Sakura was relieved and a little bit disappointed when they found Kabuto's bunker empty. She had not been looking forward to facing him again, especially considering the false pretense she would have had to put up. She was, however, curious about what he was doing and what she could do to prevent it.

That was why she spent every second of her free time after their mission in the labs, analyzing the samples she had collected. It was tedious work that required a lot of her concentration and patience, so she made sure to take her time and be very careful.

For several days, she found nothing out of sorts with any of the samples, but at some point she chose to compare her notes from Toyeiki with her notes from the samples. In doing so, she found a specific pathogen that seemed to infect via water. It was different than the one that had infected so many people in Toyeiki, yet from a microscopic view it looked very similar.

Sakura didn't know what that meant, but between shifts at the hospital and assisting Tsunade with her Hokage duties, she attempted to figure it out. Was the original disease able to spread through different means? Or was this a completely different infection? Could chakra be infected through this waterborne pathogen?

After nearly two weeks of spending her nights at the lab, Ino began to come visit her. She had grown tired of waiting for Sakura to come home each night and had brought her food and flowers to spruce up the place.

Sakura was grateful for her company. Though she was surrounded by people every day, it got a little lonely working by herself. Ino had always had a good sense of when Sakura needed her, so she appreciated the thoughtful gestures.

Ino still seemed pretty down about the Sai situation and Sakura wished that there was something she could do for her. No amount of nights out partying would resolve this issue, but unfortunately for Sakura, she didn't know what would.

Setting her up with another man seemed disrespectful and highly likely to backfire. Besides, she didn't know any eligible bachelors anyway. Instead, Sakura did what she could to make Ino's life a little easier each day.

Ino continued to stay randomly at Sakura's apartment, so Sakura made sure to keep her favorite foods stocked. She picked up after Ino's messes without complaint and she would lay out her clothes for the next day. She left her little notes in her pockets – things that would cheer her up and remind her that she was loved.

It seemed to work. Ino's mood had drastically improved in the weeks following Sakura's mission, in spite of the fact that Sakura didn't have too much extra free time to spend with her.

After coming home late one day having been down in the labs working, Sakura wasn't surprised to find Ino curled up on her couch with a steaming mug of tea and an open book in her lap.

"Hey, pig, how are you?" Sakura asked, peeling off her medic's coat and letting it crumple on the floor by the door.

"Not bad, Forehead," she replied with a smile. It was a genuine smile – one that she seemed to be giving more and more lately. "I made some dinner for you. There's a plate in the microwave."

They had settled into a comfortable coexistence, just the two of them – almost like an old married couple. Ino had been especially helpful in picking up some of Sakura's slack with Yamato and Sachi. Her busy schedule had demanded much more of her time than she was used to giving, so lately she had been having to rely on Ino to pick up Yamato from school or watch Sachi while her parents were busy.

Even though she was exhausted and desperately needed a day off (and she could take one if she really needed one), Sakura was content. Her day-to-day life was relaxed and comfortable and there wasn't much to complain about.

"So what's been going on with the whole Danzo situation?"

Except that. Sakura settled down on the couch next to Ino with her warmed up plate of food and crossed her legs underneath her.

"His trial is in a couple of weeks," Sakura said, chewing a bite of her eggroll. "Tsunade-sama says I'll have to be a witness in his trial. I'm not really sure what that means."

And she still had that pesky problem of their previous conversation. Best-case scenario, her problems solved themselves. If Danzo was ordered to be executed, then she wouldn't have to worry about him coming after Sasuke and Itachi. It was unlikely, and Sakura knew that. But she couldn't help but hope for such a thing.

She thought about what was likely to happen. Danzo would go free but be removed from the council. That wouldn't really do as much good as Tsunade seemed to think. He would still be a threat to the village, and to Sasuke and Itachi.

And it definitely wouldn't be enough to quell Sasuke's thirst for revenge. The young Uchiha had been pretty reserved so far – probably because Itachi made things much easier for him. It was easier for him to forget the pain when Itachi was there.

