"Stop squirming, Forehead! I can't see what I'm doing with you moving around so much."

"I can't help it! It itches!"

Ino threw up her hands. "I went to all that trouble last night stitching you up and you're complaining about itching! I thought you would be more worried about the giant knot on your head."

Sakura settled down when she picked up on some low-key laughing coming from the younger children. One of the little blond brats had the gall to stick his tongue out at her! It was her luck that the breakfast tradition in the Yamanaka clan hadn't changed from when she was younger: she was facing down an entire table full of blond, blank-eyed interrogation specialists.

After a moment of managing to hold her still, Ino was satisfied and she let Sakura's head go. The girl had patched her up the night before with some field stitching (which, Sakura thought, was only right given that she had beaten her over the head with a lamp). Ino hadn't gotten away without anything herself, though – her jaw had turned a delightful shade of black and blue and she was still complaining about her tongue. A few cutting remarks from Ino when they'd first arrived for breakfast had put an end to the questions. Now everyone just ate quietly and pretended that a little twelve year-old girl didn't rule the roost.

There was one person who didn't quite get that memo, though. Sakura spotted his silver mop of hair coming a mile away. "Kakashi-sensei," she greeted as he started filling a plate for himself.

He gave Sakura and Ino bland looks. "Not even a full day yet and you look like you've already had it out. Inoichi wasn't lying about the two of you, was he?"

Ino smiled. "It would have been stranger if we hadn't gotten into a fight. Now we know where we stand on some things." She tapped Sakura on the head. "And who's better with improvised weapons."

"I see Sakura still has some things to learn, then."

Sakura gaped at them both. "It wasn't a real fight! She got lucky with that lamp!"

"Tut tut, Sakura. You need to look underneath the underneath when it comes to fighting. A lamp is as good as a club when you need it to be." Kakashi's look was pitying. "I thought I trained you better than this."

"You didn't train me at all," Sakura groused. She ignored Ino's snickering and shoveled food onto her plate. Ino was probably going to say something, but Sakura didn't care. She'd been off her silly diet for months now and she'd never miss another actual cooked meal again after being stuck in that horrible swamp with only alligator meat.

Kakashi took it all in stride. "I like to think I was a positive role model for your development," he said, whatever that was supposed to mean. "You need to hurry it up, though. We have to be at the Hokage Tower in less than an hour."

"The Tower? Is there going to be another meeting?"

"Yes, but not like you're probably thinking. It's for the chunin exam."

Sakura couldn't say that didn't interest her. Being a part of the exam itself was almost as good as getting to go through it with Naruto and Sasuke-kun. And, who was to say that she couldn't find some way of helping them without being on their team?

"Wait, is she going to be on one of the stage teams?" Ino asked.

Kakashi raised an eyebrow and glanced at Inoichi, who had the decency to pretend he was listening to one of his cousins. "Looks like someone has been spilling some secrets of their own." Ino realized her slip and smiled sweetly like she normally did when an adult had caught her doing something.

"I just overheard some chunin talking one day at the BBQ restaurant Asuma-sensei takes us to."

"Right. Well, I don't know exactly where Sakura is going to be put. That's what the meeting is for."

Sakura pushed back from the table, excited for the first time in a while. "Well, let's get going. I don't want to be late."

The jounin, who had somehow managed to clear his plate when no one was looking, got up as well. Ino just sourly poked at her food.

"Try not to muck up the exam for everyone, Forehead," she grumbled.

Sakura risked another war by patting the blond on the head. "Don't worry, Piggy," she chimed, "one day you'll be a big girl with her own vest. It won't be as nice as mine, but I'm sure you'll still look good in it."

Kakashi and Sakura were almost late despite their early start after Sakura had to wash a bowlful of steamed rice out of her hair. Still, it had been one of the more interesting breakfasts in Yamanaka recent memory so Ino's and her's terrible table manners could be forgiven.

