Disclaimer: I still have no ownership of the Naruto franchise. I do, however, have two giant tootsie rolls.

Chapter 12: Prior Engagement

The ceilings in the ballroom were almost as high as Hinata's heels. With each step she took, a sharp pain wound its way up her legs and to her back. At least the damn things made her butt look good.

One of Shino's hands was settled nicely in hers, the other resting comfortably against her lower back. Together, they elegantly twirled in step to the slow waltz that was playing. The live band really was talented. A slightly raised dais sat in the center of the spacious hall, several performers with stringed instruments of varying sizes working together to create the casually flirtatious mood of the evening. In the crowd of well-groomed guests and attendees, she could make out a head of blonde bobbing about, doing his best to mingle with a few higher ups. If anyone could unwittingly schmooze information out of anyone attending, it would be Naruto.

The receiver hidden in her earring buzzed faintly and she reached up casually as if to scratch an itch. She clicked on the speaker and leaned in to place her head lovingly on her much taller date's shoulder so he could hear the conversation too. Even with her stilettos Shino still had a few inches on her, she acknowledged with a bit of a mental grumble. Around them, people carried on, completely oblivious as she tuned in to the message.

"Everyone is in place, but there still hasn't been any sign of the target. You'd think the bastard would make an appearance at his own ball," Shikamaru said, his voice tinny from the poor speaker pinned through her ear. The young genius scoffed and terminated the communication.

Hinata gazed around yet again, discreetly searching for a glimpse of red hair among the hundreds of people dancing and drinking the night away. It was an elegant enough affair; women wore ballgowns, men tuxedos, and even a few little girls in sparkling, glitter covered dresses and plastic heels danced with boys wearing suspenders and hats. Maroon velvet curtains covered one wall from floor to immensely high ceiling. Enormous windows lined another side of the room, leading out onto balconies with a view of the gardens and fountain outside. A complex and beautiful mural of soldiers at war and angels covered the rounded dome ceiling.

She hiked up the edge of her dress as properly as she could and allowed Shino to lead her from the dance floor to one of the tables. Her feet were crying out from the abuse of her shoes. In the distance, she heard Naruto's bellowing laugh above all the noise and smiled faintly to herself. Only a minute after she'd sat down, the music started to die down and people grew still. The faint sound of a utensil clinking against a glass announced the fact that their gracious host had finally arrived.

The lights dimmed to create an almost romantic atmosphere, accentuating the spotlight that was suddenly highlighting the dais in a purple glow. The musicians had moved during the change, leaving two attractive young men to stand beside the instruments that rested on stands. The blonde man stepped forward first, his hand holding that of the shorter redhead's almost protectively. His hair was long and feminine, pin-straight bangs covering one of his blue eyes and his suit was a dark navy, his bow tie a fashionable blue and purple plaid.

With a flourish of his arms, one hand still clasped to the bored-looking young man's, he smiled. "Welcome friends, family, esteemed guests! You'll have to excuse our tardiness, yeah? Got a bit sidetracked," He said with a playful wink to his partner. The redhead just rolled his eyes. With a slight bow, he motioned for the musicians to return to their instruments and tugged his partner from the stage. The couple was the first to begin dancing again. Others soon joined back in, and in only a short few minutes there was a large crowd beneath the multicolored lights.

A hand coming to rest on her bare shoulder tore her attention away from the party, and she stared up into beautiful blue eyes. It seemed as if Shino had deserted her to go see what he could get off of some of the rich investors attending. Naruto held a hand out to her with a bright grin painted across his face, radiant as a sunset. "Would you like to dance?" Hinata hesitated, but accepted and stood to cross the room with her hand lightly grasping his fingers. Even as they began to sway to the beat, she could feel the tension in his stance, his muscles taught beneath his skin. He was on high alert.

