Assassins Glory

NG: Do I own Naruto? Ummm no.

Chapter 3: Like a Puppet on a String.

It was warmer than she thought it would be, death that is. And she didn't expect the pain to be there either…aren't you not supposed to feel anything when you were dead? It was a question to ponder while in hell. Sakura had no illusions of going to heaven, not after all the people she's killed.

There were people talking near her too. Their voices were muted and she couldn't make out what they were saying. Damn that was annoying. Sakura focused on the sounds and slowly she could begin to make them out. One was a woman speaking in a quiet voice, almost a whisper. The other was a man whose voice was familiar but she couldn't…place it…oh now she knew.

"…placed her in the west wing." The woman said.

"Good," The male replied, "How is his condition."

"Nii-san is currently in the monitor room with Shikamaru-san. He wanted to make sure the two trespassers didn't have back up."

There was silence, Sakura assumed the man nodded. By now she had figured out she wasn't dead. And that pissed her off, because that meant she was captured, and by the sound of it so was Tenten and their credibility was shot. Also if the rumours about these guys were true…she was in for a lot of pain.

'I wonder if I can bite my tongue off without them noticing?' she pondered to herself. Keeping her eyes closed she continued to pretend she was still knocked out as she listened in. Maybe there was a way to salvage this.

"What do you wish to do with…"

"Never you mind Hinata." Uchiha Sasuke said in his arrogant, cold, smooth, sexy voice that pissed her off. It appeared the girl, Hinata or whatever knew a dismissal when she heard one. Smart girl. Sakura heard the door close and the latch lock into place with a small snick. She counted to twenty making sure there was no one else in the room with her. She than counted yet another thirty to get a mental feel of the room. She was on a large bed judging from the depth of which she had sunk into the mattress, to her left approximately eight feet away a clock was ticking away the seconds, and to her right approximately three feet away was a window. The breeze blew gently over her still features as she breathed deeply and evenly. It was open obviously, that meant escape. But what about Tenten…she would come back later and get her friend out. Unconsciously she clenched her fist as she prepared to bolt.

"It's no use pretending your asleep," Sasuke said from across the room from where he had stood before. Jigs up. Sakura didn't even look at him she just acted.

Leaping from the bed, slightly hampered by its size which explained why she was placed in the exact center most likely, she reached for the window ledge. A strong arm wrapped itself around her waist and threw her back onto the bed. Sakura rolled backwards off the bed once again and landed on her feet crouching and she eyes the Uchiha who watched her with an appraising look.

"Very good," he said with a smirk. Sakura narrowed her gaze at him and reached for a knife that must have missed their apparent search of her for weapons. She drew the extremely thin blade from its pouch that hung around her neck and between her breasts, and threw it straight for the Uchihas head. He stepped back slightly surprised and caught it and inch from his face.

When he looked back to where she was to glare at her she wasn't there anymore. A kick to his stomach sent him back against the wall.

"Not this time," He gritted out, clasping his hand around her ankle and giving it a sharp twist. Sakura yelped and he released her leg leaving her on the floor.

"Son of a-" she began that bit the inside of her cheek. It was probably not a smart thing to tick off your captor when you were already at a disadvantage.

"Not the way I had wanted to greet you," Sasuke told her, looking down at her as she held her ankle. She glared at him an told him to do something rather unpleasant. His eyebrow quirked, not many people had the galls to talk to him like that…well maybe a certain blond moron but he didn't count. It was kind of refreshing in a weird way.

"You done?" he asked her when she had her fill. The pink haired girl just rolled her eyes and fell back onto her back and glared up at the ceiling but at least she had stopped swearing at him. Sasuke sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, this was going to be painful he just knew it. Might as well get the mundane questions out of the way first. "Who are you."

"Your death," She answered.

"What's your name?"

"Not on the first date." She smirked at this one and gave him a sarcastic wink.

"Why are you here?"

"Duh you brought me here."

"Who do you work for?"

"Me. And my partner I guess."

"Who hired you?"

"Wouldn't you just love to know?"

"Why is your hair pink?"

"I was born this way. Why thinking of copying me?"

"Why are you trying to kill me?"

"Because that's my job."

"Who hired you?"

"Back to that? What bored all ready?"

Clearly this was going no where. And he really didn't want to send her down to the cages that would seriously dampen his plans of getting her to work for him.

