While they ate, Kakashi had told her that he was going on a solo mission towards Suna. She had pressed him for the details, but he refrained, saying it was, "off the record" and a "secret." Once again she suspected a deception. It's probably really easy, not a secret, and he'll spend the whole time reading one of those perverted book he's always got his nose buried in.

She had brought up Naruto and Team 10, asking if he had learned anything of their progress. "No. But Tsunade said a messenger bird had arrived days ago with news from the delegation. She expects they'll be back soon as long as they got out before the snow hit."

"Snow? Isn't it kind of early for that?" Sakura asked.

"Mmmmm... Here, yes, but you can never can be certain of the weather in those mountains. At least they're not going through Oto. News is there's a blizzard sealing off that entire region." At this a tiny shiver raced through Sakura. Then a memory briefly flashed across her mind of Naruto during a mission to the Land of Snow. She recalled the warmth of his hands as she helped pull the idiot from the snow drift he had blundered into. She had lectured him and he had laughed, but it was the warm feeling of his hands, brefly joined with hers, that she really rememered. Kakashi noticed her sudden distraction, but didn't say anything about it. Sakura's attention soon returned, and if there was the slightest flush to her cheeks, who could be certain that it wasn't just from the cold air or hot ramen?

....

After stopping off at home, Sakura made her way towards the Hokage's Tower. She decided that lunch with Kakashi had been fun, but way too short. And although she had been expecting it, she was still a bit surprised when he actually paid for her. With Kakashi, one could never be certain. On more than one occasion the masked shinobi had disappeared on her and her team sticking them with the bill.

The tall round tower she stepped into served as the offices for the Hokage and the village council. Her sensei and teacher was none other than the legendary kunoichi Tsunade, one of the three sannin and the Fifth Hokage. She waved greetings to familiar faces as she made her way to the top floor and Tsunade's office. She could have waited another day to come, but she was eager to continue her training. It had only been a few years ago that Tsunade had accepted her a student and begun training her to be a medical-nin. Much of it was book learning and memorization of anatomy, a great deal was learning more concise chakra control, but there was a great deal of physical work too and Tsunade drilled her relentlessly in taijutsu and using what Naruto called 'monstorus strength.' It really wasn't strength so much as an extension of the chakra and anatomy exercises. During an attack she focused precise amounts of chakra into her own bones, muscles, tendons and skin, allowing her to generate tremendous power. She couldn't create a deep trench in the ground with one finger like her sensei ... yet, but she could knock down trees and create craters with her fists and feet.

Her hand hovered above the Hokage's door preparing to knock when she heard voices from the other side. "…consideration… … …please… …drink… … … … your gambling… … owe too much… …." Finally It was quite and then the door flew open and Shizune, Tsunade's assistant and apprentice, came through carrying a pile of books and loose papers. Held tight under her chin was a corked bottle that Sakura suspected was filled with sake.

"Oh! Hello Sakura," Shizune said, managing to keep the bottle tucked under her chin she turned slightly and peered over her shoulder to look back inside. "You can go right on in." Then in a conspiratorial voice she added, "I managed to get the sake from her, but I know she's still got a racing form hidden in there somewhere … let me know if you spot it." She continued past the girl with a small wink leaving the door open.

Sakura walked in to a neat office with a huge desk facing the entrance. Behind it were two very large windows that looked out over the village and let in most of the day's light. The desk was piled high with stacks of paper, several of which appeared to be on the brink of toppling. Behind the desk sat a fairly young woman with long blonde hair, hard piercing eyes and a diamond shaped purple mark in the very center of her forehead. Everyone in the village knew that Tsunade was really an old lady who used jutsu to retain her youthful looks and vigor, but only her teammate, Naruto, was ever stupid enough to keep mentioning it. Sakura knew those two had somekind of deep bond between them, because nobody else would consider calling Tsunade ba-chan ... not unless they had a death wish.

Tsunade, perhaps the greatest kunoichi ever known, sat with a dejected look on her face scowling into an empty cup. "One lousy drink. Damn it, I'm supposed to be the Hokage! If I want an entire keg, then that's what I should get!"

Sakura cleared her throat getting her sensei's attention. "Hai Hokage-sama. I hope I'm not interrupting?" she said bowing her head and hiding her smile.

Tsunade scowled at the cup once more before flipping it onto her desk. "Sakura. Good, you're here!" She glanced at the paperwork on her desk and the girl knew that she was seeing her arrival as some sort of reprieve from work.

"Master?" acknowledged Sakura. Her eyes shown with eagerness as her master pushed herself away from the desk to stand up.

Tsunade glanced out the windows once, rounded the desk and had Sakura locked in tow as she briskly made her way out the door. "I think we'll work some more on balancing your chakra while using taijutsu." She paused at a door marked 'JANITORIAL SUPPLIES' before letting Sakura's arm drop. Surreptitiously the sanin looked down the corridors before opening the door. "We need just one thing first," she said. Reaching behind a pile of rags she produced a familiar looking bottle. It too had a cork in it.

Tucking the bottle into her robes, she turned to Sakura and with a smile said, "Now… Which training ground should we go to today?"

.…

Darkness fell over the leaf village as a tired and sore Sakura finally reached her home. Things had gone really well until Shizune had shown up lecturing Tsunade on responsibility and confiscating what was left of the sake. From there it had turned into brutal workout as Tsuandae worked out her vexation.

It wasn't long before Sakura was stepping out of a hot shower and heading down to the kitchen to eat the meal her mother had kept warm in the oven for her. Afterwards she chatted with her parents before taking a phone call from Ino, who was now, "insanely bored." Later she tucked herself into bed under a heavy white comforter and let thoughts of the day and plans for the morrow drift across her mind. Disturbingly she found herself thinking of Naruto again. I wonder what he's doing? But it was with thoughts of his warm hands that she slowly fell asleep, a small smile on her lips.

….

Naruto, at times still delirious, slept. The red glow had definitely dissipated since morning while the claws and extended canines appeared to have shrunk dramatically. The boy had curled himself into a fetal ball and now slept on his side, head resting on arms that trembled with fever.

He was lost in dreams and nightmares. In these nightmares he created and lived the most awful events. People died in his dreams. His friends died. His teachers died. His village died. Towering over all, mad with anger, roared the Nine Tailed Fox with his voice. Repeatedly he watched himself transform into the demon to rip his precious people to pieces. His heart shattered as Sakura pleaded with him to stop—but he couldn't and she was torn apart. He lived it all with anguished horror as his bloody claws destroyed everything he loved.

A dark and strange place was inside Naruto, created by the seal that the Fourth Hokage had used imprison the demon. It appeared as a subterranean basement with leaky grey pipes running along a high ceilings, disappearing into endless dark cooridors; water dripped from junctions in the pipes flooding the floor and echoing from the walls. At the end of one of these cooridors loomed a double door gate made of thick metal bars that ran from floor to ceiling. Barring these doors was a ridiculously small, very ordinary paper tag that simply read, "SEAL."

Behind the bars of the gate huge white eyes with red slits glared out with hate and hunger.

Naruto stood before this gate, head cast down, shoulders slumped, while red vicious chakra oozed under the gate, mixing with the water, spiraling up and around his body. In the reddish glow the Nine Tailed Fox could be seen: head as large as a truck, teeth the length of a grown man's arm and a body so large that the rest was hidden from view. There was about it malevolence beyond comprehension.

In this dark world the two stood across from each other in silence, neither moving, an eternal standoff: with only those thick bars and that ridiculous tiny piece of paper between them. The water continued to drip. Naruto continued to dream. And the demon continued to hate.