Her Experience

by Tiny.Dncer

Sakura has been taking care of her sick civilian mother alone since she was 8. But now a full fledged ninja placed on team 7, she must learn how to stop holding herself back and let her team in, although, that proves challenging when her teammates are the wild and childish Naruto Uzumaki and her cold closed off long time crush, Sasuke Uchiha. (Better explanation inside.)

34. Code Cracking

A/N: Life has been insane and I've been losing my mind a bit, but the real reason this took so long to update is because I was genuinely unsure of what Sakura was doing. For every scene so far, I've had some idea of what she's doing, but I really had nothing for this one. Once I figured it out, I got it written within like, five days. Anyway I figured out what she's doing, so here's the update. On an unrelated and exciting note, my book was released in paperback! Yay!

"Writing"

"Inner Sakura..."

"Sakura's thoughts..."

Memories...

Standard disclaimers apply.

---

When Sasuke regained consciousness, the very first thing he noticed was a distinct lack of Sakura. He couldn't sense her chakra, and when he finally opened his eyes, there was no trace of soft pink or caring green. He was sure he felt her chakra before he went unconscious—the feel of her medical ninjutsu, identical to that one dream he had where she used it on him: Soothing but energizing, refreshing but calming. He was sure it wasn't a dream this time either, because he should be dead. There was no way he could have survived otherwise, his injuries had been too severe. He'd been sure he was going to die. Only skilled medical intervention could have saved him. Only Sakura could have saved him. He was certain he'd heard her say she was real too—something that she never quite did in his dreams.

He'd won. It was over. Everything was settled…mostly. There was the last Uchiha, the collaborator, but that could wait a little bit. He needed her, and he could go back to her, now. He could go home now. In fact, he wanted to see her right now. Because Itachi was gone, and there was this looming emptiness, so vast and deep, and he was standing on the tiniest island amidst that emptiness and it was shrinking by the second. The nothing was expanding, and it would soon swallow him. Unless he could get to her. Now that the vast portion of his revenge was lifted from him, there was only her and team 7. Without them, there was nothing. He was nothing. A desolate shell. He needed to see her now or it felt like the vacuum inside him would swallow him whole and suffocate him from the inside. He needed to see her. She should be here. And she wasn't.

Here. Where the hell was he? He had been…outside for all intent and purpose. The secret Uchiha base had been completely destroyed in his battle with Itachi…fitting, really. Itachi and his accomplice had wiped out everything else about the Uchiha, so why not that too? It didn't matter anymore though. Itachi was gone. So was the base. So were the Uchiha—with the exception of that one last one, who Itachi claimed was somehow Madara, but he didn't even know if that could be trusted. It was just him now. He was alone. Except Sakura had been there, at the Uchiha base. But he wasn't among those ruins, he was in some cave, if the stalactites above him were any indication. It didn't really matter where he was, the only thing that mattered was that she wasn't there with him.

He sat up, and immediately winced, as pain erupted through his body. Sakura wouldn't have left anything untreated unless something happened—she ran out of chakra, or someone physically stopped her…immediately his mind latched onto the worst case scenario. Someone hurt her. That's why she wasn't here right now. His guard sky-rocketed, his awareness finally sharpening—care and protectiveness overriding the void growing within him. With that awareness, he finally noted the masked figure in a shadowy opening of the cave. Who knew how long he'd been there. He hadn't cared until that second when it occurred to him that Sakura could be in danger.

"I treated your wounds. But you've still suffered quite a bit of damage to yourself, which you're not completely over. So I wouldn't move around more than absolutely necessary." The masked figure said casually.

He was lying. Sakura was the one who treated them. "Where is she?"

"We've met once before. Although, we were enemies, then. Don't worry, I don't hold Deidara's death against you. I am not your enemy. I brought you here to tell you something."

"Where is she?" Sasuke repeated sharply.

"Not interested, huh…" Tobi eyed him shrewdly. He could guess pretty easily who the "she" was. That girl, Sakura. So he did love her—he had to if that was the first thing out of his mouth after killing Itachi. That made this much harder. That little girl had forced his hand and made him kill her. If Sasuke found out, all his plans would be for nothing. But…if he was careful with his wording, he could still make this work.

"She?"

"Sakura. The one who actually treated me. What have you done with her?"

"I haven't done anything with her. And I did treat you. She didn't finish, so I took over."

"Sakura wouldn't leave a patient half-healed. What happened to her?" Sasuke demanded.

It was worse than Tobi thought. Sasuke's expression was desolate—but his eyes weren't broken yet. This girl gave him hope and direction. And that direction was the exact opposite one than he needed him to go down.

"She was killed."

"You're lying." Naruto and Kakashi would never have let that happen. Naruto had a thing for her and Kakashi had been more protective of her than anyone else on their team, since learning of her curse.

"I'm not. She was killed while trying to protect you. She was stabbed through the back with a kunai."

"Stop lying! Naruto and Kakashi would never let that happen! And Sakura's stronger than that!" Sasuke growled. Sakura had taken repeated beatings from the sound trio, and Kunai to each of her limbs while being severely weakened post reaction, and she hadn't died. She trained since then, enough to be able to kill one of the Akatsuki. He'd seen her fighting style first hand—her dancer's style. Even with the Sharingan it was hard to track, without it, he doubted anyone would ever land a hit on her.

"I don't know her. Maybe she was. But healing you must have drained most of her chakra, and trying to protect you put her at a disadvantage."

"Naruto and Kakashi—"

"You trust them?" Tobi asked sharply. Just hearing that man's name made his blood boil. "You trust them, when Konoha's responsible for her death?"

"W…What?"

"They're the ones who ordered your death. You're a missing ninja after all. And when she healed you, she allied herself with the missing ninja. It was viewed as an act of treason, and they killed her for it."

"That's not…" But Zabuza had been a missing ninja too. One the Hidden Mist had wanted dead. And Haku had died protecting him. If it happened there…why couldn't it happen with this situation? But no. It was different. "Sakura's too valuable—"

"Was she? Did she come from a clan?"

Sasuke remained tightly silent, but his breathing started to grow uneven.

"If she did, was her clan considered an asset?"

Just the opposite. Her clan was viewed as cursed.

"Konoha wouldn't do that." Sasuke ground out, his fists clenching tightly.

"Oh, but wouldn't they? Wouldn't they throw away their own to accomplish their own ends? They've done it before."

"What are you talking about?" His mind was reeling. She couldn't be dead. She wasn't supposed to be dead. It was either he died after killing Itachi, or he survived and went back to her. There was no point to living, with Itachi successfully killed, if Sakura wasn't there. There was no way Konoha would allow her to die—no, actively kill her. Hadn't she learned medical ninjutsu from the Fifth Hokage? There was no way they'd kill the Fifth's apprentice like that. He was lying. He had to be lying!

"They've done this sort of thing before, when it benefitted them…" He could still see Kakashi's hand piercing Rin's chest. "Even with Uchiha Itachi." It was the first time Sasuke actually fully looked at him, his eyes silently demanding answers though his expression remained desolate and sinking further. Good. This was where he needed him to be. "That's right. You think you know everything about your brother, but you actually don't." So he had to take a slight detour with a bit of flagrant lying, but he managed to get back around to where he needed the conversation to be. "Oh all right…Let me start with a self-intro."

---

Sakura stayed with Tsunade the first four days after their mission, though it didn't help the guilt, worry, and misery she felt. She couldn't bring herself to look Naruto in the eye, not that he was trying particularly hard to see her at the moment.

"This must be how he felt after that first mission to bring Sasuke-kun back…"

Her solution for dealing with it was to throw herself into her work at the hospital—that is, to not deal with it at all. In fact, while she may have been staying with Tsunade those first four days, it was more accurate to say she was staying at the hospital for how many double shifts she pulled. After the first day, she was there more than anywhere else.

"I was too useless to save mom, Lady Chiyo, and now Sasuke-kun…I need to prove that I can at least do something…"

Everyone picked up on it, and they were all very concerned. Neither Naruto nor Sakura had been this depressed after the encounter with Orochimaru—if anything they were both highly motivated to get stronger, but now…Naruto stayed in his room most of the time. The only one who seemed to be able to talk to him was Hinata. And Sakura kept herself so busy that her friends had to make excuses to go to the hospital for check-ups, just to see her. During those visits, she would happily talk with them as if everything was normal, until they breached the topic of the last mission and Sasuke, and then it was all business. Just the check up, as if she were nothing more than their doctor. Surprisingly, it was Sai who got the closest to being able to talk to her about the mission, because he approached it from the not understanding emotions angle, which seemed to appeal to her empathy and sense of responsibility to Sai. But even when he mentioned Sasuke directly, Sakura shut down, becoming professional and distant—something Sai ended up needing Ino to explain to him.

Sai, Ino, Hinata, Kiba, TenTen, Lee, Choji, surprising visits from Shino and Neji, even Shikamaru couldn't seem to get through to her.

So when Sakura walked into her office, bone tired and numb after a long surgery coming at the end of a long shift, marking the start of what would be her third double shift in a row, she was both surprised and not at all surprised to see Kakashi leaning against her office window. On one hand, she figured he'd try talking to her eventually. On the other, he avoided the hospital at all costs and did whatever he could to minimize the time he spent there.

"Hey Kakashi-sensei. You feeling alright? I rarely see you here by choice."

"You promised me."

"Huh?"

"You promised me you'd talk to me about whatever you felt after the mission, instead of holding it in."

Sakura pursed her lips. "Everything's fine."

"You're a good liar Sakura, but I would need to not know you and have no context at all for me to possibly believe that."

"I don't want to talk about it." Sakura tried again, moving past him to drop her clipboard on her desk. The patient in room 207 was suffering from a bacterial infection and would need antibiotics administered under observation for the next two weeks.

"I gave you time. You've shut down every other person who tried, refused to open up to anyone else, you're avoiding Naruto, and trying to kill yourself with such an extreme workload. Time's up. You need to talk to me."

"For me to be avoiding Naruto, he'd have to actually want to see me."

"I thought I taught you better than that." Kakashi scolded, making her feel worse.

"Why would he want to see me? I'm the one who lost Sasuke-kun." Her voice broke a little at his name.

"It's not your fault, Sakura. You made the best call in a bad situation and did what you could. If anything, as guilt goes, you're even now."

"Hardly. He wouldn't have come back before. There was nothing Naruto could have done…but this time…he would have come home…" Sakura answered tightly.

Kakashi was silent for a few moments before laying a hand on her shoulder. "Come with me."

His tone didn't leave room for argument, and she was too exhausted to think of any truly good excuse not too.

She wasn't sure where she was expecting him to lead her, but the training grounds definitely weren't at the top of the list.

"Sensei…what are we doing here?"

"If we want to get Sasuke back, you need to train. Your medical ninjutsu doesn't need more work, my understanding of it is that you already rival Shizune on that front, and maybe even Tsunade-sama as well. I've been thinking about your Dancer's Style. So far, you've only engaged with one style of dance—even when you incorporated weapons, you still took a very classical approach. It would be good to have multiple styles you can move between depending on the situation. In that vein…" Kakashi reached into one of his vest pockets and pulled out two objects holding them out to her.

Sakura stared at them blankly, her mind slow to process what was happening. "You want to train me? Specifically? But what about Naruto?"

Kakashi sighed. "I've never been a good teacher to you, and I gave myself too much of a pass, writing it off as not being the right teacher for you…I'm not. But I still should have worked harder. I also thought it was better to let you come to me about your feelings as far back as when you first lost your mother, but that wasn't fair either. You grew up having to be independent and shoulder everything quietly. Your inclination would never be to come to me, so just waiting for you wasn't the right approach. It hadn't been the right approach with Sasuke either…If I had been there for him more, things might be very different now. I asked Tsunade-sama, there isn't any more training she can give you at the moment. I know you're working with Kurenai on genjutsu, and I'll be happy to help you where I can with that as well, though she's better suited for it. What I can do for you the most though, is help you refine and expand your taijutsu style."

"But Naruto—"

"He's out with Hinata right now. I checked him on him earlier and tried to get him to the training grounds, but he wasn't up for leaving his apartment."

"That's concerning…"

"Until Hinata showed up and invited him to get ramen with her. Then he was up and about, acting almost like his old self. He'll be ok. I think he just needed some processing time. If I had to guess, he'll be back to living on the training grounds within the next three days. You should go talk to him though."

"At least Hinata-chan is getting through to him…I know I need to talk to him, I just…I'm so scared. Seeing him so defeated…it makes the pain ten times worse…"

"Why aren't you trying to make me talk about him…Sasuke-kun?"

Kakashi sighed again. "I want you to. But you're someone who filters and processes their emotions and thoughts through action. Just talking may not always be enough, and you haven't truly moved in some time…It's understandable why you fell in love with him. After all, Sasuke figured that out about you and made the space for it ages ago, didn't he?"

You don't do well sitting still, do you?

"How'd you know about that, Sensei?"

"I was keeping an eye on you at that time."

"Of course you were." She murmured, finally taking the objects Kakashi was holding out to her. She studied them more closely noting that they were two paper fans. "Fan dancing?"

"Based on my research there are two different styles, though fan dancing is a far slower and more purposeful in its movements than your standard dance style."

"Kakashi-sensei…he researched different kinds of dance to help me…"

"Sensei…I don't know if I'm really—"

"Whatever you're about to say, don't. We don't know what the Akatsuki wants with Sasuke. There's still a chance to get him back, and you have to be ready. You've had your chance to grieve. It's time to start taking action. If you felt too weak and hopeless before, regardless of whether you truly were or weren't, the only answer is to train and get stronger. I know you've been exhausting yourself at the hospital, so we'll just focus on the movements for now."

"He's really trying hard this time…thank you Sensei…"

"Ok." Sakura opened the fans and experimented with waving and twirling them a bit. "From what I know of fan dancing, there is a style of it which is more like poses and precision of fan placement and the other is more focused on sweeping arm movements and using the fan to extend and flourish the motion." Sakura said, giving her arm an experimental sweep with the fan.

"For the sake of practicality and cohesion, I think we should focus more on the second form of fan dancing, where the fans act as an extension of your arm. When you incorporated weapons, you kept your hands free, but I think we'll need to adapt how you dance when you're actually holding and maneuvering an object."

"Understood."

The first step was to figure out how to fan dance, as Sakura had never actually done it before, and had only seen someone fan dancing once in a short clip as part of a larger video shown durning Kunoichi classes. After some trial and error, and hours of dancing around under Kakashi's watchful eye, she finally figured out something of a fusion between the two styles. It definitely leaned heavier into the flourishing style of fan dancing, with far more of the sweeping arm motions, but she kept the precision and sharpness of the other style, as well as holding some of the poses and slowing down so she wasn't always a flurry of motion.

"That looks really good—not quite what I know of the dance form, but your own version of it."

"Yeah, I think I finally locked in on something. But it's not quite locked into my body yet. And until it is, I don't think I'll be able to move onto tweaking it into a battle format yet."

Kakashi considered that for a second before checking the time. It was nearly noon and if he had to guess, Sakura hadn't had a good meal since Tsunade force fed her one when she first got back.

"Let's take a break and get you some food. Then we can get back to drilling this until you really feel it locked in. You have exceedingly fast muscle memory, so I suspect it'll only take a few hours for your body to memorize the feel."

