Well. I have one word for all of you.

Sorry.

SORRY FOR THE STUPIDLY LONG BREAKS IN BETWEEN UPDATES. Hey, I guess being sick and bed-ridden means I get a lot more writing done. And also means my sissy will bring me powerade (and I know she reads this now so I can talk about her and make her feel special. muahaha).

"Close friends are truly life's treasures.

Sometimes they know us better than we know ourselves.

With gentle honesty, they are there to guide and support us,

to share our laughter and our tears.

Their presence reminds us that we are never really alone."

- Vincent van Gogh -

Against the Sun: Chapter III

Unmasked

xx

"Impure World what?" Naruto asked, staring at his best friend. He didn't know exactly what that was, but he knew it didn't sound good.

Sasuke shook his head. "Impure World Reincarnation. It was originally developed by the Second Hokage but Orochimaru and Kabuto got a hold of it somehow. They had been researching it for as long as I can remember, and when they joined with Madara he wanted the technique for his own."

"Torune Aburame and Fū Yamanaka were used as a demonstration for the technique. Torune was killed, and Fū was sacrificed so that Torune could be reincarnated. It was only meant to be a demonstration, Kabuto was supposed to end Torune after his point was made. But it looks like someone wanted to keep him around."

Sakura looked at the poison again. She remembered Shibi saying something about a rare kind of insect that was only able to be used by a select few of their clan. "A venemous nano-sized bug that can be used to coat the users body, enabling them to infect an opponent with its poison by a simple touch." Everything was making sense now. "Shibi said that Torune could use them."

She couldn't believe she didn't think of that sooner. She had expected it to be an enemy's poison, not a clan member from their village. And when she had studied under Shibi, they didn't have any samples of that particular poison because it was so rarely seen. But all the pieces were falling together.

"Can Torune control himself?"

"The reincarnated retain their memories, personality and abilities, but they have no free will. They are forced to do what Madara orders of them."

Naruto shook his head in disbelief. "So they're puppets?"

"Yes. Last I heard, Madara said he wasn't planning to use the technique anymore. He didn't think he would even need it against the kages. Something must have changed his mind."

"Your allegiances. He must be doubting his odds if he's resorted to this." Sakura pointed out, still engrossed in the poison.

Naruto was in full investigation mode, mostly brewing questions in his mind, trying to find out everything he could while Sasuke was still there to tell them. They had to tell the Hokage, they had to let all of the kages know.

"Does Madara need a body to resurrect someone?"

A quick shake of Sasuke's head made Naruto's stomach plummet. "He only needs DNA. Which as a group, he, Orochimaru and Kabuto had a lot of."

"How many people can he do this to?"

Sasuke looked grim at this. "There is no limit. But controlling them takes energy. Depending on the power of the summoner, the amount could be endless."

"We all know that Madara is powerful." Sakura said, dropping the vial into her pocket. She was losing hope the more Sasuke explained the situation. Madara was one of the most powerful beings she'd ever come into contact with. And the most malicious. She didn't want to think about what he was going to do with these raised shinobi under his control.

Sasuke nodded. "Which is why I have to stop him before he can summon an army."

Naruto turned fiery at the mention of going after him. "You can't go after him alone. He'll be expecting you."

"We've been over this."

"And I still think you're in idiot for doing this by yourself."

Sakura shushed them both as their tones rose and sighed. "Naruto, nothing we do is going to change his mind."

"You could!" Naruto stood up. "He loves you. He'll do whatever you want!" He looked between the two of them and threw his hands in the air, letting out a frustrated noise before storming out through the tent flap.

She watched his back disappear out the tent and ran a hand over her face. Sasuke remained still beside her and she found herself wishing he would do or say something... anything.

"He's right you know." He caught her eyes. "I would do anything for you."

Sakura nearly scoffed. "I tried to make you change your mind once already. I begged you not to go. What's the use of trying again?"

He hesitated before reaching out and touching her cheek gently. "I am sorry, Sakura." He said quietly. And though he couldn't believe he was about to say it, he meant every word of it. Sakura was important to him, and everything she loved, he wanted to help. "I'm doing this to protect the village, to protect you."

