A/N: It's here! It's been in the works for like 8 months, but it's finally here! The good news is that I (-knock on wood-) don't think it will be hard for me to keep up with this story anymore. I think I might have a better idea of where I'm going with this again, and that's always good, right?

I've been SOOO obsessed with Marina and the Diamonds' album Electra Heart. It fueled most of this chapter. A lot of those songs will help me write some good KakaSaku fanfiction. I just know it. Unghffffhh.

Oh, and I have a Rurouni Kenshin multichapter fic up, called 'Of Lust and Laundry'. If it has the word 'Lust' in the name, you know it'll be somewhat interesting. It's not as good as this fic, I think, but I hope it'll get better as it goes on.

Sorry if it's kinda short and not detailed enough. I really wanted to get something up!

Please review and let me know what you thought, or just say 'hi'. :D

P.S.: The name of the club, 'Iroppoi Oppai', means 'sexy boobs' in Japanese. XD

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Chapter 7:

Into the Devil's Den

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"Where is this place?" Sakura asked, standing beside Anko before tall red arched gates with red paper lamps dangling from the top. A road with a row of old-fashioned buildings lay beyond, but there was something about the area beyond that point that made Sakura's stomach turn. It reminded her of the side of Tanzaku town that Jiraiya would often skip off to, the side of town that she made a habit of avoiding. She already had a feeling that she knew where she was.

"Welcome to Kusagakure's red light district, Hanami," Anko said, looking at the companion beside her with a wry smile. "For this mission, you will be called Kugimiya Hanami, you are from the countryside born from common farming parents, and you came here to find your poor lost brother. Or sister, I forget."

"And you?" Sakura raised an eyebrow with vague interest. "What's your alias?"

"Hokage-sama went kinda boring with mine, I'm Komatsu Aoi," Anko replied, crinkling her nose. "What a fruity name, doesn't suit me at all. She probably did it to punish me for screwing up on my last mission."

Sakura snorted in amusement. She often remembered Tsunade doing subtle sneaky things to get revenge on those who didn't perform their best, be it on their day to day jobs, or on missions. Giving Anko a cutesy name was definitely a most amusing punishment.

"Come on, we've got a long night ahead of us, blondie," Anko said, pushing forward past the large red gate. "Let's try and get this done nice and fast so we can get home fast."

Sakura skipped to try and catch up to her, immediately noticing the change in atmosphere. Men, men, men. Men everywhere. The only women she saw were dressed scantily, their hair drawn up to the top of their head with only tassels of hair hanging down around the back of their neck, wearing heels that had to be at least 6 inches tall. The men all looked like they could have been Sakura's father, business men or shinobi off the job looking for a good time, ranging from around her age to about 55. The sidewalks were crowded and simply bursting with women advertising their bodies, and men filing down the roads in and out of establishments. She felt almost over-dressed.

She jumped when she felt Anko's hand on her shoulder, coaxing her to move along. Swallowing, she picked up the pace and tried to pretend that she was at a carnival. A carnival with... rides, and games with prizes, and oh kami-sama, she had to stop.

"Are you sure you know where he usually goes?" She silenced her mind by speaking.

"Of course I am, rookie. Why else would I be leading the way?" Anko asked with a prideful smirk. "Now stick close so you don't get swept away."

Sakura felt like they would be walking in the crowd of depravity all night until Anko finally stopped, muttering a small, 'Aha!' She followed her senpai's gaze and saw a medium to large sized establishment called, 'Iroppoi Oppai'', decorated with animated flashing neon lights, depicting women in provocative positions with their breasts exposed.

"Disgusting," Sakura said under her breath and Anko happily skipped towards the entrance. She did her best to catch up quickly, still not so in love with her heels.

"Welcome to Iro-ppai!" Two hostesses chimed together, bowing at the waist in sync.

The interior was a dark crimson, with pale lime green neon lights piped along the top of the walls, providing the majority of the lighting in the dimly lit lounge. All that Sakura could make out from where she stood at the entrance was a large bar directly ahead, and platforms layered high above with what looked to be couches with people on them.

