Been a while. I know. Kill me in your head if you want. I'm sorry. So so—sorry. And with a chocolate taco for dinner, a still stressed out state of mind, I give you this long awaited chapter.

I'm nervous about so many things right now- my heart goes zero to fifty in a snap. Ugh. This is a new point in my life and I haven't a clue on how to go about this yet. High school was much easier...

Getting sick sucks. I must apologize in advanced for typos

READ AND REVIEW PLEASE =) They help the chapter writing.

Chapter 7: Breaks and Mistakes

LOCATION: Liquid Fire Hotel, 9 pm, Mission Status: Infiltration and Recon

The ballroom was alit with laughter, music and the casual buzzing of its occupants. Sasuke slushed around the red liquid in his half-filled wine glass and stared at the room without a trace of emotion on his face that showed he was having fun.

Because, let's face it. He wasn't.

"You're ruining good wine." Someone joked from behind him. The Uchiha lolled his head to the side and lifted the glass up. "It does its job." He murmured, downing it after his statement. As refined as Sasuke was—all he needed right now was a good kick of alcohol to get him through the night.

"My, someone looks like he isn't enjoying himself." A voiced buzzed from his ear piece. "Shut up." Sasuke quipped irritably, grabbing another wine glass from a passing tray.

The sudden outburst startled the unknown guest. "I didn't mean to offend." His tone was nervous and apologetic. He was a tall man; as tall as Sasuke. And he too was dressed in all black and had a mask on, covering his eyes.

Yes, Sasuke was in a masquerade.

The annoyed Uchiha whispered a few curse words before shrugging the masked man off. "It's fine—Excuse me…" He was swift and curt; leaving as soon he finished the sentence.

Sasuke walked around the gold-themed ballroom, stepping aside to avoid a few ladies who were pressing up to him lightly in hopes of getting a dance or two out of the esteemed Uchiha. Well, they didn't exactly know who he was with his mask and all.

But he still looked pretty attractive despite the mask hiding a lot of his features—must've been the way he carried himself.

It was getting a little too crowded for the Uchiha's liking and the face was far too bright. Gold lights, cream table linens and that ridiculous chandelier—God-awful party this was.

"It's like someone threw me back into the renaissance period." He drawled, earning a giggle from a woman beside him. "The only difference is the scantily clad women-I'm pretty sure she's not wearing underwear." She pointed to a lady in an extremely tight dark purple gown that hugged her body like latex.

"Sakura." Sasuke breathed a sigh of relief. He'd been searching for her ever since he lost her in the sea of people twenty minutes ago.

"How d'you do?" she mocked, giving a curtsey to top of her act that was cut short by a glare. The rosette straightened up and smirked lightly. "Aren't you used to these kinds of things?" Besides, the renaissance period was one of her favorites—if Sakura had to pick an alternate period to live in, she'd probably go for that.

Sasuke shrugged. "I've seen them all—this one is trying too hard." Sakura's tinkling laughter enveloped him, lightening his sour mood to a dull irritation; a big difference from his black aura a few minutes ago.

Funny how Sakura could make such a difference.

They were stationed by one of the many huge window-doors that lined the outer wall of the room, each window led out onto separate balconies in case people needed some air. It was actually a beautiful ballroom; its walls were a nice off white and were panelled with gold. The ceiling was high and arched, adorned with breath-taking carvings.

"Do you realize that we're in the presence of criminals?" Sakura took a sip of her champagne. "I'm well-aware." The two looked around the room, searching for their ever-elusive target and his number one personal assistant.

"Any sign of Hatori?" the rosette asked, scanning the upper balcony. It was a sudden mission, this one. They had been given information of a gala that Hatori and many other high-class underworld heads would be attending. It was a masquerade—how fitting. Half of these men and women were known people in high-society and most of them were into illegal activities be it small things like drugs to the major leagues like unauthorized shipping of weapons. Of course those were hidden behind wealth, fame and good publicists—oh and the masks.

Not all were crimelords—it was just that, ninety percent of them were accused of being one and thrity-five percent, Sasuke and Sakura knew, were definitely part of a big-time crime syndicate who've once or twice made it to one of their files in HQ.

Lucky for them, they were on the hunt for someone else.

