Mksanime: Wahhh… it's been so long since I've written an actual story O.O- okay maybe not that long, but you get my point -.-;; - So I'm a bit (or much) rusty on my writing skills, so –ehem- please do excuse my –cough- poorly written work.

Authors Babble: Well, this plot and along with other ones has been infiltrating my brain far too long than I had imagined and I just basically want it off…. So I am going to slowly try to update my other fics, as well as write new ones –nods head- yup!

Summary: Team Gai and Sakura embark on a mission to infiltrate the abandoned Akatsuki base. NejiSakuPein, minor SakuxOthers.

Disclaimer: If I own Naruto, then I would most likely make the lead character Sakura and pair her up with every hot guy in the show. Unfortunately, I don't, and fanfics are my only haven to fulfil my wishful thinking.

Inevitable Fate

Her nose crinkled.

The pastel pink-haired girl looked up from the book that she buried her face upon, as she unconsciously shifted her hand down towards her pouch. It was an unconscious action that she had accumulated over the 5 years of her being a kunoichi. Being on guard was something every ninja and kunoichi learned that was essential if they still wanted their lives intact.

She crinkled her nose again in distaste, as her lips tilted down in a grim line. Something was definitely up. She just hoped that the foreboding feeling that sent shivers down her spine was nothing more than the crisp cool breeze.

Heavily sighing, she dismissed every notion of disaster that was going too loomed over her precious love ones, or her, and quite contentedly leaned more towards the trunk of the tree in a comfortable position and buried her face in the book once again.

Yet, no matter how much she convinced or dismissed her feelings, the fear of something disastrous that was going to happen never disappeared inside of her.

She read the same lines in the book about five times.

"Tsunade-sama?"

"Oink-oink…"

The wheels on the chair rolled backwards, as the blonde-haired woman gracefully stood up and walked towards the window. A pregnant silence filled the air, and then the heaviness of the air thickened, as the blonde haired woman wearily and slightly slump her shoulders in exhaustion.

"We need to scout the area for any clues to their whereabouts, or if they left anything important behind…" she swiftly twisted her body, and narrowed her eyes in a determine manner at Shizune, "Jiraiya already briefed with me about the abandoned base of Akatsuki. He believes that there is something more in the base than meets the eye."

She briskly closed her eyes, and opened them again, "Team Gai will be good for that mission, especially the byakugan… And Sakura will also be there to act as a medic, in case that they do encounter an Akatsuki member." She walked back towards her chair, and slowly sat down, as she folded her arms on the desk and intertwined her fingers together, "Please get them for me."

"789…790… 791… 792," arms pushed up and down, as the chest heaved along.

"Yosh! We still have 208 more to go! Don't stop now my youthful students, or else we may have to do it over again... although, that's not a bad idea to begin with…" Gai rambled on, while never breaking his momentum.

2 of the said students- that didn't look like him- groaned in annoyance, "825…826…827…" unfortunately for them, Gai continued on…

It was one of those days that their sensei, Gai, was so hyped up about youth and becoming stronger after… well, mostly likely lost another duel with Kakashi. Unfortunately for them, this fuelled their sensei up to become stronger for his next battle with Kakashi-sensei; thus, their sensei also deemed it necessary that his precious students should not be left out on the youthful training.

Oh, the great joy of youth!

Pook.

A greyish cloud appeared in front of them and then slowly faded away, only leaving a feminine figure with a pig on their arms.

For some reason fate was on their side today….Or maybe not.

"Ah, Shizune-san" Gai immediately shot up and gave her a shiny smile.

"Tsunade-sama needs all of you in her office immediately," the said girl spoke hastily, as she nodded in a silent greeting.

And then she disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

"Well," Tenten chirped, as she sprang up and dusted her hands in delight, "let's go."

Her eyes twitched in annoyance, as her hair slapped her face back and forth.

"Stupid wind," she grumbled, while trying to blindly look for a twig with her right hand, searching aimlessly on the ground, and at the same time tucking the book that she was reading on her pouch.

"A-HA!" She grasped a curvy looking twig and brought it closer towards her face, trying to evaluate if it was suitable for her hair. Her head loomed closer towards the said object, while scrutinizing it with vigour.

Her eyes squinted even more, and slowly nodded to herself in approvement. "It may not be perfect…" she mumbled, as she slowly broke off the sides of the twig and twisted it perfectly in her hair, into a perfect bun, "but it'll work for now".

