Whispers in the Dark

Full Summary— Name: Sakura Haruno. Race: Human. Need-to-Know: High school student, top grades, going to Asahikawa Medical College on a full scholarship. Name: Sasuke Uchiha. Race: Vampire. NtK: Disowned by vampire race for accusing brother on the High Council of the omnicide of their clan, uncontrolled blood lust, wandering aimlessly. Name: Naruto Uzumaki. Race: Werewolf. NtK: Reckless, cast out for disgracing werewolf race, going where the fun is. Three completely different creatures with nothing in common and who would've never met were it not for the death of a certain female human's mother. Perhaps it was fate that brought these three beings together, or perhaps it was something more. After all, Sakura's mother did die in a car crash...when she didn't even drive. NaruSakuSasu and a little TemaShikaIno on the sidelines.

A/N— This has nothing to do with Twilight. I'm just getting that out there, because I let three people read this story before I posted it and they all said the same thing. "So, you based this off Twilight?" …No, guys. Just…no. Sasuke doesn't sparkle, okay? He's a traditional, human blood drinking monster of the night type of vampire with a little twist of my own. Naruto is also a traditional werewolf (aka changes when the moon is full and whatnot) and also with a twist. Sakura is nothing like Bella. NOTHING. Okay? She's not OOC, so she can't be.

Disclaimer— I own the words I type and the laptop I type them on. Nothing else. Because I'm, sadly, not awesome enough to own anything else. -_-

Prologue: The Coffee is Dirty

Tsunade rested her elbows on the thick Oakwood of the table in front of her, interlacing her fingers and lowering her head until her full lips were hidden behind these nimble appendages. Deep chestnut brown eyes roamed about the room, gazing at and meeting the eyes of every individual seated around the perimeter of the circular table. They lingered on Jiraiya – whose own usually boisterous eyes were downcast and clouded with guilt – before running through a few more persons until they finally came to a rest on her close (but highly distrusted) friend and onetime partner, Orochimaru. His demented smile was in place as per usual and the malicious glint to his eyes never seemed to dissipate for a moment anymore. It was his idea to call this meeting of the High Council of Creatures and he'd picked the location for it, as well. Tsunade wasn't exactly thrilled by this aspect; for while she was close friends with him, she'd still learned the hard way that Orochimaru was not a man to be trusted.

"Lady Tsunade," a raspy voice suddenly rang out in the stark silence. The woman in question's eyes darted over to the speaker, the youngest member in the history of the Council, Gaara no Sabaku. She lifted her chin slightly to acknowledge the young man as one of Orochimaru's servants walked past her, going on to place a small glass filled with a dark liquid in front of Jiraiya. She watched as Jiraiya nodded his thanks, but made no move to drink from it. "Everyone has arrived," the red-haired djinn continued, redrawing her attention, "I see no reason to further delay the beginning of this summit."

He talks so grown-up... Tsunade's lips twitched down, the action hidden from view by her folded hands. He was right, she knew. Kakashi Hatake – the last to arrive at everything – had shown up over ten minutes ago.

"Gaara is right," another voice spoke up. Tsunade's eyes darted to the second speaker, one whom played a small but important part in the coming discussion, Itachi Uchiha. "We should commence with our discussion. The topic at hand is an important one."

And so does he. Itachi, the second youngest member the Council has ever known. Only twenty-one and talking more maturely than even she herself. Tsunade sighed, mentally shaking her head, and separated her hands, using the newly freed right one to motion her assistant, Shizune, over to her. The young woman jumped slightly, having been intently focused on the more perturbing individuals in the room and not expecting to be needed so suddenly. Realizing Tsunade must want the file she'd been instructed to bring along, the human scurried to her mistress's side and, readjusting the small pig in her arms, thrust the manila envelope out to her. Slowly, the older woman took the file and placed it on the table in front of her, before signaling that Shizune was no longer needed and could relax. The brunette did the exact opposite, but did at least retreat to the back of Tsunade's chair.

