AN: I swear I don't have it in for Ino! In fact, it would be all the opposite. I love her and she has such a strong personality… It just always seems to work out that she's the one… in need of rescuing? Sakura's just kind of an easier pillar to use to center a story around. And her internal struggles just draw me in a bit more? And oh, hey, Hokage? How'd that happen? Well, obviously, you'll find out soon enough. *winks*

Previous chapter was written in a single night. It's good to see my writing muscles are not too rusty so far. This one took a bit longer but hey, it was worth it :) To be honest tho, I have but a slight idea where this is going. And none of where this will end. Ha. The last time this happened, I ended up starting a story arc I thought would be 10-12ish chapters and ending it after 6-7 in the most abrupt of ways. It's a risk I figure I should warn you guys about early on.

I also don't wanna be the gal that goes "wah wah please review and I'll update faster" (which, let's face it, I'm a busy gal, your reviews will not affect the speed of my writing. But maybe the quality of the work. Motivation and all? Yea.) so I'm just going to put this out there once: I genuinely want to get serious about writing again. Any constructive criticism is appreciated. Yea, yea, fanfiction is not exactly the highest work of art there is, but it's an outlet and I'd rather be writing stuff that won't get me anywhere than nothing at all.

And ZOMG Am I boring you guys yet again? On with the chapter.

Chapter 2: Morphine

The fire erupted seemingly out of nowhere. It quickly engulfed the eastern wing of the hospital in a ball of flames and a loud bang.

It took a moment for Tsunade and Sakura to be able to hear what each other was saying. Even when the buzzing in their ears died down, the ruckus caused by the sudden attack made it hard to think properly.

"Is it Akatsuki?!" Sakura yelled above the chaos. Tsunade shook her head helplessly. Heck if she knew. Her eyes scanned the debris and collapsing roof in hopes to find her aide, Shizune, peeping her head through with some details.

But who were they kidding. It had to be.

Sakura squared her jaw in resolve. She was going to find out. "Let me tag with Ino-Shika-Cho, and we'll go assess the situation!" She asked pleadingly. In the absence of Naruto, who was gone training again, she was spending most of her free time with her childhood friend and her team. She knew they were supposed to be nearby today and it would only take a moment to find them.

Another explosion, this one a good bit farther away, shook the ground around them and caused the already damaged roof to give in on top of a few civilians that were making a run for their lives. Tsunade's frown turned into a grimace. "No!" Her tone left no room to argue. "You will help evacuate the hospital and take everyone you can gather out of the village and to safety!"

"W-WHAT?!" She had a hard time believing what she was hearing. Or making out. Maybe she had misheard. She hoped so. She was strong now. She could hold her own in a fight. She had defeated Sasori with Chyo, whom she had never fought with before. With a team she was familiar with, nothing was too much for her to handle. "I can fight! Let me defend the village!"

Tsunade simply glared at her. Any other shinobi of the leaf might have actually passed out under such an intense stare. It was cold and calculated. Yet there was this hint of pain and motherly love shining through.

Deep down, Sakura knew that if this was what they feared, then Tsunade had the right idea.

She tore her gaze away from her master, repressing her tears. Then she nodded solemnly. "Hai, Tsunade-sama. Arigato."

By the time she had managed to gather the hospital's personnel and the patients that could walk or be carried and made her way outside, all hell had broken loose. She was going to head in and towards where she knew Ino's team would be when a duo of Anbu raced by her and nearly knocked her down in the process. In this chaos, making her way towards the fight was the worst of ideas.

Kiba came upon her just as she was about to resolve herself to going in anyway. They had a few jounins nearby, someone else could rescue the civilians. But he stopped her from doing so with a hand on her shoulder and a sad shake of his head. He was hurt. Barely standing, even. He had seen what was going on. Silently, he was telling Sakura it wasn't worth it.

"Tsunade-sama ordered me to take everyone I could find and to lead them to safety. Away from the fight." Sakura told the boy, who's sharp canine dug into his lip hard enough to draw blood.

"Right." He said, with a pang of fear lacing his voice. "I guess that means us too, uh?" Sakura merely nodded at him, not trusting herself to say anything more. It wouldn't take much to convince him and herself to go back in the melee.

