Out of the Darkness

by griffindork93

Sakura would show them she wasn't pathetic. One harsh word from Sasuke makes Sakura realize that he will never see her unless she is strong enough to stand at his side and not in his shadow.

2. Chuunin

AN: thanks to all who reviewed this story. Your reviews made me all giddy and spurred my decision to get this chapter out as fast as possible, which I'll admit isn't as fast as you would like. Special thanks to BloodFeud and Toreh for the glowing reviews. And thanks to BloodFeud for pointing out some small grammatical mistakes. I've gone and reedited my first chapter. If you see any others just tell me.

Anyway, this chapter is dedicated to Mistress Persephone for being my first review, and to BloodFeud and Toreh for their analysis of what they liked so I knew what standard to write this chapter at. And thanks to everyone else for your support and for voting.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, otherwise Sakura would have actually developed as the heroine of the story.

-CHUUNIN-

Sakura came to with a groan.

She was greeted by the familiar walls of the hospital that she had practically lived in for the last month. On a normal day, she didn't mind the bleach white walls, the scent of disinfectant, or the bright lights on the ceiling.

However, this was not a normal day, because today she was the patient, and not the visitor slash student. To someone who had just woken up, the absolute whiteness that was everywhere, from the lights, to the walls, to the floors, to the furniture, was blinding. Sakura was starting to understand while the older generation of shinobi hated having to go to the hospital if this is how they were treated.

Being blinded after being healed from whatever had landed you in the hospital was no fun. She also thought the enclosed space did nothing to help a ninja's natural claustrophobia. Being trapped in a single room with a smaller than average window and only two exit routes just wasn't safe when you were a shinobi.

Sakura had a reunion with her teammates. It had been three days since the disaster of a chuunin exams and the subsequent invasion, and she had been asleep for all three of them, which frankly shocked her because she hadn't thought she had done anything to warrant a three day hospital visit. She could have slept at home and not have been blinded when she opened her eyes.

The reunion wasn't the happiest one though. It turns out that the invasion had been a joint effort between the Sound Village and the Sand Village, led by Orochimaru himself. And if it wasn't bad enough that sannins turned S-rank rogue ninjas were attacking the village, the Snake Sannin had killed the Sandaime Hokage.

Sakura, Kakashi-sensei had told her, was lucky to have woken before the funeral, which would take place tomorrow. The pinkette didn't agree with her sensei at all.

Both of her teammates were subdued. Naruto was depressed. Until he had been put on Team 7, only the Hokage and Iruka-sensei had paid any attention to him. Well, positive attention, she corrected herself. The blonde had thought of the Third Hokage as a grandfather and she was positive he considered Naruto as a second grandson.

Sasuke was sullen because the chuunin exams had been canceled. Personally, Sakura thought that was a pretty selfish reason. Their village had been attacked, their Hokage murdered, and all he care about was his lost chance at a promotion. She knew his dream to surpass his brother was important to him, and maybe a little too much, but did Sasuke really care more for it than he did for the village they, as Konoha shinobi, were supposed to defend?

The village a shinobi belonged to was everything. Without the ties to a village, ninja were nothing more than another tool, another weapon to be directed and used on someone else's whims. Belonging to a village allowed shinobi to maintain a sense of humanity because ever harmful, evil, dirty deed they performed was for the sake of the village. Konoha was built on the Shodaime Hokage's philosophy of the Will of Fire. Every true Konoha shinobi must love, believe, cherish and fight for the village's sake, as previous generations had done before them.

She thought, given the cross look and glare on his face that yes, he did care more for being better than his brother than he did for his village. Sasuke's petty goal was worth more to him than his honor as a shinobi, than his village, than the Will of Fire. And it made Sakura think. Would she really do anything to help him achieve his dream if it meant forsaking her village in a time of need? Abandoning her morals? Her sense of right and wrong? Her duty as an inheritor of the Will of Fire?

Sakura didn't think she could. Maybe she could offer him help if he needed it, but not to the extent that achieving his dream was the only thing she cared about.

Come to think of it, ever since she had started training seriously, she had noticed that Sasuke didn't care what efforts he took or methods he used if it helped him reach his goal. She had tried many times over the past months to show that she would stand by him and be there if he ever needed her, but Sasuke never acknowledged her unless it made him look superior in comparison.

Her resolve to help her crush surpass Itachi was crumbling. How could she help a guy who cared about nothing else but his goal? All he had done so far was manage to hurt her by criticizing her needlessly. She already knew she was the weakest member of Team Kakashi, but that was why she had made the extra effort to fix her training. In the time since they had been placed on Team 7, only Sasuke remained unchanged. If she tilted her head at the right angle and squinted she could see the little bit of maturity that Naruto had received. But her dark haired teammate was just as cold, distant, stoic, derisive, and unapproachable as ever.

With a look as Sasuke, who was glaring at her as if blaming Sakura for the cancelation of the chuunin selection exams, the pinkette knew her dream had been shattered. No longer would she improve for Sasuke's sake. Now she would do it for her own. She would focus on her own dream, a new one. She would become the best kunoichi she could be, the best in the whole village. She would become a medical ninja that rivaled the Legendary Slug Sannin, Tsunade.

She would take the rest of the day off, whenever they got around to releasing her from the hospital, and then begin training again. She would have to practice every day if she wanted to reach Tsunade's level.

But first, she had a funeral to attend.

-CHUUNIN-

Kakashi-sensei had to bribe the nurses and doctors to let her leave the hospital for the Sandaime's funeral. Apparently when she had healed Sasuke after their battle with Gaara, she had completely used up all of her chakra, putting her into a mini coma, and they wanted to keep her in that sickeningly white room for observation and in case she was fully recovered yet.

But her sensei had persuaded them to let her go, and also into releasing her early, so she could attend the Third Hokage's funeral. He had even brought her a simple black kimono. She almost wondered if he had followed her home one day, because she had never told him where she lived. Then she realized that the kimono he had given her was not the one carefully tucked away in the back of her closet. She swore to pay him for it after Team 7's next mission.

The ceremony took place on top of the Hokage tower.

A picture of the Third Hokage when he actually had color in his hair was propped up on a table, a bouquet of flowers already placed in front of it. Four candles were burning. Sakura thought they were supposed to symbolize the Will of Fire that every Konoha shinobi had, to show that it had ended for one but had been passed onto the next generation.

Every shinobi in the village was present, dressed in their finest black mourning outfits. The heavens opened and cried themselves. She listened with one ear as one of the Elders spoke the eulogy. She vaguely remembered Iruka-sensei mentioning during one lesson that the Elders were part of the Hokage's gennin team. Sakura wondered if they were hurting as much as the village was, or less because they didn't get along with him anymore.

One by one shinobi approached the dais to lay down a white flower. She knew from special kunoichi only lessons during her years in the academy, although Sakura still didn't know why any kunoichi would need a female only class in flower picking and arranging, that the white color represented innocence, humility and reverence.

It was a color she thought suited the Sandaime very well, and not just because he lived long enough to have white hair, although that was quite the accomplishment in the ninja world. While young, naïve, and innocent herself, she knew that the Hokage was not. One did not reach his position without stepping on a few, and not every decision he made was for the good of the village. There had to be a time when he made sacrifices of his shinobi for the better good of the village. But the pinkette knew the Third Hokage was as humble as they came. He often visited them during a lesson on the village's history and Iruka-sensei would let him do the teaching for the day. The Third Hokage was an approachable person and he genuinely cared for each of his shinobi. Aside from the Yondaime, the Third Hokage was the best Hokage Konoha had had, and the whole village would be sad to lose him. He was respected and well loved by both the shinobi and the civilians.

Sakura left the ceremony subdued. A great man had just moved on. But Naruto beside her was just as bubbly and hyper as ever. Whatever Iruka-sensei had said to him had brought the spark back in his eyes. She wondered how long it would take for her life to return to normal.

'Not too long,' she hoped. Maybe Team 7 could find a mission. A distraction would be welcomed.

Sakura waved goodbye to her teammates and headed towards her home in the civilian district, unaware that her life would never be normal again.

-CHUUNIN-

Sakura was torn when she arrived home. She didn't know whether to be angry, hunt her teammates down in a rage and tear them apart, or to completely breakdown and cry.

The house she had grown up in was destroyed, along with her parent's bakery. She wondered if this was why Kakashi-sensei had bought a new kimono for her. Even if he had come here to collect her own he would have been unable to do so. Sakura felt she could have handled that if her parents weren't gone too.

'How could they not have told me this?' Sakura was mentally exhausted at this point. The chuunin exams, the invasion, the Hokage's funeral, and now this. She had no clue what she was supposed to do, so she just stood, rooted to the spot, outside what had been her home for thirteen years, silent tears streaming down her cheeks. All she could think about was that her teammates had not told her that her parents were dead. They had told her everything else related to the chuunin exams.

Did they not know her parents were dead? Even though Sakura could see the evidence in front of her, she found it hard to acknowledge. In her mind they had just congratulated her on her success as a ninja. Her mother had prepared her favorite triple chocolate cake for a celebration after the exams whether she passed or not.

She didn't know how long she stood in front of her house and parents' bakery. Where was she supposed to go now? She had no other family, at least none that she knew of. Neither of her parents had mentioned siblings, cousins or her grandparents. Sakura began sobbing. Did she have family somewhere else, or was she official alone in the world?

It felt like centuries that she stood in front of her house and parents' bakery. Night had fallen and the moon was climbing high into the sky and she stood transfixed at the ruins of her life unable to comprehend the reality that she was now alone. Sakura was now an orphan with no place to call home. Not that any could compare to the one in front of her.

The rosette shrieked when a hand rested gently on her shoulder. Reacting instinctively, she grabbed the person's wrist and pivoted, throwing whoever had touched her over her shoulder and had settled her weight on him before he could get up.

"Shikamaru?" Sakura blinked. He was the last person she was expecting. She had thought the first people to come looking for her would be her team.

Even more surprising was the expression on his face. It wasn't his usual 'the devil may care this is too troublesome for me I just want to watch the clouds and sleep look.' There was genuine concern there, which was unexpected from him. They weren't particularly close, only having sat next to each other a few days when Ino beat her to the seat by Sasuke. Nevertheless, Sakura had enjoyed the intelligent conversations they had had.

But none of that explained why he was here.

"Shikamaru?" she asked again.

The pineapple haired boy still on the ground beneath her exhaled. "I was out running errands for my mother. I noticed you just standing there staring at that building so I thought I would ask if you were okay, but if you're going to throw me on the ground I guess I shouldn't have bothered."

Sakura noticed the bag on the ground which contained Shikamaru's spilled groceries. She found it hard to believe that the lazy Nara was grocery shopping for his mother. The boy hardly ever did anything for himself; she couldn't imagine him willingly doing something for his mother.

Just thinking about his mother brought tears to her eyes. Her own mother constantly asked her to help out in the bakery or run to the market to get more flour. The pinkette started crying again, completely freaking out Shikamaru.

"Jeez girl, there's no need to cry. I didn't mean to upset you." Although Shikamaru had no idea what he said that made her bawl. He looked at her. Her face was turning red; clearly this wasn't the first time she cried today. Her cheeks were blotchy and he could see tear tracks from before. Her green eyes were bloodshot and puffy.

He groaned at the thought of having to comfort a crying girl. Shikamaru was never good with girls to begin with, he found them entirely too troublesome to bother with, but her couldn't leave her alone like this.

"Hey Sakura, what are you doing out so late? Won't your parents be worried?"

That had apparently been the wrong thing to say. Shikamaru found himself unable to move when she start wailing and buried her head into his jacket. If he hadn't been so worried about what had set her off to make her cry so drastically, he would have said something about how she was getting his jacket wet and crying girls were troublesome.

He gently eased himself into a sitting position and wrapped both arms around her. "Why don't you tell me what's wrong? Maybe I can help."

Sakura didn't say anything at first. She continued to soak his jacket with tears. Just when he thought he was going to have to use his shadow possession to force her to walk home, even though he didn't know where the girl lived, she spoke.

It was soft. And muffled by her head on his chest. But he heard it nonetheless. "This is my home."

Shikamaru didn't understand what Sakura had said. If this was her home, why was she standing outside crying? The house in front of him looked pleasant, and there was a light on upstairs so someone had to be inside.

"Then what are you doing out here? You should go inside."

Sakura took her head out of his jacket and stared at him with a look that told him she thought he was nuts. But she didn't say anything. Instead she raised a hand and pointed behind him.

Clearly Shikamaru's assumption was wrong. The girl doesn't live in the house in front of him. He turned his head, careful to make sure he didn't jostle the pinkette, to look at the house behind.

For the first time in his life Shikamaru felt like a total idiot. He had seen that the invasion had caused some damage on this street, and Sakura had been standing in front of one of the few damaged buildings on the street. For Kami's sake he had seen her staring at the ruined house when he approached her. He should have easily pieced together that she lived in the house that had been destroyed. There was no reason logically for her to be crying otherwise.

However, something didn't make sense. The damage to her house couldn't be the problem, or not all of it anyway. Sakura hadn't said anything about her home until he asked her what was bothering her. But she had already been crying before he had asked. Although she hadn't been when he first approached her. What had happened to cause her to cry?

Shikamaru nearly slapped himself in the head, and he probably would have if he hadn't been holding Sakura. She had started crying when he had asked about her parents. So something was clearly wrong with them.

"Sakura, where are your parents? Are they alright?"

Sakura's crying started anew. The only thing he managed to understand between her violent sobs was something about a letter. Shikamaru looked at the road, trying to find the letter amongst the remnants of his mother's groceries.

It wasn't hard to find. A quick look told him it was a formal notice of some sort.

Sakura Haruno,

We are sorry to inform you that your parents were among the casualties of the Sound and Sand invasion that occurred on Monday earlier this week. At your earliest convenience, we require your presence at Konohagakure's Morgue to confirm the bodies.

With sincere condolences,

Isshin Yukiono.

It was short, blunt, and emotionless. Shikamaru felt anger bubble in his gut on Sakura's behalf. For the poor girl to find out that both her parents were dead from a letter, and a letter that asked her to identify their bodies, was cruel and it was no wonder she was crying uncontrollably. He briefly wondered why none of her team was with her considering one of them usually walked her home, but pushed it to the back of his mind to think about later. Right now he had to figure out how to help her.

Shikamaru wasn't sure what he could do. He couldn't bring her to the Hokage so she could settle something with him because the Third Hokage was dead as well and a replacement hadn't been named. He couldn't involve her teammates at this point, if they didn't already know they would be of no help now, and if they knew and didn't care, well, that would be worse and he didn't want to think that was the case. And, cruel as it seemed, the orphanages were most likely overburdened already and wouldn't be able to deal with another child to care for, and some would refuse because she was a ninja.

He sighed, shifting her gently so he could carry her on his back and taking extreme care not to wake her up. He'd have to bring her back to the Nara compound for the night until a solution could be found. Maybe his parents would be able to help.

'Huh, wouldn't mom be happy. I'm finally bringing home a girl,' Shikamaru thought sarcastically.

-CHUUNIN-

'What a drag.'

Shikamaru knew he couldn't bring home a girl to his mother, much less a random girl he's never spoken to her of, without some sort of reaction. But fainting was not one of the possibilities he had even thought his annoying bossy mother was capable of. It baffled him because he honestly expected for her to start yelling at the top of her lungs like she usually did whenever he and his lackadaisical attitude was concerned.

What was even more troublesome was the reaction his mother's fainting caused. The thump when she hit the wooden floor brought his father slinking into the entry room. Shikaku's eyes quickly took in the scene, from his unconscious mother to the pink haired girl on his back to the late hour and to the lack of groceries which he had been sent out for.

"Who's the girl?" It was the only question his father needed to ask because she and his reason for bringing her to his home were the only unknowns in his equation.

"Sakura Haruno." Shikaku nodded. Shikamaru had told his father about the girl with candy colored locks that sometimes sat beside him in class. He had mentioned her abnormal intelligence for her age and that she might be good at shogi.

Shikaku gave him a look that Shikamaru knew well. It said not to worry for now; everything will be dealt with in the morning. Nothing else needed to be said between father and son. Shikamaru hefted Sakura up a little on his back and turned down the hallway that went to his room, leaving his father to deal with his mother.

The young Nara gently placed his cargo on his bed. He tucked Sakura in and exited. Though his back would hurt in the morning from a night spent on the couch, he didn't mind. It would only be for one night and the poor girl deserved a good night's rest.

So, armed with a spare pillow and blanket, Shikamaru settled into the couch. However, sleep eluded him. The current situation was so complicated that he felt troublesome was not good enough to describe it. This was the first time the genius couldn't find an answer.

Sakura's parents were dead, her home destroyed, and her team either didn't know or didn't care. He had taken her to his home but still didn't know how he could help. He was uncertain of how to interact with her. Would she even want anyone around right now? There was no way he could pretend things were normal between them. He had gone from not knowing each other to him being her confidant, if sharing her troubles with him counted as confiding in him.

Shikamaru eventually decided thinking wasn't going to change anything. He had comforted her in a time of need and brought her to his house where she would be taken care of. He would talk to Sakura when she woke and they would work things out with the help of his parents.

