Author's notes: Thanks for the reviews, faves and alerts guys! I'm really happy the reaction has been so positive. Keep reviewing and I'll keep writing. Now here is when the story takes a turn from comedy to... You'll see.

Special thanks to Shkh4ever, Erini, theliz82, Mewsthecat, Felix_the_Eveetrainer, Fima, BellaJames, LadyNorth76 and Master_Kakashi for their reviews; I know it's a hassle but it helps! Concerns, criticism and compliments keep my muse chattering, kay?

I'll certainly put in some more teasing in due to popular demand! It IS fun to write... Unforunatelty not in this chapter... this one is the beginning of the real storyline. And theliz82 that guess does have some great evidence behind it... but I'm not saying nothing. *zips lips*

And to answer BellaJames, I wrote her shy around Kakashi concerning 'adult talk' because their previous relationship makes it a little awkward for her. She was more confident in the hospital because she was in medic mode but out on the field old insecurities resurfaced. Hopefully that helps, but I'll keep your comment in mind. And yes, I wanted to make her strong, but not a Mary Sue with sparkly pink hair, big boobs and AWESOME POWAH! ;p Besides; Sakura likes her men strong. *saucy wink*

Chapter three: How to Exit Dramatically

The air hummed with the bustle of activity below, the music pulsing through the soles of their feet as they dashed across the familiar tiled roofs. The walkways below were lit with paper lanterns that swung in the cool spring breeze, almost like fireflies in the night. The darkness was never a curfew for the crowds, no matter what the hour you could always go grocery shopping, eat out, see something at the cinema or walk into a bar for some liquor... When ninjas came and went to and from missions at any hour there was no alternative.

But there was another reason for this insomnia.

Konoha is a village that never sleeps; never stops. Sakura believed that if it ever did it would crash... or be crushed. Especially since then; that day... When the world changed forever. Underneath the ready smiles and revelry was a wary watchfulness; they all kept the wall at their backs and an eye on the door. The why was never spoke of, only shared in silent glances over children's heads. A secret that they'd soon forget, if they could only stop remembering.

Sakura suppressed a shudder, drawing her soiled medic coat around her as if she was cold. But her blood burned from exertion as the three sprinted across the roofs towards the Hokage Tower. Sakura was exhausted, her chakra depleted and she was running on empty. Sakura realized belatedly she'd over extended herself, a grey fog blurred her vision and an empty languor suffused her limbs. It would take a day of rest to recover. Not that it mattered, she was needed now.

They reached their destination quickly, and the ANBU disappeared in the foyer. The place was packed as jounins and ANBU ran back and forth urgently and soft in soft harsh voices that echoed in her ears. There were so many simultaneous conversations that the words clashed and combined; a group of three stood close by, huddled together as they spoke a thick smoke of tension rose off them in heated waves.

A member of the decoding department whom Sakura recognised by his bushy brown hair waved his hands around as he growled in an undertone, "The Hokage can't be seriously considering! I mean she's not exactly cut out for-"

He was cut off by a female jounin with her own denial, "No, we can't lose any medics! There has to be another way! If we just wait-"

"There isn't any time!" shouted a masked ANBU disparagingly, "You want to wait while the world burns around you be my guest. As for me, I'll make sure it's done, even if I have to drag-"

"She's here."

Silence replaced the cacophony of whispers as all heads whipped around to face the duo at the door. Sakura's green gaze scanned the crowd, trying to decipher from the atmosphere just what was wrong. Why are they looking at me like that? She was irritated by the stares, They never seen a pink haired medic before?!

Scowling, she stalked through the mass who all jumped back as if her irritable aura scalded them, leaving a wide berth for the kunoichi and her Kakashi shaped shadow to pass through. The copy nin slouched after her, appearing disinterested with his hands in his pockets, conspicuously missing his characteristic pornographic book. Sakura stabbed the buttons in the elevator with more force than strictly necessary as she flounced into the corner and sulked, sending a death glare as some poor unfortunate shinobi tried to come in. The doors closed in his stupefied face.

