Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto verse or any character therein. Unfortunately for me but fortunately for Sakura. She gets to live and be praised as a great beauty of a Kunoichi by her fans and the village. Damnit.

Sakura crouched in the bushes. If any of her friends had seen her they wouldn't have recognized her. She had covered her face with dark green make-up she had taken from the military supply store. On her hands she was wearing dark green gloves and over her most notable feature, her pink hair, she wore a green bandana. Her outfit was so dark a green as to be almost black but it was necessary if she wanted everything to go perfectly this night.

She had watched her target for a week and he always came by here. The spot was lonely and dark at night though it was quite busy while the sun shone. The single swing, nicknamed the Demon Swing, swayed in the breeze and she could hear the rope creaking on the bough as it moved. The solitary oak tree stood tall and firm waiting for the spring that was almost here to show off it's new leaves.

She'd planned this for so long now it was getting on her nerves waiting for him but she knew he'd come by. She'd made sure he did by sending him the note tied around a rock and flung through his apartment window. Ever since her Mother had finally told her the truth of the night her father had died she had been consumed with getting revenge for him. This . . .this piece of garbage was why she no longer had a Daddy to love her. This piece of filth had decided she didn't need her daddy anymore. The monster had ripped him from her as if she didn't matter but she still needed her Daddy and she was going to make damn sure he paid for her loss tonight.

Soon she heard footsteps approaching in the darkness and got ready to spring out. As he passed by, his bright blond hair shining in the moonlight, she pounced. She didn't scream or even make a sound as she landed on his unprotected back. Her hand holding the kunai swung around out in front of him until she brought it back in a quick motion to pierce his right eye. Her left arm was wrapped around his throat as together they tumbled to the ground with her on his back. She let go of the kunai as it had lodged on something and, at that angle, she couldn't get it free. Then, still holding him down with her weight on his back she pulled a second blade from her black pouch and using both hands slammed the blade, business end first, into his unprotected back time after time. Over and over again she stabbed him. Most were shallow wounds that Kyuubi could and would quickly heal but some were a lot more serious. She didn't hear herself mumbling, "For you Daddy. For you Daddy." over and over again but her victim did.

Naruto lay still under the assault, feeling every blow of the knife as it slammed into him and waited for her fury to run it's course. Because he wouldn't fight back any more with her attacking him like this then he would any other villager, he concentrated on the words he heard her saying. So she hated him too, he thought. Deep sadness filled his being but he wasn't surprised. There were too many people who hated him for the emotion to surprise him anymore.

His bright orange jacket was turning red as he closed his eyes and let himself drift away into unconsciousness. He knew her puny strength was not enough to kill him but that didn't mean there wouldn't be pain and marks tomorrow. A slashing motion across the back of his neck was the last thing he was aware of as darkness claimed him.

Sakura seemed to know when he drifted into the darkness and she quickly hopped off his back expecting the monster her Mother had told her about to make an appearance but he stayed just as he always had been. Just a stupid boy. A nobody trying to impress everyone. She sneered as she threw her weapons towards the boy. An idea popped into her head and she grinned, in an evil fashion, as she approached his unconscious form. Quickly, she picked up one of her discarded kunai and slashed at the material that made up his clothes. Being a child from a protected environment, she had no idea what she was exposing the boy to, as she cut all his covering away. When he was nude, she grabbed up the rags and ran to throw them in a nearby dumpster.

Still not being satisfied she made to approach the boy again somehow knowing it wasn't dead yet. She didn't feel the relief she assumed would come with the death of the beast who'd taken her Daddy from her. Because of that, she didn't think he was dead yet. She thought about what else she could do to get the Demon to die. It had fried her beloved Daddy. Her Mother had told her he had screamed for a very long time before finally succumbing to the death the Kyuubi dealt out to everyone who tried to fight it. She had to make it scream. There would be no relief if it didn't scream like he did. She didn't notice when she started to think of Naruto-Baka as it rather than he but to her mind her classmate no longer existed. In his place, was the killer of her precious father.

She decided it was a beast so she'd skin it like a hunter would skin their kills. There was only one problem with that. She had no idea how to skin a kill. She was a village bred girl who simply bought her meat, already prepared for the home, from the market. No Bambi eyes stared up at her from what would soon become her dinner, thank-you very much.

