Make Believe
Chapter four
By evil mittens

The rain poured down, leaving muddy puddles in the dirt. Blood streamed out of an open mouth of a man, as his bruised and bloody body hit the earthy ground. His other comrades suffered the same fate as him, and were now lying variously across the forest ground.

"Let's go," Said a muffled voice.

Naruto looked up, wincing. "Come on Sakura-chan; we're nearly on our death bed and all you can do is ask us to get up and head back?"

He watched her masked face turn towards him. He swore that he could feel in smirk emitting underneath her disguise. "Well that's not my fault, is it? After all, it wasn't my idea to force myself to stay back and watch you guys fight until you're "on your death bed," was it?"

Naruto pushed the mask off and he brushed the blood off his chin with his grimy sleeve. "I was only trying to protect you," he said, his azure eyes burning into her, "You know I made a promise that I would protect you no matter what."

It was Naruto and Sasuke's promise… to protect her no matter what. Her eyes were starting to brim with tears. She was glad that Naruto couldn't see her eyes.

She answered back in a surprisingly sharp voice. "Alright, let's really go now. You're almost healed, anyway."

The boisterous man looked down at his hands. The deep cuts had healed. "Great. I think the others will be fine too – after you heal them?" He looked at her questionably.

"Right," she murmured, as she shuffled over to her teammates and gathered some glowing blue chakra to heal their wounds.

Naruto groaned as he entered through the gates of Konoha. He complained to Sakura, "I still have to write up the stupid report of the mission for the old hag."

"Don't call her a hag, Naruto," she chided, "and what's so hard about writing a report? One page and you're done."

He mimicked Tsunade, "It's not good enough… blah, blah, blah." He waved his arms around. "Now get out of the room, I have work to do."

"Well, you obviously did something wrong."

He smiled, "There was nothing wrong with me, and she was just high on sake."

"Whatever," she said, "I can't even believe that you of all people were made captain of the ANBU team."

Naruto swallowed his saliva. "Well, Neji and I usually take turns, 'cause only hell knows what would happen if it were always me who's in charge."

"Naruto-kun, Sakura-chan!" called a voice.

Sakura smiled and waved while Naruto swung around and broke into a huge smile. "Hinata-chan!" He was ecstatic.

He ran over and gave her a loud over-exaggerated peck on the lips.

The timid woman blushed. "Naruto…"

Sakura grinned broadly. If there was ever a contest for the sweetest couple, she knew whom she'd nominate.

Naruto was already beginning to yap away. "How are you? I haven't found a ramen stand during the entire mission. Let's go now! Four days without ramen really kills a guy."

It was miraculous how he could make not eat ramen sound like it was causing him intense suffering.

Hinata looked at him knowingly. "It doesn't kill a guy, it'd only kill you."

He held his hands up in false surrender. "Alright, it only kills me; now I'm dying. Let's go, already!"

"I don't think so. You're going to go back home and take a shower first." Hinata smiled. "Oh yah," she mumbled, "Sakura-chan, do you want to come along with us afterwards? You deserve a treat."

The petite pink-haired kunoichi gave a face. "No thanks. I'm not a big fan of ramen."

Naruto pouted at his childhood crush. "You say that every time, Sakura-chan. Why don't you just come along with us?"

She ignored him and grinned at Hinata. "Thank you for asking though, but I should really go home and get some rest."

Naruto scoffed, "Man, is that all women think about? Beauty rest? Pft," he said with annoyance.

Sakura gave him an evil smile. "At least I'm not the one who only thinks about ramen all day," her eyes narrowed, "You're lucky that I'm not that one who usually treats you either." She looked pointedly over at Hinata, who nodded profoundly.

"Beauty rest isn't the only thing I think about, right Naruto­-kun?" asked Hinata in a rather forced sweet voice.

He shrugged with no concern whatsoever. "If you say so. Let's go," he said to Hinata. "Back to home, I mean. I need to take a shower."

Hinata smiled softly. She loved it when he was so dense. "Alright," she said. God, she gave in too easily.

