A/N: Greetings all! I'm sorry that my chapters take more and more time to show up but you have to forgive me! I've only recently started IBDP and the teachers are out for the KILL! I wouldn't be surprised if I die of a heart stroke! God! That is just so sad other than my almost appalling social life but I can't burden you with what's wrong with my life, now can I? Well. OK...I probably can but we are veering from the point here. So many MANY apologies to everyone and I would suggest you guys read Cecelia Ahern's books they're amazing! Incase you haven't already! A lot of people have. I was touched after I read The Gift. *tears* on with the story folks! ;) :P
Yes, I'm perfectly aware of the spelling errors but I just cannot seem to find a decent beta-reader! Any offers people? I would gladly take you up on it! *sighs*
REVISED CHAPTER
Last time on What Do You Want Me To Say?
Konoha, Kamikaze Restaurant:
Sakura chatted away happily more than happy to fill in for Gaara's side of the conversation as she was used to being around men who talked less. Gaara just stared at her as her glossy, pink lips moved incessantly.
Sasuke paid 1000 yen to the manager to allow him entry as this was a posh establishment. He strode over to Sakura's table and just then a ninja came through the open window.
"Hokage-sama has requested you two. Immediately."
Forest of Konoha:
A very crimson Sakura angrily jumped from branch to branch providing a smug Uchiha with the view of her backside which according to him left nothing to be desired. A well rounded bottom, elfin features; a surprisingly well-developed chest gave Sakura the body and looks any woman would die for. Not that the medic-nin was at all aware of this little fact or that patients, especially male ones tended to invite her out for dinner not out of the pure goodness of their heart or to show their immense appreciation but to try unsuccessfully, he might add, to get into Sakura's pants.
'Hmm...an option I wouldn't mind considering....' thought a highly amused Sasuke while he saw Sakura break several branches while trying very hard to restrain herself from mutilating him.
'SHANNARO! THAT TEME! WHY DID THAT STUPID MESSENGER HAVE TO COME? WHY COULDN'T WE SPEND MORE TIME OGLING GAARA AND HIS HOT, HOT MUSCULAR CHEST...' screamt an exasperated Inner Sakura while she drooled at a mental image of him. Sakura was mildly disgusted and yet slightly aroused at that thought. Her mind drifted back to the incident.
"Haruno-san and Uchiha-san, you are wanted at the Hokage Tower for an immediate mission briefing." said the masked ANBU. Obviously the matter was serious and urgent.
Sakura uttered a few apologies to the frowning Kazekage as she tried to explain the situation. The displeased Gaara merely let her go without too many words even though he was very upset about it.
Sakura said a brisk good-bye and without so much as looking at Sasuke she sped out towards the Tower as Sasuke followed soon after giving his infamous Uchiha glare to the Kazekage of Suna.
Sakura was jolted into the present as Sasuke called out to her.
"We'll make camp here. It's too dark to cover much distance."
Sakura who was jolted out of her reverie only nodded briskly to acknowledge him and turned to set up camp.
Konoha, Kamikaze Restaurant:
Gaara sat on his chair while his voluminous kazekage robes billowed from the sides while he sipped sake looking around at nothing in particular as his thoughts were occupied.
'Temari's going to blow her top when she finds out what ensued. I need to get married and soon to a girl of my choice or those blasted fan girls will spend the rest of their lives stalking me till I agreed to marry one of them.'
Gaara frowned at that unpleasant or rather aggravating thought and unconsciously went about rubbing his temple to calm his raging headache.
A girl with long ebony hair suddenly landed on him. Her mouth inconveniently positioned towards his groin. His forehead wrinkled even more making his forehead look not unlike a ball of crumpled paper.
The woman lifted up her head and her hair parted to give him a better look towards her face. Her eyes drew him in, electric blue filled with spirit. She stumbled up and started apologizing profusely for being so clumsy and falling onto his lap and on so shameful a place too.
"I'm so embarrassed Kazekage-sama! I didn't mean to! You see I was leaving and didn't notice the crease in the carpet and then I fell. Gosh! What can I do to make it up to you?" said the red faced woman blushing scarlet.
"Are you here with a date?" enquired Gaara.
"No. Why?" asked the now curious woman.
"I would appreciate it if you could give me the pleasure of your company. You see I was left by my acquaintance without prior notice and I'm therefore left to my own company for entertainment."
