Disclaimer: I dare you to sue me even though I don't own this! HAHAHAHAH!

Author notes: Hey guys!

Well, here is the next chapter I hope you love it! Please review me and tell me what you think of the story, and who or what you think the mystery being is at the end! Anyway please I need 5 more reviews for the next chapter and normally I don't do this but the lack of reviews is really bumming me out. Pwease? For me?

BTW HUGE THANKS TO MAYALICE FOR ACTUALLY TAKING THE TIME TO READ AND REVIEW MY STORY! THANK YOU!

The Next Guardian

Chapter 6

Mission to the mist and Sasuke's discovery

Sakura sat nervously upon the walls that separated Konoha from the rest of the shinobi world, lazily letting her legs swing back and forth with the anxious momentum.

"So, you got new teams huh?" Conscience asked, trying to comfort her outer self just a bit.

Sakura rolled her eyes a bit, "Ya, Shikamaru and Neji are on my team and Yamato is my captain. I'm really glad that shika's on my team, and I'm sure captain Yamato will make a great leader but-" She trailed off, not even willing to badmouth a teammate in the presence of her conscience.

"You think that birdy should really understand the meaning of 'teamwork' or else you'll lock him in his cage forever?" Conscience teased, snickering as a hot blush crept its way up sakura's face.

"NO! I just think he could be a little more friendly that's all, we are going to be stuck together for a while after all." Sakura bit back, glaring inwardly telling her conscience to drop it.

"Who needs to be more friendly hm?" a voice said, scaring the living daylights out of sakura as she fell forward off the wall, hurtling face-first into the raspberry thicket that so convienetly grew beneath her.

"Shit." Sakura cursed, viciously tearing the prickly vines away from her body as she stood up. A green glow started enveloping her body and quickly sealed up the hundreds of needle pricks that scattered her bare skin as Sakura stormed out of the prickly clutches of the bush.

The pink haired Kionochi turned around, glaring with all her might at the imposter. "Captain Yamato, you know it's not very nice to sneak up on people, especially your students on their first day." She hissed, half-tempted to slap that smug grin off of her sensei's face.

Yamato only laughed before jumping down to land just two feet shy of the thorned bushes, teasing the pinkette who now resembled a porcupine. "Well Sakura, a ninja should never let their guard down." The ANBU captain said, enjoying his little prank to the full extent as there was no way in hell he would get away with this in an ANBU squad.

Sakura growled deeply, trying her hardest to resist the urge to go all rinnegan on his soon to be sorry ass. "Just because you're my captain doesn't mean I'm not strong enough to fight you alright Termite Sensei!" She said, smirking triumphantly as her sensei cringed at his new nickname courtesy of sakura herself.

Just before the girl was ready to engage in battle with her superior she felt two chakra signatures appear, and determined not to be fooled again she immediately pounced upon the intruders, successfully pinning the closest to the ground. "Oi Sakura, This is so, Troublesome…" muttered a familiar voice, earning a giggle from the Kionochi.

"I'm sorry Shika, I didn't mean to pin you." She teased before springing up and offering him a gentle hand.

Neji snorted in disgust, "You let a girl pin you? Hmm, weak." He muttered just loud enough for his three teammates to hear.

Suddenly a flash of pink was on him like her life depended on it, snarling and snapping out at him with an obviously pissed off attitude. "What was that Mr. milky eyes? Huh? Who's pinned now huh?" she roared while proceeding to tear the poor Hyuuga limb from limb but failed to do so as captain yamato and Shikamaru quickly pried her off of the coffee- haired prodigy.

"Hn. You need to work on controlling your emotions." Neji said blankly after standing up and nonchalantly dusting himself off, dismissing the fact that a certain pink haired demon had just pinned him so fast even his bloody Byakugan missed it.

Sakura glared maliciously at Neji, "Whatever Hyuuga, but I suggest you sleep with one eye open tonight." She threatened, noticeably shivering with pent up rage.

"I swear, no matter what team I'm on one of the members always seems to have a stick shoved up their ass." Sakura whined mentally, allowing her self to implode with the anger rather than explode.

Shikamaru and Yamato glanced at each other before simultaneously sweat dropping anime style, "Alright well, since we all seem to know each other lets get on with the mission." Yamato said, assuming his proper role as captain as he indicated that it was now 'time for business.'

