The lights were off, the bed was warm, and Sakura couldn't be more comfortable, but there it was, mocking her. All Sakura could focus on was the envelope that lay on the hardwood floor in the doorway. The moonlight shown through the living room window, illuminating the spot where it laid.

Is the world just out to get me today? First Shikamaru and now this.

Slowly she sat up in her bed sighing all the way. Pulling back the warm white comforter off of her tired body she glared at the single blue envelope with the red seal of the Fifth Hokage. She sat on the side of her bed for a few minutes just letting her feet dangle over the floor. She knew that as soon as she touched the floor the calmness would be gone. One foot at a time she got off the bed.

The floor was freezing and her bare feet felt like they were being stabbed with pens and needles. She made her way over to the spot where the moon was shining on the envelope. Picking it up and breaking the seal to open it she walked over to the island and sat on one of the stools. She let out a sigh of relief knowing her feet could just dangle over the bitter cold floor for a while. Gently Sakura pulled out the red paper letter out of the blue envelope and began to read the neatly handwritten letter.

Dear Sakura Haruno,

You are to report to my office at 6:00 am sharp. We will be discussing your plans for the next few months. You have been chosen to help plan a dangerous mission to the unexplored Demon Country. Details of the mission will be discussed. Your attendance on this mission will be up to you. I will be looking forward to seeing you at 6 Sakura.

~ Sincerely, the Fifth Hokage, Tsunade

Was this what she had been waiting for? This could be the chance to get away and find herself. Sakura was lonely and anxious for something new. This would be the trip of a lifetime. The only question that stood out from these question was, was Sakura really ready for this?

All these questions were ringing though her head. She looked over at the clock on the microwave and it read "5:45".

"NO!"

I'm going to be late for maybe the most important meeting of my life!

The sun was rising in the East and its gentle morning glow shown on Shikamaru's face. His eyes opened slowly and he stretched his arms and yawned. He gradually realized he had fallen fast asleep in the tree. Looking around he saw that Konaha was just starting to wake up. The village looked completely different in the day then it did in the night.

Shikamaru stood up on the branch he had slept on to get a better look at what all was going on. In the west a few ninja were hard at work cleaning the faces of the Hokage Monument like they did at the end of each year. Beyond that the ANBU were probably hard at work planning secret missions like they always were at the ANBU head quarters.

It was going to be a beautiful day by the way things were looking. He smiled at the thought of a good cloud watching day. Turning around he admired the carving he had done of a deer next to the cherry blossom on the high trunk of the oak tree. It had turned out better than he thought. They looked good next to each other. The deer was strong and handsome with its antler and the cherry blossom was delicate and beautiful all by itself. Never would he of thought it would have turned out as well as it did. He was not an artist but his carving looked like something a skilled artist would do.

With another long yawn he took one last long look at Konaha. What a beautiful village it was. He took a look at his watch to see that it was about time to leave. He had orders to be at the Hokage's office at 7:30 am and he wanted to swing by his apartment before he went to see her.

He tightened the band keeping his dark brown hair up and brushed some dirt off his pants. The young black Nara eyes starred out at Konaha and saw someone far in the distance darting towards the Hokage's office. By the looks of it, it was a young female with long pink hair.

Sakura? No…couldn't be.

The sound of her own breathing and tapping of her feet hitting the ground was the only thing Sakura could hear. She was deeply lost in her own worries and hopes as she darted for the Hokage's office. Already she was 5 minutes late and had not yet gotten any real sleep. The sun was just beginning to peek up in the East and slowly Konaha was waking up from it's slumber sleep.

Why did Tsunade pick me? Am I really the right person for such an important mission? Does she have faith in me? What if I let her down? Will her hate me and never trust me again? Does she want me for my advanced medical skills or my strength?

Over and over ahead Sakura ran through the questions never coming up with the same answers. Finally she reached Tsunade's office. Looking down at her watch she was a total of 7 minutes late. She lifted her fisted hand and was about to know when a voice came from inside the office.

"Sakura, you are 7 minutes late. Hurry up and come in."

Sakura walked into the office to find Tsunade smiling at her. Tsunade was like a mother to Sakura, and Sakura was like a daughter to Tsunade. They had been training together the last few years and in that time they had become very close to each other. Tsunade was strict and drilled Sakura hard ever moment they were together but all that hard work had paid off. Sakura was now ANBU and in her time not attending to ANBU business she worked many hours at the hospital.

