Trial by Akatsuki Chapter 2, a naruto fanfic

Chapter 2:

Sakura wandered through the dark streets, her exhaustion utterly overpowered by spinning thoughts and mounting anxiety. Her patient hadn't managed to say much, but what he had... didn't fit with what she had been led to believe about the slaughter of Sasuke's family.

"The massacre. When they all died. It has to be kept quiet why."

It has to be kept quiet as to why the clan was killed? As far as Sakura and the rest of the village knew, it was a complete mystery why Itachi Uchiha had gone on his murderous rampage. But... it seemed like the ANBU knew better... That definitely suggested that the rogue Uchiha hadn't simply decided to murder his family just for the fun of it.

Could there be an innocent explanation? Honestly... as much Sakura wished it were true... she doubted it.

Either way, I can't just leave this. If there's something about Sasuke's family that might be of use... I have to do something.

"Sakura."

Sakura's head snapped up to search for the source of the voice. She had been so deep in thought she hadn't noticed anyone approach. A familiar masked face smiled gently down at her.

"Hi, Kakashi-sensei."

Sakura returned wearily, her sluggish speech reminding her of her drowsiness.

Of course, Kakashi wouldn't be a jonin if he wasn't able to pick up on such obvious cues. He examined her with concern. "How was your shift at the hospital?"

"Eventful, as always." Sakura yawned "A few exotic new poisons, exploding organs, shattered skulls... the full spectrum." She shrugged. "I heard you, Naruto and Sai had your own adventure."

"That we did. Sorry to add Naruto's arm to your workload, by the way. He's not exactly one for caution..."

"Why didn't you take me along?"

Kakashi looked blankly at her, as though the answer was obvious. "You were working, weren't you?"

"I'm always working when I'm not on missions. A mission is my one excuse to get out of the hospital."

"Sakura..." Kakashi sighed, looking somewhat resigned. "You've got an amazing thing going with the hospital. You're the best new medic Konoha has had since Tsunade herself was your age."

Sakura felt her eyes narrowing. "What's your point?"

"Well... don't you want a career as a medic-nin?"

"I... well, yes... but-"

"- then you shouldn't worry on missing out on the occasional mission. The experience the hospital gives you is going to be far more valuable to you in the future than field work. Not that field work is to be neglected, of course..." His eyes crinkled into that smile again. "But not all of them will benefit you like they do most other ninja."

Field work wasn't important for her? Just what kind of ninja did Kakashi think Sakura was trying to become?

"Sensei... I want to keep going on missions with the team. I don't want to fall further behind Naruto and Sasuke than I already have."

"You won't. You haven't, you-"

"-That's a lie and you know it."

Now a hint of confusion was edging onto Kakashi's face. "I can only guess you didn't hear me say you're the best medic we've seen since Tsunade."

Did Kakashi think she wanted to spend her entire future in the hospital? Was that it? Was he watching for the day when she ceased going on missions entirely, in favour of staying back at the village to treat others when they returned home?

Or... was that just what he wanted her to do?

It wouldn't be the first time her teacher had let slip his... less-than-stellar confidence of her potential as a ninja.

This is not something I have the time or energy to deal with right now.

It was true. Sakura could barely keep her eyes open as it was, and she knew that getting any sleep tonight would be doubly difficult with the staggering implications of the day's events swirling around her brain.

She let out a sigh. "Sorry, Sensei. I'm kind of shattered right now. Can we continue this another time?"

"Of course." As he moved past her, Kakashi rested a hand on her shoulder and squeezed lightly. "Rest well, Sakura. See you for team training in two days, okay?"

"Sure."

Knowing her parents would likely be asleep at this late hour, Sakura took extra care to slip into the house quietly through a window, lest she wake her mother or father and face a lecture on her exorbitant work hours. As it turned out from the chatter in the kitchen, neither of her parents had yet gone to bed. Nevertheless, all the more reason to be quiet.

As Sakura silently moved across the hall, the hurried conversation gradually became audible.

"...but you know it's not our choice. It's hers." Her father was speaking somewhat hesitantly, as if he didn't really believe what he was saying.

