Just You, Me, and a Piece of Paper

Chapter 5 – Mission part 1

Warnings: Randomness. OOC-ness. Some language. Does not follow canon exactly.

I am going to skip all of the pre-shippuden filler arcs, and follow the manga, so Naruto leaves with Jiraiya right away.

A/N: Hey, it's been a while guys. I've gone back and made a few changes in the first 4 chapters, so please go take a look. Most of you probably need a refresher anyways since it's been so long since I've updated… no excuse – I was just lazy.

The former chapters have not been miraculously turned super awesome, but I think they are slightly better. I have always sucked at writing narratives; I do better with the formal expository writing, but hey! At least I have the confidence to try and the will to improve ;)

Hopefully, the chapters will get better as time goes on.

Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.

Thanks for reviewing! I appreciated it :)

Chapter 5

Itachi – sensei,

Yo! Thanks for those tips. I understand what you mean now – water is a free element. It cannot be bended to one's will. One has to subtly manipulate and shape it into what we need - I cannot force it to move with my chakra, I have to persuade it.

So, moving on. Are you going to give me anything? Can you please give me another useful water jutsu?

HS

First off, don't call me sensei.

Second off, no. I already gave you one.

Itachi

Sakura pouted as the read the last letter. Stingy old man. She quickly placed the letter in her weapon's pouch, and ran out of her room – she was late for training with Tsunade. The times it had happened before, the punishments weren't pretty.

XxXxXxXx

"Shanaro!" Sakura roared, the earth shattering beneath her fist.

Tsunade gracefully leapt into the air, avoiding any impact from the blast. She immediately began hurling kunais.

Sakura grimaced as a kunai nicked her in the upper arm despite her efforts to dodge. Leaping to her left, she did a quick roll and stood up.

Tsunade landed back on the ground, and for a few seconds, both kunoichis stood there, silently evaluating each other. Internally, Sakura made a face. This was so not going well. Why had she chosen today to be late?! As her punishment, Tsunade had seen fit to propose an impromptu spar. Sakura always ended up hurt in spars. Spars were not fun. Of course, she had no delusions of winning, but she expected herself to do well at least. With the rate things were going, Sakura wouldn't be surprised if she was made to run laps around Konoha afterwards.

Taking rapid glances of her surroundings, Sakura wracked her brain for ideas. If she didn't do something spectacular soon, then – she shuddered. She didn't even want to think of the training regiment in store for her.

Focusing on the task as hand, she made a mental checklist of the resources she still had. She was low on weapons, having thrown most of them, and only had 2 kunais and 3 shurikens left. She didn't have any other equipment and her stamina was running out. She was also low on chakra, and would probably only have enough left for one last jutsu. This fight would have to end soon.

As her eyes ghosted over the brook flowing conveniently only a few meters away, she was stuck with an idea. The plan was thoroughly calculated within seconds and allowing a devious grin to curl into existence, Sakura acted.

"Shanaro!" Sakura cried again, as she punched the earth. Tsunade once again flipped into the air but this time, Sakura was ready when she threw a kunai.

Reaching into her own pouch and pulling out one of her kunais, Sakura aimed, and let out a silent breath of relief when her's deflected the incoming weapon. Then, her eyebrows narrowed. No time to get distracted; time for phase 2.

As Tsunade neared the ground, Sakura reach back to her weapons holster and brought out her last 3 shurikens. Throwing them, Sakura grinned when Tsunade had no choice but to create an earth wall due to not having time to dodge. Just as she had planned – now, her mentor wouldn't be able to see her actions for a few seconds.

"Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu!" Sakura excitedly whispered as she made the hand signs for the simpler version Itachi had taught her. It wasn't as strong, and not as intimidating-looking as the real one, but it was still powerful. It was good enough to get the job done. Besides, she didn't have enough time to run through all 44 required hand signs since her hand seals speed was still not fantastic. A sleek looking dragon rose out of the stream, and swayed a little bit. Sakura gulped, and concentrated hard. The dragon steadied, and its golden yellow eyes narrowed. Then with a defiant roar, charged at Tsunade.