"What do you want?"

She was actually silent on this one. Her face looking blank and her eyes glazed over and a small smile spread across her face. Sasuke had a split second to react when she replied.

"To die." He grabbed her jaw and slammed his hand in her mouth as he prevented her from biting through her tongue. Her teeth sunk into the flesh between his thumb and forefinger.

"Ow," he grimaced. It really hurt. She glared and him with a wicked spark in her eye. Than it was his turn to glare.

The little wench wasn't planning on killing herself! She just wanted to see how far he would go to keep her alive! She released his hand and threw her head back and began to laugh. He cradled his hand to his chest and began to inspect the wound. It was clean and not torn but it needed to be cleaned since she broke the skin. He stood and walked to the jug of water near the door. Grabbing a cloth napkin he soaked it in the water before wrapping it around the bleeding would. She was still laughing when he had finished.

"What's so funny?" he snapped at her. She stopped laughing and lifted herself off the floor giggling as she eyed him with a no small amount of hilarity in her expression. Heck she wasn't even trying to hid her smile.

"I got you to say ow!" She laughed again. One short laugh. "You must really want me for something if you would go that far just to keep the person who tried to kill you alive? I won't tell you who hired me so don't bother trying." Sasuke continued to glare at her in stony silence. Sakura rolled her eyes.

"My name's Sakura, Haruno Sakura." She told him, "I'm here because I was hired to kill you." She grinned at him, "But you already knew that so I have no idea why you asked in the first place. And what do I want? Well if you play nice I'll tell ya." Sasukes stare turned into an incredulous stare.

'What the hell? This girl just tried to kill her self even if that wasn't her intention, she just admitted to trying to kill him when all the others sent to do the job begged and pleaded that they weren't. what was wrong with her?'

"Though I must ask if I may, why am I here in the superbly epic room instead of your cages? I can only conclude you want something from me and my partner." She told him intentionally answering her own question, daring him to contradict her. Sasuke decided he wasn't going to play her game.

"Why didn't you escape while I was cleaning my hand? I couldn't have stopped you." Sasuke asked. Sakura rolled onto her front and propped her head onto her hands.

"You kept me alive so far for a reason Uchiha Sasuke. You stopped me from biting my tongue you didn't throw me to the dogs…I'm curious as to what you want. That's all."

"That's all?" he repeated.

"Yep."

"You're not worried about your friend?" he asked.

"No. I know Ten. No way she's dead."

"So sure…"

"Mmmm hmm." Sasuke shook his head. He needed fresh air. This girl was nothing like he expected, he needed time to clear his head.

"I'll send someone up with food and drinks." He told her walking to the door.

"'Kay! Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out!" She called after him cheerfully.

X~X~X

"What a nut job…" Sasuke muttered as he walked into the monitor room. Shikamaru looked up at him.

"What the pink haired girl?"

"Yeah," Sasuke nodded ,"She freaking bit me!" he showed them his hand.

"Kinky," Naruto said from the corner.

"Dude what the hell?" Kiba asked the blond.

"Why would she bite you?" A brunette with long hair reaching his waist asked. His eyes were curiously pale like his cousin.

"To test me apparently," Sasuke told his partner dryly.

"Yeah her partner is a piece of work too," Hyuuga Neji said.

"Do I want to know?"

"Not really." The pair grimaced.

X~X~X

In her room on the west end of the mansion Tenten paced her room biting her thumb nail. Her mind was running a mile a minute. Many things could have happened that night before but now they were screwed, how they had gotten wind of their attack was beyond Tenten. But that wasn't the pressing point on her mind at the moment. Right now she was worried about her partner locked up on the other side of the building. Knowing the pinkette, she was riling up her investigator and annoying him to death in hopes that she'll gain something from it. Or she would be doing it for fun. Tenten sighed. Either way it wasn't a great scenario.

The fact that the one to interrogate her was Hyuuga Neji himself raised an alarm bell in Tentens' mind. The leaders of a high profile gang didn't interrogate petty assassins. But then again they didn't put them up in kicks ass quarters either. Tenten thought with a quick wry look around the room. All the furnishing were made of wood. Illegal these days because of the tree shortage and the G.G's attempts to rebuild the forests. Good luck to them on that one. Her bed was bigger than king sized with four posters and plush velvet curtains. Antiques lined the room on more wood furnishing. Hell they even had katana hanging from the wall! Talk about trust! Or arrogance.