As she and Anko made their way down the hallway to enter the lounge, she was startled by a flickering strobe light streaking across the length of the vast room, and she leaped upon the opportunity to stake out the man she was sent for. However, just as the light had come, it had gone, leaving the area in near darkness yet again.

"Dammit," she cursed softly next to Anko's ear. "How will we ever find him in a place like this?"

"Patience, Hanami," she purred. "You didn't think this would be a quick affair, did you?"

Sakura stepped back, trying to make out the expression on her companion's face, but Anko stepped down into the center of the lounge where the bar was, and Sakura could barely register the image of a hand or an arm waving in the shadows as she went.

"C'mon, let's enjoy ourselves while we wait," she said, and Sakura hesitantly followed, feeling utterly lost.

They sat upon two of the tallest barstools that she had ever sat on, and Anko leaned on her elbow and got the bartender's attention. "Two vodka cranberries, please," she requested in a low voice."

"Anko," Sakura hissed, but Anko's head spun around and she gripped her hand with a bruising force, reminding her of her place and identity.

She amended her mistake, whispering harshly instead, "Aoi!"

"Yes, Hanami-chan?" Sakura was surprised by the sudden snap in personality, but sank against the back of her stool.

"It's too dark," she said, lamenting.

"Don't worry," Anko told her, seizing the glass that the bartender slid her way. She pumped her straw up and down, stirring her drink. "It won't be for long."

Sakura gripped her own drink and sipped, making a face at the tang. "Why do you say that?" she asked.

"You'll see. Enjoy your drink for now."

She looked down unsurely at the glass on the counter in front of her, but continued to sip. She was more used to throwing drinks down the hatch instead of enjoying them leisurely, but she supposed that the cranberry taste was enough to make it bearable.

When she was a quarter of the way down her glass, the room suddenly filled entirely with light. She almost fell out of her chair in shock, slamming a fist against her chest and thumping it against her heart in an attempt to calm down. "Oh gosh, jeez...I wasn't expecting that..." she gasped, turning to acknowledge her companion.

Anko was entirely calm, and looked at Sakura with an eyebrow cocked. "Why not?" she asked. "I warned you it would happen."

Before Sakura could protest against that, the sound of a microphone being tested got her attention.

"Ladies and gentlemen! May I have the pleasure of introducing to you tonight, the Iroppai dancers!"

She turned and gave Anko a puzzled look, and the lights dimmed ever so slightly as energetic music flooded the speakers and the sound of people cheering came from all around the room. "What's going on?" she asked, her voice drowning amidst the sounds.

Anko leaned in, saying, "It's the time of the night when the club dancers come out and shake their stuff for a while." She leaned back and shrugged.

Sure enough, a line of scantily-clad young women trailed into the room and posed just as the beat began to pick up in the song. Sakura craned her neck and saw many dozens of men standing up on the higher levels overlooking the center of the lounge, pumping their fists and staring at the women with eyes overtaken by lust. It was almost like a crude colosseum in which the men acted as spectators of the women below, who had begun to form a circle and sway their hips.

"Look at them," Sakura said with a scoff, gesturing to the men above.

"There's a reason they're so excited," Anko told her, sighing. "Those women are owned by the owner of this club, and he acts as their pimp of sorts."

Feeling her body grow hot, Sakura turned to her, frowning. "You don't mean...? These men will get to 'buy' them after this is done?"

"Their services, yeah," her senpai said with a nod, taking a long sip from her glass. "Just for the night, though."

"How barbaric," she murmured, willing her eyes to look away from the women, but found herself drawn in.

They extended their arms toward the men in a long sweeping motion before drawing their arms back and with another quick movement, their tops were removed. It happened so fast that Sakura wasn't sure it had happened, except the loud jeering above her confirmed it.

"I can't do something like that," she said, shaking her head. "I couldn't."

"You probably won't, so that's fine," Anko said with a smile. "What we do is just pretend, but for them, that's their job."

Their job. Sakura stared at the women, a million thoughts clouding her mind. What if those women had had the opportunities to become kunoichi?