Tsunade's eyes widened when she saw the incoming dragon from her blind spot where the earth wall once was. She tried to move away, but it was too late. The water dragon hit her point blank in the middle of her back, and the fifth Hokage was sent careening into a tree. Sprinting after her, Sakura quickly grabbed her hands and tied them securely with ninja wire before the older woman had time to react. Then, the whole scheme was followed up with by a well-placed kunai, right next to Tsunade's jugular vein. Tsunade's head lowered in defeat.

Sakura froze with shock – had she actually done it? She had! She defeated Tsunade, one of the legendary sannin, in a spar! She hadn't thought that her plan would work so well. Then, her daydreams were shattered when 'Tsunade' disappeared with a poof.

"Shadow clone?" She disappointedly muttered to herself. "When?"

A crinkle of laughter had her whirling around, and she saw Tsunade pristine, without a single speck of dirt, and most importantly, dry, step out from behind a tree. As she neared her apprentice, Tsunade smiled. Noticing her pupil's crestfallen face, she reached out and gave Sakura a pat on the back.

"Good effort today, Sakura. That last move unexpected; if I were someone else, I wouldn't have been able to come out unscathed. Your water manipulation is coming along nicely."

Giving her apprentice a proud look, she continued, "Take the rest of the day off, don't do anymore more work. I have a meeting in approximately 2 minutes, and I need to leave. Otherwise, Shizune will have a blast." She shot Sakura a disgusted look at the thought of meeting. Sakura laughed. She knew all too well what Tsunade's first apprentice was like, and that her teacher hated meetings and work in general.

"I understand. See you, Tsunade-shishou!"

Touching the letter in her weapons holster and allowing a secret smile, Sakura started to calmly stroll around Konoha. With nothing better to do, she had found that walking around aimlessly was actually an interesting and good way to waste time.

Though she tried not to, her thoughts ultimately strayed towards Itachi.

Sakura was pretty sure that Itachi had some inkling as to who she was. She would be severely disappointed if the fabled 'Uchiha genius' or one of Konoha's 'most dangerous criminals' could not even figure that out. However, it didn't matter that much. Even if he knew, he definitely hadn't shown any hostile actions.

As she walked, a non-descript old store caught her eye. Having nothing to do and all the time in the world, Sakura decided to take a look.

Pushing open the door, the first thing Sakura noticed was the rolls upon rolls of different weapons on display. The interior of the shop was much bigger than what it looked like on the outside.

"Hello young miss!" A voiced called out.

Sakura spun around and saw an old man, hobbling out from the back of the store.

"Can I help you with something?"

"Um, no," Sakura stumbled out, caught off guard. How had he come out without her noticing? "I'm just looking."

The old man smiled. Sakura shivered a little. While he seemed harmless and all, she couldn't help but get the feeling that there was more to the man than what she saw.

"Well, you may call me 'Fuyoshi', and my instincts are telling me that you want a specialized weapon.

Sakura gave a startled look. Actually, she had been thinking of getting a customized weapon, especially after receiving the letter from Itachi that talked about what he thought of weapons. Still, the way the old man just seemed to know was a little creepy, and she wasn't sure if she should stay there any longer.

"Um, thank you, Fuyoshi-san, but I think I will just go now." She had started inching towards the door, but before she got any further, the store owner disappeared from where he was standing, and reappeared right in front of her.

"Nonsense!" He exclaimed with a huge smile. "Not many enter my store, and I am feeling rather bored right now. I'd be happy to help you! Let's look at some weapons; I already have a few in mind that might suit you."

As Sakura allowed herself to be ushered away by the strange man, she couldn't help but feel she had just done something dangerous that would change her life.

Stepping out of the weapons shop a little while later, Sakura had a very disoriented feeling. Though she was still cautious of the strange owner, she was very happy to have picked out a weapon that seemed to suit her. The moment she had touched it, she felt connected to it somehow. It had needed a few adjustments to fit her perfectly, but Fuyoshi-san had assured her that it would be done within a week.

Wandering the streets, Sakura thought about visiting her friends. However, everyone seemed to have picked up on the importance of training lately, were all busy. Ino had begun training in the IT department with her father, and Shikamaru and Choji were training with their clans as well. Team 8 was on a mission somewhere in Kiri, and it just seemed like everyone was busy.

Sakura quickly ceased her chain of thoughts before she could get to Naruto and Sasuke.

