Sunday Release date! Brand new, no longer releasing on Wednesday in the middle of the morning! (Seriously, what was up with my upload schedule!?)

Anyways, without further ado, Dinklebeeeerrrg!

Chapter 78: Preparation

If Suigetsu was willing to be honest, which of course he was, because he had nothing better to be doing, then he'd sort of expected the Leaf to be a bit more… Intimidating?

Maybe that was the Hidden Mist rubbing off of him, but, well, he thought that was fair, given that the last time he'd been in the Hidden Mist itself, about a hundred thousand people (and that was lowballing it, really) had been trying to kill each other all at once. He'd sort of expected the other Hidden Villages to be…

Anything like it at all.

He'd been wrong. The Leaf couldn't have been further in tone from the Bloody Mist if it'd been actively trying.

No shops had been vandalized, or homes broken into, as he made his way through the rather crowded streets. Vendors that lined the roads he took called out greetings to him, wishing him well in the early morning sun. Even if he knew it was just a technique to try and get him to buy from their stalls, he couldn't get over how different the overall feeling was from how the vendors in the Mist hid whenever a ninja passed by.

Honestly, from their upbeat tones alone, on a normal day, he might have bought something from most of them. It was simply such a different feeling from his old Hidden Village (And from being an experiment of Orochimaru, for that matter) that he wanted to engross himself within it. Unfortunately, he actually did have somewhere to be.

He made his way to the Hokage's Office quickly, but not overly so. It wasn't like he needed to make a good first impression.

He'd sort of shot that in the foot already given his 'choice' of career.

He knocked on the door and was ushered inside by a fairly normal looking black-haired woman.

Knowing the Hokage was at least 50 years old didn't really do anything to downplay just how drop dead gorgeous she was, at least for Suigetsu. He got where that Jiraiya guy was coming from. He had only seen her on one other occasion, just after they'd got back from the Waterfall, and at that time his mind had been a bit on the fritz from everything that had happened over there. So, he hadn't really gotten the chance to drink in the woman's appearance.

…He realized he'd probably been supposed to speak, announce himself, or really just do something other than stare at the woman's cleavage about 5 seconds too late to save his dignity.

"Uhm… Yo." He shot finger guns at her, trying to meet her gaze past the horrid blush on his face. "Thanks for having me."

The Hokage looked unimpressed. Her attendant, who walked over to stand beside her, looked even less so.

Hell, even the woman's pet pig looked peeved.

"Sit down." Tsunade gestured for a chair that had been drawn up just in front of her desk. "We have much to discuss."

He did as commanded, really not wanting to anger the two women any more than he obviously already had. Let alone the pig, who was still giving him a side-eye.

Can pigs give side-eye's? He found himself inquiring to… Well, to himself. I mean… I guess I've seen weirder shit.

He resolved to not think too hard about the pig.

Most of the discussion was nothing too meaningful. How he'd been finding the village so far, if he were enjoying the various amenities he'd been given, that sort of stuff. The real questions came after the woman had exhausted all of the easy ones, and he gulped down on his nerves as she linked her hands in front of her face.

"So… The locations of Orochimaru's other bases… Will you tell them to us?"

He sighed as he rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, trying to stall for time as he thought of an answer.

"What you planning on doing to them?" He asked simply enough. "If it's just basic reconnaissance then I have no problem providing you with information… But if it's something more than that…"

Far from being in any way put off by his behavior, Tsunade actually smiled.

"If you're asking me whether or not I intend to hurt them, then rest assured we have no such plans. Honestly, as long as they don't go after civilians or ninjas of other nations, we have no problems with allowing them to continue to exist. It would be an awful lot of trouble trying to round up every single member of Orochimaru's gang, trouble our Leaf Village really can't afford with worldly circumstances as they are. We simply need to know where they are for security purposes, just in case something were to go wrong. surely you understand that, yes?"

He could, actually.

He let out a deep breath as some of his concerns washed away. Sure, the Hokage could be lying to him, but there was something about the expression on her face that told him that wasn't the case. She seemed too honest a person to lie for the sake of hurting others, or at least that was the feeling she gave off.

