Yeah, the gods' tasks are weird. They're supposed to be both appropriate to that particular god, and somewhat confusing to mortals. If you have questions, there's a forum now (link is on my profile), and I'll actually answer them. I'll mark spoilers for people who don't want it spoiled so you can avoid it.

I love that you readers seem to be as excited about this fic as I am. Honestly, your comments and excitement have helped me get back in the saddle and get writing. I appreciate knowing that you're out there, and knowing your thoughts and feelings on this story. (Struck by Fixening, 2016)

Chapter 10

Gaara and Lee became rather obviously bored, rather quickly. Finally Sakura got so tired of their fidgeting and sighing that she put down the book she was studying and glared at them.

"Look, if you two are having such a hard time sitting quietly, why don't you go spar or something?" she snapped.

Both of them froze as though they'd been caught doing something wrong. Sakura sighed.

"Well?" she demanded. They were silent for a moment, and then Lee shifted uncomfortably.

"Sakura is correct, I am neglecting my training! Good luck on your task, Sakura!" the dark-haired, fuzzy-browed shinobi declared.

"I'll train with you," Gaara said, and somehow it didn't sound like forced reluctance, although he did sound slightly miffed. "You owe me a rematch anyway. Your taijutsu against my ninjutsu?"

"That is a youthful idea! Let us go to the training grounds and find out who is the better shinobi!" Lee agreed. Both young men rose from the table.

"Good luck, Sakura," Gaara stated, as he turned to leave. She gave him a slight smile in return.

"Indeed! I hope you find all the information you need!" Lee exclaimed as they left.

"Sakura," Shino said quietly, after both Gaara and Lee had left. "I'm sorry if this is too personal, but are you 18 yet? I was under the impression that you were in the same year as me."

Sakura blushed. So Shino had noticed, or suspected something. "No, I'm 16. I'll be 17 in two months," she said quietly.

Shino nodded thoughtfully. "You'll need to be careful to avoid punishment duty."

"It's not me who's the problem!" she hissed. Shino quirked his head at her in an inquiring fashion. Sakura waved her hand exasperatedly. "I mean, I'm not the one initiating things here. It's Gaara. And now it looks like he and Lee have some kind of stupid rivalry going on."

The crinkle around Shino's eyes told her he was slightly amused by that. "I noticed. But you favour this Gaara? I don't remember him, is he new here?"

She'd never figured Shino for a gossip. She flashed him a glare which did nothing to daunt his inquiry. Inquiring eyebrows had to know…

"He's from the One Tail's head temple out at Toriyama City in the desert," she muttered. "He's been here for a few months I guess. I don't know him all that well yet."

"But you like him," Shino stated.

Sakura blushed. Yeah, she liked Gaara. Gods only knew why, but yes, she really liked Gaara. The swiftness and strength of those feelings surprised her and confused her somewhat. She'd always considered herself level-headed and sensible. Falling hard for a boy she hardly knew wasn't exactly high on the list of levelheadedness or sensibility.

What startled her though, was the feeling that if it came down to a contest between Gaara and Lee (or Gaara and anyone else for that matter), it would be Gaara who won, hands down. She couldn't honestly explain the attraction. It wasn't just his looks (though he was very good looking), and it certainly wasn't his cavalier and sometimes even overbearingly smug attitude. It was something else, something she couldn't quite pinpoint; a sense of rightness that she's never felt before or even considered possible. She knew she should probably object to his possessiveness more than she had, but she didn't; largely because she knew if some girl started showing an interest in him, she'd feel the same damn way - possessive.

"Yeah, gods help me, I do," she admitted.

"Then be careful."

"I will, Shino. Now if only he'd stop trying to sneak illegal kisses I'd be just fine," she muttered acidly. Something about the crinkle around Shino's eyes informed her that he was smiling again. At least he found it amusing and wasn't trying to join in the rivalry or something. Shino was a nice guy, but he was… well, creepy. Sakura was relieved that he didn't seem to be interested in her for anything more than a bit of choice gossip.

