A/N: I shouldn't be writing anything else. Especially not with AP papers to write. Oh well...this could be a fun story, so I'll live it up. I'm going to need reviews to know if this sucks, though. It very well could.

Disclaimer: I don't make any money from Naruto.

PROLOGUE

"You missed it, Ugly"

The breeze was cool and soft as it whispered through the grass and trees around them.

"You missed it again, Ugly"

Orange dusk was the only illumination left at the training grounds, and it was fading quickly—almost as fast as Sakura's patience.

"You missed it again, Ug--"

"Damn it Sai! I know I missed it! I have eyes! Eyes, see? Right here!" Sakura said, throwing down the kunai in her hand and urgently pointing at her jade irises.

"I know you have eyes; I just didn't know if you could tell that you were failing miserably. At first, I assumed that you could because there are clearly at least six inches between the target and your weapon, but you just kept throwing…and missing, and missing, and missing" the pale, emotionless boy said, smiling at his fuming partner.

The training grounds were a mass graveyard full of headstones that lacked bodies. Shuriken, kunai, and senbon needles riddled the moist earth, sticking out at odd angles like ancient gravestones. In the middle of it stood two ninja, one shaking in anger and the other casually reposing against a nearby tree.

"Ya'know Sai, when you're done training, you should leave" Sakura said, placing her gloved hands on her hips.

"And when you can't do anything properly anymore, you should give up" Sai countered, still smiling.

"Go away!"

"No. I would rather stay here and keep you updated on your failures"

"Fine! Then I'll leave!"

"Why thank you, Sakura. What a kind offer" Sai said, picking up his own kunai pouch from the base of the tree.

Sakura's fist seemed to curl in on itself even more, making the fabric of her gloves squeak in protest. "Insufferable little prat!" she muttered under her breath as she slung her bag over her shoulder and began to walk away.

Her feet found a path through the metal debris until the kunai and shuriken became less and less frequent. Soon, she was back on the main streets of Konoha, kicking up dust from the road and thinking of places where her friends might not be taking advantage of the dusk to practice their weaponry in the difficult lighting. She decided on a training niche a few minutes away, hoping that she wouldn't be intruding on any team's practice session.

The shadows were lengthening at an alarming rate, so Sakura found herself running towards the place she was thinking of, cursing Sai under her breath as she did so. Just thirty. Thirty kunai in the center of a target and then I can go home. I don't care if I have to do it in the dark she thought angrily as she finally came into the darkening clearing just outside the main gates of Konoha.

She was so engrossed in her explicatives and goals that she didn't notice the long, recumbent body in the tall grass behind her. Totally ignorant of the relaxing ninja, Sakura threw down her bag of kunai and raised three to her shoulder, poised to attack the menacing red and white circles of the targets around her.

"Hello, Sakura. It's good to see you again" Neji said, lifting his torso up so that he could lean back on his elbows.

The sudden noise—optimally punctuating the silence at the exact moment Sakura was releasing her weapons—made the startled kunoichi completely loose her focus. Three kunai went sailing into the now dark woods.

"What the Hell!" the pink-haired one yelled, spinning around to face her unwelcome interloper. "Oh hi, Neji. What are you still doing out here?" Sakura asked, softening her tone a smidge.

"I assure you, I would have run the second you turned around, but I've been told that is best to make no sudden moves around you when you're angry" Neji said, pretending to raise his hands in defense.

" Isn't that bears?" Sakura asked, walking over and falling down in the grass beside him.

"Bears and medic-ninja with incredible strength" Neji corrected solemnly.

"Oh, right". Silence settled around them, but it wasn't too uncomfortable. Both ninja were looking up at the pale stars that were just beginning to appear overhead.

"Sai is a complete ass" Sakura said. Her head was still tilted upwards, giving Neji a chance to admire her smooth, pale neck.

"So was Sasuke" he commented with an air of challenge. They'd had this argument before. Only two weeks ago he'd managed to make Sakura admit that her old teammate wasn't as great as she always thought he was. Neji didn't want to lose the progress he'd made.

"Che. So were you" Sakura replied, raising an eyebrow at him while still managing to keep eye contact with the Little Dipper.

Neji shrugged in reply. He knew he couldn't argue, especially when Sakura was angry with herself over taijutsu training. Instead, he tried to make her feel better about whatever was frustrating her while gently reprimanding her. "He just knows that you're much stronger than he imagined. He's angry because he's obsessed with being right about everything…just like someone else I know"

"Yeah, yeah" Sakura muttered, lying down so that she wouldn't have to angle her neck so much to see the stars. The motion was fortunate. Something in the trees caught her eye and she immediately tensed.

"How have you been, Neji? It's been forever since I saw you for more than a passing greeting" she asked him. She'd turned her head sharply to the side so that she could look him in the eyes, hoping for a chance to convey her warning.

The anxiety was unnecessary, apparently. Neji nodded to her gravely while replying, "Nothing unusual. Frequency of missions has increased though. Three in the past four days".

Three? That didn't sound right at all.

Sakura got the message: on three they would go.

"Yeah…one…I…two…heard…three"

Suddenly, the two ninja sprung into action. Neji was gone even faster than Sakura, disappearing into the foliage with no hesitation. Sakura took time to feel out the intruder's chakra signature as it flared in response to Neji's attacks.

"Neji! Get out!" She yelled, pulling her fist back to her cheekbone. She didn't have time to see if the dark body being flung out of the tree was foreign or familiar; she just let the day's anger funnel through her wrist and into her fist as she hit the ground with a satisfying crack.

