Recap:

Sakura rushes alongside Hinata to the Hyuga compound, thinking that there she may find an adult who knows what to do. Instead, the girls encounter a chaotic mess with screeching Hyuga. Their in-fighting is calmed by a powerful speech, orchestrated by Sakura and delivered by Hinata(!), who encourages the Hyuga to fight in order to protect the hospital, as it contains important health documents on top ranking shinobi, the necessary medicine and facilities to cure the invasion cassualties AND all the patients currently staying

The hospital just so happens to be the area where Naruto and Sasuke are at due to a coincidence, as well as Gaara. Naruto faces off against Gaara in order to keep him away from the patients and especially Sasuke, whom Gaara sought to fight. Sasuke and a Naruto clone hide and use the distraction to try and gather other shinobi that might be in the hospital as patients in order to get there

Meanwhile, Kakashi is unable to talk himself out of following Hiruzen's order and has the inevitable confrontation with Río, realizing he knows her from somewhere. He manages to trap her and is about to kill her, but stalls long enough for her to escape, revealing she's the fake Yugao.

Notes: Hey folks, here you go. A nice little update. I'd been feeling rather demotivated in regards to this story lately, I've gotten a bunch of flames lately (which is dumb because you guys are always so thougtful to me and I really should just ignore idiots, but their words still sting) and also cause I was stuck wiith the Sakura battle that will take place in comming chapters. Originally I'd be meaning to take the story in one direction, then changed my mind and that left me flailing on what to do, but I finally regained my motivation after comming up with this crazy ass twist Sakura will have to face so now all that's left to do is write it out.

Also, don't be put off if Sakura doesn't appear as much as usual in the first few chapters of the invasion; that has a reason and it's because Sakura's 'story' will tie in directly with Kakashi's but Kakashi will need to do something first before Sakura can get involved, so I need to narrate a bit more of Kakashi's side of things before getting to Sakura. But she's definitely going to have a really badass moment so get ready!

More Than Enemies

Kakashi stared at the spot his former teammate had just disappeared from. Well… that had been… something . He forcefully shook himself out of his reverie. Río (or should he say, Yugao? Or Inoue? What the hell, she was just as bad as Tenzo) had survived their fight and so had he. That was good. Great, even. Best possible outcome. And yet, all he could think about was that she was Yugao and he had tried to kill her – very nearly succeeded.

One of his precious people. He had liked Río, yes, but if she had died at his hands… well. He'd have regretted it, probably more than he should, but it wouldn't have been world-ending. But this new revelation was a game changer. Against his better judgement, his Yugao had been someone truly important to him. Where Río had been an enemy he hadn't wanted to kill, Yugao was his dear former teammate, someone he had suffered alongside, and joked alongside, and perfected the chidori alongside. He remembered how afraid he'd been to use the technique at the beginning of his tenure in ANBU, how he'd avoided it like the plague when teammates were anywhere closeby. Even if they were far enough for it not to be dangerous, he just couldn't bring himself to use his ace move. Kame had scolded him, citing that Kakashi not using his greatest weapons when things got rough was the height of folly – and yet he simply hadn't been able to.

But team Kame had understood. Each one of them had tried to help him, but Yugao had perhaps been the one who'd helped most. They had usually ended up as partners when pairs were required and she was the best at dodging. He had felt like him hitting her by accident would be really unlikely, and they'd practiced different scenarios until they'd gotten blue in the face. Yugao had been the one who'd realized that the Chidori's weak point was the wrist (after many times of dodging a very watered-down version) and they'd worked on eliminating that as well. They had even started working on trying to make it functional without the sharingan drainage, even though Kakashi had told Yugao time and time again that it wasn't possible, but she had insisted. In the end, their attempts hadn't panned out, but he had appreciated the effort regardless. She was a good friend. Killing her… no. That would have left scars. The thought that he might not even have found out what he'd done was even more chilling.

It would have been Rin all over again.

"Boss?" Pakkun's voice shook him out of it. "Boss, you're spacing out."

Taking a shuddering breath, Kakashi forcefully pushed those thoughts away. The last thing he needed at the moment was a mental breakdown. "Aaa," he replied faintly.

Pakkun nuzzled his leg, an uncharacteristic display. "Sorry for ruining your kill, boss. Thought we'd corralled them all, those water rats, but we missed one. 's on me, they were tricky buggers."

Kakashi exhaled. Right. Río herself had said she hadn't expected to survive either… in the end, he completely owed the 'happy' ending to his ninkens' slip up. He smiled faintly. One way or another, the pack never failed him.

"It's fine, Pakkun. I'm glad that the beaver escaped, actually. I didn't want to kill her."

The pug stared at him dubiously. "You… didn't?"

Kakashi was well aware how strange that sounded. "Maa, it's a long story."

Pakkun gave him a look. "You said you'd explain things when the fight was over, boss. Now it is. We're a team. Tell me what's going on."

"Ah, well…" Kakashi said uncomfortably. "Let's just say… do you remember my old teammate? Yugao?"

Pakkun was now looking at him as if he'd grown another head. "The not Yugao? The one who was a spy and left and you made us look for her every–"

"Yes, that one. Turns out, she was in the village all along. That was her…"

Pakkun did a double take. "That… blondie? What. You must be joking."

Kakashi shook his head blandly. "I wish I was. But it's her. I actually can't believe I didn't recognize her earlier."

"But I know Uzuki's sent!" Pakkun protested. "I woulda recognized her."

