Another First Time

Chapter 9: Trying to Get Along

"Kanako-sama, your tea has become cold. Shall I send for a warmer pot?"

Sakura was sitting in the sunshine outside with a romance novel and a handmaid. The woman who had spoken was elderly, with eyes that betrayed her wisdom and experience. She was obviously a respected servant within the household.

"That would be very nice, thank you," Sakura smiled warmly, and went back to her romance novel. She had found it inside a room full of books inside Kanako's unused wings. Dusty and old as it was, its plot was proving to be quite intriguing.

Of course, the real Sakura wasn't lounging around and reading sappy romances. She was merely a clone.

"Dammit!" Sakura quietly cursed, as she slit her finger on a thin wire. Sucking the bleeding fingertip gently, she used her other hand to finish tying the securing knot and squinted through the darkness at her handiwork. Whoever had not thought to place lights in the dark, windowless corridor should be whipped. True, no one really used this corridor, but still! It had taken Sakura fifteen minutes to correctly put up the wires and other small electronic devices necessary for the monitoring cameras to work. It should have only taken five.

Looking over her work with a semi-satisfied sigh, Sakura made several handseals, appearing in a cloud of grey smoke in the bathroom that her clone had just entered. In several minutes, the real Sakura emerged, looking just like Kanako. With a small smirk uncharacteristic of Kanako yet often seen on Sakura's features, the kunoichi, with an entourage of maids behind her, decided that she was going to enjoy this vacation-mission as much as she could. And what could be better than a complete make-over? Well…technically, it would be Kanako who would be reaping the benefits but really, who cared?

With his own entourage of servants trailing behind him, Sai swept into his large study and waved off all of them, except for the retainer, who stayed behind.

Sitting himself comfortably in the large, cushioned chair behind the huge, varnished desk, Sai asked thoughtfully, "What is there to do today?"

"My lord, if I may speak?" the retainer bowed deeply. With a casual wave of his arm, Sai gestured for the man to continue.

"My lord will remember that the most pressing matters have been taken care of already before leaving for Konoha." Sai nodded, keeping up the façade of understanding what the man was talking about.

"As of now, the only things of importance are Junko-sama's wedding preparations, and several trading offers that have just arrived."

"I see. But before there is a need to see to Junko's wedding arrangements, there is still the final signing of the documents, is there not?" Sai asked. He had cast a brief look at the papers on the daimyo's desk, and to his luck, there had been some things left out.

"Yes, my lord. I apologize for my forgetfulness," the retainer replied.

"Hn. Never mind. You may leave. I will call you in when I see fit." Sai, with another careless wave of his arm, dismissed the man and was left in silence.

Picking up the documents carefully, Sai smirked – that daimyo really was quite intelligent. He was obviously not so careless as to leave important pieces of information lying around – they had been left out intentionally. But at the same time, it might have meant the daimyo wanted Sai to do his work for him while he was hiding his cowardly ass in Konoha. Dammit, he would see to it that Tsunade-sama paid him in full for this.

Nevertheless, the daimyo's family situation piqued Sai's curiosity and there was nothing better to do, so he began looking at the papers in his hands. There were many, many drafts of the marriage contract, complete with scrawled notes in red ink and crossed-out sentences.

Good. Messy writing was easier to imitate than neat writing. Sai would just have to find a couple of unmarked marriage contracts and draw all over them to make it look like he was actually working.

As he sat idly, wondering where he could find useful information to disprove the daimyo's claims, his mind wandered to his teammate. He was curious as to how Sakura was spending her time. Those traps he had ordered her to set should have been done ages ago – he had felt her clone disappearing a while ago, which meant she was done. He hoped she was doing something constructive.

Ah, this feels so good! Sakura crowed internally as a maid with smooth, white hands slathered thick, creamy stuff on her face. It was supposed to "smooth wrinkles and enhance inner glow". What a load of bullshit. A quick whiff and Sakura knew that the stuff was made from simple, inexpensive ingredients whose only effects would be a pleasant cooling sensation. But it sure as hell felt good.

"Kanako-sama, I will come in again in half an hour. Please enjoy and rest," the maid said, before bowing herself out.

"I wish my hands were that nice," Sakura sighed, as soon as she was sure no one was in the immediate vicinity. She turned her gaze down to scrutinize her own calloused hands, but frowned when a pair of soft and silky looking hands greeted her.

