"Chōjūrō-kun!"
Chōjūrō's gasp when she barreled into his chest no doubt meant that she winded him, but Sakura couldn't quite bring herself to care – she merely wrapped her arms tighter around his chest and squeezed.
"S-Sakura-san-!" the teen choked out, his own arms wrapping shyly around her waist before Sakura finally released him and beamed up at him instead.
"What are you doing here? Not that it's not great to see you – it is, trust me – but this is a long trek!" Sakura demanded, unable to fight the grin from her face. Then, she almost jumped when she realised the other Mist shinobi was still beside them. "Ao-san, didn't think I'd say this last time we saw each other, but it is really great to see you." She greeted enthusiastically and bowed politely, trying to preserve at least some dignity in the jounin's eyes.
Judging by the brusque nod she received, she failed. "Mizukage-sama said you may require some assistance with the Sunagakure Elders. We are here to provide said assistance."
Sakura managed to get over her elation at seeing her pen pal in the flesh again to briefly narrow her eyes at the ex-hunter-nin. "What's the catch?" she demanded, and maybe it was a trick of light but she thought she saw an amused glint in the jounin's eyes.
Nevertheless, he answered. "Mizukage-sama also wishes we, on Kirigakure's behalf, extend the same treaty as you are attempting to. She believes it will be beneficial." The look on his face clearly said he disagreed, but Sakura didn't bother psychoanalysing Ao when she had Chōjūrō beside her in the flesh to tease and chatter away with.
So she grabbed Chōjūrō's arm and beckoned to Ao and started leading them towards the Gates into the Village proper. "Right, follow me, I can show you around and take you to the Kazekage – we've finished deliberating for the day and let me tell you, they're exhausting to deal with, Shikamaru and I nearly cried a couple of times, but you'll clearly see they tend to recycle arguments against the treaty so it's not too bad, now-!"
"Oi, Haruno!" Temari's shout cut her off and she looked around, surprised to see the blonde and Shikamaru side by side and staring at her with a mix of disbelief and anger and amusement respectively. "What do you think you're doing? I need to check their papers!"
Sakura scowled, weaving her arm through Chōjūrō's and stepping closer to the bluenette. "But you know who they are. Look," she pointed at the Konohagakure headband wrapped around Chōjūrō's thigh. "Kirigakure Ambassadors to Konoha."
Temari matched her scowl with one of her own. "That may be so, but I need more than a word of a foreigner before I let them into the Village." She snapped, and Sakura recoiled slightly, and by her side, Chōjūrō tensed.
"How about the word of an ally?" Shikamaru shot back, a frown making its way onto his face as he assessed Temari. "I thought you were for the treaty?"
This time, Sakura didn't miss the way the blonde's eyes flickered to the guards. Guards who had reacted positively when she called Sakura a foreigner and were shamelessly eavesdropping to see where the conversation would go. For the first time, she felt sympathy for Temari – as the late Kazekage's eldest, the people of Suna obviously looked to her and judged her almost constantly. She had to be seen as the personification of the views of the villagers lest the pressure on her increase even more.
Squeezing Chōjūrō's arm slightly tighter, she forced a smile on her face and turned to Shikamaru. "We're not allies until the treaty is signed, Shikamaru. She was within her right to say that."
Sakura studiously ignored the way Temari startled and turned to her, the expression on her face torn between confused and grateful.
Eventually, Ao and Chōjūrō's papers got approved and Temari led them to the Kazekage's office. Before they were forced to separate, Sakura grabbed a blank seal tag from her pouch and scribbled down her and Shikamaru's address.
"Come over once you're freed and we'll show you around!"
Once the duo was led inside, Sakura's smile dropped and she turned to Shikamaru with a frown.
"Oh, thank God." Shikamaru sighed, pulling at his scarf. "I thought I was getting paranoid but your face tells me this is actually as dodgy as it seems."
Sakura snorted, rubbing the bridge of her nose in frustration. "I mean, I really want to think that Mei-sama genuinely sent them to help us. I really do. And even with the clarification that she also wants a treaty with Suna..."
"The timing is too convenient." Shikamaru finished her thought process, and the rosette nodded. "So question is, did Tsunade-sama tell the Mizukage she'd be sending us here?"
