As always, thank you so much to everybody who was sweet enough to leave a review. :)


Chapter Eleven: The Truth


The first thing that Sakura heard, pricking at the edges of her consciousness and the all-consuming darkness and lethargy that seemed to have fallen over her like a heavy blanket, was the sound of birds. Louder and more insistent than she was accustomed to hearing. But just a few days ago, to her mortification, Kisame had assured her over breakfast that he had taken Samehada out to the back yard of the base and used it to dislodge and demolish the bird nests that filled the branches of the nearby trees, so that they would no longer be disturbed in the early hours of the morning by "that infernal noise."

And then, just as this odd, disjointed thought crossed her mind, even as exhausted as she was, Sakura felt the unmistakable sensation of a breeze on her skin; ruffling through her hair. She frowned, opening her eyes with difficulty, wondering whether Itachi had been struck with the sudden desire to open a window (and strip her of her blankets) during the night, and—

Sakura froze, her previous train of thought disappearing abruptly. She blinked around her surroundings, disoriented, and finally, as Itachi had taught her, she brought her hands close to her chest, forming the hand seal he had told her about, before coupling it with the precise concentration of requisite chakra. "Kai," she murmured under her breath, staring at the rock a few inches from her left foot; at the fallen leaf near her leg. "Genjutsu Kai."

Nothing faded away, though. It was real. Sakura felt her fingers digging into the tightly packed dirt underneath her, as she stared up at the sun – slowly making its way above the horizon; it had obviously just started to rise a few minutes ago, without fully seeing it. This forest was real, and her slowly-growing confusion threatened to become all-consuming. Last night…she clearly remembered falling asleep in her own bed, curled up beside Itachi. But now – her gaze snapped downwards sharply. She was fully dressed in her typical outfit, and…alone. She couldn't sense Itachi or Kisame's chakra signatures anywhere in the remote vicinity of this area.

Sakura looked around the still forest again, curling her legs close to her body self-consciously. Regardless of her preoccupation, something about her surroundings drew her attention. For all intents and purposes, there was nothing special about this forest, nothing to distinguish it from the many, many others she had seen while traveling with Itachi and Kisame. Nothing except – Sakura's eyes drifted upwards again…the canopy. The unusually lush, thick, vibrant greenery of the trees that surrounded her.

The memory of the dream returned in a flash; of racing through the tops of trees much like these, learning how to expertly avoid getting hair or feet or sleeves stuck in bunches of leaves or stray branches, and Sakura blinked from the sheer intensity of it. Was this the same place? Still, the thought only occupied her attention for a few seconds, before the first stirrings of panic and renewed confusion at her situation, and her solitude, set in. She struggled to her feet hastily, despite the protests of her hopelessly stiff, cramped muscles, but as soon as she even managed to stand upright, a wave of dizziness swept over her. Sakura staggered back against the tree trunk that she had been leaning against, reaching out to steady herself. On her feet for the first time, she realized that her head was throbbing mercilessly, and her stomach had an empty, hollow ache as well.

That she understood, at least – it was due to the unchecked production of gastric acid; it had been a long time since she had eaten last. Survival instinct took over, and Sakura automatically reached into one of her zippered skirt pockets, finding a bag of dried fruit. She had quickly eaten the majority of it before the realization hit her, and in that instant, she felt the apricot and mango mix turn into lead in her mouth as she reached downwards, seeking confirmation. The bag of fruit hadn't been the only thing in her pocket. Her summoning scroll had also been tucked in there, and she could feel that it was full of her belongings – her medical books, her clothes, even her cosmetics.

And Itachi and Kisame were still nowhere to be found.

Sakura had to take a deep breath to fight off the sense of rising panic, as she leaned back against the tree, closing her eyes. Panic was useless. Think, she counseled herself, trying to remain calm, but before she could get very far, her eyes snapped open as she regarded her surroundings warily. She heard voices. Soft but unmistakable, becoming more distinct as they advanced closer. At least three – two males, possibly one female? And they were headed in her direction. She bit her lip thoughtfully, torn between whether to remain where she was or retreat further back into the forest, out of sight. After several moments of internal debate, the pink-haired kunoichi decided that she had nothing to lose by approaching them and asking where she was. It would be the smart thing to do; certainly more intelligent than evading them and then wandering about for hours in search of the nearest town, or another source from which to seek out information. She had no reason to believe that these people would be hostile forces, whoever they were.

Still, Sakura felt more than a little apprehensive as she pushed herself away from the tree, toward the path and closer to the voices. She could glimpse them up ahead, and before she could lose her nerve, she stepped out into the path, several feet in front of the travelers.

They stopped dead the second they caught sight of her, and from the packs they carried, the scrolls and rolls of weapons visibly secured within their clothing, and their unusual attire, Sakura immediately guessed that they were probably a shinobi team. There was a boy with black hair styled into a bowl cut and thick eyebrows, dressed in a skintight green jumpsuit, a pretty girl with a Chinese-style outfit and her hair twined up into two buns on the top of her head, and an older-looking boy wearing traditional robes – and most unusually, his eyes were an unnerving shade of white, appearing to lack pupils at all.

But that wasn't even the strangest thing. As Sakura stared at them – the second she stepped into their line of sight – she was alarmed to see that all of them froze as if they had just seen a ghost. The green-clad boy's eyes widened, the color draining from his face, and the girl went chalk-pale as well, her hand flying to her mouth, as if shocked. "Oh, kami," she whispered, her voice barely audible. Even the boy with the white eyes, who looked older and more stoic than the other two, took a step back at the sight of her, visibly startled. For some reason, he flung his arm out, as if to protect his teammates.

Unnerved by their reaction (why were they looking at her like that?), Sakura quickly glanced over her shoulder to see if there was something more worrying that had triggered such a display. Faced with nothing but the trees, she turned back, and feeling more than a little bit uneasy, she opened her mouth to politely enquire where she was—

And the words died in her throat before she even started, because the boy in green cut her off, bridging the several feet between them in less than an instant; appearing in front of her with speed tremendous enough to rival Itachi's. The expression on his face was of nothing less than pure joy, and before Sakura could do anything more than stare at him, bemused, he grabbed her by the shoulders, looking her in the eye for a brief, searching instant.

"Sakura-chan!" he cried then, the happiness in his voice tangible, and then – for some reason, even though she had never seen him before – he embraced her tightly, holding her close; clearly overwhelmed by true emotion. "I have longed for this sight for months, and my eyes did not deceive me! It really is you! You were alive after all! Neji! Tenten! This is a miracle!"

Sakura stiffened from head to toe, now disconcerted beyond any measure she had felt before. The apricot-mango mix she had eaten threatened to make a reappearance, and despite the jubilation of the person embracing her – acting like this was some kind of long-awaited reunion – all she felt was confusion. What was going on? Who was this? He clearly knew her – but…what had he said about her being alive? She tried to extricate herself from the enthusiastic embrace and step back as politely as possible, but it was no use.

Now that she was slowly recovering from the shock, Tenten's eyes narrowed as she took in the scene. Specifically, the expression on Sakura's face – it was still enough to make a shiver go down her spine; she never thought she would ever have an occasion to think that again. The obvious bewilderment; the girl looked like a deer caught in the headlights. Her closed-off body language – and the fact suddenly registered that from the instant she had stepped onto the path as unexpectedly as a ghost, Sakura had shown absolutely no sign of recognition of them, even though they had all gone on missions together before. But it was truly Sakura, there was no doubt about that. Her chakra pulsed and was real, and her body and chakra were whole in a way that they would never be if she were the victim of some sick corpse re-animation jutsu or something. Then why the strange behavior…?

It clicked then, and a strange tension – a premonition, almost – swept over Tenten, making her muscles stiffen with wariness. Of course. She remembered hearing the rumors; everybody had; that the Cloud shinobi who had killed Sakura had beaten her severely, smashing her head against a rock cliff face until her skull was fractured and she was barely conscious. That had been the only way they could have weakened her enough to stab her so terribly. She had used the last of her chakra before falling unconscious to send the information back to Tsunade-sama, valuing the completion of the mission over her own chance at life. But here Sakura stood, whole. It seemed insane, but could it be possible that whatever head injury she had sustained – unlike the stab wound – hadn't been healed?

In the same instant, as if he had channeled her thoughts, Neji spoke. "Lee," he ordered tersely, voice low and strained. "Let go. Step away."

The boy with the green jumpsuit – Lee, Sakura presumed – did so immediately, looking taken aback by the abrupt, decisive command. She blinked at the three of them, her discomposure growing, and she couldn't help but take a few steps back, halfheartedly toying with the idea of running away from all this…strangeness. As if he had read her mind, Lee looked into her eyes again, his tone softening. This time, she could see the first hints of uncertainty in his face. "Sakura-chan," he asked, "are you feeling all right?"

Sakura shook her head back and forth, unable to face his scrutiny, lifting her hands to her head and not caring that she probably looked like a lunatic. "I don't know," she mumbled, hardly aware of what she was saying. Where were Itachi and Kisame? The question seemed to grow in magnitude within her mind until it became a constant ache, gnawing at her with every breath she took. How had she gotten here in the first place, and how could she find her way back to them? Had something happened to them? She couldn't imagine why Itachi would have just left her here unless it was another misguided attempt at protecting her from something. Most worryingly, it didn't look like she could find a way to leave these three and search for her teammates anytime soon. "I don't know."