Sakura was about to protest—more out of habit than actual desire, but she closed her mouth before the protest could escape. She was hungry. It was her first time truly registering that in four days, but she actually wanted to eat. A lot. She'd been existing in a haze of exhaustion, trying to use work to escape her misery. It was like she'd fallen back hard on what it had been like while her mom was alive. Barely eating, barely sleeping, just work.

"Ok…Sounds good."

---

Kakashi brought her to Ichiraku, where she hesitated when she saw Naruto sitting there with Hinata.

"Sensei…" Sakura hissed, but it was too late. Naruto already heard her.

"S-Sakura-chan?"

Sakura closed her eyes and sighed. It was time to face him. "Hey Naruto." She said, slipping into the stand and sliding onto the stool next to him, as Kakashi sat on her other side.

"W-Well…I th-think it's b-best I go…" Hinata murmured.

"Oh right, uh, see ya later Hinata!" Naruto said brightly, before turning back to his ramen.

Sakura wanted to protest, that Hinata didn't have to leave just because she showed up, but also, she and Naruto did need to talk. Maybe it was better if this was just an original team 7 situation.

An awkward silence fell over the three of them as Hinata walked away. After a tense few moments, Sakura finally mustered up the courage to try.

"Naruto—"

"Sakura-chan—"

They both paused, looking at each other in surprise.

"Um…you can go first." Sakura said, her gaze dropping back to the counter, ready to take whatever he threw at her.

"Ok…" Naruto was silent for a second before speaking again. "Thank you, Sakura-chan. For going with the Akatuski. It was the only chance we had to get Sasuke back, so thank you, for taking that risk and trying…but Sakura-chan…You matter to me. A lot. And when you left with the Akatsuki, and when we found you and you had that kunai in your back and were covered in blood, I thought…It scared me. I get it now. How you felt when we went to bring Sasuke back the first time, and how you must have felt when you found how beat up I was…"

"You weren't just beat up, your were in really bad shape."

"So were you." Naruto countered.

"I was fine. I made sure he didn't hit a vital."

"That's not the point!"

Sakura sighed. "I know. Sorry…"

"You're always telling me to be careful but Sakura-chan, you need to be more careful too. I'm not trying to call you weak when I say this, but you've never had much chakra, and you said your training for granny is worse than a chakra weight, so you never have much to work with. You've also got your chakra reactions…seeing you actually leave with the Akatsuki and then finding you later without Sasuke, injured…It actually hit me for the first time. You're always so capable Sakura-chan. I never really thought about just how big of a risk you're taking simply by standing on the field." He was shocked he hadn't caught it on their mission to rescue Gaara, but Sakura hadn't been physically injured when she reconnected with them, and they were able to bring Gaara back. Sakura may have been post-reaction at the time, but she was alive, physically uninjured, and still moving around and talking. That mission hadn't been a failure, and the success of it had blinded him to the reality of the danger Sakura was in.

"I'm sorry I couldn't keep him safe." Speaking the words out loud felt like being stabbed.

"I was mad at you at the time. But even then I understood what you were doing and why you were doing it. I'm not angry now, I'm just worried about both of you. You and Sasuke." Naruto let out a humorless laugh. "So this is what it feels like to be you, huh Sakura-Chan? How do you put up with us? This feeling sucks." She was always so worried about them, from day one. It was comprised of a mix of loneliness, helplessness, anxiety, fear, and an isolation sprinkled in that made it feel like that entire mix was yours alone to bear and no one would could, should, or would help carry it for you. The loneliness wasn't quite as acute as he used to feel, but in that pain's place were gnawing ever present other emotions that added an unfamiliar layer of stress. God did that truly suck.

Sakura's eyes prickled and she had to drop her gaze to the counter and blink the tears out. Naruto really had grown and matured so much.

"What does that say about me…why do I feel like I haven't grown at all…"

"Yeah. Yeah it really does." Sakura agreed, fighting to keep the weakness from her voice. "You already know how much I worry about you both…it's only…gotten worse. Between the nine-tails, and the Akatsuki…and Sasuke-kun…damnit I'm so worried about you, all the time! Both of you!" She was beginning to lose the battle with the tears in her eyes, but still managed to keep them in.

"So I guess the only thing we can do about it is look out for each other, yeah Sakura-chan? I'll always have your back. We're team 7, after all, all three of us are one." Naruto declared, with a warm smile. She could hear the strain when he said "three," but regardless, his tone was firm and sincere.

"Right. Always." Sakura agreed, finally able to bring herself to look him in the eyes. He said three. He wasn't giving up on Sasuke. Whatever the Akatsuki wanted with him, Naruto was still determined to bring him back. Kakashi was too.

"My teammates haven't given up on him…I can't either. Kakashi-sensei's right. This is no time for grieving and mourning. Nothing's confirmed yet. When mom got sick, I didn't cry, I studied. Sasuke-kun was abducted by the Akatsuki—I'll train. I'll train and I'll bring him back. This doesn't change anything. The plan is the same as it's been since he left."

The ignition of her fighting spirit brought with it a thrumming in her limbs, a realization of the kinetic energy she'd been holding back for so long. She wanted to dance. She wanted to upgrade her dancer's style. She wanted to be back on the training grounds. The strain and exhaustion was still there, her chakra in the dregs of her reserves, but with a large meal, she could gain a little back—she hadn't realized how hungry she was, but now that she thought about it, she was pretty sure the last full meal she had, had been the one Tsunade forced on her when she first got back.

"That's better." Kakashi smiled. "Naruto, Sakura and I will be heading back to the training grounds to after this. Care to join us?"

"Ah, I can't! I told Hinata I would train with her."

"Well, we certainly don't want to take you away from Hinata, now do we?" Kakashi chuckled.

"Huh?" Naruto looked confused.

"Still oblivious I see…but, he's choosing to train with her, so that's progress."

"Hmm, than let's train together tomorrow, yeah Naruto?"

"Deal!" Naruto beamed. "It's a date!"

"Idiot."

"We should invite Sai too! We have to work on our teamwork after all." Sakura continued lightly, actively ignoring Naruto's—was it even intentional? Really it was hard to tell with him—word choice.

Naruto grumbled something under his breath, whether it was because it wouldn't just him and her, or whether it was because Sai always managed to say something to piss him off, she wasn't sure.

Kakashi chuckled. "That's a great idea. I'd be there too, of course." He also didn't want to further encourage romantic feelings Naruto might have for Sakura, for any of their sakes. Naruto would only be disappointed in the end, Sakura would feel guilty, and Sasuke…well really who knew. But it was a mess waiting to happen. The fact that Naruto was gravitating more and more towards Hinata was a good sign. He'd much rather push Naruto towards her.

Naruto was quick to recover. "Tomorrow, Team 7 training it is!" Again, there was a bit of a strain to his voice, he was definitely forcing the cheerful act a little—but that was still better, and more Naruto, than him hiding in his apartment.

After a hearty bowl of ramen and a friendly see you later to Naruto, Sakura was ready to get back to training.

Fan dancing was hard for her. Her body was very quick to learn and memorize movements, but she usually converted them into her own movement style, which was why her muscle memory was able to kick in so quickly. But with fan dancing, it required additional object manipulation, and kept her hands full, fundamentally changing the way she needed to move. To do it well, and make it look good, the tempo she moved at was much slower than her typical style, and many of the movements found her balanced on one leg, transitioning from pose to pose in a stationary position, opening and closing the fans to extend and beautify the movements.

It took her a few hours of drilling just the dance form until it felt easily executable for her body.

"Kakashi-sensei? Does this look right? It feels so…slow. Will it be possible to adapt this to a combat style?"

Kakashi considered her movements carefully before answering. "Yes. Sakura, in a way, your dancer's style was inspired by Lee and Sasuke's taijustu, right?"

Sakura looked up at him from where she balanced on point, her left leg turned out, lifted in front of her and bent so her knee and calf paralleled her waist, while her left arm held a fan open above her head, and her right arm dipped below the line her calf created and held an open fan there. A position Kakashi couldn't fathom holding for as long as she had, nor making it look as beautiful and easy as she did. Most ninja had a high level of athleticism and flexibility, so most would be able to replicate this sort of pose. But he didn't think he'd ever seen a ninja with the level of grace and kinesthetic awareness that Sakura possessed. Any of her class could replicate this pose, but none would bring the grace and ease of motion to it that she did. Even as he watched her shift position, still balancing on the same leg, only her arms and left leg changing, he couldn't tell that the movement was in anyway unnatural to her—even with the prior knowledge that it was.

Sakura hummed in affirmation. "I guess, yeah. I first got the idea because of seeing how natural Lee-san's taijutsu was to him. When I fought Ino-pig, the more traditional taijutsu took more energy and was weaker because I had to force the movements more. They weren't natural to me the way that dance was to me. I also thought about the way Sasuke-kun utilized momentum in his preliminary battle…"

"Lee and Sasuke's style is built around speed. Maybe because it's what you thought was more visually exciting and likely to get people to stop and open their wallets, or maybe it's because you subconsciously designed your dancers style more closely to those two then you thought—very likely it's a bit of both—but you've placed emphasis on a very fast paced and acrobatic dance approach so far. There are fighting styles that are centered around less movement and incredible precision. If you need a mental image, think more in line with Neji and Hinata's gentle fist."

Sakura thought back on what she'd seen of both Neji and Hinata's use of the gentle fist. "It's a style that's more rooted. They remain in a relatively fixed position the whole time. The style on the whole emphasizes economy of movement—strike less but strike hard. No movement wasted. That's the way Neji executes it. Hinata takes a more flowing and graceful approach with it…but still the gentle fist is a strike based style. How do I mix that with fan dancing?"

"I would say think less technical and more theoretical. I'm not trying to have you learn the gentle fist, but rather use some of it as a theory to build a different type of dance style on."

Sakura considered that as she again switched her pose, feeling the way her balance and posture shifted in the process.

"On a theoretical level, the gentle fist is about using your opponent's chakra and body against them…"

She finally brought her leg down, settling into a wide lunging stance, bringing one fan in front of her face and the other straight out in front of her. She flicked her wrist down in a sharp movement, taking note of every weight shift and balance change. Fan dancing was meditative, but in a different way then her typical dance form. Typically the freedom of surrendering to music and letting it dictate her body's movements, the feel of her limbs cutting through the air with the speed of the motion, cleared her mind and made her feel lighter. This style of dance, slower and more precise, was also meditative but in the sense that it brought her so much awareness of her body. She was already very attuned to how her body moved, but this style of dance had her focusing on exactly where and how she was shifting her weight, how much force she was pushing into the ground with, how much resistance her limbs carried.

"Hinata-chan's style uses the opponent's body and chakra against them, and this style brings heightened awareness to my own body…so what if I try utilizing both those theories—using the heightened awareness of my own movements and analysis of my opponents body and weight shifts, to counter them and turn their own attack against them. I can't attack their chakra points in battle the way the Hyuga can, but I should be able to turn their own weight against them…"

"Sensei, can you attack me? I want to try something…"

Kakashi didn't hesitate. He knew Sakura well enough to know that her wanting to try something meant she worked something out she wanted to test. He immediately chucked three kunai at her, before running in to closer quarters.

Her first instinct, one she had to actively battle against, was to dodge. She had this new dance style locked into her muscle memory now, but her older style was still more habitual. That style would have had her flipping over the kunai to meet Kakashi head on, but then pivoting at the last second around him, dropping her upper body down and kicking up at him from behind his back. But the new style, the one she was trying to utilize, had her rooted to the spot, watching at the Kunai flew nearer, Kakashi close behind them. When the Kunai entered her arms reach, she flicked her outstretched hand, knocking them away, and slipped into lunge just under Karachi's reach, bringing her weight forward and sweeping her outstretched leg in a wide circle that ended at the back of Kakashi's knee, in time with his own weight shift, making the spot more vulnerable. He stumbled, but didn't fall. Recovering quickly, he rounded on her with a flurry of fast punches, but with calm sweeping arm motions, Sakura redirected each strike. Kakashi suddenly kneed up, but with incredible precision, Sakura's arm rocketed down next to his knee and flicked her fan to hit his leg to the side. Kakashi stopped and straightened.

"You've adapted it well to defense, and quite quickly too. But the problem is there's no follow through. You created several openings with how you kept redirecting my strikes, but didn't act on any of them."

"This feels familiar…"

Come on Sakura! You have to try actually attacking her!

Don't just dance there! Attack!

Her very first training session with Kiba and Hinata played through her head. "I had this problem before when I first made the Dancer's Barrage. I actually was modeling that a bit off of Hinata-chan in that I took the continuous movement and flow of her style to mix with mine…the continuous movement was key to refocusing as an actual attack. But that worked for my dance style, but not as well for fan dancing because there isn't as much continuous motion."

"Hmm. Maybe the difference is where you put your focus. For your typical dancer's style, your focus is on your own continuous motion, but maybe for this fan dancing variation, your focus needs to be more on your opponent's motion. That does require a lot of focus and real time analytical break down of the opponents movements, which is a big ask."

Sakura blinked. "It's a small shift but I think that would work. Instead of just blocking and redirecting, if I aim how I redirect it so I turn it back on them. Or fully using there momentum against them…I've done it before, back when the sound trio kicked my ass in the forest of death. But I wasn't remotely capable back then."

"Let's try it." Sakura said, readying her fans.

"Sakura, I know you're smart, but the level of analysis I'm describing—"

"I can do it. That's the part you don't have to worry about."

"…alright." Sakura was rarely a confident person, and when she did present confidence, it was usually hard earned. Still, he didn't think he'd be able to do the level of real time analysis that he was suggesting without his sharingan and years of experience.

This time, when Kakashi came at her, she didn't watch his movements for how to dodge as she normally did, or block as she had been doing. This time she was paying attention specifically to his momentum, to his movement flow. In a fluid graceful motion, she stepped to the side and in line with his hips, bringing her leg up behind her, bent at the knee to wrap around him. She felt where his weight was placed and wrenched towards the weaker side. Kakashi was thrown to the ground, and with her leg wrapped around him, she was brought down with him, but she was in control of the decent. Once on the ground, she rolled off of him, into a deep side lunge, one fan held up above her head, the other poised at his neck.

"Maybe I'm not using these right…this would have been more effective with a kunai."

"Maybe, but that was better. Traditional styles of fan martial arts usually require the fan to be closed, which acts as a more effective weapon but since dances have the fan open, you are at a bit of a striking disadvantage." Kakashi suddenly pushed up hard against her arm while kicking her outstretched leg, throwing her off balance.

Sakura was quick to adapt, allowing herself to roll to the side and reentering a low lunge, both fans open and out in front of her body.

"Then what's the point?" She grunted, as Kakashi came at her again.

"Striking isn't the only way to fight—I thought you knew that, given your whole self-made combat style." Kakashi stated plainly, while raining sharp jabs at her. Sakura continued to knock aside and redirect his fists, but struggled to redirect them in a way that did any damage to him.

"My typical style does use a lot of striking!" Sakura countered. The strikes were usually in the form of kicks, but punches were there too, and strikes had to be there to utilize chakra enhanced strength.

"Then maybe you're thinking about this too hard. Do what you're best at, Sakura. Adapt."