Nearby, their target had stopped dancing with the man that had yet to release his hand and was busy speaking to a short Asian man in a black suit and tie. She watched him over Naruto's shoulder for a few moments, willing him to step away from the blonde man. As if he felt her gaze on him, he glanced up and looked around before honey colored eyes locked on her own for a split second. Naruto chose that very moment to dip her dramatically and she frantically grasped at the collar of his shirt with a feminine squeak. When he pulled her back up, it was with a delicate spin, and then she was flush against his chest, blushing so hard that she felt her cheeks burning. He leaned in close and placed his cheek against hers gently. "He nearly caught you, can't have him getting suspicious, can we?" She just nodded dumbly at his proximity. "He finally ditched his buddy, looks like he's over talking to the kids."

Naruto managed to catch Gaara's gaze through a gap in the crowd and nodded slightly, the small redhead smirking back in response. He turned back to his still flushed dance partner and looked down into her eyes, content with letting Gaara set stage two of the plan in motion now that they'd all successfully infiltrated the over-sized get together. He'd gotten all of the information he could from all of the business executives, which admittedly wasn't much.

His tan hands smoothed over the waist of Hinata's ivory, satin gown in mild appreciation. Her bruised arm was covered in makeup to conceal the dark purple splotches that weren't covered by the subtle brace settled over the curve of her elbow. It had mostly healed in the past few days, having ended up being a much less major injury than initially thought, and mainly left behind ugly bruises and occasional aches as if she had the flu. Her shoulders and back were mostly bare aside from a scant amount of lace that edged her collar and led into off-the-shoulder sleeves that cupped her arms delicately. Orochimaru had really gone all out on this mission, providing himself, Shino, and Sasuke tailored suits and the dress and shoes for Hinata. Even Gaara had been wrangled into a black dress shirt and slacks with a dark red tie. This Sasori guy must really need to be taken care of, there was no way this was a cheap venture.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Gaara was seated at a rather long, interestingly decorated table. Crayons and markers littered the paper tablecloth that was draped from one end to the other and secured by a small amount of clear tape. Idly, Gaara continued to color in patches of red on his gory drawing of a rabid, murderous raccoon. It was actually quite the masterpiece, he felt. A child a few years younger than himself passed by his creation and instantly ran off crying. 'Baby.'

He glanced up and barely caught Naruto's faint nod before setting aside his unfinished artwork and heading quickly in the direction of the target. For once, he had a plan aside from "stab and run" that he had to follow, and despite his appearance, having gotten rid of his abundance of piercings and the makeup that expertly concealed his tattoo, innocence was not his forte. At least he could pull off the deaf child thing. That usually made adults go all weepy without any effort.

Hearing aids in his ears and willpower stronger than a hurricane keeping the usual scowl from his face, he managed to bump his shoulder believably against Sasori's hip and tumble realistically to the ground. Forcing tears to his eyes by biting the inside of his cheek hard enough to gush blood, he looked up at the older gentleman, trying his damn hardest to seem a few years younger than he actually was. Green eyes watering and a small amount of blood sneaking onto his trembling lips, Gaara looked perfectly pathetic. Sasori's dull expression softened and his blonde date hurriedly rushed over after seeing the situation.

"Are you okay, yeah? Woah, he's bleeding Sasori-danna, what the hell didja do?" He reached out a hand to the small 12 year old and helped him up, taking a stolen cloth napkin from the nearest table and wiping at Gaara's mouth gently. He resisted the desire to bite the blonde.

"Shut up Deidara, I didn't mean to. It was an accident, right kid?" When Gaara didn't respond, merely raising an eyebrow and pouting with his damaged lip, Deidara glanced over him more carefully to see if he'd hit his head when he fell. After running his hand through the boy's short hair, much like Sasori's in fact-actually the boy could've been Sasori's son, but that was beside the point here-he came across the small, flesh toned devices in his ears. To his credit, Gaara hammed it up as much as he could.

"Sasori, you just injured a deaf child, you do realize how bad that makes you look, yeah?" Deidara turned worried blue eyes to his lover, and for once he noticed, with a bit of satisfaction, a glimmer of remorse flicker across Sasori's brown eyes.