She didn't see the glance that Neji, Lee, and Tenten exchanged. Finally, Tenten stepped forward, gently approaching her, hiding how secretly scared she felt at this entire unbelievable situation. Sakura, one of her fellow kunoichi, a friend and teammate, had died seven months ago. And now, here she was – but…wrong, somehow. She watched her with a guarded look in her eyes – like she was regarding a stranger – that was so not Sakura, and she felt her worry rising. "My name is Tenten," she began, before gesturing to each of her teammates in turn. "This is Lee, and that's Neji. We're chunin from Konoha – well, Lee and I are, at least. Neji's a jounin. We graduated in the year before you; we've done missions together. I…" she trailed off. "I don't know if you remember…"

The weight of all of their gazes on her was too much to bear, and Sakura averted her eyes. "I'm sorry," she managed, really meaning it, feeling her skin flush with heat. She couldn't remember the last time she had felt this uncomfortable. "I don't, at all. I'm sorry."

She could literally feel the impact her statement had on them, and she knew it had been the wrong answer – and she hadn't wanted to offend them; they all seemed nice and had apparently been her comrades, after all… But then something that Lee had said earlier came back to her, only now fully registering, and Sakura blinked, turning to face him and regarding him cautiously. "What did you mean by that?" she asked quietly. "About it being a miracle that I was alive? You didn't think that I was…"

She stopped, then, taking in the stricken looks on their faces. It left absolutely no doubt about what they had thought, and even though she knew so little – so frustratingly, horribly little about the situation evolving around her – it was still enough to make a shiver run down her spine. Wordlessly, Lee and Tenten looked toward Neji, waiting for instruction. As stoic and unexpressive as he seemed (Itachi, Sakura thought with a pang), he appeared shaken by this in his own way, just like his teammates. He finally tilted his head to the side, giving another quiet, authoritative command. "Our current mission is officially being placed on hold. We will escort Sakura to Hokage Tower immediately."

The order made her still, as she had a recollection of another one of her dreams, which was as vivid in her mind as it had been the morning after – Hokage Tower. Hokage. Tsunade-shishou, her instructor. She remembered holding the fish and directing her chakra inside it, and the pride in Tsunade's voice as she had praised her for a job well done. She still didn't know much – the fact that Lee and the others had actually believed she was dead raised an entirely new set of questions, each more unsettling than the last – but instinct told Sakura that Tsunade-shishou would be the one with all the answers…the answers she had been craving so desperately ever since the brief fragments of her own memory had started reappearing. But Sakura hesitated, throwing a glance over her shoulder. If Itachi and Kisame returned to look for her…

Lee reached out, touching her shoulder lightly, and Sakura's muscles twitched out of surprise. He gave her a reassuring smile. "It is all right, Sakura-chan. There is nothing to worry about."

Tenten smiled too, nodding in agreement, and Sakura had no choice but to walk forward, with Tenten and Lee situated rather protectively on either side of her. Neji led the way, taking them back through the forest. The path ended abruptly, the forest opening out into a large, cleared area, and for the first time, Itachi and Kisame receded from the forefront of her mind, as her attention was dominated by the structure in front of her. The toweringly high walls, prominently emblazoned with a painfully familiar seal at the very center. It was the same symbol, slashed through, that she had seen on Itachi's forehead protector; the same one that she had seen in the book about the world's shinobi villages.

"Konoha," Sakura murmured unconsciously, and she couldn't help it: she stopped dead right as they were making their way in, staring at the symbol. This close, it drew her in with an intensity she hadn't felt, seeing it before in the book, and as if her arm was moving independently of her body, she felt herself reach up and brush her fingers against her own bare forehead. What was raging inside her right now was almost as frightening as the nightmares had been. This place was familiar to her, and more than anything else had, it triggered the feeling that – instead of being in a locked box somewhere far inside the recesses of her brain – her long-lost memories were hovering close to the surface; close to breaking free, yet still just beyond her reach.

"Yeah," Tenten replied softly, patting her on the arm, as she looked up at the village's emblem as well. "Welcome home, Sakura."

Neji set the pace, and Lee and Tenten were patient with her as she made her way slowly through the streets that she felt she had walked before, even when Sakura suddenly and inexplicably came to a complete stop in front of a stone bench near the East Gate, taking it in as if transfixed. Why it was significant, she didn't know, but she had the unshakable feeling that it was. Her gaze restlessly roamed every inch of the streets as she took them in, as if for the first time. The streets were largely empty, as it was so early in the morning, and despite her preoccupation with buildings and street signs and the outdoor ramen shop that she passed, Sakura was still aware that the few people they had run into – the gate-keepers and the team doing a patrol of the walls – had all stared at her as she had come in, the expressions on their faces similar to the ones that Lee, Tenten, and Neji had initially sported. Her unease was only slightly tempered by the fact that there were a hundred other things weighing on her mind, and the fact that Neji's quelling glares made them turn back to their work with remarkable speed.

The rising sun was getting higher in the sky as they turned a corner and approached the building that Sakura had found the most familiar in the book on shinobi villages – the building that had triggered the initial flood of disjointed memories, actually. "Hokage Tower," Lee confirmed.

"You two can take Sakura up to the Hokage's office," Neji decreed, turning and looking east, and Sakura knew instinctively that he was glancing in the direction of Tsunade's home. (Marble floors, Tonton's food and water dishes underneath the kitchen window, an extensive personal library filled with the most comprehensive medical knowledge in the world) "I will go and summon Tsunade-sama."

Lee and Tenten murmured their assent, and Neji vanished in a swirl of leaves. The three of them made their way up the winding staircase heading to the top floor of the tower, and Sakura could feel her stomach knotting up more and more with every step she took. Here more than anywhere else, there was that unbearable feeling of familiarity – but that sense gave her more questions than answers, and all the important details were still out of her reach.

The door to Tsunade's office was unlocked, and they all filed in, taking seats in the spare chairs. They stayed silent, Lee looking worried and Tenten biting her lip, both of them obviously lost in thought, and Sakura found herself compulsively picking at her cuticles in an instinctive response to the head-pounding, crushing stress she felt. The questions that had been eating at her mind since a few minutes after she had regained consciousness kept repeating in an endless loop that threatened to drive her insane. She couldn't even begin to understand why Itachi had placed her here in the first place. Could he and Kisame have felt like they were in some kind of danger – she remembered her brief meeting with the Akatsuki Leader, and the overwhelming sense of foreboding she had experienced then – and frowned. If that was the case, had Itachi left her here in a way to keep her out of the line of fire, so to speak? It seemed nonsensical and irrational…but she couldn't even begin to guess at the alternatives.

The sun continued to creep higher, illuminating the mountain range visible from outside the window, spectacularly carved with likenesses of what Sakura could only assume were previous leaders of Konoha. Tenten stood and headed to the coffee maker in the corner of the room and came back a few minutes later with a fragrant, steaming hot cup of coffee. "Here," she said kindly, holding it out. "This is the best in the whole tower. Shizune, Tsunade-sama's assistant, had it moved from the lounge to the office in hopes that it would help break Tsunade-sama's little habit."

"Thanks," Sakura replied, trying her best to smile as she curled her fingers around the cup and sipped from it. It wasn't the average vanilla flavor that Kisame liked; instead, it tasted like some kind of exotic dessert, and it triggered another flash of déjà vu; a memory of standing in a room down the hall from this one, drinking this after a mission and laughing over something with two people whose faces she couldn't quite remember. Maybe something of her discomfort showed in her face, because Lee – a solid, reassuring presence – placed his hand on hers, patting it soothingly, in a way that only made her think of how Itachi had comforted her when she had sought him out during those terrible nightmares.

Sakura was halfway done with the cup of coffee by the time the door opened again, and instinctively, she, Lee, and Tenten rose in the same instant. The open door revealed the woman, Tsunade, that Sakura had seen in her dream, down to the very last detail – the green jacket, the blonde hair tied into twin ponytails, the dark brown eyes – widened in shock – and even the aura of power and authority that radiated from her. It was stunning. I'm not crazy, the voice inside Sakura's head affirmed, I wasn't ever losing my mind, it wasn't a mental break, it was all real. Before she could even think about what to say, all the breath left Tsunade's body in a long, visible sigh she stared at her, as if unable to believe her own eyes. For all intents and purposes, Sakura had been dead – but here she stood in front of her, beautifully whole and healthy and unharmed, and the sight was enough to make her fear that this was all a dream.

Neji stood behind Tsunade, inclining his head respectfully. "As I said, Hokage-sama," he murmured. "The body and chakra signature are genuine and unmarked."

Tsunade just nodded, looking as if his words had jolted her out of thoughts she couldn't even guess at. She still appeared just as shell-shocked as Sakura felt. "Thank you," she replied, her voice barely audible. "All of you."

