A/N: Well, I know that I haven't finished Blood and Petals, and let's not even touch on The Rising Sun, but this story won't leave me alone. So I present to you Dance for me Darling. Please let me know if you like it, and if you want me to continue it.
Mother used to always say that I learned to dance before I could walk. I'd cross the room spinning and twirling before I could manage a regular gait. My whole life was mapped out by dance, memories tied to dances. The first dance class I ever took. The first recital that followed with my mom and dad in the front row looking so proud. The first time I danced with a boy, at an awkward middle school dance. Dancing with my older brother at a cousin's wedding, feeling invincible. Winning my first solo dance award, and instead of family waiting to congratulate me a harried looking police officer standing in the wings. The year that followed where dancing just wouldn't come naturally anymore when my whole family was six feet under frozen ground. I couldn't seem to think of something that didn't relate to dancing. And like some wise old guy said once, "Our greatest gifts are often our greatest downfalls."
(Present time)
I stood in front of the night club waiting to feel something. Trepidation at what I was about to do? Nope. Despair at the fact that my life had taken this dark turn? No sir. Regret that the gleaming future I had once dreamed of was now dark and tarnished? Not me. Instead all I felt was a clinical disinterest. The Music Note was all of the things a back alley bar in Konoha was expected to be. Neon glittered in every window, from beer signs, to feminine outlines in provocative positions. Shaking free the mental cobwebs I stepped inside.
The interior was dim, lights focused on dancers in various states of undress circling dull grey poles. The bar was off to the left, shelves of liquor mounted on the wall behind, all backlit by a black light and mirror combination that was more than a bit off putting. The man behind the bar had white shaggy hair, and sharp teeth that were always on display. I walked over to him, not caring that eyes followed my trek. I was used to predatory stares.
"I'm here about the job opening," I had to raise my voice slightly over the rap music blaring in the back ground. The shark toothed grin that was shot my way, followed by the oh so obvious sweep of blue eyes up and down my frame didn't even raise the mild disgust it should of. Numb was a fantastic sensation. Nothing fucking mattered.
"Well, pinky, follow the bar to the stairs, go up to the second floor, the door at the end of the hall is where you apply", his tone and heavy stress on the word apply broke through the layer of fog my mind seemed to constantly be in. I was here to apply as a dancer, not some common fucking prostitute. Shrugging off the unease his comment left behind, I just nodded. Heading for the staircase the sense of wrong followed me, dogging my footsteps. As I ascended the overpowering thumping of the bass dimmed, but I wished it hadn't. The second floor hallway had rooms off to each side, and the sounds inside did nothing to ease the concern that was slowly rising. The wet sound of flesh slapping on flesh, pleasured cries some low and strained, some high and keening reverberated off the polished black floor and dark wooden walls. My pace quickened slightly without my consent. It was as I stood before the black double doors at the end of the hall that my cute little mental disease popped up.
We shouldn't be here.
I don't have a choice. I was kicked out of the troupe. My name means nothing anymore. I don't have a home or a family to run to. So what else is there? Dancing is all I know.
Just because we have to be in a bad situation doesn't mean that is has to be this one. There are other clubs in Konoha.
I looked already, remember. This is the only place hiring, and one of the few that didn't absolutely require prior experience.
Be on your toes then. And don't say I didn't warn you. I'm looking out for our best interests, I'm in this hell hole of your mind too.
Hissing aloud at my second personality's audacity, I knocked on the door in front of me firmly. When the door opened I couldn't help but think that maybe for once. My inner was completely right.
"Hello dear. Sui-chan said you'd be up, I hope you've prepared yourself, I'm short on time so this will be abrupt," the man speaking was pale. Pale to the point that faint veins were visible under his skin. His eyes were an unsettling yellow, rimmed in gaudy purple. His black hair shone under the lights in an unhealthy way, greasy and long. His tongue came out to lick his lips and a shudder ran up my spine at the unnaturally pointed tip. "My name is Orochimaru, and I'm the owner of this fine establishment. Do come in so we can begin."
Every instinct in my body screamed at the wrongness of this man, of this place. I took half a step back, and thats when the pleasant demeanor dropped completely. Faster than I would of believed of the wraith, Orochimaru's hand shot out and grabbed my wrist and dragged me into the room, the doors shutting with a quiet click that spelled my doom better than a loud bang would have done.
