A/N: Happy belated New Years everybody :D I can't wait till Spring Break. -_-;

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Day 31

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"Sasuke, I need a favor."

The black-haired man raised his eyebrows as Sakura pushed past him into his house without waiting for an answer, hauling a bursting-at-the-seams garbage bag filled with blankets and pillows and a smaller backpack that had a notebook and dilapidated stuffed dog sticking out of it, as well as her iPod. She dumped the collection unceremoniously by the couch and stared at him defiantly, but Sasuke did not so much as glance up as he quietly shut the door behind her.

"Could I—" she began in a tone showing that she wasn't really asking permission so much as stating what she was planning to do.

"Sakura, you are not living here," Sasuke cut her off flatly, his black eyes showing no hint of anger but his voice clearly saying that his word was final.

"I don't want to live with you, moron," Sakura said, exasperated. "The idea of that makes me feel old and frankly, you would probably just force me into becoming your maidservant and I have no intention of washing dishes for the rest of my life." She took a deep breath. "I just…I need a place to crash for a while, okay?" She sat down cross-legged on top of his couch. He winced at the dirt covering her ripped jeans; his house was supposed to be kept meticulously clean.

Sasuke sauntered over with his hands in his pockets with a musing expression on his face and stopped standing over her. "No."

Sakura glared at him. "But why? I'm not going to bother you; I'll just sleep on your couch or something and during the daytime I'll be out of here. You'll barely notice I'm staying over."

Sasuke glanced at her dirty jeans once again. Sakura hastily brushed them off a little. "Um. I could vacuum for you?" she suggested, sounding like the notion of cleaning for him was making her gag.

Sasuke smirked at her tortured expression. "I can take care of myself, thank you."

Sakura looked mutinous and like she would have relished strangling him, but then thought better of it. She smiled slyly and stood up, winding her arms around his neck and tilting her head so that he could feel her breath against her jawbone. She grinned when she felt his arms encircle her waist.

"Please, Sasuke-kun?" she breathed, carefully placing a kiss on his neck. She felt a vibration through his chest when he chuckled softly.

"Sakura. No." His voice was strained, but firm.

She sighed and let go of him, about to pull away and end the game, but Sasuke's hold didn't loosen when she tugged at his arms. His ever-present smirk grew wider at her bewildered expression. She recognized the expression in his eyes the second before he pulled her closer to kiss her hungrily, crushing her against him. Sakura smiled in satisfaction against his mouth, returning the kiss with enthusiasm. She laced her fingers into his hair, pushing him onto the couch and landing on top of him, thoroughly enjoying herself.

His expression was apathetic, but his coal black eyes were dancing with amusement as he looked up at her when they parted for air. The ends of her pink hair brushed against his face. Sakura grinned widely. "Does this mean I win?"

"Not in the least." He ran his fingers along her cheek and was satisfied when he felt her breath hitch. In return, Sakura bent down to kiss him again with her bruised lips, feeling his arms against her back. When she pulled away again, she smiled breathlessly.

"Let's see if your answer's the same after some more persuasion." She laughed at his expression. "I'm referring to the fact that you haven't even asked me why exactly I need to stay at your place instead of the dorm so that I can explain myself," she said pointedly, "although that kind of persuasion could work too." Sakura gently stroked his collarbone.

Sasuke sighed. "Sakura, what are you doing in my house?"

"Simple. My parents found me, and I didn't want them to," she said.

He growled in irritation. "Sakura."

"Sasuke, I would rather die then go back home," she pleaded, her green eyes suddenly desperate. "Please, I'd owe you so much if you could just let me have this one favor."

The two of them fell silent for a while, and Sakura rolled off of him to sit on the ground beside the couch. Sasuke stared at the ceiling, unmoving. He sighed quietly. "Sakura, I understand what it is to hate those who share your own blood and to want to forget their existence on this planet altogether, better than you ever could."

Sakura opened her mouth to argue, but Sasuke silenced her with a look. "Let me finish." She nodded. "But you cannot hide from them forever," he said in a final-sounding voice. "Sooner or later, you will be forced to face your kin, and that day is coming."

