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I do not own Naruto

If there was one thing she was good at, it was retrieving information.

She stood frozen, back pushed against the rough stone wall, listening intently. She was one with the shadows, practically invisible. A soft clicking of heels was approaching steadily and she held her breath as they neared, ringing louder with every step. A tall blonde woman, professionally dressed, hurried past with her eyes focused on a paper she carried. And then she was gone, as quickly as she had come, never noticing the shinobi standing five feet to her left in the dimly lit hall. Only then did the petite, masked girl slip out of the dark alcove. Silently, she continued the direction the woman had come, hyper aware of her surroundings. She listened carefully, ready to act on a moment's notice. Fluidly, she glided across the hard oak floor, searching through the dull illumination for her destination. The door she was searching for came into view and she clicked on her earpiece. Sliding up against the doorframe, she spoke so softly it was almost inaudible.

"Location secure. No issues. Heading in now."

"Copy. Everyone else stand by for further instructions," came a smooth, masculine voice. "Red, proceed as planned."

Sakura "Red" Haruno smiled briefly at the mention of her code name. Red was the name she was given for the fox mask that was molded to her face. She stepped in front of the door, placing her ear softly against it. She listened carefully for any sounds coming from beyond. There was only silence. Gently she reached forward and tried the handle. 'Locked, of course,' she thought to herself. However, she was prepared. She reached up quickly, pulling two large bobby pins from her hair. As she pulled them out, her long pink locks tumbled around her shoulders. With a quick glance down the hall, she swiftly set to work. Within seconds, the lock gave a soft click and she pushed her way inside.

The room was dark and musty. It smelled damp and had the cold, drafty feel of a dungeon. Leaning against the back of the door, she waited to sense any signs of life. Her eyes adjusted to the darkness as she observed the room through the eye-holes in her mask.

The room was large, which was to be expected. From the information they had been given going into the mission they were to search for a library. However, she hadn't expected this. The amount of scrolls stored here was unlike anything she had ever seen. There were shelves upon shelves of them. What's more is that there were even large piles started on the floor, in far corners, and on any stool, table, desk, and surface that she could see. 'How the hell does anyone find anything in this place?' She thought, mouth curling into an annoyed frown behind her mask. Luckily, she had a general idea of what they were looking for. Still, with this much ground to cover, it could be very much like finding a needle in a haystack.

Stepping forward lightly, she scanned the room. There didn't appear to be any traps but she needed to be sure. In a flash, she threw kunai down a long row of shelves and they stuck in the far wall with a dull thud. She dropped to a crouch and waited. Nothing happened.

Still unsure, she got up and made her way over to her kunai carefully. When all appeared to be normal, she yanked them out of the wall and smirked. 'I guess Danzo doesn't think there is anyone skilled enough to get this far,' she thought to herself.

It was rare that she was assigned to missions as the stealth specialist of the squad. It was extraordinarily rare when the missions took place within her own village. It wasn't that she was unqualified for stealth missions, quite the contrary, actually. It was just that her medical skills were frequently in need on ANBU squads and she was assigned as such. Turning on the ball of her foot, she began scanning the room in sections. Even though she knew what to look for, there was a lot of ground to cover. However, she had barely gotten a quarter of the way through, when her trained eye caught a glimpse of gold on one of the shelves above her.

'Bingo,' she thought with a satisfied smirk.

Up high, in the middle of a shelf that looked identical to the rest, a scroll stuck out just barely farther than those surrounding it. However, this particular scroll was the thickest upon the shelf, taking up much more space than the others. Etched into the end, in the center of the scroll, was a golden leaf.

Now it wasn't just any leaf, this was the symbol of the hidden leaf village, the very same that was inscribed into the headbands of all shinobi who protected it. It was small but Sakura caught it. Her shishou didn't pick her for this mission on accident, after all.

She scaled the bookcase easily, placing her feet gently onto shelf after shelf, using her upper body strength to pull herself up, up and up. She avoided using any chakra so as to not draw attention to herself. The building was, after all, heavily guarded. Grabbing the scroll, she tucked it safely under one arm. Bracing herself, she jumped with a light 'huff,' barely making a sound.

"The target has been acquired," she whispered into the microphone. "Retreating. Stand by."

