Angel: Yo.

Sakura: Wow. You're a women of few words today.

Angel: you would be too if you painted your ENTIRE room. My arms are killing me.

Neji: Good. Die.

Sakura: Thats not nice.

NEji: So?

Chapter 4

Stranger in our Midst

Gaara stared at the group of panicing people before him. He put a hand up and they all slienced.

" Now, why are you all here again?"

One of the sand Shinobi bowed, " There has been another murder my lord."

Teal eyes narrowed, " That's not possiable. There was a murder here."

The shinobi around him all exchanged looks, " Has The Hokage found anything out?" another asked.

Gaara crossed his arms over his chest and sighed, " Nothing as of yet. Just some..."

The door flew open, making all of them, except Gaara, jump back. Sakura, Neji, Sasuke, Naruto, Ino, and Shikamaru all ran into the room.

Sakura was carrying a rather large green book and breathing hard.

" Can I help you?" Gaara asked calmly.

" W-we found out..." Ino gasped out, " W-who's b-been..."

" Can we be more...coherant?" Gaara sighed, rolling his eyes.

Sakura snorted, pushed into the room and set the book on the table. She then motioned for them to gather round.

" Vampires."

The shinobi all gave her strange looks. " Thats not possiable." One smirked.

" Yeah. They're mythical creatures."

" You will be too here in a minute." Neji growled, and they backed off.

Naruto plopped into a chair and sighed, " Did we have to run all the way?"

" Do you want more people to die?" Sasuke asked.

Sakura glared at the whining blonde, " Look, belive it or not, but we are dealing with some sort of Vampire."

" How many are we dealing with?" Gaara asked, taking a seat beside Sakura and the book.

" Two." Shikamaru snorted.

" Thats it?" Gaara hissed.

" Yeah. There are no more on record. There's Marisa and Balthar." She replied, running her fingers down the page. " That's it. No other imformation..." She flipped the page. " well, here's a little on Balthar."

" Read it." Gaara ordered.

Sakura nodded, " Balthar is known as the Elemental Vampire. No one knows why, no one has had to courage to fight him. He is known as a myth in the world of Kovonet.."

" Kovonet?" Neji asked, liftinng an eyebrow.

" The world parallel to our own. And the world parallel to Kovonet is known as Dezrath." She repiled, then looked up, " But only Vampire's can enter it."

" Damn it." Sasuke growled. " Why does this have to be so damn difficult?"

" Magic isn't something to fool with." Gaara sighed, " We need to use what we know."

Sakura glared and put her hands on her hips, " Well, then you go home and fix your problems, we can do this on our own."

" We?" Ino snorted, " oh, I am not doing this again."

" but Ino, Sakura can't do it on her own." Naruto gasped. Sasuke nodded, agreeing with his dobe. He may not have been Sakura's biggest fan back in the days, but he was as overprotective of her as he was Naruto. There was no way he was letting her go in alone.

Sakura sighed, " Fine. Be that way." She picked up her book and turned to Gaara. " you're ether with us or not."

Teal eyes closed slowly, then opened again, a sigh escaping. " Are you positive?"

" About 89 sure." She replied, clutching the book closer.

Gaara nodded, " Alright. But this down't help us find the girl."

" Well, we should fan out shinobi to scan the area, when they see her, they should report the location pronto." Neji stated.

" I agree." Sasuke raised a hand.

" Who wants a tratiors advice?" A sand shinobi hissed. Sakura backhanded him the moment tratior came out of his mouth.

" You shut the fuck up." She snarled, " Can't you control your followers?"

Gaara waved his hand at the stunned shinobi. " Return to Suna, tell Temari that I will be out for a long while. She is to take my place untill I return."

The shinobi nodded, waved to his team and they dissapeared.

Naruto pulled Sasuke to his feet and smiled at his freinds, " Sakura's place?"

" Can't we all just go together?" Neji asked.

Sakura put a hand on his arm and waved to Naruto as he walked out with a depressed uchiha. " I think Naruto needs to be with Sasuke right now." She whispered.

Neji nodded and looked back as Shikamaru rose to follow them out the door. " I thought you weren't helping."

" She may not be, " Shikamaru stuck his thumb back at a pouting Ino, " But i'm in."

Sakura smiled and pulled Gaara and Neji by the arm. " Let's go!"

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

Naruto sat Sasuke down on an empty park bench and knelt in front of him. Coal eyes were looking to the right.

" Are you alright?" Naruto asked.

The Uchiha shrugged. " Dunno."

Azure eyes saddened, " I'm sorry he said that. But Sakura knocked the shit out of him for you." The blonde smiled, " Just imagine if I had gotten to him first."

A chuckled escaped the raven-haired mans lips, " Yeah right dobe."

Naruto pouted, " You don't think I can protect you?"

Sasuke's pale hand reached out and cupped his lovers cheek. " Of course I do."

Naruto smiled slowly again and put his own hand over Sasuke's.

" I love you." He whispered.

The Uchiha gave the blonde a quick kiss, " Don't I know it."

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

Sakura growled in anoyance as Shikamaru fell asleep once again. " Oh now this is ridiculus!" She snarled, pointing to the lazy Jonin.

Neji groaned and held his head in his hands. " Lower your voices, my head hurts."

" No one's saying anything loud." Gaara sighed, swirling his glass of water around in his hand. They had been at Sakura's house for nearly three hours and no one had spotted the girl. Sasuke and Naruto hadn't shown up yet and Ino kept calling for Shikamaru to come home. Sakura made sure that didn't happen by giving Shikamaru a new task and shoving him into it.

The door opened slowly and in came a happy Naruto and a tired-looking Sasuke.

" Welcome." Sakura hissed, " It's about time."

" Sorry. got sidetracked." Naruto sing-songed.

" Sex?" Shikamaru asked, lifting his head off the table.

" No." Sasuke grummbled, " Ramen. I promised I'd take him out...remember?"

" We're on the verge of losing another innocent life and you're more worried about RAMEN?!" Sakura snarled, grabing the blonde by the shirt front.

" He promised tho." Naruto whined, " and besides, we checked up every once and a while to make sure they hadn't spotted her."

" See Skaura?" Neji asked, " They weren't completly lazy." He put a reasuring hand on her shoulder and squeezed.

She slumped forward and plopped back in front of the book. " Oh whatever."

They continued on in silence as Sakura read through the book, looking for any information on the other worlds.

She raised her hand slightly. " I think I found something."

Neji peeked over her shoulder and lifted an eyebrow. " 'To summon a creature'?"

Sakura nodded and read down the page. " Simple spell.Just have to insert the name of who we want to find."

" Uhh..." naruto began, but Sasuke cut him off.

" Which one are we going to summon?"

" Marisa." Gaara replied, making everyone look back at him. " It's a girls name correct?"

" And we are looking for a girl..." Sakura agreed.

" Alright." Neji muttered, waving to the page. " Go for it."

Sakura cleared her throat and scanned the page:

Here before the sacred hour,

I call upon a diffrent power.

Come to me of flesh and blood,

come to me Marisa.

They raised their hands to sheild their eyes a a strong wind picked up in the room. A light chuckle was heard and the wind stopped.

Before them was a girl, no older than 14, midnight black hair, red eyes, and a tatterd black dress. " It's about time you summoned me Mistress."

To Be Continued...

Angel: Alright!

Sakura: Cliffe...

Neji: She has a fetish for those...

Angel: YEP! I hope you enjoyed it! Much Love! R&R!