I really enjoy writing Ino. She's just so fun! And yes, I know this is short-ish compared to the other chapters, but I don't care. RAWR. So there. XP
Disclaimer: Hiss.
Dedication: To chap-stick, late nights, early mornings, and pretty boys.
P.S.: "That's a genetic impossibility." "…You're a genetic impossibility!" -Eleni to me.
P.P.S. My brother just killed my craptop. Someone is going to die.

---

"You summoned me, sire?" The smooth, dark voice said, quiet, quiet. The mockery on the word 'sire' was almost indistinguishable, but it was there, like laughter in the dark.

"Ah, Lord Uchiha, yes, I did. You spoke to the Princess Sakura last…" the arrogant man said, as he looked at the Uchiha boy. If anyone had the motivation to find that little Princess, it was the boy in front of him.

"What does that girl have to do with anything?" the boy inquired, apathetically.

"She's gone, Lord Uchiha, her Ladies with her. Disappeared; and with her parents dead… The royal families at Court are… upset, you understand?"

"…So?"

"She's wanted for questioning. And the little Princess stole something from the alchemist - she could be anywhere, right now."

The dark-eyed boy stared at the current leader, bored. "So?" he asked, again.

"So I want you to bring her back. A Kingdom needs its Princess, you understand. And you two are still very much engaged. The alchemist will give you what you need to find her."

"…Hn," the boy grunted, and the arrogant man almost smiled to himself.

Yes, people were so easy to manipulate. So, so easy. "Ah, Lord Uchiha-!" the arrogant man called, as the Uchiha boy had turned and was leaving the domed throne hall. His voice echoed and echoed eerily, and the boy turned back to him, apathy infused into his features.

"What?" the boy asked.

"Do bring her back alive, won't you? And you ought to bring your most trusted friends with you - the Lady Sakura has five Ladies-In-Waiting, and they're sure to help her. I don't want you to die."

The Uchiha boy looked entirely bored, but the arrogant man saw the slight inclination of the boy's head as an affirmation of what he wanted.

After the boy was gone, the arrogant man chuckled to himself. Well, that ought to take care of the heirs of most of the lines - if they died, so much the better.

Ah, everything was working out just so very perfectly…

---

It was hours later that Ino burst back into the small apartment they'd taken up residence in; her eyes were sparkling, she was bouncing about, and she was dragging poor Tenten and Karin with her. There were also about twelve bags stuffed with- well, stuff, being pulled behind the three girls.

Sakura, Temari, and Hinata, sitting at the table, -going over some very odd documents that seemed to be exactly to Temari's taste-, looked up, and stared at her.

Ino smiled at them beatifically, the air around her sparkling faintly.

"You guys will never guess what I found!" Ino announced, and Sakura shot a fearful glance at Tenten. Whenever Ino got in a mood like this one, it was normally better -or so the girls had learned- to just entirely let her have her way.

No one said anything, and Ino began to pout. Hinata sighed, rolled her pale-moon eyes, and decided to place the slowly-getting-annoyed blonde. "What did you find, Ino?"

A smile flitted across Ino's lips, and Hinata caught the grateful looks sent at her from all the others in the room. Sometimes, really, Ino was entirely impossible to handle. This was one of those times.

Ino opened one of the bags she was holding with a flourish, and pulled out a vest.

"Clothes. You found clothes, Ino. Is that it?" Sakura asked, bored. Ino's many experiences with clothing had given Sakura the right to ignore her, she thought.

Ino shot her a hurt look. "It's not just clothes, Sakura! They're clothes that'll help us fit in!"

Tenten shook her head. "I managed to sway her away from buying really weird things, I promise! And we got some food, too."

Sakura's head shot up. "Food?! Where?!"

Ino glared at the lot of them. "No!" she almost-shouted, and set her jaw. "You all have to try on the clothes, first. I need to know if they fit!"

Sakura and Temari -both engrossed in dissecting SyberSity's economy- were not amused. "Ino, we don't have time for this! We need to find a way to make-!"

