VOILÀ! The tenth chapter ... there are still enough to go.

Big thanks to xDarakuxShitaxTenshix, TheRoseandtheDagger and fierynightangel for the encouraging reviews =D

Here goes the Disclaimer that says that I don't own anything and that the Haiku used this time is by Basho...

ENJOY!

..Don't worry spiders..

or

..The key of Tihatu..

Still fuming, Sakura finally left to the training grounds, where she would meet up with the rest of the team since … what seemed to her like forever. She had no intention of meeting up with the duck butt again, but as far as it was for working off anger frustration or anything among those lines she was fine with it. She would punch him into freaking oblivion.

"Sakura-chaaaan!" she was glomped by a flash of orange.

"God damn it … Naruto." She seethed as she flew straight to the ground.

But try as she might she couldn't help but smile and giggle and hug him back, before she started tickling him.

"Punishment!" she cried and giggled with him.

"Sakura, stop being so childish … it's annoying."

"Geez duck butt, when is something not annoying to you? Wanna spar?" she grinned menacingly, something she had picked up from Anko and Ibiki … more Ibiki than Anko though.

"Che … I don't waste my time with weaklings." He snorted.

"Well … if you think so." She shrugged. "Sai … Naruto." She called to the two boys. "I have a great favor to ask …" she pouted and they already knew what was coming.

"Could you make a two-one? PWEEEAAASE! I really have to work off some steam, that three giant pissed me off this morning, and his purple-haired assistant too … tried to give me damned sugar … berk … so … pretty please?" she made huge eyes.

Naruto sighed and Sai smiled his fake smile. "Of course … just please heal us afterwards … and take care of me, you just … restored me …" Naruto gave in.

"SHANNAAAROOOO! Thank you guys!" she beamed.

"Just get on with it already, Hag." Sai commented grimly.

Sakura didn't lose any time as she let the anger of the morning resurface again and stormed towards Sai. The poor man didn't even have quite the time to pull his brush, before he was engaged into a furious tai-jutsu battle. Naruto cut in, and the two of the boys fought against the girl that pushed all her anger into the fight.

Sai unsheathed his katana and tried to cut her down, while Naruto tried to sweep her feet away from under her, but she was quicker than that. She out-stepped Sai's kata and grabbed his arm in the same time in which she stopped Naruto's foot and threw them both into air.

She followed them quickly and punched them back into the ground, leaving small craters.

Smiling at one moment she was gone in the next, Sasuke couldn't follow her movements as she was in front Naruto in the next moment and knocked him down, when he tried to stand up again. And was already running towards Sai. He tried to move away, but she had replaced herself with a log and before he knew it he was stuck in the earth, only his head sticking out and his hands bound together with bandages, like Gai or Lee used them. He groaned as she charged Naruto once again.

"Come on, give me a fight!" she grinned and Naruto tried.

He made a thousand Shadow clones but one punch into the earth and she had got rid of them and captured the Kyuubi in a prison of boulders, which she bound together with chakra strings. He was unable to move.

She was about to yell out victory, when she felt an arm around her throat, she tensed for a moment, before she relaxed. Using the small room that had been given to her by that she threw her head back and into the face of her aggressor, before she grabbed the arm of him and fell to her knees, sending the adversary over her shoulder and straight on the back.

She was about to continue, when she looked into the eyes of her 'aggressor'.

"Izumo!" she called surprised. "What the hell are you searching here?"

"Ibiki-sempai called for you." He said softly and got back up.

Releasing Naruto from his bolder prison and helping Sai out of the earth prison she smiled menacing at them.

"Guys, please … give me a fight next time. If I have a sugary breakfast once more I'm going haywire. Maybe you should ask the duck butt for ideas, he has been watching the whole time through. Maybe he finds a supposed weakness. We try it out next time!" she called before she waved and turned to Izumo to get back to the tower.

"Damn it." Naruto coughed a bit. "She sure hates sugar … Morino-san made a wrong move in giving her a sugary breakfast."

"Well it wasn't really his fault …" a woman jumped down from the tree and landed in front of the three boys.

"Anko-san…" Naruto smiled. "What are you doing here?"

"Business with the du- … Uchiha." She corrected herself in time and nodded towards the young man. "I hope you don't mind if we interrogate your brother a bit before you kill him, right?" she smiled sweetly.

"Wh-What?" Naruto looked at her as if she had just grown a second head.

"We got the older Uchiha and will be interrogating him. After that we will most likely kill him … since this young one isn't able to do so … By the way, she poured the hot coffee over Morino-sempai when she couldn't even drink the coffee because it was sugared." With that she vanished.

"She poured coffee over him?"

"THEY WILL NOT KILL MY BROTHER! I AM THE ONLY ONE TO DO THAT!"

"Why Sasugay? You already have the Mangekyo sharingan. And apparently you really aren't able to do it. By the way … you also can't break in because they will protect his cell."

Sakura looked at the man in front of her, Ibiki was standing to her right and Anko to her left, of course she was the one to look into the man's eyes again, she was the only one who could defy the sharingan – even the Mangekyo sharingan. Never show anything.

She didn't show a thing. Her body was hid in a gray coat and she only stared at him. She stared at him as he started yelling in frustration and as he spit fire out of his mouth to her. She only shielded herself with her chakra. He looked at her.

