Chapter 21: Dancing with Demons
Sakura gulped. A clock on the wall in the hospital's hallway indicated that she had 56 minutes before she needed to be in Tsunade's office to face the village's unsavory elders. Those minutes might be all the time she had left as a free—or a living—person.
She grabbed a piece of paper and a pen off the receptionist's desk while moving out of the hospital as fast as she could without arousing suspicion. Walking, walking, walking. After walking this path many times before the collapse of Team 7, she knew the terrain well enough to put herself on autopilot.
When she arrived at her destination, she banged on the door as loudly as she could. Sakura needed help now more than ever. She hoped that her childhood friend would value their old bond enough to do her one last favor.
Finally, Ino opened the door wearing a face decorated with worry. Sakura wanted to give her the hug of a lifetime for merely providing the sight of a safe, familiar face.
"Ino, I need your help."
Ino dragged her inside and shut the door behind them. "Sakura, what's going on?"
There was no time to explain. "I'm going to write a note. I'm going to seal it. You can't read it, okay? You can't. If you do, you'll be killed or worse. I need you to give the note to Sai—and make sure he doesn't read it—and have him send it out with his painting jutsu. Be sure to send it out with a raven. It has to be a raven, though, okay?"
Ino nodded with tears in her eyes; the implication of Sakura's urgency was evident.
"Okay. I'm going to write this note now. Please, please, please don't look. Your life depends on it."
Sakura scurried over to the clean counter and began to scribble away. By the time she finished, the note read in nervous squiggles:
Itachi,
I have a meeting with Danzo in less than an hour, and I'm not sure if I'll ever see the sunlight again—if I survive it at all. But, I think I figured out how to save Naruto.
You have to get Sasuke to the village somehow. You're the only person in the world with that power right now and it's the only way to save Naruto's life. If I disappear at the hands of Danzo—and I have good reason to think that I will—relay a message to Tsunade: place Sasuke's palm on the center of Naruto's chakra system. All he has to do is give Naruto back what he's taken.
I know this doesn't make much sense and you probably don't want to have any questionable contact with Sasuke. I'm sorry. But, if you ever want the redemption that you swear you don't deserve, THIS is the moment.
I'm sorry for asking you to do this. I'm so sorry.
Meeting you was one of the best things to ever happen to me. Thank you for everything.
No signature sat at the bottom of the paper. It was not a matter of risk—everything was well beyond "risk" now—but rather, she could not stand the finalism that a signature would hold. She could not stomach the fact that this might be her last goodbye.
As Sakura rolled the paper into a scroll, Ino asked, "How do I make sure that this gets to the right person if I don't know who we're sending it to?"
She sealed the note with chakra despite knowing the action's futility. After thinking about it for a moment, Sakura hesitantly pulled Itachi's note out of her pocket. She did not want to do this, but this situation did not make concessions for wants.
"Make sure that Sai draws a raven—it has to be a raven—and then have it smell this. The note should still smell like the person I'm trying to contact. But, don't read the original note, either—it's just as deadly to you as the one I'm sending out." Sakura sighed and added sadly, "As much as this note means to me, you should burn it after you've sent out my response. It'd be dangerous for you to keep it."
Ino nodded. "Sakura, I haven't seen you in a long time… But I've always considered you my good friend. I'll do everything you need me to as long as you promise to do your best to stay alive."
Without warning, Sakura hugged her and Ino returned the embrace. She missed Ino more than she had realized and, by destined cruelty, this might be their last meeting.
Sakura looked at the clock and panicked—she had ten minutes to get to the Hokage's office. While she doubted that timeliness would lend her any extra credibility, she did not want to know the consequences of lateness.
"Ino, I have to go. I can't tell you how grateful I am—you're saving a life by doing this. Please stay safe. And keep Sai safe, too. I don't want anyone else hurt because of this mess." Sakura placed both notes firmly in Ino's hands and ran for the door. Before she made it to the end of the road, she heard Ino leave her house and run in the opposite direction—Ino clearly understood the urgency of Sakura's request.
She made it to the Hokage's tower in good time, but could not find the willpower to do anything faster than a sluggish trudge to Tsunade's door. Her heart already felt overworked with anxiety and her palms were noticeably sweating. Sakura chuckled—she did not think the village elders would be interested in shaking her hand, anyway.
As she lifted her arm to knock, Tsunade said from the other side of the door, "Just come in, Sakura."
Slowly, Sakura opened the door and tiptoed into the room. She found two elders—Danzo and a woman—siting on a couch against the wall and Tsunade sitting behind her desk. All of her hard-earned confidence seemed to evaporate with the two elders in sight; her only solace came from having Tsunade in the room.
The woman nodded at Sakura and said, "I'm Koharu and this is Danzo. My sincere apologies: Homura couldn't make it today." Sakura respectfully returned her nod, but was secretly relieved to face only two village elders instead of three.
"Sakura Haruno, you've been summoned here today to explain what you've done since disappearing from the village," Tsunade announced with ferocity knitting her brow. As much as Sakura normally dreaded that look, she suspected that she was not its source today.
