A/N: Pastry for chibi beary! (Response to your review is at the end of the chapter~)
Annnd onwards.


three


It was chaos. Yashiro knew what to expect when they were given the okay to go into the hospital. Crying, hysteric people, all trying to escape from whatever madness was going on inside.

Yes, those people had all clearly met his expectations. There were crowds of nurses, doctors, and patients, all screaming to be let out as they pushed against the officers who were trying to provide calm and order.

But what he was not expecting was to see some of those people…feeding on the others. Throughout the very brief moments of silence, Yashiro could hear cries of pain and the sickening sounds of flesh being torn into. The Uchiha had seen many things throughout his career, but this was something else entirely.

He realized with growing dread that the situation he and his fellow policemen had been called out to deal with was something that had spiraled hopelessly and horribly out of control. Because as he watched the unbelievable scene unfolding before him, all he could think of was how hell had finally broken loose.

Haruno Sakura was a popular, attractive girl. She wasn't nearly as outgoing as Ino, but she was known and well liked among her peers. With pastel pink hair and vivid green eyes, standing out was easy for her. It had been a bad thing when she was younger, but now it meant that people would notice her (Uchiha Sasuke, she hoped).

Sakura was smart. People knew she was a well-behaved student who studied hard, but that was it, and Sakura was okay with that. It wasn't something she mentioned to anyone, but she consistently earned top scores in all of her classes, despite the fact that her appearance led most to think she was some kind of useless, ditzy girl.

That was far from the truth. Sakura paid attention, always picking up on little details that most people skipped over. She was constantly aware of herself and her surroundings, and that single habit was something that had helped her out many times before.

Sakura had Physical Education first thing in the morning with a few of her friends, Inuzuka Kiba and Uzumaki Naruto. She wished it were Ino and Sasuke instead, but they had Psychology, along with Hinata and a few more of her friends. P.E meant being outside in the fresh, cool air instead of being stuck inside an old, smelly gymnasium. Because they'd been outside, Sakura had noticed the odd rumbling that had been hovering around the area. She'd also noticed that there were ambulance and police sirens wailing over in the area of the hospital.

A police car, followed by a SWAT team, had parked a little ways away from the school. Sakura watched as uniformed men yelled at what appeared to be escaped hospital patients. The patients ignored the officers, moving awkwardly but determinedly towards the building.

To Sakura's shock, the officers shot at the patients. They faltered once but kept moving. More gunshots. They definitely shouldn't have been moving after that, but still they continued towards the school. Sakura felt a shiver of unease run through her.

The police were trying to stop the hospital patients from getting closer to the school, for reasons unknown to her.

Her teacher, Umino Iruka, asked for the class to stop for a moment as the sounds of the gunshots echoed around them. Maybe Iruka-sensei knows what's going on, Sakura thought as her classmates cheered. With a start, she realized that the officers and the patients were moving towards the windows she knew belonged to the classroom Ino and Hinata were in.

"What are you staring at, Sakura-chan?" The question came from Uzumaki Naruto, who had jogged over to his pink-haired friend.

"Naruto," Sakura acknowledged, glancing at him once before turning her attention back to the police officers.

"Hey, do you guys know what's going on?" Kiba had a frown on his face as he jerked a thumb over to the troubling scene. "That doesn't look too good."

A series of shouts and commands suddenly filled the air and the three watched in stunned silence as the first stun grenade went off.


A/N(2): In response to your review: Kumiko's not nuts. . . maybe. ;D As to how she managed to get that medication; that is a very good question! I can't really give it away here, but I might make a series of related one-shots for this story, to give more of a backstory on minor characters. Thanks for reviewing! ^^

On another note, any updating schedule for modus has been shot to hell. ^^; /runsaway
'til next time!