Chapter one

Food

The heavy bags bounced against Sakura's legs as she toiled them through the doorway. She was carrying all the food she'd need two coming weeks.

All the food you can afford to need the coming weeks, you mean.

Sakura sighed in her irk. Right. God, please give me a time machine so that I can shoot the person who invented money.

She stopped at the end of the hallway and put the bags on the floor as she contemplated. Before her was one elevator and then a door that led to the stairs. She was dragging heavy bags. She needed to get to her apartment, which was on the third floor. She wanted to take the elevator. Problem: elevator had a knack for going total retard and trapping people in it.

As she stood there, contemplating, she thought about how she half felt sorry for the poor dude who invented money, considering how many people who wanted to kill him. She thought about her mother. She'd probably scold Sakura for being so silly as to believing that one person stood behind such a thing as economy.

And with that, Sakura punched the elevator button with a groan. Too much political shit, too late in the evening.

Which brought along another problem into Sakura's mind. It was getting darker and darker earlier in the evening for every day that passed. Soon, the first snow would make its grand arrival. And that meant Sakura needed to get herself a better jacket, since her old one got pretty much butchered after that fight last year. Not that that one had kept her very warm anyways, but it was certainly better than nothing.

And so she punched the button again. Harder than last time. Maybe a little too hard, she pondered, but decided that she just couldn't care.

She'd lived in this building the last five years, and Sakura hadn't heard of the landlady raising a single finger to fix the stupid elevator. Sakura supposed she should feel lucky she had an elevator at all, considering the overall crappiness of the rest of the building.

It had been built in the fifties, Sakura had heard, and apparently it had been a good apartment building for its time, hence the elevator being there in the first place. But if no one looked after the building and repaired it now and then, what was the point?

The point is that poor, sad creatures such as yourself should afford a place with roof over her head.

The button was punched one third time.

"Does it help if you punch it?" a monotone, unfamiliar voice called out from behind her.

Sakura gave a start and whisked around, only to find a new face diagonally behind her. She immediately bode badly, as he had the type of face that stuck to one's memory, and she had no had memory of him. What could his business here be?

She frowned and faced the elevator doors again. It really was taking its sweet time.

"No," she answered him, trying not to sound too unfriendly, "but I'm feeling a tad bit negative today, and stupid activities like punching elevators' buttons make me feel better."

She immediately found herself wondering why she'd said that to begin with. Probably because he made her a tad bit nervous. People like him didn't belong in this building, really. He looked like he had a lot of secrets. And people with secrets in these quarters of Konoha were more often than not dodgy people whom Sakura did her best to avoid. People who had more often than not offed a couple of people or so.

And then the man said something outrageous that shattered Sakura's previous perception of him. "Where does this elevator take you?"

In that moment, the doors opened and he strode in it. Sakura considered considering telling him that the elevator was a death trap, but decided against it. Instead she wondered what the hell he was talking about. Maybe it was some type of code or something, and he was testing her? Maybe he was really a gangster and he was asking… yeah, what could he possibly be asking if that were a code? As Sakura saw it, there were three possible explanations to all this; either it was impossible to decipher, her brain wasn't cooperating, or this man was just simply a very stupid/loon person.

She realized she'd been staring dumbly at him and that she had to decide whether to get into the elevator with him or not.

His dark orbs eyed her questioningly. "I thought you were waiting for the elevator."

"Uh, yeah, right."

And so, she found herself in one small elevator together with three heavy bags of food and one mysterious murderer/gangster/lunatic/man.

She pushed the level three button and tried not to think about how awkward things were or how she had ignored his question regarding where elevators take people. Since he hadn't pressed a button himself, she guessed that maybe he really just didn't know.

He wasn't going to let her slink by so easily, though. And he asked her again, in that serious, monotone voice. "You didn't answer my question. Where does this elevator take you?"

She blinked at the door in front of her as the elevator cringed as it started to move. She supposed it had gotten about three feet up before it screeched and stopped as abruptly as snail-speed enables you to stop.

Oh, shit. Oh fuck. Oh fucking shit. Why the fuck? "It seems," Sakura started, her voice dull and incredibly unhappy, "that this elevator isn't going to take us anywhere for some time."

She looked up at the man, who stared blankly back at her, then at the closed doors, and lastly at the plastic bags at her feet. Well, at least we have food.

AN: Oh my, who could've guessed that the elevator would stop? Lol. Oh well.

I've realized that if I keep the chapters shorter, my stories will actually be updated. So, I'll be updating at least once a week, I think. Next chapter though should be up tomorrow. Or maybe today, later in the evening.

Hum. So, please review, and remember that I'll respond to every review!

Oh, and please if you notice any weird sentences or inaccurate grammar, do tell me. :)

Have a nice one!

Does anyone actually read the ANs? Lol.