Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.

Chapter 5

"Th-That's the Honors Hall, isn't it?" Hinata whispered. Her eyes, cheeks, and everything on her that could reflect gleamed of the passionate orange from the fire. Sakura nodded and looked back up at the 50th floor. The flames would be well into their feast by now, munching down on the grand chandeliers, the Mulberry silk curtains, and the fine buffet tables. That enormous chocolate fountain by the stage should be one hell of a treat.

Naruto was running after the customers who decided to "slip out" and see the source of the commotion but "forgot" to go back and pay for their meals. His shouts were only a small tenor in the large choir of screams around them. The Honors Hall was ruined. Sakura watched the water from the hose battle he vicious fire; it looked like a silver thread. More firemen were being escalated into the air. Soon, a few other white lines went up to join their skinny mate. Behind the fire engines came the police cars and their loud sirens. What a wild night at Le Grand Hotel – if it was so chaotic out on the road, Sakura couldn't imagine the state on the inside. In the midst of the mishaps at the five-star hotel, the van that flew out from the second floor and the bank robbery blended in with the pavement.

"What should we do?" her shy friend asked.

"Stand here and hope that the fire doesn't burn through the foundation and snap the building in half," Sakura said, feeling sick to the stomach. Guests were evacuated dozen by dozen to Y. They would be fine, but what about the people who lived above 50? Kankuro was on 52, and Bob Herris was on 91. Where did Sasuke live? They couldn't die yet, not until the truth was revealed – if there was one.

Hinata was glancing at the bank now. Sakura did the same and saw an ambulance parked in front of it. "Come one," she murmured, and the two went across the street. Some policemen had halted two medical workers who were carrying a body bag.

"Officer," she began; Hinata was shocked. She thought they were just going to look. "I am Haruno Sakura. I'm a security guard at Le Grand Hotel."

One of the policemen nodded at her. "A couple witnesses were talking about a pink-haired woman with a gun chasing the van. We thought you were a comrade of the culprits who was left behind."

Sakura snorted. Witnesses – ketchup on life's French fries. And the policeman: the only difference between him and her was that he had a badge. It was the shiny kind, Sakura observed when he puffed out his chest. "What would give them that idea?" she questioned.

"Ah, you see," the officer pointed at the white body bag. "This was one of their little friends. We don't know how she got shot, but it'll be clear once the security camera footages are ready."

"Sir, we just need one picture," the other policeman was saying to one of the medical workers, who finally agreed and set the body down. He unzipped the bag down to the corpse's collar bone. Sakura drew in a sharp breath when she saw the face. The officer she spoke to turned to her as his colleague took the photo. "Do you – have you seen her before?"

"Yeah…" Sakura said. It was appalling; the girl was still a kid. "She's this teenager that works – worked…at The Leaf," she pointed at the diner. "She looks different without all the make-up though."

It was an irrelevant comment, Sakura realized from the look on the man's face. In that case… She thought as she opened her mouth again, "My friend Naruto works there. He's a blond guy. You can ask him for details about her."

"Sounds good," his partner said. "Shall we go?"

The officer nodded. He turned and, without even looking at Sakura, said, "Thank you for your cooperation."

"Herris won't spare you…but I will."

…

"I delivered the wrong order that he wanted from the leaf."

The encounter that noon hit her with a pang. "Wait!" she cried out. The policeman looked over his shoulder.

"Thank you, Miss Hotel Security Guard," he called and waved. Then he went on to mumble about guards and how they shouldn't possess guns. If Sakura had a good anything, it'd be good hearing.

"Hmph," she crossed her arms. "Don't listen to the pathetically crucial piece of information I have then."

Hinata tilted her head with curiosity. "What are you talking about?"

"Oh, nothing," Sakura patted Hinata's shoulder.