Tsunade looked Sakura up and down and her smile grow wide. She reached up and tucked some of the blonde hair that was loosely hanging around her face back behind her left ear. Examining a stack of papers Sakura stood there perfectly still waiting for whatever Tsunade was going to do next. Tsunade looked Sakura straight in the eyes for a moment and her smile turned into a look of seriousness, and then back into a wide smile.

"Interesting fashion statement you've made there Haruno." Tsunade said sarcastically.

Quickly Sakura looked down at what she was wearing quickly noticing she was wearing the silky black pajamas she had put on to sleep in. That was the only think she was wearing other than a pair of black shoes and her light weight black jacket. It was pretty obvious that she was wearing pajamas so there was no point of trying to hide it. Sakura's face blushed bright red as when she looked back up to Tsunade smiling at her.

"What pretty PJ's Sakura. Did you just decide that you thought I needed to see them this morning or where you perhaps running a little late?"

Tsunade looked like she was about to laugh. Never had Sakura been so unprofessional in front of someone as high up as Tsunade. Sakura was so ashamed and worried that this might look bad to Tsunade and that she might not get to go on the mission now.

"I am so sorry…I was in a rush to get here on time and…"

"Shhhhh…Sakura don't worry I'm just kidding. I know that the letter got to you at a bad time and I didn't mean for that to happen. I'm actually just happy you showed up" said Tsunade.

With those words Sakura was so relieved. Sakura even felt a little proud of herself for getting to the meeting, but then she remembered she was wearing pajamas and that feeling went away. How many people had seen her like this? More importantly how many people were going to see her when she walked out after the meeting was over. This time she would be out in daylight and everyone would be awake.

While Sakura was thinking about how she was going to get out of this mess while being seen as little as possible the door to the office opened behind her. Slowly a figure walked in behind Sakura and closed the door.

"Shikamaru, great you're here early. We can start talking about the mission now" said Tsunade.

Shikamaru calmly walked up beside Sakura a bowed to show honor and respect to Tsunade then he turned to look at Sakura and he smiled.

"Pretty clothes Sakura. They look very comfortable" he said.

Was he serious or was he kidding? Sakura couldn't fully be sure. Shikamaru was a very laid back guy and most considered him lazy. Sakura knew that there must be more to him than just laziness because the people that were close to him seemed to adore him. If there was one person in all of Konaha that didn't know that she was wearing pajamas just from looking at her it would be Shikamaru.

"Thank you Shikamaru. They are." Sakura mumbled out.

"So are you two ready to talk about the mission?"

Sakura and Shikamaru walked over to Tsunade's desk and sat down on two chairs in front of it. Tsunade lay out a few papers for them to see and handed Shikamaru a folder filled with ninja's names and information. The papers on the desk had maps and lists on them of things that needed to be done when in Demon Country.

"Konaha is in Fire Country as you know. Surrounding us are the Earth Country, Lightning Country, Water Country, and Wind Country. There are also several other villages other than Konaha. There is the Stone Village, Waterfall Village, Sound Village, Grass Village, Rain Village, Cloud Village, Sand Village, and the Mist Village. What is not so commonly known is that there are two large other countries and three other villages to the East of Konaha." Tsunade said.

Sakura and Shikamaru listened carefully to her every word.

"These two countries are very far away and we have seen few ninjas from. There is the Void Country and a Demon Country. We know little about either country. That is why you will be traveling to the Demon Country to map it out and study the country itself. In the Land of Demons otherwise known as Demon Country there are two main villages. The first is the Village of Shadows and the second is the Village of the Wolf. I need you to gather as much information on both."

They just sat there thinking and reviewing everything they had just heard in their heads. Each of them giving Tsunade a nod she continued.

"Shikamaru I have given you a folder that contains profiles on all the ninjas in Konaha. I want you to pick out a team of top ninja to go on this mission. Sakura may help you if you choose for her to. You will need to put together two teams of 10 ninjas not including you and Sakura to go to the Land of Demons. Both teams will go to the Demon Country and then they will split up and go to the different villages. When you have made you choices report them to me. Oh and Shikamaru make sure that folder does not get into the wrong hands. We don't want that kind of information at an enemy's disposal, now do we?"

He gripped the folder extra tight and gave her a very serious look. "I will keep it safe Hokage" he said.

"Now Sakura…I guess you are wondering why I picked you for this mission. This will be an extremely dangerous mission and there will need to be a very skilled medic in the team. I myself have responsibilities here and cannot go with you. You on the other hand I myself have trained to be able to handle anything that comes your way. There is no one I trust more to heal and save these ninjas. You are ready even though you yourself might not know it now. I have faith in you."

