Seven
Sakura had her hands gripped tightly around the long bent map that would show herself and Lee the way to Yukigakure, the Hidden Snow Village. It was weird, that on such a nice sunny day in Konohagakure they would be leaving the beauty of it all for a cruel winter storm that never seemed to cease.
She was remembering her brief run in with Shikamaru about an hour or so ago. In truth, Sakura wish she could turn back and bring the intelligent ninja along, but she'd travelled so far—she was already outside of Konoha, after all—so she decided to suck it up, and make do with the progress that she and Lee had made thus far.
Although this 'progress' really was nothing compared to the length the two of the would have to travel. Yukigakure, wasn't one of the five great nations, in fact, it was one of those villages that Sakura had to constantly remind herself even existed. To boot, it was strangely far away, in some area, where a basic five days would mean nothing.
At least with Lee, the trip would never be boring. An exhausting, never ending, horrible power, struggle? Yes, but never boring. Lee was always too excited to let things become the opposite. He loved a good mission—although this one itself seemed like a bust, a long bust, but nevertheless—and almost as much he loved Sakura.
The taijutsu shinobi was currently racing around the woods they'd found themselves drawn into by way of the map. Well, in truth, the woods were marked off of the course of the path, but Lee wasn't quite one to follow such things as maps, and he was too fast for Sakura to catch and drag back. He was currently circling rapidly around a massive tree that was leaning up against another for support. It seemed to be rotting, and its biggest branch was dangling by a thin thread of peeling bark.
"Lee why are you-"
"Sakura! Sakura come here!"
Sakura marched over, ready to give the eager, never stopping ninja a piece of her mind, but she found herself stunned into silence. Falling from the branch were loads of items that looked as though they had fallen out of a pack that one would bring on an overnight trip. Sakura glanced at the rolling piece of paper which corners bent at the pressure of the light breeze that blew by. She bent to pick it up.
"A map to Sunagakure? Who from our village is visiting the Sand?"
Lee looked at Sakura, with his big black eyes. He sized her up with a superior stare, and placed his bandaged hands on his hips. "Sakura your beauty is as big as your heart, and your eyes are prettier than the stars, but your brain-" Lee paused, and smiled politely. "Er, did you happen to think that it's that girls map?"
Sakura thought about it for a moment. Yukigakure was quite a bit closer to Sunagakure than it was to Konohagakure. If this were the girl's map, it would have to mean she was either quite unintelligent, and couldn't follow a map to save her life, or she was young, and hadn't been taught how to do so. In the request sent by the head of her village, Sakura didn't remember hearing about the girl's age. It was possible, but the likeliness didn't place that odd into their favour.
"Yeah, but Sunagakure is closer to Yukigakure than these woods. If she were heading to the sand, she would have passed it. But—maybe you're right. Maybe it is her's. We could take it with us, show it to the head of Yukigakure, see if it's recognized by the authorities." Sakura although happy to have found something felt a little uneasy. If somehow, someway this map belonged to the missing girl, it might mean they'd have to venture further onto this mission than originally thought out. It might also mean the mission was more dangerous than it seemed. Only time would tell.