1. Phase Two & A Revival

When the subject's foot collided with his face, Itachi Uchiha wasn't all too sure what to expect. All of his expectations since being put into this room had been wrong, and it was entirely disappointing. Bureau training had him pegged as the best of the best at hand-to-hand, yet here was this seventeen year old boy kicking the lights out of him in one, unforeseeable move. Odd. Itachi knew his abilities. He could often predict how his opponents would move through their ticks and shifts. But the boy seemed to have changed since the first time they had done this, which had only been a few weeks ago. Maybe Kisame timed it, Itachi thought as pain shot through the rest of his body.

"That's enough, Alpha."

"Sir!"

Itachi had hit the ground, though he could only remember being kicked in the face. His skull throbbed. A pair of rough hands picked him up, pulling him up against the wall, pushing a bottle of water against his lips. Itachi's vision was blurry when he looked to see who it was. Kisame grinned at him, his teeth looking sharp in the lighting.

"That's gonna leave a mark."

"Yeah."

"Someone escort Alpha out of the room for an examination."

"I think you guys should check out Itachi here first," Kisame shouted at the one-way glass behind the test subject, who stiffened.

The only door in the room hissed as it slid open, a pair of scientists walking in. Dr. Herald and Dr. Fraises stood on either side of the subject, poking and prodding. "Dr. Nguyen, did you note that the subject's speed has greatly increased?"

"Yes, along with his strength and reaction time, especially compared to pre-Hercules (control) data, and even compared to the previous four tests after the treatment."

When Itachi was finished with his bottle of water, Kisame pulled him up. "So, you wanna get some Chinese tonight? My treat."

"Ah, yes, officers, you may leave for the day. Make sure you do check to see that your coverage is here."

"Yeah, yeah, scrubs, we know the drill," Kisame scowled as he and Itachi headed out of the room. How many scientists were behind the big one-way glass? Itachi rubbed his jaw. Hopefully not too many of them, Itachi wasn't all too sure if his ego could take it. From what Itachi knew, however, a good portion of scientists had been tacked onto the military's latest top-secret project. There could have been a chance that quite a large group of them had seen Itachi's loss. His entire head was surprisingly intact, despite the force of the hit he had taken. It only took one hit from that boy to end their session, and only now did Itachi start to feel embarrassed. The time it had taken for the subject to take him down blew all of Itachi's Bureau records out of the water.

Kisame and Itachi were silent as they quickly moved through the usual motions of checking out of the compound. They made sure another pair of officers had checked in to relieve them of duty. (Itachi silently hoped that one of them, a detestable man named James Hart, would also have the snot beaten out of him by a kid as part of his 'duty' for the night.) They were debriefed by the on-shift CO, changed out of their uniform, and they passed through all the checkpoints on their way out.

Once they were finally out of the military base, Kisame stepped on the gas pedal with a chuckle, as if finally sure that no one from the military could hear them. "You should've seen the look on your face when that idiot kid kicked you! Haha!"

"I suppose that this is a success, then," Itachi pulled out a small, black flip-phone—the Bureau phone, eyeing the time glowing on the small square screen on the front. 12:45AM. "The military's Project Hercules is a success."

"Nope. Check out what I managed to snatch when no one was looking." Kisame nodded at the back seat of the car.

"You idiot. They could've seen those files just sitting in the back seat of your car."

"Well, they didn't, did they?"

Itachi grabbed the files uncovered in the back seat, his eyes narrowed. "Don't ever do that again or you'll blow our cover."

"Hey, I'd have a good excuse. Someone dropped it and I just forgot to give it back," Kisame grinned. "Anyway, read what's in there. It's details about more experiments. Apparently, they're going to put more shit into the kid, then test him out on the field someday. But not before seeing if he can 'function in normal civilian society' first. Dunno why, but it's pretty riveting stuff." There it all was, word for word. There were supposed to be different phases, with Phase One being completed once the physical aptitude testing and a shooting test was done. After a few medical examinations and a few more shots of what was called the Hercules-serum, they would take the boy to an undisclosed location with a "small civilian population" to test out the effects of the Hercules-serum on his mental, emotional, and social capabilities.

Or, rather, to "demonstrate any effect on the subject's neurological state by the Hercules-serum" upon a "small, enclosed social environment that encourages stimulation".