"I do know that, but... you can't pretend you don't worry too."

"I never said I didn't! But our Sakura is strong. Ten times as strong as we ever were. She... she'll be fine."

"You don't need me to rattle off the whole list of KIA ninja, do you? Strength doesn't always have much to do with it." Her mother's voice was strained with emotion. "I don't want to have to bury our daughter, Kizashi."

Sakura felt her throat close up and her muscles locked. This... was not something she ever wanted to hear her parents talk about.

You knew that they would have to at some point though, didn't you?

She was a ninja. As much as the painful topic was avoided in her family, death was a real and ever-present threat. Of course it would weigh heavily on her family's minds, but...

There was nothing to be done. It was a risk that came with the job, and hence there was little point discussing it. So... what had prompted this?

"Please don't say that." Kizashi Haruno managed.

"I don't want to. That's exactly why I think we need to talk to Sakura about... about how much longer... about what she sees for the future of her career."

"But you don't want to talk about what she wants, do you? You want her to stop being a ninja entirely!"

"I'm not going to force her! What do you take me for? I just... she needs to think about what she's doing! When we put her into the academy, neither of us actually thought she'd keep going! You know as well as I do that all we wanted for her was to learn to defend herself, learn to use Chakra to her advantage, maybe get a few D-rank missions under her belt, and then... stop."

"Is it so bad that she's continuing? She's getting stronger and stronger, she learnt so much with Tsunade, and she has all those friends with her. They'll keep each other safe, as they always have."

"All of her classmates who became ninja with her are from shinobi clans. Powerful ones, each with strong, specialist Kekkei Genkai and bloodline abilities. She can't keep up with them and you know it."

"Mebuki... that's not fair to Sakura."

Sakura couldn't help but note that her father had not disagreed.

Her mother continued, "She nearly died in her first official C-rank, she nearly died in her Chunin exams, and the only reason she survived either was because her teacher was a Hatake and her teammates were the Uchiha survivor and the nine-tails jinchuriki! She fought fucking Sasori of the Red Sand -"

"And she survived! She beat him!"

"You think I'm not proud of her for that? It was amazing to hear about... after I got over the horror of hearing that my daughter was nearly murdered by an international criminal!"

"Mebuki!"

"I'm sorry! But you don't get to bury your head in the sand and pretend that it's not happening! Please... Please don't just pretend that this isn't happening. Don't pretend that the risk to our little girl doesn't just grow with each passing day."

Sakura couldn't bring herself to listen to any more. Retaining enough presence of mind to keep her steps silent and to block out the lessening voices, Sakura hurried back across the hallway. Her arms shook with unexpected effort as she hauled herself back out of the window.

It took a minute or so of leaning against the wall and breathing in the cool night air for the pit of nausea in her stomach to slowly decline.

Her parents wanted her to quit. They were just scared for her, but... her mother said it herself – she didn't think Sakura had the potential that the others did.

She wasn't from a Shinobi clan. They all knew from the start that it would be a setback, but there were clanless ninja who had become amazingly strong shinobi. She had just as much chance as them, right?

But Sakura knew she had been falling behind recently. No, not just recently – ever since graduating the academy she had been struggling. Naruto and Sasuke had always been leaps and bounds ahead of her, and by the time she had finally found the courage to stop ignoring her shortcomings, the gap that separated them from her had become... irreparable.

Stop it. Stop thinking like that.

She was still strong. She needed to remember that – she was very strong for her age, Tsunade's training had seen to that. Her studious mind had all but mastered the knowledge of the human body, and her bizarrely good chakra control allowed her to show it in her work. Hell, even when it came to to her other classmates she was impressive in comparison, bloodlines and heritage be dammed.

Right?

Was this normal parental concern over their daughter having a worryingly dangerous job? Or... did they really not think she was strong enough?

The house was dark by the time Sakura arrived back. This time, Sakura slipped in silently through her bedroom window.

On a regular night it was common that Sakura would barely manage to kick off her sandals before curling under the covers. Tonight, however, she found it difficult to move her stare from the picture sitting on her desk.