She smiled for him, though he knew it was forced and being used to cover her sadness. "Yeah, well don't be reckless. You can't protect anyone if you're dead."

They met eyes then, and Sakura felt her stomach plummet. The idea... well she couldn't even imagine life without Sasuke anymore. She tried after the battle with Madara, tried to imagine giving up and letting him go, but she couldn't. He'd turned out so great considering everything. Now protecting his village, just like Itachi had been trying to do; striving for peace, but the only people who knew were already the people that had a spot in their heart for him, aside from Tsunade. No one would thank him when their village was safe from the threat of Madara. No one would praise him like they did Naruto. He would get no recognition... and if he died for this. If he died trying to protect a village that didn't give a damn about him...

He wouldn't die. He'd promised.

She wrapped her arms around him anyways, breathing in his scent, wishing with all of her heart that things were different. "I should go after him. Make sure he doesn't do anything stupid." She whispered, resting her hands on her lap.

"You should."

"And he and I have to report this to the Hokage."

He nodded, hand still soft and warm against her cheek. "I need to be going as well."

She let out a quick gasp and furrowed her brows together. "So soon?"

"This needs to be taken to the Hokage as soon as possible, and I need to begin hunting for him even more fervently than before. You have duties here, Sakura, and mine lie elsewhere."

Looking down at her hands, she nodded, realizing that he was right. He usually was. "There's nothing I can do to stop you?"

He paused before shaking his head. "Go get Naruto, Sakura. I will see you again."

She hugged him again, relishing in their last few minutes. She wanted to remember this. Wanted to remember him warm and caring and in love with her. In the midst of the war they were in, those thoughts would be enough to help her through when things got tough.

It was like she'd thought; she didn't have a normal relationship, not by any means. They weren't like Neji and Tenten, who knew that the other would only be a short walk away in this camp. They weren't like Naruto and Hinata, who barely ever left each others side. They were Sasuke and Sakura, who could be apart for months, not sure if the other was alive and still pick up where things had left off. She knew that no matter the distance he would still love her, and she would still love him.

Because they were the perfect couple. They just weren't in the perfect situation.

Knowing that didn't ease the strain his departure would leave on her heart. She wanted to ask him how long it would be until she saw him again, but she knew that the length of his journey didn't have a limit. He would take as much time as he needed to end Madara. She could only hope that it wasn't another few months. She knew she could probably deal with it, painfully, but she could. She just didn't want to anymore. She wanted him safe at her side all the time. Like this.

His lips met hers, and she hated and loved the kiss. It was heartfelt, it was heartbreaking. It was extreme joy, it was bone-crushing grief. And she knew that the moment it ended he would be gone from her.

"Goodbye." Sasuke said, pulling away from her and taking her hands in his.

"No, don't say it like that." Sakura whispered, shaking her head and meeting his eyes. "Say, 'I'll see you soon.'"

What seemed to be a ghost of a smile appeared on his face and he ran his thumb over her knuckles. She would say that. "Alright then, I'll see you soon."

Sakura nodded. "I'll see you soon." She repeated, biting down on her lip as he ducked through the flaps of her tent and disappeared into the darkness.

If she had to say anything about life, it would be to never blink, because there would always be something to miss. He had come and gone as quickly as the morning rain, and now he was off chasing the most dangerous criminal in their world. Alone.

But even if she was sad now, she had something to look forward to. Seeing him again, however far away in the future... that would be good enough.

xx

She found Naruto throwing kunai into the training targets near the perimeter of the camp. His muscles were rigid, and she knew he was fuming inside. It was an odd thing to see; Naruto was rarely seen without some kind of happy glint in his eye or his trademark grin.

"Naruto, hear me out, okay?"

Another kunai thudded into the center of a target. She took his silence as an okay for her to continue.

"Sasuke is stubborn, we both know that. I've tried to help him, I've begged him not to go after Madara alone but he won't listen. He refuses the help, he claims that killing Madara is his duty and his alone. Even if I chased after him, he would keep me as far away from the battle as possible, I know he would."

"Madara isn't just his responsibility. He's taken things from a lot of people. He is the reason my parents are dead." His voice was low, and angry, and Sakura was actually worried that Naruto might lash out at her. "We all want vengeance, we all want justice. Sasuke isn't alone in that. So if he's going after him, I'm going too."

