Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I hope I do, but I don't. :)

Chapter 1: Surprise!

"Sakura!" Tsunade called. Her eyes were intense as she sat behind her table and stared at her favorite student.

"Yes, Shishou." Sakura responded. She looked at the Godaime with curious eyes as her master placed an open scroll at the center of her table.

Tsunade waved for her to move forward allowing Sakura to peer over the table and see the scroll which held the writings of the Legendary Transformation Jutsu.

"Sakura, listen carefully ..." Tsunade started.

"I would like you to review this scroll and develop a new technique…not only to extend my youth, but to make me appear younger…"

"But Lady Tsunade…you already look younger than your age." Sakura interrupted.

"Let me finish child!" The Hokage boomed—crease already evident on her forehead.

Sakura took a step back, surprised by her master's cranky attitude. She guessed it was due to the lack of sake in her system, then Tsunade sighed.

"Can't you see these wrinkles?!" The Godaime pointed to the corner of her eyes.

"Even this damn Transformation Jutsu has no match for these…these god forsaken papers!"

Sakura scanned her eyes to the piles of papers and reports not only on top of her master's table, but also on the floor where mountains of documents were stacked with no particular order around her.

The Godaime continued her rants.

"…And Shizune won't even let me take a sip of sake!" Tsunade whined.

"I could feel my blood boiling! My blood shouldn't be boiling; it should be the sake that's boiling in my system!" The blonde woman slumped her head on the table and slowly raised her hand.

"Even my right hand looks a hundred years older because of the number of documents I have to sign. Ugh."

Sakura watched her master sluggishly detach her head on the table and sat straight.

"…That's why I need you to develop a new technique that would make these damn wrinkles disappear, and one that would make me…hmm…slimmer. I've been eating a lot lately." She said, when Sakura saw a sparkle on her master's eyes and she felt dread slowly crept on her spine.

"Unless you want to take over for a bit, maybe for the first 500 reports?"

Even before Tsunade could coerce her on what she wanted, Sakura had already snatched the scroll and raced to the door.

"I'll take care of this Shishou! I'll send you my report as soon as I've figured something out!" Sakura called over her shoulder as she made her escape.

Nobody wanted to take over the Hokage's paperwork. It was like dying in the field of battle without even getting a chance to fight! And Sakura knew her master. She was one hell of a slave-driver, and she's not going to endure another round of paperwork torture from her.

Sakura shivered when another feeling of cold dread crept over her bare arms.

She needed to develop a technique soon, or else, even she couldn't escape her master's wrath.

"What's taking them so long?!" Naruto asked. He was already at the training grounds with Sasuke, trying to be look patient as he waited for his teammates.

It was still quite early in the morning when he took his way to the training grounds. But when he arrived, Sasuke was already there, leaning his back on a nearby tree. Now, the sun was almost overhead and two of his teammates were still missing.

Naruto slumped on the tree where Sasuke was leaning, his arms crossed over his chest. His raven-haired best friend still stood silent while Naruto reminisced the conversation they had with Kakashi the night before—hinting them about a mission which they have to accomplish.

He sighed.

"Oi, Teme," Naruto called, and Sasuke only looked at him. "I understand that Kakashi's late. I mean, he always is. But Sakura…"

At that moment, their former sensei emerged with a poof atop a tree branch where both of them were leaning.

"Hey you guys! Good morning. Sorry I'm late. There was this family of turtles crossing on the street while I was on my way here. I really didn't want to cross over them but there was no other way, so—" Kakashi started, with the all too familiar crinkle in his visible eye.

"Stop making excuses Sensei! You've been late ever since I was 12 years old!" Naruto exclaimed wildly while Sasuke only let out a sigh.

"Naruto, how many times do I have to remind that you don't have to call me sensei anymore." Kakashi said as he landed with a soft thud on the grass in front of his two former students.

He eyed them carefully, realizing that he was missing one person on his team. He cocked his head slightly to the side and wondered. It wasn't like Sakura to be late on a meeting. In fact, she was always as early as Sasuke in going to the venue.

"Where's Sakura?" he eventually asked.

"Well, she hasn't arrived yet." Naruto replied.

"Has anybody contacted her?" Kakashi asked. Both his former students shook their heads.

"Maybe she overslept?" Naruto said.

"It's not like Sakura to oversleep." Sasuke said, shifting his hands inside his pocket.

"How would you know, Teme? Have you slept with her already?" Naruto teased, poking his best friend's arm.

"Shut up, loser." Sasuke said as he smacked the back of Naruto's head.

Kakashi sighed at the scene. Several years had already passed—hell, his team's not even teens anymore, but they never did change. That was what he was thinking as he scratched the back of his neck.

