Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or any of the plot lines, they all belong to their rightful owners.

Konoha:

Blossom pink hair swayed with her lower half as she walked into the rather large building, currently home to the fifth Hokage, as she had so much work to do she could hardly go home. The soft click of her heels through the large concrete corridor came as a satisfying sound to her ears, assuring herself that she had indeed not gone deaf from the previous incident. Naruto had visited her apartment in order to inform the pinkette that she was to meet with Tsunade-sama for a new mission she had been assigned to. Although, instead of telling Sakura in an indoor voice, he decided to yell into her ears,

"OI SAKURA! YOU HAVE A MISSION!" resulting in a headache for both of them, but his because of an unseen flying fist to the face. He then stomped off mumbling something about how she was always so mean or harsh towards him.

Sakura was about to knock on the large wooden doors in front of her, but an angry voice on the other side said

"The door's open!" before she had the chance to. Sakura entered, a little anxious of what her mentor would ask of her when she was in such a mood, and stood right in front of her desk next to a trembling Shizune. Tsunade-sama faced her with a somber look in her eyes as she began her lengthy and apparently worrying task of informing Sakura of her new mission.

"Now Sakura, I am regretfully understaffed at the moment, so I have no other choice to send you on this A-Class mission. You are to go and retrieve some herbs from the Village Hidden in the Sand, Gaara will be waiting for you at the gates with the herbs in a sealed box.". the blossoms eyes slightly widened and returned to their original size.

'She is finally going to give me a solo mission!' Sakura thought. Tsunade-sama hadn't given her any solo missions, or anyone for that fact, after she had heard that ninja were getting slaughtered by the mysterious Akatsuki group, who had already taken and killed 4 Jinchuuriki's. Sakura couldn't believe her ears and thought that maybe they had been damaged by Naruto. She suddenly realized that Tsunade-sama was staring her, most likely expecting some sort of answer to a question she didn't hear.

"Sorry?" she stated sheepishly before looking elsewhere in the room, avoiding her mentor's piercing glare.

"I said, you may think that this mission will be easy, but in reality you will need to handle this with the upmost care and stealth. The herbs that you are transporting are medicinal and are needed in order to heal some ninja down in the hospital, but they could also be used to heal a currently sick member of the Akatsuki.", she finished with a sigh.

'Well at least she knows I can handle myself! Now I don't have to be bothered by Naruto and Sai.' Sakura inwardly sighed to herself.

"Remember Sakura, you must remain vigilant at all times, now go and pack, you must leave before dawn tomorrow in order to avoid suspicion. No one is to know your location or what this mission is about. Clear?" Tsunade-sama questioned as she stood from her chair and looked Sakura dead in the eyes.

"Clear, Tsunade-sama!" Konoha's cherry blossom shouted before being dismissed to go and prepare for the mission.

Akatsuki Hideout:

"Well what if I don't want to?!", the obnoxious voice could be heard from the other side of the hideout as Pein assigned a man with stitches all over his body and another with violet eyes filled with hatred and anger.

"It's for medicine for Itachi, if you don't want to go Hidan, that's too bad.", their leader directed them towards a map on the left side of the meeting room. "The herbs are about to be transported between the Village Hidden in the Sand and the Village Hidden in the Leaves. You must take extra care with the herbs, for if they are damaged even the slightest bit, we will not have enough to make the medicine for Itachi's eyes. The meeting point where all of this is taking place is at the gates of Sand, but it is to be disguised as an ordinary merchant trade. Now go!" and with that, the two members set off into the inner workings of the hideout and through the opening appearing as a wall of rock, into the forest shadowed by darkness surrounding the hideout.

Konoha:

Sakura walked towards the looming Konoha gates and looked to where the sun would usually rise as she noticed the small slivers of sunlight peeking out over the mountain, taking that as a sign to hurry along, she picked up the pace and said her goodbyes to the guards at the gate.

It took several days before Sakura reached a village near Sand and decided to take some long deserved rest in a hotel for once, instead of sleeping on the ground. She walked into the hotel and paid for the night, the lady giving her a nice smile as she handed her the money, walked up to her room and immediately removed the cloak she was wearing. Sakura decided that she needed to take a shower and go to bed early so that she could again wake up early enough to avoid suspicion from other ninja in the area. Taking off her red top and black skirt, she grabbed a towel and headed towards the shower.

10 minutes later, she stepped out feeling refreshed and replenished, ready to get a good night's rest before meeting with the Kazekage tomorrow, Gaara, who she was good friends with. Sakura was looking forward to meeting him again, it had been so long since she had seen him. She changed into some pajama pants and an old t-shirt as she got into the bed and realized how tired she was, giving into the exhaustion, closing her eyes and letting the unconsciousness take her over.

Near Sand:

The two Akatsuki members landed in a clearing to set up camp for the night, one still grumbling about having to go on this mission in the first place.

"Why did I have to come on this mission, I mean, it's so fucking boring!" Hidan had been complaining for the past couple of days. It had taken quite a while for them to get to Sand and Kakuzu had not let them have a good long rest before now.

"You need to learn to stop complaining about everything that happens to you, Hidan." Kakuzu stated simply while examining his stitches, making sure they were still in perfect condition, ready for any sort of fighting or close-combat.

"All I'm saying, is that we need some down time, maybe a chick around the place, or better yet two! Get my meaning?" Hidan questioned his partner but felt as if he was talking to a brick wall, Kakuzu was again uninterested with whatever Hidan was saying. "Fine, don't talk to me you stupid fucking asshole…" Hidan mumbled as he set off to the river he had seen earlier in order to clean himself, Jashin wouldn't like it if he let himself remain dusty and dirty.

Kakuzu started the fire and started cooking the small amount of rabbit he had left from catching this morning for breakfast. He's an immortal he thought he doesn't need to eat; therefore, I am not going to waste it on him.