"Where the hell are they?" Jiraiya muttered to himself as he wandered with Tsunade through the side gardens. "Did they manage to escape with the Akatsuki?"

"Kami-sama, I hope so," she groaned. "Who knows where that bastard could be hiding."

"My my my, what a reunion!" A smooth, sultry voice made them turn, only to see a pale-white man with long black hair and reptilian gold eyes.

"Orochimaru," Tsunade greeted in shock. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"All a part of dear old Madara's plan," he explained with a chuckle. "Except I'm taking his prize out from under his nose - he won't reincarnate the real Uchiha Madara if I get to little Prince Sasuke first!"

"What of Uchiha Madara?" Jiraiya demanded. "Why would he try that barbaric technique? I thought the knowledge was sealed away with the honorable Tobirama's death!"

"That's what you were led to believe," Orochimaru hissed as he summoned a snake from his mouth. "Anyway, it's a shame that I have to cut this short by killing you here, but I've got a new vessel to take."

"The hell you will!" Tsunade growled, raising her hands.

The seal on her forehead began to glow, and slowly, black lines began to wrap around her body from her face down to her ankles.

She smirked at Jiraiya, nodded to him, and tossed him her travelling cloak.

"Hold my coat," she instructed, pressing a kiss to his cheek before jumping at Orochimaru.

He was stunned for a moment as he pressed a hand to the spot, before he barked a laugh.

"Kick his ass, baby! I've got your coat," he cheered as she landed her first hit.


"Halt!" Sasuke ordered as a band of eleven guards rushed to them. "State your business!"

The leader stepped forward, grinning at the teenager.

"Show's over, kids," he drawled, spitting out his cigarette and grinding it into the grass with his shoe. "I've got orders from the queen to round you up by any means necessary, although if you ask me, I'd prefer dead than alive."

Naruto growled, smacking his fist into his palm. "You messed with the wrong people then! We're gonna kick your ass seven ways to Sunday!"

"Don't try anything rash," Shien warned, getting into a battle stance.

Sasuke rolled his eyes, activating the Sharingan. "Stay back, unless you wanna be in the splash zone."

His cold tone hit her harder than she expected, and she winced back as one of the guards took a peek at her.

"Hey, I know you!" She exclaimed, her eyes lighting up in recognition. "You're that girl that was summoned to the king's private rooms! Shame that we have to meet again in battle, but honestly... it doesn't matter enough to me now."

In an instant the warm look on the older woman's face disappeared, and as Naruto and Sasuke leapt forward, one of the guards dodged out of the way and rapidly threw handsigns before slapping Sasuke's forehead as the boy ran at him. Almost immediately, a black mark appeared and he fell to the ground yelling in pain.

"What did you do?!" Naruto roared, throwing a punch at the back of the man's head.

"Would you relax a little, kid?" He snarled back, dodging to the side and just as swiftly kneed him in the stomach, sending him to the ground with a pained wheeze. "You're actin' like I killed him! Heh, not yet. Just sealed up that malicious chakra so that we can have an easier time with you two."

He paused, before whirling around, leg raised. "Starting with the prince!"

With one swift move, he kicked the boy so hard he flew into the wall, crumpling against it with a scream. He fell to the ground in an agonized pile, and as Naruto watched his best friend's blood begin trickling down his face, the blond snapped.

He shrieked as loudly as his voice could allow, the sound becoming guttural as he dashed at the guards, already priming his hands. As he made the handseals for a cloning technique, one of the guards countered with a tongue of fire from her mouth, her eyes lighting up in malicious delight as she watched half of the clones disappear in a cloud of smoke.

Not easily deterred, Naruto shouted "Rasengan!" and leapt at another. The guard threw a punch that connected with a sick crack on the side of his cheek, sending him flying back. The Rasengan dissipated in his hands, and he made a pained moan as he struggled to sit up.

