Esoteric"

Here is the next Chapter of the story. I do not own Naruto or Death note. I just own the plot and my ocs.

-x-x-x-

Chapter Eight: 1/5/04: Punishment

Tokyo Japan 1/5/04 at the Task Force New HQ

"Ryuzaki-kun,"

"Hm?"

"Tell me again, why the hell am I handcuffed to your arm?" Sakura growled in evening.

"Because I can't trust you alone again Haruno-san," L said calmly. He took a nibble out of his chocolate cake, evading Sakura's sturdy gaze. Sakura huffed and folded her arms, sprawled back onto her chair and shaking the chain irritably. Why was she being punished? She stopped Naomi from taking her own life for Kami's sake!

Thinking about Naomi reminded Sakura of the day the other woman came to the hotel and demanded a position in the Task Force. Out of custom, Sakura was studying everyone's expression and was slightly concerned when she saw shock evident on Light's face. A few days later, Naomi was accepted into the Task Force by L. Sakura felt a diminutive wave of envy at the remembrance but immediately shook it off as fast as it came up.

The advantage of getting into trouble was that Light got in trouble as well. Sakura didn't care for him from the instant she met him and was glad that she wasn't alone on L's punishment list. Turns out that L didn't want anyone to know about Sakura yet, so he placed extra surveillance in Light's room for defying his orders. L tugged the arm of the handcuff forward to press a button on the computer keyboard.

"B-but Ryuzaki-san, isn't this going a little too far?" Sakura muttered.

'What if I need to use the bathroom?' she shrieked in her thoughts.

'Hell yeah! We get to see his-' Sakura instantly interrupted her Inner by bounding, gagging and shoving Inner Sakura into the deepest recesses of her mind before returning to worry about the circumstances.

"Ryuzaki-san please," she gently pleaded. These thoughts had brought a heavy blush onto Sakura's face, and she felt extremely awkward and dirty.

"Would you feel better if I do the same to Light-kun?" Ryuzaki said sarcastically, continuing to tap away at the computer keys.

"WHAT!" Light shouted from the computers beside the pair, scattering papers and such everywhere. An evil smirk implanted itself onto Sakura's face, easily replacing the blush.

"Yes, as a matter of fact I would. It would make me feel much better." Sakura replied with a tilt of her head and hurled an evil smirk in Light's direction. His hazel eyes widened, and he connected his flat hands to his forehead, try his best to ignoring the cackling Ryuk behind him..

"You have got to be kidding me." He moaned. L turned in his chair, his face serious as he chewed on his thumb. Sakura felt the chain tug and moved closer to L's warm body so the chain wouldn't tighten anymore.

"You see Light-kun, I take opinions and suggestions seriously, and I think this would be a great way to prove whether or not you are Kira." The messy haired L ordered, "Matsuda-san, would you please go get the extra handcuffs from the storage room?" Matsuda excitedly bowed his head from his desk before standing and bowing once more.

"Yes sir!" He rushed off towards the next room, happy that he could finally be of assistants for L. He returned with the next set of handcuffs fastened by an even longer shackle. Ryuzaki exchanged the longer chained one with his and Sakura's and attached the shorter one to Light to connected them all together..

"What is the meaning of this?" Mr. Yagami furiously bellowed when he came into the room, only to see his son and the strange pink-haired girl connected to L by handcuffs.

"Mr. Yagami, your son had betrayed my trust by reporting to the police. This is the only method for me to trust him again and prove that he is not Kira." L explained, not taking his big onyx eyes off of the screen. Light's father forced himself to nod his head in agreement, causing his son to feel anger and shoot up from his seat.

"Dad! You would let him do this to me! And her! That evil little-" Light was beginning to rant before his father cut him off with his own shouts.

"Light, start being responsible! This is the only way to prove to Ryuzaki-san that you're not Kira and to regain his trust. So be quiet and go along with it.." Mr. Yagami glared at his son as his face turned from defiance to a look of defeat and plopped down into a desk chair across the room.

