We humans are wretched things.

Just how the hell have they already captured so many?! cried Sakura's inner voice, loud in her rage and in their shared desperation.

That the Akatsuki had already extracted the Two-Tailed Beast surely meant that the host had died. Stupid, stupid, stupid! If she had just stuck around for another few days, she would've been there! She would've stopped it! She would've rolled the heads of every one of those missing-nin bastards then and there!

...Well, she would've liked to. She glanced to her right, where Suigetsu was keeping up with her rapid pace despite the sour look on his face. He'd long since stopped begging for breaks when both Sakura and Karin's combined anger scared him shitless, but that didn't stop him from looking pitiful about it.

But she couldn't risk losing any time. From their detour to confront Itachi it would take another half a day at top speed to reach Orochimaru's northern compound, and who the hell knew what they'd encounter when they arrived. They could be in for the fight of their lives, or Juugo may not even be there and their time would all have been wasted. Then, if they really pushed, they could make it back to Rain in just under a day, but wouldn't be able to offer much in the way of a fight.

It had crossed Sakura's mind to simply forego her plan to retrieve Juugo altogether. She'd never met this man, and even for Karin's insistence that he was strong and would be an asset to their growing team, there would be others, surely. But since her confrontation with Itachi in that snowy town and her run-in with the man calling himself Madara on the mountain trail shortly after, Sakura was tired of feeling so wayward and directionless. She would manage somehow to amass a squad with enough power to take down the Hidden Villages and to save what remained of the Jinchuuriki, she was sure of it.

When Suigetsu opened his mouth to speak, she braced herself for a complaint or a comment on their brief conversation with Itachi. She hadn't mentioned any of her journey in the last year to him or to Karin, but luckily for her bad mood, neither seemed willing to pry about it.

"So...what did you mean by 'minimize casualties?'" he asked.

She pursed her lips, not sure what he meant. "Exactly what it sounds like. No unnecessary deaths."

"Yeah, but you can't wage a war and not expect people to die in it. People are gonna fight back, you know."

"Of course she knows that!" Karin huffed. "Whoever gets in the way, well, that's just a choice they made. Not us!"

Sakura gave a tired sigh. Neither of their suggestions sounded ideal, but her brain was exhausted for trying to come up with a strategy that would work. It was bad enough she was leaning in favor of killing the Kage outright; but their subordinates, through no fault of their own, were all conditioned and trained to give their lives for the villages and their leaders.

They'd reached the outskirts of the compound by then, and Karin held out her arm to signal a stop. She shivered once, a look of disgust upon her face.

"The place is still crawling with freaks," she muttered, "that's for sure."

"What's our next step?" Sakura asked.

"It's tricky," she said, thinking. "That curse mark on your wrist—Juugo is its origin. Most of the guys in here are Orochimaru's guinea pigs from his clan's special chakra. It all feels way too muddy from this far out."

The three of them flew through a few plans, landing on the simplest one as the best: they would merely approach, assess, and enter the main building. If anything got in their way, Sakura was to take them down with genjutsu. Suigetsu, eager to put his blade to use, was disappointed to be relegated to backup, unwilling to back down this time.

"Fine," she'd said, relenting. "If there's anything I can't handle—or anyone that a quick death would be a mercy—you do you." Could the blood be considered to be on her hands by giving such leeway?

They walked the rest of the way to the cluster of buildings, not wanting to rush it and risk agitating or scaring anyone inside. Sakura's mind was still swirling like a raging whirlpool of thoughts of her vengeance, each step she took sending differing ideas to the forefront.

"We could always sneak in," she suggested. "To the villages, I mean."

Suigetsu's laugh was loud to hear such a thing. "You know, you're so much dumber than you look. It's almost endearing how much you believe in this."

"You shut up!" Karin hissed, pulling Sakura in by the shoulders as they walked. "Maybe there is a way!"

"Tell me then, smartass."

"We—we could...talk to the Kage!"

