CAUTION: This chapter will contain boring/ important materials… yea… it's really boring though. Not much action takes place. Just a bunch of talking. By the way, thank you so much for encouraging words, everyone. I really didn't think anyone would actually like it since it's my first naruto fic… Heh. J Thank you very very much!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Aw shit… She thought as she opened her eyes with a pounding headache. She felt nauseous and dizzy and she knew exactly why. If you guessed that she is having a hangover after excessive drinking from last night, you are absolutely correct. She never had a hangover this bad though. Her stomach somehow was able to take on the amount of alcohol she would drink and after feeling like a piece of shit in the morning, she would be fine for the rest of the day. She never vomited from hangovers.

Until now.

She retched and ran out of the bed as she felt things rush upward in her mouth. For some reason or another, this was not her house so she couldn't find the bathroom. Luckily, someone guided her to the bathroom where she threw up the malicious looking stuff into the toilet.

Nasty… Gross… I hate throwing up…

Tayuya collapsed on the toilet seat, breathing heavily from all the effort and heaving. Her head felt as if it was cracking in two and her stomach felt as if it had been pierced by four million shurikens. Her legs felt as if it was made of rubber when she tried to stand and even the smallest ounce of her strength put into her arm made it shake as if it was going to fall off and cease to be a limb of hers. She felt like a piece of shit lying on the ground for some unlucky kid to step on. If death was an option right now, she would gladly take it.

"Get up, you're not dead yet," A gentle voice said.

All the muscles in her neck worked to its limit in order for her to face the speaker, who was Kakashi.

"Shit… you were looking?" She said, weakly.

"I had no choice; it was happening right in front of me. Are you addicted to alcohol?" He asked.

"Maybe…" Tayuya said. Actually, she didn't really know, Was she?

Tayuya groaned as she felt horrible. Well sure, Kakashi was an irresponsible person, but no one deserve to look at other people fucking vomiting all over their toilet. However, the words "sorry" wouldn't come out. It instead came out as whispers of "Oh shit, oh shit…"

"Kakashi-sempai, Tsunade-sama called for you and Tayuya immediately," Shizune's voice rang outside of the bathroom.

"When… did she get here? Wait… where the hell am I?"

"On the toilet. No matter how sick you are, you can't call off Hokage-sama's call. Let Shizune help you," He said and left her there.

Shizune came in and rolled her eyes. "How did I know that you were in here throwing up," She said, in a voice a mother used when their child did something so predictable.

"Shut up…"

Shizune saw that Kakashi had already left to Tsunade's office. "So what does he look like?" She asked, excitedly.

"What are you talking about?" Tayuya said, wrinkling her nose in discomfort from laying on the toilet seat.

Shizune blushed as she whispered out the following words. "Well even Kakashi-sempai has to take his mask off when he's… you know… sleeping with someone?"

Tayuya flushed red. Just when Tayuya thought her stomach had calmed down a little, Shizune's statement triggered her gagging complex and Tayuya found herself regurgitating again.

WHAT THE FUCK IS SHE TALKING ABOUT!

When Tayuya was finally able to calm her stomach down again, she looked at Shizune. "What on earth are you even talking about! He's my instructor, not a… yea, he's a instructor!" She yelled.

"You two didn't… really? You didn't get to see his face?"

"Hell no, dude! What the fuck! No! Just because I got drunk doesn't mean I have to fuck that night! I don't even remember fucking most of the time," She mumbled. Especially the ones with Genma…

Shizune's face was so red that Tayuya thought she was staring at a tomato so ripe that it would explode. What a prude… at age thirty freaking four… she really fit to be more fourteen than thirty four. She could fix up a man in any part of his body in an operation room and did not hesitate to pressure the groin area when a critical bleeding needed to be stopped (because it's the pressure point). She did not mind looking at eight-hundred men without their clothes on during physical examinations. Now put the same Shizune, take her to a mildly isolated place, and throw a man in there with her without a top on and she would crawl into a hole and try to hide with her face as red as… again a tomato so ripe that it can explode.

"Okay… okay… I don't need that much information. I just thought that you may have seen it… ANYWAY, why would you drink this much? I can't believe he let you drink…" She said, quickly changing the subject.

Uh… Did he let her drink? She couldn't remember. She couldn't recall anything that happened last night. She had extra heavy-load of alcohol in her system and all the memories were fuzzy and the pounding headache didn't help at all. Neither did staring at her own vomit.

