A/N: I would've posted this sooner but then I decided to put up a list of music on my profile which I thought suits specific moments in this story. Some other people have done it for their stories and I liked that idea. So it'll probably be up by the time I post this. Check it out and tell me what you think!

Thanks to toolazytologin (or Saline) for the review! Uhm sorry I've never played WoW lol, but my best friend, the one who checks out my chapters before I post them, is an avid player and noted the similarity as well. I apologise for any misunderstandings. Uhm, but the Mass Effect series has heavily inspired this story, in case anyone else was wondering.

And Piru again! Thanks for the awesome support you give me. It really makes my day.

And last but not least, thanks to the extra story follows and favourites that I've gotten along the way. :D

So as I promised Sasuke is back! Everybody go Yay! Hahaha XD And woo! Another long chapter!

Disclaimer: I don't down Naruto or anything I happen to reference XD.

Warnings: Nothing really (except Sasuke, so get that tissue paper out for those nosebleeds hahaha kidding he's an ass at the moment).

Other Notes: (fonts)

Sakura thinking

'Inner Sakura'

Flashback

The Peacemaker

Chapter 8: The Cypher

"But I don't want to go out today." I deliberately said in an extra whiny voice. It was the truth. I wanted to have a depressive mope-around-the-loft day. But Ino was persistent that I accompany her around the city, something about "life is for the living" and the youth must have their time now.

If anything she sounded like Gai, one of my old Academy teachers and his foster son Rock Lee. The latter had on more than one occasion expressed his interest in me but I always knew nothing could come to fruition with us. I saw him as a friend and I was too hung up over Sasuke to think about anything other than the betrayal over him. After that I focused on my training and eventually came to dislike the idea of having any close friends other than Ino and then Sai whom I trusted completely.

"Stop it," She scolded, "You are getting dressed and coming with me today. Besides I have something to tell you that I can't do over the Holo-Com."

"What is it?" I frowned at her. What had she been up to this time?

"If you get your sorry butt moving I'll tell you."

"Fine," I sighed dramatically and dragged my feet out of the Com-Room.

Oh, I just can't win today.

My inner was suspiciously quiet today. I really hoped she was just building a sandcastle somewhere in an idle corner of my head and not plotting some sort of grand scheme to run after Sasuke while I wasn't paying attention. Sometimes, when I was lost in thought, she'd subconsciously lead me to a candy store or into the company of someone I didn't want to socialise with just to spite me.

I threw on something decent enough for Ino standards so that she wouldn't throw a hissy fit and drag me to the nearest boutique to change. I wore a pastel blue shirt with wide sleeves and cream coloured shorts together with comfortable black shoes just in case Ino wanted to have a sudden declaration of National Shopping Spree Day.

Sai decided, to my surprise, that he wanted to leave the loft too. He told me that he needed to take care of something. He would not tell me what but I decided to not press into the matter for the sake of not being a snoop. It seemed like even AIs had their own personal affairs to deal with.

I took a taxi to the Upper District since Sai was using the shuttle and I arrived at the mall there. The series of buildings were the brightest and most attractive in the most prestigious part of the city as well as the busiest on good days. The soothing sounds drifting in through the speakers of the mall made me feel a little better. I had Holograms all over the walls and stands were showcasing the annual Summer Festival coming up soon. There would be different musicians playing live, and various other activities as well as a fireworks display at midnight. I made a mental note to go to it. I hadn't been there for 4 years after my accident. It was about time I got a little bit of normality in my life.

Ino ran to greet me in a boisterous fashion, it almost made me want to run and hide behind the tall plants of one of the boxed up gardens in embarrassment. On off days like this her ostentatious behaviour got on my nerves. I wanted to be grumpy and isolated, but she would have none of that.

We hung out in the Garden Court. It was a little indoor park in the middle of the mall, sheltered by a high glass ceiling, with foods shops settled around it to the serve the people who ate or sat in the park to relax. The lush grass and perfect healthy plants were always kept nourished with a fine spray of mist which maintained the standard of perfected living here. The only two things that were allowed to grow freely without being symmetrical to anything else were the two ancient red maple trees that had been in the city since it had begun almost eight hundred years ago. There was also a fishpond between the trees which strangely enough had no fish. I had never given much thought to it until Ino and I had sat facing it today.

