A.N.

To those of you that are reading this please note that there is a story before this. It's called Slowly Slipping Away and it's found in my page. I follow the manga as closely as possible so this is the Shippuden part of it. Thanks for reading!

Disclaimer: Naruto does NOT belong to me.

Sayuri and any characters that have not and will not appear in the manga and/or anime are completely original.

Naruto is copyright 1999 Misashi Kishimoto, Sayuri Marihasha, story, and original characters are copyright 2014 Salma Martinez, all rights reserved.

Reviews are encouraged! Thank you.

Day's End

The day had gone by in what seemed like a blur...she had spent most of the day talking and catching up with her old teammates, even spying on them when Kakashi had taken them to their old training field for their second round at the bell test. To be honest she was quite impressed with their progress. Naruto had not only grown in height but in maturity…well as much as he could grow in maturity given who his instructor for the past three years was. Sakura had grown as well; being the Hokage's pupil had its perks she supposed. Her healing abilities had improved as well as her strength…it was almost to the point where it was surreal that Sakura had actually improved that much in three years so much so that she felt almost left behind.

Sayuri's medical knowledge as a genin was basic at best, being more concentrated on becoming an ANBU she barely kept up with it, knowing just enough to heal severe bleedings, poisoning, and small damage to muscles but not so much so that she could actually work at the hospital and do those complicated surgeries that Sakura had begun to perform. Her strength was...monstrous, her mind supplied as she took out the keys to her house from her pocket and entered her home. She remembered Sakura coming up to her once in order for Sayuri to teach her to crack the earth open with one punch. She couldn't do it. Sayuri barely knew how she did it to begin with; it was almost second nature to her…Because I'm able to tap into my earth element.

Apparently she hadn't been completely useless to her clan. She was able to alter her chakra to be able to use other elements, just not with as much ease or for long periods of time like the other Marihasha members before her. Both Moriyo and Kenji had said her skill with other elements was mediocre at best…now that had been a blow to the ego. In any case she could not teach Sakura, not only because Sakura's chakra nature was not earth but also because Sayuri just could not teach. So Sakura turned to Tsunade who in turn thought her all she knew about healing and concentrating her chakra to certain parts of her body enough to be able to reduce the ground below them to dust.

She sighed and laid back on her bed, a hand lazily draped over her eyes in an attempt to block out the moonlight.

Then there was Naruto…the blonde idiot who turned out to be not so much of an idiot. He traveled with Jiraya, another sanin, learned jutsu, sharpened his mind…at least a bit, and was overall amazing in her eyes. And Sasuke…well he just went to learn from the third sanin…

"He's probably just as strong…" Sayuri muttered rolling over to her front as she pressed her face to the pillows that adorned her bed. Yes…Sayuri felt extremely left out…left behind…pushed aside…useless…and weak.

There was a light tapping on her window momentarily catching her attention before she turned back to her self pity. The tapping continued while she merely growled. It stopped for a second before the window just swung open…all she could do to keep herself from crying out loud was growl.

"Yo! Sleeping beauty!" Hajime said joyfully avoiding the pillow that was flung at him.

"What's up with you?" Diachi asked as he caught the pillow just before it hit his face. The two heard her muffled response and raised an eyebrow.

Hajime turned to his brunette friend and raised an eyebrow, silently communicating with him. What did she say?

"I think it was something about being left behind."

Hajime's eyebrows knitted together in confusion. "Left behind?" the gray haired ninja turned to the girl laying face down on her bed. "Ah! I get it!" Hajime enthusiastically sat on her bed and to pat her head. "You just realized how Sakura and the other girls looked so much more like women than you, that you're now depressed over the fact that you'll never catch up to them!" Now that got her attention.

Diachi's eyes widened as he looked at his gray haired teammate in utter disbelief. If looks could kill, the one that Sayuri was giving Hajime would be a particularly murderous one. Diachi cleared his throat and gave his friend a pointed look, but of course Hajime could never take a hint and to his utter horror continued.

"Aw…don't look at me like that." Hajime grinned. "If you continue you'll never grow into a beautiful woman, instead you'll look like an old hag!"

Imbecile… Diachi thought as he took a very long step back and watched with slight joy as the young teenage girl pounced on their idiot of a teammate bringing him down on the ground with a rather painful thud.

"I dare you to repeat that!" Sayuri hissed as Hajime looked up at the girl with an amused grin.

Getting under her skin was fun! Hajime tilted his head to the side and smirked. "Sure thing princess…I said that if you-" suddenly hands that were previously holding his shoulders down were now tightly wrapped around his neck.

"Uh…Sayuri," Diachi began as he placed a hand on the teens shoulder. "If you kill him Kenji won't be happy about it." He eyed the boy on the ground as he began to turn a light shade of blue. "Sayuri…" he warned.

