A/N: Sorry it took so long. Work has royally sucked. Also, being 100% real, I could not have given less of a shit about the Hiden and Kakuzu arc, and this chapter was pretty hard to write as a result. On a more exciting note, I recently published a series of short stories called After;Life on the Saga Fiction app, and my book Turtle A by Ellie Martin-Mckinsey is available on Amazon Kindle, Saga Fiction, Kobo, and Google play books! If you like my writing and want to support me, please go check those out!

"Sakura's thoughts..."

"Inner Sakura..."

Memory...

Sakura skidded to a stop in front of Naruto and Yamato, who were both crouched over a scroll with the chakra nature wheel inked on it.

"Sakura-chan…? You're back?! Since when?" Naruto blinked in bewilderment.

"About fifteen minutes ago."

He scanned over her, and was taken aback. Sakura usually always looked put together, but now her clothes were dirty, covered in blood stains, and littered with more than a few holes and tears. "What the—What errand did granny send you on?!" He shouted, his eyes widened in concern.

"We don't have time for that now. Team 10 is in trouble! They need our help! How's training coming?"

"I've got it all sorta figured out-ish! Believe it! Shikamaru and Choji are in trouble?"

"And Ino-pig—you hear that Sai?" She turned over her shoulder at where the pale painter had materialized from behind the a pile of shattered earth.

Sai had been visiting and checking in on Naruto's training frequently, and he'd been on his way to do so today, same as usual when he caught a glimpse of Sakura and hung back to observe the interaction. But upon hearing about Team Ten, he'd readily approached. He'd been hanging out with Ino daily since Sakura left. She would drag him to tea or snack shops, or to her family's flower shop. She'd started teaching him about the language of flowers, and how different colors meant different things. Ino didn't skirt around things. After telling him one meaning for a certain color of flower type, she'd rifle through his sketch book and point to a piece where he'd used the same color and asked if he felt like the meaning fit in the context of the piece. Most of the time, his answer was no, but there were moments where as he looked at the painting or sketch, the meaning she offered seemed to vibrate through him in a way that felt familiar—maybe because he felt that feeling before? Or because it fit what he logically should have been feeling at the time of making the piece? He didn't have the answer for that, but it was something. Something more than the nothing he typically felt.

Since Asuma died, he hadn't seen much of Ino. He'd read about grief being a response to loss, and assumed Ino must be feeling it. He'd read contradicting advice about comforting a grieving friend. In the same passage, it had said both that giving them space and leaving them alone, as well as staying close and reminding the person they're loved were both recommended course of comfort. He hadn't been sure which to enact and felt even more lost given that Sakura wasn't around for him to ask, so he'd been giving her some space. But the time and space he'd been giving her didn't change anything. He still wasn't sure about his feelings or bonds with others, but he knew he didn't like the idea of Ino being in trouble.

"You weren't exactly speaking quietly." Sai answered, his tone still as flat as ever.

"Good. Then we should go." The 'sorta' and 'ish' weren't exactly encouraging with Naruto's training, and if the mission were anything else, she'd insist on waiting until he fully figured it out, but…their friends were in immediate danger.

"Fine with me, Sakura-chan, but are you ok?" Naruto pressed, still unhappy about the state of her clothes. She seemed to be moving fine, but blood stains and holes like that weren't promising.

"Don't worry—I know I look like a mess, but I healed and slept off the damage. I'm totally fine now, I promise. But I'm worried about Team Ten, so let's get moving!"

"Yeah you may have healed and slept it off, but that means you still got that hurt in the first place." Naruto grumbled, following after Sakua.

"Maybe Hag had one of her chakra reactions you told me about." Sai observed.

"Maybe, but that doesn't make me feel better about it." Naruto answered dully, before taking to the trees.

Sakura didn't answer. She peripherally heard them, but didn't want to relive how bad her reaction was, and more than that, she just wanted to help Team Ten and Kakashi before anything bad happened to them.

It wasn't a moment too soon. When they reached the clearing, Choji, Ino, and Kakashi were bound by black thread-like chakra, coming from a creepy guy with two masks on either side of his head, surrounded by the same dark chakra as the threads. Sakura didn't need a second look to know that this was bad. Naruto and Yamato didn't either.

"Wind style: Wind Rasengan!"

"Water style: Ripping torrent!"

"Earth style: Cherry Blossom Impact!"

Naruto and Yamato's jutsu formed a huge storming vortex, carrying large chunks of rocks and dirt from Sakura's directed punch. It surrounded Kakuzu, and cut the threads that had been holding Choji, Ino, and Kakashi.

"Sorry we're late." Naruto said, as they landed in front of the three shinobi.

Kakashi let out a sigh of relief. "Perfect timing actually." A wind style rasengan…so Naruto had succeeded in his training, and not a moment too soon. Still it was shocking—to think he'd managed it in such a short amount of time. Naruto truly was a power-house wild card to never bet against. His eyes slid to Sakura. So she'd survived the slugs test and made a pact with them. Judging from her appearance, she must have only just gotten back, and by the state of her clothes, either the test, journey, or both, had been incredibly grueling. He had no doubt she turned right around without giving herself a seconds rest, which was concerning.

"Sai! Forehead! And Naruto too!" Ino gasped in relief. That had been a close call, and there was something pleasant about the way her heart jumped a little at the sight of Sai standing in front of her. She was also happy to see Sakura again, though the state of her clothes didn't escape her notice…Tsunade never did go easy on her.

"Oy…" Choji grunted. "Reinforcements, yay…" He was happy for the help, this Akatsuki was tough.

"I've never seen you so slovenly, Kakashi-senpai." Yamato commented.

"This enemy is pretty strong." Kakashi defended.

"Akatsuki travel in pairs…where's the other one?" Sakura noted glancing around.

"And Shikamaru?" Naruto added.

"He's battling the other enemy a little ways away." Choji filled in.

"So he's trying to divide and conquer." Sakura muttered.

"It's sort of what happened with Sasori and Deidara too, but I wasn't left alone. I had Lady Chiyo to help me. Shikamaru's brilliant, but he should still have some back up!"

"Sensei—"

"The answer's yes. Two of you head over and assist him. A long range fighter and a medic." Kakashi answered, summoning Pakkun.

"Follow me comrades." The pug immediately grunted.

"I'll go!" Sakura immediately volunteered. It was her or Ino, and they both knew she was the more skilled healer. Shikamaru had been facing a dangerous enemy alone for longer. There was a good chance his injuries might be extreme. Ino seemed to be of the same mindset, as she offered no protest.

"Sai, go with them and help Shikamaru." Yamato ordered.

"…Sir." Sai agreed after a slight hesitance. He was a shinobi. His job was to follow orders, and he'd been issued one. He wouldn't defy it. But…he kind of…he kind of wanted to stay. Of team ten, his closest bond was with Ino, so he'd rather be here and back her up, than Shikamaru, who struck him as rather Lazy. But he knew how Sakura felt about Ino, Naruto, and Kakashi, and she was still leaving them to provide back up for someone else. And it was an order—his job. So he'd do it. If Sakura could leave without fearing how it would effect her bonds, he could too.

Kakuzu chuckled. "More potential replacement hearts. Excellent."

"Nuh-uh, slime face. This is my show now." Naruto declared fiercely.

"Let's go." Pakkun barked.

Sakura put her hand on Naruto's blond spikes, tousling them. "I'm counting on you, Naruto."

Naruto gave her a small smile and nodded. "Leave it to me."

Sai watched the interaction carefully, his eyes narrowing at the exchange.

Sakura nodded, turning to Ino. "We have to catch up, Pig."

"We're getting lunch when all this is over." Ino agreed, understanding her statement for what it was—a promise and warning that they both better make it out of this alive.

Sakura, Sai, and Pakkun took off, Sakura pushing their speed to reach Shikamaru faster.

"Hag?"

"Yeah?"

"Ino…She lost her master recently."

"Yeah. Those Akatsuki bastards killed him. Shishou told me."

"She's been…upset."

Sakura glanced over at him. "Sai…are you worried about her?"

"I don't know. I'm not sure how to worry. In a book, it said contradicting things about offering comfort. So I didn't know how to help her."

"The book you read that in, did you read it because of what happened to Ino-Pig?"

"I suppose so. You and Naruto seem to extend comfort to each other when you're upset, so I assumed that's what you're supposed to do to establish and strengthen a bond."

"He's really trying…and he's already come so far, attempting to foster a bond outside of Naruto and I. Of course Pig has a lot to do with it. She always was good at drawing people to her."

"That's called worry, Sai. You read that book and attempted to learn about comforting because you wanted to help her. You felt worry, or at the very least, the beginning of it."

"Fascinating. It's not a pleasant emotion."

"No. It's not. Many aren't."

"All the same, how am I supposed to comfort her?"

"There are many ways, and everyone prefers something different. But when in doubt, just ask. Ask her if she's ok. If there's anything you can do for her. Let her tell you what she needs, and listen to and honor what she says. You'll learn the best way without having to ask after awhile, although it would be different for everyone, so always ask when it's someone new."

"Hm…I'll try that." Sai murmured after a moments contemplation. "Hag?"

"What now?"

"I wanted to ask you before this, but you weren't around."

Sakura almost laughed. "Is that your way of saying you missed me? Thanks, Sai. I missed you too."

"I don't think that's—"

Sakura suddenly came to an abrupt stop, looking around the surroundings.

"What's wrong?" Paakun asked, glancing back.

"This is…this is the Nara forest…" She recognized it from when Shikamaru would take her in to harvest medicinal herbs.

"If this is where he is, then he didn't just separate them arbitrarily. He had a plan the whole time, because of course he did, but this means he fully planned ahead and brought the Akatsuki here. If that's the case…"

"There's a chance he might not need back up at all." She murmured.

"Is something wrong?" Sai asked blankly.

"No. Let's keep moving."

Just after she said it, there was a loud explosion.

"C'mon!" Pakkun barked, taking off toward the sound, which was ahead of him.

They traveled a little further before Pakkun jumped down to the ground, as Shikamaru stepped out in front of him.

"Found you!" The dog declared.

"Reinforcements? Well, you're a bit late." Shikamaru muttered dryly.

"So you took out an Akatsuki on your own. I didn't know you were that good." Sai observed.

"Are you hurt?"

Shikamaru shifted his gaze to Sakura. "You don't seem surprised."

"Once I realized where we were, I figured you had planned everything long before. Still, it was reckless to take him on alone."

"Like you're one to talk." There were two people who had no standing to lecture anyone one recklessness: Naruto, and Sakura. "I had to. This time…I just knew I had to." He never understood Naruto or Sakura's recklessness until now, but the need to take action, the feeling that it had to be by his hand…he finally understood. And by the softening of her eyes, and the sad smile that replaced her worried scowl, Sakura fully understood.

She stepped forward and brought her hands over him, performing quick chakra scan. "Nothing too bad, but you're way out of chakra. Don't even think of trying to rejoin the other fight. I doubt you even have the energy to run."

"You got that right." He muttered.

"Here." Sakura took his hand, matching her chakra to his, and letting it flow into him. A hand on her shoulder stopped her.

"You've gotten faster at that, but that's enough. I have enough to travel now, and you shouldn't exhaust yourself. If their injuries are really bad, they'll need you."

"Fine." Sakura released his hand and turned abruptly. "Let's hurry."

"You were the one in the hurry to get here." Sai observed.

"Cause I was worried about Shikamaru. Now I'm worried about them, so let's get back." Sakura took to the trees again without waiting for either of them.

"How that much concern and energy fits in that tiny body is beyond me." Pakkun grunted.

"She always did suck at doing nothing." Shikamaru drawled.

Sai blinked at her retreating figure for a second, before they all took off after her. He had to agree with the summoning dog—he had no clue how Sakura had the capacity to care as much as she did. And yet, with what he'd witnessed before, and the promise Naruto made to her, she had no problem dumping everything on him. It was a contradiction he couldn't understand.