Sakura was so happy that the person she looked up to most believed in here she had to stop herself from crying tears of joy. She put on her strongest face and nodded.

"Thank you Tsunade-Sama. I won't let you down" Sakura said boldly.

Tsunade stacked all of the papers up and put them in another folder. She wrote "Top Secret" on the front of the folder and handed it to Sakura. They looked at each other straight in the eyes for a moment and smiled at each other again. Sakura truly loved Tsunade like a mother as Tsunade loved Sakura like a daughter and Sakura would do everything in her power to make sure this mission was a success.

"You may go now. We will meet back tomorrow to talk about the plans in more detail. Oh, but before you go. This is an extremely dangerous mission and I'm asking a lot of you both to plan and go on this mission. I will not make you do this because it is higher ranked than what I would normally give you. If you want to do this mission you can volunteer. If you do not want to do this mission I completely understand and I can find someone else to handle this even though you two are my first choices."

Sakura and Shikamaru stood there for a moment considering what they were about to get themselves into. Thinking of all the reasons to go and not to go they came to the same conclusion.

"I volunteer" they both same simultaneously.

"Good. Now I have many things to attend to so move along" Tsunade said with a smile.

It was obvious that she was very proud of both of them. They had come so far in the last few years, it really was remarkable. Sakura had become one of the best medics ever and her strength was so amazing that she could punch through almost anything. Shikamaru was a genus and was known for his tactics, planning, and strategy. He had also developed some advanced shadow jutsus that were yet to be seen in any battles.

Sakura and Shikamaru walked out of the office and down the hall. Sakura looked at the folder of maps and lists as they walked. The folder was yellow and had a good bit of weight considering it was just a stack of paper. There were only a few people that they walked past in the hallway and all of them were too busy and caught up in what they were doing to look at Sakura no less notice her pajamas.

Maybe no one will notice and I will be able to just home and change and no one other than Tsunade will know this happened.

Shikamaru had a bored look on his face as they walked out the front door of the building. Was he bored by the mission or just from their short walk out of the building together?

"Hey! Sakura and Shikamaru over here!" said a voice.

They looked over and there was Ino and Choji walking towards them. Ino had let her hair grow long again like Sakura and Choji had lost a little weight but was still on the chubby side. Choji and Shikamaru were best friends and it was easy to tell. As soon as Choji walked up the guys picked up a conversation from the last time they had seen each other.

Sakura could not follow the two young men's conversation so she turned to Ino. Ino had grown tall and slender. She kept her long blonde hair in a high pony-tail like always and her blue eyes were as beautiful as ever. Ino dressed a little bit more on the sexy side than Sakura did and she acted a good bit more flirty than Sakura did too. There were many men in the Leaf Village that desired Ino and Ino knew that very well. Sakura was more modest than Ino and seemed to keep to herself. She was beautiful and sexy in her own way but seemed to have a harder time getting a guy.

Sakura asked how Ino was doing but Ino was too busy starring at Sakura's clothes.

No! I forgot I was still wearing this again!

Shikamaru looked past Choji for a minute to look at Sakura. He knew that she was different than the other girls he knew and there was something he liked about her. He couldn't tell you what it was about her than he liked, but he knew that it was there. Of course she was beautiful but it was deeper than that.

Choji continued to go on and on about who knows what. Finally he realized that Shikamaru was no longer part of the conversation. One look at him and Choji knew that his best friend was lost in Sakura's eyes. He had known Shikamaru long enough to know that he wasn't just staring at Sakura that way because he thought of her as a good friend. Choji stopped talking and stood there staring at Sakura the Shikamaru. No matter what happened he would be there for Shikamaru as a friend.

"So how about we all go grab a bite to eat. Nothing like a good meal with friends" Choji said.

Ino looked over to Choji with a dazed look on her face. She was still caught up in the pajamas and hadn't heard a word Choji had said.

Shikamaru smiled at his friend and looked back at Sakura. "Sounds good to me. What about you Sakura?"

"Sure. I bite to eat sounds great to me"

"Oh but one thing before we go" said Choji. "Why are you wearing pajamas?"

This Chapter was kinda short and not much happened but I needed to set everything up. Thanks for reading and thanks to everyone that sent me reviews. I want to thank uchiha miyo for being my beta and Darknesswithintemptation for the support. Please review and thanks again to everyone that read this.

~Whispers