If he was mistaken… Well…

"Yeah, I think I can tell you guys, then." He looked into the woman's eyes with a small smile.

He supposed he'd owe Karin an apology.

About an hour later, having gone into the details of all the bases he knew, he sat back in his chair and allowed the Hokage some time to begin issuing orders to her attendant, telling her to start crafting up some missions to go investigate the many locations he'd told them about. Once the woman's attendant had left, she turned back to him, with a curious gleam in her eye.

"So, Suigetsu," The woman offered him a small glass of tea, which he took more out of formality than anything. "So far you've been a large help, and a surprising number of some of my more favorite ninja say that you're an awfully easy person to work with on the field."

He could see where this was going already, though he couldn't deny some small curiosity as to why it was happening.

"So, I was thinking…" Tsunade took a sip of tea, most likely for the purpose of keeping him on edge, hanging off her every word. "How would you like to act as a liaison for the Leaf Village and the Orochimaru remnants? Do well enough, and you might even earn a place in the village."

He pursed his lips at the woman's words, expected as they were.

"Seems an awfully easy thing to earn these days, Leaf citizenship." He spoke a bit suspiciously. "Lots of ninjas from all over have ended up calling the Leaf Village home."

Far from responding to his obvious suspicion, Tsunade instead gave a small laugh.

"Well, much like finding you, a certain trio of ninja are responsible for almost all of those 'new recruits' that have been joining the Leaf recently." There was a certain fondness in her eyes as she smiled over at him. "I think had anyone else brought you here, I would've questioned it more, but from those three? Well, so far almost all my bets on them have been a return on investment."

He wasn't going to lie… he had no idea what this lady was talking about.

He conveyed as much, which prompted Tsunade to laugh once more.

"That's fine, it's nothing you need worry about. So, would you like to work for us or not? The option is up to you."

Despite her overwhelmingly positive tone, he still couldn't quite help one last bit of suspicion.

"You seem… awfully chill about this whole potentially joining your village thing… like, do those 'three' just happen to bring back strange people with little to no warning a lot or something?"

At that, at least, Tsunade looked a bit exasperated.

"You'd…" She sighed horrendously.

"…Be surprised."

/-/

"-And so, Genjutsu, Ninjutsu, and Taijutsu all have their different usages and strengths. None truthfully counter any others, and masters of all three can be potent opponents, or allies, on the field of battle."

One of two young boy's in front of him raised a hand. In response, he nodded towards him, silently calling upon him to stand.

"Sasuke Sensei?" Konohamaru asked with a skeptical look on his face. "Did that come straight from out of the textbook or something?"

Sasuke looked away from them, trying to keep a deadpan expression on his face.

"I have no idea what you mean."

The four of them were sat in the middle of one of the Leaf's training grounds, and though he was supposed to be giving a lesson based on his own experiences with Genjutsu, Ninjutsu, and Taijutsu, he could admit he'd been phoning it in more than a little.

Ebisu had helped him through the beginning of the day, the man's skill with teaching a godsend to the horribly distracted Uchiha. Unfortunately, however, he'd had other business to attend to, and thus had left them around half an hour prior. Ever since, Sasuke had been struggling to hold the children's interest, and even more so, struggling to stop them from noticing that he wasn't very good at holding their interests today.

The last thing he needed was them asking questions about his personal life.

He tried to divert the conversation away from himself, but before he could, Moegi had raised her hand, her face set in a small pout. He called on her a bit tentatively.

"Yes, Moegi?"

The girl stood, her pout quickly morphing into a stern frown.

"Is there something you're not telling us, Sasuke sensei?"

Oh, good. He thought to himself sarcastically. Questions.

His eyes narrowed as he looked at each of them and saw similar expressions on all of their faces.

"What's this about?" He asked skeptically.

This time it was Udon who spoke.

"You just… look like you've been feeling down, and your energy hasn't really been there."

"Well, your energies never there," Konohamaru snorted, to his annoyance. "But you've had even less than normal these last couple days."

He shook his head.

"Those details aren't vital to your curriculum."

Konohamaru glared at him. "We already know you went to the Waterfall!"