Sakura cranked open an eyelid and glanced over at her clock. "Damn," she muttered to no one in particular. It was five minutes to midnight and she had just finished her short one-hour nap.

After a lot of persuasion from Naruto and a promise that he'd treat her out for a drink one night, she agreed to write up the mission report for him. 'Why the hell do I get myself into these kinds of things?'

Her emerald green eyes glazed over the muddy papers. Naruto had scribbled down a few notes to remind himself what had happened throughout the mission. Sakura narrowed her eyes at Naruto's chicken scrawl and mentally scolded at herself for getting into this mess. Unfortunately for Sakura, the ANBU captain was never good in school.

Sakura banged her head on the desk, 'These don't make sense!'

Finally after 3 hours of curses and frustration, Sakura set the finished product on the desk in a neat pile. The kunoichi fell back onto the soft, down duvets in exhaustion. She soon fell back to sleep.

Light shown through the curtains and woke the pink hair woman up with a start. She squinted at the bright sun and flipped over onto her stomach. It was still early out. There was enough time to grab some breakfast before she met up with the noisy blonde. Sakura quickly got out of bed and got ready for the new day. A fresh breeze hit her as she walked out of her door and descended down the apartment stairs. Sakura headed towards the direction of the Hokage's tower, but stopped at a taiyaki shop first. She always had a strange craving for sweets, and could even eat them early in the morning. Sakura placed her order a long with a few baked buns. She sorted out her change and gave it to the woman at the counter and watched intently as the woman picked up the pastry snacks for her. Sakura gratefully thanked the woman and continued her way eating her breakfast.

There weren't a lot of people on the streets yet. It was still early, and normal people were still sleeping. One or two elderly villagers acknowledge her, and she waved and bid them good day. As usually, Naruto had not arrived yet. But he showed up a few minutes after Sakura had arrived. Sakura, knowing her best friend well, had left her apartment late and walked extra slow. Naruto, being Naruto, bolted out the door without combing his hair and ran all the way to the Hokage's tower.

"Sakura-chan!"

Sakura shot the irresponsible blonde an annoyed glare, "Don't Sakura-chan me! Do you know how long it took me to read your chicken scrawl crap?"

"Ehh… Sakura-chan, you actually read it?"

Sakura blew strands of her hair out of her eyes, "No, I gave up after an hour and made up my own."

Naruto grinned widely and hugged her, "I knew you could finish it! Thanks Sakura-chan."

She handed him the report and watched him scanned through it.

"It's so neat! You could have written a bit uglier… Now Tsunade-Obaa-san's gonna yell at me for doing my own report."

"Serves you right."

Naruto pouted. "But, Sakura-chan… Don't you care if I get into trouble?"

"No."

"You're so mean…"

Before Sakura could reply, a voice came down the stairs, "Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura, Tsunade-sama wishes to speak with you."

The two best friends looked at each other in surprise and followed the order. The climbed up the winding stairs and walked down the hallway towards Tsunade's office. Two guards pushed opened the heavy mahogany doors. Tsunade sat behind the wooden desk, she gestured them to sit down in the chairs in front of her.

"We have a new mission that just came in. It's a B rank mission from a small village north of Konoha."

She took out a creamy vanilla coloured folder and handed to them.

"You will assist this man, Matsushita Fuku to the borders of Hidden Rain village. You will go as a four-man team."

Sakura eyebrows rose, "Another mission, we just came back yesterday. What's the history behind this man? Why does he need protection from us?"

The fifth Hokage sighed. "Matsushita Fuku is a very wealthy, yet greedy man. He's going to Rain for some business, money matters." She added dryly. "A man like him probably has a few enemies after him as well. He originally wanted the highest protection he could buy. But, naturally, I can't make it an S or A rank mission. You will go as regular jounins for this mission. But there's currently controversy starting to brew between Mist and Grass again. So make sure to bring your ANBU uniform with you. If something starts, I'll send a bird over to trace you guys; you will start on the new assignment then."

"EHHH! What a boring mission Tsuande-Obaa-san! Why can't you make little chuunin do it?"

Tsunade shot Naruto an irritated glare, "He's paying us a lot of money; if we want him to come back, we must send him decent shinobis!