"Sakura, watch out!" Inner screamed.

"Huh?" Sakura asked, and then stopped right before she walked into an ANBU that had appeared in front of her.

"Ah, sorry ANBU-san. I didn't see you." She admitted sheepishly.

"It's fine, Haruno-san. The hokage requires your presence right now." Giving a slight nod, the masked ninja vanished.

"What could Shishou want with me now? Didn't she just give me the day off?" Sakura wondered as she stared at the spot where the ANBU had just been. Oh well, no use thinking about it. Better get going.

XxXxXxXx

Sakura knocked lightly on the heavy wooden door, and entered the Hokage's office. She noticed that there were 3 other people there, other than Tsunade and Shizune. They were team Gai – Neji, Tenten, and Lee. Giving them slight nods since she didn't know them too well, Sakura turned her attention towards her teacher.

"Shishou?"

Tsunade gave her an apologetic smile. "Ah, Sakura, I'm sorry for cutting you day off short, but an urgent matter has come up. You are needed on a mission."

Then, she addressed everyone in the room.

"This will be an A-rank mission. The members will be Team Gai, and Sakura will go along as another member as well as the medic. Do you all accept?"

A chorus of affirmatives answered the questions.

Tsunade nodded, looking satisfied. She glanced at Shizune, who responded with a nod and made some hand signs. Within moments, a powerful privacy jutsu was enabled around the room.

Tsunade continued, "The mission is to deliver a scroll with sensitive information to Wakamaru Hiyami. There are other ninjas after this information, thus the rank "A." Protect the information, and make sure it gets to its target!"

The four ninjas nodded.

Tsunade added, "Oh, one more thing. Neji, you are the team leader for this mission. Dismissed!"

Sakura hummed softly to herself as she packed for the mission. She was guessing it would take at least a few days, if not more. Checking her weapons, she found the letter she had stuffed in her pouch earlier that morning. Taking it out, she smoothed the crinkles and stared at the short message. Snorting at Itachi's words, she moved swiftly towards her desk and sat down. Grapping a pen, she began to write a response.

Fine, Meanie. Be that way! :P

I went to a weapons shop today, and met a strange old man. He knows a lot of things, and I'm kind of cautious about him, but he seemed nice enough. He helped me pick out a weapon. (I decided to start training with a specific weapon, like you suggested in one of your other letters.)

I am going on my first A-rank mission this week! I'm very excited. It's with a team though, so I won't be able to reply – call me paranoid, but I'm not comfortable writing unless I know for sure no one will see me.

Write to you in a week or so, bye.

Neji glanced around at the members of his team. Tenten and Lee, he could trust and he definitely knew their abilities and capability. Sakura, he shook his head. He couldn't see why she was even considered for the A rank mission. Their team had fared fine without a medic before, and this mission wasn't even that dangerous.

With one last glance at Sakura, he cleared his thoughts and called the team to attention.

"All right, here are the mission details."

He held up a scroll. "In this scroll contains the information that we are to pass on to our target. We must protect it with our lives. I will carry it. There is a very high possibility that enemy ninjas will try to obtain this. Stay on guard, understood?"

Grim nods met his question.

Neji continued in his usual authoritative tone, "We will travel in a diamond formation, with Lee in the front, Tenten and Sakura-san in the middle, and I in the rear. Our goal is to reach the town of Washiba by tomorrow. Any questions?"

No one said anything. The directions had been clear enough.

"Good. Now, let's move out!"

Four blurs dashed into the trees and the area before Konoha's main gates stood empty once again.

Itachi skimmed the letter and contemplated his next move. Slowly, a smirk curled into existence.

Sakura sighed. The mission was not going well. Well, there was nothing wrong with the mission, but interacting with her teammates was not going well. Specifically, interacting with Neji.

Tenten had been friendly enough, and Lee was, of course, his usual exultant, willing-to-please self, but Neji had been aloof. All her attempts at conversation were coldly rebuffed, and she was honestly starting to wonder what his problem was.

She found her answer that night, when it was time to break for camp. She had tried to be cheerful and helpful, and offered to help Neji unpack, but the frigid glare she received made her snap.

"All right," Sakura, shouted, throwing her hands up in the air. "What the hell is your problem!?"

