A/N: I'M SO SORRY THIS IS SO LATE! FOR SOME REASON I HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO UPLOAD TO MY ACCOUNT. ANYWAY, I HOPE YOU ENJOY IT AND I PROMISE YOU WONT HAVE TO WAIT AS LONG FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER…

Sakura knew she only had until the bloody fingerprint faded to get her man.

This genjutsu was consuming far more chakra than the watered-down version she had created in the forest. She decided only to put Naruto under by tapping him when he went on watch. It would mean she would have to return before his watch was over; but it bought her far more time than trying to sustain it while it was extended to the other two.

She did not have the chakra-sensing ability to be able to find that rough man anywhere in the village, but The Rocking Horse did a late trade for people unwilling to leave for home after the sun had gone down. Considering locked doors did not seem to deter the abductors this did not seem like much protection, but the innkeeper was not going to turn away paying customers at any hour. This also meant that most of the people Kakashi had socialised with that evening were still downstairs, the target man included. Sakura could hear him even from outside.

Her original plan had been to simply lie in wait until the man walked out the door. But that would take too long, and her genjutsu would dissipate and leave an empty bed long before she could finish the job and get back to it. Her revised plan would use more chakra at a faster rate, but it was more direct and in many ways more poetic. She donned the hooded travelling cloak and scarf she had thrown from the window, using them to cover her hair and most of her face. In the dark of the night she was completely unrecognisable.

But that was only preparation for the later part of her plan. A final layer of disguising needed to be added, and it was this that would eat up her precious chakra reserves. Wrapping an illusion around herself, she felt her physical appearance waver and transform. Suddenly her breathing no longer felt impaired by the heavy scarf over her mouth. It was still technically there, but the henge's skimpy dress was the only thing she could physically feel on her body. She took a moment before entering the bar to check her new appearance. Her short pink hair had been replaced with jet curls that any woman would envy, and her body had grown in certain places to become more… 'feminine.'

Usually it was easier to create a henge based on someone you had seen before, or else adapt your own basic appearance. That was why Naruto had whisker-shaped scars on his cheeks even when he was pretending to be a girl. But though Sakura had never seen a person that looked like the woman she had become, she couldn't take full credit for her either. She was Sayuri from Kakashi's Icha-Icha book; or at least how Sakura had interpreted her. Satisfied, she pushed the door open and scanned the building.

The man was still in his corner, but a larger crowd had accumulated around him. Though the self-imposed curfew was mostly a safety precaution, there were many people (mostly men) that saw it as a great opportunity to find themselves stranded in a building that served alcohol with a legitimate excuse not to leave it. Many of the patrons at that late hour were men, and almost all of them turned to watch Sakura stalk to the bar and gracefully take a seat.

She knew it was a stupid idea that could very quickly backfire. She could overestimate how much chakra she was expending on the genjutsu upstairs, and her disguise could slip right there in the bar. She would be exposed as a ninja and most likely attacked out of suspicion. Or her plan could work too well, and she could waste the next half-hour fending off cocksure young men that had spent all night fuelling their ego with alcohol. She gave a quick but easily-interpreted glance at her target to help move things in the right direction.

The man responded immediately. Used to getting whatever and whoever he wanted, he immediately took the cue from the beautiful stranger and stood to go over to her. His blonde escort tried to make him stay but he waved away her hand. The stranger at the bar murmured something to the bartender, who produced a bottle of sake and two cups. Two. He grinned at the lady's invitation as his former drinking companions leered. When he reached the stool beside her she slid one cup across, already full.

"I'm Kuma," the man told her, radiating machismo.

"Well Kuma, I hoped you would join me for a nightcap before I went home." Sakura purred, hating herself for being so flirtatious with such an abhorrent man.

"You know, you shouldn't be out on the streets at this late hour," the man told her, drinking deeply from his cup. "A pretty girl like you, all alone? Anything could happen."

"Well I don't live too far from here," she replied coyly, "and I would like to get back to my nice, warm bed." Sakura was practically quoting Jiraiya's book word-for-word. She knew she would never have been able to pull something like this off if she hadn't read it beforehand; she was just too innocent to have acted convincingly.

Kuma, to his credit, was playing his own part perfectly. "Well I'm sure there's a room upstairs with a bed just as nice. And if you like, I can even help warm it for you. He slid his hand toward her, and Sakura had to think of nicer things to pretend his touch didn't offend her sensibilities.

