Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters

Note: It's been a challenging month; the New Year has only brought me stress and some disappointment. I'm dealing with it though.

This chapter is short. Sorry. The next will be longer.

Note about Interlude III: It was supposed to come later, but I thought I might as well put it in now to limit the confusion the story gives (I know that's something I need to work on…and the spelling errors).

That said, thank you to reviewers, as always.

Interlude II

What I Do

Tsunade's life is filled with lies, intricate ones that weave into each other and form a fabricated piece of space. She wonders how that works, but when she looks outside from the ANBU building into the bustling streets in the distance and the birds springing from trees, she thinks, 'life is going on and I'm missing every bit of it if I just sit here.' She also thinks, 'I'm a grown woman, I can't be questioning shit like this anymore. I have success, status and everything else I need to thrive in this world. I'm not going to wallow in self-pity and complain about being less fortunate.'

She knows she's right of course; she doesn't brag often, but her success speaks for itself. She runs the analyst institute and heads the ANBU corps more often than not. In times of crisis, people turn to her and ask for her advice; she's a genius. She's beautiful.

She's made mistakes.

She can tell when she finally is given the Attraction Effect USB. It's a harmless device upon first inspection; a small storage space and an almost ineffectual white casing around it that made it seem like the object a child would take with them to school to transfer information for a project.

But it's not just that.

It's Hinata's careful work, under the scrutiny of Orochimaru, of other countless agents who'd been hunting her.

It's a reminder of who Orochimaru was and Tsunade can spout out whatever she wants about Orochimaru, but deep down, she remembers who he once was. He had also been so powerful; intelligent. She'd seen him sometimes, a beacon of knowledge and he'd had the most interesting crooked smile, surrounded by like-minded people with pens and notebooks and everything that made him seem worlds away from lesser beings. She had had the pleasure of working with him once. A simple project really; ANBU protocol and tactics, back then when they were still trying to expand the strength of their agents and when the adjacent nations had been screaming 'war' at their fortress walls.

Orochimaru had proposed the theory of chakra, how it was so easily molded by ninjas and could be drawn out for such amazing feats in the form of ninjutsu, genjutsu, and certain forms of taijutsu. He had said it would benefit non-ninjas and expand their army and wasn't it just a great idea?

Tsunade likes to think she said no to those experiments.

And so do her closest advisors.

But there's always more to it. It's the key to power and it's all there, in Tsunade's hand, and her fingers are shaking when she plugs the device into her laptop.

How much is in here? (She's in denial; she knows exactly what's in there, but she also knows Sakura couldn't have read it all because her face would betray everything and the pillars of her morals would come crashing down.)

And the screen flickers and the laptop sparks then dies.

For a second, Tsunade is shocked and it's only after a few moments, she realizes what has occurred. 'It's a jutsu,' she thinks, 'to stop whoever who has a chakra signature from opening the file.' It's obvious who the USB was meant for (Sakura, of course).

This jutsu can only be taken off by the caster; Hinata.

It's her failsafe, Tsunade realizes numbly. There is one loophole in this jutsu, she analyzes, and it's as simple as getting someone with no chakra signature to open the file, but Tsunade applauds Hinata anyway.

She considers crushing the USB in her palm, effectively eliminating those regrets in her past, but it must be the inner guilt in her heart that eats up at her when she takes it and puts it into her desk.

This won't end well for her.

She thinks of those nights when Orochimaru would knock on her door, gesture her towards those isolated chambers, subjects quiet behind those interior walls, and she'd hide her eyes and close off her ears because she believed that there'd be progress.

And Orochimaru would always seem fascinated with the results, each failed, but his eyes would be bright and he'd be whispering, "how did they not accept the impulse? It was completely compatible with the nerve passageways…" and he'd mumble more words and shoo her away and say more research needed to be done; he just needed the funding from her.

She knew – knows – it's wrong, but it's her mistake, her humanity and it's terrible to think that way, but who says she's perfect?

It was war; they'd been at war; they were at war.

It had stopped eventually – the project that is – but it had been due to the increasing number of casualties and the lack of ideas on where to hide these failed experiments and how to keep them quiet, not their humanity calling.

So when Sakura enters much later, looking older and worn and saying, with such reverence in her eyes, "I'm sorry", Tsunade's already been expecting her for weeks - she's probably even said that aloud - and all she can say is,

"That takes a load off my mind Sakura."

Not really, though.

Tsunade is not Orochimaru.

She hushes up though, lets the USB sit in her desk, and knows someone will find it, and open it up and eventually they'll find out how she let those experiments slide, sat with the other big fat cats in the back and said it was all in the name of the protection of the people. Those in the experiments had been payed for the testing, so it wasn't her fault right?

Right?

It eats her up sometimes, but she's a ninja. She is strong and beautiful and people flock around her to hear her opinion. She runs the ANBU and the analyst institute.

Tsunade is not Orochimaru…but she's damn well close to it.

