A/N: I'm alive!!

Ok so I shouldn't be all happy right now. Why? Because it's been THREE months since my last update. And you know what? I'M SOOOOOOORRRY!!!

AH! I really want to punch myself. HARD.... Actually I already did that some weeks ago but the feeling's still there.

But don't worry, next time I WILL update soon. And it IS the truth, 'cause one of the reasons this didn't came out earlier was because I was matching the end of this chapter with the begging of the next one.

So... Here's chapter 3!

Chapter 3- Reality

The birds sang as the morning came for the village of Konoha. The sun shone brightly in the room, lighting up everything in it, including the pink haired girl sleeping in the desk.

"Urgh!" the teen groaned when she opened her eyes to the light. After sometime of trying to make her eyes adjust to the bright, she lazily got up and went to find some clothes to wear.

'Today the sun seems to shine brighter than usual; I'm lazy as hell and pissed off.' She thought as she opened her closet. 'It must be Monday.'

She pulled out her Konoha High School's uniform, a white shirt with a black skirt, and headed to the bathroom. After a long shower, she got dressed in the bathroom and checked herself in the mirror.

"Oh no!" she said out loud. Now she knew why she was so tired. The Sakura in the mirror had dark circles, faint but still visible, under her red eyes.

If Tsunade saw her she'll definitely know she stayed out late. Again. And the fact she was late using the computer, and not exactly for school purposes, was going to take it away like she promised if it ever happened again.

'No! What do I do now?' she thought in panic.

'I'll run to the kitchen, make a quick breakfast and then leave out running again.' It wouldn't stop people in streets and in school from looking at her, but at least she wouldn't see her…

So she put her master plan to work and got out of the bathroom.

The rest of the house was silent, so she thought that maybe, just maybe, she'll be lucky and wouldn't run into someone else before she left. But that thought was gone when she got to the kitchen.

Sakura came to a stop when she saw someone in right in front of her. That someone wasn't the one she was trying to run away from, but the one that hadn't come to her mind. The other one she had to worry about.

Sasuke was by the counter of the kitchen, facing his back at her. She thought about turning around, leave and stay hungry until lunch, but she wouldn't let herself move.

If she left now, he'll think that she was afraid of him, and even if it was a little true she was nowhere near of letting him know that. Plus, it was no use leaving now. He probably heard her the moment she came out of her room…

Or maybe the moment she woke up.

Damn that super hearing…

But if she didn't leave… What would happen then? Will he ignore her? Or would he talk to her as he had yesterday? She still hadn't move.

Stay or leave?

Before she could decide which one to do, the Uchiha turned around. She almost gasped as his onyx eyes found hers. For a second time stopped as his stare penetrated her. Her heart seemed to stop and then beat faster, and suddenly it was hard for her to breathe.

A second later everything was normal again and she looked down at once.

The pink haired girl went to the fridge, still looking down, to find something to eat as fast as she could. There really wasn't much, like always, so she decided to make a sandwich. She took everything she needed and closed the door to look for the…

Oh…

The girl froze and slowly looked behind her. The boy was facing away from her again, leaning over something she couldn't see. She turned back and groaned inwardly.

'Damn it! Why does it has to be two steps next to him?!' Now sneaking away didn't sound like a bad idea…

But the boy's voice erased the thought of her mind. "Hey, pink hair." He said, his tone mocking. The sound made her jump as she noticed a little bit too late he was looking at her. "The bread's over here."

A smirk spread on his face as he saw the frown that slowly formed on the girl's face and he almost laughed. How easy and fun was to tease this girl…

Sakura was lost at words, though her inner had a few things she'd like to tell him. 'The nerve of that jerk! He's so dead right now… I mean, to make me mad is one thing, but to make references about my hair!'

"You…" she started but the boy cut her off, "I what?" then he added with a challenging voice, "pinkie?"

She turned red and was about to scream him off, but she calmed down. She breathed in and out once and turned around, muttering something that sounded like "Screw breakfast", before she left for the door.

Sakura kept walking through the hallway, ignoring her neighbor's greetings and their gasps when they heard all the curses coming out from her mouth.