She sat next to him thinking about how to go about the task before she finally made the first cut. She set to work. It was harder than it looked she found as she slowly ripped and peeled away the thin covering of skin on his back. Of course she was doing it wrong and the skin refused to yield nice and smoothly to her blade. Blood rose immediately and coated her gloves making them slip and slide on the handle of her kunai but she kept at it.

She never noticed, when she'd reach up to wipe the sweat off her brow how she'd leave a trail of blood in place of the face paint or how she transferred the paint into the bloody mess she was making of his back. Nor how smudges of blood got into the pink hair that was uncovered when she'd inadvertently pushed back her bandana. Finally the demon was without skin on his back from the base of his skull all the way down to the soles of his feet. Huge gashes revealed white bone or purple organs that were normally protected by skin and tissue. Her kunai was dull from constant run-ins with his bones and bits of bone fragments sparkled amidst the bloody mess that was his back. On his legs muscles were torn and cartilage gleamed as white as the bone bits.

She hadn't noticed the passage of time while she worked but she had giggled insanely when he came to and she heard his silent scream of agony. She had already finished his back and had been working on his butt at that time. Her insane cackle had accompanied him back into the darkness causing her to pout instead when she realized it. To vent her frustration of his unappreciation, she slammed the kunai into his butt and yanked it from one side to the other before getting back to work.

She was going to turn him over and skin his front side also but a quick glance at the sky showed her morning was fast approaching. She decided that, if he lived through this then, it just confirmed that he really was a Demon and she'd do more, better, research before trying again. If he survived this night then she would know next time exactly what to do to kill him before she attacked. Because he definitely deserved to die for all those souls he'd trapped in hell in his place. Including her beloved Daddy.

Before she left him to die she cast a few hand signs; rat, boar; bear; boar; rat; pig; bear; horse and so forth until finally a thin blue line of chakra and a secondary green line of chakra burst from her straight to him. She was chanting under her breath and watched with glee as her chakra encased the writhing boy. Idly as she concentrated on the jutsu she wondered, in her other mind, where the green chakra had come from but it was just a curiosity and unimportant to the task at hand. The power of the jutsu would bind the boy in place to prevent him from seeking help while at the same time the Kyuubi would be under a genjutsu and the best part was the spell was self-sustaining. So long as there was chakra in the body the jutsu would remain active.

A moment later, her chakra had forced him over onto his raw back exposing his seal. Both his blue eyes, one with her kunai still embedded deep into the bone, were wide open but unseeing as her two strands of chakra flowed into the seal she had never before noticed on his belly. The temporary genjutsu would convince the Kyuubi it wasn't having any effect on the injuries it tried to heal. He was going to hurt for a very long time she decided.

Cackling with angry mirth, she stood and grabbed the rags of his garments that had been under his body. She carried them with her to the tunnels where she had left her normal clothes and the supplies she had stolen for her work. She noticed the blood that covered her from head to toe and decided to go for a swim now that she thought she had avenged her precious Daddy.

When she was cleaned and dressed again in her normal attire, she went home. Her Mother was in the kitchen waiting for her. "Where were you tonight, Darling?" she asked.

Sakura handed her the kit she'd used and the bloody outfit. "Get rid of these Mother and say nothing of them. I took care of some business that has been waiting far too long. Daddy won't be haunting you anymore because I have set him free. At least I showed him I really did love him enough to free him."

Tears fell as her mother caught the bloody mess and took it out into the backyard. As she was about to leave the house Sakura spoke again, "I'm going to bed now, Mother. Don't wake me for any reason." She had no idea of the real reason her Mother was crying.

Break Break Break Break Break Break

In the clearing by the old swing Naruto struggle to become conscious again. He knew Sakura had done something jutsu-y but he stunk at genjutsu so he had no idea what she had done. He knew her attack, though painful as all get out, wouldn't kill him or even permanently hurt him but if he laid here unable to move for much longer that might not remain true. Even now, he didn't want the pretty pink-haired girl to get in trouble over him. But he was stuck. He couldn't move so much as a finger and it felt like Kyuubi hadn't stopped the blood loss. If the Fox didn't wake up soon they'd really be in trouble, he thought. They might really die this time and ten was just too young to die in this way.

