I am feeling like crap. I am going to crawl into a corner and die. Review, and make me smile, yes? And yes, I know it's shorter then usual.

Disclaimer: Still not mine. STOP HARRASING ME!!!

Dedication: To POMEGRANATE SHERBET.

---

I stared at Kendra, a smirk on my lips. "So you want us to eradicate another leech?"

She half-smiled at me, and her green green-green-green-as-the-pastures-green eyes glittered strangely. Coldly, almost. "Yes, I want you to eradicate him, as you so delicately put it. He's making a mockery of us, trying to play God in a world he doesn't understand."

I crossed my arms over my chest. I didn't like this deal, because so far, I didn't see how we'd find the adults. "What about my parents and the others? When do we find out where they are?"

Her half-smile stayed on her lips, but the warmth in that sugar-sweet charming-charming-so-very-fake-fake-fake smile never reached her eyes. I almost shuddered. "You'll find them when you destroy Kabuto. We don't want to keep you hunters too close; you're too annoying for our liking."

I suddenly liked the fact that 'annoying' could be considered a synonym for 'dangerous'.

She stopped speaking, and she looked slightly irked. "That… thing… is mutating our people. We hate you hunters, but we hate those that dare tamper with our natures more." Her nose wrinkled delicately in distaste, and I could feel her dislike of the man rolling off her in waves.

I let a slow, savage smile twist my lips. My voice wasn't loud when I spoke, but it seemed to almost echo, the syrupy quality to it making me mentally wince. "So, is that it, or can we go and do some exorcisms now?"

"Why don't you stay awhile, and get acquainted with the other nobles? I'm sure they'd all love to meet you." She looked at me for another moment, and then very deliberately turned and stared at Silver's direction.

I wanted to refuse, grab the others, and get the hell out of there, but Tsunade's orders had been "Play nice, and don't make them mad. Oh, and Sakura… be polite," and as much as the orders got on my nerves, I did disobey direct orders. Ever. I sent a glare at Silver, and he waved merrily.

Strangely enough, both she and I twitched twitchy-twitchy-like-a-sort-of-ferret in annoyance. And then we sent each other a confused look, and I asked her "Does he piss you off as much as he pisses me off?"

She rolled her eyes. "Likely more, little one. I've dealt with him for over a century and a half. You've only had to deal with him for a few years, but, then again, he's probably more irksome to you. You have yet to kill him. I can put him in his place."

I wanted to grin at her, the same way I would have grinned at Hinata or Tenten. But then the still-angry six-year-old was screaming at the bored five-year-old, and I carefully reminded myself that it was probably not the best idea to think of her as a possible friend.

Because, honestly, friendship with a leading leech noble is really not on my 'list of things to do in my entire life'. Actually, just friendship with a leech in general (noble or not) isn't on that list. Anywhere. Ever. No.

I nodded, and very slightly bowed my head in recognition. I rolled my eyes when my head was down, because if I were anyone else, I would never bow my head to a leech, but Tsunade had ordered me to play nice.

And I don't rebel against orders.

And then Sasuke and I retreated back towards where the only other humans in the room were (our pretty damn freaked out friends). Poor Hinata. She was shaking, obviously not used to being surrounded by such a strong leech aura, and being able to do nothing about the crushing weight was probably killing her. I know it was killing me, but Hinata wasn't as used to the oppressive weight as I was.

I don't blame her for it, either; I've been working this job a hell of a lot longer then she has, and she's not used to being so covered by the threat of death, yet.

Tenten, on the other hand, seemed utterly at ease, even smirking viciously around at the leeches in the room, the flickering, golden light of the millions of candles in the room glinting off the auburn in her hair and the golden stitching on her dress. Neji was standing next to her, his arm wrapped protectively around her waist, and for a strange moment, the room seemed to spin, and I felt a little bit dizzy.

"Where the hell… am I?" I mumbled to myself, and I almost feel forward and hit the floor. But Sasuke was there next to me, his fingers woven carefully through mine, and he didn't let me fall.

"We're going home."

I shook my head, my jaw clenched. The sudden dizziness was passing, and I was not about to let some bit of weakness stop me from carrying out the things I had been told to do. "I'm fine."

I could hear him grinding his teeth, and I let a small giddy-dizzy-spin-spin-spin-around-and-around-and-around smile cover my lips, and I straightened up, beaming.

