Chapter One

Sakura was tired of being left behind, tired of watching everyone passing her by, Naruto, Sasuke, even Ino had passed her by, none of them needed her anymore, Naruto had Hinata now, and no time, not even for lunch at Ichiraku's. Sasuke was long gone, off on his stupid quest for power, and revenge on his brother. She had no idea where Kakashi was, as soon as Naruto left, to train with Jariya, a she had not heard from him since, they had met up to bid farewell to Naruto.

She was tired of being weak, she wasn't strong enough to stop Sasuke from leaving. Hell, even Senju Tsunade wouldn't take her on as an apprentice, she had taken one look at Sakura and told her to get lost. No one would train with her for fear of harming her. All she wanted to do was protect her team, or at least be able to take care of herself, and not be useless anymore.

She looked up, finally reaching her destination, this was her last resort, her last chance to be useful. She pressed her hand against the door, that lead to the place where the broken, and beaten ended up, where the Shinobi who were too dangerous or unstable, to be allowed in to the regular population, The Intelligence and Interrogation section of ANBU. She pushed the door inward, and entered, and walked down the corridor, observing the light crème color, of the walls that seemed to give off an almost cheery atmosphere. She was brought back to attention by the sounds of footsteps, looking towards the sound spotting Anko walking towards her. Anko looked up from her dango, and gave her a wide grin, that bordered on psychotic, sending a shiver down Sakura's spine.

"what's up Pinky," she called.

Sakura bit the inside of her cheek, fighting down the rising irritation at the nickname, and continued forward to meet Anko.

"I was actually looking for Ibiki-sama," Sakura said, a hint of a quiver behind her voice, "I have a request to make of him. Do you know where I can find him?"

"Commander Baldy's down in the interrogation rooms," she replied, her grin turning into a smirk, "he's probaly going to be down there for a while."

"I don't mind waiting." Sakura stated, putting up a brave front, "where can I find that."

"Hn. Well first off, you're going the wrong way," she said with an amused smile, enjoying the small girls discomfort, "go back the way you came and take your next left, go all the way and then down the stairs, he is in interrogation room 4, which will be on your right side."

Sakura smiled, and thanked Anko, bowing respectfully, and followed her directions. She came to a dimly lit stairwell that led down to the basement level, she chewed on her bottom lip nervously, and started down. The stairs seemed to go on forever, and what she assumed was about halfway down she started to hear the screams. She must have passed by the sound cancelling jutsu, because as she descended further down they got worse, to the point that she could almost physically feel the victims pain. Sakura gritted her teeth and took a deep breath, only to gag as the scent of blood laid heavily in the air, she could taste it on the air as well, so breathing through her mouth didn't help at all. She steeled herself against her instinct to turn back the way she came, and continued her way, dreading every step down she took.

She finally reached the bottom, the screams were much worse down here, they seeped past Sakura's skin, and deep into her bones, they were horrible, they seared her ears and rattled her teeth. She fought her way to the bottom, where she almost lost her nerve and turned back, but the nagging voice of her inner told her that if she turned back now, she would regret it for the rest of her life, that she would never be useful to her team, and that this would be the last chance she had to be at least someone. She continued until she found interrogation room four, the door was a plain tan color, that seemed to flow with the dingy grey walls, the plaque on the door was a standard black metal plate, with the words 'Int. room 4' etched in silver on it. She could feel the pain radiating out from within the room, more importantly she could hear the screams coming from the room. They were blood curdling, high pitched, screams, that resonated outwards through the closed door, and echoed through the hall. Sakura walked back towards the stairwell where she had seen a chair when she has come in, she sat down and tried to drown out the screams, to no avail. She looked at the clock across the hall on the wall, and watch the seconds' hand tick, counting the minutes.

She recalled that Anko had said that Ibiki might take a while, and she sighed, preparing herself for the wait ahead. She tried everything to keep her mind off of what was going on in the rooms around her, but they just kept drawing her back in, she tried imagining herself in the meadow that she knew of, just outside of Konoha, it is a beautiful meadow that she could remember her mother taking her to, when she was little, it was surrounded by ginkgo trees, and filled with Asagao, Sumire, and Tsubaki flowers, but each time she tried to visualize a terrified scream, would tear through her distraction.