"This is some high-class drug deal meet-up." Sakura grumbled. Really, the point of this was for these criminal heads to meet and converse—maybe strike up an agreement to work together and help each other out—all in all they were here to give people like Sakura and Sasuke headaches and a whole lot of paperwork.

"I'd bomb the place if I were Tsunade." Ino voiced her opinion through the tiny ear pieces on Sakura's ear. The rosette, in turn, replied levelly. "Not everyone is bad here Ino—it's still a charity ball—with some uncertain guests of questionable moral standing but hey, they still were helping a medical charity.

"I'm just saying—less reports to file. Now you two go act normal and dance a little." Were they sticking out that badly? Sakura thought to herself as she eyed the center of the room with a little longing; she did want to dance but she was pretty sure her dark-haired companion thought the idea was repulsive.

Sasuke caught her longing stare and put a hand out for Sakura to take. "May I have this dance?" he asked in his deep and charming baritone. Sakura laughed and took his hand.

"Only because you asked nicely."

"You're glad I asked."

LOCATION: Liquid Fire Hotel Back Entrance, 9 pm

In a van hidden by crates and dumpsters, Ino and Tayuya monitored the party. Both women were bored and irritable. There was no sign of Hatori and definitely no sign of his boss.

"We don't even know what he looks like! What're we going to do, take an educated guess and go fromt there?" Tayuya sat in front of the screen, glaring at the dancing people. "And why am I not down there?" she asked Ino who was beside her.

The blonde rolled her eyes and put down her coffee. "Hatori shot you—he's seen your face." Ino wasn't happy about the arrangement either. Being stuck with Tayuya in a small van, that wasn't exactly a dream either.

"Fine but why aren't you giving me microphone?" Ino had taken away her microphone the moment they set up the screens and video feed. A precautionary method, if you will, in case she started a fight with Sakura again or vice versa.

This was an important mission. Hatori was the head honcho's number one delivery boy. Wherever he was going would be a direct order from the boss. So if they were to follow or get a lead on their whereabouts, taking down the drug-lord would be smooth sailing onwards.

That is, if they could just spot him.

"Tayuya, just shut up." Ino grumbled. She was trying her hardest to check for signs of Hatori or if the two agents were being recognized. It was tough enough doing it alone but with Tayuya rambling over such trivial matters, it was downright impossible.

"Ugh. Just tell her not to be a whore around my boyfriend—OW!" A red mark appeared on her forehead where Ino had hit her with a random flyswatter. "You were asking for that one, admit it."

The redhead rubbed her stinging forehead and glared at the grinning blonde. "Where fuck did you get a flyswatter?"

11 hours prior to mission. Location: ANBU Headquarters Training Floor. 10 am

He leapt through the air like a tiger about to pounce on his unfortunate prey—his muscles were coiled and tensed as he cut through the air in a blur of fluid movement. Laughing green eyes followed their subject; amusement glazing them as they followed his interesting procedure.

In this state, Sasuke looked like a surreal entity, soaring through air with such agility—as if gravity was of no value.

The small group of young men, women and a few children no younger than twelve let out a synchronized gasp of awe at the younger Uchiha's obviouse skill.

"Teme, Teme,Teme, Temeeeee—ACK!" Naruto wailed—ruining what seemed to be, to the small group, more-so to the ladies, an ethereal moment. A girl in glasses grumbled a few string of curses that the blonde ignored as he tried to regain a little of his balance. Sasuke had stepped on a sore part of his shoulder instead of the wall.

"Could you not step on me?"

"Could you not be in my way when I'm training?" Sasuke dropped to the ground noiselessly, straightening out his shirt while he was at it. His routing was to run, jump over a few railings and then run up a wall to 'save' a practice dummy; Sasuke was about to get to the running up the wall part had Naruto not appeared out of nowhere—he could've avoided the idiot, but where was the fun in that? So the Uchiha angled his flight and had placed a booted foot on his friend's sore shoulder.

Naruto glared at him and crossed his toned arms; another eruption of female sighs was heard but ignored once more.

Training? Really? That was his excuse? It looked more like he was showing off with his ridiculous rendition of what normal people called: parkour. His eyes darted to a group of junior agents huddled in a corner staring dreamily at his dark haired, and now smirking, best friend.

