Sasori, I Love You; I Hate You

Chapter One: Just an Ordinary Mission... Right?

"HEY! HEY SHADOW-CHAN!"

Shadow Yamoto stopped dead in her tracks, her eyebrow twitching as she knew exactly who it was.

"Sakura-San how good it is to see you," she said coolly while putting on a smile. Although she knew Sakura well, she had to admit that she was a bit annoying and, frankly, got on her nerves quite a bit.

"I'm glad I caught you!" Sakura smiled brightly.

Sakura had first met Shadow when she was thirteen years old and when Shadow was assigned to Team Seven. Shadow was the 'substitute' Sasuke supposedly, and from what Sakura knew of Shadow's somewhat secretive history, Shadow never stayed in one group for more than a few months. She had also heard that she had already surpassed Jonin when she was eleven, but for reasons unknown had decided to go back to Genin stage, and by the time she had reached Chunin again she was added to Team Seven.

Although Sakura was older by at least a few months, she held a sort of respect for Shadow. She was a quiet girl; she never spoke unless spoken to, and she always seemed to know something that the others did not, but whatever it was that she knew, she had always kept to herself. In addition to her somewhat apathetic behavior and down-to-earth nature, she always wore plain blue clothes; clothes that never separated her from the rest of the crowd.

Among that, she wore a strange black necklace with weird blue stone that always looked as if it contained a sort of blue smoke and, if looked at carefully, always seemed to swirl around like mist. She was taller than most girls of her age, and thin as well, although not ridiculously so. Altogether Sakura summed her up as an odd one, despite her attempts at blending in. Her voice was deeper than most girls, perhaps not as feminine as most were, but it contained a sort of richness and elegance that no other voice had.

Shadow always smiled when she spoke, but it always seemed as if the joy that she was supposed to feel never reached her eyes and from the first moment Sakura had seen Shadow's first, genuine smile, she had made it her personal mission to make her smile like that again. In the few months Shadow had stayed with the group, Sakura and Naruto had already grown attached to her and she to them, in her own quiet way. It seemed as if she had become the true maternal figure of the group, but as mysteriously as she had appeared, she vanished yet again for another year. Only recently, when Sakura had turned seventeen, and Naruto had returned from his training with Jiraya, the Toad Sage, did she rejoin the village, so naturally Sakura was quite excited to see her again.

"So uh... Shadow-Chan. Are you free tonight? Cuz' the group really wanted you to come to a party tonight! An anniversary really!" Sakura grinned and Shadow had to remain from visibly wincing.

"I'm really very sorry Sakura- san." Not. "But I was just heading to the Hokage's office because she was going to give me a mission." As she spoke these words a tinny voice had begun to respond with what she would have rather said, but did not say. Shadow had become used to her, what was it Sakura had described it as? Her "inner side." Yes, Shadow had become used to her tiny "Inner Shadow" that had become so when she was younger. It always seemed to disagree with what she said, and as annoying as it was, Shadow couldn't help but love it. When she was five it was the only thing that kept her sane.

Sakura's head dropped a little and she said with a little less enthusiasm, "Oh... OK Shadow-Chan, maybe next time..." she looked down at the ground then looked back up, back to her cheery state again. "Well maybe next time! See ya'!" She ran off again as Shadow turned around again and headed towards the village's main office. She wasn't lying; she really was getting a new mission this time, but she probably could have made it to the 'party' too, if she tried.

At the office, Shadow went to the desk in the front to address herself. "My name is Shadow Yamoto and I was sent here by request from Lady Hokage," she said handing the little man at the desk the slip of paper that had been signed by the Hokage to allow her in.

The man took it without looking up and said, "Alright. Go on down then," he gave it a quick scan. He always checked the slips, as it was his job, but in reality he really could care less if it was forged or not. He'd been working at a desk for over twenty years with little, if any, action. Why wouldn't the other guys switch places with him? He was always stressed and he thought he deserved a different position.

"Thank you." Shadow said quietly as she turned down the hall. She walked down the hallway knowing exactly where to go. When she got there she saw the new Hokage-in-Training for, some reason or other, hanging upside down from a bar in the ceiling. His flamboyant yellow hair was just barely brushing against the floor as he held on tightly to his Leaf headband which tried to escape his hands and join gravity.

"Hey Naruto, I've seen you doing weird things before but this... This is just new to me." She smirked as Naruto lost hold and fell painfully to the floor on his back.

"Oh, uh… Hey Shadow-Chan! It's been awhile hasn't it?" he said enthusiastically and scrambled to his feet to shake Shadow's hand.

She laughed and said, "Long time no see I guess considering the last time saw you were last week. Where's Tsunade-Sama?"

He laughed and scrambled to his desk. "I don't know, she said she had something important to do. But anyways, you got the messenger bird right?"

"Well, I wouldn't be here if I hadn't," Shadow said, smiling. I see Naruto still has as much energy and enthusiasm as he had when we were twelve. Shadow laughed remembering.

"So anyways your new mission is to go to the Village Hidden in the Sand and recover some information on the spies we've had around here."

"The spies? You mean the ones that were around last week?"

"Yes. Those ones. I've talked to Gaara recently and he said that Suna had the same problems recently, they had also uncovered the same sort of spies so obviously they were sent from another village. We don't know which one, but whichever one it was, they used some sort of jutsu that is completely new to these parts, and I'd like to know what they use. In fact, those spies weren't even human, we ran some DNA tests over the "bodies" of our rats, and found out that 27.7 percent of it was made up of silicon, and 5 percent iron found in each body which leads to the theory that these were only animated bodies made of Earth. Why, we don't know, and how? We are sadly lacking the answers to both of these questions.

"We suspect it has something to do with Kusagakure. So what I want you to do is-"

"Get information, go under cover, and try not to die right?" Shadow asked sarcastically.

"Exactly." Naruto grinned, his smile reaching from ear to ear. "We have some people who we have paid that will keep you a secret, take you in, and will try and help as much as possible."

"OK. When does this start?"

"Actually I was hoping you'd start tomorrow at dawn." Naruto said sheepishly.

"Gee that's so considerate of you. Waking me up using the old rooster alarm trick," Shadow teased.

"Yeah sorry about that but we need this information as soon as possible!"

"You got it."

"Make sure you send me a messenger bird every so often. This mission is an estimated total of say... I think about three to four weeks, maybe more."

"Ok. Great. Thanks Naru- I mean, Great Lord Hokage." Shadow said, smirking again as she made a much unneeded bow, making it as low as possible. Naruto grinned and ushered her out. I hope I'm not forgetting to tell her anything… Was his last thought as the other shinobi left the room.

Edited: August 7, 2012