There was a marked difference when Sakura and Kakashi stepped into the Tower for the second time. Sakura was wearing both her vest and badge and her teacher was looking the part of a jounin on village business. Civilians and lower-ranking ninja moved for them. Genin who were here to get missions or turn in paperwork looked at Kakashi in star struck awe and at Sakura with jealousy. Konoha-nin didn't stare at Sakura with hostility anymore, but instead with the professionalism they gave to everyone else. Obviously someone had slipped them a memo.

It felt good. Very good. Better than Sakura would have thought. If it wasn't respect for her, it was respect for her village. For the man behind that village, in the case of those really in-the-know such as the jounin. Sakura jutted her chin out and picked up her pace a bit until she was only a step behind Kakashi. No one dared tell her otherwise.

Kakashi was keeping up the small talk as he led them through the sprawling hallways of the tower's first floor. He explained that the majority of day to day business occurred on the first floor, where there were plenty of empty meeting rooms that could be commandeered. The higher up in the tower you went the more important the people.

They were passing more jounin and chunin now. Unused workspaces had given way to stacks of papers and laboring ninja at desks, armed with pens, staplers, and stamps. "They're processing paperwork," Kakashi explained as Sakura rubbernecked. "The exams bring lots of it each year with all the visitors."

"Is this what I'll be doing?" Sakura asked with some trepidation. It seemed like a terrible job to her.

Kakashi shook his head, though. He urged them further along until they reached a set of double doors. His hands paused on the tarnished metal handle. "Listen," he murmured, "no matter what happens don't lose your head."

That wasn't the most comforting thing to hear. Kakashi didn't have any other advice for her and pushed open the door. Inside, two dozen heads jerked his way. Sakura was afforded no shielding from the eyes of all the gathered Konoha chunin in the room. It reminded Sakura of an Academy classroom with its tiers of desks. Kakashi made her enter first. Clearly they had interrupted a meeting, which Sakura should have expected given Kakashi's penchant for being late to things.

Sakura felt a tap on her shoulder and leaned in when Kakashi stooped down. "I can't be in here for this. Jounin-sensei that have teams in the exam can't know about the exact setup. I'll be right down the hallway, though." His eye shifted over to the front of the room. There was a woman there who held that look. "Don't let Anko get to you."

Those were the last words of wisdom the jounin had for Sakura. He gave the chunin a little mock salute and closed the door behind him. The girl suddenly felt very, very out of place. She looked to be the youngest person in the room by at least a half-dozen years or more.

The woman standing behind a podium, Anko, jerked her head at an open seat near the front. "Stop gawking and get down here."

There was real heat in the woman's tone. Kakashi rarely wasted words so Sakura steeled herself. She got to her seat and stared straight back.

Anko sneered, but didn't comment. "Alright, all of you are going to have to cut me some slack today because this wasn't supposed to be my briefing. Ibiki is loafing this morning." She looked around the room. "I've worked with most of you, so that helps. Some of you will be pulling double duty during the exams."

Several chunin groaned. The shorthaired spitfire was having none of that, though. "Cry some more. You should be thankful you're even here right now. Exam duty looks good on your yearly performance reports. Now give me a damn second to figure this shit out."

While Anko went through a stack of folders on the table, the chunin began chatting with one another. None spoke with Sakura, but she picked up snippets of conversation around her about the exam or the strange meeting a lot of the senior ninja were pulled into that morning at the tower. It was really just shop talk – exactly the type of thing Sakura used to eavesdrop on for Kabuto. Now she just listened in because she was bored.

"Alright, I think I've figured out what Ibiki was going to do. These folders," Anko tapped a stack of multicolored files stacked on the desk, "have your assignments. The purple folders mean you're working on the tests, white ones mean you are working security for the finals, and green mean support staff. If you have any complaints I'll hear them after you've looked everything over."

The woman slammed the stack down on the far end of the row. The first chunin flipped through the stack and pulled a purple folder. It went down the line and each chunin took a folder until the stack landed in front of Sakura. She sifted the stack and found a green folder with her name printed on the front.

Sakura scanned the first page of her assignment and bit back the first thing that came to mind. Haruno Sakura – Counterintelligence. Funny. The specifics of her duty entailed checking backgrounds of foreign ninja and making sure their identifications matched. It was busywork that would keep her well away from anything important or productive. It said she would be working at the civilian processing center. They weren't even giving her real ninja work. Sakura flipped the folder closed and looked up straight into Anko's knowing eyes. Anko didn't even bother hiding her smirk.