Kakashi sighed. "The last time you saw her she must've been fourteen… I think? Smells change a lot during adolescence, Pakkun." The ninken looked offended, so he quickly added: "not to mention, she'd likely been using some sort of scent-distorter, either now or back then. Or maybe both times…" Root was infamous for those. He should've known Yugao was a member of the foundation all along. It explained her ability to get away from the tracker squads… No one from ANBU had managed to figure out how Root agents could change and conceal their scents so well, even to this day, though in light of recent events, Kakashi was starting to think that the Charca guy was most likely behind that particular invention. Fuinjutsu was one of the only ways to fool a Hatake's nose, after all, as the smells behind a barrier wouldn't get through it. Charca must have adapted that… but Kakashi was getting side-tracked again.

"Say, Pakkun, can you pick up Tenzo's scent?" he questioned, in a rather obvious change of subject. "We are in the middle of an invasion, after all. No time for dilly dallying."

The ninken gave him a look. "Want me to locate her too? I've learned some tricks from the last time I met her, back when I was a pup."

Kakashi bit his lip. Pakkun knew him too well… but no. He'd already lost enough time and they were in the middle of an invasion. He might be needed. It was best if he didn't see Río again any time soon as, currently, he had the perfect excuse for failing his mission but seeing her anew would void it. Their reunion (for he intended to hunt her down one way or another) would have to wait until sandaime-sama had called Kakashi's mission off or stopped paying attention.

"No," Kakashi said. "Don't look for her…" For now. He stared expressionlessly at a special scroll, one designed to conserve smells. The scroll contained Río's mask, which she had left behind in her escape. With it, he should be able to find her later on… he hoped.

Pakkun nodded. "Got it, boss."

In another part of the village, Río had just managed to crawl out of a hole, courtesy of her mole-beaver Ritsu, hopefully having escaped Kakashi for good. Gah. That had been some fight. The invasion was only just beginning and she already felt drained…

"Heichou!" She noticed one of her guys sprinting over from across the street and repressed the urge to hide back in her hole. She really felt like crawling in there and dying for a little while. But alas, invasions wait for no one.

"Hi," she greeted, doing her best impression of nonchalance.

"Hi?" Yann repeated blankly. "That's all you're going to say? I've been looking everywhere for you!"

Río found it somewhat surprising that he hadn't managed to locate her when she hadn't moved from where they'd last seen each other, but assumed Kakashi must've done something. His genjutsu skills were no joke and she was privately very relieved that he hadn't used them on her because then she'd already be a goner. Wait a second. She nearly facepalmed at her own stupidity. Kakashi had known about her weakness for them back when she'd met him as Yugao. So of course now he would be aware of her absolute inability to deal with genjutsu… How could she have been such an idiot? She'd already managed to escape, so why did she have to run her mouth at the last second? If they met again, now he would be able to trounce her.

Great, Río. How many rookie mistakes are you going to make today?

"Heichou? Are you paying attention?"

"Ah, whoops? Sorry. But more importantly, did you get Sai and Hinata to Sana?"

"Yes," said Yann. "The antidote was provided and they're fine now. But where have you been? We waited for over twenty minutes at the northern corner for you."

Right. Best deflect, and fast.

"Awww, were you worried?" Río exclaimed, making her voice as annoying as possible.

" Heichou! "

"No need to be shy, Yann-chan."

"Heichou!" the poor guy sputtered. "There's a place and time for this!"

"But what would life be if one didn't stop to rejoice in its small pleasures? Mind you, few things are more satisfying than–"

"Heichou, will you please stop deflecting?"

Rio closed her mouth with resignation. "I wasn't deflecting…"

"Yeah, sure you weren't. What happened to you, heichou? You look like you've been rolling around in a washing machine and then belly-crawling through a trench."

"Yann. Couldn't you have phrased that a little more delicately? I've been trying to teach you about weird social norms for ages now. Inadvertently insulting people's appearance is pretty high up in the don'ts list of society."

"Hai, hai. Got it, stick my nose out of it."

"That's a good fellow! See, you do learn! Also, can you give me a status report?"

Yann rolled his eyes. Río did a mental fist pump. She privately counted each small display of emotion from the kids as a victory, even if it was a scowl or a rude gesture when pissed off; it was still much better than the alternative. This time, the feeling of success! was quickly replaced with stomach-turning stress, as Yann began to vomit out everything he knew of other Root agents, their current placements, casulaties and the general goings-on of the invasion. Apparently, the poor guy had been running all over the village looking for her (now she really did feel a little guilty), but the upside of that, as a consequence, Yann could give her a quick overview on most of what was happening in the different parts of Konoha. The situation was even worse than she'd feared, but what caught her attention about the report was what wasn't in it. Admittedly, she had her own reasons for paying special attention to the clan heads, but it didn't sit well with her that he hadn't mentioned a single one of them. They should be leading the charge; he should have seen more than one of them.

"What about the clan heads?" she queried cautiously. "Have any of them organized some sort of counter-attack?"

Yann paused. "The… clan heads? Were they supposed to? I just assumed they'd be in a protected location."

"You mean you haven't seen any?" Río asked sharply. "Not even the jonin commander – or the head of intelligence?"

"Well – no."

She inhaled. This… this wasn't good. She didn't know much about most of the clan heads, but she had spent a fair amount of time spying on a certain blonde (well, not really spying… she called it 'coincidental observation') and knew him well enough at this point to be certain of one thing: he would never crawl into some hole for protection whilst the invasion was raging on outside. Same for the other clan heads, she supposed, especially if they all disappeared at once.

