A/N: Sorry for taking awhile with this update. Still suffering from my chronic sickness. Good news its not cancer or an ulcer. Bad news is its not going away and my doctors don't know why. Might be an autoimmune disease. Woo. So I apologize if my updates aren't as consistent as I'd like.

Might have slipped my some of my own experiences with lucid dreaming in this chapter. Hopefully it's not too weird of a subject matter to bring up in the Narutoverse.

Chapter 32

Second Chances II

"Okay! It is time to sleep! And when I sleep I will dream and I will realize that I'm dreaming! And I will not accidentally kick myself out!" Lee declared from his bed to no one but his dark, empty apartment.

Lee squeezed his eyes shut and clutched the edge of his covers with firm determination.

This was training, after all. Even if it was training he had to do while sleeping. He would take it as seriously as he would his regular training. And most importantly this was the homework assignment that Sakura had given him.

When Lee had asked her how she had so effectively ignored all of the genjutsu during their mission, she compared it to lucid dreaming. He had her explain.

"A lucid dream is when you realize you're dreaming, right?" she had said. "When you're lucid dreaming you can choose to do anything you can imagine. And you can simply ignore any nightmares because you know they have no real power. Even will them away. They're fake after all. If you can take this frame of mind into the waking world a lot of genjutsu out there will have little to no power over you, and might give you more of a fighting chance to dissipate it."

Lee has had plenty of dreams where he realized he was dreaming - especially the Infinite Tsukuyomi ones. The only problem was he would immediately wake up from them upon realizing it - sometimes by choice, sometimes not. This time he had to force himself to stay in the dream and confront the fact that everything in it was fake. Whatever that meant.

He had failed the night before. Beckoning the dreams had called another Infinite Tsukuyomi dream. He was on the training field but as soon as he saw Neji he panicked and was kicked back to the waking world. He would not fail again tonight.

Sakura opened the door but then stopped, hovering in the doorway.

"Lee… I… I just wanted to say before I go that I really like you, Lee. A lot. You're sweet a-and funny and you always bring a smile to my face. I just… I don't know what I would do without you. You're just really great. And… and..."

Sakura hugged him. Lee's breath caught, and his hands hovered over her back hesitantly for a few seconds before pulling her in tightly. He was always so uncertain that it was okay for him to actually hug her.

"Thank you, Sakura," he said softly. "I am lucky that you feel that way about me."

She pulled away slowly. Lee's hands fell from her in response. As Sakura's arms trailed down his side, she looked up at him. She was still so close. "Lee… I…" Her lips parted, and her eyes glanced momentarily to his mouth before meeting his gaze again. "I…" Her brow furrowed then.

Lee stood deliberately still, breath held as he studied her questioningly, a flicker of sudden confusion in his eyes. Is she...

Sakura kissed him.

Lee startled, but the realization that Sakura's lips were on his own, like he had wanted for so long, washed away all other thoughts. His hands went to her sides, to her face, through her hair. He just wanted to drown in everything that was her and think of nothing else.

She led him backwards into his apartment, the door closing shut behind her. The back of his legs bumped the bed. (Was the bed always so close to the door?) Sakura pushed him onto it. He barely had time to process it when she straddled his waist, looking down at him from her perch with a mischievous smile. He gasped at the sudden daring of it, at the pleasurable feeling of her weight pressed down on him. This was going really fast right after their first kiss, but that was okay. His foggy mind was happy for more - for whatever she wanted he'd give. (Wait, was there something wrong about this?)

"I love you," she said. "I wanted to tell you that I love you too. More than anything."

She leaned down and kissed him again, and when her lips finally left his, he laughed with joy and pulled her into an embrace. He still wasn't sure what her full intentions were with them on this bed, but he couldn't help it - he just wanted to hold her in that moment.

It felt like a dream come true.

A dream...

"This is a dream," Lee realized, coming out of his daze into sudden sharp clarity.

His hands slipped away from her in shock and she rose to look at him with knowingly sad eyes, like she knew the jig was up. He felt himself slipping back to the waking world for a moment, but he held on, focusing on what was going on right before him.

Feeling filthy, Lee nudged Sakura off of him. "I am sorry. I should not have done that. I should have realized…" His mouth was dry. He wasn't sure why he was even apologizing to a figment of his dream; he just couldn't help himself. He sat at the end of the bed, combing a hand through his hair.