"Feel better Haruno-san?" L asked the zoned female beside him, ignoring the exchange between the father and son.

"Huh? Oh, I feel much better Ryuzaki-kun." Sakura confirmed with a smile. Without really knowing why, she leaned over and placed a quick peck on L's cheek before turning back to face her books again. L froze, momentarily forgetting his work, as he felt a blush appear on the back of his neck. He slouched even more to hide the blush and tried to keep his hormones in check.

Sakura tried to get absorbed back into the book, but to only read the same line in her novel over and over again. Why did she do that? Oh Kami! She must be going mental! She heard the chain move but didn't feel anything so she guessed it was coming from Light's side. Sakura turned her head to confirm her prediction. She saw him make a dismayed face and scowl at her.

"Will you two get a room?" Light whined. He was nauseated from seeing the miniscule affection that Sakura had shown to Ryuzaki. Sakura face burned up and felt the same anger she usually felt toward Sai's rude remarks and jumped out of her chair.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP SA-YAGAMI!" Sakura screamed, nearly mistaking Light for the ignorant replacement for Sasuke on her team. L literally flew out of his chair as Sakura lunged towards the shocked Light. She smacked him over the top of his head with her chakra-drawn fist and caused Light's head to impact the desk with a noisy bang.

"Damn it Haruno, are you PMS-ing?" Light growled out loud, raising his head from the desk. His nose was bleeding and a large crevice could be seen on the desk's wooden surface. Light also winced at the feel of the pain on the side of his face, guessing that it was badly bruised.

"WHAT DID YOU SA-" Sakura bellowed and prepared to give him another beating until L clutched her arm and pushed her back away from Light.

"Haruno-san, please calm yourself down, or I will be forced to do something that I will regret." L said sternly. Sakura was still in a raging mood, glaring at both boys with equal hate. L processed the information he had already learned about Sakura and what Light had said, coming to the conclusion that either A.) Sakura was indeed having her monthly-unwanted visitor or, B.) She had an extremely short temper like he had first thought of. L did the only thing he thought appropriate to calm the atmosphere and leaned in closer to Sakura.

Sakura was still having a mental battle with Inner Sakura when she felt something warm against her cheek. Her apple-green eyes widened like saucers, and she spun around to see L pull back, turned around and walked out the door and also saw Light stagger in the general direction of the bathroom.

What just happened?

Ryuzaki had kissed her cheek.

Kissed it!

Sakura reddened for the third time that day.

'Oh no! This can't be happening...' she groaned mentally, thumping her head repeatedly against a conveniently placed desk.

Naomi didn't join in at all. Only, she watched the whole scene unfold at a back desk that brought a smile to her face. She pat the shocked and frightened Matsuda's back in a comforting manner before turning back to her work.

~.~

England in a Small Town 1/5/04

10:00 p.m.

Heavy breathing, little whimpers of pain, and the sounds of many running feet were the only things heard in the alleys of an obscure town in England as a ragged looking girl dashed away from a group of middle aged men stumbling after her.

"Come back here you witch!" "Get back here!" "We will not let you escape!" came the cries of the mob of people after the young girl. The girl ran through the dark alleys of her small town without much glance behind her, ignoring the jeers, taunts and threats that she had heard so many times before. Oh why did her parents come to this country? The girl tripped down on her feet and fell onto the concrete doorstep of a church with a gasp of pain.

"N-No." She gasped when she heard the town's people close by. Tears fell from her brown eyes and ran down her cheeks in two thick rivulets.

Her parents were dead. The town's people burned down her house earlier that evening. They killed her parents and an unborn baby brother. The town was God fearing and lived in the past, mostly like during the Medieval Ages where her religion was seen as Satan's work and witchcraft.

The girl closed her eyes and began her small chant. She, herself, had never practiced this before, but she always watched her parent doing it when they were in dire need of help or something. Their religion was not evil at all, but loving and her family's way of life. She chanted,

"Please by the power of three times three, don't let them find me. I beg by the power of four times four, don't let them find this door."

