A/N: still working on chapter 4. just decided to post this extra chap since it was finished anyway. thanks for the reviews! i liked reading them!

extra: ink man

"Look at him, Hinata! I think he's even cuter than Sasuke!"

The blonde girl had been following him around for a while now. She was dragging along her dark-haired friend. He chanced a look at them when they were too busy pretending to examine a freestanding sculpture of the former Hyuga clan head. The blond was taller, slimmer and wore a dark blue kimono. Her friend had a curvier figure and wore a lavish, dark green kimono with the Hyuga seal at the back.

"Do you know him, Hinata? Do you?"

The dark-haired girl looked slightly mortified, "Please keep your voice down, Ino,"

He turned away and went to another room, on the pretence of re-filling his wine glass to see if they were going to follow. Sure enough, within seconds, the blonde girl appeared in the room, still dragging her friend with her. He frowned. Usually, when someone is trailing him, it is followed by an assassination attempt. Were those two assassins? Not likely. They seemed too loud—the blonde, especially—to be assassins. How peculiar. What were they following him for, then?

"Definitely, definitely, cuter than Sasuke!"

"Ssshh! Ino, please,"

Ah, they were talking about him. Cuter than who? Sasuke? Wait, he knew that name. Uchiha Sasuke, son of Fugaku and Mikoto Uchiha, second son and youngest child, First Lieutenant in the Leaf Military, currently positioned in the military camp near Grass—according to Lord Danzou's files. So, he was cuter? He wondered what that meant. He usually hears the word 'cute' from people complimenting pets—cats, dogs, birds, little fishes. Last he checked, neither he nor the Uchiha had anything remotely resembling animal fur, feathers or scales growing on their skin. How strange, to be referred to as cute.

"We have to tell Sakura about him. Kami, look at that face,"

"Ino, please,"

His face? What was wrong with his face? He touched his cheek consciously.

"Sai,"

He turned and gave a half bow, "Lord Danzou,"

"Let's go, we're done here,"

How nice! There seemed to plenty of interesting people around. There's the Fourth's loud mouthed son talking with his mouth full again. He was surrounded by five other privates, he recognized two of them—a brown-haired boy who seemed like an Inuzuka judging from his smell, and the Nara heir who had that same blank expression he always wore. But wait, there was another familiar face.

But was that a soldier? Isn't that just a girl with a bad haircut playing dress-up in oversized military clothes? How peculiar! A girl in the military! Where did he see her again?—ah, yes, she is that blonde's friend, the one who fainted in the park square ten days ago. He'd recognize her anywhere. He was, after all, the one who carried her back to her house. She weighted a ton, too. But her blonde friend looked so miserable and troubled that he felt inclined to offer his help. He reads a lot of books—at Lord Danzou's request—and was fairly sure it was the right thing to do.

It was strange, too. One moment, the blonde looked so sad and miserable, and then he had sidled up to them and did what he always did—

"Hello Beautiful, may I help?"—and all of a sudden, colour rushed back into her pale face and she barely got out a nod. That must have been gratitude! He always liked learning something new.

He observed the impostor again. It seemed that nobody else knew she was a girl. How peculiar. Is everyone else blind? The Fourth's son himself didn't seem to have a clue.

Should he tell Lord Danzou? But would Lord Danzou care if a girl were in the military? Perhaps not.

Okay, he won't tell.

He was starting to wonder if maybe Uchiha Sasuke knows about the soldier impostor after all. He was always watching the impostor soldier, always, and he stared so shamelessly, too. He ought to be embarrassed at himself.

Ah, there he is again. Staring like he wants to burn holes on the impostor's back. Isn't staring too much a ground for harassment? Maybe he should tell the Uchiha about this. Or would it be considered 'unwanted advice'? Maybe he'd better not.

If he wants to ask the soldier impostor something, then he should just go up to her and talk. Normal people are so strange.

He wondered why Lord Danzou would assign him such a boring mission. It's been a month and the only remotely interesting thing that has happened was a night raid from the Sand, and even that wasn't done wholeheartedly. Ten casualties only, including Uchiha Sasuke who was inflicted by a severe poison wound. He had lost plenty of blood because of the anticoagulant that the bullet was also coated with. It was an interesting idea, to use anticoagulant. He wondered why the Leaf hasn't thought of such a promising tactic yet.

Uchiha Sasuke suffered chills, high fever, hallucinations and muscle weakness, and though the medics (and the impostor soldier, who created the antidote) managed to stabilized his blood pressure within a few hours, it took a week for him to be able to finally walk around and attend meetings once again. And even then, he was quite pale-faced as he sat in his usual place in the Espionage Specialists' tent, where the meetings were held. He looked sickly and clammy too, and frequently wiped off the perspiration from his brow.

After they discussed the issue between the possible connivance of Sand and Sound, a Sergant went up to Uchiha Sasuke, clutching several files in his hands, "Sir, I was told by Major Sarutobi to report to you regarding the rookies?"

"Yes, is anything amiss?"

"It's about Haruno, Sir, it says in his file that he is from Waterfall, and we've sent requests for his legal documents to Waterfall and they've been ignoring us, Sir. We finally got a response just this morning and they claim they can't find legal documents pertaining to a Haruno Akira, Sir,"

Sai loitered in the tent, pretending to write details on the report he was to send Lord Danzou, to listen to the rest of the conversation. Finally! Something interesting.

The Sergeant went on, "I was thinking of sending a request over at the Leaf, instead, Sir. Private Haruno did not indicate whether he was born in the Leaf and just moved to Waterfall later. Maybe his documents are in the Leaf,"

"I'll do it myself," Uchiha Sasuke replied.

The Sergeant looked bewildered, "Sir...?"

"I'll do it myself," He repeated, fighting back a grimace as he stood up from his chair. "I'll check up on his documents myself. You don't need to concern yourself with the matter anymore,"

The Sergeant was startled. His superior offering to do his job for him? "But Sir, you don't need to trouble yourself—"

"I'll do it myself," The Uchiha said again, eyes glinting coldly. This time, the Sergeant swallowed up his reply, gave a quick salute and scuttled off. Uchiha Sasuke then turned to meet Sai's eyes. He raised a brow at this pale-faced eavesdropper. Sai, meanwhile, did his usual tactic and smiled at him. He raised his folder, "Fixing my reports for Lord Danzou, Sir,"

He seemed to have found something interesting and new between this Uchiha and the impostor soldier. He was starting to think that perhaps this may not be such a dull place to be in, after all.

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