Play with me, that smirk seemed to say. I dare you.

Sakura was already too deep, though. She was acutely aware of all the eyes watching her and Anko now; they had noticed something happening. More than her personal feelings, however, there was the issue of Otogakure. Sakura represented her village. If this was going to be a real alliance Sakura had to draw a line, even if it was a jounin staring her down.

Silently, Sakura closed her folder and flipped it toward Anko. It came to rest right at the woman's feet.

"I object." The two words seemed to pop in the air like fireworks.

Anko stared. Sakura stared back. Anko turned an interesting shade of red. Sakura raised an eyebrow. "Going to elaborate on that?"

Sakura waved at the folder. "It's busywork. I'm the official attaché from the hidden village of Otogakure. I'm not a civilian clerk."

The jounin slammed her open hand down on the desk in front of Sakura with enough force to actually split the wood. She can't hurt me, she can't hurt me, she can't hurt me ran franticly through Sakura's head as she fought to sit still. Anko leaned in, sneering like an animal, close enough that Sakura could smell the lack of smell on the woman. The only thing keeping Sakura tethered to her chair was Anko's blank eyes – Sakura could pretend that it Ino glaring at her and not a royally pissed jounin that could twist her head off on a whim.

A polite knock on the door ended the standoff. Anko snorted through her nose and stomped off, which let Sakura sink down into her chair. She felt numb but her muscles wouldn't stop jumping. The other chunin were whispering and looking at her with something approaching respect. Sakura wondered if she had passed some kind of test.

Sakura let out a deep, shuddering breath and shifted in her scratchy, unworn vest. She looked back up when Anko came back. The woman was probably there for round two.

The look she got from Anko then froze her entire body. It wasn't a hot rage that could be gotten out by arguing or fighting; it was a sharp, cold fire that promised some kind of death. The jounin jerked Sakura up by the arm and dragged her over the desk like a child.

No one in the room moved to help her even when her shouts started.

All of Sakura's kicking, screaming, and scratching amounted to nothing. Anko's grip was iron and Sakura thought she could feel her bones groan under the woman's fingers. She was dragged out of the classroom and into the hall where Anko threw her up against a wall.

"You can't do this, you psychopa-" The words sputtered out into a croak that only barely managed to pass her teeth. A cat-faced ANBU stared down at her. It was the same one that had caught her in Tanzaku-jo. Kakashi was next to him. The look on her teacher's face was only a shade better than Anko's.

It was the ANBU watcher that cleared his throat. He didn't waste time with small talk. "Sakura-san, we need to discuss your whereabouts yesterday afternoon." His voice was deep and it made Sakura shiver. The last time she had spoken with him he'd stuck a needle through her teeth. It didn't seem like he was waiting on her to answer, so she said nothing. "You are living at the Yamanaka compound. Did you leave between the hours of seven in the afternoon and three this morning?"

"No. And you know I didn't because you are always watching me."

"Can anyone substantiate that inside the clan?"

Sakura hand an inkling that this was too serious to play coy. "I was with Ino until around eleven," she readily admitted.

Anko cursed and stormed off. No one stopped her. Finally, Kakashi leaned down and held out his hand. Sakura was still annoyed with him, but she took it and he helped her up. She hoped that he didn't notice the way her arm was still trembling or how her heart was galloping. Sakura was barely holding it together.

The cat ANBU scratched his head. "You're still going to have to come with us down to the office until we can collaborate that with Yamanaka Ino."

Sakura held up her hand. Stop shaking! "Wait, what's all this about? That Anko woman looked like she was going to kill me."

"She might have if we hadn't been here when Aoba-san told her about it." Only now did Sakura notice a chunin hanging back from the group. He was wearing sunglasses, inside, but that wasn't the most burning question she had at the moment.

"Told her what? What's going on?"

Kakashi's face pinched and fell into a deep frown. "Morino Ibiki was found dead in his apartment this morning."

