3 weeks later

He walked into the room, and it felt like all the air had left. Pein's face got the tiniest bit harder, and Konan visibly tensed.

From her hiding place in wall, Sakura found it difficult to breathe. After three weeks of missions, killing, stealing, gathering information and occasionally protecting, Pein had told her that she was going to meet one of the most important people in the Akatsuki. He gave them funds and resources behind the scenes, and seemed to know a lot about the darker aspects of the shinobi world. His information and contributions to the Akatsuki were invaluable.

Sakura had read between the lines. Pein spoke of him with respect, but Konan's eyes glinted with suspicion. Sakura had expected him to be powerful and manipulative, and she knew that this was not a man she should trust. Despite all the good he had apparently done for the organization, Pein told her very little about the man himself. The fact that Pein had ordered her to hide in the wall when he came also spoke volumes about this man's untrustworthiness.

Sakura had thought she was prepared to meet this mysterious benefactor, but as his chakra seeped through the room, she knew that she was not. Even his mere presence was powerful and threatening enough to shake her. She couldn't see his face, but she was sure he'd noticed her. A second later, he withdrew his chakra and she found that she could breathe easy again. She glanced at Pein and Konan. Judging by how unaffected they were, that display of power had been solely to rattle Sakura.

"Madara." Pein said calmly. "I take it by your arrival that our funds have been replenished? We were running low on money considering how little we charge for our services. Kakuzu was growing irritable."

"I told you not to worry about money." The man's voice was deep and cold, the kind of voice that made Sakura want to shiver. "I've taken care of it, as I always do. There are more important matters to discuss anyway."

Konan moved a little closer, and Sakura noticed how Madara seemed to tense up just a little. Apparently the respect he felt for Pein didn't extend to his partner. Either that, or Madara was wary of her. Sakura would puzzle over that later, but right now Konan was speaking and she needed to pay attention.

"Iwagakure has hired us for yet another mission. It's a simple assassination, but the kind of dirty kill they don't want on their hands during this time of peace. Meanwhile, Kumogakure remains the only shinobi village that hasn't accepted our services."

"That Raikage is troubling. What of our true goal?"

Pein's eyes flickered over to Sakura's hiding spot. It was just for a second, but she had a feeling everyone had seen it. Still, until he ordered her to come out into the room she had no choice but to remain where she was.

"We have discovered that the Gobi is under Iwagakure's possession." he said. "We also have a lead on the Nanabi, although their location is currently unknown. This mission for Iwagakure should give us a chance to gather more information on how they handle their jinchuriki. With some luck we may even discover the identity of the host."

Sakura only knew what half of Pein's speech meant, but Madara seemed to understand if fully. He turned and walked towards the window, his coat billowing dramatically behind him.

"Send Kisame and his partner to Iwa. They have no grudge with the village."

"I know." Pein said firmly.

Sakura thought she caught a hint of tension between the two men. Was there some sort of power struggle? She wasn't sure.

"Then that will be all. I will return next time your resources and funding gets low."

With that, he disappeared. Sakura blinked once, trying to figure out what had happened. There was no way that had been a Shunshin. It was as if the space around him had warped. How odd.

"You can come out now." Pein said.

She flickered out, landing on one knee in front of Pein and Konan.

"I am certain Madara was aware of your presence this entire time." Pein drawled "However. at least you know now what he looks like. He has been our ally for a very long time, but should he ever attempt double cross us, I expect you to be ready to kill him."

"Yes sir." she said. There really wasn't much else she could say to that.

She was fairly certain that Pein didn't expect her to actually kill Madara. He expected her to be cannon fodder, to sacrifice herself as a distraction so that Pein himself could kill the man. Considering the power both men held, she could see his logic.

"Now, how are you progressing?"

"I'm still searching for ways to get my speed up to the same level as my strength, but so far both are improving. I'm able to do A-rank earth and water jutsu, as well as other A-rank ninjutsu. I still haven't found the limit to my medical abilities and my genjutsu abilities are still fairly untested."

"I see. Focus on improving your genjutsu and taijutsu. I have an intelligence gathering mission for you, but when you get back I'll look into getting Kakuzu to teach you more earth jutsu. You'll leave early tomorrow, so get your preparations in order tonight. Understood?"

"Yes sir." That was her cue to leave.

She exited quickly and quietly, her mind going over everything she'd learnt. Madara was an intimidating man, and even among the Akatsuki she found him particularly unsettling. The thought of one day having to fight him was not pleasant, so she focused on what else she had learnt.

