Author's Note: Thank you for all the reviews, follows and favorites! They mean so much to me. I promise I will update as fast as possible so I hope you'll continue supporting this fanfic. Enjoy chapter 2!

Chapter 2: A Secret Mission

Sakura's POV

After the party had ended, I informed my parents about the attack back at the garden. Our guests would be staying at the Haruno Castle for the night since it was already late. With so many important guests around, my parents knew it wasn't wise to cause a big commotion.

They discreetly headed to the tower where the enemy was interrogated and I followed them. When we had arrived, the guards had just finished the interrogation and were greeting us politely.

"Who are the attackers and what do they want?"

My father was usually a carefree person but when work was related, his tone was always stern and serious. Even as his daughter, I found it rather intimidating whenever he glared at the enemy.

"They said they're from the Sound Kingdom. They said they were ordered to terrorize the party guests."

I saw the confusion in my father's eyes upon hearing the guard's explanation. I was equally confused as well. Firstly, I had never heard anything about the Sound Kingdom. Second of all, why in the world would they want to terrorize the party guests?

"Where in the world is the Sound Kingdom? And what do they mean they were ordered to terrorize? What do they get from doing that?"

My father asked exactly what I was thinking of. The enemy's motive was vague and it brought up even more questions than answers.

"We tried to force the enemy to give us answers but they have none. Somehow, their leader had managed to erase their memory of the location of their country. And they were just following orders so they could only give us very limited information. All they know is that their leader wants the royal families to know of his existence. As for his real motives, even his subordinates are clueless."

"Who's their leader?" My father was getting impatient and I could understand why. This attack might have not caused serious injuries but from what the guard had told us, this wouldn't be the last time we would be attacked by the Sound Kingdom. With so little information, everything was so unclear and suspicious. Furthermore, someone with the ability to erase the memories of people was someone worth being worried about.

"A man by the name of Orochimaru."

"Who is that?" I voiced out my thoughts because I was honestly clueless. I had heard names of many villains who were causing troubles here and there. But Orochimaru was someone I had never heard of.

When I didn't hear any response from my father, I glanced over to him and was shocked at what I saw. My father had grown pale and he looked as if he had seen a ghost. His eyes were wide opened and he was completely stunned.

"Father?" I placed a hand on his shoulder and he jumped a little from the touch. I looked over to me as if he was snapped out of his deep thoughts.

I saw my father quickly regaining his composure and cleared his throat. I wanted to question his reaction but he left immediately, not giving me a chance to say anything. I caught a glimpse of my mother's face and saw that she was equally shocked. And not just that, fear was apparent in her eyes.

"What is going on?"

I was left without a word, confused and with unanswered questions.

Kizashi's POV

"Why did Orochimaru appear so suddenly?"

Many years ago, even before Sakura was born, news about Orochimaru's betrayal towards the Konoha Kingdom had spread across the world. Orochimaru was one of the Three Legendary Swordsmen of Konoha, who were also known as the Sannin.

After his betrayal towards his own country, it was as if he had disappeared from the surface of this world. There were no news of his whereabouts and nobody knew what he had been doing. But one thing was for sure; he was up to no good.

Due to his disappearance, most of the younger ones had never heard about him. I had never told Sakura about him as well. We were hoping he would never resurface again. But I guessed our prayers weren't answered

He finally appeared after vanishing from the world for so long. Whatever he had been planning to do, it would bring nothing but trouble. Orochimaru was strong and highly skilled and we must never take him lightly.

We must do something immediately.

"Ask the king of each country to gather in the conference hall immediately."

The guards who were walking behind me quickly left to do as they were told. Mebuki walked over to me and placed a hand on my arm. I could sense her worries and fear as she spoke in a slightly trembling voice.

"Is everything going to be alright?"

"I really don't know."

If Orochimaru was involved, I couldn't be confident that everything was going to be fine. Nobody knew what was going on in that messed up mind of his. After all, he was known to be eccentric in a very bad way.

