A/N : So this chapter is longer than normal... so... enjoy?

The diner had gotten a lot of press from the murder which had taken place just 48 hours ago. It was a sad commentary on the mentality of the people living in this city. A man dies in a diner, news stations cover the man's murder, and then civilians flock to said diner to see the place where someone died. How sick was that?

It wasn't like Sakura could really judge them, considering she had killed the man. In fact, ever since she had received this ring in the mail, she had killed over two dozen people. That man's face blurred into being just one of many. The pink haired girl fidgeted with the silver ring, spinning it around her middle finger as she thought dismally about the path her life had taken.

She'd only heard about the game from a friend of hers. He had been bragging about how cool he was gonna be, like a hitman or Judge Dredd. He'd told her all about the rules, and how he was going to be cleaning up the town, getting rid of useless people.

Sakura had been frightened of him, but she had never expected that he would have dragged her into it. She didn't know how they found her house, or how they even knew that she knew the rules, but, less than a week after her friend had mentioned it to her, that silver box had appeared on her front doorstep. Since then her life had been a double one.

On the outside, she was Sakura Haruno, a popular, somewhat pretty girl at her school. She worked a job to help her mother pay rent, and she got excellent grades in school. No one would ever suspect that when she would go out at night to "party" that she was actually hunting down other human beings… her targets certainly hadn't expected it. It was an advantage in this game, and advantage she was more than willing to make use of.

"Order up!" the chef shouted at her.

Grabbing the two plates of breakfast foods, Sakura stepped out from behind the counter and walked across the diner to deposit the plates on their respective tables. It was routine, and she performed this task almost robotically. Many of the diner's patrons probably couldn't tell, most of them didn't even know her, but today she was in a funk. Sakura was generally a people person, one who would be chatty with her customers. Today she was sullen and distant, her mind elsewhere as she contemplated how to locate the new target she had just received.

"Excuse me, miss?" a voice called out to her.

Sakura turned to see a man waving at her from the far booth in the corner. He was oddly dressed, in a black business suit with fine, silver pinstripes. That wasn't the unusual part. No, the unusual part was his platinum colored hair that shot up into the sky, the black and silver pinstriped, silk eye patch over his left eye, and the black scarf around his neck that covered his mouth. She couldn't really see any distinguishing features on this guy besides his hair.

Sakura then took note of where he was sitting. It was the only booth in the diner that wasn't in view of a window, it also have a complete view of the rest of the diner… it was the Bill Hitchcock seat as some would call it. It would be the seat Sakura chose if she were eating there. Why? Because there were fewer chances of someone getting the drop on you.

This man was a player in The Game; Sakura could feel it in her bones… a sixth sense she had developed while struggling to keep her life normal, yet still fight to stay alive.

Plastering on her best waitress smile, she grabbed a pot of coffee and walked over to the man, "Hi, there! What can I get for you?"

"Why don't you have a seat, Miss Haruno?" the man offered a hand to the booth seat across from him. Sakura wasn't keen to take this seat, as she would have her back to the rest of the diner. "I insist…" he said with a smile. She could tell he was smiling from the way his cheekbones moved the fabric of the scarf.

Sakura had no desire to start a scene, so she relented, but rather than take the seat he had offered, she sat down right next to him.

"Clever girl," the man sounded impressed, "Though I'm afraid you may have mess up with your last job."

"Why what ever do you mean?" Sakura played dumb waitress very well.

"Let's just say that people, who have played this game as long as I have, have developed the ability to discern when a homicide is truly a random act of violence… or a clue to finding our next target. I'll let you guess how easily it was to figure out which one poor Itachi's was over there," the stranger pointed to where Sakura's victim had died.

"Are you here for me," Sakura asked, seemingly calm. However she was ready in a heartbeat to break her coffee pot over the man's head and slit his throat with a shard of the glass.

"Oh, heaven's no!" the silver haired man acted horrified. "I never introduce myself to a potential client."

"You haven't introduced yourself yet" Sakura raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, then forgive me," he offered her a gloved hand, "You can call me Raikou."

"Lightning?" she said skeptically.

"Yes," the man shrugged flippantly, "Unfortunately in our line of work, to be anonymous has its advantages."

"One that you have taken away from me," Sakura gritted her teeth to suppress her anger.

"I'm afraid you took it away from yourself by acting rashly. Not only that but every one of your jobs has happened within the district where you live… you think that won't draw attention?" The man scoffed, "Not only that, but Itachi was a highly ranked player. To be taken out by a relative newb like yourself… it garnered considerable attention from people you don't want drawing your name."

Sakura bristled at being called a newb. This man was old enough to be her father, yet he talked as if they were playing video games on a Saturday morning. She knew that her entry into the game had been recent, in fact she had even spent a month trying not to get sucked into it… that had worked out wonderfully.

"So what do I do?" she finally asked, tired of small talk.

"See I knew you were a clever girl," the man turned to lock his one eye on her, and it was filled with eagerness, "Take advantage of knowledge and experience when they are offered to you."

"Still waiting," she yawned.

"And work on that attitude, I liked you much better when you were the fake waitress."

"So do most men."

"I'm certain…" he chucked, "First you are going to want to change jobs. Tell the manager you can't work in a place where someone was killed. It will throw stupid players off your trail and keep the police and federal investigators from being suspicious of you for now. If you don't make a mistake like this again, they may never trace the job to you. Secondly you should start moving. Tell your mother you are going off to a far away college, come up with something… but get out of town. Hunt your targets and stay on the move. Dress average, but stand out just enough that people won't think you are trying to be inconspicuous…"

"Wait," she placed her hands on the table, "I can't do any of this! I can't leave my mom."

"You can, and you must," the silver haired man said bluntly, "Unless you want her to wake up one morning to discover her daughter has been murdered for reasons unknown to anyone but you and I... and the player who drew your name."

The man stood up and gestured that he was ready to leave, politely scooting Sakura out of his way, "The choice is your's of course, but no player has ever survived by staying in the same place. You may want your old life, you may wish this had never happened, but the reality of things is this: your old life was over the day you put on that ring, and if you want to keep what life you have now? Listen to someone who's be playing longer than you have been alive."

With that he kissed her on the forehead, which he found to be a rather large area, and walked out of the diner, leaving Sakura utterly confused and deathly afraid.

Player Currently not a suspect of the KBI
A.K.A Raikou, Lightning, The King
Real Name: Kakashi Hatake
Years Playing: 20
Classification: Godlike
Current Ranking: #1