A few of the interrogators walked to and from the interrogation rooms, but none came out of interrogation room four. She looked towards the clock on the far wall and sighed, she felt like she had been here forever, but had in fact only been here for 2 hours, she sighed again, now trying to figure out whether it was good or bad, that she was slowly getting used to the pain filled screams and moans. On one hand, she was about to beg the commander of the ANBU head of intelligence and interrogation, to train her, to do the very thing that was causing the screams, that is if he even bothered to hear her out. She mentally scoffed, Lady Tsunade had taken one look at her and seen nothing that could be turned into a valuable Shinobi, and she had to agree, she was a 13-year-old girl, who before Sasuke had left, cared more about her looks, than her training, and that had not boded well. Sure, her marks at the academy were the highest in the class, surpassing everyone but Nara Shikamaru, but her physical performance was atrocious, the only thing she had going was her chakra control, which was superb by most standards, and she had an affinity for Gen-jutsu, which she supposed was a handy thing, but no one had ever taken the time to teach her properly, so her Gen-Jutsu was appalling, not even close to be ready for use in a battle. Her Nin-Jutsu was nearly as bad, she had the basics, substitution, and transformation jutsu's she learned from the academy, but nothing else, and her Tai-Jutsu was adequate, but needed sever improvement. All in all, she needed help, badly. That was why she had braved this hell hole. She was betting her last hope on someone she had only encountered once before at the Chunin exams. Sakura had heard through the older Shinobi that although he has no family jutsu or kekkai genkai, he in himself was a strong Shinobi, he had to be, not only was he head of intelligence and interrogation he is the commander of ANBU. She only hoped that he would help. That he would see the potential in her that she knew she had, even if the so called great Sharingan Kakashi couldn't see it.

A door opening broke Sakura's train of thought, she looked up to see the man she had been waiting for exiting the room that had been the focus of her attention. From where she sat she had to crane hear neck to be able to look at his face, doing her best not to stare at the scars that rad across his face. She stood up from her chair ignoring the felling of pins and needles, that spread through her legs from disuse. she studied the man as he wiped his hands on a rag that he had brought out of the room with him, covering it with a stick red substance, the sight of which made her stomach turn. Sakura moved to stand directly in the center of the hall, so that she would be noticed.

Ibiki noticed a movement out of the corner of his eye, and turned his head in the direction of it. Seeing who it was he turned to observe the girl. He knew who she was, it was impossible not to remember her from the Chunin exams, the bright pink hair was impossible to miss, that and the fact that she was the only one to correctly answer all the questions on the written exam. Ibiki continued to wipe the blood off his hands, this interrogation had taken longer than he anticipated, and messier than he had wanted. He went back to observing the girl, she was smaller than most other teens that he had seen, about 4 feet 5 inches, her shoulder length bright pink hair was interesting, but her emerald eyes were even more interesting, they shone with emotion, reading her was easy, as different emotions flitted through her.

Her forehead was slightly too large for her face, and she still had the rounded face of a child. After the Chunin exams, Ibiki had looked into the girl, finding her remarkably unremarkable, in fact the only things she had, was her chakra control, an affinity Gen-Jutsu and adequate Tai-Jutsu skills.

She stood in the middle of the hallway, staring at him, which he commended. She made a point to look him directly in the eyes, which too guts, not many could do so, most were drawn to his scars first and foremost. He had heard through the grapevine of gossip that she had been looking for a Sensei, she had been turned down by Lady Tsunade, which surprised him, the woman had a notorious soft spot for children. Ibiki had heard that the girl before him had been asking questions about him.

"What do you want girl."

Sakura jumped. She had been expecting the booming voice, she remembered it from the exams, but had not expected it to make her so nervous when directed at her. "I came to ask..." Sakura trailed off at a sudden bout of embarrassment.

"how long have you been down here," Ibiki asked.

The question startled Sakura enough that she answered with no quiver to her voice, "about 3 hours."

Ibiki was surprised, while there may be a sound barrier jutsu in the stairwell to keep the sounds of the interrogation form bothering the upper levels, but there were no sound barriers down here, that meant that Sakura had sat down here for 3 hours listening to the torture. "Why," he asked, although he already knew the answer.

"I want you to train me," Sakura replied, mustering the last of her of her newfound courage, "I want you to train me so that I can be of some use to the Village. So, that I don't have to be weak." She blurted out.

Ibiki raised an eyebrow, silently applauding the young girl, she had spunk he'd give her that. "and if I don't agree," he questioned.

"I'm sorry, but you are my last option Ibiki-sama," she answered, "and, I will not stop asking you until you agree to train me."

"Very well then, but before I agree fully," he stated, "I want to make sure that you understand what you are asking for. That you know what you are getting yourself into. Come here." He ordered.

He waited for the girl to come forward, before he turned back to the room he had exited, "are you ready," he asked, placing his hand on the doorknob, "what you are about to see is only a fraction of what I will train you to do."

Sakura nodded, "I am as ready as I think I will ever get."