Hey everybody, this is TheCupcakeViking. :-D

This is my first fanfiction to be published here, so if theres any mistakes, then please be patient with me, since I need to figure out how everything works in here.

The thing I wanted to tell, was that English is not the language I have been raised with, so if there is any bad spelling somewhere, please let me know so I can make it better. Most of the English I speak/write I have learned because I was too stubborn to give up when I moved and quit the school.

Besides of that, I do not own any of the original Naruto characters in this story, but persons as Noemi-sama and all the others I have not made yet, I own. And it's rated T because ... I don't really know ... O.O But in the next chapter, there will be a lot of swearing ...

Have fun and enjoy and review and all that. Please. :3


It was night in the Land of Fire and in Konohagakure everything was silent, except for the shinobi's guarding the walls and entrance. When they passed each other or when they shifted with another shinobi, they exchanged small formalities and then went home or back to guarding.

In the Haruno residence a young pink-haired woman with emerald eyes were sitting at the kitchen table and waiting for her father to return home since he had the first shift at the wall. Her mother was out on a mission and wouldn't be back before sometime next week. She was playing card to make the time go faster and finally she sensed her father's chakra. She stood up the same minute Haruno Kizashi stepped inside the house.

"Tou-san!" Sakura said and hugged her father.

"Eh, Sakura, you're not sleeping yet?" her father asked and looked at the clock hanging on the wall. It was past 3 am and Kizashi knew that his daughter had a mission today.

"I wanted to wait for you to come home, Tou-san." His daughter said and stepped back a little and smiled at him. "Happy birthday, Tou-san."

Kizashi didn't know what to say. He had been so busy with missions and paperwork lately that he had forgot his birthday was today. He wondered how it was possible to forget something like that, but looked at his only daughter and smiled. It was rather good to have a daughter who remembered such things when you didn't yourself.

"Thank you, little flower." He said and kissed her on her forehead.

Sakura smiled more widely at him.

"I don't expect the mission to take too long, so when I come back I will make a special dinner for you and when Kaa-san comes back home we will hold a party for you." Sakura said and stepped a little back again.

Her father nodded. Sakura lifted her hand.

"I will go to bed now, Tou-san. I'm probably gone when you wake up, so remember to eat. I already made food for you to warm up, so please don't cook." She said with a little chuckle, knowing how bad her father was at cooking. "And remember that I love you, Tou-san." Sakura added.

Kizashi smiled at his daughter when she walked into her room. It seemed like yesterday he hold her for the first time. And in two months she would turn nineteen. He sighed. Time was going too fast. He wasn't ready, and would probably never be, to let go his little flower. He sighed again and walked into his wife's and his bedroom and undressed. He lied down and pulled the covers over himself.

He had never questioned his life or existence as a shinobi and never thought that he would. But when he saw his daughter for the first time, she was so small and so fragile it made him wonder if she would have a better life without being a kunoichi. He knew that life as a shinobi wouldn't be easy, it never was, and the only thing he wanted for his daughter was for her to always smile and laugh, to always be happy.

He still doubted he's decision of raising her as a shinobi, but it was too late now to change the past. He would just have to hope that she would be spared of too much sadness and unhappiness. He closed his eyes and easily fell asleep.


"Sakura-chan, hey." Naruto yelled and waved energetically and at the same time he was picking up a fight with Sai by punching his face with the other hand.

Sakura sighed and looked over at Kakashi and Yamato who just stood and looked like they wanted to be anywhere else but here. In the almost three years she had known Sai, he had become more human and less machine. She clearly remembered how cold and emotionless the guy had been when Naruto and herself had met him the first time. Maybe he wouldn't admit it, but she could see the changes and it made her happy. Back then he would just stand there with an annoying smile on his pale face when he made Naruto angry or herself for that matter. Now he still managed to piss of everybody, but in a different way. And he would fight for fun with Naruto.

"Good morning, Kakashi-sensei, Yamato-san." She greeted and smiled at both men.

She turned around and sighed once again at the sight of the two guys. Naruto and Sai were yelling at each other and kicking and punching, trying to win the fight. She didn't know who had started it, most likely Sai, or over what stupid thing they were fighting, but they had to stop since they were just wasting their chakra. She walked up to them without them noticing and grabbed their heads and smashed them together. They stopped and turned their heads towards her, both with a huge bump on their foreheads and blood dripping from their noses. She raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow.

"Are you two idiots done fighting?" she asked coolly and glared at them with all her strength.

"S … Sorry, Sakura-chan." Naruto stammered but if eyes could kill, Sai would have suffered a slowly and painful death.

Sakura nodded and looked at Sai, still with a raised eyebrow. Sai didn't back down right away but when he felt his whole body shiver from her cold gaze, he finally looked down and mumbled an apology.

"Thank you." She said and turned around to look at both her sensei's. "What is our mission today?" she asked and smiled sweetly.

