Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any Naruto ideas, concepts or characters.

Origonal Characters: Jin and Mai are my own (grin) as always.

LadyRine: (blush) aww cool i have addicts and fans (grin) awsome! Thank you so much for all of your encouraging and entousiastic reviews I'm so glad that you all like my fic so much. I'm extremnely flattered!

as promised i'm doing my best to keep up with updates. I better write faster now (sdrop) you guys are reading faster than i can write, heh...

i hope you guys enjoy the next couple of chapters.

(heart) always

--Lady Rine.


Act 13: Mission2- Escort (part1)

"Do you accept?" Tsunande looked at her team.

"Hai!" They chimed together.

Once again the team consisted of Haruno Sakura, Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke and Naroutou Jin.

"Good, appointed team captain is Uzumaki Naruto." She handed Naruto an instruction scroll. "Don't mess this up you idiot!"

"I won't! Don't worry." Naruto smiled and gave her the cool guy pose.

"So who are we Escorting?" Jin asked curiously.

"She is the Hidden Rain's Ambassador, daughter of their Kage." Tsunande said.

Sasuke cringed slightly, Naruto's jaw dropped heavily. Only Sakura and Jin seemed to not know who she was.

"Why are we escorting her? This is B-rank stuff, we're ANBU." Jin looked over at Sasuke and Naruto. "Well most of us anyway.

Tsunande furrowed her brows and pressed her fingers on her forehead. "A young lady of such high importance is to be escorted by ANBU, Jin, do not question my orders again."

Sakura was peering out the window once again. It was raining that day, and she was not in the greatest mood, it was just "one of those days".

A hyperactive young woman with black hair that fell to her shoulders suddenly barged into Tsunande's office. Naruto jumped and Sasuke stiffened they both knew her well. Jin turned and welcomed the young lady who ignored him. Sakura didn't budge or show any sign of interest at all. The short female scanned the room, and spotting a certain charcoal haired man, let out a screeching sound that scared the living daylights out of Jin, Tsunande and Naruto.

"SASU-KUN!" Squeel. She dashed towards him and clung to his arm. "I'M SO HAPPY TO SEE YOU SASU-KUN!"

Sasuke tried to shake her off his arm, s-drop­. "What the hell? Get off me! And I told you not to call me that!"

The girl just continued nuzzling him. "AWW! SASU-KUN IS SO CUTE WHEN HE PLAYS HARD TO GET!" Nuzzle. Nuzzle.

Twitch. Twitch. "GET OFF ME!" Sasuke roared.

The five of them commenced their journey. Sasuke had managed to pry the annoying girl off of him and walked behind them. About a foot in front of him was Sakura. Jin was walking in front and Naruto walked along side the Ambassador.

"Neh, Mai-chan." Naruto began looking over at the black haired girl. "Wasn't your hair shorter the last time we saw you?"

"YUP!" Mai squealed. "I decided to grow it out!"

"Ahh… how come?"

"Because I heard that Sasu-kun likes girls with long hair." She gleamed.

Sasuke cringed. And muttered in a voice so low only he could hear it. "Stupid annoying girl…"

Sakura heard him and giggled a little bit.

"What are you laughing at?" Sasuke scoffed at Sakura.

"Nothing…" She said trying to hold it in.

"You're a bad liar you know that." He caught up with her and they were walking side by side not.

"No I'm not." She said grinning.

"NEH! SASU-KUN! YOU LIKE GIRLS WITH LONG HAIR RIGHT!" The girl screamed.

"STOP CALLING ME THAT!" Sasuke roared.

Again Sakura did her best to restrain herself from laughing. Mai had returned to her conversation with Naruto and even Jin had joined in with them.

"Stop laughing at me…" Sasuke said coolly.

"I'm not…" She said grinning widely.

"Just let it out…" He was getting annoyed.

Sakura decided to take this opportunity to mock Sasuke. She turned and faced him gave him her best puppy dog face and in the most baby-ish voice she could mimic she sang out

"Sasu-kun!" Sakura then burst out laughing.

Jin looked back. He saw Sakura laughing and Sasuke Grinning. "Damn Uchiha…" He thought to himself. "Sakura will be mine."

"Are you done now?" Sasuke asked her.

"Yeah, I'm good… Sasu-kun" She stuck her tongue out at him.

Sasuke grinned, if this were anyone else mocking him, he would probably kill them. But this wasn't anyone else… this was Sakura… and since it was Sakura, Sasuke didn't seem to mind. He even seemed to enjoy it.

Mai's ear twitched and turned sharply to glare at the couple… mainly Sakura.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING MY SASU-KUN, SASU-KUN?" She barked.

"Your Sasu-kun?" Sakura blinked then glanced at Sasuke.

"MY SASU-KUN!" she wailed.

Sasuke stepped in front of Sakura. "I AM NOT YOUR SASU-KUN! AND STOP CALLING ME THAT!"

"WHAAAAAAAAAAA! NARU-KUN! SASU-KUN IS BEING MEAN TO ME!"

S-drop on everyone but Mai.

Jin stepped beside Sakura. "Sasuke is right… Sasuke-san is a free man. He belongs to no one… right Sakura?" Jin slyly slipped his arm around her thin waist and pulled her slightly closer to him.

Sakura feeling uncomfortable pulled free from Jin and started to walk away from them all. "Right…" She answered as she passed them.

Mai looked at Sasuke who was watching Sakura walk ahead of them all.

"How come when the weird pink-haired girl calls you 'Sasu-Kun' you don't get mad? DO you like her better than me!" She whined.

"Ultimately yes." Sasuke answered rather bluntly.

"AWWW!" She cried. "WHY?"

Jin and Naruto looked at him funny… Naruto smiled while Jin scoffed.

"It's like you heard… I like girls with long hair." He smirked and glared at Jin then stuffed his hands into his pockets and began to walk after Sakura who was already a good distance into the setting sun.