"Copy," came the same familiar male voice as earlier.

She turned to leave, tucking the scroll safely onto her belt. She took a last look around, marveling at the sheer size of the room. As she was turning to leave, a quick pulse of chakra flashed and Sakura tensed. Spinning around in a defensive position, she scanned the room, ready to fight whoever may be approaching. But as quickly as the chakra had been there, it was gone. Confused, she stood extremely still, listening intently to pick up signs that anyone was there. She was met with only silence. Normally she would send out her own chakra to scan the surroundings but it was too risky, someone could feel it and come to investigate.

Worried now, she quickly prepared to leave, never letting her guard down. She knew it couldn't have been her imagination, she was too trained to have just imagined the chakra spike. "But what was it then?" She couldn't help but wonder to herself. Making sure to leave no sign she was there, she backtracked the way she came, triple checking to make sure nothing was amiss. When she was almost to the door, something caught her eye. She wasn't even sure how she saw it, but there it was.

Hardly believing her eyes, she moved closer to get another look. 'I'll be damned,' she thought to herself. She knew any hesitation could compromise the mission but she also knew it wasn't likely she would have another chance to come back here again. Without one more thought she reached out and grabbed another scroll, tucking this one safely inside her pouch.

She hurried to the door, pausing briefly to lock it, and slipped out into the hall once more. The compound was large but had a relatively simple design. Like a ghost, Sakura melted into the shadows once more, never to be seen unless she wanted to be. She easily maneuvered the building, staying hidden from any guards. Never again on the way out did she feel that mysterious chakra she had felt in the library. Before long, she found herself outside. Fresh air assaulted her senses and she resisted the urge to take off her mask. She quickly made her way across the large yard and over the wall with no trouble.

As soon as she arrived in the designated clearing, three other Shinobi landed silently around her. She quickly flashed the scroll as proof she completed the mission. Her team leader stared at her through his dog shaped mask, spiky silver hair illuminated by the full moon. She knew he wanted to talk about the mission, but they couldn't here. She gave him a small nod and the squad leapt off into the trees.

They zoomed through the sleeping village at a lightning fast pace, never making a sound. They didn't speak, only flashed brief signals when necessary. They were essentially invisible. As they crossed the rooftops of sleeping villagers, the Hokage tower drew nearer. A light was on in the highest part which was their destination.

Tsunade stared at the far wall of her office, an anxious look on her face. Her elbows were resting on the desk with her hands laced under her chin. Just as she was about to get up, four Shinobi flashed into her office through the window. She stood immediately. They all kneeled in front of her.

"Report," she commanded firmly.

The Shinobi on the end stood, speaking in his usual smooth tone. "The mission was a success. No complications have been noted. We retrieved the object in question."

"Good work," Tsunade said with a nod. The man looked down at the girl kneeling next to him through his dog-shaped mask. She stood, holding out the scroll for the Hokage to take.

The Godaime gently took the scroll and placed it among her things on the large desk behind her. She turned back and nodded to the four ANBU. "You have done well," she said, turning to face the tall, silver haired man to her right. "I expect a full report on my desk first thing in the morning. You are dismissed."

Two of the people disappeared in a flash, save for Sakura and her team captain, none other than the copy-nin himself, who hung back a moment. He stared at Sakura for a few seconds, their eyes meeting briefly, before he too disappeared out the window in a flash. Sakura knew what his stare meant. He was curious about why they had just infiltrated one of the most highly guarded places within their own village and he expected her to tell him. She made a mental note to seek him out the next day to talk. She knew the Hokage wouldn't mind her telling him now that the mission was over, as Kakashi was someone both Sakura and her shishou trusted deeply. But he was going to have to wait, she had bigger things on her mind at the moment. Tsunade took her place at the desk, not looking up at the girl standing before her. With a heavy sigh, she pulled a large bottle of sake out of one of the drawers. Sakura removed her mask, setting it on the Hokage's desk in front of her. She eyed the bottle of sake disdainfully, but didn't say anything in protest. Long ago, she learned that no matter what she said or did, her shishou would never change her ways.