"Just a little dehydrated. Yo, Silver, got any water around here?" I called out to the annoyingly cool leech across the room. He smiled at me, and a tendril of hatred ran up my spine. I could shoot him through the head from here, like fuck!

He continued to smile, and held up a wineglass that was, at a guess, crystal, and full of thick red liquid. My stomach rolled, but I didn't let it show on my face. I kept my smile full of sugary-sweet and my eyes full of bitch-from-hell ice.

"Sorry little one, this is all that Red carries, and while you might not like it very much, I rather prefer it to water."

I twitched, annoyed at the nickname, and I was somehow not surprised when I could see, out of the corner of my eye, Kendra looking like she was about to fly across the room and slap Silver across the face, and not lightly, either. Her perfect smile -perfect-perfect-with-fangs-curving-gently-over-the-lip was twisted into a feral snarl.

Apparently, half the females in this room hated him, and, also apparently, he had given nicknames to the two most dangerous females in this room, as well. He obviously didn't know when to stop.

I had a sudden urge to stab the heel of my shoe into his leg. And then I remembered that I wasn't wearing heels, because running in heels is a bitch from hell. Damn it.

But, even so, I ignored Silver (stupid, annoying bastard that he is…), and let my eyes wander over the faces in the room.

There were more then quite a few, but, at the same time, they looked more -hmm, human is the best way I can put it, - then other leeches.

The other two throne like things were occupied, both by males that couldn't be much older then me (or, at least, they didn't look much older… leeches don't age, you see). In one was a guy (or was he a girl? He was so pretty…) of about twenty, with messy light brown hair, and really laid-back clothes, even though the shirt he was wearing underneath the plaid over shirt was bright… yellow. Okay, abnormal.

In the second throne was a Kakashi-clone-with-longer-hair. I blinked, to make sure my vision was right. "Who the hell is that?!"

And then Kethryn was beside me, a happy smile on her face. "Oh, that's Jagh. Ignore him, he's mean. And the other one, he's Luke. They're like… brothers, sort of, although Jagh's a born noble, and Luke's… not."

I blinked down at her round, thirteen-year-ish-old face. As much as Kethryn was a vampire, she seemed really… sweet. "A born noble?"

"Yeah, a born noble, they're a bit more-"

And then she was being dragged away by a girl with white-blonde hair and neon pink streaks in dread locks, and really dark eyes. "Kethy, stay away from the humans, we don't want you getting hungry and accidentally snacking on one of them-"

"Aww, Storm-y! They're so nice, though! And I ate earlier; I'm not hungry at all!"

The ice-white-blonde-pink dreads girl rolled her eyes. "You still don't really even know when you're hungry; go talk to Kendra, she'll find something for you to eat."

She turned to us, and blinked. "Uh… hello? Sorry, Kethryn's kind of… childish still. She still thinks like one of you. Uh, I'm Storm, by the way, and I guess I'll be your guide while Kethy's away, getting something to eat."

The six of us humans, all of us feeling awkward and unsure (because we really did not belong here) of ourselves for a few seconds, shrugged, and felt… weird. These leeches… they seemed too human, too real, too… I dunno, too unnatural? Like-friends-friends-friends-the-friends-you-never-had…

I probably wouldn't be able to kill a single one of them if I ended up knowing them. And I could never hurt Kethryn. She was just too cute. And Storm seemed like a cautious, older sister to the younger, black-haired little child.

Storm scratched her head. "Uh, well, you obviously know Kendra… But right now, Brittle's with her there, and so is Kethy." She pointed to where Kendra and Kethryn were (Kendra lecturing Kethryn about… something?), along with another girl, one with fire-engine red hair, tied in two black bows, dressed in jeans and a comfortable-looking black v-neck sweater, one who looked very bored, and who was munching on chocolate. What leech eats chocolate?!

"Brittle's like… Kendra's older sister, or something, because she's older by a bit, but Kendra's still the one who heads the line… You know our system, right?"

We (I'm saying we, because everyone's names together takes too long… argh) blinked at her, and the resounding "No," made her flinch.

"Oh… well, there are five lines. Kendra heads one, Silver heads one, Luke heads one, and so does Jagh."

"What about the empty seat?" I asked, but I kind of think I already knew the answer.

"Oh." Her brow furrowed in something like sorrow. "Kendra's best friend is supposed to be sitting there, but they think that Kaeleo's dead. Kendra doesn't think so, but everyone else does… But not even the council can pick a new heir, because the only heir won't take it, and because he won't, we're one leader short."

