Author's Note: Thank you so much for the reviews, follows and favorites! I'm really glad that you like this AU fanfic, Altair-Ezio-Two Assassins (insert ultra happy face).

Chapter 6: The Konoha Kingdom


Sakura's POV

"We're here!"

I sighed in relief when I heard Naruto announcing that we had reached the Konoha Kingdom. I wasn't really in my best condition and my whole body was starting to ache from all the horse riding. And I blamed Ino for my exhaustion and sleepiness.

When I returned to our room last night after my encounter with Sasuke, my face was still flushed. Ino, obviously, noticed how red my face was and asked me about it. I ignored her initially but if she dropped the topic, she wouldn't be called Ino Yamanaka.

So after a long period of forceful persuasion from my loud and annoying best friend, I finally gave in and told her what happened.

And, naturally, she just had to make a huge fuss out of it.

"I think he's interested in you! This is great, Sakura. He might be the prince you have been waiting for!"

Those were Ino's words from last night which stayed glued on my mind. No matter how much I wanted it to go away; it stubbornly remained in my thoughts.

As if that annoying and arrogant Sasuke Uchiha was the prince of my dream. He might be unbelievably good-looking, a skillful swordsman and there were times he was simply captivating, he just couldn't be the one.

Or could he?

I shook my head, attempting to get rid of the thought forcefully. I had more important things to do as of now.

There was a gate at the entrance to the Konoha Kingdom. Shikamaru was about to go nearer to inspect it but it opened on its own all of a sudden. Someone from the other side must have noticed our arrival.

When the gate was fully opened, we caught sight of two men standing behind it. One of them had a cloth over his nose while the other had long brown bangs covering one of his eyes. Both of them wore the same headband, which had a leaf symbol on it. They seemed nice but I could sense that they were putting their guards up. We were foreigners, after all.

"Who are you?" The man with long brown bangs said as he narrowed his eyes in suspicion. I guessed this kingdom rarely had tourists.

Shikamaru introduced himself and the rest of us one after the other. I saw that the man with a bandage over his nose seemed taken aback when he found out who we were. He cleared his throat before asking us a question.

"What have brought you here?"

"Recently, there was an attack in the Haruno Kingdom and we found out that Orochimaru is behind it. We are here to gather more information about him, whom we know originated from the Konoha Kingdom."

Upon hearing Shikamaru mentioning Orochimaru's name, the two guards stiffened immediately. They exchanged glances with each other before coming to a silent conclusion.

"I'll bring you to the queen." The man with long brown bangs said and got onto his horse. His partner stayed by the gate while we followed our escort to where the queen was.

I wondered what sort of person was the queen.

We passed by the town area and I was rather surprised to see how peaceful it was. The civilians seemed happy and some of them even smiled at us. To receive such pleasant greetings despite being foreigners warmed my heart.

The Konoha Kingdom was one of the main Hidden Kingdoms. We knew almost nothing about them and I expected the place to have a tense atmosphere. However, I somehow found myself liking the place even though I had just arrived.

When I caught sight of the castle on top of a hill, I gawked at how beautiful it was. Red and orange were the dominant colors, making the castle looking like it was covered in flame. And yet, it oddly gave off a soft and calming feeling. I also noticed a board with the kanji of 'fire' attached onto the top of the main building.

We were led into the castle, earning curious glances from the guards here and there. It was just harmless stares filled with curiosity though, so I wasn't very intimidated. I definitely liked this place better than those kingdoms affiliated with Orochimaru.

There was a sudden nervousness inside me when we reached a place where I assumed was where the queen was. Our escort knocked on the door and he opened it when a stern voice from the other side asked him to do so.

We entered a spacious hall which was elegantly decorated. I took a deep breath as I took in the sight in front of me. I stopped admiring the room when I noticed several people looking towards us.

There was a beautiful woman with blonde hair tied into two ponytails sitting on the throne at the end of the room. There were three men and two women standing beside her. All of them wore the same headbands as the two guards we met earlier.

One of the men had silver hair and most of his face was covered by a mask. The man beside him appeared to be more normal, with dark facial hair outlining his face. The last man, however, was really weird. His hairstyle looked like an upside down bowl and his grin was disturbing. He had a striking resemblance with Lee though.

My eyes widened a little in amazement when I made eye contact with the woman with red eyes. She was so beautiful! The other woman had short dark hair and was holding onto a tiny pig. What was she doing with a pig?

Our escort walked towards the queen and the rest of us waited by the door. None of us could hear the conversation happening on the other side of the hall but we could see the queen's horrified face when their conversation ended.

There were a few moments of silence before the queen spoke.

"Please enter."

We walked closer to the queen and bowed down politely. She looked even more beautiful up close and I could feel her intimidating aura. However, even though she had an apparent frown on her face, her eyes reflected kindness.

"Welcome to the Konoha Kingdom. I am the queen, Tsunade Senju. I heard from Izumo that you came to gather information about Orochimaru."

I sensed a mixture of anger and sadness when Tsunade said Orochimaru's name. Something told me that the two of them must be connected in a way.

