A very short chapter. Nothing much's happening here, but I promise I'll make it up to you in the next chapter. I hope I'll update it soon. Thanks for reading and please review :)

"Sasuke, wake up! Wake up! Sasuke!"

Your eyes open against your will. Sakura's face is hovering over yours, her green eyes wide and scared. This immediately alerts you that something is wrong and you move to sit up. Sakura moves back to give you some space, her hands falling in her lap. She glances over her shoulder at the door then looks back at you.

"What time is it?" You ask, confused. The last thing you remember is coming to see Sakura because she was sick and then telling her about the story about the disastrous — and hilarious — family vacation in third grade. How did you end up in her bed, exactly.

"It's—" She leans over you and catch a whiff of the sweet smell coming from her hair. "Um, it's 13:14. Wow, you sure slept a lot! I didn't notice how much time had passed. Does your head hurt?" She pulls back and sits on her hunches, looking at you worriedly. "I normally get this killer headaches when I sleep too much."

"No, I'm all right." You say, though you feel a little dizzy. You rub the back of your head and yawn loudly.

"Sasuke, I think there's someone in the house."

Your eyes snap open and you stare at Sakura, who looks very scared, biting on her lip. "What?"

"Auntie went out two hours ago. She was called in for emergency in the hospital and Uncle Jirayia is at Naruto's or somewhere else gathering information for his "research"." You smirk when she rolls her eyes and makes air quotes as she says research. "And I heard this noises coming from downstairs five minutes ago. First, I thought it was nothing but then they got louder. I would have gone to check what it is but I'm afraid it's an axe murderer and I'm not ready to die yet."

You blink, trying to process everything. Damn, your head is really fuzzy.

And then, you hear it. A loud noise — scratching? — coming from downstairs. Sakura jumps, her hand pressing against her mouth. She shots you a scared look and slides off the bed.

"Ohmygod, what are we going to do?" She whispered, pacing back and forth. "We can't jump out the window, we'll break most of our bones and what if we leave the room and there's someone waiting outside with this giant chainsaw, and cuts us in half before we can even process what's happening and then skins us and uses the skin and bones to make furniture? Sasuke, I don't want my future to be as a chair or a coffee table or something."

"You watched Texas Chain Saw Massacre again, didn't you?" You ask, recognising the signs. You slide off the bed and approach her, putting your hands on her shoulders to stop her from pacing and making herself dizzy, too.

"...yes." She admits. "But that could totally happen. There are some sick people out there, Sasuke, and I've got really nice skin." She looks genuinely scared as she looks up at you. You've told her times and times again to stop watching horror films but she just doesn't listen. She never listens.

"Sakura, calm down. I'll take care of this, okay? I'll go downstairs and see what's going on. You stay here and protect your... skin." She hits you on the shoulder when she sees the smirk at the end of your sentence — you really can't help it — and huffs.

"I'm going to call Naruto." She says, grabbing her phone from the bedside table. "I'll tell him to come over in case you get slaughtered and I need some back up."

"Your faith in me is touching." You say dryly as you watch her dial Naruto. She smiles cheekily at you as she pressed the phone against her ear.

"You're welcome." She replies pleasantly.

You both jump when you hear something shattering.

Sakura closes her eyes, swallowing thickly. "This better not be my aunt's crystal vase. She's going to kill me if that thing gets broken."

"Sakura, if this is a killer out there, you're most likely going to die before she gets her hands on you." You say and you move towards the door, knowing she'll probably try to hit you for your snark. You reach for the doorknob but you stop when she speaks.

"Wait!" She says and you turn around. She runs to her closet and opens it, going on her knees. She rummages through the stuff inside and you wait — not very patiently — for her to resurface. When she finally does, she has a long, wooden bat in her hands.

You shake your head. Of course she has a bat in her closet.

"There." She says, handing it to you. "Be careful, though. Try not to break it. I'm pretty attached to it."