Sakura put her face in her hands. "I can keep on running as long as I want. I can do what I damn well please, and thanks for the advice, but seeing as your own life isn't exactly a model of paradise, I think I'll decide for myself what I'm going to do."

Sasuke's expression hardened. "Very well, then. You may stay here for tonight, and only tonight, but I swear to you that you will regret hiding later on."

Sakura could tell that she had hit a nerve in him, but she was smart enough not to push it. "Thanks," she muttered long after Sasuke had got up and left out the back door. "Thanks, Sasuke-kun."

O0O

Tenten blinked, staring at the empty bunk in the corner of the dorm after coming back from the park and leaving Hinata and Naruto to themselves. Night had fallen by then, and Ino was busily cleaning up some leftover dishes in the sink when Tenten walked over to get a snack out of the storage cupboard. "Where'd Sakura go?"

Ino rolled her eyes. "She ran away. Again."

"What do you mean?" Tenten eyed the bed again. "Where did she go?"

Ino sighed and viciously dried a small soup bowl, handing it to Tenten to put into the closet of dish utensils. "I have no idea, but her parents apparently managed to find out that she was here, so she's running again."

Tenten bit her lip. "So she just up and left without saying a proper goodbye? She's out there on the streets all alone with all her stuff with her psycho parents hunting her down and no place to stay? And you let her go?!"

Ino shifted slightly away from Tenten's furious expression. "It wasn't like she left me much choice! I was trying to persuade her to talk to her parents and stay to think this through some more before just leaving, or at least securing another place to sleep tonight, but she ignored me while she was packing everything and nearly punched a hole in my chest when I tried to stop her from going through the door." Ino shook her head. "It's not like you're the only one that's worried," she muttered.

Tenten was surprised to hear the genuine concern about Sakura's wellbeing in Ino's voice. The two had developed a strange sort of friendship over the past few weeks. "Do you have her cell phone number?"

Ino shrugged. "Yeah. It's stored in my phone on the table. But good luck trying to get her to pick up; it either rings indefinitely or goes straight to voice mail. No use."

"What about something she said? Does she have any idea where she'll stay? Or is she planning on just bunking down in the street?"

Ino pushed back a strand of blonde hair irritably. "I don't know, Weapon's Mistress, or otherwise would I still be here? Hell no, I'd be out there knocking some sense into her stupid head."

"Well, maybe she has friends in this region?" Tenten asked hopefully.

"Tenten, if she'd had friends to stay with, do you think she would have randomly come up to you in a coffee shop and asked for a cheap place to stay? You, a complete stranger? Come on. Use your brain."

"I know, I know," Tenten muttered, pacing up and down.

"We could always call the authorities," Ino said, hesitantly glancing at her phone.

"No way. They'd just send her straight back to her parents, or worse. I think we've got to find her on our own."

"Maybe…do you think she went to the Uchiha guy?" Ino asked quietly. "I mean, he must be one of the only people that she knows around here."

Tenten shrugged. "Sakura seems like she would rather eat her own foot than ask him for help, but she might have if she had no other options. Maybe we should go ask him about her."

Ino nodded. "Do you want to wait till Hinata gets back?"

Tenten shook her head. "Nah, it would only ruin her happy mood. We should go now and hurry up while we have the chance."

Ino looked confused. "Happy mood?"

Tenten suddenly remembered that Ino hadn't been told the good news yet. She smiled distractedly, rapidly picking up a jacket and her cell phone as well as her wallet with some bills in it for quick transportation. "Yeah. Naruto finally got smart and asked her out."

Ino laughed happily. "Oh my god, that's awesome! I can't wait to see her face when we get back." She grabbed her denim jacket with the pink hearts on the back.

Her face immediately sobered up as she slid on some shoes and opened the door, glancing back at Tenten, who was lacing up her Nikes once again. When Tenten straightened up, her face was serious again as well. The rapid personality change was odd, but neither of them could concentrate on Hinata's happy ending while Sakura was possibly out there alone at night and being hunted down by her parents and possibly the authorities, who would have been notified.

