Oh geez, I was really surprised that the first chapter garnered so much attention! So while I was on a flight back from Lexington yesterday (I was interviewing at a college…heh), I outlined two more chapters. (I'm obsessed with outlining things)

So here you go! And in case you didn't know (by reading my other fics or something), I hate writing OCs, so if there are any, they are literally like: "the waiter, a young boy who was visibly nervous around the powerful shinobi, rushed their food over as soon as he could without spilling the tray." Detailed, right?

Yeah okay just read.

The Tsuchikage, sitting in his office in Iwagakure while doing his usual paperwork, suddenly felt a tingle of dread shoot through his weary body. Since no one was around, this feeling left him puzzled yet morbidly curious.

"That can't be the arthritis…" he mumbled to himself, giving himself a once-over. But nothing seemed out of place, so he had no choice but to return to his work with a sigh.

"I just can't help but feel that something big has happened.."

When Sakura didn't respond to the scroll verbally, the words stopped appearing.

She waited, but nothing happened.

"Uh..hello?" she said quietly, feeling ridiculous talking to a roll of paper. "It be really rude of you to ignore me after promising that."

Sakura, darling! It's been so long since you've acknowledged me!

"What the fu-"

Do you know what this is?

Pause.

"Of course I don't. This is probably a weird prank, and somewhere in Konoha there's someone laughing at my expense," she growled.

Ask.

"But isn't this some sort of secret scroll? I'll get in trouble for taking it!"

Ask Iruka.

"How do you know him?" she almost yelled before catching herself. She realized this is situation looked ridiculous, and silently wondered if all secret scrolls did this.

Suddenly the entire page went blank, and she sighed in defeat, closing it up again before slipping on her shoes to leave her house.

There was only one thing to do, she supposed: find Iruka.

"Sakura, where did you find this?" the tan brunette asked, running his finger down the scroll curiously.

She had found him in his classroom at the ninja academy, but since school was out of session for the day, the only thing he was doing was scribbling down notes on the kids' tests. (God, she remembered when she used to take those) In fact, if Sakura hadn't been such a teacher's pet when she was younger, Iruka probably would have shooed her away and told her to ask someone else.

"The lib-"

"—Because I thought all of these had been thrown out. They're useless," he sighed, tossing it into the trashcan next to the door with the ease of a trained chunin. Although Sakura had (recently) passed the chunin exam, she still felt inferior to older shinobi of the same rank.

"What is it?" she asked softly, wincing as she heard it clatter into the trash.

"You know how the Yamanaka clan specializes in mind-reading jutsu?"

Nod.

"Well, because of that, they often help with interrogations and such. And a few years ago, they developed scrolls that, once absorbing a person's chakra, writes down their thoughts."

"That can't be right," Sakura commented, frowning a bit. However, Iruka misinterpreted her reaction.

"Yeah, right? The person would have to do it willingly for it to work, and since those imprisoned are not known for their cooperation, the plan failed. The only thing these are used for are for when a shinobi is too lazy to write out mission reports by hand, and uses these instead, which is why the third Hokage had us throw them out."

Sakura hesitated a second, before asking, in a small voice, "Well then, can I have it?"

"Why?" he asked skeptically. "What could you possibly use it for?"

She searched her brain for an explanation. "Um….a diary?"

"A diary?"

"Or more like a…journal. Yeah."

After a moment, he sighed, though in a tired, somewhat condescending way. "I'll never understand you girls."

If it had been any other situation, she would have scolded him for his blatant stereotyping, but for now she let it slide, since she had more important things to tend to. She rushed over to the trashcan, removed the scroll, and left quickly, leaving a hurried goodbye and a confused Iruka.

"I asked Iruka," she frowned, staring at the opened scroll on her lap as she sat on her bed at home. The day had progressed quickly, and the sky was now smeared with reds and oranges, the sunset peeking through her window and illuminating her hair, making it look almost blood red.

So…what do you think?

"I don't think he lied, so either he really didn't know, or.."

Or what?

"There's someone messing with my thoughts."

