(Trigger Warning: there is some torture in this chapter, it's vaguely graphic. Nothing toward Sakura.)


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After completing their training at the Grand Canyons, Sakura and Kakashi reached Konoha by nightfall, landing on top of the roof of the Hokage Tower.

Kakashi peered at Sakura, who was donned in ANBU attire and crouching beside him. He considered letting her go inside the Tower with him, but the Summons called for Kakashi only, and he knew he wasn't going to be able to explain why Sakura is dressed in his old ANBU uniform.

Sakura turned toward Kakashi. "Want me to go in to see the Hokage with you?"

Kakashi reconsidered, and then sighed. "Since you're already here, come with me." He swung himself off the edge, through the window and into the office. He left the window open in between the motion.

Sakura ran chakra to her feet and walked over the edge and into the Hokage Office as well, where they were greeted by the Sandaime at the Hokage seat.

"Normally I would reprimand you for coming in through the window instead of the front door, but this time it was the right move; time is of essence," the Hokage's voice echoed through the office, greeting Kakashi.

"Hokage-sama?" Kakashi greeted, fully alert, Sakura in tow.

Hiruzen's eyes landed on Sakura briefly in recognition, past her masked appearance that resembled Kakashi's. He seemed eased at the notion that they've been together for a month. His gaze landed back on Kakashi, not paying much mind to the little genin girl. "Our village was nearly invaded by the Sand Village while you were away."

Kakashi's body tensed up. "What happened?"

"Those three Genin and their Jounin Sensei from the Sand Village were infiltrators," Hiruzen debriefed. "Kabuto as well, although we don't know who Kabuto is working for."

The name Kabuto sounded familiar to Sakura, and she remembered that was a boy from the Chuunin Exams who tried to help her team… Now this all makes sense, why he was so suspiciously nice at first…

"Kabuto might be working for Orochimaru," Sakura offered.

"Orochimaru, huh…" Hiruzen's expression took on a faraway look, before he blinked his gaze back to the present. He eyed Sakura warily, "What made you come up with the connection?"

Sakura didn't know, actually. "Just a feeling. Also...Hokage-sama." Sakura hesitated on the information, wondering whether she should tell him that she actually fought Orochimaru and had first-hand experience with him.

She decided to. "I encountered and fought Orochimaru in the Chuunin Exams, and just barely made it out alive-" at Hiruzen's shocked expression, presumably wondering how a little girl came to fighting Orochimaru, Sakura explained. "I was serving as a decoy for my teammates to escape. Orochimaru was after the Sharingan."

"The...Sharingan…" Hiruzen blinked twice and rapidly, before he came to his senses, eyes narrowing onto Sakura. "You have the Sharingan, Sakura. Kakashi told me what happened, but I want to hear it from you. How did you unlock it?"

"I don't know," Sakura lied perfectly. She managed to deceive even Orochimaru, she wasn't going to fail at the Professor when she's come this far. "I just...activated it while Naruto Uzumaki's and Sasuke Uchiha's lives were at risk," Sakura said, dropping their full names to hopefully emphasize that those two were more important figures than herself, more worthy of attention. A Jinchuuriki and a real Uchiha. Sakura's eyes curled and she rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "Maybe I'm actually part-Uchiha? Maybe one of my ancestors was an Uchiha, and the genes for the Sharingan never activated but passed down dormantly, and I just lucked out? You'll have to ask my mom..." Sakura offered, somewhat in irony.

Ah-haha. Your mom has disappeared. Inner Sakura mocked sardonically. Not that Hiruzen is going to check, in the middle of all this mess.

And Inner's prediction came true. Sarutobi made a chortled sound, seeming satisfied with that explanation and made a note to investigate her lineage later, and went back on topic to more pressing matters. The Sandaime turned his attention back to Kakashi. "The three Sound Shinobi have been captured too, but their Jounin Sensei is nowhere to be found. Do you think Orochimaru is behind them?"

"The Curse Mark on Sakura, which I've sealed, completely, is Orochimaru's doing. Sakura informed me that Orochimaru was masquerading as a Grass ninja."

Nervous, Sakura bit her lip, swallowing at the sound of Orochimaru's name, and kept silent. The curse mark wasn't actually fully sealed, and she knew that Kakashi knew that. However, Kakashi didn't say anything about this to the Hokage, so Sakura didn't say anything either. Kakashi must have a reason to not tell Hokage-sama that his seal doesn't properly work.