Lee squeezed her hand reassuringly, and Tenten gave her a small smile, touching her shoulder, before they joined Neji outside. The door closed behind the small team, leaving the two of them alone, and Sakura looked up at Tsunade. It was undeniable, the wave of genuine, thorough, real recognition that swept over her then – so suddenly that it felt like the floor was spinning beneath her feet – and a little part of the locked box of memories fell open.

She remembered Tsunade-shishou's patient, thorough instruction in how to develop her skills with medical chakra. It began with the basics of chakra use and human anatomy, the complete theory, and then at last moved on to practical application on the fish and the animals, before finally beginning real work on other shinobi. She remembered her very first healings (minor external flesh wounds), performed under Tsunade-shishou's supervision; the first surgery she had observed; the first surgery she had assisted with…and then, the first one she had performed on her own, after the first year and a half of her apprenticeship, as her skills as a medic-nin had improved to the point where she could thoroughly and flawlessly correct extensive internal and external trauma on her own.

There were more memories, too; nothing she had recalled earlier. Taijutsu drills that lasted for hours and hours, week after week, month after month, first to drastically build up her stamina, speed, and basic strength. After that, the way Tsunade had shown her over several sessions how to finely control and channel her own chakra, directing precise bursts of it to her hands and feet before impact in order to cause the maximum amount of damage. Sakura remembered that she had nearly collapsed with shock the first time she had punched the old oak tree in the middle of Training Ground Nine with a chakra-laden fist, and with the massive crunch of splitting roots, it had toppled to the ground. Every time before that evening, all she had succeeded in producing were first scraped knuckles, and then medium-sized dents in the bark. Tsunade-shishou had actually laughed at the expression on her face as she had gaped at the fallen tree. I am proud of you, Sakura.

Her voice was stuck in her throat for several moments, and it took a real effort to force it out coherently, as she bowed deeply. "Tsunade-shishou," Sakura managed respectfully, her voice wavering, despite her best efforts – coming out more like a question seeking confirmation.

"Sakura," Tsunade replied, her voice just a little bit unsteady, before she stepped forward and embraced her, holding on to her tight. Instead of reacting with discomfort, as she had with Lee, Sakura felt all the energy seep out of her. She could do nothing but hold on just as tightly, even as felt her eyes blurring over until she couldn't see anything clearly; her throat tightening so much it was painful. It reminded her of the way she had felt the first time she had woken up after dreaming of…Konoha. The sense that this was painfully, unmistakably right. That something inside her mind felt as if she had just come home.

After what felt like a long time, they finally released one another and moved to the desk, sitting down, with Tsunade on the other side of the desk and Sakura in her customary seat (the middle one, not too hard or too squishy). Even this simple act triggered something that made her blink, momentarily thrown. A memory of being in this position many times before, as well as observing it with others: Tsunade-shishou always leaned to the right side in her chair when she was intently focused on something. She leaned to the left side, her hand toying with the handle of one of the drawers to her secret sake stash, when she wasn't interested in whatever was being said and thought that she needed a drink. Right now, Tsunade was leaning to the right, watching her seriously. "You know who I am," she said at last, softly. "Correct?"

Sakura inclined her head, plucking at one of the loose threads on her skirt. "You're Tsunade-shishou, my instructor and the Hokage of Konoha, and you taught me everything I know about medical chakra and chakra-enhanced taijutsu."

She looked up as if awaiting approval, and the expression made Tsunade's chest tighten because of how much she remembered that same look on the younger Sakura's face, when she had just taken her under her wing and was teaching her the basics. Like it had been then, these words were delivered tentatively, as if it had been a recently learned fact – as if Sakura remembered the large picture, but not the fine details, and she made a mental note of that fact. Neji had mentioned that she had failed to recognize his team, as well, and Tsunade indicated Hokage Mountain, gesturing out of the window. "Do you know where you are?"

Sakura glanced over at it, her gaze lingering on the representation of the Fourth Hokage. "This is Konoha," she responded, at last. "…The place where I grew up."

She continued to survey the village thoughtfully, and Tsunade felt her shoulders stiffen a little bit from the tension coursing through her. Again, the uncertainty of Sakura's tone and the nature of her word choice were worrying. While it was too soon to be absolutely sure, her instinct led her to believe that Neji had been right, and Sakura appeared to have some form of trauma-induced amnesia. The Hokage took a deep breath, preparing to speak again, and then she realized that there were too many questions struggling for precedence, the answers of which she was desperate to know. Where had she been for so long? Exactly how severe was the extent of the memory loss? When had her apprentice begun to recall information? How had she found her way to Konoha again, after such a long absence? Who had taken her from the deserted area that the Cloud kunoichi had left her and healed her wounds, and—

Tsunade frowned, distracted. Something about Sakura's exact phrasing when asked if she knew where she was had just occurred to her as being slightly odd. Sakura had said she was in Konoha, the place where she had grown up. Not my home, which would be an infinitely more characteristic response. It seemed like a trivial consideration, in light of the larger questions weighing on her mind, but something told her to pursue it first, just to be absolutely sure. "Sakura, is that something you were told by somebody, or was it a fact you recalled spontaneously?" she asked, wondering whether it had been a cue that her apprentice had picked up from Team Gai.

The question took her by surprise, and Sakura opened her mouth, ready to reply, before closing it again, unsure of what she would say. She trusted Tsunade-shishou, but…She struggled to sort through her tangled, disarrayed thoughts, her confusion rising higher again as – for the hundredth time – she wondered where Itachi was and what was going on and why she was now being interrogated for purposes unknown, far away from their base and with her teammates nowhere to be found. Itachi. The very thought of him made her remember, all too clearly, Itachi and Kisame telling her that she was from Rain and had met them in Rain. And yet, in recent weeks…after the dreams of Konoha had started…she had begun to doubt what they had told her. Sakura became aware that her fingers were knotted together almost painfully tight in her lap, and she shook her head, trying to clear her mind. "It's complicated," she mumbled.

Tsunade raised an eyebrow, regarding her troubled-looking apprentice with narrowed eyes, and for the first time, a strange sense of foreboding made the hair on the back of her arms stand up. "If you could start from the beginning, then, and tell me everything that you remember in as much detail as you can…"

Sakura took a deep breath, tilting her head back and closing her eyes in a brief moment of concentration, trying to make sense of everything and ensure that it sounded as smooth and coherent as possible. "I woke up," she began haltingly, and even though it had been so long ago, with those words, she felt like she was transported back to that very moment; to the terrible sense of blankness and disorientation she felt. "…Every part of my body hurt, but the pain was worst in my head. I was in this small room – like a bedroom, fully furnished…but I knew that I had never seen the room before; that it wasn't my room. I didn't know where I was or how I had ended up there, and when I tried to think back, there was just – nothing, a total blank. Even the first time I looked in the mirror, it was like I was looking at a stranger. All I remembered was that my name was Sakura." She fell silent, lapsing into thought again. "They told me that it was like this because I had been injured in a mission."

Tsunade leaned forward in her chair, listening to every word intently. Sakura had been healed, but it didn't look like she had been taken to some sort of village clinic, which was what she had initially assumed. "Who told you?"

Belatedly, Sakura remembered the slash through the emblem on Itachi's forehead protector, and the words that she had read in the shinobi history book echoed in her mind. Itachi had belonged to Konoha, and abandoned it without intention of returning, often because they had committed criminal acts or to pursue other personal gains, and for the first time, she hesitated before speaking. "They weren't medics, or anything – they were shinobi. …Two of them; missing-nin, I guess." Sakura had to fight the urge to smile as she recalled her first sight of Kisame. She'd thought he was the scariest and most outlandish-looking thing ever. "The first thing I noticed about them, before I knew their names or anything, was the strange outfits they were wearing – these black cloaks, covered with lots of little red clouds…"

Tsunade blinked once, the words hitting her like a slap in the face. No. But Sakura continued to describe them, detailing their appearances, and the Hokage literally felt all the color begin to drain from her face. At first, her first, foolish thought was that it had to be some sort of mistake, but then Sakura kept talking, and the cold, complete realization of who – exactly who – she was referring to was enough to make all the nerves in her body go numb, even as under the table, her hands curled into fists, her fingernails biting painfully into her palms. It took a concerted effort, and more self-control than Tsunade knew she possessed, in order to control the utter shock she felt and keep it from being echoed in her body language.

Sakura tilted her head to the side, finally, and Tsunade forced herself to tune back in; to keep her expression neutral and impassive. "They told me their names were Kisame and Itachi, and that I was their medic; the third member of their team. They said – well, they said that I had met them in Rain – where they were from – and that I had been part of their team for a year. The reason for my memory loss was that I had sustained a serious head injury during a mission." She frowned, scratching her fingernail against the exposed skin of her knee, obviously preoccupied. "I was curious, naturally. At first I didn't believe them, of course, but after an inspection of my possessions, I found that I carried the belongings that a medic-nin would have. When I first took a shower after I woke up, I used my chakra to heal the ache in my head and everywhere else, so after that, I felt that the explanation they had given me was correct. When I asked for more details, they told me that I didn't have any family that they knew of…and that I had learned all my skills from some medic-nin in Rain."