In her cage, Kyuubi was slamming herself over and over into the new barrier around the bars of her cage. A new seal had filled in the spaces between the bars with a sheet of thick metal but it had melded with the bars to form an unbreakable wall between her and the rest of the Kit's mind. She couldn't even let her chakra seep through the cracks, to help him or let him know, because the damn wall was everywhere and it was seamless. There were no cracks in it. She could sense the chakra that swirled around and through it, keeping it strong and it pissed her off. If she didn't get out of here soon, the Kit would die. She knew how serious his wounds were, even if he didn't. The Kit was in real danger here.

"Hey now. What's this I find on my way to work? If it isn't a little pick me up to start my day," a rough voice intoned close to his ear. "Since your already naked what say I show you how to have a real good time." The voice went to roll him over and saw the blood. "On second thought, no thanks Demon. I like skin on my good time." The man walked off.

Thank you Kami, he thought to the deity. Lying once more on his stomach instead of his tortured back was a relief but also scared him because he was totally exposed. Who knew when the next pervert would find him and whether or not they would be put off by his lack of skin.

A few moments later Naruto heard what sounded like retching off to his right and knew people were filling the streets on their way to work or school. Most of the footsteps walked by without even pausing or slowing down but every once in a while he'd hear someone pause and knew he'd been seen. A child crying was heard soon after that and then running feet and a cool touch on the side of his neck. A girl cried out, "He's still alive. Get help. Somebody get help for him." More running feet and the same voice whispered, "Hang on, Naruto-kun. I'm here and it'll be ok now. Nothing else bad will happen. You're gonna make it through this. I promise."

Hinata. She would be the one to offer him hope. She was the only one other than the Hokage who even noticed him in a good way. Soon Anbu were surrounding him and shunting her away to try and render aid. He'd lost so much blood and his skin was completely gone. They didn't think there would be any chance of saving him this time. But gently they loaded him onto a stretcher and took him off to the hospital. A special room was made into a clean room for him and he was installed in it. It was only as they secured him to the air bed, formed from pure chakra, that his open eyes were noted.

The nurse, who was trying to get an accurate assessment of his total injuries, screamed, "Oh my Sweet Kami in Heaven. The poor child is awake. Someone give him a sleep aid and let him sleep." Tears, she was trained never to show a patient, coursed down her cheeks as she saw his widely opened mouth as well. "Poor kid," she murmured. "I know it hurts but soon you won't feel it. Soon you'll be asleep." She tried to close his mouth but she couldn't. Then she tried to lift his hand but she couldn't even move a finger. Puzzled, she called a doctor over and had him try.

He couldn't either and said, "Get that silver haired Anbu from the hallway in here. I think this kid is in more trouble than we thought."

The Anbu came in and the doctor explained what he thought. Moving quickly the Anbu, Dog, tried to move any small part of Naruto's form. When he couldn't, he vanished from the room only to reappear a moment later with the Hokage. He showed the Old Man what the nurse had discovered and Sarutobi frowned.

"So we have no way of finding out anything about this attack. He can't give us any idea of who did this or even let us know why Kyuubi isn't healing him like it normally does. That damn demon has to know the boy will die without help. Dog, I will send someone to replace you here. Someone trusted not to rush the job his attacker has started but when your relief gets here I want you out on the streets finding out just who did this to him."

They were all standing there looking at Naruto in total shock for a minute before Sarutobi turned to get the replacement. Dog just stared, glad for once for the mask that covered his face, though the drooped position of his shoulders told everyone how depressed he was with the situation. He knew the horror he felt, at the condition of the child, could be seen in his eyes but, due to the mask, no one could see his tears. Ninja weren't suppose to cry but you never expected a child to be hurt like this and certainly not by one of his fellow villagers. Attacks like this were supposed to come from fire hardened warriors who were your enemy and out to end your life. He stepped nearer to Naruto and placed a hand tenderly on the child's head. He was careful to make sure his hand was fully on the boy's head and nowhere near the area where the skin disappeared. "I will find out who did this to you and if you die they will not live one day after I find them. This I promise you. Promise of a Lifetime," he whispered. His replacement arrived wearing a bird mask and he nodded before hopping out the window and beginning his search for a guilty, sick looking person with a death wish.

