Sakura punched Pein, quick and sharp. She didn't reel back her arm - just pushed her weight into that one punch, and obviously Pein hadn't expected it, because he took a step back. A chuckle reverberated through his chest in the next second, though, so Sakura didn't feel all that good about it for long.

His hands were covering his abdomen, and Sakura narrowed her eyes at him. "What are you doing here, Pein?"

He pinned her with his grey ringed eyes. "Waiting for you, angel. Obviously. I'm quite the lucky man, too, since I found you first~"

Sakura felt her lip curl back. "Actually, I believe Zetsu found me first."

She tossed a quick glance to where Zetsu had been, but he was gone, molding back into dust and shadow like he was so good at. Well, then.

Sakura wasn't sure if he left because he just got tired of the company or if because Pein intimidated him. Or maybe the light just blinded and burned him. Could be either, really.

Sakura was quick about not keeping her eyes off Pein for long, though. She stood straighter and crossed her arms, suddenly conscious of the too-short shirt -in her opinion, though it still wasn't showing any skin-and her kitten heels, which would make it a little more difficult to run in, but would hurt like hell if she decided to kick him. She'd run in heels before - on numerous occasions, actually - so she wasn't too worried about that.

Pein crossed the last bit of space between them, and Sakura forced herself to not take a step back. Give the man an inch, and he'll take a mile.

His long, thin fingers curled around her chin, making her look up into his strange eyes again, and Sakura found the man grinning down at her, white teeth flashing. Unconsciously, Sakura's mind flashed back to the feel of his tongue - his tongue ring, to be exact - on her skin.

Although Sakura knew she could always blame it on the red lighting, she forced herself to not blush and to swallow down some of her racing pulse, breathing deep through her nose and getting a large whiff of Pein's cologne in the process. Damn.

Sakura pressed her lips together and ran her own tongue over the top of her teeth. She found herself with a suddenly animalistic desire to bite him . . . and not in a good way. Maybe it was the close courters; maybe it was the way he was looking down at her - because he still towered over her, even with her heels on - that made her feel like an animal being cornered and pinned to her cage, but she want him to back the fuck up.

Something hot and tight coiled in her stomach, and Sakura couldn't tell if it was desire or if she was going to be sick, so she decided to go ahead and put those cute kitten heels to use.

It was Pein's own fault, really. He really shouldn't have gotten so close to her and given her the perfect opportunity to shoot a well-placed blow to the center of his foot.

He saw it coming a split second before she hit him, but he wasn't quick enough to dodge it completely, so she got a moment to hit him, hard, before he got away. She got the satisfaction of seeing the split second flash of pain in his eyes before he grinned at her, ever the fast recoverer.

Pein cocked his head to the side, and Sakura saw his lip ring twitch in amusement. "You know," he began, "I didn't build this club for the chance for you to wander in - I didn't dream of it, what with your workaholic lifestyle - so imagine my surprise when I spotted a head of cherry pink hair-" he took a strand between his fingers, rubbing it against his thumb. "-walk through the door not even a month after opening. I must have the luck of a god, indeed."

Sakura pulled back, and Pein let her hair slip through his fingers easily enough. "You watched me arrive?"

"I always know who enters my domain," Pein said simply, brushing off some invisible lint from his dark top. It was only then that Sakura saw that he was wearing a black button-down tucked into black pants with an intricately made black belt adorned with metal pieces and jewels - to match his face, no doubt. He smiled at her, kindly. "But I will always know when you enter a room, my Sakura-hime."

"Uh-huh," Sakura deadpanned. She had her best do-I-look-like-I-give-a-fuck face on. "You know, that hubris of yours is going to get you in trouble one day."

Pein just chuckled good naturedly at her antics. "Well, then," he said, his voice suddenly husky and deep, his eyelids drooping to almost cover his ringed eyes, "I do hope you'll go easy on me, angel, when you give me my punishment~"

Fucking masochists.

Sakura just blinked at him, giving him her best I-am-not-amused look.

She took a deep breath, letting it out with an irritated noise. "Who else is here that I need to worry about?" She pushed a hand through her hair, wishing then that she had had a few more drinks. Kami knew alcohol could make this whole endeavor so much easier.

Damn Naruto and Sasuke's drunken strip tease ways. Damn them and her good-friend-natured way.

Damn. Them.

It was in that moment Sakura came to the decision that whatever happened that night, it was all Naruto and Sasuke's fault.

How, she wasn't sure. But it was. There was a reason . . . she'd just figure it out in the morning.

But until then . . . until then she needed to grab their drunk, possibly half-dressed asses and get the fuck out of this joint before a repeat of the Uchiha mansion ensued.

Pein just smirked down at her and didn't answer.

Sakura blinked at him for a moment and rolled her eyes, walking with confident strides towards the red curtain separating her and Pein from the rest of the club. She halfway expected Pein to try to stop her, but he didn't.

Sakura dared a look over her shoulder, and saw Pein staring intently at her, his eyes moving slowly, tenderly over every. Inch. Of. Her. "Nice shoes," he remarked, smirking.

She gave a long string of curses in her head.

Damn Ino. And these heels that did wonders for her butt. Damn. Them.

Sakura pushed open the curtain and stepped back out into the club, which had gotten much more crowded in the time she'd been gone. Music was still blaring, but louder now, and Sakura recognized a song from Lana Del Ray, one of her favorites. It was a remix that she hadn't heard before and decided that she'd ask Karin for the version sometime later. Much later. After she got her idiots home with (most of) their clothes on. She only wanted so much in life, and that included decently dressed moronic best friends.

A round of cheers and catcalls where heard from the center of the stage, where a very large group of swooning girls were gathered, all looking up at something Sakura could not yet see. Cursing, Sakura quickly moved in the direction, vaguely remembering seeing an empty stage when she arrived with three or four dancing poles on it.

She didn't think this was the kind of place to have strippers or anything like that, but with the Akatsuki and Uchihas in charge, anything was possible. It wouldn't surprise her to find out the exotic dancers were all trained assassins or something.

However, Sakura was fully expecting to see Naruto and Sasuke up there, drunk, doing one of their legendary strip teases. She could totally envision Ino throwing small bills at them while Shikamaru attempted to rein in his girlfriend, mumbling about how troublesome she was.

A few men where conjoined with the fangirls, shouting out things and sloshing around their drinks, and Sakura wondered if they were so drunk they were mixing up Sasuke and Naruto with exotic female dancers, so drunk that all they registered was the shedding of clothes and loud noise. It wouldn't be the first time.

Sakura was silently trying to come up with plans on how she could get them down from the stage the quickest and easiest way - preferably without getting her head chopped off by one of the rabid fangirls. She knew from experience that when in such a state, Naruto and Sasuke would only listen to her, but it also depended on exactly how inebriated they were. And she wasn't sure just how long she'd been cooped up in that private room with Pein and Zetsu.

