Author's Note: Heya, everyone, and thanks for stopping by :) This is basically me finally deciding to contribute to the fandom I've known and loved for years now. This little story is nothing special, but it will hopefully help me ease into writing. Hope you enjoy :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.


He was a lucky man, Sasuke decided. Very lucky. How else would he describe the fact that after defeating his brother and returning to Konoha expecting to be jailed (or worse, executed), he got off relatively easy. He had just finished his one year probation and, more recently, successfully passed the Jounin exam.

Of course, once he really thought about it, he realized that luck had pretty much nothing to do with it. No, what really made a difference were his two teammates that not only healed him and dragged his sorry ass back to Konoha, but also managed to convince the Godaime Hokage to go easy on him.

He had to be honest with himself this time. Naruto and Sakura have done so much for him, and even though he might have difficulty expressing it, he would forever be grateful. So much that he made it his personal goal to prove himself worthy of their friendship and dedication.

He would not fail them again.

Sasuke rounded the corner towards the Hokage tower. He supposed he should be more excited, seeing as how this would be his first official Jounin mission. However he also suspected that the Hokage might not trust him enough to hand him an important or difficult mission yet. He couldn't blame her.

Reaching his destination, Sasuke entered the tall building and made his way through the corridors and up the stairs to where he knew was the Hokage's office. Not only did he remember it from his Genin days, but he'd also spent quite a lot of time in that office after he was brought back to Konoha.

He knew he was a little too early, but he wanted to get the briefing over with quickly so he could complete his mission as fast as possible. The more missions he completed, the closer he would be to achieving ANBU rank. Although they were forbidden to reveal this status, Sasuke was certain most of his former Genin rivals were already well-established ANBU, and he wasn't the kind of person to be left behind.

"More cleavage!"

Sasuke stopped himself before he could knock on the door. Did he just hear the Hogake…

"I don't have more!"

That definitely sounded like…

"Then I'm gonna have to teach you my breast enlargement jutsu, Sakura."


Sakura was excited when she found out Tsunade was finally going to send her on a mission. She liked hospital duty, she really did. Healing people and caring for them was something she enjoyed very much and, quite frankly, something she was very good at. But she was also a shinobi, and like most shinobi she couldn't stand to be in the village for very long. This would be her first mission in almost two months.

Not to mention, now that Sasuke was promoted to Jounin he would most likely be made ANBU soon too. Sakura definitely didn't want to be the weakest member of her team again, and that meant missions. Lots and lots and lots of missions.

"Good morning, Tsunade-sama," she greeted with a grin.

"Morning, Sakura. Well, aren't you all sunshine today. Excited about the mission?"

"You bet!"

Tsunade smirked. She knew why her apprentice was so excited. Good Konoha medics were rare, excellent Konoha medics were even rarer. They were all needed at the hospital, so she avoided sending them on missions unless absolutely necessary. Sakura was one of the best medics, but she had many other qualities as well. Qualities that this mission called for.

"Good. Hold on to that mind set, Sakura. Shizune!"

The door behind her opened and the pinkette turned to greet her fellow medic, but she paused when she saw what the woman was carrying.

"What on earth is that?"

"That, Sakura, is what your mission will consist of. Now,"

Tsunade leaned back in her chair and smirked.

"Try it on. We need to make sure it fits you."


Sakura was absolutely mortified.

Tsunade and Shizune had helped her into that… thing, and were now both eyeing her like she was some sort of math equation. She still wasn't told what the mission would consist of, or what this had to do with it. To top it all off, now her mentor was insulting her breasts.

"Tsunade-sama, I don't think-"

"Nonsense! The bigger the better."

"But-"

"Tsunade-sama," Shizune intervened, "I agree with Sakura. It might be dangerous to have her keep up that sort of jutsu for too long."

"Hmpf." Tsunade had to admit, her assistant did have a point. "We'll just have to get a third opinion, then."

Sakura wanted to asked for further clarification, but when she heard the Hokage's next words, she froze.

"Uchiha, get in here!"


Sasuke was ready to leave the Hokage tower and return later, leaving Sakura and Tsunade to do… whatever the hell they were doing in there (he wasn't sure he wanted to know). But just as he turned around, he heard the Hokage's yell.

"Uchiha, get in here!"

Briefly wondering how she knew he was outside her office, he opted for a neutral expression on his face and opened the door.

He had to work on keeping that expression when he saw what he assumed was an image that would forever remain ingrained in his mind.

In the middle of the room was Sakura, which he only recognized by the pink color of her waist-length hair. She had her face buried in her palms and, had he been looking close enough, he would have realized that she was beet red.

But he certainly wasn't looking at her face, since the dominant part of his attention was focused on her body; more specifically, at what she was wearing. She was clad in a black bikini and what could only be described as black harem pants; they were see-through and reached her ankles, while the outer thighs were cut open, revealing her legs. Matching black sleeves went from her elbows to her wrists. Silver coins were strewn across the outfit and appeared to jingle with the slightest movement.

Well, that was something you didn't see every day.

Sakura prayed to every god she knew to just open up the ground and swallow her whole before she died of embarrassment. Seeing Sasuke every day was challenging enough, but him seeing her dressed in… dressed in a harem outfit? What the hell! Was Tsunade playing some kind of cruel prank on her? She was so embarrassed that she didn't even dare look at Sasuke. Was he looking at her?

Part of Sakura, the part that was still a little fangirlish about him, was hoping that he was. But the rest of Sakura was really hoping he paid no mind to her, since the last thing she needed to worry about right now was that… situation. Not now when he was starting to consider her a friend.