Tayuya flushed the toilet and stood, with effort that she never thought was necessary for standing up. "Help me, Shizune. I can't remember anything. I had too much to drink."

"I'm only doing this because you need to see Tsunade-sama. Next time, I won't even pay attention to you," She said, sighing.

When Tayuya reached Tsunade's office, Tsunade was not so happy, and by the looks of it, Kakashi was scolded too for letting Tayuya drink.

"Oh why did you fix her up, Shizune? She should suffer much more than she did," Tsunade mumbled. Then she glanced over to Tayuya with her brown eyes that currently showed no warmth. "I believe that "fix up your attitude" also means stop your irresponsible drinking habits; not enhance them. Kakashi, what were you doing?"

Tayuya was angry at Kakashi but she saw that he was being scolded for something he didn't do. After all, Tayuya went to the bar by herself. When Shizune cured her hangover, Tayuya remembered last night so clearly that it actually hurt. "It's not his fault, Hokage-sama. He was with you and Sakura I think. I went to the bar by myself. Kakashi was the one who stopped me from… fucking – I mean sleeping – with some man."

Tsunade raised her eyebrow in surprise and Tayuya also caught Kakashi's profile tilted forty-five degrees to face her briefly – also in surprise. Shizune was clearly freaked out as Ton Ton gave a short cry of disbelief.

"What? Is there a law saying that I can't be truthful? I know I may not be the most moral person here but I don't mind telling the truth," Tayuya said.

Tsunade grinned. "So I guess maybe Kakashi watching over you wasn't such a bad idea after all huh?" That was more of a statement directed to herself but Tayuya answered in her head.

No, it was a bad idea after all.

"In any case though. Due to Kakashi's urgent mission, your assistance to him will be temporarily called off," She said, sipping her tea peacefully.

"It's about Sound Four isn't it? I want to go along," Tayuya said.

Tsunade almost choked on her tea. "No, you will not go with him. His mission is none of your concern, and plus although you are a jonin, you cannot go on this mission. It's not because you are not skilled enough. I don't plan to send either Anko or Sasuke either."

"I don't care! I… I want to make sure of someth-"

"Sound Four is behind you now," Tsunade said firmly. "If I were you, I'd stay the hell away from any mission that is far behind me."

"It's not that simple, dammit!" Tayuya growled. A stern hand landed on Tayuya's shoulder and pulled her back.

It was Kakashi, looking at her with his eye dark and dangerous. "No matter how angry you are, you will respect the Hokage if you are a shinobi of Konoha."

"My purpose of calling the two of you is done," Tsunade cut in with her voice sharp like the edge of a sword. "Kakashi, leave immediately and Tayuya, you will come back here with Anko and Sasuke. Go now, both of you," She said.

"When did Anko get back?" Tayuya asked.

"Last night."

Oh… no wonder she didn't know. She was drunk. Tayuya followed after Kakashi who strode out the door without even looking back or speaking to her. Only when they reached outside by the long stair-way that led to the rest of Konoha, did Kakashi speak.

"How are you feeling? You seem a bit shaken up," He said.

Tayuya stared at him blankly. "I don't know, how do you think I fucking feel?" She spat unpleasantly.

"If you follow me, you will be considered a missing nin. Keep that in mind. Tayuya, your duty is to Konoha, and I won't let you disregard that. Hokage-sama said that your assistance has to be called off but I don't see the need to do that. Watch over the genins and remember your punishment is still going on."

That wasn't important right now… at all.

What she was curious about was the content of his mission. Everyone knew that Kakashi was a damn good ninja that only went on top rank missions. If Tsunade was sending Kakashi to this mission, there should be a good reason why. But she wasn't going to ask him; it's the same as talking to a machine that only gave responses as vain as "It's a mission about the Sound Four." So instead, she decided to ask him a favor… that she wasn't sure that he would grant for her.

"Um…" Clearly, Tayuya was not used to asking for favors but what else could she do in this situation? "I need to ask you something. This mission… I don't know the contents but if you happen to see…" Tayuya's throat literally locked, and her voice ceased to pass her lips. She stared at the rail of the stairway. "Nevermind." For some reason, she couldn't ask this person to check if Sakon was alive. DUH she shouldn't ask… what good will come out of it even if anyone but herself knew about her relationship with Sakon? It'll probably be some joke topic between men who have been into her bed.