Shit.

When she rounded the corner, Sakura could only see a little ways over all the audiences' heads, enough to catch quick glimpses of bare, very male arms flying around and spinning. Quickly, she elbowed a few girls out of the way, ignoring the yells directed her way and smoothly spilling this girl's drink on his guy's shoes and pants, making him yelp at the chill and move out of Sakura's way with him being none the wiser. She'd done this before.

The crowd was thicker than she had anticipated, and it took her longer to get near the stage than she would have liked. Usually, she could stop Naruto and Sasuke before they took off more than their shirts, but after all this lost time, she had no idea what state of undress they were in.

Finally, when Sakura was close enough to the stage, she gripped the edge of it and looked up-

-right into Shisui Uchiha's face.

He was already grinning, but when he saw her face, a look of surprise and confusion crossed it, but then he blinked, and his grin widened.

"Sakkkuurraaa-chhhaaannn, babbbyyyyy," he slurred.

Oh, fuck.

Sakura spun on her heel and began to push her way through the throng of girls gathered with renewed passion.

The girls were unmoving; some looking to Shisui and back at Sakura, like they didn't understand what was happening and why he had singled her out. Others only had eyes for Shisui and ignored Sakura altogether.

¡¡¡BUT THEY STILL WEREN'T FUCKING MOVING!!!

A hand gripped the back of her shirt and tugged her closer to the stage, which wasn't all that difficult considering the girls in front of her were still not moving and she hadn't even put a foot of space between her and the stage.

She swung around and came face-to-face with Shisui, who had the biggest grin on his face and was kneeling down to her level, so they were eye-to-eye, and it was only then that she realized Shisui did not, in fact, have a shirt on, and his skin was glistening with sweat. A tie was loosely hanging from his neck, and on his head was a police officer's cap.

Sakura's eyes kept skipping over his face and other features, not sure were to focus on that wouldn't make her feel like passing out, and - to her horror - Sakura saw that he was wearing dark jeans and they were unbuttoned at the top, hanging down enough that Sakura could see a thin strip of his dark navy boxers.

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuckity fuckfuck-

"Babbbyyy~" Shisui said, his face only a few inches from her nose, and Sakura got a face full of minty breath and something sweet underneath it - alcohol. His hair was shorter since the last time she saw him at the Uchiha mansion, but it still grazed the tops of his ears and was sticking to spots of his skin with sweat. God help her.

Sakura was pretty sure she was gapping like a fish out of water, and that's when she noticed movement behind Shisui.

Oh, no.

There was Madara, on the other pole, swinging his hips around like he was half his age and Sakura felt a little like crying. He, too, was half dressed and was wearing a police uniform . . . or he at least had been; his shirt was gone and he was sliding down his pants, showing his black and red boxers underneath, much to the joy of the girls around his part of the stage.

And if Madara was on her left side and Shisui was in the middle, then who was . . . ?

Against the voice screaming in her head to punch Shisui in the face and run, run like her life depended on it, Sakura slowly turned her head and looked at the right side of the stage.

And there was Tobi, waving his hands around in the air like a maniac, working that stripper pole like it was a popsicle stick he really, really wanted to lick.

Someone must have taken pity on her in the universe, because unlike Shisui and Madara, Tobi was almost fully dressed-thank you, thank you God. He was also dressed like a police officer - and somewhere in the recess of her mind, Sakura idly wondered if these were all the actual uniforms the Uchiha's all had and worked in during the day as actual, legitimate police officers - but his shirt only had the buttons undone, occasionally giving Sakura a flash of pale chest every time he moved a certain way. To be fair, Tobi was moving so chaotically and quickly that it was difficult to catch a glimpse of anything besides a whirl of black. The girls around him - much to Sakura's horror - were older and screamed in ways that made Sakura think they were half their actual age.

Sakura's eyes were the size of green dinner plates when she turned back to Shisui, who was looking at her slyly now.

She gulped.

Then she was in the air, and Shisui had pulled her up and onto the stage, and - oh, god - she was flush with his naked chest, and herbrainwasnotcomputing.

Somewhere in the distance, Sakura heard the telltale sound of a high pitched cat-like laughter. She felt something hit her head, and turned to look over her shoulder towards the crowd.

She spotted Ino immediately, who looked to be on her tenth Jell-O shot, and poor Shikamaru, who was slowly beating his head into the table a few feet away.

Ino was pointing at Sakura and holding her stomach in pain, laughing over the music blaring in Sakura's ears.

Sakura looked down at what had hit her in the head.

Condoms.

"THAT'S MY GIRL! GET SOME STRESS RELIEF, FOREHEAD! 'BOUT DAMN TIME!"

She probably should have been surprised and somewhat concerned at the fact Ino carried condoms with her, but right then, her brain had decided to take a nice vacation to Fuji, leaving a note behind that simply read: I pray for you, girl.

"You know," Shisui whispered hotly in her ear, and despite the fact that the music was blaring over their heads, Sakura heard him perfectly. He sounded oddly sober all of a sudden, too. "If you wanted to see me do a strip tease, all you had to do was ask."

His arms tightened around her and he kissed the shell of her ear.

It was then Madara noticed her.

"MY PRECIOUS SAKURA-CHAN," Madara kicked off the last of his pants, leaving him in nothing but his boxers, his police hat - that of which made Sakura question the rules of physics, what with how it was still hanging on to his head despite the amount and volume of his hair - and the loosely knotted tie around his neck. He flashed her a grin that was all white, white teeth. "You came to take a peek of your future husband before our wedding night, hmm? You little minx." He moved his hands in a flourish and placed one hand underneath his chin and the other on his hip, striking a pose that Sakura guessed was supposed to be seductive. "But your wish is my command, my love!"

Sakura turned wide eyes back to Shisui in horror. "What does he mean-?"

Very, very loud squeals and screams went up from the crowd of girls. Sakura decided that nope, not in this lifetime was she looking back to see what exactly Madara was doing, even if that meant she had to bury her face into Shisui's shoulder.

Sakura was suddenly glopped from behind, sandwiching her between the new body and Shisui's chest, much to his pleasure, based on the satisfied growl she heard reverberate through his chest.

She struggled to turn her face to the side to see who her attacker was this time.

"SAKURA-CHAN! SAKURA-CHAN CAME TO VISIT TOBI!" Half of his face was covered with a plain black mask, very Phantom of the Opera-ish, masking the scars on the one side of his face. For some reason, that sent a new kind of pain through Sakura's gut, that Tobi felt the need to hide his face from this crowd. She couldn't say she blamed him for doing it, exactly, but she still felt the pain blossom in her chest at seeing it.

From the side of his face she could see, Tobi was grinning and his lone eye was dilated and moving all around at a fast pace. Sakura raised her eyebrows. "Tobi, how much have you had to drink?"

