-Lady of the Fifth House-

By: Applesofwrath

Chapter Two

Once Sakura and Hinata agreed to heal the stranger's friend, his men went to work and buried the corpses of the bandits before relocating themselves far away from the open road and began setting up camp. The two women learned that the brunette man with red facepaint on his cheeks was named Kiba and the dark haired pony tailed man was Shikamaru. Kiba set up the campfire and retrieved water in buckets from the river, while Shikamaru went out to hunt for food. Sakura and Hinata helped set up a bed for the poisoned man, making him as comfortable as can be in the middle of the woods. The blond haired man was laid on his sleeping bag, with a rolled up towel to act as a pillow. Judging by his demeanor, Sakura assumed the dark haired man was the leader of the group. He disappeared shortly after everyone in his group assigned themselves a task; Sakura guessed he was setting up seals surrounding the campsite to hide the group under some sort of invisibility. Deciding to stay nearby the patient, Hinata thanked Kiba for the bucket of chill river water and soaked a cloth before placing it over the man's forehead. She then began fumbling through her pack for supplies she will need.

When she was sure Kiba wasn't looking, Hinata quickly used her byakugan and scanned the man's body for where the poison had spread. He was cut at the cheek, where the poison gradually began to spread. She checked his symptoms, he was turning very pale, he would gain consciousness for a few moments, but his words made no sense. He was hallucinating, and as amusing as his words were, Hinata knew she and Sakura would have a long night ahead of them. Once they were ready to begin his treatment, Sakura asked the patient's companions to hold their friend down while she extracted the poison. Waiting for her begin, the men watched as the pink-haired header focused her chakra on her hands and placed them on areas of the patient's body where most of the poison resided in. Her Chakra seeped into the man's body and was extracting the poison. As anticipated, the blond man felt a burning and slightly sharp pain in his body. He clenched his teeth and tried to jerk free from his group members as he tried to jerk free. Almost an hour later, Sakura had removed all the poison, and retired for a bit to relax. She had used a good deal of Chakra and had to rest, but in a little bit, she would crush the herbs and begin the antidote. Hinata took over, and began to clean the wound and bandage it. At the fire, a small pot of some dark substance was shimmering and Sakura poured some of the contents into a bowl and walked over to her patient. She handed the bowl to Hinata, who took every opportunity during the man's consciousness to feed him.

When they were done, the blond man slept peacefully. Hinata gave a silent sigh of relief as she watched him sleep. Sakura walked over to the horses and placed her supplies back into the saddlebag and looked at the men surrounding the campfire. Kiba was cooking the rabbits that Shikamaru hunted, while Shikamaru layed lazily against a tree looking up at the night sky. The man who Sakura had yet to find out his name was sitting by the campfire with his eyes closed, arms crossed, and seemingly deep in thought. She walked over to the men, who simply looked up at her,

"We successfully removed the poison, and my companion is done fixing up his wound. Let him rest until morning. I'm more than confident that he is fully healed, but I'll check in the morning again just to be fully sure." Kiba and Shikamaru thanked the two, while their leader just nodded. Sakura assumed that was his way of thanks. Before Sakura turned to retire into her sleeping bag, Kiba's voice stopped her,

"Hey, the two of you should join us! We got plenty of rabbits to share." Sakura gave the man a grateful and summoned Hinata over. The two women sat alongside the men at the campfire and ate. Conversations went on here and there, but there were also moments where they ate in silence.

"Will you two be late seeing your next patient in Hana, because of us?" Kiba asked, Hinata shook her head,

"No, we planned on being a day early. So rather than being early, we will just be arriving on time." Curiosity getting the better of her, Sakura then took to opportunity and asked, "What are men riding horses with the queen's seal doing out in these roads? Before your plans took a turn when your friend became poisoned?"

Shikamaru tore into his rabbit meat and responded nonchalantly, "We are running an errand for the queen." Sakura tried to see if they were lying, and couldn't find a reason to not believe them. It must not have been a secret mission if the men were parading through roads and in towns in obvious gear of who there were. No undercover gear that made them blend into the crowd of towns as normal travelers. Since the men made no effort to conceal their work, Sakura found it harmless to ask,

"What is kind of mission? If you don't mind me asking." Kiba took a bite out of his rabbit, swallowed, and responded,

"We went to the country of Suna, as you know, the Island a bit south of this one. We went to deliver a message to the King of Suna. The Queen wants to arrange a time and place to discuss and propose a treaty of peace and alliance with them. Once gave them the message, and reported back to her, we were on our way home. You know how that mission ended. We got attacked by bandits, our friend got poisoned, and we rode through the nearest town to find a healer, and then failed. Finally, our group met the two of you."