Perhaps they had to be careful around the Hokage, during the current crisis.

Hiruzen frowned. "That's alarming. With that information, there's a chance that the Sound ninja, the Sand ninja, and the Grass ninja- three shinobi villages- are all under Orochimaru's control…. Unless Orochimaru killed and became an imposter of a Grass Genin. That still leaves two Hidden villages to reckon with."

Hiruzen contemplated what he just said, before his eyes flashed. "Kakashi, we've captured the important figures, but we're missing Orochimaru's Agent, Kabuto Yakushi, and the Sand's Jinchuuriki, Gaara. You must track them down, find them, and capture them. We need them as hostages. This will be your new S-rank mission. Capture and detain, or kill, any foreign shinobi from Sand and Sound who are still lingering within the village, as well. Sakura, you are on this mission as well." Hiruzen's eyes flashed to Sakura.

Then he surveyed her exhausted, low-chakra levels, and her clear exhaustion.

Hiruzen gave a small mercy. "Although you don't have to actively search for them. Just go home and rest, what I mean is that you have to notify us. And do not engage the enemy if you uncover them; notify Kakashi or me immediately. If you can't find either of us, notify an ANBU or Shikaku, the Jounin Commander….or...Sasuke Uchiha. I repeat, do not engage. Although, I doubt you'll encounter him at all...the village is large, and if he's wise, he's hiding away from all Shinobi, after all."

Sakura nodded in alarm. But she knew Gaara. Gaara was her friend, she even hugged him twice. Gaara was innocent in this. (She didn't witness Gaara destroying Chouji because she was passed out, during the Preliminaries.) A scared thought crossed her mind, at how ruthless the Hokage sounded:

"What's going to happen to Gaara once he's turned in…?" Sakura didn't want to hear the answer because she suspected it might be bad.

Sarutobi raised an eyebrow. "Gaara would be detained and interrogated under Konoha's T&I, under Ibiki, of course. Do you remember Ibiki-san? He was your proctor for the written portion of the Chuunin Exams."

"R-Right-" Sakura nodded, playing it cool. "I remember him."

"You're both dismissed. But Kakashi, before you go," Hiruzen started. Kakashi paused while Sakura was halfway out the door; she tilted her head to hear what Hiruzen's going to say.

"Come with me to Torture and Interrogation, Kakashi. Inoichi and Ibiki need your Sharingan on Baki and the Sand siblings. We broke the Sound ninjas, and found out they're under Orochimaru, but they turned out to know almost no crucial information we could use; they were just mindless grunts. However, the Sand nin are important higher ups, and they are are harder to break. In fact, they're struggling hard to break free. Kakashi, we need your Sharingan to restrain them before they break out of the prison cells.

"Furthermore, maybe they can give clues on where Gaara is hiding, as well as any other invasion intel we need to look out for. Normally, I'd order you to use your Ninken and track down Gaara and Kabuto immediately, but we don't have any leads and I doubt they're going to emerge suddenly to cause a fuss, they're two unconnected rogues in hiding so they can't do much damage without getting caught.

"The higher priority is ensuring the Sand ninjas don't break out of their torture cells. Our poisons are not fully effective. We need your Sharingan genjutsu to put them in a stupor."

"Yes, Hokage-sama. Go home Sakura," Kakashi waved Sakura off.

"No," Sakura swallowed. "Wait, please let me go to the Torture and Interrogation."

The Hokage and Kakashi-sensei turned to her in surprise. "Why?" They both said at the same time.

"I need to learn how to use the Sharingan too. I want to see how Kakashi does it. I might join T&I in the future, I've had an interest." Sakura clicked her tongue at their continued surprised expressions, and added… "My childhood best friend is Ino Yamanaka; that's her specialty and I want to work with her when we both grow up, should she decide to go the T&I route like her father." Sakura, being a booksmarts nerd, knew of Inoichi's reputation, as the Yamanaka Clan Lord who specialized in mind techniques and the T&I force. And she knew Ino was his daughter.

"Very well," Sarutobi seemed to buy that. However, his eyes became cold steel. "You will regret seeing some of these things, but if you really fought Orochimaru, I am sure you have seen worse."

"I have," Sakura said. As a result, they allowed her to follow the Hokage and Kakashi-sensei outside of the Hokage Tower, to the official Torture & Interrogation building a few blocks from the Tower. They entered, and took an elevator, and went several floors underground.