Sakura sighed, "She had to have done." And then, she paled. "Oh, no." she gasped, hand going up to cover her mouth, eyes wide as they met Shikamaru's. "Right before we left, I wrote Chōjūrō a letter and asked Genma to send it. I told him where I'd be, what we'd be doing. Do you think...?"
Shikamaru froze for a second, then relaxed. "The Mizukage wouldn't send them over based on a friendly correspondence of a chunin. Tsunade-sama had to have told her she'd be sending us beforehand."
Even with what the Nara was saying, Sakura still wasn't reassured. The fact that all her letters to Chōjūrō could've been screened before being handed to the bluenette hadn't struck her until just then, and she gulped. It wasn't like her letters contained Village secrets, they were just friendly banter and innocuous detail about her day or her friends, but she wondered what someone looking through them with an eye peeled for exploitable details could've found. Her stomach roiled.
And then, Shikamaru grabbed her wrist and pulled her hand away from her mouth. "Sakura, relax. I'm sure the Hokage has been in touch with the Mizukage and that's how she knew to send Ao and Chōjūrō over here. I know you and you wouldn't have included anything even vaguely incriminating, you're smarter than that. So just breathe, woman."
With that calm reassurance, it was impossible to continue freaking out, so Sakura smiled and nodded instead, regulating her breathing and feeling her heart slow down. "Yeah. Yeah, you're right."
Over the next week, deliberations with the Elders moved much more smoothly than they had during the fortnight Sakura and Shikamaru had been trying to put their point across. It turned out that Ao was very much of the opinion that steamrolling over any and all opposition was the best way to go, tact and political maneuvering be damned, and Chōjūrō provided statistics and quiet input of the benefits that came with a treaty with the most powerful shinobi Village. All Sakura and Shikamaru really needed to add were their own statistics, validation of Ao's arguments, and the terms requested by Tsunade.
Within six days of the Mist diplomats' arrival, they had two treaties hammered out and all that was left was mailing them to their respective Kages for the final seal of approval.
A week after Chōjūrō's arrival, Sakura finally had the time to drag the other team to a training ground and demand a spar.
Chōjūrō had laughed when she barged into his and Ao's shared flat, but gracefully agreed, pointing out that he wouldn't mind a chance to let loose after the week spent in the Council rooms. Shikamaru tagged along too, claiming that he was bored out of his mind and the piles of paperwork he'd amassed for his original jutsu were only stressing him out.
That was precisely how Sakura, Chōjūrō and Shikamaru found themselves on one of the most secluded training grounds, the Nara perching comfortably in the shade provided by the Village wall along the edge of the grounds while Sakura and the swordsman faced off in the middle.
"All out?" Sakura asked curiously, unable to fight off a grin. "Or controlled sparring?"
Chōjūrō shrugged, a small smile pulling at the corner of his lips as well, "C-controlled might be good. It wouldn't do if either of us got injured."
Sakura acquiesced easily and sealed up her naginata, pulling out a wooden bo instead and watching Chōjūrō do the same. "Go up to ten? And each hit counts as one?"
When Chōjūrō nodded and settled into a stance, Sakura grinned and mirrored him, holding up a Seal of Confrontation and waiting until the bluenette did the same.
Then, she sprung.
"So she refuses to spar with me but doesn't mind flirting with the Mist brat via swordplay?"
Shikamaru almost jumped, having fallen into a light doze with the regular sounds of clashing wood and the warmth of the afternoon air around him like a blanket. He straightened from where he'd slumped against the wall and craned his neck up to look at Temari.
"I'm pretty sure he's older than you." He pointed out, ignoring the rest of her sentence – it was pretty clear to him that the two sparring were fighting, not flirting. "And now that the treaty is officially signed, I'm sure Sakura would happily spar with you if you just asked."
Temari glared down at the lazy brunet, "I'm sixteen," she snapped, "and I did ask."
"So's he," Shikamaru replied, absently amused at the two completely different conversations they were having, "and you didn't really ask, you demanded."
The blonde narrowed her eyes at him and Shikamaru was almost certain she was going to hit him, but then there was a peal of laughter and their eyes were drawn back to the sparring duo.
