I hate exams. I love exam break, but I hate the actual exams. Blah. Written to more Breaking Benjamin, this time 'Unknown Soldier' and 'Topless'.

Disclaimer: Still not mine.

Dedication: To Jeremy, because he's always there.

---

Loving someone is hard. Very hard. And I honestly didn't know if I loved Sasuke or not, but I wasn't… planning on changing the fact that he was mine anytime soon. I may not have loved him, but he was mine.

Isn't that good enough? Isn't it good enough that no one else can ever have me, except him?

I'm kind of a commitment phobe, so sue me. Actually, not a commitment phobe, per-say. I'm just very conservative about whom I fall in love with; because how am I supposed to know it's not just lust?

I flick my gaze up to Sasuke, and a pit of warmth accumulates in my stomach. Okay, so this isn't just lust, but still.

I curled up into Sasuke chest (it's a habit I picked up from I don't know where), and I muttered to myself about how unfair life is. Sasuke chuckled, and I glared up at him. "I do not appreciate being laughed at!" I told him, slightly outraged. How dare he laugh at me?!

"I know you don't," he said, still chuckling.

I hate boys. Rawr. "So what do we do now?"

He shook his head, and gripped my hand. "I don't know."

I smiled grimly. "Then I'm calling Tsunade. I can't stand this… sitting around. The waiting is getting on my nerves, and if I don't so something about it soon, I am going to rip the skin off my face."

Sasuke gave me a look, and shook his head at my choice of wording.

I pulled myself away from him, and went to grab the phone. Stupid landline starting ringing just as I was about to dial, and I hit the talk button with a sigh. "Hello?"

"Sakura?"

"Oh, hey Hinata, what's up?"

"Not much, but Tenten and I are bored out of our minds, and we don't know what to do. What'cha doing right now?"

"Well, I was about to call Tsunade and yell at her because I'm just about going crazy with all this waiting. If I'm lucky, she'll have something for me to do. If I'm really lucky, she'll let me go help Anko."

I heard Sasuke growl behind me, and I knew that if he had anything to say about it, I would not be going to help Anko. I figured he'd have plenty to say about it, too, the jerk.

The other end was quiet, and I knew Hinata was waiting for me to continue. I suddenly felt like I should be doing girly things if I wanted to live. "Hey, you wanna come over? You might as well bring Tenten and the guys, and then we'll kick the boys out and watch movies and eat ice cream, okay?"

"Sure! I'll see you in a bit!" And then the phone line died, and I wanted to whack my head against a wall. What was I thinking, not a minute and a half ago? I'm having trouble being constantly surrounded by people!

I muttered ungratefully to myself, and I decided that locking myself in my room would be a good idea.

Thankfully, Sasuke noted the look on my face, and let me go on my own. I really wasn't in the mood for company right now. I needed to be alone until Hinata and Tenten and the guys got here.

Besides, I was totally planning on kicking the guys out. Maybe that way, I wouldn't feel so constantly watched. Sigh.

I walked into my bedroom, and closed the door behind me, and then I leaned back against it, and I stared around at the still-white white-white-untainted-pure-white walls of my room, and I sighed.

I really needed a new paint job. Maybe I could get Hinata and Tenten to help. Even bright-coloured spray paint would be better then all this freakin' white.

Hm. I wonder if there's any in Kakashi's hiding-room-full-of-things-Anko-would-not-be-proud-of. You never know. There might be. I mean, seriously, the dude has porn in there. Porn and weapons, and I'm pretty damn sure he'll have spray paint.

So I left my room, and slipped downstairs, only to find that my house had been, once again, invaded by alien beings.

There was Hinata and Naruto, and Tenten and Neji, and I grinned at them. "Hello. Naruto, Neji, Sasuke's in the living room. Grab him, and go. We're having a girly day."

They all blinked at me like I'd gone crazy. I shot the boys my scariest look (because they weren't doing what I wanted them to do!), and the two of them inched away, while Hinata and Tenten just kind of laughed at them. It was funny.

I grinned happily happily-happily-no-not-happy-crazy-crazy-crazy at the girls, and I motioned towards the weapons' room.

