And so the fun begins.
~*~
Bee-beep, bee-beep, bee-beep, bee-be-
"Shut up already!" Sakura slammed her hand down on the black plastic machine, hoping to silence its repetitive squawking. Even with her harsh beating the alarm clock refused to cease its irritating tones, making the ANBU nearly shake with anger. "RAWR!" The pink-haired medic sent the confounded contraption hurtling through the air, smashing it and ending its life upon the opposite wall of her apartment. "Thank God." She muttered, her dull voice muffled by the pillow she had promptly shoved her face into.
Sakura slept before she went on missions, it helped her chakra recuperate, and it let her get some rest before she went gallivanting across the Fire Country. She had promised Sasuke that she'd meet him at the gates an hour after sundown, around 7:30. The ANBU half heartedly fell off her bed, letting the impact of the cold wood flooring against her skin and bones help along the waking process. With a groan she stumbled up from her current position on the ground, and schlepped irritably to the decapitated alarm clock, picking up the screen piece to find out what the time had been before she ended the damned machine's insignificant life. She blinked sleepily at the dimming red numbers, chuckling smugly to herself about her victory over the clock. 7:26 it read, letters fading away slowly. Sakura gave the screen a double take. 7:26? 7:26?! SHIT! The letters died away from the screen completely, giving her one last mocking, amused look before they disappeared into oblivion.
She hurled herself at her drawers and yanked them open, grabbing blindly at the mandatory articles of clothing. With one swift motion she flung off the t-shirt she had been dozing in and hurriedly pulled on a black tank top and black shorts, looking up into the mirror to fix her headband on her forehead, tossing her fluttery bangs over the Hidden Leaf Village symbol before tucking her weapons into her belt and hopping out the window. Somehow the medic executed her rushed landing and dashed towards the gates, not wanting to hear the stupid Uchiha gloat about her being late. Oh, how'd she'd wipe that smug smirk off his face if he even tried it on her.
~*~
Sasuke didn't hear Sakura when she came up behind him, looking a bit rumpled and weary. He had only gotten there a minute ago, and expected her to be late. Actually, he was anticipating the fact that he'd be able to tease her endlessly for her tardiness, but she did, in fact, show up on time, so he kept his usual stoic look on and glanced her over.
Dressed in black, weapons hidden except for a knife strapped to her bare calf, her ANBU mask set in the same position as his, pushed to the side. He wished her eyes would sparkle again like they did when they were genin, now her eyes simply glittered coldly, sleep slightly clouding the edges as the moon pooled out over the ground around them, lighting there way like a great white lantern. Perhaps he should break the breathy silence.
"And here I thought you weren't coming." The medic snorted.
"You wish." She quirked an eyebrow, an action she seemed to love carrying out, and crossed her arms over her chest, tapping her bitten nails against her upper-arm impatiently. "Now, Mr. Awesome, are we going or not?" He let the smirk grow upon his lips, forcing a wave of anger to shuttle past his fellow ANBU's face. The smirk widened, she was so much more becoming when she was angry, she really was.
Her grassy eyes flickered dangerously, challenging you to make her attack, unleash her said anger. Her creamy pale skin seemed to grow as white as the moon, and it was as if her already faded peach-pink hair seemed to shudder a shade darker. She looked scary in a sexy way, so serious, not that she wasn't painfully serious all the time already.
He searched her with his shady obsidian eyes before he decided she didn't need an answer, forced all his chakra to his feet, and bounced off.
~*~
Sasuke was glancing off of branches, moving at a swift pace through the forest so for the first hour he thought he had lost the medic, but suddenly he sensed someone in front of him, and he yanked out a kunai, throwing it effortlessly at the section of canopy where he sensed the chakra. The dark-haired boy suddenly heard a loud "Chink!" and a kunai came soaring back him from up above. He caught it before it dared to graze his blemishlessly pale skin, only to find that it was his. There was a small notch on the black, indicating it had been warded off by another one of its kind. The Uchiha grinned, Sakura.
At this thought the pink-haired medic descended from her course higher up in the trees and hopped down next to him, keeping pace with his fluidly fast speed.
"Oi, no more sneak attacks ok? Save your greatness for the mission." Sarcasm stabbed deep into the last part of her sentence, and a nerve jumped ever so slightly in the corner of his forehead.
"If that was a sneak attack to you I wonder why you're even on this mission." Sakura shoved him of the branch he was currently jumping from, and as he leapt onto an alternate branch and watched her accelerate her speed, he almost thought the shove felt playful.
Sasuke sped up his pace as well, focusing all his chakra into his swiftly-moving trained feet and flew gracefully after her, eager to reach their destination before sunrise.
~*~
Sakura lay snuggled up on her lump of bedding, the bare, windowless walls blocking out the blare of the dying sun as it set behind the surrounding trees. Man, if Kakashi sensei saw this he'd be onto them with a whipping switch by now. What was it they had done? Slept the day away of course.
The two had gone so fast and swiftly during the night that they had reached their destination much earlier than they thought they would, and now she lay on the floor in a room of some random person's house in the village they were working for, who had graciously taken the two ANBU in. Suddenly a door swung open, and a column of oily lamp light opened on the dirt floor.
"Briiiiight." She moaned, blocking the light with her arm, blinking the fuzzies away from the corners of her eyes. She was about to scream 'What in Kami's name do you think you're doing?!' until she got a better look at her awakener. The younger of the two children who lived in the house with their parents stood in her doorway, an anxious, painfully apologetic expression marring his complexion.