"Well, if that's what it takes so be it. By the way the name is Nozomi Hirogawa. I'm a jounin from here itself."
"You may call me Gaara then Hirogawa-san. I'm not fond of formalities." said an amused Gaara smirking from behind the cover of his sake bottle.
Nozomi laughed pleasantly which carried its way across the room.
'I suppose today isn't so bad after all, Temari might just be able to get a decent sister-in-law.' mulled Gaara who had all but forgotten about Sakura with Nozomi in his presence.
Border of Tea Country:
"We are to meet with Sai here. We will wait till sunset." Sasuke near whispered to Sakura. It reminded her of the days Ino and her whispered jokes to each other during lessons and giggled. Somehow she just couldn't imagine a giggling Sasuke. The thought gave her goose bumps.
'Bad image. Burn image.' chanted Sakura inside her head while Inner Sakura howled with laughter at the mental picture of a giggling Sasuke in pigtails and a red frock.
This was an SS-class mission assigned to them due to the involvement of a certain demon-vessel. Naruto.
He had gone and got himself into trouble again and was in a tight spot stuck right between Kakashi and Genma who were on the mission with him. Then again, the rest of team 7 had lost all reactions of surprise when it came to their blonde teammate who got himself into more tight spots than they could count and had (ingeniously, Sakura and Sasuke were loathe to admit) got out of them as well which obviously wasn't the case as Tsunade had asked Sai to re-unite with them to complete the mission without any further glitches which might endanger the whole operation.
The silence was almost deafening to Sakura who was used to the loud bustle of the hospital and Naruto's ear drum tearing screams.
"What had you come to the restaurant Sasuke?" asked Sakura half out of curiosity and half out of the desire to end the foreboding silence.
"Hn."
"That's not a real reply. Besides, why are you reluctant to answer my questions?" she asked her inquisitiveness getting the better of her. That and she could read his microscopic face changes and understand what he was feeling by just a mere word. She knew him too well and she could tell that he was uncomfortable discussing his presence on Sakura's semi-date.
"I wanted to talk to Kazekage-sama."
"But you could've talked later as well, there were plenty opportunities the next day."
"Yes, but I was to leave for another mission."
"Don' lie. I know you were free the whole week."
"I came to see you!" burst out a vexed Sasuke showing one of his rare displays of emotion.
"Me?" Sakura said meekly.
"Aa." he said as he thrust his hands into his pockets.
Silence reigned once again as they waited for the arrival of their teammate who was bound to pop up any minute now.
'Hey ugly, you're looking particularly gruesome today.' Sai greeted with another one of his fake smiles which Sakura thought looked even more plastic than usual.
Sakura immediately knew something was wrong.
"What happened Sai?"
"Ino did not accept me. She said I lacked tact and had not a single bone of romance in my body."
Sakura sighed audibly, wondering what her best friend had done might cause graver repercussions especially on Sai's emotional capabilities.
"Ugly, what is this sensation I get at the bottom of my stomach every time I see her? It's strangely pleasant and when she rejects my advances my face muscles cause me discomfort."
"Kami Sai! When will you ever learn? You're attracted towards Ino. When you are rejected you must be hurt as you are frowning. You are sad then." replied an incredulous Sakura who reprimanded him as if talking to a child. Now, Sai was a specimen that never failed to surprise her with his crass personality.
Sasuke who had been watching the scene and trying to avoid talking to Sakura walked over to them and said, "Stop flirting, we need to make a move towards Rain before it's too dark to travel."
This is negatively received by Sakura who is frustrated which leaves Sai on his own, between the glares exchanged by his two annoyed teammates. All in all, the best way to sum it up would be to say:
Pissed Sakura + Frustrated Sasuke = Very unhappy Sai sandwiched between them.
'Oh well, might as well enjoy the quiet before they unite with the ever exuberant Naruto.' thought Sai.
The trio travelled at top speed towards Rain where they had reports of Akatsuki activity.
Forest in Rain:
"Gee, old man...how much longer now?" asked a yawning Naruto as his hand covered his widely stretched mouth.
"Not much longer now. Only five more men left. And Naruto?" Kakashi answered.
"Yeah?"
"I will cut off your supply of ramen for a week if you call me old again." threatened Kakashi.