Tenten's eyes got wide, and then she was dashing ahead of us both, and she went and stared at all the pretty sharp shiny things while Hinata and I took our time. What's the point of rushing?

"Sakura, what's going on? You only have that grin when you're feeling like doing something reckless."

"We-ll," I said, drawing the word out "I feel like spray painting my room bright, ugly colours."

Hinata looked scandalized. "Why?!"

I shrugged. "Because I don't like white walls."

She grinned at me, a strange sparkle in her eyes, and I knew she agreed with me. White walls were just gross.

I thought that they were everything I'm not, and since it's my room, it shouldn't be so… untainted.

When we got to the room, Tenten was already inside; her eyes shining as bright as the polished metal that lined the walls (and the floor, and every other surface possible to rest upon in this room…), and I knew she really was completely obsessed with sharp, shiny things that caused people extreme pain. Weird chick.

While Tenten and Hinata looked around the room (Tenten squealing every now and then, Hinata obviously very used to the other girl's outbursts about weaponry), I went and picked around Kakashi's hiding place.

Kunai, porn, goo-monster (this was one of Kakashi's more spectacular failed cooking experiments), more porn, kunai, porn, porn, a weird drawing that looked like it was signed by a six-year-old (I think that's my six-year-old signature, actually…), more porn (why does he have so much porn?!), and SPRAY-PAINT!!!

I grabbed the bright blue canister, and tugged it out. To my surprise and delight, there were several other canisters, all in bright, rainbow colours that I immediately liked. Well, it didn't take a rocket scientist to know why he hid these.

I would have stolen them and used them all a long time ago.

Which is what I'm doing right now, but shush. What he doesn't know won't hurt him, and ever if he did find out, he wouldn't tell Anko, because she'd wonder where he hid them, and then he'd have to tell her about the porn stash. Ha.

I tossed the lurid green canister up in the air with a laugh. I had what I came here for, and now there was no reason to stay.

Well, except Tenten's squealing over the artillery. I sighed, and had Hinata help me drag the other brunette out of there.

If I hadn't, we probably would have been stuck with a squealing Tenten for another few hours, and I wasn't really in the mood for that. I was in the mood for tagging.

Now that Tenten was out of her beloved weapons room, she seemed a little… subdued. Weird.

"Tenny, what's wrong?" Obviously, Hinata was thinking along the same lines as I was. She's never this quiet.

Tenten wrapped her arms around herself, and it looked like she was trying to hold herself together. Why would it be like that? Tenten's strong…

"I just…" she shivered, "I dunno, I'm not feeling so good… I think I'm gonna go lie down on the couch for a bit, 'kay?"

Hinata and I both nodded, but when she turned away, we each shot each other worried looks. Something was wrong with Tenten, but we didn't know what it was. Well, not then, anyways.

So Tenten went and curled up on my favorite puke-orange couch, and Hinata and I ran upstairs, pulled some old, manky clothes on, and a couple of masks (no need to inhale the extra paint… not only is it nasty, it's poisonous as hell), and we started tagging my walls.

---

A few hours later, we started running out of paint. The walls were only half-painted, but the rainbow colours made me happy, and a little bit dizzy, with the way they swirled and blurred into each other.

It was kind of cool, and I liked it.

"Hey, Hinata, you think we should go find some more paint?"

Hinata nodded. "Yeah, we might as well. I mean, we're kinda running out…" she mumbled with a frown, and I knew she was having as much fun as I was, dancing around and tagging the walls and just being idiots in general.

The two of us ended up lying on my bed, staring at my stuccoed, still-white ugly-white-white-white ceiling, and we sighed in unison.

Stucco really is very ugly, and we were running out of paint. We need to get some more. "Hey, Hina, do you know where to get more paint?"

She half-shrugged. "I dunno, but we should probably find out. Y'think there's any more in Kakashi's porn-hiding-spot?"

"Maybe, but I doubt it. I went through that thing pretty thoroughly, and there was just more porn. And the goo-monster looked like it grew again."

Hinata raised an eyebrow at me. "Did you just say 'goo-moster'?"

I nodded. "Yup. Kakashi and I don't cook. That was the result of one of his experiments. I don't even know what he put in it, but it was alive."

