Written to Three Days Grace and to Breaking Benjamin. If you do not know who I am talking about, go look them up. Now.

Also, this is the chapter where most of the nobles are introduced. Thanks goes to… a bunch of people, actually. Ai Aika, Skelex, DevilToBeLoved, the tomato, cherryluver19, OnyxDragon2604, rEbEl-fOr-sHoW, and StOrM iS mY pOwEr. If I forgot you, and you sent me a character that I used, PLEASE PM me to let me know, 'kay?

Disclaimer: Still not mine.

Dedication: Everyone who has sent me characters.

---

It was late morning when I woke up. After Hinata got Karin and Temari patched up, she sent them to bed.

"I don't want them re-living something hellish when they're obviously not ready for it. Let them rest for a bit. And we need sleep, too, so get some sleep, 'kay?"

So that was what I did. Sleep comes naturally to me, so it wasn't that hard to close my eyes and fall asleep.

I dreamt again, last night. There was music and Sasuke and falling-falling-falling-into-the-sky and ringing laughter and children's songs ring-around-the-rosy-pocket-full-of-posy and we all fall down. There was Hinata in a white dress and Naruto in a tux and happiness in the middle of summer, and everything swirled and I wasn't sure what was real.

And then I woke up.

I hate dreaming. It brings to the surface everything I hate about myself. So I didn't think much about the images running through my head. They don't mean anything. They never do. Dreams are the brains way of figuring out a very strange day.

I yawned, and I walked into the kitchen in my room. Sasuke was sitting at the table, his hands clenched around a coffee mug. I don't think he heard me come in, but I sincerely doubted. His guard was up, and his shoulders were tense.

"Sakura…?" he whispered in the still air.

I went down and sat down next to him. "Yeah?"

He laughed, so bitter, and it hurt to hear the sound. "You have… no idea what last night was like for me."

I tilted my head. "What'cha mean?" Had he been worried about Temari and Karin? That seemed really out of character for Sasuke.

"You were out there, all alone. Suigetsu had to knock me out to keep me from going after you. And then when Karin and Temari got back…" he closed his eyes, hiding the dark wells of hurt from my view. "And they were hurt the way they were…"

He broke off again, before continuing. "Karin's good, and Temari is damn dangerous. If they were ripped to shreds the way they were, all I could think was that you were gonna die. I nearly went crazy."

I laughed softly. "Sasuke, you should know by now-"

But his lips covered mine, cutting my words off. It was urgent, and I could still taste the insanity on his tongue, and I knew without a doubt that if I went off on my own again, knocked out or not, Sasuke would follow me.

I knotted my fingers in his hair, and was thoroughly getting into it, when I heard the door open behind me, and I groaned, and half-heartedly tried to pull away. Sasuke growled, and pulled me closer, his arms tightening around my waist.

"Uhh, S-Sakura?!" Hinata's voice stuttered out, and I almost giggled. Poor Hinata, walking in on something like this. Her poor, virgin eyes must be burning right about now. But, then again, I doubt she was that innocent… she had Naruto, after all.

I managed to turn my body around, still tight in Sasuke grip (that didn't seem like it was going to be changing anytime soon…), and I blinked at Hinata. "Hina, what's up?"

"Tsunade's on the phone." Her voice sounded flat. Not good, coming from Hinata. Hinata's voice was never that monotone.

She tossed me the phone, and I grabbed it out of the air, and put it to my ear. "Hello?"

"Sakura, I have a job for your team, and a bunch of information."

I glared at the ground. They are my friends. Not my team. It's a different kind of thing, if they go from being my team to my friends, but not the other way around.

"Alright, info first."

"It'll be coming into Shikamaru's computer now."

How she knew Shikamaru had a computer set up here, I don't know. And honestly, I didn't really want to know, either.

"And the job?"

"Also coming in."

"So why did you contact me directly?" Tsunade, more then anybody, knows how dangerous telephones can be.

