Beta'd by the wonderful NeonKnight

"Forehead, tell me again why we are going to Tsunade's?" The angry blonde muttered as she was being pulled from Bourbon Street onto Pirate Alley.

"Because." Sakura swirled around white fringe and pink hair flying with her. "Tsunade will kill us if we go anywhere else, we get free drinks, and the servers are hot."

"And everyone we know will be at Maru's tonight." Ino pouted with a stomp. "The band is shit. Why would we go to the only place in the whole city with a shit house band?"

"What part of free drinks did you not understand?" She tugged Ino's hand, but her friend didn't budge. "I heard there's a new band starting tonight. Jiraiya found them, they could be good. You never know with that old perv."

"If he picked them they have a busty singer with no talent. He has a very specific type."

"Look, let's go, have free drinks, check out the waiters, flirt with the bartender, and if the band sucks we will move on to Maru's, deal?"

Try as she might, Ino couldn't find a flaw with this plan, and slumped with defeat. "Fine, but if your plan backfires, and let's face it they usually do, you have to buy the first drink at Maru's."

Sakura grinned at her small victory. "Deal." Grabbing Ino by the hand she walked up and knocked on the large metal door.

When it opened a large man with two long scars across his face looked down on her with a scowl, "Password, Pinky?"

"How many times do I have to ask you not to call me that? And I don't know today's password. Just let me in already?" Ibiki chucked to himself as he held the door open for the girls to scamper past.

Tsunade's had only been open a few months, and hadn't really built much of a clientele, but it definitely was starting to come up. There had to be twice as many people at the round tables surrounding the dance floor and stage as the last time they were here. Which still left half the tables empty, but it was rather early.

The girls went straight to the bar where Tsunade was propped up with a tall drink in one hand and a long cigarette pike in the other. She looked amazing, as always, her long blonde hair wrapped up into a knot on the back on her head, and a long deep maroon dress came to just below her knees, and shockingly covered most of her cleavage. Sakura couldn't help but laugh, it was the most modest thing she had seen her aunt wear in quite some time.

"Look at you, trying to be the lady. What's the occasion?"

Tsunade snorted indignantly at her niece "New cop in charge of this area. He might be dropping by tonight. I just hope he doesn't up the payment. This new band Jiraiya booked already managed to talk him into 25% of the door, plus free drinks."

"That doesn't sound so bad," Sakura stated reasonably hopping onto a barstool, Ino doing the same right behind her.

"Not so bad? There were nine people here today to figure out how they were going to set up. Nine! And none of them looked like amateur drinkers. This was the dumbest idea he's ever come up with."

Looking around Sakura was beginning to see another problem, The Sannin was a small club. There was a stage in the middle, a dance floor surrounded by about two dozen round tables covered with white clothes, and the bar off to the side. "Um, Tsunade? How did they get 9 people and instruments on that stage?"

"It took a while, but I think they figured it out. I think there was even talk of putting some of the horns on the dance floor at one point. I really don't know why I let Jiraiya handle these things," Tsunade answered shaking her head disapprovingly.

As if on cue there was a knock at the side door and Jiraiya appeared from nowhere to answer it. Sakura's jaw dropped as she saw them filing in. She had never seen so many gorgeous people in one place. There was already a drum kit and a piano on the stage, which Sakura assumed had been put there earlier that day, but everyone seemed to have more equipment they were carrying, she also noticed several people with more than one case.

She turned to Ino to gauge her reaction. Her friend was also staring at the parade of people coming in with her jaw slightly open. "Ino? You okay?"

"I...I don't know," she stuttered dumbfoundedly.

"What do you mean you don't know?" Sakura giggled.

"How can they all be so pretty? I changed my mind, I don't want to go to Maru's."

Tsunade looked up at that with a flash of anger in her eyes. "Were you planning to go to Maru's? Are you only here to drink for free and take off?"

Ino turned a shade of red that screamed guilty. "Um. Well you see, all our friends are there tonight, and well the last band you had was awful, and we..." Seeing the look Sakura was giving her Ino corrected herself. "I just thought we would finish the night out there. Sakura didn't really want to," she finished lamely.

Tsunade chucked, but it was obvious she was unimpressed with Ino's reasoning. "I know the last band sucked. And honestly I don't have high hopes for this one. But please don't go to Maru's. He took everything from us. We had been partners for years before he forced me and Jiraiya out."

Ino and Sakura already knew how Tsunade felt about Orochimaru, their one time friend. Ino knew that was why Sakura had put up such a fight not go. Tsunade might have been Sakura's aunt, but she had practically raised Sakura. Ino would never do anything to intentionally hurt her. "I'm sorry Tsunade. It was selfish of me."

Sakura couldn't help but smile as it seemed her friend finally understood her previous objections. "Don't worry we aren't going anywhere. If the band is have as good as they are beautiful you are going to be the most popular bar in the Quarter." Sakura felt a large hand come down on her shoulder and turned to see Jiraiya behind her. His long white hair was tied back out of his face and he had on a dark suit that really showed off his broad shoulders.