Unless… Danzo was behind this? The old man had been planning on crawling into a hole somewhere, but why would he bother to invite the clan heads along? It made some sense to want to keep them safe, Río supposed, perhaps there was some tactical reasoning behind all this… she definitely wasn't as good at plotting as Danzo… but she felt like the elder would have probably mentioned a plan like that, if only to keep her from doing something rash to ruin it. No, she felt like something else was afoot here.

"Did Danzo say anything?" She fired her next question, half-hoping there was some obvious explanation to this.

"Danzo-sama?" Yann repeated slowly. "No… I haven't seen him." His eyes narrowed. "Why? I thought he'd hid?"

Welp. That was admittedly what the man had told them to expect, but… "Where was he last seen, do you know?"

Yann shook his head. Damn. She needed more information… Was Danzo with the other clan heads or not? She needed to know . Now she wished she'd kept more track of his actions, even though she'd been busy with a patrol… Wait a second. What if Danzo had gone to some last minute meeting? Her eyes widened. Yes, that had to be it! Two of her usual squad mates hadn't been assigned to her unit that evening, which was often the case when Danzo was attending a meeting… he liked to have those two on his protection detail because of their sensory skills. But what meeting? Was it with the council? Or the judge? With one of the factory owners? One of Konoha's weapon suppliers? …the War Council?

A chill went down her spine. It couldn't be, could it? War Council meetings were usually called in advance, and besides, she paid attention to the dates for those… but what if it had been? She started thinking furiously, Yann giving her a bewildered look as she began to pace. All of the clan heads belonged to the War Council. So did Danzo. And the hokage… all of the high-ups in one place. All of the higher ups which were now missing . The more she thought about it, the more sense it made. Such a meeting would be the perfect opportunity to spring a trap… it was what she would have done if she were an oto nin. But only the hokage could call those meetings… though Río could think of at least five ways to fake being him off the top of her head. And surely someone like Orochimaru would have been able to as well, especially since he knew the hokage personally.

She realized only a second later that she'd stopped pacing in order to stare wide-eyed in the direction of the tower. Could she make it? Was her hunch even correct? The tower was very far; if she was wrong, she'd waste time and resources going there. Damn, this was a hard call to make.

"Heichou? What's wrong?" Yann's concerned voice snapped her out of it. He was one of the Root guys who knew her best, and she wasn't even wearing the mask right now. She was proud to say he'd learned enough about body language over the years to be able to read her like a book now.

"Yann, assemble a squad," she said in a rush. "We're going to the tower."

There was an incredulous silence. "The tower , heichou? Are you sure? What for?"

Was she sure? Hell no. Río hesitated, quickly relaying her thoughts on the trap. She needed a second opinion. She was afraid she was being rash, as usual. Maybe that fight with Kakashi had shaken her more than she'd thought – it all depended on what Yann would think. Ultimately, she'd make the final decision, but Yann's oppinion would definitely factor into it.

"Heichou, are you sure? I mean, I could have just not seen the clan heads," Yann murmured. "I was running very quickly and looking for you specifically…"

"Yann, you're an observant guy. You have great memory. You just gave me a very detailed report on everything that was happening, don't you think you would have registered crossing paths on a clan head?"

"I… I don't know." Yann said, sounding torn. "I want to say I would have, but what if… what if… I could have missed something."

She bit her lip. Yann's confidence had always been low for someone in Root. She knew his uncertainty likely came from that rather than lacking observational skills.

"But Río-senpai…" The use of her old title made her pay more attention.

"Yes?"

"Don't you think this is… because of… you know?"

"No, I don't know," she said exasperatedly.

Yann took a deep breath. "Permission to speak freely?"

"Granted."

"Senpai, I really don't mean to pry, but… don't you think you might be… biased? Because of… who your father is?"

Her eyes widened. "How do you know about that?" she exclaimed.

"Many of us do. At least, those you hang out with most. We've all noticed how you spend time looking at the nermal citicens a lot. And it's okay! We understand. But we noticed that you… took a special interest in the Yamanaka clan… and three members specifically… it wasn't too hard to put two and to together."

Río felt like the breath had been knocked out of her. Root looked upon emotional displays with judgemental eyes. Yes, she had been trying to change that and some days she felt like she was making progress, but honestly? Many other days she felt like she was just wasting her time. That many of her kohai would have known about her escapades and said nothing… it meant something .

To be clear, Río didn't actually remember her family from Before. She had only realized who they were by coincidence. She still remembered the event like it was yesterday: herself, chained to a table, heartbeat frantic as she looked everywhere for an escape, then looking up and seeing him come into the room , and like a jolt of electricity, knowing immediately who he was. Her father. She couldn't explain how she'd known, whether there had been a breach in her sealed memories from her early childhood or it had just been some sort of stress-induced neurosis, or simply pure instinct, a part of her brain had just clicked.

And she had been right. The moment she'd returned to Konoha years later, finding him was the first thing she'd done. She had found out his name first: Inoichi Yamanaka, and it had felt right . Then she'd dug deeper and stumbled over the hushed up kidnappiung of his firstborn daughter, dates a perfect match to what she knew of herself and the gut feeling had turned into a conviction.

She had thought she was being discreet in "getting to know" her family, had done so in the only way that she could – by stalking them - but obviously not discreet enough. A part of her had known it, but she hadn't cared. She had wanted to see , to looke, to memorize – the sound of their laughter, the timbre of their voice - had wanted it so badly. But she had never dared go beyond that, the same way one doesn't touch a flame, no matter how inviting it looks; flames burn. And yet still she had hovered by the fire day in, day out.

