A/N: Welcome back, dear readers & lurkers. I think many of you returned to school or work recently. I know your pain! Please enjoy a new chapter.

~ PART II ~

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Sleep had stolen over her, switching her off in seconds. Fascinated, Sai looked at Ino, slack and peaceful, in his arms. The delicate frame didn't seem like it could withstand the violence of emotions and pain she had endured before the medication had kicked in. Engorged veins in her forehead had diminished, and the flush of her skin faded to a more normal peachy tone. Her hair was in wild disarray, with pieces pulled from the bun and the braid. Gossamer strands stuck to her throat, her cheek, the blanket. Finger-shaped bruises clotted her throat where the necklace had clasped; smudges of purple marked under her eyes.

What would be an appropriate response to this situation? He didn't know. She was asleep, so put her to bed, maybe? Sasuke was elsewhere, avoidant as usual, so Sai was responsible for the decision. His decision? Put her to bed.

Carefully, Sai shifted the dead weight and when the blanket parted, the flash of peach skin reminded him she was without a stitch of clothes. He wondered if she'd be more comfortable in bed naked, but with Sasuke lurking around, he thought she'd prefer to be clothed. With a gentle roll, he turned her to her side up against the bathtub; she accepted the new position and he was free to puzzle out the shirt and shorts Sasuke had brought them.

They were Sakura's, well-worn and scented with detergent, and Sai was surprised Sasuke had been so considerate as to provide clothing of Sakura's. He'd thought Sasuke's grungiest, most threadbare tunic would be offered out of spite to both himself and Ino, if Ino was correct in Sasuke's opinion of her. And, based on Sasuke's tone and facial response when he saw who was in the kitchen, Ino was correct- -Sasuke disliked her.

Sai let the blanket fall from Ino's shoulders- -he was curious about her figure- -and he noticed immediately Sakura's shoulders, arms, and back had more muscle definition than Ino's did. Ino and Sakura were the same height and weight, but Ino seemed curvier than Sakura was, though Sakura was shapely. And with her breasts bare, Ino's ratios were much different from Sakura's. Their nipples were the same shade of pink, and though he'd never inspected Sakura's bare breasts up close, he'd seen them from a distance by accident. Like her throat, Ino's chest and stomach, and down along her hips and thighs, bore the marks of her trauma, with strawberry hives raised where the ugly dress and the black underwear had covered. It must have hurt her tremendously. Sakura would have to take a look when she got home. He bunched the t-shirt, tugged it over her head, maneuvered her arms into the correct holes, drawing out the miles-long hair from the collar. Now how was he to get the shorts on her?

After some thought, he spread out the blanket on the cool floor and lay Ino on the blanket. The roundness of her hips accentuated the small waist, and lying flat pushed her hip bones against her skin to create an interesting dip above her groomed pubis. Even her navel was beautiful. She seemed to be made almost entirely of toned legs. On her left thigh was a cloverbush tattoo, an intricate design which cascaded to the inner and outer thigh. He wondered what it meant to her; the tattoos on her back, three interlocked clan symbols, were obvious homages to the Ino-Shika-Cho team and their respective clans. The shorts were easy to slide up her long legs, yet he experienced a little difficulty in adjusting them over her hips. A simple shift from side to side fixed the issue.

There. She was clothed. Get her into the bed and plan what to do next.

He crouched and began to shuffle his arms under her; she uttered a tiny, wounded sound. Was it a one time thing? Sai shifted her, and again, she whimpered.

Worried she'd experienced unseen damage, Sai asked, "Are you okay?"

"Chouji didn't mean it," she answered. Her eyes remained shut, but the lids did flicker. A dream? "He really didn't, Master Asuma."

Yes, she was in a dream. "What happened?"

"I think my collarbone broke."

"How did it break?"

"The trust exercise." As Ino spoke, her words drowsy, Sai brought her up with him, turned to the side to step through the doorway, and walked the short distance to the bed. "I thought it'd be fun for us to go up really high and he didn't want to, Master, but I talked him into it. He threw Shikamaru and me hard and boy, we were really in the sky, but when we came down, Chouji didn't quite catch us gracefully, you know he's a bit of a klutz, and I hit the ground by mistake."

What would a normal person say? He thought about Sakura when she was in the field and repeated her words."We'll take you to the hospital and get you fixed up. You'll be good as new in no time."

"You're not mad?"

Sai rested Ino on the bed. "Why should I be mad?"