He knew why the dream put him here. He had wondered for a brief, ridiculous moment if she would kiss him when she told him goodbye. He thought about it all day after she left. And now the dream was indulging him in that fantasy.

"There's nothing to apologize for," Sakura soothed, stroking a finger down his arm. "This is just what you want." He shivered at her touch. It felt so real. Nothing like the foggy, nebulous senses in a normal dream.

"It is wrong of me to want this."

"That doesn't matter here. I don't have to be married. I can be whatever you want."

"That is... still not right."

He couldn't take pleasure in a pliant, idealized fantasy of Sakura even if it was all fake. To use Sakura's image like this would be an insult to her - the real Sakura. He was better than this. And she didn't want this. She didn't want him.

Lee stood up from the bed. Sakura looked up at him sadly.

Not sure what to do with the dream Sakura in his dream apartment, he decided he just had to leave.

"I... should go," Lee said, looking away from her.

He opened the front door and stepped outside. But he wasn't at the front of his apartment. He was in another room - Guy's living room, of his old apartment. The one before the War, before he had to move into a more accommodating one. Guy and Kakashi were standing inside. Guy was not in a wheelchair, no cast in sight. The door back to his apartment creaked shut behind him.

"Lee! My precious student!" Guy announced.

"Guy-sensei…" Lee said weakly. He forgot that Guy was taller than him.

"I was just telling Kakashi here about your promotion to jonin," Guy grinned, looping an arm around Kakashi's shoulder. "I told him that the Council was blown away by your record. And after you beat Naruto in that friendly battle I told him that maybe you ought to be Hokage instead! Ha!"

"Congrats, Lee." Kakashi's eyes smiled.

"T-Thanks."

"My rival and I will soon partake in our next challenge - a classic race from the top of the Hokage mountain to the front gates of Konoha itself," Guy said. "Lee, would you like to watch our hot-blooded battle as we each vy for victory?"

Kakashi interrupted. "Guy, don't you remember that Lee had a challenge with Neji coming up soon?"

"Oh! Yes!" Guy confirmed. "You must find Neji right away before you're late, Lee! It's unbecoming for rivals to be late to each other's challenges!"

Kakashi let out an amused huff. "Then I must be a terrible rival."

Guy pulled him closer, leaning his head affectionately against Kakashi's. "Nonsense! You're the best eternal rival a man could ask for!"

Lee swallowed. "Neji, you say? Where is he?"

"Out the front door, of course!" Guy said. "You better hustle!"

Not quite sure what he was expecting, Lee opened up the front door of Guy's apartment. It led to a wide, grassy field - a training field he was quite familiar with. He stepped through the door and it shut behind him, cutting off Guy's booming laughter.

Lee's breath caught when he spotted him, and he had to firmly focus to keep the dream from slipping away. Neji was sitting under a tree with Tenten. Tenten was giggling as the two of them spoke. Lee hadn't seen Tenten look so happy in so long. (He wondered - had Neji's death changed him in some way too?)

Tenten waved him over.

Lee hesitantly approached them. Never in any of his dreams had he gotten close to Neji before waking up. Lee noticed that Neji was older - no longer a teenager, but now a young man in his early twenties. The headband was gone from his head, revealing a bare forehead free of the curse seal.

A hard lump formed in Lee's throat. This was a Neji that could have been.

"Lee, what do you look so down for?" Tenten sighed.

"Don't bother, Tenten. I can guess why he's upset," Neji said, arms folded. "Lee, you may be late to our rematch, but rest assured I haven't rescinded my challenge over such a small slight."

Hearing the sound of Neji's voice after so many years threw Lee over the edge. Hot tears sprouted from his eyes. "Neji," Lee choked.

Neji dusted himself off and stood. He had grown taller. "I said it was fine, didn't I? What are you even crying for?"

For a moment Lee was afraid to touch him, like he might dissipate in a cloud of smoke if he did. He still decided to take that chance and pulled Neji into a crushing hug. Neji even smelled like fresh linen and scented soap - just as he remembered.

"What are you doing?" Neji demanded.

"You are dead," Lee said, voice shaking.

"So I am," Neji admitted after a pause. Neji kindly patted Lee's back before pulling away. "What does it matter now? Let's fight already."

Neji strode to the middle of the field, not waiting for Lee. Lee followed after him. Neji stopped and turned around, assuming a fighting stance.

"So, you want an all-out rematch. The full extent of my strength versus yours, right?" he smirked, and the expression was just as Lee remembered.

