So I now have at least 50 reviews, and once I saw that I got this ready straight away! Thank you to everyone who's been reviewing! This chapter is kinda leading up to something, so it's a little boring in my opinion, and it bridges a few months worth of time that I didn't feel like writing filler and delaying what was really going to happen, so... Anyway! Here is chapter 9! Hey, if I get up to 65 reviews, I'll post the next chapter right away Is that asking for too much? Heh.

"Don't apologize. I'm glad you came," Sakura said. Itachi cupped her cheek and she found herself leaning up toward him. He closed the gap between them and kissed her. She smiled when their lips parted and her eyes fluttered closed. He kissed Mitsuki on the forehead and once again he was gone.

"Sakura!" Naruto yelled when her eyes fluttered open. She was in the hospital again. Tsunade and Kakashi were also there, both staring at her.

"Naruto, you have to leave now. Please let the others know Sakura is ok," Tsunade ordered. He wanted to protest, but the look in the Godaime's eyes sent a chill through him. Once the door closed Tsunade took a seat while Kakashi remained braced against the wall.

"We want to know the truth," Kakashi said.

"What are you talking about?" she asked, rubbing her eyes. "Where is Mitsuki?"

"Shizune is monitoring her in the nursery. I think you've got a lot of explaining to do," Tsunade said, words sharp as razors. Sakura stared at her with narrowed eyes. "I don't suppose you're often intimate with Kakashi," she commented to start the dumbfounded girl off.

"Of course not," she said as though it should have been obvious.

"Well we'll start with what happened in the delivery room, and we'll end with what happened in the cave," Tsunade instructed, trying to keep her anger under control.

"I don't know what you're-" Sakura began. Her eyes started tearing and her vision blurred as she was backhanded by her teacher.

"There's no more room for lies here Sakura. I want the truth," Tsunade growled. Sakura felt sick. She knew she would be questioned when she got back but… for Tsunade to hit her?

"I've known you were hiding something about that night, but I didn't want to pry. I never imagined you could be this deceptive," Kakashi said softly, making her feel ashamed.

"Are you really interrogating me?" Sakura asked, wiping the pain induced tears from her eyes. She stared defiantly at the Hokage.

"I want the truth!" Tsunade yelled so loud it seemed to echo through Konoha. Sakura winced but kept the same defiant expression.

"Since you seem to know the truth already why bother asking?" she snapped back. Kakashi had to step between the two women to keep Tsunade from hitting her again, and quite possibly killing her.

"Then answer this Sakura; what did you tell us that wasn't a lie?" Kakashi asked, unable to look her in the eyes.

"Itachi's loyalties do not lie with Akatsuki," Sakura confirmed. "Everything he's done is because of Sasuke."

"That's all you have to say?" Tsunade asked.

"What else would you like me to tell you?" Sakura asked, turning on her side, away from them.

"I want to know-"

"The truth?" Sakura asked, laughing bitterly at the sound of it. "I know it appears to you that I have been deceptive, and I have been… You've no reason to trust me, so I could tell you anything that I think you'd find appeasing." Tsunade clenched her fists and shoved Kakashi out of the way.

"I'm not talking to you as the Hokage, or even your teacher, Sakura! I'm talking to you as someone who loves and cares about you! You lied to us and made us share in your pain. Then we find out that maybe you're really not suffering at all like we imagined! That maybe the rumors about you aren't too far from the truth!" Tsunade growled. "You've ruined lives with your deception. You're exposed now, and I think you owe us something truthful."

"I can't tell you anything," Sakura said. Tsunade trembled in anger. "All I can say… is that the time will come that I'll be able to explain it all. If that's not acceptable, then I will leave as soon as I'm out of the hospital."

"I can't understand why you're doing this Sakura! Consorting with a missing nin is a punishable offense! If you wish to be with Itachi, then you can leave, but you're not taking that child with you," Tsunade threatened.

"You won't have to worry about Itachi any further. He won't be back again. I doubt if any of us will see him again…" she murmured, as though she hadn't heard the last part. Before Tsunade could speak again, Sakura sat up, looking at Kakashi. "You can take Mitsuki from me if you wish, as painful and sadistic as it would be to separate a newborn from her mother… Mitsuki has a purpose to serve, and you can be sure that even if he has to kill people that were once his friends, he will be back for her," Sakura finished.

"I thought you said Itachi wasn't going to be back," Tsunade said.

"I wasn't talking about Itachi," Sakura corrected.

"Sasuke? This is… this is all about Sasuke?" Kakashi asked.

"I have been hiding things about that night… You must accept that there are some things I cannot reveal. Itachi will know if I tell you, so I refuse to for Mitsuki's protection. Everything I told you Itachi said was the truth. He was going to kill me, but I convinced him otherwise. Rationalizing that if Sasuke felt for me, how Itachi believed, it would be far more torturous if he heard I'd been raped. I let him have my body willingly, it's true. Itachi was right you know," Sakura began, creating a new depth to the lies that had been told already.

