Hi Guys! Hope everyone had a good Christmas, here's my late Christmas present! Hope you all enjoy it! Reviews please!

Shikamaru frowned, as he walked through the empty halls. Why did they always have to call him so early? Seriously, what could be so serious that they couldn't have waited just another ten minutes for him to sleep? Man; didn't people realize it was bad for you not to get enough sleep? He finally came to the end of the hallway, knocking on the door at the end. "enter." A voice called out to him. Shikamaru opened the door, walking in lazily. Tsunade was sitting at her desk, her head held in her folded hands. "Thanks for coming on such short notice Nara-kun." She spoke.

Shikamaru rolled his eyes, placing his hand in his pockets. "Yeah yeah, just get on with it, I need to catch up on my sleep from all the time you guys have me working."

Tsunade's fists tightened. "Fool, do you know who you're speaking to?" Shikamaru just rolled her eyes at the threat. Tsunade had been working with Shikamaru for so long; banter between the two was common. He knew the elder lady trusted him, and she couldn't really speak against his laziness, since she wasn't too good herself. She sighed in defeat. "Very well I will get to the point." The temperature in the room dropped about ten degrees. "This morning, I received a message from one of my secret sources that an assassin has been sent to kill one of the ninja here in Konoha."

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure?"

"The information came from a trustworthy source." Tsunade explained.

"Any idea who the target is?"

The lady shook her head. "None. Just that it was one of higher up ninja. Someone above the level of Chunnin was the closest guess."

"That's not much to go on." Shikamaru commented.

Tsunade shook her head. "No it's not."

"So what do you want me to do about it?" Shikamaru asked.

"You're a smart man. I'm asking you to look around, report anyone new in the village who seems like they don't quite fit."

"How am I going to know that?"

"Just follow your instinct. It's usually right." Tsunade nodded. "You're the only one who can know about this Shikamaru, I don't want to cause an uproar."

"Yeah yeah, things could get ugly then." Shikamaru sighed. "Man this is such a drag, and here I thought it might actually be peaceful here for a while." He turned to leave. "I'll report to you as soon as I seen anything. Right now, I'm heading home to take a nap."

"Shikamaru!" Shikamaru turned back to her. "Be careful. For all we know, you could be the target."

Shikamaru was silent for a moment before smirking. "You got to stop worrying about me, I can take care I myself. Keep thinking like that, and your age will start to show, more than it already has I mean." And Shikamaru left the room, closing the door behind him just in time to hear the glass shatter at the vase Tsunade had thrown at him.

Sakura POV

"Excuse me Sakura-San." Sakura looked up from the clipboard she was holding to answer the voice. She was currently in the Konoha Hospital, having just come out from taking care of a child with a broken leg. Most people respected her as a full doctor, because of her apprentice to the Hokage. A nurse hurried over to her.

"What is it?" Sakura asked, placing down her clipboard, as the nurse approached her. "Is something wrong?"

"Um, well milady, it's not necessarily bad news. It's just; a ninja from the sand village came."

Sakura frowned for a moment. "The sand? Do you mean Temari-san?"

The lady shook her head. "No it's not Temari-san. She says that she was sent as part of her training."

"So what's the problem?" Sakura asked.

"Well no, it's just that, we did receive information of a medic ninja coming from the sand, but the document stated that he wouldn't be coming for another month or so."

Sakura frowned. "Wait, he?"

The nurse nodded again. "Yes, the message said, a boy would be coming."

Sakura frowned, taking the clipboard, reading over the message that had been sent. It was unlike the Sand ninja to make such a mistake. "Where is she?"

"I sent her to your office milady." The nurse replied. Sakura thanked her quickly, before walking towards her office. She found the girl sitting in a seat facing her desk. She was wearing a white lab coat then went down to her knees. She had long blond hair that was held back in a high ponytail, other than a single strand that fell beside her face. She was facing the window; her right leg crossed over her left, her elbow against her knee, her face in her hand. Sakura knocked softly on the door to get her attention. Immediately, the girl turned towards her, her posture straightening, her right hand going for something on her belt. But as soon as her eyes met Sakura's, her posture relaxed, and she placed bother hands on the armrests.