Lee swallowed. "N-Not today, I think. Perhaps we can just spar. Like we used to."

"If that's what you want," he shrugged. "Wipe those tears off your face already and let's start."

Lee hastily rubbed his wet eyes on his wrist before hesitantly assuming his own fighting stance.

Neji charged at him. The two traded blows. Even after all these years Lee reflexively knew how to respond to Neji's Gentle Fist, and Neji knew how to counter Lee's own moves. Neji was still the formidable rival Lee remembered. Lee lost himself in the familiar motions, treasuring every moment he was allowed to have with Neji like this, even if it wasn't real. It felt like old times, like he was a teenager again.

Lee landed a lucky punch that sent Neji tumbling to the ground. Neji wiped the dirt off his cheek with a proud smirk. "Nice shot... rival."

Just hearing Neji acknowledge him as a rival sent such sent a pleasant wave of affirmation and pride through him. But Lee stopped his feelings short. The lucky shot wasn't earned; it had to have been a manipulation by his dream, just like his fantasy with Sakura. Neji so easily calling him his rival was unnatural too.

"Neji, let us take a break."

"Fine."

Neji and Lee returned to the spot under the tree to sit and rest. Tenten was gone. Lee wondered where she disappeared to, but then supposed that didn't quite matter in a dream. They caught their breath in peaceful silence for a moment before Lee spoke.

"I play out your death in my head a lot," Lee admitted. "I try to think of some way I could have saved you."

"I know."

"I wish I could still have this with you. In the real world. I miss you. We all do."

"My death is a shame," Neji admitted with an unperturbed frown.

Lee couldn't help himself and kept on blabbing; it made him feel better. "Tenten is still taking your death hard. I do not know how to help her. I do not think she wants my help. I wish I could do something."

Tenten had steeled herself after Neji's death in the middle of the war, but she crumbled hard soon after the war ended. Lee recalled countless nights he helped steady her feet back home from the bar. Thankfully Tenten always brought him with because "it would be sad and pathetic otherwise" if she went alone. When he came with he did his best to help moderate her consumption (which only worked when she was too drunk for her to protest much when he would take the drink out of her hand) and then he would make sure she made it safely home. Thankfully the heavy drinking had slowed after Guy spoke to her, and it had been months since Tenten had last gone drinking. Guy had been instrumental in helping Lee process his own grief, but Tenten had been much more resistant to it; closing herself off emotionally from both of them. Lee was thankful Guy was able to reach her eventually, if only somewhat.

Neji looked regretful then. He had no solution for Lee. Instead he said, "She should stop blaming Hinata. It was my decision to give my life to her."

"You are right. But what I really think is that she needs you. The Hyuga Clan needs you too. I just know you could help them if only you were still here."

Neji didn't need to even ask. He just already knew. "I've become a martyr. I wanted unity, not division," he sighed. "No matter. Whether by my death or another event, the Hyuga split was bound to happen one day. If Naruto couldn't make due on his promise to me to change the Hyuga as Hokage, then I wish I could have done it myself."

"I wish I could help realize your dream for you somehow."

"There's nothing you can do. The Hyuga have too much political power. You'll just get yourself in trouble with them like Tenten did."

"If you still could, how would you have done it?"

"There's no point asking me questions like that if I'm only a figment of your dream. You know that, right?"

"Oh, I guess that is true."

Neji glanced around the beautiful scene that surrounded them with disgust. "Everything here is just a masturbatory display of your ego and desires. From your relationship to Sakura, to Guy-sensei's health, to your exaggerated shinobi talents, to… me. Ugh. Why did I have to pick that word? This is all your fault."

Lee blushed. "S-Sorry, Neji."

Lee didn't know what to do now. He wanted to enjoy this time with Neji, no matter how fake it was, but he couldn't forget his original goal - to train himself.

"Neji, I need your advice. I have to train myself here to better counter genjutsu. But I do not know what the first step is. I am supposed to confront that this dream is fake. Which I now know is true. But what should I do now? I do not know how this is supposed to help me."

"Simple," Neji replied, arms crossed. "You need to push the boundaries of the dream. You're still playing by the dream's rules, not your own."

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing here is real. Why does anything here even need to follow the laws of reality? That means you can do whatever you want."

"Like what?"

Neji's eyebrow twitched in annoyance. "I don't know. Experiment. Phase through a tree, summon something, use Rasengan, go on a mad spree and destroy Konoha. Nothing here matters. Use your imagination."