Back at her kitchen, the Uchiha looked at the door with raised eyebrows and an amazed look in his face.

He had really done it this time. The girl ran away from her own house, all because for some teasing from him.

The boy stayed quite for a moment, before a smirk became visible in his face.

The bus ride to school was quite, as usual, and she struggled to not fall sleep in the bus. She succeeded, but lost the match against the window.

When the bus stopped she got out walked the rest of the way to Konoha High School. Other students walked past her, some wearing the same tired expression as her. They probably weren't morning people, like her.

When she entered the building she left her things in her locker and ran to her first class: Science.

Her science class was by far her favorite, even if it was the first class on Monday, and the reason for that was because her best (and only) friends were in that class and it was the only one with the four of them together. Yes, her friends Ino, Shikamaru and Chouji.

When she got to her science class she spotted her friends sitting in a small circle in the center of the classroom, where they usually sat, not too far from the front to be able to listen (for Sakura and Shikamaru), but far enough for talking when they were boring (for Ino and Chouji).

The first one to notice her was Ino, who was turned back in her seat talking to Shikamaru and Chouji. She waved at her energetically and she smiled at her. Ino was always happy in the mornings, especially Monday mornings for some strange reason, and that usually cheered Sakura up. Until math came and she was separate from her. Then the pissed off Sakura came back.

Shikamaru and Chouji turned around too and also waved at her, just not so happily like Ino. Like Sakura, Mondays weren't their best days.

When she got to them Sakura took the seat next to Ino, in front of Shikamaru who was next to Chouji, forming a circle. She greeted them with a good morning and a small smile.

"'Morning Sakura" Ino said smiling back. The boys said they good mornings too, "How've you been?"

"Well its Monday so that pretty much describes it" she smiled and the others laughed, "What were you doing when I came?" She asked while she pulled her notebooks out of her bag.

"Oh nothing," Ino said, "just telling these party poopers how much fun we had on Saturday because they didn't wanna come."

"Yeah and I thank you for coming" Shikamaru barged in, "Ino still has this twisted idea that we actually like to talk about the same things as her. I mean, come on! We're not girls for crying out loud! I don't care if you think a boy you saw the other day was hot or not."

Shikamaru's exasperated sigh made Sakura and Chouji laugh and a vein popped in Ino's forehead. "Oh really? Then why do you listen to me if you don't want to?" a creepy smile adorned her face while she tried to calm down and not punch her friend's face to the next classroom.

"Because youmake me listen!" Chouji chuckled some more before uttering a "He's right Ino."

"See!" Shikamaru said, and they glared at each other before Ino twist her face away, faking disgust.

"Well then, I'll talk to Sakura and leave you alone." Shikamaru rolled his eyes behind her back and Sakura suppressed a giggle before turning to talk to Ino.

She was about to start a conversation, but Ino cut her off first. "You didn't call me!" she said in an accusing tone. Sakura sweat dropped at her friends' antics, but ignored it. "Oh yeah! Sorry about that…"

Sakura tried to think a lie to tell her, but her friend saw her efforts. Ino frowned a little and leaned closer so no one else could listen.

"Do you still have problems?" she said in a faint whisper, "You know, with the bills and all." Ino's tone was of concern, yet there was a hint of anger in it.

"Well…" Sakura grimaced inwardly as she realized she now had to explain another excuse than the one she was thinking of. "Our telephone line was taken away because we got a little bit behind with our payment… again. But you don't have to worry at all, really!"

Ino sighed and shook her head twice. That definitively meant something bad was coming. "Sakura" Ino's voice held so much seriousness it surprised her. Was this the same girl she was talking to earlier? "You know you can't hide this kind of things from me. I said I could help you and Tsunade-sama if you needed it and I can! You know dad already said yes…"

"I know, I know" she rambled as she always did when these situations came. "It's just…" She hated it when Ino got like this. Trying to solve her problems, when she could do it on her own. Kind of.

Every time Sakura and Tsunade had any financial problems, Ino would always try to give them some money. Sometimes she even daredto drag Shikamaru and Chouji into this, and they would also want to help.