But there was more. In the very back of the file, it seemed, there were some decisions made, and the location of where "Phase Two" would occur had been chosen. "'…Phase Two testing should be completed within a few months of close observation, and the environment in which Phase Two will be carried out has been chosen to be a boarding school in Maine, near a small town called Promise. Risk assessment: there is a chance that the Hercules-serum could, in fact, cause damage to the subject's neurological systems, causing a regress in his mental, emotional, and social capabilities.' Or, in other words: the kid could go crazy." This somehow reminded Itachi of the Hulk, though he imagined that if the boy were to 'regress', it wouldn't be a temporary condition. "As if this whole thing isn't already bad enough," Itachi said quietly as Kisame pulled out a cigarette. "Not while I'm in here, please. I've told you this many times."

"Geesh, sorry, I'll open the windows."

Itachi looked out at the forest going by them in a blur, finding himself wondering exactly how it was that any of these people slept at night. Maybe it was the Bureau-morals in him talking. Or maybe it was the fact that the military was willing to put the lives of civilians at risk for this whole thing. Not that Itachi—or, even, the Bureau could really do much about it. The Bureau and the Military may have played an endless game of technological espionage against each other, but the Military was most definitely above the law. There would be no one who would, or even could prosecute them. Itachi even doubted the President himself would really care much about this situation, seeing as he liked to bomb pretty much anyone he thought would be a threat to the country's bank account.

"So, do you think we should turn in now and go back to the Bureau? I think this is all the information we need," Kisame asked as they finally entered the city limits. "Now we know what new little toys the Military's come up with, and I doubt Angelos is gonna want us to steal any of that Hercules-shit."

"Let me make the call."

…

If there was something that Sakura Haruno was known for, it was her overall strength. Despite being small and slim, she was surprisingly muscular, though it only showed when she made leaps. Strawberry-blond hair seeming pink in the sunset's orange light, green eyes narrowed as she concentrated on getting her form as aligned and balanced as possible. Her feet needed to be more curved, even against the stiffness of her new pointe shoes. Sakura's knees needed to be even straighter, yet still lithe enough to make her landing soft. She hated it when if she didn't land silently, and she was sure people would notice the thudding, no matter how dull. It would scream "look how fat I am!" to everyone around her, and that wouldn't do for Sakura Haruno. At seventeen, she was a hundred-something pounds, not even a hundred and ten, and she wanted to keep it that way, and she certainly didn't want anyone else to think she was much bigger than she actually was because she couldn't land silently.

Still, she was the only one in the practice room that she knew. Classes were over with, and as usual, Sakura sacrificed girlfriend-time for practicing. Auditions were coming up far too soon, and Sakura didn't want to disappoint anyone. She was aiming forthe New York Ballet, and if she didn't get it this year, on her first try, Sakura had already decided she would quite dance entirely.

Leap. Pirouette. Butterfly. Turn, spot, turn. Jeté, step, jeté. Turn, spot, turn…the music didn't even seem to come to her ears anymore. Sakura only cared about the choreography, courtesy of herself. There wouldn't be any of the ridiculous interpretive improvising Sakura always saw on TV. There would only be correct grace, powerful concentration. There would be nothing less than absolutely flawlessness. Even if Sakura had to practice every day until auditions (which were, admittedly, in May, which was at least another six months away), Sakura was going to get this right. There were no alternatives.

Blue eyes peered through the glass, totally engrossed at the shadowed form eclipsing the sunset behind her. As the song came to the end, the dancer made one last leap. But while she was in the air, she faced the entrance to the practice room and saw a face in the small square glass at the top of the door and gasped, missing her landing. She landed on her backside, glaring up at the face. With a start, the face disappeared in a yellow blur.

Cursing, Sakura shot up, ignoring the new throbbing pain of her ankle. She probably twisted it, but when had that ever deterred her?

"Hey!" Sakura's voice thundered. She quickly hobbled down to the door, opening it and running out and down the hallway. "GET BACK HERE!" A blond-haired young man halted at the end of the hallway at the sound of her footsteps, light taps of her pointe shoes. His face was unrecognizable, but he wore a St. Augustus's uniform. Clearly he was new, because St. Augustus boys almost never strayed this far into St. Magdalene's territory.

"S-Sorry. I got lost."

Sakura's nostrils flared as she slowed down, huffing. "Look, I don't care if I have an audience or not, but I'd appreciate you not being a total creep about it."

"Sorry." The boy scratched his head, his smile wide but unsure. Girls sure were scary.

"You do realize you're in the all-girls school right now, right?"

"Uh… I am?"

"Can you read signs?"

"Oh. Uh. I wasn't really looking."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "I can tell you're new here." She paused, looking at the boy up and down. "But you're wearing the boys' senior jacket. I didn't think we took in older kids like that."

"Boarding schools have those kinds of rules?"