He hiccupped. "Tobi drank the apple juice Madara-san gave him!" He hiccupped again, louder. Suddenly, Tobi frowned. "It tasted strange, but Tobi is a goooddd boy, so Tobi drank allll of it!" he slurred.

Sakura's eye twitched.

She was going to fucking kill Madara.

Shisui groaned from in front of her. She ignored him; once again hearing a wave of screams go up from the crowd at the new position Tobi put her in.

Sakura hated crowds on principle. It didn't even have to be when she was center stage - she could only stand to be in a place of a lot of people for so long - but it was so much worse when she was the center of attention. If Sakura had her way, she'd be like Zetsu and mold back into shadows and walls. She liked being a wallflower most of the time, thanks.

So this? This was hell for her. She could already feel her face flush and her palms start to sweat, making her want to wash her hands a few times and jump in a cold shower.

Sakura heard another loud squeal and rambunctious laughter, and thought about throwing Madara in a cold shower, too.

Shisui grunted and tried to unhinge Tobi from Sakura. Obviously this didn't work, and somehow Sakura became the rope in a tug-of-war on the stripper stage between two half-dressed Uchiha men. Lovely.

Sakura growled low in her throat and pushed both Tobi and Shisui off her. A part of her - the kind, reasonable side of her - thought about if she should try to get the Uchiha men off the stage before they did something they regretted. But knowing them, it may not even make a difference that they were in different states of inebriation - they would probably still to a strip tease while sober, for all Sakura knew.

So there she was, in the middle of the fucking stage, indecisive, because she was debating between saving her own ass and helping out the perverts around her that she may, on good days, care for them a bit.

She groaned at herself, but Shisui took her hesitation as something else, and Sakura saw his eyes flash blood red.

Shit.

Damn her conscious. She was so firing it after this.

It was in that moment Sakura noticed that Shisui had a six pack and his chest was hairless. And she could see a thin happy trial tracing down into his unbuttoned pants. Sakura never thought of him as lanky as, say, Zetsu, but not as buff as someone like Hidan or Kisame. He had a good amount of meat on him, and looking at his body, Sakura had the thought that it was a runner's body. Made sense, since Shisui was one of the fastest of them all; sometimes even faster than Sakura.

The room spun.

She blamed it on the alcohol and strobe lights.

"Why are you wearing your police uniform?" Sakura questioned, cursing herself at trying to have a goddamn conversation in the middle of a stage in a club, in front of rabid fangirls who were multiplying by the minute.

Somewhere in the distance, Sakura heard the telltale scream come from Naruto and the loud sound of indignation come from Sasuke.

Huh. So they finally noticed her.

Shisui either didn't hear them or was ignoring them, because he just smirked at her. Yeah, he definitely wasn't as drunk as she initially thought he was. Instead, he grabbed her arm and tugged her closer to his naked-Oh, fuck fuck fuckity fuckfuck-chest and began moving around her. Dancing around her. Grinding on her.

Sakura forced herself not to pass out.

She was used to being teased, flirted with, tackled, sometimes molested, and all-around grabbed and groped and kissed by these men, but she was not used to being touched like this. His hands on her hips, tucking up under her shirt to graze the thin strip of skin. He didn't touch her anywhere more private, keeping to the rim of her hips and thighs, moving up to her shoulders and to the creases of her elbows, kissing the hollow of her throat and moving her palm up to his face, where he made eye-contact with her - emerald green to blood red - doing nothing more than rubbing his nose from the tip of her middle finger all the way down to the thinness of her wrist, his hot breath tracing his path. He didn't touch her anywhere that hadn't been touched before in less . . . intimate ways, but somehow Shisui made her bones creak and groan under his ministrations.

Her blood was rushing in her ears, and Sakura wasn't sure if it was because of how loud the music was and because she was slowly losing her hearing or because of Shisui's mouth on the inside of her elbow, her arm having been somehow stretched out at some point, his teeth nipping at the too sensitive skin there, making a shiver go up her spine, despite how warm she felt right then. This club was too hot for her, and she felt like she was drowning on her own oxygen.

His mouth found her ear again, and Shisui took the top part between his lips lightly, giving it a nip - and, oh, she could feel his sharp incisors - before whispering, too hotly, in her ear, "There are desires in here," -his hands were at her stomach, not low enough for her to react, but tracing the delicate part of her stomach, where she was hot and tight- "and I want them out. For me, only me."

Oh, fuck.

He was still behind her, and he moved her arms - tenderly, so gently - up so they were tied up and around his neck, his hips still swaying against hers, and she couldn't tell if her hips were moving as well. His hands were there, on her hips, doing nothing more than tracing designs all along the fabric of her jeans, pressing hard enough for her to feel him. Him, moving up to her waist, to the strip of skin that was now there for all to see, her shirt riding up with the movement of her arms around his neck, his fingers, hooking around the belt loops of her jeans. Him, humming in her ear, something between a growl and a groan. His nose, buried in her hair, like he was looking for a needle in a haystack.

Sakura heard some more screams from below her, and it all came rushing back.

Tensing, Sakura used the leverage of her arms around Shisui's neck to flip him over her shoulder, right to the edge of the stage.

He gazed up at her, dazed, and Sakura didn't risk another glance his way.

Many, many girls and more than a few men were gazing up at her now, among them Ino, Shika, Naruto, and Sasuke, who had obviously been shouldering their way to the edge of the stage while she was otherwise . . . preoccupied.

Ino suddenly bent over, holding her stomach and laughing so hard Sakura worried she was going to make herself sick.

Obviously, Shikamaru had the same thought, because in the next second, he was there at her side, ushering her out the door of club, ignoring her swatting hands and proclamations that she was okay, she could still stay. He wasn't hearing it and nodded towards Sasuke, who nodded back. Shikamaru was taking her home.

Sakura blinked against the blinding lights and ignored Shisui's groan of pain. Madara and Tobi were nowhere to be seen.

She didn't bother with the stairs and just hopped off the stage, cursing in her head. This was where her damn conscious got her, it seemed.

Unlike before, the crowd parted for her like the Red Sea, and she walked right out. Maybe it was because of the look on her face. She still felt flushed and irritated and . . . and something else. Something she didn't feel like thinking about right then. Later, when she was sure she was sober and clear-headed.

Instead of making a bee-line for Naruto and Sasuke, who were both looking at her with varying degrees of shock, Sakura bypassed them and went straight for the dark, half-circle booth at the back corner, the one that had just enough shadow to make her realize who was sitting there, nursing a glass of brandy.

She stood a foot away from the table and slammed her hand down on it, shaking the drink on top of it. She grinned sloppily and cruelly. "Enjoy the show?"

A movement in the shadows. A soft laugh.