Naruto and the others had finished their fight by the time Sakura, Shikamaru, Sai, and Pakkun reached them, but the massive crater on the ground and Ino hovering over Naruto's prone form were enough to make her worry. Sakura darted forward, kneeling next to them and doing a quick chakra scan. All and all, it was pretty bad though nothing she couldn't fix. An ungodly amount of broken bones and chakra exhaustion...the most concerning thing was the state of his right hand. He'd be alright, but she'd need a better look at what was going on with his hand.

"We need to get him to a hospital."

"I'm fine, Sakura-chan. We should report this to Granny first." Naruto protested weakly.

"You're really trying to argue with me right—" A hand on her head stopped her, and she turned to look at Kakashi as he stared down at them both fondly.

"Naruto's right. We need to report to Hokage-sama first, so long as no one's life is in danger."

"It's not, but—"

"I've already sealed the body away for autopsy. Let's go back. We'll get him to the hospital right after we report to her."

Sakura huffed before glaring up at him. "Fine. But don't try to weasel your way out of hospital time either. I'll drag you there myself if I have to."

"Understood." Kakashi agreed with a trace of nervousness. Just when had cute little Sakura learned to be so scary? Although, he supposed she always had it in her. The look she'd given Zabuza when she declared them perfectly capable of killing him had been nothing shy of chilling.

Team Asuma and Team Kakashi stood in front of Tsunade's desk, her eyes lingering on Shikamaru and Kakashi as they finished giving their respective reports.

"—we have the corpse of one of them, Kakakuzu of Takigakure." Kakashi finished.

"Great work, but would someone care to explain to me why you and Naruto and here talking to me and not in the hospital getting treated." Tsunade asked sharply, her eyes jumping to Sakura and Ino. Sakura was also giving her teammates a sharp glare, and she could have sworn she heard her mutter an, "I told you so."

"Their injuries weren't life threatening or anything and they insisted…" Ino chuckled nervously.

Tsunade continued glaring at them for a few seconds longer before sighing. "Well in any case, well done. But it's not time celebrate just yet. Not when there are still more of the Akatsuki at large. Team Ten, I grant you leave for now. Team Seven…Naruto and Kakashi, you are to report to the hospital immediately. Fight me on this, and I will paralyze you a force your asses in bed if I have to. Sakura, look over Naruto's arm and then report to the lab. You'll aid me in the autopsy."

Kakashi and Naruto both shifted a little uncomfortably, wanting to argue against hospital time but all too aware of how the Hokage would make good on the threat. It was no wonder where Sakura had learned to be so terrifying—she and the legendary Sanin were remarkably similar. Naruto chalked it up to all the time Sakura had spent training with her, though he didn't want to consider what that might mean for him and pervy sage…or for Sasuke and Orochimaru. For Kakashi's part, while he was sure the similarities in their personalities had strengthened over the course of their training together, he couldn't help but remember the way Sakura punched Naruto in the face for his tactlessness back during their introductions, nor the way Tsunade had taken an immediate interest in Sakura from the second they met. He couldn't help but wonder if it had more to do with shared experiences and life events than simply exposure to each other.

"But Grandma, you can't put Sakura-chan to work! Look at her! She only just got back from running an errand for you and she's exhausted!"

"And you've been training for two weeks straight without proper meals or breaks daily, and turned right around for a mission, so what's your point?" Sakura countered sharply, crossing her arms. The two stared each other down, too stubborn to give into the other, though everyone in the room with the exception of Tsunade secretly agreed with Naruto—they were just smart enough to keep their mouths shut.

Tsunade hadn't forgotten her decision to treat Sakura to a feast after everything resolved, but she couldn't consider this resolved yet. Not until they did an autopsy and everyone who was injured received treatment.

"Sakura, I just gave you an order." Tsunade's voice was stern and calm, her eyes trained on her apprentice. Sakura jerked, meeting Tsunade's gaze. An understanding seemed to pass between them, that no one else in the room could follow, and then Sakura had grabbed Naruto's left arm and dragged him from the room before he could argue further, though he immediately started protesting. She glanced back over her shoulder at Kakashi as she pushed Naruto out of the room.

"I better see you there, or I'll hunt you down." Sakura warned before pushing Naruto out of the room fully, the door closing behind them.

An awkward silence permeated the room in their absence before Sai cleared his throat and leaned forward, tapping Ino on the shoulder.

"Are you ok?"

Ino blinked in surprise, looking back at him. "I'm fine. I'm not hurt or anything—medical ninja aren't supposed to stand on the front lines so I didn't have too much to do with the fight…why do you ask?" Did she look bad or something? Certainly Sakura, Naruto, and Shikamaru looked far worse than she did, and Sai hadn't checked on them, at least, not to her knowledge. Maybe he wanted to but never found the opportunity? He was still learning to navigate social interactions and may not have known how to make an opportunity.

"Your master died recently, and you were crying." Sai answered blankly, never looking away from her. The awkwardness in the room only seemed to thicken and grow heavier.

"Oh. That's what you meant…" Ino reached up to one of her ears, feeling the silver stud earring Asuma had gifted all of them upon their promotion to chunin. Despite having avenged him, it had done nothing to take away the pain—maybe because she felt like she hadn't really done anything at all in that fight. Or maybe it was just that vengeance was never as fulfilling as one would hope. Either way, the sadness was still there. "No. I'm not. It's like—" her eyes landed on her team members, her non-blood brothers, both of whom were looking at her with sadness and concern. How must they be feeling? Both of them had been closer to Asuma than she had been. Hearing her sadness would only make them feel worse. Was this how Sakura always felt? So hurt by other's misery, so desperate to want to help them with it, that she ignored her own, refusing to burden anyone with all the weight she carried? She saw others pain, and ran forward to take it all on herself, even though her back was already breaking under the weight of her own. It was stupid. Her brilliant best friend could be so incredibly stupid. No one could carry that much.

Ino wanted to be there for Shikamaru and Choji, but that meant she needed to be there for herself first. Once she got a handle on her own grief she could help shoulder theirs. And getting a handle on her own meant she had to process it separately from them, where she wouldn't feel guilty about her own feelings. Ino was the type who needed to share her raw emotions. She'd been raised to embody a bush clover—love candidly and bluntly. And that didn't include holding or filtering emotions for other's benefit the way Sakura tried to, but that didn't mean there wasn't a time and a place for it.

"I'm not ok. Let's talk about it over tea." Ino grabbed Sai's wrist bowing to Tsunade quickly before dragging him out the door, once again leaving the room in an awkward silence.

"Should…should we be worried about that?" Choji asked, staring at the door.

"Definitely. That Sai-character seems troublesome." Shikamaru agreed, their brotherly sides temporarily overshadowing their own sadness.

"So…do we follow them?"

"You can, but it's too much of a drag if Ino catches us. Besides, there's something I have to do. I'll catch up with you later, Choji." Shikamaru took his leave as well, followed closely by Choji, leaving only Kakashi and Yamato in the room.

"She made a good call, pushing those two together." Tsunade observed. "Well, get to the hospital, Yamato, make sure he goes and stays there until he's been treated."

"About Naruto's attack—"

"We'll find out after the autopsy. Why do you think I asked Sakura to participate?"

"…She was a mess, what did the slugs make her do?" Kakashi protested.

"If I could say, don't you think I would have already?"

"The slugs? So she's forged a pact with them like you? But what do you mean what did they make her do?" Yamato questioned.

Kakashi quickly filled him in on where Sakura had gone while they trained Naruto, much to Yamato's shock. Wood style had been born in the shikotsu forest and yet despite being the only known user alive of that style, even he hadn't been there.

"Are you worried about her?"

"You saw the state she showed up in."

"And Naruto looks so much better? He also went right from training to this mission without a rest."

"Naruto wasn't covered in blood." Kakashi countered.

"Yet if the state of his arm is anything to go by, his training was also plenty dangerous."

"It's not the same!"

"I know you're worried about her, and trust me, I get why. You're more her guardian than her sensei, and you'd be one hell of a crappy guardian if your ward showed up looking like that and you weren't worried. But where you failed her as her sensei was in your refusal to push her as hard as you were Sasuke and Naruto. I'm not going easy on her, and when she became my apprentice she agreed to be pushed. She knew what she was getting into."

Kakashi let out a short breath. Everything she said was true but having his failures thrown in his face, no matter how aware of them he was, still stung.

"Well, you're in good company. Kunoichi do tend to be weaker than their male peers—not because they lack ability or talent, but most don't get trained or pushed the way their male peers do, or they're pushed to non-combat related fields. Training by yourself without a master can only get you so far."

"You're right. I'm sorry I questioned you Hokage-sama." Kakashi bowed. He really had been a terrible teacher to her, wanting more to protect her rather than let her fight her own battles. Tsunade hit the nail on the head when she called him Sakura's guardian more than her sensei. Any time Sakura was in danger, pain, or abject exhaustion felt like a failing on his part somehow. He hadn't had time to react much before but seeing Sakura covered in blood and dirt, her clothing riddled with what looked like burn holes, rips and tears, had been genuinely distressing to him. If it hadn't been for how she seemed to be standing and moving fine, he didn't know if he would have been able to fully focus on the battle at hand.

Tsunade considered him for a second before closing her eyes and sighing. What a hypocrite she was, lecturing him about viewing himself as Sakura's guardian when she practically viewed the girl as her own daughter. She supposed their parenting styles were just different, but who would have guessed Kakashi was the coddling type? "Well, no matter…go get treated. I'll call you to the morgue when the autopsy's done."

Kakashi nodded, and he and Yamato took their leave.

Sakura stared down at Naruto's arm, biting her lip. It was like some of his cells had been cut off from his chakra network. Not all of them—not so much so that she couldn't heal him, but it would be slower than his typical recovery rate. She spread her chakra into his bone to knit the fractures back together, but as she expected, his body was slow to respond to her help.

"So it's not just his own quick recovery rate that's been hindered. His responsiveness to medical ninjutsu has as well. This is bad."

Sakura shifted the direction of her chakra, carefully allowing it to follow the flow of his chakra network, focusing so that it followed even the smallest channels surrounding the individual cells.

"There's even traces of the damage here…and it's not just some blockage. Some of these channels are completely severed from the cell, with startling precision…this is way beyond just some impact or power damage…"

"Ow!"

Sakura blinked, as a sharp pain shot through her hand. She quickly cut off the flow and pulled her hand away.

"Sorry Naruto!"

"Damn, I wasn't careful and let my chakra linger too long. The Kyubi rebuffed me. I don't think Naruto's chakra network can handle too much Kyubi chakra at the moment…I'll have to leave it for now and just encourage him to rest so his body can recover as much as possible naturally."

"You alright Sakura-chan? You've got this kinda scary serious face…"

"You must have broken half the bones in your body…Ino-pig already healed most of those…still, it's not made for this kind of strain. This new jutsu of yours—you should only use it as a last resort! Just promise me you'll think before using it!"

"Oh so that's all! Heh! Hey, it's no big deal so long as I've got you around to fix me." Naruto laughed. He'd been worried she was hurt from the attack she had during her contract negotiation, or from the Nine-tails burning her for using her chakra to check him, the damned fox.

"That's not the point!" Sakura nearly shouted. He always overestimated her healing abilities, even before she'd ever learned a whisper of medical ninjutsu. "There are limits to what I can patch up! Medical ninjutsu is a science, not a miracle cure!"

Naruto couldn't help the warm smile breaking on his face. "You really haven't changed at all." She always underestimated her healing abilities, even when she'd managed to keep her mother's illness at bay without a whisper of medical ninjutsu. "Yeah still, I like things the way they are now." He beamed.

"Huh?"

"'Cause Sakura-chan, it feels like we're on the road to reach Sasuke together."

Sakura stared at his arm for a long moment, her eyes sad. "You really feel that way, when this is all I can do? I can't even heal you fully…" She wasn't allowed to fight on the front lines yet. Even if she could, there was very little she could do against Sasuke. She couldn't stop Naruto and bring him back to himself when the Kyubi took over. She couldn't heal him fully when he used his new jutsu…how were they on this road together when he was so far ahead of her?

