Three days passed uneventfully, to Sakura's relief. But as time continued to grow between the present and the violent fights they had witnessed, her unease only heightened. These sentiments were echoed by the way she could hear Sachie thrash in her sleep, her nightmares growing more vivid and violent as the nights went by and the anticipation of what would inevitably come again continued to multiply.

As the girl's noises began to subside, Sakura shifted in her cot until she was on her back once again, her face pointed to the ceiling. There were no ceiling tiles to count but the action was a habit she had formed years ago to help her fall asleep. It was a habit she still couldn't shake, even if her surroundings were entirely novel.

The thought of tomorrow made her shudder involuntarily. This was how all of her nights have ended since that day she witnessed firsthand the brutality that Root was capable of. She had always known that Root was ruthless but she'd never seen such a thing up close. Thinking back on that day and the way the woman cried for her fallen beloved, made her want to weep.

In the days following the event, gossip had spread like wildfire among the recruits. As it turned out, the woman and man were married and were forced to join Root when their young infant, along with the woman's parents were captured. Like Sachie and Souta, their enlistment in the ranks or the organization was the hefty price for their family's freedom that they had no choice but to pay. Sakura's chest ached for the woman's loss and especially for the child who was still too young to understand the gravity of the situation.

Even with all the blood and violence Sakura had witnessed, it was the woman's scream that stuck with her the most. The way her pain was displayed, so raw and unrestrained, haunted Sakura's dreams and she found herself often jumping awake as the disembodied wails filled her ears. Although a wave of guilt washed over her for thinking so, it wasn't the woman's pain that bothered her most; rather, it was the thought that she could have easily been in the woman's shoes.

Witnessing such grief reminded her so much of that night during the Fourth Shinobi War when she was convinced Naruto had died right in front of her. His lifeless body lying on the ground often materialized in her nightmares and was made worse when she later learned that Sasuke's heart had also stopped beating at that very same moment.

She always counted herself lucky when she thought back to how close she had come to losing everyone who mattered to her. Kakashi and Shizune during Pain's invasion of the village, then Naruto, Sasuke, and even Tsunade during Madara's attack. The visions of what could have been haunted her and filled her with dreadful what-ifs. For months after the war, she had often woken herself up from nightmares with the same lingering feeling: absolute, total loneliness.

Tears began to brim in the corner of her eyes at the memory and at the notion of what her life could have become had she lost everyone. But the sound of her room door opening snapped her back to reality. When she whipped her head to the side to glance at the door, she found a guard shoving the blonde girl—her previous roommate who had been carried off to Re-education several days prior—into the dark sleeping quarters. Sakura's jaw dropped in shock.

When the door shut again, Sakura trained her eyes on the girl who looked much thinner and even more frail than she was before. But the most disturbing thing was the look in her eyes—or rather, lack thereof. There was an unsettling emptiness there, almost as if the girl was simply a hollow shell of her former shelf. And as it dawned on Sakura what Re-education must have entailed, she reckoned that her observation was likely not far off.

The girl trailed robotically to her bed in between the two occupied cots, her unblinking eyes focused on absolutely nothing. It was terrifying to see and Sakura's mind reeled with theories of Re-education. Like she has suspected before, it likely consisted of even harsher, more savage training. However, she could not imagine how cruel that training must be to reduce a person to nothing more than a shadow of a human in the span of three days.

As Sakura shut her eyes and urged sleep to come and take her, she couldn't help but think of Sachie being carted off in the same manner, only to return as an empty void. Remembering the thought she had the day she learned of the existence of Re-education, she realized she now had the answer. Death was much, much more merciful.

Sakura eyed the blonde girl nervously as she sparred with Sachie and Souta during their morning combat training. She noted that the girl's moves were different than they were before. Rather than the usual flawed and hesitant fighting style she once possessed, the blonde was now ruthless as she mercilessly beat her opponents with eyes so distant they seemed like black holes. She could tell that Sachie and Souta echoed her thoughts when she turned to face them only to find them sharing curious glances each time the girl successfully landed a blow on her sparring partner.

Distracted, Sakura punched Sachie a little too hard and sent her flying back several feet. With her broken arm still in a sling, she couldn't break her fall and landed roughly on her back. Sakura cursed under her breath and rushed towards the girl to help but was stopped in her tracks when a foot came crashing into her chest. The impact knocked the air from her lungs and she landed on the ground much like Sachie had earlier.

Looking up, she found that Souta was her assailant. Anger bubbled in her until she met his gaze and realized he just saved her from making a grave mistake. From the corner of her eye, she could see the captain watch the fight unfold with a curious smirk. She shuddered at the thought of what could have happened to her if the captain saw her helping an opponent.

