Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. This is fanfiction, after all.

This isn't a real chapter. It's the followup to the first "flashback" chapter I posted up (Chapter 11) although it has a bits of other material to address some of the questions I've been getting about Naruto and Sakura.

Just like the other one, this chapter isn't filler.

Basement of the Uzumaki Compound, Konoha – January 2, AK 22

"Naruto! Sai needs you now!"

Naruto jumped up and moved into action. He grabbed Sai in his arms and kicked open the door to the basement. It was his secret base of operations.

It was a rather large basement, so it a while to get to where he needed to while carrying Sai as gently as possible. Naruto had a small medical room for emergencies like this one. He gestured for Hokuto to open the door and then placed Sai on the bed inside.

Naruto had been getting ready to go to bed when Hokuto had reverse summoned herself and Sai into his living room. It was clearly an emergency maneuver after an aborted espionage mission.

He had heard from Kahiko that Sasuke Uchiha had overrun the entire continent and was running experiments on people using the Gelel flux. Naruto had requested Sai and Hokuto to gather intelligence.

Naruto would have gone himself, but he had to get ready for yet another mission that Kakashi prepared for him.

Sai, on the other hand, had just completed an S-rank with a full squad and was on mandatory leave (mandatory for everyone but Naruto), and Hokuto didn't really have a village to worry about since Hoshi had long since been destroyed in the war. Hokuto had been one of the few ninjas to survive her village's destruction and had operated as an independent contractor when Naruto had found her.

Naruto had shadow stepped both of them onto the continent using a marker that Kahiko had and gave them a reverse summoning seal to escape.

"N…Naruto, I…" Naruto grimaced as Sai hacked a few times. His injuries didn't look too good.

"Sai, damn it, don't talk!" Naruto quickly performed a medical diagnostic technique. Shit, every single organ is damaged in some way. Not good. "If only I had a faster way to heal him!" Naruto flashed through some hand signs and started using the Mythical Palm Technique to heal as much damage as possible.

"What about the Shadow Clone Technique?" Hokuto inquired as she ran around the room to collect tools he might need. "Can't you just copy yourself?"

Naruto shook his head sadly. "It doesn't work that way. The Shadow Clone Technique is also a technique, not just making copies of myself. I have to constantly feed a steady stream of chakra into each of my clones and that interferes with the precise control I need to use medical ninjutsu. It's like trying to perform medical ninjutsu while firing off destructive ninjutsu at the same time." He growled. If only I had more time, damn it! "The only type of clone I can use is a special chakra clone that has its own supply of chakra, but those take a full half-an-hour to create!"

"I…it's too l…late, Naruto," Sai choked out. Naruto ignored the blood that splattered on his clothes. "Let me give y…you the information that I c…collected. I l…learned a…a lot from b…battling him. Sas…Sasuke is…"

Naruto shook his head. He didn't need to hear it right now. He was going to save Sai.

"Sai, be quiet," Hokuto chastised from his side, while crying lightly.

"Hokuto, what happened?" Naruto demanded as he kept the Mythical Palm technique active.

Sai wasn't going to die. Sai wasn't going to die, damn it!

"We individually scouted out different areas of Uchiha's base. I'm a sensor so I was able to fully mask my chakra signature, but Sai got caught by that Uzumaki girl when he tried to use one of his techniques to rendezvous with me after we were done scouting. The Uzumaki girl's abilities were much more advance than what we had anticipated. It was beyond what normal sensors are able to do. Eventually, I was drawn to his location by the sound of the battle and couldn't do anything but watch. I'm terribly sorry, but I had no chance, Naruto. Uchiha was too powerful. I would have been squashed like a bug."

Naruto grit his teeth in frustration. If Sai died, he was going to rip Sasuke apart the next time they met.

"And?" he asked in a calm tone that didn't betray the fury he felt. "How did you manage to escape? The reverse summoning seal takes five seconds to activate. Sasuke would have been able to kill you in those five seconds."

"After the battle, they dumped Sai outside and left him to die. I waited about a minute before rushing out and grabbing Sai's body. Luckily, it didn't seem like that Uzumaki girl was able to detect the yin-yang energies used in your reverse summoning seals. That was probably the only reason I was able to escape with Sai without getting detected."

Naruto just kept shaking his head. "To think that Sai was outclassed by this much. From what I'm gathering, Sai was unable to even scratch Sasuke."

"No, Sai put up a decent fight for the first five minutes before Uchiha used some sort of seal to drain Sai of his chakra," Hokuto explained in tears. "It didn't seem to affect me so I was really tempted to go out to try and save him, but even with the use of my chakra, I don't think I could have one. Sai, I'm terribly sorry!"

