That morning, Sasuke awoke with a throbbing pain in the back of his head. He stirred from being half knocked out, and tried to recall what had happened. He had been walking home from that day's mission when Sakura had popped out of the bushes. He had just been expecting another stuttering rant about training together, when WHAM! Everything went black.

"Ugh…" he grunted and tried to sit up strait, and then fell back down with a clunk, when he realized that the pain in his head was a lot more then from just one whack in the head. He strained to remember anything else that had happened, and managed to bring up a vague picture of fuzzy pink shapes, then girlish, familiar giggling and muttering. He couldn't make out what they where saying, because they had gotten quiet when he opened his eyes more. Then it had gone black again

"Uhh... Sakura? Ino?" he ignored the pain in his head and sat up. He blinked sleepily and looked around. He was in a ditch. It was muddy and very wet. Realizing this, he sort of snapped back together.

"Where am I?!" he gasped as he struggled against the ropes he had just realized were around his wrists and ankles. He tried to get a kunai from his shuriken pouch, and then realized with a shock that it wasn't at the side of his leg as it normally was. In fact, he wasn't even wearing his normal clothes! What he was wearing was a pink, chiffon plastic-y princess dress and fairy wings. His face turned as white as paper. Not that it wasn't already.

"O-oh GOD!" he muttered looking at his painted toenails. "AAAH! Help! Anyone!!!" he shouted, squirming around in the mud.

"Hiya." Came a yawn from nearby. Sasuke yelped in surprise, and turned quickly toward where the voice was coming from, to see a ninja laying there as if some one had thrown him.

"Sh-shikamaru?" Sasuke gasped, "How long have you been there?"

"Long enough." Said Shikamaru, he stared up at the sky with a bored look on his face. "You looked like a fairy princess some one had mugged for being too emo."

"Y-you saw that?" Sasuke stuttered a bit of red came into his cheeks.

"Did you know you talk in your sleep? Mommy! Daddy! Oh, why brother,

WHY!" he put on a high pitched nasal voice and closed his eyes, tossing his head back dramatically, then snorted "It was hilarious."

"Don't you tell anyone about this!" Sasuke growled, his whole face looked scarlet. "Or else I'm coming and giving you the p0wning you deserve!"

"Ok, ok! Sheesh!" said Shikamaru with a smug grin. He got up and untied Sasuke, who once free, jumped up and nearly cracked his head on a low hanging branch. He then eagerly stumbled toward the road, which luckily didn't have a good view of the ditch.

"Where yah goin', your highness?" Shikamaru called after him, addressing the tiara tangled into Sasuke's matted hair. Then Sasuke remembered he was covered in a thick layer of mud and sparkles. He grumbled something indistinguishable then marched back up to where Shikamaru was leaning against a tree.

"Well, what do you propose I should do?" Sasuke spat bitterly. Shikamaru pointed at Sasuke's pant leg and collar which were sticking out from underneath the dress.

"You might want to take off the dress." He said, still grinning. "Or if you like that, at least the fairy wings and tiara. I think Barbie will want them back soon."

Sasuke just grumbled and ripped the dress of over his head, and sure enough, he was still wearing his clothes underneath. He threw the mess of sparkles at Shikamaru.

"Oh, and you left your wand." He said throwing the pinkness into the bushes and shoving a plastic wand topped with a heart into Sasuke's hands. It started blinking and playing a theme song to some little kid's show. He hit Shikamaru in the head with it. It made a strange noise akin to a dying, pink animal.

"I thought you might want it!" Shikamaru said sarcastically. Then added, "Ken's gonna be maaaad!"

"Well then I-"Sasuke started angrily, pointing the wand at Shikamaru, then realized that there was a piece of paper tied onto it with a little, black ribbon. He hastily untied it, peeled of the piece of paper and unfolded it. There was a note, written in neat cursive that looked like it came from a fountain pen. Sasuke's heart jumped and he turned even whiter then before when he recognized the sleek, graceful lettering. It was cut in a perfect square with a fancy looking border twining around the edges. It read:

Dear Sasuke-kun.

It has been such a long time since I've seen you! I was just visiting Konoha, when I happened to stumble upon some of your friends. Well, they said they were your friends… one of them had pink hair and said her name was some type of flower… I think a peach blossom…

His eyes widened as he read that part. He had never really cared for Sakura, in fact, he thought she was extremely annoying. But just the thought of repeating what had happened when he was 7 sent terror through all of his body. He hesitantly read on.

Anyway, she said she liked you, so did the other one, the blond haired girl. And I just took this as a chance to do something nice for my little brother. I told them I was your brother, I didn't do anything, I just gave them shall we say… a suggestion. They were quite glad when I told them my plan, and they agreed to help me carry it out.

Sasuke didn't want to finish reading. In fact, he wanted to crumple up the piece of paper and through it in the ditch, so the ink would drain away in the mud. He wanted this even more then he had wanted Minutes to Midnight when it first came out. But he couldn't stop. If he didn't, he felt, something very, VERY bad would happen, and he would be oblivious to anything about it.

I do hope I can soon visit you in person, since this time, I have been here on business. I'm guessing you'll enjoy the birthday present I've left you,

Itachi.

P.S, Kisame sends his regards.

By now, Shikamaru was wondering what was on the small piece of paper that could make Sasuke turn colors so quickly. He leaned over the note and read it, though he was not too scared. He slinked back to the tree he had been leaning against.

"So what? You have an evil big brother?" Shikamaru shrugged. Sasuke looked up from the note. "It's not like he, I dunno, killed your family-" He trailed off when he realized that Sasuke was nodding solemnly.

"Well then, that's something to be afraid of." Shikamaru was suddenly very thankful that he didn't have a big brother