Itachi leaned forward and cocked an eyebrow at her, his long hair tied and brushed over his shoulder. He was dressed all in black - not surprisingly - making it that much more difficult for her to see him. If she hadn't known what to look for, she would have missed him entirely. "Not as much as you enjoyed it, I daresay."

He crossed his legs and clacked the ice in his brandy against the glass. The music was still pounding and either the crowd under the stage had dispersed or something else had come out for them to give their attention to, but Sakura could still hear Itachi perfectly. He had one of those kinds of voices where when he spoke it demanded attention, even in a place as loud as this. The vibrations of the music swam around him, parting for his voice.

"Though, you know," he continued in his lullaby voice. Sakura watched his long fingers play with the shadows around him. She could see the reflection in his narrowed red eyes, "if I had known a strip tease could get you in such a state, I confess I would have joined my cousin up there."

Sakura curled her lips back, baring her teeth. "The stage doesn't seem like your kind of place. Not with an audience."

Itachi hummed under his breath. "My cousin is more . . . attention demanding then I am, for sure."

The bastard was enjoying this. Sakura expected nothing less, but it still grated on her. She was irritated and wanted to go home, but not as much as she wanted to yell at something. Fight with something. Get this flame out of her chest.

Her mind flashed back to what Pein had once told her, back at the Uchiha mansion.

"Even when you are calm, you have this inferno in your eyes, like you're ready for anything, like you can take and devour anything and everything, and that you won't give a damn if the whole world burns down while you do it. But the second someone you care about is hurt, it takes over, consuming you and everyone around you.

"I want to kindle it," he had continued, "I want to kindle that fire and watch it consume everything around it."

Itachi, of course, noticed this about her. He leaned up in his seat and uncrossed his legs, his face suddenly not in shadows anymore. His eyes gleamed. "There are other ways to appease that appetite you have, you know. It can only stay shoved down for so long." He smirked and made a gesture towards the stage. "As we just saw, actually."

Sakura gave him a smirk of her own. "Throwing Shisui over my shoulder did make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside," she growled. "I should make a habit out of it, I think."

Itachi's smirk faltered and Sakura knew she won this one.

He snatched her hand, which was still on the table. She had been leaning farther and farther towards him without realizing it. Itachi brushed his thumb over the inside of her wrist, and she didn't react.

"Or," he began, making sure she was looking into his eyes, "you could come to me for some . . . other ways to make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside~"

Sakura kept the smirk on her face. She leaned in further until she was sure Itachi could see the wicked gleam in her eyes. "Good luck with that," she purred, and it was such a stupid thing to do, but right then, she wanted to be tease. She wanted to play their game in a different way, one she didn't let herself do often, but found herself not being able to resist to tug them along sometimes. Nothing awful . . . but enough to make them suffer like they made her suffer, sometimes.

Maybe she was drunker than she originally thought. Maybe it was the lights and the adrenaline in her veins and . . . and Shisui. Yes, this was partly due to Shisui. More than partly, even. Maybe her thoughts were scattered like broken pieces of glass and she was acting oddly, boldly, but she felt like swaying her hips and throwing her shoulders back and arching her back and making him want her more than he ever wanted her before. It was cruel and it was revenge and it was dark and Sakura didn't lie to herself for one damn second about any of that.

She'd deal with her conscious later.

Sakura was not ashamed of her desires. She knew they were there, and the men around her were very, very appealing. But she wasn't just desire.

She was inexperienced in these things, in these games, but she understood the rules, and Sakura was a very, very quick learner.

Itachi's eye widened and his lips parted, barely, just for a slit second, before he smirked and released her wrist, letting his fingers trail down her palm and to the tips of her fingers before leaning back into his seat. "Until then," he purred right back, and lifted his glass as if to toast her, but didn't take a sip. Instead, he watched her walk away.

Sakura swayed her hips, just a bit.

Naruto and Sasuke were on her in two seconds flat. Naruto, enraged on her behalf and tossing out apologies that he and the teme hadn't noticed her sooner, while Sasuke just glared daggers at the table his older brother was sitting in. Sakura even had to put a hand on his shoulder to keep him from stalking over there and making a scene. For a moment she thought he might shrug her off and still do just that, but he relaxed under her touch and didn't move, though his glare never wavered from where his older brother was sitting. Sakura didn't doubt Itachi was watching them and smirking, tracing the rim of his untouched brandy.

Maybe it should have flustered Sakura that she had had an audience to her and Shisui, but found that she couldn't care less. It was Naruto and Sasuke, even, and she never cared how they saw her. There was nothing she could do to make either of them see her differently.

So, instead, she waved off Naruto's apologies and smiled at him gently. She hushed him and ushered them both out the door, ignoring the stares on her back that she knew without looking were owned by not only Itachi, but the rest of the Akatsuki and Uchihas as well.

It was only as Sakura was pulling out of the illegal parking spot that she noticed the red and black fan painted on the side of the club, intertwined with a red cloud.

*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･'(*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)'･*:.｡. .｡.:*･゜ﾟ･*

The next morning was . . . brutal.

The night before, Sakura had ushered Naruto and Sasuke back to their apartment, both of them in varying degrees of hungover-ness.

Apparently, both had drank copious amounts of alcohol once Sakura was out of sight, Naruto caving and ordering some very fruity and colorful drinks while Sasuke shot back Jell-O shots that Ino had coerced him into. Karin, in her devious ways, was only too happy to get him as drunk as possible. Sakura highly suspected Karin had put a date-rape drug in at least one of his drinks.

This was what happened when she wasn't chaperoning the morons.

Both had been so drunk, even, that they didn't notice at first when their growing crowd of rabid fangirls suddenly dispersed. When they did, it was only to see them all gathered around the stage and Sakura getting a personal lap dance by half-dressed police officer Shisui.

Sasuke was the first one to notice her, and when he did, he kicked Naruto, who had stolen Sakura's previously occupied bar stool and was draped over it, his head in his hands while he mumbled incoherently about ramen, baby, why you so spicy today? He had been in his sad-drunk stage at that point.

When Sasuke finally got Naruto to stop crying fat tears about there not being any ramen flavored alcoholic drink - Karin had given him quite the look when he questioned her about it, to which she offered to heat up a ramen bowl and put a shot of vodka in it - and Naruto looked over at the stage, he nearly fell off the bar stool. Which wasn't much of a feat, really, in his current state.

Sasuke didn't specify to Sakura which part they witnessed with her and Shisui, and she hadn't asked. She didn't think she really wanted to know, and from the small blush on Sasuke's cheeks and the way he wouldn't met her eyes, she thought that was best.

Once Naruto's brain caught up with what he was seeing and processed it accordingly, Naruto, prone to his ways, had screamed, "HENTAI!" and then really did fall face first into the floor.

Of course he did.