When a few moments passed with seemingly no reaction from anyone, she risked a peek at Sasuke and nearly squeaked when she saw him staring very intently at her choice of wardrobe. Correction, her mentor's choice. What was he thinking about?

Tsunade's voice cut through the tension in the room like a knife.

"Uchiha, we need a male's opinion. What do you think of Sakura in this outfit?"

Tsunade held back another smirk when said woman full-on glared at her, which proved to be quite the sight considering her face and neck were the exact same color as her hair. 'Another', because she also had to hold back a smirk when she saw the Uchiha's eyes quite clearly widen when he took in her apprentice's look for the first time.

These two were just too much fun.

A few moments passed before Sasuke finally answered. "She looks… fine."

"'Fine'?" the Godaime barked. "What are you, Uchiha, freaking asexual?"

It was Sasuke's turn to glare at her. Sakura had gone back to mortified mode.

"She's my teammate" he offered as an explanation.

This time, Tsunade let her smirk pass. "Of course she is."

"Are you going to give me my mission?"

"Don't snap at me, boy!" The Godaime's smirk had disappeared in favour of a glare. "Sit down! Both of you!"

The two shinobi did as they were told. Sakura quietly breathed a sigh of relief when she realized her mentor had dropped the issue of her outfit. Glancing at Sasuke, she noticed he was determined to look anywhere but at her.

Fine by her.

"You two will form a temporary two-man cell for this mission."

Tsunade unfolded a large document on her desk. It was a map of the Fire Country.

"You will be travelling to the small town of Okama, located here."

Both shinobi looked at the indicated location on the map. The town was about three days' worth of travel from Konoha. Two without making any stops.

"Over the last couple of months several young women from this town appear to have been kidnapped. We suspect they've been kidnapped, since no bodies have been found, however that doesn't exclude the possibility of murder."

"How many women are missing?" Sakura intervened.

"17 that we know of, aged 18 to 25. Possibly more unaccounted for. However,"

Tsunade produced a picture of what appeared to be the outside of a bar.

"Out of these seventeen women, twelve of them worked as dancers in this joint. Too big to be a coincidence. Which brings us to the topic of your outfit, Sakura."

The pinkette silently prayed Tsunade wouldn't make any more embarrassing comments about it.

"You are to pose as a dancer and hopefully attract enough attention to yourself to be kidnapped."

Sasuke frowned.

"I'm going to be a stripper?"

"I said 'dancer'. Not 'stripper'. There is a difference."

"Oh."

"I've chosen you specifically because of your pink hair, which should make you stand out more. Not to mention, you're a very attractive young woman." Tsunade smirked. "I'm sure Sasuke here agrees."

Sakura chose to ignore that last part. "So, if I understand correctly, I'm to get myself kidnapped in order to discover who's behind all these disappearances."

"Bingo."

"Tsunade-sama, I think I'm perfectly capable of completing this mission on my own. There is no need to send Sasuke with me." 'One, because I'm not the weakling that needs constant protection any longer,' she mentally added, 'and two, because dancing in a bar in a harem outfit is one of the top five things I never want anyone to see me doing. Especially Sasuke.'

"Actually, we're not really sure as to the difficulty of this mission. There could be any number of people behind this and their level of skill is impossible to guess. It's safer to have an extra person along. He can also keep tabs on some of the patrons and maybe help finish the mission faster. Besides," Tsunade looked pointedly at Sasuke, "he's been itching to go on a mission just as much as you have, Sakura."

For his part, Sasuke suspected that the Hokage simply didn't trust him enough to send him on a mission alone. And who better to keep tabs on him than one of his teammates?

"Tsunade-sama, it's just that…" Sakura bit her lip. "Naruto and I were hoping we could go on a mission as Team 7 again."

Tsunade smiled. "There will always be more missions, Sakura. Besides, I can't give you Naruto. This mission calls for patience and stealth, both of which he has in short supply. He also has his Hokage training sessions to attend to."

"Tsunade-sama," Shizune interrupted, "these 'training sessions' consist of nothing more than you dumping all of your paperwork duty on him so you can have more time to drink and gamble."

"Paperwork is an essential part of being a Hokage," the Godaime answered matter-of-factly. "Anyway, as long as it gets done, it doesn't matter who does it."

"Ahem." Sakura snapped the attention back to the main topic of discussion.

"Right. So, Sasuke, your job is to assist with the discovery of the kidnappers in any way possible and make sure no harm comes to Sakura."

"Hai" said shinobi answered.

"Oh, and one last thing." Tsunade looked pointedly at both of them. "If for whatever reason this mission proves too difficult to continue, report back with your findings and we'll send a larger team. Do not attempt any acts of heroism. Understood?"

They both nodded.

"Any questions?"

No one said anything. Tsunade took that as a 'no'.

"Right, then. Sakura, Shizune and I will have to help you with your dance routine."

"Dance routine?"

"Can't be a dancer without a dance routine, now can you? And since we're trying to get you noticed, it has to be especially good. Uchiha, you're free to go. You will meet up with Sakura at the village gates tomorrow morning at six o'clock."

Said man nodded an affirmative and got up to leave. Just as he was about to (finally) exit that office, the Hokage addressed him again.

"Unless," He turned to look at her. "you want to stay and…" Tsunade smirked, "watch."

Sasuke was out the door so fast it was nearly invisible to the naked eye.


A/N: More of a prologue than an actual chapter, next one will be bigger. Links to pictures of Sakura's harem outfit and more goodies can be found on my profile page. If you enjoyed this chapter, please leave a review :)