Don't own Naruto .o.o.

"talking"

'thinking'

"Uchiha-san, I wanted to apologize for what happened last night."

"Focus on your studying Sakura-san," Sasuke glared, not wishing to think about the previous night.

The first hour at the restaurant wasn't that bad, it was the second and third hour he didn't really want to think about. It was dark inside, which he liked because with his black dress pants and dark shirt he was very hard to see leaning against the wall. He watched the other guests of the small inn like establishment, there weren't many and the ones there didn't seem to be at ease; it might of had to do with the other guards that were hiding around the room.

He wasn't surprised seeing about six, with the whole royal family in one spot they were a big target. He recognized a few of them from when he attended the one meeting of the councel; he half expected another twenty men waiting outside. But that wasn't what bothered him, the actually meal took about an hour; during that time Sasuke noticed that Uzumaki-sama had downed a whole bottle of wine by herself, and was currently on her second after dinner sake.

Now Sasuke had never seen the woman drink so much, yeah she had one glass of alcohol during their normal family dinners, but nothing more. He could see the princess's worried expression as she tried several times to take the jug away from her mother... that's when everything went down hill.

"Um... mother, don't you think that's enough?" Sakura already knew her mother was drunk, after two glasses of that strong smelling wine she had begun to sway in her seat, and her daughter was surprised she was still up after so much now.

Tsunade didn't answer her, just took another sip of her sake... and then she turned to glare at the Uchiha. Now let's get something straight here, again Tsunade rarely drank but when she did to the point of intoxication... she was a mean drunk; and that night she chose to take her wrath out of the closest man to the table that she wasn't related to.

"You... I know how you are," her voice got deathly low and took more of an edge to is as she continued to glare at him.

'I know who are you too, the lady of the house, mother of the girl I l-... protect; and also currently very very drunk.'

"Mom maybe you should slow down on the sake?" Naruto, being the older child and having seen just what his mother was really like before everyone else, decided that Sasuke didn't deserve to have to deal with her anger right now.

"Tsuande... honey, did something happen at work today?" That simple question set the old woman off, she nearly knocked the table over.

Sasuke was able to pull Sakura from her sit before the said sake jog, that was the cause of the problems, hit her as it crashed on to the table. When her outburst occurred, the restaurant was thankfully empty now, so they didn't have to worry about causing a scene.

Luckily Jiraiya was able to calm her down, but not before she accused Sasuke of working for Orochimaru and that he was going to kill her daughter; she then threw what was left of her cup of sake in his face.

They left the restaurant after that, and Sasuke was worried that Sakura may believe her mother's drunken babbling. But come the next morning when Sakura bumped into him in the hall, she repeatedly apologized for her mother, and asked if he would still be willing to help her study.

And so that is where they were now, Sakura was sitting on the edge of her bed trying to study, but was getting to easily distracted and pissing Sasuke off. It wasn't like he had other things to do that morning really, he just wanted her to pay attention and stop apologizing to him.

He was more focused on what would happen that night with it being the party, and his former boss being there. He knew since he disobeyed direct orders, by not killing Sakura, that not only was the hit still out on her, but without a doubt there was a nice reward on his head too; he'd have to be really alert.

"Ugh! Today has got to be the worst in present time! Not only can I not focus on this boring book, but tonight is the banquet thingy."

"Sakura-san... what exactly is this party for?"

"Huh? Oh I'm not actually sure, I've never been old enough to attend one before this; but I think it's just a bunch of my parents' friends that get together and talk about the old days... or something like that."

'It's a meeting of the clans in the city, Jiraiya must be trying to set up a new councel with people of his choosing.'

It was true about what the older man told him the day before. The ex-councel members, minus Orochimaru and Yahiko, were all under Madara's ruling while he was alive... the old ways were held in high respects by these men. With their deaths, Jiraiya would have to fill the spots with people he trusted; maybe things would change now... no more innocent people getting caught in the mob's cross fire. After all, that wasn't why the councel was formed.

In the early 1900s a group of teens decided to rebel against their families, they formed a small group known as Akatsuki. They started out doing small jobs like robbery and drug running for different clans in the city. But as time went on and the group got stronger, gaining more members, it was time the older clan members did something about them; that's when the councel was formed. Their purpose was to stop the advancement the Akatsuki was making in order to take over the city.

As time went on Akatsuki did disappear into the shadows and the councel took over, uniting all the clans by placing one member of each high ranking family on it; it was at this time Madara came into power and decided he wanted to rule the city himself. Of course that lead to the death of many, including Sasuke's parents... and finally his own death; but that was already explained.

"I'm sure you probably have better things to do then listen to a bunch of older people talk about their younger days; I'm sorry my mother dragged you into this."

"Hn... it's not a problem, I didn't have anything planned tonight anyway." Well technically he was trying to come up with a plan to keep her alive. He knew if he didn't return today with the news of his missions' completion; not only would Karin be sent out, but Orochimaru would probably shoot him right then and there.

"I can't tell if you're lying or not... but I guess that's your training, hehe." She hopped off her bed and made way to the bathroom, Sasuke wasn't sure if he should leave the room or not, seeing as how she left the door open. With what happened last night at dinner, he really didn'twant her mother walking in here thinking something was going on, that clearly wasn't.

She came out a few minutes later with two black bags in her hands. "We've studied enough for today, and I'm going to be taking hours to get into this dress. Dinner's at six, but we have to be there by four."

Sasuke understood that was her nice hint to get out of her room so she could change. "Hn... don't blame me when you fail your exam," he allowed a small smirk to creep on to his face as hers' flamed up in anger.

"If it will please you... we'll continue tomorrow morning, fresh and early, okay?" she gave him a coy smile as he left the room.

'Let's hope Orochimaru decides not to show up tonight... maybe he'll send his slave boy to do his biding; he's a lot easier to take down than his master.'

Note: Okay this one was a little short and the only thing you found out was what happened at the dinner the night before, I didn't want it to get too long. Sorry for the late update, my computer isn't working correctly and only allows me on at night, and my classes started up again and they are a LOT harder this quarter; which means I have to spend more time on them then on here, so I'm trying my best, please be patient with me. I want to put as much info I can put in each chapter so there doesn't have to be a whole lot of them; but that will take me longer.

Special thanks to:
Fantom Phreeke
Jamie-Kins So Deal
XoXoGOSSIPGIRLoXoX
sakurasapprentice7
jesselovemeto
Dreams of the future
TragedyDawl
Thanks for reviewing... keep it up!