Another First Time

Chapter 15: Unravel

"Okay, so we've come to the conclusion that Kanako is pregnant with his heir, Junko was left behind becaue he didn't need her anymore, and from what we've seen of Hideki's calculating abilities, chances are this threat that he speaks of is true," Sakura reiterated, once again up and running after the miserable days of feeling sorry for herself.

Haruno Sakura was stronger than that, hell yes. She wasn't going to let no pretty-boy bring down again - she'd been there, done that.

"Yes," Sai agreed, twirling a paintbrush thoughtfully in his fingers. Determined as she was not to let him get to her, Sakura couldn't help but follow the movements of his fingers with her green eyes.

Clearing her throat to clear her mind, Sakura continued, "Based on the information we were able to get from Ino, we know that there is something - we don't know what - strange brewing up in Junko's fiance's clan."

Sai nodded. "According to Ino-san, they've got at least three jounins, probably hired missing-nins or deserters. They have no affiliation with any ninja village we know of."

"Yes. Their clan is supposed to be a pretty simple trading company, but historical records imply that under-the-table dealings are the real reason why they have become so successful in such a short amount of time," Sakura added.

"And normally, this would probably be a simple job for chuunins, maybe, but since the daimyo himself is concerned, we should be more cautious," Sai said. "See the thing is, Hideki and Kanako-san, as well as the baby, are all safe in Konoha. But I think the problem lies within Junko."

Sakura's froze. How could she have forgotten about Junko? If no one knew about the baby, then she was the one people would try to target.

"That means that," Sakura gasped, "chances are that the marriage contract is..."

"Yes," Sai confirmed. "The contract might not be valid at all. The way things are going now, I wouldn't be surprised if their real motive was to get to Hideki through Junko."

"We can't let that happen," Sakura bit, her fingers fisting unconsciously.

"That's not part of our mission," Sai slowly said. "We just have to eliminate the threat. Which is, in all probability, the shinobi that they have employed. And if we can get them through Junko..."

She could hardly believe her ears. Throwing her hands up into the air in disgust, she asked, "And you just expect me to lay around and let her get hurt? That's just as bad as the man who calls himself her brother."

Taking a deep breath, she continued, "What would your brother say if he heard what you just said?"

That seemed to touch a nerve with Sai - his fingers stopped twirling the paintbrush and the brush clattered to the floor, breaking the tense silence.

Sakura almost regret saying that before Sai cut in her thoughts and said, "Fine. But that's going to require much more planning, to make sure she doesn't find out about anything and to keep her from messing things up."

She let out the breath she had been holding as Sai promptly stood up and left, leaving Sakura to watch his retreating back.

Well, that went well, she thought, rather sardonically. Way to go, Sakura, bringing up such a sensitive topic with him…

But it was the truth. How would his brother have felt, if he had seen Sai? And for another thing, Sai had agreed at the beginning of the mission that they would protect the innocents, so matter what.

Sakura sighed again. She'd been doing a lot of that lately. It didn't suit her at all, moping around and doing nothing, but information-gathering missions tended to need patience and careful manuevering, neither of which Sakura had plenty. She much preferred action on the field, because that was when her fists came in handy, but she had learned early on that one couldn't have everything in life.

Feeling terrible for thinking so, Sakura rather hoped that the coming days would bring more excitement into her mundane days. Life as a pampered lady was nice, but just not her.

"This is ridiculous," Sakura announced, as she lifted her hands helplessly to emphasize her disbelief at the pile of papers on the desk. Sai didn't do much except to lift an eyebrow slightly and go back to work.

She continued, past caring whether he heard or not. "I know that there's a wedding coming up, and I know that it's the daimyo's birthday in four days, but there's absolutely no way that one lady can plan everything all at once. It's no wonder the life expectancy of civilian women is almost as low as those of kunoichi."

"I believe most lords have secretaries, personal assistants, or the like to help them with their planning," Sai dryly replied, "but seeing as Hideki is a paranoid twit, I'm not surprised that he only has his dedicated wife to help him."

"Yes, but said 'dedicated wife' is currently being safeguarded in our village so that's a lot of help there," Sakura bit, sitting back down and wishing her shinobi skills could do more for paperwork.

Sakura shook her head. If this was her mission, she'd sure as hell do it well, no matter how stupid planning a gala for a birthday was. She would just have to make sure it went down in history as the best birthday gala there had ever been. That's all.

Looking down at the brief page of ceremonies and such that they had to observe during the birthday celebration, Sakura realized that the clan that Junko was marrying into, the Sennami clan, had been invited as well. They were going to be doing the final signing of documents during the birthday bash.

"Sai," she breathed, looking down at the paper. His eyes snapped up to her. "They're coming. The Sennami clan people are coming in four days. It's the perfect opportunity."

He wordlessly plucked the paper from Sakura's hands and skimmed through, reading what she had just told him.

"Ino-san said that they had their own shinobi," Sai slowly said. "If they were looking for an opportunity to assimilate the daimyo's wealth into their own storehouses, this would be it, I'd imagine."