Break Break Break Break Break Break

Naruto was still alive by some miracle the next day. No one knew how it was that he hadn't yet died but stubbornly he clung to his life. His back was oozing a clear liquid now instead of blood as the vessels sought to seal themselves. Natural healing had kicked in but it was nowhere near as fast or proficient as they were used to. Even non-demon vessels healed at a fast rate than the small progress he had made during the night. The night shift doctors had used their chakra extensively throughout the night to try and repair the multiple injuries but for the amount of chakra they'd expended the progress made was minimal.

Iv's hung from poles replenishing his system so that his body could make more white blood cells to fight off infection. The doctors and nurses who treated him knew that even in a clean room, sterile environment that it was, he'd still contract some sort of infection. And they knew any infection could be the death of him. But they also knew the clean room was the only chance he had.

That was the real problem with those who lost their skin. They couldn't risk giving him injections of antibiotics until he actually caught something due to the fact that the human body would build up a tolerance and therefore a resistance to them after awhile. Plus there was more than one type of antibiotic and if they gave him the wrong one it could be just as deadly as giving them too soon.

So the Doctors just checked his progress every couple of hours and let the nurses do the cleaning of his wounds. They'd discovered the puncture wounds in his back and his severed spine. They'd known from the beginning that it was a ninja or ex-ninja who'd attacked the kid, from the kunai they'd found lodged in his right eye. But from the ripping and tearing as well as the shallow depth of the punctures in his back, they were able to tell the Hokage that he was probably looking for a genin or someone who wasn't yet a ninja at all.

The doctor had explained to Sarutobi that an adult would have driven the blade deeper to make a more permanent injury. He told the old man that although the child had severed the spinal cord in several places, if they could figure out what had the Kyuubi not helping the kid, they could fix it. His eye was another story but, with his backside looking more like hamburger then flesh, and the spinal cord injuries, there was nothing they could do about it. He was going to lose that eye and by the time his back was healed enough to fix the eye there would be nothing there to work with. They simply couldn't risk turning him with his back wounds refusing to heal, though they were staying clean of infection.

Sarutobi came by every day and stood outside the room where Naruto lay face down on a special bed designed for burn victims to allow them to heal without anything touching their abused bodies. He looked so small and weak there and it nearly broke the grand fatherly old man's heart to know that this time someone had almost succeeded in killing the boy. Often Dog, the Anbu that had helped bring the kid in stood beside him. They both looked and prayed for any sign that he would survive.

Finally on the fifth day, Sarutobi told Dog the secret that he'd kept for ten years. Dog just looked at him and said, "I know. He looks too much like Sensei to belong to anyone else. He even sounds like him sometimes. But thank-you for telling me."

They still hadn't identified who had attacked him but they had been looking for an adult who knew of the Kyuubi. Now they knew to focus on a child who knew and had lost someone precious to the beast. Both of them were sure that only when they found the guilty person would they find out what exactly had been done to Naruto. Whatever jutsu the attacker had used still held the boy in thrall. He couldn't so much as blink and, though Sarutobi didn't know it, the Doctors were worried about his other eye drying out also. If that happened the kid would be blind should he survive.

Nurses entered the room every twenty minutes or so and watered his eyes trying to preserve their own moisture so he wouldn't lose his vision but the Doctors weren't very hopeful. Truthfully they were simply amazed the child was still alive at all.

"Hokage-sama," said his lead Doctor. "I really would feel better if Lady Tsunade were here to take a look at the kid. Her powers of healing are much greater than my own and I just know she could break whatever it is that's keeping that Fox from helping him."

"I know and we are looking for her but so far no one we've contacted knows where she is. Summon animals are even trying to find her slug to tell her about this and entice her into helping us. But so far both are in the wind."

"Any luck in finding the perpetrator?"

"Not yet. We are still compiling a list of kids who had a family member or caregiver die to the Kyuubi but that's a long list. When we get it done, we'll cross off those who either aren't old enough to have done this, or simply wouldn't have had the skill to do it and those who had no one to help them do it. I know we need to find someone who has learned to harness their chakra and make use of it as well as someone who can handle a kunai but it could have been two people for all we know. We are already leaving out the children under eight, as they wouldn't have been the product of someone who died that night and although they could have still lost a relative to the Beast, that relative would not have been a precious enough person for an attack of this nature. This was pure rage."

