Chapter 1: The demon mission: deadly or not

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

Author: Hellhound09

Beta: SoraInu-chan (CHA!) >:D

Ok, so it's my first Fanfiction. Thanks to the awesome SoraIunchan for helping. Loves you.

The midday sun filtered down on Konoha softly, it was calm and quiet in the large village as people took time out of their day to eat lunch. Team 7 had been enjoying their meal at Ichiraku in relative peace until a messenger bird had summoned them to the Hokage's office.

Naruto, Sakura, and Kakashi walked into the fifth Hokage's office with relatively a calm attitude.

Sakura was the first to enter since Sakura was the fifth's apprentice, she felt better about entering without fear of getting hit by a flying projectile, by her irritable shishou.

Naruto followed closely behind his pink haired companion, looking around the scroll filled office for any clue as to what the fifth wanted the three of them for.

Tsunade sat at her desk reading, a concentrated look on her youthful face as she pored over the document she was holding.

The others waited silently, not daring to interrupt the blonde woman from her work when she was actually working.

After a moment, the fifth looked up, a confused look marred her features for a moment as she reviewed the people standing before her.

Sakura smiled nervously at her shishou, Naruto flinched slightly as her eyes narrowed; having been on the receiving end of said look multiple times before, Kakashi seemed to giggle having been nervously trying to hide his orange book from the Godaime's sharp gaze.

"Where's Shikamaru?" She spoke, "I swore I told him to be here before you all arrived."

Sakura rose an eyebrow, slightly surprised, "We haven't seen him…" The three had come from lunch just a few moments before after having been summoned; if Shikamaru was summoned previously then they had no knowledge of it.

Before Sakura could question her shishou further on the whereabouts of Shikamaru, or the need of him for that matter, said shinobi came walking in just seconds after Sakura had let the thought filter through her mind.

Tsunade pierced her lips as Shikamaru went to stand by Sakura at the end of line, "Yare, Yare, don't look at me, I got the message late."

Tsunade made 'hm' sound and glanced back down at the document she had been writing on previously.

Sakura rolled her emerald eyes, glancing at the lazy ninja, "Or you just took your time," Sakura mumbled loud enough for only Shikamaru to hear, said shinobi mumbled 'troublesome' in reply to her accusation and mischievous smile.

Tsunade straightened herself with a sigh; taking a deep breath she turned her full attention to the four standing before her.

She could tell Naruto was getting agitated as he was practically bouncing on the heels of his feet; this was taking a long time.

Tsunade smiled in amusement at the blonde whiskered shinobi, "I have a mission for you four."

Naruto's eyes lit up and he drew himself to attention, Kakashi straightened his somewhat slouched shoulders and Sakura and Shikamaru regarded Tsunade with interest.

"I have looked over it a few times, to make sure I've got all the details correct, as some of it seems… shady."

"This may be a hard mission, it may not be, but I'm sending four of you just in case."

Tsunade glanced at the document lying on her desk, "This has the possibility of being an S ranked mission, but for know I'm labeling it A."

Naruto visibly slumped, "Ah, Tsunade-baa-chan, every time you say a mission's hard its easy! And every time you say a mission's easy we get ambushed!"

"The mission is in Suna, the Kazekage sent it to me personally." Tsunade informed the blonde sharply, irritated at his outburst.

Naruto's put off face changed at the word Kazekage.

The Kazekage meant one thing to Naruto.

Gaara

"He is having trouble with a minor sand demon who is attacking the village. He has reported about 30 deaths throughout the general residence of Suna," Tsunade glanced up at Sakura, "and a lot of injuries, that's one reason you're going Sakura, they need Medic-nins, badly."

"You four are to report their and help take down the demon. Understood?"

Kakashi tilted his head, his visible eye darkening, "Understood."

Shikamaru crossed his arms; at the very least he'd get to see Temari. He hadn't seen her since she left before finding out about Gaara being kidnapped. He breathed out a sigh of defeat, "Understood."

More hard work, woman where so troublesome.

