Sakura yawned noisily beneath her porcelain mask as she sleepily stumbled towards the large building that was known as the ANBU headquarters. Reflecting on how cold the porcelain was against her face, she lazily stepped past the shinobi guarding the entrance, and shuffled down the plain, white hallway towards room 37. She shivered. Her footsteps echoed down the hallway as she took each step. It was eerie how much it reminded her of walking throughout the sterile white hallways in the ever familiar Konoha Hospital. Finally, she came to room 37, and pushed the door open as slowly as possible.
The wooden door swung open, and the figure of Tsunade sitting at her large mahogany desk came into view. The Hokage ushered her in with a careless wave of her hand, and a facial expression that Sakura knew all too well. She couldn't understand why her ex-sensei was giving her this look... Her former sensei was up to something and apparently, it had to do with her. She hated it when Tsunade entertained herself with her life...
She shivered slightly as she sunk into the cushion of one of the four chairs in front of the Hokage's large desk. She raised her masked bright green eyes to meet soft brown ones, those of Tsunade. She eyed her for a few seconds, Tsunade all the while wearing a mischievous smirk. Her gaze broke as a figure quietly stepped into the room. That is to say, there were two figures, but Sakura only noticed one.
Beneath her mask, Sakura's mouth was hanging wide open in shock as the two men took the two seats to her left. The ANBU closest to her nodded her way in recognition, and the other faced the Hokage attentively. The familiar man beside her faced her for a few moments, Sakura all the while feeling, even through the barrier covering her face, the piercing gaze of Kiba's boring through her mask.
"Listen up." Tsunade said, catching their attention. Sakura felt her heart sink lower in her chest as the attentiveness disappeared and they both looked to the Hokage suddenly, tearing their gaze from each other. "I assigned you three to this mission because I want S- ... her." She paused, almost saying her name, but instead just nodded in her direction. "To go on a mission with some older, more seasoned ANBU. I hope that you will treat her with the utmost respect. " She paused again, glaring in the direction of the brunette ANBU beside Kiba. "And no doubt, you two know who each of you really is, but since she would rather not reveal her name at the moment, I'd rather you address each other with aliases until she feels inclined to let you know her true name." Sakura felt her heart drop even lower when she saw that the Hokage was again, smiling that same 'I'm-up-to-something-you-better-watch-out' look. She watched as the sannin reached out and handed Kiba a scroll. "I'm putting you in charge, now, get out of my sight." She said, waving her hand again. They stood, and stepped lightly towards the door. "Oh, and I would like you to keep a kind of ... journal of the happenings during this mission."
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"Ah, so we meet again... Achika." Kiba said, placing a hand on her left shoulder familiarly. Sakura looked up at him smilingly, not that he could see it, but the gesture was all the same.
"So... who is your friend Ka-" Another masculine voice began, his voice too smooth for Sakura's comfort. The other ANBU paused as he looked to Kiba questioningly. "What should I call you?"
"Kiba."
"All right. Who's your beautiful friend Kiba?" The ANBU practically slid to her other side, wrapping his arm around her waist in an almost too friendly way. Sakura turned her gaze to his masked one slowly, scowling. She had a pretty accurate guess of who the shinobi was, or a few names of who he could be anyway. She glared at him through the slits used for vision on her mask for several seconds, until he slowly stepped away, sensing her anger.
"Already laid a claim on this one?" He asked, glancing up to his friend, the smoothness gone from his voice and demeanor. Seconds later he felt a fist abruptly collide with his stomach, knocking the air out of his lungs.
"No one 'claims' me." She growled, turning on her heel and stepping through the city's gate. Secretly, she was grinning to herself in satisfaction. He had to have known that she was going to hit him, and obviously had been expecting her to hit him with a weak punch. She had risked exposing her identity, using just a bit of the extreme human strength she'd learned from Tsunade to take out her anger on the ANBU.
"Damn." She heard him say behind her, "OK, I apologize." He said, sounding as if he respected her a bit more, although a bit wary of her talents. "My name is... Kei." He said, speeding up to walk beside her. She glanced to her right to see Kiba following between them. "I hope you'll forgive me and tell me your name."