"About?" Kakashi questioned.

"Sasuke. As far away as he must have been, he too received the news of my rape and returned to Konoha. I couldn't convince him to stay, but he swore he'd be back for me and his niece once he'd gotten his revenge. He made me promise not to tell, but I can't see the point in hiding it now. I thought it was Sasuke disguised as Kakashi; it's why you perceived me to be acting as Kakashi's lover, Godaime. He started to break character when he was worried about my life. At the end I suppose he knew you were on to him and started saying things to sound more like Kakashi lest he be unveiled completely," Sakura explained.

"It wasn't Sasuke," Tsunade said, getting angry at the audacity Sakura had to lie to her again.

"No, it wasn't… I was mistaken… I found this out when he knocked Shizune and me out. I woke up in a cave that had been set up for our arrival. Itachi was there smirking at me when I woke. He said, 'You see how easy that was for me ne? You just make sure you keep that pretty mouth shut or you know what I'll do.' That's all I can offer you about the truth. Until Sasuke kills Itachi, I can't tell you any more…

If you still feel the need to punish me, go ahead. No torture you inflict on me is worse than the secrets I have to endure. Do you think I enjoy deceiving those close to me? Why do you think I've grown so withdrawn these past months? The story I told you was the most believable scenario I could come up 

with to protect myself and convince Itachi to let me go. I didn't want to have to reveal that part ever, or at least until Itachi was dead and I could tell the whole story. I lied so I could get pity from everyone and I'd feel less ashamed of what I'd done… I didn't want to be looked at as a whore…" Sakura explained. She looked like she was struggling with herself, anger and pain fought each other inside her and her eyes looked cold and dead.

"Sakura…" Kakashi whispered, unable to believe what she'd really been hiding.

"You let me get angry enough to hit you, so you didn't have to tell us that? I'm not ashamed of you! You're not a whore Sakura! He was going to kill you and you did the only thing you could to survive," Tsunade said incredulously. Itachi would be proud of her; she was finally able to lie without her eyes betraying her.

"You don't have to try and make me feel better this time. I've been deceitful up until now and you've supported me. Now that you know that truth I don't deserve your sympathy," she insisted.

"Sakura, we're sorry… The way the situation appeared… We had no choice," Kakashi apologized. Something still felt wrong, because of how Itachi had approached him, but he kept the story to himself. He said he'd been ambushed and overpowered. That Itachi had revealed that he was going to use his form to attend the birth of his child. He wasn't questioned further.

"I'd like to be alone," came Sakura's bitter response. Tsunade nodded to Kakashi and they left her. Sakura curled up on her side. Her small form began to tremble as she sobbed. She was driving herself further away from those who loved her… It hurt her inside. She didn't have anyone to entrust the truth to. She couldn't understand how Itachi lived like this… He was so much stronger than her. What she really wanted was to get away from Konoha. She wanted to find a place in the fire country where she could hide with Mitsuki until Sasuke or Itachi came for them again. She didn't want to be under a suspicious gaze or to keep up a lie that was eating away at her soul. How long had she cried before she finally passed out?

Sakura woke up what seemed to be days later. Tsunade had been taking care of Mitsuki for her since she seemed to be totally exhausted. Even once she'd woken up the 6 months that followed seemed to bring her no joy. It wasn't unusual for new mothers to feel depression, but in Sakura's case she thought it odd. She moved out of Kakashi's house even though he insisted she could keep him company, to live in a tiny apartment on the outskirts of Konoha. She rarely interacted with anyone unless they put the effort in to go see her, and even then she turned people away. Even when her friends tried to cheer her up, offered to help her to take away the stress of a new baby, she just wasn't all there.

Tsunade and Kakashi felt horrible. Each of them blamed themselves for Sakura's condition. They'd forced her to admit something she was ashamed of and she hadn't been the same since. She was just so alone and she refused to let anyone help her now. Mitsuki looked just like Itachi. She was never a problem and she never cried. Even as elated as her daughter made her it could not cure her of her misery. She saw Itachi in Mitsuki every time she looked at her and it made her crazy some days.

Though she hadn't been working, her bills were still being paid, presumably by the Hokage. Her friends brought her groceries and baby things once a week, but she rarely if ever interacted with them. Most of them figured she was afraid to leave the house with Mitsuki because she was afraid of what the civilians of the village might do or say to her. In her defense it was a safe position to take. Naruto came every day to check on her, even if she refused to let him in, just to make sure things were ok. He couldn't understand why she had closed herself off so completely from the outside world, from him…

Nothing any of them did made things better, so they tried to just deal with her absence and await her return but eventually Sakura couldn't take it anymore. She couldn't stay locked up in her own village with fear for Mitsuki, or to shelter herself from her deceptions. When Naruto came the day Mitsuki turned 7 months old she asked him to come inside.