One of the first things that had caught her attention about her family was how happy they were, how inherently good. The second was that every second day, her mother would leave the Yamanaka compound at dawn, trekking into the woods close by… Río had been curious and had followed her one day. Maybe she shouldn't have. She'd discovered her mother bringing flowers to her own grave – her grave – or Inoue's, she supposed – which was all kinds of fucked up… In fact, the shock had been so overwhelming that she'd forgotten to keep masking her chakra. She, an ANBU Root who had infiltrated almost every prison in Iwa, had made the most basic of mistakes, nearly getting caught by a chunin. By her mother.

What's more, the woman hadn't just sensed some presence – she had recognized it, had whispered her name into the dreary silence. How such a thing was possible Río couldn't fathom, but it had happened. Her mom had freaked out. She remembered listening helplessly to Chihiro's hysteric sobs as the woman kneeled in front of that grave calling for her child, muttering to herself, debating out loud whether she was going insane or not. A nervous breakdown.

She had felt so guilty. She remembered every fiber in her being screaming at her to jump down the damn tree and – and do something – anything – she didn't know what – but what most haunted her was how she… didn't. Hadn't. Couldn't. As much as a part of her may hate Root, it was also everything she knew. It gave her a purpose and a sense of balance, a routine. She knew she was fucked in the head, but at least everyone in Root was like her. She knew that things would just be terrible if she faced her family again. They mourned a pure, innocent girl. That girl was dead.

She remembered just crouching there, staring at her mother and feeling numb. She didn't remember returning to headquarters at all, but could recall the derisive look on Kintaro's face when he'd brushed past her in the hallway. He'd been staring at her cheeks. When she had ran her hand over them, it registered that she must have cried. "Water jutsu," she had said to him, voice dead. Ha. Water jutsu.

It was stupid to think that the others wouldn't have known, even though it had been many years since then, even though Río kept to herself sometimes and the guys never bothered her during those off days… it was an unspoken rule. She had thought they'd respected her privacy, but in retrospect, it was naive to think that they wouldn't have followed her or sent a summon to check on her. She wasn't sure what to feel.

"Río-senpai?" Yann's voice brought her back to reality. She had only unfocused for little less than a second, so the wave of feelings rising up within her could still be sqashed.

She coughed. "Right. Yes."

To detour to the Hokage Tower or not to detour, that was the question… knowing that Danzo would probably be safe… the man was very resourceful, after all, but that her father most likely wasn't. Yann had been asking her whether she might be biased. She searched within herself and knew the answer, knew that her father might be in there. In a trap. She gritted her teeth.

"Heichou? What do we do?" He had returned to calling her by her proper title. She understood. He would trust her judgement.

She swallowed, closing her eyes and breathing in deeply. She'd made her decission.

Hesitantly, Sakura glanced down the dark hallway. She almost wished Kaori hadn't left her alone… but no. She couldn't be selfish. Iruka-sensei's possible survival was riding on this. And so, resolute in her choice and yet half scared to death, she advanced farther into the building all on her own.

So far, so good , Sakura tried telling herself. However, her confidence didn't last for long. She felt her heart drop to her stomach once her limited sensing abilities informed her of an upcoming ambush.

Truth be told, that was a good thing as it gave her an advantage, but Sakura only felt terror. Apparently, two enemy chunin had heard the sounds of the previous fight and were now lying in wait. Luckily, thanks to having sensed them, Sakura had the chance to get the first hit in yet again. She was only beginning to realize now just how crucial that was. It was one thing to hear Iruka-sensei constantly blather on about 'the importance of the first blow' and a completely different one to live through it.

Now, thanks to that crucial advantage, one of the two sand chunin died by another kunai at the throat (a part of Sakura wondered distantly just when her aim had gotten that good) before he could even become a threat – but her luck ran out with the second one. In the time it had taken her to throw the kunai at the first guy, the second one had jumped out of his hiding spot. He closed in on her and swiped at her with a serrated dagger. Sakura dodged but he attacked again and so she ducked and weaved around his blows and he struck again and again, both with the kind of desperation that overrides logic. It suddenly dawned on her that this had turned into a taijutsu spar! Taijutsu, which she was absolutely pants at!

But somehow, Sakura realized with growing (and relieved) surprise, somehow she was managing. She hadn't been aware she'd improved this much, but boy was she glad for it!

Sakura was certain that if it hadn't been for Tetsuya's insane training… let's be honest, she wouldn't have stood a chance. As it was, while she was no learns-a-taijutsu-style-in-a-month type of prodigy, she was now used to a certain speed and intensity of attacks much greater than this chunin's. She was used to fighting on ten fronts at a time when she trained with the little Academy kids, used to practicing up to Tetsuya's insane standards for hours on end. This, in comparison, was manageable, if infinitely scarier.

Still, Sakura was used to operating under situations of extreme fear (courtesy of Orochimaru) and this one was no different. She dodged all the chunin's attacks successfully, surprising even herself, and suddenly, it was like all of her teachers' lectures coalesced into one moment.

Just like Iruka-sensei had always preached, after a bout of dodging, Sakura saw it: an opening. All of her senses honed in on it. 'Go for it!' they screamed.

Simultaneously, a part of her brain that was oddly reminiscent of Tetsuya cautioned her: 'is that really an opening? Or is it a trick?'