Sakura managed to twirl out of the way of a downwards strike that would've easily broken her shoulder had it hit, and swung to deliver a retaliatory hit to Chōjūrō's side, which he blocked with his own bo. They clashed again, weapons clutched tight and raised above their heads, arms shaking with the effort needed to keep the other at bay. Temari absently noticed that for such a slight figure, the rosette's arms were packed with strong, sinewy muscles and she briefly wondered how much her style had to have changed to require such added physical conditioning.
But then, Sakura let go and ducked out of the way, Chōjūrō stumbling slightly when the opposing force suddenly gave way, and before he could regain his footing, Sakura bent down and scooped some dirt up before flinging it in his face. Using his distraction, she darted closer and lightly hit him either side of the ribs before flipping away, a grin on her face even as she settled back in a defensive position.
When Chōjūrō managed to wipe the dirt away, the air around them had changed.
"Eight all!" Sakura called out teasingly, then they clashed again.
"That was underhanded." Temari commented, her eyes wide as she tracked the sparring teens.
"Practical." Shikamaru countered, stretching his legs. "Sakura's a firm believer that an honourable death is still a death. That's why I don't usually spar with her – she can be quite vicious."
Temari turned away from the snoozing teen to the slip of a girl who had beaten her in the Chunin Exams. Just what the hell had to have happened for the rosette to develop such a mentality?
"I thought Konoha was meant to be the 'nice' Village." She murmured under her breath and watched as the spar ground to a halt – the swordsman stood with his bo pressed by Sakura's liver while her own was resting on his thigh.
"Liver blow or a cut to the femoral artery. Either way, we're both dead within minutes." Sakura summarised cheerfully, and Chōjūrō nodded, though he looked slightly uncomfortable.
"S-Score?" he asked quietly, stepping back – from what Temari only just noticed was very close proximity – and forming the Seal of Reconciliation.
"I believe that's 10-9 to you. Well done, Chōjūrō-kun! Well fought!" the rosette cheered, grinning when her sparring partner blushed.
"T-to you too, Sakura-san."
As one, they turned towards Shikamaru and froze, only just noticing Temari.
Sakura recovered first, "Temari-san!" she greeted, her smile not faltering despite the slightly more cautious glint in her eyes. "Do you need anything?"
And Temari spared a glance at the dozing Nara, taking his words into consideration, before she squared her shoulders and met the rosette's gaze with her own. "That spar you promised me would be nice."
The other girl blinked, momentarily stumped, before she caught on and laughed. "Sure, Temari-san! Just let me grab a quick drink and I'll be with you!"
Shikamaru woke up when a kick was delivered to his ribs. "You could've warned me you'd sold me to the wolves, you lazyass."
When he looked up, he found his mission partner glaring at him, a sullen look on her face as she held her water bottle by her lips.
Laughing quietly, Shikamaru stretched, nodding to Chōjūrō who'd settled beside him. "Better you than me, Sakura. Her chatter kept me from my nap."
He rolled away from the second kick and snorted when the rosette dropped her empty water bottle by his head. "I hate you so much." then,she was turning on her heel and strutting to the middle of the training ground where Temari was already waiting.
With a final stretch, Shikamaru forced himself into a sitting position, startling Chōjūrō. "I-I thought y-you were going to s-sleep." The older teen murmured, and Shikamaru shrugged.
"I would've, but I have a feeling this is going to be interesting. Plus, she'd nag at me if I slept through her fight."
Nodding as if that was a perfectly reasonable explanation, Chōjūrō settled with his back against the Village wall, his own water bottle in his lap, and prepared to watch.
Meanwhile, Sakura squared off against Temari, shaking the lactic acid out of her muscles as she smiled. "Rules?" she asked lightly, to which the blonde smirked.
"No life-threatening injuries. Anything else is fair game." And then, not even a second after they both formed the Seal of Confrontation, they were fighting.
Immediately when she saw Temari tense, Sakura flashed through the seals for the first three genjutsu that popped into her mind, then dodged with barely enough time to avoid the folded fan Temari swung at her head. Spinning round and aiming a side-kick at the blonde's unprotected side, Sakura saw the moment the genjutsu took and was promptly dismissed, which only resulted in Temari tripping head-first into the second layer. Refusing to be idle while the blonde worked out her genjutsu, Sakura dropped explosive tags around her feet, formed a hasty Earth Clone, then disappeared underground, moving to the very edge of the training grounds right when she felt the last layer of her illusion break.
