I'm very sorry for the long wait. I know your angry at me for making you guys wait for so so long. I've been away for a very long time and had just come back from Africa. Long assignment...I had to refresh my mind about this story because it's been a year (?)

"In the end… I couldn't even save her."

Sakura watched her father silently. They were near the Hokage monument, staring up at those towering faces carved on its surface. After all that has happened, she didn't even know where to start.

"Do you really want to know what happened years ago?" Takuma asked hesitantly.

She nodded. "I can take it." Softly she spoke her determined courage. "I have to don't I?"

"Yes… I guess you do." He paused, sighed then went on a grim forbidding air.

"I was a young ANBU back then. I wanted to be the most strongest of all. So does my brother, Kintaro. We came from a clan disgrace because of our foolishness. Konoha, despite our loyalty, did not appreciate what we have done in order to atone for our clan's sins. My brother and I were so spiteful that we swore revenge to this village. But we need to be stronger first…"

Takuma's fists were clenched with such intensity. Sakura couldn't seem to find her voice to speak.

"We discovered a jutsu, one that would make us invincible and immortal. It requires a lot of lives to be sacrificed including a clan with a special bloodline to make it work."

"W-who told you about it?" Sakura asked, her voice tight and uneasy. It wasn't her first time hearing something about that kind of jutsu.

"He was a sannin of this village. They call him, Orochimaru." Takuma answered, his expression grim. "The jutsu had a difficult requirement so in the end we had to give up. The two of us against prominent clans like Uchiha or Hyuuga is a one-sided match."

He turned to look at her with compassionate eyes.

"Not long after that, I met Fumika. I fell in love with her and decided to live a normal life. Those were the times that I felt so contented and happy. I've forgotten all about my revenge."

He bitterly shook his head. "That didn't last long. I was too late to realize that Kintaro had actually planned to perform the jutsu. He was the one who murdered people here in Konoha. It was futile to stop him because he was always one step ahead of the ANBU squad."

"I thought he wouldn't be able to fulfill the final requirement. I couldn't see any possible way he could. But then I learned that there was a non-shinobi clan here in Konoha that has a special bloodline. I almost lost myself when I found out that he was after the Harunos."

Takuma frowned and averted his gaze from Sakura. She reminds him of Fumika so much. Sakura on the other hand had a bewildered look on her face, still comprehending the revelations she heard from her father.

"When I got to Fumika's place, everyone has already been killed. I thought she was one of them but I couldn't find her among the bloodied bodies. I found her half a mile away from her place, lying unconscious on the ground.." Takuma's voice was shaking but he took a deep breath before he continued.

"All I could do was to hide her away from Kintaro. It made him think that he had succeeded. I became a hunter-nin shortly after he left the village. I planned to kill him or prevent him from coming back here to find out that you and your mother are still alive. I wanted to keep you both safe."

Tears from Sakura's eyes poured and she couldn't seem to stop sobbing. She thought about her family, ruined just because of a selfish whim to become stronger. Lookig at her father, she imagined life must have been hard for him.

Takuma tensed up and suddenly collapsed on the ground. He was coughing up blood and was breathing heavily.

"Father!" Sakura called out and hurriedly ran to his side. She checked his vital signs. His heart rate is lower than the average heart rate of a shinobi his age.

"I-I was afraid it would come to this…" he raggedly spoke through his gasps for air. "Seems like my time's up. I—" he coughed up more blood.

"Don't worry… I can heal you. Trust me." Sakura uttered through her sobs. She summoned green chakra on her hands even though she knew that it would be no use. His circulatory system was messed up and it wouldn't be that long until his breathing ceased.

Takuma's hand stop hers and painfully shook his head. "I-I just wish that I would be able t-to protect you longer S-sakura…"

His hand fell limply on the ground just as rain poured out from the sky.

Next chapter will be coming up this week... Again I apologize for the long wait.