She tried to flash a look of gratitude towards Souta only to find that he was poised for another attack. She swiftly swung herself to her feet and mirrored his fighting stance. Shortly after, Sachie joined them again and the trio circled each other, eyes steeled and muscles tensed. Their battle continued with Sakura maintaining her pattern of taking a few hits before blocking and retaliating. This time, she was careful to restrain herself from using her strength in its entirety.

When lunch came, so did the anxiety that caused her heart to race. It felt silly to think so but Sakura hoped desperately that their afternoon would be filled solely with endurance training and no other surprises. How ironic was it that she was now wishing to be tortured?

Chewing slowly, she forced the food to slide down her throat, finding that the lump that had formed there made it difficult to swallow. As she stole a glance at the twins who sat across from her as they always did, Sakura found that they, too, seemed to have trouble eating. Souta in particular, looked almost like he was ready to vomit. The sight was puzzling. His usual stoic demeanor from their earlier training session was now replaced with a look of defeat, as if he had resigned to the fact that another round of fighting matches will soon follow. Beside him, Sachie sat in utter silence, her face hidden under locks of thick, brown hair.

A sinking feeling began deep in Sakura's stomach as the shuffling of footsteps and clattering of food trays signaled the end of their meal. As she cleaned up and positioned herself to follow the crowd of recruits, she braced herself for what was to come. To her dismay, the group was again led away from the endurance rooms and in the direction of the training grounds. Beside her, she could see Sachie stiffen, her fist clenched.

To their relief, they arrived at the arena to find that it was not arranged the way it had been previously during the fights. Instead, rows of weapons were laid out on the ground in neat rows with the captain standing behind them. Around the perimeter of the training grounds, several targets were erected and spaced evenly apart. As the recruits fell into their positions, the captain watched them with a smug smile.

"I'm sure you all find this to be a nice surprise," the captain announced as he gestured to the weapons in front of him. "These are some of the most sophisticated ninja weapons in the world and today, each of you will get the chance to wield them."

Sakura gulped as she surveyed the array of items before her and noted the familiar paper bombs and markings that signified it as property of Konoha. Scanning the rows of weapons, she observed that there were various types of ninja tools, each organized in piles of the same kind. Kunai, Shuriken, paper bombs, and—her heart were sank when she noted the pile of mineral bombs at the very end of the row of weapons. It seemed Root had gotten its hands on the dojutsu-blocking smoke bombs after all and was definitely more than capable of reproducing Konoha weaponry, judging by the sheer quantity of weapons. There was no way this many could disappear from Konoha without notice.

Root members nearby began to issue each recruit a single kunai, various shuriken, and a handful of paper bomb tags. Sakura took special note that the mineral bombs were not being distributed. Likely due to the limited stock, she reckoned, as she saw that the mineral bomb pile was significantly smaller than the remainder of the weapons. Peering closer, she counted five total mineral bombs. As fleeting as it was, a sense of relief flooded her when she realized that the scarce availability of the mineral bomb meant there was a lower chance of one being used against Sasuke in battle.

Once each recruit was readied with their weapons, the captain instructed them to divide themselves into small groups and begin training. A Root member briefly demonstrated the correct way to launch weapons at the target and methods to best plant paper bombs undetected. Sakura tuned most of the demonstration out as she studied the paper bomb in her hands. It was an exact replica of Konoha's line of advanced weapons, down to the painted ink symbol that signified authenticity. It was likely that no one, other than Tenten, would be able to distinguish between real and fake.

Sakura adopted her usual pattern of performance, as she aimed for her shuriken to hit just barely off center on the target before allowing a stray one to miss entirely. At least two of her ninja stars flew past the target and lodged themselves into the wooden beams lining the wall of the arena. As she retrieved her weapons, she noted the unnatural texture of the wooden pillars, running her fingers briefly along the ridges before a shout called her back to her position to wait for another turn at target practice.

Sweat beaded on Sakura's forehead as she looked ahead from her spot at the back of the line to find Sachie taking her turn. Each and every one of her shuriken either flew past the target or landed several feet in front of it, earning Sachie a shake of disapproval from a nearby Root member. Her expression blank and unchanging, Sachie gathered her weapons and returned to the line, standing directly behind Sakura.

"Keep your eye on the target," Sakura whispered as she leaned back and towards Sachie.

"What?" came her reply, voice just as quiet.

"You keep looking at your hand when you throw, look at the target instead."

Before Sachie could respond further, both women were distracted by the sound of gasps from the recruits. Looking up, Sakura found that four out of five of Souta's shuriken were lodged immediately surrounding the bullseye mark. The fifth was directly in the center.

"Well done, as always," the captain remarked as he strolled up to Souta who was now plucking his weapons from the wooden plank. Souta only nodded in reply.

