Testament to all their training as shinobi, Sakura and Sai both gave him identical deadpan looks at his words.

"I'm sorry did you just say we were married?" Sakura asked calmly.

"Yes I did."

"Oh ok, I thought so." She shook her head in tired disbelief. "And when did this occur?"

Naruto flipped a mission scroll onto the table. They both recognised the Daimyō's official seal on it. They were both a little glad at that, missions assigned by the Daimyō paid even better than S rank and ANBU missions.

"Your mission is quite simple, you are to retrieve a precious artefact belonging to the Daimyō; it was stolen by a group of rogue cloud Nin."

"And how does this relate to us being married?" Naruto's face stretched into a broad smile.

"Well the Daimyō kindly provided travel certificates for you, the documents state that you are a married couple." He produced some documents for their inspection. Both of them had approached his desk and were now scrutinising the documents carefully, looking for flaws that might give them away.

"Like anyone would believe I'm married to Ugly."

"They're genuine documents Sai," Naruto pointed out. "The Daimyō approved them himself so technically you are married whether people will believe it or not."

Sakura scowled at this, making a mental note to assassinate the Daimyō the next chance she got. "When do we leave and what are we retrieving."

"You leave tomorrow morning." He sighed, passing her the scroll. "As to what you're to retrieve I don't know, the Daimyō wanted to be sure that only the people actually on the mission know."

They both nodded in understanding. The Daimyō was an incredibly paranoid man after all; he wouldn't want anyone knowing about whatever it was that had been stolen from him. "You're also not to read the scroll until you reach the Land of Lightning." Naruto added before she could even think of opening the scroll she held.

"You're not being serious." She sighed, shaking her head. "I've got a bad feeling about this already." Heading across two countries before even knowing what their objective truly was. It didn't really allow them time to prepare a plan for once they reached the Land of Lightning.

"It does seem odd that we can't even look at the mission scroll until we get there." Sai concurred; his head cocking to the side slightly.

"Either way, you're not to open it before you reach the Land of Lightning." He gave them a challenging look. "And you had better be acting like a married couple by the time you reach the border."

It was a dismissal. Sakura could clearly see that he had quite a bit of work to do, so she offered him a small smile and followed Sai from the room. He held the door for her it was something he'd read that he should do.

"The Daimyō is really starting to get on my nerves." She scowled at the scroll in her hand, not really noticing his slightly confused expression. "You know he had me called to his residence last week." She tucked the scroll into her jacket. "Because he had a sore foot, have you any idea how gross his feet are?" Sai was watching her speak, wearing a blank expression but she continued. "Don't even try to imagine it; you'll just gross yourself out." She shuddered in an almost theatrical manner. "Seriously, that's what he gets for sitting around all day and getting his attendants to carry him in that stupid cart thing." Sai made opened his mouth to speak but she kept going. "Maybe I shouldn't have told him that, he might be hoping I just don't come back from Lightning, I was a little bit harsh in what I said to him."

She stopped suddenly and looked at him. "You're awfully quiet."

"That's because you're using up all the air, Ugly."

"Seriously, I could just make it look like a stroke." She threatened, one of her elegant eyebrows twitching.

"You shouldn't complain about being in demand." He pointed out. After all, the Daimyō paid very well, she'd probably been in the lap of luxury while seeing to his foot. Admittedly though, it was beneath her skills as a shinobi. "It's a good thing for your career."

"I suppose so, but really his foot? I'm a ninja not a hand maid... foot maid, whatever." She rolled her viridian eyes at the idea. "Nor am I his pet." She said the last word with some disdain.

Sai mumbled something which sounded like "you're too ugly to be a handmaid." She let it slide, momentarily distracted by the brilliant sun light hitting her eyes as they stepped outside.

"I haven't seen you for a while." She stated suddenly. It was almost as if that was how the conversation was supposed to have started.

"No." Came his simple reply. He hadn't seen a lot of people over those past few months.

"Shall we get some ramen?" She smiled her little lopsided smile at him. "It would be nice to catch up. Especially if we're going to be working together."

He considered her for a moment making a few observations along the way.

"I should really start preparing if we're to leave tomorrow." He decided. "And you look tired, maybe you should make sure you get a good night's sleep, those shadows under your eyes make you look even uglier." And then he walked away.

Had he looked back he might have seen the flash of hurt cross her face. He might have seen her gently feeling the skin under her eyes with her fingertips.

He definitely would have noticed that the smile had slipped from her face.

A few hours later, Sakura was sitting alone in Ichiraku's, swirling her noodles around in the broth.

She'd been genuinely disappointed when Sai had declined her impromptu offer. She'd missed Sai, because although she'd seen him around a few times, over the past three years he had become quite scarce. Team seven had been whittled down to just three members again, and with Naruto being Hokage, and Kakashi working hard to assist them, they seldom worked together much anymore.

So at twenty-two years of age, Sakura Haruno one of the best kunoichi of Konoha, was sitting in a ramen stand by herself, wondering how she came to be there.

She wasn't moping over it. No, she was just baffled by the feeling, she had been so sure she was headed in the right direction but it seemed she'd had the wrong map, or the wrong destination. Maybe it was both.

Her musing was broken when a hand clapped down on her shoulder.

