So sorry it took me so long! ''

Been busy with midterms and all.

Hopefully you aren't bored with this story just yet! It isn't even close to finishing :P

There are some parts where I don't fully explain in detail about the situation, I just imply it.

AGES

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura - 17

Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji - 17

Neji, Tenten, and Lee - 18

Hinata, Kiba, and Shino - 17

Their sensei's - 27

Enjoy!

The Mission

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Thrust. Jab. Kick. Leaping up, I flew against the air's gravity, the rush of wind pushing my hair off and behind my head, only to have it swoosh forward as I twisted my body, snapping my arm to throw three Kunai's at the targets on the trunk. I outstretched my open palm to the incoming branch, pushing myself off once more, swinging my left leg out, imagining an enemy who would be there.

More...I want more.

Punch. Spin. Stagger. Softly landing with the gracefulness and stealth of a feline, I thrust my clenched fist into the dirt beneath me, the slight chakra-infused punch leaving an elephant sized crater in its' aftermath along with a few cracks drifting off. Punching the ground I spun, rotating 180 degrees to my right, my knee coming into contact with another tree trunk, assuring that I hit an 'enemy'. The trunk snapped at the base from the impact, its' cracking sounds and rustling leaves signaling the end of its' life, falling towards the ground.

Leaping off again, I landed a few feet away, taking in the damage that I had caused to the area on the past few hours of training.

It wasn't enough. I wanted more. I wanted to do more damage. I wanted to completely demolish and obliterate the entire training grounds. I wanted to surround myself with the feeling of achievement, see the destruction done by my hands at my utmost potential, using all my energy and abilities.

Taking deep breaths to calm myself, I closed my eyes.

This wasn't the time to let it all out. No. I needed to save it. Save it for the person who deserved to take on my outward destruction, receive all the damage I was capable of doing.

Craning my neck to the side, I squinted into the distance, feeling someone's chakra signature approaching towards me. Knowing who it was, I relaxed my stance and waited until said person would pop out. We've been through a lot together, ever since we were young. Always competing against one another to see who would be at the top, sparring to see who was stronger than the other, completing mission after mission successfully and fluidly, with the occasional delay whenever a certain loudmouth tagged along, not that I'm complaining: I love him to death. He'll always be my caring, obnoxious, brave and determined teammate, close friend, and brother.

"Sakura, mission from the Hokage".

"Type?"

"Didn't say"

"Duration?"

"Undetermined"

Twitch."Destination?"

"There's a reason why she has scrolls, Taichou"

Letting out a displeased grumble, I didn't ask any further as he handed me the scroll. I wanted to vent out a little, but being called 'Taichou' was pleasing enough. It just proved that I came out on top in the end, though ever since then he reasoned it wasn't a competition since I was a 'female'. He always was, and still is a sore loser.

I couldn't blame him, he was always pressured by his father. Even though he had passed away a few years back when he was a Chunin, I a Jounin, every now and then he would see me as an obstacle to overcome. I would always remind him, that even though we were different ranks, he should learn not to let his father make decisions for him, rather he should voice out and determine what he wants for himself.

'Sometimes,' he said, 'I don't know what I want'. Placing my hand on his shoulder, he turned to face me, looking in my eyes for some answer, some answer I would have for him. Giving a small smile, I reluctantly pointed out, 'Not everyone does, but eventually we all do. It just takes some time'. Lowering his eyes, he gave out a sigh before completely closing them and leaning his forehead against mine, a gesture he would only do whenever he felt defeated, seeking out some comfort to ease the displeasure. Closing my eyes I squeezed his shoulder lightly, before speaking again. 'It'll take a lot longer if you keep letting him get the best of you. Hell, even he gets on my nerves, and I rarely see him". My little stunt to lighten his mood worked, as he let out a short breathy chuckle. As a comfortable silence consumed the next several minutes, he quietly concluded, 'When I do, I'll let you know'. I didn't need to reply for him to know my answer. Instead I said, 'Let's not forget Naruto shall we? He'll be sour if his 'brother' didn't tell him as well'. At that we both chuckled.

