Remember this story is a work in progress so sorry if any of you are made with the lack of interest in the story. All stories start off as nothing but then become something, so bare with me. Review flames are welcome but keep them as constructive criticism. Thanks!

Chapter 3: Getting Used to Everything Again

"Alright everyone settle down!" Tsunade said as she banged her fist onto the table. "I have something to show you"

The room she was in included every Jounin and ANBU in all Konoha. She needed to get every high ranking Shinobi in, so she could get maybe an idea as to what was going on. The men and women became quiet for their Hokage.

"As you know Kakashi was attacked a few days ago while under a mission assignment. Him and his two….." Tsunade located the silver haired ninja, who happened to be leaning up against a wall next to Gai and Genma, and raised a honeyed eyebrow at him. "…former pupils… In doing their assignment was later reassigned to a different team…causing me great havoc among Konoha and Mr. Manaka—"
Her rant was cut off by Shizune clearing her throat reminding her why everyone was assembled.

"Anyway" she said pushing a strand of blonde hair behind her ear. "We know that the traitor Kabuto was in charge of the attack and made it his goal to target Kakashi, but Sakura Haruno was the one that got the hit

"Kabuto attacked with what appeared to be a medical syringe that was filled with some unidentifiable substance. We believe that the substance was created for the soul purpose to kill Kakashi but we are uncertain since we couldn't find any traces of it in the syringe so none could be tested and also it didn't do anything…harmful… to Sakura….."

Tsunade paused a little and regarded the Copy Nin with a pointed expression. He shifted from his leaning position and got nudged by Genma. She returned her attention to the assembled ninja's.

"Well that's what we concluded but some……unsettling events…occurred over the course of the days…."
"Nothing is wrong with her we hope?" Genma asked. Tsunade looked at him, reminding herself that Sakura was also known for talking to the well liked Jounin.

"…..No……"

A sigh of relief was felt in the crowd; Tsunade felt a swell of joy go through her. To think that her star pupil treated and cared for so many people. Tsunade looked over to her shoulder at her, she was still hiding behind that blanket of hers, and she thought it would be less shocking if she hid from view.

"But…some….side effects…came up…"
"What kind of side effects?" Kurenia asked. Tsunade took in a breath, better late than never.

"Sakura…come forward please"

She felt the girl stir behind her but she didn't make a move to move, Tsunade looked over her shoulder with a hardened jaw. She moved and stood next to her teacher. The room was so silent a person could have dropped a needle and everyone could have heard it.

"Sakura….please show them….what happened…."

She looked over at the blonde, she couldn't see her face but she could only guess that it was a look of horror. She nodded her head in support.

Sakura turned her head back toward the crowd and sighed. She took a breath and dropped the blanket that was concealing her.

A loud gasp and a clatter of chairs was heard as people stood up to get a look at the girl.

For the Sakura Haruno, who was standing in front of them, was no longer the well known 15 year old. There standing before them was a full grown woman. Luckily for Sakura, Tsunade gave her a pair of Jounin pants before she came so she didn't feel as vulnerable when only standing in the night t-shirt she had to yet change out of. She wasn't even wearing any undergarments; due to the sudden change Sakura found that all her underwear and bras were too small for her. So she was feeling a bit exposed at the moment.

Sakura pushed some hair behind her ear as she felt people size her up. In her defense, her body totally changed from what it was three days ago. Her arms and legs lengthened causing her to be as nearly as tall as Tsunade. Her hair now was now longer than its original length; it now reached to the top of her rear. Her chest was fuller and her face became slimmer and more defined. Her eyes intensified from their sea green to that of a beautiful deep jade green, her lips turned pinker and her skin still remained its peachy complexion. Her muscle definition was still the same but her legs and stomach was toned with muscle.

She ducked her head from the stares; she didn't want Kakashi to see her like this.

"As you can see Sakura was affected by the substance by rapidly speeding up her growing and aging process. We believe that she is about 28 years old from the sudden jump"

"Is this permanent?" came a very strong masculine voice from the back.