Sakura's mouth flapped for a moment. "And you think I could have killed a jounin?" she asked the ANBU.

"Not especially. You have a strange power, but I don't think you're capable of killing a veteran like Ibiki. You are simply the most obvious person with a grudge."

"I'm the most obvious person with a grudge against the Torture and Interrogation expert?"

"The most obvious one, yes. You realize that not many people who would hold a grudge against Ibiki are still free to walk around, right?"

Point. "Fine, let's go down to your office and wait for Ino to confirm my alibi. Never mind that you people are watching me every second of the day. I'll play along."

The ANBU might have smiled. Sakura couldn't see anything past the mask, but something told her she'd said the right thing. Kakashi put a hand on her back and slowly guided her along after the man. They took a different route than before with the ANBU leading them through a service entrance in the back of the tower. It was still early enough that there weren't many people milling around the tower.

There was an unsaid understanding that they didn't want to draw attention to themselves. They took back alleyways and side streets instead of the main roads. Once the ANBU had led them through a customer-less grocery store where the owner hadn't even battened an eye at them as they had emerged from the loading area in the back. It all seemed needlessly cloak-and-dagger to Sakura, but she didn't comment; she just followed and wondered about who had assassinated the interrogator.

Sakura was reasonably certain her village didn't have anything to do with it. Kabuto was long dead and Orochimaru wanted an alliance with Konoha. Ibiki didn't stand out as someone important enough to jeopardize that.

"Here we are," the masked man intoned. Sakura withdrew from her thoughts and found herself staring at one of the local shinobi police stations that dotted the village.

"I thought we were going to an ANBU office?" she asked, surprised.

A bell on the door jingled as the trio pushed their way in. The lobby was wide and open with chairs lining the edge. The regular shinobi police were mostly for civilians, Sakura remembered. When a ninja did a crime against the civil laws of the village people could ask for investigations here. A handful of men and women were waiting in the chairs, reading magazines or watching the snowy television providing basic cable. No one looked to be in a great hurry to be seen by the receptionist.

Kakashi tapped on the counter and the young chunin jumped to attention. "Do you have a secure office open? Maybe something comfortable? We'll be using it for a few hours."

The man chuckled. "You practically have your pick of the entire building. Not much work for us these days." He dug out a key from his desk. "You can use the old branch inspector's office. He works out of headquarters now."

Kakashi thanked him and led the way into the maze of offices and hallways. "Don't say anything until I say to," he muttered under the loud clatter he was making with the door lock.

The ANBU swept into the office as soon as Kakashi had gotten it open. His head swiveled around more like an owl than a cat, looking into every nook and cranny. He gave special attention to the drawn curtain over the window.

"The old seals are active. I think we're good, Captain."

"Captain?" Sakura hissed.

Kakashi closed the door behind him. The office was dusty and clearly hadn't been used in ages, but there was a small sofa on one side and a few chairs to sit in. Sakura had already taken the sofa so Kakashi was stuck with a chair; the ANBU stood by the window.

"I've lived an interesting life." Kakashi's eye crinkled when Sakura glared at his non-explanation. "Since we have a bit of privacy in here I can say that you aren't currently a suspect for Ibiki's death, so don't worry too much. Tenzo just wanted to get you out of there in case anyone decided logic wasn't good enough."

"Then what the hell was all that at the tower about?"

"It was a performance." The ANBU, Tenzo, crossed the small distance from the window to Sakura. "You may not have done it, but we have to show that we are serious about people's concerns. You saw how Anko reacted."

Sakura rubbed her arm. There were bruises there from where that woman had ripped her up. If Kakashi hadn't been there, if Anko had heard the news from someone else, then what? Would she have been content with just yanking her around? "Why does she hate me?"

"It's not my place to say. I'm sure you'll find out about it sooner or later. Right now we have bigger problems. We have to play this perfectly. Things are moving quicker than the Hokage anticipated."

"Kakashi-sensei, who killed Ibiki? It wasn't Oto."

"I know that. Orochimaru has been in contact with the Hokage all morning since we found out. We think it was Suna."