With a small, worried frown, Sasori placed his hand on top of Gaara's head and looked him in the eyes before asking, "Can you understand me?" At the sad look he got in response and the signed form of 'I don't understand,' he sighed and told Deidara to quiet the band enough that he could be heard more easily. "Is anyone here proficient in sign language?" Luckily, a tall blonde man stepped forward out of the crowd with a loud exclamation, murmuring a quiet word to his date before releasing her hand and hurrying over to the host. Gaara took Sasori's hand to distract him as Naruto quickly took the earpiece out of his ear while ruffling his hair. He resisted the natural urge to reveal the knife hidden up his sleeve, but just barely. The music started back up, and once again, the party was underway.

"Thank goodness, yeah. Sasori-danna, I'm gonna go make sure everything in the kitchen is ready to serve dinner. I'll be back in a few minutes." After receiving a curt nod from his favorite redhead, the bubbly blonde evaporated into the crowd with a wave.

Naruto bowed respectfully to the shorter man, fighting off his laughter at the 'kicked puppy' face Gaara was managing to pull off. "How can I help you?"

"I just need you to come along with me and this boy to find the infirmary. Can you translate for me? I want to make sure he's not actually injured," Sasori said blandly, already walking away with Gaara in tow without waiting for a response. He led the two of them out into a long corridor and shut the large wooden door to the ball room behind him. Immediately, they turned to a long flight of stairs leading to the top floor. As they walked to where Sasori assumed he could find a first aid kit, the music and noise from the party faded to nothing.

Gaara tugged his hand from Sasori's and discreetly wiped it on the leg of his trousers before signing complete gibberish to Naruto to continue the ruse. With a muffled snicker, Naruto turned to an expectant Sasori. "He says his name is Ichigo, and to thank you for all of your help." This time, Gaara aimed every swear word he could think of at the blonde. "He'll be sure to tell his mommy and daddy later how kind you were to help him." The older man smiled faintly at him, completely convinced. Soon enough, they found a door with a sign that had a red plus embossed onto it. Sasori stopped to unlock the door with a ring of keys he pulled from his pocket, and Gaara harshly pinched Naruto on the arm hard enough to leave a welt.

Sasori stepped into the dark infirmary and began to feel around on the wall for the light switch. Suddenly, the door shut behind him and he went rigid, the hairs on the nape of his neck standing up. He closed his eyes even as the lights came on and he felt small, strong hands pull his own behind his back.

Hinata swayed to the music by herself, unwilling to simply sit down and wait for her signal to leave. Shino was gone without a trace and Naruto and Gaara had disappeared about ten minutes ago with their target. The blonde man, Deidara, had yet to return to the ball room after having gone into the kitchen a short while ago. She spun herself once gracefully, and when she'd gone full-circle, a masculine hand slipped into hers awkwardly. Her pale eyes met extremely familiar, yet ultimately foreign, ink-black ones in a muted stare. She smiled daintily at the young Uchiha and he smirked in attempted smile.

After a few painfully awkward moments in which he nearly stepped on her feet twice, Sasuke finally found a comfortable rhythm for the slow song and stopped counting the steps to himself. His eyes scanned the crowd, alert, waiting for the second target to return so they could distract him.

The distance between the two of them was respectful on his part and wary on hers as she tried to avoid having the much larger man crush her feet accidentally. She forced herself not to stare up at him, as difficult as it was. 'He looks so much like his brother.' It made her uneasy to see so much of her protector in this man she barely knew, a man that wouldn't hesitate to kill her if he knew the truth. Her heart ached in her chest. He smiled faintly at her, the purple lights raining down on them adding to the allure of the rare expression. He was handsome, but he was of no comparison in her eyes to the one she loved.

In the back of the room there was some bustling about and hurried conversation. Hinata peered over at the chaos and spotted a head of blonde hair that reminded her strikingly of someone else that she knew. 'Game time.'

Sasuke led the way through the crowd, his demanding presence parting the people easily enough. She slipped through the path he left behind him. When they got closer, they no longer had to strain themselves to hear Deidara over the noise of the band. He sounded frantic.

