New chapter! So, I'm not exactly sure when it is that Orochimaru is driven from the village, so we'll just go with this here, then, shall we?

Disclaimer and enjoy, folks!

Chapter Two

The trip to Konoha was going to take most of the daylight hours, so they'd set out rather early in the morning. Tsunade had grumbled about the early hour, no different from her attitude most mornings in the future. Shizune had simply reminded her it was her idea to get up this early, and with one last grumble and a glare in her direction, Tsunade had stopped complaining. Outwardly, at least.

As they travelled, Tsunade and Shizune both asked Sakura questions, with the former asking the most. Tsunade even tried a couple of times to get Sakura to reveal some lottery numbers, but after a scolding from Shizune, and a blank look from Sakura, the future Godaime had chuckled sheepishly and dropped the subject. Tsunade was still quite curious about things, so she redirected her questions to a safer subject.

"So, how did you become my apprentice?" she asked.

"It happened after my first chuunin exam," Sakura said. "I hadn't passed, in fact, my team and I were incredibly lucky to make it out of the forest in time. I'd had to face a few hard truths about my status as a kunoichi, and that, coupled with… other things… Well, I went straight to you and begged you to take me on."

"So… I was in the village?"

"Uh… Yeah."

"How far did you go with the training?" Shizune asked. "There are a lot of things I've never been able to master myself. They require a level of chakra control I've never had."

"Oh, I've mastered everything that you and shishou taught me," Sakura said.

"Wait, did I teach you things too?" Shizune asked, surprised, and Sakura nodded.

"Even though Tsunade is my shishou, you helped as well when it came to poisons and such," Sakura told her. "You're also one of the few people I go to, besides shishou, about creating or altering jutsus, and any research I do."

"Oh really?" the brunette medic asked, brightening considerably. "What's our most recent project? Er… For you, that is."

"Working out a way to throw chakra scalpels," Sakura told both surprised women. "It's not perfect, there's still a lot of kinks to work out, but we've got the basics. …Do you… want to see?"

Shizune's eyes widened even further, and she smiled. "Of course!" she said, and Sakura knew that she'd won her over.

They stopped, and Sakura formed the chakra scalpel. Adjusting the chakra to the necessary point, she aimed at a nearby tree, took a deep breath, and threw it. The scalpel embedded itself in the wood, cracking it before the back of the tree was blown out. The hole left behind had Shizune speechless.

"It's messy and incomplete," Sakura said. "It uses too much chakra in this form, but it's something we're working on reducing."

"Impressive," Tsunade said. "But let's get going now, shall we?"

They chatted lightly as they travelled, pausing only briefly to have a light lunch, and a little after five in the afternoon, the gates of Konoha were before them.

"Tsunade-sama!" one of the chuunin on guard duty exclaimed when he saw her. "I… It's an honour to welcome you back to the village, my lady."

Tsunade waved a dismissive hand at that. "Whatever,"she said. "I trust Sarutobi-sensei is in the Hokage tower?"

"Actually, he should be in the tower in the forty-fourth training grounds," the other chuunin said, stepping forward to speak to them. "The end of the survival section of the chuunin exams is today. He shouldn't be too long hopefully, as long as there aren't any preliminaries this time."

"We'll find somewhere to pass the time then," Tsunade decided. "Shizune, Sakura, you hungry? We could get an early dinner, if you'd like."

"Oh, okay."

"Sure."

Once they were gone, the two chuunin nodded at one another, the first who'd spoken leaping away to find someone of jounin or ANBU rank to find the Hokage to inform him that his old student was back in town.

OoOoO

They found a really nice tonkatsu place on the edge of the market district, which Sakura had actually never seen before. As far as the future was concerned, there was actually a soba-ya here, so maybe it had gone out of business? The food was delicious, and the saké Tsunade ordered was a pleasant finish to the meal. Shizune didn't even complain about the saké, though she ordered a green tea for herself, with Sakura following suit.

"So," the future Godaime said (though Sakura had no intention of ever telling her that, she didn't want to scare her off) once they'd finished. "What we're going to do, hopefully, once Sarutobi-sensei approves, is see if Konoha has any record of this… What was his name again, Sakura?"