Hinata sent me a slightly scared look, and muttered "Even your family's cooking causes dangerous mutations of the natural world. That's not normal, Sakura."

I shrugged, and sent her a grimace. "You get used to Kakashi's cooking quickly, and you learn not to eat it even faster. His cooking is considered a lethal weapon."

She blinked at me, sensing the story behind my words, and nodded to tell me to continue. I half-smiled-half-smirked at her.

"Well, you know how Tsunade has Shizune catalogue everything that can be termed deadly?"

She nodded, and I continued. "Well, one day she came to visit us, her and Shizune and Genma and the Perv Sage, and Anko told Kakashi to make a salad. He did, but Tsunade decided not to call it a 'salad'. She called it a 'flesh-eating-slug-thing', and told Shizune to place Kakashi's cooking under the list of 'possible future weapons of mass destruction'."

I smirked as I remembered his reaction. "She basically ordered him to never cook again, and the goo-monster lost its 'friends'."

Hinata just blinked at me. "I was wondering why 'Hatake's cooking' was on that list. I just never had the guts to ask."

I laughed. "You do have guts Hinata. More then I have. Now, let's go get Tenten, and go buy some more paint, and finish up my room, and then we'll go bother Tsunade for a job or two. Maybe we'll get to do some 'exorcizing'."

We both rolled our eyes at Tsunade's choice of wording. Killing a leech is killing a leech. And there is really no other way to put it, and no matter how nice you make it, it doesn't make the act any less revolting.

Because, seriously, that gargling sound is less then nice. It's more then revolting, which is saying something. It's more revolting then the goo-monster. And there is nothing more then revolting then Kakashi's goo-monster.

We slipped into the living room, and found Tenten curled up into a ball on my ever-so-loved ugly orange couch. I looked at her, worried. She was clutching her stomach, and whimpering in her sleep.

"She looks like she's pain…"

"I know… it's weird."

"C'mon, let's wake her up." And as I finished saying it, I tossed a pillow at Tenten's head, because I had a feeling that she'd be violent when woken up unexpectedly.

She screamed, and jumped up, in the process drawing the twin black silver swords I'd giver her out of their sheaths.

Dude, she even slept with them on?

Hinata voice was calming when she spoke. "Tenny, calm down, we're right here, nothing is going to harm you."

Tenten stood very still for a few seconds, and then took a deep, shuddering breath, and then she collapsed. Hinata, being the lifesaver that she is, had obviously expected this, and rushed to catch the other girl as she fell.

I just kind of stood there, looking like an idiot while Hinata took care of the shaking Tenten. And now I was honestly wondering what it was that had made Tenten like this, because she was never like this.

"Sakura, take Tenten, I'm going to make some tea. Bring her into the kitchen."

I nodded, and immediately obeyed Hinata. When she uses a certain tone of voice that I'm sure she learned from Tsunade, one simply does not disobey her. It's just not done.

So I grabbed Tenten out of Hinata's arms, grunting with the effort. Tenten was made solely of muscle, and muscle is five times heavier then fat. This was not helping my case as I dragged her into the kitchen.

Hinata was already fixing tea. That girl is incredible. I don't know how she does it.

I propped Tenten carefully into a chair, and I sat down across from her, and watched as Hinata shoved a steaming cup of what I supposed was tea into her hands, and glared at her until she drank it.

When the steaming cup was replaced by a second, and finally a third, Hinata seemed mollified. But I wasn't.

I needed to know why this had happened.

"Tenten, what was that about?"

She laughed hoarsely. "I've been away from Neji for too long."

Both Hinata and I blinked at her, looked at each other, blinked, and then looked back at her. "Too long?"

She nodded, her bangs falling across her eyes. "He's probably feeling as shitty as I am, right now. We've been apart for too long."

"Explain. Right now. Hinata, call Neji."

She nodded, the skin around her eyes tight as she stared at Tenten. There was something going on here that I didn't understand, and I wasn't going to be leaving until I did understand.

"No, Hina needs to know, too… call him after."

So Hinata sat down next to me, and the two of us stared at her. She laughed hoarsely again, her voice raspy, like nails on chalkboard.

It was teeth-grating sound, and I hated it, but I nodded at her to tell her to go on and explain.