"I was demonstrating, dobe." Sasuke grumbled lowly. "I got stuck with training duty because Kakashi had an important meeting with Itachi." The irritation in his voice matched the Uchiha's features; his eyes had narrowed and his jaw was set.—because hey, it wasn't his job to teach junior agents.

Nor was it his job to babysit. They had trainees in here for crying out loud. They were minors-what if something bad happened?

Sasuke sighed again, running a hand through his raven locks.

Kakashi had been scheduled to give chosen trainees and junior agents a class on free-running and body movements that would come in handy on the field; some kind of prize for doing well Sasuke figured, though why a class with Kakashi would be considered a class—he couldn't quite comprehend. He remembered his first class with the silver-haired man. Sasuke didn't admit it but he was sore all over for a week- and that was supposedly just a beginners conditioning course.

"They couldn't get anko to just improvise a class?" Sasuke ruffled his spiky hair and glared at his friend. "You think I didn't already ask?" he spat, before redirecting the path of conversation. "What're you doing here?"

The blonde's face turned serious. He took a file that he tucked under his arms and handed it to Sasuke all the while, explaining what it meant whilst Sasuke got up to speed. "Hyuga's getting really impatient over those components do you think Sakura could get them to him before the day ends?"

A few feet away, Sasuke picked up bits and pieces of his temporary students' psycho-babbling. "Dude, I think they're talking S-rank!" he heard the one with weird green hair say as he nudged a short girl with glasses who had an interestingly quiet demeanour—almost Hinata-like.

A brunette with long and messy hair shoved past the poor girl and playfully punched the green-haired junior agent. "No way, I totally bet it's black-ops kinda serious." Holy shit, this was a next generation of their generation, the Uchiha couldn't help but think; they had a Naruto-type and everything.

Sasuke huffed loudly and turned his attention to the students who were now beginning their hardest to listen in on the conversation he was having with the blonde. He was pretty sure one of them disappeared to get a hearing device.

"Whichever it is, it's beyond your clearance—class dismissed." His tone was firm and icy; the younger agents couldn't help but leave while carefully eyeing his gun holster lest he decide that they didn't need any more agents and do away with them.

Turning back to Naruto, Sasuke glanced back at the file and shoved it back to him rather forcefully. Naruto stumbled back a little; not expecting such force to be put into giving him back the folder. He steadied his footing and with an irritated grumble, tucked the folder back under his arm.

"Tell him, Sakura isn't even supposed to be working on this case—she's a little pre-occupied with our case too." Naruto rolled his eyes. "What, the cold-case that you lost your lead on?" The blonde crossed his arms and looked at the Uchiha straight in the eyes.

That was a low blow—he and his team were still sore over the whole restaurant catastrophe. It was a failure that ate the whole team up whether they admitted it or not.

"Dude, her official case or not, if she's needed then we are allowed to utilize her—it's not like she works for you and you alone in this case. You're well-aware of that—we all work together here." Naruto was right. They may be assigned different missions but of course they were obliged to help out with others too—everyone had different skillsets after all.

"I know that, dobe. But I saw her last night—she's overworked." He remembered watching her type and decode until her body forced a system shut down on her. Fatigue won out against caffeine and will-power. Sakura needed a little break.

Naruto laughed a little. "She's Tsunade's apprentice, of course she's overworked."

"Indeed, I am." A calm and slightly amused feminine voice from behind floated to the young men's ears, shocking the two arguing agents out of their little conversation. High-heeled shoes click-clacked as the rosette neared her two best friends; "But I am the best for a reason" she said with a wink as handed Naruto a slightly thick folder. "Go take a look, you might want to read up in case Hyuuga wants you to report it to him—I think he'd rather read it himself but hey, just be sure."

She let the blonde go and scan through her findings, turning to Sasuke to while away her time. "And by the way, he was right; you were kind of showing off." The jolly blonde grinned and put an arm around Sakura, the file temporarily forgotten. "HAH! Told you!" Wasn't he just oozing with arrogance Sakura-chan? It wasn't even a complicated jump."

"I was watching since the first thirty minutes of the class—parkour…nice touch." She mocked wiggling her eyebrows at the reddening Uchiha.