Tsunade remained silent, trying to come to terms with the steadily sinking feeling in her stomach. She remembered, as if the entire nightmarish episode had been yesterday, the Cloud kunoichi's account of her fight with Sakura…including the part where she had slammed Sakura's head into the sheer rock side of a cliff face over and over again. Now it was clear that the traumatic brain injury had been a catalyst for this severe amnesia. And damn it, she felt sick with fury and rage and even fear, inside and out (in a way she hadn't been since hearing about Sakura's supposed death) at the burgeoning realization that her student had been held captive by none other than Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki. They were undoubtedly the most dangerous, lethal members of the Akatsuki; S-class criminals infamous for the sheer brutality of the acts they had committed over the years. They were major threats to Konoha, and on a more personal level, to Naruto and Sasuke – although, of course, Sakura couldn't remember that. And they had deceived her – taken advantage of her vulnerability in a despicable way, in order to use her for kami knew what—

But why had they saved her? Tsunade's mind filled in the fact that the Cloud kunoichi had left Sakura for dead, bleeding copiously from a critical stab wound and unconscious from being severely battered. Itachi and Kisame had happened upon her apprentice, and for reasons unknown, taken her with them. They had healed the stab wound and they must have reduced the swelling in her head, which had enabled her to regain consciousness in the first place, and prevented any further degree of mental damage.

No, Tsunade amended then, not for reasons unknown. Sakura's status as her apprentice and an extraordinarily gifted medic-nin, a prodigy in the medical arts, made her well-known across the world; even more so since she had defeated Sasori. It was no secret that the Uchiha's eyesight had deteriorated over the years to the point where he was nearly blind. And the worst thing, the worst thing, was that obviously, even now, Sakura didn't know. She didn't know the truth about Itachi and Kisame; Tsunade could see that much. Her apprentice was staring at her inquisitively, hands folded in her lap and apparently ready to resume her report. Regardless of the growing horror and lingering shock that she felt, she faintly asked Sakura to continue.

Sakura did, and as she talked, Tsunade looked her over as subtly and intently as she could, focusing on every visible inch of skin, to such minute cues as her posture. She noted that the pink-haired kunoichi appeared in good health and unhurt. There were no signs of malnutrition. There were also no visible external signs of injury or abuse, and despite the fact that she was obviously confused and disoriented to some extent, as well as unsure of herself and her circumstances, Sakura still seemed graceful and composed enough, unlike other shinobi who had weathered extreme torture at the hands of the Akatsuki. Still, the Hokage didn't trust her own rudimentary assessment, knowing what she knew about the Uchiha and his partner—

Tsunade made herself take a deep breath again, trying to compartmentalize her thoughts for the moment. She was a professional. As the leader of the village, she had seen her people injured, killed, captured, tortured, by rival shinobi villages or other enemy factions, and she had to keep her composure and some degree of distance through it all. She had given many of them orders to go on missions to serve the village's interests; missions which had cost them their lives, or which they had paid other terrible prices for. But be that as it may, there was no point deluding herself about this. This was personal, terribly so. Shizune and Sakura were like her own daughters. And she wanted to scream at the thought of Sakura being in the grasp of Itachi, of all people – and unaware of it. More importantly, she wanted to stop this conversation now and drag Sakura to an examination room for a thorough physical examination, to see if she was hurt in any way, followed by a rigorous mental exam to make sure that she hadn't been tortured or interrogated. And yet she had to stay still and finish hearing this report, and Tsunade gritted her teeth to keep from interrupting.

"Itachi and Kisame explained to me that we were on a mission to pursue a man named Roshi, because…" Sakura bit her lip, her gaze downcast. "I guess he wanted something that the Leader – that was what they called him, anyway – wanted something very badly."

The Four-Tails. Tsunade's breath caught in her throat. A few weeks ago, Jiraiya had brought her the disastrous news that the Akatsuki had succeeded in capturing Roshi and sealing the tailed beast, bringing the organization one step closer to achieving their ultimate goal. Seemingly without any idea that she was disclosing a goldmine worth of long sought-after information, Sakura went on to disclose the location of the Akatsuki base in Cloud where Itachi and Kisame had kept her, and even as she filed it away as valuable information to be disseminated to the hunter-nin as soon as possible, Tsunade still found herself, to some extent, in a state of numb shock as she listened to the tale unfolding.

"A lot of time passed," Sakura continued, sighing quietly. "My mind was like…a blank slate, I suppose, if you could call it that. I studied the books of medical chakra that I had with me until it all came back to me. I eventually remembered taijutsu and how to direct chakra to my feet to walk up trees and run through branches, and once, I even moved chakra to my hand and punched a mercenary back twenty feet until he hit a tree. After some practice, I remembered how to use most of the weapons that I found in my bag." She leaned back in her chair, propping her chin up with her hand, a pensive look on her face. "When it came to personal memories, though, of life before, I couldn't recall anything, even though I tried. But over the last month—" She hesitated, a shadow flickering over her face. "Over the last month, I've been having these dreams."

Sakura started to explain before Tsunade could ask her to elaborate. "The first couple of times, I was young, I think. In the very first one, I was with two boys, and someone who I think was my teacher – he was showing us how to move chakra to our feet to run through the trees for the first time. In another one, I was older, with two new teammates or classmates, one girl and one boy, and a different teacher, and he was leading us through a forest – the Forest of Death, he called it – telling us that we were preparing for some kind of exam. Then I dreamed, once, of…" she paused, and smiled for the first time, looking slightly embarrassed. "You, testing me on how to heal a giant koi fish. It was a practical exam of some sort, and it was very important, because it was somebody called Homura's most beloved pet, and he would never let you hear the end of it if it died."

Tsunade actually laughed, surprised by the recollection. In the weeks that had followed the devastating news of Sakura's death, she had spent countless nights sitting alone in this office, getting drunk and reminiscing about the too-short time she had spent with her protégé. It had been miserable, but once in a while, there had been occasion to smile, like when she had remembered the look on Sakura's face after she had asked her to give her a foot massage, using the reasoning that massage was an important skill for all medic-nin to know. She had no idea how she had failed to remember this. "I had nearly forgotten about that! It was almost three years ago. The old prig was less difficult for a month after you saved that fish."

Sakura smiled again and tilted her head to the side, thinking back. "This was the first time I remembered Konoha, and you," she said quietly. "I called you Hokage-sama in my dream, and when I woke up, the title confused me, so I looked it up in a book about the history of the world's shinobi villages. When I went through the book and saw the pictures in it, I realized how – how familiar this place looked to me. This building itself, the hospital, the Academy, even the bird's-eye view of the whole village. I didn't know what to make of it, considering what Itachi and Kisame had told me about my background. But at some point around that time, I realized that the dreams were my own memories coming back. The dreams were so clear; so vividly detailed. So persistent. And the way I felt when I dreamed about my teammates—" Sakura stopped, wrapping her arms around herself. "It was just instinct."

Tsunade inclined her head, fascinated at the implications of what she was hearing, from a medical standpoint. In the existing literature about trauma-related memory loss, she had never heard about the manifestation of old memories through dreams – most often, it was stimuli encountered during the waking hours, reminiscent of significant things from the past, that triggered the gradual return of memory.

Sakura took a deep breath and another sip of now-cold coffee, and she started to twist her fingers together in her lap again. "But eventually the dreams changed and became…more like nightmares." She detailed them, slowly and haltingly, until it became all too clear to Tsunade that the nightmares that had caused her so much distress were the memories of battling Sasori alongside Chiyo, coming across Gaara's unconscious body after he had been captured by Deidara and Sasori, and the incident during Sakura's first chunin exams, where she, Naruto, and Sasuke had been confronted by Orochimaru, respectively.

Sakura trailed off then, visibly disturbed, tucking her hands between her knees so that Tsunade wouldn't see them tremble. Tsunade stayed silent for a few minutes, trying to piece all of it together in her head. It was extremely disconcerting, to say the least, and at last, she spoke, wondering how everything had ended up with Sakura back here; free from Itachi and Kisame. The other memories that Sakura had recovered were disjointed ones of the early days of Team Seven, with Naruto, Sasuke, and Kakashi, and then snapshots of her time as part of Team Ten, with Ino, Chouji, and Asuma, following the first chunin exams. From Sakura's explanation, it seemed evident that she was slowly regaining her memories of her life before the injury. Had Itachi and Kisame been aware of that? But then, returning her to Konoha seemed like a completely uncharacteristic act of mercy. Or had her apprentice run away after figuring out that they had lied to her? "What happened then?" she prompted gently.

Sakura glanced up, appearing somewhat shaken. "I don't know," she murmured. "I fell asleep last night in my bedroom in the base. When I woke up…I was here."