She spent an hour or two reading through books while Shino sat at the table and read something of his own. So far, it looked like her choices for preparing the bones were maceration and beetles. Maceration sounded like a long (and smelly) process, and she wasn't so thrilled about the idea. Beetles sounded faster, but where was she going to get those? Wait… Shino was an Aburame, wasn't he – they were known for using bugs. Come to think of it, the Aburame family were often associated with the Seven Tails' dedicated.

"Shino," she began, and the acolyte looked up from his book.

"Yes?"

"I don't think maceration will work for me right now, but the books say that there are other ways to do this. Do you know any bugs that are good for removing flesh from bones?" She looked at him hopefully.

"As a matter of fact, I do. I have used my insects to prepare corpses for mounting in the past," he admitted. "Before you ask, yes, I would be happy to help you. The god wants the skeleton, if you have help with some stages of preparing it, she won't consider it cheating," he seemed pretty confident about that. If he was, she was.

"Thank you."

He nodded briefly in response.

"I need to go find out what kind of animal it is that she wants," Sakura said, rising. "Thanks for the help with the books, Shino."

"I'm glad I could help, Sakura. Good luck," Shino replied, going back to his book.

She decided to sneak by the training grounds to make sure that both Gaara and Lee were still alive. What she saw there was completely unexpected. Gaara floated on what looked like a platform of sand, sending around swirls of the substance to attack; while Lee was rapidly striking at what appeared to be about seven Narutos (apparently the blond had made an appearance). Everyone seemed to be intact (except for some of the Narutos, who disappeared in a puff of smoke when Lee's limbs or Gaara's sand made contact).

"Hey Sakura, want to join us? There's always room for one more. This is fun!" Naruto's voice said from right behind her hiding spot in the bushes. She nearly jumped out of her skin.

"Ah, Naruto!" She exclaimed, turning. She wondered if it was the real thing or a copy. "I can't, I have to go to the library in Miyajima City and look up an animal for my task."

"Oh, that's a shame. Libraries are boring," Naruto said. "Good luck. Want me to tell Gaara that you came by?"

Want him to tell Gaara, not Lee? She gave Naruto a slight glare, which bounced off his innocent sincerity. Seriously, did the whole world know about her and Gaara? Well, that was obviously not the case, or she'd be scrubbing pots right now, but all of her friends seemed to know about him.

"No, that's ok, Naruto. You guys have fun sparring," Sakura said quickly.

"Oh we will! Go have fun with your dusty old books," Naruto grinned back. "Say hi to Hinata for me!"

"Uhhh," Sakura managed, "ok." Maybe she shouldn't be so worried that Naruto knew – he seemed pretty intent on Hinata. Well, if anything she might end up with company in the kitchens. Not that she'd ever rat out Hinata. Sakura realized that she hadn't seen Ino or Hinata since the day of the clams. She'd been so busy with her tasks that she hadn't made it to the refectory for meals with them, and she wasn't in any classes right now because of her pilgrimage.

Silently she slipped away, heading away from the training grounds before Gaara could spot her and insist on coming along. He'd no doubt see the library as an excellent opportunity to try to sneak more illicit kisses. Gods help her if Lee decided he had to come along too, then she would have to put up with the two of them and their damn silent standoff, or worse, their one-upmanship battle. She'd never get any work done that way. So Sakura was more than happy enough to slip off into the city with only Naruto having known she was there.

The main library in Miyajima City was a wonderful place. The libraries of the temples tended to cater to the specialties of those gods. Her temple's library was full of books on anatomy, healing, identification of diseases, and other things relevant to the Six Tails' service. At the Miyajima library, however, she could find books on almost any subject; non-fiction and fiction alike. The few times she'd been into the city when not on business for the temple, she'd often come to the library to pick up something entertaining.

If anywhere in the city would have information allowing her to identify the creature in the god's vision, it would be here. Sakura got help from a librarian to find the section she should start at, and then she searched for books on local wildlife. She knew it was local; the god had clearly shown her the jungle that lay to the northwest of the city, hugging the slopes of the sacred volcano.