Sakura's eyes instinctively went to her opponent's and she could tell by the sharpness in them that it was the latter. In that split second she made the decision not to take the opening but instead pretended to, just like she had practiced on some of the Academy kids for shits and giggles. At the last possible second, Sakura dove below the chunin's guard, shifting her stance into a sweeping kick, which forced the chunin to dodge awkwardly.

Chunin or no, he had been too confident in his victory, too self-assured that his trick would work, and so his weight distribution was still off from earlier. And then, there, now there was an opening, as Iruka had said, but it was a true opening, one she had made herself, the way Tetsuya had taught her, the way Kakashi had preached would happen by looking underneath the underneath. And then, in the way she had learned by running from Orochimaru, Sakura pounced without hesitation, without second thoughts, and let her training take over.

The chunin went down.

The rest was comparatively easy. Sakura found another enemy nin in the gym, surrounded by sleeping children. Apparently this one had been busy maintaining the building-wide genjutsu, because she didn't hear Sakura's approach and was defeated easily with another kunai at the throat.

(Yes, her go-to method was a little gruesome, but it got the job done.)

What Sakura hadn't been counting on, however, was one last enemy that had apparently left to get something, having now come back to find his partner dead and an entire class of frightened little children waking up.

Not one to waste an opportunity, Sakura used his shock to her advantage and threw yet another kunai at the man's neck, but unfortunately he deflected, though he was clearly still off balance. More confident in her taijutsu now, Sakura rounded in on him and started her attack in a flurry of movements which, to be honest, were basically just a compounded mess of the kata Tetsuya had beat into her skull but at a frantic pace. The chunin was so stumped by this (apparently not expecting a pink-haired girl in a yukata to be a threat) that Sakura got the best of him before he could truly get serious. She had practiced all of these forms without weapons in her hands, and technically she had known what would happen if she was holding a kunai whilst executing the Tiger's Claw form… but somehow she was still… a little horrified at the result. Only a little though, because she was still alive and so were the children and, truth be told, Sakura had bigger problems at the moment.

She stared blankly as the chunin dropped dead on the ground. After a moment of feeling like this wasn't real, like she was in some sort of simulation, she had just killed a man – more than one – had just – had done that – had… – Sakura forcefully shook herself out of her reverie and turned back toward the kids.

"Is everyone okay?" she asked the room at large. She would think about it later; there was no time now.

Right on cue, as if suddenly unmuted, the entire room burst into noisy chaos. Some children began to wail, others to cheer and others yet settled for something somewhere in between. Sakura glanced around helplessly, honestly at a loss on what to do next, when she was suddenly tackled on all sides by them. There were crying kids. Everywhere. Hugging her leg, pawing at her yukata, gripping her hair…

"H-hey!" Sakura gasped. "I'm relieved too, but let me breathe!"

No one listened. Dimly, she wondered whether, after surviving her fights against the chunin – and had she really just downed five of them? – she'd meet her end at the hands of crying Academy kids. It would be just her luck. But then…

"Oi, leave her alone, you bunch'a morons!" a voice cried out among the many screeching ones. "OIIII! I'll use my gentle fist if you don't. step. aside. this. instant!"

Somehow, that actually worked and Sakura could suddenly breathe again. In front of her stood a glaring Hanabi, who had an odd expression on her face: she was breathing hard and her lower lip trembling.

"Uh… Hanabi?" Sakura asked with concern. "Are you al–"

Suddenly, Hanabi's tough facade dissolved completely, and she promptly exploded into a mess of sobs just like all the others. One second she was standing in front of Sakura and the next she'd jumped her, though thankfully none of the other kids followed. Sakura could only thank her lucky stars for all the dish-carrying she'd been doing lately because the kid was heavy. And, realizing only then how much she'd needed a hug as well, Sakura was soon squeezing the girl back just as desperately.

"Gods, that was scary," Hanabi whispered in her ear.

Sakura could only hum in agreement and grip harder. Yes, yes it had been.

"Not – not that I was scared!" Hanabi added in a watery way that wasn't all that convincing. "B-but… it's good that you came, B-bubblegum." She paused, appearing to have collected herself somewhat. "Since… since when did you get so strong, anyway?"

Another voice interrupted them:

"Did you seriously beat all of the bad guys on your own?"

And then, all of a sudden all the little kids began asking her questions in that vein without pause. It almost made her feel claustrophobic again.

Overwhelmed, Sakura set Hanabi back on the ground and was greeted by the stares of the entire class. Trying to pretend it didn't faze her, she glanced around and attempted to answer. "Well… I beat five of them," she said slowly. "Do you know if there were any more?"

The children exchanged wide-eyed glances.

"We only saw three," a little Nara boy offered after a fervent whispered discussion with his peers. "Those two, and one that went to the teacher's room, I think."

"And do you know where the other sensei are?" Sakura asked him.

"N-naomi-sensei g-got k-k-killed," a girl piped up. "They m-made us leave t-the y-yard after that and c-come h-here."

"I see," Sakura murmured, lowering her eyes.

From what Hinata had told her, it looked like only one class had come for the camping exercise. Three sensei was the standard protocol for those, which meant that all teachers were accounted for. That was bad. It meant that there wasn't anyone left who could take charge… Sakura frowned, recalling Iruka-sensei back in the yard. She really hoped he'd be okay.

"We should evacuate then," she forced herself to speak. "The hokage mountain should be–"

"I don't think that's a good idea," the Nara boy interrupted.

"And why not?" Sakura asked briskly, annoyed. She was in a hurry to check on her parents.

"I heard those guys," he pointed at the downed sound nin, "talking earlier. They said that their buddies were taking over the hokage mountain passages with all the civilians in them."