Suigetsu's expression was flat. "Talk to them." When Karin didn't offer any response to that, he shook his head. "Yeah, good luck with that. I say we just storm in to village after village and leave a trail of bodies in our wake. By the time we hit the first two, the other three will get the message, no doubt."

Inner stirred at that. It would surely be effective, wouldn't it?

"But wait—what was that your little boyfriend was saying? You've been messing around in Tailed Beast business. Any way we can work that in somehow?"

Sakura narrowed her eyes. "The Akatsuki kills the host bodies and takes the Beasts for themselves. They want to use them as a weapon to scare the world into peace, but I wouldn't even know where to start figuring out what happens to them after they get put into that statue." For good measure, she tacked on, "And he's not my boyfriend."

"Get real," he said with a laugh, ignoring the rest of what she'd explained. "I've never seen you lose your cool like that. How bad did he break your heart?"

"Don't get carried away," she deadpanned, knowing her best bet to get him to stop prying was outright directness. "We fucked a few times, that what you wanna know? But he turned out to be a maniac content to let me believe he was a nice person. A liar."

Karin had pointed her nose in the air, her posture guarded to hear that while Suigetsu gave a thoughtful hum.

"Is omission of information really a lie?" She could've growled at that; hadn't Kisame said something similar? "It's not his fault you were too stupid to figure it out. Shit, do you know how many people I've killed? Isn't that why you're so worked up about the hidden villages in the first place? So the guy killed his family—big deal. Shedding blood is what we all do best. Oh, and speaking of..."

Their plan to waltz right into the main hall wouldn't be so smooth, it seemed. An explosion sounded far overhead in one of the buildings carved into the high mountain face there. A man, his skin an unnatural color like the red of rust on metal, leapt from the great height and slammed into the ground before them. Sakura and Suigetsu readied their stances, the crazed look in the eyes of the transformed man something that unsettled Sakura deeply. Was that how she seemed to others when she tapped into the power of the cursed mark?

There was no time to think any further, for with a screech that was hardly human he lunged at them. She looked to Karin, jerking her head back in instruction for her to get the hell out of the way. She'd spent so long channeling chakra to her fingertips that she nearly forgot it was there, despite their planning. On her index fingers sat the workings of a genjutsu that put its victim into a deep, instant sleep—she planted her feet and sucked in a breath, confident in her skill. All she would need was to touch any bit of his exposed skin, and there was ample of that.

It was almost too easy, to take on his weight and momentum and thrust it back on him like they were ocean waves, a mere push and pull. She activated the genjutsu on his forearm and he fell to the ground, the power inside of him retreating to its seal now that he lie there unconscious.

"Man," Suigetsu sighed, swinging his sword in frustrated, "I better get to use this fucking thing..."

The inside of the hideout had not fared well. News of Orochimaru's death must have caused a riot of sorts, as a few guards lie dead in dried pools of blood while people in prisoner's robes sat huddled together or hugging their knees or rocking back and forth. Sakura felt an empathetic tug; Orochimaru had never brought her here, and now she understood why. It was a horrific enough sight as it was, and she was sure it wasn't much better when all was kept "in order."

"This way," Karin said then. "I can feel it much better now!"

They stepped over bodies both half-alive and completely torn apart, wincing all the while. This Juugo was kept at the end of a long hallway high in the towering structure. In a better world it would be the stuff of fairytales, and though she didn't know what to expect, there wasn't much that truly frightened her anymore. She could hear a faint muttering coming from inside, and as she gripped the handle and pushed it open as gently as she could, she could feel a shift in the air.

He'd attacked, so swift she could barely see it. She went flying back, the door broken off its hinges and slamming her into the opposite wall. As she hissed in pain, her self-healing abilities kicking in from reflex, Karin shrieked and ran to help her up. For all of his complaining, Suigetsu had leapt into action, finally putting that blade of his to good use as he clashed with the monstrous man.