Hinata decided it was time to intervene. "Guys! Stop fighting! This is ridiculous! What would your parents say if they saw you? For goodness sake's, you do need clothes, and Ino is right! We do need to fit in!"

Ino stuck her tongue out at Sakura, and proceeded to smirk at them all, around the room.

Hinata saw this, rubbed her temples, and said "You're not right, either, Ino. We do need to make some money, but you guys need to learn some balance! It has to be both! This is so ridiculous!"

That stopped Ino from smirking, right there, and she blinked groggily at Hinata. "Hey, Hinata, when did you grow a backbone?" she asked, honestly curious.

Sakura shuddered, and said "She's always had a backbone, Ino. You've just never seen her mad… I'll never be the same… All those horrible, horrible dresses…"

Hinata smiled, her cheeks pinking faintly. Well, it was nice to be praised, after all.

Even though her friends were looking at her like she wasn't herself, Hinata just smiled.

---

Temari's fingers flew over the keyboard; somehow, Ino had brought home what Temari presumed was the basis of this whole world - a computer. It had taken her almost no time to set the thing up, and now she was flicking through slipstream after slipstream of information.

This world was so much better suited to her brain then home had ever been. There was just something about the way that everything was so slick -it was attuned to her very thoughts, her very emotions-; Temari smirked a little, and pulled the goggled that had come with the computer down over her eyes.

Slick and black, they fit around her face snugly, and her vision of the real world disappeared in a flash of brilliant, sky blue.

It went entirely dark for a second, and then Temari found herself deep in the recesses of the computer's brain. It was lightning-fast and almost entirely visual – hot-fire neon pinks, greens, yellows; all against stark black.

Temari had never felt more at home then right at that moment. This was absolutely what she was good at –finding information, putting it together with other information, and making new information from the manufactured ideas.

It was this principle of synthesis that the Whorld-Chronometer was built on.

The muscles in Temari's face pulled down into a frown. Hm, the interconnectedness of all the computer hot-pink links seemed to point to one single thing – the SyberWorld. Temari cautiously moved her hand forward, and touched the air in front of her, where the SyberNet picture was hanging.

Icon, whispered the Net. Not picture – icon.

Temari blinked, and nearly shoved the glasses off her face. She was not used to things talking when they weren't supposed to be – but apparently, the SyberNet was a sentient being.

It glimmered, a little, the consciousness; it was huge and oppressive and all encompassing. Temari's chest felt tight, and drawing breath was strangely difficult.

Chrome, it murmured again. I am Chrome, small one. And you are?

Temari understood that she didn't have to speak aloud – this was all in her head, anyways. She smirked mirthlessly to herself; so she really was going crazy.

Temari answered 'Desert Lily'. There was no hesitation in her mental voice as she gave her childhood nickname, and she felt the satisfaction that radiated off the Net's sentient, formless form.

Lovely,Chrome murmured gently, and Temari felt a blast of dry, desert air flit across her face. For a single second, nostalgia ruled Temari's mind, as she remembered her childhood in that hot, dry, sandy desert where she was born. For that single second, Temari thought of nothing but summer nights spent praying for the illusive sight of rain, and the lingering scent of campfire smoke caught on the wind.

Chrome's soft humming brought Temari back to her semblance of reality.

'What now? Temari asked, curiously, cautiously.

She felt Chrome smile in response, again. Play, small one. Find your calling in the depths of this reality. You'll find you enjoy it. All will be well.

The overwhelming consciousness receded, and Temari found herself almost gasping for air. Chrome was a very imposing being, Temari realized. But she –Temari simply knew that Chrome was female– was a wise imposing being. And there was much merit to her words.

And so, in that endless stretch of hot-neon-colour on black, Temari decided to begin.

It wasn't until hours later that Temari was pulled from the Net; Hinata had come back to their room a littler earlier then expected. She had been horrified to find that Temari was still entirely glued to the computer.

Hinata pulled the goggled off Temari's face, and watched as the genius' eyes adjested to the relative darkness of the room.