Poof!

Her head snapped upwards immediately, as she jumped up in surprise.

So much for being on guard… The pastel haired girl sighed

"Sakura," Shizune nodded in greeting, and then continued, "Tsunade-sama wants you to see her immediately".

Sakura nodded back and slowly composed her self from the surprise that she just experienced, and then chirped happily, "Alright, let's go."

They both sprinted off towards the tower.

"Ah, Sakura…" The Godaime smiled slightly towards her in greeting, "Come in and close the door behind you".

The blonde-haired woman then curled her index finger back and forth, silently telling the pink haired kunoichi to come towards her.

Sakura inwardly sighed and walked towards where her shishou sat, while also noting Team Gai standing at the very side of the room. She nodded silently in greeting towards them, which they also returned the greeting in the same manner.

She stopped at the front of her table, waiting patiently for her shishou to start speaking.

Tsunade slowly took a folded scroll on the left side of the table and handed it to Sakura, "This is scroll basically contains the location and the details of your mission. Read it over tonight. For now, I will tell you and Team Gai the general overview of the mission."

All of them nodded in understanding.

"You five are to set off tomorrow morning and head to the Village of Rain. You are to infiltrate the abandoned Akatsuki base, and check or look for anything that is of importance and value that might either give us a lead to where their current hideouts are, or something else. This mission is leaning towards an A-rank or S-rank mission, because there are chances that you might encounter them.

Sakura, this is where you come in. In any case if you do encounter Akatsuki, you are to try and keep out of the fight as much as possible and heal your team mates. Field medics are not in the field for battle but to heal. Do I make my self clear?"

Sakura once again, mutely nodded.

"But, in any case…" Tsunade shifted her gaze towards Team Gai, "If you do encounter Akatsuki or even one of its member, retreat immediately and report to me. Understand? Good. So please be on your guard."

She shifted her head back and forth towards each present individual, as if silently telling them that if they disregard anything she had said, she wasn't going to be lenient on her punishment.

The silent threat hung in the air.

The Godaime then broke off the tense atmosphere with her loud booming voice, "Dismissed!"

And in the blink of an eye, they had all disappeared, only leaving a faint trail of their use to be form.

"SAKURA-CHAN!" the blonde haired boy hollered over the Ichiraku shop, waving his hands back and forth trying to catch the pink-haired girl's attention. Lucky for him, it worked.

The said girl twisted her head towards the blonde haired ninja, and smiled brightly, "Hi Naruto!" She quickly changed the course of her direction, and walked towards where the blonde haired boy was at.

Over the course of time since Sasuke left, Sakura gradually understood Naruto and became much closer to him. Most of the time, they were inseparable (except when they were on a separate mission). She loved him dearly like a brother.

"Oi, Naruto! When did you come back you idiot?!" She sat down beside him, while ordering her own food.

She gazed back towards him, and waited for his answer.

"Just a few minutes ago… I was going to see you after I ate, but I'm glad you're here now." He smiled at her boyishly, as his eyes suddenly shifted towards his side and his mouth watered when he saw Ayame-san placed down his precious Ramen before him. He dug in immediately.

"So, Sakura-chan –slurp- do you have any mi –slurp- ssion coming up –slurp-?"

Before she could answer back, Naruto suddenly stood up and waved back and forth to someone, while continuously chewing on his ramen. Gulp. He gulped it down, and then yelled jubilantly, "HEY! LEE! NEJI! OVER HERE!"

The two males made their way towards them.

"Hello, Naruto! Good to see you back." Lee grinned happily, as he shifted his gaze towards Sakura, "Sakura-san, you are still youthful and beautiful as the morning sun, since the last time I saw you a few minutes ago. "

Sakura could only sweat drop in response.

While Neji nodded towards both of them, and took his seat besides Naruto, while Lee sat beside Sakura.

Sakura then noticed that some one was missing, "Hey, where's Tenten?" she looked around and saw that she was not indeed with them.

"She said that she had to go sharpen her weapons" Lee replied happily, as he stared brightly and lovingly at Sakura.

Naruto was back at concentrating towards devouring his Ramen, while ordering 3 more. While, Lee took it upon himself, to challenge Naruto to a Ramen eating contest.

Naruto happily obliged.

