MERRY CHRISTMAS

AND YOU DON'T CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS, WELL HAPPY (INSERT YOUR HOLIDAY HERE)

So happy with the reviews I got last chapter. You are all to kind. But seriously thanks.

On some of my reviews I realized that maybe I forgot to write this into one of my authors notes...and instead just thought about doing this, imagined it and then... yeah you understand what I'm trying to say.

so... I'm going to make up for my stupidity.

1. Karin is there not because of the biting thing and then people are magically healed and bursting with chakra and all that jazz. But because of her sensory abilities. I don't quite know what episode out of the 300+ episodes it is. But yeah. I'm sure it's in her wiki.

2. I can probably solve a lot of confusion right now. SAKURA IS THE ONLY CHARACTER IN FIRST PERSON EVERYONE ELSE IS IN THIRD. So when it switches to first you are Sakura. And when it goes to third, usually I have it centered on Sasuke, Tsunade, and then a few people depending on the chapter we're in. Like i think i did a Suigetsu once, I know i did Gaara and I'm sure there are others.

I do not own Naruto

"Oh good, back in this room!" I said sarcastically with a wide smile on my face. I was picked up by those two rough guards from before and dragged back into the room where I was just interrogated. While the two Kage followed behind.

So far, Tsunade didn't say a word. The silent treatment, good to know that I was probably going to get a yelling at later. Over the time that I was "rogue" I did some pretty bad stuff that I wasn't proud of. I was put back into the chair and Gaara looked at me from across the table.

For about a minute nothing was said.

"What cat got your tongue? You were so talkative during our chat before." I said grinning.

"This isn't an interrogation anymore." he simply stated.

"Sakura." Tsunade said, her voice crackling. Was she nervous to talk to me? Jeez, I guess I do now have a scary demeanor. I looked over to her still with a face of disgust, and Gaara motioned to the guards to leave the room. And I suddenly went white. What? Why? Were thy going to kill me themselves? I looked around the room trying to see what kind of weapons were around the room for them to kill me with. "He knows."

My eyes grew wide at the news. "What?!" I said standing up from shock. I was furious. "Why did you tell him?"

"Sakura," she said. "There is another person that knows too."

"What? What did you do just go around spilling the secret every chance you got?"

"No-"

"Then what?!" I cut her off. I realizde that I might have taken this a little too hard but it wasn't fair. She went telling everyone that I was a fake, a phony, and yet Naruto sat at home in the dark and hurt because of me. All of my friends felt betrayed and she went off telling anyone she felt like.

"Like now, I had no choice."

"Oh, please." I snorted. "Save it." I said putting one hand on my hip, and taking a rather deep breath to try to calm myself down. "Who's the other that knows?"

"Kakashi." Tsunade responded. "And I didn't really tell him, he kind of found out. And I imagine that Shikamaru is close to finding out as well. It's only a matter of time before he collects all the variables."

I gritted my teeth. This was ridiculous, here I was keeping this a secret from everyone, trying hard to make sure no one found out about it. And then here we are, she was the one off blabbing the entire time. "How far are you on this mission?"

"Well," I said still angered. "I assume you know Orochimaru is dead."

"Yes."

"I wasn't the one that killed him. Sasuke did all of that on his own." I responded. "I have met with Itachi a total of one time."

"You should meet him again." Tsunade said. "Most likely after you are all released from here Sasuke will go right for him."

"I know that. I've tried to contact him for weeks and nothing." I responded. "Besides he probably has nothing to tell me other than what we already know. He's not much help."

"What if you disguise yourself and go see him now?" Tsunade responded. "No one will think twice when they see a Sand shinobi leaving the village, you can create a clone to make everyone believe you're still here."

"Like I said, there'd be no point. He doesn't want a warning that Sasuke is approaching. He probably already knows even that, and that's why I can't get in touch with him. He doesn't want to hear it."

"Sakura," Tsunade said disappointed. "I'm going to give you another month to get Sasuke back to the village."

"A month?" I snapped. "What happened to take all the time you need?"

"And let you get caught again? Next time you might not be so lucky as to have Gaara capture you. Next time it might be the Raikage or the Mizukage, and they won't be as kind as Gaara."

