**Well this is my new story: AU/present day and this idea sprung from an email message to myself (odd/creepy but it makes sense under the circumstances) and I hope you enjoy. Yes, all characters are OC because they obviously aren't ninja and haven't killed people (or massacred their clan).

Everyone please give a round of applause to Paranoid (.) Princess, who beta-read for me! (any mistakes now in the writing are soley my responsibility and are from my final add-ins before the story was posted)

Well, I don't own Naruto. And I hope you enjoy.

Mustsleep Z.z**

Band Verse:

Itachi watched the girl beside him curiously. Well, technically she wasn't beside him. She was on the other side of the Plexiglas window, which was quite a feat because he was three-stories high. She wasn't even looking into the window. She was, instead, looking down at the crowd below; most likely in search of someone.

The situation was odd to say the least. He believed her to be one of his more daring fan-girls when he saw her on the ledge of the third story window. But the fact that she had given a bland, if not pissed, look at their group had gotten them all curious. Her back was now turned to them and her pink hair looked like chewed gum against the clear medium. Her fingers pressed against the glass, it was possible she had figured out she was scared of heights.

Or not.

Her index finger was tapping against the window in obvious irritation.

Kisame was the only one who had found the situation hilarious. The blue man was currently rolling on the ground laughing about how they'd "finally found a girl that didn't rip their shirts off in from of them," or idolize them, to paraphrase.

Outside, coarse yells penetrated the thick layer of glass. More than likely the muffled tones were asking for an encore or an announcement of another concert; it had been two days since the last concert had ended. Suddenly, a loud, obnoxious voice broke above all the others. "Shut the *&* up! Where the ^%#$ is Ino Yamanaka?"

Silence greeted her on one side of the Plexiglas; on the other Kisame began howling louder. -"She shut them up! How cool is that!"

A 'meep' sounded from below which the band assumed to be the reply.

"Meet me in the plaza in ten minutes or I won't be driving you home!" the girl snarled from her position on the ledge three stories above ground.

The unusual silence continued.

"You can now return to your 'fan-actions'!"

And they did.

Kisame was now bent over and turning a very dark red color which was worrisome because he was light blue to begin with and should have at least turned purple.

"Her voice carries nicely..." Sasori, the violinist and composer, drawled out in a bored tone.

"Hmm," Pein, the manager, nodded his head as he glanced at his wife, "she would make a good announcer."

Itachi smirked as he watched the hands now scrape against the window, as though she had claws that could penetrate the glass. The fact that she was three stories up finally seemed to sink in. Itachi smirked. "That's if she doesn't die first."

Friction

She did not like them, and for the most part, she hoped they would not like her. But she needed a job to pay for medical school and their wages and benefits were too high to say no. They were giving her a place to stay, food to eat, and free rent which included electricity and water. All she had to do was some chores around the house, and then go up on stage and scream at people to shut up.

It seemed like a job she had been created for. How hard could it possibly be? All she had to do was get angry a little bit before the show and screaming came naturally to her. She used to scream at Naruto and Sasuke all the time before they left. Before they left her...

They'd been almost inseparable, then a manager saw their talent and decided an 'all boy band' was a better seller. Out the window she went.

Not exactly like that though. They'd talked it over and she'd given in. She'd do anything for them. She'd give anything for their dreams, anything for his dream.

Naruto called once a month or wrote a letter. Sasuke sent an email every two months if she were lucky. But she understood. They were now top artists and very busy. She promised she'd remain their biggest fan.

Yet, now she was their biggest fan working for an opposing band. If she was honest with herself, that was why she didn't want to like them or for them to like her. It felt like she was betraying her best friends. Of course, there was always a little voice in her head reminding her that they were the ones that were traitors.

She knocked on the dark red door before her. Through that door was her new home, where she would be spending time with her best friends' rivals on the music market. Sakura glanced at her car or the 'Beatle Bug', as she liked to call it, which looked to be in the last stages of life with all of its paint peeling off. Inside the small compact space were all of her belongings, excluding furniture - not that she had much - because that was promised to be provided.

The door opened to reveal a tall, pale skinned man.

Sakura was immediately taken back by how much he reminded her of Sasuke. No doubt this was Sasuke's brother, the one Sasuke swore to defeat in.

Guilt over came her once again. She was going to be harming her friends, best friends, by aiding these people. But she needed a job that actually paid decent money. She had been working two part-time jobs at a coffee stand and grocery store and they weren't going to get her into medical school or anywhere, for that matter. She hoped beyond hope that her boys would understand.

"Welcome." The voice was low and familiar. She'd heard it on the radio.

"Thank you. I'm Sakura," she extended her hand. She crossed the fingers of her other hand behind her back as she hoped that the people weren't as cruel as Sasuke had led her to believe. If that were the case then she'd given up her apartment for no reason.

