A/N: OK. I’m back. Sorry for the almost infinitely long wait. If anyone wants to ask for an explanation on my extremely delayed update, you may. But anyway, welcome back to my fic. Thanks to everyone who reviewed! Chapter 2 is finally here! This is unBETAed, so I’m so sorry for making you bear with the errors and inconsistencies!

DISCLAIMER: Naruto and certain elements © Masashi Kishimoto

KONOHA AI
© Doctor Meowzie

Two.2
Morning

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The morning light’s brightness caused her to stir in her peaceful sleep. Her face contorted in a sour expression, she slowly opened her eyes, putting a hand up to block the light that shone through the windows of the room.

Sitting up from her chair, she looked around through sleepy eyes; she had slept on a table full of books, scrolls, papers and brushes. The morning heat that went through the glass behind her warmed her back and helped in waking her up more. She then stared right at a door that was too familiar to her…

Then she remembered.

She was in the Hokage’s office, sitting on the Hokage’s chair, and had been doing the Hokage’s paperwork last night.

Inwardly chiding herself, she almost completely forgot that she was doing one of the most important missions in her life, which was to take charge of Konoha in place of the Fifth Hokage, who was off to settle things with an evil snake of a shinobi feared other than the Akatsuki, Orochimaru. Why else she be here doing a tremendously large amount of paperwork?

‘Uh… I slept in the middle of reading all these…’ She stared down at the pile of papers and such in front of her. Blaming herself for falling asleep in the middle of important work, she slightly jumped from her seat when a loud, impatient knock reverberated from the other side of the door.

Before she can say a drowsy ‘Come in,’ the door burst open in a fashion where it was nearly blown off its hinges. And who else is rude enough to do something like that in the Hokage’s office EARLY in the MORNING…?

“Sakura-chan!!!”

Naruto was standing in front of her obviously irritated self. Judging from the sweat of his face, Naruto had dashed all the way from God knows where up to the office, and dude, was he NOT panting in exhaustion?

“What, Naruto?” she asked in a voice that was surely not pleased.

“I heard from them,” Naruto started, “Baa-chan left. When?”

“Yesterday.”

Naruto stared at her. “Well then, if that’s so… WHO IS GONNA TAKE CARE OF THE VILLAGE?”

Sakura picked her ears.

“That Old Hag!” Naruto comically ranted, throwing his hands up in the air, “Why should she leave at this time?! Didn’t she tell us that Akatsuki is very active at this point in time AND that Grass isn’t our ally anymore?! Well, I can always sneak around and patrol the village boarders, she can count on me to do it, but we have NO Hokage right now! That’d be drastically putting down our defenses, she should’ve—“

“Naruto.”

“Huh?”

“Where do you think we are?” Sakura managed to ask in a calm tone.

“Huh?” asked a confused Naruto.

“Where do you think we are?” She repeated with the tiniest hint of a vein throbbing on her temple.

“Uh… in the Hokage’s office?”

“Yes, and where does the Fifth always sit?”

“Uh… in her chair behind that desk…” He pointed to the desk with the Fire kanji in front of him.

“Yes, and who’s currently sitting on her chair?”

“Uh… you…”

“Yes.”

Silence.

“WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!????????????”

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Neji hurriedly entered the door to the Hokage’s office that was ajar upon hearing Naruto’s loud scream of ‘WHAT?!’.

“Naruto, you’re so loud!” Sakura scolded him.

WHAM!

She punched the top of his head, and it was clearly effective in shutting him up as he rubbed his hair with teary eyes, muttering Ows and Ouches under his breath.

Neji couldn’t help but slightly, only VERY slightly, twitch his eyes.

“What… is going on here?” he blurted out in annoyance.

“NEJI!!!”

The tall Hyuuga’s normally blank face nearly distorted into a look that didn’t fit his handsome face when Uzumaki Naruto yelled at him and said in a loud voice, “Neji! You told me Tsunade-baa-chan had left… But Sakura-chan… did you know that Sakura-chan is acting Hokage???!!!”

He gritted his teeth with his mouth shut and replied in a calm manner, “Yes. That is her mission. Our mission. Tasked by the Hokage herself.”

Sakura smiled at Neji and said to Naruto, “Yeah, and it’s good that you know I’m only acting Hokage. I know you just came back from your mission, Naruto, and as one of Konoha’s top medic-nin, I advise you to go home and get some rest.”

Naruto’s shoulders dropped and sighed.

“But Sakura-chan? What is your mission? And why did Tsunade-baa-chan leave anyway?”