"So what did you want to tell me?" I asked leaning back on the bench we shared.

"That you're my best friend." She smiled.

I snorted a laugh, "I already knew that."

"Yes but that's not all," She sighed, "I feel like I need to tell you that more often now. You're already head deep in this troubling situation but I feel like if I don't contribute, I'll feel guilty somehow. Something bad is going to happen isn't it? I mean really bad. You and I, we can see it. The signs and subtle warnings. Here, in this peaceful place, you can almost forget about it, it almost convinces you that there's nothing wrong. I don't want to feel that way. So, that's why I'm going to help your stupidly crazy vigilante mission."

"Ino…" I said but she held her hand up.

"I know you want to tackle the legwork on you own and I can understand that. You don't want to have to worry about protecting someone else to get the job done. But that doesn't mean I'll sit around doing nothing. I put my ear to the ground got some info from ANBU. I heard that the information vault in Lower District went dark. They were researching something highly classified there. My dad lost a few friends who didn't come back from there yesterday in their investigation of the situation there. But I know you can do this. It seems irrational for me to say this but maybe since you're augmented you have a better chance of finding out what what's going on. My dad wants to go there next himself. I…"

She blinked a few times to fight an overflow of emotion and shifted around in her seat. "I don't want to lose my dad. And I don't want to lose you too but I don't know what else to do."

I turned to hug her. She hugged me tightly back.

"I'll deal with it." I reassured her. "And I promise to come back in one piece."

"Okay," She smiled at me. "Just be very careful. I wouldn't have asked if it hadn't meant a lot to me."

I returned home to grab my combat Holo-Pouch and then took a cab to the location she had given me with my heart in my throat. It did seem illogical that someone as young as me go on my own into a dangerous situation like this but ever since recovering from my accident I had completed my missions with flying colours. Also Ino father's was better at investigative work and interrogations than he was fighting in the field. Ino and I both knew that I would stand a better chance to sort this out without more casualties especially since her father was still recovering from an illness that had been going around lately.

I found the back entrance and slipped in the unlocked door. The vault was meant to be very secure but everything was offline. Not even backups were functional. The hairs on my arms were on end. I needed to be extra cautious.

The facility was quiet. Too quiet. This mission was extremely dangerous and I didn't have Sai on hand. But that didn't mean I couldn't get the job done without him.

'Yes because solo missions never go wrong.' My inner said sarcastically.

Oh you're back are you?

I made a fort! She grinned.

That's nice. I need to do this for Ino. This is important.

'Oh all the other missions weren't? Why couldn't we just bring Shikamaru with us?'

Because the fewer the people who are involved the less I have to worry about them. And besides Shikamaru needs to deal with his knee remember? So no field missions for him.

'Oh yeah. Well this stinks. No really, it smells like dead people.'

The scientists…

I walked over to their scorched bodies in the hallway. The walls were charred black and the all the electrical systems were blown.

They were electrocuted, but why?

'Malfunction?"

I moved from room to room silently listening for any sound but there was nothing. At the front entrance I found the bodies of the ANBU operatives. The same thing happened to them. Something was very wrong here. The entire floor has been taken out by an electrical overload coming from the various network consoles. None of them had stood a chance to escape but judging by the scope of the damage their deaths would've been instantaneous.

There should've countermeasures in place to prevent that from happening, especially here. Someone must have hacked it. But that's impossible. Not even a VI can override it without running into firewalls.

'Maybe it's that AI?'

Maybe, we'll see…

I walked back to the main hall and went to the emergency stairs to go down to the heart of the vault. It was a short descent into the darker part of the facility.

'There's no ANBU here. Don't tell me they didn't even make it this far.'

Bodies of security personnel and more scientists greeted me at the entrance to the main vault. I turn on the torch in my Holo-Gauntlet and looked around the dark room. There appeared to have been shots fired in the direction of the biggest storage room. It was the only place that had a light originating from it.

My heart beat pound wildly as I moved towards it. My pistol shook slightly in my hand and I had to stop in my tracks to calm myself down.

I can do this.