"Hai!" the three shinobi sounded off, suddenly setting aside their earlier troubles for later. Yamato glanced around at his team and smirked.

"Hm," he thought to himself, " these runts aren't actually half bad, I got the Hyuuga prodigy, the Shogi king, and Sakura." His mood turned dangerously fast as his thoughts settled upon the pink-haired ninja.

"I'll have to keep a close eye on her." He thought, snickering at the look on her face after she toppled into the bushes, her angry expression as it popped up form the seemingly bottomless pit of prickly thorns.

"Captain Yamato, what's our mission about?" Questioned said Kionochi, staring courageously straight into the eyes of the ANBU captain, something she had never been able to do with her old sensei because she could only see the one eye.

"Hai, what's our mission Sensei?" Added Neji, his blank mask plastered to his face. Surprise, Surprise.

Yamato nodded before glancing sideways at Shikamaru, half expecting an answer from the laziest one of the bunch. Sakura conveniently happened to notice this and jabbed Shikamaru in the side with her elbow, prompting him awake from his oblivious state.

"We are probably going to deliver message of the Chunin exams or something." The pineapple haired boy yawned, before straightening out his back ever so slightly to look at his new sensei lazily.

Yamato rolled his eyes before unfurling the scroll, "It says here we have one week to deliver message that the Chunin exams will be re-held to the following villages-" He stated before allowing his eyes to wander back to Shikamaru who only smirked in a lazily triumphant style.

Neji groaned in annoyance, pondering as to why he had to be stuck with a lazy-ass pineapple head whose only skills seemed to be the ability to play Shogi, and a Kionochi whose only notable attributes were her pink hair, green eyes, and sever case of identity crisis.

"Hidden mist village, and-" Neji narrowed his eyes as he peered through the parchment, double-taking at the last village on the map.

" That's it actually." Sakura just cocked her head slightly, eyeing the brown-haired ANBU in front of her before shrugging. Yamato silently rolled up the scroll, stuffing it deep inside his ANBU bag before taking off into the woods that isolated Konoha.

"C'mon guys! Let's go!" Sakura chirped before eagerly taking off after her sensei, practically bursting at the seams with excitement. Neji smirked with annoyance and Shikamaru cocked an eyebrow while smiling slightly before pushing off the ground themselves, and propelling into the dark mystery of the forest.

Sakura smiled brightly as she sped up a little, arriving at the side of yamato within seconds. " So Captain Yamato, where are we going first?" she asked, grinning broadly as he continued forward.

"The Village of the Hidden mist." He replied, not even bothering to turn his head to acknowledge his student's question. Sakura huffed in annoyance and glared at yamato, upset with her now overly cocky ANBU teacher.

(10 hours later)

"Hey sakura?" questioned the pineapple haired boy, looking at her lazily as he somehow had managed to catch up with the pink ninja and keep pace with her.

"Ya Shika?" Sakura asked, cocking an eyebrow up at him questioningly as they hopped from tree to tree.

"Why is it that you call Yamato-Sensei 'Captain yamato' and not Yamato-Sensei?" He asked, snickering slightly into the collar of his forest green vest. Sakura just rolled her eyes a little bit before thinking about it.

"I don't really know, but Captain Yamato doesn't seem to mind it and I've known him a little longer than you guys have so Ya…" Sakura said, her pink locks flapping wildly behind her as they propelled themselves further into the dark woods.

Shikamaru cocked a lazy eyebrow at his teammate, questioning her. Sakura sighed a little, remembering how horrifically wrong THAT mission had gone. "Not now shika ok? Maybe some other time, or maybe Captain Yamato will tell you." She mumbled, stressing the "captain" part as her lively green eyes suddenly became glazed over with an emotionless seal.

Shikamaru just nodded silently, talking was too… troublesome, and continued on toward the Hidden mist village.

"You know, it is rude to call your teacher anything but Sensei." Scolded Neji who had conveniently dropped back to torture his female teammate. Which for some strange reason he couldn't quite understand why he seemed to love doing.

"Ugh, Hyuuga why don't you go rant about how you're always locked up in a cage or something to our precious 'sensei' alright? In other words, fuck off!" Sakura spat back, glaring coldly at the coffee haired boy who immediately returned the glare.

"No." He said, smirking at his pink-haired teammates obvious annoyance.