He bit down on the inside of his cheek, trying to show as little information as possible on his face.

"And just how did you figure that out?"

"We asked those guys the gate-" Moegi lightly slapped Konohamaru's arm, and the boy seemed to realize they probably shouldn't be revealing their informant. "Er, I mean, it's a mystery!"

A half smile found its way onto his face at the disgruntled looks of Konohamaru's teammates.

"Yes… A mystery indeed."

Konohamaru shook his head, standing up and pointing right at his face.

"A-anyway! Just answer the question! What happened to you in the Waterfall!?"

He thought for a moment about how best to divert the conversation away from this topic, and just as he was about to try plan A, which he wasn't particularly confident in, someone gave a loud "Ahem" from the edge of their clearing.

All four of them turned to see a lone figure standing there, her usually drawn-up hair cascading down to the base of her neck, and with an apologetic look on her face.

"Er…" Tenten scratched the back of her neck awkwardly. "I'm interrupting something, aren't I?"

Konohamaru made to speak. "Yeah, you are, lady-!"

"No, you're not interrupting at all." He cut the boy off, eager to take the girl's arrival as an excuse not to talk about himself. "Was there something you needed?"

Tenten stalled there for a moment, twiddling her thumbs as she seemed to think of what to say.

"I was uhm… Speaking with Naruto last night… And actually, I'm realizing this is not the time for this, I'll be on my-"

He moved forward rather quickly, and grabbed onto the girls' wrist, stopping her in her tracks.

"Stick around for a second," He whispered. "I could use your help in avoiding their questions."

Tenten stared at him a bit judgmentally.

"That doesn't seem like the kind of thing a teacher should be saying." She deadpanned. "And besides, how exactly am I supposed to help?"

Sasuke couldn't come up with a quick answer. "…I'll think of something."

Tenten scowled this time, though he pointedly avoided her gaze.

"Fine, I'll stay."

He gave her a small, grateful nod.

The two of them turned back around to see his three students looking at them awfully suspiciously.

"What were the two of you talking about, Sasuke sensei?" Moegi asked. "Is she your girlfriend?"

Neither he nor Tenten blushed at that, which he felt was probably good, because none of them seemed to suspect them any further when both of them shook their heads 'no' at the same time.

"Tenten is just a friend."

Moegi clicked her tongue on the roof of her mouth. "Boring…"

Udon raised his hand politely. "Then, uhm… who is she, Sasuke sensei?"

Now wasn't that a good question, one that he probably should've had an answer for. They were staring at him awfully expectantly, which meant that his only real option was to make something up on the spot.

"She… will be my guest instructor for the day."

At that, the three kids looked actually interested, as if they hadn't considered that and were now thinking it wouldn't be so bad.

Tenten, however, was glaring at him rather annoyedly.

He mouthed a silent 'sorry' to the girl.

Instead of selling him out, like Sasuke had been pretty sure she was about to do, Tenten instead took a step forward, and, despite her rather unenthusiastic expression, seemed to be doing her best to look genuine.

"That's right. I'm a member Sasuke's class, my name is Tenten. I'm a Chuunin, so I'm a rank below your teacher."

"She's a Chuunin well on her way to becoming a Jonin," He propped her up slightly so the students would appreciate her a bit more. "So, she's about as qualified to teach you all as I am."

They seemed mildly impressed, even as Tenten let out a quiet "Not so sure about that" under her breath. He found himself frowning, just a bit of why Naruto had probably sent her here becoming clear.

Even still, that seemed a decent enough introduction to Sasuke. The rest could wait till later, and so, he took a step back to indicate to the students that if they had a question, they could ask it to her.

He was surprised when Moegi's hand was the first in the air. Tenten called on her after a small delay.

"What kind of Jutsu do you use, Miss?"

Tenten's eyes widened slightly, before she reached down to her waist and pulled off the massive scroll from her back.

"I use a variety of summoning Jutsus that conjure weapons. If you'd like, I could show you…?"

All three of Sasuke students nodded vehemently.

Tenten smiled at their enthusiasm, walking off with the three in tow, but Sasuke couldn't help but be stuck on one little problem…

How come they're never that excited when I'm trying to show them something?

