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chapter one//discovery

Sakura Haruno was ANBU's number one female agent. She had entered the organization at the ever-so-early age of twelve, and quickly climbed the ranks. She finally reached the top at age twenty-one. Granted, there were few women in ANBU, but Sakura was the only one among them who could be trusted with the most difficult missions and who could complete said missions faster than the equivalent top male. Few civilians ever saw her, as she was infamous for executing missions swiftly and silently. People said that if one did see her, her face would be the image one carried to the grave.

At the moment, Sakura was training at the ANBU headquarters, located in the middle of the Konoha Forest. The complex of buildings was underground. The majority of the buildings were completely submerged, while a few lookout posts peeked out from the terrain. Those ANBU members on guard were not on the lookout for wary civilians, but for members of their rival organization: Sharingan.

Sharingan was another private organization who carried out missions on a daily basis. Even Sakura did not know how many agents Sharingan had in all, but ANBU spies had estimated the number at roughly fifty active agents. ANBU itself had exactly sixty-two.

To keep its numbers up, ANBU recruited orphans and trained them in the arts of spying, martial arts, and stealth. All groups, from the lowest orphans to the highest leader, were given special titles used to distinguish each group from one another. The orphans were labeled "genin", while the esteemed leader was called the Hokage. Sakura, as a high agent, was called a jounin. Each tier of agents completely submitted to their superiors.

The only person whom Sakura had to obey was the Hokage, Tsunade.

"Haruno-san, Tsunade-sama would like to see you in her office," a chuunin agent said as he approached the jounin.

Sakura stopped hitting the punching bag, grabbed a towel, and wiped off her forehead. The chuunin stood patiently. Sakura dismissed him with a quick wave of her hand as she took a couple sips from her water bottle. 'Should I change first?' she wondered idly before stepping into the locker room. She deposited her things in her locker and chanced a quick shower before jogging to the Hokage's office.

"Tsunade-sama, you requested to see me?" she asked, standing at the door.

"Yes, yes, come in Sakura."

She walked into the spacious office.

"Sit down."

She sat down, and waited for the Hokage to finish reviewing the mission reports that she had received earlier that day. Tsunade put the reports in a tray on her desk labeled "to be filed" and faced Sakura.

"You've got a mission."

Sakura was not surprised; she rarely was called into the Hokage's office for anything else. On a few rare occasions, she had been called in to take a team of genin under her wing until another suitable jounin could be found to train them.

She sat still in her chair. Tsunade looked at another tall stack of papers. Sakura knew better than to fidget; she did not want to seem uncomfortable and anxious. Her recent training in the gym, however, had energized her and she did not want to sit down for too long. The adrenaline was pumping, and she felt caged at the moment. In an idle moment, her leg started bouncing imperceptibly, but she quickly squelched the movement before Tsunade mentioned it.

After a few minutes, Tsunade finally put the stack of papers aside and turned to face Sakura yet again.

"Your mission is to go into the city and keep watch."

"Watch duty? Tsunade-sama, that type of mission is for the chuunin…" she couldn't help exclaiming. In an instant, she clamped her lips shut and clenched her jaw. Her face started to turn a lovely shade of red.

"I've just received reports that there has been Sharingan activity in the downtown district of Ichiriku. I need you to go there and keep an eye out for me. You are to report any suspicious activity, and, if applicable, to capture any Sharingan agents you may come across. One hostage will do, but we want information out of them. If you end up capturing some numbskull genin, kill him. They're no good anyway."

Sakura sat, contemplating the mission. She leaned back in her chair, and furrowed her brow as she thought about the mission's objectives.

Slowly, she leaned forward again, thinking about how to phrase her questions.

"Hokage-sama, how long will this mission be?"

"As long as it takes to obtain substantial amounts of information. I estimate that you will be in the city for at least two months. However, you are to come back once you manage to get a hostage."

"So a hostage is the primary objective?"

"No, information is. Hostages just provide a…searchable book of knowledge."

"I see…may I look at the Bingo Book? I'd rather have a more definite idea of who I am to capture."

Tsunade smirked and leaned back in her chair, lacing her fingers together behind her head and subsequently pushing out her rather large chest.

"I thought you'd say that. There's no need to look in the Book…your target is Kakashi Hatake."

------oooOOOooo--------

Kakashi Hatake was the number-one laziest agent in the entire Sharingan organization. He excelled in arriving late to meetings, reading sketchy novels while walking, and killing. When it came to missions, Kakashi was not one to kid around, however. He was able to quickly locate, track, and dispose of targets when he was assigned to a mission.

Despite being lazy, Kakashi was still one of the top agents in Sharingan. He answered only to the leader, Itachi Uchiha.

Around four in the afternoon, Kakashi could normally be found lounging in the gym, reading Icha Icha Paradise. That is exactly where Neji Hyuuga found him as he came to deliver a message.

"You're wanted, Kakashi."

There was no need to ask exactly where he was wanted; Itachi was the only who could and would call him to come into his office, no matter what time of day.

Kakashi lazily stood up, his masked face hiding whatever emotions he might have held. Neji guessed that he was probably half-sleepy and half-annoyed, judging by the disgruntled air he gave off. Neji's pupil-less eyes followed Kakashi as he walked out of the gym and into the leader's office.

Sharingan headquarters were located right in the middle of Sand Forest. The name didn't give much away, since the surrounding area wasn't sandy at all. Likely, some founding father of the name Sand had discovered the forest (not that a forest was so hard to hide) and egotistically named it after himself.