Interlude III

Sweet Love'O Mine

Sasuke wants Hinata; he wants to hold her right now. He wants to curl into her and breathe in tandem with her, until she stops fighting, until she stops squirming and saying no, because her eyes say, 'oh please, yes'.

"Sasuke, are you listening?" and Kakashi doesn't look impressed, but there's this resigned look on his face, like he expected it, and he adds with only a little bit of interest, "Should I bring your wife in?"

But Sasuke is patient. "Not yet. I'd prefer she comes to me"

"And she will" Kakashi finishes for him, calm and collected.

"Yup"

There's a moment where Kakashi's fists tighten reflexively, like he's entertaining the thought of something brutal, but he just adds, "Your mother and brother did a number on your mind didn't they? It's not you against the world Sasuke."

Sasuke smirks, amused, because, despite the resigned and bored looks the silver-headed man seemed to constantly sport, Sasuke likes him. It might easily have something to do with the fact that he's sworn in to always protect Sasuke.

The power of the Uchiha clan is always this stinging undertone in his skin, constantly buzzing with this need to conquer, to prove that he's something, to carve his own path, to make his clan proud, and most of all, to be content. And the Uchiha knows he has power, sees it in the reverent eyes from others and he knows they're looking at the tell tale features of his clan, the aristocratic gaze and the signature smirks.

Sometimes, he thinks he hears his mother, sitting him down, days after Itachi had tapped his nose and revealed to him what the sharingan could do; the possibilities. She had said, that sweet loving smile of hers always present, "I'm not going to tell you what to do with that power, but I understand you'll do the clan good…and yourself some good too, because you're my precious baby" and Sasuke had laughed, "I get it mom" and she had had held him so tightly, because she knew that there'd be a chance, someday, where she wouldn't see him again, maybe.

"…And I'll just head out" Kakashi finishes, and his gaze just says, 'I know you weren't listening to a thing I was saying.'

The door closes behind him and Sasuke looks at the roof, probably for a long time and he probably falls asleep at one point because Hinata's by his side suddenly and she looks much cleaner; though her cheeks are still gaunt and her gaze is still untrusting. It softens just the slightest when she looks at him.

"Are you alright?" she asks, and her hand reaches out to touch him, but retracts almost immediately. She seems surprised at her actions, like she'd just reached out to touch an open flame. Sasuke resists the urge to pull her hand back, to force her to cradle his cheek and smile like he was the only thing in her world.

"I'm alright" he rattles out, pitched perfectly so he sounds wheezy and drowsy, enough that her look softens a bit more – part ways guilt and something else that makes his heart rate speed up and his need to hold her down that much stronger – and she reaches out again.

Her hand is shaking only slightly, and it's clammy and cold when it finally reaches his forehead, as if she's checking for a fever, and he can feel how for a second, she probably thinks the situation is so awkward when she's not fighting him, and it looks like she's about to pull away, but he hums instead and asks feebly, "are you alright?" He doesn't have to pretend to look concerned, and something must have snapped in her because her other hand is clenching the blanket he's covered in and she whispers,

"Don't do that again." Softer now, "I can't…I won't be able to handle that if you try to pull a stunt like that. You can't alright?" and she looks like her world's been torn apart in her eyes and she has all the pieces, but she can't put them back together again like it was before. She can't lock her emotions in the back of her head anymore, she can't compartmentalize them again, because now, she'll be forced to realize that he's going to take hits for her, that her mistakes will cost her his life (he won't die, but he'll hurt himself willingly). That's the small part of her he knows so well, those shaky contradicting morals of hers that makes him want to have her in as many ways as he can.

He'll get her mind first, because he's already breaking her walls down; that persistent law ninjas uphold to show no emotion in battle and to detach themselves from the kill. He knows she's not good at that, that she probably relives those moments where she's fought and bled and made others bleed. He sees that telltale glint of insanity in her eyes, that piece that all of them hold, but hers so open and so bare that it must destroy her.

And he loves it. He loves those pieces of her, because she's never learned to hide them like her sister, like her father, like his brother, or anyone else in their small world.

He refrains from saying something sharp and true to her like, 'marry me' or 'I love you' and says instead, "Ok" and he closes his eyes a bit to feign tiredness, and she's already leaning towards him as if to make sure he won't die from it.

God, he loves it.

When all this is over – and he and Sai already have this plan formulated and the power to do so - he thinks he'll rebuild her.

I think I'm going to destroy my laptop. Files keep deleting themselves. I know, that with the long wait, people expected a chapter. I'm sorry, I'm typing it up right now, hopefully it'll be out next week. Other than the computer malfunction, I also had finals going on, exams and whatnot. I'll probably be a bit more active since the new semester has started and the homework flow isn't so insane just yet.

Once again, thank you so much to the reviewers, and I promise more Sasuke/Hinata interaction in the next chapter, but these interludes (specifically the first one) were fairly important.