Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto Shippuuden.

A/N: Forgive this chapter. I am really not good with action scenes.

Ino felt herself floating down a corridor lined with full length mirrors on either side. The environment was emitting an eerie light that came from everywhere and nowhere, making her squint. She looked up and saw a sky that looked like it was drawn with charcoal. Looking down, she saw roughly chalked-up grass, as if a child had been naughty with a green crayon.

Much to Ino's surprise, everything seemed blurry, as if she were under water.

She was, unmistakably, inside Sai's mind.

And she could feel the raw pain radiating from the very air around her. She rubbed her arms self-consciously. There had been times when her father had let her participate in probing the minds of petty thieves and common criminals the neighboring villages asked the Leaf to find justice for. And every time Ino did it, she felt incredibly dirty after.

Right now, as she dwelled in the recesses of Sai's mind, she felt like crying. The confusion was practically visible to her, as if everything in the former ROOT member's mind was one big static storm.

She peered into the nearest mirror to her right. She saw Sai at fifteen or sixteen, sitting on the rooftop of one of the main buildings in the market place of the Village. It was the first time he had an encounter with Naruto, Shikamaru and Chouji. She felt the amusement Sai felt then, at seeing Naruto fight.

In other mirrors, she saw Kakashi-sensei, and felt Sai's desire to spar with him.

More mirrors dedicated to Naruto revealed themselves to Ino as she glided down Sai's literal memory lane. Some of them revealed Shikamaru and Chouji, then there was Hinata and Kiba. There were even a few memories of Shino when they went after the Sanbi, of which emitting a feeling of respect, and then there were memories of Lee, heavily radiating jealousy.

And then there were mirrors projecting Sasuke.

Ino had to skirt away from these. Nothing but raw and pure hatred emanated from them.

Ino kept walking.

There was a mirror of Tsunade glowing red, of motherly love.

Of Ino, glowing yellow, of friendship.

More of Naruto, glowing a pure white, brotherly love.

There was a mirror of Yue, stinking of regret.

A mirror of a raccoon, also of regret.

Ino did one full turn in confusion.

There were no mirrors of Sakura.

"Sai! I know you can hear me!" she shouted into the charcoal sky. "Where are they?"

No one responded.

And in the silence, she heard the footsteps coming from behind her. Whirling around, she blinked in wonderment when she saw a dark-haired, dark-eyed pale boy about five or six standing a few feet from her, twiddling his thumbs.

Ino kneeled in front of him and encouragingly held out her hand. "There you are. Where are they?"

This young Sai, his handsome features already prominent even at such a young age, hesitated a brief moment before saying, "I hid them all. In… a secret place." He snubbed his hand. "I'm not gonna tell you."

"Why not?" Ino asked, her hand still going out to him. "Don't you want to be with her?"

The young Sai bowed his head. "It hurts…" he started to rub at his chest. "Somewhere here…"

"That's the beauty of love, Sai. That even though we know there's a possibility for us to get hurt, we take that plunge anyway."

The boy raised his head to her. "Why?"

"Because loving someone is well worth it."

Sai took her hand. Above them, the sky was suddenly bathed in blue. "Tsunade said love is a gamble. Is that true?"

"It depends on how you believe it."

"What do you think?"

Ino squeezed his hand. "Don't you think it's more of a sport than a gamble?"

The young Sai looked around him, at the thousands of mirrors around them. "A sport?"

"The outcome depends on your skill, not on luck."

The charcoal-clouds suddenly were splashed in white. The young Sai blinked. "I don't … believe… in luck."

"You don't?"

"I don't!"

The ground beneath them, the crude grass drawings sprang to life.

"Why not forgive Sakura?"

"Because…" the young Sai was biting his lower lip now. "Because I feel like pressing myself to her would be a bother to her. She loves someone else…" He began to sniff. He took his hand back and twiddled his thumbs again.

"It's a game, Sai! If you don't fight, you don't win! Do you want to lose to Sasuke?" Ino asked.

Sai shook his head vigorously.

Somewhere above them, Sai's voice rang out: "If falling in love were a mission, we shouldn't base it on luck, but on our skills, correct? I don't accept failure, because it brings…very bad feelings. And I don't likebad feelings."

Ino blinked and looked around. She finally realized the sudden burst of color in their surroundings.

"You love her, don't you?"

"She doesn't love me," said Sai.

"I doubt that, but even if she didn't, does it matter? Tell her how you feel." Ino reached out her hand again and smiled when she saw not the young Sai, but the Twenty-year-old Sai, kneeling in front of her, head bowed, one hand lightly scratching at his chest. "Let's go."