Kakashi leaned against the wall beside her, a clam island in the sea of her seething aura as it filled the elevator with hissing power. Not cut out for what? She gritted her teeth, I should go down there and cut him out! Pity she had no chakra to spare.

When the elevator stopped and the door opened, Sakura strode through the doors with a ready glare for the huddled groups of ninja in the hallway. Conversation died as she passed only to be struck up again a few moments later. Her teeth grated, What had everyone acting so jumpy? And what the hell does it have to do with me?

"We can't trust a baby jounin on this mission." Spoke a brash baritone as someone sneered from the side as she walked by, "Besides, she might break a nail..."

Sakura stopped, her shoulders tensing as her hands clenched at her sides. He did not just say that. She turned slowly, her aura crackling with clear killing intent as she stared back at the scarred shinobi with narrowed eyes. "Pardon?" she said softly, her words ghosting through the air like the chill touch of the grave, "Do you have something to say to me?"

Despite his height, she somehow slanted her head at just the right angle that she looked like she was staring down at him. Her penetrating eyes seemed to cut right through him, but his back stiffened and he met her stare for stare. His dark brown eyes burned beneath his bushy black eyebrows as which formed a v that accentuated his receding hairline.

"Yeah I do." He growled, "You're an underage, underweight little girl; you'll get you and your team killed. Simple fact."

Sakura arched a brow, her mind working through the hints as she tried to bluff her way through this encounter, "I may be underage, but at least I'm not past it." She smirked, "How is the knee reconstruction rehabilitation going?"

He'd have smoked from the ears if it were possible, "Fine." He grated, breaking his eyes away to stare off to the side. Snickers erupted from some of the onlookers and his guilty expression darkened.

Serves him right, I saved his god damned leg last year after he returned from a mission with it mangled. She thought, inwardly seething.

Sakura suddenly smiled radiantly as she forced her aura to cool. It felt like dropping hot metal into a tub of cold water, "Well remember to check in if it ever troubles you again Yokoshiro-san." She said before she breezed past him as if it had been nothing more than a cordial meeting on the way to work.

Inwardly Sakura felt a strange mix of triumph and relief, she'd never be able to back up any threats in her current state, so she was thankful her bluff had been effective however... she always liked it when she beat someone. So what if she was a pathologically competitive?

Deciding not to psycho analyse herself, Sakura stopped for a moment before the door's to Tsunade's office and knocked. At her shishou's voice she pushed the heavy doors open and walked into the room with a wary look in her eyes.

The woman watched her pupil enter with Shizune hovering anxiously at her side, she threw back a shot before meeting her student's eyes wearily. The room might be occupied by the last living member of the Legendary Sanin, but that didn't stop Sakura from glaring at her.

'Since when did it become common policy to tell all of Konoha about missions Tsunade-shishou!? Should I go discuss S class secrets with the baker?" Her sarcasm acerbic as she chastised her teacher, something she would not have dared to even consider when she was a chunin...

Or before that day.

Kakashi quietly closed the door against the curious eavesdroppers in the hallway but he had enough sense not to interfere with the women. He didn't have a death wish despite what some may believe.

Tsunade exploded to her feet, "Get the facts before you start screaming Sakura! It was necessary to protect your mission's secrecy-"

Sakura barked a laugh, before smacking her forehead, "Oh yeah! Why didn't I think of that? Telling the whole village about a Classified mission certainly protects its secrecy!" she spat back sarcastically.

"Don't take that tone with me!" Tsunade snapped, "The information leakage is a diversion! You aren't going on that mission."

Sakura's eyes narrowed before she brandished a fist, "Oh? So you don't think I'm up to it? I'll have you know I'm-"

Tsunade spoke over her, "That mission is S class. This is unranked."

Sakura stepped forward suddenly and settled into a chair across from her. After getting comfortable she shot a look at Tsunade, "Explain."

