(Small sympathy)

"You're back late." Sakura said bluntly as she held open the door to greet Hiten and Manten, but froze when she saw that the brothers were both covered in crimson blood and sweat.

"We've been hunting." Hiten said casually walking into the room as he stripped himself of his bloody armour. Sakura frowned, but foreshadowed that Hiten didn't want to be bothered at the moment and decided to leave him as he was. She followed his path and picked up the armour that he had carelessly thrown onto the ground.

"Sakura?" Manten called out as Hiten slammed the door to his room. "Don't worry about an-chan; he's just shaken over by the hunt."

"What hunt?" she questioned as Manten handed her yet another bloody item to wash off. Manten proudly pointed to his forehead, and Sakura cocked her head in confusion. Then she realized that they were shikon shards that were embedded in his forehead skin, and yet the glow was shining through visibly.

"An-chan has three." Manten told Sakura triumphantly. "We mugged a fox demon and took it from him, and then we went to test it out on two armies that seemed like they were getting ready for war. I can't believe how well they worked on them."

Crystal clear water ran down the cold stream as veins of blood concentrated the clear water, weaving in and out of the currents until they blended in among the clearness. It was the middle of the night; but seeing as she had nothing to do and had to do something other than to sit on her bottom and do nothing at all, Sakura polished away on Hiten's shoulder armour with a rag. As the splotches of blood cleared away, Sakura dipped it in the water and watched the rest of the red liquid wash away within the currents.

The only source of light that was there for her to see was the moon. A thin crescent moon hung in the heavens, shining with all its might. For a midsummer night it was chilly, and having to dunk her hands in the water up to her elbows wasn't doing enough to warm Sakura. Picking up the now clean fox pelt, she got her prepared needle and thread and started to sew away.

'Hiten's changing…to the way that he used to be. He killed without remorse like he used to...' She thought. 'But do I really have a say in this, though? It's not my problem about his personality…right? I shouldn't be poking my head in everything…right?'

Sakura gave a sudden jolt as the needle pricked her finger deeply. She brought her hurt finger to her lips and looked up into the dark sky, as if waiting for a response to her question. Nonetheless, she finished mending the holes in the pelt; and decided that it was getting quite late. Shuffling back to the cliffs where probably one of the thunder brothers would be waiting to bring her back up into the lair, Sakura gave a weak smile to the nothingness.

'Well, at least…he seems to be happy.'

She hoped that her fever would probably get better after a good sleep. It did, actually. She was quite content with her well-being, if it wasn't for the fact that she felt as if she had overslept. The sun hung in the sky and shone brightly, and she wondered if Hiten would be pleased with this kind of weather.

As she looked for the duo and found that she couldn't find either of them, she scowled slightly and headed for the door just as it swung open.

"I'm back early today, Sakura." Manten said cheerfully, pointing to an unconsciousyounggirl slung over his shoulder."And this time, I brought home a lively one for my hair potion."

"Oh really?" Sakura said as she gazed at the passed out girl.Her eyes trailed to the girl's strange outfit, and she frowned slightly with awkwardness when she gazed at the shortness of the girl's skirt. But even still, she gave the girl a pitiful look.

'Poor girl, she's surely going to get eaten.' She thought. Remembering the time when she was first kidnapped, Sakura smirked a bit, but not for long.

"Manten…"

"Hmm?"

"I…never mind." Sakura stuttered, fiddling with her hands. "If you really have to kill her, then please make it quick so she won't suffer."

Manten scratched his head and heaved the victim onto his shoulder. "Well, all right, but I don't see why you would care about this girl. You don't even know her."

"I'm just being sympathetic."

Manten shrugged and went off into his secluded room, the girl on his shoulder, and slammed the door shut behind him. Sakura could hear him locking the door, as she had expected him to do.

Sakura wandered into Hiten's room and flung herself upon the floorbed, stomach to the ground. Twitching once in a while from hearing the bubbling in the room next to Hiten's, she closed her eyes and decided to go to sleep.

"I said, get the hell off me!"

"Hiten, why won't you accept me? You're everything to me!"

"Why the hell must you follow me out of all the men around here?"

Such were the sounds she heard; and the unlocking of a door, probably the front doors; that woke her up mid-sleep. Sakura quickly got up, smoothened out the wrinkles in the huge shirt from Hiten and dashed outside. As she walked past Manten's room, she heard Manten's bellowing and a scream. How she felt sorry for the soon-to-be-victim. As she dared to knock and ask Manten to open the door, she saw Hiten turning the corner.

"Let go of me, you little…"

"Hiten, please!"

The sight was so desperate in Sakura's eyes. Namie was clinging onto Hiten's arm like a thread on a needle, while Hiten was madly trying to brush her off. Namie's desperate, weak expression quickly hardened into an icy glare as she saw Sakura.

"So you're still here." She growled with a smirk, her snake hanging around her waist.

"……yes." Sakura muttered quietly.

The feelings came upon her and pushed at her violently. Never in her life had she thought of such gruesome thoughts.

How she wanted to strangle that snake, how satisfying it would be if she could just crush its head open with a stomp of her bare heel, to feel the snake's guts sqishing against the pressure. How she wanted Namie to burn, to burn in eternal hell where she would never escape from the bloody tormenting of the underworld.

Namie's voice interrupted her thoughts as she snapped back to reality.

"Hiten, why do you keep this girl around?" Namie screeched. "She couldn't even bear you a child; look at her unshapely figure and her lack of poise! Unlike I, who…"

"Be quiet, or Hiten an-chan will surely eat you!" Manten's faint voice rang out from the room.

Hiten smirked. Pulling back his firmly clenched fist, he brought it straight into the wooden door. To her relief, Sakura saw that the girl was frightened but still alive. Opposed to that, though, she saw that Manten was near a huge butcher knife; Manten and butcher knives don't go together, she thought. And not when he's seriously desperate for hair.

"Hello, Manten." Hiten said with a huge smirk on his face. His smirk washed off, though, as Namie clung to his arm again. Through clenched teeth he finished his sentence. "I didn't expect you to be back so soon."

"An-chan, I…I'm just…" Manten stuttered. Sakura looked on at the confusing scene, but in her eyes the strange girl in the short skirt seemed confused and frightened.

"Hmm?" Hiten said, noticing the girl cowering in the corner. "Is this a girl, Manten?"

"Please, an-chan…she's my prey…I need her for my hair potion."

"Don't worry, Manten." Hiten said. "Say, have you found any more shards of the jewel?"

Sakura watched as Manten pondered a bit, and saw that his forehead was glistening with sweat. She knew he was hiding something; and at the moment Manten dared to tell the truth.

"I'm sorry…I found the fox tyke with some shards, but I lost him…"

"You lost…him?" Hiten said as he stepped forward in front of Manten. Sakura stepped into the room and stood by the dried herbs hanging off from the wall as Namie stood in the doorway smirking. Hiten's brow furrowed and he yelled,

"Do you mean to tell me that this girl has blinded you to the shikon shards…that you let them slip out of your fingers?!" Hiten bellowed in livid anger and irritation, and with a swift movement he rammed his fist into Namie's face.

Manten twitched.

The girl in the short skirt screamed and covered her eyes out of horror and fear.

Sakura felt her heart drop to her stomach and felt as if she would hurl at the sight.

Ahaha! Ahahahahaha! (cough) I'm sorry, but that was very stress relieving. And instead of Hiten's arms around her, I wanted her to die a miserable death. Haha! I'm still grinning at the thought of that stupid girl nagging him then getting punched in the face! Ahahaha...(cough)

Thanks for the reviews! You guys are great!