She had only met Kakuzu for a brief moment, but he had been both unimpressed and unbothered by her presence. She knew she hadn't made a good impression, but so far he was one of the least sadistic Akatsuki she knew, so the thought of training with him wasn't horrifying.

Even if Kakuzu turned out to be the cruellest, evilest bastard in the Akatsuki, Sakura would survive. As long as she had the faint connection to her past life, those two images in the back of her mind would keep pushing her forward.

Right now, she needed to figure out how to push her taijutsu training further. For some reason she found herself considering using weights to make her faster, even though the medic in her knew that ankle weights was more likely to strain her muscles and ligaments than improve her speed. Perhaps if she used her chakra like she did for her strength there could be a way…

With these thoughts swirling through her mind, Sakura easily navigated her way around the base. The fear and tension she had felt at the beginning were long gone, and now she was almost at ease. This wasn't home, but Ame had become familiar. She walked through the streets and buildings here with purpose, and the people knew enough to stay out of her way.

It was nice, in a way. She could pretend they scuttled away out of respect and admiration for her instead of fear. Either way she was now able to navigate the roads and towers without worrying. The nervous, intimidated girl that had been carried unconscious into Ame was gone, and in her place was a sharp, focused weapon.

A weapon that had a mission to prepare for. She reached her room and rooted around her small pile of belongings, searching for clothes to bring with her.

Her hoodie needed to be stitched up after getting torn on her last mission, so she went with a simple black sleeveless top instead. She could handle a little cold, and it didn't make her stand out as much as the hoodie, which was useful for an intelligence gathering mission. Most of the missions Pein sent her on made good use of her deceptively innocent appearance, and she had a feeling this one would be no different.

Her hands flew over her weaponry, taking inventory and checking the condition of each weapon. She'd started learning how to use a sword, although she much preferred taijutsu and projectiles. She'd never be a samurai, but a larger skill set was always handy. As it was, kunai, shuriken and exploding tags were still the main weapons in her arsenal and right now she had a lot of them to sort through.

As she worked, she felt a strange calm descend on her mind. The feel of the weapons in her hands, the focus on the mission, it was all steady and familiar to her. The more she fought and killed for Pein, the easier it became.

Perhaps easy wasn't the right word. Some of the missions she'd been given had been quite unpleasant. She never liked stabbing people in the back or razing a village to the ground, and thankfully there hadn't been many missions like that yet, but there was something almost like comfort to be found in the routine of her work. She did what Pein told her to and she got to live until the next time he needed her. It was simple, and while the missions themselves weren't getting easier the reality of this life was. This was who she was and this was what she did: Sakura, a weapon of the Akatsuki. She could accept this life.

For now.

If she focused hard, she could feel the pressure at the back of her mind that she associated with her memories. Now wasn't a good time to go rooting around in those murky waters, but as long as she kept the blurry photo and the Konoha symbol in her mind, she could never fully immerse herself in her Akatsuki mentality. Those two images were her lifeline, her link to her sanity. As long as she had them, she had hope.

But right now, she didn't need hope. She had a mission to focus on.

Naruto was happy.

Kurama had been disgruntled to discover that sending his own consciousness back in time meant that he was back in his cage with the seal almost as tight as it used to be. With nothing better to do he'd settled down to build up his strength, and in the process he observed how this new timeline was treating his host.

Kurama remembered Naruto's childhood. He remembered the painful loneliness, the callousness of Naruto's fellow villagers. He remembered trying to feed off that negativity, but to the brat's credit he had never let those feelings consume him the way Kurama would have wished. Instead they had both been stuck in an unpleasant limbo, where Naruto was sad but not sad enough for Kurama to use, and Kurama was stuck inside, powerless to do anything but watch his container lead a miserable life. It wasn't until he met that Iruka man that things had gotten slightly better, and once he'd become a shinobi his life had become noticeably brighter.

But in this universe, Naruto already had a friend, and that friend was a confident, popular girl who wouldn't let others bully and exclude Naruto if she could help it. Before he'd come back in time, Ino Yamanaka had barely been a blip on Kurama's radar. She'd merely been another annoyance that occasionally inspired feelings of anger or hurt in his host. He probably would have killed her without a second thought if he'd even gotten free. Now however…

It was ridiculous that Kurama even cared. Naruto no longer knew he existed, so why should it matter to him if the boy was happy? He was just another human, nothing special.

But Naruto was happier in this timeline, and while Kurama was still a powerful spirit filled with hate, that fact was slightly important to him, much as he wished it wasn't. He would kill the boy to escape this prison, tear him to shreds if he ever got the chance, but seeing as no chances were available right now… well it was nice for the both of them that the brat's childhood was a little less pathetic. Naruto owed him now, which would ease any inhibitions Kurama had when he finally broke free.