Sakura didn't like the sound of that. Suna was moving faster than anyone had expected. "Thinning out our special forces? Ibiki was the head of the interrogation squad, right?"

Kakashi nodded. "Right, but it's strange. Torture and Interrogation has been in decline since the last war. Ibiki's organization wasn't what it used to be. It honestly doesn't make sense to risk revealing themselves just for him."

Sakura thought for a moment. "It could mean that Suna has old intelligence."

"That I thought as well. We've done the same thing in the last few wars. Veterans are the first to go in war, even if they are old and retired. It's the curse of being called talented," Kakashi explained. "Morino Ibiki was a decorated veteran of the last war from the Land of Rivers campaign. I've heard that his bounty in the Wind Country is substantial."

Tenzo suddenly stepped over to the door and opened it right as Inoichi was about to knock. The surprised look on the jounin's face was quickly replaced with understanding. He quickly got inside, tugging Ino behind him. Only when the door shut behind him did he relax.

Ino looked as confused as Sakura felt at the moment. Her father motioned to the couch Sakura was sitting on and Ino scrunched up beside her.

"Inoichi, glad you could make it so quickly," Kakashi greeted. "You've already heard about Ibiki?"

"Two hours ago. When he didn't show up for the Exam Committee someone was sent to his apartment." He glanced at Ino, worried. "They asked me to identify the body. I put two and two together when you wanted me to bring Ino down here."

"Then you can guess what all this is." Kakashi turned to the blond. "What time did you last see Sakura last night?"

The girl was looking at Tenzo, Sakura noticed. When it finally registered that she was being asked a question she ripped her eyes away. "We were up in my room at least until eleven. I saw her first thing this morning, too. Probably around six? Maybe earlier."

Kakashi nodded. "Thank you. Like I said before, Sakura, there's a reason for all this. It's important that we play this by the book. We don't want-"

An abrupt cough came from Tenzo. He jerked his head significantly at the two girls sitting on the sofa. "I think we've already established that Sakura had nothing to do with Ibiki-san's murder. It would be safer for Sakura to be back at the Yamanaka compound while emotions are still raw."

Something passed between the three adults. Slowly, Kakashi nodded. "Right. Ino-san, you can see Sakura back safely?"

"You're dismissing us," Sakura bristled.

"I am. This is village business." Konoha business.

Sakura told herself it was silly to be offended. She wasn't part of Konoha anymore. "Fine," she said, somehow managing not to snap. She was up and out of the room before Kakashi could say anything else.

She ended up waiting on Ino in the lobby. It took the blond another few minutes to catch up and she had something. "You forgot this," she said, holding out a familiar green folder. It seemed like even a murder wouldn't let her get out from under her horrible exam duty.

They left together without another word, Sakura letting Ino take the lead. The blond must have gotten some kind of instruction from Kakashi because she wasn't straying into the main streets. Sakura was fine with taking the long way because it gave her more time to think and stamp down the hurt still threatening to bubble over.

It wasn't just being left out of the loop. It had bothered her, but that wasn't it. It had been the anger she'd seen in Kakashi's face back at the Hokage tower when she'd first been questioned. The moment of suspicion after she had told him her alibi. He didn't instantly believe her like he once would have. Again, she told herself it was nothing to be upset about. Things change. Change was good, or so she had told Ino the night before. She was better now.

It still hurt.

"You're being broody," Ino said. Sakura's head popped up, but the blond was just looking into a store window. They had stopped at some point.

I've got to stop spacing out like that, Sakura told herself. "It's called 'thinking', Pig. You might want to try it."

Ino snorted. "And get worry wrinkles before I'm twenty? No thank you. Your forehead is going to look like a canyon." Her smile looked a bit strained. There wasn't as much bite in her for some reason. "Hey, can we go find somewhere to talk for a second? Before we get back to the compound?"

Thrown by the sudden shift, Sakura looked around. She recognized the street. "There's a café one street over I've been to before. We can get lunch."

It was midday, so the little business was fairly packed. Ino looked decidedly skittish as she eyed the patrons, but Sakura just took the first open table for two she could find. It was right in the middle of the room.