"Yeah, 'cause you always tell me to stop talking Shikamaru and Chouji into bad decisions and I talked them into a bad decision."

"I'm not mad."

"Thank you, Master."

She was silent, but restless, tugging at her hair and sighing from the back of her throat. Sai interpreted her behavior as discomfort, so he pulled the hairpins, one by one, dozens, from her hair, unwound the braid and the bun, and as soon as he finished loosening her long, long stream of silken blonde, Ino settled into the pillows and became still, almost death-like. Her expressive face and eyes were relaxed and serene, and she looked younger than twenty years while she slept, vulnerable and childish. Worried about her temperature, he brought the blanket from the bathroom and shook it over her.

Satisfied, he sat on the bedside, staring to his heart's content, in wonderment. For the Sunda Umi mission, when Sai was assigned command of the team, Shikamaru had said Ino was very complicated, very intricate, and nothing was ever obvious with her. Treat her like you'd treat water: life-giving but also lethal and you had to watch for abrupt changes in weather. Shikamaru had never spoken to him about Ino, so he had listened. Yet she continued to be unpredictable and Sai, ever adaptive, had accepted her anomalous ways. Part of Ino's way was her deception. She lied so easily; she had lied to him- -about the silly thing between her and Kiba, but a lie nonetheless. They had lied in concert to Shikamaru. So cunning. So emotional, and persuasive, and vivacious. To say he was intrigued was an understatement.

Was it any wonder, then, someone else was interested in Ino as well? And this someone wanted her dead.

The next logical move would be to secure her well-being, not only her physical safety but also her emotional and mental health. Both he and Ino had concluded she was marked for death in the strange dream-conversation with Director Morino; yet another point of intrigue. Shijo had targeted her in Sunda Umi and someone, or something, unknown had attacked her via Isao's mind in Hinokoku; who was after her and why? How was the jaguar entity involved? Until he could answer these questions, he would be focused on keeping Ino from harm, which, if he was honest, would give him lots of time in her company to solve her mysteries; for example, why did Sasuke hate her? Why did she love Kiba but not stay with him or marry him? What was the connection they themselves shared? Additionally, Sai had not liked the long-haired man in the teal haori this morning, the one the reporters had called Mr. Miyazato. Who was he? Why did he pose with Ino for photographs and try to stop her from leaving? Finally, what had happened to Ino's residence?

As he sat and thought, he realized he'd need to wrangle with Sasuke. Sai could stay and guard Ino as she slept, but his attention was required to answer the numerous questions surrounding her and he intended to do so as soon as possible. He did not relish an encounter with Sasuke, but for Ino's best interests, Sasuke was the most logical (and convenient) choice. Sai gazed once more at Ino's sleeping form; he thought of the glass butterfly she'd rescued from the destruction of the apartment complex, left behind in the entryway. Would she like it strung from the ceiling? He decided she would and made a mental notation to string the butterfly where she could see it when she woke.

Downstairs in the front living room, Sai found Sasuke had waited for him in one of the armchairs, sitting as though a god on his throne. Sakura's living room had bookshelves along the wall, stuffed with medical journals and texts, and a sofa and two armchairs placed around a coffee table. Two end tables with lamps flanked the sofa. The furniture was shabby but comfortable. Across the room, to the left of the stairs, was the front door; to the right under an archway was the kitchen. Light streamed in from the windows. Steeled for verbal warfare, Sai sat in the opposite armchair from Sasuke.

As Sasuke stared at him, Sai thought about the first time they'd met in the bowels of one of Orochimaru's lairs and how powerful Sasuke's aura had been. At least now Sasuke had restrained the killing intent and chose instead to intimidate Sai with a cold glare from cold mismatched eyes. Sai returned Sasuke's gaze, unaffected; he'd long since learned Sasuke's operational mode. They were silent. Tension mounted between them. They could stare at each other for an eternity, neither one relenting, until they both were dead, but Sai didn't have the time for it.

"Have the police arrived yet?" Sai asked to move things along. As he recalled, a police inquiry had been Sasuke's primary concern.

Sasuke's eye, the one the slant of hair didn't cover, narrowed. He ignored Sai's question. "Explain why Yamanaka Ino is under my roof."

"She experienced an emergency," Sai responded, without a comment on the second time Sasuke referred to the household as his, "and here was where she asked to be taken."