/-/

When Naruto had returned to his room around noon, he had been unsurprised to find Tenten had already left.

Today was technically an off day for him, which meant he didn't have any missions to think about, nor things to go and do. Honestly, it was terribly boring, which was why he almost immediately set about working on cleaning up the space. His apartment wasn't exactly a mess, but at the same time it was better to tackle these smaller problems before they became larger ones. That was something he'd picked up from both Sasuke and Sakura the hard way, the two berating him every time they came over and saw his room a mess when he was younger.

Still, as he finished washing the dishes in his sink, and was just about to clean the table, he noticed the note he had written for Tenten the previous night had been moved there. Atop it was a pencil, indicating that it had probably been written in.

With a small smile on his face, he picked it up and flipped it open.

There were no changes to his original note, no, unfortunately, his embarrassingly bad writing was still there for all to see. But there was a small note left in the corner that seemed to have been made that morning.

It read:

'Thank you for your advice. I've decided to heed it and have gone to see Sasuke. I might stop by your place again someday, like you said. Thanks for treating me.' Underneath the words written next were the crossed-out shapes of 'I don't know if I deserved', and he found himself frowning at that. 'I really appreciate it.'

Tenten.'

He was still down about the crossed-out section, but otherwise felt rather satisfied with the work he'd done the previous night. He felt a bit bad for the girl, though, since today was one of the days where Sasuke was in charge of watching and training his Genin squad.

Unfortunately, he'd only remembered that after he'd written the note, and he'd long since left his house by then.

He scratched the side of his head, silently pondering if there was anything he could do about that, when a knock echoed out from his door.

He wondered briefly, as he made his way over, who it would be. It wouldn't make much sense for it to the anyone he hadn't seen recently, which really only left a few candidates. But judging by the incessantness of the knocks, he had a good feeling he knew who it was.

When he popped open the door and saw Jiraiya standing there, he wasn't the least bit surprised.

"Hey, kid." Jiraiya addressed him. "Sorry for dropping in on you like this… There was just something I thought you should hear."

Naruto stared at the man momentarily. "Didn't you say the exact same thing last time you came by?"

Jiraiya seemed to think about that for a moment.

"You might be right."

He shook his head. "Anyways… What'd you want to say?"

Jiraiya gestured behind him with his thumb.

"I was thinking we could do a more… walk and talk sort of thing." He seemed almost awkward. "Kind of wanted to talk about your folks… As well as a few other things."

"A few other things?"

"Yeah…" His expression seemed strained. "C'mon," he walked back into the apartments hallway, gesturing for him to follow.

"I'll explain on the way"

/-/

It was a while later when Sasuke had finally managed to shake off his three students for the day.

Now, alone in the clearing apart from Tenten, he was finally ready to hear whatever the girl had come for in the first place. He asked as much and received a small bit of hesitancy from his substitute teacher for the day.

"Ah… How best to explain it…?" Tenten seemed torn. "I guess… I should just tell you what happened last night."

The girl did so, and though her story took only around 5 minutes to tell, by the end of it his eyebrows were awfully high on his head.

"Naruto… Let you use his bed?"

For the second time that day, Tenten glared at him annoyedly. "I tell you that whole story, and that's the thing you focus on?"

"Er, right." He shook his head. "So… Naruto told you in that note to come talk to me?"

She nodded.

He wouldn't deny being a bit suspicious of the boys motives. Sure, sending Tenten to him was certainly one of the better things the boy could do for her, but at the same time, talking about what that happened to him when he was younger would be a good way of working out his current feelings for his brother…

He swore as he realized once more, for about the thousandth time, just how damned perceptive Naruto could be when he tried.

By sending Tenten to him, Naruto wouldn't just be helping to heal the girls psyche, but also letting him deal with the problems that were swirling around in his own head.

He sighed and looked up at Tenten, giving the smallest of smiles as he gestured for her to follow behind him.

"Where are we going?" She asked him.

He let out a quiet laugh.

"To talk over some ramen." He said to her rather amusedly.

"Just felt appropriate."

