Everything in my life

by Porcelain.Memories

An ORPHAN child with a dark past,HARUNO SAKURA is acclaimed to be the BEST cold-blooded CIA AGENT and ASASSIN, training under OROCHIMARU. But the price she paid was loneliness and inability to love. That, until she is being entrusted with a crucial MISSION:protect SASUKE and his reputed company from a secret exclusive CRIMINAL organization,while posing as his personal MAID.

30. Assemblying agents - before the storm

CHAPTER 30 (1)

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"I cannot compete with a locked heart. If you believe in him my dear, then listen to your own heart talking."

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-Japan, Tokyo, unknown location-

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Glistening drops of perspiration were spewing in sizzling rivulets from his long dark coffee hair, rolling on his abnormally pale skin and going under the sleek dark combat blouse that framed his tone body, as he was keeping the younger than him male pinned down to the cold mattress, trapped between his iron grip and the bed.

"Sasuke–kun!" Orochimaru`s distinctive smooth voice was rolling in ragged throaty puffs, as he beckoned the raven haired Uchiha, one panting and trembling worse than the other one, both being covered in lakes of burning perspiration, like they have been running to the marathon. "We have to stop this now, for this is getting out of our hands!"

Honey–tea saturated narrowed orbs were filled with exhaustion and worry, as the Sound Leader was studying the precarious condition of his associate and it was beyond critical; nothing alike they have both anticipated was undergoing right before his narrowed orbs and honestly, he now feared for the worst.

Orochimaru looked in panic as his former student was rinsed in his own burning sweat, while his state of mind was tussling between conscious and utterly delirious.

His equally black blouse has been ripped to shreds, like Sasuke would have jumped into a tank full of thirsty piranhas; his muscles were throbbing and jerking uncontrollably, his veins were bulky and protruding from his marble skin and threatening to explode of the amount of adrenaline rushing through his boiling blood; his usually lithe fibers were bulkier than Hulk`s when he turned into a monster, his midnight-blue silk hair was spewed and scattered every possible direction over the small pillow, as his dripping bangs were stuck to his forehead and cheeks and his tossing quivering hands were kept –or tried to be kept securely– by two custom made rows of stainless steel, platinum and titanium alloy handcuffs, that did little to nothing to restrain the Uchiha and keep him down.

That whole charade has been undergoing for half an hour already and it felt like the paramount of Hell`s most frightening tortures in Orochimaru`s eyes and that man has seen many atrocious things in his life, but this one was topping them all.

The small old bed was half destroyed and was barely supporting their weight; large wooden splinters lied scattered around, smeared by the memories of a great struggle unfolding into the room.

Two minutes after the high dosage of LSD based drug combination that Orochimaru has injected him with, Sasuke flied off the handle, just as they have predicted. At first, his delirium was only doubled by the tearing pain that was electrocuted his body, in million electrical needle like bolts coursing through him in an indescribable agony.

For ten good minutes, Orochimaru has been reduced to a simply witness to his former student`s agony, powerless to interfere.

Sasuke has been wailing and growling in unadulterated pain, thrashing and rolling on the bed that he seemed to want to fly off and the bindings that Orochimaru used to restrain him were as good as nothing.

He tore them in half from the moment the drug entered his system and activated the instinct of survival, like it was nothing.

And that was the moment when the snake–faced Sound Leader has literarily jumped onto the bed, straddling Sasuke and handcuffing his hands twice to be sure, personally restraining and holding him down, using his own power, but at the same time, he kept on calling for him and almost begged him to stop that life threatening experience, but Sasuke screamed at him to not interfere because he still had control over his destiny.

The way his beautiful obsidian orbs were now full of terror, unhinged and incoherent, blinded by horror, rolling at the back of his head, akin to a man who was a prisoner of a living nightmare, were contradicting his ragged words.

Then it all started, just like back then when they first tested it – when Sasuke and him meet at CIA`s base for the first time: the flashbacks. And they came in violent waves, rolling across his memory and filling his brain like tempestuous hurricanes, until he wasn't able to make out reality from nightmare.

He started to spew incoherencies, fragments of ancient phrases –half mumbled in Egyptian and half in all the other multiple foreign languages that Sasuke was versatile in– making Orochimaru`s job almost impossible.

That was the reason why a mall digital recording camera was working live, capturing every moment of that dolor. It was painful to watch the things that were going through Sasuke`s mind, for they were affecting him physically.

Never in his life has Orochimaru seen the Uchiha so vulnerable, so weak, so exposed and in so much agony. He could barely fly in the face of that mentally and physically torture.

In his confused state of mind, Orochimaru got some hard punches and blows from Sasuke himself, who wasn't even aware of his surroundings, nor was he having any control of his senses, although his brilliant mind seemed to work mechanically on autopilot and detach from his unhinged mind, not being affected by the monster coming undone from his body.

That was how Orochimaru found himself spitting a generous gulp of blood, surging from his split bottom lip, had his attire tarnished and fresh blood leaking from the cut on his right temple, immixing into his dark hair, but he paid no mind for his own condition when he dashed to force Sasuke back down and not hurt himself; Sasuke`s safety was his top priority.

As the drug started to lead Sasuke into a waltz of synesthesia and overflowing flashbacks aroused across his memory, Sasuke almost control and Orochimaru had to step in and restrain him, but it was far more easier said than done, since the man was already in his fifties, clearly not as vigorous as a heavily drugged feverish twenty five Uchiha male and most of all, he didn't want to harm this young man.

Orochimaru himself had three broken ribs which prevented him from inhaling properly, a sprained ankle a twisted wrist, multiple cuts on his arms and forehead, rivulets of blood dripping from his nose, his disarray hair, sticking to his sweaty forehead and violent honey amber orbs which were seeking for any figment of awareness into Sasuke`s dazed silvery–obsidian ones.

He was panting harshly, pinning the Uchiha down and forcing him to stay in place, while he jerked and trashed his frame like a caged puma, struggling to pry him off his persona, somehow succeeding in doing so, but that was because Sasuke`s overtired body was slowly losing energy.

He was drifting through the moments of hallucinations and consciousness and mostly talking gibberish. Inconsistent incoherent phrases that Orochimaru has recorded, in order to decode them, translate them into a language that they both comprehended and encipher the meaning behind.

"...Burn..." The Uchiha growled between clenched teeth that were clattering and bit his bottom lip. His fine cut maxillaries were so tightened that his face could split in half at any moment.

He looked like someone was keeping him entrapped into an ice block and he was freezing. Orochimaru never seen him like this before.

He was in a fever rash of 39 degree and the thermometer was rapidly going up, alarmingly.

If that would be allowed to continue, then there was a high probability for Sasuke to not make it. "Of course you feel hot, it is from the–"

Sasuke cut him short as the older man has clearly misinterpreted his words. Orochimaru knew that Sasuke wasn't hearing him anymore, but he hoped that talking to him and letting Sasuke to hear and perceive familiar voices around him, it would soothe him.

Sasuke`s main problem was his bottomless loneliness, so naturally, had to be reminded that he was not alone.

"Burn... it d-down... k-kill..." Orochimaru listened in horror to the man he kept straddling how he trashed his head and threw it from a shoulder to another, as his black sapphire orbs gyrated deep into their orbits, being all unfocused and veiled in a foggy curtain.

He was heavily drugged and delirious. Kami–sama only knew how in the world he could still be this coherent. Whatever he saw with his mind`s eye, Orochimaru couldn't begin to envision.

There was an IV and a syringe he had in his right hand and waiting impatiently for the right moment to use it.

It was not the drug the translucent liquid that span into the slim vial, because even if Sasuke would have pressured him into using it, Orochimaru will not give him another higher dosage.

No, on the contrary, what the Sound Leader had clasped between his fingers, it was the antidote to save his life.

"Who? Who do you want to kill, Sasuke–kun?" His voice failed to stay as calm as always. He tried his best to appear tranquil and composed, but it oozed in rounds of ragged and ruffled hissed phrases betraying his own turbulence.

"...for u-us... k-kill... she..." Amber orbs widened in pure shock. Her? Who was she? Who was Sasuke talking about?

And what did he mean by burn it?

"Where are you–" Orochimaru supposed that Sasuke`s dematerialized spirit was somewhere entrapped into a violent recurrent flashback. The way his orbs moves uncontrollably into his head, represented a dream.

"NO!" With a sudden forceful jerk of his hips, hurtling from the bed, Sasuke threw Orochimaru off his person and tried to pry his hands off his restrained forearms, in vain. Orochimaru fell down on the hard concrete, nearly breaking his shoulder by the ungraceful way that his frame landed.

The syringe that he failed to protect has rolled under the bed, falling from within his clasp with a high pitched sound.

"Sasuke–kun!" He shouted to the raven haired Uchiha, but just when Orochimaru`s horrified orbs were ready to take in the imminent collapse of Sasuke`s thwarting body that was jerking like he was under a demon`s possession, Sasuke suddenly stopped with his disarray violent moves and his head fell limp on the pillow, lolling over his shoulder and facing him. He stood silent for some seconds during which Oro feared that the Uchiha was… dead.

Quickly, he tapped his fingers against his pulse vein that was covered in cold sweat and nearly exhaled in relief; he had a faint pulse running through his vein, but his heart rate was thumping like crazy.

What the fuck?!

Sasuke was battling between life and death! That was insane; they had to stop that before it was too late.

Orochimaru dived under the bed, fingering the concrete floor until he nearly pocked his finger with the needle that was dripping antidote, and came back with the clear resolution of injecting it into Sasuke`s system and save his life while he still could, when the Uchiha revealed his splendid worn out obsidian eyes that were luminous with awareness and spoke softer than a breeze of wind. "I-Inside... a throne's room..." He seemed to have regained composure.

Thanks Lord!

Orochimaru almost had a heart attack when he was convinced that Sasuke will never be able to come victorious from his internal fray with his own memories, so he quickly dragged a chair beside his bed and crossed a hand through his cocoa disheveled hair, being more than worn out and exhausted.

Orochimaru too was the embodiment of a narcoleptic man, consumed by exhaustion. "A throne room? Are you inside the Pyramid?"

Once again, Sasuke`s limber lips sealed the silence in a compressed sharp line, as he was gazing at Orochimaru through the obsidian veil of long curled raven eyelashes, that were framing his half shut orbs, blinking rarely and slowly as if the simple motion was tiring him. The Uchiha was undeniably lucid in that moment, but obviously worn out. "Y-Yes..."

"Which one?" Orochimaru inquired in a calmer manner, and although he reeked with the impulse to rush the confession out of his student`s mouth, and get over with that conversation as soon as possible, he was aware of the fact that being composed was crucial at this point. "The Great one?" Because there were three Pyramids located to the Giza complex.

Sasuke only blinked at him, looking like he was torn by tiredness and unable to even spell the words to him, and by that he meant Yes.

"Plot... betray him... take a–advantage of h–his trust... the Pharaoh..." At the mentioning of the man worshipped as a walking Divinity among the people, Orochimaru's shoulders tensed. They had a pretty vast knowledge over the History of Ancient Egypt and the lineage of royalties, but such fine inside details were a mystery to anyone and a challenge for anthropologists and historians.

"Is someone planning to betray the Pharaoh, Sasuke–kun?" The serpent man bad him gently seeing that his raven haired companion was slowly regaining composure unlike his other subjects from the experiment, trying his best to be coherent.

But then again, Sasuke has always defied every laws, living in a league of his own, and this time he proved to be no exception. Plus, he has never been a test subject for Orochimaru. Their bond went deeper than that and they were linked by a solid chain of trust and honesty.

Among his mumblings, Sasuke blew to the man. "Poison... i–it l–leaves no... trace into the b–blood." A slick tongue slant over his rough dry fervent lips. "Steal... the plans." At that, Orochimaru's stare hardened, not in confusion, but in sheer denial. There was no way that the history was repeating itself in modern times.

Lorane has tried to steal from the both of them, but only succeeding in getting in touch to Orochimaru's lifetime research. That was more than plain coincidence and misfortune.

"The plans of… what?"

"...a w–weapon." Sasuke's pitch pupils dilated in a way that seemed to swallow all the light and his orbs portrayed a maze of smoldering charcoals. The only proof of lucidity was reflecting into the fine silver lining gleaming faintly around his onyx irises, but it was hard to decipher anything.

Whatever he was seeing in that moment was definitely not pleasant. What did he mean by a weapon? Was the Pharaoh building a weapon? If so, then what purpose it served?

"What type of weapon? Where is this weapon, Sasuke–kun?"

"Everyone will b–bow in front of... us." His voice took a sharp turn from velvet to dark in the span of a nanosecond, like he was impersonating someone else. Honestly, it was scary as Hell, even for someone like Orochimaru. "W–Worshipped like G–Gods... Power o–over... the w–world... enemies down... w–with just s–so l–little effort... my dream... for t–the future..." It was an eerie long incomplete phrase that contained key words with heavy implications.

"Where is the weapon located?" The coffee haired Sound Leader placed a hand on Sasuke's forehead, cursing softly at the way his skin was boiling like a funnel. His fever was going up alarmingly. They had to stop this or else... "Sasuke–kun? Your state is worsening with every passing minut–"

"It was... I am... she did not... they were m–mine..." Ignoring his concern, Sasuke was doing his best to fight back the psychedelic effects of the drugs and the horrible way that his every fiber was aching and burning him, focusing on the images projected under the layers of his consciousness. "Run... Run a–away... have t–to stop i–it... Destroy e–everything... b–before it is too l–late..."

"Is someone trying to harm the Pharaoh?"

"..." Orochimaru watched closely as Sasuke only blinked and then squeezed his orbs shot when another agonizing bolt of pain electrified him.

He forced himself to respond but not to the question addressed. "N–No... witnesses... Kill h–her... NO!" The Uchiha trashed his carcass violently as his muscles convulsed, shaking the bed as his onyx eyes flied open and terror strike into his bottomless pools.

"I w–will not... permit to... take her away..." Before Orochimaru had the opportunity to even open up his mouth to voice out his confusion, Sasuke stunned him again with his following whisper.

"My w–wife..." A tear run leaked along the sharp edge of his regal cheek, but he didn't perceive it for he was captive to his distant memories of another existence.

Unfortunately the clever Otokage understood that it wasn`t because of pain, but because of sadness and despair.

A wife... whoever Sasuke was sharing his past experiences with, as a reincarnate, he was currently suffering in pure agony, because something horrible must have happened to his beloved one.

"I will a–avenge her d–death... I a–am a–alert of their t–trap... He... Shall p–pay f–for every... D-Drop of h–her blood... It's not... the Pyramid is o–only a... d–device... a catalyst to… r–real p–power..."

Onyx eyes reeled with unadulterated hatred, being submissive to the memory of whoever he hold so dearly and even though they were locked with Orochimaru's amber ones, they were million miles away where his conscience was floating as an imponderable spirit.

Orochimaru was only watching the raven haired Uchiha male being encompassed into a hurricane of physical and spiritual pain, voluntarily exposing himself to danger for the sake of the success of their concocted plan –to end Lorane's feud. And he was powerless to help him in anyways.

Sasuke... has always suffered alone.

Orochimaru`s own eyes stung with unshed tears; Sasuke`s words and his body language was enough to bring him on the edge of despair and Orochimaru was only an impotent witness to his torment, but the feelings that were overflowing unhinged from Sasuke`s heart and playing on his lips, on his eyes and sealed into his fingertips.

After that, he went completely still and silent and the sole token of life still coursing through his body was the involuntary whirling of his orbs, in a lunatic manner, like anytime from now, he will have a brain seizure.

Plus… the things that were coming out of his mouth...

"Sasuke–kun?" Orochimaru cajoled him trying to determine whether they could snatch some more information or he had to step in and stop that circus. "Who are you?"

It was one question that has been bothering the Sound Leader from the very beginning and he was even more confused now because some time ago, Sasuke told him that he was royalty which involuntarily triggered the impulse in Orochimaru's brain to believe that he was the Pharaoh himself, having so much knowledge about such fine secrets.

But now Sasuke, spoke about a possible betrayal and a complot between the Pharaoh from that time and a mysterious woman and it appears as that woman was the wife of whoever Sasuke was, clearly not the Pharaoh, but rather someone very close to him, who played a crucial role in the story.

He had to determine the truth of who exactly is Sasuke because that is the only way to complete the pieces of the puzzle and draw a sense from all this unbelievable fantastic mess.

Surprisingly, the Uchiha acknowledged him probably filled in with every detail of certain crucial scenes from Egypt's soaked in blood and constipations from the past. "I–I am–"

Orochimaru's amber–honey eyes went wider than plates and he almost fell off the chair when he heard Sasuke's answer.

Suddenly, everything went clear as crystal and made sense. And it has definitely been an involuntary slip of his tongue since it has been such a long time since the eloquent Sound Leader has made usage of such a vulgar word, but the context called for it. "Fuck!"

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-Tokyo International Police, Suigetsu`s office-

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It was too silent.

One single ruffled breath would have been enough to shatter that silence in a million broken pieces of glass, but neither of the ones amassed in that constricting space would acknowledge any sort of existence around them, as their immense dilated pupils were being captive to the soundless buzzes coming from the dark screen, looking like entrapped into a dream without an exit.

For at least ten good minutes, no murmur or whisper slide past their gasping mouths. Words were entrapped somewhere halfway along their throats, where painful lumps were preventing oxygen to ventilate their windpipes.

In a room full of emotional and temperamental people, the silence was resembling the eerie solitude of a tomb and the only thing that moved was the clock hanging on the wall, as the sole token of the passing time.

Its limbs were ticking the cruel minutes that were leaking and time was exactly something that CIA couldn't afford to lose.

In a game of cat and mouse, every span of a second, every blink and wrong heartbeat was a major disadvantage and whoever decided to start the game of Chess and be the first to move, that party had the victory in the palm of their hands.

"I-Itachi?" Was that Neji`s strained voice which, for the first time in his life, sounded lifeless and lacked stoicism and confidence?

To the others around him, it was a ghost of his typical brazen and brave demeanor but no one cared about such trivia, for the things unfolding before them were atrocious. "Hokage-sama?"

No answer. Nothing but a pitch of complete darkness, screaming reality into their befuddled figures was echoing back from the screen.

Since the shocking blast has roared from the other side of the world through their communication, the lines went silent and painful to listen to. It was the type of silence that fell over their shoulders like a mantle of steel, comprising all the screeches of sheer agony and despair of all the CIA agents clasped in Suigetsu`s office room.

"Fuck… this is so bad…" Even Ten Ten, his firestorm fiancé with the character of a lioness and her signature calloused temper was barely whispering the words to no one in particular, as she too found herself unable to respond to such an unexpected occurrence. "What… what is happening in there?"

It was a legitimate question that whiskered their consciences and caused a turbulence into their minds, but unfortunately no one of her companions knew the answer of it.

They were reeling in uncertainty and it was that kind of anxiousness that rammed deep into their chests and prevented them to inhale normally.

It was agonizing. An agonizing expectation for a miracle to happen and flash them a ray of hope in that maze of black, but so far, they have been met with a cruel supposition.

"This…" Naruto`s hard gulp has overcome the tears of incapacity to be of help that prickled at the chestnut haired agent`s mocha eyes, as the Uzumaki threw his index finger in the direction of the screen as he screeched to his hazed audience. "That explosion… it`s them, isn't it? It`s those Lorane bastards!"

At the mention of their mortal enemies` name, something ticked into their skulls because Naruto`s voice has managed to tear their eyes off the giant screen and acknowledge his flailing presence.

"There is a high possibility of a surprise attack to have had occurred while the Summit was taking place." Hidan quickly backed Naruto`s assumption up, he too having no problem in voicing out what was pretty obvious.

"Somehow… they slipped past our entire system of defense and sneak inside as if it was a walk in the park. Fuckin` Hell!"

Curses were circulating around the room and clenching of hard jaws, clattering teeth and tight fists were a solid proof of the incompetency of being a reputable opponent to Lorane who has made a fool of the entire CIA system of Defense and that was pretty bad news considering the fact that the crème de la crème of the CIA has been present at the Summit and the fact that someone has managed to slip past their astute eyes and the keen vigilance of Uchiha Itachi and Senju Tobirama going as far as to catch them with the guard down, striking in a vulnerable point that no one would have taken into consideration was enough to cause havoc and paranoia.

And another tremendous implication has unraveled a horrendous fact, throwing the truth right before their disbelieving eyes: not only they were outsmarted, but they were also… alone.

Without the Leaders of the Sound and Akatsuki`s, the other remaining agents were like sheep without a shepherd; powerless, confused, scared, lacking coordination and organization and pretty much useless.

"N-No way! No way they got Itachi and Tobirama-sama! I refuse to believe it!" Ten Ten felt like her mind would explode anytime by now and every passing moment spent in that uncertainty was killing her slowly.

She let her exhausted body that felt like full of cement hit the sofa and buried her face into her palms, pulling her messy chocolate hair behind, stress getting the best of her.

"This is getting worse by the minute." Everyone could see that Suigetsu was doing his best to keep a calm and composed façade but a shift of her distinctive ruby-magenta orbs in his direction assured Karin that the shark faced hottie was also finding himself on a pinch.

Though, she will give him credit for trying to play the mature referee and be the voice of ration to balance the unmatched blob of amassed people who could never reach a mutual agreement while casually conversing. "We have to make a decision and fast, before it`s getting out of our hands."

"This fucker with the hairstyle of a drag queen here is right." Hidan shot right after his statement much to Suigetsu`s annoyance who in return snarled low into his chest, glaring daggers at the silvery haired Hollywood star male that was occupying his favorite armchair, but Hidan was paying him no mind like no dark vibes were throwing to him from the male he was insulting, going on casually.

"Even though every single supposition we have is fucked up, highly improbable and pretty much imbecile, we need to make up our minds and reach a conclusion."

He was right and not even Suigetsu who was indirectly being mocked hard by his apparently rival in Karin`s heart, could have argue with him.

Even though some were still being reticent in opening up to the facts enfolding between them, and join the party, it was mandatory to remain together and formulate a plan that would include all of them instead of sticking to multiple back up plans and have scattered assumptions that would eventually lead them nowhere or straight into Lorane`s trap.

Whatever they will choose to believe, it had to be consensual and represent the comprised opinion of the majority of them. They had to work like an automatic watch because if a single wheel from the fine machinery is broken, then the entire mechanism will have a malfunction and if anything, they needed to be superhuman and flawless to beat whatever insane plane Lorane has concocted.

They had to be stronger than their enemies and ten steps ahead to outsmart them because whatever their purpose was, that cynical frightening elite organization has probably spent all their time and invested all their human effort and resources to bring their plan into fruition, unlike them, who were a mass of confused people who have been rivals ever since they started working together.

Compromises had to be made from every party in order for their counterattack to be successful and that could only be turned into reality if they agreed to cooperate and focus on a single direction.

"What conclusion?! What about our Leaders?! What about the Presidents and the Summit?!" Ten Ten fired Suigetsu with a horde of perfectly logical questions but a firm hand placed on her shoulder giving her a little squeeze warned her not to be more overdramatic because the tension that lingered around their short tempers was like a house full of dynamite waiting for a single spark to explode and she didn't want to be the gasoline to stir the latent fire that was sizzling within their chests.

They were all tensed and bloody nervous, although he perfectly understood his fiancé. The situation was ridiculous.

"It`s too early to venture into thinking that Lorane has killed them all in a single blast. Considering the fact that they plan to dominate the world, it is premature to eliminate the voice of every nation.

At most, those motherfuckers would want to show the world how powerful they are and maybe make it public that their Presidents are being held hostages along with the Heads of the CIA –the organization that is supposed to ensure their safety."

If someone was impressed by Karin`s reason, they were good to hide it but the woman with the eyes like red grapes was right in everything she said.

"It`s a good opportunity to inflict fear and panic into the public`s opinion and mold their consciences upon their best interests. Image is vital to such people. This is how all the criminal organization function and Lorane has proved it to us that they don't like to remain concealed into their snake hole and strike from the shadows. They decided to come to the light."

"Shawty is right. This is only a diversion to cut off our communication. My guesses are that they have something up their sleeve to eliminate the last threat: us."

Hidan simply addressed his audience, winking at Karin who kicked in the kneecap with her high heel, making him wince and hiss a course of colorful insults to the fierce tigress.

She shook her head to the man, not believing her eyes that Hidan had the unparalleled ability to mumble reasonable sentences, all the while concealing his eternal hints of perverseness and sadism behind his words and that was pissing her off badly.

"So should we expect them to blow this building up soon enough in order to make sure that we will not follow the missing signal of our Leaders?"

Neji fetched a fine eyebrow up as Hidan nodded once to him, grinning. Whatever was he finding funny, didn't reach Neji`s milky eyes which were assessing his face with no expression whatsoever.

"Yeah. My guesses are that we should move our asses the fuck out of this place before they turn us into a gigantic torch."

"We can`t go anywhere without a bulletproof plan." Karin folded her arms against her chest, leaning to Suigetsu`s office desk again, this time, blocking his view of the room.

Not that he minded watching her back, but that wasn't the moment for naughty machinations to cross his mind so in this moment, Suigetsu inwardly cursed her for being so audacious and carefree. She was again, right. They couldn't move a finger without a genius strategy against Lorane.

That hermetic secret society was the hardest enemy to beat because they proved to be almost flawless in their approach. They only had minor failed attempts and all lead to the person of one single man, who, so far, he managed to pulverize any theory about him.

"We know for a fact that whatever the heck happens now, is amassed in Egypt, right? This is the only location we have that leads us to Lorane. I suggest we start from there."

Ten Ten found her voice again after shoving her fiancé`s hand off, standing up. Something inside her snarled at the thought of being fondled like a fragile porcelain doll with anger management issues.

It was the feeling of being of no use to the others the thing that killed her on the inside and made her snap.

"Easier said than done." It was Sasori the one to state the obvious and resume the multitude of faults in a possible plan to attack Lorane and take them by surprise.

If they hoped to have the upper hand in the imminent showdown with that organization who managed to reach the swell of supremacy in having the complete domination over the Governments, then it was imminent to create the perfect strategy.

If they opted for going straight to Egypt and fully face the Lorane, then they must make sure that their encounter is not a random sojourn, but a solid plan of a bloody battle that was about to come.

