"Why can't we just put an end to this fight?" Senji asked her as he brought another casualty into the medical bay.

"Because that's not our mission. Our mission is solely to be medical ninja and heal their wounded. Besides, this is a matter between clans, we can't intervene." She was using her chakra to heal one of the injured.

"This sucks. We've been here almost a month now!" His irritation grew by the minute.

"I know. But it is what it is. We can only hope this will be over soon."

A few days later, they were granted their wish and the war was over. It made no difference to them who won, they had completed their mission. They raced back to Konoha as fast as they could. By this point they knew they had already missed the first half at least. Just as they were approaching the outskirts of the village they found bodies. One of which... belonged to the Kazekage.

"This is bad. We need to warn the Hokage immediately." They approached the arena and the match between Gaara and Sasuke was already underway. Gaara was having a conversation with the Shukaku inside him and was becoming unstable. It was as if he was fighting for his own sanity. He calmed down a little when he saw Saori. She was torn with who to cheer for. On the one hand, she's close to Gaara, but on the other Sasuke is from her village.

"Saori... how are we going to get the message to the Hokage, when the imposter is right next to him, along with Anbu?" Saito looked up to where the Hokage and fake Kazekage were sitting.

"I don't know, but we need to think of something, and fast. But we also need to make sure not to draw attention to ourselves." Meanwhile Sasuke was dodging Gaara's sand with lightning speed. "For now, all we can do is just watch the match." Sasuke kneed Gaara in the stomach. "Hm. I'll give Sasuke credit. He's clearly done a lot of training in the past month, I can tell he's improved."

"Yeah, but do you think he stands a chance against Gaara?" Saito asked her.

"That... is something I don't know. See, I know just how strong Gaara is, whereas Sasuke, I know he has potential, but how much of that potential has he achieved?"

"I see. So it could be anyone's match."

"Exactly." Next, Gaara formed a protective sphere of sand around himself, rendering Sasuke's punch more than useless. Sasuke's hand was bleeding from the impact. She knew what jutsu was coming. "Prepare yourselves, this is going to get really ugly." She was on edge. "The thing you need to know about Gaara is... he's a lot like me."

"Your both scary?"

"You're both crazy?"

"Okay, that's fair. But seriously. We both had lonely childhoods, because of what we are, what we have hidden within us. And now, he's about to unleash it." Sakura and Naruto managed to overhear her and a look of concern grew on their faces. Just then Sasuke gathered his chakra.

"Woah check out Sasuke!" Senji shouted.

"Amazing. He learned chidori." Saori didn't sound as impressed. "Of course, I learned to do that a while ago." The blow Sasuke dealt was enough to break the sand.

"What is this? It's so warm and wet." Gaara then screamed. "Blood! It's my blood!"

"What?! No way! He's never..." Saori was shocked, and upset that he had actually been injured. Then an arm of sand came out of the cocoon. "This is bad. He's never been injured before and now... that."

"What do you mean by 'that'?" Saito had a feeling he knew, but he had to be sure. "You mean...?"

"The thing me and him have in common. The demon within. It's called Shuka..."

They began to feel sleepy.

"It's a ... gen..." her eyes began to close. "Release." She managed just in time to release herself from Labuto's genjustsu. She then had to release Saito and Senji.

"What do we do?" Senji asked her. She sensed the underlying panic in his voice.

"It is our duty to protect the village. The Hokage has the Anbu, and he won't go down without a fight. Let's get the civilians out of here." They worked tirelessly to get as many out as they could, safely in the underground tunnels of the village. It was where Sarutobi had told her to go when she was younger, should the village ever be under attack. They arrived back at the arena to find the Hokage arm in arm with Orochimaru, surrounded by a barrier. It looked like something was being pulled out of him.

"There's nothing we can do for him, Saori. Look, even the Anbu can't get near." Saito was frustrated and Saori gritted her teeth.

"Kakashi-Sensei." She looked around and noticed most of the other ninja were gone.

