A/N: Estimated number of chapters until the epilogue: 4

::

Did you forget?

You weren't made for this.

Sakura stared at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. How many times did she have to break her bones because she was afraid the new world would turn into her old? How many times did she have to use concealer to hide the bags beneath her eyes to hide the fact that she forgot how to sleep and resorted to letting exhaustion decide when it was time to rest? How many times would she have to remember standing on the battlefield with Orochimaru as he unintentionally likened himself to the Obito that drained her soul through the tears on her throat?

How many times was she going to allow herself to keep living like this—in paranoia, in quiet, in fatigue?

Did you forget?

You weren't made for this.

She braced her weight against the porcelain sink and dropped her head into her hands.

"I'm tired," she whispered. "I'm so tired..."

She used a forbidden technique to transfer Orochimaru's life energy into Neji's. Mari-san was injured. Sasuke was in solitary confinement because she let things go too far. 

But hey, she was in ROOT like she planned all along. Wasn't that great? Wasn't that a cause for celebration?

Sakura's fist met her reflection, and shards of glass fell around her feet.

Did you forget?

You weren't made for this.

You're supposed to be dead.

::

Reconstruction wasn't a cheap process and it was currently Konoha's top priority. Funds needed to raised so every and all missions were being issued at any chance, especially with the high ranking ones that paid the most. Upper ranks jounin and above were sent out as much as possible, leaving Konoha at a greater risk than it already was to raise enough money to rebuild their defenses. It was a dicey move, but Kiri and Suna pledged their help if any other grievances came their way.

Kakashi and Itachi stood in attendance in the Hokage's Office dressed in their ANBU attire, their masks hanging loosely at their hips. While it was true the former was no longer listed under active services within the ranking, his assassination skills paired with Itachi's were required for the current A-ranking mission.

"Your third member has just been sent for," Dan told them from his seat at his cluttered desk. "An interrogator was requested to accompany this squad."

For reasons unknown to him, Kakashi suddenly felt a sense of foreboding cause an itch at the back of his head. He knew exactly were this was going as his luck had been treading lower than he liked in recent years. 

The office door was knocked on twice before it swung open and Sakura made an appearance in ANBU armor, a wine red undershirt, black pants, and a mongoose mask dangling from her fingers.

"Good morning, everyone!" she chirped. Kakashi's eye began to twitch.

"Good morning," Dan replied, equally as cheerful. Itachi inclined his head politely. "Now that everyone's here, I'll be going over the details of the mission."

The three in front of him straightened themselves out and stood at resolute attention.

"As you all understand, Iron Country has remained a neutral force in all shinobi affairs due to their unwillingness to intervene and their reliance on samurai," the Godaime explained. "Though recently, criminals have resided on their border and have been causing too much trouble for them to handle. Every time they have an issue for shinobi, they go to a different hidden nation every time to keep good graces and distance. Luckily, it's our turn."

Dan gestured to the map that covered the window behind him and pointed to the small landmass southeast of Fire Country.

"You'll meet with Mifune-sama in ten days and will leave immediately. Understood?"

Itachi, Kakashi, and Sakura spoke in a unified chorus.

"Yes, Hokage-sama."

"Then you're dismissed. I expect you back in no more than a month."

They bowed, slide their masks over their faces, and flipped up the hoods of their cloaks before disappearing in a whisper.

::

It was by three o'clock in the morning and sixteen kilometers out that they took their first break—and by default, had allowed themselves to start conversing freely.

"Mongoose," Kakashi called. Sakura looked up from tearing the wrapping off her health bar and adjusted her mask to that only her mouth was visible. "Why were you assigned to this mission instead of anyone else in T&I?"

She grinned. 

"Karma."

"That's not an answer."

"Yeah, well, it's all you're going to end up getting, Dog. And now that I think about it, this would be the perfect opportunity to call you a bitch."

Itachi snorted before he could stop himself and Sakura happily jabbed a finger at him.

"See? Weasel-san thought it was funny."

It wasn't long before the two engaged in a banter they hadn't fallen into since the siege, leaving Itachi to let the amusement fall of his face and rethink the problem that had been plaguing him for months: Haruno Sakura. Not that her generally was an issue, but everything just kept getting stranger and stranger the more he kept putting his confrontation off.

