Author's Note: Well, here you go! I'm pretty satisfied with how this story is coming along well so far, and I haven't gotten any writer's block yet either, just my main difficulty is rushing things. From my past fanfictions on other accounts, I feel like I'm rushing :P So I just need to slow things down…

Agon

Chapter Three—Mission

Those deep sky blue eyes, that fox-like grin, his spiked blonde hair, and that orange uniform… It was everything Sasuke despised, but it was Naruto. It was someone he had grown to possibly love and admire. Sasuke's onyx eyes had softened at the sight of this idiot fox, but soon hardened once again, and let out that one word he knew that drove the jinchuuriki off and over the edge, "Dobe."

Naruto blinked, his smile creased down to a deep frown that made him look agitated, "Teme! I come back from a long mission and all the welcome I get is that?" He huffed childishly, stomping his foot on the ground.

Tsunade cleared her throat, bringing the entire team's attention to her, "You guys can have your usual reunion later, after I discuss with you what the mission is all about so you all have a clear understanding of what needs to be done. This mission is completely classified, B-ranked, meaning after I give the details of this mission, none of you shall be speaking anymore of this mission until you leave the village. If I just so happen to catch any of you to be speaking about it to anyone else besides amongst yourselves, I will have you on probation," she threatened, knowing well that they understood she meant business.

Sasuke silently gulped, thinking to himself, 'A mission this dangerous and classified? Why choose three chuunins and a special jounin then? In fact, why is it even labeled as B-rank?' Questions ran through his head, so many that he was tempted in just interrupted the Hokage and asking them himself, but he knew better and chose to stay quiet by Kakashi and Naruto.

"This mission shall be take place in Nadeshiko Village," Tsunade continued, smirking as she could hear Sakura's held back laughter. "You will all be going to one of their annual festivals that are being held for three days straight. I've just been informed from the village head that there has recently been a threat of a bomb to be set off during one of the three days. The reason why this is confidential is because the villagers do not know of this threat, and a possibility of an assassination might occur. The worst possible case scenario would be that the Akatsuki are involved, but it's very unlikely considering that the village is not popular and they hold no real valuables."

The platinum blonde haired Hokage handed Sakura the scroll with all the details of the mission to be kept safe, trusting her apprentice to give more details later on about the village background, knowing she'd love to see their reaction. "Sakura-chan will give you more details about the mission and knowing the village background and history is very important. They are very traditional people and it is in our best interest to continue allying with them. If there are no further questions…" She took out a long bottle labeled as plum sake, heaved out a sigh and glowered at them, "Then, get out of my OFFICE!"

The next thing Sasuke knew, he was being dragged by the hyper blonde shinobi to the usual ramen stand, Ichiraku Ramen. Deep down, he felt a little bad for Kakashi and Sakura, always having to follow the dumb blonde around everywhere, but the two of them must have felt bad for Sasuke during this time due to Naruto's strong grip around his wrist, dragging him into the small bar of the ramen stand. Sasuke secretly didn't want Naruto to ever let go of his wrist. His hands were warm, with calloused fingers and a smooth palm and the very thought of just holding his hand made Sasuke shiver. Naruto grabbing a hold on Sasuke's wrist was probably the closest thing he would ever get to actually holding hands with him.

As soon as Kakashi and Sakura arrived a few minutes after, they were all seated and by then, the contact between Sasuke and Naruto was broken much to the young Uchiha's disappointment. His stomach began to churn as soon as he realized that he sat next to Naruto, and then came Sakura then Kakashi. As much as he would love to sit next to his sensei and his female companion, he would much rather be seated next to the blonde. As soon he saw his pink haired friend, he automatically remembered what she said about Naruto's ears turning pink. Was it true? He almost smacked himself for not seeing if Naruto's ears had changed color when he took his wrist.

Teuchi, the ramen shop owner gave a wide grin at his favorite blonde-headed customer, "Naruto, finally back from that solo mission? Glad to see you're safe, now what would you all like?" He gave them all his usual laid-back grins.

Naruto grinned back, giving the man a thumbs up, "Mission was a success! Mmm, how about that ramen special you have up for this week?"

Teuchi turned, looking at Sasuke with the same smile plastered on his face, "I guess I'll have the same as the dobe's." He smirked when he heard Naruto choking a bit on his tea from his name-calling.