What if she had been born into that kind of life, as someone else's property?

She bit her lip, brushing her hand against her cheek and imagining someone else owning every piece of her from the strands of her hair to the flesh of her feet.

"Hanami, now's a good time to start scoping the place," Anko told her. "You should get the left side, and I'll get the right." She stood, brushing herself off and winking at the bartender. "Got a lot of cute guys here, we don't want to miss any."

"Right," Sakura agreed with a nod. Anko turned and waved at her as she walked away to the other side of the lounge, disappearing into the shadows with her hips swaying from side to side effortlessly.

Sakura sank forward against the bar counter, wondering how she was going to go about doing this. She was feeling uneasy now after seeing the reaction from all of those men, now all she wanted to do was close her eyes and open them to see that she was in Konoha again.

"What's troubling such a pretty thing like you?" A man asked, taking the seat on the other side of her.

Without even turning to acknowledge him, she whispered, "I just feel bad for those women."

"Yes, it is rather degrading, isn't it?" The man said gently, and then flagged down the bartender. "One Jack Daniel's, please. No ice."

From the corner of her eye, she watched him, until she had to turn her head to get a full look at him. Hesitantly, she tilted her head, and her eyes widened when she saw how young he was.

He must have sensed something from her end, because he turned to look at her and gave her an amused smile. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"N-Nothing," she said quietly. He wasn't Arima, so she didn't have business with him.

"Just surprised that I'm not a middle-aged man who's all over you, trying to take you to bed with me?" He asked with a chuckle, thanking the bartender quietly when his drink was placed before him.

As a reflex, her head snapped in his direction. "Why are you here?" she asked quickly.

He raised an eyebrow. She could see that he had cool black eyes, a handsome straight nose, and black hair that fell across his forehead diagonally. He was pretty handsome, and she wished that he could have been Arima, just to make things less painful for her.

But that would make things worse in the end, when she had to kill him.

"My friends dragged me here," he said coolly. "I'm not into this stuff, but they really wanted to see this place."

"Oh, I see," she said quietly, slowly sliding off of her stool.

"Why are you here?" he asked in return. "It's unusual to see women here, I hear, unless they're here for work."

Sakura stiffened, and turned her head away, swallowing. "It's my friend. She's visiting her boss. I've been trying to get her to quit this place," she said, her voice shaking only slightly. She hoped against hope that he bought her story.

"I hope for your sake and her's that she listens to you. There's a bad scene associated with this place," he said, lowering his voice.

"Oh?" she leaned in.

"A man named Arima is supposedly funding this club through his drug runs," he told her, his eyes glittering as though he was telling her a juicy secret. "He's not above killing, I hear, so I suggest you two girls get out of hear and forget you ever came here."

She giggled. "Thank you, Mister, but my friend and I can fend for ourselves just fine. Thanks for the concern." She slid the rest of the way off of her stool.

"I'm sure you can," he said, his voice vague enough to tell her that he didn't believe her for a second.

Sakura began to step away from him, and said, "Speaking of my friend, I need to go check on her. It was nice meeting you."

"Yes. Yes, it was... What was your name, again?"

"Oh, I'm sorry," she apologized, bowing quickly and pretending to be flustered. "How rude of me. I'm Kugimiya Hanami."

"Kugimiya-san... You can call me Mishima," he said with a gentle smile. "I hope that we have the pleasure of meeting again someday."

Not knowing what else to say, she gave another bow and a wave, and scampered away into the darkness. At least he had given her good information, and he had been handsome to boot.

"Hanami!"

"Hanamiiii!"

"HANAMI!"

It took a bit for her to register that that was her name now, and she spun around, embarrassed to see Anko hanging in the shadows not far from an emergency exit.

"Sorry, Aoi," she murmured, blushing.

"You!" She said, frowning. "We have a bit of a problem."

Sakura paled. "What is it?"

"He's not alone," Anko said. "We're going to have to approach him carefully, we don't want to annoy him by being too pushy and making him mad."

"Right," Sakura agreed.