"Oi, Sakura. Please talk to me. Every day you tell me that things are fine when they aren't. You tell me you're worried about the baby being in the village. You tell me you're ashamed of yourself. You tell me you don't feel well. You have a hundred excuses for hiding in this small apartment but none of them explain why you're really hiding. I'm your best friend. Please trust me enough to tell me the truth," Naruto begged. Sakura sat him down on the couch

"You're right Naruto… I'm sorry, but I still can't tell you. You just have to understand," Sakura began, looking just as hurt as he was, to hear her say it. "There is something I need, from you and Hinata, because I do trust you…"

Tsunade couldn't believe the baby was 7 months old when Sakura showed up suddenly in her office. Sakura looked haggard and exhausted, more than she usually did. Tsunade had visited her once every two weeks to check on the baby and to talk with Sakura who rarely said a word to her. Every time she went there her guilt grew and grew. She wondered what had happened that had prompted Sakura to finally venture outside.

"I'd like your permission to leave Konoha," she requested.

"Denied," Tsunade answered. Even if she wanted to let Sakura go, she couldn't. There was always a chance that Itachi would come back for Mitsuki no matter what she said.

"I can't stay here anymore Godaime… It's killing me… Please at least let me go to stay with Gaara for a while," she begged.

"You know I can't… Mitsuki's safety is my number one concern," her teacher denied again.

"I just need a few weeks to clear my head. If that means I have to leave Mitsuki here, then I will make those arrangements. Please let me go stay with Gaara," Sakura requested once again.

"You can't just run away when you have a problem Sakura. You have to face it," Tsunade said, painful as it was to refuse her student.

"I can't escape it no matter what I try. It eats at me constantly. I have to get away from here for a little while to face it. If you deny my request again when I've been begging you like this…" Sakura declared. The Hokage was taken aback by her bold statement. Was she really threatening to leave Konoha and become a missing nin? "I want to be able to come back here, please don't make me do something that we'll regret and will put Mitsuki in danger," Sakura pleaded once more. "I'll be back tomorrow for your answer," she said, leaving the bewildered blonde to regain her composure. She met Hinata who was babysitting Mitsuki already.

"How did it go?" the meek girl asked.

"I'm leaving tonight. If she agrees to let me go, she'll let me know tonight. If she has no intention, she'll be setting up an ANBU team to watch me. If I leave tonight I'll have a head start. I know it's a huge strain Hinata-"

"Don't be ridiculous. Mitsuki will be safe here with us. No matter what happens, we'll take care of her," Hinata assured her. She handed the baby to its mom who smiled at her. Sakura leaned over to hug the shy girl, holding back her tears.

"I know I haven't been the greatest person lately Hinata. Thank you so much for doing this," she said. She kissed her daughter on the forehead, promising to be back as soon as she could. Hinata felt tears welling up in her eyes as well. "You be good for your auntie and uncle," Sakura said soothingly. She was a bit wary about leaving her, because Mitsuki rarely interacted with other people and didn't know how she'd react.

"She's been an angel since Naruto brought her here. You don't have to worry about her," Hinata assured her. Sakura nodded and placed Mitsuki on the rug so she could crawl around. She gave some instructions to Hinata who took mental notes in her head. "I hope everything is ok Sakura. Naruto has been really broken up since you stopped being around…" Hinata whispered. Sakura grimaced.

"I'm going to go see him now. I can't thank you enough for everything," Sakura said appreciatively.

"He's in the training fields," Hinata revealed. Sakura nodded and leaned down to give Mitsuki one last kiss. As she left she heard Mitsuki making sounds of discontent, but she didn't cry and sure enough she found Naruto in the training fields.

"She's not going to agree is she?" Naruto asked upon seeing the pink haired girl.

"I don't think so. I'm leaving tonight. There's something I need you to do," Sakura answered.

"Anything." She gave him the spare key to her apartment as he replied. She explained that Naruto was to give the box in her closet to Gaara if she didn't return. He tried to question why, but the look she gave him halted his query. She had already sent word to Gaara earlier in the week that she would be coming, although she might be being tracked…

"Thank you Naruto," Sakura whispered, unable to hold back her tears upon seeing Naruto's expression.

"You don't have go through all this alone Sakura… I could help you! You know I could!" Naruto protested. He too looked like he had tears in his eyes.

"One day everything will be ok. Until… Until that day it is my burden to carry, and mine alone. I'm sorry to keep you at such a distance. You truly are my best friend and I love you with all my heart Naruto. Please don't make this any harder than it already is," she sobbed. Naruto pulled her tightly into a hug.

"You know I can't stand to see you in pain," he whispered. "If this is what you need me to do, then I'll do it. Mitsuki is in good hands. Plus it'll be good practice for when me and Hinata have our own kids in a few years ne?" he joked through his sadness. Sakura choked out a laugh between her sobs.

"You never fail to make me smile Naruto. You can use the key to get Mitsuki's things tomorrow. It'll look too suspicious if you get them tonight."

"Aa," Naruto replied with a nod.