Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

A/N: Thank you guys for all of the lovely reviews! Please review the bottom Author's Notes for more commentary!

Song Inspo: Acid Rain by Lorn.

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THREE


"Daylight

In bad dreams

In a cool world

Full of cruel things..."


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Completing her mission was disappointingly easy, but it was expected from someone of her caliber. The scroll had gone to one of Suna's magistrates and she had taken a day to spend time with old friends. She had teased Temari about her relationship with Konoha's resident lazy pineapple and Kankuro, in return, made a teasing comment about her new look and Sakura took the badgering with a light heart. Gaara, on the other hand, had observed her too closely for her liking.

She'd entered Suna's actual gates only a handful of times since her turning, preferring to keep to tasks along the borders of Wind, and had noticed his unsettling eyes following her every move whenever she was in the immediate area.

She was wary of him.

Sakura suspected he knew more about her than he let on and it made her skittish. He made her paranoia reach disturbing heights and she didn't like it. All it took was one—just one—courier nin carrying a message full of speculation and her life was over.

She'd eat that courier nin before she let that happen.

Or not. She wouldn't risk the alliance like that.

Nonetheless, Gaara was always too interested in her whenever he had a chance to speak to her. At first glance, the questions he asked were things normal friends asked each other: how was she doing, was she eating enough, did she need assistance with anything, was she making any advancement in personal goals; but Sakura felt there were hidden meanings behind those questions of his.

If her heart were capable of it, she was sure it'd be beating a wild staccato in his presence.

He knew something and she wasn't sure she wanted to find out.

Some good things came from this mission, though, she mused happily. On her way to Suna, she found a fresh corpse of a bandit. Observation was enough to deduce that he'd died from dehydration and she had taken the opportunity to fill her belly. Although the pallor of her skin hadn't changed much, she almost felt like she was glowing. Her hair had returned to its normal shade of rose quartzite and her eyes were sharper.

The world seemed brighter and clearer whenever she ate.

But the most important thing to have happened was Gaara's intelligence.

They had found another Sound base—this one in Birds Country. She tried very hard not to question Gaara's reasonings for divulging something others would think trivial to her interests.

While Konoha had a kill on sight order for Kabuto and Orochimaru, the rest of the world didn't, nor did they know about it. Those two were their loose ends, and they were determined to be rid of them.

As far as the rest of the world knew, all Konoha had cared about in regard to Sound was Sasuke; he was a Leaf-nin now, and wasn't that all she and Naruto had ever wanted?

Regardless of his reasons behind it, Sakura now had a lead to her own personal mission and she was ecstatic.

Eight months of nearly nothing and she finally had something.

She wouldn't waste the opportunity.

As she crossed Wind's unforgiving landscape towards Birds, her distinctive pink hair tucked into the hood of her cloak, she ruminated on what she knew so far.

Whenever she wasn't busy on missions searching for dead ends, Sakura was researching her current state. Blood samples solidified Kabuto's hypothesis—the virus had done what it had been designed to do.

Her DNA had been altered so thoroughly it wasn't even human, anymore. In fact, Sakura was pretty sure she was half Venus flytrap. Her entire biology was a confusing combination of plant and animal cells.

As Kabuto said, her cells divided at an astounding rate. It was almost like a cancer, each cell absorbing and outputting uncontrollable amounts of chakra, and he was right when he said her fine-spun chakra control would handle the rest. Her chakra, without her bidding, destroyed each cancerous cell and turned it into a source of energy. Unfortunately, what Kabuto hadn't accounted for was that this energy would manifest itself as hunger soon after.

Under a microscope, Sakura had watched grimly as her sample cells divided rapidly, were halted by a small stream of her chakra, then violently consumed themselves.

Her petri dish had exploded.

Through trials she had conducted on herself, she learned that chakra flooding through her pathways immediately spread out into her cells and made her an animal.

Literally.

Primal instincts robbed her of rational thought and it was only her will power that made her focus on morality and intelligence. She was incredibly strong and a chakra powerhouse during these times, but the urge to kill and destroy was nearly impossible to reign in.

What's more, any and all injuries barely bled and healed on their own because of her constant state of regeneration.

Sakura was pretty sure she couldn't die and she was pretty sure she couldn't age either.

Now wouldn't Tsunade-shishou be jealous?

But after…after these moments of monstrosity, she had to eat. She felt empty, like she hadn't eaten in years and was a starving animal.