He nodded back his understanding and hopped away. "We'll be right on your tail and gathering folks, too!"

"Her vitals are strong and she doesn't seem to have any major physical injuries." Tanaka, one of the few adults that had made it out of the village that day, a medic apprentice, stood next to the bed where Ino lay unconscious, Sakura nervously sat at the girl's her side. "The search revealed no tracking devices or hidden chakra infused items."

Sakura nodded in understanding. She could have performed this search herself. She should have been coordinating the evacuation process. Instead she sat by her friend's side and it seemed like her legs were made out of jelly. She couldn't get up, couldn't move. Couldn't do anything. She felt so powerless.

"However…" the older lady, her black, shoulder length hair bobbing away as she shook her head with a hint of guilt, began with a sigh. "There's no telling how much damage the jutsu has done to her brain. Not to mention the things she might have seen and experienced while imprisoned or possessed. The Ino that wakes up, if she ever does, will most likely not be the Ino that you knew back then. I'm sorry, Haruno-san."

Sakura ran a hand over her face, pausing it in front of her mouth to stifle a sob. Her other hand reached over to brush Ino's blonde bang away from her face. "She was fighting it." The words came out softly, yet there was a strong, loud spark of hope in it. "She was trying to break through the jutsu when we found her."

Tanaka's face contorted into a sad smile. She hated having to be the voice of reason. She knew how much Ino meant to Sakura. "She wouldn't be the first one to do that only to never wake up."

The silence that fell upon the room felt like lead coursing through their veins. Sakura refused to acknowledge the statement. Tanaka had to push. "Keeping her alive, trying to treat her… It would be a considerate strain on our already thin resources."

Sakura's eyes were fixated on Ino's face. As if staring at her long enough would magically bring her back to life. She couldn't tear them away, even to speak. "If she does make it, though, she probably has invaluable intel on our enemy. And even if she never gets back to fighting shape, her family jutsu would prove immensely valuable to us." She paused for a moment, her conviction not as strong as she had wanted to make it sound. In the end, no matter what excuses she would find to do so, at the core of it all, it was her selfishness that would drive her to do anything she could to save Ino. I should have gone back for you, anyway...

"We've been sitting around too long, Tanaka-san. Once we get the village back to safety, I think it's time we take the fight back to Akatsuki." It was the first time she mentioned this to anyone, but her decision had been made for her. If Akatsuki were baiting her by sending her friend over to the village, she was going to bite. If it wasn't a trap? Well she didn't care.

"Could you send for Kiba once you get out, please?" She finally asked after another moment of silence, this one contemplative.

Tanaka nodded and took the hint, leaving the two girls alone for the moment being.

Sakura watched her retreat before she let her head fall on Ino's slowly rising and falling chest, her pink hair splaying across the girl's arms in a halo of sorts. "I'm so sorry, Ino."

There was a twitch of the girl's fingers against Sakura's cheek. It was enough to cause her to stir a bit and raise her head. She could swear she had seen Ino's eyelids open and shut really quick. Then she was still again. Letting out the breath that had been caught in her throat, Sakura sighed loudly and resumed her previous position. Only this time her hand reached for Ino's and intertwined their fingers together.

"Heard you called for me?" Kiba stood in the door with a sheepish look on his face, his hand up to scratch at the base of his neck. "Sorry it took me that long."

With a groan, Sakura peeled herself off Ino's sleeping form. She rubbed at her eyes gingerly, wondering how long she had been asleep there. If Kiba was apologizing for being late, then it must have been quite a while.

She accepted his apology with a yawn. "How's the evac progress?" It wasn't why she had called him, but she still needed to keep on top of her duties, too.

"We have everything packed and ready to go. Everyone's either home or someone will communicate with them shortly. We're leaving at dawn. Still no sign from any other enemies. If they're close, they're really good at hiding."

