'Stupid Sasuke making me say stupid things and therefore making me look stupid!' Uren cursed moodily in her head as she slammed her door open. 'Where did that Uchiha get off anyway? Hmm...Uren would really like to know tha-No! Shut up Uren, shut up!' Uren hit the palm of her hand against her forehead repeatedly.

"That's gonna leave a redmark and it ain't gonna look good."

Uren looked up, not surprised to see her best friend sitting, cross-legged, on her bed. "Shut up," she retorted immediately.

Ai giggled and swung her legs onto the floor. "Fuck off," she replied good-naturedly before she patted the mattress next to her, indicating Uren should sit down. "But for real Uren, what's with the head slapping? That doesn't really fit with your 'ice cold' image."

"You and I both know I don't have an 'ice cold' image," Uren replied moodily as she sat down next to Ai.

The pair sat in a comfortable silence for a while before Ai leant sideways. "Sasuke?" she inquired, not having to look at Uren to know the girl had gone pink.

"I just..." Uren stopped herself and sighed uncomfortably. The girl wrapped her arms around her stomach, holding herself close. "I just don't get him, is all."

"Oh trust me, I know all about that!" Ai affirmed in her usual over dramatic way. The girl fell out of her sitting position, backwards onto the bed, splaying her arms out as she stared at the ceiling. "Maybe we should just buy some whips and whip the both of them whenever they do something 'mysterious',"

Uren didn't reply, but in the silence she could almost hear her friend's mind whirring. Here it came, the inevitable rude (most likely sexual) comment.

"Whips are good for other things too," Ai continued, she sat back up and grinned into her friend's face.

"Ai," Uren scolded moodily, pushing the green-haired girl away from her. "Keep your hormones in check."

"Says the one who goes red at the very mention of Sasu-You've gone red already! I've not even finished his name and you've gone red!" Ai squealed with delight and burst out laughing.

Uren sat throughout her laughter, wearing a look of pure contempt, for her friend, upon her face.

Ai sighed happily after her laughing spree and then swung an arm around her friend. "Go on then," she grinned. "What happened with Sasuke?"

Uren hastily explained what had transpired between herself and the Uchiha, she almost hated talking about it. Ai rolled her eyes. "So uh... When you are gonna admit to well, yourself at least, that you like him?" Uren exhaled sharply and turned to Ai, her eyes full of despair. "Yeah." She threw her hands at her sides. "I like him. He's all I think about. Alright?" She pulled at her hair in frustration. Ai smiled at her friend and comfortingly rubbed her back. "That's totally fine! You are allowed to like boy ya know!" Ai laughed cheerily. Uren wasn't convinced however. "I don't know Ai... I just feel like, I'm not really honouring my sister's memory. She hated him." Uren hugged herself again, a bit tighter, but continued. "I mean he really annoys me, because he makes fun of me constantly..." Ai smirked, "Uh-huh..." she let her friend carry on, it was obvious she didn't really have anyone else to talk to. "But like, we have these moments, that completely confuse me..." Ai giggled "Well this is seriously juicy! You should spill more often!" This comment received a death glare. "Whatever..." Ai pouted and begged her to continue "Fine... well yeah... He just, I dunno the way he looks at me sometimes gives me serious butterflies. Also, everyone seems to be a bit weirded out that he's training me at all." Ai nodded in agreement. "Yeah from what I've heard he only cares about killing some rival of his and the fact that he's dedicating time to train you at all is like massive!" Uren blushed a little and smiled. "Haha, I guess so... Well what about you Dr. Snakes?" Ai squealed and proceeded to tell her all about how Orochimaru had told her that he liked her. To her surprise Uren didn't come out with some twisted warning about Orochimaru's nature, she seemed genuinley happy for her. "So, he's like totally flirting with you then? That's crazy, I can't imagine him acting the way you've just described!" exclaimed Uren. It felt good to talk Ai about things, she made a mental note to do so more often.

