A/N

Disclaimer: I do not own nor did I create Naruto. This piece was created solely for entertainment purposes.

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It was a little over a week later when Sakura said a tearful goodbye to the Kusagakure medical team at the gates of the village with a promise that she would return soon. After weeks of training them, she had developed deep bonds with each of the medics, particularly with Tsumugi. Sakura smiled at the carefully wrapped pack she held in her hands as she headed down the path away from the village. Something for the road, Sakura-san, Tsumugi had said to her with a wink as she pressed the package into Sakura's fingers.

Sakura's smile was quickly replaced with a frown as she mulled over her recent discovery. The paper bombs used by the criminal ninja in an attempt to capture Sasuke had originated from none other than Konoha, her home village. More shockingly, the bomb was in a specific class of weapons that were highly classified and only accessible by high-ranking Jonin. The person responsible for Sasuke's attack was not only a trusted ninja of the village, but was also likely close to the Hokage. Sakura shuddered at the thought.

After the events of the past several years, the prospect of being betrayed again made her sick to her stomach. She tried to ignore the uneasiness as she made her trek across Kusagakure and to the border of the Land of Fire. It would take her at least another two days before she'd reach the Konoha gates. Until then, she knew she needed to be on high alert. Surely, one of Sasuke's attackers had reported back to whoever hired them that a certain pink-haired ninja was spotted with the Uchiha.

Just then, leaves rustling in a tree to her left caught her attention. Her head whipped in the direction of the sound and she sped up to a sprint. The hairs on the back of her neck raised as she sensed at least two bodies following closely behind her, leaping from branch to branch on either side of her. Sakura was strong but she wasn't fast, and she knew that she had no chance of outrunning them. Combat it is then, she decided.

With a quick twist of her body and her heels digging into the dirt, she turned towards the aggressors. She concentrated her chakra into her hands and took on a defensive stance: feet apart and biceps tense, ready to strike.

"Show yourselves!" she commanded sternly. Her eyes narrowed as she scanned her surroundings.

Pushing herself off the ground, she landed several feet behind where she previously stood, narrowly dodging a kunai flying straight towards the side of her head. She barely got the chance to correct her footing when a set of arms wrapped around her throat. Reaching behind her, Sakura allocated additional chakra to her fingers so that she could grip the fabric of the assailant's clothes. With a grunt, she pried their arms away from her neck and tossed them over her shoulders. The man, she now saw, landed face-down twenty feet in front of her with a dull thud, the top of his head slamming against the base of a tree.

Certain he was at least knocked unconscious, she turned her back to him to once again gauge the location of her other attacker. A paper bomb went off to her right immediately after she sensed it and leaped out of the way. This time, she took note of the sound of the explosion and the scent of scorched material. Without a doubt, this paper bomb was of the same weapon class as the one previously used on her and Sasuke.

Several shuriken shot towards her and she deflected them with a kunai she had quickly retrieved from her gear pouch. One managed to leave a shallow cut on her upper arm but she paid it no mind.

"Come out and fight, you cowards," Sakura taunted with a low growl.

Swiftly, she reached towards a tree beside her using both hands. With her chakra concentrated in her palms, she uprooted the tree and launched it in the direction from which movement had previously caught her attention. A cry of pain let her know that the flying tree had met its target.

From the canopy of tree branches above her, the body of a female assailant fell to the ground, landing right beside the unconscious man. The strange woman was quick, however, as she rapidly scrambled to her feet and adopted a defensive stance. Sakura's eyes widened in shock when she saw that the woman sported an ANBU mask, slightly cracked from the impact of her fall.

"Who are you?" Sakura demanded.

Without a word, the woman snatched the gear pouch from the man's body and took off running back into the thickness of the forest. Sakura briefly considered giving chase but decided against it, deducing that the woman could be leading her into a trap.

Once Sakura confirmed that no other chakra signatures were near her, she carefully tread to where the man she fought lied on the ground. He was slowly gaining consciousness, judging by the deep groan coming from his face-down form. She grabbed him roughly by the collar of his shirt and pushed his back against the bark of the tree that his head had previously hit. With her other hand, she reached out and knocked the ANBU mask he was wearing from his face. Sakura suppressed a sigh of relief when she saw that he was a stranger and not a nin from Konoha. When she came face-to-face with the man, he looked back at her with unfocused eyes, still dazed from being unconscious.

"Who sent you?" Sakura questioned, her left hand now gripped the front of his shirt as she kept him pressed against the tree. Her eyes narrowed at him and she furrowed her brows in anger.

The man coughed and spat blood in her face. "I don't know what you're talking about, lady," he said with a smirk.