She guessed it had something to do with the mixture of Zetsu's animal cells and her own human cells. While the prokaryotic cells in her body were self-sustainable, the eukaryotic cells in her body needed sustenance to produce energy. The confusion caused her body to attack itself; which is why, when she needed to eat, her body went through physical changes.

Unfortunately, Sakura still didn't know why she had to eat human instead of animal flesh. She'd tried the animal route and it had done nothing for her. If she could figure out why Zetsu ate his victims, maybe she'd be able to find a way to reverse it.

She had tried to find the cure itself by using her own cells, but she needed the original virus. If she could recreate the formula, break down its structure chemically, and then create an antiviral that would attack and kill the non-human parts of her, she'd possibly be able to find an actual cure. If that didn't work, she'd have to try fuinjutsu, and that was her absolute last resort because she'd have to tell Naruto.

Everything was uncertain and she hated it.

Reaching Birds Country, Sakura reached into her hip pouch and pulled out her map. Gaara had said that Sound's hidden base was close to the border between Wind and Birds, a few kilometers away from Gokayama. It was once hidden by a genjutsu but it had been undone by someone recently. Suna's scouts had reported the discovery and out of good will Suna had decided to let Konoha investigate it.

However, she didn't doubt that Gaara had sent his own personal scouts to consider any threat levels. If they had found something, Sakura had a feeling Gaara would have told her.

But he hadn't, so that meant there was either nothing in there or something they hadn't seen.

Or maybe Suna really had left it up to Konoha's discretion.

Whatever the case, she wouldn't know until she got there.

Squaring her shoulders with a clenched jaw, Sakura set out towards what would hopefully be her first big break.

Taking in the terrain, the rosette curiously noted that while Tori no Kuni was a small country situated between Earth and Wind, the land had an abundance of water. There weren't many trees or grass and the dirt was mostly sand, but there was mossy undergrowth.

She ran through the forest with her senses expanded, searching for any lingering trace of chakra. Genjutsu left a residue behind when it was used and dispelled, kind of like an oily coating on your tongue, but depending on how long ago it had been released, the trail could be obvious like rope or nearly invisible like spider silk.

Sakura skidded to a hasty stop on a moss covered branch when she felt something a few meters to the left. Focusing all her attention on that one feeling tickling the back of her throat, she expanded her senses until she found traces of a web.

Baring her teeth in a mockery of a grin, she launched off the branch with the grace of a bull and left a crater in the wake of her landing. Nearing the source of the feeling, Sakura stalked forward purposely until instinct told her to fall back. Hiding behind a tree and suppressing her chakra, she palmed a kunai.

To reach out her chakra to probe for signatures was a rookie's mistake, so she waited with baited breath for her cause of alarm. Normally, she wouldn't be afraid to face whoever it was head on but this was a delicate mission.

Subtlety and tact was essential. No one was supposed to know she was here.

Luckily for her, Sakura was well versed in silent killing and dusk was rapidly approaching. She'd hide and attack from the shadows.

The sun casted long shadows across the land and she used it to her advantage. Shinobi learned to use every tool in their arsenal to their disposal, and her current condition was no exception. Creeping farther into the descending darkness and closing her eyes, Sakura exhaled deeply and slowed her already sluggish heartbeat.

Technically, she was dead. She didn't need to breathe, didn't need to sleep, she didn't even need to have a heartbeat. However, to avoid suspicion, Sakura's subconscious had learned to keep the organ pumping slow amounts of blood to maintain blood flowing through her limbs and organs. Not only was she afraid that if she stopped it completely her limbs would lock up in some type of rigor mortis and her organs would start to decay, (subsequently making it impossible for her to become human again, for no medic was godly enough to reverse necrosis), she worried that her friends would forcibly admit her to the hospital to get examined.

They already asked too many questions regarding her appearance and core body temperature, she was sure that someone had already noticed something was up and was looking for a reason to approach her about it.

There was a reason why she avoided the Hyuuga Clan like a plague.

Not having much experience with being dead, she decided she'd rather be safe than sorry in that area.

But for now, she'd take a small risk for her cause.

Sakura's presence disappeared.

Climbing up a tree with the grace of a panther, she flattened herself against a branch and observed from the distance as four shinobi strolled into one of the many large clearings between the sparse trees.