Sakura gasped sharply as Sasuke staggered to his feet, dazedly wiping the blood from his nose with his sleeve. He shot her a look as she took a step forward, to which she faltered.

"Don't interfere," he shouted as he braced himself against the palace wall. "Leave them to me!"

"You're gonna get yourself killed!" She argued back, clenching her fist.

He didn't reply, merely giving a sardonic smile as he threw a punch at the next guard that ran at him. He succeeded in cuffing the guy clean in the jaw, sending him to the grass. He stomped down on the guy's helmet for good measure, relishing in the dull clang it made as it dented heavily under his weight.

"Even without my chakra, I can still kick your ass," he commented dryly. "I hate to speak ill of Father, but if this is his best, I worry for what our future could have been."

"Believe me, Prince, you'll have more to worry about in a second." The leader chuckled, jumping at him with a layer of chakra about his hand. It was all too familiar to Shien, and she gasped aloud.

"What the hell... that's a technique I've only seen medics use! Does that mean...?!"

"He's using his chakra as a sword!" She shouted. "Be careful you don't touch it!"

"Didn't have to tell us that," Sasuke snapped as he ducked. The chakra skimmed the top of his hair and he grit his teeth when he saw a couple of strands fall to the grass.

Naruto grunted as he got up. He spared a glance at the girl. "Sorry, Shien... I'd like it better if you didn't interfere."

"I won't sit idly by while you get your asses kicked!" She protested as another guard threw a punch at them. He was quickly subdued by a kick to the chest, to which he flew into the wall, hit his head, and fell unconscious.

"You fight, and I banish you," Sasuke threatened half-heartedly as he sustained a kick to his hip. He grunted in pain, holding his injured left arm.

"You can't banish someone if you've got no throne," Naruto joked, ducking under a punch and delivering an uppercut to the jaw. Another guard down.

"Not the time!" The Uchiha retorted as the guard wound up his arm. The man threw a punch, and Sasuke braced himself for the inevitable pain.

Instead, Shien threw herself forward, catching the fist with her hand. She glared hatefully into his sneering face and pumped chakra into her hand as she clenched it.

Naruto and Sasuke watched in shock as the guard went down screaming, the bones in his hand shattered. He cradled his broken hand to his chest and hissed, "You- little- bitch!"

"I've heard worse," she coldly replied, jumping up and delivering a groundbreaking punch to the grass.

Almost immediately, the shockwave sent the group stumbling back, and Sasuke braced himself against the palace wall as she stood there, watching as the guard was knocked out.

"You've got seven left!" She called out. "For the record, I'm not gonna hesitate to save you from cheap tricks like that, so banish me all you'd like."

With a wry smile, she leapt out of the way, putting up a barrier around herself as she watched the fighting. She healed the minor scrapes on her knuckles and watched on as Naruto, filled with new vigor, let out a victorious shout and slammed down onto a guard's head, kicking them to the ground. Six.

Sasuke took a moment, staring at the fallen guard. Then, slowly, he turned his head to her and gave her a grin. A genuine warmth lit up his eyes as they made eye-contact.

"... It's good to have you back." He said before turning back to the horde. As soon as he locked eyes with the leader (suddenly two feet away), he was kicked in the face, sending him back against the wall with a gut-twisting crack. His head slammed against it, and he was out cold on the ground in only two seconds.

"SASUKE!" Shien screamed. She dropped the barrier and ran to his side. She picked up his head from the ground and was horrified to touch the back of his head and recoil at the stickiness. She pulled her fingers away and saw faint red splotches on her fingers. Her stomach churned with nausea.

"Sasuke?!" Naruto gasped, turning only to get whacked by a spear.

"Don't let your guard down!" The guard crowed, thrusting it forward.

Naruto barely dodged the blade and jumped away.

"No no no no no," she chanted, shaking him. "C'mon Sasuke, wake up!"

He remained down even as she lay his head on her knees. His face was blank, almost peaceful, but she didn't want to think of what she would do if he'd one-hit-killed himself.

