Hey guys!

To avoid posting a long chapter I broke this one down in two parts.

So, there won't be any 'present' scenes on this chapter. Hope you guys enjoy it.

Please, let me know if you're finding the story to confusing or boring and I'll try to improve. All comments help!

Thanks!

dai86

Chapter 7

Lies…

Five years ago...

When Sakura woke up, the first thing she noticed was her throbbing head. Even without seeing she could bet there was an ugly bruise shadowing her forehead and right temple. Hazily, she registered her wrists shacked against the wall above her head.

She looked around and realized she was inside some sort of cave. There was a small fire burning a few feet away and a few items were scattered near it, along with what looked like her backpack.

Then, it all came back to her – the ambush, the fight… Jin.

Panic surged within her chest and she pulled against the shackles. It didn't budge at all, and she pulled harder summoning her chakra.

Nothing happened.

Felling a strange energy pressure at her wrists, she twisted her neck to look up. That's when she saw the seals – chakra binds.

"Awaken, at last, Haruno-san?"

She jerked her head to find two men stepping inside the cave. It took her a moment to recognize them against the fire dim light. But as they came closer she could see their profile more clearly – Jin and Kouga.

She couldn't name the felling churning in her guts when her eyes landed on them – especially Jin –, but it left a bad taste on her mouth. These were obviously shinobi who had been undercover as civilians. They had fooled her for months.

"Who are you?" she spat venomously.

"That's not for you to know, Haruno-san. What you need to know is that we are here on behalf of Konoha," Kouga said in an emotionless tone.

Giving her disbelieving expression, they explained they were indeed Konoha ANBU, and proved their point by presenting the Hokage's personal seal. Sakura could tell it was authentic.

"The Hokage ordered me captured, shackled and questioned?" she asked bewildered.

"We are not at liberty to discuss details," Kouga answered shortly.

At first they'd been almost courteous, referring to the shackles as a safety measure... Apparently, this was merely an inquire to ensure her loyalty to the village's best interest.

And as the questioning progressed, the pieces started to fall in place in her head. And not too long after the name of Uchiha Itachi came up, she made sense of the whole situation. Upon closer inspection, she saw the little telltale details on the uniform and their MO.

These were not ANBU. They were Root agents.

Sakura was a smart woman, and had been working under Tsunade for years now. Her position allowed her a better grasp at Konoha's internal political issues than most shinobi. Of course she knew Root… and Shimura Danzou for that matter.

Her shishou would never condone anything like this. The Hokage wasn't aware of anything about this.

Realizing Danzou was really the one behind all this, she turned uncooperative and demanded to be taken before the Hokage at once.

That's when the interaction turned not so civil and the cards started to be laid on the table. It seemed Danzou wouldn't settle for the simple explanation – the truth – that she was simply personally involved with Itachi. His distrustful, paranoid mind could only see political agendas and manipulative games – not really surprising considering how his mind worked.

The duo of shinobi didn't respond well to her refusals to answer further questions, and resorted to other methods.

Except for the bruises on her head (earned from the fighting), they didn't so much as scratch her. But they did try to investigate her mind. Jin seemed quite adept at mind probing. But as a genjutsu type, Sakura excelled in repelling these jutsus. Once, Kakashi had even commented that this skill of hers would be helpful if she was ever interrogated. It wasn't something she ever wanted to put to test. Like now.

Hours dragged by, and Sakura felt exhausted. She hadn't even noticed when the second man had left the cave. It seemed the mind reading technique proved too ineffective for their purposes, making Jin change his venue of attack. Removing the hand he had rested on top of her head for the jutsu, he cradled her face with both hands.

The blond man ran his thumbs softly over her cheeks as his fingers carefully ran over the back of her neck. His touch was almost tender. They locked eyes, and for a moment she thought she had seen a shadow of sorrow on his eyes.