Peering around the wall past the open vault door I saw a single active console. The holograms flickered slightly. I swallowed hard and looked further in. In the middle power my several large cables was a force field. Inside that shield was a strange looking object. It looked like a piece of a puzzle the shape of a cube. Tsunade had one on her desk. I always took to taking it apart and reassembling it when I was waiting for her.

Other than that there was nothing in the room so I stepped in.

"What are you?" a deep electronic voice resounded in the room. I jumped and swung around looking for the source.

My gun came to rest on the flickering console.

"Are you going to attempt to deactivate this platform?" It said monotonously.

"That depends on what you are. Are you a VI, an AI?" I said.

"This platform is an imprinted conscious of one no longer living."

"You… you're alive?"

"Incorrect. This program was created for a sole purpose. The conscious of the one who created this platform wills it to act as it would have."

"And what purpose is that?"

"To protect the Cypher."

"Cypher? You mean that thing?" I tilted my head back to the puzzle piece.

"Correct. Do you threaten the Cypher?"

"I don't know what it is? Do you know?"

"It is that which this platform is programed to protect."

"Yes, but what is it?"

"That which this platform was created to protect."

I sighed.

"So you don't know. Did you kill the people here?"

"They threatened the safety of the Cypher. This platform's programing dictates that it must ensure its safety no matter the consequence. The armed organics attempting to enter wished to deactivate this platform too. This platform could not allow it."

"So you killed them too. I suppose you don't know why need to protect it either." I murmured. To protect itself it had used the facility against the people inside. Clever, but inhumane, as a robot conscious would be.

"What are you?" It repeated its first words.

I frowned, "Can you elaborate on that?"

"You are an anomaly and this platform has no files on something such as you. What are you?"

"I'm a human." I said thoroughly confused and a little peeved at being called weird by a VI.

"Correct, but there are several discrepancies which this platform does not know how to deal with. You are not just an organic."

"You mean my augmentations then?"

"No, the technology in your body was detected in several others as well."

"So then what's wrong with me?"

"Unknown. It is the reason why this platform asked you and let you make it this far."

I swallowed. I was lucky to be alive because the VI had limited data.

'Who knew we'd survive without knowing we'd almost ended up dead?'

"Okay, never mind that then, how did you kill these people? It shouldn't be possible for a VI to hack a high end security system like this."

"This platform is programmed to use whatever means at its disposal to carry out its duty. This platform was placed in this console to be studied. They attempted to access and change this platform's programming. This platform would not allow it."

"But why kill them? Couldn't you just have denied them access?"

"No." It said simply. "This platform's actions would ensure that they could not attempt to ever hack this mainframe again. A permanent solution is more effective than a temporary one."

I shook my head. Of course a VI would think of it that way.

"Alright. What do I need to do to make sure that neither you nor others threaten you?"

"You wish to protect this platform?"

I snorted. "I just don't want anyone else dead. Can I take this Cypher somewhere where none else is in danger?"

"No, you are incompatible with the Cypher. The others who tried lie to your left."

I looked and saw a heap of corpses in the corner.

"You killed them too?"

"Incorrect. You are-" It stopped itself then the console flickered more frequently and whirred with activity and said, "Compatible presence detected. Starting up systems."

"Wait, what?" I whirled around and to my astonishment I saw Sasuke standing in the doorway.

Before anything else could happen I was suddenly being pulled by some invisible force towards the Cypher. I looked to Sasuke and the same thing was happing to him. I couldn't fight the beam that was bringing me closer and closer. The Cypher began to spin in place.

I cried out as I was lifted off the ground in front of the puzzle and then a searing green light engulfed the room. Sasuke was suspended across from me and was struggling too. A shock of agony entered my mind and burned my senses. I screamed. The pain was incredible. I couldn't move. I couldn't close my eyes away from that light and tears streamed down my face from my suffering. There was nothing I could do. I was helpless.

I was going to die.

At that point I lost consciousness.

I was floating, it seemed. I felt at rest as though my problems had vanished in an instant. But something told me I needed to wake up. Opening my eyes I saw the world was distorted, vexing to the point that I had trouble remembering my own name. Then I realised I wasn't really anywhere at all. The distortion was due to the fact that I was somehow underwater but breathing. Around me were sharp objects like swords and spears and spikes jutting out from whatever was below me. A warzone? Or a graveyard.

