Chapter 8

Blinding lights in any thinkable color danced over the floor, passing numerous sweating people with a body temperature so high that they alone heated up the entire room. Whenever the lights hit someone, it created a severe sparkle from the spangled clothes and the sweat dripping from their reddish faces and skin. It also smelled kind of funny in there, but that did not come as a surprise to me.

I turned around myself in order to get a brief over the situation while carefully avoiding to bump into the jumping beasts surrounding me. How the hell did I end up in this crowd of people, which you could easily compare to a mosh pit at a rock concert. People were pushing and shoving for no reason, it was not like they were trying to get in the front row to touch the DJ or anything. Kami, how I hated being around a bunch of drunk idiots like these. For some odd reason, the harder you pushed, the wilder a party you got. I remembered that much from back when I had been one of those. But now that I was not intoxicated and had gotten older, I really did not get why I had once found it just as entertaining as they did.

A girl, which I guessed to be a few years younger than me, screamed directly into my left ear and for a second I was afraid that she had actually split my eardrum. She even managed to drown out the distractingly loud music. Not that I hated loud music, but this was incredibly loud and moreover, it was SM with Rihanna, that was playing at that moment, which was definitely not one of my favorites.

I tried to send the girl an annoyed look, but she was busy with jumping in step with the music, screaming along the lyrics at the top of her lungs. It did not sound particularly good. A sick mooing cow would not be a bad comparison.

Suddenly, a pair of unknown arms tried to swing around my neck, but I ducked and squeezed my way out of the huffing and puffing crowd. A hug from one of those disgusting people was the last thing I wanted!

It finally looked like I had escaped the wilderness and found a spot where someone did not try to knock me over every single second. I straightened my clothes and checked if the brutes had spilled any alcohol or anything else on my new and clean jacket. It was grey and made out of cotton so any stain would be very noticeable and practically impossible to get off, at least for me.

I looked down at myself and wondered if I looked okay in those clothes. Besides from the open jacket, I wore a pale gray and black striped t-shirt and a pair of ordinary washed out dark jeans. I had added a white belt just because I thought belts were a great accessory and fit almost any outfit. My shoes were white as well since I needed something to match the belt so it would not stand out too much from the rest of my clothes. I do not know how to describe them, though. I guess you could call them kind of hip hop style? They look big and the laces are not tied to o and they are tugged underneath the wide tongue of the shoe so the knot is hidden.

I did not know if this was what you were supposed to wear at a club these days or if the pieces and colors fit or if it even looked good on me. I was not much of a stylist, but I tried, since I did not want to look like an idiot in front of Kakashi. I wanted it to look like I knew what I was doing, but it should not look like I had been considering what to wear either. I did not want to appear gay or metro sexual, or whatever the correct term for someone like that was.

I put my hand in front of my face and breathed into it so that I could tell if my breath smelled. It did not appear to do so and I gave a small approving nod to myself and walked on.

"C u at RAW in 30?" that was what he had written around 40 minutes ago. The message was so cryptic and I was not sure if I had ever read anything with such difficulty before. I was not a complete moron, I knew people wrote like that now a days, but seriously? I could barely decrypt it! And Kakashi was 30-years-old, was he not a bit too old for that? Not that he was old or anything! I just thought that only teens wrote like that.

If I understood his message correctly, I was supposed to meet up with him at the club called RAW around 30 past midnight. I came there on time, but I had used nearly 10 minutes just to look for him. He was nowhere to be seen. He could be late, which was kind of expected of him, but then what was I supposed to do until he decided to show up? I could buy a drink or dance, but I did not really feel like doing any of those things. Drinking alcohol only brought back bad memories. Memories that I did not have any intention of reflecting over tonight. They were not going to ruin my shot at coming closer to Kakashi.

I knew I would look pathetic and miserable if I just sat down at my own table, but I did not have any other choice, did I?

Slowly, I made my way to the sitting area where I found big empty table. Kakashi had not told me how many friends he was going to bring to the club along with him so to make sure that there was room enough for all the potential incomers, I had chosen the biggest table of the free ones at the club. Most people had left their seats to go dancing instead when the popular song "Moves Like Jagger" had started playing so it was not that hard to find a table. Unfortunately for me, the biggest, empty table was the one surrounded by three neighbor tables that were stuffed with drunk men and women. Now they would have something to talk about, I thought to myself as I sat down at the table anyway.