Sakura laughed at the expression on Sasuke's face at their combined statements. Sakura and Naruto always had a way with being able to push the right buttons to render Sasuke into a mess of irritation and killing intent—it was a special talent and required a lot of guts. A lot of fucking guts; considering he had a gun.

The ill-tempered young man took an indignant breath of air and glowered at the two people in front of him "I don't like to bore my students." He retaliated, shoving his hand down his pockets and looking away from the doddering fools who couldn't—or wouldn't stop laughing at his expense. To him, training was more about doing than just being hypothetical. That was why he booked the training room; all these kids were doing was reading and doing the things in their heads—he wanted them to be able to run up a wall if it meant securing a target not just knowing the physics and science behind it. The junior agents, well they already knew these things—but practice makes perfect. And in this industry perfection was the baseline.

"I'm sure Anko was going to get to that part of their training. Remember our first session?" Sakura asked Naruto who'd gone back to reading. Another laugh bubbled from the grinning blonde. "Free-running was a bitch."

The only female snorted. "Hah. Not to me, I totally killed it." For a few seconds she reminisced their days when they were twelve; free-running and bounding off trees in a forest. It was the most amazing thing, feeling the wind rushing through her ears, the adrenaline pumping through her veins as they all leapt over high branches and landing on a branch even higher.

"I was stuck on a tree and couldn't get down—it was a bitch." Naruto commented, standing by his initial statement on the subject.

"It's a party down there, isn't it?" someone drawled from the watch box that was positioned high-above them, looking over the training room. It was a huge rectangular viewing room where instructors could watch the students, and if they were doing a simulation, that was where it was controlled too. Next to it, was a smaller viewing room for agents who wanted to watch the training session.

Naruto looked up at the bigger box and grinned. "Shikamaru! You were watching right? Wasn't teme showing off?"

"Quite. What exactly, were you trying to do, Uchiha?" Sakura guffawed and cast an evil eye on Sasuke. "Trying to look cool, I suppose."

"Don't you people have jobs?" Sasuke grumbled.

LOCATION: ANBU HEADQUARTERS, FLOOR 8. Capt. Uchiha Itachi's Office. Time: 10 AM

"What do you think?" Kakashi asked as Itachi eyed the bagged item on his desk with mild interest. "You are sure of your findings?" the older Uchiha asked calmly, he now had a glint in his eyes that told Kakashi that Itachi's mental gears were gathering speed and momentum. I just need him to back me up. He thought to himself with a determination he thought he wouldn't feel ever again. Funny how cold cases with new leads could change a man's demeanour.

"Yes, I did the tests myself." The dark-haired man glanced up at him and raised an eyebrow. "What? You don't trust my skills?" Kakashi asked playfully, feigning a hurt expression by putting a hand on his chest.

Itachi dropped the bag and leaned into his high-backed black leather swivel chair and cast his gaze at the silver-haired man leaning on his table. "You have one eye covered."

"And you wear nailpolish." Kakashi pointed out. "Purple nail polish." His grin was hidden by his mask and he was thankful. Itachi twitched in irritation at the man's quick and sometimes annoying wit. "I thought we were stating obvious things." Kakashi explained innocently with a shrug of his shoulders.

The older Uchiha rolled his inky orbs. "I'll look into it. You have my support."

A satisfied Kakashi nodded and shifted his weight, he now stood upright and immediately crossed the room at a brisk pace. He'd already reached and opened the door when his dear colleague coughed to get his attention.

The former ANBU captain half-turned, inclining his head at an angle to address the Uchiha. "It's a fashion statement." He heard him say lowly. It didn't take him long to realize he was addressing his knack for using nailpolish.

"So is my covered eye." Kakashi stated before exiting the room.

LOCATION: ANBU HEADQUARTERS, FLOOR 8. Capt. Hyuga Neji's Office. 11 AM.

Naruto delivered the folder to a flustered looking Neji, though he tried his hardest to hide the fact that he was by glaring at the blonde the minute he walked into the room.

The office was a little different than the others he's been in. Most ANBU captains had dark walls and even darker furniture maybe a little glass embellishments here and there. But Neji's office was one of the unique ones. It had light-beige walls and had a lot of glass. The floor was dark wood and at the center of the room was a huge circular rug that was white with a beige outline. His table was glass-topped with a dark brown framework. The chairs were see-through with metal legs and each one of them had a white cushion on them.