"You all know why we're here," the – unusually strong – half-healer began. There was a succession of curt nods as all heads snapped to attention. Tsunade's own head bobbed once in response. "I won't waste time with unnecessary explanations, then." She glanced down, slid the needed files from the envelope. Hesitated. Would she be doing the right thing? Was it right to do this to them? To Sakura? To her Sakura? And what of her mother? Granted she only knew the woman through Rokuro and Sakura, but hurting her would mean hurting them.

Tsunade swallowed hard, knitting her brow and pushing all thoughts of right and wrong from her mind, and slid the three files forward across the table. They came to a rest just a few inches from the center. There were resounding gasps as everyone took a good look at the profiles in front of them. Tsunade held up one hand to silence the crowd. "Lord Orochimaru and I have had a more private meeting prior to this one. Master Jiraiya was scheduled to attend this as well, but something came up at the last minute. We filled him in later and he's agreed with the proposal we devised to solve this…problem we have."

"We know it might seem surprising that it would involve these three, but we ask that you bear with us," Jiraiya spoke out, raising his eyes for the first time through the entire gathering.

"The Uchiha boy was disowned for a reason," Shikamaru Nara stated logically. All eyes shot towards the kirin representative.

"I agree." The gazes switched to Itachi instantly. "My brother is not the best choice to solve a problem partially created by him."

"Yes, partially created by him," Tsunade began, voice dangerously low.

"And partially by yourself," Orochimaru continued, cocking his head to the side and propping it on his palm.

"Meaning you have no room to talk," Jiraiya finished, crossing his muscular arms over his broad chest.

Itachi gazed at the Sage hollowly. "Now, now Master Jiraiya. Let's not forget what Uzumaki has done as—"

"You should really shut your mouth, Itachi." Jiraiya's eyes narrowed to slits and his voice dropped to a pitch that left no room for argument. His fists could be seen clenching in a somewhat involuntary manner, adding to the unspoken threat being aimed at the vampire. Silence followed for a long while, during which the servant who had delivered Jiraiya's drink brought the same thing for a few other council members. Tsunade's eyes followed the silver haired boy as she waited for someone to break the silence.

Finally, somebody did. "What exactly is it that you three have planned?" It was Neji Hyuuga, representative for the ghosts race. His pallid eyes zeroed in on Tsunade.

The woman gazed back at him for a moment before addressing the room as whole. "As we all know, there is a war brewing between the vampire, the werewolf, and the human races. Humans have, for the most part, stayed away from dealings with the other races. Some of them still refuse to believe things like werewolves, vampires, fae or kirin even exist. Miss Haruno," she nodded to Sakura's file, "despite being an avid pupil of mine, is one of these skeptics—"

"But doesn't she know what you are? And what her father is?" Kiba Inuzuka, representative for the werewolves, spoke out, cutting her off. She glared sharply at him, causing him to flinch back.

"She knows of my human side, not of my healer side," she answered coldly, angered by the interruption. "As for her father, she believes he is human. He's never thought it necessary to correct her." Kiba nodded his head.

Tsunade went back to speaking to everyone in general. "As I was saying. Mr. Uzumaki, has disgraced the werewolf race," she paused to look at Jiraiya, whose eyes were downcast once again, "…We all know how. He was subsequently cast out. And Uchiha has committed a crime in accusing his brother as well as Lord Madara of the massacre of the Uchiha Clan. He was subsequently disowned."

"We know all this," Ino Yamanaka pointed out. Tsunade briefly acknowledged the dryad with a sideways glance. "Get to the point…uh, milady." Ino thought better of her demand, tacking on a bit of politeness at the end.

"Alright. The other elders and I are still planning some aspects, we're only telling the rest of you what is absolutely necessary." There were some glares aimed at her as well as Orochimaru and Jiraiya. "All you need to know, is that if we can get these three to become close it could mean the end of the war before it has a chance to begin. Because of this, we're going to need to stage a murder." She met everyone's eyes again briefly. "And we're going to need the help of everyone in this room in order to do it right."

