AN: juz as a warning... the first three chapters are VERY boring... at least i think so. so juz endure it... it will get better!
and this is my first fanfic (actually more like the first STORY) i've ever written... so it's not very descriptive etc etc... n i was a complete noob when i wrote this... -shoots self-
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Chapter 1
A mission!
Prologue
"I will wait for you even until purple cherry blossom falls..." she told him quietly as they stood under the Cherry tree.
"I will stay with you until that day comes..."
-...
"It must be pretty..."
"What?"
"Purple cherry blossoms!"
"Yes, and it's my favourite flower." He said sarcastically, giving her a little smile that is only reserved for her...
"Don't tease me!" She pouted her lower lip, sulking.
He gave her a quick kiss, "YOU are my purple cherry blossom..."
(the dividing line means: "elsewhere" or "a few hours later" or "meanwhile")
Tsunade drummed her fingers on her desk, frowning behind her paperworks.
"Tsunade-sama…" Shizune waited for the hokage's decision.
"Who is free at the moment?"
"Lee, Naruto, Neji, Hinata, Kiba… and Sakura." Her assisstant answered while checking off a list.
"Then I'll send Neji, Lee, and Sakura on this mission."
"But our client didn't give us enough information about it, we don't know which sort of ninjas to send! Plus it'd be too dangerous." The jounin protested to Tsunade.
"They'll be fine, the client gave us a LOT of money for it...she asked for the village's strongest ninjas, as many as possible..." Tsunade grinned, "Besides, having an ANBU captain leading two other Jounins means a mission can't possibly go wrong." the blonde sannin turned to Shizune with the mission sheet but paused, "Maybe I should put Naruto in this mision too..." If strong ninjas is what she wants, then that's what I'll give her...
Neji was training with Hiashi when he was asked to go to the Hokage's office. The tall ANBU captain sighed and excused himself from the training. He tilted his head slightly, and caught sight of a glimpse of purple behind a closed window... Hinata-sama... Neji hid his smile behind his ANBU mask and left the Hyuuga mansion.
The meeting wasn't exactly like what he expected. Tsunade told him hardly anything, she just shoved a task sheet under his nose and said that's all.
The Hyuuga boy walked out of the Hokage tower completely confused. He began to look for Sakura, Lee and Naruto. But on the way to the training grounds, he started thinking of what a torture this mission would be...
Nearly three months with a bowl-haircut boy who have a signature 'Good-guy-pose' and talks about 'Youth' every single day... The Hyuuga prodigy frowned, it nearly drove him crazy just to have SOME training with Lee... how would he ever survive being with the spandex-wearer for so long?! And Neji was certain that his 'youthful' friend's behaviour will be worse when he's around his 'Beautiful Lotus Flower'. The pale-eye jounin started to feel miserable already towards this mission, maybe I should make an appointment with a psychotherapist in advance, just in case...
With a sigh, Neji decided to think about his other team-mates, Other than Lee... there's Naruto. Naruto, the loudest ninja of Konoha... Neji wanted to slam his head on the wall right now... What did I do to deserve this?! Not that he dislike Naruto, the ANBU captain was quite thankful to the blonde for helping him solving his problems...
Naruto and Lee suddenly both sneezed as they fought, but they continued anyway.
"Kage Buyō!" Lee kicked the Kyuubi vessel off the ground and appeared behind him, but just as he was about to slam naruto onto the ground, the blonde formed a hand seal.
"Kage bunshin!" several Naruto clones appeared.
Sakura watched them intently with her clear, emerald eyes, admiring the two's strengths.
Naruto's clones dissapeared in puffs of smoke as Lee defeated them one by one.
"OUCH!" Naruto struggled to get up after another hard punch from Lee.
They have all grown in the past years, no longer the twelve years old children they once were. But somethings never change -- such as Naruto's orange jumper and Lee's green spandex.
"You are a strong opponent, Naruto-kun." Lee's teeth glinted.
"ARGGGGGGHHHHHHHH" the blonde boy charged up again. Damn that fuzzy-brows!
'Mr. Spandex' dodged Naruto's blunt attack with ease, but Naruto couldn't stop himself; therefore... he crashed into a tree. "Lee, Sakura!" Neji's ANBU mask was off, and he wasn't in his uniform. He entered the scene just as Naruto fell, unconscious, "And... N-Naruto?"
They all turned to the ANBU captain, well, except Naruto, "Neji!"
"We have a mission."
The team jumped from tree to tree. It's going to be a long mission, so they weren't too much of a hurry. They were required to protect a little girl from the land of the Moon and then escort her to Yamabuki, which would take them at least three months.
Only Lee was very happy when he heard about this mission, YES! A mission with Sakura-Chan! It is a great chance for me to win the heart of my beloved lotus blossom... ah, my beautiful Sakura!
The rest of the team watched Lee with shock as he clinched his fist in a super dramatic way,"I will not dissapoint you, Sakura-Chan!"
Neji's prediction was correct.
"eek..." Sakura sweatdropped. She was thinking the exact same thing as Neji...
Naruto narrowed his eyes at the bowl-haircut boy... No, this is MY chance to get Sakura-Chan to like me! I will not lose to fuzzy-brows! And of course, only Naruto, the most stupid ninja ever would think Lee have a chance of being a love-rival...
They've been travelling for quite a while since they left Konoha, it was about lunch time, so they stopped for a break.
"A little girl..." Naruto complained as they were resting, "It's probably a C-ranked mission, how boring!"
"Why didn't the little girl come to Konoha?" Sakura ignored Naruto and asked their team leader, Neji.
"Hokage-sama did not say," the pale-eyed jounin answered.
"I wonder why…" Sakura murmured.
"HOW UNYOUTHFUL!"
The four of them proceeded shortly after the break. Rays of sunlight peeked through the leaves... it was almost autumn...
There were no scenaries, all the team saw for the whole day, was just living trees, dead trees, half-dead trees, dying trees... and more trees. But since the team have the two most amusing (and annoying) ninjas of Konoha with them, things weren't so bad after all...
"Naruto-kun, let's run under the sunset together!"
"Okay!"
"500 laps around this forest!"
"uh..."
-...
It was dark. It took them almost a whole week to get to the land of the Moon. This country was a small island in the shape of a crescent moon. Not much was known about that country...
Moonlight shone on the four of them, it was so quiet... that is, until Naruto arrived.
Neji lead them through the streets of a small town.
"Why can't they use their own Shinobis," Naruto folded his arms across his chest, sulking. They are wasting my precious training time! This means MONTHES without training...
"This country doesn't have a Shinobi village." Sakura rolled her eyes. Naruto doesn't know ANYTHING! What's worse is I'll be stuck with him for such a long time... Neji is the only person in this team with a brain! she sighed.
Next chapter
Neji -- Sasuke? (AN: how come I can't type an arrow?!)
PS: the writing in italics is the characters' thoughts. and I hope all those dividing lines didn't get you lost... I promise there'd be less dividing lines in the next chapter...
-End of chapter-
AN: I'd really appreciate your review, suggestions and critisisms, flames are welcome as long as you don't swear.