i.

The war was over. The world was saved. Treaties were drafted, new alliances were forged, and Sasuke came home without a fight.

Sakura had imagined (dreamed) for years of how Sasuke's return would pan out: the avenger redeemed, cleansed by the unconditional love of his former teammates-the only family he had left in this world. Of course, fantasies were what they were, after all, and Sakura had stopped dreaming in color a long time ago.

She bound Sasuke's hands behind his back, Naruto covered his eyes with gauze and tape, and they both put a black cloth bag over his head. It was all a courtesy, and Naruto and Sakura exchanged looks to remind one another not to let their guards down. They could go toe-to-toe with Sasuke, if they went all out, but all three of them knew it would take one mistake, just one, and Sasuke would slip through their fingers like grains of sand.

The walk back to Konoha was a long one, and uncomfortably silent. Sakura hardly remembered a time when Naruto had kept quiet for so long. She tightened her grip on the rope that bound her to Sasuke, mostly to remind herself that this was really happening. Stranger yet, he was leading the way back to Konoha, as if he wasn't blinded, as if he hadn't been gone for years, as if he had never left in the first place.

It was everything she had wanted, Sakura thought. Naruto to her right, Sasuke leading the front, and Kakashi-sensei a thousand yards back. She had finally won her prize. In hindsight, the victory hardly seemed worth all the effort, the bloodshed, the years, the tears, and innocence broken a hundred times over.

ii.

Sakura hit, and she hit hard.

Murder.

Defection.

Intentions to incite genocide.

The list went on. Each charge that had been brought against Sasuke rang through her head as clearly as they had the day prior during his trial. Sakura and Naruto had been granted an audience by the Godaime Hokage to plead their case in defense of the last Uchiha heir. But Sakura couldn't bring herself to speak up, and Naruto's passionate speech (the subject: forgiveness) fell on deaf ears. No one wanted Sasuke living, breathing, even thinking around the citizens of Konoha—he was a dangerous stranger to them, and Sakura was beginning to think herself insane for ever believing that he could be rehabilitated. His face had been expressionless throughout the trial, his eyes as cold and uncaring as they'd been when he had gazed down at her at Orochimaru's underground lair—even when Tsunade had declared his sentence loudly, and clearly, for what everyone knew was for Naruto's benefit.

She moved on to the next training post, practicing her katas slowly this time, hoping that the training exercise would draw out the tension that had been building inside of her for so long.

The boy Sakura had known at twelve was gone, perhaps forever. The shiny veneer of childhood she so fondly remembered and called upon during times of her highest doubts had been sloughed off by revenge and Sasuke's unquenchable thirst for power. The fact that he was alive and would remain so for as long as the council saw fit was a cold comfort—the coldest of them all. Hard work meant so little when the pay off was deemed meaningless in the end. She had sworn to become stronger; to become strong enough to help Naruto, to become strong enough to bring Sasuke back. But she couldn't heal someone who resolutely denied they needed any help, and that was the bitterest pill she had ever had to swallow.

Thank you, he had said, but for what? She brought him back to his 'home', only to have each and every villager turn their back on him, including her. When he had needed her the most, when her testimony could have made even the slightest bit of change in his sentencing, she'd said nothing. Sakura knew that some things could be forgiven, but she knew no matter how much she begged, cried, or reasoned, Konoha would still find him guilty, and would still lock Sasuke deep in the dungeons underneath the prison. It wasn't fair, but second chances were rarely given out these days, especially to those branded traitor.

Sakura no longer pulled her punches and her wooden opponent shattered underneath the barrage of her fists.