Sai stared at her hand, and after a full minute of hesitating, he took it.

The two mirrors on either side of them suddenly flipped around. Sakura forcefully injecting an antidote onto Sai's wounded arm was in one, Sakura sitting across Sai in the library in the other. Both mirrors were glowing a warm pink glow…

Ino pulled Sai standing. "You love her, don't you?"

Sai looked away. "Maybe…"

Ino pulled at him to follow. The mirrors they passed one by one flipped over, each and every one revealing Sakura at one point in time, smiling, crying, cooking, training. There was a mirror where Sakura and Sai were in the hospital ward, and Sakura was tearing at his clothes. Ino decided to ignore that. She nodded at Sai encouragingly. "You love her. Don't you?"

Sai watched the mirrors, as if in a daze. He gave a start, then nodded at Ino. "Yes… I do."

And everything disappeared in a blur of pinks, yellows and purples.

Ino had to smile.

And Sai woke up gasping, as if breaking out of the surface of a frozen pond, his nose bleeding and his heart racing.

Ino was on her knees, also out of breath. "Men and your pride…"

Sai wildly looked around his room, as if searching for something. Without waiting another second, he scrambled to his feet, leaped out the window and was on his hands and knees on the rough pavement, hastily raking the pink and green ink bottles he had chucked out earlier into his arms, almost out of desperation.

Ino could only watch in amazement.

The month passed eventful for the Leaf, though majority of the affairs were traded with discretion, hand signs and plotting looks between Kakashi-sensei, Naruto, Shikamaru, Neji, Chouji and Kiba. Only Sakura, who was truly aware of what was going on, noticed the trading of information between the men. She worried about every single day. Was Kakashi-sensei serious about breaking Sasuke out? And was he actually serious about getting the five of Konoha Eleven involved in what could be an act of treason?

She frowned, inquisitively asking herself if it was just pure coincidence that Kakashi had chosen the group Shikamaru had formed five years ago to retrieve Sasuke. She didn't care – or at least she pretended not to. Tsunade's Kuchiyose training was already making her head hurt as it is.

And Sai suddenly spending an absurd amount of time with Ino was not helping, either.

Out of respect for Sai's obvious wish to never speak to her again, she had stayed away. There were certain times that she saw him going out of the Village alone, and sometimes with Naruto and Captain Yamato. He made it a point to avoid looking at her, as if doing so would blind him. And Sakura had taken advantage of those times to stare at him.

She did not believe a man could look this beautiful to her. There was no mistaking it; she missed him.

Didn't he miss her?

It was like he had stopped caring altogether. If it weren't for her pride, she would have confronted Ino about it, but she was just too scared of what she would find out. There had been times when Ino had tried to approach her, but Sakura made it a point to run away, making silly excuses. It was a good thing Ino was too busy for Shikamaru and Temari's wedding to pester her, and Sakura herself, was busy training.

Unlike Naruto's insistence that Summoning was difficult, Sakura got the hang of it after two days. Sakura being in good terms with Katsuyu must have contributed to that, whereas Naruto and Gamabunta weren't exactly friends when they were introduced.

Rumor had it that Sasuke could already Summon Orochimaru's snake, Manda. Sakura only thought it fitting that she too, get a move on with her Jutsu.

"You've trained for Tsunade for two and a half years, and you've gotten strong with that, but after that, have you really been training at all? You've become a medic ninja and resigned yourself to the hospital. And that in itself is good, but then you can't complain about being weak when you haven't done anything to level up after that."

Of all the things she had to remember. Why did Sai have to invade her head when she needed to concentrate?

Tsunade kneeled down beside her, one eyebrow raised and the corners of her mouth turned up in a teasing smile. "Are you all right?"

Sakura nodded, feeling her cheeks coloring. Looking down at the bleeding thumb of her right hand – the hand that she used to sign the contract with Katsuyu – she tried to avoid the Fifth's gaze. It was the first time she was alone with Tsunade since her rough scolding, and she still didn't know where to start her apology. She had been looking for the right timing all month, but seemed to always be interrupted by Tsunade's unexpected explanations and out-of-the-blue attacks.

"I can't summon Katsuyu when I can't concentrate, Master," Sakura reasoned out, healing her thumb meekly.

Tsunade's smile faltered a bit. "All right. We can always tell your opponent to wait five seconds because you need to concentrate on Summoning an ally."

Sakura's blush deepened. "I'll try my best."