"N…no d…don't a…apologize, Hokuto," Sai turned to look at him. "D…don't be up…set with Hok…uto, Naruto," Sai wheezed out as blood came out of his mouth. "I…previously o…ordered h…her not to get i…involved if a fight broke out. S…Sasuke…he's dangerous. O…only your n…new techniques will—"

"Shut it, Sai," Naruto ordered firmly. "Don't talk as if you're going to die. If you have time to talk, then concentrate on staying alive. And Hokuto," he didn't look at the girl since he was focusing on healing Sai, "I don't blame you. You made the difficult but the right choice. Like you said, if you had gone out to support Sai in battle, you would have just been slaughtered even with the use of your special chakra. By hiding, you were able to give Sai a chance to survive by bringing him back."

"Can you really heal him?" Hokuto asked urgently.

"Na…Naruto, you know a…as well as I d…do that all my vitals are punctured," Sai rasped out. "Any book w…would t…tell you that I…I'm going to d…die." Naruto didn't feel any better by Sai's poor attempt at a joke. "A…and I…I c…can s…sense it. Your te…techniques are only d…delaying the inevitable. I really w…wanted to see you bring p…peace to the world. We were g…getting so close, too. I'm sorry that my d…death will set you b…back by a few y…years."

Naruto shook his head. "Don't talk like that. You will be there with me when we topple the great village system. You're going to be my right-hand man in our new village. You are not going to die on me, Sai. We started this together and we'll be standing together at the end. We all promised that we were going to create a better world together."

Sai tried to smile at that but fell unconscious from the pain. "Is there anything I can do to help?" Hokuto asked.

Naruto paused and thought for a few seconds. "Guard me. This house isn't very secure. I didn't set up security measures because I didn't want to publicize that I'm a fuinjutsu master. So there's a minute chance that someone could walk in. There's something I going to try, but it's going to leave me vulnerable for some time."

Naruto closed his eyes stood completely still as Hokuto nodded and left the room. Naruto slowly absorbed nature chakra and mixed it with the yang portion of Kurama's chakra. It was pure vitality imbued with nature's energy. Like Granny Tsunade's Creation Rebirth Technique, pure vitality allowed for faster regeneration rather than repairing of cells and tissue. Even if it succeeded, a year or two would cut down from Sai's natural life span. Furthermore, Naruto had very little experience in splitting Kurama's chakra into its yin and yang components. If he screwed up, there could be a huge explosion of pure physical energy, killing them all. But taking the risk was a small price to pay at this point. Naruto wasn't going to let another one of his friends die.

Crash!

What the hell was that?! Naruto thought in panic. As Naruto drew in more nature chakra, he became more in tune with what was around him. Crap! Sakura is here! Shit, of all the people, it had to be one of the few people skilled enough to sneak up on me when I have my guard down!

Judging by the clash of metal outside the door, Hokuto and Sakura were fighting. Sakura must have overheard everything and was probably not taking things well. Even after all these years, she overreacted when she heard Sasuke's name being brought up. Furthermore, she had heard that Naruto, her last remaining teammate, wasn't loyal to Konoha.

Naruto growled. There was nothing he could do now. He was still in the process of transferring vitality to Sai and abruptly ending that process could be fatal. He would have to count on Hokuto to hold Sakura back.

Basement of the Uzumaki Compound, Konoha – January 2, AK 22

Sakura couldn't hear much from the room since the door was closed, she did hear enough to know that Naruto wasn't loyal to Konoha.

At first, she had been concerned that Sai had been injured, but she had been frozen in spot when she heard and felt Naruto of all people using the Mythical Palm Technique.

Since when did Naruto have the control to pull off an incredibly delicate technique?

So she had stood by and tried to gather more information by putting her ear next to the door.

When she heard Naruto's comments about wanting to topple Konoha, she panicked. She already suffered through betrayal once from Sasuke. Her heart was almost irreparably broken from that. There was no way she was going to go through that experience again.

She looked down at the ring on her left hand. She wasn't going to lose another person she loved.

She would have to confront Naruto now and stop him herself.

Sakura was about to open the door when…

Crack…

Sakura instinctively jumped back as the door opened and crashed into one of the tables near her.

Crash!

Crap! Now Naruto's going to know I'm here.

She took out a kunai and got ready to defend herself but found herself surrounded by a strange pink chakra.

Fortunately, it hadn't been Naruto who had just opened the door—he was still busy trying to save Sai—but it was the girl she had heard. Sakura summoned her strength and broke out of the strange chakra construct.

Sakura glanced at the girl's forehead protector. "Hoshi? Wasn't Hoshi destroyed in the last war?"

"Sakura Haruno," the girl said as she made an unusual hand sign. Pink chakra flared up behind her like a peacock's tail. "Why are you here?"

The girl's deadly tone brought Sakura back to the situation. Right now, Sakura was considered a spy who had been caught. Naruto and his associates would consider her hostile.

