Sakura fell silent at this point, uncertain as to how to continue. Four years of telling her team's story and the next part never came easy. She had made herself sick thinking about all the ways she could present it.

Truthfully, she didn't want to talk about it. It was one of many stories wrought with emotions and highly personal. It wasn't one of her more debilitating ones, but it was also an integral part of her story.

The Academy students chattered, hushed whispers asking why she had stopped. With a firm mental shake Sakura regained her calm.

"No one likes to acknowledge that there home is not safe," she said abruptly. To her left, the chuunin sensei frowned. "My generation learned that lesson the hard way. We were only your age when Sand and Sound mounted an attack on our village. Fifteen when it was reduced to dirt at the bottom of a crater. We live in one of the greatest ninja villages," here her pride was easily heard, "and for that very reason our home is never safe."

It had been totally unexpected.

Sakura had been performing her rounds. She was in a bit of a hurry because she had a massive pile of paperwork waiting for her on her desk and she had to check in on Kakashi again. His Sharingan had been causing him more strain lately. He reached his threshold for how long he could use it without passing out more quickly.

The pinkette was an excellent medic-nin. And she was damned proud of that, but she was by no means an expert on doujutsu. Eye procedures always held the highest risk, and the chance of failure rose astronomically when doujutsus were involved.

Of course, Kakashi's case was unprecedented. As the only person outside the Uchiha clan to have the Sharingan transplanted, Sakura didn't have previous medical cases to look up. She didn't consider Danzou as a similar case because he had stolen the Sharingans he had and despite have them as long or longer than her former sensei, never used them until his fight with Sasuke.

Sakura hated not being able to help him. Hated having to face him and tell him her research had yielded no results. That the most she could do was ease his pain and temporarily soothe the irritated chakra canals feeding the Sharingan. She wondered if she should suggest removing the eye and having it retransplanted, for she knew he would never agree to have it removed permanently.

Kakashi would die before he was parted with Obito's eye.

She ticked another task of her mental task list, making her way towards the elevators. Rounds finished, she had several reports and updates to read, files to organize and put away, and she wanted to read that scroll on the Mangekyou that Sasuke had lent her. She hoped, since prolonged use of the Mangekyou led to blindness, which the Uchihas had found a rather disturbing answer to, stealing the eyes of another (although Sakura supposed those involved could simply agree to swap eyeballs) that it would give her a clue as to how to help Kakashi.

And somewhere along the way, she thought as her stomach protested loudly, she had to eat.

It happened just as she reached the doors that lead to the stairwell. An inhuman roar shook the hospital, the sound echoing and reverberating.

Fear ripped through her, quickly followed by adrenaline. She wrenched open the door to the stairs, forgoing them completely by leaping over the railing and dropping directly to the bottom floor. She landed lightly, punched in her override code, and threw herself through the door.

The bottom floor of the hospital was several feet underground. It was the isolation ward. And it was where Juugo had requested they assign him, in the event of this happening. Juugo was another unfortunate case Sakura wished she could do more for.

He had the ability to absorb natural energy latently. It was constantly being drawn into his body. It was a natural ability of his clan, but it left him prey to sporadic and involuntary rages.

This was the first one since she and Tsunade-shishou had set to finding the man a cure, but Sakura knew what to expect. Juugo was forever warning her, afraid that he might hurt her, and even Sasuke had offered up that the Sharingan was the only way he knew calm Juugo when he was in one of his rage modes.

Sakura raced down the hallway, fear for Juugo, who hated his helplessness in times like this, and desperation giving her feet wings. Sasuke wasn't there, not that she thought the Council would agree to her removing the seals on his Sharingan so that he could genjutsu Juugo into submission, so her own genjutsu skills would have to be enough.

The medic-nin thought she was prepared for what she would find in Juugo's room. Upon sighting him, the purple-grey skin overtaking his body, eyes widening, and left arm morphing, she was hit with memories of the one time she had witness Sasuke use his Curse Mark.

She froze, and that moment of hesitance was all Juugo need to hurl her out of the room.

She impacted the wall. It cracked and buckled beneath her. He was on her before she had time to blink, a discolored, scaly hand latching around her throat.

Juugo lifted her, holding her in the air easily by just the hand wrapped around her neck. Her hands automatically came up, scrabbling to remove his, but even her enhanced strength was no match.

Her vision swam before her. Her lungs burned from the lack of oxygen, the pain building the longer she couldn't draw breath.

Of all the ways Sakura had imagined dying over the years, suffocation was not one of them. It was so painful. Her body was screaming out for oxygen, writhing as it tried to shake free from his grasp, but struggling only waste what oxygen she did have stored in her myoglobin and tissues.

Her world reduced to herself and being unable to breathe, Sakura didn't notice when a third party joined them. A singular red eye spun hypnotically, and the man caught her when Juugo dropped her.

By that point, Sakura was already unconscious.

"Don't stop now, Sakura-san!" several students yelled.

Sakura struggled to maintain a smile, not liking how they were treating the matter so callously. She was telling her story as a reminder that the life of a shinobi was not battle and glory, and they thought, since she was standing before them to tell it personally and not being lectured about it from a history book, that everything ended well.

Nothing was further from the truth.

Team Seven always found themselves in over their heads in trouble. But unlike the days of their youth, when they were ignorant and wearing rose colored glasses, there was no happy ending.