Inwardly shaking off that memory, I turned to him. "Come on Sasuke, we wouldn't want to pull a Kakashi on her now do we?" I let out a grin as he grumbled, making rapid hand seals, before we both disappeared, him in a burst of red flames, me in a burst of green mist.

"Mou what's taking them so long, Baa-chan? I want to know the miss- ack! Teme!"

Before he could finish his sentence, Sasuke and I both appeared before Tsunade-sama. Unfortunately Naruto was too close and his back hand got a little burned. Cradling his hand with his other, he was about to spit out a long string of curse words and who knows what else, before I stepped up to him, took his hand and with a swipe of my index finger, the burn was gone. I gave him a look before turning my attention back to Tsunade-sama. Crossing his arms and letting out a huff, Naruto looked away from Sasuke and looked back at her.

Shaking her head, she spoke. "Now that you all are here, Sakura, seal the room please". There was only one other time she asked me to do such a thing, and that was when Jiraya-sama was here a few years back. Walking towards the wall, I performed the appropriate hand seals, before crouching down, skimming one hand on the wall, the other on the ground. Soon tendrils of light pink chakra spread and intertwined, creating a web around the room, before disappearing behind the walls. Raising her eyebrow, Tsunade-sama asked, "That's not the one you used last time. Sakura?" Shaking my head 'no', I told her, "That one wasn't full proof, so I used the one passed on from my clan instead". Nodding her head in approval, I took my place next to Sasuke again, our full attention on her.

She knew about my real identity, considering she was now the Hokage, and the Hokage knew EVERYTHING. The only reason why Naruto and Sasuke knew was because I told him, since they were like my brothers, and they deserved to know things about me just as I know things about them no one else does.

"A few hours ago Jiraya passed on important information, regarding the Akatsuki. His informant has gathered intel regarding the organizations' intentions. However, this caught the attention of their leader, and is now considered to be in danger. This is beyond an S-class mission, and I'm assigning you three and the rest of your Squad to carry this out. You are to bring back the informant, alive if possible". I noticed Sasuke went rigid, the one besides the rest who was most displeased about this outcome.

Tossing the scroll, I effortlessly grasp it, lowering my hand back to my side. "When do we leave, Shishou?" Taking her eyes off of Sasuke for a moment, she regarded to me, "Within the hour. Naruto, notify the rest of the squad. You all have a month to complete this. Sakura, send regular updates on your progress. Any longer time and I'm calling you back. Dismissed". Simultaneously relying with a clear 'Hai!", I removed the seal, and walked out the door, Naruto and Sasuke trailing behind me.

With a soft 'click' from the door, I told Naruto, "Meet at the gates. Tell the others to bring enough supplies and other necessities, but pack accordingly. We'll want to travel fast". Giving a curt nod, he grinned before dashing off, "See you guys later, Sakura-chan! Sasuke-teme!"

Once he disappeared, I turned to Sasuke, noticing he was staring off into the distance, eyes unfocused. I softly placed my hand on his forearm, quietly saying, "We'll need to prepare as well, Sasuke". Nodding his head, he was about to take off before I tugged his arm, forcing him to stop movement and turn towards me. "This might seem the time to get...him, but it's not. There will be another, one that will be favored more in our hands, ok?"

His eyes softened for a moment, before they became hard, clear, and determined. "Don't worry. See you in an hour". With that he sprinted away.

I sighed, before transporting myself to my apartment, packing necessities as well.

