Author's Note: Humongous thanks to my editor, SpikeDee. Without him, no things are possible. Also, thanks to my reviewers! Your encouragement helps me find motivation.

The pace is going to pick up from here on out. Most of the groundwork is laid (finally). I'm pretty excited to finally be getting to the parts of the story I've been waiting for for so long. Thanks for sticking with me.

Sakura stared at the three little pieces of paper in her hand. They represented so much to her. She always wanted to learn her element, to develop and have more jutsu in her arsenal, to be strong and powerful like Sasuke and Naruto. Kakashi had helped both of them through that step, but never once brought it up to her. It grated every time she thought about it. Tsunade never got around to it; she focused on medical ninjutsu with a side of genjutsu and was always so busy that Sakura felt too selfish to ask for more of her time.

She had saved and saved for this little piece of paper, before the invasion, only to have it slip away. She wanted to show everyone she was talented. She wanted to show she could do it even if nobody would help her. The answer was in her hands. It would be so easy to channel a little chakra into it and wait to see if it crumpled or lit afire.

But Ino needed this genjutsu more than Sakura needed to know her primary chakra element. Kurenai had let slip that she had a price, and Sakura knew how to buy her.

She slipped the three papers into her medical pouch, then took one out again and put it in a deeper pocket. Two should be enough.

Sakura steeled herself to do what must be done and finished combing her hair. She had to look presentable, after all.

She exited the bathroom to her room and was annoyed to find her mother entering with a laundry basket.

"Mom, it's fine. I've asked you not to do my laundry or come in here without knocking."

Undeterred, her mother sniffed. "Oh, fiddle faddle. You work all the time. The least I can do is wash up a bit for you."

Sakura shook her head but let her mother go into her hamper and begin to sort clothes. At least it kept her busy.

It wasn't until Sakura was halfway finished pulling on her left boot that she realized the problem – a fraction of a second too late.

"Sakura, what is this?" her mother asked, voice suddenly quiet. She was clutching the ANBU uniform with whitened knuckles.

"It's … ah … a uniform?" Sakura tried, knowing her mother wouldn't let it go.

"It's not just a uniform, Sakura," Riko said, tears welling in her eyes. "This is a uniform for those masked ninja. I know they do the most dangerous things. They do the things we pretend Konoha doesn't do. Sakura, how could you join them?"

Sakura sighed. "I'm not allowed to talk about it, Mom. You know that. I swear it's not that simple, though. I don't want you to worry."

"How can I not worry?" Riko demanded with overflowing tears. "All I do is worry! And now, you – every time you leave, I can't expect you to come back, can I?"

Sakura's mother usually wasn't so candid. For all of her shortcomings, she cared. Sometimes she cared so much that she couldn't control herself and lost herself in bad habits. Sakura hated to see that. She embraced her mother tightly, shocking Riko's tears away.

"Please don't worry, Mom. I found out I don't have to do that anymore."

Riko pulled away, skeptical. "You don't have to lie to me, Sakura."

"I promise."

Her mother's shoulders sagged with the release of tension. "Will you go back to the hospital, then?" she asked hopefully.

"Probably not."

Riko frowned. "Will you go on other missions?"

Sakura shrugged.

Riko nervously wrung the uniform. "Your active status stipend isn't enough to even cover the mortgage, Sakura. What are we going to do? I've been looking, you know I have –"

Sakura felt a stab of guilt. She should have never burdened her mother with this knowledge. "I'll figure something out, Mom. I still help out at the hospital. I got invited to a surgery this week, and I'll be paid for my time. Other things will crop up. I'll make sure they do."

Riko nodded, but pursed her lips. Sakura knew she would get into a frenzy trying to find a job again. As long as Sakura could remember, Riko had never been a happy woman. When the soba shack where she had been a cook went out of business after it was destroyed in the invasion, though, she lost all sense of purpose. It was almost as bad as when Sakura's father left town.

Sakura squeezed her mom's shoulder and headed downstairs. She paused in the front room to look at a picture of her father and mother when they first married. Her mother seemed like a different person; she was beaming and gorgeous, her sandy blonde hair curled and bouncy rather than thin and lim. Her father had his arm around her, smiling into the camera. What happened? They were from feuding merchant families in Fire Country, but so in love that they had eloped in Konoha. Her mother was disowned by her wealthy family, but she had not cared. Her father left town with another woman only a year after he had insisted Sakura join the Academy despite her mother's protests. To this day, Riko had never fully recovered. She cared enough to find this picture in the rubble and put it in their new house, though Sakura thought it was stupid. He was never coming back.