"NEJI!" Neji's eyes widened a fraction as his smirk did when Sakura yelled, beginning to chase after him with a chakra-enhanced fist. Shikamaru only rolled his eyes and caught up with Yamato who huffed with disdain.

"HYUUGA YOU GET BACK HER RIGHT NOW GOD DAMNIT OR SO HELP ME I'M GOING TO GO ALL DRAGON ON YOUR ASS! –" Sakura screamed, eyes practically flashing with anger as she narrowly missed Neji- again, and ended up disintegrating the poor tree instead.

"Alright you two that's enough!" Yamato yelled, forcing a tree to shoot up out of the ground and coil around Neji and sakura like snakes.

Yamato smirked at his handiwork as he watched the genin squirm around attempting to escape the tight clutches of the wood. " You both know better than that, we are supposed to be a team." He said, shooting the both of them an equally deadly glare.

"And Sakura, whether you like it or not that means working together! You are not allowed to treat Neji like he is Naruto, you are going to have to just deal with it from now on." Sakura grunted in detest while shooting her own dirty looks at Neji, but gave no further struggle against her teacher's en-prisonment.

Yamato nodded approvingly at his pink haired student before glancing over to Neji, "And that goes for you two Neji, just because you might think Sakura is weaker than you are doesn't give you the right to pick on her. Trust me, bad idea." Sakura smirked with satisfaction as Neji only added an extra layer of anti-emotion to his face and looked away.

Shikamaru, who had been watching the whole thing go down from a distance sighed, "This new team, could be very troublesome." He said watching as sakura continued her murderous glare upon his other emotion-deprived teammate.

Slowly, the coils of wood shrunk closer to the ground, bringing the two ninja along with them. "Alright then, lets rest for the night hmm?" Yamato asked, retracting his wooden arms from sakura and Neji.

Sakura breathed out, content that her ribcage was no longer being crushed by the wood before turning to her captain, " Hai captain Yamato." She said.

Thirty minutes later team Ichi was sitting around a decent sized fire, each sitting Indian style as they discussed who would do what for that night.

"Alright then, Shikamaru how about you go get water from the that stream we spotted a ways back and Sakura-" Yamato said, his eyes now shifting to a certain pinkette who was poking at the fire with a stick now, god was she really that bored?

"Hn?" she asked nonchalantly, not even bothering to look up from the fire that suddenly happened to be interesting.

"You can stay here and prepare, While Neji goes out to hunt." At this sakura's head shot straight up, her mouth in the shape of an "o".

Neji turned to see his teammates obvious distress and snickered slightly. Sakura on the other hand immediately shot to her feat, determination evident on her face as she argued with Yamato over who was going to hunt. "C'mon Captain! I can do wayyyyyyy better than birdy over here could! I can hunt for anything! Anything! Please?" sakura said, putting on her best puppy dog eyes as she looked at her captain who eventually threw up his arms in defeat.

"Fine, but I expect something good Sakura. Please, you know I hate fish so how about some pheasant or something okay?" Yamato replied, calmly stoking the fire as he wondered what she had meant by being able to hunt better than the Hyuuga prodigy. Honestly, Neji had the Byakugan to hunt, it was as easy as look, aim and shoot. But what did sakura have? Hmm, what did sakura have?

"Thanks Captain Yamato!" Sakura squealed before propelling herself into the nearest tree, and proceeding to change into her more- Primal nature.

Neji smirked, remembering last nights previous encounters with a certain lizard, "You know, she is going to come back with some mangled, decapitated animal." He said coolly, indulging in the look on his sensei's face as it questioned him.

"How do you know about Sakura's little-erm secret huh?" Yamato asked, eying the Hyuga prodigy suspiciously as he huffed slightly in annoyance.

"Hn, she attempted to threw me over the edge of the Hokage monument when I interrupted her little 'dream time' session." Neji said nonchalantly, brushing off the possibly near death experience quickly as if it never happened.

"Well, that must've been troublesome." Shika commented, returning from his task of collecting water only to hear that his female teammate had successfully managed to toss the prodigy over the edge of the Hokage monument. Neji shot a glare at his new teammate telling him to drop it before he would be forced to Byakugan his ass in order to preserve his own overly large ego.

"So, Sakura's got some big secret huh?" Shikamaru asked, his tone suddenly becoming dangerously serious as he shot the other two a glance that says ' even though it might be troublesome I want to know- NOW!'