Team 7. They had been a functioning team for barely a year before Sasuke left the village, but it seemed like so much longer. For that year they had become more than family.

As a child she had been convinced that she was in love wither her teammate. Now... She wasn't quite as sure. With everything that had happened between then and now, did she really know him at all? Even Sakura recognised the attraction she had for the stunning and talented young ninja during their academy days was shallow at best. But after all they went through... surely there had been something more there.

"...Sakura... you're heavy..."

"...Who did this to you...?"

"...Thank you..."

Three of the lowest, most terrifying points of her life. Also some of the only times she caught a glimpse of something genuine in Sasuke, something other than the anger or cool detachment the emotionally damaged boy so often hid behind.

In those moments... there was something more. And she would give almost anything to see that Sasuke again. But he was out of reach, lost in his need for vengeance against his brother.

"The massacre. When they all died. It has to be kept quiet why."

Her eyes narrowed as the dying man's words echoed in her ears.

She should tell someone, someone she could trust. Naruto? He was the obvious choice, and more than anyone else if there was something secret relating to Sasuke's family, he was the one who should know... but this could be a delicate situation. For all his strengths, subtlety was not one of them.

Kakashi-sensei then? As a jonin, an ex-Anbu even, he was the most obvious, the most likely to be able to effectively make something of this situation without messing things up.

And yet...

The memory of their earlier exchange came back to her. Since their earliest genin days, she had had a strong feeling that Kakashi never really saw her as a ninja, nor saw any potential in her to become one. As soon as Naruto and Sasuke had stepped out of the village two years ago, Kakashi had all but disappeared from her life. He had taken minimal interest in her training even before then, but to give up on her so completely... had hurt. Yes, she had Tsunade's training to keep her occupied, but he never once even checked in on her.

...I'll keep this to myself. Just a little longer.

The single-minded fervour that overtook Sakura was one she had not experienced since dedicating herself to study as Tsunade's apprentice.

It began gradually, manifesting mostly as distraction during training and missions which resulted in a series of missteps she was reprimanded harshly for. More ANBU would occasionally turn up at the hospital with a spectrum of colourful ailments, and Sakura found it disturbingly easy to bend her moral code to sate her curiosity. An isolated room, a trusting patient, and a particular concoction of drugs was often sufficient to coax a little classified information from them. Never much, and rarely helpful – least of all from members of Root. Many seemed as clueless on the matter as she was. What little she was told raised more questions than answers. Small comments about "necessity", "rebellion" and the like. What did spark her interest were occasional mentions of a records room, specific to the the highest-class, most strongly classified secrets of Konoha. Itachi Uchiha had been among them, before the massacre. If there was something more to be found on the events of that night, it would be there.

Of course... getting to such a place would be next to impossible.

But... what if it wasn't?

The more time went on, the more the idea needled at her. Breaking into the base of the most elite ninja in the nation was surely insane to even contemplate... but no place was completely impenetrable. With the right preparation...

Going to Tsunade and asking that she be given fewer hours at the hospital went far more smoothly than she expected. If anything the Hokage seemed pleased that her star pupil was intending to spend more of her time training and taking care of herself. Even better, the decreasing frequency with which her talents were available at the hospital meant that a greater proportion of her time was spent dealing with the more difficult cases – in other words, rarely did a day pass that she treated anyone of lower rank than a jonin.

Outside of the hospital, Sakura renewed her training regimen with vigor. Regularly enlisting senosry-types such as Ino, Kiba and Hinata to aid in training her stealth skills and tactics, and refining her genjutsu skills further whenever Kurenai had time for her. Stealth and infiltration had never been a focus point for her, but Sakura was relieved to find that she took to it rather well.

Despite the ever-present danger of her task, the many small heart attacks she got whenever a colleague entered the room unexpectedly during an interrogation, the later and more exhausting evenings than when she was working full time at the hospital and the increasing concern from her parents and comrades for her well-being...

Things seemed to go well.

