The Start

Sakura paced about, outside Tsunade's office. She was growing impatient.

"Where is she?" Sakura wondered out loud. As if her question was immediately answered, Tsunade walked from around the corner.

"Ah, Sakura. Sorry for making you wait. I had to test out something. It seems like it was a success." Tsunade said while pointing to a bottle with some strange looking purple liquid inside.

"What is that?" Sakura asked, cautiously eyeing this bottle. Tsunade motioned for Sakura to follow her, as she walked into her office.

"It's something Shizune has created. It's a form of non-permanent hair colouring solution. I'll need you to use it as your bright pink hair is an asset that is extremely rare…So you may be caught by shinobi you know returning from your mission, as soon as that happens it's game over." Tsunade explained, leaving out small amounts of detail as she rummaged around her draws for a pair of rubber gloves.

"Whoa, hold up a second…It's a hair dye? What colour is it?" Sakura's eyes lit up just slightly at the idea of temporarily seeing how she would look like with a different hair colour.

"It should make your hair a dark brown colour. Nothing too special." Tsunade answered as she walked up to Sakura and handed over the gloves. "I have another two bottles for you to use. You'll need them as it only lasts one wash. You'll at least need it whilst you're going about tasks for the first three days."

Sakura nodded and took one of the bottles and excused herself from the room to use the bathroom. She took off her hoodie and untied her hair before putting on the gloves and gingerly applying the hair solution to her head. She took this time waiting for the dye to take effect to think about things.

"I wonder why my mother was talking about babies and marriage and stuff…it's not like her to do that." Sakura tried to analyse it, but no matter how she looked at it, she couldn't understand. "Ah. Maybe she's worried about getting old." Sakura passed it off while washing the solution out of her hair. She hurriedly walked across the room to grab a towel as she dried her hair off.

Her whole head wasn't completely dry yet but Sakura was shocked at how different the hair dye made her look. She was almost smiling until she noticed that she had bright pink eyebrows to match her now rich, dark brown hair.

She picked up the bottle and saw that there was a tiny amount of solution left. She sighed in relief as she applied it to her eyebrows.

"Sakura? Are you done yet?" Tsunade's voice boomed from behind the door, making Sakura jump.

"Y-yeah. Almost! I'll be with you in ten minutes Lady Tsunade!" Sakura called back while drying her hair more.

Sakura rushed to sort herself out, almost forgetting to wash off the dye on her eyebrows. She smiled triumphantly as she now looked like a natural brunette. She quickly chucked her hoodie on and brushed her hair into a ponytail yet again.

Sakura quickly looked back at herself before promptly reminding herself to apply her false eyelashes and make-up. So Sakura decided to push her luck by applying everything neatly.

Tsunade and Shizune stood outside the bathroom as Sakura exited.

"Well, it doesn't look so bad." Shizune commented as she pulled out a scroll.

"Whoa, wait a second. What is that? It doesn't look like any ninja weapons." Sakura observed as Shizune seemed to have summoned a small, golden comb from the scroll.

"It's a necessity. Think of it as a treat…or a cheat." Tsunade mumbled off. "Basically it makes human hair longer." Sakura nodded cautiously.

"Is there not some sort of price to pay for this?" She asked, Shizune shook her head.

"The only downside is that you can only get one use out of it before it breaks. And these are extremely rare to come across." Shizune answered plainly as she walked over to Sakura before brushing her pony tail with this comb.

"This feels so weird." Sakura commented as she felt a tingling on her head. "Is it working?" there was moments silence as both Shizune and Tsunade exchanged a worried glance.

"Um…I think it's working too well." Shizune stated as she took a step back, holding Sakura's ponytail in her hand.

"What? It's still growing? Why is it growing so fast?" Sakura started to panic before Shizune looked down at the comb and broke it.

Sakura looked over at her hair, which seemed to have stopped growing.

"Wait, so if this thing made my hair grow….then why aren't there any major roots showing?" Sakura asked as both Shizune and Tsunade sighed in relief.

"The comb copies the properties of your hair in its current state. So that new hair is dyed hair too…I guess." Tsunade mumbled. Shizune dropped Sakura's ponytail. Sakura giggled quietly as her ponytail tickled the back of her calves as they brushed by.

"Anyway" Tsunade started before walking back into her office. "Your client will arrive here shortly, and I haven't informed him of your name, and he probably won't figure out who you are until your hair colour comes back…or when you start fighting perhaps…Men are so stupid sometimes..."

Sakura followed and nervously waited for her to say more.

"He's someone you know very well. Although you will address him as Kai. At least until he realises who you are."

"Kai? Just Kai?" Sakura questioned. Tsunade simply nodded.

"Also, you better take this backpack and headband to wear." Tsunade said as she threw over a heavy bag of useful tools in Sakura's direction. Sakura admired its design as she attached the bag around her waist.

Tsunade then handed her over a headband that displayed the Waterfall village symbol on a metal plate, attached to a long black fabric.

Sakura tied the headband on her head as she used to, like a hair-band. She then used the long pieces of cloth to tie it round her hair tie while fashioning it into a bow.

As if on time there stood a figure in the doorway of Tsunade's office.

"Is my partner ready now? I need to head off now." Sakura jumped at the sudden bass in his voice. Sakura wanted to turn around to look at the guy in the face. But something was holding her back, maybe it was because of what Tsunade said earlier about how this client she chose was going to 'sweep Sakura off her feet'

"What's your name?"

Sakura reluctantly turned around to be met with a familiar pair of eyes. She was utterly speechless. She tried to talk but the words that wanted to be heard were silenced by Sakura's mere shock.

"This would be Emiko." Tsunade answered in response.

Sakura's eyes examined her client up and down before smiling slightly. She hid the tears that threatened to glaze her eyes generously. Sakura just had to resist the urge to run up to him and hug the life out of him. Sakura instead looked over at Tsunade and raised an eyebrow.

"Y-yes, that's right. I'm Emiko." Sakura confirmed as the male turned his back.

"Let's go now." He stated bluntly while walking out of the office. Sakura looked back and smiled at Tsunade.

"I'll be seeing you." Sakura said and rushed to accompany her client.

The two shinobi walked side by side in silence.

Sakura smiled to herself again as she took a look over at the male.

'His hair has grown out quite a bit…and he's not wearing what he usually would. Seeing some colour on his person makes it hard to believe that this was actually Sasuke I'd be spending a year with!'

A.N

Whoo ^Ovo^ This took forever to type for some reason xD what do you think of it so far ? ^^;;