Without flinching at the fluid that landed on her cheeks, Sakura studied the man. He was older, at least in his forties. An angry scar ran from his right eyebrow, down his cheek, and made a dramatic turn across the top of his lips before ending at the left corner of his mouth. His black hair with slight streaks of gray was slicked back and he wore typical civilian clothing; other than the ANBU mask, of course. Judging by the way this man fought her, inexperienced and clumsy, Sakura was sure that he didn't belong to the ANBU of any village. So what the hell was he doing with an ANBU mask and Jonin weapons?

"You're going to answer my question," Sakura warned, a dangerous threat lacing the tone of her voice.

"Or what?" He jeered at her.

"Or this," she retorted. She hated to do this but she knew she had to put up a tough front. With her right hand, she grasped the man's arm and twisted until she heard a crack. She fought back a guilty grimace and reassured herself that she could just heal him later.

The man's scream echoed in the empty forest. Panting from the pain, he glared at her before replying, "Do your worst, woman"

Sakura twisted his arm again, pulling it into an unnatural position as she returned his icy glare. As she prepared to repeat her question and before she could react, the man quickly stuffed an unknown pill between his teeth and bit down. Within seconds, he began foaming at the mouth as his eyes rolled to the back of his head.

In shock, Sakura loosened her grip on the man and stumbled back with a gasp. Without her holding him, he was now slumped over, his back still resting against the tree. His body began to convulse on the ground and she hurriedly dropped to her knees beside him to administer aid. Her hands began to radiate a green glow, but it was too late. The man was now sprawled on the forest floor, his empty eyes staring up at the canopy of leaves above them and his mouth hanging slightly ajar above a puddle of drool. He was dead.

Sakura could hardly believe the events that just unfolded before her. She remained frozen in place, eyes locked on the face of the lifeless man. Against her wishes, her hands began to tremble. It took all she had not to begin hyperventilating. No matter how much death she has seen in her mere twenty years of life, it never failed to affect her. Enemy or not, it was a gut-wrenching sight to see.

She forced herself to push her bubbling emotions aside and switch to her healer brain—the one that helped her mindlessly work on even the most gruesome medical cases without hesitation. It was a mindset that she had meticulously cultivated during the Fourth Shinobi War when the mangled bodies of her comrades were brought before her. It was a survival mechanism and the only thing that kept her from collapsing in despair.

Working quickly, Sakura summoned the soft glow back to her hands as her palms traveled up and down the corpse. The poison he had ingested was unlike anything she'd ever seen before. She's worked with poison that could incapacitate a man in mere seconds and kill him in minutes, but never has she come across a poison that could stop a man's heart even faster than that. She needed to extract the poison to analyze it.

Sakura skillfully manipulated her hands until a blob of the poison floated just above the corpse beside her. Flipping the cork off a vial she had retrieved from her bag, she took great care as she transferred the poison into its new vessel. Satisfied that she had retrieved as much of the substance as she could from the man, she corked the vial and tucked it safely back into her pouch. She gave the man another once-over. Something on his tongue caught her eye but she couldn't remember where she'd seen it before.

Noting the marking on his tongue and with a final glance at the man's face, she rose to her feet and began weaving hand signs for an earth style jutsu. She watched silently as the ground beneath the man began to expand, causing his body to sink deeper into the earth. Soon, the corpse was completely consumed and in its place was a length of dirt that signaled the ground had been disturbed.

Sakura tilted her head towards the sky and closed her eyes as she inhaled sharply. She allowed her thoughts to drift briefly back to the issue at hand. Not only was someone powerful after Sasuke, but they must also be formidable. There would be no other reason for the man to be willing to die rather than give her information unless the prospect of living while giving away his leader was even less desirable than death. As the kunoichi continued on her path home, she grappled with the notion that perhaps this scheme against her former teammate was more twisted and convoluted than she could possibly imagine.

With a deep inhale, Sakura let the cool air of Konoha fill her lungs. She didn't hate traveling to aid different villages as they rebuilt their hospital systems by any means, but nothing calmed her like the scent of the Hidden Leaf Village, her home. Smiling to herself, she felt her stomach flutter as she drew closer to the village gates. It had been a long time since she's seen everyone—at least three months, to be exact—and it left her giddy with both anticipation and anxiety. But as she approached the familiar landscape, a comfortable feeling settled over her; one that told her she was finally back where she belonged.

The rest of her trip along the Fire Country went relatively smoothly. She ran into a gang of rogue ninjas once but they were no more than common criminals. Their weapons, Sakura had observed, were outdated and weak. Plus, upon realizing who she was when her hood fell back and revealed her locks pink hair, they scrambled away apologetically.