Sakura knew she had to end this quickly. She glanced inside the room before jumping backwards. Whatever technique Naruto was using was leaving him immobile. Judging by the harsh look on the face of the female ninja in front of her, it didn't seem that Naruto or his associates were just going to talk to her about this.

Plan B. She had to go inform Kakashi-sensei about this.

She turned and ran towards the staircase.

"You're not escaping! Peacock Method: Phoenix!"

Sakura had to dodge as a pink translucent chakra bird cut off her path and shot a stream of pure chakra at her.

Sakura turned to look at the girl. It looked like a fight was inevitable.

Well, back to plan A.

The first time she was betrayed, she didn't get a chance to stop her teammate.

Her eyes hardened and her fists tightened.

This time would be different.

Basement of the Uzumaki Compound, Konoha – January 2, AK 22

"Shannaro!"

Hokuto managed to avoid most of the kick, but she still took a blow to her left arm. Not even acknowledging the intense pain she felt, she quickly jumped out of the way as the pink-hair girl twisted her body as soon as she landed and launched a couple dozen projectiles.

Hokuto shaped her chakra into a shield that blocked most of them.

She ignored the few cuts she received on her legs. Now wasn't the time to worry about flesh wounds.

"Peacock Method: Falcon!"

Her current chakra apparition was the fastest one she had and she sent it charging at the girl.

Her eyes widened as soon as the falcon passed through the pink-haired medic.

Shit! Genjutsu!

Hokuto broke it and quickly looked to the stairs to see if her opponent was trying to escape. Unfortunately, that left her open to Haruno's punch when she jumped out from behind her.

Hokuto went flying into the wall.

Thud!

Hokuto looked around the room as she pulled herself off the ground as she took heavy breaths. It was extremely fortunate that Naruto had the foresight to make his basement incredibly huge and far deep into the earth. And furthermore, it was incredibly sturdy; Naruto had once said that he wanted to make sure his basement could withstand a couple high-grade explosive tags.

But unfortunately, that made the pain of hitting the walls much worse.

The pink-haired girl was strong.

Incredibly strong.

Sakura Haruno definitely lived up to her legend.

Hokuto really had no chance, but had no other option. She couldn't fail Naruto a second time. She stood up and called forth her chakra.

Hokuto had been bitter and jaded when she ran into Naruto again after the war. Each of the great villages hadn't even cared when her village had been destroyed; they had been more eager to recruit her for her special powers rather than give her time to grieve. Kumo, a village that regularly hoarded whatever techniques and bloodline users they got their hands one, especially, pursued her.

She hadn't been interested. She was more interested in taking care of the few civilian survivors of her village who had been out of the village when the bijuu bomb had hit during the war. She had worked as an independent contractor for years, taking on dangerous and sometimes even shady missions to help provide for the few villagers she was responsible for.

She was shocked when ran into Naruto again, the boy she had a small crush on when she was younger. She had long since gotten over that minor crush—a crush on a boy from another village just wasn't realistic—but she was still dismayed when she had learned that her mission had required her to be his enemy. When she confronted him, he took her out in less than thirty seconds. He apologized for making her fail her mission and as both an apology and a sign of goodwill, he donated quite a lot of money to her villagers and told her that he was always there for support.

After that, she didn't even take a full minute to think and had eagerly offered to help him in whatever way she could.

The espionage mission with Sai had been her first real mission for Naruto. It was a shame that it had ended in such a disaster. It was up to her to at least buy Naruto enough breathing room to save Sai. If the cost was her life, then she would gladly give it.

Hokuto extended her hand and willed her chakra to block the incredibly punch that Haruno threw.

Hokuto flared her chakra even more, beyond the level that was safe for her body. She didn't care. There was no way she was going to let this girl, a girl who had the honor of being loved by such a great guy, ruin everything he was working for.

"Peacock Method: Wings!"

Basement of the Uzumaki Compound, Konoha – January 2, AK 22

Naruto looked at the girl he had loved for most of his life and held his arm out to stop Hokuto from attacking Sakura any further.

It was also to protect Hokuto from his girlfriend.

Hokuto was already bleeding in multiple places. She had a broken arm and leg and looked completely fatigued even after only ten minutes of battle. She was a capable ninja, but she didn't stand a chance against Sakura. Hokuto was strong for a jounin, perhaps close to being A-rank. Sakura, however, was borderline S-rank. And the biggest gap in the rankings system was between A and S. If Hokuto attacked again, there was a good chance that she would get killed.

"Join us," Naruto said in a serious tone.

Sakura panted lightly as she stood back and gave him an angry look. "Join you? That sounds like something Orochimaru would say to his lackeys."