/-/

"You're my godfather!?"

Jiraiya nodded a bit guiltily, hanging his head ever so slightly as the two of them snaked their way through the Leaf Village.

"I am. Never been much good at it, but… yeah."

Naruto stared at him. "If you're my godfather, then why did you never show up when I was a kid? I was lonely, you know, really could've used a parental figure in my life."

He hadn't thought it possible for Jiraiya to look even more guilty than he had the moment prior, but the expression that passed over the man's visage had Naruto feeling more than a little bad about the things he said.

"Sorry, kid. I should've been there for you… But instead of doing that… I chased Orochimaru halfway across the earth trying to bring him back to the Leaf. That… ended up being a rather fruitless endeavor, and I wasted a hell of a lot of the prime of my life in doing it. More than that, I wasted time I could've spent with my godson… should've spent."

Naruto couldn't really imagine what that was like, having a friend abandon him and having to chase them for years to try and win back their favor.

It sounded terrible.

"But, enough about that." Jiraiya shook his head. "I came here to tell you something a little more important than that. About the leader of the Akatsuki, Pain. About whom he really is."

He nodded, remembering back to the two's conversation in the forests just beyond the Leaf Village three years prior.

"You… Knew him, right?" Naruto asked. "I don't really remember much other than that."

Jiraiya laughed a bit depressively. "Funny… I can play that entire conversation in my head as if I'm right there hearing it."

Naruto hesitated for a moment, before shaking his head and looking back up at his master.

"So… How did you know them?"

They walked for quite a while as Jiraiya seemed to think of the way he wanted to answer that question. He apparently settled on something a good five or so minutes later.

"You've probably heard about the Second Shinobi World War in your classes when you were younger, right?" At his nod, Jiraiya continued. "Well, I was one of the people on the front lines of the war, fighting in the rain village to try and bring peace, or at least that's what I thought at the time. In truth, there were several extenuating factors that had driven most of the major nations to war, not the least of which was overpopulation, an epidemic that threatened to starve the villages. In an effort to assuage this, they waged a terrible conflict on one another, and the Village Hidden in the Rain ended up as the battleground for it."

Hearing his master, normally such a fun loving and goofy person, speak so seriously about… Anything made everything out of the man's mouth feel that much more real.

"While that was all going on, a young kid named Nagato had his family killed in front of him by a couple of Leaf Shinobi. At that, at seeing his family so brutally slaughtered in front of him, he awakened to an ancient and fearsome power. He awakened the power of the Rinnegan."

Naruto stilled for a moment as a few of his memories from that harrowing conversation back in the forests of the leaf came to him.

"But… Didn't you call the guy in the forest, er, Pain, Yahiko?"

Jiraiya stiffened momentarily, as if briefly remembering that himself.

"I did. The man wasn't Nagato, but Yahiko, one of his closest friends, alongside Konan. He said that Nagato… died." The pain in the man's eyes was obvious, but he sighed and soldiered onwards. "As you may have already noticed, they're both members of the Akatsuki. However, I recently stumbled upon some information that doesn't just link them to the Akatsuki, but the creation of the organization."

Naruto's eyes widened.

"That means…"

"Yeah…" Jiraiya sighed. "It's likely those three were its founders; the leaders of the Akatsuki."

Naruto nodded blankly. He might not have any connection to the people Jiraiya was talking about, but he could see, plain as day, the pain etched onto the older man's features.

This was hugely personal.

"Well, if that's the case… What do you plan on doing once you see them again?"

Jiraiya laughed. "Leave it to you ask the tough questions, huh?" He shook his head "But if you must know, I'm not quite sure. I think… I think all I'd really want to do is talk with them. I thought they'd died, to find out they were still alive, even as members of the Akatsuki, felt like a blessing, like something was finally coming up me, you know?"

Naruto laughed at that.

"I get that."

"So, anyways, yeah," Jiraiya looked to him. "At the moment, I'm not even sure I could raise my fist to strike them…" He paused for a second. "Well, I probably could, but I wouldn't like it."

Naruto nodded, understanding that well enough.

"So… How strong are those guys?" He asked his master.