"Itachi." He took her hand and shook it gently. "It's good to finally meet you."

He glanced over her head at her car and her boxes that filled the windows. "Let's get your stuff inside."

Itachi poked his head through the doorway. "Kisame."

The man turned back and smiled at Sakura. He placed his other hand on her out stretched arm. "I hope you come to enjoy your stay here."

She smiled, not knowing what to say because she didn't want his statement to come true. She'd made up her mind to not enjoy herself in this new place and there was no way she could it explain that to him. She really didn't want to betray the ones she loved, at least on a conscious level; perhaps subconsciously this was her plan all along. No. She wouldn't think like that.

A large blue man appeared behind Itachi, looked down, and then burst into laughter. "You're the window girl! Pein didn't say he hired the window girl!"

Sakura glared up at the man. "I'm the what?" Had they been stalking her at work? She'd only cleaned the windows once when some kid vomited and spewed stuff all over. Did they think it was funny? She'd caught the kid's flu after that too.

"Ooo, she definitely has a temper."

Sakura shut her mouth before she got herself fired on the very first day and found herself without a home.

"Look she's turning red. This is great; I thought we'd never see her again. Now we can get entertainment twenty-four seven even if Pein shuts down the cable."

"Bags, Kisame," Itachi sighed as Sakura's loose hand tightened into a fist behind her back.

"Yeah, yeah." The man began walking to the car.

Sakura took several deep breaths; she couldn't lose her job. This had to work out.

Itachi smirked as he began rubbing her hand, which he had yet to let go of.

It took Sakura thirty seconds to realize what the man was doing. She blinked, looked down at their hands, looked up, and then blinked again.

"Let go pervert!" She yanked her hand out of his grip, stumbling backwards onto the edge of the staircase.

Itachi caught her before she fell, pulling her into his chest.

"Let go! You're like twenty years older than me, that's gross!"

Kisame burst into laughter as he leaned against her car, slightly tipping the vehicle.

"Twenty?" Itachi asked hugging the squirming girl tighter to his chest.

She paused to look up at him. "Yeah, you look old."

Itachi let her go and started laughing. His hands shot to his mouth while he tried to calm himself down.

She stared in awe at the laughing male Uchiha. She'd never heard Sasuke laugh in her entire life; she might have heard him snort but nothing to such a caliber. Itachi's laughter actually had a sense of peacefulness to it too.

Itachi raised an eyebrow when he noticed she was still staring. He leaned into her face. "Want an autograph?" He winked playfully.

"No." Sakura but then turned back. "Actually yes; after you die I'd like to sell it, so be very ambiguous to who it is addressed to."

Itachi froze before he started laughing again.

Sakura turned towards her car before she let a tiny smile grace her lips. It had been awhile since she'd gotten to tease anyone. It was like being back with her boys. Her smile dropped, her boys…

Her eyes focused in on the blue-turning-purple giant who was banging his fist on her car, making it bounce. That would do. ""I thought you were supposed to be helping me with my stuff not breaking it."

"Oh," man gasped for breath between snorts, "-sorry." He opened the door and pulled out the first box. Immediately his upper body bent over and the man heaved the box so his forearms supported some of the weight. "What the heck did you put in this?"

The woman rolled her eyes before snatching the box from between his arms. "Girl stuff."

Itachi couldn't hide his smirk as he watched the petite woman bound up the driveway with several boxes. She'd picked them all up like they were plates of sushi. Her lips twitched as she saw Itachi's smirk, and she quickened her pace as she walked past him.

Itachi then counted to ten. She'd never been in the house before.

"Where is my room?"

Kisame grunted from the weight of the medium size box he was carrying. "I'll show you when I get in there."

The blue man paused, balancing the box on the handrail of the front deck. "You know, Itachi, you shouldn't rub people the wrong way."

"Hn."

Kisame sighed. "She just got here and already you're creating friction."

Itachi smiled. "No, I am just opening her mind to the possibility of being on our side."

"What side? There are no sides." Kisame raised his eyes brows, questioning Itachi's sanity.

"I know that. But she's Lightening Foxes fan-club president; and to her there are sides."

"So she's that web designer Konan and Deidre wanted to hire?"

"That would be correct." Itachi nodded. It had taken Pein several months and a large sum of money to pay multiple hackers to find the girl; the man obviously didn't believe there were ethical limits when it came to getting something his wife wanted.

"Nice, so Pein's killed two birds with one stone."

"She hasn't been hired for web designer yet." Itachi warned.

"Ah…" Kisame nodded understanding, "I'll keep it under wraps. Who else knows?"

"Just keep it from Deidre and Konan. Pein doesn't want to disappoint them."

"You got it." Kisame lifted the box back up as Itachi began walking towards the car to help with the load.

"Kisame, are you having a tough time carrying my easy bake oven?" A voice called out from inside.

Kisame snorted. "Easy-bake-oven my _."