The room was dark, the walls a disturbing and dark shade of purple. A black wooden desk was centered on the left side of the room. The chair behind it suited more for ruling a kingdom than conducting business. A dark wood and blood red leather combination, in another setting it would of been attractive. The right side of the room was more than ominous. A wrought iron four poster bed, bare of blankets and pillows, covered in a single black sheet. The window behind the bed had its curtains drawn and looked onto a blank brick wall on the other side of a narrow alley.
I wrenched my hand out of his grasp. The evil chuckle that reverberated from his throat sent chills up my spine. The numb cloud of indifference I had been living in for the past few months evaporated like fog in the sun. Terror worked its way up into my throat. Along with a bit of cold calculation. My mother may have always encouraged my dancing, but father had been more pragmatic. The various self defence classes, the weapons training, mixed martial arts, it was all guided by my father's hand. Mother had moaned that it added an edge to my dancing, but that was irrelevant.
"I'm leaving. I've suddenly realized this isn't the type of job I'm looking for." With that I spun, intending to fucking sprint down the stairs and out the door when a giant of a man stepped from the shadows next to the desk. His hair was orange and looked like it had been cut with a weed whacker. Three lines of bristly hair ran along the top of his head and next to his ears. He leered at me before pushing me deeper into the room and leaning against the door. Orochimaru grinned at me.
"I don't think we'll be allowing that. Even if you refuse the job here, you've requested an interview, and that's what I'll give you," his pale hand gestured at the bed instead of the desk further clarifying exactly what he expected from this interview. I braced my feet apart and glared at him. Orochimaru stepped forward once again and I could feel the behemoth with the terrible hair cut looming over my shoulder. I readied myself to dodge the incoming hands, mentally mapping out sensitive points on the body for my escape when it all crashed to a halt. Literally crashed. It sounded like a small bomb had gone off downstairs.
The orange haired man swore aloud as screams, shouts, and swears sounded off from the rooms in the hall and the bar below. Orochimaru seemed strangely unfazed.
"Well dear, it seems that you'll have to wait here while we see what's going on down there," the black haired man nodded at the guard behind me. His thick arms came up, presumably to restrain me or knock me out. Neither option happened. Instead I ducked under his arms, kicked backwards into his knee. The satisfying crunch and yelp that followed made me smirk. Not allowing myself to think too much about what I was planning to do, I took off sprinting at the window. Orochimaru's fingertips grazed the back of my shirt, but didn't catch hold. Loud swearing and the shatter of glass became my world as I hit the window at full run. I made sure to jump up instead of out. A two story fall would be bad enough, I didn't need to bounce off a brick wall as well. As I hit the apex of the jump I looked down hoping for a dumpster. Instead, four startled faces looked up at me. Details blurred during my descent, one of the man swore loudly, and moved under me. Instead of slamming into harsh asphalt, muscular arms caught me. I tumbled to the ground on top of a very buff, very angry man. His silver hair was ruffled, and his purple eyes flashed hatefully. The adrenaline rushing through my body made inane details jump out at me. The strange necklace around his neck, and the blank stares of his comrades.
"It's raining women, yeah."
"Shut up brat, we need to leave."
"Get the fuck off me bitch! Are you fucking insane? Jumping out of windows and shit. And fuck you landed on me, what do you weigh?" The silver haired cushion under me had a filthy mouth. Long fingered graceful hands wrapped around my upper arms and gently lifted me to my feet. Dazed I turned and looked into amused blue eyes. The man that helped me up was a bit taller than me, with long blonde hair pulled into a ponytail.
"You okay, yeah? We need to get out of here."
"She's coming with us." The last speaker drew my attention and it was a testament to the shock of the night I didn't even react. His black hair was choppy, but it was the feral green eyes, and thick black stitches at the edges of his mouth were the real scare factors. I just blinked at him.
"Why?" I had to ask. A soft snort drew my attention to the red head standing on my other side. His hair curled artfully onto his forehead, and grey eyes flashed under half closed lids.
"Because we just blew up the first floor of a building, and you jumped out of the second floor. I'd say that you're trying to escape, and not from the explosion." His voice was measured, bored even. I nodded slightly and let the blonde tug me towards a nondescript van idling in the street. Scary guy stitch face jumped in the front seat. Loudmouth attractive one slid the back door open and dove inside. Red head doll face, and pretty boy blonde slid into the back pulling me in with them.
"Pein's going to lose his fucking mind over this shit. Bitches falling from the sky. And we had to bring her asteroid ass back with us." Despite what he said foul mouth sounded amused. The driver of the van pulled away even as he turned to stare at me in the back. I stared back. Finally I snapped.