Tsunade raised an eyebrow, momentarily stunned. She hadn't run away, then. For all intents and purposes, her captors seemed to have returned her to Konoha. To say that this didn't make sense was an understatement. Yet, she didn't know enough to make a judgment – Sakura hadn't gone into much detail about how Itachi and Kisame had treated her, save for stating that they were kind and treated her like a member of their team, and that she had fit in with them well. She hadn't mentioned anything about any healing she had performed for them – but then again, Tsunade was all too aware that Itachi could have used his bloodline limit to tamper with her memories even further. Could it be that he had used her until he had no medical need any longer, and then…

Tsunade closed her eyes, deep in thought. An image of the Uchiha's photograph from his file lingered on her mind – the hooded, impassive eyes; the handsome, remote, detached face. At first glance, nobody could guess that was the face of the most depraved criminal in the history of the village. She was familiar with the account of how he had tortured his own younger brother after the massacre. Some of the psychiatrists called him a psychopath; others a sadist; still others criminally insane. And yet, he had spared Sakura's life?

"Tsunade-shishou."

Sakura's quiet words broke Tsunade out of her reverie, and she looked up to see her apprentice looking at her with a quiet sort of desperation. Her shell of calm composure seemed cracked, and she took a deep breath, obviously trying to keep her voice steady. "Please. I – you're the only one who can help me. I've been so confused since I started having these dreams – there's this sense that there are people here that I know, like you and Ino and some of the other teammates and teachers that I remember. There are several things that Itachi and Kisame told me that don't line up with what parts of my memory that I do have – and now, both of them have just disappeared, and I have no idea—" She stopped, taking another deep breath. "When Lee, Tenten, and Neji first saw me, it was like they had seen a ghost," she continued, a little shakily. "The gatekeepers, as well. Lee mentioned something along the lines that it was a miracle that I was alive, and when I asked what he meant by that, he looked like I had just hit him. What's going on, Tsunade-shishou?"

Tsunade pinched the bridge of her nose, feeling a migraine coming on. "Humor me, Sakura," she said heavily. "What exactly do you remember, besides the village itself, and the instances that you detailed earlier?"

"People," Sakura responded impatiently. "That's all. A blonde boy who always wore an orange jumpsuit. A dark-haired boy with a blue shirt. An older man who wore a mask over the lower half of his face, for some reason. Ino, the girl with blue eyes who always called me Forehead Girl, and our teammate, who wore a full coat of body armor even in the heat and always had a bag of potato chips with him. Another teacher who smoked. A pretty young woman who wore a gray dress and often carried around a small pink pig. You." She sighed, frustrated by her own mind. "That's why…it's been so long. I have to know the truth. I can't stand it anymore; the feeling of everything in my mind being like a puzzle with too many important pieces missing."

Tsunade watched her, an unreadable expression on her face, before finally inclining her head. She pulled open one of her drawers and began rifling through the paperwork within, before finally withdrawing a thick manila folder and sliding it across the desk. "Read this."

Sakura opened the file tentatively, feeling her heartbeat beginning to race. She knew, instinctively, that this was the document that had the answers to all of her questions.

The cover fell open, and Sakura found herself confronted with a file on…herself. Her fingers tensed, going still, as she scanned the page. All the text was in small, slightly uneven black ink, clearly done on a typewriter. There was even a picture of her at the top of the page – she was dressed in the clothes that she was wearing now, her hair a few inches shorter. She sat up straight, smiling proudly at the camera, and Sakura's gaze was drawn like a magnet to the forehead protector – so like Itachi's, except without the slash – covering her forehead, clearly stating her allegiances. The sight felt like a punch to the stomach.

"That was taken the day after you passed your chunin exams," Tsunade told her, her voice barely audible. "Flying colors. You won your third-round combat match in a record five seconds."

Her mouth very dry, Sakura went on to scan the information directly beneath her photograph. Vital stats. There was her name. Sakura Haruno. Her birthday – the twenty-eighth of March (it had come and gone this year without her even being aware of it, she realized numbly; maybe that had been a few weeks after she and Itachi had become romantically involved). She was seventeen. She'd had no idea. Blood type: O, the universal donor. Classification: Medical-nin, chunin, A-rank. Village affiliation: Konoha. Birthplace: Konoha General Hospital. And then, a sentence that made her stomach turn. Parents. Satoshi and Sayuri Haruno (civilian). She stared at the words until they blurred before her eyes, feeling herself going even number. She had thought her parents were dead. She couldn't remember even a bare trace of their faces or voices, and the whole time; that entire time…they were alive, and here, and missing her…

She forced herself to move on, but the lines after that were even more mystifying. Team: Kakashi Hatake, Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha (defected).

Uchiha. Her lips parted, and Sakura was vaguely aware of a small, strangled-sounding noise coming from her own throat. Uchiha. Sasuke Uchiha. That eight-year-old boy from the aged photograph on Itachi's bed, with his mother's hands on his shoulders as he smiled innocently into the camera. She had been on a team with Itachi's younger brother?

Sakura began to read even faster, wondering what other revelations the file would hold. The next team she was listed on was with Asuma Sarutobi, Ino Yamanaka, and Chouji Akimichi. In an entry dated more recently, it stated that she was now officially the apprentice of the Godaime Hokage. Toward the very end of the page, there was the date that she graduated from the Academy and became a genin, and then the date that she was promoted to chunin, two years later, and then—

The line after that – small text, cold, heartless black typeface – made all the breath leave her body in a stunned exhalation, and she stared at the page disbelievingly.

Current status: Missing in action, presumed dead.

It went on to say that the status was imposed after the subject's last A-ranked undercover reconnaissance mission to Cloud. Leaning closer, Sakura could see that the mission was dated to begin in early November, when she first left Konoha, and…she felt a shiver run through her spine as she saw that the mission had never ended. There was no return date – the subject – her – had never returned to Konoha. The MIA status was put in place on the eighteenth of November.

Sakura leaned forward, placing her head in her hands, reeling with shock. The eighteenth of November. She couldn't help but think back to the very day when she regained consciousness in the base with Itachi and Kisame. She had walked downstairs to talk to Itachi because Kisame had assured her that he would fill her in on what had happened, and she had thrown a passing glance at the calendar in the kitchen as she had been waiting for Itachi to finish cooking breakfast. It was the twenty-first of November. She had found it notable because there was a particularly ugly kitten photograph chosen to demarcate the month of November. Just a little while later, Itachi had mentioned that she had been unconscious for a few days after the injury…a few days, as in perhaps three days…

The full implications of what she had just discovered hit her like a physical blow, and Sakura could hear her pulse pounding in her ears. "Oh, my god," she whispered, aghast, as she stared at her file – at the unarguable, incontrovertible proof that she had in her hands. The degree of shock that she felt now – more than she could remember ever feeling in her life – was complete; total; all-encompassing. She said it again, vaguely aware that her hands were shaking. She dropped the files as if they had burned her, but it was no use, the rest of her body was trembling now too, and she was powerless to stop it. How could this be? How had this happened? What did this mean?

She felt Tsunade's concerned gaze on her, and finally, Sakura lifted her head, looking her shishou in the eye. "I – I – Have I ever been to Rain before?"

Tsunade shook her head slowly. "Never. The longest you've been out of Konoha was a three-week mission in the Land of Waves as a genin, and another three week mission with Team Ten in Rock two years later."

That was all she needed to hear. Sakura closed her eyes, nauseated, and all that ran through her mind, in an insane, endless loop, was that Itachi and Kisame had lied. They had both lied to her, about everything, from the very beginning. She had never met them in Rain. She had never been their teammate for a year. The first time she remembered meeting them was the first time she had ever met them, period, despite how they had pretended otherwise. Her head was spinning. It kept going through her mind, and – where were they now? What happened? Why, why, why? And what was all this about a mission? She had hoped that looking at her file would bring all her memories back in a giant wave, but it had done nothing but make her even more confused and upset.

"They told me I was hurt," Sakura managed hoarsely. "And that was how I lost my memories. But they said that it happened on a mission with them." She remembered, with clarity, her first conversation with Itachi. How he had told her that he was sorry, and that he should have looked out for her better.

Tsunade shook her head, looking serious. "It was a recon mission to Cloud – that I assigned you to." Her voice caught a little. "You were supposed to retrieve a file of top-secret, sensitive information, and return it to Konoha. You succeeded in doing so, but before you could leave the village, you became embroiled in an engagement with a team of Cloud shinobi who caught you in the act of retrieving the information. During the fight, you were critically injured, but you managed to send the paperwork to Konoha with a transportation jutsu before you lost consciousness."

Sakura listened, mesmerized, and Tsunade coughed slightly. "I walked in to my office the next morning and saw the information. I began to suspect that you had been injured after I saw that the letters had been smeared with blood, and there was no follow-up note saying that you were healing yourself and would be returning to Konoha later. I sent a team out to search for you, and they found a Cloud kunoichi – one of the team that you had fought – who claimed responsibility for your…death – who had caused the head wound and stabbed you in the ribs."

Sakura swallowed over her suddenly dry throat. Tsunade rubbed her temples, staring at her desk with a fixed expression on her face. Even though her apprentice was right here in front of her, seemingly alive and well, this still brought back terrible memories. "I ordered the team to look for…the body, to bring you back, but you were nowhere to be found. We searched everywhere."