"Ikari Futoshi," Sakura said with a sigh.

"Right, him," Tsunade agreed. "Once we have that info, we'll track him down, though admittedly, I'm not the best tracker."

"Me neither," Shizune admitted.

"Still," Tsunade went on. "We'll find him, and make him help us get Sakura home."

"Um..." Shizune started nervously.

"What is it?" Tsunade asked, eyes narrowed. "Well? Speak up, Shizune!"

"What do we do if he hasn't acquired or created the jutsu yet?" Shizune asked worriedly. "There is a fourteen year difference here, after all."

"We won't know until we find him," Sakura said.

"That's right," Tsunade agreed. "And even if he hasn't got it yet, there's still my old team mate, Orochimaru."

Sakura remained silent at the reminder, not wanting to say anything, not even sure if he'd been caught out and made a run for it yet. She was pretty sure it was around about this time, a vague recollection of something she'd once read popping into her head. And if he had, Tsunade obviously didn't yet know about it, and Sakura wasn't entirely sure she wanted to be the one to tell her.

"Let's wait until we see the Hokage," she said. "We can make our plans then."

It wasn't long before an ANBU found them, informing them that the Sandaime was back in his office, waiting to see them. The three of them walked at a sedate pace through the streets, neither Tsunade or Shizune seemingly in a hurry to get to the Hokage tower. Sakura wasn't either, though for different reasons, she was sure. Once they did arrive, though, Tsunade was all business.

"Sarutobi-sama," she said formally. "I request the removal of every ANBU in the room, and privacy seals put in place."

The Third looked surprised by this request, reasonably so. "That's quite a request, Tsunade," he said, eyes flickering to Shizune, then Sakura.

"When I tell you why, I know you'll understand and agree with me, sensei," Tsunade told him.

Sarutobi Hiruzen contemplated them for a moment, staring at each of them in turn before he nodded and gave the order. "Now, what is it that you have to tell me?" he asked.

They told their story, and twenty minutes later, the only sound in the room was the ticking of a clock. Sakura was nervous, to be sure, and Shizune looked quite faint at the tension in the room. Tsunade simply stood there, arms crossed as she stared at her old sensei, waiting for his response. Finally he sighed, reclining back in his seat.

"How sure are you that this girl speaks the truth?" he asked.

"Because of things she knows," Tsunade said. "I asked her questions on the way here that no imposter could answer."

Sakura realised then that all of Tsunade's chatting on the way to the village hadn't been as random as one might have thought, and she stared at her shishou, surprised at this strangely never before seen side of her.

"Add to that fact," Tsunade continued, "the manner in which she appeared. The chakra from the jutsu was immense, more than any I've felt before. And then there's the juin on her forehead. That cannot be faked, you know that, I checked it myself while she was unconscious. Twice."

Sakura resisted the urge to reach up and touch her juin, not wanting to bring attention to herself just yet, though it didn't matter, because the Hokage turned his wise old gaze to her.

"Alright then, tell me something, girl," he said. "Something that you think might convince me you are who you say you are."

Sakura thought a moment. "Well, I'm not privy to the deepest, darkest secrets of the village," she said. "How about if I say that I know that Uzumaki Naruto is the host to the kyuubi, and that his father was the Yondaime, Namikaze Minato? Also, that his mother Kushina was the jinchuuriki before him, and originally from Uzushiogakure, before it was destroyed."

"And how would it be that you know all of this?" the Sandaime asked, eyeing her thoughtfully.

"Naruto told me," Sakura said. "He learned it from imprints of his parents, both of whom sealed parts of their chakra in him as safeguards against the kyuubi's release."

"So you're well acquainted with him, then?"

"He was my gennin team mate and is one of my best friends."

The Third smiled softly. "I'm glad he has such a good friend," he said, then sighed, and turned back to Tsunade. "What was your purpose in bringing her here?"

"Sakura knows the name of the man who sent her back," Tsunade said. "We need to find him, find out if he already knows the jutsu he used yet or not. Failing that, maybe Orochimaru might have… What? What is it?"

Sarutobi sighed, and Sakura just knew then what he was about to say, and braced herself. "A few months ago," the old man said, "we discovered that Orochimaru had been performing… questionable experiments. I confronted him, he fled, and he is now listed as an S-ranked missing nin."