The situation made me feel very small and weak. The men at the neighbor table were pretty buff in contrast to the petite woman on their laps and side. I figured it was for the best if I kept a low profile. I did not want to get in a fight with any of those and since I knew what a sharp tongue I had, I would probably not be able to hold back if any of those brainless guys tried to act cool towards me.

One of my arms lay flat and bended in front of me and I placed the other right beside my hand with the elbow on the table so I could rest my cheek in my palm. This was boring.

I scanned the room to see if there was anything interesting to look at. The first thing that caught my eye were two women that stood by the bar with two contemporary men. It looked like they were trying to seduce them, but it was probably just to get free drinks since those women were way out off those men's league.

I continued my search, but did not find anything of interest. A couple were on their way out to the girls bathroom, you could easily guess what they were about to do judging by the girl's slutty behavior and the horny look in the guys expression. There were dancing people, snuggling couples, drinking drunks and two guidos that were about to get into a fight, but probably would not, since the bouncer had already noticed them.

With a idly exhale, my eyes wandered to one of the corners of the club. I only saw what you could expect – a suspicious man who was receiving money from another man who looked kind of needy. Do I need to say the words?

So far, nothing had changed from back in the days where I used to go this club frequently. The only thing that had changed the slightest was the music. Besides that, everything was just the same old shit.

My attention turned to one of the tables beside me when one of the women burst into a loud laughter. She was sitting on a man's lap with crossed legs thrown to the side. Her upper body was twisted so that she could face him and rest her arms on his shoulders. I could not hear what they were saying to each other because of the loud music and all the other people around them that spoke at once.

"Hey you!" I looked up through my eye lashes, without raising my head, at a man who was standing right in front of me. He did not look very pleased, "Yeah, I'm talking to you. Piss off, will ya'? You're taking up an entire table!" he was rude and sounded angry, but I did not care, I was here before him. I was not going to give up my table for a jerk like him.

"I'm waiting for someone. Go find another table, this one is taken," I looked away from him and did not exit my relaxed position that should signal to him that I did not care what he wanted.

He started laughing, "Yeah, right. Like anybody would want to hang out with you. Now scoot!"

I did not deign to look at him nor did I reply him. I did not move out of the spot and he started gnashing his teeth in rage, but I pretended not to notice. If I was lucky, he would not be retarded enough not to comprehend the message I was trying to get through to him. Apparently, he was.

He gripped and twisted the neck of my shirt, forcing me up on my feet, "You better do as I say or.."

I cut him off, "Or you are going to do what? Beat me? Be my guest, take a free shot," I replied cheekily with a raised eyebrow as I lifted my chin. I might not have been the strongest guy in there and he was a lot taller than I was and he had a bunch of body builder friends to back him up, but this was my thing. This was what I used to do. I would not let him beat me at my own game.

"You little...!"

"That's enough," I cocked my head to the side to see who it was that was interrupting the big piece of meat. Why did it always have to be him who came to my rescue?

The dull-witted idiot had to take his time to grasp what was going on around him. When he saw that it was Kakashi who was talking to him, he let go of me and turned to face him instead, "And who do you think you are?" he tried to sound superior, but when you knew how little his brain was able to handle at once, he did not really sound that superior to anyone.

"I don't think I am anyone, unlike you. Leave him alone or I'll personally kick you out of here," Kakashi's voice was firm and determined. He was just as tall as the other and Kakashi was not a weakling like I was. In a way, he was actually pretty scary when trying to be it. If I had been that steroid-wreck, I would have packed my things and gone already.

He looked at Kakashi before speaking. He probably had to rack his brain to come up with even the stupidest answer, "I'm not scared of you," he said and took a step towards Kakashi, but to his surprise, Kakashi did the same thing.

"I'm not scared of you either. But if we fight now, you and your friends are going to be kicked out of here and I'm not sure of how thrilled they are going to be about you ruining their night, am I right?" Kakashi smirked and looked over the other man's shoulder and got eye contact with his friends. He was right, they did not look like they were ready to leave the party just yet.