"Why …" he growled. "Why can't I get through to you? You used to be the weakest of them. You used to run and catch up with them. Why can't I even singe your hair? When not even my brother succeeds in defeating me, why do you SUCCEED!"

He threw another ball of fire at her and she put it out with her chakra shield. Not talking a word she came close to him and touched his hand – sending a bolt of chakra through it.

"Your muscles will degenerate from this moment on…" she stated coolly.

He started breathing heavily.

"Tell us what the Akatsuki planned." She ordered.

He winced but didn't say a word. She touched his hand another time and let her green chakra coat his arm, as she shattered every bone with it. He yelled out in agony.

"Tell us, Itachi. I can keep this up for forever. It doesn't even stop if you die, because I can revive you, solely to torture you again. I can break every bone in your body, shatter every bone, fix them and shatter them again. Imagine it for a moment. Felling this –"she squeezed his arm and made him scream out "– every day … forever … tell us, Itachi."

Her smile was sickening, as were the thoughts of what she would do to him, but she had to keep it up. And if it was only for the village. She just had to keep the façade up.

"Drop the façade, konoichi. You're weak." He wheezed.

"Am I?" she asked.

She knew that he was right … about the façade. But if your enemy found your weakness you had to make him believe that it was your strength.

"You're right … it is a façade." She started her voice getting low. She could feel Ibiki's eyes bore into her back. "It's a façade I have to keep up, because I want to see you bleed, I want to see you suffer, I want to hear you scream for the rest of my life, I want to be the one to make you scream, I will enjoy everything of it, I will break your fingers … like this…" she smiled sickly as she broke his fingers earning yet another wheeze from him. She leaned close and whispered into his ear: "And I will enjoy every minute of it."

"So … what are they planning?" she asked as she grazed her hand over his ribs and broke them with nothing more than a soft flick of the fingers – his screams filled her ears.

"Where the hell is she?" Tsunade raged.

"M-Morino-san a-asked her to c-c-come …" Naruto stuttered in front of the great Hokage, who was just throwing a fit, because her best team member wasn't here at the moment.

Just as the Hokage wanted to throw another fit, Sakura entered through the window – the gray coat floating behind her as she landed right in front of the Hokage.

"Shishou, we have important information on the actions of Akatsuki." She bowed.

Tsunade assessed her former apprentice for a minute. The gray coat looked good on her and the new outfit – Anko's work, no question – under it made her look like the true konoichi she was. Wait … why had she even changed from her usual clothes?

"Report on the spot." She ordered.

Sakura turned her head to her team and looked at her shishou again, giving her the 'Are-you-sure-in-front-of-Naruto?'-look. Tsunade nodded and Sakura snapped back.

"Due to our latest informant we know that the Akatsuki hold the leader of Amegakure under them. Said organization bonded with Grass and Bird – we have reason to predict an attack on Konohagakure in soon future." She reported carefully.

"What else?" Tsunade knew that there was something else that her former apprentice hadn't spilled just yet.

"We … we also know that they have all Bijuus safe for the Kyuubi and are now searching for the Key of Tihatu." She reported.

"The key of Tihatu?" Tsunade jumped up; her eyes wide.

"Che, what a waste. Every child knows that it's just a legend…" Sasuke grumped.

Sakura answered instead. "The key is the legend. In fact it is a person. They tell you as children or in books that Tihatu gave the key his life so it could restore balance instead of being used as weapon.

Tanaka Tihatu died in the process and the key was brought to a temple where it was praised every day."

The three young men in front of her nodded.

"Well … the key was a young woman. Also known as Katsuhi – the mother of demons. And god, she didn't have that name for nothing. Katsuhi had all demons united in her. She was the legendary daughter of Aya and Tsumo – the two gods. Who her parents really were is unclear, but she was the first Jinchuukuri, with all demons united in her – the ultimate weapon.

Tihatu died to save her, she was praised to in a temple until she grew old and the Bijuu actually came free of her dead body. And that's it. The key of Tihatu is none other than the descendant of Katsuhi and Tihatu – which they did have, but was never talked about … you know all those stupid fuss about having a virgin as heroine. Fact is there was a boy, but they lost track of him, when his children started to travel … so … we are searching for a descendant of which no one has an idea where he or she could be."

"Wrong …" Tsunade interrupted defeated. "Akatsuki seem to know where the descendant is. What did he say?"

"The informant explained to us that there was only one descendant walking on earth right now, of that they were sure … seemingly their leader is not sure who it is, but has a good idea that whoever it might be is in the Fire or Wind country … hence the alliances. They cover the borders to both countries and also split them."

Tsunade could see how she loved to link the former information with the new one. The pride in her eyes showed her that she had found that out alone, and the enthusiasm showed that it had been her work. The Hokage didn't know if she should be proud of her student, because she had done it all alone, grown up, fought her shadows and had come to this information, or if she should be frightened of what she would turn into, she had tortured a man … all alone, to know this, she was now torturing, making people scream for incoherently mumbled words. But she loved links … and she had linked it together. Still … it made her worry … even if it was only a little bit … okay, a little bit much.

Sakura saw the look her shishou gave her, and – completely in her linking mode – she immediately knew what the woman was thinking.

"Don't worry, spiders,

I keep the house,

Casually." She smiled at her shishou.

It was a promise – a promise to stay herself; not to lose her personality, to stay the way she was: sane … as far as it was sane to be schizophrenic.

"Good work, Haruno."

TADAAAA!

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