Both boys had fought their way over where the stage was, but once the fangirls figured out who they were, surrounded them like the pack animals they really were. Naruto and Sasuke didn't stand a chance in getting to the stage.

After that and after Sakura finally grabbed them both by the ears and tossed them out of the club, the amount of alcohol in their blood finally caught up with them, and both promptly fell asleep in the car ride home.

Sakura was strong for her size, but getting two two-hundred and above pound men into the elevator with minimal amount of attention drawn was not an easy thing to do.

In the end, Sakura had to leave Sasuke in the car while she handled Naruto. She made sure to lock the car doors behind her in case of a rabid fangirl break in-it had happened before-and also so Sasuke didn't wake up and try to roll himself out of the car. The last thing she wanted to do at one in the morning was have to hunt down the boy.

Naruto was easier to handle than she had expected. He hung on to her, giving her most of his weight, all the way up to their door, half-asleep and murmuring about ramen, baby and Sakkuurrraaaa-chhaaannn, don't listen to the teme - orange will totally match the yellow-ish carpet. Which didn't make sense on so many levels, because, for one thing, the carpet wasn't yellow-ish. It was a tan. There was a difference.

Sakura got Naruto to the door and into his neon orange room-it was like walking into the sun-and managed to get his shoes and socks off him without too much trouble and flailing limbs. She then coerced him into shrugging out of his nice shirt and pants and putting on sweats and a T-shirt. He then promptly fell into bed, pulling on his frog sleeping cap.

Sakura didn't question it and left to get her other moron.

Sasuke - thank Kami - was still where she left him in the car. When she pulled on his arm and snapped her fingers in front of his face to get him awake, he glared at her, his dark eyes hooded and unfocused.

"Didn't know you had a thing for Uchiihhaaa's, Sakurraa~" he half-heartedly slurred.

Sakura ignored him.

Sasuke was more difficult. In the elevator he kept swatting at her and refusing to get up off the floor in the corner, where he had cocooned in on himself. In the end, Sakura let Blue out of apartment and made him lick Sasuke until the teme got up on his own, groaning and wiping the slobber off his face, while Sakura lead him into their apartment. Blue trotted faithfully behind them and once in the apartment again, hopped up on the sofa and curled right up, resuming the spot he'd chosen as his.

Once in Sasuke's blue and black room which was like walking into a black hole, Sakura easily got his boots and socks off and then threw sweats and a T-shirt at him too, turning her back on him for a moment, and then turning around to see him shirtless, kicking off his pants, and Sakura had to lung forward before he slipped off his boxers too. Really, though. She only wanted so much in life, and one of those things was to not see one of her male best friends slide down his boxers while inebriated.

In comparison to sliding down his boxers while he was sober, apparently. Really, though.

Cursing under her breath and swearing to never let them touch another drop of alcohol again in their lives, Sakura managed to get Sasuke in bed as well after he had hopped up suddenly, rushing to the bathroom to clean and wash his face, applying the ridiculously expensive, top of the line skin cream he used before bed for his complexion, because that was a top priority in his life.

When Sakura finally fell into bed herself, it was with a headache. After popping an Advil and showering quickly, Sakura made sure - twice - that the door was locked, and finally went to bed.

The next morning, Sakura opened her eyes to the smell of bacon, which was enough to actually get her out of bed.

Sasuke - the godsend he could sometimes be - was cooking breakfast, currently working on an omelet. He was still in the dark T-shirt and sweats she made him change into last night, though his hair was perfectly styled and teeth brushed. Naruto was nowhere to be seen, most likely not waking up for a few more hours . . . or unless they started to cook ramen; he'd wake up in five seconds flat, then.

Sasuke only gave her a side-glance, going back to flipping the omelet. He pushed the plate with the already made omelet towards her, to which Sakura thanked him and grabbed a fork and poured some milk.

Sasuke just nodded. "Hn."

Blue took up residence next to her feet, hoping and waiting for stray food to fall into his waiting mouth. Damn beggar.

Sasuke flipped his omelet onto a waiting blue paint -it matched the walls nicely-and took a seat next to Sakura. And because Sakura was still tired and had a small headache and Sasuke was simply a non-talker by nature, they ate in silence, only speaking to ask for the milk or a napkin.

Sakura had a class later that day, but Sasuke had the day off from work, as did Naruto. Hence, why they both got so drunk the night before.

After Sakura cleaned her plate and returned to her room to get dressed, her phone rang from her nightstand, playing something by Katy Perry, and Sakura immediately knew it was Karin. Ino had Taylor Swift. No, Sakura did not program either of that in; this was the result she got from leaving her purse with Ino and Karin for five flippin' seconds when she went to use the restroom one time. And Sakura had no clue how to change it, so it stayed.

"Kar," Sakura greeted.

"Hello, you little tease."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Did you just call to-?"

Karin interrupted. "Maa, don't bite my head off, girl. I'm at the club right now and someone turned in a lost purse. A red one."

Oh, please no, Sakura prayed silently, eyes moving towards heaven. Please, no. I'm not a bad person . . . besides the times I've let the dog into Naruto's room in the morning . . . and the times I've given both boys concussions and the times . . . Never mind. But I'm mostly an okay person, and I don't deserve this-

Sakura could tell Karin was holding back a laugh at her expense. "And you'll never guess whose driver's license I found in the fox-themed wallet - which we really need to talk about some time."

Sakura was slowly beating her head into the wall. "It was a birthday gift from Naruto."

A loud pause. "'Kay," Karin chirped.

Sakura narrowed her eyes. "It holds all my stuff nicely . . . Never mind."

Karin coughed, and Sakura swore it was a laugh she was covering up. "Anyways. It's here for you, whenever you can swing by. I'd bring it to you myself except I'm working."

Sakura sighed. "Yeah, I know. Can I just grab it after your shift-?" But her wallet held her school ID and all her money, and she actually needed to be able to get onto campus today. And eat. She needed to eat.

She cursed and rubbed a hand over her face. Of course this would happen. Because it wasn't like she didn't escape the club with barely her life. Of course there would be some improbably reason she would have to return . . .

Sakura slammed her head into the wall. Fuck.

She wouldn't put it past the bastards at the club to have taken her purse or done something to make sure she would have no choice but to return to the club as soon as possible. They knew Sakura would never return after she found out they owned the place.

Bastards.

Sly, devious, genius bastards.

Sighing, Sakura glanced at her watch. It was still early, and, honestly, she still had plenty of time to get to the club, make Karin throw it through an open window of her car while she continued to speed away, and still make it to her class on time. So this was okay. She could deal with this.

"Okay," Sakura relented. "I'll be there soon."

"Sounds good," Karin said, obviously distracted. "Gotta go." And the line went dead.

Sakura beat her forehead into the wall one more time for good measure. Somewhere in another room, Sakura heard Naruto fall out of his bed and scream. Blue scratched and whined at her door, wanting in.

