In fact, right as Yamato retracted the wooden bars (for she had calmed down significantly), Sakura collapsed onto the tiled hallway.

Tsunade immediately came to the front, gripping her by the elbows.

"Sakura! A-are you okay?"

But instead of responding, or showing any signs that she had heard the woman, Sakura's eyes rolled into the back of her head in a frightening manner.

"What's wrong with her?" Tenten asked, worried.

"She's having a seizure," Tsunade's concerned voice sounded distant in Sakura's mind but the pinkette barely heard that.

Her mind was somewhere else, back to the early meetings with Sasuke:

The second time she woke up, Sakura found her arms and legs bound, but this time her wrists had metal chakra binding chains connecting her to the ceiling, while she lied on her back because of the heavy amount of slack on her manacles. She could literally feel her inner power being restrained by them.

Sakura sat up, frightened out of her mind.

She was in some kind of log cabin room. The bed she lied on was modest and small, obviously intended for only one person to use. Wooden logs built up the walls and ceiling around her, making her think she was still somewhere in the woods. The only other furniture inside the room was a square wooden table with cheap wooden benches as seats.

Where was she?

What in the world was going on?

Who had that man been and why had he taken her?

And right as she thought that the door to her room opened, that very same man stepped in.

Wow, he really was beautiful.

Or he would have been if Sakura wasn't so afraid right now!

He stepped right up next to her bedside, eyes completely locked on hers.

Sakura gulped.

Only then did she notice the way his right fist was clenched tight and shaking next to his leg, as if he was extremely mad about something.

Right as her gaze broke, the man suddenly pounced on her, shoving her flat onto the bed as his mouth locked with hers.

The kiss swept through her and made her gasp; the man used that moment to stab his tongue into her mouth, probing and ravishing everything she had. Sakura's hands shoved against him but his chest felt too strong and too firm, like a brick wall above her.

But eventually their kiss did break, so the man could come and suck on her throat. Sakura used that moment to scream: "Why are you doing this!"

She felt his lips purse, right above her skin, as if hesitating to answer her. But after a moment, she heard: "Because you've been gone for far too long."

Right as he said the last word, he tore off the sash that kept her robed outfit together. His mouth came to suck at her collarbone again, whispering breathily across the now wet skin:

"Because I couldn't once stop thinking of you."

Oh god, he was crazy!

She had never seen this man in her entire life before now.

"W-wait!" Sakura spoke desperately as his hands roamed freely up her sides. "Pl-please, mister! Don't-"

The man suddenly came to grip her jaw with a painful iron grip. "Call me Sasuke."

The way he said it…seemed like he was angrier at the fact that he had to say it. The pink haired girl swallowed in fear but complied: "Sasuke, please…don't-"

Her words were once again cut off as his mouth locked over hers in another furious kiss.

It was as if everything she said just infuriated him more.

His hands pushed apart the openings to her tunic, revealing her black skin tight undershirt beneath. In an instant, Sasuke had shoved the tank top up above her stomach and started kissing his way down.

Sobs now rose up from within Sakura as his mouth met the top of her belted black pants. Her hands tried to shove his head away but Sasuke easily resisted her shoves and pulled off her belt. In an instant, the man came back up to meet her face.

Before Sakura knew what had happened, he'd used the belt to bind both of her hands on top of the metal manacles, securing them together. This successfully shortened the slack her hands had from the ceiling and they were forced tight above her head, as he came kissing its way down her pelvic, inching her pants-

"Please SASUKE! I'm begging you!" Sakura pleaded once again, horrible sobs pouring from her chest. She was desperate, she didn't want her first time to be like this.

It worked.

Sasuke stayed on top of her but he stopped his ministrations; his breaths rang hot and heavy over her skin yet he didn't go any further.

Even though he'd stopped, Sakura's sobs wouldn't. She continued crying, and her chest shook up in down from her short breaths; it didn't help when Sasuke moved back up to come hovering above her face.

But he didn't kiss her.

"Shh," he said, before a moment later sweeping the sweat clumped hair away from her face with his slender fingers. Sakura didn't fight his touch, too afraid of angering him again.

Sasuke lied down next to her and drew her into his hold. The pink haired kunoichi continued crying, this time into his hold because there was no other option.

He kissed her forehead.

