Autumn came and went among golden days and softly falling leaves, and then came winter, and spring, and summer, and autumn again. A year and a half after her return to the Leaf, Sakura had fallen back into a routine that approached normalcy: she resumed her full shift load at the Konoha General, restarted her regular training with other shinobi, and returned to her busy social life.

Sakura's second winter home brought with it unseasonably cold weather for the Country of Fire; snow and an exciting series of ice-related accidents that kept her occupied at the hospital. Councilwoman Furui came in one night with a broken hip and confirmed that she did have osteoporosis; Sakura was assigned to her case and, in the process, she learned that she was a very kind woman, and that she was good friends with Utatane, who was less kind and more snarky.

Konoha's renewed searches for the Otogakure base and Sasuke were unsuccessful. Kabuto had been wise in knocking Sakura out before removing her from the compound; she had very little to give anyone in terms of useful information as to the base's location. Orochimaru's skills in masking the place flummoxed Konoha's best for months, to the point where the very mention of the Sound could set a certain subset of tracker expert shinobi snarling in rage – Kiba, Neji, Shino, even mild-mannered Hinata's veins bulged at the word, and not because of the Byakugan. As for Kakashi and his tracker dogs, they took the failures as a personal offense; their returns from failed expeditions were marked by lengthy sulks.

Over that year and a half, gradually, everyone stopped looking at Sakura like she was a ghost, or otherwise with pity (which was, to her, even worse).

And gradually she stopped waking up expecting to hear Kabuto's footsteps bringing her breakfast. Gradually she lost the habit of pausing at the threshold of her front door before daring to set foot outside of her apartment without asking for permission to leave her quarters. Gradually she started to actually turn lights off at night. She was glad see the end of those little habits and fears that had wormed their way into her and took so long to fade away.

What she did miss, though, were soft touches, quiet words, gentle moments, and conversations that were as slow as they were sincere. She missed a calm presence and quiet self-confidence and that mutual longing (half-hidden and mostly unacknowledged) – she missed green eyes full of unspoken things.

As weeks became months and months became years, even those memories faded to the point that Sakura could revisit them without feeling her heart wrench. This she considered to be by and large a positive development: it meant that the dangerous swell of emotions that she felt for Kimimaro – which veered beyond affection and too close to something more powerful – had ebbed.

Sakura's idiot heart had caused her many years of hurt before; if there was one thing she would take away from that experience, it was that she would not be making the mistake called love again.

And so, instead, those memories of Kimimaro became a lovely sort of daydream that Sakura would lose herself in sometimes – sometimes in the middle of dates with very nice men that Ino set her up with (that was, admittedly, pretty bad, and she scolded herself for it).

And then there was that one time when she was picking up something in a hospital storeroom – extra syringes, maybe – and a box of soaps happened to be open right next to some antiseptic solution, and the combination of smells was him. And Sakura found herself standing still, with her eyes closed, and imagining that he was right there – until a nurse poked her head in and asked if she was alright, and Sakura shook her head and said, yes, yes, of course, she was fine…

Ino knew. She didn't know what, exactly, but she knew that there was something that Sakura was keeping to herself. They tiptoed around it in careful circles that slowly became smaller and smaller. Ino was patient, and kind enough to not pry too much, and smart enough not to use her ninjutsu to find out – possibly because she was aware that her pretty nose would not have survived unscathed, had she tried.

VVV

It was January. In the indoor training arena, Sakura was saying goodbye to a group of kunoichi in varying degrees of undress and sweatiness.

"I've gotta hit the showers – I'm meeting Tsunade at six," said Sakura.

"See you," waved Tenten from amidst a pile of unfurled scrolls. "I will find you a weapon that you like more than your fists one day."

"Nah, look at these beauties," said Sakura holding up the fists in question. "Unbeatable, Tenten… sorry!"

"But you'd look so badass with a katana," pressed Tenten as Sakura walked away. "And think of the precision…"

"She's right, you know," said Ino, catching up with Sakura. "It would be pretty badass."

"Nah. I'm a brawler, I'd just break it," said Sakura, pulling off her sweat-soaked gloves as she made for the change rooms. "Are you heading out too?"

"I might also be meeting someone at six," said Ino.

There was an evasiveness in her tone that made Sakura look at her curiously.

"Someone? Who?"

Ino didn't answer, pausing instead to snatch the front of Sakura's shirt and wipe her sweaty face with it.

"Ew," said Ino, "that was really soggy."

Sakura snickered. "Good. Jerk. Now stop avoiding my question."

"Mm… no," said Ino.

