Just... Just leave me be...

I'll die here if it means... You can live...

Please...

Don't even... Bother...

... S-Sa...

Sakura!!

..........

.....

...

.

Two weeks ago...

"Hey, Sakura? You home?"

Sakura Uchiha turned at the call of her name from the entrance of her house, "Naruto? Is that you?" She watched as, sure enough, the Hokage himself walked in, "how'd you get in?!"

"Oh! Well you see, the lock was--"

"You picked the lock again, didn't you?!" Sakura growled angrily as she clenched the wooden spoon she held in her hand, "you idiot, I swear, sometimes--"

"Calm down, Mom!" Sarada poked her head around the corner, "I let him in."

"Oh?" Sakura looked at her daughter then back at Naruto, chuckling slightly, "if you say so, Sarada." She smiled before giving Naruto a threatening gaze, "but I'm warning you, if you pull an idiotic stunt like that one more time, I'm not gonna be as forgiving..."

"Y-yes ma'am..." Naruto forced a grin before Sakura walked off and he turned to Sarada, lowering his voice, "I owe you one..."

"S-sure, it's no problem..." Sarada blushed slightly. Lord Seventh... He's so cool...

"Anyway." Sakura cleared her throat as she returned to her cooking, "what brings you here?"

"Oh, right." Naruto stood by the dining table, where Sarada took a seat, "I... Need a favor."

"A favor?" Sakura didn't look at him. She only silently turned the stove off and set the spoon into the pot she was cooking rice in. She turned to Sarada and smiled, "Hey, darling, could you please give us a minute?"

Sarada rose a brow, looking from her mother to the Hokage, let out a sigh, got up, and walked out, "call me when you're ready to eat."

Naruto watched as Sarada left before looking back at his former teammate, "I don't think she had to leave for this."

"Well...." Sakura sighed as she removed her apron and set it on the kitchen counter, planting her hands on her hips, "that child is gonna find out sooner or later, so you're right. But I also don't want to worry her right now with things she doesn't need to worry about."

"Then again, I don't think this is something she'll worry about." Naruto shrugged, "at least I don't think."

"If this is a mission you're coming to me for, then let's be honest, Naruto. If it weren't something to worry about, you wouldn't be coming to me in the first place."

Naruto blinked a few times before rubbing his temples, "I knew you were too smart to fall for something like that... I need you on this mission for two reasons."

"Yes?"

"This mission involves a hefty amount of knowledge on chakra. You being Sakura Uchiha, master of chakra control since our Genin days, I figured this was the right choice."

Sakura gazed at him, "I see... Chakra, huh? And the second reason?"

"Heh." Naruto grinned, "you were requested personally for this mission."

"Personally?" Sakura looked at him weirdly, "by you?"

"Well, I mean, I would've requested you anyway, but no. It wasn't me." Naruto crossed his arms, "do you think you could find someone to watch Sarada while you're out for this mission? It might be a few days."

Sakura nodded, "I can send her to Iruka-Sensei's again."

"Good." Naruto turned to leave, "you can meet the person who requested you tomorrow morning. I'll have the details for this mission by then and you guys can set off. In the meantime, study up on chakra natures and infusing chakras."

"A-alright..." Sakura nodded in understanding as Naruto turned to leave, "ah, wait, Naruto?"

He stopped in his tracks and looked over at her, "yeah?"

Sakura clenched her hand into a fist and pursed her lips, "ah... N-nothing."

Naruto blinked a few times, "alright. Have a good night, Sakura. I'll see myself out."

Before he could reach the door, Sakura ran after him and called out, "h-how's Sasuke doing? On his mission? He tells me things in his letters, but I can't help but wonder..."

Naruto stopped, chuckled, and turned to look at her, giving her a thumbs-up, "don't worry, Sakura. He's doing just fine."

____________________

"It's just a few days, right?" Sarada packed her suitcase the next morning, "not really like that other mission, right? That was almost a week. Maybe more."

Sakura grinned as she thought back to her undercover mission with Sasuke at the prison, "don't worry, only a few days."

"I understand if it has to go longer." Sarada sighed, "it can't be helped if it's a mission for Lord Seventh. Besides, I'm sure Iruka-Sensei enjoys having me around to cook for him."

"Thank you, Darling." Sakura smiled as she hugged Sarada, "I'll bring you back a souvenir, alright?"

"No need." Sarada grinned, a slight blush on her cheeks, "b-but, I mean, if you just so happen to grab something, I won't reject it..."

"Alright." Sakura smiled as she swung her bag over her shoulders and onto her back, "I'm off, then. Be good!"

Sarada waved as Sakura started off towards the Hokage's office, "you too!"

Huh... 'You too'... That silly child. Sakura chuckled to herself.

Once she reached the office, she knocked on the door and entered, "Naruto? I'm coming in."

"Ah! Sakura!" Naruto stood up to greet his friend, "so we need to wait a few more minutes, the person we're waiting up on is... Late..." Naruto mumbled a few curse words annoyedly under his breath, checking the wall clock for the hundredth time that morning, "that's a first..."

