Akio bore the face of an assassin as he stalked back into the common room. An hour ago, he had set Katsuki's corpse on fire to destroy the remains and hide the evidence. The Kuchikukan's numbers had declined by one, but there were still thirty-eight, enough to destroy the hopes of the Leaf.

Sasuke paced nervously around the living room. Hanako was in Hinata's care now, and his only focus was the mission.

"Sasuke, you've been pacing like that for hours, and the sun's already set," Sakura remarked. He seated himself next to her and gently brushed a stand of pink hair out of the way of her lovely green eyes.

"I can't help it, Sakura. Konoha is up against at lest thirty ninja that are out to destroy us and then the rest of our village. It doesn't make any sense. Why would someone want so strongly to destroy the Uchiha clan? It's just not fitting…I still wish that you'd stay behind." She sighed and shook her head. "I know that you won't; I've given up on convincing you. I wish there was some other way."

"What else can we do? I'm not standing back and watching our friends get killed to save us."

"Nor am I, but I wish there was some way we could plot around them for a while; there just doesn't seem to be a chance for any of us. Even tough it isn't possible that the entire Kuchikukan is made up of jonin or higher, I simply can't believe that we have much a chance at winning this battle, and the stakes would be too high if we were to risk it and send more shinobi than we already are." Sakura noticed that this was one of the longest conversations she had ever had with Sasuke, and let him talk without interrupting for several minutes. "If we die, the team loses and all of Konoha with it. If they die, it's an extreme loss of the Waterfall which will undoubtedly begin a war and then who knows what. There isn't any way to prevent this. We can't even ask for the help of the Sand, because among their allies is the Waterfall. This seems more and more hopeless by the minute."

"It'll all work out somehow; I promise." Sasuke sighed, letting his raven colored hair fall back over his eyes and masking the rest of his face in shadow.

"I seriously doubt it. If any of my team mates die I will hold it personally on myself."

"Don't say that! None of this is anything you can control! It's not your fault that they're against us. I have a theory…"

"Hn?"

"Do you think it's possible that an avenger of Orochimaru planned this?"

"I highly doubt that it's the case, but it's not all together impossible. Why they would have waited so long I can't say; if they wanted to kill me why bother building up a force so large and waiting so long to strike. I definitely feel that there is another purpose of this organization, but that may be a part of it. Whoever it may be is planning to go to war with Konoha; why is what I don't understand. The Fire lands have never necessarily been on a friendly basis with the waterfall, but we haven't given them any reason to pose such sudden threats. It is possible that at the top of this, there's a power thirsty leader looking to control the ninja world, but I don't even see how that reasoning would be possible. Quite frankly their leader isn't a complete screw up, because so far their movements have remained all but undetected, though I'm positive they're already in the outskirts of Fire territory," he devised.

"Well, whoever is controlling them has got some power over their heads. I'm sure that there are some in the organization that have no intention of following his orders, which leads me to believe that if we can get to him first, we may eliminate some of the problem," she contemplated, looking over to Sasuke. She knew that over the course of his life he had undoubtedly faced many problems that required extreme planning and thought, but she had never seen him so bothered before. Maybe he really does worry about me this much, she thought. She'd always known Sasuke to be a somewhat emotionless person, but there were times—a very limited few—when his inner self would peek its head out form behind the corner and startle her. For instance, there was the time in the cherry blossom grove when he had turned against the sound to save her. Those were the times when he had revealed his inner. She missed seeing that side of him.

"Yes, that's most likely the case, but I doubt the mastermind will show themself until we've taken enough of a blow to eliminate the threat we pose to them."

"Didn't Takahiro say that there was a particular man who was holding the meeting?"

"Yes, but even so, it's impossible to devise that this person was the real mind behind at all, and even if he was, we know neither his name nor his face, so there's no way to find him anyway. The best we can hope for is another few pieces of information before we come face to face with the organization in battle. There's no doubt that Shikamaru is already putting in quite some though as we speak, but I don't think he has any more information than we do, so we'll have to play it low for the first week and see where that gets us.

