Sasuke was, quite understandably, placed under a heavy ANBU guard once more after the recon team returned with their grim report; however, this precaution soon proved to be unnecessary as the last Uchiha slowly and inexplicably slipped into some sort of deep coma, and nothing and no one could wake him from it.

Just a few days after that situation developed (during which an extremely frustrated Sakura got almost no sleep whatsoever because she was desperately searching through every medical textbook she could find for some way to bring Sasuke back out of his coma), Tsunade called the exhausted girl into her office once again.

"I'm taking you off this case, Sakura," she said firmly, holding up a hand to stay the inevitable protest from her ex-apprentice. "I know what he meant to you at one time, but you have to admit to yourself that he's not the same person he used to be." The buxom blonde gave the younger woman a sad little smile. "Perhaps it would be better just to let him pass on, Sakura…he doesn't seem to want to be here anyway. And you said yourself that he told you he wanted to die."

Sakura's head snapped up, a fierce look in her eye, but before she could speak the hot words that were practically burning her tongue, the Godaime gave a soft chuckle.

"Of course, we don't always want what's really best for us, do we?" She leaned forward a bit, resting her elbows on her desk and propping her chin on her folded hands. "I'll make a deal with you, Sakura-chan. I will permit you to continue your research on Sasuke's case, but you must resume all your regular duties as well--and no slacking off this time. Also," she said with a slight frown as she noted the dark rings under Sakura's eyes, "you have to take better care of yourself. No more of these all-nighters. You need to keep up your own strength, after all. It's your duty as a kunoichi."

Sakura hesitated for a moment, then nodded in agreement. Arguing wouldn't do any good here, that much she knew, and really the Hokage was being quite generous by simply allowing her to continue her research.

"Thank you, Tsunade-shishou," she said with a deeper-than-usual bow before leaving the room.

Sakura had of course been utterly horrified on learning what Naruto and the rest of the recon team had found in the villages of Oto no Kuni, and even though she had been the first to deduce the possibility of such a massacre, somehow she still found it nearly impossible to believe. The sword they had brought back, however, was unquestionably Sasuke's kusanagi, and that alone had been nearly enough to convince her, but it was Naruto's grudging admission that Sasuke and only Sasuke could have been the cause that solidified her position on the matter. She knew that if there was any way that some mistake had been made, Naruto would have announced it to the world at the top of his lungs. It did not bode well that he was instead silent and oddly reserved, moping about in much the same manner he had when Sasuke had first left Konoha ten years before.

But despite having learned of the most recent addition in Uchiha Sasuke's personal collection of horrific secrets, Sakura found that she couldn't quite bring herself to truly fear or loathe the man. She had spent so much time with him in recent weeks, and never once had he attempted to harm her; he'd even moved to protect her, though truthfully the action had seemed more reflexive than deliberate.

Still, it was not really what one would expect from someone who had apparently committed genocide just a short time before.

Sakura was a very logical girl, and she knew the evidence weighed heavily against the Uchiha heir…and yet she couldn't shake the niggling doubt that things just didn't add up here. There had to be something about the situation that they were missing, something that they weren't taking into account…

Unfortunately, the only one who could really give them any genuine information about the issue was in a coma at the moment, and showed no signs of waking any time soon (or ever, for that matter).

This only served to further intrigue Sakura, however: it heightened her curiosity about Sasuke's condition as well as hardening her resolve to figure out his decidedly abnormal case. It was a puzzle that needed to be solved, and her brilliant medic's mind would not be satisfied until every last piece had been put into place and the picture had been made whole once more.

So while she did resume all her regular hospital duties, she still went to visit Sasuke in his now-heavily-guarded room whenever she could (though that time was restricted now since he'd been labeled "most likely quite dangerous" by the Black Ops); and every night she spent hours poring over all sorts of medical books and scrolls, her exceptional honor student's mind nearly obsessed with researching possible cures for her old teammate's condition.

At the edge of an open field, Hyuuga Neji sat alone at the base of a large tree, legs crossed and hands folded carefully in his favorite position for meditation. He was finding it a bit difficult to clear his mind this morning, which was unusual, but not really all that implausible: his thoughts had been somewhat troubled lately with several different matters.

The matter currently at the forefront of his mind that was so persistently disrupting his mediation was the subject of Uchiha Sasuke…and that subject in turn was linked closely to the other matter, the one that had of late been the most common disturbance of his meditative trances: the state of his own relationship with one Haruno Sakura.