"I'll be expecting nothing less. Anytime you're ready."

Sakura nodded and looked up to find Tsunade gone from her side, probably hiding in the trees, waiting to strike.

The problem with performing the Jutsu was Sakura's apparent weakness with hand seals. She just wasn't fast enough. When she tried to reason this out to Tsunade, her master had told her that all she needed was practice.

Sakura thought otherwise.

She had trained on her chakra control, her best asset, and now that she's thought about it, the rest of her skills suffered. If it weren't for her brute force, her Taijutsu would have been slightly above average, and her Genjutsu skills were relatively satisfactory only when it came to canceling it out. If she discovered it fast enough, that is.

But as Sai had pointed out, she was too slow.

Unconsciously, she reached down her ankles, feeling the weights biting down her skin. She needed to improve on her speed.

She needed to improve on a lot of things.

She staggered to her feet. "I'm ready!"

No sooner were the words out of her mouth that Tsunade's attacks came in waves. It began with an earthquake that nearly knocked her to her knees until she finally had the sense to take refuge on higher ground.

She clumsily performed the specific hand seals, nipped her thumb and tasted blood.

"Kuchiyose no – "

"The elders want me to find a mate for Sasuke," Tsunade said as she suddenly appeared by her shoulder in a whirl of leaves, making Sakura fumble.

She turned around just in time to see Tsunade raise a finger to her forehead. She was thrown into the still shaking ground, screaming.

Tsunade was great at distracting her.

But then again, she knew she wasn't mentally ready for battle, but insisted on it to keep her mind away from thoughts of Sasuke and Sai and Kakashi-sensei's schemes.

Sakura clawed her way up the crater she had created upon crashing and came face to face with Tsunade's heeled sandals.

"That was dirty," Sakura muttered as Tsunade helped her up.

"It wasn't dirty; it was a practical thing to do: distract your opponent with whatever trump card you have up your sleeve." The older woman raised her thumb to her nose and rubbed the side of it three times.

Sakura eyed the strange gesture, as if she had seen it before. She looked away. "I was careless. I'm sorry." She sucked on her thumb.

Tsunade examined her critically. "Let's take a break. We've been at this for hours."

They settled under a tree, drinking cold tea they had brought with them to the training grounds. Or rather, Sakura drank tea while Tsunade complained about the absence of rice wine.

"You can do this, Sakura. Even Naruto can do it," Tsunade said after her complaints.

Sakura frowned. She hated it that Naruto was becoming a form of standard in the village; because she knew she could never match up. "Naruto is different. He's … special."

Tsunade shook her head. "You of all people should know that Naruto never had raw, natural talent. He was never born with skill, but he was always determined. He made it this farm not because he was special, but because he did everything in his power to become what he is now."

The thought, ironically, made her smile grimly. Naruto had a dream. He had motivation to become better, to become Hokage. Sakura used to have a dream, too. And that was to bring Sasuke back. Five years ago, that dream was everything to her, and it was what led her to Tsunade in the first place. Because she didn't want Sasuke to leave her behind. Because she didn't want Naruto to do all the work.

Because she wanted to prove that she wasn't weak.

Sai had been right all along; she had lost the desire to become strong when she lost all hope of getting Sasuke back. She was content with being mediocre.

Again, she wondered why.

"Why don't we continue this tomorrow? Your probation ends today, but I'm not going to assign you field work until you perfect the Kuchiyose." Tsunade eyed her. "And… until you patch things up with your teammate."

The thought of Sai nearly made her blanch. She wanted to 'patch things up' with him, but honestly didn't know where to start. She was just too embarrassed to have known her emotions were easily weakened by a childhood crush.

"I don't think we'd be getting along well," Sakura said as she stared down at her tea. "I – blew it. I made a mistake."

"You sure did," Tsunade said cheerfully, making Sakura wince. "But the world goes on and we ninja have to do what we have to do. Once you perfect the Kuchiyose, you're back on Team Seven."

"Understood," Sakura said faintly.

"Anyway, rest up for the rest of the day. Kakashi will be seeing you later for something very important."

Sakura looked over at Tsunade and watched as she once again raised her thumb to her nose, rubbing the side three times.

Suspicious, yes, but she nodded anyway.

At the strike of midnight, Sakura found herself panting against the wall of the Hokage tower's entrance, her heart in her throat.

The night was unexpectedly cool and clouds were scattered across the sky, bathing everything in eerie moon shadow.

Five hours earlier, Kakashi had knocked on her door and hastily relayed a series of messages to her monotonously as he pretended to read his dirty book.