She narrowed her search down from mammals, to primates, to nocturnal primates. In an illustrated bestiary she found a drawing that matched what she saw in the vision fairly well. So, the creature she was to hunt was called a tarsier? Sakura read up on the animal, learning more about its known habits (unfortunately there wasn't a lot, other than the fact that it was nocturnal), and territory. She knew it was small; she decided that the best way to terminate the creature without risking damage to its fragile skeleton would be to use poison of some sort.

She would have to prepare for an expedition into the jungle. The edge of the cleared lands was a two days' walk from the gates of the city, and she would need to bring food, water, weapons, and other supplies. Enough for at least a week and a half, at least, just in case it took that long. She would need to let Lady Tsunade know where she was going. She closed the book she was reading and returned it to the cart, and headed back to the temple complex just in time for the evening meal.

"Forehead!" Ino called, as Sakura lined up in the refectory for her meal. Ino and Hinata were already seated with food. Sakura gave them a wave, and then got her food and joined them.

"Hi Ino, hi Hinata," she greeted as she sat.

"Hi Sakura," Hinata replied with her usual shy smile.

"Where've you been, Forehead?" Ino asked.

"I was doing a task for the Eight Tails. He had me plough a field." The pink-haired teen made a face.

"You ploughed a field?" Ino snorted, incredulously. "What was that like?"

"Hard work," Sakura smirked. Hinata covered her mouth with her hands to hide her giggle.

"Ugh, I think I'll save the Eight Tails for last on my pilgrimage. Plough a field! That's crazy!" Ino declared.

"It needed done. Yasuo's ox died and he wouldn't have got his crop in at all if I hadn't been there to help." Sakura shrugged. "But that's where I've been. It took two days. Today I was getting my task from the Seven Tails."

"What do you need to do for the Seven Tails?" Hinata asked, quietly.

"I need to find an animal in the jungle called a tarsier, kill it, and mount its skeleton in a lifelike way," Sakura said calmly.

"In the jungle?" Ino paled briefly. Then she scowled. "That sounds like a lot of work."

"It's probably going to take me a few days of slogging through the jungle to find one," Sakura said. "Shino said that the Seven Tails often gets people to mount skeletons of animals for their tasks."

"That's weird." Ino said. Sakura shrugged. She wasn't going to question the gods.

"You saw Shino? How is he?" Hinata asked. She, Shino and Kiba had been good friends as initiates, but since being dedicated all the novices tended to spend more time with their temple-mates rather than the friends they'd had as initiates. Unless they put effort into maintaining relationships, as Sakura and Lee had done, they tended to drift. While Kiba had remained fairly close to Hinata, Shino was a very shy and quiet person by nature as well, and hadn't spent much time with the other novices since being dedicated to the Seven Tails.

"He's an acolyte now," Sakura informed her dark-haired friend.

"Oh. Everyone seems to be doing their pilgrimage now," Hinata said. "Maybe I should do mine. Naruto is going to start his soon."

So Hinata had spoken with Naruto since the day of the clams, had she? Sakura made a note of her friend's slight blush when she spoke about her new blond friend. Ino rolled her eyes.

"Seriously, Sakura, it's been nothing but 'Naruto this, Naruto that' since that day at the feast pits," Ino declared.

"I'm not that bad," Hinata insisted, blushing.

"Naruto is a nice guy. I saw him today, training with Lee and Gaara. He asked me to say hello to you for him, Hinata." Sakura smiled at the dark-haired girl. Hinata blushed bright red and looked down at the table, pushing her index fingers together.

Ino covered her laugh with her hand.

"I wouldn't laugh too hard, Ino. All three of us know about you and Shikamaru," Sakura said, wanting to defend Hinata from the blonde's teasing.

"Yeah well at least I only have to deal with one. You've got that redheaded Gaara guy and Lee following after you like dogs after treats," Ino shot back.

It was Sakura's turn to blush. "Oh gods, don't remind me," she groaned, dropping her head into her hands. "Every time I go somewhere and they see me, they both follow me around and start acting like a couple of old goats getting ready to bang heads or something. It's annoying!"

Ino snorted and rolled her eyes again at Sakura. Hinata smiled again.

"Seriously, if they don't cut it out, I'm going to end up scrubbing pots for years," Sakura sighed.