She hovered her hands over his head and probed with medical chakra, searching. When she found no internal bleeding, she sighed in relief. But then her dread returned when she realized that he could've had another brain injury.

"With a blow to the head like that, I'd be hard-pressed to believe otherwise," she thought to herself worriedly. With a moan of anguish, she gently lay his head on the grass and pulled up a barrier around his unconscious form. She stepped away, wiping off some of the residual blood on her shorts and cracking her knuckles.

When a guard ran to her, she panicked, wasting no time in delivering a sucker-punch straight to his nose, supposedly breaking it on impact. He shrieked in pain as she turned, bringing up her leg to kick him in the side of the neck, the man flying to the side.

She stared down at her hand, which had a redness on her knuckles from where she'd hit. She flexed it twice before slowly looking up again. She grit her teeth, narrowing her eyes at them.

Naruto was battling his wounds and the guards, each hit from him costing him two of theirs. Still he didn't falter, his face twisted in rage.

She clenched her fists. Whenever the fighting happened, she'd always been left on the sidelines. Tsunade had recited the rules of being a medic nin to her once, and it had sparked a hatred for them that never rested.

"It's always me who has to stand and watch others save the day...!" She growled to herself. "I can't just watch while Naruto and Sasuke go down fighting to save me... not after all I've done!"

She felt her chakra spike in tandem with her emotions. It pulsed with the rising tears to her eyes. It shuddered when she clenched her teeth together.

"I'm always the one hurting others! I'm always the one fucking everything up!"

She felt something within her tightening, much like a coil. It almost felt akin to the buildup to an orgasm as it bubbled eagerly in her chest and made her stomach do flips.

"Because of me, Sasuke could be dying! This is all my fault!"

Just a little more... She could feel something growing inside her, something that pushed against her bones and sang with the promise of power. If she could just push it a little further...!

"Well I refuse to be the bad guy any longer! This time, I'LL be the one whose back they watch!"

The coil snapped, and all at once a euphoric feeling overtook her whole body before receding into her forehead. It crashed against her body in waves, and she could feel it roar past her like the spray of an ocean mist. She clenched her fists and threw her head back, the air whipping about her as her chakra stirred the air to action. A rhombus, a glowing pale green as her medical chakra, was left, and the spike in her level and her loud groan of euphoria caused the guards to look over, numb in terror.

Even Naruto, who was currently holding a guard by the collar of her shirt, turned to stare, dumbfounded, as she gathered power into her fists with an echoing chortle. "S- Shien...!"

She turned to give them a wide-eyed, manic grin. Her fists were clenched tightly, and a swirling fog of blue energy flickered about like the flames of a bonfire.

"Oh-ho YEAH!" She hollered in glee, smashing her fist at the ground. "CHA-NA-ROOOOO!"

The ground exploded around her, sending shrapnel - and the guards with them - flying in all directions. It managed to miss both Sasuke and Naruto, the former of whom was still surprisingly unconscious.

Naruto blanched, his face shriveling up in abject horror. at what he was witnessing. "Holy shit, holy fuck, wh- what is this power?!"

She clenched her fist and smirked in satisfaction at the faint blue glow before turning to Sasuke's crumpled form. Her joy dissipated as she went to his side again. "Sasuke!"

She rushed to his side, willing medical chakra to her fingertips as she gently touched his forehead. "C'mon, wake up...!"

After a couple of seconds, he let out a low moan of pain, his eyes squinting in the sunlight. His forehead was hot to the touch, and as she suspected, his pupils looked unfocused.

When they shifted upwards, he caught sight of her relieved face. "Oh thank the gods! I thought you'd sustained significant brain damage! Turns out you're most likely experiencing a concussion."

"Whaz...?" He slurred, looking around in bleary confusion and pain. "Did we... win?"

"We won," Naruto confirmed, walking over and doubling over as he panted for air. "You should've seen it, Teme! She just freakin' Saitama'd the guards!"