"Oh right, my hands are that nice," Sakura smiled, admiring Kanako's hands. "At least, for now," she added in afterthought. Did all noblewomen have such nice features? She hadn't seen a single female in the household who could be considered not good-looking. It was simply ridiculous. Not to say that Konoha was full of ugly kunoichi and unattractive civilian women – no, quite the opposite really, if one looked at Sakura and her friends. But still, there were pretty ones and not so pretty ones. It was just accepted that things worked out that way.

And it wasn't only the females either. Since she had arrived at the house, she had yet to see an ugly man. No matter the age of the servants, they all carried themselves gracefully and with purpose, and all of them could be considered quite nice-looking.

Ino-pig would have a field day if she came around here.

Sai sighed as he came upon what must have been the fortieth edition of the oh-so-important marriage contract. Really, did the daimyo have that much time on his hands? There were only minor changes between the versions, the largest change being a sentence here or a term there, and the smallest change being a comma instead of a semi-colon. Sai could probably recite the entire contract, leaving out nothing, backwards even, by now.

His prodding fingers led him to a stack of what appeared to be letters – rather official-looking ones. Peering inside the first one, Sai rolled his eyes.

Marriage offers.

Really, was this Takahashi Junko that desirable?

There was one from some oil company family and one from this apparently prestigious clan named Miyachi and a couple of shinobi families from the Wind Country and one from company family called Sennami.

Wasn't that the name of the heir she was betrothed to?

Looking back to the letter in his hand, he began reading.

Esteemed daimyo-sama,

The purpose of this letter is simple, so I shall get to the point – my son, Sennami Takeshi, would like to ask for your younger sister, Junko-sama's hand in marriage.

Our family, the Sennami clan, is known mainly for our trading endeavors throughout the nations. We specialize in fine textiles as well as foreign goods – thus, our yearly income is quite magnificent.

Should you agree to our offer, I can assure you that your younger sister will spend the rest of her days in the lap of luxury and comfort.

My son is sincere in his wish to marry Junko-sama; I am certain he will treat her well. He is turning twenty-one this year – a mere two years older than Junko-sama.

Enclosed are photos of my son Takeshi, our dwelling, which is just a day's walk south of the village of Konoha, and also a copy of a preliminary marriage contract, should you agree to this offer.

Please consider this letter, and thank you for your attention.

Sincerely,

Sennami Takahiro

President of the Sennami Company of Trade

Sai scanned over the photos, and like he expected, the Sennami's property was quite extensive and furnished lavishly. Sennami Takeshi was a tall fellow who looked rather young for his age. Sai supposed women would probably find him attractive, something that Junko would probably appreciate.

He put all the documents and stretched; glancing at the grandfather clock in the corner of the room, an hour and a half had passed by without him knowing it. Clearing his throat, he was about to call the retainer back in but stopped, realizing that he didn't know the man's name.

Cursing softly, he wondered why he had been so careless. Maybe it was the fact that he didn't think his mission was worth going on, maybe it was the feeling of Sakura's hand pressed into his when they first entered the house, maybe…

Sai stopped his mental rant at that thought. There was absolutely no way that she could be that much of a distraction to him. There was absolutely no way that he would let her be that much of a distraction to him.

Satisfied with that thought, Sai set about rummaging through the drawers, hoping he would come across something that would tell him the name of his retainer.

Smiling slightly when he reached a heavy folder that read "Household Information", he flipped through its contents until he found the employment statistics of every single servant in the house and grounds. The first profile was that of the retainer; his name was Fukuyama Izashi.

With a loud voice, he called out, "Izashi."

Said male came in a second later and asked, "Yes, my lord?"

"I am feeling rather tired today, after all the traveling that we did. I am going to retire to my chambers for now; do not let anyone apart from Kanako in, but do call me for dinner," Sai instructed, standing up and moving towards the door.

"Yes, my lord. I shall relay the message to Kanako-sama as well. Would you like her to attend to you now?"

Attend to him? Whatever did that mean?

Oh.

So the daimyo had a healthy appetite for his wife.

But really, when he had said he was tired, did that imply he probably wouldn't have the energy to do whatever his retainer had implied? Kami, these people were dense.