Something resided in their heads that went along the lines of whatever war was expecting them at the end of the tunnel, was something out of ordinary and maybe with deep implication into occult, mysticism, religion and ultimately ancient mythology.

The elements of surprise in this case, were the trump cards and they all knew that Lorane had many of them and was definitely more educated and versatile into making good usage of them.

"We have nothing tangible. No straight facts to help us decipher this mess that lies before our eyes." Neji`s vehemence was being implacable, much to the way his milky veins were protruding around his clever eyes as he chose to assess the other people in the room.

But it was the saddest truth: up until now, all they had were pure speculations, a lot of contradictory assumptions and an explosion that roared at the end of the silent line, interrupting their communication with Uchiha Itachi.

Were they truly dead?

Were they still alive and held as prisoners in whatever God forsaken place that Lorane was detaining them?

Were they being tortured for information? That was a high possibility that was clearly accepted by every CIA agent, but none of the parties present wanted to think of it because it was making their spine shudder unpleasantly.

If anything, probably being a captive of such ruthless indoctrinated criminals was anything but pleasant.

"And yet… here we are, trying to figure it out what is the safest way to approach this mess. We must decide for one of the theories and start from there."

Suigetsu elevated his frame from the chair, sliding his hands into his pockets and coming to stand beside Karin who made no move to flinch when their shoulders brushed against each other.

"Suigetsu is right. We need to stop with this game of cards and decide…" Sasori chose to put an end to the useless voting that went along the room, finding the core of the problem to be a common acquaintance of them that had a very intriguing role in the entire story. "Do we trust Uchiha Sasuke yes or no?"

Because the answer to that question will automatically imply the decision to embrace one of the theories. If Sasuke worked for the Lorane then they had to devise a counterstrategy that took the brilliant Uchiha male into consideration and that was already bad news.

But if they opted to presume him as innocent and have no involvement into the story nor was he partisan to their ideology, then they could safely assume that Sasuke has either been taken a hostage – who had to be freed as soon as possible – or the lunar eyed Hyuga Hinata might have had a gush of a genius when stating that the youngest of the two Uchiha prodigies has decided to be the silent hero; the sacrificial piece in this convoluted game of Shogi.

"This is only going to take us nowhere! Basically, we have been debated over this subject half of the time that we have spent in here and reach no conclusion! This is just a waste of time." Ten Ten rapidly decided, but she was being adamant in keeping her firm position in considering Sasuke responsible of Lorane`s acts.

She was almost certain that he was tangled with their enemies. Every single fact they had was heading in that direction.

But… there were also people in the room who were fervent in defending him and one particular one with a blob of golden spikes staking erect atop his head has immediately shot to take Sasuke`s side.

"Teme is innocent for Christ's sake! How can it ever cross your mind that he is on the bad guys`?! He did nothing inconspicuous or disputable!"

He got some snorts and eyebrows rose up incredulously for his affirmation but Naruto was zealous in his position of Sasuke`s lawyer.

Ok, not considering him a part of the Freemasonry because of the lack of solid evidence to point to him was one thing, but to say that Uchiha Sasuke`s overall countenance was not far-fetched was a little bit too stretched.

"Buddy," Suigetsu racked a hand through his silvery-snow unruly hair and sighed heavily to the Uzumaki so as if he was too tired to talk philosophy but found himself forced by the context to say something intelligent.

"No matter how much of a bastard he is, Sasuke is also my friend." He didn't miss to emphasize the word of amity so that to remind Naruto as well as the others in the room that he too was human and couldn't help but be subjective.

"But the fact that he is proficient in martial arts, well-trained in the guns department, his aim is implacable, his mind works as a windmill, he was able to foresee through all Lorane`s schemes, he can sneak right under our noses and remain hidden, erase his traces perfectly, is versatile in many subjects including Math, foreign languages and Ancient history, knows how to maneuver a helicopter and get romantically attached to a woman who admits she lies to him, so easily without being on guard around her nor find it a threat to do so, is something that even I…"

At that Suigetsu and Naruto engaged into a battle of stares, as the Hozuki agent locked gazes with his friend and his tone was flat and resolute. "Cannot overlook nor accept as a proof for his innocence."

"This is a subtle tactic that people who went completely insane use in the movies with Mobsters to brainwash their soldiers and inflict paranoia among a group of traitors, so that they will end up doing each other off."

Hidan snickered to the Uzumaki who was having his fists clasped in a grip that sent trembles all over his limbs and spine by the force he was applying, not actually believing that even Suigetsu was reluctantly having an inkling to deem Sasuke as a fellow Judas.

"Hidan, when you are done being the party clown, I kindly invite you to fuck. off." Karin couldn't help herself but grip a random sticky notes case and throw it in the direction of his head, but of course, he easily avoided by cocking his head on his side, laughing at the way it hit the table with much effect.

The nerve control was critical and fundamental to their mission, but so far, as outrageous and improbable as it might have sounded, Hidan was the only one who was being pretty adventitious in his demeanor and remarks, which was not something too outré, since his mental sanity was a debatable topic in the Sound.

"I agree with whatever he said." Naruto on the other hand was thankful to having encountered someone to back him off and although he was a fellow rival from the Sound, he didn't care in the bit.

Something about this man`s animated preconceptions and way of thinking made sense to him and alerted the Uzumaki that someone like Orochimaru will never select a brainless useless agent to be part of the Sound`s elite squad, if there wasn't special skills concealed underneath a licentious vocabulary and a foul attitude.

"Oh c`mon… this is ridiculous. Should we go all over the Sasuke topic again? Fine, I will go first then." Ten Ten rolled her mocha orbs at the Uzumaki, crossing her hands behind her nape.

"No matter what you guys say, I stick to what Karin said before Itachi broke in. Sasuke is part of the Freemasonry and he is working with the Lorane as a Master Mason." She particularly used the secret terminology for the dramatic effect. "Is this good enough for you?"

"This is bullshit! We won't get anywhere with putting the blame solely on one single person!"

"Sasuke-Teme is innocent and I will prove it, dattebayou! He might be in danger as we talk just like Itachi and the Hokage-sama!"

"You my dear cousin, are presenting symptoms of being a double agent. How do we know that you are not someone that works with Uchiha and the Lorane and has been ordered to infiltrate and nurture mistrust among us, in order to prevent a coalition and cut the formation of an opposing party from the roots?"

Karin shot an eyebrow up, resisting the urge to snort at the way Naruto`s firm jaw fell like the sun in the sea at dawn, upon hearing the accusations sent his way.

"Wha – this is ridiculous!"

"Bah, at this point, nothing will surprise me further!"

"Shut up, Ten Ten, this is not the time to be spontaneous and let the misconceptions cloud our judgment. We have to remain calm and be reasonable."

"Don't tell me to shut up, you fucking Hyuga alien!"

"Paranoia is a common trait among atheists who deny facts and Janshin-sama`s ontology…"

"You`re all fucked up, I swear to God!"

Before Suigetsu decided to take the lead again and stop this nonsense escalading dangerous fierce argument, that will not make any sense in the equation, an unexpected occurrence has beat him to it.

Because when the hinges of the door have almost cracked at the force of the impact applied by the person who almost tore it out of the way, banging the metal object against the wall beside and imprinted its shadow on the peeling painting, all the orbs have landed to the nonchalant steps that took a lithe indomitable silhouette straight in the middle of the room, where it stopped like a shadow creeping from the pits of Hell.

And jaws hit the floor in perfect unison, definitely not expecting that person to appear out of nowhere in Suigetsu`s office room, when he personally instructed his comrades and fellow Police Officers to stay away from his business and allow no one to enter, but this person seemed unfazed by all of it, and probably not encountering any reticence or barriers to be blocked from marching inside.

The best part of the spectacular mind blowing appearance was the words that came out of those vehement lips and no one dared to interrupt.

"Instead of wasting time with imbecile assumptions that are going to get us all killed in no time, then how about we find out who Sasuke really is and based on our conclusion, we can come up with the concept of a plan that doesn't sound like something concocted by preschoolers on a sugar rush."

"Cherry?" If Karin was taken aback by Sakura`s unforeseen presence in Suigetsu`s office room, she didn't hide it because the absurdity of it has just reach another level of epicness. "What are you doing here?! You were supposed to be in Miyako when our conversation has been cut short."

For some bizarre reason, Sakura`s chartreuse orbs filled with a dark sparkle of gold and amber and the glare that Karin took from her best friend, was robotic, villainous and uncompromising and in fact, it was outlandish in the purest form of the concept, freaking the Uzumaki female out till core.

It has been quite a lot since she has been faced with this side of Sakura`s personality and in fact, Karin was precise that her friend with her zealous hard green orbs has given up being so savage and blood thirst in her approach, as in this moment, but she was clearly wrong. Because there, right in front of them, stood no one else but Athena of the Sound and this woman had absolutely nothing in common with the clumsy feminine jolly Sakura Haruno who fall in love with Uchiha Sasuke and spend a virtual honey moon in Miyako with her lover.

Absolutely nothing in common. They were two opposite personalities and this one that dominated the aura around the room and flapped the course of action with a single stare set across the room, was Orochimaru`s female counterpart.

His perfect portrait with those indomitable orbs that accepted no talking back to her, nor was she in the mood for games.

She was clearly there with a definite purpose. But instead of answering the obvious question about her questionable presence there, and the way she had to get there so fast in the span of two hours at most, her sleek tongue spilled venom and icicles to one particular occupant of the room, being firm and unforgiving. "We have people among us who are not supposed to be here."

Clearly understanding that those relentless acid words were addressed to the only civilian in the room, Naruto has felt a pang of protection knock on his chest`s doors, for he immediately folded his arms around the aforementioned lavender eyed girl`s petite shoulders and almost snarled to Sakura.

"Hinata-chan has been of great help!" His tone betrayed the multiple emotions surging through his body at the moment, because he has been faced with the impossible situation of tearing his heart in three parts and protect his bonds with different people, who were important to him, putting his mission on the second level of interest. "And she already knows about us."

Sakura on the other hand, was eying him with an incomprehensible expression on her face and that freaked the entire humanity of the room, because the hard steel manner of assessing the situation before her, the freezing penetrating glare that was sent to the person who had all her attention in that moment on her, was very reminiscent to Sasuke`s manner of dealing with people that occupied no part of his heart, being all cold, stoic, impassive, detached and emotionally reticent.

"I am sure she does. And now she is going to prove her worth in some other place. We don't have time to baby sit anyone. Whoever cannot get his shit together, is welcomed to fuck off and stop wasting our precious time."

If Naruto was stunned by those words, the way his cerulean orbs went the size of two plates did nothing to conceal his puzzlement. That was a face of Sakura that anyone who worked in the CIA has grew to learn of, but personally coming in contact with her object of anger was anything but pleasant. Where was the sweet tender clumsy Sakura who Naruto has befriended during her period of residing in Tokyo?

Those candid smiles of jolly, the filigree sweet words and the hearted laughters as a token of their precious moments spent together have miraculously vanished in thin air, because for the love of all that`s Holly, this woman all bedecked by her full assassin attire, was immeasurably impressive looking and very menacing, but she was nowhere near the woman who stole his missing raven haired friend`s heart.

Or was she?

Another very distinctive question has aroused into Naruto`s conflicted brain, namely was Sasuke aware of this personality that Sakura was concealing from him?

Has he been able to read underneath the veneer of a fragile lonely soul, who was in need for love, affection, warmth and family?

Naruto knew that Sasuke has offered another perspective to his favorite rosette, because that was the reason why he introduced her to Mikoto and his grandparents, namely the most important family members to him, and by doing that, he allowed her to step into the comforting climate of his family life, giving her a certain special place amidst his dear ones.

Then what about this façade that Sakura kept concealed under her ardent kisses and passionate embraces? Has Sasuke been able to perfectly read through her deception and decided – for some occult reason – to accept it and acknowledge it?

He couldn't have possible figure her out, could he?

"Wow… someone has woken up with her pretty face on the wrong side of the pillow." A mocking mumble coming from her left side made Sakura whip her head in the direction of the blob of silver hair that was getting cozy, laying on the comfy armchair, with his feet dangling on the armrest, eying her in a way that almost had her shove a senbon needle full of lethal poison straight into his winking eyes.

She looked askance to him in a way that made one`s hair stand erect at the back of the nape.

Sakura threw Hidan a side peek that had him grin impishly at her, revealing his masochistic side because every single living in the room was well aware that it was not the moment to fuck with this gorgeous woman, whose entire atmosphere was electrically charged by million bolts crossing through those scintillating jadeite eyes.

"Next time you open up your mouth Hidan… make damn sure that you aren't just wasting our oxygen."

Being a modest astute woman who clearly got the hidden message that Sakura tried to convey, the female Hyuga rose up, discreetly patting Naruto`s shoulder, kindly letting him know that he has her undying support whenever, even though he couldn't always be physically present beside him; he will eternally be in her heart and thoughts. "Hinata-chan, you don't have to– "

"It is fine Naruto-kun. Sakura is right. This is not of my concern." All the eyes silently followed the retracting back of a graceful Hinata.

Sakura didn't even turn around to assess her shadow as the lavender eyed female passed her by, brushing her shoulder on hers, only her emerald eyes slightly narrowed at the sight of her apologetically stare as Hinata muttered a soft. "Excuse me."

"That was unnecessary and totally rude." Ten Ten spat to Sakura the moment Hinata shut the door behind, glaring daggers at the Sound agent before her as Sakura had no remorse dancing on her impassive face like she didn't even care.

"We all realize how affected you must be about all this crazy situation, but no need to be so bitchy, what the heck!"

During these weeks, the two females grew to be quite friendly to each other, not to mention their bonding time when they flashed their agent skills before a horde of 30 hooligans, sharing secrets that not many knew of and not to mention, a hospital room.

And Ten Ten grew to like that side of Sakura Haruno who was a far cry from the insufferable Athena of the Sound, who was impolite and phlegmatic in her approach, being all bitchy to the ones that weren't her Sound colleagues and it was a side of her that Neji`s fiancé couldn't stand.

She truly hoped that it was just stress getting the best of her, the explanation for her completely unpardonable and unjustified animadvert demeanor.

Plus… there was something flickering into those suddenly impenetrable orbs that gave nothing away from whatever storm was whirling inside her heart that was getting Ten Ten almost… edgy.

It was not solely malice and brazen, the things that were written around those merciless forest green-aureate irises that were assessing every single peek sent her way with calm, stoicism and scrutinizing glares, but also something else that Ten Ten wasn't able to decipher.

A new emotion that Sakura was revealing; one that she didn't have before she has been assigned that jeopardized mission of protection, and it was scary and made everyone anxious to even breathe in her general direction.

Like she was aware of something more about the entire situation and had the upper hand in a pressing matter and that gave her an imponderable aura of intangibility and superiority that was overwhelming.

What`s going on here?

"It does us no good to have more edgy people to over dramatize." Neji on the other hand, was already in his analyzing contemplative mode, not being too bothered by the fact that Sakura decided to present herself in such a crucial moment after giving her colleagues one hell of a shock when her conversation with Karin has been cut short and act like a responsible grown up.

So he merely spoke his mind and mirrored the thoughts that were crossing everyone`s minds, but refrained from adding a sharp touch to his velvet low voice; milky-pearl orbs clashed with emerald and Neji felt the icicles that Sakura`s enclosed personality was sending to each one of her interlocutors.

Being a man of few words the Hyuga male always understood Athena of the Sound –because he was quick to realize that Sakura Haruno, the surprisingly friendly, kind, gentle and loving CIA assassin was of no help to them in their battle with Lorane – and her approach of every mission and he silently agreed with her.

If Sakura would have stormed into the office, being all panicked and throwing a tantrum about Sasuke`s disappearance – he was one hundred percent confident that Sakura was already filled in with every single detail about Sasuke and his destroyed mansion in Tokyo – lamenting about their inability to take Lorane`s track and be one step ahead to prevent such a disaster from happening, then she would have only added to the turbulence lingering around them and destabilize whatever figment of infinitesimal sanity has been left among them.

So he appreciated her portrayal of taking a hold of herself, trying to come to terms with whatever has gone downhill since she has departed to Miyako and at least appear to be coping well with the control of her nerves and turmoil.

She wouldn't fool him. Everyone was positive that Sakura was inwardly going through Hell and back, sizzling in worry for her lover`s well-being, as well as for the unexplainable disappearance of her protector and paternal figure, the Sound Leader Orochimaru. She was doing well to hide it, thanks God.

Unlike his theatrical melodramatic fiancé who was driving him nuts and that mofo of a Sound agent, the sadistic pervert Hidan…

Karin on the other hand, smartly kept quiet all through the entire time after Sakura has made a glorious appearance among them, storming inside Suigetsu`s office and kicking Hinata out of the room.

If there was someone who knew the real Sakura that was raveled underneath the attire of an assassin, it was the only female Uzumaki in the room. So she only stood arms crossed, wine orbs squinching like she was seeing behind the unflappable beautiful visage of her porcelain doll resembling best friend.

And unlike Neji Hyuga who was simply guessing and making logical assumptions, she knew exactly that her unconfident, feeble and caring Sakura Haruno remained in Miyako Island, bathing her soul in fervent tears for Sasuke and trying to grasp the evanescence of his presence through every corner of her memory.

An ocean full of love that he drowned her with, grazed by waves of memories that he left to her before he disappeared like a specter in the caresses of the night. And that was kind of poetic, if Karin was to be honest.

Sasuke has decided to vanish without a trace, without telling her a single word about where he was, but he left her the most endearing goodbye: he left her the memory of an idyllic lover: endearing, loving, pure, carefree, understanding and designed an utopic picture for their passionate lovemaking.

He left her the memory of the most perfect him, because Karin was positive that whoever that Sasuke who left Sakura sleeping in his grandparents` home really was, that man was definitely far from ideal.

So he would have rather left her with the image of a superb romance between them, locked inside her body and heart, than breaking her heart in half with whatever secret he had to conceal.

One that Karin could only guess and even though she was quite precise that Sasuke was working for the Lorane, whose targets included the annihilation of the Sound`s most brilliant agent – the reputed Athena – she would give him credit for being capable of nurturing such intense feelings of amour and defy their order to kill her when she was so vulnerable in trusting him blindly.

And that was the reason why Karin`s orbs remained intense and focused on her friend, who chose not to acknowledge the penetrating gaze of her crimson eyed sister.

If Sakura was still there and safe, then what was Sasuke`s game? Lorane will definitely severely punish betrayal and death was only a minimal sentence to any transgression.

Was he planning to use her as a bait to lure them out or get to them, tracking her without Sakura to be aware of what he was doing?

Because there was no doubt that her emerald eyed friend was faithful to the CIA and didn't chose to change sides learning about Sasuke`s secret – supposing, of course, that he was indeed a Master Mason who has been gentile to everyone.

Sakura was aware of everything that was crossing her colleagues` minds from the very moment when her steps have carried her shadows through the door she almost broke, but she couldn't care less.

And of course, her nightingale voice, one that was lacking the usual melodic inflexions and tonality, betrayed nothing of how she was feeling inside. "Where exactly so you see it on my face that I am anxious in any way?"

She took two more steps sinking into the room until her knees almost touched the round glass table in the middle of the room, arms planted down her shoulders. "If it is intuition you lack, then I would suggest getting another job."

Whoever even entertained the thought of throwing a colorful insult back to her rude comments, smartly shut his or her trap, because from the way she was basically freezing the entire room with the cold vibes emerging like limbs of arctic darkness around her, it was perfectly clear that she will refrain from no excessive usage of vocabulary to maintain that impenetrable façade.

Suigetsu smirked at her chose to appear before them in such a crucial moment, he too nourishing the same thoughts as Neji Hyuga, about her option to not be a weak woman, bawling her eyes out at the way her boyfriend decided to leave like an Englishman, with a guillotine hanging above his head and an infinite sea of mistrust and preconceptions about him.

They need someone like her now, who was capable of flawlessly mask her emotions and be a true shinobi whose feelings paled in front of their purpose and their vital mission. "Now if we are done with the unnecessary melancholy, then I would suggest we stick strictly to business."

Everyone in the room suddenly stiffened at the solemn tone used by the CIA`s virtual best agent. Those were phrases used by someone who is well-versed in a certain domain or has a vast expertize. At least, she seemed to be the owner of a couple of information that they didn't have. "What is your opinion about this?"

Nonetheless, they clearly didn't expect her to start with such a simple question, which by the way, was the very same that stirred havoc among them and tore the members present in half, in terms of opinion and affiliation because the people amassed in Suigetsu`s office were having contradicting opinions and another argument was beaming on the horizon; something that won't be beneficent in those circumstances.

Of course, Sakura was well aware of that fact, but surprisingly, her unfazed presence in the room has somehow tempered the flaming animosity between them, like she attempted to be the core of all their acrimony and flaring tempers, and shoulder all their hate, in order to force them to have a united opinion and reach a common goal.

Because Lorane was a common target, no matter how different their opinion were and Sakura clearly understood that amassing such a group of different people, with antithetic views and volcanic personalities, was meant to fail in terms of agreement by default. Balance and calmness were like oxygen in this situation.

No matter what, someone had to be more than just a silent observer and a level-headed referee –they needed someone who knew exactly what impulse to give to stir the brilliant minds of the CIA members and lead them to the correct path.

A sinuous road that no one would ever venture to take, because the bright clear path was always the more tempting one to follow and that was the sweetest trickery that Lorane chose to use against their enemies and lure them into thinking that the bells ringing into their heads, were only phantoms of thoughts that would never be possible to happen; the unpredictability and the element of surprise were only keys to open the lock of Pandora`s box.

Because Sakura was aware and alert of the fact that, whatever Lorane had in stock for them, has long transpired the realm of logic, reason, tangible and laws of physics, sliding into a world of seductive mysticism, occult and psychedelic.

And they needed that figment of insanity in order to drift their thoughts into that obscure direction.

Sasori, who was well affiliated with Sakura`s flips of personality, shrugged nonchalantly and voiced out the main idea that led to their previous conflict, before the explosion stole the spotlight and blown up their minds.

"Your friend here," His soft amber eyes shifted to Karin who in return frowned at his choice of making her the main target, but remained silent. "Thinks that Uchiha Sasuke is entangled with the Lorane."

All of the agents unconsciously held in their breaths as id anticipating a flaming comeback from Sakura, in an obvious attempt implicit lover, but surprisingly her inner thoughts remained indiscernible from her audience, as her forest green orbs remained a lyrical image of composure. And the words slicking from her tongue have shocked the audience to the core. "I know."

It was there, buried into the depths of her mind – the image of him when she stumbled upon his indomitable form in the room they shared together, during their little mountain trip – triggering recurrent memories that swept before her eyes, whenever she squeezed them shut.

He looked so striking and emanating a remarkable power, that turned her knees into pudding, with that sword stained into rivulets of blood that wasn't even his; he didn't even flinched in disgust, panic, guilt or remorse when slaying the silver edge of the sharp blade through his attackers` limp chests, as if he was zipping the TV channels on the remote control.

It was petrifying and hypnotizing at the same time to be met with that Sasuke Uchiha and all the alarm bells in her mind juggled whenever that picture of him staring right back at her filled her mind and that was daily.

Everytime when his sweet caress wasn't reminding her of his tender side, that demonic portrait of him was haunting her dreams.

And of course, her Papa`s line churned inside her chest in a whirlpool of conflicted sensations and she could even taste her on the tip of her tongue, loud and vivid: "… He is a dark horse". Whatever Orochimaru meant by that, it was too laconic to decipher the true message behind his words.

So Sakura could see where their mistrust in him was coming from, for thinking about his past actions, the way he took down the bikers like they were dew drops that he whipped off the blades of the leaves with a single brush of his fingertips, implacable and outstanding; how he saw right through the attack that Lorane has orchestrated back there on their mountain trip, going as far as to have his own helicopter, as well as the Interpol Troops arrive just in time to not witness him killing the guide in disguise in cold blood, his confession about his dark years during high school… the secrets that he couldn't share, intertwining with his genuine confession that he was not a businessmen and in reality… he was something else.

Someone else. And that thing alone was enough to trigger doubt. Sure, he admitted that he will never let anything happen to her but… what about the others?

Why couldn't her mind connect the things? There was a void in her head that begged to be filled, but there was opposing feelings down her head that prevented her to find the missing link. And that alone frustrated her to no end.

Confused orbs flew to Uzumaki Karin silently expecting her to develop Sakura`s statement but the beautiful red headed woman casually jerked her shoulders up as if it was the most normal thing to converse when meeting up a friend.

"You know that I never keep anything to myself. Me and Cherry talked about it and my opinion hasn't changed since then."

Of course, they should have seen it coming that Sakura would ask for Karin`s opinion about her relationship with Sasuke, since she was closer to her and Orochimaru than to anyone else and since her Papa wasn't there to confront her, Karin was the other viable option, plus, she was the one to fly all the way from Italy to Japan just to catch her from free falling into the clutches of despair and become her confident and the shoulder to cry on.

Needless to say that the once rose haired woman would confide in Karin and in return, her proclaimed sister will never hide her heart from Sakura, even though their views over such a sensitive topic weren't in perfect sync.

Karin was not trusting Sasuke and that was probably well known by Sakura, who she has probably warned beforehand not to fall too deep for the Uchiha and blindly trust the words that came out of his pretty mouth.

Naruto and Suigetsu, as his best buddies, have also disclosed to her that Sasuke was a master at deception and his eloquence and refinement were valuable instruments in tricking a mind and present another convenient perspective to his victim, until that person will not be able to make out the difference between reality and illusion.

Uchiha Sasuke had the ability to hypnotize someone with a sole glance from his implacable onyx eyes, ones that drown everyone inside his own version of a dream.

That was the reason why he was so dangerous; all adding to the fact that he was doing it inconspicuous and elegant, without the others to even be aware of his game.

"Do you all agree with her?" Once again, Sakura`s flat tone betrayed nothing from what she was personally thinking about the situation and clearly everyone wanted to hear her own version over the matter, because the person that was standing so confidently before them was clearly someone who was harboring effervescent feelings for the Uchiha, but at the same time, she knew how to dissimulate her emotions and keep her agent side away from personal matters; someone who knew when to be subjective and when to be impartial.