Two were young enough to be Genin whereas the other two could possibly be Jounin. Without her chakra, Sakura couldn't tell; it was the only drawback to her invisibility trick. What she could see was their headband declaring their allegiance to Oto.

Swallowing against the anticipation, darkened eyes followed the two Genin as they disappeared into the bushes for a loudly announced bathroom break. Resisting the urge to shake her head at the complacency, she frowned and slunk slowly across the tree's branches until she was facing the direction they had disappeared off to.

Sakura hated to kill Genin but it had to be done. Silently crawling on all fours like a contortionist, she crept from tree to tree until she crouched on a branch directly above their heads. Just as she steeled herself to silently swoop down and simultaneously slit their throats, their words made her falter.

"I can't believe we're on a mission!" The one peeing on the tree beamed at his friend who was supposed to be watching his back. "Our first mission ever!"

"Shut up, idiot!" The boy with green hair snapped even though a grin stretched his own lips, "There could be someone out there!"

The other boy scoffed, zipping up his fly and flipping his brown ponytail over his shoulder in a move reminiscent of Ino. "No one ever comes this way in Birds, everyone knows that. That's why Orochimaru-sama built that base here."

Green Hair rolled his eyes, his kunai lowering as he turned to face his friend. "Oh, yeah? So then why were those Suna nin here?"

Brown Hair flushed at the derisive tone in the other boy's voice and he clenched his fists. "You shut up! You just think that because you're 11—"

"I'm twelve—"

"—And I'm 10, you get to boss me around! Well I'll tell ya what, pork face, you ain't the boss of me!"

"Yes I am! Orochimaru-sama said to come back with the heads of enemy nin and I'm way stronger than you so that makes me the boss!"

Sakura felt sick to her stomach and bit her lip to quell the rising rage. These boys were children and if Orochimaru had sent them to these ruins while knowing there was the possibility of powerful Leaf or Suna nin lurking around it meant he had plans.

"Oh, yeah?! Well, we've been here for two weeks now and I don't see any heads, do you?!"

"You just wait! It doesn't matter, anyway! Kabuto-sama said he'd show us something cool when we came back, so how about you just follow me and do everything I say!"

It was a trap and these boys were cannon fodder.

Closing her eyes as the boys' bickering washed over her, she rested her forehead against her arm and prayed for strength from any god that hadn't abandoned her.

If the trap didn't catch and they returned empty handed, the Jounin in the clearing would probably be spared but these Genin would be subjected to whatever cruel and twisted things Kabuto had promised them.

She'd be kind by giving them a merciful death—quick and painless.

But, Gods, they were children!

A tear fell from her eye onto the bark below her.

As she swooped down like the embodiment of death, cloak billowing out behind her like an ominous cloud, she told herself it was a mercy.

When she pressed her palms onto their small chests to stop their beating hearts with medical chakra, she dared not look into their stunned eyes and told herself she was being kind.

As she hid the corpses in an alcove behind some bushes, she cursed the evil in the world and Kabuto thrice to Hell.

Swinging herself up into the tree, Sakura sniffled then steeled her will. Now was not the time to cry over two enemy children. Death was a part of being a shinobi and as a medic-nin she knew that very well.

Nightfall had since fallen and she prepared herself to wait for the two older shinobi to come searching for their charges.

She didn't have to wait long, and she pressed herself closer to the tree as the two men called out the two boys' name. Suspecting foul play, the taller of the two unsheathed his tanto. Nodding at the other man, he flash stepped into another part of the woods—if you could even call it that.

Darkness swallowed the clearing as a large cloud obstructed the light of the waning moon and Sakura crept forward until she hovered over the last one left.

He lowered into a defensive crouch, tension lining his shoulders and cording around his neck as his eyes swept from corner to corner, and she let the silence of the woods unnerve him—let the fear of the unknown unsettle him. All she had to do was wait.

From where she was poised to strike, Sakura tracked the bead of sweat making its way down his temple.

A feral smile curled her lips.

He felt hunted—good.

He made the mistake of wiping his face with a forearm and in a heartbeat it was over. She came down on him like a silent ghost, green chakra illuminating her face eerily as she pressed both hands to his chest to stop his heart as well. The man died with an expulsion of breath against her face and she caught him before he fell.

Lifting him into her arms, she placed him in the same alcove as the other two. Turning around from her handiwork, Sakura considered the now silent clearing. She couldn't feel the other Oto nin, but she knew he was out there.