"I do not think I want to destroy dream Konoha, even if it is not real."

"Then do one of the other countless things."

"I will try. Thank you, Neji."

"Don't thank me; thank yourself. I'm nothing but another part of you coming up with answers through a different mouthpiece. I can at the very least voice the smarter parts of your consciousness you're ignoring."

"But I am happy that it can be through you." Lee missed Neji's cleverness and level-headedness. His throat tightened at the sudden well of emotions filling him - gratitude that he was allowed to have this time with Neji, no matter how fake it was.

Neji smiled and put his hand on Lee's shoulder and gave it a comforting squeeze. "Lee, I-"

Lee's eyes shot open. His 5 AM alarm blared at him to get up for training. For once in his life he felt anger and frustration towards his alarm. Lee just laid there, covered his already wet face with his hands, and cried. Whether it was joy or grief, he couldn't quite tell.

Sakura's sleep was light and fitful. Because there were no windows in her room all she could rely on to tell her the time was the watch in her pack. Around 5 AM she decided she would stop laying in her pitch black room and get up for the day.

When she poked her head out into the dimly-lit hallway, not a sound stirred in the hideout but the quiet buzz of a flickering light on the wall. She walked by Team Taka's rooms - they were all closed. The kitchen was empty and so was the entrance room. She decided then she would spend this time to explore the hideout and see the full scale of Orochimaru's former hideout.

She wandered down the hallway at the opposite end of the entrance room. She found a meeting room, communal showers modified with privacy curtains, and empty jail cells converted for storage. Stairs lead both up and down - Sakura chose down. The many years of neglect was immediately apparent - lights were burnt out, furniture and lab equipment broken and strewn about, and a fine layer of dust covered everything. It was clear Team Taka only used and maintained a small section of the base. She found a lab room with the decomposing skeletal remains of a test subject on an operating table. The twisted corpse's maw was open in a silent scream and its empty eye sockets bore into Sakura accusingly. Suddenly the light illuminating the room sparked and blinked out, submerging the two of them in darkness. Sakura decided it was a great time to turn around then, and spent the time hurrying back wondering how many people had been tortured and died within this mountain for the sake of Orochimaru's pursuit of immortality.

When Sakura returned she decided now would be a good time to use the showers to shake off the unsettled feeling from running into that corpse, and after she dressed she headed to the kitchen after her stomach growled. Jugo was already there, pulling out food out of a fridge previously used for lab specimens. A covered pot of boiling water was already set on a bunsen burner.

"Morning," Sakura said warily.

"Morning," Jugo said. "Are you hungry?"

Sakura hesitantly sat down on one of the stools. "Yeah. Are you making breakfast?"

Jugo nodded. "Omelettes and rice. Does that sound fine?"

"Yeah, that sounds great."

Sakura watched as Jugo quietly worked. He cracked the eggs into an oversized beaker and scrambled them with a pair of chopsticks. Sakura didn't know much about Jugo, but he seemed like he might be a bit more honest and straightforward than Karin. At least when he wasn't having one of his supposed rages. With Sasuke in another part of the hideout, she wondered how much of a threat Jugo was to her right now.

"You're scared of me," Jugo said. "I understand. I've gotten better at controlling it, but the urge still comes up. You'll be able to tell when it's happening and have enough time to respond. Remember that only Sasuke has the power to stop me."

"I... see." Sakura wasn't sure what else to say. The silence between them felt awkward as Jugo calmly cooked. "Sasuke is your leader, right? Why do you follow him?"

"A precious friend died protecting him so I must protect him too," Jugo answered as he poured the scrambled eggs into the waiting hot pan. He then smiled for a moment. "And being with him means I can safely be around others."

"What about the others? Karin and Suigetsu?"

"Their reasons are their own. But, I think I can speak for all of us when I say sticking together provides us a sense of belonging, and we have nowhere else to go. The life of a missing-nin is a lonely and dangerous one. Suigetsu and Karin may seem like they hate each other but they show they care about each other deep down when it really matters. Like siblings, I suppose."

"Naruto wasn't able to get you guys a pardon for helping Sasuke in the war, huh?"

"No, we weren't as lucky. As far as I'm aware, he only pursued a pardon for Sasuke. We were probably too much trouble."

Sakura remembered the dark, troubled look on Naruto's face when the topic of Sasuke's missing-nin team had come up in the past. It was almost a jealous, regretful look.