"The majority of us, yeah, we do think that Sasuke is on the bad guy`s side." Ten Ten had no problems in admitting it out loud that she found cohesion with Karin`s opinion. No matter how much she wanted to consider Sasuke other than guilty, her reasoning was screaming at her that she was not being deceived by his subtle tricks.

"Since when are you the majority?" Naruto had a frenetic outbreak while listening to Ten Ten`s bold affirmation, not believing his ears that Sakura`s orbs weren't matching the implied protective attitude of a virtual girlfriend, not shooting to defend Sasuke like he assumed, finding himself alone in a battle whose sole companion was a masochistic Pagan believer, with not so much credibility and a perverted attitude. "This bastard here hadn't told us what his opinion is." His index finger stretched in the direction of a Suigetsu who was having an unreadable expression on his face.

Narrowed amethyst orbs flew towards Uzumaki`s reproaching ones, silently trying to convey a subtle message to him that he wasn't taking anyone`s side, because the truth was somewhere in the core of all the theories exposed, but he was too biased to see them.

So he merely decided not to provoke his cerulean eyed friend further and stir that mercurial temper in an explosion of vex and disquiet.

It was not the time to take sides and prove their loyalty to no one, since they lacked any solid proof of Sasuke`s presumed innocence, though Suigetsu himself found it hard to believe that his best friend was part of such an impervious evil organization. "I am on no one's side here, but the truth`s."

"Well… that is as good as useless in case you haven't realized " Ten Ten spat to him sarcastically, pointing to the fact that a vote of inequity was perfectly inept.

"The only ones who think that Sasuke is innocent are Naruto and Hidan." Karin explained to her emerald eyed friend, who was blasé in dismissing the surfeit of incoherent contradicting mumblings that were thrown in her direction, assessing, calculating and letting her mind do the necessary connections.

"And… I am still waiting for the moment," Hidan outstretched his model legs in a lazy manner, getting comfortable into the armchair, pointed the blades of his idolatrous scythe to the people in the room assessing the looks in their turbulent orbs, laughing in a newfound outbreak of defiance, defending his own theories, somehow backing Naruto up who found himself in the unwilling role of the solitary hero. "of your epic fail, when you realize that I was right. Once atheists, always atheists and yet… you all call me agnostic because my belief isn't loyal to your God." And by `God` he meant their suppositions and ontology and not necessary religion.

"I see." Sakura`s feet slide along the way to the sofa that Neji and his fiancé were occupying, lackadaisically taking a seat and crossing her slim legs together, looking like a Queen on a throne, while her face bore the same embellishment of discrepancy between her inner thoughts and what was projected on the outside: Naruto, whose azurite orbs were desperately trying to picture the true nature of her thoughts, has been faced with a solid cobblestone wall that was as good as impenetrable, not being able to read underneath her veneer, just like he was usually powerless in reading Sasuke`s mind and it was a frightening mirroring of their two colliding personalities.

"His grandmother, Naori-san, who happens to be a retired ex-Sound agent, is nurturing similar thoughts as you guys, namely that her grandson is part of the Freemasonry."

The nonchalant manner of spewing something so huge and inconspicuous to them stirred havoc and disbelief among her audience, all having similar reactions to the secret that Sakura has just disclosed, of course, with the permission of the aforementioned Uchiha grandmother, who has given Sakura the permission to use her secret identity as an ex – CIA agent, in order to gain the confidence, trust and credibility before a mass of people who were most likely into a pinch because of their lack of information and contradicting opinions.

"What?!"

"Naori-san is a what?!"

"Who the hell is Naori-san?" Hidan found himself asking the obvious; well, he more like shouted it because damn… whenever Athena got involved into the game, she always came with the element of unpredictability that made anyone shot from their seats and get chills.

"Teme's grandma and she is a real sweetheart!" Naruto explained like that was a reasonable explanation for why couldn't she be a CIA, but he was baffled that such a secret has been occult to him since he and Sasuke has grown up like brothers, but then again, everyone seemed to have been a dark horse lately so it didn't come quite the shocker but still... "I can't believe that she was a CIA agent and a Sound nonetheless."

By any means, the Uzumaki didn't mean to be disrespectful or imply anything with that CIA affiliation of Sasuke`s kind grandmother since he long found out that the bloody CIA office, who only dealt with the unconventional serial criminals and secret organizations, being elite assassins by definition, were in reality faithful comrades and trustful friends.

"Well… believe it Naruto – kun, because she told me things about Lorane that even I wouldn't have had knowledge of. She helped me fly all the way here with a secret helicopter that has been in the Sound`s possession, one that even I wasn't aware of, but she knew the combination of its lock and its concealed location and she disclosed it to me."

In reality, Uchiha Naori has done more than just provide a way of getting back to Tokyo as fast as possible, but the rest of the gang didn't need to know such fine and intimate details. When Sakura broke up in an outbreak of steaming tears because of the hot news that went along the globe, regarding Sasuke`s mansion in Tokyo bursting in an explainable huge fire that has burned everything down to ashes, she found her knees succumb to the power of gravity and she collapsed like a building in ruins, drowning in tears and screams that dematerialized from her being, tearing her soul in half.

Never in her life has Sakura found herself crying like she did then. Not even in her most decadent years as a beggar or a student to the orphanage, but she couldn't control herself.

She loved Sasuke with her entire being and even beyond that; he meant to her more than the world, he was the very air she breathed, the way the world was spinning and the essence of the time.

It was a sad truth, but when being with Uchiha Sasuke, Sakura felt like a complete puzzle. So it was only natural that, without him, she lost a part of her which left her hollow and breathless.

She couldn't live without him; she refused to live in a world without the missing Uchiha heir. And that was the reason why that news has slashed her like a katana, benumbing her and leaving her in the embrace of despair.

Two strong arms have found their way around her trembling shoulders, pulling her in a tight embrace, attempting to provide a mellow source of comfort. Sasuke`s grandfather has found himself kneeing behind the howling emerald eyed woman and something must have snapped into his heart for he saw the granddaughter that he never had in the form of that beautiful lady, the one who his beloved nephew has brought along, in an obvious materialization of all his sentiments of love that he harbored for her, because he fought with all his might to comfort her in any way and assure her that Sasuke was safe and sound, whenever he was.

In reality, he was trying to convince both of them of the fact. And Sakura found herself leaning into that figure of a grandfather`s image and returned his embrace, crying into his knitted soft vest, tears of crocodile. Soon enough, they were both crying in the room that she and Sasuke have shared one night ago.

Their last night together… even now, her mind was trying to block away the cascades of tears that threatened to prickle in the corner of her eyes, but she will be damned before she indulged into her weak part.

She has left her bawling part – the one that adores Sasuke ardently with all her heart – back to Miyako with his grandfather.

Because Athena of the Sound didn't love anyone, not even Sasuke. She was the perfect assassin and as long as she had this mode engaged, nothing will ever come between her purpose and this implacable façade.

She HAD to cling to the side of her that was capable of facing Lorane, otherwise, that battle was as good as lost even before it began.

She knew that all too well and the resolution that she came in Suigetsu`s office with, was coming from her reasoning, but never from her heart.

Athena of the Sound and Haruno Sakura had but one thing in common: they both lacked a heart into their chest.

The cold Sound assassin has petrified that useless organ from her body and anesthetized her feelings that were as useless as phantoms of a potential factor to weaken her skills, and Sakura has entitled her heart and the embodiment of love that it entombed, to Uchiha Sasuke who left and took it with him.

Whenever his location was, her heart was ticking their time together. If he died, then she was just a walking spirit with a cobblestone chest and a porcelain face which was only graced by the reminisce of their precious moments together, living on the expense of the past, but never the future. In rest, they were two different persons.

"Unbelievable." Karin groaned like a tired lioness, massaging the back of her neck, that was starting to ache and that was Suigetsu`s damned fault for making her sleep on the carpet with her head planted in the crock of his neck and taking her in such acrobatic positions, making her entire body get sore.

"It looks like everybody lied to Sasuke, when in reality he has the biggest secret from all: a Lorane rat amidst a mass of CIA agents. Isn't this kind of like a soap opera?"

Naruto ignored Karin`s remark and hollered to the once rosette woman whose hair color resembled latte and caramel and she looked more Italian with the exception of her exotic emerald orbs, in the color of the sea. "Sakura-chan, you tell them! You do trust Sasuke-Teme right? Tell everyone that he is not working for the Lorane. This is absurd!"

"Who can deny such facts..."

"Tennie!" The golden haired Uzumaki injected to Neji`s fiancé. "You have known the Teme for so long. How can you say that he is a traitor?"

"Again with this shit..." Karin mumbled again, turning around to crunch her orbs at Suigetsu, silently warning the implied referee that they couldn't go back to arguing about their different viewpoints.

But the handsome Interpol Officer, with the gleam of amethyst in his orbs, was mirroring her best friend`s demeanor, namely looking around in a scrutinizing manner, being all too silent. Suigetsu took his time to peep at Sakura, not liking that expression on her face.

It was a far cry from the woman that he first met in Sasuke`s home –the eccentric fanatic of wrestling matches that was devastating his living room and was all funny and easygoing – because this CIA agent, albeit notorious and with a fearsome impressive reputation in the underground world, bore no resemblance to that sincere sweet and angelic pink haired woman. This one was elfin, vile and scheming and dark.

"You damn atheists wouldn't be able to recognize a traitor, even if it hits you in the face."

"This is not true, Teme does` t deserve all this mistrust! He trusts us all and how do we repay him? By accusing him? Has anyone seen any obvious traces that point to Sasuke?"

No, in his rage, Naruto couldn't comprehend how could such words and assumptions come from his friends, and he was getting shaky and more affected by the minute.

Hinata`s presence in the room has been beneficent to him and he actually found her supposition to be plausible, but she had to get out of the room, not because Sakura had something personal to her person per se, but because she might be in danger if the Lorane would find out that she was affiliated to them.

So his sole source of comfort would have been someone to back his theory up and that one who was supposedly the one that was the closest and more intimate to his raven haired friend, was the one to nourish their mistrust.

What was wrong with Sakura? Why was she back on her malignant vile assassin side? Athena belonged to the past –a past that Sakura was supposed to having getting over with since Sasuke has showered her with his honest feelings of pure love.

But apparently, ghosts of the past were still carrying on with their curse and haunted them. She didn't have a choice but to be strong for all of them, their love included.

Naruto understood. A weak Sakura would have been of no use to them in this situation but, for the love of all that`s holly, she was making the gravest mistake of all, one that, ironically or not, Sasuke also did.

She deemed the feelings to be poisonous and useless in association to real power. They both thought that showing their inner feelings and bonds was a sign of being weak, which was plain dumb.

The need to protect someone, the impulse of striving to not let your friends, comrades and beloved ones perish in the hands of the enemy, was the one to make one`s inner latent potential flare to its supremacy.

When having feelings that burst inside, they could all get one to his strongest version. In Naruto's opinion, that was the key to keep their mismatched characters bonded with real links and give them the upper hand in their battle to Lorane.

"Well let`s see… Despite the fact that he kills like Lorane, has as much knowledge as Lorane does, speaks all their foreign languages fluently, is versatile with basically any weapons and saw through all their movements, absolutely zero connection!"

Ten Ten snarled to the Uzumaki dripping of pure sarcasm, but Naruto wouldn't put it past her. She was convinced by Karin`s own version of events and she fought for what she believed in, even though she was wrong. "And now he vanished from the surface of earth just like Inoichi and his slut of a daughter, who just happen to be part of the Lorane as well!"

"You have always been a hopeless romantic delusional character, my dear cousin." Karin sighed and rammed a hand through her long auburn locks, pinning the Uzumaki with a look that surprisingly wasn't mocking, but held some sort of pity and understanding.

Had it be Sakura in Sasuke`s place, she too would have defended her sister with all her might, fighting against any words of mistrust so she kinda understood Naruto`s point of view. Naruto on the other hand, felt cornered by all their foreboding but refused to sell out his friend.

"He might have been kidnapped or something." Sasori found himself suggesting, since the tension between Sakura, Naruto, Karin and Ten Ten was getting thicker than mist and honestly, made him anxious.

"Huh?! And pass Cherry and Naori-san without them noticing it?" Karin curled an eyebrow up at her Sound companion, being surprised that it was Akasuna to make such an irrelevant comment, gnawing at her lower lip like she did when she got impatient. "In another dimension maybe."

What was there to debate? It was just clear that Sasuke's work was perfect. The man knew exactly what he was doing and probably had everything planned months beforehand, up to the finest details. Karin couldn't comprehend how in the world could those people be so blind not to see the obvious?

"Why are you defending him so much?" Sasori turned to inquire as his calm orbs collided to Naruto's startled ones. "Are you also part of the Freemasonry and a double agent?"

"What?!" Naruto`s face crumbled like a wall of bricks under the force of a wrecking ball, being demolished by Sasori`s outrageous assumptions. Slowly but surely, they were slanting from paranoid to ridiculous. "What the fuck are you talking about?!"

"This moment is so proper for us to become more overly suspicious." That was Neji`s sarcastic tone, resonating with Suigetsu`s feelings, who wanted to throw a similar remark to Sasori and Ten Ten, but the Hyuga beat him to it.

Sakura was still silent and he couldn't guess what whirled inside her mind. "If we can't trust each other, then is all over.

Itachi and Tobirama-sama are gone and pretty much dead in the explosion. The world leaders are in imminent danger, the CIA leader is dead, Sasuke is gone and his mother is in hospital. I say that we are pretty much in a serious situation." Those were hard words that came out of the Hyuga`s mouth, but he was right and they needed someone so level headed with enough cold blood to throw the truth into their faces.

"What?" For the first time since she clicked her combat boots into that room, Sakura`s cold tone has taken a sweeter resonance when she almost whispered in sheer surprise to Neji. "Mikoto-san is hospitalized? Why?"

Karin, Naruto and Suigetsu didn't miss the way she seemed to get more human when hearing about the bad news that veiled the name of the angelic figure of the Uchiha family, the sweetheart Mikoto.

Sakura has taken a liking on her and the raven haired woman already viewed her as the perfect candidate to be her son`s betrothed and accepted her as part of her family, with much love and open arms.

And Sakura naturally found herself drown to the raven haired woman`s motherly delicacy and care. No… not another bad news in that already boiling amalgamation of bad omen.

Naruto provided her a quick explanation, as his chest was clasping and his voice held so many conflicted emotions, being among the few in the room to not have any problem in expressing his feelings openly, feeling just as sad and worried for Mikoto`s well-being as Sakura secretly was.

"When the news of Teme's company going bankrupt and his house burn down have spewed into the media, she had a sudden heart attack."

"Fuck." Sakura buried her face into her palms, rubbing her cheeks and pulling her hair backwards, facing the ground. That was a disaster. Just when she thought that things couldn't get any worse than this, Sasuke's mother gets sick and on the verge of… no, she definitely couldn't DIE on them. No way!

Then another natural question arouse in her mind: was her onyx eyed son even aware of his mother`s state?

Because she knew it all too well that the bond that Sasuke and Mikoto shared was deep, poetic, special and spewed with motherly love. She almost felt like crying in his place and silently pray for the woman`s safety.

There was also another thing that was nagging the jadeite eyed Sound agent and she peeked to the Uzumaki again who was looking at her somehow expectantly, but she didn't grant him the view of her breaking into another outburst of crying. "What about his father?"

"Fugaku-san has been with her all the time, until couple of hours ago, when he flied to Tokyo." Somehow, that didn't shock anybody because they knew that the Uchiha patriarch was hundred percent committed and devoted to his damned corporation, who was going down the hill faster than a meteorite crashing down the Earth and the Mangekyou will share the same fate of the flaming rock, namely ending up in a devastating explosion and take down the entire remains of the world`s economy and bury it along with its decaying notorious name.

Everyone knew that it was impossible for Fugaku to save the Mangekyou in this moment. If Sasuke didn't have a backup plan –one that was wrapped in secrecy – then all his lifetime work was as good as over. They truly hoped that he was man enough to not commit suicide when he sees his Empire go down, like many before him unfortunately did.

"The whole corporation going bankrupt overnight seems like an orchestrated clever charade." Karin flipped their thoughts in the span of a nanosecond with her confident remark and her flat professional serious tone betrayed that the woman knew about what she was talking about. "I don't believe a word from it."

"What do you mean, bella?" It was clear to the both of them that Suigetsu intentionally threw that affectionate suffix just to annoy Hidan who frowned at him.

Karin glared at his implied possessive side –making it clear from their first encounter that she wasn't the one to venture blindly into a wild romance with the first man to step on her way- but responded nonetheless to his question, putting aside any intimate link between them and trying to detach from personal problems –like her cherry resembling best friend of hers.

"Sasuke is not bankrupt, period. He just made it look like that for a reason that I don't understand. Probably Lorane machinations, who knows? I wouldn't be surprised to find out that he will soon come back and richer than ever."

Karin simply shrugged as her confidence made wheels spin in her audience`s brains, all digesting the things that came out of that woman`s mouth. Why was Karin so positive that it was all an insanely flawless smart plan, designed by Sasuke`s genius mind, to trick everyone into thinking that his company –the last pillar in the way of fighting Lorane`s abominable dominance – was going downhill, without any chance of being saved?

If he was indeed part of the Freemasonic branch of the Lorane, then his best interest –their interest – would have naturally been to strengthen their position of dominance and eventually use it as the main branch to take the others over its umbrella and shield Lorane`s corporations –the ones that they were controlling from the shadows, which he clearly didn't do, since he chose to go down and take his company along the way.

What would they benefit from going in insolvency if the two were affiliated to their illicit purposes? It made no sense.

"We don't know how rich Sasuke truly is." Suigetsu narrowed his orbs at the beautiful Italian woman before him, reminding her that they didn't have any solid information regarding his raven haired friend`s background nor the status of his business, bank accounts and personal life.

"Or… was. Because technically, after the glorious declaration of the Mangekyou fighting`s its imminent insolvency, he is virtually bankrupt."

At the moment, Uchiha Sasuke was a mystery to all of them.

There was nothing tangible veiling his person; inwardly, almost all the agents presence were even questioning his supposed feelings for Sakura, who in return, looked like she was capable of reading their minds and was threatening them to shut their mouths and not voice that out, with a sole glance of her blizzard eyes.

"We basically know nothing about him, won't you agree?"

"Are you finished with all this trivia nonsense yet? In case you haven` t already noticed yet, is precisely time the luxury that we can't afford to waste."

Sakura finally decided to interfere into a conversation that, honestly, started to arouse to her temples as a throbbing headache and she almost lost the touch with the outside world for a moment; damn stress for getting the best of her when she most needed to remain composed and level-headed.

"Instead of wasting precious time in throwing imbecile guesses ,such as Sasuke being part of the Lorane, I suggest that we start from the thing the they want him for."

A victorious effervescent grin bloomed on Naruto`s lips, now understanding the resolution behind Sakura`s laid-back attitude up until now.

"Y-You mean, you don't think that Teme is working for the bad guys, right?" It wasn't like the jadeite eyed Sound assassin was doubting Sasuke –hell no – but she let them argue between them just to get a glimpse of the turbulences and contradictory thoughts among them, so that she will know how to expose her own version of the truth and emphasize her point of view, in order to highlight the common elements between their opinions and bring it to the light – using a subtle technique of antithesis – to prove it to them how blindly imbecile they were in assuming something so cretin, such as Sasuke being a transgressor.

"Even if all the odds are pointing to him, of course not. A CIA must always look underneath the underneath." She made double sure that she pressed every syllable of Kakashi`s words of wisdom, that resonated to their purpose and sacred code of a young CIA recruit, reminding the people before her that, if they wanted to become elites, capable to maintain their reputation before the main antagonists and enemies – then they must never forget the basics of being a flawless agent. "Experience has long taught us that the least person we would expect it to be the culprit, is always a demon dressed in an angel's robe. What it misses and cannot be faked... is the halo atop his head."

What she meant by that statement of hers, no one knew but by the look of it, there was another stronger suspicion on another person that drove Sakura to the conclusion of Sasuke`s innocence and that stirred confusion and wonder among the other Sound and Akatsuki members.

It was perfectly clear that the woman who was being so adamant in not accusing Sasuke –albeit she wasn't very vocal in blindly defending him, either – was having strong counter arguments, ones that she was prepared to expose to them, probably having a deeper insight into whatever trick Lorane had up its sleeve.

"Are you defending Sasuke just because you are his girlfriend?" Ten Ten wanted to make double sure that Sakura who stood at the other side of the sofa that she and Neji were occupying, wasn't just an avatar of a desperate girlfriend, who was ready to swear that her criminal boyfriend was a saint in disguise. If Sasuke wasn't behind all of that mess, then who else was?

His mother? Maybe his grandmother, who has been concealing her identity for the entire time, has tricked her into thinking that she was an ex-Sound agent, when in reality she might have been behind the masterminds who orchestrated the entire operation of kidnapping and striking at a certain moment, taking them all by surprise and inconspicuously slipping unnoticed past their vigilance.

It was very easy for a Lorane in disguise to come as credible in pretending to work for the CIA, since the two rivals had enough information of each other to not be suspicious, even before a trained agent with experience, like Sakura.

And since she had the element of empathy and familiarity around her, it was really easy to appeal to Sakura`s soft side, as well as her husband, grandson and family members.

What if she was the one to kidnap Sasuke and get him out of that house, without anyone to notice? She had the passcodes of an helicopter, she knew the security system of her home, hence how to silently deactivate it and not to mention, Sasuke disappears after he brings Sakura to his grandparents.

Of course, Naori-san knew that Sakura was a CIA so maybe she wanted the emerald eyed troublesome agent away from her sight, hence she naturally helped her fly all the way back to Tokyo, just to eliminate the potential danger that was residing under the same roof.

Ten Ten wouldn't be surprised to find out that Naori has killed her husband and also went M.I.A. But she kept her suppositions for herself, because she didn't want to start an argument with Sakura.

"What is the thing that Lorane wants from Sasuke?" Suigetsu found himself injecting to Sakura, being thankful that she wasn't a hyperactive obnoxious woman, to resemble the people that were currently giving him headaches namely Hidan, Naruto, Ten Ten and… Karin.

"It is complicated. I don't know the details myself and since Sasuke's house conveniently burned to the foundation, all the files and the minutiae are as good as gone." That was the first thing that Sakura did when she calmed down from her crisis of despair and stopped peeling onions: she cursed.

She cursed the fact that she lost every single document that was being compelled into Sasuke`s office, along with the complete patterns of the writings carved on his office walls. Yes, she had a copy of that in her laptop, but that has been stolen by Lorane.

She kept another copy in her phone along with Orochimaru`s decrypts of the message, but it wasn't the complete files about the Lorane. Most of that was destroyed and she had no doubt that it was either Lorane or Uchiha himself the ones to plan that convenient fire and get rid of every single detail that was entrapped into that house.

Everything was now burned to ashes… along with their memories together from the day they have met. Somehow, she felt bad for that house, but it wasn't the time to complain and feel pity.

Instead, Sakura has unzipped her small backpack and carelessly, discarded a pile of files on the coffee table silently inviting everyone to gather around and study the scattered material and they did just as so, amassing like cockroaches.

There were complicated pictures, complete intricate hieroglyphs, math formulas and luscious photographs with pyramids. "What the heck is this?" Naruto mumbled while he took a random sheet of paper, not being sure if he was even holding it correctly, or upside down.

"These are-" Karin's pupils dilated like wine grapes when she realized exactly what she was looking at, being way wiser than her blonde idiot knucklehead cousin.

She whipped her head in the direction of Sakura, silently asking her to confirm her suspicions and Sakura did just as so, nodding once to the Uzumaki female.

"Yes." She explained for the entire breath of agents to understand. "The hieroglyphs that Sasuke embed on his office walls. I printed a copy of it. It is the only one we have. My laptop is no more and Sasuke had a copy in his house which is also… no more."

"Do you think that Sasuke might have intentionally burned sown his home so that Lorane won't get its hands on whatever information he had stocked inside?"

Once again, Suigetsu seemed to be on the same page as her and for that, Sakura was being thankful. Usually, it was either Itachi or Neji Hyuga the voices of ration among their kin, but the Interpol Officer proved to veil brilliant organizational and strategic skills, under his sharky boyish grin – that was currently missing from his frowning focused handsome face. He, just like her, looked like a completely other person. She mentally smirked.

"Whoa, hold on!" Ten Ten injected fervently, like she was stepping on hot charcoals. "You don't possibly suspect that Sasuke has destroyed his own home before disappearing, on purpose, do you?"

A ghost of a smirk revealing his signature canine rose on Suigetsu's lips, as he took another random picture from the table. "This is exactly what I think about Ten Ten."

Of course that he didn't expect himself to be the only genius to figure out something so obvious and Suigetsu didn't take credit for this, because he knew that at least three more people in the room were nurturing the same questions and suspicions as him.

"Since I cannot comprehend how was it possible for a house to burst in flames without a source of ignition, then I suspect it has been orchestrated."

"To erase every trace, right?" Not surprisingly, it was Neji to confirm his thoughts, as he was busying himself with studying the math formulas encrusted on his walls and photographed by Sakura, but he stunned his fiancé –who was standing beside him – by casting his eyes on the translation, as he was able to read hieroglyphs, while she had troubles in comprehending what was the things that Sakura threw in their faces so nonchalantly.

Neji was among the last people to talk to Sasuke about his corporation before everything went from worse to disaster and he had his suspicions, which were not because of the sudden turn of events, but because the Uchiha himself has warned and advised him beforehand to do something that could miraculously save his company, not actually hiding his intentions from the Hyuga.

And that was one solid proof that led the lunar eyed Hyuga male in the room, to believe that his raven haired family friend was indeed not affiliated to the Freemasonry, and it was all just a misunderstanding.

Of course, he wasn't looking for a justification of his unexplainable behavior, like his sworn brother Naruto was doing, because logic and composure told him not to jump to rash conclusions nor express excessive behavior, but he couldn't deny some striking facts.

There was also nothing coincidental in the fact that Sasuke`s mansion and company have somehow faced disaster in such a short amount of time and that was clearly something orchestrated by whoever had the interest to cover some other plans and erase evidences, and Neji found it convenient for Sasuke himself to have planned that beforehand, though it was hard to imagine the reason why he would chose to act this way and presumptively hide in a place where the Lorane will never find him.

