Sasuke flew through the trees on the way to his destination. His mind was buzzing with the details of the mission.

flashback

"You are to head to a village located outside Hidden Mist, but still well within the Land of Water. There is a woman there who needs to be dealt with and the Mizukage has opted to send you to deal with her," said the black ops shinobi.

"What is her crime?" asked Sasuke.

"That is none of your concern," answered the black ops shinobi, handing Sasuke a small, tightly wrapped package. Sasuke took the package and tucked it away.

Sasuke frowned. Something didn't feel right about this mission. He knew he had to follow-through, but for all he knew, she could be completely innocent and he was just being played off as a pawn.

"Is there a problem?" asked the black ops shinobi noting Sasuke's hesitation.

"Yes, I believe there is," said Sasuke. "I need to know more details about this woman you want me to kill. I cannot take your or the Mizukage's word that she is worthy of death."

"Ah, so you're moral compass has now been righted since the days before the war? Very well," answered the black ops shinobi. "Her name is Kanari…Kanari Terumi."

"As in a relative of the Mizukage?!" shouted Sasuke.

"Yes, in fact this woman is the Mizukage's own sister," the black ops shinobi answered.

"And what is her crime?" asked Sasuke.

"Treason."

flashback end

"How did I get wrapped up into this?" mumbled Sasuke to himself. He hoped that moving forward with this mission was, in fact, the right thing to do. Further talking with the black ops shinobi at the front gate had revealed that Mist had been searching for her exact location for a while and that is why the information about the mission was so late in coming.

Mei and her sister had never gotten along very well – in fact, there was a definite streak of jealousy there. Mei had always been more gifted – beautiful beyond measure, blessed with three chakra natures and two kekkai genkai. Kanari was also once a shinobi, albeit a very average one. She had abandoned the village a few years ago without explanation.

Mei had recently found out that her sister was now plotting against her with the help of several missing nins. Their ultimate goal was the Mizukage's assassination. Last night, they were seen in the village where Sasuke was headed and would be there, or close to there, now. Sasuke was to track down Kanari and her accomplices and snuff out this plot.

At first, Sasuke questioned why this was considered a "simple", quick mission. It sounded much more complicated than he was first led to believe…and he thought it would probably take at a minimum , a few days to complete.

Sasuke thought about the final words the black ops shinobi shared with him before leaving him to his mission - Kanari's biggest weakness. She had naturally developed a low self-image of herself and her abilities because she had always been compared to her sister. Thus, any good-looking man who approached her could win her over easily. She could be easily manipulated.

OlOlOlOlOlO

Knock-knock

"Come in," said Mei Terumi.

The black ops shinobi who had given Sasuke the mission walked in and knelt before the Mizukage's desk.

"Did you tell him?" she asked.

"Hai, M'Lady," the operative answered.

"And…anything to report?" she asked.

"He has already left Mist and is headed towards the target village. I did ask in the way that you ordered and only gave the bare minimum of details at first, but he insisted in knowing your sister's crime before he left on the mission," the black ops shinobi answered.

"So Sasuke Uchiha has grown a conscience once again," she said aloud, smiling. "Good." The Hokage's report had been accurate. She was counting on it.

OlOlOlOlOlO

It took Sasuke just over two hours at full speed to get to the village in question. The first thing he did was enter the local inn as inconspicuously as possible and got himself a room for the night. When he got to the room, he opened his pack and took out the small package that had been passed to him by the black ops shinobi. He had a general idea of what would be in there even before opening it.

Inside the package was a single set of clothes and a small booklet. Sasuke took the clothes out and laid them on the bed. They appeared to be the right size to fit him. They were definitely a different style than what he normally wore when he wasn't wearing shinobi gear. The booklet contained the pictures of eight men and two women. Sasuke guessed they were the missing nin who were plotting alongside Kanari.

He put the clothes on and made his way to the nearest drinking establishment to see if he could find Kanari. His plan was either to locate her, or find out where she might have gone if she had already left the village. If he located her, he would try to use his wiles to woo her back to the inn so that he could take care of her while it was just the two of them alone.