"Itachi and Kisame must have taken me by then," Sakura completed numbly. She pressed her hand against her aching chest, feeling how tight and clenched it was. It was hard to even think right now. It was ironic, but all she wanted to do was curl up in a ball and forget. "But why would they – why would they take me – a girl that they didn't even know – and heal me, and then lie to me like that? I…" she felt her throat tighten and threaten to close over, and she shook her head, blinking hard. A huge part of her wanted to deny this; wanted to maintain that it all couldn't be true, that Itachi and Kisame wouldn't be capable of this, but as she had said to Tsunade-shishou, the file…it was proof, tangible, unarguable proof. "I trusted them!" she burst out, feeling the traitorous tears burn at her eyes. Anger, betrayal, pain, sorrow, confusion – it was too much, eating her up from the inside out. "How could they? Why?"

Tsunade opened her mouth as if she was going to say something and then closed it. There was a rare emotion flickering within her: fear, intermingled with dread at what was to come. Maybe it had been foolish of her; a sentimental desire to protect, but she hadn't wanted to tell Sakura. However, there was no way around it. "…What I'm about to tell you," she said finally, heavily, her gaze focusing on her apprentice's, which glittered with anger, "may be very disturbing."

It took an effort for Sakura to keep herself from laughing bitterly. She couldn't be any more disturbed or shocked than she had been in the past half hour. She was still reeling from what she had learned. This was her lifelong home; she was a loyal kunoichi of Konoha. She had teammates. Parents. Her entire life for the past seven months; everything that she had believed in, had been a grotesque lie. The two people she had trusted most (and loved; the thought of Itachi was like the stab to the ribs she had apparently experienced during the mission) had been the ones who had done this to her, for unknown reasons. What else had Itachi and Kisame lied about? Hell, could there be anything left for them to lie to her about? She doubted it.

But still, part of her was afraid to hear the rest. "Wait," she blurted, surprising herself. "I know. Or – I think I know, at least."

Tsunade's eyebrows shot up. "Yes?"

"Toward the end," Sakura began, trying to make sense of her thoughts. "I figured out that Itachi and Kisame were part of the Akatsuki, and…" she hesitated. "…Though the two of them were never unkind to me in any way, I still realized that the Akatsuki was an enemy, after my nightmares. I noticed the slash across the symbol on Itachi's forehead protector as well, and I read that that marked a shinobi as a missing-nin…a person who abandoned their village after committing a crime. Was that the case?" she asked timidly, and even knowing what she knew now, Sakura thought back a little desperately. Had Itachi left her here after realizing that she was recovering her memory and didn't want to keep lying to her anymore, but then couldn't stay because of the threat of facing retribution for whatever crime he had committed, or for deserting Konoha in the first place? It was a wild little thread of hope, but she found herself clinging to it pathetically.

Tsunade remained silent, looking sober. Finally, she rose, walked to the other file cabinet in the corner of the room, and pulled it open, rifling through files. She pulled out two, and Sakura could see that Itachi's name was marked on the first. Her heart rate sped up a little as she saw how thick it was, and she found herself feeling even more apprehensive than she had before looking at her own file for the first time.

Tsunade handed her Itachi's file wordlessly, and without giving herself any more time to be nervous, Sakura cracked it open with cold, clammy hands, and began to read.

At first the words didn't make sense. They blurred together, like they had in the more disturbing parts of her own, but Sakura forced herself to comprehend them; to read them over and over again until they actually had meaning, and – and she felt sicker with every word that she read.

The file was laid out like hers, in many ways. First, there was a photo of Itachi, younger, but every bit as handsome and impassive. And then the status, prominently emblazoned underneath; the one that had made her entire body tense with disbelief at first glance, because surely, it had to be a mistake. Missing-nin; S-class criminal. Top of Konoha's most wanted list – wanted dead or alive. It only got worse (more nightmare-inducing and false) from there. Classification: Likely a psychopath. Extremely dangerous. Engage with extreme caution. Engagement should not be attempted if under rank of Special Jounin.

The words were unreal, and Sakura's gaze snapped back to the photograph to confirm that it was talking about – the same Itachi. Extremely dangerous psychopath? Wanted dead or alive? There was such a huge disconnect – to say the least – between what was before her eyes and the Itachi that she knew, and she stared unseeingly at the file for several more seconds before dropping it back to the table and looking up at Tsunade sharply. "No," she said, flatly; disbelievingly. "No. This can't be true." But it was clearly the same Itachi, a subdued-sounding voice spoke up, from the recesses of her mind. The stats underneath the photograph confirmed that much. Age, date of birth, height, weight, blood type, chakra type… Her skin crawled, and she stared at Tsunade uneasily. "Why…?"

"Keep reading," Tsunade ordered grimly.

Even though every fiber in her body was screaming against it, and the sense of foreboding she felt was unbearable, Sakura was unable to refuse. She lowered her head obediently, resuming her perusal, her heart threatening to jump out of her throat at the slightest provocation. There was, first, a brief header regarding Itachi's family. It named him as the oldest son of Fugaku and Mikoto Uchiha, and therefore a member of the Uchiha clan. Considering his father's position as clan head, Itachi was the heir apparent to the powerful clan, and Sakura read it over again, astonished. He had never mentioned that to her. Aside from that, the notes at the very beginning stated that Itachi was undoubtedly a prodigy, even among the immensely powerful Uchiha clan, and the most talented shinobi of his entire generation. His proficiency in ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu were noted as unparalleled. He had awakened the Sharingan, the bloodline limit of the Uchiha clan, at the youngest age on record, and completely mastered it just as quickly. Again, similarly to her file, following that were the dates of his graduation from the Academy, the date he was promoted to chunin, then another promotion to jounin, then an induction into ANBU, and then a further rise in the ranks to ANBU Captain—

Wait. Sakura froze, rereading the dates again, cross-referencing them with the year of Itachi's birth. Her first instinct was to say that it had to be another mistake, but upon second thought, something told her that this was not the case.

She had been a genin at the age of thirteen. When he had been thirteen, Itachi had already achieved the status of ANBU Captain. At an age where she had still been in the Academy, Itachi had risen through the ranks from chunin to jounin. She blinked, startled, and then thought back to all the times they had trained together or she had watched him work on his own or with Kisame, in the base. She had always marveled at his extraordinary skill. This confirmed just what an amazingly proficient shinobi he was. Then why desert Konoha? The voice inside her asked furiously. He had everything. He was the heir to a powerful clan and apparently one of the best shinobi in the village.

Itachi had been made an ANBU Captain on the fifth of April, eight years ago. That was the last entry before several lines were skipped on the page, and Sakura followed along to the next date entry. The twelfth of October, eight years ago.

She briefly scanned the lengthy paragraph, and that was all it took: the file dropped from her numb hands onto the desk, scattering papers everywhere.

What? No. No way. It couldn't be. It just couldn't be right.

Sakura leaned closer, forcing herself to read it again. Looking for the mistake; the error in typing. Her heart was beating way too fast and her fingernails dug into her palms so hard they felt like they were close to drawing blood. October twelfth, eight years ago. Stray words and phrases that couldn't connect, in her head, jumped out at her. Subject murders entire clan, thirty-five people, in one night, in cold blood. Weapon used: ANBU katana. Motivation for crime unclear; attack happened seemingly without provocation. Unclear at time of this writing whether premeditated. Victims' cause of death: Throats slit. Male clan elders and subject's parents stabbed once, cleanly through heart. Children between five to ten years of age as well as the elderly (with the addition of one thirteen-year-old female cousin) killed with the use of heart-stopping ninjutsu. Children under the age of five years suffocated where they slept. As if that wasn't enough, there was an addendum. Detailed autopsies available in later pages.

…And then another, after this. Shisui Uchiha – Sakura recognized the name, and her blood ran even colder with renewed horror. His date of death was two months before October twelfth. Officially entered in village records as suicide, but within the clan, the subject is the leading suspect in the death of this individual. Motive for killing is clear – death of Shisui awakens next level of Sharingan; Mangekyou Sharingan; several times more powerful and lethal. It is noted that during the Uchiha massacre on the twelfth of October, the subject displayed this evolved form of the Sharingan, making it clear that he did indeed murder Shisui and forge cousin's suicide note.

Oh, god. It was too much to bear. Sakura felt herself splintering from the inside out, and though she longed to look away; to push these horrible documents away from her and scourge her mind of everything she had just read, she still couldn't tear her eyes away from the words on the page. They were saying that Itachi had murdered his entire family in cold blood, except for…

Her breath caught in her throat as she stared at the name – the painfully familiar name. His whole family, with the exception of his younger brother, who had been five years old at the time. Sasuke Uchiha. The boy from the photograph; the boy listed in her file as her old teammate, and finally, after so long, Sakura was able to put a face to the flash of blue in her dreams. Sasuke Uchiha. So that's why, after she had first regained consciousness, she'd had that firm, unshakable sense that that last name had been so familiar and significant to her. At the time, she thought it was because she remembered Itachi. But now…

Sakura kept reading, a leaden feeling in her stomach. The information didn't get any better. It said that after a brief altercation with Sasuke in which the boy had been mentally tortured (and she remembered, painfully, the occasions when Itachi would talk to her about Sasuke; the love and tenderness in his voice had been tangible), and after this incident, Itachi had abandoned the village. She skimmed the sentences, after that, too traumatized to take in any more detail. Konoha could never find a reason why he did it. There was a cold-blooded, methodical quality to the executions. As it stated earlier, Itachi was wanted by Konoha, dead or alive, but no hunter-nin or ANBU team had ever come even close to capturing him. When they tried, he inevitably and effortlessly outmaneuvered them, tortured them with his bloodline limit, and then vanished. After the murder of his family, Itachi joined the Akatsuki, the world's most infamous terrorist organization – Sakura shuddered – and from there, he was partnered with Kisame, an equally ruthless missing-nin from Mist. An additional footnote beneath this entry went on to say that the Akatsuki's primary goal was to dismantle the structure of the world as they know it and then gain control of every shinobi nation using the tailed beasts as their weapons. At the time of this writing, the Akatsuki is at war with Konoha and the other shinobi nations and is their sworn enemy.