Sakura looked down at her feet, listening as more thuds of the kunai's filled her ears. "Naruto, Sasuke just left."

One last kunai flew and he turned to look at her, eyes wide. "He's gone?"

She nodded dumbly, biting down hard on the inside of her cheek to stop her eyes from welling up with tears.

Naruto tore his eyes away from her, hating that he saw tears beading in her eyes. He hadn't meant to make her upset, he just couldn't get over the fact that their friend was taking on something that should have been done with an army by himself. He wanted to help him, he wanted to be useful. After failing to bring his friend back for so many years, he wanted to be there this time. He wanted to make sure that Sakura would see Sasuke again. She deserved to be happy.

"It was a hard decision for me to just give up and let him go. But people make hard decisions every day." She let out a sigh and forced herself to stop fidgeting. "All we can do now is warn the Hokages and hope that they'll know what to do about this."

"And if they think that Sasuke is still in league with Madara? They'll kill him on sight. They'll be so on edge with this news that they'll triple the scouts. Sasuke won't be able to get near here. He'll be off on his own for a long time."

Sakura shook her head, understanding what Naruto was trying to say, but knowing that she trusted Sasuke, she believed that he could do this. "I know."

"How can you be so calm about this?"

"I'm not calm!" She flinched at her own outburst. "It's only been twenty minutes and it's all I can do to hold myself together." Her voice was soft now, weary.

And Naruto felt guilty again. It was stupid of him to think for a second that Sakura hadn't tried to make him stay. Or at the very least tried to make him accept help. He moved closer to her, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her into a hug. "I'm sorry."

She didn't return the hug, instead pushed her tears back and accepted his apology. "Okay."

"I know you don't want him to be alone out there." He said glumly, though she felt a fire brewing behind his eyes. Like he was about to do something completely reckless and didn't want to tell her about it because he knew she wouldn't approve.

She rose a brow and put her hands on her hips. "What do you think you're planning, Naruto?"

He looked taken aback, and flashed her a shock looked that she didn't buy for a second. With a defeated chuckle, he held her eyes and tried to be serious. "I'm going after him."

"Right now?"

"Right now."

She crossed her arms over her chest, looking obstinate. "No, you're not."

"I am."

She waited for him to tell her it was a joke, that he wasn't going to leave her worrying about Sasuke and her best friend. And not to mention Hinata. He couldn't just leave without giving her an explanation, and he would have to leave now if he didn't want to lose Sasuke's tracks. But his goofy grin never came, and she knew that he was serious about going after him.

The rain had made the ground soft and his tracks would stay longer than normal, but with all of the extra patrols Tsunade had doing perimeter checks, his tracks wouldn't stay there forever.

"What about Hinata?"

A pained expression flashed across his face and he clenched his hand into a fist. "I don't have much time before I lose his tracks."

Sakura shook her head fervently. "You can't just leave her!"

Naruto wasn't normally the insensitive type. But was this being insensitive? Hinata would understand why he had to go right then, she would understand and she would still love him after he came back, because he would. And he would see her again when there was no more danger in the world. When they no longer had to be at war. When they could relax and settle down and...

She had to understand.

"Tell her I love her, Sakura. She knows, but tell her. Remind her every day that I'm gone."

"Naruto." She warned. He was a lot faster than her, stronger than her, and he knew that she wouldn't be able to stop him if he started to run. "Don't do this."

She wanted to be selfish and let him go because that would mean Sasuke had a better chance of coming back to her. But she couldn't let Naruto risk his life too. It wasn't right and it wasn't fair.

"I'm sorry, Sakura."

And then he was gone. Vanished like he'd used a teleportation scroll, which she didn't doubt. Any protests she had died on her tongue as she realized he was gone too, and she felt an overwhelming amount of sadness for Hinata. She knew the feeling, and she didn't want Hinata to go through it.

Naruto was the one person that kept her sane most of the time. Because she could talk to him about Sasuke, she could share in the pain they both felt that he was risking his life. And she wanted to go after him, she wanted to chase both of them but she'd made a promise.