Kakashi and Yamato exchanged glares and tried not to smile. It was so typical Sakura to stop Naruto and Sai when they were fighting in a much more violent way than they were fighting.

"Today we have been assigned to be bodyguards for a priestess while she is in the Land of Fire. We will have to escort her to the borderline between the Land of Fire and the Land of Rain, where she will be assigned bodyguards from Amegakure." Kakashi said and looked over his former students.

"But Kakashi-sensei, isn't Land of Rain our enemies?" Sakura asked and felt the sense of danger creep into her mind and body.

Amegakure was the base of Akatsuki, the shinobi worlds worst enemies. They were a group of criminals, S-ranked missing nin to be more precisely. She knew that Uchiha Sasuke's older brother Uchiha Itachi was a part of the group and no matter how much she wanted to slap that stupid Uchiha's face and tell him exactly what she thought of him, the thought of her standing before him, the man who killed his entire family, was a little frightening. She was not strong, she knew that very well and she was defiantly no match for the legendary Uchiha Itachi. Besides, Akatsuki was a group of bad-ass ninja's with no common sense of right and wrong plus they loved to kill people.

"Yes, Sakura, but this priestess is important to both Land of Fire and Land of Rain, so a temporarily treason has been made to make sure that the priestess will arrive safely to her destination." Kakashi explained and sent her a smile that was supposed to make her relax a little.

"If you say so, Kakashi-sensei." Sakura said but still couldn't shake the feeling of danger off her.

"But where is this priestess?" Sai asked and looked at Yamato.

"Oh, she's currently waiting for us at Hokage-sama's office." Yamato answered and.

"Then why are we standing here? Let's go!" Naruto exclaimed and where already on his way to Hokage-sama's office.

Sai followed closely and then only Kakashi, Yamato and Sakura were left behind. Kakashi noticed his former students uneasiness and patted her shoulder lightly, trying to make the young woman feel just a little better. Then he followed the two other who were already fighting again loudly.

"What's wrong, Sakura-san?" Yamato asked and walked beside her on the way to Hokage-sama.

"Oh, Yamato-san." Sakura said and tried to hide her surprise at hearing his voice. She had been far away in thoughts to notice the man walking beside her. "Ehm, it's nothing, really. I was just thinking." She said and tried to make it sound like it was nothing important.

Yamato nodded at her statement, knowing that the pink-haired woman wasn't ready to talk about her worries with him just yet. He had known the young woman almost three years and even if they had become a little closer, Sakura still didn't trust him completely. Naruto had been suspicious in the beginning too, but at least he trusted his sensei now. Sai trusted him too. Only Sakura didn't. She had told him once, that Yamato may be her sensei by name, but he would never be nothing more but that. Instead Sakura trusted Kakashi and still called him sensei. She came to him whenever she had problems or she needed someone to talk to. She treated him like a older brother and Kakashi treated her like a younger sister. Yamato couldn't help but feel a little irritated at the other man.

"Is this mission making you nervous?" Yamato asked, wanting to know why the kunoichi was so thoughtful today.

Sakura did nothing but look at him and then walked away from him, making it clear that she didn't want to talk with him.

Yamato sighed but didn't make an attempt to ask her again. She would tell him if she felt he needed to know.


"Tsunade-baa-chan, where is this priestess who needs my supreme protection?" Naruto exclaimed loudly and slammed the door open without knocking.

Sai followed closely behind Naruto but bowed politely at Tsunade. Sakura, Kakashi and Yamato came in and looked at the person they believed was the priestess. She looked young, around Sakura's age, maybe even younger. She had long curly chestnut colored hair and a pair of big golden eyes that didn't make direct eye contact to any of them. She seemed so fragile like a flower and Sakura wondered what she was thinking of them.

Tsunade raised an eyebrow at the sight of Naruto and Sai's face and looked at Sakura who felt her cheeks turn hot.

"This is Noemi-sama of the Land of Woods. She is to be escorted to the borderline between the Land of Fire and the Land of Rain safely. Once you have arrived at the borderline, three ninjas from Amegakure will meet up with you and take her to the Land of Woods." Tsunade said and looked at them all. "Remember to protect Noemi-sama at all costs."

"Hai, Lady Tsunade." Sakura said and bowed at her other sensei.

"You got it." Naruto said loudly as always.

"Yes Hokage-sama." Sai, Yamato and Kakashi said.

Kakashi turned to the young priestess and bowed slightly to show his respect. The girl bowed back and still avoided eye contact.

"Noemi-sama, if you are ready, the let's go." Kakashi said formally and the young girl nodded.

"Yes." She answered and Sakura noticed that she had a calm and pleasant voice.

They all escorted her outside and headed to the main gate of Konohagakure. As they stepped outside, she still couldn't shake the feeling of danger up ahead of off her. She sighed and glanced at the girl. Maybe it wasn't going to be so easy a mission the first thought it would be. She turned he eyes to the road before her and sighed again.