"So you're still wanted," Sakura stated.

"Yes. For what we did with the Akatsuki, the attack on the Kage Summit, and for the original crimes that made us missing-nins in the first place."

"What did you all do?" Sakura asked as Jugo slid the done omelet onto a plate.

"I massacred villages in my madness. Suigetsu sought to follow in the path of the famous missing-nin, Zabuza of the Mist. Karin fled a Hidden Village that sought to abuse her healing abilities." He opened the steaming pot and scooped some rice on the plate and slid it over to Sakura.

"I see."

Sakura wasn't sure what to think. Suigetsu was the most clear-cut criminal of the bunch, and he didn't seem to carry any remorse with him. But then there was Jugo and Karin. Jugo killed people only because he couldn't control whatever beast lay dormant within him. (At the same time, didn't the people he killed deserve justice?) Then there was Karin - she fled for her own safety - how could death by hunter-nin be the right punishment for that crime?

It made Sakura uneasy. She supposed the answer was above her pay-grade - that gave her some semblance of comfort.

Suigetsu barged into the kitchen right after, followed immediately by Sasuke, and then Karin a few minutes later.

They left the hideout after they ate breakfast, heading deeper into Sound territory. Sasuke led them out in the open, and none of them seemed too interested in stealth - snapping twigs underfoot while Suigetsu and Karin spoke loudly to the group.

"Shouldn't we be more careful? We could be ambushed by the Sound," Sakura said.

Suigetsu cackled. "Is that what you think?"

The others were disconcertingly silent. It filled Sakura with a sense of dread.

They traveled to a mountainous area full of severe, rocky valleys that looked like they were split open by earthquakes. There a single, unassuming bridge was suspended between one of the gaping valleys, leading down to a building built into the rockface. On the front of the building was the symbol of the Sound.

This is just another one of Orochimaru's abandoned bases, is all.

They walked across the swaying bridge to the entrance, flanked by two guard-nin wearing the Sound ensignia across their foreheads.

There's an explanation for all this. There has to be. It's a disguise.

They went through the front gates into the expansive entrance foyer. A crumbling statue of a snake lay broken below the wall it was carved from, and the jewels were carved out of its eye sockets. The walls were covered in fresh banners with the Sound symbol. Sound-nin went about their business, and some were loitering around in groups. In one corner a scuffle had broken out between two angry men. The fight was cheered on for a bit before the men were pulled apart before they had the chance to kill each other.

"Sasuke… what is the meaning of this?" Sakura said, her voice in a low warning.

A hooded man approached them out of the crowd, hood low over his eyes. "Ah, Sakura. It's been a long time," the man said with a familiar voice. Sakura's blood ran cold. "Welcome to Otogakure." The man removed his hood then and an unnaturally wide smile split across his pale, scaled face.

Kabuto.

Sakura saw red. She lunged at him, aiming a lethal chakra-infused punch to his face. She would make him pay for all of that he'd done. She could kill him right here.

He didn't move, and just smirked at her. Sasuke caught her wrist, halting her fist a few inches away from Kabuto's face.

"You," Sakura seethed, glaring intently at Kabuto. "You're the snake-faced Kage. It was never Orochimaru. It was you all along."

"Guilty as charged."

Sakura tried to wrench her arm from Sasuke, but he just tightened his grip on her wrist.

"Sakura. Don't attack him," Sasuke said. "He's an ally now."

Sakura's furious and disbelieving gaze shifted to Sasuke now. "He's responsible for the war. So many people died because of him. Ino's dad. Neji. The countless bodies he descricrated. You reported him dead. How can you even trust him?"

"The man he was before is dead. Itachi made sure of it."

"How?" Sakura demanded. "How can you be so sure?"

"Itachi stuck me in a genjutsu that lasted lifetimes," Kabuto answered nonchalantly. "I couldn't escape until I accepted my mistakes. I've abandoned my quest for perfection and now I accept myself as I am. I was so thankful for what Itachi did to me that I became Sasuke's ally in the war. And current ally, too, it appears."

"That doesn't change all the horrible things that you've done!"

"Don't we all deserve a second chance?" Kabuto smiled.

"Not you."

"So harsh," Kabuto said lightheartedly.

"Sakura," Sasuke said sharply. "Can I trust you not to attack him?"