She sighed and stopped in her tracks. Without a word she turned to face Kiba for a few silent seconds. "... Is he always like this?" She asked after several seconds. After seeing him nod in reply, she turned to face Kei. "Achika."
"Okay Achika, do you agree with me that we should wait to leave until we've at least read the scroll?" She stopped in her tracks at his statement, hearing the cruel tone behind it. Blushing intensely beneath her mask, she slowly walked over to Kiba.
Beneath her breath she muttered, "Is he trying to make a fool of me?" She waited for Kiba to reply, but he only opened the scroll for her to see. She scanned the page thoroughly, reading every bit of important information written. 'Not too important a mission, just get the pendant, (pictured) from (Also pictured) rouge nin. It's worth millions, Blah Blah Blah. Assassinate the nin, he's wanted in a few shinobi countries for murders in the non-shinobi, and shinobi villages. Blah Blah Blah, assassinate or if possible apprehend the thief and bring him back to Konoha for a little fun.' Sakura paused. She knew what that meant. Interrogation, or in other words, Morino Ibiki was about to get a new client.
She glanced up to see Kei and Kiba reading the scrawl of Tsunade's handwriting too. She waited for them to finish reading and then she asked, a bit offended "This isn't really an ANBU ranked mission is it?"
Kiba formed the hand seals and the scroll burst into flames. "On the contrary, if he's wanted in several shinobi countries, he must be somewhat talented." Rolling up the scroll, he turned to Kei and asked in a pleasant tone of voice, "Don't you agree?"
Kei paused. Then after a few seconds he stated rawly, "No, he's got to be more than talented, he's got to be skilled."
Silence ensued until Kiba pointedly suggested, "We should get going."
They all nodded and followed his lead in the direction of the rogue countries. However, after a bit, he was kind enough to slow down a bit and wait for Sakura as Kei scouted ahead. They leapt through the trees and conversed quietly, laughing at the coincidence that they were both to end up on this mission together..
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Later they stopped to eat a small lunch, and Sakura was surprised to find that Kiba sat beside her. He offered her some of his potato chips, and she accepted gratefully, although she was reminded faintly of lunch time at school. When Kei, who was sitting directly in front of them, stood to get something from his pack, Kiba leaned over and said, "To answer your earlier question, he's not always so annoying, but you have to get used to him. He will try to make a fool out of you if you do so to him. A Shinobi's pride..." He trailed off, shoving a potato chip beneath his porcelain mask and into his mouth.
Sakura sighed, resisting the urge to laugh at the comical scene her friend made while eating. He was sitting beside her, his back to the same, extremely large, tree trunk that she was leaning against. Every few seconds or so he would reach his hand through the bottom of his mask and shove the food into his mouth. Sighing again, she laid her head back against the tree, and sunk down slowly until she was lying flat on the ground, looking at the clear bright blue sky for a few seconds before her eyes drifted closed.
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She awoke to Kiba leaning over her, saying her name softly. She blinked her eyes slowly, convinced that she was dreaming. When he didn't disappear, she impulsively reached her arms up, around his neck, pulling him towards her. He steadily came closer, and closer, until that other familiar voice coming from behind them said with a bit of humor evident in his voice, "I knew it..."
She abruptly let her arms drop, feeling a red hot heat appearing on her cheeks, signaling that she was yet again blushing beneath her mask. Apparently, she hadn't been dreaming... Her cheeks began to burn even more when Kiba didn't move from his former position that she'd so generously helped him into. Holding her breath, she looked directly at him, still unable to see his eyes despite their close proximity. He was probably laughing at her beneath that mask of his. Neither of them spoke or moved, and probably wouldn't have if Kei hadn't started laughing rather loudly behind them. In half of a second Kiba was standing beside the brunette shinobi, the later rubbing his chest as if someone had just hit him.
Fweeeeee. So VERY much fun. Ok. So I tried to make a little 'Moment' Happen. Did it work? I don't know, this is getting quite confusing with the masks... I guess I'll have to trash 'em soon.
Wow. So ... yes. I hope you keep reading and reviewing, it makes me very happy when you do. Very Very VERY happy. But not disturbingly happy because ... well ... that would be disturbing.
I want to thank all of you who continuously review. It has made me feel very special and ... as I said, has kept me going. Yay!
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Thanks so much!
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