She watched closely, paying careful attention to that same crazed look in Juugo's eyes that she'd seen from the prisoner earlier. He laughed in a maniacal way that broke her skin into goosebumps, Karin clinging to her tightly. His skin was tough, strong enough to block and deflect and even parry Suigetsu's precise blows from the sword's sharpened edge, but she had not come here for the two of them to kill each other.

"Juugo!" she shouted, her anxiety easing to see he wasn't so far gone that he didn't pause at that. He turned his head, staring at her with those crazed eyes. "We're not here to fight. I came to set you free."

"I—" he started, the facade of his anger cracking just a bit. "I can't go anywhere without Kimimaro...!" The thought seemed to send him back into that rage, and he slammed down his malformed fists into the floor. Suigetsu jumped back, squaring off again. Just as Sakura was about to rush in and put the man to sleep, Karin said,

"Kimimaro is dead, Juugo."

She did not say it in unkindness. Her brows were pinched together, her face flushed slightly as if it took great effort to say what she had. He'd stopped mid-punch, frozen there as he processed this new information. Suigetsu, though, seemed keen on capitalizing the turn of events, his sword still in motion.

When Sakura darted there to catch him by the forearms to keep him from slicing Juugo's head clean off, the cursed form the other man was in faded into deactivation. As quickly as he'd thrown the door from its frame he ran back into the room, slinking into a dark corner. She blinked, bewildered. Suigetsu made a sound of annoyance and pulled his arm from her grasp with a sigh.

"Kimimaro?" she repeated, confused.

"He was one of Orochimaru's favorites," Karin explained quietly. "He was killed when that boy from your village was on his way here originally."

"Sasuke-kun," she said under her breath, not before realizing just how many people had been impacted by this whole mess. Just what was the true scope of the actions of mere genin with no skill like her?

"That was his name," Juugo said then, his voice shaking. The three of them shifted, listening intently. "Kimimaro told me...that boy would be his reincarnation, of sorts."

It was the most in the way of coherency they'd gotten from him so far, and Sakura was keen to keep the momentum. As she approached the open doorframe she pieced together what he meant, hoping he could fill in any gaps for her.

"Was your friend the next body in line for Orochimaru?"

He gave an affirmative grunt. "He—he considered it an honor, but he was sickly. He understood why the master would rather have more options. But to know he died for nothing, I—I...just leave me alone," he whispered. "Please. I don't want to hurt anybody."

She pursed her lips, turning back to her other two companions. Suigetsu shrugged while Karin adjusted her glasses.

"It's worse than I thought," she murmured as if to herself.

"I don't want to hurt anyone, either," Sakura said softly. She turned back, taking a step to cross the threshold. "I'd like your help, that's all. Orochimaru is dead, so you don't need to stay here any longer."

"No, no," he said, and she could hear the tousling of his hair as he shook his head harshly. "It's best for me to stay here. It's safest."

"But I think you deserve to live a life outside the compound," she insisted. She took another step inside the cold, dark room, a pang of guilt shooting through her to see the conditions in which he'd lived here as a captive. "A life of your own, not as one of these experiments. Come with us!"

"I came here on my own!" he cried, the pound of his fist into the floor echoing from the metallic paneling. "He was trying to help me—control myself. My anger...!"

Sakura bit the inside of her cheek. It was obvious to anyone that Orochimaru's experiments had only made things worse, not helped. Her heart felt near to breaking, but she could not give up. This was beyond a recruitment mission now; she just wanted him to reclaim his life, even if she was spending far too much time here than planned. He hugged his knees, his legs pressed tightly to his torso. The shocks of his orange hair glinted in the small bits of light that came through the tiny window, reminding her of flames in the fireplace back in her parents' home in Konoha.

"Your Kimimaro," she said as she sunk to her knees beside him, "didn't die for nothing. Sasuke-kun...he had a friend like that, too, who did everything he could to bring him back home. That was where they belonged, but it wasn't that way for me. I trained with Orochimaru himself in Sasuke-kun's place."

