Author's Note

I'm sorry guys. I wanted to upload the continuation much faster but i got lazy the first 2 days.

I'll make up for it today.

Here's a very long update for you to enjoy!

Hope you review!

Chapter 6

Rikuto, Mission and the Past

Sakura woke up early and took a warm bath. After she finished, she casted a frown when she saw herself in front of the mirror. Her eyes swelled up so much than she expected it. She did try to lessen what she called as "bulging bags" around her eyes but it was still noticeable. She sighed and cursed herself. If only she didn't think a lot yesterday and focused herself to sleep, this wouldn't have to happen.

But she couldn't help it. Her thoughts seemed to try and playback all the memories she both had with her former teammate and now former bodyguard. She was reminded about Sasuke and how team 7 would spend a lot of time together and how in the end, Uchiha chose to leave seeking for power and revenge. She was right there when he left.

Her thoughts began to deviate to that particular ANBU captain who would always appear wherever and whenever he wanted to. It was the way he would disturb her while she cooked dinner and the way he would tease her about being a workaholic that would make his stay with her memorable however much annoying he had been. And yes, she was also right there when he left.

They really seem to overlap. Rikuto's eyes, she thought, were vaguely similar to that of the Uchiha that she carefully locked away in the very depths of her heart- those over-confident eyes brimming with cunningness and wit can only be found in few. It may be that, when he walked away from her and disappeared from her sight, she merely remembered the pain her former teammate caused her.

She sighed.

Sakura thought of just wanting to laze around today and do nothing but train. She didn't feel like looking at that handful of documents that's sitting on her office table right now. She would imagine how it'd be doubly high by tomorrow if she didn't go in today. She closed her eyes and smacked her head with a brush for thinking about skipping work. If that shameless Rikuto snooped around and knew she didn't go to the Hospital, he'd probably think it was because of what happened. She didn't want that. He'd definitely tease her if ever she saw him again. With that she dressed up and left for Konoha's Hospital.

O.O.O.O

"Sarah? Did you hear me?" Sarah stared at her for another second before she reacted to what she just said. She brought down the brown teapot with the accentuated pink cherry blossoms on it on top of the table.

"I'm sorry, I'm not used to hearing that you want to leave early today." Sakura crossed her brows and thought about it for a moment. That's true, she thought. She never requested for an early break before and before she knew it, her life became a routine where everybody in the village knows where she was and where to always find her.

In the morning, she'll be in the Leaf Hospital dealing with the documents submitted the day before, in the early afternoon, she'll be reporting to the Hokage about mission casualties and important updates regarding key ninjas who are sent out for important missions, and during her late afternoons, she'll do her rounds to check up on patients. On her evenings, which only some people knows, she'd be training on her chakra control to achieve that pin point precision and manipulation. And yes, she never deviated from that life even once. No wonder she's surprised that she's trying to make a minor change in her routine.

"Well, I'm going to Tsunade-sama. I'll probably try to take a mission to keep me moving. It's been a long time since I was allowed to go out after all." The other woman smiled and nodded her head. She went closer to the table to take the empty teacup that was once full of Sakura's favorite tea.

"That's true. You might feel better if you go out." Sakura bit her lip but immediately followed it with a fake smile. Sarah looks like an ordinary Leaf citizen but she's in fact really keen about everything. She'd always know if she hasn't eaten anything yet or whenever she needed tea even if she didn't tell her anything at all. It was the Hokage who hand picked her and assigned her to that place after she collapsed from over-working some years before. After that, her life became easier to handle. There were few to none of that stress she used to handle before. It was all thanks to her.

"What makes you think I don't feel good today?" she challenged, cringing in the process for being a little curious how she does it. She didn't want the conversation to go to that direction where she might be forced to tell her what happened yesterday.

"The only ones you can fool on thinking that you slept late are those people who don't know you so well." She said with confidence while she finished her sentence with a smug smile. Sakura sighed.

"Is it that obvious…?" she tried to ascertain, almost giving up in trying to fool her with her fake smiles. "You want me to lie…?" Sakura shook her head and raised both her hands up. "You got me already…"

"So anyway, I'll delegate this stuff to you." She immediately said, trying to change the topic to give her the folders that were previously on her table. Sarah accepted it with both arms, trying to secure the documents in case a paper falls out. She had a faint smile on her face.

