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Chapter Sixty-one


Sakura slept.

Despite the heavy curiosities Naruto set in her mind, Sakura found sleep without too much trouble that night in comparison to the past few days. Even in her nightmares where a child cries, and a woman whispers in her ear, Sakura never stirred awake. Her slumber was set to help her catch up on the sleep missed the night before. She was suppose to wake up refreshed and well.

'Konoha is safe,' Was her first happy thought waking up.

Despite the negative darkness surrounding her the rosette focuses on the smallest, and faintest of light that is held up for her surprisingly by Gaara with the promise that her home will remain safe.

'I have to help Gaara to change,' Sakura thinks and frowns.

The weight of everything settles in her mind: Save Gaara. Save the world. Keep Naruto safe from Gaara. Save…

'Yourself,' A woman whispers in Sakura's mind.

Sakura stares blankly after that thought before dragging her nails across the seal on her back. She was suppose to wake up refreshed and well.

She didn't.

She is tired, but she cannot sleep. Her body feels heavy like her limbs are made of metal. Sleep seems to have stolen more from her than contribute. When she goes down to another room down the flight of stairs to where Kankuro is, even his real eye flashes with deep concern once he takes in the sight of Sakura.

"I'm going to tell him," Kankuro uncomprisingly tells Sakura later.

Kankuro's voice suddenly seems more distant than it really is for Sakura. Her mind mocks her when she tries to recall how she even ended up taking a seat in Kankuro's creepy room. How long had she been in here? What was the conversation before? She woke up and... and...

"Sakaasan."

Sakura jumps lightly in place before turning to look at Kankuro once she hears the old nickname. Her look is a lost one as Kankuro just stares and waits on her to reply.

"What-" Sakura slowly speaks before she swallows hard. "What did you say?"

"I said I'm going to tell Gaara once he returns," Kankuro grumbles while shaking his head at Sakura. "You're so pale. Like a corpse."

Sakura opens her mouth to counter, but why even argue? Why hide it from Gaara anymore? She seals her lips when she can't find an answer to her own reasons anymore.

"Can I tell Gaara now?" She wonders aloud.

It's Kankuro's turn to look at Sakura, questioning the mentality in front of him. Though he says nothing, Sakura has awoken looking more frayed than ever before to him.

"I should just..." Kankuro struggles with his words. "Just... I should just take you to a medic, you know?"

Kankuro's words are beginning to stutter again, and Sakura actually smiles lightly at the fact; despite the dismal display it also shows her.

"What will you do when the fighting ends, Kankuro?" Sakura asks again as her eyes stare out at nothing.

A man who functions with the corruption of the world, where fighting eases his mind; Sakura wonders what sort of toll peace will have on the puppeteer. A stress disorder, she already assumes. Maybe the nickname she heard earlier really was a slip.

'I will save him,' Sakura tells herself.

After she saves Gaara. After she saves the world. After she saves herself. These bizarre thoughts flash through her mind; a young, loving mind.

'You don't have enough time,' a womanly voice echoes.

She chooses to ignore the voices in her head.

To her question, Kankuro has been pondering innocently as Sakura stares blankly ahead with much thought.

"Maybe we all can go to Konoha once it all ends," Kankuro whispers his answer.

Sakura looks at the brunette but Kankuro's eyes turn to the side of him.

"Temari and I were so sad when you took Gaara to Konoha and not us... Maybe now we can all go together. After the fighting... you know?"

Kankuro's eyes trail back to Sakura to see her reaction. What Sakura offers is an amused smile of her own as she looks down towards the floor.

"You two cried and cried until I promised you," Sakura whispers as she recalls. "You were set to follow through with Gaara and destroy Konoha though. It's weird to hear you say you want to visit it now."

Sakura looks back up at Kankuro, skeptically, before the brunette lets out a nervous laugh.

"I've never been," he confesses. "I've been as close as the gates, but never inside."

Silence follows for some time.

"It's beautiful from what I've seen," Kankuro finally admits after the silence. "Very green."

Sakura is quiet as she ponders in thought.

"Was." Sakura whispers. "Suna was beautiful too. It's a shame that Gaara has destroyed it. I imagine he has destroyed many beautiful homes."

The rosette hopes the message is clear to Kankuro. It must be, for the brunette sits in silence before turning to work with chemicals on his desk.

"Gaara will build it up again," Kankuro finally tells Sakura. "We can make a new home there. For all of us."

The man who treasures family so much that he was willing to build a new home with Gaara, the same man who destroyed Kankuro's first home. The idea makes Sakura mind spin again.