"Saori, Saito and Senji. I need you to do something for me."

"You want us to find them, don't you?"

"Yes. Sasuke went straight after Gaara, then I sent Sakura, Naruto and Shikamaru after them."

"Why are they after Gaara?" Her eyes narrowed in anger.

"The sand village and Orochimaru are planning to use him as a weapon to destroy Konoha. He needs to be stopped." She lowered her gaze. "I know, I know you care about him, that's why I'm not asking you to defeat him, your mission is simply to make sure the others can."

"As you wish." They left in pursuit. As they were approaching the outskirts of the village they saw the wake of destruction left from the attack.

They pressed on. Even though they went as fast as they could, they didn't know precisely where Gaara and the others were, Saori could sense Gaara's chakra, as well as Naruto's. They were still a long way off.

"It's not his fault." Her voice was breaking. "He was only doing as he was ordered... and Shukaku... it's hard to control."

"It's okay. We know. You don't have to justify or defend his actions to us." Senji noticed a tear roll down her cheek.

"Hey, there's Sakura!" Senji pointed out. They saw her laying unconscious with a small dog next to her.

"Right, one of you stay with her, and the other search for the rest of them."

"Right." With that they split up. Up ahead Saori reached an opening and saw Naruto and Gaara laying across from each other. They were both in bad shape and out of chakra. Naruto started crawling towards Gaara. Saori jumped down and crouched in front of Gaara. She pulled out a kunai.

"Stop, Naruto, please. Can't you see he's had enough." She was crying. She hated to see him hurt.

"Saori..." Gaara struggled to summon the strength to speak.

"Why are you protecting him?" Naruto stopped in his tracks.

"Because..." she paused. "Because he's precious to me." Gaara's eyes widened in shock at her words. "I've already failed to uphold my promise. But I won't let you hurt him further."

"I'm... precious to her?" Gaara whispered to himself. She sensed someone was coming and readied herself. "Sasuke..." Temari and Kankurō appeared next to her.

"That's enough. It's over." Gaara said to them. They looked back to see him. They were surprised to see him in such a state.

"Go on, get him out of here." Saori instructed them. "No one here is going to stop you."

"Thank you, Saori. For protecting him." Temari said.

"Saori..." Gaara wheezed.

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry." She didn't respond with anything more than a smile. As far as she was concerned he had nothing to apologise to her for, but she knew why he was apologising. It was for not realising how he was precious to her.

They picked Gaara up and left. She lowered her kunai. They regrouped and went back to the village, only to be informed that the third Hokage had been killed.

The time came for the funeral and they all dressed appropriately. The whole village attended and mourned the loss of their Hokage and all those who also perished in the attack. Saori kept thinking back to all the memories, one by one they came to her.

"Lord Hokage, we found the missing girl." One of the Anbu had rushed into the hokage's office.

"After all this time? Bring her in." Sarutobi stood up and was ready to greet her. They brought her in, but she didn't say a word. "Hello, Saori. It's been a long time hasn't it, almost two years I believe. We're surprised you're still alive, but we're glad that you are. Do you remember anything that happened before you disappeared?" She shook her head. He could tell she was lying but didn't want to press her on it. He patted her head. "Welcome home, Saori." He handed her a small device. "Here, take it." He smiled.

"What is it?"

"It's a pocket music player. It can play any songs you put on it and it also gets radio."

"Thank you, Lord Hokage." She bowed.

It was hard for her to believe he was gone. All the times he helped her learn new techniques, gave her special missions to go to Suna. The time he took her to her new house, which she had all for herself until the day he brought Saito and Senji, the times she pestered him about how she hated them and didn't want to be in a team. Now she felt bad for all the trouble she caused back then. She wished she could take it all back, she wished she had told him the truth about when she disappeared. It was too late now. He was never going to pat her head again. She cried as she placed a white flower at his memorial. She had the MP3 player in her hand. It was a gift she was usually never seen without. Often listening to all sorts of songs. But for this occasion she felt it best not to have it on.