If anything, Sasuke wasn't a coward. Heck no! An Uchiha will rather cut his own throat rather than hide like a complete loser and let his rivals win. Not only their ego and pride will prevent them to taint their infamous family name like that, but their Uchiha blood was boiling stronger for revenge than in anyone else.

They will never succumb into their enemy's wicked will and simply let them take the upper hand. They were always scheming, planning and plotting with the accuracy of a Swiss clock and hardly mistaken.

The fact that the onyx eyed Uchiha had a plan to save his company was crystal clear to Neji Hyuga and in fact, he was quite impatient and curious to see the outcome of whatever plan Sasuke was about to bring to the light, in the moment when the time will come and miraculously save his company; of course, if he hasn't already did just as so and, once again, surprise them all and shock the entire world to the core, Lorane included.

Sasuke had it in him to be spectacular and unpredictable, he proved it million times before, but unfortunately, they have been too emerged into the core of their problems to notice it.

All with the exception of the person that has been the closest to him: Sakura Haruno. She has long realized that the man she had to play the maid to was anything but an ordinary business man with a boring life and a hectic schedule.

Somehow, she has warned them about Sasuke and his unexplainable behavior and Neji too has been a witness to it, back then in the club, when he was drugged of an overdose of LSD, betraying skills of a legendary assassin.

Hidan clicked on his tongue, mocking the Hyuga who was submerged into his deep thoughts about Sasuke and he almost missed the cynic tone. "Na – ah. It was all to divert the attention from some other shit he probably does right now."

All the eyes flew from the papers they were studying, to the man with the scythe in his possession as Hidan was casually brooding and snorting at the mass of papers that were encrusted with things that he couldn't begin to decipher, nor was he having the patience for this.

Hidan was an impulsive man, driven by his amazing sense of intuition and his lust for blood and revenge, not actually bothered by such details as files and papers. He was the kind of assassin to go on instinct, act upon the flow of the events that he was following with the accuracy of a hawk and had enough experience to strike when the time was and defeat his opponents.

The way he was approaching every mission always skipped the Intel part. His bored charcoal orbs were looking around amused by the way the people before him were doing their best to appear as intellectuals and play the responsible agents, with the exception of Naruto Uzumaki who was probably in the same boat as him and that was the reason why the two of them were formidable agents.

They were not book worms, but street smart and always on the move, learning along the way, by making mistakes and getting in touch with the target, using the entire arsenal of five senses to learn everything that had to be learned. But studying material was making them go crazy.

Sakura, upon pondering over the two intelligent remarks, cumulated their assumptions into a logical conclusion. "It is both." All eyes shifted from a smirking Hidan who was whispering something to Naruto who in return was nodding fervently to him, grinning, listening and silently urging her to continue.

"He did it for both the aforementioned reasons. If Sasuke had all the information stored in his house and his mysterious disappearance is no coincidence then his plan has more chances to come into fruition. He will strike Lorane from two sides."

"Hm… clever. But these suppositions are viable options only if we count out his involvement with Lorane."

"Get that shit out of your brain Sasori because Sasuke does not work for Lorane." The emerald eyed Sound agent snarled to her auburn haired CIA colleague, rolling her eyes at him, unceremoniously being visibly pissed off by that assumption. "Plus… you are all mistaken in one particular important aspect here."

"What do you mean?"

"You all associate Lorane to the Freemasonry which I think is wrong. The secret elite organization known as the Freemasonry, as it was when it was first created was never meant to be a criminal organization, but an association of the crème de la crème who shared common interests, religious beliefs and ontology for world peace and cooperation.

It was based on amity, tact, respect and fraternity. The Freemasonry... " Sakura eyed all of them with a resolute animadvert stare in her darkened forest green eyes. "Was never meant to be evil."

That information was hard to digest by the occupants of the room and the jadeite eyed woman saw it clearly in their respective stares of confusion that they deemed her as crazy, but it was the truth.

Sakura was Orochimaru`s protégée: she knew everything that the wise snake man knew, and damn right he digested and dug into very single information, read every book and file and played with the meaning of every letter, comma or sentence, until he unraveled the real meaning and he reached one marvelous conclusion; one that Naori Uchiha has confirmed to her before she helped her fly back to Tokyo – that the Freemasonry and the Lorane, when looked at the foundation, had nothing in common to one another.

"Well you do realize that currently is the Freemasonry the one who attacked the Summit and took control over the world's economy right?"

Ten Ten was already feeling like they were run into circles without reaching to a tangible point and now Sakura comes and proves it to them that they even got the concept of their enemy wrong. What the fuck?

"Something along the road must have happened in order to make them change their policy to something that has the resemblance of organized crime and wield similarities to the a regime of terror and inflicted pain."

Neji was quick into catching up with the conceptualization of the Freemasonry, he too being very interested in tapping the bottom of the problem and see what was underneath the surface, where all the secrets lied, as well as the best countermeasures.

"Lorane is the Head of the Freemasonry, Cherry." Sasori felt the need to remind them the obvious, though he was curious of where was Sakura trying to lead them to, when stating something that looked quite irrelevant now when they were one step ahead from succeeding.

Sakura exhaled deeply, brushing a hand through her soft hair, that began to grow longer, and brushed her locks over her shoulders, looking at him.

She too had troubles in explaining it to him since she had no solid proof to back her words up, only having hers, Orochimaru`s and Naori`s suppositions, but she had to bring that to the light and see if the people present could brainstorm and find a connection, because if the Lorane was a separate entity that was tarnishing the name of the Freemasonry, using it because of the notorious reputation and the value of its name in the public`s eye, then it was crucial to understand what their affiliation was and get to the core of the problem.

"Lorane is behind it all, yes, I know but I think that its leaders are using the name of the Freemasonry to brainwash its adepts and turn them into puppets to bend to their evil plots."

"What is that you are trying to say, mi amiga?"

"Lorane is using the Freemasonry, Rin. The Freemasonry was never meant to be an illegal international criminal organization. Lorane is. Lorane is not the Freemasonry."

Based on the book that Jirayia has stolen from the Lorane when he deflected the organization, one that Sakura has studied and memorized every line of it, she was shocked to find out that the Freemasonry was presented as a benefactor and never as an enemy or an extremist organization that plotted to destroy the world or take over.

On the contrary, the impervious organization`s purposes were depicted as noble, charitable and merciful to the humans and never evil.

The Master Masons were part of those secret circles of the most reputed and brilliant minds of every Era –because the phenomenon of the Freemasonry dates back into ancient times –that were avid believers of the God`s words and the teachings of the greatest philosophers.

They had advanced acknowledge in basically every area of expertise –Math, Astronomy, Biology, Religion, Literature or Philosophy – and they manifested a high interest in Magic, Tarot and ancient sacred rituals that dealt with the origins of Greek, Roman or Oriental deities and Mythology.

But it was never stated that they wanted to use that information to bring misery and terror into the world, on the contrary, it was all about creating a better world, where the Rule of Peace and Love will be the most important actors and respect towards the other nations and people in general was highly praised and embed into their dogmas.

And that was the reason why Sakura was so skeptical and confused about Lorane and their dogmas. Because it wasn't matching the old teachings about the purest form of the Freemasonry, on the contrary, it looked more like something that an ordinary Mobster family would do in order to expand their supremacy over the world and double their income.

"This is bullshit." Ten Ten snorted at Sakura`s explanation finding it to be really improbable. Was that woman trying to find a justification for Lorne`s unpardonable acts? Now the theory of conspiracy was working on high level.

What if Naruto and her, along with Sasuke, were working for the Lorane, who was subtly and elegantly attempting to brainwash them and stop whatever plan they might concoct, even before it began?

"According to what Jirayia-sama told us, they are abusing their power and wealth to get their hands on immensurable secret treasures and act like original occult freaks who believe in magic or witchery or whatever the fuck they pray to, and take control over the world.

He never mentioned the Lorane to be controlling the Freemasonry."

And that was exactly the mistake that most of them did in their fruitless and fugitive careless interpretation of the book of the Freemasonry. One that Sakura has depicted.

"We do know that it does control it. Only I don't want to venture so far into discrediting the entire Freemasonry. I have read the book that Jirayia stole from them. They were noble educated people, inclined to peace and charity and valued God`s name. They aren't evil to the core, on the contrary."

"Which led us to the first question: what is Sasuke's involvement in this?"

"This hieroglyphs..." Neji mumbled more to himself than addressing to someone in particular and the way the fine milky veins were bulking around his round orbs led his interlocutors to the conclusion that something stroke his sharp mind.

"The latest attacks in Egypt and your success in locating the latest signal in…?" He trailed waiting for Sakura to confirm his suspicion, which she did, throwing him a ghost of a side smirk, understanding that he was taking that possibility into account, unlike his reticent atheist of a fiancé.

"Excluding the minor attacks near the Ancient capital of Memphis, the largest attacks, including the last great one was in Giza and not coincidentally, they were all pretty close to the Giza Plateau that is the site of the Great Pyramid."

"Right... indeed, this is a bit too coincidental. So are these two events connected?"

"Of course they are." Sakura mentally sighed, feeling the tension of her CIA comrades escalade and making the air around feel ten times heavier to breathe and the walls were constricting around her.

She was there wasting precious time in explaining things that were impossible to describe, yet she had to go into every possible detail if she wanted to enjoy plausibility. "Have you guys heard about the concept of the transmigration of the soul before?"

"Yeah." Naruto grinner while Hidan and Sasori snorted once and not because he was funny in the way he was basically letting Sakura know that she was on the verge of losing trustworthiness, but because of the grimace that carved Ten Ten`s dumbfounded face and it was priceless. "In Japanese Mangas and SF movies."

"This is not a game of fools, you nitwit." Karin couldn't help but sneer at the blonde Uzumaki before her, who in return, threw her a glance that went along the lines of `dude, seriously?!` but she chose to blatantly ignore him.

Of course, since the auburn haired female was filled in with the outlandish and highly improbable story of Orochimaru and Tsunade`s past experiments, it didn't come as a shocker to her.

But the other occupants of the room who were just as in the shadows as all of them were, it was unadulterated Science Fiction. They should have seen it coming though; if the Lorane chose such a mystical stop as the Ancient Pyramids, then their purpose was whirling around the center of spiritualism.

"This is a myth." Neji flat out told her but his bored tone bore no criticism. He was only the archetype of the oblivious CIA agent, who was willing to accept any theory in lieu to unraveling the secret behind Lorane`s conspiracy and since Sakura was adamant in making a difference between the Lorane and the Freemasonry, then she has probably found a linkage between that concept of reincarnation and their actual purpose. "There is no such thing as transmigration."

"Well damn right it is." Sakura in return, chose to take a quick glance at Karin who was eying her in a weary but determined way, signalizing to her friend that she should continue with revealing such a huge secret.

Since the conditions were so foster, then there was no reasonable and logical need to hide that secret anymore. She had to tell everyone the truth, as outrageous as the prospect was. "There is something you all need to know first, before I proceed with my explanations."

"But first, I would like to start with a question that I have to address to all of you guys , which is going to help you connect the dots and have a deeper understanding of the notions and the connotations of the theories that I will expose to you." Not withstanding to sit anymore, Sakura stood up and started to pace around the room in the same manner as her shishou Tsunade-sama was doing whenever she was in a pinch, nipping on her nail.

All the eyes and ears were following her lithe silhouette, waiting patiently for her to carry on. "Sasuke speaks no more than seven different foreign languages fluently." She started randomly and eyebrows crunched in confusion.

Why was that information so relevant for their case? "This is something I have personally checked. He is versatile in English, Italian, French, Chinese, German, Spanish and even Latin. What does it prove to you?" She whipped her head in the direction of a mass of population who was looking at her in an anxious way.

At first no one spoke a word, but all of the agents were seeking for each other`s eyes, as if inviting and urging someone to say something but nothing came to mind.

Ever since Sakura has stepped into the office, she has been erased everything tangible that they had so far, coming up with her own incredulous outrageous theories about dead people and reincarnation.

It was of course, Hidan the one to roll his orbs at his Sound colleague and opt to cease away the nagging lingering tension that started to weigh heavily on his shoulders and made him quite stiff. Those people were no fun in his opinion. "That he can be elected as the next Pope. Though I doubt it that he's so damn religious."

"Hidan..." Karin narrowed her red wine orbs dangerously to the silvery Hollywood resembling agent, warning him to choose his words carefully before he went on, because they were not in the mood to listen to his buffooneries.

"I am going to fucking kill you with my hairpin." To emphasize her point, Karin slide a concealed hairpin that kept her bangs away off her orbs and Hidan snorted at her choice of weapon – poisoned lethal Japanese weapon – but lifted his hands in surrender.

Suigetsu smirked approvingly at the way Karin has put the male into his place. It was not that he was bothered by Naruto and his outbreaks, but he felt a pang of an unexplainable ridiculous jealousy coming off from the grey haired male`s vibe towards Karin and he didn't like it in the bit. "All of you fucking atheists... will be sorry for being so stupid, you fuckers."

Sakura went on, ignoring the male`s vicious curses, mentally rolling on the floor laughing at the implied love triangle formed between Karin, Hidan and Suigetsu.

Well, it was more like resembling the Bermuda Triangle from the unexpected turbulences that occurred amidst the three aforementioned hot tempered agents, but she put that aside for the moment, carrying on with her explanations. "As I said, Sasuke is smooth and fluent in all these languages."

Damn she truly loathed to do all the explanations for she has never been a smooth talker nor a teacher by default.

But she did her best to maintain the coherence and fluency of her ideas in order to expose the insights of such an intricate phenomenon, since it was dealing with imponderability and intangibility of the concepts and people tended to be reticent when dealing with things that they couldn't see.

It was somehow similar to the way some people decided to be atheists, while the others were avid believers in God, although they couldn't perceive it through their five senses.

"Which are all languages that Lorane uses." Karin tried her best to give her friend a hand and back her up, for she was positive that whatever was spinning into Sakura`s brain, was an amalgamation of immensurable extreme feelings.

She knew that Sakura was most likely finding it hard to maintain an impassive detached façade while talking about Sasuke and if the obvious flickering into the aureate ring around her irises, that was shimmering with an emptiness that even scared Karin, then her subtle shenanigans – the biting of her nail, the wetting of her dry lips and the edginess that she depicted in her hard tone – were all betraying nervousness and impatience; it was the typical restiveness coming from the vehemence of a woman who was impatient to go on a rescue mission to save her Papa and the love of her life. Karin knew.

"Not just Lorane." Sakura turned to assess the look into Neji`s orbs and she was grateful that he was following her, because the others were all nurturing their own versatile emotions, but so far, she wasn't convincing nor was she enlightening them, on the contrary, she was just adding to the already mist that blinded their eyes from the truth. "The Freemasonry also uses all these languages."

Wheels worked in Naruto`s brain, he being one of the few that could follow up the logic of Sakura`s peculiar expressiveness and hardly pretentious way of exposing facts, quickly making the connections ad putting two and two together. "Y-You don't meant that Teme is part o-of the-"

"No, of course not, Jeez." Sakura cut him short, waiving those suspicious away from her speech. "He is not working for Lorane. I told you this is stupid." There was not even a single moment during which Sakura has doubted Sasuke; not even one.

On the contrary, the more her raven haired secret lover was being accused, the more her trust in him was strengthening and intuition was working in perfect harmony with her heart, for the first time in her life, assuring her that she was correct in trusting him with every fiber.

If he was being honest and not in close collaboration with the Lorane, then it must be another form of affiliation to him and that organization and the secret lied in the experiments that Orochimaru has been conducting, so many years ago.

She was sure of it. Now she only had to expose the theory to other shrewd brains and find out about their opinion. She was relying on Neji Hyuga and Suigetsu, counting on their logic to work as flawless as always.

Uchiha Itachi was another safe option, but she found it impossible to get in touch with him and that made her restless. She will dig into that problem later, because Sakura had the suspicion that Lorane was once again involved in the sudden cut off in his signal.

"But the way you say it makes us believe that Sasuke knows the languages that Lorane uses." Ten Ten was fast to react. "In addition to his skill of handling weapons and having Intel and genius, it looks like you are accusing him." Which was true; hadn't they known better, Sakura truly looked like she was accusing Sasuke so far.

Karin only narrowed her wine orbs at her, not saying a thing. She knew better than to jump into conclusions. Whatever Sakura wanted to disclose to them, it was yet to come.

"You don't follow, chikita." Hidan cackled at the chocolate eyed agent, who in return opted to glare at the comical male. "She says that he is not part of the Lorane." The possessor of the sharp scythe grinned at his audience`s flabbergasted expression, when realization hit them hard. "Which means that she is not excluding the possibility of him not being part of something else."

"No..." Suigetsu rubbed his temples that were begin to throb for overusing his brain, feeling the wheels of his mind crack and have a shutdown, of too much information to process. "This is completely and utterly ridiculous.

Even more ridiculous that working for the Lorane assumption." He clearly understood what Sakura was trying to tell, but even if it came from someone as reputed as her, it was too hard to believe.

Karin gawked at the man that has stirred a wave of passion through her entire body with a touch alone, silently letting him know that she was counting on him to be the voice of ration among them and he was beginning to disappoint her. "That isn't a ridiculous assumption. It is the most logical one."

"I am not done." Sakura interrupted her best friend, nipping on her lower lip, before crossing her arms before her chest, eying each and everyone in the room with a serious hard stare. "before you judge, hear what I have to say first."

She made a brief of pause for the effect to let the audience know that she was not there to play. "I told you that you guys need to know something crucial for this last confrontation."

"Yeah. What do you have to spill to us?"

Sakura closed eyes and exhaled, running a hand through her hair and turned her head to gaze through the window and then glanced back to them. "I don't even know how to start." Indeed, because what she had to disclose was something that she personally had troubles in grasping but she had to take the chance. If she wasn't honest with them, then they were lost.

"Papa Oro and Tsunade-sama... have been partners and fellow colleagues in a top secret experiment that CIA has started more than fifty years ago. They developed the initial project which was more of an utopia and lacked solid foundation."

A thick silence enveloped the room as the two preeminent names have been dropped, all processing the information that Sakura has disclosed in a form of a bomb that fell among them. "What kind of experiment?"

A wave of anxiousness crept on Ten Ten`s face and for the first time since they gathered in Suigetsu`s office, her tone trembled like a string, afraid to even ask about whatever was connected to the Sound Leader and his right hand medic and poisons expert, Tsunade.

Suigetsu looked at Karin who had her orbs set on Sakura`s back, finding her suddenly going stiff tensed position to be suspicious and that only confirmed his thoughts.

Whatever the once rose haired agent had to disclose, including the incredible story that she was just exposing, was no new story to her. She knew. Sakura made them choke on their spit with their next sentence. "Human experiments."

It was silence for the next five minutes, before an outbreak burst from the exasperated incredulous agents. "What?!"

"No way, man!"

"I do not believe it. This is absurd. Someone as reputed as Orochimaru-sama and Tsunade-sama cannot be affiliated to something so bizarre and unethical." And not to mention illegal, but Neji felt that his words have stated the point, so stating the obvious was irrelevant. He was confused as in why something like that has been kept occult from them.

"But there is more to the story than this." Suigetsu once again proved that his head was in the game and he was following Sakura`s explanations. She nodded once to him, confirming that unfortunately, the truth was way bloodier and complicated.

"The thing they were experimenting on was not their bodies per se. They were working with their minds and..." She halted for a moment, words abandoning her lips, not knowing how to day it without lacking credibility but there was no other way of saying it better than to slide into supernatural. "Their souls."

Ten Ten shot up like something has electrocuted her, for she was secretly dead scared of witchery and magic in general, after a failed mission from three years ago in Brazil, when she and her team have been prisoners to an occult tribe of Macumba practitioners, that dealt with spirit possession.

"Ok ok this is absurd. This starts to sound like a damn cheap horror movie and we don't have time for this." A firm yet gentle and soothing hold on her forearm beckoned her to sit back down, which she reluctantly did, whisking Neji`s hand away from her body, scowling at him.

"Sir sown and let her finish, Ten Ten. No one here is in the mood for jokes." Neji nodded to Sakura who in return blinked once to him and proceeded. "Please continue."

"Thank you. I know it sound improbable, ridiculous and impossible and trust me, I also had my doubts at first but all the events, as I started to connect the pieces, lead me to believe this. Papa, Tsunade and their small team were working with very special people that CIA had in custody and they never told anyone about what they were doing. Every information was stored in the database and kept under high surveillance in the CIAs archives and Papa's office."

"Information that unfortunately Lorane has now, after their robbed him." Sasori immediately sensed where that was leading, as well as the majority of the people in the room. Slowly but surely, Sakura was designing another pattern to them. Of course, no one liked how it sounded or where those lead.

"Precisely, yes."

"So this is what they wanted to steal from Orochimaru-sama?" Hidan pointed smartly. "But what in the name of Janshin-sama does the Lorane need info about human experiments?"

"It wasn't human experiments what they are interested in, but the information that they have."

"Information?"

"Yes. Papa and Shishou have discovered that there are people among us who seemed to have been... possibly lived other existences in other times at some point of their cycles of reincarnation."

Oh dear Heavens, Sakura couldn't believe that such words were coming out of her mouth. Seriously, even she, wouldn't believe a word of it so she kinda didn't blame it on Ten Ten to be so… atheist. Great, now she turned into a paranoiac non-believer like Hidan.

Another pang of silence has knocked the wind out of their lungs.

"What?!" Naruto found his voice again, having troubles in keeping up with Sakura`s explanations. He was usually the denser one when it came to foreign to him concepts and the Sound was always up to some evil twists, just like now.

"What are you talking about?" Indeed, it was no surprise that the Uzumaki was in the shadows; he couldn't begin to comprehend a single word.

"I want to ask you all this question before I move on." Sakura, who was positive that she wasn't the most fluent and eloquent woman in the world, decided to change her strategy. "Has any of you heard about the transmigration of the soul before?"

Another silence fell among them, which was becoming habitual, and it was as heavy as steel while the widened orbs couldn't follow the pages that the Sound agent was flipping and showing to them. Then until Hidan starts to laugh like a manic on helium, during a trips on narcotics.

"Hahaha, of fuck, this is getting better by the minute. You atheists have no idea how proud Janshin-sama is to hear about this. Yeah you keep on opposing him and ya` will all be cursed to hell. And now it proved that atheists are sentenced to never have a place beside him but wander in this stupid existence over and over again. Ya` are all cursed I`m telling ya-"

Sakura rolled her viridian orbs hard, until they hit the back of her head, which was such a bad idea because adding it to the vertigo in her mind and the sadness and despair that she was trying her best to block because of her Papa and Sasuke`s disappearance, made her even dizzier and her tinnitus only got worse.

Who the fuck has summoned Sasori and Hidan then, again?! She will personally murder Hidan and dispose of his cadaver if he didn't get the message to fucking. Shut. His. Bloody. Mouth!

Karin was the first to react to the laughing fucker, by leaning on Suigetsu`s office desk like a puma, aiming for a heavy big black stapler and promptly aimed at Hidan`s head, hitting him full force.

The impact threw his head backwards and that made the Janshinist practitioner hiss like a venomous cobra and cursing her viciously. "Auch! Bloody bitch! Sei una bestia!"

"I should kill you but you are too stupid to fucking die!"

"Transmigra- transmigration of the... soul?" Meanwhile, Ten Ten and Naruto were both whispering between them, both washed by the same state of reeling in confusion. "Is this how you spell it correctly?

"I did hear about it." Neji casually crossed his arms upon his broad chest, attracting the eyes of his CIA comrades.

His fiancé has invisibly shifted farther from him, as Naruto made the sign of cross with his fingers in his direction, like he was brushing away the evil spirits, making the Hyuga roll his milky eyes, clicking on his tongue at his childish behavior.

"My uncle has an entire shelf in his personal library about karma, the philosophical concept of yin and yang the Hindi and Buddhist philosophy and the topic of reincarnation or transmigration has been mentioned into all of them. Sakura, this is a myth.

It is purely religious and nothing more. It has never been scientifically proved."

Which was, to be honest, freaking scary. And to make it all the worst, he converted his two daughters, Hanabi and Hinata into Tarot and Wicca addicts.

Even though they rarely performed such rituals for entertainment purposes and when they were in a pinch or had hardships, they sucked every horror myths and information about forgotten religions about pagan Gods and witchery.

"Well, in case you haven't realized it by now, sugar," Hidan smirked and leaned forward to mock Neji who flared at the mocking appellative, finding his obvious concern – that he was trying to conceal – absolutely priceless, because who would have guessed that he had such a weakness, the fucker.

"Giving people headaches on command and controlling magnetism has also never been proved by science but it doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. How much of the latest discoveries are made public?" Mouths fell suddenly agape at Hidan's unexpected flow of obvious wisdom.

And their minds went 'What the flying fuck?!' That man was clearly bipolar for he was faking and hiding his intelligence behind the mask of a sadistic manic with the level of intelligence of a snail; which he totally wasn't . Even though he was an insane pervert, he was clearly a genius too.

"I... have never met people like you." Ten Ten shook her head and pointed her finger towards the chuckling silvery haired handsome man, who was visibly ridiculing them for being so dense and shallow. "You're nuts!"

Like… duh! Like that was something new! Insanity`s surname was 'Hidan' in case they haven't noticed, but then again, everyone knew that no member of the Sound was sane on the head.

"You're right." Sakura ignored Ten Ten`s insult, shrugging once like she didn't care. Eyes returned to her delicate form as she went on. "I am not aware of the details myself but it seems like this reincarnation as Neji says or transmigration, is not so utopic and painfully real.

Papa and Tsunade-sama stated that the people detained by the CIA were all transmigrants of past characters who lived in another time, in another existence and somehow, their souls, spirits and karma have traveled through the time and entombed into their future versions. People who will be born at some point in the future. People who will remember their past existence."

No really, she has been studying every material available on the CIA`s database as well as Orochimaru and Tsunade`s books about the concept –well, what was left from it, because Orochimaru has conveniently burned everything down – but there wasn't a single dossier to contain a detailed explanation of the manifestation of the phenomenon, so everything else were random assumptions.

Although… she didn't find it to be coincidental that both Sasuke`s and Orochimaru`s mansions and offices have burned at the approximate same time, but her mind blocked the obvious conclusion – to make her open up her eyes and see that the two of them were associates.