Jiraiya hummed, seeming to think about that. "If you want my honest opinion… At this point? Both of them might even be stronger than me."

That sent a small shiver down Naruto's spine.

They walked for a while after that in complete silence. He was too deep in thought to really do anything else. The idea that the leaders of the Akatsuki were such powerful opponents that not even Jiraiya was sure he could match them… If that was the case, then what did he have that could possibly work against them?

If he was planning on rescuing Sakura, which he was, then he was going to need to be able to face opponents at their level. He was going to need to be able to beat opponents at their level. With Sage Mode, he'd been able to soundly defeat Deidara with a bit of strategy and set-up time, and, well…

He found that was where his hope lied.

"Oi, Toad Guy," He turned to the man suddenly, ignoring his words of "oh, wow, so you can learn things". "I need you to talk with Fukasaku and the others from the mountain again. I need them to help me finish my sage mode training."

Jiraiya seemed momentarily stunned, before shaking his head.

"I'm afraid you wouldn't have the time to. Tsunade's gonna' need you and Sasuke for a pretty important mission in about a week if all goes to plan. We can't have you out of the village for a month or two, I'm afraid."

Naruto shook his head, unwilling to compromise on this. "Then I'll learn it in a week."

Jiraiya's eyes widened at his words.

"Naruto… You…"

"I refuse to just sit around and wait for whatever missions coming up. I want to be useful in the fight against the Akatsuki. And If I'm going to be useful in that fight, that means that I'm going to need to have this ability mastered by then. Not just being able to use it for a couple seconds, but truly exercising it in combat."

He looked up at Jiraiya, any semblance of his joking self entirely gone.

"Please, contact those guys and let me train with them. I'll finish my training, I promise. Not just for myself… but for Sakura, and Sasuke, and Tenten, and Fu, and everyone who's counting on me! I'll master Sage Mode!"

Jiraiya's eyes were still wide after he finished speaking, but there was an expression on his face that Naruto didn't quite recognize.

It looked an awful lot like pride.

"Alright, kid…" He closed his eyes and shook his head side to side as he smiled. "I'll send a missive, should get one back by the end of the night. Now there's no guarantees they'll say yes, but-"

A surge of elation shot through him, and he pumped both his fists with a quiet affirmation.

"Thanks, Pervy Sage!" He shouted to the man, before realizing something and swearing under his breath. "Ah, crap! I have to pack and stuff for the other side! Even if eating bugs isn't all that bad – I mean, bugs are terrible, who would want to eat bugs!?"

Jiraiya's smile had a certain softness to it that he'd not seen before, even despite him having cut the man off.

"Anyways, I'll see you later, master!" he waved as he ran back to his apartment to gather the things he'd need.

"I won't disappoint you!"

/-/

Jiraiya watched him go with a fond smile. Even as the boy, cresting along the edge of becoming a man, disappeared into the evening rush of the Leaf Village, the expression on his face didn't dim.

"Heh…" he laughed once more as he wiped away a tiny wetness beside his eye.

"I know you won't, kid."

/-/

Sakura awoke in the middle of the night to the sound of her cell door opening.

She was fairly sure whoever had come to retrieve her had done so while she was asleep so that she would be too groggy to plot an escape plan. It worked, as she was, having awoken quite literally ten seconds prior, in no shape to resist as they bound her hands.

They hauled her up, and by that point she was awake enough to be conscious of just where she was. Sure, it wasn't like she could really be fleeing on her own, but information on the layout of whenever base she was currently being held in was still vital to her hopes of an eventual escape.

"In some time, once Obito, Black Zetsu, and the rest of the Akatsuki finally figure out that we've betrayed them… I want you to escape here with us."

Not for the first time since she'd heard those words was she once again thrown for a loop by them. Itachi Uchiha himself had said them to her. The man who'd murdered his entire Clan, the man who tortured Sasuke for days on end in his own head… Had offered her the chance to escape with him and his allies, hell, the fact that he was plotting an escape at all was mind-bending.

The very thought of it seemed preposterous, as if the world had, for a moment, broken entirely.