Once there, Sakura and Kakashi were led to a room with a glass wall separating the prisoner from the viewers.

Behind the glass wall, were two figures: . A blonde prisoner in chains in the middle of the room, and a masked male standing behind her.

This blonde Sand kunoichi was bound in chains, stripped naked, with her back exposed, and there were whippings constantly lashed over her back repeatedly by a masked ANBU. That's Temari.

"STOP-" Temari cried, before being whipped again. Her arms were held apart, stretched on each side of her, by the chains wrapped around her wrists. She was nearly suspended, standing.

Behind her, the ANBU male lashed a whip at her back again.

"STOP IT-" Temari cried out, in extreme pain. Her back was clearly bleeding.

"Then tell us the intel."

Temari let out a pained sob, but didn't say anything else.

The whip lashed again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

There were probably a thousand whipping markings, open wounds, etched across her back.

Sakura covered her mouth in horror. She shouldn't have came. Quickly, she shot her head toward Kakashi, to see Sensei's reaction; maybe he'll be just as disgusted as her and take her away. This was literally a girl naked and being whipped repeatedly for intel, even if she was an enemy ninja. Sakura never knew T&I was so atrocious.

Maybe Obito-kun was fucking right about the world.

It's just that, she knew other villages were bad, but she never knew Konoha was like this

Temari was bleeding from all over her body, cuts from her bare feet all the way to her neck. They haven't touched her face yet, but they marred everywhere else, hands included. She wondered why they avoided her face.

Through the other side of the glass window, Sakura's face went green. She pointed at Temari's blood, gallons of blood on the floor, more blood than any human being could safely lose.

"She's not just bleeding, look at all that blood loss! She's going to die!"

"Her torture will end immediately after she tells us the intel," Sarutobi stated coldly. "Besides, we have blood bags."

Kakashi looked taken aback at Sakura's reaction to Temari's torture. He turned to Sarutobi. "Was this really necessary, Hokage? What about Inoichi-san; couldn't he have entered her mind?"

"Inoichi is dealing with Baki, the Sand Jounin," Sarutobi replied icily. He pressed a button on the wall, which lifted upwards the glass wall that was keeping Sakura, Kakashi, and the Hokage separated from the interrogators and their victim. "Now do-"

CLANK.

CLING.

CLING.

CLING.

The three of them looked back toward Temari, only to see her body completely limp, only suspended by the chains, eyes closed and completely unconscious. She was not even breathing.

"Hokage-sama, it appears the prisoner has passed out from the pain."

"Such awful timing," the Sandaime Hokage wrinkled his lips in disgust. "Just when we finally had the Copy Ninja with us. Wake her up."

The interrogator, a male Special Jounin from T&I, whipped Temari several more times, but she continued to remain unconscious.

Sakura couldn't stand it anymore. She shunshined in front of Temari's back, and held her forearms in front of her, bracing herself when the sharp whip lashed around Sakura's arms, tearing parts of her black sleeves off and cutting her skin deep.

GAH. Sakura gasped between clenched teeth, as her forearms seared in pain, and bled. Her brain had stopped thinking due to the pain. This fucking hurts. To imagine Temari's entire body marred with a thousand of these….I can't even begin to phantom the physical pain of it..

Sakura did understand physical pain though; she's fought Zabuza's bloodthirsty Kubikiribōchō, and Orochimaru's assaults and bite; suddenly, the curse mark suddenly reared its ass and sent nails of pain throughout Sakura's body suddenly. Sakura took a deep breath, and prodded her Inner Sakura awake, who went to attempt to suppress the Curse Mark.

Physical pain, she could fathom. But to be stripped naked and humiliated in front of all those men, something made her stomach curl.

"Stop it, let her go!" Sakura sent chakra to her arms, forcing the whip to stick onto her forearms and wounds, despite the hurt. And she whirled her arms backwards, forcing the whip OUT and away from the other man's grasp.

The man looked shocked as the bloodied whip he was holding flew across the room and smacked against the wall, before it clanked to the floor. Left unarmed in front of an unconscious, bound body, the man turned toward the Hokage, in shock, and mildly disguised betrayal and anger. "Who is this little bitch?! Why is she here, interfering with our interrogation?!"

"Mozuku," her Sensei called out the interrogator by name (Kakashi knew his name?)