"You!" Deidara dashed over to where Hinata stood and politely took one of her hands in his own. He placed a chaste kiss there before swallowing worriedly. "You're the date of the man that volunteered to help earlier, aren't you, yeah? Do you have any idea where they disappeared to?"

Her heart broke at his desperate tone, the expression of worry that crept onto her face completely sincere as she nearly whispered back, "I believe he went with the boy and your date to find the infirmary. A hotel this big is bound to have one after all." There, she hadn't lied at all. Deidara let out a massive sigh of relief and finally relinquished her hand.

"Thank you so much, yeah. I don't like letting him out of my sight at parties as big as this. He gets nervous in crowds," The young man explained, clenching the hand that he'd been holding Sasori's with earlier. His eyes drifted from Hinata to the dark-haired stranger that was standing somewhat close to her. "Are you two friends?" He asked politely.

Sasuke spoke first, "I'm a business partner of her date for the evening. We were just getting acquainted over a dance." He lied smoothly, his voice like velvet. Hinata placed a hand on the crook of his arm in a friendly gesture. Her smile didn't quite touch her eyes.

"That's great, yeah! I'm glad everyone is having such a good time. It took forever to get all of this planned." His smiled was brilliantly white.

"I'm sure you must be very excited about this success," Hinata said with a small smile.

"It's not every day a guy like me gets to enjoy his engagement party after all." He took her hands in his, exuberantly joyful, and she noticed the ring on his left hand for the first time. When he met her gaze, radiating happiness, her stomach churned and the feeling of being punched in the gut was nearly overwhelming.

Sasuke placed a firm hand on the shorter man's shoulder and Deidara instinctively met his dark gaze. Neither of them said anything, but within seconds, Deidara's eyes had glazed over and his head dipped in the semblance of a nod. Hinata glanced between the two of them before gasping inaudibly. Sasuke removed his hand and smirked, his eyes never leaving Deidara's.

"How long have you known Mr. Akasuna?" He asked it as if it were a polite inquiry, but Hinata sensed a resonant undertone to his voice. The interrogation had begun.

It was dark.

Sasori's head throbbed dully from the blow to his neck and his eyes strained to see in the gloom, but something covered his head, eliminating the possibility. The dull buzz of an air conditioner was the only sound for a while. Several minutes passed and he began to grow agitated. Where was he?

Muted whispers of a voice he recognized could be heard a few feet away, and he straightened his back, tense enough he feared he would snap, at the realization that he was not alone.

"Welcome back to the world of the living," Naruto grumbled unhappily. He turned on the speaker in his ear and placed his hand on the counter he was leaning against. Sasori tried to move his arms against the restraints tying him down, but stilled instantly when a blade pricked at his neck. The smell of blood reached him and he fought back the bile rising in his throat. His Adam's apple bobbed against the tight rope around his neck.

"What do you want?" He prided himself on the firmness of his voice.

Naruto chuckled and motioned to Gaara to take the cloth off of his head. Bright florescent light flooded his vision and the restrained redhead blinked away his tears. The blonde man began to slowly pace to his right, smiling and running a hand through his hair. "Nothing in particular, I guess." Sasori detected an accent that had previously been disguised, American, if he guessed correctly. Who were these men?

"If it's money, I can guarantee you enough." His tongue felt like lead in his mouth. How long had he been unconscious? The room was spinning and he was suddenly glad that he was lying down. He knew he couldn't have stood on his own two feet at the moment. He clenched his eyes shut at the dizzy feeling that threatened to overwhelm him. "Is... Is Deidara all right?" Panic began to claw at the inside of his rib cage and his heart rate skyrocketed.

Naruto just shrugged his shoulders and let his grin widen. His eyes flashed red briefly when blood dripped down Sasori's face from a small cut on his forehead. It was a beautiful sight. He smacked the side of his head with a fist and bit his lip. 'Control, breathe. Don't lose control.' Memories of the last mission flooded his mind and he felt a piece of his heart break off inside of his chest. 'Not again.' His head pounded and his muscles flexed as he bit back his urges. He had to wait.