"Because I don't want you to disobey what those orders are about. The council has nothing to do with this, but I'm not about to say you're not in danger. All of you… well, you'll see."

I clenched my jaw. This couldn't be good. I heard the phone line die, and I wrenched myself out of Sasuke's grip. I turned away from him; I didn't want to see his face after that move, so I addressed Hinata. "Let's go find Shikamaru. I am going to kill Tsunade. I am going to kill her."

Hinata nodded, and the two of left the room. The door clicked behind me. Sasuke didn't come out.

I expected him to. I really did. And it kind of hurt when he didn't. A little. Just a little. But I just set my jaw, and walked towards Shikamaru and Temari's room, right as Temari, arms still wrapped in bandages, came out.

She looked more then a little ruffled, and I smirked at her. "Naughty, naughty, hey Temari?"

She glared at me, but the look on her face was a smirk-smile. "That lazy bum has to be good for something…"

I grinned at her, but the tightness never left my face, and I think she noticed it, because she was looking at me weird, and she was staring at the brooding Hinata. Hinata never broods. Ever. "Hey, is something up?"

I growled. "Yeah, we have to go talk to Shikamaru. You're coming, too, because you're as much part of this as we are. Tsunade's bitching again."

She rolled her eyes, and nodded. She turned around, pushed the door open, and Hinata and I followed her in.

The room was dark, and there was a huge, pulsing… thing… in the corner. It sort of looked like a computer. "What the hell is that?!"

Temari sighed. "It's Shika's computer. I don't even know how he got the pieces for it, but he did manage to. Don't even ask me how or why it's in here, I don't know. It just is. Shikamaru's more of a computer geek then I am, and that's saying something." She shook her head ruefully.

Shikamaru was snoring, one of his arms thrown over his eyes to cover the glare from the computer. Temari kicked him. "Lazy ass, wake up! Sakura says Tsunade's bitching again."

He groaned, and I snorted a laugh. Hinata covered a smile with her hand, and we both rolled our eyes at the way Shikamaru and Temari treated each other. It wasn't as bad as the way Karin and Suigetsu were, but it was pretty damn funny.

"Say wha-?" muttered Shikamaru, and he cringed when Temari jumped on him and whacked him over the head. She sat on him, and jumped up and down (I have seen Anko do this to Kakashi when he's being lazy. It's a rather varied experience. Painful for Kakashi, funny for me, fun in general for Anko), until he pushed her off, and got up.

He caught by the wrist though, before she hit the floor. Awww, they're so cute it's almost sickening…. Not as cute as Naruto and Hinata, but pretty damn close.

Shikamaru still seemed half-asleep, but he gave me a sleepy-eyed stare, and said "What was Tsunade bitching about?"

"Check your computer. She said she was sending a bunch of mission details to your computer. How she knows you have a computer, don't ask me."

He shrugged, and mumbled something under his breath that I couldn't hear. I think it was probably along the lines of 'troublesome woman…' because Temari whacked him over the head again.

But he did as he was told, and went and poked the computer. I watched his fingers fly over the keyboard, back and forth, and I got a little dizzy as he brought up three or four different windows in about five seconds.

I looked away as the brightly-swirling colours stung my eyes swirling-swirling-swirling-bright-lights-in-the-middle-of-the-night and, a few seconds later, I heard Shikamaru hiss.

That couldn't be good…

I looked back at the brightly-glowing screen, and saw numbers and letters flashing across the screen. Pictures, too, and I saw a blonde girl with bright red eyes -flash- a boy with messy brown hair and an open smile -flash- Kakashi? -flash- Mama?! -flash- purple hair and a toothy, young smile -flash- reddish-brown hair in pigtails, tied with black bows -flash- Silver, with Argent -flash-… So many pictures. Some of them, I recognized; many, I didn't.

"Shikamaru, what the hell is this?!"