"Sakura-chan…" She looked up to see he was still smiling, though his eyes had grown serious. "I only fight and train as hard as I do because I know you're right there the second I get hurt. I only have the strength to keep trying 'cause you're right there with me, believing in Sasuke and supporting me through everything, all while training and trying hard yourself." He was being 100% serious. The first time he ever pulled anything off, it was because Iruka-sensei had believed in him. Almost every time after that, he could trace his successes back to Sakura. In the Land of Waves, she'd believed in him and Sasuke enough to verbally defend them to someone as terrifying as Zabuza. In the Forest of Death, she'd believed in him when he fought against Orochimaru—so much so that she'd even used her belief in him as instigation for Sasuke to take action, being the competitive bastard that he was. In the preliminaries she cheered for him non-stop against Kiba. In the finals, she was the only one who believed he'd win against Neji, fully and unwaveringly. Time and time again, she trusted him, believed in him, had expectations of him. And that was what made him fight and train so hard. He wanted to prove her right, but because of the kind of person Sakura was, he also knew that if he failed, the way he had with bringing Sasuke back, she wouldn't blame him or hate him. She continued to trust him. Him. Who had no parents, who housed a monster in him, who was the class dead-last.

It doesn't matter whether the things you do for him are large or small, what matters is how much you care about Naruto. Sasuke too. Though really I wouldn't consider anything you've done for them as small.

"Was Captain Yamato right? Does Naruto really feel that way too?"

"And since you've always believe in me, even with no reason for it, how can I not believe in you, when you're so smart and strong! Not to mention how pretty you are!" Naruto continued cheerily.

"Heh…well, not sure what that last part has anything to do with this, but I think I got the message. We're in this together. I'll look into it, but I'm serious, until either you learn how to use it without extreme risk to yourself, or I figure out a way to fully heal the damage done, that jutsu's a last resort only. Understood?"

"Alright, alright." Naruto waved off, making her fully doubt he'd only use it as a last resort. "You have to go help granny with an autopsy now, right? Will you be ok Sakura-chan? You're covered in blood…"

"I'm fine. It was a really bad reaction, but I instigated it, and was in full control the whole time—sort of…anyway, the damage is already healed and I was out for about five days after, so plenty of time to recharge. And I barely did anything during the fight with the akatsuki, so I'm fine."

"But why did you have a reaction? It was just contract negotiation right?"

"It was for a contract with the slugs…a summoning contract."

"You had to go somewhere for that? Granny's slug seems so nice—why did it give you a reaction?" Naruto pressed.

"All summonings work a bit differently. For the slugs, you have to go to the Shikottsu forest and get tested to sign a contract with them."

"But you're great at tests, Sakura-chan. It shouldn't have caused a reaction."

"It wasn't a paper test, like the first round of the chunin exams, and I'm not allowed to talk about it—it's one of their rules."

"But it was dangerous. I've seen you look pretty rough after your chakra attacks, but this…"

Sakura nodded, eyeing a blood caked tear on her shirt. It had been punctured from the inside out—one of the blood geysers that had erupted from her during her reactions.

"Well that sucks. But if anything it just proves my earlier point. You're awesome Sakura-chan!"

"Alright, that's enough sucking up now." Sakura chided fondly, messing up his spikes hair. "The point is, aside from being a little tired, I'm ok, so don't worry about me going to do the autopsy."

Before Naruto could say anything more, there was a small knock at the door. "N-Naruto-kun?"

"Hey Hinata! What are you doing here?"

"I r-ran into Ino-chan. She said you were hurt…is…is it from your t-training?"

"Wow, her stutters gotten a lot better around him."

Naruto's face lit up. "Right! You had a mission so you weren't able to see, but I did it! I figured it out Hinata! And I was able to use it in battle too! It roughed me up a bit, but you should see the other guy! Your byakugan helped so much!"

"I-I-I'm g-glad!" Hinata squeaked, her face burning crimson.

"Still can't handle compliments from him, I see…"

"Well, I've gotta go do an autopsy, so I leave him to you, Hinata-chan."

"W-What? Wait, Sakura-chan—"

Sakura winked and left before she could protest any further. Besides, it wasn't a lie. She had to get to the autopsy, and she felt better knowing Naruto had company.

"This is your first autopsy." Tsunade observed, looking at Sakura's pale, slightly green tinged face.

Sakura was used to dealing with the living, dying or just freshly dead, but a human corpse already eight hours out from time of death—that was a little unsettling for her. She gave a stiff nod, her eyes never leaving the corpse on the table.

"Do you know why we do autopsies?"

"To learn about the enemy…jutsu, chakra types, poisons, training methods, all leave signs on the body. Discovering those, reverse engineering them, can allow all of that to be recreated and adapted by us for us." Sakura answered, recalling Kakashi's explanation of hunter nin in the Land of Waves.

"In this case, it could potentially help us learn more about the Akatsuki." Tsuande agreed. "Dead bodies still hold the chakra they had at the time of death."

"That's why Sasori's human puppets worked and gave him access to their chakra and techniques."

"But this autopsy is more than just that…this will allow us to study the effects of Naruto's new jutsu. The more you learn about the damage it does to those on the receiving end, the better you'll be able to treat the damage it does to him. That's why I wanted you to be a part of this."

Sakura's eyes widened. She hadn't thought about that, but it made perfect sense. She wanted to be able to patch Naruto up more than anything. Her initial prognosis hadn't been hopeful when looking at his arm, but maybe Kakuzu's corpse would hold a better answer. Her squeamishness fell by the way-side as she took a step forward. If it was for her team, it didn't matter what, she could do anything—even something as gross and uncomfortable as dissecting a human corpse.

"Start with what you see on the surface, before looking deeper."

Sakura's eyes roved over Kakuzu's body cataloguing every scar, bruise, and nick. "Ample scaring around the left side of his chest—all of which are precise and straight with evidence of having been stitched, indicating surgical scars rather than battle wounds. His arm also—this scar here encircling his forearm—also very precise scarring, like it was severed and he reattached it."

Tsunade nodded. "Keep going."

Sakura leaned in close to get a good look at his eyes and skin. "His skin texture shows signs of age—incredibly old age. It's not wrinkled but just…leathery? Is that normal for a corpse?"

Tsunade gave a minute shake of her head, but said nothing more, waiting for Sakura to continue.

"He didn't seem as old as his skin would indicate while I saw him alive."

"And how old would you guess he is based on his skin as you're seeing it up close?"

"Well into his 80's at least…"

"Not far off. According to Kakashi's report, he's somewhere around 91."

"What?! 91? But how's that possible! He doesn't look…Sasori didn't look his age either. He turned himself into a puppet. So this has to be some ability or technique…Sasori required a piece of his human body to maintain sentience and wield chakra—his heart…" Sakura's eyes drifted back to the scars on the left side of his chest. "So his technique had something to do with direct surgery to his heart…"

"M'Lady, a chakra scan won't work on a corpse, right?"

"Not the way it normally would." Tsunade nodded. "Because the chakra in the body is in something of a stasis, it can't sense the chakra or match any type of movement. The picture it would paint would be more broad strokes. To get the full picture with your chakra scan, you'd need to cut the body open and make direct contact with the part you want to scan."

She really didn't want to do that—nothing had ever sounded so unappealing. But this was about taking down the Akatsuki and helping Naruto, so… "please pass the scalpel."

Tsunade passed her the small knife and watched as she made her incision right over the heart. She placed the forceps herself, not waiting for Sakura to ask, widening the incision so they could see the heart, still in his chest."

Sakura reached her gloved hand in and touched the heart, spreading her chakra into the small muscle, down to the deepest cell.

"What is it?" Tsunade asked, watching Sakura's brow furrow.

Sakura didn't answer right away, instead reaching in deeper past the heart to the lungs and scanning them. "This heart…it's not his…it doesn't match his lungs. His body shows mixed signs of aging as well. The telomeres on his blood cells seem long enough, but his organs are consistent with someone at least in their 80s. That makes sense, given that you said he's 91, and the heart is much younger, which could explain why the blood cells seem young enough. Based on all of this, my guess is he had some technique for prolonging his life by replacing his heart with those of others, which would mean he would also acquire the chakra nature of that heart's original owner."

Tsuande had gotten the full report on Kakuzu from Kakashi, including the rundown of his skills and abilities, so Sakura's discoveries were not surprising to her. None the less, Sakura's deductive reasoning was always impressive, and the sensitivity of her chakra scan to look not just on the cellular level, but inside the nucleus at the DNA—Tsunade could count on one hand the number of medics who could pull that off.

"That is what he revealed to Kakashi, yes." She finally confirmed. "Now let's focus on cause of death—Naruto's wind style rasenshuriken."

Sakura shifted her focus to Kakuzu's chakra network, and froze pulling her hands away. "His chakra network…it's completely severed from his organs!"

Tsunade's lips pursed, as she placed her own hand inside Kakuzu to check for herself. It was alarming to discover Sakura was right, and it hadn't just been severed—down to the cellular level, the chakra network had been completely disconnected.

"Unbelievable…" Tsunade breathed, shifting her gaze to Sakura. "Naruto's condition…how was it?"

"Concerning. I saw signs of this sort of damage in his right arm, but it was much more minimal…his jutsu really did all this?"

"Based on the level of destruction, and how deeply it goes, its behavior is more akin to poison." Tsunade murmured.

"I don't understand. How'd did his jutsu do this?"

"I'm not sure. My guess is that the wind chakra was formed into a tiny armada of blades, that when struck with, attacks and decimates the chakra network, down to the cellular level. Look at the disconnections—they're pinpointed at the chakra points."

"…I can't sense the chakra point." Sakura muttered, feeling a little sheepish. For all Tsunade's claims that Sakura had surpassed her, as she saw it, her mentor was still kilometers ahead of her, and the evidence was right there. Sakura's ability to scan the chakra network wasn't nearly as strong or sensitive as Tsunade's.

"The wind chakra hones onto the small collection centers of chakra along the network and severs them." Tsunade continued, ignoring Sakura's self put-down.

"Naruto isn't exempt from his own attack."

"No, he isn't."

"If his chakra network get's disconnected from too many of his cells—"

"Not only will we not be able to heal the cells that were disconnected, he won't be able to use chakra from his right hand at all." Tsunade finished.

"So it really is only to be used as a truly last resort."

Tsunade nodded in agreement. "Let's remove—"

A long yawn cut her off, and she looked up to see Sakura pressing her lips together, and blinking rapidly.

"Sorry, I…I guess I'm a little tired." She apologized, her cheeks flushing in embarrassment.

Tsunade's gaze softened as she shook her head. Sakura had quite an exhausting run, between the journey to the Shikkotsu forest, the test, and turning right around for a mission the second she got back. She truly did look exhausted.

"You want to know how to sense the chakra points? It'll be easier on a corpse then a living human, since the chakra isn't moving much."

Sakura straightened, regaining some alertness. Her gaze trained on Tsunade, waiting for instruction.

"When you send your chakra for the scan, as you're scanning the network, focus on the minute concentrations of chakra along the way. Those small concentrations are where the chakra points are. It'll be tiny, but they'll be a different feel to the chakra points than the chakra passing through the rest of the network. Give it a shot."

Sakura closed her eyes, concentrating only on the feel of her chakra's movement through the chakra network around Kakuzu's transplanted heart. She still couldn't feel anything different than her typical scan. She took a deep breath and focused harder applying a bit more chakra to her scan. The mental picture of his heart and wrecked chakra network came into clearer focus, but still nothing on the chakra points.

"When I use more chakra, the flow of my chakra overwhelms my detailed sense of theirs…so maybe, do I cut back?"

Sakura cut off her chakra flow and stifled another yawn, before taking a deep breath and trying again. This time, she only applied the tiniest amount of chakra to her scan, weaving it through the system until it hit a particularly concentrated amount of chakra, but the concentration overwhelmed the trace amount of her own chakra, and it dissipated on contact.

"Ok, pretty sure that was a chakra point, but I won't know if I can't move past it. So I need a little more than that, but less than I'd typically use for a scan. When I first learned to scan, the image of the ocean waves helped, but this time…maybe it's more like a mountain stream?"

