Disclaimer: Of course I don't own Naruto.

"The labratory is in the process of being built now. The contractor's looking over the design now."

Sakura sat up in her bed, dressed--at Tsunade's insistance--in one of "Akira's" shirts and little else. She kept her head down. Tsunade's voice was quiet, muffled slightly by the door and distance, but she could hear every word perfectly. She just didn't want to.

"What are you--Your daughter is dying, I hope you know that. Can't you do anything?"

Don't bother, she wanted to say.

"Don't you care?"

You're learning, she thought. She picked Akira up, the bear's fluff comforting against her cheek, suddenly incredibly amused that she even cared. Amused and irritated, because she knew better.

Her window opened up a slit, enough to let fresh air in, and then more. She pulled it open more, abandoning Akira on the dresser, used both hands. She stuck her head out, drawing in a deep breath, absurdly grateful for the wind. It cooled her face, and more, it masked the voices that were getting considerably louder in the other room.

Mom was angry. Angrier than when the Third had visited.

You're treating my husband like an idiot. He's not a criminal; he's a genius, and he's done more for Konoha than anyone else has. She dropped down from the window, away from the voice; away from the memories they brought up. She landed heavily despite the practice she'd had. She swore silently at the sharp throb of pain in her ankle, hand immediately checking to see how serious it was before she even straightened to a sitting position.

A shadow stood in the middle of the street, but turned as if sensing the movement. She almost laughed. "Sasuke?"

He was at her side in an instant, wearing a mask of complete disbelief at even seeing her. "Are you all right?"

"What are you doing here?" She demanded quietly. "Are you a complete idiot?"

She'd forgotten who she was for a second; first he looked taken aback, and then he looked highly offended. "I was just about to leave," he said. "I heard a scream."

She winced inwardly. "Aki." At his questioning look, she changed the name to one he recognized. "Akira."

He nodded slowly. "That's what I thought."

"You should leave," she said quietly. "I'm not even supposed to be outside."

"I thought you were in the middle of a mission," he said after a moment. "What are you doing here?"

"I came back to get some supplies," she lied without blinking. "I'll be gone again by morning. You probably won't see me again for a while, so take care of yourself."

He looked surprised by the quick dismissal, but whatever he was going to say was completely derailed by his sudden notice of her attire. "What are you wearing?" He hissed. "Is that..."

She blushed, immediately aware that though her male form was significantly taller than she was, 'his' shirts only covered her to mid-thigh, and barely that. "First thing I saw," she said by way of explanation, averting her eyes.

"It's his shirt."

"Yeah," she agreed. "He's staying in my room while I'm gone. Where else would he keep his clothes?"

"Don't," he said flatly.

She blinked. "Don't what? Share? Where else is he going to sleep?"

"I don't care," he said. "Where did he come from?"

"I couldn't tell you. I was gone when he got here." Technically, that was true. She couldn't be both at once. Warily, she glanced back up at her window, both wanting to listen to make sure that Tsunade was still talking with her parents and keep Sasuke from hearing what was being said. "I need to get back," she said. "I'm not even supposed to be out here. I just had to..." she broke off. Escape, she wanted to say, but didn't. She'd done everything she could to keep everyone from knowing who--and what--her parents were; keep their interest at bay.

If they knew, if they cared, if they even came close--they were in danger. Better if she kept them at arms length.

"You shouldn't be here," she said quietly. "Dad's an avid fan of yours. If he even thinks you're here, he'll be after you worse than I ever was."

Sasuke looked disgusted, the only sign that he'd even heard her warning. She trusted that he'd take the hint, starting to climb up the wall, quietly calling herself several different kinds of an idiot for even doing this. It didn't matter that she'd needed to escape. It was stupid, pointless--dangerous. She'd sprained her ankle, and for what? Two minutes of fresh air? Two minutes stolen with Sasuke, as a girl; sweating bullets because any second now, anyone could come into her room, or Tsunade could leave, or, worse, one of them could be yelling so loudly that Sasuke would find out exactly what was going on.

She just climbed back in through the window when the door opened, and Tsunade peeked in. "What's the window doing open?" She asked curiously.

Sakura closed it tightly. "I just wanted some air."

Don't worry, Tsunade had said the night before. He didn't see anything.

She was lucky, she thought. She'd had to go around a corner before reaching home, and her transformation had been disguised by the length of three buildings. If Sasuke had even tried to see what was going on, she'd delayed him. She was really lucky. There had been no uncomfortable questions last night.

She woke up lying on her face in the middle of her room, three inches away from the door. She hurt all over, from the numb ache that was her head to the blinding sharp pain that was her ankle. Slowly, she pushed herself up into a sitting position, trying to make sense of that arrangement. She was dressed, she noticed, and the sun was high enough in the sky for her to claim it as noon. Neither made sense.

"Mom?" She called hesitantly, and winced slightly at her cracking voice. Her male voice was low, and usually disguised her hoarse voice. Too much longer, however, and she'd break her vocal cords. And wouldn't that be wonderful--male and mute.