Sarutobi closed his eyes and then continued after a short pause. "We know a man saw him before Hinata found him. The man came in to report that he hadn't touched the kid once he saw the boy was already dead. He left him there, thinking because Naruto-kun didn't react to him that he had already died. He hated Kyuubi enough to harm the vessel but not enough to defile his corpse I guess."

This time it was the doctor who closed his eyes. "What has happened to us Sarutobi? We were once a people who'd never ever think of doing something like this to another living person let alone a child."

Sarutobi sighed and said, "The people are lost in the darkness of grief and I don't know that we will ever find our way out again. Or if we can recapture what we once had if we do."

Behind them a bunch of academy kids were doing their yearly tour of the hospital. They were being shown how far the Leaf village would go to care for it's ninja. It was a way to assure the children, while they learned what being a ninja meant, that they would not be just used and tossed aside when their injuries became too numerous to deal with. They visited the high-end care wards and the long-term care wards only. This was also a way to make sure the children were exposed to exactly what could happen if you chose to live your life as a ninja. When the teacher got to Naruto's room, he paused so the group could show respect to the Hokage.

Hinata stepped up to the window of the room and pressed a hand to the glass. Naruto-kun," she whispered. Her entire class heard her though and soon all but one was pressed up to the glass trying to see into the room. The one that wasn't, had an angry look on her face before she marched over and determinedly pushed two other kids aside to glare into the room.

Sarutobi pulled the teacher back and asked, "Who is the angry girl? She seems to be angry that Naruto-kun is here. Can you tell me why that might be?"

"Well, her name is Haruno Sakura and I really don't know why. Maybe she's been missing the attention Naruto always gave her though I would think she would be glad for the break."

"What do you mean? Has she asked after him this week?"

"No. In fact, she is the only student in the class that hasn't other than Hinata, who only asked if I had any news on Naruto. But, you see, well, he has rather a large crush on her, Sakura I mean and he's always asking her out and bringing her little pieces of junk he finds. He does bring her some nice things also and I notice that, although she rejects the junk and the dates, she keeps the nice things. The headband she's wearing today, for instance, is something he gave her as is the necklace."

"Hmmm... Haruno. . .Didn't her father die ten years ago? Supposedly in the attack though no one can remember seeing him there at the time?"

"Yes, I believe he did. And it's strange since you can usually find someone who saw everybody else who died fighting the Kyuubi. But that's what her mother says every year when she gets drunk during the celebration," stated the doctor.

Sarutobi eyed the class for a few more minutes and didn't miss Sakura's fist clenching on the sill of the window. The reflection showed her eyes were narrowed and glaring at the boy in the room. Yes, she was an angry girl alright but being angry wasn't proof of wrong doing. And it was passing strange that no one alive recalled her father fighting the Nine-tailed Beast on that fateful night. Sarutobi said good bye to the group and vanished back to his office where he instructed Kotetsu to summon some Anbu and Ibiki to him.

When they arrived he told the Anbu to find Mrs. Haruno and bring her to Ibiki for questioning. After they dropped her off they were to pick up the trail of her daughter and follow the girl. "I think the girl is the one who hurt Naruto but I can't prove it. You will find me whatever proof you can. Proof of either her guilt or her innocence. Either way I want to know."

Dog looked at him in shock. Sarutobi dismissed the rest to go get started and when they were gone told Dog, "Take off your mask and speak your mind."

Dog complied. "You mean to tell me that one of his own classmates did this to him?"

"Think about it, Kakashi. His classmates are old enough to have learned some chakra techniques and to handle a kunai. They have been taught how to attack and use the weapon to disable and eventually kill their opponent. As for the jutsu, well a lot of those kids know some jutsu already given their families. I didn't think the Haruno girl did, but her marks have shown her to be an avid learner, so it's possible she does. Also, she is reported to have lost her father to the Kyuubi. Her father was, as I remember, devoted to her."

"But how did she find out? I mean, sure her Mother might have told her Kyuubi killed her Dad but that wouldn't necessarily correlate to Kyuubi is your classmate."

"No, it wouldn't. Someone would have had to tell her and that's why I gave the order to have the Mother brought in for questioning, Ibiki style. It makes sense that, if she did do this, her mother, not only knows about it but, engineered it. If anyone can get it out of her, it will be Ibiki and his assistant. I understand the Haruno woman is absolutely terrified of Anko for some strange reason." His smile was positively wicked and a moment later Kakashi eye-smiled at him and chuckled darkly.