Her cautious intel-gathering confirmed many of her suspicions of the obstacles she would face within the ANBU compound. There were indeed genjutsu intended to trap the unwary, as well as cruder mechanisms designed with near-lethal countermeasures, should the device detect something out of the ordinary. Not to mention the elite sensory and perceptive talents of the ANBU members themselves.

It was clear that Sakura needed all the preparation she could get, but took only a few months for her patience to finally snap.

"Partial Mind – Body switch technique!"

Ino focused, teeth gritting in discomfort as she began the unpleasant task of attempting to split her consciousness between her own body, and that of her opponent.

She felt her chakra begin to push outwards, straining against itself . Slowly and agonisingly, the layers peeled apart and a strand streamed towards Choji. As her strength divided, Ino's vision blurred and darkened, swaying on her feet, but remained standing.

As agreed Choji offered no resistance, and Ino's jutsu took hold.

One steadying hand on Ino's shoulder, Shikamaru watched expectantly. His teammates both opened their eyes.

"Partial possession, success."

They spoke simultaneously, their speech slightly stilted.

"Yeah?" Shikamaru stepped back. "Can you walk?"

There was a pause. Then with identical stiff movements both figures took a step forwards, struggling to maintain balance.

"Not well."

Their faces frowned, disheartened.

Shikamaru couldn't help but smile. As always, Ino held herself to too high a standard. "Hey, even managing this much is a big success. Making your own jutsu is never easy."

"I know that! It.. but I should..."

"Stop it, Ino. You did good." He approached Choji. "You don't want to strain yourself too much with something like this. Let Choji go for now, you'll have plenty of time to work on it later."

Ino looked like she was going to protest for a second, but then huffed. A moment later, Choji exhaled suddenly, swaying with disorientation.

"Yeesh..." He groaned, clutching his head. "That was even less pleasant than usual."

"Says the one who didn't have to focus on controlling two bodies at once." Ino muttered. Her head was pounding.

Must have got the chakra balance wrong.

There so so damn much to pay attention to. She was good, but even with her rudimentary training in medical ninjutsu Ino had nowhere near the levels of chakra control as Sakura.

She should ask her for advice. As irritating as it was to admit inferiority to her old rival in anything, it was true that Sakura had always been happy and eager to help. Besides, if Ino was reading things correctly, Sakura could do with the ego boost. Well... if she could spare the time, anyway.

She was well aware that Sakura had been struggling since their academy days to feel... wanted. Needed. Watching her two teammates progress so rapidly certainly hadn't helped. Not to mention how the entire team, Kakashi-Sensei included, left her behind for a whole two years.

Ino had been too caught up in their stupid feud to help at first, but thankfully the pair had recently managed to grow closer again. Over the last two years, Ino had once again managed to catch glimpses of the little billboard-brow she had become so fond of in the academy.

Seriously. Fuck Sasuke.

How stupid they had been to break up their friendship over that dickhead. Both Ino and Sakura knew it, but maddeningly Sakura still seemed to be pining for him. The years of separation seemed to have helped, but after she, Naruto and Sai had gone after Orochimaru and Tenchi bridge and run into him again...

There was a sudden rap on her temple. "Oi! Earth to Ino."

Ino scowled at Shikamaru. "Hey!"

"You're a ninja, you should have seen that coming."

"Dick." She mumbled.

"Really though, what's up? You've been distracted today." Choji said, real concern in his voice.

"What? No. Nothing." Ino shifted uncomfortably. "It's... just... How much training would you say is too much?"

Choji and Shikamaru exchanged glances. "...If you're worried about over-exerting yourself, don't. You'd need to work a hell of a lot harder to even have a risk-"

This time it was Ino to deliver a sharp knock on Shikamaru's head.

"Ow."

"You're a ninja, you smartass. Remember?" Ino sighed. "No, it's not me I'm worried about. Just answer the damn question."

Choji folded his arms thoughtfully. "I mean, the basic rule of "too much" for anything is when it negatively impacts the rest of your life. Super vague though, I know."

"Yeah..."

