~A/N: Sorry for the slight delay. I completely blanked last night and forgot to upload the new chapter. I'd like to say it was homework that distracted me, but if I'm being honest with myself it was because I was reading Death Note (I know! I'm behind the times and haven't read it yet!) and I got super engrossed. Anyway, happy reading!

Fifty: Good News

Ino's eyes were the first to snap open at the sound of footsteps below. It wasn't loud enough to wake up Choji, but whoever it was certainly wasn't trying to be stealthy.

"Choji," she said, slapping the man sleeping next to her. "Get up. I think something's happening."

Choji sat up. "Do you want me to…?"

Ino shook her head. "No, it's fine."

Choji had taken to staying in her room with her lately, but neither of them had broadcasted the information publicly. It wasn't a big deal, though, seeing as Shikamaru and Temari didn't even bother with the pretense of having separate bedrooms anymore.

"Ino!" Shikamaru yelled, slamming the door open. It crashed into the wall with a bang so loud, Ino worried it would come off its hinges.

"Huh? Oh, hey Choji. Ino! Come on, get up. We need someone who knows medical ninjutsu."

Ino was up and moving instantly. "What happened? Is it Temari?"

"Not me," the other blonde said, stepping into the room.

"Then who…?"

Ino fell silent as Kakashi stepped into the room, something small and pink cradled securely in his arms.

Everyone expected screams, but what they didn't expect was for Ino to lower her gaze and clench her hands at her sides.

"What kind of sick joke is this?" she asked quietly.

"No joke, pig. It's really me," Sakura said weakly, giving her best attempt at a smile. "Ooh, I see you took my advice about Choji. Remember what I said about size and—"

"Sakura! That was a private conversation!" Ino squealed, before clapping her hand across her mouth. "Sakura. It really is you."

"Of course. You can't get rid of me that easily. I've got to be your maid of honor, remember?"

"Stop talking about my personal life, forehead!" she yelled, stomping over to the other girl, but her eyes showed plainly that there was no anger there, only relief. "Or I won't bother healing your sorry—hic!"

Ino was crying now, gripping onto Sakura's shirt weakly, and the rest of the shinobi in the room wondered if they should leave.

Kakashi's hand came to rest on her shoulder.

"I'll leave her to you, then," he said when Ino looked up at him questioningly.

"Right," she said, drying her eyes with her sleeve. "Just put her down on the bed there."

Kakashi set Sakura down gently. His hand lingered on hers for a moment longer than necessary before he went to rejoin the others in the hallway.

"We'll get another couple rooms here so Kakashi and Sakura can stay while she recovers," Shikamaru said, nodding to Kakashi as he closed the door quietly behind him.

"Shouldn't we get back to Konoha as soon as possible?" Kakashi asked. "Some of the top rebels managed to escape, so we'll need to go after them. Besides, Lady Tsunade will need to be informed that Sakura is still alive, and the rest of my team…" He should have told them he was leaving. They would undoubtedly be worried about him by now.

"Yes, but Sakura needs to take time to recover. Her injuries aren't life-threatening as long as she and Ino can treat them, but that doesn't mean that a week-long trek through the Land of Silver would be good for her health," Shikamaru said.

"I'll leave tonight for Konoha, and I'll let your Hokage know what happened," Temari said. "Besides, I'll be faster if I travel alone, and I think both you and Sakura would feel better if you stayed here with her."

Kakashi nodded. The Sand kunoichi was right.

"Okay, then it's settled," Shikamaru said.

"Right, I'll see you later then." Temari placed a quick kiss on his cheek before disappearing down the hall.

"What happened?" Choji asked, still completely in the dark about the entire situation.

"Shikamaru overheard some rebels talking, and he thought Sakura might still be alive," Temari explained.

"So this is what you were investigating this whole time?"

"Yeah."

"Wow."

"Yeah."

"You're so smart it's scary sometimes, Shikamaru."

The brunette laughed. "Come on, let's go talk to the owner about getting two more rooms."

"I'll wait up here," Kakashi said, nodding toward the door to Ino's room. "In case Ino needs help with anything."

"Right. Let's go, Choji."

Choji waited until they were out of earshot before nudged his friend with his elbow.

"Ow, what?"

"So, do you think?"

"Think what?"

"You know, those two. Kakashi and Sakura. Do you think more happened on their ANBU missions than they're letting on? He seems to be awfully worried about her."

Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "Temari was blabbing about the same thing. What's so strange about a teammate showing concern for another teammate? I mean, wouldn't you be worried about Ino?"

"Bad example, Shikamaru."

"Oh, right." He still forgot sometimes that his teammates were dating.

Choji laughed. "You know, you're really smart, Shikamaru, but when it comes to relationships, you're as dumb as it gets. Remember how you didn't notice Hinata had a crush on Naruto?"

"I don't really want to hear that from you," Shikamaru grumbled. "Let's just go talk to the guy. This conversation is getting too troublesome."