"She experienced an emergency." He spoke without inflection, tone monotonous and measured, no doubt learned from the years spent with Orochimaru. "There are other places she could have experienced an emergency."

"True. But she might've believed she'd be safest with Sakura."

Sasuke was unmoved. "I don't care. She has her clan. Why did you not leave her with them?"

"I complied to her request to be brought to Sakura. Had she known you were home, she may have altered her choice. As it was, neither one of us expected to...inconvenience you."

"She's lost her mind," Sasuke said, definitively. "Take her to the hospital and admit her into the psych ward. They are better suited to handle her psychosis."

Sai remained calm. He fake-smiled at Sasuke as a sudden hot flame sparked in his chest. Ah. The comment had angered him. Why was he angry? Sasuke did not know about the stressors Ino had experienced: not the trauma on the mission, not her extraction from the hospital, and not about Kiba. The destruction of her home had simply fractured her control, but Sasuke, who already had a negative opinion about her, jumped to conclusions regarding her mental health without understanding the context of her reaction. The unfairness of Sasuke's conclusion must be the cause of Sai's anger.

Also, for Sasuke to state outright that Ino was psychotic, given the history of psychopathy in his own clan, was ironic to an absurd degree. Sai was confident she'd recover herself with some time and careful intervention. "Ino is not insane. She was overwhelmed with stress and pain and reacted to alleviate herself."

Sasuke's expression shifted to one of disbelief. "Sane people do not scream bloody murder nor do they require nudity as coping mechanisms."

"You're an expert on sane people's coping mechanisms?" Sai did not mean to be flippant; it was an honest question.

In a rare show of emotional reaction, Sasuke's hand clenched on his knee. Annoyed, he said, "I'm not suggesting I'm an expert, but she is clearly unhinged. Any reasonable person would agree with me. I'll say it again, take her to the psych ward. She needs help."

"No, she isn't unhinged; no, I won't take her to the psych ward; and yes, she does need help. Specifically, she needs your help. And Sakura's when she comes home."

"I'm not offering my help."

"You'll give it to her anyway. Her life may be in danger. I have to leave and investigate a few leads. She needs a safe shelter and care, both of which can be provided under your roof. Sasuke," Sai leveled a serious look at the other, "please watch over her. Protect her physical and emotional well-being while I'm gone. I'll return later to check in."

"No."

"No? Why not?"

"I'm not a babysitter and I don't care enough to pretend to be one. Find someone else to be her watchdog." Sasuke notched up his chin, the crest of hair at his crown stirred. "Better yet, do it yourself."

Good point. He had known Sasuke wouldn't comply with the request out of the goodness of his heart. But how does one get Uchiha Sasuke to comply with a request which was not a direct order? No one besides himself and Ino thought her life was threatened as they had no concrete evidence yet. Well, Sasuke valued Sakura, or at least, he seemed to based on his living arrangement and romantic history with her. Perhaps Sakura was the correct avenue. Ino and Sakura had a strong bond, bred from years of friendship and rivalry. Sakura valued Ino; therefore, if Sasuke valued Sakura, what Sakura valued would also affect Sasuke indirectly.

Cool and patient, Sai fired his last shot. "Sakura will never forgive you if something happened to Ino which you could have prevented."

And to Sai's complete astonishment, Sasuke's face crinkled in contempt; he made a noise of disgust, but after a moment he controlled himself, his features neutralizing, but there was the glimmer of a red rose in the eye. "Fine." He spat the word.

Hardly believing his argument worked, Sai stood. "Thank you."

Having secured Ino's temporary safety, Sai said no more to Sasuke and moved through the kitchen to the kitchen entrance. The black underwear, the jet jewelry, and the fuchsia dress were scattered on the hardwood floor. In her turbulent panic attack, Ino had skewed the table and chairs. Sai ignored them. There, on the step down to the kitchen door lay the purple and black glass butterfly. He scooped it up, turned, and just about bumped nose-first into Sasuke, who'd followed him. Sasuke loomed over him- -by half a head, but Sasuke liked to loom, as far as Sai could tell- -so Sai dodged around him and headed back upstairs.

"What are you doing?" Sasuke asked as he trailed after.

Ignoring him, since they'd met their interaction quota for the day, Sai opened the bedroom door; Ino had curled on her side, deeply asleep. He picked a good spot above the bed, detached the broken metal stem (it was screwed to the bottom of the ornament and easily removed), and wrapped wire around the body of the butterfly. He selected a kunai, stringed everything together with the wire, and flung the kunai at the ceiling, where the butterfly dangled and looked like a living thing. There was a chance she would smile when she saw it. Her smile, he had realized, was worth gold.