Was Sakura's life being 'negatively impacted', Ino wondered? Her social life certainly was. Th e only times Sakura had managed to spare Ino more than a few words in recent months was when Ino was badgered into a training session by her. She had taken virtually no missions, and must be working herself to death what with the training insanity coupled with her hospital responsibilities.

One of the most worrying things about all this... was how clearly not worried everyone else seemed to be. Sakura had never been particularly close with the rest of their graduating academy class, but it seemed even her own team wasn't overly missing her absences.

Well... apart from Naruto, maybe. The knucklehead had shot Ino some very annoyed stares when Sakura blew him off in favour of a training session. He might be missing her... but he wasn't worried about her.

It was a rare thing for Ino to lose confidence in herself, but here it did begin to waver. If no-one else seemed to see a problem... maybe it was because there wasn't one after all.

At midnight, Sakura got to work.

Silently she slid out of bed, pushing the window aside as she vaulted down to the ground. Keeping low and to the shadows, she made her way through the mostly-silent village, taking care to avoid late drunken gatherings, or the odd lone figure stalking down a pathway. She kept her chakra carefully suppressed, only using what little she needed to coat her feet to muffle her steps and prevent herself leaving footprints. After a seemingly uneventful walk, she came to the Hokage's building. Instead of entering Sakura went around, through to an alley that ran along the bottom of the Hokage cliff.

Sakura skin prickled, sensing the genjutsu even as she walked towards it. Most genjutsu had some telltale giveaway, a slight shimmer or other inconsistency. This one was meticulously crafted, but still could not quite conceal the telltale pulsing chakra in the air. Still it was subtle enough that, had Sakura not been looking for it, even she would have walked right past it.

There were some genjutsu targeted at one specific person, and some designed to fool anyone who came across them. The second was significantly more difficult to pull off effectively, taking much more chakra and being more prone to errors and significant chakra traces. The fact that this one had been so convincing was sobering, a sharp reminder of just how elite these people were.

"Kai" She whispered, and the illusion dissolved. A thin section of the wall faded away revealing a narrow passage, the rocky walls smoothed down but still barely big enough for one person to walk through unhindered.

Sakura could feel the blood pounding in her ears. She could still back out. She hadn't done anything illegal yet.

Can't leave now. Have to know.

Entering the dimly-lit maze of corridors, Sakura took each step carefully and with great caution. Her senses were on high alert, but thankfully the compound seemed mostly empty of people. Now and then she'd dart down a side alley to avoid the incoming patter of footsteps, keeping a tight rein on her chakra signature.

It was a tortuously tense affair, never knowing if she been detected. Sakura tried very hard to avoid thinking about what would happen if she were caught. She instead focused her attention on zeroing in on the various security measures. This was where the information gleaned from her patients really came into play, and it paid off well. She knew what to look for, where the chakra pulses and glints of metal were more than just a natural quirk of the atmosphere.

It took at least an hour of patient, careful canvassing of the compound before she stumbled upon what she was looking for. All the doors were the same unassuming plain grey, with no signs or clues to indicate what may be inside. When the last door opened to reveal shelves and shelves of worn scrolls, files and boxes, Sakura felt her muscles relax in relief, then immediately tense again at the thought of what may be awaiting her.

Taking only one further moment to re-gather her courage, she began scanning the shelves. They room was very carefully maintained, with everything fastidiously labelled and organised. As such, it didn't take long for Sakura to track down her target.

The box was neatly nestled in the crowded shelf. Critical Security - Domestic Affairs – 16/10/856.

Surely this had been too easy.

Trying to stop her mind from racing too far out of control, Sakura forced her concentration away from the box, scanning the surrounding room with as much of her attention as she could spare, searching frantically for anything she might have missed that could give her away.

She found nothing. No matter how hard she looked, reached out with her senses, there was no telltale flicker of energy to give away a potential trap.

Hopefully that just meant that they thought no-one should be able to get this far in.

Sakura reached out, gently pulling the box free from the crammed shelf, methodically spreading the contents over the floor as she searched.

There it was. The last and thickest file in the box – 'Itachi Uchiha – X Rank - No. 003'

X rank. She had not heard of that before Another way to say forbidden or illegal S rank? Or an indication of a level of difficulty going beyond S rank?