"Why don't you tell them to buzz off then?" Ino suggested.

"They're my friends." Sakura gave the blonde a hard look.

"Suuure, you just like having a harem," Ino smirked.

"Oh shut up!" Sakura growled. "Two people isn't a harem."

"Do you like both of them?" Hinata asked.

The pink-haired teen sighed. "I like Lee as a friend."

"But not Gaara?" Ino immediately seized upon Sakura's omission.

"Gaara, he's… I just don't know how to explain it. You know, he's infuriating. He's an arrogant, self-satisfied, over-privileged asshole, but…" Sakura trailed off. "I like him and I really can't explain why," she grumbled that last out under her breath.

Ino gave a sarcastic bark of laughter. "Oh, so the great and studious Sakura isn't immune to the charms of a pretty boy after all? I wondered when you'd start noticing the opposite sex like a normal girl," the blonde teased.

"Shut up," Sakura growled, sinking lower into her chair. "I've been aware of good looking boys for a while now; I just don't let them interfere with my studies. Besides it's more than just his looks. There's something about him and I just can't explain it." She hated being so imprecise, but that's exactly what it was. Something indefinable, something she could barely comprehend. Who was Gaara, that he could step into her life and disrupt it so effortlessly, and she was helpless to do anything about it?

"I know how you feel," Hinata whispered, almost too quiet to hear. Both Sakura and Ino looked at her. The dark-haired Hyūga was blushing. "I like Naruto the same way. There isn't any logic to it. I just like him."

"You two are hopeless!" Ino rolled her blue eyes again. "I'm stuck with a bunch of hopeless romantics."

"Oh shut up," Sakura grumbled. "I'm not a romantic."

"Whatever, Forehead. So how long do you think it's going to take to finish this task?" Ino switched the subjects. "It seems like everyone always has to go to the j-j-jungle."

"I don't know. I'm going to tell Lady Tsunade that I'll be out of the temple for up to a week and a half," Sakura said, feeling kind of puzzled by Ino's reaction. The blonde was not usually prone to stammering, and she was usually quite fearless.

"Are you going alone?" Hinata asked, looking slightly worried.

"Probably," Sakura replied. "I don't know who else would go with me. You guys are busy at your studies and I wouldn't know who else to ask."

"Why not Gaaaaaaraaaaa?" Ino drew out the redhead's name in a sing-song taunt.

"Definitely not," Sakura snapped. Yeah, right. The last thing she needed was Gaara attempting to steal kisses or worse while she was trudging through the jungle trying to find some shy little mammal to kill for the god of death. "I've got to go tell Lady Tsunade about my task, and then I need to prepare for the trip," she began to clear up her tray.

"Good luck, Sakura!" Hinata smiled.

"Be careful out there, Forehead," Ino cautioned.

"Thanks, and I will," Sakura replied. Dropping her tray on the kitchen conveyor, she then headed straight for Tsunade's office. She hoped her mentor would be taking her supper in her office, as she so often did. As usual, she knocked on the stone door.

"Enter," came Tusnade's voice through the stone. Sakura entered, bowing before her teacher. Tsunade looked up from a plate of food stashed in between stacks of paperwork. "Sakura. How are your tasks coming along?"

"They are going well, Lady Tsunade," Sakura informed her teacher. "I am currently doing a task for the Seven Tails. It requires that I go to the jungle. I will probably be away from the temple for several days."

"To the jungle, hmm? Well, good luck then, and be careful. How long do you think you'll be gone?"

"No more than a week and a half at the most I think."

"Hmm… When I did my tasks, if I remember correctly, I spent a lot of time in that damn jungle," Tsunade commented.

Sakura looked at her mentor in surprise. Somehow it seemed almost impossible that Tsunade had ever had to do tasks for the gods, she was such a fixture in the Six Tails' temple that it seemed like there had never been a time when she was not the high priestess.

"Oh, give me a break, Sakura. I was a novice and a teen once too," Tsunade grumbled at her apprentice's wide-eyed expression.

"Of course, Lady Tsunade. It just seems… weird to think of you as anything other than the high priestess," Sakura admitted.

