For a friend with an understanding heart is worth no less than a brother.

It was a difficult task for Sakura to stuff down her anger, but it was harder still for her to understand why she felt it so intensely as she looked among the faces of her old team. She took a long, drawn-out moment and a deep breath through her nose, listening to that voice within.

That one long year, Inner spat, of being looked over, and now they wanna act like they care?

That, she reasoned back, and they took almost two more years to finally make their way here.

The boys were taller and unfathomably handsome in her eyes. Naruto's hair had grown, a spiked mess that made her think—to a shocking degree—of Lord Fourth's face carved up on the mountain. He wore a flowing green jacket, his arms crossed over the black zip-up covering his torso and neck, those same gaudy orange pants tapering down his long legs. The black ribbon of his forehead protector blew in the slight breeze, and he looked nothing less than a warrior of righteousness. It was his chakra, indeed, that Karin had felt approaching; the dangerous look on his face said it all.

Sasuke had none of that anger on his face, but where Sakura had expected him to look bored, he seemed uncharacteristically concerned. His eyebrows pinched together above his dark eyes, and her heart fluttered to see his hair had grown so long that it was gathered and tied at the base of his neck. He wore well-fitting but plain clothes in dark shades, giving him a dignified look she thought suited him. His presence shook her, but she was well beyond that crybaby he'd once known her to be, and she was not about to prove otherwise.

Kakashi, though, looked the same as ever. For some reason, that made her heart ache more than it had looking at either of the boys. He was too familiar, too unchanging a reminder of everything she'd given up.

Given up to save your stupid asses.

"What do you want?" she called then. Desperate was she to break the tension, but she kept her tone as neutral as possible. She could not risk, now of all times, betraying any sort of emotion. Casually she rested her hand on the hilt of her sheathed sword, watching them.

It was Kakashi who answered first, in that deceptively uninterested voice of his. "We're here to bring you back home, Sakura."

Tch. "Why?"

"We came to rescue you!" Naruto's voice had deepened in their years apart, and she fought to keep the surprise from her expression.

Rescue us, huh?

Four-eyes and Karin had both looked over, deferring the conversation to her authority and, likely, feeling curious about her old team's sudden appearance. She tried to pay them no mind, keeping her eyes level on the Leaf nin before her. "I know I left without saying anything, but I don't need rescuing."

"Just what the hell have you done to Sakura-chan?!" Naruto demanded of Kabuto, scowling deeply. The lines on his face began to sear with smoke, evidence of the Nine-Tails' chakra boiling inside of him. "It wasn't enough for you to take her from us? You had to go and brainwash her too?"

As her old comrade took an offensive stance, Kabuto spared a light chuckle. "Take her? You've got it wrong, kid."

But this shot Sakura through with panic. If he ran his mouth for too long, she would lose her chance to control the narrative. While she wouldn't try to explain her true motive, she couldn't very well have them thinking she was evil.

"They took me in," she said, "when I needed someone."

"Sakura-chan would never say that," Naruto bit back with a glare that could kill. "She begged me to bring Sasuke home! She wouldn't just run off and do the same thing!"

A sting of guilt, because she knew there was truth to it, that she'd put them through exactly that same grief and anxiety the moment they'd been able to breath a sigh of relief. Of course she'd anticipated they'd be hurt by her leaving, but she swallowed down that feeling. She had to be strong—she finally had some of that strength, and needed to keep getting stronger. She couldn't do that feeling guilty or second-guessing her choices.

But then...

Never in a hundred-million years would she have expected them to put together a rescue squad for her, but she should've known. No one had ever thought her capable of doing much of anything at all, and of fucking course her defection had been treated as a kidnapping, as a brainwashing, as anything other than something done by the force of her own hand and strength of heart and natural talent.

In warning, she released the first stage of her Cursed Seal of Earth.

"I'm doing this," she said darkly, "for all of you. I'm fine, so you guys get back to Konoha before someone does something stupid."

At this, she realized just how fine she really had been. Better than fine; her days spent here training and learning and loving had quieted her homesickness and strengthened not only her body, but her heart and mind, too. She hadn't forgotten about her old life—she truly had done all of this for them, after all—but it was useless, she'd realized long ago, to lie awake missing them or wishing she was back home. She had a master who respected her, a begrudging tutor who still taught her all he knew, and a best-friend-or-maybe-they-were-girlfriends-now who she couldn't imagine living without.