Sakura's reverie was interrupted by Ino bursting through the door. "You're late," she said.

"Sorry. I was on my way."

Ino reached out to grab Sakura's hand but thought better of it. "Well, come on," she said awkwardly.

They walked briskly until they reached Kurenai's little cottage. Kurenai was waiting for them, playing with Masako in the lawn.

"Time to go inside," Kurenai said in the warm voice she reserved for her daughter. "Nap time!"

Masako began to fuss, but Kurenai bounced her on the knee, quieting her. Kurenai motioned Ino and Sakura to follow her inside.

Kurenai went in her bedroom to put Misako in her crib.

"So. Ino said she changed her mind. I thought she'd be coming alone," Kurenai said as she emerged from the room and shut the door.

Kurenai sat at the kitchen table and waited for them.

"We want to do this together, Kurenai," Ino said. "Won't you reconsider?"

"I don't have anything new to say, Ino," Kurenai replied with a sigh. "You're asking a lot. I have too much to lose to take that sort of risk. No one will question me spending time with you, Asuma's student, but Sakura as well?"

Ino frowned and fell silent. It was Sakura's turn.

"This house is pretty small, Kurenai," Sakura said. "Where will Misako sleep when she gets older?"

"She doesn't need her own room," Kurenai said, offended. "Who are you to talk about my house? Mind your business."

Sakura ignored her and slid a piece of chakra table onto the table. "Imagine what kind of extension you could build if you sold this."

Kurenai reached out and grabbed the paper with her trembling hand. She sniffed it and held it to the light until she was satisfied it was real. "Where did you get this?"

"Somewhere you can't go."

"Why not just sell it yourself and offer me some of the money?" Kurenai asked, eyes narrowing in suspicion.

Sakura didn't answer. The truth was it was too dangerous to fence it herself, as it could be traced back to her mission by someone smart enough.

"That's what I thought," Kurenai said. "You got this illegally somehow, didn't you? I told you I don't want any part of your sidelines." She slid the paper back across the table.

"But that's only for your help with the genjutsu, Kurenai," Sakura continued, ignoring the rejection. She put another piece of chakra paper on the table. "This is for your silence."

Kurenai said nothing.

"We know you'll stop getting your widow's stipend at the end of this year, Kurenai-sensei," Ino said. "What will you do then?"

Masako began to cry and the sound made Kurenai flinch.

"It takes money to raise a child," Sakura said, driving the point home. "We can help each other."

Still, Kurenai said nothing.

A little desperation creeping into her voice, Ino added, "And that's not all! My father and I are going to re-open the flower shop this year. Someone's got to help us that's going to be around all the time, right? I can arrange for that to be you."

Sakura shot Ino a look; this wasn't part of the plan, but Sakura decided to go with it. "It won't be much, but it's a steady income."

Masako's cries became louder. Kurenai got up to comfort her daughter. While she was gone, Sakura and Ino said nothing, not daring to hope. Sakura slipped her hand into Ino's. Ino raised her eyebrows in surprise, but squeezed Sakura's hand tight.

Masako's cries slowly died down. Kurenai returned, frowning slightly. Sakura braced for the worst.

"I'll do it," Kurenai said.

By the time Kurenai finished covering the basics – just the plan of what was to come – night had fallen.

Hungry, but in need of privacy, they returned to Sakura's house. Sakura paused before the front door, not knowing what would be behind it. She knew letting her mother find that ANBU uniform would come back to haunt her.

"Come on, Forehead. I'm starving!" Ino whined.

Sakura opened the door, and after spotting her mother, sighed in relief. She was drinking – the bottle of plum wine hastily stashed under the coffee table told Sakura that much – but she wasn't drunk. "Hi, Mom."

"Hello, girls!" Riko chirped, stubbing out her cigarette. "Have you eaten?"

"No, not yet, Mrs. Haruno," Ino was quick to say, no doubt hoping for some of Riko's cooking.

"You don't need to bother yourself, Mom," Sakura said, not trusting her mother with open flame at the moment. "We were just going to make sandwiches and bring them up to my room."

"Nonsense," Riko insisted, waving the remaining smoke away. "You girls have had a long day, I'm sure, throwing ninja … things." Sakura winced at the inaccuracy, but let it go. "You just go on up to your room and I'll call when dinner's ready."

Sakura carefully watched Riko bustle into the kitchen, talking to herself as she planned a menu, but she seemed sober enough. Sakura shrugged and followed Ino upstairs.

