Mendoukusei 1.

When translated, it means, 'how troublesome', just as Shikamaru would say it.

Oh yes, my life definitely sucked.

To be more precise, it sucked dirty, hairy, old, wrinkly, slimy, grimy, muddy, useless, disgusting, donkey balls.

Three ribs broke as my ribcage received a vicious kick. My back hit a tree (a very rough one, if I may add) and I fell onto the ground in an ungraceful heap. I raised my hand and begun healing them.

I saw Shisui, Genma, Sasuke-kun, Naruto, Kakashi-sensei and Hana all wince quite visibly.

Oh yes, they felt my pain indeed, sadistic bastards.

"Get up, Haruno-san." Uchiha Taichou said in his smooth, lilting tenor. I looked up, wincing much worse than I wanted to in the process.

Oh, if he weren't that sexy, I'd have cursed him in about fifteen different languages.

Uchiha Itachi spread his hand for me to take, which I did and he helped me to my wobbly feet.

"That will be it for today. We will meet again in two days' time, when you are done with your medical training with Hokage-sama. Rest well tomorrow, because I will not hold back."

I tried smiling, but considering how much pain I was feeling, I ended up grimacing instead. "You never do, Uchiha Taichou. I never expected you to, I rasped. "Ow, ow, ow...," God, my body hurt.

"Very well. I shall see you in two days." He looked to Kakashi-sensei, who immediately understood that they needed to head out to wherever they were going, probably ANBU headquarters or something.

Kakashi-sensei snapped his book shut and lazily moved himself from the tree on which he was leaning. "Ma, I guess I'll see you all later, then." In his usual lazy gait, he paused next to Uchiha Taichou. They casually made their way to the ANBU headquarters.

"Ne, ne Sakura-chan, he really went all out, didn't he?"

"No, dobe. He didn't. That's why she's broken and bleeding as she is."

I growled as menacingly as I could in my state. I was too weak to even shout at them, let alone punch them right across Fire Country.

"Sadistic assholes. Just fuck off and leave me alone. Both of you are the reason I'm in this state in the first place, or have you forgotten?"

They promptly shut up.

How the fuck did I end up in this situation again? I growled at the memory, and made a mental note to pummel my former teammates and best friends, all three of them, into the very depths of hell when all this was done.

It all started about a month and a half ago when Kakashi-sensei and Shishou put my name up for ANBU trials. I had not the slightest idea that I had been recommended. I got a memo on my bed one day telling me where I needed to be in the library for my ANBU theory exams three days later.

The memo was in a handwriting I'd never seen before. It wasn't in Shihsou's, because she's got the worst handwriting I've ever seen in my life, after Naruto's. It wasn't Kakashi-sensei's either, since his handwriting was a mixture of calligraphy and scribbling. I don't even know how I actually manage to decipher it. It wasn't Naruto's, of course, since this writing was the complete opposite of his. This note had perfect spelling and grammar, not to mention it was perfectly neat, and the paper was still in one piece. If it was Naruto's, I'd be reading horrible spelling, atrocious grammar, numerous cancellations, scribbly marks and tears all over the paper. It couldn't have been Sasuke-kun's either. Though he did have a rather nice handwriting, it was extremely formal, with perfectly straight strokes.

This handwriting was all out exquisite, neat and perfect. The strokes of each letter were defined, but there were occasional curves that needed not to be there, though they did make the words much more...artistic, a sign of an expert calligrapher and/or artist.

Good Kami-sama. Shinobi in this village really had guts.

I sprinted right into Shishou's office, and demanded to know who wrote this and left it on my bed.

Shishou, already used to my temper, looked up at the note and frowned. She was grumbling something along the lines of "lazy bastard" under her breath.

Still doing her paper work, she sighed and took a swig of sake before telling me, "I told your bloody lazy sensei to tell you about your ANBU exams, but I can bet he had to go reading his porn with his fellow pervert in the dango shop, meaning he got Itachi to do it for him. I should schedule a sparring session with him, so that I can duly show him how seniors should set good examples. SHIZUNE, BRING IN MY PROGRAMME FOR THE NEXT FEW DAYS. WE NEED TO CHANGE SOME THINGS." She was yelling by the end of it. I had to admit: she had quite the set of lungs.

I walked out of the building, really pitying Kakashi-sensei. Now that Shishou had confirmed that Uchiha Taichou had written to me infor-

I stopped dead in my tracks. Uchiha Taichou had written this note to me? THE Uchiha Itachi had informed me, in his beautiful handwriting no less, that I was sitting for ANBU theory in three days?

The second that bit of information sank into my brain and processed, I proceeded to pitch a fit that I'm sure was added into the history books of Konoha.

"SHISHOU! KAKASHI-SENSEI!" I could just see them sniggering and cackling in unholy sadistic glee.

Afterward, I promptly took myself to the third training ground and did what I did best when I was in a rage: totally and utterly annihilated said grounds. By the time I left, there were tree trunks scattered all over (some of them in splinters), the ground (if you could even call it that) was broken apart and parts of it were jutting out at odd angles.

