Hey all! Glad to see. Hope your not too mad, it's only been...2 months since I last posted. Wow. Okay, you're allowed to be a little angry. Go ahead, I give you permission. Are you done yet? Good.

Any way, your thoughts on the last chapter were noted and disregarded in the same thought. So, to drag out the story, and because I wanted to get what I had written out so as not to sadden you any further, I have here, the legendary Chapter 10, the penultimate chapter. (Or perhaps not, you never know with these things.)

"We're painting the roses red!" With that, the final rose was finished, and they all began to gather the empty paint cans for discrete disposal. Suddenly, trumpets began to blow a fanfare, and all of the cards gasped, and threw the paint cans wildly to the side, into some bushes. Confused, Sakura looked around, until the Three of Hearts pulled her into a row with all the other cards. He leaned down and explained to her the Queen of Hearts was approaching, and that if she was near, it was a rule that all stand at attention. At her close quarters, Sakura saw that the Three was not of Hearts, like she had originally assumed, but of Clouds. The same red clouds that adorned the cloaks that everybody seemed to wear. She was about to ask him what it meant, but he clamped his hand over her mouth and jerked his head towards the entrance to the garden. And there stood the Queen of Hearts.

Sakura blinked as she regarded the supposed Queen of Hearts. For someone whom everyone was obviously terrified of, she was rather unimposing. She surveyed the line of playing cards, then said in a low, dangerous voice, "Who has been painting my roses red?"

The cards stiffened and glanced at one another in fear. The Queens gaze narrowed down onto the bucket of paint that Sakura for some reason still held in her hands. The Queen strode forward and said, "And who are you supposed to be?"

Sakura couldn't help but feel a little irritated at being addressed like that, but she swallowed her pride, after all she was in the presence of royalty, and smiled at the Queen. "I'm Sakura Haruno, Queen…um…"

"Konan," the Queen said.

Just then, one of her guards shouted out, "TEAM CONAN!" in a very loud manner, startling all those around him.

"Off with his head," Konan said casually, not looking away from Sakura. "He deserves it for using such an old reference from an issue that has long passed the media's attention."

The guards nodded, and dragged the guard away gravely.

Konan stared at Sakura. "Why did you paint my roses red?"

Sakura blinked. "Um…because, I knew you liked red, and the roses were white, which I knew you wouldn't like."

The Queen nodded, and swirled around to stare at the Three of…Clouds. "Off with his head!" She shouted.

The shark-like card was dragged away, a confused expression on his face.

"Do you play croquet?" the Queen asked Sakura, as she watched the card-shark-man-thingy being dragged away.

"I've never played," Sakura said.

Konan turned back to stare at her, "Well, I guess we'd better change that." She said.

They, that is Sakura, the Queen and King of Hearts, the visiting Kings and Queens, the Knaves, the Guards of Hearts, and surprisingly, Sasori, the White rabbit, puppet in tow, started off towards the croquet grounds.

"Fine day, is it not?" Sasori said to Sakura as they marched in pairs and trios towards the grounds.

"Where's the duchess?" she asked quietly. "I thought that she was going to play croquet with the queen."

"Well, yes," Sasori said. "But, unfortunately Lady Hinata caught the queen cheating, and so was sentenced to beheading."

"What?" Sakura said in alarm, earning her several dirty looks, and her fair share of 'sh's from the courtiers.

"Oh, be quiet Makoto."

"I'm pretty sure I'm not Japanese Sailor Jupiter from Sailor Moon."

"Rukia."

"That's Bleach."

"Ichigo."

"Tokyo Mew Mew."

"…Minney Mouse."

"…Disney."

"Just shut up."

Inner Sakura was screaming to kick his ass, but Sakura ignored her as the party reached the croquet court. It was quite large with twenty-foot tall red arches spread around. Next to them, Sakura could just barely see small, white arches following a completely different pattern. Where the red arches were in a completely straight line, the white arches had a twisting path that encircled the entire garden. She was handed a flamingo, and stood by the queen as the queen selected her mallet. The queen pulled out a long tall emu and jerked it straight. She then pulled out a rubber ball and set it on the ground. "Now then," she said. "Let me explain the rules. We each take turns hitting our individual balls through the hoops, I have the red, you have the white, and whoever reaches the end, hits their ball onto the end stick, and comes back wins."

Sakura couldn't exactly blame Hinata for pointing out cheating; the game was quite obviously rigged in the queen's favor. She wasn't even sure that she could get her ball through the white hoops, they were so tiny. Inner Sakura was seething at the blatant display of cowardice. That's ridiculous! She exclaimed. How are you supposed to win like this? I think that's the point, Inner. Well, I doubt that she counted on us being ninjas! Muahahahaha! Lets teach that bitch a lesson! But she might be unhappy if we beat her, she could order to have our heads cut off. I don't care, it's been a while since we had a good fight.

Sakura shrugged, it was true enough, and so she decided to go for it. He heart sank as she was given her ball; it seemed to be made out of solid concrete.

She took a deep breath, and turned to watch the queen line up her ball for her first shot. She swung back and hit the rubber ball as hard as she could. The ball shot off, on a slightly skewed path. To Sakura's amazement, the hoops followed Konan's ball. She squinted, and saw that cards had been laying under the red arches, and then arches and scuttled crablike over to make sure the queens ball made it through. She flushed with indignation, and doubly resolved to beat the queen.

Konan and all of the spectators turned to Sakura. "It's your turn," Sasori told Sakura.

She nodded, and turned to line up her shot. She sent a pulse of chakra through her fists to make her flamingo jerk and stiffen. She nodded, and then summoned up and large portion of chakra, then slammed her fist into the ground, making a line of ground shoot up with the impact, pushing the white hoops up into the air with them. Sakura them slammed the flamingo into her ball, sending it colliding into all of the hoops, for they were to thin for the ball to get through, then, looking like a sideways Saturn, they slammed into the stick, breaking it in two, before continuing on to the wall, where it bounced back into Sakura's waiting hands. (I/S/A note: I'm pretty sure I just broke about ten laws of physics there. Who the hell cares! That was awesome! Yes. Yes it was.)

Sakura turned to the group to see them all standing rigid, staring at her in shock. Konan opened and closed her mouth several times, not being able to say anything. Sakura glanced up to see, to her surprise, the Cheshire Cat grinning eerily at her. She suddenly heard his voice in her ear, saying, "That was a nice display, your in deep shit now."

Sakura couldn't help but agree as she watched the queens face turn purple with rage. She swallowed as the queen raise a shaking hand to point at her, then said, "Arrest her!"

I was shocked when none of you realized that since Hinata was the Duchess, that Konan hadn't made an appearance yet, and I have all other Akatsuki in my story.

So, until next time! (If there is one! Inner, stop scaring readers! It's not like they care, we haven't gotten one death threat! Maybe that means that they like it so much that they can be patient! keep telling your self that. Stop it! They like my story! Then how come you only get one or two reviews a chapter, and most of them come from only one person who reviews every chapter they read? Sniff...that hurts. Good! Don't review so I can continue torturing the author!)