AN/ I just thought that I should warn you guys now before I go any further that this fic gets pretty dark. It has some very mature content in future chapters that some may find disturbing including but not limited to rape. I thank any of you who continue reading.

After a silent walk down the hall Sakura was actually glad to see her room. The only problem was that when she walked in, much to her dismay, he followed in after her. She turned and studied him for the first time since she had been reunited with him. He had certainly gotten taller, his hair had grown much longer ironically reminding her of Itachi, and his facial features had became more mature with the years.

Overall he had grown to be the completely gorgeous man that she always knew he would become. There were also some things that had not change and she doubted ever would. His deep onyx eyes still seemed to retain the ability to look right into the depths of your being and she hated it.

She was also certain that deep down he was still the cold hearted bastard that had killed so much of himself that he seemed willing to sacrifice even the lives of those he once held dear if it would get him one step closer to his goal. But she could change that couldn't she? No, she was under no illusions that she could turn him into a big cuddly teddy bear, but she could rock the foundation of his existence if she so desired. He seemed to be scrutinizing her almost as hard as she had been him and finally she couldn't take it anymore.

"What do you want," she snapped?

"I told all of you to stop searching for me," was his reply.

"Ha, that's rich," she gave a mirthless laugh. "The world does not revolve around you Uchiha. I will have you know that while Naruto hasn't given up his search for you, but I haven't gone with him for more than five years. I don't like to waste my time."

"Hn," Sasuke snorted. "Then why are you here?"

"Oh, your Master didn't make that clear just now," she mocked? "I was on a mission we were ambushed and led to believe that a member of my team was the target. Another member and I stayed back to delay your comrades. Obviously that didn't go to well. I think that we were wrong and I was probably the target from the beginning."

"Who was the member you thought was the target," he inquired?

"Classified," she retorted. "I don't make a habit of giving the identity of fellow ANBU to hostile forces. Now if you will excuse me while this is the longest conversation that we have ever engaged in I would like to rest now."

"You've changed," he raised a brow before complying with her wishes and leaving her room.

The nerve of that bastard Sakura fumed, and no she wasn't thinking about Orochimaru. How dare he have the nerve to think that she had been searching for him? Did he honestly think that she was the same foolish lovesick little girl that would chase her Sasuke-kun to the ends of the world? 'You've changed.' Damn right she had changed. Right now she honestly thought that if that prick caught himself on fire with one of his jutsus she wouldn't even piss on him or heal him when the fire finally went out. The egotism of some people was simply unbelievable. What just because he was going to stay the same unfeeling psycho who was bent on revenge the rest of the world was supposed to stay exactly the same until he had satisfied his bloodlust? Well she would show him. Her last thought before she went to sleep for the night was that she would rather heal Orochimaru's arms than to ever tell that cocky son of a bitch that she loved him ever again.

Sasuke smirked as he lay down in his quarters for the night. That had certainly been unexpected. He knew that there was something off about the ANBU member when he had first spotted her in the hall, but never would he have truly believed that it was Sakura. Of course the pink hair had been undeniable. It would seem that his teammate who was once only capable of hiding behind him and Naruto had indeed grown up. If what Orochimaru had said was true, and it would seem it was, she had even trained under one of the sannin perhaps even surpassing her mentor. Not to mention that she had grown cold, at least to him, never in a million years would he have thought that Sakura would ever speak to him the way that she had tonight. True she was under the assumption that he had tried to kill her the last time that they had met, but he would have stopped before he hit her even if that crazy man had not jumped in the way, or at least he was pretty sure he would have.

She had also changed physically as well. The tight fitting ANBU uniform left almost nothing to the imagination and she had developed ample curves in all of the places that a woman should while the rest of her body remained lithe presumable from her kunoichi lifestyle. She had allowed her hair to grow; it now brushed her shoulders from the ponytail high upon her head. Though he had no doubt that if it were to ever become a hindrance she would not hesitate to once again use a kunai to chop it off.

Over all if he were the kind of man who had time for such things he supposed that this new Sakura was exactly the kind of woman who would catch his eye. Too bad for her she had managed to catch Orochimaru's instead.

"Welcome to hell Sakura," he whispered before allowing himself to fall asleep.

It had been a sleepless night for Kakashi as he was sure it had been for the rest of his team. Well maybe not for Sai though judging by the young man's surprising emotional outburst this situation was just as hard on him as it was the rest of them. The streets were still empty as the sun was just beginning to lift the darkness of the night as he began to make his way to the memorial stone. When he reached it his eyes instantly went to the eyes of his fallen comrades having long ago memorized their places upon its face. He reached out a finger and gingerly traced the names carrying out his daily routine of atonement. He knew too many names on this stone. Too many of them had once been on his very own team. He felt that he had once done something horribly wrong in his life that he was still paying for to this day. There was of course the disaster with his first team, and who could forget the turmoil that had broken apart his beloved Team 7.

He had lost one of them to his own demons, and ironically it wasn't the one with the demon locked inside of him. After that he had almost pushed the rest of them away, but he felt that they had seen through his hurt and refused to allow him to wallow in self pity. Or at least Sakura had, Naruto was just Naruto. Sakura however had been too perceptive even from the time that she was a youth. Either way neither of them gave up on him, and he knew that they loved him just as much as he did them.

He had the privilege of watching them grow into the wonderful young people that they were today, and for that he was grateful. Naruto had blossomed and now had what he always wanted. Not only was he probably the strongest shinobi that Kakashi had ever seen, but the people loved him now and all of Konoha embraced him. Kakashi knew that meant more to Naruto then all of his jutsu combined.