Neji's stance on the Uchiha situation was simple and straightforward: regardless of the value of his bloodline limit, the man was a traitor and should therefore be put to death--after standing trial for his considerable crimes against Konohagakure, of course. And even if those crimes weren't enough to warrant the death sentence (and Neji was quite certain that they were), the report the recon team had brought back from Oto no Kuni was an undeniably clear indication that it was far too dangerous to allow Uchiha Sasuke to live…and after what he'd done, perhaps a trial wasn't even necessary…

Even before the sullen Uchiha had turned missing-nin, the Hyuuga prodigy hadn't really cared for him; he was arrogant, cold, and conceited--far too much like Neji himself for either of them to really get along. Neji's attitude had been violently changed not too long after they'd first met, however (courtesy of Naruto, of course), and his already slightly-softer self had recognized the darkness surrounding the Uchiha as being quite similar to the darkness that had enshrouded his own heart and mind for so many years. He had felt…compassion towards the other boy. Determination to succeed in the mission to bring him back to Konoha. Hope that Naruto would be able to reason with Sasuke, or at least forcibly drag him back home. Sadness and regret when he learned that despite their best efforts, they had failed to save a comrade from himself. And then anger and disdain as time passed and Sasuke did not return and admit that he'd made a mistake in leaving after all, instead actually choosing to fight against and seriously wound shinobi from Konoha…

The pensive Hyuuga bowed his head slightly, his chin sinking towards his chest, and a faint frown creased his forehead, regardless of his halfhearted attempts to maintain his rapidly evaporating meditative state and push away personal feelings and emotion.

Now when he thought about the Uchiha, he felt a curious mingling of pity and contempt. To a point, he understood the sort of emotional trauma that the other man had gone through during his early childhood, and besides that, Sasuke's previous maddened state, as well as his current comatose one, were nothing if not pitiable. On the other hand, he still didn't like the missing-nin, crazy or not, and he certainly didn't trust him, and Neji had no qualms whatsoever about showing a traitor nothing less than his utmost contempt.

…Or rather he wouldn't have had any qualms, if not for the important fact that Sakura obviously cared very deeply about the Uchiha. It was for her sake and hers alone that the Hyuuga genius refrained from expressing his resentment towards and misgivings about the other man. Besides, Uchiha was comatose now, and he'd been crazy before, so it wouldn't've mattered to him even if Neji had shown him the scorn he deserved. Sasuke had been too out of it most of the time to even notice, and the Hyuuga knew that it would have only hurt Sakura.

One thing that Neji had come to understand with perfect clarity was that Haruno Sakura really only had one weak point, and it went by the name of Uchiha Sasuke.

And all these deliberations about the Uchiha and his probable fate were doing nothing to help Neji focus on calming his mind and opening himself to his surroundings.

Then, of course, there was the matter of Sakura herself…and that was anything but simple and straightforward.

He snorted lightly without opening his eyes, briefly disrupting his careful breathing pattern. She was on his mind far too much lately, something that he wasn't entirely comfortable with, but he had long since given up trying to deny what he was feeling…though twenty-three was one hell of an age to suddenly realize that one had hormones. For the most part he thought his own strange behavior to be irrational and extremely childish, especially when he found himself thinking that he could hear her voice when the wind whispered around his ears, or that he could smell her perfume…

He could smell her perfume, he suddenly realized, taking note of the faint scent of jasmine in the air that hadn't been there moments before. A quick Byakugan scan confirmed it: there was a smallish figure heading this way, and the careful chakra control that it was exhibiting left no doubt in his mind as to who it was.

Neji smiled slightly, faintly amused at the irony. No matter where he went, it seemed he couldn't entirely escape her—mentally or physically.

She hadn't really been looking for him, but Sakura was glad that she'd found him. It was somehow soothing just to be near Neji while he was meditating; it almost felt like he was exuding some sort of calming mental field, and it wouldn't've surprised her if he really was using his chakra to do something of the sort.

She came to a stop a few feet in front of him, studying his calm, composed face. Impulsively, she wondered if he ever fell asleep out here like this when the weather was especially nice.

"Mind if I join you?" she asked quietly after a moment's hesitation, and the Hyuuga shook his head in a minute 'no'.