Tsunade was in shock, then she turned to Sakura and demanded, "Did you know about this?"

"I wasn't sure when it happened," the pinkette admitted. "I didn't want to say anything, just in case..."

Tsunade swore. "That BAKA!" she yelled. "How could he do something like this? How did it happen? Why didn't you send someone to tell me?!"

That last bit was aimed at the Third. "I did send word," he told her. "I sent out a squad, but they have been unable to find you. I'll be recalling them back to the village now, since you've returned on your own."

"So what now?" Shizune asked.

Tsunade sighed, struggling to get her temper under control. "Ikari Furoshi," she grumbled a few minutes later, still positively seething in her rage. "He's our best lead."

"I can give you access to the archives," the Hokage said. "But you know the protocol, Tsunade. I'll have to assign ANBU to watch you as well."

"Why ANBU?" Shizune asked.

"Probably because of me," Sakura said.

"You are correct, Sakura," the Hokage confirmed. "At this point in time, you are not a registered shinobi of the Leaf, though I will not make you surrender your hitai-ate, or anything. The only Haruno Sakura registered in the village would be a five year old girl, the daughter of a civilian and a retired ninja. You technically cannot even go into the archives, but I'll have special permission written up for you. Just don't forget that you cannot go in without an ANBU with you at all times."

"That's going to be a terribly boring job for someone," Tsunade remarked. "What poor sod are you going to stick with that?"

OoOoO

"Home sweet home!"

Tsunade pushed open the door to the house, letting out a cloud of dust that had Sakura and Shizune coughing.

"Okay, so we'll be airing out the place," Tsunade said, seemingly unaffected by the dust they'd stirred up. "At least the outside has been kept up by gennin teams… Alright, you two, let's get this place fit to sleep in for the night!"

They went around opening up windows, then Shizune insisted they sweep through the house. "But if we sweep before we dust, it'll just need sweeping again," Sakura argued.

"Alright, you dust, then I'll sweep up behind you then," Shizune conceded.

"Both of you shut it," Tsunade ordered. "Your domesticity is grating on my nerves."

Despite her words, Tsunade joined in the cleaning, and soon, they had three bedrooms, the kitchen, a bathroom, and the living room functional. "I'm so exhausted," Shizune groaned, flopping down on the lounge. "It's been ages since I cleaned that much!"

"You're the one who insisted on cleaning so thoroughly," Tsunade told her from her spot on a really comfortable recliner chair, surreptitiously sipping from a flask in her hand. "I was fine with just clearing a bedroom each, and hiring someone else to do the rest tomorrow."

"I thought the two of you were broke?" Sakura asked.

"There's a sort of trust fund attached to the house," Shizune told her. "Lady Tsunade can't touch it for anything except maintaining the household. Cleaning, bills, even groceries, you know?"

"I suppose that explains why this place was always so well stocked," Sakura mused. "Even when shishou was dead broke."

Tsunade was quiet, a frown on her face as she stared at some obscure spot. Finally she stood and said, "I'm headed to bed. You two don't stay up too long, we've got a lot of records to go through tomorrow."

Once she'd practically stomped off to bed, Shizune sighed sadly. "She's really not dealing well with Orochimaru's betrayal," she said.

"I'd heard they were closer than she was with Jiraiya," Sakura said. "At least, before now."

"You said you'd met Orochimaru," Shizune remembered. "How? When?"

"It was mostly related to my team mates and our missions," Sakura told her. "Then afterwards…. Actually, I'm not sure I should mention that bit."

The bit she was thinking of was the war.

"Alright," Shizune said, standing. "I think I'll head off to bed too. See you in the morning, Sakura."

Once she was alone, Sakura fell into memories, thinking of her friends and wondering if she was ever going to see them again. What if they couldn't find Futoshi? What if Shizune was right, and he didn't have the time travel jutsu yet? Being stuck in the past wasn't something she wanted, no matter how unique an experience it was.

Eventually she decided to head off to bed as well, hoping that tomorrow they could find some answers, though she had an ominous feeling that they were going to come up empty handed.

Kakashi will turn up next chapter. ;)

Review please!