I gasped as the next thing I knew I was being pulled violently to the surface of this dark water rushing towards a malevolent red light. I fought furiously against the strong current kicking my arms and legs out to no avail. Breaking through the ice on the surface was painful but I couldn't scream. If I had been, I couldn't hear it. I couldn't hear anything.

Excruciating pain shot through my entire body, thousands of unseen needles plunging into my skin. I had never felt anything akin to this before.

Why is this happening to me?

Am I dead?

Is this… is this hell?

No this is something else. I reasoned with myself as I lay on top on the water as it turned into something solid underneath me. I could not have done anything so bad that it warranted me to spend the afterlife like this.

The excruciating pain stopped and I gasped feeling numbness return to my body.

Before I could think any more on it I saw Sasuke high above me floating down from his own watery domain here to this place illuminated in crystallised crimson. His eyes were closed hair drifting around his handsome face. He was dressed in the same white and black ensemble that I'd seen him earlier in.

Wait…

The memories began to filter in.

That terrifying green light…. The pain in my head. Sasuke had been there too. He'd been dragged up and towards that strange object too.

That's right. It blew up and my head seemed to have imploded.

So we are dead. Right?

Sasuke broke through the surface then too and his eyes flew open. He grit his teeth, face constricted momentarily in pain. He noticed me after that.

The upstart glared at me like it was my fault.

Then the world shifted and we were both falling. I could hear whispers that I could almost make out as I dropped into oblivion. There were shadows of people and places I didn't recognise whizzing past me until I slowed in momentum drifting gently to the gravelly surface that came to meet me. Sasuke landed not too far from my position. He made a point of not looking at me.

Someone has a serious case of sour grapes…

I wanted to go over to him and do something, anything. I wished I had the words to convince him of the errors of his ways but I knew I lacked the persuasion to do so. He hadn't ever really listened to me…

A rumbling came from below and then thousands arrows broke through sending the gravel flying. Instinct told me to run but my feet stayed planted to the ground. I looked up and saw two ancient armies at war with one another fighting on the ceiling. Or were we the ones upside down? The arrows rained down on the soldiers killing all but three of them. Their faces were obscured to me but their actions were obviously hostile; the first two men had swords drawn on the third. They were arguing but I couldn't hear them. The next moment I fell from the ceiling down into darkness. The scene had vanished.

A terrible screeching sound reached my ears and looked around until I saw a giant shadowed air ship come into view. It was the colour of ash and had what looked to be giant pieces of rock covering it like armour. There were hundreds of people surrounding it worshiping it as though it were some sort of deity.

An explosion of white light overwhelmed me again and the next thing I knew I was back in the room where the machine had been. There was a huge hole in the ceiling and sunlight filtered through over me.

I groaned in pain, feeling a headache coming on and stood up. Sasuke had pinned me to the wall in an instant. I hadn't even had time to think let alone register that he'd moved from halfway across the room in less than a second.

I yelped as I found his furious face too close to my mine. The boy from my past was no longer that. He was older, his eyes devoid of light and cruel cynicism in its place. His face was hardened; cheeks shallower than they should be from slight malnutrition. I didn't want to think of why. His still angular nose had a tiny scar on the bridge where I had once nicked him with a knife during training at the Academy. Kakashi had been so proud of the accomplishment. Sasuke had been stunned. I had been mortified, dropping the knife in horror and cried for the next hour apologising profusely to his great annoyance. Of all the impressions I had wanted to leave on him that had not been one of them. I frowned as I noticed his shock of messy ink-black hair was more than a little higher than my head.

Was it just me of was he taller than his file suggested? But wait… Those files were four years old and only speculated his current height.

Of course he'd be taller now. More than a few inches taller than me. It pissed me off for some strange reason. Maybe because he looked old than me when he was; the height issue didn't help either for my big sister mentality that I wanted to adopt.

You can't take care of a plant. How did you expect to take care of a delinquent?

That plant's completely different to Sasuke!

Yeah, it's long dead and he's not.

"What the hell did you do?" He said coldly, his thin lips pulling back into a snarl, blade at my throat.