There was no answer, no quiet creaking as her door opened and the woman came inside. She moved to her feet, stumbled at the sharp pain in her ankle, and fell back onto her bed. She lifted her foot, checking the injury. Last night, it had only been a sprain, and Tsunade had healed it; apparently, the transformation had stretched bone and muscle and redone the damage. She healed it, wrapping it up with the bandages she kept on hand, and tenatively tried putting some weight on it. It didn't hurt--not that much. But it meant that any racing she planned to do was going to be put on hold.

Damn it.

She moved slowly from her room and made it halfway through the living room before she noticed what was wrong; Dad wasn't snoring. No Dad snoring, no Mom, bright outside--she'd overslept. Badly.

She left the house without trying to find either parent. Her mother was two hours from being completely nocturnal, and less friendly upon waking than a snake. And her Dad was in neither living room nor kitchen, which meant that he was in his "study"--and she didn't even want to think about what he was working on now. It could be "improving" his two-headed rats or an in-depth study on the venus flytrap; designing new poisons or, unlikely, maybe even coming up with an antidote for his stupid experiment.

She was late, she thought, but better late than not even showing. She'd apologize, or something. Something.

So long as it was outside.

"Ah, look out."

A hand latched on immediately to the back of her shirt, pulling her out of the way of a flash with blonde hair that only skidded to a halt three yards after it saw her. Sakura covered her yawn with her hand, and gave Naruto a long glare.

"What are you doing here?" Naruto demanded, pointing wildly. "Everywhere I turn around, there you are!"

Irritation rose. She also pointed, this time behind her, at the house she'd just left. "Sakura lives there, you idiot! Of course I'd be here!"

He scratched the back of his neck. "Well, yeah, but shouldn't you be with Neji and Fuzzy Brows?"

She almost blushed. "Shouldn't you be chasing that cat?" She countered immediately. Naruto yelled, noticing that he'd lost sight of the poor ugly beast, and immediately resumed his chase. Sakura sighed and smiled at the Chuunin who'd saved her from becoming roadkill. "Thanks, Shikamaru," she said politely.

He sighed. "Troublesome."

She adjusted the strap on her shoulder, eyeing him from the corner of her eye. He didn't seem to notice that she'd known his name, and they hadn't even 'met' before this. Not that it meant anything. "What are you doing here?" She asked curiously. "I thought you never went this way." That was one of the funny things; almost every other ninja lived on the other side of Konoha from her. Her family lived in the civilian area. Even Naruto lived three blocks away.

"Ah..." he said quietly, a complaint he was too lazy to put into actual words. "I'm supposed to come get you. The Hokage wants you."

Note: You know...if I knew that scene two would have been done with just two paragraphs...it would have been up around 7:30. Actually, it would have been done last night, anyway, if my stupid brother hadn't played on the computer until 5am! So yes, you can blame this late update on him. It's his fault.

I did notice that everyone assumed from my mentioning the "SakuraSasuke" interaction and Sakura's transformation before even getting inside to mean that this story was coming to a close...unfortunately, that's not how it goes. If this thing's done by the time I hit chapter thirty I'll be impressed. But it's my fault, really...I started this story because I was tired of "girly" Sakuras--or in this case, Haruno Seeu (from Take it Like a Man by Vampire Toy)...and then it was like a sugar high I just had to write down. This is a pantser story rather than a plotter story, which means that within a few weeks I'll be ripping my hair out over it.

As an aside to Isiri, if you want to write a AkiSasu story, do it! Now! And tell me about it! Gotta read it! Heh.

Thank you aizi, kttykiwi, dark Alley, DarkAngelRakell, Isiri and azianlovable for reviewing.

And because I've been hearing you people want to know about Sakura's parents (right now, even!), sit down and be quiet for a second.

Let's start with "child abuse"--her parents are on the same scale as the Hyuugas and Uchihas when it comes to child abuse. The only difference between Sasuke and Hinata's fathers and Sakura's is that hers is an underfunded scientist. He needs test subjects (rats don't count); he has a daughter. Despite this, he was not a bad father (and Mom was a decent mother, too). He treated her more like a doll than a human, but whatever.

I fully believe that Mom is a better parent, because she does know that Sakura is human. However, like Hyuuga Hiashi (Hinata's father) for Hinata, she's always been disappointed in Sakura. This is because she was the one responsible for teaching her daughter, and despite being raised by geniuses, Sakura learned everything at the rate of normal children. (More of Sakura's past will be given throughout the story; no more asking!)

And as an aside to aizi, Tsunade didn't find out about Sakura's family until after Sakura was turned into a guy. Yes, this counts as abuse; no, she's not going to arrest them. The reason being, she wants Sakura to be turned back; Dad's more likely to turn her back if he isn't rotting in a jail cell.

Why the Third did not arrest her parents (a more reasonable question) was because there was no one else to raise her. Mom had no family; Dad's family was all dead (and you'll hear more about them later). After the Third became involved in their lives, Dad was less likely to experiment on Sakura, and in fact was a "good father"--but those years before the Third was involved in her life kept her wary of inviting anyone home. Because Daddy was supervised, there was no reason to take Sakura away from them. The end.