He couldn't resist a whispered "troublesome" before he finally relaxed and allowed himself to fall asleep.

-CHUUNIN-

Sakura much preferred the room she woke up in after the second time she blacked out that week. It was rather simple and plain, but that was way better than the nausea inducing white walls of the hospital room. Although, this wasn't any room she recognized, and she couldn't help but wonder why she wasn't in her own room.

Her own room.

Whatever euphoria Sakura felt at not waking up in a hospital room plummeted as her heart dropped to her stomach.

She wasn't sleeping in her bed in her room because her room was gone. She remembered the complete numbness she had felt when she saw her home reduced to rubble and crying on Shikamaru.

'Shikamaru!' He had brought her here, wherever here was, but where was he?

Sakura nearly had a heart attack when the boy in question opened the door to the room she had been given. He had cautiously poked his head around the door to check on her, and upon seeing she was awake opened the door all the way.

He sat down on the bed beside her but didn't say anything. Sakura was quite glad he didn't ask questions she wasn't ready to talk about or push for answers she felt uneasy giving.

"Do you want some breakfast, Sakura?"

The question was one she hadn't been expecting, but once she registered what he asked, Sakura felt a sense of relief. On some level, Shikamaru understood that she wasn't ready to talk about her break down yesterday and she couldn't be happier that he was treating her as normally as he could in such circumstances.

Sakura expressed feeling embarrassed to attend breakfast with his parents in clothes she had worn the day before and smelling like she hadn't showered, but Shikamaru had shrugged, putting his hands in his pockets, and said his parents were as laid back as he was and would understand her plight and wouldn't mind her appearance. So she followed the Nara heir to the kitchen where his father was already seated at the table by the window and a woman she assumed to be his mother was at the stove.

The brunette turned to greet them when they entered, giving the children a bright smile. "It's so good to see you up, Sakura-chan. You've been asleep for two days. I thought Shikamaru was going to start complaining about you hogging his bed soon."

'Two days! I slept for two days. Wait, did she just say Shikamaru's bed?' Sakura's face burned. She had thought it was a guest room, which would explain the simplisticness of it and the sparse furniture.

"I'm sorry to have imposed on you like this. You didn't have to put me in Shikamaru's room."

"Oh it's fine dear. Shikamaru was to one to put you there and he adamantly refused to move you." Shikamaru's mother waved her apology off with a wave off her hand. Sakura looked at him to see a light dusting of pink crawl across his cheeks.

She took a seat at the table with a quiet thank you, both for the food and to Shikamaru. She never would have thought the laziest boy in her class capable of caring for someone he didn't know. It made her stomach flutter to realize that she wasn't as alone as she had previously believed herself to be. She still had her teammates, although she didn't know where they were. She wondered if they were worried about her since she hadn't shown up for training yesterday or today. And now she had Shikamaru, and judging by the soft looks on his mother's face, his family too.

The pinkette reveled in the peacefulness of breakfast. It came to a rather abrupt end when Shikamaru's father asked what had happened to her two days ago.

Tears immediately came to life in her green eyes and her throat constricted causing her to nearly choke on the sausage she had just eaten. She didn't think she was ready to talk about the loss of her parents and her home. She looked at Shikamaru who was sitting next to her, and shot him a pleading glance, giving him permission to tell his parents what he knew.

He surprised her by putting one hand on her thigh and squeezing lightly before turning to address his father's question. Sakura didn't hear a word he said as she gently squeezed his hand back. She was so relieved she had someone she could trust on lean on for support, even though Shikamaru was not the first person she had imagined lined up for the position. Perhaps it was the fact that he expressed genuine disinterest and a lack of care for everything that made her believe he could help her. Because he was doing neither now so he had to care for her a little bit.

Shikamaru's mother gathered her into a hug, putting a halt to Sakura's thoughts. Despite Sakura's protests that she didn't want to be a burden and that it would be easy to find an apartment, Yoshino insisted that she stay with them. Unwilling to argue when Shikamaru's mother was being so generous, she agreed. On the condition that they set her up in a guest room or on the couch so she wouldn't be imposing on Shikamaru by staying in his room the whole time she was there.

Sakura spent the rest of the morning staring blankly at the ceiling of her new temporary room trying not to remember what her house had looked like or imagine her parents' mangled bodies. She knew it wasn't healthy to wallow in despair, but she honestly could not work up the effort needed to move. She was probably going to spend the rest of the day in here too and not go and see if Gai-sensei was training his team this afternoon, because leaving the Nara compound meant having to answer questions on her whereabouts and she didn't want to tell anyone what had happened yet.

But she knew that it was inevitable. Her teammates and sensei would only ignore her absence for so long before they tore apart the village looking for her. Or at least Naruto would anyway. She wouldn't be surprised if Kakashi-sensei already knew where she was and exactly what had happened and she bet Sasuke probably thought she was annoying.

Ever since the mission to Wave country Sasuke had been even moodier than usual. He was snippy towards her, demanding of their sensei, and picking fights with Naruto at every opportunity. Even though she had proved to have some skills and that she was capable of creating strategies, he scoffed at her and ignored her. Sakura was starting to find the complete rudeness he treated her with despicable. She had done nothing to earn this treatment of his but he continued to act as if she had done him a grave wrong.

Sakura stayed in her room, moping as Shikamaru called her behavior, for another four days before the pineapple haired boy forcibly dragged her out and demanded she do something other than impersonate a zombie.

Although she wanted to glare at him and rage and cry that her parents had just died so she should be allowed time to mourn, she knew he was right. She could mourn without hiding in the Nara's guest room all day. And she knew that her team had to be frantic by this point. It had been almost a week since she had last seen them.

So Sakura took a shower and dressed in clothes that Yoshino had provided for her. She made a mental reminder to do some shopping after her first mission. She didn't have much in the way of personal items at the moment. She hadn't had the nerve to return to her destroyed house and look amongst the rubble for anything salvageable.

The rosette decided it was finally time to face the inquisition that was her team and headed for Team 7's bridge. It was approaching ten so Naruto and Sasuke would still be waiting for their chronically late sensei. Shikamaru accompanied her part way, leaving to meet with his own team with a promise to pick her up at the bridge in a couple of hours.

A couple more minutes of walking brought her to Team 7's bridge, and just as she had anticipated, Naruto and Sasuke were already there waiting impatiently for Kakashi-sensei. She took a deep breath to calm herself and approached the two boys.

Naruto spotted her first, making her believe the blonde had some sort of Sakura detector because he had yelled her name the second she had appeared in his line of vision, which was a feat in and of itself because his back had been facing her. He gave her his largest bear hug to date, which she swore cracked a few ribs, and started asking questions so quickly that she couldn't understand a word he said.

She was saved by the appearance of Kakashi, who gave her that smile that he reserved for her, "Glad you're feeling better, Sakura?"

The girl nearly kissed Kakashi-sensei for the excuse he provided her and told Naruto that she had been sick for the last couple of days and that was her reason for missing practice.

Kakashi-sensei didn't have any plans for the day beyond sparring since he didn't know when Sakura would return. He told Naruto and Sasuke to practice their taijutsu and pulled Sakura aside, which neither boy noticed because they were too busy fighting.

Concern shown in his visible eye. "Are you alright, Sakura?"

Sakura sighed heavily. It was a loaded question. Was she alright? Overall, no, definitely not. But she was getting there. She was in a hard place at the moment, but she wasn't alone. She had Shikamaru and his family to support her and they had provided her with a place to live.

"No, but I will be." It was the best answer she could give him. Her parents' death still felt like someone had stabbed her heart, but with time she would come to be able to bear the pain.

His dark eye scrutinized her, trying to discern if she was telling the truth. Satisfied that she was, Kakashi ruffled her pink hair. "Just remember. I always help you if you need it."

Not wanting to cry, because she knew if she started she wouldn't stop until her tears ran dry, Sakura hugged her sensei, trying to convey through that embrace that she trusted him to be there for her. He seemed to get the message, for he hugged her back, and student and sensei sat in easy silence and watched the other two members of Team 7 scuffle in the dirt.

Kakashi-sensei, as was typical of him, vanished at the end of practice with the message of no practice tomorrow and was gone before any of his students could draw the breath to ask why practice was cancelled. Sakura denied Naruto's offer to go eat ramen with him and hunched over the railing of the bridge to await Shikamaru.

"My mother wants you two to come to dinner tonight."

It took Sakura a few minutes of staring incredulously at Sasuke to understand that it was him that had spoken. The Uchiha maintained a habit of not speaking unless necessary and certainly did his best to avoid talking to her. Then again, given that he was now the only member on the team with a mother, Sakura should have known that he was the one who had spoken.

Before she had a chance to say she wasn't in the mood to attend, Naruto had attempted to tackle Sasuke yelling that they would both be there. Sakura wanted to put her fist through the blonde's stomach for speaking for her, but she realized it was futile. Even if she had said she didn't want to go the two of them would find a way to drag her to Sasuke's house anyway, so it was better to just agree now than suffer later.

She gazed apathetically at her reflection in the stream as her two teammates walked away. She knew today was going to be horrible. Why had she let Shikamaru convince her she needed to get out of the house?

-CHUUNIN-

Sakura fidgeted uncomfortably under the stares of Sasuke's father and older brother.

They had been seated at a really fancy table. Fugaku sat at the head and his wife was at the other end. Sakura had elected to sit on the Uchiha Matriarch's right, and Sasuke was beside her. Directly across from her was Naruto. Itachi, as clan heir, was sitting at his father's right hand.

Sakura had picked to sit next to Mikoto one, because she was the only other female at the table, but two, and most importantly, because both Sasuke's father and older brother intimidating her just by standing in the same room as her. She was sure if she sat next to either of them she would end up acting like a scared little girl unable to speak.

But that seemed to be the case anyway because both Fugaku and Itachi were staring at her with dark onyx eyes and impassive faces that were making her twitchy.

"So, Sakura-chan," Sasuke's mother started, "I understand that you're from a civilian family. Why did you decide to become a ninja instead of being a part of your parents' business?"

Sakura ignored the pain she felt when Mikoto mentioned her parents and tried to think of an answer to give her. There was no way she could tell them she became a ninja solely to get close to Sasuke because he had protected her from some bullies. That would totally embarrass her. But, Ino had done the same thing.

"I was picked on often when I was younger because of my pink hair and large forehead. I made my first friend when Ino defended me. So when she decided to become a kunoichi I signed up to."

"Are your parents okay with you being a shinobi?"

Sakura knew that Mikoto meant well and was just trying to get to know her son's teammates, but she couldn't stop her cringe at that question. "I. . . they were okay with my decision."

She took a sip from her water already knowing that someone at the table would notice that 'were' and call her out on it.

And she was right. "Were?" Itachi asked.

Sakura licked her lips trying to moisten them. "They. . . my parents died during the attack on the chuunin exams."

A strained silence fell over the table. Both her teammates were staring at her with a mixture of shock, pity, worry, confusion, and questioning looks. They wondered why Sakura had not mentioned earlier that her parents had died and were worried about where she was staying now. A wounded look crossed Naruto's face briefly when he realized that Sakura had not confided in her own team, but he pushed that hurt aside assuming that she just wasn't ready to talk about it and that she had spent the last week grieving and that's why she wasn't at any of their team's practices.

Mikoto, looking reluctant, asked, "Are you living on you own now? If you need help you could come and stay with us. You did save Sasuke's life. It would be the least we could do."

Sakura had thought Mikoto had said that just to be nice. A quick glance at Fugaku, whose face had softened minutely, told her that the Uchihas would welcome them into her home. Well, everyone but Sasuke would. Despite his feeling worried for her just moments ago, the youngest Uchiha son was clearly put out at the idea of her moving into his home.

Sakura gently denied the Uchiha's offer. "Thank you, but the Naras have already generously given me a room in their home. Besides, I couldn't accept. I didn't really save Sasuke's life. I'm only just beginning to learn medical ninjutsu, so I doubt that I managed to actually heal him."

Sasuke's mother was unwilling to drop the topic. "But you did Sakura-chan. Fugaku, Itachi, and I saw it ourselves. And the two medics that were going to heal him confirmed it. They said you had done a wonderfully job, especially since you've only been learning for a month. You really impressed them. Us too. If you ever need anything, don't hesitate to ask the Uchiha clan. You saved our son's life so we owe you a debt."

The young female shifted uneasily in her seat as her face flushed a brilliant red color that resembled a tomato. She was unused to receiving praise and it made her uncomfortable for Mikoto's every word about her to be dripping with it. It didn't help matters that Sasuke was now sporting a glower. Clearly he didn't like to be reminded that his female teammate has saved his life. He probably thought she would ask him a favor in return and Sasuke hated to owe anyone. The fact that it was her would only invoke further resentment.

Left with no other choice, Sakura smiled politely, hoping they wouldn't see it for the fake smile it was, and promised to take the Uchihas up on their offer if she ever needed to. She was sure the only one at the table that believed her little performance was Naruto, but the blonde was so dense that he would only see her smiling and automatically believe her to be happy.

Thankfully, the dinner discussion left anything having to deal with the invasion. Mikoto started asking about their training. Sakura was able to answer these queries much more easily and felt infinitely better now that Mikoto's attention wasn't focused solely on her. Naruto had started rambling, ranting and raving as soon as the Uchiha Matriarch asked him about his training since he became a gennin.

The ninja that loved orange explained their team's sessions with little true detail, a lot of exaggeration, crude complaints about Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke-teme every other sentence, and spent most of it trying to provoke Sasuke's temper and start a shouting match. When it was Sakura's turn she mentioned she was a genjutsu type, a fact that seemed to catch the rest of Sasuke's family's interest (which she didn't understand because there was no way her genjutsu could match those of the Uchihas Sharigan), used earth and water release jutsus, and that she had recently decided to study medical ninjutsu a become a medical ninja that surpassed the Legendary Sannin Tsunade.

After that the tension floating over the table melted and conversation flowed smoothly between Naruto, Sakura, Mikoto, and Sasuke, who was unnaturally talkative that evening. Only after she had been escorted out of the compound by Sasuke's silent brother and to Shikamaru who was waiting to bring her back to the Nara compound, did she realize that Itachi had only said one word the entire time and his father not at all. Mikoto had skillfully maneuvered her and Naruto into sustaining the conversation with a little input from her every now and again, making her totally forget the other two Uchihas sitting at the table observing her and critiquing her every movement and answer.

She sank onto her bed hoping that they accomplished whatever their real objective was, because there wasn't a snowball's chance in Suna that meeting Sasuke's teammates was all they wanted. Whatever reason she and Naruto had been invited to dinner at the Uchiha house had to do with her because ninety percent of the conversation was directed towards her.

-CHUUNIN-

"That poor girl," Mikoto murmured to her husband after their sons had walked their guests to the gate. "To lose your parents at such a young age. She must be devastated."

"Hn." Mikoto knew Fugaku well enough after nineteen years of marriage to know that he wasn't disparaging the pink haired girl. It was more of a comment on how well she maintained her composure. To be honest, she wasn't the only one that expected the girl to burst into an uncontrollable flood of tears.

"From what she said, Sakura has rather remarkable chakra control. Walking up trees and on water on her first tries. Even Itachi wasn't that good when he was learning. And if she's learning medical ninjutsu, it must be even better then she let on." Before she had quit her career as a kunoichi to marry, Mikoto had started learning the basics of medical ninjutsu herself. It wasn't any easier to learn with more age and experience. She couldn't accomplish what Sakura had in a month after a whole year of training.

"Yes," Fugaku agreed, "she certainly has talent."

Neither husband nor wife spoke anymore, but both understood that it would serve them well to watch the pink haired girl and keep an ear open to follow her progress. Sakura would be a great benefit to the Uchiha clan if she could become greater than Tsunade and discover a solution to the eventual blindness their clan's kekkei genkai caused.

-CHUUNIN-

Shikamaru was frustrated. It wasn't a state of being he found himself in often seeing as he did everything under the sun possible to avoid anything that was the least bit troublesome and or frustrating. But, every time he found himself truly frustrated with the situation at hand, it only served to annoy him, something else he was not often and disliked being. It had been one full month since Sakura stepped foot outside the Nara compound and one month since the awkward, a.k.a. disastrous dinner at the Uchiha's house. She returned to locking herself in her room when she wasn't out tending to the Nara Clan's herd of deer, which she somehow, he had yet to figure out exactly how but knew it involved tears, puppy dog eyes and a promise to distract his mother, convinced his father to let her help with. Shikaku had gone one step further and began instructing her in some of the medicine the Nara Clan made with the antlers when she announced her plan to study the field of a medical ninja.

The brunette knew he wasn't close to Sakura. Hell, he barely even knew her despite them being in the same class at the Academy. The most time he had ever spent with the girl was when she came to live under their roof for the past five weeks. But he liked to think he knew her better now and hoped that she would regain some of her former personality so he could continue to get to know her. Without his noticing, or his consent for that matter, he had somehow come to start thinking of Sakura as a sort of sister figure. And while he had practically grown up with Ino and Chouji, he would never call Ino his sister because the blonde was altogether too loud, to Sasuke obsessed and too troublesome. But, at the same time, he found that he would not mind having that sibling relationship with Sakura.