"C'mon." Anko waved at her to follow her.

They disappeared into the darkness, creeping along for what felt like hours to Sakura until she bumped into Anko's back, standing on tip-toe to peer over her shoulders.

"This way," Anko whispered. "Up these stairs. Watch your step."

The newly-blonde Sakura nodded despite knowing that it was too dark for anyone to see, and reached out until her fingers came in contact with smooth, curved metal. The railing of the staircase. She kept her eyes trained on the slight shimmer that Anko's dress carried whenever it caught the right angle from the dull light radiating down from the strip of green neon along the edge of the ceiling. She managed to make each step without tripping and making a fool of herself, and when they reached the landing at the top, she was relieved to see that it was more properly lit on the upper levels of the club.

By now, things had quieted down amongst the men, and the dancers had gone 'backstage' for a little cool-down. She imagined that it wouldn't be long until they would be offered off for the night, and her stomach began to turn at the thought. Though when she really thought about it, she wasn't certain of what her own night would hold.

Anko brushed her hand against her wrist as a signal to pay attention, and she swallowed and willed herself to act like the woman she had been hired to be. It was difficult when Anko made it look as simple as breathing, the way her hips rolled as she led Sakura down the navy-carpeted path, leather booths and over-stuffed couches on each side. Many were filled with men clinking their glasses, discussing with one another animatedly, though there were many more that were filled with heated moments between men and women.

Women with their necks arched, legs splayed over the cushions, moaning loudly over the jazzy music that buzzed through the speakers. Men with their neckties untied and hanging loosely around their necks, their faces buried in a woman's breasts or the crook of her neck.

Sakura couldn't help but feel like she was intruding, but Anko paused and whispered something into her ear, "There's a reason it's not bright in here."

Would it have mattered anyway? These people were going at it like nothing in the world could tear them apart. Interestingly, in the next table over there could be a group of men playing cards and looking as though they were there on business, with a woman seated between each of them silently looking on.

They stopped so that a waitress in a revealing kimono-style dress with bare shoulders and an enviable cleavage could pass. Anko elbowed Sakura in the ribs quickly, wrapping an arm around her and giving her a hard shove forward once the path was clear.

Before she could yell at her and demand to know what was going on, she found herself sprawled across someone's lap.

"I'm so sorry!" Anko gushed, shuffling forward and kneeling to lift Sakura to her feet. "My friend here is just so clumsy!"

Sakura's eyes were wide when she recognized the man whose lap she had fallen into. Arima Hidetaro...

There was laughter coming from the men he was surrounded by. Arima himself didn't look unhappy, rather he was smiling cheerfully.

"Please, it's not an issue," he said smoothly, his eyes falling on Sakura. "What's your name, girl?"

"Kugimiya Hanami," she said, bowing stiffly.

"I'm Arima Hidetaro. Why don't you and your not-so-clumsy friend join me and my friends?" he asked, smiling with grayed teeth exposed.

"I-It would be the least that I could do, sir," she replied hurriedly, forcing herself to keep her head down as she stood with her hands clasped in front of her. Her blonde locks fell across her face, and she felt like the lamb being led to the slaughter knowingly.

Anko stepped up next to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and smiling charmingly. "I'm Komatsu Aoi, sir. It would be an honor for us to join you men tonight," she announced, practically purring.

"Yes... make yourselves comfortable," Arima spoke, keeping his eyes trained only on Sakura.

Anko stole an empty chair from a nearby table and pulled it up next to one of Arima's shyer looking associates. She immediately put herself to work.

Arima stood and offered Sakura his chair with a gesture of his hand. "I'll get a chair for myself," he said, smiling. "It would be unbecoming for such a pretty girl to go get one for herself."

Sakura pretended that she was blushing, pressing a hand to her cheek and smiling shyly as she seated herself where the notoriously dangerous man had been sitting not seconds before. She looked at Anko and made eye contact, and Anko's lips tugged to the right slyly with a wink.

'We got this.' Her gaze all but screamed.