Sakura smiled back at the chef and just ordered tempura with a side of seaweed salad, while Kakashi ordered tonkatsu, much to the female's horror(1). Waiting for their meal to arrive, Sakura unrolled the scroll given by Tsunade again and grinned, "Nadeshiko Village… You guys should know, that it's practically an entire village ran by mostly females. The festival they hold every year is pretty much to see who would get wed. The point of it is that males challenge the females, or it could be the other way around, and if the females win, then they get to choose whichever male they want to bear children with, hoping for the strongest kunoichi heiress."

The expressions on all three of the male teammates' faces were almost priceless, a picture-perfect moment, but Sakura continued, "Details of the mission are to seek out the threat to the village, assassinate them, report to the village head of our success, and head back home. In order to avoid any conflict with other females in the village since the majority of you guys are male, Naruto-kun, you…" she glared at the paper in irritation and threw the scroll back into her pouch after tightly rolling it up, "you need to use your henge to disguise yourself as a woman and pair up with either Sasuke-kun or Kakashi-sensei who will play the 'husband' roll." Soon enough, as she finished her statement, the food had arrived as well.

Naruto had on a wide grin at her last sentence, "Heheheh, looks like my oiroke no jutsu will actually come in handy!" Everyone rolled their eyes at Naruto's still childish intent, but now understood why Tsunade had chosen this team to complete this mission.

"Itadakimasu," They all muttered before beginning to chow down in the well-cooked food.

The Uchiha couldn't help but keep thinking about Naruto, how he hoped that they would be paired up as a couple, despite the fact that Naruto would be dressed and disguised a girl. Just the thought of the two together as a couple made his cheeks turn a light shade of pink. He quickly glanced at the blonde, seeing that his ears did in fact turn pink. Turning back to his own large bowl of ramen, he sighed, still wondering if this strange sort of feeling was only temporary, that maybe it really was just a "phase" in his teenage years. There were, after all, still young, and at such a young age, he needed an adult influence, which would be his older brother, or his sensei Kakashi.

"—uke?" a loud voice penetrated his ear drums as he leaned slightly away from the source of noise that broke his train of thoughts. It was Naruto. "Are you going to finish that?"

Sasuke blinked, staring at his half-empty bowl, and then at Naruto's already empty one, then to his bright smiling face which had bits and pieces of noodles stuck to his cheek. The temptation to eat it off was strong, but he settled for the next best thing and simply took a napkin, wiping it off the confused ninja's face. "Idiot… Watching you eat all that made me full anyways," he muttered, tossing the dirtied napkin away and slid his bowl over to the excited blonde, only to watch him inhale the bowl and dirty his mouth again.

Both Sakura and Kakashi found that form of affection odd, especially coming from Uchiha Sasuke. It wasn't very… Uchiha-like to wipe off food from someone else's face—much less, a boy's face. Kakashi just shrugged it off as brotherly affection, but Sakura hid a sly grin underneath her curtain of pink hair. Just as quickly, she interrupted the peaceful silence, "I think Naruto-kun and Sasuke-kun should partner up since they work best together in battles, and because Kakashi-sensei's Sharingan is causing problems again so I can be around him whenever he's feeling any pain."

Kakashi tilted his head to the side in a bit of confusion, "But Sakura-chan, I thought you already che—" He was sharply jabbed in the ribs by the medic-nin, a signal for him to be quiet.

Naruto hummed, giving a contemplating look before looking at Sakura, then at Sasuke, "I guess Sakura-chan is right…" A grin began to form on his lips, "Then Sasuke, that means I call the window side of the bed!"

Sasuke could only smirk, "Hn, as if, dobe."

"Teme!"

That same warm fluttery feeling erupted in his chest again at the news of Naruto being his temporary partner. Perhaps, he would use this opportunity to see if he really did love Naruto or not…

Author's Note: Spent a good three hours typing this all up for you guys because your reviews fueled me up! Will admit though, it probably would've taken me an hour if I weren't so easily distracted… I always try to reply to all of my reviews, but I also try to keep my author's note nice and short since to me, it's a bit annoying to sometimes see the author's note so incredibly long and the chapter so incredibly short, so I'm not going to reply to anonymous reviews on here—but they are MUCH appreciated!

(1): "Tonkatsu" is a dish that is basically fried pork. Sakura has been around Tsunade and Shizune long enough to know and take care of Tonton, who is also a pig. The thought of eating anything involving pork, reminds her too much of Tonton.

Reviews for a starving artist in exchange for a special dish called chapter four!