1. The Man Who Waits
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
A man, cloaked in black, strode down a narrow hallway, his face set in a grimace as the water drops around him seemed to pound into his mind, breaking whatever thought he was trying to form.
Three years. He had been hiding down here for three years, and still nothing has changed. They were still just trying to figure out the plans to attack.
He felt like he was wasting his time with these morons.
What should have happened was him staying where he was years ago. He should have never lied to his fiancé about what was going on. Rather, he now felt that telling her the truth might have been the better and safer option. Perhaps she may have understood and maybe even help him. Yes, the thought of working from within the enemy's home seemed like a much better plan than what was currently going on.
He walked up to the doors that the Leader was most likely sitting behind.
And if he wasn't there, Deidara was going to shoot someone.
Walking in, his eyes trained themselves to the wooden desk in the center of the room, a hooded figure sitting behind it.
"What is it, Deidara?"
"If we are going to attack, I believe that now is the proper time, sir," he said, feigning respect and patience.
"I disagree. Their security is far too high at the moment for us to even begin to think of attacking."
Before hearing anything else, Deidara strode out, his patience gone.
If anything, the security over in France should be lower than it has been in the past five years. With Orochimaru dead, there was no one to order around those useless Sound Vamps, so there really isn't much of a threat that the idiots over in Europe would know about.
Unless they knew about Akatsuki, which was highly unlikely. He'd managed to keep everyone under the radar for a while now, there shouldn't be any trouble.
Everything was flowing just as smoothly as Deidara had originally planned. Itachi was out of Akatsuki, Orochimaru was gone; now he just had to verify a few more things.
"Deidara."
Turning, the blonde male saw his partner in crime (what a stupid name they'd been given…) walking out of the shadows. "Sasori; I thought you were over in Berlin for the Oktoberfest?" he asked casually.
The rolled his eyes while falling into step beside Deidara. "Oh, I was. And then I noticed a little troll was over there; there was no way I was going to let him know of my presence. We don't need any trouble at this point."
"Who did you see?"
"Kabuto."
"That's impossible—he was killed, remember? Killed the same day as his master—"
"No, he had sent a doublganger to the battle instead. In actuality, he's currently residing in Western Europe. The sonuvabitch is still alive and well, unfortunately," the man muttered.
Western Europe? Deidara pondered over the fact that Germany neighbored France; perhaps Kabuto was out seeking revenge?
"Deidara. I would strongly advise you to not show your face over there so soon. I am aware of you detestment towards that man, but if someone were to spot you, you'd be dead—again."
"The elders can't do anything to me if I'm not harming anyone."
"I wasn't talking about them—you do remember you pretty much left Sakura, right? I'm sure you remember how feisty she can be."
Deidara chose not to say anything. He was hoping that the next time he sees his old lover, she may give him a chance to explain himself.
Because if he can convince her of his plan, then everything will go his way.
"Could you guys be any more obvious?" Naruto shouted. Tiashi gave Naruto a look, her one eye twitching slightly. She turned around enough so that she could face him fully, Itachi giving Naruto a glare form over her shoulder.
"Excuse me?"
"If you two feel that deprived of each other, then go satisfy your needs out in the forest—some place where the rest of us can't hear it!"
"Naruto, it's going to be a while."
"What do you mean, Sakura?"
"Dobe, we are still on the freaking plane."
"Shut up, Sasuke!"
It was almost a week since the downfall of the Sound Sannin ruler. The news about his death had spread throughout several vampire communities in such a short time, causing mixed feelings among the immortal beings in the world, though most of the were thoroughly relieved. The vampire safe-house that they had been staying in that had been damaged by the fight was currently under construction. Sakura had paid for everything already, feeling completely guilty. During her time with the group, Tiashi had made sure that her sister had taken care of her house. Everyone in the group was exhausted and ready for some relaxing.
