I honestly don't know why I don't feel more satisfied. I thought, for a while, that maybe it's my new body interfering with my work. Though I'm in perfect health, honestly, and I feel better than I ever have before. Well, the dysphoria remains, yes, but I'll get over it.

Maybe, now that I've finally achieved this - agelessness, a body I truly feel I deserve - everything pales in comparison.

Though that's just silly talk, all of it. Why did I set out on this expedition in the first place? To learn everything.

These are but stepping stones in my journey of knowing.

What next, what next?

Curse seal experiments are going well. I haven't been able to up the 10% survival rate, I'm afraid, but progress is sometimes so very slow. I can't alter genes that extensively just yet, but I'm sure going to try, if I must.

Besides, there are far more useful things I could alter genes for than to ensure survival for a seal and a couple of enzymes.

Some promising stuff happening out in my Tamina labs, regarding that. They're still having miscarriage problems with the surrogates and I can't decide whether it's the fault of the fetuses or the women, so I've ordered them to split the experiments into groups to see if it's more effective to modify the genes of the fetuses more, or to do something to the surrogates to ensure a more complete gestation.

But I know we're getting somewhere. I have faith in my little darlings.

- An excerpt from the personal reports of Orochimaru, circa 4 BU

ACT 4

FOUND

Chapter 19 - Outstretched Hand

A package arrived for Sakura the day after the chuunin exams ended, delivered to the hospital. It was from Karin.

The cardboard box, wrapped in brown paper, held a modest stack of papers, all organized with metal clips and packed together, neatly. Sakura glanced at the cover sheets of the reports, photocopies of beautiful script, but forced her eyes to the letter before she could proceed too far.

The letter, compared to her first one, was short.

Sakura,

Did a little digging. Criteria: Experiments utilizing my blood; Uzumaki clan; Taki clan, etc.

Found very concerning things. Unsettling. Included.

Expanded search also to unfinished projects. Speculation and failures. Found more, included only relevant reports.

Suspect the work of another re: Taki Kiine. Sensei had more than one disciple. Not just Kabuto.

Interpret reports however you wish. Will continue searching archives. Analyzing current texts.

Avoid contact with Taki until certain of anything.

- Karin

Sakura had to stop to take a break after only a few minutes of reading, to regain her composure, to remember just, exactly, whose personal reports and notes she was reading.

(Orochimaru had astonishingly beautiful handwriting for a man, for a scientist.)

She set the reports aside until her shift was over, letting the familiar order and chaos of medicine soothe her mind. She brought them home, where she knew she'd be calmer, where she knew she'd be able to concentrate more. Lee left her alone, only bringing her a cup of coffee when she set the papers down on the table and said it was important.

It was a wise decision. The initial shock of the authorship of the papers wore off with the time she had spent working, allowing Sakura to get to the heart of the matter, and concentrate on what was actually being presented.

There was a complete and full report on the treatment of Taki Mikan's uterine cancer, from about thirty years previous. There were drawn diagrams and black and white photographs of her abdomen split open in surgery and a day-by-day analysis of the treatment, described in almost loving detail.

Here and there Sakura saw little asides from the otherwise professional, standard report. "The poor dear is so very concerned about one day being able to have her own children," one said, "but it's going to be difficult to keep the uterus intact after all of this, much less her ovaries. But I can try; I know how important such a dream can be, and if it's possible, I'll keep it alive for her."

The surprisingly caring statements left Sakura with a strange, twisted feeling in her stomach that only went away when the language returned to being cold and clinical, the things she could actually picture Orochimaru writing with that white hand of his.

Curiously, the handwriting in the report almost seemed to deteriorate, as if it were becoming harder and harder for Orochimaru to hold his pen as the treatment continued. At one point - after the completion of the treatment, mainly in the post-operative reports - it changed entirely to another hand, a blocky, vaguely familiar one, before returning to his usual loopy, girlish scrawl.

There were other reports, with far less savory contents. She read about cultures of organs, growing entire beating hearts, lungs, intestinal tracts and ovaries from next to nothing, nurtured by Karin's blood, in jars.

(The process by which Karin's blood had even become the way it was did not have any documentation. But Sakura noticed that Orochimaru always detailed drawing her blood with hypodermic needles and storing it very carefully, like it was a precious thing. He seemed to have stockpiled it, kept in cold storage. Given its many uses, Sakura was not surprised.)