Naruto didn't rise to the bait. He was already angry because of plenty of other reasons. He didn't need to get worked up even more.

"You know as well as I do that this village system is broken. I'm trying to fix that," Naruto explained patiently.

"And I'm trying to bring you back to your senses," Sakura shot back. "The road to hell is paved with good intentions. You're walking the same path as Madara, Orochimaru, Itachi, and Obito. They both thought their method of living was the only answer."

Naruto shook his head. "It's too late for that. Within a year or two, I'm going to change this world, Sakura. I'm going destroy the corruption that seeps throughout the entire ninja world and create the foundation for a new world order. One where people don't have to suffer."

"A false utopia?" Sakura snorted with derision. "That's the same thing that Madara and Obito wanted. The Infinite Tsukuyomi where everyone got what they wanted in life."

Naruto gave her a sad smile. "I'm not trying to create a world without suffering, Sakura. There will always be pain and those painful moments make us all stronger, but that doesn't mean that there has to be slavery. That doesn't mean that the governments of the great villages and nations have to take advantage of the poor and the weak just to stuff their pockets with gold. That doesn't mean that there needs to be people like me, people like jinchuuriki. Those things need to go. For good."

"And you feel so strongly about this that you have to betray me as well? Eh, Naruto?" Sakura fired back with angry tears. "Don't you love me?!"

"I'm not betraying you," Naruto said impassively, tone of voice not betraying the anger and frustration he was feeling from the accusation. His expression softened. "And I do love you. I'm giving you the chance to stand by me. You said it sounds similar to what Orochimaru might say. Perhaps that's true," Naruto admitted, ignoring an indignant outburst from Hokuto, "but I don't care about your talents. Even if you chose not to fight or to heal, I would still want you next to me, Sakura."

She shook her head. "Konoha is my home. It's where I was born and where I grew up. It's where all my friends live and it's the place that I will die for. I would think that you would understand that, you idiot," Sakura yelled. "You're betraying the place that your own father gave his life for!"

Naruto clenched his fists tightly, quelling the fury that simmered just beneath the surface. He already had a friend almost die today. Now it appeared as if he was going to lose the woman he loved.

"No," he hissed. "My father died to protect those who couldn't protect themselves. That was his Will of Fire. The will to protect. The will to stand up against evil. The will to search for peace and understanding. He made me into Kurama's host because he believed that Konoha embodies that will as well. And what was the first thing that Konoha did?" Naruto paused and raised his killer intent. "They ostracized me and even made multiple attempts on my life. The self-satisfied fools were willing to throw away the sacrifice that my father made and spit on his final wishes."

"They were civilians, Naruto. They don't know any better!"

Naruto scoffed at that. Typical ninja arrogance. Even from someone like Sakura who had a civilian background. Civilians were weak, but they weren't children who "didn't know any better."

"No, you're wrong," he shook his head, "No homeless orphan or widow hurt me. Ever." Naruto's eyes flashed red and Sakura stepped back in fear for the first time. Naruto could tell that she was finally realizing what was at stake. "The people who were truly suffering were too consumed by their own troubles and struggles that they didn't have time to worry about someone like me. No," he shook his head again, "The only ones who did were the ones who had everything going for them: food, shelter, jobs, living families, and in many cases, governmental power. Kurama's attack on the village may have hurt them. They may have lost loved ones. But, their own lives were still blessed and prosperous compared to many others. A widow doesn't have the money to get drunk and attack children, Sakura. An orphan doesn't deny me promotions and bribe small-businesses to throw me out just because I was once the container of the most powerful bijuu in existence."

"So this is all for revenge?" Sakura asked. "I thought you were above that. You're only sinking down to their level."

"No, it's not about revenge. I only brought it up to show you examples of how the system was broken. I'm going to fix it. The ones making my life miserable were the ones who thought they were above the Third's laws. His advisors. The village councilors. The richest merchants who bribe officials for favors. The damn system gave them that power. The power they still use today to trample on the weak. I've forgiven people for how they treated me, but I will not stand and watch as they extort and threaten those they consider beneath them."

"That's vigilante justice, Naruto," Sakura argued. "You can't just judge them like that. If you really want to change things, you can always wait until you're the—"

Naruto laughed mirthlessly at that. "We've had six different Hokages try to change things in just one village. They all failed. What makes you think I can using the same tactics they did? No, I have to do this differently." Naruto gave her a bitter smile. "Did you know that I funded the orphanages in Konoha? Did you know that half of my pay goes towards a safety net for the poor, sick, disabled, and widowed?"

Sakura's eyes softened at that. "No, I didn't."