It wasn't she didn't appreciate it, but she'd rather face it alone instead of dragging her friends along.

"You can refuse my help all you want, but you're not the one who has to hand over the money." Ino said while turning around in her seat, "I'll tell dad to call Tsunade tonight."

She sighed and turned around too when she noticed their teacher had just arrived. She took her book and notes out and got ready for the class.

A soft nudge in her shoulder make her wake up, "Forehead! You actually fell asleep in class!" She grimaced as someone yelled in her ear.

"Shut up Ino-pig." Sakura opened her eyes and raised her head to look around her and, indeed, she had fallen asleep during class.

She rubbed her eyes once and raised her hand to muffle a yawn. "Is science already over?" It was an obvious question, but the only one she could think of to escape from being asked.

A soft snort came from her right, accompanied by Shikamaru's voice, "I guess there's a first one for all." Now that she had totally awakened she noticed her three friends were surrounding her in a circle.

"Yeah, sure." She closed her eyes once more when sleep came over her again. "Why are you so sleepy anyways?" Chouji asked.

She grimaced.

"Ah well, you see…" She laughed nervously and scratched the back of her head. Her friends waited.

"Um…" What to say? What to say? "I stayed up late last night. Err-" She definitely wasn't going to tell the truth.

Her friends eyed her and demanded a better explanation.

"I stayed up until late," she started, "because I was using the computer!" She said and grinned, wishing really hard that was believable.

Ino blinked twice, then said "Oh, ok." Sakura sighed in relief and started to gather her things for her next class. "And what exactly were you doing that made you stay up so late?"

Oh… "Just fooling around, nothing in special." That seemed to be a good excuse; she was after all a teenage girl. And it was also something that had happened before.

Ino and Chouji agreed to this answer, but Shikamaru still had a suspicious look on his face and she was more than sure he hadn't believe her.

So when they got to their next class (with only the two of them together. Ino and Chouji were in other different classes, many classrooms away from them) it was no surprise his first words weren't about a subject in class. "What were you really up to last night?"

"You know, I knewyou were going to ask that," Sakura said, "and I'd been thinking really hard for an excuse you'd believe in, but I found none." Shikamaru looked at her waiting for her to talk. "So?"

Sakura sighed; "Well…" she knew he wouldn't like it when she told him… "I was looking at some old files and I…"

"Wait. These files…" Shikamaru cut her short, "They're not the ones you made some years ago, right?" He saw her apologizing gaze and knew at once she had.

"Sakura…" She grimaced at his reproaching tone and lowered her head, ready for what he had to say. But, nothing came…

She looked up at him again but regretted it when she saw the look in his face. It was even worse listening to him now she was looking, "You know you're my friend and all always be there for you, it's the same with the others, but," he paused and breathed in once.

"Shika…" she wanted him to stop but he cut her off again, "Sakura you'll have to leave this one sooner or later. I mean, do you really believe there is such a thing like Moonlight? Your own mother told you it was only a story." He said it calmly and didn't shout, which for her was worse.

"I know, but…" She tried to say but couldn't. Sakura looked down and bit her lip to suppress a coming sob. Why was she crying? A sudden feeling of hurt came to her and she couldn't tell why, which make her a little angry at herself. All the while, her friend stared at her and sighed once again. "Sakura"

The pink haired girl looked up at Shikamaru, her face fill with pain and hurt, and he paused rethinking what he wanted to say. He really shouldn't have talk to her like that. He knew it was hurting his friend, but it also was the truth and just as he'd said, she'll have to accept it some day. But…

"I just…" he looked at her pained expression once more, before giving a sigh of defeat. "I'm sorry."

She knew what he meant for that and turned back in her sit. She sat right next to him in this class, close enough to look and to talk to her without other people noticing, so she moved her hair to cover her face from him, to stop looking at him. But she still couldn't not hear him.

"Sakura, some day you'll have to wake up to reality."

She twisted around to look at him, but this time the hurt was gone from her face and anger took its place. She opened her mouth but then close it again, as if thinking what she would say. All the while Shikamaru calmly waited for her, a blank expression on his face.