You're getting closer. Let me give you a clue: do you remember when you were younger, how sometimes you would feel overcome with random bursts of anger?

Oh, she remembered. In passing, she had dubbed that part of her "Inner Sakura," since she never let loose the various insults and perverted comments Inner would provide. And after their first chunin exam, Ino had come up to Sakura to talk about their battle, specifically what exactly the pink-haired girl did to push the blonde out of her mind so forcefully.

Truthfully, Sakura didn't know. And though she tried to tell Ino this, her ex-friend didn't believe her for a second. And since she couldn't explain it, Sakura just attributed that small victory as a result of a strong mind. (Who was she fooling?)

"Let me guess, this is Inner Sakura?" she laughed lightly to herself. "Okay, this joke has gone too far. Who made this all up? Because it has been one hell of a prank."

It's about time you talked to me properly. But for convenience's sake, let's just call me "Kura" for now.

The air suddenly felt a lot colder, and the sunset had disappeared completely, leaving the room dark except for the flickering candle Sakura had on her bedside table to see properly.

Now, time for a little history lesson.

At this point, all she could do was watch the words appear, which felt a lot more creepy that it had before, and Sakura couldn't help but feel like she was in one of those horror stories Naruto loved to tell when he was still with her.

First off, the Haruno family does have a special ability, and though it's not a jutsu, Konoha has been taking advantage of it for decades. See, the Harunos are known for their solid minds, ones that can't be influenced by outside force or permanently changed by genjutsu. So when the village had something they needed to seal within a human, they found a Haruno to use. Your parents were both Harunos, just distant cousins, so they both were used for this.

"Used for what, exactly?"

More like "who." Do you know how the village deals with war criminals?

Sakura thought for a second.

"Well, they have to kill them," she said simply.

But their thoughts and memories need to be taken care of as well. Otherwise they can easily be taken over by a reanimation jutsu. So the village essentially sealed those people into Harunos, much like they do with tailed beasts, except for the fact that Harunos can neutralize the foreign soul, and keep it locked within, not disturbing a thing.

"W-war criminals?!" she gaped. "You're an actual person?!"

Well, yes. And no.

Pause.

"But then if you were..," she reasoned, calming down slightly. "..you would be neutralized."

That's where your lovely little mother comes into play.

See, on a mission 16 years ago, she was raped by an enemy shinobi..and didn't tell anyone, the poor girl. She was married to your father, and didn't want to make him worry, so she kept quiet, thinking nothing of it. So when she realized she was pregnant a few weeks later, she foolishly assumed it was your fathers', and didn't tell the village elders anything but. And when the time came to seal someone inside you, she didn't protest, and certainly didn't lead on that there would be a problem.

Sakura laughed disbelievingly. "You're not saying that I a-"

You're not a pure Haruno, so the criminal was only partially dissipated.

Her veins felt thick and heavy like ice.

"This is a horrible joke to play on me."

Think, Sakura….what nation was Konoha at war at around that time?

"Iwa…Iwagakure…I'm pretty sure," she responded quietly.

So what better way to make peace than to capture one of Iwa's missingnin? It worked wonderfully; the nations very quickly resolved their fighting.

"So you're that shinobi," she finally concluded, feeling quite small and defenseless at the moment.

Kunoichi. I am definitely a female. And to be honest, I think my good looks have been rubbing off on you! You look more like me everyday, except that I had black hair and black eyes,

"So what happens now?"

Don't act so scared! There's no way I can get out of here, so it's not like you're in danger or anything.

Well, I'm not dangerous, at least.

Tell Tsunade that you want to take a vacation to the land of Lightning. I need to show you something there.

"Wha-?"

Just do it.

"I want to take a vacation," Sakura declared, looking more brave than she felt. After all, Tsunade didn't seem to be in a good mood, but "Kura" had pressured her, so the girl felt obligated to ask immediately.

"It's the middle of the night, Sakura!" Tsunade growled. "Where is so important that you needed to interrupt me?"

"Uh..the Land of Lightning."

"Why?"