He groaned, and rubbed his eyes tiredly. Temari, who, a moment before, was looking annoyed, had a suddenly worried expression on her face. "You're so dumb, Shika…"

"S'not my fault, you never let me sleep…" he muttered back at her, and Hinata and I grinned at each other. Temari better have a damn good explanation why she hasn't told us any of this…

"So what are we supposed to do? Tsunade didn't tell us."

His voice was a cross between bored and strained when he answered Hinata's question. "You two, and Naruto and Sasuke, and Tenten and Neji, you're all going to be getting dressed up tonight, and the next few nights."

I hissed. Not good "Why?!"

He groaned again. "Because Tsunade has decided that you're going to be playing parley with the vampires. Tsuande's apparently sent something for you people to wear. Get dressed up pretty. You're in for a rough night."

I groaned, too. Oh no. Oh, god no.

---

When I got back into the room, holding the package full of clothes the front desk creeper guy had tossed at me, Sasuke was still standing where I left him. My heart did a weird, weak flutter, and then I told it to shut up and get a move on. He and I just looked at each other.

"That wasn't fair." I said.

"Neither is this." I dropped the package I was holding and then he was so close to me again, and it was like nothing had ever happened in the first place. Why the hell am I so anal about stupid things?! Sasuke is Sasuke, and I'm not going to try and change that.

A few minutes later (or it might have been an hour later… I'm not really sure of time when Sasuke's around…), Sasuke looked down at me. "So what was Tsunade so pissy about?"

I groaned. "Damn, thanks for making me think about it… Kaeleo, you get to have some fun tonight. We're going to see the council."

Sasuke eye's lit with an unfamiliar light, and I knew without a doubt that Kaeleo had taken over. "Ah, so the old bat sees the promise in something like cooperation… Princess-"

And then Sasuke was back, gritting his teeth. "How many times do I have to tell you, you asshole?! Stay out of my head!" He muttered incoherently for another few minutes, and I knew that he was mentally yelling at Kaeleo.

They had fights like this all the time, I was coming to find. Strangely, I was never very annoyed by Kaeleo. He just kind of showed up at inopportune times.

Sasuke finally managed to get control over the other persona in his head, but his breathing was hard. I'd never heard it like that before…

"Sasuke, what's wrong?"

His teeth were gritted when he answered me. "He's… fighting… Damn it, I wish you hadn't told him but…"

I wrapped my arms around his torso, very careful of the fact that his fists were tightly clenched, and I pulled myself very close to him. I measured each movement towards him, aware that both he and Kealeo were aware of it, too.

I gently pressed my lips against his, mine-mine-mine-mine-mine and whispered " Sasuke, not Kaeleo. Sasuke."

And then he was grinning down at me, and he murmured "Thanks, princess."

I smiled quietly, and he hugged me closer. We stayed like that for a long time.

Until, of course, I realized that I had to get ready. I sighed, and went and grabbed the package of clothes (I guessed) off the floor. I glared down at it, and it glared up at me, and I tore it to shreds, as Sasuke watched in amusement. I didn't even look at the dress. I just stuffed the tux that was in there into Sasuke's arms, and rushed to the bathroom.

And then Ino appeared, holding a bag of something, and an evil look in her eyes. What the hell?!

"Sit down, Sakura. I have to make you pretty for the vampire lords and ladies."

My eyes widened, but I was trapped. "NOOOOOO!!!"

---

I stared down at the dress I was wearing in something like revulsion. It was pink.

Well, actually, it was slinky and black, with red and fuchsia cherry blossom petals scattered across it, origination from a flower burst just below my left shoulder. There were slits high up my thighs, too, leaving my movement wonderfully free, but it made me feel almost slutty, and the thing was strapless. So, not only did I feel like a slut, I was a slut who could barely breathe. Damn.

And my hair. My poor hair. After Ino had trapped me in the bathroom, she basically tackled me, tied me to a chair, and had done my hair and makeup (apparently, this was just procedure, because I didn't hear any screaming from Tenten and Hinata, and I knew that Ino had done them as well, because she told me that I was last).