Deeply interested, Sakura couldn't resist asking more questions, "In your opinion, do you think we will manage to gain that alliance with Suna? I know we have a slightly shaky relationship with them…" Kiba nodded,

"Our countries don't mean eye to eye on many things, like military methods, and whatnot. To bluntly put it, they think we're a country too used to peace and they underestimate the strength our forces. We think they are the country that would take any opportunity to attack a weakening country. Like how they wanted to attack the weakening Mizu, but stopped because they would then be messing with Mizu's ally, Kaminari*. We've had some strife with them, but luckily nothing large enough to strike war. Suna is a very prideful country, and because of that they hardly make many alliances. However, their forces are very impressive and would be a valuable asset in case Konoha ever went to war, which is why the Queen wants to form this alliance. In return, we can open trade relations with them, which would benefit them greatly because their land is quite barren and don't have much to trade. We give them supplies; they lend us their hand in battle, which is why I really hope they don't overlook the benefits they could gain from this. As you know, our country is rather abundant in resources, resources that Suna need and could use."

Hinata and Sakura listened silently. Kiba probably thought the two of them were just normal citizens who don't think too hard on other issues outside their world besides work and living for the next day. The two of them already knew a great deal of what was going on in their lands, Sakura only asked to see if the group knew anything that she didn't happen to be aware of. Her parents always taught her to keep up with what is going in the world and be knowledgeable. The information she gained now was that the Queen had initiated the alliance, something that was rumored on for a while now.

Kiba's light laugh caught their attention again, "…Anyways, I must be boring you ladies with a conversation topic like that! Please, tell us about yourselves!" Shikamaru's eyes flickered opened. He stared at Kiba,

"Forgetting your manners of introducing yourself first before asking about others?" He said nonchalantly. Kiba looked back at the women,

"He's right. Sorry! Where are my manners? I am Inuzuka Kiba of a lesser house in Uzumaki." Sakura and Hinata nodded, keeping composure. The two of them did not see what was coming next. Shikamaru spoke up next, "I am Nara Shikamaru of the Nara House."

Hinata's eyes widened. She kept her composure, but swallowed. Fear crept up slightly inside her, but she dared herself to stay composed and not ruin her cover. She had to make sure he did not find out who she was. Sakura forced herself to speak,

"I didn't think us common folk would ever have imagined running into the heir of the Nara house anytime soon," Sakura made her voice sound casual. She thought she heard a low scoff from the unidentified dark haired man. He scoffed as if he wanted to say that he didn't believe their cover at all. Sakura forced herself to not let her face falter. She was going to play it cool. It seemed as if Kiba and Shikamaru didn't seem to notice Sasuke, and kept the conversation going.

"I'm not the highest ranked person in this group," Shikamaru muttered before decided to sit straight up and take his share of the rabbit meat. There was a slight silence, before the mysterious dark-haired man spoke up,

"I'm Uchiha Sasuke of the Uchiha House," he greeted expressionlessly. Sakura raised her eyebrows while Hinata stood incredibly silent.

"Today must be our lucky day," Sakura lightly commented. Was she crazy or did he look as if he trying to figure out some secret behind her eyes? He said nothing as he just stared straight at her. His eyes darted to the blond and then his face looked contemplative. Kiba decided to speak up again,

"If only Naruto was conscious to introduce himself," he joked. Sasuke sighed, and finally looked apathetic. Knowing his closest friend very well, the fool would just recklessly tell anyone he met who she was. Concealability was not his strength. There was no point in keeping his identity hidden, for the two mysterious women would find out soon enough. He faced the women,

"The man you just healed is the heir of the Uzumaki House, and he can be next in line for the throne."

Kaminari* = lightning

A/N: This is probably the shortest chapter ever. Sorry guys! I'll write for the next one.I'm so excited for this fic! You guys are so sweet. The reviews and notification of story alerts were very encouraging, and it gives me the motivation to keep going at this fic. Thanks