"Hey did you hear? This dude named Sakon was the one who popped her cherry."

Kakashi looked at her in a searching way, making her feel so uncomfortable that she wanted to summon the demons and hide behind them. He searched her eyes and she dropped her gaze. Even though, his gaze seemed to be burning a hole through her.

"Stop staring at me and leave, dammit… I forgot what I was going to say," Tayuya snapped so suddenly that Kakashi almost flinched.

Then Kakashi took out a roll of green ribbon and a pair of scissors. "Tayuya, look. I know that you don't feel comfortable but… well I guess this is the best illustration I can think of," He said as he stretched out a considerable length of the emerald ribbon. "See how it's connected?"

Well… duh?

Kakashi used the scissors to suddenly snip the piece off from the rest of the roll. Instead of holding onto the remaining ribbons, he let it roll down the steps. He held the ribbon close to her face and smiled. "See? It's not connected anymore. It's free and so are you. Yay!"

………What the hell? She couldn't help a small chuckle that forcefully broke out of her. God, how rediculous...

"So don't mind. Well I have to go," He said. He looked around for a place to throw the ribbon away but couldn't find any. "Ehh, throw this away for me please," He said and disappeared.

"You're not going after him, are you?" Sakura said, suddenly popping out of nowhere.

"It's not like I know where the hell he's even going."

"If you knew would you go?"

"Maybe. Hey, girl, bring Sasuke here. I don't know where he lives," Tayuya said, quickly reverting back to herself as she was known in Konoha – tough, dirty-mouthed, and rude.

Sakura didn't seem to mind. Actually, she probably could have danced. Tayuya thought she heard a HELL YEAH! From somewhere inside Sakura who stood there smiling pleasantly.

Tayuya stared at the green piece of ribbon in her hands. For some reason or another, she couldn't throw it away. It seemed to symbolize her freedom. She shoved it in her pocket, a little embarrassed.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When Tayuya reached Anko's small apartment, she was eating a bowl of instant-ramen.

"Hey, there, Tayuya-chan. I ripped these off of Naruto. Oh how he almost broke into tears giving these to me. I won a bet. These are quite good actually. Want some?"

So carefree and random as usual…

"Not really. I actually came here today for an important reason," Tayuya said.

"Really? What are you finally pregnant after a hot eightsome with-"

"No! I don't like eightsomes dammit! Hokage wants you!" Tayuya yelled, irritated.

"Damn why are you so cranky? Eh… I was enjoying these too… Well, if the Hokage is calling, then I'd better go. I hope it's not a mission… after all, I just came back yesterday," She mumbled quickly before putting on her usual tan jacket that Tayuya thought was just a nuisance since it was like 44507429857409 degrees outside.

When they reached Tsunade's office, Sakura and Sasuke was already there. Sasuke seemed to know why he was here. Sakura probably told him. For some reason, he was giving Tayuya the strangest look. What, was there pieces of rice stuck on her face? What the hell was he looking at?

"Good. All of you re here. Tayuya, you know already… but Anko, Sasuke. There is a situation that probably isn't a good news to any of you three standing here – especially you, Tayuya. For that, I will not send you three to any missions until this will be all cleared up," Tsunade said.

Anko guessed it already by seeing Tayuya and also Sasuke there. "Why? Orochimaru… is dead right?"

"According to a pervert known as Jiraiya, Orochimaru is dead… but for some reason or another, a group known as the Sound Four still is seen. They also seem to have some relationships with the Akatsuki. Kakashi was sent to investigate on this matter, and he will be back shortly," Tsunade looked directly at Tayuya.

"What? But it should be Sound Three since…" Anko looked at Tayuya.

"They probably recruited another member; which isn't good. Only skilled ones can be considered one of Orochimaru's Four Sound nin, correct?" Tsunade said.

Of course the question was directed to Tayuya. She was the only one who actually knew how the Sound Four functioned. "I guess you can say that," She said.

"That only means that we have one more strong enemy to deal with. I wasted too much time on the details. I called you here for you to hear this: Do not get involved in this. You three are among the most talented of shinobi in Konoha, however, It's just the best if none of you are involved in this at all. Plus, it will be dangerous."