The layout of the entire room was minimalistic. Bookcases and drawers lined one wall and ended down the middle of the room where a painting of a Japanese house was placed; a white couch pushed against the same place the painting was so it hovered a few feet above the couch.

The cerulean-eyed young man strode up to the table and handed the folder to him "Make three copies, bring them back and read up. We'll meet in an hour to discuss things over and see if we can pull anything from the composition to figure out what this guy is making."

That was, by far, the longest order he'd received from the ANBU Captain. Naruto stood erect, trying to take in everything he had said. And did he just give him a job a secretary did? No way in hell was he going to sit and wait in line to use the copy-machine and make three copies of a lengthy composition report. He thought he'd passed that stage the blonde thought glumly as memories of his 'fresh-from-training' agent days resurfaced.

He interned for Kakashi along with Sakura and Sasuke; which meant filing, copying, and being allowed to be part of missions, though heavily watched. Naruto then went under the tutelage of Jiraiya—another legend in the industry while Sakura was under Tsunade and Sasuke, under Itachi. At nineteen, all three had been promoted to Junior Agents and by twenty-three, they were with the big leagues and have already established quite a reputation around the industry.

So no. He was not going to fucking copy the damn file.

This earned an exasperated sigh from the pearly-eyed brunette. "Do you need me to write that down for you Uzumaki?" Neji asked levelly. "Or are you capable of reiterating what I just said to my secretary so she can do it?"

A light bulb clicked to life. "Oh, you wanted me to tell your sec—the face the ANBU Captain was giving him told the blonde to shut up and just leave. "I got it. I got it. See you in twenty minutes." He scrambled out away from the desk was just about to leave the office when the brunette called him back.

"Uzumaki, you're going to have to take the folder with you."

"Ah, right." He ran back to the table and snatched the folder up quickly and proceeded to run out of the room with newfound and immensely huge respect for Neji's secretary. He or she must have had the guts of steel to be able to put up with this guy. He glanced back quickly before disappearing out of sight.

Neji stared after the blonde, sighing as he returned to his files. "This is the man my cousin is in love with? It was funny how much he wanted to hate the blonde idiot but something prevented him from doing so. It must've been the Uzumaki's charm.

He did not just call Uzumaki Naruto charming…..

Before he could go anywhere else with those slightly obstinate thoughts, ANBU Captain's musings were thankfully interrupted by an unplanned visitor.

His door, that the blonde had forgotten to close on his way out, framed one of his colleagues who was in gear that was doused in blood and grime. "Neji." Tenten stood by the door; her face was ashen and her knees seemed to be a little weak. The Hyuuga stood up quickly and regarded her appearance with a questioning cock of his head.

"We found another body."

7 hours prior to mission. Location: INTEL

Shikarmaru yawned while he scanned yet another video feed from a known hotel—he watched clients file in, in their glamorous suits and outfits carrying at least three designer suit cases. This was the most boring part of being stuck with Intel: Watching hours and hours of stupid video feed just to look for one person.

And more often than not, he doesn't find who he was looking for which would entail another wave of life-wasting video feeds from a different location.

With his credentials, shouldn't he be breaking codes and into heavily walled databases? Well, he did those three hours ago while eating lunch—but still. This was a boring endeavour and could be done by a junior agent; at least he or she would've been excited by it.

Shikamaru sighed, as he his careful eyes scanned the monitor for any possible appearances. He began to chant a little, because well, he just needed to do something. "Hatori, Hatori, Ha—Was that him?

The brunette jumped out of his seat and leaned closer to the bright screen, his hand automatically reaching for the mouse to zoom in on the feed. He needed a closer look to be sure. "Well finally." He muttered to himself. "Looks like I get to do some cloud watching after all."

There, in broad daylight, was their target, walking into another one of Konoha's well-known and expensive hotels, dressed to the nines and checking in. Whoever the leader was, he paid well.

Shikamaru reached for his phone and entered a number he'd already memorized. He stuck the phone between his left ear and shoulder, as he promptly began to hack into the hotel's system to find out what room Hatori was booked in and what he was doing in a swanky hotel to begin with.

Wouldn't he be trying to lay low?