"Hmm…maybe she got sick? Sakura looked distant last night during dinner." Naruto guessed again.

"Yeah, she was a bit quiet." Sasuke agreed.

Kakashi mused over the scene from last night. They were at Ichiraku's, and Naruto was as lively as always. He and Sasuke even had a chopsticks fight…while Sakura ... yeah, she seemed a bit detached from the group.

"Or maybe…" Kakashi heard Naruto speak.

"She got abducted." The blonde only whispered the words but it made him and Sasuke stand alert.

The three of them looked at one another, and with a single nod, they all took the path to Sakura's apartment.

As the three ninjas rushed to their destination, Kakashi couldn't help but weigh what Naruto said.

'Sakura? Abducted? That would be impossible.' He thought.

It was a time of peace among all warring countries after all. He couldn't even think of anyone who would want to break the peace pact, and kidnap the Godaime's apprentice. Kakashi pursed his lips behind his mask, hoping that what Naruto said was wrong.

Sasuke, on the other hand, was thinking of the same thing, but with more dread in his thoughts.

People might think that no one would dare break the peace pact, but a handful of people would dare cross him after all he had done. And how would they do that? By simply kidnapping his weakness, of course.

Sasuke felt his cheeks warm at the thought. Sakura—his weakness...one of the reasons why he chose to return to the village.

'No.' He thought to himself.

Sakura was not the same girl he met when they were 12. The Sakura now was someone who could create craters into the ground with one single punch.

'Abducting her wouldn't be that easy.' He finally thought, as he focused his chakra to his feet and went after Kakashi with Naruto trailing by his side.

When the three of them reached Sakura's balcony, a bit of dread crossed over them as they stared at the closed curtains of Sakura's glass door. It was already way past 11 in the morning—her curtains should be open.

"Maybe she's not here?" Naruto whispered, when they heard someone deliberately clearing her throat.

"Ahem-ahem."

All three of them exchanged looks as they turned to where the sound came from.

In the third balcony from Sakura's right, they saw a plump lady, with thick make up, probably in her 50s relaxing at a chair outside her balcony. She still had her night gown on which hiked up to the middle of her thighs. She spoke.

"You know boys…if you really wanted a sneak peek, I could get a show on for you."

She dragged her long red nail on the hem of her dress covering her gigantic breasts and winked at them. The three shinobis shivered.

Kakashi immediately brought out his Icha Icha Paradise while Sasuke peered at Kakashi and pretended to be engrossed on the same book. He whispered.

"You know your book is upside down right?" Sasuke asked his former teacher.

"I don't give a shit at the moment." He answered, and it was Naruto who first spoke.

"Uhh, n-no thanks. We're just kind of resting. Gotta go!" and all three sped away.

Since the three of them indeed looked like peeping toms from the balcony, they decide to take the stairs up to Sakura's floor.

They all fell silent as they settled in front of her doorstep.

"I could feel her." Sasuke whispered.

"But her chakra signature's weak" Kakashi added.

"I couldn't feel any other human inside, do you think they've concealed themselves?" Naruto asked his teammates. Both shook their heads.

"No. She's alone." Sasuke confirmed.

"So is it safe to knock?" Naruto asked again.

"Go ahead." It was Kakashi who encouraged him.

When Naruto knocked on Sakura's door, they heard a little bit of shuffling from the inside.

"Sakura, it's us!" Naruto announced. "We got a bit worried when you didn't show up at the training grounds. Could you open the door please?"

They waited a moment, but there was still no answer. Only then they heard crashing from inside.

Kakashi and Sasuke instantly had kunais in their hands while Naruto was sent to panic mode.

"Sakura what's happening! Open the door or we're blasting through!"

That's when she answered.

"No! No! wait just a second!"

The three of them lowered their guards as they heard soft footsteps approaching the door, and some deadbolts and locks being slid from their brackets. They also heard the dragging of a chair and more shuffling.

"What's happening inside?" Sasuke silently asked as he was getting a little bit impatient.

"Uhm, Sakura, are you okay?" Naruto asked.

"Naruto? Is Sasuke and Kakashi with you?" asked the girl from behind the door.

Naruto suddenly became increasingly fidgety. Why was Sakura taking so long to open the door?

"Yeah they are. Why?"

They heard mumbling and strings of expletives being said.

"Wow, she could publish a dictionary of curse words with all the things she said." Kakashi commented.

Sasuke, on the other hand, narrowed his eyes. It was definitely Sakura's voice behind that door, but it sounded different. Maybe she really got sick. He wondered.

"Uhm Naruto? Could you...could you use chakra to open the door? I…I can't unbolt the final lock. It's...it's too high." Sakura said.