Sakura lifted her head at the voice, it was Kakashi.

"Damn it" she thought. "Why did he have to blab? Damn you Naruto…"

Tsunade slung an arm around her shoulder feeling her discomfort.

"We don't know but I will begin searching through the archives to see if there is any recorded document of this substance"

"When are you going to begin researching?" Ibiki asked.

"Shortly after this meeting is adjourned. I want every available ANBU and Jounin to go through their files to see if any of you have ever stumbled upon this before then report to me afterwards"

A nod of approval went around the crowd; Sakura could feel a certain pair of eyes on her. She dared draw her head up to see who she thought it would be.

"Alright, everyone understand? You are dismissed"

She turned supporting the girl and left the meeting room.

"I want you to return back to the hospital" she said as she walked the girl away from the Jounin building. They were a short distance from the hospital, but Sakura didn't want to go back to a hospital she wanted to go back home, back to the confines of her own bed.

"What am I going to be doing there?" she asked in a whisper.

"We need to figure out if anything else was affected and to also see if this…what ever this is… is reversible"

Sakura ducked her head. She hoped with her being in a hospital it would prevent a visitation of a certain ninja. The sun was already down and the stars were out twinkling in the black sky.

"So I'm just going to be there for testing purposes" she said with a drawn sigh. Tsunade stopped their quick pace to regard the girl.

"I know that this is tiring for you and also frightening, but we need to figure out if we can turn you back to your original state Sakura"

Sakura looked down at the ground. Tsunade sighed and drew her chin up with a hand, she realized now she was speaking to her for the first time at her eye level where she before had to look down.

"Just bare through this Sakura, I know you can"

Her pupil remained silent for a while to sink in her words.

"Alright, senpai"

Tsunade gave a slight smile.

"That's my girl, now come along we need to get you to the hospital"

Tsunade left Sakura in her room so she could deal with the other Jounin's and ANBU's with the information that would soon be streaming to her.

Sakura didn't feel like sleeping, she was restless because she knew eventually a certain Shinobi was bound to be in her room. Her stomach was in a twist of knots and anxiety. She didn't know what to say to him. Say sorry for causing the trouble and thank you for speeding up her aging process?

Sakura looked down at her bare feet before she continued to look out her open window. She had her back to the door; if he wanted to talk to her he had better talk to her like ever civilized person. She felt like he would be mad at her for taking the hit and also for what happened to her. She didn't want that to happen, she didn't want to lose his friendship. He already meant too much to her, her was more than a teacher he was considered a friend.

She sighed silently and drew in a breath.

"Before you say anything. I'm not mad at you" she said regarding the figure behind her. She heard him step in her room not that long ago, well in truth she felt his chakra signature on the roof for a good 10 minutes till he decided to come down and use her hospital room door.

She heard him take a step toward her; she tensed slightly from his presence. She heard him take a step back from her posture. She took a slow breath of air in and turned to face him.

Her jade eyes fell onto the Copy Nin and she couldn't place his emotion that radiated off him. He wasn't even slouching his usual position that he was known for. She suddenly decided that she didn't like it. She slowly clasped her arms around her due to the feeling in the air.

She watched him take a slow step toward her as if he didn't even know her. Sakura forced herself to stay in her spot to allow him to come close to her. He stopped directly in front of her; his visible eye was intently trained on her form. She now noticed that she was only a couple inches shorter than him. She always thought him tall but now that she was nearly his height he seemed smaller. She saw him raise a hesitant hand up and reached toward her face but it stopped. Sakura only briefly turned her gaze to the hand and returned her gaze back to her teacher. He slowly reached forward and touched her cheek to see if she was real and he wasn't seeing an illusion.

Sakura didn't close her eyes, as much as she wanted to; she kept her eyes open and focused on his face.

"You had no idea what would have happened" she said softly as he lowered his hand. "You had no way of preventing it"

She turned her body away from him and faced the window; she withdrew her arms from around her.