We finally found somewhere we belong. They're just mad it's not with them.

"We're not going back home," Sasuke said then, his smooth tones raising goosebumps on Sakura's arms, "without you."

That tugged at her heart, but she furrowed her brows in frustration. "Get out of here. Don't you see that you're all just pawns for Konoha?"

But Naruto's anger, once he'd heard those words, had finally broken free of the dam holding it back. He charged, and she braced defensively until she realized he was not going for her, but for Kabuto.

He'd leapt out of the way, but Sakura—her abilities amplified by the curse seal—could feel a monstrous wave of chakra about to strike the dirt where Four-eyes once stood, something greater even than the Nine-Tails' power alone. Karin stood there, her eyes wide as usual and paralyzed in fear. Before Naruto's fist collided with the forest floor, Sakura rushed the other girl and took her in her arms, darting out of range with dazzling speed.

Behind them came what sounded like an explosion, and when Sakura was sure her friend was steady on her feet, she turned to see a gaping crater where they'd all just been standing. She herself gaped; she'd never anticipated such monster strength coming from someone as bubbly as Uzumaki Naruto.

As Kabuto re-entered the fray, Sakura spied the other two shinobi begin to move. She gave Karin one last look she hoped would translate correctly (Stay out of it and stay alive), then kicked off to intercept them. From her back she spawned her four wooden arms, taking great care to keep them as human hands. She did not want to give away any inkling of her affinity for snakes, but knew if the boys pushed her to the seal's second stage, she could not stop the wooden appendages from coming to serpent-like life.

"Sakura," Kakashi called as he ducked and dodged beneath and around her flurry of attacks, "you're not yourself. Let us help you!"

But that was the opposite of what she needed to hear, and she remembered that he'd never truly been able to comfort her, anyway. It was then, too, that she noticed his sharingan eye was covered, and she fumed to be so underestimated.

"You had all the time in the world to help me," she said, feeling that inner voice of hers begin to dominate her psyche. "So just what the hell is different now?"

She'd produced a kunai and thrust it down at him, the force of her own battle instincts startling her. But this was Kakashi, and he'd responded with his own blade with ample enough time to block it.

"Sakura," he tried again, his good eye meeting hers. She could see the earnest there, and she hardened her heart to it before it had a chance to start breaking. "I'm sorry. As your sensei, I was too careless. Shouldn't we try again?"

Tch. "Too late for that," she said, but just as she shot blades through the palms of her wooden hands and moved to strike, Sasuke's booted foot connected with her ribs, sending her flying.

It was a good thing, though, for finally she noticed Kabuto struggling to hold his own against Naruto. Mainly Four-eyes was dodging and jumping out of the way of the booming attacks, but if even one landed, he'd be dead, she knew. And though he'd never been nice to Sakura, he had treated her with his own brand of kindness, and she was by his side in an instant. She took in a breath, capturing Naruto's hands in her false ones, when something very curious happened.

That horrifying red chakra lost its edge, and Sakura felt her own energy begin to bolster.

It was then that Kabuto shot forward; she had never seen him move with such speed or ferocity, and before she had time to be offended that he'd been holding back on her during their spars, he'd plunged a kunai deep through Naruto's shoulder and raked it downwards. Sakura gasped harshly, seeing that it had nearly severed his arm from his torso. Kakashi swooped in, kicking Four-eyes away with marked force as Sakura spun back.

"You—asshole!" she roared at Kabuto. "You're going for the kill?! He's my friend!"

"Shut up!" he bit back, clutching at his ribs, healing as he pressed. "Be smarter, and take a look! He's been training under a sannin! Your little Nine-Tails boyfriend is virtually unkillable! Didn't they teach you in the academy to always attack with the intent to kill?"

Kakashi stirred, likely remembering—just as Sakura was now—that he'd said those exact words to them when he'd given them the bell test. But when she looked back at Naruto, the muscles and tendons and skin were stitching themselves together before her very eyes, and it was then that she understood that he must have found a master in Lady Fifth, whose training had amplified the self-healing abilities of the Nine-Tails' chakra.