"Alright," Sakura eventually gives in with a whisper. "Let's go to Konoha one day."

A happy thought, but as plausible as the idea might sound Sakura knows that day is far into the future.

"They protected you, you know," Kankuro suddenly speaks but does not turn away from his work.

Sakura looks towards Kankuro's back.

"When Gaara first sent his demands to Konoha, I know he asked for you."

Sakura looks up towards the dark, dirty ceiling in thought.

"They wouldn't know anything about me," Sakura truthfully tells Kankuro. "I have no family or friends in that village. They didn't defend me. They simply knew nothing about me."

"Then why bother-"

"Because it's home. It's where I was born. Even if everything about that village doesn't recognize me, I'll do what I can to save the place I love."

Kankuro is quiet as he continues to tinker at the random liquids in front of him and misses Sakura's next quiet whisper.

"The place I made memories with Gaara..."

"Then..." Kankuro begins. "You um, wouldn't happen to know much about the people there, right?"

Fumbling, nervous words spout from Kankuro suddenly, and Sakura looks around his dreary room. The gloomy, dark aspects of the area from her first visit begin to pop and stand out more for Sakura. Still, she speaks calmly.

"Right," she lies. "Was there something you needed to know about someone in Konoha?"

Sakura returns a question of her own; hoping to learn anything new and informative in the process.

"Were you uh...there at the time?" Kankuro begins again. "When the Kyubi was destroying your village?"

Sakura's eyes widen at the familiar story before her gaze narrows towards Kankuro's back.

'He's asking about Kurama,' Sakura thinks.

Her thoughts fall back to her friend Naruto who pretends to be someone else here on the island. Her blonde friend had warned her that Gaara was set after him with ill-intent. The reasoning behind it was left unsaid, but Kankuro's words now seem to seal the truth behind Naruto's claim.

'Gaara is after Naruto and Kurama...why?' Sakura wonders.

From Naruto's words, Sakura also takes into consideration that Gaara may be after so much more than what she or Naruto can fathom. When first brought to the island, Kankuro had promised Sakura he knew nothing of Gaara's true intentions, but now his words have her second-guessing.

"I was not," Sakura flatly comments. "I was gone from the village by that point."

Despite her answer, Kankuro whistles like he is impressed.

"What a battle that must have been," Kankuro lightly converses. "Seeing what the Ichibi has done, it's crazy to think what the one with nine tails could do, you know?"

Sakura begins to rock mentally at Kankuro's words. She wants to believe the brunette is genuinely curious of her village, but there is that doubt. The doubt Kankuro's younger brother has put into her on how to view the rest of the family in this home.

"But you know...for a village to have such a strong power. They never once set the Kyubi on us. I've never seen it."

Sakura's eyes turn to Kankuro's back before falling onto the liquids he pours at times. She spots his notepad and his inventiveness at the chemicals at hand.

'Experimenting,' Sakura assumes the brunette is doing. 'Poisons...for his puppets.'

The pieces in her mind come together quick.

"Am I to assume Gaara uses Shukaku often on his enemies?" Sakura asks,

When his answer doesn't come quick, Sakura looks up at the back of Kankuro's head while she waits patiently.

"...as a last resort," Kankuro comments in time. "Or, if it's someone who has really ticked him off. Sometimes his emotions get the better of him, and Shukaku comes out, you know?"

Sakura's eyes narrow. She hates the answer Kankuro gives her as it again paints Gaara as a tyrannical being. Visually she is given little, but always she hears the praise and gloating. Sakura catches Kankuro pause, and he shivers lightly through the corner of her eye.

"I hate seeing Gaara that upset..." Kankuro mumbles.

His voice is hushed in the silent room, and the rosette wonders if that last bit was meant for her to hear or just Kankuro losing himself in his thoughts. Sakura meanwhile reflects on the situation while watching the puppeteer play with chemicals and plants.

Konoha is safe, even with Matsuri saying it was their last area to conquer. So then, where has Gaara gone off to, and why so sudden? If peace is achievable, why did he set off to depart immediately after his declaration to her that Konoha was safe? Not only that, if conquest was his only goal then why chase after Naruto and Kurama?

"Is Shukaku the only tailed beast you've actually seen?" Sakura questions as her eyes stare out in front of her.

Kankuro pauses in the midst of pouring one liquid into another, and Sakura turns to look at his back as he holds his pose for a good few seconds. In time, he spins on his seat to face the rosette with a firm stare and contemplating frown. He clears his throat before his eyes shrink at Sakura.