She settled herself at the base of nearby tree, mimicking his cross-legged position, and visibly relaxed her shoulders before attempting to meditate as well, trying to remember what Neji said about meditation one of the many times he had tried to teach her about it:

"Picture a river. Now, think of yourself as the riverbed…open yourself to all the sounds and smells and sensations around you and let them flow through you without manipulating them with your thoughts. Exist only in this moment. Don't think, just feel, just breathe, just live. Become at peace with your surroundings, and let your surroundings become at peace with you…"

(It sounded easy enough, but Sakura had always found it very difficult not to think, especially after sitting in the same position for more than an hour or two; without warning her brain would suddenly kick in again and start racing at top speed before she could stop it. She couldn't help but worry about the patients back at the hospital, and her mind kept wanting to return to considering their individual cases…and if it wasn't that, then she was worrying about Sasuke or Naruto, or else fighting back the fluttering feeling she got in her stomach when she realized just how close she was sitting to the very attractive Hyuuga.)

A long silence stretched between them, during which neither succeeded in getting much meditating done, though the other remained blissfully unaware of that fact.

"How are you doing with your return to the hospital?" Neji murmured at last, though Sakura got the distinct feeling that what he really meant was how are dealing with what's happened to Sasuke? She opened her eyes and searched his face, but his eyes remained closed, and his face blank and utterly impassive, so she decided to take his question at face value.

"It's going well. I actually sort of missed getting to help so many different people and fixing lots of little injuries instead of just focusing on one person and one particularly difficult case."

Giving up on her half-hearted attempt at meditation, she smiled and drew her legs up to her chest, resting her chin on her knees. "The nurses and the other medic-nin seemed really happy to have me back, too--probably because it means less work for them, but hey, I still felt appreciated." She went on to tell him a little bit about her first few days back at her regular job, ending with a rather humorous anecdote that concerned Shizune and the current lamentable state of Sakura's office ("I opened the door and found myself standing knee-deep in paper…I nearly had to use a shovel to dig Shizune out of there.")

After his low chuckle died away, they were quiet again for a long while, until Neji broke the silence once more. "How is he doing? Any changes?"

"No, he's the same," Sakura sighed, idly plucking and tossing away blades of grass, watching them drift lazily through the warm summer air. She didn't have to ask who "he" was; apparently she'd been right in her previous assumption about Neji's first question. "But he's not faking it this time, that much is certain. We've done enough tests to know."

"And you haven't come up with any way to help him?"

Another sigh, this one even more despondent-sounding than the first, and when she made no other reply, Neji assumed she'd shaken her head negatively.

"We've given him several different intravenous administrations, and I've tried every medical jutsu that sounded even remotely helpful, but nothing has had any effect so far." She scowled thoughtfully, the expression approaching a pout, and hunched her shoulders, hugging her knees a bit more tightly. "It just doesn't make any sense...I mean, physically, he's in perfect condition. This coma is psychiatric--it's totally mental--and as far as I can tell, it's self-induced."

The Hyuuga's brows contracted in careful contemplation. "I see. That's too bad. Perhaps if there was some way for you to actually get inside his mind and figure out what he's thinking, you might get somewhere with him."

He heard a sharp intake of breath, then a swift rustle of grass, and he knew from the sound that Sakura had gotten to her feet, and quite hurriedly at that. Opening his eyes to glance up at her in consternation, he found her just standing there, looking completely thunderstruck, as if considering some vital, profound new idea. He was watching so closely he could actually see it on her face when something clicked in her head, and then without either a warning or a word of farewell she abruptly tore off, heading straight for Konoha.

Neji looked after her in mild astonishment, but made no move to follow.

Yamanaka Ino was enjoying a relaxing afternoon snack at her favorite tea shop when the hurricane hit. She had just set down her cup of green tea and was reaching for her dango when suddenly Sakura appeared out of nowhere and skidded to a stop in front of her, catching herself on the table to arrest her considerable forward momentum.

"What the—?"

The whole table lurched as the pink-haired medic nearly slammed into it, sending both tea and dumplings flying; Ino instinctively twisted in her seat to avoid receiving a lapful of steaming tea, simultaneously shooting out a hand and snatching her stick of dango from the air. The blonde turned an incredulous (and decidedly irritated) stare on her childhood friend, who was standing over her panting, arms still braced on the table, eyes alight with a strange gleam.

"Sakura? What the hell—?"

"Ino!" the medic-nin burst out, grabbing the other girl's shoulders and shaking her. "Ino, I need your help! I mean, I still have to ask Tsunade-shishou about this and maybe Kakashi-sensei too, but Neji and I were talking and we came up with an idea!"