Naruto huffed, "How much?"

"This much"

Sakura eyed the piece of paper. 'That is a lot of zeros…'

Naruto's eyes nearly popped out of his sockets. "Okay, okay, I get the message."

Sakura looked up from the piece of paper, "Who else is coming with us?"

"Neji and Kisho. I have already informed them about this, you will leave tomorrow at sunrise to the village. It should take you around 2 days to get to Rain. Once you reach there, you will stay overnight and then return home if nobody's come to meet you. Take care."

Sakura woke up bright and early that morning. She quickly stuffed her belongings into a small backpack, along with her ANBU uniform and some black hair dye. The Hokage had made it clear to her that she must not stand out in the group. She was to bring her dye to every ANBU mission and follow the 10 minutes procedure to get the desire colour. Sakura scanned her apartment to make sure everything was turned off before she locked her door. The streets were quietly eerie and the sound of her footsteps echo throughout the streets. Even if it was still dark out, she could hear birds chirping quietly in the background.

Raising her eyes off the ground she could make out two silhouettes in the distance. A happy blonde and a happy brunette stood next to each other waving ecstatically to Sakura.

'How can they even be so happy so early in the morning?'

"Sakura-chan! This is Kisho; he likes to eat ramen too!"

Kisho laughed merrily, "Not as much as you Uzumaki-san!" He turned to Sakura and held out his hand, "I'm Yamamato Kisho! Twenty-two years old, and I just got into ANBU!" He took Sakura's hand and shook it enthusiastically. Still holding Sakura's hand, he turned back to Naruto, "Where's Hyuuga-san? Shouldn't we leave soon? Would we make it there on time?"

Naruto laughed, "He'll be coming soon! He might be grumpy at first… and probably very serious. He might have a look like this!" Naruto made a funny scowling face and pouted. "But once you get to know him, he's actually a softy!"

A shadow fell between the two laughing idiots. Sakura smirked as they looked up to find the very person they were talking about.

"H-hyuuga-san!"

"Neji!" Naruto stole a glance at Kisho, "We were just…"

"Talking about me?"

"Err… no of course not."

Neji huffed, "Anyway, I went to see the Hokage this morning. She's appointed me captain for this mission. She also gave me communication devices, and more information folders."

Naruto sulked, "Why do you get to be captain?"

The Byakugan choose to ignore him, "We should leave now, or we'll be late arriving at the village."

The other three nodded, and the four of them started to walk to the gates of Konoha. Naruto and Kisho chatted animatedly up front, while Sakura and Neji brought up the rear.

Sakura glanced at her friend walking beside her, "What took you so long? You couldn't have taken that long talking to Tsunade. Did you just have a hit and run with Ten Ten?"

Neji looked away "Shut up Haruno; I wouldn't do such things." He added gruffly.

The bubble-gum haired girl smirked, "Then why are your lips all swollen?"

Neji's ears turned red and he unconsciously clamped his mouth shut. Sakura turned around and looked back at him thoughtfully. "You have lipstick on your lips too."

The poor raven-haired shinobi hastily tried to rub the evidence off, until he realized… "Ten Ten didn't wear lipstick this morning!"

Sakura only smiled as a fuming Neji followed her. Once they stepped out of the Konoha gates, they quickly sprinted off to the northern village.

They arrived at the village just in time. Neji had already informed the group about the "enemies" and strategize what to do if something was to happen to Fuku. Fuku and his men were arriving to their meeting spot. The young group of ANBUs were hiding in the trees, observing the man. What seem to be an army of five men were carrying a large carriage fit for a King. They stood still, waiting for the special jounins to grace their presence. The group hopped off the tree branches and stepped out of the shadows. The men almost dropped the heavy carriage in surprise.

"What are you doing, you fools!" asked a loud anxious voice.

"S-s-sorry Matsushita-sama. The jounins from Konoha are here."

A hand pushed away the curtains and revealed a medium built man. He was short, with apprehensive beady eyes and thinning grey hair. He looked down at the group haughtily and nodded at them.