If Danzo escaped a death sentence, would Sasuke attack him? Would Itachi condone that behavior? She couldn't know for sure, but she desperately wanted to prevent a fight between them. Danzo had far more sway than the Uchiha did. Even if he were removed from the council, the citizens of Konoha still respected his name. He still would have ROOT.

But she couldn't convince herself to ask them to leave the village. It was their home. They didn't deserve to be kicked out.

She considered that she should tell someone what Danzo had told her. She should tell Tsunade. She really needed to stop keeping secrets from the Hokage – especially ones regarding the safety of the village. And she also should probably tell Itachi. He was smarter than her, had more experience with this sort of thing. He would know what to do.

But would he be angry with her for keeping it from him?

"Sounds stressful," Ino said. "Glad it's not me."

Sakura gave her a half-hearted thump on the back of her head.

"Ow, ow, sorry," she squealed.

"I don't want to think about that right now," Sakura said. "Distract me with something else."

"You know Tsunade is going to make you come to that clan ceremony thing."

"Clan ceremony?"

"Yeah, to elect a new council made up of all the clan heads," Ino said flippantly. "Didn't she tell you? I hear it's suppose to be on the hush hush, but I heard her telling Shizune that after Danzo is removed from the council, she wants to create a council with all of the clan heads in addition to a few civilian elects."

"That's kind of bold of her, isn't it?" Sakura said. Tsunade was a good Hokage, but this seemed like a bit much for her. The status quo was easy. How would Konoha react to such a massive political change? "I can't believe she didn't tell me."

"Well, you've been cooped up in the labs for weeks," Ino said.

"I guess I should go talk to her."

Ino looked away. "She puts too much pressure on you sometimes," she said. "Between your missions, shifts at the hospital, assisting her with Hokage duties, and now forcing you to go to the clan ceremony – it's too much for one girl to handle."

Sakura smiled. "That's how you feel, huh?" she asked. "It isn't anything I can't handle. I like being busy. Besides, she hadn't even asked me to go to the clan ceremony yet."

"You know she will, though," Ino said. "She's going to make you do all the work she should be doing while she's off somewhere getting drunk."

Sakura laughed. "Yeah, that's probably true."

"I heard that the Kazekage will be there, too," Ino said. "All the kages were invited, but Gaara was the only one to agree to come."

"Not surprising."

"Seems like overkill, doesn't it?" Ino asked. "All the kages? They don't have anything to do with Konoha politics."

"Yeah, good point. I wonder what Tsunade is up to."

"And you know who else will be there…"

Sakura raised a brow.

"Itachi."

She hadn't thought about him in a while. It felt strange to think it had been several weeks since she had seen him.

"What?" Ino asked, seeing the puzzled expression on her face. "Did something happen with you guys?"

"Uh no," Sakura said. "I just haven't seen him in a while. I've been so busy these past couple of weeks."

"Then you must be looking forward to seeing him again," she answered.

And Sakura supposed she was.

.

The next day, Sakura was blessed with an afternoon off. She finished her morning shift at the hospital, and instead of going down to labs as she had been for the last several weeks, she picked up Yamato from the academy and took him down to the training fields.

"I was beginning to think you had forgotten about me," he teased once they had gotten close to the training grounds.

"Of course I couldn't forget about you, Yamato," she said with a grin. "How could I forget about the number one student at the academy? The student with sharpest aim?"

Yamato beamed at the compliment and put his hands behind his head in that boastful sort of way that reminded her of Naruto. He had an unfair advantage, really. He had training with Naruto, Itachi, and her (though she could admit that she didn't have too much to add).

But Sakura was proud nonetheless that Yamato had risen so quickly to the top of his class. At this rate, he would make a finer ninja than she was.

"Alright, Yamato, what would you like to work on today?"

"Taijutus," he said confidently. "No weapons. No ninjutsu. Chakra permitted."

"You know that's my specialty, right?"

"Of course," he said, still beaming. "That's why I picked it."

She didn't wait for any further explanation before she was attacking him, punching and kicking without holding back. Yamato was quick, and with more practice he would surely be faster than her by the end of the year. But for now, she was a fair bit quicker than he was and was able to land blow after blow on him.