Not to follow Sasuke.

But she'd never said anything about following Naruto.

She was about to take off after him, mind made up, but a voice from behind halted her in her tracks.

"Sakura, the Hokage is requesting you in the medical tent."

And just like that, she realized that she couldn't go. She was needed here. While Sasuke felt his duty was to end Madara, and Naruto felt like it was his duty to chase after Sasuke, her duty was here. Her duty was training medics, her duty was saving lives. And she couldn't just abandon them.

She nodded to her comrade and started off at a brisk walk in her destination.

xx

She knew she should have gone to see Hinata right away, but she couldn't just ignore the Hokage's summon. Even if she didn't want to see her in fear of Tsunade immediately knowing all of the dark secrets she had to hide. The fact that Naruto had left. The fact that he left because Sasuke came here. And also the very important issue of Madara bringing dead shinobi - dead enemies of Konoha - back to life.

Sakura was going to have to tell her eventually, but she needed more time to think about what exactly she was going to say. Because even though she was telling Tsunade all of this valuable information about their enemy, she was going to expect a source. And while she knew her shishou was aware of her relationship with Sasuke, she didn't think she would approve of him sneaking into their heavily guarded encampment to tell her about Madara's evil plans.

The medical tent was abuzz with activity, the morning rush of recruits all hanging off of their Hokage as she reset the leg of one of the scouts, watching her in increased amazement. She remembered when she hung off of Tsunade's every word. And she still respected her shishou, she was like a second mother to her. But the recent tasks and hardships she had purposely given Sakura when Sasuke returned made her question if everything she did was golden. Yes, Sakura had fallen in love with Sasuke and melted his angry hard exterior, or whatever Tsunade was hoping for, but she had hoped that for selfish reasons. She hadn't wanted Sasuke going against the village again.

She would always trust Tsunade with her life, but she just wondered if maybe, she'd grown out of treating her as her shishou, and should be treating her as the Hokage she was. They couldn't have the same intense personal bond they did when she was training under her.

With a sigh, she stepped closer to the group hovering around the Hokage and smiled, inclining her head slightly. "Hokage-sama."

Tsunade gave her a weird look and shooed her admirers away, giving them tasks to occupy them. "Drop the formailities, Sakura."

Well, there went her plan of using formal Hokage respect.

Sakura grinned and put a hand on her hip. "What'd you want?"

Tsunade looked at her old apprentice, then at the tent and people around them. "I wanted to compliment you and Shizune for the wonderful job you've been doing." Her eyes softened as she spoke again. "And apologize for my not helping the way I should."

"You're busy managing this camp, you can't be expected to help us and run a city on the move!" Sakura said incredulously. If that was the bar Tsunade had set for herself, she was going to have an immensely hard time reaching it. "We understand you have duties as the Hokage, and we're managing fine here."

She smiled. "I know you are, Sakura. And I'm very proud."

Tsunade had complimented her before, but this time seemed different. She seemed genuinely delighted that her and Shizune were managing the medic tent on their own. Sakura returned the Hokage's smile and the vial in her pocket suddenly felt very heavy.

With the way Tsunade had been treating her lately, with the tight remarks and short temper, Sakura thought it would be easy to keep the truth from her until she was ready to tell it. And she knew that she was busy, that they were both busy and tempers were running high just like their stress levels were. But they'd been in tough situations before, and Tsunade had never been so short and unkind with her.

But now she felt the guilt weigh down on her like a ton of bricks again.

"Do you have a moment? To talk?" Sakura asked, fingering the small vial of poison. Now that she knew what it was, now that she knew they had a lot on their plates, she realized it was stupid of her to even think about hiding this from Tsunade.

"Of course." She waited expectantly for Sakura to continure, but Sakura shook her head.

"I mean the whole council. There's something important you need to know."

xx

You know, I can't help but feel like this chapter isn't finished. And it's pretty irritating, but I want to put it up. So let's do that.

Review to your heart's content. Really, if you wanted to leave a review for every time there is a break from the 'xx', you go right ahead.

I don't mind.

Anyways, hopefully I won't take as long for our next update. But I think I say that every time... so we'll see how that goes. I promise I'll try!

Much love

xo

-EM