Hi y'all! Sry for the loooong wait. Been busy with life. Here's the 10th chapter! Hope you'll like it!

God…

……

Sleep.

……

NOW.

……

Okay, let's try this again.

Deep breaths.

In, out. In, out. In…

Okay. Ready.

So SLEEP.

……

…To hell with this.

Uchiha Sasuke cursed, his right arm covering his face. It's past midnight, and he is still wide awake.

For your information, this is not something out of the ordinary. It happens occasionally, especially when he's troubled. But the weird thing is he doesn't feel like he's troubled in any way.

Usually, he'd just lay there until sleep took over him—which, according to him, is the easiest thing he can do. It's like, programmed in him. Thanks to the training and all with a certain Hatake.

Heck, he had even tried the count-the-sheep trick, and he's threatening to pull out the cows as well if he won't sleep in 10 minutes.

After 15 minutes…

…somebody shoot me. PLEASE.

Finally annoyed by the fact that he's not getting any sleep tonight, he got up. Pushing the covers to a side, he sat on his bed and gave out a teary yawn.

What-to-do, What-to-do…

Scanning around his room, he frowned at everything. Even at the Uchiha crest hanging on the wall directly in front of his bed. Turning away from it, he tried to focus on something else.

His room is just a simple one, not too big or too small. It's just right for him. Since they kept moving around, he never bring along anything too fancy. The only thing that is essential to him is his hi-fi set. And his laptop as well, but that can be carried around anytime so it doesn't count.

Unintentionally, he caught an edge of a blue box sitting on the bottom of his cupboard, near-drowning in his pile of mystery or thriller novels.

…wow. I thought I've lost that.

He stood up, clad in his army cargo and loose T, walked towards the bookshelf. Lifting the books away a couple at a time, he freed the box and took it back to his bed, letting it drop on the mattress.

Carefully, he undid the cellophane tapes that bounded the things within the blue box. Everything in this box meant something too him, some things a lot. Lifting the lid, he opened it.

Sasuke felt his heart thumped a little. It's been a long time since he even saw these. Photo albums, drawing pads, wood carvings and some other things. He took out the largest photo album in the box, accidentally letting some photos in it drop onto the carpeted floor.

Bending down, he reached for them. Upon seeing what was captured in the photos, he put away the photo album.

These are…

He flipped them through, one by one, taking his time to think back.

Haruno Sakura. These are all from when they are still together.

Well…'together' as in playing-and-living-next-door together. Not that together-together kind of thing.

Man…to think we're able to meet again after all these years.

He put the pictures back in the album. Reaching into the box, he saw something pink that caught his eye.

Hell no. I have something pink here?!

Grabbing it out, he found that it was an envelope. A pink envelope. How classy.

Just as he thought its some love-letter that he knew is from some admirer from some school he went to before, something clinked inside as he threw it on the covers. Curious, he picked it up again and opened it.

A silver necklace of the alphabet S hanging on a silver chain. It twirled in the air, shinning in the moonlight.

It was a gift from her. The only gift for his birthday before she moved away. He wondered why he never wore it.

…Maybe he had never open it before.

Or maybe he hadn't the chance to because his brother is around and will not let the teasing end.

Or maybe…

Ugh. Stop making excuses.

He sat on his bed, staring at it for the rest of the night. Looking back at the memories that have been put aside by him for almost 10 years.

…that is, until his phone rang.

Sighing, he got up and answered it, with the necklace clutched in his hand.

"Yeah?"

"Sasuke?"

"Hn."

"Oh, you're up. Good. Are u guys free today? There's a job for you..."

"…is it urgent?"

"Kind of…they specially requested for u guys…"

"…" 'Man, there's that study thing with them...'

"…Sasuke?"

"…" 'Oh, what the heck.'

"Sasuke, if you guys are busy, there are still-"

"No, we'll be there. When?"

My life, Your Life, Our Lives…

Chapter 10…

"What?! You are not serious!" Naruto gaped at Sasuke.

"…have I ever joked about something important?"

"Uh…well…" the blonde scratched his head.

"You gotta admit, Sasuke. You did tell him that the moon is made of cheese. And that the earth is flat." said Shikamaru.

"So?"

"He still thinks that way." Shikamaru whispered, pointing a finger at the poor guy.

"…like I care." Inwardly, Sasuke controlled himself not to laugh.

"So, let me get this straight." Neji said coolly, leaning the door post.