“Naruto,” Sakura drawled, “you need rest. Go home now. Don’t worry, I’ll keep in mind that we owe you an explanation for all this.”

Neji silently looked at her. We?

Sakura noticed the look Neji was giving her and she nodded at him.

The blonde’s eyebrows shot up and, just as Neji had in a way done, he asked, “We?”

Sakura nodded at him brightly. “Yep. Neji, Shikamaru and I.”

Naruto crossed his arms and thoughtfully glanced at his pink-haired teammate. It’s good that she didn’t have any plans on leaving him hanging clueless about the matter, but what got him was the fact that the three people Tsunade assigned on this mission were Haruno Sakura, one of the village’s top medic-nin and apprentice of the Fifth herself, Hyuuga Neji, top ANBU captain and heir to the Hyuuga clan head throne, AND Nara Shikamaru, a lazy bum with a killer IQ of over 200. It was a team of absolutely skilled ninja, with their abilities and intelligence and all.

He suddenly felt exhausted from his mission and from dashing all the way up to the Hokage’s office, and with another sigh gave in to the pinkhead’s request.

“OK, Sakura-chan, I’ll go home now. I’ll come back later, neh? See ya, Neji.”

With a palm trying to stifle a healthy yawn, he POOFed his way out of the office.

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“It’s really nice of you to help me out, Neji. All these stuff are such trouble; no wonder shisou is always in a bad mood. I hope this doesn’t get in the way of your schedule, if there is anything more important you have to do.”

Neji, who was standing in front of her, looked up from the papers he had been scanning in his hand to glance at the pinkhead who was massaging her temple, her eyes closed. When Naruto had left earlier, he decided to aid Sakura in her Hokage work, seeing as how all unchecked documents never seem to lessen.

He smiled slightly at her and replied, “Nothing to be worried about, Sakura. The only important deed in my schedule is the mission. I deem this as part of our mission as well, and I perfectly know that I owe you quite a lot.”

Sakura smiled at him. If there’re some things she had to thank for making her know him more and letting her create a bond with him, one of them was the hospital. When Tsunade decided that Sakura’s skills and knowledge as a medic-nin would suffice for the real thing, she had assigned her to work in Konoha Hospital to gain actual experience other than on missions outside the village. One of the very first patients she had was a Hyuuga Neji who came back from an S-Rank mission; when he was rushed into the ER for the med team to look at him – Sakura was part of that team – he was not a pretty sight to see. He had several cuts and bruises all over, a major whole near his right shoulder that surely had been impaled by a katana, at least five broken bones and blood was all over the sheets. He had been in pain all throughout the operation, and Sakura was impressed when he tried with all difficulty to ask if all the members of his platoon were alive before letting unconsciousness take over.

He stayed at the hospital for a week of recovering after coming back from that mission. It was during this week when Sakura had an actual interaction with the Hyuuga. She had first thought of him as a completely taciturn man who only talks when the matter falls in the ‘mission’ and ‘clan responsibility’ category, though this theory was proven wrong when she had decent and witty conversations with him during her visits to his ward. They had talked about serious subjects such as politics, chakra and jutsu, and the random ones like interests, favorites, and heck, even joked about Naruto’s loudness. Though she did most of the laughing and he mostly smiled of smirked, something in Sakura made her think that this friendship was one of the most beautiful things she ever had.

She grinned brightly and said, “Thanks.”

She turned her head to look at the glass window behind her, checking the weather and the streets of Konoha.

“I wonder how Shikamaru is doing,” she muttered, though loudly for the two shinobi in the room to hear. “He must have been muttering at least ten ‘How troublesome’-s, having to start patrolling the forests early in the morning. Heh, that guy sure is as lazy as he’s smart.”

As what the three jounin had decided, one of the males were to patrol the village borders with the regular ANBU patrollers at certain periods when the other would be staying within the village grounds. Sakura on the other hand would do Tsunade’s work; she was to stay in the village, most of time sitting in the office approving or rejecting incoming documents according to her judgment, and that, according to her, was the worst job to be ever done by a ninja dubbed as ‘best.’ She wondered if this might discourage the ever impatient Naruto in pursuing his dream, but then again, maybe not. He was a stubborn guy.

Neji glanced outside at Konoha and said in an amused tone, “I could not agree more. Shikamaru takes every mission seriously and by heart though. It is good that his strategic abilities amend for his laziness, then.”

“Hehe, yeah.”

The pale-eyed Hyuuga eyed her with concern and asked, “Have you eaten anything already, Sakura?”

She scratched her head and grinned. “Eh… no.”