"What happened with you and Sai, anyway? You guys were pretty serious, I thought – well, pretty serious for you, anyway, you were with him for like a whole three months…"

"Ugh, that one," said Ino as they made their way to the changing rooms. "I ended it."

"Why?"

Ino gave Sakura a look. "You're going to judge me."

"I always judge you," said Sakura, wrapping her arm around Ino's waist. "Continue."

Ino smiled in a pretty half-ashamed kind of way. "Okay. If you must know, I couldn't stand to be with a guy who could almost pull off crop tops better than I can. Happy?"

Sakura laughed. "That's hilarious. And you're a terrible person."

"Whatever," said Ino. "I released him back into the wild, he'll find someone else… lots of girls like that emo artist thing…"

They grabbed their towels and hair stuff and made their way to the showers. (Well, Sakura grabbed hair stuff, Ino grabbed sufficient bottles, tubs and containers for her armload to be called a supply, or perhaps, an inventory.)

"Why do you ask, anyway?" asked Ino. "You interested?"

"In Sai? Nah."

"Oh," said Ino, watching her carefully. "I thought he might be your type, you know – the whole dark and broody thing."

Sakura shrugged. (Of course, Ino couldn't know that Sakura's type might have changed. And that perhaps her new type ran more towards the pale and the light-haired and the forbidden…)

"We'll find you someone," said Ino. "I think your old sensei is getting more action than you are these days."

"Ugh, no more of those rumours," said Sakura. "I work with Shizune on a daily basis. I don't want to think about–"

"–Oh yes, think about it," interrupted Ino, wiggling her eyebrows. "They probably do it on Tsunade's desk when she's not there."

"Ew. Gah. Why."

Ino cackled to herself. "Don't forget to look for clues when you see Tsunade tonight. Like goopy spots."

"You are the worst."

"Seriously, though," said Ino. "Give me a name. You've gone through my list of usual suspects; I'm drawing a blank, here."

There was a name, maybe, but hell if Sakura was about to give it up. And it wasn't like Ino could do anything about it, anyway.

"I dunno, Ino," said Sakura. "I think I'm the issue, not them."

"…What?"

"Well – who's the common denominator in all these failed dates?"

Ino's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Sakura. Are you kidding me right now? Have you seen yourself?"

"But–"

"You're stunning. And – as if that wasn't enough – you're also stupidly strong and ridiculously intelligent. Dude – you got kidnapped by a genius evil sannin to fix a problem that he wasn't smart enough to fix himself. It doesn't get much better than you."

"Okay, okay…"

"That's right, okay okay. You're the one who's rejecting these poor babies! You're breaking so many hearts–"

The rest of Ino's words were drowned by Sakura turning on her shower and getting into the stall. Ino got her revenge by launching a glob of conditioner over the wall so that it splattered wetly on Sakura's head.

"That's for interrupting my lecture," called Ino, turning on her own shower. "Did I get you? I totally got you."

"Yes," said Sakura, wiping the stuff off. "And it smells amazing, what is it?"

"Unicorn jizz," said Ino.

VVV

Sakura couldn't help herself; she checked for clues about Kakashi and Shizune's escapades on Tsunade's desk when she met her mentor that evening.

"– so, anyway," said Tsunade, "I think we should move you over to surgery for the next little while and give Wakai and Midori some ER shifts; they need the experience. Are you still presenting that paper on poison extraction techniques at the FCM conference next month?"

Sakura's eyes were fixed on a stain in the red-brown grain of the desk.

"Sakura? For god's sake, what is so fascinating about that coffee ring today?"

"Sorry," said Sakura, blinking out of it and damning Ino. "Um – yes, that's fine for the surgery rotation."

"And the paper?"

"Yes, I'm presenting it – I actually put my final draft in your inbox, there, in case you have time to read it…"

"Ah," said Tsunade, eyeing the very corner of the paper that was sticking out from under a tower of other files. "As you can see, my inbox got out of hand again."

Tsunade dragged a beautifully-manicured fingertip down the interminable pile. "I think I'll have Shizune burn it all."

Sakura gave her a look.

"Except your paper, I suppose," said Tsunade with a smirk, pulling it out from the bottom of the pile and putting it on the very top. "It's probably the only thing worth reading in this stack of garbage…"

"Speaking of things I hate about my job," said Tsunade, pouring herself some tea. "The Council."

"What about them?"

"They're generally unhappy. Well – nothing new there. They're generally unhappy because they're counting down the months until Orochimaru takes his new body and we're still no closer to finding him or Sasuke."

"A year and seven months left," said Sakura.

"Yes," said Tsunade. "And as time goes on, they're doubly panicky because of what you told them about this Kimimaro Kaguya guy and what Orochimaru could look like in his body."