And so, now my bright red-pink hair was combed up into a delicate up-twist, with strands left to frame my face, and my eyes were 'smoky and seductive' according to Ino. Argh. Did I want to kill her? Very much so, yes.

God, I felt like some sort of Barbie. That was hell. Period.

And not only that, but I was wearing heels. How the hell is one supposed to run in heels?! Do you have any idea how pissed off I am right now?! The entire time I'd been in Konoha (actually, just my entire life in general…) I'd protested wearing pretty dresses. But there I was, in a ballroom gown, conned into playing with leeches.

Why me?

I stared at the unfamiliar girl in the mirror for a few more seconds, and I had an urge to smash the mirror for reflecting such a fake image.

I quashed said urge, and then I stomped out of the bathroom, and right into someone's chest. I looked up, and saw Sasuke blinking down at me, something like wonder in his eyes.

"What?!" I asked him, annoyed. He was going to laugh at me for dressing up like a such a freakin' girl.

"You look… you look…"

"Like an idiot. I know."

"No," he shook his head, "You look incredible."

Okay, I wasn't expecting that… I looked up at him, and raised an eyebrow. "Are you ly-ing to me, Sasu-chan?" I asked him.

He smirked down at me. "Would I ever lie to you, princess?"

I rolled my eyes, and playfully elbowed him in his tuxedo-clad stomach. Then I realized that he was wearing a tuxedo, and I look him up and down, and then turned my raised-eyebrow into an eyebrow-wag. "Well, the princess needs her prince, and you certainly look the part…"

I wasn't lying, either. He looked sexy. The tux he was wearing left nothing to the imagination, and yet everything at the same time, and ohhh, he was just so yummy…

It was his turn to roll his eyes, and, with an exaggerated flourish, he offered me his arm. I grinned up at him, pretty lips glossed pink and all, and linked our pinkies instead because-you-still-don't-trust-trust-trust-him-do-you?-it-doesn't-matter-how-much-you-love-love-love-him…

And then the two of us walked into the hallway, towards Naruto and Hinata's room. It wasn't a long walk, literally, they were next door, and I didn't even bother to knock. I just let Sasuke pick the lock.

And then I pushed the door open, to find Naruto staring at Hinata, his jaw nearly touching the floor.

Hell, I nearly squealed when I saw her. The girl is too damn gorgeous for her own good, seriously, I mean no one should look that pretty and not be a model!

She was dressed in a fashion similar to me, and yet so totally different, but it was so awesome.

She was wearing a slightly-above-the-knee length dress, and it hugged her every curve. It was white, had slender straps, and was covered in the most beautiful design I had ever seen in my entire life. It was the top of a tree, in varying shades of blue, its trunk starting at the bottom left corner of the dress, and the branches twisted themselves around her body, and my god, the girl looked gorgeous.

Ino had gone all-out on the poor girl. Even her hair, usually so straight and tidy, was curled into big, messy ringlets, and her eyes were made to look wide with the thick black eye liner, smoky and blue.

I could see why Naruto was staring at her the way he was.

She and I looked each other up and down for a minute, grins on our lips. And then we both got a case of the giggles, and we hugged each other. "Damn, we look good!" she whispered in my ear, and I nodded my agreement with a smirk.

I blinked, and looked around the room. Something, or someone (two someones, rather) was missing. "Where's Tenny?" I asked, and my answer was the door slamming open, emitting a very annoyed, very pretty Tenten, and a more-then-slightly-confused Neji.

Tenten was dressed the prettiest of us all, or so I thought. She was wearing a dusky, golden-red dress that swept the floor, and it cinched tight at the waist and around the chest because of the way the fabric was wrapped, in layers, back and forth over her chest. It was embroidered with intricate golden leaves and vines, thickly at the top, and then they scattered down the rest of the dress more thinly, so it looked like she was in a whirlwind of golden leaves. She looked like autumn.