Either way, this was Itachi's third such mission. Sakura shivered as she considered the implications of what other acts he, or others, had been ordered to commit.

Sakura's awareness of the surrounding room fell away completely as she stared at the file in her hands. Had she actually done it? Was she really doing this?

Her trembling hand turned the first page.

It was true. The Uchiha were executed by order of the village. The massacre... was planned. Itachi had been ordered to murder his clan.

Sakura slowly closed the file, placing it back in the box. She couldn't think. It couldn't be real.

This was Konoha, not the Blood Mist. They may be a ninja village, but things like this... just didn't happen here. Circumstances may not always allow, but in terms of ethics and morality the Leaf Village was by far the most progressive of the five main ninja villages. Higher-ups were always held accountable, corruption was not tolerated...

And yet... to have sanctioned something so horrific... It just didn't fit.

Sakura quickly found herself questioning her trust in management. If they had got away with this... who knows what other horrors had been committed in Konoha's name?

What was she supposed to do with this? Put the box away and forget about it? No, there was no chance of that now. She had to tell someone, but who? Handled incorrectly, a public revelation like this could throw Konoha into chaos, and there'd be no winners if that were to happen.

There were no excuses to be had now. She had to tell Kakashi and Naruto, maybe then together they'd be able to come up with a plan -

And what about Sasuke?

Sakura stilled.

Sasuke. Oh god.

This really could change everything. If Sasuke knew about this, then... then what? His family was still dead, still by his brother's hands. Only now he'd have reason to hate the village as well as, or possibly instead of Itachi.

He'd never come home.

She couldn't tell him.

She couldn't not tell him.

What the fuck was she supposed to do?

Never mind, just figure that out later. Right now you need to leave.

Right. Of course. With every second spent here came an increased risk of being discovered.

Staying only long enough to ensure everything was back in it's proper place. Sakura fled from the room. She tried to think clearly, to focus on her surroundings the way a ninja on an infiltration mission should, but there were too many strange and horrible thoughts fighting for dominance. In truth, Sakura could barely keep enough presence of mind to remember the way out.

Left. Right. Right. Straight. Lef... er, right? No, definitely left. Naruto will be furious. Straight. Branch left. Did Kakashi have to do things like this when he was part of ANBU? Ri... oh, shit, which way-

THUD

Blackness.

"Miss Haruno."

Sakura exhaled, feeling her consciousness gradually emerge from the blackness. Her eyes blinked open.

A bandaged face, crossing scars on his chin. Sakura did not recognise the man staring down at her. She tried to move, only to find her arms would not obey. She glanced around to see her arms outstretched and her hands encased in metal manacles. She was kneeling. Efforts to call her chakra to the surface failed.

Two more people stood to either side of her, bearing ANBU armour and masks.

Her blood ran cold as her last memories came back to her. She must have been caught trespassing, and hunting through classified information. She was as good as dead.

"My name is Danzo Shimura. The Director of ANBU Root. And you," He moved a step closer. "Are a criminal."

Sakura knew she should stay silent. She couldn't. "...Maybe." She said, forcing herself to stare down the elderly figure. "But if this is a village that condones clan genocide... Then maybe being a criminal in your eyes is not such a bad thing."

"And here I thought it would be a challenge to get you to reveal what you knew."

Yeah, right. They already knew what you had found out.

"Although... given what you've already discovered, you should also know that Itachi's actions weren't sanctioned by the village."

"Bullshit! I saw the file-"

He held up a hand for silence. He continued again, softly. "It was not sanctioned by the village. Just me."

Sakura paused, taken aback. "But, you... Root answers to the Hokage, just like everything else. Doesn't it?"

"In theory. In practice... liberties sometimes have to be taken. For the good of Konoha."

The good of Konoha? "You had Itachi massacre his own clan. Sasuke's whole family..." Angry tears stung at her eyes as the absurdity of the situation hit her. "They were part of Konoha! What... How was any part of this 'good'? For anyone?"