Sakura nodded fervently, too excited to care that Sai had taken the paper out of her hands. "Yeah, it's perfect. Just two families coming together to signify their upcoming uniting. No one would suspect a thing if they were planning to do something."

"No one except our dear daimyo," Sai replied.

Sakura made a face. "Well, yes, but I think we've come to the conclusion that this guy is strangely intelligent."

"In certain things," Sai agreed. "Anyhow, this could be our chance to get out of here. If we can prove or disprove his claims during the party, we can return to Konoha either way. All we have to do is either eliminate the threat or just report back and say there was no threat."

"Oh, the thought of my own apartment," Sakura swooned. "And training in broad daylight and working in the hospital and ramen, oooh, that would be nice."

"Hm, don't get ahead of yourself," Sai reminded. "You've still got a wedding to plan, clothes to try on, a birthday bash to put together, and we've got to plan how we're going to proceed in four days."

Sakura could have died from sheer depression. "Why did you have to remind me?" she whined, taking the paper back from him.

He shrugged. "Just a reality check."

"I hate you," she growled. Sai paused slightly in his writing, just enough for Sakura to notice.

"Well, I don't really," she amended, "but you get what I mean…right?" She looked hopefully in his direction.

"Mm."

He was getting just as bad as Sasuke these days. Monosyllabic answers had been something she needed to train herself to respond to when she had been with Sasuke, but at least Sai had spoken in sentences back then, no matter how rude his comments always were.

Sakura bit her lip to keep from sighing and continued to work. She knew that most of the wedding preparations could be shifted to Mara and Junko, so that part would be covered quite nicely. The birthday gala, however, would probably be planned by her completely, seeing as she was the lady of the house. There would be no excuse for her to shirk her duties, seeing as no one really knew about the impending arrival of an infant.

Sakura knew nothing about planning parties.

Sure, she was good as hell at crashing them, but that was a different story. She tended to leave planning of any sort to Ino, the self-proclaimed party queen of Konoha. Well, she had had good taste, so it wasn't really disputed.

What Sakura knew about parties totaled up to alcohol, alcohol, and more alcohol. That was about it. And Sai was no better than her, being as socially inept as he was. Sakura would get no help from him.

"Mmm, chances are high that if the Sennami clan as anything planned out, they'll do it at the gala, right?" Sakura asked, eager to put the actual party planning aside in favour of more interesting endeavours.

"Yes," Sai answered. He put his notes down and looked at her. "What we need to concern ourselves with is how to make sure none of the servants get hurt in the crossfire if we should have to lose our disguises."

Sakura nodded. "Right. But that will be hard. I mean, we'll have servants everywhere, plus Junko and the other clan. And we can't tell anyone about this either. There are bound to be casualties."

"We'll just have to minimize them then," he replied. "First of all, think of seating. You and I will sit close together obviously, so we've got each other covered. The clan head and his intermediate family will also be very close to us. Junko-san, as well, will probably be near."

"Yes, according to tradition, you will sit at the head of the table with me on your right and Junko at your left. The other clan's head will sit at the foot with his son on his right and his wife at his left. Any other women or relatives that he brings will be seated accordingly. We will be seated in the main hall, so there will be servants at each door in and out of the estate and of course, in the kitchens," Sakura said.

"Their bodyguards, which will be the jounins, I'm assuming," Sai continued, "will probably stand near him. We can't just say that they're not allowed into the house, so we'll just have to keep an eye out for them. They shouldn't be too hard for the two of us to get rid of."

"And about Junko, we have make sure they don't get to her either," Sakura reminded.

"Yes, she'll be on my left, so I can protect her easily. We can also invite her in only after the final signing has been completed, since if they try anything they'll probably do it then," Sai answered.

It was true. During the final signing of the documents, it would be the Sennami clan servants who passed the physical agreement and pens back and forth, so it would be easy for them to control when the actual combat would take place. Chances are the Sennami clan head would sign first, and then the servants would bring the papers down the table, to Sai, and if they planned anything they would attack then. Sai would be far away from the clan head and wouldn't be able to do anything about it. Well, that was assuming he was the daimyo and not the seasoned ANBU that he was.

In fact, if events played out as they were sure to, things would actually be better for Sai and Sakura. Most of the servants and other household members would be safe, away from the threat, since Sai and Sakura sat a little bit farther away from the rest of everyone due to their status. If it came down to fighting, their disguises would be meaningless anyway so there would be no need to continue with the façade. In fact, it would be the best if they attacked during the signing, as Junko would still be safe in her room – after all, she was still the heir, if only on paper.

Sakura could have laughed at the sheer simplicity of it – sign papers, get attacked, attack back, mission complete. And that was the worst-case scenario as well.

Things would turn out well.

There were twenty minutes until the honoured (well, not-so-honoured) guests were due to arrive, and Sakura couldn't find her shuriken holster.

"Argh!" she groaned, at an utter lost. "Where the hell is it?"