"You learnt your lesson after our previous match." Her clone commented idly. "That's good."
But Temari's eyes were fixed on the smattering of explosive notes around their feet. "Are you insane?! If you detonate that, we'll both-!"
Sakura's clone merely grinned. "Boom."
Then, the tags lit up.
The following explosion caused a massive cloud of dust to erupt, and Sakura waited to see where Temari moved off to to escape it before she followed, hand rising up and grabbing the blonde's calve in a teasing mimicry of their Chunin Exam match. But it seemed Temari now knew better too, as she hastily flash-stepped away to the other side of the clearing, and Sakura emerged from the ground, unaffected.
She hadn't really expected that to work the second time, but seeing the expression on the blonde's face was incredibly satisfying. What was not quite so satisfying was seeing Temari grin and go through unfamiliar handsigns.
"Wind Release: Great Task of the Dragon!"
Sakura waited, confused, but when nothing happened she pulled out a handful of shuriken and launched them at the blonde, then followed through with the Hazy genjutsu and waited.
However, the sun was suddenly obscured by giant storm clouds, and Sakura felt an enormous wind pick up around them.
"I know how much you like hiding!" Temari called from the other side of the clearing, Sakura's illusion already broken. "Let's see if you're quick enough!"
And then, a tornado descended upon the rosette, trapping her within.
Shikamaru sat up, the rosette's name dying on his lips as the tornado closed around his partner.
By his side, Chōjūrō was squeezing his arms till they were almost white, his eyes trained on the fight. This wasn't 'no life-threating attacks' at all. The technique Temari used had to have at least been a B-Rank.
The blonde in question looked smug, one of her hands propped on her hip while the other held her fan as she waited for the tornado to dissipate.
But when it did, there was nothing there.
Before she could react, the ground under Temari's feet turned to mud and she sank till only her chin was above ground, before the earth solidified again. Sakura emerged moments later, ending up in a kneeling position right by Temari's head, her arms shaking with fatigue but a grin on her face.
"You learnt to dispel my genjutsu, but it seems you still have to learn the consequences of overconfidence." She commented idly before she rose to her feet, brushing off the dust that had collected on her clothes while Temari gaped, uncomprehending.
"B-But, you-! In that tornado, you were there!" she cried, and Sakura smiled.
"You yourself said I love hiding, and that's true. With the path I want to take, if a mission ends with open combat, it means that I'd most likely failed it. So I like to bide my time, or fight by proxy. You saw me use an Earth Clone before and yeah, maybe it was obvious and it didn't actually harm you at all, but what made you think I wouldn't use it again?" she explained, and when Temari still looked shocked, she sighed. "What do you want to know?"
The blonde blinked, considering. "When did you switch? I take it you were never in the tornado to start with."
Sakura grinned. "You're right, I wasn't." she agreed easily, then set about freeing Temari from the ground while she explained. "In my experience, anything that has delayed start-up time is usually quite deadly. So, when I threw the shuriken and caught you in that genjutsu, I also created an Earth Clone which appeared behind me, and then hid underground. By the time you broke my genjutsu and the tornado came down, you were already dealing with a clone."
She offered the blonde a hand to pull her up, and when she took it, they formed the Seal of Reconciliation and smiled.
"I still think hiding during a fight is cowardly." Temari began, an odd look on her face, "But I will admit its effectiveness. Well fought."
Unwilling to show how much that comment surprised her, Sakura shot the blonde a cocky grin she'd copied from Anko. "Well, I still think yelling out your techniques for everyone to know what to expect is foolish and an invitation to get hit," she shot back, "But I will admit that being able to pull off A-Rank techniques like that is impressive. I heard you have a summon too?"
And Shikamaru watched the two walk off, chatting like old friends despite the air of hostility that surrounded them bare minutes previous, and exchanged a baffled look with Chōjūrō.
"Women," The Nara summarised at last. "and assassins, are terrifying."
It took a moment, but when the bluenette realised what Shikamaru was getting at, he froze.
Delighting in the feeling of schadenfreude he was experiencing, Shikamaru smirked. "Yup; small, pink-haired, deceptively innocent Sakura is an assassin. How d'you feel about that?"
But it seemed he'd broken the bluenette, as he was staring unblinkingly at the rosette's retreating back, still
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