Danzo considered her for a further moment before replying. "Did you know that the Uchiha were planning a coup? To start a civil war?"

They... were?

"Of course you didn't. No-one does. Because they were dealt with before they could drag Konoha into a destructive, casualty-filled bid for power."

Sakura shook her head. "...E-even if that's so... it wasn't necessary to kill them."

"You weren't there."

"I don't need to have been. That's not how we do things here, in Konoha."

Danzo actually smiled at this. It was a dark, vicious smile, but a smile nonetheless. "Yes... that is exactly what Hiruzen said after the fact. And he's dead now."

There was definitely a threat there.

"And now you know one of Konoha's most closely guarded secrets. Obviously, we cannot risk this being exposed, so the question becomes – what do we do with you?"

Here it comes. Sakura braced herself, eyes flitting around the dark room for any hope of escape.

"We could kill you, and no-one would know. Luckily for you, however, we have just the role for you to play. Itachi is currently gathering intelligence about the Akatsuki and their activities, and it has become quite clear that the time to strike at them is coming soon. Your mission is to leave the village, cutting all contact with your former comrades, family and friends, to become a missing nin. Build your reputation and notoriety, and we are confident the Akatsuki will eventually approach you with an invitation. Accept. When the time is right, you will receive a signal prompting you and Itachi to take down the organisation from the inside. Once your task is complete, you may return will a full pardon for any crimes you may have committed in the course of completing your objective."

At some point Sakura's jaw had fallen open. She couldn't believe what she had just heard.

Danzo lifted an eyebrow. "Is that understood, Miss Haruno?"

"You... want me..." Sakura replied haltingly. "To join the Akatsuki?"

"Did you not hear me?" Danzo's patience was visibly fraying the more she questioned him. "I believe I was quite clear."

"I... me? They'll never... I'm nowhere near strong enough."

"Spare me the modesty." Danzo sighed, then looked down at her sternly. "I will only say this once. You have potential far beyond your current ability. Your training with Tsunade helped you realise a portion of it, but you have since grown complacent, too reliant on the skills of your comrades. Hear me when I tell you that your intellect is a rare thing, and used correctly is just as valuable as bloodlines. We are alike in one thing, Miss Haruno. You are less genetically blessed than your peers, just as I was, but nonetheless have the potential to match and even surpass them. And yet so far you have not. The village has been holding you back- or more accurately, it has shielded you from needing to grow stronger. Once you find yourself without it's protection... I suspect there would be no better candidate for the Akatsuki. Not to mention they are more than likely desperately in need of a powerful healer. But you will have to show them."

"I can't... I couldn't do that..."

"You can and you will. Otherwise I'm afraid we will have to permanently silence you... and anyone we suspect you may have leaked classified information to. Your parents included."

Sakura's mind froze. The Director of ABNU Root himself was stood in front of her, point-blank telling her that she was capable of not only joining the elite terrorist organisation, but of spying on them from the inside. The same person was also blackmailing her by threatening the lives of her family.

This wasn't happening. It couldn't.

Danzo concluded, "Itachi is a more complicated case than yours. His part in the elimination of the Akatsuki will be known, but for the sake of the village's security his own pardon will not be made public. Those who need to know will be told, but he will not be welcome in Konoha. He will not be actively hunted, but it will be in his best interests to retain a low profile indefinitely."

There was a pause, as Danzo glared down at her expectantly. He was waiting for an answer.

She was completely helpless. Her and her family's and friend's lives were at the mercy of this demon.

There isn't much of a choice. Not right now, at least.

"...I understand."

Danzo gave a minute nod, and the restraints around her arms were released.

"Your mission starts immediately. We will be monitoring."

A/N

Hey! Look at this! An update!
I got there eventually. Who knows... the next one might actually take less than a year and a half!

This was a very talky, exposition-y chapter focused mainly on bridging the gap in how Sakura goes from loyal Leaf ninja to suddenly on the run. With any luck, that's why it was so weirdly difficult to write, and the future more action-based chapters will be quicker.

Time will tell. Seriously... I'll do my best for a slightly more prompt next chapter.