Naruto, the ever cheerful one, jumped to attention, he was completely unconcerned about the difficulty level of the mission, all he was focused on was that he was going to see Gaara once again.

"Understood, Hokage-sama!"

Sakura nodded, "Understood."

"You are to leave within the hour, so prepare yourselves, Hatake, you're heading the mission."

"Right, let's go team."

A collective "Hai" sounded throughout the office, Tsunade nodded in pleasure, "Dismissed."

It did not take long for them to take off from the gate, even with Kakashi being chronically late and Shikamaru complaining about the short notice, Naruto being a jinchuriku, with his excessive energy, couldn't wait to get to Suna. He pushed them along with his nagging and spirited energy to get going faster.

Sakura refrained from beating him into the ground for annoying them all to death since she understood Naruto's desire to see his friend.

It wasn't often they got sent to Suna.

They hit Suna in two and a half days, having traveled through the night during the last night, shaving off the half a day that it would usually take them extra to reach the village in three days time.

Naruto stopped at the top of a sand hill a few meters away from the village, Sunagakure.

A smile filtered across his features and slowly the smile turned to a full out grin at the sight that greeted him. The others stopped behind him in surprise and annoyance, wondering what had him pausing after being so excited to get Suna.

"Gaara."

His voice was deep and his grin wide, Gaara met Naruto's eyes with a nod before turning his attention to the group of four shinobi.

Gaara looked on, his jade emotionless eyes searching the group.

His eyes darkened in slight displeasure, the Hokage was either foolish or simply ignorant, for the information and stats he had sent her to only send these four… her faith in the four of them must have been high.

Hmm.

Sakura stepped a few steps forward to stand by Naruto, regarding the Kazekage quizzically.

She barely knew Gaara, she'd never really spoken to him, and he did pen her to a tree and try crushing her a few years back… and even when she went out and saved him, he never really spoke to her before this, she really knew nothing about him either…

But Naruto was confident in his friend, so Sakura would put her faith in Naruto's opinion of the young Kazekage.

But that certainly didn't mean she would let him sit there and keep them out in the sun after Naruto's hell bent rush to get here, her medic side would not allow her teammates to be out in the harsh desert heat much longer without water and nourishment.

Jade eyes regarded the small group, hard and emotionless, Sakura was not frightened of him and she was not going to stand out side in the damn desert until he decided to let them in, Kazekage or not, her chin hitched up a notch.

"We are here for the mission," Sakura informed him, since no one else seemed to be taking action.

Gaara's eyes shoot towards her.

Before, when she was younger, she would have flinched away from such a dark look, but now she stood firm and strong, her emerald eyes flaring with intelligence and determination.

Gaara's expression softened somewhat, his lips turning down slightly, almost like he was unhappy she did not back down.

"I know why you are here," he looked at Naruto, "Well… are you just going to stand there or go into the village, it's taken you a long enough time."

Sakura was irritated, he knew they wouldn't have advanced past him out of respect, they had been waiting on him, and here he was claiming they had been the ones taking too long?

The rest of her group seemed to not care or not notice, walking past her towards the village gates, just ready to be out of the blistering desert sun.

Sakura mentally twitched as Gaara gave her a smothering look, like he was the one that was annoyed with her and turned to walk back into the village.

She had always disliked Gaara's personality, for some reason it just grated on her nerves.

'This mission had better not take too long,' Sakura thought darkly in her mind as she hiked up her pack and began making her way towards the village, 'I'll have to kill Naruto if I'm stuck here too long with that damn sand jerk.'

Damn straight.

Sakura knew Naruto was an easy target to heap her misfortunate on, she needed to blame someone and her blonde fox brother was just the perfect target.

Besides, it was his fault for being so cheery all the damn time.

Sakura walked past the village gates, wither she be irritated from her lack of sleep (Naruto's fault), sand in her shoes (desert's fault), or slightly sun burnt nose and shoulders (her own damn fault), she just felt the need to hit something.

She had a feeling she wouldn't be having a good day.

So that's chapter one. I guess tell me what you think, so I know if I should keep going with it.