When Sai turned after a careful inspection of his handiwork, Sasuke glowered at him from the doorway but stepped aside to let Sai pass. They returned downstairs, Sai continuing on to gather the clothes and jewelry in the kitchen and make right the table and chairs. Sasuke lingered, observing, from the archway, as Sai folded the garments and used a quick seal to store them in a scroll. He left the scroll on the table in case Ino wanted it for some reason.

In the kitchen entryway, Sai pulled on his shoes and spoke to Sasuke one final time. "Be sure to look in on her. She was in the hospital a few days with a high fever."

"She'll attack me if I touch her," Sasuke replied.

"Don't wake her, then."

Sasuke scowled in response. Confident Sasuke would perform his duty, albeit with reluctance, Sai was through the door, ink hawk winging off scroll paper and whooshing into the sky towards an 'older' part of town south of Hokage Rock along one of the natural rivers which cut through Konoha.

Sai had the sense, each time he entered the southern district, of a stain left behind from dark, ambitious power. People spoke a bit quieter this side of town; children played with a little less vigor; shinobi tensed and glanced at shadows. Most notably, the Uchiha clan had lived in the south of Konoha. Their square was not lived in at present; Sai understood the entire estate was Sasuke's (the only Uchiha to date), who could sell the property or lease it but did not seem to care either way what happened to his clan's familial seat. He'd probably let it fall to rack and ruin, and without a clan to inhabit the homes, why bother to keep it up?

Though the Konoha Military Police Force had once been located along the main avenue toward the South Gate, the building, after Pain's total destruction of the village, had been rebuilt closer to the Office of the Hokage and the Academy. There, KMPF worked hand-in-glove with the Office to deter domestic threats and keep civilians protected from wayward shinobi. Two blocks further from the old police headquarters within easy walking distance of the deserted Uchiha Square, a boxy wood and brown stone building squinted out from between two taller condominiums. Three sections of windows- -five rectangles topped with a half-circle for each section- -decorated the plain face of the Konoha Daily News Office.

Sai landed his hawk on the roof, dispelled the ink beast, and took the roof exit. The office was three floors, plus a basement and the basement, where Archives was located, was his final destination. Among 'The Stacks', which were metal shelves three meters high from floor to ceiling, holding organized preservative bins stuffed with newspapers, in a back corner where no natural light dared touch, Sai would find a useful contact hunched behind a weary metal desk. This contact would be a short, squat man, rather rumpled, with grizzled facial hair and glasses thick enough to be cut from the bottoms of soda bottles.

Nesshinna Dokusha was indeed a man to admire. Want to know anything about the history of Konoha? Dokusha knew it like the back of his pudgy hand. What about major civilian scandals? Dokusha knew them all like the palm of the same pudgy hand. And what about anything from village demolitions to Uchiha Square real estate? Yes, Dokusha knew about those, too. Dokusha, Sai had discovered after some unearthing, had been in the Intelligence Division under the Third Lord Hokage, but his procurement of such trivial information (deemed unnecessary in the bigger picture of Kyuubi attacks, Uchiha clan massacres, Akatsuki, and war news) was unappreciated. He was hired by Konoha Daily News to be Keeper of Archives, a job which suited Dokusha.

"Eh? Who's that?" Dokusha hollered from the back of The Stacks. "I'm having my tea. Come back in thirty minutes."

Sai continued on, stepping along the dim, narrow corridors between the metal shelves, and arrived at Dokusha's 'office' which was a square space free of metal shelves but littered with newspapers, parchment, wobbling towers of books, and other general knickknacks. A large blackboard cluttered with clippings and scrawled writing watched over the office space. Dokusha had his short legs propped on the mess of his desk, old-timey book open in lap, teacup and saucer in hand.

"Oy! What'd I tell-" Dokusha strained his owlish eyes. "Sai? Gods strike me down! I haven't seen you in a dog's age! How ya been, kid?"

Sai favored Dokusha with a polite smile. "I've been well. Thank you, Mr. Dokusha. And you?"

"Fine, fine, yes," answered Dokusha. He shuffled some sheaves of paper off a poor, dreary chair and scuttled himself to a tiny kitchenette where he poured tea into a chipped cup. Sai took the seat cleared for him and accepted Dokusha's tea. Dokusha proffered a small plate with a circle of biscuits. "Ya hungry? Here, have some of these lovelies. The shopkeep opens up ten minutes early on Wednesdays, so there's no crowd. Always gives me the freshest ones."