So she got dressed while the dog watched her. And because she felt like it, Sakura put on makeup and one of her favorite gray dresses. And then a long black sweater over that because the weather had finally decided to become winter. After that with matching leggings and ankle boots, Sakura walked back out to the living area, Blue on her heels. She had pushed her cherry pink hair back in a gold headband, but knew she'd probably ditch it soon anyways since it made the spot behind her ears itch where it rubbed.

Sasuke was dressed and reading a newspaper on the leather couch while Naruto heated up his morning ramen in the microwave, scratching his back with both hands and sneezing.

Sakura paused before she left. She figured she should probably let them know where she was going since it was a decent probability she may get kidnapped again.

So she gave them the spark-notes version of the story and how she had to have her purse immediately. Of course, this only resulted in both Naruto and Sasuke jumping on her.

"I'll come with you," Sasuke said, folding the newspaper he had been reading up and standing, like it was already decided.

"Yeah, Sakura-chan! You shouldn't go see those bastards after what they did to you last night!" But even as he said this, Naruto shot furtive glances at the ramen in the microwave, like he might have to decide between being a good friend and accompanying her to a wolf's den or staying and eating his ramen. Life choices. Really, it was a tough choice.

Sakura held up her hand to stop them both and snagged the keys off the counter. She was so taking Sasuke's car for this. "Don't bother. It'll be fine." Both boys look unconvinced, so she struck a pose and put her hands on her hips and did her best to look down at them both, even though they both stood a good foot taller than she did. "If I can handle being at the Uchiha mansion for more than a day and stay alive, I think I can handle a quick run-in to a club. They may not even be there."

It was a blatant lie, and they all knew it.

Sasuke grunted and Naruto swung his head back around at the microwave, which had just beeped. Neither moved.

Sakura jingled the keys. "Sasuke, I'm borrowing your car. And I have my cellphone on me. It'll be fine."

Also a blatant lie.

She was just full of them this morning.

Sasuke grunted. "Hn. Have your phone turned up. I'll call you."

Sakura rolled her eyes, but she appreciated it. "Sure."

Naruto just looked back and forth between Sakura and Sasuke, like he wasn't completely sure what to do, but then he glanced back at his one true love - the cooling ramen in the microwave, and his mind was made up for him. Blue licked his hand.

Sakura turned on her heel and went down the elevator to Sasuke's car and took a deep breath.

She could do this.

She might very well get kidnapped - at the very least get molested - but she could still do this.

They might not even be there. At least some of them had to be gone, since she was sure most had been there last night and they would need time to sleep and get over their hangovers, especially if they stayed there longer than she had, which she was positive most of them had.

All at once she was glad she had picked out those little black boots - they had a little heel on the end, and Sakura just knew it would hurt like hell to get kicked with it on.

So Sakura drove the short drive to the club, and a part of her wondered if it was just a coincidence that the Akatsuki and Uchihas had just so happened to set up a club so close to where she went to school and lived. Ultimately, she chose not to think on it too much, since it would likely hurt her head and she just really didn't want to know.

When she parked in a legal spot this time, Sakura just sat there for a minute before she picked up her phone to delay the inevitable, and called Ino.

She picked up. "Whhhaaaaa?"

"You sound great, Pig."

A groan and the sound of rustling sheets. "Shut up, Forehead. Gaahhh, my head."

Sakura snickered. "I'm just calling to make sure you got home okay and aren't dead in a ditch somewhere."

"You say that like it's a possibility."

"'Cause it is. With you, at least."

Another groan. "Why the hell are you up so early?"

Sakura fidgeted. "I left my purse at the club last night."

"So?" And then much, much louder than Ino should have been able to go in her current state: "Ohmygod. You're there, aren't you?" she squealed.

"Um. Sorta."

"What's 'sorta'?"

"I'm in the parking lot."

Another pause. "Sakura, sweetheart, love of mine . . . get your fine ass in there and then call me right back with the play-by-play, now."

Sakura tilted her head over the steering wheel. "It concerns me greatly at how involved you are in all this." She paused. "And how . . . enthusiastic you are."

Ino snorted. "Well, one of us has to be enthusiastic about your love life."

"Nonexistent love life," Sakura corrected, smiling.

"Soon," Ino groaned, her voice deep and over dramatic. "Soon, girl, that will not be the case."

"You've been saying that for the last three years."

"Well, I wouldn't have to keep saying it if you would hang up with me already and get your pink ass in there!"

Sakura cocked an eyebrow. "'Pink ass'? That's a new one."

Ino groaned again. "Give me a break. It was a long night." More rustling of sheets and the distant voice in the background, muffled, saying, "It's too damn early, troublesome woman."

Sakura smirked. "'Bye, Pig."

"Give my love to the red wench," Ino said, by which she meant Karin, and promptly hung up.

Sakura looked at her phone for another moment before opening a new message and added both Naruto and Sasuke to the group text.

To: Blonde Moron & Emo Moron

From: Sakura Haruno (moron babysitter)

Message: Today. Paint bathroom #2 the green I picked up. No more Paint War or feel my wrath. Bathroom #1 will be the pink I pick up today.

Sakura sent it. Five seconds later, her phone binged.

To: Sakura Haruno (moron babysitter)

From: Blonde Moron

Message: BUT SAKURA-CHAN. PINK IS TOO GIRLY!!!

To: Blonde Moron & Emo Moron

From: Sakura Haruno (moron babysitter)

Message: NO. You get pink for painting the dog blue. Nonnegotiable.

To: Sakura Haruno (moron babysitter)

From: Blonde Moron

Message: SAKURA-CHAN!!!

To: Sakura Haruno (moron babysitter)

From: Blonde Moron

Message: THAT WAS THE TEME'S FAULT!

To: Sakura Haruno (moron babysitter)

From: Blonde Moron

Message: HE'S THE ONE WHO NAMED THE DOG THE COLOR THAT SHALL NOT BE NAMED.

To that, Sakura simply sent back an emoji of a character with arms folded and a don't-shit-with-me look.

To: Blonde Moron & Emo Moron

From: Sakura Haruno (moron babysitter)

Message: Don't care. It's pink. You owe me for the vases. BOTH VASES.

To: Sakura Haruno (moron babysitter)

From: Emo Moron

Message: Hn. Whatever.

To: Sakura Haruno (moron babysitter)

From: Emo Moron

Message: I'll call you in twenty min. Don't answer, blonde moron and I will burn down the club. Nonnegotiable.

Sakura's lips twitched at that and shut her screen off.