The phone rang three more times before a curt reply from the other end filled his ears. "Yes?"

The lazy genius smirked and leaned back on his uncomfortable office chair, still staring at the screen as he spoke to his colleague on the other line. "How much do you think drug dealers make?" He heard the rosette mutter for someone to quiet down.

"Was that Naruto?" Shikamaru asked, mildly surprised. Uzumaki was on a different case? "Another body came in, I just ran a few tests. Naruto—no, that's my file, we switched folders. Here's yours."

Shikamaru drummed his fingers against the desk patiently as he waited for Sakura to find a private spot. "You were saying?" she asked rather breathlessly after a few minutes.

The brunette glanced at the screen again and took the paper he just printed. "Whoever your target's leader is, he makes sure his underlings are well paid."

"What do you mean?"

Location: Hatake Kakashi's Office, 3 pm, ANBU HEADQUARTERS

"He's attending a charity gala?" Sasuke asked, eyeing Shikamaru with a look of disbelief, grabbing the paper he was offered and re-reading what was just read to him moments ago. Was a serious-to-death drug dealer seriously going to attend a highly broadcasted and heavily event?

"But look at the guest list." Shikamaru stated, handing him another piece of paper. Sakura looked over her own copy and gasped. "Most of the attendees are rich people who've been accused of illegal activities." It was like a convention of illegal masterminds and underlings who wanted to give back to society.

"Well, at least they want to help cure cancer." Sakura said sarcastically, showing Ino the file. "Didn't we take down this guy's illegal weapon shipping cartel last month?" The blonde nodded. "Yeah, but he got out of his sentence scratch free." Ino rubbed her fingers together in a way that meant: 'money can talk, and it talks good.'

"Kakashi is organizing the mission now, he said to wait for him here." Shikamaru said noting that all four agents were perched in different parts of the office; Sasuke and Tayuya were both seated on one of Kakashi's black couches, Ino was by the window while Sakura was casually sitting on Kakashi's table—they were all waiting for Kakashi to come in mission clearance.

"I feel like a girl waiting for her date to show up." Ino grumbled, checking her watch again and glaring at the arrows. Sakura, from where she sat, threw her a sly glance. "Do you now?" she teased, grinning when the blonde in question turned a funny shade of red.

"Shut up." Sakura shrugged at the lame retort. Everyone knew Ino and Shikamaru had an unofficial thing going on—it was cute really. They'd both 'hang out' often but would never call these little meetings dates.

"Oh just admit it, Ino." The rosette crossed her legs and wiggled her eyebrows. "You both dig each other—why not just make it official?"

Ino's voice hitched in her throat as she stumbled to find an appropriate comeback to her friend who looked like she was having the time of her life.

"Really, Haruno? Is your love life that bad that you have to make someone else's your concern?" A snide voice piped up from the couch.

Sakura, with ferocious grace, snapped her head towards the redhead's direction and sneered. "Who invited you to the conversation?" There was a sharp and heavy paperweight on Kakashi's table that Sakura eyed with her peripheral vision. With the right aim, she could pretty much smash the blabbering bitch's forehead.

Tayuya flipped her hair with an air of arrogance. "Well, you weren't doing much to keep it private now were you?" She flipped her magazine to the next page and continued to read as her hand crept over slowly to Sasuke's thigh.

Her suggestive gesture earned a smirk from the Uchiha and a mini-barf from Sakura who'd turned to the blonde, mouthing the words: 'I Hate Her'. Ino laughed a little and leaned her back against the window, crossing her arms over her chest as she nodded in completely agreement. "A well-known fact." She stated, casually looking at the two love birds across the room,

"You know, there are other people in this room." Sakura stated dryly, looking in disgust as Tayuya began to inch a little higher. The redhead sneered at her and slid her hand up further, making Sasuke jump at her sudden ministration. "Don't fucking watch, then." She suggested.

Sakura's mouth dropped to the floor at the woman's guts. She turned to Ino with an expression that screamed: Can I kill her? Sakura was beyond angry at this point. Here she was, along with Ino; who wasn't entirely paying attention but whatever, being subjected to such gross and might she say, slightly scandalous interaction between Tayuya and her dark-haired, and seeming to be unaware of the wickedness of his girlfriend, friend.