"Meet me in front of the Academy at eleven thirty. We're opening the Hawk's cage at midnight, and we're doing it as the slug orders. Be discreet, or go to jail." And with that, he left.

… Which left Sakura nearly having a panic attack while waiting for orders from Kakashi via intercom, while in her hands was a basket of tomatoes.

There hadn't been much time for briefings when they met in front of the academy. She was finally placed face to face with the jail-breaking team. Naruto, Neji, Skikamaru, Chouji, Kiba and Kakashi. Sakura was the seventh member. Kiba had given her a suspicious look as he sniffed the air around her, and Sakura frowned at him, feeling as if something was missing. It was then did she realize Akamaru was not among them.

Kakashi laid the plan simply and swiftly.

Shikamaru was to act first. He was, conveniently, assigned to bring the dinner rations for the prisoners in the Hokage tower dungeon. It seemed like a miracle that Sasuke was still in jail when his trial had already been three weeks over.

Once Shikamaru opens the jail cell, they were to stage a fight where Sasuke would steal Shikamaru's kunai and stab him, and that was where Sakura would enter, claiming she was there to visit him. He would then take her as hostage and make an escape through the village with Kiba and Chouji making sure no one would be intercepting him.

Naruto would then be cutting them off before they reach the main gate, claiming to have visited Sakura's house to find she was not there. He would pose to stop Sasuke but because Sakura was taken hostage, he would pretend to lose.

Lastly, Kakashi would be stationed by the gate to cast a Genjutsu on the guards for Sasuke to escape out the village with Sakura.

Along the way, Sakura would pretend to escape from Sasuke and run back to the village. She would have to wound herself, or ask Sasuke to wound her, to make it seem believable.

Although it might seem like a very annoying jail-break, everyone's acting skills were to be put to the test. The last thing they needed was to be suspected in being an accomplice in the escape of the Uchiha.

Sakura nearly jumped when her transmitter suddenly cracked into her ear.

"Kakashi here. Can you hear me, Sakura?"

Sakura pressed the transmitter by her neck with shaky fingers. "Loud and clear, Sensei."

"I need you to relay something important to Sasuke once he reaches your position."

"What?"

"Tell him that I meant when I said thirty minutes. If he happens to get caught even after that head start, that would be his last chance."

Sakura sucked in the air before sighing into the receiver. "Understood."

Sakura gripped the basket of tomatoes in her one hand and once again nearly jumped when Shikamaru's voice crackled in the receiver.

"Kakashi, Sasuke insists he stab me on the face. I can't get stabbed in the face a few weeks before my wedding."

Sakura blinked and waited for Kakashi to speak.

"Tell him if he stabs you in the face – or any other vital organ for that matter – I'll be waiting by the main gates to bring him right back to his cell."

"Thank you," Shikamaru sighed. "We're proceeding to phase one. Sakura, get ready."

"I'm – " she paused a bit, cutting the connection. " – I'm ready."

"Start walking."

And she did, step after shaky step, she proceeded down the stairs that led to the prison. Just as planned, she heard Shikamaru scream and there was a loud 'clang!'

She had no idea why Kakashi sensei would do such a thing as to free Uchiha Sasuke, or why Shikamaru and the rest would cooperate to do so, but Sakura, deep down, felt like this had to be done. For her sanity's sake, anyway.

And she dropped the basket of tomatoes and ran. She bumped into Sasuke, a bloody kunai in his hand. His unseeing eye closed, his seeing one staring down at her.

"Sensei said that he was serious when he said he'll just give you thirty minutes as a head start," Sakura said dutifully, if nervously, slightly backing away. "If you get caught, you're on your own."

Sasuke didn't reply to her revelation, but instead said, "I'm going to hit you on the head and take you hostage."

Sakura stared at him dryly. "Do you want me to put up a fight?"

"If I lose – which I might – this plan will go to waste."

Sakura shrugged. "Knock yourself out then."

And she felt a freight train hit the side of her head as Sasuke swung the butt of the kunai full blow.

She staggered backwards and was surprised to discover she wasn't unconscious. As if…

As if Sasuke had held back.

"You hit like a girl," she mocked him.

Confusion flickered across Sasuke's face a brief moment. "I can hit you again, but that would waste too much time." He bent down and suddenly grabbed her behind the knees and swung her over his shoulders like a sack of potatoes. "Don't move around too much."

Sakura grumbled under her breath and did as she was told. Sasuke proceeded through the sleeping village in haste.