Sakura read it over and over again, vaguely aware that her hands were shaking badly. Despite the repetition and the frequent, affirming glances at Itachi's name and photograph at the top of the page, she couldn't – damn it, she couldn't believe what she was reading, and she felt sick beyond belief. Her mind kept clinging on to the same statement, that it wasn't right, that it couldn't be right, because there was such a huge disconnect between her kind, caring, gentle, almost-shy, reserved Itachi – the Itachi who took the time to warm up her blankets with his own chakra whenever their travels brought them outside the base at nighttime, before they had even become comfortable enough to speak more than five consecutive sentences to one another. The Itachi who gave the entire contents of whatever money was in his pockets to the beggar children in that border town they had passed through in late December; who talked so tenderly about his family; who sometimes radiated a subtly disapproving aura when Kisame got carried away with his obvious glee about the more brutal parts of the shinobi lifestyle…and who treated her so lovingly.

That was her Itachi, and how could he be the same Itachi – the ruthless, cruel killer – that stared up at her from the photograph on the file? The one who had slit the throats of his parents and grandparents, his cousins and aunts and uncles, who had suffocated babies and killed the elderly?

The shock was too great, rising up in her throat and threatening to choke her, and Sakura shook her head blankly. "No…" she mumbled to herself, utterly blind to Tsunade's worried expression. "I can't…this isn't Itachi…"

But then, for the first time, it happened during the day. Sakura doubled over, raking her fingers through her hair as she remembered the boy with the dark blue shirt – with hair and eyes so like Itachi's – Sasuke – talking to her and Naruto (Naruto, the boy in the orange jumpsuit), telling them, his voice dark with purpose, that he would avenge the loss of his clan by killing their murderer. She remembered Kisame mentioning that he and Itachi had been working together for over five years – which lined up with the information in the file. And worst of all, she remembered the way Itachi had always sounded whenever he talked about his parents, Shisui, and Sasuke. The way his voice had always been tinged with deep sorrow. Often, he had told her that he missed them, but never offered much detail when she asked him why she had chosen to leave in the first place – he said that it was his duty to support them now, and left it at that. And how he had always seemed so oddly, subtly hesitant – replying only after a heartbeat of silence – when she had mentioned looking forward to visiting his family in Rain…

Vaguely, she became aware that Tsunade-shishou was saying her name, clearly concerned. Sakura forced herself to meet her shishou's eyes. "He told me they were alive," she managed, unable to help how remote and far away she sounded. Coldly, almost clinically, she realized that she had reached a state of emotional and physiological distress now that surpassed her state even after immediately regaining consciousness after her injury so long ago. She swallowed over her dry throat, unable to stop talking, for some reason, as if this would negate everything that she had just read; as if Tsunade-shishou would suddenly realize that all of this was just a horrible – horrible – mistake. "He said he loved them. He talked about Sasuke, in particular. He said I could visit them sometime and they would love me too."

Sakura looked up at her, anguished and obviously wanting her to say something, anything, to prevent her from having to believe what she had just read. It was heartbreaking – in all the years that she had known her, Tsunade could never remember Sakura looking as utterly devastated as she did now – and it threatened to make her lose her composure as well. The knowledge of what her apprentice was going through…The Hokage took a deep breath, attempting to keep her emotions under a tight rein. "There are pictures," she said, at last. "I warn you that they are gruesome, but I will show them to you if you believe that it will help you process that this is all true. There are also transcripts of the young Sasuke's testimony after the massacre." She paused, letting it all sink in. "Sakura…I assure you that there are no doubts whatsoever that Itachi was the perpetrator. He and Sasuke are the sole surviving members of the Uchiha clan."

Sakura shook her head, her eyes filling with tears as she bit her lip hard. The implications of what Tsunade had just informed her of were – damn it, they were killing her. Itachi was an enemy of Konoha – the worst kind of criminal; a serial killer; a murderer of his own family. He was the most wanted criminal out there, and for so long…she had been unwitting, unaware. She had known, once, too! She had known Sasuke; he had been a part of her team; she had known his history! She'd sat there on that day and heard him talk about it; she had known the sick, tragic story of what had happened to his family, and that the perpetrator was none other than his own older brother! Not only that, but…she recalled her assistance with Roshi's capture, and her stomach turned. She had been standing right there. She had aided and abetted the…the world's most infamous terrorist organization in their attempt to destroy the world as they all knew it.

And before that. Sakura froze at the very thought; the memory of healing Itachi from that illness that had come so close to killing him. She had fought so hard, so very hard, to save a murderer; to save a man who had killed his own parents and almost every other member of his family and kami knew how many others. Aiding and abetting, again. Then the other memories resurfaced – last night, oh, god, last night – causing another wave of nausea. Last night. So many other times. She had let him touch her. She had literally been sleeping with the enemy. With a man who…had done all this… She closed her eyes, forcing herself to breathe steadily in through her nose in order to avoid throwing up all over Tsunade-shishou's desk.

Tsunade stared at Sakura's utterly shaken, deathly pale countenance, feeling strangely bothered by something she couldn't put a finger on. Not the obvious, of course – but something else, and she recalled something Sakura had mentioned earlier…what Itachi had told her about his family, and she frowned slightly. He had talked to her – on a regular basis, from the sound of things. And from the vehemence of her reaction, and from the readiness to which Sakura jumped to his defense, it would appear that he had led her to trust him over the course of her captivity. That they had been close.

The nature of the thoughts that were beginning to emerge in her head were disconcerting, to say the least, and Tsunade gripped the arms of her chair so hard she felt her fingers lose feeling. It couldn't be. It was completely out of character, considering everything that they knew about the Uchiha. Tactics involving completely incognito female hunter-nin posing as civilians, ones that had succeeded in reeling in countless other dangerous rogue shinobi, had absolutely no impact on Itachi over the years. All of their kunoichi – in the rare instance that they located him in the first place – reported that he had displayed absolutely no interest and succeeded in removing himself from the situation mere minutes after initial contact was made. Entanglements with females simply did not fit in with what they knew about him – but Tsunade kept looking at Sakura; at the way she was now staring at the floor, obviously fighting to keep her composure.

She dreaded the answer already, but she made herself speak up. "Sakura," Tsunade said softly, gently, in as much of a non-threatening manner as possible. "What was the exact nature of the relationship between you and Itachi?"

Sakura went very still, as if the words had been a slap to the face, but when she finally looked up, the anguished expression on her face gave Tsunade all the answer she needed. The Hokage was to a large degree unprepared for the intensity of the revulsion and fury she had to fight – she had always been disturbed by the accounts she had heard of the Uchiha massacre – having not been in Konoha at the time – but never before had her rage at the Uchiha been so visceral and all-consuming that she wanted to lock her fingers around Itachi's throat and choke him to death. How dare he? she thought, incensed. The man who had slaughtered his entire family had reached a new low. How dare he take advantage of a girl who had been so…vulnerable? He must have known who she was; that she was Sasuke's former teammate, at that. Maybe that had been what pushed him to do it…or something that made it an even more tempting prospect. In any case, Tsunade found herself wishing – wishing hard – that the younger Uchiha would soon follow through on the promise he had made when leaving Konoha: to kill his older brother.

It was a struggle, but Tsunade compelled herself to relax, harnessing her anger as she considered where to go from here in this delicate situation. It made her feel guilty, but one of the next thoughts that crossed her mind was that Sakura, as she was suffering from amnesia, couldn't disclose any sensitive information about Naruto or Konoha to Itachi, regardless of whatever coercion he had used on her. They were safe on that front, at least. She also remembered from what other cases she had seen of amnesia caused by traumatic brain injury that, often, total recall did not happen spontaneously. It happened on occasion if triggered by some sort of extraordinary stimulus, but Sakura was at home in Konoha already. While she knew what was familiar to her and had recalled the "big picture," in a manner of speaking, the details were still locked away, and they had to be brought out as soon as possible.

She explained this to Sakura, who seemed somewhat faint with relief at the departure from the previous subject, and Tsunade grimly made a mental note to address that issue as soon as possible. "The jutsu used by the Yamanaka clan are very well suited for this type of work," she elaborated. "In the other cases of amnesia that we have seen, the memory loss can be quickly and completely corrected after brief exposure to a select few of their techniques. I will also inform Shizune of your return immediately, because we will need to perform a thorough physical and mental exam on you as well."

Yamanaka. "Ino," Sakura mumbled, feeling her spirits rise fractionally – as much as they could, under the circumstances.