"Yeah, drowning me because I couldn't tell him why I left the village was kind." I said rolling my eyes. "At least though, I wasn't like you to spill her guts at every small bump in the road." I couldn't help but be furious. She went around telling why I really left like it wasn't even a secret at all. All the friends that I hurt from leaving are stuck clueless and in shock from my sudden departure and then there's others that don't have a care in the world because they already know. "Does Naruto know?"

"No." Tsunade responded. "It's very hard to keep him away from the idea of leaving the village to come and get you. I have to basically knock him unconscious every time he goes off about how it's vital to go an find you. I'm surprised I'm keeping him in the village."

"I can imagine." I smiled, still glad that he would even consider doing that after all the hell I put him through. And then my smile turned to a frown. "Hopefully soon he forgets me and the determination he has for coming and getting me. Getting Sasuke back is going to take more than a month. Maybe a year still. I didn't even start."

"What have you been doing all this time?" Tsunade said angered.

"Listen, it took this much time to get his trust to be a friend of his again. It's going to take a bit longer to convince him to come back to Konoha. Especially when he finds out about his brother, and the fact that I knew, all that trust will be gone out the window."

"If he finds out." Tsunade responded.

"He will, I can assure you that, one way or another he will. And then he'll never want to come back. Ever." I said. "Besides, now he has the idea to destroy the village right after good old Itachi's death."

"And why is that?"

"Not sure. When you hang with Sasuke you usually do things with no questions asked. That's just how it is."

"A month." Tsunade said getting up from the chair. "You don't have to go see Itachi but you still have a month." she said sternly. And her mind wasn't going to change.

"And if I don't meet that quota?"

"Then next time you're caught, I won't be coming until your execution. I won't save you next time. And you truly will be a deemed a traitor to the village. The mission was bring back Sasuke or kill him."

Sasuke was still in the cell when the two Kages passed again. Eye contact was made as they walked calmly and confidently towards the door out of the hell hole that was a prison. Once they started walking up the stairs he turned to Karin.

"Karin..." Sasuke whispered trying to shake her awake. "Karin!" he said again this time a little louder. She wouldn't wake. This was becoming irritating. The thought came to his mind to leave her here and get her later if he felt like it.

And after going through all other options he liked that one the best. Unfortunatly though, the shackles cutting off his chakra weren't helping the situation. He concentrated hard, and cut off his entire body from the usage of chakra and for once thanked that he learned chakra control at an early age so he was able to do this.

He then thanked Orochimaru for once making him lift weights while cutting off his chakra so if something like this did happen. Everything would go smoothly.

In one terrible, painfully hard tug he ripped the shackles into two on his wrists and they fell to the ground. Taking a breath he began to curse under his breath for how hard this was without chakra and then broke free from the shackles on his ankles.

And his plan would've been fool-proof too, if it wasn't for the lack of chakra that made him go unconscious.

"Tsunade..." Gaara said as the two walked up the stairs and out of the prison. "Don't you think you were being hard on her?"

"She needed the push. There's nothing more that Sakura wants than to be at home with her friends and her parents. She'll make the right choice."

"What if she doesn't return? She decides to stay rouge with her new …. friends."

"She won't."

"But what if she's still in love with Sasuke? She wouldn't kill him."

"You and I both know that if it came down to killing him, she would put her feelings aside and do what it right."

"So you're going to make your favorite student, someone who is like daughter to you, kill the only man she ever loved?" Gaara asked, a bit shocked. "I thought you had more heart than that."

It was only a short time that Sasuke was unconscious. And he was still unbelievably weak when he woke. He tried to stand himself up which he did, but the action was extremely difficult. There were no longer guards at his cell, which seemed odd. He would've expected there to be an army of guards there and not only that but he expected to he in a cell alone, strapped into an electric chair of some sorts and be painfully zapped every time he moved a muscle.

But no. There was nothing. Why? He had no idea. He was probably the most dangerous person around now and yet there were zero guards. Not to mention he thought that despite he lack of chakra for those painful few minutes while breaking free that it was going to be worse than that. It's like they wanted him to escape.

He mustered up as much chakra as he could and then sliced open the bars to the cell with his chidori. He moved out of the cell and walked in the direction the Kages just came from hoping to find Sakura. And Suigetsu.