"About time Sakura. You keep hogging all the work in this office." Sakura looked confused but smiled right after. Although she knows that she's been doing the work for three people, she wanted to first handedly check the documents herself so she'd know everything immediately without the need for someone to relay the information to her.

"You think?" she nudged her head to the side cutely.

"The only work left for me is to serve you tea and accept the love letters from the men who like you." Sakura scratched the back of her head and bowed her head in apology. Sarah just laughed and placed the documents on top of her own table by the corner.

"I'll watch myself from now on." She laughed. "I'll go now Sarah… please make a complete report on those documents… and…" she stopped to walk closer to her. She hugged her and patted her back twice before she separated herself from her. "Thanks for everything…"

"T-Take care." When Sakura left her office, Sarah had a nasty feeling she might not see her soon. She walked towards the window where she left and saw her silhouette heading towards the office of the Hokage.

'Be careful…' she heard herself say.

o.o.o.o

"What happened to your eyes?" Was the very first question she asked when she entered the room. She faked a smile and shook her head.

"Tsunade-sama, it's nothing." The Hokage of Leaf was not one to back down unless she had made a conclusion about something she's interested to know. Sakura know that fully well. The way she observed her from head to feet made her wary that she'll say something out of the blue and be completely right.

"Did a man make you cry?" Sakura's mouth twitched as she tried to swallow that hard lump that formed in her throat. Tsunade, being dense at times only intended it as a joke so when she followed it with a laugh, Sakura had to laugh along so she wouldn't get caught. Their laughter died down revealing a fairly serious Hokage on the Master Seat.

"Anyway, Sakura." Tsunade closed a folder that she was holding. "Are you ready to take a mission?" Sakura took in a deep breath and nodded her head. "Yes, Hokage-sama." Tsunade smiled at her. She stood up and walked towards her window that revealed the whole of the Leaf Village in sight.

"Well truthfully, we've been having a lot of request from people outside the village to send you in as Tenshi. Lately, there are a lot of very important people who are being targeted by a force that seems like a platoon in size. It's very random. All of the victims are seriously injured but none that their medical ninjas can't fix. They just want you to check if there's anything wrong so that they'd remain complacent." Sakura received the briefing of the situation and started to form the story in her mind. She thought that there should be something similar in the victims that made them an interesting target for that pursuer.

"Your mission is to follow up all the patients that were targeted by this unknown pursuer then immediately report back to me." Sakura stood in attention and accepted the mission with a scroll in her hand.

"Umm… Tsunade-sama, can I request Team 7 for this one?" The older woman sighed and shook her head. "That would be impossible. They're requesting you as the Tenshi. You do know what this means right?" Sakura stopped and lowered her head down. She nodded in vain as the truth struck her painfully.

It was her contributions in the previous war that made her rank as a medical ninja raise several steps on top than before. She was among those secretly recognized by the five leaders of the allied nations as one of the most indispensible kunoichi and as such, she became someone very important to Konoha and other villages.

Hearing about her fame, a lot had tried to employ and take her but because only hear say about her achievements and her pink hair heard those who were interested to use her, she had to wear a white jacket with all the allied villages signs sewed at the back, a hoodie to hide her pink hair as much as possible and blue contacts to change her green eyes. It was only later on that she earned the name, "Momoiro Tenshi." As the Tenshi, whenever she's outside the village, she's to be protected by all the other villages in exchange for her services. That's the only reason why her identity has not been revealed to just anybody except for the whole of the ANBU force in every villages.

"As usual, you'll be protected by a team headed by Rikuto." Out from the corners, Rikuto appeared just after his name was mentioned. Sakura's eyes widened from the shock of seeing him again. But more than the shock, she was mostly annoyed at this revelation. He must already had the idea that he was heading this mission if ever she decided to take a mission from the Hokage. She felt a tick escape the side of her eyes.

"Is there a problem?" Tsunade asked, looking back and forth from the female kunoichi to the alpha male that was on the other side of the room. She gritted her teeth. Of course this is a problem! She let the inner Sakura do the talking hoping Tsunade could somehow hear what she wanted to say.

"C-Can I request for a different ANBU force?" she began with a smile. Before the Hokage mused about it, Rikuto with his cat mask on spoke. That familiar voice made her feel that he's teasing her again.

"Am I not enough Miss Haruno?" he said with a low voice. Tsunade looked at Sakura as if having the same question as that of the ANBU captain.