Captain Yamato sighed; he knew it would be pointless to keep sakura's true identity a secret from her teammate because he would eventually see her in battle anyway. "Alright Shikamaru, I'll tell you but first you must swear that this is a secret in team Ichi okay? No one is allowed to know about this." Shikamaru nodded solemnly, fully aware that whoever- or whatever sakura was had to be kept a secret for her own good.

"Good, Sakura is not who you think she is Shikamaru, Sakura is a part of the Ryuu clan." Yamato said, his face remaining as icy as Neji's was as he stared into the flames. Shikamaru thought for a moment, he knew that name he had heard it somewhere before.

Think! Think! - Bingo! "Wait, so does that mean that Sakura is-" Shikamaru started, his eyes widening slightly at the realization.

"Yes." Suddenly everyone looked up into the inky blackness cast by the canopy of trees that hung over them, and staring back at them was a feral pair of shimmering, emerald green eyes. One thing immediately ran through everyone's minds, 'where is sakura?'

Instinctively all the ninja shot into their defensive positions. 'Alright, enemy is good with chakra control, larger size, Crystal elemental force.' Neji said in his mind, already working out battle strategies and tactics that would give him the upper hand should this enemy decide to attack.

"Wait, what?" Neji whispered, thinking back to the only person he knew of that had crystal as their nature style- guren. This only served to put him more on edge.

As if to spook them even more, a mysterious, somewhat evil chuckle rained down upon them, "Show yourselves!" Captain Yamato said firmly, readying his wood Juutsu for any and all incoming attacks.

"Well, Ok." The voice said, Neji and Shikamaru tensed immediately, it couldn't be that easy.

Suddenly Neji felt a hot breath on his neck that caused his whole body to tremble and even the smallest of hairs to stand on end. "Huh?" he breathed while violently whipping his body around already performing his gentle fist Juutsu, but found that whatever he was attacking had no central chakra point. In other words, it was immune to any and all chakra depletion and preventative techniques.

"How nice of you to join us-" Captain Yamato said, his obviously relaxed state confused Shikamaru to no end. "Sakura." Shikamaru gasped and withdrew his advancing shadow Juutsu while Neji apparently wasn't done trying to shut down the dragon's chakra network yet.

Sakura huffed out, her breath easily visible in the chilly night, "Damn it Neji, It's not going to work so just lay the fuck off already would ya!" She growled, becoming highly irritated by the Hyuuga's nonstop poking and prodding that tickled more than anything. Neji grunted in protest, and increased the strength of his Juutsu, insistent to prove the demon girl wrong.

"Hn." Neji hisses, his fingers dancing upon the matted fur of the dragon, his eyes trained one step ahead of his next move. Sakura, now completely fed up with his pointless poking snarls menacingly, dropping her current cargo.

"GOD DANMIT NEJI STOP IT RIGHT NOW! IT'S ME SAKURA!" She roars, whipping her tail up in a frenzy of anger and bringing it down hard on the Hyuuga prodigy just fast enough to catch his shoulder as he springs away. Captain Yamato stares not at his two students practically about to rip each other to pieces, but at the strange lump of flesh that sakura just dropped.

"Sakura, what did you bring back." Yamato asks, his voice suddenly taking on a tone so cold it causes the two quarreling ninja to stop dead in their tracks. Shikamaru glances between his three teammates, and for once is entirely lost on what the hell is going on.

"I-I-" She starts to say, but her voice breaks before sakura can finish the sentence and her slender body begins to tremble like a leaf. Captain Yamato walks up to the food sakura brought back, and finds his suspicions to be correct.

"Were you attacked?" He asks, his eyes not straying from the limp form of a sound-nin that lay in front of him barely distinguishable from the massive (not to mention headless) boar that it laid on top of. Shikamaru felt his breath hitch slightly, his brilliant mind finally coming into play as he unraveled the whole situation. While Neji just stood there leaning against a tree, his face as emotionless as ever.

"Y-Yes, I-I'm Sorry!" Sakura blurted out, tears slowly streaming down her elegant dragon face. "I didn't k-know what to do! He said that h-he wanted information from me and I-I got nervous!" Her anxious tone had all but been replaced by sobs as she hung her head, the cries racking her body causing it to shiver even more. Now, some might say that it highly un-characteristic for a dragon to cry let alone sob, but one should also know that dragons are highly emotional creatures and making your first kill is no laughing matter. Sakura had changed back into her normal form, slumping against a tree as she shielded her eyes from the view of her team.