Naruto shook his head. "I don't need your awkward apology or acknowledgment. I don't want your respect. I want you to understand. For decades, the Hokages failed. For the last six years, I failed. Much of the money I poured into the orphanages went towards lobbying instead of the children. The safety net I created is more likely to be used as an emergency fund during war than something that helps those who need it in times of peace. This village has failed its most vulnerable. The other villages are the same. I'm going to strip the villages of their power and hand it to the people. I'm going to make sure that the haves can no longer abuse the have-nots. I've given up trying to do that through Konoha's system."

"You're still betraying Konoha. You've changed," Sakura accused, now openly sobbing. "You were never supposed to give up. You were the one who said you'd never go back on your word. You were the one who shouted to the world that you wanted to become Hokage. Weren't you going to change the Hyuuga clan? Weren't you going to bring light to what really happened with the Uchiha clan? Weren't you going to be Konoha's greatest protector? In the end, those were all lies. In the end, you just ended up like Sasuke, you asshole," Sakura viciously spat out. "What else did you lie about? Your love for me? Was that a lie, too?

Naruto saw red at that. Sasuke had been the one to cause so much pain in this world. Naruto was trying to protect the goddamn world and she was comparing him to Sasuke? And she dared to question how much he loved her?

He glared at her coldly. "You say that I'm the one who's betraying you. I'm the one who loved you no matter what you did. I loved you despite you insulting me, hitting me, using me. I didn't care. I didn't care that you were from a civilian family and didn't have a fancy clan name. I didn't care that your parents were one of the worst people to me in my childhood. I didn't hold it against you when you always held us back when we were genin. I didn't care that you started dating me only after it was certain that I was going to become a clan head. I didn't care that your main reservations with dating me was that people doubted my intelligence and would look down upon you if you dated such an idiot. I didn't care that you used me to quell your own insecurities. I didn't care that you never truly loved me. I loved you unconditionally. I even explained my goals to you now without just abandoning you like our old teammate did," Naruto didn't even want to say Sasuke's name right now, "I even gave you a chance to join me. But no, all of that was never enough for you, was it?" Naruto shook his head in disgust, "Sakura Haruno," he said in a deadly tone, "we are done."

She nodded with a final sob and slipped the ring he had given her off her hand. He raised an eyebrow at her. He had been so distracted by everything that he hadn't even seen it on her hand. "Never truly loving you?" She blinked the tears out of her eyes. "I was going to say yes, you fool, but I see that I never knew you."

Sakura crushed the ring in her palm with her strength.

He snapped. He was a millisecond away from attacking her when he heard a thump next to him. He turned and looked at the source of the sound. Hokuto had just collapsed. He could see that her skin was pale and turning a bit blue.

His anger towards everything that had happened that night quickly gave way to worry for his friend and follower.

"Hokuto! Get a hold of yourself!"

Sakura smiled cruelly at him. "I poisoned her during our battle earlier. You have two options. You can try to save her with whatever medical technique you were able to learn. Or you can try to stop me on my way to Kakashi-sensei's office. I don't know what you did to heal Sai so quickly when he was on the verge of death but I know for certain that you can't do it again for some time so you'll have to heal her the long way. You can probably kill me in a minute, but that's a minute you could be using to save her. And you can't just make copies of yourself either. You know better than anyone that shadow clones and medical ninjutsu are incompatible." She paused for a moment at that thought. "Kind of like you and me, if you think about it."

"You're not getting away," he growled out in frustration as she left in a hurry. "I'll be sure to catch up to you, Sakura. You were right about one thing; you never really knew who I was."

Naruto looked down at his friend. I know that if you were conscious, you would insist that I abandon you here, but I'd be betraying everything I'm trying to work for if I just left you just to maintain my cover. Hold on, Hokuto, I'll heal you.

Alleys, Konoha – January 2, AK 22

Sakura ran as fast as she could towards the Hokage Tower. Her shadow clone was heading off towards Kakashi-sensei's house.

She had to get the news to the Hokage before Naruto caught up with her.

Sakura was no fool. While the poison she used was lethal, it hadn't been long since she poisoned the Hoshi ninja. Any medic worth their salt would be able to extract the poison in a matter of minutes. The girl would still eventually die from the trace amount of poison in her system without the antidote, but Naruto would have enough of a breathing room to leave the girl and start chasing after her.

She figured that she had a five-minute head start on Naruto.

She only needed one more to arrive at the Tower.

"You've gotten faster."

Her heart froze when she recognized the voice. She wasn't even able to put up any sort of a fight as Naruto tackled her and slammed her against the wall.

She was so shocked that it didn't register that Naruto had cushioned her head with his hand to prevent her head from hitting the solid brick wall and prevent her from getting seriously hurt.

Had she had the presence of mind to recognize that small show of affection, she might have broken down into tears again.

But right now, her mind was still on the fact that she got caught so quickly.

