Just after midnight, the group from Morino, exhausted and hungry, arrived at an area close to the huge gates of Konohagakure.

Sakura brightened when she saw Tsunade sitting at the base of a tree, a bottle of water in her hand. She rushed towards her mentor and all but collapsed into her waiting arms, the blonde setting the canteen aside to give her a warm, tight hug.

"I'm so glad to see you all safe," she announced with a tired smile as the rest caught up.

Hinoki nodded. "And same to you. I'm sorry we couldn't have helped you more."

"It's not a problem; luckily we'd already arranged for Akatsuki to escort us there in case of an emergency." She chuckled as Deidara and Sasori paused in their quiet chat to walk over.

"For now, you should set up camp," Sasori's bored voice made everyone look over. He gestured to the canopy. "This should be far enough away that you won't be detected, nor will you have a long journey to the gates."

"Good thinking, I'm dead on my feet," Ino groaned as she flopped down next to Tsunade.


A while later, Sakura sat up in a tree very near the wall, arms wrapped around her knees as she stared solemnly at the starry sky.

The group had finished setting up about an hour ago, and Tsunade had quickly assured the group that they'd need to work on the infiltration mission as soon as they could. Tomorrow was to be the day that she and Hinoki would venture into Konoha under aliases - Sakura as the recently-deceased Hayashi Shien, and Hinoki as one of her cousins (long-since migrated to another town, who graciously gave them a copy of her ID card), Hayashi Anami. They were to scope things out before they headed in to see the king - and she was terrified of what she would find inside.

She dropped her chin to rest on her knees, closing her eyes. "I can't believe it's all happening so fast… It's not even been three weeks since Hinata joined and already the Plan is going to be underway. I… I don't know if I'm emotionally strong enough yet to face him again."

Tears burned her eyes, but she didn't wipe them away as they trickled slowly down her cheeks. "Not to mention… Mom and Dad…"

She'd ached to see her parents again in the flesh, face-to-face, ever since she defected. She missed her mother's cooking, she missed her father's boisterous laugh, she missed her cousins and her aunt and uncle… she missed everyone so terribly she often cried herself to sleep when she was younger.

Even now the thought of being so close to her family made her heart clench in anguish.

"I need to be strong… Aunt Tsunade taught me to be strong." She opened her eyes and brushed away her tears, looking back up at the sky. "I'll put an end to this. I can… I can do this."

Somewhere below her, a boy wandered close by, staring in puzzlement at a trail of weeping pale-blue flowers, their vibrant petals catching his eye even in the dark.

Moondrops, they were called, named due to the way they resembled the droplets of liquidized moonbeams that had been spoken about in mythologies; a night-blooming flower that had been considered all but extinct ever since the Senju were hunted down and killed decades before. Many had tried to find them and try to replicate their DNA, but they were so rare that it was nigh impossible.

Sasuke stroked the soft petals and wondered. "I thought Ino's flower encyclopedias stated that this flower only blooms in December due to their preference for extreme winter conditions. What is this doing here, in summer?"

He looked around, but the trail stopped cold in the middle of the path. He sighed, reaching down and plucking a few to take back to the castle with him.

He never noticed the stricken girl crying above him, nor did he notice that the flowers he carried slowly began to droop even more, wilting slowly with each second they were carried away from her tree.


A/N: And we finally get to the royal capital! We're close to the Palace Arc!

Please tell me what you thought!