"Fuck," Sakura muttered, eyes wide, not even registering that she'd just sworn in front of a bunch of nine-year-olds.

The hokage mountain had been attacked? But that was the civilian evacuation site! If it got taken over… no. Her mind blanked as a sudden, horrifying thought struck her.

Mom. Dad.

Her parents were in there. Oh, shit, shit, shit…

What now?

"To think I'd be able to fight you again…" said Orochimaru, a dreamy look on his face.

"Hm." Hiruzen glanced around the room. "You must be happy. It looks like I won't be leaving so easily."

Orochimaru smirked. "Ha. Understatement of the century, old man. It would be easier for you to get out of here alive if you had sent your entire ANBU squad to get help… not just the one."

Hiruzen's eyes widened.

"Oh, yes, I know about your devious little ploy, sensei. Did you really think I wouldn't have taken that possibility into account?" Orochimaru laughed. "I hope you picked your least favorite, because the poor little messenger is long dead… you'll just have to pray that someone else comes knocking."

And with that, the fight began. Both shinobi leapt forth, each at the other, fingers weaving through seals at speeds unimaginable. Hiruzen finished his seals a beat faster, his ninjutsu turning the tiles in the ground into projectiles which shot toward Orochimaru at deadly speeds. However, the sannin dodged them easily, extending his enlarged tongue-turned snake in turn. The shock of such a disgusting attack took Hiruzen by surprise and the snake-tongue managed to seize his arm and coil around it tightly.

"Ha! Can't believe I caught you with such a weak technique…" Orochimaru spoke awkwardly, "…but it sucks to get out of, ne, Sarutobi-sensei?" With these words, he leapt at his former teacher, intending to deal a finishing blow, but by the time he'd landed upon him only mud was left.

A mud substitution?! Orochimaru thought. He'd never heard such a thing was possible. Where had the old man even gotten all that mud from?

But there was no time to ponder about logistics, as Hiruzen had reappeared behind him. Orochimaru could barely glimpse his fingers settling into the tiger seal. Uh-oh.

Next second, a gigantic river of mud was flowing down the side of the room, forcing Orochimaru (and all of the Suna and Oto nin) to scramble for cover.

Seriously, where does he keep getting all this mud? Orochimaru thought with bafflement. The brown substance was heavy and viscous, and clearly an element the hokage controlled to perfection. Well, it wasn't technically an element, but rather the combination of water and earth elementals… but wouldn't the combination of those two chakra natures create the mokuton? Orochimaru found himself pondering these scientific questions as he dodged a sneak attack initiated by Danzo. Ah, there he was. Apparently the councilman was still feeling rebellious… hmm. It was somewhat odd he hadn't bled out yet, but no matter. Orochimaru had taken out all of his main weapons, there was little to fear with regards to Danzo. He swiped lazily at the man, who retreated like a scared little bug, and then turned to examine the mud river currently attempting to drown him to death with clinical interest.

Water and earth, huh? What have you been up to, Sarutobi-sensei? Research for later though, he told himself. He was in the middle of a rather important fight… not to mention, if Sarutobi could control mud this well and the entire area was now covered in it, he would likely have the advantage of controlling the scenery.

Ah… smart old man.

But the hokage wasn't done yet. Parallel to his mud river technique, he began shooting fire out of his mouth like some Uchiha on steroids. He could do two elemental techniques at once? What? Different elemental techniques? Orochimaru felt his brow tick rather enviously. Ah, right… he had almost forgotten his former teacher's proficiency with every single elemental transformation… a mastery of all elements no one in history had equaled… not even Orochimaru himself, not yet . But using two different elements at once? That was new. Sensei must have been training…

The heat of a barely dodged fire-ball had hardened the mud he'd leapt to, effectively trapping him. Ah… so that was why he'd combined them. Sarutobi-sensei was always so very full of delightful surprises. Huh. Orochimaru was thus forced to think quickly in order to substitute with a lamp that had formerly decorated the ceiling and use a chakra-infused kunai to break the hardened muck around his limbs a split second later, so that he could perch upon the cable the lamp had previously been attached to. He surveyed the ravaged room curiously. How fun . It was all destroyed . Still… for all his sensei's amazing displays of proficiency… he hadn't used a single S-ranked jutsu yet.

"Incredible," Orochimaru commented, staring his teacher down from above, killing intent spiking. "I've been grossly… underestimated ."

"Hmp. As easily angered as usual," Hiruzen retorted, hands once more contorted into the tiger seal, prepared to attack at a moment's notice. "You were just as competitive as a student."

"Ah, but a high maintenance pupil is cute, isn't that right, Sarutobi-sensei?"

Hiruzen just gave him a hateful look.

Orochimaru smirked. "Isn't it about time we stopped playing around?" He didn't miss how every single onlooker tensed, most especially those trapped little clan heads. Ah, what fun. Yes, this was much better than fighting his sensei on a highly visible rooftop, as he'd originally planned. He had always wanted him to be humiliated, but this? In front of all the clan heads? It was glorious. "Remember, Sensei… this isn't an Academy class, so… I don't think anyone can punish me if I go a little overboard."

"Hm. You have a point," Hiruzen conceded. "I suppose sending you to stare at the corner won't do this time… will it?"

"Ah? Cocky, aren't you. I won't go easy on you just because you're doddering, you know?" Orochimaru warned, licking his lips.

"I look forward to it," said Hiruzen.

Orochimaru smirked bemusedly. "Then I suppose I will have to bring my A-game for this, ne?"