"No," Kankuro comments with some apprehension. "I've seen others."

"Others?" Sakura presses.

Her eyes widen slightly to Kankuro as she attempts to inform him that she knows his answer is vague. In turn, suspicion falls onto both of them as they stare each other down skeptically.

"Others," Kankuro answers stern and flat.

"Which others?" Sakura's voice becomes a little more demanding.

Her eyes narrow to match Kankuro's own. Yet, instead of an answer, the puppeteer just keeps his gaze set on Sakura as he taps his fingers together in thought. Sakura's heart begins to race as she anticipates an answer. Time is still her enemy here, and it is beginning to make her grow more anxious. She swears she feels the scar on her back burn, and that sensation; that reminder that she has an actual timer on her, has her blurting out without thought.

"Which ones are still alive?!" She asks with some bark to her voice.

Her question has Kankuro standing tall from his seat, and tightening his eyes towards Sakura. She returns just as hard of a stare when the young man rounds on her.

"Gaara told you?" Kankuro demands doubtingly.

Sakura swallows hard.

'Don't dig yourself into a hole,' she reminds herself. 'Naruto's life is at stake here.'

Sakura nods to Kankuro with angry eyes still but casts her gaze away when Kankuro's eyes continue to shrink and scrutinize her.

"Nothing more though..." Sakura lies.

Kankuro gives a light laugh; a scoff. An amused look replaces his face now while looking down darkly at Sakura.

"You know..." Kankuro begins before sighing and turning his head to the side.

Sakura looks back up at Kankuro as a turmoil begins brewing inside of him. He looks upset, but doesn't seem to have a person to direct that anger inside him. He chews on his lip while thinking deeply before muttering to Sakura in almost a silent breath.

"Did he say if he would stop? That he'll leave the others alone or something, you know?"

Sakura's face drops, and her eyes widen.

'It's true then! What Naruto was telling me...'

Not that she doubted her old friend, but the rosette can't be too careful. After all, a young boy full of love ended up as the poster child of a world at war. Sakura lets her face fall to that tired look when she feels Kankuro's eyes focusing on her.

"He told me nothing more," Sakura repeats.

Looking up at the brunette, the young woman's eyes waver to Kankuro's own unsettled expression. Sakura licks her lips as time passes.

"Which ones has he-"

"I can't," Kankuro quickly cuts Sakura off. "If Gaara hasn't told you then it's not my place to say."

Sakura's eyes narrow while watching Kankuro return to his poisons. She huffs lightly.

'Gaara and Naruto were like brothers. They bonded through their similar experiences...' Sakura sourly thinks.

Her lips roll back in anger. They were like brothers in her world, but like Kankuro in front of her, Gaara seems to want to make those who were close to him his most hated of enemies.

'I won't let him touch a hair on Naruto's head,' Sakura thinks bitterly.

But then, why would Gaara seek him out any longer, she wonders. With Konoha safe, Gaara's word to lead destruction away from her home certainly categorizes Naruto in there as well.

"He has no more reason to kill," Sakura whispers tiredly to herself.

Glass hitting glass turns her attention back to Kankuro's hunched figure as he continues mixing chemicals.

"There's no more reason to kill..." Sakura repeats to herself.

'So then, why is Kankuro continuing to make poisons?' She wonders.

Her eyes focus. She is doing her best to believe in Gaara and his promise, but she holds so much animosity towards him that even the smallest of doubts are convincing her otherwise. Even Naruto wasn't entirely persuaded when Sakura mentioned that Gaara was done with the fighting.

'Naruto,' Sakura thinks of the blonde.

She wonders how her treasured friend will get off this island unnoticed. Above that, the rosette wants to learn why Naruto is here, and of his strategy. Does he plan to continue to move forward with whatever he is planning?

'Will he hurt Gaara?' She ponders this too.

Countless lives and homes have been decimated by Gaara... and yet, the rosette gets an awful taste in her mouth at the thought of him dying. She pictures Gaara's child self reaching for her with a cry for kakigori and a tight hug.

"Damn it," Sakura mumbles under her breath when conflicting emotions rush through her heart.

Sakura can only hope that Gaara and Naruto never meet, at least not until she learns each of their intentions for the other. Because, in the end, if Sakura is to witness them fighting to the death she isn't sure who she would help to save.

'No,' Sakura thinks to herself. 'I won't let that happen.'

She swallows hard as her gaze picks back up to Kankuro and his abrupt, ominous laughter. The brunette's laughter fills the room as it grows louder. He looks triumphantly at a liquid under him while Sakura drags her drained eyes back in front of her as she listens.