O0O

Neji bowed respectfully to Hiashi before leaving the dining room and his empty rice bowl to the maids. The hallways of the Hyuuga Compound were dark and seemingly deserted at this time of night; his footsteps echoed softly through the air as he wound his way through the passages back to his room. Silence was always the best sound to his ears.

His room was completely dark when he arrived there, and as he walked in groping for the light bulb, he sensed an ominous presence in the air. His spine stiffened as he narrowed his eyes in the darkness, attempting to scope out anything moving under cover of night. Nothing stirred, but the foreboding in his chest did not leave him. His sixth sense had never been wrong before.

As doubt started to enter his mind about his suspicions, a voice suddenly spoke into the room. "Hyuuga Neji, I've been waitin' for you."

He heard the thud of two feet hitting the ground and turned to the windowsill, where a white-haired man with glinting, pale eyes had been sitting a moment before. The slight lighting from the window illuminated his ashen face and his pale lips, which were stretched into a feral grin. Neji's eyes narrowed when he realized that it was the same man who had attacked Tenten in the alley.

"What do you want?" he demanded coldly.

"Let's go outside and appreciate the scenery first, and then I'll tell ya if I feel like it," Suigetsu drawled, coming to a stop facing Neji. Two sets of pale eyes locked in a stare full of hatred for the other.

Neji nodded stiffly, and pushed open his door further, keeping Suigetsu in his line of sight as they progressed towards the door leading to the same courtyard that he had taken Tenten to, the courtyard where his father rested beneath his gravestone.

Out under the night sky, the cool breeze whistled through Neji's ears, and his white eyes welcomed the sight of the moon, which illuminated everything in a pleasant, silvery glow. Suigetsu's hair shown white, and his grin never slipped from his face. Neji realized that he was playing with a pocketknife in his left hand.

"I will ask you again, what do you want?" Neji said.

Suigetsu turned around to leer at him with his sharp canine teeth showing. "Well, needless to say, you're the fellow that robbed me of the chance to acquaint myself with a lovely young lady." His smile grew wider as Neji's face contorted in fury at the memory, his fists clenching involuntarily at his sides. A moment passed, and Neji regained his normal, calm composure.

Suigetsu sighed and sheathed the pocketknife, glancing up at the sky with his hands stuffed in his pockets. "She was a rather interesting one. Didn't seem to want to cooperate. Tenten, was it?"

Neji stood silently and watched Suigetsu through narrowed eyes. "And what exactly is your name?"

"Suigetsu," the white-haired man bowed so low that his mocking attitude was blatantly obvious. "It's not a name I mean for you to forget," he added in a tone of voice like he was talking about the weather. "See, I don't like it when I'm prevented from getting what I want. And Tenten was something I wanted."

Neji's hands were balled into fists again. "You are disgusting," he said, loathing in his voice. "If you had truly harmed her, I would not have hesitated to—"

"To what?" Suigetsu laughed insanely. "To kill me? But I don't think you're that kind of guy, Hyuuga. Would you enjoy taking my life? Would you like to try, right now? Punish me for what I did to her, and all of the things that I wanted to do before you stopped me from doing them."

"Leave," Neji said coldly. "If that is all you have to say, then you will leave now or I will force you to oblige."

"Not quite yet," Suigetsu hissed. "I think I may have something you want."

Neji's face remained carefully expressionless. "You could not have anything I would ever want. Leave."

"On the contrary…" Suigetsu sauntered over to the gravestone under which Neji's father rested, and Neji felt his shoulders tense. He vanished behind the huge stone for a moment, and when he came out again, he was not alone. Neji felt his pale eyes widen involuntarily.

Suigetsu grinned at Neji's shocked expression. Hanabi was struggling in between his arms, a gag in her mouth and her hands tied behind her back. There was a growing indigo bruise across one cheek. She seemed highly disoriented, but she was still putting up a fight.

"Let go of her," Neji rasped, fury clouding his mind. "Let my cousin go."

"Not likely," Suigetsu grinned. "At least, not until I feel like it." His blade came to rest against Hanabi's neck, and she instantly froze, her white eyes full of fear as she stared at Neji.