"Hinata, do you remember that mission Tsunade gave Neji and I three years ago? The one we got in July?"

Hinata nodded, and her mouth tightened. Oh dear. That couldn't be good… "You mean the one where you both came back completely normal, but we'd watched you sustain injuries that would have killed any other normal human?"

Tenten nodded, a strange, angry sparkle in her eyes. "That one."

"What about it?"

"Well, there was one point where the cameras went out, and the time they were out was about an hour, right?"

"How do you know that?"

"Because Neji put them out. I was… He was… We were dying. And he didn't want you all to see what he was going to do to keep me alive."

She laughed again, hoarse and bitter. "He mixed both his blood and mine with the blood of a live vampire. I still don't know how he managed that, but he did, and we both drank it."

She took another shuddering breath, and I waited to feel the disgust I was sure would come. It never did. I would have to ponder that later, when I had time to think. Tenten was still talking.

"-And then he killed the thing, and it was like a shock of pain went through me, but then it was gone, and there was just this awareness of Neji at the edge of my consciousness. It was like I could feel him."

"So why are you like this?!"

"Because we found out that we can't be away from each other. It actually hurts. Like, there's physical pain involved in being away from him for too long."

"Why is that?" I asked, but it was Hinata who answered me, not Tenten.

"Well, it might be because they've had each other's blood. You know how potent blood is, Sakura, especially when mixed with a vampires'. It's a blood bond, is what it is."

I shuddered. The thought of being blood-bonded to anyone is a scary thought to me, because it's basically total control over the other person. But if the blood bond is mutual…

Wow, that's a scary thought. Having total control over another person, and them having total control over you… But I didn't know it caused pain…

"but that doesn't explain why it causes pain, Hinata. That part doesn't make sense."

"Yes, it does. Think about it, they were both blood-bonded to this vampire, but Neji killed him, before he could obviously use the blood bond, so of course the blood bond is going to cause them pain whenever they're apart. It doesn't want to stop existing, either, so it'll do everything it can to make sure they protect each other. The pain is the blood bond's way of keeping Neji and Tenten in check."

"So we need to get them together, basically right now?"

"Neji's coming," Tenten whispered, her hoarse voice suddenly dropping in volume, but spiking in excitement. How she knows this, I don't know. Maybe it's that awareness thing she was talking about.

A few seconds later, Sasuke and Naruto barged in, dragging a half-dead Neji with them. They obviously didn't know what was wrong with him, either, and they thought to bring him back here. That was the smartest thing they could have done, given the circumstances.

"Neji!" Tenten whispered again, and tackled him to the ground, taking him right out of Naruto and Sasuke's grip. It was weird, actually, how fast his normally pale skin (at the moment, it was ice-white, and it was kinda scary) regained its pallor.

The two of them just sat there, staring into each other's eyes, and whispering nonsense to each other, on the kitchen floor. It suddenly felt like the four of us were intruding on something very private, something that should not have been watched.

Hinata and I decided to give them their privacy, and we dragged Naruto and Sasuke, respectively, out of there. The boys were staring. It was obvious they'd never seen either of them like that before.

Once we were out of the kitchen, Sasuke sat down on the comfy puke-orange couch, and pulled me with him, the bastard. I ended up half sitting on top of him, and Naruto and Hinata curled up in the same chair.

Talk about awkward.

"What was that about? It was like Neji just collapsed!"

I nodded grimly at Naruto. "Tenten did the same, and there was a whole story there, but Hinata probably remembers it better then I do, so I'm going to let her do the talking."

They nodded, and turned and stared at Hinata, waiting for her to explain. She blushed at their intense stares, or it just might have been the fact that she still wasn't used to Naruto being constantly so close. But she took a deep breath, and explained Neji and Tenten's situation (or what we knew of it) to the two of them.

The boys looked astounded. I don't blame them; I was a little freaked out by it, myself.

And I really wasn't concentrating so well, as Sasuke was currently skimming his fingers along the back of my neck, and very, very, very lightly down my spine. It was chilling in so many ways, but so nice in so many others.

I rolled in his grip slightly, and muttered into his ear "Let me go, you creepo." He chuckled, but he didn't quit his ministrations. Damn. Hinata and Naruto were still talking, but I couldn't concentrate on the words, not when Sasuke was doing this.

