I'm back! Sorry for the long hiatus, but I started a new job in September and then the holidays, but now I'm back! Hope everyone enjoys!

..00..

Sakura rested her head against the trunk of a tree, her ponytail getting caught in the bark as she tried to find a comfortable position.

"Oh Pinkey, still haven't learned that trees don't make good pillows?"

She slowly turned her head and gave Shisui a hard stare.

"I'd have a bed if someone didn't get us lost." She inwardly grinned when a blush swept across the man's face, and she knew she could tease him about this for quite some time.

"Don't tell anyone about this." She did laugh out loud at that, knowing that if anyone knew the great Shisui had gotten lost they would never let him live it down.

"Only if you stop calling me Pinkey." It has been an uphill battle with that stupid nickname, and even Itachi had taken to using it to irritate her.

"But it's so fitting!"

"Are you sure you're the Shisui I grew up hearing about?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that you act like a child and gleefully love to annoy the crap out of me."

"Ah, it just means that you're one of us! You should see how I treated Itachi growing up!"

She smiled, knowing all too well how he had treated his cousin.

"Was it worse than how you treat him now?"

"Tons."

She laughed and pulled her pack to her lap, digging through to try and find one of her spare energy bars.

"Did your message get to Itachi and Genma?" Her team never bothered with titles or honorifics unless in the presence of others, something that she hadn't expected when she first joined the team.

"Yeah, he said that they would go ahead and scout around and meet us at the inn tomorrow afternoon. 'Tachi said that since we were making such good time we could afford to slow down and take another night at the inn and travel the rest of the way the next day. That'll still put us getting back two days before we're due."

She squealed, ignoring the laughter coming from her teammate, too glad that they wouldn't be traveling overnight.

"You want first or second watch?"

"Ugh, first - get some sleep lost boy." She ducked as rock came sailing towards her, laughing as she stood up and stretched.

She went to check the parameter, making sure they were truly alone in the area of the woods, before making her way back to camp. They didn't start a fire due to it still being an incredibly hot, something she groaned about to Ino before her and her team had taken off.

Shisui was fast asleep, though she knew if she made even the smallest of abnormal movements or sounds he would spring awake. As much as she hated being lost -excuse me, turned around according to her teammate- she couldn't help but still love the feeling of being out on a mission. Until Itachi had wanted her to join his team she had begun to feel like she would be stuck in the hospital or as a traditional medic. Her seal allowed for her to do more, but it was hard to convince others if that.

And with Tsunada being out of the village for extended amounts of time she had begun to take on more and more of her work.

Her goal was to one day run the hospital, but she wanted tons of field experience before that happened. Knowing how teams operated and how wounds happened would better allow her to find new ways to heal - and new ways of teaching others who were out on the field. Being an active member of an ANBU team gave her an insight that many other medics would never get, especially with her not being sidelined as just a medic.

Soon hours had passed and Shisui was shaking himself awake and yelling her to get some sleep, which she gratefully did.

Hours later they finally made it to the location of the inn, and by hours she meant that it was nearing evening when she finally opened to doors to the nice, cool building and made her way inside.

"We're here! We're finally here!"

"I knew you were prone to dramatics as a child, but I thought you had finally outgrow them."

Of course, her moment of joy had to be ruined by Itachi's sarcastic self. She turned her head and glared as she heard Shisui and Genma snickered behind her.

"Hilarious. You'd be prone to dramatics as well if you had gotten lost in the forrest by your less than intelligent teammate."

"Hey! I'm very intelligent!"

"Sure you are, so intelligent that you got lost!"

She looked up to see Itachi pinching the bridge of his nose in a sign of irritation and inwardly grinned, glad she had been able to get a rise out of him.

"It's almost sunset; let get something to eat." Of course Genma would be thinking with his stomach.

Better than what he normally uses to think.

As they made their way to a small pub that Genma had found earlier Itachi caught her eye, letting her know that she would regret purposefully pushing his buttons. She grinned, knowing full well that regret would be the furthest thing from her mind.

