His chiselled body on top of her, followed her every movement, as she panted and writhed underneath him. He knew where to kiss, where to touch, how to turn her on. He knew her like no one else did. She grabbed at his dishevelled hair. Their sweaty bodies moving against each other in fluid movements. He kissed her neck, his hands ghosting along the contours of her voluptuous body. She panted. He moved lower. She gasped. His mouth indulged her needy body as he sucked on her nipple. This was incredible. How could he do this to her? …. He... who was he?

She looked up and all she could see was a faceless man. His face was covered in darkness. She was confused. His face was a mystery, shrouded in darkness and a hint of excitement. She wanted to call out, but all of her senses were in overdrive. And all she could hear was an annoying bell. "Bell? Why is a bell ringing?", she asked.

She woke up startled. It took her a minute or two to orient herself and come back to her senses. She realized there was someone at the door. With a groan she crawled her way towards the source of her throbbing headache. "I'm comiiinnnngg!", she yelled! "Just wait one fucking minute! Do you even know what time it is?". Well technically, she didn't either...

She should have known. Who else would come banging at her door almost as savagely as a hundred elephants tumbling on it? "What do you want Naruto?".

"Geez. Good morning to you too Sakura.", Naruto pouted as he sidestepped her, and entered into her living room, making himself immediately at home. He lounged on her sofa and simply stared at her. Having just woken up, and not yet having the time to make herself feel human again, Sakura was quite self concious. "Well what did you want?",she snapped. Naruto sighed. "Team Gai just came back from a mission and they invited us all for Barbecue. Are you game?"

Sakura relaxed. The poor guy was here, acting nice and inviting her out, and she was being quite the arse. "Yeah sure", she smiled. "What time?"

Naruto's face lit up. "That's great! Everyone will be there. We will meet at eight tonight. So you will be my date?" He nearly choked on his own words. Either because he was talking too fast or because of Sakura's punch directed at his gut. "Don't push your luck!" She put up a pissed off façade, but she secretly smiled. Naruto's open affection for her was no news and it had almost become their own little game.

"Well off you go Naruto, cause I have a meeting with Shishou at 9am and I don't want to be late or she'll kill me." But instead Naruto just looked at her as if she had grown a pair of horns on her head. "Ummmmmmm, Sakura- san... it's already 11am..."

Sakura gulped and looked at the small clock on the kitchen counter. "Holy shit! GET OUT! OH MY GOD SHE'S GOING TO KILL ME."

She threw Naruto out the front door [literally], while trying to decide how she was going to come up with a good excuse to save her life [or more accurately, avoid the goddamn desk being thrown at her head].


She smoothed her hair as she knocked on the door of the Hokage's office. …No response...

She nervously looked at her watch. It was 11:30am. She had tried to be as quick as possible. It had never happened before. Maybe that could save her?

"Come in!"

Shit. She knew that tone all too well. She was in deep shit. Buried underneath a heavy load of pure faeces. She gingerly opened the heavy oak door and walked in the door like a cat with a tail between her legs. "Um...good afternoon Shishou?"

She rather hated when Tsunade decided to opt for the silent scrutiny. It was unnerving. Especially as she didn't know what was going through the older woman's head. And that could be dangerous. Very dangerous indeed...

"I don't know what that good for nothing teacher of yours has been teaching you, but if this is the kind of behaviour he's influencing you with..."

The threat remained hanging between them. Her scowling face and the eerie silence did little to improve the situation of Sakura's nerves.

Tsunade banged hard on the desk. There goes, Sakura thought. She gulped.

"Do you think just because you are the Hokage's apprentice you can do as you like? Well then think again young lady! You can't go around changing my schedule according to what's convenient for you." She grabbed the stapler and threw it against the wall, making Sakura jump an inch from the floor. "When I give you a time, I expect you to be here two hours before if need be! Not two hours later. This is unacceptable! And for that, you shall be punished."

"B-but Shishou!" Sakura tried to protest. Tsunade glared at her, making her instantly shut up. She sat back down and looked Sakura in the eye. "I'm hoping that there is a genuine cause. That your pussy got lost or you finally found yourself a decent man to take in bed last night."