Sakura exasperatedly sighed.

She looked up and an accidentally made an eye contact with Neji, she then smiled towards him, and tried to have a small talk, "I heard that you passed on the ANBU exam Neji-san. Congratulations"

Neji's mouth twitched upwards into a small smirked at his accomplishment, "Thank you, Haruno-san."

Sakura slightly frowned in return, "Come on Neji-san, we've known each other for a while now. I think its way pass time to drop the formalities, right?" She then beamed at him.

"I suppose…" the coffee-haired man hesitantly agreed.

"Good." Sakura clapped her hands together in reply, and then realized something… "It would be the first time that I'm going on a mission with Team Gai, right?" Neji lifted one of his fine brows, and slowly nod, "I believe so…"

"Then, please take care of me." Sakura bowed slightly towards him, "I'll do my best to help."

"Mission?" Naruto suddenly intervened, as he ate his noodles in a one big slurp.

"Me, Neji, Tenten, Gai-sensei, and Sakura-san are going a mission together tomorrow" Lee also interrupted, as he gave Naruto a dashing smile.

"Ooohh… what's it about? Tell me! Tell me!" the blonde haired boy excitedly asked.

"Naruto, you should know better than to ask about what our mission is! You know that every mission is undisclosed to the ones who aren't in it." Sakura chided, as she slightly whacked Naruto upside the head.

"Awww, come on Sakura-chan. I really want to know!" the blonde haired boy whined in reply, as he rubbed the back of his head to ease out the slight pain. Sakura's punches were hard.

"Don't worry Naruto! I'll definitely protect my dear sweet Sakura-san!" Lee declared, which seemed to get Naruto all riled up. "She's not yours fuzzy eyebrow!" Naruto suddenly stood up, and pointed his fingers accusingly towards Lee, "So don't even try to do something funny!"

Sakura practically zoned out and sighed heavily in reply. While Neji, ignored his surroundings and continued eating the food that was just serve to him.

The whole night ended up with Naruto and Lee in a Ramen eating contest, while Neji and Sakura decided to retire for the night, wanting to get the packing done, and to rest early, for their mission tomorrow.

Neji walked Sakura home, insisting that no woman should walk home alone at midnight, no matter if they were either a civilian or shinobi a like.

Sakura chuckled silently; who ever said Chivalry was dead was definitely wrong.

They walked in silence for most of the time, but Sakura being Sakura who didn't like the awkward silence, tried to make a subtle conversation….

"You know Neji-san, you're really nice." He snorted in reply.

Sakura froze, as her eyes widen in wonderment.

The coffee-haired man took notice that the pink haired girl had stopped walking, and so he turned around and confusingly looked at her.

Sakura shook her head, and slightly gaped openly at him, "y-you… snorted! That was so out of your character!"

Neji's mouth titled upwards into a small smirk, finally catching on, on what was going on in that brain of hers, "So what is my character like, Sakura-san?"

"Well, you're supposed to be quiet, mysterious, kind of darkish and hey! You're teasing me…" Sakura shrieked in realization, as she once again gaped at Neji laughing. Laughing!

"Is that how you see me as, Sakura-san?" he smirked.

Sakura twisted her head sideways and 'hmphed'. She then continued to walk towards the direction of her house. Neji followed suit.

"Well?"

"I am not going to answer that." She stated firmly, and then cracked up a small smile, "I guess, I have to get to know you a little more, and then I will answer your question."

The coffee-haired man contemplated on her answer and then nodded his head in understanding, "I'll count on that then."

Both of them stopped at the front of Sakura's house, and bid each other goodbye.

"Wait!" Neji turned around and looked at her in confusion…

"Thank you." He nodded his head and then continued walking, his hands up in the air with a small wave.

Sakura smiled, as she slowly closed the door shut.

Mksanime: Yippee!! I'm done the first chapter! I hope you guys enjoyed it, as much as I love writing it! Sorry about the ending, its like 5:49 am and my head is hurting me... X.X

Ahh I'm kinda okay now… I just saw America's best dance crew, and I was furious that Kabba modern got kicked out instead of Status Quo! I mean what the hell was that? Kabba modern totally owned them! I still think Jabbawockeez and Kabba modern should have faced off… oh well –sigh- I just hope Jabba will win it. =

Anyways… thanks for reading! Till next time! =D