Keisei no Suna

A/N: This is an OCxSasuke fanfic. The OC is my creation, along with any characters regarding her past and also the antagonist in the story.

Chapter 4 - Harsh

ANBU were mysterious shinobi. They were quiet, sneaky, and to some, very hard to trust. Most, if not all ANBU were rather cold, and secretive people, due to the simple fact that their missions composed of being undercover and containing information that is to die for.

That was something Mio couldn't understand. ANBU were the opposite of what she was; she wanted everyone to know about her, they hid themselves from others. They dedicated themselves to the mission first, she dedicated her life to her comrades. This was where people would define the reason of shinobis and their living.

For the mission, or for each other?

After the close encounter, the group had managed to get to the entrance of the small unnamed village. The group gathered together, as the rest of the travel was silent, and Mio sighed before apologizing. "I'm sorry." It was mostly directed to the Uchiha who said nothing, but disregarded it. "Alright. We need a disguise just to look like civilians incase our target may have spies amongst the residents." Everyone but Mio nodded, and with a poof of smoke, they transformed into regular clothing, but with their faces revealed.

While it was a risk having their identities out, no one would automatically assume they were shinobi. The hokage had told them it was alright to do so, so they went on his word.

The group entered the village with ease as it was just a simple traveling village which meant that there were no guards at the gates. It was just a passing village that people stayed at to rest at, seeing as the majority of the people represented different villages. Mio smiled to herself, wondering if they were just genin or chuunin passing by. Nostalgia hit her as she suddenly remembered a time when she and her group had gone on their first mission as genin, having to stay at a small passerby village for the night.

That night, she could remember she had saved the youngest of her group, Enho, from bandits who somehow believed they had carried an important scroll. She sighed, smiling to herself, which caught the attention of Sasuke who eyed her. "Are you okay?" Suigetsu was the one to ask. Mio jumped, and blushed a bit, slightly embarrassed as she forgotten for a moment she was with the group. "Y-yes! Sorry. I was reminiscing." She stated, which just made the white-haired nodded and focus on scanning the area. Mio looked around as well.

Karin leaned over to her captain, and asked, "When are you going to ask her about the name the bandit said?" Sasuke didn't bother to look at the female, but focused on getting to the inn they were staying at in one piece. She sighed. "Sasuke, she's going to be heavy weight on us. She couldn't even fight back against bandits! How does she expect to—" "Don't worry about it Karin. Be quiet, and leave it to me." He told her. Karin gulped, and nodded, silencing herself the rest of the way.

"So we'll stay here for one night, two if needed, depending on what info we can gather." Sasuke told the team as they were huddled in the lobby of the inn. The owner went to retrieve the keys, leaving the four to talk amongst themselves.

Mio didn't really care to listen. She had an idea of her anyways, just as she always did, and only nodded when she thought to do so. The owner came back and handed the keys to Sasuke, two different ones, and they headed up a flight of stairs to the rooms.

"So it'll be the same room arrangements as always. Karin with Suigetsu, Mio you're with me." He told her. She cursed in her head, knowing that leaving now would be hard and rather futile. "I think that uh, I should stay with Karin…you know, since girls and all." She tried to convince the Uchiha, who looked at the pink-haired girl. Karin, on the other hand, though she did not like Mio in general, preferred the girl stay with her than with Sasuke.

Almost their friends, if not the whole village, was aware of the crush the girl had on the raven. Even Sasuke knew this, and usually paid no mind to it as long as it didn't interfere with his life. He was used to having girls swoon, and fall at his feet, ever since he was in the academy.

Karin nodded to Sasuke, who nodded. "Fine, you stay with Karin then, Suigetsu with me." He said, and retired to his room, as did the girls. Mio sighed heavily, plopping herself on the twin-sized bed. She was exhausted, but knew that they were going to leave to see what they could gather. There was never time to rest.

The silence was rather awkward between the two females. Mio could sense that the other female held some sort of hostility towards her, which just made the blonde summoner smile wryly when she turned to look at the girl, who glared back.