She was beginning to think this whole angry vendetta against the horrible man was a little out of her league.

Somewhere upstairs, a ninja was stirring. Kakashi had woken too early for his shift, and was trying to work out why. He looked up at Naruto to check that he was alright and had not signalled some kind of trouble. The boy was leaning against the wall, head occasionally nodding downwards before springing up guiltily.

"Hey, sensei," he said quietly, "did I wake you?"

"No," Kakashi replied, frowning, "I don't think you did." He glanced to his side before freezing in place. "Where's Sakura?"

"What do you mean?" Naruto whispered confusedly. "She's right there." He pointed to her empty sleeping bag and raised his eyebrows at the jounin.

Kakashi saw the belief in Naruto's eyes, and quickly put two and two together. He allowed the panic to subside slightly. If she had put a genjutsu on Naruto, then she had probably left willingly.

"When did you start the watch, Naruto?" Kakashi asked.

"Sakura only woke me up about ten minutes ago. That's why I wondered if I'd woken you." He had stopped looking at Kakashi like he was crazy for not seeing Sakura, which was a blessing.

"Oh no, you didn't wake me at all," he shook his silver head. "I just can't seem to sleep for some reason. Do you mind if I take your shift? There's no point in us both being awake now."

Naruto gratefully accepted and dove into his bed, snoring quietly within seconds. Kakashi watched his and Sai's deep, even breaths, and felt Sakura's cold blanket. Then he performed some quick seals and slipped out the window as well.

Sakura was seriously considering just sprinting out the front door and back into her safe warm bed. The man was getting too confident about his success with women (which Sakura knew she had probably encouraged with her clichéd flirting), and was insisting upon them getting a room upstairs. Sakura would be one of the first to say that gender had nothing to do with being a good ninja; but sitting there, faced with the thought of getting a room with the man, she had never felt less like a soldier and more like a girl.

"Uh- wouldn't your- um, girlfriend- have a problem with that?" Sakura asked, glancing back at the wispy blonde and feeling terrible for dragging her into the very thing she had been trying to save her from.

Kuma shrugged his massive shoulders. "She answers to me, not the other way around. But if you like," he leaned in so that Sakura could smell the sake on his breath, "she could join us. I don't believe in the word 'girlfriend' anyway."

"But I do." A male voice spoke up beside the pair. A man with spiky black hair and pale brown eyes had walked over and placed a firm hand on her shoulder. Sakura's henge almost dissolved with the fear that she would now have to deal with two keen men, but she felt a reassuring squeeze from the newcomer that gave it strength.

"And who the hell are you?" the first man snapped, eyeing the familiar way he handled the woman.

"Hideki," the man replied, smiling. "I'm Sayuri's husband."

Sakura nearly choked. She'd never seen this man before in her life, and now he was claiming to be her husband. For an irrational second she thought she must have transformed herself to look like the stranger's wife, but she knew her appearance was completely based on a fictional character. Her only conclusion was that the man was trying to give her an exit.

"Darling," she said after too long a pause, "what are you doing here?"

"Well, sweetheart," he replied, "when you didn't come home I was worried something had happened to you. You shouldn't be out this late at night, you know."

Sakura didn't need to fake the guilty look that spread across her face. If the genjutsu failed upstairs, Naruto would be panicked out of his mind to find her bed suddenly empty.

"I'm sorry," she murmured, looking down. Kuma harrumphed.

"Oh of course, how rude of me," the new man smacked his forehead sheepishly. Extending his hand he said, "Thanks for looking after Sayuri here. I'd hate to ever lose her."

Sakura caught Hideki's eye for a second and was surprised to see the honesty there. Perhaps she was making the wrong choice letting this man lead her away.

But before she knew it she was outside once more and heading around the corner. If Hideki turned out to be a psycho she could always do to him what she had been denied the chance to do to Kuma. But even though they were soon well out of eye and ear-shot of the bar, she didn't run from him.

Finally, she broke the silence. "Thanks for your help back there."

Hideki paused mid-step. "Any time."

"But you know, I didn't really need your help," she continued. "I knew what I was doing."

The man's mouth opened in a little 'o' of surprise, before a bark of laughter burst from it. Sakura blushed with indignation as the man continued to chortle at her. I'm wearing the most confident, femme-fatale disguise and yet I still radiate innocence like a goddamn light bulb?

"It's not funny. That guy was a creep, and I wasn't about to go anywhere with him that would end in anything he would find pleasant." She gritted her teeth at the memory of the man's touch.