He was so still for so long that he seemed more statue than man. Then, he glanced up at her—it was the first Sakura noticed that, even outside of his cursed form, he was still a mountain of a man. His features were gentle, his sunset-orange eyes catching some of the harsh light from the hallway. Hell, she even fought a blush as he searched her face intently.

"Then that means...you're Sakura." He shifted to sit on his knees, bending to take her hands in his. "You're right. Because of you, Kimimaro's sacrifice wasn't in vain." His breath hitched, but if he were about to cry, he swallowed it down. "If you want me to accompany you, I will, but...I have been known to fly into fits of rage beyond my control, I—"

She held up one of her hands to stop him, then brought it back down to cover his. "Juugo, you can do as you please. Don't feel obligated."

Behind the wall, she heard Suigetsu suck at his sharp teeth and mutter something about how he hadn't gotten much of a choice.

"You are the legacy of the only friend I'd ever had," Juugo answered in earnest. "I am more afraid that you will cast me aside."

She thought on that for a moment, thinking of how she'd subdued the man out front. "I'm the disciple of Orochimaru-sama," she started, the honorific strange after being so casual with the man for so long . "I'm stronger than I look, a pro at genjutsu, and I can siphon chakra the way Senjuu Hashirama did in the past. If you start to feel like you're getting angry, let me know—I'll be able to stop you. That's what friends are for!" When she smiled, he did, too. "But Juugo, you should know...I do have enemies, and I do have plans—plans that might involve us all getting angry and that might get people hurt."

He considered, then got to his knees to stand, lifting her up with him as he went. "Sakura, your heart seems kind. I will trust your judgment and fight who I must, in your name."

Her stomach flipped. Your heart seems kind. How often had she thought the very same of Itachi, who'd turned out to be very much not? But then, if Sakura could find no way to change the world without spilling the blood of innocents, was she much better? Could it be possible to be somehow both: a killer of the coldest sort, and a kind person who held genuine concern and love for others?

It was as Suigetsu had said before they'd been rushed by that prisoner: Itachi was a product of Konoha's military might, its grasp on him so tight that it convinced him genocide was better than the unknowns dissent may have brought. Was its grasp truly so tight on Sakura, even after all these years, that she was ready to wage her own war against them? Take advantage of the trust of others to lead them to kill and possibly be killed?

Juugo's big hands were still holding hers, and she felt all manner of conflicting emotions when she smiled at him once more. She would do her best to be kind, and there was an idea blooming in her as she mused silently. The very place in which they stood was filled with people who needed help and medical attention, and bodies that deserved proper burials. She gave Juugo a squeeze, then strode out of the doorway.

When their small group reached the main hall again, she slammed her fist into one of the walls to catch the attention of those coherent enough to listen. She hated to leave the Jinchuuriki to die, but there were countless others here who needed her help, too. She would do what she could now, and pray there was still time enough to make it back to Rain and beat down some Akatsuki.

"Listen up!" she called. "Lord Orochimaru is dead! As his disciple, I will atone for what he's done and offer my services to heal your wounds and set you on your way. There is no life for any of you left in these walls."

"Sakura!" Karin took hold of her arm. "These aren't people who should be reintroduced to society...!"

"I don't expect you to heal them, too. But they don't deserve to waste away here or rip each other to shreds, either." She turned, calling out once more; surely there were other people in this place who'd bonded as Juugo and Kimimaro had, and those people needed decent funerary arrangements. "Once healed, I only have one thing to ask in return: assist me in burying your dead to honor their names and their lives."

"That's right," Suigetsu said then, seemingly invigorated by this turn of events. "And don't forget that Haruno Sakura is the one who gave you this second chance. She came to rescue you while your villages sat by and did nothing!"

"What's gotten into you?" Karin said, smacking at him as if he were a fly.

"I'd rather these guys be on our side, and this is the best way to make sure of that! Besides, if we make a move on any of the hidden villages, it'd be like having our own personal army!"

