Sakura was the only occupant in her bed the next morning. She groped at the pillow she was snuggling and squeezed it tight before she sat up and stretched. Moving from her bed, she got dressed and brushed her hair before putting her headband in its place on her pink locks.

She made her way out to the living room where she saw the pile of clothes folded neatly on top of a throw blanket that was pulled from her closet. She smiled to herself before making her way into the kitchen. She was surprised to find a plate of rice balls sitting neatly in the middle of her kitchen table but took no hesitation in eating them. She moved the plate to wash it but paused when she saw a small note stuck to her kitchen table. She picked up the piece of paper that simply read Thank You. Smiling again, she put the piece of paper into a drawer along with other small notes of similar nature.

Sakura finally made her way out of the house, satisfied with the morning air she allowed herself to take her time to the Hokage Tower. She saw the familiar scene of children playing infront of a store, and people starting their morning routines. Spouses kissed each other on the threshold once again and passers by waved and nodded to her.

The streets thickened the closer she got to the Hokage Tower and less people paid attention to her as she got lost in the morning crowd. She managed to make her way into the building without confrontation and seeing the door open, she entered Tsunade's office.

Already present were Neji and Shikamaru. She nodded to them and got only a small response form Shikamaru. Tsunade was absent from the room so Sakura decided to take a seat in the back of the office.

Shikamaru was leaning against a wall looking bored and Neji appeared to be in a meditative position from where he stood with his arms crossed. They all sat in silence for several minutes before Tsunade finally strode in, closing the doors forcefully behind her.

She sat down angrily while grabbing three scrolls from a drawer and throwing it at them.
"The three of you need to leave for this mission immediately, the fourth member of your team has become incapacitated and I don't have time to find a replacement right now." Tsunade gave a stern look. "This mission is in the Land of Rivers, there is a lord that has requested protection of an unclassified valuable object, that is presumed to be under threat of abduction. You're not to ask what the object is or who is trying to steal it. I will have another shinobi sent when you leave, they will meet you before you arrive with a secret code that only one of you knows from prior missions. They will address you specifically and any fraud needs to be handled with immediate execution. This is an A ranked mission and I expect you to handle it as such." She looked to the three of them with a stern face and nodded. "Dismissed."

The three of them left without a word and quickly made their way into a private briefing room where they sat together and read through the mission details of their scrolls.
Sakura finally broke the silence.
"How are we supposed to defend this object when we don't know who we're defending it from."

Shikamaru nodded silently.
"We can't just walk in and kill anybody who looks at this thing funny."

Neji closed his scroll and spoke.
"We will have to get more information from the client when we arrive."

The other two nodded in agreement. They all stood to leave the building and made their way to the city gates via back alleys and roof tops. Once they had left the city they proceeded to the boarder through the trees.

They had been traveling for over almost three hours when they felt a presence gaining on them from behind. Neji looked back to Sakura who nodded to him silently before stopping and jumping to the ground. She turned to face the direction of the incoming party as Neji and Shikamaru took a tactical advantage in the trees. They waited as the presence approached them and finally became visible.

The person landed in the clearing where Sakura was standing and they eyed each other for a long moment before Sakura finally spoke.
"What took you so long?"

The figure stared her down before responding.
"I came as soon as I could."

Before the new arrival could blink Sakura was throwing a kunai at him and hell was unleashed upon him from above where the other two stood waiting. The fight was over almost instantly as the man fell dead and in a puff of smoke his true identity was revealed as a rogue shnobi from Suna.

Neji and Shikamaru joined Sakura in the clearing as they observed the body. Shikamaru was the first to break the silence.
"We're not even close to the boarder, what ever this lord is protecting sure has a lot of attention."

They continued in their trek with no more disturbances for the most part until it was almost dark. They had felt the second presence approach, once again from behind. They had stopped when Shikamaru spoke quietly.

"This one seems a little more accurate."

Sakura smiled at him as she quietly made her way to the ground again. She straightened her features and waited again. The figure finally approached at a casual walk and waved to Sakura. She showed no emotion as he stopped with his hands in his pockets.
"What took you so long?"

He smiled to her.
"You wouldn't believe the traffic."

Sakura's face became hard and she put her hand on her hip.
"Did you see the black cat?"

He pulled a hand out of his pocket and let it rest on his hip as well.
"I had to take the long way."

Sakura's breath became light as her shoulders relaxed and she scratched her nose.
"What happened to the girl?"

The man brought the hand he had put on his hip and placed it on his chin as though in thought.
"She was pretty, so I danced."

Sakura nodded to him as she signaled to the men in the trees that it was clear. The two jumped from their places and greeted the man with a nod before the four of them took to the trees together.

Sakura looked to the new arrival who was traveling beside her. She spoke, making sure that he was the only one who could hear her.
"Lady Tsunade said our fourth member had become 'incapacitated'. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"

The man looked to her.
"Why, Sakura, are you suggesting that I had something to do with a mysterious case of food poisoning?"

Sakura rolled her eyes and shook her head.
"You're the worst, Kakashi."

Midnight was swiftly approaching when the team arrived at the location. The greeting was less than welcome. Armed guards had cornered them once they arrived in the walls and questions were thrown at them left and right before Kakashi finally presented a scroll written by Tsunade to the leader. He read it over and allowed them to enter the compound still escorted by the guards.

Once inside the four were greeted by servants who offered them food and drinks which they politely refused. After a moment a man walked out and greeted them cautiously.
"Konoha Ninja, it is an honor to have you here. As you know recent knowledge of something very precious to me has gotten to the wrong people and now they are trying to take it by force. Rogue ninja, who have formed an alliance to capture it. Needless to say, the attacks have become more intense and frequent. I need you to take these ninja out. Soon." He turned and gestured for them to follow him. "I have prepared two rooms for you, I am sure you are tired or would just like to consolidate on the days events."

They were lead down a hall to a large room that had three doors off every wall.
"This is the guest common room, and each of these doors leads to a bedroom. The two I have for you are over here. There will be guards roaming the halls and I will have someone escort you to my office in the morning so we may talk more about the situation." The four of them nodded as the man left with his entourage of guards.

Neji spoke as he looked around the room.
"Let's have a brief meeting before we go to bed."

Shikamaru raised his arms above his head.
"Man, this is a drag."

Sakura groaned and stretched her shoulders with her arms down.
"Do we have any idea how many there are or where their base is?"

Neji crossed his arms.
"We'll probably learn all they know in the morning. Right now we should get some sleep. Shikamaru and I will take the room on the left." He addressed Sakura. "You and Kakashi will be more efficient together if something happens."

Sakura nodded to him and they all agreed before making their way into their rooms. Kakashi entered their room first and found the bedrolls in the closet. He pulled them out as Sakura closed the door and began to make herself comfortable.

She watched as Kakashi unfolded one of the bedrolls.
"That thing is huge."

Kakashi chuckled as he laid out a blanket. He looked to her as she found some pillows and threw them down.
"It's late Sakura, I don't really want to set up another bed."

She looked at him and nodded.
"That's fine, I can set up my own."

She moved to the closet but was stopped when Kakashi touched her wrist gently.
"Sakura."

She blushed when his hand started to caress her arm gently.
"Y-yes?"

He moved his hand to her shoulder.
"This bed is big enough for both of us. It would be a waste of energy to set up another one."

Sakura nodded and stepped away from the closet door and Kakashi let go of her arm as he took off his vest and shoes. Sakura also removed the outer layer of her clothes before moving into the bed. She was quickly joined by Kakashi on the other side and neither of them spoke as they fell asleep.