I headed towards the conference hall after I escorted Mebuki back to our room. I asked the guards who were with me to stay outside and make sure nobody besides the kings would enter the conference hall. The last thing we needed was rumors to spread, causing unnecessary commotions among people.

It didn't take long before all the kings were gathered inside the conference hall. They appeared to be confused over the sudden meeting being held and I couldn't blame them for that. But this meeting was urgently needed and we had no time to waste. Who knew what would happen next.

When everyone had taken their seats and the door was closed, I directly got to the main point of the meeting. If Orochimaru was involved, there was no time for formal greetings at all.

"Orochimaru is back."

With just three words, the atmosphere had become thick and there were tension among us. Confusion was replaced by fear and worries. Everyone in the room wanted answers and I hated the fact that I could give them so little.

"There was an attack earlier in the garden during the party. Fortunately, there weren't any major injuries caused. My guards interrogated the attackers and found out that they were here under the orders of their leader, who apparently is Orochimaru. However, the real motives of Orochimaru are unknown as of now. All his subordinates know was that their leader wanted his existence to be known by the royal families."

"We must act immediately. We must find out what his plans are."

It was Hiashi Hyuuga, king of the Hyuuga Kingdom, who reacted first. His usual calm eyes weren't present and he appeared to be as anxious as everyone in the room.

"The attackers said they came from the Sound Kingdom. However, I have never heard of this country before. If we want to find Orochimaru, what we need to do is to gather more information."

My response made some people groaned in frustration. We were lacking information which made us unable to come up with an effective plan. What could we do when we didn't even know where the enemy was?

"We need to inform this to the Konoha Kingdom. And perhaps we can obtain some information from them."

It was Fugaku Uchiha who came up with that suggestion. Konoha Kingdom was one of the five main Hidden Kingdoms. Other main Hidden Kingdoms were the Suna Kingdom, Kumo Kingdom, Kiri Kingdom and the Iwa Kingdom. These kingdoms were independent running countries, meaning to say that they weren't exactly connected to other kingdoms. They weren't enemies, of course. Let's just say that they were full of mysteries and didn't want other kingdoms to meddle in their businesses.

Even though I didn't really want to have anything to do with the Hidden Kingdoms, I couldn't think of a better plan than the one Fugaku suggested. We knew so little about the Hidden Kingdoms and wasn't even sure if they were willing to assist us.

"We need people to go to the Konoha Kingdom. But if we were the ones to go, it will attract too much attention. It is not wise to alarm the people regarding this."

Everyone in the room seemed to agree to what I had just said. Shikaku Nara, who was the king of the Nara Kingdom, seemed to be deep in thought before he thought of a plan.

"Why don't we have the younger ones to go to the Konoha Kingdom? When the public ask about it, we can tell them that they are sent to travel around to see the world outside their own country. It is won't raise suspicion and I believe that they can handle this mission."

"That's a great idea. Alright then, let's begin selecting people who are deemed suitable for this mission. We will then inform them about this immediately."

And with that said, selection of the best people to go on this mission began.

Sasuke's POV

It was weird for my father to suddenly disappear without saying a word. I saw a guard approaching him and he left with him afterwards. I was curious as to what he was up to but I knew better than to stalk my own father.

I was outside in one of the gardens with some of my friends. Shikamaru was taking a nap on a bench, looking completely exhausted after spending hours around Ino Yamanaka. He had been constantly mumbling about how troublesome she was for the past hour.

I wasn't so sure what Naruto, Kiba and Chouji were talking about but judging from the stupid looks on their faces, I assumed it was something unimportant. Lee was, as usual, asking Neji to spare with him. Neji looked disinterested but did so anyway. After all, Lee wouldn't stop giving speeches about youthful passions if Neji kept on declining his offer.

Shino was as still as a stone as he stared at the moon. I had no idea what was going on in that head of his.