But Sakura couldn't dwell longer on that as a familiar sensation washed over her. She couldn't quite explain – it felt like a cold shower… causing euphoria to run through her, but yet, it was somewhat calm.

Strangely it was caused by his energy forcibly pushing through her chakra system. She could sense him going through her mind easily, as if flipping the pages of a book.

Random images of her memories ran through her head – childhood, missions, medical information –, everything was mixed up. Jin only seemed interested on those concerning Tsunade or Itachi. She was vaguely aware of his voice, that enticing sound, asking her what he wished for her to recall.

Panic shot through her and she tried to kick and twist under his hands. However her body barely twitched. No matter how hard she fought her conscious mind didn't obey. It was like déjà vu. He had done the same thing to her the other night, when he had tried to… to seduce her. At that moment she hadn't realized, but now she recognize the way his chakra tapped on hers, invading, pushing, coercing. It was like a genjutsu, but stronger. It affected more than just perception – it tampered her judgment, subdued her will.

She had never felt anything like this – maybe some sort of kekkei gekkai?

But if Sakura managed to break it once when she wasn't even aware of it, she could certainly do it now. Even in her hazed state she had figured he was affecting her through her senses, with his voice, his touch, his eyes. Maybe even his smell. Being a medic she was fully aware of how strongly hormones like pheromones could affect people without their knowledge.

Thus, before anything, she forced her eyes closed, cutting their eye contact. The shackles didn't allow her to cover her ears or fend off his touch, so she forced her mind away.

She just picked a random memory and gripped it like her life depended on it.

It was one of a warm afternoon in which she laid lazily in Itachi's arms. She focused on the sound of the river nearby and the rustle of the leaves. She remembered the various shades of colors from the maple forest across the river, and imagined the grass tickling her legs while she laid back against a warm body, her elbows resting on his bent knees at her sides. Itachi's chest rose and fell behind her while he ran random paths with his fingers on the skin of her arms. When she shivered slightly, Sakura felt the soft tremble against her back – he was chuckling.

Jin sneered quietly. He did not want to see this, but whenever he tried to push her out of there she clutched the memory like a leech. She had no access to her chakra. She was pushing him back on sheer will.

That would not do! He just pushed harder and harder. But no matter what, she wouldn't let go of that memory, keeping him trapped there. And the harder he pushed the harder she clutched to it.

They kept this tug of war until her mind started to tear like ripped fabric.

Jin heard a strained scream of pain and pulled his hands back, afraid of the damage he might have caused her. Her head lolled forward, her chin coming to rest against her chest, and when he pulled her chin up, a thin trail of blood was running from her nose.

Hastily he pushed each eyelid open to study her irises, then placed two fingers on her neck to check her pulse. He sighed relieved. Despite her haggard state she seemed fine – more or less, anyway. He looked down the passed out woman. "Stupid," he mumbled while wiping the blood from her nose. Cradling her head up, he studied her face. There was a thin layer of sweat covering her grimacing expression – she looked pained.

Certain that she would not regain conscious anytime soon, he released her shackles from the cavern wall and slid her down to the floor so she could rest. Alone, he allowed himself a gentle gesture, pushing a lock of pink hair behind her ear.

"Why so stubborn?" he murmured quietly.

When he rose to his feet Jin felt a bolt of dizziness. Probing her mind had taken its toll on him. Using his kekkei genkai to push people always demanded a good deal of chakra, but usually he only had to do it once. Sakura, however, seemed obstinate on repelling him. He could push harder, but considering how obstinate she is, he would end up killing her before she allowed him to search through her mind freely.

Stepping out of the cavern he was momentarily blinded by the sunlight – it was morning already. No wonder he was so tired, he had been trying to get information out of her since last night.

"You look like shit. Did you get anything?" He turned to find Kouga coming towards him.

"Not much. I managed to isolate some conversations with the Uchiha about her work with the Hokage, but it was mostly personal stuff," Jin massaged his temples tiredly. "Also, the Hokage seemed to have mentioned some reservations about some of the elders' interventions and ways to circumvent them… but she shut me out then."