"I didn't do anything," I said defensively, leaning away from the sharp object. I was not in favour of being anywhere near it. "That thing pulled us towards it."

"You activated it." He leaned closer, the coldness of metal touching the skin under my chin. "What did it tell you?"

"That I was abnormal and it didn't know what it should do to me." I rambled quickly.

"What?" he blinked at me.

"Don't what me." I glared at him. "That's the truth! Cross my heart, hope not to die. I'm just as uninformed on this as you are."

He seemed to ponder this for a brief lapse of time and then pulled away.

"I really should kill you right now." He murmured, that darkness in him making my skin crawl. He definitely meant what he said, however insane it sounded. Maybe he was insane...

"No," I shook my head quickly, "No, you shouldn't. There's absolutely no reason why you should. No, none at all."

"Is that so?" He seemed to be gauging my reactions like I was mental challenged; which, in that moment, I possibly was.

"Yes, I can write down a whole list of reasons why you should not do that and a whole lot of other things but you probably wouldn't read it anyway…" I babbled on.

Keep this up and we'll dead before we can say "chop suey!"

Oh just shut up! You're not helping me at all!

"Still annoying," He muttered and turned away from me sheathing his sword.

I went from babbling buffoon to full out rage monster in an instant.

"What the hell was that?" I snapped. "Are you a bi-polar bear or something? Ready to kill the one moment then a grouchy grandpa the next?"

A bi-polar bear? Really? You might as well have called a potato a carrot.

He shot me a glare and walked to the station where the strange object had been.

"Well!" I just about yelled, "You social skills are still as bad as ever! In fact, I think they've gotten worse!"

He stopped, punching his clenched fists on the charred console in front of him, "Either you explain what happened or you shut up and try to find out."

The nerve! I ground my teeth together. He was right, but damn could he drive me nuts. I took a deep breath and then released it feeling a bit calmer.

"Did you dream?" I asked walking back to where the object had been.

He said nothing.

"About that war?" I pressed raising my voice an octave.

"Yes." He said so quietly I almost didn't hear him.

"Do you know what it means?" I knelt down to look for anything resembling that puzzle piece.

"No, I don't." His voice was hard.

"Okay." I grit my teeth; the antipathy in the air was stifling. It made me want to run as far away as I could from him to go find the real Sasuke. But I'd just be lying to myself to make me feel better. The adrenaline had faded and now the feelings were rushing back. I kept wanting to glance back at him to see if there was anything of the old Sasuke there but dug my fingers into my thigh and looked every but at him.

"There's nothing to salvage here…" I murmured standing and walking to what was left of the doorway. There was only so much I could take.

"Wait."

I stiffened.

"What exactly did it tell you?" He said and starting walking towards me. "No jokes, alright?"

"I wasn't joking," I snapped and walked on. He followed. "It said it killed the scientists here because they messed around with what it was trying to protect and said something about them not being combatable with its programing. I don't know why, but he said I was different. An anomaly and it didn't know whether or not to kill me too because he didn't know what I was. Then you waltzed in and everything went crazy."

He didn't comment but he continued to follow me as we exited the complex. It was freaking me out. It seemed like one wrong step and he'd slice my head off.

'I wonder why he changed his mind… I mean you weren't doing that great with the negotiations for our lives.'

Maybe it was some stupid test he concocted in his head like last time. How'd he find out about this anyway?

'The better question is why did he come after you in the room?'

To kill me and take the information?

'Oh, right. I was thinking something more romantic strangely enough…'

You're about as romantic as rock. You'd just hit him and hope he responds in a good way. Not that he ever responds well to anything I do. C'est la vie.'

'La vie'

I snorted inwardly. Nice, solid joke that.

She laughed and prodded me to look back at Sasuke. I refused not trusting what I'd do.

My earpiece beeped then and I pressed it to answer the call.

"Sakura, are you alright?" Sai spoke.

"Sai? Yes, I'm fine. Why do you ask?"

"I could not detect your implant on my server for three minutes. Are you functional?"

He was referring to my augmentations. At that point I did glance back at Sasuke and his gaze was locked determinedly on me. He was obviously suspicious; perhaps he thought I'd bring the KSF down on him. How I wish I could.