Sakura burst awake, sweat heavily splayed across her forehead

She found herself in a bed, with pale green coverlets pooled on her lap…

This was her bed! Sakura looked around and sure enough, she was inside her bedroom at the Perkora Complex. Immediately, she shot out of bed. She was dressed in her pink pajamas but Sakura didn't care.

"MOM! DAD!" she shouted while jerking the door to her room open.

She stopped dead in her tracks at the threshold.

There stood Ino, camped outside of her room in an old blue sleeping bag. The pinkette kneeled down and gently shook the blond kunoichi awake.

"H..uh?" It took Ino a minute to realize who had awakened her, and then her eyes burst wide. "Sakura!"

"Yeah, it's me Ino."

The blond sat up fully to grip Sakura's upper arms. "Oh god Sakura, you…I'm so happy to see you awake finally."

"Finally?" Sakura was almost afraid to ask: "H-how…long have I been asleep?"

Ino bit her lip. "Three days."

Sakura's face paled.

Wh-what? How could that be? The last thing she remembered was being…told by Tsunade that she was a…reanimated Shinobi, more or less. She'd been imprisoned by Yamato…but Sakura could remember the bars receding...before nothing.

And now she was here.

Sakura felt her head grow woozy again; her being slumped and immediately Ino's hand reached out to steady her. The blond lowered the pinkette to the ground, and then fell to sit next to her.

"What has…what am I doing here?" Sakura asked weakly. "Where are my parents?"

Ino bit her lip again; Sakura immediately didn't like where this was going. But after a second, the blond merely said: "They're away…on a sea voyage, looking for you. Ever since rumors of you…coming back surfaced…they left Konoha in search of you."

"We've sent message that you're back, and it should have reached them by now so no doubt they're already on their way back to see you."

Ino smiled reassuringly but it did nothing to alleviate the unease within Sakura. There was just…something wrong about the way the blond said the news that made her distrust the message. Or perhaps she was just being paranoid…because it felt like she was continually being bombarded with bad news…and it was almost like she expected to get the next misfortune at any moment.

But Sakura said nothing about it bothering her.

Who knows, maybe they really were just far at sea.

Like-

Sakura gasped. "Where's Naruto?"

Ino flinched, which Sakura also noticed but didn't point out, but the blond just smiled and said fluidly: "He too is still away from Konoha, looking for you. You may not remember this but Naruto has joined the ANBU ops and during the year you were gone, Tsunade sent out several envoys to try and recover you back. He was a part of the teams, he-"

"Is he safe?" Sakura asked frantically; just the idea of her losing the blond haired boy she'd grown up with, terrified her. And while she wasn't sure if she could really stand anymore bad news, for she had a growing suspicion that Ino was lying to her, Sakura really just wanted to know if-

"He's completely fine; we even just got a correspondence from him, he's in the Borine Mountains. It'll take him a bit of time to get all the way back but he was so happy when he found out you're here." Ino laughed. "I wish you could have been there to hear his squeaky vo-"

Sakura slowly turned to sit right in front of her. "Ino, are you…telling the truth?"

"Of course I am," the blond kunoichi said with a smile that Sakura couldn't decipher as being false or true.

But she didn't say anymore.

Time passed absently for Sakura.

She found herself either staying in her room or being forced to traverse the streets "for exercise" by Ino. Because Sakura wouldn't have left the apartment otherwise.

The world was too big and too loud for her and when people came too close to her, she would shrink behind Ino. All her other friends took turns visiting her or taking her out into Konoha's bustling roads but Sakura's reaction was always the same: hardly talking except when asked a direct question and asking to go back within an hour or so of walking.

She became so withdrawn.

And, in an instance, on any given day-

-her mind would go to Sasuke. Before, while she'd been trapped in that suffocating obsession of his, she'd wanted nothing more than to get out of it.

Now, she wanted more than anything just to go back to his warm embrace because it felt so safe inside there.

As ironic as it was.

And she didn't have to think…with him always forcing her to do things.

Sakura almost wanted to laugh at the crude, twisted absurdity of that fact. Before, when she'd been training to go to Mei Terumi (which now she couldn't even be sure was real anymore), she'd taken pride in being independent and never depending on anyone else.

Never needing to depend on anyone else.

But ever since she 'met' Sasuke, for what she considered the first time, all of that independence had been stripped from her.

And maybe that was the way things were supposed to be.

Maybe, back then, she had always been a weak spineless girl that Sasuke could boss and throw around for his liking.