*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･'(*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)'･*:.｡. .｡.:*･゜ﾟ･*

Sakura was a planner by nature. She could not physically go into a day without planning out everything. This started when she was in middle school and proclaimed one day that she was going to be a surgeon when she grew up, the mountains she'd have to leap over to do that could be damned-obviously she did not say "damned" when she was ten - instead, her exact wording was something like, "Imma be a doctor, not a quack-er!" while pushing up her sleeve and holding up her arm in a tiny fist, because that was the kind of child she was. Obviously.

Part of that dream meant she had to plan everything out. Starting when she was ten. Because she had to do research, and research meant to see really big numbers about how much college would cost, even if she went to community college for two years, even if she took online classes, and then how much medical school would cost. And then, just to make her stress levels rise to maximum heights, how much simply living would be. Electricity, water, groceries, rent, etc., etc. . . . and it just went on and on. And that wasn't even covering the things that weren't technically must-have-to-live-physically, and Sakura had another short list of things she must-have-to-remain-emotionally-and-mentally-stable, such as books. And internet. And ice cream.

Ice cream was nonnegotiable.

And then to top it all off, because public education was a money making business that made girls like Sakura have ulcers, there was the cost of renting and buying textbooks and those odd little-not so little, cost wise-copays for things around the university, such as the extra cost of being enrolled in a science lab, and for whatever reason the thousands of dollars she was already paying wasn't enough for the equipment in the labs - especially when she could never find a fucking little magnet to swirl her solution while it was heated over a Bunsen burner - making people like Sakura want to have a nice little -it would be no such thing-conversation-it would be a screaming match-with the school treasurer about where all her blood money was going. Because do you not see the grueling calluses she had on her hands and the shadows under her eyes?

And then there was buying and renting textbooks THAT SHE NEVER EVEN FUCKING OPENED BECAUSE HAVE YOU NOT HEARD OF GOOGLE? IT IS A MAGICAL THING THAT. IS. FREE. While a standard textbook cost was somewhere between three-hundred dollars to five-hundred dollars per book. Add on another two-hundred if you wanted to keep the damn thing. And, oh, you're a day late in returning the textbook before the semester ended because you needed it to cram for one of your many, many finals? That's an extra fee.

And then there were jobs, which might just be the worst part of all.

No one told Sakura how difficult it would be. No one told her that getting a minimum wage job when she was seventeen would be impossible, because no one wanted to hire someone under the age of eighteen. No one told her that.

Sakura never thought getting a job outside of the medical field would be difficult. She had to figure out for herself that all minimum wage job applications were online, and then she had to figure out how to do a damn resume even though she didn't have any previous experience. And no one fucking told her how awkward and stress inducing it would be to have to start off a day driving around town, going into department stores and restaurants and all around places that she had no desire to actually work at, but needed the paper that was the goal to a decent life that was called money, asking to speak to a manager, only for the current minimum wage employee to look at her with doe eyes and who didn't know where the effing manager was even at, and so she would stand there, awkward as all hell, until the manager dined to bless her with her/his presence only to give her what-the-fuck looks when she explained that she applied online and just wanted to introduce herself, because didn't she know the application was online? Christ.

And so her plans got hitches thrown into them, like the proverbial rock into the windshield of the car, and she could watch and see the little spider silk cracks run all around the impact zone until they grew and grew so much Sakura would either have to change the damn windshield or start to paste the cracks over with something else, something new, and all she could do was pray to god the new paste stuck and stopped anything else from ruining her fucking windshield. Which was her poor metaphor for her plan in life. Shit.

And so little Sakura realized that if she didn't start planning things out by the time she was ten, she wouldn't get far in life. She especially wouldn't get into medical school, which, by the way, she needed to start studying for, like, right now.

So when Sakura was about to walk through the doors of Red Dawn, eyeing the painted Uchiha fan with the hidden cloud in the red part of it like it was a rabid dog about to bite her, she planned.

And by plan, she meant she thought about if she could successfully run into the club at top speed, call out for Karin to throw her damn purse at her and hightail it out of the joint before she was molested.

Solid.

And so Sakura did what she always did when she didn't have a very good/nonexistent plan in action - curse very colorful things in her head and get the fuck out of the situation as quickly as possible.

When she opened the door, unsurprisingly the club was all but empty, just some poor souls who were too busy taking morning shots by the bar Karin was currently wiping down. Another couple was playing foosball in the corner.

There were probably more people -coughpervertscough-about, but Sakura just looked straight forward with her head tilted down and made a bee-line for Karin.

Karin looked up and spotted her, flashing a grin and tossing some of her long red hair out of her face. Sakura was at the bar now and was flashing her eyes from side-to-side, particularly looking out for any blurs of red and black. But due to the decoration choices of the place, that would be a little impossible to spot anyway.

Karin knelt down and picked up her little red purse. Sakura grabbed it and hummed an appreciative sound under her breath. She checked for her fox-themed wallet, seeing that all her money, credit cards, school ID, and everything else was still in there. She didn't look for anything else in her purse, since that wasn't what really mattered right then.

Karin eyed Sakura, giving her a long look up and down. "You look better than I thought you would," Karin said, blunt as ever. How she and Sasuke didn't hit it off was a mystery to Sakura sometimes. But then again, between the two of them there probably was just too much I-want-to-annihilate-the-human-race aura going around. They would fight each other over the genocide manuals.

Sakura just side-eyed her, used to it.

Karin crossed her arms and smirked. Here they go. "Especially considering the action you got last night."

To Sakura's horror, the middle aged man in the messy suit sitting at the far end of the bar looked up and gave her a too long once over. His gaze was not polite. She fought the instinct to give him the finger.

"I don't want to talk about it," Sakura hissed back at Karin, split between the urge to hightail it out of the club and maybe avoid detection, or staying a bit longer and talking to her friend. The whole reason she had come to the club last night was for Karin and her new job, and Sakura had only gotten to have a few moments of a conversation with her. Guilt ate at her chest as she gnawed on her bottom lip.

Karin gave her a glance out of the corner of her eye that could have been seen as pitying as she continued to wipe down the counter, but Sakura knew her too well for that. "Oh, sweetie, you're going to have to do better than that."

Sakura just muttered incoherently under her breath, but then stopped because that was something Sasuke would do. Next she would actually pick up one of his how-to-get-away-with-being-a-serial-killer books and read some of it.

She shuddered.

The man in the grease stained suit was still looking at her. Sakura ignored the way his thumb ran over his lips while his tongue licked it. Karin didn't and gave him the finger.

"Fucking disgusting," Karin muttered under her breath so only Sakura could hear.

Sakura loved the girl sometimes.

Karin slammed the rag down and pulled out a glass from underneath the bar. "Well, unless you want to be cornered in here by your many admirers, you probably want to beat feet and let me get back to work." She crossed one foot over the other and shifted her weight, clearly bored out of her mind. "Unless you want a drink?"

Sakura gave her a look. "It's not even noon yet. What kind of person do you take me for?" She may have said it just loud enough for the greasy suit man to overhear her.