Kakashi broke her guard, and nearly landed a hit, if it weren't for Sakura's quick reflexes and evasion skills drilled into every cell of her body courtesy of Tsunade. Sakura completely abandoned her wide stance and fan dance style, reverting back to her old method of movement to get away without taking the hit.

Kakashi stopped and straightened, as did Sakura. She looked down at the open fans in her hand in frustration.

"Giving up?" Kakashi asked, his tone impossible to decipher.

"It's not working…but why? Where's the issue? I don't really have a concept of how to weaponize these for one thing…for another, slow and still is so counter intuitive for me…even if it's solidly in my body, it's just not an instinct…but…Kakashi-sensei said to adapt. That's what I'm best at. So how do I incorporate my instincts with this form?"

"Well?" Kakashi prompted.

Sakura shook her head in frustration, before turning and darting towards the nearest tree. She leapt up onto the trunk, the chakra she sent to her feet securing her in place.

"What are you—"

"I need to return to my roots." Sakura muttered. When she figured out her dancer's barrage, it was ultimately because of tree climbing. Tree dancing and water dancing were when she seemed to have most of her break throughs. So that was where she needed to start.

She once again began working on fan dancing, this time with a focus on her chakra movement to keep her attached to the tree.

Kakashi watched for a while, before eventually settling down against another tree and pulling out his trusty copy of Icha-Icha Paradise. He wasn't entirely sure how this would help her, but Sakura, unfortunately, had needed to take her training into her own hands on several other occasions—and she'd done a damn good job of it. Sakura may have been best at adapting, but she was second best as self-teaching and analyzing. If she deemed her actions a necessary step, he would trust her.

Sakura's movements were precise, slow, intentional, and sharp. She felt the way her chakra would flow to her feet with every step and slide, and retract the second she knew it to be unnecessary. Unwarranted, a picture of a squid swimming came into her mind. Her fan froze extended out in front of her, her eyes trained on it. An idea was taking shape in her mind, but it wasn't fully realized yet—she couldn't make it out clearly. Her eyes narrowed on the fan.

"The movement would be a little different than my typical chakra enhanced strength, but it feels like…my instinct is to move my chakra in conjunction with the movements, keeping it in close and then shooting it out the extended limb—it's not unlike the motion of that chakra/breathing exercise Shishou taught me. But the fan…Temari uses her fan to enact her jutsu, which means on some level she has to pass chakra through the fan she uses. Asuma-senei was the same with his chakra blades—actually no. Not the same. Asuma-sensei's chakra blades were more direct…he could infuse his blade with chakra which changed the properties of the blade. Temari's fan works as a conduit for her wind style attack, but the fan itself isn't imbued with chakra properties. But Kakashi-sensei and Kurenai-sensei said I'm not an elemental ninjutsu type…but this wouldn't be ninjutsu…water and earth don't really lend themselves to fans though…"

Still…it was worth a shot.

"Kakashi-sensei…can we try again?"

He didn't question it, snapping his book closed and stood up as Sakura alighted on the ground soundlessly. They squared off, and Kakashi came at her once again.

Once again, Sakura let him come within striking distance before making her move. She snapped both fans closed with a flourish, dexterously changing her handling on one while gracefully stowing the second in her belt, as she took a step in to meet her sensei. She wove her right arm holding the closed fan under Kakashi's outstretched strike, the fan positioned under his wrist, and grabbed the other end of with her left over his arm, creating a cage. She dragged him around in a painful circle with herself as the fulcrum, and then used the momentum to jump, flip horizontally in the air taking Kakashi with her and slamming him into the ground. The second his back made painful contact with the earth, Sakura released his wrist from her cage and pulled out the second fan, while reopening the first.

"Here it goes…"

Sakura kept the picture of a squid swimming in her head, her chakra pulling in towards her core. She slid into a forward lunge, the right fan sweeping out in front of and across her body while the left swept down in front of her like a pendulum. Sakura let the buildup of chakra in her center whip out down her shoulder and past her hand, through the fan, and into the earth the second the fan point brushed the ground next to Kakashi. Immediately, Sakura noted several things, as a shallow shockwave of dirt rippled outward from where the fan brushed and slammed into Kakashi, who'd been in the process of getting up, knocking him back to the ground and carrying him several meters away.

The first thing Sakura took note of was that the release timing for a shockwave type move like that was not the same as for a jab. The shockwave had been uneven, with the left-most side where the fan had touched first being much deeper and stretching farther then the middle and right sides. Punches and strikes were much quicker, the contact lasting a split second before pulling away, so the window for timing was much smaller, and the release less continuous. For an attack like this to work, she'd need to keep a stream of chakra fed into the fan for the duration of the sweep. This sparked another idea, that if she could master the timing and chakra flow needed, this sweeping style didn't have to be exclusive to the fans. The movement required for fan dancing was more planted, with singular feet sliding or sweeping out from center while the other remained rooted. She could utilize this same style of shockwave attack with her feet if she could get the timing and energy movement right. And if she could figure out how to channel her chakra into the air, convert it to fire, or release it the way gentle fist Rotation worked, she could create a 360 defensive attack with the fans and her feet. But the second thing she noted worked as a minor caveat to that.

It was a bit hard to say definitively that the problems with the strength and imbalance of the shockwave had been fully the fault of incorrect timing and chakra flow, because after only just having made fully contact with the ground, the fan had shattered under the force of her chakra. These were paper and wood fans, made for the purpose of training. Steel would be stronger, no doubt. But even then, it was hard to say if it could withstand so much concentrated chakra. If it could, that'd be fine, she'd just have to carry a few extras on hand incase. But at least for this sort of attack, she wasn't converting her chakra to an element and using the weapon to guide it, as Temari did. She was pouring direct, unrefined chakra into the fans—closer to what Asuma did, and he had to use specially made knives for that to work, which would be expensive. Sakura wasn't rich by any means, though she was no where near as poor as she once was. The hospital paid well and regularly, plus with the reforming of team 7 she was being sent on high rank missions with a good pay off. Plus she still sold products to Ikehara, and occasionally the beauty boutique, so could she probably afford a single set of custom fans built for chakra channeling? Yes. But old habits died hard and Sakura was loathe to buy anything too expensive…not that continuously breaking and rebuying fans was all that cost-effective either. She'd have to do some more research and make a full cost breakdown to determine if it was worth it.

The third thing she noted was that while the execution had been flawed, the premise worked. Just as with her cherry blossom impact, she'd been able to direct the debris and earth, and the nature of the attack gave her access to midrange combat, where as before she'd been limited to close range. That also meant that if she could do this with earth, the results would be even stronger with water, since that was her primary chakra nature. It also meant that even without the elemental nature incorporated, if her fan brushed someones body, it would do wider spread but less concentrated damage to her opponent. Her punch might shatter four of someone's ribs, a fan swipe to the chest might fracture their whole rib cage. And if she learned how to apply the chakra correctly, the damage difference between the two might not be so drastic. She could close that gap.

Kakashi recovered quickly enough, rising to his feet and walking towards her.

"Can't say I expected that…If you'd gotten lucky and nailed that on the first try, it may have really killed me."

"I doubt that's enough to kill you sensei."

"In a serious battle, when I'm ready for anything, no. But in a training session where I'm not expecting casualties, it might just. Your hand."

Sakura glanced down at her hand holding the remaining shards of the shattered fan. She hadn't been wearing her gloves, and many of the wooden splinters had impaled themselves in her palm, blood dripping down her fingers. She hadn't noticed until he pointed it out.

"Not a big deal. I'll heal it later. What do you think?" She asked her focus back on the move she just pulled.

"What do I think?" Kakashi mused. Letting her take a tree dancing break had been a great idea. He knew how Sakura must have come to the conclusion that she could channel her chakra through a weapon—she must have recalled other people doing it. The difference was those were typically used as a medium for ninjutsu. He'd never seen anyone transfer their taijutsu chakra enhancement techniques into a weapon before. Sakura did what she did best. She analyzed and adapted. Training Naruto had been both frustrating and fun—he was slower and needed more support, but that was the fun part. He had to keep rethinking how to best explain things and finding new ways to make the training digestible for Naruto. By comparison, Sasuke was very easy but kind of boring to train. He only had to show him something once, and Sasuke would be able to replicate it. Then it was just rinse and repeat. Easy. Sakura…she was interesting to train. With Sakura his role was fundamentally different than with Sasuke and Naruto, where he had to demonstrate first. With her, he showed her a path, and then watched her sprint half way down it, make a sharp left, and hack out a different route entirely. His function was a sounding board and proving ground. It wasn't as boring as Sasuke, who had the power of perfect replication, nor as frustrating as Naruto, who needed his hand held through every step. "I think you took this in a direction I hadn't even considered, but a viable one none the less. Fans aren't the most compatible with earth release though. Fire or wind would be better."

"I know. But I don't naturally lean towards those…I'm not great at transmuting my chakra without channeling it into the existing element first. And since wind is intangible, I don't think that ones doable for me. Fire…I might be able to do that, but…it'd be kind of painful."

"You are more kinesthetically inclined with your chakra…you make a good point about wind. I think you could manage fire, though I won't teach it to you."

"Why not?"

"There's someone more suited for that."

"…You mean Sasuke-kun?" Kakashi didn't answer, but the fact that he stared her down was enough of a yes. "You…really think that'll ever happen, Sensei?" Her voice had grown quieter and farther away. She hadn't dreamt of Sasuke since the failed mission, and even though they were just dreams, they'd been realistic enough to act as reassurance before…now she'd been left with nothing.

Kakashi was silent for a while, seeming to weigh his answer before leveling her with his singled eyed gaze. "Honestly…I'm not sure what will happen with Sasuke. That Akatsuki…you called his bluff. He clearly wanted Sasuke alive for something. If he didn't, he wouldn't have brought you with him. So I don't think Sasuke's dead. But it's impossible to say what he wants with him. Sasuke's always been a bit more vulnerable to manipulation—if he hadn't been, he wouldn't have gone to Orochimaru. I firmly believe Sasuke had three things he cared about, in this order: Revenge against Itachi, you, and Team 7. He achieved the first, so it's hard to imagine him not returning home. You and team 7 are all he's got left. But, on the other hand…killing Itachi likely left him empty…a blank canvas is a very dangerous thing in blood soaked hands…"

"…Yeah…that's what worries me, too…" Sakura muttered, biting at her thumb in anxiety.

"Kakashi-sensei thinks we mean that much to Sasuke-kun?"

"Not the time."

"It never is, so just revel in it while it's in front of us, damnit!"

"You think I mean that much to him?" Sakura finally gave in, indulging her inner voice for once.

"I find it shocking to believe that you think you don't." Kakashi answered dryly. "Even knowing how Sasuke would constantly try to self sacrifice to save Naruto, I would have never thought him caring or warm if it wasn't for you. Every time Sasuke smiled, it can be traced back to you."

"Sasuke-kun would smile because of Naruto." Sakura argued. Not that there was a point in it, every instinct she had told her she was someone very precious to Sasuke. But hearing it from someone else made her feeling like it wasn't just in her head. It validated it, and even though it was something she already firmly believed to be true, in the moments where Sasuke felt unreachably far, hearing someone else say it helped.

"Sasuke would smirk because of Naruto. He would smile because of you. Sakura, I don't think you realize how much power you hold over them both. I know your living situation was rough and lonely in it's own way, but for them, until you there was truly no one who loved them."

"That's not true! Hinata-chan has always been in love with Naruto, and Sasuke-kun had a whole fan club who loved him."

"I would think by now you'd understand the difference between you and fan girls. There was a reason Sasuke rebuffed them but let you in. Their care for him was superficial and self serving. It was about what being with him would do for their status, not what being with him would do for him. And Hinata may have always truly loved Naruto, but love from afar does nothing…especially for someone clueless with no sense of subtext. It wasn't until recently that Hinata became more proactive and vocal in her support for him. Sakura, from day one, you stood up for Naruto when I talked down to him, and took the time to treat Sasuke's injuries during the bell test. Your care for them showed from day one, and if you don't think that impacted either of them at their core, you're severely underestimating their feelings. That's why Naruto's worried and not angry with you. That's why he was so upset when you volunteered to go with the Akatsuki, even though he understood it. And as for Sasuke…well…"

"You already know I endangered the last mission…when I went to see Sasuke-kun, he was unconscious and severely injured, so I healed him a little. Somehow he woke up a little—he thought he was dreaming…but he…he thanked me and asked me to stop visiting until he killed Itachi. And when I went with the Akatsuki…Sasuke-kun, while I was trying to heal him he…he woke up a little and tried to say my name, and asked if I was really there…"

"And you still have any doubt about what you mean to him?" By the sound of it, Sasuke had had recurring dreams about Sakura, and for Sasuke to dream about anything other than the massacre meant it was something incredibly important to him.

"I know…hearing it validated out loud is reassuring, but I already know that. I know Sasuke-kun was avoiding hurting me when we met him at Orochimaru's lair. I know he dreams about me. That's what's scaring me…He should have come home. He was going to come home. But instead the Akatsuki got him…because I wasn't strong enough. I should have done more. If I just had a bit more chakra, if I'd just fought a bit harder, he'd be here now, damnit! I'm supposed to protect them! That was the whole point of becoming a medic! I was supposed to be able to protect them both! But instead I left Naruto behind and failed Sasuke-kun!" Her thoughts kept growing darker and more desperate, self hatred mounting. With each new failure her mind piled on, her muscles grew increasingly more tense, like a spring ready to snap.

"You're spiraling, aren't you?" Kakashi asked after Sakura remained silent, her teeth digging into her thumb harder and harder until a drop of blood slid down. "Whatever's happening in your head right now, just let it out. Burying it's too dangerous for you."

Letting it out was something Sakura was rarely able to do without pointed provocation, usually from Sasuke, Tsunade, or her mom, but this time she didn't need a pointed provocation, because she didn't release her thoughts…instead, something else happened. She pivoted sharply, and began a frenzied dance, her remaining chakra shooting through her feet and and hands to leave craters wherever they came in contact. The movements were fast and frenzied, as chaotic as her head was, if she'd been thinking about it, this would have been the worst, ugliest dance she'd ever done. But she didn't care.

Kakashi had to jump to safer ground as the terrain around him was suddenly thrown into the air in clouds of dust, dirt, and shattered rock. But once a safe distance away up in a tree, he couldn't take his eyes off the growing ecological disaster. This hadn't been what he had in mind when he told Sakura to let it out. He'd been expecting a lengthy rant, or tears. Still, there was no doubt this was a release…a beautiful one at that. Messy, but beautiful. Sakura seemed unable to move in an ugly or uncoordinated way. She even made something as chaotic as this raw release of emotions look like a performance piece.

The damage she was doing lessened with her rapidly waning chakra, but she still continued, despite the growing heaviness in her limbs. Even when craters became cracks and the clouds of dirt rose no higher than her ankles, she kept dancing. Her muscles were twitching, burning with exhaustion as she drained the last of her daily use reserve, and even then she still forced her limbs into flurried movement. She didn't stop until her legs gave out entirely and she fell to the ruined ground, breathing heavily.

Kakashi landed at her feet, looking down at her exhausted form. "Should I take you to the hospital?"