"Um..I heard the food is really good, and I want to explore the area to widen my knowledge of local customs…?"

The busty woman exhaled slowly before taking another swig of the cup in front of her. It seemed to relax her quite a bit, so her irritated expression fell completely, replaced with a bored haze. "I guess I do have a package to send to the Raikage," she mused lazily. "I was just going to send a genin squad to do it, but I guess you'll be more efficient."

"Anything I can do to help!" Sakura laughed nervously, crossing her arms and trying to look confident.

"Hmmm…of course," Tsunade mumbled. "Oh, has Naruto sent you anything yet?"

Sakura winced.

"No."

"Really? Are you sure? Not even a letter?" she continued, obviously confused.

"I'm sure, sensei," Sakura finished sadly, the usual twinges of loneliness making their way into her mood once more.

"Weird….But okay, you are dismissed," the blonde said, pulling out a small box from her desk drawer and handing it to her student. "Leave as soon as you can for the Raikage. Shouldn't be difficult, but do you want someone to come with?"

"No," Sakura said, a little more forcefully than she should have, But since the Hokage had no reason to be suspicious of Sakura, she didn't say anything, and let the girl stroll out of the office without a word.

"Sometimes I wonder what's going through that girl's head….."

Traveling at high speed, the journey would take only two days, so Sakura packed light, bringing only one backpack stuffed with her scroll, the package Tsunade had given her, a change of clothes, a few solider pills, and a few kunais (besides the weapons she kept on her holster).

On her way out, she happened to pass by Neji Hyuuga, who was talking quietly to the guardsmen at their post. Once they heard her light footsteps approach, all three snapped their heads to face her (though Neji admittedly did it a lot more gracefully).

"Neji, Kotetsu, Izumo...Good afternoon," she smiled wearily.

She always had to smile. If she didn't, people assumed she was thinking about Sasuke.

They wouldn't say it to her face, of course, but she heard the whispers of gossip on the streets, of how she was suicidal, abandoned, and..(now that her parents were gone) simply alone.

Kotetsu and Izumo greeted her with their usual hopeful grins, always eager for a chance to cheer the pretty konoichi up.

"You look stunning as usual, Sakura!" Kotetsu called over. "Even though it is the middle of the night! Where are you go-"

Izumo elbowed his spiky-haired friend roughly. "Kotetsu! You're never supposed to ask unless they volunteer the information first!"

"But Sakura's an exception. She never gets sent on the confidential missions…" he said in rebuttal, not seeing how her face fell at his casual statement. However, Neji seemed to pick up on her reaction, for he lightly guided her out of the pair's range of hearing to talk to her.

"Are you sure you want to go alone?" he asked in his usual almost-monotone voice. And even though Tsunade had asked that same question and sounded condescending, Sakura knew that Neji was more worried for her emotional state. He was one of the closer friends she had since the rest of her team left, since she had taken up to training with Gai's team whenever she wanted a sparring partner.

(He always won, but there had been a few times where she caught him in an unexpected genjutsu or he stepped onto one of her traps)

"Yeah, I'm sure," she affirmed, avoiding eye contact (even though she knew Neji could always see the emotions she hid under her smiles).

He hesitated, but since she clearly wasn't going to volunteer any more information, left it at that. "When are you returning?"

"Why? Can't wait to see me?" she couldn't help but tease.

"Well, Lee would be very disappointed if you left him with me," he responded delicately, the closest to witty banter that a Hyuuga could get.

"Well once you put it that way…hmm…anywhere from five days to a week," she told him before pulling her backpack straps tighter and moving towards the gate.

"You'll do fine," he said to her retreating figure, though he wasn't sure if she could hear over the combined goodbyes of Kotetsu and Izumo at the moment.

Once she was gone, Kotetsu threw Neji a sly smirk.

"So, you never did tell us….can the Byakugan see through clothes?"

"I'm leaving."

Ouch. I'm not too thrilled at how this chapter turned out, so I'll probably edit it later, but I'm going to post it anyways, since I promised myself I would put something up today. (;

Now I need to finish my AP Lit paper okay bye