"O hello. I'm sorry you startled me there for a moment." The girl had a cheery voice, as she smiled politely at Sakura.

Sakura returned the smile, before walking towards her desk. "I apologize for startling you. I'm Sakura Haruno as you might have guessed."

The girl nodded eagerly. "I was told that you would be overseeing my time here, since you as well are a medic ninja in training."

"Yes about that." Sakura said, turning to her clipboard. "The message you sent us with information of your visit was a bit inaccurate."

The girl raised an eyebrow. "I'm sorry?"

Sakura frowned. "Well, for starters, it says here that you wouldn't be arriving for another month or so."

"Oh that!" the girl relaxed back into her chair, waving her hand as if to shove the matter aside. "There was a case I was helping with that was supposed to take some time, but a friend of mine decided to fill in for me, so my slate was cleared to come here early." The girl frowned nervously, tilting her head. "I do hope that's alright."

"Oh yes of course!" Sakura said reassuringly. "But, the parchment also stated that, the Sanagakure would be sending us a male ninja?"

The girl frowned. "It did?" the girl placed her head in her hand for a moment, pondering. Suddenly she snapped her fingers. "Oh man, it must have been Yamato; I knew I shouldn't have asked him to fill out the form for me!" She turned to Sakura to explain. "He's a friend of mine in the communications department. He's always had this bad habit of playing little jokes like this on people. Like this one time, there was a friend of mine, who had a crush on this guys older brother, and he..."

Sakura pondered her response, as the girl went on and on with her story. Her responses didn't seem quite right to Sakura. The Sanagakure had always struck her as an extremely orderly society, that wouldn't let official documents be so easily tampered with. And the thing about a friend stepping in for her, sure it wasn't unheard of, but it was a rare occurrence. But the girl was talking so calmly, her attitude was so carefree and reassuring, Sakura pushed aside her doubts, telling herself she was thinking too far into this. "Well, other than that, it looks like everything is in order." Sakura said, cutting off the girl's story. "It's getting a little late today. Would you be ok to start tomorrow?"

The girl nodded cheerily. "I'm really excited to work here! It's going to be so much fun! And this place is so nice, I love all the flowers! There aren't very many flowers back at home!"

Sakura nodded politely. "Well she isn't shy is she?" Sakura interrupted her again. "Do you know where you're staying tonight?"

The girl frowned. "Um, no I don't. I came straight here after I arrived; I was going to go find a hotel after meeting you."

Sakura shook her head. "Actually, we have already prepared a place for you to stay. Since you've never been here, we have you staying with one of our ninja's. He should be here any moment."

"Hey Sakura you called for me?" a voice came ringing from outside the hall.

Ino POV

Ino's head turned toward the door, and she froze.

"no." She thought meekly, her voice mouthing the word over and over. "No no no, anyone but him, please not him." A boy walked into the office. He had a lazy expression on his face; he had slick black hair tied up on top of his head. He wore a simple black t-shirt and some jeans, his hand resting in his pockets. He was well muscled, nothing spectacular, but still enough to be noticed. Ino recognized him immediately, an image flashing behind her eyes, of a young boy, with a cute face, a far too rare smile gracing his features. Ino immediately pushed the image aside.

"Shikamaru!" the young nurse, Sakura smiled lightly at the boy. "Thanks for coming on such short notice."

"ugh." The boy groaned. "This is such a drag. I was having such a great nap, and then I get a phone call to come in? Typical, I never get any sleep."

Sakura glared at him. "Shikamaru, be polite! This is the girl that will be staying at your house for a while."

