21 days left.

When she was woken up by a kick in the ribs, Sakura knew that she was home.

"Get up." Baiu snarled. "We've got a huge amount of training to cover, since you spent the last two days on a nice little field trip taking a pleasant stroll around the lands."

Sakura's eyes flickered down to her arms. The needle marks from the poisons had yet to fade, and what Sakura hated more was that she could remember exactly which poison each and every mark stood for.

"I wouldn't really say it was pleasant." she murmured, still half asleep.

Baiu's fist struck the top of her head, stunning her. She fell to the ground, cursing her own stupidity. Why couldn't her mouth just stay shut?

Baiu placed his foot on top of her head and pressed down, pushing her face into the floor.

"You don't say anything. Opinions like that are for real people, not weapons like you. Got it?"

She couldn't exactly say anything with her mouth squashed into the floor, but she managed to make a small moaning sound. It was enough to satisfy Baiu, and he grabbed her by the hair and lifted her up.

"Let's get started then."

By the time the day ended, Sakura's fingers were stiff and sore, but she was confident that she could hit any target with most of the common weapons from at least thirty feet away. She could tell Baiu was surprised with how quickly she improved. Even after the months of training, they would sometimes touch on a new skill, only to find that Sakura already knew quite a bit about it.

When she arrived back in her room, she was surprised to see that someone had laid fresh clothes out on her bed. There was no note, but Sakura assumed it was Konan, seeing as she was the only person Sakura knew who had shown any liking to her.

She quickly changed into her fresh clothes, too tired to use the shower, before flopping down on the bed and drifting off.

After everything she'd been put through today, all Sakura wanted was a good night's sleep. So naturally, she had nightmares instead.

Luckily, when she woke the next morning, she didn't remember most of them. The only thing that she remembered was the feeling of being drowned in burning hot chakra. She had tried to scream, but the chakra had wormed its way into her mouth, scorching her throat and searing her brain. She woke up with a slight headache and an image of a huge pair of angry red eyes.

She had no time to dwell on it, since she woke up seconds before Baiu came bursting in.

"Get up." he snarled, seeming almost disappointed that she was already awake. Perhaps he had been looking forward to kicking her again.

She obeyed and followed him down to the cavern.

And the training began.

Before tonight, Naruto would have said that any dream was better than another dream about the pink-haired girl.

But dreaming about Sasuke Uchiha? So much worse.

He didn't even like the Uchiha, so why was his brain imagining him and Sasuke training together? Naruto wanted to punch Sasuke's face in, not have a friendly spar with him. But according to this dream, they were on good terms. Sasuke even seemed kind of friendly. His eyes were lighter, like he was enjoying this spar, and although he was watching Naruto closely, he didn't look angry. He wasn't smiling either, but Naruto didn't expect his dream to work miracles. From what he'd seen, Sasuke's smiles were reserved for his family, especially his older brother. What was that guy's name again?

He heard a noise over to the side of the training ground and turned to look. The pink-haired girl was there, cheering and calling encouragement. Naruto thought that she was cheering for him, because why wouldn't she be? But as her words became more audible, Naruto realised that she was cheering the Uchiha on.

Great, even his own imaginary friends were on Sasuke's side.

Naruto scowled. What was so great about Sasuke anyway? He was the one with the visions of her. He was the one who was actually trying to find her. If she liked Sasuke so much why didn't she go haunt him?

Naruto realised that he'd stopped fighting, just in time for Sasuke to charge at him. He heard the girl cry out a warning but it was too late. Sasuke's fist collided with his face, and Naruto felt himself falling backwards. He tensed up, expecting to hit the ground.

Instead, he fell through the ground, as if he was a ghost. The earth swallowed him up, and suddenly he was falling through darkness. He tried flipping around to see what he was falling towards, but the ground was just as dark as above him. He could have had his eyes closed for all the good it would do. Maybe he'd actually woken up, and the falling sensation was just an aftereffect.