First Kou, then Nekomata, then her secrecy, then the exams, then her disappearance, and now ANBU. Not that all of them had a connection, but nothing was impossible with her, apparently. Things only began growing odd after he met her.

And if he remembered correctly, ANBU had no new members, so she was just a stand-in with a skill. 

Stand-ins didn't get personalized masks like hers.

"How have you been faring, Mongoose-san?" he questioned. "I heard you were in the hospital for a few days before no one could find you for two whole weeks."

"Eh, it was just a pain in the neck, really. You know how they had to question everyone who witnessed the siege and they needed my statements since I was with Naruto for a time before I went with Sasuke," she sighed. Sakura crumpled up her wrapper before stuffing it into a small pocket on her pack. She didn't like where this was going.

"It must have been an interesting statement," he said, his black eyes shining from behind his mask. "Because that mask looks like it was made specifically for you."

Kakashi shifted as the air changed around them, and Sakura fixed her mask to that it was on the right way again.

"If you wanted a first hand account of what happened, you should've asked Sasuke," she mentioned offhandedly. Itachi visibly flinched and fell silent—a low blow, but she had to shut him up or she'd have to spill her plan to them.

Kakashi turned around. 

"Break time is up. We're setting off," he ordered. "Squad, move out."

The farther they traveled after that, the air stayed cold.

::

In the movies, solitary confinement was either in a small, cramped room or between four white walls that gave so much space that it was hard to breathe.

This was neither.

Solitary confinement was the queen sized bed fitted with navy sheets and black pillows. It was the TV in the corner of the room that was never turned on. It was the desk against one of the walls that had a crack running down its middle from where a fist crashed down into it out of sheer rage at the circumstances out of his control. It was also the curtains that covered windows locked from the outside and glass that wouldn't break no matter how bloody his fists would get when he tried, and it was the scattered papers that blanketed the ground in drawings that tried to capture anger, but failed, and turned to be half-finished instead.

Solitary confinement was the room he grew up in because his father thought it was best.

Sasuke sat at the edge of his bed and counted the callouses on his hands. Meals were brought to him three times a day by his mother who would try to coax him to open up and tell her why. But why what? He didn't do anything. He didn't ask to be one step closer to the Madara they all subconsciously thought he'd turn into one day.

They were all accusing him of things he would never dream of doing and they would never listen to the actual words that came out of his mouth, so he stop talking and refused to start again until they let him out.

But how could his family do this to him? Maybe they didn't know, but Orochimaru wanted to take him because he was young, impressionable, and had the eyes that were apparently a prize to be won. He never want these in the first place. It's not like he tried! So why was he getting punished for something he didn't decide for himself?!

Tap.

And his father. 

His father. Uchiha Fugaku: Commissioner General of the Military Police Force who prided himself on fairness and the deliverance of justice in society, but locked his on up without hearing the other side of the argument. 

What a joke. 

Tap!

They wouldn't even tell him what happened after the siege. Was everything alright? Was everyone alright? Was Mari-san okay? Was Orochimaru really taken care of?

What—

SMACK.

Sasuke jerked, stood, and looked towards his window. Kiba's face was smooshed against the glass and once they made eye contact, he pulled his face away and made a thumbs up in the air.

"Pack your stuff," Kiba mouthed. "We gotta run after this!"

He disappeared. Sasuke hurried to the window smudged to hell with some blood and fingerprints and watched in blurry amazement as a sea of bugs curled around the locks and seals and eventually, thrust  the window open with a light clack. Below, Kiba and Shino were waiting for him to jump down while Ino and Akamaru kept watch for any of the Uchiha clansmen.

"Hurry up!" Kiba hissed. Sasuke's eyes lit up in a way they hadn't for weeks as he ran back to his room, threw a handful of clothes into his pack, and vaulted out of his room. His rescue team urged him through the underbrush of the main house's back gardens and made their escape through a hole dug beneath a wall blocked by grand trees.

How did they not get caught?