Of course, just as Sakura had sought power and finally felt like she'd not only caught up, but run past them, the boys had taken similar paths. Always eager to be the best, weren't they?

No, it was more like...

Always eager to outdo me.

And here they stood, insinuating she'd been taken against her will and fighting her found family, the only ones in the world who'd ever looked at Sakura and seen potential, the only ones who'd ever given her a chance to prove herself.

"Fuck it," she said, not bothering to hide her crassness. She released the second stage of the seal, feeling the surge of power and the physical changes that came with it. If Naruto was such a high and mighty medic nin now, she felt no guilt in giving it her all. For only a moment her old team stood and watched, their faces aghast at her transformation. When next someone spoke, of course it was Sasuke.

"Sakura," he said, his tone nothing short of scathing. "I've found my peace even after suffering from the curse mark. There's hope for you yet, if you want it."

It was near to intoxicating to hear him say such a thing to her, but in her elite state she would never be so easily swayed by words; Inner was too much of a hardass for something as stupid as that.

"Quite the assumption to make, Sasuke-kun," she snarled, baring her sharpened teeth. "But I never lost hope, even if you did everything you could to strip it from me."

The look on his face told her that he, too, would never forget the hurtful things he said to her nor the spurning of her help all those years ago. He even managed to look upset about it—regretful, perhaps—but that ship had sailed long ago.

She made to attack again, Naruto taking the brunt of it for still being so close. Sakura, by her own merits, had already much improved her speed, but in her cursed state she felt like lightning. Naruto was on the retreat, dodging her sentient snake heads as they struck and dove and snapped with all of the force she could manage. They both knew that for him to keep up, he could not risk being in range of her for risk of her draining his chakra, however she'd managed to do it before. He was slow, too, slower than she'd become, and she grinned to know that she finally had the advantage.

But there was not simply one sharingan user in this battle, and with Kakashi squaring off with Kabuto, Sasuke ran in to divert her attention from the other boy . When he swung at her with a kunai, she took her short sword and crossed blades with him, sparks flying as the high-pitched whine of metal clashing against metal rang through the forest.

From somewhere behind her she was vaguely aware of the presence of a shadow clone, but she was so preoccupied with keeping up with Sasuke's speed that she could not afford to pay it much mind. It was not until he quickly produced a chidori, the screeching of it agony in her ears, that she understood she was being set up.

When Karin yelled to watch out, she felt another surge of chakra and knew that it was Naruto's rasengan technique. She closed her eyes, momentarily losing herself in the nostalgia that came with being in the middle of the boys' impressive talents, but this time she was not helpless like she'd been that first time. Covered by that raincoat-like layer of chakra—one of the first things Orochimaru had ever taught her—she felt where both of their hands would collide with her body, and she mustered all of her chakra control to leap off of her feet and flip as precisely between them as possible. Her freshly-cut hair blew in rasengan's breeze, and she could smell the singed air from chidori's intense heat as it grazed her.

She outstretched her hands as the boys both flew past her, touching the tips of her index and middle fingers to their foreheads. The genjutsu was active in an instant, and Naruto slumped to the ground the very next second.

It was really no wonder, though, that Orochimaru had so coveted an Uchiha body: Sasuke stumbled only briefly before breaking free of the illusion, that sharingan there to help him see through it. Quickly he bit his thumb, slamming his hand to the dirt where a toad as tall as he appeared. She'd known, of course, that her master's ex-team had strong bonds with the sacred toads and slugs that complemented the snakes she was so used to, but to see such plain evidence that Jiraiya had taken Sasuke under his wing...

He'd always been fast, and he and this summon had clearly spent an extensive amount of time training together, as without a word it heaved its great throat and shot an oil, black as night, from its mouth, and with a shout Sasuke called forth the technique to spit fire from his own. She watched as if in slow motion as the oil ignited, sending a raging fireball directly at her. It consumed all in its wake, torching the ground and incinerating the trees from the leaves down through to the bark.

She wove her next seals as fast as she could, and tree roots burst from the forest floor and pulled her beneath the dirt. Above her she heard the flame bullet roar overhead, and she took a moment to steady herself. She had to find a way to incapacitate him without actually hurting him, and since genjutsu was out, she had to be crafty, just as Orochimaru had always encouraged her to be.

