Yeah, I'm back from the dead as it were. There are too many reasons as to why I was unable to update anything to list, but I should be updating everything more often now. I have been convinced into writing another chapter for this, so I hope you all like it.
Sakura chased after Naruto and Kurenai, matching their speed with relative ease. The trio traveled in silence, two of them awaiting orders from the third. Naruto was trembling in absolute excitement at the thought of finally being able to prove himself to everyone. Sakura was also shaking, but for another reason entirely; she was worried that someone would figure out that she was not Sasuke, and she was also worried about even surviving long enough for anyone to even notice. Her throat became dry just thinking about that, and she swallowed quietly to avoid detection by Naruto.
It was the dead of night before Kurenai motioned for them to stop in a small clearing. Not one word had been spoken the entire trip, which didn't bother Sakura at all; it wasn't like Sasuke was overly talkative anyways. The surprising part was that even Naruto didn't try to strike up a conversation. Before Sakura could try to contemplate this, Kurenai started to speak.
"This is were we will be camping for the night," she explained. "We will not be fighting until morning because it is harder to keep track of allies in the dark." She glanced at both Naruto and Sakura at this (Sakura was unsure as to who the comment was directed at). "You two will be in one tent and I will take the other. I'll give you guys a break and take the first watch." With that, she started to put up a tent, and did so in so little time it would make any civilian camper jealous. Sakura just stared ahead blankly in horror. She hadn't thought about the fact that she would be forced to bunk with men. How she was going to change, or bathe was a complete mystery to her.
Naruto didn't seem too happy about who his roommate was either. He was currently stomping over to put up their tent muttering about temes and how he was going to catch a disease from one. Sakura knew that Naruto was completely hopeless at setting up a tent, so she headed over to help put it up.
With much more trouble than Kurenai and quite a bit more noise and disagreements, the tent was finally ready. Naruto was still grumbling as he marched through the opening, determinedly ignoring Sakura. Sakura stepped in after him a plopped Sasuke's bag down on the ground and started rummaging through it to find the sleeping bag he always packed. After a few minutes of no luck and wondering whether he took it out for some reason, Naruto looked over in amusement.
"You always stick it in the second pocket from the front," he says, more than a little condescendingly. Sakura figured it wouldn't hurt to check there, and sure enough, there was Sasuke's usual sleeping bag. Naruto was grinning at Sasuke's sudden memory lapse.
"Th-Hn." She had almost thanked him but she stopped herself just in time. Naruto didn't seem to notice, or care about the lack of gratitude. Sakura rolled out the makeshift bed as far from Naruto's as she could manage with arising suspicion. She was about to lie down and crash when she realized she had no idea what Sasuke slept in. 'What if he sleeps shirtless?' This would create a problem because, obviously, Sakura was a girl and unable to do so, and by not doing so Naruto would wonder about why she kept her shirt on. Glancing out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that Naruto was taking his shirt off and currently had his back to her. Seeing her opportunity, Sakura slid under the cover that the sleeping bag provided, and yanked the blanket clear up to her neck. She rolled on her side so she was facing away from Naruto and tried to get some sleep (though trying to sleep in something that was positively drenched in Sasuke's natural smell was a little distracting).
Sakura woke up rather suddenly went she felt something repeatedly hitting her back. It took her a minute realize that it was Naruto kicking her rather roughly. "What is it, dobe?" She didn't even have to feign annoyance this time; she was not a morning person and she despised being woken up in such a manner. As far as she could tell, it was still night due to the fact that she couldn't see anything still.
Naruto had stopped kicking once he had gotten a response. "You were talking in your sleep," he said sounding tired, yet amused by this. Sakura sent him a questioning look as to why that meant for him to come and wake her up. "Normally, I wouldn't care about what's going through your head, but you kept on muttering 'Sasuke-kun…'. I'm surprised you don't refer to yourself as Sasuke-sama." Now Naruto looked at Sakura suspiciously, while his voice was dripping in sarcasm that was uncharacteristic. Silently thanking Sasuke for his mannerisms, she replied in the only way she knew how.
"Hn." She threw an irritated punch at Naruto's stomach, which hit lighter than she intended to, and shut her eyes in a clear sign that this conversation was over. Naruto scuffed his foot on the ground in irritation, but he went back to his side of the tent quietly. Inwardly, Sakura groaned at her mistake. She had had no idea that she talked in her sleep, let alone that she talked about Sasuke. She was also wondering about when she would be able to find time to clean her contacts, since her eyes were starting to itch. Mind at unease, she fell into a light sleep.
Sakura awoke for a second time by Naruto, although it was from finding him cuddled up next to her and not from kicking. Now Sakura didn't mind it too much, definitely not enough to do much about it, but there was no way Sasuke would tolerate this. Sakura was beginning to think about whether Sasuke would try to slip away silently, so that Naruto would never know, or to punch the living daylights out of him, Naruto shifted in his sleep and brought his hand from Sakura's waist to much more forbidden grounds. Mortified at finding his hand unknowingly right across her chest, Sakura bolted straight up in reflex and smacked his hand away. Naruto looked up at her blearily, but before he could ask for an explanation Sakura stormed out of the tent to relieve Kurenai from her watch. She nodded at him, and stood up to go into her own private tent. Once she disappeared from sight, Sakura sank down onto the tree stump her superior had been sitting on.
'Well this has gone great,' she thought bitterly, the resentment almost tangible. 'Naruto is already suspicious, I am already uncomfortable with posing as a guy, and this looks like it will be a long term assignment.' Sakura pulled out her contacts case, and a small bottle of solution from her shorts pocket. She figured that no one was around to see that Sasuke's eyes had miraculously changed colors, and her eyesight was pretty good without contacts anyways. She popped them out without too much thought and sighed at the relief this brought her eyes. She closed them for a few seconds to revel in how good it felt before opening to see a slightly blurred replica of a few seconds ago. Being on watch was a rather boring and uneventful job nine times out of ten, so she began to wonder what Sasuke was doing at that moment. He obviously had gone home to find his scroll missing, along with his bag of usual things for missions lasting more than a day. It's possible that he had reported this to the Hokage, and that there was someone coming after Kurenai to tell her that she had an imposter with her. Whether Sasuke had noticed her absence was unknown to her, but the darker part of conscience wondered if he would even care if he did know.
Shaking her head to rid herself of these thoughts he tried to focus on the area around her. Those thoughts would only cause trouble and were not productive in the slightest.
Once Sakura noticed the sun starting to rise, she slipped her contacts back in and checked that her hair was spiky enough to pass as Sasuke's (how he kept his hair so spiky all the time was a secret only known to him). Conveniently enough, Kurenai came out of her tent right at this moment.
"Sasuke, can you wake up Naruto please?" She looked fairly well rested, and didn't seem to have been interrupted while sleeping, something Sakura was more than a little jealous about. She nodded her assent, and stepped into her shared tent. Naruto was completely sprawled out and drool was pooling on his pillow. Narrowing her eyes in slight disgust, she headed over to Naruto was kicked him soundly in the back once. "Get up, dobe." Naruto grunted in response, but he did sit up, so Sakura started to roll up her sleeping bag, and stuffed it soundly into her bag. By this time, Naruto was pulling his shirt back on, and looked very unrested, probably do to getting slapped in the middle of the night. Shouldering her back she headed out of her tent and waited for instructions from Kurenai. She figured that Naruto could take down the tent, since she did most of the work in putting it up.
She sighed inaudibly at the thought of the day ahead. This was going to be the longest mission she had ever been on.
Now I could end it here, but something tells me that wouldn't be appreciated...Review please!