Hearing that name still made Sakura's heart skip a beat, even after all this time. She stared at the desk and said nothing.

"The Council hasn't forgotten how far the Sound got with that invasion attempt eight years ago. It frightens them. They saw Orochimaru kill the Third – a living legend – and he wasn't in a body that was any kind of special at that point."

"Mm."

"I don't like it either," said Tsunade, swirling her tea around in its cup. "Because he will have a body that's all kinds of special the next time he lines up an attack. If not the Sharingan, then this Kaguya kid…"

Sakura nodded.

"What was he like, anyway? Aside from this fabulous bloodline limit of his…"

The question was unexpected. Sakura glanced up but Tsunade's look was merely curious, marred with a slightly worried frown. Still – it was such a simple question, and yet Sakura's answer could complicate matters tremendously, if she wasn't careful…

"Well – not a kid, for starters," said Sakura. "He's 24, or maybe 25 now."

"Right," said Tsunade. "Ancient."

"He was your typical Orochimaru drone – at least at first. Brainwashed from a young age and so emotionally manipulated that it actually made me sick sometimes. He worshipped the ground that Orochimaru walked on and wanted nothing more than to serve him…"

"Sounds about right," said Tsunade with a grim look.

"Giving up his body to Orochimaru was basically the only goal in his life. It's what drove him so hard to fight through that illness. But then…"

Sakura trailed off uncertainly.

"Then what?"

"I spent months pulling him back from the edge of death. I kind of got to know him – as you do."

"As you do," repeated Tsunade.

Sakura stared at the ceiling, trying to condense those six months of gradually learning what Kimimaro was into something concise that didn't give too much of her own personal complications away.

"I found that he was – damaged, and brainwashed, and broken in a hundred different ways. But somehow, in spite of all that, in spite of this awful life he'd led… he was kind."

"Kind?"

"I know," said Sakura. "It's weird. I've never met a more gentle person, actually."

Tsunade's eyebrows were somewhere in her hairline. "…I see."

"And that was when he still had the seal, which eats away at the good things – like I found out with Sasuke – and makes Orochimaru's will kind of take over the recipient's, you know? After the seal was removed, I noticed that he was much less obsessed with Orochimaru."

Sakura looked at her hands. "It kind of sucked, honestly, to see a guy like that, with a nature that was obviously good… and wonder what he could've been, in a different life."

Silence fell. Tsunade stared at nothing for a while before blinking and shaking her head.

"My god, Sakura. I wanted an objective personality assessment, not a depressing bedtime story."

"Sorry," said Sakura.

Tsunade looked into her teacup with thoughtful hazel eyes. Sakura knew that, despite her brusque demeanor, there were few with a fount of empathy that ran as deep as her mentor's.

"So Orochimaru's found himself a good boy gone bad and a bad boy gone good," said Tsunade. "And he'll have a grand old time choosing whichever one suits his purposes better in a year and a half."

"Pretty much."

"If I could get my hands on that snake," said Tsunade. The teacup between her fingers quivered but the porcelain held.

"I don't dole out deaths lightly," continued Tsunade. "But with him…"

"I agree with you," said Sakura. "I'd have done it too, if I thought I'd have a fighting chance."

"No," said Tsunade. "You were smart not to engage him. My last round with him, he didn't have his arms, and we still stalemated."

"If we could get at him together," said Sakura, staring pensively at the ceiling.

"Oh, yes, together," said Tsunade, a sudden bloodthirsty light brightening her eyes.

"Can you imagine? We could–"

A sharp knock interrupted their increasingly murderous musings.

"Urgent news, Lady Tsunade," called a voice on the other side of the door.

"Enter."

Shizune came in, followed by a petite woman that Sakura recognized as one of the Hokage's decryption specialists.

"Shizune. Himitsu. What is it?" asked Tsunade.

"Hawk from Hinata Hyuuga's squad," said Shizune, holding up a tiny capsule. "I brought Himitsu along so we wouldn't waste time decoding it."

"A hawk? They must've found something. Sit, Himitsu. How long will this take?"

"Not long, Lady Tsunade," said Himitsu with a deferential bow. "This code is familiar to me."

Himitsu sat in the free seat next to Sakura and pulled out a long and complicated looking chart. She spent a few moments going back and forth between it and the tiny scroll that was in Shizune's capsule.

Silence fell as she worked. Tsunade leaned towards her and stared at her fiercely, Sakura lost herself in watching the woman's swift fingers connect symbols to their equivalents, and Shizune stood at the door, holding her perennial stack of files tightly to her chest.