(It also made her wonder just how desperate Karin had to be, just how devoted she must have been to allow Sasuke to bite her so many times, simply to heal. Sakura had seen her scars, and they had made her shudder.)

Written down, like afterthoughts, in the reports of organ cultures were little pipe dreams on maybe someday producing whole bodies from nothing more than a scrap of DNA from a sample of hair, or blood.

"Would that not be something? One could even revive the dead, if one wished; if not in consciousness, at least in body. My research into the Impure World summoning technique takes care of both criteria, however. The technique is a difficult study, but if the Second Hokage could manage, then there is no reason I cannot, either." Beneath that note, in an almost sad sort of scribble: "But neither is a true resurrection. The former sacrifices the mind, the memories, the personality; the latter, the body, foregoing true flesh and blood for immortal dust and ashes. Why can I not have both?"

In another report, from years later, Orochimaru experimented with implanting modified fetuses into surrogate mothers, but none of the creations thrived, even with infusions and medicines made with Karin's blood. It was declared an abandoned project in an irritated-feeling scratching near the bottom of the reports. "Far easier to work with newborns. Far easier. Fetuses are too fragile. Unfortunate, really. Such potential. But one cannot ignore what works. I'll return the girls to the normal breeding program in the meantime."

(Surprisingly, it troubled Sakura far less to read those disturbing little details than the occasional traces of humanity that popped up, here and there. It was far easier for her mind to digest.)

It was late evening by the time she was finished with the reports, in their entirety. She hadn't touched her coffee, her stomach too unsettled for her to even consider tasting it. Lee had long since gone to bed, but he'd left the lights on in the kitchen for her.

She did not sleep well that night, her mind whirling with analysis and conflicting portraits of the old snake as a man, as a monster, which she tried to push to the back of her consciousness so she could focus on the matter at hand.

It was undeniably clear that Mikan was infertile. Done, that was it, that was the end of it. Even Sakura could concede with Orochimaru in saying that while the girl would live, the damage had been done. "Such a pity, such a pity," he had said. And she had to agree.

The mystery of Kiine, with her Uzumaki blood, persisted. Even with the possibility that she was willfully adopted, nothing yet explained the Karin-like cells, either.

For a moment, Sakura considered the possibility that she was some sort of modified child, or a clone of an Uzumaki, or something like that, but she disregarded the ideas almost as soon as she conceived them. Those were failures of projects, never more than just dreams or disappointment.

But then a phrase from Karin's letter drifted to her mind.

Suspect the work of another re: Taki Kiine. Sensei had more than one disciple. Not just Kabuto.

She remembered the trouble that Kabuto had given them during the Fourth War. She remembered the mindless clones, the monsters of medicine and poison he had created as weapons for Tobi's army.

Maybe he wasn't the only one? Maybe there was someone, someone else, still operating out there?

Maybe Orochimaru was still alive?

…no, that was impossible. He was dead. Orochimaru was dead. Sakura had heard somewhere that he'd been sealed away, forever. For good.

It had to be someone else. If anyone else was responsible for this, anyways. If anyone had continued Orochimaru's research.

There had to be an explanation for all of this.

Somewhere between 3 and 4 AM, to the sound of her husband snoring softly, Sakura came to a conclusion.

So far, her only contact into this world of Orochimaru's research, the dark world of the Sound, was Karin. Who, as far as Sakura could tell, impersonal and clinical as her letters were, was as disturbed as she herself was by these recent turn of events. And she was already looking for more information, no doubt. Sakura would be doing much of the same, in her situation.

But it wasn't like Karin lived next door. She was separated from Sakura by at least a day's worth of mail, and telephone calls were next to useless with such things.

There was, however, someone who lived not terribly far from Sakura, who could offer a second opinion on all of this. Who had, surely, very interesting opinions on the matter he could share.

The next morning, she was going to go to Sasuke, and see what he made of all this. After all, hadn't he lived with Orochimaru for three years?

(Hadn't he fought against them, for a while, in that war?)

Surely he'd have picked some things up. Surely he must have learned some things. He at least had an informed opinion.

She'd have to be careful, she knew. Sasuke was sensitive about the past, though she suspected he was probably in a good mood, given his children's success in the chuunin exams thus far. So maybe it would be easier than she thought.

Yes, she would go seek out Sasuke in the morning.

Satisfied, she closed her eyes and allowed herself to sleep, until the alarm clock she shared with Lee went off. The hospital required her to wake up relatively early, but later than the sunrise at any rate, unless there was an emergency. Lee didn't wake up until she did, finding his own time to jog and exercise, adjusting his schedule with hers, so there were no conflicts. Lee was just that sort of person.