How the hell? Impossible, there is no way he's that fast. Even with his Kyuubi Mode, there would have been no way for him to detect me when I don't have any killing intent towards him. I should have just sent a summon instead, even if slugs would have taken a much longer time to get the message to Kakashi-sensei and Naruto would be out of the village by then. But like this, no one is ever going to find out.

Naruto must have noticed her confused look because he smirked. He took out a three-pronged kunai and twirled it around.

Her eyes widened. Hiraishin?

He must have put a formula seal on her a long time ago while they were still dating!

Naruto had kept much more than the fact that he was a traitor a secret. When did he master the sealing arts to such a degree?

"Shocked that an idiot like me could learn a technique like this?" Naruto mocked. He imitated her voice. "You were probably thinking but Naruto doesn't know fuinjutsu." He paused. "Am I right?"

He was. But Sakura couldn't speak since Naruto was now holding her by the throat. She felt and saw seals being written all over her body.

"I also know you have a shadow clone heading towards Kakashi's house. This little seal will remedy that." Sakura suddenly felt weak as all the chakra in her body disappeared. She was hit with the memories of her shadow clone, which, unfortunately, but obviously, didn't make it to Kakashi's house. "And for the record, even if you had sent a summon, I could have and would have found them all. A little secret about Sage Mode is that it allows me to be a sensor."

Sakura's eyes widened at that. She hadn't known that Sage Mode was so versatile. She had just assumed that Sage Mode was a power-up.

Naruto released her.

She immediately tried to punch him, but he just stared impassively as he took the weak punch to the face. His head didn't even budge.

"What the? There's no way my punch should be that weak even without chakra enhancement," she gasped out, feeling increasingly weaker as the seconds passed.

"Sorry, Sakura, but we're done talking. I can't have you telling anyone about my plans just yet."

She glared at him defiantly despite the lack of energy. "So you're going to kill me? Are you going to break another one of your promises? You promised to protect me forever."

She didn't expect him to follow through on that promise now that he was betraying Konoha, but she knew that he had loved her dearly. The thought of killing her had to give him some pause. And there was a small part to her still that hoped that he wouldn't hurt her out of his love for her. A small but dying part.

Naruto shook his head. "At this point, I don't care if you live or die. But unlike the great villages, I don't simply kill people just because I find it more convenient. And I don't need to kill you to keep you quiet."

She chuckled. Of course. He could always keep her imprisoned. "I see. You're going to kidnap me." She fell to her knees as strength continued to leave her body. "Are you going to use me as your personal plaything?" For some strange reason, that didn't sound so bad. She wouldn't mind sleeping with him again. Bondage sounded rather kinky. What the hell? Where did that thought come from? She grit her teeth at that thought. Dear Kami, she was an emotional wreck. She couldn't even decide that if she loved him or hated him right now. Damn him. "You demon," she gasped out, overcompensating for that her previously treacherous thoughts.

He didn't react to that familiar insult. He only gave her a sad smile. "I thought I told you that I forgave the villagers for thinking that way about me. That little insult won't work on me anymore."

"How about this one, d...dead last?" she tried. She knew she was defeated already, but she was going to go down fighting. Even if fighting meant throwing a bunch of immature insults at her ex-boyfriend's face.

And from what she gathered, Sasuke had been the one to injure Sai. Sasuke's favorite insult for Naruto had to get a reaction.

Nope.

Naruto didn't respond and just shook his head sadly.

Sakura thought about screaming but couldn't even muster up the energy to do so.

Tears started streaming down her face. "I really loved you, Naruto," she managed to breathe out.

She only saw his bitter smile.

"But clearly not enough." She felt his lips gently brush across her own. "For old times' sake." Naruto made some hand signs. "Sleep well, Sakura. And sweet dreams."

She felt a wave of despair as darkness came over her.

In the end, she just ended up being a failure. She couldn't stop either of her teammates from betraying the village.

Secret Hospital Room, Konoha – April 11, AK 22

(Note the time change again - it's still in the past, however.)

"Aren't you worried that your wife might catch you? She does have the Byakugan, you know."

Naruto shrugged. "Prototype seals. I'll probably never have confirmation, but these seals should render us invisible to the Byakugan. She'll just see an empty room."

"Well, if she finds out, don't request help from me, Lord Naruto," Sasame said, not entirely trusting his seals.

He snorted and nodded. It wasn't like Sasame ever helped him out against Hanabi to begin with.

Naruto saw the projection of Sai and Ranmaru as he stood with Sasame in a conference room of a hotel.

"Report."

Ranmaru spoke up first. "Sensei, a squad of elites came after me the other day. It was headed by Shikamaru Nara."

Naruto frowned. Konoha must have been more spooked than he thought if they were sending out their smartest tactician and strategist out onto the field.

"And?"