Sakura sighed. "Kinda, sorta. Anyway. Just…don't be a creep next time. Let me show you out, okay? And learn how to read." Sakura nodded behind her, and the boy hesitantly took a few steps in her direction. "I won't bite much, I promise. I just don't like being distracted."

"You did an amazing job though," the boy blurted. "I-I mean. With what I saw."

He earned a small smile from Sakura. "Thanks. I've been working pretty hard, but I didn't make that last landing thanks to you. I think I must've hurt my ankle." The boy's heart skipped a beat.

"Oh, god, I'm so sorry—

"No, no. I've done this tons of times, I probably just strained my muscle or something. I'll be fine." Sakura stopped for a moment, wincing as she rolled her ankle. "Yep. That definitely hurts. Anyway, I'm Sakura Haruno. What's your name?"

"Naruto Uzumaki."

"Nice to meet you under such an odd circumstance, Mr. Naruto-Creep." Sakura laughed. "It's pretty late into first semester, and I've never seen you around. Was today your first day?"

"Yeah, I just got in last night, but I think I missed most of my classes this morning cuz I didn't set an alarm."

"Oh, crap. Well, hopefully they let you off. No teacher on either campus tolerates that kind of thing, even with a good excuse," Sakura said, noting that the boy had a small red tint on his cheeks. "You okay? Your face is a little red."

"Ah—oh, uh, yeah, you're just…is that what you usually wear when you're practicing?" Sakura looked down. She only wore her black leotard and her tiny gray shorts. "Oh, yeah, sorry. It's a little revealing, but hey, at least I'm wearing tights."

"Oh, I can't tell."

"…yeah, they're skin-tone." Suddenly, Sakura's own face was heating up. Hopefully there were no stretch-marks or cellulite on her ass or on the back of her thighs. That would be more than embarrassing. "Were you looking for something in particular? I mean, most normal people—assuming you are normal—don't just wander around campus. Everyone's actually either out or at dinner." Naruto chuckled, looking away.

"I was looking for the counselor's office, to talk about my classes and to possibly get a map."

"Ah."

Finally, they were at the door marked "Door To St. Augustus". "Just go through the bridge-way, then make a right. The counselor might not be there, but at least you'll know where it is," Sakura said with a smile.

"Thanks a lot, Sakura."

"No worries. Just don't be a total creeper next time I see you, okay?"

Naruto nodded, pushing through the door. With a wave, he grinned and pushed through the door to his school, and Sakura rolled her shoulders, then her neck.

Back to practice

…

With the sign of the cross, Itachi knelt down before the statue of Mary.

"Who would've thought that Mr. Perfect was also a practicing Catholic, yeah?" Itachi didn't let the voice of his fellow agent interrupt his prayer, though he certainly had the urge to punch the man. It had only been a few days since he had gotten back now, and already, the Bureau was dragging him back in for another case. That was the only reason other Bureau agents would seek another out, anyway. Rarely, even with his own partner, did agents really do anything non-Bureau related together.

With a nod at the statue, Itachi stood up. "What is it now?" He faced his co-worker, who pouted.

"Aww, no, 'Hi, nice to see you again, it's been a while! I heard you got a new girlfriend'? That's mean, yeah."

"What is it, Deidara?" Itachi's tone was impatient.

With a sigh, Deidara held out an all too familiar black file.

"Pein's putting you back on the Family case."

Itachi stared at the black file, noting that they had yet to change the label on it. They were using the same folder as the one he had used years ago, evidenced by Itachi's own handwriting on the cover. Deidara was surprised to see a small smirk on Itachi's face.

"I wasn't aware I had been 'taken off' in the first place. I was told that the case was cold and they weren't going to touch it for a while."

Itachi took the folder from Deidara's hands after Deidara pushed it closer to him. "Whatever it is, Pein says to talk to him ASAP, yeah. You're gonna need to be briefed privately, since it looks like you're gonna be the only one working on this one."

Itachi let out a small chuckle. "I see. And they think I can handle this all by myself."

"I don't know, man, okay? I thought it was weird, yeah, but Pein was pretty pushy about it."

Itachi wondered what it was that brought this back to surface. Was there a new lead? Did the Family murder someone else this time? He headed out the door, Deidara following him closely. Once outside, Itachi opened the folder. The first thing he saw was a blurred picture of a red-haired woman, her head turned away from the camera. The Matriarch. Behind it were reports, and likely the photos taken at the scenes of the Jensen, the Brian, and the Uchiha murders.

"You know, you can say no."

The blond man had an odd expression on his face, one that Itachi couldn't quite decipher. "I wasn't aware I could refuse my own job." Deidara looked away despite Itachi's pathetic attempt at a joke.