Sakura nodded to him, at the same time casting a sideways glance at her friend. Still immobile. Her face was contorted in some sort of wince. The sight renewed her resolve. "Say, Kiba?" She asked in a low, quiet voice. The tone piqued her friend's curiosity, and he sat himself on the edge of the bed, one hand braced against his thigh, in order to bring himself to eye level with Sakura. He didn't need to press her onwards. "How crazy would you think I've gone if I said we should start fighting back?"

The question took him aback. Sakura's eyes had slowly moved from Ino to him while she spoke, then rapidly darted back and forth once before her jaw squared to signify this wasn't a joke. Not that Kiba would have taken it as such. As aloof as he let himself seem around people, he had grown to know and read her very well, and he knew when the situation required him to be serious. She was thankful for that.

"Eh. You're asking me, of all people?!" His rhetorical question was followed by a nervous chuckle as he brought his free hand up to brush it through his shaggy hair. "The only reason I haven't gone back there yet is because, of all people, I trust your judgment when it comes to these things. Sakura-chan…" It was his turn to cast a glance towards Ino. Of all the Akatsuki scouts they had encountered, this one had definitely hit a sensitive chord, and not just for Sakura. He wasn't as close, but seeing one of his fellow classmates like this brought an angry growl to his throat.

Sakura laughed bitterly before he could finish his reply. There was a moment of silence then. It became a nerve match to see who would speak up first. "It's insane." Kiba finally admitted, chewing on his words before he continued. "But we've had time to regroup. We've trained everyone to be the best they could be. We've been on the run for three years, right? I think everyone is antsy to actually do something about it. No matter how impossible it might seem."

Sakura nodded. His thoughts mirrored hers almost to the tiny details. He would take her next order seriously. At least she hoped so. "Kiba-kun, I want you to go on an S-Rank mission for me. You and Akamaru. Only."

Kiba's eyebrows rose up to his hairline. A solo S-Rank mission? What kind of crazy plan had Sakura hatched behind that big forehead of hers?

He calmly waited for the rest. There was a hint of pink rushing to Sakura's cheeks as she tried to argue with herself that it indeed was the right thing to do. Anyone else would chew her ear out for this and question her leadership right then and there. But she couldn't shake the gut feeling that told her she had to do it.

"We need allies." She began, not trusting herself to state the specifics before gauging his reaction. Even though she knew he wouldn't disagree with that.

He nodded his agreement silently, the corner of his lips rising up quizzically. Sakura bowed her head for a moment. "I need you to find Naruto and bring him back to us."

There was a pause, a suspension of time and disbelief. Then in an instant Kiba's eyes grew larger. The next he was folded over laughing. "You've got to be kidding. Yes, yes, Sakura-chan. You have gone bonkers!"

His laughter slowly receded into bitter chuckles. The surprise had passed and his mood was back to being somber and focused. Sakura cringed throughout the whole thing, but stood her ground. "I know he's alive and out there. If Akatsuki had found him, we would have been annihilated a long time ago. He's got the nine-tailed fox's power. And no doubt after all this time training, he'll be a really strong asset."

Kiba shook his head nervously. "You don't honestly believe that knucklehead has stayed away from Akatsuki all this time. For all we know, he went and got himself killed trying to get Sasuke back."

The mention of Sasuke's name brought up a shadow over Sakura's eyes. If he'd been with them… No, it probably wouldn't have changed the outcome of the battle. Her fingers dug into the sheets of the bed besides her. "He's alive. Probably somewhere in the mountains west of here, in fact. I know he's out there. Kiba." She waited for his eyes to meet hers, conscious that tears were threatening to spill from them at any time. "Please."

It took him a deep breath and some rummaging of his own feelings before he gave in with a wolfy grin. "Alright. I gotcha. Will do. When do I leave?"

Sakura immediately sighed in relief. Her entire body seemed to shiver with the weight falling off her shoulders. "Tomorrow at dawn with everyone else. Don't… tell anyone about this mission. Not Hinata nor Shino, not your sister, no one."

"Hai." the teenager answered solemnly, his grin leaving place to a slightly bothered expression. "Just one question." He began, holding off until Sakura gave him the right to speak his mind with a nod. "If you knew he was alive, why not find him before now? Why hasn't he found us?"