"I hope Anko brought her little friends to work today," he said as he put his mask back on and got prepared to go meet up with his squad.

"She always does. You're dismissed," said Sarutobi.

Kakashi left and Sarutobi sat staring at his pile of incomplete work that still needed to be gone through. Some of those forms he knew were just busy work meant to keep him too busy to notice things like the attack on Naruto and suddenly he was furious. That night, while Naruto was being attacked and having his life put on the line, he'd probably been sitting right here doing busy work to keep the stupid power-hungry council off his back for not having gotten it done earlier in the day. It never occurred to him that even if he hadn't been, he still would not have known what was happening to Naruto.

He would have been at home playing with his grandson or listening to his daughter-in-law complain about her life in general. Truth was, her complaints were the reason behind his late hours at the tower and also the driving force behind him making up with Asuma, though he did love his second son every bit as much as he had loved the eldest one. He was known for his patience and, if it hadn't been for that complaining woman, he would have waited until Asuma was really ready before forcing a conflict resolution on him. But he had needed the man to intervene because only when Asuma was around, did the woman shut up for more than a minute.

Break Break Break Break Break Break

It took Ibiki three days but eventually he broke down the elder Haruno woman. She finally admitted to him that she had told her daughter the lie about her father having been killed by the Kyuubi and the secret about why everyone hated her classmate. It turned out that her daughter had decided on her own to get revenge but that wasn't the secret that had the woman teetering on the edge. For her, the biggest secret, as it turned out, was that the Kyuubi did not kill the girl's father at all. Mrs. Haruno had discovered her husband was planning on leaving her and taking her daughter with him. In a fit of rage she had killed him and buried him in a torn up part of the village the Kyuubi had already deserted. At first people had said nothing about her husband but then one night, when she was out drinking, someone had said it was too bad that the Kyuubi had taken her little girl's Daddy from her and she had just let the lie stand, not knowing what else to say. She hadn't wanted her husband to be seen as some sort of hero or even as a victim but she also didn't want anyone to know she killed him just to keep him from leaving and taking her daughter away from her.

She told Ibiki where the body of her husband was as well as the remains of the kit Sakura had used that night to try and kill the Demon. Unfortunately, because she was not now nor had she ever been a ninja, she had no idea what jutsu her daughter had used on the boy.

Sakura was startled when fierce looking people poofed into being in her classroom, but not too surprised. Her Mother, though known to disappear once in awhile on a binge, hadn't been home for the last three days. Her teacher jumped about three inches and he was sitting down at the time behind his desk. So that resulted in painful leg wide bruises right above his knees.

"Anbu Captain, may I help you today?" the teacher addressed them politely.

So this was Anbu she thought. They certainly looked fierce enough. But if they were all they were cracked up to be, not only would she not have been able to hurt the Bakamono as badly as she did, but why was he even alive for her to have hurt in the first place. Her thoughts caused her expression to darken and her hands to clench into fists. Stupid damn Demon. How the hell had he gotten to the hospital? And what about the Genjutsu she had used on the Demon? Hadn't it worked the way the book said it would? Why the Hell was the thing healing? She was so deep into her own thoughts she almost didn't hear the teacher call her name.

"Haruno, they need you to go with them for a time. Your Mother is in custody I believe." Sakura's eyes flew wide. Oh no. If they had gotten to her Mother she was dead. No way would that foolish drunk keep her mouth shut. For the first time the ramifications of what she had done began to slam into her brain. She had tried to kill someone. That someone was still suffering because of what she'd done. Her Mother knew what she had done and had probably already told them everything they needed to know. She was busted. So she closed her eyes and stood up. Concealing her shaking she walked sedately over to the anbu who formed up around her. One on each side took a grip on an arm and together they left the classroom the same way they had shown up.

They took her to an interrogation room. A window allowed her to see her Mother on the other side but Sakura had no way of knowing whether it was real or not. Her expression did not change as she sat there waiting for the interrogator to come in. Because she was only a child she knew they would go easy on her. They probably hadn't even put the dampers on the room thinking she didn't know much about chakra yet and so wouldn't be able to use it well. While it was true she couldn't use it to get herself out of here or to see if the image of her mom on the other side of the glass was a genjutsu or not she could and would create her own as soon as she had a target present to use it on.

