CHAPTER 1

"ASSIGNATION"

"I am afraid that´s the last option we have," an old and full of disgust voice was heard through the deadly silent room. Not a single inhabitant of the room spoke.

"With my approval, the elder`s council has reached a decision. Desperate times need desperate measures and our only hope now is the kunoichi, Haruno Sakura."

Sakura was making her way to the familiar office of the fifth hokage through the staircase. Tsunade-sama, or how she preferred to address her, Shishiou, had sent her a summoning earlier with an ANBU captain. Her silent steps allowed her thoughts to echo loudly on her mind, causing her hands to sweat and her eyes to wonder. She presumed her summoning was for an important mission.

Been there. Done that. So, why was she this nervous?

It had nothing to do with her strength. She was sure. That was not the reason. She was positively not weak or whiny anymore. She was an accomplished kunoichi now, just like her shishiou: proud, professional and self-controlled.

"I SAID NOOO! "

That was the first phrase Sakura heard when she opened the door. She had to move her head sideways, avoiding the lamp that was thrown across the room by mere seconds.

"shishiou!" she called angrily and aggravated at the elder woman. Of course, she was already used to her outbursts, but it didn´t mean she approved of them.

"Sakura!, what are you doing here?" Tsunade´s eyes widened when she saw her student. She was definitely not expecting her.

" I received a summoning this mor-" Sakura started to explain when her master cut her off.

"It must have been a mistake. now, if you´ll excuse me, I have plenty of-"

"Things to smash, I see…" Sakura said smiling, cutting her off. " Tsunade-sama, is ok." Her tone was much calmer than usual as she closed her eyes," there is no need for this."

Tsunade knew the moment Sakura smiled that she had already been briefed about it. There was no point now. She sighed and closed her eyes as her Sakura´s façade told her her true feelings.

"Sakura,,," she whispered as she gazed at her student´s green orbs. Tsunade had never been soft when it came to her obligations as a Hokage but this was the girl she had taught to be strong. She was like a daughter to her.

"Shishiou,,," Sakura spoke, getting her out of her troubled thoughts, " I appreciate your concern and I thank you for caring, but I am the most appropriate person to fulfill this mission, " she finished with a small sigh. She didn´t like the mission herself but she had also made a 'life-long promise' to her best friend and she intended to keep it. Sure she was also worried about what she HAD to do, but she was still a kunoichi. Wasn´t she? She was not very sure she wanted to be one at the moment, though. . She just hoped that Tsunade and Naruto understood this as well. The sacrifice she was making.

Tsunade understood.

She was the perfect choice indeed. She recognized that, but it didn't make handing her only student into the hands of the Uchiha bastard any less shameful.

She just hated his damn guts. How he made Naruto and Sakura suffer and dedicate their lives to see him back.

She sighed. She had to be realistic, though. They were at his mercy on this one. "Well, it seems that nothing I can say will make you change you mind, Sakura. Naruto is starting to rub on you," she joked," I protested the Council´s decision, but it seems that being the hokage has no privilege at all. So Sakura, woth no other choice, really, I assign you to find Uchiha Sasuke and bring back his…sperm.

As the council already told you, I`m sure, we can´t afford to loose the Uchiha trait. Specially after what the war had done to us, and now that Sasuke is really the last Uchiha we have to make sure he won´t die before we can reproduce the trait. I want you to understand that failure is not an option. Though, I know I don´t have to tell you that"

Sakura smiled at her compliment, feeling reassured by her teacher´s words.

"The scroll," Tsunade went on, handing her the mentioned item as she spoke, "contains the last locations where he had been seen at, specific maping information and reports from the Anbu´s patrolling the area". Sakura examined it briefly before closing it back up and just as she turned away, prepared to leave her shishiou´s voice stopped her. "I haven´t told Naruto yet. it´s up to you if you want to tell him or not. " she said over her shoulder as she stood behind her desk, facing the images of the prior Hokages craved on the stone. She closed her eyes once she heard the door shut close. She opened her amber eyes once more, as if looking for an answer on their strong faces. She wondered if they ever had to do anything like this. She sincerely hoped that they didn´t.

Sakura, on the other hand, couldn´t decide whether to tell Naruto or just plainly leave him out of the whole business. Her feet dragged her to the busy downtown´s streets but not even all the voices and the sound could wake her from her absent-mind state she was in.

She was positive that if she told him, he would tag matter what ANYONE said. To be honest with herself, it was not that she didn´t want him to. Unfortunately for this mission, it was not an option. She couldn´t jeopardize it because she wanted some comfort in his company. Naruto wasn´t really the best companion for this mission, either.

She´ll knew he´d lose it when he faced his old teammate and that could lead to a total disaster.

On the other side, she couldn´t just leave without telling him. He would be furious. He trusted her!, Oh she could hear him, now. " Nandeee, Sakura-chan,nande-ttebayo!"

She closed her eyes in frustration. Maybe it wasn´t the best moment to think about that as her own feelings consumed her. Yes, her inner battle was enough, already. Her emotions raged uncontrollably as her mind reached the point of getting cold feet.