She threw her own death glare at Neji. "All day, I've tried to be friendly, but you've behaved like an ass! What have I ever done to deserve this?"

She stared angrily at him. By that time, Neji had stood up from the log he was sitting on.

"You want to know what my problem is?" He met her glare head on with an ever fiercer one.

"You are weak. Unlike the rest of us who have trained hard day after day ever since we made genin, you were pathetic. Spending time fawning over Sasuke and not training at all, you are a disgrace to the shinobi. To me, you are still that weakling. Until you prove yourself, you are nothing more than a simple medic who can heal, but cannot defend herself, cannot do what the most basic ninja can do."

There was an awkward silence in the camp area, and Neji walked away into the dark woods.

Sakura stared at the ground, hands trembling. Tenten and Lee seemed to not know what to say. Then, Lee regained his bearings and quickly rushed up to Sakura, grabbing her hand and kneeling down, and exclaimed, "I'm sorry you had to hear all that, Sakura-chan! Neji is being a jerk. I'll cheer you up! If I don't, I will do-"

Sakura interrupted him. "It's fine Lee. What he said about me was true, but not anymore. I will show him during this mission that I've changed."

Not knowing what else to say, and desperately wanting some alone time, Sakura quickly continued, "I'm going to the river to wash up. I'll be back in a few minute."

She left without another word.

Neji leaned against a tree not far from the clearing. He had a perfect view of everything, and had heard what Sakura declared. Fine, he thought, show me what you're made of then, little kunoichi.

The crunching of leaves alerted him to the fact he had company, and Tenten settle with her back against the same tree not long afterwards.

"You know, that was rather mean of you." She started conversationally.

"Hn." He replied.

"I usually agree with your judgments, but I think this time you may be wrong." Tenten moved so she was standing in front of Neji. "She is Tsunade-sama's apprentice, and you haven't really seen her since the chuunin exams."

Neji stared at her with an unreadable expression.

Tenten sighed and leaned in to give him a quick hug. "Just give her a change, okay? I think she'll surprise us."

Then, she turned and walked away to join Lee by the campfire.

Sakura sat on a large rock by the river, dangling her legs in the cool water. Everything sucked. What right did Neji have to judge her on her past self? Okay, she hadn't been a very good ninja, she'll admit, but how did he know how she was like now? After she had gotten her resolve?

She would just have to show him how much she's improved, she decided. She didn't know why she was so set on raising Neji's opinion of her, but she guessed it was because she wanted acknowledgement that she actually had changed from her former pathetic self. And getting it from the Hyuuga prodigy would guarantee that it was genuine.

She let out a huff and stared at the dark, starry night. A cool evening breeze swept by, and everything seemed at peace. Other than the sound of the rushing river, there was nothing else. Sakura closed her eyes and blissfully enjoyed the moment's reprieve, letting the argument drift away.

Then, her eyes snapped open and her muscles tense, ready to move if necessary. A sound of flapping wings was getting closer.

"Caw."

She twisted her head around so fast, it was a wonder she didn't injure herself. A raven sat casually on the rock behind her, staring at her with what seemed to be amusement in its eyes.

Sakura frowned. The raven seemed familiar, somehow. It was like she had seen it a few times before, but where?

The raven seemed to decide that it had stayed still for too long. It swooped up and flew away to land on a nearby tree branch, dropping a piece of parchment in her lap.

Sakura's eyes widened. Shaking hands that suddenly turned freezing cold reached out to pick up the paper. No, impossible…

On the parchment, an elegant script spelled out the message, "Have fun Sakura, stay safe."

She recognized the writing as the one belonging to the person that had been conversing via letters with her for quite a while now.

Now she remembered where she had seen the raven - almost every time she had gotten a letter, the raven was always somewhere around the area!

"Holy shit," Sakura whispered after a moment of stunned silence. "I'm so screwed."

to be continued

written: 8/15/2012

Well, how's that. Itachi finally reveals that he knows who Sakura is, and that he has the means of finding her no matter where she is.

Next chapter, the mission part 2.

Yeah, I really like Neji. Everything will be cool in the next chapter :)

Your feedback gives me the inspiration to write. Please leave a comment.

~ DR