The man looked over his own shoulder as well and saw his friends and via their looks they advised him not to get into trouble. He then looked back at Kakashi and took a few steps back, "Fine, you're not worth the trouble anyway," he tutted and left the sitting area together with his friends. I was sure Kakashi could have beat him with one arm tied behind his back, but this was probably for the better sake.

"Thank you, but I could have sorted it out myself," I did not want to sound ungrateful of his help, but neither did I want to look like a helpless child.

"I'm sure you could, I just have a big mouth," he chuckled and smiled with his eyes. He could not have put it in a better way - now I did not look so defenseless in front of his friends. Thank you Kakashi, you have no idea of how much I appreciate that! "I see you saved us a seat, thanks man," I nodded and sat down, scooting to the side to make room for everyone.

I had kind of hoped that Kakashi would have sat down beside me, but he was too polite and let everyone take a seat before taking one himself. I could not have gotten any further away from him. What a pain.

"So, Iruka-san, I wanna introduce you to my buddies here," I gave him my full attention and he pointed at the first person, starting from the one beside me, "That's Asuma, Itachi, Zabuza and Hidan. Everybody, this is Iruka-san," I smiled at everyone at the table and they all smiled back. It bothered me, though, that I was the only one who Kakashi used a honorific with. Why he did not use it with the others was a mystery to me. It was not like he was not politely inclined so was it because they were just very close friends or something?

"So, what are we drinking?" Kakashi asked and looked at all of us.

"Tequila shots, olé!" the one beside Kakashi, named Hidan, screamed, "I'm not even close to being drunk because of Zabuza that skinflint," The other men shook their heads at their friend and chuckled. Zabuza just glared at him, but Hidan did not even notice.

"Sure, but then you're getting them," the guy named Asuma said a leaned back in his seat.

"No problem, as long as you are paying!" Hidan jumped over Kakashi's lap and rushed to the bar, leaving Asuma speechless. He looked away from the others and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Scrounger," he muttered irritably, only making the others laugh at him.

It was not as uncomfortable as I had first expected it to be. Everyone had a pretty laid back attitude just like Kakashi. Except for Hidan, obviously. This was probably going to be an interesting night.

oOooOooOo

I'm sorry! I know I promised more action to some of you, but I had totally forgotten about this chapter! I thought it was the 9th chapter already xD! Damn. I wrote 4 chapters straight last night so I'll update everyday until Tuesday – unless I get more chapters written today? I should be doing my homework, but what the hell, I'll try to write on the next chapters instead xD..

Okay, so there did not happen much in this chapter besides from the introduction of Kakashi's friends – you'll get to know some of them a little better in the next chapter.

I wanna know, though, did it get too confusing? I know I get confused when reading a story where there's too many characters at the same time. Hopefully, I managed to make it readable, but please tell me if it got confusing already. *Warning – the next chapter has potential to become even more confusing concerning this xD*

And remember, this is an AU fic so even though some of you might see this as an odd group of friends, it's not impossible in an alternative universe so please, keep your minds open.. I hope there's some Akatsuki lovers among you because I must say, I have fallen for Hidan and Itachi after writing about them!

Oh and I wanna send a special thanks to my three amazing reviewers, Stefanatic, Cloud Traveler and Almiaranger! Those three write the most amazing reviews and I really enjoy reading them^^ They are the reason why I got so excited and went writer-crazy last night. So thank you for inspiring me!

- Also, you should read some of their stories! I haven't gotten to read Cloud Traveler's story yet (sorry – I'm a pussy when it comes to potential spoilers! I have no idea of what to expect of an Akatsuki fic xD? But I am looking forward to reading it anyway!)

Yeah, I like to read my reviewers stories. A person who writes awesome reviews are more likely to write awesome stories as well. That's just my idea of things xD

Blaah, this A/N have gotten too long already, sorry about that xD.. I guess there's nothing else left to say than hope you enjoyed it even though it was a pretty boring chapter and please review – I love to improve!

See ya' tomorrow :D!