Tsunade looked up when she was finished pouring herself a glass, not bothering to offer one to her student. "What do you need, Sakura?" She said with a tired edge to her voice. Sakura just raised an eyebrow and her gaze shifted to the scroll they had just retrieved. The blonde followed her gaze and sighed, once again. She closed her eyes and drained the glass in one long swig. She leaned back in her chair, folding her hands behind her head. "You know as well as I do that Danzo cannot be trusted," she said after a minute. "You also know that of the classified scrolls in the library, a few were missing. This was one of them."

Sakura figured as much. She had, after all, been the one to organize the classified scrolls of the Hokage's library along with Shizune. There was an entire sector of the Hokage tower dedicated to important reports of past missions and village dealings. It was off limits to all but a very few select people. Besides the Godaime herself, Sakura, Shizune, and the elders, no one was permitted to enter. The elders hadn't even wanted her and Shizune in there but Tsunade insisted that they were to organize it.

If anything had ever happened where they needed to look up a specific piece of information, it would take weeks to find it the way it had been. There was no way she could find the time to do it herself, with all the other duties required of the Hokage. Begrudgingly, the elders agreed to permit Shizune and Sakura access as long as once they were finished, they wouldn't frequent visiting the place. Sakura had initially been annoyed when she first received the assignment, seeing how neglected the place had become over the years. She knew it would take them months to sort through the literal mountains of documents on their own. However, as time went on, she became more and more fascinated by the information stored there. She had always been one to enjoy acquiring new knowledge, as she had very nearly been through all the books in the public libraries of the village. It was rare she was seen without a book in her spare time, soaking up as much as she could learn. She had always been that way, ever since she was a little girl. It was why she excelled at the academy and how she learned so many medical techniques.

When she had been assigned to the mission to obtain the scroll and the details were described, she had instantly known what they were looking for. Every one stored in the Hokage's library had been inscribed with the same leaf on the end. That was why it was her who was chosen to enter Danzo's compound to retrieve it while her squad waited outside, ready in case she were caught.

Sakura picked up the scroll, unrolling it just enough to see where it fell into order among the others. It was marked 3-184. She closed it and bowed to her sensei. "Would you like me to put it away, among the others?" She asked, looking to her blonde teacher expectantly. Tsunade sat up and rubbed her tired eyes. She nodded once. "Yes, if you don't mind. I won't have time to read it in the coming days. I have a large stack of paperwork that I just can't put off any longer," she said, annoyance clear in her tone. "I looked at the number, I will retrieve it when I have time to read it thoroughly. Besides, it wouldn't be wise to leave it laying around here. Too many people come and go."

Picking up her mask as well, she bowed low, bidding her teacher a goodnight. She turned and left the office, but instead of going toward the exit, she turned and began walking down the long hallway leading to the stairs. She walked on and on, spiraling downward toward the library. Finally, she came upon the tall wooden doors and stopped. She made the necessary hand signs and the seal broke, unlocking the door. Her and Shizune had placed a new seal, in light of the missing documents. She made her way inside and turned on the light. The blinding fluorescents slowly blinked to life, causing her to shield her eyes against the harshness of them. She made her way over to the shelves with the scrolls of the Third on them and placed the missing addition where it belonged.

There were 7 missing in total. It had been troubling Tsunade ever since Sakura had reported it to her. Every scroll was marked with a number, indicating which Hokage had been in power during the document's creation. Then, separated by a dash was another number, indicating the sequence of which the document was created. For example, if Tsunade were to have an official document stored in there it would be marked 5- and then whatever number the document count was up to for her. Most of the missing documents were from the time of the third Hokage's reign. When learning this information, Tsunade had immediately suspected Danzo based on his feelings toward the Third. Having once been his student, she had learned of Danzo's negative disposition on the way the Third ruled and his views long ago.

Ever since the discovery, Tsunade had been reading through most of the scrolls from his time. She had been especially interested in ones that were around the missing ones. Sakura had offered to help her read through some of the longer and tedious reports but Tsunade had turned her down. She stated that Sakura had more important things to focus on, such as missions, training, and finishing up in the library. She didn't really care, they didn't contain anything she was interested in she knew, though she understood why Tsunade was worried. Some of the scrolls had information that couldn't fall into the hands of the enemy. If any of them had fallen into enemy hands and they had sensitive information in them, such as, missions that were performed against them in secret or about any information they have received, it could cause strain between the villages. It was all information better left sealed where enemies wouldn't be able to find it.