As for me, I was sitting on a bench beside the one Shikamaru was on. I did nothing in particular, just relaxing under the moonlight and allowing the night breeze softly touching my skin.

Then all of a sudden, I felt the presence of more people coming towards our way. Shikamaru must have felt it as well since I saw him opening one of his eyes to see who it was.

I put my guard down when I saw that it was our fathers.

However, there was something unusual about them. They appeared to be troubled and uneasy.

Something was definitely going on. And something told me it had something to do with the attack earlier.

"Is something wrong?"

Shikamaru slowly got up and asked in his signature lazy tone. The others must have noticed the weird atmosphere around our fathers and stopped whatever they were doing.

It was Shikamaru's father, Shikaku Nara, who explained the situation to us.

My guess was right and it was indeed about the earlier attack at the garden. However, the attackers weren't able to provide us all the information we needed and the whole situation was very puzzling.

Throughout the explanation, I could see that each of us was getting even more confused. Not only were we unaware of our enemy's whereabouts, we didn't even know what he planned to do.

"What are we going to do when we are lacking in so many vital information?"

Shikamaru was wide awake by the time his father finished explaining what was going on. For a genius such as Shikamaru, he appeared to be as clueless as the rest of us. That showed how messed up the whole situation was.

"The most important thing to do now is to gather all the information we need. For us to do that, we need you guys to head over to the Konoha Kingdom, which is where Orochimaru originated from. However, we don't want the public to be aware of this to avoid unnecessary commotion."

"So, is this a secret mission?!" Naruto's rather inappropriate overexcited tone caught Shikaku off guard. From the corner of my eye, I saw Naruto's father, Minato Namikaze, sighing at his son's reaction.

"You can say that." It was my father who responded. He had always been a serious person but at that moment, he was in a different level of seriousness. That showed how important this mission was. "The twelve of you will leave at dawn so I suggest you all to rest right now."

"Twelve? There are only eight of us." It was Neji who spoke. I saw him recounting the number of people we had, just in case he made a mistake. Of course, he didn't.

"The girls are going too." Our eyes turned towards Minato when he answered. He had a small smile on his face, which somehow broke the tense atmosphere from earlier.

"Who?" Naruto asked while blinking in confusion.

"You'll see."

Minato's response didn't answer Naruto's question. But nobody tried asking again and headed back to their respective rooms. It was getting late and we had an early day ahead of us.

And I must say I had an idea as to who those girls were.

Sakura's POV

I was hanging out with my friends in one of the dining halls when our fathers suddenly approached us.

Seeing the look on their faces, I had a clear idea as to what they were about to say. My friends, on the other hand, looked completely ignorant.

My father explained the whole situation as clearly as he could. However, it didn't prevent my friends from questioning the situation at hand. But when my father started talking about the mission given to us, different kind of questions was asked. And I could see our fathers sighing as my Ino began asking very unimportant things.

"Is Shikamaru going as well?!"

Inoichi sighed the loudest upon hearing his daughter's question. He nodded in response, making his daughter squeal in excitement. I saw Hinata blushing when it was mentioned that Naruto was going as well. As for Tenten, her earlier serious expression was replaced by a playful grin when she found out that Neji was going too.

I walked towards my father and whispered to him.

"Are you sure this mission will go well?"

"Of course." My father sounded confident as he answered. "The twelve of you are the most promising young fighters across the lands. I'm sure everything will go smoothly. Oh, Sasuke will be going as well."

"I don't care about him." I sounded more displeased than I had intended and I saw the disappointed frown on my father's face. I felt slightly guilty when I saw the look on my father's face but I really wasn't very interested to know about that person.

Well, slightly interested. But it didn't mean I liked him or something. Just that, I saw how well he fought and I honestly wanted to see it again.

"I'm sure you'll change your opinion about him after this mission."

I simply glared at my father, showing him that I didn't want to continue the conversation. All my father did was groaned in defeat before dropping the topic.

But I must say I was rather excited about the secret mission. For now, however, rest was what we needed.