But, then again, I could see why she was so pissed off. The way the dress was wrapped around her torso was, uh, at best, sort of revealing. Well, not really, it just showed off the fact that she had a figure, unlike the clothes she normally wore.

Both Hinata and I glomped her thoroughly, and we fed her a constant stream of compliments until she looked marginally more cheerful.

The boys looked at us like we were complete nutters. But that was okay, because the three of us were already very used to getting weird looks from random people. The three of us went into Hinata's bathroom, and we looked at ourselves in the mirror for a bit, poking and prodding, and figuring out if the pretty girls in the mirror were really Sakura, Hinata and Tenten.

After we had finished staring at the pretty girls in the mirror (and deciding that there was no way in hell that they were us), we looked at the boys.

They all had strange looks on their faces, mixes of awe and sadness.

"So… what do we do now?"

"We go into a viper's nest, that's what we do." Naruto said, his usually-happy voice somber.

"Let's go," said Sasuke.

And so we went.

---

I stared at the blood-bar with revulsion like lead in my stomach. I felt like I was gonna throw up. I hate places like this.

I clutched Sasuke's fingers tightly in my own, and I raised my head high. We had been invited here, and if the so much as touched any one of us, there would be hell to pay. The slits were high enough on my thighs that one could see the guns strapped there, but please, did they really expect us to go in there totally unarmed?

The six of us stalked in, heads held high. I was surprised, actually. The leeches here had some control over themselves, considering they didn't throw themselves at us. I understood, right then, why Ino hadn't come on this particular interlude. She was the seductress; her blood would have driven them half-crazy with desire, and that's just not nice, according to Tsunade.

And both Temari and Karin were still too injured to do anything, because they might end up being more of a hindrance then a help.

A leech with wine-red eyes and short green hair eyed me boredly, and he ushered us past the blood bar's outer line, and into the heart of the snake pit. Silver's words rang in my mind. 'Be wary of snakes, little one, because pink-haired rulers and snakes don't get along…'

I shuddered at the analogy, and gripped Sasuke's fingers tighter. He didn't do much, but he slipped his arm around my waist, and pulled me closer. I wanted to curl into him for comfort, but I didn't. I needed to concentrate right now.

The leech leading us about led us to another door, thick, oak, old. The handle was silver, and I mentally sighed. It was too bad Temari wasn't here… she could put the magic-stuff into it, and then the leeches would never get out, and we could do whatever we wanted! But, sadly, it was not to be, and the leech pushed the door open, and we slipped into a dark room.

It wasn't so dark that we couldn't see, but I was still on guard until a light flickered on.

Scratch that, my guard was going to be up all night, whether I liked it or not. I do not get along with leeches, and they do not get along with me.

I raised my eyes to the five high podiums in the room, four of them occupied. I could see Silver. He was alone; big surprise. The only other of his line had been Argent, and I smiled savagely as I thought of her.

In the other three occupied throne-like things were two other males, and one female.

I recognized Kendra's slow, sugar-sweet smile, big red ringlets and cold eyes in the chair to the far-right, and I wanted to shudder. She looked at me for a moment, and her smile disappeared, as if she was trying to figure something about me out.

She leaned down to one of the girls sitting at her feet (there were three of them), and whispered something in the one with black and purple hair's ear. The girl, who looked about thirteen, nodded once, twice, and then she smiled hugely.

I recognized that smile. But from where? It was like…. Hmmm…

And then she came bounding over to us, her smile as wide as the whole sky. She stopped right in front of me. "Sakura Hatake?"

I nodded once, my jaw clenched slightly. I did not like being this close to a leech. No. It should not happen. Never. Agh.

"Kendra wants to talk to you. Oh, and I'm Kethryn!" She smiled hugely again as she ended this statement, and reached out to grab my hand.

I let her, out of the pure shock that she would even think about touching a hunter. She seemed so… naïve. Actually, she seemed like she was a child stuck in an un-aging body.