There was however, one problem.

Time travel was a complex issue, even to a massively powerful being like the Kyuubi. He had thought he'd done a fairly good job ensuring that the girl died an early death, but not only had she survived, she was close to regaining some of her memories. He couldn't let that happen.

If she ever came back to Konoha and told everyone what had happened to her, he had no doubt that both he and Naruto would suffer a grim fate. Konoha was one of the kinder shinobi villages, but they were still humans and Kurama knew that they wouldn't be able to overlook such a thorough and malicious attack on a civilian girl. Perhaps the boy would be deemed an unstable host and they'd extract him, or perhaps they'd just kill Naruto immediately. Both options would not be pleasant for Kurama, and so it was in his best interest that the girl remained a lost amnesiac.

It had taken weeks for him to build up his chakra and focus it on the faint connection between him and the girl, but now he was finally confident that he could block the girl's memories once and for all. He just needed to wait for Naruto to fall asleep.

Naruto stumbled into the house, tired out after a long game of tag with Ino and her friends. He was still fairly sure that most of her friends didn't like him, but Ino insisted that they would either warm up to him or get over themselves, so he agreed to hang out with them. It had been fun, but now he was exhausted. He flopped down on his bed, and within a few minutes he was asleep.

In his sleep, Naruto dreamed.

He was standing somewhere. He couldn't tell where, because he couldn't see the walls or the floor. Everything was the same shade of bright except for the girl standing in front of him. He felt his heart race when he saw pink hair.

It was her! She looked slightly different to how she looked in his hallucinations. She was thinner and her hair was a little bit messier, but there was no doubt in his mind that it was the same girl.

He moved forward excitedly, but the closer he got the harder it was to walk. His legs were stuck in this weird orange liquid, and he could see the girl panicking as the hot, bubbly gunk rose higher. It wouldn't be long before the dream was over, but he was determined to get some answers before that happened. He opened his mouth to speak, but to his surprise the girl spoke first.

"Naruto? What's going- Shit!" The girl cursed as the orange bubbles got higher.

Naruto stopped moving, staring dumbly at the girl. The girl he imagined had a cute, delicate laugh and was often blushing at nothing when he saw her. He never imagined that she'd know how to curse.

"Naruto, I don't have much time. I don't know how we made contact but I'm betting that fox won't be happy about it. You need to find a way to reverse this. I'm stuck inside my own body and I can't do a damn thing to help myself."

She batted angrily at the orange liquid that was trying to suck in her arms. Naruto kept staring, unsure of how to deal with this. This wasn't how he had expected this to go, and he didn't understand what she wanted from him.

"The good news is that I managed to infiltrate the Akatsuki, but we need to go back to the original timeline so I can tell Tsunade-sama what I've learnt. Get out of here and fix this before the Kyuubi sends us back inside our younger minds."

She was staring expectantly at him, but he didn't know what to say. His arms were starting to get stuck in the liquid and he knew they were running out of time. So he said the first thing that had been on his mind since she started talking.

"How do you know my name?"

She glared at him with such achingly familiar exasperation that he thought he felt something stir in his brain. But before he could come to any sort of realization the orange liquid surged upwards, and suddenly he was drowning.

He heard the girl scream as he was submerged, and he thrashed around wildly, trying to find her. The liquid was so thick and heavy that he couldn't see or breathe, and the harder he struggled the heavier it got. He reached one hand forward, desperately reaching for the place the girl had been. He thought he felt something brush his fingertips and reached forward. Just a little further-

Naruto woke up.

He gasped and coughed. His chest was on fire and his stomach burned as if he had been choking on nothing. He tried to think back on his dream, but all he remembered was burning and drowning.

He frowned and flipped his pillow over to the cool side before lying back down. Nightmares sucked.

Miles away, Sakura also woke up gasping. Similarly to Naruto, she had no idea what had happened, and chalked it up as a simple nightmare.

In the morning she would still have the images in her mind, but that was all they would be. Those faint wisps of memory she had felt had been reeled back in, and though she would struggle, she would be unable to trigger any sort of emotional reaction, memory or sensation. She would still use the images as a symbol of hope, but they would be of no use to her otherwise. She would still use Shannaro as a battle cry, but the word would ring hollow and meaningless to her.

Inside his host, Kurama slept soundly, secure in the knowledge that both he and his jinchuriki were safe for the moment.

1 year later

"Hokage-sama."

Hiruzen took another puff of his pipe before turning to face the chunin in front of him. Judging from the apprehensive look on the man's face, this probably had something to do with Naruto. There wasn't much else would cause his own seasoned shinboi to approach him so warily.

