The Flower and the Avenger

Chapter 2

Sakura woke up to pleasant... screaming.

"LET'S GO, LADY HOKAGE WANTS US TO MEET IN THE DINING HALL!" hollered somebody.

Tenten groaned and rubbed her eyes. "Who... oh. Lee. Of course."

Sakura frowned. "Who's Lee?"

Her question was soon answered as the named Lee threw open the door and yelled, "Rise and shine!" Immediately, Sakura, Ino, and Hinata screamed as they covered themselves with their satin blanket. Tenten, however, didn't.

Still dressed in her kunai pajamas, she leapt up, marched to the big browed-boy, and gave him a good smack on the head. "OW!" yelled he.

Tenten grabbed ahold of his shirt. "Next time you do that, Rock Lee, I swear that I will take you to Uchiha himself to deal with you." Her voice was dripping venom.

Lee, the boy, gulped and saluted. "You got it, Tenten! I shall go wake up the others! Good advice!" And within that second, he disappeared to the other wing of servants.

Sakura bore a look of confusion in her face. "Is he always like that?" Tenten sighed. "You don't even know the half of it."

"Lady Hokage?"

"Hokage, head servant, you get the gig."

Hinata glanced at the clock and shrieked. "It's seven!"

Immediately, Ino leapt out of her bed and started to throw her maidservant clothes on top of the ruffled blankets. "Wait," protested Sakura. "Lady Tsunade said that we were due at seven thirty." Ino growled as she shoved on her apron, "That's for you. She probably thought that you were really tired and you needed the extra sleep. By the way, you've got a delivery."

Sakura's eyes traveled over to the small package near the open door, the neat handwriting reading: Sakura.

"Open it later, get all the sleep you can get," advised Hinata as she laced on her strapped sandals. "You'll need it later, Lady Hokage's going to be testing your limits today." Sakura shivered. She didn't like the idea of 'limits'.

Apparently, neither did Tenten. "Yeah, and we gotta go, so here." She threw her her alarm clock. "Set it to 7:25. Get dressed and head down the hall, and turn left. You'll see the dining hall then. See you there!"

And then, the girls were gone.

Sakura swallowed as she slowly clambered back to bed. What a crazy morning, she thought as she drifted off to sleep once again.

O-----O-----O

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Sakura woke up to a loud beeping. "Ugh... oh no," she gasped as she glanced at the clock. The head clicked into 7:28.

Immediately, Sakura ripped open the package and threw on the first servant uniform she could see, a cute qipao red dress with a circle emblazoned on the back. There was also a small headband, representing the Konoha symbol. Sakura hurriedly tied it behind her head, pulling her useless bangs back.

"Gotta go... gotta go..." she muttered as she opened the door.

Turn... which way? she thought desperately as she looked from one hallway to another. Right? No, left... screw it! She took the right.

Sakura hurried through the hallways getting more and more hopelessly lost as the walls winded and twisted its way around, it as vast as a labyrinth.

Then Sakura tripped over a lump in the carpet and fell face-first. Her features cringed, bracing for the impact...

That never came.