Sakura knew it was what she got for not training in so long. After their last, hidden training session nearly two weeks ago, she had thrown it off somewhere nice and inconspicuous and now that she needed it, she couldn't find it.

"You should place your things better," Sai commented, dropping her much sought-after holster in her lap. Sakura could have cried with relief.

"Thanks!" she smiled. "Where'd you find it?"

Sai poked a finger towards the bathroom.

Oh. She had probably been so intent on getting a bath after training that she'd just left it in there. It was lucky that the servants hadn't found it. But then again, they probably wouldn't comment it they

had found it – it seemed to be ingrained in their minds that servants should be seen and not heard.

With her usual clothes on underneath her kimono, Sakura felt safe. And being the smart woman that she tended to be, she had opted out of wearing those traditional, multi-layered kimono that noblewomen were supposed to wear to fancy occasions. Instead, Sakura had taken the time to take a very fine, thin kimono and sew the hems of many different kimono to its hem, to give the appearance of her wearing many different layers. That way, she could move and look like a lady at the same time. It was a win-win situation.

Apart from that adjustment, there were half a dozen senbon in her hair and countless other weapons hidden here and there. Sakura had never felt safer, and that was just counting her weapons.

Sai went ahead of her to oversee some more preparations, so she left the room alone. Gracefully walking down the corridor, Sakura was surprised when Junko came out of a room to her left and stopped her.

"What is it, Junko-san?" Sakura asked. It had been a while since she had last had one of those reading sessions with Junko – things had just been too hectic for her to spare time reading trashy romances.

Junko smiled. "I just wanted you to know how much I appreciate you doing this for us. It must be hard for you to go from a seasoned fighter to a lady all in such a short amount of time."

Sakura laughed. "Well, it's hard, but this is my mission. And I don't fail missions."

It was Junko's turn to smile. "I suppose so. Either way, I just wanted to give you my thanks. I'll always remember this."

Sakura's eyes softened. Junko said no more but turned to go, leaving Sakura behind.

This feeling of being needed, this feeling of getting thanked by someone who had benefited from her being a kunoichi – times like these kept her going when things got tough. It was true that being a kunoichi was hard and downright painful at times, but seeing that people who couldn't help themselves getting helped and being grateful was very, very gratifying.

"Don't forget to stay in your room until we call you out!" Sakura called down the hall, and she received a smile and a nod in return. Satisfied, Sakura entered the chaotic main hall to help Sai oversee things.

"I must thank you for agreeing to this marriage," the Sennami clan head said, for what felt like the millionth time. Sakura forced herself to keep smiling as Sai and the other man shared light conversation. It was just so dull.

She couldn't understand why the daimyo felt threatened by this man and his family. They were dull, utterly boring, unbelievablestupid, and his son wasn't even that good-looking. Well, Sakura had been surrounded by good-looking men and boys on her team, and in most of her circle of friends, so she might have had high expectations, but still. Junko was easily much more beautiful than her prospective husband.

Sakura was more interested in the four men standing behind the clan head. It was obvious that they were shinobi – they hadn't even bothered to hide it. Judging by appearances alone, they did appear to be jounin-class or close to it, and seemed well-armed and ready to go at anytime. One in particular reminded her of the jounin Baki, from Suna – Gaara, Temari, and Kankurou's old sensei. His darting eyes, obviously observant, were reminiscent of Baki's.

Suddenly, the serene atmosphere was broken by a huffing servant, who burst into the room.

"H-Hideki-sama," she panted. "J-Junko-sama…Junko-sama's not in her room!"

"What?" Sai sharply asked, rising to his feet.

"S-she left a note," the servant gulped. "I-it s-s-seems like she's…eloped." She finished speaking in a whisper, as if afraid that the last word would spark a war.

Sakura could have slapped her forehead with exasperation. Well, there went the perfectly tailored plans. Why, oh why did Junko have to choose this day to elope with her boy-toy? And most of all, why did the servant have to blurt it out so loud?

Things happened so fast afterwards. A sharp look from the clan head sent the leader of the shinobi out the towards, presumably to Junko, while the other three started towards Sai and Sakura.

Sai and Sakura jumped into action.

"I'll go after Junko and the leader, you get those three," Sai instructed, his henge form disappearing in a puff of smoke, much to the dismay of the clan head.

"I got it," Sakura nodded, her own kimono sliced with one swift motion and her own, pink hair back on her head as the henge dropped and her gloves went on.

Standing behind her, Mara couldn't keep the gasp from escaping. Turning around, Sakura advised, "It'll be a good idea if you stay back and get the rest of the servants to safety."

Mara nodded and scampered to safety, still obviously caught in disbelief. Sakura turned and smiled grimly at the charging ninja.

She couldn't wait to sink her knuckles into someone's nose.

a/n: Yay for finally updating! Bleh, I've been sick with the flu and busy with summatives, sorry about the lateness. Not much to say this time, things should be unraveling pretty obviously.

Edit 12/31/07: Spelling/grammar finally corrected!

Enjoy!