But no, his eyes were definitely open. In fact, now that the ground was getting closer, he could see a dim light shining from it. The light almost seemed to ripple, and he would have focused on that more if he hadn't suddenly started to panic because he was going to land soon and it was going to hurt.

Then he landed, and it hurt.

That was weird. He didn't normally feel pain in his dreams. Maybe it was the girl's fault. His dreams had gotten a lot more vivid since she'd come along. Right now, his hands felt cold and slimly. He looked down, and realised that he had landed in shallow water.

"Oh."

His head felt kind of cloudy. That was normal for his dreams though. What wasn't normal was this booming laughter that sounded decidedly evil and also quite familiar. Naruto shivered, looking around for the source of the laughter.

In the distance, he saw glowing red eyes. Then, suddenly, he was right next to them. They glared at him, filled with hate. Naruto took a step back. Now that he was closer, he could see that the monster was trapped behind bars. But that didn't change the fact that is instincts were screaming at him to run.

"What're you looking at?" he snarled. This was his brain, and no stupid demon was going to chase him off, no matter how scary he looked.

The demon laughed again, and suddenly it hit Naruto where he'd heard it before.

"You were the one that did something to the girl!"

The demon's laughter stopped, and his eyes gazed at Naruto curiously. Naruto felt a huge rush of anger.

"You can't just play with people's lives like that! Whoever she was, you're going to bring her back! Undo whatever you did to her!"

He would have kept yelling, but then the monster growled and Naruto felt a wave of fear hit him. His voice died in his throat. The monster seemed to shuffle a bit in his cage, but he didn't come any closer.

"Huh, so you're getting your memories back."

Naruto frowned. What memories? What had this creature done to him?

"I knew it would happen eventually, but this is far too soon."

"What the hell are you babbling on about?" Naruto snapped, squinting into the darkness. He could barely make out the glint of the monster's teeth, but they looked very long and sharp.

"For what it's worth, I never intended for the afterimage of her to haunt you. It's an unfortunate side-effect, but as soon as you stop caring about it, she should start to fade away."

"You don't get it, do you?" Naruto growled. "It doesn't matter who she is, or where she came from! I'll never give up on her! It's not who I am."

He was very much aware of how he must look, a tiny five year old child defying at a huge demon. But it didn't matter if the monster believed him or not, Naruto meant every word.

However, the creature did seem to believe him. In fact, he almost looked worried by Naruto's declaration. Naruto gave him a cocky grin, and the demon narrowed its eyes.

"Then it's a good thing you won't remember this conversation."

Naruto was about to tell this thing that it would take a lot more than some fancy trick to make him forget this, but suddenly a rush of burning hot orange liquid spilled out of the monster's prison and surrounded him. It swirled around Naruto like a whirlpool. He tried to yell, but the second he opened his mouth the liquid rushed in and he began to choke. He could feel it burning up his insides, and strange, disjointed flashes of memories came flooding into his head. It was him, Sasuke and the girl, as well as an older guy with weird silver hair. Then it was just him and the girl. Then there was a pretty middle-aged lady with long blonde hair. Then the girl was back, and she was hugging him. He felt the surprise his memory-self felt, but then it was gone, and all he could remember was her name.

Naruto woke up.

He kicked the covers off and tried to catch his breath. He was sweating and trembling all over, and his stomach hurt. Luckily for him, he couldn't remember his nightmare. To get a reaction this strong, it must have been a terrifying one.

His head felt stuffy, and as he tried to clear his brain, one word came rushing back.

Sakura.

He scowled. What was his brain trying to say? He didn't particularly care about flowers, although the Yamanaka family was nice enough to him when he stopped by.

Yamanaka. Sakura.

Naruto froze.

Ino.