"Uh, no nothing like that happened." I said, "Are you done with what you needed to do? Can you come here? I need you here personally."

"Tracking your implant plant location. You are in the Industrial Complex?"

"Yes." I confirmed, "Please hurry."

Before Sasuke kills me!

"Acknowledged."

I exited from where I had entered from to wait in the parking lot. I had assumed Sasuke would take off but he didn't.

"Who's Sai?" He said and my heart leapt.

He's talking to me! As in relatively normal conversation!

"My partner." I answered automatically.

"Did he alert the KSF?" I shook my head, "So no arresting me speech?"

"No, I don't have the authority to do that anymore." I said and leaned against a half-wall crossing my arms over my chest. "The real question is why are you lingering around here? You made it very clear you didn't want to hang out."

"I'm not letting you out of my sight until I know what's going on."

I should have felt flattered by the attention but I felt more wary than ever right now. What would he do to me if he knew the answer? It scared me. Before, it hadn't matter to me that he didn't speak his mind. But now that we were on opposite sides of the fence I really wanted to know if he was going to attack me or not. He had already said that wanted to kill me…

It hurt. It felt like I was being betrayed all over again. I had to work to keep my emotions in check. I would not be that weak again. Not in front of him in any case.

"You're going to ask your partner about this aren't you?" He continued, "The way you were talking, it seems like you think he'd know."

He was still as perceptive as ever. I used to love that about him. Now it pissed me off.

"Yes," I replied with a sigh, "If anyone will know it's him."

He frowned but didn't speak further. There was so much I wanted to say to him, so many unanswered questions. I didn't know where to start. I hadn't ever expected to see him again. Of course I'd hoped I would come back, but my words always seemed to fail me.

What do I do? What do I say? Should I be blunt, straight to the topic? Because small talk never held well with him. Or would I have to demand he come clean?

'Finally we're taking initiative! Wring it out of him!'

No that would be a terrible idea.

'It's not like we're on his good side anyway…'

I'm not about to make it worse.

"Do you have anything else to say?" Hoping I could ease him into conversation.

The only action he made was to blink. Other than that he could've passed easily for a mannequin.

"Really? Nothing at all? After all these years just nothing."

"Here I thought there'd be some silence from you for once." He muttered.

"I don't work that way and neither does the world, Sasuke. People have to communicate, lest there'd be a huge misunderstanding. If you just ask nicely then we can avoid the needless slaughter of ex-partners."

"You say it like you'd be the one to kill me."

"I'm different, as you've previously noted. And, as I've seen, you're worse than before. So anything could happen."

Sai made a rather speedy arrival in the shuttle. I was relieved for his presence as Sasuke was giving me the evil eye again after a moment of incredibly nerve-wracking silence.

"Hey, you made a good time coming here." I smiled. "I need you to test me and Sasuke over there. Something happened to us in the vault."

"You're partner is a VI?" Sasuke questioned keeping his distance.

"You have a problem with that?"

He didn't reply instead he was looking distastefully at my current partner.

Argh! What doesn't he have an issue with?

'His reflection?'

Sai waved his Holo-Gauntlet over me. I saw him pause at the results and scan me again.

"What's wrong?"

"Sakura, you have a computer virus in your brain."

"What?" I was floored. "Are you sure about that?"

"Yes. It should not be possible and yet it is." He turned his gaze to Sasuke and moved over to him. Sasuke glared and stiffened when Sai waved his Holo-Gauntlet front of him.

"Another component." Sai said. "It is different yet it stems from the same source."

"What does that mean?"

"It means that one part of the virus exists in Sasuke's head while another exists in yours. I will note that they both must exist together."

"And if they don't?"

"There will be a short circuit." Sai turned to me. "If Sasuke's mind shuts down, yours will as well and the same will occur if your mind no longer functions."

"Wait, that means if he dies… I will too?"

"Precisely."

I saw a scowl wash over Sasuke's face and felt myself grimace too.

Things had just gotten a lot more complicated.

TBC

A/N: Ooh the plot thickens XD hehehe. Anyway, I hope all that made sense and that you continue to enjoy my story. Reviews? They help me write quicker…