"Fine!" she huffed standing up and dusting herself as Hajime shot up, holding his throat, and coughing for air. Crossing her arms she plopped down on the bed and looked away from the two with a pout.

Hajime on the other hand growled and raised his hands ready to strangled the girl until a hand blocked his view. "That's enough, Hajime!" Diachi warned. Fingers twitching in mid air he dropped his arms back down to his sides in defeat.

The brunette male looked at both ninja and sighed. I'm stuck with a bunch of children! He ran a hand through his hair and took a deep breath. "Kenji said we had to have picked our assignments by the end of today, since you were otherwise engaged we took the liberty of picking out missions out of a hat."

Sayuri turned her brown eyes to him with a curious look on her face. "Oh?"

"Well…Hajime got Akatsuki." Sayuri blinked at him. "And I got Danzo and Root…" Her curious look turned into that of a frown.

"That leaves me with…"

"You got assigned to Orochimaru."

Beside him Hajime tried to stifle a laugh. "Sucks to be you right now…" Sayuri growled at the gray haired ninja.

"Go crawl in a ditch and die!" She retorted.

Hajime was about to respond until Diachi covered his mouth and glared. "Back off! She's obviously not in the mood!" The brunette whispered to the gray haired teen. Both turned to look at the girl that was currently sulking at the foot of her bed.

"Does Kenji know?"

Diachi nodded. "Yes." Sayuri huffed and fell back on the bed.

XXX

"Knock, knock…" Kenji looked up from the scroll he was reading to regard the dark haired woman that just entered his office. "You called?" she smiled as she took a seat.

Kenji quietly placed the scroll to the side before turning to her. "Any progress?"

"On what?" Kenji glared while she smiled. "Oh relax! You know, you weren't such a stiff before you became head." He looked down at her extended hand, in it was a scroll tied with a piece of red string. "Well?" she began when he didn't move. "Aren't you going to take it?"

Carefully Kenji took the scroll and opened it. Green eyes scanned the piece of paper as he read the report once, twice, three times before looking up at the woman before him. "Moriyo this…"

"I know…there's nothing we can do. When we examined Sayuri's wound, we found small traces of foreign chakra around it. Every time we tried to close it, the wound would just absorb our chakra…like a black hole. We ran some more experiments but nothing worked…that wound Orochimaru gave her sucks her chakra at all times."

"It's like a parasite!" Kenji concluded as he placed the scroll down. "Each time she comes back from missions she's barely able to walk…"

Bright orange eyes turned to the window where the moon light shined through, worry evident on her features.

XXX

"She's still in shock I'm afraid…" Sayuri heard the doctor inform someone on the other side of the door. "She is not responding to anything and won't eat…maybe you can get something out of her." There were a couple of seconds of silence and then shuffling until the door slowly opened.

She didn't bother turning to look at who had come in…she couldn't. The images of her dead father and grandfather haunted her every second of the day and night along with those of the burning homes and all that fire…it's so destructive. How could anyone want to associate themselves with the fire element? Why would they? It could only bring pain…and suffering.

"—eat!" The young five year old snapped out of her trance at the sound of the angered voice. "I know you can hear me! Lady Sayuri, you can't starve yourself to death…" She did not respond, instead she stared, blankly, straight ahead. She heard the man sigh, then the sound of footsteps as he paced the room.

Burning…fire…homes…death…burning…fire…people…blood…father...Too many images, too much death…too much blood! The images haunted her dreams. Everything…everywhere, all she could see was death! She continued to stare at the white wall trying desperately to make all those memories stop.

Suddenly white turned into green…like a summer's leaf. Her focus turned from the green of the man's eyes to his face. He looked familiar.

The blonde narrowed his eyes at what he saw. Her once red and blue eyes were now dark and light brown. "What the…?" He whispered as his hand moved from her chin to her cheek. "How did this happen?" He wondered as his green eyes focused on the blank look of her brown.

XXX

Sayuri's eyes snapped open as she lay on her side hugging the old teddy bear. Sitting up she stretched her hands high over her head just as the sun began to peek its way into the sky. Smiling slightly, she moved from her spot to stand, her feet meeting the cold wooden floor, and went over to restroom. Cold water splashed against her face just before she was met with her reflection. Slowly she moved her hand to touch it, fingers running over her left light brown eye.

"How did this happen?"

"Saito…" she whispered as his words echoed in her mind sending chills up her spine. She shook her head to clear it as she turned to walk out making her way over to her closet to get a pair of black shorts and a blue tank top taking a look at the mirror she shrugged and with a sigh she went down the stairs to get something to eat just as someone knocked on her door.