I could understand his temptation, to get his revenge, but this wasn't the time for him, nor for myself, to take this as an excuse to carry out our own desires. We had a mission to do, and I'll be damned if either of us loose it. The only reason his father and over half the clan passed away was because of an epidemic, one that was incurable at the time. The disease was not contagious, but suspiciously it only effected those who lived inside the Uchiha district. Running a few tests, I determined the source was in the daily drinking water, running along all the main pipes of the households. By the time I prepared the antidote, it was already too late for those too far along into the disease, one of which was Sasuke's father. The council suspected that the intended target was Uchiha Fugaku, the leader of the clan. But whoever did this would not get all the pleasure. Uchiha Fugaku appeared to the outside world, the leader of the clan, when in fact, the wife, Uchiha Mikoto, Sasuke's mother, was the true leader, one who worked behind the scenes. Not that the murderer would know anyways.

A few days after curing the disease, I found the origins of the plants used to create such a slow, but lethal poison. One that was undetectable and tasteless, effectively disguising itself in drinking water. Traveling with ANBU as guards at the time, I wen to gather information on who was able to aquire the plants. Each said the suspected person was easily forgettable, and didn't seem out of place. Though only one observant individual said that while she was back home, she saw a man carrying a few of the poisons that I've described. Though far away she was sure he was wearing a black robe with red clouds.

I clenched my hands tightly, the pair shorts scrunching up in the process. How can so many say the person was easily forgettable. The Akatsuki are NEVER easily forgettable, especially their robes.

Inwardly fuming, I finished packing my necessities and took another look around my room. Content with how it was, I locked the door, and headed towards the gates. Leaping softly from rooftop to rooftop, I took time to relax my state of mind, considering I had a few minutes to spare until the others would arrive. I didn't want to start on this mission hot headed, I needed to think of strategies that would give us a better chance at succeeding this mission.

With the gates in my view, I already saw two others standing there: her long deep blue hair tied at the base of her neck tightly, stance relaxed but alert and hands clasped in front, twirling her thumbs. Her pupil-less, monotone and brilliant pearl-like eyes watching as I neared. Next to her stood a taller figure, half leaning on the side wall, his signature orange book gone, revealing his black masked face.

"Seems like you'll have to postpone your daily ritual reading, eh Kakashi?" I said as I landed in front of the two. He eyes formed a stretched upside down 'u', showing he gave a smile as he lifted his hand to wave it off.

"We all know what happened last time when you caught me with it, Sakura-chan. I'd prefer not to have a repeat". Chuckling, I turned to Hinata and greeted her. Lips spreading into a lovely smile, she greeted back. "The others should be here soon, Sakura-chan." Just as I nodded my head in agreement, the last three members landed next to Hinata: one lazily yawning, the other grinning, greeting Hinata and the last one next to Kakashi, hands stuffed in his pockets.

"Alright Shikamaru, I'll need your help on making some strategies before we go". Gesturing him to crouch to the ground with me, he muttered a quiet 'troublesome' before he crouched next to me, his eyes showing no more signs of sleepiness.

Every now and then, Kakashi would point out some little flaws, which in fact could blow up into disasters on our part. With a little tweak here and there, we had about 5 strategies we would use. When the time comes we would decide then.

"First priority, we need to arrive there as quick as possible, without draining our energy. We'll need to conserve on the chances we'll run into the other Akatsuki members, which most likely will happen. Remember to hide your chakra, enough to conceal our presence. Hinata, you'll stay at the back, along with Naruto. Sasuke, Kakashi, you two will stay in the middle, in case an enemy pops out you two can split to the front and back. Shikamaru and I will lead. Let's get moving".

"Hai, Taichou!" they all chorused. Re-adjusting their standard ANBU gear, we all placed our masks in the rightful place, concealing our features.

Leaping off towards the woods, bear and fox stayed in the back, while hawk and lion were in front of them, both simultaneously leaping off each branch with no more than a soft, fleeting 'thud' sound. With owl by my side, we all looked ahead, mentally readying ourselves for the potential battle.

No. There is no hesitation. I...we will succeed. We will ALL come back home. We are strong. We're the most sought after group. We are the only ones who can do this. We can do this...I can do this. I will not fail. For Tsunade-sama, for you guys... for myself.

With determined eyes hidden beneath my dragon mask, I continued on. Destination: Akatsuki headquarters...Amegakure.