And where was Juugo anyway?

I stood still after the two had left. More like I couldn't move.

"I knew it was you down here." said a voice, my mind went into over drive.

"Well, you are always right." I responded.

A pony-tailed man walked into sight from behind of the wall. He stood in the doorway with his hands in his pockets and an angered, confused, and annoyed look on his face that suited him. "Lucky for you I heard all of the conversation."

"And the two Kages somehow didn't sense your presence?" I said to him. "And even more so, I didn't?"

"I got really good at being invisible." Shikamaru answered. "More than I'd like to admit actually."

"Out of them all I think you've changed the most."

"Them? Seems like a cold word to call your best friends."

"They were my friends, and so were you. But not anymore." I corrected him. "Not after I killed innocent people, tortured men and woman, stole, and hurt them in the most terrifyingly way possible. I left, became a killer and now I doubt they will even look at me the same way. I have too much blood on my hands, I can't wash off and hope everything is fine. Because it's not."

"You can stop pretending your some heartless monster." he said with a frown plastered on his face. "I heard the conversation." he restated.

"Well do you want a medal or a cookie? But unfortunately I ran out of both so the grand prize is nothing." I mocked, he didn't seem to pleased with my sarcasm.

"Kill him already." Shikamaru stated. "This life is eating you up alive. Come back to the village where you belong."

"Serving me the truth on a silver platter?" I grinned. "If Naruto was here he'd probably whine a bit, tell me he misses me, then ramble about how it's important for me to come home, continuing with his naïve dream of rescuing Sasuke."

"So you don't even believe that you can bring Sasuke back and yet you still stay?"

"I don't want to kill him believe it or not."

"And what are you going to do in say ten years down the road and you're still tagging along with them? This façade can't last that long."

"Something tells me you want to see Sasuke die the most painfully way possible. What has he ever done to you? He's hurt me countless times, and yet I am the one that doesn't want his corpse on my doorstep as a Christmas present."

"Sasuke may have done nothing to me, but he has hurt you, Ino, Naruto, and although I wasn't even close to him I feel betrayed. He has hurt the village by running away and joining the most vile man alive, and as a shinobi of that village I must do and think what is best for it. And the best thing for the village is seeing Sasuke as a tombstone and not alive and well."

"So what you're saying is that you want me to kill Sasuke just because you think it's the best for the village? What would happen to me when I return certainly I won't be praised by some, especially Ino and Naruto and I'm sure deep down everyone else will hate me for killing him."

"Well, I never said that killing him was going to be a happy ending for everyone."

I stared at his serious expression. "I assume you've heard that I have a month left."

"Yes I did."

"Let's make a bet. If I successfully bring Sasuke home, and he is nice, and doesn't pose a threat to the village, in your opinion, you get to be the one to clean my apartment, and his, that has been left untouched for years. And if I have no choice but to kill Sasuke, I'll take all your missions off your hands for three months. That should give you plenty of time to watch the clouds."

"And, you have to apologize to me in front of everyone, and say that I was right and you were wrong."

"Same goes for you." I said extending my hand. "Deal?"

He stood back thinking about it for a minute, he then extended his arm, clasped his hand into mine and grinned. "Deal."

Special thanks to...

Xxreverie your review brought a smile to my day. The fact that you took the time to write like a paragraph about my story is just awesome. (cyber high five)

The people that reviewed more than once! Seriously that's awesome. (I started naming people and then, I realized I had more than two of you precisous people to and then... I thought this'd be easier. So yeah, you know who you awesome people are.) (two cyber high fives)

Rerezhang I'm sure with all the apologies I posted you sent you through a loop every time you got on fan fiction to read a chapter and it was me, making excuses. I feel the need apologize. Again. (cyber high five and hug)

The reason I don't really call out my reviewers in because I feel like a terrible scum bag when I don't mention someone. But it's Christmas. So please don't hit me with bats.

OMG guyssss I finally caught up with Naruto... episode wise. Then i went to the manga and I'm likkkkkeeee ummmmmm. (cue spongebob) I don't really feel like it. (self cyber high five for childhood references) (cyber high five who thought of HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER when I self fived myself)

MERRY CHRISMAS

PLEASE REVIEW