He blocked them by using a chakra buffer against his skin where it contacted hers, just like she had taught him to do. She was rather impressed with his ability to regulate his chakra usage so that he was not wasting any in absorbing the impact of her hits.

And soon enough he was pushing her back with attacks of his own, forcing her to defend instead of attack. Sakura fell into defense mode, blocking his punches and parrying when she could.

She was enjoying herself immensely. Her time cooped up in the hospital and the labs had put her a bit out of practice and sparring with Yamato was a great way to kill two birds with one stone. She could enjoy some leisure time with him while getting in a good workout.

"Your chakra control is improving, Yamato," she said breathlessly, blocking a particularly nasty punch aimed at her face.

"Iruka-sensei has been teaching us how to be chakra efficient," he said, still raining down blows, "So that we don't waste it."

Sakura, having had enough of being on defense, pushed him back with a rough shove and swept her leg under his, knocking him to the ground. He was back to his feet in a matter of seconds, his arms up to protect his face from her onslaught of punches and high kicks.

They exchanged blows like this for a while, more like a dance than a fight, intricate, graceful and well choreographed.

Sakura aimed a harsh punch toward his chest – one she knew would knock him pretty far backwards with the amount of chakra she put into it. He caught it with his hand as she expected, but unlike she had expected, he had not used any chakra to buffer the impact.

She winced as she felt the bones in his hand crunch beneath hers. "Yamato, are you—"

He cut her off with his other fist aimed right for her face. Lacking the speed to block it, she took the full force of it in her temple and fell back to the ground with a grimace.

"That was sneaky," she said with a hint of pride in her tone. "You let me break your hand to distract me."

"One of the best reasons to spar with you," he said with a grin. "You can always heal my wounds after."

She sat up, wincing. She could feel tenderness around her eye and it had begun to swell shut. It would definitely bruise if she didn't heal it soon, but she wanted to take a look at Yamato's hand first.

"Come here," she commanded. "Let me see it."

He crouched down in front of her and extended his hand. Broken bones took longer to heal than wounds or bruises, so they got comfortable in the grass while she let her healing chakra do its work.

They chatted amicably about how his studies at the academy were going, Sachi and her parents, and life in general. It had been so long since she had seen Yamato that she had nearly forgotten how at ease she felt around him. He reminded her so much of Naruto at that age – and having regretted how she treated the poor blonde back then, she felt a duty to be there for him.

"You'll be graduating soon," she said to him after a comfortable lull in conversation had filled the air around them. "You'll get a team. You'll start going on missions. Are you excited?"

"I suppose," he said weakly. "I'll be excited when I get to take real missions instead of babysitting gigs."

Sakura laughed. "It's all part of the process."

"Yeah, I know," he said. "I hope it goes by quick, though. I can't wait to join ANBU."

Sakura blinked. She hadn't realized that he was interested in joining ANBU. Her first instinct was to stop him, to convince him to change his mind. ANBU was a dangerous job. Itachi had been ANBU – she didn't want Yamato subjected to a fate like his.

"ANBU," she said slowly, testing out the syllables on her tongue. "That's ambitious."

"You don't think I can do it?"

She gave him an eye-crinkling smile. "Of course you can do it, Yamato," she said. It wasn't her place to decide such a thing for him. If ANBU was what he wanted, she had no doubt he could achieve it. "No question."

"So," he said in an obvious attempt at changing the subject. "Are you going to try to join ANBU? Or become a jonin?"

She released his hand, having finished the healing process. He pulled it into his lap and gave each finger a good flex. She watched him as she turned his hand over testing each muscle, each joint while she thought about her answer.

It wasn't as though she had never thought of either of those things before. She wanted to become a jonin, but she would have to have a recommendation for that. It might not be hard to get one if she chose to take more missions, but just working at the hospital it wasn't likely that the position would fall into her lap. She would have to put some more effort into it.

As for being ANBU, she didn't know if that was something she could handle. ANBU did some dirty work. She appreciated those who were able to do it, but she didn't know if she herself was capable. After learning about Itachi's secret mission, she wasn't sure if she would be a good fit for ANBU.

"I'd like to be a jonin someday," she said after careful deliberation. "But I have a lot of other things on my plate right now. It'll have to wait."