In her mind, then, she had the flash of a memory. It'd been one of her first evenings alone with Kabuto as he'd instructed her in healing, and after explaining how best to stitch a clean laceration, he'd asked her, "Do you know why I enjoy medical jutsu so much?"

When she'd shook her head, his answer was as nonchalant as if he'd been discussing the weather:

"It makes it that much easier to tear things apart when you know exactly how they're supposed to be put together."

She moved again on instinct, not willing to waste any more time. She burst forth from the ground and moved to strike at him, but she stopped cold when she heard Kabuto's voice carry from across the woods.

"You think I didn't see your dogs nosing around the perimeter these last few months?" His smirk was devilish. "You've just delivered the Uchiha and the Nine-Tails on a silver platter! I'll be damned if we miss this opportunity!"

Across the way, she was completely still now. Sasuke had sensed something was amiss and paused, staring at her as she struggled to accept what exactly she'd just heard. Whatever plan of attack she'd worked out, it had flown clean out of her head.

Kabuto had...known Kakashi had been scouting the area?

He hadn't said anything about it?

And Orochimaru—

...That's right.

It was stupid of her to assume that just because their master had chosen her as a worthy body, it did not mean he would cross his original options off of his list. She glanced around the little battlefield, Naruto still sitting peacefully in her genjutsu, Sasuke watching her carefully, and Kakashi breathing heavy breaths as he and Kabuto crossed fists and blades and shuriken.

All of this time, Sakura had been bait, and the fish had finally bitten that lure.

She fought a hollow feeling in the pit of her stomach. Inner was fighting to keep her grip, because that was her best chance of survival, but Sakura's sorrow and unease was much too great. Her head spun and her stomach flipped in humiliation, briefly wondering if perhaps she had been mind-controlled to come here instead. It was all too picture-perfect, and that was when she took that final straw of embarrassment and channeled it into pure, unfiltered rage.

There were no further thoughts in her head. Seething, she lunged at Kabuto and knocked him to the ground. Two of her snakes wrapped around him, constricting him so tightly that she heard him wheeze. She stared down at him, poised to bring down her short sword directly through that idiotic, smug look on his face, when a voice commanded all attention in the area.

"Heavens," it said coolly, "I leave for a few days and this is what I return to?"

Orochimaru stood at the outcropping of the estate, and Karin clung to his side like a frightened child. He looked among Team 7 and his own subordinates, clicking his tongue.

"It seems we have some things to work out," he said disapprovingly down at Sakura and Kabuto, who still struggled in her grasp.

"Sasuke," Kakashi barked then. "Get Naruto and ready the scroll."

He did as he was told, Orochimaru's gaze watching him ever the while. "My, Sasuke-kun, how you've grown. You're the spitting image of Itachi-kun."

No, they couldn't just—leave! Not like this, though Sakura could not understand why she felt this way. She suddenly felt so sentimental that tears welled in her black eyes, and she slowly began to revert the curse seal. Kakashi stared a hole through her master, and Sasuke held onto Naruto tightly behind him.

Her body moved on its own, reaching into her leg pouch to take her old forehead protector. She had never carved that line through the Leaf emblem there, and it was then she knew that she wanted him—anyone, really—to realize that she had done this on her own, and all for the sake of her loved ones. She was no traitor.

"Kaka-sensei!" she shouted. He snapped to her attention, his sharingan watching her intently, and she threw the hitai-ate at him.

It was a poorly thought-out move, because Orochimaru immediately took advantage of the distraction and sent his head, slithering along atop his serpentine neck, careening directly at Sasuke with his jaws unhinged.

Sakura had never seen Kakashi move so fast, but with a great burst of chakra he dove back to the boys and took hold of Sasuke's hand, who activated the teleportation scroll in the same motion. In a cloud of smoke, Team 7 was gone, and as Sakura's cursed power faded from her body and a horrid cough shook Kabuto's frame as she released him. She pored over the ground with her eyes, searching.

In that moment, her only comfort was in the knowledge that Kakashi had caught her forehead protector before their escape.

protector before their escape.