"Shut you out?" Kouga asked.

"I just wasted time and chakra with the mind reading jutsu. And when I tried to break her barriers by pushing her mind she just… didn't let me," Jin tried to explain.

"I thought you could push anybody's will. That's why you were chosen for this mission," Kouga said impassively. "When you tried to seduce her, the concern was to not let her notice you were a shinobi, but now… she is shackled and chakraless."

After shifting his position uncomfortably while bracing his cracked ribs, Kouga sighed, "you turned out to be quite useless for this mission, Jin."

If he felt offended, Jin didn't show, maybe too tired to argue with his sempai over pointless things. But that was true. If he had managed to lure her into bed he would have eventually broken her bounds with the Uchiha.

Considering her personality, the medic would confess to her lover having cheated on him. Of course the Uchiha will not end the relationship, seeing as she is his source of information in the Hokage office. After that, it will be a matter of drop a fell suggestion here and there for Sakura to start suspecting his ulterior motives in a relationship with her. Once the seed of mistrust was planted, they would just have to wait until things turned sour between the lovebirds.

After that the problem would be solved, for Danzou at least. If shown beneficial, Jin would keep his charade as a civilian, taking the Uchiha's place as her lover, and possibly gaining access to privilege info.

That had been the initial plan, at least. But after that failed, they went for plan B - capture the medic, interrogate her, get enough information to implicate Itachi and bring it before the council of elders. More than Itachi, Danzou expected to expose the Uchiha clan hunger for power and the threat they posed for Konoha's stability.

And, if in the process, they dug any other information that would harm the current Hokage in any way… all the better. It would be leverage to push Tsunade out of the chair – his chair. That's why Danzou saw a gold mine in the pink haired kunoichi - his short cut to Hokage position.

As long as they didn't kill or crippled her, everything would be forgiven afterwards. The leader of Root would've just acted on the village's best interest. In fact, it would be the medic who could face accusations of betrayal later.

Of course, all of Danzou's plans relied on the fact that they got the information out of her. If he had ordered the ambush and interrogation of a Konoha shinobi on foreign territory (and the Hokage's apprentice on top of that) on a whim, Tsunade would have his head, and the other elders wouldn't object.

And that's why both Jin and Kouga were on edge. This was progressing too slowly, and they could not afford it. Soon she would be missed and a team would be sent to track her. Sakura was expected to arrive tomorrow in Konoha, and after realizing her delay they should be sending a scouting party, which would take at least a day to track them. So, they had three days to work.

Jin felt frustration weight on him along with the weariness. He had been diving into her mind for twelve hours, and he came to realize that more time wouldn't help it – he couldn't pull info out of her without causing permanent damage.

They had to find other means to get what they wanted out of the kunoichi. They would have to negotiate with her. They needed to inform Danzou of this bump in the road.

Kouga seemed to have come to the same realization. "Go back to Konoha to present the current situation to Danzou-sama and request further instructions," he ordered. "It'll take you a day to get there, a few hours to report and get orders, and another day to get back."

After a second of hesitation, Jin acquiesced to his superior's orders.

- 00 -

Jin was already feeling worn out even before he crossed Fire Country's borders. After using chakra throughout the night he wasn't at top shape to travel back to Konoha. But for all he would complain in his head, he knew the pink haired medic probably felt worse. Jin wondered if she had woken up already by now, probably not.

If only she wasn't so damn stubborn… and skilled. If everything went according to plan, she wouldn't have gotten a scratch on her. They would've put her down gently with the drug, dug her mind for the information and taken her back to Konoha.

But nothing went according to plan. Kouga ended up with a few broken ribs, the medic was uncooperative, and the mission was unaccomplished. Jin still wanted to understand how she managed to refute counteract his techniques.