Her voice dropped to a whisper, and I could feel Sasuke tense beside me. Both he and Kaeleo wanted out of whatever deal they had, and I honestly would prefer if he were out of Sasuke's head, and maybe Storm knew something about it.

She continued. "I think Kendra loved him, Kaeleo I mean, or something, because she still looks really sad about something, sometimes… But I dunno."

Shock of a sort danced through my mind, and I blinked, and carefully shot a glance at Sasuke.

But then again, it wasn't Sasuke I was looking at, it was Kaeleo, and I knew. I knew what Kendra really wanted. She wanted Kaeleo back, and if she had to destroy Sasuke to do it, she would.

---

Storm stared at us, wondering why we were so quiet. "Uh… I'm sorry, I don't know your names. Kendra told me them, but my memory is… really bad, put nicely."

So I introduced our group, Hinata and Tenten and Neji and Sasuke and Naruto and myself, and then Storm introduced us to the rest of her family. There were three more female nobles, and four more males.

There was Malandra, with her shoulder-length black hair, in crazy curly corkscrews and dark red-purple eyes and white skin and a strange, dangerous look glimmering in her eyes. She was tall and willowy, and I hated her instantly because she had probably been a model.

There was Hannah, with longish-blonde hair and bright, curious blood red eyes. She was as short as I was, and she was wearing the most awesome neon green shirt ever. I wanted it. Badly.

Storm blinked at Hannah. "She's… violent."

"What?"

Storm shrugged at Hinata's question. "She's violent, but she hates how messy killing the human population in general is. I dunno, she's weird. And she's the only one who can tell Jagh what to do without getting ripped to shreds."

I gave her an odd look, and went silent as she went back to the introductions. There was a chick called Rilo was standing in the corner, with vibrant blue hair that fell into her face and pale red-ish eyes, and she was smirking around at everyone, but her eyes were cold and angry. And she was glaring at us like there was no tomorrow.

Storm shook her head, and murmured softly "Rilo hates hunters, more then anyone else here. They killed her parents."

I was a bit taken aback. Well, wasn't that a bit ironic? But I understood. No matter who you were, you'd hate anything that took your family from you.

Kethryn (who had really seemed to take to us) bounded up. "You can go now, Stormy, Kenny wants you!"

Storm rolled her eyes, and went to find out what it was that Kendra wanted.

Kethryn grinned up at us. "'Kay, so you've met all the girls? Then… okay pokie, I guess I'll take you to meet the boys!" She grabbed my wrist, and tugged me happily towards one of the males, the one that looked like Kakashi.

Sasuke grabbed me around the waist and growled at her. Kethryn glared up at him, a pout on her lips. "Kenny wants Pinky to meet the boys! And you are not going to stop me."

She tugged on my wrist harder, and Sasuke refused to let me go. "Uh, guys… could we not pull my arm out its socket? That'll hurt."

Kethryn let go, and she probably would have blushed if she could have. "Sorry…"

"It's okay, just uh… show me from here?"

She nodded, and glared at Sasuke as only a thirteen-year-old can glare. "Fine then."

She pointed out a guy named Ryder, who was, apparently, the oldest noble. Messy black-brown hair covered his head, and he was currently laughing with a couple of other males. He looked like he was about twenty, and he seemed fairly tense. I could see, just from the way he was standing, that his guard was constantly up.

The other two males were Travis and Jesse, and I couldn't really tell them apart, except that Travis was really pale, had snakebites on his bottom lip and brownish-red, and Jesse was the colour of dark chocolate, both his hair and his eyes, and his skin was a mocha-colour that looked like it had once been very tan, but had been recently leached of all blood.

And off in a corner, there was another male, one who looked about fourteen, with corn-silk hair, and an aloof attitude. And not only that, he kind of looked… princely… almost. I mean, seriously, the dude's bone structure would have made any artist drool. And he kind of looked like he ought to be wearing a crown. Kethryn glared at him.

"That's Jason," she said through clenched teeth "And I don't like him very much. At all. We don't really get along. Ever."

I blinked down at her, while she continued to glare in his direction, and he continued to look disinterested. Oh, dear. They seemed to have a relationship like the one that Sasuke and I started out with.

And then Storm was next to us, rolling her eyes and pulling a screaming Kethryn away, towards where Kendra was shaking her head sadly at them.