The ambulance had left and there was not much else to see, so Sakura lead Hinata by the arm back to the other side of the road. They made their way to the foot of the hotel. Sakura was relieved to see that the flames were no longer visible. The ladders were drawn; the fire was probably small enough to be extinguished from the inside of the building. Her temporary happiness vanished when she saw the dark fume rise from the broken windows. The Honors Hall would never be the same. A pitiful loss, she concluded and fixed her eyes on what was in front of her before she could get an aching neck due to too much upwards-staring.

And there he was.

Sakura stopped dead in their tracks. Uchiha Sasuke – he stood in the alleyway between Le Grand Hotel and its neighbor, partially hidden in the shadow. He was looking up at the smoke like it was a masterpiece. As he lowered his face back down, his murky eyes met with her green ones might be more balanced if you put "her green ones" or whatever color Sakura's eyes are. With a smirk, Uchiha Sasuke turned around and faded into the shadows.

- -

"…It was like – he was a chameleon," Sakura said, putting a hand on her hip. "I ran after him but he was gone."

Kankuro made a noise that was somewhat of a cough and a sigh at the same time. His office was warm despite the functioning AC. The heat was traveling from the floor; it felt like being on the track after a storm and the sun was out. Her dear boss couldn't open the windows to liberate the leftover heat from last night's fire – he'd be opening the wall.

"Miss Haruno, although I think it's unnecessary, and I'd much rather have you focus on the celebration tomorrow," he loosened his tie, "but I guess it wouldn't hurt to keep an eye on Uchiha and Herris."

At least Sai wasn't there to flood Kankuro's mind with absurd ideas.

"I'm glad you don't object to my," she paused as her mind protested the use of the word, "'unnecessary' precautions, sir."

"One must keep his underlings happy, wouldn't you say so?" he chuckled to himself. "Alright, if you have nothing more to report, you may go back to work."

"Yes, sir," Sakura sighed.

She gently closed the door behind her and walked down the hall. It still smelled burnt. The elevators stood before her; they weren't affected by the fire. Sakura waited for the ding and when the doors opened, she stepped in. To her surprise, there was someone else in there. That fur coat, roundness, and the cat in her hands – it was Madam Shijimi. Awkward… Sakura smiled out of politeness as she reached for the buttons. Tora's loud hiss scared her and caused her to press 72 instead of 75. She gulped. 20 more floors to go.

After what seemed like a couple eternities of the ma'am eyeing her bony figure and the cat scratching at the coat, the elevator stopped. Sakura flew out; she wanted to kiss the carpet, but god knows what and who had stepped on it. She looked to her left. About fifty meters to the left of where she stood, on the wall on the right, there was an opening. Sakura marched towards it; she knew where it lead to: the glass bridge.

No one was around. Sakura sat down with her legs crossed, her back leaning against the transparent wall. Glass could be pretty strong, she noted, smiling. She stretched; if she could shout with all her might, she would. She was so high above the ground. There were times that she had poked her head out the window on the 99th floor, pondering about the feeling of jumping from it. Those thoughts weren't suicidal; it'd just be cool to fall from an insanely high place, and, right before she landed and turned into a bloody, mushy pulp, fly back up. Dreams, they were – mere dreams. Still, Sakura was very fond of self-discovering and self-bonding moments like that. Romantic reason or not, connecting the two buildings was a genius move.

- -

Sakura folded the wet towel and put it on the chair. She picked up her hairbrush while she checked the time. It was 7:30 PM. She got back around 45 minutes ago to find an empty apartment with a matching empty fridge. Ino wasn't home, her cell phone wasn't on, and Sakura was worried that she might get mad if Sakura ate without her. However, her stomach begged to differ. Maybe she could order pizza, but then she would have to wait.

As she was brushing her wet hair and wrapped in fantasies of exotic delicacies, the front door opened. "Ino, is that you?" she called when she heard the clinking of keys.

"Yeah –"

"Good, 'cause I haven't eaten yet," Sakura whined and left her room. She smoothed her bathrobe and walked down the narrow hall. "Did you happen to buy anything? Please say yes!"