He was surprised that there was a problem with Naruto. A year ago the boy had been running all over the village pulling pranks, but he seemed to have calmed down slightly. Hiruzen had been worried that the children at the Academy would be affected by their parents prejudice, but from the reports he got Naruto seemed to get on well with a good few of them. Despite the Kyuubi inside him, the boy was fitting in all right, and to Hiruzen that was a pleasant and welcome surprise.

"What's the matter?"

"Um… well…" the chunin scratched at the back of his head, clearly nervous. "Naruto Uzumaki submitted a request at the Academy. He wants to join the kunoichi classes."

Well. That was certainly unexpected. Hiruzen wasn't quite sure what would cause the young child to make such a curious request.

"Did he give a reason?"

The chunin frowned down at the piece of paper in his hand.

"He wrote a reason on the request form, but it just said 'Screw your gender roles'." The chunin coughed slightly as he handed the form to the Hokage. "He misspelled 'gender' but I'm fairly certain that's what he was trying to say."

This was starting to make more sense to Hiruzen. The concept of gender roles was not something Naruto had picked up off the street, and he had a feeling he knew exactly who was behind this. He had been wary of the Yamanaka girl's intentions at first, but more than a year had passed since she had grown close to the boy and he had yet to find a sinister motive for her friendship with Naruto. Nonetheless, this request was certainly due to her influence.

"It's a shame that Inoichi's daughter can help Naruto understand gender roles but can't help him with his spelling." the Hokage murmured, looking down at the form on his desk. "Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I'll deal with it now."

The chunin nodded, clearly relieved that the problem was out of his hands. He turned and left, while the Hokage stared out the window and pondered the request.

On one hand, Naruto had absolutely nothing to learn in kunoichi classes. It would be a complete waste of the boy's time, time that was supposed to be used for other, more useful classes.

On the other hand, it was clear that Naruto just wanted to be with his friend. Hiruzen was a tough and wizened old man, but he had a soft spot for the boy. Granting his request was foolish, but he couldn't find it in him to throw the form in the trash either.

Sighing, he pushed it to one side of the desk and reclined in his chair. At least Naruto wasn't splashing paint all over the village or pulling a ridiculous prank to get his point across. The Hokage hadn't been aware that Naruto knew official forms existed, but he had learnt plenty of new things about that boy today.

He couldn't help but smile as he looked down at the messy handwriting that barely stayed inside the lines. Ever since Naruto's birth Hiruzen had fretted over how the boy would grow up, but it seemed to be going easier than he had thought. Hiruzen had no doubt that many people were still unnecessarily rude and cold to the boy, but if the children his own age had begun to accept him then maybe there was hope for Naruto.

The child already had such a heavy burden to bear; the Hokage was glad that loneliness wouldn't be another weight on the boy's heart. Hiruzen silently thanked whatever deity out there that had let Naruto experience the friendship of his peers.

Tied up, with some amateur trying to make her scream, Sakura silently cursed whatever deity that had let this happen to her.

It was her first time ever being captured. She'd retrieved the scroll from Iwa, but the effort of getting in and out of the village had tired her more than she had expected, and so when the bandits had come for her she had been unable to fight all of them off.

Now she was in a cave somewhere near the Tsuchi no Kuni border. She reckoned she had a day or two left before her absence became noticeable to Pein, but it still irritated her that she had been captured in the first place.

Bandits. Not even shinobi, although Sakura was fairly sure she'd seen one or two in the fray. They probably had a few shinobi in their pocket, but still. Captured by bandits. At least they had no idea what the scroll meant, which was also why they were torturing her.

She watched indifferently as one of them plunged some purple liquid into her arm. It stung quite a bit, but not enough to make her scream.

"Is that supposed to hurt?" she asked coolly. "Even Sasori's weakest concoction is stronger than that. Does it do anything other than sting?"

The bandits were clearly rattled, but the leader kept glaring intimidatingly at them, so they kept rooting around for ways to make her hurt.

"What the fuck is this kid?" she heard one of them whisper.

"I am someone who got on the wrong side of Akasuna no Sasori and as a result has spent many a day suffering through his worst nonlethal poisons." The bandit that spoke flinched at the sound of her voice. "Orochimaru has some nasty ones too, but Sasori's really pack a painful bite."

"She's bluffing." the leader growled. "Are you really scared of this kid? She has pink hair!"

"I used to be upset when our Leader let them torture me" She went on as if the man hadn't spoken. "Whenever I displeased him in some way, which didn't happen often, he let one of the sadists have a field day with me. I got used to it, and now I understand why he made me go through that over and over again. If this is the best you have I honestly feel embarrassed for you."