Sakura glanced down tiredly, taking stock of the damage. Her hands were a bloody mess, it seemed at some point she'd broken her second fan in the way she had the first one, splinters and wood stabbing her palms and fingers. Her arms, legs, and torso were covered with cuts, scrapes and bruises from the sharp rocks and stones she recklessly danced through, many of which were sluggishly bleeding.

"Mm…not necessary. These are minor."

"But you're out of chakra."

"Hospital can't help with that. They're busy enough. They don't need another patient."

"Doctors really are the worst patients." Kakashi sighed, sitting down next to her, his arms propped on his knees. "That wasn't exactly what I meant when I said let it out."

"You said it earlier: you're someone who filters and processes their emotions and thoughts through action. I could feel it building in my body. Even if I talked everything out, my muscles would be too tight and wound up…I wouldn't be able to get any rest tonight."

"Glad you're planning on resting at least." Kakashi sighed and leaned back, observing the fallout around him. "We'll have to work on the timing of the chakra release in conjunction with the fan. I'll talk to Ten-Ten and look into fans that could withstand it. Even if earth and water aren't the most natural use of chakra for you, you should still look into weaving it with your taijutsu. If not in your normal dance style, then having the medium of fans or knives may help with it…after all, it seemed like you were more able to incorporate it despite fans not being the most compatible with earth."

Sakura gave a tired nod, before turning her head in the direction of the river at the far end of the training ground. "I'll try again on the water too…but for now I'll need the source available if I want to incorporate the elemental aspect. If we're introducing new apparatuses to allow for variations within the dance style, at some point I want to try ribbons."

"I'll look into it. Let's focus on fans for now and work on this more tomorrow. Can you get up?"

Sakura took in the numbness of her limbs and the obscene lack of chakra at her disposal.

"No."

"Should I take you home, or to Tsunade-sama?"

"Lady Tsunade will kill me and then you if she sees me like this."

"Home it is." Kakashi rose, scooped Sakura into his arms, and headed toward Sasuke's apartment.

"Hey, Kakashi-sensei?"

"Hm?"

"Thanks for training with me." She mumbled.

"You should have never felt like you needed to thank me for that in the first place." Kakashi muttered, but it fell on deaf ears. Sakura had already slipped into unconsciousness.

---

Sasuke sat, curled against the wall, eyes leaking tears. Itachi…did it all for him? It was all to save him? And…to protect the village that forced him into it? It couldn't be true. He had to be lying. But…there were things. Discrepancies. Things he thought he imagined, or forced himself to forget. Like Itachi crying that night. Or how at the end as he died, he was smiling, and tapped him on the forehead, a gesture that had always meant…well, it meant something—he remembered feeling warm and happy whenever Itachi did that when he was a kid. But…after everything that he did…Nothing. Nothing made sense anymore. It was like everywhere he looked was just mud.

Tobi watched Sasuke carefully. He'd been in this state for a few days now, not moving despite how his wounds were healed enough to allow movement. The kid was bordering catatonic. He needed to know which direction he would go, but so far, Sasuke had given no indication of what he might do with the new information. Suddenly for the first time in days, Sasuke rose and walked past him out of the cave.

The sun was bright. That felt wrong. It shouldn't be this bright yet this unclear. The sound of waves drew his attention from the cliffside cave, to the ocean below. He followed the sound down to the beach. His legs carried him without any intention or awareness, until he was standing on a rocky outcropping surrounded by water. Where was he supposed to go?

The last time he'd been near the ocean, it had been in the Land of Tea, with Naruto and Sakura. She'd nearly drowned back then, and he had done first aid on her shoulder, alone in the quiet of a cave. He hadn't been able to name it back then, but the heat, weight, and comfort he felt back then…the intimacy of it…he must have already been in love with her. Sakura. She was the only one who could make senes of the mud surrounding him. The only one who could guide him through the murk. Supposedly she was dead. Supposedly Kakashi and Naruto had let that happen—maybe even done it themselves. Supposedly it was ordered by Konoha. If they could isolate the Uchiha, separate them from the rest of the village, keep them at arms length, and order Itachi to massacre all of them, of course killing Sakura would mean nothing to them. She was one little girl from a civilian and genin whose blood was more cursed than beneficial. The Uchiha actually held importance to Konoha and look what they'd been capable of. Why would Haruno Sakura mean anything to them?…Assuming anything Madara said was true.

He still didn't know if he could trust anything that man said. If Sakura were here, she'd pick apart all the lies and truths within minutes of hearing everything. She'd line up everything she knew about Itachi, and anything she had undoubtedly dug up while he was gone, and compare it with Madara's story until the truth became apparent. Itachi had been curious about her back in that inn when he'd gone after Naruto…If Itachi truly had loved and cared about him all along, he probably would have loved everything about Sakura. Sakura…

Before anything else, before he decided his next course of action, he needed proof. He needed to know for certain that she was gone. If he was lying about that, he had to be lying about everything…even if he wasn't, if she was still alive, he'd rather be with her. He could tell her everything Madara said and go with what she thought was best. He trusted her first and foremost—she had been on the receiving end of the villages unfairness. She would be honest with him with what he should do. He needed to see. He needed proof.

"Sasuke—"

"Prove it." Sasuke didn't turn to face Madara, keeping his eyes on the ocean. Based on her expression when she looked out at the sea, Sakura loved the ocean. Given what her living situation had been, how small her apartment was and how close she'd had to stay to keep watch on her mother, it made sense. The ocean must have felt freeing. If Madara was lying, if she was still alive, he'd take her to see the ocean again. He'd better be lying.

"Prove what? Itachi?"

"Sakura. Prove they…killed her."

Tobi stared at the Uchiha symbol on his back. That little girl truly was a problem. Sasuke needed to believe she was dead, or he wouldn't act in accordance with the plan. This was such a bother. He never would have guessed Sasuke, such a broken and angry child, would have been able to fall in love. Uchiha's in love were hard to manage.

"Are you sure?"

"I don't believe you. Prove it."

"Okay. Come with me." Tobi turned, making brief eye contact with Zetsu, who nodded slightly as the two passed.

Zetsu sunk into the ground. It was time to play dead.

---

The next two days were spent between the hospital, genjutsu training with Kurenai (which doubled as a check up), and fan dancing taijutsu with Kakashi. He still hadn't found strong enough fans to withstand her chakra level, so they kept breaking, but he'd stockpiled the wood fans so they could continue training for now. Sakura was still working on nailing the chakra application, which was frustrating because she usually figured this sort of this out quickly, but she was determined to get it. Kakashi was right about having the ability to change up styles…having a method for distanced combat would make it easier to defend a patient while staying close to them.

Sakura was still trying to keep herself distracted so she didn't think too much about the failed mission, but Kakashi had been right. Venting some of her initial emotions and focusing on training felt like she was doing something, working toward something, which was better than drowning herself in hospital paper work. Naruto even stopped by the training grounds for a bit too.

The reprieve didn't last long. Sakura was summoned to the Hokage's office, and it sounded serious. When she walked in, Tsunade looked…unreadable. And her shishou was someone who let her emotions show fairly clearly. So the tense but unreadably expression felt very very wrong. Next to her were two summoning toads.

"Shishou…?"

"Sakura-chan…wait." Shizune murmured gently with a sad shake of her head.

"What's going on? Why does it feel like we're about to get very bad news? Those toads, aren't those Naruto's summoning animal? No wait, he learned it from Jiraya-sensei. But…where is Jiraya-sensei?"

"You called for me Hokage-sama." Sai greeted as he walked in shortly there after. "Oh. Hag." He hadn't seen her since his failed attempt at comforting her during a hospital visit. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to say to her now. Was she still in need of comfort? But he'd failed so miserably last time…

Sakura glanced at Sai, before looking back at Tsunade's unreadable look, and Shizune's worried gaze.

"So Naruto and Kakashi-sensei are on their way then?"

Tsunade gave a small nod followed by a tight swallow, that Sakura was sure only she clocked. There was very bad news, and judging by who had been called in, and the two toads, the bad news pertained to Jiraya.

"No…this can't be happening…this is just…kicking Naruto while he's down…that's not fair!"

Not long after, Kakashi walked in, face solemn, followed by Naruto, who looked generally confused.

"So this child is Jiraya-boy's disciple?" The elder summoning toad croaked.

"Yes…this is Uzumaki Naruto. And the child of prophecy." Tsunade answered tightly.

"What? A geezer frog?" Naruto asked.

"Naruto! Watch your mouth! This is the honorable personage is one of the two great sages of mount myoboku, Fukasaku-sama. He came all the way here to speak with you." Tsunade snapped.

"Well to be more accurate, I am a great sage toad. But never mind that. So ya really are Jiraya-boys disciple."

"Jiraya-boy? Boy?! How dare you treat peavy-sage like a kid! Who does this geezer frog think he is?!" Naruto demanded.

"I said shut your mouth!" Tsunade snapped again, and Naruto couldn't help feeling like her fuse was shorter than usual. "He is the venerable master who taught Jiraya sage jutsu." She managed to rain in her initial anger, but Sakura could hear the strain in her voice, particularly at Jiraya's name.

The elder toad chortled. "Pervy-sage, eh? What a fitting' nickname for Jiraya-boy."

"So what does that geezer sage want with me?" Naruto asked, his eyes sliding briefly to Sakura. She was acting weird. This was typically where she would punch him or yell at him for not respecting his elders. But she was just looking at Tsunade, her expression hard to read—but he thought her eyes looked…worried? When didn't they though. But what could be causing it this time? Was she still upset about the mission—well obviously, he was too, but he thought she'd started to move forward from it.

"I'm not sure where to begin…but I suppose the most important thing is…Jiraya-boy has died in battle."

---

Sasuke stood in the ruins of his battle with Itachi, staring down at an unmoving head of pink hair. It was like the air had been completely sucked out of the surrounding area, he couldn't seem to inhale. She was so pale, her red shirt stood out boldly against her skin. Shakily, he knelt next to her, and hesitantly placed his hand on her shoulder. It was cold.

"Sakura…" He shook her gently. "Wake up." She didn't. She was always a light sleeper. She would have woken up just from his proximity, let alone actual physical contact.

He knew she was dead. Madara had told him as much. But he hadn't believed him—hadn't wanted to believe him. Sakura couldn't be dead. She had to be alive. He needed her. The world needed someone as kind and caring as her. She shouldn't be the one who was dead. He should have been the one to die in his battle with Itachi. It should have been the both of them together. But Sakura wasn't supposed to die—even knowing how her kekkei genkai put her at risk, he still couldn't fathom her dying. In his mind, it was always he died and she lived on, or he survived, went back to her, and they both lived on together. There was no world where he was alive and she wasn't. That couldn't happen. His eyes were burning, blurring with tears.

But you shouldn't leave things like this untreated for so long or they'll get infected, Sasuke-kun.

But Sasuke-kun, I don't really care…you, Naruto, and Kakashi-sensei are alive. That's all that matters to me.

That'd make me no better than the healthcare system. Besides, I'm not a doctor. I don't know enough to charge.

No. I just solved them myself…I knew I didn't have a reliable way of cheating and would get caught…the test? Seven minutes in.

Sasuke-kun…thank you.

No…you two run. Leave me…I'm too easy…to track right now…your chances…of…getting away go up…without me.

Sasuke-kun…I'm right here. Just hang on…You can get through this Sasuke-kun…just hold on. I'm right here. It'll be alright.

Stop it!' She yelled, her arms wrapping tightly around him from behind. "Please…Please stop."

The boys watched in awe as she walked lightly over the surface of the water, kneeling down to stick her hand in. She'd said she'd taught herself how to walk on water, and that she could successfully dance on it, but it was their first time actually seeing her do it.

Please withdraw…I…I'm afraid for you…You're in no shape to fight! Sasuke-kun, I know that you've barely been able to contain the pain all this time!…Why do you always have to act so strong?! I can't bear to watch you suffer!

Are you alright, Sasuke-kun? Do you have a headache? Dizziness or nausea? Is your vision blurry? You might have a concussion, how many—

You mean all the shit those brats said about me growing up was true?! That's so unfair! Sasuke-kun gets awesome magic eyes, Naruto gets never ending stamina and heals from everything within a goddamned day, and I get to most likely die in the next three years?! What the hell kind of ability is that?!

I'm sorry…sensei, I can't obey your order. My life isn't just my own. I have to look after my mom, and I don't have any other options. I put all my eggs in this basket. I'll see it through no matter what.

Sakura took his hand a gently deposited a small, midnight blue, paper crane decorated with smatterings of delicate pink cherry blossoms, into his palm. "I hope your training goes well…maybe it'll bring you…maybe it'll bring you something good.

Because I…care about him…you know that, don't you…I know you saw it…Maybe I…just don't know when to quit…you made me angry…

Pet my head!…I'll probably be out…for a while…Once Naruto's safe…all of us need…hospital…

Sasuke stared, speechless. He hadn't ever seen Sakura truly dance. Not with music. And feeling. This was like…watching her fall apart. Watching the grief slam into her and circulate through her with her blood and the music…it hurt to watch but her movements were too hypnotizing to look away.

I'm home.

Oh! Welcome home, Sasuke-kun.

Sasuke was on his knees, his right arm supporting him, his broken left wrist held to his chest. Itachi loomed over him, Naruto was behind Itachi, and the shark-faced man wearing the same robes as his brother was a few paces to his right. A blur of pink and red appeared to his left. "Sasuke-kun, let me see it."

He pushed himself up so he was sitting but almost immediately arms locked around him, hugging him tightly. "Sasuke-kun…" He could feel his shirt getting moist…Sakura was crying over him again. Just like in that Land of Waves. She was relieved he'd woken up, happy that he was alive and moving. It was jarring to go from watching everyone who cared for him brutally dying, to nothingness, to someone holding him close and weeping in relief. Why was it that whenever he was reminded of everything he lost, Sakura was there throwing her arms around him? Crying for him? Jumping in front of him? It made warmth shoot through him as well as confusion.

Welcome home Sasuke-kun! I figured you'd be hungry, so I made dinner.

Their pointless argument was interrupted by the sound of giggling…Sasuke stared at Sakura, he hadn't heard her laugh like that since the Land of Waves. Actually that had been fleeting. This was more full and continuous. At the time, he remembered thinking laughter sounded fitting from her, but it had been too brief to really know. Now he knew he'd been right.

Thank you..for saving me, Sasuke-kun." She said, a soft, shy, smile on her face. Her cheeks a light pink, though it was hard to tell in the fire light, and most of all, her eyes were shining with that emotion he couldn't name that warmed and lightened his entire being.

If you leave…I'll be very lonely.

You…You're always telling me to say what I really think and feel. If you want to know what I truly feel, I…I'm so in love with you I can't even stand it! Stay with me and I'll never let you regret it! I'll help you find a new goal! You'll be happy! I'll make sure of it! I'll do anything for you Sasuke-kun! Just please…please don't go…I'll even help you take revenge! I mean, I'll manage it somehow…so please…stay with me…If you can't, then maybe…I can go with you?

It felt like he was dancing with her. It was obvious that he was choosing not to end this quickly, as he very easily could, but aside from the deeply ingrained instinct to not hurt Sakura…he didn't know when he would get the chance to be so close to her again.