So the interrogator, Mozuku, turned toward Kakashi, with fury on his face. "What is it, Copy Nin?"

Kakashi eye-smiled with both eyes; his headband was already lifted so his Sharingan was revealed. "How about not calling my apprentice a bitch next time?"

"What-" Mozuku only to get hit by his Hell's Viewing Technique and pass out backwards onto the floor. His body hit the floor, splashing into Temari's blood, and he was fully unconscious.

Two sets of eyes turned toward Kakashi; Sakura's and the Hokage's.

CHA! SERVES HIM RIGHT! And Kakashi-sensei called me his Apprentice! I've been upgraded from just 'Student!'

Inner, we have to get Temari out of those binds. "H-Hokage-sama," Sakura forced herself to speak. "Please call for the medics and an ambulance and-"

"You just knocked out one of our own special jounin." The Hokage interrupted, about to say something more, but shut his mouth. Evidently, he still needed Kakashi's Sharingan to interrogate. "Was that really necessary, Kakashi?"

Kami… The Hokage is acting different from when we first met, like he's not the same person as before, Sakura wondered insidiously. Not a chivalrous old man anymore.

"Yes, Hokage, it was," Kakashi said. "The man would have killed the prisoner if left unattended. Now then, are you going to waste precious minutes or call for a medic?"

Sarutobi gritted his teeth, and called for the ANBU Medics to arrive to their location, tend to Temari's wounds and place her on a stretcher.

Then, Sarutobi led Kakashi deeper into the T&I center.

Sakura kept staring at Temari, who was still unconscious, and at the way the medics tended to said female teenager's wounds carefully. She kept staring, with her Sakura's Glasses on her eyes, until she noticed Temari's pulse was still beating. Phew, she's still alive.

Suddenly, noticing Kakashi-sensei and Sarutobi heading away, Sakura followed suit after Kakashi. They walked down the hallway.

"Is she really coming with- Sakura, are you really still coming with us?" Sarutobi paused mid-walk, turning fully over toward Sakura and glowering downward at her, triangular Hokage hat and all.

"Y-Yes Hokage-sama." Sakura swallowed. Well, we saved Temari's life in the nick of time because of me; she could have died. Maybe I'll save someone else, or be there to analyze a situation… It's better than me not being there. Sakura swallowed a new lie. "I won't interfere this time."

Sarutobi glanced at Kakashi, only to see Kakashi's stern, determined gaze. Sarutobi sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Alright, but I warn you in advance now: you won't like what you'll see."

And with that, Sarutobi opened the door to a room that held a jail cell.

Within that jail cell, was Kankuro. And a man named Danzo.

Kankuro was bound, seated, to a metal chair, and blindfolded. He was also shirtless from waist up, but he still had black shorts on; they weren't his pants but the standard prisoners' pajama shorts. He had no shoes or socks on.

Kankuro had pale skin, with purple tattoos, that reached all across his body, including past his abs toward his legs.

Sakura was taken aback. The last time she saw Kankuro, his entire body was covered in black clothes, from head to toe, with only his face revealed. Maybe Kankuro had insecurities issues with his body image, or had other reasons for covering his body modestly, in full black, despite how hot the deserts of Sunagakure must have been.

Yet here he was, completely stripped naked except for the black prisoner boxers, with his wrists cuffed tightly to the armrests of the iron chair.

In front of Kankuro, stood an old man who looked to be the Hokage's age. The old man had bandages wrapped around his right eye, and a cane. He was Shimura Danzo.

Danzo stood over Kankuro.

She's seen death, she's seen Gato beheaded, and she's seen the ghosts of bloodified and mutilated Uchiha corpses, of her loved ones, as she removed and dissected their Sharingan. She's even had each one of her fingers broken by Neji Hyuuga.

Haruno Sakura was not unfamiliar with torture, or an opponent's sadism, during mid-battle.

But never was she prepared for this.

Whenever she fought a powerful enemy, she always managed to convert them to join her side by using the deception skills Obito-kun trained her in, and showing some of Obito's idealism. Orochimaru being the exception, but she admitted that that was due to their vast power differences and the goal of deceiving him about her identity as being actually the Last Uchiha herself, that got in the way.

But ultimately, Haruno Sakura is used to dead bodies and the stench of such.

What's she was not used to- was the drawn out torture that was psychological and physical.