Realizing that she was openly gaping at Souta now, Sakura quickly clamped her mouth shut. She knew Souta was good, but shuriken techniques with such accuracy required years of practice, something that a normal civilian wouldn't have the chance to do. So how exactly did Souta gain such skills? All she knew about the twins was that they lived with their grandmother and two young siblings on the outskirts of the Land of Wind before their untimely enlistment as Root recruits. But based on her observations now, there was much more to their upbringing than she was originally told.

A sudden piercing screech interrupted Sakura's musings and she whipped her head around to find her blonde roommate lying on the ground in a fetal position, arms clutching her hair so tightly that her scalp stretched with painful tension. Two Root members quickly surrounded her, blocking their view of the distressed girl. As Sachie watched the scene unfold, Sakura could feel her fingers cling onto the fabric on the back of her shirt, her hand trembling.

Souta quickly appeared in front of the two women, standing before them as he trained his eyes on the Root members, one who was now roughly dragging the screaming blonde to her feet by her hair. It was subtle, not enough for anyone else to notice in the chaos as it looked like he was simply inching closer to observe the commotion, but Sakura knew for certain that he was ready to protect them no matter what it cost.

A piercing screech filled the room as the girl broke free of the Root member's grip, leaving him with a fistful of her wispy blonde hair. Her eyes, when they met Sakura's, were wild and nothing like the blank stare that lived there before. She panted raggedly, her chest rising and falling in a noticeable pattern, and her muscles tensed. Sakura couldn't help but picture her as cornered prey with no remaining options to survive as enemies circled in.

The twitch in the girl's hands were inconspicuous but every reflex in Sakura's body knew what was coming. She was reaching for a weapon. In one smooth motion, Sakura gripped Souta by the back of his collar with her left hand and Sachie by her good arm with her right hand, before roughly dragging them both down to the ground and shielding them with her body. As soon as she felt her knees hit the floor, the arena lit up in flames.

Screams soon followed but Sakura could barely make out the voices above the ringing in her ears. Someone was shaking her and someone else was shouting. Even while disoriented, she could sense the chaos erupting around her.

"Mariko! You have to get up!"

The sound of Sachie's voice and the ever-growing strength of her grip on Sakura's arm roused her from her daze. Sitting up, she blinked furiously to clear her vision and watched as Sachie's face slowly came into focus before her eyes. The younger girl pulled the kunoichi to her feet and urged her to run but Sakura paused briefly to stuff some paper bombs into her clothes. This would come in handy. As soon as she turned to leave, a body slammed into her. Sakura could feel herself tumbling to the ground once again, too dizzy to react and break her fall.

She closed her eyes and braced for an impact that never came. Instead, arms wrapped around her waist and steadied her. When she opened her eyes, she found herself inches away from Souta's face.

"We have to go. Now," he commanded, his voice low and stern.

Finally able to overcome some of her disorientation, Sakura surveyed the training grounds to find Root members barking orders to return to the sleeping quarters as the recruits frantically made their way to the exits. Where the blonde girl and the Root members attempting to subdue her once stood, was a black crater in the ground surrounded by bodies, some disturbingly still and others trembling in agony. In the center were three charred masses, one with a clump of burned but recognizable blonde hair still attached. Sakura realized in horror: the blonde girl was dead and she had taken others with her.

There was an unsettling silence that enveloped the three recruits as they sat alarmingly still in Sakura and Sachie's room, each enraptured in their own thoughts. Barely ten minutes earlier, they had watched their ex-roommate set off several paper bombs, killing herself and who knows how many others. Despite all her years as a medic that desensitized her to the image of even the nastiest of wounds, a heaviness that settled within Sakura. Death, she knew, would never be something she could get used to.

"Mariko, are you okay?" Sachie asked, finally breaking the silence.

Sakura looked up to find the girl eyeing her with concern, no doubt alarmed by the sheer amount of blood seeping through the cloth Sakura had pressed against her temple. She was likely grazed by some flying debris from the explosion. Fortunately, it was only a skin-deep wound, but head injuries always bled more than expected.

"I'm good, don't worry about it," Sakura answered with a reassuring smile.

Sachie nodded in return but the concern in her eyes did not falter.

"Sachie, come here for a second. I need to check your arm," Sakura beckoned to the space beside her where she sat on her cot.

The young girl's eyes widened slightly but she obeyed without another word. As she slid, a little ungracefully, from her bed, Sakura could see how Souta eyed the two girls with a wary look. Still distrustful as always, Sakura thought to herself.

When Sachie settled beside her, Sakura quickly unwrapped the sling and makeshift splint from Sachie's arm. The injury looked better now, the bruise more yellow than the angry purple it had been the first couple days. Her hand glowed as she channeled the chakra to her fingertips, relishing swiftly in the familiar feeling. She didn't realize how much she missed performing medical ninjutsu until now.

With expertise, Sakura ran her fingers gently over her patient's arm, mending bone and muscle as best as she could. She was afraid to completely heal Sachie before to avoid raising suspicion but given today's events, it was better, no, safer for Sachie to have a functioning arm. As she worked, she could feel Souta's heavy gaze on her.