At first Sakura may have been just as Sasuke obsessed as his teammate, but Shikamaru believed that more to be Ino's influence and Sakura's desire to fit in with the other girls training to be kunoichi rather than true feelings on the pinkette's end. Sakura was also much quieter than Ino, even before she became mute when her parents' died. She also wasn't one to be controlling, bossy, and demanding, although she would if she ever spent any time one on one with his mother. Sakura was a contradiction. With bright pink hair the color of the cherry blossoms she was named for and shining green eyes, but having a personality that was shy but outspoken, reserved but bold, nondescript but unable to go unnoticed, tame yet ferocious, calm but easy to anger, intelligent but not a genius, a talented first generation kunoichi. Every inch of her gave off the appearance of being soft, gentle, and weak, which she was anything but. Sakura was truly a kind and caring individual, but she wasn't perfect. She had her moments when her rage exploded and it didn't matter who it was directed at.

But all the different pieces that made Sakura only made Shikamaru more intrigued. He wanted to piece her together and see her for who she truly was. He wanted to see the day when she outgrew her insecurities and blossomed into the wonderful and amazing kunoichi that she would no doubt be. And every detail he discovered, every fact he learned, only brought forth the urge to protect her, to care for her, to watch out for her and offer support. Shikamaru could only hope that Sakura would get past this ordeal so the bond between them could grow and be strengthened, possibly allowing them to be as close as two people who really were brother and sister.

Knowing that it was rude and that his mother would lecture it for him if she ever found out, Shikamaru slipped into Sakura's room without knocking and gaining said girl's permission. The only reaction he received was an uninterested stare from the strawberry haired girl occupying the bed.

The Nara heir gave her a glare, which he almost never bothered with because anything worth getting bothered about to glare at was too troublesome. "Look, Sakura. I know that I can't understand how you're feeling right now. But moping and antisocial tendencies aren't healthy. You have a duty as a ninja, yet you haven't gone to a team practice in a month, nor have you stepped foot in the hospital to continue your medical ninjutsu lessons. Do you honestly think that this is what your parents wanted for you? For you to be stripped of your rights as a ninja because you are disregarding your duties."

The sigh Sakura released told him that she had listened to his impassioned speech and the quiet sobs informed Shikamaru that her hiding herself from the world was over. He left behind the topic about her parents and the duty she owed her village as a ninja, knowing she understood him, and set up the shogi board he had brought with him and explained the rules. His face softened as she laughed for the first time, leaving Shikamaru with no doubts that they would become like family.

-CHUUNIN-

The world had tipped on its ear since the last time Sakura had stepped off Nara property a month ago.

Team 7 was currently off active duty due to Naruto being on a one month mission with Jiraiya the Toad Mountain Sage, the last member of the Legendary Sannin. He wouldn't be back for another week, so in the meantime Team 7 had no missions.

She had nearly lost her position at the hospital. The nurses had informed the Head Medic of her approach before she even set foot inside the hospital front doors, and the man had promptly dragged her by the arm to his office. Once inside he ranted and paced and threw his hands in the air as her lectured on how she had disappointed him and that her student status was going to be revoked an she would not be able to reapply for another year and that he had expected more from her after all the dedication she had shown him the first day.

Sakura could only stare at her fourth sensei wide eyed with her jaw dropping further with each word he uttered before she managed to shake herself out of her stupor and tell him, as much as it pained her to talk about and she still hated mentioning it, that her parents had died in the recent attack.

The Head Medic paused mid word, mouth gaping similar to the fish out of water she had to heal. Then his mouth snapped shut, his whole face turned a bright red, and he gave the young girl his sincere apologies for making unfounded assumptions on her character and jumping to conclusions before assuring her that it would be a pleasure to continue to teach her until Tsunade –sama arrived.

"Tsunade-sama?" Sakura knew who the woman was, but the granddaughter of the First Hokage had left the village after the Third Great Shinobi War and hadn't stepped foot on the Land of Fire's territory since.

"Oh yes," he gushed, "Jiraiya-sama has convinced Tsunade-sama to return to the village and become the Godaime Hokage. And I'm sure that she'll have time to take you as an apprentice even though she'll be busy rebuilding and running the village. It would be such a shame to waste your talents. Tsunade-sama will be able to teach you much more than I ever could. Under her tutelage you will become a medical prodigy."

Sakura had tuned out the rest of his praising rambling. He had said that Jiraiya had convinced her to return, and Naruto had recently gone on a long mission with the Sannin, so Naruto had already met the woman that was Sakura's idol. She wondered if Tsunade would really have the time to teach an apprentice. Despite the Head Medic's numerous compliments, she didn't believe herself to be as talented as he was proclaiming. A legendary medic like Tsunade wouldn't waste any time with little girls like her.

She felt like she had been hit with one of Gai-sensei's punches when she finally escaped the Head Medic's office and the hospital. So much had happened in the last month that she wanted to find a place that was unchanged by the constant chaos.

The solution dawned on her. Gai-sensei was always the same. She could go to this afternoon's practice and pretend for a few hours that the world was normal and that nothing around them was changing faster than she was ready for. She was actually surprised the idea of going to Gai's team didn't occur to her earlier and she felt ashamed that she hadn't been to seen any of them in over a month.

Decision made, Sakura made tracks to Team Gai's training ground. She smiled largely when she saw them all there even though it hurt her face to do so. It had been so long since she smiled for real.

Neji had been the first one to spot her, although his reaction wasn't what she expected. Sakura had been anticipating some concern for her long absence and relief upon finally seeing her, but the brunette was doing his best impression of a stone wall, complete with a creepy, fierce glare.

The pinkette tool a step back, preparing to turn around and flee because Neji clearly didn't want her here, but then Gai-sensei saw her. He ignored her weak protests and dragged her over to spar with Lee.

The spar was over quickly, not that she had expected otherwise. Out of practice for a month and never having been up to Lee's standards, it was no surprise that Sakura didn't last very long against the rising taijutsu master. Gai-sensei praised her anyway and set her to learning the basics of the next taijutsu style he was teaching her.

Aside from Lee and Gai-sensei's yells of youth, no one spoke for the remainder of the training session. Sakura knew that Neji was upset with her, although she didn't know the reason why, and so she made no attempt to even strike up a simple conversation with him or with Tenten for the girl had decided to partner up with Neji, as usual.

Gai called an end to training early, claiming he had an important meeting to attend. All four gennin knew it to be code for "It's time for another challenge between myself and Kakashi! YOSH!" Sakura was more dejected than she had been all day. Team Gai had been one of the few constants in her life, and the only one she expected to remain unchanged by the death of her parents, but it was not so. Without meaning to she had somehow managed to anger the Hyuuga prodigy, and since Tenten stuck to his side like glue, she lost the female companionship they had. Only Gai-sensei and Lee were the same.

But Sakura wasn't happy with that. She enjoyed the camaraderie she had with Team Gai. While Team 7 was great and she was growing under Kakashi-sensei's guidance, her team was dysfunctional at best and always getting in trouble. With Team Gai, training was serious yet more relaxed at the same time. it was for the purpose of improving your skills, not about trying to show up your rival in every way possible. It was like being part of a normal team.

She couldn't leave practice with the bonds between them as frayed as they were.

Calling up every last bit of courage she had, Sakura approached Neji taking note of the dislike and disproval in his eyes. Before he could say anything, most likely something along the lines of "get lost, you're not welcome here," the rosette bowed at the waist.

"I apologize for whatever I did to make you so upset and angry at me." She straightened and sprinted away from Team Gai's training ground before Neji had the chance to say anything scornful or mocking towards her.

"Wait, Sakura-chan!" Lee yelled. Sakura halted her fast get away and turn to face him.

"Will you come back for training in the morning?"

Sakura briefly looked at all three members of Team Gai. Lee was the only one that appeared happy at the thought of her rejoining them each training session. Tenten was looking nervously between Neji and Lee, apparently unable to decide whether she wanted her female friend back or wanted to support Neji more. And although Neji didn't seem to be mad at her anymore, he still didn't look like he cared to have her train with them again.

She bit her lip nervously and shifted her weight from one foot to the other as she debated mentally. Overall, she Sakura decided it was best that she not return. It would cause less tension between Team Gai. And it wasn't like she needed Gai-sensei to learn taijutsu. She didn't want to be a taijutsu mistress, just build a steady foundation so she could actually fight hand to hand combat if the need arose. She could easily learn different styles from taijutsu scrolls and Kakashi-sensei would help her.

"I don't think so Lee. I should train with my team. I'm sorry."

"Will you at least tell us where you've been the last month? I think you owe us that, Sakura. We are your friends."

Sakura stared at Tenten as she spoke to her for the first time all day. The brunette's words crashed into her. Of course she owed them an explanation. She had trained with them for months and then disappeared until today. She was surprised they still considered her a friend. She would have hated it if someone she called friend dropped off the radar for over a month.

"I'm sorry," she apologized again, this time to all three. "My parents died during the invasion and I had to find a new place to live."

Sakura watched as all three gennins' jaws dropped and took on faces in varying degrees of shock and sympathy. Lee opened and closed his mouth twice unable to find something appropriate to say besides general condolences, which he was sure the pink haired girl didn't want. Tenten shifted awkwardly, a look of regret on her face. Neji's reaction surprised her most. His face had softened and he looked at her with concern shining in his white eyes.

The three gennin continued to stare at her making her wish she had never let Shikamaru convince her to leave the compound.

"Let me walk you home."

Sakura tried to say that it wasn't necessary since she was staying with the Naras and Shikamaru always came to take her home, but Neji refused to take no for an answer, so she and Neji said goodbye to his two teammates and he fell into step at her side.

She didn't say anything, didn't even glance at the boy walking next to her. She knew he wanted to discuss something of importance with her, otherwise he would have said his piece in front of Tenten and Lee, and that he would speak when he was ready.

"I wanted to apologize." Sakura blinked confusedly at him. "My behavior during practice was unwarranted."

"It's not a problem, Neji. If I did something to make you angry then you have every right to act that way." She assured him.

"But I don't. The reason for my anger was because your teammates interrupted my fight with that Sand ninja and your absence from training for over a month. I shouldn't have taken by anger at Naruto and Sasuke out on you. And I should have known you wouldn't intentionally skip practice unless something was wrong. You've never missed one despite the early and long hours or when you were sick."

Sakura just knew she was blushing. It wasn't every day that Neji Hyuuga apologized, and he had commended her commitment to her training. "It's fine, Neji. I was angry at Naruto and Sasuke too. Still am for that matter. And I really should have at least told Gai-sensei I wouldn't be coming to practice for a while."

She smiled sheepishly at him and he gave her a small smile in return. And just like that everything was forgotten and the two managed to talk about the minor changes that had occurred in the last month. Sakura told Neji about the disastrous dinner with the Uchiha family, which the normally reserved boy laughed at, and how Shikamaru was teaching her to play shogi and how much she was starting to love the game. Although she had yet to beat the young genius, she had a lot of fun creating strategies that forced the Nara to actually think. Neji informed her about the sibling relationship he and Hinata were trying to rebuild. He had taken Naruto's comment about making your own fate to heart, although she wondered when the blonde had said that because she didn't remember it. And she wished she knew it. If it was powerful enough to make Neji reconsider his views on the Hyuuga's main and side branches, none of which were happy, then she wanted to know what Naruto had said. She had never taken him to be a motivational speaker.

Neji left her at the Nara Compound's gate with the promise (order really) that she attend practice in the morning. It was only after he disappeared from sight that Sakura realized she had been staring after him. She had had a really enjoyable conversation with Neji, the most silent member of Team Gai that had lasted the whole walk home. She found that she really liked talking about everyday things with Neji and that he wasn't as cold as he appeared to be.

Sakura entered the compound and found Shikamaru sitting on the front porch of his house, well their house she guessed, with a shogi board in front of him and wearing a knowing smirk.

And she had to admit as she took a seat across from him that he was right, like always. Leaving the house wasn't too bad. In fact, it had turned out to be a pretty good day.

-CHUUNIN-

Sakura did not attend training with Gai's team as Neji had demanded the day before. But it was okay because Neji didn't either. Both of them had been called to the Hokage's office first thing in the morning. A.K.A. even earlier than Gai-sensei had them up and running laps.

It turned out that Naruto and Jiraiya had returned to the village yesterday afternoon with Tsunade and her assistant. Tsunade had been named the fifth Hokage, the reason that Naruto was sulking before he declared that he would take that hat from her in a few years, and her first order of business was dealing with the chunnin selection exams promotion.

She tried not to appear nervous as the newly name Godaime Hokage sat at her desk with steepled fingers and stared long and hard at all six gennin assembled. Sakura took the time to observe the woman that was revered as the Legendary Slug Sannin and the greatest medic in all five major countries. Despite knowing that the Sannin were older than Kakashi-sensei, Lady Tsunade looked to be in her twenties, with waist length blonde hair in two pigtails, light amber eyes, a diamond seal on her forehead, and a really large chest. She was wearing a green robe and a grey kimono styled blouse that showed off her immense cleavage. She wasn't wearing the Hokage's hat.

Behind her right shoulder stood a woman with dark chin length hair of average height and slender build. Her black eyes were slightly covered by her black bangs, and she wore a black kimono. Honestly, the woman reminded Sakura of Sasuke with the way she dressed. The most interesting thing about her was the pig in her arms. The pig was wearing a pearl necklace and a red jacket, and Sakura wondered why on earth the pig was wearing anything.

Tsunade leaned back in her chair, folding her arms under her already amply chest. "I have reviewed each of your performances from the chuunin selection exam. I believe that there are three who are capable of taking on the duties of a chuunin."

That was when Sakura noticed the three flak chuunin vests that were on her desk almost hidden by the unbelievable amount of paperwork.

Tsunade picked up the three vests and stepped around her desk. "I'll start with Shino. Unfortunately while you showed skill in your clan's ability, you demonstrated no abilities beyond that and did not plan your fight very well."

Shino nodded in acceptance of the Hokage's criticism.

"Shikamaru Nara. You won your match and showed immense promise as a strategist and the ability to outmaneuver an opponent and flexibility in your plans. For those reasons you have been promoted to chuunin."

The pineapple haired slouched forward to accept his vest mumbling under his breath about how troublesome an advance in rank was because it meant more work. Sakura would have slapped him upside the head if she was standing next to him, but since she wasn't she promised to deliver when they went home.

"Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha. You are both strong fighters and skilled shinobi, but you lack the ability to think before you leap. You both demonstrated great skill, but because you leapt into battle against a dangerous opponent without authorization from your sensei or some other official, you two will not be promoted to chuunin."

Sasuke scowled furiously on her left, clearly having expected to be made a chuunin. Naruto wasn't as quiet in his protest.

"But Baa-chan! We defeated Gaara. Doesn't that count for something?"

'Baa-chan?' Sakura couldn't believe Naruto had just called their Hokage an old granny. Tsunade was just as annoyed at the name if the bursting vein on her forehead was anything to go by.

"Yes, you defeated Gaara. But as gennins, your duty in case of an attack on the village is to get civilians to safety. Not charge in blindly and fight an enemy that you know nothing about and that was clearly stronger than you."

Naruto slumped in defeat on her left as the Fifth Hokage turned her honey eyed gaze on her. "Sakura Haruno. You proved yourself efficient in designing and executing a strategy against a known opponent as well as the beginnings of a mastery over water an earth release techniques. You have also shown promising ability for genjutsu and medical ninjutsu. Your abilities are very well rounded. For these reasons you have been awarded the rank of chuunin."

Sakura nearly fainted. It was unbelievable that she received the title of chuunin. She never would have thought she would be the first member of Team Kakashi to make chuunin. In all honesty, when Tsunade said she was promoting three gennins, she had expected them to be Shikamaru, Naruto, and Sasuke. She had never been the strongest member of their team. But maybe she didn't have to be. She didn't have to be a chakra powerhouse or as strong as Naruto and Sasuke or have really cool powerful jutsu. All she needed was to do well in the areas she was good at and not completely suck in her weakest areas.

The pinkette accepted the green flak vest that the Hokage held out to her and slipped it on over the short sleeved red shirt she was wearing. It donned on her after she finished admiring the way it felt on her that there was still one more vest left, and that meant that Neji had to pass.

"Neji Hyuuga. Your match was interrupted before it was finished. But before then you showed yourself capable of defending attacking an opponent's chakra network. In the first two stages yourself capable of fighting intelligently, and in the finals you did not engage Gaara. For these reasons you have been promoted to the rank of chuunin."

Neji accepted the vest with quiet thanks and a pleased smile.

"Now all of you get out of my office. Except you, Sakura."

Said girl returned to her place in front of Tsunade's desk as the other five gennin trooped out. Shikamaru shot her a look telling her that he would be waiting in the hall for her.

The door closed behind him and Sakura turned her attention to the Hokage. Tsunade had taken a seat behind her desk again and was looking at her with a very serious face. Sakura was starting to sweat as she thought of all the reasons that the Hokage would call her back.

"Your senseis, Kakashi and Kurenai, along with the Head Medic what's his name," Shizune had opened her mouth to inform Tsunade but the blonde steamrolled over any attempt she made to speak, "have informed me of you excellent chakra control. The Head Medic has told me of your remarkable progress as a medic and suggested that I take you on as an apprentice."