Sasori felt anger flood him, his fingertips buzzing. "Tell me what the hell it is that you want, you bastard!" His face was red and a vein pulsed in his neck. He knew he was likely going to die, but if there was a chance he could stop them from hurting Deidara, he'd take it.

Naruto touched a finger to his ear, keeping eye contact with his partner. Shikamaru's voice crackled over the speaker. Gaara pressed the blade even harder against the prisoner's throat to silence him.

"Orochimaru wants no prisoners. Take care of the target," He paused as if it had pained him to say it, "Then... Go after Iwa Deidara. We can't risk him living, apparently. He might know something."

"Understood."

It was silent for a second, then Shikamaru mumbled, "Ten minutes."

Sasori's face became as pale as a sheet, his eyes widening to the point that Naruto feared that he'd hurt himself. A foreboding silence filled the room, making it difficult to breathe. Sasori growled. "Orochimaru, huh? That's who it is." He eyed the knife that Gaara held loosely in one hand. Silently, he began to undo the knot restraining his left wrist to the infirmary bed.

"I think it's safe to assume that you know him then," Naruto said sarcastically, stretching casually to pop his back. He'd gotten his orders.

"You think?" Sasori snapped up off the bed as far as he could in a mock attack and Gaara was instantly on him. Before Naruto could even move, Sasori had the blade in his hand, blood covering the steel up to the hilt from where he'd stabbed Gaara in the shoulder. He sliced through the ropes in a flash, even as Naruto radioed in for a medic to be on stand-bye. Gaara fell to his knees, his face draining of color and his teeth clenching in anger. The boy saw red.

Sasori darted down the corridor as fast as he could, rope trailing behind him from where it was still attached to his arms and neck. Heavy footsteps thudded behind him, gaining ground. His lungs burned with exhaustion and his blood flowed with adrenaline. Tears streaked down his face. Blindly, he threw the blade at his pursuer and was rewarded with a muffled groan of pain as Naruto tumbled to the ground, the blade buried in his thigh.

He flew across the ground, running faster than he ever thought he could. He choked on air and struggled to stay upright, his head still pulsing and his vision swaying. Lights danced across the path before him. Had they drugged him? Once again, footsteps pounded soundly behind him, closer now and not as heavy.

He could hear the music again, the stairs to his right leading down to the ballroom, the open doors in front of him leading to a balcony. Just a few more feet. He could see the blue and purple lights dancing across the ceiling. He knew he wouldn't escape, but he had to warn them. Had to warn Deidara. His vision blurred with tears.

He nearly tripped on his own feet, stumbling slightly before catching himself and drunkenly dashing to the end of the corridor. His feet touched the marble floor of the balcony and he breathed deeply to yell in warning. He heard a muted shout from behind him, not daring to look, unable to hear what was said with so much blood pounding through his ears. He was lightheaded.

"Gaara, don't!" Naruto cried out, knowing that the boy couldn't hear him. Everything moved in slow motion then, the bloodied knife flying from small fingers, blood pouring from the wound in his thigh, and the choking sound from the balcony he was desperately limping towards as fast as he could. He tackled his partner an instant too late. The dagger reached its target with a sickening thud.

A sharp pain blossomed from Sasori's back and he felt blood run down his spine. He choked, his words of warning cut off instantly, and he turned, eyes wide and tear tracks drying on his cheeks. His attacker was face-down on the ground, struggling against the much larger man that was restraining him. Naruto met his gaze, blue clashing against brown. He said something, struggling against the pain in his thigh to stand, but Sasori couldn't hear anything anymore.

Suddenly, he felt himself tumble backwards, directly over the wooden rail of the balcony. Below, somebody screamed.

. . . . . . .

End.

1. Well, that was really interesting to write. SasoDei anyone?

2. Next chapter should be up soon. Please let me know what you thought of this one! I'd really appreciate it. My heart is actually pounding from writing the last scene, my God. *deep breath* That was intense. And trust me, it doesn't lighten up next chapter.

3. If you think I ought to up the rating on this due to violence or blood, please let me know. Personally, I think it's okay where it is, but I'm not sure about some of the younger readers out there.

Read and Review, Love AMB11.