"Sakura, it's been a while," the Jonin greeted her with a smile as she approached the guard post positioned right outside the Konoha gates.

"Yes, it has," Sakura agreed, returning the man's smile with a small one of her own. "How have you been, Genma-san?"

"I'm not risking my ass on missions anymore so I can't complain," Genma replied with a shrug and a chuckle. The older shinobi hasn't changed at all, Sakura noted as she met his nonchalant yet alert eyes. In this mouth, his teeth clamped on a senbon medical needle, letting it protube past his lips. His eyes, even when meeting hers, still intermittently darted across the clearing to scan the perimeter for enemies. Even in the time of peace, old habits seemed to die hard.

"Although, it does get a bit boring sitting at these gates all day," Genma continued when Sakura only grinned gently at his earlier statement.

"Maybe you should ask the Sixth to give you a more interesting assignment," she suggested.

"Yeah, something like chasing after some old lady's demon cat?" The ninja scoffed and rolled his eyes. "No thanks, I'm good here."

Sakura laughed, amused both at what Genma said but also at the memory that his words unveiled. It felt like so long ago that she, Sasuke, and Naruto were assigned such childish missions. Maybe because it really was so long ago.

"Small price to pay for peace though," he added, his voice trailed off as he looked towards the village. The corners of his lips were still upturned but his eyes seemed as if he was off in some faraway place.

That was a look Sakura was all-too-familiar with. It may have been three years since the Fourth Shinobi War but the brutal and painful memories of the battlefield were not lost on them. Sakura mustered as much sympathy in her gaze as she could and reached out to lightly squeeze his hand that was resting on the surface of the guard post table.

He turned back towards her and their gaze met again, understanding flowing between them. With his other hand, he place it above hers to return the squeeze before waving it dismissively in the air and saying, "Now go on, I know some people who will be very happy to see you."

With a nod and a wide grin, Sakura waved at Genma as she ran towards the village, a newfound bounce in each of her steps at the thought of reuniting with her friends.

It wasn't long before she ran into one of them. Arms wrapping around her almost pushed her off her feet had she not righted herself immediately when she sensed the body crashing into her.

"Has your forehead gotten bigger?" The blonde, clad in her usual purple outfit, asked incredulously as she finally released Sakura from her tight hug.

"No, but your stink has gotten worse, Pig," Sakura teased, pinching her nose and scrunching up her features overdramatically.

Ino playfully slapped her pink-haired friend's upper arm and laughed, "Good to have you back, you weirdo."

With a grin, Sakura linked arms with the blonde and continued her walk across the village before looking around and asking, "Where is everyone?"

"Sai, Shikamaru, and Kiba are on some mission in Suna and Lee and Ten-Ten are still doing their work with the Academy. Shino's started his apprenticeship with Iruka-sensei, Choji is somewhere decimating the village's supply of meat, and Hinata' probably training Hinabi right now." Ino listed, holding up a finger to count each answer as she relayed the information. "Oh and Naruto has been complaining nonstop about all the textbooks he has to read for his Hokage training."

The duo rolled their eyes simultaneously at this. Of course, he was. Sakura didn't expect anything different from her loud, idiotic ex-teammate.

When they arrived at the Hokage's office, Ino unlinked their arms with a happy sigh. "Poor Kakashi-sensei has been swamped with paperwork, too," Ino shook her head.

"I never thought I'd live to see him actually work," Sakura laughed.

"Oh don't worry, there's still plenty of 'I simply got lost on the path of life,'" Ino held up two fingers in air quotes and lowered her voice to mockingly mimic that of the former Team 7 leader and current Sixth Hokage.

"Still doing that, huh?" Sakura raised an amused brow at the blonde.

"Oh yeah, he's giving poor Shizune a run for her money." At that, both kunoichi shared a giggle thinking of the way Kakashi always looked bored as Shizune listed off all his responsibilities for the day and how Shizune once snapped her fingers in his face like she was trying to gain the attention of a toddler.

"Poor woman never gets a rest, does she?" Sakura said, shaking her head with a bemused smile.

"Alright, you go do your reporting stuff; I'm off to the post office," Ino explained as she turned away and waved her hand lazily in the air.

"Tell Sai I said hi," Sakura called after her.

Whipping her head around to face her friend once again, the blonde woman could hardly hide the blush forming on her cheeks. "I-I don't know what you're talking about," she stammered out.

"Sure you don't," the medic-nin snarked with a smirk. Before Ino could answer, Sakura turned and headed towards the entrance to the Hokage tower. With a dismissive wave over her shoulder, she left her friend standing open-mouthed in surprise and embarrassment.