Kakashi mentally imagined Sakura's height. Yes, as the only female of the group, she was a bit petite. But judging from the height of the door frame, it shouldn't be that high, so what's wrong?

"Hey! What happened? Did you break your leg or something?" Naruto asked.

"No! Just…just open the damn door." The muffled voice said.

"Fine. Then we're going in!"

With swift hand signs, Naruto placed his hands on Sakura's door frame and blasted the door.

"What the fuck, Naruto?!" Sasuke exclaimed through the thick smoke that surrounded them.

Clearly, such act disturbed half of the neighborhood, and people were starting to pour out from their rooms to evacuate.

"Wait! Wait! It's okay! It's a false alarm! This is just a simple drill!" Naruto announced to the people who eyed him warily.

"You're all safe! There's nothing to worry about! You may go back to your rooms! This is not an attack!"

Thank god, people knew him which made it easier for them to control the situation. When the smoke sort of died down, the people saw the blonde ninja whom they all knew too well and took his word for it. Almost immediately, the floor cleared. They even saw Kakashi ushering elderly people back to their rooms.

"You're such a dumb ass. So much for national emergency, Naruto." Sasuke exclaimed sarcastically.

That's when they heard a soft rumbling. Like a tiny growl...they weren't sure.

"Naruto!"

"Huh?" Naruto turned to the broken down door and slowly stepped in. The room was still engulfed with smoke and dust and he couldn't point to where Sakura was standing.

"Sakura, where are you? Are you okay?" he asked.

"I told you to simply open the door! I didn't ask you to blast through it! Look at what you did to my apartment! You're going to pay for this!"

And with one swift movement, someone kicked Naruto in the gut and sent him flying outside Sakura's room.

"What the—?" Sasuke whispered in shock, automatically assuming a defense position as he waited for the smoke to vanish.

When the smoke cleared, in front of him stood a girl with short pink hair, her tiny hands balled into fists, loose clothes almost leaving her shoulders, and such intense green eyes he ever saw. Sasuke gulped.

This girl is not more than 5 years old, he guessed as he watched her march outside of the room.

Naruto slowly stood to his knees, cradling his gut.

"Ow…Ow…Ow… Geez, Sakura. You didn't have to go that fa—"

SMACK!

Naruto eyed the little girl who just smacked him in the face.

"Hey! What was that for?! And who are you?" he eyed the girl warily and realized that she looked like a little version of Sakura.

The little girl, on the other hand, snubbed him, turned her face and marched inside the room dragging her loose clothes to the ground.

Sasuke and Naruto followed the girl inside. The former still stood silent.

"Hey, I didn't know Sakura had a little sister?" Naruto said whispering to Sasuke.

"I guess having a wide forehead really runs in their family huh?" he sheepishly commented.

"Hey! I heard that!" the girl exclaimed, then a thick medical journal was sent flying their direction.

Sasuke just swiftly tilted his head to the side causing Naruto's face to catch the hardbound book.

"Ouch! Hey! Stop it will you!" Naruto shouted at the girl as he rubbed his face. "You! You're just as hot-tempered as Sakura! Where is she anyway?"

They watched the little girl's face turn into a frown as she started dashing towards Naruto. When suddenly, she fell flat on her face, tripping on her own dress clothes.

Naruto guffawed at the scene. Clutching at his stomach because of the intensity of his laughter.

"Serve's you right, kid!"

Sasuke, on the contrary, crouched in front of the little girl and helped her sit up. He was about to help her stand when she let out a piercing wail, deafening even Naruto who was the hyperactive blabbermouth of the group.

The girl's face was red, with tears streaming down her cheeks. Sasuke stood back and froze on his feet. He has simply no idea on what to do when kids start crying. That's when somebody lifted the girl off the ground.

It was Kakashi.

"There, there Sakura. It's okay." He cooed to the little girl, tucking her to his chest, helping her calm down.

Kakashi rubbed his free hand on the small of her back as he supported the girl's weight with his other arm.

"What?!" Naruto and Sasuke exclaimed in unison as they watched the scene unfold.

Sasuke kind of thought about it the moment he saw the little girl, but for his thoughts to be confirmed like this, he couldn't utter a single word.

The five-year old girl who was clutched to Kakashi's chest was their 21-year old teammate, Sakura.

The two ninja's watched as Kakashi wiped her tears from her eyes.

"What's happening?" Naruto asked, dumbfounded.

AN: Hello there! I'm kind of a newbie here and it would be nice to hear/read reviews from you. [Well, if there's someone out there who's willing to read my story] Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of this story that I came up with. Thank you for reading! Will be updating very soon. :) Send lots of reviews!