Grumbling at her insubordination, Tsunade folded into her chair with a dry look at her apprentice. She remembered the days she could quell her with a stare, or a few carefully chosen words. But it seemed that as consequence of her training she'd become very independent. She'd taught her well, but she was not a Kage and shinobi had to take orders. She have to break this bad habit. "The Code Department has found the meaning behind the Akatsuki's words Sakura."

The pink haired girl leaned forward at this, Finally! The answer to the question that's been plaguing me for weeks! "Well? Tell me!" she demanded, her eyes alight with curiosity.

Tsunade sighed, rubbing her eyes with a hand before she met the stare of her student. Steeling her spine, she spoke the words she wish she didn't have to.

"It means that you are the only person who can complete this mission." Edging around the issue, she glanced at Kakashi; he simply shrugged. Sakura might want to know, need to know; but she couldn't tell her all of it. There are some secrets best kept that way.

"What?!" Sakura shared her glare magnanimously around with the room's other occupants, "You can't expect me to tell me that much and not everything!"

Tsunade set her shoulders and sobered before she spoke without inflection, "You are to accompany a squad of ANBU to Suna where you will be joining the Kazekage's men to infiltrate Mist."

Sakura's eyes widened, she felt all the air escape her as a sudden premonition left her winded. Licking her lips, she breathed, "... Our mission?"

Tsunade continued tonelessly, but her eyes were sharp as they locked with Sakura's, "Kill the Mizukage."

She sucked in a breath, as if she'd broken the surface of water after being held under. Her hands clenched on the arms rests in a white knuckled grip and her body hummed with tension, she leaned forward to meet her sensei's stare. Her emotions were a maelstrom that threatened to tear her apart in their fury; incongruous, mutually exclusive and yet simultaneous as they shredded her calm with careless claws.

A jolt of anticipation was met with a dousing of icy guilt and fear. Hate met love in a caustic collision and they became the same. White met black and even as these opposites struggled; it all just bled into grey.

But the Mizukage is-! Sakura's face was stone as she stared unseeingly into the distance, unable to process the suddenness of this new mission. After all the years training and waiting it was now just too soon.

... Can I really kill him? She closed her eyes to stop herself from crying as her emotions became too much to contain inside herself.

A heavy hand squeezed her shoulder and Sakura was shocked out of her thoughts as she looked up to see the silver haired jounin. But his attention was not on her.

"This will mean war." Kakashi stated, looking straight over her head to address the Hokage.

"I know." She replied.

His grip on Sakura's shoulder grew almost painful as his fingers dug into her, "We aren't ready."

At this Tsunade stood up in a flurry of fabric, a hand at the necklace around her neck. She stood there for a few moments, teetering on some precipice before her face contorted in a wince of pain as she whispered, "I know..."

Wind roared past like a scream outside the window in the sudden silence inside before Sakura's fingers ripped the arm rest clear off the chair. She shot to her feet, brushing off Kakashi's grip as she demanded, "Then why act now?! You are always calling me impatient Tsunade-shishou," she gestured violently before pressing a hand to her chest, "-but I would never resign Konoha to destruction!"

Tsunade fixed her student with a stare that should have melted her in her place as she bit back viciously, "I will never give up on Konoha! If there is even one shinobi standing then the battle is not over and I will keep fighting. I would gladly die if it would save this Village, but nothing is so simple." She hissed through her teeth, "Don't judge hastily on things you can't understand."

"Then make me understand! Tell me what is really happening! Why me? Why was I chosen for this mission Tsunade?"

The Hokage fixed her with a stare, "Because you are my apprentice! Did you really think your position would be simply tending the sick, learning a few jutsu and going on the odd mission? Are you blind!?"She stalked around the table and pulled her student bodily towards her, her features was furious and grave as she nearly came nose to nose with her.

"Isn't this what you wanted? Didn't you vow vengeance?" Even as Sakura tried to recoil, those claws at her biceps refused even the smallest movement, "He must die... or Konoha will."