"I was also on that team and managed to warn Ranmaru on time. Everything went smoothly. Kakashi and Shikamaru are both of the opinion that Kokuten is Sasuke."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Raikiri, I presume?"

Ranmaru nodded. "I also tried to fake ocular illusory techniques although they were nowhere near what the Sharingan can do. The precognition in battle, however, was easy enough to imitate."

Naruto rolled his eyes. Of course, that should have been obvious. Ranmaru's eyes probably had better predictive ability than the Sharingan. In any case, it was good that they had thrown Konoha off their trail for now. Hopefully, it would spur Konoha into training their ninjas how to fight against chakra nullifying techniques as well and get them prepared for when Sasuke made his eventual attack.

"Anything else? What about your efforts with yin and yang techniques?"

"I am finally able to use physical energy properly. I believe I'm ready to test it in battle," Sai reported.

"And spiritual energy's been the easiest thing ever!" Ranmaru crowed with excitement. "Thank you so much for teaching me, Naruto-sensei."

Naruto smiled. "Well, Sasame's just started. She seems to be a yang type as well and has been progressing well."

"But my progress is still too slow. Sai, I read your intelligence report on Sasuke Uchiha. It's not going to be easy fighting him," Sasame murmured. "While these techniques don't have a ceiling in terms of power like chakra techniques do, all of us are still novices with these new techniques."

"I agree," Sai nodded. "I have the most experience with Sasuke's current skill-set and know that what I can do won't be enough. It won't be as much of a problem for us as you might think. In our simulations, Sasuke ends up fighting Naruto one hundred percent of the time." Everyone rolled their eyes at that. "All the other match-ups are in our favor as well. Karin and Juugo are Sasuke's lieutenants and any one of us can take them down. Naruto has been training Yuna well enough in long-range and area of effect attacks to deal with the canon fodder fairly well and we have other associates who can help with that as well. Our current skill in yin and yang techniques should be enough to deal with Sasuke's team. The person we really have to worry for is Naruto. Naruto, you're my friend and I believe in you, but you'll need every bit of advantage that you can get. Is there any way you can speed up this training?"

Naruto frowned. "There is."

"Shadow clones?" Sasame inquired.

"No. Shadow clones are ultimately constructs of chakra connected to my pool of chakra. They are unable to separate yin and yang, even with the help of a Dispersion Seal."

"Then?"

Naruto grimaced. "You won't like it. Chakra clones."

Chakra clones were independent clones that had their own supply of chakra and were not connected to him in anyway until they dispelled. They were effectively real clones. Naruto could die and they would still live on until the chakra supply they had ran out.

Because of that, with the help of Dispersion Seals, they would be able to use spiritual energy and physical energy.

"What?" Sasame snapped at him with wide eyes. "Lord Naruto," she said the title almost scornfully, "you can't use that technique for something frivolous as training! That cuts down on your life! You promised that you wouldn't abuse that technique when you and Sai invented it!"

He nodded and winced. "I know. Ten clones for one hour cuts down one hour of my life. One hundred clones for one month will cut down ten months of my life. I'll get over eight years of training in exchange of one year of my life."

"Sensei, that's reckless! You can't trade your life for faster training."

"We might not have a choice at this time. I don't know how I match up against Sasuke without any of my chakra. The risks of chakra clones are still theoretical. I'm not completely sure they'll cut down on my life. And I've used them for missions before."

"That's one or two clones, Naruto. Based on our admittedly loose calculations, you could use one for over a week and you'll only lose a day of your life at most. But you're considering using hundreds right now," Sai responded. "That's not a good idea. That is reckless, even for you."

"Too late," Naruto folded his arms, "I've already started using them, two hundred of them. I'll have to regularly let some of them dispel and replace them with new ones so the rest of the clones can build off of each other. It'll also save me the headache that happens if I absorb too much knowledge at once." Naruto said firmly, no longer willing to take the scolding from his friends. "And as for the life-shortening issue. I do have the Uzumaki vitality that will probably let me live longer that most people. So instead of two hundred years, I'll live to one hundred and eighty. Probably one hundred fifty if you take into account that my body's cells are closer to their Hayflick limit from rapid injury and regeneration from using the Version 2 form of Kurama's toxic chakra when I was younger."

Sasame and Ranmaru let out exasperated sighs while Sai just shook his head lightly with an impassive look."What's the Hayflick limit?" Ranmaru asked curiously after a few moments.

"Cells divide only a set number of times in life." Naruto replied. "Regeneration is inherently different from healing in that it creates new cells to replace old ones, but you're cutting down on your life to do that. That's why medical ninjutsu focuses on healing damaged cells rather than making new cells. But we're getting off topic. Is there anything else we need to discuss?"

"Sakura."

Naruto's mood plummeted. He still didn't want to hear about his ex-girlfriend, especially on his honeymoon. "What about her?"

