Sakura grunted in frustration when Lily overpowered her super strength, again. They were in Sakura's favorite training grounds, the one with all the craters, and they were testing Lily's newfound strength. So far, Lily had been able to shake off Sakura's chakra-strengthened punches as if they were nothing.

Lily smirked smugly when she watched Sakura pick herself up from the ground. "I told you," she smirked. "I'm strong."

"How about a full on sparring match?" Sakura asked while she pulled out a few kunai.

"Sure!" Lily began pacing around Sakura, waiting for her to make the first move.

Sakura threw her kunai and Lily easily knocked them back with her tail. When she was in her strength form, Lily also had a very formidable defense with both her wings and fur that was difficult for any kunai to scratch. Sakura continued her assault with kunai, but Lily knocked each one back. When Sakura tried to get close enough to punch her, Lily would easily take flight and avoid it.

After Sakura kept up the offensive for a couple minutes, Lily decided to strike back. Lily used chakra to lengthen her claws and she closed the distance between them in one swift bound. They clashed, kunai and claws, and Lily used her superior weight and strength to push Sakura back. Sakura used a chakra enhanced sweep kick to knock Lily off of her hind paws.

Lily jumped back with the impact of Sakura's kick and beat her powerful wings to carry her four yards into the air. She tucked her front paws into her chest and did a backwards summersault in the air, and used the speed when she was coming out of it to bowl into Sakura. Sakura cried out in pain when she felt a rib break and glared at Lily when she realized that she had been pinned underneath Lily's massive paws.

"Are you okay?" Lily asked in concern.

"I'm fine," Sakura grunted.

Lily tilted her head and gave Sakura a fox grin. "Does this mean I win?"

Sakura nodded reluctantly and Lily stepped off of her and closed her strength seal. After the smoke cleared and Lily shook herself, Sakura had already healed her rib. It had been almost a month since Lily had accidentally broken the second seal and she had grown very skilled in her chakra control and combat. For some reason, because of the Kyuubi chakra, she had matured much quicker than what would be normal for a red fox. Lily was now a full grown red fox and her pelt had lost the fluffy coat and was now sleek and shiny.

They hadn't gone on any missions together yet, and Sakura was starting to lose her temper at being stuck in Konoha. Tsunade had assured them that they would be going on a mission soon and that if Lily proved to be a valuable asset to the mission then she would be proclaimed an official ninja fox. At the thought of her headband being just within reach, Lily had trained with her entire might to master her speed and strength forms before even attempting the third seal.

Lily was pacing around Sakura while Sakura caught her breath when Naruto jumped into the clearing with a huge smile on his face.

"Sakura!" he greeted enthusiastically. "Granny Tsunade has a mission for us!"

Sakura grinned and let Naruto pull her to her feet and into an embrace. "Finally!" Sakura cried joyfully when she pulled away from Naruto and picked up Lily. "We can finally show off all of the hard work we've put into our training."

Lily grinned and jumped out of Sakura's arms. "After this mission I can finally get my headband," Lily exclaimed. "Let's go now."

Without bothering to wait for a reply, she took off towards the village with Sakura and Naruto barely keeping up with her. When they made it to Tsunade's office Lily burst right through the door without bothering to knock.

"We're here Granny," Lily said, using her new nickname for Tsunade that she got from Naruto.

Sakura and Naruto entered soon after and Sakura quietly scolded Lily for bursting into Tsunade's office so rudely.

"I have a mission for you three," Tsunade said from behind her desk. "Because this is Lily's first mission and Sakura's first mission since being sealed, I am only going to give you a C, borderline B, rank mission. Naruto, you're going mainly because I know that you would bug me if I sent Sakura away without you."

Naruto grinned at Sakura and Sakura giggled. Tsunade raised her eyebrow at them but decided not to press on it. "You'll be transporting a scroll to our allies of the Sand," she explained. "This scroll contains some information that I believe the Kazekage will find useful."

"Why is this a B rank?" Sakura asked.