Maybe she was just that sort of girl and all this strength she thought she'd once had…had all been an illusion.

So now she was supposed to take that even her independence had been fake? That nothing about her childhood was definitive right now?

Sakura couldn't stand what life was throwing her in this moment.

What had she done to deserve this? First a heartless man's plaything for more than a year, then falling for said heartless man before she was promptly torn from him…a cry of misery tore through her throat and Sakura buried her face into her hands.

What was she supposed to do now?

Her life wasn't real.

Her memories weren't real.

Her feelings…

…they were real.

Sakura could be unsure of everything except for them. And the only thing they were directing her towards…Sasuke.

A cry of misery tore through Sakura's lips as she sunk to her knees, right up against the wall length window next to her bed. Everything about him called to her and everything about him possessed her to find him again.

He was like her drug. And after a year of having nothing but him intoxicating her senses…Sakura felt incomplete without him. Her body felt cold and empty…and almost like a zombie without Sasuke's presence and it was now that she was without him…did Sakura finally realized how attached she'd grown to him.

But could she go back to him? Should she go back to him?

Several people, on more than one occasion, offered to tell Sakura about how her life was before…but she rejected them all. She explained that even if they told her anything, it would have no meaning for her…because she couldn't validate any of it with her fake memories.

Everything they told her, she knew, would just confuse her feelings more.

Sakura had decided that the best course of action for her was to wait and have Sasuke explain everything to her when she confronted him again.

She would make him tell her.

Somehow.

Even if she couldn't get any of her chakra back. For that was exactly what Tsunade had told her. Sakura had asked the Hokage what exactly had Sasuke done to her...but the woman merely stated that she couldn't tell either. For she "had never seen such a jutsu before."

It would be a lie to say she grew accustomed to life without chakra, because she didn't.

No matter the validity of her memories, Sakura had still been raised and taught as a shinobi her entire life and now she couldn't be one. All those years of training…all those dreams of becoming a great Medical Nin…wiped away.

Unless she found Sasuke again.

Part of her knew this was wishful thinking but for more than one reason, he was her last hope.

And she had to find him again. For her memories, for her powers.

And simply, just for herself.

But she wouldn't seek him out.

No, Sakura had decided she couldn't do that. For a multitude of reasons, but mainly because she had no idea where he was. Too much time had passed already since she'd last seen him, unconscious and bleeding in the forest area…who knew if he was still there? Or if he was even still…

No, he was still alive.

She knew it. Something inside her, just told her he was still living.

And the point was, she had no idea where he was right now.

Or who had saved him.

Rain. The cool misted atmosphere covered his entire body while the droplets sounded heavy across his ears-

His ears?

Sasuke gasped awake, sitting up.

"It's about time, pretty boy," a familiar male voice sounded beside him and the Uchiha turned to stare straight into Suigetsu's purple eyes.

His vision blurred for a second and he lowered his head to rub the bridge of his nose...only to look up again quickly, in astonished realization.

He could hear again.

The memory of Gaara's treachery still stood prominently in his mind. As soon as the incident had occurred, Sasuke's calculative mind had figured out what had happened: the Fifth Kazekage had infused singular grains of sand with his jutsu. And with their battle, sand had inevitably fallen across his entire body, including his ears.

Right before Sasuke could deliver the finishing blow, Gaara had then ignited them all, like a million tiny bombs across his eardrums, deafening him.

And yet, here he was, able to hear again.

How…?

As Sasuke's longtime subordinate, Suigetsu had gotten used to the man's silent questioning looks. He could tell exactly what Sasuke was inquiring.

The white haired man cracked a wry grin. "Karin healed your ears."

Ugh.

The very thought of that obnoxious woman touching him while he was unconscious…Sasuke would have cringed, if he was the type of man to cringe.

Instead, Sasuke turned to face and stare directly into Suigetsu, locking gazes in an intimidating manner.

"Where's Sakura?"

The white haired man grinned again. "The other pink haired kunoichi, eh?"

Sasuke shot him a sharp glare.

Suigetsu laughed. "She was taken back to Konoha. Jugo's been keeping an eye on her."

"When we didn't get your midnight signal, we set off to find you, just like you instructed. Karin sensed your dimming chakra in the forests and we split up till we located you."

Sasuke nodded.