After breakfast (and after dumping the now ludicrously-cold cup of coffee she had left on the table into the sink - she'd forgotten about it entirely), Sakura called in to say she'd be a little late, and had Kenji relay the message as well, just to make sure.

She stopped by Ino's house next, the reports tucked into her satchel. She was stopped, momentarily, by Ino's expression. "Hey, are you okay?"

"What? Oh, I'm fine," Ino replied. She rubbed her eye with her fingers. She hadn't put on all of her makeup yet, and she looked pale, almost sick, without it. "What's going on, Sakura?"

"Where's Sasuke? I want to talk to him," Sakura said.

"Oh. Sasuke. He's… training with Go'on-kun today, I think." Ino folded her arms over her apron. "That's what he's been up to, lately, spending the days with him and the nights with Inou and Karai."

"How are they doing?" Sakura asked.

"They're… fine. Just fine," Ino replied. A fake little smile was stamped on her face.

Sakura knew it too well. She put her hand on Ino's arm. "Ino, is everything okay?"

"We're fine, Sakura. You don't need to worry about my family, goodness, we can handle ourselves," Ino said, a taste of sharpness in her voice, batting away Sakura's hand. "He's just upping the training for them and we're all a little exhausted, is all."

"I don't see why you should be tired too, if it's just them being trained…"

"Huh?"

"Nothing, nothing." Sakura put on a false little smile of her own, waving the hand that had been on Ino's arm dismissively. "So, do you know where I can find him?"

"Probably the family training ground. You know, near the Compound. Memorial. You know where," Ino said.

"Ah, yeah. I know it."

"Why do you want to talk to him?" Ino said. "You know he might not be feeling cooperative, you know how he is."

"Oh, I just wanted him to look at some things. If he's not up for it I was going to schedule a better time," Sakura replied. She patted her satchel. "I know how he can be, Ino, I've known him as long as you, you know."

"Mm, I suppose…" Ino said. There was a shadow of sarcasm in her voice.

(But Sakura wasn't his wife. She was.)

"Well, hopefully he won't give you too much trouble," Ino continued, "he's kind of been on edge lately..."

"Has he been bad to you because of that?" Sakura asked, suddenly.

"What in the world is that supposed to mean?" Ino said. She almost gasped. "Sakura, Sasuke is perfectly good to me. He's just stressed right now. It's understandable."

Sakura fixed her mouth sideways. This happened, sometimes. When she overstepped boundaries, when Ino got so mildly outraged like this. "I just worry, sometimes. He's got a bad temper."

Ino sighed. "You think I don't know that…?" She didn't give Sakura a chance to answer. "Anyways, you should probably go and find him."

"Okay. Thanks for the tip."

"Sure, sure. Bye, now."

Sakura went down the road feeling more than a little unsettled. Ino almost never went out without all of her makeup on.

She had to deal with Sasuke first, however. This was more important. She could talk to Ino, alone, later.

Just like she had said, he was at the old training ground with the dark-haired boy on his team, the one with the big eyes. Senritsu Go'on - practically everyone knew his name, now. The name of the kid that had gotten through the Forest of Death in record timing, the one that couldn't be touched, even in battle.

He and Sasuke were sparring. At least, that's what it looked like. The boy moved at incredible speeds, dodging attacks, pulling off remarkable acrobatics in the air, leaping off rooftops and against walls - yet his breath remained even, even over the course of several minutes, when even Sakura would have felt fatigued.

She waited until they were done to clear her throat and clap slowly. "Very impressive!" she said.

"Go'on, take a five minute break," Sasuke said, and approached Sakura. "Here to watch, are you?"

"No, no, I just have something for you to look at."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "Oh? What is it this time?"

"I received some things from Karin, I'd like for you to look at them. See what you can make of them," Sakura said. She kept her hand on her satchel, but didn't open it.

"Karin…?" He said her name like it was foreign to him, then shook his head. "What kinds of things?"

"Reports."

"What kind of reports? You're being incredibly vague." His voice became slightly rough.

"They're reports by Orochimaru," Sakura said quickly. She cleared her throat, afterward. "I wanted you to take a look at them."

"And why would you want me to do that." He glared at her.