And yet… Despite not being the most perceptive person in the world, she hadn't detected any sort of deceit. His eyes had seemed so… Honest, shockingly so.

She shook her head. There would be better times to think about it than while being dragged down a corridor she was supposed to be paying attention to.

She studied the different halls they took her down as best she could, and by the time they arrived at their destination, she felt she had a decent mental map of the route.

Unfortunately, her thoughts were torn asunder by a figure she had definitely not wanted to see.

"How nice of you to join us…" Said another figure from the corner of the room. "Sakura Haruno."

She turned to see Tobi leaning against the back wall, looking utterly at ease. Even with her putting on her best glare, he did nothing more than laugh at her.

"What, does the puppy have teeth?"

She scowled, even as she turned back towards the figure she dreaded seeing.

Despite his usual sadistic attitude, the only thing on Kabuto's face was a silent apology.

"I hear you're rather used to being experimented upon, Miss Haruno. So, I shouldn't have to explain much of this to you." Tobi stepped off the back wall, striding forward confidently. "We'll be doing some light research on your Curse Mark. Nothing too worrisome, I assure you."

Sakura scoffed. "Ah, yes, because I totally believe you."

Tobi waved his hand, as if dismissing her words.

"Feel free to believe or disbelieve, it matters not to us. These experiments will be preparation for a more… major operation in around a week's time. Kabuto here will be doing the honors." He gestured at the man. "Do have fun, you two. Don't get up to anything untoward while I'm gone."

And then, rather casually, Tobi fell through the floor.

Both she and Kabuto seemed to hesitate for a moment. There were still guards outside the room, including one of the people who had dragged her here, so it wasn't like she could think much of escape. Still though, being in a room with the man who'd experimented on her years ago had her feeling more than a little uncomfortable.

However, as if to subvert her expectations further, Kabuto rubbed his hand on the back of his neck, sighing exhaustively.

"Y'know, they woke me up for this, too." He let out an aching yawn. "Sorry about all of this. They're not exactly give me a choice in the matter here."

She stuttered in the entrance for a moment, still unsure if she really wanted to step inside. This could all still be a trick. And yet…

It didn't much feel like one.

Sakura eyed Kabuto suspiciously as she made her way to the operating table in the center of the room. She sat upon it without breaking eye contact with the man hovering above her.

"What happened to you?" she asked when she could no longer hold herself back. "Last time I saw you, you were a sadistic piece of shit. You've… I hesitate to use the word 'changed', but it certainly seems like you have."

Kabuto gave an almost silent laugh, just a hint of breath out of his nostrils, as he gestured for her to sit up. She did so without any fight, the whole experience feeling entirely different from the last time he'd performed an operation upon her. Back then, he'd experimented upon her with reckless abandon, and locked her inside a wicker basket filled with miasma and death, half expecting her to die herself. Now… Now he was being awfully gentle as he prodded a small, rounded object against her curse mark, taking great pains to make sure he didn't hurt her in any way.

"I guess…" Kabuto sighed. "I realized I was trying to find myself. I was trying to find a path that I felt would truly belong to me. And now… Now I think I finally have. I know that doesn't excuse how I behaved towards the three of you… But it's the only answer I have. This… This is the only path I can take where I feel like I could look my mother in the eye at the very end, and not feel ashamed of the actions I took to get there."

Sakura's eyes widened, and she zoned out as he continued to poke and prod at her seal. Despite what should have been a painful maneuver, had been painful three years prior, the contact causes only a mild discomfort. It probably also helped that she was a bit lost in thought as he kept working.

Kabuto's words had been… Strangely profound.

"That's…" It was a bit funny that then, faced with someone who had done her wrong on numerous occasions, an apology was all it took to have her simply let it all go. Well, most of her. An odd sort of feeling emanated from her curse mark, but she did her best to ignore it.

Either way, she let out a small breath as the corners of her mouth upturned.

"Good to hear."

End Chapter 78

Yo!

I wish I had anything to say. I do not, however.

Alright, next chapter comes out in two weeks, so next-next Sunday. All uploads (theoretically) should theoretically be on Sundays from now on, but we'll see.

Anyways, see you all then!