"There, try to move it," she instructed when she finally pulled away, allowing the chakra she summoned to dissipate.

Sachie swung her arm cautiously but began to move it faster when Sakura nodded with encouragement.

"Whoa, it's completely healed," the young girl whispered in awe, her facial features lit in wonder.

"This is just a safety measure so make sure you still act like it's injured," Sakura warned as she gently grasped Sachie's arm again and began to redo the splint. Only this time, she did it loosely so that the wrappings could be easily removed in the event of an emergency. When she finished, she gave Sachie a reassuring smile who returned with a grin of her own before scrambling back to her seat.

"Thanks for saving me out there, by the way. I would have probably been trampled if the both of you hadn't gotten me up," Sakura eventually spoke as her gaze darted between the two siblings who were now sitting side-by-side on Sachie's bed.

Sachie beamed at her. Souta, on the other hand, only huffed in return as he crossed his arms and averted his gaze towards the end of the room. Following his eyes, Sakura found him eyeing the empty bed that once belonged to their blonde roommate. To her surprise, Souta turned to face her, a stern look plastered on his face.

"Who are you exactly?" he demanded. When she only gave him a puzzled stare, he continued. "I can't trust you until you tell me why you're here."

"I still don't know what you're talking about."

He sighed and ran his hand down in face in exasperation. "Don't play dumb with me. That reaction time of yours is no joke and I know you've been holding back during training. Not to mention whatever you've been doing with Sachie's arm. She might be able to trust you but I can't."

"Souta," chided Sachie as her eyes flickered nervously between the two.

"We've already gone over this. The less you know the better," Sakura finally replied.

"I don't give a shit what you think is better," anger flared in him and Sakura watched wide-eyed as he stood and towered over her menacingly. "You said you could help my family but all we've done is wait around. At this rate we'd end up like her before you do anything useful." He tilted his head in the direction of the cot that once belonged to the blonde girl.

Sakura swallowed and steadied her voice. "That won't happen."

"Yeah? And how exactly are you going to make sure of that?"

"I don't know."

Souta groaned in frustration before turning to face his sister and pointing an accusing finger in Sakura's direction. "I told you, we can't trust her."

"I trust her," came Sachie's small voice.

"You're an idiot."

As the siblings continued to bicker, Sakura lost herself in her thoughts. Souta was right, she had no plan right now and barely any information to go off of. She didn't blame him for not trusting her, she wouldn't either. But she knew that things would only be worse if she came clean.

"Trust goes both ways, you know," Sakura finally spoke, interrupting the ongoing heated discourse between the twins. "I don't know anything about you either but I'm choosing to trust that there are things better left unsaid."

Souta scoffed, "Don't try to turn this around on—"

She held up a hand to stop him. "Listen, I know you're hiding something too. Those combat skills of yours are way too advanced for a civilian to pick up even with intensive training. But I'm choosing not to pry and I ask that you do the same."

"Unbelievable," he muttered under his breath as he finally sat back down beside Sachie.

Several moments of silence followed as Sakura trained her gaze on him. Truthfully, she had suspected long ago that Souta had some sort of combat training prior to becoming a recruit. But what she saw today with the way he wielded shinobi weapons, she knew that it wasn't any type of training that he received. He was a trained Shinobi and judging by the bewildered way Sachie looked at him when Sakura pointed out his combat skills, his sister didn't know the entire truth either.

"She's our only hope, Souta." While Sachie's voice was soft, it sounded much more harsh following the deep silence. As Sakura shot her a relieved smile, Souta remained unmoving and quiet. Sitting on the bed with his arms crossed, he seemed almost at ease but Sakura could see the rapid rate at which he clenched and unclenched his jaw. The frustration he felt, she could understand entirely.

"Tomorrow night," he finally acquiesced. "You have until tomorrow night to give us your plan."

"Souta—"

"No, it's okay," Sakura interrupted Sachie who no doubt was planning to chastise her brother again. "That's fair. I'll let you know what I come up with."

With a nod, Souta got up and returned to his sleeping quarters, leaving Sachie and Sakura sitting alone with their thoughts. Sakura sighed inwardly. Coming up with a plan by tomorrow night isn't going to be easy but she'd be damned if she didn't try.

A/N

Hello! I know I said I would try posting on a more consistent schedule, but life has been really hectic lately so I'm not sure if I'll be able to do that for a while.

Anyways, I would like to take the time again to thank all of my readers. I see your comments/reviews and I appreciate each and everyone one of them! Every view, favorite, follow, kudos, hit, and/or bookmark means so so much to me. I wouldn't be able to keep up with this fic if not for your endless support!

I wish you all the best of luck in everything and I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Look forward to an update around this time next week :)