Sasuke had no luck at the first two places he went. Although he did acknowledge it was nice to get a bite to eat just so his stomach wasn't so empty - the last meal he had was when he and Sakura had met for lunch. Nothing seemed to be out of place, and he didn't hear any strange conversations. None of the faces looked familiar.

It was at the third establishment he went in that something peaked his interest. There was a table near the bar with three men and a woman eating. Sasuke was sure that they were in his booklet that he had looked at earlier….and, although Kanari's picture was not in the booklet he was given, the woman at the table looked very similar to Mei and could definitely pass as her sister.

Here we go…

Sasuke went to the bar and sat down near the table in question.

The bartender approached him. "What'll it be?"

"I'll just take a sake. Give me a tall glass," said Sasuke. "I need to drown my sorrows."

"I hear you mister," was the bartender's response before he went to pour the drink.

When he got back, he asked, "Is this big enough for you?"

"That'll do for now," answered Sasuke.

"What, did you lose your job or something?" asked the bartender.

"No," Sasuke answered. "I caught my girlfriend cheating on me. We kind of had it out and I decided to end it and come here. I'm from another village and it's too late to head back home."

"That's rough," answered the bartender.

Sasuke took a huge swig. He felt a pair of eyes burning into the back of his head. He heard whispers coming from the table. Although he couldn't quite hear them, he thought he heard, "Kanari, now is not the time…"

The next thing he knew, there was a beautiful woman standing behind him. She laid her hand on his shoulder. Sasuke reacted to her hand, then looked into her face. This woman, although not as beautiful as Mei Terumi, was still gorgeous. Sasuke could hardly believe a woman this beautiful was so ugly and jealous on the inside.

"Hi," Kanari said with a smile to Sasuke.

Sasuke took another swig of sake. "My, my…what have we here?" he said aloud. "Has anyone ever told you how gorgeous you are?"

Kanari feigned embarrassment, "Maybe a few times."

Sasuke used his body language to charm her even more. He turned so that he was open to her and no longer talked from the side. "Would you care to have a drink with me...?"

"Kanari. I'd love to," she answered and sat down. Sasuke was able to get a look at the three men who were there with her. She noticed his glance. "You don't have to worry about them. They were just leaving."

One of the men rolled his eyes. Sasuke could tell by looking at them that they were none too excited by her behavior. They pushed their chairs back and made their way to the front door. One turned before leaving. "Just make sure you are home by morning. We don't want to have to chase you down again...and we have preparations to make."

Kanari largely ignored the comment. "Now, where were we? You still haven't told me your name," she giggled to Sasuke.

"It's Himitsu," Sasuke said, not using his real name.

For not having gone on any seduction missions before (he was still fairly young, after all), Sasuke did a great job charming Kanari Terumi. What hooked her most of all was his feigned hatred of the Mizukage. Somehow they got on that subject and Sasuke easily fueled the fire once he had gotten it started.

It was only an hour later when Sasuke noted that Kanari was a tad bit tipsy and still had absolutely no idea that he was anyone other than a good looking guy drowning his sorrows who could use a good-looking woman for the evening. Sasuke pretended to drink as well, but actually had very little to drink. His mind stayed sharp.

Kanari leaned in so that her mouth was right next to Sasuke's ear. "I'm not from around here," she whispered. "But if you have a place we can go, I'd love to." She then nibbled his earlobe lightly...enough to send a couple of electric pulses down his spine. Although this was a mission, no one said he couldn't enjoy the perks along the way, right?

"As a matter of fact, I do," said Sasuke. "I'm not from around here either. My...er, ex-girlfriend lives here, but I made sure to get a room at the inn before dinner so I had a place to stay. I'm heading out in the morning."

"Nice planning," said Kanari.

"It most definitely wasn't my plan," said Sasuke. "I merely wanted a roof over my head tonight and I've heard the lodgings in this town aren't exactly plentiful."