Though, Tsunade had mentioned to Sakura that she believed Danzo had destroyed the missing scrolls. They figured there must have been sensitive information in them about Root or other dealings he did not want future Hokages to see. Root had been disbanded during the Third's reign but the current Hokage was not fooled. She had suspicions about the current activities of Root and that Danzo was still running secret operations. This was confirmed when Sakura had discovered the tattoo on the back of Sai's tongue during a routine physical. He hadn't been able to tell her anything about it. However, Kakashi had told her he believed it was to keep Root members from relaying important information about Danzo's activities. The missing information about Danzo among the Third's scrolls only farther confirmed these suspicions. The ANBU team had been assembled and that was what led to their mission. They only needed to find one scroll to confirm Danzo was behind the others going missing. The Hokage didn't want to risk their exposure by wasting time gathering more than one. All she needed was tension to gather within the village walls.

However, risky as it was, Sakura didn't doubt for a minute that if what was contained within this one was important, her shishou would send them back in to look for more. This was to basically confirm that was where the scrolls were being held, if not destroyed.

In recent months, Sakura had become increasingly interested in the Hokage's private library. It had taken her and Shizune a long time to get through the majority, but now that they were finally almost done, Sakura had insisted on finishing up herself, allowing Shizune more time to help Tsunade. However, Sakura had her own reasons for not wanting Shizune around while she finished. They weren't technically allowed to read the information contained within most of the documents. The elders had made it very clear that if they were to read them, there would be serious consequences. At the time, Sakura had rolled her eyes. She didn't think there would be any reason she'd even want to read through boring political proceedings, law changes, and old mission reports. Though she quickly realized there was more stored there than originally met the eye.

Placing the scroll back in its rightful place, she made her way to the other side of the library. Here, they were still organizing and sorting dealings of the clans within the village. They were kept separate than regular village dealings because they specifically had to do with clan politics, exchanges, hierarchy within the clans, some minor intelligence, and lists of the names of people officially belonging to each clan by birth. At this point, they had the majority of the scrolls separated into large piles by clan.

She had recently been shelving them by alphabetical order and she was almost at the end. She had to unroll the scrolls some to find the date they were written to put them in order by time. As she went along she would read tid-bits of information from scrolls, some of them catching her interest more than others. The Hyuuga clan was one of the most interesting clans. They had, by far, the largest number of scrolls stored here than any of the others. There was information dating back to the very early days of the village. Sakura had read an interesting scroll about the decision of making the branches. There were far too many scrolls to read without the elders getting suspicious of what she was doing down here and why it was taking so long. However, they hardly ever checked on her and once in a while she would get lost in the information, spending whole days down here. Finally, now nearing the end, she had come across the clan she was most interested in.

She was truly fascinated by clan life and politics. Growing up in the civilian district, she always wondered what it would be like to grow up in a clan. Back when she was younger she was jealous of, yet awe-struck, by the children who came from prominent clans. She could vividly remember the rare occasions where her mother would take her into the main village market where everyone in the village from prominent shinobi to begging civilians went to trade and buy anything one would need. Her family didn't have much extra money but on occasion they'd go to the market to buy spices, fabric and sometimes even let Sakura pick out a toy.

Whenever they would go, there would be children her age, accompanied by others from their clans. She was always fascinated by the unique eye color, traits, and attire they displayed. Her mother would pull her past the stands and shops with shinobi gear and attire that the children from the clans were always wielding. They would pass by kids competing with their brand new kunai and shuriken. She could remember the feeling of envy she had for them. Her mother was stern on her "no weapons" policy, but Sakura was persistent. Everytime they would go, she'd drag her mother by the hand to the weapons booth and beg for her to buy her something. Naturally, her mother was horrified. She came from a long line of civilian women, where sweet little girls played with cloth dolls, not objects that could kill a grown man if wielded correctly.