"Sure. Sure. Wonder when Sakura-chan, teme and Sai will be here." pondered Naruto as he sent a water clone to fight his enemy. He smoothly swung his katana as if it were no lighter than a feather and in one swift movement he decapicitated his opponent and turned to his left where he saw Kakashi's ninken bite onto a scarred man who was apparently proficient with weapons as his style of fighting indicated.
It was rather tiresome to fight men who you knew were below your skill level even though Kaka-sensei told him not to get a big head over a small victory. He snorted at that thought. If there was one thing Naruto couldn't and wouldn't forget from his years of experience as the Kyuubi vessel, it was humility.
Besides Hinata would bash him in the head if he overdid his male pride thing as Sakura called it. And as of late Hinata had gotten very bold and had numerous mood swings which tired out Naruto immensely even though he still loved Hina-chan with all his heart.
He felt chakra signatures heading north and signaled Genma who nodded and informed Kakashi. They finished off the hired mercenaries and glided over the treetops like black ghosts after the signatures that were barely in their radius.
'It was inevitable' Genma supposed, that they would end up near the base after all although it was near abandoned by the looks of it. 'We had better send them a message letting them know of our whereabouts...'
Rain Country:
They were tired and hungry and completely unaware of Naruto and team's current location so they got rooms into a seedy motel whose walls were covered with a garish purple and the entrance was through a ghostly bar room lit green in which suspicious characters enjoyed cheap alcohol as they gambled their money away speedily.
Sakura sighed as several men who were covered in the unmistakable stench of alcohol leered at her through her tattered travelling clothes while Sasuke hovered protectively over her and Sai covered their view.
Their journey had led them into the quarters of an S-class criminal drug lord who was present in the Konoha Bingo book and was instructed to be killed on sight if possible. They were then forced to fight for their lives as the shinobi refused to leave them alive especially after one recognized her as Tsunade's apprentice. Apparently the drug lord held a fatal grudge towards the Hokage which was unfortunately extended towards her. His goons were pretty strong too though, which was a shame since they spent way more energy to do the job in a similar fashion with less fatigue.
One ninja had thrown several kunai projectiles at her which she dodged misinterpreting the technique which he has cast upon her. The kunai shifted their path to follow her and this led to many maneuvers which cost her much time to get rid of the offending weapons. She then engaged in a taijutsu fight with him. He punched at which his muscled rippled angrily at which she realized his strength not that it mattered. Hell, she could crush mountain-sized boulders with her pinky.
She jumped up and punched the ground to which he responded by disappearing into the ground and immediately Sakura knew that he would appear from underneath and she put her favorite earth jutsu to use. The earth was lifted up like a carpet and the man lunged upwards to escape from being crushed by the ground which was mere seconds ago his sanctuary from the enraged woman. He smiled nastily at her as he jumped onto her and latched his arms onto her rather impressive chest and he squeezed her breasts she squealed and threw him off her with such force that he was unconscious before he hit the ground after having hit a tree before crashing down.
An enraged Sasuke peered at Sakura who was missing a part of her shirt which had previously preserved her modesty now baring her taut nipples for the world to see through her mesh shirt. He growled at the man who had man or rather breasthandeled her.
Uh-oh. That man was so dead.
Then begun the eye-gouging out, awful torture following which the man landed in hell with his hairy face and dirty conscience. Thus the damage to Sakura's shirt even though she was relatively covered with Sasuke's undershirt seeing as to how Sai could offer his as he didn't wear a full shirt himself he couldn't very well give her anything of his.
Sakura merely sighed.
'How much worse can this get anyway?' she thought.
'There you did it! You TOTALLY jinxed it now! Why, oh why did you have to say it?' yelled at her woeful and indignant Inner.
'I hate being damsel in distress' she thought darkly.
I know, I know I'm totally at fault here as my updates take longer and longer. I don't want to submit a crappy chapter so....you know quality matters people! Crappy excuses might just get me out of being scolded at for such lengthy intervals between my chapters....
You guys are the greatest and thank you Nau no Firefox for taking the effort of finding my story and reading it. KEEP READING EVERYONE!
Oh and just so you know I have a FANTABULOUS ending in my mind which I have noted down so I don't forget! A wonderful ending! LOL :D Keep reading to know more as I drop hints every chapter! ;)
Lemme know what you guys think, R&R people!
Love y'all!
READ, RELISH & REVIEW! YOUR REVIEWS MOTIVATE ME TO WRITE A HALFWAY DECENT STORY! :D
Ja ne!