"Well! What you waiting for? Let's go!"

He withdrew his head and the curtains fell into place. The Konoha grouped looked at each other and quickly got into place. Neji and Kisho were leading the pack, while Sakura and Naruto brought up the back. The rest of the day went smoothly. There were constant breaks for the tired men, and continuous nags and whines from the old man.

"Get me some water, boy!" Matsushita demanded Naruto.

Sakura pulled Naruto away from the man, before he could say something. She half dragged him into the forest towards the stream, parallel to the path. The young man struggled beneath Sakura's grip, until she stopped.

"Let go of me! I'll teach that old fart a lesson. Who does he think he is? Who does he think I am!"

Sakura's eye twitched irritably. "Listen," She said harshly, "Just do what he says, and… just think of all the ramen you can buy, once you get paid."

Naruto stopped for a minute to daydream about the mountains of ramen, "But Sakura-chan! We're ninjas. Jounins! ANBUs!"

The woman clamped his mouth shut with her hand. "What are you trying to do? Tell the whole world!"

Naruto edge away from Sakura a bit. Tempers between the group of jounins were flying high. Sakura was ready to bite someone's head off.

He gave his friend an understanding look. "It's almost night fall; but we can still walk a bit more. We're close the Rain boarders anyway. It shouldn't be long before we get there tomorrow, if we walk one or two kilometres more. Plus, the sooner we get there the sooner we get ride of him."

Sakura gave a curt nod, and head back towards to group. Once the pair re-joined the group, Naruto went over to Neji to tell him the plan.

Matsushita eyed them, his face turning purple. Naruto finished talking to Neji, and he seemed to agree with him. That's when Matsushita exploded.

"HEY, BOY, YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO GET MY WATER!"

Naruto's face was drawn; Sakura could tell what was going through his mind. "Sorry," he muttered.

He walked back towards the stream, swearing under his breath. "Stupid bastard."

The next morning, the mismatched group woke up bright and early. Not even the two noisy ones were in a good mood. They had found out throughout the night that Matsushita was not a quiet sleeper.

The team continue to make their way to Rain, as the sun rose. Thankfully, they were almost done, and the shinobis had something to look forward to. Sakura rubbed the sleepiness out of her eyes and staggered her way through. Matsushita was still rambling on about who knows what.

Sakura looked around at her team-mates, and quietly giggled to herself when she saw Kisho's face. He was talking quietly to Kisho about his favourite topic: ramen. Kisho nodded politely at his comrade, while making a strange face as Naruto continued to talk.

Sakura's eyes met with Kisho's. She gave him a sympatric look; she understood perfectly what he was feeling. How many times has she been caught listen to the blonde ramble off? Kisho was now clearly shooting her a "help me" look.

"Hey Naruto, why don't go join Neji at the back? He's all by himself."

"Ah! Good idea Sakura-chan! I can tell him my story about that nasty ramen place on Fifth Avenue. I had to sit in the bathroom for so long after I ate there! I stunk up the whole bathroom!" And with that, Naruto bounced to where Neji was walking, but not before he shot the hidden Matsushita the finger.

The bubble-gum hair woman shook her head. Neji wasn't going to be happy about this arrangement. 'Serves him right, he made Naruto come up to the front when he found out the new rotation was with Naruto.'

"Thank you Haruno-san!" He gave her a grateful look and shook his head as well. "I've never met a guy so obsessed with ramen."

Sakura laughed, "That's Naruto for you."

Kisho laughed merrily along with her, "Yup!"

By mid-day they've finally arrived at the Rain borders. The army of men set Matsushita down and the man got out of his carriage. A group of strange looking men were gathered within the borders waiting for them. Matsushita pulled out a big parcel from his carriage and walked over to the men. They gathered around, and watched their bosses exchange their items. Matsushita came back with a large bag with rolls of cash sticking out of it.

Kisho and Naruto's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. Matsushita waved to the Rain men as they retreated back. Matsushita turned to the Konoha nins and gave them a cheeky grin.

"Thank you for your hard work." He pulled some cash out of the bag, "I'm feeling generous, so keep this as tips."