Frustrated Tenten sat down on a chair near the window…the open window and thought darkly about the consequences now they were caught and the reasons behind why they were still alive.

"I don't like this at all…" Tenten muttered to herself.

X~X~X

Sasuke re-entered the room where they were holding Haruno Sakura. A fresh linen bandage wrapped around his hand. She was sitting on the bed with a book in her lap apparently engrossed in the text. Sasuke recognized the book as a vampire story.

"Back for more pointless questions?" Sakura asked him not even bothering to look up from her book. Sasuke decided not to answer that and just leaned against the wall watching her.

"How's your hand?" She asked suddenly as she turned the page. Sasuke grunted and she finally glanced up at him. And she watched him watch her for a minute. Sasuke, getting slightly creeped out, decided to break the silence.

"The government?" he asked. Sakura slammed the book shut and swung herself off the bed. Sasuke could barely see the title of the book before she flung it at him.

"I knew it!" She yelled dramatically pointing at him. Sasuke caught the book as easily as he had her dagger and placed the priceless first addition of Silver Bullet down.

"Knew what?" he asked.

"I knew you knew who sent us!" She said with a wide grin on her face, "So what was with the pointless questions if you already knew huh?"

"I wanted to know how you responded in interrogation." He told her.

Sakura snorted, "Not much of an interrogation. She told him walking over to the wall by the window and picked up her glass off the tray now devoid of food and took a swing. Sasuke raised a brow.

"Now why would the I.B.I want to take us out. We have only been the closest of friends." He asked sarcastically. What was it about this woman that made him act so out of character?

"Bio-weapon." Sakura replied softly. For some reason she didn't want it to be true. She didn't want to find out this man was willing to sell a weapon that could kill thousands just for cash.

"Ah," he said, "That. Thought so." Sakura felt her chest constrict with an unknown emotion when she realised she enjoyed this mans company, and she now had to kill him one way or another or he would be responsible for an act of pure evil. Sure she killed people for a living but she didn't commit mass genocide for a few bucks. At least the people whose lives she had ended wore scum bags.

"So it's true." She said, fighting to keep her voice bland. The Uchiha didn't fail to notice this. "You're going to buy than sell a bio-weapon that will kill countless people." She chuckled darkly, "You bastard."

"Buy, yes. Sell, no." Sasuke said with a frown. He didn't like her thinking him bad for some reason. She pivoted and raised a brow.

"Why?" she demanded still holding her glass. "There's no profit." Sasukes frown deepened.

"Even I find something's disturbing." He said, "Even I find that some weapons should never exist. We are buying that weapon to get it off the market." He told her as he left his position by the door and walked further into the room. "Can you imagine what some people could do with a weapon like that?" He stopped by her bed and glared at the wall lost in thought. "No way are we letting some psycho out there get his hands on it."

"So what you guys are the good guys?" Sakura asked sarcastically to hide her relief.

"Please you'll ruin my image." Sasuke muttered, "There's still profit." Sasuke told her with a shrug, "We dismantle the weapon, dispose of the biological element and sell the parts. That actually makes us more money than the entire thing whole."

"You have a plan for everything don't you?" Sakura asked slightly stunned. Again the Uchiha shrugged.

"It's a living. What about you?" he asked. Sakura blinked.

"What?"

"Why do you do this?" Sasuke asked sitting down lazily on Sakura's bed, "a pretty girl like you shouldn't be mixed up in this kind of crap." Sakura giggled and shook her head from her position by the wall, her hair flying lightly free of the bun.

"It's a living," she replied, "right?" Sasuke pondered this for a moment.

"But why the government?" he asked her narrowing his gaze. Sakura rolled her eyes.

"Although they're not our ideal clients, and they're not our only ones mind you," she shot him a dazzling white smile, "But even the highest governments have their dirty little secrets. I have nothing against you personally Uchiha but complete immunity from investigation and arrest is nice." Sasuke was silent after that. Sakura took a drink from her glass then set it down on the table beside her.

"So," she began, "When are you going to kill us?"

End of chapter

NG: Kay people I have gotten a couple comments about Neji and Tentens' relations ship. Let me make this clear. This is a SasuSaku story. 'kay. This will focus on them. Although I will add the occasional NejiTen in there.