"Whoa, Forehead, slow down!" The tall blonde frowned, obviously confused by Sakura's outburst, and for once her cluelessness was totally justified. "What's this all about?"

Releasing the blonde's shoulders and dropping into the seat across from her best female friend, Sakura took a deep, calming breath, then smiled sweetly as she asked a question she was pretty sure she already knew the answer to: "Ino, how would you like to help me save Sasuke-kun?"

Sakura dragged her feet a bit as she moved down the street, head bowed and shoulders slumped as she mulled over the very discouraging conversation she'd just had with Ino:

"I'm sorry, Sakura, but even if it wasn't absolutely forbidden for me to teach you one of my family's secret jutsus, there's no guarantee you'd be able to learn it anyway, or that you'd be able to use it the way you want to." The blonde truly did look remorseful, which was really all that kept the pink-haired girl from throwing a very undignified fit; the lack of sleep in recent days had made her patience (which was oftentimes tenuous at best) practically nonexistent. "Anyway, you know there's a family affinity for these things…it would probably take months for you to learn."

She did know that, Ino was right…and somehow she also knew with dread certainty that she didn't have months.

What happened to the good old days when Ino would do anything for Sasuke-kun? Sakura wondered glumly. I guess she finally grew up. And I… She let her thoughts on that matter trail off, though not before Inner Sakura managed to get out a quick, I thought you moved on, too! Don't tell me that THOSE feelings for him are returning! HA! Pathetic! It's been ten years and you haven't really changed at all!

She shook her head hard to clear that kind of thought away. She needed to focus, she needed to find something, and she needed to find something fast…

Absentmindedly she scuffed one foot in the dirt, though that scarcely left a mark on the hard-packed road. But right now, I'm all out of ideas. And after what Tsunade-shishou said earlier…

"Sakura-chan!"

She looked up at the cheerful greeting, though she knew who it was even without looking (of course, pretty much everyone in Konoha could easily recognize the brazen voice of Uzumaki Naruto--they'd all heard it often enough, and generally at a high volume too), to find the Kyuubi container standing directly in front of her, smiling his eternally impish smile as if there was nothing wrong in the whole entire world.

Unable to endure the brightness of his smile in her current bleak mood, she averted her eyes, her chin dropping nearly to her chest. "Hey Naruto," she mumbled, staring fixedly at a crack in a nearby wall. "So why did you want to see me?"

Noting her dejected mien, Naruto clamped down on his excitement, concern overtaking his regular enthusiasm. "Come on, Sakura-chan," he said in a gentler, more subdued tone, taking her by the elbow and steering her towards a nearby bench. "I need to talk to you about something important."

Naruto had been pretty dejected himself on returning from the recon mission to the Sound Country—at least at first. After a week and half of moping about, however, he'd thought things over again, and had come to the same conclusion as Sakura, albeit through decidedly different reasoning: there had to be something they were overlooking, there just had to be. Regardless of the past, his faith in Sasuke wasn't completely gone yet, and that faith wouldn't allow him to believe anything less.

After settling themselves side by side on the bench, Naruto turned his head to look down at his old teammate and best friend, taking in her dull eyes and downcast expression. "What's wrong, Sakura-chan?" he asked carefully, deciding that what he had to say could wait long enough for him to listen to whatever was bothering her.

She exhaled a slow, shallow breath, sagging where she sat. "Tsunade-shishou wants me to give up on Sasuke," she said in a low voice. "She thinks that it might be best to just…let him go…" She clenched her fists in her skirt, watching her knuckles slowly turn white. "I don't want to, Naruto," she half-whispered, then glanced over at the blonde, who she found staring grimly down at his own folded hands.

After a long moment he said quietly, "Ero-sennin told me a long time ago that I should forget about Sasuke…that it was foolish to try to help him, and that he wasn't really my friend since he'd tried to hurt me. But…" His expression softened, a small smile curving along his lips. "But of course, I couldn't forget, and I ended up being a fool…and gladly."

Happy relief flooded through her (why was it that Naruto always seemed able to make her feel so much better about situations like this?), and Sakura wrapped both her arms around one of his, hugging it close before looking up into his face and giving him a warm smile. "We were fools together."

"Yup. And we still are."

"But we were right in the end, you know," she said, resting her head against his shoulder. "You brought him back, just like you promised."