"Fine." She jerked her wrist away back at her side. "I just need to understand what's going on." She ignored the Sound-nin staring at them with interest at her outburst.

"Let's start over, shall we?" Kabuto said. "Welcome to Otogakure, Sakura."

"Don't think for a moment I'm going to ever start liking you," Sakura spat at Kabuto before turning to Sasuke. "Sasuke… what is your place in all of this?"

Kabuto answered for him. "Didn't you know? Sasuke was the one who appointed me Kage in the first place. I suppose that makes Sasuke the new Sound Daimyo after the unfortunate death of the last one. He is our country's apparent leader."

Sakura stared at Sasuke. "That means... the Talons…"

"Mine," Sasuke said. "They are the talons of the Hawk."

Sakura stood stunned. "Then it was you guys… You attacked the Steam."

"Look, I'll explain later," Sasuke told her before turning his attention to Kabuto. "Call whatever Talons are stationed here. I need them for a mission."

Kabuto nodded. White snakes dropped out of his sleeves and slithered away in various directions. "They'll be summoned to the Otokage building." He then looked at Sakura with a mockingly sweet smile. "I'll come with so I can give a little tour along the way."

Sakura bit the inside of her mouth to keep her from causing more of a scene.

Kabuto led them deeper into Oto, dug into the cliffs into a series of well-carved, cavernous caves that descended deep underground through a series of stairs and lifts. It was clear that it used to be an old base of Orochimaru's, but vastly expanded. Small rooms that were labs or cells had their walls busted through to create more space and the old equipment removed. Various crates full of supplies were stacked in various corners. Busy Sound-nin passed by them, occupied with various tasks. Kabuto then led them through an incredicate gateway.

Sakura gasped.

What was once a series of tight corridors expanded into an enormous room, the size of several arenas, and far removed from Orochimaru's typical architecture. This was newly carved. Various levels were carved up along the walls; each level went deeper into the caves and carried stone buildings blended in with the natural rock formations and support pillars. The whole area was brightly lit with electricity, but Sakura spotted bioluminescent fungus on the far up ceiling too. The center of the room was a Village square of sorts, with a few vendor booths and Sound-nin lounging about. There was even some landscaping done to provide some beauty to the area - rather than grass, a fluffy moss covered sectioned patches of the ground. However, despite its impressive scope, it was clear that so much more work needed to be done. Some buildings were half completed and the rest weren't labeled with any signage. Sakura imagined some of them to be eventual shops and apartments, among other things. For the size there was also an obvious low population count that in no way could fill the entire thing. Only a sparse few walked among the streets. It was being built under the assumption of expansion.

"Impressive, isn't it?" Kabuto smiled, glancing back at Sakura. "We wouldn't have made quite so much progress if we hadn't adopted a few shinobi talented in earth manipulation. We are lucky, aren't we?"

"How are you going to run a Village on only shinobi? What about civilians? You need them for the maintenance of the Village."

"Good question, Sakura. Our population is indeed heavily skewed, but we already have some civilians among us. You see, we adopt missing-nin into our ranks, but sometimes they come with family. Partners. Loyal friends. We provide a home for them as well, where they can live in peace with their shinobi companions and help operate the Village."

"Do you take anyone?"

"Yes. No matter their crimes or past deeds. Whether they are looking for safety, companionship, redemption, or a cause. Very different from the other Hidden Villages, no?"

"Yeah. If the other Villages knew another was willingly harboring criminals… that could lead to war. You can't seriously expect a Village operated by deranged criminals to actually work out."

"Indeed they are a rough, chaotic bunch, but as long as they don't cause trouble within Oto and that they swear allegiance to me, they are welcomed. Only the most trustworthy are welcome in Oto right now - the others are stationed at hidden bases all throughout the country until they can prove themselves to me."

Kabuto led them to a lift that carried them to the top level of the Village. When Sakura looked down at how tiny the Village square was down below she really felt the unreal size of it all.

Kabuto led them to the fanciest, most completed building on this level. It was made of lain stone blocks with decorative wood trimming. The sign confirmed it as the Kage's office. Leaning against the side of the building was a man with a visor up on his forehead - Hanma Hyuga, the Talon from Lee's report - laughing with Takeo and Hisako Hyuga - the two that Sasuke had freed. When Hanma spotted them approaching he directed his Hyuga companions to leave, but not without a tight hug for Hisako and a merry wave goodbye to them both.