"You've cancelled the study date with them for a mission?"

"…overall, yeah."

"How can you not talk to us before u make your decision?"

"It's early, so why can't I make the decisions myself?"

"You could have just waked us up."

"And have you pissed at me over something like that? Come on, it's not a big deal." The Uchiha rolled his eyes.

"To you it maybe not, but to me it is!" Neji snapped.

Sasuke glared back. Shikamaru looked at the two with frowned eyes. Naruto grinned.

"Hyuuga…you are not…crushing on someone are you?" The grin got wider.

Neji flushed. "W-What do you mean?"

"Well…" Shikamaru started thinking too, "Your grades really don't need any help with. I mean, you can skip a couple of grades in your situation."

"Yeah, so it's not about the study part of the date, is it now?" Naruto started to look cheekily at him.

Neji paled.

"It is not about Tenten!" He panicked.

'Gotcha.' The Uzumaki and the Nara smirked.

"Who'd ever said about Tenten?" Naruto poked at his beginning-to-sweat forehead.

Sasuke saw the fun coming up, but he kept quiet, the infamous smirk dangerously twitching to appear on his face.

"Yeah, who'd ever mentioned her? Huh?" Shikamaru's smirk widened.

"S-Sasuke!" Neji turned desperately around to face him. "W-When did you say the mission was?"

Sasuke blinked, trying to act innocent. "Did I say that before?"

"Yes, you did." Neji said through gritted teeth.

"…oh. Yeah, I did."

Naruto and Shikamaru kept on poking him, flooding him with questions about the Chinese classmate.

"We'll have to leave now if we want to be on time." He grabbed his coat and keys as he said that.

"What? Now?!" Naruto whined.

"No, why don't you wait another century here? We'll come back to fetch you." Sasuke replied him sarcastically.

"…Psst, Shikamaru,"

"What?"

"How long is a century?"

"Wow. Tenten, you'll never be able to believe this." Ino said as she snapped her phone shut.

"After watching you in your sleep accidentally, I'll doubt it."

"…what did you see, excactly?"

"You don't wanna know." Said Tenten with a sick face.

"Who's that on the phone, Ino?" Sakura asked, walking down the stairs in a giant T with plain shorts yawning.

"Oh, right. It's the guys. They can't make it to the study date. Said something about having something urgent that is needed to be taken care of pronto."

"Really? Oh, shoot. I was looking forward to ask Sasuke about a trigonometry question."

Tenten rolled her eyes while hanging on the couch.

"Riiight. Like you needed any tutoring."

"Hey, geniuses need help once in a while." She grinned.

"Hmph. Add salt to the wound, why don't ya?" Tenten turned her head towards the table, glaring at her mathematics textbook.

"Hey, you guys, the mission? We have to go now." Hinata came into the living room, dressed in a dark blue turtleneck and the new pair of LEVIS jeans she bought before school reopened.

"What? At this hour? You've gotta be kidding me. I've just woke up!" Sakura ran her hands through her pink hair in despair. "I mean, like, seriously!"

"Sakura, honey, that's what I've been trying to tell you. You too, Tenten. We have a mission marked S for today, and the clients requested for us. We would have to call cancel with the guys as well. Good thing they cancelled with us. I wouldn't know what excuses to make."

"Just great." Tenten sighed as she flipped over the couch, making a run for the stairs. "Gimme 2 minutes."

"Wait! Me too! Make that five!" Sakura squinted as well.

Ino and Hinata looked at their friends making their ways up the stairs. Hinata typing her way on her laptop as Ino looked through her messages.

"Oh, somebody left me a message."

"Hmm? What about?"

"I'm checking…"

Meanwhile, Hinata was going through her messages. Ever since meeting the guy with the same surname with her, and the same color of eyes—which by the way is very, very rare—she had asked her trustable teacher to have a DNA scan of his hair sample (never mind how she got that) and have hers compared with it as well. Being the heiress to the Hyuuga clan, she can't risk any possibilities.

Welcome, Hinata. You have (1) new message(s).

Clicking on the new messages icon, she heard Ino gave a little giggle. Looking away from the screen, she saw the Yamanaka pressing away at top speed on her cell phone. Hinata quickly looked away.

Boys. She has always wondered what boys have or do that makes Ino so…

Her thoughts were hailed to a stop when she turned back to the screen. There it is. The message, whose sender is none other than her teacher.