"Shouldn't you be watching the road sushi?" The blue man in the driver's seat just grinned showing sharp teeth.
"Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?" I rolled my eyes at the shark driving as he turned back to the road.
"Does that make me Satan? And no. I landed on something soft," the blue man rumbled out a laugh as the purple eyed man went into a swear laden version of events. I gathered that the blonde on my left had set off a relatively minor explosive in the bar. The redhead on my right had beat the hell out of the bartender, which sent my inner persona into a fight of righteous giggles. Stitches up front had cleaned out the till, and safe in the confusion. And silver hair had made sure that the orange haired freak from upstairs didn't interrupt. They all talked and laughed over me, but the drivers eyes flicked up in the mirror to look at me more than once. A lull in the conversation fell.
"Haruno Sakura." They all turned to stare at me and I sighed. "My name. It's Sakura."
The driver grinned at me, "Kisame. Accurate name there pinky." His grin only widened when I made sure to flip him off in the mirror.
"Fuck me were your parents brain dead? My name is Hidan you fucking heathen so remember it."
"Sasori." The redhead nodded at me politely, then immediately returned to staring blankly at the seat in front of him.
"I'm Deidara yeah, and the scary guy up front is Kakuzu. Why'd you jump out of the building? The explosion wasn't that big." Deidara pouted slightly at the last bit, but still looked curious.
"I was desperate. Needed a job. Didn't really like the fucking snakes interview style." An uncomfortable silence fell.
"Pinky, why on earth would you go there for a job?" The big man's voice had softened slightly, but his grip on the wheel tightened.
"I used to be a professional dancer, until some… complications. Now I'm broke, essentially homeless, and I figured it was still sort of dancing." It fell quiet again until Hidan sneezed violently. Everyone in the van stared at him as he exploded into chuckles.
"She jumped out of a fucking window to get away from Orochimaru. I fucking love her."
He's fucking insane.
I nodded along with my inner. As hot as he was, and he was very well built from what I could tell from my crash landing, he was clearly off his fucking rocker.
"Not that I don't appreciate the getaway van, but where are you taking me?" I asked. A finger snaked around and poked me in the forehead. I turned and glared at Sasori who stared back apathetically.
"Our leader will want to meet you. Konan-san would kill us if we didn't offer you shelter after your snake encounter. For those reasons you are returning with us, to a safe location," Sasori finished his explanation with another poke to my cheek.
I sighed.
Ten more minutes passed before the van came to a halt in a back alley of a slightly nicer part of town. Bars, tattoo shops, and weapons stores lined the streets, but the corners were free of hookers and drug dealers. Kisame leapt out and slid open the door, bodily lifting Deidara out when he took too long. I snarled at the large blue hand that came in for me next, causing a dark blue eyebrow to raise alarmingly. Ignoring the smirk Sasori aimed at Kisame I looked at the building in front of us. It was a large warehouse, three stories of brick imposition. The bottom story appeared to be split into two businesses. A central door indicated it lead to the stairwell. The door on the right proclaimed "Red Dawn Lounge", and the one on the left "Angel's Ink".
"Go grab the boss man, I'll take our little shooting star up and get her cleaned up," Sasori nodded at Kisame then grabbed my by my arm and tugged me towards the central door.
"Why should I trust any of you?" I snapped at Sasori, and despite my tone and words, I followed along with him faithfully.
"You need help, we're not nearly as creepy as Orochimaru, we haven't tried to hurt you yet, honestly take your pick," Sasori raised an eyebrow at me.
Might as well.
Inner had a point, that bitch.
Ten minutes later found me sitting on a plush leather couch on the second floor. Sasori had explained the second floor was a common area, and the third floor held apartments for the rest of the members. There was an open kitchen that blended into a huge sitting area, complete with tv, stereo, pool table, and other entertainment systems. A door lead off the sitting area towards a smallish dojo.
The thud of footsteps directed my attention away from Sasori cleaning the cuts on my arms and face from the glass, to the stairs.