There was no answer. Hiruzen wasn't playing around anymore and quickly moved his hands into an array of seals. Immediately, a huge mass of large bunshin shuriken flew toward him, but Orochimaru wasn't playing around either.

By that point, he had also finished the handsigns for his own technique. Smirking cockily beneath his fringe, he whispered, "impure world reanimation: Edo Tensei ."

The bunshin shuriken flew harmlessly past him as Hiruzen, in his shock, lost control of the technique. For a moment, the hokage froze on the spot, staring wide-eyed at his erstwhile pupil. Behind Orochimaru, three wooden caskets had begun emerging from the trembling floor.

"NO!" Hiruzen exclaimed, forming handsigns again. The earth listened to his command and began to try and suck the caskets into itself – almost had them – but before he could succeed, Orochimaru flicked a shuriken at the cable of the other remaining lamp, which just so happened to be hanging above his head. Hiruzen was forced to dodge, putting a stop to the earth jutsu. All three caskets sprouted from the ground.

Orochimaru's grin was no longer concealed, every tooth on display. His edo tensei had been fully successful… yes. "Ahh," he said giddily. "I can see that you recognize my technique… my, my, how come, sensei? So naughty. I wonder what you will do now… you must know that only I can reverse it…"

Hiruzen didn't look like he was hearing a single word. His eyes were glued behind Orochimaru. Even Danzo was staring, face turned to stone. Orochimaru was amused by the expression on the elder's face.

Ah, looks like he is having a moment, he thought with a chuckle. A little odd that the man was still alive though… But there were more important matters to attend to.

One last hand-sign and the covers of the three caskets began to slip off. With three resounding clanks, the wooden lids hit the tiled floor, exposing three men within; their shoulders slumped, heads lowered, arms hanging limply at their sides.

The one in the middle was blonde and spiky-haired, with youthful features… ah, a nostalgic sight. The man who had stolen Orochimaru's rightful place as hokage. He delighted in submitting this particular one to his will.

The other two, however… the thought that he could force these two to submit was even more tantalizing.

On the right coffin stood a brunette with red armor and long hair, his build tall and imposing, his skin olive-colored, sun-kissed still – even in death. Hashirama Senju. The God of Shinobi. His kind face appeared deceptively non-threatening. Orochimaru knew better, of course. This was the founder of Konoha, the first hokage, defeater of Madara, the man who had single-handedly created the infamously huge forest Konoha was hidden in… a legend come alive.

Orochimaru watched his sensei's horror-struck, deadly pale face with glee, gobbling up the rare sight. "Well, well. Looks like we're having a little hokage get together, ne, sensei?" he cackled. "Such a shame that by the end of it, all participants will be dead!"

No one replied.

Both Hiruzen and Danzo's gazes were firmly riveted to the man on the very left – Orochimaru's personal favorite as well… he almost felt a little bad for reviving the creator of the edo tensei with his own technique, but he had known that this particular man would be the strongest blow to the over-emotional hokage's moral.

Sarutobi-sensei's esteemed sensei. How quaint…

He turned to examine him with interest. The occupant of the last coffin was as fair as the previous one had been tanned. Tall and imposing, angular face framed by the iconic happuri guard, lean figure clad in a battered blue armor. Ah, and there were the markings on his cheeks… just like those depicted on the hokage monument, though Orochimaru had never known them to be red… his eyes, too. Interesting. Paired with the white hair, he'd almost felt inclined to guess that the man had albinism…

His gaze settled on the ridiculous fur collar attached to the blue armor, making it look like the man's hair was a gigantic porcupine. Orochimaru was partial to abundant amounts of hair himself, but he liked it a little… neater.

Bemused, he watched the white-haired shinobi look around drowsily. Tobirama Senju, nidaime hokage… brother of Hashirama Senju. Orochimaru wondered what face he'd make once he realized he'd been revived with his own technique. According to Orochimaru's research, Tobirama Senju had come up with over three hundred jutsu during the course of the Second Shinobi War alone, maybe more. However, this knowledge was hard to come by as Konoha had attempted to cover up just how essential to the war effort the man had been, largely because enemy nations might have gotten unsavory ideas if they realized that the key to Fire Country's seemingly impossible victory was now gone… And while Orochimaru would have just loved to pick the nidaime's brain right then, humiliating sensei in front of his sensei came first.

"Ah, Tobirama-san?" he called out gleefully. "Would you be so kind as to set up some fuinjutsu barriers around this room? The strongest you have, if you please. You're welcome to come back and watch your brother kill your precious student when you're done."

Naruto and Sasuke were running like crazy people around the hospital. Or rather, Naruto's various clones were, as the real one was still facing the Gaara guy.

Gaara, the blonde knew, was stronger. Naruto wasn't an idiot (or at least not completely), he knew that if Sasuke-teme had freaked out over Gaara's chakra capacity, it must be for a reason. But what Sasuke didn't know was that Naruto had a lot more chakra than he looked like. The Pervy Sage had explained it to him; how he had a seal in his tummy that was tied to his chakra core, and that it not only contained the nine-tailed fox bastard, but also absorbed most of Naruto's chakra as an extra protection. When he was at full capacity, the seal was virtually unbreakable. Every time he used chakra, more of his own chakra would be leaked from the seal in order to enter his pathways, making it look like he hadn't wasted chakra at all. This was an advantage, because it made it look like Naruto had a lot less chakra than he actually did, so enemies who were sensors wouldn't immediately know he was the host of the kyubi or an Uzumaki.

"Yo, Gaara, guess what?" Naruto shouted. "Imma beat you right now!"

