"No way!"

"A-Are you sure it's not a joke?"

"Yeah, Tsuki, you're Remi's favorite. What went wrong? What made him throw you out?"

The shaking woman sat silently at the table as more and more of her conserned friends gathered around. Her tears of fear and frustration had long since died out, but the evidence remained in the form of black streaks of her spoiled make-up that shown on her perfectly porcelin skin. The female sniffed and rubbed a silky sleeve to her eyes to stop any oncoming dampness. "It's not a joke," choked the woman, "He threw me out like a dog and I didn't do a damn thing." In the corner of her eye, she could easily see Satoko flinch from the venom in her voice.

Some time had passed since Remi had voiced his distain, so much so that dinner time had rolled around. Instead of working through a meal Tsuki decided to get some fuel, listen to some gossip, hear about another friend's problems-anything to get her mind off of the embarrassing event. Seeing as she didn't know anyone else, Satoko followed her as silently as possible as not to upset the sniffling woman any more. She even planned on sitting at the same table with her, however the twenty or so women that bombarded her only companion with comfort made her shy away and take a seat by herself at the corner. Part of it was from the guilt of knowing it was her fault while the other was from fear of not fitting in at all on account of her being the youngest-who wants to talk to a baby?-and she knew she couldn't take upsetting someone else that night simply because she was being herself.

The dining room was actually quite nice and roomy. The tables were low and the cusions were soft. The walls were painted yellow with blue flower designs. It was nice for the most part, made much better at the fact that the intracate brush strokes gave her something to focus on as she quietly munched on her yellowtail and white rice. Every so often, Satoko would listen in on the conversation that was held a few feet away. She didn't rightly know why, seeing as it only made her feel more guilty-she didn't know why she even felt that at the moment-and more cowardly.

"Hush, Tsu," said a soft-toned Naomi as the auburn foliced friend patted her back, "I'm sure it'll all work out." The elder of the two slipped a slender diget under the other's chin and lifted her face. "Now, tell us what happened?"

Her hard glare melted almost instantly as their eyes met. "It was.." For a moment, her eyes drifed back to the tiny girl in the corner that was eating by herself. Satoko was a timid little thing, and she knew that the young female already felt like an out-of-place freak of a woman; if she were to just vent her anger to all of her friends, and if she were to survive the punishments that were being set up for her, then the little actress/assasin would be beaten by the ruthless women at every chance they could get-despite her haughtiness, she was well-liked by the women there. It was then that she rolled her eyes and let out a soft sigh. "I wasn't on my a-game," lied Tsuki, "I was forcing every sigh of ecstasy and he knew it." Again, Tsuke saw her young friend shift, but this time it was from guilt. 'Oh well', she thought bitterly, 'I guess I can't please you.'

"Is that all?" Naomi, unlike most of the women, was a smart cookie. She knew when someone was lying-it also helped that the walls were thin and she was one room over-especially when it was such a close friend like Tsuki.

"Yeah," she huffed, "That's all." With that, the woman gently pushed away her friend's hand and gave her a re-assuring smile. Well, to the girls that didn't know her as well it was a reassuring smile, but to Naomi, it was a smile that told her to drop the subject.

She did as she was silently asked just as the other women were moving back to their own tables to eat their dinner. Surprising as it was, the whorehouse that the blond man had started up was much more classy than the others. They were given somewhere to sleep besides the cages, warm food to eat, as well as clean clothes that fit. That is, if one were to stay a good girl and keep her customers happy; those that were stubburn and ungrateful to their new master's hospitality were faced with a horrible array of torture, those that didn't break and become his fully would be found dead and hardly recognizable.

"Whatever," she said in a hushed tone, "I just hope that that spoiled brat takes just about all of the pain. She really needs to learn her place." Tsuki just shrugged. On one hand, the woman didn't want to be too hard on a newbie like Satoko-afterall, it WAS her own fault for stealing the dark-skinned child away-but she was still upset over the fact that she'd recieve a punishment.

"Maybe he'll see her as the burden she is," continued Naomi, "and just throw her out, huh?" Tsuki smiled, she thought it was a joke the elder woman had said to calm her down, and let out a short-lived laugh. "I couldn't be so lucky!"

Satoko grimaced and stared down at her lap, hoping that the hair that was now covering her face would hide all of her tears. She didn't find the humor in such cruel words. Instead, she became harder on herself.
"You're a burden," she hissed softly. "A stupid, worthless burden." She had gotten them both into trouble, how could she think any different?

His stare kept itself on the child. "I understand," he said slowly. "Even if she had already found someone without Dai's help, you'd want us to still look for her?"

With a sigh he looked to his lap. The thought that another man had made her his sickened him greatly. It wouldn't stop his feelings, nor would he up and discontinue talking with her. If he had less morals then he'd even contemplait on ignoring whatever marital status she owned and try to.. 'No,' he thought, 'I couldn't do that no matter how nice the thought is.' Suddenly he realized that he hadn't answered the man's question. He looked back up at Kakashi, a small smile on his face. It started out slow but the other was sure that he saw a nod. "Yes," he said softly to reassure. "If she had started a family by the time we find her, I wouldn't care. I just want to know that she's in good health."

"Alright," was his response. He waited for the youth to look up at him once more before going on. "Even if Dai calls this all off, I'll still help you find her. I can't promise you that I could be able to look under ever bush, but I'll look out for information. Is that alright?" THe smile on Sai's face said more than enough. "Good. How about we be getting back?" Sai shook his head to the request and slipped out of his seat as the elder did.

"I think I'm going to stay out for a little longer to clear my head," he explained. The Copy-Cat Ninja didn't complain and left the artist alone. As soon as the man was out of sight, Sai moved out of the building. He didn't rightly know what he was going to do so late at night but it was going to involve walking for hours on end.

A/N :: Oh. Ma. Gawsh. I'm so sorry for taking so long. ; A; Please enjoy it still.