Kohona's Cherry Blossom chp.2

I’m changing their age to 19 or so! (No, the story did NOT skip a few years!)



     Sakura reappeared in the Hokage’s office, and she noticed that she was not alone.  Others who had arrived were Naruto, Hinata, Ino, Shikamaru, and Lee.  The Hokage herself sat in front of them.

      “You’re late Sakura,” Lady Tsunade said in a flat voice.  Sakura simply shrugged.

     “I got the message late.”  She looked at the other ninja, and then Ino asked the same thing that Sakura was wondering.  “What’s going on?  Why did you call us hear?”

     “Well, I guess I’d better get right to the point, then.”  Everyone else was silent.
“The Akuktsuki are on the move.  And I’ve heard from a very reliable source that they’re planning an attack on our village.  For the past few weeks, some of their members have already tried to weaken the village by killing some of the clans that live here.”  Sakura’s eyes widened, and she mentally gasped.  The Inner-Sakura spoke up.

     You mean it’s THEIR fault that my family’s dead?!  I’ll kill them!!!!

     Lady Tsunade was still talking.  “What I want you all to do is find the Akuktsuki and kill them.”  Shikamaru sighed.  “Ugh, this is going to be such a drag!  And it’ll probably become a bit troublesome, too.”  He sounded bored with the whole thing.

     “Indeed it will, Shikamaru.  Now I wish to speak with Sakura.  Alone!” she said firmly when no one moved.  And with that, everyone else scrambled out of the room.

     After a few minutes, Sakura broke the silence.  “So, the Akutsuki killed my clan, huh?”  The female Hokage nodded.  “Then in the letter, why did you say ‘mystery killer’ if you knew?”  Tsunade looked at Sakura.

     “Because I only figured it out after Ino sent the letter.  But Sakura, don’t ever forget that you’re not alone.  You’ve got friends to talk to.  And watch yourself.  These guys are stronger than ever.”  She stood up suddenly, walked over to the door, and opened it sharply.  The five other ninja toppled into the room, one on top of the other. Sakura gave them a dirty look. “What all did you guys hear?” she asked suspiciously.

     “We couldn’t, and I would greatly appreciate it if you would all GET OFF OF ME!” Naruto yelled from the bottom of the pile, who was finding it very hard to breathe with other people on top of him.  Once everyone was back on their feet, Tsunade gave them more details on the A-ranked mission.

“Neji and Sasuke will be joining you.  You’ll meet up with them on your way to the Akutsuki Headquarters.  Probably on your second or third day out, it depends on how things go.  I’ve got a map of were the headquarters might be located, and I think you can figure out what you want to do from there.  Now normally, I wouldn’t give this kind of a mission to jounin in their first year, but some of you have got a thing against the Akutsuki, so this is your mission.”  Then she explained to them about the abilities of the Akutsuki members that they were most likely to face, some of which the young ninja have heard of, but not faced.

     Wow, I didn’t think that there would be this many people in the Akutsuki.  This is going to be a lot harder than I thought it would be.

     “Okay, but if you want us to kill ALL of them, why aren’t you having any more ninja help us out?” Lee asked.  “I mean, why not have Tenten, Chougi, or the Sand Nin come along.  Didn’t Gaara have trouble with them before?  It just seems that we should have more people on this mission.” Naruto smirked at this.

     “What’s the mater, Lee?  Scared?”  

     “What did you just say!?  I am not scared!  How dare you say such a thing!  You watch, Naruto!  I will prove to you just how superior I truly am!”  everyone looked at Lee, a bit annoyed.

     Great, Shikamaru thought.  The mission hasn’t even started, and Naruto’s already getting someone pissed off.

     “Now I want all of you to get a god night sleep.  You’ll be leaving at dawn.  Good luck!”  Everyone nodded and disappeared in a small puff of smoke, anxious for the next day to arrive.