Anko walked into the room a few minutes later and sat down across from Sakura. A wave of her hand dispelled the attempt Sakura had made at a genjutsu to trap the purple haired woman into helping her leave the premises. She had no intention of going to prison. A person such as herself, blessed by the hand of destiny, just did not wind up in some little rinky-dink four by four cell. Sakura's face drained of color as she felt her chakra being pulled away from her. Her eyes narrowed as she recognized what was happening. She sighed and said, "So I understand you have my Mother here somewhere also. Do I get to see her or am I under arrest already?"

"Why do you think you might be under arrest?"

"Because I felt you drain my chakra and I felt the seals go active on this room. Therefore, I will not be allowed to regain my chakra until you are finished talking with me. Therefore, this is not a visiting room which means my Mother has said something she should not have said though I am not surprised she did. Three days without a drink is two beyond her limit."

Anko just stared at the girl for a minute before bending her neck in acknowledgment. "They said you were smart and quick. I see they are right. So you know exactly what lies in store for you if you do not give us the answers we are after."

At that statement, Sakura smirked looking very much like Sasuke at his worst. "You will not do anything of the kind. I am a ten year old child and the Leaf village does not harm children."

Anko got an evil grin. "Oh breaking you is going to be fun." She cackled as she stood up and turned to the mirror on the wall. She made a gesture Sakura couldn't see and all of a sudden there were bugs everywhere in the room.

Outside Kurenai had been standing by waiting for a signal. Once Anko gave the signal she had cast a quick acting Genjutsu under her breath that would make it seem the room was crawling with the thing Sakura was most afraid of. It took her by surprise to note it seemed to be bugs.

Anko turned back to face Sakura and sat down at the table. She noticed the panicked look in the girls eye now and how she squirmed in her seat. It was clear she was trying not to react but she just wasn't all that good at it. Sweat beaded on her forehead and rolled down into her eyes. She blinked rapidly but her eyes kept roving around the room trying to track the multitude of bugs.

Hours later and a more intensive fear genjutsu revealed the hand signs Sakura had used to bind the Kyuubi into it's cage and keep it from interfering with the damage she had done. She hadn't wanted the beast to heal the Baka because he was a baka who was also very annoying and an interference in her plans to catch the eye of the last Uchiha. She would grow up and become the mother of the new Uchiha clan because, when you were born with her coloring, normal just wasn't in your future. She had figured out a long time back that the highest position in this village, for a female, was as the Mother of a new clan or the wife of a Hyuuga. Since both the heirs to the Hyuuga clan were girls, that was out but Sasuke would someday need a wife. And since he was technically the head of the Uchiha clan she would achieve both positions in one stroke but only if she could get that Bakamono to leave her alone.

Anko, who was barely restraining her urge to strangle the spoilt brat, told her the truth her mother had revealed about her father and what had happened to him really. When she stormed out of the small room Sakura was screaming at the top of her lungs and threatening that if she ever saw her mother again she would kill her.

Mrs. Haruno was sentenced to death by a manner of her choosing. Not only had she committed first degree murder herself a decade ago but she had also lied to people about the matter when questioned and the lie had led to the revelation of an S class secret to another child who could possibly have spread the news around and that resulted in great personal harm to the child it was enacted to protect. She chose death by lethal injection and in her death bed confession she apologized for the harm her lie had caused her daughter to do to Naruto. She stated that she had never had any ill-will toward the boy and had hoped her daughter would be more inclined to compassion towards him when she had told her the secret. She had been drunk when she told her daughter the lie about her husband having been killed by Kyuubi. By the time she had put the story together it was too late. Sakura had already sought her revenge.

Sakura also received the Death penalty but her execution was given a stay, as when she was examined by Yamanaka Inoichi, he found her to be mentally unstable. He recommended that she be incarcerated in a maximum security cell at the local mental hospital under twenty-four hour a day guards and a suicide watch. He did think it possible for her to be redeemed at a later point in time but it would take many years of counseling before he would recommend her release into society again. As the authority at the time of her arrest and sentencing, he was the one who would have to approve her release from the hospital. Inoichi thanked his lucky stars that the child hadn't harmed his little girl since the two had been friends for a few years before they both fell for the same boy. If the girl was capable of doing this much harm to a boy she thought took someone precious from her, what could she have done to Ino should Ino have won their little contest over the Uchiha kid?