Yes! She thought again. "No-Not really…" Her inner Sakura looked at her and couldn't believe that she just said that.

"I see, then if you decide to take on this mission, you should leave now. They're already getting anxious." Sakura nodded weakly. She knew that the moment she agreed, there will be another adventure with Rikuto and that made her feel anxious.

"I accept this mission Hokage-sama." From within his mask, Sakura knew he smiled. He just won this round.

O.o.o.O

"Sakura…" She walked away without looking back. Luckily she was able to prepare all her stuff without Rikuto disturbing how she'd put her clothes in her bag. In fact, he was not allowed to enter her room without being glared heavily at. He already knew what this was about and he gave up teasing long ago when he saw that she wasn't in the mood for it.

They were on the road in the clearing in front of the whole village along with two other members of the ANBU. They started walking the whole lot when Sakura suggested she needed the time to get her muscles running again. But she addressed it to one of the other ANBU, trying to avoid directly talking to Rikuto as much as possible. The ANBU had no choice but to consult their captain about it who answered him with a nod.

"Sakura… can you hear me?" He didn't stop calling her despite the weird looks the other two ANBU members gave him. He was known for this kind of attitude in their circle after all and they definitely had no say about it unless they were someone higher than him in ranks. Unfortunately, they were not.

Rikuto approached her closer and tried to lean his body to her to whisper on her ear. "Sa-ku-ra…" Sakura turned around, covering hears along with the hoodie that covered her head. She gritted her teeth while her flustered face showed every embarrassment that she was feeling.

"Damn it, I can hear you, don't whisper in my ear like that…" Rikuto just smiled. Lucky for him he had his mask on so she wasn't able to know how fun he was taking everything. Her reactions were always warm and funny at the same time. He never fails to enjoy it whenever he starts teasing her.

"That's because you wouldn't turn around." He said, he played his voice in a down casted tone as if pretending that he was hurt from being ignored.

"I wouldn't turn around?" She gritted her teeth before she fixed her black gloves in her hands. She gave in to her irritation and began throwing loud, air-splitting punches towards Rikuto who was literally surprised at the first punch she threw.

"You…" Rikuto nudged his head to the left when he received a full frontal punch from the woman in front of him.

"Should have…" He ducked this time when Sakura swept her arm to the side to try and hit the ANBU captain. She gritted her teeth and swore she'll stop if she just have the opportunity to hit him just once.

"Told me this was the plan!" she tried to kick him instead but to no avail. She was breathing hard when she finished. Surprised to see how she performed an act of violence in front of two very surprised ANBU's, Sakura was back to her senses and tried to fix her clothes as if trying to assure herself that she was in still in control. Sakura stopped and tried to calm herself by breathing. She fixed her white hoodie and covered her face that was similar to the Aburame's coat.

Rikuto whistled when she finished. Those were very fierce shots, he assumed. He almost stopped a giggle that escaped from his lips. He didn't want to make her made further.

"Well I told you it's classified." She burrowed her brows and scoffed off without saying anything. Every time she imagines that scene in the rooftop and how she sobbed after, she felt that he played her and that annoyed her much more.

When he saw her walking again, almost increasing her pace to run, Rikuto followed suit after a contented sigh. She never fails to amuse him, is what he thought.

After some time, Sakura felt a little concerned with her accompanying escorts. Although Tsunade told her that there were no more threats of being attacked, she had kept her guard up and maintained her focus on the diameter where the four of them were keeping. Rikuto took the front lead and she was placed on the center where the other two ANBU members surrounded her. Sakura slowed down the pace and the three took notice of the change of her speed. Rikuto specially turned his back while jumping from branch to branch just to check what was going on.

"What's the problem?" Rikuto asked, confused at the sudden drop of pace. Finally, Sakura halted in one branch and jumped down in the center of a clearing in the forest.

"Have you guys been in a previous mission before this?" The two other ANBU looked at each other and tried to know where this was all going. They both looked at the other man who was clearly being ignored by the woman. Rikuto nodded once to allow them to answer.

"We've been in the north following the traces of a group of criminals before this." Sakura sighed. She figured out that much. Their chakras were not up to par to do a mission. This would instantly result to a greater casualty in battle if they were faced to one right now. Annoyed at the revelation, she looked back at Rikuto to try and say something.