"On behalf of Orochimaru, I apologize if he had caused any troubles. It is our fault to have allowed him to get away in the first place. Truth be told, we had been trying to track him down ever since he left the Konoha Kingdom. However, we failed to find him even though we had been doing so for many years. It was only recently that we heard rumors about him. But I didn't know he would be so bold as to attack another kingdom."

I saw Tsunade clenching her fists and she was glaring intensely. Shikamaru took out the scroll Sasuke and I got and the gem Shino managed to steal and walked towards Tsunade.

"We got these from the Fuma Kingdom, who is working for Orochimaru." Tsunade took the scroll from Shikamaru and inspected it. Her eyes shot wide opened in horror and her hands were slightly trembling. The man with silver hair took the gem from Shikamaru and looked at it with narrowed eyes. "Orochimaru is clearly planning something very dangerous. And we found out from one of the attackers that Orochimaru attacked the Haruno Kingdom in order to allow the royal families to know of his existence. It is safe to assume that our homelands are in danger from whatever he is planning to do."

Tsunade closed the scroll angrily and her eyebrows were furrowed deeply. She closed her eyes, as if trying to calm herself down.

Shikamaru spoke again when Tsunade didn't say anything.

"Knowing that our countries are in danger, we are ready to work with the Konoha Kingdom to find out what Orochimaru is up to. I understand that the Hidden Kingdoms has always kept a distance from other kingdoms besides fellow Hidden Kingdoms. However, this turned out to be something more severe than we had expected. We need to work together."

Tsuande opened her eyes slowly, and looked into Shikamaru's eyes. She remained silent for a few moments before a smile appeared on her face.

"I understand the severity of this situation. Konoha Kingdom is definitely more than willing to cooperate. And I am sure other Hidden Kingdoms would help out."

So far, the kingdom and people appeared to be so nice. I wondered why they had been so secretive all these times.


Sasuke's POV

"Do you have any idea where Orochimaru's hideout is?"

Shikamaru's question made Tsunade sigh in annoyance. Judging from the look on her face, they were still clueless as to where the exact location of his hideout was.

"Unfortunately, we still do not know where he is exactly. We have been working with the other Hidden Kingdoms to find out where he is. But the Suna Kingdom just sent me a letter saying that there have been suspicious activities going on just a few distances away from their borders. They suspect that it might be Orochimaru."

"Then we should head over to the Suna Kingdom!" Naruto blurted out, much louder than necessary. He had always been overenthusiastic but I couldn't believe he acted like that in front of a queen we had just met.

Tsunade appeared to be rather amused and was smiling at Naruto as she spoke.

"I'm glad to see how energized you are, Naruto. But Orochimaru is a dangerous person. I won't allow any of you to go unless I feel like you are ready for it."

Wait, did she say 'Naruto'?

"How do you know my name?" Naruto didn't bother hiding how surprised he was and was scratching his head in confusion.

"Although we are not actively interacting with other kingdoms besides the Hidden Kingdoms, as the queen, I should at least be able to recognize the members of the royal families."

She made sense in a way. And it wasn't like she was an enemy or something. We barely knew anything about the Hidden Kingdoms, so we ought to be putting our guards up. But somehow, I knew I could trust these people. Also, we had a common enemy; Orochimaru.

"You said that you won't let us go unless we are deemed ready. What are we supposed to do to be 'ready'?" Shikamaru inquired what I had in my mind.

"I am aware that all of you are highly skillful fighters. But Orochimaru is not your average villain. So before you will leave to wherever he is, you should undergo some training."

Before any of us could question what sort of training she was talking about, she continued speaking.

"But before that, you should rest. You have travelled for quite some time, after all. Please feel free to stay in the Konoha Castle during your stay here. I'll have Shizune bring you to your rooms. I'll have the chefs to prepare lunch as well. Please come back here in the evening to continue this discussion. For now, rest."

Tsunade had been speaking in a calm voice, but somehow, she had an 'I-don't-take-no-as-an-answer' tone. After bowing politely, we followed the woman holding onto a pig, whose name was Shizune.

She brought us to a hallway with many doors on both sides. There were more than enough rooms for each of us to get our own room.

"Feel free to stay in any of these rooms. I'll bring you to the dining hall after you have placed your things inside."

Shizune had a friendly smile on her face as she watched us choose our respective rooms. I chose the room closest to me and I was rather amazed at how spacious the room was. There weren't much furniture inside, just a bed in the middle of the room, a wardrobe, and a desk. There was a window on the far end and the curtains were moving due to the wind outside.

I placed my things on top of the bed before leaving the room to gather with the others.

After lunch, all of us went back to our rooms to rest. I heard some of my teammates saying that they needed a quick nap. There was still an hour before our meeting with Tsunade and I decided to just relax in my room.

I was on my bed with my eyes closed, trying to allow my exhaustion to evaporate from my body. When I felt myself on the verge of falling asleep, the door suddenly opened. I opened my eyes in surprise and glanced over to where the door was.

A girl with pink hair had closed the door behind her. She was sighing as she walked towards the bed with her eyes closed. Her face reflected fatigue and weariness. She must be really tired if she had yet to realize my presence.