Kurenai was taken to Naruto side and told the symbols Sakura had used and she cursed fluently for a full five minutes before they got anything intelligible from her. No one knew the dignified Genjutsu Mistress even knew that many curse words or that she was perfectly capable of saying them. Mouths dropped to the floor and stayed there all the way through her explanation of why she was unqualified to deal with this situation. "She messed up the symbols. We really need a seal master here. What she did, wasn't a genjutsu at all though I have no doubt that's what she thought she was doing. She built off the seal Naruto already had and it altered that seal. If I go messing with it there it a chance that the old seal will break and I will kill us all. I am sorry. I had hoped to be able to help you but. . ." She shrugged and turned away. Just looking at Naruto made her own body hurt and she wanted to cry for him simply because she knew he couldn't.

It took another month before Jiraiya came to town with Tsunade passed out over his shoulder. He and Kakashi spent hours looking at every line and swirl of Naruto's seal before they started comparing notes to decide on a course of action.

Tsunade, when she was shown Naruto suffering in the air bed couldn't turn away though she claimed it was a low trick to force her here to deal with what was obviously a burn victim. She didn't even recognize the child until Sarutobi told her who he was. That caused her to take a second look. Why wasn't he already healed then? She was told exactly what happened to Naruto and why. After that she demanded that Jiraiya "Get the Hell" out of her way so she could examine the Gaki. He complied, grinning the whole time and pulling Kakashi out from under the bed with him.

Finally she was satisfied and stepped aside. "Get some of that holding spell off him so I can work. It shouldn't take long at all to heal the punctures once that damn spell is gone."

"Holding spell?" asked a doctor hoping to learn something from watching the Great Tsunade work.

"Yeah the kid that altered the seal also installed a self-replicating holding spell on the boy. That holding spell would save a lot of lives that we lose simply because we can't move fast enough. If I thought she actually knew what she did I'd take her as an apprentice. And if she wasn't mental. The signs to remove it are normally dog, bear, horse and pig but since she tied it to the seal on the Kyuubi, Jiraiya, my perverted teammate, is going to have to figure out how to do it."

Jiraiya was already working on it with Kakashi watching him intently. He thought and poked the child several times and studied each reaction.

"Jiraiya quit torturing the kid and get on with it. Just cause he's locked in the spell doesn't mean he can't feel you poking his injuries, you know," growled Tsunade.

Finally Naruto twitched on his own and Tsunade got to work immediately. "Ok, Kid. This is gonna hurt like hell but let's get you well again," she murmured to him as she prepared to do her thing. She summoned her chakra and for the next day and a half she only left his side to replenish her energy with food and drink. She barely rested at all as he was critical now that the holding spell had worn off and the sooner he had new skin, the better off he would be. His severed spine was an easy matter to heal but his right eye was gone. The hospital eye bank didn't even have a good match for him as no one but the Yondaime himself had shared eyes that particular shade of blue. In the end, they simply gave him and eye patch to where and showed him how to care for the empty socket before his release.

Overall the conclusion was that he was a very lucky little boy who would never be allowed to live alone again until he was old enough to defend himself. He moved in with Kakashi who took his job as care giver serious enough to pack away all his Icha Icha Paradise paraphernalia. Kakashi helped Naruto every time he was home from missions to learn to deal with a reduction in his eyesight and deal with his disability. So did Hinata. Sakura's name was never even mentioned once her classmates learned what she had done though they weren't told why.

AUTHOR NOTE: Ok I know this is different than the stories I normally write but I wanted to see if I could do it. I think I did an ok job. As for the jutsu Sakura used on Naruto, she has no idea yet what the green chakra is. She has not and will not begin training under Tsunade for quite a few years yet so she is unaware that medical chakra is a different color than normal chakra. It is the green chakra that formed the Holding Seal on Naruto. She thought she was doing a genjutsu which would keep the Demon from interferring and healing Naruto. She has no clue that she was actually performing high level seals on him because she messed up the signs. She, and Naruto, are only ten and no one has taught them anything about seals yet. As far as they know there are only 3 types of jutsus; gen, tai and nin. And no the teacher is not Iruka. He does not become Naruto's instructor until after Naruto fails for the second, or possibly, third time. Don't forget to send me your reviews and let me know what you think. Did I do a good job?