"Your mission is to heal Jiraiya. He's been badly wounded…"
The Godaime Hokage speaks in her usual formal tone but her 23 year old apprentice knows better. Haruno Sakura could see the intense fear and worry emitting from her teacher's eyes and despite her effort to radiate a calm presence in the office, Sakura didn't miss the soft sound of Tsunade's fingers tapping.
"According to the scroll I received from Jiraiya this morning, he is in no condition to make it back to Konoha."
'Shit! It's Jiraiya we're talking about here…whatever makes him immobile must be bad news…'
"I know what you're thinking Sakura. His injuries are the result of fighting against four members of the Akatsuki…alone"
Sakura gasped in horror. It doesn't matter how strong a lion is, it will crumble against four wild hyenas.
"He successfully eliminated Deidara from the Hidden Rock, Kakuzu from Waterfall and Tobi but didn't manage to finish on Hidan."
"I see. Why did he fight them in the first place?"
"Jiraiya encountered them during his data gathering and I'm referring to the real serious data gathering here..."
Sakura manages to hold a stifle of laugh when the images of Jiraiya bumping into the Akatsuki members while peeping on women bathhouses came into her mind.
"It is apparent that Akatsuki is after the same information as Konoha. Not to worry though, Jiraiya told me in the scroll that the Akatsuki didn't manage to get hold of the information and that he has the data with him."
A small smile beams from Tsunade and she continued, "Sakura, It's a dangerous territory you are entering, that's why I'm sending along four Anbu members with you. You are leaving in two hours."
"Hai"
Before she exit the room, Sakura turn her head and gave Tsunade a reassuring smile, "Don't worry shishou, he'll be plaguing bathhouses again in no time". She left the room missing Tsunade's whisper of "Thank you"
The pink haired medic knew that her teacher wished to heal Jiraiya herself but Tsunade couldn't just abandon her entire village and rush to aid her best friend. She also knew that Tsunade could have sent some ANBU medic but she chose Sakura because she trusts her the most. Not trusting in Sakura's abilities will be the same with doubting her own skills.
Hence, flattered from the enormous amount of trust given by Tsunade, Sakura walks towards the meeting point with a determination in her heart. She had promised herself years ago that she will do almost anything her shishou asks her to do. Ever since the death of her parents four years ago, Tsunade is like her own family in many ways. The Hokage taught her, gave her advice and nurture her the way any mother would nurture their daughters.
'This is one of the many things I'll do to thank you, shishou…'
When she arrived at the meeting point, her face lights up to see one of the four ninjas signed to escort her.
"Naruto!! Of course it's you! Why didn't I see it coming?"
Obviously it had to be Naruto escorting her. He and Jiraiya shares the same bond that Sakura has with Tsunade and despite Naruto's cheerful façade he is giving her, she knew Naruto is worried to death for Jiraiya.
Naruto gave her his toothiest grin, "Aww Sakura-chan! You're so happy to see me!" "Baka!" she gave him a soft pound on his head.
Leaving Naruto to rub on his newly inflicted bump, Sakura smiles as the other Anbu slid his dog mask and gave her a friendly smile showing off his fangs. "Wassup..Sakura!" followed by the sound of Akamaru's barking.
"Well, we better get going then!" she says while giving Akamaru a cuddle.
"Not yet"
Folding his hands, the bird masked Anbu leaning on a tree trunk finally spoke up.
"Neji-san, is it? I assume you are this mission team captain. Am I correct?"
"Hn" he replies, scoffing from behind his mask
Suddenly Naruto grabs her hand and pulls her away. He puts one of his hands up to her left ear and whispers to her the way he used to do it back when they were still genin.
"Ne, Sakura-chan… Neji's not in a good mood today. He's usually not this grouchy"
Sakura furrows her brows and wonders what's wrong but her thoughts are halted when she saw the final member of the team walking towards their direction, playfully sucking on his senbons and sending a friendly wink towards her.
"Genma!!" she exclaims.
"My, my…When the Hokage said that we were escorting a medic I never expected her to look so sex.."
"Right! Let's get going" Neji didn't let him finish and was already leaping onto the nearest tree branch.
'In a bad mood are we…' Genma thought, sucking his senbon loudly in annoyance.
The Hyuuga prodigy couldn't believe his luck. Just two days after it happened, he was assigned to an escorting mission. Neji decided that after the incident, there are only two options available for him to relieve his stress. One, venting his anger on rigorous training or two, getting assign on an S-rank mission where he could kill an enemy ninja. Unfortunately, a certain perverted ninja just have to get injured— badly injured that is at the time where he needed to be alone the most.