"Uh, um,"
"Good evening to you too." Sakura replied, and even though her reply was evilly bland she cast him a warm smile. "Come one in, I'm gonna need that lamplight if I'm gonna get fully dressed." She laughed when his eyes widened at her statement, and she waved her hand at him apologetically. "No, no," Sakura stood up, letting the thin blanket fall away from her form, "I have clothes on, see? I just need to get on all my weapons." The short boy nodded, his look one of awe, and he came forward with the lamp he held in his hands. "Shut the door, will ya? I have a thing about open doors." The black-haired boy obediently shut the door behind him and eagerly pattered over to her, watching her pull on her fighting materials.
She tucked her kunai away and strapped the knife she kept with her to her calf, successfully cracking all her sore joints while doing so. White wrappings came up to her knees, and she stretched her hands into her gloves, pulling them up to her elbows. Sakura donned her headband and ANBU mask, flashing a grin at the boy and tousling his messy mop of hair as he continued to gaze at her. When he noticed she was staring back he gave a start and nearly dropped the lantern he held.
"S-sorry." He muttered, lowering his head so the light hooded his eyes. Sakura put her hands on her hips and bent down, their faces now level.
"No sweat, the real problem is awakening the dangerous Sleeping Beauty." His brown eyes met hers.
"You mean Uchiha-sama?" they were already walking down the hall towards Sasuke's room, padding quietly along the corridor.
"Sama is too good for him, just use san." Sakura gave a wink, "I'm sure he wouldn't mind." She opened the door and in an instant three kunai came flying at them, one at the village boy and two at her.
In a swift motion she caught all of them in-between her fingers, and she frowned haughtily at the grumpy Sasuke.
"No need to be so antsy so early in the evening, no need to scare people either." She scolded, throwing the kunai into the dirt floor at her feet, "I mean look at him," gesturing to the village boy, "the poor thing is trembling you heartless jerk." Sasuke cracked an eye open and gave her a fiery look.
"Get out Sakura, then next one's you won't catch."
"Maybe I wouldn't be able to catch them," Sakura sneered, putting a protective arm in front of the boy, "if you could throw." Another rain of kunai came whooshing towards them, and the medic acted accordingly. She pushed the boy out of the way with a quick "I'll be fine, you run along now." And shut the door behind her, dodging the knives, still holding the lantern she'd taken. The nin forgot to look up and one of the knives sliced her forehead."Sasuke." She moaned in protest, radiating her chakra to the cut which closed up quickly, "stop being stupid and get out of bed."
He simply rolled over, too tired to listen to his fellow ANBU anymore, and closed his eyes again, floating eagerly back towards dreamland. But no, Sakura wouldn't have it. The pink-haired nin came stomping over, set her lantern on the floor and shook him.
"Sasuke, come on, we need to eat before we go after those bastards anyway. Food, how does that sound?" It was a tempting offer, but not enough to get him out of bed. Sakura shook the Uchiha once more, gripping his blanket, desperately trying to rouse his from his tired state. But that did not help.
The outcome was quite unexpected though. Suddenly Sakura found herself underneath Sasuke, a death grip on her upper arm, the other pinned by his chest. He was only half on top of her really, but he was bigger than her, and all that muscle made him heavy.
"Sasuke get off." Her heart was running around in her chest like a shopaholic at a Dolce and Gabbana exclusive 90% off sale. Kami, her face was hot, it felt like it been shoved into a waffle-iron and left to steam.
"Shut up." She felt his warm breath in her ear, and she felt a shiver slide slyly down her back, mocking her all the way. He was pressed up so close she could literally feel herself getting dizzy, his smell of freshly crushed grass mixed with rain-wetted dirt and a weird, almost flowery scent engulfed her, making her eyes blur.
Sasuke wasn't any better. She smelled faintly of orchids, and the faded smell of red clay from dust mixed together in some kind of sweet compound, choking him with its bizarreness. But what her scent most consisted of was that of stones soaked in cold water, and very slightly she smelt of nighttime, if nighttime could indeed have a scent.
And so the two nin lay there for a few moments, taking the other one in, drinking up their features, until Sasuke finally gained control of himself again and rolled off her, sitting up and running a hand through his soft hair.
"At least that got me a few more minutes of sleep." Sakura shook her head and laughed.
"Damn your such a bastard." And then suddenly both froze, simultaneously realizing that they had both started talking normally to the other, ignoring the silence that had stretched painfully across the course of a year. The two ANBU shied away from one another's gaze, and Sasuke stood up, pulled on his gloves, shoes, weapons, headband, and animal mask, and then nodded to him companion, showing he was ready to go.
Despite herself sakura smiled, it felt good to talk to that idiot again.
~*~
The two had swallowed the small amount of soup the family had provided them with (no matter how the two told them the family had already done enough) and scarfed down the bread, eager to get in on the mission. They were both walking out the family's door, spilling their thank yous as went, until they both stood perfectly still, tapping into their senses and motioning for the family to be very quiet.
Sasuke and Sakura exchanged glances. They both felt it. There was a band of ninja, probably the one's the two had been hired to kill moving their way fast. Very fast. So fast, in fact, that two actually began to worry about what they were really dealing with. That was when they saw the shadows of the band on the horizon, but it was too late, there was a scream, the sound of pottery breaking, and then unnerving silence as the two waited for the band to makes its first real move.
"And so it begins." Sakura whispered quietly, her hand itching to grab the kunai she had chosen for the first attack, it was stuffed secretly in her shirt, but no one would be able to notice. Sasuke just nodded. Silence was the worst torture of all.
~*~
Review? I know you're dying to know what happens next, and as long as you review I won't keep you hanging.