"What do you want in exchange for her safety?" Neji finally responded, resignation in his voice.

"First off, I'd like to fight you and prove who's the better man when you don't have a sneak attack advantage." Suigetsu laughed cruelly and pressed the knife a little harder against Hanabi's neck.

Neji's gaze hardened. "You are going to these lengths to ensure a rematch?"

Suigetsu shook his head. "Do I look stupid to you? There's more than that." Neji responded with grave silence, waiting for Suigetsu to list the rest of his conditions. He could not allow Hanabi to be harmed.

"I want Tenten, in exchange for her."

Neji's response was immediate. "No."

"Well, then, I'm terribly sorry for what's got to happen now." Suigetsu made a move to use his knife.

"Wait." Neji's voice was quiet. "I…I will work something out. Just let Hanabi go first."

"Are you assuming that I would take your word seriously?"

"As a member of one of the most esteemed families in Japan, I would assume that you are taking my word seriously. I do not lie, bluff, cheat, or steal. I am sure the same could not be said of you. Return my cousin to me immediately."

Suigetsu laughed. "Not so fast. I'm taking her with me. Come to the laundry woman's alley tomorrow at 3:30 in the afternoon sharp. Bring Tenten and you get this little girl back in return. We can have our rematch then."

"What do you plan to do with Tenten?"

"Ah, nothing too unpleasant, I'm sure. Orochimaru-sama has something planned for that one," Suigetsu leered. "She may have escaped my grasp because of your heroic interference, but we have need of some other things from her."

Neji gritted his teeth. He closed his eyes and quickly attempted to calculate any alternative options that were left to him. None occurred.

"Do you agree to my terms?"

Neji paused.

"Yes."

O0O

Tenten was surprised when her cell phone rang fifteen minutes into her quest for Sakura with Ino. They were standing in an overcrowded subway, wincing as businessmen coming home from a day at work pushed them aside in their effort to find a seat. It took a lot of work to struggle into a position where she could retrieve it from her back pocket, (although it occurred to her that she should have put it somewhere else, as pickpockets were probably everywhere).

"Hello?" she gasped into the phone as a short and burly little man hit her in the shin with the edge of his briefcase. He didn't bother to stop and apologize as her eyes watered in pain. Ino looked torn between curiosity as to who was calling, and a strange mixture of sympathy and amusement as to her new leg injury.

"Tenten! How's my little girl doing?" her mother's voice came over the phone. She could hear the buzz of soft voices in the background.

"Oh, uh…hi, mom!" Tenten said in surprise, raising her eyebrows at a disappointed-looking Ino. "How's it going?"

"I asked first, honey," her mom laughed, "but since you're wondering, I'm having a great time. It's intermission time at this great concert I'm seeing; it's out under the open sky! The bassoonist is absolutely amazing, I'll have to dig out my old one when I get home and ask him how he makes his reeds after the show-"

"I'm glad you're having fun, kaa-san, but could I call you back?" Tenten resisted yelling a curse after a woman who elbowed her roughly in the ribs to get closer to one of the subway's doors as they neared the next stop. "It's kind-of a bad time right now."

Her mother sounded slightly disappointed when she replied. "Oh, that's fine, Tenten-chan. Don't forget to call later, then. I miss you."

"Miss you too." Tenten quickly steeled herself as the subway screeched to a halt and narrowly avoided breaking her nose against the pole she was holding on to. "Bye mom." She hung up the phone.

Ino sighed. "I wish my mom called more often."

"Ino, the woman leaves you like three voicemails every single day, and you just forget to return them, remember?"

The blonde grinned. "Oh, yeah."

Tenten's phone started ringing again almost as soon as the subway started pulling away from the station. She and Ino both looked at it in surprise. Tenten's phone calls were usually limited to Naruto and her mother, and seeing as the later had just finished talking to her, Tenten assumed it was Naruto having some kind of late night ramen emergency.

"Moshi moshi?" she said into the cell.

"Tenten."

From the expression of surprise on her face, Ino sensed something was up. "Who is it?" she mouthed. Tenten shook her head.