Tsunade pulled out a very small scroll and beckoned Lily to come closer. Lily jumped agilely on top of the desk and waited.

"This scroll explains the process that we used to create the seal that I put on you and Lily," Tsunade began. "Because the Akatsuki took the Shukaku that was sealed inside of Gaara's body, Gaara's power has dropped considerably. I have been in contact with him and I believe that he can use this seal to separate the demon chakra that mixed with his own. Gaara and I both believe that he can use this seal to create more of Skukaku's chakra in a seal like yours, Sakura."

Lily looked at the small scroll in Tsunade's hands that held the secret to a considerably large power increase. "Why is this only ranked C, Granny?" Lily asked.

Tsunade's vein in her forehead began to poke out in irritation. "This is only ranked C because no enemy villages know about you yet," she said. "I would send other ninjas to complete this mission, but the Sand Council wants to see the product of this seal before their Kazekage tries it."

"I'm a living, breathing being," Lily said coldly. "I'm not an experiment."

"I know," Tsunade said with a wave of her hand. "But the Sand Village is hardly going to perform an unknown jutsu without seeing the outcome in flesh and blood."

Tsunade pulled out a kunai and took Lily's paw and gave it a gentle prick to draw blood. Using the blood she drew a seal on the scroll. "This seal absolutely can't fall into enemy hands," she explained when she finished the seal. "I'm going to use a trick that Jiraiya taught me. Using this seal and Lily's blood, Lily will be the seal's protector."

"Wouldn't it be better if Sakura or Naruto protected it?" Lily asked while she licked the blood off of her paw.

"No," Tsunade said firmly. "It has to be you."

Lily sighed and held her head high. "What do I have to do? Carry it on my back or something?"

Tsunade smiled and shook her head. "Open your mouth," she said with a wide grin.


Naruto lead the way to the Sand Village with Sakura close behind and Lily bringing up the rear. They had left Konoha a couple of hours ago and they were trying to keep a brisk pace so they could reach the Sand Village as quickly as possible.

Sakura slowed down a little so she was next to Lily. "How are you doing?" she asked.

Lily scoffed and shook her head. "Just splendid," she said sarcastically. "Let's see how energetic you are after you've had a scroll shoved down your throat using a weird jutsu."

Sakura chuckled. "I guess I would be lagging a little," she agreed. "If you would like, I could carry you even though you're too big for my shoulder."

"What can I say?" Lily laughed with her. "I'm an adult now, thanks to the seal."

"You're in an awful hurry to mature," Naruto observed from the front.

"You would be too if Granny refused to give you a mission until you were an adult," Lily snapped. Her temper tended to be short when it came to Naruto and it didn't take much from him to make her fur bristle.

When the sun started to set Sakura suggested that they stop and make camp. They found a sheltered clearing that had a source of water not too far away. Naruto scowled in impatience, he wanted to keep going, but Lily, who didn't want to keep going in the dark, happily gathered some wood to make a fire.

"Is this enough?" she asked when she came back a few minutes later with a large bundle of wood being kept in place by her wings.

Sakura smiled and relieved Lily of her load. "This is plenty," she assured her. She quickly set them up and made a small fire that wouldn't draw too much attention.

Lily shook herself and curled up close to the warmth of the fire. "How much farther is it to the Sand Village?"

Naruto looked over his shoulder and replied, "Another day if we all hurry and pull our weight."

"Don't throw that attitude at me!" Lily snapped. "I'm doing the best that I can!"

"If your best was any better than we would still be on our way!"

Sakura put her hand on Lily's shoulder and scowled at Naruto. "I need a rest too," she said in Lily's defense. "Neither of us have your endurance. It's okay, we can afford to lose a few hours for rest."

Naruto sighed in defeat and nodded. "Okay Sakura," he said with a forced smile. "I'll take the first watch, you two can rest."

"Thank you Naruto," Sakura said with a big smile. "I think four hours of rest will be plenty, I'll relieve you of watch after two hours okay?"

"Sounds good Sakura, sleep well."

A/N- Thanks for reading! REVIEW!