Sakura etched a sad smile his way. "He's a target. He stayed away to protect us. Whether that was his decision or not, we owe him for that. But now…" She looked out the small window of the room they were in with a distant expression. "Now that we're about to fight, I think it's time we reunite everyone we can."

Kiba's chin raised up suspiciously at that statement. "Is there someone else I'm not thinking of here that you think will help us?" He asked, this time not waiting for consent.

Sakura's dry chuckle confirmed his suspicion. "Well, if this idiot Naruto has indeed managed to get back into Sasuke's good graces…"

"Okay." Was Kiba's last response, the closing of the conversation for all her cared. He was not a fan of the last Uchiha survivor in the least, especially not after that failed rescue mission that had almost killed him. But it was true that they weren't in a position to be picky.

Then he had a bit of a second thought and halted his steps right by the door, only to turn himself back halfway. Just enough to see Sakura struggling to keep her tears in check until he was out. His heart clenched. She had held it together this long and he felt bad for putting yet another strain on her with this question.

It had to be asked, though.

"What if…" he began shyly. Sakura's eyes rose to meet his as she swallowed back the lump in her throat. He almost lost his resolve. "If I can't find him… How long should I keep searching?"

Sakura tore her eyes away from him and answered without missing a beat. "Three weeks at most."

"Hai." Satisfied that Sakura hadn't hesitated in giving a response, meaning she was ready to face the fact if it came to it, he went on his way. It eased his worries up a bit. She wasn't insane, just insanely optimistic about the possible outcome. Just like Naruto would have been. He smirked to himself.

Whenever things would go dark for the village and there was a council meeting debating the worst case scenarios, Sakura always had this ace in her sleeve. It never failed to bring everyone's focus back to the matter at hand and give them hope. WWND. What Would Naruto Do. Even in his absence, the orange-clad ninja had remained a source of inspiration to all the young shinobis that remained of the Leaf village. Even he himself, quite an optimist, would have to admit he sometimes looked up to that strength of character.

All of a sudden he felt bad for even asking. Of course Naruto was alive. And he would find him. Even if it took him months to do so.

Numb. It was the one word her brain could manage. It kept repeating in a loop, neverending. Looming. Doom impending. Whenever she tried to shift her mind back to actual thoughts, it came back with a vengeance.

It was easier to just let go and not feel a thing.

She couldn't remember how long she had been in this infinite loop, spinning around in circles inside her own head. But she was a fighter. She would get through eventually. Open her eyes again. She could have sworn for a fleeting second there, she had seen familiar green eyes boring into hers.

It could be her mind playing tricks on her. Plus, she had no way of telling if it had happened a mere five minutes ago or years, if it did. She was weary and tired. Exhausted even. What was it she was fighting for, anyway?

"I should have never left you back there."

Huh? The words were loud and clear, a piercing light in the darkness of her head. Her mind was floating aimlessly, but suddenly a buoy had been thrown her way. She knew that voice. And with all her might she hung on to it as if holding onto life itself.

"I was such a coward, listening to Tsunade-sama. I wanted to go. Please believe me, Ino. Please, come back to me. I can't do this without you anymore."

The pleading tone nipped at her heart painfully. She knew she was alive right then because her limbs suddenly regained their weight. Her body ached. She forced her eyes to flicker open. Aware of a sensation around her hand, she tried to squeeze her fingers. It was her elbow that ended up jerking ever so slightly. That was good enough to catch Sakura's attention.

"Ino? Are you awake?"

If her limbs had stopped being weightless, her mind was still floating far, far from the scene. She was probably was drugged out of tomorrow, and it didn't make this any easier. She struggled with herself to not drift back just yet. She had to give her friend some indication that yes, she was there. Still fighting. She wanted to say the girl's name. Let her know she was alive. Her face contorted into a painful grimace as the syllables slipped out.

"B-bah. Burr. Egaigh." A tear slipped from her eye as her throat emitted a guttural growl. The pained expression she saw flash in her friend's eyes for a split second made her feel so powerless.

Her body had already forced her back to the numbness as her eyes shut once again. Leaving Sakura to squeeze the blonde's hand tighter. "It's okay, Ino. I'm here. Rest for now."