A moment ago, the darkness was her friend; but now, it hid the enemy. Her lips tightened into a thin white line as she measured the benefits of waiting for him to return or hunting him instead.

"You fucker!"

Ah, well, it seemed like the choice had been made for her.

"What did you do to them, you fucking freak?!"

Honestly, Oto nin were so unprofessional. She turned around silently to observe him from beneath the hood of her cloak. Her face was covered in shadow and she offered him nothing.

The man tired of her impudence and lunged at her with a quick taijutsu combination that surprised her. She crouched low as his fist swung over her head and she retaliated by sweeping her leg towards his shins. Leaping away, he launched through a series of hand seals and a loud sonic boom pierced the silence of the night.

Even though she expected it, she still cursed as the unholy sound ruptured her eardrums and knocked her off balance. Forcing herself to her feet, she sloppily avoided being decapitated.

Damn it, she cursed the need to stay anonymous. While she could unleash her monstrous strength and finish it quickly, there were only two people in the entire world who had such strength, and as far as Orochimaru and Kabuto knew, one of them was dead.

Not only that, the adrenaline rushing through her veins and chakra surging through her pathways was awakening the virus and Sakura did not have the time to go cannibalistic right now. Even now, with something minor like ruptured eardrums, her breathing and heartbeat was fading and her extremities were cooling rapidly. It wouldn't be long before that dreaded white hot anger consumed her and ruined her attempts towards subtlety.

The man chuckled at whatever expression she must have had on her face and he brought the blade of his tanto to his lips. Sakura's eyes widened at the blood she saw dripping from its surface and jerked a hand to her neck reflexively.

As he licked her blood off his tanto, Sakura made a sound of disgust low in her throat.

Whether she was disgusted towards his actions, or her own misstep, she couldn't tell.

Her chakra rushed towards the wound and engulfed it in a green glow; it illuminated the contours of her lower face, giving the man full view of the veins spreading and rupturing beneath her cadaverous skin.

A snarl ripped from her throat, the sound of it curdling the man's blood, and she lunged at him with the speed of something inhuman. The Sound-nin made a choked sound of surprise when her fist made contact with his chest, bodily lifting him off the ground and launching him into a tree.

His bones made a sickening crack upon contact, and she knew without a doubt that she had broken his spine. She took a moment to compose herself, focusing instead on her breathing than the tingling beneath her skin.

She felt the tale-tell coolness of her medical chakra flooding her body, noting how it fixed ruptured blood vessels and collapsed veins.

Once she felt composed enough to confront the whimpering man before her without ripping into his skull, she stalked towards him intently.

The Sound-nin's sobs made her grimace as she took in his crumpled form, his back bent unnaturally and his legs nearly severed from the knees down.

She hadn't put enough chakra into her hit for it to blow out his chest, but his body's impact with the tree had done the work for her.

"P-please," he begged once she came close enough to hear his wheezing cries. "Kill me! It hurts—oh god, it hurts!"

A part of her that was still very much human—and civilian—was horrified at the damage she'd done and pitied him. But the larger part of her, the seasoned shinobi who'd lived through the Akatsuki and the Fourth Great War, sneered at his inability to accept death gracefully.

After all, when she had died, she'd gone out cursing and vengeful.

Sakura stood before his mangled body, wrinkling her nose at the scent of urine assaulting her heightened olfactory senses, and crouched down until they were at eye level.

Whatever the man saw in her face made the breath catch in his throat and she watched as some type of light entered his eyes before the muscles in his jaw started working furiously.

It took her only a second, but her eyes widened when she realized what he was doing. Her hand shot out like a viper, catching his jaw in a steely grip as the fingers of her other hand plunged into his mouth to dig around his molars.

It was a disgusting feeling and it reminded Sakura why she'd never be a dentist.

The shinobi made a sound of despair when he saw her extract the hidden cyanide pill from the pocket where a molar used to be. Releasing him, Sakura crushed the pill between her fingers and wiped its remnants on the fabric of her pants.

"That pill," she started slowly, conversationally, "means you know something."

Leaning back on her haunches and crossing her arms over her knees, she tilted her head. "Now what could that be?"

"I-I'll die before I give information to Konoha-scum like you!" He spat, spittle dribbling down his chin.

Really, Sakura commended his bravery. Stupid as it may be.

