Wal-Mart.

"Why do we come here?" Sakura said, aiming another dart under the florescent lights. There was a dartboard set up farther down the toy aisle. Behind them stood the monstrous electronics section, its cardboard displays and dvd racks threatening to spill out into the rest of the store.

Sai, resplendent in his Wal-Mart uniform, leaned forward, looking unhappy. "What do you mean?"

Sakura let the dart fly. It missed, bounced off one of the gardening tools in the next aisle. Sai winced. Sakura turned around and looked at Sasuke and Naruto, browsing through the cd section. "Wal-Mart should not be a hang-out place."

"Cheap cds," Sasuke muttered.

"Cheap?" Sai said. "Maybe if you're rocking the r&b section. Wal-Mart takes a look at anything critically acclaimed and slaps a big fat price tag on it."

"Goddamn," Naruto said. "He's right. Hey, Sakura, let me try a hand at the dartboard."

Sai ducked as Naruto leapt over his counter. "Hey!" he said. "If the supervisor comes by-"

"Calm down, Sai-boy," Sakura said, handing Naruto a dart. "I'll run interference if that happens. He won't be able to get by my blinding good looks."

"Your blinding pink hair maybe," Sasuke muttered.

"I didn't even think you listened to music."

"Mhm."

Naruto picked up the dart, held it steady, looked at the board. Focus, time to focus, time to really focus. He let fly. The dart ricocheted off a Barbie playset and embedded itself into the side of a Magnatron warrior.

"You, sir," Sai said, "are truly the dart-throwing champion of the world."

"Never said I had good aim."

Sakura reached into her pocket and pulled out a massive brass pocketwatch, flipped it open. "I wanna go get something to eat but I'd hate to abandon Sai to his torment."

"My shift only has three hours left." he said.

"Three hours," Naruto said, picking up another dart. "But I'm hungry now."

"If you suggest eating at McDonalds," Sakura said, putting the pocketwatch back into her pocket, "I'm going to shoot you."

"Why do you have that?" Sai said.

"Have what?"

"That pocketwatch."

"So I don't lose it."

"What?"

"It's chained to my pocket, see? If I drop it, it'll just hang there."

"Why don't you get, I don't know, a watch? The kind with straps?"

"You're so pedestrian."

"Where'd you get it, anyways?"

"From an uncle, I think. One of them."

"So, like, not your grandfather's, or a family heirloom or anything like that?"

"I doubt it. There's a picture of a naked woman painted on the interior."

"Wow. That's quite the uncle."

"Wish I could remember which one."

Naruto's dart missed, flying somewhere farther into the shelves, crashing among the gardening implements. Naruto turned around and said, "Guys. What about food?"

Sakura looked back at him. "Starving, are we? What about you, Sasuke? Hungry?"

"Mhm."

"You're so eloquent, Sasuke. Where do we want to eat?"

Sai looked up. "You guys'll bring me back something, right?"

ooo

When they sidled into the booth at the chinese restaurant, Sasuke slid the bag across it to the Naruto. The light coming in through the blinds of the window next to them rippled over the contours of the plastic. Naruto picked it up, looked inside.

"Dance music," Sasuke said.

"Oh, sweet."

"Dance music?" Sakura said. "What's all this about? Oh oh oh oh oh fuck shut up! Shut up! Quiet!"

Sakura had been hitting them. They stared back at her. She was looking away, outwards into the rest of the restaurant. "Oh my god," she said. "Oh my god, it's him."

"Who?" Naruto asked.

"This boy. This boy. Shut up. He can't see me here. Uh, what do we do?"

"Why can't he see us here?" Sasuke asked.

"Shut up! Heads down! Now!"

She ducked down and Naruto and Sasuke stared at her. As she did, a boy wanted by, stopped, and turned towards them. He stared at them and said, "Naruto?"

Naruto looked up at him, eyes widening. "Sasori?"

"Wow," Sasori said, expressionless. "What are the odds."

Standing there, the light pouring down on him, his shoulders and tips of his hair alight as if they were fire, Sakura thought he was beautiful, in his black jeans and dark Radiohead t-shirt. He looked back at her. "Nice hair."

And then he was gone.

"Jesus," Naruto said. "Awkward."

"That was him!" Sakura hissed. "That was him! Did you see him? That was him."

"Yeah I know him," Naruto said, leaning back. "He used to be in one of my foster homes."

"Really? What's he like?"