"This isn't what I had in mind when I said I wanted to talk," Ino hissed. She had to lean in to be heard over the light chatter.

"Well, it's what you should have had in mind. What? You wanted to find some hole in the wall to share secrets? That just tells people we're trying to sneak around." A harried waitress came over and dropped two menus in front of them. Sakura ordered a tea and a bowl of udon. She had to prod Ino to order something.

When the waitress left, Sakura smiled at her rival. "No one can even hear us in here. Lesson number one, Ino: if you want to pass along something you don't want other people to overhear do it in a crowd."

"I don't remember asking you for spying lessons," Ino snapped. Sakura's smile just grew coyer. Ino looked so far out of her element.

"I guess you didn't. What's got your panties in a twist? And stop looking around so much! You look so suspicious right now."

Ino's nails raked the table as she clenched her fist. Sakura poked her friend under the table with her foot and the blond jumped a good inch out of her chair, but eventually she settled a little. Ino still looked slightly crazy as she tried, and failed, to look at every single person around them. She leaned in and Sakura humored Ino by meeting her halfway across the table. "I've seen that ANBU guy before."

Slowly, Sakura pulled back. "Where?"

"At my house. He was there last night talking to my dad and his cousins after you went to sleep."

"Are you sure it was the same ANBU? They all look alike."

Ino jerked back as the waitress came back with their orders. Sakura eagerly tucked into her noodles until the girl left. Ino looked at her like she was crazy. "Diets only end up hurting you," Sakura advised.

The blond stared for a few minutes at the large bowl of udon Sakura was busy slurping down. "You've changed," she said, hiding her expression behind her teacup. After taking another very conspicuous look around, Ino leaned back in. "And yes, I'm sure it was the same ANBU. He had the same mask and the same hair. There's more, too. After you left this morning someone went through your room. I heard them from in the bathroom."

Sakura idly swirled her udon around. "Well, you know I'm not at your house on vacation. I'm a prisoner, Ino. Of course people are going through my things. There are ANBU watching us right now and probably recording this conversation."

Ino turned ashen. "You said that we were safe talking in public!"

Sakura airily waved her chopstick. "That was just a general lesson on espionage."

"You're a psychopath now, you know that? Anyone else would be scared shitless in your situation." Ino shook her head. "I'm scared shitless just eating lunch with you."

"Why? I'm the only person with a noose around her neck, Ino." Sakura's lips quirked. "Think of it like the zoo. You see the dangerous animals behind the glass, but you know that you're not going to get eaten and if the animals so much as take a step outside of their cage they're done for."

Ino's expression changed, but it went from worry to annoyance; not what Sakura had had in mind. "You're talking about animals, Sakura. You're a person. You're…we used to be friends." The slight stumble in Ino's voice made Sakura annoyed as well. She pushed back her empty udon bowl and threw down a few ryo for her meal leaving Ino to play catchup.

The mutual annoyance followed them out into the street. "Stop following me," Sakura grunted as she set a pace faster than a comfortable walk.

"Uh, no? There's a psycho killer running around in case you've forgot."

"And you want me to protect you or something?" Ino's shrill scoff only made Sakura up her speed. She switched conversational gears. "I'm going to go see my mom. It's private."

Ino skipped forward and put herself even with chunin. "So what? I've known your mom for years. Maybe I just want to say hello?"

Sakura turned her head to snap at her rival, but her eyes caught on the low top of the buildings lining the road. Her frown shifted into an easy smirk. "Fine," she said, already kneading the chakra. "But I don't want to waste any more time. Follow if you want."

People gasped when Sakura rocketed up into the air. The chakra-enhanced jump was nothing spectacular for her, just a slow bound from the street to the top of a single-story building, but some civilians weren't used to seeing their ninja that close. Sakura gave them, and Ino, a cheeky salute as she turned to cut the entire block by leaping the street on the other side.

Ino hit the roof hard behind her. She grinned savagely at Sakura's surprised look. "Did you think there was anything you could do that I couldn't?" That grin faltered somewhat when Sakura made a running leap across the entire street; Ino had to land in the middle of the road and then get onto the building.