"The last time, we didn't get anywhere with this case. Do you really think that we can get anywhere now?"

They were at Itachi's car. Deidara watched as Itachi got in, without saying a word.

"Failure is not an option for me," Itachi said quietly before closing the door. "Even if I have to start from scratch again. I'm going to take them down." With a slam of his door, Itachi started his car. Deidara took a few steps back.

It was the first case Itachi had ever worked on, and it took a whole year just to figure out who these people were in the first place. It took even longer to get any leads. Did Itachi really believe that there could be more to this?

Deidara sighed as Itachi drove off, running a hand through his blond hair.

"This is going to be a wreck."

…

Naruto eyed the "watch" on his wrist as he sat on the infirmary bed, Dr. Nguyen pulling out a small flashlight and a tongue depressant. Even though he was far away from the military base now, nothing much had changed in terms of the structure of his daily life. Just now, instead of training and testing and being shot up with various random chemicals, he had college-level courses and was surrounded by some of the best young minds in the entire country.

"Remember that you're required to actually socialize, Naruto," Dr. Nguyen reminded the blond haired boy as he pressed his hand under his ribs. "Breathe."

"I'm actually making friends, thanks very much!" Naruto replied indignantly. "No thanks to you people, though. None of the 'new teachers' would really let me socialize during school hours."

Dr. Nguyen chuckled. "You know, this school is my alma mater. That's the standard for the classes here, from what I remember. "

"Right."

"So, I'm guessing then that you're enjoying this new place, though? With other kids your age and all."

"I'm not a kid."

With a smile, Dr. Nguyen put on his stethoscope. "Of course not."

These check-ups supposed to happen daily, at exactly seventeen-hundred hours, and would last for a total of thirty minutes. It was nothing but a standard physical examination, to make sure that the Hercules-serum wasn't messing with the boy's internal organs. Though the scientists were sure that it wouldn't, there was still a chance—however small—that absolutely anything could go wrong. Aside from the physicals, there was supposed to be a weekly psych-examination, although this week's didn't happen. According to Dr. Nguyen, it was to get the boy to settle in first.

"Do you have any idea what you're gonna do after this? It's the weekend. Are you going to go out with your new friends?" Dr. Nguyen had this tone, a borderline condescending but falsely sweet tone, whenever he spoke to Naruto. Perhaps it was from his years as a pediatrician, the way the man spoke, but whatever it was, it got under Naruto's skin. "You guys shouldn't have too much fun, I don't think you'd be able to handle it."

Naruto hated this guy.

Once he was done, Naruto put his clothes back on, Dr. Nguyen's back turned to him. The man was rambling on about something when he was younger, how much fun he had at this school. The blond could kick him in the ass, really, if he wanted to. He'd probably get into loads of trouble, but that honestly wasn't much to hold him back. Still, Naruto stayed silent, pretending to listen.

"…my favorite part about this school, though, was always how gorgeous the girls were. Even if they hated me."

Oh, wow, they hated you? Why on earth would they hate you? Naruto felt a small smile on his lips.

"You agree? The girls here are the best in every way."

"I guess, yeah."

Pink hair popped into Naruto's head, and his cheeks began to burn as a familiar silhouette danced across his mind's eye.

When Naruto was finally released, he found himself once more wandering through the hallways of St. Magdalene's Athena building, where he first met Sakura. And once again, he was standing at the door of Mirror Room 1, staring in at the small dancer who stretched with ease on the floor. Despite the thickness of the walls, Naruto could feel the buzz of her music on the ground, the dull beat making the door shake slightly.

As if sensing his presence, Sakura looked up. At first, she rolled her eyes at him, but then she got up and headed to the door, unlocking it and opening it.

"Hey, I thought I told you to stay on your own side, Mr. Naruto-Creep." Sakura leaned against the doorframe, a small grin on her face. "Oh, well. I guess this means I don't have to text you. I was pretty much done, anyway. Give me a sec, okay?" Naruto nodded, trying to keep his eyes from traveling down her form. Sakura shuffled away, turning off the stereo and grabbing her things, quickly shoving on a thick green coat. Returning to Naruto, Sakura locked the door before leading Naruto away in the direction of the student quarters.

"You guys have any plans tonight?" Naruto asked, thinking about Dr. Nguyen all of a sudden.

"That's actually what I was going to talk to you about. Did you wanna go into town? Some of the local kids are apparently throwing a house party, but we're gonna hit up a bar before we go." Naruto frowned.

"A bar? How are you guys going to get in? We're not even twenty-one."

Sakura laughed aloud. "You're kidding. Don't you have a fake? Everyone here has one." Naruto stared at her, a bewildered look on his face.