"Let's rest for awhile. We'll double our pace tomorrow." Sakura settled down her things and stretched her muscles to try and relax. The other three men seemed confused with her decision but decided to go along with it only because of their captain's approval. She wasn't going to take no for an answer even if Rikuto objected to her decision though. He had no say in this. She only thought this was the best course of action. If things go wrong along the way, she'd be the one protecting the two men instead of the other way around. They'd be mere human shields if something happened.

She once again realized that this was one of the reasons why she didn't want to work with the ANBU. They do not have any common sense to rest their bodies.

They tried to set up a mini camp in that clearing. One of the members was in charge of dinner and he had fished near the river to prepare it for food. He finished it with a fire jutsu and prepared it in parts for all the three members of the team. After dinner, just like she had expected, the other two refused to rest and decided they would remain awake to perform a jutsu to establish a shield to protect her. Sakura sighed at their stubbornness and she could hear Rikuto almost having to giggle as she tried to deal with his team.

"ANBU are different Sakura." She knew that.

The woman burrowed her eyebrows when she remembered what he said. She tried her best to shun his voice out from her head to concentrate on her daily training. An hour passed and she decided she had enough for the day. When she stood up and turned around, she immediately saw Rikuto without his mask on. He was sitting in a lotus position, meditating in regulating his chakra (and Sakura thought he was doing a pretty good job). Only when she took another step did he open his eyes revealing that same black orbs again.

"Done?" he asked. Sakura merely bowed her head and went pass him without uttering a single word. Rikuto raised a brow and grabbed hold of Sakura's wrist before she even went pass beyond his reach.

"Are you mad at me?" Sakura grinned at his ignorance before she turned her head away. "Isn't it obvious?" Rikuto sighed and pulled her towards the tree that was a few feet distant from where they were. He threw her gently with her back facing the soft peeling barks of the old tree. He encased her with both his arms on the side and made her look at his face as he spoke again.

"I'm still right here Sakura. Why are you mad at me?" She couldn't speak. It's not as if she can immediately tell him that she felt extremely embarrassed from the way she acted when he left her that day on the rooftop. No, she can't tell him anything at all.

"You don't have to know." She said nudging her head to the side to avoid his inquisitive eyes. Only when she felt his face drawing in closer to hers did she surprisingly turned to face him and tried to stop him. Inches away, he stopped and smiled.

"I didn't want to part with you too. You need someone to take care of you Sakura. You're a handful." Sakura almost objected but the way he looked at her made her unable to say anything.

"Can I kiss you?" Beet red from the way he seriously asked that question, Sakura couldn't say anything logical at the moment. Like, "Go die stupid," or "Shut up…" like those times before when he would lean in and try to steak a kiss or two. This time, she didn't know why but she felt her head nod. He smiled before he closed in on her lips. He licked it a couple of times before he embraced her lips with his soft ones. Sakura, almost egged on to reply, unexpectedly returned the kiss. Her hands that were on the side climbed its way up on his hard walled chest without his usual gray protectors.

The warmth of her lips made him inch forward towards her gentle attacker. He had long moved his lips from her mouth, travelling down to the exposed crook of her neck leaving a trail of kisses that made Sakura bit her lower lip from the sensation it gave her. A silent gasp of pleasure escaped her mouth as he bit a small part of her skin. Realizing what she did, she immediately covered her mouth with her free hand. Rikuto got it first and moved her hand on top of her head.

"I want to be the only one who hear that moan." He said playfully. He had allowed himself some time to look at the alluring woman in front of him that was almost drowning herself with the color of red. He smiled but instead of diving in again to illicit that sound he heard her do, he backed away, gently allowing her to return back to her normal embarrassed position.

"Seems like someone couldn't wait until we finished." At first Sakura thought he was talking to her. She was about to get mad until another aura made its presence known. Out from the corners of the trees, Sakura felt the familiar chakra of the person she thought she wouldn't encounter anymore in her lifetime.

The light of the moon helped them to reveal the face of that familiar silhouette of a particular raven-haired man directly across them. Sakura soon realized who it was. Only he was much more taller, charming and confident than the last time she saw him. Her body shook when the name that escaped her mouth was the same name of the person she had hidden inside her heart all those years.

"Sa-Sasuke…"

I didn't double checked it cause I just want to finish it. But yeah, the sense is there. Hopefully you guys tell me what you think and I'll fix it in the next chapter :0