The flood of memories was overwhelming, so realistic he almost drowned in them, convinced she was right there saying those words in his ear, smiling at him, blushing, dancing. But the reality was lying right in front of him. He was touching it, and it was cold and motionless. She was so small. He always knew Sakura was tiny, even when they were genin, and Naruto had been shorter than her, she was still undeniably small. He was never sure if it was because of genetics or never having enough to eat, or not getting enough sleep—probably some mix of all of it. But she was still so small. His mind couldn't help clocking how he was nearly a full head taller than her, when he'd seen her at Orochimaru's lair.

His eyes fell on the kunai lodged in her back. He remembered in the Land of Tea she hadn't been able to pull out or treat the poisoned senbon and kunai in her shoulder blade, because she hadn't been able to reach. It must have been out of her reach to heal a wound on her back. As he looked more carefully, he could see that it wasn't just a random wound, the kunai was through a vital point…he knew from Kabuto that there were some injuries even medical ninjutsu couldn't heal. Vitals were among them. He knew that while Sakura was someone incredibly vulnerable, she was also very strong. Her vulnerability came from her curse and social status more than it came from any emotional or physical weakness. He'd been on the receiving end of her dance-like taijutsu. It was hard to track even with the sharingan. And he'd seen how defensively she moved and aware she was of everything around her. In other words, there was no way an enemy would ever truly be able to land that clean of a hit on her. So it had to be someone she trusted. Someone from Konoha…so it was all true. They really did order Itachi to kill their whole clan and then exiled him. They really didn't care for the ninja in their ranks. They really did order and carry out Sakura's death, for the crime of loving him. Kakashi said those who broke the rules were scum, but those who abandoned their friends were worse than scum. So what wrong had Sakura done? And what did that make Konoha? If they could turn on their own, throw the lives of those loyal to them away as if they were worthless…as if they meant nothing…as if Sakura, and Itachi, and his whole clan meant nothing…what did that make Konoha? Worse than the worst scum…a plague. A cancer. A toxic choke hold on the ninja world. One that had taken everything from him. Everyone he loved was gone at the hands of Konoha's ruling council. Violent rage surged through him, the strength of which he hadn't felt since the night of the massacre.

"Who did it?" Sasuke's voice was barely a whisper, as he cradled her body, his fingers entwining in her hair with gentleness completely at odds with shadowy wrath replacing his blood.

"I don't know Konoha personnel." Tobi dismissed. As much as he would love to blame it on Kakashi, he didn't know if Sasuke would buy that anyone of his old teammates would do it. And he also needed Sasuke to be somewhat controllable, and if he added team 7 and betrayal into the mix, he didn't think there'd be any directing Sasuke. The boy would go right for Kakashi and Naruto, and straight for the kill. He couldn't have Naruto dying without getting the nine-tails first. "Does it really matter? Either way, they were just following orders."

"…No." The ones who were at fault here were the council. If it weren't for them, Sakura wouldn't be dead. He carefully lifted her body, turning to walk away.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm not leaving her here." He remembered Sakura worried about funeral planning after her mom died, and how nothing seemed crueler to him than forcing the one grieving to worry about that. Now he was in that position, needing to plan her burial when all he wanted to do was curl up and shut down entirely. It was just so wrong. She was the embodiment of life with her spring coloring, caring nature, and constant graceful movement. She shouldn't be cold, still, and faded. He needed to find a place to lay her to rest. Somewhere beautiful. And then…and then he would do away with Konoha's parasitic council once and for all.

---

Naruto stood completely still, unable to process what was just said. "Huh?"

Sakura felt her heart sink. It was what she expected, but hearing it out loud made it real. She wasn't sure who she was more worried about in that one moment, Naruto or Tsunade…it had to be crushing for both of them.

"Wha—what are you talking about…"

"Even after having his throat crushed by Pain, Jiraya-boy left a message before collapsin'," the old toad croaked, throwing off his cloak. "This is that message!" He turned his back revealing a string of numbers that, disturbingly, appeared to be carved there.

9, 31, 8, 106, 7, 207, 15.

"It's a code…" Shizune murmured, while Tsunade eyed it with determination, trying to keep her mind on what Jiraya had been trying to warn them of, instead of her teammate's death.

"I'm sure it were so Pain wouldn't catch on. And that's it for Jiraya-boy's efforts." The old toad put his robe back on.

"…You let him go…granny?" Naruto asked, his voice dangerously quiet.

"Oh no…this is so unfair…neither of them should have to go through this…"

"That's right." Tsunade answered firmly, her voice tense.

"Why'd you make him take that risk?!" Naruto demanded, his voice getting steadily louder. "You know Pervy Sage better than anyone! How could you send him to such a dangerous place alone?!"

"He's lashing out…just like I did back then…only he's found someone clear to blame…"

"Stop it, Naruto." Kakashi tried to intervene. Nothing good ever resulted from yelling at Lady Fifth, especially when she would be hurting too. Really, it was always something with his team, these poor kids just couldn't catch a break. Why had life dealt them such a rough hand? "You of all people ought to know Lady Fifth's feelings."

Naruto glared at Kakashi, while Sakura hesitantly looked from him to her shishou. Tsunade's face remained largely impassive, but there was a slight draw to her eyebrows and tightness to her mouth that Sakura recognized from her own expressions. When she looked at her reflection when she thought about her mother, or Sasuke…it was often similar. A guarded mask with cracks only noticeable to those who wore the same mask.

She hadn't wanted to send him. The last thing Tsunade wanted to do was send her last remaining teammate, ally, friend, into such a dangerous situation. She had tried to stop him. To protest. But he had insisted, if it was to set an example for and protect the younger generation, it was worth risking his life for. If it was for Naruto, it was worth risking his life for. She felt the same…and Jiraya paid the price for it.

"Gah!" Naruto growled, storming out of the room, too angry and sad to stay there a second longer.

"Naruto, where are you going?" Sakura asked, worried he would try and do something reckless, like go after the Akatsuki by himself.

"If Pervy Sage had been Fifth Hokage, he wouldn't have let granny-Tsunade take such risks…I know it!" Naruto said cuttingly, before slamming the door shut.

"Naruto!" Sakura took a step towards the door, when her mentor's voice stopped her.

"Just let him be, Sakura."

"I know I wanted time and space when it was me…but Naruto…he's been alone too long. Would he really want that?"

"But Naruto…he's not like us…" She murmured, unknowingly making Tsunade's guard drop a fraction of a centimeter. Tsunade had forgotten that there was someone who understood so well, looking at Sakura really was like looking in mirror.

"My apologies, Fukasaku-sama. I'll arrange for Naruto to—" Kakashi began but the old toad cut him off.

"No, no…that's all right. But back to that child o'prophecy vision I was talkin' 'bout earlier, I can see that that child truly loved n' admired Jiraya-boy. It makes me hope more than anythin' that he is the child o'prophecy."

"What is this whole child of prophecy thing?"

Sai turned to her in confusion. "Should we not go after him?"

Sakura hesitated, struggling with the same question. She wanted to comfort him, and she was sure Naruto would do better with people around. But she also remembered how it felt when it was her mom…she remembered not wanting to be near anyone.

"No!" Tsunade barked. "I called you here for a reason. Sai, go bring me Shikamaru. Sakura…I'll give you your orders as soon as Shikamaru gets here. For now, just…wait here…"

Sakura stared hard at her mentor for a long moment, reading the sadness and exhaustion in her eyes, before nodding.

"Shishou needs me…I'll check on Naruto after I get my assignment. For now, Shishou needs me here for her."

"Yes M'Lady."

Sai nodded before heading out, glancing back at Sakura one last time unsurely.

"Kakashi, keep an eye on Naruto. Make sure he doesn't do something stupid."

"Good grief." Kakashi sighed sadly before taking off.

Sakura approached the desk as the office emptied out. Wordlessly Tsunade handed her a camera.

"Fukasaku-sama, can you show us the message one more time? We'll photograph it for decoding purposes." Tsunade asked.

"You got it, slug lady." The old toad removed his cloak and turned again, allowing Sakura to snap a few pictures. "We did manage to obtain a corpse as well."

"Where is it?" Tsunade asked, demeanor all business, focused on the task at hand.

"In this guy's stomach here's." Fukasaku nodded to a larger toad with him.

"Shizune, go prep the morgue lab for an autopsy."

"Yes Hokage-sama." She left immediately, leaving just Sakura and Tsunade in the office, staring at the picture of the cypher message.

"Well?"

"M'Lady?"

"Are you getting anything?"

"I…I'm not sure I'm able to—"

"Sakura, I saw your paper test from your first chunin exams. The first question was cryptography and you answered it correctly without cheating. I know a lot has happened recently that's been rough for you, but right now, I…I need you acting with confidence. Are you getting anything from that message?" Now that it was just the two of them, Tsunade's sadness and desperation were showing more openly. Sakura understood all of it. She'd felt it—no, was still feeling it from losing Sasuke.

"Okay. Give me a minute." She focused back on the list of numbers, pulling up every code she memorized and cryptography rule she knew from books.

"9, 31, 8, 106, 7, 207, 15."

"There's no clear numerical relationship between the numbers. There are 104 hiragana characters, 104 katakana characters, and over 1000 kanji characters. It's not an alphanumeric code, because there are higher value numbers than number of characters in hiragana or katakana. The kanji makes no sense, either. So we can rule that out. Odds are it's not some sort of phase shift cypher either, because he would need to provide a key. By the sounds of it he was too short on time to come up with anything complicated, and would need to trust someone in the village to be able to decipher it. So odds are this is fairly unique to him, yet simple, and left with the intention that someone in the village would know him well enough to act as a key for it—which would have to be either you, or Naruto. The numbers don't mean anything to you, M'Lady?"

Tsunade shook her head, her eyes growing sadder. Sakura looked back down at the code, biting at her thumb nail. Naruto had given no sign of recognition towards the numbers, but he'd also been in shock.

"Hm, well…if it's unique to Jiraya-sensei…" Sakura trailed off, her brows drawing together. "He was an author, right? The numbers may correlate to page or paragraph numbers…but still, there'd need to be a key to know which book to look in, since he wrote several."

"That…sounds like something he would do." Tsunade murmured.

"I…I can start going through his books to—"

"No. The last thing I need is for you to have an arousal induced reaction to that old perverts writing." She dismissed, though there was a layer of fondness to her voice hidden under the brusque dismissal. "Shikamaru will take over on the code breaking front as soon as he gets here."

Sakura flushed at her words, wanting to protest, but also knowing she was probably right. A horny reaction was the most embarrassing type. She'd only experienced them a few times under the controlled environment of Kurenai's genjutsu. But she'd come close with Konohamaru's pervy ninjutsu and she really didn't want to risk reading several volumes of porn in one sitting.

"So then…what can I do?"

"Sakura…stop asking. I'm about to dump too much on you again, when you're also barely managing. Take the moments of down time now, and just wait for Shikamaru. Because that's all you're going to have for a while."

"In that case I won't be seeing you much?"

"Probably not."

"Then promise me you'll take care of yourself, M'Lady. Please. You…have to be okay…eventually."

"Whatever you're thinking, forget it now. I'm…I like gambling too much to go doing something crazy like getting myself killed or dying. There are still gambling halls I haven't visited yet, after all."

"Good…because it's selfish, but I…I can't lose you Shishou." Sakura murmured, dropping eye contact. It wasn't embarrassing or anything. They both knew how much they meant to each other, but it felt like a selfish ask, when she was reeling from such a devastating loss. After all, Sakura knew the pain of losing a teammate. She knew it better than most.

"I'm not going anywhere kid." Tsunade affirmed. Once upon a time, the more she lost, the more tightly she held on to what she had left. She thought that Tsunade had died with Dan. She thought she had nothing left. Naruto reawakened the desire to fight that, reminded her that there was a younger generation worth protecting. And Sakura had given her something even more tangible to hold onto. She'd given her an adoptive daughter, and reawakened the part of her she thought had died. The part that held on tight to what was left. Sakura, Naruto, the village. She may have lost her teammate and dear friend, but she'd be damned to hell if she lost any of those three things.

Sakura nodded, seeing the determination in her mentor's eyes, and sat on the floor in the corner of her office, sliding down into a split and closing her eyes, matching her chakra pulse to her breathing, inhaling deeply and exhaling.

She kept at it for a while, hearing Tsuande come and go, sit at her desk filing paperwork, get up again, leave again…she sure was keeping herself busy. It made Sakura feeling like she was wasting time and space. But these were her orders right now. She had to do this. By the sounds of it, her workload was about to get intense, and she was already exhausted. So she pushed the rest of her thoughts to the back of her mind, and let herself just meditate, feeling the steady flow of chakra to her two reserves, and the waves of the chakra that coursed through her with her breath, like the tides of the ocean.

It was near dark before Shikamaru finally showed up. "I was on my way here when Sai found me and said you needed to see me." He drawled, glancing over at Sakura as she opened her eyes and stood up.

"Here." Tsunade said curtly, handing him the photograph of the numbers.

"What's this?"

"Sakura, brief him."

"Yes, M'Lady." She turned to Shikamaru and gave him the bullet points of the situation and the run down of her thoughts on the code.

"Take that over to cryptography right away." Tsunade ordered brusquely.

"Huh?! Right now?" Shikamaru questioned with a glance at the window. It was well past dark already. "The Cipher Corps folks don't work this late."

Tsunade slammed on her desk, rising. "Then summon them and tell them it's on my orders. I'm putting you in charge of the decoding." She said, marching past him.

"Hey where are you going? I actually came here on other—"

"Shikamaru."

He turned to look at Sakura as she watched her mentors back. "But…"

"Shishou's been extremely busy all day."

"Well, so have—"

"Shikamaru. Please."

He didn't like how sad she looked. She looked like that a lot recently. Heart broken. But this was a little different. He knew what Sakura looked like when she was being worried and empathetic. This was the same sort of expression she wore in the hospital room when she visited Naruto after the first failed attempt to bring Sasuke back. It made his mouth snap shut reflexively. Sakura had a better understanding of people than he did, and she was probably the only one who understood the Hokage fully.

"Sakura…" Tsunade had stopped at the door, her voice tight and tense. "You're to assist Shizune with the autopsy. She will be fully devoted to it, so help her and also shoulder any of the hospital needs while you're at it. Make sure to uphold your appointments with Kurenai. Once Cipher Corps has decoded the message, join them and look it over. Odds are, there will still be analysis required. Sometime tomorrow, check in on Naruto. He'll need the comfort. In other words…while being involved in almost every aspect of this situation, you'll also have primary responsibility to keep the hospital running smoothly."

"Isn't that…a bit much?" Shikamaru asked looking between the two women. Sakura was always prone to overwork. Tsunade pushed her hard, but she and Kakashi were always a united front on Sakura working less, taking a break, and taking care of herself. This order was the total opposite of that.

"I understand, M'Lady." Sakura answered resolutely, not faltering for a second. The work load wasn't a problem for her. She was used to insane levels of work. Training may have to be placed on the back burner for now, but Kakashi was also going to be busy with this situation, so it was likely their training would have been paused anyway.

Tsunade left, the door slamming shut behind her. Sakura watched on in concern.

"Are you gonna be okay?" Shikamaru asked after a pause.

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"Isn't that going to be hard on you given your seal?"