Tsunade gave a brief laugh. "I might have been here a while but I'm not eternal, my dear. In fact, some day you might take my place here."

Sakura gaped.

"Well, I can't be expected to stay high priestess forever, can I? The temple needs new blood occasionally," Tsunade insisted. Then, seeing Sakura's uncomfortable look, she added, "Oh, don't worry, girl. You've got years before that's going to be an issue. Decades, perhaps."

Sakura nodded weakly. Tsunade's mouth twisted in a brief smile.

"Anyways, girl, you should probably go prepare. You'll need supplies for a journey. And don't forget your weapons. There are predators in the jungle, still. Oh, and keep your eyes open for any healing plants, will you?"

"Yes, Lady Tsunade," Sakura said. "Thank you!"

"Go on, girl!" Tsunade waved her hands at Sakura. "I need to finish my supper."

Sakura obediently ducked out of her teacher's office. It was late now, too late to requisition supplies for her trip to the jungle. And she would need to brew an effective poison. Poisons were not her specialty, but she knew a few. Something that would kill quickly without needing a lot – she was pretty sure she could make something that fit the bill. But for tonight, what she needed was sleep. She knew full well that the next few days were going to be long and difficult. She headed to her cell and packed, and then finally went to bed, grateful for a chance to curl up in her little bed and slip off to sleep.

The next morning she rose early to prepare the vial of poison that she was going to bring with her. Because this toxin would work on most primates, including herself, she prepared the antidote as well. It never hurt to be safe.

On her way out of the city she picked up the rest of the supplies she needed from the market, and then she was off. Or, she would have been, if she hadn't nearly run straight into someone in her rush to get out of the city. She halted just in time to avoid collision, but didn't manage to escape the steadying hand that came out to catch her by the shoulder.

"Sakura!" a familiar voice said. She froze, looking up into curiosity-filled blue-green eyes fixed on her.

"Hi Gaara," she said, slightly defeated. Of all the people she didn't want to run into right now, he topped the list. And here she was, literally nearly running into him.

"Off to the jungle already?" he asked, mildly, looking over her kit. The hand on her shoulder shifted slightly, becoming more caressing.

"Yeah."

"Want company?" he offered.

Sakura sighed internally. She'd been afraid of this. Now there it was, he was going to invite himself along on her trip and then she'd never get any work done. But wait… "I'm going to be gone several days. Are you prepared for that journey?"

"It wouldn't take that long to prepare."

"Yeah, but I'm leaving now. Besides, wouldn't you need clearance to be away that long? Could you get that on that short notice?"

"There's one way to find out… hold on…" his voice trailed off and he straightened. Sakura could feel him focus chakra, but she couldn't see the result of his efforts. He stared off into space for a few moments, and then a handful of minutes later he muttered a curse under his breath.

"What?" she asked.

"The head priest said no."

"How did—,"

"Sand clone," he explained.

"Oh." That's right, she'd seen him fighting with those with Naruto and Lee yesterday. Clones of any sort bespoke a great degree of skill. Clones that he could create and operate from the distance of the marketplace to the temple told of the immense power this young shinobi had. Sakura was slightly impressed despite herself.

"I suppose I could always have a clone do my duties for the next few days and just go with you anyway…" he mused.

"I'll be fine. I don't want to get you in trouble," she said quickly. Maybe a little too quickly. He gave her a slightly amused look that told her he was totally on to her.

"Don't worry, Sakura. I'm sure you'll be asked to go into the jungle again. Most of us are; it seems to be a favourite place to send novices on tasks. I got away with only going in once, but that's because I did several of my tasks in Toriyama and I got the desert instead. It's just as lethal in its own way," he smiled, good humouredly. "Next time you go, I'll come with you."

"Oh," she said weakly, "wonderful."

His smirk grew.

"I've got to get going," she said.

"Good luck out there, Sakura. Be careful in the jungle."

"I will," she promised. His eyes glittered for a moment as he looked at her, and she wondered if he was going to try to kiss her again, out here in clear view of anyone who might pass by. Then he smirked and clapped her shoulder affectionately before lifting his hand to give her a little jaunty wave.