Sakura sighed in relief. He had already informed her of his decision to have her learn under Tsunade. She was so glad that she hadn't been held back for something horrible.

"However," Sakura's heart plummeted, "I'm going to be very busy rebuilding and running a village. So if I take you on as my apprentice I expect you to work harder than you ever have in your life." Sakura grinned brightly and danced in place. "There will be no excuses, absolutely no nonsense, and you will not quit. You will get up at the crack of dawn to train. You will train until your bones ache and your muscles are aching and you can't move from the pain. Then you will get up and do it again the next day. We will start tomorrow at four. Understand?"

Sakura nodded frantically and surprised the Hokage by throwing her arms around her in a hug before dashing out the door. She couldn't wait to tell her team, Neji, Shikamaru, and Shikamaru's parents that she had been chosen as Tsunade-sama's apprentice.

-CHUUNIN-

Sakura had a celebration of her promotion with her team (a dinner actually paid for by her sensei who usually skipped out and left them to foot the bills), a formal congratulatory dinner with the Uchihas (which had her beyond confused. Why would they prepare a fancy dinner for her when their own son didn't receive a promotion and had spent the last three days trying to kill her just by glaring at her), and was treated to a reasonably priced congratulations lunch with Shikamaru and her family (it was the best party in her opinion.)

She had managed to moderately surprise Tsunade-sama during their first training session. Tsunade-shishou, as she demanded the pink haired chuunin call her, explained the importance of dodging as a skill for all medics to know. A medic would be of no use to the team if they were taken down. It was the medic's responsibility to stay out of the way and provide support.

Unless, of course her shishou continued, they were successful at dodging every attack aimed their way. And so, with a devious smirk, no warning and a blindingly fast fist aimed for her ribcage, Sakura began her lessons on extreme dodging.

She had ducked the punch, which connected with the tree behind. The bark didn't dent. The tree didn't fall over. Tsunade had literally blown the tree into smithereens. Toothpick sized pieces of tree rained down on the teacher and student, and Sakura was infinitely glad that that fist did not connect. She shuddered, imagining what her body would look like if her shishou had hit her. She didn't think they would even find toothpick sized pieces.

Sakura leapt back, not wanting to be anywhere near the blonde's range of hitting. Luckily for her, her shishou was done throwing destructive punches at her. Unluckily for her, Tsunade had started hurling metal balls the size of bowling balls at a rapid fire pace as if she was whipping around tennis balls and expected her to not get hit by a single one.

She officially decided her newest sensei was crazier than Gai-sensei.

-CHUUNIN-

Sakura had only been a chuunin for six days before she was assigned her first B-rank mission. Standing on either side of her in Tsunade-shishou's office was Neji and Shikamaru. She wondered why Tsunade was sending three newly crowned chuunin on their first mission without at least an experienced chuunin. She also wondered about the IQ overkill that had been assembled.

She was disappointed to discover it was only a currier mission and the most trouble they could expect on the road was bandits. Nevertheless, Sakura bowed and accepted the scroll that Tsunade-sama needed them to deliver to Suna, and the three chuunin agreed to meet at the gate in an hour.

The mission was mind blowingly numb. The team of three didn't run into any bandits or any other trouble. They reached Suna with ease, handed over the scroll to the temporary council man in charge, and started their return journey immediately. None of them felt the need to stay overnight in a village that had a hand in partially destroying theirs.

They were back in Konoha within a week and giving their mission report, which was extremely short considering it was four short sentences, Travel was fine. Reached Suna in three days. Handed over scroll to their pro tem leader. Left for Konoha immediately after completion.

Tsunade dismissed them with a wave of her hand. "We should go out and have a mission complete dinner." Sakura suggested once they were outside her shishou's office.

Both boys paused their stride to look at her. Tsunade had said the three of them had done well on their mission and that they could expect another one soon because Konoha needed revenue to rebuild and that meant an increase in missions. Sakura hoped to make dinner after a mission a tradition. It would be something that only the three of them did. It would bring them closer together and her shishou had said she was likely to send the same team out again.

"Ne, Sakura, I can't. It's my turn to take care of the deer." That's right. Ever since she had moved in with the Naras, Shikamaru split his chores with her, one of which was caring for the deer they used to make medicine. The two had decided switching duties every other week was fair.

"I can go with you, Sakura." Said girl beamed at Neji.

The two parted from Shikamaru, heading towards restaurant district. They chose a cozy restaurant that was known for its tempura and fried shrimp and other seafood dishes. The waitress sat them down cooing about young love and how cute Sakura and Neji looked together. She was so embarrassed that she didn't look at Neji until it was time to order.

The awkwardness all but disappeared when the food arrived and Sakura tried to cast about for something to talk about. "Was your family excited about your promotion?"

Neji gave her a slight confused look. "Of course they were. Becoming a chuunin in my first exam was an honor and Lord Hiashi was pleased with my advancement. Why wouldn't they be happy?"

Sakura hurried to dissuade him of the idea that he thought she meant they were unhappy. "It's just, your family isn't big on showing emotions is all. So I thought maybe they would just see it as a stepping stone to reaching jounin or something like that."

The brunette tilted his head a little to the side. "Well, yes, but while it is expected of me to become at least a jounin, they are proud of my accomplishment. Hiashi-sama was particularly impressed that I learned Revolving Heaven Technique. It's extremely difficult to learn and I'm the youngest to do so."

The rest of dinner was spent discussing their different abilities and their performances during the chuunin exams. Neji chuckled when she recounted Team 7's experience in the Forest of Death when she revealed that the "Mighty Sasuke Uchiha" had been taken down by a snake bite to the ankle and said it wasn't a wonder why the boy had not made chuunin. He was completely unaware of his surroundings.

Neji paid for their dinner although she tried to split the bill with him. In the end she gave up, promising that she paid for the next one, and let Neji walk her home when he offered.

The walk home was silent, but it wasn't an uncomfortable one. It was companionable and neither felt the need to break it. So Sakura enjoyed the walk home. She was surprised to see just how fast the renovations to the village were taken place. She knew that a fair bit of damage had been dealt, but walking down the streets now, it looked as if the attack had never happened.

Neji accompanied her all the way to the Naras' front gate. "Sakura," he said as she waved good night, "I enjoyed tonight and would like the opportunity to take you out again."

"To another team dinner?" she asked confused.

"No." he smiled. "I would like to get to know you better. I want to take you on a date."

It took a lot of willpower to keep her jaw from dropping and making her look like a complete fool. Ever since Sasuke had called her pathetic, Sakura had put her desire for everything boy related on the back burner. She had even contemplated the idea of dating once she started taking her training seriously. She didn't think she'd have the time for it, and the way her days filled up with multiple senseis all teaching her something different she knew she had been right. Besides, dating would only be a distraction and that was one thing she didn't need.

But, her mind argued as she looked at Neji who was waiting patiently for an answer and managing to not look nervous at the thought of being rejected, she thought it should be possible for her to have a social life too. In fact, it would probably be the best. All training and no play would make for a dull life. Neji respected her first as a friend and then as a kunoichi. He had never looked down on her like Sasuke had, and he was just as good looking as her brooding teammate.

"Sure. I'd like that." Sakura gave him her signature smile.

Neji left saying that he would pick her up tomorrow afternoon at six. Sakura's smile never left her face as she entered her house. She bypassed the kitchen where she found Shikamaru munching on a couple of rice balls.

"What's got you so happy? You look like your walking on clouds."

Sakura flashed a bright grin at him. "Neji asked me on a date. He's taking me out tomorrow." With that said she flounced out of the room, leaving behind a choking Shikamaru who was protesting that there was no way his sister was allowed to date.

She readied for bed, a large grin still present on her face. Shikamaru's reaction reminded her of how her parents would have reacted, and the pain that she associated with anything that reminded her of her mother and father wasn't as strong. It relieved her to realize that while she still missed them, it didn't hurt as much to think of them. She was also so happy to hear that Shikamaru considered her a sister. She had been an only child and had always wondered what it would be like to have a brother or sister and she couldn't be happier that she finally got one, even if he probably was the laziest brother in the Five Elemental Nations.

The rosette fell asleep that night with her smile still on her face, feeling the happiest she had ever been since her parents' deaths.

-CHUUNIN-

Life took on a pattern. Training day in and day out all day every day, except for when she went on missions. The majority of her missions were with Neji and Shikamaru, but about ten percent of them occurred with other chuunin and sometimes a jounin. Some of the notable ones were Iwane Akame (he wore an eye patch), Hayase (one of the chuunin disguised as a gennin during the first part of the chuunin exams), and Hana Inuzuka (Kiba's older sister).

The only thing odd about her new routine was her missions with Shikamaru and Neji. Chuunin teams were fixed like gennin teams. Members for a mission were decided on what skills were needed to complete. Often times you found yourself working with someone you don't know. But that wasn't the case with Sakura, Neji, and Shikamaru. Ninety percent of their missions were done together.

Her training with Tsunade had increased by an insane degree. She was learning how to think on her feet and could successfully avoid most of her shishou's attacks. And just when she thought she had reached the end and it couldn't get any harder, Tsunade increased the power behind her attacks, her speed, and her movements became more unpredictable than Naruto and she wound up getting punched through several trees.

But Sakura wouldn't give up the chaos that was her life for anything. Her life was perfect. She had a new family with the Naras (she had finally been convinced to call Shikaku and Yoshina father and mother and Shikamaru she already considered a brother), her first date with Neji had gone well and the couple had been on three more since then, and her training was getting tougher every day which meant she was growing stronger each day.

She was tearing through her medical training. Tsunade-shishou had her continuing to practice basic medical ninjutsu until it was instinctive to use medical chakra and she could heal simple cuts and bruises without looking. Sakura was progressing up the Injury Severity Scale (ISS), an established medical score to assess trauma severity, at an alarming, in her teacher's opinion, rate. It correlates with mortality, morbidity and hospitalization time after trauma. It is used to define the term major trauma. Six months ago she had only been allowed to work on Level 1 injuries, which were minor, like paper cuts and skinned knees. Since then she had pushed through Level 2: Moderate (sprains), Level 3: Serious (third degree burns), Level 4: Severe (bone fractures), and was currently on Level 5: Critical. She wasn't allowed to work Level 6 cases because they were untreatable.

Sakura was becoming well known amongst the medical ninja working at the hospital. She was quickly rising up the ranks, reaching the point where she was a few people below Shizune and the Head Medic. A lot of the missions she had been on lately she was there specifically because of her medical ninjutsu. It gave her such a rush of feeling each time she healed a fellow shinobi. She felt a sense of accomplishment when all her hard work paid off and she could see her team safely home.

The rosette started thinking about her old team. She hadn't been to see them in a while. Perhaps she could convince Kakashi-sensei to hold a team practice on her day off so she could spar with Naruto and Sasuke.

Her plans for a reunion for Team 7 were put on the hold with the arrival of a courier ninja calling her to Tsunade's office. She wondered what mission she was going on this time.

-CHUUNIN-

"What?"

"You heard me, Sakura. Since you are my apprentice, I'm putting you to work on some of this paperwork." Tsunade declared.

"Shishou, you must be joking. I'm your apprentice, as in student. Not your assistant." Sakura growled. This is not what she wanted to spend her afternoon doing.

The blonde Hokage frowned deeply for a minute while Sakura stood impatiently waiting for her dismissal. "Well, then. Now you're both, just like Shizune. You are now my apprentice and my assistant. So get started!"

Sakura gapped at her shishou and was rewarded with a long finger pointing to a second desk that she had never noticed stacked high with papers and scrolls. She settled behind the desk with a sigh knowing there was no arguing with Tsunade when she was annoyed or angry, which were both common whenever she had to deal with the never ending paperwork that came with being the Hokage of a ninja village.

The pair worked mostly in silence except for when Sakura had to ask Tsunade to explain some of the legal jargon or ask her opinion on something. And just like that, doing her shishou's paperwork became part of her daily schedule.

She realized ruefully that with all the responsibilities that came with being the Hokage's apprentice and assistant and her training that she would probably never have time to catch up with her gennin team any time soon.

Not that it turned out to matter. One of the mission reports she had to file was filled by Jiraiya, detailing Naruto's training. When she asked her shishou, the blonde replied that Naruto had gone on a two year training journey with her teammate a couple weeks ago that doubled as protection from the Akatsuki, which was a criminal organization full of S-rank rogue ninjas that were after Jinchuriki like Naruto.

Sakura clenched her jaw. A criminal organization after Naruto. Her palm bled as she dug her nails into it. She would not allow them to lay a finger on Naruto. She would keep him safe. She would grow stronger so that she could fight beside Naruto and protect him. It was a promise.

However, strength wasn't everything. She remembered the four clauses of the Medic's Code.

No medic ninja shall ever stop medical treatment until the lives of their party members come to an end. No medic ninja shall ever stand on the front line. No medic ninja shall ever die until they are the last of their platoon.

To Sakura, the most important one was the fourth clause. Only those medic ninja who have mastered the Strength of a Hundred Technique and the ninja art Creation Rebirth are permitted to discard the above mentioned laws.

If she wanted to be able to protect Naruto if the Akatsuki ever came looking for him, she would have to be on the front lines with him. And in order to do that she had to master Tsunade's Creation Rebirth technique and her Strength of a Hundred technique.

"Tsunade-shishou." The Hokage looked up from her own pile of paperwork. "I want you to teach me the Creation Rebirth technique."

Tsunade studied her student's face. Determination shone in her green eyes which practically lit up. It was like a fire had been lit and the pinkette would not take no for an answer.

-CHUUNIN-

Sakura could say that Creation Rebirth was the most demanding and difficult technique she had learned to date hands down. There was no competition. Compared to this, elemental jutsu, medical ninjutsu, taijutsu, genjutsu, and insane strength were as easy as boiling water.

The Creation Rebirth technique was the absolute pinnacle of medical ninjutsu, the ultimate regeneration technique. By releasing the great volume of stored chakra at once, the body's cell division is forcibly stimulated by proteins, reconstructing all organs and all tissues making up the human body. From what she understood, the technique itself did not regenerate the old cells; rather it hastened the creation of new ones through division. It gave the user a sense of immortality as long as they had the chakra.

Tsunade also warned her that the body's cells can only split a certain number of times in a lifetime, and that by using this technique she would be shortening her lifespan. Sakura figured it was a relatively small amount of time taken off, for the cells in the body was constantly dividing; some only had lifespans of a few hours. But, as long as she was careful using this technique, she wouldn't be dying any time soon.

But, before she could even get started on the Creation Rebirth technique, Sakura had to first learn Yin Seal: Release. This seal would allow her to store the chakra that was necessary to use the Creation Rebirth.

The problem was Fuinjutsu, otherwise known as sealing jutsus, were the most difficult techniques to learn. The majority of Fuinjutsu were classified as S-rank. It left her feeling discouraged at times. How would she, a thirteen year old who had been a kunoichi for a little over a year and a chuunin for six months so far, ever be able to successfully perform an S-rank jutsu like the Yin Seal?

Sakura shut those thoughts away before they overwhelmed her. She would not be beaten by a single seal. She would not let this stand in her way of learning the Creation Rebirth and eventually the Strength of a Hundred techniques so that she would be able to heal her comrades right on the front lines. She had promised herself when she woke up in the hospital after the invasion that she would become a medical ninja that rivaled Tsunade-shishou.

After watching Sakura's failed attempts to direct her chakra to her forehead and form the Yin Seal, Tsunade informed her protégé that the key to focusing chakra for the Yin Seal was to mediated and focus on its placement on the body. Sakura was released from training for the rest of the day so she could go home, or to any quiet place, and meditate.

The pink haired girl hurried home, barely stopping to say "I'm home" to the two people she now considered her second parents as she rushed to her room and locked the door behind. She made herself comfortable on her bed, sitting with her spine straight, legs crossed, and hands folded in her lap. She let her mind and body relaxed and focused on breathing. Once she was thinking of absolutely nothing she focused her attention on her Yin Seal.

Her chakra sprang to life inside her, tingling as it drifted towards her navel. Later Sakura would wondered why her navel instead of her forehead like Tsunade-shishou's Yin Seal, but would decide that it was different for each person most likely and that they probably wouldn't be able to test that theory because there weren't many ninja with the chakra control necessary.

Sakura's meditation lasted most of the day. She sat crossed legged on her bed, not getting up for lunch. Her concentration remained uninterrupted until dinner, in which Shikamaru insisted she had to come eat. If he hadn't been eating more since he made chuunin she would have called him a hypocrite.

She stood up and stretched, relishing the sound of her back cracking and thinking that it was ironic a technique designed for relaxation made her muscles sore. Sakura stood in front of her full length mirror and lifted the hem of her red shirt. Around her navel was not the diamond she had been expecting, but a sakura blossom. She supposed the shape the seal took was unique to each ninja as well.

-CHUUNIN-

Sakura sat at the dinner table next to Shikamaru. Normally, she had no problems eating with the Naras. However, tonight each one of them was fidgeting. While typical for Yoshino, the woman was incapable of staying still (it made Sakura wonder why she had agreed to marry someone as lazy as Shikaku who was just as bad if not worse than Shikamaru), displays of nervousness and unease were unheard for Shikamaru and Shikaku. It made her uncomfortable and she wanted nothing more than to flee to her room and meditate for a couple more hours.