"You said it yourself. I'm the best at maximizing 40% of my chakra. And it doesn't really matter. I'll do it no matter what, because that's what Shishou needs me to do." Sakura answered, firmly, before heading to the door. "After getting Cipher Corps up to speed, you should check in with Naruto. He's most likely the key." With that, she pulled open the door. She had to get to the hospital.

---

"I'll be assisting, senpai. And shishou also said to leave any heavy hospital responsibilities to me, as well."

"Thanks Sakura-chan. I'm counting on you. You'll be a big help." Shizune smiled, tying her hair back. Sakura followed her lead, gathering her hair into a ponytail and tying it back. She hadn't realized how much longer her hair had gotten until she felt her ponytail brushing against her shoulders.

They both finished scrubbing in, and headed into the lab with two others who were assisting. Sakura studied the body while Shizune gave the debrief to the other two.

"This is one of three important information sources Jiraya-sama delivered to us. We must discover its secrets no matter what."

"Yes Ma'am!" The two chorused.

"Now let us begin. Visual observations first. Take notes." She ordered to one of the two assistants who nodded, grabbing a notebook and pen. There was also a recorder and video camera set up as well, but paper notes were easier for turning into reports. "Subject is male, visual age range: late 20s to early 40s. Muscular build. 176 cm." Shizune said, starting with the basics.

"Subject has several black piercings—metal currently unknown—along both sides of jaw, connecting through the right cheek to the nose bridge, along the collar bone, pectorals, abdominals, obliques, the triceps, the brachioradialis muscle, extensor carpi radialis longus muscle, calf muscle, tibialis anterior, and the fibularis brevis. Eyes, including sclera, iris, and pupil, are a light lavender color, with four thin concentric black rings coming out from the pupil, which appear to be in a state of miosis." Sakura added, going into the more detailed aspects of the body. "Implies some form of dojutsu is present."

"You've done more extensive research on that front, Sakura-chan, so I'll leave that part to you."

"Understood." Sakura nodded.

"Preliminary observations complete. Let's begin the second phase." Shizune instructed.

They divided tasks, so Shizune focused on the musculature, bones, organs, and the piercings, while Sakura focused in on chakra, a cellular breakdown, blood and DNA work, and the eyes, each working with one of the other two medics to take notes.

Sakura made an incision and reached in with two fingers, doing a very careful chakra scan to get a read on the body's chakra. But the reading was…weird.

"The chakra behavior here is strange…it feels like there's two separate chakras. This particular chakra seems to be smaller and amassing in a way that implies there was little to no movement, while the networks hold traces of a different chakra." One that had something familiar to it, though she couldn't place where or why. Sakura studied the corpse in front of her, tying to figure out the source or primary location of the second chakra she'd sensed. Her eyes traced over the piercing pattern on the body.

"Senpai, these piercings…"

"They're placed at least one on most major muscles necessary for movement." Shizune finished.

"Yes but…I think there's more to it than that." Sakura maneuvered her chakra through the corpses chakra network, looking for the small concentrations that indicated chakra points. But it was only the second time she'd worked on an autopsy and couldn't push her chakra too far without expending too much, since there was no current to aid the movement.

"I know the piercings are on your list, Senpai, but can I make an incision near one?"

Shizune looked up at her for a long moment. "Is this about the chakra network?"

"I think they may be related."

"Check along the abdominal piercings. They're grouped close enough together that you should be able to look into all of them with one scan."

Sakura nodded, making an incision next to one of the piercings and opening up the incision to be able to reach in. She placed two fingers over on the muscle and sent a pulse of chakra into it.

This time, she was able to get a clear read, not just of one piercing, but of four in the abdominal region. And it confirmed exactly what she suspected. "There are two distinct chakras in the body. One appears to be what was traveling through the network at the time of death, and functioned as the primary chakra being utilized. The other is smaller and more…submissive? While it was produced, it amassed more around organs and didn't flow through the network as much, at least not at the time of death, which was in a combat setting. So the chakra that was utilized for combat was the one actively passing through the chakra network. That chakra has higher concentration levels around the piercings, which are hitting chakra points."

"So it's not just primary muscles that piercings are in, they're specifically placed to hit points on the chakra network as well." Shizune murmured.

"Given the concentration of the second chakra around them, my guess is that the piercings somehow are acting as the source of that chakra." Sakura hypothesized. "Though, there's no definitive evidence of that yet."

"It's incredible, really. How do these piercings infuse the chakra? Are they like syringes, injecting it into the network? But if so, how can they store so much? There would be an end point where they run out…"

"Alright, let's remove one now to get a closer look and analysis." Shizune said, wondering the same thing. "Sakura, keep going through your list, I'll take care of this part."

"Right."

---

It was long past dawn when Sakura finally finished gathering all the observations on the chakra network. Next she would have to look at blood work and DNA, but it was the start of a new shift change for the hospital, and she had a check up with Kurenai this morning, so Sakura stepped away to fulfill her other responsibility, making sure the hospital was running smoothly.

After overseeing the shift change and checking in on her patients, she flopped down briefly in her desk chair, exhausted. She had a half hour before Kurenai's check up—not enough to get back to the autopsy. By the time she scrubbed up, it would be time to turn around and come back.

She was starving though. She opted instead to have a working breakfast and start drafting her analysis of the corpses chakra network. The hospital cafeteria food was mediocre she didn't eat there often, but it would do given the time constraint and necessity for food to up her chakra production. She was downing her green tea rice and rolled omelet, her notes splayed out on the table around her.

"If there were two types of chakra, but one of them was foreign, being introduced from the piercings, how come the body didn't reject it? And why? That chakra…there's something familiar about it, but…it's not like a tailed beasts. What's the point of introducing a secondary source? Is it like, chakra sharing? But there's no effort for one type to match the other—though there's also no chakra rejection. It didn't damage the pathways or anything. But that first chakra type, the one that seems to be produced by the body, seems to have taken a backseat, allowing the other chakra to take over. So what's that second, but primary chakra doing? I didn't even know it was possible to have two chakra types without one of them belonging to another entity entirely. But there's no evidence of his being a jinchuriki—plus given the corpses affiliation with the Akatsuki, it feels impossible for him to be a jinchuriki."

"Don't see you in the cafeteria often." A cold, hostile voice drew her attention. Immediately her eyes narrowed on her least favorite person on the medical staff. The one who had refused to treat Gaara two and some years ago.

"Chinen-sensei." She answered coldly.

"I heard you were doing Shizune-sama's typical checks this morning. I suppose you think you outrank me now."

"Last I checked, we're the same rank." Sakura answered flatly, returning her attention to her notes. Polite indifference was still a card she knew how to use from her childhood with Ami. But exposure to Sasuke, Tsunade, and Naruto, had made her less inclined to engage the polite part of it. "Why? Are you scared of me outranking you?"

"Why would I be afraid of the skills of a child?" The doctor bit back snidely. He wasn't blind. The speed that little girl advanced through the medical ranks with was unnerving. It was only a matter of time before she outranked him, but with how frosty the two were in every passing encounter, they both knew neither of them had forgotten her declaration that day.

"Clearly you're afraid of it, since you brought it up." She answered, not looking up from her notes.

"Brat. You think you're so special because you're Tsunade-sama's apprentice. But we all know where your loyalties lie. You care more for that traitor you call a teammate than you do the village. Same for that nine-tails brat."

The next thing everyone in the cafeteria knew, there was a loud slam, as Sakura grabbed Chinen by the lab coat, and dragged him hard into the bench across from her. The cafeteria grew eerily silent as both patients and doctors watched the scene taking place at Sakura's table.

"You clearly don't know me very well, Chinen-sensei. The last thing I think is that I'm even a little special. But you are right about one thing. My team means everything to me. So say one more negative thing about any of them—about any one of my friends—and you'll get first hand experience with everything else I've learned from Tsunade-shishou."

Chinen glared at her. "How'd someone so violent get to be a medic?"

"Well why not? They let someone as callous as you be one." Sakura hissed, releasing him with a shove, causing him to fall back against the bench.

"At least I'm loyal to the village." Chinen spat, rising from the table and taking a few steps away.

"That promise I made you two years ago…I'm getting closer to fulfilling it. We're at the same level now. But not for long. You weren't fit to be a medic back then, and you've made no strides to change that in the past two years. As soon as I outrank you, you will not be allowed to practice here again."

He glared over his shoulder at her before storming off. He hoped her loyalties would be tested and everyone would realize that she cared more for the monsters who would attack Konoha than Konoha itself. But he also knew how real her threat was. She was a prodigy. She was the third, maybe even second best medic in Konoha. She would outrank him in no time.

"Sakura?"

She turned to see Kurenai, her pregnancy now showing clearly, standing not far from her table. She glanced at the clock on the wall and let out a small curse. "Damn him! Wasting my time like that, that asshole!" She muttered under her breath, before gathering up her notes. "Sorry I'm late, Kurenai-sensei." She apologized. "How'd you know I was here?"

"One of the nurses told me. Don't rush. Finish eating."

"Mm, it's okay. I'm actually on a bit of a time crunch. There's a lot I have to get done."

"All the more reason to finish eating first." Kurenai said sternly.

"Damn, she's really practicing the mom act, huh?"

"Alright then, would you like to sit, Kurenai-sensei?"

Kurenai sat across from her, in the seat Chinen had previously occupied. "Has that medic always been so rude to you?"

"Don't worry about it. I started it anyway. A while ago, when I first became Shishou's apprentice, he refused to treat Gaara-kun, and it pissed me off. I mouthed off to him and threatened to fire him in the future, and he's been that way to me ever since. I don't really care what he thinks of me one way or another."

Kurenai took a deep breath. "Sakura…while it's good you don't care what he thinks, I would be careful."

"I know, I shouldn't have let my temper get to me."

"Not that. Unfortunately, with Sasuke now in the hands of the Akatsuki, people are going to assume a lot of things. And the more set you are in your feelings for him, the more people are going to be suspicious of you. You are incredibly kind and empathetic, and very good at reading people. But most aren't like that. They don't know or see what you know and see in Sasuke, Naruto, or even in the Kazekage. So your faith in them, to others feels unearned, undeserved, and calls your judgement into question. And if they knew about your curse…"

"I…hadn't really considered any of that…but…I really don't care…"

"They can think whatever they want. It's not like they ever thought too highly of me to begin with. Poor street urchin Sakura. I was going to amount to nothing anyway, as far as any of them are concerned. Sasuke-kun, Naruto, Kakashi-sensei, Shishou…even Gaara-kun, they saw value in me. They cared about me. I mean something to them. I don't care what anyone else says or thinks. It's my friends that matter."

Kurenai let out a sigh. "You really are a tough one, Sakura. Your mom raised you well."

"Yeah. She did." Sakura finished the last of her rolled omelet and green tea rice, and smiled. "Ready for your check up?"

Kurenai smiled back. "Mhm."

---

"Any questions about your care plan?" Sakura questioned, as she walked Kurenai out towards the hospital gates.

"No, you make everything sound very clear and straightforward."

"Well that's good then."

"Huh?! Kurenai-sensei?!" Both Kurenai and Sakura looked up to see Naruto and Shikamaru standing just passed the threshold of the hospital gate.

"You were hospitalized for eating too much barbecue?! Your stomach's bigger than Choji's!" Naruto shouted, pointing.

Sakura twitched. "Want me to smack him?" She muttered dryly, while Kurenai remained silent, marveling that once again, this kid had somehow managed to become a rank and file ninja.

"She's pregnant, not fat! Yikes, you're still as obnoxious as ever." Shikamaru drawled tiredly.

"Huh?! Th-Then…" Naruto gasped, uncomprehendingly.

"Sorry I missed your appointment this morning." Shikamaru sighed.

"Shikamaru, how many times do I have to tell you to stop coming here? I'm alright. You don't need to attend my check ups with me. Sakura's more than capable."

"I know she is," Shikamaru protested, "but no can do. Asuma made me swear."

Kurenai smiled, a little sadly, but thankful none the less. "Well, I should get going. I know you have a lot to do, Sakura, so I'm going to assume our training's on pause for now?"

"Yes, just for a bit."

"Well that's fine. You've passed being able to set a good area based genjutsu, as well as pretty strong positive feeling genjutsu. Keep practicing when you have the time, but they're almost strong enough to hold me. So you're progressing well."

"I'll want to learn some new types as well. I think you're right about needing to know how to do at least one…and about what we talked about a little while ago…with my kekkei genkai training…we're gonna need to start that again too."

Kurenai nodded. "We'll get there. Let's take this one step at a time. Once your schedule is less intense, let me know and we'll start training again."

"Okay. Get home safe, Kurenai-sensei."

Kurenai waved to the three of them, as Sakura approached Shikamaru and Naruto.

"You're her doctor, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked, watching her go, still not able to fully wrap his head around it.

"Yeah. She asked me as a favor, not that she needed to."

"So…what is it? The baby, I mean?"

"It's still a little early to tell. Although, even if I did know, I wouldn't tell you without Kurenai-sensei's permission. Medic-patient confidentiality, and all."

"What ever that child will be, one day, they will be my student. Asuma entrusted that child to me." Shikamaru stated, making Naruto stare at him, wide eyed. He'd never thought about it before. Being a sensei. It seemed so far off. So unreal. He didn't feel like a grown up. At times, he still felt like the twelve year-old barely graduated academy brat. So the idea of having a team, of being a sensei seemed impossibly far away from him. But now, seeing Kurenai pregnant, hearing Shikamaru say that he would be a sensei, it made him realize there was a generation below him. There were kids being born, and growing, just as he was.

"I heard about Jiraya-sama." Shikamaru said, making Naruto look down sadly. Sakura watched quietly, wondering what Shikamaru would say. "Having lost my teacher too, I know what you're going through. But whining and sulking isn't going to make things better."

"You don't know! You went and got revenge for your teacher! But I'm not allowed to do that, because they're the Akatsuki, and Granny won't let me! You got to act on your feelings. I can't! So don't tell me I don't have the right to whine and sulk! It's all I can do!" Naruto shouted.

"Then maybe I can understand." Sakura said softly, drawing both boys' attention. "When mom died, there was no one I had to blame…no revenge I could get. At large, there was Orochimaru, but I also wasn't allowed to pursue him, for several reasons, including my curse. I got one week. One week before you left, and Sasuke-kun and Kakashi-sensei were put in a coma by Itachi. It wasn't enough time. It was one loss piled on another, and again, I wasn't able or allowed to do anything. I couldn't go after Itachi, I couldn't join you and Jiraya-san in looking for Tsunade-shishou, and I didn't have the medical skill to do anything for Sasuke-kun or Kakashi-sensei. You haven't had the one week I had, and you don't have the retribution Shikamaru was able to get. But you're not as helpless as I was. There is something you can do right now." Sakura, who had been staring at the hospital, lost in her haze of memory, turned to meet Naruto's sad blue eyes.

"Sakura-chan…what…?" He never really thought about how lonely and useless she must have felt back then. But then, he'd never understood the desire for revenge until this moment. How good would it feel, to have that person to blame? How much of a relief would it be, to know that the one who had killed someone so important was no longer roaming free? It truly sucked to be stuck, feeling like there was nothing he was capable of doing, other than lingering on the loss. What did she mean there was something he could do?