She has grown accustom to the dark cackles, and could care less of the atrocious poison that Kankuro has created. With time, the brunette's maniacal laughter stops, but he wears a proud smile still while glancing back at Sakura. At the sight of her, Kankuro clears his throat, and calms his demeanor.

"A breakthrough," He explains, even though Sakura doesn't ask.

She is too tired to even care, so instead she offers him kind words.

"Congratulations," She mutters in a low breath.

The weight of her dilemma returns to Kankuro as he hears her half-hearted hail. The puppeteer sighs before setting aside his accomplishment.

"We should um... you know... maybe get you some fresh air or food or... something," He speaks. "I might just bring a medic here myself."

Sakura doesn't even turn or acknowledge his words. She gives a thousand yard stare out in front of her as if she has heard nothing, and the bleak sight of her struggling just to sit upright in front of him causes Kankuro to take a seat next to her.

"Sakura," He calls out to her when his close presence doesn't even rouse her enough to look at him.

Sakura's sight turns to Kankuro, surprised to see him so close, and with concern in his gaze while his glass eye reflects her silhouette. He places a gentle hand on the rosette's shoulder, causing Sakura to immediately recoil. It makes the brunette's eyes widen as his hand remains frozen in the exact spot that he had touched.

The rosette isn't sure why she pulled back. She has just grown tired, and it was routine to pull away from touching, she supposes. She is also grown weary of these constant scenarios and ideas, not knowing if the person in front of her is a good guy or bad one.

"...You hate me that much, huh?" Kankuro whispers.

Sakura doesn't acknowledge Kankuro until he speaks again.

"Sakaasan."

Sakura gasps and her unkempt eyes quickly meet with Kankuro's. She stares into his one real eye while trying to convince herself that the person in front of her was once…

'He was a sweet boy. Timid,' She thinks. 'Unlike now... but he was kind. He just wanted to be Gaara's friend. He just wanted their small family to work. He just wanted-!'

Sakura swallows hard when another womanly voice speaks in her mind.

'He just wants to be loved by you.'

Not in the romantic way that Gaara tries to force between her and himself, but Sakura can genuinely see that Kankuro, even older than her now, strives for her approval; for her attention; for her love.

"You know, I'm really trying," Kankuro puts with a tired sigh. "I'm trying to make Temari happy. I'm trying to make Gaara happy, and I'm trying to make you..."

Kankuro slows his words while Sakura shakes her head, and smiles sadly at the brunette.

"You can't," Sakura confesses. "But it's not because of you. It's because of this war, because of this uncertainty for my home and the rest of the world... it's because of your brother."

Like every other time, Kankuro counters.

"He does this for a better world, you know?" Kankuro's voice rises. "He does this so we can live happily. If you asked, he'd probably say he is doing it for you."

Sakura sneers as she turns her head away from Kankuro. When push comes to shove the puppeteer is like a boulder. His pride and decision stands with his little brother, and Sakura is beginning to accept that she simply cannot convince this man, or anyone else here that follows Gaara, that what the redhead does is evil.

"It's because you've been exposed far too long to war," Sakura murmurs.

These are her thoughts, but she speaks them out just to make sure that what she says makes as much sense spoken as it does in her mind. As that thought settles in, Kankuro is silent and still looking at her, Sakura nods with a new understanding.

"The adults in this war, the ones making these drastic decisions now, were only children when the fighting began," Sakura continues.

Silence. Only silence from Kankuro as he watches Sakura's eyes shift all around as her thought process continues.

"Fifteen years of fighting..." Sakura whispers before she looks at Kankuro with apology in her look.

Guilt is strong in her for leaving behind children, and friends who were handed blades after her departure.

"You've been fighting for most of your life. You know nothing of peace..." Sakura whispers.

Her voice stops but her mouth remains open as her eyes scour across Kankuro's worn face. He has a face of war while Sakura's is that of peace, and that thought makes the rosette wonder for a brief moment.

'What would have happened if I was born into this world?'

Would she be a woman grown full of love like today, or would the evils of this world overtake her kind heart like it has clearly done to Gaara? To her, it's no wonder why everyone in the world keeps on fighting while looking at Gaara like he is god-sent. He promises to end the fighting, to bring peace in his vision. Who wouldn't follow a man who promises paradise over the dead bodies of family and friends? Did anyone else stand up, and beg for the war to end? To that question, a darker thought comes to Sakura's mind.