Mio frowned, then pushed herself up, and stared at the girl.

"What's your deal?" Mio huffed, which made Karin raise a brow before scoffing.

"My deal? What's yours?! Are you insanely stupid or something, believing that you're going to take down this Ren guy by yourself? You couldn't even handle bandits!" Karin told her. Mio looked down at the bedspread. The girl was right. Mio knew she could barely handle that one bandit, let alone the group. If it wasn't for Sasuke, she could've gotten hurt, and that's what bugged her.

She hated the feeling of being so useless. It was something that she tried to avoid, especially when she was on missions years ago. The time she could recall when she had someone managed to become a hostage and Enho and Ikito had to save her. It was that very day she vowed to never allow herself to be in that predicament again. And now look at her! Mio sighed. "You're right." She looked up to see the girl stare hard at her, causing her to frown slightly. "I can't take him on, I know that. But it doesn't hurt to try." Mio told her before pushing herself off the bed, and walking out of the room, not wanting to continue their debacle.

Silence fell between the two men. They both minded their own business, Sasuke working on sharpening his katana and Suigetsu thinking to himself. He thought about why they were on the mission. He understood that other ANBU teams were busy with their own missions, but why did team Taka, of all teams, had to be assigned to this? Couldn't a team of their jounin take this mission on?

What he didn't know was that his leader, Sasuke, was the one who found Mio near death outside the gates, and it was he who brought her to Konoha. Hell, if he did know he wouldn't believe it unless he was there. The Uchiha just wasn't the type to show much compassion towards anyone (maybe to Naruto but even that that's pushing it).

Suigetsu stood against the window, looking at the handful of folks walking about. That is, until a red kimono and blonde hair caught his eye.

"Oi, Sasuke. I think the summoner has gone for a little stroll." Suigetsu told him and turned to see that no one was with him.

"That quick bastard."

Mio wandered the streets, watching faces passing her by. The summer breeze kissed her cheeks, tossing her hair around slightly. It was weathers like these that made her miss Suna sometimes. Suna, with the horrifying summers, but gentle nights, the Suna she loved and was born and raised in. Her home. She could remember her friends, or rather the few she had, and her time there.

"I can't take him on like this…what will I do?" Mio asked herself. Not noticing that someone was in front of her, she walked straight into their chest, snapping her from her thoughts and causing her to look at her obstacle. "Uh…"

"Watch where ya goin' girl." A rather tall, bulky man told her, walking with two men behind him. They gave her a dirty look, and scoffed at her. "Hey, Ozuma, I think she might be a…" The man gave a wink to the guy she had bumped into. He smiled to himself. "She does look a bit…underdressed. How much are you charging?" He asked Mio. Mio looked at him, raising brow. "What are you talking about?!"

"Oh don't play dumb! We know what you are. No point in trying to hide it." One of the other males smirked as they inched closer to her.

"So? How much? Or are we not good enough customers for you, blondie?" Ozuma mocked, reaching a hand out to grab her until Mio was pulled away from his grasp.

"Leave her alone." Sasuke looked at them, his cold stare infuriating the men.

"Why you little…! Who do you think you are? First come, first serve kid." Ozuma told the raven, who didn't seem fazed. Mio looked between both men, sighing. "Men are always looking for fights." She whispered to herself, causing one of the fellows to question, "What did you say girl?!"

She smiled to them, pulling away from Sasuke's grasp. "Tell me gentlemen! Do you like tricks?"

Neither of them answered, causing her to laugh lightly. "Lo and behold, I will present to you, a disappearing act!" Reaching into her front pouch as she twirled in a circle, Mio threw the small smoke bomb onto the floor, disappearing from their sight.

"Where did she go?!" The three men looked alarmed. "That witch. She's probably a shinobi. Disgusting." Ozuma spat on the ground, and motioned for his men to follow, Sasuke watching him.

"That girl is more trouble than I thought." He told himself, following after her.