I turned and looked at the others. Hinata was still shaking from the thick miasma that surrounded this place, and Naruto was beginning to look like he was going to murder something to make her feel better. Tenten was still smiling coolly around at everyone and everything, and Neji seemed out of it, again.

If the dude was high, I swear he was not going to live…

And then I looked at Sasuke, and I knew we had to get out of there, and fast, because he was clenching both his fists and his jaw. I knew how hard Kaeleo was fighting to get out of Sasuke's head, and I hadn't even taken into account how it would make Sasuke feel.

I almost groaned as Tsunade's words rang ring-ring-ring-like-bells-on-a-calm-clear-day in my head, and I shoved them away.

One insubordination of orders couldn't hurt, right?

It went against every grain in my body, to be so disloyal, but I gently slipped my fingers through Sasuke's, and murmured, a perfectly insane smile "Let's get out of here. No use in you trying to kill yourself to keep the bastard cooped up."

He smirked down at me, ragged and tired, and muttered to Naruto and Neji "Get the girls out of here."

I nodded, and murmured, the perfectly insane smile still on my lips "We've got some cleaning up to do. But don't drive off without us, alright? When we go kill Kabuto, we'll do it together."

Naruto nodded, grabbed Hinata around the waist, and pulled her out of there. She flushed, and almost fainted. Aww, cute. And Neji just blinked at us for a split second, and then let Tenten drag him away.

I turned around and faced Kendra. "We're going to take our leave… we'll get rid of Kabuto, but I swear, Kendra, if my parents aren't there, there will be blood. And it won't be ours."

She nodded, a cold, cruel smile playing across her lips. "There's one other thing I need you to get, while you're there. It's a little crystal phial that that… thing… keeps around his neck. We need it. And if you get it for us, we'll leave you hunters alone for a good long time, understand?"

I nodded, and smiled again, one as cold and cruel and insane as she had ever given me.

"Oh, and Kaeleo, sweetheart?" Kendra called, but neither Sasuke nor I turned around to face her.

"You owe me."

I didn't try to pretend I knew what that meant, and so I just nodded again, this time to no one in particular, and let my perfectly insane smile carry Sasuke, Kaeleo, and myself, out of the room.

---

I sprawled out on the bed in my room, already out of that hellish dress. Yes, it was pretty, but it was seriously uncomfortable.

I really hate dresses.

I crawled under the covers, my mind exhausted. So much had gone on in a small amount of time… I just needed to let my brain calm down, and figure out what the hell it all meant.

Ten minutes later, I hadn't made any progress (except in depressing myself; I had thought of all the bad things that leeches had done to people I know and/or knew), and Sasuke had just gotten out of the shower.

That kid takes the longest showers of any person I've ever met. It's really weird, to be honest, because I thought I took the longest showers. But, apparently, I don't.

He looked over at me, and I looked at him, and I noted that he was finally wearing his own pajama bottoms. Seriously, seeing him in Kakashi's pajama pants was not an experience I would like to repeat.

I curled up in bed, and he came and wrapped his arms around me.

"Well, tonight was slightly counter-productive…" I muttered ungratefully. I would have gone after Kabuto, anyways. Anko had told me stories about how he had been one of the leeches who had held her hostage when she'd been eight, along with some weird creeper-leech that she'd ended up killing (apparently, his name was Orochimaru…), and you know what? I hate leeches who hold humans hostage. They are the scum of the earth.

He shrugged, or at least he tried. It's kind of hard to shrug when you're cuddled up next to someone. "Could have been worse."

"How?!" I asked, scandalized.

"They could have attacked us. They didn't."

"True. But… still! And what was Kendra talking about, some phial around Kabuto's neck?"

He tried his shrugging thing again, and growled out "Kaeleo won't tell me. But he seems smug about something. I just dunno what he's smug about."

I rolled my eyes. "Jesus, and this is why I don't put up with leeches! They all speak in code!" As an afterthought, I added "And they're evil."

"Kethryn seemed okay."

"She was still a kid. But they all need blood Sasuke, okay or not. And I… after what happened, I… I can't consider it a good thing. And then I think of Emma and her brother, and Anko and my parents and Tsunade and everyone who's ever been hurt by a leech…"

He pulled me a little bit closer. "I know princess, I know."

I hid my face in his chest, and let the tears hiding in my eyes loose. I didn't even make a sound, I just soaked the side of his shoulder.

And he knew me well enough not to say anything, and to just let me cry.

I don't cry. Not ever.

Not when anyone who can hurt me is around, anyways.