Sasuke, behind me, growled. Kethryn turned and glared at him, glared at him as only a thirteen-year-old could. "Not you. Only Sakura. Kendra doesn't want to talk to you."

And then Kaeleo took over. "Oh, I think my dear little Juliet would love to talk to me… After all, I haven't seen her in over a century. It'll be a wonderful little reunion of old friends, won't it?"

Kethryn blinked. "Kaeleo…?"

"Hello, little one, I'm not sure I know your name."

Her eyes widened, and she whipped around, and stared at me, her eyes wide and innocent. "Is he lying?" she asked me, her innocence really weirding me out. Not normal, a leech-child. And innocent leech-child. I almost snorted. The thought was so unlikely.

"No, he's not lying…"

"Fine, both of you, come! And then she grabbed both my and Sasuke wrist, and pulled us towards Kendra's chair.

While this had been happening, the rest of our group had watched in something like amazement and annoyance. Naruto was barely letting Hinata breathe; he was keeping her so close. And Neji and Tenten… well, I'm not even going to go there.

And the leeches milling around (I did a quick head count; there were thirteen of them in total) were staring at all of the humans in the room with bright interest. Not hunger, which was strange, but prospective interest. It was like they had been waiting a long ime for this to happen.

Kethryn pulled Sasuke and me towards Kendra's throne-thing, surprising strength in her tiny body. Seriously, she looks like a thirteen-year-old, one who's just started growing, because she's not quite out of childhood, but not fully into adulthood… It was kind of strange, actually.

She pulled us right up to the throne-thing, and Kendra looked down at the two of us. Her eyes flicked from wondering about me, to being annoyed by Sasuke's mere presence. But Sasuke's eyes changed again, and Kaeleo was there. "Hello, Kendra."

She blinked at him. "Do I know you?" Her voice was a soft, musical lilt that spoke of sadness and fairy hills and a lament playing through empty woods in… hmmm, Ireland, from her very slight accent.

"You just might, Juliet."

I heard her breath catch in her throat, as mine so often did. "Kaeleo?!"

He gave her a different smile then the one Sasuke gave me, but it had the same meaning. It had the same 'damnit, I've missed you so much' quality to it, and I gulped.

Jesus Christ, had Kaeleo been in love with Kendra?!

She looked at him, said "I'll talk to you later, asshole," and she turned to me, her face softening. "Sakura. Do you know why you're here?"

I shook my head, my mind still reeling from too much new information.

She sighed, and said "Well, you ought to. I take it you've been informed of the recent change in my people's countenance."

I snorted. "Informed? More like nearly killed by."

She shook her head slowly. "I do apologize for that. But you are unharmed?"

I nodded, slightly mechanically, considering how stiff my body was. "They didn't hurt me, but they damn well hurt a couple of my friends."

She shook her head with an annoyed sigh. "So then you know of the change in their speed and strength, but also their mental capacity?"

I nodded, and she smiled slightly.

"Good. Then I suppose you ought to know that it's because of a very annoying vampire who goes by the name of Kabuto. He's been experimenting on my people in recent years, ever since his master was killed. I suppose those experiments were in revenge, because his master was killed by someone you well know."

"Who?"

"Your adoptive mother, Anko Hatake."

I kind of went into a catatonic state for a minute. Hearing Anko's name out of a leech's mouth was just disconcerting, especially when it was spoken with no distinguishable hatred. But, also, she knew Anko. I could tell, because she had that smirk on.

That smirk came from knowing what Anko was like. "So, what do you want me to do about it? I don't even know where Anko is right now, as I'm sure you know."

She smiled again, her fangs curving over her bottom lip a little bit. "You may not know where she is, but I do."

My eyes narrowed. "Are you going to tell me?"

"There's a catch."

Of course there's a catch, there's always a catch! I glared at her, eyes narrowed, and I waited for her to continue.

"You have to kill Kabuto for us."

---

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