"Shino's kikaichu have been keeping an eye on the place since we found out you weren't allowed to leave," Ino informed him giddily as they ran back into the village through the entrance closest to the Akasen. "I found some architectural designs of the compound and tou-san's things, and Kiba and Akamaru were able to sniff out the way in most Uchiha members rarely take. Isn't that awesome? It was totally a real search and recovery!"

They wove through dingy alleyways to some place Naruto instructed them to go, something called Magenta. Three of their group of four glanced at their surroundings dubiously, especially the at turned off neon signs and the indecent posters plastered up on the walls. They had no idea what they were doing here. 

But Sasuke knew this place like the back of his hand.

"Kaa-san and nee-san said I'm not allowed in here until I know what I'm doing," Kiba said. Shino adjusted his glasses.

"Isn't this the love hotel district?" he remarked, eyeing the road ahead of them cautiously. Sasuke's lips broke into a grin as he took the lead and led them deeper towards the center of the Akasen.

"Yeah. It is."

He guided them to the back of Magenta and knocked on the back door. Some seconds passed before it swung open and Naruto appeared, grinning and ushering towards the lounge area where Sai sat at the table covered in steaming snack foods and chips.

"Sasuke!" Naruto exclaimed. "Dad says you can stay in the old apartment upstairs until you figure things out, dattebayo. But don't worry, I'll stay too as bodyguard number one!"

"Heh, bodyguard number one?" Kiba grinned. "Sasuke can kick your ass any day of the week."

"But who was the one who lost to me at the chuunin exams, huh? That's what I thought."

"Say that again, Uzumaki!"

Sai ignored the growing argument to his right and turned left, holding out a new sketchbook for Sasuke to take.

"Here's that new paper I was talking about before, you know, the one made from recycled elephant poop," he said. Ino clutched a chip bag close to her chest and recoiled. "I know the texture's a bit rough and stuff but you can still—"

"Elephant poop? That's disgusting!"

"Not as disgusting as your face, pig-san. What was your name again?"

"Ino!" she shouted. "Ino! Ino! Ino! Don't call me pig you pale stupid idiot!"

"Pig-san."

Sasuke watched in amazement as four of his friends laughed and fought at the table like nothing had been wrong, like Orochimaru didn't just attack the village or like they just saved him from his own home. Especially paired with the oddly sultry atmosphere, it was like he was in a whole new world where he didn't have to worry about his problems or face the fact that most of his family thought he was a monster.

Shino quietly minded his own business and pushed a plate of snacks towards Sasuke.

"You should eat," he said. The Uchiha rubbed his eyes free from any type of moisture that might have collected there and smiled.

"Yeah. Okay."

::

Mari grinned at the group at the tables before moving into the employee lounge and settling down onto one of the fluffy couches as he laid his crutches against the cushion. His business might not be the best place for kids to grow accustomed to even if it wasn't open, but it was always so nice to see Naruto with his friends.

His smile grew softer.

And it was so nice to be called 'Dad'.

The knob on the back door suddenly jiggled and swung open, Iruka stepping through with a few flyaway strands of hair slipping from his hair tie. His eyes searched the area until they landed on his lover.

He threw his hands up.

"You've been here?!" he sputtered. "You're supposed to be resting in bed! The doctor said you can't be moving around too much until you take off your cast—you walked here too! That's dangerous! What if you get hurt?!"

Mari waved.

"Ya' don't need ta' worry, honey. I'm fine. I've been gone too damn long and someone's gotta be the boss," he said. Iruka frowned and strode over, plucking the cigarette from Mari's mouth and ignoring the pout in his direction.

"You can't bar tend in this state, it's not good for you. It's been fine since the guys take turns covering for you, isn't it?"

"I can't leave 'em alone withoutta boss for so long, ya' know."

"But you're hurt!"

"I'll live," he shrugged. "'Sides, I get bored if I'm not up an' at 'em."

Iruka pressed his palms to his eyes and sighed. Naruto and Mari were in no ways genetically related, but it seemed apparent that stubbornness ran through their veins like a new blood type.

"Then can you, maybe, I don't know, bar tend on a stool or something? So you don't have to put pressure on your legs?" he suggested hopefully. The corner of Mari's lips quirked up as he motioned the other to take a seat beside him on the couch, where Iruka sighed again and took a seat.

"'lright, hon."

He set his head down on Iruka's shoulder.

