Okay, I'm back! Sorry, but we've been "college scouting" for my sister who's going off to college next year. Unfortunately I'm not important enough to be notified about these trips until a couple days before. : - ( But I asked and they said that there were about four more colleges she wanted to see but since you don't need an appointment to see them, they're not sure when we're going to visit the campuses. That being said, if I suddenly take another long break like that, that's more than likely why.
Thanks a bunch for all the reviews sent! I really appreciate it. Now that we're talking reviews though, a loyal reader/reviewer has requested that I allow anonymous reviews for this story, so I guess I will! However, if you have an account, I'd appreciate it if you'd still sign in, you'll know why later ; -). 'Kay enjoy the chapter!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. I never and I never will.
Sakura awoke early that morning. She was extremely quick and quiet as she prepared herself for her week long mission. She didn't want to wake Shikamaru up. She knew she had to talk to him about the whole Ino thing, and she would…eventually. At least, that's what she kept telling herself. She wanted so badly for the entire thing to just go away, but she knew it wouldn't. She also knew she had to talk to him about this. She looked over at him, sleeping soundly on the bed. She bit her lip as she thought about it then sighed.
She didn't want to go into the mission with the fact that she just had a huge blowout with her boyfriend aching in her heart, pulling her away from her duties. Conversely, she didn't want images of Shikamaru and Ino being together clouding her mind as she was gone. She knew that no matter what decision she made, it would have an effect on her performance in this mission, but would the effect be good or bad; she didn't know. She looked at the clock and knew she had to decide what to do now. She sighed as she made her decision, this was going to be tougher than she thought.
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Shikamaru woke up the next morning, after the sun was already risen in the sky. He looked around and realized he was at Sakura's house. Then he remembered the night before. He got a small grin on his face until he remembered something else: that bruise. A scowl appeared on his face as he thought about it. He looked in the room for Sakura so he could ask her about it, and when he turned his head he felt a sudden pain in his neck.
"Sakura," he called out. He got up, rubbing his neck with his hand, and went to the bathroom, to see if she was in there, but she wasn't. he searched the entire apartment looking for her, but she wasn't there. He walked back into the bedroom and sat down on the bed. He tried to calm down and think of all the places she might be before he ran through the village looking for her. In all actuality, he was worried that her disappearance had something to do with the bruise which was not good. He stood up off the bed and was about to leave when he noticed a white piece of paper with his name on it on the nightstand.
He unfolded the paper and read:
Left on a mission for Lady Tsunade.
Be back in a week. And when I come back,
we need to talk. It's important!
Sakura
He refolded the paper and sat back on the bed. "What the…? And what's this things she's gotta talk about?" he sighed deeply and laid back on the bed. "I had to talk to you too Sakura, but, unfortunately, I guess it'll have to wait." He sighed again and closed his eyes, "Dammit!"
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Sakura stood at the gate and looked back at the village. The sun was just beginning to rise and she knew Shikamaru was still asleep. He'd began waking up as she was writing her note to him, but she had pushed the pressure points in his neck to keep him asleep awhile longer. That way, he wouldn't wake up and notice she was gone then come out and find her before they left. And, so most importantly, she wouldn't go after him since it'd be a few hours before he woke up and they'd be leaving on their mission soon. She felt the tears welling in her eyes, but she knew she'd done the right thing.
"Sakura let's go!" Sasuke called out. Kakashi was now there, only thirty minutes late from the original time of 4 o'clock. He said he knew what Tsunade was planning, and he always did, but it didn't matter. "Sakura!" Sasuke called out once again.
"I'm coming," Sakura called back as she turned from the village to go join her teammates. But before she left, she looked over her shoulder and whispered, "Goodbye, Shikamaru."
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The four ran full speed through the forest. Kakashi wanted to get a mile within the first stop, a small town called Anto, before nightfall. It was at least 100 kilometers away, so that meant they didn't have any time to waste. The journey there was a long and quiet one. No one in her group was much of a talker other than her, so a decent, non-mission related conversation was one thing she wasn't expecting to get on this mission.
"We'll stop here a moment." Kakashi called out to his team members when they reached a small stream located in the middle of the forest just outside of a large town called Kinhaya, which was the halfway point to the Hidden Mountain Village. It was around fifteen minutes past one and the four had been running since they'd left. The closest thing they got to a break was when they casually walked through Kinhaya so they wouldn't arise suspicion.
