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Tsunade sat at her desk silently, staring at the ever-growing stack of files and documents that accumulate on her desk.

Why did I ever become Hokage? I knew there was paperwork, yet I still took the job. Stupid, stupid.

Lazily, she lifted her sake cup to her mouth, and took a long sip of it closing her eyes. When I open my eyes, they will all be gone. It will all be a bad dream. She opened them, only to sigh in disappointment at the mountain of work still on her desk.

Putting her sake cup to the side, she took a paper from the top of one of the giant stacks and scanned over it before signing her name at the bottom of the page. She continued this process over and over, occasionally stopping the chug another glass of alcohol. It was past noon by the time she had finished the biggest stack, and she decided that she had finished for the day.

No doubt Shizune is going to scold me on being irresponsible, but she doesn't sit in a chair all day scribbling useless signatures on papers! she thought, sighing. To be fair, she knew that her assistant did do a good job, and she had her own hands full running the hospital.

Shaking her head, the Godaime leaned back in her chair, and swiveled around to look over her village. It was a beautiful day out, and Konoha was prospering. She could see the children at the academy practicing their aim, and the market was full of civilians, the only things on their minds being what was for supper that night.

But for Tsunade, things were not always that easy. She was the Godaime, and however much it seemed like it, there was never a completely peaceful time for a shinobi village. At the moment, behind the scenes, there was chaos.

Four days ago, some cloud ninjas stole a scroll right from under her ANBU's noses. And if the shame of having something stolen from a supposedly high security vault wasn't bad enough, the scroll had precious information on it that could quite well do some serious damage to Konoha.

The scroll contained information on all the villages shinobi, right down to their abilities, to where they liked to go for lunch. It was used to keep tabs, as a extra precaution incase any of their shinobi turned traitor, they would have extra knowledge on how to capture them.

The blonde woman shuddered at the thought of her enemy reading that scroll. She didn't want to think how many problems it would cause, if their enemy's knew every justu each of their shinobi could do, and know ahead of time were everyone was at a certain time of day.

Although the scroll was stolen, all hope was not yet lost. Tsunade herself had placed a powerful seal on the scroll, that only she could open, even though, given a certain amount of time, a strong ninja could break it. Because of this lock, the Hokage knew that she had around two months to the retrieve the scroll, if the thiefs had already reached the Village Hidden in the Clouds, and starting to break apart the seal.

The time limit wasn't actually the problem that was troubling the blond woman, though it did pose a small threat. The night the scroll was stolen, Tsunade made a choice that could either bring success of failure to the retrieval of the scroll.

But was it the right one? she thought, starting to doubt her own decisions.

No, it was the only full proof plan. I know we have many strong shinobi in the village, but none have to skills requires for such a mission. Sure, ANBU are skilled in retrieval of stolen items, but none have worked their jutsu's specifically for theft, she thought, her thoughts battling against each other.

It had happened like this every time she was left with nothing in her mind, every time she took a break from her work. Her mind seemed to wage war against itself, determined to prove each thought wrong.

There is nobody more suited for stealing back a stolen scroll, than a thief them self, she thought decidedly, scanning over her village one last time before turning back to her desk.

She opened a drawer in her desk to take out a mission form. Even though the thief that she sent the ANBU to get the night the scroll was stolen would be doing most of the work and orders, she needed to provide her with enough power to fulfill the mission. And she knew just who to choose.

The time passed as she scribbled down the names and the mission details, marking it as S rank. Normally, a mission so vital to the village would not be handed into the hands of a stranger, so she added a few extra shinobi, to make sure that everything would be fine.

She was just about finished, only being stopped by a timid young woman, coming in to bring her supper. Setting her pencil down, she looked at the finished team, inwardly smirking in contentment. If her hired thief tried anything, she would find herself in for a big surprise.

Happy with her work, she looked around her office. No one. Grinning wildly to herself, she snuck over to the cabinet on the far left side of the room, glancing back over her shoulder once more to make sure all was clear once more. Happy as could be, Tsunade opened the cabinet to find the bottles of sake, carefully stored behind medical books, so Shizune, or the prissy elders on the council wouldn't find out.

Grabbing a few, she quickly stacked the books back, arranging them so nothing showed through. Closing the cabinet, she went to her door and locked it, knowing that that was a sign to anyone to not come in unless it was urgent.

Still grinning, she went back to her chair and collapsed in it, leaning over her desk to pour herself a glass. Today was a good day for the Godaime. Usually, Shizune only allowed her one cup while working, but her assistant was unfortunately out for the day, working at the hospital.

Her good mood was ruined when she thought of the hospital. Before, a certain pink hair kunoichi ran it, leaving Shizune to help her with all the paper work.

Sakura.

However much she hated to admit it, she desperately missed the pinkette. She was like the daughter she never had, she taught her everything. They were so close that Sakura even came to her when she was having a tough time dealing with the loss of Sasuke, when she had her own mother at home she could talk to.

Why? she asked herself, inwardly groaning that this was going to be one of the nights that she could not stop thinking about her student. Once the girl came into the Godaime's head, she didn't leave.