So that's what his brain was trying to tell him. He knew he was still frustrated at Ino, but he didn't why it was bothering him that much. True, she could have helped him a bit more with this strange ghost girl problem. She knew something that she wasn't telling him, or maybe she didn't know she knew, or maybe-

Naruto slammed his face into his pillow. Basically, he knew that Ino had lied when she told him Sakura was just a flower, but he hadn't let it bug him. Or so he thought. If his subconscious was so worked up about it that it was affecting his sleep, he'd visit the Yamanaka flower shop tomorrow and try to see if Ino would tell him more.

He settled back down into his bed, rubbing his hand over his itchy stomach. There was no point worrying about it now. He needed some shuteye if he was going to be fresh enough for the Academy tomorrow. He closed his eyes and within two minutes, he had fallen back asleep.

On his stomach, the black seal burned orange for a brief second, before fading away.

20 days left

"We need to work on your defence, or to be more accurate: what happens when people get through it. We already know you have a high pain threshold, so we won't be testing that today."

Sakura gave a quiet sigh of relief. Her fingernails had just started growing back.

"But what we need to find out is how much damage your body can take before you reach your limit and can't go on fighting."

Just like that, the relief was gone.

The instructions he gave her were simple. She was to stand, without a weapon, in a circle he drew. He would fire certain jutsu and weapons at her, with the intention of pushing her out of the circle. He wouldn't hit her directly with anything too strong, or so he claimed.

Her job was to absorb the blows without trying to block them, but she couldn't fall down or step outside the circle. It sounded simple, but very, very painful.

And it was. Three hours later, Baiu finally managed to push her outside the circle. One simple exploding tag aimed directly in front of her, and her legs finally gave up. The explosion blew her backwards and over the line, and knowing that she'd lost, Sakura allowed her burnt and battered body to fall to the ground.

"You lasted three hours and twenty minutes on your feet." Baiu told her as he walked over. She felt like she should get up, but everywhere was sore, and she didn't want to move.

"Stand up."

She tried rolling over and pushing herself up, but one of the burns on her left arm rubbed against the ground. She gritted her teeth as her arm gave out and she collapsed back into the dirt.

"Can you stand?"

"No sir." she rasped out.

"Then let's move on to the next part of this exercise." He flexed his fingers, and then he aimed a punch at her face. She moved at the last second, and his hand hit the dirt instead. "We need to see how long your body can last, not just when it's fighting, but how long it takes until your entire body surrenders." He lashed out, catching her ribs with a vicious kick. She felt the air rush out of her lungs, and curled herself into a protective ball, knowing it wouldn't do much good.

She heard him draw a weapon behind her, but refused to turn around. She didn't want to see what he was going to do to her. She felt him step closer, and tensed, preparing herself for what was to come.

The next few hours passed in a blur. It was a slow, agonizing blur, but a blur nonetheless. After an hour or so, she began drifting in and out of consciousness. After an hour and a half, she began coughing up blood. After two hours, Baiu finally stopped. She heard him talking above her, but her ears were ringing and her nose and mouth were filled with blood, and she couldn't concentrate on what he said. She felt her world growing black, and she let herself fall back into unconsciousness.

When she woke up, Baiu was carrying her down the corridor. He was talking to her again, but all she managed to hear was "-part three-" before she fell back asleep. She woke up again as he laid her on her bed. Despite the fact that he was surprisingly gentle, the second her back touched the bed the pain from all her bruises and wounds sharpened, and she let out a small cry. Everything hurt too much.

"I'm sorry I can't bring you to the medical ward, or give you anything for the pain." Baiu said. "But we need to test how long it would take for you to recover without any aid whatsoever. You'll have to ride the pain out on your own, and start healing yourself as soon as you feel up to it."

He turned to leave, and Sakura reached out, silently pleading for him not to go. She didn't want to be alone with nothing to distract her from her wounds, but she knew better than to voice that thought.

Baiu stopped at the door, turning to look back at her.

"Try not to take too long. We don't have time to waste, so I'm hoping you'll be back on your feet within 48 hours."

Then he closed the door, and Sakura was alone.