With a slight frown Sayuri moved to open the door only to be greeted by a white vest. Lifting her head up to get a look at the masked ANBU that stood at her front door she scowled.

"Captain Kenji wants to see you immediately."

"I'll get my shoes…" she grumbled but was suddenly yanked by the elbow rather roughly. "HEY!"

XXX

Kenji paced back and forth in his office as Diachi and Hajime watched from the safe distance of the chairs. Suddenly they heard an irritated scream coming from outside the office. All turned to see as the double doors were opened revealing a tall ANBU holding a barefoot Sayuri over one shoulder. The ANBU quietly walked over to the open seat and sat the brunette down.

Sayuri for her part muttered an irritated 'thanks' as she crossed her arms glaring at the ANBU head. "You realize that I could have come here on my own don't you?" she muttered once the door was closed. "He didn't even let me get my shoes!" whined the teen as she pointed at her bare feet.

"We'll deal with that later. Right now we've got news of the Kazekage being taken hostage by the Akatsuki."

The female of the four sat up straight, brown eyes wide. "W…what?" Next to her Diachi and Hajime frowned.

"The Hokage was informed of this just a few hours ago…she's sent team Kakashi to go after him."

"Shouldn't we be going as back up?" Hajime began.

Kenji shook his head. "No, intelligence is our prime target at the moment. Hajime you will be going to the sand village as an aid, while you're there your priority is to stay near any Akatsuki member and get as much information on them as possible." The dark haired man turned to Diachi. "You will be shadowing Danzo…make sure to stay well hidden and find out what his next move is. Right now he won't be too on guard because the Hokage is putting all her attention on the Kazekage, make this opportunity count!"

"Sir!" the two said in unison as they stood up.

"What about me?" Sayuri asked moving to stand.

"You are to stay here-"

"What? That's not fair! I'm a ninja, I should be helping!" Sayuri retorted but stopped as Kenji held up a hand.

"We've finally got a small lead on Orochimaru…I'll be debriefing you on it so stay put." Diachi and Hajime turned to look at each other before turning to their leader. "What are you two waiting for?" Kenji said sounding rather irritated. "An invitation? Go!" At his words the two teens vanished leaving the small girl and the very much irritated Kenji alone.

Sayuri carefully eyed her captain, noticing the small dark circles around his eyes. He hasn't been sleeping…or eating well. She thought as she also noticed his thinner complexion. Kenji for his part seemed to be lost in thought, staring at Sayuri but not really looking at her.

Clearing her throat Sayuri began. "What…" she waited until his forest green eyes met her own brown to continue. "What lead were you talking about?"

"We've been told by some of our ANBU stationed near the Waterfall Village that they've heard of Kabuto working around the area…probably trying to find new test subjects."

"Shouldn't the Hokage be informed of this?" Sayuri asked.

"We have…she doesn't want to get Naruto and the others involved, in case the lead turns out to be a dead end." Sayuri frowned her eyes narrowed at her captain. "Your job is to go check out what's going on…find out if the lead is false."

"And if it's not?"

Kenji's green eyes narrowed down at the girl. "Infiltrate it, gather information and whenever you can relay it to us in any way possible. Remember, the village wants Orochimaru dead and Sasuke back behind its walls but in order for us to do that we need to gather information on them. Understood?"

"Yes." She nodded her head once as she rose to stand.

"Good. Here…" in his hands was a scroll which she took before turning to the door. "Sayuri?"

The teen paused with her hand on the door knob she turned to face him. "If at any point you feel as if your life is in danger…leave!"

"Yes, sir." She answered before quietly closing the door behind her.

XXX

The sound of a zipper closing echoed down the hall as Sayuri adjusted her bag to make sure everything was in place. Quietly she dressed in her regular uniform before turning to the mirror. The single sleeved golden colored turtle neck fit her well, the red brown high waits skirt fell easily of her hips, her kunai was well adjusted over her left leg and her now long brown hair was tied to the side. With a nod of approval she turned to her desk where the scroll laid, unread.

Opening it she read over the information twice before rolling it up and putting it in her pouch. In the outskirts of the Waterfall…she thought as she headed towards the door of her home, stopping briefly to put on her boots.

"Let's see what we can find…Orochimaru." She whispered a brief image of the Uchiha avenger flashing in her mind as she made her way over to the main gates, the sun setting behind her.

A.N.

I know that this is really late and may not be the best ever but I promise I will continue on with the story. I've a bad case of writers block and on top of that I had school and tests so I am very sorry for not updating sooner. Please REVIEW! I cannot stress that enough! Thank you all who have reviewed, it really did motivate me! So yes it very important for me to hear from you guys!

Thank you! :D