Even though she had already expected this, but she can't help feeling somewhat timid all of a sudden. She had told herself that no one should find out about her investigating the other Hyuuga. It would be unforgivable for the heiress.

She clicked on the icon again. This time, she didn't take her eyes off the screen. It is just too nerve-wrecking to do so.

The screen disappeared and reappeared again, this time with the contents of her message.

"Hey, we're ready!" Sakura practically jumped down from the stairs.

"Sakura, where's my army printed bandana?" Tenten asked, poking her head in the downstairs' closet.

"Haven't I gave it back to you last Saturday?" the Haruno got inside the closet to help her friend find the piece of cloth.

"I've forgot. I think so." Tenten replied, her hands crossed in front of her.

"Maybe it's in you room? Behind all those T-shirts?"

"I've checked there twice. Not there."

"How about the drawers?" Ino suggested, standing up to stretch.

"It's not there either."

"Funny, I did gave it back last—"

"Here it is, Tenten." Hinata handed her the bandana from behind.

The Chinese thanked her gratefully.

"Where'd you find it though?"

"Oh, I've washed it. You wore that to a mission before." The Hyuuga smiled.

"Oh, right. Haha. Now, I'm ready." She tied her favored accessory of the day around her forehead, heading for the door.

"Let's go pick up something to eat on the way. I'm starved!" Sakura chirped.

"I would like to stop by Star Bucks for a cappuccino. Have a sudden urge to drink caffeine. We'll drop by Mc D's for their breakfast set." Ino put away her cell as she grabbed the keys from the counter.

Sliding into her new shoes, she called out to Hinata.

"Coming! Sorry for waiting." She apologized while slipping into her sneakers, making a dash for Ino's car.

"It's okay. Let's go!" Tenten assured her as Sakura tuned up the radio, Ino reversing out of their garage.

Hinata gave them a smile. They sped out on the road, the crisp wind blowing.

In the girls' household, living room…

Hinata's laptop was left ajar. She never closes it completely unless she's going to sleep.

There, on the screen, is the message that she had reread again and again for four times since Sakura came down.

From: Kurenai-sensei

Topic: The results

Message: What you wanted to find out is true. Your DNA reports came back, with Hyuuga Neji's, of course. It is confirmed that the both of you are indeed related. Forgive me, but I have gone through his part of family backgrounds, even though you've pleaded me not to. Apparently, his father was your father's twin. He died a few years ago though. I'll keep this a secret from the others. Good luck in the mission…

Somewhere far from Tokyo…very, very far away…

"Damn it, Naruto! You just have to break that twig!" Neji cursed as he fought back another thug.

"What?! Oh, fine! Blame me for all I care!" the Uzumaki yelled back while fending off three thugs all together.

"You saying you're innocent?!"

"Like I'm not?!"

5 thugs were thrown onto the ground, unconscious.

"You two! Stop arguing and get the hell back in position!" Shikamaru yelled, kicking a brute on his chin. Sasuke rolled his eyes and cursed at the filth they were killing, just to get another useless CEO of a company assassinated.

I swear, sometimes, being an assassin sucks. Big time.

A few dozen punches and kicks later, the whole mob was left lying on the ground motionless.

"Finally, now that is over…" Sasuke bent over to pick up his glove that slipped away from him. "Let's get this done with."

"Yeah." The others chorused, following the leader of the day into a hallway deep underground.

"So…that somebody hired us to, what, protect him?" Ino said this as if she still can't get over it.

"Yeah." Hinata replied, pressing the micro-earphone closer to her.

"Well, this sucks." Tenten kicked a nearby can. "And I thought I could go all out on with the workout. Damn."

"Shh. I can't focus with everybody complaining." Sakura played with her mask. "I mean, I have things not to my liking too. Like, for example, why was I given this?!" she held the mask in the air.

"You're not the only one, girl. Look at mine, it's horrible! I can't tell if it's a bird or an owl." Ino whined.

"Ino, shut up. It's obvious that your's is a wolf. The same goes for all of us. There are just different markings to indicate the masks' difference." Tenten poked Ino on her forehead.

"Oww. I'm dying." The blonde faked a cry of pain.

"Funny." The Chinese smirked back.

"Okay, guys? Get ready. I've gotten through with our client of the day." Hinata said softly, almost inaudible. "Get your masks ready. Trackers said that the enemy has hired a couple of the finest assassins too."

"Huh. I doubt they're any better than us." Ino spat.