But, I wasn't all that inclined to move. I like being lazy. And I certainly like this. I don't have to do anything, and I've got shivers.

But then, of course, the phone rang. Fuck me.

Hinata picked it up, and Sasuke and I both stopped breathing (yes, we were pressed that close together) when her eyes went wide, and strangely dead. She handed the phone to me, silently, so silently that it terrified me.

"Hello?" I whispered into the receiver.

"Get down to HQ now. We have a job for the six of you."

"What're we doing?" I didn't even bother asking how she knew that there were six of us here. This was Tsunade. She always knows things like that.

"Too dangerous over the phone. Get down here now."

"Alright. Give us five minutes."

The line went dead, and I pulled myself off the couch and off of Sasuke, dragging him with me. "C'mon, help me get Neji and Tenten, Tsunade needs us. All of us," I said, as if reminding Hinata that she, too, was needed in this new scheme of Tsunade's.

She nodded, her eyes slightly unfocused. She'd obviously just experienced the full effect of Tsunade's I-am-ruler-and-commander-of-all-things-important voice. It usually had the effect on those who hadn't heard it before.

It didn't do much for me anymore, because I'd heard her being angry like that so many times now, it was starting to get just a little bit pathetic how much I don't care. Sigh. It's sad when I don't even care.

I dragged the other five out to the front door, and I basically booted them into getting ready. "Can we go, please? Hinata's still in shock from Tsunade's I-am-ruler voice, so can we go?!" I pointed out the door, and we all trudged out.

On the way out, I grabbed one of the key chains that were sitting on the counter, and hoped to god Kakashi hadn't taken the Viper, because I liked the Viper. Although, honestly, it wasn't big enough for six people… It barely fit four. It was meant for two people.

I grabbed a second pair of keys, and was about to toss them to Naruto, but thought better of it. I'm pretty sure Kakashi wants whichever vehicle those keys belong to back in one piece. Instead, I tossed them to Hinata. She looked pleased.

The six of us went into the garage, and I clicked the little finder-thing on it, and the Viper blinked at me. I cheered, and raced over to it, and I was about to hop into the driver's seat, but Sasuke beat to it. How he did this, I'll never know.

He reached for the keys, and I grudgingly tossed them to him. I hate the fact that he's such a good driver. Given the fact that he likes to at least double the speed limit (damn Kakashi and his love of radar detectors…), I'm surprised I haven't died yet.

Actually, I'm surprised at how much I trust Sasuke in a vehicle.

I sank down into the passenger seat with a yawn, and gave him a pointed look that said 'get-going-now-I-don't-care-what-you-think'. And he got going.

I knew Hinata had given Naruto the keys (damn her to hell; she's paying for that car if it gets a single scratch), and I knew that Naruto probably drove as badly as Sasuke did.

Boys are just weird like that. They all have this thing for driving very fast, and very badly. This is proved by basically every male I know, and I wince as Sasuke triples the speed limit, Naruto right behind him.

I dig my fingers into the leather of the seat, and I hope to god that we get there fast, and that Sasuke doesn't hit any unwitting citizen. He slammed the wheel to the side, and I watched him flick some ponding hard rock on, and part of me sighed in relief.

I love hard rock, really, I do.

I really don't want to deal with a lawsuit right now… It would not look good on a resume.

---

Tsunade was sitting in her chair, her fingers tapping together, slowly, slowly, and she looked exactly like Mr. Burns! What the hell?!

"Grammy, what'cha want?" yelled Naruto, and I watched Tsunade wince in some satisfaction. Naruto could be really loud when he wanted to be.

She completely ignored him, and looked at Hinata and Tenten and I. "I have a job for you three. The boys can go with you, because you're as bad as Kakashi, Genma, and Asuma are for that. But the girls are undercover."

She sent them a fierce glare. "Under no circumstances are you to get in the way of this. If they need to do something, let them do it, and I'm sending this to you and Naruto for a reason, Sasuke, because I know you'll try to stop them if you can."

I blinked at her. "What? What're we doing?"

Tsunade sighed. "How much would you hate me if I asked you to make a blood pact with Silver?"