Shikamaru turned towards Ino, "so this is the girl that is invading my privacy for..." his mouth froze mid sentence. He met her eyes and his body completely froze. Ino could see his muscles tense. "Oh no." Ino thought, biting her lip in fear. "He recognizes me. This is bad, this is really bad." Ino's mind was panicking; she could feel his eyes fall over her, burning into her very soul.

Silently, almost unheard Ino heard him mutter. "Yamanaka In..."

In a panic, Ino reacted fast. "NANAMI!" she squeaked, shooting her hand towards him. She was breathing heavily, but she swallowed it down. "My name is Nanami. It's nice to meet you."

The room was silent for a moment, as if the very world were holding its breath. Ino refused to look at him, attempting to hide behind her single strand of hair, her eyes fixed on her outreached hand. Finally, after what seemed like forever, Shikamaru grasped her hand. "Shikamaru." He went silent again, and Ino met his eyes.

They were chocolate brown, and Ino felt she could melt in him. "Get it together girl!" Ino mentally scolded herself. Though she couldn't deny, Shikamaru had turned out to be quiet the handsome guy.

"I'm sorry for acting weird; it's just, you remind me of someone."

Ino bit her lip nervously. Forcing her emotions down, she forced a smirk onto her face. She opened her mouth, and allowed herself to talk thoughtlessly. "Aww, thought I was that princess from your dreams last night? Sorry sweetie, but you'll just have to keep looking. Shouldn't be too hard with a face like yours, although you might want to do something with your hair first."

Shikamaru frowned for a second, taken aback by her abrasive attitude. "Uh, thanks? I think." He turned to Sakura. "Why is she staying with me anyway? Shouldn't she be staying with, well a girl?"

Sakura looked at him. "Well, we figured since you had so much experience with girls from the sand village."

Shikamaru immediately caught the teasing behind the words. "Hey!"

Ino caught the tiny blush in his cheeks. A pang of pain and regret washed over her. "Looks like my little Shika grew up just fine without me." Ino immediately caught herself. "Shut up Ino! He's not your little Shika anymore! He hasn't been for a long time. Just focus on the mission at hand and ignore your emotions, just like you were taught to." Ino took a deep breath to clear her thoughts. Smiling cheerfully, she grabbed her knapsack, and wrapped it over her shoulder. "Well, I'm pretty tired; it was a really long trip! If you could be a gentleman and show me the way I'd appreciate it."

Ino could see Shikamaru send Sakura a (what -have-you-gotten-me-into?) look, before opening the door for Ino.

Sakura POV

Sakura couldn't help but laugh at these turn of events. A girl like Nanami, with her outgoing attitude, staying with someone like Shikamaru? This could only mean trouble. She giggled to herself as the two of them walked out the door. But she couldn't deny that the way the two of them looked at each other was weird, especially Shikamaru. Shikamaru, unlike most of the boys from Konoha, had never shown much interest in girls, which is why so many people picked on him for his affiliation with Temari, despite the fact that there was nothing going on between them. But the way he looked at Nanami, Sakura couldn't describe it any better, then a blind man seeing colour for the first time. Sakura had never seen Shikamaru like that before. Sakura frowned, thinking to herself. "This is going to get interesting." She mumbled to herself.

Ino POV

"Hey, hey it's me, do you read me?" there was a pause before a reply was heard.

"Yes, we read you. What's your status?"

"I've successfully made it inside. Man we sure got lucky on this one, it's a good thing you guys intercepted that message to the leaf, or it would have been a lot harder to get in here."

"Have you made contact yet?"

"Yeah, briefly. He's not much of a talker though is he?"

"How long till it's complete?"

"I don't know. This place is crawling with ninja, I could name practically everyone here from different war stories I've heard!"

"Report as soon as you have the chance."

"Yeah yeah sure thing."

Silence.

"I hope that your personal connections to this place will not be an issue?"

There was silence again.

"No...no they will not. I will get this done."

"I hope so, for you do know the consequences if you fail."

"...yeah. I know."

Hey! Hope you liked it! It might take me a little while to post again, because there's another story I have to update. Hope you all enjoyed, please review!