"Shikamaru, I don't think I have to tell you I won't stop believing in Moonlight and wake up to reality like you say," She finally whispered at him. "So what I'm going to tell you is that I don't care if you guys don't support me. If you don't want to believe me then fine! I'll find some real friends who do."

Her words pierce him like a knife, she could tell for the wounded look that crossed his eyes. He turned around to listen to the class, something weird in Shikamaru who didn't even care for school. Sakura bit her lip when the feeling of wanting to apologize rose inside of her, and did as he had done.

When the class ended they parted separate ways to different classes and the day went on as usual.

In lunch, the four friends sat together in the same table. Sakura and Ino sat at one side of the table while Chouji and Shikamaru sat at the other. They all talked to each other, but never did Sakura talk to Shikamaru, or Shikamaru talk to Sakura.

Ino and Chouji could tell that something had happened, but they ignored it. If their friends had a fight over something and didn't tell them it was because they didn't want them involved.

When lunch ended, Sakura went to her other classes that, thank goodness, didn't have Shikamaru in them. The rest of the day went on normally and in what she thought was a nick of time school was over.

"Bye everyone!" the boys and girls said to each other at the entrance hall of school. Sakura said goodbye to Ino and to Chouji when she found them, and also utter a quick goodbye at Shikamaru. He gave her a significance glance before replying a "See you tomorrow."

She ignored his glance and started walking towards the opposite street than them, to take a bus.

'Well, school was great today.' Sakura thought to herself sarcastically.

She was sitting in one of the seats of the bus she always took to get home. The ride always lasted for about an hour, but there were more people today and now she'd been sitting in there for an hour and a half.

'Shoot! I hope Tsunade-shishou doesn't get home early. It's my turn to do dinner and she really gets hungry after spending an entire day at the hospital.'

Tsunade was the general chief at a hospital not so far from their house. It wasn't a big hospital and it didn't have many doctors, so most of the time Tsunade and a few other doctors had to take care of the patients of the entire hospital.

The pay wasn't a lot too, but she'd been working there since years ago and they needed her at the hospital. Sakura knew she would never leave the people who needed her.

These kinds of things were the ones that made Tsunade a role model for her. She even had accepted to teach her about medicines and help her in her dream of becoming a doctor one day.

'Tsunade-shishou is really awesome. I can tell why she and mom where friends.' The moment those words came to her mind she remembered the events of Saturday. 'They were like the other, in small things and in their personalities.' They were so alike that both shared the same necessity of hiding things away from her.

That night she thought something big was going to happen. A real member of Moonlight was at her house! And when Tsunade said she could stay and even better, give them her opinion. But of course, it couldn't be that good.

"So, what do you wanted me to hear Shishou?" a too eager Sakura asked Tsunade. The woman bit her lip before a sigh escaped her lips

"Yes, ah…" she looked over at Jiraya, who'd stayed quite all the time, and he gave her a serious look. Tsunade sighed again, before finally giving up. "Jiraya." She said with a stern voice, "what did you came for? I don't think it was only to see me again."

The man smirked at her comment but settled down after remembering he had something to say, "Well," his eyes lingered on the pink haired girl for a second before talking again, "we have been talking and because of the past events it's been decided that it is time for the control of the organization to change owner."

Tsunade's eyes went wide and she looked down. "You mean…?" she said in a quite voice. The man only nodded at her. "So now you are…?"

"Yes, I am." Tsunade threw him a menacing look while Sakura, who was sitting next to her, stayed quite trying to make sense of what the man had said.

"Sakura…" Tsunade started and the girl looked at her. "I guess that's all you had to say." This time she was talking to the man, who nodded at her. "So, are you going to stay here?"

"Yes, I still have to tell you about some things that haven't been decided yet… I think it'll only be for some days."

The woman nodded and then turned again at Sakura. "You can go now." The girl seemed to want to interrupt her and stop her from sending her out, but to her surprise, Tsunade stood up and started walking towards their hallway. "You can sleep in the couch Jiraya, just don't mess my house." Sakura and the man heard her say before opening her door and closing it.