It escaped everyone`s vigilance, because they were all concerned with digging into the core of the problem, looking underneath the underneath, but Kakashi`s words of wisdom bore one single tremendous disadvantage: once looking beyond the horizon, one failed to notice the fact that it was, in reality, not a straight line, but a curvaceous one.

To put it into simple words, they failed to notice the obvious because they were going too deep into details.

And that was exactly the bet that Orochimaru and Sasuke have taken to conceal their affiliation from everyone, Lorane including.

It was so obvious, and yet so improbable to make the connection between the two – since they were both two geniuses with an amazing eye for detail and knowledge about how to flawlessly erase their traces – that it was basically impossible to guess and highly improbable.

"This... this is a joke. This can't be true." Sasori raised his fine eyebrows at Sakura, who in return, had an expression on her beautiful face that bore a rhetorical question.

Did she look like someone who was in the mood for jokes? Why would she crack something so stupefying if she wasn't positive that it was the direction that they should follow?

"In every religion that speaks about reincarnation, all of them state that one is not supposed to remember another of his former lives."

Neji rubbed his chin as Ten Ten muttered a 'freak' to him, as if trying his best to think about the stories that he overheard from Hanabi and Hinata while they were envying their leisure time in the garden, talking about occult practices.

God only knew how it was possible for two educated ladies with their grace to be entertained by something so egregious, but then again, Shikamaru always stated that women were troublesome and impossible to understand.

"Not in this case. It has been probed that one can remember figments, if some certain stimuli are applied on them."

"What kind of stimuli?" Suigetsu inquired and locked gazes with Sakura. Amethyst orbs narrowed slightly as he came to realize the implication of her words. Diamond purple orbs flew wide in trepidation and alarm. "No!"

"Yes. You suspect correctly Suigetsu." Sakura nodded once eying them all explaining for those slower who couldn't keep up with what she was disclosing.

"I am talking about the consumption of certain drugs." Jaws dropped in perfect sync because the moment she dropped that particular details, every single head in the room automatically made the connection. Sasuke was famous for his former drugs addiction and not to mention, the recent incident with his LSD trip when he has been given a small dosage in the club.

"And there is a drug that conveniently triggers memories to a person who has had a certain high dosage, beside synesthesia and some other symptoms. And that is… LSD." Sakura nodded in the direction of the blinking and still gasping people, confirming the obvious. "the same that Sasuke had."

"Oh shit!"

"W-Wait you d-don't think t-that..." It was funny to hear Naruto blabber and gasp like a fish out of the tank as he slurred. "T-Teme has s-something to so with that shit ass e-experiment do you?"

"Not with the experiment per se..."

"Cherry, what is that you suspect? This is absurd. I still can't grasp it myself." Of course that Karin was familiar with the experiments that Tsunade and Orochimaru conducted a long time ago, and she knew the remaining details from Sakura herself, but the link she made to Sasuke and his drug addiction was something new; a conclusion that has bloomed into Sakura`s mind recently if her assumption was correct.

And that surprised her. Did Sakura realize that earlier or was it a hunch that she had in Miyako, probably after brainstorming with Naori Uchiha, who happened to suspect Sasuke of an eventual association to the Lorane?

"You say that these people... transmigrants of some sorts... have past existences that they remember, right?" Neji tried his best to grasp the concept and whirl around the notions that he was faced with, struggling to understand where Sakura was heading with her explanations.

He so so didn't like to think about a possible connection between Sasuke and Orochimaru`s experiments, because it was beyond sick. Sakura on the other hand, nodded in confirmation.

"What is that they remember exactly?" Because he had an inkling that it was the point of the entire story, since the jadeite eyed agent has made it clear that Lorane was not after Sasuke per se, but after something that he had and it was of interest to them, so naturally his shrewd mind has come to the conclusion that Uchiha` mind was filled with precious outré material.

"They weren't just simple people from the past. And this is why they were so dangerous. They are possessors of valuable information, secrets buried under the sand might resurface and unravel deep secrets. Secrets that should never fall on wrong hands. Hands like Lorane."

"Sakura, what happened to those people you have mentioned? Because I might not be an expert but supposing that one would be able to remember a past existence... it can be enough to lock someone in a Mental Hospital. I mean, I don't believe in the afterlife and shit but if someone would tell me that I have lived as a servant somewhere two hundred years ago I will definitely go crack nuts."

"That might be impossible."

"Shut your trap Hidan."

"You are correct. Anyone would go insane. Unfortunately those people have all died. Every single one of them. No one was able to withstand the flow of memories rushing into their brains. They kept on remembering their past lives until their brains exploded."

"Like in a movie of zombies!" Naruto almost made them all go deaf as his piercing shriek has filled the room. Hidan on the other hand has leaned to the blonde and gave him a friendly hi5, already becoming his number one fan.

What was even scarier than having so many crack nuts agents among them, was their potential alliance of buffoons. God may have mercy on them.

"This is not funny, Naruto…" The threat in Karin`s voice has rung around the room as she made the hair at the base of their nape stand alert and erect, cold shivers running down their spines in high alert, because damn… even though the Uzumaki female with her exquisite hairstyle and voluptuous elegant curves and a sharp mouth was naturally coquettish and flirtatious, she was also another severe case of bipolar and when she was angry… Hell broke loose and set its flames upon the mortals and sinners.

She was damn menacing and so was her suddenly husky low soprano voice. Naruto and Hidan both gave her a weary look, shutting up.

Suigetsu on the other hand, felt like banging his head on his damned oak office desk. He was already doing it mentally, because what the flying fuck… all that he could think about when hearing her roar like a feline in that way, was to pin her down and have her hard and raw and screaming his name in the same way that she was snarling at the two idiots.

He definitely needed to get his head checked, because that was so not the moment to get aroused.

But Hell he couldn't help himself, but lust for that woman! Damn her!

"This is ridiculous." Ten Ten erupted like a blazing volcano. "I don't believe a single word of it! This is absurd. There is no such thing as afterlife or past existence, everyone knows." She was just like Hidan always accused them of: an atheist to the core.

Ten Ten was a simple woman with a pretty simple life philosophy so she didn't dig into those sacred spiritual mysteries of life, hence she found the concept of reincarnation to be a joke. They didn't have time for something like that.

What was Sakura doing? Last time she has checked, Athena of the Sound was among the most commonsensical and judicious of all the CIA members, consequently she was the last person in the room to be talking about fairytales.

But there she was exposing things that would only stir roars of laughters if the world wasn't collapsing as they talked.

"Why so skeptical?" Sakura on the other hand, opted to smirk in a totally fashionable way, somehow mocking her as she crossed her arms against her full chest and opted to taunt the chestnut haired agent that was clearly doubting her words.

She didn't blame her for being so balanced, but she inwardly scolded Ten Ten for her narrow horizon. "Have you been there and see for yourself?"

"This is horrible." Sasori found himself mumbling under his breath, intertwining his fingers and bringing his hands on the same level as his auburn orbs, totally ignoring the small bickering of the two women. "To die like this. Those experiments are sickening. I find it hard to believe that such prodigious medics have stepped so low."

"They had no choice." Sakura hissed like a snake to him, slightly angered that he, as a Sound member, chose to blame his Leader and her Papa for something that he believed in with all his might, trying to be of help.

"It was their job. Their responsibility. Don't play the saint here, `cos last time I checked, we were also killing people."

"No, this ain't the same shit." Naruto retorted, grounding Sakura who shifted her hard viridian orbs from Sasori to Naruto and she found nothing suspicious in his attitude, for she knew it all too well that Naruto was loving and caring with the others and hating any form of violence.

"The guys we kill are mobsters, corrupt politicians and serial assassins and not innocent defenseless people."

"We can repent about that later, Naruto. Now let her finish." Suigetsu found his voice again, after counting down to ten, to get the balance of his raging hormones and focus on their topic.

Karin on the other hand has felt the obvious chemical vibrations oozing from the male that she found tempting and, just like the vixen she was, chose to send him subtle messages that she wanted him too, all the while she kept her mind concentrated on what her friend was telling, looking like she could tear her brain in half and have distributive attention.

How was she doing that, was beyond Suigetsu. She was an enigma to him. He didn't get her at all.

"So as I said before, they were being kept under maximum security, guarded day and night and kept under strict observation. Papa and Tsunade-shishou have done their best to help them recover part of those memories without hurting them. It was supposed to be a slow harmless process."

Hidan snorted at that, cackling in that perverted way that made them all slap their foreheads and shake their heads in disbelief.

"Yeah... by drugging their asses with LSD." He couldn't believe how hypocritical that sounded coming from Sakura`s mouth.

"Ya' know Cherry, can I be part of that experiment too if they give me weed for free?" How could they forget that Hidan sometimes entertained himself by getting high and shitfaced, spending his free time being mentally alienated and riding ponies in La La Land?

The glare that Sakura thrown to him could literarily burn his mind.

"And?" Neji`s voice sounded strangled like h was doing his best not to snap at the male, being all impatient and annoyed with all their inutile interruptions. "Were they successful? Did those people remember anything?"

"They not just did remember fugitive unimportant things. The images they had and their tales after were of valuable importance.

During those sessions of therapy, they proved to have been transmigrants of prominent past personalities that influenced and changed the course of history. For instance, one of them claimed to have been… Napoleon Bonaparte."

Snorts and snickers erupted in the room at the drop of the notorious Leader`s name. Naruto leaned towards his right side to whisper to Hidan, but of course, with his boisterous voice and his own concept of being discrete and silent, everybody heard it. "When she gets to Superman or Sir King Arthur, kindly wake me up."

"Napoleon? Are you for real? This is highly improbable. They must have gone crack nuts from the drugs or hallucinating."

"I am afraid that it is not a joke, `Rin. Everything had been done under strict observation in the presence if a team of genius scientists. And the information we found out from them confirms it."

"What kind of information?"

"It is CIA's top secret but I can tell you for sure that the one to be Napoleon's version in our time has designed a complete, detailed and very accurate map of his last battle, the name and the exact location of his right handyman and General's tomb and the place where he hid the money and treasures on Elba Island.

This is information that no one on this planet has. CIA has sent a team to investigate the aforementioned locations and it is all true. The secrets are buried in the Archives of CIA."

"Wow... I'm speechless." And she surely was, because somehow… it was hard to doubt anything at this point and Ten Ten could see it in Sakura`s overtired emerald eyes that she was doing her best to stay sane and not succumb to the temptation of dashing out of that room and search for Sasuke and she understood her.

Had it been her fiancé Neji in that situation, the mocha haired woman was positive that she would have long been insane of despair and gone to his rescue, damn the others to hell and back. Sakura on the other hand was getting extra points for coping so well with that tension.

She didn't want to start to imagine what was in her heart, on the other hand… the amount of fracas that nested inside her constricting chest was unimaginable.

And for that single reason, Sakura has blocked everything out and left a part of her – the only part that was still alive and feeling – in Miyako. She couldn't start a war against Lorane with that version of her dragging her down and making her falter and drift from her purpose.

She simply couldn't. Those two parts of her were antithetical, even though it was that sensitive, caring and loving part of her that it was the real Sakura Haruno, she simply couldn't let it get in her way.

Sakura Haruno wasn't an assassin. She failed to be one single thing, despite all the training she had: blend the two identities in a single soul.

Yes, she polished everything from her character and manners, to the fighting skills and intuition and no one could argue that she held the top of being the best CIA agent from the new generation of agents, but she couldn't give up to her past self.

She wasn't ruthless, even though she could perfectly be Athena of the Sound in the other people`s eyes.

But it wasn't this person the one to fall in love with Sasuke Uchiha. So she had to let her own self in Miyako, with his grandparents and conjure her other identity, in order to save him; save them both and the world.

And that was exactly the reason why the others` mockeries and incredulities were having no effect on her at all. Because as a CIA agent, Sakura didn't give a flying fuck about anyone else, than her purpose. Her mission was the most important thing to her and she could focus to that a hundred percent…

Of course, with the exception of her latest mission that she failed, because she didn't take into account the element of unpredictability that love portrayed, as being able to fully penetrate and pulverize any masks, until it reached to the essence of a person and bring her feelings to the light, making her fall in love with the Uchiha.

"Not so secret anymore, I suppose." Karin combed her unruly spiky fire locks backwards, stating casually.

"Lorane had killed the Head and had probably got his hands on those documents." And the unexpected and shocking death of the Leader of the CIA himself has thrown the entire organization into havoc.

Basically, CIA was no more. The two main Offices have lost their Heads, since Tobirama and Orochimaru were both missing and there was no one to supervise the trainees and guard the Archives and the basements with weapons and technology.

The remaining CIAs that were still pretty much firm on their position and ready to strike, were amassed in Suigetsu's office. And all of them were sound and alert of that painful truth: that they were the last men standing.

"Including every single detail of the research and the result of the experiments from the Otokage's office. How convenient."

"They didn't waste time wandering in complete blindness. They knew exactly what to look for." That much was obvious and Sakura didn't need to underline it but she did it anyhow. And that was leading her back to another question that bothered both her and Sasuke, though she was positive that the raven haired male was hiding something – among other things – from her: he probably knew who was spying on him and she was ready to bet that it was the same spy or spies the ones to infiltrate the CIA and rob Orochimaru and break into the Akatsuki`s secret weapons base.

She discreetly let her forest-green keen orbs travel around the room and somehow study each one of them, pursing her lips. To think that it could be one of these people the one to be a traitor… because Sasuke himself hasn't, in fact, excluded anyone of them.

Not even Naruto – his best friend.

Damn it. Paranoia has not even once left her body and if anyone thought that Sakura has let her guard down even for a moment, they were highly mistaken her for someone else.

She was done being careless and imperceptive around Lorane and that was the reason why she had to be backed up by Sasuke himself to come to her rescue and almost expose her identity before him. But she was done playing that game.

"You mean... Lorane is interested in those people... ghosts, possessed or transmigrants or whatever and the information we collected from them, right?"

"It does make sense. Lorane is insane. Who knows on what ancient treasure they have set their minds on?"

"We have to understand their motives and what their target is." Karin`s brain was working as a train, quickly catching up with what Sakura was disclosing and if she added that to her suspicion on Sasuke – though if she was to be honest, she started to have her doubts seeing that Sakura was so firm in defending him and she trusted her sister`s intuition – some plans and conclusions for already taking form in her astute mind. "It could be anything."

"I doubt it that they seek information about rotten Army Generals and some gold hidden under a deep river or what famous King has cheated on his wife and had bastard kids to claim the throne."

Of course, because if it was Lorane the one they were talking about –the organization that wanted to dominate the World – then it was crystal clear that they were in search of military information.

"You are underestimating the mysteries buried into the sand of history." Sakura attracted all eyes. She placed the singular copy of Sasuke`s formulas on the glassy table. "Remember how brilliant and glorious were the Ancient Empires and how genial and advanced their knowledge was?"

"Is this..."

"Yes. Sasuke's drawings from the LSD trip. Naori and I have managed to decipher half of them, though the majority of them are still unclear to us, because they don't quite resemble the pattern, but we know for a fact that they are neatly written so naturally they were probably designed by an educate person who knew how to write."

Which was basically implying that it was a scribe, because only them were allowed to learn how to write and read hieroglyphs, but then again, it doesn't explain how come he knew of such things about the Great Pyramid.

There were small details that didn't connect, when compared to the social structure and culture of Ancient Egypt and that puzzled Sakura. "But I know for a fact that Papa Oro had an expert to look at them. I suspect it is Kabuto Yakushi from London's International Museum of History and an Associate Professor at Cambridge University."

"Is that man good at deciphering hieroglyphs? Is this... Algebra? The fuck? I thought Teme was a busy businessman." The look on Naruto`s orbs when gazing at the weird scribbles told him that he definitely wasn't the reincarnate of any genius. Ten Ten snorted rudely at his dumb expression, shaking her head.

That was beside the point. Sasuke long proved it to them that he was not your ordinary boring businessman with a life indulged into a boring routine.

"His doctorate thesis was about Ancient Egypt which is highly convenient. Papa trusts him. He is affiliated to CIA and FBI and a notorious expert."

"Why are we interested in Sasuke's moment of discovering his genius in Math or… history?"

"Think about it, Hidan. Where was the last Lorane attack and where is our signal pointing their current location?"

"Egypt." Neji answered her question, quickly catching up to where her hints were pointing. Although there was enough incredulousness into her words, Sakura has magically managed to find a sense into that mess. She was amazing.

Jadeite orbs blinked once in confirmation. "Yes. And what if I tell you that these hieroglyphs and the Algebra formulas..." At this, her smirk has turned elfin. "Are the complete accurate geometric formulas used in the plans of the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza which is coincidentally enough situated in Egypt, very close to where Lorane's signal lead us to?"

They didn't need to dig into the story themselves; because Sakura has spent many sleepless nights to compare the results with what Papa Oro has been emailing to her when Sasuke wasn't home, so she studied everything about the Great Pyramid of Khufu, having enough experience and information to know the speculations circulating around, including the suppositions about the perfect geometry on the construction and the possibility of it being a calendar that was oriented to certain constellations that Egyptians were praying to.

Basically, it was one giant doorway and pathway to the After Life, considering the fact that Egyptians believed in the concept of immortality and reincarnation, so they were avid believers of the embodiment of their Gods into their Pharaohs, who, after being mummified, used the Pyramids as pathways to take them to their legitimate place in Paradise and guard their people from above.

Egyptians were famous for their astonishing genius and advanced Math acknowledge and their accuracy of the measurements when building the Pyramid and the orientation of it, including the hypothesis of how they knew about the approximate distance between the Earth and the Moon. And that has been Sakura`s research material for the past few weeks.

She couldn't deny her astonishment: Sasuke`s formulas were matching the ones used to the building of the Great Pyramid, that was their object of interest and Lorane`s possible target.

Mouths dropped to the ground, catching flies.

"Holly shit..."

"You can't... can it be..."

"Damn that fucker..." Hidan racked a hand through his hair, sliding his gel spikes backwards, shaking his head, chuckling darkly. That was too fucked up, even for someone like him. Of course, he too understood what Sakura meant by that, but seriously… Ancient Egypt`s rituals? The mystery of the Great Pyramid`s construction? Sasuke`s connection to a civilization that was once at its swell of wealth and glory?

"What is the real connection between all this mess and Sasuke, Cherry?" Karin spoke for everyone in the room when asking her Sound sister about the obvious; what they all needed and longed to know because once they found out about what the link between Sasuke and the Grand Pyramid was, then they could decipher and depict Lorane`s purpose from there. Simple as that, yet way too convoluted. "Because everything we have on him, the lingering mistrust and suspicion... where does it take us to?"

Neji and Suigetsu smartly shut their mouths, refraining from throwing any wild guesses, because they suspected it, but it was too outrageous to voice it out loud, without sounding demented. It was whirling around their heads, but they simply didn't want to be the ones to state it.

Truth was… they still had that element of suspicion buzzing into their minds, that told them to open up their orbs to a new world of possibilities, yet, never fail to remain rational and level headed.

"Sasuke has information that Lorane wants about the Great Pyramid. Information that not even I know what is it about."

"And why does Sasuke have such information ?" Suigetsu was the first one to find his words. The others were still processing the things that were tingling their eardrums, aware that they should make supplementary efforts to grasp their minds around something so outrageous, since it was very difficult to imagine someone so down to earth and anchored into this reality – as Uchiha Sasuke – getting tangled into something so atypical.

"I might not be an expert but this is something that you won't find it any Library from the world. No one has the precise plans of the Great Pyramid of Khufu. It is a mystery that stands the test of time and technology."

He was correct and Sakura knew it as well. And that smart line that came out of Suigetsu`s lips lead Sakura to the crucial point of her closure; the one that she avoided to talk about because fuck… there was no way in Hell that she could say that without sounding schizophrenic and the edginess in her reticence was only doubled by the sudden stir of her shoulders.

The so called Athena of the Sound went absolutely silent as a nervous hand slicked through her chocolate – caramel locks, setting her stare down to her chest. No one spoke a word during which the silence has escalated to the point where it became impossible to breathe and it was suffocating.

Tensed orbs were all latched to Sakura`s unresponsive visage, though they knew that she wasn't trying to ravel her thoughts, from them on the contrary, she was most likely pondering over her choice of words; proper words to give credibility to her assumptions.

But nonetheless, to have her whispered her next words filled their hearts with shock up to the hilt.

"This is purely an assumption of mine based on everything I gathered so far so feel free to doubt it," When she elevated her sparkling jadeite orbs, she stole their breaths away with the tumult of amassed emotions that flickered into them and for the first time since she has set her first steps into the room, she felt more human.

"But I think that Sasuke... is the Pharaoh's transmigrant. The one whose Pyramid… has become one of the Seven World Wonders."

Somehow, even if she tried her best to remain imperceptible, Sakura simply couldn't mutter his name – Khufu or Cheops – just as the Pyramid`s Ancient Name suggests - Khufu's Horizon.

To attach Sasuke`s name to someone who has been the... no, it was simply too much even to Someone as open minded as Sakura.

And if it was something palpable that could wrap her mind around the two personalities that were separated by more than 4400 years, it was a striking resemblance between Sasuke and a Pharaoh and that was aristocracy.

Because no matter from what angle would one look at Uchiha Sasuke, anyone would see one thing that stands out from the others, sizzling as a bonfire in a temple: the regal features that somehow would make her thoughts drift to a possible resemblance with a past Leader or a reputed personality.

Silence.

For five good minutes passing from Sakura`s last words, no one poke a word. Absolutely no one. And their composure – shock till the core – was only doubled by the gasping mouths, dropped jaws, cold sweat and widened orbs. Sakura felt like in a show with an alien invasions at its climax.

The agents around her were having the look of an audience during a 3D cinema show. Hadn't the context been so tremendous, she would have been down the floor rolling in laughter because they were comical and ridiculous.

Then they all did something very unexpected: they burst out in a hysterical laughter.

Yes, including Neji and Suigetsu and God only knew that no one would see a Hyuga in hysterics on daily basis. They gave the Uchiha`s stoicism a run for its money.

"W-What?!" Naruto brushed his tears that were spilling from his orbs, barely preventing himself from biting the tip of his tongue at the way he was hollering.

Never in his life has he heard such an absurd and ridiculous assumption about his raven haired friend, and suddenly all the hysteric theories about him being asexual or gay in his childhood days, or even possessed by the Devil were child`s play compared to what Sakura has just said about him.

Say WHAT?!

"This is the craziest thing that I have ever heard in my entire life!" And giving the fact that it was Ten Ten the one to state it and she was highly sadistic and had her fair share of mission experience –CIA experience – that was speaking volumes but damn… it was even more improbable than the Wicca rituals that she witnessed.

"My dear Cherry blossom…" Hidan was having his head cocked on his side, resting his cheek on his scythe's blade, roaring like a jet. "I think that he might have fucked you too hard because you lost your goddamn mind."

He cracked at his own corny joke and turned on his side to roll on his armchair, laughing his ass out loud and somehow, that imbecile statement only stirred more hordes of laughter among his CIA colleagues.

"Uchiha is the..." Ten Ten was hitting her fiancé`s shoulder, as Neji was doing his best not to look ridiculous because he was being seen laughing and even though he kind of expecting Sakura to say something unimaginable with a hint of outlandish, it even beat his own concept of outré by far. "...the reincarnation of a... thousands years relic mummy..." She couldn't find her voice again because the tears were overwhelming her.

That was… PRICELESS! For Sakura to stat e that her missing onyx eyed Uchiha love was a transmigrant of a Pharaoh, was the same as saying that he was Batman of the Gotham, not to mention, even less credible than that.

Sakura was unperturbed by their reaction; it was an anticipated reaction so she calmly let her orbs travel and linger to all of them studying how shock had blocked their minds and triggered another defensive reaction; she knew they had to pass that stage before their logic will take over and put the pieces together.

The only one who was stern serious scrutinizing and calculating was her best friend Karin. No, the only Uzumaki female of the team was anything but laughing.

She mentally flipped her stance to face Suigetsu as she was casually leaning against his office desk and spelled his nape hard until his body jerked forward and he hit his laptop with his forehead.

That successfully silenced him and now he was busy being engaged into an intense battle of stares with the only woman who made his mind and body go insane with wanton need, but in that moment, he loathed her as much as he loathed his friends' hysterical laughters. Was that amusement or a painful sarcastic dread?

"Seriously, and here I thought that we cannot be anymore derisive, but you my dear..." Ten Ten amused look stopped to linger on Sakura who was looking at them with that peculiar porcelain façade that left everyone in sheer wonder; there was no gesture sketched across her beautiful visage. "Have beaten all the records."

"Sasuke-Teme cannot be anyone' s reincarnation or transmigrant or whatever the fuck you call it, simply because in all the history of the mankind, there was no one else as stuck up and brooding as he is. He is unique in being a stuck-up bloody prick!"

That insult has thrown the entire room into a fit of crisis of laughter, being more fruitions and malignant than Hidan`s statement.

"Call me when you are done with acting like a bunch of feeble-minded people on sugar high so we can carry on with our business." Sakura casually stated, betraying nothing from her flat voice, since it bore no waver or a tremble, simply standing up to let her shadow mold across the room until it reached the exit door.

She did her job: she has been honest to her CIA colleagues; she told them the truth – her version of the truth and all the secret information that she knew about Orochimaru, Tsunade and the transmigrants.

It was time to get the heck away from here. If her colleagues were being in denial, then she could handle the matters alone and go to Egypt to hunt Lorane down all alone; she has always been alone. She could only count on herself like always.

She didn't need their distraction; she couldn't sway from her scope and the chartreuse-golden eyed woman was precise that her suppositions were accurate, as ridiculous as it sounded.

"W-Wait Sakura-chan..." Naruto was fast into getting into his senses, somehow, being able to pierce through the cobblestone façade of the emerald eyed woman, seeing her aura of disappointment at their childish behavior.

"Don`t go... I am sorry... it just... this is a bomb. Truth is... this has totally shocked me." She turned around to peek at the blond, giving him credit for the obvious efforts that he was putting into calming up his trembling amused body.

"This is ridiculous. There is no way in Hell anyone will ever believe such a SF story!" Ten Ten, just like the others who seemed to be struck by lightning and were fast to recover from their roars of laughter, has realized that Sakura wasn't playing with them and she was having no problems in taking the matter into her own hands and deal with the problem alone.