"Neji?"

Ino looked like she was about to squeal.

"Tenten, there is something urgent that we need to discuss."

"Uh, is it the type of urgent that can wait till later? I'm kind-of on a subway right now, and Ino and I are on our way to Uchiha Sasuke's house."

She heard Neji give an exasperated growl on the other end of the line. "Urgent is urgent. I would not bother you otherwise."

Now she knew that something was really up. Neji was always the calm, cool, and collected rock in their friendship while Tenten raved on and on with meaningless babble, (alright, she was exaggerating, but it was basically how it seemed). She felt her heart speeding up as she imagined the kinds of scenarios that could start Neji panicking.

"Alright, shoot. What's wrong?"

There was a pause on the other line. "Suigetsu paid a visit to my house tonight, and he took my cousin."

Tenten turned pale and stopped breathing for a moment. Karin's odd warning in the curry shop came back into her mind, and she cursed herself for not thinking more of it. She shuddered at the memory of Suigetsu's wild eyes. "Which cousin?" she whispered.

"He took Hanabi."

"Oh, God. Oh my God," Tenten bit her lip, trying to steady herself. "Do you have any idea how to get her back? Neji, we should call the cops."

"I know you understand that he will kill her if we do so."

"Then you tell me, how are you going to handle this little situation?" she barked, worry making her agitated.

"Suigetsu made me an offer. If I go to Orochimaru's hideout in that alley where he attacked you tomorrow afternoon and fight a fair fight with him, he will let Hanabi go."

Tenten hissed out between her teeth. "That's it? He kidnapped your cousin so that he could fight you?"

Neji paused. "There is one other condition."

"What's that? Money? He works for a freaking drug dealer, of course he wants money. How are you going to—"

"Tenten, he wants me to trade you in for Hanabi."

Tenten immediately fell silent. She could feel her blood turn cold as it ran through her veins and a shiver went down her spine. Ino was rapidly gesticulating, probably trying to convey that she wanted to know what was going on. Tenten didn't know how to answer, because she had no idea what was happening.

"He wants…me? But why?"

"Tenten, he seems to think that Orochimaru has something planned for you. I…I agreed to take you to him tomorrow in return for Hanabi's safety." Neji's voice sounded tormented. Tenten felt a hysteria coming over her.

"You agreed to hand me over to—"

"I am not planning on actually doing it," Neji cut her off. "Tenten, I am not risking your safety as well. I am calling you to inform you of what has happened and to warn you that when I refuse to give Suigetsu what he wants, he may come after you. Do you understand?"

Her throat felt dry. First Sakura running away with the cops and her crazy family on her heels, and now this. At the beginning of the summer, she had been a bored teenager with few friends and basically no life. Now her life felt like one of those insanely improbable TV dramas her mother watched. What had happened? She wasn't sure she liked the excitement.

"Neji, what will they do to Hanabi if you break your word? What will they do to you? You can't be thinking of going tomorrow, we have to figure something else out—"

"Tenten," Neji interrupted in a forceful voice. "You will stay safe and hidden. You will not involve yourself in this. Do you hear me? I will bring back Hanabi unharmed, and Suigetsu will be dealt with. I need for you to do what I am asking you to."

"Neji, you know I can't do that! Not when you're putting your life—"

"I know what I am doing—"

"Stop interrupting me, damn it!" Tenten realized that she was attracting quite a few stares from the people around her, especially Ino, who's blue eyes were as round as saucers and her face most likely paler than Tenten's. She looked like she was on the verge of fainting, just by listening to Tenten's end of the conversation. "You are not making yourself the hero by going to that place alone and attempting to get past Orochimaru's crew to Hanabi."

"There is no other way. I refuse to involve the police; they do not know what they are doing and Hanabi will die. They have been outwitted by Orochimaru for all of these years; they will not be of any help to us now."

"Does Hiashi know what's happened?"

"Not yet, but I will tell him."

"Okay." She took a deep breath. "Don't do anything stupid. Yet."

"Tenten—"

"I'm coming with you tomorrow."

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A/N: Woah there, that was an interesting chapter o.o But please review!