Her father, however, was not civilian. He had belonged to a small clan, hardly known but loyal. Most of them had been killed during the third shinobi war, leaving only himself and a younger brother. For a long time in his youth, he served the village as a shinobi. Before Sakura was born, he had been partially blinded during a mission. Forced to retire, he moved himself and his wife to the civilian district and picked up regular work. However, it was not so foreign to him for children to grow up wanting to become ninja. While it was custom on her mother's side for daughters to be raised as wives of shinobi, it was not the custom on her father's side. His own older sister, Sakura's aunt, had died in the line of combat at the age of 18. Because of this, he had gone along with his wife's plan to raise his daughter to become a respectable wife for a strong, prominent shinobi clan someday. After all, it was safer that way.

However, he adored his daughter more than anything. When he saw the way she struggled in civilian life, he started to wonder if the path they chose for her really was best. She wasn't like the other girls, playing sweetly in the flowers. She was always dirty from head to toe, running with and challenging the boys in their neighborhood and often winning. It was common for her to come home at dinner with bruises and cuts from a brawl with the neighbor boy. She was fierce and while it made her mother crazy, it made him intensely proud. That was when he knew there was no fighting it any longer.

For her 7th birthday, he secretly gave her her first shuriken, making her promise to be careful with it. He didn't tell his wife but she found out soon enough when Sakura came home with a huge gash on her arm. She didn't speak to him for days but soon it was clear even to her that this was the right path for their daughter. Begrudgingly, they decided they would enroll their precious daughter in the ninja academy. She started late, almost 2 years after the other children in her class. At first, she struggled, not being able to keep up with children who were conditioned since birth for that life. Her father worked with her frequently to improve her skills and eventually she caught up. She wasn't the best in her class physically but what she lacked there she made up with her knowledge.

Her mother never understood why she would want such a life. She tried to get it but it was hard for her. Because of this, her and Sakura's relationship struggled. Especially after she had come home bloody and beaten with her hair chopped off from the chuunin exams. Sakura thought she would never talk to her again. She defied her mother's wishes every chance she got. But through the years, they have come to understand each other more. When she finally made ANBU with Kakashi's help, her mother had gotten teary eyed and told her how proud she was of her. It was a turning point in their relationship and ever since they've been spending time lost being bitter by spending time together more frequently, making new memories.

While her mother was just starting to accept her position as a shinobi, her father was fierce in his pride. He couldn't boast enough about his strong little cherry blossom. Sakura always laughed at the contradiction, as cherry blossoms were frail even among other flowers. She didn't mind though. On the contrary, she was glad her father was so openly proud of her. He was her biggest advocate and her best friend. However, a few months before making ANBU, her father fell tragically ill. He had been admitted to the hospital where his heart gave out after just two days. It had happened so suddenly that Sakura was a mess. On the verge of a breakdown, without her closest friend in the village, she took solace in spending time with her mother more. They both grieved together and eventually Sakura came back to normal.

Sakura came back to the task at hand, realizing she had been deep in thought. She was surprised to feel tears on face. She shook her head and smiled, wiping the tears away with the back of her hand. 'I miss you, daddy,' she thought to herself. She looked down and continued her work, the growing list of people she missed always on the back of her mind. She picked up the next scroll in the Uchiha pile. There wasn't many more left she noted. At first, she ready them because of mere curiosity as the Uchiha had always been something of an enigma of hers. Especially after she was put on a team with Sasuke. She had always been curious about his bloodline trait. As a medic that interest grew even more. The interest in the sharingan and the massacre that drove Sasuke into his path of destruction had been what made her even read the scrolls in depth. All the information was interesting to her. She read sections about Madara Uchiha, the founder of the clan, the beginnings of the Konoha police force, and the succession of leaders throughout the clan's time. It all intrigued her but it was just all additions to information she already knew.

It wasn't until she came upon the most recent scrolls in the collection did she find anything that really caught her attention. Starting from the time of about ten years before her birth, she noticed that the information in the scrolls became longer and more distraught. There was unrest amongst the clan. People weren't happy with the way the clan was being run, there were many reports filed with the Hokage of meetings with village leaders over many varying issues. Beyond the time of the Kyuubi attack, the unrest was at an all-time high. It especially peaked when the Uchiha were moved into their own compound. Sakura had found this bit of information especially interesting.