Yoshino spoke first. "Sakura dear, you know Shikaku and I consider you to be our own daughter. I've always wanted one."

Sakura nodded, uncertain where Shikamaru's mother was going with this daughter talk. "Well, Shikaku and I have been discussing, Shikamaru too, it was his idea," she added as her son cleared his throat pointedly, "we would like to make it official."

The rosette looked at each Nara in turn. Even though she had heard what Yoshino was saying and could understand its implications, she found it almost unbelievable. Seven months ago when Shikamaru brought her to his house she had never imagined that she would stay and live there. But now they were offering to adopt her, to make her one of them.

"Are you sure? You don't have to adopt me. I'd be just fine still living here without that."

It was strange to see all three Naras glaring at her. "Of course we want to." Shikaku said gruffly. "We wouldn't offer if we didn't want it. You already are one of use. We just want to sign the paperwork to make it official."

"Yeah, sis, my mother prefers you over me anyway." Shikamaru teased causing his mother to mock glare at him and assert that she loved them equally.

Sakura's eyes sparkled with tears as Shikaku placed the already filled out forms in front of her. All that was needed was her own signature. She shakily signed her name.

Setting the pen on the table and staring at Yoshino's and Shikaku's and her signatures on the page it hit her that she had a family again. It was no longer that she just thought of the Naras as a second family, they really were her mother, father, and brother now. Sakura leapt out of her chair, not caring that she knocked it over, and launched herself at Shikamaru.

Her new brother's arms wrapped around her as she laid her head on his shoulder and cried tears of joy. Her new mother and father came around the table to envelop the two of them in a hug. Sakura officially decided this was the best day of her life. It totally trumped graduating the academy and being Tsunade-sama's apprentice. She had a family to call her own.

-CHUUNIN-

Since Sakura trained early in the morning with the Hokage, which meant she was up before the sun appeared, she had offered to deliver the adoption forms personally. She arrived earlier than normal at the tower to meet up with her shishou, and as per usual entered her office without knocking. Tsunade had expressly told her that knocking wasn't necessary because she would be the only person in the tower besides her ANBU protection squad.

Today, however, that wasn't the case. Sakura came to a halt at the sight of Kakashi-sensei. She thought that the world had to be ending because that was the only reason that her silver haired gennin sensei would be caught dead in the Hokage's office this early in the morning. Said jounin looked equally surprised to see her. Apparently, despite knowing that his pink haired student was the Hokage's apprentice, the man had no clue that she was training in the morning. For Kami's sake not even Gai was training at this hour.

"Sakura, come on in. Don't worry about Kakashi. He won't be here much longer and then we'll get right to training." Tsunade waved her in. "What's that?" she asked as Sakura stood at the window behind her, eyeing the papers clutched in her hand.

Sakura presented them with a flourish. "They're adoption papers. The Naras officially adopted me."

Both her senseis congratulated her as Tsunade signed her name to the papers making the adoption legal. "What do you say we take a break today and celebrate?"

Sakura debated the idea, not sure what Tsunade's definition of celebrate was but certain that it involved sake. Then again, everything Tsunade did involved sake in some manner. What harm could it do?

Apparently more than she thought. Kakashi had denied Tsunade's invitation to join them and left via the window, pausing to ruffle Sakura's pink locks. Tsunade had shrugged, saying the more for them, and dug out a bottle of sake out of her bottom draw and two cups. Sakura, knowing that it was illegal because she was way underage but not caring because it wasn't like anyone could get her in trouble because it was her shishou that gave her the alcohol, drank with just as much abandon as Tsunade.

Unfortunately for her, she did not have her shishou's ability to use chakra while drunk nor could she help her liver detoxify the alcohol rapidly entering her bloodstream. So, when Shizune came into the office with the first of the day's paperwork to file, her job while Tsunade and Sakura were training, she found a tipsy blonde and a trashed pinkette.

Tsunade's black haired assistant shrieked and raged and gave Sakura a pounding migrane and lecture the two women on repsonisibility before she nearly killed Sakura by swinging her in circles when she discovered the pinkette's adoption. Shizune hurried the liver's breakdown of the sake and cured Sakura's headache but refused to do the same for Tsunade. Then she warned Tsunade not to give Sakura any sort of alcohol until she was legal, though preferably never again.

The Godaime Hokage healed herself and ignored Shizune's warning, saying it was a one time occasion so of course it would never happen again. Then she set both assistants to filing paperwork, conveniently forgetting that she had given Sakura the day off.

Sakura went home that day vowing to never drink again.

-CHUUNIN-

After two weeks of meditating every chance she got Sakura felt she was ready to give the Creation Rebirth technique a try.

She almost lost her resolve when Tsunade-shishou explained how she was going to practice. Sakura knew that the technique sped up the creation of new cells; however, she conveniently forgot the reason for needing those new cells. Tsunade's idea was for her to stand still and let her shove a kunai into Sakura's gut so she could give the jutsu a try.

Sakura wasn't at all reassured by the fact that her shishou would be there to heal her if she failed.

Getting a kunai straight to the gut wasn't fun. It was agonizing and Sakura never wanted to feel it again. And she was pretty damn sure her sensei had aimed for her intestines on purpose. With a cry of "Yin Seal: Release!" she released the chakra she had been storing in the sakura blossom around her belly button and watched amazed as her intestines put themselves back together and the hole closed itself up. The only way to tell she had ever been injured was the dark patch on her shirt that had been soaked with her blood.

-CHUUNIN-

Tsunade was stunned. She watched as her student successfully released her Yin Seal and used her Creation Rebirth jutsu. She had created that seal and this jutsu herself. It took her years to do so. And despite being the brains behind the jutsu and the best medical ninja of her time, Tsunade did not manage it on her first try. Nor on her second, third, or fourth tries.

But Sakura, who was currently in the midst of a victory dance, had. The teenager had only needed one try. Sakura's chakra controlled had to be even better than her own. The theory behind the technique was easy. Release a large amount of chakra and focus it towards the injury and the chakra would do the rest unconsciously. In practice it was harder to accomplish.

The girl was a medical prodigy and Tsunade wouldn't be surprised when the day came that Sakura surpassed her and became the best medic of her generation and every one before her.

"Don't be celebrating just yet, Sakura. We need to make sure that wasn't a fluke." Tsunade let out a little of her sadistic tendencies as the rosette looked at her in horror.

-CHUUNIN-

She didn't know how it happened, but Sakura had found herself cornered into attending a second dinner at the Uchiha household.

This dinner was much better. Since everyone already knew her parents were dead, courtesy of the last gathering, there were no awkward questions. Mikoto was still an uncontrollable force of nature that mother henned all three children (she was rather disappointed that Naruto wasn't in the village) and asked a stream of questions on how they had been.

It was not surprising that Sasuke had been training himself into exhaustion in preparation for the chuunin exams that were held every six months. With the incident this year the second chuunin selection exam scheduled in October was cancelled, but Sasuke was determined to enter and pass the upcoming one next April. Although Sakura wondered what he would do for teammates with her already a chuunin and Naruto out of reach for two years.

Itachi only said he was busy with ANBU missions that he could not talk about, which was understandable because all ANBU missions were classified. Though Sakura thought it extremely unhealthy for him to do so many missions in such a short period, (he had just admitted to having to go on more missions than usual, seventeen this month) and said so before her brain could catch up to her mouth and stop it from practically berating the eldest Uchiha son for completing missions as was expected and ordered of him.

He didn't take it personally thankfully, laughing off her comment and saying that he had requested a week off. Sakura had to hold her tongue to stop herself from saying he should take two at minimum but should really push for a month.

Then the Uchiha Matriarch fixated her dark eyes on Sakura and questioned what had changed since she had last visited. The pinkette was more than happy to answer this question and babbled on about her training as Tsunade's apprentice, her recent adoption into the Nara Head family, and her consecutive successes with the Creation Rebirth technique.

Then she sat back quite pleased with her ability to make Uchihas react and enjoyed the gob smacked expressions on all four Uchihas' faces. Mikoto's eyes had gone wide in surprise and her mouth fell upon to form and 'o.' Sasuke looked like he had swallowed wrong due to the shock and he was coughing. She didn't know if his enlarged eyes were due to his surprise or the fact he was having trouble breathing. Itachi's expression wasn't as pronounced as his mother's and brother's, but he still showed his surprise with the slight widening of his eyes and the raising of both dark eyebrows. Even Fugaku appeared to be taken aback, although his only show of it was the loss of his grip on his fork, which clanged on his plate.

"That's unbelievable, Sakura-chan!" Mikoto gushed. "It's a great achievement for someone your age. You must be very proud of yourself."

Sakura turned redder than their Sharigan eyes and said it was all due to Tsunade-shishou and a lot of hard work.

Sakura left that dinner much happier with the outcome and not unwilling to step foot inside the Uchiha clan's gates, not knowing that Fugaku and Mikoto were discussing how she most definitely would be able to heal the adverse effects of their clan's kekkei genkai if she could master the Hokage's signature jutsu in only six months. Now they knew they only had to wait for the day when they could ask her to look into their situation.

-CHUUNIN-

Sakura was totally caught off guard when her boyfriend told her his uncle wanted to meet her. She and Neji had been dating for six months. She wasn't expecting a meet your significant other's parents, or uncle as it was in Neji's case, until they decided if they were serious, if they even reached the point where they could even considered getting married.

She agreed to attend the dinner the next night hoping that his relatives didn't think their relationship was set in stone. Neji was her first boyfriend and they had only gone on a handful of dates in the last six months, although not as many as they would have liked due to conflicting schedules. She didn't consider their dinner tradition after a completed mission as a date because Shikamaru accompanied them most times. Sakura wanted to let this relationship play out and develop between them. She didn't want outside interference from his uncle or clan.

'If possible,' she thought as she sat next to Neji at a table with his uncle and cousins, 'this dinner is worse than my first dinner with the Uchihas.'

While the dinner with the Uchihas had had a rough bump when the conversation turned towards her parents, the awkward silence was preferred to the Spanish Inquisition she was receiving. And she wasn't exaggerating. As soon as the first course (he had actually prepared for the full seven course meal) was whisked of the table by Hyuugas she supposed were branch members, Lord Hiashi started asking questions.

"How old are you?"

"Thirteen."

"Your birthday?"

"March 28."

"You are a kunoichi, correct?"

Sakura was insulted by that question. "Yes."

"Rank?"

"Chuunin."

"Are your parents shinobi?"

"They're dead." She was pleased to see him wince at her answer. He certainly deserved that for thinking that her parents had to be ninja. "But they were civilians. They owned a bakery." Not so pleased with the frown when her heard her parents' former occupation.

"I was adopted by Yoshino and Shikaku Nara a few weeks ago." Did she see approval in his eyes?

"Your abilities?" Hiashi continued.

"I use earth and water release ninjutsu. I'm good at strategic thinking, improvising, and dodging. I'm very talented with medical jutsu and genjutsu and have excellent chakra control. I am Tsunade-sama's apprentice." Oh, she had managed to surprise him with that bit of information too. "I am learning to use her inhuman strength, can heal most severely injured patients at the hospital, and can use her Creation Rebirth technique."

Her abilities impressed the youngest Hyuuga, and she managed to surprise the other three. She had planned tell Neji on their next date or after their next mission together, whichever came first, but now was as good a time as any.

His inquisition, for that was the only thing it could be called, continued. Hiashi asked about the missions she had completed and she smartly, and a little sarcastically, answered all the same as his nephew. Sakura saw Neji bite his lip out of the corner of her eye. She was pretty sure he wanted to laugh at her flippant comment but wouldn't do so in front of his uncle.

Hanabi on the other hand had no such reservations, and she didn't stop when her father leveled her with the pupil-less white glare that made Sakura envy the young girl's ability to not be unnerved. Or maybe she was used to receiving such glares and they weren't effective anymore. Either way, Sakura wished that that look didn't make her feel so uncomfortable.

Sakura continued to answer questions on her childhood, her grades at the academy, and her experience on Team 7. She simply loved retelling how their first C-rank mission had snowballed into an A-rank mission dealing with Zabuza Momochi, Demon of the Hidden Mist. She quite gleefully mentioned that her, Naruto and Sasuke had rescued their sensei from Zabuza's water prison with one of her plans and had defeated them in the battle on the bridge.

Without pause she launched into a recount of the chuunin exams, explaining how she had no trouble noticing the genjutsu on the second flow and answered all the insanely difficultly designed questions on the first test without cheating. Sakura detailed her team's victory over the gennin team from Mist and how she protected her unconscious teammates from the dangerous team of Sound ninja and received the second scroll they needed and how she carried her team to the tower on her own before the third day ended. She replayed her match against Dosu in the preliminary rounds and the one against Shino in the finals.

She gathered by the speechlessness that struck the two females and their father that she had exceeded his expectations. Sakura almost thought she had dumbfounded the man before he continued eating like nothing had happened. Then again she still may have because he stopped asking her questions after that.

When little Hanabi burst into an explosion of questions, Sakura decided that the girl was the most un-Hyuuga like Hyuuga she had ever met, and that included her sister that was shy. She peppered Sakura with questions on why she chose to use the jutsu she did, and who taught her genjutsu, and could Sakura teach her medical jutsu, and she had earth nature too could Sakura teach her that as well.

Her boyfriend tried to hush up the young girl thinking that she had had enough of the questions, but Sakura enjoyed the young girl's enthusiasm and had no problem explaining her strategies and the decisions behind her jutsu choices. She even offered for Hanabi to come and visit her at the hospital or at the Naras' in the afternoon so she could teach her some basic medical ninjutsu or earth techniques.

The rest of the conversation was held by Sakura and Hanabi and consisted of the pinkette fascinating the younger girl with more stories of her missions and a detailed analysis of each one until it satisfied the Hyuuga.

Neji walked her home after the dinner and attempted to apologize for his uncle's demanding questions and his cousin's annoying her, but Sakura stopped him by saying she found the dinner delightful and that it went much better than she expected. The brunette nearly choked on air when she mentioned she thought the purpose of the dinner was determine if she was the girl he would be marrying. There was silence, and then they both looked at each other and erupted into laughter.

-CHUUNIN-

Themed dinners seemed to be the must do thing of the week Sakura thought wryly as she found herself attending her third one in as so many days. Only this time, it was the Naras hosting the dinner. It was the weekly Ino-Shika-Cho dinner that had been skipped during her first month living her, not because she was there but because every ninja was busy with reconstruction or being assigned more missions than usual. Every week after that she had somehow not noticed any of them. Her mother blamed it on her too filled schedule and Sakura agreed that it certainly kept her busy all hours of the day.

Yoshino was of the opinion that it would be best for the Yamanakas and Akimichis to see that she was part of their family first thing, so Sakura had been delegated the duty of answering the door when the two families arrived. In theory, it was the easy job in the world. Greet the guest, introduce herself, invite them in, and tell as little was needed for them to know why she was living with the Naras. In reality it did not go nearly as well.

The knock sounded on the door so Sakura exited the kitchen where she had been helping Yoshino prepare dinner to get. Unluckily for her, Ino was the one to knock on the door.

"Forehead!" she screeched. "What are you doing here? This is a family gathering. You don't belong here. Get lost already." The rest of the platinum blonde's rant was cut off by her father's grip on her shoulder.

"Mou, Ino, you're making such a big deal of it." Shikamaru slinked out of the dining room. "Just come on in and let my sister get back to the kitchen. She makes a mean chocolate cake."

Sakura was positive that he had purposefully made it sound like he had been calling her his sister since he was born just to annoy his teammate. That was probably the reason he mentioned her cake making skills too, because Ino was "on a diet" and couldn't indulge in chocolate.

But he managed to successfully distract the blonde harpy, who started bombarding Shikamaru with questions that Sakura could still hear as she returned to the kitchen to finish frosting her triple chocolate German cake that had become the favorite dessert of the Nara household. She very much appreciated Chouji's "Huh, Sakura, what are you doing here?" before he dashed off down the familiar hallways with a call of "is that barbequed ribs?" followed by his parents.

Sakura helped Yoshino serve dinner and took her seat next to Shikamaru, Ino across the table from him looked very put out by this. She guessed that the blonde had used to sit next to her brother and was very unhappy with her for taking what she deemed her spot.

"So forehead, what are you doing here?" her one time friend sneered.

Sakura sighed, turning her head to silently admonish Shikamaru. After seven months of living together the brother and sister had gotten pretty good at reading each other, and Shikamaru was screaming "I delayed her question, but you still have to explain and you owe me for the distraction. Girls are so troublesome."

Luckily for her Yoshino started explaining before she finished conferring with Shikamaru, and Sakura's tragedy made Ino shut her always moving mouth. She even looked vaguely guilty and horrified at asking such an insensitive question. A second glance at Shikamaru told Sakura that he wasn't all that happy with the girl he practically grew up with asking about things she didn't need to know.