"Come in," called the voice as she knocked on the door to the Hokage's office. She could almost hear the exasperation in his tone but he quickly perked up when he laid his eyes on his former student. "Ah, Sakura, it's you."

She could see his mask slightly contort as he smiled beneath it. The gray-haired man has not changed a bit since her genin days training with him, still even wearing his green jonin vest despite being appointed as the Sixth Hokage. Although, she observed, the slight shadows under his eyes gave way to the toll that leading a post-war village had on him.

"Lord Hokage," Sakura bowed mockingly as she came to a stop several feet from his desk, knowing how he always corrected her when she used such formalities.

"Tch," he clicked his tongue and rolled his eyes but his smile remained as he stood from his chair and walked around the large desk. He immediately enveloped her in a hug that she returned tenderly, closing her eyes for a moment as her cheek pressed against his shoulder.

"Missed ya, kiddo." Kakashi breathed softly as the two parted.

"I missed you too, Kakashi-sensei." Sakura put extra emphasis on the way she said his name.

"That's more like it," the Hokage chuckled as he reached out to gently ruffle her hair, a habit he's retained throughout the years as her teacher.

After exchanging a few more pleasantries, Kakashi finally leaned back against the edge of his desk and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"So, tell me about these rogue ninjas you ran into."

Sakura launched into her story starting from the day she found Sasuke in the Kusakagure forest battling multiple assailants and ending with the man who had died right before her eyes after ingesting some unknown poison, which she noted took a sample of. Listening closely and nodding as she spoke, Kakashi eyed the floor by his feet with a grim expression.

"I also have this." Sakura fished the shred of the paper bomb tag from where she had been carrying it in her pocket before handing it to the masked man.

Kakashi eyed the object as he held it between his fingers and at eye-level. His arms were uncrossed now, with his other hand pinching his chin as he inspected the strip of paper.

"We should have Ten-Ten look at this just to be sure…" Kakashi trailed off before looking back to her. "But I think you're right about it being from the Konoha line of advanced weaponry."

Sakura nodded, "that's what I was afraid you were going to say."

"Well, as soon as we get confirmation, I'll launch an investigation into the matter," Kakashi said with a sigh. His tired eyes met hers. "Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Sakura. I'm glad neither you nor Sasuke were hurt."

The Hokage carefully placed the remains of the paper bomb into a pouch, no doubt to later send to Ten-Ten who now led the weapons unit. He then turned to once again sit back at his desk. "Now go rest, you've been away for too long," he said to Sakura, gesturing towards the now closed office door.

"Kakashi-sensei…" Sakura started. His eyes met hers again as his head cocked to the side in curiosity. "I think I know who might be responsible."

"Is that so?" Kakashi raised his brow slightly.

Sakura nodded slowly. "The man who died. There was a black mark on his tongue and it took me a while to figure out where I'd seen it before. But then I remembered," she paused briefly, her expression darkening. "Sai used to have the exact same one."

Kakashi's eyes widened at the revelation. "Danzo's cursed seal," he confirmed, his voice low and gaze averted in thought. "If it's people connected to Root who are after Sasuke, we have an even bigger problem on our hands. Root doesn't just train your ordinary ANBU shinobi, their members are deadly and merciless. Even worse, it sounds like they have access to highly secured areas meaning—"

"It's probably someone we know," she interrupted.

"Yes, it's probably someone we know," he repeated quietly, sounding oh so tired.

"I'm going to order a strictly classified investigation, I think we'll have to start with an undercover assignment." His voice was louder now, his mind no doubt racing to already begin planning the details of the mission.

"I want to do it," Sakura stated sternly as she narrowed her eyes in determination. "Let me lead the investigation."

"It's going to be extremely dangerous."

"I know."

"You might have to investigate people you know, people who have fought alongside you. People who are your comrades."

She wanted to flinch when he emphasized the last word but she kept her gaze steady, clenching her fists until she could feel her nails dig into the skin of her palms and praying that her body would not betray her and begin to tremble. Finally, with as much conviction as she could muster, she spoke.

"I can handle it. I'm not weak."

"I didn't say you were," Kakashi watched Sakura with solemn eyes that seemed slightly amused at her defensiveness. A thick silence fell between them.

"Okay," he finally relented with a sigh as he placed his palms flat against the surface of his desk. "When can you start?"

A/N

Bit of a longer chapter this time! Things are going to start picking up from here. so stayed tuned. I plan to post an update either Friday or over the weekend. Please leave a review!

Thanks,

ArtfullyPoetic