She did what was right, namely told them the truth and sought for cooperation but she will never force them into following her. Sakura was not a Leader by any means.

She was a shadow; fire and water combined in the form of an exquisite woman and a splendid agent. She didn't demand for anyone to follow her; she worked alone.

"Look… I am not trying to persuade you into believing my words. I am just stating my point of view and present you all the evidence I have. It is your choice to believe me or not. It is not that I need any of your help to follow this path I have found."

Hands down her hips emphasized her firm demeanor, as she eyed everyone of them, resolution sizzling into her emerald eyes. She was sincere to the bones with her colleagues. "Because I am sure that it will lead me to Lorane."

"Wait there sweetie," Suigetsu rose from his seat, encircling his office desk to come in front of Sakura, who spat him a doom flare for the choice of vulgar words. "We are a here to cooperate and not to take the justice into our hands and get our fingers burned by Lorane. The lives of many depend on a fruitions collaboration."

"Wow shark-boy," Karin snarled at him, her mocking tone being absolutely obvious and it was clear that she was barely preventing herself from slapping his nape.

"This is the most intelligent phrase you have ever said. I applaud you for the genius." Of course, it wasn't like they have done too much talking when they had their little get-together…

He sighed heavily at the ruby eyed woman, putting every figment of his exasperation into that prolonged moan, and the fact that he wasn't biting back to her, was because she meant something to him, so she racking a hand through his aquamarine silver spikes, calming himself.

He wasn't in the mood to quarrel with her. The sexual tension and frustration will only get to angry sex and it was not supposed to be contemplating positions to stretch and bent her to do her, damn it. She drove him insane with a simple flicker of her impish eyes alone. She was the Devil's offspring.

"Karin... we all understand that you are quite tensed," He taunted her and she fumed at the obvious innuendo. "But… for the love of God, cut it with the acerbic remarks. We are here to solve this riddle not to create more mess."

"O-ho, a lovers' fight." Hidan applauded dramatically like the clown he was, mocking the pair to no end, sinking into the armchair and throwing his legs on the coffee table, near Sakura`s files and the assassin shot him a glare for the impertinence.

"I say... how about you two birdies solve your skimpy problems in some other places, while us," He virtually crayoned the sign of a semi-circle, with his fingers in the air, pointing to all of them, minus Karin and Suigetsu, cackling. "Will handle this as the responsible adults that we are. Watcha` say?"

Before Suigetsu stomped to pummel the jaw of Hidan until he saw purple, Karin spat to him like a Boa snake, reading herself to launch at the male and snap his neck. "I say Hidan... that you should collect your stinky miserable self out of here and go fuck yourself before I incinerate you, you despicable pathetic sadistic asshole!"

"Stop it right there!" Ten Ten rose as Naruto also stood up, sensing the escalating tension. "Don't you dare turn this gathering into a fiasco. We are here to find what happened to Itachi and the world Leaders and not to get emotional over personal problems. So… for fuck's sake, behave yourselves!"

"We're wasting precious time." Sakura interjected into their quarrel for the millionth time, but she did nothing to hide her exasperation, `cos unlike all of the people present in the room, she didn't give a shit about what they thought about her.

"If you want to help me, then say so, but if you don't, then kindly stop holding me back further. Ain't no time for shit. There..." She pointed to the buzzing empty screen that spoke the menacing truth about the ended connection to their Leaders from the Summit and that slap against their cheeks has warned them about the crazy dramatic situation that they found themselves into. "are people that I love."

She silenced all with that unforeseen outbreak of tumultuous feelings, that burst straight from her chest, where a heart shaped organ was ticking mechanically like a clock that refused to think, only worked on autopilot and ticked and counted the moments of eternity. Something snapped within their cheats upon hearing the Athena of the Sound unbind such a delicate display of murmuring emotions, genuinely say such things, so ardently, like imploring - almost begging them - not to turn their heads on her and get united.

"And I am not willing to permit those cursed imbeciles to make a fool of us and ruin everything we have managed to accomplish so far."

They won't take Sasuke's love away from my life.

She was smart and that made Karin both conceal a smirk and feel pang on her chest at her friend`s ultimate resort: that was Sakura speaking; the delicate blossom who was just as desperate to save the world, the Presidents, her Papa and… Sasuke as the rest of them.

And that stirred approving nods and smiles from the audience.

"Sasuke... Is the reincarnation of the Pharaoh according to the data we have so far, and whether you like it or not, this is true and Lorane knows it as well. So instead of uselessly debate whether this is fiction or fact," Her slender fingers curled in the form of a fist as her hands were lolling on her sides, clenching her jaw.

She already let too many emotions to ooze from her, but she couldn't help herself. Her love for Uchiha and her worry for her paternal figure, Orochimaru, has always broken the barriers between Athena and her real self.

They were the only people that could bring her inner self back to life, from where it resided- in the depths of her mind. "Let us be for once in our lives be one step ahead and not grant them this sadistic pleasure of doing the victory dance right under our noses."

Silence.

"I state my point that this whole absurd supposi –"

"Let's assume that this is more than a fabulous tale and it is true." Neji rose from his seat, sliding his hands into his pockets, eying Sakura with a serious look on his face; it was not that he has ever doubted her words, but more of a flinch at the light atmosphere from earlier, but he knew about the gravity of the situation.

He will definitely stand beside her and help, because cooperation, fraternity and their bonds were crucial in their clash with the Lorane. "How do we link all the information that we have so far?"

"Without the help of stellar experts, then there is no way that we can decrypt this." Suigetsu encircled his office desk, ramming his hands through his hair that was getting messier and messier by the minute, but he couldn't help himself but slide the tip of his fingertips along the waistband of Karin`s slender waist, as the wicked vixen was wearing a short top, sending an electrical jolt of tickles and shivers along her skin, on purpose, but he played it cool and has been discreet.

The side smirk that fell across his lips when he felt her suck on air at the lithe contact, inflated his manly ego to the max, as he stroll to the table on the middle of the room to rack his hands through the files that Sakura has disclosed to them, studying them intently as his amethyst orbs were focused, calculating, planning and sketching, taking one at random. "And without understanding the meaning of all these hieroglyphs, then there is no way we can see underneath Lorane's motives."

"We need a brilliant Egyptologist who can decipher this writings." No one argued with Sasori`s note, because he was right. There was no way in Hell that any of them – or all of them – were able to grasp the real meaning behind those riddles.

And without taking a glance into the true meaning of those letters carved in stone, then their enigma will just deepen by the minute.

And Lorane was taking full advantage of the passing time; time that was passing into their favor. Time that they should not waste anymore because the flow of the moments, even a simple blink of an eye, can be very versatile; it could embody either a weapon or a valuable ally.

"What about that dude that our Snake Man Otokage hired to help him translate it?" Hidan side smirked at the mention of the mysterious reputed Professor`s name. "That Yakushi... Kabuki."

"Kabuto." Sakura corrected, albeit she knew it all too well that Hidan has mocked that character, laughing at his weird name. "I tried to get in touch with him in vain. I only got his voice mail. It`s crystal clear that he will hide for safety reasons."

Of course, just like Juugo, Sasuke`s loyal secretary`, went MIA for similar reasons, because his office was just as deserted as his boss`.

"Something is not right." Karin pointed her index under her chin, frowning like she was trying her best to connect the dots. "Why do I get this shaky feeling that we miss something huge and of a tremendous importance from the equation?"

"Like what?" Ten Ten inquired to the red haired woman, who proved to be more than an expert in being sensual and sultry dressed. She was smart, that much was obvious. And her intuition was just as accurate as any other Sound member`s.

"Orochimaru-sama deciphered the hieroglyphs with the help of an expert." It came more like a question than a statement. Sakura nodded once to her, confirming and clearing any suspicion. "And now he is gone, just like the very same expert who went MIA on us." Again a course of nods in conformation strengthened her statement, like they were agreeing on the evidences.

"Most probably he has been kidnapped by Lorane for the information about both the writings and the experiments." It did make sense for someone like Neji.

Karin smirked in a peculiar elfin manner, to the milky eyed Hyuga, like she felt really victorious by having a hunch. "What if he was not kidnapped?"

Talking about Orochimaru, Karin couldn't brush her unsettling feeling off: that there was much more to him, than a mere kidnapping. Orochimaru is a genius in all the plenitude of the term and the concept.

He did everything based on intuition, planning, logic and strategy and that was the reason why he never failed. He was right on Lorane`s tail, following them, trying to anticipate every step they took.

And now, when he was one step ahead for deciphering the enigma that rooted behind their motives, he goes missing. Something was fishy and Karin could smell the reek of the fiasco from miles away, like rotten fish.

There is no way in hell that she will believe in Orochimaru`s kidnapping; he was far too smart for letting himself be caged by someone like Lorane.

"What do you mean, Rin?" Sakura approached her friend. "Do you think that Papa has taken the matter into his capable hands and went after Lorane alone?"

"Yeah, that's the main idea. A man like Orochimaru-sama doesn't just get abducted by his mortal enemies and vanish without a trace or without sending any warning messages."

"Even if we take this new assumption into consideration..." Suigetsu spoke up besting Sasori to it but instead of cursing him like Hidan, the red haired senior in the Sound politely allowed him to finish. "It is unlikely that he went all alone.

This ain't some stupid game of fools and self-proclaimed heroes. A mission of a such importance is too delicate to be handled so carelessly and superficially." Which was a sum of traits that weren't describing an archetype of perfection and meticulous schemer like Orochimaru.

"He could have taken Sound agents with him for all we know." Ten Ten suggested taking a guess. Honestly, she too took that into consideration. Maybe the Sound Leader has found a way to send a secret message to his remaining Sound agents, taking the trainees and rookies with him to entrap Lorane.

That could be a strong possibility and it was a thing that bloomed into everyone` s mind. What if Orochimaru decided to take the matters into his hands and go hunt Lorane down all by himself? Maybe even attempting to join Tobirama and Itachi, or fake their disappearance in order to have the element of surprise and an upper hand against Lorane.

Sakura narrowed her orbs at them, but her stare wasn't resentful nor was she condemning them for thinking like this. In such, a mission he would have taken the best. And the best of the best were all amassed in that room.

If there was someone who knew about Orochimaru and the meticulous way he preferred to handle his matters, it was Sakura – his favorite protégée and his virtual daughter.

She knew about his strategically thinking and the emerald eyed woman and that was why she was so positive over two facts: Papa Oro didn't conjured a horde of newbie CIA – Sound agents to help him into taking down Lorane because he would have walked straight to his doom and secondly… supposing that he indeed went after Lorane, dashing out of his office room to Egypt, having the hieroglyphs deciphered, consequently, finding out about their plan and connecting the dots, he didn't go alone.

So the next question aroused into Sakura`s intuitive mind: who was accompanying Orochimaru?

"I remain committed to the idea that he has been kidnapped. Hack, they got Leader-sama and Tobirama-sama along with the world leaders with a single attack and pulverized our security system. It was child's play to abduct the Otokage."

Was it really?

"That is another possibility. With all the technology that Lorane stole from us, it wouldn't come as a shocker to sneak unnoticed and trap us." Neji tried to find an implacable logic to those new suppositions, he too finding it hard to grasp that Orochimaru hasn't found a way to let at least any of his capable agents – like Sakura – know of his whereabouts, or inform Tsunade about his plans.

"You have to agree that this whole shit is SF."

"That' s Lorane for ya` Naruto."

"So what comes now?" Ten Ten shot impatiently. She didn't want to march in Egypt without a strategy, but she too was positive that they were all wasting precious time and that was a luxury that they couldn't afford.

"We have various theories that are one crazier than the other. Point is... we are still here while Lorane does God only knows what demented plan they concocted, and our Leaders, along with the Presidents are all gone." A short silence fell among them, until Ten Ten voiced again. "You think that... Lorane killed the World Leaders already?"

Because taking the lives of the most prominent figures around the world – the stellar symbols of democracy and security – will throw the world into chaos. People will panic and rebel; insurgent gangs will try to oppress them and oppose to the current dominance and Lorane will be just there to turn the entire world into their personal playground to do as they please.

And that will be equivalent to the modern concept of the End of the World as they knew it.

One thing was sound and clear into their minds: no matter the price, they must STOP Lorane. Even at the price of their own lives in exchange.

"No. That's highly improbable. Like all the insane villains they want the strongest people alive to be present when they take over the world."

Naruto grounded Suigetsu, finding his logic to be fluent and cohesive. In all honesty, that was a side of their common shark faced friend that the blond has never seen before; of course, it wasn't like they were talking about their secret identities while they hit the clubs to get high and shitfaced. "I agree."

"Whatever Lorane plans to do, we cannot jump into the fray head first, completely unprepared. We know nothing about what they are scheming. Facing them the way we are now, means certain suicide."

Sakura brushed a hand through her hair, peeping through the window. There was an unsettling outré feeling lingering into the air, although the citizens of the bustling streets were oblivious to the danger that lurked from the shadows.

"But we cannot stay here arms crossed and let them go on with their devious plans. We must all agree on one of our assumptions."

"I think that we should dig into this story." Suigetsu mumbled as he was studying the files before them like he was trying to find something underneath. Karin joined him into his research, but the amethyst eyed Interpol Officer wasn't sure whether she did it on purpose to pick on him, or not .

"I feel that our answers are halfway elucidated by this... illegible hieroglyphs and theorems." He narrowed his orbs at the writings before him, like trying to see another meaning to them. "The Theorem of Pythagoras... complete proving."

Sakura filled him about the things that has found out about Sasuke`s out body experience "Like it has been demonstrated and written more than 4000 years ago." No matter how advanced the technology was, no one has managed to find the complete Math algorithms behind the construction of the Great Pyramid. Heck, not even the time when it was build was precise to the historians, so everything was still veiled in a dense mystery.

But the CIA members were not relic hunters who dedicated their entire life for the sole purpose of research, no, they were agents on a crucial mission so it was vital for them to decipher those hieroglyphs and understand the manner of thinking in Ancient Egypt; A glorious civilization that resided thousands of years ago. To them, it was as good as impossible.

"Wait, wait, wait..." Ten Ten mumbled as she waved her palms in front of her, in a manner that clearly betrayed the fact that something into that explanation wasn't making much sense.

"There is something I simply don't get. What do you mean by how it had been proved 4000 years ago? Even I know that Pythagoras was born much later than the Egyptians." Which has been one of the things that haunted the experts for a long time.

"True, but the Egyptians were the first to use the Theorem in their plans for the Great Pyramid long before it had been re-discovered by Pythagoras. Historians and Mathematicians have proved the fact. The entire construction of the Pyramid of Giza is based on the Theorem of Pythagoras." It was a fact and also one of the wonders that harbored into the enigma that was the construction of that World Wonder.

It is a paradox that Pythagoras only managed to `discover` a formula that has already been used by the Egyptians in the planes of the Pyramids they built and that was fascinating by default.

"So... Pythagoras has stolen the formula from the Egyptians?"

Naruto couldn't help himself. "We shall sue him for copyright." They all snorted at that, minus Sakura and Suigetsu. "How nasty of him."

"Probably not stolen, but more likely he 'discovered' it without knowing that someone else did it first, long time before he was born. Remember, the construction of Pyramids is still veiled in mystery. Only in the last decades scientists and archeologists found out about the ancestral and occult enigmas of the Great Pyramid."

"And why would Sasuke-Teme write those formulas on his freaking walls? Is he the reincarnation of Pythagoras? I thought that you said that he was the Pharaoh or something like that… Ku… Khufu!"

Naruto had his moments of being insightful, while Suigetsu projected a panoramic picture of the said complex of pyramids on the giant flat screen that slide from one of the walls.

Silence fell across the room as the picture of the monument revealed in all its splendor, being an animated 3D projection and flashing before them in all its mocking glory, screaming into their faces a haunting mystery.

It was a grandiose solemn photo with a great implication. They let their assumptions sink in and rise their alertness of how huge that mystery truly was.

"It is not about what I think here, Naruto-kun. It's about drawing some logical conclusions, based on the facts and the proofs we have. And they all lead me to this conclusion."

"Are you sure that this is all about the Great Pyramid of Khufu? There are three major Pyramids in Saqqara. What about the others?" Karin knew it all too well that there were two more Pyramids built in the same complex, though the Great Pyramid was the biggest.

They didn't even know if there was any connection between the other two. There were pictures from the King`s Chamber projected on the screen as ruby orbs followed them intently.

Those hieroglyphs couldn't be from any room and they could represent many things. A buried treasure. A prayer. An incantation for rebirth and passing into the Afterlife. Or the list of the Pharaoh's wives or concubines. Who knew?

"The others are insignificant in comparison. Lorane would go for the biggest fish in the tank. If there is something occult about the Pyramids that they want to fructify, then it would be definitely the Pyramid of Khufu." Neji was having the same suspicions as Sakura.

Though there was also something that still puzzled him. The only ones that knew how to write hieroglyphs were the scribes and the medic females, but they were rare. Then why was Sakura thinking about Sasuke as the Pharaoh?

As far as he knew, not even the Pharaoh himself knew how to write hieroglyphs. He had scribes in his service among the nobility from his entourage.

Could he be –

Sakura backed him up. "Neji is right. I personally compared the hieroglyphs to the information from the world's database from the most famous Libraries and they match perfectly. They are from the Great Pyramid including the measurements from the base of the triangle and position. The Pyramid is oriented after certain constellations and I feel that this isn't coincidentally."

From her resolute way of conducting her speech, the jadeite eyed girl was not dwelling too much into that matter like she was firm on her position. Did she know something that Neji didn't?

If Sasuke was just one of the Pharaoh's scribes and not the Pharaoh himself, then it was somehow natural for the Egyptians to leave records of the construction of the Pyramid.

Maybe he had the knowledge of the location of the papyrus scrolls that were inscribed in hieroglyphs and Lorane might just be after those scrolls.

There were so many things that they didn't know, so they will have to stick to what they had so far.

"I still don't get it." Sasori beat Ten Ten into stating the obvious. "Why would Lorane be obsessed with this Pyramid? Because if odds are so, then it would explain their infatuation with Uchiha Sasuke and why they never killed him. They wanted him alive for these writings that he wrote. For information."

Another good point. "So Lorane already knew that Sasuke was like those people from the experiment?"

Funny was that everybody refrained from saying `part` of that experiment because if they did, then logic would have led them to another big enigma: Sasuke`s connection to Orochimaru.

"Probably not from the start. My guesses are that they found out along the lines."

"How?" Karin pressed and Suigetsu beside her rolled his orbs at her insistence. He knew how stubborn he was. He found out along the lines as he was fucking her brutally, but with much passion: that woman wouldn't set with any less than everything that one had to offer she wanted it all, even if it was physical or spiritual.

Even knowledge. She had to know everything in order to be always in control and somehow, that attitude helped her be so successful in her mission and develop her skills as a prudent agent. She had a big brain that she liked to use. "Unless Sasuke was part of the experiment, then Lorane has no other way to reach that conclusion."

It was now when Suigetsu smirked proudly at the woman that caught his eyes and he didn't bother to be discrete and hide it. Bingo! He was somehow starting to get suspicious over that fact, but Karin was blunter and faster than him.

"Nah, that can't be." Naruto shot immediately, acting like the voice of reason of the `non-believers` group.

Even though the dobe was entrapped into his own words of unicorns and acted like a crazy man, he was quite down to earth when it came to remain serious and sober, hardly being the one to believe in science fiction. "Bastard doesn't know Orochimaru or Tsunade, so that`s impossible."

"Yeah, true."

"What if they had a voyeur? What if it`s the same person who robbed him and the CIA for information?"

"Sasuke always supposed that there was a spy keeping a close eye on him and even went as far as to suspect that..." Sakura threw a weary glance at them, implicitly answering to Neji`s question. "It's one of us." Sasuke didn't hide that thing from her: the fact that he suspected anyone around him to be a double agent for Lorane.

Nor did he exclude anyone… with the exception of her and that unsettled Sakura and made her shaky and anxious. Why not? She met all the requirements to be a backstabber. The fact that she was too obvious? Her honesty?

Her feelings?

Why didn't he care about who she was? Because of who HE was? WHO was he then?

She had the answer in her heart: it was because he loved her and he felt that she loved him too, the thing to assure him that no matter who she was, he could trust her around him unconditionally.

Their feelings transpired and broke any barrier, pulverizing the intrigues that stood between them. They stepped on mysteries and lies and overcame them with their love for each other. It was like he only trusted her and mistrusted the others.

What if he has been right? What if there was indeed someone in the room the one to send the information to Lorane? What if they were doing that now too, having cameras concealed in their clothes, or microphones and their conversation was sent to Lorane in real time, being already jeopardized as they were working on a plan?

That would be disastrous. Should she have taken it all into her hands then and only trust herself? Was that what her papa Oro did? Was he just as suspicious as Sasuke?

If so… was he doubting her as well, while Sasuke trusted her?

"That's just plain stupid."

"Definitely."

"I agree. How can it be one of us? We are all close friends-" Ten Ten swallowed hardly once to alleviate a sudden lump that raised down her throat and looked around, realizing that it was Akatsuki and the Sound who were bloody rivals and cursed herself for the mistake. And that slip of tongue cost her a flicker of mistrust among all of them.

"Nice done, two buns." Hidan clicked on his tongue chuckling at her stupidity. "Now we are losing ever more time with a ridiculous thing that shouldn't have even crossed our minds. If someone of us was a double-agent then we wouldn't have been here casually conversing about how to bring our enemies down and the spy will have definitely tried to force us into believe something that was convenient to Lorane, and lead us into a trap, of course, as insidious as possible."

Which none of them did, because they accepted every suspicion and took into account every possibility.

Ten Ten couldn't help herself but sneer at him. "Wow, Hidan. Putting aside the corny unoriginal insult, I have to admit it that it has never crossed my mind that you have a brain under that vampire hairstyle." They all chuckled at the obvious contempt, as Hidan has just glared at her to slits.

He was right.

"What if Sasuke is right on this one?" Suigetsu knew his raven haired friend good enough, and even if Sasuke has always been a dark horse, his intelligence shone in all its splendor. Even when drunk, Sasuke was still pretty much brilliant and intuitive.

"What if one of Lorane's spies has kept a constant eye on him without him even realizing it?"

Something must have urged the Uchiha to be this edgy and vehement in his suspicion. Because it was totally unlike him to be so paranoid. What if he has been right all the time? What if Sakura was right?

"Does this mean that our impartial judge has decided to be a partisan to a specific theory?" The chocolate haired Akatsuki agent smirked at him, smartly pointing to Suigetsu's biased favoritism for Sasuke, concluding that he was not pertaining to Lorane's affairs.

"Leaving the hormones aside..." Suigetsu mirrored Ten Ten while throwing an acerbic reply. "I am simply trying to give my objective opinion and I don't see how this is a bad thing."

"Sure, a biased opinion that plays in his favor." Hidan leaned further into his armchair rolling an auburn lock of hair and smirking. He was taunting Suigetsu who assumed a silent Leader role. "Are you the virtual spy?"

It was Karin the one to shot to him, sizzling like a comet from all her pores, since Suigetsu lost the momentum with a deep glare that was splitting his face in half. How dare he accuse him of something so outrageous?

"Stop it with the cretin ironies, you creepy asshole! We don't have time to be idiots, and definitely not when the worlds security is in Lorane's damn hands! So quit it before I decide to introduce my foot on your blabbering mouth, Akasuna."

"Oho, look at that lioness… defending her territory."

"You're the next one I kill after Lorane, Hidan!"

"Oi, stop it right there, guys!" Naruto spoke up. "We're not here to fight between us." He sighed and brushed a hand through his hair. "If there was a spy or not, this is merely irrelevant now, since we know that it is not one of us since we trust each other. Am I right?" for the first time Naruto glared and frowned at them like Sasuke silently daring them to come clean.

They all gulped and nodded in defeat. Yes, they could trust each other, `cos if they couldn't have faith in their comrades, then they will never slay such a potent hermetic society, whose bonds of fraternity and blind trust into their accomplices transcended the common level of understanding.

Naruto was right: bonds of honesty were the key points and also, their strongest allies.

"Good now that we had this little inconvenience solved..." Karin glared at Suigetsu, who made the characteristically gesture with his hand that he zipped his mouth and shut up. "Can we focus on the main question here?"

"And what would that be?"

"What the fuck does Lorene want from an ancient relic, like the Great Pyramid?"

"Who the hell knows?!" Naruto wailed dramatically. "They are insane!"

"Well… we know for a fact that they want to control the world." Ten Ten`s voice echoed as a friendly reminder. "So we must connect this dumb motive of theirs, to the information we have so far."

"They want to take over the world by playing the relic hunters. What does an old Pyramid have to do with ruling over the world? Some dudes who lived before Jesus are highly irrelevant nowadays!"

Naruto reasoned, but the others weren't that convinced; not with all the evidence screaming into their faces that the root of the problem was far more complex and convoluted.

"Ambitions have never changed." Sakura spoke cryptically though her words were full of wisdom. "Only the methods." She smartly emphasizing to her audience, highlighting the fact that, from the beginning of history, world dominance has been ebbed into the human's blood and minds, and passed through each generation like a thirst for nectar. Needless to say that Egyptians, as all their other rivals and strong Empires, schemed and plotted to broaden their sovereignty over the other nations.

That mentality and need to dominate has never truly died, only refined and subsided.

"Ok ok, let's not deviate from reasonable." Karin interjected, reminding them that the trap of falling into ridiculous, was thin and posed as a lethal mistake. "So if Lorane wants to control the world as in... this world..."

She pointed to their days and the fact that they should not forget that they were not time travelers and not only methods changed, but also the technology, ideologies and the general veneer of the society. "Then how would they do this and make sure they are successful?"

It was a smart obvious to the point interrogation and the others nodded to her in agreement. Without realizing it, Karin had the same concepts as Suigetsu. They were very down to the earth, hardly intimidated, but also very open minded to subtle possibilities that they couldn't logically grasp, hence their non-partisan ideologies.

"I say they are on the right track." Neji noted wisely, remembering the status of the most recent events. "They already control a good part of the global economy which is a key point in imposing dominance. Whoever controls the capital and the money, also controls the flux of business and the stocks markets. Also, they have their clutch on the Presidents and this is a high impact of people's perception over the national and international security. And this is another blow to weaken the defenses and cause havoc and confusion. And so nations will start to lose trust in each other and look for the culprits, hence arouse mistrust and suspicion and God only knows that when there isn't unity and faith, there cannot be unity and power. The power is in the hands of the ones who exploit this general panic and fear and fructify it to pose their dogmas and present the people they want to control a false sense of security, hope and alliance."