Suddenly, the tree sagged on one side, roots holding onto the dirt as it started slipping into an earthy chasm. One body snagged on a limb before it could fall into the earth. Neji leapt to catch it before the figure's grip on the dry branch was lost, and both figures landing tumbling on the other side of the destruction Sakura had created.

When Sakura arrived seconds later, an appalled Neji Hyuuga was facing off with a dirty, torn, masked ninja with a sliced mist headband hanging over his eye. The hygienic state wasn't what had shocked Neji though—it was the chakra. The intense, swirling chakra in the grungy man's chakra network was looking very unappetizing to the young man who had just been planning to ask his friend out for a relaxing dinner.

He shouldn't have worried, though. Before either party could engage in battle, three swift kunai flew past Neji's right shoulder. The grungy enemy ninja fell—thunk thunk thunk.

"I knew I'd get some good target practice in this evening" Sakura said, grinning from hear to ear. She had taken one of her gloves off and was fanning her face with it. "Come on! We should get him to the hospital. I think I was a bit overzealous"

Neji smiled, already walking towards the fallen shinobi in the darkness. Maybe they could at least get some ramen after delivering the man to the proper authorities.

His eyes were the problem. If he'd been able to make out the pink hair, Itachi would have known to be more careful. Instead, he'd concentrated solely on the petulant Hyuuga boy. As it were, the already-wounded Uchiha had been prepared only for a quick escape, having already gathered sufficient information to ascertain that the toad sannin and the kyuubi were in the Rain Country. But, even the Hyuuga he'd underestimated.

Three hits with gentle fist…three. It was unacceptable by any Uchiha's standards, and Itachi was no ordinary Uchiha. It had been all he could do in his weakened state to give himself a new appearance using henge before he felt the tree buckle beneath him. At least he could rest assured that no one—even the Hyuuga boy—would be able to see past his disguise while he recuperated in Konoha prison.

Actually, Itachi mused as he felt the kunai plunge into his chest, he would probably get better treatment for his wounds while in the hands on his enemies than in Kisame's clumsy care. He slipped into unconsciousness thinking of Kisame's last words to him on the topic of medical care: clean? Well, hell, it looks clean! Why waste time to clean it again…yeah, but it's only a little dried blood…oh, come on it's not going to hurt you…

"What are you doing here?" Sakura asked Sai as he stepped into the lobby of the hospital. Neji glanced at the two from where he was explaining the state of their captive to Tsunade. This doesn't bode well he thought, and he could see his sentiments reflected in the Hokage's eyes.

"All right, Neji. You can go…as long as you take Sakura with you. She already owes me for the wall in my office" the woman said, sighing bitterly. She wasn't happy with her apprentice's turbulent temper. Who knew that Naruto was actually the one who calmed Sakura down?

Tsunade hadn't, but it was apparent within a week of the fox-boy's departure that Sakura needed someone like him around…even if it was only a way to let some of the girl's violence escape from her petit, pink-haired body. At least the pride-and-joy of the ANBU, Neji Hyuuga, had taken an interest in her young apprentice. He wasn't the same kind of tranquillizer, but he was effective enough…and strong enough as well.

Sai smiled. "I found an intruder sulking along the west entrance. I think I thought he was you, so I showed him what real kunai work looks like…his forehead wasn't big and strong enough to deflect the blow like yours would have been, though"

Behind him, two medic ninja from the hospital night-staff were bustling around a headbandless man's bleeding noggin. None of them were calling for Tsunade or Sakura though, so it was safe to bet that he wasn't in critical condition.

"Big and strong my ass!" Sakura said, advancing on Sai with her fist clenched for the third time that night. Before she could get far, Neji called her from the doors.

"Sakura, you'll just embarrass yourself if you make a scene. Let's go get some ramen" He said, making Sakura huff. Leave it to Neji to dissolve her rage in embarrassment. He was right, though. Last time she'd confronted Sai about his "assiness" her pride hadn't fared very well.

"All right, I'll let him go" Sakura said, turning away from Sai's false smirk, "But I'll pass on the ramen. I need to go home and relax, I think…let some steam off".

Neji held the door open for her as they left the hospital, but he stopped to give Sai a cool glare with his wide, white eyes. That ass had ruined his chance at a nice evening.

Sasuke frowned through the haze of pain and blood. He'd been leaving, as in within-twenty-seconds-of-being-gone kind of leaving. Naruto had left the village, no one had left to find him…there was nothing else Sasuke had needed to find out. But then the strange, pale ninja had appeared behind him, smiling in a peculiar, hollow way. "Are you lost?" the chunin had asked him, before promptly attacking him with a kunai.

Sasuke knew that he should have been being more careful, but his henge disguise had been wearing on his chakra supply for days and he'd just wanted to get out of his old village before Orochimaru finally started to wonder why he'd been gone so long. Actually, Sasuke thought in bursts of lucidity, it might be better that he stayed in Konoha to recover from his head-wound.

After all, not neither the Hyuuga bloodline trait nor Kakashi's Uchiha eye could pierce the specially designed genjutsu; it had been a specialty of Itahci's—a henge disguise that even their own kin couldn't see through. Sasuke's final conscious thoughts made him shiver…being under Kabuto's watch for days would not have been fun at all…not at all.

I'm sorry I don't have time to spell check. Tell me how much I suck in a reveiw and I'll buy you candy...well, you won't get any but you'll know someone actually bought you candy just for complaining about their grammar! Just tell me if this is too boring. I have a nasty feeling that it is.