Sakura sighed, sliding down further into her seat. She watched as Hinata tried to massage her temples. Everyone tried to block out the arguing, though all attempts failed miserably. The only thing that silenced them was when Tsunade bashed their heads together. She then walked to the front of the aisle, getting everyone's attention.
"First: when we get back to France, Sasuke, you will need to sign a few papers ensuring your loyalty to our community. Also, when we do arrive, you all will be given to rest from all of this before you receive anymore assignments—"
"Wait, we're all on big squad now?"
". . . Shut up, Naruto. And no; none of you are yet qualified to join Itachi and Sakura in that area and you don't have enough knowledge to work under Tiashi in investigations. For you three, there is going to be a small lineup of tasks for when you are all ready for them. And for all of you" even though Orochimaru is dead, there are still a couple hundred of his followers out in the world. So watch out for them."
With that new information in mind, everyone groaned. "We just got done dealing with all of the Sound vamps we could handle," Tiashi mumbled. "Why does there have to be more?"
Sasuke easily blocked out everyone else's conversations as he sank deeper into his thoughts. It was finally over. Orochimaru was dead and gone for good.
'I can finally relax . . .'
The entire time he was around the dark Sannin, he head to be on full alert and was always tense. It was a good thing that vampires don't sleep; he wouldn't have gotten any, anyway. Sasuke hoped that now that the man was dead, his curse mark would quit bugging him. The whole time he was at the base, his neck would randomly get this weird tingly feeling and then sometimes it would start to burn. He really didn't want to go through that again.
He began to wonder what life would be like when the group returned to Sakura's mansion. Sasuke had this guy feeling that he would have to immediately start looking for some kind of apartment. Sakura didn't say a word to him in the past few days. She barely acknowledged his presence. Why should he be allowed to continue living at her abode? He joined the enemy forces without telling anyone his reasons as to why. His careless actions had made people feel hurt and completely betrayed. And if Orochimaru had discovered what Sasuke was up to, he would have put the lives of several people in grave danger. He could almost understand why Sakura was avoiding him. Why should he be allowed to live there? Heck, even he wouldn't let himself come back.
"Hey, Sakura! What are we doing when we get back to your place?" Naruto asked. Sakura turned to face everyone, standing on her knees in her seat. "Tiashi, are you going to be staying with us and if so, will you be sharing a room with Itachi?" she asked.
"Yes and hell yeah," she answered simply.
"Well, while they get their room set up, everyone needs to unpack quickly because we are going to get down and dirty with some spring cleaning!" she said with completely fake enthusiasm. Sasuke heard Naruto and Kiba groan out in protest.
"Seriously?" they whined simultaneously. This caused Sakura to scowl.
"Suck it up. I'm not going to house a bunch of pansies!" she said, earning some laughs from everyone. Even Sasuke chuckled a bit. Then, a sweet and 'innocent' smile graced her features. "Oh, and Sasuke?"
Sasuke looked up, dreading for her to say that he couldn't stay with them.
"Since you acted foolishly without telling anyone . . ."
'Here it comes. I hope I have enough money for an apartment . . .'
"Not only will you be mopping the entire two floors, but you will also be cleaning out the gutters," she told him before turning and plopping back down in her seat.
While the others laughed about Sasuke's disastrous fate and how Sakura's house would only end up even worse with Sasuke's cleaning skills, Sasuke simply shrugged and smirked to himself. In all honesty, he would clean the entire house himself if it meant that he was still part of this small, select group.
'I'm still accepted . . .'
YES I KNOW YOU'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR THIS! I was going to update a few months ago. But because of the fact that I was on a WB with this story, I was sort of worried that I'd turn into that person that starts to post and then waits like, a year to update. I hate those poeple.
But, I'm trying, so here is the prolouge and first chapter! There will be parts in this story that are referenced back to early in the first one, so if you need to reread Royal Blood, go ahead and do that.
REVIEW MY FRIENDS! :D