(S)He's a Liar
A/N: **TEAL AND CHELLE DO NOT SUPPORT THE USE OF TAPE/BANDAGES FOR BINDING. A BINDER IN THE PROPER SIZE WORN FOR NO LONGER THAN 8-12 HOURS IS A MUCH SAFER PRACTICE** Please pay close attention to the times given and the date. We'll be sure to post Friday's or Saturday's. Thanks! :)
12:25am, April 18
Pein finished sending the text to Kuro and Shiro before getting into the car. He doubted any stray Yami members would try to follow him. Cops would be looking to get anyone under arrest. Getting away was the main concern. He just had one more thing to do.
A car pulled up into a driveway. One simple navy blue door, one window closed by familiar gray curtains, and one creaky porch greeted the leader as he walked to view the front of a house. A hand was about to knock before a source of light flickered above him. The door swung open as a long time friend greeted him. "I didn't mean to come so late. I just wanted to drop this off." He extended his arm to offer a thick, wrinkled envelope containing $1,000 dollars. The redhead was surprised when his wrist was pulled (roughly) and the door closed behind him.
The voice began biting into words like crackers. "I'm a single mother with one friend in the entire world. Whenever you visit," strands of hair were tucked behind an ear as the aggression behind the words were lost, "please stay to talk." She turned abruptly to get a box of leftovers along with two cans of soda. Suddenly memories began to cloud over Pein's vision. He felt the burdens and regrets of the present disappear. Time was reversing. The envelope was forgotten in the hand of a little boy named Nagato. He never wanted to leave again.
2:00pm, April 18
Sakura arrived 2:00 sharp. The challenge of Topeng given by Tsunade was daunting and thrilling. But it was odd she would have to meet her boss now and not earlier. The pink haired girl quickly pushed aside that thought. Tsunade was incredibly busy and probably had an important meeting with her higher-ups.
A door clicked open behind the cop and a booming voice came through which made her jump. "Glad to see you early!" Sakura quickly stood up to face her boss. Just behind Tsunade, inside the hallway, Shizune was glaring at Chief's back before she stormed off. "Please take a seat. We've got alot to cover." She returned to her seat still bewildered at Shizune's attitude. "Originally, I was going to have you go under the disguise of a new recruit." Tsunade flicked a manila folder in front of Sakura before sitting behind the desk. "You would've needed to earn their trust, do what they ask, blah blah blah. The entire thing would take too long; Topeng must be stopped before someone else gets hurt. I would like you to be in a position where you can really look into the kind of individuals that join Akatsuki. Find out why the joined, who they're connected to, and if they know the whereabouts of Topeng. Being under disguise as Sasori's relative, you can play off the relationships he had with everyone. He only has 2 living relatives that you can impersonate: his grandmother and his cousin, Himitsu."
"Okay, no problem." Sakura opened the folder to see a picture of Sasori Akasuna. He had a mass of scarlet hair and laid back eyes. A smile played at the corner of his lips. Her eyes scanned the rest of the page to reveal no criminal record whatsoever. What was even more strange was how much more detail the paper went into. There was a long list of addresses, phone numbers, where he went to college, past jobs and many more. Sakura had to wonder how and why the police knew this much about him. Maybe it was a special interrogation?
"Himitsu is a boy." This got Sakura's attention. She had to become..a boy?
"I don't mean any disrespect..but..are you sure you have the right person for this?" She felt the doubt begin to seep into her. To go under the disguise as a boy was incredibly risky. She had to make it convincing or her life could be at risk. No, you got this. Sakura remembered all that led up to this point. She could take down Topeng. Sakura would not let anyone down.
"Don't worry. An old friend of mine has someone that can help you." Tsunade's smile beamed and the soon-to-be Himitsu slowly nodded.
2:05pm, April 18
As Shizune was leaving KPFI's main building, she dialed her boyfriend. They've been going for a steady 10 months now and she felt quite confident that they would stay together for some time.