She had always believed the Uchiha had moved into the compound to train amongst themselves. Many prominent clans were proud of their abilities and preferred to keep away from the rest of the village. However, that was not the case with the Uchiha. They were forced to move to the compound. The specifications weren't clear but it appeared that the move had something to do with the attack on the village. It almost seemed to Sakura that the Uchiha were being blamed for the attack in some way. The scrolls also started to become more unclear. It was as if certain information was being purposely left out of the scrolls. The entire tone of them changed, as if what was being written was being filtered.

Something seemed off but Sakura couldn't figure it out. She began reading all the information more in depth, sometimes reading entire scrolls. It was clear something had happened with the Kyuubi attack on the village that changed the clan. She figured it all tied into the move into the compound but there wasn't enough information. She knew that they wouldn't wright everything in these scrolls that went on because they were only official village documents so that the village could keep tabs on the history of the clans. For that reason, she knew that if there was some unrest among them and it was in any way against the village it would never be recorded. She felt like this newly acquired information was important but she didn't understand why. She knew she should just move on but she couldn't stop thinking about the unrest among the Uchiha.

That was why, two nights before this one, she had snuck into the Uchiha compound in the middle of the night. She didn't know what she was looking for, more information she supposed. It was dead quiet, a true ghost town. Sakura had walked among the empty houses, searching for what exactly she did not know. Before she knew it, she was standing in front of the home she knew to be Sasuke's.

She had been there a few times to meet Sasuke in the old days of team seven. However, she had never been inside his house. Too do so now would be strange so she stood outside, staring up at the dark windows that at one time a young Sasuke had looked out of. Eventually, curiosity got the best of her and she stepped up to the front door. She tried the handle but the door was locked. She walked around the side of the house where another door was. She tried the handle once again. To her surprise it was unlocked. She stepped inside, taking in the dark outline of the furniture in what looked to be a sitting room.

It smelled musty and cold. It was obvious no one had been there in some time. The moonlight streamed in through a window and she could see the thick layer of dust clinging to almost every surface. She slowly made her way into what looked to be the kitchen. The low table stood in the middle of the room, four mats surrounding it. Sakura smiled at it sadly, imagining Sasuke and his family sitting around it when he was young.

She was torn between hating and missing her ex-teammate terribly. Some days she wanted nothing more than for him to walk through the village gate, raven hair shining in the sunlight. Other days she wished that he'd get struck by lightning so the pain and suffering he has caused the people she loved most would be put to rest. They tried for years to bring him back. Every time they failed miserably. Naruto, Kakashi, Sai and herself made countless plans to bring him home, always getting their hopes crushed. When they heard he had killed Orochimaru, they all figured he would come home or go straight after Itachi. However, they were wrong in both aspects. He had fallen completely off of the grid. They couldn't find him anywhere.

It was so bizarre. Tsunade had done everything she could to find him but there was no intel on their ex-teammate at all. Naruto had gone crazy not knowing what had happened to him. He became distant and less like the happy kid he had once been. Sakura and Kakashi had done what they could to brighten his sprits but it was no use. He focused on his training and became distant. It made Sakura sad to see him so distraught.

Then the Akatsuki had been on the move a few years back. Jiraiya had gone to investigate a lead on their leader in the hidden rain village. He never returned. The Elder Toads had come back from the battle to pass along the news of his death. That was the tipping point for Naruto. He left the following day, claiming he couldn't stay in Konoha any longer knowing Sasuke could be out there somewhere. Sakura and Kakashi had begged him to let them come with him but he had refused. That was three years ago and she had only heard from him once in a letter he wrote to let them know he was fine.

She couldn't take the heartache from having Naruto gone. He was the only one who truly understood her. She knew she'd never find a friend as true as him and missed him dearly. But she also knew it was for the best. He couldn't stay in the village anymore, it was sucking the happiness out of him, not doing anything about Sasuke. To distract herself from the pain his leaving caused her, she trained with Kakashi nearly every day since then. She had gotten strong enough to finally become ANBU about a year ago. Then her father died, setting her back some. She ended up using her sorrow to propel her forward. Training and taking missions kept her mind busy and helped keep her from dwelling on all those she missed.