Suigetsu leaned back lazily on top of the stone wall and placed his hands behind his head. "Thought you'd yell at us if we didn't try and locate that Sakura girl so I instructed Jugo and Karin to spy and look after her, not that the latter was any more willing to go, mind you."

He rubbed a rather large bruise that Sasuke only now noticed on the shark man's upper arm. "That girl sure can punch."

Sasuke pursed his eyelids close, trying to gain his bearings and not at all caring about Karin's childish antics.

So many things must have happened while he was asleep.

"How long was I out?" he asked suddenly.

Suigetsu counted the days on his fingers for a moment. "Three and a half weeks."

Damn.

"How's Sakura been this whole time?"

"She's been just dandy."

Sasuke's threatening glare caused Suigetsu to smirk again. "Truth be told, she's starting to look like a vegetable."

The slight, horrified astonishment in Sasuke's eyes caused Suigetsu to laugh. "Oh relax, she's fine. Just lonely all the time."

"If I didn't know better, I would say she was missing someone."

Sasuke tsked, as if he didn't care. But somewhere, deep in the pit of his cold black heart, he felt…happiness, something he so rarely felt anymore since his brother died.

But he refused to show any of it.

Sasuke stood up from the cave floor and checked his own vitals, fisting his hands in front of him a few times. Yes, all of his chakra was back now. The three weeks he'd spent unconscious had at least been worth it.

Without turning around, he intoned emotionlessly to Suigestu: "Take me to where Jugo and Karin are."

They had indeed been keeping information from her.

Sakura realized this when, during one of her visits, Ino accidentally dropped, from within her pocket, a black armband.

Before the blond could pick it up Sakura had gotten to it first. The pinkette turned away so that Ino couldn't snatch it back before she'd managed to observe it. The thing was ornately stitched and obviously not made by her best friend (for Ino could hardly thread a needle). The thing was entirely made of rich silk cloth, the kind not easily attained unless with lots of money, or…issued away.

Sakura recalled Sai, from ANBU ops, wore patches made from this same kind of fabric. They were used to help identify him to other ANBUs. But his had been red and green, signifying he was from Konoha of the Land of Fire. Every village ANBU had a different type of color pattern, matching their name…but none of them were ever black.

Black was for mourning.

But what really sealed the deal and told Sakura that everyone who had visited her had been lying to her, was the small sewn in pocket on the very front of the armband.

It was filled with sand.

"Gaara," she intoned as she identified the symbol on top of the armband as being that of Sunagakure-

-right before Ino snatched it back.

But by then it had been too late.

And Sakura knew far too well what everyone was trying to keep from her.

"Gaara's dead, isn't he?" she asked without looking at Ino.

The blond, so drowned with guilt for keeping the truth from her, remained silent. Sakura ran up to the girl and shook her by her upper arms. "Gaara's dead, isn't he!"

Ino would not reply.

Before the blond could react, Sakura had ran down the steps of her room to the kitchen, immediately greeted with the sight of three Chunin stationed at the dining table. Among them, were Choji and Tenten.

"Sakura, what's wrong?" the latter asked when she caught sight of the frantic look on her face.

"Gaara's dead, ISN'T HE?" she asked frantically. Tenten bit her lip. Choji looked astonished.

In that moment, Ino ran down the steps as well.

"Sakura, please, calm down." She gripped her best friend by the shoulders. "You have to-"

"I don't have to do anything for you guys!" the pinkette shouted furiously while throwing her off. "You think keeping the truth from me will hurt me any less when I figure things out?"

Tenten tried to hold her this time, but still only got pushed away. "Sakura…you're extremely taxed already, by everything…that has happened. How could we tell you about Sasuke-"

"STOP!" Ino cut off while clamping her hand over Tenten's mouth.

Sakura had always gotten high marks on tests and been regarded as highly intelligent. But she didn't need any of that to put things together here.

"Sasuke…killed Gaara?" she looked to each of their expressions and their silent demeanor was all she needed for answer.

Sakura fell ill after that day; she either spent her time awake and crying, or asleep and feverish, the latter half more so. It was like her body just wanted to block out the world around her.

Tsunade took time off to personally come and take care of her protégé.

Her heart leapt out towards the pink haired girl that had to experience so much misfortune in her life, all at once. She could tell that Sakura loved Sasuke, and not even taking into account the entire year of torture that had transpired between them (for Tsunade had seen the scars and vaginal bruising on Sakura when she first came in)...but just to have to learn that the man she loved had killed one of her oldest friends growing up…

Tsunade caressed the side of Sakura's cheek, as she slept peacefully on her childhood bed.