"Is Naruto here?" the chuunin asked.

"With 'is friends. They broke Sasuke-chan outta the compound 'bout half an hour ago."

"Oh."

There were a few seconds of peaceful quiet between them before Iruka fully digested what he was told before he flailed his arms in panic.

"WHAT?"

::

The border criminals weren't hard to rid of. Mifune-sama and his samurai reported their base of operation and they set out as quickly as they could. There were no more than a fifty targets, some high profile, but mostly nothing more extensive than specialized chuunin rank.

Only two were needed alive for Sakura to extract information, and she currently had the least important one pinned underneath her foot as his blood coursed with wandering spider venom.

"You won't talk?"

"Stupid bitch," he rasped. "Fuck you."

She rolled her eyes.

"You've lost control of your muscles and have respiratory paralysis that'll lead to your eventual suffocation if I don't kill you myself. Do you really have anything to lose? Because you're a dead man either way," she sighed. When he made no move to answer, she decided to use a different form of coercion. "Horri Makoto. Twenty-six years old, A-rank missing-nin, previous affiliation to Sunagakure but defected due to complications surrounding the Kazekage's decision to treat his youngest son as a non-threat. Isn't that right?"

The missing-nin's eyes blazed at the mention of his defection.

"The Ichibi's container will burn even if I have to do it myself! A demon among men," he growled. Sakura riffled through his pockets until she found a mission scroll that detailed his part in the group's actions and smiled.

"That's not nice. Gaara's a good friend of mine, you know."

Having everything she needed to know, she struck one of her wrist blades through his head and let his body muddle into the dirt floor. When she turned around, she found Kakashi and Itachi staring at her with varying degrees of incredulity, the former only holding a small amount of surprise compared to the latter.

She took a cloth out from her back pouch and started cleaning her blade.

"What?"

"You knew Sabaku no Gaara was a jinchuuriki?" Kakashi questioned. Sakura pursed her lips. Her and her big mouth again.

"I knew about Naruto," she replied. "It'd make more sense for me to know about Gaara too, wouldn't it?"

Kakashi nodded once at the logic and turned back to the corpses on the ground. Itachi's jaw tightened at the way  his senpai brushed off her remark—that wasn't normal. That wasn't meant to be normal. Why had it come to the point where Sakura could say and know things that could be easily accepted like it wasn't remotely suspicious for her to know anyways?

She wasn't a small player in Konoha's shinobi structure.

He knew that now.

"When Sasuke was first questioned, he wouldn't give an outright answer. He kept asking: 'Is Shikamaru alright? Is Sakura alight? Did Neji die?'," he said. Kakashi tilted his head at the other two when the air started straining again. "When we told him we didn't know, he fell to complete silence."

Itachi approached her.

"Sakura-san, why does Nekomata imply you'll have something to do with my future?"

She couldn't escape. Here in this field of bodies and blood, she was backed into her lies and plans because she never thought to be careful.

In the beginning, she resented the life that was given back to her. She wanted to help, but she didn't care if she got caught. If she died, she died, because that was all she ever wanted. 

But then time went one and she had to live again. Seeing Naruto and Sasuke again nearly broke her heart, and seeing them so young and sometimes naive made her wish they didn't grow up to learn the world never could be seen through rose colored glasses. She wanted to make sure they'd grow up right this time around live their lives without having to bear the burden of war.

She looked up.

There were two geniuses in this area and she was not one of them.

How much could she lie, she wondered.

"It's too early for me to say anything and it's too early for anyone to know," she said. Sakura turned away from them and moved her attention back to the man she just killed and to his tight, ashen skin. "But soon."

She frowned. 

"Soon."

She approached the last living criminal and threw his body over her shoulder before she made her way back to the team's secure location. Itachi, wholly unsatisfied with what she deemed was his answer, made to follow after her.

"Sa—"

"Itachi, she says what she wants when she wants, so don't push it," Kakashi spoke as he took hold of his associate's shoulder. The Uchiha rounded on him.

"Senpai, aren't you wary of her actions?"

"I am."

"Then why won't you take action?"