Neji sighed and placed the papers he was holding on the desk in front of him. “Come, we’re going out.”

Sakura blinked at him. “Eh? To…?”

“To eat breakfast.”

“B-but…”

Just as he thought, she had no money with her. “My treat.”

The hesitant look on her childish face vanished to be replaced by a broad smile. “Really?”

“Hai.”

“OKAY!!!” she shot up from her seat to reach her full height and grinned from ear to ear joyously.

“Breakfast with Sir Hyuuga! Lead the way, Captain!”

Neji sighed again, then smiled; seeing her smile made him happy in a way. He had to thank whatever it was that made him know the kunoichi more… he watched Sakura as she hummed a tune to herself as she tied the red cloth of her hitai-ate, tightly pulling the knot at the back of her neck, starting her day cheerfully in his presence.

He had to admit, it was this part of her that somehow made him inwardly blush.

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The pair of brilliant ninja solemnly walked the streets on their way to a dim sum stand. Neji looked up with a hand above him; judging from the position of the sun that settled around a quarter from the north, it must have been around 9 AM already. The citizens of the village were all doing their normal rituals and deeds, some adults sweeping the sidewalks, some children running errands.

Three children were running around near where they were; they seem to be academy students as they were using random amateur seals in their supposedly modified tag game ninja style. One of them, a boy who was laughing sheepishly, softly bumped unto Sakura’s back. The pinkhead stopped and looked around to see the child on his behind, muttering ‘Ouch’ all the while. Neji noticed this and halted as well.

Sakura smiled and helped the boy up on his feet. When the pain finally soothed the boy looked up, recognized the person he accidentally bumped into, and said, “Saku… Sakura-neechan?”

His two friends ran to him and looked at the one whom the boy bumped. At the sight of bright pink hair, their mouths formed an ‘O’.

“Ah, Sakura-neechan! Sakura-neechan, right? As in Hokage-sama’s student!”

Sakura nodded.

The boy who bumped into her bowed apologetically and said, “Sorry, I wasn’t looking Nee-chan!”

“Nah, it’s OK. Be careful next time.”

The three children bowed bashfully at her and went back to the game they were playing, waving at her and grinning.

Neji watched the three kids leave and averted his gaze to the Sakura waving at them. What he had seen was a proof that the kunoichi he was walking with had acquired a degree of respect even from the children of the village. It must be quite an achievement for her, since years ago, she was only as normal as any ninja could be when it comes to combat. Now, he knew, Sakura also had a reputation not only as Tsunade’s apprentice, but also as a medic-nin. He knew as well that the villagers he dubbed as Sakura’s acquaintances respected her for that, but that respect will certainly go up a number of notches had they had any knowledge of what she was like as a friend and companion.

He noted how she could be soft as a pillow as she can also be a devastating volcano when angered. It must be that trait which women naturally posses, but oddly more noticeable was this within her; her moods were safe to say usually at its extreme and thankfully do not last for a long while, her childish antics on the most little things like seeing a bunny hop or a newborn baby at the hospital he found quite cute, her fists uprooting almost a fifth of all trees in the forests either from training or releasing stress never fail to amaze him…

He knew what made her quite a sight to behold were her eyes, those deep mint orbs that showcase at least around ten emotions per day, constantly changing and ever unpredictable. It was amusing how her eyes would practically shine when she’d laugh in mirth, or even how frightening they would darken when she’s mad and ready to send you straight to hell.

He actually had witnessed a piece of her wrath a few times; fortunately it was not him who had been the object of her fury but a hyperactive, loud blue-eyed blonde who goes by the name Uzumaki Naruto.

Sakura walked up to him when he asked, “Do you know those children?”

She grinned broadly and shrugged her shoulders before saying, “Nope. But they sure do know me. Man, am I popular or what!” She added smugly.

The white-eyed Hyuuga inwardly sighed and thought. ‘At least not notorious. Wouldn’t monstrous strength and pink hair be an amazingly unique combo for a simple young girl named Haruno Sakura?’

“Oh, there’s the food stand. Let’s go Neji!”

He followed her all the way to the dim sum stand, smiling at the bouncing cute girl that walked ahead of him.

A/N: Tch, not an interesting chapter. Nyah. I have more in my mind, and hopefully as the story progresses, this becomes more interesting. Just be on a lookout for more. Oh yeah, Shikamaru will pop out sometime soon, so don’t worry ShikaSaku fans! And about this Okama Hatsuki guy and Orochimaru, too! The romance may be slow, but don’t worry… Patience is a virtue. Waaaaahhh!!!