"It's late; you need sleep."

"So do you," she retorted.

"Hn," he replied, moving towards the staircase.

"Sasuke…" he turned around to face her."Is there any hope for us?"

"Who's to say there's not?" he asked, the serious expression disappearing from his face. She remembered her thoughts of only moments before; his inner had returned.

"I just can't help thinking that there's never going to be a way that we'll make it out of this alive."

"There is really no telling, but for tonight, we are alive," he said, taking her hands in his. Her expression was that of the one she had worn the day he had returned. So much happiness filled her eyes, but he could tell that the sorrow and fear was lurking within them too; somewhere deep down was where she had shoved all the hopelessness and agony that she couldn't bear, and he knew that it was no good if it stayed bottled up inside her. "Sakura, tell me everything that's causing you pain right now; I can see it in your eyes." Her eyes widened; she wanted to tell him but didn't want him to suffer worrying about the things that were bothering her. He was the same way that she was; when he felt any pain, he immediately reacted as if nothing was bothering him. Because his mood was never truly cheerful anyway, you could never tell if there was something that was bothering him.

"Well, it doesn't make any sense to me either; the whole Kuchikukan. Like you said, it doesn't fit. I worry about Hanako. What will happen if we don't win, if we don't survive?" Sakura broke off crying. Tears washed down her pale cheeks. As Sasuke watched, he felt a wave of pain sweep over him; she was so troubled. "She'll either be killed or have to live parentless like you did," Sakura broke off again, and buried her face in her hands. Sasuke watched, frozen in horror. He never wanted Sakura to have to feel this kind of pain, and all he could do momentarily was watch as the last of her hope faded away into nonexistence. "I also worry about all the others, Naruto, Shikamaru, Neji…they're in the same position we are," her voice rang. Sasuke's face was somber as he spoke.

"That's what being a shinobi is, but I believe that we can and will defeat these sadistic creeps." She smiled halfheartedly, but tears continued running down her cheeks.

"God, I don't want to lose you Sasuke…not again…not ever!" She sobbed. His arms threaded around her waist and pulled her up against him. She cried, tears running down her cheeks and onto the white cotton sleeve of his shirt. "I can't lose you again," she wept, clinging to him. He felt her hands were icy against the exposed skin above his heart. He pulled her in tighter, hoping that she would take some comfort in it. When her sobbing only increased, he cupped her face with his palm and caught her gaze. Gently, he pressed his lips down on hers and felt as she exhaled, her breath sweet on his tongue. She felt his steady, comforting heartbeat underneath her right palm. His skin was warm and soft, his kiss sweet and passionate.

The first time he had kissed her, it was in the cherry blossom meadow almost immediately after he had fought off the sound ninja. His outer self had been completely driven away. All of his legendary pride had disappeared, tears streaming down his cheeks. His quiet solitude had gone, and words swept out of his lips at an alarming pace. His cold, spiteful, avenging demeanor had melted into a loving, sweet, innocent, gentle, warm, passionate being which she doubted anyone besides herself had ever seen. She had seen in his onyx eyes that he did have the capability to feel so strongly for someone. She had seen how over the years he had rejected love and everything to do with it, and finally, all at once, he had revealed all of his inner truths, all of the fragments of his beautiful soul that had never been touched, all of everything that made up the Sasuke she had once known and loved; she still loved him: in spite of everything he had done, all the pain he had caused her, every time that he refused her love, she loved him with all of her heart, because he was always the one for her; there was never a moment in her life when he wasn't the one that she hoped she would be with forever.

Remembering all this made fresh tears spring to her eyes, because no matter how close she had gotten to him, even now having been married nine years, she had never felt that the wound of his leaving had ever healed; it remained an open cut in her heart that was constantly being nurtured but never healed. She wept into his shoulder and tried to remember that one time that she had finally felt whole again.