"Look," Kakashi said. He slid his mask to the side. "I don't know what's going on between you two, but it's best for you to just leave your trust with Sakura for now. If she was against Konoha, she wouldn't have been found half dead with Neji, Shikamaru, and Sasuke."

Pitch black eyes that once flickered red carefully observed him.

"Do you trust Sakura-san?"

Kakashi answered in all his honesty.

"I do."

Because he had no reason to doubt her anymore. Not after all they'd been through.

::

"Orochimaru's dead."

Yahiko was taken aback.

"Did you kill him?"

"He killed himself," Sasori scoffed. He met his leader's skeptical gaze. You knew the type of things he was getting into for his greed and power. He didn't care about peace. All he wanted was immortality. That's why he had hundreds of human experiments locked up in his hidden bases."

Konan's eyes flashed as she shifted her weight onto her other foot from her spot at the Akatsuki leader's side. 

"He had hidden bases?"

"Four of them. I could mark them up on a map, if you want," he offered. "Not that it matters. I cleared all of them out before I got here."

Which was not that hard to accomplish, seeing that he'd been the source of Orochimaru's declining experiment population over the past years. Now that the snake bastard was taken care of, those experiments were free to seek the medical help they needed. And those who were more far gone than others were peacefully steered towards research centers Sasori anonymously commissioned to help cure Orochimaru's victims.

Not that he'd tell them that.

Yahiko's forehead scrunched up.

"I see," he said. "If that's all you have to report, you may leave. Thank you for informing me of this development."

Sasori tilted his head and stepped out of the office. Once the door shut behind him, Yahiko turned to Konan with one command.

"Get Kisame."

::

Danzo sat at his desk with his hand tapping the smooth wood and the clock ticking away above him. Sakura had finally been officiated into the organization and was fully recognized as a comrade within the ranks, meaning he had to step down or be removed sooner or later.

The easy part was getting everyone on her side. The hard part was implementing everything in real life.

He carefully cultivated Sakura's anger during the duration of the chuunin exams to get her to publicly act against him in the spur of the moment so show unrehearsed intent behind her actions. And as he expected, he got more than he bargained for.

The door swung open with a resonating crack as wood crashed against the wall and splintered pieces fell to the ground. Danzo raised his eyes to meet Sakura's unforgiving glower and pressed his hand on the underside of his desk.

"Congratulations on your admittance to ROOT," he said. She slammed a hand on his desk and left a firm imprint on the surface.

"Cut the shit, councilman!" she sneered. "Where the fuck were you?"

"Such a mouth on you."

"I said cut the SHIT! I gave you a warning! I told you to be prepared! And look what you've done—if you listened to what I said we could've cut the casualties by a fourth!" she shouted. Danzo's lips pulled into a tight frown. While that was true, there was no precedent that the threat she knew was coming was Orochimaru. She didn't say it outright and couldn't be prosecuted for it, but the fact she retained such knowledge meant he could jail her for such a thing. He wouldn't, but if he was a lesser man, he would.

"The magnitude couldn't have been predicted."

"But some could have been prevented if you just listened to me!" she seethed. "I don't know if you think that you're doing is the best for Konoha, but the decisions you're making need to be checked! And if I have to be that person to do it, I'm going to do it, dammit!"

"There's nothing wrong with the decisions I've made," he countered. Sakura's face changed into that of smug rage as she threw her head back and let out a harsh laugh.

"Right, I forgot. Should I thank you for not issuing the Uchiha Massacre and preventing the slaughter of a whole people because somehow, you listened to that small part of your brain that told you not to?"

Danzo's face fell.

"What are you talking about?" How did she know?

"Cry me a fucking river, councilman. I'm here screaming at you about what you've done and you're here wondering how I know things? Tch. I hope you'll be able to live with the fact that you killed people you could've saved, because if I was in your position, this wouldn't have happened."

With that, Sakura gathered herself and strode out of his office. Danzo was still for a whole minute before he removed his finger from the bottom of the desk, turning off the intercom that connected to every one of the speakers hidden in HQ.

Danzo sighed.

Soon.

::

First, a name banner by lolaDawn !

Next, some wonderful covers by awesome people!

-mitaii !

AsunaXI !

TheAngelKonan !

and themortalwizard !

And lastly, fan art by someone wanting to stay anonymous!