It wasn't all bad, though. Her relationship with Kakashi had improved over the years. Since Naruto left, he had spent most of his free-time in her company. She knew he was worried about her. But mostly she knew he was worried about Naruto too and she was the only one who understood. He helped train her to a level that was on par with his own and she knew he had come to respect her as a shinobi. He was one of the only people left in her life that she truly cared for along with Tsunade, her mother and she supposed Sai as well.

There was a bright side to all that had happened, however. The Akatsuki basically fell off the face of the Earth after Jiraiya's battle. He had apparently killed the Leader's partner during the battle and seriously diminished the stock of insane "clones" the leader had of himself. Tsunade suspected that he was regaining his strength within the hidden rain but they hadn't been able to prove that they were still there at all. All intel on them died out and it seemed as though they disappeared all-together. Sakura knew it wasn't permanent and eventually they would be back to hunt down and suck the life out of her best friend. For now, it was a relief to know they weren't on the move while Naruto was away from the protection of the village.

She was so lost in thought about all the had happened between her team that she hadn't noticed she had walked into a different section of Sasuke's home. She peered into an open door to her right and squinted through the darkness. Immediately she sucked in a sharp breath. It was Sasuke's room, there was no doubt about it. Slowly, she stepped forward to come upon a small bedside table. There was a picture frame placed there, covered with a thick layer of dust. She didn't even have to pick it up to know what the picture was of. Still, she reached forward slowly, almost automatically, and gingerly picked the picture up. Bringing it up to in front of her face, she pursed her lips and blow lightly, uncovering the colored photo beneath the dust. It was the old picture of their team when their journey as shinobi first began.

Suddenly her knees felt weak. It had been quite some time since she had seen this picture. She still had her own copy, of course. It was packed away, buried deep within her closet. She had put it there when Naruto had left. She stared at the picture with a stony look on her face. They had all changed so much. The chubby-ness of her childlike face was gone. Her hair was longer now than it was in the picture, having grown it back out after the chuunin exams. Naruto was even different than this picture by the time he left. Much more serious than the kid who graduated from the academy. He had grown taller and was beginning to build muscle. She could only imagine how much older he must look now, three years later.

She looked at Sasuke and felt sick. This was the face she knew, probably long since matured and aged. That is if he was still alive, which was doubtful. She couldn't help feel a longing for her team to all be whole again. She knew nothing could repair all the damage but she couldn't help but hang on to the ever thinning thread of hope within her that they would all come together again someday.

Setting the picture back down, she felt a sense of urgency within her. She knew she couldn't stay here any longer, the ghosts of her past were much stronger here. She could feel them starting to pull old feelings out of her and she couldn't bear to let them overwhelm her. Walking backwards away from the photo, she turned into the hall and rushed forward, not remembering the way out. She saw a door at the end of the long hallway and rushed to it. To her dismay it was another bedroom. She was about to turn and run in the other direction when she froze to the spot. Her eyes widened and she could only think of one word. Itachi.

Her heart sped up. Why hadn't she thought of this before? Her hatred for Sasuke's brother was strong but she had nearly forgotten he had once lived a normal life within these walls as well. Well, as normal as a prodigy's life could be, she supposed. She turned stiffly and peered back into the room, almost afraid of what she would see. However, a tidy, plain bedroom stared back at her. There was nothing menacing about it, besides the fact it once belonged to the very man to slaughtered his entire clan in one night. For a murderer's room, it appeared pretty normal. What tipped her off as to who the past occupant had been were the neatly hung ANBU uniforms in the opened closet directly in view from the door. Other than that there was a small bed, a handsome wooden desk with an identical chair, and a pair of forgotten sandals in the corner. Everything was neat and clean. It was entirely too ordinary in Sakura's mind. But what had she expected? Blood smears on the walls and scrolls containing forbidden jutsu? Well kinda, she admitted to herself sheepishly.

Though from what she knew of Itachi, right up until the time of the massacre he was an incredible shinobi. Not only that but he was known for being polite, respectful, and quiet Kakashi had told her. It was a shock to the village when he committed the crime that he had. So it would make sense his life at home seemed structured and normal. After all, he was supposed to become head of the most prominent clan in the village at one time. No one, not even his own parents, probably would have let an obvious lunatic step up to such a position.

