A/N: Well here goes with a little time-skip and in a slightly different setting (don't worry it's back to Naruto and Sasuke in the next chapter!

Warning for a teeny mention of dealing with the Sakura/Ino relationship, no real yuri.

Seventy-nine days later in Konoha City...

"His birthday's on the 10th of October right?"

"Yeah."

"Well technically that's now."

"It's 5 minutes past midnight, somehow I don't think he'd appreciate the birthday call right this second, best wait until morning."

"Maa I guess so."

Sakura rolled over on the sofa, stretching luxuriously. She and Ino were enjoying a rare opportunity to relax. They had been patrolling the streets of Konoha City every night for several weeks. But Sakura knew Ino didn't find time off as fun as she did. Ino quite frankly relished the hunt. Chasing the scum off their streets was challenging and sometimes exciting but Sakura had never really developed Ino's enthusiasm for the hunt. Still there was a lot to be said for Ino's passion which extended to most of her life.

Sakura smiled to herself as she watched Ino sharpen the spikes on her boots. She could simply ask Tenzou to reshape them, he was, after all, in charge of weapons maintenance. But Sakura enjoyed watching the concentration on her lover's beautiful face. Sakura thanked her lucky stars that they had been able to patch things up, it had taken time and a lot of honest talking but they were getting along much better now. She really was thankful. To Sakura, Ino was her world. Unlike Ino, Sakura didn't have a large family of hunters behind her, she only knew her mother's side of the family and none of them had magickal blood. She had never known her father and apparently neither had her mother. Still she rarely visited her mother, the woman was ashamed of her for her hunter identity, something that was completely out of her control. The Hunt was her family now as well as Ino.

Sakura's musings were broken by a buzzer sounding. Her and Ino were the only people in the coven lounge tonight so she stood and walked over to the intercom.

"Yes?"

"Kakashi spotted possible trouble," said Juugo immediately, his voice betraying no further information.

"Inside the club?"

"Yes."

"We'll be right up," said Sakura. Then she turned to Ino, "Kit up."

While Ino pulled on her boots with newly sharpened spikes, Sakura checked her silver knuckles were in her bag and attached it to her belt. They hurried up the dark spiral staircase and burst through the door at the top. Juugo opened the door into the club and pointed them towards a booth in a darkened corner away from the dance floor. Ino took her hand and Sakura let her lead them through the crowds to find Kakashi nursing a beer that he wasn't really drinking. They slid into leather seats opposite him.

"See the man sitting at the bar? Red hair, sunglasses," said Kakashi in a voice only distinguishable over the music because of the way hunter's tuned parts of their hearing out. Only Sakura looked over casually so it wouldn't seem suspicious.

"What are the sunglasses hiding?" she asked.

"I can't be sure but I think I saw red."

"A demon?!" hissed Ino. "How the hell did he get in here? Are our repellent barriers down?"

"No, Tenzou checked."

"Then how?"

"That's what I'd like to find out. I'm going to hypnotise him, take him somewhere quite and 'talk'. when I approach him I need you two to keep an eye out for his partner, if he has one."

They both nodded and watched the tall man walk away. He took a seat at the end of the bar near the entrance to the coven. They saw Kakashi tap him on the shoulder. The man jerked around but when curiously still when he saw Kakashi. Then the short red head stood and walked calmly towards the door to the backroom.

Ino was the first to see it. As soon as his friend had left a blond man who had been leaning against a wall put his drink down and made to follow them. Sakura and Ino immediately jumped up and blocked his path, standing between him and the door through which Kakashi had left with his prey. This man was rather taller than his friend, with long blond hair tied up high on his head and identical sunglasses.

"No entry, staff only," said Ino firmly, waving at the sign on the door reading 'Employees Only'.

"Ah I do apologise, yeah, my friend just went in here by mistake, so I should probably go and fetch him, yeah?" he flicked his hair and gave them a smooth smile.