"We'll just have to enjoy the one night we do share together, eh?" Kanari giggled. She stood up and grabbed Sasuke's hand and started to lead him from his seat. "Is it the inn on the west end of town?"

"Hai," answered Sasuke.

"Let's go then," she said tugging him along.

They walked down the street towards the inn with Kanari's hands wrapped around Sasuke's upper arm and her head leaning onto his shoulder as they walked. Any stranger would have thought these two had been dating for quite a while and hadn't just met only a few hours ago.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" asked Sasuke. "Aren't those men expecting you back?"

"You heard them," answered Kanari. "I only need to be back by morning."

"Who are they anyway?" asked Sasuke, wondering if she would divulge any critical information to him.

"Oh, them. They're just friends," she said in passing.

"If you say so," said Sasuke. "They looked a little ominous to me. Are you sure it's ok for you to be around them?"

Kanari laughed. "I'm pretty sure I'll be ok." She took a few more steps and spoke again in a more serious tone. "Himitsu? Can I trust you?"

"Of course," Sasuke lied. "Why do you ask?"

Kanari sighed a lonely sigh.

"What is it?" asked Sasuke. He knew his mission, but now that he was starting to get to know Kanari, he was having a hard time reconciling what he had been told about her with the gleeful, seductive, fiery, and now melancholy woman next to him.

"I'm...the Mizukage's sister," admitted Kanari.

"You're kidding," Sasuke said, still acting. "After all that bad stuff you said about her earlier?"

"I didn't say I liked her," said Kanari. "I just said she was my sister."

Kanari started to tear up and let out a couple of soft sobs.

"Let's go back to my room," said Sasuke. His heart was definitely being affected by her. Perhaps this wasn't the right thing to do after all. For now, he would take a wait-and-see attitude.

The two went to Sasuke's room. He asked the innkeeper to bring some tea and motioned for Kanari to sit at the table that was situated next to his bed.

"Now," said Sasuke, now acting a bit more like Sasuke and a little less like Himitsu.

"I-I don't think I can do this anymore," said Kanari.

"What? What is that that you can't do?" asked Sasuke.

"Those men...they aren't friends at all. They are all missing nins and they all want the Mizukage killed," she admitted.

"Why are you with them then?" asked Sasuke. "Haven't you reported them?"

"That's the problem!" she yelled and stood up from the table. "I-I don't know what I want anymore. Mei has made my life hell ever since we were little. She was always perfect...beautiful, talented, attracted the most boys, she was better than me at everything! I was sick of it. I thought...I thought I wanted her gone. When those shinobi approached me to help them..."

Hn. So she didn't initiate it. "And now you don't?" asked Sasuke.

"I still don't like her. But I don't think this is the right answer," she told him. "What am I going to do? If they find out that I don't want to do this anymore...Oh, Himistu, I'm so sorry I dragged you into this!"

Sasuke sat there and thought about the situation for a few moments before making any rash judgments either way. After sitting in silence for well over a minute, Sasuke looked at Kanari and said, "I think you are making the right choice by not going through with it."

"You do?" she asked.

"I once had a brother who I hated. He, too, was the gifted one in the family and I had to listen to my parents go on and on about his talents. I was always being compared to him and for the longest time, I felt that I was not loved as much as he was. As a result, I made many poor assumptions about my brother and ended up apart from him for many years," said Sasuke.

"Did you end up reconciling?" she asked.

Sasuke sighed. "Yes, but it was too late."

"What do you mean 'too late'?" Kanari asked.

"He's dead," said Sasuke. "It's difficult to explain, but yes, in the end we did make up. It happened literally a few seconds before he was gone."

"Oh Himitsu, I'm so sorry," said Kanari.

"Even the parents who I thought were playing favorites weren't being as harsh as I had once thought - I simply misread their intentions as well. I never did get to apologize to them properly before they were killed." Sasuke looked up so that he was looking right into Kanari's eyes. "But it isn't too late for you two, Kanari. I can help you...you just have to trust me."

"O-ok," she answered.

Knock-knock

Sasuke and Kanari both turned their heads towards the door to Sasuke's room