Ino's behavior didn't get any better was the night wore on. She did her best to insult Sakura with subtlety, but most of her attempts were cut off with a sharp reprimand from one of her parents and not one of them bother her because they were all untrue. Ino mostly tried targeting her abilities as a ninja, saying how it was a shame that she wasn't promoted to chuunin and her win against Shino was a fluke and that she wouldn't amount to much. Sakura felt vicious delight when Yoshino bragged about her daughter being the Hokage's apprentice and her mastering one of Tsunade's techniques. Ino had been the only one furious with that information.

There was also a spark of jealousy in her blue eyes when the topic of her relationship with Neji cropped up. Despite Ino's claims to be in love with Sasuke, her eyes strayed towards any well connected talented shinobi, and in her eyes, Neji was one of those ideal boyfriends, just her type: tall, skilled and handsome ninja she could marry and retire after reaching chuunin and be a housewife and live comfortably.

Sakura thought Ino was ridiculous and a waste space if her only goal was to become a housewife that could live in luxury. She would be just another shinobi, nothing special.

But, this dinner was easily the most comfortable dinner of the week. The rosette ignored Ino's presence and spoke mostly with Chouji, eager to learn about his friendship with Shikamaru since her brother seemed closer to him than he did to Ino and the three of them grew up as the next generation of Ino-Shika-Cho.

Dinner finished and she was just about to fetch her chocolate masterpiece when third knock sounded. Sakura knew that no one else was expected to show up tonight. Apparently it was common knowledge amongst the older generation that tonight was their team dinner night. Shikaku motioned for her to answer, most likely thinking like she did that the Hokage had to call someone in for a mission.

Therefore Sakura was totally surprised when she was tackled by a small brown haired blur instead of greeted with a messenger ninja when she opened the door.

"Hi, Sakura. You said I could come over when I had the time. I want to learn some medical jutsu today. After listening to you yesterday I want to be as great a medical ninja as you. Can you teach me something please?"

If she hadn't known that it was Hanabi Hyuuga, Sakura would have never believed a Hyuuga capable of begging. But she was, puppy dog pout and tears drawn up to make it look like she was about to cry and the whole shebang.

"Well, Hanabi, now's not actually a good time for me." Sakura flinched as her admirer's face collapsed. "The family's currently having a ritual get together. But," she hurried to add is it seemed like Hanabi was about to cry for real, "why don't you come in and join us. I made a delicious chocolate cake for dessert and when can see if there's some time after dinner to show you something."

Hanabi's whole face perked up. "And I promise if we can't do anything today I'll come over to the Hyuuga compound tomorrow."

"You should come anyway." The nine year old said as she bounced down the hall beside Sakura.

Sakura laughed, "We'll see."

"Who is this, honey?" her mother asked as Sakura reentered with the cake in hand and Hanabi trailing.

"This is Hanabi. She was looking to start learning some medical ninjutsu, but I invited her in for cake since I couldn't teach her anything right now. I hope that's okay with you all." Sakura just remembered that this wasn't just her parents' dinner, but the Akimichis' and the Yamanakas' as well.

"Of course it's alright, Sakura-chan," Chouji's mother answered. "It'll be no trouble at all for young Hanabi to join us. And your cooking is just so fantabulous that I'm sure it would be a shame for her to miss out on your dessert."

The pinkette's face turned red at the praise as she pulled in another chair for the girl that appeared to becoming her stalker and slice her triple chocolate German cake. The cake was well received by everyone at the table, aside from Ino who glared at her piece as if it had committed some terrible offense to her, which Sakura mused it probably did just by sitting in front of her, and shoved it aside to be stolen by Chouji.

After first bite, Hanabi added cooking to the list of things Sakura had to teach her, which had grown from earth and medical ninjutsu to include cooking, genjutsu, weapons training (something she had never professed to be skilled at and wondered why she would ask it of her), stamina, and strategic thinking.

Yoshino had jumped at the chance to show off her new daughter's ability and suggested that since Sakura was going to show Hanabi something anyway, why didn't she show them all what she could do. Sakura was surprised that the Yamanakas and Akimichis were just as interested in seeing her healing abilities.

With ten pairs of eyes fixated on her, the pink haired girl grabbed the knife she used to cut the cake and slashed her left forearm before anyone could cry out for her to stop. Hanabi's pearl colored eyes were riveted on her right hand as it was encased in green chakra and she watched amazed as Sakura's wound closed up until it looked like it had never been injured.

The table was silent.

"That was so cool! You have to teach me that first, Sakura-sensei!" Hanabi crowed.

'Sakura-sensei?' Until Hanabi had attached it to her name, Sakura had never imagined herself as a sensei. Or at least not any time soon. She thought she might take on her own gennin team one day and pass on her knowledge, but that day was far off in the future. But now that it had been mentioned, Sakura found herself enjoying the idea of being a sensei, of being the person the gennin looked up to for guidance and knowledge. She absentmindedly made a mental note to ask Tsunade-shishou the earliest availability to become a jounin-sensei and to find out when the jounin exams were.

-CHUUNIN-

As it turned out, in order to be a jounin sensei, Sakura had to be a jounin for a year. Unfortunately, the jounin exams weren't as popular or as common as the chuunin selection exams. The next one not for another three years. But in three years' time Hanabi would be graduating from the academy, and even if she was a jounin before the academy graduation took place, she wouldn't have been one for a year and wouldn't have the chance to become the young Hyuuga's official sensei.

Tsunade said there was one loophole. Sakura could at any time she proved to have jounin level skills in a specific area be listed as a tokubetsu jounin, which was a jounin that specialized in a specific area and was jounin level in it. If she could become a Special High Jounin before Hanabi graduated, there would still be time for her to develop to be an all around jounin so that by the time the girl graduated she would have the title for the necessary length of time and the skills to go with it.

Sakura eagerly jumped on the idea, declaring she would be a tokubetsu medical jounin by the time she was fifteen since she was already apprenticed under Tsunade and being fast tracked through the medical program. It would be much faster than if she tried to develop all her skills to a jounin level or focused on her genjutsu or elemental ninjutsu instead. She had a real talent for chakra control and medical ninjutsu, so the clear choice was to focus almost entirely on her medical training and do enough other training on her own that her skills in her other areas didn't become rusty.

Hanabi had been fallowing Sakura around so often, always popping up next her at the most unexpected times, that her boyfriend and brother nicknamed her Sakura's second shadow. The girl certainly seemed to be attached to her. But, far from being annoyed at the pre-gennin's constant intrusion on her daily life, Sakura used the opportunity the young Hyuuga presented to keep her genjutsu, ninjutsu, and taijutsu skills sharp.

Although Sakura had to wonder if her boyfriend's youngest cousin was skipping class at the academy to come train with her.

-CHUUNIN-

An unexpected surprise came to Sakura four months later.

She had been training Hanabi on the Earth Dome jutsu that afternoon when she received the summons to come immediately to the Hokage's office. Her shishou was pacing on her desk, a clear sign she was agitated, agitation that was probably heightened further by Shizune's presence which prevented her from digging out a bottle of sake from her secret hidden stash of unending alcohol to soothe her nerves. Tsunade's pacing immediately put Sakura on edge.

"Normally I would never assign a chuunin to an S-rank mission, but you're the third best medic in the village and the only one available to go on this mission." Tsunade faced the window as she spoke, which Sakura didn't mind because she was trying to discern if she really heard S-rank mission leave the Hokage's mouth.

"This mission is extremely dangerous. You will become a temporary member of an ANBU squad."

"ANBU?" Sakura stuttered.

Under normal circumstances, Tsunade would glare at the one who had interrupted her, but this time she turned away from the window and her face softened when her honey eyes met Sakura's disbelieving and fearful green ones. "You're just acting as a medic on this mission. Your only duty is to stay back and support your team. You will not engage in any way. I would never allow one of my ninja to befall serious harm for the sake of a mission they weren't ready for. The ANBU you're replacing isn't really a medic, but he knew enough to get by.

"Your job will be taking the position of the team's medic." Tsunade repeated. Sakura nodded her understanding.

"Good, now you will return for debriefing a half hour earlier than normal so I can set you up with a temporary uniform and mask for the mission. Understood?"

"Hai." Sakura was dismissed. She immediately returned to Hanabi, telling the disheartened girl that her training session for the day was canceled and was put on hold indefinitely because she had no idea as to the length of the mission. Hanabi was unhappy with the set back to her training, but understood that Sakura had a mission to do and that she would be back to continue training her. She left for the Hyuuga compound, calling over her shoulder that Sakura had to come back as soon as possible because she would be ready for the next step.

Sakura informed her family that she would be leaving on a mission the next day and that she didn't know how long she would be gone. While Yoshino fretted about her being away from home for so long, Shikaku was scrutinizing her. Her father was the jounin commander. Obviously, both as a shinobi himself and the person in charge of the village's jounin, the man knew that long missions with ambiguous return dates were high ranking; definitely not chuunin ranked. But he didn't say a word against her participation.

-CHUUNIN-

Even though Sakura was naturally a morning person, something that came in handy when she started training with Tsunade-shishou, she was unnaturally chipper this morning. She blamed it on the excitement and the adrenaline racing through her.

Her mentor sized her up with her eyes and began throwing pieces of an ANBU uniform her way. Sakura left on the bindings she had wrapped around her developing chest, her mesh shirt, and her spandex shorts, and donned the long black sleeved shirt, a pair of pants that was a little too long on her and a little baggy, the smallest chest plate, arm and shin guards that the Hokage could find, and a white ANBU mask depicting a bird.

Before she had met the team she would be joining, Sakura had felt she had seen all the surprises there had been to offer her. Then none other than Itachi Uchiha, the Uchiha clan's child prodigy that soared through the ranks to be an ANBU captain at thirteen, strolled through the office's door, closely followed by his cousin, Shisui Uchiha, the most un-Uchiha like Uchiha she had ever met (he was actually happy all the time and showed it), and Genma Shirunai, whom she knew nothing about aside from his constant visits to the hospital for mouth related problems because that senbon never left his mouth.

Did Lady Tsunade really expect her to replace a member of Itachi Uchiha's team of elite ANBU and not drag them down or hinder them in some capacity?

Apparently, as she began the mission debriefing, she did. Sakura listened closely to the particulars of the mission despite the foreknowledge that she wouldn't be involved beyond her duty as a medic. This ANBU squad was being sent to a small town on the border of Fire Country to gather intel on a growing criminal organization (Sakura briefly wondered if it was possible the Akatsuki group that was after Naruto and the other Jinchuriki) called the Hand of God (she nearly let out a groan at the thought of dealing with a criminal religious cult) that worshipped Jashin and was murdering in his name.

It was their job to infiltrate the group and discover their true goal, and if at all possible put a stop to the group. It was starting to sound like the hardest mission Sakura would ever go on and she was scared just to be involved as the medic. Perhaps she would stop her ascension through the ranks with jounin, because she didn't think she was capable of mission after mission if they were at all like this one.

Sakura was grateful that she had brought her pack with her because it was apparently Itachi's way to set out immediately, and she would have hated to delay them before they even started because they had to return to her residence to collect her things.

Itachi halted their travel a half hour outside the village gates.

"Unmask." He ordered. His voice was cold and unrecognizable from the quiet but likeable person she had had dinner with twice that spoke with a voice that sounded like velvet. But all four ninja unmasked.

Tsunade must not have informed Itachi about his replacement member because he actually gapped when she lowered her mask. She thought his reaction was odd until she remembered that she had donned her borrowed ANBU outfit before the debriefing and had not removed it when the three of them had entered. Shisui and Genma were even more shocked than their captain.

"Little girl," Sakura growled at that name but was ignored; "you can't possibly be an ANBU. You don't look older than fourteen. Why did Tsunade-sama put you on our team?"

The pinkette bristled with indignation, despite her looking young, because she was, why was it so hard to believe she was ANBU. If it was possible for Itachi to become a captain at the age of thirteen, why couldn't they believe that a girl as young as her could possibly be in ANBU?

"I'm not an ANBU. Tsunade-sama placed me on your team because I am her apprentice and the third best medical ninja in Konoha." If it was possible, Genma looked even more agog at her declaration of being the third ranked medic in the village.

Itachi prevented another comment from Genma by explaining in detail what he expected of her. Since they were infiltrating a cult that killed people as offerings, he didn't want her anywhere near anyone they suspected of belonging to the Hand of God. All of them were to keep their eyes peeled for the symbol of Jashin, an upside down triangle inscribed in a circle, which all members displayed in some manner. Sakura's job, for the most part, consisted of talking to the towns people and gathering what information she could without arousing suspicion. Until Itachi, Shisui and Genma successfully joined the rank of Jashin worshipping murderers, none of them would be staying in town. And regardless of the males' progress in the ranks, Sakura was expected to maintain their camp five miles outside of the town and to conserve her chakra.

The rosette couldn't decide if she was relieved that she didn't have to go anywhere near the psychotic religious cult, or disappointed she only had a small part in it.

It took almost the rest of the day to reach the outskirts of the small town. The four of them observed the coming and goings of people through the town, which was nonexistent. After an hour of no one entering or exiting the town they searched for a clearing that they would set up camp in. Camp was assembled quickly and quietly. Night shifts were appointed, Sakura started to protest that even though she was only a chuunin she could handle a few hours on guard duty, when Itachi informed her she would be going into town tomorrow to start her information gathering.

So, although she was disgruntled about being single out, Sakura slept through the night and made her way into town early the next morning. Without the knowledge that there was a cult of Jashinists hidden in the town, the place looked quaint and relaxing and just oozed comforting. But, knowing what lay underneath the town's charming appearance, Sakura felt sick to her stomach. It took every bit of will power she possessed to not jump at every movement of the people and the shadows.

She traversed the early morning vendors stalls, taking careful care as she questioned them about their town, making it sound like she wanted to be able to stay longer on her way back through (she was currently traveling with escort to her possible fiancée's residence).

Sakura supposed that Itachi had deviated from the original game plan of "keep Sakura uninvolved" because the jittery people living in this town would be more likely to tell more to the innocent young girl with bright, unforgettable pink hair and expressive green eyes and a countenance that radiated naïve, if it was only to warn her of the dangers of the town and tell her it was in her best interests to leave as soon as possible. The sooner the better.

Most of the information was the same. Warnings to be careful who she talked to, wary of the strange disappearances that were occurring lately, advice to not travel along, it simply wasn't safe for a beautiful young girl like herself. However, she did get two interesting tidbits.

The first was that the cult terrorized the owner of the local club and turned the place into their base. They did all their planning there before heading out onto the streets in search of that night's sacrifice.

The second piece, and the more important of the two in her opinion, was when she learned that the leader of the Jashinists visited every three months to check in on his disciples progress.

She relayed this all back to the others over their wireless earpieces on her way back to camp, along with the knowledge that his last visit was this past week.

While that news seemed bad to Sakura, they had just missed the guy and would now have to wait three months before they could get anything on him, Itachi was pleased with it. Once he explained that it meant he, Genma, and Shisui would have almost three months to join the cult and fit in it made sense. This leader clearly expected his following to grow, so when he returned in three months, Itachi, Genma, and Shisui would only be three faces among any recruits, and nothing special or worth noting to their leader.

Still, three months seemed a long time to wait. And Sakura was aware of the possibility of it taking longer, because what were the chances of three newbies who just joined the cult being allowed to meet with their revered leader. And revered he was. From what the citizens had said, the leader was the most passionate of all the members of the Hand of God. Sakura deemed that to mean he was the craziest and knew she wanted nothing to do with him. It made her glad she wasn't joining the men on entering the cult's ranks.

They wouldn't be taking any action now. Itachi was giving her two more days to gather what information she could before make a deal of leaving the town. She would then return here and they would plan their move before the guys moved in a couple days after she "moved on to her fiancée's house."

Sakura made sure to remain as unnoticed as she could as the traveling wife to be with pink hair could, and also made sure not to ask too many questions that would make it seem like she was interested in the resident cult. She was not out to write her death warrant, and attracting too much attention to herself with all her question would certainly throw a flag, or more appropriately a kunai, in the Jashinists' faces.

Her best efforts to remain detached and in a rush to get her supplies and get to her fiancée's side did not keep her out of trouble.

It had been totally on accident, but she hand knocked over a young man as she ducked out under the covering of a jewelry stall and onto the packed mid-day street. Sakura had apologized profusely and picked his book up and handed to him. She nearly had a heart attack when she recognized the symbol of Jashin on it.

As the man brushed dirt of his clothes, which were expensively tailored, Sakura committed his eyes, hair color and style, prominent facial features, and the general build of his body to memory as she debating maintaining the charade by offering to buy him a drink, or apologizing a few more times before slinking into the crowd and leaving town a little early.

She figured the best decision was to offer to buy him a drink for knocking him over was the best choice. Maybe he would reveal some things that only a member would be privy to. So Sakura put on a rueful façade and threw in some fake tears in order to guilt the man into accepting her offer.

"You can choose the place. This is my last day here. I'm leaving for the Land of Tea in the morning and I haven't had time to find the best places around here." She fake a happy go lucky smiling and let him wrap one tone arm around her shoulders as he guided her down the street and into a bar that said it was closed.

When she pointed that little detail out the man had given her shoulders a slight squeeze and said he knew the guy who owned the place and hung out here all the time. Sakura took that to mean that this dingy bar with a broken sign that said it was The Broken Tree was the bar where the Jashinists convened.