Sakura pumped more and more chakra into her muscles. Her run on the village went by in a blur of motion, punctuated by the hang time she achieved on her jumps. Sakura had never thought herself an adrenaline junkie until her mission to Suna, but after some introspection it was clear. She exulted in the rush of chemicals her body flooded into her system. That cocktail burned out everything else. Worries, fears, anxiety – everything.

An open canal a few streets over beckoned. Sakura hit the water like an arrow and skated along the surface, kicking up water and causing more than a few angry shouts from the people walking along the edge. She let one foot dip into the water and kicked up a wave that lapped over the bank as she skidded to a stop.

She saw a flash of golden hair flapping a few blocks down as Ino bounded back into view. Sakura decided to wait the moment it took Ino to make it over to her. The genin didn't try her luck out on the water, however, and couldn't keep her breathing as even as Sakura's. Before Ino could open her mouth Sakura took off again. An angry shout came from Ino as she got splashed, but Sakura was already vaulting back onto the rooftop highway.

Sakura played this stop-start game of cat and mouse with her rival until her house came into view. She laughed at the way Ino's soggy hair flopped back and forth and danced around a punch the snarling blond aimed at her head. She plucked the second one right out of the air and twisted Ino's arm right around her back.

"Say 'uncle' and I'll let you go," Sakura teased.

Ino twisted in her grip like a wet eel. Sakura let her go and ducked under a kick that brushed a few errant hairs sticking up off her head and what had started as an angry swat turned into Ino doing her best to bash Sakura's face in.

Sakura grinned all the way to the door. She pushed it open under a hail of angry punches to her back and darted inside with Ino right on her heels. "Mom!" she laughingly out. "Ino's trying to kill me!"

There was no answer. Sakura ducked another swing from Ino, but her laughing was starting to trail off a bit. The door had been unlocked. Mebuki never left the house unlocked unless she was home. There was a half-empty cup of tea on the coffee table as well. Sakura felt the side of the cup. Cold.

Sakura gave Ino a significant look and jerked her head toward the stairs. Watch them, she mouthed. Thankfully the blond seemed to realize something was wrong again and pressed herself up against the wall under the stairs.

The rest of the house was silent. Time at home had never been loud or rambunctious except for the early years when Ino stayed over, but the complete absence of any kind of noise was unnerving Sakura as she stalked through the first story of her home room by room. She found a broken plate on the kitchen floor and several pieces of clothes on the floor of her mother's room.

"No!" Ino's wail rang through the house like a bell. The cold grip of fear for her mother ignited like a gas-soaked bonfire of rage as she tore through out of the back section of the house toward the living room where she'd left Ino.

Two men were standing over the blond, reaching down toward her; Ino had collapsed to her knees and she was sobbing. Sakura crossed the distance in a heartbeat. Her knee caught him square in the stomach and she raked at his face with her nails when he doubled over. The second, shorter man caught Sakura by the neck and tried to drag her off his partner.

Sakura's throat bulged as the fire ripped up her throat. The short man gasped in pain as the small fireball took his face. That lapse in concentration let the man Sakura had been mauling rip her fingernails out of his face. He was strong, much stronger than Sakura, and threw her clear across the room. Sakura's back crashed into her mother's china cabinet and sent dishes and bowls cracking against her body.

His face was bleeding from several crescent-shaped cuts on his cheeks and forehead where Sakura's sharpened nails had found flesh. Beside him, his partner had only just put his vest and hair out.

"Stop!" he shouted when Sakura started flinging plates. "Stop! Stop it! We're delivering a message!"

Sakura righted herself and put herself in front of Ino. "Where's my mother? What did you do to Ino?"

It was Ino herself that felled Sakura. She surged up behind the girl and pushed her aside with such force that Sakura slammed against the back of the sofa. Vision swimming, Sakura could only watch as the blond walked over to the two men.

She took a deep, shuddering breath. "I'm going to see my father in the hospital. I'm not going to waste any more time." She stared back at Sakura with something approaching hatred. "Follow if you want."

The door shut behind her.

I got this out in less than a month. It's the end of the world.