"I'll take my leave." Shikamaru muttered abashedly, gathering his files and flicking a hand at them as a wave of some sort. He'd already opened the door when Kakashi came through, clapping his hand once to command the attention of the people in his office.

"Tayuya, save that for the bedroom." This earned a laugh from Sakura and a flurry of words form the redhead. "Ladies and gents, two of you will be infiltrating the party, find out what Hatori is doing there—I have a nagging feeling that he's there because his boss is too." He began handing out color-coded mission folders—yes, Hatake Kakashi was a perfectionist.

"Yellow folders, you are the second pair of eyes and ears of our blue folder holders. What they see, you will, and if they miss something—let them know." Ino nodded, she was used to getting assigned these types. But with her, there was an added duty; she had to analyse body movement, voice patterns and the sort.

She looked at Sakura to start strategizing who'd do what but when she turned to her, she found that Sakura had a blue folder in hand.

Current Time and Location

"How's it going with Tayuya?" Sasuke asked Sakura as he twirled Sakura with a fluidity of someone who was used to dancing at parties like these. Well, he was forced to attend galas and balls—of course he'd know how to dance. He just didn't want to.

The rosette immediately looked a little annoyed. "Okay, if we're talking about your girlfriend, I'm going to need alcohol in my system first—a lot of it." And then maybe a little bit of chocolate to ease the distraught that the redhead had solely brought into her life.

Sasuke rolled his eyes and pulled her back to him, sliding his hand around her waist. He took a long look at her face before speaking. "You look tired." He said, changing the topic to avoid a fight.

Sakura, thankful for any escape from the previous topic, beamed at him. "I had to help with Naruto's case. They found another body—then he had my folder on this case and thought it was his so I had to run around the place to look for it."

It was a tiring day, more tiring than most, but it all seemed to have disappeared the moment he asked her to dance.

"Guys, I see Hatori. Three o' clock—he's leaving now; follow him." Sakura sprang into action, she flicked her head to see a man of Hatori's stature start to make his way through the door followed by a mysterious man.

Sasuke dropped his hand from her waist and began to follow the pair.

They followed them into the elevators. Hatori had just entered the elevator when Sasuke and Sakura stumbled out of the corner. "Great, we can take the next one up—shit. Sakura was stopped short by a hand that peaked out of the elevator door; stopping it from closing.

He must've seen them when they stumbled out.

So she improvised—"Going up?" Hatori asked politely, sticking his head out of the door to address the two young agents.

"Oh, we get the polite drug-dealers." Sakura whispered in annoyance. Thank God it was a masquerade ball. Otherwise, they'd be fucked.

"It's because of your cleavage." Sasuke grumbled, glaring at her overly low-cut dress that just screamed 'stare at my boobs'

She ignored her overprotective partner and batted her lashes at the waiting drug dealer. Though Sasuke didn't see the point of her having to bat her lashes flirtatiously, she was in a mask for fuck's sake.

"Haha, yes!" Sakura answered, changing her voice a little before dragging a resistant Sasuke into the fancy elevator. "Floor thirteen please" she breathed in her foreign voice. Hatori nodded curtly and leaned back against the wall, the button had already been pressed the moment Sakura walked in, which meant they were heading for the same floor.

It was an awkward ride. None of the occupants spoke or even attempted to start a conversation. It was kind of hard to find a common ground between their two different worlds besides humanly functions and killing without flinching.

But talking about going to the toilet and pulling triggers was hardly suitable elevator talk.

It felt like forever for them to arrive but it happened eventually. The elevator pinged as it came to a smooth stop. Its metal doors slid open revealing a tall man in his mid-thirties carrying a briefcase. He had a handsome but mean looking face and his hair was slicked back into a low pony tail.

"You're late—my plane leaves in thirty minutes." Hatori nodded and stepped aside to let Sasuke and Sakura out of the elevator since he didn't have to go get his companion anymore.

Sasuke gripped Sakura's wrist and pulled her out of the elevator with him. As soon as they stepped out, the elevator closed and began its slow descend to the first floor, leaving the two astounded agents to stare at the opposite wall.

"Did we just—

"We just found our primary target."

This case was finally going somewhere.

Filler chapter, I know. But I have transition into the next part of the plot. =)

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