..00..

Two days later Sakura pulled against the cloth that held her hands to the posts of her bed.

She, of course, didn't use full strength to break free; no that would have ruin all the fun.

Itachi braced himself above her with his forearms, and she blew softly at the hair that fell onto her sweat soaked face.

"You know you could undo these, right?"

He smirked down at her. "Of course I could, but then I would miss the lovely sight you make." With that he sat up, making sure to brush against her body as he slowly moved off of her. He gazed down and had she been a less confident woman she would have squirmed, but she simply laid back and waited for him to untie her.

Or for round two, whatever happened first.

"You're beautiful." Okay, she wasn't expecting that.

He finally went to untie her hands and pulled her up, brushing the pink hair out of her face. "I have a solo mission in three days."

"Can you tell me anything?"

He shook his head. "No, telling you that I have a mission is pushing it."

She felt an icy cold hand clamp down around her heart. "One of those?"

She had been privy to Itachi's medical file, and in it was a few details about the types of missions that he had been given in the past. She knew him to be a completely capable shinobi, but that didn't mean that he was immune to injuries.

"I'll return."

She poked him in the chest hard enough that he winced. "You better."

He grinned down at her and caught her lips with his, pushing thoughts of his mission far from her mind.

..00..

"Sakuraaaa. Hello!" She jerked back from the file she had been pouring over, her hand going to her chest.

"Ino! What are you trying to do? Scare me to death?" Her heart rate settled a bit and she took a few deeps breaths.

"It's not like you to get so rattled! What's up with you, Forhead?"

"Nothing, just trying to get some work done." She glared back before turning around and putting the file away. "Unlike some people." She said under her breath.

"I'll ignore that." Ino responded, flipping her blonde hair. "Anyways, what I came up here for is to tell you that an ANBU rescue team is going to be coming in. ETA is about ten minutes."

Sakura sighed before standing up and shedding her lab coat. "Is Tsunade still around?"

Ino followed her as they made their way to the bottom floor. "Yeah, she's the one who sent me to get you."

Sakura felt relief that her mentor would be around for the injured ANBU. She always felt uneasy when the rescue team had to be deployed, and sincerely hoped that it wasn't anyone she knew.

Her mind wouldn't even let her think of the possibility that it could be Itachi.

They just rounded the corner when the team appeared, masks still firmly in place. She couldn't see who was injured, and she was just about to pick up her speed when the Hokage himself stepped in front of her.

"Kakashi-sensei, now really isn't the time to tell me about the kitten you rescued this morning." She went to side step him when he thrust out a hand and caught her by the arm.

"Sakura, I can allow you to participate in this case."

She raised a fine pink eyebrow. "You can't allow me?"

Normally she would have just found a way to go past him, but knowing that Tsunade was already in there made her wait.

"You know the rules: family cannot treat family."

"But you know for a fact that none of my family is active duty and wouldn't be in there."

He slouched a bit. "Well, you see-"

"Ka-Ka-Shi-Sen. Sei. I really don't have time for this."

"And had you been the only one here I would have made an exception, but your not so I have to go by the rules."

"Why are you even here?" She felt her frustration grow and tried hard to keep a lid on it.

"Because I obviously know who's in that room and I know that you wouldn't be able to be, eh, impartial."

"Sensei! Just get to the point so I can go help Tsunade!"

"You can't treat your husband, Sakura."

"Excuse me?" She felt frozen and confused.

"Well, you see, there was some paperwork that should have been filed and it never did make it there and I'm really sorry but I never finished your and Itachi's annulment from your mission and we'll, he's still your husband." She stared, unable to process what he had just said.

"Sakura, Itachi was injured on his mission and because of the Hokage's own laziness I can't let you help with his case. You're his wife, and wives can't treat their husbands unless in an extreme emergency situation." She turned around to gape at Tsunade, who stood covered in blood.

"You can, however go in and see him before we take him to surgery."

With that she hit the floor.