Why? she repeated sadly.

Even if you did it, they would have saved you. Naruto would have saved you. Ino, Kakashi, Shizune would have stopped it.

Would you have shishou? asked a voice in her head, acting out Sakura.

I would have. Tsunade frowned. I hope I would have.

The Godaime a swig of her sake, closing her eyes in attempt to block out the images of the day that started to flood her mind. Still, the picture of a bloody pink haired kunoichi running away from the village danced across her closed eyelids, showing her the very vision she had had nightmares about. The day was fresh in her mind.

She recalled how horrified she was to hear that Sakura would be on trial for the murder of Danzo. Everybody that knew her was, knowing that their sweet cherry blossom would never betray the village. She remembered when her student walked into the court room, how frightened she looked and how much Tsunade wanted to run over and hug her, tell her it would all be okay.

She never did. She continued on with the trial, never sparing even a single glance for the pinkette. She knew if she did, then the council would only take it as a sign that she was helping and aiding a traitor, which would not help Sakura's case.

The council finally came to a conclusion after almost half a day discussing it. Sakura was to be executed for high treason, that very night. Tsunade remembered how much it hurt her to hear those words, and see her students face change of one of horror.

Before her dark memories could go on any farther, Tsunade's thoughts were interrupted by two presences suddenly appearing in her room. They made no sound as they waited for her to acknowledge them.

"Report," said Tsunade, not opening her eyes to confirm who it was, since she already had a good guess. ANBU.

"Target was found milady. She has agreed to the conditions and requirements," reported the dog faced ANBU, standing up straight as a board.

"Oh?"

"She has one conditions that she would like you to consider though, milady," said the ANBU tonelessly, the mask hiding any emotions.

Tsunade smirked. She had expected something along these lines. Thieves, murders, missing-nin, whomever they may be, always needed to put something of theirs into a agreement. Always wanting to make sure if the rules the other party had proposed failed, they had a back-up plan. Anyone on the wrong side of the law were the most mistrusting people you could find.

"What are the conditions?" Tsunade asked, opening her eyes to stare levelly at the ANBU.

"That you sign this scroll milady. From what we could deduce, their is no harmful justu's placed on it," said the dog masked ANBU as he took the scroll out and handed it to the Godaime.

The blonde took the scroll and open it, reading the ancient letters. She glanced upwards at the ANBU, lifting her hand and waving it in a sign for him to continue.

"The scroll milady, is a binding justu. Two or more parties sign the scroll in blood, and the justu's locks the agreement in place, with severe punishment should one side choose to break the treaty. The punishment would only go to those whose blood is one the scroll, though, if I am guessing correctly milady, I think the result in breaking the agreement would be too severe to risk," said the ANBU, his tone neutral as he explained the scroll.

Tsunade stayed quiet for a moment as she thought of her best course of action. This scroll certainly is a very binding agreement, and considering that they knew close to nothing about the kunoichi, she shouldn't even be thinking of signing it.

The thing that was making the Godaime hesitate was that this scroll was a double edged sword. The thief that they were hiring, Siren, could do nothing against the village, since the same rules and punishments applied to her to.

She has really thought it through, mused Tsunade, smirking at the obvious mistrust the kunoichi had shown them by just asking her to sign the scroll.

Putting her glass down, the blonde lifted her thumb to her mouth, biting down hard till she tasted the metallic taste of blood. Putting her thumb down on the weathered paper, she slowly drew her messy signature, feeling a strange kind of power race through her veins. For a moments, it felt like her blood was on fire, and it was turning her bones to ash.

Tsunade began to panic, was this some kind of trick? I searched the scroll and found nothing harmful on it! This can't be right!

And just as quickly as the fire had come, it burnt out, and the Godaime felt cool go through her system once more. She looked at the scroll and her finished signature, written in crimson red. Her scribbled name flashed once brightly, each letter glowing before returning back to normal.

"Tsunade-sama?" asked the other ANBU, speaking for the first time. Tsunade glanced at the woman, noting the very advanced chakra control the ANBU had, which led her to believe that the kunoichi must be a medic. The healer must of sensed the distress that ran through the Hokage's body for a split second and thought that the scroll was a trap as well.

"It's fine. Just the effects of the jutsu," Tsunade reassured the ANBU, who's fingers were now twitching as if wanting to go and make sure she was okay.

Seeing the ANBU was not convinced the blonde woman smiled at the kunoichi, before she rolled up the scroll. "Take this to Siren. She is not allowed any information until she has signed it, and do not let her out of your sight while she has it in her possesion. We don't want her running away with it," said the Hokage firmly.

"Hai" said both ANBU in unison, the dog masked one stepping forward to take the scroll from the Godaime.

"Go as fast as possible. Dismissed," Tsunade said as the two ANBU bowed stiffly before disappearing with a cloud of smoke.


Sakura was sitting underneath a tree, using the shade its trunk provided to escape from the heat of the day. She sat at the base of the trunk, leaning on it comfortably as she sharpened her kunai, sitting in silence, only broken by the faint scraping of the metal.