The girl's gossiping was cut off, however, by a knock at the door. Before Uren could move, Ai bounced up and leapt towards the door, swinging it open only to reveal Kabuto in the doorway, a smug smirk on his face. Ai, immediately, went to swing the door shut on him, but Kabuto was ready and his foot was already in the doorway before the mist ninja could close it fully.

"Immaturity," he stated slowly. "Will not get you your dinner."

"Dinner's ready?" Ai asked. "C'mon Uren," the girl barged past Kabuto and waited in the hallway for Uren to join her. "It's dinnertime!"

Uren and Ai fell into step together and began making their way to the large dining hall, Kabuto following along -a safe distance- behind them. Before Ai had arrived, Uren had never usually attented the huge meals each evening. She had preferred to receive her food in her room, but ever since Ai had arrived, she was forever being dragged to the dining hall. If Uren was completely honest...she did quite enjoy the company. Sitting in the hall hearing everybody chat wildly could be quite humorous, not to mention Ai usually managed to get into at least one fight a day over food. However as she and Ai entered the great room today, Uren's heart dropped; sitting with his back to her, on one of the many long table that filled the room, was Sasuke Uchiha. Sasuke never came to the dining hall for food. His main aim in life seemed to be centered around avoiding unnecessary human contact and yet...here he was, sitting brazen amongst a crowd of women who were currently cooing over him. Uren glanced over to Ai to see if her friend had noticed and her face dropped when she realised that the mist ninja had, indeed, noticed.

"I've found our seats," the green-haired girl whispered, her eyes set on Sasuke's table.

"No, Ai," Uren protested quietly. "Besides, there's a load of...girls there," Uren's lip curled as she watched the girls swarm all over the object of her affections.

"Don't worry about it!" Ai stage whispered back. "I'll handle it,"

Before Uren could react, Ai flipped away and landed on the table Sasuke was currently situated at. Mustering the scariest facial expression she could, the little mist ninja looked down upon the girls -now staring at her in horror- below.

"GET OUT OF HERE!" Ai roared. "DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM! I AM THE DEADLIEST NINJA THAT OROCHIMARU HAS EVER SEEN! HE EVEN SAID THAT HIMSELF! I DEMAND YOU MOVE. MOVE NOW LITTLE ONES, LEST I EAT YOUR FUCKING HEARTS AND RIP YOUR FUCKING FACES OFF!"

The girls -who were not strong ninja, simply weak lackies of Orochimaru's- screamed in horror and flooded away from the table, leaving Ai to settle in across from Sasuke. Sasuke looked at her with a rather bland look, obviously judging her.

"Cool it hottie, it's not just me sitting with you," Ai laughed in reply to Sasuke's question, before she yanked a plate from the middle of the table and began tearing into whatever it was that was on it.

Uren watched all this transpire and then slowly tried to gather her nerves. Eventually the girl mustered them and she slowly walked over to join Ai at the table. Sasuke watched her sit down and a small -quick- smile slipped across his lips before it disappeared once again.

"Hello Uren," he greeted.

"mmf," Uren replied. "What're you doing in here? You don't eat in here. You should...you eat in your room, don't you? Why aren't you eating there?"

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "Am I not allowed to eat in here?"

"You are, it's just..." Uren trailed off and glanced at the table, feeling uncomfortable.

Ai glanced up from her food and took in the situation before her. "Oh hey fuckbutts," she exclaimed, suddenly jumping up from the table. "I've actually gotta leave," the girl made wide eyes at Uren, signifying she was going to leave her in Sasuke's company.

Uren shot a desperate look back, but to no avail as Ai skipped out of the hall, high-fiving a few of her brutish friends along the way. Uren was left with Sasuke...

For all of a few seconds anyway, because suddenly a huge lackie of Orochimaru's sat down next to her and swung his arm around her shoulders. Uren stiffened immediately. Sasuke's eyes narrowed.

"Well hello beautiful," the lackie purred, making Uren's skin crawl.