She waited until Temari had stopped blinking, to say, rather firmly "Enough. You need sleep."

Temari nodded numbly. She let Hinata lead her to her nest of blankets and pillows in one of the corners. Her head was still buzzing with SyberWorld language, customs, and feeling. She still had so much to learn – Temari was infinitely glad she had such a large brain, right then. It made this whole learning much easier.

As she curled up in her little bubble, Temari's last, sleepy thought was that Chrome was right. As long as they went with the flow, everything would be fine.

Temari smiled quietly in her sleep.

---

Time was strange, in this world, Sakura thought. Nothing was on an ordinary time track – most business was conducted at night. That was the only time when the usually hidden sky was almost dark, and the whole world took on the faint red tinge of the bloody neon lights that shattered the calm of the dark.

Then again, it was never really calm; people rushing-rushing-rushing through the streets, all the time, never stopping, never thinking, never - never taking the chance to just let go.

(a strange, tired, sort of smile, on the face of a man with star-fire black-and-gold eyes – a girl with milky-white-blind eyes and glowing purple-like-the-sky-cover hair – an androgynous-looking being, whose face was a metal mask of detailed beauty – a girl with a skirt made of dead flowers and green hair –)

Sakura didn't like it one bit.

It was too fast, and far, far too fake for Sakura's tastes. Temari seemed to like it, but then, Temari had never really fit in the world inot which they'd all been born. But despite her dislike for it, Sakura was sickly intrigued by this light-bright world made of radiance and synthesized sound.

It was almost misleading in its innocence.

Sakura stalked down the street, her crazy cousin at her side; Karin was cackling like a hyena. The world rushed around them both, a blur of colour and people and maybe-freaks (a boy with strange-ice eyes, blue hair and wires coming out of his throat – a woman dressed in white vinyl over black leather with pits for eyes – a short, tiny girl whose hair was burning rust-orange in the half-light –).

And on they went.

(a girl so thin, her knees were knobs, transparent skin, and mostly-rags clothing over an almost-translucent chest – a boy holding a bundle of paper, a tender look on his angry-angry face – another boy-man with grey hair over one eye, dressed in an expensive, black suit made from some type of shimmering fabric –)

Up through twisting alleys, over strange, smooth pavement, the two girls walked. They were on an information mission – there had to be something that a group of girls could do; something that wasn't degrading, of course, as Sakura's eyes caught a flash of a girl wearing little more then fishnet, whipping around a corner.

Sakura turned her face away. Karin, too, had caught sight of the girl.

But Karin was different then Sakura. Stronger, in some ways, weaker, in others, but even Karin knew that this world was not good for her Lady.

And Sakura was so naïve, sometimes.

"C'mon," Karin murmured. "Sakura, let's go."

Karin's hand on Sakura's arm the Princess back to the real world. Sakura nodded sharply, her jaw set, and let Karin link their arms.

As they walked down another side street, the lights flickered and dimmed, and Sakura suddenly had such a wave of unprecedented worry, she nearly stumbled.

There was something not quite right, about this place.

Why had she thought that it was better, to leave her sword in the room, tonight? Without it, Sakura was helpless, and she knew it. Who cared about sticking out? At least with the steel of a blade on her hip, Sakura had some measure of comfort. Right at that second, Sakura swore to never go anywhere without her sword, again.

A shudder passed through the Princess as the two girls hurried down another side street. Both she and Karin could feel the man pairs of eyes watching them.

Sakura gulped, and the hairs on the back of her neck stood up.

Neither girl stopped moving until they burst out onto one of the more mainstream streets. The purple, incandescent light from the sky-cover drifted down, and lit upon them both gently.

Sakura looked up, a sigh of relief escaping her lips. Her pink hair was stained fushia in the half-light. She said "I think we just got very, very lucky."

Karin, too, exhaled palpable relief, quiet, quiet. She tossed her long crimson hair –hm, their hair colours were almost matching now– over her shoulder. "Me, too. Let's get home. We need to let the others know–"

Sakura finished the sentence for her, "–that this place isn't quite as safe as we thought."