Yamato gazed with worried eyes upon his youngest student, and he knew that with her power and wild emotions she could become a major threat to herself and the team. But that didn't stop him from feeling; he remembered how hard it was to make his first kill. "It's okay Sakura, I know it's hard but this is what ninja do – we kill." He said calmly, walking up to his pink-haired student and placed a comforting arm around her in an attempt to stifle her sobs.

"God Dammit!" Sakura suddenly shouted, wiping her tears away roughly with the back of her bloodied shirt. "This is exactly what I promised myself I wouldn't do anymore!" Yamato quickly squeezed Sakura's shoulders, effectively snapping her out of her momentary hysteria. Shikamaru sighed out of worry before pushing himself up and strolling over to sit next to his emotionally distressed teammate relieving a very anxious Yamato of his duty.

"Sakura, if you don't calm down and tell us what happened it could become very troublesome." Shikamaru muttered, lazily placing a hand on the trembling back of his teammate. Neji was currently having a complete and utter emotional war. He felt some strange urge to go tell her that after she killed more people she would get used to it or something smart-ass like that, something Neji would say, But Neji didn't say anything. He just sat there staring madly into the fire, his emotions practically bursting at the seams under his cool façade.

Sakura sniffled slightly, keeping to herself refusing to lean in to the warmth of her lazy teammate. Her eyes glazed over slightly as she recalled the recent events.

"So ya little sucker, thought you could get away did ya?" I teased, referring to the headless, dead boar corpse that I carried in my mouth. The warm gush of blood as it flowed over my teeth was almost un-resistible, and yet it made me sick to my stomach at the same time.

"Hello there." I immediately changed back to my normal form at the stranger's intrusion, whipping out a kunai as I crouched into a defensive stance over my catch.

"Sound." I hissed, watching a black clad ninja hop down from his perch up in a chestnut tree. I glared daggers at this ninja, he was obviously not friendly and that made him an enemy and it wouldn't take Shikamaru to figure that out.

The ninja only smirked, or what I assumed to be a smirk under his mask as he pulled out twin, poison-laced, swords. "Yes, now down to business where are the ninja Nara Shikamaru, Hyuuga Neji, and that ANBU." He asked casually, like I was some business associate or something.

"How should I know? Fuck off!" I hissed, emitting a deadly chakra signature just incase. The Sound assassin only chuckled darkly, sending shivers up my spine.

"Oh, I think you know very well where they are. It's only a shame that you didn't tell me, maybe then their death could've been more peaceful." My eyes flew wide open in realization that this guy wasn't fucking messing with me; he was one of Orochimaru's personal assassins sent to dispatch my team!

'I will never again allow my teammates to fight my battles for me, to take my pain for me, to die for me. From now on I will become stronger and protect my team and all those who are close to me!'

Everything that happened next was like a blur. "STAY AWAY FROM MY FRIENDS!" I roared, now suddenly aware that I had re-changed back into my Ryuu clan form and was now strangling the poor ninja, holding him at eye level.

Suddenly I found myself saying a move, "Secret Juutsu: mind control technique!" and before I knew it I had invaded the poor ninja's mind. I don't know how I did it but I did, and know I was doing something even more disgusting.

"Kill yourself, stab yourself with poisoned kunai until you cannot stab yourself anymore. And then, do it again." I commanded, withdrawing from his control center and dropping the shinobi to the ground watching with pleasure as he stabbed himself repeatedly with a kunai. On my command!

"But, the worst part of it was-" She said, now completely lost in a world of emotional pain as she forced the stressing experience past her lips, " Was that I actually enjoyed seeing him die, I enjoyed seeing him bleed in pain and I enjoyed knowing he died because of me!" She bawled, sobbing into her own gloved hands not wanting to meet the eyes of her teammates in fear that all they would hold was disgust.

Shikamaru sighed; this was just so – troublesome. "Now Sakura, you don't really expect me to believe that you enjoyed watching this man die?" He asked, cocking an eyebrow at his female teammate as she nodded guiltily, still not able to look him in the eyes.

