Note: Sometimes I wish I could share all my chapter notes, but then y'all'd know [REDACTED] happens to [REDACTED] and [REDACTED] when [REDACTED] and we can't have that just yet

Anywho—

Stuff happens and I still really do love Mikoto

Deep down, Sakura understood that she wasn't back there, in her tent with Shizune kneeling over her sobbing form. She understood, but the human mind is a funny thing, and what one understood almost never reflected perfectly into their actions, which is why, when an unfamiliar, heavily calloused hand reached out for her shoulder, her instincts jumped into overdrive, and she reached for her chakra, throwing the arm and the person attached to it far to her left.

Dry tear tracks pulled at her eyelids as she tried to pull them open to glance around her room and protect herself from whoever was there. She met the dark eyes of someone crouched beside the wall, and, as soon as she had a weapon raised, held defensively in front of her, it moved towards the light that came in through the window, and in doing so, closer towards her. She didn't see his face before the weapon flew, narrowly missing the figure as he dodged right and grasped her hands. She looked down towards her feet, searching the floor for something to get her out of his grasp.

"Hey." He said, and Sakura flicked her gaze towards his face. There was a Konoha headband on his forehead. She blinked once, twice, and three times, taking in her surroundings fully. The boy leaned back ever so slightly, keeping his grip on her hands as he shifted back and gave her a bit of breathing room. "You back?"

She bit her lip, cursing her brain for making her remember before nodding, pulling her arms back towards herself as Shisui released her hands."Yeah, sorry."

"Don't worry, it's alright!" He grinned, wiping off his shoulder dramatically. "Nothing I couldn't handle. But still" His face grew more serious as he regarded her. "What's with attacking people when you wake up? You're supposed to be my cousin's cute friend and training partner, and yet, you know things an academy kid shouldn't. Prodigy or not." Within seconds she was back in his grasp, and his sharingan was blazing red. "Who are you, Haruno Sakura? Who sent you?"

Sakura felt the whispers of a genjutsu lay itself upon her mind as soon as he had begun talking. 'Tell him.' It called. 'Tell him who you are. The truth. It'll be fine.' And, with her mental defenses still weakened by the dream and emotions that flowed with it, she did just that.

Sakura stared at the pillow directly to the right all throughout the story she told. She started it off with her name, rank, and registration number, then dove into an almost mission report style retelling of her life. When she did glance up at Shisui, she would flinch and look away just as quickly. He sat for a good hour, watching her face for tells that might betray it all as a mass lie, but there were none. It was only when he heard the tell tale sounds of someone else waking up did he deactivate Sharingan and blink.

He watched as Sakura practically threw off the remaining effects of the genjutsu and turned her attention towards him, before throwing herself onto the bed again and covering her head with a pillow. He thought he heard a muffled 'fucking headache' as he rushed out the window to avoid his cousin, who was making his way towards the guest room, but he was already too busy processing the information he had just gotten to even think about it. That, and the single thought of 'I need some goddamn eye drops.'

Itachi knocked on the guest room door quietly, hoping Sasuke didn't wake from the noise. There was still a few hours until his mother woke up, and with Sakura spending the night here, he could take her to his early morning training and they could work on their skills some more before breakfast. When there was no response, he prayed it meant she was asleep and pried open the door. The hall light flooded the room and Sakura groaned and pressed the pillow further onto her head.

"Turn the damn light off." She grumbled, and Itachi quickly stepped in and shut the door. Her grip on the pillow loosened and she sighed. "What's up, Itachi?"

"Do you want to go train with me?"

"No." Sakura said, before quickly adding, "I have a stupid headache right now." And, as if almost sensing the beginning of a pout, "Maybe later though. Wake me for breakfast?"

He nodded, hand halfway on the door handle again before remembering her face was currently pressed into a pillow and could not see him. "Alright."

Despite the way her arms ached, and the way her legs screamed, Mikoto was refreshed. In a split second decision before she fell asleep, she had decided to get back into training -when the others couldn't see her, of course- and to her, it was freedom all over again. She had left in the early morning, when everyone in the house had still been asleep. It was the optimal time for training, in her opinion. The only people that would be awake to see her would be the night patrol chunin, the drunk stumbling from bars, and the women of the red light district, and she knew none of them would care much of her as she made her way to the training grounds she had frequented in her active duty days.

It was there she reviewed the basics, from academy taught ones, to the ones taught solely to the children of the Uchiha clan. She had started from the bottom and worked to the top to get her position, so that's what she was going to do to regain her power, she had decided. That, and there really was no way you could go wrong with practicing chakra control over and over again.

Only when the sky brightened from the oncoming day did she call it quits and make her way back home, passing through the awakening Konoha. Chunin raced on the rooftops to trade places with the night patrol, and Jonin made their way to the missions office, leaping above where Mikoto walked among the opening shops. She froze, her muscles twitching in protest, at the sight of familiar black hair exiting a dango shop with a bag.

She quickly dashed to an alley, praying she'd be fine as she lept to the roof top. To her credit, she barely slipped before stabilizing herself. She raced to the other side of the roof and jumped, her few seconds of panic replaced with an 'I can do this, damn it' as she landed with a soft thud and raced off once again.

It was little short of a miracle that her husband was still asleep when she arrived home. She rushed to her room and grasped the nearest dress in her closet, barely managing to close the bathroom door before the front door was opened by Itachi. She threw off her training clothes and tossed them into the hamper before twisting on the water for a quick shower.

Itachi was sitting in the living room, eating a stick of dango when she returned downstairs.

"Good morning, mother."

"Good morning Itachi! Out training again this morning?"

He nodded, closing his eyes and taking another bite of his treat.

"And is that a good reason as to why you're ruining your breakfast by eating dango?" Itachi froze, the sickly sweet voice of his mother holding a threat high above him. He turned towards her, hoping something would save him from his mother's wrath.

"Good morning."

Sakura walked into the room, and Mikoto turned to smile at her. "Good morning Sakura! You're right on time, I was just about to get breakfast started!"

Note: Aight so I included Mikoto because I love her and technically Sakura is staying at her house so why not. So yeah. Shisui knows. Don't like that? Tough luck sugar, do you even understand how hard it is to keep a secret under a genjutsu that compels those placed under it to do the user's biding, in this case, to tell the truth. Also, his method may seem a bit crude, but with all the info he's been gathering on Sakura, and the final bit from her parents, and the fact that she threw him into the wall, I think it was definitely in his rights to do what he thought would be best for the safety of his cousin.

Also Headaches Suck.

Rest In Peace Sakura Haruno. The Medic Nin Who Died Of A Genjutsu Induced Headache.