"Hell yeah!" Sakura high-5ed with her, agreeing. "We're the best of the best!"

"No kidding. So let's go!" Tenten flipped herself up for a warm-up, putting her mask on.

"Right back at you." The others put on their own masks as well.

"Dude…where the hell are we?!" Neji hissed out.

"Shut up." Sasuke hissed back. "if we're going to finish this without anymore attacks, we'd better go under."

"Well, bastard, I do so hope that your "go under" doesn't mean walking in the sewer throughout the night?" Naruto sarcastically said.

"That was Nara's fault! Don't come blaming me for every freaking thing you guys aren't happy with, got that!?" Sasuke waved a fist in the Uzumaki's face.

"Yeah, that was my bad. Forgive me for not making out the sewer openings and the vender's." He shrugged. "Have to complain to Kakashi about his skill at map drawing."

"God, what I'll give to get out of here." Neji kicked in the sewer water. For the Hyuuga, it looks like somebody dumped liquidized shit in here, adding a little ammonia flavored juice on the way. Just great.

"I'll trade with you kitchen duty for a week." Naruto grinned. His cat-like mask draped over his shoulder.

"Done deal. Just get me out of here. Oh, great. My mask fell into this gunk. Fuck…" Obviously pissed, he bent down to get it, Naruto giving a shout of "hell yeah!" before running ahead the others.

"Here it is! The ladder up!" the grin widened.

The Nara gaped. So did the other two. How in the world did the idiot find that without the map?!

Looking over at Shikamaru, who is still fondling with the map, the Uchiha and the Hyuuga wondered if they had mistaken who's the real genius here.

"Naruto, thank you." Neji said gratefully, pulling himself out of the pot hole.

"Anything for the freedom of kitchen duty."

"Hell…do we have to walk in this muck? Hinata?" Sakura gave a sick look as she makes her way through the littered sewer.

"Yes, Sakura-chan. In front of you is ladder leading up. We'll be countering the enemy around there, judging by the fact that the mob has been beaten."

"Great. Just great." Ino huffed, her face red. Taking her mask off, she wiped her drenched forehead.

"Sakura, hurry up. I want to get this over with. I call the shower when we get home." Said Tenten, her patience thinning.

Sakura climbed up the metal bars clung onto the pothole. Next come Tenten and then Ino. Lastly, Hinata.

A metallic sound rang through the hallway.

The girls stood in silence, alert for anything coming their way.

"It's time, girls." Sakura tightened her fingerless glove and put on her mask. "Party time."

They smirked.

"You idiot! First the branch, now that pipe?!" Neji laid a fierce blow on Naruto's head mercilessly, earning a groan from the blonde.

"I didn't mean to, dumb-ass." He rubbed his head. "It's just…there."

"That's no excuse, dope." Sasuke ended the argument, looking here and there. "Something's going on. To position, you guys. NOW."

"What do you mean? Nothing's going on." Naruto frowned, putting on the mask nonetheless.

"Won't you just shut up and—"

Suddenly, the walls broke open into tiny pieces, covering the guys with dust.

"What the hell…?" said Neji, half coughing.

"Whoa! What was that!?" Naruto coughed, waving the dust away.

Sasuke snarled. "SHIT."

"Wow, Sakura. There are four of them." A voice rang out.

"Niiice. One for everybody, I guess." Another voice replied the one before, laughing.

"Let's go, then!" that was the last of the unidentified (to the guys) exchange of conversation as they started picking on them, wanting to knock them out.

But not today, they're not.

"Just like the simulation test. One-on-one. Split!" Sasuke yelled, just in time to receive a side-high-kick from one of the unidentified.

"Hello." The voice is sweet. As the dust cleared away, a cat's mask meets a wolf's mask.

"Hn." He blocked the kick, just to get another punch from the right.

The others weren't doing too badly as well. Hinata fought against Shikamaru, while Tenten with Naruto and Ino with Neji.

"Looks like you're the leader here, huh?" the wolf talked again, the sweetness of her voice never escaping.

Sasuke arched an eyebrow.

"I'm really sorry for saying this, but…"

The wolf took out a kunai and points it at him, chuckling.

"You won't be able to leave here alive tonight."

Sasuke smirked.

'This is going to be interesting.'

So, that's it. For now. I'm working on the next chapter as we speak. I mean, write. Or read. Heheh. Leave a review if you can! Hugs and kisses! XD!

-EtaineXXX