"Uhhggg…" Sakura groaned. Sakura looked around the room and realized it was her own. She pulled her light blue covers up to her chin and rolled over on her side. "Uhhgg," she groaned again when she saw the red digital numbers in the position of 10:30am.
It was a good thing she didn't have to work today or Tsunade would have her head, but then again Tsunade probably had a major headache at the moment to. Sakura forced herself out of bed and over to her closet where she started pulling out casual clothes for the day, she wasn't going to train and thought that she would do the errands that she never had time to do, until she heard a small chirp.
A brown bird was sitting on the edge of the windowsill. Sakura thought it was just a normal bird until she saw the small letter tied around it's neck with red string, it was one of Konoha's messenger birds. She opened the window and unattached the note from around the birds neck and watched it fly away for a few seconds until she read the tiny note.
Meet under the cherry trees in the middle of the day. Need to talk to you.
Love Me.
Sakura understood it immediately, it was code for 'meet at the hokage tower at noon, mission for you, will find out detail when you arrive. From the Hogake.' Any message that was sent by bird was always written in code because you were never to sure if anyone would capture the bird and read it.
Sakura threw the small note into the garbage in the corner of her room. She then returned the casual clothes she had pulled out and put them in their original places. If she was going to go on a mission she might as well just wear her regular training clothes. Grabbing the shirt, skirt and shorts that went under the skirt, along with her bra and underwear she made her way to the shower.
Sakura adjusted the water temperature until it was fairly hot, she liked having her showers hot, because they woke her up and made her think more clearly. As she rubbed the conditioner into her pink locks she wondered what the mission could be about. It suddenly clicked that it had been at least 5 or 6 days since herself and Chiyo-baasama had defeated Sasori. Could this mission be about retrieving Sasuke and bringing down the Sound village.
Sakura didn't waste anytime after her last thought. She jumped out of the shower and quickly got dressed and blew dry her hair. She was surprised to see that the time had passed so quickly. Maybe she was in the shower thinking longer than she had thought. Oh well at least she didn't have to wait to find out what the mission was about.
She was at the hokage tower within less that 5 minutes, she walked through into Tsunade's office hiding her anxiousness. Shikamaru, Lee, Naruto and Tenten were all there waiting to see what their mission was about. "Sorry for the wait." Sakura told Tsunade apologetically.
"It's fine, Sakura. Were actually still waiting for one more person." And as if right on cue, Neji walked through the door. Sakura felt herself unconsciously relax a little. It was like she felt safer knowing he was going to be on the mission as well. Wait was I worried that he wasn't going to be on the same mission? Sakura questioned herself. Yeah, you were. Inner sakura stated in an obvious manner. No I wasnt worried. Sakura told her inner self. Whatever, deny it, but you know im right.
"…Otokagure to retrieve Sasuke." Sakura caught the last of Tsunade's sentence. "Shikamaru will be your team captain,"
A small sigh wit a mutter that sounded like troublesome was heard very faintly, but Tsunade gave him a glare.
"And he is very happy to be your captain, I'm sure." Tsunade said with a fake smile and a glare still on Shikamaru. "If you need any help send a message with one of the birds. They will be keeping an eye on you, If one of them comes back without a note then I will suspect that you have been captured, injured or engaged in battle. If this happens I will send backup."
"Hokage-sama," all of a sudden Kakashi appeared in front of her desk surprising most of us if not all of us. It seemed that Neji and Shikamaru knew that he was there.
"I suppose you wish to go with them, am I correct?" Tsunade asked him folding her hands underneath her chin.
"Yes, actually."
"well, I guess you can go. It may make it a little more difficult, seeing that if I let you go the team will have 7 shinobi, but it will also make the team more secure. Fine go, if I don't let you go, you'll just bother me for the whole time." Tsunade looked at the team for a short moment, and then added "You leave in half an hour, and you have approximately three days left until they move the base again. Dismissed." She waved her hand towards the door, indicating that they could leave.
Neji walked towards the door, wondering to himself if he needed anymore kunai. "Sakura." He heard the Hokage call her name. As tempted as he was to turn around and see what she was going to say he kept walking and closed the door behind him. Curiosity getting the better of him, he quickly masked his chakra as best as he could and listened to what the hokage was telling Sakura.
"Sakura, you don't have to go."
"I know, but this is what I've been working towards for the past 2.5 years." Sakura said quite calmly, almost like she was too calm.
"Sakura, I don't want you to go."
"What?" Sakura asked confused, "but, I have to go. I'm the only medic nin either than Shizune who is capable of this type of mission."
"Then I'll send shizune."
"NO! I want to go."
"I don't want to lose the only girl that's been like a daughter to me." Neji quickly jumped away hearing Tsunade's words. This was obviously a private conversation, but he had to agree with Tsundae he didn't want Sakura going on this mission either.