Sakura closed her eyes again and released her breath, and with it a small stream of chakra. But when she inhaled, the image of her the ocean once again overtook her mind, and she lost the feel of her stream, the usual amount of chakra she used on her scan pouring out again.

"Tsk."

"Do it again." Tsunade said—it was a phrase burned into Sakura's mind throughout the course of her training with Tsunade. She never let up. She pushed Sakura to try again and again until she got it, and then again several times more so she never forgot it.

"If I need that visualization to do my typical scan, then I can't treat this the way I would regularly. The image of the stream worked until it came to drawing my chakra back, so keep that and just…exhale longer?"

Sakura took inhaled as much air as she could, and closed her eyes, releasing her breath slowly with her small stream of chakra. It painted the picture of his chakra network around his heart, where the small concentrations were, where the network had been disconnected by Naruto's attack, where the chakra still sat in the channels. She could see it all, until she reached the end of her exhale. Gasping, her eyes flew open.

"I saw them! The method's inefficient, I'll need to figure out a better way to manage the correct output, because the way I just did it isn't sustainable but if I just—"

"Good. But I think that's enough for today."

"M'Lady?" Normally, now would be the part where she drilled it at least one hundred times.

"Go take a rest, and come to the Hokage residence later, and I'll make you dinner."

"But…the autopsy?"

"I'll finish it up from here. You learned the basics—having to actually cut open the body to do a scan on it, identifying techniques through the physical traces left on the body, refining your scan to be able to detect chakra points—that'll be harder on a living person with functional chakra flow, but all the same you got the premise down. This was a more straightforward case, so there's not much else to do here anyways, and you've had a rough few weeks. Go sleep."

Sakura was about to argue further. She wanted to perfect scanning the chakra network first, but when she opened her mouth to say that, a yawn cut her off.

"Now." Tsunade ordered.

"Fine." Sakura sighed, giving in. She took off her gloves and through them away, turning for the door.

"I'll see you later Sakura."

"See you, shishou!" Sakura answered brightly, despite her abrupt dismissal—the promise of a good meal drastically improving her mood.

When Sakura returned to Sasuke's apartment, the first thing she did was strip and shower. Her clothes were caked to her, stiff with her dried blood, and riddled with tears and burns. They were certainly done for, no amount of stitching could salvage them, and even with her habit of turning clothes that were too small into pillows, blankets, handkerchiefs, bandages, or just any sort of repurposing, there truly was no more use for these. Thankfully, she wasn't in the same situation she had been in before when she was younger, with only two sets of clothes. Ino had made sure her wardrobe had at least five sets of outfits. She'd probably insist on another shopping trip soon, knowing the state her clothes had been in when she last saw her.

Being able to clean herself fully felt downright magical after almost two weeks relying on the occasional river or stream.

Once she was clean, instead of heading for the couch, she went to Sasuke's room curling up on his bed, hugging one of his pillows to her.

"Naruto…He feels like we're bringing Sasuke-kun back together this way? With me just patching him up? I know he's not lying, he's one of the most genuine people on the planet. But he's feeling the time constraint, that's why he's pushing so hard…we're almost out of time. And the harder he pushes, the more risk he puts himself in, like with that new jutsu of his…I know Sasuke-kun doesn't want to give himself to Orochimaru—at least, I think I know that. But he can't just leave. If he does, Orochimaru will do anything to get him back. The only way out for him is to kill Orochimaru somehow, and I know Itachi's strong and Sasuke-kun said that Orochimaru didn't have the strength to take him down alone, but…I'm not sure if that's true. I don't think I've ever seen either of their full abilities, and Orochimaru's older, which means he has more battle experience than Itachi…often a win will come down to that alone. Can Sasuke-kun kill Orochimaru? Kabuto is also a wild card to factor into this as well…and I know Itachi's angling for a fight with Sasuke-kun but why?"

"Too tired for this right now…can't you just shut up and sleep, damnit…"

Her inner self was right. Her mind was growing hazier by the second, and she wouldn't be able to deduce anything in that mental state. Worrying wouldn't do anything either. She took a deep breath, inhaling the trace amount of Sasuke's scent lingering on his bed. It had almost faded completely—hell, maybe it had faded, and she was only imagining it. Even so, real or not, the woody scent calmed her and quieted her mind. She'd been more exhausted than she'd been allowing herself to fully acknowledge, her eyes falling closed almost immediately, drifting off into much needed sleep.

Sasuke stared at the door to his room. He could have sworn he already opened it and went in. He could have sworn he'd fallen asleep already—training that day had consisted of fighting a whole army of Orochimaru's sound ninjas, and the scummy, bloodthirsty snake had once again admonished him for not killing a single one. Sasuke was plenty ruthless and bloodthirsty, though it was only directed towards one person. There was no point in killing others who had nothing to do with it. Plus, he didn't think he could ever go back to Konoha, to her, if he did kill for the sake of killing. He distinctly remembered after training, going to sleep, so standing outside of his room in the hall had to be a dream. But that meant he dreaded opening the door. Unbidden, the image of standing outside of the door to his parents room when he was eight flashed through his mind…how he wished he'd never opened that door. But this dream didn't seem to be going anywhere, so he supposed he had open it, face the nightmare, and get on with it.

Upon pushing the door open, he froze, but not for the reasons he thought he might. Sakura was sitting on his bed, in his plain, cold room, looking as confused as he felt. He swiftly stepped in and closed the door, lest anyone see her. He knew it was a dream but he feared what his head could conjure up almost as much as he feared what the reality would be.

"Leave. It's dangerous."

"Why do I get the feeling you didn't give Sai that option when he came in?"

"I didn't."

"So…I really am an exception, huh?"

Did she not know? Did she not realize how she simultaneously hardened and shook his resolve? Did she not know her mere presence, real or imagined, sent him into an internal war with himself? Did she not know how she had marched right past all his walls like they were nothing, and threw every rule he created for himself into heavy question?

"Well, sorry Sasuke-kun but I'm not sure how to leave…I'm not sure I want to…I never want to leave you Sasuke-kun. I didn't when we saw you last, nor on the night you left…"

Sasuke's shoulders tensed for a moment before relaxing. It was his dream, and he was painfully aware of how he felt about her. What was the point in lying to himself?

"I know. I don't either…but…"

"Itachi." Sakura finished, watching his back tense again. "Sasuke-kun, do you know anything about what happened to Shisui?"

Sasuke jolted. Why had his subconscious decided to remind him of Shisui, now of all times? His cousin and Itachi's best friend who was found dead with his eyes missing. Some of the clan had suspected Itachi. At the time, it had sounded absurd to him. Now, it was just another clan member to add to Itachi's body count, another nail in his depraved coffin. "Shisui was killed, the same as everyone else."

"Hm..." Sakura's eyes dropped to the floor in thought, her brow furrowing a little, the way it did whenever she was thinking. "And you're absol—"

"Enough. You should know this already, given you're in my head."

Sakura looked up at him blinking in confusion. "I'm the one dreaming."

Sasuke almost laughed at the absurdity of that statement. No matter how much he could hide and bury it while he was awake, he truly couldn't break his tie to her. He wanted her so much his mind even longed to hear that she was dreaming of him.

"This is my room, Sakura. You've never been here before."

She looked around the room again, her face flushing a little. "I know but…"

Sasuke leaned back against the door, observing her struggle for an explanation. The fondness he felt for her sank deep into the pit of his stomach, churning into anxiety. He knew it wasn't safe for her, so why did he keep thinking of her this way? Why was he risking her life, putting her in danger just to temporarily satisfy an ache he couldn't ease until after he'd taken care of everything. "Why? Why do you keep visiting me?" Why did his mind keep drawing her up?

He hadn't meant for her to hear that, but apparently she did. "…Maybe I keep dreaming of you because…" Sakura's voice began to quake. "Because I'm terrified…I'm so scared that…that the next time I see you, you won't be you…you'll be him." Tears cascaded from her eyes, falling onto her hands fisted in her lap. "I hate him so much. He keeps trying to push me into having a reaction…and he's heartless…the way he treats human life as just a test subject…and I know he wants to do that to me…he practically told me so…and if those words are coming out of your body—if the person I love the most is replaced by the monster I hate the most…I just…I'm so scared…I'll lose you to him completely…"

If there was one sight Sasuke knew he detested, it was Sakura crying, especially when he was ultimately the cause. He had crossed to the bed, standing in front of her in less than a second, brushing her tears away. "Don't waste your tears on that. I won't let it happen."

"You think he'll just let you walk out of here? He'll speed up his timeline if he thinks you're planning to leave." Sakura sniffled.

"I'll kill him." Sasuke never liked showing the depths of his darkness around Sakura, even though he knew she'd seen it and probably accepted it before anyone else. She'd been the one waiting for him at the village entrance after all. He didn't know what her reaction would be to hearing him say those words so easily.

Sakura nodded. "Please be careful." That was it. No admonishment. No fear. No looking at him like he was a monster. He supposed it shouldn't have come as a surprise. Sakura held a strength in her to do what was necessary. She hadn't been above shop lifting and stealing for her and her mother. Even as a genin, she had been ready to kill an innocent if it meant saving him and Naruto—she'd said as much when he'd forced her to let out all her anger. He supposed that was part of what made her so appealing to him. She was so light, but darkness wouldn't break her—Sakura was someone incorruptible.

He knelt in front of her, brushing more of her tears away. "Don't worry. I won't let him hurt you."

Sakura leaned forward, pressing her lips to his softly. "Don't die on me, Sasuke-kun. Please." She murmured softly against him.

His eyes widened at the familiar words—words he had spoken to her after knocking her out and setting her on a bench. His breath caught in his throat, and then his eyes shot open.

He was lying in his bed where Sakura had been sitting moments before, and while much of the dream quickly slipped away from him in his wakeful state, two things did not. Sakura crying, and his resolve to kill Orochimaru. The Sanin had been steadily weakening. Sasuke had surpassed him by now. There was no more power he could obtain here. Now was as good a time as any to kill the snake.

Sakura sat at Ichiraku staring into her ramen, while Naruto yelled at Sai for some obnoxious comment he made. That dream…it had been different. It was the first time the dream Sasuke ever indicated that he thought her the dream. Almost as if he was real. But why would that be? Why would her subconscious add this weird layer to it, where dream Sasuke thought he was real and that she was the imagined one? What purpose was that serving? It was almost like he really was real, and they'd been sharing the same dreamscape…but how? Was that even possible?

"Awk! Hot! Hot!" Naruto cried, dropping his chopsticks. "Gah! I just can't eat left-handed!"

Sakura glanced down at the cast around his right arm, feeling a sliver of guilt naw at her again. She hadn't been able to heal him fully, so this was on her.

"You know, most ninja, by chunin level have worked to reduce the imbalance between their dominant and weaker sides." Sakura chided, sliding her stool closer to him none the less. "You're hopeless. Here, give me your chopsticks."

Naruto stared at her wide eyed, his face flushing. No way! Was he dreaming? Was Sakura really about to feed him? He felt his heart rate pick up a little at the thought, but weirdly, Hinata's name flashed through his mind briefly for some reason. He decided not to dwell too much on that—better to enjoy this moment while it lasted.

Which wasn't long. "Now say ah!" Sai said, shoving a chopstick-full of ramen into his mouth, using his own chopsticks. Helping a friend in need was an important part of fortifying bonds, so this was what he was supposed to do, right?

"HOT! It's too hot! And who asked for your help anyway?!" Naruto barked.

"A friend in need is a friend indeed. Or so the book said."

"How about you take your head out of your book and this for yourself for once, man!"

"Hey."

"Kakashi-sensei." Sakura greeted, ignoring the commotion Sai and Naruto were causing, turning to face their squad leader as he pushed the curtain aside on the ramen stand.