At that last comment Sakura turned beet red, matching the colour of her shirt perfectly. Images from the previous night's dream immediately littered her memory. She had been so busy this morning, that she had completely forgotten about it. Her reaction did not go unnoticed on the older woman and she chuckled softly.

Sakura immediately realised her mistake. "N-no! No that's not it Tsunade-sama. What happened is that I had been working late recently and I was not getting enough sleep and I was tired and I must not have heard my alarm clock and I overslept and I am so sorry, it won't happen again."

She blurted her excuse in seconds, and only stopping from her rant to take a few gulps of oxygen which were well appreciated by her lungs.

Tsunade laughed a bit louder. "Well, considering that this is the first time that ever happened, I will go easy on your punishment." Tsunade leaned closer to Sakura and reduced her voice to a whisper. "Just tell me where Shizune is hiding my bottle of sake."

"Whhaat? But I can't do that! She'll kill me Shishou!"

"Well then just compare what she'll do to you with what I can and WILL do to you. Your call." Tsunade smiled a sickly sweet smile as she said this, making Sakura feel disgusted at the older woman's blatant abuse of power. She sighed. "At least you'll say nice things at my funeral, yes? …. It's in a hole in the wall behind the photocopier."

Tsunade's face lit up, like a child on Christmas day who had just been given a new bike.

"You're a good child Sakura. Now sit down cause we have some serious issues to discuss."

Oh yeah, Sakura had almost forgotten why she had gotten here in the first place. She sat down without uttering another word. Tsunade proceeded to grab a stack of paper from her desk and passed them forward to her apprentice.

"We have received news that an underground society has been collecting Forbidden jutsus from all around the Wind country, but recently they have been moving closer and closer towards the Fire country, hence making them our concern."

Sakura sheaved through the pile of paper in front of her. Indeed there was a tracking list of where this organisation had been recently operating.

"Unfortunately we do not know much about them. They could be a bunch of idiots, but they could be very powerful. We are assuming the latter, seeing as no one has as yet managed to get any information on them. That is why we need an elite", Tsunade explained.

Sakura almost burst with pride. It was always nice when she was recognized as one of her village's best, especially by her Shishou.

"Our informant has advised us that one person from their organisation will be present in the Rain Country next week, for one of their exchanges. This will take place at a reception in a local villa. The village you shall be going to are currently going through their Carnival celebrations and it is custom there that the rich organize a masked ball for three consecutive days. Everyone's identity is a mystery and only on the third day can one's identity be revealed. As you can see, that is the perfect opportunity for our targets to lie undetected.

You shall go there as one of the guests and be our eyes and ears. Any misplaced or suspicious behaviour is to be noted and reported."

This was going to be an interesting mission, Sakura decided. She had never been to a masquerade ball before and she was already feeling a tad excited about it. She felt a bit guilty of her misplaced excitement. This was a very unprofessional behaviour of her.

"But, since on your last mission, you had to go and place yourself in the bingo books, we can't have you go like that." Tsunade continued.

"Like what?" Sakura demanded. She was really starting to feel self concious today.

"Well that pink hair of yours is not really a good disguise now is it. We might as well place a name tag on you with Konoha's name written in the bottom." the blonde muttered sarcastically.

"Well, there's not much I can do about it." Sakura whispered apologetically.

Tsunade beamed. "Oh don't worry! Luckily for you we have some specialised people who will make you unrecognisable for this mission. All it will take is some hair colour and make up." The younger girl looked horrified. She had rather grown fond of her pink her and never had she ever had the wildest, flitting idea of dying it! But there was little arguing one could do when her master had made up her mind.

Tsunade called for Shizune. Apparently she already knew of the illegal plan that was to be carried out on her hair, as she simply asked Sakura to follow her, without any need for Tsunade to explain.

Shizune chatted all the way down the stairs and out of the Hokage tower, while Sakura listened to her blabbering in utter defeat. She had had all life sucked of her already today, and dear Lord, it was only midday. She prayed the day would not get much worse...