And as she was lead inside and directed, aka forced, to take a seat in a booth in the far corner with the guy with his arm still resting on her shoulders and a couple of his pals, for the first time in her life she hated being right. This had to be the stupidest and most dangerous situation she had ever gotten herself stuck in, even if it was unintentionally, and it had to be worse than any of the stupid things Naruto did without thinking.

"Who's the chick, Shouta?" a balding greasy looking man that Sakura found it almost impossible to be someone her well dressed kidnapper associating with asked.

"No one, just some broad who bumped me on the streets an offered to buy me a drink." The other three men at the table laughed uproariously. Sakura prayed to the gods, but not Jashin, that they were laughing because they were so feared they didn't need anyone offering to buy them drinks, and not because buying a drink was synonymous with a champagne flute of blood during their next sacrifice.

Anxiety fluttered in her stomach as Shouta's three pals regaled stories how they charmed wealthy travelers into donating to help fix up their bar. These travelers were so wealthy that they paid quite the handsome sum, but always left before they could be talked into donating more or coming back on their next time through. Sakura didn't have to be Shikamaru to realize that these wealthy patrons were they victims of their murderous religion and that they stole all that person's money, although it clearly did not go to renovating their favorite bar judging by the peeling paint, stained tables and bar top, and fairly dirty drinking glasses.

An uneasy feeling crawled down her back. This cult was killing for money, but she had no idea what they were doing with the money. And her cover story as to why she was in town was that of young, wealthy daughter of a lord off to visit her fiancée, just the type of prey these guys were looking for and she had walked right into them. Literally. She downed the couple glasses of sake in front of her, mentally shouting her thanks to her shishou for teaching her how to handle her alcohol on the sly. She made the excuse of needing to use the restroom after six shots, and Shouta released her from his person for the first time since she had bumped into him and pointed her in the direction of the bathrooms.

She locked herself in the furthest stall from the door and turned on her earpiece to the angry hissing of her captain. "Where the in hell are you, Haruno? You were supposed to return two hours ago."

"I kind of have an issue, taichou."

"What kind of issue?"

"I accidentally knocked a member of the Hand of God on his ass and he brought me into their bar. I don't think I'm coming back out." It surprised Sakura how calm her own voice sounded as she relayed her inevitable death. She felt she should be panicking, she was only thirteen, but she couldn't find it in her to do so. It would do her no good to panic or cry or whine about the unfairness of life. She had to focus on the mission and spill as much as she could to her team before she became the Jashin worshippers' nightly offering to their god.

She was surprised by her captain's violently swearing. She could even hear Genma's and Shisui's worried voices over the racket Itachi was making attempting to ask him just what had caused him to curse.

"We'll get you out of there. Or attack before then can sacrifice you. You will not die on this mission, understand me, Sakura?" It wasn't as much of a question as it was on order from her superior, but said girl disregarded it in favor of telling them that they were targeting wealthy travelers.

She turned off her transmission mid-order for her be careful and not provoke them any further, scurrying out of the stall and back into Shouta's arm before he could get suspicious of her lengthy stay in the bathroom. Sakura caught the tail end of greasy's suggestion that they save her for their leader. Part of her wanted to sag with relief. If they decided to wait to sacrifice her until their leader could do it personally, they would still have three months to infiltrate and maybe her team could rescue her. The other half of her was terrified. If she wasn't saved she was going to be handed over to be sacrificed at the hands of their leader who found pure pleasure in sacrificing humans to Jashin.

Sakura leaned into Shouta, sending him an innocent look and trying to convey that she would absolutely love to meet their leader. She didn't know if her actions had any part in his decision, but Shouta had announced that they would wait for Hidan-sama to return.

Sakura thought Hidan sounded familiar as Shouta lead her to a inn the Hand of God also controlled and set her up in one of its nicest suites. She listened as her kidnapper's footsteps faded before she turned on her transmitter again. The first thing she heard was a ten minute long rant about the importance of obeying the captain's orders and how she was never to turn off her earpiece until he dismissed her and that she would keep it on for the rest of the day so they would know where to find her that night.

The rosette patiently waited for Itachi to hold in the lecture he had probably prepared the second she disconnected before telling all three of them that the decision had been made to save her for Hidan-sama personally.

"Are you positive they said Hidan?" Itachi asked anxiously.

"Yes." She drew her answer out, uncertain why his name was so important. Her captain's curses were almost as bad as Tsunade-sama's when sober.

"Hidan is one of the supposedly immortal members of the Akatsuki. Whatever he is using the money he collects for can't be good. We'll need to send an emergency message to Hokage-sama and we need to get you out of there."

Sakura vehemently protested the new plan. She pointed out they still had almost three months before Hidan returned so there was no rush to perform a jail break and jeopardize their mission. She agreed that the message to Tsunade-sama needed to be sent and that they should wait for a reply. She believed as long as it was possible for them to continue their mission they should do so.

Itachi's sense of logic finally returned and he agreed to wait for the Hokage's return message before making any final decisions. He warned her to not let her guard down and to find out what she could, like where they conducted their ritual sacrifices or where the stolen money was going, but not to be obvious about it and wind up bumping up her execution date.

She laid back on the bed in the room she had been given, admiring the luxury of it when their communication ended. She decided to take the posh living quarters as a sign they wanted their leader's sacrifice to live comfortably and be in the best physical condition possible. She tried her best not to let her thoughts wander into the Realm or Morbidity and think about how this all could end if she wasn't rescued or heaven forbid her shishou ordered the rest of the team to abandon the mission and leave her behind. She would like to think that Tsunade would never issue such an order, but she knew that the Hokage had to make a call based on what benefited the village more; infiltrating and taken down a cult that would decimate small towns, or sacrificing her apprentice so that Konoha's presence would not be noticed by the Akatsuki.

Thoughts about her impending death slipped through the cracks in her mind. She didn't want to die. She knew it was a shinobi's duty, and that's what she was, not a kunoichi but a shinobi of Konohagakure, to die for their village if necessary. And looking at the two choices, even Sakura could admit that the right choice to make was to leave her to fend for herself and kept Konoha protected from the Akatsuki's radar.

She resolutely pushed those self-depreciating thoughts to the back of her mind. She still had a few days before a reply message from the Hokage would be received to learn more valuable information that could convince Tsunade that the best choice was to continue with the mission. And if it came to the worst possible outcome, she would still have three months before her executioner showed up.

Sakura made it through the next five days by pretending that this was part of the mission. She did as Shouta commanded and never left the room or opened the door to anyone but him. He had visited twice in the last five days. She feigned interest in the symbol on his jacket. She already knew what it stood for but let him prattle on about the Hand of God and their mission to bring in large amounts of money. Beyond a quick comment that all the money was given to their leader via secure drop points, he never mentioned what the money was for.

But it was enough for Sakura to know that the entirety of it went to Hidan.

On the sixth day since her fancy imprisonment in the Hand of God's inn, Itachi reported to her the Hokage's decision.

"The mission will continue. Do you have anything to report?"

Sakura took a deep breath to calm her excited nerves. Hearing that the mission would continue, that Tsunade-shishou wasn't going to abort the mission and leave her made her feel as if a weight had been lifted off her shoulder.

She informed her captain that every penny of the money they stole from the victims they killed went directly to Hidan, and most likely from there to the Akatsuki treasury. She told they used a drop-off/pick-up method, but the drop points were unknown.

Once the exchange of information was concluded, the pink haired chuunin leapt to her feet and started bouncing on the bed. She was being faced with the toughest mission in her ninja career thus far, and probably of her entire career to come, she refused to think she would not be saved now that had three months to plan a rescue mission, and she was holding under the adversity.

Although after another ten weeks spent on tenterhooks, the strain of being discovered, the pressure that she most definitely could die any time in the upcoming weeks and it was a guarantee at the end of them, she might need a full psyche evaluation and some major relaxation time and maybe even a return to D-rank missions were her objective would be stress free.

Now that she knew she had to learn as much as possible about this criminal organization, Sakura began plotting the best way to make Shouta reveal the inner goings of the Hand of God without him cottoning on to the fact that she was bleeding him dry of everything he knows. Then she had to consider would he even tell a girl that was going to be a sacrifice what they were doing, or could she wriggle it out of him because they both knew she was dying, even if she was no longer certain of that possibility.

Would a listening ear be the best choice or should she try to seduce him with what little she had learned in the female only classes at the academy? They didn't cover much of anything in those classes, but she thought she knew the basics.

Sakura rejected the seduction plan. It would be weird and a little obvious if she started randomly hitting on him when she had not done so when they first meet. Plus he would see through her straight away because she had no experience. Her final reason was because even thinking about it made her feel like she was cheating on Neji. But she would never mention that to anyone. Personal feelings were not supposed to be involved in a mission.

-CHUUNIN-

Most of the days passed in an agonizing blur of monotony, mostly interrupted by Shouta's visits, but even those visits were expected and not as much of a break in routine that she longed for.

Five weeks into her stay at this in, she still didn't know the name, Shouta came and told her he would be gone for the next two weeks and that someone else would stop by and entertain her in the evenings. Sakura desperately hoped that he was not replaced by the guy she had named "Greasy."

The pinkette dutifully passed on her new visitor's arrangement at her scheduled four in the morning review of the day to her captain. Three weeks ago Itachi had set designated times for her to make her daily reports. Sakura's best guess was that it was designed so she wouldn't be surprised by one of her kidnapper's anticipated surprise visits to her room.

She wasn't at all surprised by the knock on her door the next evening.

What did surprise her was the person standing on the threshold. If she hadn't already known there wasn't another person dead or alive that could give off the aura that Itachi did, Sakura would have thought she was dreaming. But as it was, a very real Itachi standing on her doorstep giving of those vibes that she sensed whenever she came within five feet of the guy, she determined that he had to be the real deal and silently stepped back to allow him entrance to her cell.

"What are you doing here? When did you join the cult? And why didn't you tell me? Are Shisui and Genma here too?" Sakura fired off question after question.

"I am here because I am the one assigned to check in on you daily. I have been in for nearly four weeks, Shisui one, and Genma will join in another two. As to why you were not informed, we didn't want you to give any indication that you had allies nearby."

Sakura was not happy with the last answer. She had managed the whole time she was being held hostage, which total five weeks, never hinted that she had backup camping five miles outside the town. What difference did it make knowing that they were now inside the organization itself instead of making plans in a clearing in the forest? Either way, Sakura still knew that her three teammates were out there, so why did Itachi think she would end up giving up the game by knowing that their mission had progressed?

"What's changed since yesterday?"

"Aside from Shouta going MIA for the next two weeks, nothing. While it's nice not to have to risk being caught giving reports over our transmitters, there will be nothing to report until he comes back. He was my only visitor until now and my source of information. The three of you will probably learn more than I will."

Itachi agreed with her conclusion and, after some wheedling and straight up begging complete with waterworks, promised to keep her updated on anything they learned or any change in plans each night he came to check in on her.

Sakura couldn't put into words how much she appreciated Itachi's visits that came at the same time every day. It gave her the chance to pretend that she wasn't essentially being held captive, even if she had a long chain, and being prepared as the sacrificial lamb for the slaughter.

She could pretend her life wasn't at serious risk and that she wouldn't fall to fulfill her promise to Hanabi to return and teach her whatever topic it was that caught her fancy that day.

She could peer through rose colored glasses and see a simple information retrieval mission. She could pretend the room she was figuratively locked in belonged to either the Hyuuga or Uchiha compound back in Konoha and that she was safe at home.

She tried not to dwell on the possibility of a whole ANBU squad being wiped out because she pressed for continuing the mission despite the dire situation. Now she was having second thoughts and she would have forgiven her shishou had the women chosen to abandon her and the mission although she had learned from Kakashi-sensei that it was better to abandon the mission and the rules in order to save a friend.

But guilt weighed heavily on her heart. If anyone died on this mission, and she could envision no scenario in which all four members of the team walked away, it would be her fault for insisting they continue with the mission as planned. It would be her fault if she was unable to heal her teammates, if they fell while attempting to rescue her because she was too busy playing the damsel in distress.

She was a shinobi of Konoha. The Will of Fire burned in her veins. Even though she was a kunoichi, she wasn't supposed to be the damsel in distress in desperate need of a hero to swoop in, rescuing her, defeating the bad guys, and saving the day. She was supposed to be a part of that saving the day part.

It was her one objective on this mission. The reason Tsunade-sama had given her the position despite her poorly hidden unease. Don't get involved. Stay far back and do not engage. Conserve your chakra so you can heal your fallen comrades.

Well, sheer boredom had its benefits. With hours of uninterrupted blocks of time, Sakura was able to mediate really for all hours of the day, allowing her to store massive amounts of chakra in the Yin Seal on her navel. And the only thing that would change in the six weeks to come until Hidan came to kill her would be the volume of chakra in the seal. At the rate it was building, she would have enough to activate the Creation Rebirth Jutsu five times.

Sakura was feeling something stronger than disappointed when she opened her prison door to reveal Shouta for the first time in two weeks. In the remaining four weeks that she was unconsciously counting down day by day until the bringer of her end arrived, she knew she would only become more tense and frightened as she chalked off another day. And if this was going to be her last month, she most definitely did not want to spend any of it with the guy that pushed over the first domino by actually accepting her offer to buy him a drink. Honestly, nobody did that anymore. Everyone was always in such a hurry to get somewhere that your apology would go in one ear and out the other and your attempt to be polite and make amends wouldn't even register.

So it was safe to say she didn't want to see the man who had signed her death warrant two months ago and thought it amusing to torture her with the knowledge that her last day was rapidly approaching. Sakura was completely put off when he presented her a calendar with a flourish and a mock bow. The calendar as already marked. A giant red circle on what she assumed to be today's date, the twenty-first of February. She made a mental note to cook a fantastic dinner for Neji if she got back for missing their first Valentine's Day together. Exactly four weeks from now, on March twenty-first was the symbol of Jashin complete with a crude sketch of a skull.

Shouta didn't stay to talk that night, not that Sakura wanted to. At this point, she didn't think there was much else she could get out of the guy. Now the man's visits were turning into a chore she hating doing but her mother forced her to do anyway.

And so, with the red marker, which she was sure he had chosen so she could be tortured with images of her own blood being spilled during what painful ritual was to come, Sakura drew a giant as each day ended. She spent all of her time meditating on the window sill where she could see the sunrises and sunsets each day. She meditated, and calmed her mind and focused solely on concentrating her chakra into her Yin Seal so that she didn't have time to think on her personal encroaching apocalypse date.

A row of red exes marked the calendar before her jailer returned. This time he didn't come to torment the poor girl that wouldn't see her fourteenth birthday, not that he knew how old she was but that wasn't the point. He stormed into her room and started ranting about how some subordinate or other that was in charge of handling this month's drop off had left the money in the wrong hollowed tree along the river to the town's south and how he didn't have the time to send him out with someone that knew the location of the correct drop off before Hidan-sama found an empty pick up site.

After a half hour of non-stop ranting about the incompetence of the idiots involved in this robbery scam, the pink haired girl realized that Shouta had forgotten that she was in the room. He still completely failed to realize she had been present the whole time as he stomped out of the room and down the hall.

That night Sakura gladly revealed the lower rank member's screw up and was rewarded with a report two hours later that the bounty was found and taken to their base to be split amongst them as a bonus when this mission was over. Sakura thought it wasn't the best compensation for her terrible ordeal, but it felt amazing to get one over on an Akatsuki member and walk away with his stolen money. She greatly appreciated Itachi claiming that it was to be dividing between all four members of the team when they completed the mission. His confidence gave her hope that they might all survive the upcoming challenge.

Sakura found meditation harder to accomplish as she marked off another week in red exes. There were only fourteen days on the calendar. Two weeks until she was scheduled to be sacrificed to Jashin. One fortnight to review plans hatched in the early hours of the morning when she wanted nothing more than to be preparing herself for what may be to come.

Three quarters of the days on the calendar were covered with bright red exes. Her dreams when she slept was full of the Jashinist worshipper's symbol, gianted red exes, and calendars where every day was the twenty-first of March and she was killed over and over again with the rise of the sun on the next twenty-first of March.

Her hands trembled as she crossed off the days of her last week. As she drew an ex over the date Wednesday, March 19, Sakura felt disgust well up inside her. Her she was, two days from the day she would die, and she was still playing along with that damn cult junkie's game and obediently counting the days until she would die. She hurled the marker at the wall for all the damage it would do. Without her enhanced strength it wasn't anything more than a scuff on the wall, but she couldn't reveal that she was a ninja, she had been expertly masking her chakra since the start of the mission, but it sure did make her feel better about her situation.

Sakura did not sleep of the twentieth of March. Even after the tantrum she threw yesterday she had picked up the marker and drawn another red ex on the calendar. It infuriated her that there was nothing she could do. She was already as good as dead.

Her sleepless night continued into the twenty-first. She sat still as a statue on the window sill, her eyes never breaking their gaze on her cell's door. She sat for hours, wondering if they purposefully were holding the ritual late at night so should would have that final day to suffer and feel the despair and misery that she would die that night and she would be unable to prevent it.