"A shinobi can't fear what will happen to themselves! When Kakashi comes back, I will kick their ass!" Sasuke suddenly bellowed.

"Quiet!" Tsunade snapped, slamming her fist onto her desk, dented from so many punches she delivered with her monstrous strength (most of them because of Naruto). "This is an order from the Hokage. Don't try to argue with me!"

"Hokage-sama, we can't just watch-"

"Anko!" Tsunade cut Anko's words. "You should know better. You are responsible for making sure these two don't do anything rash. I'll make this a mission for you if needs to be. You are dismissed."

There was no way that the three of them could change Tsunade's decision so they just left her room.

Sasuke left, grumbling.

"Tayuya-chan?" Anko called Tayuya.

"What?"

Anko looked at her worriedly. "You knew about this before just now right?"

"Yea… I heard it yesterday. Anko, do you want to go out for a drink?" Tayuya asked.

"It's only noon, Tayuya," Anko said.

"So? We don't have any missions for a while, let's drink!" Tayuya said.

"I heard from somewhere that you were assisting Kakashi's genins?" Anko said.

"Don't change the subject! It's a weekend. No one trains on weekends!" Tayuya said, irritated. She was even more irritated when a certain fuzzy-eyebrow kid named Rock Lee jogged by, sweating heavily.

"You're mad aren't you?"

"Well, aren't you fucking mad? We sit here and do… nothing! What the hell is this?" Tayuya said, kicking a nearby pebble.

The pebble rolled to someone's foot.

When Tayuya looked at the owner of the foot, she flinched and almost had a heart failure. Her mind went blank for a split second as all of her sight came focusing onto the figure that stood in front of her.

Oh my god… Sakon? She thought.

With a puff of smoke, the man she dreamed about every night and the man she desired for more than anyone disappeared and the slightly more beautiful Uchiha Sasuke stood there, looking at her skeptically. "Just as I thought," He said.

Tayuya thought she was going to cry for a second, then she gained her sanity back. "WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING? YOU SON OF A FUCKING BITCH!" She screamed, furiously. Did he think this was funny? How did he know what she was feeling? How? Was it the damn sharingan? How she wanted to rip those beautiful red eyes from its sockets…

"You want him alive, don't you?" He asked, mockingly.

Thousands of things she wanted to say rushed up all at once, clogging her throat. Her heart thumped so loudly that she thought entire Konoha could hear it.

"I should have known. You still feel attached to him don't you?"

"Shut the fuck up!" She managed to yell. "What the hell do you know?"

I was there with you sometimes. Sometimes when I walked through halls, I could hear you two playing around. I am sure it didn't mean nothing to you right?"

"Shut up! That's behind me now, you shithead!"

Sasuke smirked. "Don't betray Konoha because of that person. This village won't forgive you."

"Hey!" Anko cut in. "That's enough, brat! Go home," She said.

Sasuke shrugged. "Girls are all the same. I was just giving her a word of advice."

"She didn't ask for any. Now go," Anko said.

And so he did.

Anko turned to Tayuya. "What the hell is he talking about?" She asked.

Tayuya grinned bitterly. "I can tell you if I'm drunk enough. I'm broke by the way…" She said.

Anko didn't argue this time. She quietly turned her footsteps to the bar that they usually went to.

Tayuya walked along, her hands in her pocket. Something touched her hand inside her pocket and she took it out to look at it.

It was the green ribbon.

Tayuya put it back in her pocket.

Somehow, she didn't know why but she actually missed Kakashi just a little. It didn't make sense to her. She knew him for less than three days and all the time she spent time with him, she wanted to punch his face in. She didn't miss him enough to break down and cry or anything but enough to feel… maybe just a bit empty. However, the feeling vanished as she drank away at the bar. The more alcohol filled her system, the less she thought about Sakon and the less she thought about Hatake Kakashi. She poured alcohol into her mouth as if she was drinking precious water. She babbled stuff about Sakon to Anko. Then she concentrated on drinking more and more.

Suddenly everything was so laid back and comfortable. Tayuya felt pretty happy. This was the best part about being drunk. You don't really remember anything. You feel happy for no reason. You laugh and you don't know why.

You can also laugh about things that hurt you.

Was she addicted to alcohol?

No. She was addicted to the laughs it gave her.

If reality couldn't make her happy, alcohol can. Everyone wantsto be happy and Tayuya wasn't an exception.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Return to Top