With his Byakugan activated, he could see a flicker of pink jumping from one branch to another approaching him from behind.
Reminding him self to stay focus to the mission and to maintain his patience, which currently is already running dangerously low, he braces himself for the worst. Right now, Hyuuga Neji would rather face an opponent and fight rather than having a conversation with a member of the opposite sex.
As expected, the pink haired medic appears on his right and adjusts her speed to match his pace. He waits for the woman to start the conversation so he could end it quickly, but as they jump off more and more branches, Sakura remain silent.
Unbeknown to the white eyed male, Sakura is watching him intensely from the corner of her eyes whilst trying to figure out the reason behind the murderous chakra coming out from him.
She is familiar of his character. So familiar that to her, the name Hyuuga Neji is somehow synonymous with words like cold, quiet and a mix between arrogance and confidence. Yet, in one of the very rare events that they stumble upon each other, Sakura noted that Hyuuga Neji is one very polite person, quite a gentleman really. He would stand up and let her have his seat and gracefully open doors for her. Of course, she knew it was nothing special since she knew that he was attached but this rare chivalry of him made Sakura curious about what is behind his icy nature.
This curiosity only grew even further when the Hokage assigned her to head a long term medic research mission. This was a mission proposed by Hyuuga Hiashi himself who personally inform the Godaime that he wished to reform the Hyuuga clan and eliminate the clan hierarchy. Hence, the Hyuuga clan leader wants the branch clan symbol to be unsealed from the temple of every branch clan member.
The on going research has been hard for Sakura and her team since they have to go through a room full of Hyuuga clan history scrolls. Reading those scrolls she realized how tough life has been for the man leaping beside her. She turn her head to watch him closely and even though his face is concealed by his bird mask, she could still see his strong jaw line, the feature she likes the most on a man.
"What is it?"
Sakura broke off from her daydreaming when she saw his jaws moving.
"Ah… nothing"
"Then stop breathing down my neck"
She is taken aback by his rudeness and thought, 'What the hell…'
"I'm sorry…Something's bugging you?"
'Bugging…perfect choice of word', he inwardly laughed at the irony.
"Yes but its not you… yet"
"Ah… having a lover's spat are we?" Sakura teases.
The result was a shock intake of breath coming from the man. 'How dare this woman make a joke and especially on that…'
"As a matter of fact…yes. I broke up with Tenten two days ago"
Realizing that she had just put her foot into her mouth, Sakura is speechless. She could only mouth a sincere "Sorry…"
Neji ignores her and increase his speed in order to let her stay behind him but he knew very little about the pink haired medic and one of the things he overlooked is her very stubborn nature.
Sakura increases her pace and leaped over two branches to keep up with him.
"Neji-san…please. I really do apologize"
"Apology accepted. Now leave me alone before I decide to hate all women"
Sakura almost choke when she heard what he just said.
"Excuse me, Neji-san… Whatever happens between you is not a justification for you to blame all wom…"
"She cheated on me," he said, cutting her off, grimly.
The pink haired medic puts her hands to her mouth and blames herself for putting herself in a very awkward situation. 'That's what you get for being damn nosy!' she cursed silently.
"Oh my god…Neji-san.. I am terribly sor.."
"We've been going out for six months and everything was fine until a few weeks ago. She was acting all weird. That was when I realized she had insects on her clothes…"
'Could it be...'
"But you can't just assume…"
"I didn't assume, woman. I confirm my suspicion two days ago when I saw her kissing that damned bug user."
The medic is shocked. Shocked for Tenten's unfaithfulness and shocked to see her squad captain so…vulnerable.
The Hyuuga prodigy himself is shocked. Out of everyone in the world, he just had to 'pour his heart out' like a heartbroken teenage kid to another woman.
"Don't worry Neji-san. Things will be okay. It won't be for now but time heals everything." She said, giving him a kind smile.
'Beautiful…' he thought before quickly banishing that piece of mind away.
"I always believe that life is a balance. You lose something, you'll gain another."
The white eyed shinobi is left astonished from her thoughtful words.
'You lose something, you'll gain another. She's right…keep it together'
He stopped and turns around to see his teammates before he yelled, "Guys! At the rate we are going, there will be no more Icha Icha craps! We're almost at the rendezvous point. Naruto prepare to summon your creature!"
Kiba, Naruto and Genma are flabbergasted at their captain's sudden change of mood but Sakura could only form a big smile.
'After all the things that happened to him… he deserves better.'
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