Matsushita handed each a wad of cash and gave some to his men too. And with that, Matsushita's group head back to the village, while the jounins proceeded into Rain.

Naruto skipped along merrily as he counted his money with Kisho. Sakura rolled her eyes, "You better put that away before someone robs you."

Naruto scoffed, "I'll beat them up before they can lay a singer finger on my money!" But he obediently stuffed the money into his pocket.

They flashed their ID's to the Rain guards and stepped inside the village.

Naruto yawned and stretched his arms. "Let's go eat, or find somewhere to spend all this money."

Neji put up his hands to stop the crazy blonde, "You shouldn't buy so much stuff here. If we have another mission, how are you going to drag all of the stuff around?"

The blonde scowled at Neji's logic, "Fine, let's go find a ramen shop! Come on Kisho! Let's go eat!"

But, before they could move another inch, a grand bald eagle swooped down with a piece scroll in his claws. The group looked at one another and raced off to the hotel they were staying at, where it was less public.

Sakura brushed her freshly dyed black bangs out of her masked faced. The stubborn strands of hair bounced back to its original state, separate then those that were held back with a hair tie. She sighed in annoyance as they ran through the leafy forest. The once, pink-hair woman looked up at the darken sky and silently prayed that it wouldn't rain. The dye claimed it would wash out after eight washings, but it was cheap, so who knew?

Sounds of metal clashing against each other could be heard now. They were getting closer to their destination. Neji signalled for them to take out their weapons and prepare for attack. Sakura reached behind her to grab the handle of her sword and pulled it out from its scabbard. Her blade gleamed in the darkness, threatening anything that'll get close to it. Sakura drew it close to her as she slowly creped towards the fighting.

She peered down at the scene below. Blood was spewed on the dusty ground. Random bodies were scattered around the remaining fighting group, still gasping for breath. They needed help fast, Sakura had to get down there and help them. The enemies were still fighting with Sakura's fellow ANBU comrades.

'They know we're here.'

They watched above the trees for a chance to attack. Finally, there was an opening. Neji quickly signalled for them to go down and attack. Sakura jumped off the branch and landed near several injured ANBUs. She propped two older ANBUs, against her shoulder and helped them move away from the scene of the crime. Her team spread out in front of her, standing there in case anyone of the opposing team attacked her. Naruto snuck back to the scene and dragged some more people for Sakura to heal. Sakura was healing them as fast as she can, only nursing serious wounds. The clients were luckily not as injured, and didn't need that much treatment.

Her teammates were already out there fighting when another team of ANBU had arrived; lead by none other by Hatake Kakashi himself. They sat above the trees, watching them. They were waiting for something outrageous to happen. Sakura looked around at the remaining fighters. The enemies were clearly out numbered with the overwhelming number of Konoha shinobis.

There were only two left of them and they were drawing to their own limit. But just then, the hairs at the back of Sakura's neck prickled. Someone was coming, and they were coming at a fast rate. She looked around until she saw blur coming towards them. Sakura jumped out of the shadows and blocked the attackers first attack with the blade of her sword. The sound of the metal blades rang in her ear. His attack came fast and hard; she struggled to keep his attack from slicing through her.

She focused her charka to her gloved hand, and let go a tremendous push at her attacker. Sakura wiped her gloved hand against her black pants. She didn't have much energy to fight after all the healing she had done. She looked up at her attacker for the first time. She blinked back in surprise. She found herself staring right into a pair of swirling red eyes.

They belonged to the last member of the Uchiha clan, Uchiha Sasuke.

A/N: Waves sheepishly

Sorry AGAIN for taking forever to come up with these chapters (it's been almost 5 months now). I'll try my best to update again by the end of this month… I'll try. Sorry about Kakashi being OOC and Sakura being abnormally strong. But this is fanfiction after all. So I can make them do anything :P Which includes making them jump off a bridge. But seriously, SORRY! Smiles Thank you for the reviews and criticism! They helped me a lot, writing this chapter and future chapters. And of course, special thanks to my beta. Thanks so much! Till next time! (Whenever that'll be) laughs evilly