"No, it is fine. I shall send for her when I require her presence," Sai answered shortly. "You may go."

"Yes, my lord."

Five minutes of scouting later, Sai finally found the master bedroom. As he had expected, it was large, spacious, and elegantly decorated.

At the entrance, there was a clear view to the end of the room, where several screen doors separated the room from the courtyard outside. Paper screens, decorated with blossoms and the like were strategically placed to shield outside eyes from the large futon at the right side of the room, touching the wall. There was a low wooden table at the foot of the futon, with a jug of what appeared to be water and two cups. Several ink paintings of nature adorned the walls and potted plants, foreign to the area, had been placed near the entrance. An exit at the left of the room led to a magnificent marble-tiled bathroom – a stark contrast to the simple, modest bedroom furnishings.

Satisfied with his scouting, Sai walked back into the bedroom. One minute, one clone, and one henge later, someone who appeared to be the daimyo in bedclothes stood beside one dark-haired, smiling shinobi.

Sai was not one to waste precious time on matters such as resting. Especially when he wasn't tired. But it had been a nice, believable excuse for him to get away from the servants and do some real research.

The ANBU Root member had been doing some real thinking all through the day. If he were an assassin, what would his motive be for targeting the Takahashi couple?

The first answer that had come to mind was obvious – money. The daimyo was rich. People tend to envy rich people. Simple and to the point. However, with someone whose family was as interesting (and unusual) as the daimyo's, things got a little more muddled.

If he were an assassin, how would he go about trying to get money from the daimyo? After all, some people tended to rich by hoarding their reserves. Which in other words, means that they don't like to share very much.

There were many methods of acquiring money from an unwilling donor – breaking-and-entering, kidnap-and-ransom, planting a double agent in the household, blackmail, conning, et cetera et cetera. Some of these methods generally proved to be more effective than others.

Based on what he had found inside the daimyo's study, the guy really didn't have many enemies – political or otherwise. The daimyo, while often blunt and lacking social etiquette, was an honest and fair man, and as such, his subjects didn't have much to complain about. The Fire Country was a prospering nation, and the people of the land were generally happy. He was smart in all his dealings, knowing when to surge forward and when to let go – Sai suspected Hideki's sharp thinking skills had greatly contributed to his large bank account.

Basically, if one wanted to attack the daimyo, it would not be a revenge of some sort – there was nothing to avenge in the first place. It would most likely be done out of greed or self-gratification. Of course, there was always the possibility of mental instability as a motive for murder, but Sai wouldn't count on that.

Suddenly, Sai was struck with a thought. Racing off to the vast library within the wing, he mulled this theory in his mind over and over.

Two face masks, one mineral soak and one massage later, Sakura sighed and languished in her rejuvenated beauty. It was such a shame that shinobi, even ANBU-ranked ones, simply didn't have as much money as these people. It would have been really nice to come home everyday to such pampering. But even so, Sakura knew she wouldn't give up her profession, ever. She was living out her childhood dream – how many people could truly say that?

"Kanako-sama, it is time to prepare for dinner," the elderly servant, whose name was Mara, reminded.

"Yes," Sakura smiled, and got up, allowing herself to be led deep into the daimyo's wing.

She was not too surprised that when Sai, or rather, Hideki, swept in late, that no one said anything about it. She was surprised that he allowed himself to be late, however, and made a note to ask him about it – it was probably something intriguing that he had found.

Dinner was a rather tense affair, as neither Sakura nor Sai had much experience with dining etiquette. Most of their dinners had been at the Ichiraku ramen stand, after all, and Naruto was not known for his table manners – rather, his lack thereof. With Naruto as an influence, it was hard to eat civilly sometimes. Furthermore, neither of them knew whether or not they should eat all that was offered, or leave some leftovers. Either way, Sakura did find it rather strange that Kanako's meal portions were larger even than the daimyo's – Hideki really seemed to want to pamper his wife. It was lucky that Sakura had a huge appetite, for Mara kept quietly urging the poor kunoichi to eat more.

When they had finished, Sai turned to Sakura.

"I trust your day has gone well, Kanako?"

Have you done anything productive, Ugly?

"It has, my lord."

Somewhat.

After a pause, Sakura began again.

"What about you, my lord?"