Headquarters were in a series of buildings designed to look like a dilapidated daimyo estate. In truth, they really were dilapidated daimyo estates that Itachi's family had owned. When the rest of the family was killed in a blood-bath which also destroyed the compound, Itachi took over the homes and started recruiting agents to complete missions that would further his ambitions for power.

Itachi's office was located in the largest of the buildings. The building had once been beautiful, with golden tiles and a low silhouette. The building was now even lower and the golden tiles were shattered and spread out on the ground near the foundation.

Jogging lightly, Kakashi reached the office and stepped inside. He leaned in a doorframe as he waited to be called in. His uncovered eye scanned the room to find Itachi shuffling a few manila folders. The folders likely contained mission reports, turned in by other agents earlier that day.

"Come in," Itachi said finally, putting the manila folders into a file cabinet located in his desk. He closed the drawer, then, after thinking, reopened the drawer to pull out a few more folders. He placed these folders on Kakashi's side of the desk.

"Sit."

Kakashi sat, and picked up one of the folders that Itachi had placed in front of him. Opening it, he saw a page likely photocopied from the Bingo Book. It gave a name, age, and other facts about an agent he didn't know.

"That's the page from the Bingo Book about one of Tsunade's agents. Her name is Ino, and you are to capture her. We have received reports that Tsunade has been dispatching agents left and right in order to find out more about us."

Haughtily, he continued. "Unluckily for her, we already know about the impending waves of agents. However, we do not have pictures for any top-ranked agents in her pitiful organization. Your mission is to discover more about this 'Ino' and then capture her. All we know is what you see on the sheet in front of you."

Kakashi put the sheet down and picked up a different manila folder.

"That is where you will be staying during this mission."

"How long will this mission be? All I have to do is find a capture an enemy agent."

"You only have to capture an agent? We want information, Kakashi, and in order to do that you'll need to slowly gain Ino's trust and obtain some information before you completely take her hostage."

"What about our capturing squad?"

"What good would that do? Enemy agents are trained not to leak information under such pressure. All agents are issued suicide pills, which they can quickly swallow and die, cutting off a source of information. You'll need to…coax information out. As you gain her trust, ask her questions. I'm sure I don't need to tell you how to do that. Because I can send Genma instead if this mission is too complicated for you…"

"No, I'll do it."

"Good. Now go, and don't come back without my hostage."

Kakashi stood, and walked swiftly out of the office and into his small apartment. He shared the apartment with another agent, Genma, but he was currently somewhere else.

'Probably finding some random whore to take home tonight' he thought, shuddering as he remembered some of Genma's conquests. These women, although civilians, had somehow traced Genma and had thrown themselves at him. They had proved to be a real nuisance. They had been taken care of.

Kakashi flopped onto his bed, placing one arm behind his head. He wasn't the least skilled in womanizing, but he hated doing it to gain information. He was a love-em-and-leave-em, one-night stand type. The women he took knew that, so he was never bothered like Genma was. He wondered what Ino looked like, how he would introduce himself, how he would get her to trust him before he took her back to headquarters for more questioning. He felt dirty, breaking some random woman's trust like that.

All for the sake of a mission.

He packed some things into a bag, 'best to look like a true civilian', and stepped out the door. Nobody said good-bye to him; missions were part of everyday life in the Sharingan. If an agent left and was killed in action, he simply did not complete missions anymore. That was life.

------oooOOOooo---------

Sakura, after receiving her mission, walked out of Tsunade's office and went back to the gym. She did her best thinking while hurting something. She chose to go back to the abandoned punching bag, and started attacking it.

All she knew about Kakashi Hatake was that he was in the Sharingan, age estimated to be thirty (which was considered rather old), and that he was in the top-tier of agents there. Nobody knew if he had any defining features---those that saw him quickly died. She would have to do some research on him. One thing she knew for sure was that he only had one eye. In some freak accident, he had lost the other.

'God, I hope he's not disfigured or something…' Sakura hated taking hostages. It was a tricky business, controlling one's strength so as not to actually kill. She figured that a few quick touches to pressure points would knock this guy out, even if he was some great agent.

Sakura finished her second workout of the day, showered again, and returned to the small apartment that she shared with her best friend Ino Yamanaka. Agents weren't supposed to get close to one another, but she and Ino had started out in the same team of genin. Ino had protected her from bullying chuunin, and they had become attached after that.

Sakura had been found by ANBU watch agents when she was wandering around the Konoha Forest. Her parents had died in a car accident, leaving her waiting at school for them. When they didn't show up by eight-o-clock, she simply walked away. Some part of her always hoped that they would somehow find out about her accomplishments, walk back into her life and give her a pat on the back, but she knew that it was just wishful thinking.

She packed some clothes into a bag, and walked out of the apartment just as Ino walked in. In an unspoken good-bye, Ino and Sakura hugged. With a quick nod, Sakura walked out the door and out of the ANBU complex altogether.

She had a mission to fulfill.

A/N: Thank you so much for reading…This is my first Naruto fanfic, so please review with comments on how I can improve. (Of course, rave reviews are nice too). I know that so far, some of you may be wondering why Kakashi's mission isn't to take Sakura hostage. Well, you'll see later why they have different missions, but remember that they don't know what the other looks like yet.

Also, in this edit I added page separators (as per a reader's comment)…I hope that these work, because I did have some originally, but they didn't show up online…

--Lade Kagome-san