Smirks and nods of approval erupted into the room. Neji basically summed up how any criminal organization would attempt to shaken the foundation of the world' s peace. "Correct." Suigetsu smirked at the smart Hyuga. "And from what you have mentioned, what field has been left unexploited and dominated by the Lorane?"

Potential answers and assumptions broke into the room. "They still don't control every single economic field. They don't have the coals and the internal waters."

"That's irrelevant since they control the oil market and the Gulfs and seas."

"They have political power and they have henchmen in the Governments. And now they have the Presidents."

"What about the national security? The Army Forces? The Police Services?"

"They basically brought the FBI and CIA down and rumors has it that they have spies in the NASA and even got their hands on nuclear technology."

"God help us all..."

"Banks? The national budgets? The International Banks?"

"Already under their control. Remember, it was among their first target." Karin knew it all too well, because she was part of the platoon that was assigned to keep the tracks on their accounts and the way they slowly but surely took the banks down one by one, making them fall like pieces of Domino.

"What about the international organizations like the UN or UE?"

"Not a potential threat for them, since they basically rule over the structures that enforce the law and work inside the key offices."

"Then what's left?" Naruto jerked his shoulders, wondering how in the world they weren't hiding into some atomic shelter, being among the opposing forces and stand against the new government, like in the movies with aliens invasions or zombie infestation.

Sakura once again brought a ray of light into their conflicted thoughts and wild assumptions, but she wouldn't be so hypocrite and take credit for every genius idea since part of them belonged to her and Naori`s brainstorming; because it was the older Uchiha Madame the one to both soothe and slap Sakura back into reality, telling her everything she knew and helping her sketch the outline of a plan against the Lorane.

"You are all talking about organizations and structures, but you forget about the biggest and the most difficult thing to control."

"Which would be?" Suigetsu rose his eyebrows up, waiting for the jade eyed woman speak, urging her to enlighten them.

Sakura spoke simply, shrugging once like it was just too obvious. "People." Widen orbs shone in realization at how simple the concept was, yet how incredibly real and potent. "They don't control the public's opinion. Yes, they can inflict fear and cause panic and terror, but we are too many to be controlled by someone that we don't trust."

"But we could eventually, if someone like Pein shows up."

"Pein is merely for facade and public image. He is widely mistrusted."

"So… if Lorane wants to brainwash us all..." Hidan started, gazing to his manicured nails instead of eying his comrades in the eye, looking just as masochistic and amused as ever, which only stirred the need for the others to strangle him. "Why would they need the Great Pyramid for?'

"This... is exactly what we want to find out."

"This makes no sense at all." Sasori perked his fine eyebrows up as doubt swept across his handsome incredulous face. "What is exactly the Great Pyramid of Giza?"

"The pharaoh's tomb." Ten Ten murmured what was part of the public`s knowledge. "Everyone knows it."

"What if there is more to it than we already know?"

"Like what?"

"According to the experts and this calculus," Suigetsu threw another glance at the scattered papers, then slide another picture of the Pyramid on the screen, presenting it under a different angle. "It can also represent a sky's map as the Egyptians viewed it 4000 years ago."

"So… what? It is NASA's dream job to stare at shooting stars, and not criminal organizations' like Lorane." Karin taunted him, finding that aberrant conversation to drift into nothingness and being completely unproductive and unprolific.

She too realized that the subject was nowhere near their area of expertise, so consequently, they were basically a bunch of agents who were being faced with the need to solve a riddle that represented an enigma to them.

They should probably try to contact an expert to help them. But who? "Besides, why would they need the map of constellations for, if you want to rule the world?"

"What if there is an inestimable treasure hidden in the narrow catacombs and corridors of the Pyramid, ones that Lorane has Intel on?"

Ten Ten smartly insinuated and true to her words, it was a greater probability for her assumption to be closer to the truth. "We know that Lorane needs money for their purposes. An Egyptian treasure comprising pure gold and diamonds will be welcomed." She was right on that one; considering their purpose, it was just justifiable to think like that.

"Nah," Naruto crunched his nose, crossing his arms upon his chest, talking confidently like he has found that idea utterly revolting.

"They are already shit loaded. It's not money they want, `cos they already have plenty of that, thanks to burying the stocks markets and their rival companies down."

Neji saluted Naruto`s theory, gesturing discreetly with a tilt of his head towards the rest of the room, pointing his thumb to the mumbling Uzumaki. "Agree with this idiot. They wouldn't have gone through all this trouble and steal top secret information just for the money or whatever treasures might have been left inside the Pyramid, after all the robberies throughout the history.

This entire situation is too intricate and so is their purpose. A giant conundrum of higher ambitions than we can anticipate."

"Yup." Naruto grinned proudly about himself. Then his face fell into a revolted frown upon realizing Neji's insult which he failed to notice on the first time. "Hey! I am not an idiot, dattebayou!"

Neji flat out ignored him completely. He wasn't the one to pick up a fight with the hyperactive Uzumaki. He simply didn't have the patience to do so, nor was he having enough energy left in his system, since his fiancé was tiring him out.

"Then, what is the Great Pyramid, besides being a tomb and a place that might conceal an immense cavern of treasures? A map to ancestral ancient Deities is too unimportant to Lorane." Ten Ten flailed her hands up in exasperation.

They were getting nowhere. They were running in circles, going nowhere and running blind through a labyrinth of scattered suppositions, and it was palpable this tension lingering above their shoulders, like an armor of incertitude.

Lorane had every governmental and financial mechanism to lead. What was there that they couldn't see?

A thick silence fell among them, all pondering and brainstorming, eyes dispelled each possible direction, but the person in front of them. That, until Sakura opened up her mouth and broke the perilous tension, like a necklace of pearls scattered across the polished wooden floor.

"A weapon."

Eyes flew on her resolute face but she was looking at the picture flashing on the screen, with the grandiose profile of the Pyramid. For ten seconds, they silently gasped at her spike of genius and wheels worked down their brains.

"A weapon?" Karin murmured beyond a gush of a whisper. "What do you mean by that, Cherry?"

As if it was not obvious. At the same time, Karin's confusion was general and common spread among the others.

"I mean what you heard, `Rin." Sakura simply declared. "I meant it literarily. What if the Great Pyramid is a secret weapon that was built to serve another purpose, besides bring an impressive tomb and a token of wealth and splendor of a glorious Empire?"

No one thought about that at all. Such a detail was brilliant for its simplicity and sophistication, yet it was exactly that acumen that they needed in order to reach the paramount of such a spontaneous conclusion.

Suigetsu rubbed his chin like he was intently pondering over that fact. They all did the same. "This is a possibility that we shouldn't overlook."

The side ghost of a smirk that played across his lips compiled nothing arrogant nor taunting, on the contrary, it was genuinely commending. "Good job." She mirrored his small grin with a perk of his upper lip up, appreciating his astute versatility.

"Good, so assuming that it is a weapon that Lorane targets..." Neji tried to connect the pieces together, seeming to be quite confused and at the same time, there were millions of puzzle pieces that were starting to get to their respective places, scattering into his brain in all sort of directions, and he found himself quite dizzy and not able to catch up with his own genius.

"Does this mean that… it is a conventional weapon of destruction or an unconventional one, meant for other purposes than blowing things up?"

He went on with his assumption, looking straight into Sakura`s viridian orbs, silently urging her to pin point his mistakes. "It could have been a weapon to cease away their enemies and Lorane wants to use that power for reasons we don't know about."

Hidan shot right after him, even before Sakura had the chance to do so. "Lorane has military power. They don't need conventional relic weapons. I would go for the unconventional." It was so rare to hear the silvery haired man be so coherent and serious, but his moments of sheer lucidity were like a gulp of fresh air to them.

"What the heck are you guys talking about?" Naruto was reeling in sheer confusion but no one blamed it on him ,simply because they didn't expect the Uzumaki to catch up to such refined figments of mental games so quickly.

He was hardly considered to be a brainy one. "What do you mean by not aregular weapons?"

"One that controls without actually destroying." Sakura glanced at the blonde, explaining it to him in fewer words that compelled all her theories, but they all knew that she addressed them all.

"So? How would that work?"

"I don't know." They all looked at her expecting details, but Sakura was equally lost. Honestly it was an idea that simply struck her out of nowhere and she had no answers. "I know nothing about it."

It wasn't ignorance the thing that emanated from her general atmosphere, when she confessed beyond a murmur; it was a fact they had no idea about what was going on anymore, floating in imponderability when it came to deciphering Lorane`s evil schemes.

"So what comes now?" Suigetsu inquired once more, addressing the puzzled audience. It was just clear that their brainstorming just had to come to an end. "Are we going to stay here with our arms crossed without doing anything?"

"All we have is pure fiction and wild inferences." Neji rubbed his forehead as his milky orbs were stinging from all the damn artificial light from Suigetsu`s office. They would go straight into the lion`s den, without anything tangible and of real help. They were running blindly into the darkness.

"We have nothing substantial to serve as a solid ground for our suppositions. No lasso to bind us to the truth. We can't foolishly march in Egypt in all our CIA glory and fall into a trap set for children.

Like bears into a forest, trying to be conspicuous and astute and falling into every trap set our way, the same as we almost did in the mountains."

He was right, they all knew it. What they had so far, was only a ghost of a vignette of an improvised plan, and they were bound to fail if they relied solely on it.

"But we can't just stay here either, and try to guess what probably transcends out knowledge and ability to comprehend." Sakura reasoned, when in reality, her drive and motivation came from other things than the rest of the CIA members, so that was the reason why she was more energetic and frenetic.

"We must accept the touch of the unconventional if we want to call ourselves CIA agents. The spiritual world is indeed an unexplored world of infinite possibilities, but if we don't risk, then everything will soon be done for. Whatever Lorane is planning is definitely not good, so if we don't confront them now, then we are destined to lose anyway."

There was also verisimilitude in every syllable that came out of her glossy lips, while exposing her supposition. Another possibility. "Even if it means walking through dark unfamiliar corridors with only a flickering faint candle in our hands."

The uncomfortable childish manner of avoiding staring into each other`s unconfident orbs, in the archetype manner of a group of people who didn't want to assume the role of a Leader and take responsibility for an eventual failure. The purpose was clear for anyone.

"We need to fly to Egypt." Karin finally spoke, because their reticence was killing her slowly. And she more than glared at Suigetsu, being very pissed off at the way he simply locked gazes with her but said nothing in return, like she expected him to do.

"If Lorane has an ancient weapon then God only knows what they are capable of, plus, they kidnaped our leaders and the Presidents. We have to rescue them."

Naruto curled his boyish thin lips into a goofy grin, teasing the ruby eyed woman. "Does this mean that you finally see that Teme is not a bad guy, dear cousin?"

Karin was seething with her stare alone as a buzzing sound similar to one of a cat`s emerged from her throat, by the way she was being gibed by Naruto Uzumaki. "Dear cousin, I said nothing about Sasuke as you can probably hear which I assume you still do."

She was already on the warpath, bristling in a bubbling fury as the time went by, wanting nothing more than to slit the throats of those imbeciles and get over with. "It doesn't matter now if he is on the good or bad side. Point is..."

Her manicured fingers curled around the edge of the desk in order to prevent her boiling fury to take the form of two vicious fists and smack the blonde against his whiskered foxy figure. "We still need to go to Egypt and crush those fuckers once and for all."

"We need a foolproof plan, otherwise our failure is guaranteed." Sasori was just as spontaneous as always, but his words were unnecessary; he was more like trying to stop an eventual conflict to arise among the two siblings.

"What flawless plan?" Ten Ten threw her hands up in unmitigated annoyance. "We have no idea of what we are dealing with, so we should consider ourselves lucky to come up with at least a decent plan."

"She's right." The Sound agent smoothed her burgundy locks with her fingers, muttering under her breath just enough for Suigetsu and Sasori to hear her, because they were the closest to the her. "Unfortunately enough…"

It absolutely pained Karin to be approving those people and even though she would admit that they were prolific and outright brilliant in mission… they still had their elfish personalities that made her feel like fresh meat in a tank full of piranhas.

Damn annoying fuckers.

"There's something else that troubles my mind and makes me suspicious." Naruto spewed abruptly, approaching the table and take a random file from the desk in a weary manner, like any form of studying material burned his azurite orbs.

"The Bastard has all this weird shit information that not even Lorane had before. What if he went after them alone?"

Snorts and widened orbs was the response he got for his implication. "Wha- are you serious?" Ten Ten scorned in a visibly amused manner. "Sasuke doesn't know anything about Lorane so how come he went after them?"

"Maybe he refers to the Pyramid itself." Hidan was once again very brisk in defending his new `friend` sensing that the golden haired spiked man with that unserious figure and his outbursts of wisdom, was way more intuitive than those stern stoic stuck up pricks, that were decorating the list of Akatsuki members.

And that thought alone, adding it to the convenient fact that he was bloody pissing them off, was highly entertaining.

"I suspect that Sasuke knows about Lorane." Heads whipped to the source of the sudden confession, every eye seeking for Sakura`s figure, shock filling the entire room at her unexpected communication, but she looked plainly nonchalant about that.

"He already admitted it to me that he is aware of people wanting to harm him." Her cat slick tone clearly emphasized the word `people` because it could bear any meaning. "He even warned me to leave him because staying by his side is dangerous and life threatening."

Naruto intertwined his hands into a praying stance and pouted comically as heart shapes filled his light orbs. "Awww… he was worried for you. How cutteee!"

A pen case went flying to his head from Karin who started to run out of small objects to throw in his direction but that was no problem, since there was still a lamp and a laptop ready to be put to good use.

Or maybe she should just discreetly target his thick skull with a poisoned senbon. "Open up your mouth once more and I am filling it up with my foot."

"This can`t be true." Neji countered vehemently. "There is no way that Sasuke knows about such a secret elite society. Not even all the CIA knows, not to mention the FBI or Interpol."

Didn't he really? Involuntarily, it coursed through their minds as a blow of the wind but they all brushed it off like it was nothing or too improbable to be taken into consideration.

"Which only leads us to the same logical conclusion that he works for them." Karin shrugged like it was something obvious.

"I can't believe we are back to this stupid assumption..."Naruto interlaced his slender fingers behind his nape in a signature gesture, dismaying her in a manner of closure of a topic that was annoying the heck out of him. A wave of disgruntlement swept across his foxy figure, as he drained his golden eyebrows together in a semi-frown.

"If he did work for the Lorane, then why would he have warned me beforehand?" Sakura threw the ball back into his court. Lorane wants me dead. They want us all gone to Hell because we are in their way. Why would have Sasuke tried to save me from them and betray his peers?"

"Because he is..." Ten Ten searched for explanation realizing that Karin might have indeed be wrong in her assumption, which she shared up to some point, because the woman with the most coffee mocha orbs had her fair share of mistrust in the ruby eyed woman`s intuition. "In love with you?"

Oh Kami-sama, she couldn't believe that she has just let her mouth spurt the echo of Naruto`s stupid phrase, into a cliché déjà vu that stirred hordes of snorts and cackles from the group in the office room.

An upsurge of electricity has suffused through Sakura`s body at the mention of Sasuke`s feelings for her, as she too once forfeited before that lone explanation, but as a crafty agent, she couldn't set for just a simple silly assumption.

Her digits knotted into a shaky fist falling on her side, as her pose stiffened almost unnoticeably by the others, but her inner quickly urged her to regain her composure and not relinquish before the avatar that she has left safely in Miyako.

She couldn't be so resolutely weak in front of a simple mention of his feelings for her – feelings that they shared in the expense of such a dangerous game.

So she spat an unruly snort like she brushed the entire affirmation off, like not caring in the bit. Lorane only loved themselves and their brothers – the Master Masons that resided within the nest of their society, while they marked the rest as their sworn enemies. "Yeah, of course. Open up your eyes, this is not a joke and nor a drama."

"We need weapons." The crest of Neji`s pale forehead collided into a mild frown as he took in the hitched breaths of the agents in the room, being dead serious. He smartly interfered to cut the roots of a potential arising conflict between the two agents with the most volcanic personalities.

"We have been robbed Einstein, remember?" Ten Ten`s lips dripped of pure sarcasm as she slant her hands into her pockets, pulling at the elastic material to emphasize her point – in terms of new generation of guns, they were empty handed.

Lorane has successfully infiltrated into their secret underground settlement and got their hands on the latest technology developed by the CIA, custom made for Akatsuki`s convenience.

And now they had nothing while their enemies harbored an arsenal, just by stealing from them once.

"We can use our weapons." Dubiety slide across her audience`s figures as Sakura decided for a settlement. And by that, she referred to the Sound`s package of traditional weapons, but that idea only gained mistrust and discontent grunts in return.

"As for the firearms, I contacted Kiba and they will give us the experimental firearms that Lorane hasn't stole because they are kept under top surveillance in their basement, using the latest technology."

A horde of sights in sheer relief washed through their bodies and fell along their lips. Sakura crocked an eyebrow up in question seeing their stupefied reactions. Were they really thinking that she has ever considered hunting Lorane down with just a few poisoned kunais and katanas? For real?

Not even Hidan would be stupid enough to attempt such a display of an insane warrior hero dying in battle uselessly.

"We don't even know the approximate number of their men." Suigetsu`s low sigh rumbled deep in his throat, as he run a hand across his silvery-snow hair, looking down his chest, contemplating about their options. "They can be thousands." No matter how much he dwelled into that story, it was just crystal clear for him that they would be outnumbered.

What were they supposed to do?

"I highly doubt it. Lorane is not an ancient army. They are an elite organization, criminal or not." As if sensing the swell of his concern, Neji tried to keep his train of fluid thoughts intact, so as to rack his brain for the best strategy.

"I understand your concern about being outnumbered, but we can at least brainstorm and come up with a basic strategy and catch them out of guard."

Of course that he also considered their smaller number to be a high possibility, but somehow… he sensed that such an effervescence of personnel was uncharacteristic for a impervious organization like the Lorane.

He had serious doubts that they will be facing an army. Million scenarios were gushing through his astute mind, but he could only think of few prone pragmatic schemes.

Lorane didn't poses an army of people because they had the advantage of having precious information.

Having access to rare secret data and files equalized having power – real power. No matter how bloody and visceral the conflicts between Empires were in Ancient Egypt, now, things have evolved to plotting, scheming and being crafty in achieving their goals.

Lorane didn't need a battalion to become unbeatable; there was an imponderable wall that couldn't be conquered between them and their purpose and they also needed to be just as mischievous in finding an opening into that wall.

There was the key to strike: where the `bricks` were the most vulnerable.

"Outnumbered or not, we have no choice. If Lorane succeeds in whatever they are scheming, then we are done for, anyway." There was so much harassment, torment and urgency into Sakura`s speech that betrayed how nervous she really was, but right nonetheless.

They had some facts to cling to – they had acknowledge over Lorane`s current location, they were familiar to their target, they had a ghost of tangibility that the Presidents and their Leaders were pretty much alive, though they couldn't be so sure about their health condition and they knew for a fact that there was a `satellite` that was orbiting around the entire fiasco, whose place and role was yet to be determined, namely Uchiha Sasuke.

"True, unfortunately." Neji pushed his body up from the sofa, dusting off his knees off an invisible layer of dust and cleared his throat.

All the agents in the room meet his movement in sync like a reaching a silent consensus, finally deciding that it was time for them to end up that secret `meeting` - their last before the final battle - and get down to action. "So... do we take the first plane to Cairo then?"

It was hard to cuddle with the idea of a buttoned up Hyuga cracking up a joke, but they took it accordingly and smirked or giggled at his attempt to lighten up the atmosphere; because deep down, every single breathing soul that was about to live Suigetsu`s office knew that it was his peculiar way to pat their backs in a genuine camaraderie and give them strength for whatever was about to come.

To say that they weren't nervous about the unpredictability of the million possible outcomes would be utterly derisive. Up from the most buoyant characters, like Naruto and Hidan, to the most unbending badasses like Sakura or Hyuga Neji, they all perceived the tension soaring along the curve of their spine in pure anticipation.

"We need a fast jet that is invisible to radars." Suigetsu was already tuned to his job as an Interpol agent, having his pre-pay phone residing into his right hand, fingers sliding along his contact list. "The Interpol only has two such planes and they are still experimental." A victorious side smirk clashed on his thin lips revealing the blade of his canine, as he found the number of the pilot in charge of one of the planes that were the closest to Tokyo Interpol`s HQ – hence close to them.

"Our base in Ravenna had one too, but they stole that as well, so we can assume that it is conveniently gone." Ten Ten`s boots clicked on the polished floor as she mirrored the movement of the other Akatsuki agents presents, all securing their own personal weapons into their lithe outfits.

A general rule that anyone who stepped inside the building bad them to forgo any firearm or weapon in a special designed place at the entrance where it would be kept under surveillance, but of course, it didn't apply to them.

Because there was no way in Hell that Lorane`s last standing enemies would let go of their weapons and make such a silly mistake as to assume that they were safe in the confinements of a building that was residing in the middle of a tumultuous metropolis.

Honestly, it was a miracle that Lorane hasn't assaulted the building yet…

"Papa told me that the Sound has two invisible speeding jets." Sakura`s chartreuse orbs aligned with Karin`s cerise ones as they were awaiting for the Akatsuki to get ready.

Hidan was patting the blades of his long scythe in a way that made Sasori slap his forehead and drag his hand along his temple in an exasperated manner. He so itched to punch that idiot to the Moon and back. "One is in Ravenna and the other one is in the Sound's mini-base in Shizuoka."

"Then that's our first stop." It was bitter to taste the edginess in Neji`s serious voice. Suigetsu was already screaming to his subordinates through the phone to prepare the jet. "We can fly an Interpol plane to Shizuoka and then fly the rest of the way to Egypt using that plane."

"Won`t that be suspicious? Us in an Interpol plane, I mean." Ten Ten curled her eyebrows at her fiancé. "We are an easy target for Lorane."

Karin already sensed her distress but she also understood Suigetsu`s and Sakura`s point of views and they were right on that one.

"Nah. No one will suspect that CIA's top agents are flying inside an Interpol plane, to a city that's so far away from Egypt. The fact that we chose not to be incognito is our element of surprise here."

"Red head hotties are always right." Hidan couldn't help himself but to mock the two love-doveys, who were oozing of so much sexual tension and reeked of the remains of angry sex, amused to the core by their stiffness, much Suigetsu and Karin` despair. Man were they funny as fuck.

"One less blabbermouth will save space in the jet, you fucker."

"I think it`s imprudent for everyone of us to march in there like a gang of superheroes in a closure battle." Sasori, who had enough battle experience in coordinating and leading larger troops, smartly suggesting. "Won't it be wiser to separate and strike from more side?"

"Sounds logical to me." Sakura thanked all the Heavens that they were finally starting to grasp the implication of moving their asses faster because any second longer could make a difference in saving someone`s life; she tried to brush off all the negative thoughts of him being in danger because her chest panged painfully in a way that she never anticipated that it would possibly hurt her.

"Plus, there are also more agents that work for Sound and Akatsuki and they are equally confused and waiting for new orders. How about we beckon them to participate? It will add to our manpower."

They pondered over her suggestion for a bit, considering the agents in the CIA, including the trainees. She was correct, even though they knew that leading a large group of rookies or recruits in CIA was problematic, especially since they were all young, with the exception of Sasori and Hidan. Even Suigetsu, who was being an Interpol Officer, was still very young.

They needed someone with Orochimaru or Tobirama`s imposing influence; someone who knew how to be a crafty amazing leader and have a positive impact on their still unpolished characters.

But still… those were the times when they had to forcibly grow up and ripen into fruits of the amazing full-fledged CIA agents that they were, despite their fragile ages. Sakura was not stupid and she had the calmness and cold judgment of her lucid Sound Leader virtual father.

She was right, they needed to gather all the CIA agents available and do their best to mobilize all the troops and design the best plan they could, giving the short amount of time that they had at their disposal and, wisely copying with the pressing stressful situation, be careful not to lead them to their imminent doom.

"You mean... to lead a conjoined Akatsuki and Sound?" Neji`s suspicion was justified and that was the reason why Sakura only peeked at him, without being too offended.

Never in history has Sound and Akatsuki joined forces and came together so ardently and genuinely attached to a common cause. "This is tough talk and sadly utopic. The rivalry will not-"

"There's no rivalry between anyone, when the world is as good as over!" Naruto shrieked in his characteristic boisterous annoying tone, making them all cringe at his piercing tone. "No agent that has a grain of brain in his damn skull will ever get a boner and throw a tantrum when is mandatory for us to cooperate!"

"Neji," Suigetsu addressed the Hyuga leader and his stern tone was rather darker and richer than normal, signalizing that the time for jokes was over.

There was so much seriousness in his voice, that took everyone by surprise, even Karin and Naruto, and they were close friends.

"You will lead the Akatsuki and part of the Sounds agents and rookies and fly to Giza first and confront the Lorane. They are pretty much expecting this. What they don't expect is for the two offices to cooperate."

Hidan simply couldn't help himself, especially when their shark faced referee was a proving to be quite the leader, besides being a notorious manwhore in the public society, of course, when he was not busy handling his family`s business or playing the Interpol agent. "Who named this metrosexual atheist as our leader?"

The glare that Karin forwarded especially to him was sizzling like a boiling lava, enough to make grown up adults shriek in sheer horror. When she wasn't playing the enthralling bloody seductress, Karin`s personality flipped 180 degrees and she was another person.

There was no trace left from her coquettish lascivious attitude, so opened up to hot flirts, instead, she was absolutely ominous and implacable.

A truly proud representative of the menacing CIA branch of the Sound, who were fearsome within both their colleagues and enemies.

"Hidan..." Oh the ravenous blood-thirsty manner of hissing his name coated in venom and acid, was pure music for Suigetsu`s ears.

He had absolutely no idea about what has transpired between them in those two days of encounter, everything happened at the speed of the sound and it engulfed him and threw him amidst that whirlpool of raw passion and electrical jolts among the spine.

But… Suigetsu found himself unable to ignore her presence, or the chemistry between them and damn right, he knew she felt it too.

