Title: Invincible
Characters: Gai, Sakura
Rating: T
Word Count: 465
Summary: They don't like missions together, they really don't.
Sakura doesn't like going on missions with Gai because he goes into teacher mode, and it grates on her nerves. While she can respect him for his status as an elite jonin and recognize how powerful his one and only genin team grew to be, he's not her sensei and thinking of him in a such a fashion makes her a teeny bit uncomfortable. Plus she has two sensei, the Copy Nin and the Hokage, for goodness sake! It's not as if she is lacking in the sensei department. But still, he seems oblivious. From the start of the mission to the end, he speaks constantly, informing her of the use of this plant here, of the wonders on the healing the body of that curry stand there, of the dangers of this and that and the proper fighting techniques to combat them. The day he holds up the mission to ensure himself that Sakura can in fact do a lap around Konoha on her hands (Which she can damnit! It would just be a disgrace to Kakashi if she did!), is the day he first finds out just how hard she can punch when she's peeved off. She still goes when Tsunade requests, just to keep an eye out for him. But she really doesn't like it.
Gai doesn't like going on missions with Sakura because she is completely unaware of the fact that she thinks she is invincible. Now, Gai knows a few things about thinking one is invincible, and he knows for a fact that he is not. But one must think that they could be, so they have something to strive towards to improve. But Sakura goes through missions with the assumption that nothing could possibly happen to her, she is one of Team Kakashi, is she not? She is Naruto's teammate and has seen and done things most shinobi couldn't even comprehend. But that doesn't make her invincible, that makes her a target. She is nearly as high ranked a target in the bingo book as her teammates, and frankly that scares the daylights out of Gai. Sakura is not invincible. She is beautiful and powerful and intelligent and a hundred other wonderful things. She. Is. Not. Invincible. Kakashi is close. Sasuke is one tough shit. Naruto… well he just might be invincible if he sets his mind to it. But Sakura… she isn't. It doesn't stop her from thinking she is. Therefore even though he knows how much it irritates her for him to keep up with his string of advice, he'll do it anyway. Because she needs to be stronger, in case he can't protect her. Because it something happened to her, it would break him. He's not invincible. Gai knows this. And he really doesn't like missions with her.