"Or, is it the fact that you had eliminated a threat to your precious ones that made you enjoy watching him die?" BINGO! Sakura's head practically shot straight up, her eyes wide with realization as she finally met Shikamaru eyes. Shikamaru let a slight smirk play on the corner of his lips while nodding with assurance to the 14 year old ninja.

"Sakura, you were just protecting us. No harm in that now is there." Yamato chimed in, feeling safe to join his pineapple haired student in the comforting of his pink haired one.

Poor, Poor, emotionally confused Neji. This was almost utterly and completely out of character for him. Tenten never, and he means never cried, so this kind of situation left the Hyuuga prodigy in the black for once. And one glance at the look on Neji's face and sakura couldn't help but push all her troubles away and laugh, because Neji Hyuuga looked completely and utterly lost. The one thing running through his mind?

"Fuck-"

(Time skip two days)

"Greetings Mizukage-Sama." Yamato said, bowing his head to the leader of the hidden mist with all due respect, and his students followed suit.

The Mizukage smiles lightly before shoeing the guards away, "Ah, Captain Yamato to what do I owe this visit hmm?" She asked sweetly, finally glad to have some time just to talk. Sakura immediately perked up upon hearing the warm tone in the Mizukage's voice and stood a little bit taller, that classic sakura smile plastered to her face.

"Ah, we have been sent from Konoha to inform the hidden mist village that the previous Chunin exams are being re-held due to some erm- *cough* *cough* Difficulties." Mei's eyes widen a little bit and she nods in understanding before allowing her eyes to roam over the remaining shinobi.

"Yamato, who are these fine young shinobi hmm?" She asked, eying one particular ninja with a sparkle in her eye.

Sakura practically jumps at this opportunity, "We are team Ichi Mizukage-Sama! I'm Sakura Haruno, it's a pleasure to be in your presence my lady." Sakura said, suddenly remembering her manners at the end of her little 'speech.' Mei just eyed her up and down, studying her every feature while Yamato, Shikamaru and even Neji all sweat drop anime-style.

"Ah, your Tsuande's apprentice aren't you? I've heard many things about your healing skills young Kionochi and might I say I'm quite impressed." Sakura giggles slightly as the hot pricks of a blush creep onto her face causing Mei to laugh warmly at the pinkettes reaction.

"Arigouto Mizukage-Sama." Sakura says, bowing low before retreating to the back of their group practically hiding behind Shikamaru.

The Mizukage turns her gaze back to Yamato and cocks an eyebrow questioningly, " Ah, See one of our groups, team seven-" Yamato glanced nervously back at Sakura who was now biting her lip hard enough to draw blood in an attempt to squelch that empty feeling in her stomach. "Well, lets just say since Sakura proved to be the only remaining member on that team, The Hokage saw fit that our teams be re-shuffled and the students re-assigned."

Mei immediately begins to laugh after hearing Yamato's statement, "So, let me guess you somehow got roped into heading up a team huh? Yup, that's Tsunade for ya huh kid?" Mei asked causing sakura to giggle at her shishou's predictable nature while Yamato fought to keep back a blush.

"Ehem, Sorry to interrupt but we are due back to report to the Hokage in four days Yamato-sensei." Neji said, earning his death glares from both of the Kionochi in the room that were having a good time chatting up a storm.

Shikamaru sighed and ran a lazy hand through his hair, "Ugh, you can be so… troublesome." He muttered, just loud enough for both the girls to hear earning yet another round of giggles from the Kionochi.

Sakura frowned once her giggles finally died down and looked at her new friend, she seemed to have a knack for becoming acquainted with the kage's now doesn't she? Mei turned to look at Sakura and smiled, holding her arms out wide to receive her new found friend, " Come here Sakura, it's been nice meeting you and we should really get together sometime!" She said, embracing the younger Kionochi tighter as she talked into her pink hair.

"Yes, Mizukage Sama!" Sakura chirped, pulling away slightly to smile while the boys rolled their eyes, oh brother. Mei only grinned more and ruffled Sakura's hair in a way much like Kakashi did.

"Now, now Sakura, call me Mei alright?" Sakura felt the blush creep onto her cheeks again as she feverishly nodded, thrilled with the fact she just befriended the Mizukage like an older sister in a matter of minutes.

"H-Hai, Mei-Chan!" She giggled as Mei beckoned sakura to come back to her throne one last time before she had to depart to Konoha.