Sakura flopped onto her bed next to Ino. "I didn't think it would come to this. It's supposed to be genjutsu."

"I didn't consider it, but it doesn't surprise me. The mind has to have some reality, or it won't be fully convincing. We can make a genjutsu without it, but it would probably fail almost as often as it worked, and even when it worked, enough doubt might remain that the targets wouldn't reveal information, even if they didn't know exactly what was wrong," Ino said, tracing a faint scar on her knee.

"And we absolutely cannot afford failure," Sakura said, frowning. "Not forcing things is important, but … Kurenai is right in some ways. We can't risk losing information for Konoha or causing a scandal." Sakura hesitated, then added, "Don't mention I said anything, but tensions with Rock are high."

Ino winced. "Maybe we shouldn't… Maybe this is a bad idea. I couldn't stand it if we messed something up for Konoha."

Sakura shook her head. "That's why we have to add in the sensational memories. The Yamanakas are the best at deep mind jutsu, and you remember what your dad said: when people remember what something felt, smelled like, sounded like, they almost never question the memory. Kurenai said with enough extracted memories to draw from, the genjutsu would have a near perfect success rate."

Ino quirked her lips in a wry smile. "If he knew exactly what he was giving advice about, he'd lose his mind."

"So how do we get these memories?"

"Well, one or both of us has to sleep with a man and then extract them," Ino muttered, looking at her knees again.

"How do we extract them?"

"Well, I know the theory behind it, but I've never done it. I'll ask my dad to show me. I know he will, as long as I don't say why. Then, I'll show you. I'm not supposed to, but I will. Just keep it quiet."

"Of course. So, do we get these memories on missions, or what?"

Ino blanched. "No! What if we get detected? I'm pretty sure it can be done secretly, but it's risky. If we got caught doing that and failed a mission…."

Sakura stared straight at Ino, unblinking. "We have to do this … here? In Konoha? With whom?"

"I don't know," Ino whispered. "Someone we can trust."

"Who can we trust with this? If they snitch or get caught out, we'll be in hot water with the Hokage. Never mind that it's not really breaking any laws until we use it in the field. It won't matter to him, especially not with me involved."

"We can't trust anyone. That's the problem." Ino's shoulders sagged. She looked defeated.

"So we just don't tell them what we're up to. It's as simple as that. Memories can be extracted secretly, if you're careful, right?"

"Yes. It's easiest while the target is asleep, and he won't remember unless he wakes up. I'll have to show you how to do it. It's not so easy, but with your medical background, I think you'll be okay. Just don't tell my dad I'm giving away family jutsu." Ino chuckled halfheartedly.

"Ino." Sakura paused. "You can't do this, can you? You told me every time you have to do it on a mission, you relive your rape. I can't … I can't have you doing that. I'll do it."

Ino frowned. "It's better for us both to do it, because the memories will have you in it, won't they? I have to do it."

"Are you sure?"

Ino said nothing, only picked at a string on her hem.

"Ino, are you sure can do it?" Sakura insisted.

"No," Ino finally whispered, "but I'm going to try."

Sakura slipped an arm around Ino's shoulders and gave a squeeze. "If you can't, it's okay. We'll figure it out."

Ino just nodded and continued to fiddle with her hem. "I was planning on saving that job for your mother, you know," she said.

"The job at your flower shop?" Sakura said, feeling like the wind had been knocked out of her. "Why didn't you say?"

"I wasn't sure Ichiro wasn't going to come back. I mean, I know he moved to the capital to work in a big greenhouse, but it wouldn't be right to give away his job if he still wanted it. But he wrote that he was staying up there, and then I wanted to wait to pitch it to my dad when the opening was closer. I didn't want to get your hopes up. I'm sorry I couldn't keep it for her."

"It's okay," Sakura said, trying not to show her disappointment. It would have been a perfect solution, but she hadn't even realized they would be hiring a new assistant. "This was more important. Besides, what was Kurenai really going to do? We couldn't let little Masako starve, or Kurenai either. My mother has me. Kurenai doesn't have anyone anymore."

Ino smiled weakly, obviously thinking of it in this light for the first time. "She has us. And Chouji and Shika. And Hinata, Kiba, and Shino."

They sat in silence for a while, content and hopeful for the first time in what felt like forever.

"Girls!" Riko called from downstairs. "Dinner is ready!"

To her surprise, Sakura's stomach grumbled. She couldn't remember the last time she had felt truly hungry. "Come on, Pig," she teased, sprinting to the door. "Race you!"

Ino body checked Sakura out of the doorway. "Too slow, Forehead!"