Sasuke looked up again to see the diamond. He grinned weakly. "You... unlocked it, finally..."

She laughed shakily, brushing his bangs away from his face. "How'd you know about that...?"

"I told him," Naruto confided. "When I saw Granny Tsunade running around, I put two-and-two together."

"You're... really strong," Sasuke softly complimented, reaching up to touch the glowing diamond. His fingertips tapped gingerly against her skin, and she reached up to take his hand in hers.

For a long, tender moment, the two gazed into each other's eyes. His were gentle, with an almost childlike wonder as he smiled up at her. She hadn't truly seen him look at her - her , not her Shien persona - like that since they were innocent children.

Then, just as quickly as it happened, it was over, and she blinked.

"We need to get you two out of here," she suddenly remembered. Hooking her left arm under his knees and supporting his back with her right, she glanced over at Naruto. "You need help getting to the exit? I could always carry you both over my shoulder."

Naruto sweatdropped, laughing nervously with raised hands, "Ah- ha, uh no thank you, Shien. I can walk. I promise."

She eyed him suspiciously, but let it go and led him to the crumbled wall to the outside.

She heard faint yelling and perked up. "Oh, Tsunade!"

"Let's go!" Naruto cheered. "I haven't seen her in so long!"

They hurried around the corner to the courtyard, where they stopped short, dumbfounded at Tsunade sitting on Orochimaru's unconscious body, tying her leaf hitai-ate around her arm again.

"Lady Tsunade!" Shien called out.

Tsunade whipped around, grinning at her. "Sakura, you made it! And with the prince and Naruto, too!"

Behind, Naruto stopped dead in his tracks at the name.

"S- Sakura-chan?" He stammered. "H- hey, Granny, I know you've been out of the kingdom since Mom and Dad died, but… don't joke like that…"

Tsunade's face fell and Shien- no, Sakura stiffened before him.

As she looked back at him, her eyes full of pain and fear, suddenly everything made sense.

"You… aren't kidding…?" Naruto softly continued.

"Whaz…?" Sasuke murmured, eyelids fluttering open for a moment before closing again.

Sakura remained silent as she shifted her hold on the prince before turning to Naruto.

"Hi, Naruto," she awkwardly replied.

The blond was dumbstruck before tears began filling his eyes. He stumbled forward into her and wrapped his arms around her shoulders, bowing his head so that her shoulder hid his red face from sight.

Sakura looked from him to Tsunade in surprise, but the blonde's soft, sympathetic smile made her relax.

Jiraiya cleared his throat and held up a hand in greeting, grinning crookedly at the trio. "Long time no see, Naruto."

"Pervy Sage!" Naruto brushed the tears from his cheeks and ran forward to hug him tight. "I haven't seen you since Mom and Dad!"

Jiraiya's eyes grew saddened for a few seconds at the memory before he laughed, finally noticing the way Sasuke was being carried. "Looks like you just couldn't wait to get hitched, eh? Here comes the bride!"

Sakura blinked before looking down and realizing. Sasuke was still out of it, blinking blearily and staring lazily at her.

Her face flushed red and she squeaked, handing him off to Tsunade to hide her mortification. "I- I- I-!"

"Geez, you could give Kushina a run for her money with that red face!" Jiraiya's laugh boomed as he clapped a hand on her shoulder. "Don't sweat it, kid, I'm just kidding."

"Don't joke about getting married yet, you lecher!" Sakura groaned, glaring half-heartedly at him through her beet-red face. "I just got my cover blown!"

"Ah yes, speaking of blown covers," Tsunade flatly chimed in, giving the Uchiha prince a dissatisfied frown. "We're gonna need to do something about our little interloper here. Any bright ideas besides late-stage regicide?"

"Lady Tsunade!" Sakura hissed, folding her arms across her chest.

"Granny!" Naruto chimed in with her, giving the older woman a wounded look.


A/N: Thus ends the castle arc. We're almost to the end!