She literally screamed in my ear when she was halfway on the bed and finally felt the warmth of another person besides herself.

"What are you doing in my room, Uchiha?!"

Sakura was glaring at me as if I had committed some sort of crime. I rolled my eyes before bringing sense into that messed up head of hers.

"This is my room."

I saw Sakura tensing at my words and she quickly scanned the room. A blush crept onto her face when she confirmed the truth behind what I told her.

I wasn't sure why I enjoyed looking at her flushed that way. Whenever her face turned red in embarrassment, I found it very entertaining to look at her. Her usual confident and elegant self became adorable and almost stupid whenever she blushed. It felt like I was discovering a different side of the hard headed Sakura Haruno. I guessed that was why I enjoyed teasing her, like the way I did back in the inn at the Hagoromo Kingdom.

And to be honest, I was interested in getting to know her. However, if you asked me why, I had no answers. I just wanted to do so.

Sakura was speechless and seemed to be deep in thoughts. She must be trying to think of a way to get out of the situation without humiliating herself.

But I decided to use the opportunity to tease her instead.

"If you miss sleeping with me, feel free to come over tonight."

The redness coloring Sakura's face deepened. But it wasn't only due to embarrassment. Anger was one of the causes behind her very flushed self.

"Shut your trap!" And when she had ran out of words to say, she hastily stormed out of the room.

Sakura Haruno was definitely the first person I knew who could still look attractive when she was consumed by anger.


Sakura's POV

"That annoying Uchiha keep on getting on my nerve!"

Well, it was my fault for entering the wrong room. I was feeling way too tired and sleepy. But after what happened, I was wide awake due to embarrassment and annoyance. I was still exhausted though.

I managed to take a short nap before heading over to meeting with Tsunade. When we arrived at the hall, we saw that Tsunade was there with the same people from earlier. We walked towards the queen and greeted her. I began wondering how old the queen was but I pushed the thoughts aside when Tsunade started to talk.

"After discussing with my subordinates, I have decided to divide you into groups and assign a teacher to each group. Training will start tomorrow morning. Even though time is precious, I cannot risk having unprepared fighters to go anywhere near Orochimaru."

She turned her head over her shoulder and nodded at her subordinates.

"Neji Hyuuga, Tenten and Rock Lee, the three of you will train under Gai Maito."

The weird-looking man who wore green spandex stepped forward and grinned at his new students. I tried not to laugh when I saw Neji looking horrified as he stared at his new teacher.

"Hinata Hyuuga, Kiba Inuzuka and Shino Aburame, I am assigning Kurenai Yuhi as your teacher."

The beautiful woman with red eyes stepped forward and smiled pleasantly at her new students. Hinata, Kiba and Shino were obviously happy with their new teacher. Who wouldn't want to be taught by someone as friendly and stunning as her?

"Shikamaru Nara, Ino Yamanaka and Chouji Akimichi, you'll be training with Asuma Sarutobi."

Ino squeal when she heard that she would be in the same team as Shikamaru. She excitedly held onto his arm, making our leader groaned in irritation. The man with facial hair laughed as he walked over to his screaming blonde student, who was clinging onto a very distressed prince.

Nervousness began to flow through my body when I realized there were only three of us left.

"Don't tell me I'm going to be with him!"

"Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno, your teacher will be Kakashi Hatake."

"Oh, perfect. I am stuck with a loud idiot and an annoying know-all. And I don't even know how my teacher looks like with that mask of his."

The man with silver hair walked over to us and I could see the outline of a smile underneath his mask. Even though I could barely see his face, I had a feeling that he was a good-looking person. It must be my woman intuition telling me that. I wondered why he would cover up his face like that.

"I am Kakashi Hatake, a pleasure to meet you."

Even though I was stuck with Naruto and Sasuke, something told me it was going to be a great experience.

At least, I hoped it would be.


Naruto's POV

"To be teammates with both Sasuke and Sakura is such a great coincidence. I'm sure I'll get a whole lot of opportunities to bring them together!"

The skies had grown dark and I was sitting on a bench in the garden. I needed some peace and quiet to think of a plan for my secret mission and I was getting bored of staying inside my room. That was why I ended up in the garden.

"Naruto, what are you doing here?"

I jumped out of the bench in shock when I heard another person's voice. I was too focused on wrecking my brain to come up with a plan that I didn't notice someone approaching me. I snapped my head towards the person who had scared the soul out of me.

My anger was replaced by joy when I saw who it was.

Standing in front of me was the perfect accomplice for my secret mission; Ino Yamanaka.

"Ino, you came at the perfect timing! I need your help!"

If anyone could be of help to me with this mission, it would definitely be the crafty Ino Yamanaka, who was also Sakura's best friend.

Two brains were definitely better than one.


Author's Note: If you're curious as to what sort of plan Naruto and Ino will come up with, please look forward to the next chapter! As usual, please leave a review on your way out. Tell me what you think of this fanfic and feel free to send suggestions as well. Follows and favorites are very much appreciated as well. Thank you for reading and see you in the next chapter!