While Haruno Sakura had had her fingers broken by Neji, they were recoverable; it'd take months for broken bones to mend, but it only took her days with medical ninjutsu at the hospital.

Kankuro, Suna's puppet master and Gaara's brother, had his fingers completely cut off from his hands.

Kankuro was a Puppet Master.

A puppet master was nothing without his fingers.

So for Sakura to see Kankuro with only knuckles, but no fingers, and only open, bleeding wounds and bone on each of his knuckles… And a dead look in his blank, open stare….

All this was too much for Sakura. She wasn't even friends with him. Yet this was what dug up her buried, long ago, fear from her vain little girl days prior to meeting Obito. She faced the most powerful opponents but she couldn't stand this...

And, instead of doing something about it, like she always did, like she had just done 10 minutes ago with that sand kunoichi….

Sakura choked in her fear, and gasped in her saliva, palpitating.

She ran.

Danzo Shimura, Hiruzen Sarutobi, and Kakashi Hatake watched as Sakura forced open the door of the cell room they were in, and ran out the door. The door slammed shut behind her, and she was gone.

"Wait!" Hiruzen's voice stopped him.

Kakashi turned his head, and saw that Hiruzen was clutching tightly on his sleeve, preventing him from leaving too. "I need to check on my student."

"You're loyal to Konoha," a third, raspy, elderly voice broke the silence. It was Danzo's. The white-bandaged-face old man raised his head, his sole black eye at his left whereas Kakashi's black eye was at his right; they looked similar in the way they only revealed an eye and were masked, yet different. The political man clunked his cane, as he walked over to Kakashi. "You will finish the interrogation, or else the entirety of Konoha, including your precious student, will die by the Sand invaders' hands, simply because we weren't prepared for it."

Kakashi glared. "Knowing full well that I have the Sharingan, and that we have the Yamanaka Clan, you still went ahead and tortured two genin, and permanently maimed them. Has Konoha really fallen this low?" Kakashi turned to face Hiruzen, fury but more prominently disappointment in his eyes. "Is this what Minato-sensei, your chosen successor, would have wanted? Is this the kind of village he gave up his own life, to save?"

"We had no choice," Danzo replied simply. "It is our duty, as shinobi, to do what is best for the village: and time was of the essence. With invasion from multiple shinobi villages looming on the horizon, did you think we could have afforded to spare even a second? We do not have unlimited Yamanaka mind readers, or Sharingan eyes, on hand," Danzo uttered. "You should be groveling in apology for being away, , at such an important time. Perhaps, it is yourself you must blame. If you had been here the entire time, within the village… you could have came and performed your duty in T&I, and it would not have been necessary to torture the genin.

"Alas, torture is part of the shinobi lifestyle. That is what happens when you get captured by the enemy. They would have done even worse to us; we are saints compared to them.

"Now, go interrogate Kankuro of the Sand with your Sharingan. You do not have a choice. You are a shinobi of Konohagakure." Danzo finished his lecture.

Kakashi was stone cold for a solid minute.

Hiruzen leaned over. "Kakashi-san, we had no the interrogation first, and then you can go after Sakura. If you don't, well, we'll place you back onto the ANBU where you're needed instead of keeping you on as a Jounin-sensei."

"Keep me on as a Jounin-sensei and I'll do it," Kakashi conceded. He walked into the cell where Kankuro was in…


-TO BE CONTINUED-



Meanwhile, at a quiet civilian district:

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A shunshin later, Sakura was home at her front door to her house. The night was cold, and there was not a sound on the street.

Sakura took some deep breaths, wrapping her fingers around her arms, to try to still her shivering.

"What on earth came over me…?" Huffing, she stepped onto the porch, took out her key, and unlocked the front door of her house.

As she turned and opened the door...She heard homicidal laughter, and saw—

"You have got to be kidding me," Sakura choked, eyebrows furrowed. Lo and behold, was Gaara, sitting in her living room.

When, with all her heart, she had been wishing, praying, that Sabaku no Gaara, her weird ass friend, would never be found. Not by anyone from Konoha. Sakura was Konoha.


END.

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Trigger warning: There's torture in this chapter. Next chapter, there isn't torture.

Author Note: Oh don't worry, there's a chapter coming tomorrow or the day after :) I'm really thankful you read this, please leave comments ASAP! They're what reminds (and motivates) me to keep writing. Anyway, nice seeing you again, dear reader!

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