"Shut up!"

One of the men tried to smash her fingers with a wooden hammer. She let him bring it down on her right hand, wincing as she felt it hit. Once again, she felt grateful for her chakra control. Too much chakra in her fingers and she would have smashed the hammer, too little and her fingers would have actually broken.

"Sasori just liked seeing me in pain, he enjoyed humiliating me. Kisame usually just wanted to spar, and sometimes I even enjoyed those sessions, as gruelling as they were. Orochimaru though, he turned torture into an art. The pain and horror he put me through… well let's just say if he was here he would be disgusted. 'Where is the creativity?' he'd say. You can't just whack at me over and over again and hope I'll break down. It's not realistic."

They weren't hitting her now. All of the men were staring at her, uneasy but unwilling to make her stop talking.

"Of course, there wasn't much purpose in teaching me how to endure torture if they also didn't teach me how to escape it. One of the first rules I learnt? Distract them. Keep them looking at the wrong place for long enough, and you'll be free before they even have a chance to see what happened."

The tension in the room got heavier. Sakura gave them a grimace, an insincere mockery of a real smile.

"I'm sure you realise that the only reason I'm dropping all these names and telling you this is because none of you are leaving here alive. Now that I have enough of my chakra back to deal with those shinobi pets you have, I'll be taking my leave."

One of the men stepped towards her, and Sakura pulled her hands free. The rope she had been busy working her way out of fell to the ground, and before it hit the floor three of the men were already dead. She pulled her kunai out of one man's neck and plunged it into another while her foot snapped back and sent two men flying into the cave wall. Their attacks were slow and easy to read, and without much chakra they didn't stand a chance against her. In less than a minute fifteen bodies littered the cave floor, and Sakura didn't have a drop of blood on her.

She bent down and wiped her kunai on the leader's robe, before grabbing the scroll Pein wanted from him. Walking out to the entrance of the cave, she took note of the two shinobi standing guard. One had his back turned to her, and when she went to punch him his friend predictably jumped in front of her to save him. She let her fist drop and instead pulled her other hand forward. The kunai she had been holding slashed into his neck, and he went down gurgling on his own blood.

The other one turned around and let out a cry at the sight of his friend, but Sakura had already grown tired of this fight. She made three clones and left them to finish off the remaining shinobi while she took off into the woods. Her stomach still hurt from when one of the bandits had punched her, but her priority was to complete the mission. She could rest and heal once Pein had his scroll.

Behind her, the remaining shinobi wailed as her clones closed in.

Itachi Uchiha was a member of the ANBU. His loyalty was to Konoha, and while his family proudly declared how amazing and talented their son was to anyone who would listen, they never talked about his loyalty.

He was an Uchiha, and ever since he was a child he understood that there was solidarity amongst the clan that did not extend to the rest of Konoha. That was fine, most clans were like that. It was just that most clans were as devoted to the village as they were to the clan, and Itachi wasn't sure if the same applied to the Uchiha. There was a divide between them and the rest of the village, and it was impossible to ignore, especially for the Uchiha living in the compound.

His family never questioned his loyalty. Why would they? He was quiet and obedient and respected by many older and more experienced shinobi. He was smart enough to understand the divide between his clan and his village, but what his parents didn't seem to consider was the possibility that he could see the divide and not side with them.

That wasn't to say Itachi agreed with the segregation of the Uchiha. He didn't. He also didn't agree that bloodshed was the answer, but thankfully his father never asked for his opinion. He just told him what he expected of his son, and congratulated him when Itachi met his expectations.

Itachi had his opinions, but when he was younger he didn't think that they would be so important to him. When he was younger he had merely been a shinobi of Konoha, and not as strong or as powerful as he was now. Now, he was the prodigious heir of the Uchiha clan and an ANBU of Konoha. Now, his actions could have huge consequences, and so he needed to make sure that his opinions were the right ones.

Taking a deep breath, he knocked on the door to the Hokage's office.

"Come in."

He pushed his ANBU mask off his face as he stepped inside, closing the door behind him. In front of him, Hiruzen watched him with shrewd eyes.

"Hokage-sama." Itachi said, his face carefully neutral. "I'm here to talk to you about my clan."

The Hokage gave nothing away as he sat back, but he gestured for Itachi to sit, and the boy felt himself relax a fraction. He sat down opposite the Hokage, and they each took their time to stare at the other. Itachi wasn't sure what the Hokage saw in him, but he had come here with honest intentions, and he was sure he could convince the Hokage of that.

Taking another deep breath, he began to talk.