Hanma regarded Sakura warily before directing his attention to Kabuto and Sasuke. "Lord Second. Lord Sasuke."

"I already told you," Sasuke said. "Stick to just Sasuke."

"Yessir!"

"Hanma, how is your sister and Takeo adapting?" Kabuto asked him.

"As well as they can," Hanma answered truthfully. "It helps that I am here too."

"Good to hear," Kabuto smiled.

All of them entered the Kage's building together. The entrance room was bare and unfinished, but there was a beginning collection of mismatched furniture inside.

"In here," Kabuto motioned to a closed door. "I'll leave you be. If you need me, I'll be in my lab." He nodded in deference to Sasuke. "Oh, and Sakura… I hope you'll eventually come around to us."

Sakura glared at him, saying nothing as Kabuto left.

Sasuke opened the doors, revealing a large meeting room, furnished with seats around a table, and couches off to the side. The room was full of shinobi in waiting - many of them familiar faces. There was Funai, the ice-user Lee fought. Tsume, the fan-wielding poison-user Sakura fought, a few others that attacked their camp on the way back from Yu, along with a few new faces. But the one that stood out the most was Yumi, the genjutsu-user with the grinning mask.

"Impossible… You were dead," Sakura uttered. "I saw you die."

"Did you? Are you sure?" Yumi said in a mockingly playful tone.

"What's she doing here?" Funai demanded, shooting up from his seat. "She and her team killed several of us, and we lost a base location to the Steam because of her too." Sakura noted the new Talon pendant pinned to his breast - he had been promoted to a Talon recently.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at Sakura. "You're accustomed already?"

"Before this I was assigned on a mission in the Steam. I fought several of them." Sakura eyed the glaring Talons members.

Suigetsu chuckled. "What a fun twist."

Sasuke looked at Funai before panning his gaze across the room. "This is my wife, Sakura. She will be joining us on this mission. Got it?"

The Talons' eyes shot open in shock, and whispered murmurs spread across the room. All except for Yumi, who even behind the mask looked smug and knowing as she looked at Sakura. Hamna - being a former Leaf-nin, was unsurprised too.

"If you want to know where the missing scroll is, ask your dear wife," Yumi said.

Karin's calculating gaze shot to Sakura. "You know where the scroll is?"

"We took it back to Konoha," Sakura said. "Though I don't know where exactly."

Karin sighed. "That's hardly new information." She then glared at Yumi. "We wouldn't have been put in this situation if you weren't so damn cocky," she barked. "You have this awfully annoying habit of playing with your prey, you know!"

Yumi tilted her head in a slight bow, but appeared unfazed at Karin's rage. "My sincerest apologies, Karin," Yumi said, amused.

"Is that scroll a part of your plan?" Sakura said.

"Remember when I told you that the scroll Orochimaru has is just a piece of the puzzle?" Sasuke said. "The scroll you brought back to Konoha is yet another piece. However, the one that Orochimaru has is the lynchpin to connecting them all and understanding what the jutsu truly does."

"And how many of them are you missing?" Sakura asked.

"Three out of the six," Sasuke answered. "Now…" He said, taking a seat at the head chair. "Let's cover the details of this mission - we will be storming Orochimaru's base located in the Mountain's Graveyard and recovering his scroll. Sakura will be playing an instrumental part."

Judgmental eyes shifted to her as Sakura slipped into the open chair besides Sasuke. She swallowed nervously.

A/N: Me feeling scandalous for even mentioning dream Sakura sitting on Lee's crotch in the tamest way possible… I'm hopeless haha. Reading other people writing sexual content is way different than writing it yourself and then having to share it. Please be patient with me, these are baby's first steps into writing more sexual content. I was thinking about cutting it at first but then I was like NO I MUST KEEP IT. Since I have more sexually charged stuff planned in the future I need to practice it now dammit. After all, I bumped up the rating for a reason lmao. I can't chicken out now. It just feels a bit weird since I haven't done too much of it before in this story (and I've attempted it before but ended up cutting those parts) so it kinda feels tonally weird, but once I break that barrier it should be fine I hope.

Also, for next chapter I'll write a little dramatis personae for the OC characters - not to shove them in your face (since to me they are just tools for the story), but as a gentle reminder so you don't need to go back and reread past chapters if you don't remember the details of them well. I always hate it in books when I forget the details of what a character looks like because then in my head they end up looking like a frustrating amorphous blob when I have no details to go off of.

So yeah, until next time!