When Lee arrived at the door of the Hokage's office, he paused for a minute with his fist in the air, ready to knock.

Was he doing the right thing? He had been completely drunk last night. His senses could not be trusted. Maybe what he saw had just been a figment of his imagination. After all, Uchiha Sasuke left so many years ago and had not been heard of since. What would cause him to return all of a sudden? And what would he be doing at Sakura's apartment? He refused to believe that Sakura would voluntarily provide refuge for an S-class criminal. And if Lee had indeed met the Sharingan, why was he still alive? It just didn't add up.

Yet...his instincts told him there was something amiss. Lee knocked on the door before he could change his mind.

"Come in."

Lee's eyes fell on the familiar sight of Tsunade-sama sitting behind her desk with piles of paperwork. She looked up at her visitor and paused her writing.

"Lee-kun."

"Ohayo, Tsunade-sama," he said with a bow.

"What brings you here? Eager for another mission right after the festival?" Tsunade gave Lee a slight smile, but he didn't return it.

"You know me well, Hokage-sama. At least...that was my intention first thing in the morning," Lee said with his head lowered.

Tsunade paused and noticed his apprehension for the first time. This wasn't the confident, good-natured shinobi she knew. She was curious to know what had caused this dramatic change in him. After some time, she spoke again.

"Lee-kun," she said firmly.

Lee looked up at her and met her discerning brown eyes.

"Tell me why you came here."

Lee sighed and focused on a painting on the wall.

"Lee-kun, I'm very busy today," she said with controlled patience.

Lee remained silent for a moment, debating again whether or not to tell her. However, he had come this far and no matter what his head told him, in his heart he was somehow convinced that he was right.

"It's Sakura-san...I think she's in trouble."

Tsunade was not unaware of Lee's affection for Sakura. Not that she particularly cared about the complicated love lives of her shinobi subordinates, but some facts were hard to ignore. Yet, she could not recall a time when he had come to her regarding Sakura's safety, especially when she was alive and well in the village.

"What do you mean? There haven't been any missions in the past few days."

"It is not that, Hokage-sama. I think...she might be in danger."

"I saw her just today shopping on the street. She didn't seem any different."

Lee felt a surge of desire to justify his concern. He looked at the puzzled expression on the Hokage's face. "I went to her apartment last night and...although I don't remember exactly what happened, I recall sensing some evil chakra close by. It wasn't normal, I know it didn't belong to any present Kohona shinobi...I'm not certain...but..."

"Yes?"

Lee stammered, "It might have been...I was opening one of her doors...and then I saw...I saw..." His voice drifted off.

"What did you see?" Tsunade pressed.

"I saw...those eyes."

He grabbed his shoulder instinctively. Though he had changed his shirt, he recalled the curious rip he found there this morning. It had provoked him to recollect some foggy images.

"Eyes?"

Lee swallowed hard and averted her gaze.

Tsunade read his body language and noted that whatever it was, it had to be something bad to make Lee so uncharacteristically distracted.

"What eyes?" she asked sternly.

Tsunade was beginning to form an idea about where this was all going, but she hoped with every fiber of her being that she was wrong. The special eyes he was talking about must be a bloodlimit. Those with bloodlimits in their eyes were always powerful ninjas. She knew the Hyuuga clan well and never sensed evil chakra when she was around them. Unless she was mistaken, that only left...

Sakura, what have you been hiding from me? Tsunade thought as she closed her eyes.

Lee took a deep breath and looked down again. He whispered, "Sharingan."

Tsunade had put the pieces together already. For a second, she almost wished Lee was talking about Uchiha Itachi, but she knew he wasn't. If this had anything to do with Sakura, it was about the younger brother.

She recalled the ANBU mission report stating that they had hit him with a strychnine coated needle. Was that a mistake? No...if he was here in Konoha and had not attacked yet, he must have come for the antidote.

There was only one way he could sneak into Konoha unnoticed, and that was during the festival. There was only one way he could survive even with the antidote, and that was with Sakura's help. This situation was going to be difficult.

Tsunade looked back at the shinobi who had reported the news. Lee looked devastated and guilty.

"Lee-kun, you did the right thing," she said in the calmest voice she could. Inside, a thousand thoughts were running through her mind.

"Tsunade-sama...I...I'm not completely sure...it's just a feeling I have..."

"You did the right thing in telling me, Lee-kun. I'll have to verify some things first, but I'll let you know what I find," she said steadily.

"Tsunade-sama..." Lee hung his head.

"I don't want you to meet with Sakura for the rest of the day. Also don't alarm anyone else; just leave it up to me. And come to my office tomorrow morning at 7:00 sharp."

She stood up and walked over to where he was standing.

"I have matters to attend to now, so I must ask you to leave," she said quietly.