"Well…I think I'll take over this task." Kakashi announced, needing only a brief second of scene study to figure out the whole situation. It was his fault Naruto had ended up this way in the first place so he felt it only fair. Besides, as well intentioned as Sakura was in her intent to feed him, Naruto could get the wrong idea from it. His crush on her from way back during their genin years didn't seem to be fully over and done yet. By Kakashi's measure, it had faded enough for him to at least start noticing Hinata, but Sakura's caring actions could easily reignite his feelings in full force, and it would just be better for everyone of the blonde boy's crush could fade entirely so he could pay more attention to Hinata. Naruto and Sakura just weren't a good romantic match for each other, her unwavering feelings for Sasuke aside.

Sakura slid over one seat, allowing Kakashi to sit himself on the stool next to Naruto. The boy accepted the offering of ramen, though he still pouted at the fact that in the end, he was stuck with Kakashi feeding him instead of Sakura.

"Kakashi-sensei, should you even be out of bed?" Sakura asked accusingly, eyeing him from the side.

"Why does everyone keep asking that? I didn't even use my mangekyo sharingan this time." Kakashi grunted, dismissing her concern altogether. He probably could have stayed a bit longer in the hospital, but it wasn't strictly necessary, and given how much he hated hospitals, he wouldn't be staying unless Tsunade (or Sakura) tied him to the bed. He glanced over at Naruto, who was staring down at his right arm. "But if you three hadn't shown up when you did, I would have had no choice. And then I would be in bed in the hospital right now. Heh."

If anything Naruto looked even more downcast. "You're strong Naruto. You're on your way to surpassing me. The thing is, the more profound the jutsu, the riskier it is to wield. Just remember that."

Sakura stared down at her own ramen bowl. "Just like the hundred healings…"

That's why this jutsu should only be used as a last resort when there is no other choice but to battle. Each time you use this jutsu, you shorten your natural life span.

"So the chakra network disconnects I saw in Kakazu and, on a smaller scale, Naruto…that's this jutsu's draw back…how frightening. A jutsu so strong and undiscerning that you risk your ability to continue using jutsu whenever you use it…"

"Yeah…" Naruto muttered, his fingers twitching against his cast. He tried to concentrate his chakra into his hand, but instead of the tingling rush he usually felt with his chakra, there was a much longer delay, and the tingling was more of a painful prickle. Sakura had warned him about this—an injury she couldn't heal with medical ninjutsu, that he'd recover from this time on his own, but that with repeated injury and strain would be irreparable. An injury that would bar him from using chakra in his right hand.

"…Naruto, about that jutsu…" Kakashi began.

"Sensei, I know how I feel better than anyone else does! Remember, I'm gonna be Hokage! That's how incredible I am! So don't worry!" Naruto beamed. He'd figure something out. And if he couldn't, if he hit a point where he couldn't use his right arm anymore, he'd just use his left instead! Not being able to use chakra in one of his arms wouldn't stop him, he'd still become Hokage, no matter what! Even if he had to figure out how to cast jutsu with his feet, he'd make it work!

Sakura huffed, a small smile gracing her lips. "Figures, that's your answer."

Kakashi couldn't help but agree.

"Thanks for the food! It's on Kakashi-sensei's tab!" Naruto declared boisterously, jumping from his stool.

"Wait I never—"

"Give it up, sensei. You're gonna pay anyway so why bother protesting." Sakura shot down turning back to her ramen. With Naruto's spirits seemingly lifted, she couldn't help how her mind turned back to her dream. Ever since waking up, even through her dinner with Tsunade the night before, she hadn't been able to take her mind off it. She couldn't help the feeling that there was some truth to it. She wasn't psychic and didn't have premonitions of the future or anything, but it was like she could feel it in the air. Something big was about to happen—something that would change things. Something like Sasuke killing Orochimaru.

Sakura glanced over her shoulder when she didn't hear Naruto's footsteps progressing away. He was standing right outside the ramen stand, not moving.

"So you can cast shadow clones now?" Naruto asked, spiking Sakura's curiosity.

"What? What's going on?" She asked, joining him outside the stand as well, followed by Sai and Kakashi. In front of them stood Konohamaru, and…Konohamaru. So that's what Naruto meant. The young boy could summon shadow clones now.

"All right. Show me how you've been training! C'mon!"

"Okay Naruto! Here it goes!" Konohamaru shouted, his fingers forming a seal.

"They're gonna fight here?! But we're in the middle of town! There are civilians around!"

"Sexy jutsu: Girl on Girl technique!" There was a puff of smoke, and in the two Konohamaru's places were two scantly clad, curvy, hot women, holding onto each other.

Kakashi and Sai stared at the scene blankly, but Naruto and Sakura's jaw dropped—for very different reasons.

"Waaaaaaaahhhhhhhh! That's your new move?!" Naruto shouted, his cheeks red, and eyes wide, not even wanting to blink—Jiraya would have lost his damn mind. And unfortunately, it seemed some of his truly perverse tendencies had gotten to Naruto over their two and a half years training together.

"What'd you think of that, Naruto?!" Konohamaru shouted excitedly, dropping the transformation. "You see with two girls it's even—" He was cut off by a sharp stinging smack to the head. "OW!"

"Say no more!" Sakura thundered, before rounding on Naruto. "Is this really what you two do when you get together?! Is it?!"

Sensing that he was trouble, Naruto tried to come up with a pacifying explanation. "Err…It's a form of diversion, see…And this is a, err, serious project between us two…I mean competition…"

"Diversion?! Who are you distracting other than yourselves, damnit?! Shannaro! Maybe if you said seduction or information gathering I may have bought it, but as a diversion?! Are you nuts?! Why don't you just call it what it is? You perverts!"

Given the direction her dreams frequently took, and the way her inner self like to point out very certain things around attractive men, she knew she didn't have much of a leg to stand on at the last part. She was rather perverted herself. But at least she kept her perversions within her own mind and space—she didn't display them in broad daylight in public!

Konohamaru didn't like Sakura's skepticism and decided to prove her wrong. "Sexy jutsu: Boy on Boy technique!"

Sakura turned to face him and immediately regretted it.

"Oh…That's me and Sasuke." Sai observed blankly.

"Oh hell yeah! Sasuke-kun and Sai?! Sooooo freakin hot!"

"Shut up!" Sakura felt her heart rate accelerating, her face growing uncomfortably warm. She quickly turned her back on the scene, covering her burning face with her hands and trying to calm herself down. "Chill Sakura—this would be such an embarrassing way to have a reaction! And we're in the center of the village—having a reaction here would be monumentally bad!"

Kakashi eyed Sakura flatly. He understood why she was reacting this way, even if this was more then he ever wanted to know about his student's sexual fantasies. After all, he was the one who told her he'd be willing to listen to her about this sort of thing, if she ever felt the need to share, though he stood by his statement that Kurenai and Tsunade would be better to talk about it with. While Naruto or anyone else, might see embarrassment, shame, or maybe even prudishness, Kakashi knew that wasn't quite right. This was exciting to her, and that was the problem. Excitement could be dangerous to Sakura, especially when coupled with the element of surprise. Naruto had only ever seen Sakura have reactions in bad and dangerous situations. He'd never seen her have an arousal reaction, so it probably didn't even occur to him, which was pretty evident going by his look of disgust at Konohamaru rather than concern for Sakura.

Looked like he'd have to step in and be the adult here. "Well, as serious as this little competitive project between you two is, perhaps you should avoid showing it off to each other in public—or only do it when you two are alone."

"Sure whatever, but that's too much messing around!" Naruto shouted, being the one to smack Konohamaru upside the head this time. The sight of his former teammate in such an incriminating position bringing up war flashbacks of his unfortunate first kiss—with Sasuke—on the day they were put on team 7. It was something they both had a nonverbal, iron clad agreement to never mention again. Sasuke never said it, but he knew they were both secretly thankful that Sakura had been late that day, and hadn't witnessed the traumatizing event.

"You're not embarrassed or turned on, you're angry. You're not embarrassed or turned on, you're angry. You Are NOT Embarrassed or Goddamn Turned On, You Are Fucking Angry!"

"Shannaro! Why don't you lay off the fantasy jutsu and focus on something actually pract—" Sakura stopped short at the way the boys were staring at her, realizing what she just accidentally admitted. "Goddamnit!"

Konohamaru smirked, feeling accomplished that he got her to admit it. Sexy jutsu could definitely work as a distraction, if it had worked on someone as focused and smart as Sakura.

Mortified, Sakura figured the best thing to do in this situation would be tactical retreat. Before anyone, most of all her, could say or do anything else, she ran, distancing herself as far as she could from the scene.

Her legs carried her to her biggest thinking spot, the graveyard. She sat back against her mothers grave and buried her head in her hands.

"Mooom, that was so embarrassing." She whined, kicking her legs a little, in a way her mother would have been thrilled to hear. Sakura hardly ever whined to her mother while Mebuki was alive. The little tantrum Sakura was having now would have filled her with relief.

"I bet you would have found their antics funny though, dad." She muttered, side-eyeing his grave. Despite having no memories of actually seeing it, she could picture her father's sheepish grin.

"Ugh!" It wasn't seeing the nude forms of Sasuke and Sai together, that nearly pushed her into a very mortifying chakra reaction, it was really just Sasuke. The image of him like that triggered a lust response, as well as many memories of some more uncomfortable dreams she'd had. In most of her dreams featuring Sasuke, they talked, held each other, or kissed, and it didn't go much farther. There were a good few though, where things didn't remain that innocent. Dreams that she woke up from feeling way too hot, sweaty, and sticky, especially around her lower half. It didn't matter who Konohamaru had put under him—Sai, Naruto, Kakashi, hell, even if he'd put a girl like Ino, Hinata, or especially herself—seeing Sasuke with that sort of look, was arousing in a way that would definitely trigger her.

Sakura groaned, holding her hair, and kicked her feet a little in frustration. "This sucks! Because of the hormone shifts and imbalances from and throughout puberty, it's common for many teens to get pretty damn horny, and I'm no exception there! But unlike others, being horny could get me killed, damnit! How can there be a kekkei genkai that actually works against all natural biological responses like this?!"

"Sakura?"

Sakura looked up to see Kurenai, standing a little ways away, her eyes swollen from tears.

"Kurenai-sensei…were you…visiting Asuma-sensei?"

"Are you alright?" Kurenai asked, pointedly ignoring Sakura's question. From what she had gathered, Sakura only came here when she had a lot on her mind.

"She dodged the question…well it's not like I'm all that different either. When mom died, I didn't start properly morning until Sasuke-kun pushed me into it…if he hadn't I probably would have just shut down. And the second a new worry presented itself, I fully shelved any grieving I was doing to focus on that…"

"I'm…fine, I guess. Just annoyed at my body."

Kurenai stared at her for a long moment before turning around. "Come on. Let's have some tea."

Sakura blinked at Kurenai's back as she began walking away, before getting up and following.

She found herself in Kurenai's apartment, seated at a small circular wooden table by the window. Unsure of what to do with herself, she kept her eyes trained on the flowers blossoming in the box outside the window.

Kurenai set a steaming cup of tea in front of her before taking the seat across from her with her own mug.

"What do you mean you're mad at your body?" She heard younger kunoichi say similar things before attempting unsafe crash diets or in some particularly bad cases, turning their own kunai against themselves.

"I just…got annoyed about my kekkei genkai."

"Oh." Kurenai sighed in relief. "That's what you meant."

"What did you think I—oh." Sakura quickly shook her head. "Oh, no. It's not anything like that. I mean, I get a bit insecure, especially when I'm next to Ino-pig, Hinata-chan, and TenTen, but I wouldn't want to change my body in anyway. I don't look too much like my mom or my dad, but they gave me this body, and it's one of the few things I have left of either of them, so…I have to take care of it."

Kurenai sipped her tea. "You sure you're sixteen?"

"Oh positive. I got a nice strong reality check on that today."

"What happened?"

Sakura's cheeks colored, her focus going back to the flowers in the window box.

"I'm sorry if this comes off insensitive but…when did you and Asuma-sensei get together?"

"Wh-What?"

"Was it…when you were my age? Or was it later—actually no. never mind. This is insensitive. We don't have to talk about it. Forget I asked."