Deidara came up first, shooting me a five-star smile. Kisame came next, a case of Dr. Pepper under one arm and three large pizza's in the other hand. Hidan followed swearing loudly at Kakuzu fighting about the… price of the pizza? Next was a man who was half black in the most literal sense, like someone had taken an inked up brush and swiped it over half of his body, but in the wake of Kisame's blueness, it wasn't too startling. A tall man with long dark hair pulled into a ponytail and bottomless black eyes was next, his sleeves on his dark blue button down rolled to his elbows showing off full sleeve tattoos. Bounding on his heels was a man that had the same coloring, but apparently buckets full of energy, he was a whirlwind of dark hair and bright smiles. In the wake of the human tornado was two people. A man with orange hair and strange eyes that didn't seem to catch the light or stay one color, and enough piercings to ensure he kept a distance from fridge magnets. The last person was a blue haired woman, who had restrained herself to one piercing in her lower lip, she carried her own personal aura of zen so powerful I calmed down a bit just looking at her.
"So this is the girl who jumped two stories and landed on Hidan as an alternative to Orochimaru?" The orange haired man had a deep rhythmic voice, authoritative and strangely gentle all at once. Someone who looked like he would cheerfully tear my face off and hang it in the bar downstairs shouldn't have such a nice voice.
All the eyes in the room landed on me and I sighed.
"Yes. I jumped out of a window. Not my finest moment. Who are all of you?" I glared defiantly at the pierced pumpkin.
"Did you hit your fucking head bitch? Or are you just dumb as fuck? My name is-"
"Shut the fuck up Hidan." I snapped at the silver haired asshole.
A soft chuckle drew my attention to ponytail man. "My name is Itachi."
"Zetsu." The half and half man.
"Tobi-kun!" The whirlwind got a smack to the back of the head from Deidara.
"Konan." Blue haired zen queen.
"Pein." Mr. Studs-and-attitude.
"My name is Sakura, and I don't know why I am here," Konan gave me a gentle smile.
"Because dear, you jumped out of a building, landed on one of our people, and you seem to need a place to stay." The truth of her words was irritating.
"You must have been truly desperate to go to Orochimaru for a job," Pein cocked his head to the side like I was some interesting science experiment he couldn't quite figure out.
"I was, I'm out of options, no family in Konoha, no one I can depend on, I'm alone and I have to live," I tossed my hair out of my face earning a quiet snarl from Sasori who was dabbing at a cut on my forehead, "as soon as Sasori finishes mauling me I'll be leaving."
"Noooooooo, Cherry-chan can't leave! Tobi thinks she should stay here. Konan-chan needs a new bartender, and Tobi wants a new friend. Cherry-chan is brave to jump away from the snake man!" Tobi flailed his arms around, before kneeling in front of Pein and turning a startlingly potent pair of puppy dog eyes on the man.
Deidara planted his foot in between Tobi's shoulder blades and shoved him into the floor. "As annoying as this brat is, he has a point… I think."
"We do have a bartending position open," now it was Konan's turn to stare at Pein. He and I sighed deeping in unison.
"I don't need a pity job, or your sympathy. Sasori get off-" I pushed the red head away and stood up "it was nice to meet you all. Thank you for the first aid and the soft landing." I turned and made my way towards the staircase when Pein's voice stopped me cold.
"Ten minutes is all it took for us to come up stairs, but in those ten minutes I know where you are staying, the names of everyone in your old dance group, and the only friends you have left in the world. If I can do this, so can Orochimaru. You embarrassed him, and unfortunately that coincided with our strike against him. Even now he's probably looking for you, digging up all the information on you he can. Right now we are the only hope you have of protecting the people you care about." I turned and glared at him. He was standing alone in the middle of the room, with his gang of misfits fanned out around him.
"Fucker." I launched myself at him, and if he was expecting an uncoordinated attack he got something else. I took him to the ground, and landed a solid shot with my elbow right into his diaphragm. Then three sets of arms grabbed me.
"Easy tiger," Sasori damn near purred in my ear, his arms wrapped around my chest. Itachi had my right arm, and a very enthusiastic Tobi had my left.
Pein rose slowly, surprise in his eyes.
"That wasn't in your fucking report was it asshole? I bet you didn't know I was kicked out of my troupe. Or that my entire family is fucking dead, I haven't seen my two best friends in years and the way I left I doubt they even care. I don't have anything but that also means I have nothing to lose. I hope that creepy asshole comes after me."
To his credit Pein only wheezed slightly when he spoke, "Then what do you have to lose if you work for us, and what do you have to gain if you work with us?"
Stop being such a bitch, just because you lost everyone doesn't mean you can't have new friends. These people are crazy, maybe as crazy as us, and for some unknown reason they're trying for you. Give them a damn chance.
"And what exactly would that entail?" Pein grinned full on, and the arms holding me back disappeared. They had won for the moment.