They had assembled in the office the next morning after they ate breakfast in the dining hall. Dressed in fine silk, the lord of the compound addressed them sternly in a booming voice.
"How much have you been told?"

Neji was cool in his response.
"A minimal amount"

The man nodded and paced his office.
"There is a camp of rogue ninja near this compound. Your job will be to first locate the camp and determine how many ninja there are." His words turned stern. "Then you will annihilate them all." His face became hard as he turned to look at the group.

An audible exhale came from Sakura as she looked to her team. Kakashi gazed at her and gave a comforting nod before speaking.
"We'll split into teams, two of us will go do reconnaissance of the camp and the other two will stay here and provide extra protection to the compound incase there's an attack. That will help us in determining if any shinobi were not at the camp when we find it."

"You and Neji should be on the team that locates the camp." Sakura imposed as she crossed her arms in discomfort.

"No, Neji and Shikamaru will remain here to guard the compound. We need Neji's eyes on the house for potential problems." Kakashi looked to Neji and Shikamaru blankly as Shikamaru gave a bored look in response to the team leader. Sakura nodded to Kakashi as he turned back to the compound leader.
"We will begin now."

Shikamaru sighed as he leaned against the door that he and Neji were assigned to protect. "This is such a drag. Couldn't we at least be outside?"

Neji stood across from Shikamaru and eyed their surroundings carefully.
"This is quite an odd spot to place such a valued object. Why would they place it in a building on the side of the compound instead of in the central building where it would be better protected?"

"Did you get a good view of the compound last night?"

"Yes. There are four outer buildings, two inner buildings and one central building. The outer most ones are used mostly for living quarters, one of which we stayed in, the inner buildings, one of which we are in now, are mostly used for storage, and the central building appears to be mostly for business, except on the highest floor it appears that there is a sleeping chamber for the head of the compound."

Shikamaru quirked an eyebrow at Neji and was silent for a minute before sighing.
"You know, that's really creepy. You could just spy on anyone."

Neji turned a slight shade of pink and forcefully spoke.
"How dare you! I am an honorable man!"

Shikamaru looked him in the eye and smirked.
"Yeah right."

There was an uncomfortable silence.

A sigh came from Shikamaru.
"So, who slept on the floor last night?"

Neji kept his gaze on a distant vase.
"What do you mean?"

"There was only one futon laid out last night in Kakashi and Sakura's room." Shikamaru looked at the side of Neji's face as he avoided Shikamarus gaze and question.
"You spent all that time scanning out the compound, you didn't even see what was going on next door?"

"That's none of your business."

"Are they a 'thing'?" Shikamaru pried and Neji's slightly pink face deepened in color.

"They didn't do anything. They just slept next to each other."

Shikamaru smirked.
"So you did look."

Neji shot a hard glare to Shikamaru, to which Shikamaru responded with a satisfied smile as he leaned back.
"You're such a pervert, Neji."

"Kakashi Sensei?"

Kakashi and Sakura were walking down a narrow path outside of the compound and had been silent up to now.

"Yes?"

"Is something wrong? I haven't seen anything, no signs of enemy ninja or any kind of life outside of squirrels in this forest."

"You're right Sakura. I'm surprised it took you this long to notice."

Sakura's anger flared as she glared at Kakashi.
"What's that supposed to mean."

Kakashi stopped walking and Sakura followed suit. He turned to face her with his whole body.
"We seem far enough away now. It's time that we have a discussion."

Sakura's eyes widened in surprise as she began to blush.
"Sensei, I don't think this is the appropriate time for-"

"Sakura, that man in the compound is wanted in almost every country for manslaughter."
Kakashi cut her off with a serious look. Sakura's breath stopped momentarily.

"W- what?"

"He is a very wealthy and a very powerful man known as Lord Aso to his followers. He inherited a small country after his father's death and with the money he gains from the trade import he hires ninja to take out what he calls "rogue ninja" which were only small developing villages that threatened his power. The hired ninjas were all put under a genjutsu and were forced to slaughter innocent people. This was overlooked by the hired villages due to the amount they were being paid. However, word started getting out about the growing threat to surrounding villages. Lady Tsunade has been planning this for months, she planted a small village of konoha ninja in an area by the compound and waited for the time that he hired us to take them out. Sakura, our mission, given by Lady Tsunade, is to take Lord Aso back to leaf for trial. The order was given, alive or dead."

Sakura stood frozen as Kakashi finished.

"I needed you here with me incase we were caught in a genjutsu before I was able to explain this to you."

"But what about Neji and Shikamaru?"

"They're pretty observant. I trust them to figure out that there really is no 'precious object' by the time we get back and then we can take things from there."

"Why didn't lady Tsunade trust us with this information?"

"Being a ninja sometimes requires information to be withheld until the right time. For now, Sakura, we need to continue until we set off the genjutsu trap so they don't suspect anything."

Sakura didn't follow Kakashi when he turned to advance down the path. Kakashi let out a sigh.
"Sakura…"

"I just…" Her head dropped. "Really thought things were different. Lady Tsunade hasn't treated me the same since I stopped being her apprentice. It just hurts, Kakashi."

Kakashi turned and walked to sakura until he was standing directly in front of her. He put his hand to her cheek and raised her tear stained face.

"Things wont always be the same between teacher and student. Just because she doesn't treat you the way she used to doesn't mean that she cares any less for you. Now," His eye crinkled in a supportive way. "we are on a mission, it must be carried out to the end. There's no time to get emotional."

Sakuras face hardened as she nodded to him and the two proceeded together.

"Shikamaru."

"Zzz…Zzz…"

Neji's eyebrow twitched.

"SHIKAMARU!"

Shikamaru's eyes slowly opened.
"Geez, yell a little louder next time."

"We have a problem."

Shikamaru blinked slowly and sighed.
"What a drag…"

When Sakura and Kakashi returned to the compound they found it in a state of quiet ruin. The two ninja rushed into the center of the compound looking for any sign of life or information as to what happened. When they reached the main building they found Neji and Shikamaru with the lord of the compound tied up and unconscious.

Sakura carefully approached the three that were sitting on the steps of the compound. "What happened?"

Shikamaru was the first to speak.
"Well we were sitting around guarding this door when Neji tells me that there's nothing we're actually protecting. That the room we were infront of was empty. The next thing I know we have the guards of this compound attacking us from every which way."

Neji continued as he stood up.
"We fought to the main building here, where this man started spouting off how he was going to be the greatest and no ninja will ever stop him. We weren't entirely sure what to do so we just tied him up for you to handle, Kakashi." Neji sighed. "Needless to say, I think we're done here."

Kakashi rubbed the back of his head.
"Well… Good job team."
Kakashi picked up Lord Aso's unconscious body and proceeded to what was left of the main gate.
"I'm surprised that you two caused so much damage."

Shikamaru scoffed.
"Please, the thugs this guy hired were so out of control that I'm surprised they didn't tear this place down ages ago."

Neji looked to Kakashi.
"Why are we taking him with us?"

Kakashi sighed. "I'll explain on the way back."