Kurenai took another sip of tea, staring into the cup before answering. "Talking about him…is actually nice. What you said about your body being given to you by your parents, so you need to take care of it—I think that's right."

"What does that have to do with…Asuma-sensei?" Sakura's gaze dropped to Kurenai's tea. The scent was a strange mix of peppermint, spearmint, and ginger root. "Kurenai-sensei, are you…pregnant?"

"Six weeks in. I wasn't sure at first…I told Asuma…not long before he left on that mission. But he gave part of himself to what will become our child. So…part of him will always be with me."

Sakura leaned back in her chair, feeling her throat tighten. It wasn't fair. Having to lose people like this. "My mom said that to me. That she was always with me. I don't think she meant it in the physical sense that I said earlier, though. I think she just…loved ones don't leave you. They can't, really…" If they could, maybe Sasuke wouldn't have been so haunted and weighed down by his past. Maybe she would have never been able to pick herself up after her mother died. Loved ones didn't leave, it was how you handled the ghosts that directed the course of your life from there.

"Yeah." Kurenai agreed quietly, taking a thick sip of tea. "We've always been close. We were in the same academy class, and were on the same genin squad together. At the time, we were just good friends. He got promoted to chunin a year before I did, and stopped working with our team as frequently. I can't speak for him, but I started feeling something more than friendship towards him at around your age. I didn't act on it, and then he got promoted to Jonin and I saw him even less, though it wasn't like I never saw him. We just went from seeing each other twenty-four seven, so seeing each other maybe twice a month. My feelings for him fluctuated for a long time. I would like him, and then I wouldn't see him for awhile and my feelings for him faded, and then one day he'd cross my mind, or we'd hang out after a mission, and they were back in full force. Eventually I just accepted that no matter what, my heart would always return to him, especially after I became a Jonin and we started seeing each other more consistently." Kurenai sighed, resting her cheek on her hand and looking out the window. "Lucky for me, by that point whatever he felt about me before, had grown to match how I felt about him. And we both dropped enough hints to each other to finally get it."

Sakura couldn't help but smile at that. The situations weren't analogous in the slightest, but it still somewhat gave her hope for her and Sasuke. No matter how long Asuma and Kurenai had gone without seeing each other, or how their feelings fluctuated, in the end, they kept coming back to each other, and that was reassuring to Sakura. Still, it hadn't been quite what she was asking.

"Somehow, I don't think that was related to your annoyance at your kekkei genkai." Kurenai said, watching her keenly.

"…it wasn't, at least not exactly. I guess it's more, when did you start feeling, um…well…wended your feelings become more sexual?" Sakura managed, hating the way her cheeks burned. She was a doctor, this shouldn't be so hard for her to ask about.

Kurenai gave a small smirk. "Figured it was something like that. Did you find yourself in an arousal situation?" Had Sakura finally moved on from Sasuke?

"Yeah, no thanks to Naruto and Konohamaru's delinquency. Apparently they have a sexy ninjutsu competition and that little runt decided to pull it on me after I yelled at them for it."

"To think those two are rank and file ninjas." Kurenai muttered. "So what was it? Just a nude hot guy?"

"A nude Sasuke-kun—so yeah. And Sai. It was the two of them together. I didn't really care too much about the nude Sai thing, I mean he's hot but…it was the Sasuke-kun part that got to me."

"Still going strong then." Kurenai leaned back taking another sip of tea. "For me it was probably around your age—maybe a year younger even, when I really started thinking about sex. My focus wasn't as fixated. I had more than a few fantasies about Asuma, but I also had several of other hot men around—some of the older ninja, actors, the attractive civillian boy who worked at the bakery. But I had them. It's totally normal at your age, Sakura."

"I know. That's why I'm pissed. I'm normal. My reaction was normal. But my chakra nearly tried to kill me for it." Sakura whined, burying her head in her arms.

Kurenai reached over, giving her hair a comforting ruffle. "I know I've ran you through a few arousal simulations, though nothing so explicit. Was this your first time having such an explicit sexual trigger?"

"No…I've had dreams before, but…they never felt like they were going to set me off. Kurenai-sensei…am I never going to be able to have sex? If just seeing Sasuke-kun like that nearly gave me a reaction, then how can I ever…?"

"I wish I knew the answer to that. Unfortunately, with no documentation from your clan, and no one who survived that we can ask, there's no way to know for sure. I'd assume there's a way, given that you exist, and had other members of your clan prior to you…they had to have managed it somehow. Can you recall what the difference was between the dreams you've had and this?"

"The difference?"

"For whatever reasons, the dreams didn't make you feel like you were on the precipice of a reaction, while Konohamaru's jutsu did. There has to be a difference between the two forms of fantasy."

Sakura looked up at Kurenai in thought, knowing she was flushing bright red, as she compared her dreams to the sexy jutsu Sasuke.

"If anything, I should have had the stronger reaction to my dreams because they went much further than just Sasuke-kun being naked…so why? As far as the image went, Sasuke-kun with me and Sasuke-kun with Sai were in a similar position—at least for some of those dreams—but…the expressions were different…"

"In my dreams, there's usually more to it than just us maybe having sex…there's conversations and just holding each other and stuff like that…both before and after."

"Which is more realistic." Kurenai nodded.

"And…the way he looks at me in those dreams, it's different than the sexy jutsu. It's softer. And everything about all of it…there's a softness to it. There's still a lot of passion and desire and stuff but there's also this layer of…"

"Love?"

"Yeah…"

"And let me guess, this sexy ninjutsu only had lust in it?"

Sakura nodded, fiddling with the ends of her hair as she stared at the flowers in the window.

"Then there's your answer. You can have sex. Or rather should I say, you can make love."

"But in books…a lot of times it's just…lust…"

"Tsk." Kurenai took a sip of tea to hide her amused smile. "Don't tell me you've picked up Kakashi's taste in literature."

"What—no! I just…"

Kurenai chuckled, for the first time in what felt like forever. This conversation was nice. It felt normal and rebalancing, helping her regain some of her emotional footing.

"I wouldn't worry too much. Based on what I know about you, what you've told me about him, and the observations of both of you that Kakashi's filled me in on, Sasuke's the type to run in extremes. I bet he wouldn't even consider sex unless it was with someone he loved, and that the purpose of it is to prove his love to the other person. Lust is always a factor in sex, but not always the main factor—and my guess is that for Sasuke, the primary factor would always be love."

"That…does make me feel a bit better. Still annoying that I can't just be horny like other teenagers."

At that Kurenai fully laughed, which felt amazing. "If you want, I can run you through simulations, just so you can control it a little better."

"I don't want, but I might need." Sakura muttered, face flaming. "Speaking of training…Kurenai-sensei, I want your advice. I…think it might be good if I learned genjutsu, but knowing how bad they can be, having been on the receiving end of so many horrible ones…I really hate the idea of using one."

"Given what your training has had to entail, that's understandable. But couldn't you say the same for your chakra enhanced strength? You were on the receiving end of it a few times because of Lady Tsunade, right?"

"It's different. Physical pain vs. mental trauma…I'd rather take the first…especially in my case where the second causes the first."

"I get it…" Kurenai was quiet for a second, thinking through the problem. "I still say it's worth learning how to cast at least one negative genjutsu, but there are other types. Environmental illusions that work as traps…do you remember the first genjutsu simulation I ran you through?"

Sakura thought for a minute, her mind calling up a field of flowers, a cool temperature, and her mother's humming. "It was for calm, right?"

"You could try genjutsu like that. Ones that evoke positive, serene feelings that might diffuse a situation. With positive emotion jutsu like that, it's harder to break, because the person caught in it doesn't have the willpower to make the dream end."

She remembered that. Every time she was in one, she would ask for five more seconds, minutes, bargaining with herself to not wake herself up to the pain and stress of reality.

"I still don't love the idea, but…that feels a lot more bearable to me. I'm sorry to ask this while you're pregnant and dealing with so much, but…can you train me?"

"I've already told you I would, whenever you wanted to learn it. And given the kind of genjutsu you want to learn, teaching you shouldn't be a problem, even while pregnant. Though I have a favor to ask in return."

"Yes?"

"Will you be my medic throughout the course of my pregnancy?"

"Of course! That's not a favor, that's an honor! Thank you Kurenai-sensei! I'd be happy too!"

"I'm in good hands. And so's our child." She said it out loud, but the statement was for Asuma, not Sakura. "We'll train four times a week after your hospital shifts. Training ground 8."

"Got it! You should come to the hospital soon for a check up. Just tell them I told you to see me."

"Alright."

"Speaking of," Sakura said, glancing at the clock on the wall. "Crap! I've got a shift to get to. See you soon, Kurenai-sensei! Thank you for all your help!" Sakura sprung from her chair and was out the door in less than a second. She hadn't been late once since her mother died and she wasn't about to break her streak now.

Kurenai smiled sadly, shaking her head. That girl had changed so much and yet so little since she was thirteen.

A week and a half later, Sakura had already picked up on how to cast environmental genjutsu, though she was still working on making them undetectable. Part of the problem was that she was training against Kurenai, the foremost genjutsu expert in the village. She supposed that was the best way to train though. If she could get to a level where she could pull one over on Kurenai, then her genjutsu would be strong enough to work on anyone, save a Sharingan holder.

Kurenai for her part had received a clean bill of health from Sakura, as well as a very detailed care plan. From now on, she wasn't allowed to accept anything higher than a C-rank mission, and once she entered her third month of pregnancy, she wasn't to accept any higher than D-ranks, or supervising training. If she wanted, she could accept D-ranks into her second trimester, but once she entered into her third trimester, she would be placed on leave whether she wanted to or not. She'd also have short bi-weekly checkins with Sakura, as well as longer, more full check-ups at the start of each trimester. Shikamaru, who'd been informed of Kurenai's pregnancy by Asuma as one of his final acts, had made it his mission to accompany her to every major appointment, as well as the bi-weekly checkins if he was available. He was less thank thrilled about Kurenai being approved for C-rank missions while pregnant, but he also knew better than to fight Sakura on anything medical.

Sakura was on clinic duty at the hospital for a shift after some early morning genjutsu practice when Shizune came to find her.

"Sakura-chan, Tsunade-sama wants to see you and Naruto in her office right away. Find him and go—she sounded…tense. I'll finish off here."

Sakura didn't question it. She'd seen Tsunade "tense" on more than one occasion and it was never pretty. Although, it was abnormal for Tsunade to call her in while she was on clinical shifts.

She couldn't find Naruto at Ichiraku or the training grounds, she decided to check his apartment. When she rang the doorbell, a squinting, bed-headed Naruto opened the door, a steaming cup of instant ramen in hand.

"Ramen already Naruto? You just woke up! At least eat a vegetable or something!" Sakura admonished.

"Sakura, it's our day off. Why are you here? And why so early?"

"It's your day off, not mine, and it's past noon for your information. But never mind that. Just wash up and change, ok? I'll wait right here."

"Wait, is this a date?" Naruto asked excitedly.

"Shishou summoned us you fool! Now hurry up!" She barked.

"How can he think I'd skip work for a date?! What does he take me for?!"

Naruto wandered back inside, grumbling about old lady's ruining everything. He emerged disconcertingly quickly, changed and freshly inhaled ramen cup in hand. He dumped the empty cup in the trash before running out and closing the door behind him.

"Let's go see what granny wants, Sakura-Chan!" And off they went.

"You're late!" Tsunade barked as soon as they walked in. "What the hell took you so long?!" For all her drunken belligerence, the one thing Tsunade never was, was late. She'd drilled it into Sakura over the course of their training, that a single second too late, and your patient was dead.

"Now now, Tsunade…" Jiraya tried to placate, but Sakura was already bowing in forgiveness.

"Please forgive us…Naruto was…resting, since it was his day off…"

"Hey Pervy Sage!" Naruto greeted brightly, oblivious to the threat of the seething Tsunade.

"Long time no see, Naruto!"

"So, what did you wish to discuss, M'Lady?" Sakura asked, slowly straightening.