"Okay I made up the travelling plan." Shikamaru told everyone, sounding oddly unlazy. "Were going to make almost a pentagon shape, myself and Tenten will travel at the front, then it will be Neji, Sakura and Kakashi in the middle, with Naruto and Lee in the back.
"Why do we have to be in the back?' Naruto and Lee said together in a whiny voice.
"Just Shut up, I've arranged everyone according to their abilities."
The group travelled through the forest at a moderate pace in their respective places. It was quiet, no one seemed to want to talk and the only sound that could be heard was the rustling of the leaves as the team sped past them.
Neji stole quick glances of Sakura out of the corner of his eye. He was beginning to worry about her. She was oddly quiet and seemed quite tense. Suddenly Shikamaru broke the silence. "I asked Tsunade if Suna would be helping us in this mission. She said yes. On the third night we will stay in Suna and leave at dawn. They will take another route, just incase we miss the sound nins. Gaara and his team will catch them then and we'll meet up with them and… well I guess you know the rest."
Everyone nodded their heads. The group ran for the rest of the day, only stopping to refill canteens and take short rests. They were getting closer to Suna than most of them had expected, their rate had increased over that last few hours and if they kept at this rate they would reach Suna by the afternoon tomorrow, with the exception of sleeping.
The team finally stopped and set up camp. They quickly established who would be keeping watch and then assigned each other to certain jobs to get camp set up. Neji walked with Sakura to the stream that was nearby as she gathered fire wood. The feeling between them was awkward, Neji could feel it and it was killing him.
"What's wrong?" he asked, finally having had enough of the awkward feeling surrounding them. He waited for an answer but didn't receive one. "Sakura," he asked again.
"Oh, what?" she answered coming out of a daze.
"I asked what's wrong. You've been so quiet the whole way here and you seem so tense."
"Oh, I don't know. Well I guess it's just that I'm excited to see him again."
"Oh, him" Neji emphasized the word.
Sakura looked at him a tiny bit infuriated with the way he said it. "What's wrong with him." She stopped and turned to Neji.
Neji stopped also and looked into her eye's, that were full of anger now. "Nothing, I guess." He held back what he really wanted to say.
She wasn't convinced "You don't like him."
"Of course I don't like him!" Neji's voice raised unconsciously.
"Why not!" Sakura raised her voice and dropped the fire wood she had picked up. "Why not, for the obvious reason of course. He betrayed Konoha to join that stupid Snake bastard, just so he could get power. Of course I don't like him. Hes a traitor."
"What are you doing on this mission then? You could have easily turned it down."
"It's a challenge and I have to uphold my name." Neji answered her. It was a big lie he had an answer but he couldn't tell her the truth when she was so angry at him.
"So you wanted to get stronger, and this is just a way of accomplishing it. I can't believe you. As much as I hate to say it but, your just like him." Sakura walked away. It was all so quick, she felt a hard grasp on her wrist and then she was against the tree looking into is cold white eyes.
"Don't ever compare me to that bastard again." His low menacing voice rang in her hears. She was still staring into his eyes and he was staring into hers. She could feel his breath on her face and her face started to turn red at the sudden close proximity. She pushed him away and jumped into the trees, not bothering to pick up the wood she had dropped.
Sakura ran in the direction of camp but stopped to sit on a tree limb before heading back. Why do I feel this way? Sakura thought to herself. Why did I blush when I was so close to him and could feel his breath on me. An image of him pinning her to the tree at their sparring match popped into her head, a second image of him with his hand around her waist at the festival popped into her mind. A strong blush creeped onto her face and she was grateful that the darkness. Oh shit, they're going to be wondering where I am. Not to mention they probably need fire wood. Sakura made her way back to the camp, a fire had already been started. But she wasn't to surprised about it.
'I'll let her figure this one out on her own.' Inner Sakura thought to herself.
"Sakura-chan!! Where were you, I was starting to get worried. Neji came back without you and didn't say anything." Naruto asked her, concern evident in his cerulean eyes.
Sakura stole a glance at Neji, but quickly brought them back to Naruto's face when she found he was looking at her. "Oh, I'm fine I was just taking a walk."
"Oh, well next time tell me. You scared the crap out of me."
"Sorry, Naruto."
"Sakura." Sakura jumped when she heard Shikamaru's voice behind her.
"Yeah,"
"Can I talk to you, for a second."
"Yeah, sure." Sakura vaguely thought she knew what this was about, but wasn't too sure.
Neji watched them walk away from the fire, feeling a bit of jealousy start to form in the pit of his stomach.
"I just wanted to ask you if you had any plans for the medical part of the mission?"
"Oh well, I brought extra for everything than what would normally be needed for a mission of this type. I have twice as much herbs and I brought the most normal poison antidote along with some of the rarer ones."