"I don't know. A little weird. Can't blame him really." He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "His grandmother tried to kill him."

"Bummer."

"Yeah," Sasuke said, tapping the table with the chopsticks. "Murderous family members are the worst."

ooo

Sasori walked up the stairs of the restaurant to the second floor, and across the empty room, passing the empty tables and the empty chairs. The restaurant didn't open its second floor until dinner time when there would be the rush, so every step of him creaked in the silence. At the other end of the room Shikamaru and Jugo sat at one of the tables.

"He's downstairs," Sasori said. "Where's Deidara?"

"Throwing up in the bathroom," Shikamaru said. "How drunk were you guys?"

Sasori shrugged. "Pretty drunk, I don't know."

"He's still drunk."

"He drank a lot."

"I can't believe I'm paired with all you idiots."

"Hey, you want to fight about this?"

"Honestly? Is that a serious question?"

"No, I guess not. But I don't like your attitude."

Jugo looked up. "I'd like to fight you. Can I, Shikamaru?"

Shikamaru stood up. "Be my guest. I'm going downstairs to try and complete our mission."

He went to the stairs and started down them, the warm gloom of the restaurant below swallowing him up. He walked along the booths, looking at each one. He spotted the one with Naruto, began to head towards them, and froze.

Kabuto, Karin and Suigetsu walked through the door. With Ino.

Ino, of all people! How the heck did she end up in the same town Shikamaru was assigned to? Didn't make sense, did it? Goddamn it.

She looked in his direction and he ducked back, staring ahead down the hallway that lead to the restaurant kitchen. Sliding slowly, he fell down and sat on the floor. Ino had been sweet memories, tinged, of course, with the desire to go back to her. It had always been this tightening on his heart: had he done the right thing? Every day Akatsuki deteriorated a little more, every time they hired people like the people upstairs, he started to lose a little more faith.

And then Jugo was standing beside him, looking down at him. "Is this was we call completing our mission?"

"Ino's out there."

"Ah. Well, I can go strangle her to death, if you like."

"Please don't."

"Well, I'll get us some beers instead."

ooo

"So," Sakura said, leaning forwards in the table. "Are we looking forwards to the dancing tonight?"

"Hells yes," Naruto said, digging into his fried rice.

"Yeah," Sasuke said. "I think I'll do fairly well."

"Hells yes you will."

"Mhm."

Sasuke looked over across the restaurant, saw Kabuto sitting down next to Ino. What was happening there? He couldn't imagine Kabuto taking Ino under his wing without something sinister going on. "Yeah," he said. "Yeah, I'm looking forward to it."

ooo

Naruto came out of his room in the dinner jacket, smoothing it out, smoothing down the pants. "How do I look?"

Iruka stood at the bottom of the stairs. He gave a thumbs-up. "Looking sharp!"

Sakura was driving Sasuke and Naruto to the dance, and Iruka watched him run out to her car. It was exorbitantly, excellently wonderful to see a smile on that kid's face. As he closed the door, he thought about Gaara, the kid pulled into the spirit-world. Kakashi had performed a dozen rituals designed to find him and pull him out. It's no use, Kakashi said. Any mortal trapped in the spirit-world with at least half a strong will should've been able to pull himself out of any reflective surface a long time ago. If Gaara was still stuck there, it was because he wanted to be.

Iruka couldn't imagine. He went into the bathroom, peeled off the cover on the bathroom mirror, gazed at his reflection. What to do tonight, then? He had some work to do but that'd only take him maybe twenty minutes, half an hour. Read a book? Go out? Not many places to go in a town like this?

Call Kakashi, a voice in his head told him. Nooo, he thought, let's not and say we did. Let's not go overstepping any boundaries here.

"Let him go, did we?"

Iruka turned around and looked at the mirror. Oh no.

A thin hardened Japanese face stared back at him, the mouth bandaged, a headband tying up the starchy black hair.

"Zabuza Momochi," Iruka breathed. "You're dead. Kakashi killed-"

"Just like I'm going to kill your little Naruto tonight?" Zabuza said. "Oh, wait, no, big difference this time: I'm actually going to succeed."

"No-"

"Oh, and just so you don't interfere like you did with Mizuki--"

The sink exploded and the tap on the bathtub burst, and water crashed outwards. Seawater burst through the mirror, getting Iruka in the face and knocking him back. The door swung closed and locked. The room sealed somehow, the pressure making Iruka's ears pop. And the water began to fill up.