The only sound in the room was her frantic gasping, as she struggled to push air in and out of her lungs. Despite the pain, she was determined not to fall unconscious again. Baiu hadn't mentioned anything about dying, but she knew that she wouldn't survive if she didn't start healing herself soon.

The only problem was that she was far too exhausted to use chakra. She could barely move her fingers, never mind push chakra through her body. All she could do was lie there, and wait for the pain to ease.

Darkness clouded the edges of her vision, and she concentrated on keeping it at bay. She could survive this. It was just pain. Lots of pain. Too much pain.

Why was she fighting so hard to stay alive? If she let the darkness cloud her mind, she would be free of the pain, and free of this life that she'd never asked for. She may be nothing but a tool to the Akatsuki, but right now she was the one in control of whether she lived or died.

And what exactly did she have to live for?

They said it was her duty to be their weapon, but she didn't want to be. She was only a kid, and she wasn't able to cope with all the pain and violence and killing and loneliness. But without the Akatsuki, she was nothing. So what was the point of even existing if she was going to be miserable the entire time?

She let the blackness creep closer, let her eyes drift shut, relishing how the pain dimmed the more she slipped away. Soon, she would truly be nothing.

And then she would be free.

Naruto pushed open the door of the Yamanaka flower shop and hesitantly peeked inside. He didn't really like going into other people's places, because even if they were public, a lot of people got really offended when he walked in. Naruto didn't understand why shop-owners got angry at him specifically, but he had learnt to be cautious when entering any building, even if they had a sign outside saying customers were welcome.

He slipped inside and made his way to the counter, his eyes scanning the shop for Ino. In the corner of his eye he caught a flicker of blonde hair and turned to get a better look. Unfortunately, that made it harder for him to watch where he was going, which in turn made him crash into the back of a tall, scary-looking man.

The man, who was also waiting at the counter, turned to glare at Naruto. His eyes were white and pupil-less, and reminded Naruto of that shy girl in his class. Naruto noticed the man's eyes narrow when he saw the markings on Naruto's cheeks. The man took a step forward, and Naruto automatically stepped back. Most people he annoyed didn't actually hit him, but there had been one or two incidents that had made Naruto wary of mean-looking grown-ups.

"Naruto?"

Ino stood at the entrance of the shop, staring at the scene in front of her with confusion. She took in Naruto's scared expression and the way the man-who she knew to be Hiashi Hyuuga- was glaring at him. Her eyes narrowed, and she marched forwards, a determined expression on her little face.

"Hello Ino." The Hyuuga patriarch greeted her cordially, yet there was ice in his tone. Ino grabbed Naruto's wrist and dragged him behind her. Naruto didn't know Ino very well, but he knew that she was confident, and that she didn't like bullies. She glared up at the Hyuuga.

"My mom will be down in a minute." she said bluntly. "I need to talk with Naruto now."

Hiashi seemed a little taken-aback with her rudeness, but before he could say anything Ino walked away, dragging Naruto along.

Once they were out of the shop, she whirled and looked at Naruto expectantly. Naruto realised that he had no idea what to say. In the plan he had devised this morning, the first step had been to say hello. He had a feeling that it wasn't the right thing to do now, but he really had no idea how else to start the conversation.

"Hi." he said.

"What do you want?" she snapped. Clearly her patience had not improved since their last talk.

"It's about before." he explained. "I wanted to talk to you about the girl."

Ino rolled her eyes and let out a sigh of pure irritation. This was not going well. If he didn't turn this conversation around, Naruto would have to abort the mission.

"Look, I don't know anything about a pink-haired girl, ok? There's one customer who has weird purplish hair, but they're like, in their late-twenties. You're wasting your time, so-."

"You mentioned a name though!" Naruto interrupted. "When I asked if you knew anybody you said Sakura. Who is she?"

"It's just a-"

"I know it's a type of flower, but if that was all it meant to you why did you bring it up?"