"So…" the man said after some time, "Can you hand me a blanket or something like that?"

Sakura was still looking where Tsunade had left. What was that about? "Yeah, sure." Her gaze lingered in there for a while before turning around to help the strange man.

What wasthat about? That question was still in her mind. After that she hadn't ask any more, not wanting to make Tsunade regret letting her there. But now that she thought about it, what had she heard? Was that really so important to know? She didn't understand anything!

'Well, better knowing something than not knowing anything.' She settled for that and got out the bus, noticing her she was about to pass her stop. Sakura walked just a few streets before getting to the right one and entering her building.

Everything was quite when she entered her house. Too quite actually.

She walked towards her room to left her school bag there. The hallway was also quite. Hadn't Tsunade het home yet? She opened her door and threw her bag in her bed to do her homework later.

After she closed the door she turned around to go to the kitchen to make dinner, when she noticed a black figure was in the middle of the hall.

"How did you get there?" the pink haired girl asked the Uchiha boy when she saw him recline on the wall next to Tsunade's door. Sasuke looked at her once before looking down at the floor again. "What are you talking about? I'd been here for hours."

"Yeah right, that's why I didn't see you when I should have passed next to you." She sighed when a smirk came to his face, "Maybe you were too busy to notice me," he said in a low and ominous voice, "I've been told I'm good at hiding."

Was he trying to scare her? Well, he'll have to try harder. "Look I don't have time for games so could you just tell me if Tsunade already got home or not? I have to make dinner for her." She started walking towards the hall toward the kitchen when a cold hand grabbed her wrist. "Hey! What are you doing?"

"She hasn't left the room" Sasuke said in a dead tone, "and two hours ago Jiraya got out of the room and left to the living room, then he came back with scrolls and a bag and got inside without saying anything." His face showed a blank expression. "I couldn't see inside the room, and the moment he closed the door I started to felt some kind of energy coming out the door."

"Energy…? What are you talking about?" Wait. He felt some energy? How do you even feel energy coming out a room? He threw her an exasperated look before he sighed. "The point is, don't you have a key or something to open the door?"

"Yeah um…" The girl looked at him once before turning around to find the spare key she had in her room. When she got back with it, Sasuke moved out and with his hand motioned her to open the door. While she walked towards the door, his gaze never left her and he looked at her in a strange way. Soon it started to make her nervous, so she tried distract him a little. "By the way, why didn't you open the door by yourself? After all, well, you know…" She trailed off. It was a simple door and the lock wasn't that hard to unlock. Why hadn't he used his abilities or something? He was supposedly a vampire…

"I tried to, but…" he said and placed his somewhere else, thinking, letting the girl take the opportunity to get the key in the knob now she wasn't being watched, "but I… couldn't." The girl stopped and then looked at him again, a puzzled look on her face. She was more surprised when he saw the Uchiha's face didn't show any signs of lying.

'But… Why couldn't he? Shouldn't he be all mighty and powerful? How can a simple door stop a vampire?!' These questions raced her mind. The fact Jiraya and Tsunade where both still there after hours, the scrolls Jiraya took inside with him and the fact Sasuke couldn't get in without the key… It all made her be as eager as the boy next to her to find out what was really going on.

"Sakura." The boy calling her by her name took her out of the trance she was in, and it wasn't hard to notice the impatience in his voice. So letting aside the fact he'd called her by her name for the first time since they met, and not you or pink hair, she twisted the knob and opened Tsunade's door.

"Shishou…?" The girl called out after unlocking the door and opening it. The room was dark and the windows were all covered by curtains. Both teenagers stayed by the door and tried to look better at the dim interior. A shadow passed quickly in front of them and they recognized Tsunade walking from one side of the room to the other.