"Hello?"
"Hi," She hesitated on saying a cute nickname then decided fully against it, "turns out I'm off the rest of the evening. So do you want to go out for lunch?" A chuckle was heard from the other side of the phone.
"Yeah, I could go for some food right now. What do you want?" Warmth filled the assistant's chest. Her boyfriend always added that last sentence whenever they were planning. It was exactly the opposite at her stupid work with her stupid boss.
"Surprise me. Let's just meet at the park, okay?"
"Alright, see you soon!" Fondness seeped into every word. Honestly, how did Shizune manage to get this guy to like her?
"Bye." Shizune pulled the phone away from her ear and hung up. A 10 minute walk to the park wouldn't be that bad. It would probably help to clear her head.
2:24pm, April 18
The rose haired girl walked into the building at first feeling very nervous. Tsunade was real tough when she wanted to be. Would her friends be the same way? She approached the front desk where a girl greeted her. Her blue hair was almost as stunning as her amber eyes. She carefully recited the words Tsunade told her to say in her head before letting them escape her mouth. "Hi, I'm here to see Jiraiya." She offered a heartwarming smile and pointed to the hallway on her left.
"Take one of the elevators to floor 5. Jiraiya will be in there."
"Thank you!" As she walked down the hallway she couldn't help but notice the extravagance of the place. Whoever Jiraiya was, he must be rich! Even the elevator trip was a beauty itself.
As she walked down the hallway of the 5th floor, Sakura noticed open doors and could hear the faint sound of camera clicks. There were murmurs of 'beautiful' and 'fantastic' the closer she approached. When she walked into the room the first thing she took note of was the giant, obnoxious fan to the right of her. It blew a slow gust of wind strong enough to reach the model a short walking distance away. The model was gorgeous. Royal blue eyes, delicate rose petal lips, and an endless stream of gold hair complimented the altogether attractive face. Striking pose after pose, Sakura couldn't help but gawk. Then the eyes landed on her for a brief moment. The model quickly shifted her eyes away toward the camera shifting into another position and with one final movement extended her arm out toward the man behind the camera. It was the signal to stop. She stepped down from the stage area. The stunning woman was barefoot as she padded over to Sakura. The closer she got the more butterflies that spread in Sakura's stomach. Then suddenly she halted. Sakura stared mesmerized in those vibrant eyes. What beautiful hair. Her delicate face broke into a grin. What a beautiful smile. She wrapped her arms around Sakura in a warm embrace.
"Sakura! What are you doing here?" The voice boomed in a deeper voice than Sakura pictured it to be. In fact it sounded incredibly familiar. Her eyes widened as the girl pulled off a wig and stared at her. A closer inspection of the face revealed a chiseled jaw with a stronger build. This was a man. More importantly, this was
"Naruto?" Sakura stepped back. She had nearly fallen in love with a girl that wasn't even a girl. She had half a mind to slap him across the face and another half to unsee Naruto and to once again come face to face with the angel. A man was approaching from behind the deceiving one. He was an older man with a mess of long white hair.
"Nice to meet you, I'm Jiraiya." This was the man that was 'old friends' with her boss? The highly regarded Tsunade herself? One of the first women to make it to the top position of KPFI? And her friend was...taking pictures of a cross dressing male nearly naked. He was definitely a pervert.
"Uhm…" Sakura was speechless. Thankfully, before the awkward interaction dragged on too long, Naruto interjected.
"So, I hear you wanna become a man?"
"No." Nonononononononono ABSOLUTELY NO!
2:30pm, April 18
Shizune laughed as her boyfriend wrapped an arm around her. Food from a local vender tasted great with the bottle of pop they shared together. Her boyfriend wasn't the richest, so whenever they went out it was at more...affordable places. This didn't bother her at all. Being able to go out to a fancier place was nice and all, but she would rather be happy than in debt. They sat down at a bench facing the man-made lake right in the middle of Sahow Park. "Why're you so down?"