He had a good guess though. According to her profile, Sakura was quite adept at countering not only genjutsu, but any kind of mind jutsu. She was one of the few shinobi who were able to dispel Sharingan based jutsus by herself. Of course it had to be taken under consideration she had two Sharingan users on her team… and who knows what Uchiha Itachi had been teaching her?

Jin never liked the Uchiha clan to begin with, but even worse, Uchiha Itachi had been manipulating Sakura to serve his clan purposes – Danzou-sama had been clear about that. Jin may not appreciate all the means Root made use of, but sometimes underhanded methods were necessary.

What troubled him though was the lack of evidence that Sakura might have inadvertently leaked privileged information. The thought that maybe Danzou-sama had misjudged the woman had crossed his mind more than once. What if she and the Uchiha were really simply romantically involved? It would mean trouble for Danzou. The elder could lose his position in the Council and any chance of sitting on the Hokage's chair. Maybe even face serious accusations. Root would be disbanded.

No. Danzou would never allow it. There were means to deal with this scenario. The most obvious was to wipe Sakura's memory and stage an ambush by some random rogue shinobi. They would leave her where a scouting party could find her and she would be back without any remembrance.

With his abilities, the process of erasing memories was nowhere near as difficult as trying to extract information. Jin would just have to send a pulse of chakra into the right area of her brain and she would forget the last few days. A week at the most.

Danzou was an excellent strategist, he certainly had thought-

Jin froze on the next tree branch.

Danzou-sama had certainly thought of this possibility. Therefore, he would most likely have thought of a contingency plan for this scenario even before the beginning of this mission.

Kouga was the mission leader. Danzou would have briefed him on what to do in case he couldn't extract the information from the medic. 'So why had he sent you back to Konoha to get new orders?'

The knot in his stomach forced him to realize he already knew the answer.

If they wanted her memory wiped, Kouga would've already ordered him to do so. The only other option to their dilemma was simple.

Kill her.

They wouldn't. If they didn't find anything it should mean the girl had done nothing wrong. She was a loyal Konoha shinobi and they had no reason to execute her. Just erase the memories. Just let her go.

But the mere fact that Kouga sent Jin back to the village meant he wanted him out of the way. Out of the way so he could finish the mission.

Come to think now, Jin was sure he wouldn't take this order easily. Even if it came directly from Danzou. He would argue fervently against it, and do anything to prevent this unnecessary execution. Kouga must've realized this as well.

Jin darted back towards the cave as fast as he could. An unpleasant lump in his throat.

In his frenzied run through tree tops he kept thinking about Sakura laying unconscious on the cave floor, vulnerable, and at the mercy of his Root captain. And that thought frightened him more than the fact that he was betraying Danzou-sama and Root.

There was no way this would end well for him. But right now, he couldn't bring himself to care.

- 00 -

"Why did you come back?"

Kouga's uniform had several red stains adorning it. Stains that had not been there when Jin left hours ago. He had an impulse to walk past his captain and enter the cave to see Sakura and placate his fears. But he knew he wouldn't be allowed.

Staring hard at the man in front of him, he addressed his sempai with an icy tone. "What did you do to her?"

"Well, since your mind tricks were useless, I resorted to good old fashion interrogation," he grinned. "Your turn. Why did you disobey my order?"

At his lack of response, Kouga scoffed. "Danzou-sama was right after all. You are not cut to be in Root."

Jin threw a shocked look at him.

"Our leader saw your talent – you are a gifted shinobi. But despite his best efforts, you simply came too late for Root. You were already tainted by too many emotions, had already built too many weaknesses. This mission was your test. And you failed." Kouga said with typical detachment.

Jin's stomach sank. Danzou, for whom he had the utmost respect, disregarded him as nothing. Expendable. All his devotion, his services… thrown away. He'd gladly die for the mission, but to be discarded like this. Betrayed. He felt betrayed.

His inner turmoil was cut short by Kouga's voice. "Why are you so surprised? You had to see this coming. After all, you are about to turn against Danzou-sama, right? You were thinking about attacking me and saving the medic, weren't you?"