Tsunade gave her a wan smile, thinking back to the days when the two girls had been her apprentices together. She and Asuma had often commiserated about Ino and Sakura's…unique…dynamic. And yet, Shizune had spent two hours comforting the sobbing girl after she had learned of her best friend's death. She could only imagine Ino's reaction upon hearing this news – it would have to be broken to her gently. "Not Ino," she corrected. "Inoichi, Ino's father, the head of the Yamanaka clan. He works in the Interrogations Department under Ibiki Morino, and he is very skilled at doing this. As a matter of fact, he's performed the three past rehabilitation sessions for shinobi with injuries like yours."

Instead of being reassured, as Tsunade had expected, a look very close to panic registered on Sakura's face as she sat up straight, leaning forward. "No," she protested, the words running into each other in their rush to come out. "I don't – I don't want him to know." She shuddered, imagining the reactions of other Konoha shinobi if the truth of who she had been associating with and what she was doing over this absence came out. "I don't want anybody to know, except for you and Shizune."

Tsunade exhaled slowly, considering her apprentice's words. "It's understandable," she murmured. "I believe that Inoichi can target specifically the memories leading up to and before the mission where you were injured – but even if he does end up finding out the truth, he is a highly discreet shinobi and one of my most trusted people, and I assure you that he would never, ever breathe a word to anybody."

Sakura thought about it for several moments, before nodding a little warily. Tsunade watched her, her heart aching for the undeserved shame that her student was carrying inside. "What do you plan to do, then?" she asked. "If you don't want anybody to know the truth?"

Sakura sighed, looking overwhelmed. "So…everybody really thinks that I'm dead?" she inquired timidly.

Tsunade closed her eyes briefly as she nodded. She couldn't help but think back to the memorial service, held without the body. It had been raining hard, but most of Konoha's shinobi had turned out for the ceremony. Sakura had been well-known, of course, having treated almost all active-duty forces at some time or another, and well-liked due to her compassion and personable manner. The atmosphere had been heavy with the shock and sorrow that people felt, at the sudden, unexpected senselessness of it – at the sheer tragedy of the sense that somebody with such raw talent and promise had been taken so young.

And Naruto…she winced to remember it, even now. Naruto had broken down completely. Until the memorial itself, he simply refused to believe that Sakura was gone. He had been convinced that they had all underestimated her and given too much weight to the Cloud kunoichi's account. He was absolutely sure that Sakura would return eventually, and had taken up the habit of patrolling the walls of Konoha himself, searching for any sign of her approaching chakra. Total denial had been an understatement. As the days drew on and there was still no sign of her, it had taken the combined efforts of Jiraiya, Kakashi, and her own, to keep Naruto from running off to Cloud to search for her; he was so certain that she was slowly recuperating in some backwoods rural clinic and needed help getting home on her own. It was only on the day of the memorial, after hearing Tsunade make her statement and seeing the tears of the other people that Sakura was close to, that the reality sunk in at last. Naruto broke down completely, faced with the knowledge that he had lost his sole remaining teammate. First Sasuke had been lost, and then Sakura. It had been too much for him to bear.

Tsunade cleared her throat, blinking a few times to dispel the moisture from her eyes. "This could be a conceivable story," she spoke, thinking back to the other cases of amnesia that she had seen in the past, before she had taken up the position of Hokage and while she had been traveling the world. "I have seen it happen myself. Say that after the injury, you woke up in a rural clinic in Cloud with no idea where you were and remembering anything about yourself besides your name. The attending medics told you that a passing traveler had happened upon your unconscious body, found that you were still breathing, and then carried you to the clinic – where these civilian medics healed you. They had no idea where you came from, of course…"

Sakura sat up a little straighter, looking more hopeful. "And since I couldn't remember myself, I stayed on and worked as a medic there for a while, once I discovered that medical chakra was one of the few things I remembered how to do."

"Exactly. As time passed, you traveled from small town to small town, offering your services as a medic in hopes of eventually coming across your home."

"But eventually, after I started having dreams of Konoha, I described the place to people in the towns that I passed through. Somebody finally put a name to the place and I found directions back to the Land of Fire, and then to the area of the village…and I wandered over here in search of answers?"

Tsunade nodded approvingly. "Perfect. It has often happened in cases where somebody is injured and suffers amnesia far from their home."

Sakura exhaled slowly, relieved. It felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. "I'll tell that to anybody who asks, then."

Tsunade gave her a small smile. "Konoha has seen some cases of amnesia, but none like this – in all the other cases, it happened when the operative was on a team mission, so their teammates were able to bring them back to the village immediately for rehabilitation. It will be a shock having you back, of course, but it will be a happy one. I can attest to that personally."

Sakura's answering smile faltered; she bit her lower lip, looking disturbed, Tsunade could see that she was struggling with herself. "How could this happen?" she asked at last, quietly, obviously ashamed. "But I…I didn't know. I had no idea. Itachi never seemed like a violent person at all – not like a sociopath or psychopath or sadist or whatever's written in there. He never even looked at me wrong. He never hurt me in any way. I…I can't even…How could I not…?"

Tsunade reached out, gripping Sakura's hands – raw from where she had picked at her cuticles because of the stress – tightly. "I understand how you must be feeling," she said quietly, but firmly. "Don't, Sakura. Remember that Itachi has deceived us all. The attack on his family was clearly pre-meditated and he had been planning it for a long time, all while acting completely normally. While we will never have any concrete proof, it seems clear that Itachi did not snap and murder them all in an act of violent, explosive rage." She hesitated, thinking of a way to word it. "…That is exactly why Itachi is the most dangerous kind of criminal. He isn't the loose cannon type. As I am sure you will know, he is inscrutable and difficult to read, and always comes across as calm, rational, and very sane." The Hokage blinked, obviously considering memories that Sakura couldn't begin to guess at. "…Over the years, I have seen a great deal of rogue shinobi. Shinobi who have cracked under the pressure and done terrible things, while often succeeding in maintaining a completely professional façade on the surface. Out of all of them, Itachi is perhaps the best at hiding what lies underneath. And you were not in any way to blame – there was no way you could have known. It was amnesia, Sakura, not ignorance or whatever it is that you're incorrectly blaming yourself for right now."

Sakura blinked away her tears, bringing her hands back to herself. "…Okay."

Tsunade's expression softened as she rose from her chair. "We'll talk more about this later. First, I need to summon Inoichi and Shizune. Inoichi will perform the memory returning procedure first, and then Shizune will give you a physical exam."

Sakura acquiesced quietly, and the next half hour, as Tsunade-shishou made her arragements, passed in a blur. She sat still in her chair, looking out the window and not quite seeing anything, letting everything – slowly and torturously – sink in. Finally, there were a couple of knocks on the door, before it opened and Tsunade-shishou stepped in, followed by a very tall, familiar-looking man who appeared oddly similar to Ino. He was more rugged, of course, but they had the same long blonde hair, worn in the same style, the same eye color – and the same genuine smile, which Sakura saw now; which she couldn't help but return.

After greeting her ("It's great to have you back, Sakura. You've been missed,") Inoichi took a seat across from her, in Tsunade's chair, and began to explain the procedure in detail, trying to set her at ease. It was a loose variant of the Mind-Body Switch, and it involved letting her guard down, allowing Inoichi to transfer his consciousness to her mind. From there, he wanted to search through her memories, find the ones that had slipped from her consciousness after her injury, and restore them again. "You'll gain back everything that was lost," he assured her. "It will be a completely painless, non-traumatic process."

Sakura nodded, feeling her heart pounding within her chest. She was so close to the one thing she thought she would never experience, and regardless of the world-shifting revelations that she had experienced since stepping into Tsunade-shishou's office, she still wanted this badly. She had to know the whole truth, no matter what that meant. "I'm ready."

Inoichi paused, looking momentarily sheepish, as if something had occurred to him at the last moment. "Actually, there is one thing. Four years ago, my daughter Ino used a variant of this technique on you during a preliminary match in the chunin exams. You…unconsciously did something that not many people are able to do, and you forced her out of your mind and body, preventing her from entering again. For that reason, I was wondering if you would consent to my performing this procedure on you while you are unconscious. It will be easier for both of us and will allow me to complete the process faster. As soon as you regain consciousness, you will remember everything."

"All right," Sakura agreed, and ignoring the last-minute trepidation that she felt, she reached out and placed her own hands in Inoichi's larger, calloused ones. He gripped them gently, staring into her eyes, and the second they made contact, she felt the pulse of his chakra entering into her body through her palms, running up into her arms with tremendous speed, and—

Everything went black.

Time passed, and finally, of their own accord, her eyes drifted open again, and she slowly sat up straight from where she had been leaning limply against the back of her chair. Tsunade-shishou and Inoichi were both staring at her, worried, and finally, Inoichi spoke. "Sakura?"

It took several moments for Sakura to regain her ability to speak. Her mind was racing faster than it ever had before as it processed the new things – a million new things, but not new at all. Not really.

"…I remember everything."


to be continued


As always, any and all feedback would be very much appreciated. I hope the long chapter made up for the wait. :)