Shikamaru studied her, making a mental note to check in with her when he got the chance, before shifting back to Naruto. They had a task to do. "Sakura's right. It's unfair, but we no longer have the luxury of grief."

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked.

"My teacher imparted to me a lot of knowledge. Not just important things, but worthless things too. It's the same for you too, right? An infinite number of priceless things. So I think it's about time for us to step up, no?"

"Step up to what?"

"To switch from being the imparted and becoming the imparter. It's a drag for sure, but we can't keep complaining." Shikamaru sighed. "You will eventually be the one paying for the ramen, and be the one called Naruto-sensei or something. We can't stay snot-nosed brats forever. If we wanna become ultra-cool shinobi like Asuma and Jiraya-sama, that is." Shikamaru said, winking.

Naruto paused, seeing Jiraya in his minds eye, and then smiled. Shikamaru was right. Sakura was right. There were things he could do now. He had a legacy to carry on. And a cool one at that. "Hey now…you take that back. Sakura-chan was never a snot nosed brat!" Naruto said, looking up with a brave and determined smile.

"Heh, my bad." Shikamaru smirked.

"Ino-pig might disagree with you, but at least you two know." Sakura smiled.

"Well, arguing with her is a drag, so if it comes up, I'm siding with her." Shikamaru said lightly. "Pulled yourself together, Naruto?"

"Yeah." Naruto nodded.

"Good. 'Cuz you got work to do." Shikamaru said, holding out the photo of the toad's back, with the string of numbers. "Come with me to Cipher corps."

"…Okay." Naruto said, taking the picture and studying it hard.

Shikamaru took that moment to go over to Sakura. "I don't have a lot of time, but you holding up?" She looked tired.

"The autopsy's coming along. We've finished looking at the chakra network, and skeletal system. We'll be moving on to bloodwork and musculature next."

"I wasn't asking for a progress report. Tsunade-sama pretty much handed off everything to you. And you haven't been—"

"You don't need to worry. I can handle it."

"That wasn't—gods you're a drag. How's your seal?"

"Shikamaru…Thanks. I'm okay. I just need some coffee."

"Well…" He wasn't sure if that was genuine or a half truth. It was always hard to tell with her. Though he supposed he didn't have the time either way. "If you say so…Pass some of it off on Ino if you have to."

"Get going. There's no time."

"And don't forget to eat."

"You're not acting like yourself." Sakura said, eyes narrowed at him.

Shikamaru considered that. He supposed he wasn't. But he could count on one hand the women he cared and worried about. Ino, Sakura, Kurenai, his mom…and begrudgingly, Temari. And as far as the worried part went, that was really just two fingers: Sakura, and Kurenai. And if it weren't for Kurenai's pregnancy, Sakura would be the only resident of that list. She just cared too much for everyone else, and was so prone to overworking and neglecting herself that it made her impossible not to worry about her, which was a major drag.

"I'm trying to not be a snot-nosed brat. Didn't you hear?"

"If this is what that looks like, Temari might be the one calling things a drag." Sakura teased.

"Why'd you have to remind me of that troublesome woman?" Shikamaru groaned.

"I thought you weren't supposed to be complaining anymore."

"Don't you have work to do?" Shikamaru grumbled, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"Mhm." Sakura hummed, her mind already on the chakra network analysis. "I better get going. I'll see you guys later." Sakura called, waving to Naruto as he looked up from the photo.

"Later Sakura-chan! Let's get going Shikamaru!"

"Yeah, yeah…" Shikamaru drawled, as they both headed off.

Sakura turned back to the hospital, and headed back for the morgue.

---

Sakura hadn't left the hospital in over thirty-six hours, the vast majority of that time spent in the morgue pouring over the autopsy. They were still waiting on an analysis of the metals in the piercings, as well as a full break down of the bloodwork. Sakura spent several hours separating the red and white blood cells, staring at cells under a microscope, using an incredibly precise application of chakra to split and scan the cell, and start unraveling the chromosomes and reading the DNA code. The precision required for it was exhausting, and Sakura was thankful for the excuse to run up and check on hospital operations as a "break."

The majority of Sakura's time went to analyzing the eyes.

She wasn't sure what this dojutsu was, but she knew it was one. As far as chakra pathways went, it was more in line with the sharingan than the byakugan. That secondary chakra was concentrated into the eyes, with no trace of the first, less active chakra at all. So it was the chakra that came from the piercings that was feeding whatever ability these eyes were. On top of that, the neural chakra pathway that connected the eyes to the occipital lobe was thinner than the ones she'd seen in wielders of the sharingan and byakugan. One of her discoveries over the course of her research into dojutsu healing, was that the chakra channel in their optical network was wider than the average persons. Of course, she was only making that inference from the Hyuga, and Kakashi, since they were the only dojutsu users in the village, but the pattern was there. All of the Hyuga, not only had wider chakra channels in their optical system, they had more than the average person. Kakashi was an interesting case, as his sharingan was an implant that he'd had for several years. The chakra pathways connecting his sharingan to his occipital lobe had expanded, but still weren't as wide as the Hyuga, and by comparison, the channel from his other eye was very narrow, more like the average persons.

In the case of this corpse, the occipital chakra channels looked surprisingly like a normal persons, for someone with a dojutsu in both eyes.

"So…why would that be the case? Based on my hypothesis, anyone with a genetic predisposition to dojutsu will have a wider pathway, even before their body awakens or activates the ability. They're body would be built to allow for them to use it, so from birth, the pathways along their optical nerve will be wider. For someone without a genetic predisposition, the longer they have the dojutsu implanted, the more their body adjusts to it, marginally widening the necessary chakra pathways. So, if my hypothesis is correct, this dojutsu isn't this body's kekkei genkai. And if it was implanted, it was done recently, since the body hasn't yet adjusted to the dojutsu's presence. And given that this dojutsu only contains that second chakra signature, this dojutsu must be tied to this chakra."

There was a knock at the morgue door, interrupting Sakura's thought process. A nurse peaked her head in, looking serious.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but there's been a summons from the Hokage's office for Sakura-chan."

Shizune glanced up at Sakura and gave her nod, clearing her to go. Sakura quickly stepped away from the corpse and removed her gloves, grabbing a pen and quickly jotting down her notes on the dojutsu as she left.

---

Sasuke had found a spot he thought Sakura would have liked, under a big flowering tree on a cliff overlooking the ocean. Her smile, and how relaxed she looked while looking at the ocean in the Land of Waves and the Land of Tea were flashing with bitter clarity through his mind. He didn't tell his team what he was up to, and while he felt Madera's eyes on him, the man kept a distance from him, allowing him a last moment alone with her. It was all so wrong…

He buried her under the roots of the tree, but it didn't feel like enough of a memorial. Her mother's grave had a carving on it…a Sakura flower with one of the petals shaded. It had been on her father's grave too, and on that necklace Sakura wore after her mother's death. He didn't think it was a clan symbol or crest. The Haruno's weren't a formalized clan. It must have just been important to her family…in the picture of her family, her dad's hair resembled the shape of a Sakura blossom as well. Sakura would have wanted to be near her mom, and Konoha had robbed her of that chance, the least he could do for her was still connect her to her family through that one symbol they had. He knelt drawing out a kunai and began carving into the trunk.

It was so wrong…she shouldn't be dead. Konoha shouldn't have done this to her. They shouldn't have forced Itachi out either. How could they do this? How could they treat their loyal shinobi like this?

Itachi had given everything for Konoha, for its safety. It was his will that Sasuke continue to protect it. He wasn't so sure he could do that. Not anymore. Not with Sakura dead by their hand. What would Sakura's will have been? Would she also wish to continue protecting Konoha?

…No. He didn't think she would. Sakura had openly criticized Konoha's treatment of civilians and their medical system. More than Konoha, Sakura cared about her friends and family. She cared about her team. She went to great lengths to save her mother, and then again to protect him and Naruto countless times over. She'd even offered to leave Konoha for him—an offer he now realized he should have accepted. If he had, he'd have been able to protect her, and she would have been on guard against Konoha, so they wouldn't have been able to stab her in the back as they had. Sakura cared about her precious people, not the village on the whole. And if the village was willing to treat her precious people as expendable, was willing to ruin their lives and discard them as soon as they lost their value, then Sakura wouldn't hesitate to bring the village down. He was sure of it.

So, rather than Itachi's, he'd enact Sakura's will. Because Konoha had forced Itachi, who wanted nothing but peace, to murder his whole clan using Sasuke's life as collateral. And then they'd thrown him away. They'd ruined his beloved brother's life. They allowed everyone to hate and distrust Naruto for something that hadn't been his fault, isolating and ruining his childhood. They hadn't even assigned him a guardian. Their laws made Sakura's life a constant, stressful hell. They'd abandoned her and her mother, while throwing all the blame on her father. And when her mother died, they hadn't done a single thing for her. No living arrangements, no aid with the funeral, no allowance or budget, no one ever talked to her about being put in an orphanage. They couldn't have cared less about her. And then, when she put him first, as she was taught to by Kakashi, because she still loved him, they stabbed her in the back. Everyone he cared about, everyone most precious to him, Konoha had ruined. And they still held Naruto, and Kakashi, and everyone else Sakura had cared about in their grasp.

He'd free all the ninja Konoha was willing to just throw away. That corrupt council who didn't care a bit for those in their ranks…he'd take them all out. For Itachi and Sakura. This wasn't just about vengeance, this was justice. They weren't fit to be in charge of lives. He'd make sure they could never ruin another life again. If that meant joining the Akatsuki temporarily, so be it. He knew the Akatsuki wanted to use him, but he'd use them first.

He pulled his kunai away, staring at the cherry blossom symbol he carved in the tree. It was so wrong, that she was gone. That Itachi was gone. That her mother was gone. That his clan was gone. He'd fix this problem at the root. And once he had…

Well…

Maybe he'd join his beloved brother and the love of his life.

---

Sakura entered the Hokage's office, exhausted, hungry, and very focused on the autopsy. Shikamaru, Kakashi, Naruto, and elder toad, and a woman with incredibly large round glasses were already gathered, and appeared to be in discussion.

"Well geezer sage?! Does it make any sense?" Naruto demanded, as Sakura approached the left side of the desk.

The toad stared at it for a long while, before looking up. "I'm not sure…It's still too unclear."

"So…you do have some hypotheses, though?" Shikamaru pressed.

"I've already told ya everythin' I know about Pain. He seems to be able to come back from the dead…so I hesitate to give ya mere conjectures. Under these conditions, it's still mighty dangerous ta take Pain on. We must uncover all his secrets first."

"How are the other investigations going? The autopsy and the interrogation." Kakashi asked.

"I don't know about the interrogation, but the autopsy's far from finished. I bet it's the same for interrogation." Sakura sighed tiredly. The last time she ate was when she saw Kurenai, going on thirty-one hours ago.

"How much longer?" Naruto pressed, his volume rising with his growing impatience. He wanted answers.

"We're not even sure ourselves." Sakura sighed, leaning against the desk tiredly.

"What do you mean?! What are you guys goofin' around for?! We're running out of time!" Naruto growled,

"A full autopsy requires detailed analysis of cells and tissues, and studying extracted enzymes—it's not just a simple dissection! It takes time!" Sakura snapped, her exhaustion and hunger shortening her fuse.

"It'll probably be a week at the soonest." Tsunade answered, her voice even as she eyed her apprentice.

"That long…?" Naruto whined in defeat.

"Now Naruto, don't be so glum." The lady with the round glasses—she had to be a part of the Cipher corps—said bracingly.

"What should we do, Hokage-sama?" Shikamaru asked.

"Shizune's heading the autopsy, so it should be quicker than usual. Especially with Sakura assisting."

"I'm going to go make them rush!" Naruto declared, marching towards the door.

"Don't even think about it, Naruto!" Sakura shouted, before taking a deep breath. "If you bother Shizune senpai, it'll only make everything take longer. We're doing what we can to shorten it. Senpai and I have divided the work load. She's finished her observations on the bones and musculature, and is moving on to more detailed analysis of the piercings. I'm waiting on some blood work and gene sequencing, but I've gathered all my observations about the chakra network, and eyes."

"Have you been able to analyze anything?" Kakashi asked.

"I have some theories, but without the context of the rest of the autopsy there's nothing conclusive that can be said."

"But…I have to do something! I will avenge Pervy Sage! I can't just sit around doing nothing!" He always knew he and Sakura were just built different. Where ever she had found the strength to make herself sit and wait back then after her mom died, he didn't have it. He needed to take action. Now.

"I get it! I get how hard it is, but—"

"Naruto-boy, now that we've deciphered this here code, there's nothin' else going on that involves you right now, ya hear me?" Fukasaku croaked.

"So what about it?" Naruto challenged. He didn't need to be reminded about how useless he was at the moment.

"N' either way, yer definitely not strong enough to defeat Pain yet. So come along with me."

That threw Naruto off. What did the elder toad mean, come along with him?

"I'll train ya in sage jutsu at Mount Myoboku. The same way I hammered it into Jiraya-boy, if it's okay wit' you."

"Will it let me win against Pain?!" Naruto demanded, his eyes narrowing.

"That I can't guarantee. But right now, ya ain't got a chance at all. Ya all right with is, Tsunade?" The Toad asked, turning to the Hokage.

"Of course." Tsunade smiled. Jiraya would have wanted that too. And if it kept Naruto occupied and away from Shizune and Sakura's progress, all the better. "Naruto, go get trained."

"I'm warnin' ya right now, sage jutsu trainin' is unbelievably rigorous! Ya up fer it?"

"If Pervy sage was able to master it, then I'm going to give it my best shot too! I'm in!" Naruto answered, practically radiating his determination.

"Nicely said! Go get packed up, we'll leave as soon as yer ready." Naruto bolted from the room without further question.

Sakura watched him go, her lips pursing. "He's leaving again…I get it. I understand why it's necessary, but it's just…this is too fast. We just lost Sasuke-kun again, and again my teammate's leaving me…damnit Sakura, snap out of it! There's no time for loneliness or self pity…"

"So…I take it you cracked the code." She managed to make herself ask, looking up at Shikamaru, to find both him and Kakashi already looking at her.

"The real one's not among them." Shikamaru quoted. "We can't figure out what that's supposed to mean. Wanna take a crack at it?"

Sakura bit at her thumb nail in thought. Her mind kept looping back to her observations of the corpse's chakra network and dojutstu, but she couldn't find the connection point as to why. Her thoughts were too disjointed and nebulous. Her headache was getting worse. She reached up to massage her temples lightly. "There's no way to know the tone of the message, but it does change the meaning."

"Tone?" The woman with the round glasses asked.

"If he's just passing intel, it's about us targeting the Akatsuki. With most organized groups, taking down the leader takes down the group. So if it's intel and we're on the offensive, the leader of the Akatsuki isn't among the rank and file members. If it's a warning, then we're on the defensive, and they're coming after us…in which case…the first wave are decoys? That is, if the message even applies to the Akatsuki on the whole. You can't really crack this without identifying who the players are. Who's the 'real one' and who's 'them.' I'm not sure how you can figure out the message without figuring out that."

"That's a bit obvious, but since none of us put it to words, it's still more of a direction than we had before." Shikamaru acknowledged.

"Sakura, once you finish your half of the autopsy, and gather your observational notes, leave a copy with Shizune and work on your analysis in the Cipher Corps. Help with figuring out this code while you work on it."