"Who would we be killing?" Itachi spoke out.

"Arisu Haruno." Orochimaru was the one to answer, his smile seaming a bit more sadistic than usual. Tsunade frowned at him, about to tell him not to sound so gleeful when she heard Shizune gasp softly behind her. Tsunade looked around quickly to see what the matter was and came face-to-face with the silver-haired servant as he placed a small cup in front of her. He smiled, his glasses glinting eerily in the dim lighting, before retreating back into the recesses of the underground building. Looking down, she saw that the dark liquid was actually black coffee. She usually preferred hers a with a bit of cream, but she actually was a little thirsty, so she sipped from it – which, considering how small the glass was, took up half the liquid – before readdressing the room.

"In order for this plan to work, you're all going to have to cooperate and do exactly what we tell you. No questions asked. If you have issues with this, tell us now." Of course, they all had 'issues' with it, but none of them were willing to say so. After a minute of silence passed, Tsunade continued, "Good. I'm glad we're all together on this. You'll be receiving your first instructions via…different means than just being told them later on this week. Follow what they say to the letter; understood?"

Most nodded, some just stared. Either way, no one said no. "Very good," Tsunade commended, finishing the rest of her coffee in one drink. She was about to announce the end of the meeting when she looked into the empty glass and saw something that threw her off momentarily. "Um…" She continued to stare into the glass for what felt like a long time, but she couldn't be sure. "Meeting adjourned," she finally said, voice soft and distracted. She looked up from the glass for just a moment as everyone stood from the table and left, leaving the room empty but for herself, Shizune and Orochimaru. The snake-like vampire finally got up and walked towards the two women. Tsunade sat the glass back on the table as he came to a stop before them.

"Are you ready to go?" he asked, smiling – creepy as always – and holding his hand out for her to take. She stared at it, trying to determine if he was acting. She decided to just ask.

"What is this?" She pointed into the glass and Orochimaru's gaze followed her red-painted nail's aim. His brow furrowed as his smile was replaced with a frown.

"I don't know. Kabuto must have slipped it in, although you appear to be the only one he did this to." He lifted the small piece of paper into his palm. "I'm not certain why, but I'll get to the bottom of it, rest assured—"

"No," Tsunade cut him off, taking the paper back. "Don't let him know you know about it."

"Alright," Orochimaru agreed, not bothering to ask why. He'd come to learn that Tsunade always had her reasons, even if they she wasn't sure enough of them sometimes to tell anyone what they were. He held out his hand again, and this time Tsunade accepted it and let him help her to her feet. Together the trio walked from the room and out of the building. The whole way they remained in silence for three different reasons respectively. Shizune because Orochimaru unnerved her, Orochimaru because he was thinking over the plan some more, and Tsunade because she was preoccupied by what the note in the bottom of her glass could mean. She still held it in her hand and now glanced down at it again. The words were slightly smeared, but still completely legible. She frowned as she read over them again and again, wondering what they meant and why they had been given to her. She doubted they were literal, although they had come to her in a cup of coffee.

Once they reached a fork in the woods surrounding their place of meeting, Orochimaru went his way and Tsunade and Shizune went theirs. When they were alone, Shizune looked at her mistress. "Lady Tsunade?" she asked nervously. Shizune was almost always nervous about something.

The blonde woman looked over at her. "Yes, Shizune?"

"What…does the note say?" She glanced at Tsunade's hand, where the paper was still clutched, curiously. Tsunade, who's gait was already fairly slow, stopped walking altogether and looked at her young assistant, frowning as she answered.

"The coffee is dirty."

A/N: Anddoneyes! :D Okay, so I imagine some of you might be going "WTF? O-O" right now with all the djinn and kirin and healer-human stuff. Please review with any questions about that or if I messed up on anything or didn't get somebody in character enough please tell me. It's been a while since I watched this show or wrote for it. So, I'd be happy to have feedback on how this was. Criticism is welcomed as long as it's thought out and will help me grow as an author. :)