"My boss is just a complete idiot." Shizune made sure to add a grimace so he knew how displeased she was. "She has no regards toward the safety of others." He gave a sympathetic half smile.
"That crazy, huh?"
"Even if I can look past what she's doing, I can't drop how she won't listen to me no matter what-" Shizune realized the arm around her was brought back to her boyfriend's side. She had shrugged him off to continue with her long speech. "Er...sorry about that. I know you don't like to hear about my work."
"I don't mind listening to you." He gave a smile of reassurance. There was an awkward silence filling around them. Needing to dispel this to gain back intimacy, Shizune fired off a topic that came into mind.
"Did you know a kid was murdered here today?" Great, that would surely spark a conversation in order to deepen their relationship.
"Really? I didn't see it on the news."
"I think we're going to speak about it around 7:00." She tried to recall what it was. "Maybe Tsunade's going to speak in person? I don't remember." He smiled and kissed her hand lovingly. "Anyways how's your day?" This time inky eyes actually studied the face of her partner. Her head tilted a bit and her eyebrows furrowed as he started to explain about work. "Wait what's this?" She pointed at a freshly made cut half the size of her pinky, but deep enough to scar.
"Oh," He frowned and touched the underside of his chin. "It was just some weird guy. He tried to pull a knife on me while I was getting the food."
"What? Did you see his face? If you tell me his description-"
"Honestly," He pulled her once more to his chest, "I'm just happy to spend an afternoon with you."
"Did he want money from you?" This city was so dangerous! Even in broad daylight people had the guts to pull something like that off.
"Not sure, probably was just with the wrong person at the wrong time." Shizune felt a flash of anger. Great, both her boss and boyfriend were too carefree. One day something might actually happen to them.
5:00pm, April 18
Sakura was ready to die. Pieces of rose hair remained (along with her dignity) in snippets at the foot of the chair she was sitting on. Yes, she did have it short before but this...this was really short! "Is this really necessary? Couldn't I just have put on a wig or something?" Too late for interjections now, the dye was already in her hair. Naruto was pulling the foil off revealing, much to her dismay, chestnut colored hair.
"But wouldn't someone who's seen you before easily identify you? You have bright pink hair." Sakura shut her eyes partially so that she couldn't witness the horror that was occurring and partially to keep the tears from flowing. After some time, Naruto clapped his hands signalling that the deed was done.
She looked like a boy. Short, brown hair actually made a difference in the way she perceived herself. "Alright, now that we've taken care of your face, let's work on your appearance!" Naruto stood her up and pulled out a measuring tape. He paid careful attention to her chest area.
"What are you-"
"This is an extremely important part. I don't want to hurt you." He took more measurements around her chest area. The blonde then moved on to present to her a duffel bag. "There are outfits paired together in here. We have to see which style suits you first." She began walking before a strange cloth was put in front of her. "Don't forget to wear this too. It's a binder to hide your upper chest." She took the duffel bag out of his hands.
"Okay let's see what you have on!" The (now) brunette walked out of a washroom.
"Layers are always good! Don't wear anything too tight and swimming is off limits." She promised to never hang out with her childhood friend again until maybe 3 weeks after this is all forgotten. After taking off and putting on numerous 'male' associated things, most were given the okay to wear. "You look the part. Let's hear and see how you talk."
"Uh like," Sakura tried a lower voice, "...like this?"
"Put more confidence: like you've always sounded this way."
"Like this."
"Now walk towards me and introduce yourself." A blush started to form on the girl's face. She backed up and walked toward him. "No, you have to distribute that energy throughout your body." he demonstrated this by walking toward Sakura, "You can emit power through movement in your shoulders." Green eyes filled with more determination. She backed up and started again.
"Hi, I'm Himitsu."
Additional Note: Okay, so maybe the idea of a crossdressing Sakura might seem a little odd. Sorry about such a late post. Next week we'll be focusing on Akatsuki!