Hello my faithful fans! Thank you for all the amazing reviews and ideas. Tobi will be in this chapter since you all seem to love him so much. The fight that will inevitably end it all is still in thorough discussion in my head. If you have any ideas please share. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. I would have gotten bored and made him a girl long ago.

Chapter 15

After much discussion with Tsunade, where she had to elucidate who the tiny old men where, Sakura was sent to rest while Tsunade and Naruto figured out a way to hold the council off. Sakura had been allowed visitors, but since few people even knew she was in the village, there wasn't many. Kakashi and Sasuke had come to seen her, but the encounter was brief and vehement. Sasuke was acrimonious towards her on the account that she supposedly stole his goal and the fact that she had befriended Itachi didn't help either. Kakashi was discreet with his distrust of her actions she did on her own volition, and not because she was forced. Sakura refused to let their cynical behavior stop her from being civil. She continued to answer their question with a calm façade, though on the inside she was filled with dismal. After they left on a better note than when they entered, Ino came to see her. Their visit was filled with quiet tears, and reminiscing of the past, but they both knew that no talk of childhood could cover the gap between them. As Ino left Sakura felt remorse for the loss of a friendship.

Later Sakura's aunt came to visit her. Haruka was an aged, sour looking woman, who survived many years of heartache and troubles.

"Hello Sakura. I see you have finally returned. For how long?" She asked while sitting next to her. Sakura looked at the woman responsible for raising her. All through the years that she was gone she never felt anything regarding her. Not lament for not seeing her, nor regret for leaving her. "How have you been Haruka?" Sakura asked politely forcing herself to control her temper. "Don't act like you care. We both know you don't give a shit how I am." Sakura balled her hands into fists, barely able to restrain herself from striking the woman who on countless occasions struck her while so drunk she could hardly walk on her own. She turned away from the pathetic excuse for a woman and closed her eyes. She opened them when she was positive she had control of her malevolent thoughts. "Get out." Sakura said through clenched teeth, Haruka just laughed. "Girl, who do you think you are? You think your strong enough now? Just because you spent a year or two with Orochimaru doesn't mean you're as big and bad as you think you are." Haruka laughed as she said this. Sakura tackled Haruka to the ground and grabbed her neck with her right hand successfully choking her; her left palm glowing with green chakra that was getting darker each passing second as her curse mark started to become visible on her skin. "Don't make the mistake to think that I am still the same defenseless girl that wont stand up to you and can't fight her own battles. I am more than capable of taking care of one lousy speck of a human. You are nothing, worthless, and ignorant. You have no comprehension of what I am capable of, and until you grasp that killing you would be as easy as breathing, I never want to see your face again." At the final words Sakura threw Haruka to the door and watched her scurry out of the room, closing the door behind her. She sat back in her bed and put her face in her hands and cried.

She wiped her tears off of her face and gathered her composure. Tsunade had take the jutsu off of the room, convinced that Sakura wouldn't escape, and the window was open letting a soft, cool breeze into the room. Sakura walked to the window and jumped out of it. She landed on the balls of her feet and kept running to a spot she went to all the time as a child. The rock she had sat on while she while escaping to her parents was still there, providing Sakura a spot to sit while she stared at her patents head stones.

Sakura's parents, Akira and Saki, were merchants that had been attacked by rouge ninjas on their way to Ame. Saki had been searching for a new tea to bring back to Konoha, and Akira had gone to please her. On the way one of their traveling companions betrayed them and had them killed by hired ninjas for their money and merchandise. Sakura didn't find out what happened to her parents until a month later when an anbu passing through on a recon mission found traces of them. Sakura had been sent to live with her aunt, the only relative she had left. Her aunt's husband had been killed in a mission to protect a young couple who owed money to the wrong people; Haruka was never the same after his death. She became a drunk, but she was still capable of living. However after Akira and Saki died she couldn't keep control of herself, she went insane. That was but one of the many reasons that Sakura left in the first placed.

Sakura placed her fingers to her lips then pressed them onto the headstone. She sat motionlessly in thought. She didn't here footsteps, so she was startled when she felt strong arms wrap around her shoulders. "Everything will work out in the end. So don't worry so much about what's going on." Naruto said pulling her to his chest. Sakura allowed herself to be pulled into him. "I'm pretty sure that old baka deserved whatever she got," Naruto said chuckling, "From what I saw of her, she seems like an old fart." Sakura smiled and patted is arm. "Thanks." She said leaning against him.

Outskirts of Konoha

"Let me at him, yeah!" Said a furious Deidara. "Who the hell does he think he is, un? Putting his arms on our Saku-chan! I'm gonna fucking blow those arms off, yeah! Lemme go!" Itachi and Sasori were trying their best to keep the fuming, overprotective male from blowing their cover. "I'm gonna kick his ass, yeah!" Kisame walked over and hit him in the head with his sword, knocking him out. Itachi and Sasori looked at the unconscious form of Deidara, and then to Kisame. "We don't need love-struck fool over here killing the kyubi just yet. We are here to protect Sakura, and I don't like this kid as much as he next guy, but he's not a threat to her. She can take him. We trained her so if she can't we did something wrong." With that he sat down and started sharpening his kunai. "Sensei, if whisker-san touches her anywhere else, Tobi won't be a good boy. Tobi will be a very bad boy." Tobi said smiling with his visible eye, frightening the others in their group. "I believe you." Kisame said a bit shakily as he tried to regain his composure. "I believe you."

I hope you liked this chapter! So it's not what you wanted exactly but I thought it would help the story. Thank you! As always review and please if you have ideas share!

barbie