Even though Danzo's leer was only half-visible due to his facial coverings, its charge still made her tremble—after all, he had the power to change her life's course. Fortunately, the woman sitting next to him seemed much less hostile; she inspected Sakura with curiosity rather than malice.
"Explain everything," Danzo ordered.
Sakura offered a small smile. "A lot has happened over the past few weeks, so please make yourselves comfortable. I'll start from the beginning…"
She launched into her well-practiced speech, "After Naruto and Sasuke fought to an ugly end, I became mad with grief. Mad. And, in this all-consuming grief, I decided that Itachi Uchiha was the source of all my woes—he was the reason that Sasuke was such a mess and Sasuke was the reason that Team 7 fell apart. So, I withdrew into isolation to research everything I could about him and to train myself to my physical and mental limits. Ultimately, I wanted two things: I wanted to experience the tsukuyomi and I wanted to kill him.
"You might wonder: why would anyone wish the tsukuyomi upon themselves? Well, I thought that something as painful as the tsukuyomi would pull me out of my darkness and back into reality. Clearly, I wasn't in my healthiest state of mind. But, I trained for five years and searched for Itachi as I trained. Finally, the time came when my usual information dealer provided me the best lead he'd ever come across. Knowing that I'd trained for five years and might never have a chance like this again, I decided it was time to leave the village.
"I left with the expectation of getting both of the things I wanted in one shot. Looking back, it was pretty naïve of me. Instead, my battle with Itachi ended with a stalemate and I'd accomplished nothing. But, I was more determined than ever—I decided to leave Konoha behind in pursuit of him. I went to the nearest town, looked for their ugliest bar, and scared the information I wanted out of their dealer.
"He led me into the back room where I expected to find Itachi…but found Sasuke instead. Sasuke was—no, Sasuke is alive. I thought I was hallucinating at first. He was five years older, but he still had the same goals as when I last saw him. Now that he knew what I could do, he wanted me to help him find and fight his older brother. I agreed. We stayed in a hotel for the night, I healed myself the next day, and we set out to find Itachi.
"We had success much sooner than either of us had expected. Sasuke's lead came to fruition and the three of us formed a triangle on the battlefield—after all, neither Sasuke nor I actually intended to cooperate with each other. We were once teammates, but time turned us into individuals with individual intentions.
"…and this is where my memory gets fuzzy. I was seriously injured during the battle and Itachi captured me. When I woke up the first time, I tried to escape and injured myself to the point of worsening my original state. When I woke up the second time, I was Itachi's prisoner. He had injuries of his own which I offered to heal to bide my time. It made me sick to help a traitor," she spat with a grimace.
"Finally, after a few days of isolation, I managed to escape. I came back here as soon as I could." Sakura looked down. "You could say that I've learned my lesson—I've never been so homesick in my life."
When she lifted her head to study the expressions of her merciless magistrates, she found Tsunade's eyes darting between the two elders. Koharu seemed thoughtful while Danzo seemed utterly displeased.
"We're relieved that you made it back safely, Sakura," Danzo stated emotionlessly. "But, please, tell us: did you ever get to experience the tsukuyomi as you'd hoped?"
Sakura gulped. His tone could mean nothing but "game over." No matter how lengthy and detailed her story was, Danzo seemed to regard it as little more than poorly crafted fiction.
She looked at him with empty eyes. "Does the answer really matter, Danzo? I know that you tried spiking my coffee."
Tsunade stood from her seat and exclaimed, "Sakura!" Koharu looked outside, no longer interested in the tension taking over the room.
Danzo looked at her without standing. "You're right—the answer doesn't matter. I know that you're lying and I have a special cell for people who lie. Ibiki looks forward to meeting you." Finally he stood. "Meeting adjourned."
How could the meeting be adjourned? How could her life and loyalty be decided over the course of a mere two hours?
As Sakura's throat began to close, Tsunade slammed her fists on her desk, shattering it into pieces that stayed perfectly in place. "Absolutely not! I won't let you drag away my student to some torture chamber on an unfounded whim!" She glared at Danzo with ferocity hot enough to heat the room to the temperature of an industrial oven.
"You have no say this time, Tsunade. I will not be dissuaded."
Just as Danzo raised his cane from the floor, the room shook like a bomb had gone off nearby—items fell from the Hokage's desk, Koharu clung to the couch in an effort to steady herself, and Danzo moved into a defensive stance. Tsunade appeared a combination of surprised and relieved before sending Sakura a meaningful look.
It took Sakura no more than a moment to process what that look meant. "Sorry, Danzo—tell Ibiki Morino that he'll have to find another victim today." Using her teacher's shoulder as a launching post, she swung herself over the shattered desk and out the conveniently open window feet-first.
When another blast shook the ground again, she knew that Danzo's Root squad was only a minor worry in comparison to this: Konoha was under attack.
Her heart seized when she heard nearby villagers squawking about the Akatsuki attacking the northern wall. The Akastsuki. That could mean only one thing.
Itachi and Kisame were here to collect the Kyuubi—and to kill Naruto in the process.
Authoress's Note:
Thank you all for reading and a special thanks to those who take the time to review! Love yas! :*
Have a nice night!
A