As planned, the twelve of us gathered at the main gate of the Haruno Castle at dawn. The air was still slightly chilly but it was bearable. I was wearing the red uniform I would wear whenever I was asked to go on missions or errands. Of course, I didn't forget to bring along my sword, which was safely held by my leather scabbard. Like usual, I placed my sword at my side since I found it easier to draw it during a fight.

When I made eye contact with Sasuke, I narrowed my eyes in annoyance. He didn't do anything but it was that arrogant aura he was emitting. And the fact that he looked amazingly good looking had definitely boosted his ego. He was wearing a dark blue top which had the Uchiha Kingdom's symbol on its back and a pair of long black pants. His sword was slightly wider than mine and was held on his side as well.

Overall, although I hated to admit it, he looked gorgeous.

He was staring at me with a pair of blank eyes which had effortlessly annoyed me further. I continued glaring at him until Naruto approached me with his loud voice.

"Sakura!" Naruto was grinning at me as he placed his arm around my shoulder. Whenever he did that in the past, I would always punch him on the face. But after we became close friends, I stopped inflicting injuries on him for this friendly gesture.

When Naruto noticed that Sasuke was looking at our way, he decided to introduce us to each other. It wasn't necessary but I didn't bother stopping Naruto.

"You never met Sasuke, right?" Naruto dragged me nearer to Sasuke, without noticing that I was trying to resist. He had always been so oblivious regarding such things. "Sasuke, this is Sakura Haruno. And Sakura, this is Sasuke Uchiha. Since we're on this mission together, it's a good idea to get to know one another, right?"

It was rare for Naruto to be making sense. We weren't sure how long this mission would take. Even if we did reach Konoha Kingdom, we might not be able to gather enough information. The point of this mission was to obtain all needed information regarding Orochimaru and the Sound Kingdom. And we were not planning to return home without fulfilling our tasks.

And getting to know our companions was definitely necessary. There were some people whom I had never talked to before. It was comforting that I knew more than half of the people going on this mission though. I wasn't very close to all of them but at least I knew of their existence.

As for Sasuke Uchiha, I just knew him for less than a day and had already had a bad impression of him. So far, there were only two positive things I knew of him; his looks and fighting skills. He definitely needed to work on that attitude of his.

"I know her already."

"You do?" Naruto seemed surprised at Sasuke's words. I was surprised for another reason though. I just didn't expect him to speak. He just didn't look like the type who enjoyed talking, especially to someone as loud and annoying as Naruto.

How in the world did the two of them became friends in the first place? Their personalities were very contradicting.

"We're the ones who met the attackers last night. And our parents introduced us to each other."

"So it's the two of you who got attacked. No wonder those people didn't manage to get close to the party hall. The two of you could easily beat those people into pulps! Wait, why were the two of you together during the attack? And, hang on, did you just say that your parents introduced you two to each other?"

"We just happened to be at the same place during the attack. And yes, our parents introduced us to each other." I found it weird that Naruto would question the fact that we were introduced through our parents. I didn't see anything weird or wrong about that. Not that I liked the idea very much but I didn't see why Naruto would be interested on that.

Naruto, on the other hand, was not on the same page as me.

"Are the two of you getting engaged?!"

"What?" My voice trailed off at Naruto's sudden and ridiculous conclusion. How in the world did he end up thinking that way?!

"What in the world are you talking about, dope?" Sasuke's voice sounded dangerous as he glared at his blonde friend.

"Well, when a pair of parents introduces their children to each other during social gatherings, usually it's because they plan to have them engaged. Isn't that so?"

I joined Sasuke and glared at Naruto. I understood what Naruto was implying. My parents had been desperately trying to help me get myself a boyfriend and I knew what their intention was when they introduced Sasuke to me.

But that didn't mean I would do as they wished. Not after having such a bad impression on Sasuke Uchiha. He had godly looks and fights incredibly well, but I would not date someone whose personality needed a huge make over.