It was hard not to feel confident, but Sakura still knew from plenty of mission experience in the past that it was easy for things to change direction rather quickly, and to lose focus was to lose the advantage.

Arima set a chair beside her and seated himself, and she drew in a shallow breath as she prepared herself.

"Hanami, was it? What are you and your friend doing in a place like this?" he asked her with a curious raise of his eyebrow.

"We're looking for somebody," Anko spoke from across the table.

"Oh?" Arima's eyes flashed.

"My brother," Sakura added softly, looking down at her lap and twining her fingers together in what wasn't entirely feigned anxiety. "We were told that he could be here."

"The jerk abandoned her last year when she was still just a kid, left her to take care of the house alone," Anko explained. "He ran off with the family inheritance. We think he probably blew it all here in this town."

"Where are you from, girl?" One of the other men at the table asked.

"I'm from a small town in the country," Sakura said. "Not many people have heard of it, but it's called Inaka."

Hushed mumbling amongst the men resounded, though she could make out faintly, 'No, I've never heard of that,' 'Never heard of such a place'.

"What's your brother's name?" Arima asked gently, and she was not unaware of him drawing closer over time.

"Haruki," she said quietly, biting down on her lip. She had to make herself act choked up! Only then would her story really be believable.

"A Kugimiya Haruki, huh?" One of the men mused out loud. "I don't believe I've ever heard of that name before."

"No, I haven't either," Another man agreed with him. "What about you, Arima-kun?"

"No," Arima said, his voice low. "I haven't heard that name once in my life."

"Well, damn," Anko cut in. "I guess we have to keep looking, then, Hanami." She looked across the table at her companion with a gaze full of empathy. "Don't lose hope, we'll find him."

Sakura nodded, her head still bowed. She began to think of whatever sad, depressing thoughts that she could in order to tie them to this false brother who had left her. Sasuke leaving her... Sasuke rejecting her...

Kakashi.

Oh, of course. The one person she didn't want to think of. How fucking cliché.

A lump formed deep in the back recesses of her throat, and began to swell rapidly. She lifted her head and looked at Anko. "You really think so?" She asked in a choked voice.

She felt a hand on her back and didn't think to stiffen. Arima leaned in and stroked her cheek with a large index finger.

"Don't cry, flower. You're too pretty to shed tears," he cooed.

Though she didn't want to, she forced herself to lean into his touch.

"Let me order you a drink, hm?"

2 saucers of sake later, and Sakura was having trouble separating fact from fiction, finding herself really growing into the part of Hanami.

Arima himself had had much more to drink, along with the other men. It seemed customary that they all get stupidly drunk, and he was starting to place his hands in places that weren't so appropriate.

Anko had the shy man from earlier running through her fingers like putty, ordering her drinks and starting to grow bold enough to call her beautiful.

"My, my, it's getting late," Anko called out, glancing at a digital clock on the wall. "It's nearly 2 in the morning!" She tapped her fingernails on the table. "I suppose Hanami and I should be heading back to our hotel."

"Nonsense," Arima cut in. "You're free to stay at my place. It isn't safe for girls to walk in the dark."

"Oh, are you sure?" Anko asked, with what Sakura recognized to be the faint beginnings of a smirk. "That would be so wonderful, thank you."

Sakura bowed her head. "Yes, thank you, Arima-san," she said, trying to ignore the way his fingers traipsed over her thigh. "I'm not sure I know how to thank you for this generosity."

Hook, line and sinker.

His lips brushed against the shell of her ear, and she couldn't help but shiver at the sensation of someone that close to her. "There is one way that you could thank me," he murmured into her ear.

Sakura felt her lips spread into a smile, and she turned and returned the gesture, whispering, "It would be my pleasure, Arima-sama."

There was a low, primal-sounding growl in the bottom of his throat, and he gripped her jaw tightly with one hand, turning it roughly and then kissing her.

She winced at the pain, and worked her amateurish lips against his, feeling ashamed to kiss in front of so many other people openly. When he finally released her, he licked his lips and trailed a finger down her jaw lingeringly.

"Shall we be going, ladies?"

TBC!