She sat on her bedroom floor, staring at her belongings half shoved into a small backpack.
"What do I need..." She whispered, still staring at everything. A knock at the door broke her concentration.
"Honey, Kakashi is here to see you." Her mother called out.
"Thanks, I'll be down in a minute."
Anii sighed and threw everything into the bag and ran downstairs. Kakashi was waiting in the doorway, eyeing off her backpack suspiciously.
"Anii dear, what's with the backpack?" Her mother said again, catching her before she left.
"Oh, I need to drop some things off at Sakura's. I have some of her books so I thought I'd do it after talking to Kakashi." She said closing the door behind her.
Kakashi grabbed onto her shoulder before she could make her get away, "Now what's really in the bag?"
"I told you. Books." She said breaking free of Kakashi's hold.
"Prove it Anii." He said following her down the street.
Anii opened her bag and pulled out her copy of 'Amegakure - Rain Country' and showed it to Kakashi, "See."
Kakashi's face fell as he realised what Iruka was saying was true.
"ANII!" He called out after her, while he wasn't paying attention she had made a get away. She sighed heavily and stopped.
"What Kakashi?" Anii said annoyed, "I just want to give Sakura her books back. Is that such a crime?"
"No. But why does she have a book about the Rain Country? And more to the point, why were you borrowing it?" Kakashi said catching up with her.
"... I wanted to learn about another country, we have an assignment. And I thought I'd do it on Amegakure." She said hoping her feeble excuse was good enough.
"Right, so what can you tell me about it then?" Kakashi said, putting holes in her excuse.
"It rains a lot and there's been a lot of civil war. And because it's in the middle of so many different countries, it gets used as a battle ground a lot." Said Anii, grateful that she had read part of the book.
Kakashi looked at her and shook his head, "I don't believe you."
She sighed again and looked at the ground, "Do you think I'm crazy?"
"No?" Kakashi said looking at her strangely.
"I'm sure Iruka's told you about my memories, so there's no need to play dumb." Anii said said getting annoyed.
"Anii listen, you don't want to do this. Trust me." He said looking at her sternly in the eyes.
Anii shrugged it off and ignored what he had said, "Now why did you want to talk to me?"
"Word got to me, that you were heading out of town."
---
- Later that afternoon -
Iruka was standing by the lamp post, waiting for Kakashi's arrival, before long he spotted Kakashi, casually walking along the road reading.
"What did you find out?" Iruka said through gritted teeth, Tsunade had asked them not to get involved, but they couldn't help themselves.
"She tried to cover up the fact that she isn't going. But it's pretty obvious that she's going to." Kakashi said standing next to him.
"Anyone going with her?" Iruka said, wanting to stop Anii now before she got into too much trouble.
"I don't know, if there is, I haven't heard word about it yet. And Anii certainly didn't say anything about it." Kakashi said with a sigh, "But if I had to guess, Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura."
Iruka nodded, when the four of them set their minds to something, there was nothing that would stop them. However, the weakest link would be Sakura, they would target her and try and make her crack. If they cracked Sakura, she would then try and talk the other out of it.
Kakashi could tell what Iruka was thinking, "To Sakura's house then?"
---
There was a knock at the door and Sakura jumped up to answer it, "Who do you think it could be?"
"Were you expecting anyone?" Anii said slowly moving out of the room.
"No. I don't think so." She said opening the door to be face to face with Iruka and Kakashi.
"Who were you talking too?" Iruka said, looking around the room.
"My parents." Sakura said looking behind her.
"Sakura, do you know about Anii's trip?" Kakashi said glancing towards the door leading into the kitchen.
Sakura paused for a moment, "Should I?"
"Sakura, no need to act. We know you do." Iruka said leaning on the doorframe.
Sakura looked at the two figures standing in her doorway, she was in two minds about slamming the door shut in their faces, or letting them while Anii snuck out the back, if she hadn't already.
"Can we come in?" Kakashi said looking back down at Sakura. She shook her head slowly and moved out of the way.
Kakashi and Iruka took their places on the sofa and waited for Sakura to sit down.
"Sakura, you know that this is an incredibly dangerous 'mission'." Iruka said watching Sakura carefully.
"I know, but she'd do the same thing for me." She said looking at the ground.
"Are you aware that you might die? Actually it's very likely." Kakashi chimed in, "Are you willing to do this, for something that doesn't even exist?"
"... What do you mean doesn't exist?" Sakura said looking at the two men.
"Anii, all her life has had a very creative imagination, she's made the whole thing up. The girl she isn't real. The place is, and she knows this because she's read about it before." Iruka said with a sigh, "We don't want you guys getting in trouble."
There was a pause in the room, "But her parents... Aren't really her parents are they?" Sakura said wanting to find out more.
Iruka and Kakashi looked at each other, trying to come up with a story.
"No, they aren't." Kakashi started, "She is a orphan."
"But couldn't the memories be true then?" Sakura said wanting to find a hole in what they were saying. Kakashi just shook his head.
"No, she has always lived here, she's never left the village." Iruka said shaking his head.
"How do you?" Sakura questioned, she was losing faith in Anii's story, but she didn't want Iruka and Kakashi to know that.
"Do you want to know the truth Sakura?" Kakashi asked putting his head in his hands.
Sakura nodded and looked back at Kakashi, "Okay Sakura, Anii's real parents died when the nine tailed fox attacked the village. She was left orphaned and her new parents adopted her, they couldn't allow such a young child to be left all by herself. And since that moment in her life, she's been making up stories."
Sakura just sat there and stared at the ground, she couldn't believe that she had Anii's story. She looked around the room, she wasn't sure if Anii had stayed and listened to what Kakashi and Iruka had been saying, or left when she opened the door. She hoped for her sake that she had left a long time ago, right now Sakura wanted nothing to do with Anii.
"Sakura," Iruka started, she looked up at him, "You're not going to go with her now are you?"
She shook her head, "No... And I wont let Sasuke go with her either! She's just trying to steal him for herself!"
Iruka and Kakashi took this as being their time to leave, with a small smile on their faces they left Sakura's house happy, knowing that the team was going to start to fall apart now.