As she relaxed-something she did very little of these days- she felt a sudden spike of chakra coming her way. It was the same feeling that she had when the Konoha ANBU had come for here, nearly a week ago.

Their early, she mused, as she recognized the chakra, the same one she put into the males neck as a tracker indicating they were the same pair as before.

She felt a soft breeze of wind blow across her face and the chakra stopped. Lazily, she lifted her eyes to see the two shinobi in front of her, standing silently as they waited for her to speak.

She grinned, staring at them. They are certainly skilled. I didn't even hear them, and if it wasn't for my tracker, I wouldn't have known they were coming till the breeze, and by then, they were already in front of me.

"Your early," she said slowly, gauging them. She could most likely fight them off if they were not on friendly terms, but there was still a chance that she could be killed. Their is always that chance, no matter how skilled the shinobi. One little mistake, thats all it took to end their fragile lives.

"Tsunade-sama has agreed to your request and demands that you sign the scroll now as well," said the dog masked one tonelessly. Sakura noted that his hair, which was brown when he was posing as the bartender, was now a dark brown, closer to black than before.

This caused her to smirk again. Damn henges.

"Aa, I'l sign it. Hand it over," she said, reached forwards with her palm as the ANBU placed the old scroll in her hand. She quickly unrolled it, spreading the ancient paper on the grass, keeping one eye on the ANBU at all times. She scanned the contents, making sure nothing was tampered with, and content with its safety, she bit down hard on her thumb.

She swiftly signed her name on the scroll and waited for the pain that always came after activating the jutsu. She closed her eyes as she felt the familiar burning began to take over her body, and she felt her body burst into flames, her very blood feeling like it was boiling.

She took a deep breathe as she waited for the flame to burn out. It was like this every time she signed this scroll, and she had become accustomed to it, almost looking forward to the burn, for it signifies another alliance, and another step forwards to regaining to ability to trust.

She used this jutsu for every deal she made, not yet able to trust the words or promises that they make. Trust is for the weak, she thought heatedly, the harsh feeling of betrayal fresh in her mind.

Slowly, the pain subsided and Sakura opened her eyes again, looking straight at the ANBU grinning. Her signature flashed once brightly, before slowly fading away, along with the other messy scribble which Sakura knew as Tsunade's.

"Well, at least we don't have to look over our backs every second, afraid the other is gonna kill us" she said in fake cheerfulness.

The male ANBU grunted, in response, standing still. Sakura frowned and pouted, looking up at the tall shinobi. "You guys are sure not very talkitive," she said bluntly, throwing away the fake demeanor. She stood up, tired of being looked down on by the tall ANBU.

"Now tell me, what am I lifting and when do I get started?" she asked looking at the ANBU expectantly. Even though she continued to tell herself that she felt nothing for her former village, her heart was always betraying her thoughts, and she was unconsciously loathing having to go back.

"You are stealing a scroll of information that was stolen from Konoha one week ago by Cloud ninja's. You will be aided by a team of elite jounin, and serve as co-captain of the group," said the ANBU vaguely.

"Is this scroll so important that Konoha would go as far as to hire a criminal to do the dirty work?" asked Sakura, her lips tugging upwards into a smirk.

"That information is not needed for you to complete your mission" said the ANBU, the statement clearly telling her that she was not to know what was on the scroll.

"Aa. So, a important scroll was stolen under your noses?" she asked innocently, her smirk becoming more pronounced. "Wow. That must be embarrassing," she said cooly, as if talking to a close friend. Her grin disappeared at the reactions of the ANBU, who were seemingly unaffected by her mocking.

Damn, these guys are like friggin stones, she thought. "So are you going to lead me to my new team?" she asked, all traces of mocking gone and a cold blooded professional replaced it.

"Follow us," was all his toneless voice said, before speeding away. Sakura followed them, her black hair flowing behind her as she ran after the ANBU, completely forgetting about the kunai she was sharpening.

Their fast, she said, inwardly cursing them for interrupting her relax time. But there was no time for relaxing, not for a while, since she had to completely focus her mind on the mission ahead of her.

The three ninja sped through the trees noiselessly, appearing only as quick flashes, and leaving behind a mere breeze that was the only indicator that a second ago they were there.

They traveled for hours in silence, not stopping their speed. Finally, just as the sun began to set across the sky, the forest they had been traveling in broke away, to reveal a well used path. The path stopped at two massive red doors, which were wide open to welcome any visitors.

Sakura felt a wave of nostalgia coming over her as she gazed at the open doors. Open for her. Welcoming her into its streets.

Konoha.


(A/N)

Behold, my third chapter. Well just got back into school, and things have been hectic, but I refuse to make apologies. Life got in the way, and thats all there is to it ;) I will try to update quick, but i cannot make any promises.

Also THIS IS A IMPORTANT NOTICE for anyone reading the fic. There may be major SPOILERS or anyone who has not read the manga up to and around chapter 476! So if you dont want some pretty big spoilers, I suggest you either stop reading this fic, or get caught up with the manga :)

Hehe, alright, so I will let you guys know I am still undecided on a pairing. I am leaning towards Naru/Saku but your guys reviews will tip the scales!

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