"Yes M'Lady."

"Keep it in the back of your mind while you're finishing the autopsy as well."

"Right."

Naruto came bounding back in, having packed at an inhuman speed—or more accurately, having barely packed at all judging by the absolutely tiny pack buckled across his body.

"Let's get going!"

---

Tsunade, Kakashi, Shikamaru, and Sakura walked him to the main gate where Fukasaku was already waiting.

"Well, we should be moseying along now. Naruto-boy, say yer goodbyes."

"I'm off! Shikamaru, I'm handing the code over to you."

"Don't worry about us." Shikamaru smiled.

"As soon as we have any results from the autopsy or the interrogation, we'll send word." Tsunade promised.

"I'll leave a messenger frog with ya. If anythin' happens, send 'im back."

"Yes sir." Tsunade agreed.

Naruto stared hard at Sakura for a minute before looking at the ground sadly. "Sorry…Sakura-chan. I'm leaving you alone again."

"…It's alright Naruto." She said, sadly. "You need to do this. Besides, I'm probably gonna be too busy with the autopsy, hospital, and decoding to hang out much anyway. Just…take care of yourself. And I know it's hard, but try and be patient." Sakura took a deep breath before looking up at him with a smile, holding up a fist in encouragement. "Do your best! Good luck Naruto!"

Naruto smiled. Sakura was the best. He'd been a little unfair to her the past few days and she called him out for it, but was still patient and understanding towards him. "You bet Sakura-chan! Shikamaru, you better make sure she eats and sleeps and stuff!" Naruto warned, glaring at the other boy. He knew Sakura, and she'd tell him to take care of himself, and not to worry about her, while overworking herself and forgetting to eat.

"I don't need a babysitter!" Sakura huffed, while Shikamaru glanced over at her.

"Sounds like a drag but you got it." Shikamaru agreed.

"Hey!" Sakura protested.

Naruto smiled, adjusting his hitai-ate. "All right! Now that that's settled, let's go!"

Naruto started walking down the road before stopping abruptly. "Er, which way's mount Myoboku again?" Naruto asked sheepishly, turning to face Fukasaku.

"It takes a month to get there on foot. N' as it's also known as maze mountain, if ya don't know the secret route, ya won't be able ta git there."

"It's really that hard to get there?" Naruto slumped.

"Naruto-boy ya've already signed a binding contract with us toads. There's no need to worry." Fukasaku explained, summoning a large contract scroll.

"Oh! That's…!"

"Well then, I'll be borrowin' that boy." The toad said, turning to face Tsunade.

"We are in your debt." Tsunade said, giving a slight bow.

"But what do you mean, there's no nee—" Naruto disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Wha…Can summoning animals…reverse summon?" Sakura asked, having never seen anything like that.

"Quick on the draw, that one." Fukasaku praised.

"Well, she is my apprentice." Tsunade stated, pride in her voice.

"I should git there before Naruto-boy scares the frogs into attackin'. Good luck on your end too." The elder toad made a hand sign, and disappeared.

Tsunade turned walking off, Shikamaru and Sakura following. "Okay, let's go devote ourselves to deciphering Jiraya's other bequests."

"Roger."

"Yes M'Lady."

Tsunade glanced over her shoulder at the gate. The fact that Fukasaku prophesied Jiraya writing those books…it may have been intended to enable him to eventually leave the encrypted message. Which meant those visions may have all been real, in which case, Uzumaki Naruto truly was the child of prophecy.

---

Sakura spent the next two weeks running between the morgue and the hospital. She only went back to the apartment twice the whole time, falling asleep at her desk for twenty minute to two hour increments. Shikamaru, Ino, and Hinata made concerted efforts to make sure she ate, Shikamaru using updates and debriefs as an excuse to bring her food, while Ino and Hinata didn't even bother with any sort of excuse. They would just show up with bentos or bags of take-out. All of them made some bid to get her to go home every time, but it failed every time. It wasn't just her being stubborn. In some feat of amazing timing, shortly after every attempt to make her go home, a nurse would come in either with a message from Shizune asking her to return to the morgue, or some other hospital crisis she needed to fix.

Sakura was exhausted. Her brain felt like it was vibrating in her skull, her daily reserve barely getting refilled even half way before it was near gone again. There was some light at the end of the exhaustion tunnel though…Her half of the autopsy was almost finished. She was on her last page of notes, and then she would head to Cipher corps to start working on her full report.

"It's bothering me…There's something about the two types of chakra in this corpse, and this dojutsu…Why am I still having issues putting this together?…There's something vaguely familiar about it, but I can't place where…"

Sakura finished her last page of observation notes, and stretched. She needed to get to Cipher corps to help with the code and start her analysis.

"Senpai, I just finished up. I'm gonna head out now."

Shizune looked up from where she was weighing the corpses heart. "Alright. Check up on your patience and the ER before you leave."

Sakura nodded, and headed up stairs where she made her rounds, made sure there were no crises in the ER and instructed a few of the nurses to get her from Cipher corps if there was an emergency, before finally leaving the hospital for the first time in five days.

She arrived at Cipher corps and was directed to the table where Shiho, the woman with the thick round glasses, and Shikamaru were seated, pouring over the coded message. Shikamaru took one look at her as she set her notes on the table and slid onto the seat across from him, next to Shiho.

"Take a nap." He ordered.

"We don't have time for that." Sakura argued, shuffling through her notes.

"I don't have time for you to be not thinking straight. Take a nap, I'll wake you in four hours."

"Shikamaru—"

"Don't be a drag. Hokage-sama put me in charge here, which means I outrank you, and I'm ordering you to sleep."

Sakura glared at them, as Shiho looked between the two in confusion. Were they…together? She didn't think they were. That wasn't quite the energy here. But also, if someone told her they were, seeing this interaction, she wouldn't have been surprised.

Sakura glared at him, muttered something under her breath, but found the idea of four hours of sleep too appealing to argue much harder than that. She buried her head in her arms and closed her eyes, entering into unconsciousness within seconds.

---

She didn't dream anything. For the whole of her sleep, she was surrounded by darkness, with occasional echoing voices cutting through the shadow scape. She thought she heard her mother's voice, but the words were indistinct. Same with her father. She heard Tsunade warning her not to break the seal formation, telling her that she couldn't permit her to perform surgeries or stand on the front lines. She heard Kakashi's voice telling her to quit being a ninja. Heard Shikamaru tell her she was a liability. Heard Naruto promising her to bring Sasuke back, and her countering that they'd do it together. But everything was so echoing that the sentences they spoke, despite having heard them before, all sounded distorted and strange. Other than that, it was just her, standing in swirling shadows. She tried walking but quickly abandoned it when there was no sort of scenery change at all.

"Mom? Dad?" She called, but her voice merely reverberated through the empty darkness, receiving no response. "Sasuke-kun?" Again, no response. "What the hell is this?" She'd never had a dream that was so…not a dream. She used to sleep too lightly to really dream. Then her sleep started being filled with dreams, usually with visitors in the shape of her mom, dad, or Sasuke. This…this was scary, just darkness. "Damn…what state is my head in that I'm dreaming this?"

I hate to be kept waiting…

"Sasori? Why am I hearing him?"

She felt something touch her, and her eyes flew open.

---

Shikamaru had been planning to lightly shake her, but apparently that wasn't necessary. He'd barely touched her arm and was staring into a shock of sage green.

"Four hours already?" Sakura asked, blinking the last of the bleariness from her mind as she sat up and stretched.

"Tragically. How are you feeling?" Shikamaru asked.

"Moderately better. Kinda hungry though."

"Well eat up." Shikamaru said, placing a beef bowl in front of her.

"You got this for me?" Sakura blinked in surprise, taking the bowl and chopsticks he was holding out to her.

"What else was I gonna do for four hours? Besides, you probably haven't eaten since like yesterday or something troublesome like that."

Again, Shiho looked between them, not quite clear on the nature of their relationship. She found herself growing a bit jealous of the the beautiful pink haired girl seated next to her.

"Itadakimas." Sakura murmured, digging into the beef bowl as getting started on her report while Shiho caught her up on the progress they made on the code—which wasn't much.

"The way we see it, the message isn't about the Akatsuki on the whole, but rather the Akatsuki member he was fighting, Pain. Since that's who Jiraya-sama died fighting, we're operating under the assumption that he'd be passing along intel about the enemy that he specifically couldn't beat."

"That makes sense." She murmured, her eyes lingering on her notes about the chakra grouping near the piercings in body. That placement of them was also so specific…

"The meaning of, 'the real one's not among them,'…maybe he's telling us that the six Pains are all genjutsu…A jutsu cast by the female Akatsuki member who was there too…and she's the one who attacked Jiraya-sama from the shadows…" Shikamaru pitched.

Sakura considered that for a moment before shaking her head. Jiraya's cause of death rendered that unlikely. "No…I think that's a long shot. According to Fukasaku-sama, Jiraya-san died from being stabbed by real weapons wielded by all six of them. The fact that three of those Pains revived after being killed by him makes one want to believe it's all a genjutsu illusion, but…"

"I suppose those hidden-rain shinobi back from the first chunin exams had a way to mix themselves with their genjutsu so we could be hurt by weapons, but I doubt Jiraya-san would fall for something like that."

"We already know that the Akatsuki don't follow the laws of nature, physics or logic. There have been others who were immortal…" Shikamaru answered, his mind drawing up the picture of Hidan and Kakuzu.

"In any case, let's keep hypothesizing all possible scenarios until we get reports from the others." Shiho said, adjusting her glasses.

"So maybe shadow clones?" Shikamaru suggested, ready to dismiss the idea immediately.

"Shadow clones would disappear, not resurrect." Sakura dismissed, taking another large bite of food, while writing out her analysis on how the genetic sequence didn't of the corpse didn't contain any genes pertaining to dojutsu, and thus the dojutsu in the eyes having to have come from the secondary chakra source introduced into the body via the piercings. Her pencil stilled.

I hate to be kept waiting.

"Why did I dream of Sasori's voice…Oh! That's what's been bothering me." Sakura closed her eyes, her finger tapping against the paper in thought, drawing both Shikamaru and Shiho's attention. "Ok. Sasori used human puppets because the body retained their chakra, which meant he was able to use their jutsu, even if it was a jutsu he didn't poses. With this corpse, the piercings act as some sort of…injector? Or maybe…The real one is not among them…that implies—"

"I'm not one to interrupt a thought process, but we're tight on time, so wanna think out loud?" Shikamaru pushed.

Sakura opened her eyes and looked back through her notes, reading over her observations. "What if they're puppets?"

"Puppets?" Shikamaru questioned. "But…you can usually tell a puppet from a human, and that corpse—"

"When I battled Sasori, Lady Chiyo attacked chakra threads to me and used them to maneuver my body, when I couldn't."

"So you think someone attached chakra threads and maneuvered them? But the level of complex movement, and also, Jiraya-sama would have been able to sense that—" Shiho rebutted.

"Not if he wasn't using chakra threads." Sakura muttered, pulling out another sheet of notes.

"You've lost me." Shikamaru said, exasperated. "Sakura, what the hell are you trying to say?"

She found the note she was looking for and slid it over to Shikamaru. "Okay. In the autopsy, the body contained two different chakra types. One of them was more active and grouped around the several strange piercings and was tied to the apparent dojutsu present in the eyes. The genetic code of the corpse had no code for dojutsu present." Sakura took a deep breath, her mind replaying her battle with Sasori and everything he said about his puppets. "When I fought Sasori, he made puppets out of humans because they retained their chakra and allowed him to use their jutsu. So what if this guy is the opposite? He gives his chakra so others can use his jutsu."

"But how would he give his chakra?" Shiho asked.

"You share your chakra, and it doesn't give me access to your jutsu." Shikamaru countered.

"No, yes! That's because when I share my chakra, I match it to the person I'm sharing with, so it doesn't do any damage to their system. If I were to cycle my chakra into you without any sort of pretreating it, your body would reject it. But if I were to somehow give your body some sort of suppressant, and then circulate my chakra through you, you could hypothetically use my chakra, and thus, my jutsu."

"Do suppressants like that exist? And you would still need to be in physical contact with me to give me your chakra."

"Yeah, well…I don't know of any chakra suppressants. But we don't know what the composition of the material of those piercings are. And as you said the Akatsuki breaks the rules of nature, physics, and logic. So either his chakra could have the ability to suppress another, or it could be something in the material of the piercings. As for how he shares or injects his chakra, that has to be from the piercings, that's where the secondary chakra's most prevalent."

"Alright, but…that's not really puppetting, is it?" Shiho asked. "The definition of a puppet is that someone's controlling them."

"'the real one's not among them.' The implication of the real one not being among them, is that there are fake ones. Which means they're claiming to be the real deal—the real Pain. And the fact that Jiraya-san felt the need to specify that the real one wasn't among them meant that they're all convincing in their claims. I don't know what his dojutsu is or does. It's not like any I've seen, but if it allows him to see or act through them…that could account for why their claims would be so convincing."

"That…actually may be it." Shikamaru murmured after a long moment. His brow furrowing as he looked everything over.

Before he could say anything else, the entire room shook, a loud rumbling heard from outside.

"What the?!"

All three raced to the window, pushing it open to see smoke and dust clouds billowing up from multiple places in the village.

"You don't think that's them, do you?" Sakura gasped.

"Let's go!" Shikamaru called, leaping up onto the sill and out the window, Sakura following immediately. There would be many wounded in this attack, and the current patients needed to be secured, stabilized, and very potentially evacuated. She needed to get back to the hospital.

---

Author's note: Ok, so first and biggest change. Sasuke thinks Sakura's dead. This actually wasn't something I preplanned or thought about ahead of time. It came out while writing, and I think it makes the Sasuke going insane so much better. Also, the land of iron is gonna look way different as a result...so I think this may be one of the best changes to the story I made. I like Kakashi taking the time to really make a consorted effort to train Sakura, and I also love the idea of having different forms of the dancer's style, so this is the first branch out into that. The precedent is already set in this story, and is there in canon too, that Sakura overworks herself and throws herself into work to avoid thinking about her problems, so she's in character there. Other major difference is that she helps with the autopsy in this one. That didn't happen in canon, and she didn't start with the code breaking team until after Naruto left, so I didn't know what she was doing in that time-my answer is kinda everything. There's no reason she wouldn't help with the autopsy, since Tsunade already showed her the basics of how they work in an earlier chapter. But if Shizune's busy with the autopsy and Tsunade's handling everything as Hokage, that leaves Sakura to make sure the hospital continues to function. But it's canon that she eventually helps with the code breaking, and this Sakura already set the precedent of being very skilled at deductive reasoning and picking apart language, so there's no reason they wouldn't want her to help with code breaking. So she does all of it, and not without exhausting herself as a repercussion. But since she's aiding in the autopsy as well as code breaking, there's no reason they wouldn't get closer to the answer...the only problem is they're too late, which isn't anyones fault. It's just the situation. Anyway, I do have an idea of what Sakura's doing for Pain's attack, so hopefully the update will come a lot quicker. Sorry about that.

Thank you so much for your patience and sticking with this story! Every comment, follow, and favorite has meant so much to me. Please keep them coming! Thank you for reading this far :)