If I were to get myself a boyfriend, it would be with someone I loved. That was for sure.

Sasuke was glaring at Naruto as if he was the dumbest person alive as he spoke.

"Even if that was what they wanted, doesn't mean I must comply."

"That's right. As if I will do something against my will and get stuck with such an arrogant being for the rest of my life."

"Don't worry. I am not planning to be stuck with a fierce woman like you."

"I'm so glad you think that way. I am very relieved."

Naruto backed away slowly as Sasuke and I continued glaring into each other's eyes.

At least the two of us had one thing we agreed on; there was no chance of us getting together.

Naruto's POV

The tension between Sasuke and Sakura was unbearable and I unconsciously stepped away from them.

A stubborn Sasuke Uchiha and scary Sakura Haruno wasn't a peaceful combination indeed.

But I could understand why their parents would want them to get married though. Both Sasuke and Sakura were highly recognized for their abilities, both in terms of fighting and being a leader. In the eyes of their parents, the two of them getting together would bring political benefits to both kingdoms.

Contrary to popular belief that I am too dumb to understand things such as politics, I am actually aware of them. However, as both Sasuke and Sakura's close friend, I wanted them to get together because they liked each other, not due to their parents' wants.

Even though they made a rather chaotic pairing, I honestly thought it could be interesting. Knowing the two of them so well, I believed that Sasuke could handle Sakura's ferocious personality while Sakura could definitely soften Sasuke's cold attitude.

But with their horrible first impressions of each other, was it even possible to make them like each other?

I was too engrossed in my own thoughts that I didn't notice Fugaku and Kizashi approaching me. I was snapped out of my own little world when Fugaku cleared his throat.

"Do you need something from me, Fugaku Heika and Kizashi Heika?"

The two of them gestured me away from my friends. When we were considerably far from the others, Fugaku was the first to speak.

"We have another secret mission for you, Naruto."

"A secret mission in a secret mission? That actually sounds really cool! What is it?"

Kizashi was the one who explained what they wanted from me.

"Well, Naruto, we're wondering if you can try bringing Sasuke and Sakura together during the mission. You know, let the two of them to get to know each other and let sparks fly between them."

"So basically, you want me to get them to like each other?"

Fugaku and Kizashi nodded at me with small smiles on their faces. As for me, I couldn't stop a frown from forming.

"Truth be told, this mission is more difficult than the actual secret mission. Did you see how those two looked at each other? I could describe it with one word; hatred."

"I'm sure things can change. Just like what the famous saying goes, the more you hate, the more you love."

I was really unsure about the quote Kizashi had mentioned. Even though I would like to see Sasuke and Sakura together, judging from their current relationship, I could not see a single hint of love.

Literally zero love.

However, ideas on playing pranks on Sasuke and Sakura to get them 'together' suddenly came running through my head in high speed. I was chuckling as I imagined the look on their faces when I successfully played tricks on them.

That was when I decided to accept the secret mission entrusted to me.

"Alright then, I will accept this mission. Leave it to me!"

Although I wasn't very confident that I could succeed, I was beyond excited to start my pranks. I would be risking my life though, because Sasuke and Sakura wouldn't let me go that easily.

But if I were to be able to have a whole lot of fun, it would be totally worth it.

And if I were really able to get Sasuke and Sakura to like each other, even though the chances are incredibly slim, risking my life would be even more worthwhile.

Sasuke and Sakura could thank me afterwards.

That could only be done if they had yet to kill me though.

Author's Note: So, what exactly does Naruto have in mind? Will Naruto make things worse instead? Or will Sasuke and Sakura start liking each other without Naruto's pranks? Find out in the next chapters! I'm sorry that there isn't much interaction between Sasuke and Sakura in this chapter. But this chapter is a very important part of this story. But I promise everyone that there would be a lot of Sasuke/Sakura moments in the next chapter (insert happy grin). Please leave a review! It will be very much appreciated (insert thumbs up). Thank you for reading and see you in chapter 3!