"I thought I'd find you here." She saw Teuchi smile happily, and begin making an extra large portion of Naruto's favourite ramen. Naruto took his seat, not looking at her.

"You clearly know I'm too lazy to cook before a mission." He nodded and 'hmm'd' but otherwise waited in silence for his food.

"I heard about you and Ryou." He said finally.

"Oh... well I guess I'm not surprised." Ryou was the young civilian man Sakura had recently been sharing an apartment with. They had been living together for nearly a year in fact. It wasn't until nearly a month before that things had taken a turn for the worst and he'd started getting funny about her being a shinobi. Then less than a week ago she'd come home late one night looking a little bloodied up. The conversation had gone something along the lines of;

Angry; "Where the hell have you been?"

Tired; "Mission."

Angrier; "What kind of answer is that, you should tell me when you're going to be coming back late, and look at the state of you."

Tired; "I was on a mission. Sometimes they take longer than expected."

Angry; "You should have sent me some kind of message."

Irritated; "Yes I should have taken a break during a heated battle and healing my comrades to tell you I'd be late for dinner. That's perfectly sensible."

Furious; "Don't speak to me like that. I don't see why you're carrying on with this shinobi thing anyway."

Silence.

Calm; "Shinobi thing?"

She had spent only one night in her new apartment. She'd woken up that morning wondering where on earth she was and why her bed was so cold.

Naruto was watching her with understanding cerulean eyes. "Just..." he began awkwardly, "You know if you wanted to talk about it."

"There's nothing to say really." She stirred her now cold noodles again. "A year ago he thought it was so cool to have a shinobi as his girlfriend, he liked the danger and the excitement of being with a woman who could snap his neck. I was his trophy girl." Another stir. "After a year the novelty wore off and he wanted a nice woman who would stay at home and make his supper for him. He didn't understand why I was still carrying on with my 'shinobi thing.'" She stirred again but Naruto caught her hand.

"He's an idiot."

"You're telling me?" She responded wryly.

"Want me to have him assassinated?" He asked with a small grin. She laughed.

"He's not worth the trouble." She sighed. "I'm not really upset, just, oh I don't know, confused maybe." She was staring down at her bowl but she could see Naruto's eyes were trained on her, waiting for her to explain. "It doesn't matter Naruto, I could try to explain but I'm having a hard time understanding it myself." She grinned at him. "I'm fine really, you just wait; by the time I get back from this mission I'll have my head screwed on straight."

Naruto smiled; that smile that made her slightly plastic one become genuine. "Good."

Sai had finished packing his supplies nearly an hour ago, he'd finished eating his evening meal and now he was painting.

The brush ran over the paper smoothly. He didn't really have to think about it, he just visualised and the brush obeyed his will.

He wasn't entirely sure why he had refused the chance to catch up with Sakura; in fact it would have made sense to talk to her for a bit before embarking on a potentially long mission with her. Instead he'd felt the need to be alone. To say he was regretting it would be wrong, but he certainly wasn't ecstatic about his choice.

Another sweep of his brush. Instead of listening to that inscrutable woman babble on about random things over a bowl of ramen, he was sitting at his easel thinking about how he should have gone.

His eyes focused on the painting. Like all the others he had done over the past year, it had no colour. He glanced up at the one on the wall by the window. The first painting he'd named; 'friend.' Even back then, and before he had no trouble using colour in his work. But now it eluded him, every time he tried to use colour it just wouldn't blend the way he wanted and the painting would spoil.

It had been so long since he'd tried that he was pretty sure the paints would have dried out by now. Well that was a lie, he knew the paints he bought wouldn't dry out, but it had been so long that he did wonder sometimes.

His eyes roved over his completed work. It held a distinct taste of dissatisfaction, but he ignored that. He dipped his brush in his now black water, cleaning and drying it carefully before putting it in his pack.

He checked his inks and scrolls in his weapons pouch carefully before finally getting into bed. He stared at the ceiling for a long moment before rolling onto his side to stare at the wall instead.

Their mission would certainly be an interesting one if nothing else. He and Sakura had never worked together alone before, but both of them were excellent shinobi so he doubted much could go wrong for them.

He let himself drift.

Sakura was met by silence when she ambled into her apartment just after midnight. The place had the feel of a stranger's house, had it not been for the box of medical scrolls on the kitchen table, she might not have guessed that it was her own apartment.

She sighed as she walked into the bedroom, moving her pack and ninja tools from her bed. It was strange to her, to be sleeping alone again after all this time.

Despite her earlier words, she was looking forward to the mission. It would be nice to get away for her to get away for a little while.

She undressed, folding her clothes carefully before she climbed into her wide bed. The brand new mattress was soft, but creaked a little.

At first she had wanted to take everything she'd paid for from her old place, until she realised that that would leave Ryou with no carpets, bed or bathroom. So instead she'd done the grown up thing and told him he could keep it all, because she could happily afford new things thanks to that shinobi thing she did for a living.

She stared at the ceiling for a long moment before rolling onto her side to stare at the empty space next to her.

It would be another long night for her in her empty apartment.

So there's quite a bit of melancholy in this chapter but I promise you that by chapter four there will be a good chortle for you!