"Um, um, um – I got chips," Ino shook the plastic bag in her hand. "And yogurt."

"Did you get milk? We're out of milk," Sakura grabbed the bag and dug through it. "Actually, we're kind of out of everything. Our fridge is just a cold box."

"You," said Ino as she turned on the TV, "are so needy."

"And hungry. This is so unhealthy, but I guess it'll have to do," Sakura said, pouting at her dinner, which consisted of a bag of chips (original flavor) and two packs of yogurt (also original flavored, though she could not see how yogurt could taste "original"). "I'm going to eat in the bedroom."

"Sure, attract ants, why don't you?"

Rolling her eyes at the bitter tone in her best friend's voice, Sakura returned to the room. Although there were two bedrooms in the small apartment, Ino didn't want to occupy one on her own; she wanted to gossip before going to sleep. Hence, her bed was by the wall and Sakura's was placed horizontally in front of the window. In fact, Ino was most garrulous after the lights were switched off and when they were snuggled up under the bed sheets. The darkness made their bedtime chats extremely exciting. The chats were, no matter how much she hated the fact, Sakura's guilty pleasure. Either way, it didn't change Sakura's wish on having two bathrooms and one bedroom instead of two bedrooms and one bathroom. Her battles with Ino for the bathroom in the morning were rather tiring.

She licked her fingers and crumpled up the bag of potato chips. The noise from the TV had stopped in the living room. Half a minute later, Ino stomped in.

"I'm bored."

Sakura stared at her. "How can I help?"

Ino fell flat onto the bed with a big groan.

"Hard day at work?" Sakura asked and lied down.

"Mmhmm…" Ino sighed into the pillow.

"It was murder. Nothing happened," she sighed. "But that's probably good."

"Your hotel doesn't need anymore trouble after that fire, does it?"

"I don't know why, Ino," Sakura whispered, hugging her cushion close to her chest "I think there's more trouble coming."

"Sakura –"

"I'm tired. I'm going to sleep," Sakura got up to the door and placed her hand on the light switch. "You can stay or leave."

Ino pulled up her sheet. "Turn it off."

The room turned black as she said that. The city lights were visible though their window. Before Sakura drew the curtains, she admired the view. Despite the little glitch in the number of bathrooms, the apartment was quite nice.

"So, Sakura –"

It was the start of their chat.

"Ino, I will only say one thing."

"…What?"

"I saw your boyfriend in the elevator today. Through the camera, I mean."

"My boyfriend? What boyfriend?"

"Shikamaru."

"He's not my boyfriend."

"Uh-huh."

"…What was he doing?"

"Good night, Ino."

"Sakura!"

"Good. Night."

- -

"You look awful," Temari said, her nose scrunched up.

"Appreciate the compliment," Sakura mumbled, rubbing her eye.

They were in the Employee Break Lounge; Sakura was fixing some hot chocolate and Temari, her coffee. Her Super Boss was correct about her appearance. She looked like a stack of pink hay mixed with the wrinkled whiteness that was her uniform. After the itsy-bitsy revelation last night, Ino made sure she didn't get over three hours of sleep. It was one in the afternoon and the Macs 60th anniversary celebration would start at six. Kankuro had reminded her and her colleagues again and again of the importance of leaving good impressions. I've failed you, Boss, she thought, stirring her drink.

"I would take a nap, wash my face, and put on some make-up if I were you," Temari suggested as she put back the cream container for the coffee.

"Thanks for the advice."

Temari frowned. "By the way," she said as she approached the door, "I'd work on that attitude of yours – for the sake of our hotel. You know, the place where you work at. I'll see you at the party."

"I will, I will," Sakura sighed and ogled at the milky brown liquid in her cup.

She waited a few minutes before leaving. The animosity from the frightened guests because of the fire yesterday had faded as the festive atmosphere of the celebration took over. Several important figures had already arrived, Sakura noticed as she passed the lobby. Kurenai, the other manager, was attending to them. Though she couldn't hear them, she knew that they were talking about the ruined Honors Hall. Both the ceremony and the party would have to take place on the top floor of the Y building.