"Isn't that illegal?" Sakura rolled her eyes.

"Who cares? Haha. Don't worry. They never check IDs anyway," Sakura grinned. "So, you wanna come along? C'mon, it'll be fun." Naruto shrugged.

"I-I guess." Something told him that this was a bad idea. Naruto knew the rules for Phase Two, as the scientists called it. He was supposed to try to 'immerse' himself in the civilian world through any means possible. Or, in Dr. Cato's words, "act as 'normal' as possible". Well, 'normal' teens sometimes went out to drink. And Naruto had been good this whole time. He was supposed to be subjected to daily exams, weekly psych-checks, blah, blah, blah, and he'd been committing. People would be monitoring him. Hell, they had already replaced all the teachers for his classes with soldiers posing as 'temporary substitutes'. Surely, though, this was only for school. Not outside of school. Besides, if Naruto went out with his new friends, it would all be for science, and if anyone demanded an explanation, that would be it. For science and stuff. Right. And it wasn't like Naruto was going to run off—where would he go?

Before he knew it, he was in the back seat of a car, crammed next to Sakura, some other guy who kept muttering about how 'troublesome' this all was, and a girl with violet eyes, who smiled at him shyly. Naruto couldn't quite catch the introductions that Sakura gave, although he had already met Ino and the driver, a guy named Kiba. In another blink of an eye, Kiba asked everyone if they wanted a smoke, and a joint was being passed around. This was far too much for Naruto to process. The girls smelled of different, strong perfumes, dressed in short skirts and high heels. Kiba already had a beer in hand, and he was still driving.

Naruto had grown up on the base. He had grown up surrounded by soldiers, trained by some of the toughest men in the country. The other kids in his program were just like him—alone, scared, and totally clueless about the outside world. Sometimes they would huddle in the corner, looking through stolen magazines, fantasizing about civilian life. What it would be like to go to school, to actually have families, to graduate, to have a normal job. To be 'normal'.

Naruto coughed when he sucked in, a small part of the joint flying into the back of his throat. "Oh, shit." His heart was racing. "What is that?"

"Have you never smoked any? Like, ever?" Ino asked, wide eyed.

"Smoked what?" The car began to feel a bit odd, as if it was moving faster. Within moments, Naruto felt… lighter. The car reeked, but Naruto found it oddly nice.

"Pot?"

Sakura let out a small laugh. "I don't think he has. Where have you been all your life, under a rock?" She passed the joint to Hinata, who shook her head and returned it to Ino. The blond girl shrugged and turned back around to face the road, taking another hit.

"How about alcohol?" Kiba asked, looking at Naruto through the rear-view mirror as he took a swig from his can. "Ever had any?"

"No."

"No offense, you sound like a total loser," Shikamaru smirked. Ino glared at him, throwing a crumpled napkin she had picked up off the car floor at him. "Hey!"

"Look who's talking." Ino held out the joint towards Naruto, which he took without hesitation.

So, was this what he had been missing out on?

By the time they had gotten to the bar, the students were all over each other, laughing at the stupidity of the world around them. Even Naruto found himself lost in laughter, pointing out what fruits everyone reminded him of. And as if he had some knack for comedy, everyone guffawed as they sat down, ordering their drinks through wide grins and tears.

Red-eyed, Naruto almost missed a man, dressed in black sitting at the bar. Around the man's neck was a green scarf. His eyes oozed with hatred as he stared at him, which Naruto pointed out to his newfound friends.

"Check out that guy."

"Hey! Dude! Wanna sit with us?!" Ino called out. Sakura put both of her hands over her roommate's mouth, shushing her friend.

"Shut up, Pig!"

The man was a passing thought, and it didn't take long for him to be forgotten. As the first round of drinks came about, Naruto almost came to, wondering how they were all going to pay for this. The higher ups had given Naruto a small allowance, for anything that Naruto would 'need' for Phase Two, but like the idiot he was, he had forgotten his wallet in his room. But after a few more rounds, the group stumbled out of the bar, with Ino having treated everyone with her father's credit.

Naruto threw his arm around Sakura. Her hair smelled of weed and alcohol, and it was still only midnight. "So, where to now, folks? More adventures?"

"This is really your first time doing any of this stuff, isn't it?" Sakura asked. "I mean, you're completely gone right now."

"Huh? How so?"

A large black van pulled into the parking lot of the bar.

"Sweetie, you've only had, like, three shots of whisky and vodka, and you're already slurring."

Was there some sort of standard? Whatever it was, Naruto wanted to live up to it.

This was so much more fun than being a test subject.