"Damn right we will be. They're gonna really impress you. I can't believe they didn't have a steady gig."

Tsunade just rolled her eyes at this. "So which one his Hatake?"

"That would be me," answered a deep voice from somewhere behind Jiraiya.

Sakura and Tsunade turned in their stools fully to locate the owner. At that moment Sakura lost the ability to think, maybe even breath. She had never seen anyone so close to perfect. There was a scar over his eye, which made him look mysterious or maybe dangerous. His hair was silver, unkempt, and shined in the light. Sakura found her eyes drawn to a smile that could light up a room, and the tiny beauty mark just below it.

"Kakashi is fine. No need to be formal. I just wanted to say 'hi' before we got started, and pick up our first round."

Tsunade shot Jiraiya a pointed look. "What'll it be?"

"Two beers for everyone before we start, during the set just water. Before the second set a couple rounds of shots."

Sakura knew that wasn't what Tsunade had expected, but if she was revealed it didn't show on her face.

Tsunade nodded and yelled out, "Uzumaki!"

At the summons a tall blonde waiter walked up. "Yes Granny?"

"Listen here brat, you will be taking care of the band tonight. They need a round of beer now and another one in about 10 minutes?" She shot a glance at Kakashi who nodded that was correct. "Then they will need 2 rounds of whisky at the end of the first set."

"Okay, no problem." He walked behind the bar and started popping bottle caps as Jiraiya and Kakashi started walked to the stage talking animatedly.

"Well that went better than I expected," Tsunade said relieved. "People will come here just to look at them." When there wasn't a reply, she snapped her fingers in front of the girls who were both busy watching Kakashi walk away with glazed over faces. "You two okay?"

Sakura jumped and had the decency to look at least a little embarrassed. Ino continued to watch the men who had now been joined by another member of the band. Sakura was thrilled to see Ino's eyes drawn to the new comer. He had chestnut hair almost to his shoulders was sucking on a saxophone reed in a most intriguing way.

Naruto was dropping off the beers when Ino finally found her voice, "Forehead, how can they make Naruto look so...normal. He was hot before right?"

Sakura and Tsunade let out loud laughs that filled the hall. The sound cause Jiraiya to turn back, and Sakura was sure Kakashi winked at them. Grabbing her martini from the bar she downed it. She was going to need all the help she could get to survive this night.

She smiled at the bar tender. "Sai, can you get a couple more drinks for me and Ino here."

With a nod he pulled the gin from a shelf behind the counter. "No problem, Sakura."

Sakura and Ino decided it was time to get a table, before the tables close to the stage were all gone.

As they make their way across the seating area, Ino finally seemed to have found her voice. "We need a table on the right side?"

"Why?" Sakura asked.

"Because that is where Mr. Reed is setting up," Ino pleaded.

Sakura agreed and they took a the third table back hoping not to look too eager.

Ino turned to her as they sat and asked, "What about everyone at Maru's? How do we let them know we are here?"

Sakura smiled and and pulled the olive from her drink and popped in into her mouth. "I told everyone about the new band, and that if we weren't there by 9 to just come here. I kinda had a good feeling about this. I think Hinata was coming here anyway. You know she won't pass up a change to see Naruto."

"I will never doubt your judgement again."

Sakura laughed again. And again she saw Kakashi turn toward her, this time with a slight smile.

Leaning close to Sakura's ear Ino whispered, "You're redder than my dress."

Sakura buried her face in her hands muffling her voice. "Pig, don't even start."

"No really, I thought we came here to ogle Sasuke and Sai. What has happened?"

Sakura looked up with a grin. "I don't know."

There was a scraping of a chair beside them as a slightly shorter girl with long deep purple hair took a seat at the table. She had on a short black dress adorned with dark beads and fringe along the bottom. "Have you been waiting long?"

"No we got here kinda early to visit with Tsunade."

"Why did the door go up? Ibiki wasn't at all happy I didn't have exact change. I would've if you'd told me the cover would be $3. It was $2 last time."

"New band is getting a cut of the door, I guess Tsunade was just making up the losses," Ino answered reasonably.

"So is Naruto working tonight?" Hinata asked shyly.

"Yup, he is on the other side I think." Sakura answered taking another sip from her shockingly empty glass. When did that happen?

"I think Sasuke is on this side." Ino chimed in.

Trying not to look hurt Hinata looked at Sakura. "Oh, I understand."

Ino was the one laughing now as she explained, "It's not what you think. I mean I guess it kinda is. We didn't sit over here for Sasuke. We picked this table for Mr. Reed." She winked as the nodded toward the stage.

"All of them really," Sakura added dreamily.

Hinata sucked in a deep breath, "Oh my. That is...um...yeah. Good choice on the table. Now where is Sasuke? I need a drink."