The stranger's expression softened at her own hardened one. "But he didn't hurt you at all; not really. So why bother with that creep in the first place?"

"Because that's who I am. As a woman, I could see the way his 'lover' flinched every time he looked her way. And as a med- nurse, I could see that her bones have been broken before and allowed to set poorly." She had almost said 'medic' before substituting it with something less militaristic.

Kazuma sighed sadly. "I didn't know. You should have said something."

"I just did," she replied confusedly, before a shout caught her attention. There was Kuma, the man she had wanted to get on his own since she had met him, striding toward the pair that had humiliated him in front of his friends.

Sakura grinned, eyes uncharacteristically predatory. She almost looked like Naruto in his demon fox cloak. Hideki watched her for a moment before placing a hand on her shoulder and turning her to face him.

"Go teach him how to set bones properly," he said. Sakura nodded. "But hey; remember the code for dealing with a civilian." Sakura's body tensed as her eyes whipped back to Hideki. He just pressed a knowing finger to his lips before melting into the shadows without a trace.

Kakashi thought Sakura would have figured it out straightaway. It was far too convenient for some random man to just rush in and help her like that. Hell, he had even called her by the name he knew she would have adopted (he really had to commend her henge no jutsu; it was a perfect depiction of Sayuri from Jiraiya's books). But Sakura's usually brilliant instincts were obviously being dedicated entirely to her vile target. He had swooped in and whisked her away and even chatted with her without her suspecting a thing about his true identity. He was just going to punish her for her disobedience and send her back to bed, but instead with one sentence he had let her go. Because he knew he had to let her be what she was: a healer. In this case, that meant she needed to break a few bones first.

It would take only four minutes for Kakashi to see something that would make him regret this decision; something that made him sprint back to the alley as fast as he possibly could.

"Tease!" Kuma yelled at the woman who had left him at the bar, who was still teasing him by standing there with her back to him, alone in the shadows of the alley. "Perfect," he leered, pulling her round to face him.

But it wasn't the brunette from the bar. She was shorter, for one thing. And her clothes had changed; her face was now so heavily covered that he could barely tell she was female anymore.

"Who are you?" he asked, nonplussed.

The girl looked up at him with laughing eyes, clearly enjoying his confusion.

"Me?" she asked, "I'm the Ghost of Lovers Passed. Are you scared?" Before he could reply he was on his back with the wind knocked out of him.

"You bitch," he wheezed.

"Don't worry; you will be," she muttered, cracking her knuckles.

Sakura wiped the blood from her cheek with dignified revulsion. In truth, she had barely touched the man; preferring to use words over fists. As he squirmed on the ground, she continued to speak in a low, composed voice about exactly why he was being punished. But apparently he was a bleeder as well as a coward, because the one blow she had landed to his nose had made him gush like a fountain. Horrified at the sight of his own blood, the brute had broken down into alternating wails of fear and pleas for mercy. Sakura was not like many other ninjas, who took enjoyment from inflicting their superior strength and skill on a weaker opponent. And so even though this man was entirely repugnant, she was satisfied with breaking his pride instead of his neck.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he kept repeating through his swollen jaw. Sakura knelt down slowly to his level, ignoring the blood on her knees.

"Sorry for what?" she pressed calmly.

"For… hurting… women," he mumbled, eyes fixed down at his meaty hands.

"And will you ever do it again?" she asked, dangerously quiet.

He shook his head vigorously.

"Good," she told him, patting him hard on the back. Because if you do, I will make sure you get everything back tenfold." Then she gave his right forearm a squeeze; which might have seemed kindly if she had not broken it in the process. He howled.

"You stay away from him, you bitch!" a cry from the other end of the street made the kunoichi look up. "You leave him alone!"

"Wha-?" Sakura was confused. It was the blonde waif from the bar; the very girl she had done all this to avenge. And now the look of defiant fear on her face was not directed at the man who had broken her arm, but the strange girl who had made him feel remorse for it. The kunoichi bit back her bitter disappointment as the woman approached. Kakashi had been right; it was too late to save women like her.

"Okay, okay," she stood, arms held up to show her peaceful intent. "I'm not going to hurt you- or him- I promise." The blonde continued to come forward, watching her with slightly hysterical caution. Her boyfriend spat a mouthful of blood on the ground. "Listen, you're fine, I'm just-"

And that was all Sakura could say before she was blinded by a harsh blue light…