You grip the bat tightly and roll your eyes. "Of course you are."

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" She snaps.

"We'll talk about this later." You say as you open the door. "Now I'm off to risk my life for you."

Her indignant expression quickly fades and she gives you a highly worried look. "Please be careful! If you see any weapon on his/hers person you immediately run back here, okay? We're going to barricade the door and call the cops. Please, Sasuke, if you die I'm never going to —"

"You talk too much." You say before you leave the room, closing the door behind you softly. Now that you're outside, in the hallway, without Sakura there to distract you, you feel your bravado slipping slightly. What if there really is some sicko out there? What if you die today?

The thought bothers you somewhat, which surprises you. For the past few months, since your parents' death, you felt so much hurt, you would have welcome dead with open arms. You wanted to be reunited with your parents.

But something's changed. You don't know what, when or how, but you no longer want to die. You look at the closed door and you suddenly know why.

You shake your head and vow to think about this later. You have to make sure the house is safe. You make you way down the hallway silently, keeping your ears and eyes open for any sound or sudden movement around you. You manage to get to the stairs without any mishaps and you look over the banister and downstairs. You see nothing out of the ordinary.

You make your way down the stairs — in the same silent, ninja-esque way — and scan your surroundings carefully for anything out of place. Maybe it's a burglar. Maybe he or she is already gone and you're going all Jackie Chan for nothing.

But then you pick up footsteps. They come from your right — the kitchen and family room are on your right. You flatten your back against the wall and move along it until you reach the edge. You peek but you don't see anything beside the shattered pieces of glass on the hardwood floor. But you definitely hear something coming from there.

You lean back and take a deep breath. Okay, what to do now. Should I go upstairs or should I attack the motherfucker? Surely the element of surprise will give me some advantage. Unless he has a gun. Then I'm pretty much screwed.

While you have the little debate in your head, you hear another movement. The sound of footsteps — but they are too quiet, too light, and sound way too... small.

Frowning, you peek again and your brain goes completely blank when you see a big, fat cat trying to maneuver her way between the shrads of glass on the floor, licking her mug contentedly. Your shoulders slump and you bow your head.

Seriously? Is that God's idea of a joke or is this karma's way of screwing with me for skipping school today?

This is a new level of lame. A new low.

You really hope Sakura hasn't called Naruto yet. He'll have a field day if he finds out you've freaked out over some cat.

How did the cat get in, anyway?

You narrow your eyes and you look around. You blink when you spot the pet entry door installed in the front door. You remember that Sakura used to have a dog when you met her but it was really, really old and it died months after you two became friends.

Are they really that stupid as to leave the entry door open for any animal to come and go as it pleases?

Apparently, yes.

You look up at the ceiling, begging for some patience, and then enter the kitchen. The cat looks startled upon your arrival and it meows, looking like she dearly regrets coming in the house, especially after seeing the bat in your hand.

You don't take your eyes off the little — actually pretty big and dear god is it fat — vermin as you shout Sakura's name. "Come down here, Sakura! It's safe!"

There's silence for several moments and then you hear the door opening and her footsteps running down the hallway and then the stairs, and then she's in the kitchen, right there, staring at you.

"Well, what is it?" She asks impatiently, doing a complete 360 degree turn.

"It's this." You say, pointing the bat at the frozen cat with a distasteful look on your face.

She frowns and moves further into the kitchen and gasps when she sees the car. "Queenie!" She exclaims. "Was that you?"

"Do you know it?" You ask, and she nods.

"Yeah, it's the neighbours cat. How did you get here, girl?" She asks, moving towards the cat. You noticed how the car relaxed when it saw Sakura and sighed.

This is getting more and more pathetic by the minute.

"Oh, god no!" Sakura exclaims, staring in horror at the mess on the floor. "That's definitely my aunt's vase."

You smirk. You really don't feel very sympathetic towards her right now. "You're so dead."

...