Sakura looked away from her smiling manager and went into the elevator. During the whole ride she only thought of the cause of the fire. The firemen found a burned corpse in the hall. It was one of the hotel securities who was sent to stand guard for the night. Experts were called in to analyze the situation. They discovered a cigarette under the body, which was facing down, and deduced that the fire was started by the cancer stick; it must've fallen onto the floor when the guard dozed of.

Ding.

The elevator had reached the 75th floor. Sakura got off and began walking towards her office. She felt angry that Temari and Kurenai believed the explanation and announced it to everyone. They didn't want to give the customers any more reasons to be startled. For once, Kankuro was on the right track to suspect that something else had started the fire. After all, the guard who died wasn't a smoker.

Sasuke's satisfactory smirk after the fire strongly hinted that something was up. Sakura wished she could find out something about it before the celebration to prevent whatever was going to happen. Her heart sank, however, when she still didn't catch any suspicious movements on the screens after a couple hours had passed. She kept checking the elevators; of course nothing would go on in there. What could the evil guys do – put a bomb in the lift?

She checked her watch – 5:30 PM. I should probably get ready soon, she thought as she tried smoothing a strand of hair that stuck out. Sakura was reaching into her purse for her pocket mirror when she saw two people enter an elevator. The bag fell on to the floor as she leaned forward to the screen. Shikamaru and Ino… From the look of their formal attire, they seemed to be heading to the celebration. Sakura shook her head at her best friend. "He's not my boyfriend!" Oh, Ino, it can't be opposite day forever.

Because of sighting Shikamaru the previous day, Sakura barely slept a wink and fathomed the fact that his teacher, Sarutobi Asuma, was going to propose to Kurenai at the party. It was too much excitement; Sakura had to go see for herself.

- -

Reality never lived up to anticipation – Sakura was well aware of that. When she made Naruto go dance with Hinata, she never meant for him to give her his plate. At first the piece of silverware was delightful, since it kept Sakura company, but when teamed up with her white uniform, it was a disaster. Madam Shijimi was the third person to put her champagne glass on the tray.

Sai passed by earlier. "And you call me a busboy," he had said with a smug face.

Meet Sakura's optimism: a deflated balloon.

"Can you take this for me?"

Sakura's eye twitched when another person set her cup on the platter. "Yes," she said through gritted teeth. She glanced at the woman and raised an eyebrow. "Ino?"

She grinned. "Sorry, I just love the expression on your face when someone puts their glass on the platter."

"This jeopardizes our friendship," Sakura glared.

"Geez," Ino took her drink back. "I wasn't finished with it anyway."

"Any idea where I can get rid of this thing? Naruto got it for food."

"Well, there's the food table."

"My smartness is rubbing off you," Sakura smiled. "Now, come with me. We can get something to eat."

They avoided the waltzing crowd in the middle of the hall. A fountain was at the center; she wouldn't mind throwing a coin in it, but Sakura didn't think she could get through all the happy couples. Love was very powerful.

After the silver platter was returned, Sakura was pumped up to enjoy the party. But when Ino left to find Shikamaru, all the air from her balloon leaked out again. She decided to leave the cheerful room and go back to check the screens.

The elevators in the Y building were identical to the ones in X. She went down to the 72nd floor, crossed the bridge, and climbed up to 75. She kept her fingers crossed for another boring night; at least it would be peaceful and safe.

Sakura's hands turned cold as the doors to Elevator A opened – a lot seemed to go on in that elevator. It was no one special, though. He was just a boy wearing a red suit and holding a tube of hair gel. Not to her surprise, he began fixing his brown hair. People, we have mirrors in the bathrooms for a reason, she thought. The strange thing was, however, he was using tons of it, like he was in a hurry to empty the tube. He pulled out his phone.

