So here it is, the start of Paint me with Colour; I hope that this will be as well received as Oasis in the Sand! I should actually be of higher quality considering I actually have a nice little chapter by chapter plan going on.
I intend to have a bit more comedy in this one also! There's already a scene planned out which promises to have me chortling away as I write it, and I just think that Sai just lends himself to the funny side of things so much better.

This is written with manga events up to chapter 558 in mind.

So here it is, enjoy!

Per
x

The sting of a kunai slicing through his flesh was becoming all too familiar on this mission.

Normally, Konohamaru would have had no trouble dealing with the five shinobi chasing him. He was sure that he would have been able to cut them down without even breaking a sweat. Unfortunately, his chakra was seriously depleted so he was probably going to die before reinforcements arrived.

He dropped down onto a lower branch to avoid another kunai, only to find there had been a paper bomb attached to it. The blast sent him crashing into the ground.

Yeah, that was his right hand breaking, no more Rasengan for him, not that he would have been able to do it anyway, what with his chakra being so low and all.

Diving to the side to avoid the tantō that would have probably killed him, he stumbled to his feet. He felt the sting of a shuriken embedding itself in his shoulder but kept running.

It had been a difficult mission. Retrieve a scroll from the base of a group of rogue Nin. He Udon and Moegi had headed out with another Chunin. They'd had to fight tooth and nail to get away; Udon had gone ahead with the scroll and an injured Moegi while Konohamaru and Shiriku had stayed behind to hold back the enemy.

At some point, Konohamaru and Shiriku had been separated and so he was running through the forest being chased by five angry shinobi.

A familiar chakra presence appeared ahead of him. It called out to him like a bright beacon of hope.

If he had the energy he would had cried with relief, instead he just changed course.

He flung himself toward that beacon.

And there she was.

Sakura Haruno, in all her glory.

Naruto could have sent a whole squad, could have sent half of Konoha. Instead he'd sent one kunoichi.

Still, he knew not to underestimate her.

He stumbled to a stop beside her, finally giving in to his urge to collapse. He turned to the left slightly to see her wearing an amused expression as his five assailants came into view.

They sneered as they saw her. Evidently they'd never heard of the pink haired kunoichi from Konoha. That wouldn't matter now.

They were in range.

"Big mistake." She told them, her expression suddenly becoming more serious. Her fist snapped into the ground quicker than any of them could see.

Needless to say, even Konohamaru could tell that they were surprised. Well the two that survived the resulting debris were surprised. The other three were dead, so they weren't feeling anything.

Sakura's long pink hair whipped out behind her as she darted toward the two survivors.

She somersaulted over the first, flipping over so that she could place her palm on the top of his head killing him instantly with medical ninjutsu. As she came back down she used her momentum to slam her heal into the ground causing another shockwave killing the last, fleeing shinobi.

Quite calmly, Sakura returned to his side and began healing his worst wounds with her mystic palm technique.

"Did the others get back ok?"

Her lips tilted up slightly. "Of course, they're all resting." She lifted her hands away. "You need to rest when we get back to the village too. Don't make me strap you to a hospital bed."

"What's going to happen with our mission? If we're all injured who's going to-?"

She shot him a wry smile. "Don't worry about that. Naruto's got it covered."

He took the hand she offered to help him up. He couldn't help but feel a little bit like a blushing little kid as she half carried him back to the village.

Sai watched passively as Naruto finished off writing the scroll for the mission he was about to be assigned to. Apparently Sai wasn't allowed to know what the mission would entail until after his partner arrived. Naruto had been surprisingly tight-lipped about the whole thing, so Sai had decided it was best to wait until his partner arrived.

Though he had to admit that his curiosity was piqued by the fact Naruto seemed to be amused by the situation.

The door burst open suddenly and a pink haired kunoichi marched in, pulling a few leaves from her long flowing hair.

"Sorry I'm late Naruto, it took me a little longer to find Konohamaru than I thought it would."

So she was going to be his partner. Sai took in her appearance carefully. Her thick hair was tied back into a long ponytail, although bangs still framed her face. She was wearing the classic Haruno red, but the top was zipped up the front and the sides were black mesh. Over that she wore a green coat, similar to the one Lady Tsunade used to wear, except hers had no symbols and was sleeveless. On her legs she wore tight black leggings and sandals. He noted that she no longer used her forehead protector as a hair band; it was instead fastened to her left leg.

"That's fine Sakura. Was he ok?"

"He was a little roughed up, it was good thing I found him when I did. With the amount of chakra he had left the Jounin after him would have definitely killed him." She finally seemed to notice Sai standing beside her she offered him a smile. "Oh hey Sai."

He gave his own, plastic smile. "Hello Ugly." This was pretty much how it went down every time they met. She'd be hitting him soon.

Her own smile became very fixed. That was a warning sign. Instead of hitting her though she adopted a bright tone. "You know Sai I could kill you and make it look like an accident."

Naruto looked on feeling more amused by the second. Before Sai could respond he cut in.

"Congratulations. You two just got married."

Just a little shorty to start, but I just couldn't help but leave the first chapter as a little cliffhanger, just to be annoying! =D

07/11/11 - ok so I was re-reading this to get back into the story and I couldn't help but notice I kept referring to Konohamaru as Sai in the first half of the chapter... so that's all changed now, what a N0obish error