"It jumped my age up to 13 years" she said looking down at her open hands. "To think that it could do that to me…."

She turned back around to face him again. She didn't have the energy to yell at him, so she just confronted him with a soft voice.

"What would have happened to you?" she said looking him in the eye.

"You didn't deserve this, Sakura" he said looking down at her. "I should have been the one—"
"But you weren't" she replied sharply. She saw him flinch slightly; she had to remember to talk softly because they were in fact in a hospital and it was late. "I was, if it jumped my age to 13 years it could have doubled for you, it could have killed you"

"Then I would have died knowing that I saved one of my students"

Sakura closed her mouth and tightened her jaw. She remained silent for a bit as she looked down at the ground.

"But if you died…what would I have done then?"

She looked up at him and saw that his eye was glazed over with confusion.

"I consider you not only as a teacher… but also as a friend… a comrade. Ever since Sasuke left… ever since both of my parents died…I was alone… But the times you were here… I felt happy because I knew that someone else cared about me. You made my days easier to go by when the people I loved… left"

Sakura didn't know when a tear escaped her eye. She hadn't cried like this in a while, not since Sasuke left Konoha so many years ago. She brought a hand up to wipe the tear away. What she said was true, Kakashi was like her father but also like a friend. He was there to help her and tell if she did something wrong but he was also there to tell her things that only a friend would say.

"So that's why I have no regrets"

She looked back up at him. She still couldn't read his expressions due to the mask. He still remained silent; she let out a sigh and turned to face the window again. That's when her wrist was grabbed to whip her around and the next thing she knew was that she was being held.

It took her by surprise for him to do that sort of thing. He didn't say anything but just stood there holding her, she could tell by the way he held her that it was like he didn't want to let her go. Sakura's hands were at her sides uncertain what to do. She was also very aware of her quickened heart beat and flushed face. She just hoped that he didn't notice that she wasn't wearing a bra under her t-shirt. She could barely see over his shoulder but she turned her head and saw the base of his neck, he was almost resting his head on her shoulder. His arms were firm around her; he almost engulfed her in his arms. His grip on her tightened slightly. Sakura raised her arms and encircled them around his waist returning the hug.

She didn't know how long they stood there holding each other, but it felt like eternity. She closed her eyes and took in his scent. He smelt like wood and the smell only an older man had around him. She opened her eyes again. He felt him stir and lift up his head. Sakura then became aware of his breath on her ear, she held her breath. Her heart beat quickened again.

"I'm sorry" he whispered, and then poof, he was suddenly gone.

Sakura lowered her arms from their previous position, she could still feel where his arms were and the warmth they had.

Sakura brought a hand up to her face. More tears came down her face and fell to the floor. She silently fell to her knees and cried.

Sakura woke that next morning feeling three presences in her room. Before she opened her eyes she recognized two of them, one was Tsunade's and the other was Shizune's. The third she didn't recognize. She opened her eyes and slowly sat up from her hospital bed. Tsunade greeted her with a small smile and averted her attention to the third person in the room.

The person was a man, about in his late thirties with smoky gray eyes that were hid behind a pair of spectacles, and short combed back brown hair. His attire read business and also authority. On his feet were the tradition Shinobi sandals but he had on long black slacks with the Jounin shirt, over it he had a white lab coat on.

"Sakura, I want you to meet Dr. Hikaru Suzuki" Tsunade said nodding to him. Sakura only looked at him, but she didn't like this man already. Even though he didn't say anything, she didn't like him because she knew that he was only here for one thing and that was to test her.

"Do I have to do this Tsunade-sama?" she asked as she drew up her knees. The Hokage only looked at her with saddened eyes.

"I'm afraid so, so far no one has come up with anything yet" she said drawing out a long sigh. "I hope this would narrow our search and at least give us some kind of clue as to what kind of substance you were injected with"

Sakura lowered her head and looked at her drawn up knees.