"If you wait too long I might beat you to it," Yamato said, grinning cheekily.

"Nothing would make me prouder."

Yamato laughed and sat back on his forearms in the grass. A gentle breeze rolled past them, kicking up the fallen leaves and rustling their hair. In spite of the several imminent dangers honing in on her – Danzo's trial, Kabuto, the clan ceremony – Sakura felt deeply content to be sitting there with Yamato.

She took the opportunity to study his face. He seemed much older than he actually was. Much like Itachi, Yamato seemed to have aged prematurely in the face of all the stress in his life. Sakura felt he took the death of his parents rather well for someone of his age. It must have been hard for him, especially having to take care of Sachi as well.

Yamato was a bright and energetic boy and Sakura felt extremely lucky to have him in her life. She felt a swell of affection for him in her chest, and Sakura felt a strong urge to crush him into a bear hug.

But she resisted the maternal temptation and gave him a warm smile instead.

"Do you want to go to Ichiraku's?" she asked. "My treat?"

"Better not," he said with a shake of his head. "I'm going to dinner with a few of my classmates later today. Don't want to spoil my appetite."

"Fair enough," she said, hiding her disappointment with an even warmer smile.

.

"Status report on Kabuto's samples?"

"Making progress as expected," Sakura answered. "I'm finding remnants of the original disease in a new pathogen – this was waterborne instead of airborne. I'm not sure what this means, exactly, but with some more research I think I might find out how it can be used as a poison."

"Do you think that's the way Kabuto intended for this pathogen to be used?"

"I believe based on this research, that he was attempting to find a way that the previously vetted disease could be transmitted via a plethora of different ways. Water, air, insects, physical contact," Sakura explained. "Unfortunately, knowing that I created a vaccine, Kabuto likely is using a completely different bacterial infection right now."

"A disease spread through so many different means would be impossible to contain."

"Biological warfare at its best."

"Then we must find and stop Kabuto before he can put this plan into place."

Tsunade frowned and rubbed her brow with the back of her hand. She looked tired, Sakura thought, and she must have been since Sakura couldn't be there to help her with her Hokage duties. She even looked sober.

"Are you feeling alright, Tsunade-shishou?"

Tsunade looked up at her pupil with narrowed eyes. "I told you about the clan ceremony, didn't I?"

Sakura blanched. "Well, no," she answered. "Ino told me a little bit about it."

Tsunade cursed. "I meant to tell you," she said. "Danzo's trial is a week from today. After his trial is over, I plan to replace the council entirely. The new council will be made up of the clan heads plus a few civilians that are chosen by me. In the future, I plan for this newly set up council to elect the new Hokage."

Sakura blinked in surprise. "You mean you won't pick the next Hokage?"

"One elected by the council will be one chosen by the people," she explained. "I think things will be better this way."

"But it hasn't been a problem so far," Sakura said, not fully understanding why Tsunade would want to implement such a drastic political change. "Why go through all this effort to fix a problem that doesn't exist?"

"There is a problem, Sakura," Tsunade insisted. "The Uchiha clan never had a voice. They were historically pushed back away from the central running of the village, in spite of being a founding clan. By giving the Uchiha clan – every clan – an equal vote in the village's political affairs, we create a democratic system based on everyone's best interest. Not just mine. Not just the strongest clan."

Sakura looked down at her feet. She didn't entirely trust in her mentor's idea, but she didn't have the courage to argue with her.

"I know it seems impossible, Sakura," Tsunade said. "But this change will be good for everyone. Just have a little faith in me."

Sakura nodded. "What do you need from me, Tsunade-shishou?"

"I'll need you to take minutes during the council meetings from now on," Tsunade said. "Usually I would give that responsibility to Shizune, but she has enough on her plate right now. Everything said during those meetings is completely confidential, so you cannot discuss what you hear with anyone. Not Naruto, not Sasuke, not Kakashi. No one."

"I understand."

"I'm hoping that you will get elected to the council in the future," Tsunade continued. "You are well respected among your peers and as my student you know a lot about how the Hokage's office is run. Pay close attention during the meetings and give input when asked, but do not offer it."