Sakura however had taken a different path; she had became more like him. After the loss of Sasuke and then his betrayal Sakura had thrown herself into her work, something that he had done himself. It had paid off she was without a doubt the strongest kunoichi that he had ever come across, and that was saying a lot given their Hokage. However she had shut herself off from the rest of the world. Sure she had her friends that she had made as a child, but she refused to allow anyone else to have the chance to ever again hold her heart. It was a decision that he had made himself once long ago, but to this day he wasn't sure that it had been the right one.

He had hoped that given time someone would be able to get through to her. But now he thought as he looked at the stone Sakura may not be given that time. He knew that she would die before she would betray her village. No, he refused to follow this train of thought. He would be damned before he allowed her name to be placed on this stone. Without a doubt he knew that he would happily give his life in the place of hers. With that in mind he bit into his thumb and did a short series of seals. A poof was heard before his beloved summons stood before him; the summons that he had been proud to share with Sakura.

"You rang boss," the small pug said as he scratched behind his ear.

"Yes I did," Kakashi confirmed in his usual jovial tone. "I need you to gather the pack and go find my favorite student."

"Pinky," Pakkun quirked his head, "what happened to pinky? She hasn't tried to summon us."

"I am afraid that she probably can't" he said growing somber. "She has been taken by Orochimaru."

"We will get right on it," the pug said with his eyes almost bugging out of his head.

That taken care of he headed for the Hokage's office. He had an eight o'clock meeting and for once he wasn't going to be late.

Naruto was making his way through the streets with his hands shoved in his pockets feeling more down than he ever had in his life. Sakura was really gone. What if she hadn't insisted on staying behind to allow him to escape; what if he would have insisted on staying with her anyways? He guessed that the all the what ifs really didn't matter she wanted to protect him and he hadn't insisted on protecting her, and now she was gone. He knew how evil Orochimaru was and he knew how loyal Sakura was. The recipe of the two mixed spelled disaster. He would like to think that Sasuke would protect her. He was there and she was his teammate so he wouldn't let that damn snake lay a hand on her, but Naruto was not as dense as everyone thought that he was.

Of course he still wanted Sasuke to come home. This is Konoha his home, and it was where he belonged. Sasuke may not know it but what he needed was to back around his friends. Naruto had seen the change in him. He knew that he wasn't the same Sasuke that he had once been. That was why Naruto had been so desperate to bring him back. Sasuke needed the people who loved him if there was ever going to be hope of bringing back the person that he had once been. With each passing year even as stubborn as he was Naruto was having a harder time believing that he would ever be able to bring Sasuke home, or that he could be saved if they did. Perhaps the worst moment had been when Sasuke tried to kill Sakura. In that instant he had wanted to kill him; so he had never been so glad as when Sakura began to decline going along on rescue attempts.

Now her only hope may lie in Sasuke's hands. Sasuke who had allowed his own heart to harden with his desire for revenge, and that was before he spent years training under a monster. One thing was for sure. If he laid a hand on Sakura's head he would kill him.

Sai made his way quickly across the rooftops wanting to reach the Hokage's office as quickly as he could. He still felt irritated by the words of his blonde teammate, but that was by far outweighed by the feelings of worry for their pink haired friend. While it was true that most of his life he had a very hard time showing emotion he had learned through his time with his overemotional team that he had always possessed them; he had just not known how to identify them.

He could do that now though old habits die hard and he still seldom let any feelings show. Sakura in particular had helped in his development. A few years back he had invited her to his home to look at all of his artwork; something which he would have never considered before. She had even helped him to name several.

Once he had considered that a useless waste of time; now his work just didn't seem complete without that final touch. He had even done a series of six paintings of Sakura whom had been kind enough to pose for five of them.

The sixth had been done purely by memory.

It was a painting that he felt was his most inspired piece yet. They had been on a mission that had gone quite wrong. They had all sustained injury but had been still able to fight, and then the copy ninja had gone down. Sakura had plowed her way through three enemy nin earning a nasty gash on her upper arm in the process to get to their fallen teammate. She had knelt over Kakashi and immediately begun mending his broken form. One of their opponents possessed rather impressive strength and wanted to test it against the kunoichi who had shown a fraction of her own. He had sucker punched her while she was occupied causing her ANBU mask to shatter. Sakura had finished the last of her healing before she stood up and whipped a trail of blood off of her chin as she turned to face him. She had held a fury in her eyes like he had never seen before. She berated the man over how he could have injured her comrade as she gathered chakra into her fist which were tightly clenched by her sides. Needless to say the man's strength had not measured up.

In that one moment when she had been so infuriated Sai had never seen her more beautiful; after they got home Sai was a man obsessed and had spent three whole days making his masterpiece. He had titled it Perfection which caused Sakura to blush as she pointed out that her uniform had been tattered and that she had blood on her in several places. He gave a genuine smile as he had explained to her that those tatters and wounds were caused protecting those bonds that she considered precious, and that in turn made them beautiful.

Sakura was a conundrum. She was graceful and clumsy, kind and quick to temper, she held within her great happiness and deep sorrow. Most of all Sakura was comfortable. He felt more at ease with her than he did anyone and he was not going to lose that. Her abduction had brought about another emotion; fear. He would not fall to this new feeling though. He vowed to use it as his drive, and even if it took the rest of his days he would bring her home. He truly knew now how Naruto felt because he was determined that his Team would be whole again.