to support her.

Sakura smirked down at him. Hah! No more looking down at her!

Neji just rolled his eyes and stretched his neck up to kiss her. He stepped out of his pants and promptly threw her onto the bed.

Sakura yelped as she landed on the bed and immediately sat up to glare at him. There was no need to be throwing each other around! If he wanted to be thrown, she would gladly punt him halfway across the village, maybe even all the way across if he begged on his knees!

Neji crawled on top of he and pinned her down on the bed with his body.

Soon, small kisses and light caresses evolved to deep battles of dominance and heavy gropes. Last articles of clothing were shred and finally, bare skin met bare skin.

Moans and groans echoed throughout the room as the most primal need was satisfied. Stress and tension was built up to unbearable levels only to crash down in one big tidal wave of pleasure.

Mission: complete.

Sakura twirled a lock of brown hair around her finger as they laid in a post-coital mess, winding down from being pushed over the edge.

"Tell me," Sakura started. "Tell me what happened."

Last phase of therapy, letting it all out. Pent up emotions resulted from pent up knowledge. Neji complied and whispered what happened. Sakura listened quietly, occasionally whispering sweet nothings to tell him that everything was going to be alright.

He mourned for his lost teammate. She helped him come to terms with it.

Neji let everything out.

She rested for Round 2.

After a moment of silence for the KIA, the battle resumed.

It was a best two out of three. Winner got a massage. A full body massage He won the first round while she was determined to win the rest.

Insults were hurled and limbs were tangled. Teeth nibbled and tongues wrestled. Marks were made and stress was released.

Sakura had to admit, Neji was a formidable opponent, but so was she. Sakura beamed as she came out victor in the second round and the last round became a free-for-all.

Sakura moaned.

Neji had godly hands.

Sakura was finally content with her stress level as Neji undid nasty knots in her neck, back, arms, and legs.

She laid on her stomach with her head resting on folded arms as Neji thoroughly made her whole body feel like jelly. She moaned again.

"Are you trying to seduce me? Again?" Neji whispered into her ear.

"Not anymore." Sakura swat her hand at him and he pulled back and chuckled.

She laughed to herself as she thought to herself, 'This is the life.'

Of course, she was still going to pummel Naruto whenever she got the chance. But she mentally thanked him and was grateful for this mission, no matter how ridiculous it was.

A/N: *raises eyebrows up and down suggestively* How was it? Was it smexy or not? Lolol, hopefully you guys enjoyed that as much as I did.

Please review!

Published – 6/6/2013