Jin kept a sharp eye on him as his captain approached.

"Well, let me tell what'll happen. I'll kill you, then I'm gonna torture the girl some more to get whatever info I can. After I'm done with her, I'll left her body to be found by Konoha scouts. Honestly, I really think she was innocent in all this, so why not let her have a proper burial ceremony with all the honors, right? As for a traitor like you… I'll dump your body somewhere in River Country and let you be tagged as MIA or rogue."

Staring at his captain's cold demeanor while saying such words made Jin's blood boil. He thought about everything he had done for Root, all the sweat and blood he shed. He thought about his father disappointment and shame if his son went rogue. And Sakura. God. He imagined her broken and bloodied inside that cave after having done nothing wrong.

Kouga approached and Jin decided to hold nothing back. He wouldn't die here and he wouldn't die today. Above all… he wouldn't die a traitor to his village.

- 00 -

"Stop yelling, brat!" the Hokage barked.

"Only after you let us go, baa-chan," Naruto snapped back loudly.

For his part, Sasuke was unimpressed. He looked more exasperated than anything else. The only person who was more familiarized with the blond's antics than him was Sakura. Too bad she wasn't here to share the burden that was Naruto.

And that was exactly their problem.

Their pink haired teammate was supposed to arrive early this morning, but the hours passed and the girl never showed. Hours after lunch, both men decided to get Tsunade's consent to go look for her and escort her back.

Which was promptly denied.

"She's barely half a day late. Some shinobi take up to four days to complete this route," the Hokage reasoned without raising her eyes from the scroll she read.

"Sakura always makes this trip in three days, Tsunade-sama. Sometimes even less," the Uchiha said in a respectful tone.

"When she travels with you, maybe. But she's traveling alone with a large backpack. Maybe Sakura is coming at a leisured pace, taking her time. I know if it was me coming back to these," she gestured at both men, "I'd take all the time I could."

Sasuke scowled, but Naruto either ignored or didn't register the offense. "Exactly! She's alone! God knows what could've happened by now," the blond argued.

"Hokage-sama, just let us go fetch her. If Sakura's really arriving, we'll meet her half way and come back together. It'll probably only take a few hours." Sasuke had a more practical and reasonable approach to problems, but the older woman still wasn't dissuaded.

"No. If you miss each other somewhere along the way, you'll end up going all the way to the River Country's border. It's only to be expected from team seven to pull something idiotic like this. Besides, I need you both and Kakashi to leave tonight for that mission in Fuuzen."

"But if we wait, Sakura-chan can come with us," Naruto tried.

"She won't have time to prepare. And, I'm granting her free time after this mission of hers."

"But baa-chan, we-"

"Shut up!" she cut Naruto's whining. "If she doesn't arrive by tomorrow I'll send ANBU, ok? And you better go to that mission in Fuuzen with Kakashi, or so help me God…" she sighed. "When she arrives I'll let you know."

Her tone was final and left no room for discussion.

Before Naruto could protest, Sasuke dragged his friend out of her office by the scruff of his shirt. He knew when he lost a battle, and pushing the Hokage any further would end up badly – really badly – for them.

A moment after her office was once again in silence a figure emerged from the shadows.

"You called, Hokage-sama?"

Tsunade put down her scroll to regard the ANBU kneeling in front of her desk. "Communicate with the west border patrols. Ask them if they saw any Konoha kunoichi coming from Suna in the last few days."

"Yes, Hokage-sama. Anything else?"

After a moment of hesitation she spoke. "It may be nothing, but in any case, have a searching team on stand to leave tomorrow."

The masked shinobi bowed and left to execute the Hokage's biddings.

Itachi agreed with her. It was probably nothing; Sakura would probably arrive in Konoha soon. But in any case… he knew exactly what team he would put on standby to go look for her.

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Thanks guys! :)

dai86

(Edited on May, 2012)