A few moments passed and she didn't hear anyone. She sighed in relief, massaging her twisted foot whilst looking around the area. Now where is she supposed to go? She pondered before shrieking at the sound of the mob.

'NO! I'M A FAILURE! THEY'VE FOUND ME!'she sobbed mentally.

"THERE'S THAT WITCH! GET HER! WE DON'T WANT HER KIND HERE!" the leader of the mob bellowed..

The girl didn't bother to move at all she was going to die here anyway since she couldn't run away. She heard footsteps in front of her and she looked up with a tear-stained face, expecting to see the barrel of a gun pointed at her face but instead saw three boys and one girl her age standing before her.

One had blond hair to his shoulders, the second boy had wavy white hair, the third had red hair and the girl had short blond hair. The blond haired girl held up her pistol along with the red hair boy, who held a cigarette in between his lips. They didn't look like they where aiming at her and she gazed at them, confused and dazed at what they where doing here.

"Matt, Halle, distract the town's people. Mello, help me carry this girl into a safer area." The white hair boy ordered quietly. Mello looked enraged at the commands and glared at the shorter boy.

"Near-" he started with a growl before Near cut him off with a cold look.

"Innocent lives are at sake here Mello, please follow my orders." Near said.

Near appeared as fragile to the girl, not one that would take the role of leader.. She found him strange but intriguing. Mello bent forward and grabbed her legs unceremoniously causing her to shriek. She wrenched her legs out of his grasp with a cry of pain and pushed her self up a few steps of the church.

"We aren't going to hurt you." Near assured the frightened girl, reaching out towards her slowly.

Matt loaded his pistol and gave Halle a short nod as they stepped into the front of the alley the vengeful crowd was searching in.

"Who are you? Are you helping that damned witch?" One leader yelled at the two. Halle smirked and nodded causing Matt to groan and glare at her.

"You make jobs soooo much harder," he sighed, taking a final drag from his cigarette before letting it fall to the ground. Matt and Halle dodged a few bullets and torches tossed at them as they guided the mob away from where Near and Mello were tending the strange girl.

"I'd expect Mello to get in this kind of trouble, not a young little girl." Matt commented with a smirk on his face.

"Are you done?" Halle called back to Mello and Near who had convinced the girl to let them help her and were halfway down the road.

"Yeah! Let's get going." Mello called, hoisting the girl up higher onto his back. Matt didn't need to be told twice. He grabbed Halle's wrist and forced her to stop shooting, which got him a nasty glare. He pulled her down the street to where Mello and Near were waiting.

"I'm going to hit them with one of my smoke bombs! Get out of range and keep visual on the girl!" Matt told Halle before doubling back and aiming at the charging crowd.

BANG!

Smoke filled the air. The mob coughed while Mello, Near, Matt, Halle and the girl disappeared into the night.

~.~

A Few Minutes Later

"Where are you taking me?" The girl asked the white hair boy from her position on Mello's back.

"To Wammy's Orphanage, the place where we all belong to." Near said, glancing back at the girl.

The girl was very thankful that these people had enough kindness to save her while she rested her head against the tensed back of Mello. She had heard of the Wammy house before, heck, that is where her parents went to school and stayed for half of their lives. She felt herself drifting off to a deep slumber and turned her face to the side so she could see Near's face. She unwrapped her one of her arms from around Mello's neck and tapped the short boy's arm.. He gave her a curious glance as she smiled.

"Arigatou," she said in her family's language before dropping both her head and arm and fell into a dreamless snooze.

TBC

Please review :D Anyway I was planning on giving this story a 30 chapters total, but I decided against it when I replay Naomi and this new OC girl role in the story. About four-five more chapters left, before I write a sequel to the story. As you can see I tried my best to put some fluff in this chapter -_- I bet you I failed. I'm sorry! At least I tried my best. I would like to thank my beta readers for their efforts and good work.

P.S: just pretend that the chain connected to L, Light and Sakura are really really long just in this chapter XD