"This is Chouji. Avoid the alley of the Yamanaka residence leading to the park. I had no idea couples streamed into the park at this unholy hour." He whistled.

Sakura, still pretending to be unconscious, hissed, "The Park is off limits."

"Hn."

"This is Kiba. The Ichiraku alley is safe."

"Take the Ichiraku route."

"Is Naruto there?" Sasuke suddenly asked.

Sakura paused, then pressed her transmitter with a numb finger. "Naruto?"

"Yeah?" came the blonde's voice as if bored.

"Are you ready? We're passing Ichiraku."

No response.

"Naruto?"

"I'm ready."

Sakura dropped her hand. "He's waiting."

Sasuke grunted wordlessly as he ducked behind shadows of buildings and clouds, twice bumping Sakura into a wall and once scraping her arm against a rough surface.

Sakura didn't care. So long as this would be all over by morning…

She felt Sasuke shift her on his shoulders. "Have you lost weight?" he asked.

Sakura didn't get the question. "And you're saying this in reference to what, exactly?"

Sasuke didn't reply and kept moving. After a while he said. "You're skin and bone… You're still on one of those idiotic diets…"

Sakura did not feel obliged to answer as she felt that it wouldn't matter to Sasuke anyway if she were on a diet.

"You never grew back your hair," Sasuke pointed out.

Sakura didn't even know why he was making small talk like this. "I like it short."

"I liked it long."

Sakura blushed. She closed her eyes. "Does it matter what you liked?"

"Didn't it matter to you?"

Sakura bit her lip. "It used to. But you're just late, Sasuke."

This shut him up.

"I see you." Naruto's voice.

"Naruto's here," Sakura said, and Sasuke stopped walking.

This was what she feared most of the plan. By the way Sasuke had reacted to Naruto when they had last met, she doubted the Uchiha was not going to take anything personally.

"So," Naruto started silently. "Do you want to fight fair and square, or do you just want to get this over with?"

Sakura felt herself being lowered to the ground. She hurriedly backed away to see Sasuke and Naruto stare at each other dumbly.

"You would have been the first one to disagree on letting me go, Naruto," Sasuke said, the kunai in his hand looking so out of place after seeing him carry a sword. "I find it weird to see you helping in this."

Naruto remained unmoving. Sakura swallowed. It had been a while since she had seen her teammate look this wary. She did not like it. It reminded her too much of those times he would go berserk and tear everything in his way.

"I already told you. We grow up. Priorities change. And the village and everything it stands for is more important that a selfish, childish promise made eternities ago. We can't keep running after you, Sasuke. And we can't keep on sacrificing so many things for someone who doesn't even want to be here." In a blink of an eye, there was a kunai in Naruto's right hand. "The countdown starts the moment you walk out that gate. You have thirty minutes." And with that, he plunged the kunai into his stomach. With a grunt, he dropped to his knees in pain and crumpled into one neat heap on the ground.

Sakura gasped and almost ran to his side, but she caught herself immediately. Knowing Naruto, the wound would be healing in a matter of seconds. She still couldn't help but worry.

That was when Neji appeared out of nowhere. His Byakugan was activated.

Sasuke looked over his shoulder at the Hyuuga.

"Don't turn back. The moment you walk out those gates, the countdown starts and I run to the Hokage tower to report your escape in half an hour," Neji said, his eyes traveling to the fallen Naruto. "Go. Now."

And although Sasuke was not used to being ordered, he grabbed Sakura's wrist and bolted to a run. Sakura ran with him. She looked ahead, saw Kakashi sensei standing by the gates, his Sharingan exposed, the middle and forefinger of his right hand straight across him masked lips. The two ninja on guard duty both had glossy looks in their eyes, obviously under a Genjutsu.

Sasuke slowed down when he passed Kakashi, pulling Sakura with him.

Kakashi's one dark eye and one red one gazed at the Uchiha's troubled face. "Goodbye, Sasuke. If I ever see you again, it would be too soon."

Sasuke nodded. "I can say the same to you, Kakashi…" He looked away. "Sensei."

Kakashi's black eye closed. "Go."

And he did, Sakura being pulled along with him.

Sakura looked back over her shoulder.

And gasped.

She saw Neji and Kakashi, both of them suddenly had their thumb pressed on the side of their noses, rubbing it three times. Her eyes widened.

Master Tsunade…!

She felt Sasuke run through the gates, into the clearing, into the trees.

And the seconds started to tick inside her head like a bomb.

Dun dun dun!

TBC