"May I read this aloud as I go?" asked Himitsu. "In the present company?"

"Please," said Tsunade, leaning forward even more, "do."

Himitsu nodded. After a moment, she began to read in a halting voice: "Base… found. East… of Whirlpool."

Tsunade and Sakura exchanged looks. As Himitsu worked on the rest of the message, a second silence fell, much more tense than the first.

"Extensive… fire… damage," read Himitsu.

Sakura's eyes were riveted to the cryptographer's face, trying to read into her expressions as she decoded. A frown was marring the woman's features now.

"Twenty-three…" read Himitsu. She frowned, then sat back. "No, that cannot be right."

"Twenty-three what?" asked Tsunade.

Himitsu shook her head and re-checked her chart. "No. I was right. It is twenty-three. Oh, this is awful…"

"Twenty-three what, Himitsu?"

"Twenty-three… bodies found at last count," read Himitsu, visibly pale now.

Tsunade's hands were gripping the edge of her desk. "What?"

Sakura placed a calming hand on Tsunade's arm. "Let's let her finish."

"None… persons… of… interest," read Himitsu in that maddeningly slow way.

None persons of interest. Sakura sat back with a sigh of mingled disappointment (because Orochimaru's corpse wasn't among those found) and relief (because nor were Sasuke's or Kimimaro's).

"Awaiting your instructions," finished Himitsu.

Silence fell again as the four women processed the import of this message.

It was Sakura who broke the silence. "Twenty-three people."

"It looks to me like we've just confirmed that the rumours were true," said Tsunade. "The Sound has been conducting experiments on human subjects."

"Or Orochimaru was keeping himself a full stable of potential vessels," suggested Shizune.

"They must've had a whole underground system where they were keeping these poor people captive," said Sakura in a hushed voice. "I only ever saw four Sound nin. Orochimaru, Kabuto, Sasuke, and Kimimaro."

"We know that there was at least one other guy that you never saw – the one he took as his vessel."

"True," said Sakura. She bit her lip. "God. I don't even want to know what conditions these people were kept in…"

"Their suffering must have been…" began Himitsu, and then she trailed off with tear-filled eyes. Sakura, suddenly remembering that the woman was the only civilian in the room and probably the one least accustomed to the macabre realities of shinobi life, reached over to squeeze her hand.

"Ugh. Burned to death," said Shizune. "This makes me sick."

"That fire can't have been intentional, I think," said Sakura, shaking her head. "Those people would've been valued by Orochimaru and Kabuto, in their own horrible way."

"Do you think – Fire Release? Sasuke?"

"It's very possible," said Sakura, remembering those awful moments when he had unleashed that technique in her very room – that had been a simple Fireball Release. Presumably, all of these years of hate-fueled training later, he was capable of much more… from memory she knew that there existed higher levels of the Fire Release; Great Fire Destruction, Great Fire Whirlwind, Great Fire Annihilation…

"Hinata and her squad will be able to give us more information when they get back," said Tsunade. "She might be able to tell from the ruins whether or not this fire stemmed from natural causes."

"Would you like me to prepare a message, Lady Tsunade?" asked Himitsu.

"Yes. Tell her that I want her to determine the cause of the fire if possible. And as for the bodies – for those that can be identified, inform the next of kin. For the ones that are beyond recognition… have them buried at the site. I want a marker installed there."

Himitsu bowed her head. Tsunade turned to Shizune. "Reschedule tomorrow morning's black ops debrief for later. I need to meet the Council about this latest development. See that the members make themselves available."

"Right away," said Shizune.

She and Himitsu exited the Hokage's office, leaving Sakura alone with a very angry Tsunade.

"That man," said Tsunade, resting her forehead against her closed fists. "But we're one step closer. They're on the run now, looking for a new hole to hide in, like the rats they are…"

"They were already looking into new accommodations for the Sound when I was close to leaving," said Sakura. "They might have had a bolt hole line up already."

Tsunade's nostrils flared and so Sakura decided not to pursue that line of thought further just now.

"If it was Sasuke who burned the place down," said Sakura, "I wonder what triggered it."

Tsunade shrugged. "You said it sounded like Kabuto was keeping him sedated. Maybe he misjudged the dosage – I have some doubts as to his competence on that front."

"Maybe," said Sakura.

Privately she hoped that it wasn't another skirmish between Sasuke and Kimimaro that had caused such a spectacular, and literal, meltdown.

"I'll have Hinata report to me as soon as her team comes in. In the meantime, at least we have some movement on this godforsaken file…"

"The Council will be glad to hear it," said Sakura.

"They'd better be," said Tsunade with a stormy look in the general direction of the Council chamber.

VVV