„mission to the past"

Another week passed by, resulting a closer friendship between Naruto, Sakura, and Mia. They figured out that she's well-mannered and a bit timid. Her only weird trait is that she asks questions bluntly and out of the blue. The two "protectors" has sensed that this was from her curiosity, knowing that she was from a very uneventful place.

"Sugoi, Naruto-kun!", Mia says in amazement as Naruto blushes.

"It was nothing ya'know!", Naruto replies.

"Naruto is blushing because he gets so much compliments from you Mia-chan!", Sakura giggles and teases Naruto.

"But you guys are really amazing! I mean these adventures are so exciting. It must feel very nice feeling all this thrill.", Mia blabbers with matching hand gestures. It was a rare sight for the two when Mia to says something more than two sentences. This made the two flustered even more.

Does she make people blush from flattery all the time?

Mia-chan is so kawaii! Especially in the clothes that I gave her. Those black fitted shirts and tank tops were definitely made for her.

Sakura notices that Mia would touch her necklace a couple of times and decides to ask her about it.

"Hey, where did you get that necklace? You would always touch it.", she politely asks.

"Oh, I don't know. I was just wearing it ever since. It gives me so much comfort whenever I touch it.", the girl answers honestly.

"Ohh. It's really pretty on you.", Mia smiles at her response.

"Thanks!"

"Anyway, how do you create relationships knowing that your job is dangerous?", Mia asks a question once again.

"Relationships? That's easy, me and Sakura-chan have a lot of friends.", Naruto says, being a clueless knucklehead.

"No you silly! I meant romantic relationships. You know, girlfriend and boyfriend. I read a lot of books since I was alone most of the time.", she explains, "I'm really curious about yours though. C'mon tell me please!"

"Hmm..", Naruto thinks very hard about this. After a few minutes, Sakura giggles.

"This knucklehead doesn't even have a girlfriend.", she points at Naruto and laughs.

"Oi! Look who's talking.", Naruto says in defense.

Mia laughs with them as they tease each other for being single.

"Wait, both of you never had a relationship? Like even with each other?", the curious girl asks in disbelief.

"S-so what? As if we're required to even have relationships, I mean we're busy with training ya'know!", Naruto explains defensively.

"No need to be so defensive Naruto-kun.", getting carried away from the conversation, Mia giggles loudly.

The two friends in front of her suddenly stares at her as if she killed someone. Mia looks around to see what was wrong.

"Eh?"

Sakura bursts out a squeal and hugs her.

"That was so cute Mia-chan! Any guy would fall for the giggles that you make!", Sakura pinches her cheeks.

"Itai! Itai!", Mia struggles to get out of Sakura's death grip.

Little did they know, a certain blonde shinobi was in shock. His face was as red as a tomato.

That was the cutest thing I have ever heard.

—

Couple of hours later, a knock came from the door. It was an unusual thing to happen since both Naruto and Sakura were already inside.

Who could that be?

Mia panics and looks at Sakura with concerned eyes.

"Calm down, Mia-chan. I'll open the door.", Sakura says.

The door opened and revealed a certain male Hyuuga.

"Neji-san! What brings you here?", Sakura asks with a confused look. Is Mia in more danger that she needs more people to protect her?

"Tsunade-sama is asking for us to go to her office, along with the girl.", he informs Sakura.

"Oh, alright. Mia-chan?", Sakura calls her out.

"Yes?", Mia replies.

"Tell Naruto that we have to go to the Hokage's office, you also need to come."

"Eh? Me?"

—

Tsunade sits patiently in her office, waiting for Naruto and others to arrive. Her eyebrows visibly furrows as she thinks about girl's situation.

A girl from the Shinozaki clan. It's possible that she is from the main branch of the family. Their family visited once in Konoha to sign a treaty. The leader of the clan had bright blue hair, like hers.

"Granny!", the Slug Princess looks up and fixes her posture.

"Naruto, Neji, Sakura, and Mia.", Tsunade calls them one by one, "I called all of you to give you a mission."

The teens listen intently as the Hokage speaks.

"It has been two weeks since Mia was discovered in front of our gates. Like I said, we cannot trust her memories. She can be a Shinozaki yet she forgot about it for unknown reasons. The only way to regain her memories is for her to go to the Shinozaki clan's home.", Tsunade explains.

"How should we know where it is Tsunade-sama?", Sakura asks.

"For two weeks we have been researching about the clan. The ones I have appointed to locate their place found an information about it.", Tsunade passes a rolled paper that looks like map to Neji, "I want the three of you to accompany her, make sure she's safe and sound. Neji will be your team leader.", Tsunade says as Neji nods in response.

"Thank you, Tsunade-sama.", Sakura says.

Meanwhile, Mia stares at the wall blankly, not knowing what to feel that she is about to visit her possible home.