"I don't know what to say about this. Shouldn't we be camouflaged and catch them out of guard?"

"And what will the Sound do then?" Karin came to stand beside her best friend with the most luscious emerald orbs, both checking their weapons of choice. She abstained from asking Sakura about the firearm she wore, with the initials `N. U.` carved on it in red and blue letters. It was clearly not hers because the Sound rarely used firearms for their missions, nor was Sakura versatile in handling fire guns.

A gift from someone maybe… then I struck her that she has received it as safety measure, from Uchiha Naori. She concealed a smirk. Sakura was slowly but surely getting more and more accustomed to the Uchiha family.

"We are looking for the Presidents, Papa and Tobirama-sama." Sakura`s mind was already enveloped into the plan.

"Only by freeing our Kages we will have a real chance to succeed. We cannot come up with a plan to strike from the shadows since we have no idea of what they plot. It's like asking a mute person about what a deaf person has heard. Our only chance regrettably enough is to confront them face to face."

"This is insane." Ten Ten more than hollered not believing her ears that after all the bravado, the brightest minds around her were only having a hunch and speculations. "This is so desperate and improvised that it has all the chances to go wrong."

"Now that's an optimistic thought." Suigetsu shot to her sarcastically. They knew it was the truth but at least they could pretend to be more enthusiastic about it, after all, they had no other choice but to trust each other and their intuition.

Plus, something inside Suigetsu assured him over the fact that people like Uchiha Itachi, Tobirama or Orochimaru won't be caught out of guard so easily, without trying to find a way to communicate to their teams.

"Shut up, you know I am right!"

"So… I am taking part of the CIA agents that are now in Ravenna then fly to Egypt using the invisible plane that we take from the secret base." Neji interrupted his fiancé`s rant, checking his ammunition. "What about the rest of you? Who will lead the Sound?"

Glances thrown sideways like all the others were desperately trying to sidestep from being in charge of the Sound branch and their rookies and other agents, all silently pointing to a single head, their stares ricocheting.

"Cherry, you do it." Karin spoke what was on their minds, for the millionth time, without feeling intimidated to be forward. "You are Oro's disciple and daughter. You have the most influence and... you are his best agent." No one dared to contradict her in that brazen statement, because Karin was correct.

According to their overall skills and mission results, Sakura was topping the list, period, even if her face was rather hard and discontent with that title; she worked so hard to earn it.

"I don't find this to be such a brilliant idea." Sakura flat out told the group. "I am used to work alone. I am no leader."

Which was half a lie, because the emerald eyed agent was very creative during her missions, and not necessarily when working all by herself, but what she was silently trying to convey to her comrades, was the fact that she wasn't ready to take any risk and, by a rushed decision from her part, to be the one responsible for their doom.

And that was because, contrary to popular belief, Sakura truly cared about her colleagues and their well-being.

"I want to lead!" Hidan hollered from the other side of the room as he was polishing his scythe with a cloth, grinning in a debauched way to them.

"You see the alternatives and it's not looking too promising at aaaalll..." Karin trailed and although she mumbled the last part hoping to be discrete and subtle, everyone has heard her.

She got a colorful curse from the silvery haired male, which she responded to by giving him the middle finger and gesturing with her hand at her neck, that she would rather slit off his throat then have him lead their team.

It wasn't like Hidan wasn't a very good leader, heck no. He had mission experience and he had his own platoon of rookies, but God… Karin couldn't phantom the idea of following that creep in such an insane battle, against the Lorane.

He will always find a genius way to fuck it up then he will be the only one to miraculously come out alive, like he was some kind of immortal.

He was that freaky.

"Hey–"

"Then it`s settled." Suigetsu stepped in between a virtually arising argument, locking gazes to Sasuke`s girlfriend, being more vehement than her ruby eyed sister.

"Sakura, you will coordinate the rest of the Sound agents and the remaining Akatsuki, as well as some of the Interpol`s top special agents that I am taking with us and conduct a conjoined rescue mission and set the prisoners free. You from the Sound office will be our element of surprise; our trump cards."

She blinked once in understanding. It was the best plan they could sketch right now and if they wanted it to really work somehow, they had to attack from multiple directions and try to find a break into their defense and if they will be graced with enough inspiration to get a hunch about their real plan, then it was all for the best.

"This is the safest way to maintain a balance of power and weapons, since Lorane is traditional oriented in handling weapons, but they also have firearms so we pretty much expect them to use both."

They all looked threw another last glance around, like they were not sure if they will be seeing each other like this again and they all knew the reason why: there was a very high possibility that they won't coming back… alive.

They were kids no more. And Loran was not just a regular rival – they were on a league of their own. For an agent, just like for the ancient Japanese shinobi warriors, their lifespan was uncertain and short.

They trade on the danger zone and putting their life on the line was part of the job`s description. This is something that they all consented on the moment they became part of the CIA.

The atmosphere escaladed from heavy o suffocating. The air around felt full of lead – thick, dense and having a weighing hard on their shoulders. Even Karin and Hyuga Neji found it to be pressing and stressful, but they couldn't back down now or chicken out.

"Guys," The one and only eternally enterprising Uzumaki Naruto was the first one to break the silence. "I don't want this to sound too cliché… but I have to say it anyways, so," He scratched the back of his nape, fidgeting like a high school student, who forgot to do his homework.

"Let's whoop some Lorane asses and save the world, dattebayou!" Instead of throwing his right fist in the air, in a distinctive manner that has become habitual to the blonde before every dangerous mission – as part of his ritual – Naruto spanned his right hand towards his colleagues who were conveniently amassed in a circle in the middle of the room, embodying the ultimate gesture of camaraderie and brotherhood.

It was silly and highly innocent, but they all complied, shockingly, side smirking or shaking their heads, snorting but joined Naruto`s circle of friendship and bonding and placed their dominant hands atop of his, accepting his encouragement and support and giving back bits of their souls and support to the others; together… they were a force to be reckoned with and Naruto wanted to remind them of a valuable lesson: the most important thing in a mission was teamwork.

Their friendship harbored the strength to move the mountains and push their aspirations from the realm of dreams, into the world of reality.

"We head to the Interpol's secret airport." Suigetsu briefed as soon as they broke their solemn moment together, heading to the door. "That's our first stop."

"I told ya` that dude wants to be bossy." Hidan muttered to the red head Karin, who was walking side by side with him. She elbowed his ribs hard, cursing the fact that the bloody fucker had his scythe pointing to her and she scratched her skin.

Good thing that she was resistant to his stupid poison, courtesy to Orochimaru and Tsunade, who made all his agents immune.

She snarled at him while the handsome male winked at her suggestively. Oh, how much fun he had by seeing Karin falling in love with the little Interpol prodigy.

Karin… the indomitable lethal lorelei, was now tussling to keep up the impenetrable indifferent mask, when in reality, she was trying to conceal her feelings for Sasuke`s idiot of a best friend, Suigetsu.

Pure comedy.

Naruto and Sakura were the last agents to leave the office room. The cerulean eyed Uzumaki wasn't stupid nor incognizant of the hurricane inside Sakura`s chest, and that was the reason why he gently placed a hand down her shoulder and whispered down her ear, as she flinched and stopped when feeling someone tapping her in a discreet way, so as to address her.

"Don't you worry, Sakura–chan. We will find Teme and beat some explanations out of his sorry ass. I have known that Bastard since forever and, as much as it irks me to admit it… he is strong.

He won't allow anything bad to happen to him and I know for a fact that he loves you madly enough to not have one hell of a reason to leave like this. But I am sure that in the end, he will be coming back for you, believe it."

Sakura felt her eyes sting and burn, but she fisted her hands on her sides, narrowing her jadeite gemstones slightly, not succumbing into the temptation of bowing her head down and have her caramel silk tendrils fall on her eyes and conceal the feelings that she knew she shouldn't unbind in front of the other agents, in a resolute proof of weakness from her part – the woman who has been entitled the best CIA agent . "I... trust him." She couldn't help but mutter in a breezy soft way.

But of course, the Uzumaki was wise enough to catch the real message that flew from her heart:

I love him.

"There is something else that has troubled me ever since we have started this conversation." Neji stopped in the middle of the long dim lighted corridor, hushing as they were passing through the hurried police officers, who looked like they were all in high alert, and for good reasons.

Suigetsu, who was the closest to him, leading the group through the maze of halls, in the direction of the elevator that would take them to the underground secret parking lot, threw a glance at the genius Hyuga. "About what?"

"About the Lorane's plans. To be more precise," Lunar alien orbs narrowed as the distinctive fine milky veins bulked around his round eyes, signalizing that he was intently concentrating on something of a tremendous importance. "I am talking about the legend of the secret society of the Golden Dawn."

"Huh?!" The group came to an abrupt halt as Neji has uttered words that they heard for the first time. "What are you talking about, Neji?" Ten Ten and Naruto had a perfect sync in being completely dumbfounded.

"Dude," Hidan racked a hand through his neatly cut argent locks, sighing in pure exasperation at Neji`s distinguishing way of talking in puzzles. "What the hell is that–"

Sakura beat her Sound colleague by proving how much of an unschooled man he was, crossing her arms upon her chest and rubbing her pointed chin ,frowning. "You mean… the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn? This is not just a myth."

She addressed her audience, all stopping in front of the dark shut doors of a side elevator. "We know it from Jirayia that it truly exists underneath the maze that is buried under Lorane's secrecy. But whether there is a connection between the Lorane and this occult ancient Order or not, this we cannot say for sure."

"What is this... Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn?" Karin`s lips pursed comically in a confused pout.

"It does sound familiar to me. I am positive that I have heard of it somewhere before, though I cannot begin to remember where exactly." She looked up as if trying to fast forward her entire CIA career and find her answer.

"In the secret book of Freemasonry that Jirayia-sama has stolen from Lorane." Her best friend reminded her and Karin mentally slapped herself.

Like duh… everyone from the Sound to the Akatsuki came in contact to the contact of that secret book, for it was as valuable as diamonds to them, since it comprised the Freemasonry's morals, dogmas and beliefs.

"Plus there is solid proof that leads to a certain connection to some of their more occult work besides the assassinates. You guys remember the mission from Brazil and the occult Macumba practitioners and their witchery practices?"

"How can one ever forget that?" Naruto`s spine covered in cold shivers when remembering that particular mission. He got one month full of weird horrible nightmares after that and even needed to be given pills.

He never knew what went through him when he stared into those peoples` menacing eyes – eyes that conveyed Evil – before they have been forced into the FBI`s cars and sent to jail; they cursed them all in a mystique language that no one understood. "I got a month of weird ass shit dreams and fevers after that."

"Do you think they are both related?" Karin pressed, but Sakura simply jerked her shoulders, shrugging like it was nothing much.

Of course, she has seen far worse than those primitive tribes, who were not living in the 21st century, but in the 17th century, according to their level of civilization.

"Possibly, who knows? After all, Lorane does nothing accidentally nor out on a whim. They must be since they all focused their efforts to reach to this point. I am sure they have always been planning and scheming to accomplish whatever dream they have."

"If so, then what is the purpose of the Golden Dawn?"

Hidan interfered cutting Sasori short much to the artist's annoyance. "I think you are mistaken facts. The Hermetic Society of the Golden Dawn is focused on one sole thing and that is Immortality."

Baffled orbs flew to the silvery haired male who was suddenly looking ten times wiser than his impish grin still plastered across his lips.

"The manuscripts have been secretly deciphered by members of the Golden Dawn a long time ago and rumors had that they have the key to obtain it. Their philosophy resides into the Tree of Life and its potency to acquire eternal life."

"Ok… now you have totally lost us." Ten Ten`s face twisted in an exasperated grimace. "Why do we care about that again?"

"Because the transmigration of the soul and immortality are closely related, that`s why." Sakura was the one to enlighten the coffee haired woman, stating the obvious, although it might have not been that overt to just anyone.

"Won't you agree? If Neji is right in his assumption then we can have a better grasp of whatever they are planning."

"So let me get this straight," Suigetsu pocketed his hands, coming to stand between Sakura and Naruto, the group gathering in front of the elevator.

Somehow, he felt edgy about whatever they were whispering about, because he was positive that it was Sasuke their main topic of discussion. "Do you guys find a connection between Immortality and the Great Pyramid?"

It was not a question per se, but more of a conclusion of their entire discussion, which, again, wasn't making more sense than their previous assumptions.

Once again Sakura stunned them all by having an inkling that was transcending brilliant and went deeper, to genius. "Between the ontology of the Golden Dawn, the Lorane and... Sasuke."

Staggered glances were thrown around, then ricocheted back on Sakura, as if silently making sure that their disbelief wasn't one sided.

It was only Karin the single human present that caught her murmur and the change in her voice when she buzzed his name – because it has been breathed out softer and with emotion, despite her struggle to hide her heart from the others.

"I don't get you guys!" A throaty grouse escaped Naruto`s lips and a 'that's not something new` was heard coming from Ten Ten' or Neji but no one could detect the source since they were staying one beside the other.

"How can one live forever if they got the Teme and that ancient relic who serves to nothing but a pile of dust and rocks that attract thousands of tourists every year?!"

Although he was clearly not the brightest mind around, Naruto`s question was absolute legit.

"Well, that's our one million dollar question, won't you agree, you dumbass?" Hidan shot to him, grinning. The Uzumaki growled in his direction, deeply offended.

"The Pyramids are far greater than just a genius construction." Sakura carried on, not caring about the boys` bickering.

"Just like the Ancient Egypt Empire was more than just a glorious Empire that stood before the most reputed enemies. We still don't know how many unsolved mysteries it might unravel their culture and vast knowledge."

"This is more than sweet bragging about world's 7 Wonders." Ten Ten rolled her chocolate orbs at Sakura`s poetic explanation. "I am sure that whoever our leaders are, they are clearly not contemplating or auditioning for any SF movie. This shit is as real as the world's imminent destruction."

"It is imperative to know how deep the waters are before sailing." Sakura grounded wisely.

"Can't we debate about it while we are moving the heck away of this place and actually DO something?" Naruto once again complained like a kid, but he was correct. They couldn't afford to lose anymore time. "It seriously drives me nuts the fact that we are just standing here like nerds reviewing their favorite Manga."

"Ya' know?" Ten Ten rubbed her chin like she was deep in thoughts, clearly taunting the blonde.

"That's quite ironic that it's precisely you the one to say that." A boisterous `hey` emerged from the Uzumaki`s lips. She on the other hand, smirked right back at him. "But I agree with you. We have a plan, so let's get over with it."

"It's just the outline of a plan, might reminding you." Suigetsu felt the need to highlight once more; they had a great ambition – to track Lorane down – without a detailed insanely genius plan and… where the heck was the Intel division when one needed it? "We know nothing for certain. All we have is pure speculation."

Emerald orbs flickered to the amethyst ones of the Interpol member. "So does Lorane."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"They are messing with ancient forces and those people were more religious and superstitious than nowadays. They ardently believed in magic, occult practices and Deities. They spent hundreds of years gazing at the stars, contemplating the movements of planets, the influence of spiritual over humans and the interaction with magical forces.

They were more versed than Lorane and probably more intelligent. All they have is probably suppositions based on their own beliefs of myths.

So in other words, Lorane is not in full control over whatever they are planning and their knowledge over the subject of Immortality is clearly not that profound."

"You are right. If they went as far as to rob Sasuke in a desperate attempt to find the missing pieces of the puzzle, then they are just as stuck in hieroglyphs and codes just like us."

Neji sided with Sakura once again, finding the way her cleverness intertwined with the penchant for occult, very useful. "They are just as in the shadows like us."

Naruto clicked on his tongue and ran a hand through his golden spikes in a similar fashion as his best missing friend. "Damn it. If only Teme was here then we would have had an upper hand. My guts tells me that whatever the heck he does, he knows more than us."

Suigetsu narrowed his orbs at him, finding the Uzumaki`s line to be among the wisest things that have been spoken so far. "So you chose to believe in Hinata's supposition?" Meaning that Sasuke took the reins and went to deal with everything all alone.

"Partly, because I don't think k that Teme knows about Lorane and their purpose, so my guesses is that the Bastard has gone to do research on his own."

Ten Ten rolled her orbs at him in sheer exacerbation. "Research what? And… at this time? You don't actually believe that he has caused all his ruckus, erased his traces and went to play the relic hunter now, do you? To me, facts are facts."

And by that, Ten Ten meant that she remained committed to the supposition of Sasuke being part of the Freemasonry, despite Sakura and Naruto` s insistences and the emerald agent`s inkling to separate the two concepts in half – the Lorane and the original Freemasonry.

Those two were simply too personally attached to the younger of the two Uchiha brothers and that was partly clouding their reason. At least, that was Ten Ten`s conception about them, because Sakura and Naruto`s devotion went deeper than that.

"We are not having this bullshit showdown again..." Hidan mumbled, heading to the elevator his feet being the first ones to move from the place where they gathered and argued for the millionth time, finding the entire conversation to drift from possibly useful, to extremely childish, when they could have had that hunch on their way to Egypt.

"You can stay here and argue like fucking atheists while I am going to save my buddies, the God forsaking snake of my Otokage and the Presidents and look ridiculously hot while doing it."

Sakura Karin and Sasori all snorted at his sarcastic remark, finding it ironic how the number one Sound buffoon would be so resolute and driven to save the world, but moved as well.

While the rest of the Akatsuki followed the silvery haired Sound freak, who was cursing viciously in a language that no one comprehended, because that particular elevator was only operating based on an access card and a secret code that only Suigetsu had and was introducing, Ten Ten remained at the back of the group, beside Karin.

She placed a discreet hand on the red haired woman`s left shoulder, and Karin stopped to acknowledge her, wine orbs narrowing at her mocha ones.

Ten Ten`s voice didn't go beyond a breeze level when she whispered. "I don't like this crazy plan at all. This is ridiculous. If they are wrong, then we will all be dead in no time because of going blindly straight into the lion's den."

To her surprise Karin nodded in complete acknowledgement. "I know."

Ten Ten upcast her eyebrows at her following the others on the large hall while Suigetsu barked into his phone to the pilot to prepare the smart jet, while fumbling with introducing his password, that has been changed for safety measures and apparently, no one announced him of it. "Then why are you–" She trailed, but the word 'cooperate' lingered on her parted lips.

Karin threw an indecipherable look at Sakura`s profile, who was conversing to Neji Hyuga, then turned her head back to smirk at the chocolate eyed Akatsuki. "Because I trust her instinct." About the man she loves.

And not surprisingly, Ten Ten understood what she meant with that look and her silence. She sighed in defeated understanding that they had to be one hundred percent committed to a common cause and dedicate a hundred percent because if one didn't believe in their version of truth… then it was all in vain. "It's ridiculous to risk our lives for such a chimerical assumption."

They needed to confront Lorane with pure logic, not feelings.

"Trust me that sometimes, this is the best we have. Remember that ever since we entangled with Lorane's plans, we automatically stepped into the unconventional."

In return, Karin tapped the crown of Ten Ten`s head in encouragement, a gesture very reminiscent to a mother patting her kid. "So, we can safely leave logic aside and welcome the magic and sentiments."

Inwardly, similar figments were churning inside her brain and she was tempted to be just as suspicious and tempted to disagree with Ten Ten but also, the Sound has always been blindly trusting their comrades and each other`s intuition, supporting each other and not being afraid to take the risk of mistaken and that was exactly the reason why they were superior to the Akatsuki, but also, glorious and victorious.

"We are heading to the Interpol's secret airport." Suigetsu`s voice snapped the two women back into the current conversation, both joining the group amassed in front of the elevator, getting quizzical glares from the other agents, but they merely brushed off like they talked about nothing important.

"That is thirty minutes far from the metropolitan area." Suigetsu detailed his plan, Meaning on the outskirts of the city on a rocky deserted region that was void of inhabitants and denied the access of unauthorized people, of course, with a high security.

"About damn time…" The sharky man smirked victoriously when the familiar 'click' made the two metal doors slide slowly open, successfully introducing his password, but he won't forget to punish his subordinates for not introducing his old contact into the database.

Only… before he got the chance to take a single step into the elevator, Suigetsu, just like the rest of the gang, froze dead in his tracks, as his amethyst orbs went wider than the moon. "What the – "

An appalled Sakura beat Suigetsu to say whatever he had to say, while looking at the two people that were staying right before her jadeite eyes, popping up from the same elevator that they were just about to ride down to the underground parking lot. "You have to be freaking kidding me!"

For one good minute, no one uttered a single world, like the wings of time have been denied their fluttering of time.

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A/N: So, as I have promised, I have split the last chapter in more smaller ones so that I won`t be finishing this story yet. I understand that this chapter might not have been the most eventful one –recently, none of my stories were and I agree with that– but it was a necessary teaser for what is about to come. Because the next chapter is probably among the ones that you guys eagerly anticipate, for it will be the chapter of all the REVEALINGS – Sasuke, Sakura and the rest of the gang and of course, the Leaders of the Lorane.

I don't know how skillful I am in conveying the message of this story, especially the closure and I am positive that things might be a little blurry at this point, especially with the whole Lorane and the Great Pyramid ordeal, but I will explain everything to you guys in the upcoming chapters.

I want to emphasize and repeat this: I know that the whole Akatsuki and Sound psychological clash might have come as stale and too long, but this way, when the time for the unraveling of the truth will come, the impact and the feelings will overflow and will make absolute sense. I wanted you guys to understand each of the characters` inner feelings and opinions, before they head up to where Lorane is.

But… I want to take my time and properly thank all of you guys who kept on sending me messages and left reviews, in which you displayed how much you like my story and how impatient are you to read the next update. Part of the reason why I am not finishing this story yet, is because this is the only way I have to repay you for this continuous amazing support.

So, to all of you:

Guest

chichivivas

pearlsandpotions

Maram

ElevatedJewel

xIchaIchaParadisex

Hi

Kurose Sakurazaki

jazz

Guest

lovesasusakuforever

Katherine

guest

itsbritneybitch

Guest

pearlsandpotions

hifi

RaveMeHard

Kelly

Dieinhappiness

in. every. desire

guest

Spry1391999

Closet Perv

Kelly

Kiara Dragneel

Rui

Guest

White. Rose. Didi,

There are not enough words of gratitude in this world to convey my feelings for the beautiful words and all the encouragement. Reading your reviews over and over again has made me feel more inspired and know that I own you all the fact that I am still here, writing stories and sharing them with you. Thank you a million times!

I feel ashamed for not having time to respond to each review in turn, just like how you guys deserve, but I am in a rush to post this chapter and I don't want to make you guys wait any longer for it, but do know that I read every single line you left and it made me unbelievably jolly and deeply touched by how much you like this story. It means a lot to me, since this is my very first story posted since I have joined this community and it holds a special place in my heart. I initially wanted to re-write the first chapters and I have already did it with some of them, because my writing style now doesn't resemble the one I had and I feel like I have become better than how I was two years ago, but then I come into terms with the fact that I don't want to erase my old version as an author and I am not ashamed of how I used to be, because even though my vocabulary and my writing style have changed, my feelings didn't and I want this story to be a proof of that.

There are still some answers and observations that I want to respond to, hoping that it will stand as a token for how thrilled I am to have you as my readers:

Please, do not worry about the length of your reviews and think for a second that I am not deeply grateful to you all for taking your time to even read this story, because I treasure every single word and line you leave. I know that you are all very busy people and what is like to be trapped into this tumultuous life and hectic schedules and for this, please do not apologize. Your words as they are now, mean the world to me.

I am thrilled to know that the lemons are welcomed and highly appreciated. I know that I have said it before, but they are my favorite part to write. I am an addict and a digger for Sasuke and Sakura romance, in any forms and I want it to be graceful, passionate, heartbreaking, amazing. I want to give them their fair share of intimacy in every of my stories and honestly… those are my favorite scenes to write.

Now we all know that me being such an amazing author or the best out here is highly exaggerated, but seriously, seeing some of you guys saying it is just… I don't care how it would sound and please do not consider me as an arrogant person because I am not one, but it makes me feel so proud and so GOOD! So thank you guys for so openly stating it and for my 'number one fans' I only have this message to convey: I am your number one fan, dattebayou!

There are some of you wondering – and hoping – that I will write an Epilogue to this story and my answer is, YES, I WILL write an Epilogue for this story when it is over. It will be a separate chapter with a short glimpse into their future and who knows… maybe a baby (girl) coming on the road? *wink wink* But I cannot possibly leave you guys without an Epilogue, no way.

I can exhale in relief now that I found out that you guys enjoyed the 'interactions' between Suigetsu and Karin;) There is no secret for any of you who are my readers that I don't hate Karin, on the contrary, I find her character intriguing, interesting and with a lot of potential and this is why I wanted her to be Sakura`s friend here – some of you smartly noticed that I give Sakura a different BFF in each of my stories – and Karin fitted the role here. It`s good to know that my approach on her personality here was likable. And of course the… hot scenes. Oh, I loved writing those encounters, especially the one from the interrogation room.

By the way… oh my God, I literarily rolled on the floor, laughing at my silly mistake LOL. I cannot believe it that I have mistaken 'nephew' from 'grandson'! If you guys wouldn't have emphasized this so elegantly, I would have never realized it. Well I know that my English is far from polished and neat, but I wouldn't make that kind of mistake. Want me to confess it to you the reason why I got it wrong? Because I was trapped into the latest update of another story of mine, 'High school memories' and in that story, Sasuke is Madara`s 'nephew' and not 'grandson', and I was being used with that terminology, so gomen ne guys? Thank you for telling me about it.

Of course that I will remember every single of you guys! I will never forget about anyone who reads my stories – this and the other ones, because some of you read my entire work – and I highly encourage you to post your own stories and let me read them, I will do it!

Hehe, one thing that I appreciate about you guys is that you are so CLEVER! IT is almost unfair how amazingly brainy you are. Congrats for realizing that Oro was in touch with Sasuke all the times. See? You make my job more difficult because I have to put my little brain to good use and make it all more convoluted and complex, just because I know that if my fans are so insanely clever, then I have to do my best to give them a plot where they should constantly guess and not get bored.

So having said that, know that I love you guys with all my heart and I hope that this chapter wasn't disappointing. I promise that what you all expect is the one to come up next and hopefully, I won`t take so much time to update. Thank you again for everything, you are my legends!

Till next time…