"Mm." Tsunade pursed her lips, staring at the two teens in front of her before glancing at Jiraya. "We've been seeing some intel floating around multiple channels…we need to talk about it."

"Intel...?"

"If shishou needs to discuss it with me and Naruto, it's probably about Sasuke-kun…could he really have…did he…?"

"Why? What is it?" Naruto asked, confused. It was weird for Granny to discuss intel with them.

"Orochimaru is dead. And it seems Uchiha Sasuke killed him." Tsunade stated bluntly, getting right to the point.

Naruto and Sakura stared at her, wide eyed. For a long moment, no one moved or breathed.

"That dream…that weird feeling I had…I was right?!"

"Seriously?! For real…?" Naruto breathed.

"There's no mistake. I heard it from a trust worthy source." Jiraya confirmed.

"Then that means…"

"That means he's safe. Orochimaru won't—can't—take his body! Thank gods!"

"Woohoo! I knew Orochimaru couldn't break him!" Naruto cheered. "Then Sasuke's coming home to Konoha! Right?!"

"No…not yet…not until he gets his closure with Itachi."

Tsunade sighed, her eyes closing sadly. She didn't want to be the one to tell Sakura and Naruto that Sasuke was only walking further into darkness.

"Unfortunately it doesn't seem like it." Jiraya said gravely.

"What do you mean?! Why not?! Orochimaru's gone so why wouldn't he come home?"

"For the same reason he left…"

"Sakura-chan?" Naruto turned to face her, though she couldn't bring herself to look at him.

"He didn't leave because he wanted to join Orochimaru…that snake was just a means to an end." If she could trust her dreams as a reliable source of information on Sasuke's thought process, then he actually hated that creep almost as much as she did. Of course, she had no idea if she could trust her dreams on that or not. But she knew that at his core, Sasuke's motive had always singularly been Itachi. Orochimaru hadn't truly factored into it at all.

"Sasuke's obsessed with vengeance." Jiraya further explained, validating Sakura's unvoiced conclusion. "He's planning to infiltrate the Akatsuki and kill his own brother, Uchiha Itachi."

"That idiot! He's still—" Naruto began, but Sakura cut him off.

"Can you blame him for that?" Her voice was quiet, but she stared Jiraya down unwaveringly. "Your statement…'kill his own brother, Uchiha Itachi.' It carries so much judgement, but can you really blame him? Sasuke-kun loved Itachi, idolized him, more than anyone. Did you know that?"

Jiraya remained leaning against Tsunade's desk, his arms crossed as he met Sakura's unwavering stare firmly. He hadn't known that. He supposed the boy must have told her at some point before he abandoned them, though he never would have pegged Sasuke as the type to share, especially not positive feelings he'd once felt toward Itachi.

"Can you really blame him, when the brother he loved more than anything killed not just their immediate family, but the entirety of the clan he belonged to, before abandoning him as well? Can you really blame him, when Itachi made him watch all of those murders. Over, and over and over. An 8-year-old boy. If you're going to judge someone, shouldn't you be judging the village?" The room went unnervingly silent. Tsunade didn't make a single move, while Jiraya's jaw clenched. Naruto didn't take his eyes off the two Sanin, finding himself agreeing with every word of Sakura's outburst.

"Konoha never sent anyone after Itachi—a boy who massacred an entire founding clan! They didn't place Sasuke-kun with a new family, or give him a guardian. They handed him an empty apartment and a nice allowance and acted like that was enough. They left him completely alone. No guidance. No care. No warmth." Her fists We're shaking at her sides, her knuckles white. Rage was bubbling up in her stronger than it had in a very long time—the last time she remembered feeling this angry was after her mom had died when Naruto was away and Sasuke and Kakashi were comatose. Sasuke and Tsunade had both strongly advocated against her holding back how she felt, and Naruto constantly pressed her to share what she was thinking. Well, here it was…she opened her mouth and it all tumbled out building and mounting the longer she went on—more things unearthing from deep within her: rage she'd expressed before, rage she'd filtered and distilled in its expression, and rage buried much deeper—things she'd never dared to express, it all came rushing out of her like a pressure geyser.

"You judge him so harshly for turning down a dark path, but what choice would he have thought he had?! The human brain isn't fully developed until age 26—and you want to blame him for a bad choice he felt cornered into making at age 12?! Meanwhile, you just accept this village as it is, run by fully developed adults who think it's fine to trap a demon in a baby and leave the child completely alone and outcasted with no one to look after him!"

"—S-Sakura-chan…" She ignored Naruto.

"You just accept placing a 12 year-old child in Anbu to carry out assassinations! You accept him snapping, going rouge, murdering a whole clan except his little brother—who he forced to watch repeatedly—and not going after him or trying to bring him to justice for his crimes! You just accept leaving a traumatized orphaned boy alone with no guardian and no promise of closure! Sasuke-kun's gone too far, he's too lost, he's the one making all the wrong turns worthy of your judgement, but not Konoha, which used and profited from some of Orochimaru's experiments!"

"—I never excused—" She ignored Jiraya,

"Not Konoha, which expects its clanless shinobi to be the human shield for those from clans! Not Konoha, which lets its economic structure abandon civilians completely while saddling them with full priced inordinately expensive taxes and medical care, and limiting their opportunities to buy and own land! No! This was all Sasuke-kun's bad decision he made while in a complete state of sound mind and Konoha has no Goddamned accountability at all!"

"That's enough!" Tsunade barked, her hand slamming down on her desk loudly, the wood cracking beneath her palm.

"If you're angry at me, you yell it to my face and we go from there. That's what you told me to do, Shishou!" Sakura snapped back, without missing a single beat. "Or am I not allowed to be pissed by Konoha's shitty politics?"

The room was tensely silent for a long minute, Naruto and Jiraya's eyes pinging fearfully between the two, neither daring to breathe. Tsunade and Sakura glared at each other, neither giving a sign of blinking or backing down.

Just when Naruto and Jiraya could no longer hold their breath, Tsunade smirked. "Good. You're not backing down."

"Why would I? I've been shafted by plenty of the policies several times over. My whole team has, and am tired of feeling like I don't have the right to be angry about it." Even as she said it though, she felt the rage start to deflate, like she'd released it into the air and out of her.

"You should be. This system was designed to be insular, and anyone who wasn't included in that insular design gets crushed while carrying it. Unfortunately, it's almost impossible to just change that system. It requires radical shifts of opinion from everyone, and an unprecedented level of cooperation. Frustratingly, we're not there yet. But thanks to a certain two pain in my asses, those shifts in opinion have already started. You two just keep it up. By the time Naruto's smart enough to take over, you two will have probably won over everyone enough to make those changes. Still, I wish I could sic you on the council now. I'd love to see them knocked down a peg or several. As for Sasuke…"

"I'm not trying to dismiss Konoha's faults. But don't you think you two are giving him too many excuses?" Jiraya pressed.

"No." Naruto cut in—it was now his time to argue with his Master. "We're not. Sakura-chan is right. From the second we were put on Team 7, Sasuke's goal was to kill Itachi. And Itachi baited him to do it back in that inn. Of course he wouldn't have seen any other choice—that was all he had to hold onto for so long! Y'Know?"

"But then he had you two and Kakashi, and he still—"

"Barely a year with us, or four years of hatred…which do you think would win?" Sakura shot back.

"And that bastard came so far in that barely a year. You came late, so you didn't see it Pervy sage, but back in that inn, he was terrified that Itachi was trying to take me—and when Sakura-chan showed up, he got even more scared. All through the academy, he was a loner bastard who wouldn't let anyone get near him, but in the short time we were team 7, he jumped in front of senbon to protect me, wouldn't leave Sakura-chan during her first reaction when we faced Orochimaru, admitted she was precious to him, brought her to live with him, and admitted I was his best friend. If we only had a bit more time with him, Sasuke wouldn't have made the same choice! Believe it!"

Sakura wasn't as sure about that last part. She was fairly certain Sasuke would have always left to kill Itachi, no matter how long they were together as a team. Maybe he wouldn't have gone to Orochimaru for the power to do it. Maybe he would have done it legally—petitioning Tsunade to allow him to go as a solo mission.

"He would have left to kill Itachi, no matter what. He'd need the closure. But with more time, his choice may have been a little different…less dark."

"Closure and revenge aren't the same thing."

"Of course not, but he was 8 when everything happened and 12 when he made his choice—how the hell was he supposed to know that?! No one intervened or offered him anything that would lead him to think otherwise! And while revenge isn't necessary, closure is! When the only way he can fathom having closure is through revenge, of course he's gonna do it!" Sakura nearly yelled again, her temper surging anew.

"Enough now. This isn't why we called you here." Tsunade cut in, massaging her temples. "I've held off declaring Uchiha Sasuke a rogue nin for you two. Since he's killed Orochimaru, a known enemy of Konoha, if he returns now and complies with questioning and evaluation, there's a good chance we can have him cleared completely and reinstated as a Konoha shinobi…we'll be able to reform the original team 7. However, if he doesn't return, or takes any further violent action that could brand him as a criminal, I won't be able to protect his status much longer. The council will want to declare him a rogue ninja to unaffiliated him with Konoha, so none of his actions can be held against us."

"So we just need to bring Sasuke back!" Naruto said, his excitement mounting at the prospect of his best friend returning.

"But he won't come back willingly—not until Itachi's dead. So long as his only violent action is against Itachi and the Akatsuki, Konoha shouldn't be able to hold that against him. They're our enemies too. If that's the only person he kills, we should be able to bring him back after that and get him reinstated."

"Hey I know! Let's form a cell and get out there too! Operation track Akatsuki is still going on, right?!"

"Yeah…"

"If we hunt down that Akatsuki member first, we'll definitely run into Sasuke eventually! In other words—"

"You want to target Uchiha Itachi." Sakura finished, biting the tip of her thumb in thought.

"It's a good tactic, but really…we should just let Sasuke-kun kill Itachi, and then he'd come back of his own free will. I'd rather trust Sasuke-kun and wait, then try to force him and risk pushing him further away. But Naruto…he's beyond reason now. He's gonna go no matter what, and having him track the Akatsuki while they're after him…I have to go. I'd rather be there to back him up if he actually encounters any of them…especially if the Akatsuki member he's facing is Itachi. I still have a crap ton of questions for him, and I'm the only one the Tsukuyomi won't work against."

"When I was passing through Ishi, I saw Itachi and Kisame heading the opposite direction toward Ame. It's already been almost a month since then, so odds are they've passed through Ame at this point, though where they're headed to is anyone's guess, since we don't know which or how many tailed beasts they've already acquired."

"You saw them? Did they see you?" Jiraya asked, surprised he was only just hearing this.

"No…" her minds eye conjured up Itachi, turning to face the rock she'd been hiding behind. "…no one confronted me…I keep my chakra suppressed out of habit so…"

"Did you hear them say anything?"

"Not about the tailed beasts…actually they were talking about Sasuke-kun. Itachi was saying how he wanted to fight him…"

"Which Kisame called him on being out of character for…"

"Uchiha Itachi, huh? So what to do and how to go about it…?" Tsunade mused as she situated herself on her desk, having already gotten Sakura's report about her journey to the Shikkotsu forest.

"If we can capture even one Akatsuki, I bet we can count on Ibiki-sensei to get information out of them." Sakura proposed. They still didn't even know what the Akatsuki wanted with all these tailed beasts in the first place. Truly, they understood next to nothing about the enemy and their motivations.

"I've already issued standing orders to each squad to try and capture Akatsuki members and bring them in, but…"

"They're not a loose-lipped bunch, that's for sure. Judging from the ones we've encountered so far, It's been too risky to take them alive or intact."

"Kakashi-sensei…" Sakura turned to face him, as he leaned against the open door frame. Of course he'd be involved in this discussion as well. Sasuke was his student.

"Then what are we supposed to do?!" Naruto protested, beginning to lose patience. With every suggestion being shot down, it was hard to believe they'd actually ever get around to finding Sasuke.

"Well, keep searching patiently until we run into Itachi." Kakashi suggested.