But the door never opened. The floorboards in the hallway didn't groan under the heavy footfalls of an untrained groan man and alert her to someone's approach. The sun sank below the horizon the moon climbed into the black sky. She watched the moon's progress across the vast expanse that was space. Just looking at the sky and the thousands and millions of stars twinkling made her realize that her existence was just a small piece, and that those that would mourn her death would eventually move on like she did after the death of her parents.

Strangely, the thought that the people she was leaving behind to grieve for her eventually finding comfort and peace with her moving on, resulted in the loss of all the tension in her body. Sakura no longer felt frightened at the possibility of her death. A sense of sereneness washed over her and she was able to meditate again.

Now that the twenty-first had come and gone with no Hidan and her acceptance of death, Sakura had no problem crossing off the days as they went by. She enjoyed each extra day she had to live but didn't let her hopes of escape get out of control.

Hidan finally arrived on Thursday, March 27, a full week after his initial expected date.

Sakura heard him before she saw him. He was yelling louding at the buffoons that had received the blessing of Jashin but didn't deserve because they offered pitiful sacrifices and mercy kills.

"And you, Shouta! Where is my fucking money? I give you the fucking approval of Jashin to make your fucking worthless sacrifices, and you fail to fucking deliver my fucking money! If it's not fucking found by the end of the fucking ceremony tomorrow, you'll be the next fucking sacrifice to Jashin!"

Seconds later her door was thrown open and the doorway was filled with a tall stranger. Hidan had medium length silver hair slicked back with distinctive purple eyes. He wore his Akatsuki cloak open with no shirt, only pants under it revealing his Yugakure forehead protector around his neck and Jashin amulet. He also wore dark green nail polish and an orange ring on his left index finger. A triple blade scythe was prominent behind him. What parts of his body were visible she could she shoddy stitching job.

"Yes, fucking Shouta was right. You'll make a fucking excellent lay. And then a fucking better sacrifice to Jashin. He loves the taste of a fucking newly popped cherry virgin's blood." Hidan licked his lips and was gone. For the first time since she had been brought to this room, the door was locked and she was trapped.

Sakura broke the rules regarding times when she could contact Itachi and turned on her transmitter. "He's going to rape me first." She blurted out as soon as she heard the beep indicating they were connected.

For the first time since the mission started, her captain did not scold her for breaking the rules.

The pinkette glanced at the calendar that had fallen of the wall when Hidan had made his dramatic entrance. Tomorrow would be March twenty-eight. Her fourteenth birthday. She survived long enough to see it, and her birthday presents were rape and death.

She didn't know if she would be laughing because she had actually made it to her birthday, or crying because she was going to die on her fourteenth birthday.

-CHUUNIN-

Sakura's body decided for her.

She was woken when the sun rose and dragged out of her room by the other two goons that had been present that day at the bar. She had been stripped of the clothes she had been wearing for the last three months and tossed ungracefully into an ice cold bath.

Despite the fact that the water was cold enough to be crystalizing, Sakura relished the first opportunity she had in three months to truly wash the lingering body odor and be clean. Her bath didn't last as long as she would like for she was pulled out by two females that she had never met, (she hadn't even been aware there were any female member, she was under the impression it was a males only club), and they dressed her in a stark white stiff dress.

It was when she was chained to a cross on a stage that she cried as she came to realize that not only was she going to be raped and murdered, but the whole Hand of God organization was going to witness her humiliation. Humiliation and horror that was compounded when she remembered that somewhere in the audience stood, Itachi, Shisui, and Genma.

She cried silent tears as her torture and fate was prolonged and she was forced to watch as Hidan cut down sacrifice after sacrifice with his scythe. She was tonight's main entertainment and therefore would go last.

Hidan approached her at last. A dangerous smirk on his face, tongue slipping out to taste blood splattered on his scythe. Lust shone in his eyes. It made Sakura feel dirty just to have him look at her like that. She liked it better when Neji looked at her with pride, or amazement, or care in his eyes. She hated the way the Akatsuki member eyed her like a piece of meat.

The scythe rose. Sakura followed its ascent.

She closed her eyes, unable to stare her killer in the face as he sacrificed her to Jashin and not wanting to look through the audience's faces, searching for the familiar one's of her team only to see the hopelessness of the situation that she felt reflected in each of their eyes.

Whispers of anticipation reached her ears. The crowd of Jashinists wanted their sacrifice. They wanted Hidan to stop delaying and finish her.

A screamed echoed. For a second Sakura thought it was her own, but she didn't feel any pain.

She opened her eyes even though she thought it was a bad idea.

Three black blurs were speeding through throng of sin worshippers, Genma and Shisui on either side of Itachi as they forced their way to the stage. Blood rained below her.

Hidan stopped his downswing mid-attack, turning to face the three shinobi causing havoc during his sacrifice. Sakura jumped on his momentary distraction to channel chakra to her forearms and wrists and break free of the restraints holding her to the sacrificial cross. She barely managed to duck under his scythe's three blades and was hit in the face with the long metal cable the connected the bottom of the scythe's handle to under his cloak.

The Akatsuki member ignored her and flipped off the altar.

"Itachi! Watch out! His scythe isn't meant to cause damage. It draws blood that he uses in some creepy jutsu to inflict pain on his enemy whose blood it's coated in."

Hidan aimed his giant triple bladed scythe at Itachi. The two engaged in battle. It was very one sided. Her captain spent more time dodging the fast moving weapon than making attacks of his one, not that his attacks did anything more than irritate his opponent. Not a single one caused any damage.

While Itachi fought what looked like it would become a losing battle, Shisui and Genam were thinning the crowd. Sakura was about to leap into the fray and help clear out the excess bodies still willing to cause destruction on Jashin's name, Hidan gained the upper hand in his battle, nicking Itachi across his left bicep.

The change in Hidan's behavior and appearance was instantaneous. He laughed maniacally declaring that he had been waiting for this moment as he drew Jashin's symbol on the ground in what appeared to be blood, but there was too much present for it to all be Itachi's.

'Unless,' she thought, eyes widening in horror as Hidan's skin turned blacked and bones appeared to be drawn on top, contrasting against the black skin that made her shudder and displaying his skeleton on the outside of his body, 'he only needs a single drop of blood for his jutsu!'

The freak show in front of her raised his large triple blade scythe once more.

He totally took her and her teammates by surprised when he turned it on himself and dragged it across his abdomen. Sakura tried to recall what little she knew about this Akatsuki member as Itachi cried out in pain and Hidan laughed. She knew he had achieved a sense of immortality through his rituals to Jashin, rituals that involved a scythe designed to draw blood and not rip limbs from bodies. His change in appearance and the Jashin symbol drawn on the ground he was standing in had to factor in somehow.

After a few more agonized self-mutilations that caused Itachi to collapse on the ground and Hidan to giggle like a little girl, Sakura understood that Hidan's bizarre transformed state dealt any damage him inflicted on himself to the person who was linked to him by the blood used to draw the symbol for the jutsu. So the only way to save Itachi would to break the zombie's technique, which was easier said then done.

Any time she or her two teammate made an attempt to break his jutsu, Hidan stepped out of his circle, whirled his scythe at them, forced them to retreat, and stepped back into his cursed circle to deal more pain to Itachi, who was going to die soon if they did not end this freak's jutsu so she could heal him.

It was during one of these attempts when Sakura realized that any damage he took while outside his circle was not transferred to her captain when Shisui just caught him with a kunai to the shoulder with his Body Flicker Technique.

'That's it! We have to force him out of the circle and defeat him before he can reenter! Or destroy it while he's not inside it.' They would still have to deal with how exactly to dispatch him, but their major problem would be solved if they could rescue Itachi. Then she could heal him and Genma and Shisui would be able to focus on taking out Hidan.

Sakura had no time to warn her teammates if she wanted to succeed in catching the Jashin follower off guard. She leapt into the air with the aid of some chakra and the bottom of her feet, and came back down head first and fist extended.

The ground beneath them shattered, exploding out in a circle around her. Her attack forced Hidan to jump into the air so as not to lose his footing, which accomplished her goal of forcing him out of that damned cursed circle, and had the added benefit of cracking the circle. The blood lost its form and ran.

Hidan was spitting made as his zombie persona disappeared and was replaced with his normal looks.

Sakura rushed in and heaved Itachi on one shoulder and leapt backwards when Hidan made to attack her. Shisui and Genma had intercepted the attack intended her for and held him off while she hauled her captain a safe distance from the battle. She didn't have time to deal with all of his wounds, so she quickly closed the three that were bleeding the most to prevent him from bleeding out. She would come back and finish her rushed and shoddy treatment once the threat to his life was eliminated.

However, taking out Hidan was easier thought than done. With a guy that was immortal in every way and could not die from normal critical injuries, how were they supposed to win? She knew logical that there had to be some weak point in his method of immortality. She had come across many experiments in her medical studies regarding ways of obtaining immortality, but each experiment was flawed in some manner. There was always something wrong that prevented the user from gaining true immortality. She just had to think.

Think. That was it. If they cut off his head, surely Hidan would die. He may be unable to die from physical attacks, but there was no jutsu in the world that could keep you alive if the brain was removed from the rest of the body. Decapitation had to be his one weakness.

The only problem with that was getting close enough to remove his head from his shoulders before he could get a sample of your blood and trap you in his demonic circle. Reaching Hidan would be extremely hard. He was skilled with taijutsu and the scythe. He wielded that weapon like he had been born with it in his hand, with tremendous aim and control. The large size somewhat slowed his attacks, but they were still fast enough that he nearly caught both Shisui and Genma on multiple occasions, and he was surprising agile, possessing amazing acrobatic prowess and dexterity.

Sakura left her position at Itachi's side where she had been calculating the various battle plans she had developed and their most likely outcomes.

She mentally reviewed the four clauses that made the Medic's Code.

Clause one: No medic ninja shall ever stop medical treatment until the lives of their party members have come to an end. She was definitely breaking that one. Itachi was behind her only temporarily healed so he would last until the three of them had taken out Hidan, which was a tall order.

Clause two: No medic ninja shall ever stand on the front lines. Sakura supposed any repeated offenses were forgiven because Itachi had order her to question the townspeople, so it was his fault she ended up captured and fighting this battle. She distinctly ignored the voice telling her it was he fault for involving herself with an unknown variable when she had been order to keep her engagement to a minimum and go unnoticed.

Clause three: No medic ninja shall ever die until they are the last of their platoon. She wasn't dead yet, and despite being ready for it only minutes ago, she was not ready to die now. She had three teammates to take care of and see that they returned safely to the village. Although, the way the battle was going, being the only person on the team drilled in avoiding attacks and always dodging, she may be the only one that stood a chance against Hidan's giant scythe. It was an idea that scared the hell out of her. She did not want to put the hopes of her team success and victory in this battle on her ability to dodge his attacks one hundred percent of the time. She had only had eight months training with Tsunade-shishou, and she had just spent three months in an inn room where her skills had to atrophy from lack of use.

Clause four: Only those medic ninja who have mastered the Strength of a Hundred Technique of the ninja art Creation Rebirth are permitted to discard the above-mentioned laws. She had mastered Tsunade's legendary Creation Rebirth jutsu, but they had not touched upon the Strength of a Hundred Technique.

So by entering into this battle, Sakura was simultaneously breaking all four clauses of the Medic's Code she had sworn to uphold and honor when she began her training as a medic under the Head Medic at the hospital.

But she had no choice. She only hoped that when Tsunade-sama read her report where she blatantly hanged the Code that she wouldn't force Sakura to do more endurance and avoidance drills.

For someone who had never worked with either of the ANBU at her side, Sakura slid seamlessly into their attack pattern and found herself able to read the twitches in their bodies and Hidan's to predict their attacks and either coordinate an attack or counter. She supposed this ability she had never noticed was some combination of her knowledge of the body from her anatomy and physiology studies and her gained awareness on everything around her from her genjutsu detection training.

Shisui was a never stopping black blur as he tried to use his Body Flicker Technique to attack somewhere he believed Hidan to be defenseless. Either he was thwarted by Hidan blocking with his scythe, or the psycho let the attack hit. The speed of the Uchiha's attacks didn't faze him.

Genma was equally useless. He had apparently come to the conclusion that she had already reached, that Hidan must have some sort of chink in his immortal armor, but unlike her he did not appear to have figured out the weakest part of his armor and was reduced to defending himself from Hidan's attempt to getting his hands on some of his blood and use his creepy pain transferring jutsu again.

Sakura danced in and out of reach. She never once came close to getting hit with the three bladed scythe and was quite good at landing chakra enhanced punches that served to distract him from the fact that she was slowly inching her attacks further up his body and towards his neck with each punch as she skillfully stay well out of his cursed weapon's reach.

Hidan twisted his torso left to throw up an arm to defend himself against another of Shisui's attacks, leaving his back wide open to her. She waited until Genma's sword locked against his scythe before she drove forward and wrestled his scythe from him with her inhuman strength. Almost as if they had been reading her mind, Genma and Shisui leapt away from the pink haired chuunin that had stolen the big bad immortal Akatsuki's religious weapon and swung it at him with all her might.

Sakura felt quite the accomplishment for herself when the threw blades passed through the Jashinist's neck as if she was cutting butter and his head rolled across the broken ground. Now, killing the Akatsuki member responsible for her hellish three month ordeal plus the stolen money went a long way towards making this mission likable.

She gripped the scythe with two hands and brought it down on her knee with the intention of snapping it in two like a toothpick.

The only thing she snapped was her femur.

"Just what the fuck do you think you're fucking doing you fucking bitch!"

Sakura startled so badly the scythe flew from her hands and land three blades deep into Hidan's motionless chest. The body once again took on the skeletal design, but neither body nor talking head moved, even though severed head's mouth was moving and cursing.

If Sakura didn't know she had a patient waiting to be healed, she would have allowed herself to faint from shock. She had been so sure that the key to defeating Hidan's version of immortality was to kill him in the one manner that guaranteed death. But apparently the laws of nature didn't apply to Hidan, because he was clearly still alive and cursing up a storm.

The rosette repaired her broken femur and wrenched the scythe from his unmoving chest. Apparently she had discovered the reasoning behind the patchy stitch work she had seen. He could apparently be taken apart without dying. Maybe Hidan had stumbled upon the true version of immortality, even if it was the most horrific and gruesome method she had witnessed.

His weird curse seemed to work on him too. As she removed the scythe from his chest, the Jashin symbol was immediately drawn on the ground in his blood. As much as she would have loved to return the favor and make him suffer the same pain her captain had, she had to heal Itachi. It seemed that as long as his head was detached from his body that Hidan was incapacitated and as harmless as a newborn kitten.

So Sakura ignored the stream of vulgarity that left his mouth and returned to Itachi's side.

"Nimosu Sōzō Saisei!"

Two awestruck faces looked at her as Itachi's body began to heal on its own. The Yin Seal on her navel had been released, but instead of unconsciously handing over her control over her chakra to her chakra, Sakura maintained her connections and directed the chakra flow up her abdomen and down her arms that lay on top of Itachi's bare chest. One of the other two had already torn open his shirt.

Sakura watched fascinated as tendrils of her chakra took the form of vines and crept along her skin and down her arms until they connected with Itachi. One the chakra vines had latched onto Itachi, Sakura let go of her conscious control over her chakra and let it do what the jutsu was designed to do.

"Sakura? Just what the hell are you doing? I've never heard of this kind of healing technique!" Shisui looked to be a cross between in awe of her jutsu and fearful of what it was because he didn't recognize it.

"Don't worry, Shisui. I modified Tsunade-shishou's Creation Rebirth technique to I could reverse its affects and turn the stored chakra into a patient's body so that damaged cells would automatically start regenerating. It follows the basic principles of Tsunade-shishou's jutsu, except that it doesn't work on the caster but on the receiver of the chakra. Pretty cool, huh?" she grinned.

Both men completely agreed with her.

"Wait a minute. Did you say it has all the same effects of Tsunade-sama's original technique?"

"And you created this yourself?"

Sakura glanced between the two men who had asked their questions at the same time. "Yes, Genma, I created it, and yes, Shisui it has the same benefits and drawbacks."

"Does that mean that Itachi's lifespan will be shortened?"

"Yes," the pink haired medic answered matter of factly. Itachi's cousin looked like he wanted nothing more than to choke her. "But it isn't as much as you're thinking. A couple months minimum, maybe a year tops. It's not like he is going to die next week because I used this jutsu on him."

Shisui looked much less inclined to shake her by the neck as if she was a rag doll with her confirmation on the amount of lifespan the cousin he idolized lost.

"Itachi will be fine." She whispered.

'I on the other hand will be out with physical and chakra exhaustion for a few days.'

Sakura made the mental note, realizing that she made an awful lot of these and she should write them down so she remembered them all, that she needed to stop passing out when healing Uchihas. It wasn't exactly the reputation she wanted.

-CHUUNIN-

AN: there it is. The second chapter. All knocked out from a little over thirteen thousand words to the grand total thirty-one thousand from eight o'clock on Tuesday.

Now, I want you all to know that I already have planned for chapters chronically her years as a jounin and an ANBU. What I want to know is if anyone is interested in a fifth chapter where she becomes Hokage . there's a new poll on my profile, so vote and make your opinion known.