"Good, I was hoping that you thought ahead. Did you need anything in Suna?"
Sakura noticed the hopeful gleam behind his eyes. "You just want a reason to go see Temari, don't you." Sakura smirked at him.
"Well…. Uhh."
"Actually I do need some things, Suna has some rare plants that could be useful"
Back at the camp Neji couldn't take it anymore, seeing the two of them walk off alone and together made him feel angry and jealous. He walked to his tent and activated his byakugan searching for them. It wasn't long before he found them, Sakura was smirking and Shikamaru even started to smile too. Sakura leaned in close and just before Neji thought she was going to kiss him, she gently hit him on the nose with her finger and walked off with a genuine smile on her face. Shikamaru caught up to her and whispered something in her ear.
Sakura had smirked after she had told him she did need some rare herbs that were only in Suna. It was a lie but she thought she should help him out. Her smirk still plastered on her face she leaned in and playfully hit him on the nose saying 'she likes you too you know.' Sakura started walking away with a genuine smile on her face. She heard him whisper thank you in her ear.
Sakura sat on a log, watching the flickering fire. Everyone else had gone to bed and she had first watch. She watched the dancing flanes and began to wonder about certain things. She had already thought about her fight with Neji and didn't wish to dwell anymore on it. It was obvious that he didn't like Sasuke and probably didn't like her very much either for supposedly supporting his betrayal.
"Sasuke," she said barely above a whisper. Her mind started to wander to Sasuke, how much stronger had he become. Had he killed his brother? Obviously not or Konoha would have heard about it. Would he be excited to see her? Don't think that Sakura. He doesn't see you like that, he only sees you as a team-mate. Probably not even that anymore. Then what am I doing on this mission then. Your doing it for Naruto… and yourself too.
"Rustle"
Sakura jumped into her fighting stance. She hadn't been paying attention and was surprised at the sound.
"Calm down, Sakura-san" a voice sounded from the bushes and she recognized it as Kankouro's voice. Gaara, Temari and Kankouro walked calmly out of the bushes towards her. Almost immediately Shikamaru came out of his tent, Temari walked over to greet him.
"What are you doing here, I thought we were going to meet up with you tomorrow." Shikamaru asked looking from Temari, to Gaara and back.
"Well I convinced Gaara and Kankouro that it would be better if we met up sooner so that the mission could go quicker and it might give us more time." Temari answered his question.
Shikamaru looked at Sakura and she gave him the 'i-told-you-she-liked-you' look.
"Well we don't have another tent." As if on cue once again Neji walked out of his tent and said,
"Gaara and Kankorou can sleep in my tent, it's just Naruto. And Temari can sleep in Tenten's tent." He walked over beside Sakura.
"where are you going to sleep?" Sakura asked him.
"it's my shift anyways."
Sakura didn't answer, she was getting tired of him having an answer for everything. Sakura looked up to Gaara who was looking at her intently. She looked back down to the red flames, trying to get the look of his eye's out of her head. In some twisted way it made her feel disturbed and comforted at the same time.
"I'm going to bed then, you coming Gaara."
"Hn," Gaara followed Kankouro.
"Yeah, me too." Temari walked towards Tenten's and Sakura's tent.
Sakura kept her head down as Gaara passed her, she had a feeling that he was still watching her. She heard their tent zipper along with Shikamaru and Temari's tent zipper go up and she let out a small sigh of relief.
Neji caught her sigh and looked up at her.
Suddenly Sakura realized that Neji hadn't left yet and hoped that he hadn't heard her sigh. She looked up at him and found he was looking at her.
"Aren't you going to bed?" he asked her in his calm low voice.
"No, maybe later. If I went to bed right now I'd never fall asleep." She threw another log on the fire to keep it going.
The two sat in silence for a while watching the fire and adding logs every time it seemed to start to get a little dimmer in the small camping site. Neji got up every few minutes to scout the area with his byakugan. He came back everytime shaking his head, indicating to Sakura that there were no enemies.
Sakura was in the middle of yawning with she thought she heard neji say 'sorry'. Her yawn turned into a "uh,"
"I said sorry."
"Your saying sorry to me." She asked increduously.
"Well I wouldn't have to say sorry if you weren't so damn sensitive about him."
"Oh, so were back to him now." She raised her voice but quickly lowered it remembering the others.
"Oh, just forget it my 'sorry' was obviously wasted."
"Your exactly right, because I don't forgive you." She said becoming more aggravated.
"Your annoying."
Sakura sat shocked at his words, she had always been sensitive about those words especially when they were directed at her. She got up and walked to her tent, she knew she wouldn't be able to sleep. But anywhere was better than sitting there with him.
Neji thought he saw the glistening of her eyes in the fire as she turned away and a picture of her tear-stained face made it's way back into his head.
Hope you liked it, RxR please