Right then and there, she understood why she was chosen and the responsibility it held.

She was the only girl Sasuke had allowed to come close enough as to reach his heart and `thank` her for doing so. He considered her a friend, someone he felt the urge to protect. He trusted her. She was the only girl that knew his personality and had learned to move around it. She knew his tastes, his dislikes, and the way he carried along.

Not a whole lot, really, but she was their best shot.

Also, along with this knowledge, she possessed a high intelligence and perception, which in any needed case, she was able to use. She had always been resourceful enough.

Suddenly the realization struck her so hard as to make her stop in her tracks. She couldn´t back away now. She was the only one who could perform the mission.

Either she liked it or not. She only needed to remind herself of that.

Haruno Sakura had never been so nervous to talk to her friend before. Not even the time when she lied about liking him to lift the promise she had burdened him with so many years ago. The only difference between now and then was that she had knew what to say. Even if it wasn´t the smartest thing to do. She had to admit it.

She was always a down to business person. Straight to the point. Only this time, that was what scared her the most. The mission she was about to perform was enough to try to think about, let alone explain to a guy. Specially Naruto.

Naruto had always been a very impulsive person. Everybody knew that. Perhaps in battle the attitude was helpful and came in handy, but certainly applying it to normal situations made him very unstable. If he ever felt that anyone was being wronged, he just jumped into action. It was not a hero complex but merely the desire to help others since no one had the decency to help him.

As her mind raced with possibilities of elders being tossed off the Hokage tower or being 'Rasenganized', a glimpse of orange caught her sight.

She gulped.

How in the world was she supposed to tell Uzumaki Naruto, that she had been assigned to track Sasuke down and basically squeeze some juice out of him? He would get quirky at the sole mention of his lost teammate´s name, let alone try to explain the rest.

She was sure he wouldn´t understand why she had to have his sperm instead of just getting the DNA from one of the blood samples they took from when they were genins, or why Kakashi´s never work. He was not stupid, she knew that, but he would do anything to relieve her from such fate. He knew as good as she did the damage it will cause to her undying love.

He approached, making his way through the crowd with a happy, care free expression.

On her defense, she was a kunoichi. She was sure to be prepared for this, anyways. Even if any of them had actually had a mission like this since the old wars, that didn´t mean it was not still part of their duties. But complaining would do nothing. She will have to deal with the situation and prove, more to herself than to anybody, that she was prepared for anything.

"Oii, Sakura-chan!"

She turned to face Naruto when she heard his chirpy voice call her name behind her. She wasn´t really aware until the very moment she turned her upper body to be able to face him, that the bench she was sitting on was the same seat in which Sasuke had laid her teary-self five years earlier. The same place where she had declared her undying love for him. Where he had thank her for something she was still not sure of; where he had left her.

It had begun and ended on that very bench by the Sakura tree´s.

She managed to suppress the tears that threatened to flow when she got up from the seat to greet Naruto. "Ohio, Naruto!" she said smiling, truing as hard as she could to make her fake smile unnoticeable in her friend´s eyes. Unfortunately for her, he had never forgotten when she punched Sai on the way to the bridge, a couple of years ago. So, the moment he saw her smile, he knew something was wrong.

"Sakura-chan?", he said letting his arms fall from the interlaced grasp he had on the back of his neck. "What´s wrong?"

Sakura looked into his deep blue eyes as his concerned voice arose a feeling of uneasiness on her stomach. This was not going to be easy.

"Naruto," she decided to speak after what felt like an eternity of silence, "I am leaving for a solo mission tonight."

At this point the blonde raised a questioning eyebrow. It was not normal that neither of them would talk to the other for just a mission. They were not a team anymore. They were assigned different missions as ANBU and team leaders. Sometimes they wouldn´t even see each other for months because of the heavy work they were put under. He didn´t understand why this time it was different. For every minute that passed, Naruto liked this mission less and less. He couldn´t tell why just yet.

"so, what´s the mission about?" he asked casually, taking a seat next to her, trying to get the answers he seek.

Sakura understood that the longer she took to debate her inner-self, the more anxious he got. She couldn´t afford to have him on her tail. "I don´t know how long I´ll be out and there had been some thieving on my neighborhood, so I just wanted to ask you if you could walk by every once in a while to check on it. Will you?"

The fact that she ended her sentence with a smile and a faint blush on her cheeks reassured him a little, but his instincts were yelling at him that there was something wrong. Something didn´t fit in. this was not the self-controlled Sakura he knew. he was determined to find out why.

He closed his eyes and `huffed' I response as he opened a single eye on her direction, accusingly. Just as he opened his lips to make a smart remark, she got up from the bench suddenly, surprising him.

"Saku-"

Sakura didn´t even let him finish her name when she pressed her warm lips on his whiskery cheek. The abruptness of her action and the fact that she had caught him off-guard, left him frozen as she walked away from him. She muttered a quiet goodbye, not really noticing the bright pink blush on his cheeks, his wide eyed stare or the slight tremble of his fist.

Well, that was the first chapter,, tell me people if you liked it or not,,

Please review and thanks for reading!

See ya next week!