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Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto nor do I own the Naruto story line.

Chapter Nineteen:

Drowning In This Pain

It took us nearly an hour to locate Naruto who was practically bouncing off every wall or building he came across- and it took us nearly another hour to convince him to come back to the inn.

The excitement of his new family had him more hyper than normal.

By the time we had made it back to the inn we saw that a woman about the same build as the bar maid, Mai, yelling furiously at Aiko, which in my defense I didn't mean to ease drop on their conversation, but she was yelling so loud that I couldn't block her voice out of my head.

"Don't give me your shit!" she yelled, her hair was thin, and unruly, the same shade of the unnatural color orange that Naruto always wore, "Where are the people you hired?"

Aiko, after running his hand through his dark hair, met the woman's extremely dull brown eyes with his own gray ones as if deciding whether or not he should answer her.

When he didn't even try to make an excuse, she went on with her ranting, "They're not here are they? I should have known better than to leave your sorry ass in charge while I was away scouting for new talent! And what am I suppose to tell our costumers, huh? They're expecting a show tonight and we don't have one!"

"Beggin' 'our pardoned," Mai broke in, she herself looked nervous talking to the woman, who I had guessed to be the owner of the pub, "but wez 'ust hired some new people."

"Oh really," her voice was deadly as she whirled around to met the bar maid's gaze, which Mai instantly dropped to her feet, "Where?"

"Yes," Aiko said catching onto what his two employees had thought to do before he had, "There are our new workers!"

The woman looked at where he had pointed- needless to say he had pointed to us.

She walked over to me, circling the boys and me her eyes scanning our bodies with curiosity- the truth is I didn't like her eyes scanning over Gaara more than Naruto. There was something in those dull eyes that lit up as she went behind him and I didn't like it. In fact I wanted to rip those eyes out of their sockets, but with held my urge as she finally stopped.

"The two boys are fine for their jobs as waiters," she said as she went over to Aiko's side, "But the girl is just a little plain in some areas."

"What did you just say?" I growled, nearly pouncing on the woman only to be stopped by Naruto, who was holding me by the waist.

"Yeah but she's got fight," Aiko offered up hopefully as he looked at me.

My anger was boiling, if they had been implying the job that I thought they were, I would have taken them all out, it was a good thing that they wasn't.

Seeing my anger and the boys' anger the woman said, "Don't worry honey we only need you to perform on stage."

"Perform what?" it was Gaara's voice that had asked that question, and it sounded as if he himself was ready to kill.

"We need her to sing," Aiko said as he got up from where he sat, "And we need you two to be waiters, you think you can handle that?"

"Yes," I hissed at him.

"Good," the woman said as she got up from her seat as well, "Mai, Tokko I want you two to take her in the back and get her ready alright? You have exactly four hours to prepare the show starts at six O'clock, no sooner or later."

Mai, along with the girl Tokko, each grabbed my arms and began to drag me off to the back away from the boys that Aiko was talking to.

"Don't worry," Tokko assured me with a smile, "It'll be fine."

As we reached the back, Mai left me in the hands of the green eyed blonde who I assumed to in her early twenties, maybe her late teens. She took me to a back room with several mirrors and a large wardrobe full of performing clothes.

"So what's your name?" Tokko was extremely talkative as she threw out several dresses out of the wooden closet.

"Sakura," I was distracted some what by the idea of performing in front of a crowd, the woman hadn't even asked if I could sing or not, she had just thrown me to the job just as meat was thrown to a lion's din.

She must have sensed my thoughts because she had finally stopped throwing dressing out of the closet and was now looking at me, "Don't worry, it'll be fine! Nobody comes here for the music, they come for other things."

She winked at me.

I felt a blush on my cheeks, so I reached down for a dress that had caught my eye as if flew through the sky and landed on the floor.

The dress went halfway between my knee and my upper thigh, it was deep crimson with ebony, gold, pink, and silver flowers all over it- but what kind of flowers I didn't really know- it had long sleeves that slowly expanded as they went down the arm and the top was styled like a traditional Chinese dress.

It was indeed a very beautiful dress.

Tokko moved on to a dresser made of oak, again throwing several items through the air as she searched for something, "Anyways, so who are those cute guys you're traveling

with?"

I blinked at her as I picked up two long black leg warmers that, if worn on me, would have reached about two inches above my knee, "Cute guys?"

"Yeah," she said, placing a jeweled hair clip on the dresser, "That blonde guy and that hot red head."

I looked up at her, she had her back to me as she continued to rummage through a drawer, "Oh you mean Naruto and Gaara?"

"Are those their names?" she placed several different make-up items onto the top of the dresser where the hair pendent was, "They got girls?"

"Uh," I didn't want to tell her Gaara didn't so I decided to lie to her a little, "Naruto is getting married to a girl back home, and Gaara and I well-"

I stopped, wishing that we were really what I was implying; I could feel a blush on my cheeks and I was very glad that she hadn't seen it as she went over to several pair's of shoes in the corner.

"Oh," she said, she had sounded halfway disappointed, "What village are you from."

I knew I couldn't tell her the truth, but then what could I say?

If I told her the truth then the mission was endanger and I couldn't let that happen.

She didn't notice as I fell silent, and finally after deciding on a pair of deep crimson shoes with a high heel she said, "Alright try that dress on with those stockings and those shoes."

As I peeled away my clothes, I could feel her eyes gazing at me.

"How'd you get that scar?" she asked.

I knew exactly what scar she was talking about.

It was the very scar that came from the very wound I had received the night of Sasuke's betrayal.

I didn't have time to respond before her next question, "Are you a ninja? I wanted to be a ninja but I was never fast or cunning so they kicked me out of the academy so I came here to work. A girls gotta make a living honest or not."

"Yeah," I replied sliding the dress over my head.

I really didn't feel like talking that much anymore.

"Wow," she said as she circled my body, "That dress looks awesome on you!"

"Thanks," I was blushing from her praise.

"Come on," she said as she grabbed my hands and pulled me to a chair in front of a small mirror, "Let me do your make up and hair then you can practice your song!"