I caused so much destruction that Shishou actually sent some ANBU to check out what was going on. When they arrived, they saw me, sweaty, dirty and pissed. Then they saw the state of the training grounds and decided they liked themselves in one piece, thank you very much. They took off, and it took three and a half weeks for earth-type shinobi to make the training ground look like what it used to be.

To this very day, I am extremely proud at the kind of destruction my monstrous strength can cause. I'm going to be on par with Shishou soon.

Anyway, the next day found me in the Hokage's office, with my two smirking teachers eyeing me in all unholy, sadistic glee.

I was growling the whole time. I could not believe they could do this to me.

And then Shishou actually leaned back in her chair and smirked even more. Before I could ask what the hell she was smirking about, I heard a quiet voice. "Not to worry, Haruno-san. Hokage-sama and Kakashi-san tell me that you excel in theory. I am certain that you will pass." I looked to the direction of the voice, for the briefest of moments, I swear my heart stopped beating.

Standing in the shadows, next to my smirking sensei, was Uchiha Itachi, one leg casually bent with the sole of his foot on the wall with the other on the floor. He was dressed casually, though he had his shruiken holster strapped to his thigh, the only indication that he was a shinobi. He had crossed his arms around his chest, his face blank as ever.

I unconsciously swallowed. This man was H-O-T.

My inner was drooling and nose bleeding at the same time.

How come I never noticed him? I couldn't even sense his chakra patterns. Then again, this was Uchiha Itachi. He is the one that decided whether he wanted to be noticed or not.

Shock (and small amounts of lust) became rage again, and I found myself sulking.

Of all the bloody nerve. I have never brooded like that in my entire life. It even reached a point where I was sure that even Sasuke-kun had nothing on me when it came to brooding.

D-day finally arrived (I had since resigned myself to my miserable, sad fate) and I went to take the exam. Who knew that part of ANBU exams was theory?

As was expected of me, I passed. I found myself sitting in the Hokage's office (again) with my two teachers and my two teammates.

"Congratulations, Sakura. You passed," Shihsou said, smiling warmly. I looked over at Kakashi-sensei and the warmth in his eye assured me that he was proud. I puffed out my chest in pride.

Jeez, I was definitely hanging out with Naruto too much.

"However, Kakashi and I have decided on the perfect instructor you for these next two weeks. Sasuke and Naruto helped too," Shishou said, going back to being serious.

"You should definitely train with temee's older brother. He might be clan-heir-stick-up-his-ass and all, but he'll definitely get you into ANBU. Not to mention he's also fast enough to dodge your heavenly fists." Naruto shuddered, thinking about how much damage my fists were constantly doing to his physique.

Sasuke-kun nodded his agreement. "I'll talk to him about it when we get home, though Godaime also said she'll put in a word. Kakashi apparently had a word with him earlier, though. You'll tell him that we agreed, right?" he said, looking up at Kakashi-sensei.

I simply stared, watching Sasuke-kun have a conversation about me as if I wasn't even in the room. Then as the shock of the suggestion wore off and I understood it was not a suggestion, I threw a tantrum that only Shishou and I could pull off.

"NANIII? ARE YOU GUYS INSANE? D'YOU REALLY WANT TO KILL ME?" I screamed more in terror than in rage, pacing up and down the office and flailing my arms around dramatically.

It took another few minutes before they removed their hands off their ears and decided they could hear again.

"No, Sakura. We most definitely don't want to kill you. We just need you to pass the ANBU exams that desperately," Kakashi-sensei remarked, blunt as always.

I went from shock, to terror, to incredulity. "You know what, Kakashi-sensei? You really are insane. I think too many high-risk ANBU missions and Naruto, Sasuke-kun and Hana's influence has gotten to you. Add that to reading porn with Shisui in the dango shop, and presto! Sheer insanity takes root."

He simply crinkled his eye in that patented smile of his. "I love you too, Sakura–chan." His eye opened again and he seemed to be in thought. "It's romance, not porn," he added, sulking.

I rolled my eyes, though with a smile.

"Okay, then. You may come into my office tomorrow, then we'll organise the rest." Shihsou said, shooing us out with a wave of her hand.

I went home thinking of the impending doom that awaited me the next day, and the next few weeks after that.

I was on autopilot the whole walk home. What was going to happen next? I knew my life was definitely going to change if I made it into the Black Ops, but what next?

And what was with that reaction when I saw Sasuke-kun's brother? To be honest, Uchiha Taichou is extremely hot. I could even say he's sexy. He gets any red blooded woman's hormones running. As much as people say he doesn't have emotions or hormones and everything, I'd beg to differ. Judging by the number of seduction missions he's sent on, I'd say he has perfectly normal emotions and hormones. He just chooses not to show them.

I got to the door of my apartment and realised I was digressing. Looking for my keys in the numerous pockets of my jounin jacket and cursing at the same time. After about two minutes of rummaging through said pockets, I found them and opened the door. I flopped tiredly on my worn couch and continued thinking why I reacted the way I did to Uchiha Taichou.

My brain drew a blank.

I growled and decided to go prepare myself for sleep. I'd think about it thoroughly later.