As she was standing in the threshold of Itachi's bedroom, a thought struck her. He was an ANBU member so records of his missions would be recorded in the Hokage's private library. After she had left the compound, she had gone straight to the Hokage tower that night, a new mission in her head.

What she had discovered disturbed her. The disturbing part was that there was nothing odd about the missions Itachi was given. He was a normal, though extraordinarily skilled shinobi. It wasn't until a few days later that she had read a bit of information that stuck out to her. In one report, Itachi had acted strangely and their team leader at the time had chalked it up to "stress from conflicting orders outside of the mission." However, nothing else was noted about side orders Itachi had been given. The person who had written the report was a Uchiha Shisui, a person whose name she didn't recognize. She looked through more mission reports, but there weren't any more incidents reported.

That when she got the idea to read through the scrolls from the same time of the third Hokage's reign. She had found some information on the Uchiha clan but nothing about Itachi in particular. There were reports of the leader reporting to the Hokage about dealings with the Konoha police force but they were formal at best. That's when she noticed a few scrolls were missing. The ones lining up with the timing of the ANBU mission report of Itachi's strange behavior, in particular. She thought it was coincidence but when she began reading through the records direct from the Uchiha clan and a few of those scrolls were missing too, she began to wonder.

That's when she decided to tell her mentor about the missing scrolls. She had left out the part about her reading them to find out more about Itachi Uchiha. She knew her shishou would be suspicious of Sakura's emotional state. It had taken her so long to get over her teammates abandoning her, she didn't want Tsunade to think she was dwelling on it again. That's why she left out the information about some of the Uchiha clan scrolls being missing. She felt bad for withholding information from her shishou but she knew that she'd probably be reluctant to allow Sakura to continue her work in the library if she knew for fear that she'd become depressed over thoughts of Sasuke's departure.

Tsunade's reaction to the missing scrolls had made Sakura even more curious. It was clear she had some idea of the information that was contained within them and that was why she had sent an ANBU squad to retrieve them. Sakura also found it interesting that she thought Danzo was behind the theft. What did it all mean? What could Danzo have to do with Itachi Uchiha acting funny while on an ANBU mission before slaughtering his entire clan? She wasn't completely sure but she knew it was all connected somehow and she was determined to solve the mystery.

She knew it had to be late, as she still sat in her usual spot deep within the library. She pulled out the second scroll she had found within Danzo's library. She turned it over in her hands, examining it. On the end, the same place the other scroll had a golden leaf stamped, was the Uchiha symbol. It was intricately hand carved into the dark wood. It matched the ones currently in the library that she had been sorting through for days. Slowly she unrolled it, eager to see the date she already knew to be there. It was one of the missing ones she had been searching for. She began skimming through the writing, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Her eyes fell on the name she had been hoping to see and she held her breath. Itachi was mentioned in the scroll just as she had hoped.

She slowed down, eyes jumping back up the page. She read more thoroughly now. The passage read:

The meeting between the clan elders went uneventfully. It was determined that Itachi Uchiha does not have to attend the meetings from this point on if it interferes with his work with the Hokage or missions within ANBU. His position of status holds importance to the Uchiha clan and will be helpful when he takes over as clan leader.

However, many Uchiha feel as though his loyalty to the clan should be of greater importance. They were over-ruled by the majority in the voting that determined whether or not he should attend all future clan meetings. Fugaku explained the importance of his son's role close to the Hokage. The majority agreed with him.

The passage goes on to explain how the rest of the meeting went, going into detail about other minor clan issues.

Sakura was confused. Why was it so important for Itachi to stay close to the Hokage? The Uchiha knew these scrolls would be held in the Hokage tower as they required record of any clan meetings that went on, so they wouldn't put sensitive information in these scrolls. Sakura had a feeling that much was being left out of Itachi's story.

She placed the scroll onto the table, stood and stretched. She decided she would continue her work tomorrow. If anyone saw her emerging as the sun was rising they'd probably question why she stayed in the library all night. Plus, she had a long shift at the hospital in a few hours. Walking to the door, she shut the light off and left, placing the seal on the door before starting her walk home.

She wouldn't get much sleep that night, as images of the Uchiha massacre swam through her mind.

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