"Thank you." Sai took one to nibble. "I apologize if I've interrupted."

Dokusha waved away Sai's apology. "Nah. You're not an interruption, kid. I suppose you need to pick my brain. Well, have at it."

Sai appreciated Dokusha's straight to business mentality. "What can you tell me about a man named Mr. Miyazato?"

"Aw, c'mon on, I thought you'd give me a challenge," Dokusha scratched his stubble with displeasure. "He's all this town's been talking about for the last coupla weeks. Miyazato Seiichi's the biggest name in imports and exports in the Five Nations. Owns loads of different businesses including real estate, media outlets, textile factories...you name it, he's dabbled in it." His voice dropped to a scandalous whisper. "I hear he's picked a lady to get hitched to, one of our own Leaf kunoichi, a Yamanaka Ino? They took the engagement photos this morning, in fact. There was a big to-do at the hospital. The whole gossip column and business section were gaga over it."

Engagement photos? Sai's considerable restraint prevented the teacup from dashing to the floor. He set it on the edge of Dokusha's strewn desk and forced his arms and hands to relax to his lap. Ino never once mentioned an engagement. While it was none of his business when and who Ino married, Sai did find it odd she had not indicated to Kiba she was engaged- -Kiba, of everyone, would be most affected by the news. Sai, and he believed Kiba believed, Ino had been a free agent. Was her engagement the reason she allowed Kiba to walk away? "Interesting. You mentioned he's involved in real estate. Would he have anything to do with Oak Valley Apartments?"

"You heard? Yeah, he bought the whole complex and demoed it in a week. That guy," Dokusha chuckled, "he's something else. Did the deal and sent the residents packing. Threw money at 'em to hurry 'em off the land. He was on some kind of deadline or schedule to pull down the building."

"Where is Miyazato from originally?"

"Not from any of the Five Nations. He's been kicking around our side of the continent for a while, but his origins are foreign...I'll have to do some cross-referencing, but I'm pretty confident he's from a country way in the south across Wave and along Wind's southernmost border. Can I look into for you?"

"Yes, I would appreciate it. What else can you tell me about the Miyazato-Yamanaka engagement?"

"The rumor is that the head of the clan, Lady Inohime, designed the marriage contract. From what I hear, Miyazato paid a massive dowry for Ino's hand. Once they're married, he'll no doubt enjoy the benefits of being wedded to a Yamanaka. They've historically cultivated a rather...seductive reputation."

Sai allowed the last remark to pass without comment; he'd heard for himself of Ino's sexual adventures. "Why was Ino not allowed to choose her husband?"

Dokusha shrugged. "Kunoichi have a duty to the village to birth kings. Simply put, the young miss is a king maker. And as the head of the clan, Lady Inohime has a responsibility to ensure the bloodline and sacred clan techniques continue unbroken, regardless of any conflicting opinions from the other clan members."

"Which includes her own granddaughter."

"Hm-hm. Miss Ino is in the unenviable position of being unwed and catching the eye of a rich and powerful suitor. A suitor rich and powerful enough to sway Lady Inohime's mind in his favor. Fate was not on her side, so to speak."

As he had in his conversation with Sasuke, Sai felt a sense of injustice for Ino's position and subsequent treatment. He wasn't as angry about it as he'd been in Sasuke's case- -his was a willful and denigrating ignorance- -but as he continued down the rabbit hole of her circumstances, Ino's violent emotional ventilation became more and more understandable. Sai, himself, had had every aspect of his life controlled until the moment of Lord Danzo's death. Once freed of the mental and emotional imprisonment, and once he became accustomed to what triggered others' upset, Sai recognized he had a lot of unjust experiences in his former life, but he'd never known how to demonstrate his feelings. Ino, on the other hand, showed the world her emotions- -not what she thought, no, but what she felt and Sai was envious of her for it.

"You're familiar with our Minister of Public Works, Takeshita Isao?" Sai asked, putting his thoughts on Ino's life aside.

"I've heard of him, yeah."

"Any connection between him and Miyazato?"