Sakura's work was underway, and Karin—despite her discomfort with how her low-effort healing jutsu was put to use—eventually offered her own help, too. As Suigetsu and Juugo helped carry person after person to their sides, Sakura made sure no one, especially not Karin, was overworking themselves.

It was a grueling task, far more than she'd anticipated, but she did not waver. There were only a few mishaps, some of the once-prisoners going berserk, but it was nothing Suigetsu could not handle until Sakura arrived to subdue them. As they worked, Karin explained in more detail how the cursed seals Orochimaru had come to use had their roots in Juugo's clan, who had the unique ability to soak in natural chakra from the world itself. Juugo himself listened quietly as she spoke, and then said that these people, in a way, were akin to family to him—Sakura, too—the only family he had left.

The burials were not many, but not necessarily few, either. It felt almost insulting to offer little more than two claps of her hands above each new grave, but at least it was something. After every miniature funeral Sakura's heart calmed more and more, sated out of that restless state. It was so late in the night that the dawn of the next day was about to break when they finished, and despite her utter exhaustion, she was content and proud.

The four of them left the compound in those early hours of morning not sprinting but walking, chatting all the while. There was a feeling inside Sakura of newness, of her hands washed clean and her life once more free to be her own, truly her own. They spent much of the day in this way, and though she knew she'd failed the Jinchuuriki, there was still time to thwart the rest of Pein's operation and dismantle the might of the villages. She knew that the Tailed Beast extraction ritual necessitated only that the Nine-Tailed Beast be sealed last, and she knew even deeper that Naruto would never go down without a fight. Perhaps, then, getting in contact with him should be her next course of action. He would never agree to help in her goal to take down the Kage, but to take down the Akatsuki, well, she could have both his and Sasuke's help with that if she played her cards right.

They crossed through the border into the edges of Fire Country. The sky overhead was clear and blue, but off in the distance dark clouds were gathering, a fierce storm quickly brewing. The world seemed so impossibly big and open, Sakura free to go wherever she willed, but those clouds gave her pause. Not everything would go as well as she would like, of course, but she would endure as she always had—it was what she did best. She thought of the call of the Great Snake; she thought of the potential journeys in gathering new allies, more of Orochimaru's old captives and experiments; she thought of wandering and healing and protecting; she thought of her plot to change the world; she thought of—

"Itachi," Karin said then, her voice utterly gripped by fear.

Sakura had to double take at that, her eyes wide in confusion. But before she could even open her mouth to ask, the grey corner of the sky lit in a flash so bright that even the sunny afternoon darkened for a split second. Her hairs stood on end, and Karin was so frightened that she clung to Sakura with all her might as a ferocious shot of lightning raged off in the distance. The clap of thunder that followed was so loud that it made the four of them jump, Suigetsu similarly clinging to Juugo as if for dear life, the ground beneath them quaking subtly.

"I—It's...it's that guy," Karin whispered, shaking. "Itachi, the one we talked to! I don't know what the hell is going but he—something just...he just..."

Sakura felt a metaphorical piece within her shatter. From their distance, he must've unleashed something incredibly powerful for Karin to be able to feel it and recognize it for how little she knew him . Something was wrong, something had happened, a series of events playing through Sakura's mind one after the other. She saw Sasuke's Chidori, the way it was so bright on the roof of that hospital that it'd darkened the edges of her vision. She heard Itachi's solemn voice as he murmured his wish to die by his brother's hand. She felt his lips at her neck, his arms wrapped around her, the blush on her face when she caught him staring.

There weren't any other thoughts in her head then, just the feel of the wind in her hair and her legs moving on their own to speed her towards the massive crash of thunder. She pushed herself harder than she ever had before, a deep sense of dread shooting through her entire nervous system. She was not aware, not even vaguely, of her new teammates rushing after her and struggling to keep pace. In her sudden desperation she released her cursed seal fully, sending her rocketing off faster than she'd ever gone before as her skin turned grey and her lengthening hair billowing behind her.

Whatever was happening with Itachi, she would get there in time. She simply had no other choice.