"I'm getting worried, Sasuke," Naruto whined as the pair made their third trip around the village in the same day. "I thought Kakashi-sensei was doing better, and then he just up and disappears! You don't think he's done something drastic, do you?"

Sasuke shook his head firmly. "No. He's not a coward, or he would've taken the cowards' way out long ago."

"I dunno. I'm still worried. Captain Yamato tries to be reassuring, but even I can tell it's just an act and he's really worried about Kaka-sensei too."

"Naruto. Everything will be fine. He'll come back and it'll turn out that he just wandered off looking at the memorial stone for a week and lost track of time."

The excuse sounded weak, even to his own ears, but the Uchiha wasn't about to let his friend know that he was worried about the same thing. That he was worried this was the final straw in a long line of tragedies that just kept piling up on their team leader.

A streak of blonde came whizzing by them, and Sasuke frowned, his Sharingan instantly recognizing the Suna kunoichi.

"Was that Temari?" Naruto asked. "Isn't she supposed to be helping out with the Sasaki mission?"

"Yeah," Sasuke said slowly, narrowing his eyes.

"Do you think something went wrong?"

"There's one way to find out."

The teammates shared a glance before taking off after the blonde.

"Temari! Hey, Temari!" Naruto called, but she showed no signs of slowing down. "What's wrong?"

Temari slowed, and looked back with an expression on her face that seemed like a mix between pity and sadness. But there was something else there, and whatever it was, it was more emotion that either of the Konoha ninja had seen on the Sand kunoichi's face.

"You might as well come along," she said, before heading in the direction of Hokage tower again at full speed.

As they gained speed, Naruto spotted Yamato and Sai up ahead. It seemed they were out looking for their teammate as well.

"What are you—" Sai started, but the pair brushed right past them.

"Something happened and Temari said we should come along!" Naruto called out.

"What?" Sai asked, turning toward the captain with a questioning stare.

Yamato shook his head. "I don't know. Let's just go."

The four members of Team Seven followed Temari all the way up the stairs and to Tsunade's room without uttering a word. None of them knew what to say.

The door to the Hokage's office burst open, and Tsunade looked up from her desk in alarm. Jiraiya's grip tightened on her shoulder when the two sannin saw the blonde Sand kunoichi rush in, followed closely by the rest of Team Seven.

"Temari?" Tsunade breathed, taking in the girl's clearly disheveled appearance. It looked like she hadn't rested in days. The Hokage feared the worst.

"The mission," Temari panted, one hand on her chest, "was a success."

"What happened, Sakura?" Ino asked after she had taken care of her friend's most pressing injuries. "I mean, I saw them burry you."

"It's a trick," the pink-haired girl whispered. Her voice was still hoarse from her ordeal. "I saw it all inside that jutsu user's head, but I'm still not sure I understand it. Ino, can I ask you a question?"

"Of course."

"When you use your mind transfer jutsu, it's all natural for you, right? Like, since it's a kekkei genkai, you don't need to manipulate your own chakra and force it to work?"

"Well, I still have to manipulate my chakra, but I don't have to fight with it. That's the kekkei genkai. Why? What does this have to do with the body we buried?"

Sakura was silent for a few minutes, and Ino was beginning to wonder if she'd fallen asleep when the other girl opened her mouth to speak again.

"I'd need to run my theory by Shikamaru or Kakashi to be sure, but I think Taya—that jutsu user I was talking about—was able to manipulate chakra to such a high degree that it was almost like she could imitate kekkei genkai. She was able to get inside my head, after all, and you're the only one who's ever managed that, which is why I was curious about your mind transfer jutsu."

"I don't understand," Ino said. "Lady Tsunade checked you herself. You were dead, Sakura. Dead and gone and not coming back."

"Sorry."

"It's alright," the blonde said, wiping angry tears from her eyes. "Just, continue."

"It all started when I cracked her barrier. It was one of the most intense barriers I've ever seen, and it was almost like it was threaded from pure chakra, which is why I had such a hard time breaking it, and why Kakashi couldn't break it himself without running the risk of exposure."

"A barrier that strong would take an insane amount of chakra!" Ino exclaimed. "You would pretty much need to have an infinite amount, like Naruto!"

Sakura's eyes widened at the mention of her teammate. In all the time since she'd been rescued, she hadn't asked about them once. She wondered briefly if Sasuke had cried for her.

"Forehead?"

"Sorry, I lost my train of thought. Anyway, as soon as I touched that barrier, I could feel a presence in my mind, and I mistakenly believed it was someone using a mind jutsu like yours."

"And it wasn't?"

Sakura shook her head. "No. In that split second of contact when I opened the barrier, I opened up my mind to her, and Taya managed to worm her chakra inside. From there it was only a matter of getting close enough to me to break down my mental walls."

"But the level of chakra control that would take… To be able to infiltrate someone's mind to that extent and from so far away in unheard of!"

"She was very good," Sakura admitted.

"But that still doesn't explain your body, Sakura."

"Right. This is where I need Kakashi or Shikamaru to confirm, but I think I've got a hypothesis. And if I'm right, this could be trouble."

"What?"