"No can do. Your friend is being questioned by a member of staff regarding a possible drugs charge," lied Sakura, without batting an eyelid.

"Is that so? 'Cause I happen to know Sasori-dana is dead set against drugs, yeah, he's straight edge see."

"Maybe you don't know him as well as you like to think," Ino suggested.

"Please understand this is merely procedure," added Sakura when his mouth turned into an angry line.

"Perhaps you better leave?" said Ino, pointing at the main exit and giving him a sugary sweet smile.

The blond man snarled this time and stepped up close to Ino to hiss in her ear. "Or perhaps I should just reduce this lousy coven to ashes."

Sakura reacted immediately in the quickest way she could. She grabbed his jewels quite firmly in one hand.

"If you value these," she said giving them a squeeze, "Then you'll leave, right now."

He winced and nodded but Sakura held on for a moment longer while Ino pulled out her phone and took a quick picture of his face. As soon as she released him he turned around and fled, shoving people out of the way. It was a shame they had to meet him in such a crowded place really, they hadn't come across a demon in quite a while, they were rare as they preferred to send their minions to do their dirty work. But thankfully both sides avoided outright conflict, although demons cared little for human lives, everyone feared exposure.

"We'll get his face up on the targets board downstairs," said Ino flipping away her phone. "Do you think we should check on Kakashi?"

As soon as they entered the employees lounge Kakashi pointed them to a draw under the computer desks. "Take care of the car down the street, black, reg: AKA."

Ino quickly collected what they needed and then they both rushed outside, they knew the drill; it had to look like a normal occurrence, no evidence allowed. The car was a sleek model with tinted windows to

match it's paint job. Sakura glanced around before lifting the car up a little so that Ino could slide underneath and install the explosive device. As usual the brake was the trigger. Kakashi was surely busy right this minute firmly instructing this 'Sasori' to drive somewhere quite before using the brake.

There were procedures for this kind of thing, after all without set procedures hunter's wouldn't be able to work together as seamlessly as they did. Everyone knew what to do, it was drilled into them as part of their training.

When they were done they moved away to stand in a dark alleyway. Sure enough Sasori walked out of the club and down the street. He seemed to be in a daze as he started up the car and drove away. Sakura and Ino walked back to Gin no Daiyamondo to find Kakashi watching from the doorway.

"He'll drive to the old industrial estate before detonating it. Tenzou has informed Tsunade of the breach we need to need them."

The three of them made their way down Tsunade's office where she paced angrily. Tenzou stood next to her, looking eager for information.

"What's going on Kakashi?!" she growled, as soon as he appeared. "You better have gotten me answers."

"I did," said Kakashi. "And I got this."

He pulled from an inside pocket a faintly glowing hunter's pendant. Tsunade took it from him quickly and Sakura saw her mouth fall open. Her face fell as she held the old pendant to her chest lovingly.

"Jiraiya," she sobbed.

Kakashi looked intensely sad as well, Jiraiya-sama had been his mentor in his learner years. As his bonded Tsunade could surely feel the dead man's magick in the dying pendant. Sakura bit her lip, this was bad; how had this relic fallen into demon hands?

"That's how he passed through our barriers undetected; he was hiding behind Jiraiya-sama's magick," said Tenzou quietly. "What is the meaning of this?"

"It means they're getting clever. Close the club early. I'm calling a meeting."

Tenzou was sent upstairs to send an email to every phone number on the coven's list of allied hunters and half an hour later most of them had gathered in the arena. Over a hundred hunters were crowded into the cavernous room and more were filtering in from posts across the city but this wasn't even half their actual strength. Sakura knew these were only the hunters most closely associated with the coven, many preferred to work alone or not at all. Tsunade stood in the centre underneath the witchfire brazier. Kakashi was at her side like a very relaxed bodyguard. A meeting like this had never been called in Sakura's hunter lifetime and it was quite a sight. She and Ino stood between a group of burly man who looked like they belonged in a motorcycle gang and a willowy boy with long hair dyed in a rainbow of unnatural colours. As she looked at him from the corner of her eye he glared at her and the colours of his hair began to change rapidly. Sakura looked back at Tsunade quite quickly, taking hold of Ino's hand.