"Shishou?" Sakura called for her, but the woman ignored her, so the girl stepped in the room to look better at what they were doing. "What…?" Jiraya, who she just noticed, was inside the room too like Sasuke had said, and he was sitting on the floor with his eyes closed. "What are you…" but the words didn't leave her mouth when her attention was quickly led to the floor…

The entire floor was covered in symbols made with black ink, the bed, night table and the rest of furniture was all placed into a corner to let the symbols enough space they made a circle. Sakura felt something shuffle behind her and soon after the Uchiha boy passed by her side and walked to where the man was. "It's everything ready?" he asked in a serious and business-like voice.

The man opened his eyes and nodded once at the boy. "Tsunade!" Jiraya called for her and the woman went to his side, in the middle of the circle, Sakura noticed.

Tsunade and Jiraya both held their hands up to their chins in a strange form and closed their eyes. All of sudden, the wind started to swirl around the room, making papers and other kind of things fly around them.

"Shishou! What's happening?!" Sakura shouted at the group in front of them, but it was like they couldn't listen to her. She raised her hands to protect herself from the flying object and took a step forward, not noticing she'd stepped on the circle. Just the, Jiraya and Tsunade both opened their eyes and shouted.

"Kai!"

A blinding light brighten the entire room and when the girl looked down she saw the source of it were the symbols on the floor. By the second the light became brighter and brighter, and soon she could see nothing but it. "Shishou!" The light was so bright she had to use her hands to shield her pained eyes. "SHISHOU!" she exclaimed in a distressful voice.

The woman looked up at once; her eyes went wide when she saw the girl inside the circle. Almost unwillingly her hand extended in her direction as the girl tried to step closer. For some reason the woman's eyes widened even more and she opened her mouth to shout at her.

Her scream was the last thing she heard before her eyes went completely blind by the light.

"Sakura!"

After that, all went silent and darkness swapped around her.

Everything around her was silence and dark...

The pink haired girl gasped as soon as her eyes opened up again. The light from before was gone, and so were the three others that were with her in the room. In its place there now was a bigger room, a... a store room?

"What...?" The girl looked around her frankly, at place where her guardian and the other two had been. However she didn't get that far because of the wall that came in front of her.

"What happened?!" The room was too dark, so she couldn't see anything. "And where am I?"

"Oh! So now you're going to play dumb!"

The girl turned around as fast as she could when a boy's voice reached her ears. She took a step back when she saw three figures in front of her. They were two boys and a girl, probably her age, thought the killing intent in their faces made them look older.

"W-who are y-you?!"

The boy in the center chuckled darkly at her, making her take another step back. "We are the one who should be asking that, but we won't since I really don't give a damn about trespassers."

"Trespassers...? But I didn't come here on purpose! I-"

"I told you I don't care!" The boy shut her down. "Now," he said, a frightening grin forming on his face, "you'll see the consequences of barging in our head quarters."

Sakura could only watch helplessly as they got ready to attack her.

Hehe, don't you just love this chapter? I do :D

Sorry for ending it like that, but REALLY, I'll update faster. You'll just have to wait a week or some more time. It depends on how I feel...

Which takes me to the other reason I didn't update faster...

For some reaaaaaly strange reason my mood changed after, I'd said, starting November. And it changed to the perfect mood to write another story that I'm working on (a NejiTen) Sooo, I took the oportunity to write all I could about it. And I already finished the first chapter!

So, after I wrote absolutely all I could about it I was all like 'Yay! Now I can go back to Moonlight!' But noooooo, something else had to happen. And that something else was the death of my great grandmother. Which really make me depressed, but I managed to at least start the chapter AND it also gave me inspiration to write a scene that'll appear in later. Waaaay later thouhgt.

And now, for the totally AWESOME reviewers:

Tiger Priestess: I'm sorry I didn't make myself clear in that part. You see, Sasuke was trying to get on Sakura's nerves and... he did!(lol) I already explained what he did in detail at the beggining of the chapter. (if you didn't catch it, he called her pink hair :P)

9tailedmonfoxonbu and shadowblossom: thank you for the review! and I updated! just because YOU guys ask me too!

So, like I said before I will update soon, BUT the date for that will depend on the reviews I get, so...

PLEASE REVIEW!!!

if you do so I'll give you... a virtual cookie!! (I'm very original yeah?) (shoot, I shouldn't have read so many Deidara fics...)