"Hm?" Sakura tilted her head as she studied the stacks of papers on Naruto's desk then looked around the room, "did Shikamaru leave?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, he's running a few errands for me." Naruto scratched the back of his neck, "anyway, while we wait, I can give you a rough run-down of what's going on."

"Okay."

Just before he could start talking, there was a knock on the door.

"Wow, finally!" Naruto yelled irritably, "you're really testing my patience, ya know! I don't have all day!"

Talk about rude... Sakura pursed her lips at Naruto's sudden and unexpected outburst.

"Right. My bad."

Sakura gasped at the voice and turned with a smile. No wonder the Hokage could speak so informally to her partner, "Sasuke!"

Sasuke Uchiha stepped into the office and stood next to his wife, a smile on his face as he looked down at her with a softer gaze than the one he normally wears, "Sakura."

Before either one could do anything, Naruto cleared his throat openly, "before anything mushy happens, here's your partner for this mission, Sakura. The one who requested for you personally."

Sasuke requested for me... Sakura blushed slightly and smiled up at her husband.

"Ahem..." Naruto shut his eyes, "with that said, here are the details of your mission. I'm sending you two to do some recon investigation on the illegal chakra trade."

Sakura's attention returned to Naruto at the mentioned topic, "'illegal chakra trade'?"

"It's something that's recently come up." Sasuke spoke, "I ran into some of it while out traveling and decided to come back and find some help with this mission."

"It's just as it sounds." Naruto continued, "there are ninja outside the Leaf Village within the Land of Fire territory that are illegally selling and trading the chakra of other Shinobi. Sakura, Sasuke chose you for this mission because you know chakra better than anyone else in the village. So I'm leaving you in his care."

"Always." Sasuke nodded as he looked down at her, "we're leaving once this meeting's done."

"Of course." Sakura nodded before turning back to Naruto, "where do we start?"

"ANBU intel's gathered some traces and chakra trade upticks in this area." Naruto laid out a map of the Land of Fire, drawing a circle in a small area south of the village, "after further investigation, we found out there's a chakra laboratory in that area, which explains a few things. But we need to get more information from that lab about what exactly they're studying there and how it could relate to the trade."

"So gather intel on this chakra laboratory. Got it." Sakura nodded.

"The purpose of the mission is to track the origin of the trade and end the trade completely. If it's related to that lab, then we'll have to take it down if we have to." Sasuke added.

"Alright. That should be all." Naruto leaned back in his chair, "also, you two better not get any ideas. This is a mission after all."

"Idiot!" Sakura gritted her teeth, "who do you think we are? We're mature adults, we can handle ourselves."

"Well, it's also the fact that you are mature, married adults that I'm worried about sending you two off on your own." Naruto rubbed his forehead before pouting his lips and changing the tone of his voice to mocking, "should I go with you two?"

"No." Sasuke cut him off bluntly, "we'll be just fine."

"Aw. You two know I'm the one who got cut off from the og Team 7, hmph." Naruto crossed his arms and waved them away, "now shoo. You have a mission to complete and the longer you stand here, the longer you'll be out and away from your precious daughter."

Sakura let out a heavy sigh, "yeah, yeah, let's go. Thanks, Naruto."

Naruto grinned, "no, thank you! Take care!"

This mission should be a piece of cake, right? Sakura grinned up at Sasuke as they left the office and headed towards the gates exiting the village. We've faced all sorts of Shinobi in our lifetime. I think we'll be just fine.

Sasuke felt her gaze and he looked down at her, smiled back, took her hand into his, and nodded.

"We both know why you chose me for this mission." Sakura smirked as she held his hand.

"Yes, we do." Sasuke replied as his gaze turned back to the path before them, "to get a better understanding of chakra natures and what we're dealing with here."

Sakura leaned forward to look him in the eye. He avoided her eye contact and shut his eyes, blushing slightly, "oh? Not to spend more time with me?"

"Th-that's not it." Sasuke muttered, "let's just get going. The longer we take out here the longer it takes to get back to Sarada."

Sakura giggled, "yeah, you're right."

____________________

"Wow... Take a look at this!"

"Hm?"

Two men stood in a lamp-lit laboratory. Although the lamp's light was faint, the room was mostly lit by the different-colored glow of test tubes and glassware full of different types of chakra.

"Did you do it?!"

"Yeah!"

The two men looked at the small frogs that sat on the lab table, each one with a small needle in their back. The needle was connected to a thin tube which then connected to the other frog's needle and was attached to a beaker full of purple-colored chakra.

"They're tethered!"

Both frogs began glowing purple. Once the tube was removed from the beaker, both frogs stopped glowing then started pulsating purple simultaneously.

"This is amazing! What should we call it?"

"This is..." The scientist held both frogs up, both disconnected from the tubes but still glowing purple, "this is the Bonded Chakras Technique! Now... To bring this technique to some real Shinobi."