Meanwhile, Sasuke was rushing through the hospital and bursting into rooms in which he could sense stronger chakra signatures, trying to find any ninja or even strong civilians available. Unfortunately, it looked like every able-bodied ninja who had been within the hospital had already run off the fray, and he wanted to avoid involving civilians, if possible. That was when he felt a strong chakra signature right above him, a chakra signature that was calm, as though asleep, but definietly seemed to scream 'shinobi'.

Sasuke rushed up a flight of stairs toward it, so fast that he tripped and fell on the stairs, but he ignored the pain and kept going. They needed someone strong on their side; there was no way the dobe would last long against Gaara. Naruto's clones may be with him, but he knew that they could burst if the real Naruto was hit very hard. This would mean Sasuke would be left completely alone and defenceless. No, he couldn't chance it.

He sprinted the last few meters and crashed into the door of the room the shinobi was at. It was locked. Damn it all. Normally, Sasuke would have been able to break in with the aid of a basic lock-breaking tool, but without sight he would be troubled to find the lock, never mind open it.

"Screw it," he muttered, and formed the handsigns for a katon jutsu. Blind or not, a fireball was still a fireball. Next second he heard a loud crash and swearing, presumably the occupant of the room had awakened.

How someone could sleep through the invasion's comotion, Sasuke didn't know, but if he had to take a guess, it would be a Nara. At least he'd woken up when his door was broken down.

Sasuke had meant to ask, 'are you a ninja' but somehow, what came out was "Are you a Nara?"

The person inside was silent for a moment. "Seriously?" A squeak of bed frame, as though someone had sat up quickly. "How many times do I have to tell you people? My not having hair does not mean I'm not a Nara –! Wait. Who the hell are you? And how the hell did I get here? Is this the hospital?"

"You tell me," Sasuke snapped. "Now are you a ninja or not?"

"Gueez. Kids these days. Breaking down hospital doors like nobodie's business. Aren't you that Kakashi's brat? Uchiha-something? The one who helped the pink-haired… wait! THAT GIRL! I need to talk to her!"

"Can we do this later," Sasuke said irritatedly. "Wait. You're the guy who helped Sakura and I out, aren't you?"

"Why are you asking me? Have you seriously forgotten my handsome visage–"

"Because I'm blind, you idiot!" Sasuke hissed. "Can you not see I'm wearing a blindfold?" Then he remembered the genjutsu keyed to a fuinjutsu array Kakashi had added to his blindfold in order to make it look like he still had eyes when he channeled chakra into it and revised his opinion. At least Kakashi's invention worked.

"A blind Uchiha?" the guy cackled. "You're right, now that you mention it I can tell you're wearing a blindfold with a genjutsu over it. Aren't you a walking contradiction, kiddo?"

Sasuke was not amused. "That's Sasuke to you."

"Nara Akiha. I'd say I'm charmed, but then again, your fiery entrance interrupted my beauty sleep so maybe not."

Sasuke scoffed. Usually, he would have given the guy a glare and moved on with his life, but unfortunately his life might depend on getting along with this jerk.

"Yes, contradiction, whatever." He made an effort not to sound like he wanted to wring his neck.

"Don't sound so sad about it! I'm the black sheep of my clan too and I don't give a fuck, you know."

Just the fact that he seemed to fixate on that so much pointed toward the guy in fact giving a fuck, but Sasuke wasn't about to rain on his parade.

"That's great. Can we get a move on now?"

"What for? I mean… I do believe I've just woken up from a coma."

"Well… tough."

"Why? What's going on, anyway?" Why are people screaming outside?"

Oh, boy. How was he going to explain this to a comma patient?

More Than Enemies

As always, hoping you liked the chapter. This was mostly exposition, setting up what's comming next. And no, this is not the badass moment I was talking about in regards to Sakura, though it is pretty damn awesome. Also, you finally get to see the twist I'd planned for the hokage battle though. And boy, that is going to be SOME battle, especially if more people join the fray. *wink* *wink*br /

The main idea is that the canon divergence for Orochimaru being able to summon the three hokage instead of just two is that since this time it wasn't fought in a rooftop but rather in the conference room, Orochimaru was able to use the chandelier in order to stop Hiruzen from partially blocking the edo tensei. Also, most of you will know that Kishi originally meant for the 3rd to be the strongest hokage, but later on redconned it. In my story, I'm going to go with the second version. That means, if you want to prefer thinking of it as 'Orochimaru had more time to prepare and perfect the edo tensei jutsu this time around, since the exams were delayed' then go ahead, but the end result will be a much stronger Hashirama, Tobirama (and Minato!) than they were the first time Orochimaru used the edo tensei. AND! Minato will be getting developped! Yay for that.

Also, lastly, in case anyone's interested, the other reason why I haven't been writing much for this story is bc I've been hit like lightning by a stroke of inspiration for another fic and I am loving it so much... meaning about 70% my mental energies are devoted to that. I promise I won't discontinue this or anything, I love this fic, but yeah. The sixth shadow is top of my list right now. It's basically the retelling of a dystopic world in which Sakura eventually becomes sixth hokage and how it all gets to that point. The emotions described are much more complex and it's way less happy-lucky-go than this one, more realistic, as far as the Naruto world can be realistic. Itachi won't play such a large role in it, but Kakashi's still the 2nd most important character. (Though my take on him is rather different from this one.) Anyway, if you wanna check it out, go ahead! If not, no problem, I'm just informing you it's /

That said, I'm signing off. Later!