Have you done anything useful?

"I have been busy with documents and the like. They are rather important so I had to get them done."

There was some important stuff that I found.

"Is that so? I wish you good luck with them, then."

Really? We have to talk about it later.

"Thank you, Kanako."

We will.

"So, what did you find so interesting?" Sakura asked, carelessly removing all the pins from her hair and yelping slightly when one of them caught on a strand of pink hair.

Sai seemed to be thinking for a moment, and then answered, "I happened to be just looking up the background of the Sennami family, the family that Junko-san is going to marry into, when I found something strange."

"Which was?" Sakura prompted, turning to look at the black-haired male sitting cross-legged on the center of the huge futon in the bedroom.

"According to records, this family has a local history of less than ten years, which leads me to question how they got all the money they have. Additionally, the date that this family was first mentioned was also around the time another wealthy family disappeared completely from the records. The books say an extremely bad bout of pneumonia wiped the family out. These two families had a close relationship, apparently," Sai replied.

"You think there's more to this family than meets the eye," Sakura stated, turning back to the mirror.

Sai shrugged and replied, "Possibly. It was just something I found rather intriguing."

"I wonder if the daimyo knew…" Sakura mused.

Sai didn't answer, instead choosing to pull out his sketchbook and a pencil out from the bag lying by his side. Opening it up to a blank page, he got up and walked over to the screen door, sliding it open and sitting down on the stone steps that led to the courtyard. Picking a point of reference, he began sketching.

Sakura yawned and stretched before getting up and walking over to stand behind Sai.

"Hey, do you think it's alright that we dropped our henges?" she quietly asked.

"I've got two ink clones nearby to alert us if anyone might be coming in the room," Sai replied, "which I highly doubt they will, considering who we're impersonating."

Truthfully speaking though, Sai just got tired of turning to talk to Sakura but seeing another woman in her place – it was slightly unsettling. To his dismay, he found himself unconsciously missing her vivid pink hair and green eyes – Sakura just didn't seem to be Sakura without those two traits.

"Well, it is nice to be ourselves again," Sakura admitted. "I was getting tired of seeing perfection every time I looked in the mirror."

Turning and heading back into the room, she continued. "It's such a hit to the self-esteem, knowing you'll never look like that."

Sai paused in his drawing and turned to the kunoichi behind him. Clad in a pure white sleeping yukata, with her hair freshly washed and let down, Sai could hardly say that she wasn't pretty – although he'd never admit it. Emotionless as he may appear, he still was a man, and was not immune to the charms the female species held. He mentally shook his head at her foolishness and turned back to the blooming flowers on his page.

Sakura picked up a candle from the row on a shelf above the futon and set it down beside Sai. Padding silently back to the shelf, she blew them all out, casting the room into darkness, lit slightly only by the flickering candle by Sai's side.

"I'm sleeping now," she informed him. "Good night, Sai."

"Hn," was his only reply as Sakura lay down and pulled the covers over her pink head.

"Oh, one last thing," Sakura called out. "You better stay on your own side, or I won't hesitate to punch you through the screen door."

"Go to sleep, Ugly," Sai answered. "I won't go near you."

Satisfied, Sakura closed her eyes and sighed, a small smile on her lips.

Half an hour later, the sound of deep breathing told Sai that Sakura was asleep, and he closed his sketchbook. Entering the bedroom again, he slid the screen door shut and blew out the candle. In the inky darkness he changed into another sleeping yukata he had found and slid under the covers beside Sakura.

Sakura had groggily registered the fact that someone was beside her and instinctively turned on her side to face him before falling back into a deep slumber. Perhaps it was the presence of the black-haired ink user sleeping peacefully beside her, but that night, Sakura's dreams were plagued by locks of black, inky hair, slender and artistic fingers, and inaudible whispers coming from the full lips of a certain male.

a/n: I AM SO SORRY FOR THE EXTREMELY LATE CHAPTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've actually had this finished for quite a while, but since both my beta and I were on vacation...yeah, you should get the point. As a consolation, this chapter is long(er than the others). And I think chapter 10 will come out MUCH sooner than this one did. But today was the first day of school - we all know what that means. Homework in the near future. So please don't be too mad if I don't update as frequently as I used to - I'll try my best to get an update on weekends. :)

Happy reading XD