'Did Gaara dispose of those who stood for peace? Is this his way of getting rid of the competition? Why does he even want an entire world?'

He has a vision, but Sakura isn't sure what it all entails. Especially now, with his promise to her that Konoha will remain safe.

"The things you think Gaara will give you, are you sure that's what you want?" Sakura questions with a shaky breath.

She watches as Kankuro's eyes narrow towards her inquiry. He looks offended at first, but as Sakura's stare only remains on him while waiting on an answer the brunette eventually breaks down and tears his gaze away from her before letting it bounce from wall to wall in deep thought.

"Of course it is," Kankuro mumbles under his breath. "I just want it to be like when we were young and-"

"But we aren't young anymore," Sakura cuts him off with a shake of her head.

That apologetic look only deepens when Sakura grasps what it is she needs to remind Kankuro of.

"It cannot, and will never, go back to how it was fifteen years ago," Sakura spells it out to him.

The rosette is wide-eyed once Kankuro abruptly stands and turns a glare in her direction. He looks ruffled, and anger drips from him as he speaks.

"It can, and it will," He drags out the last word.

Sakura continues to shake her head as her heart drops for the broken man in front of her.

"You are no longer a child, Kankuro," Sakura elaborates. "That innocence that kept you going is gone."

Kankuro huffs before pacing bitterly in his room back and forth.

"No," He repeats to Sakura. "That's not true. We are all still alive, and now you're back! It can go back to the way it was back then. It will because-"

"The way your brother looks at me now is not the way he looked at me as a child!" Sakura cries at Kankuro.

Sakura's words cause Kankuro to stop his steps. This time, as he turns to look at her, he looks distraught. A look that tells Sakura that these are things the brunette would rather not dwell on.

"He..." Kankuro tries for. "He loved you back then just like he does-"

Sakura wants to sneer at Kankuro's suggestion.

"Love to him has been warped. What he does now, what he claims... it's far from loving."

Sakura's eyes fall as another thought comes to her.

"Do you also wish for me to become your mother still?" Sakura asks. "It's what you wanted as a child."

Kankuro swallows hard as his eyes divert from Sakura's hard stare. When the immediate answer isn't any opposition to her question, Sakura scoffs.

"Perhaps, you are still a child," she murmurs with distaste. "There's nothing more frightening than a child unafraid of war and manslaughter."

Yet, as she speaks those words does some guilt return to the rosette. As Kankuro is today, wishful for a past that he cannot have, his goal is at least to have a happy ending whereas she is sure Gaara could care less of the dreadful outcome this war will bring. As the young kunoichi looks back at the brunette, she can see the impact of her words as he stares at her with anxious eyes.

"Your mother, Karura...I doubt these were the proud moments she spoke of in her song-"

Sakura goes wide-eyed as Kankuro suddenly hollers at her.

"You don't know that! You didn't know her!"

Before Sakura can speak or counter in any way, Kankuro points an accusing finger at her and cries out the loudest she has heard. His gaze opens frightfully with the whites of his eyes showing bright as he takes a step closer.

"I barely even knew her!"

Kankuro's breaths come out heavy while his stare remains round on Sakura. The rosette looks back at him; alarmed but not frightened. There is silence between the two before Sakura's face falls once she understands Kankuro's underlying words:

Karura is a woman never met by Sakura, and the brunette is tired in her assumption of what his own mother would have wanted from her children. Kankuro's words are true and do cause Sakura to ponder for a moment.

'Would she be proud of Gaara today?'

These thoughts make the pain in Sakura's head worsen, and she shrinks her tired eyes before looking away from Kankuro.

"I'm sorry," Sakura whispers after some time. "I don't mean to chastise you every moment we have together. I'm just so-

"Tired," Kankuro finishes with a lift of his chin. "Yeah... I know."

Sakura bites her cheek. Is Kankuro implying that he knows Sakura's berating comments now are caused by her fatigue? All of a sudden, she feels like the child who will next be told to take her nap because she is grumpy. Her face must fall to a sad one as she stares down to the floor.

In a short moment, Kankuro is drawing close to her and pulls his chair next to hers. Before Sakura can look back at him, she feels the weight of his head rest against her shoulder. She tenses at the touch, and she knows Kankuro must feel her body stiffen. Still, he keeps his head on her as his brown locks tickle at her skin. Though outwardly calm, Sakura panics inside her mind.

'Please,' She begs in her head. 'Please don't let him be like Gaara. Please don't let him confess feelings he doesn't understand.'