"Yes, Tsunade-shishou."

Sakura felt herself reeling a little. Tsunade was essentially giving her a political career. Another task to add to her ever-growing list. As if her plate weren't already full enough.

But this was something she could actually get behind. The problems they had with Danzo, the corruption behind the scenes in Konoha – she was now in a position to tame things like that. She could make a real change in the way Konoha operating now.

She had a feeling that there would be some major repercussions for Tsunade's decision, but for a moment, Sakura felt a great sense of importance. She could do this.

"Your first order of business is to schmooze all the clan heads," Tsunade continued. "The clan ceremony will be a good opportunity for you to do that. I will announce there my decision regarding the council, so I need everyone to be in a good mood and I need everyone to like you. You're going to be my little pink mascot."

"Pardon?"

"I'm rough around the edges, I know," Tsunade said with a rueful grin. "And you have quite a temper, too, but I'll need you to keep that under control. You're cute. Use that to your advantage."

"I'm afraid I don't follow…"

"I really need to you garner favor with the clan heads, Sakura," she said impatiently. "Flirt, give them good conversation, bat your eyelashes – whatever you have to do. Get them to be on my side – our side. It would look ridiculous if I instate a democratic council that immediately impeaches me or questions all my decisions. Just schmooze them."

"Uhh," Sakura groaned with bemusement. "Okay, I think I can do that."

"Great. Now I've invited the Kazekage to this ceremony because if this is successful, he might implement such a thing in Suna as well," Tsunade said. "So, if you can, make sure to impress Gaara, too."

"Why does it matter if Suna implements a democratic council?"

"It will strengthen our alliance, but it isn't necessary, I suppose," she answered. "I invited all thekages to come, but Gaara was the only one interested."

"Don't you think it could make us look vulnerable to let the other nations know we're in the midst of a large political change?" Sakura asked, suddenly very concerned. They weren't too far off the heels of the third shinobi war. Another war could be detrimental.

"Don't worry about that," Tsunade said. "This entire deal is probationary for now. I am still Hokage and my word is still final. If this doesn't work out like I plan, I will strike the ordeal and we'll go back to the way things were."

Sakura didn't think that sounded practical, but she didn't mention that to her mentor who was pouring herself a cup of sake and looking quite pleased with herself.

"You seem overwhelmed," she said before downing the entire glass.

"It's a lot to take in."

"Sakura."

Sakura looked up at her shishou.

"Sakura, I want you to know how proud I am of you for all that you've done this past year," she said earnestly. "You successfully created a vaccine for a biological weapon. You uncovered one of Konoha's darkest secrets. You keep up with your shifts at the hospital and taking care of those damned orphans all while simultaneously working in the labs – and Ino told me you've been working on some new jutsus."

Sakura felt her face heating up. Tsunade was not usually forthcoming with her compliments. It was rare to get one at all from the surly blonde, let alone a laundry list of achievements.

"I'm impressed," she said. "And I want to reward you."

"Reward me?" Sakura laughed. "Shouldn't you be punishing me instead? I was a part of a plot to kill Danzo. I worked with a Konoha defector behind your back."

Tsunade waved her hand dismissively. "You were absolved of those sins when I beat the shit out of you during that spar," she said. "Now, what do you want, Sakura? How can I make your life easier?"

Sakura bit her lip. What could she possibly ask for? She had never been more content with her life than she had been for the past several weeks. There was nothing she really wanted.

Except… She recalled her conversation with Yamato.

"I want to be a jonin."

Tsunade's eyebrows flew up in surprise. "A jonin?" she mumbled. "Well, usually the rank of jonin is given at the recommendation of your teacher. But I suppose that I am your teacher. I don't think Kakashi would disagree that you deserve the position. I hereby grant you the rank of jonin."

Sakura let a smile creep onto her lips before flying to the other side of the desk and wrapping her arms around Tsunade's neck.

"Thank you, shishou!" she exclaimed. "I won't let you down."

Tsunade pushed her student away with a wry, but amused look. "I know you won't. Now get going. I'm sure your busy ass has somewhere it needs to be."