"Listen up everyone!" shouted Tsunade over the general chatter. "We haven't called a meeting like this in a while but I believe recent events have made it necessary to put the hunter community on it's guard."

Tsunade waved Kakashi into the middle and he gave his account of tonight to the gathered people. There were general mutterings at the mention of a demon in the supposed safe-house. But not everyone was worried. The leader of the 'burly men' stepped forward, his stance defiant.

"You called us here to worry over your petty anti-demon barrier? You forget, Tsunade, that not everyone needs this dump to hide in. The Majo Buke(1) do not need to hide, we are strong and guard our territories well."

The arena fell silent in a tense reaction to this challenge of power. Sakura knew the coven was by no means the only hunter organisation in Konoha but it was the largest and therefore held much of the ruling vote. The other groups usually looked to the coven for guidance and protection, they had deep roots here in Konoha and a hand in everything from the Police force to the communications board. But the Majo Buke were also well known, they were indeed a motorcycle gang, but they were also a brotherhood of strong hunters who controlled many bars and red light establishments.

"The point is not that the coven is in danger but that demons are advancing and that is bad news for everyone," said Tsunade firmly. "Kakashi is not the only one with a report to give, so I ask that you exercise some patience and listen. Kiba?"

On the other side of the circle Kiba stepped into the light and lowered the hood of his coat. There were several gasps as the gathered hunters recognised his more wolfish features; the large canines and slitted eyes.

"You! Tsunade, I heard you had made use of this abomination but even I am surprised at your nerve, bringing him here to stand before us!" The outburst was from the motorcyclist again, this time he looked ready for a fight.

Kiba's stance stiffened. "I may be an 'abomination' but running with the wolves makes for good information gathering," he said sharply. "I'm here to tell you that there have been warning signs surfacing everywhere and the wolves are acting strangely. Something is happening that has never been seen before; the wolves are becoming ordered. There have been organised attacks for months now, getting more frequent and there are wolf packs, recently very large ones, all of whom are making moves to 'recruit'."

"Don't all wolves move in packs?" asked a heavily pierced women to the left of Sakura.

"Not werewolves, they're solitary creatures. Or rather, selfish creatures, they don't like to share their prey," Kiba looked rather sick at the mention of prey. "They usually hunt alone to satisfy their savage greed but these packs have different motives. Their attacks are coordinated and although fatalities have become fewer werewolf numbers are rapidly rising out of control."

The leader of the motorcyclists grunted reluctantly. "I'll vouch for that," he said gruffly. "I've lost several of my best hunters in recent weeks, every one of them to werewolf attacks. But only a few nights ago we came across one of them, in a crowd of his new cronies. So what do we do against such savagery?" he asked looking at Kiba to illustrate 'savagery'.

"All we can do is increase our measures against them, we'll all work hard to keep these streets safe. At the same time I'd like everyone to gather as much information as possible. We should all do our best to relay any information collected to as many hunters as we can, everyone needs to know the situation for us to combat it. The coven is here as a place of refuge for anyone who needs it particularly the younger generation who are often most at risk."

The meeting went on for well over an hour with speakers from across the city giving their testimony of the deteriorating position of hunters everywhere. There were more reports of werewolf organisations and attacks. Information concerning the sordid nests of vampires and the places succubi had recently taken to frequenting. There was however little mention of demonic activity, at a time when every evil subspecies in the city seemed intent on multiplying, demons were mysteriously illusive. None of it boded well for the future of the coven. Something was stirring in the underbelly of Konoha City.

(1) Witch Warriors, could also be taken as Witch 'Military Family', either way impresses their purpose.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed. I plan to post the next chapter pretty soon since this one was short.

-Yasu