What pained the Hokage most was that, she knew, Gaara's death wasn't even the worst news she'd yet to learn about…

A single tear leaked from Tsunade's eye to land right on top of Sakura's hand. The Hokage wiped it away¸ before placing a gentle kiss on top of the girl's forehead.

The truth was, she had a meeting to attend to, this very night, that addressed another forthcoming bad news for Sakura.

One that Tsunade hoped she could erase, before it beget.

The Kage Council was no new tradition.

It had taken place ever since the birth of all Five Villages and only met whenever times of crisis came about or seemed to be coming.

Like now.

The topic at hand was a hard one, unlike the last time they met, and the decision making process pitted village against village.

"You cannot do this!" Tsunade shouted while punching her fist straight across the pristine wooden table. Immediately a large gash came about where her beautiful albeit terrifyingly strong hand had landed. The fist had created a crater about the size of three melons.

Tsunade was usually able to keep her cool during meetings with other village leaders, choosing to voice her opinion only at strategic and advantageous moments-

-but today was understandably different.

And the Hokage voiced her vote immediately. "I vote no."

Ohnoki, the still current Tsuchikage, an elderly short man that was about as stubborn as he was old, scoffed. "You are only one vote, do not forget that Hokage."

The busty blond woman glared at the man, right before he stated. "I vote yes. This farce has gone on long enough."

Sitting opposite of Tsunade and Ohnoki were the remaining council: Mei Terumi, the present and Fifth Mizukage, and the two newest additions to their council: the new Raikage, Stenna Veal and the new Kazekage, Jace Bor. Respectively, they were a stout chubby woman in her late fifties with hard pressed worry lines down her face and a young thin looking man with extremely pasty looking skin but gentle blue eyes.

Mei Terumi, a sensuous woman with sharp keep eyes, kept her arms folded across her busty chest and her pretty mouth closed for now as she let the newest ones speak.

When given the spotlight, the female Raikage immediately stood up, her pudgy weight slightly stopping her from standing up properly and causing her chair to stutter a bit as it slid off of her fat posterior. The guards behind and around her had to hide hair their snuffling chuckles, even though Stenna still heard them. She completely disregarded them, having gotten used to jeers at her weight, for most of her life by now.

Stenna was a woman of perseverance and maturity. She'd overcome all her cruel adolescent years from her peers to rise up in the ranks of Kumogakure. She had been in the running for Raikage with A, during the Fourth's election, but lost mainly because of prejudgment from others due to her obese weight.

It was despicable but it was reality. And Stenna was a pragmatic strong woman that didn't let falls set her back, so she ran again upon A's death, and sure enough she was elected. Now, she made sure that all her decisions were for the best of Kumogakure.

Even at the expense of a little pink haired girl.

"I vote yes," Stenna voiced with a deep thick Kumo accept that immediately called everyone's attention in the room to her. She locked eyes with Tsunade's quaking ones. "I am sorry, but for Kumo and really all of the village's sake, this is the best option. It is better if she is sent back to the land of the dead, where she belongs."

Tsunade's jaw locked as a sweat bead perspired down her cheek. Two to one.

Jace Bor, Gaara's replacement, voted exactly as Tsunade expected and feared.

The man was renowned for having a dodgy political career in which he had allegedly assassinated all of his competition, leaving only a weak willed competitor that was easily defeated. Another thing he had going for him were his deep blue eyes that often transfixed people into going his way.

While he was manipulative, he was also wise though. Everything he did, like all the Kages, was for his village.

And so his decision followed exactly like Stenna's.

Because the decision was now unanimous with majority of three voting "Yes," the remaining Kage's vote was completely irrelevant. Mei Terumi stood up though, nonetheless.

"I vote no," she stated plainly, addressing everyone at the table. "If history has taught us anything, provoking an Uchiha is extremely dangerous-"

"He KILLED A KAGE, and very likely murdered a second as well," Jace exclaimed vehemently. "Injured countless Shinobi and ANBU ops from all five villages, was a terrorist for the majority of his life, are we supposed to let him dictate how we choose to protect our villages?!"

"So you would condemn the life of an innocent child?" Tsunade intercepted quick.

"She technically doesn't even have a life, now does she?" Ohnoki asked with a sneer.