"Sakura take this." She whispered, revealing a small, ivory whistle in her palm. "Use this with your summoning animal to summon them at any time without using blood okay?" Mei said, smiling as she placed the small gift into sakura's hands closing them around it.

"Sakura, it's time to go!" Captain Yamato said, turning to follow his pupils that had already left the building. Sakura whipped around to find the rest of her team missing and immediately blushed before springing out of the Mizukage's office, hell bent on whooping each boy's ass when she caught up.

"She was really nice Sakura, you should know that it wasn't an act and that she genuinely likes you too." Conscience said, trying to soothe sakura's suspicions that the Mizukage might be using her for something.

Sakura exhaled loudly, "Well, that's good to know. I really liked her too, but what was with the whistle?" Conscience chuckled slightly inside her mental realm.

"Sakura you ass, obviously she knows about the summoning requirement and realized you haven't found yours yet and she wants you too pass." Sakura glared inwardly at her conscience telling her to put a sock in it already.

"Well, you didn't have to be-" Suddenly sakura's eyes began to water and burn, her throat felt like she had just downed Tsuande's entire sake store and her nose wrinkled with it's burning feeling.

"Conscience, Are those-?" Sakura began, her voice completely wiped of emotion as a pang of fear shot through her heart.

Conscience gulped slightly, "Sound." She whispered, and sakura didn't need any more convincing to know what she wanted to do.

Meanwhile Neji, Shikamaru, and Captain Yamato had already hit the forests just outside of the hidden mist village when Neji suddenly sensed something very wrong.

"Okay, wait a minute. One, Two, Three Chakra signatures including my own." He thought before anxiously activating his Byakugan and searching the nearby are for Chakra signature #4.

"Yamato-sensei, we have a problem." Neji stated impassively as he caught up with his brown-haired teacher. Yamato immediately stopped, causing Shikamaru who was following closely behind to almost run into his back.

"Troublesome." He muttered, irritated at his damn sensei's sudden urge to throw on the breaks fifty feet in the air.

Yamato slowly turned to look at Neji, his face just as cold and impassive as the Hyuuga's. "Shit." One look at the Byakugan users face and Yamato knew that he was short one team member. He also knew that this was the reason he never had kids, he would probably end up loosing them all within a week, a month tops.

Shikamaru groaned with annoyance, " Oi, Neji." He said barely making a move to turn and acknowledge Neji's presence.

"Just use your Byakugan to find her." He stated simply before yawning and leaning further into the tree he leaned on, hoping with all his might that it would change into a comfy bed.

Neji narrowed his eyes at the normally intelligent Shikamaru surprisingly dull solution, "Tch, she is too far off for my Byakugan for me to locate her you ass." He hissed while yamato face-palmed in frustration.

"Then just use your summoning animal Hyuuga." Neji's eyes would've widened had he been sakura, unaware of the fact that Shikamaru knew of his summoning animal.

Neji 'hmphed' before pulling out a large, cream-colored feather from his pouch, and biting his thumb to draw blood. He then wiped his thumb along the length of the feather, smearing his crimson liquid into it. "Summoning Juutsu: Kashikoi." He whispered as he released the feather into the wind, watching it as it poofed into his summon.

A large Barn owl gracefully latched itself onto Neji's outstretched arm; her eyes were white and milky like that of a Hyuuga's. "Oji Neji, what do you request of me?" The owl asked, bowing slightly to her master as she awaited her answer.

" Kashi, Follow our chakra trail and find Sakura Haruno, she shouldn't be hard to locate and the last known location she was seen was the Mizukage's office." Neji said, nodding back to the bird to acknowledge her.

"Hai, Oji Neji. I will return as quickly as possible with information on Haruno's whereabouts." Kashi chirped before taking off and flying away in the opposite direction of the team.

Neji smirked in triumph at Shikamaru who only rolled his eyes, "Well, lets follow her shall we?" Yamato asked but didn't really wait for an answer as he already had taken off to follow the Hyuuga's owl.

"Sakura! We should wait for the rest of the team god damnit! Are you even listening to me!" Conscience screamed, practically pulling her fictitious hair out by its imaginary roots in a fit of rage.

Sakura growled inwardly at her conscience, "I don't have time to wait for them bitch, so just pipe down and let me focus!" Sakura barked back, glaring with bloodlust at her conscience who shrunk back.