"Alright, I'm willing to cooperate"

She drew her head up to regard the three people in front of her, she saw Shizune smile and her teacher nod her head. It was Dr. Suzuki's turn to speak.

"Hello Sakura" he said coming over to stand closure to her bed. "As Lady Tsunade has said my name is Dr. Suzuki, and I'm going to be the one leading your testing for today"

Sakura looked up at him with an emotionless face.

"We will start you off with first a brain scan and then have a full body scan to see if anything else was affected"

Sakura pushed back some escaped hair and continued to listen to him, even though what she really wanted to do was go and escape from this prison. No wonder Kakashi hated hospitals, doctors and nurses treated you like you were a third grader. Sakura made note to not treat her patients like this again. Sakura looked up at her doctor, who was still going on on what was going to be tested on her that day.

"…..and I think that is it…" he said flipping a page over on his clipboard. "Do you have any questions?"

"When do I get out of here?" she asked bluntly. Dr. Suzuki smiled slightly, but it vanished when he noticed Sakura's seriousness.

"You are scheduled to leave tomorrow afternoon at 3 o'clock. If that is it I would like to begin"

Sakura nodded and swung her legs over the side of the bed and slipped off. She had to get used to her senses because everything was higher up and more defined with her now adult senses. Everything was louder, brighter, and closer to her. It was like learning how to walk again. She followed her doctor down the hallway with Tsunade and Shizune closely following.

"This is going to be a long day" she thought as she followed Dr. Suzuki down to the testing ward.

Tsunade looked out her window and regarded the doctor in front of her desk.

"So you're telling me that nothing else was affected?" she asked. Dr. Suzuki nodded.

"In all the years of my practice, I have never seen anything like this before" he said scratching the back of his head. "Never, it's remarkable that she lived through it. Having a rapid growth like hers would have killed a grown man"

Tsunade silently huffed. Well she did read somewhere that it was said that women had a higher pain tolerance than some men, but she had to yet test that statement. The only known man that she knew that had an incredible tolerance for pain was Hatake Kakashi.

"Was anything damaged in her cranial region?"

"No, that's the other thing that's remarkable"

"What is?"

"Her brain capacity grew, you would think that her mind would stay at its original 15 year old stage but it didn't. It grew just like her entire body did. Sakura Haruno is no longer a young girl anymore, she's now—"
"An adult" Tsunade finished for him as she drew out a sigh. The Doctor nodded his head as he slipped his hands into his pockets.

"I don't know what to tell you but Sakura is fine, coming from a medical point of view. If you want her to taking some Hormonal Counseling for her to get used to the Hormonal change, I can direct her to another doctor"

Tsunade thought about it for a bit.

"No, I think it would be best if she just went home. I think she's had enough with doctors for a bit" she said taking a seat behind her desk. "Also I think that she can handle it on her own, after all…she's a big girl now"

Dr. Suzuki nodded his head.

"I just hope that she can handle it, the stress and change and all" he said. Tsunade looked up at him from the little information she asked from her Jounin's and ANBU's.

"I think she can…." She said returning to her reading. "But I'm not sure if her friends can…"

She picked up a report scroll and looked at it. A very lengthy pause filled the room.

"Have you found out anything about what she was hit with?"

Tsunade looked up at him.

"No…..nothing at all"

She looked down back at her scroll with an undecided expression.

"Lady Tsunade is there something you're not telling me?"

She took a sigh and reached over to one of her drawers and began rummaging around in it looking for the scroll that she found not that long ago.

"What I said about finding no type of information about the substance was wrong" she said as her hand encircled the scroll. "I did find something but I was hoping that it would be something different"

"What do you mean?"

Tsunade snapped the drawer shut and tossed the scroll over to the man, who caught it gently. He looked at the rolled up piece of paper with confusion before she nodded to him to unroll the thing and read it. She watched his eyes scan the piece of paper and saw them widen a fraction from the content he read. Tsunade brought her hands up and laced them in front of her to prove her point.