Sakura bolstered herself. "Well, for a bunch of reasons, Sasuke. You lived with him for three years. You know how he worked. Maybe you can offer a bit more detail on some of the things he wrote in here, since Karin just handed them to me as-is. I don't know. Just give them a once-over, at least, will you?" She rolled her eyes, a little. "Shouldn't take you very long to do that, with those eyes of yours…"

"Don't give me that," Sasuke said. He sighed. "Okay, fine. Hand them over. I'll give them a look, even though I don't know why you keep coming to me with these stupid little inconsequential things…."

"It's not stupid and it's not inconsequential," Sakura said, and she took the reports out of her satchel and handed them to him. "For your information, it might help us with the situation with the Taki syndicate."

"…sure," Sasuke said, a shadow of sarcasm in his voice. He began to read. His speed was incredible, taking only seconds to thoroughly scan each page. Sakura was caught by surprise when he handed the papers back to her, little more than a minute later. "There, I read them. Now, what was I supposed to be looking for…?"

"You mean you're done?"

"You said yourself it wouldn't take very long for me to do." He shoved his hands in his pockets. His voice almost quavered. "Well, what was I supposed to look for?"

"Well…" Gosh, where to start? She tripped over her thoughts and grabbed for the first thing she could think of. "In the reports on Taki Mikan's treatment, I didn't recognize the handwriting about-"

"That's Karin's handwriting."

Sakura blinked. "Karin…? But why would-"

"His condition was declining and he dictated to her when he was ill until he recovered. An idiot could figure that out." He glanced at Go'on, who was sitting against a wall, staring at the sky, a small smile on his face. "Is that all?"

"So it was definitely his handwriting, otherwise?"

Sasuke scoffed. "All of that and you doubted who really wrote it?"

"I just wanted to make sure!" Sakura started putting the papers back into her satchel, knowing that Sasuke had doubtlessly memorized them already. "Goodness. I don't think there's anything wrong with that."

"Hm. So… tell me, why did she send you these reports in the first place?"

Sakura noticed that he had suddenly stiffened, though his eyes darted this way and that, but never at her. "It's mostly to do with Taki Kiine. We suspect something unusual is going on with her, and her family. And by 'we' I mean me and Karin, I mean. She's investigating this as well."

"Unusual how?"

"The fact that she's an Uzumaki but the rest of her family isn't, for one?" Sakura said. She would have said more, had Sasuke's expression not become so worrisome that she almost found herself reaching out to him, to calm him. "Hey, what's the matter?"

He pulled away from her hand as if it were made of hot metal. "Nothing. It's nothing. So she thinks Orochimaru had something to do with it, does she."

"Well… no, but… maybe someone that served under him. Possibly. We don't know." She felt the ache of frustration in her chest at being unable to really get out what she meant to say, what she meant to truly say. It was like this a lot, with Sasuke, no matter how mundane the subject. "Was there anyone besides Kabuto that could have carried on his work…?"

Sasuke didn't respond. Then, before Sakura could reply, he said, "Only Karin."

And Sakura knew that Karin's work had gone nowhere near the reaches of Orochimaru's cold ambitions. "So that leaves us at a dead end, then."

"Not exactly. Could be anyone, really. He had a lot of supporters. A lot of wardens, assistants," Sasuke said. His voice sounded detached, now, and flat. "But none of them were terribly bright, really. I doubt any of them could carry on his work in such a way. Especially if…"

Sakura tilted her head. Sasuke's eyes were trembling. He was pacing. "If…?"

"Nothing. Just… conjecture from what you showed me. I doubt we're seeing the whole picture."

"And what is this conjecture?"

"If it's incorrect then it's worthless," Sasuke said sharply, finally looking at her, stopping his pacing. "These are only a few reports out of… what, thousands, no doubt. I never read many, but I knew where they were."

"Well… maybe a little speculation might get us on the right track," Sakura said. Her smile was thin. "I mean, Karin and I are completely without a clue…"

"At least you both are doctors. You know what you're talking about." Sasuke turned his back on her, and returned to Go'on. "Break time's over, let's continue with our training, Go'on."

"Sasuke, what did you think was…?"

"It's nothing. Thank you for showing me those," Sasuke said, quickly, not even looking over his shoulder. "Resuming where we left off. Your evasion is excellent but you need to get on the offensive, Go'on. Come at me."

After standing there for a few moments, Sakura gave a goodbye that she wasn't sure if Sasuke had heard or not, and she returned to the hospital, and her normal duties, wondering what in the world he had been thinking of.