Saisaku (the colour pink ) complete

Following your heart

Chapter 6

After almost two weeks of being away on an espionage and retrieval mission, Sai finally returned to Konoha. One of the village nobles believed that his younger half-brother from Iwagakure had some important documents of land that their parents had left for the older. He claimed that in jealousy, his half-brother stole them. Now the older brother wanted the land back and Sai was sent to retrieve them.

"My family's land!" his client cried in happiness, holding the scrolls up to the light. "They're mine again!" Placing the documents inside a pack, he turned to the young shinobi. "And what of the bastard's property?"

In addition to stealing back the documents, the noble wanted Sai to spy on his half-brother's household and whether it appeared that he was wealthier than the older; if he was, he may have stolen more than just the land.

"I can assure you, my lord, it appeared that he had stolen nothing else from your family. If my calculations are correct, your properties and assets are much larger than his. You have nothing to worry about."

"Good, good." In delight, the noble turned to Tsunade. "Thank you for this young man's services, Hokage-sama." He placed a small pouch on top of her desk. "Five hundred ryos, as agreed."

After Tsunade thanked him, the client nodded at Sai, bowed at the Hokage and left. When he was gone, Tsunade turned to Sai, a playful smirk playing in her lips.

"A job well done, Sai," she praised. "So, I'm guessing you're happy to be back?"

"Hai, Hokage-sama."

"So, what do you plan on doing now?"

Sai looked surprised. "Oh, um, probably walk around town for a while, let everybody know I'm back."

"Good, good. I bet Naruto's missed you. He seemed pretty lonely with his ramen at Ichiraku's these days."

His head turned to the window and his foot tapped softly against the wooden office floor. "Um... I'm sure with Hinata-san around, he's not very lonely."

Tsuande grinned. The boy sounded impatient. She liked teasing him; it was amusing. "Alright, you may take your leave, you deserve a break."

"Arigatou, Hokage-sama," Sai replied, bowing low before turning on his heels and leaving the office.

Shizune looked up on time to see him literally speed out of the Hokage tower.

Happy that he was finally home, Sai raced to Sakura's apartment to see how she was doing. The artist could honestly say that he missed her. A lot. He thought about her every night he was in Iwagakure, praying that she was alright, that nothing terrible was happening to her, that Sasuke wasn't doing anything to make her upset. Most of all, he wanted to see her... so much.

In Iwagakure, Sai had caught the attention of the noble's two teenage daughters, who took a liking to this young, handsome, and mysterious young man. They were the ones who made his mission longer than necessary; they watched his every move and stalked him everywhere. Though these girls were beautiful to behold, Sai couldn't help but compare their artificial beauty to Sakura's natural beauty; the two needed pampering, cosmetics, and expensive clothing. But not Sakura. Of the two years that they had been teammates, Sai knew that Sakura rarely wore make-up and when she did, it was only during special occasions. She wasn't pampered; she grew up independent and taking care of herself. And Sakura was a kunoichi by profession, she couldn't afford expensive clothes; though the village owed majority of its services to shinobis, they didn't get paid much. Sakura enjoyed dressing up in nice clothes every now and then, but Sai knew that she preferred the comfortable and liberated clothes of a kunoichi.