"Hello?" he said just as Sakura had pressed the red button.

There was a pause as the person on the other line spoke.

"What floor are you on?" he asked.

The other person took his or her sweet time talking.

"43? Alright," he said and hung up. Not even an "I love you?" Sakura frowned. Maybe it wasn't his secret lover. He then pressed 43, which caused Sakura to deepen her frown; when he entered on the 5th floor, he had pressed 89.

Once he had reached the 43rd level, Sakura gasped. Waiting outside the door was Uchiha Sasuke. The boy glared at him on the way out and hissed, "I am not afraid."

Sasuke smirked and walked in. The elevator doors shut, and he reached to press 72. The elevator was passing 49 when he took out his phone.

I thought the reception was dreadful in elevators, Sakura blinked as the man dialed some numbers.

The recipient picked up. Sasuke put his free hand in his pocket and said, "Mr. Herris, sir, they are ready."

At the mention of the evil man's name, Sakura dared not move a muscle. This might be the thing to ruin the night.

Sasuke stared at himself in the mirror. "Yes, the bombs are set to go off at 11:27."

Sakura rose slowly from her chair with her mouth hanging open; for the slightest second, she swore that he had glanced at the reflection of the camera.

- -

"Kankuro!" Sakura cried, bursting through his office doors. Her boss got up from his couch, alarmed. There were a few people sitting with him, including Kiba and Sai. The representative of Macs, Madam Tsunade, was also present.

"Miss Haruno, what's the matter?"

"Bob Herris and Uchiha Sasuke, they –"

"Not this again," Kankuro sighed. "We have a guest right now, so why don't you come back later?"

"Don't you have glasses of wine to attend to?" Sai asked; Sakura ignored him.

"Boss, you don't understand."

"Oh, don't I?" he shook his head and turned to Tsunade. "Ma'am, I'm terribly sorry."

"No, it's quite fine," Tsunade waved a hand. "Let her say what she has to say."

"Well, Miss Haruno?" Kankuro looked at her expectantly. Akamaru gave a bark of approval.

"They," Sakura paused to try and calm herself down, "have bombs installed in the hotel."

Kankuro fell back into his seat. Kiba tried to laugh it off. "Sakura," he began. "That's – you can't be serious."

"I am. I heard Sasuke confirm it."

"To you?" Sai questioned.

"Uh – n-no…"

Kankuro sighed once more. "Don't be ridiculous," he smiled at Tsunade. "Ma'am, I assure you what she said is not true."

Sakura couldn't believe it. "Why would I kid about explosives?"

"Let's say you're not kidding then –"

"I'm not."

"Okay, okay, but let's just say they – Herris and Uchiha – did put bombs in this highly secured hotel."

"I don't think they themselves put the bombs in," Sakura said, recalling the boy in the red suit.

Kakuro was silent. Sai stepped forward and said, "If you're so positive, then tell us where the bombs are."

"Excellent question, Sai," Kankuro nodded. Sakura secretly agreed. The Uchiha man didn't reveal the location of the bombs before he got off the elevator.

"Sakura?" Kiba called out to her.

"They…I…" she licked her lips. She was stalling; time was ticking away. "I didn't hear."

Kankuro snorted. "What else didn't you hear? The time that it goes off at?"

"No, that I did hear."

"It doesn't matter," Kankuro stood up. "Stop this nonsense now."

"Boss, please, I've never been more serious," Sakura whispered, her nails digging deep into her palms.

"So you stand by your little piece of info then?"

"Yes."

Kankuro rubbed his temples. "You leave me with no choice then – all the trouble you've caused…"

"…Boss?" Sakura did not like where this was going –

"Haruno Sakura, you're fired."

– not one bit.

Author's Note: Uh-oh! What's Sakura going to do? Next chapter, Sasuke and Sakura will actually have some interaction.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed! :) And sorry for not updating in a long time. Hope you liked the chapter!