"Dr. Suzuki are you familiar with the Serum of Reverse Death?" she asked closing her eyes. She didn't hear a response from the gentlemen in front of her. "I thought so"

She got up from her seat and turned to face her open windows.

"Back during the Terror of the Nine Tailed Demon, there was serum created to reverse the effects of aging. People wanted to live longer than they were supposed to and thus created an elixir they believed to be the Elixir of Life…

"But this serum had tremendous side effects, if taken too many times the body will begin to shut down and cease functioning. It was made for the soul purpose of keeping the old alive for just a bit longer, but some wanted to abuse it. There were those that wanted this substance to not only speed up their aging process but to also turn them back to their original age. Countries all over wanted this elixir for themselves and wanted it altered to better their needs.

"Soon people were becoming young again, but that was when the havoc started. For somewhere along the years the serum was altered to not only speed up the aging process but to slowly kill the person by making them grow older with each passing day. People were soon dying in their sleep due to this… and that was when it stopped"

Tsunade opened her eyes from the story to look at the Doctor and turned to face him.

"That scroll you are holding, I found by pure accident when looking through the Konoha archives. It was hidden among books and documents in hopes to be never found again. It's lucky to have survived this long without being found… but it needs to be burned and destroyed"

"Why can't we use it? Surely we can reverse the effects of Sakura's affliction" Dr. Suzuki said gesturing to the scroll. Tsunade only shook her head and looked at the scroll in his hands. The scroll was a recipe to creating the devastating elixir.

"I thought so too but I read further and in-between the lines. For those that took the serum to speed up their aging, they simply took a reverse serum to change them back. But those people never lived long… they were found dead within two days of taking it"

"Then how was it that Sakura lived? Wouldn't she have died when given that much of the Elixir?"

The Goddaime sighed and rubbed her temples, she could feel a headache coming on. She sighed.

"The only explanation to that is that Kabuto was not expecting to give the Elixir to a 15 year old and also Sakura is young. Her body had still yet to finish growing and you could say that her youth saved her life like she saved Kakashi's"

"He would have been killed if he was hit, wouldn't he?"

She nodded her head as she took her seat again. She heard him sigh as she rested her forehead on her laced hands.

"So Sakura will not be able to change back?"

"No, Sakura is permanently bound in that body and will never turn to her original state again"

She heard him sigh again but she could here the disappointment in it.

"When are you going to assembly everyone and tell Sakura?"

The Hokage looked at the contents of her desk. The papers and scrolls blinked back at her, telling her that it would again be a late night to finish everything.

"I plan on assembling everyone by tomorrow night. Sakura will find out tonight"

"What about the Copy Nin?" Dr. Suzuki asked. Tsunade lowered her eyes and sadly thought about the man.

"He'll be with everyone else; I don't think Sakura would want him to find out with her in the room"

"How do you think he's taking it?"

Tsunade took in a slow breath and let it escape her lips.

"I think that he is taking it just as hard as she is…but on a greater scale"

The two remained silent for a bit letting those final words sink in both of them.

"You can go Dr. Suzuki, I want your report filled out and on my desk whenever your schedule allows it"

"I can have it done by tomorrow afternoon"

"Thank You"

She pulled a scroll to her and began reading it as she heard the doctor turn and leave her office. She took a breath and leaned back in her chair as her assistant, Shizune, came into her room with her pig.

"Tsunade-sama?" she said coming closure to the older woman. Tsunade didn't look up but felt the animal rub against her ankles. She stopped and picked it up and held it in her lap. "Need anything?"

"I want you to send out a notice to assembly all Jounin and ANBU to the Jounin meeting room tomorrow night at 7 o'clock and I want Sakura Haruno in my office by tonight at 8"

"Yes, Hokage" she said with a quick bow of understanding. "Need anything else?"

"No, you can go" she said looking down at the pig in her lap. She heard the door silently close. The Hokage sat in her chair with the small pig in her lap, the silence was deafening around her. Her honey eyes slowly filled with tears as she gazed into the pigs small black ones.

"I'm sorry Sakura"