"I think she found a way to infuse chakra into shadow clones."

"But don't shadow clones already have chakra?"

"Yes, but it's their own chakra, and it's infinitely weaker than the real shinobi's. I think Taya found a way to infuse real chakra into a shadow clone's body, meaning the clone would then be able to take on all the characteristics of a real person."

Ino was beginning to understand. "So it wouldn't disappear like an ordinary clone."

Sakura shook her head. "No. If it was dealt a non-fatal blow in combat, the clone would be able to get up and keep fighting just like a real, flesh-and-blood ninja."

"Why hasn't anyone figured this out before?"

"I'm sure others have tried, but the chakra control it would take to be able to actually pull it off would be insane. The person giving the clones chakra would have to keep their concentration throughout the clone's entire fight, because too much or too little would result in the clone's disappearance. And this is on top of the person's own fight."

"Kami," Ino breathed.

"Yeah," Sakura said softly. "Taya's skill far outweighs mine, or Lady Tsunade's."

"We should warn the Hokage about her right away. She may be our biggest threat."

"She probably would have been, but she's dead."

"Dead? How?"

"I killed her," Sakura said.

"How?"

"Sort of like how I pushed you out of my head, only more permanent," the medic said darkly.

Ino could sense that they were touching on subjects that her friend didn't want to talk about, and while the blonde knew the discussion would probably have to happen someday, she didn't want to push Sakura too far too fast. She had no idea how much damage her friend had suffered—physically and mentally.

"Ino?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm kind of tired now. Do you think I could sleep here?"

"Of course," Ino nodded, helping the pink-haired kunoichi under the covers. She paused before leaving the room. "Do you want me to stay with you?"

Sakura shook her head. "No, I'll be alright. Thanks for taking care of me, pig."

Ino smiled through teary eyes. "Anytime, forehead."

"Mission?" Naruto asked, looking back and forth between the two blonde kunoichi. He wasn't sure about the rest of his teammates, but he had no clue what was going on. Last they had heard, Shikamaru's team was just serving as bodyguards for the Sasakis until Tsunade could decide what to do about the rebels. "What mission?"

Tsunade's eyes were wide, and the Fifth Hokage looked like she was either going to faint or have a panic attack.

"What's going on?" Sasuke asked forcefully. "What's this mission you're talking about? And where's Kakashi?"

"Where he needs to be," Temari said cryptically.

Tsunade snapped out of her daze, finally realizing what Temari was telling her.

"It…was successful?" she whispered.

"Yeah," Temari grinned. "We found her."

"Who?" Sasuke's voice was starting to sound frantic.

It didn't surprise any of the shinobi in the room that he had been the first of Team Seven to work things out. There weren't any kunoichi on the missing roster, and there was only one who had been killed recently.

"Who did you find?" he asked again, but he didn't really need to. The way the Hokage's eyes were welling up with tears while Jiraiya wrapped her in a comforting embrace was enough. His suspicions were confirmed when Temari turned to them, an uncharacteristically huge grin lighting up her face.

"We found Sakura. She's safe now."

Team Seven didn't bother hiding the shock on their faces. They had all seen Kakashi cradling her lifeless body, and they had all been there when the Hokage came out of the hospital with that look on her face. The one that told them long before her words did that Sakura wouldn't be waking up.

They had all been there when Tsunade opened up the hospital room doors, to let them say goodbye. And they had certainly all been there when they lowered her corpse into the ground and etched her name onto the memorial stone.

"She's alive? How?" Yamato whispered.

"Shikamaru figured it out when he overheard some rebels talking," Temari explained. "We kept it a secret because we didn't want to give any of you false hope."

"But Kakashi-sensei knew?" Naruto asked.

"He overheard Shikamaru talking to Lady Hokage and forced Shika to let him tag along on the mission." She grinned. "It's probably a good thing he did, too. He was the one who found her."

"And she's okay?" Sai asked.

Temari nodded. "Yeah, she's pretty beat up, and she'll need time to recover, but she's out of danger. Besides, Kakashi is with her."

Sakura's team let out a collective sigh of relief. Their medic was safe. Naruto, not really to anyone's surprise, had started crying. Jiraiya let go of Tsunade long enough to beckon his student over, and the blonde jinchuriki wrapped his arms around the older shinobi. If he considered Iruka and Kakashi like fathers, then the two sannin were definitely like grandparents.

"Can we go see her?" Sasuke asked.

"Well, there's one matter that still needs to be settled, and I thought your team might like to take the mission," Temari said. "That is why I suggested you come along. You see, the man responsible for the capture and subsequent torture and interrogation of Sakura Haruno escaped, and Shikamaru, Kakashi, and I weren't able to track him down."

The four members of Team Seven's eyes lit up. They turned to Tsunade, who nodded.

"Go get him," she said.

"Right!" they nodded.

As they turned to leave, Sasuke smirked. "Don't worry about a thing. I'm a master at revenge."

When they saw the look on the raven-haired Uchiha's face, the top shinobi of Konoha were glad he was on their side again.