Now, the fact that Kakashi was actually letting them stop, even if it was just for a minute, was sheer bliss for Sakura. She could keep up with them, no doubt, but the rest of her team seemed to have unnatural amounts of stamina and the four sometimes forgot that, making the journey a lot tougher on her than it was on them.
She ran straight to the stream flowing there, and knelt down on the soft bank as she dipped her cupped hands into the cool, clear water and splashed it onto her hot face. She sighed with relief and let her mind wander off to all sorts of things, especially to a certain person she'd left behind in the village. She was snapped from her daydreaming when she felt someone approaching her. The wise shinobi never drops his guard, so once she sensed it, she got up and spun around quickly, her kunai already drawn.
"Glad to see you're still sharp. I was afraid that you weariness would negatively effect your reflexes." Kakashi said sarcastically, although he really did come over to check on her. He had forgotten that her endurance wasn't quite as high as Neji, Sasuke, or his but he knew that she wouldn't let herself be the weak link in the team and would push her body past its limits to keep up with her teammates.
Sakura blushed slightly with embarrassment, then in an effort to redeem herself from her paranoid actions from earlier, she said, "I'm just so excited you're here, I could use a sparring partner right about now. I'm feeling a little restless."
"Heh, you're obviously much more tired than me, however you want to fight a fight with me that you know you can't win?"
"You're damn right." Sakura threatened attempting to sound as serious as she could and ignoring the fact that she knew everything he'd said was the truth. She really didn't feel like fighting, much less such a formidable opponent as Kakashi, but she'd made her own bed so now it was time for her to lie in it. She lifted her kunai higher and narrowed her eyes.
"You really expect for me to believe that?" he asked.
Sakura gasped, because the next thing she knew, her former sensei had not only captured her kunai, but had also twisted her arm behind her back and held the cold, sharp metal to her throat.
He leaned down and said in her ear, "Like I said, you won't win." He released her and turned towards the stream. She rubbed her wrist and scowled at him. Then, she brought her hand once more to her shuriken holster. However, Kakashi to lack interest in having a battle, and didn't even look her way.
"Fine." She thought. "If he won't do anything, I will." She slipped her hand in her pouch.
"So were you planning on telling anyone what's bothering you?" he asked still facing the stream.
She stopped and lowered her eyes to the ground. "What are you talking about?"
"Don't want to talk about it, huh?"
"There's nothing to talk about." Sakura answered as she, too, turned towards the stream.
Kakashi sighed and in a monotone voice told her, "Well whatever it is, don't just keep it bottled up if it's going to interfere with this mission. The last thing we need is a fatality caused because someone's mind isn't focused on the mission. So if you have to talk to me or Sasuke or Neji or even an enemy's who you've killed corpse. Hell, I don't even care if you talk to a tree. Just don't let you personal problems be the cause of any type of failure in this mission."
"Gee thanks Kakashi-sensei." Sakura said sarcastically. She knew that he was just trying to be nice and help her out, just in his own less-than-comforting way, and she was thankful to him for that.
"Alright. We're leaving in five minutes. Whatever's wrong, make sure you take care of it by then." He said walking off.
Sakura sat silence for the next five minutes. Either she had to temporarily and completely clear her mind, or she'd hear it from Kakashi. When it was time to go, Sasuke came to get her.
"Kakashi said its time to go… you ok?" He asked her a bit indifferently.
Sakura got up, smiled, and nodded. After the alley scene, even though she now knew it really wasn't Sasuke, being around him was a little uncomfortable and uneasy for her. The two walked back to the others together.
"Everybody ready?" Kakashi asked looking at Sakura. The three nodded and Sakura looked up at Kakashi-sensei and smiled reassuringly. He nodded. "Alright, let's go." He ordered and the four took off into the forest again and headed straight for the Mountain Village.
Alrighty there's chapter 9. Three more chapters, and we'll talk back with Shikamaru again- hopefully leading to some ShikaSaku action.
Also, I updated three chapters at once for two reasons. One was in hopes to compensate for my long absence, and two was because these are kinda what I think of as 'filler chapters' mainly for information purposes and to connect two parts of the story. They're an important part of the story no doubt with some interesting parts, but if your impatient (like me) they're not as interesting to read as most chapters because you just wanna fast forward to the outcome. Unfortunately, you can't do that but I hope you enjoyed it anyway!
See ya soon! xoxoxoxoxo