Lee gave a sudden, low bow and quickly exited the office.

When he left, Tsunade heaved a deep sigh. There was no time to waste—her other paperwork would have to wait. She had to understand the situation before making any decisions. She would have approach this systematically.

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First, Tsunade descended the stairs that led to the basement. The jounin guard bowed and stepped out of the way as Tsunade quickly pushed the code to open the door. She made her way to the aisle where the strychnine antidote was located, praying that it was still there. However, when she reached the place where it was supposed to be, she noticed with a surge of anger that it was missing. Tsunade looked carefully, making sure she was not hallucinating. Sure enough, the bottle was nowhere in sight. She controlled an impulse to knock down the entire aisle and punch the wall with her fist. When she checked the inventory later, she also noticed the number of bandages, blood-clotting pills, and pain medication did not match the record either.

Tsunade then went to a chart and looked up the jounin guard on duty the night of the festival. Later that day, she proceeded to interrogate him. He did not seem to remember much about that night, but he had noted a flash of some sort and woken up a few hours later on the floor of the basement. He reluctantly admitted to the Hokage that he had had a few celebratory drinks before his shift and thought he had passed out.

When Tsunade returned to her office in the afternoon, there was no doubt in her mind that an injured Uchiha Sasuke was in Konoha and staying at Sakura's apartment. Based on the nature of his injury and the time that has passed, she guessed he would at most be at 50 of his full strength tomorrow. He could not leave before then—Sakura would not be done with her healing sessions.

Now she had to decide what to do with this situation. She debated whether or not to send Sasuke's old classmates to capture him. It may be an emotional confrontation, but she needed shinobi with special powers to counter his. Shikamaru's shadow bind may be useful, as would Ino's mind transfer technique. Neji and Lee would be necessary if Sasuke attacked with taijustu or attempted to use his Sharingan. Tenten, as a weapons specialist, might be able to slow him down significantly if he tried to escape. And finally...

Tsunade sighed. She really did not want to assign him to the task, but if all of the other ninjas failed, she was sure no matter how skilled Sasuke had become he could not defeat him.

Naruto...

She would send for two ANBU to join the team as well; they would be able to apprehend Sasuke without emotional conflict. She would dispatch eagles with messages requesting all the shinobi to meet in her office at seven in the next morning. The details would be explained tomorrow; they needed a good night's sleep if there was going to be a battle.

Then Tsunade asked herself what she was planning to do with Sasuke in the event that they captured him and brought him to her office. She had not thought about it until now and the question disturbed her. The image of Sasuke in her mind was still the thirteen year old genin. She had given him a few assignments in the past; he had been one of Konoha's most promising ninjas. But she had seen—and she knew Kakashi-kun had too—a streak of evil in him that made him desire power, no matter what the cost. She had tried to ignore it. But it had hit her with full force when he ran away, and now she could not deny it.

He would be a grown man now, but she wondered if she, too, would be able to prevent the past from muddling her judgement. When he ran away, she could distinctly remember the devastation of Naruto, Sakura, and all the young genin that had known him as a classmate. Tsunade, of course, was aware of the reason why Sasuke left seven years ago.

Since she had been a child, Tsunade had known the Uchiha clan to be a powerful, respected family with a strict code of conduct. They were the main shinobi police force trusted to protect the village. For many years, they were a prominent asset to Konoha, until Tsunade heard of a massacre committed by one of its most esoteric prodigies.

She shook her head sadly. The only successors of the great Uchiha legacy were two traitors.

The normal punishment for captured S-class criminals was, of course, death. Tsunade herself had periodically sent shinobi after Sasuke; it was, after all, part of her job to hunt out defectors to the leaf. Their missions had not been successful until now.

The reputations of her position and village were also on the line. If the other villages found out that Uchiha Sasuke had escaped from Konoha unscathed or been shown clemency when he was in her grasp, it would be a clear sign of weakness.

What would the Third do?

She thought with a shiver how her sensei had dealt with her own ex-teammate. The Third had not killed Orochimaru when he had the chance and therefore allowed the war seven years ago to occur, a war that had also cost her sensei his life.

If Tsunade did not act now, who knew what trouble Sasuke would cause in the future.

It was not going to be easy. If she killed him she knew at least Sakura would not take it well. What Sasuke meant to Sakura, Tsunade did not venture to guess, but he must still have a hold on her to cause her to sacrifice her reputation, career, and life to save him. The worst case scenario was that Sakura would either run away or try to kill herself. Tsunade would have to assign ANBU nins to watch over her during the day, and ask Lee or Naruto to stay with her during the night.

But now...now was the chance to get rid of him; she doubted she would ever get another one.

Tsunade had made her decision. Tomorrow would be the end.