"I'm keeping tabs on her here. I don't have security clearance to enter her room, but from what I gathered, the seal is rapidly deteriorating. It weakening at an exponential rate rather than the linear rate we predicted."

"How bad do you think it is?

"There's been a huge drop in the strength of the seal even in the last few weeks. No one in Konoha can actually see the entire seal or measure its strength, but they're beginning to see alpha waves on the EEG. They're talking as if she might wake up any day now."

Naruto grimaced. He felt guilty about keeping Sakura in biological limbo, but he couldn't afford to have his plans derailed. "I'll send one of my chakra clones to infiltrate and strengthen the seal so it lasts until the winter at the very least. It'll also have the additional benefit of scaring the crap out of Konoha."

Secret Hospital Room, Konoha – February 14, AK 23

(AN: Note the time change yet again. This takes place a few months into the future.)

Ino sat down next to her best friend. Over a year had passed since Sakura first entered the coma. As a general trend, Sakura was getting better, no doubt, but no one still truly knew if and when Sakura was ever going to get up.

"The Chuunin Exams are taking place in Konoha again, Sakura," Ino murmured. She had taken the proactive approach that and came to visit at least once a week. There were studies done showing that talking to comatose patients could improve the prognosis. The results weren't significant, but Ino figured that talking to Sakura couldn't hurt.

It was also a convenient way of getting away from all the responsibilities that she had and the harsh realities of the world.

Life was ultimately pointless, Ino had long since decided. Life just marched on. It didn't care whether people succeeded or failed. It didn't stop to see if people were happy or sad. Life just rolled on.

Kids became adults. Adults became parents and had kids. Rinse, wash, repeat.

That was life.

All significant events, while serious at the time, were forgotten with more time. The Third Ninja War was said to be the bloodiest war in the history of the Elemental Nations, yet barely anyone remember it now. The Fourth Ninja War was said to be the war to end all wars yet tensions were growing between the nations once more.

It was all just…

…pointless.

So that's why Ino decided to live her life for the moment. She decided to treasure what was there for her instead of looking back to a past that would soon be forgotten or to a future that wasn't even certain. She would try to derive joy and meaning in the fleeting moment of the present.

She would take whatever life threw at her in stride and as Naruto often said, "go with the flow."

It was probably for the best.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

Ino jumped up. What was going on? She looked at the EEG monitor. Up until now, the monitor had shown alternating patterns of theta and delta waves. That is—Sakura was in a state of sleep. It was better than a constant state of delta-like waves, which represented a coma, but now Sakura was beginning to show alpha and beta waves.

Sakura was waking up!

She instantly went into medic mode and rang the bell.

"Yes?" she heard as one of the full-time medics came in.

"Get Shizune-sempai. Tell her that Sakura is waking up."

The medic's eyes widened and run out as fast as she could.

Ino smiled with tears in her eyes. Her friend was coming back!

She heard a groan coming from her friend on the bed. Ino grabbed Sakura's hand. "Sakura?" she asked urgently. "Can you hear me?"

Sakura slowly opened her eyes and blinked several times. Then, to Ino's shock, Sakura's eyes grew wide. "Ino?"

Ino nodded. "Yes? You—"

"Naruto. Naruto is a traitor."

AN: I already know I'm going to get a lot of complaints about this. Some people will say that Naruto betrayed Sakura first or that the betrayal wasn't severe enough.

Some people will complain about the scenes themselves. I'll probably get comments saying that there wasn't enough hostility or there was too much lingering love. That was the point. Breakups are often messy. People become emotional messes. I was trying to portray that.

This is made worse because Naruto and Sakura are both sensitive and emotionally fragile when it comes to love. Sakura is highly insecure and romanticizes love (the whole prince coming to her rescue thing). On the other hand, Naruto idealizes love. He fully hoped that Sakura would eventually give him that same unconditional love he showed to her. Unconditional love = love no matter what. Most parents show a type of unconditional love to their children. Their children could fail school, steal from a local bank, go commit twenty felonies in a row, and they'll still love their children.

Unfortunately, romantic love, especially in our day and age, is not unconditional. "I love you because you make me feel good." "I love you because you're nice." "I love you because you're funny." "I love you because you treat me well." That's the attitude most people have.

Who loves their significant other because...well "just because"? No one, right?

Romantic love is often self-serving in nature. Unconditional love is sacrificial in nature. So when Sakura didn't agree to follow Naruto, Naruto took that as a sign that Sakura not truly love him for who he really was. And he's right. Sakura only loved Naruto because he was so good to her over the years. That's not necessarily a bad thing. It's still a form of love and it's perfectly natural, but it's not unconditional love.

Until next time...

Credits: Thanks to TheOneSage for beta-reading this.