Naruto snorted. "Took me long enough." He gave her a crooked smile. "Heaven forbid he should ever leave again, but if he does, I promise I'll get him back faster next time."

"You'd better. I'm not getting any younger, you know."

"Ah, but Sakura-chan will always be beautiful."

She couldn't help but blush a bit at that statement, then sat back to get a better look at his face, trying to see if he really meant what he'd said; the sincerity in his genuinely affectionate smile was reassuring. "You're a shameless flatterer, Naruto," she said with forced levity, trying to brush off his compliment. Her cheeks remained a rosy pink, however.

He flashed her a toothy grin, noting the lingering blush. "Yeah, but only when I really mean it," he said with a wink.

"I knew there was a reason that you were my best friend," she chuckled, giving his arm a playful squeeze.

"Of course. You've gotta have someone around to boost your ego, Sakura-chan—you really don't give yourself enough credit most of the time."

"Well if you'd just give me about a tenth of your overblown ego, I'd be set for years, if not life."

"Fair enough," the blonde laughed. "Anyway, I bet you wanna know why I wanted to meet with you, don't you?"

Sakura smirked. "I thought you just wanted to see me, since you missed me so much," she teased.

Naruto merely grinned at the jab and ruffled her hair. "Well, yeah, there was that…but I also have a plan!"

The medic-nin gave him a wary look as she smoothed her hair down once more. "What sort of plan?"

"A good one!"

She crossed her arms over her chest, one eyebrow arched. "Is this another plan to make yourself super strong in a short period of time, like when you were first working with your elemental chakra?" She shook her head. "You know what I think about shortcuts--in the end they just screw you over."

"Yeah," Naruto said, casting a meaningful look in the direction of the hospital building. "And make you think the sky has eyeballs, apparently." Sakura didn't have to ask to know he was referring to Sasuke's odd ramblings. "But no, this plan is nothing like that."

"Then what—?"

"It's a plan to help Sasuke!" the Kyuubi container stated matter-of-factly.

Predictably the pink-haired girl leaned in a bit, obviously intrigued. "I'm listening."

Naruto leaned in as well, dropping his voice to a ragged half-whisper, blue eyes gleaming with a mixture of mischief and excitement. "You know the scroll room in the Hokage Tower? Well, I was thinking—"

"No way, Naruto," she cut in, the goody-two-shoes honor student side of her personality instantly kicking into overdrive. "I'm not breaking into the Hokage Tower in the middle of the night! Do you have any idea how much trouble we'll be in if we get caught? You got away with it before because you were just a kid who didn't know any better, so they wrote it off as mischief, but we're both adults and ANBU to boot, so I doubt they'd be so lenient, and I really don't see how us getting put on probation will help Sasuke-kun at all—"

Naruto interrupted her before she could finish her tirade. "Do you want to hear the rest of my plan, or do you wanna argue about it before you've even heard the whole thing?" he asked in mild exasperation.

Sakura shut her mouth with an audible clack. She had to admit that Naruto's plans were usually pretty good ones, so it would be prudent to at least listen to the whole thing first before rejecting it.

One side of the hyperactive blonde's mouth pulled back in a lopsided smile at her abrupt silence. "Alright then. Here's what we're going to do..."

"Just for the record, I still oppose this plan," Sakura hissed at the enthusiastically grinning blonde at her side.

"Whatever," Naruto said, sticking his tongue out at her. "You're just jealous that I came up with it before you did."

Sakura rolled her eyes in response. "This was a mistake," she groaned, rubbing her wide forehead as if she had suddenly gotten an intense migraine.

Instantly the Kyuubi container's manner switched from teasing to reassuring, and he gave her shoulder a quick, comforting pat. "Look, like I said before, don't worry about the security—I can get us both in easily. I did this before when I was twelve, after all. And if you're really worried about getting caught, I'll act as lookout for you."

Resigned to whatever consequences her forthcoming actions might bring about, the pink-haired kunoichi sighed and soundlessly crossed the final hundred yards of roofs and buildings to crouch on the outside of the tower, focusing her chakra in her feet to adhere to the vertical surface. Naruto joined her an instant later and, gesturing for her to follow him, carefully and quietly made his way over to a prominent window.

The Hokage Tower's security had gotten somewhat better since Naruto had broken in when he was twelve; regardless of that fact, it only took him a kunai and few minutes of fiddling with wires to get them in through the large double-paned window that, as expected, opened up into a familiar but currently darkened hallway.