"Now, now," Sakura sang, "Let's not get too hasty. I believe you were begging for death only a minute ago. You help me, and I'll help you."

When the Sound nin spit a bloody loogie at her chest, she decided that she really didn't feel like being helpful today anyway.

In a moment too fast for the Sound-nin to follow, she reached over and snapped the fingers of his right hand. His screams were hoarse as he cursed her, her village, and the whore who spawned her.

"Perhaps you've forgotten your position." Reaching over, she passed a glowing hand over his broken bones, mending them roughly but quickly. "I can keep you alive for as long as I please."

"Fuck you!"

Sakura sighed. Oh, how she hated when they were uncooperative. All they had to do was pass along some knowledge and she'd give them what they wanted. It wasn't like Kabuto was going to be nicer to them or something—since they'd be dead and all.

Pride was a silly thing.

"Okay," she said calmly even though her patience was wearing thin, "Maybe I didn't make myself clear. You will tell me what you know or I will break you then heal you over and over again until you give me what I want."

Leaning in close enough to feel his labored breaths against her face, she bared her teeth in a mockery of a smile. "And I feel inclined to remind you, Shinobi-san, there are worse things than death."

Though his eyes were wide and glassy with fear, he tightened his cracked lips stubbornly and Sakura nearly groaned.

She was in for a long night.


After two hours of creatively applying medical chakra in a way that would make Tsunade-shishou decimate the Hokage tower in rage and revoke her medical license, Sakura was able to extract the information she needed.

Even though she could have gone for the more traditional type of torture—as in, breaking bones, ripping off fingernails and playing psychological games—she found she didn't have the patience for it. That was more of Ino's thing, anyway.

The same way medical chakra could be used to heal, it could be used to induce unimaginable amounts of pain. All she had to do was stimulate the pain receptors and nerves around open wounds and the most painful points of the body.

The only reason why medical ninja weren't interrogators was because it was undoubtedly unethical.

And, clearly, Sakura had left her ethics behind once she started an all human diet.

Needless to say, she had him singing like a canary and while the reward wasn't great, it was good enough.

Before she slit his throat, he had given her the location to the base he and the other three had dispatched from, which would have been great intel in any other situation had he not disdainfully told her they had moved locations a week ago. He and the others were supposed to rendezvous with Kabuto in two days to report in on the activity around the base and receive the coordinates to the new one.

Her lips tightened into a grim line. She was right in that it was a trap; who it was laid out for, she didn't know. Either way, she wasn't stupid enough to go to that rendezvous and risk being discovered.

Were she 16 and Naruto, she might have. But she was 23 and Sakura, and she knew better than charging into things without knowing the consequences first.

Especially without any type of back-up.

The moon was high in the sky as she made her way towards the Sound base she came to investigate. At first glance it seemed like a lonely boulder in the middle of nowhere, but a quick dispelling of the genjutsu over it revealed a network of doors built into the ground.

Sakura grimaced; she hated being underground.

Her taijutsu was limited lest she risk being caved in, she couldn't see, and she damn well knew that there were traps she was probably going to trip.

Taking a deep breath, Sakura rolled her shoulders before reaching down and grasping the handles to the double doors and ripping them off their hinges. She was met with stone steps leading to darkness and the rushing wind eerily echoing through empty corridors.

She didn't know what sort of trap they had laid out, nor did she know what horrors awaited her down there. For all she knew, she could be walking into a labyrinth of death and misery.

The little girl in her that was still afraid of the dark begged her to turn around and go home to where it was safe, to where there weren't ghastly things possibly waiting behind every corner to rip her apart, and she so badly wanted to do just that.

Just because she was undead it didn't mean she couldn't feel fear.

But she needed to search the labs for something—anything—Kabuto might have left behind.

Swallowing against the unwelcome apprehension burrowing into her chest, she took her first step down into the darkness.

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tbc


A/N: Most of you don't want pairings, while the others want some KakaSaku and ItaSaku. While Itachi IS dead in my AU, we can definitely see that Kabuto is not above bringing back the dead to get what he or Orochimaru want. He might be a character in this story, he might not. Romance might not even be a huge part in the story, but we shall see!

I'm glad some of you like the inclusion of Ino and the others!

Please tell me what you guys think of the pacing. I sometimes draw things out without giving much action, but there are lots of little things in here that show Sakura's journey towards the cure and the mistakes she's making.

Things definitely pick up next chapter!