Sakura remains frozen, as does Kankuro. In time, the rosette does lax some while listening to Kankuro sigh against her.

'He loves you,' a voice in Sakura's head speaks; causing panic in her once more.

Yet, her racing heart is calmed by the next words in her ever flowing mind.

'Just like when he was young.'

And as Sakura focuses on Kankuro's contact, though the act alone can speak many things, she understands Kankuro's feeling towards her.

"I don't want you to think of me as your mother," Sakura reminds Kankuro.

She feels the brunette tense under her this time, but before he pulls away Sakura lays her head on his. She keeps him in place and smiles when she hears his unsure breathing grow.

"...A friend... I'm happy to stay as for you," She finishes.

Kankuro gives a light chuckle before nodding against Sakura's shoulder.

"All I want is for you not to hate me. Us," Kankuro adds. "I know it's silly, but you know, I do wish things could go back. I want you to tell us you love us, and hold us like you did back then..."

Sakura's heart sinks to Kankuro's words. Though, even if the words are sentimental, and do rock Sakura's emotions, she also knows that the brunette's wishes are childish. If only she could break past his nostalgia for an old life he will never have again.

"I do not hate you, Kankuro," Sakura reassures him. "None of you have warranted my hate, just my disappointment."

"But Gaara-" Kankuro begins again before Sakura cuts him off loudly.

"Gaara is who I am most disappointed in."

She feels Kankuro tense again and speaks to ease him.

"...But I do not hate him. In fact, I care enough to want to help him."

Silence comes as the words sink in for the puppet master and his head remains in place next to Sakura's own.

"This is why I do not run."

Kankuro swallows to what he hears while Sakura stares out distantly in front of her with weary eyes.

In time, the rosette's eyes shrink as she recalls a young Gaara's toothless grin.

"Funny," Sakura randomly comments. "How we are all here now because of Gaara. Because we love him in a way he just does not comprehend at the moment."

Kankuro sighs before lifting his head and staring straight out along with Sakura. He is quiet as he listens to the tired woman babble on.

"It's what made me stay all those years ago..."

Kankuro's eyes widen to Sakura's words and he turns his head to stare at her profile.

"You're very kind, Sakura," Kankuro whispers to her. "You loved Gaara enough to stay before even knowing him or understanding what you were getting into."

Truth and lies. What the brunette tells Sakura is essentially true, but on her end…

"No," Sakura comments and shakes her head. "I loved Gaara because I knew he was a child with potential. Every child has that. Every child has a means to grow into a better person and it broke my heart to think no one in the world would help Gaara down that path."

Kankuro's gaze wavers lightly as he listens to Sakura continue.

"Out of the entire world, why couldn't anyone reach out to Gaara and help him? Why is it, fifteen years later, I'm still trying to teach him what love is?" Sakura scoffs lightly and shakes her head while looking down at her hands.

"Everyone tells me I'm in the wrong here. That Gaara is doing good," Sakura murmurs weakly to herself.

She stares at her hands, and flexes her fingers. Her sight glazes over, and her mind becomes distant.

"Maybe... my vision of love is all wrong," Sakura confesses.

Kankuro's eyes widen and he opens his mouth to refute Sakura's claims, but chokes when he spots a single tear roll down the rosette's face. Sakura doesn't even make an attempt at brushing the wet trail away. She makes no indication that she even felt her eye water.

"I just wish I knew... and this seal is stealing my time towards figuring it all out."

The rosette's words are heavy and they make Kankuro both want to reach out to reassure her, and also too nervous to say a word. Some light is shed onto Kankuro and the young woman's perspective and views. One thing is certain in his mind, that Sakura's love is there and strong for him and his siblings.

Yet, in return their actions and cause are literally killing her.

They speak to Sakura of their plans for the world, but she disapproves of their goals with a loud voice.

Kankuro hears of his brother's pushiness for a beautiful, romantic love with Sakura, which has the rosette spitting back in disgust.

The brunette looks at Sakura the same way he did as a child, but her emerald eyes on his only ever show pain and disappointment.

It hits the puppeteer then, suddenly, how Sakura sacrificed so much for their happiness as children while they are literally wearing her down now trying to convince her of their visions while belittling her.

'...That's not right,' Kankuro's mind finally clicks and tells him.

The brunette's eyes widen as realization dawns on him. A new awareness suddenly makes his heart race, and his mouth slowly opens and drops once he finally understands Sakura's views a little better.

'This isn't right!' His mind screams at him to say.

To act.

But before he can do it, before he can tell Sakura a word, there is a knock on his door.