"Look," Ino yelled, "the truth is: I don't know! When you told me about her, I got this weird feeling that I knew a girl like that, but I don't. The name just popped into my head. So if you want me to help you, I need to know why you're looking for her and who this girl is!"

Once she'd finished her rant, Ino visibly deflated, leaning against the wall with a miserable expression on her face. It took him a second, but then Naruto understood.

"You want to know too." he said excitedly. "You don't believe the name was just a coincidence! You want to know who she is, and why you remember being her friend!"

"I don't remember!" Ino butted in. "That's the problem! All I have is this feeling that I know who you're talking, and it's bugging me that I don't have an explanation for it. So, fine, I'll help you. But you have to tell me everything you know right now."

If she expected Naruto to be reluctant about telling her, she was in for a surprise. He grinned happily; relieved that he could finally share his story with someone that would believe him.

"All right then! It all started with this dream I had…"

Just as she was about to lose consciousness, an image came into Sakura's mind.

In it, an older version of herself was standing between two grumpy looking boys. The one on the left had black hair and black eyes that contrasted sharply with his pale skin. He stared sullenly at the camera, while behind him; a one-eyed, silver-haired man smiled sheepishly, his hand firmly on the boy's head. To her right was the boy she vaguely recognized from her flashes of memory. He had blond hair and bright blue eyes, and was glaring angrily at the other boy. All three of them felt familiar to her, even though she had no idea what any of their names were.

An odd warmth coursed through her, and she opened her eyes as the image vanished from her brain. Remembering them brought on a fresh round of questions (like why she looked much older than she was), but more importantly, it filled her with a purpose. She was certain beyond a doubt that these people were her family. Somewhere in the world, there were people who loved her and missed her, and that thought was enough to make her push through the pain.

She could allow herself to become the Akatsuki's weapon and push away all of her personal feelings. As long as she had hope that someday she could go home, she could endure all the trials they put her through. They could break her over and over again, until they were satisfied that she was no longer human, but deep down, she would always have this memory to protect her.

The sense of peace that one image triggered in her was incredible, but it worked. Her head relatively clear; Sakura focused on her chakra, and began the healing process. Gritting her teeth, she focused her chakra into her fingers, healing the broken bones as well as the deep cuts. Once her hands were healed, she could move on to the rest of her body.

She tried to see if she could remember anything beyond that one image. Although she was certain that it was real, she wanted context. Was it a photo? That would explain why she could remember her own face. Why was she older? Where was it taken? She searched her mind for an answer, but all she got was a headache.

She sighed, and focused back on the healing.

"So there ya go. That's all I know."

He finished his story and looked up at Ino, a bit nervous that she would think he was making it up like Iruka-sensei had.

"Hm." was all she said, her face creasing as she processed everything he'd told her. Naruto shuffled his feet as she stared at the ground, lost in thought.

After what felt like ages to Naruto but in reality was around thirty seconds, Ino's face cleared and she looked up at him with purpose in her eyes.

"Alright, so this is what we'll do. You try and remember everything that happens to you this week, and maybe try and talk to Sasuke again. If you want, you could go talk to Shikamaru too. He's annoying and lazy, but really clever, so maybe he can help. I'll ask my parents if they know anyone with pink hair, and see if that leads me anywhere. We'll meet back here in a week. Got it?"

"Um…"

Ino rolled her eyes again, muttering something about 'useless boys'.

"Meet me here in a week and we'll tell each other everything new we've learnt, ok?"

"Oh, I get it now! Thanks Ino!"

Naruto raced off, unable to believe that he'd actually found a new lead. He laughed, ignoring the strange looks the villagers gave him.

Whoever that girl was, he was going to find her.

A/N: Since I've received one or two messages about romance in this story, I thought I might as well clear it up. Sakura's canon bonds with Naruto and Sasuke are both at least slightly romantic, so her feelings for Sasuke and Naruto's feelings for her will be significant in this story. That's pretty much all I can say without ruining the plot.

Thanks again for all the nice messages and encouragement.