Without thinking, Sakura got up and answered Naruto's door to find Tsunade standing there.

"Sakura?" Tsunade asked with a confused look on her face. "I wasn't expecting to find you here, but I'm glad to find you. I wanted to check to see how you were doing."

"I'm fine Tsunade-sama." Sakura lied as she glanced at Naruto from the corner of her eye. She knew the only way she was going to get to keep him as her pet dog was if she treated him like shit... Made him think he had no other choice but to be her dog. And her strategy worked. It was late and Naruto was her submissive dog once again.

"You lost four patients today, that's never easy. And you've never lost that many people in one night before. You can't be fine..." Tsunade said with a concerned look on her face.

Naruto's eyes were wide with surprise. So Sakura wasn't lying to him originally? Why the hell did she act like she did then?

"I don't know what you're talking about..." Sakura mumbled.

"Sakura..." Tsunade said with a stern look on her face. "Don't try to hide anything from me."

"I'm here with Naruto, do you really think I'm not fine?" Sakura countered.

Tsunade's eyes landed on Naruto. His nose looked broken, and it looked like it had been bleeding for a while.

"What happened to your nose Naruto?"

"The clumsy baka tripped and fell." Sakura instantly lied. She didn't want Tsunade finding out about how she had been treating Naruto. She had a feeling Tsunade would not approve.

"Well why didn't you heal it?" Tsunade asked as she walked into the house and set to healing Naruto's broken nose.

"I wanted him to learn his lesson to be more careful." Sakura lied again.

"Whatever." Tsunade sighed. "Anyways Naruto, I'm actually here to see you. I have a mission that I need you specifically to do, but I wanted to talk to you first before assigning it to you..."

"What's up Baa-chan?" Naruto asked with a confused look on his face.

"Well do you remember when you agreed to help Shion, the Priestess of Demon Country, to make a new priestess?"

"Yeah..."

"Well she's calling you in on that promise. She has requested I send you to Demon Country so you can fulfill your promise..."

"Sure, why not?" Naruto asked, clueless as ever.

"Naruto..." Tsunade groaned. "She wants me to send you to her so she can marry you and start a family. This mission would be your final mission, you would live the rest of your days in Demon Country."

"ABSOLUTELY NOT!" Sakura yelled with a worried look on her face. She had finally turned Naruto into her personal pet dog, and now some other hussy was trying to steal him away from her?

"You have no say in this decision Sakura." Tsunade gave her student a stern glare. "This decision is Naruto's, and Naruto's alone. Now Naruto, if I really wanted to, I could make you go on this mission since you are single."

"He's not single!" Sakura interjected.

"Sakura even if you two finally became boyfriend and girlfriend it would be too late. He's not married or set to be married, so as far as Konoha is concerned, Naruto is single."

"Naruto and I are getting engaged! He proposed to me tonight!" Sakura quickly lied. She would not let her pet go on this mission.

Naruto looked at Sakura with a completely bewildered expression on his face. He knew that Sakura was lying to Tsunade to keep him from going on his mission, but still... Would she really go as far as marrying him to keep him? Then there was the fact that he didn't even want to go on this mission to begin with. Shion was a nice enough girl, but he didn't want to start a family with her! He didn't know that was what she meant!

But... if he accepted this mission he could be free of Sakura. For whatever reason, she lied to him again tonight... He loved her, but if he didn't accept this mission then he was probably going to be spending the rest of his life beneath Sakura's feet...

Then again... he'd be spending the rest of his life beneath Sakura's feet as her husband...

"Really?" Tsunade gasped. "Well if that's true then things are quite different. By law, I can't send you on any mission that would force you to cheat with your spouse."

Naruto noticed that Sakura was giving him a warning look that told him he better play along or else...

Naruto took a deep breath and gathered his courage. What he was about to do was going to change his life forever.