Sakura pulled away harshly, her eyes burning with both pain and anger, "How can you expect me not to be conflicted?!" she yelled with desperate fury, "You should understand me better than anyone!"

Tsunade didn't even flinch, "I do." She answered grimly, "Which is why I know it must be you!" She was unrelenting in her appraisal of her apprentice, "You have learnt at the feet of the greatest medics alive and were trained in ninjutsu by exceptional shinobi, but these lessons were not simply taught for fun. There is always a price to be paid Sakura." The Hokage ruthlessly continued on as Sakura wilted under the onslaught, "You've killed dispassionately because you were told to, healed those how you chose and let others die. You are a kunoichi of Konoha and you must sacrifice more pieces of yourself for peace."

Sakura's spine stiffened as a memory flittered across her face; her first step... her first kill. She knew what Tsunade meant; she knew that there was always a price. She'd killed a boy just because he was a genin of a different village when she was a fresh faced chunin. It had changed her, her first scent of blood, her first chance to see eyes film over in death.

The medic swallowed as she remembered his desperate struggle, the feel of his legs and arms thrashing against her as she hesitated at the final moment and met his scared grey eyes...

Before she closed her own and slit his throat. Blood gushed out over her hands in heated waves as she dropped the corpse to cool on the ground.

When he died, a part of her went with him.

Could I really go through that again? Push out my limits again? Or more importantly... could I watch yet another of my ... She choked under the pressure as her mixed emotions surged, nearly splitting her apart under the sheer force of her feelings.

"But its Sasuke!" Sakura blurted before she turned away so they couldn't see her eyes, she wanted to scream but she could only whisper, "I can't-!"

Kakashi suddenly appeared before her, she met his eye defiantly, shaking with anger, fear and horror. That eye shared her suffering, he'd been there on that day and they had witnessed something they thought they couldn't survive.

But they did.

"Even after what he has done?" The masked man's words were no louder than a zephyr of wind, but she flinched anyway, "Have you already forgotten what you promised three years ago?"

Sakura's vision blurred as her pain rose up to fill her; she thought she was cured. She had foolishly believed she was healed. But she'd only learned to ignore the bleeding. Sakura let her head fall forward, allowing her hair to hide her tears as she brushed them away. She hugged herself as images rushed past her vision and she could not eclipse them by closing her eyes. No matter how hard she dug her nails into her skin, it did not puncture the pain.

But the sharp cuts steadied her world, soothed the rush of emotion and channelled it into adrenaline. A face swam up in her consciousness and she grasped the image desperately. Even if it was nothing more than a memory.

She slowly raised her face to meet Kakashi's and Tsunade's as they hovered just out of reach as she brought herself back together. Which was just as well, all it would take was a touch and she would shatter.

"I'll do it." Her words were rough with repressed feelings, but her eyes were hard as her hands dropped to fists at her sides, "I'll kill Sasuke for the sake of Konoha and... for what he has done." Her voice lowered to a growl.

Tsunade's face softened, but she did not speak the worry in her eyes, "Your task is to pretend you are on a mission as the ambassador between Leaf and Mist. You are not to talk to any about the true nature of the mission till you speak with the Kazekage."

"Yes Tsunade-shishou." Sakura nodded with a jerky bow.

Her master stopped her as she went to leave, "However, as this mission could determine the survival of Konoha itself, there will be an Aptitude Examination."

Sakura frowned at her teacher, "I didn't ask for this task, yet now I'm going to have to do a test? Do you want me on this mission or not?"

Tsunade stared back at her student, "It is necessary for my ANBU to access your skills if you are to be a member of the assassination team, Sakura."

The medic frowned at the Hokage's wording, "... Speak plainly shishou."

The blonde shinobi fixed her with a pointed stare, as if she were being especially slow, "I'm recommending you to be a member of my personal troop division of the ANBU."

She gasped, floored by the offer. She'd never considered herself strong enough for ANBU, let alone the Hokage's Division!! "..."