Greasy suit man made a vulgar gesture with his hand. Both Sakura and Karin ignored him.

Sakura picked up her purse again and took a few steps back. "Well. I gotta go. See you later?"

Karin nodded, not even looking her way anymore. "I don't suppose you'll come back here anytime soon?" She looked at her and pouted.

Sakura just nodded her head, distracted. "Sure, sure. We'll see. Later." She waved and started at a fast pace towards the exit.

Unfortunately, the door was through a corridor, so Sakura kind of knew it was going to happen before it even did.

When the hand shot out and grabbed her, she just sighed and played dead like the good little possum she was while she was whisked into one of the red velvet private rooms. Really, though. This wasn't even surprising.

When Sakura was tossed into the half-circle booth and pushed back until she was boxed in by bodies, she wasn't all that surprised either.

She sighed again and turned to look at her kidnapper.

She was pulled into his lap. "Sakura-chan, my love, you came back!" Madara rubbed his face against her cheek, and Sakura grumbled under her breath and made it a priority to ask Sasuke later to borrow one of his how-to-get-away-with-killing-perverted-uncles books. Sakura knew he owned at least a few.

Sakura pushed away from Madara's chest. "Not really," she said. "Just came to pick up my purse. I left it here last night."

Someone chuckled from the other side of her, and Sakura slowly turned her head, already adorning a don't-fuck-with-me face. At this rate it would be stuck on her face forever.

"No need to be shy, you fine ass bitch," Hidan growled, pulling Sakura away from Madara. His hand inched up her thigh.

She looked at his hand and back at his grinning face. She slapped his hand away and gave him the sweetest smile she could manage. "Touch me there and I'll be sure you never get full use of that hand back."

A loud laugh reverberated through the too small room. It was then Sakura allowed herself to look around and take account of who she would have to fight her way away from, but then deflated, just a bit, because all things considered, she was very glad to see some of the other men. She might just stand a chance.

Kisame flashed his pointed teeth her way. "Good to see ya, squirt. Didn't get to say hello last night."

Kakuzu just nodded in her direction, his strange green eyes boring into her. He flicked his head Hidan's way, his arms crossed over his chest. "Want me to decapitate Hidan, just say the word. Might cost you a bit, though."

"Oi, fuck-face!" Hidan yelled, and then paused, and Sakura waited patiently while his hamster wheel turned. She was pretty positive the hamster was already dead or dying. Then his face twisted, angry. "Don't charge the damn bitch!"

Sakura shot him a look. He did just realize Kakuzu offered to tear his head off, right?

"Extend that same deal with more than just Hidan and you've maybe got a deal," Sakura said to Kakuzu.

His green eyes shimmered while he smirked at her. "That would cost extra."

Sakura shrugged, good natured and enjoying the banter. "Call it an investment for my future."

Amusement crossed his eyes. If Sakura didn't know better, she would swear Kakuzu started to chuckle. But Kakuzu just simply didn't chuckle.

Hidan ignored him and turned back to Sakura, violet eyes mischievous. "We got quite the show last night, you fine bitch," he growled and tucked a finger under her chin, making her look up at him. "I would be a much better fucking stripper than those damn Uchihas." He wiggled his eyebrows.

Madara scoffed. "As if, peasant!" He may or may not have flipped his hair. His hair may or may not have sparkled in the light. Sakura refused to notice.

Sakura just looked blankly at him and blinked. "Somehow I think your idea would involve blood and a sacrifice."

Hidan's eyes gleamed and his grinned widened. Sakura had to fight down the shudder at the look in his eyes. "Fuck yeah, you know it bitch. All in Jashin-sama's glorious name-"

Black tape covered his mouth and his violet eyes went wide as he released Sakura and began to choke and attempt to yell. Sakura glanced to Kakuzu, who was tucking the roll of tap underneath the table. He grunted at her. "That was a freebie," he simply said. He nodded in Hidan's direction, who was flailing his arms and had turned to Kakuzu, his cursing and damnings muffled by the tape. "Useful to have tape on me."

Sakura smiled, real this time. "I don't blame you."

"Sakura, sweetheart," Itachi called from the end of the table, sitting next to Kisame. He smirked at her. "I don't believe we were finished last night."

Sakura raised her eyebrows and him and kept the smile plastered on her face. "Oh, weren't we?"

His smirk only deepened. "How much trouble did my foolish little brother cause you last night?"

Sakura rolled her eyes and huffed. "No more than I'm used to dealing with."

Itachi made a humming sound under his breath and lowered his lases. "You are quite used to taking care of my little Otto, aren't you?"

"And Naruto," Sakura added. And shrugged. "We've been together forever, so I don't mind."

"And what about after?"

Sakura just tilted her head.

"What about when you grow apart, I mean," Itachi clarified, twinning his fingers together. "What about then?"

Sakura blinked lazily at him and ran her tongue over her teeth. "Are you saying that Sasuke might actually be able to meet a girl he can stand to be in the presence of for more than five seconds?" she teased. "Or Naruto could stop talking about ramen long enough to realize that he's not half bad looking, and actually take notice of the opposite sex?"

Itachi raised a delicate eyebrow. War, then. "Or when you actually start to have more than friendly feelings for a man of your choosing and having to deal with the jealous repercussions of living with your two best friends?" he shot back.

Sakura fluttered her eyelashes and entwined her fingers together as well. "Quite serious in the morning, aren't you Itachi?"

Kisame grunted and raised his drink to his lips. "Welcome to my life," he grumbled. Itachi ignored him.

Sakura stretched her back. "As fun as this has been, boys," she said, "I need to get going. I have a class later today."

"And not any classes until later tomorrow," Madara purred next to her, his hands on her waist, tracing small patterns there. Sakura didn't even think to question how he knew her school schedule. It was expected at this point. "Will you come back to the club tonight, my love?"

"We'll see," she said, and it wasn't lost on anyone that it was a blatant lie she was using just to get out of this booth quicker. She didn't really want to have to crawl under it to get out.

Unexpectedly, Madara accepted this and let her out of the booth. Sakura blinked in surprise, but wasn't going to look a horse in the mouth for this gift from god, so she scuttled out before he could change his mind.

Before she could get any further than the red curtain, though, Madara placed a heavy hand on her shoulder. "Ah," he began, and this time he looked somewhat serious. "Be careful at school today, Sakura-chan."

She just blinked at him, not really knowing what to say. Nothing was wrong with what he said, but . . . it was odd.

But she nodded anyways. Madara grinned lecherously at her and pulled her close. "Don't go and fall in love with any older professor, my love," he purred. "I'm the only mature, sophisticated man for you."

Kisame snorted into his glass at "mature" and "sophisticated" while Sakura speed-walked out the door.

*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･'(*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)'･*:.｡. .｡.:*･゜ﾟ･*

11593 Words