Dokusha crunched on a biscuit. "I'm unfamiliar with Miyazato's connections. As I do my research, I'll keep an eye out for any dealings between those two. I'll warn ya," the little man cautioned, "it's unlikely I have enough information to answer your question. Miyazato and Takeshita don't directly relate to our village, so I don't know much about 'em. Wait a moment."

Dokusha stood, brushing crumbs from his shirt front and scampered to a beat-up filing cabinet. When he yanked it open, a loud metallic screech resounded within the muted stacks. Dokusha flipped through some file folders, and upon one, he slipped out a loose document. He handed the paper to Sai. "Here's a name and address of a contact in Hinokoku who's had 'er eye on Takeshita's household for some time. She might be able to give you what you're looking for. Tell her Dokusha sends his regards."

Sai accepted the paper, and once he'd copied the information to his notebook, handed Dokusha back the paper. Then he took a few sips of tea, considering what more he could draw from Dokusha's wealth of information. "How are you on religious sects or symbolism?"

Dokusha snorted. "Pfft. Way outside my expertise. Go on to the library and ask those bookworms about it. Religious folks are fanatics and when they're not nut jobs, they're idealists. They either never open their eyes to the real world or they go too far and hurt lots of innocents with their proselytizing. My advice is to turn around and run."

"I see." Sai weighed his options. Information about the jaguar entity was necessary as Ino had firsthand experience with it. He didn't know anyone from Intelligence who worked in the library, so he'd have to pose his questions to strangers. Could he ask his questions without raising suspicions? If he was better at reading people, which he wasn't. A little lie would be beneficial; he could have seen the jaguar statue in his recent travels, found it interesting, and decided to conduct research on it. Yes, this lie was plausible. "Thank you for your hospitality and your conversation, Mr. Dokusha. You've been a great help."

"Aye, that's me. Forever helpful," Dokusha responded. "Before you head off, you don't happen to know Ino, do you? The Yamanaka are famous for their work in the Intelligence Division. You're in Anbu...surely you've brushed shoulders with her. And I hear both of you are favorites of Nara Shikamaru."

Paranoia singing, Sai gazed at Dokusha. "Now why would you be interested in a thing like that?"

"Oh, well," Dokusha looked sheepish, "When I was in Intelligence, I worked with Yamanaka Inoichi for a while early on. He was a good soldier...an honest and loyal shinobi. I...thought it'd be nice to speak to his daughter, tell her how much good her old man did before his death. But...I couldn't go up to her and say something, ya know."

At first, Sai couldn't understand. Dokusha was introverted to a painful degree; he could not deal with new people, new situations, or new people in new situations. The man actively avoided crowds and much preferred his solitude within The Stacks, and truth be told, Sai had come to The Stacks half a dozen times before he realized someone was there to ask questions of. For him to want to speak with Ino was something extraordinary. "Are you asking to meet her?"

Dokusha's cheeks were ruddy with an embarrassed blush. "Yeah, I mean, if I could ask a favor."

Sai's paranoia lessened somewhat. "I'm sure she'd be pleased to meet you. I'll see what I can do to have her with me the next time I come visit," Sai answered. "Can I bring you anything you need?"

"No, I'm all set. I suppose you're off, then? Take care, kid. I hear you've been working some pretty dangerous jobs. I don't envy you, not one bit."

Sai stood. "I'll take care. You, too. And thank you for your help."

Sai left The Stacks, and when he exited to the street, he felt like a blinded mole-man who'd lived underground for his entire life and broke the surface to free air for the very first time. The day waned- -early afternoon had progressed to late afternoon- -and Sai had the library to visit for religious texts. After the library, he'd have to see Ino and make sure she was well cared for despite Sasuke's begrudging acceptance of guard duty.

In the late day, many shops and businesses were near their closing hour, as families gathered around their dinner tables to praise their ancestors and to partake of good food and drink. The Konoha Library had late evening hours, so Sai had plenty of time to walk there and enjoy Konoha during the twilight slow-down period. The library was deserted, and the Religious Texts section was even more desolate. Sai selected a few reference books- -general starting points- -and with the large volumes in hand, headed to the check-out counter. The straight, lean librarian jabbed a pencil into her graying bun, and with sparse, efficient movements, stamped the books, registered Sai's card, and slid them over the counter. Books heavy under his arm, Sai started his way to Sakura's- -he hoped neither Sasuke nor Ino had killed the other in his absence.

A/N: Thanks for reading. Please drop a comment and let me know how you're feeling about the story. I have to admit...I kinda like Sasuke's attitude. Until next time!