Tsunade nodded and took her silence as assent, "Report at the entrance of the Tower tomorrow, an ANBU Operative with meet you there. Be prepared."

Sakura swallowed her anxiety as she nodded slowly, trying to assimilate all the information from the last hour. The medic paused as she went for the door. Too fragile to face the people in the hallway; she turned abruptly and began to run.

She had a second to take in Shizune's shocked face before she leapt onto the desk and threw herself out the window in headfirst dive.

The world blurred around her as she fell, the wind whipping away the heat of her skin with its cool caress. She needed to be cold, to freeze the feelings she couldn't trust. Because she had to kill the love of her life for the lives of everyone she loved.

The air streaked past her as her free fall accelerated, her smile was somehow twisted as she spoke bitterly, "I've become Sasuke to kill him."

And with that thought, she gathered a little chakra to slow her fall, she lashed a foot out onto the vertical surface of the tower before she used it as a pivot to flip. The kunoichi landed on the ground with smooth silent grace, before rising to her feet with a smile on her face as her heart settled inside her chest. Sometimes it was handy having perfect chakra control rather than a bloodline limit, especially when there was a window handy.

Sakura had developed a habit of running from things she couldn't face, but unfortunately; this mission wasn't something she could escape.

A civilian was staring at her in shock across the street, whipping his eyes back and forth between her and the window as if he expected her to be a hallucination. Sakura smiled and waved before she formed a quick hand seal and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

***

Tsunade exhaled as she stared after her student, exasperation and worry warred on her face. She sent a droll look at the copy nin beside her, "Looks like she learned more from you than basic ninjutsu. She never uses a door anymore."

Kakashi grinned under his mask but simply shrugged, "At least she is not like Gai."

The Hokage barked a laugh, before she circled around her desk and collapsed into her chair. Shizune hovered over her as she poured herself a liberal amount of sake before bitting her lip and glancing back at the window, "Do you really think this is wise? Being a member of ANBU is... taxing. Especially for a stubborn personality like Sakura's."

"She's strong , but she isn't ruled by her emotions, even if she appears hot-headed." Kakashi replied, settling down in the chair Sakura had been sitting in earlier, "Besides..."

"-She isn't ready yet to face Sasuke, despite what she thinks." Finished Tsunade, as she reached for the bottle again to top up her glass, "Emotionally, mentally or physically." She threw back the sake before continuing, "In her current state, it'd be like sending a rabbit to hunt a wolf."

"Then why send her at all?" asked Shizune as she wrung her hands worriedly, "Sasuke won't hesitate to kill her, not when it would be such a terrible blow to Konoha."

Tsunade nodded, before reclining back in her chair, "But she has to go. We all know what the Akatsuki said." She starred down at the clear still surface of her sake; "He wants revenge for the death of his clan, but if he even suspects we can channel the Sacred Fire; he'll annihilate every man woman and child in Konoha to learn the secret." Her grip tightened on her cup, "He is certainly Orochimaru's protégé."

"Even he wouldn't pay the price." Kakashi murmured distantly, "Sasuke survives, that is his greatest skill."

Shizune's lips twisted and she turned to face the window as she changed the subject, "Will there really be enough time to prepare Sakura?" She sighed before massaging her temple, "I do not know if I could do it." She admitted honestly, "Not when I'd already lost as much as she has."

"She will." Kakashi stated, leaning back in his chair with his eye closed, "That's just how Sakura is. Why else spend her life trying to fulfil a promise she made when she was a genin?"

Tsunade nodded before she finished her drink and placed it on the desk wearily, "Let's just hope it does not come to that, I am not sure I'd be able to let her, even to prevent another day like before."

The three were silent as memories stole their voices away with emotions that burned with the need to be spoken. They remained that way for a very long time.

****

Just what is going on, why all the secrets? What happened three years ago? What did the Akatsuki say? Well, you betterREVIEWif you want to find out!