After slipping through, they padded silently down the corridor side by side until they reached the scroll room, where Naruto took up his previously designated post in the door's shadowy alcove while Sakura crept inside.

Moving cautiously through the darkened room, she made her way around the tables and towering bookshelves to the locked door at the back of the room. It only took her a moment to pick the lock; once inside she left the door propped open (so she could hear Naruto's warning, should he give one), then flipped on the lights, which were surprisingly dim, and knelt to examine the piles of dusty scrolls.

It still surprised her somewhat that Naruto had come up with this idea; even though they'd been teammates for over ten years now, the periodic ingeniousness of his plans still took her unawares.

The forbidden scrolls…how could I have forgotten about these? she mused, shaking her head at herself as she bent closer to look them over more carefully. Tsunade had let her look through pretty much everything else in the scroll room, but Sakura knew that the Hokage wouldn't have given her access to anything she deemed particularly dangerous, so there was a chance that she might actually find something useful if she looked through these previously restricted scrolls.

After a few moments of trying to dig through them all one by one, she simply scooped up most of them--a sizeable armful--and set them on a nearby table. Taking a seat at said table, she began her rapid perusal of each document, and as she looked through them she put them back in their respective cubbyholes—it was much more efficient, and would make things quite a bit easier if she ended up having to run for it.

"Found anything?" Naruto whispered in a mercifully and uncharacteristically low voice just as she unfurled yet another scroll, this one considerably smaller and slimmer than most of the others she'd gone through thus far in the twenty-odd minutes she'd been at her searching.

"Nothing yet," she murmured absently in reply as she quickly scanned the remarkably tiny, meticulous strokes of the characters contained in this newest prospect. Actually…I think I have found something… Yes, I actually think this'll work…

The Chisei Chikizuna no Jutsu, her hungry eyes read, practically devouring the words on the scroll, creates a temporary but intensely powerful mental bond using the combined blood of those involved in the jutsu. The connection is so strong that, if successful, the primary user's mind and soul are temporarily transferred into the subject's own mind, and once there can alter or influence certain areas of the subject's psyche, and in certain cases, can even make contact with the subject's own mind and soul…

The rest of the rather lengthy explanation made it sound vaguely similar to the Chikatsu Saisei no Jutsu, though the extensive diagrams indicated that the seal pattern, while not quite as large, was vastly different, and perhaps even more complex.

Yes, but how many people does it take to perform…? Unrolling the scroll even more, she scanned it almost desperately; then her eyes fastened on the exact words that she wanted to badly to see:

Can be performed by one person—

Oh, thank God…

—Though only at extensive risk to both parties. However, while it is a great deal more dangerous, the jutsu is also a great deal more likely to succeed if it is only performed by a single shinobi on a single subject: the more minds involved, the more complicated the process is.

Heh, she thought, one corner of her mouth turning up in a sardonic half-smile as she continued to read through all the potential risks. I definitely can't tell Naruto about this… She knew he'd be worried sick, and would probably insist on performing it by himself, nevermind the fact that he'd be almost certain to fail and kill or at least mentally cripple both Sasuke and himself due to his less-than-perfect manipulation of his chakra...

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto suddenly hissed in a fierce whisper. "Someone's coming! Take whatever you've got and let's run for it!"

Wordlessly she obeyed, hurriedly re-rolling the precious scroll and shoving it to the bottom of her hip pouch. If the blonde asked her, she hadn't found anything that sounded like it would work, and had used those final few seconds to put everything back the way she'd found it.

She hastily replaced the few remaining scrolls before darting out into the hallway and out through the window they'd come in, Naruto following along behind almost as closely as her own shadow.

As it turned out, Naruto didn't get a chance to ask about it that night—as per their original plan, they split up and took off back to their respective apartments as quickly as possible as a safety precaution against being caught—and by the time he saw her the next day, the scroll was already hidden safely away in a sealed metal box beneath the floorboards in Sakura's bedroom. There was really no need to tell him about what she'd found, she reasoned to herself, since he couldn't really be of any help: he'd only agonize over the danger she was putting herself in and quite likely get in the way of things.

That night Sakura went to bed smiling for the first time in well over a month, and when she closed her eyes and took stock of the feelings and emotions running through her head, she found that the misery and despair of the previous weeks had been replaced by a deep sense of happiness, accomplishment, contentment…and above all, hope.