Sakura rolled her eyes and continued running, she had felt about seven chakra signatures a while back and had immediately recognized them as sound, but what the hell were sound ninja doing in the hidden mist village? Sakura honestly didn't give a flying fuck; she just wanted them gone and away from here so that the Mizukage would be safe. "Almost there!" Sakura huffed as she pumped more chakra into her feet, forcing herself up the hill even faster.

Suddenly her limbs froze, her body locked up and her heart stopped for a moment. In the midst of seven sound shinobi was a single being, his inky black bangs stuck to his face with sweat, it was long and seemed as though it had been tied back at one point. suddenly a plume of flames shot out from his mouth, "Fire style: Dragon fire technique!" he called.

Sakura's heart began beating again, only this time it was beating about a million times faster than it should have. Slowly he turned his head, being the only one to sense the Kionochi's presence and his eyes widened "S-Sakura?" he gasped, contacting her through mental telepathy.

"Sakura, it's him!" her conscience shrieked causing Sakura to snap out of her shock induced trance and run headlong into the mass of shinobi, eyes now blazing wildly with anger.

"Crystal style: Jade crystal blade Technique!"

Meanwhile…

"Your late…" Crimson eyes narrowed on the snake sannin's mangled form as it entered along with two other people.

Orochimaru cringed, "Sorry, Sasuke but we ran into some difficulties during our little outing." He hissed, obviously in no condition to be making small talk.

Kabuto limped up to Orochimaru, "Lord Orochimaru, please head over to the medical quarters where I can begin to heal your injuries." He said, clutching his heavily damaged arm as he did so. Instantly all eyes flickered to the last figure in the room and then between each other.

"Sai, go to your quarters while I re-cooperate." Orochimaru said, practically chucking the card with his room directions on it at the artists face.

"Hn." Sasuke grunted, clearly not pleased with this new addition to the sound force.

"Hai, Lord Orochimaru." Sai said before turning down the inky black hallway and disappearing into the darkness.

"Fuck, That damn pink bitch is going to be a problem." Orochimaru hissed, glaring at Kabuto as he attempted to heal the sound leader. Sasuke expertly hid his chakra and decided to eavesdrop on the conversation, not that he really cared it was just he would be bored because his stupid sensei was weak.

"Hai, Lord Orochimaru. The Kionochi proved to be more of a challenge than I thought, but you seem to know her species quite well lord Orochimaru." Kabuto grunted, attempting to finish sewing up on of the more lethal cuts on the snake sannin's body.

"Yes." Orochimaru snickered, licking his lips in a pedophile fashion. "Lucky us, I happen to have wiped out her entire species so one more wont be to hard. Still, send a assassin to Konoha maybe the blossom will be weak and vulnerable." Kabuto grinned maliciously at his master's plan.

"Lord Orochimaru, if I may. The girl is on the same team as the Jinjuriki, so she may hold valuable information on him. Let's capture her and place a curse mark on her, I'm sure after a month or two of torture she would speak." Orochimaru immediately caught onto his apprentice's idea, and allowed the most disturbing grin to leak onto his face. "Who knows, maybe she could be your next ultimate weapon Lord Orochimaru."

The Snake Sannin smirked at Kabuto, "Ah Kabuto, you never fail me. I think that is a fine idea, send an assassin immediately to retrieve the girl and bring her here, alive."

Sasuke suddenly felt his heart stop, ' Pink hair, Kionochi, Konoha, blossom, same team as Jinjuriki, Jinjuriki is Naruto! on the same team as Naruto!' His thoughts came to a screeching halt as his stomach did a sommer-sault.

"Sakura." He breathed, suddenly making all the connections. Quickly he shook his head, reminding himself that he severed any and all bonds with his past life years ago and that meant the bonds with her two, he shouldn't and wouldn't care.

'it couldn't be her, Sakura is weak and pathetic just like the rest of those konoha losers. Of course it isn't her, after all she is just annoying' Sasuke thought to himself and quite content with his conclusion he dashed off to the training grounds.

End Notes: So? Did you like it?

This one took me a while to write and it was supposed to be shorter but oh well. Anyway im sorry but I MUST HAVE MINIMUM OF FIVE MORE REVIEWS! Before posting the next chapter, and itll be an interesting one! Battle against sound, summoning animals, combined power, team training, and kicking kiba's ass? Who knows maybe even shukaka will make an appearance.