"Hunt Itachi to hunt Sasuke, huh? And what will you do when you find the elder brother?" Jiraya asked, his arms dropping to his sides.

"Bait him." Sakura answered immediately, drawing all of the attention to herself. "I have more than a few questions for Itachi."

"Questions?"

"He won't just stand still, Sakura. He didn't last time." Kakashi sighed. Well, it was chalking itself up to be quite the task. "We'll need more than one squad. That's for sure."

"What do you mean, more?" Naruto pressed.

"If we take Itachi down, Sasuke-kun won't get his closure and may not be able to move past it to willingly come back here, without Itachi, he loses his motive. So we'll need to capture and keep Itachi alive. And for that, we'd need a lot more people, as opposed to if we were just eliminating him. Right?" Sakura explained, confirming the last part with Kakashi.

"That's correct. Though I argue a two squad cell should be plenty." Kakashi slipped seamlessly into teacher mode as he began to explain, though the explanation was much more for Naruto's benefit, as Sakura would have probably reached a similar conclusion on her own with a bit more prompting. "When the targets to be captured are few in number, as in one or two, the more teams you involve, the greater the chance of being spotted. Not to mention the chain of command gets more confusing and the chances of success decrease."

"And since live capture requires more finesse than assassination, you want shinobi who've worked missions together before to ensure smooth teamwork." Jiraya finished.

"On that note, I summoned the ones I believe are best suited to this mission."

"The ones we probably work best with is Team 10, but they're on leave for now, and aside from Ino-Pig, none of their skills are all that well suited to tracking…or stealth for that matter, factoring in Choji. If tracking is involved though, the best would be…"

"Come on in everyone." Kakashi called, turning to the doorway.

Sai and Yamato walked into the room, followed by Kiba, Akamaru, Shino, and Hinata. Team 8, the tracking specialists.

"Hinata!" Naruto greeted enthusiastically, his countenance lightening. "Hey Kiba, Shino!"

"So you remembered my name this time…" Shino murmured glumly.

"H-H-Hi, N-Naruto-kun."

"Yo Naruto! Long time no see Sakura!" Kiba greeted brightly, as Akamaru raced up to her to nuzzle her hand, tail wagging in frantic excitement to see his old fetch buddy.

"Sorry about that, it's been a bit busy." Sakura winced. She felt bad about how long it had been since she properly hung out with Kiba. When her training with Tsunade had picked up, and team 7 had dissolved, the other teams were saddled with even more missions, so Kiba had been pretty busy too, and on the rare occasion she wasn't busy, he had clan training and responsibilities. The incompatible schedules kept them from training together and racing. She missed the way they trained though—it had been one of the more fun ways to train, even if playing fetch was a little demeaning, and she wanted to see who was faster now, him or her. They'd have to race sometime soon.

"Heard you've been training with Kurenai-sensei. Decided illusions were more your speed?"

"Actually the opposite, which is why I'm training with her." Sakura explained vaguely. Kiba and Shino were not among those of their friend group who knew of her chakra reactions, and she felt no desire to explain the traumas she'd had to face at the hands of genjutsu.

"I guess it makes sense though. Hinata, Kiba, and I have all trained together. So yeah…this works. Not too sure what to make of Shino though. He's always been a bit tougher to get a read on."

"Huh?"

"She means she actually doesn't like genjutsu at all." Shino explained.

"No I got that part but why—"

"So Kakashi, you're proposing a two-cell team of squads 7 and 8 to hunt down the Akatsuki member, Uchiha Itachi and capture him alive?"

"Yes. Before leaving with Jiraya-sensei, Naruto went on a few missions with team 8, and Sakura has trained with both Hinata and Kiba. They are familiar enough with each other that teamwork shouldn't be a problem, and team 8 specializes in hunting and tracking. Given team 7's vested interest in both Sasuke and the Akatsuki, strong offensive capability, intelligence gathering, and medical expertise, it's important they be included of course."

Tsunade's eyes swept over the assembled group, lingering on Sakura before making her verdict. "Very well. Leave tomorrow morning. You're dismissed."

"Sakura-chan! Wait up!" Naruto caught up to her just outside of the hokage tower. "Thanks for what you said back there!"

"What I said?" All she could remember was word vomiting in an enraged haze.

"For getting angry like that, and letting it all out…and for including me in why you're angry."'

"Well, that wasn't hard…what the village did to you wasn't fair…a lot about the village isn't fair. I guess it's been building up over time."

"The civilian and clanless shinobi stuff?"

Sakura nodded, kicking a pebble with enough force to lodge it into the bark of a tree.

"When I'm hokage, I'll fix this. That's a promise, so believe it!"

"I know you will." She murmured so softly, he wasn't sure if he imagined it or not. None the less, the soft smile on her face naturally triggered his own bright one.

"Um…"

Naruto and Sakura both turned to the soft voice coming from behind them.

"N-Naruto…I just…"

"Hey Hinata! Wanna go get ramen with me and Sakura-chan?" Hinata turned scarlet at the invitation, her eyes darting briefly to Sakura for help, but all Sakura saw was a golden opportunity, besides she wanted to be alone at the moment.

"Actually Naruto, I have to get back to the hospital to finish off my shift and finish off some paperwork. You two go with out me."

"W-Wait Sakura-chan! Don't—" Hinata murmured desperately. She'd gotten better at being around and speaking with Naruto one on one, but going to Ichiraku together, just the two of them, that was too close to a date. She didn't know if her heart could take that.

"Aw, c'mon Sakura-chaaaaaaaaan!" Naruto whined.

"Sorry, but it's peoples' health. I need to make sure everything's in order before I go."

Naruto softened a little. Sakura's experience with her mother had left such a mark on her, it was easy to see in her values, and how seriously she took her work as a medic and healer. He supposed if it were him, he wouldn't be able to take it lightly either.

"Alright. But don't work so hard that you forget to eat, Sakura-chan."

"I won't. See you two tomorrow! Enjoy your ramen!" Sakura called, running off. She did have work to do, but she really just wanted some time to process this mission and think things through.

Naruto watched her back as she got farther and farther away. After what happened in the Hokage's office, he was worried that she bury herself in her head too much and close herself off…and it looked like he was right to worry. If he were still twelve, he would have tried to push her to go with them more, or insisted on going with her to the hospital for some reason. But he'd gotten older, and understood how Sakura worked a little better now. She might bury herself in her thoughts and close herself off, or she might just be processing and reaching her own conclusion which would strengthen her resolve. She required alone time for both, and they both looked similar, so it was impossible to say which it was. But it was better to give her the alone time on the chance she was processing and strengthening her resolve. She needed it, it was good for her. If she got buried in her head and closed herself off, he'd just have to bring her out of it. He'd managed it before (with the help of Sasuke), and he'd figure out how to do it again, no matter what it took.

"Let's go, Hinata!" He said, turning to her brightly. It would have been awesome if Sakura could come with them, but ramen with Hinata would be great too!

"Oh, um…" she swallowed hard and took a deep breath, hearing Sakura, Ino, and TenTen's voices in her head encouraging and pushing her forward. "Y-Yes, let's!"

Sakura stood in front of Mikoto and Fugaku's graves, after her hospital shift. "Hello, Mikoto-san…Fugaku-san…we're…officially going on a mission to capture Itachi, although the motive behind it is really to bring Sasuke-kun back. We really are nosy I guess, poking our way into your family business…although, I think Itachi should have been brought to justice long before this…"

"Why hasn't he? Why'd they just let that slide?"

"I…I don't know if I should be apologizing to you for interfering or reassuring you that we'll bring Itachi to justice and bring Sasuke-kun back home…though I have a bad feeling that it won't go that smoothly…I wonder…if you could, would you rather Itachi be brought to justice by Konoha, or by Sasuke-kun? Would you…want to be avenged? Or…would you not want your youngest son to have to go through killing the brother he once loved? I don't think I've ever been so confused about a mission before. On one hand, I think Konoha should have done this long ago, back after the massacre happened…on the other hand, now that Sasuke-kun's older, and gone this far for revenge, I'm not sure it's our place to intervene now…"

"After how far he's gone for revenge, denying him it would probably piss him off. He has no qualms with Konoha right now, but this might give him one…"

"Well, I have to go anyway, for Naruto's sake. But I thought you should know…since it's your sons. I'll…visit when we get back." Sakura bowed, before making a quick trip to her mom and dads graves to catch them up before heading back to the apartment.

When she got in, she immediately went to Sasuke's room and curled up on his bed, staring at his family photo with him and Itachi.

"I know you'd say 'stay out of it, it's none of your business,' and I don't agree, but…I still think…you really need to face him, don't you, Sasuke-kun? But I can't help feeling…

"Like all of this is going to end very badly…"

Sakura couldn't seem to manage to get to sleep that night, anxiety chewing at her too much to get her mind to shut off, so she turned to her standard respite: folding paper cranes. By the time the sky started to lighten, she'd folded 137.

The next morning team 7 and 8 gathered outside the gates, cloaks on to shield them against the early morning down pour. The storm only served to sink into Sakura's anxiety. A bad omen to feed the bad feeling she had.

"All right people! Let's go!" Naruto shouted, his fist clenched. This time, they'd bring Sasuke back. He'd fulfill his promise to Sakura and get his best friend back.

"I think the rain's perfect for cooling down those who are a bit too fired up." Kiba grunted. It was too early for this.

Kakashi sighed. Kiba had a point, though he could understand Naruto's enthusiasm. "Well, let's get moving." He leapt into the trees, the others following suit.

Sakura fingered her necklace anxiously, biting the her lip, before taking off after them, hoping her bad feeling was just her tendency to overthink.

Author's note: Ok so, the Hiden/Kakazu part is kinda anticlimactic, I know. Like I said upfront, I just never really cared much for that arc, and there's not a whole lot for Sakura to do in it. I don't care enough about them as villains to put in the mental power to rewrite it so Sakura has more to do, so instead I opted to make that more for Sai and Ino and highlight more how Sakura's trying to help and support Sai. Sakura isn't shown in the manga or anime helping with Kakazu's autopsy, but since she conducts one later in the war arc, I like the idea that this was where she first learned how to do it, and more importantly, I think it's important that she knows the full effect of Naruto's attack and the full damage it could do to him. This dream was a bit different than the usual. Usually, when Sasuke or Sakura dream of each other, their feelings are connecting but nothing else, so there's no information being exchanged and they're not learning anything new. It's also never been mutual up until now, by which I mean this is the first time the dream is shared between the two of them. Normally they aren't dreaming the same dream, Sakura doesn't know/didn't dream visiting him while he was being poisoned, Sasuke didn't know/dream of holding her in the tree while she was going to the Shikotsu forest. Neither know the other had the same dream-that they were really talking to each other this time, they think they were just dreaming, but if you were to ask both of them what they dreamed the night before, they would say the same thing. I know the whole sexy ninjutsu scene was played for purely for laughs in both the manga and anime, but given her curse, I felt it was important for her to actually have it effect her and need to talk it out, and I like the idea that the person she goes to for that is Kurenai. Honestly, it felt a little easier to make it Tsunade, but I hate how the manga/anime just let Kurenai fall into total obscurity, and she's described as "the big sister" type, and that type would probably be who Sakura would feel most comfortable discussing this with. I think it's also nice to hear from Kurenai about Asuma from a romantic, grieving perspective, as they never give her that either. The more I read/watch of Naruto, the less I like Jiraya. I know he's a fan favorite for a lot of people and he helped out Naruto and stuff, but for someone who wants peace and believes Naruto is the child of prophecy that can end the cycle of hatred, he spends a lot of time trying to discourage Naruto from going after Sasuke and is incredibly quick to judge and write Sasuke off. It was getting to me, so it got to Sakura, which spiraled. I firmly believe that this Sakura would not agree with this mission, and would be really conflicted over it.

Honestly it's not my favorite chapter, and was difficult for me to write, although I did like her conversation with Kurenai. Next chapter will be more interesting. Thanks again for you patience and for all the favs/follows/and especially reviews. Reviews give me a lot of motivation to keep writing, so please keep leaving them! Thanks for reading this far!